- Win The Fight
- Get Out Clean
Oop, she's in trouble. You better do something. You thought back to what Riya told you, about fighting with your environment rather than just your weapon. You didn't really have anything to do that with though, so you just ran at one of them and kicked out the back of their knee, making them crumple to the ground, before grabbing Riya by the wrist and dragging her down the alley they were next to. Your adrenaline was through the roof from this, you just kicked someone! And saved your friend! You rounded a corner and held Riya against the wall, hearing the robed men calling for you and her from the alleyway. You stifled your giggles and pressed her down towards the ground.
"Be perfectly quiet, and perfectly still." You whispered, before turning around and pressing your back against Riya, covering her with your dress, and putting your hands over your face. You held perfectly still, and breathed slowly, focusing on the eagle feather in your pocket. You peaked out through your fingers, seeing the men run before you and look around, clearly confused despite the fact you were 2 meters from them and not hiding at all. You had to stifle another giggle. Eventually, they ran down the street to look for you two, to your amusement. Once they were out of sight, you took your hands off your face and let Riya get up. She looked very confused.
"How did you-"
"Magic. Don't question it."
_____________________________
You walked home quickly, laughing as you explained that trick you learned from sneaking around your coven late at night to go look at the stars. As long as you didn't call attention to yourself, and kept your face covered, you wouldn't be noticed.
"What did those guys want with you?" You questioned as you returned to the tide pool Riya's airship was gently hovering over.
"They called me "Anisha". Something about helping my soul pass on cause I was stuck here." Riya responded, before noticing Dipak and Gunther on the railing of the airship above you two. "THERE'S MY SWEET BOOOOYS!" She yelled, cackling. You shushed her clumsily.
"No noooo don't yell, don't yell, what if those creeps hear you?" You said, laughing again. You were learning you were a very happy drunk.
"I's fine, i's fine…" she said while waving a hand in your face. "Hey, who do you think is faster?"
"Who? Us?"
"No, dummy, Gunther or Dipak."
"Do you know how fast falcons fly?"
"Dipak's faster. I'm sure."
"Wanna bet on it?" You ask while reaching into your napsack and taking out your pouch of gold and silver coins.
"Oh, absolutely, you're on." She said, taking out her sack of coins as well.
Over the next hour or so, Riya essentially forfeited all of her money to you, having races of different lengths, and in the end always losing to Gunther who was literally a perigean falcon. Gambling was fun. You could see why you were warned about it, it was addicting. You poured your winnings back into the metal pot in Riya's quarters you two kept all your scrip in, watched her fish a couple coins back out, saying she was gonna go for last call at Salty's, and retired to your hammock, this time actually managing to pull your dress off before collapsing. You could
definitely get used to this. You were living the dream. Your dream. And you loved it.
____________________________
Flak exploded around you like… well, flak. You didn't have much of a comparison for it. Your hands were gripping the stick of your light bomber as you approached the Gotha fortifications, taking deep and steady breaths to press on through the black hellscape of the night sky, sparsely illuminated by the flash of the anti aircraft shells. Viktor slapped you on the shoulder twice, and screamed in your ear.
"DIVE BOMB! NOW!" Just loud enough to hear over the engine. You nosed straight down into a steep dive, with your harness being what was really holding you in your seat now rather than gravity. You kept your hand off the throttle, just letting gravity take you at the concrete fort directly below you. AA gun tracers from the perimeter of the fort flew around you, lighting up your vision on all sides. There was enough floodlights on the base to measure your range, luckily. This was gonna be a steep pull up, you couldn't afford to miss this.
Your altitude kept shrinking and your speed kept growing, and it was getting dangerous. You could hear your engine heating up, that shrill grinding noise like scraping an empty can with a metal knife. Disregarding the chance of overspeed, or worse, a fire, you kept on target at the ground, grinding your teeth and white knuckling the stick before hitting the release switch and pulling up as hard as you could, whizzing over the base a mere ten or so meters from smashing straight into it. With a dive like that there was no way you were missing a single bomb. You scraped along the near imperceptible trenches and muddy no-man's-land you flew over, hearing the ear splitting blast of 200 kilograms of explosives blowing the fort to pieces. You lifted a hand and signed back to Viktor.
SURVEY DAMAGE
"ITS GONE! ALL GONE! WE GOT EM KARL!" He screamed, as you put the plane into a steady climb and started ascending into the night back to a cruising altitude. Viktor's hand appeared on your cheek and pulled your head to the side, before he planted a kiss on your lips.
__________________________
You awoke feeling hot. Too hot for winter. You didn't even have a blanket on you and were in your underwear, but you felt boiling. You were covered in sweat, you felt disgusting. You carefully stepped out of your hammock, grabbed your dress you hung on the wall-hook, and redressed with your tights and boots. You felt like a piece of you that you'd been missing was back. It felt good to be complete again.
You ascended the ladder to the main deck once again and we're suprised to see none other than Edgar, shirtless, leaning against the ship's railing, overlooking the town with his arm around Riya. What was he doing here? Jealously, an emotion you hadn't felt for a few days, started bubbling up in you again. You climbed out onto the main deck, loudly clearing your throat as you approached the other side of Riya. She smiled with a hint of malice, and handed you a cup of coffee.
"Morning! You really slept in. You feeling alright? You look more pale than usual." She asked, going back to looking at the town in the cool autumn breeze. Edgar looked at you, and you could see a deep blue blush creep over his cheeks.
"A little hot. I think I'm alright though. Hey… Edgar, uh, what are you doing here?" You asked, feeling a bit like he was invading
your territory. He cleared his throat.
"Oh, uh, hey, Hilda, Riya let me stay over." He took another sip of his coffee, not elaborating, and taking his arm off of Riya. Oh, this creep.
"We did some talking last night, he said he was looking for a circus to join up with! So I told him he could tag along on the
next mission to see if he was a good fit. I mean, he could stay with his salvaging crew, but I think he just wants a
little more. That's fine, right?" Riya said, not even looking at you. "Oh, and I'm starting to get a bit cooped up in this town, I was thinking we go a bit more inland. I think that little stunt last night might come back to bite us if we stick around too long."
Dramaaaaaa! A few votes!
+2 scrip for smoking on that Obscenely Daring Witch Pack and a bottle of fine whiskey.
[ ] Loudly trust with Riya for bringing Edgar onto the team without consulting you. (-1 Stress)
[ ] Quietly break trust with Riya for bringing Edgar onto the team without consulting you (+1 Stress)
[ ] Now you're even. (No change)
[ ] Leave town (New town inland! Avoid consequences for your actions!)
[ ] Stick around (-1 Stress for fucking with Riya who let Edgar on the team without consulting you)
Oh, and I'm gonna need 4d20 rolls for vices! One person can roll them all at once.
And let's just do scrip now cause we're starting to move into the finance phase!
-4þ for the restoration of your dogshit Rathanau 7k, -1þ for upkeep of your dogshit Rathanau 7k, -1þ for repairs of strain damage doe your dogshit Rathanau 7k, -2þ for Riya's plane upkeep, -1þ for you upkeep, and -1þ for her's. Tomas has his own cash to burn, and so does Edgar, so until you take either of them onto the squad you don't have to worry about their upkeep.
That's 10þ spent this routine! Wowee! And that's not even counting your 4 scrip rolls you have to make now! Separate from the vice rolls, please. If you're unfamiliar with vice rolls, you roll a number of d10 equal to the amount of scrip you've spent. For every 1 you roll, that's an additional Thaler spent!
You currently have 5þ left. If you'd like to buy anything specific during this phase, vote below. This is where I'm gonna do shopping from now, unless otherwise stated