Milliways: OOM; dark paths & Tortuga

[killitwithfire]

The way to Tortuga is as dark as ever, but the Heartless burn easily, even if they do come back.

The night on the other side is dark and set between sound and silence; behind, the silence of the black jungle, broken only by the occasional rustling, or some unidentifiable sound. Before, the lights from the town can be seen, and the sounds of carousing pirates fill the air.

"Where do you want to start?" Axel asks.

Comments

[mogget_cat]

One of the best things, Yrael finds, is that the Heartless leave no mess behind when one kills them with one's teeth and claws. Nothing to fix in order to look respectable again, apart from making one's teeth and hands look like a human's again.

"Drinks first, then burning? Or drinks and burning?" Drinking after burning is right out, because there won't be much left unexploded to drink by then.

[killitwithfire]

From somewhere in town comes the sound of gunshot, and then more gunshot.

"Drinks and burning," he replies. "Before someone beats us to it."

[mogget_cat]

"Ha! We can burn this place better and faster than any of these..."

He eyes a muffled derelict, drunk on the side of the road.

Yrael decides to be generous.

"... people. Even with allowing time for drinks."

[killitwithfire]

"We'd better get started then," he says, as he starts striding into town.

"Care to pick a dive?" he asks, grinning still.

[mogget_cat]

"Oh, why not whichever one has the music coming from it? Sounds like a fun place," he grins. "Lively, at the very least."

Full of easily-excitable, drunken pirates whose mostly-wood-enclosed life at sea has made them react rather adversely to fire.

[killitwithfire]

Axel's grin has teeth in it.

"That one then?" he asks, nodding towards a bright and lively place. At about the same moment as a pirate comes flying out, ass-first, breaking the door into splinters.

[mogget_cat]

"Looks promising," Yrael laughs as he steps towards the splintered door. "First round's on me."

[killitwithfire]

"Great. Hey, barkeep!" Axel calls. He steps over prone bodies, and around broken furniture like they aren't even there. "Two of your best."

The bartender gives him an evil look, and an even eviller one for Yrael; they both look like bad news, and much too clean for Tortuga.

[mogget_cat]

One all in black, one all in white, both clean, both with improbable hair (though Yrael will concede that Axel's is more improbable than his own), both grinning like predators looking for prey to play with?



Yes, bad news.

"And don't skimp," Yrael says, stepping up to the bar. A thick gold coin, pulled from a pocket that may not have existed before Yrael reached into it, and may not exist now, is spun against the uneven wooden counter.

[killitwithfire]

The barkeep snaps it up, bites it, grunts, and a moment later, presents them each with a large mug of something alcoholic.

"No trouble, y'hear me?" he rasps.

"Sure," Axel replies, as he scoops up his drink.

There's nothing wrong with his ears.

[mogget_cat]

"'Course," Yrael says, taking his mug and swigging from it.

... that stuff burns enough on its own.

[killitwithfire]

"Keep it coming," Axel states, when he's done with his first.

"So where d'you wanna start?"

[mogget_cat]

"The bar itself?" Yrael considers. "The door? It's already split up enough; the splinters will make it easy."

Yrael's not feeling kind, tonight.

[killitwithfire]

"The door," he replies simply.

It'll make it harder for people to get out.

No-one ever accused Axel of having a heart.

...wait.

[mogget_cat]

Yrael has!

With proof to back it up.

"A good starting point," Yrael says, picking up his second mug once he is finished with the first. "And then?"

[killitwithfire]

Axel gets his next rum, and his grin turns nastier.

"The back door."

[mogget_cat]

Yrael swirls his drink.

"Both at the same time," Yrael reasons. "Efficiency's a must."

[killitwithfire]

Axel laughs, a light, delightful sound.

"Sounds perfect."

[mogget_cat]

"The one from the front door will reach the bottles first," he says. "We can move out from here. There are plenty of other bars. Plenty of fuel." Besides them all being wood buildings, and things having been dried out terribly by the recent lack of rain.

Alas and alack.

[killitwithfire]

"Let's leave the windows alone," Axel suggests. "Wouldn't be fun to destroy all hope."

When he looks back for another mug, the bartender is gone.

[mogget_cat]

Smart bartender. The rest of the patrons are not so lucky.

"Panic has to have somewhere to start, after all," Yrael says, drinking.

[killitwithfire]

"That's what I as thinking."

Axel casually tosses his mug back behind the bar, and rolls a spark across his fingers.

[mogget_cat]

Yrael swirls the thick, amber liquid contemplatively in his mug, smirking at the colors reflected in it.

"Might as well be here," he says, straightening. With a quick movement, he tosses his drink, mug and all, out into the middle of the room.

[killitwithfire]

Axel takes the hint, and flicks the spark towards the mug, imbuing it with more magic than was visibly evident.

The bright orange-gold explosion is nicely highlighted by the blue flare of alcohol.

[mogget_cat]

There's a way to get the pirates' attention. And to get them to start moving. Some of them are heading for the doors, others are heading for Axel and Yrael.

Any port excuse to fight in a storm.

[killitwithfire]

Though they might think twice at the sudden appearance of spiky sharp chakrams in Axel's hand.

And the sudden blaze blocking the doorway.

[mogget_cat]

Think twice they do, despite the rum-befuddled state of their minds.

See them panic, especially now that a second blaze has caught the wood of the back door, spreading quickly to the dry timbers in the Caribbean heat.

[killitwithfire]

It's like he barely even has to try to kill them at all. Rum-soaked buccaneers are quite flammable, it seems.

[mogget_cat]

They burn inside and out.

It's too easy. Those who are set on fire as they climb out the windows run and flail and fall against the sides of other buildings.

Yrael's already stepping through the flames of what used to be the back door. "Can't let them set all the fires on their own. That'd take all the fun out of it."

[killitwithfire]

"I dunno, it's kinda funny to watch them try," Axel comments.

[mogget_cat]

"Yes, but the panic will just spread out from here."

Yrael wants to be where the panic is, plz Axel.

[killitwithfire]

"Let's set the edges of town on fire then," he suggests. "Leave less for them to run to."

[mogget_cat]

"There we go," he grins.

[killitwithfire]

"I've got the inland side," he says. And steps through the dark to his chosen torching ground.

Leaving Yrael the seaward side.

Because he's such a good friend.

[mogget_cat]

He is! Yrael was wanting a challenge, something to focus on. Getting the docks to burn below the waterline will provide distraction.

That is, when he's not breaking the necks of those who try to stop him. With his teeth. Some get to survive a little longer, at least, covered in flames as they flee back into the town to continue the good work. Those whose necks he breaks, Yrael confiscates their coin and valuables.

Because everyone needs a few souvenirs, after all.

[killitwithfire]

Confiscating loot from the dead is par for the course in an RPG-verse a world like this.

Thoughtfully, Axel also set fire to the area just outside of town. It'd be a shame if someone felt left out, just because they didn't make it to the party.

[mogget_cat]

The ships and boats that are shallow enough on the draft to be anchored next to the docks go up nicely, accompanied by the calls and cries of the sailors who had opted for a night in their own hammocks, with company to keep them warm.

[killitwithfire]

Axel saunters back into town, taking his time, stopping every now and then to smell the burning rum. And flesh.

"Lovely evening, isn't it?" he asks, when he finds his way to Yrael.

[mogget_cat]

"Indeed, quite nice," says the not'cat, comfortably. "Lovely and warm, just the weather for a night-time stroll, though not too many of the stars are showing."

Not through all that smoke.

[killitwithfire]

"You can never trust the weather, can you?" he asks, tipping his head b back towards the sky.

[mogget_cat]

"Apparently not. It's fickle as they come."

And in good company.

[killitwithfire]

As if on cue, a wind starts to blow.

Axel laughs; it carries the curses and screams nicely.