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Welcome to the world of Fortuna, a land of fantastic proportions. This is an original fantasy roleplay that takes place in a world developed over nearly a decade of work and collaboration. We aim to encourage all participants to have a hand in the stories of the characters here, and the world around them. Your choices are key - so make them with pride. You decide who wins the wars, you decide who becomes King, the world is ours, and together we will bring it to life!
Kali was drunk. She was also thoroughly distracted by Leigh, and Leigh's hook, and the promise of something more exciting. Kali had definitely not memorized her dice, and in fact had only looked at them long enough to confirm her first call of two 6's, and to confirm she had no 3's after Leigh's call. She also still didn't know anything about 1's being wild in this game. So when she removed the cup from her dice and the 1 had been replaced with a 2, not a single part of her noticed or would have cared even if she had. Even now, she wasn't looking at her dice but rather the gouge that remained in the table from Leigh's hook earlier. She wondered what that kind of mark would look like on her skin, what it would feel like. Would it be a clean slice, like a knife? Or would it tug and pull as it cut, leaving a jagged wound that would bleed and scar into a beautiful piece of art?
Wight said her name, asked her if she had any ideas, and she met his gaze with a shrug. "Your win, your question." She hadn't been playing for the secrets anyway. She had a feeling she would be leaving the table with something much better by the end of the game.
Post by Leigh Haskell on Dec 10, 2016 7:46:47 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] Leigh's face twisted in disbelief as neither of them had a single three or one. The odds were beyond well in her favour. Her eyes narrowed at Maldrem, knowing he was a user of magic, and certainly not trusting him further than she could throw the whole damned ship. She slammed her hook into the table in anger and stood, standing over Maldrem who simply smiled back at her. At some point her pistol had found a way into her hand, and though she pointed it at him - she hadn't pulled down the hammer. It was an empty threat, and they both knew it. She stood there for a moment and then shook her head, pulling one of her dice and sticking it in her pocket. That was what she cared about. Not the damned secret.
"Fine," She said as she yanked the hook back out of the wood, the table enjoying the game just as much as Leigh was this moment. She sat back down, but wasn't finished. "But before I do... We all know the penalty to be expected for cheating the dice, don't we?" 'All' of course meant Maldrem. Kali likely didn't know. She could imagine, though. Leigh raised her hook, spinning it with her other fingers, before stopping it suddenly: "Should anyone find out." Her eyes locked with Maldrem, who was impassable. Was he lying or telling the truth? She couldn't tell either way. But no one had her trust till earned, and Maldrem had never earned it. Kali, she was certain, wouldn't have flipped her dice, she didn't care enough. Maldrem... He liked winning. It was why she could count on him out on jobs - and why she wouldn't count on him anywhere else.
"How 'bout this?" She pulled something off of her belt that she'd won much earlier in the night, and tossed it on the table. It was an amulet that had long lost the elegant chain it once laid upon, and now instead sat on cord. The amulet was blown glass with white-coloured water inside. She allowed them a moment to look at it, her eyes on Maldrem to see if his face would let anything slide. She continued: "Apparently this thing can tell if someone's telling the truth or not. Figure we might as well test it before it finds a use elsewhere... Though I think it'd look better on you, Wight. Doncha think?" She awkwardly got the thing around her neck with one hand and then turned back to Maldrem, "What's the question?"
Post by Maldrem "Wight" on Dec 10, 2016 8:31:49 GMT -7
It's only fun if you sweat a little; on the inside, though.
L eigh pulled her gun on him, and he knew it was an empty threat, of course... but staring down a barrel was always kind of thrilling in a way. Intimidating in the best way possible. It had happened often enough; pirates got angry, and some of them were very unkind when they were angry. Hell, Maldrem had even had to dodge a shot or two on a couple of occasions. But he knew Leigh wasn't going to be one of those occasions - he knew because he knew she was a respected crew member who, for all her unpleasantness, liked to at least cooperate with Captain Merlyn and stay on his good side. And he didn't like having to have another valued crew mate's brains cleaned off the ship during their night of celebration.
Still, Leigh was pissed, and he knew she suspected him of foul play. He was impassable on the surface, but inside he quivered with excitement as he thought of ways to get out of this. He may have also been internally laughing at how mad she had gotten when he cheated. Because alas, how could she prove a thing? He snatched up his dice once Leigh had put hers away, Kali picking up hers as well to signal the round being over, and he let the illusion drop once they had done so, now that it was beyond notice. He was putting his set back into his cup to prepare for the next round when Leigh produced something new.
Ahhh, so that's how she wanted to play it.
He fixed Leigh with an open expression, one showing off all the innocence that she knew was complete bullshit coming from him, but that gave so many of their other mates reason to think that Wight was just "a delicate boy who's only good for his lock-picking".
"You know Leigh, no one likes a sore loser. And we're the Defiled Grail. What good does it do us if we can't trust each other? You're really killing the mood now." He reached into his cup and pulled his dice back out, tossing them onto the table carelessly. "You're all totally welcome to inspect them to your heart's content if you really think I'm lying. You? You?" he asked, pointing at a couple of the spectators.
They shrugged and stepped forward, picking up the dice and scrutinizing them, testing their weight or other signs of tampering. Not like it'd appease Leigh; she knew he had small bits of convenient magic available to him, and this certainly wasn't going to convince her. But it didn't really need to. It just needed to convince enough of the others so that if she continued to insist that he wear the truth charm, they'd call her a bad sport and make her feel thoroughly unwelcome.
He smiled disarmingly while they went about their inspection, his gaze remaining locked on Leigh. "But since you're already wearing that, and you did ask for my question..."
He glanced at Kali. She had seemed excited, once again, when Leigh lodged her hook in the table and pulled the gun. That girl was really vicious, wasn't she? And Leigh couldn't take her eyes off of her. Maldrem decided he'd push the envelope a bit, and see if maybe he could just score Leigh a good time tonight. Who knows, maybe it'd get her to forget about her anger at him?
He leaned forward and batted his eyelashes, his horn hoops dangling with the quick motion and his tail flicking in interest. "Why don't you tell us all exactly what you wanna do with Kali here, in your room?"
Post by Leigh Haskell on Dec 10, 2016 9:03:24 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] If there were any confirmation she needed that Maldrem had cheated - which she didn't, she was steadfast in her distrust of him - it was his choice of question. Getting back on her good side. She shook her head, smirked at him and spoke simply, and she spoke, the water inside the amulet swirled gently, not seeming to change in any other way: "Nothing I can say in front of pleasant company." This got a laugh from the spectators as they finished their inspection. Many of the crew enjoyed imagining the things Leigh did with the women she took to bed, some of them even daring to ask her about her 'favorite flavor' and finding a hook under their chin. Most had learned not to be so tasteless.
"'Tis a grand thing none of us are pleasant, then," One growled drunkenly at her with wiggling eyebrows. She brandished her hook casually, and his friend was sober enough to pull him away. She spared a glance at Kali after, biting her lip - hard - once more as she noticed the way she was staring. It was clear what was getting her going. Leigh would keep at it. She stood from her seat and pulled the rum up once more, using her hook and the rope on the bottle to pour Kali another. When she finished, and took her own swig, the bottle was empty and she tossed it to the side. Not hard enough to break it, but it went rolling noisily across the ship. As it did, Leigh moved closer to Kali.
She looked down at the satyr with a smirk and used her hook to trace a line on the girl's shoulder. While she did, her steps towards Kali were small and slow, closing the distance as the hook moved. Eventually, Leigh stood between Kali and the table, one leg between Kali's, the satyr's face just beneath Leigh's chest. Eventually the hook got to her collarbone, where Leigh used the hook to grab at the girl's neck piece, "This would have to go," She tugged a bit to test the strength of the chain and knew it was digging into the back of Kali's neck, "So that I'd have a place to put my hand, right 'round that pretty neck..." Her real hand reached around the opposite side of Kali's neck, grasping at her hair with a tug that made Kali look at her eyes and not her hook. The bottle continued to roll, offering a light background noise to the intimate moment.
The hook moved to caress the girl's cheek, lightly scraping at it: "Most girls want me to take it off, but you'd have me keep it on, wouldn't you? You'd want me to push--" The hook had reached the top of her neck, the base of her skull, and Leigh pushed hard enough to draw blood, "And pull," She dragged the hook down to cause a bleeding scrape there on Kali's neck. Most would have pushed her away. Kali wasn't. "As I gave you..." She leaned in and whispered to Kali. The pain could be public... But she preferred the pleasure remain between them. As she finished her whisper, she pulled back and used her hand to grab Kali's chin, squeezing her cheeks with her rough fingers so that her mouth would open a tad, her finger ran over Kali's lip, her nail digging in a tad as Leigh bit her own lip. She raised her hook and held it to Kali's mouth so she could smell her own blood on it. Before anything else could happen, however, Leigh raised her foot and caught the rolling bottle, dropping her hands away from Kali at the same time. The stillness was a sound, and the silence was a feeling - and Leigh casually walked back to her own seat, dropping into it and placing her dice back in her cup.
Kali didn't know enough about Wight or Leigh to be able to judge if either would be cheating, but Leigh seemed to think something suspicious was up with the Tiefling. When Leigh slammed her hook into the table Kali's hand clenched on her leg, and she watched the altercation with interest, a part of her hoping Leigh would pull the trigger. She'd never seen Tiefling blood before. But Leigh's threat was empty, though the way Wight cockily called her a bad sport for not trusting him would have made Kali, in the same situation, take some unpleasant steps. Unpleasant for Wight, that was.
Leigh took out some sort of amulet which she said could tell when someone was telling the truth or not, and Kali quirked a brow. If they really wanted someone to tell the truth, she could always just make them, but she hadn't been open about her own magical ability yet with the crew, since some like Wight might think it was bad sport of her if she used it against them. It would be bad sport, probably. That wouldn't stop her though.
Wight got some of the spectators, who Kali hadn't even noticed with her attention so focused on Leigh, to inspect his dice and prove he wasn't tampering which they all agreed was true. Kali wondered how common magic was in this world, because in the feywild it was sort of a given at almost anyone you talked to would have some skill with it. She wondered if the crew just assumed that no one would use magic to cheat. Or maybe they cared less because this round didn't have them giving up money or items.
Leigh asked for the question and Wight who leaned forward innocently and asked what Leigh wanted to do with Kali in her room.
Kali, for one, would like to hear the answer. Did she care that everyone watching the game suddenly had their full attention on the question and likely very interesting answer? No. Let them watch. Kali wasn't even self conscious at the best of times, and drunk wasn't exactly her best of times. It was her most fun of times though. And this was promising to be a very fun answer.
Leigh bit her lip and Kali's own lips quirked into a sly smile. The other woman was a quick study; one round of dice and she knew just what to do. When the drink was poured for her she knocked it back, the fire in her throat only an appetizer for what came next. It wasn't pressed hard enough to draw blood, but Kali could feel the sharpness of Leigh's hook as she ran it over her shoulder while she approached. Kali's eyes were drawn to it, willing it to press just a little harder as it moved down her shoulder to her collarbone. It hadn't drawn blood, but Kali's nails on her leg sure had. The hook caught her neckpiece and tugged at it which on a normal person would cause them to move their head forward to get away from the pain of the chain digging in, but Kali was static as she allowed it to bite deliciously into the tender skin on her neck. Still not enough to bleed.
Leigh said she would put her hand around her neck and Kali wondered just how hard she could squeeze. How strong was her only remaining hand? Surely her grip was like iron. Kali wanted to find out. Leigh's hand grasped her hair and pulled hard, enough to lift Kali's face and then some, which was always a keen reminder of why Kali didn't cut her hair any short than it was - it had to be long enough to pull. Kali relished in the feeling as she looked up at Leigh's face, her neck exposed and the woman's hook caressing her cheek with its sharp point. Leigh was right - Kali would want, would need her hook to remain on, and she would need more than a gentle caress with it too.
When the hook finally reached the base of her skull she could feel the very moment it broke skin and her eyelids fluttered with pleasure. She leaned into the feeling and didn't care that all eyes were on them. Didn't care they could hear the moan she made as Leigh dragged the hook down, breaking skin, drawing art in her neck in blood. Leigh leaned in close then and whispered the rest just for Kali to hear before pulling back and roughly grabbing her face and running her nail across her lip. The sight of her blood on Leigh's hook was more intoxicating than the rum. She wanted more.
Of course, that was when Leigh pulled back and grabbed her bottle before dropping back in her seat casually. Kali's hand went to her neck and she drew her pointer finger through the blood, bringing it to her lips and licking it off with one long sweep on her tongue. She smirked. She noticed the amulet around Leigh's neck hadn't changed in any way through the description, and wether it was a real truth-telling amulet or not, she hoped that meant she had some new plans for the night.
Post by Maldrem "Wight" on Dec 10, 2016 19:36:13 GMT -7
Well that took a turn. Spicy.
M aldrem had a delighted grin on his face. All he had had to do was ask a simple question, a leading bait, and the next thing he and the spectators knew, Leigh was basically in Kali's lap doing all manner of rough trade with her, and boy was that a show. Maldrem couldn't really say it was quite to his tastes; he wasn't much for violence in the bedroom, and while he certainly liked to experiment with unconventional practices, he generally stayed away from the ones that caused actual injuries.
But Leigh and Kali looked they were having an excellent time, even when Leigh drew a slight amount of blood, and hey, who was Mal to judge someone else's predilections? A large number of more lascivious men around him were especially entranced by the spectacle, and when one of them drunkenly took a step forward as though hoping to get in on the action Maldrem took mercy on his poor soul and held him back, muttering a "Down boy." Didn't want the guy getting himself killed.
When Leigh finally finished her little show and took a seat once again, Maldrem made a show of fanning himself exaggeratedly. "Well well, I dunno what's gonna top that. What are we even betting at this point? Are you still on that risk kick, or what?"
He tossed his dice up and down into the air, trying to figure out if he wanted to make a bet at all before he rolled them. He didn't like games that were stacked against him, and Leigh could still be angling to bite him in the ass for the previous round.
Post by Leigh Haskell on Dec 10, 2016 19:44:24 GMT -7
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[attr="class","wavesundtext"] Leigh was all smirks, and signaled to one of the idiots to bring her another bottle. They were drunk enough that they'd believe her and Kali's show was payment, and give her just that. Wight was aiming to cut out of the game, and that wasn't going to happen until she got him back for what she was pretty sure was a cheat. "You bet your tiefling ass I am," Leigh muttered as she pulled twine from her belt, tying it around the bottle with a quick ease that showed how often she did it. Even drunk, she made perfect knots, and then the bottle could be lifted and poured with her hook. She tore the end of the twine with her teeth and settled the corked bottle on the floor.
"One of two ways. The caller gives the loser a dare they can't refuse, lest they give up their share of the next take. Or, we set a risk up front. Prick yourself then jump in the ocean. Steal a gold coin from the captain's quarters as he sleeps. We make it interesting, or why make it at all?" Realizing she was still wearing the stupid necklace, she yanked it off, breaking the cord with the strength of her hook and shoving it back into her pouch.
Post by Maldrem "Wight" on Dec 10, 2016 20:03:13 GMT -7
Ah, escaping bloodlust...
A pparently the promise of a tryst with Kali hadn't been enough to put Leigh in a good enough mood to drop her temporary vendetta against Maldrem. It was almost enough to make him sigh as she listed off a number of risk possibilities for their bet.
But one of the options she had suggested actually sounded kind of fun. Something Maldrem could easily see himself doing, wanting to do, even, just for the thrill of it. Stealing from the captain? The great Wight had all the skills necessary to achieve this... and if he got caught in the act, well. The captain was hot. Mal already had a feeling that the man wasn't exactly "interested" - not with anyone, apparently - but Maldrem couldn't say he'd mind being a little mandhandled by him. Besides, Merlyn was a decently reasonable man, as any charismatic pirate captain was, and Maldrem was sure he could talk his way out of having a hand taken for the offense in that event.
He toyed with one of his earrings, giving Leigh an appraising, smug look. "Steal from the captain. That's the bet. Loser of the round has to get into his cabin, get a gold coin, and get out. That's an excellent idea, Leigh."
He dropped his dice into his cup and pounded it down onto the table, keeping his palm resting on top of it. "Any takers?"
Wight looked like he wanted to get out of the game. He sounded like it too when he asked what they could even bet to top that, and asking Leigh if she still wanted to bet risks over secrets. Kali thought that risks sounded like good fun, and was glad when Leigh responded that she was definitely still interested in changing the bet.
Kali watched with interest as Leigh got the crowd to bring her a new bottle and she tied twine around it like around the other, her fingers completing the task deftly. When she used her teeth to rip the twine at the end Kali bit her lip, imagining the same teeth on her own skin. Maybe not ripping quite like that, but biting deep, drawing blood. Mm.
Leigh suggested a dare of the winners choosing as a new bet, or if he wanted something guaranteed she gave a couple of examples. Wight perked up at the second example which was to steal a gold coin from the captain's quarters while the captain was sleeping. If he's had as much to drink tonight as the rest of the crew, Kali thought that would probably be pretty easy. I didn't sound as fun to her as to Wight, but when he asked for any takers she shrugged and put down her dice. "Alright, steal a coin. Any particular coin, or just whichever one you find first?"
Post by Maldrem "Wight" on Dec 10, 2016 22:46:00 GMT -7
Oh hopeless naivety...
K ali most likely did not know just how much the captain valued his gold. Even more than that, she almost definitely didn't know how guarded he kept his stash, and what powers he possessed to make the idea of approaching with magic difficult. She seemed to think nothing of this challenge... well, that was fine by Maldrem. He kind of wanted to lose this round, anyway, so that he could be the one to do it, but he also wouldn't mind watching the trainwreck unfold if the task fell to Kali.
He grinned sweetly at her, his eyes perhaps a little too telling of his amusement, of what he knew, but what did it matter? She already put her dice down. No backing out now. "Just a gold coin," he said, as though it was the simplest thing in the world. "No more than that. Simple, right Leigh?" he asked, turning his gaze back to her.
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