RP:Various Methods Of Escape

From HollowWiki

Summary: After deciding to deal with Vylyra that day, Khitti and Brand come to find that not only is Kahran's lackey missing, but the new Not-Their-Onyx has disappeared as well. Khitti proceeds to angry and freakout while Brand tries to help (spoilers: he doesn't), until his woman decides it's a nice day to get wasted.

The Tranquility, Cenril Wharf

Khitti || Dominic was handed off to Dozla. He hadn’t liked it. He wanted to hit Brand some more with his food, damn it. Why is the world so cruel to an almost 2 year old? He’d surely cry about it for the next twenty minutes, at least. Sorry, kid. Your parents have a bitch to beat up in the cargo hold. It’d been so long since KhittiBrand beat someone up together, just the two of them. Khitti might’ve even been thinking about after-fight sex. Look. You know Brand is too. It’s just, like, their thing okay? But, enough about that. Khitti’s pissed because Lionel’s gone. Khitti’s pissed because the burden of Vylyra has been left to them, when that idiot brother of hers should’ve been the one to deal with this mess. Well, Khitti intended on cleaning up this mess permanently--she’s got a brand new weapon to try out, after all. Before heading to where Vylyra was stored, the redhead made a pitstop at their bedroom. Not too long ago, she’d went into town and bought herself a nice new wakizashi, a partner for Tenbatsu Kaji. (Look, she’s been feeling stabby lately, okay?) The smaller, katana-esque (and unfortunately non-magical) sword was snatched up from atop their dresser and a completely innocent smile given to Brand, “Ready?”


Brand quirks an eyebrow at Khitti’s preparations. “You sure you know how to use that?” His face says: only kidding; don’t kill me. He moves to dodge, just in case, and then motions for Khitti to lead the way to the room currently sufficing as a brig. Cuz, y’know, Brand has really never had much use for such a thing. There are better ways to deal with troublemakers than locking them up, generally speaking. And off Brand’s mind goes on a tangent which lasts for the remainder of their walk, until it is abruptly cut short by the scene before them. There’s no Vylyra in this room, and no Onyx. Nor is there any sign of a struggle. It’s as if both of them just… vanished.


Khitti || Brand would get a glare and an attempt at prodding him with the aforementioned weapon--thankfully for him, he dodged and, even if he hadn’t, it was still in its sheathe. “I know perfectly well how to use this thankyouverymuch. You stick ‘em with the pointy end,” Khitti said, quoting Meowrya Stark, one of her favorite characters from that A Litter of Cats book she’d been reading lately. “I can always try it out on you first if you’d like?” She wouldn’t stab him a whole lot, of course. Just a little. But, no. Brand evaded death-by-Khitti for another day. So did Vylyra too, actually. How long had it been since Khitti was really angry? I mean really really angry. Like, Hades’ hair setting on fire angry (hm, was that the faint scent of burning in the air…?). Khitti was even too angry for words--well… she did manage one… “ONYX!” The very not-at-all-happy Khat took a few more steps into the room, and she soon found a few more words to say--and none of them were pleasant. There was nothing. Not an ounce of a trace of anything that might tell them something. “I’m going to kill them. I’m gonna kill both of them.” This Onyx was somehow more of a thorn in Khitti’s side than the last one was. How does this happen to her? Seriously.


Brand has hardly entered the room before he’s left again. The nearest crew member is pulled aside, asked what they saw and heard -- if anything at all. The bald sailor’s moustache quivers as he contemplates the question. “Beggin’ your pardon, cap’n, I didn’t see nothin’ out of the usual.” Brand pulls another aside, and another, and another, but they all have the same story. As far as anyone knows, Onyx and Vylyra never left that room. No sound was noted beyond the shuffling of feet on floorboard. Their captive is gone. Their mysterious ‘friend’ the not-Onyx, gone. And their leads, nonexistent. Frak.


Khitti kicked the nearest door/wall/solid object that wasn’t alive. And then she kicked it a few more times. That was mistake. It hurt like frak and she made sure to let the world around them know about it with an irate scream. Thankfully, she hadn’t broken anything that was a part of the ship--she knew better. Her foot on the other hand... well, she’d assess damage later; those favored boots of hers were made for walkin’ and sneakin’ but not kicking immovable, inanimate objects repeatedly in a short span of time. Khitti let Brand interrogate his crew. That was his job and it was for the better because those stabby tendencies haven’t gone away. So, she let him. And what did Khitti do? She stood near the spot where the black-clad woman had been tied up at, staring at the floor. She could sense magic, but it wasn’t anything recent, and that only irritated Khitti more. The magic Onyx had used to subdue Vylyra was there, clinging to the boards like barnacles on the bottom of the very ship they stood in. She’d stand there, with that brand new sword of hers, ready and waiting. Onyx had to come back. And if they didn’t come back to that very spot? She’d find them.


Brand circles back to Khitti once he’s run out of people to question. He’s a strange sort of calm in contrast to Khitti’s rage -- but with Brand, it’s anyone’s guess what’s bubbling beneath the surface. “You find anything in here?” By the tone of his voice, he’s assumed ‘no’ before she’s even answered him. He gives the room another half-hearted, searching glance… like a man who knows there’s no appetizing food in the house, but can’t help but rummage through the pantry again, just in case.


Khitti || “Not a goddamn thing.” Over the few minutes Brand took to go question people, Khitti tried to calm down. It worked… a little. She was a lot less loud about it, at least. “Let me guess… no one’s seen a frakking thing.” It’d always been like that with Onyx and it had always rubbed Khitti the wrong way. This Onyx was much like their predecessor, never seen or heard unless they wanted to be. It’d only been a year now that Khitti was allowed to go about her business without being watched like a hawk by someone--between Amarrah, the amnesia, and the pregnancy, there’d been a steady stream of things to keep Khitti more or less under lock and key. Onyx never really had those kinds of obligations, and apparently things were a little more severe this time around. “Because I very obviously love and respect you, I’m going to give you the option of telling me not to set that one-eyed, lying undead bastard on fire with every ounce of holy fire I can muster, because they’re a part of your crew and I agreed a long time ago not to beat the hell out of your people, even if they deserve it.” Okay, so nothing has really gotten that far. To be honest, it was literally the -other- Onyx the last time too. Why are Khitti’s pseudo-children literal spawns of Hell? Dominic, please do not take after them. Be a good kid and don’t piss off your mother.

Brand || “Uh,” says Brand, “I guess that depends on what their explanation is when and if we find them again.” Torching the not-quite-Onyx might actually be on the list of to-dos, now. And if this Onyx was on the wrong side of things? That was going to be a problem -- a big problem, in a very small shell. “I guess the obvious question is: what now?”


Khitti || It’s obvious Khitti’s not happy about any of this. She’s trying really hard not to take it out on Brand though. She just really wanted to stab Vylyra! “Do I look like I know what to do now?” Her face definitely said ‘please don’t ask me anymore stupid questions’. “There’s nothing. No trace of anything beyond the magic residue from the spell they were using to keep her there. I’m not sure whether to go out and stab a few people or flail like Dominic did when something went wrong.” Sigh. Okay, Khitti. Chillax. In an attempt to do this, she took in a deep breath and let it all out. Look, it really doesn’t actually work, but she can pretend it does. “Okay. This is fine. Everything’s going to work out and be okay and it’s not like this Onyx works for a person like Facilier, right? It can’t be Kahran. He’s gone. Clearly.” Hopefully. Probably. Maybe. She was still gonna kill Onyx though.


Brand clicked his tongue once and shook his head. “-Is- he, though? Do we know that for sure?” Brand, this isn’t helping. He can’t help but be unhelpful, though. “I mean, it’s hard not to trust a doppleganger of the person who saved your woman and your kid and whatever-the-frak else in those five bajillion years. But do we really -know- they have anything to do with what they say they are, that this Onyx isn’t some version created by Kahran?” Yep, this is Brand, helpinggggggggg.


Khitti grabbed Brand by the shoulders and shook him, “You stop that. Shut up. I’m already freaking out. Are you actively trying to make this worse?! I -will- hit you.” Was her right eye twitching? Yes, yes it was. “What are we going to do? WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?!” She might start hyperventilating soon, Brand.


Brand || Whoops. Brand flipped the crazy switch again. One of these days, he was gonna do that and get it jammed in the ‘on’ position. “Uhhhh. I asked you first.” H-E-L-P-I-N-G. He stammered for some kind of halfway-adequate answer. The best he could come up with was, “I don’t know that there’s anything we -can- do for now, other than to be on high alert in case Vylyra or Onyx or Kahran come back. I don’t think they’ve left us any other option…”


Khitti || To be perfectly honest, Khitti’s crazy switch is always on. She’s just a little better about hiding it nowadays--Brand taught her well apparently. Conceal. Don’t feel. All that jazz. But, she’s definitely not able to go full Elsa of Arendelle right now, for obvious reasons. “Uggghhh. But I hate sitting around doing nothing while the bad guys are frolicking around and making kissy faces at each other.” Yes, that’s totally what they do. She shook him again, “I gotta punch things, Brand! I gotta punch things!” Sigh. “Fine. But, if we’re gonna do that, I’m gonna do it drunk.” Look, it makes things -a little- better, okay? Khitti would, of course, go back to their room at this point and start sifting through their expensive booze stash. Because they definitely have one of those.


Brand would follow along behind her, sighing in relief that she’d… done whatever the Khitti equivalent was of ‘calming down’. He’d point out that, if the ‘bad guys’ were to show up while they were drunk, they probably wouldn’t put up much of a fight… but honestly? Who could say if they’d show up five minutes or five years from now? They’d barely learned anything of their plans. They didn’t know if those plans would even continue, with Lionel absent. Might as well drink while they waited.