Sounsyy gave Ryanti a cross look when he dictated the manner in which she should sleep. While it was true it was the Sharlayan's mission now more than hers, they were still aboard the Roehmerl and above the waters Sounsyy had the final say in things. But the boy looked stressed enough so Sounsyy toned her dissent down for his sake.
"Alright, mother cockatrice, yer not Captain yet, but I'll go back to the infirmary. Let meh crew handle things up here, yeh should be getting sleep as well if yer gonna be up late. We're divin' at first light, no matter how much sleep yeh get."
Sounsyy shook her head slightly at him, knowing full well that he wasn't going to sleep. He had determination in his eyes, or was that horror? Sounsyy knew the best way to put something from the mind was to keep finding an activity for the mind to focus on. Busy work.
She was about to leave when Ryanti stopped her. Leura. She shook her head at him, saying, "If that's a thank you, yer welcome, but ain't needed. I look after me n' mine... regardless what the rumors say."
Sounsyy watched him as he walked off and she turned to return back below decks. But not before returning to her cabin. The glass and wine still marred the floor, and the culprit stood resolutely on her desk. She gave it a brief pause before reaching out and pulling a bottle of wine from the rack and tucking it under her arm as she made her way back downstairs.
She had as much intention of sleeping while her crew was hard at work as Ryanti did and resolved to make her rounds about the ship before the headstrong Miqo'te could catch her out of bed and reprimand her. She laughed aloud at the thought and pulled the cork on her bottle and took a quick swig. She was going to need this.
She passed through the gundeck towards the armory at the ship's bow. A few of the bunks had fallen from their hangings and crewmembers' belongings had been strewn haphazardly about as a result of the jarring force of the Roehmerl ramming the Far Eastern vessel. Juselmont and T'laom were busying themselves righting the mess. Sounsyy took a minute to talk with both of them and make sure they were faring well. She let the elderly Elezen have a few sips from her bottle to help him calm the tremors in his hands before moving on.
She paused outside the private quarters. Marjanie's door was open but the Elezen was not within. A cursory glance showed her room had been straightened already, likely when the young girl had changed into civilian clothes. The interior was darkened but Sounsyy could see it was ornately decorated with tapestries of wonderfully colorful silks, maps and charts of far off places, and in the back corner, a bookshelf full of tomes. A few books had been taken down from the shelves or had fallen leaving odd missing patches in the series. One such book sat on the reading desk, many of its pages folded inwards to mark her place over time or to remember this page. The spine read in brilliant gold lettering: Ichthyological Folklore, Vol. 7 - The Indigo Deep.
Sounsyy smirked and her gaze fell upon Marjanie's long rifle which rested horizontally above her bed on pegs. The blood had been cleaned off of the rifle already, Sounsyy noted. Below the rifle was another tapestry, this one bearing a crest that the Captain could only assume was a family heirloom. She heard a voice coming from the adjacent room and Sounsyy moved nimbly towards the next door - Fhruhsunn's quarters. Sounsyy's ears flicked as she made out Marjanie's voice from within. It sounded as if she was chastising the mute Roegadyn for not resting. The Roegadyn only grumbled in reply. From outside, the sound of his heavy footsteps and eventual flump of him dropping onto his mattress were the only noises that could be heard. Though as Sounsyy smiled and moved away from the door and moved into the armory, she could almost swear she heard him start to hum his old sailor shanties.
The inside of the armory was as dimly lit as Marjanie's room. A single lantern had been strung up from the hook on the underside of the bowsprit that split the room diagonally in two. Beneath it, the Quartermaster sat cross-legged, a column of blades laid out before her. Jada would pick up the nearest in line and begin cleaning and sharpening the tool before setting it down to one side and picking up the next in sequence.
Sounsyy approached quietly, but Jada's keen ears missed nothing in her domain. Her bright blue eyes met Sounsyy's as the Captain moved to sit opposite her stash of weapons. Sounsyy said nothing to her and Jada returned her gaze to the work at hand, finishing up polishing a large battleaxe before setting it in the clean pile.
"Used to be my job, y'know," Sounsyy said calmly. Jada stopped mid-stroke of her whetstone, looking up at her Captain. Sounsyy took a swig.
"When you joined the 'Cuda? Or before?" Jada spoke with a forced evenness. Her voice still held a hoarse quality about it. Sounsyy passed the bottle across the gleaming row of weapons to the Quartermaster, who took it and drank deep.
"When I joined the 'Cuda, aye. Sterransa used to make me polish that cutlass o' hers thrice before she were satisfied. Juss outta spite. Old bitch." Jada snickered into the bottle, her teeth shining in the lamplight. "So'z that why yeh won't let me clean your blade, Sounsyy? It's gotta be cleaned three times and yeh know I'd tell yeh to shove yer sword up yer arse?"
"Somethin' like that. Old habits die hard is the saying."
"Thank you, Captain," Jada said after a long laugh. Her voice trailing off as she brought the bottle back up to her lips and took another large portion down her throat, "...fer the wine." Sounsyy nodded, though she knew it wasn't for the wine, "Been told I'm not supposed to have it anyroad."
Sounsyy stood, and before Jada could return the bottle, made her way down the stairs into the Mess. At first Sounsyy thought the stalwart Qiqirn had been released early from the infirmary, judging by the commotion below, but it was only Pamido Wolmido shifting crates back into their regular positions. Given the size difference between some of the crates and his own stature, the Plainsfolk king seemed to be having some difficulty on his own.
"Iffin'... yeh don't... mind!" He grumbled as he spotted Sounsyy dropping down from the last step into the Mess. Sounsyy looked at the bare-chested pirate and gave a short shrug before hopping over the counter in search of something in one of the cabinets. Pamido Wolmido made a cry of dismay, "Oy! Wee smallfolk 'ave to stick together! Movin' mountains n' all that! Cap? Cap'n!? Yeh ain't payin' meh back fer that whole hair thin' are yeh?"
Sounsyy straightened behind the counter, shrugging her shoulders at him. She was trying hard to hide the smirk that threatened to spread across her lips. She pulled up a plate of left over dinner from the underside of the counter - salted cod puffs - and set it on the counter. She began munching on one of the bits of cod while she watched Pamido Wolmido sweat.
"Thas just mean spirited, lass."
"Wha? I didn't get dinner," Sounsyy huffed, shoving another cod puff into her mouth. Pamido Wolmido sagged against his crate, looking quite defeated. Sounsyy chuckled mirthfully and hopped back over the counter, tossing a cod puff in the Lalafell's direction. When he was distracted nibbling, Sounsyy put her hands on either side of the crate and began dragging it down the belly towards the cargo bay. The pirate finished off his snack and raced to push to the crate along.
It took the combined effort of the two to move the crate back into place. Sounsyy gave a relieved sigh and moved back to her plate of cod puffs on the counter. All the stools had already been righted and the cabinets were in order thanks to Pamido Wolmido's efforts. The two met eyes after Sounsyy popped another puff and there was a moment of suspended silence, which was finally broken by Pamido Wolmido, "Makin' the rounds, eh?"
"You know how it is," Sounsyy replied absently, not looking Pamido Wolmido in the eye, finishing off the last cod puff.
"I do. And I know yeh care, unlike most."
Sounsyy retreated to the infirmary not long after. She moved to her assigned cot and drew the curtain for privacy, though she did not or could not sleep. Something about lying down surrounded on all sides by curtains bothered her. So she propped the pillow against the cot's headboard and leaned against it. For a while she listened to the ambient noises of the infirmary - Cwaenlona's incessant washing of her hands, the occasional moan from one of her patients, Susuroon's tiny snores, the pitter-patter of Simin's boots - and eventually fell into a light slumber.
The Captain was roused by the sounds of raised voices a couple hours later. She rubbed out the crick in her neck and listened to the exchange between the two shouts, which she recognized as Jonathan's and Ryanti's. Apparently Jonathan had not taken to the knowledge of her helping Ryanti well. Under normal circumstances, Sounsyy would've agreed with him, but these were not normal circumstances and Marjanie's warning of additional inbound Garlean vessels weighed heavily upon her decision. Whatever mission the Sharlayans had sought to complete below, it could only be expedited by additional aid. The sooner they could leave this place and reach the Sharlayan rendezvous, the better. But Ryanti's sudden shift in personality - this wave of control he felt the need to exercise to further his goals - troubled Sounsyy. Jonathan was wounded, but he was still the senior voice of that team and a man that Sounsyy found herself respecting. The Captain sat listening to the two fight, propped up in her bed. Then she heard Ryanti's footsteps retreating from the room. There was an awkward silence that settled in the room.
Sounsyy got up from her bed and drew back the curtain that separated her cot from the rest of the room. She cast a look towards Jonathan and Forty-three, who still seemed to be fuming. Cwaenlona, Simin, and P'welro were standing in the room in struck silence. They all turned to look as the Captain drew herself up after she exited the divider.
"I'll... talk to him tonight," she said calmly to the room before focusing on Jonathan, "But I do mean to dive with him, Sixteen. He would gladly do the work of four men on his own, but we cannot afford to linger here. The quicker yer mission is done, the sooner we can see yeh safely to Sharlayan. Yeh showed me the artifact, yeh brought me in on this. I will finish what yeh started, as much as I'd rather I weren't going - believe me."
The rest of the evening passed uneventfully until most aboard the Roehmerl were asleep. Sounsyy had given the order that only a handful of the crew were to stay up to service the ship's most vital functions for the night. There were simply not enough active crew members for much else, and after the day's exertion, they all could use the rest. News of the new mission plan had been spread throughout the evening hours as Ryanti was locked away in his room. No one liked the plan, but their options were limited. No one wanted to die far out where no one would find their bodies either, and so the decision had been made. The dive would take place that morning at dawn and the Roehmerl would wait for a limited time should communication be severed. If the two divers were lost, the mission would be abandoned and the Sharlayan rendezvous met. Should the Sharlayans object, Sounsyy confided with P'welro that she had permission to break Jonathan's other leg.
It had eased past midnight when Sounsyy finally met Ryanti on the deck. Most of the crew were asleep by now in preparation for the long day ahead. As Sounsyy made her way across the deck, she looked from side to side off to the port and starboard of her ship. How dark everything looked. As if they were floating on nothing, as if they were alone in the Void or the stars above... like her dream aboard the Allagan starship. How terrifying.
Their greeting was short, for there was much work to be done. First, Ryanti had laid out the equipment. Propelled grappling hooks with carbontwine cables, improvised grenades, air and water filtration devices. Sounsyy fingered through all the equipment while Ryanti tried to explain it in the simplest of terms. Some things that the excited young Miqo'te explained were incredibly obvious to her, while others went completely over her head, with little rhyme or reasoning behind which went where. But every time Ryanti tried to explain something simplistic to her, she gave him a look.
Sounsyy bent down to examine the suit when he got around to explaining it. She stared at it a long while, guessing that this had been Eighty-five's gear. Sounsyy caught herself wishing it was the Miqo'te girl going down into the abyss instead of her, but it was too late now. She had to pull off her boots and strip down to her smallclothes to fit into the skin-tight body suit. Sounsyy kept her eyes focused on the task, but she could've sworn she felt Ryanti's eyes sneak a glance or two in her direction. She didn't mind particularly much, but the scars and blanched white skin along her left arm, shoulder, and between her shoulder blades made her self conscious.
The suit was tight around her shoulders, hips, and thighs as it was obviously tailored to fit Eighty-five who possessed a more lithe frame than the current wearer. When she had finished buckling the suit, she began examining the various guages as Ryanti explained them. "So this is what the Ironworks does wit' the shite we bring them," she muttered to herself as she fiddled with the suit's mouthpiece. She looked up awkwardly when the boy approached with an odd pair of goggles. Sounsyy turned them over in her hands a few times before pulling them over her head and tightening the strap which held them in place. Though they looked like normal lenses at first glance, Ryanti explained that they also could swap to Night Vision, Thermal, or Aetherial. She gave him a puzzled look behind her goggles.
"Night vision seems pretty self explanatory, but- ohh!" Sounsyy gasped as the Miqo'te turned the goggles to night vision and suddenly the Roehmerl turned a bright green before her eyes. She had to turn away from the lighted portion of the ship and gaze out where there was only darkness, which to her surprise, was not so dark as to be featureless. Then thermal, and the world turned from green to varying shades of red. Ryanti waved his arm about in front of her, and she could see the heat radiating from it. She gave a short hm, seemingly pleased with the technology.
After a few moments of exploring the world in this new light, the Miqo'te told her that the equipment had a limited duration and the fun was over. Sounsyy turned off the goggles and pulled them off and handed them to the Miqo'te. She took one last look at her suit to make sure she remembered how exactly it was supposed to look when worn before unstrapping it and stripping back down. She found releasing the latches to be a considerably awkward process as her left hand was missing a finger, but the suit still had a full set of digits. The extra fabric for the missing appendage kept getting in the way of her unbuttoning. Despite her cursing under her breath, she managed to free herself from the Sharlayan contraption without Ryanti's aid.
She handed the warmed suit back to Ryanti to fold and stow away while she changed back into her own clothing from before. When she looked up from buckling her boots, Ryanti was hovering over her with rifle in hand. He mentioned something about needing to teach her how to shoot after her earlier display, which earned him another vexed glare. She stood and snatched the rifle out of his hands and made her way over to one side of the ship.
"I know how to shoot well enough," Sounsyy simmered, "Couldn't have become a 'Cuda otherwise, y'know."
In truth, Sounsyy was a terrible shot and she knew it. She had only barely passed the marksmanship portion of her trials to become a Knight of the Barracuda. But her pride would not allow her to admit this fact to anyone. But she knew she was in trouble the moment she took the gun from his hands. It was a wholly foreign firearm to her - larger, heavier, and more powerful than anything Sounsyy had fired in her lifetime. The basics were still the same, but as predicted, the Captain performed abysmally, which frustrated her greatly.
Ryanti could probably make out the low growl Sounsyy made as the boy stepped in behind her and shadowed her body positioning with his own. His hands were shaking, she noticed, and his body was tense. He was such a timid creature. Sounsyy wondered if he had slept any after his shouting match with his commander. She doubted it. But the thought reminded her of what she needed to confront him about. She was about to open her mouth and tell him, but the words came out wrong and she ended up growling, "I'm going to shoot yeh in yer leg," when his hand squeezed hers tightly against the rifle's barrel. She felt his finger around the trigger and she pulled just as he did, sending a bullet whizzing through the broken barrel target with a loud plop.
Ryanti broke out into a huge smile and they repeated the process a few more times before he pulled away to let her fire on her own. Her back felt cold suddenly without him standing there behind her. Sounsyy could feel goosebumps forming along her body. Ryanti almost seemed excited as he counted down for her to shoot the target on her own, but when he finished, Sounsyy just turned around to face him, rifle cradled against her body with the barrel pointed off to one side.
"Listen," she said slowly, "I don't care to know why yeh removed Sixteen from command, but what's done is done. Juss like that skirmish today is done. But I can look in yer eyes and see yer still carrying all that weight. Yeh look stressed. Yeh don't look like yeh got any sleep. And yeh want me to dive malms under the sea into a fishback cesspool with yeh. I am petrified at the thought of going down there, so I need to be able to trust yeh to have meh back, understand?"
Sounsyy took a breath, shifting the weight of the rifle in her hands. Her eyes were fixed on Ryanti's, as if she was trying to read his thoughts from behind his eyes.
"Alright, mother cockatrice, yer not Captain yet, but I'll go back to the infirmary. Let meh crew handle things up here, yeh should be getting sleep as well if yer gonna be up late. We're divin' at first light, no matter how much sleep yeh get."
Sounsyy shook her head slightly at him, knowing full well that he wasn't going to sleep. He had determination in his eyes, or was that horror? Sounsyy knew the best way to put something from the mind was to keep finding an activity for the mind to focus on. Busy work.
She was about to leave when Ryanti stopped her. Leura. She shook her head at him, saying, "If that's a thank you, yer welcome, but ain't needed. I look after me n' mine... regardless what the rumors say."
Sounsyy watched him as he walked off and she turned to return back below decks. But not before returning to her cabin. The glass and wine still marred the floor, and the culprit stood resolutely on her desk. She gave it a brief pause before reaching out and pulling a bottle of wine from the rack and tucking it under her arm as she made her way back downstairs.
She had as much intention of sleeping while her crew was hard at work as Ryanti did and resolved to make her rounds about the ship before the headstrong Miqo'te could catch her out of bed and reprimand her. She laughed aloud at the thought and pulled the cork on her bottle and took a quick swig. She was going to need this.
She passed through the gundeck towards the armory at the ship's bow. A few of the bunks had fallen from their hangings and crewmembers' belongings had been strewn haphazardly about as a result of the jarring force of the Roehmerl ramming the Far Eastern vessel. Juselmont and T'laom were busying themselves righting the mess. Sounsyy took a minute to talk with both of them and make sure they were faring well. She let the elderly Elezen have a few sips from her bottle to help him calm the tremors in his hands before moving on.
She paused outside the private quarters. Marjanie's door was open but the Elezen was not within. A cursory glance showed her room had been straightened already, likely when the young girl had changed into civilian clothes. The interior was darkened but Sounsyy could see it was ornately decorated with tapestries of wonderfully colorful silks, maps and charts of far off places, and in the back corner, a bookshelf full of tomes. A few books had been taken down from the shelves or had fallen leaving odd missing patches in the series. One such book sat on the reading desk, many of its pages folded inwards to mark her place over time or to remember this page. The spine read in brilliant gold lettering: Ichthyological Folklore, Vol. 7 - The Indigo Deep.
Sounsyy smirked and her gaze fell upon Marjanie's long rifle which rested horizontally above her bed on pegs. The blood had been cleaned off of the rifle already, Sounsyy noted. Below the rifle was another tapestry, this one bearing a crest that the Captain could only assume was a family heirloom. She heard a voice coming from the adjacent room and Sounsyy moved nimbly towards the next door - Fhruhsunn's quarters. Sounsyy's ears flicked as she made out Marjanie's voice from within. It sounded as if she was chastising the mute Roegadyn for not resting. The Roegadyn only grumbled in reply. From outside, the sound of his heavy footsteps and eventual flump of him dropping onto his mattress were the only noises that could be heard. Though as Sounsyy smiled and moved away from the door and moved into the armory, she could almost swear she heard him start to hum his old sailor shanties.
The inside of the armory was as dimly lit as Marjanie's room. A single lantern had been strung up from the hook on the underside of the bowsprit that split the room diagonally in two. Beneath it, the Quartermaster sat cross-legged, a column of blades laid out before her. Jada would pick up the nearest in line and begin cleaning and sharpening the tool before setting it down to one side and picking up the next in sequence.
Sounsyy approached quietly, but Jada's keen ears missed nothing in her domain. Her bright blue eyes met Sounsyy's as the Captain moved to sit opposite her stash of weapons. Sounsyy said nothing to her and Jada returned her gaze to the work at hand, finishing up polishing a large battleaxe before setting it in the clean pile.
"Used to be my job, y'know," Sounsyy said calmly. Jada stopped mid-stroke of her whetstone, looking up at her Captain. Sounsyy took a swig.
"When you joined the 'Cuda? Or before?" Jada spoke with a forced evenness. Her voice still held a hoarse quality about it. Sounsyy passed the bottle across the gleaming row of weapons to the Quartermaster, who took it and drank deep.
"When I joined the 'Cuda, aye. Sterransa used to make me polish that cutlass o' hers thrice before she were satisfied. Juss outta spite. Old bitch." Jada snickered into the bottle, her teeth shining in the lamplight. "So'z that why yeh won't let me clean your blade, Sounsyy? It's gotta be cleaned three times and yeh know I'd tell yeh to shove yer sword up yer arse?"
"Somethin' like that. Old habits die hard is the saying."
"Thank you, Captain," Jada said after a long laugh. Her voice trailing off as she brought the bottle back up to her lips and took another large portion down her throat, "...fer the wine." Sounsyy nodded, though she knew it wasn't for the wine, "Been told I'm not supposed to have it anyroad."
Sounsyy stood, and before Jada could return the bottle, made her way down the stairs into the Mess. At first Sounsyy thought the stalwart Qiqirn had been released early from the infirmary, judging by the commotion below, but it was only Pamido Wolmido shifting crates back into their regular positions. Given the size difference between some of the crates and his own stature, the Plainsfolk king seemed to be having some difficulty on his own.
"Iffin'... yeh don't... mind!" He grumbled as he spotted Sounsyy dropping down from the last step into the Mess. Sounsyy looked at the bare-chested pirate and gave a short shrug before hopping over the counter in search of something in one of the cabinets. Pamido Wolmido made a cry of dismay, "Oy! Wee smallfolk 'ave to stick together! Movin' mountains n' all that! Cap? Cap'n!? Yeh ain't payin' meh back fer that whole hair thin' are yeh?"
Sounsyy straightened behind the counter, shrugging her shoulders at him. She was trying hard to hide the smirk that threatened to spread across her lips. She pulled up a plate of left over dinner from the underside of the counter - salted cod puffs - and set it on the counter. She began munching on one of the bits of cod while she watched Pamido Wolmido sweat.
"Thas just mean spirited, lass."
"Wha? I didn't get dinner," Sounsyy huffed, shoving another cod puff into her mouth. Pamido Wolmido sagged against his crate, looking quite defeated. Sounsyy chuckled mirthfully and hopped back over the counter, tossing a cod puff in the Lalafell's direction. When he was distracted nibbling, Sounsyy put her hands on either side of the crate and began dragging it down the belly towards the cargo bay. The pirate finished off his snack and raced to push to the crate along.
It took the combined effort of the two to move the crate back into place. Sounsyy gave a relieved sigh and moved back to her plate of cod puffs on the counter. All the stools had already been righted and the cabinets were in order thanks to Pamido Wolmido's efforts. The two met eyes after Sounsyy popped another puff and there was a moment of suspended silence, which was finally broken by Pamido Wolmido, "Makin' the rounds, eh?"
"You know how it is," Sounsyy replied absently, not looking Pamido Wolmido in the eye, finishing off the last cod puff.
"I do. And I know yeh care, unlike most."
Sounsyy retreated to the infirmary not long after. She moved to her assigned cot and drew the curtain for privacy, though she did not or could not sleep. Something about lying down surrounded on all sides by curtains bothered her. So she propped the pillow against the cot's headboard and leaned against it. For a while she listened to the ambient noises of the infirmary - Cwaenlona's incessant washing of her hands, the occasional moan from one of her patients, Susuroon's tiny snores, the pitter-patter of Simin's boots - and eventually fell into a light slumber.
The Captain was roused by the sounds of raised voices a couple hours later. She rubbed out the crick in her neck and listened to the exchange between the two shouts, which she recognized as Jonathan's and Ryanti's. Apparently Jonathan had not taken to the knowledge of her helping Ryanti well. Under normal circumstances, Sounsyy would've agreed with him, but these were not normal circumstances and Marjanie's warning of additional inbound Garlean vessels weighed heavily upon her decision. Whatever mission the Sharlayans had sought to complete below, it could only be expedited by additional aid. The sooner they could leave this place and reach the Sharlayan rendezvous, the better. But Ryanti's sudden shift in personality - this wave of control he felt the need to exercise to further his goals - troubled Sounsyy. Jonathan was wounded, but he was still the senior voice of that team and a man that Sounsyy found herself respecting. The Captain sat listening to the two fight, propped up in her bed. Then she heard Ryanti's footsteps retreating from the room. There was an awkward silence that settled in the room.
Sounsyy got up from her bed and drew back the curtain that separated her cot from the rest of the room. She cast a look towards Jonathan and Forty-three, who still seemed to be fuming. Cwaenlona, Simin, and P'welro were standing in the room in struck silence. They all turned to look as the Captain drew herself up after she exited the divider.
"I'll... talk to him tonight," she said calmly to the room before focusing on Jonathan, "But I do mean to dive with him, Sixteen. He would gladly do the work of four men on his own, but we cannot afford to linger here. The quicker yer mission is done, the sooner we can see yeh safely to Sharlayan. Yeh showed me the artifact, yeh brought me in on this. I will finish what yeh started, as much as I'd rather I weren't going - believe me."
The rest of the evening passed uneventfully until most aboard the Roehmerl were asleep. Sounsyy had given the order that only a handful of the crew were to stay up to service the ship's most vital functions for the night. There were simply not enough active crew members for much else, and after the day's exertion, they all could use the rest. News of the new mission plan had been spread throughout the evening hours as Ryanti was locked away in his room. No one liked the plan, but their options were limited. No one wanted to die far out where no one would find their bodies either, and so the decision had been made. The dive would take place that morning at dawn and the Roehmerl would wait for a limited time should communication be severed. If the two divers were lost, the mission would be abandoned and the Sharlayan rendezvous met. Should the Sharlayans object, Sounsyy confided with P'welro that she had permission to break Jonathan's other leg.
It had eased past midnight when Sounsyy finally met Ryanti on the deck. Most of the crew were asleep by now in preparation for the long day ahead. As Sounsyy made her way across the deck, she looked from side to side off to the port and starboard of her ship. How dark everything looked. As if they were floating on nothing, as if they were alone in the Void or the stars above... like her dream aboard the Allagan starship. How terrifying.
Their greeting was short, for there was much work to be done. First, Ryanti had laid out the equipment. Propelled grappling hooks with carbontwine cables, improvised grenades, air and water filtration devices. Sounsyy fingered through all the equipment while Ryanti tried to explain it in the simplest of terms. Some things that the excited young Miqo'te explained were incredibly obvious to her, while others went completely over her head, with little rhyme or reasoning behind which went where. But every time Ryanti tried to explain something simplistic to her, she gave him a look.
Sounsyy bent down to examine the suit when he got around to explaining it. She stared at it a long while, guessing that this had been Eighty-five's gear. Sounsyy caught herself wishing it was the Miqo'te girl going down into the abyss instead of her, but it was too late now. She had to pull off her boots and strip down to her smallclothes to fit into the skin-tight body suit. Sounsyy kept her eyes focused on the task, but she could've sworn she felt Ryanti's eyes sneak a glance or two in her direction. She didn't mind particularly much, but the scars and blanched white skin along her left arm, shoulder, and between her shoulder blades made her self conscious.
The suit was tight around her shoulders, hips, and thighs as it was obviously tailored to fit Eighty-five who possessed a more lithe frame than the current wearer. When she had finished buckling the suit, she began examining the various guages as Ryanti explained them. "So this is what the Ironworks does wit' the shite we bring them," she muttered to herself as she fiddled with the suit's mouthpiece. She looked up awkwardly when the boy approached with an odd pair of goggles. Sounsyy turned them over in her hands a few times before pulling them over her head and tightening the strap which held them in place. Though they looked like normal lenses at first glance, Ryanti explained that they also could swap to Night Vision, Thermal, or Aetherial. She gave him a puzzled look behind her goggles.
"Night vision seems pretty self explanatory, but- ohh!" Sounsyy gasped as the Miqo'te turned the goggles to night vision and suddenly the Roehmerl turned a bright green before her eyes. She had to turn away from the lighted portion of the ship and gaze out where there was only darkness, which to her surprise, was not so dark as to be featureless. Then thermal, and the world turned from green to varying shades of red. Ryanti waved his arm about in front of her, and she could see the heat radiating from it. She gave a short hm, seemingly pleased with the technology.
After a few moments of exploring the world in this new light, the Miqo'te told her that the equipment had a limited duration and the fun was over. Sounsyy turned off the goggles and pulled them off and handed them to the Miqo'te. She took one last look at her suit to make sure she remembered how exactly it was supposed to look when worn before unstrapping it and stripping back down. She found releasing the latches to be a considerably awkward process as her left hand was missing a finger, but the suit still had a full set of digits. The extra fabric for the missing appendage kept getting in the way of her unbuttoning. Despite her cursing under her breath, she managed to free herself from the Sharlayan contraption without Ryanti's aid.
She handed the warmed suit back to Ryanti to fold and stow away while she changed back into her own clothing from before. When she looked up from buckling her boots, Ryanti was hovering over her with rifle in hand. He mentioned something about needing to teach her how to shoot after her earlier display, which earned him another vexed glare. She stood and snatched the rifle out of his hands and made her way over to one side of the ship.
"I know how to shoot well enough," Sounsyy simmered, "Couldn't have become a 'Cuda otherwise, y'know."
In truth, Sounsyy was a terrible shot and she knew it. She had only barely passed the marksmanship portion of her trials to become a Knight of the Barracuda. But her pride would not allow her to admit this fact to anyone. But she knew she was in trouble the moment she took the gun from his hands. It was a wholly foreign firearm to her - larger, heavier, and more powerful than anything Sounsyy had fired in her lifetime. The basics were still the same, but as predicted, the Captain performed abysmally, which frustrated her greatly.
Ryanti could probably make out the low growl Sounsyy made as the boy stepped in behind her and shadowed her body positioning with his own. His hands were shaking, she noticed, and his body was tense. He was such a timid creature. Sounsyy wondered if he had slept any after his shouting match with his commander. She doubted it. But the thought reminded her of what she needed to confront him about. She was about to open her mouth and tell him, but the words came out wrong and she ended up growling, "I'm going to shoot yeh in yer leg," when his hand squeezed hers tightly against the rifle's barrel. She felt his finger around the trigger and she pulled just as he did, sending a bullet whizzing through the broken barrel target with a loud plop.
Ryanti broke out into a huge smile and they repeated the process a few more times before he pulled away to let her fire on her own. Her back felt cold suddenly without him standing there behind her. Sounsyy could feel goosebumps forming along her body. Ryanti almost seemed excited as he counted down for her to shoot the target on her own, but when he finished, Sounsyy just turned around to face him, rifle cradled against her body with the barrel pointed off to one side.
"Listen," she said slowly, "I don't care to know why yeh removed Sixteen from command, but what's done is done. Juss like that skirmish today is done. But I can look in yer eyes and see yer still carrying all that weight. Yeh look stressed. Yeh don't look like yeh got any sleep. And yeh want me to dive malms under the sea into a fishback cesspool with yeh. I am petrified at the thought of going down there, so I need to be able to trust yeh to have meh back, understand?"
Sounsyy took a breath, shifting the weight of the rifle in her hands. Her eyes were fixed on Ryanti's, as if she was trying to read his thoughts from behind his eyes.