• Graded • Not so Good in Practice

[Maltruism]

"Not so Good in Practice"

The Hall of Rule and Reprimand, Etzos, Zi'da 40, arc 717

Continued from here...

The Pair made their way outside the Riverbank Inn, making several turns and several blocks' distance before the pirate pulled the orb from her pack and turned her back on her escort, Zipper, to work its mechanism. The sea breeze halted briefly, to reverse its direction and suddenly carry a light but unpleasant sewer aroma, as a back alley of Etzos materialized around them with a tearing sound and a circular blaze of light.

They ignored the pair of bums, who gave startled cries about magic and villains, as Zipper played her part by grabbing Graeslin roughly and promising the two street folk that her "prisoner" was bound for the hall. The bums babbled drunken cheers, satisfied once again to sit in the muck at the base of wall that looked and smelled as if stained primarily by urine and vomit. The pirate played her part as well, grousing profanely, but giving in grudgingly to the shoves and punches that Zipper was all too eager to perform with unsurpassed realism.

Graeslin sneered as they moved from the alley and made their way toward the Hall. "Don't enjoy this too much, money-buns. There's a point where I no longer chalk up the bruises to necessity; and you can bet I'll return the favor on your little brother's ass after I cut you a new pussy right under your chin." Sarcasm now added its flavor to her voice, "Yeah, yeah, now give me that nice threatening rebuttal, girl. Don't let me down. Now here, take my pack."

The pirate knew that Zipper enjoyed a specialized rank, and as 'Advisory Liaison to Foster's Landing', she had equal rank to all but one of the soldiers currently conducting interrogations beneath the Hall. As well as the knock patterns, code words and greets, gestures, symbols and all such signals. These got the pair through the heavy outer door, courtesy of the guard who manned it. It got them past a pattern of checkpoints inside as well, with Zipper needing to do little more than identify her prisoner.

The guards' eyes shone with anticipation of new treasure-hunting, now that they had the ship captain along with her men; of whom the bodies of five mutilated members now lay in a heap against the wall by one of several turns in the tunnels. These tunnels all led to similar parallel corridors of identical cells, the end of each hall holding a glowing plaque with a Rupturing ward activated inset within its center.

The guards were now fully focused on the presence of the pirate queen, and took little notice of where Zipper went. Though she was not posted in this prison, their little domain, she had leave to move about with no requirement of clearance from any save the commander. And he too, was currently savoring the anticipation of each escalating step of humiliation they would perform on Graeslin. Material riches were not the only treasures they intended to wrest from the female.

Graeslin revelled in the violation of her "privacy", letting the aroused feature of the men nearby stand out as ever more firm targets of her upcoming vengeance. They had no shame as leggings dropped to free the purveyors of their lust. Clearly they felt that the administration of the pain portion of the interrogation could wait until after their "sport".

The lighting changed suddenly in the entire area, as the wards deactivated. Graeslin snarled a laugh and kicked back and up from her hands-and-knees position to flatten one guard's scrotum against his thigh. His high, weak whine of crippling pain was drowned in the alarmed cries as the rest of the guards realized what could happen with the wards down.

Zipper came running back into the main area, as guards hurried down several tunnels to attempt to secure reactivations. But the core of the central array was gone, and their efforts were futile. Graeslin did not bother to take note of whether Zipper was feigning ignorance of where it had gone, brazenly confessing to its destruction, or making some other claim of her own devising. She hurried to the pack Zipper had tossed aside nearby and dug out the orb.

Back at the upstairs room of the Riverbank Inn, the conscripted members of Graeslin's assault team, along with her genuine pirate crew members, saw a oblong rip form in the plane of space in the center of the room. One of the tables was torn neatly in half by the portal, and fell away to both sides of it as the image of underground passages and the chaotic scrambling of armed men appeared within its boundary.

Brigg stood immediately to the forefront of the gathering, pounding his enormous fist into a palm that looked as if it could fully enclose a normal man's entire head, "It's time, ya rot rats! Into the hole NOW!" Unnoticed by everyone, in the moment of excitement was the door opening a crack, and a small girl peering inside to have her eyes grow wide with recognition not only of the young boy in the party, but the pirate holding a knife to his throat as well, as they made their way to the portal.

!

Message from: Matruism

Okay. Sorry this took so long, but we're in it now! Zip, you can fill in the blanks of your "socializing" with Graeslin and the shut down of the rupture array if you want. OR you can leave it to everyone's imagination. Everyone else is getting herded into the portal, unless they want to chicken out and make a run for it. Finn, I will play Molly's part for now. Those of you that have offshoot plots about to occur, don't begin them until after your first post. Right now you'll just be running in and either trying to avoid guards or taking them on. Have fun!

[Tio Silver]

While Zipper and Graeslin infiltrated the Hall of Rule and Reprimand, Tio killed time by playing a few drinking games with some of the other members of their strange little band. He'd learnt quite a few games unique to Scalvoris, but compared to the absolutely brutal ones they had here in Etzos they seemed like child's games. Who'd have thought there was a culture out there more evil than a city built by pirates? Three quarters of the games they played in this very tavern involved setting the drinks on fire for the spirits sake! It was a good thing he couldn't get hangovers, or Tio was fairly sure he might have died tomorrow.

But finally, without a warning, the portal ripped itself open in the middle of their room, splitting the table in two. Good lord did portals always look so terrifying? He'd never really considered before how dangerous a literal rip in the fabric of space could be. Nevertheless Brigg, ever the good little lapdog, was suddenly all gung-ho the moment he caught a whiff of his master, and one little hole in reality wasn't going to stand between him and a huge pile of gold.

"Weeeeeeeee!!!" He yelled, taking the opportunity to be the first to jump through. One trill he was in the ram-shackled tavern room, and the next Tio found his feet hitting the cold stone floors of the drabbest, most depressing room he'd ever seen. So this was what the inside of a prison was like? He never been in one before, and from the looks of things it was even more depressing than he'd ever thought it'd be. Were those?.. yep, those were some random dead guys just piled up in the corner. Seriously, who was in charge of this hellhole they called Etzos?

As he landed Tio decided that the grand entrance for this motley crew needed a bit more pizzazz, and so fixed Zipper and Graeslin with a wide grin and made vigorous jazz hands. "We're heeerrreee!" He sang, pirouetting around and gesturing dramatically to the portal as the others came through. "Ladies and gentlemen the stars have arrived! Come on guys, let's do this thing beautifully!"

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[Oberan]

If not for the Graeslin and her merry men, the evening would have been a whole lot more fun. That is not to say that hanging out in the pub wasn’t fun, but the thought of following that dreadful woman’s plan was never far away. Oberan managed to keep it out of his mind with alcohol, but even that had its limits.

Not to mention, going on this mission while drunk usually wasn’t the best idea. Playing drinking games with Taboo didn’t really help.

To be fair, when it became clear that the blonde was able to hold his liquor far better than Oberan could, the Mortalborn had forfeited. There was no fun in playing a game you couldn’t win, and though Bran could cheat by making the pirate-garbed man lose consciousness, he refrained from such actions. Getting rid of all that absorbed thrill would instigate a barfight for sure –which usually wasn’t something he considered to be a bad thing—and he wasn’t in the mood.

Still, that did not mean he abstained from using Graeslin’s tab to buy the whole tavern multiple drinks, spending a small fortune on booze and small snacks. That’d teach her to mess with him!

Of course, he did a fair bit of drinking himself, downing one beer after the other until he began repeating himself multiple times when telling tales of how he once ate a whole bowl of red beets and regretted it afterwards.

It all came to a halt when Oberan lost a bet and had to drink a disgusting cocktail of several beverages that didn’t go well together, hot sauce, lime juice, and topped off with a dozen teaspoons of salt. Needless to say, it wasn’t well received by his stomach, and Oberan wasn’t seen for a long while after that. Well, some of the patrons that stepped outside to take a leak would find him behind the pub near a large puddle of regurgitated meals and the like, sipping water from a mug he filled with rainwater from the barrel near the backdoor.

However, once he felt more or less all right he headed back to the meeting room where he didn’t have to wait long for the portal to appear. The table was cut clean in half, each part falling to a side. It couldn’t have been more perfect if the pirate lady had tried. Brigg pounded his fist in lieu of telling them to make the jump, and Oberan wondered if the guy could even speak. He could, the big man proved not two trills later, and surprisingly the sentence coming out of his mouth was longer than the maximum of two or three words Bran had figured was his limit. Not a “Brigg angry! Through portal go! Else Brigg smash!” but an actual sentence. The Mortalborn had to suppress the urge to applaud this unexpected feat.

Taboo jumped through first, followed by Oberan who was right on the man’s heels. In the span of a mere moment, Bran felt his body being flung across a vast distance with incredible speed, accelerating so fast his organs were pushed into his back—and then he was there, landing softly on the stones of the Hall of Reprimand completely fine.

[Toan]

He had to admit the company of the others was slightly invigorating, Oberan definitely had a knack of hogging the spotlight mostly. Tio seemed friendly enough but for obvious reasons, Toan wasn't buying the friendly pirate act he seemed to generate with everyone. Then little Finn was also interesting considering Toan knew Zip personally, only briefly though, and already the thief could tell the resemblance between them. They both seemed to run afoul at the mouth more than anything, a shared trait that Toan considered influenced by the older sibling perhaps.

The other pirates here made Toan uncomfortable of course, more than he cared to show them really. He remained comfy in the lounge chairs of course, while the rest of them liked to drink a little to kill the time. Considerably tempting as it was Toan didn't want to impair his senses, since they were after all taking on a hefty job. Get inside to bail out some pirates and then just as easily get out for a reward. How hard could that be when the guards were in a panic? The thief hung his head over the arm of the chair impatiently, his body fitted into the seat of the chair as he kicked it's side. How long were they going to take? More importantly how soon would they breach the Halls?

It took a good few Trials to get down here so why should they expect the portals to open any time soon? Evidently there was more than just golden treasure in Graeslin's possession, she seemed far to clever and cunning to plan this and have it drag out. Sure enough the others returned from below and Toan sat up in his chair, a sudden buzz heard through the air as the very air ripped apart within the room. The portal had opened and sure enough Graeslin stood on the other side, beckoning them to enter while the boys proceeded to move on through. "Well that's one way to make an entry." He muttered to himself with a weak grin, his eyes fallen to the table as he rose onto his feet with a quick stretch. Next in line for the jump the thief made a quick run motion, and hopped his way through the portal into the chambers on the other side.

He felt his whole body hum and tingle as a rush surged through his entire innards, his eyes widened as he made an awkward landing on the other side. Never in his life had he suspected he would jump through portals, and now here he was about to stage a jailbreak.... after jumping a fucking portal. The stones of the hall felt more solid on his feet now that he knew where he landed, his eyes already scouring for details of the area they were within.

[Maltruism]

Graeslin still offered no real resistance to the pair of guards still holding her. As pirates came pouring through the new portal, they quickly put a blade to her throat in a vain effort to demand cooperation from them. They were ignored with laughter. Combat broke out in numerous places, as Graeslin went into an act of sharing her captor's demands to give themselves up.

It was truly Brigg and Den now that set about with issuing orders to go to this cell and that door, opening the former, locking the latter. As well, they reiterated the futility of trying to trade blows with men in Sovereign Ward armor, and counselled grappling and tripping strategies instead. By then, Zipper had already given directions to the most likely holding cells of the pirate crew they were here to rescue.

The two guards holding Graeslin were utterly confused, unexpectedly finding their captive to be of no apparent bargaining value. But for now, they dragged her with them as they pursued the mayhem further into the depths of the detention center, still shouting demands to drop weapons. Graeslin was adding her own protests of innocence by now, insisting that it proved she was no pirate.

The guards were outnumbered, and though protected by their enchanted armor, they were unable to prevent ever increasing numbers of pirates from being freed, as well as some prisoners the pirates did not care about. Some had traded a few blows with the invading criminals, some successful, some not; some resulting in well-timed counter blows that struck home through their briefly deactivated wards.

They could see it was a losing effort and those still holding Graeslin commended them to fall back to cordon off the route back to the portal. As the others responded, breaking off their individual fights to take up a formation, the pirate queen delivered the telling blow.

As a Naerikk, she struck them all with her race's "Gift of Shadow"; a sensory shock inflicted by the shedding of her shadow essence onto her selected targets; robbing them of all sensory input. Sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, even the equilibrium necessary to stave off vertigo turned the world black, silent, and utterly disorienting to the guards, while the criminals were completely unaffected.

Graeslin still had to shake herself free of the grip she was held in. But the shock and imbalance of the gift gave her enough edge to pull it off before the shadow back-lashed on her. She stumbled away from the guards to prolong the effect, clearly disoriented to a considerable degree herself. Several of her most loyal crew members now took up guarding her from the potential repercussions of the "recruits".

She gave a vague wave at the prison guards, now more or less falling in writhing heaps of dismayed ineffectiveness. "Kill them, or drag them into the cells. But we've got to leave real soon." The truth of this order was emphasized by heavy pounding on one of the deeper doors, shouts of alarm giving a pressured chorus to the tympani of battering rams.

But what no one knew was that as the crew charged through the portal, the one that had been holding Finn dropped a small disc on the floor of the room at the inn, near the base of the fiery portal. There was a sharp burr on the side with which he cut himself, allowing a small drip of blood to activate a well inside it. The portal did not vanish, but it would no longer be able to be crossed back in the other direction.

The gang hurried to where the portal glowed in the dim light of the lower Hall, their newly rescued comrades with them. The first man hit the temporal opening as if hitting an invisible wall, several others slamming into him from behind. Graeslin had been letting herself be led by her crew, giving into the exhaustion of shedding her shadow in "Gift" form. Having used it against so many, she knew it would not last long, and had been counting on not having to go to any further effort.

She stared agape at the uncooperating portal, digging in her bag and fumbling with her orb to see what had gone wrong. Fury and frustration twisted her features, "WHAT THE FUCK?!" she roared, barely restraining the desire to smash the orb on the floor.

Now, alarm and dismay was shared by all present, guard, pirate and citizen alike. There was suddenly no way out, and the first sounds of cracking wooden doors were being heard mixing with the pounding of the rams and the surge of eager threats and anger being voiced behind them. The safety of the room at the Riverbank Inn taunted the "rescuers" as a little girl stood in its center, looking with confusion between them and an odd disc she now held in her hands.

!	Message from: Matruism
	Zip? Finn? You guys still on board with this?

[Tio Silver]

Man, jailbreaks were fun! There was always a rush that came with criminal activity that was strangely addicting, but in a major operation like this that rush was all the more intense. As Graeslin's crew engaged the guards in combat, Tio swiped a set of keys out of the pockets of one of the fallen soldiers and got to work unlocking the doors of every cell that contained people who looked up for a riot.

"Mornin' fellas! What're you lads in here for?" He asked in a sing-song voice as he flung the doors of one of the cells open, revealing half a dozen burly bald men covered in tattoos. "We're having ourselves a little jailbreak and there're some job vacancies open for anyone who brought their own shiv."

One of them strode up to him and sneered. "This is a racist serial killer cell. I butchered four Aukari and posted their heads to their families."

"Well isn't that lovely!" Tio replied with a smile, stepping aside to let them out. "Welcome aboard guys. You know I'm fairly certain I heard those guards outside insulting your mothers. Go kick their asses."

As the hardened psychos piled out into the hall, probably to go murder some of the guards, Tio started to move on to the next cell, but was interrupted as Graeslin pulled some kind of freaky shadow magic and knocked several of the guards unconscious. At this point it seemed that all of her crew who hadn't been killed were now free, and by an unspoken command the makeshift criminal band turned back to the portal to make their escape. One of the freed crew members power walked forwards into it...

Only to bounce straight off thin air and crumple to the ground.

Tio reached out and experimentally stuck his arm out towards the portal, frowning a little as it hit an invisible barrier instead of going straight through like it should." Okay, that's... not good." He muttered, knocking on the barrier as if it was a door. "I take it this isn't supposed to happen?"

Graeslin began to scream and shout in fury, opening the social floodgate for all the other criminals to start panicking when it became obvious that things weren't going to plan. It was then that Tio noticed the little girl in the room beyond the portal, looking completely bewildered and holding some kind of strange disk in her hands. Although he had no idea what the disk was it didn't take a genius to realize that a strange girl standing in front of the portal probably had something to do with why it had suddenly closed, and the way that she kept looking down at the disk in her hand gave some hints as to what the problem was.

Quashing down the uneasy feeling in his gut that things were starting to take a turn for the worst, Tio knelt down until he was at the same eye-level as the kid and put on his friendliest smile. "Heya kid. So I know this must look a little bit weird, but I need your help. Would you mind throwing that nasty old disk out of the window for me? If you do I'll buy you a pony. You like ponies?"

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[Oberan]

He needed but a moment to locate Graeslin on the floor of the cell, holding an object which he figured was rather important. A split-trill decision and he quickly closed the distance like a cheetah on the hunt, using Party Clown Taboo and his Delightful Jazz Hands as the welcome distraction he proved to be. However, some guardsmen decided to put themselves between Oberan and the pirate Naerikk, foiling the Mortalborn’s plans. Oberan cussed under his breath and summersaulted over the nearest one, fingers finding purchase on the man’s helmet as he flew past, pulling the guard off balance.

More and more pirates were coming out of the portal like ants streaming out of an anthill, engaging the Black Guard while Taboo snuck off. Oberan followed, siphoning the thrill of the unfortunate guard who had resolutely stepped in to cut off the Mortalborn’s path. The man went down almost immediately as Oberan did not hold anything back. Though he kept some for himself, the thief spread out the excess to the pirates in his immediate vicinity, unconcerned about the side effects that would start to come into play the moment the effect wore off.

Naturally, Bran took his keys as well as the guard’s thrill, finding this time as good as any to increase his stash.

Reluctantly he used them to unlock just about every cell he came across, assisting Taboo as the blonde man did the same. Obviously, using his powers would quicken the process, but for Graeslin and her cronies, the mundane way would have to do. Also, the Naerikk was jumping into the fray, and Oberan thought it wise to stay off of her radar…for now, so he followed the plan.

Though he did take his time with it, and even stopped what he was doing for a while to nick one of the unconscious guards’ boots. If the whole armor was enchanted, the boots would be too, right? The guy was bigger and taller than Oberan was, so he could easily slide the metal footwear over his own.

Much to his dismay, however, the pirate crew was freed far sooner than he had been expecting, and before long the whole group was heading back to the portal they’d opened. The Mortalborn bit his tongue to prevent himself from swearing out loud, yet it turned out the group wasn’t out just yet. The portal was blocked, as proven by the guy who tried to use it, and crumpled down as if he’d ran straight into a wall.

Oberan grinned widely.

In the meantime, Graeslin had dug out her orb again, and this time, Bran was ready to go. Once again he approached, swiftly weaving between the gathered pirates. There was a girl on the other side of the portal, he’d seen, and she’d serve him well as the distraction he needed. He was real close now, and with his eyes on the prize, Oberan lunged, aiming a kick at the hand holding the orb, hoping to send it flying to the other side of the room, where the door was.

He didn’t know what was going on, but the portal didn’t work, and that orb seemed to be the source of the Pirate Captain’s magic ability. Or it amplified it. Either way, without it, she wouldn’t be able to run far.

The Mortalborn himself had immediately turned tail after the attack, heading for where he hoped the orb would end up, so he could snatch it out of the air and leg it in one go.

Whether he caught it or not, whether the orb was even successfully dislodged from Graeslin’s grip, Bran was well aware that the pirate wouldn’t be very pleased with that stunt. Just to be safe when or if she sent people after him, he turned for a moment, grinning mischievously. He clapped his hands together, and a rush of energy blasted forth. There was no time to witness the effects, so the thief just turned back around and kept running, running, running.

The layout of the tower was foreign to him, but he figured that if he headed for the part where there were no cells anymore, he’d find the rupturing array. Getting out was another matter, but he was sure he’d manage. He was the Mortalborn of Larceny after all.

► Show Spoiler

If image doesn’t show, here’s the link

54.All affected people’s appearance is changed to that of one single individual within the area of effect. Said individual is chosen at random. (3 trials)

I could not resist. I hope it’s okay. Malt, I’ll let you decide whose appearance everyone affected will assume.

[Maltruism]

!

Message from: Matruism

Okay, this is not meant as an official IC post, but I want to endorse the result of Oberan's Shenanigans. I swear we did not work this out ahead of time, but I think it is just the thing we need for some utter chaos. Every person present now has the appearance of one of the guards - pirates, recruits and real guards alike. Now to be fair, the guards currently overwhelmed by the Graeslin's Naerikk "gift" are still in its grip. But it will end shortly, the rest of you may not be sure if ALL the original guards are among them, and there are more about to burst through the door down the hall. So there is soon about to be a slug of "guards", all wondering who is legit and who is not. Voices do NOT change though. Well done, Oberan!

[Toan]

Toan's step beyond the portal led him into what obviously would've been a room of chaos, since they were naturally staging a sudden jailbreak on the Eztori guard. Being here now definitely would label him a trouble maker but in all honesty, trouble was the type of fun Toan liked to live for just about. Gangui liked to think he could do good in the world? Maybe. But it certainly wasn't as fun as doing something wild like this.

Already pirates were being released and guards were gathered en mass to contain the breach, the rather happy go stride Tio quick to jest over the situation as he opened one of the cell doors. Toan moved right behind Oberan as the man seemed to move about acrobatically, somehow almost gliding over a guard as he sauntered onward past him. The guard stumbled from the unexpected occasion and while Toan would've loved to stand around, laughing at the opportunity before him seemed too good to pass up right then. The guard was wide open and that armor wasn't going to make anything easier... Unless...

The thief reached forward as he lunged himself into the man, the effect of his armor quick to stop him dead in his track as he ran into the man. Toan nearly stumbled back had his hand not caught it's mark, with a firm grip rested around the belt buckle of the guard that now looked down at him. Large fellow he appeared to be; but the bigger they were, then the harder they'd hit the ground. "Don't mind me!" He grunted as he tugged against the tongue of the belt, with the buckle now slipped out to loosen from around the guard's waist. The action itself proved surprising to the guard as he stepped away, confused by the untoward approach the thief took with him in comparison. Truthfully the man just picked the wrong day to cross him... and Oberan since he provided the opportune moment.

Toan quickly held the buckle's end of the belt and tugged hard once the guard retreated away with a threatening punch, a heavy hit placed firmly across Toan's left side cheek bone as he staggered further back. The belt had finally slipped freely away from the guard's waist now that Toan retreated, and with it the light metal plates on their mail enough to weigh them down; the guard's own breeches fell to his knees to reveal padded clothing underneath it. "Oh come ON!" He cursed himself silently as he truly believed that'd create an opening, yet it seemed he would have to use the belt for another purpose instead. The keys on the guard's waist were now on the floor between them, and with the belt in Toan's hands there only remained one thing to do.

Determined to get his vengeance on Toan the guard teetered with his breeches caught around his knees, while Toan at first moved towards him then around in an angle. The thief held the ends of the belt in each hand at this point, and avoided a poorly aimed slug from the slightly dis-armored guard. Toan then threw his own arms around to straddle the belt on the man's waist and with a tight grip, he heaved as hard as he could to pull the man past him towards the ground. Without any armor to protect him from kinetic forces the guard had little capacity to resist, and with his ass end finally in Toan's line of sight the thief went in for the final maneuver.

Toan thrust his boot forward hard to punt the man, and let the belt itself go as the guard teetered with flailing arms. "Nothing personal!" He muttered with a lean to pick up the keys with a small toss to catch them, while the guard he kicked in the ass finally fell face first into the cold stone floor. He then moved in the opposite direction of the two men, so that he might release other pirates further down the corridor they were within. He started with a couple of cells and proceeded onward, determined to put as many pirates as he could between him and the guard before too long.

"Well isn't this a surprise." A familiar voice croaked as Toan approached another cell, where he found a bearded older looking fellow with gapes found in his smile.

"Definitely for the both of us." Toan mused while he started to try the key to the cell, it was at that point Graeslin swore loudly for some stupid reason. Apparently the portal wasn't working now so they had that issue to contend with, a problem they'd have to deal with in a Bit after Toan unlocked the cell.

"The little rat's certainly outdone himself to-trial." The smuggler snickered as the cell door finally clicked unlock, alerting the pirates within that they too had a shot at freedom.

"Perhaps. But by now I'm sure you know what this means." Toan reminded him as he stepped aside to allow those within to walk out, Dallen merely stood before him with a hand rested on his shoulder.

"We'll talk more about that later-" Just as he said this something unusual interrupted him, a loud clap followed with a burst of energy enshrouded them. In a moment's notice when they felt the surge fill their beings, Toan scrunched his eyes and held arms out before him defensively. Once the phenomenon passed as quickly as it arose, he looked to find that Dallen wasn't Dallen anymore but a guard instead!

"The- what in hell?!" The guard before him looked baffled just as he did, and when he spoke the voice of Dallen somehow still remained.

"What's this?!" The guard before Toan croaked as he craned his head, just as surprised as Toan was of the sudden transformation. One quick look to the others said more than enough, as the room seemed to be completely filled with nothing but guards and no pirates. But... there were pirates still there. Weren't there? "It seems someone's played a clever trick." Dallen muttered to Toan as he took a stance next to him.

"Clever indeed. We might be able to get out with this disguise." Or not... Just as Toan implied that more guards entered the room, now completely confused by the situation before them. Who were the real guards in this ordeal? A few tried to continue the fray but the more clever ones adapted to the situation, claiming their enemies were the impostors as they feigned innocence. Somehow... the situation just took a much more interesting turn than Toan anticipated. "We still need a way out." He muttered as they remained outside the throngs of 'guards' about, hopeful that something would help this situation play out more in their favor.

[Finnegan O'Connor]

Not So Good In Practice

The Hall of Rule and Reprimand, Etzos, Zi'da 40, arc 717

Any hopes of the threats to his life being lessened after Graeslin disappeared were quickly dashed. The nameless Pirate tasked with keeping him hostage seemed adamant about doing a good job and impressing the boss, even if she wasn’t around to see. In a way, he sympathized. How humiliating would it be for any pirate worth their salt to let an unarmed child slip? He could think of several ways to bring about such humiliation, even in the precarious situation he found himself in. Sadly, all those plans ended with himself among the pile of the deceased and so he refrained from doing anything foolish.

While the others in the unfortunate assembly chatted idly, Finn remained seated, urged to refrain from more snide comments by the threat of steel and the uncomfortable arch his neck had been forced into. Not that it mattered much. The talent for the kind of crippling insults these people deserved had only been passed to the first O’Connor and as was so often the case; he wasn’t the first.

A good while (though it seemed an eternity) was spent in relative discomfort before they were all shaken from their thoughts (or drinking) by a loud bang. Now the blade was lowered, and it was a good thing too as the force of the blast toppled him over, chair included. Finn’s relief wasn’t too last for the very next sound was that of Brigg’s booming voice before the nameless Pirate pulled him up unto his pins by his shirt and pressed a familiar cold, sharp finger against his adam’s apple. The Pirate even turned out to have a voice. “Move,” it said.

The rupture resembled a tear in a painting, revealing the wall it hung from, except the wall was a different place altogether, one he shouldn’t have recognized yet did. He’d been inside the hall of rule and reprimand a few times too often and had little desire to return to the endless corridors and holding cells. Regardless, he wasn’t given much time to deliberate on his willingness to step through that gaping hole, though he was decidedly not quite as enthusiastic as the frolicking Tio appeared to be who, he thought, was either a fool or a heavy drinker. Possibly both.

When he emerged on the other side he couldn’t quite hide his disappointment to see Tio still in one piece before being immediately reminded of more pressing concerns. He ignored the jeers coming from the motley crew and used the little movement space he was granted to fish the Shadow Key out of his innermost pocket. He had not used the key often yet, but often enough to know that its wispy form adapted to the shape of whichever lock it entered. He was yet unaware that the key had no effect on magical locks, and would not find out today, for whatever magic had once rested upon the locks had been lifted alongside the wards. At once he was directed to the first door to unlock, and then to another, this time to lock it, and so he kept being pushed around from lock to lock, only stopping occasionally to wait for a lull in combat before proceeding.

A choir of cries alerted them to a sudden shift in combat and Finn impusively turned, entirely forgetting the threat he was under. Fortunately, the nameless pirate responded similarly and they turned in tandem, just in time to witness the horrific effect Graeslin had unleashed upon her enemies. The guard stumbled around, clearly disoriented, but much to his pleasure, Graeslin herself suffered similar effects. It was in this brief moment of inattention that Finn pushed the pirate’s arm aside like a lever, ducked, and then bolted into the thick of combat, searching desperately for the face of-

There she was. Right in the thick of it. Of course she was. She was a complete and utter maniac after all. He clenched his fists at his side.

Graeslin.

Just as sudden as the opportunity had presented itself, it disappeared again. A thick wall of loyalists surrounded Graeslin and he knew he lacked the magical prowess to bathe them all in flame. “You!” A familiar voice sounded. The nameless pirate gave chase. Again he ducked, throwing himself into the sea of swinging arms and legs in an attempt to shake his pursuer, but when he emerged lightly battered on the other side his mender followed just as closely behind. Panting, he skidded to a halt. One advantage of having been escorted in and out of the Hall of Rule and Reprimand on several occasions was that he had familiarized himself with the layout of the building. He knew that the corridor he was running down would lead to a dead end, and so he was left with only one option.

The nameless pirate smirked like a predator knowing it had cornered its prey, but his mirth ended with a loud bang. The locks of the cells rattled as a thick wave of compressed air shot forward, halting the pirate in his march, spraying him with dust blasted from the floor and ceiling. Yet before the dust settled, another noise rented the air, this time from the opposite end of the corridor. The low thudding accompanied by shouts and commands betrayed the presence of an invading force of guards. Now it was he who was distracted, and the nameless pirate seized upon the chance to reclaim the slippery brat. Whatever cruelties the pirate was fantasizing about were rudely disturbed by Graeslin's primal roar of anger.

Yet her dismay scarcely matched the horror portrayed on Finn's features as he was led back to the portal under violent threats and recognized within the center of the Emean pathway. “MOLLY!” he cried out, attempting to wriggle himself loose from the pirate's vice-like grip. A hand covered his mouth, but the pirate forgot that little animals still barred teeth. A cry of pain rented the air as Finn bit down hard on the Pirate's dark hand.

“GO! RUN!” he cried at the ghostly figure of Molly. She had no part in any of this! She had to leave! She had to-

He stood two feet taller from the ground and touted long arms, a light beard, and a scabbard dangling from a belt he’d never seen or touched before. The pirate that held him, his hand bleeding from the bite, now bore the appearance of a Black Guard as they stared at each other in utter confusion. Not even the loud crash that announced the batallion of real Black Guard storming through the splintered door could shake them from their astonishment.