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open 🪶 the world owes me a debt, and i've come to collect.
Status: Open.
Where: All around.
What: Oops, all MANTA stuff. And a not-date with Cid.
Warnings: FFXVI spoilers, foul language, suggestive content. The usual.
🗡️ i. bite-sized blessings
Fool her once, shame on her. Fool her twice—]
You little brat!
[—it's managed to grab at her hair, and it pulls, before swooping away from her grappling hands with a chirp, as if it thinks this is some sort of game!?
Someone please help this woman. Or this dragon. She has yet to hear all about how this thing is meant to be returned to Elah, so if you are looking for said pink dragon, here it is.]
🗡️ ii. a steamy winter heist
[It was the exorbitant prices that drew Benedikta to the job first. The black market was always open, and she was always willing. Call it doing someone else's dirty work, if it put a good sack of coin into her pocket, then who is she to complain? Besides, it's not as if stealing something off a ship in the dead of night was difficult—she's done it dozens of times before.
The fact that it was a special sort of tea was only a bonus, so of course she would pocket some for herself... Maybe a handful. Or maybe a whole crate if she could get away with it.
Now, that is the question, isn't it?]
She has her pipe between her teeth as she almost always does before a job like this, letting the smoke swirl on her tongue before letting it billow outward.]
So, that there is the ship? [She scoffs.] She is certainly impressive.
[As large as a rich, black-market-selling merchant's ship should be. Which is why she's agreed to a "two-person" job.]
༄ b. caught red-handed. [Or, maybe she wasn't feeling so charitable.
As if being caught matters all that much to her. She's in the middle of making off with a whole crate—and the last one, too; people have been busy—of these tea bags (there must be hundreds of them in here) when she hears footsteps coming. She hardly flinches, if at all, and stands there with it tucked haphazardly under her arm while she stares the other person down with a smile before she tosses her head back.
Yep. You saw right. A whole box.]
Sorry. As they say, the early bird and all. A shame you came all this way only to come out empty-handed, but try again another night.
[There may have been a threat underlining her voice somewhere.]
🗡️ iii. poke 'n prance
[Well, at the very least, being paired up with Benedikta for a challenge like this cannot get any better... or worse than this, depending on who you ask. Having a history of torturing others means that she knows exactly where to put the sword and how much pain it will inflict. After all, when fishing for information, it is best to poke and prod it out of someone, and you can't very well gain much from a dead person, now can you?
Which is why she walks up with her own sword in her hand with all the confidence and arrogance of a pretty peacock, her fingers caressing the sharp edge of her blade, from hilt all the way to its jagged tip.]
Now, pay close attention to where I stick you because we can only do this once. Perhaps twice, if you can withstand it.
[She smiles, so sweet and saccharine and sarcastic.]
So, consider this a valuable lesson.
🗡️ iv. coins of the crescent
[Well. What she thought would be a nice, peaceful ride out to this island to fetch some coins turned out to be... well, everything but. It had been fine for the most part, but as the island came into view through the fog, things had started to tip and tip and tip until everything went fucking tits up.
Not only did the crew start to howl and turn rabid, much like those stupid wolves she can hear in the distance, but so did the captain, and now the ship is wayward on the seas at the behest of the waves. Fortunately, she can use the winds to guide them true, but it will take a little more concentration than what she can afford as she drives her sword into the shoulder of one infected crew that lunges at her with what could only be thought of as a kitten's claws.
Don't worry, that won't kill him, but it will send him reeling to the ground wailing in pain, and she kicks him in the gut to quiet him.
Whoever might be standing near her, she will shout at them with no shortage of rage in her voice as she gives her sword a brandish, the blood spraying from her blade.]
Might anyone spare a moment to take care of them while I attempt to not crash this fucking ship!?
[Must she do everything!?]
🗡️ v. untitled goose bounty 2
[Well, this is certainly not what she was expecting to see when she arrived on Eltrut, or tried to. She'd heard sounds from above across the ship's deck first—the worried shouts of the crew and riftfarers alike. Benedikta had been enjoying the peaceful ride in her cabin aboard the Stormbringer, and had half a mind to ignore the noise and go right back to sleep...
...
Until she hears something else.
The loud, low, rumbling sound of a... honk?
Something visceral shatters through Benedikta's whole body then, forcing her to sit up when the flashbacks of those eight-headed geese attacked her not even a month ago. She rushes to her feet and then out the door, shoving people out of her way as she storms up to the deck where she beholds—]
You've got to be fucking kidding me.
[—an eight-headed(?) goose large enough that it could peck out Eltrut's eye.
Much, much larger than she recalls it being.
And she is pulled out of her reverie only by the sounds of magitech cannons being blasted off.]
I see it's come back for another taste.
🗡️ vi. wildcard
no subject
Does it make you feel better about yourself for yelling at a young girl?
[She hasn't forgotten about you, March!
Her hand goes to the pommel of her sword and that sure as hell makes the merchant back off a bit. Were this Nogard, she might have considered actually stabbing him for that but instead, she kicks one of his cabbages back at him.
She goes to grab for the dragon again, but she hisses and tries to nip at her finger, forcing her to draw back.]
What in the world is this thing doing out here anyway? I didn't know people kept dragons as pets.
no subject
Besides, with all the chaos it's a bit hard to concentrate on sticking it to the guy anyway.]
I don't know, but it's been bothering enough people that someone put a bounty for it on the MANTA Board. They want to put it in a sanctuary so it stops biting people.
We should get a net or something.
no subject
[Well. Suddenly there's a spark of interest in Benedikta's eyes, and she looks to the dragon now trying to burrow into March's hair. The merchant is still shouting and grumbling things at her, but she ignores it in favour of this new information.]
And what exactly are they looking to give in return for her?
[The dragon pokes her head out from underneath March's hair and stares at them both, like it can understand what they're saying.]
no subject
[Give her a moment. She doesn't remember anything about a reward off the top of her head, but maybe she wrote it in her phone? She scrolls through her notes and frowns.]
A job well done and an honest thank you?
[So: nothing.]
But look at her! She's bothering a lot of people, we should try and turn her in any--ow!
[The dragon bites March's ear again, as if expressing her displeasure at the idea.]
no subject
I have a better idea.
[The dragon trills and chirps when Benedikta reaches over to swat her mouth away from March's poor little ears.]
Why not set her out elsewhere? Perhaps the reason she is so bratty— [A pointed look at the dragon.] —is because she should not be kept near humans.
[Actually, she really just wants to screw with the Paladins, but that's neither here nor there.]
no subject
That's a great idea! She should be somewhere more wild and free. Maybe among her fellow dragons.
[Think think.]
Are there dragons on Nogard? I haven't really been there.
no subject
Clearly. Nogard is not any one island, but rather... whichever one the Leviathan decides to land on for the time being.
[Strange, considering the rest of them, but what does she know.]
That's why it should be someplace different. You know nothing of what islands dragons inhabit?
[Isn't she a Paladin???]
no subject
[That doesn't mean she's a good one! She spends most of her time here on Eltrut, and how bad can the Corsair island be?]
I didn't know the leviathan flew from island to island. I thought it swam like the other ones. Have you been on it while it's flying?
no subject
[She pauses, watching for a moment while the dragon crawls up on top of March's hair and starts trying to make a little nest out of it, plucking at it in an attempt to create someplace for her to rest. Benedikta does nothing to stop her this time.]
I have heard that the Leviathan grows its flesh back when it is time to move elsewhere. Only when it lands does it turn to bones again.
[At the mention of a dragon, the little one tilts her head, as if she can understand what they're saying.]
A shame this one doesn't know how to do that.
no subject
She really should look for a crew instead of being part of the generic lot of grunts that get bossed around, to be honest.]
Maybe she'll learn when she gets older? It could be a maturity thing.
[Yes, that's her takeaway.]
Although I guess she'd have to get a LOT older to be as big as the leviathan.
no subject
[Do not even speak that thought into existence, March!]
At any rate, we need to figure out what to do with her since it's clear she won't leave us alone.
no subject
Most of the time...]Well... the paladins want to take her to a sanctuary somewhere, but you seem to think she'd be happier in the wild on Nogard. I guess as long as she's happy and not hurting people, we don't have to turn her in.
[What if the sanctuary is animal jail?]
no subject
[Benedikta's eyes glance at the dragon who—]
She seems to have taken quite a liking to your hair. Perhaps we can leave her there.
no subject
[That means SHE would get into trouble too! Plus, she likes Benedikta and isn't a snitch.]
As long as she doesn't pull on it too much, that would be okay. You promise to behave up there?
[The dragon peeps, as if she understands the question.]
I'm going to choose to believe that's a "yes."
no subject
[There's the lightest quirk of her lip as she steps back as if to admire this work that they have done. Good job, team!
But more seriously—]
It won't be Nogard that we will take her to. I know of a few islands not far from where we are that should be suitable for a dragon. At least, until she's fully grown.
no subject
[Or she might hurt them. Bad times all around.]
What are we waiting for? We should get going.
no subject
[She quirks a grin, and even the dragon perks up, her head popping out from where she blends into March's hair to trill and chirp, her tail waving around excitedly
and tickling the back of March's neck.]no subject
Wait, sailing? You mean you have a boat?
[She thought this was going to involve smuggling the dragon onto a larger ship. It would probably have involved a big hat or something like that.]
no subject
I do. [She beckons for March to follow her.] One large enough to carry several dragons five times her size.
no subject
You hear that, miss dragon? We're going on a boat ride!
[The dragon trills with joy, almost as if she can understand what March is saying and not just responding to the excited tone.]
Did you get the boat recently? I didn't even know that was something we could do.
no subject
[Least of all that.
Down to the docks they go with Benedikta leading the way, and she'll motion to the large, impressive yacht that's anchored at the end of the pier, its sail folded in.]
You've not been on a private boat before?