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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
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Fuck. [ Dion groans, curling up a little bit protectively. He's both exhausted and dealing with shooting pain. Give him a moment, he'll get up. Another curse, this one more muttered under his breath than anything.
Good news, he doesn't feel any worse than he usually does when he overdoes it, but damn it does not feel good. ]
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She can't help but give a breathless huff of laughter at the sound of it.]
That goose... really got... on your bad side...
[In between breaths and coughs, the air finally returning to her lungs after that landing.
This would mark the second time he has sworn because of a goose.]
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[ Dion wheezes lightly, gives a final cough and wipes his lips, drawing himself up in an upright position. ]
I don't think we get points for style on that one.
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[Benedikta groans, but there's something of a laugh laced in there somewhere as she proceeds to pick up her sword that she'd dropped, and she shakes the blood from it.]
I'd say that was my bloodiest kill yet. May not be the cleanest, but it got what it deserved. [Another little "ugh" as she wipes her cheeks off with the back of her hand.] That must count for something.
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[ He's alright, just tired. His arm is aching, but that's pretty typical too. Dion gets up, not entirely able to hide the fact his arm is close to his torso, a reflexive protective position. ]
I suppose we must haul the remains back to be rewarded.
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She's just going to gesture around them.]
What remains, your Highness? We all but destroyed that head. Your light magick... whatever that spell was... did quite a number on it.
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Well...perhaps they'll take us at our word. Being a Paladin might be worth that much.
[ He can throw his weight around such as it is. ]
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I'm sure some will be along shortly for cleanup duty. In the meantime...
[She gives a little shake of her hair.]
Why not use your phone. Take one of those fancy... photos as proof.
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I was not... [ An unfortunate pause. ] Aware one could take photos with it.
[ So how does one do it then? He kind of pokes at it, frowning. ]
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[Not those kind of unsolicited photos.
She steps closer to Dion to look at his phone, the screen somehow miraculously clean despite the mess they are in. Her hand goes to the satchel hooked around her thigh and she pats it, feeling her own there, but... two phones would just make this more confusing.
So, she points at the screen to an icon which is, indeed, the one for the camera—]
Try that one.
[But what she failed to mention or remember is that it defaults to the front-facing camera instead.]
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Alright... [ Camera button great. One the screen is the pair of them. ]
We appear to have found a mirror, I think.
[ ...no Dion.... ]
a mirror... lmsgjdfh i'm crying
No, no. This is like when you hit the "video" button in a call... Try this.
[She presses the large center button and it snaps a photo of them with an audible click.]
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I'm sorry, but, video call?
[ Dion has only sent text letters, to the chagrin of almost everyone who receives them. ]
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But okay, she knew she was technologically declined but for Dion not to even know what a "video call" was? It does make her feel a little better about her own frustrations with the device—said frustrations being that she wants to fling it into the ocean ninety-nine percent of the time.]
Yes.
[Is this the best time to have this conversation while covered in goose blood? Why, yes.]
If you press this... [Click. It snaps another unflattering photo of Dion's nostrils.] Wait, no. This one.
[She takes them to the home screen and smashes a finger against the call button.]
... You may "phone" someone with your voice. Or a video. They can see and hear you.
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[ Joshua is almost the only person he contacts on this device, and they send letters. Long, borderline romantic letters. ]
Is it better than sending a letter?
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Benedikta lifts a brow at him. That was oddly specific. They must be close friends. She could see it.]
I suppose, if you'd like them to see you. Though, it's faster, and easier than "texting". You don't have to deal with that fucking "keyboard" on the screen if you do.
[All these dumb words.
Still eyeing you though, Dion.]
I'm sure the Phoenix would be curious should you wish to test it with him.
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[ The keyboard took getting used to, but he's at least an expert in that! ]
I will have to mention it to him. It could be quite an interesting experiment, although he never complains about my letters. [ Unlike Cid. ]
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Yes, well. I hope that experiment goes well for you both.
[Better than all the times she's accidentally turned it on when she didn't mean to.]
Anyway. Let us get this photo and be on our way. Go back to the camera.
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Yes, here is hoping. I'm sure it will be quite novel, and much quicker than writing one another when we are apart.
[ Yes, right, the camera. And this time he has success in finding the button.
Maybe the shellphone isn't that hard to learn ]
think we can wrap this one up! 💚
At least Dion seems to pick it up rather quickly, and she preens a little with pride that she had been the one to teach someone else something about the phones, even when she wishes she could just fling hers into the ocean and never see it again...]
Now. Time to go get cleaned up and return that to MANTA.
[She groans.]
Before this blood stains our clothes.