Decadents and Dropouts IC

"Actually, I was thinking, Phyliss..."

"Perhaps, if I added a little from my own fortune to your collective earnings, and sold both our vessels, we could afford it. However... I was more inclined to sail there on my own ship. Many years I've spent in this one, travelling around the Realms... perhaps... selling yours, I would be more than happy to offer you and your colleagues a ride to Waterdeep."

Phyliss Ovida

"The offer sounds tempting. But You see I would not sail without my friends. We would have to convince them of this idea."

Trunfor Blackheart

Trunfor walked about to his section of the ship and began reading his spellbook. The mindflayer was one of the most annoying people he had met. He mocked Trunfor and, on bluntly, saying that Trunfor should kill himself since his evil heritage. And did the mindflayer apologize for spying on him and Phyliss, as well as trying to break into Trunfor's mind? No. The mindflayer had a large ego. And Phyliss sided with the mindflayer on every point.
Trunfor had admitted he was wrong for avoiding the merchant, stating that he was nervous and feeling overprotective, but the mindflayer didn't even acknowledge it, but instead continued to rant.
He felt depressed. His kind were never meant to find joy or happiness, or even true acceptance. They were meant to be used.

Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss looked around if she could see Relic around and ask her for some support, but the drow wasn't to be seen. This was worse then the conflict between Gryph and Tronfur. Nobody should say that monsters were easy... They had just started, she met an old friend who helped her so much, and everybody was pissed at each other. Great. She put her head in her hand, her snakes crawling around.
"Oh, I don't know what to do anymore. I feel like a great captain now. Why can't we just get along each other?"

Gryph

He tapped on the railing with his fingers, listening to the conversation as it went along, this mindflayer was smooth, but a bit too oily to his tastes. He smiled to himself, the mindreader could read all he wanted, Gryph had nothing to hide and only kept his backpack under lock and key to keep Relic out of his own stash. For a moment he wondered if Haerdon's partner would not try to pursue them, but then again barbarians seldom did. He could see that Trunfor was unhappy, but he could do nothing unless there was a direct threat, so the fiend had to fend for himself for the time being.

Phyliss Ovida

"Ah, I don't stand it anymore!" The gorgon shot up from her seat, crashing her slender face on the bathtub, serving as table. "Can't everybody get along?!"
Phyliss blushed after her emotional outburst, and felt a little silly as she stood on deck. She could see the old, nearly always calmsailor, who froze with his pipe in his mouth. Z wasn't to seen, and Colin who just had shown up, quickly dissappeared. She looked around, not sure what to add.

Gryph

He calmly spoke from his little corner,

"No Phyliss we can't, not with one of his powers and tastes. You know how I feel about slavery and what those people on his ship is going through is the worst type of slavery I have ever seen. I can not go along with it, but as long as he is your guest and not a threat..."

He shrugged, leaving it at that as he was now very uncertain about Relic who seemed to be working along with the mindflayer, but for reasons not known to him...yet.

Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss stood still for some moments, not knowing what to say. Finally she spoke, with a desperate tone in her voice.
"But he didn't even try to enslave me, or harm me, what would have been so easy as no one would have cared or backed me up then... When I had to run because everybody was determined to hunt me down for something I did not do, he helped me out... I wouldn't exists anymore today..." she looked like she wanted to plead, but she just pulled herself together. "Doesn't that mean anything to you all?" she said more weakly.

Gryph

"Few ever helped me, even less ever backed me up Phyliss. Who says that back then you were not a quarry for him but a means of entertainment. Much like our friend Relic here seems to be. There is more between them than just two strangers meeting, nobody just tries to persuade somebody to work along with another that are not trusted. Especially when hiding behind a veil of magic when among creatures that are not so different from him after all."

He grinned that toothy grin of his,

"One does not give trust Phyliss, it is earned, much like I have earned yours and you have earned mine. Your friend will just have to prove that he is not evil, but benign and not just another product of his race."

Phyliss Ovida

"But I wasn't his toy or something like that." Phyliss wasn't really sure if anything happened while she was stone drunk and did not recall later, but just for now, she could not renember sleeping with Kasmir.
"Most people will say that all gorgons are evil and vicious. And you know what people think of half-dragons. And they will think of fiends even worse, you should know, Tronfur. And for this I just want to bring all of us monster together, proving that we are not." She looked around; the crew wasn_t to be seen except for the old sailor, who had put himself down on the elevated aft, leaning against the reeling and not taking care for the conflict; and Relic was gone as well - she had hoped that the drow would ease the argument. Phyliss snakes were nearly vibrating, and she had to fight hard not to break into tears, and she hoped that she could control her voice enough not to show the state she was in.

Gryph

"And dragons are beasts that just kill and destroy everything in their path. You see Phyliss I am not judging your friend on what he is, I am judging him on what he does. Those may be humans, but they have not done me any harm and to see them in pain and forced into labor that is something that I just do not like. So entertain your guest as you please my dear, I will not share a table with him."

Relic

The argument had been a well heated one, even if it had remained one of the more polite ones she had witnessed. Trunfor was doing well to avoid Ma'ants baiting, and her old friend was doing well to walk that very fine line with his comments. Inside, Relic enjoyed watching the battle of wits back and forth, but for some reason it was Phyliss in distress that caused her to finally sigh heavily and move from the shady spot she had found into the open. Relic was good at finding places to hide herself, and seemed to be getting good enough at it that even those around her may not have noticed. But they probably had, just didn't mind, nor find it that strange.

"Perhaps I could suggest something?" she interupted, opening her bag and taking the heavy box that she had brought with her out.

Placing it roughly down in front of Phyliss on the upturned bath, she promptly pushed the gorgon into her sitting position again, with surprising care and gentleness. Taking a key from around her neck she placed it into the other womans hands after quickly unlocking the box.

Inside it was filled with gems, gold coins and at least two full coin purses of platinum. Then there were other shiny stones and expensive yet small objects scattered throughout.

"It's for our journey. As much as my horse and I could carry. I believe there may be a better way of working together. We should keep the Merchant vessel, Captained by Kasmir, it has the ability to carry more cargo, and can be used to scout regions ahead if need be. And will allow for us to expand if anymore 'monsters' like us wish to join.

With this money, we could upgrade to a sturdy ocean ship when we reach the coastal port. Phyliss, you would command this one. From what I rememeber, its the starting point for many a beginning merchant, you should get a good price from someone trying to start their own river trade. If not, someone is sure to buy it, even at a discount. It's probably best to change to something with defences as well, to protect us on the journey, for I hear that the waters you may be travelling are rife with piracy. Not just humans either."

Standing with her hands on her hips, she looked from Kasmir to Phyliss and then over to Gryph. She knew that Trunfor would be down below somewhere, but he needed time to think before drawing him out again.

"Concerning the slaves, you should probably explain who they are, and why you chose them...or more specifically, why in the past I helped choose them for you. Not these newer ones...but I know I always found the foulest humans to make mindvoids, not the nicest diet by far, but less 'evil' than some innocent.

But also mention what you have to do, if you were to 'dismiss' them or no longer use them."

Shaking her head, Relic pulled her hood up again to cover her smirk.

"If I'm putting my secrets out onto the table, then I suppose I should mention that as a teenager, this man taught me a lot. He gave me everything I needed, and more. We shared many adventures, and enjoyed what life was. And then moved apart. We are friends, lovers, possibly even compeditors. But I've sided with this crew, and my promises, or pacts are all I have to stand by, morality wise these days. So I'm aiming to fit in from now on."

"I'm not sure why I'm suddenly the word of reason between you lot, I should be relishing in the fact you're all fighting. So much better for my entertainment, you know? But I'm serious about finding a new home. And I'll slap all of you if it means getting this done.

Kasmir, you are indeed dangerous. That is quite obvious. Now everyone on this cog knows it.

But we all are, aren't we?

What is to stop any of us killing each other off? I know I've watched most of you sleeping and wondered if slitting your throats would be more benificial. But you know what?! It isn't. Not when we could possibly all have a sanctuary to call our own someday."

Turning her back to everyone, she walked over to the mast and started climbing. Finding a spot to sit and relax, away from all the voices. Especially that one deep inside her. Perhaps if she could find her sanctuary the voice would give up, and leave her alone.

Gryph

He chuckled, a chuckle that sounded like the far-off rumbling of thunder,

"See? Honesty, that is all we need. Now if a drow of all creatures can tell the truth I am sure that you can do it as well sir? Go ahead, enlighten me as to how you work and why. But if you will excuse me I will still not share a table with you."

Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss was taken by surprise at this sudden offer, and she wasn't able to thank Relic right know. She admitted to herself that she was always very keen on gold, silver and diamonds, but she wasn't sure if this could solve the conflict, but maybe it was time to let the other settle it out, so she kept sitting and was silent. The strong emotions and tension somehow broke its way and she could not hold back her tears, but she managed herself just enough not to weep. So she just put her head in her hands and let the tears run, hoping that nobody would notice this sudden admission of weakness.

Gryph

He moved from the railing where he stood, staying alert for any kind of hostility, reaching into one of his pockets and withdrew a silken square, at first it may have been mistaken for the panties of Phyliss' which he had never returned, but it turned out to be just that, a piece of silk. He handed it to Phyliss without a word,

"I am sorry if my doubt and protectiveness is upsetting you, but I would rather be as safe as possible than buried at the bottom of the river."

He moved away and looked at Ma'at with curious eyes, the dragon features of his heritage coming to the fore as he seemed much more eager to learn.

Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss did take the piece of silk that Gryph gave her and tried her tears, although they still came running. Sh wanted to tell Gryph that she knew he only wanted to protect her and that she cared for that, but she didn't want to speak , fearing her voice would sound ridiculus now.

Relic

Looking down from her perch in the crowsnest, Relic looked between Phyliss, Gryph and Ma'ant down on the deck and Colin who she had found had been sitting in the crowsnest before she arrived. He didn't seem to know what to expect from her, and just looked out over the waters, occasionally glancing at her. For now she would let him wonder...she was just glad to get away from everything.

No wonder she had lived alone all these years, it was...simpler. Even if it was hellishly lonely.

But even in the mast she could still hear the occasional sob that Phyliss couldn't hide, and soon found herself peering down in wonder. Was it because she felt that Phyliss could possibly be like the mother she never knew? Or was it something more simple? Either way, that woman was getting on her nerves. But it wasn't because of how the gorgon was, it was because of how Relic seemed to care. Relic never cared when people cried. She didn't care if a child hurt its knee...unless it was lethal...it was all part of surviving.

Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss quickly looked over to the sailors on the large vessel. They acted strange, but unharmed. How could anyone believe that the mindflayer, whom she had not seen yet without illusion, had eaten their brains? No one could ever survive without brain. This people would just be dead with a giant hole in their head. Maybe he had hypnotized them with some magic spell, but that didn't seemed so evil to her, and it could be released easily. She wondered if she should tell Gryph that she had started her career as a kind of slave as well.

Ma'ant'Zek'Ur

Kasmir stood quiet, sidestepping away as the broad Half-Dragon approached. To his defense, Gryph seemed to be much more interested into hearing his reasons that Tronfur had did. Phyliss' outburst was so sudden and unforseen that, somehow, Ma'ant found himself finally outpaced - he had not seen that coming. By Ilsensine.

Relic's intervention, however, eased him much. Her words simply paved his way of dealing with all of them, and he would seize the oportunity to explain his reasons. After all, there was always more to any and everyone of them than meet the eye. The drow's words were full of truth - for he had been made a fool of himself, outsmarted into his arrongant pride as he showed his own philosophical conclusions to those that had not wished to hear. To preach in the desert, a Bedine once told him;

"Hear me well."

"Relic is... accurate. We are more than mates. Many, many years ago, I took one weak, thin and starving girl out of the streets and into my demesne, taking care of her and teaching her my habits and ways of dealing with the Overworld's populaces. We grew fond of each other, while we lived across the Middle-Kingdoms. Even them, I was already a merchant and trader. That part of my disguise is never a fallacy."

He took the hood of his own garments over his head, as if about to conceal a terrible secret.

"However, for an Illithid such as me to survive into the surface of the world, it is much harder than into the bowels of the land. As Tronfur had outlined earlier, and I mentioned it myself, my diet is one... of a very special kind."

Kasmir took both hands towards his face, covering his dashing, human features with the both of them. However, when he lowered both his gloved hands, Kasmir was no more. No more there was a human merchant from the lands of Amn or beyond standing before all over the ship, but a creature of both nightmare and dreams, a so-called aberration amongst the knowledgeable peoples.

He was suddenly taller, his exquisitive clothes suddenly making much more sense and blending against his even more exotic features - as from the lower half of the hood now snaked down wriggling, moisted and ruddy tentacles - four of them, as thick as a woman's wrist at the base of their alien muscles, connecting at the lower part of his purplish head, his lidless eyes hidden over the fabric of the hood.

His voice suddenly changed, from the pleasant pitch of Kasmir to the low, deep, gurglish tone of Ma'ant - as if a man drowned on the deepest of wells, taken by the nightmarish creatures from the furthest of the Far Realms.

"I am Ma'ant'Zek'Ur."

"And my diet, as I was saying, is made from the sweet, salty tissue of the brain's grey matter. Any humanoids would do it, but the most delicious ones are usually the ones that excell into their mental properties. Wizards. Archivists. Ones that study the ways of the Art are usually the most delicious of them..."

He glanced over towards Tronfur, lifting his hand as he explained his reasoning to both Gryph and Phyliss.

"However, as you must know, it is not easy to obtain such delicacies without killing it's vessel... or so many would think. The Voidmind Thralls - no slaves my any of means - are the latest apex of our art.", he pointed over to his vessel, where now a number of 8 sailors stood looking towards the cog on the railing, watching with blank looks into their eyes. "Many studied the arts of Ilsensine and the researches of Maanzecorian to bring these creatures to be. Who do you think they were, master Gryph?"

"Outcasts. Murderers. Rapists. Thieves. Killers. Homeless. People that your societies both shunned and censured, people unwanted and unclaimed until I... and my mate...", he lifted his gaze to the crow's nest, "...claimed as our own as your Kingdoms and Rulers would not. I've feasted on their brains, carefully lobotomizing their skulls - but never devouring it all. Never sucking further into them, casting my bindings spells over the tissue's left and taking upon them with my psionic abilities - making up for the perfect thrall."

"Thralls, Gryph. No slaves. Slaves put up revolts. Slaves flee. Slaves fell their masters. Thralls are the most compliant and docile of them all, the perfect pack mules one could call upon, made from the very ignored dredges of your kind. Do not feel sorry for them. Show no pity, for their souls and conciousness are long gone."

"Outcasts. Murderers. Rapists. Thieves. Killers. Homeless. People that my societies both shunned and censured, people unwanted and unclaimed?"

Gryph echoed these words, but in a more questioning way,

"My people, those who half-raised me would have done one thing to Murderers, Rapists, Thieves and Killers. Killed them. They would have harbored the Homeless and the outcasts..."

He chuckled again,

"I am such an outcast and I am alive. My people, the society I know is Dragons and that is what they would do as it is what they have done for centuries. Now who are you to play judge over the homeless and the outcasts? For many it is not their fault to be such. Do you think you gave them a better live? I sincerely doubt it, not if I look at the pain that crosses their faces. That you did that to murderers and rapists I can understand, but then again..."

Gryph straightened himself to his full length,

"I am without a home, I have killed and I am an outcast."

He motioned towards Relic,

"She is a thief and a murderer, so you are just selective of your prey and that dear mindflayer is what most would call hypocritical and just for those reasons I am not willing to trust you as you might decide to make the cur of a half-dragon one of your...thralls"

He shook his head,

"Creatures forced to do your will is a slave, no matter how you dress him, her or it up and now that we know what you look like are you not more comfortable? Did we flee? Did we throw rocks at you?"

He looked around,

"It more looks like you are explaining who and what you are to an ignorant half-breed, maybe that is something better than being chased with torches no?"

Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss finally stopped crying and looked at Ma'ants face. She was surprised, but not really shocked. She was a gorgon and had a half-dragon and a half-fiend as lovers, and this creature wasn't ugly in her eye, just very, very exotic, like a rare insect or fish.
"I was an outcast and searched wrongfully for two murders when I came to him and asked for help. He didn't turn me into one of these - " she nodded to the sailors. "And I started my career as a kind of slave myself, but I learned how to get out of it. And I saw criminals that had been lucky if they were just hanged or send into the mines below the sea as slaves. And all the good people in the city were standing laughing with their dear children in the seas as this poor tortured captives cried out in pain. I think of them worse then of him."

Gryph

"Then if you want to stand with a slaver I shall withdraw myself from the company. I will never abate slavery in what ever form and why do you think I hate slavers? Who had to break free from slaver chains by force, kill them with fang..."

he raised his hand extending his claws,

"And claw? I have my reasons for hating humans, yet I do not. I have my reasons for hating monsters, which I am part of, yet I do not. I mistrust and I protect who I can, that is what I do. But I will not share space with a slaver and see my friends turned against me for my believes. Mindflayer, understand this, I do not distrust you for what you are, but for what you do."

He looked up at Relic,

"You...are full of surprises."

He moved away to the front and sat down, his back against the railing, his head tilted backwards and eyes closed. From his posture it was clear that he wanted no further part of any discussion.

Phyliss Ovida

"No, no... don't leave us." said Phyliss shocked. The gorgon was amazingly fast on her feet and sat down a moment later beside Gryph, putting both arms around his neck and leaning her head against his shoulder.

Gryph

He murmured softly,

"You are nimble and fast, yet I do not trust your friend. Now if you will excuse me my dear I do not want to upset you and your guest further, I'll just take a nap."

Ma'ant'Zek'Ur

In one final outburst, Ma'ant - and not Kasmir - lifted his tone and raised from his somewhat hunched position to his full, tall form - as a spider that raises itself in order to look larger and fend off agressors - his own tone agressive as if deeply offended by Gryph's replies and by the dragon-blood given his back towards the illithid.

"Confortable? After being probed by both personal and intimate question by all of you, disregarding any and all levels of shame I should feel by your meddling, you turn your back on me before hearing anymore? You are not worthy of witnessing the features of your betters!"

"You speak of the pain you see in their faces? You speak of the lack of humanity in my acts? You can't start to comprehend their lifes under my command. Most of my kind would have never stopped to offer you explainations, but bend all of your into their own wicked wills!", his outraged tone almost disregarding poor Phyliss, "Visit their minds! Visit their dreams!"

***

<It was quick. In one movement, Ma'ant'Zek'Ur had stopped skimming over the minds of all of them in order to make a break into Gryph's mind. The half-blood was strong both of will and body, but to one untrained mind, Ma'ant had no actual trouble invading his thoughts.>
<Gryph could feel the illithid's presence into his head, as if a powerful migraine suddenly reached him as the creatures read upon his offensive thoughts as if taking a book upon his lap. Suddenly, Gryph's consciousness was taken by a plethora of images. Some of the faces where those he had seen earlier from Ma'ant's crew - others unknown to him. The sailor that had waved a hand towards Gryph was now sitting amongst a number of others. His friends and family, all feasting into one large, rich banquet; while one of the others played with a couple of children into a golden field of wheat; another exchanged intimate caresses with a woman, long forgotten but always there, as two sincered soulmates.>

***

And Ma'ant withdrew. He would not allow Gryph to be overtaken by his opinions as Tronfur had done. The half-blood's migraine would dissapear as soon as the illithid left his mind.

"Watch. Learn."