All the Wrong Places [Charlie]

[Avamande]

Ash 1, 122 Age of Steel

When the day finally came, Avamande did not flinch from their decision. They had packed their effects the night before, a truly immense number of books and scrivening equipment that had been fit into a number of chests and trunks. Belatedly, they had also thought to include some clothing, cursing themselves for having not gone to Charlie for apparel that would have fit a seaborne climate.

Then again, if they had, he would have almost certainly attempted to tag along and then that would lead to who knows how much trouble. Besides, time away from the Mesmer might prove good for their psyche, even if they had become comrades in arms in the past season. They had prepared for everything that they thought they would need, ultimately coming to everything that they would probably need after remembering their own physical needs, but now that the time had come the mage ran into a very frustrating problem.

No matter where they looked, the door would not appear.

Avamande scoured every inch of their apartment complex, their luggage floating behind them, to no avail. They expanded their senses through Slipspace, flitting between areas of the city, and even the clearing outside of Kalzasi where they had ran into the first door, finding nothing untoward. In exasperation, they threw themselves upon their bed, staring directly at the door in their ceiling.

In... their... ceiling.

Sighing, the mage slowly levitates up, opening the way into the Duck beyond, gravity changing its orientation as they step through. Their luggage continues after them faithfully, the Hytori feeling the slipspace around them to get used to the vessel. A familiar tugging sensation pulls at them, and they turn their head to begin the trek down a particular corridor. It felt... like home, which was ridiculous, their prior visit aboard the vessel having been incredibly brief, and yet...

[Charlie]

How had a magic door gotten stuck up a tree? That's the question that nagged at Charlie while he clambered from branch to branch on a large, blooming fruit tree nestled behind The Steady Hand. To make the climb easier for himself, Charlie had tied a rope around his luggage and left it sitting on the ground. This often meant Charlie got himself tangled up in the tree's burgeoning limbs the further up he climbed, but he managed to make significant progress after about a dozen false starts.

Charlie had tried to find Avamande, but they had been curiously absent from their home when he'd last swung by to report on his time aboard The Duck, and this wasn't really the sort of thing Charlie wanted to leave a note for. 'Magic door to giant ship-- Meet me at my house!' was something more likely to get Charlie sealed away in a sanitarium than entice Avamande to investigate.

It was a shame, too. Charlie thought they could really use some rest and relaxation. The Mesmer respected the Hytori's dedication to their craft, but Charlie just knew that an getaway like this was just the thing Avamande needed to really cut loose.

Finally up the tree, Charlie reached up perilously and opened the door before all but lunging inside into an unoccupied cabin. After hauling his luggage all the way up, Charlie took a moment to smooth out his clothes, fix his hair, and shake off any tree bark he'd managed to collect on his ascent. Then Charlie trotted over to the door and prepared to give himself a tour of the place.

Right when he poked his head out the door, Charlie's face lit with a surprise that melted to merry excitement and he threw his arms out to either side in greeting as he stepped out of the room.

"Avamande, I was looking all over for you!"

[Avamande]

"How fortuitous for you, Charles," Avamande said, their flat affect finally making itself useful as they refused to present an emotion in one direction or the other at the Mesmer unexpectedly joining them. It was something of a cosmic joke that was being played on them, they were convinced, and they were intent upon accepting the gods' whimsies with dignity and composure. Plus, they refused to let Charlie see them dismay.

They did, however, Blink themselves out of the path of the impending hug, appearing on the other side of their friend. "I believe our rooms are this way," they said flatly. They could feel their room calling to them, and considering the awesome powers of spatial mapping at play here logically assumed that Charlie's room would be adjacent to theirs. Because of course it would be. It was not as if fate would decide it had finished with them after only one unlikely reunion, no.

Avamande's room, for as soon as they arrived at the door they immediately opened it uncaring that Charlie was right next to them, was decorated in a fashion that could only be called efficient. Bookshelves lined every available stretch of wall, and a large work table was bolted to the deck so that it could be used no matter how powerful of a swell struck the ship. Without saying a single word to Charlie, they began to unpack, though admittedly the process was far swifter than it would be for most. Books flew out of their trunks, the tomes neatly depositing themselves in their shelves in a matter of moments.

"Shall we see yours, then?" Avamande asked Charlie, face as placid as ever. They highly doubted that he would be embarrassed by such a prospect, he might even think it a sign of friendship between the pair of them. Pointedly, they suggested it regardless.

[Charlie]

Charlie did note Avamande's swift rebuke of the attempt at embrace, and filed that away. For all Charlie's faults, he still preferred avoiding things that his friends found unwelcome. Such was why he didn't look into Avamande's symphony, and now why he would no longer try and hug them. "Good for you, too! When I first saw this place, I knew it was something you needed to check out. You've seen the uh, top-deck?" Charlie struggled for the proper nautical terminology, all those copper dreadfuls about pirates he read had never made it a priority to get the details of the ships right. "Anyway, it's huge, and it's gotta be magic, right? Right." Charlie spoke with the sort of cadence that made it clear he was well used to carrying a conversation all by himself.

Charlie followed Avamande to their room, and cocked his head to one side when he saw what the elf's room looked like. It wasn't unexpected, of course, but that didn't stop it from feeling tremendously bare. Bedrooms were far from just a place to rest your head, or at least Charlie believed. They were as much a window into the mind as viewing their symphony might be. That Avamande's was all business only strengthened Charlie's belief that they really needed to get out more.

Charlie watched the luggage sail through the air, as enamored by magic now as ever he had been as a child. "Mine?" Charlie asked, only then feeling the arcane pull towards the door next to Avamande's. "Oh, sure! I haven't really set it up, so it's probably pretty bare though..." Charlie explained as he twisted the handle and pushed open the door. When Charlie first got a look inside, his jaw went slack and all he could think to say was "By all the rites of men..."

The room was opulent. A great porthole window on the side to overlook the sea, and a lavish bed far too large for but one person. A chandelier hung overhead, lighting the room with heatless candles as it rocked with the waves. Armoires, dressers, and vanities took up space along the walls, as well as full length mirrors accented in gold and silver. The round table and chairs set off towards the rear of the room were of similar craftsmanship. Unlike Avamande's cabin, nothing was secured to the deck, and already the furniture had shifted slightly under the movement of the waves. After gawking, Charlie stepped in and began to unpack

"I think you got the short end of the stick, my friend." Charlie said, confirming Avamande's suspicion of supposed friendship.

[Avamande]

If Avamande was aware that Charlie considered them to be a friend, and took their preferences into account, they didn't show it. Mostly because despite everything that he did respect, he somehow failed to grasp their fervent desire to not be drawn into his harebrained schemes. A more objective observer might consider the fact that they went out of their way to be drawn into them, but the Hytori would simply counter that someone had to protect the man from himself.

Definitely not friends.

"The Duck appears to have agreed with your assessment by having invited me as well," Avamande said simply, perhaps being one of very few people who actually did keep a steady back and forth with the man. Just like two people who weren't friends would do. "And yes, Charles, you are quite right," they continued, that being one of the few instances in which someone said those words without having been manipulated by the Mesmer. "This ship is more than magic, she is alive. I do not know if she is a great artifact, or a spirit possessing the hull, but she is fascinating nonetheless."

Books flew out of their chests and onto the shelves as soon as Avamande opened the door, the raw power of Kinetics unpacking their effects in a matter of moments. "Yours?" they said, turning on their heel as soon as the task was done.

Charlie's room was... not at all a surprise, to be honest. This was exactly what he would have wanted, that much was obvious. "Our host has many mysteries," they said in a dry voice at his evident ranking of their abodes. There was a magic beyond any they knew at work here, one that was creating spaces as desired. "Remarkable."

[Charlie]

"We should investigate!" Charlie said then. "The- The ship! You're the smartest person I know, and you've spent a heap of time around magical artifacts, yeah?" Charlie didn't understand the difference between runeforging, scrivening, and alchemy. He knew they were different, but they all tended to jumble together. "The Captain told me that we're going to bring her home. Maybe if we do a bit of snooping, we can figure out where that is and why they needed us to get there." Charlie spoke quickly, excitement rising in his voice. "He also called me the captain, but I don't think they'd just let the captain leave like I did, right? Must've been one of those-" Charlie snapped his fingers a few times, the word on the tip of his tongue. The eureka moment came, and Charlie quickly concluded "-Metaphors!"

It was not a metaphor.

it took Charlie longer to unpack than Avamande, and the Mesmer's trunk had been filled near to bursting, despite clearly having been enchanted in some way to increase interior storage. Surprisingly, Charlie had come somewhat prepared for a survival scenario, a massive tent taking up a majority of the space in the trunk, with the tentpoles secured in a secondary compartment. He left the tent alone for the moment, and dug past it and the hammock to grab his clothes so he could tuck them away in the nearest dresser. He also had a few books as well, though they were back-issues of cheap serialized literature. Nothing on par with Avamande's books, but they did have far more interesting covers, Charlie thought. he tossed them on the bed, and then turned back to Avamande, hands on hips.

"So!" he began. "You wanna get a look around? We might be the most important two people on this ship, but there's plenty to see, I'm sure." Just by his tone it was clear he earnestly believed in how highly he rated the pair. Then Charlie stepped back into the hallway and closed the door. "Come on!" He gestured enthusiastically with his hand and begun meandering down the hallway. If the ship was full of wonders, it was just a matter of picking a direction and walking until they found one.

[Avamande]

Flattery was not particularly effective towards Avamande, for obvious reasons, but Charlie had a habit of speaking so earnestly that even their ego could be stroked. Besides, he spoke the truth. "Ale'Ephirum is filled with many wondrous things, this is very true," they admitted, doing their best to not show a smile. Damnable rogue, he was beginning to grow on the Hytori. "But I must confess, nothing to this extent. This appears to be the mightiest golem I have ever heard of, to say nothing of seen. Even a master of artificing would struggle to create such a wonder, to say nothing of the magicks that the vessel is capable of using."

It was true. The Duck seemed capable of feats that towed the line of archmagic as it altered its interior both in layout and furnishings without any significant strain. Power lost to the current age filled its every beam, and it used it as casually as a man could open a door. Charlie was right, the mystery of the ship demanded their full attention.

"When I spoke with Kynne, the Duck produced a bottle of wine for me. The Captain informed me that its like had not been created since the Empire's fall. While he did not say which Empire, there are only two real options for a relic such as this. It dates to either the Clockwork, or gods be good, the Boundless. I shall pray that it is the Boundless, or of some ancestry I have overlooked, for if it is indeed the work of the Clockwork Empire, then we should not attempt to rush our way to our final destination. Home for such a being is veiled by the Maelstrom itself."

"You are correct though, Charles. We had best take a look around and see what we can," they agreed, following after the rambunctious human.

They did not mention the 'metaphor'.

[Charlie]

"That's way better than what I got!" Charlie concluded about Avamande's own first time aboard the ship. He looked almost disappointed that being called the captain of the ship itself had been so easily outdone. It didn't last long, though. Charlie didn't have the time for grudges, even if there was a vast amount of unused space in his brain for them. "Clockwork Empire, really?" Such was often the setting of choice of those same low quality rags sitting on Charlie's bed. The historical accuracy of those texts was... dubious at best, but it did mean Charlie had the spirit. "But imagine if you cracked the secrets of that time, eh? You could replicate something like this!" He said, gesturing grandly to the ship. "But you're right, no rushing! We're just ah, collecting data!" Though he tried to sound intelligent by mimicking the scientific process, it fit him about as well as a badly tailored suit.

Down the hall they went, Charlie scanning each branch in the path for anything that looked promising. At first, the only thing that stood out was the impossible size. Halls never seemed to truly end, and instead just angled out of sight or forked off in ever more directions. Despite this, Charlie never felt like his room was particularly far away. Perhaps he was right, but that could wait for another time!

After turning down another hallway, Charlie stopped abruptly, and stared down at a hatch in the floor. Carved in delicate handwriting across the foreign wood were the words 'CARGO HOLD'. There was a lock on the latch, but when Charlie stooped down to test its strength, he found it was unlocked and in fact lacked any location where a key might be needed

Charlie held up the curio to Avamande. "I know they say locks only keep honest people honest, but something's up." Then he looked up at the hytori, still all smiles, and gestured to the hatch with his thumb. "Still, you in?"

[Avamande]

"You truly think so?" Avamande said dryly. Now, granted, that was more or less how they always spoke, but Charlie had known them long enough to be able to distinguish between 'a stone on a hot day' and 'the depths of the desert' in terms of severity of dryness even without magic. And this time it was definitely the latter. Once again they did not mention the metaphor, leaving such philosophical questions such as what a metaphor is, really, aside for the moment.

"Some secrets are best left forgotten, Charles," they continued, in the most hypocritical sentence ever uttered by anyone in the history of time, seeing as they were actively interested in uncovering what were objectively the worst secrets ever developed. Not even the emotion deadened mage could endure such a ludicrous statement, and almost immediately folded. "Or in this case, handled carefully. Collecting data is a very... apt description of what we should do now, yes." They knew for a fact that it was not at all an apt description of what they would do, however.

Ignoring Charlie as they walked through the expanse of the ship, Avamande was continually perturbed by the mysteries of its shifting interior. This was no space between spaces cleverly arranged with Traversion, things simply... were there, whether or not they should be. It was obnoxious in the extreme, to the point that they weren't even surprised that the pair of them almost literally stumbled upon a cargo hold. Things got even stranger when the lock simply opened, and taking it from the human they examined the device with mundane and magical senses. A lock that could not be locked, on a ship where rooms could only be found if it wished for you to find them. It was like the start of a bad joke, and more vexing, Avamande had no idea who the butt of it was.

"Believe it or not Charles, but I agree with you. I'm in."

[Charlie]

"Some secrets, sure!" Charlie enthusiastically agreed. "Not these ones though. This is the sort of opportunity you don't pass up unless you want to be kicking yourself the rest of your life, and I won't let you live like that." He laughed. "I'm glad we're in agreement though. A house divided and all that." It was good, Charlie thought, to get Avamande out of their comfort zone. Now the trouble with that was Charlie had no earthly clue where that zone began or ended, but that wasn't going to stop him. Besides, what was a bit of potential trespassing between friends?

Charlie slowly lifted the hatch, surprisingly careful as he tried to avoid any unnecessary noise. The effort was seemingly unnecessary though, as even the aged, rusted hinged were utterly silent as though deafened. Curiouser and curiouser. A lock incapable of keeping anyone out, and hinges utterly defiant in sworn silence. There was not a doubt in Charlie's mind now. This was some bad juju. But that had never stopped him before, and he had Avamande in case there was anything really dangerous down there. Together there was nothing the two of them (mostly Avamande) couldn't handle.

There was a ladder that led down into the hold, and Charlie took it despite still being able to see the bottom. It was a long room, or at least for as far as could be seen in the light that only shined in through the hatch he'd entered from. There were no windows, but Charlie did see some candles hanging off the walls and stepped over to light them, clearing the path for Avamande to follow him down.

The first thing Charlie noted was just how full the hold seemed to be. Crates and barrels lined the floor and were piled high atop one another, some upright and others sitting on their side. Though they looked similar enough, the boxes seemed to be from all over the globe, and their manufacturing seemed similarly haphazard. Much like the ship above, the cargo hold below was utterly without rhyme or reason. But there was something about them that even stood out to the Mesmer as he dragged his finger across the tops of one of the crates and sending a heavy helping of dust onto the floor.

"Some of this stuff looks... Old, Avamande." Charlie ever so helpfully pointed out. "Like, really old. Can't tell what's in any of it without cracking them open though." He looked over to his partner in crime, but then went on. "But I guess we should keep looking, maybe try to find a manifest or any shipping labels before we go and actually do something wrong."