Captain Cannonfists
Nuisance of the High Seas
So here's something I threw together when I got bored waiting for account approval. I've had these characters in my head for awhile but I never tried getting them down on paper. Let me know what you guys think!
PS: I'm too tired after writing this much to proofread, so let me know if you find any mistakes. Preferably after you've read the whole thing so you only have to make one post detailing my failures.
"Look, all I'm saying is that nobody needs killing at 1:00 AM." Silas said with a sigh
William Clagel turned back to gaze at his friend over the roof of the decrepit Mustang he claimed was a car. Though Will wanted to counter with something clever, he found he was far too tired, and had instead opened his mouth to voice a matter-of-fact disagreement when another familiar voice cut in. "Judging from your outfit, it would be more accurate to say you have no business killing anyone at 1:00 AM." Julian had appeared at the door behind Will, and seemed far better dressed than him or Silas. Of course, it didn't take Julian's peacoat, dress pants, and matching cane to out do Will's hoodie and track pants or Silas's plain white t-shirt and jeans.
"Well somebody's been working on their Batman routine," Silas said bitterly, stepping around the car to the trunk.
"Some of us have healthy sleep schedules, man," Will said, his arms now crossed. "I mean just look at you. You look like you're allergic to sunlight."
"First of all," Julian began, crossing his arms to match Will's posture, "I am allergic to sunlight. Secondly, we should probably stop wasting the Lady's time."
"Calm your tits, I'm hurrying," Silas growled from somewhere behind the raised lid of the trunk. Will found he had to laugh at the offended way Julian laid a hand across his breast. "Billy?" At the invocation of his still mildly annoying nickname, Will turned to face Silas again. His massive friend had dawned his usual duster coat and now held up a staff in his right hand and a sheathed sword in his left. Both were intricately decorated with similar arcane carvings, but Will gestured to the staff, and Silas placed the scabbard back in the car with a shrug.
Will caught the staff when it was thrown to him and watched the trunk slam closed before turning back to Julian and the front door of the nightclub they all stood outside. He raised a quizzical eyebrow at the only well dressed member of their group, "I don't suppose..."
"Backdoor," Julian replied, clearly anticipating the question.
"Goddammit," Silas muttered, still fiddling with the buttons on his jacket. It looked like an odd process, as if he were fastening the buttons a random, but Will could sense a method to the motions, if not a visible one.
He waited for his friend to finish, then tapped his staff against the ground twice, "Right, let's get moving."
"Indeed," Julian pushed off the wall and led the way around the building to a side alley, then on to an inconspicuous door in the rear of the building. It was a short trip of no more than a hundred feet, but Will could see Silas becoming visibly more uncomfortable as they progressed. By the time Julian tapped on the door with his cane, the larger man had hunched so low he seemed to be trying to disappear into his jacket. Will reasoned that might be because of the sudden unnatural chill in the alley, but it was more likely the empty, directionless voice that started ringing through it.
"Password?" It asked, droning out the two short syllables for almost five seconds.
"Stradford bridge," Julian spoke the words as if directing them at no one in particular, and for a time the impatient tapping of his foot was the only sound in the alley. Eventually that was drowned out by the unnaturally loud metal screeching coming from the slowly opening door. It sounded like a noise that might be produced by a rusted iron gate, not a door made of little more than metal and cardboard. When the sound continued for ten seconds and the door had only moved a few inches, Silas had apparently had enough. He lunged forward, brushing Will and Julian aside with a single sweep of his arm and slammed his boot heel against the screeching barricade. Oddly enough, Will found that though the force was great enough to tear loose the top most hinge, the noise produced was nowhere near as loud as the metal shrieking.
“Never do that again, Remus!” Silas barked, clutching at his ears. There was no response as they entered the building, but Will swore he sensed feelings of amusement emanating from the frigid outside.
Julian led the way briskly through the back rooms of the nightclub, eager to get away from the demolished door before someone came along to blame it on their party. Some small part of him thought to scold Silas for his impatience, but he couldn’t really pretend like he wasn’t ten seconds away from doing the exact same thing. The back rooms of Lady Jay’s nightclub were the sort of labyrinth that was design to hide all sorts of sensitive dealings, from the mundane to the world changing. Julian wasn’t faking the confidence in his walk, he knew exactly where he was going, he just had no idea where he actually was in the deceptively large building. The thumping music emanating from somewhere far to his right was his only clue as to which direction led to the front of the building. The further he led his party, the more elaborate and impossible the twisting hallways became, culminating when a right turn through an open corridor suddenly gave way to a tight stairway. The ascent was some twenty feet long, but he could just hear the muffled noises of conversation just beyond the door at its apex. He raised a hand for his companions to halt and they obeyed without a word. It wasn’t their business to know what was being said beyond that door, but none of them wanted to interrupt anything important, so Julian listened until he was certain that the muffled voices were neither shouting nor whispering, then began his ascent. The voices quieted as they approached, it didn’t take super human hearing to hear Silas coming, and Julian didn’t even need to knock before a female voice said, “Come on in boys.” Julian led the way inside and found the room held three people, two he had expected, and one he had never seen before. He recognized the tall, raven haired woman in the middle of the room as Lady Jay and the massive, bearded man standing by the far door as her bodyguard Iorick, the handsome man in the dark red suit was new. Lady Jay was unsurprisingly the first to speak, “Thank you for coming on such short-” she was cut short by a sudden grunt from Silas.
Julian looked back to see that Will had stumbled backwards, nearly collapsing against the larger man, clutching at his temple with his free hand. Julian whipped his head back around to glare at the man in the suit, scanning him up and down, “Your amulet,” he hissed. “Remove it.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good ide-”
“Just do it Barial,” The man’s response was cut short by Lady Jay. Whoever this person was, he apparently knew exactly who he was dealing with, and swiftly obeyed, snapping the cord holding the simple silver pendant around his neck. Only then did Julian realize how muted the room had felt. The music elsewhere in the building grew slightly, but perceptibly louder, the room became slightly warmer, and scent of blood reached Julian’s nose. Not spilled blood, but the blood inside each of the room’s inhabitants. Again, most of it was expected, the muddy mix of human and canine in Silas, the faint, almost mystic spice within Will, Iorick’s impossibly old, but human scent, and the overwhelming raw power dwelling within Lady Jay. This new man, this Barial, however, he smelled absolutely delicious. His scent was the embodiment of worldly indulgences. His blood burned hotter than any but Lady Jay’s, but where her’s was raw power, his was something more refined. Something...darker.
“Sorry about that,” Julian shook the thoughts away at the sound of Will’s voice. “I’m pretty sensitive to magical energies, and powerful masking enchantments like that make me feel like I’ve gone blind,” he continued, coming forward to stand beside Julian. “You can put it back on if you want, I’ll be ready this time.”
“Thank you,” The man replied after a short silence, as if he had zoned out, “I’d hate to attract undue attention,” he said, tying the cord around his neck once more. Despite his assurances, Julian was relatively certain he saw Will flinch.
“Good,” Lady Jay said with a nod, “Now as I was saying, thank you all for coming on such short notice, I’m sure it must have been more than inconvenient,” her tone was all business, which made Julian more weary of this Barial than anything he had sensed about the man himself.
“Ma’am,” Silas spoke up, his accent thicker than usual, as it always was when he addressed people that scared the hell out of him. “I’m real sorry to interrupt, but would you mind jumping straight to the introductions?” There was some trepidation in his voice as well, but clearly it was more from interrupting Lady Jay than fear of the man he was glaring at.
Lady Jay glanced at Silas, then over at Barial, “Of course,” she said, understanding dawning on her. “Gentlemen, I’d like you to meet Mr. Barial Ashton, he’s a…”
“I’m a representative of someone who can do a great deal for this outfit of yours,” Barial explained
“Billy?” Silas asked.
“He’s a demon,” came Will’s blunt reply.
“An old one,” Julian added. There was silence in the room for a time, but he doubted their words had surprised Lady Jay, more likely she was giving Barial time to absorb the fact that three of her people, essentially grunts, had determined his identity in less than five minutes. Knowing your opponent’s species was often the first step to defeating them.
“Well Mr. Ashton, this is Julian, Silas, and Billy,” Julian practically heard Will clench his teeth at Lady Jay’s use of his nickname, “They’re not my best, but I believe they’ll be uniquely suited to the job. Of course, it is up to them whether or not they accept it.”
“Let’s hear it,” Julian prompted, wanting to hear the opportunity before Silas had a chance to destroy it.
“Yes, well,” Barial cleared his throat nervously, “My employer wants assistance with something of an… escaped inmate. He-”
“First question,” Silas interrupted. “Why doesn’t your boss go get him himself? Or send some lackeys?”
The demon cleared his throat again, and Julian wondered what such an old being had to fear, “This isn’t the first time this particular resident has escaped hell. My employer could retrieve him easily enough, but he would not stop attempting to escape. We believe that if he is recaptured by a resident of this plane, he will think twice about trying to return to it.”
“And our reward?” Julian asked.
Barial opened his mouth to reply, but was cut short by Lady Jay, “That’s between me and his employer. You all will receive standard payments now, plus a bonus later based on the difficulty of the capture once we know more about the target. What’ the verdict boys?”
Julian glanced sidelong at Will. “If a demon has escaped its hell, it won’t be long before people start getting hurt. I say we do it,” he said.
Silas, for his part, simply shrugged, “Good pay and karma points, right? I’m in.”
Julian turned back to face Lady Jay, “We’ll take it. What’s the location?”
“We believe he is making his home in an abandoned hotel just a mile or two inside the city limits,” Barial replied. “940 Blackwood Drive.”
“I know the place,” Silas chimed in, “Heard some guys I worked with talking about a renovation job on it a few weeks back. Lot of nasty accidents happened and they stopped finding anyone willing to work on it.”
“Catch a demon, get paid, save some lives,” Will said, “Sounds like our kind of job.”
PS: I'm too tired after writing this much to proofread, so let me know if you find any mistakes. Preferably after you've read the whole thing so you only have to make one post detailing my failures.
"Look, all I'm saying is that nobody needs killing at 1:00 AM." Silas said with a sigh
William Clagel turned back to gaze at his friend over the roof of the decrepit Mustang he claimed was a car. Though Will wanted to counter with something clever, he found he was far too tired, and had instead opened his mouth to voice a matter-of-fact disagreement when another familiar voice cut in. "Judging from your outfit, it would be more accurate to say you have no business killing anyone at 1:00 AM." Julian had appeared at the door behind Will, and seemed far better dressed than him or Silas. Of course, it didn't take Julian's peacoat, dress pants, and matching cane to out do Will's hoodie and track pants or Silas's plain white t-shirt and jeans.
"Well somebody's been working on their Batman routine," Silas said bitterly, stepping around the car to the trunk.
"Some of us have healthy sleep schedules, man," Will said, his arms now crossed. "I mean just look at you. You look like you're allergic to sunlight."
"First of all," Julian began, crossing his arms to match Will's posture, "I am allergic to sunlight. Secondly, we should probably stop wasting the Lady's time."
"Calm your tits, I'm hurrying," Silas growled from somewhere behind the raised lid of the trunk. Will found he had to laugh at the offended way Julian laid a hand across his breast. "Billy?" At the invocation of his still mildly annoying nickname, Will turned to face Silas again. His massive friend had dawned his usual duster coat and now held up a staff in his right hand and a sheathed sword in his left. Both were intricately decorated with similar arcane carvings, but Will gestured to the staff, and Silas placed the scabbard back in the car with a shrug.
Will caught the staff when it was thrown to him and watched the trunk slam closed before turning back to Julian and the front door of the nightclub they all stood outside. He raised a quizzical eyebrow at the only well dressed member of their group, "I don't suppose..."
"Backdoor," Julian replied, clearly anticipating the question.
"Goddammit," Silas muttered, still fiddling with the buttons on his jacket. It looked like an odd process, as if he were fastening the buttons a random, but Will could sense a method to the motions, if not a visible one.
He waited for his friend to finish, then tapped his staff against the ground twice, "Right, let's get moving."
"Indeed," Julian pushed off the wall and led the way around the building to a side alley, then on to an inconspicuous door in the rear of the building. It was a short trip of no more than a hundred feet, but Will could see Silas becoming visibly more uncomfortable as they progressed. By the time Julian tapped on the door with his cane, the larger man had hunched so low he seemed to be trying to disappear into his jacket. Will reasoned that might be because of the sudden unnatural chill in the alley, but it was more likely the empty, directionless voice that started ringing through it.
"Password?" It asked, droning out the two short syllables for almost five seconds.
"Stradford bridge," Julian spoke the words as if directing them at no one in particular, and for a time the impatient tapping of his foot was the only sound in the alley. Eventually that was drowned out by the unnaturally loud metal screeching coming from the slowly opening door. It sounded like a noise that might be produced by a rusted iron gate, not a door made of little more than metal and cardboard. When the sound continued for ten seconds and the door had only moved a few inches, Silas had apparently had enough. He lunged forward, brushing Will and Julian aside with a single sweep of his arm and slammed his boot heel against the screeching barricade. Oddly enough, Will found that though the force was great enough to tear loose the top most hinge, the noise produced was nowhere near as loud as the metal shrieking.
“Never do that again, Remus!” Silas barked, clutching at his ears. There was no response as they entered the building, but Will swore he sensed feelings of amusement emanating from the frigid outside.
Julian led the way briskly through the back rooms of the nightclub, eager to get away from the demolished door before someone came along to blame it on their party. Some small part of him thought to scold Silas for his impatience, but he couldn’t really pretend like he wasn’t ten seconds away from doing the exact same thing. The back rooms of Lady Jay’s nightclub were the sort of labyrinth that was design to hide all sorts of sensitive dealings, from the mundane to the world changing. Julian wasn’t faking the confidence in his walk, he knew exactly where he was going, he just had no idea where he actually was in the deceptively large building. The thumping music emanating from somewhere far to his right was his only clue as to which direction led to the front of the building. The further he led his party, the more elaborate and impossible the twisting hallways became, culminating when a right turn through an open corridor suddenly gave way to a tight stairway. The ascent was some twenty feet long, but he could just hear the muffled noises of conversation just beyond the door at its apex. He raised a hand for his companions to halt and they obeyed without a word. It wasn’t their business to know what was being said beyond that door, but none of them wanted to interrupt anything important, so Julian listened until he was certain that the muffled voices were neither shouting nor whispering, then began his ascent. The voices quieted as they approached, it didn’t take super human hearing to hear Silas coming, and Julian didn’t even need to knock before a female voice said, “Come on in boys.” Julian led the way inside and found the room held three people, two he had expected, and one he had never seen before. He recognized the tall, raven haired woman in the middle of the room as Lady Jay and the massive, bearded man standing by the far door as her bodyguard Iorick, the handsome man in the dark red suit was new. Lady Jay was unsurprisingly the first to speak, “Thank you for coming on such short-” she was cut short by a sudden grunt from Silas.
Julian looked back to see that Will had stumbled backwards, nearly collapsing against the larger man, clutching at his temple with his free hand. Julian whipped his head back around to glare at the man in the suit, scanning him up and down, “Your amulet,” he hissed. “Remove it.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good ide-”
“Just do it Barial,” The man’s response was cut short by Lady Jay. Whoever this person was, he apparently knew exactly who he was dealing with, and swiftly obeyed, snapping the cord holding the simple silver pendant around his neck. Only then did Julian realize how muted the room had felt. The music elsewhere in the building grew slightly, but perceptibly louder, the room became slightly warmer, and scent of blood reached Julian’s nose. Not spilled blood, but the blood inside each of the room’s inhabitants. Again, most of it was expected, the muddy mix of human and canine in Silas, the faint, almost mystic spice within Will, Iorick’s impossibly old, but human scent, and the overwhelming raw power dwelling within Lady Jay. This new man, this Barial, however, he smelled absolutely delicious. His scent was the embodiment of worldly indulgences. His blood burned hotter than any but Lady Jay’s, but where her’s was raw power, his was something more refined. Something...darker.
“Sorry about that,” Julian shook the thoughts away at the sound of Will’s voice. “I’m pretty sensitive to magical energies, and powerful masking enchantments like that make me feel like I’ve gone blind,” he continued, coming forward to stand beside Julian. “You can put it back on if you want, I’ll be ready this time.”
“Thank you,” The man replied after a short silence, as if he had zoned out, “I’d hate to attract undue attention,” he said, tying the cord around his neck once more. Despite his assurances, Julian was relatively certain he saw Will flinch.
“Good,” Lady Jay said with a nod, “Now as I was saying, thank you all for coming on such short notice, I’m sure it must have been more than inconvenient,” her tone was all business, which made Julian more weary of this Barial than anything he had sensed about the man himself.
“Ma’am,” Silas spoke up, his accent thicker than usual, as it always was when he addressed people that scared the hell out of him. “I’m real sorry to interrupt, but would you mind jumping straight to the introductions?” There was some trepidation in his voice as well, but clearly it was more from interrupting Lady Jay than fear of the man he was glaring at.
Lady Jay glanced at Silas, then over at Barial, “Of course,” she said, understanding dawning on her. “Gentlemen, I’d like you to meet Mr. Barial Ashton, he’s a…”
“I’m a representative of someone who can do a great deal for this outfit of yours,” Barial explained
“Billy?” Silas asked.
“He’s a demon,” came Will’s blunt reply.
“An old one,” Julian added. There was silence in the room for a time, but he doubted their words had surprised Lady Jay, more likely she was giving Barial time to absorb the fact that three of her people, essentially grunts, had determined his identity in less than five minutes. Knowing your opponent’s species was often the first step to defeating them.
“Well Mr. Ashton, this is Julian, Silas, and Billy,” Julian practically heard Will clench his teeth at Lady Jay’s use of his nickname, “They’re not my best, but I believe they’ll be uniquely suited to the job. Of course, it is up to them whether or not they accept it.”
“Let’s hear it,” Julian prompted, wanting to hear the opportunity before Silas had a chance to destroy it.
“Yes, well,” Barial cleared his throat nervously, “My employer wants assistance with something of an… escaped inmate. He-”
“First question,” Silas interrupted. “Why doesn’t your boss go get him himself? Or send some lackeys?”
The demon cleared his throat again, and Julian wondered what such an old being had to fear, “This isn’t the first time this particular resident has escaped hell. My employer could retrieve him easily enough, but he would not stop attempting to escape. We believe that if he is recaptured by a resident of this plane, he will think twice about trying to return to it.”
“And our reward?” Julian asked.
Barial opened his mouth to reply, but was cut short by Lady Jay, “That’s between me and his employer. You all will receive standard payments now, plus a bonus later based on the difficulty of the capture once we know more about the target. What’ the verdict boys?”
Julian glanced sidelong at Will. “If a demon has escaped its hell, it won’t be long before people start getting hurt. I say we do it,” he said.
Silas, for his part, simply shrugged, “Good pay and karma points, right? I’m in.”
Julian turned back to face Lady Jay, “We’ll take it. What’s the location?”
“We believe he is making his home in an abandoned hotel just a mile or two inside the city limits,” Barial replied. “940 Blackwood Drive.”
“I know the place,” Silas chimed in, “Heard some guys I worked with talking about a renovation job on it a few weeks back. Lot of nasty accidents happened and they stopped finding anyone willing to work on it.”
“Catch a demon, get paid, save some lives,” Will said, “Sounds like our kind of job.”