And A Bottle of Scotch :: Chapter 10

[kappa77]

Surprise! Something good came about from constantly being home and being done with college, I finally picked this back up! I know most of the readers will have moved on to other fandoms, which I get. But AABOS is something I've legitimately thought about twice a year for the past 6 years (6 years!!!) and I knew that even thought it's been a while since I watched a Mindcrack video, I was going to finish this fic.

So, we pick back up right where we left off, with the same crew, whether the people are actually still a part of Mindcrack or not.

If you need a refresher, everything AABOS related can be found here!


*-*-*-*-*

The only noise on the walk back from the bar came from the slight breeze rattling leaves overhead. Zisteau glanced at Kurt too many times than strictly necessary, but who could blame him? Not only was he drunk, he hadn’t acted the same since he had gotten scared of something back at the bar.

The ground underneath them changed from dirt to cobble. The sky had turned from black to a dark purple, the promise of sunrise and terrible hangovers to come. Z was ruminating about work tomorrow when Kurt made a strangled sound and fell with a thump.

“Shit, you okay?”

Kurt groaned into the cobble. “Just... tripped.”

“Alright,” Z said, head clearing slightly as he bent over. “Come on.”

He gripped Kurt’s bicep, certainly not making any observations of musculature, and heaved as he lifted Kurt to his feet. He took Kurt’s wrists in each hand, making sure he hadn’t scrapped them badly.

“You ready to keep going?” he asked.

Kurt nodded, eye to the ground.

“Hey, don’t sweat it. Everyone has had to be carried out of a bar at least once.”

By the time the two made it on the ship, sunlight was just peaking above the trees. Captain Guude stood on deck to greet them. He opened his mouth to speak, but when he saw how tired the two were, he shut it, giving a simple nod of his head instead. The surgeon replied in kind, but Kurt barely looked to the captain, still walking straight downstairs. Guude raised an eyebrow in question.

Zisteau made a comment about having a long night before following Kurt to their room. On ship, salt-worn wood beneath his feet, he was suddenly even more tired than when he first left the bar. And he remembered how Kurt’s mood shifted on a dime. Was that why he was quiet on the walk back? Or was that Kurt being tired of people for the day?

When he got to their room, he let out a small sigh of relief, seeing Kurt curled up in his hammock already, fast asleep.

Tomorrow’s problem then.

He sat down on his hammock and his arms suddenly felt 10 times heavier. He started to unbutton his shirt, but gave up halfway. He blew out the lantern and fell back onto his hammock, eyes falling shut.

That night, all he could see were bright violet eyes and black serpents slithering around his feet, mouths open, ready to strike.

-*-*-*-*-

It was the pounding Zisteau noticed first, a steady drumbeat pulsing through his head. As he slowly opened his eyes, it felt like a thousand swords were stabbing him.

He groaned, blinking few more times, willing the pain away. After a few minutes, it subsided, and he was left with a dull throbbing in his entire head.

He turned his head, looking to see if Kurt was having the same trouble as he was waking up. His eyes widened as he saw Kurt bustling about their room in fresh clothes. For a moment, Zisteau was content to just watch his friend as he shook off the hangover. Kurt hardly stood in one place for more than a minute, first he was at his chest of belongings, then at the center table, then back to the chest, to the side cabinets, a flurry of movement that Zisteau never was after a night of drinking.

Finally, his tongue stopped feeling like a lead brick.

“Wow, you’re no match for hangovers, huh?” He winced at the scratchiness in his voice.

Kurt startled, head whipping around. He relaxed slightly at the sight of Zisteau, but his shoulders were still more rigid than normal. He dropped whatever he had been holding onto the counter.

“I, um,” Kurt began, staring at the smooth counter, fingers tapping out a vaguely familiar rhythm, “I kinda… sobered up quickly after last night.”

And wasn’t that just a slap to the face? Memories of last night came rushing forward, with the last hour replaying over and over on a continuous loop of concern and confusion.

He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts but realizing too late that that wasn't the best of ideas. The room started spinning with the only stagnant point being Kurt. He didn't realize he was gripping on to his head, dangerously close to pulling out his hair until Kurt walked right next to him and laid a hand on his. With gentle fingers, he pried Zisteau's fingers out of his hair and placed a small bottle in the palm of his hand. Wordlessly, Zisteau uncapped the bottle and downed it in one go, grimacing at the horrible taste, but knowing it'd be all worth it in the end.

"Jsano can make a mean hangover remedy, huh?" he looked up at Kurt, whose hand was still by his head. He wore a thoughtful expression on his face, one that Zisteau couldn’t read. It went away as soon as Zisteau finished talking.

"Yeah, I saw half the crew holding one this morning," Kurt replied, lowering his hand, the sensation lingering.

“How, uh, how are your hands?”

Kurt blinked. “Oh, fine, just dirty.”

He nodded, not wanting to let silence linger too long, “Well, guess we might as well head down there and see what breakfast is left.”

Kurt agreed, following him.

-*-*-*-*-

With everyone on board and breakfast done with, Captain Guude shouted out the orders to leave port. The deck crowded quickly, becoming a bustle of activity, with pirates climbing up the mast and all the way in the underbelly of the ship. With a few more shouted orders, the crew weighed anchor, set off for the open ocean, and everything went back to normal.

Well, not exactly.

Kurt distanced himself, silently doing his work on board. He made conversation when necessary, but never spoke about anything that happened at the bar. Even Guude noticed, sending worried glances over Kurt’s head, but Zisteau had no reassurances for his crewmates.

The only indication he had that the mysterious person was still on Kurt’s mind was when Kurt would suddenly wake up in the middle of the night with a gasp, chest heaving and looking around the room like he had no idea where he was, then lie back down almost as quickly. It had woken Zisteau up many times and every time he wanted to reach out and comfort his friend, but Kurt would be asleep within a minute.

Worst of all, Zisteau couldn’t shake off how familiar the cocky man in the shadows was. He wasn’t sure what it was, but the man just triggered something in the back of his mind. He was a constant presence in his dreams, never doing anything, just looking onward from a distance. Whenever Zisteau woke up from those dreams, it always took him a few minutes to calm his racing heart.

-*-*-*-*-

Days later, Zisteau found himself on an island in the middle of nowhere, hacking through thick leaves and sweating buckets. Somewhere behind him, Pause cursed and there was a small thud. He turned back to see Pause leaning again a thin tree, untangling himself from several vines.

“Why’d we even have to stop on this godforsaken island?” Pause grumbled, tugging roughly at the vines.

Zisteau snorted, but continued walking.

Their latest port of call was at some small market in the north. Beef had gotten caught up in a poker game where some merchants were gambling on a map owned by some rambling, drunken man. After asking several other merchants to see what the man’s mutterings meant, he learned that the map supposedly led to great fortune buried underneath the sand. Despite a history of losing in cards, Beef joined and won thanks to a crap poker hand and a really good poker face. He took it straight to the captain and when Guude had gotten a good look at the map, he immediately set sail and assigned Pak and Kurt to lead a team to retrieve the treasure.

The island turned out to be relatively large. Pale yellow sand bordered most of the island, while the south side had various shapes and sizes of gray rocks covering the entry into the thick jungle forest.

The entire ship was abuzz with speculation of what the treasure could be. Everyone was eager to join to be one of the first people to set their eyes on the treasure. Etho, Mhykol, Avidya, PSJ, and Beef were picked for the landing party. The seven of them set off for the densely covered island at first dawn. There was no sign of them as the sun began lowering in the sky and Guude was getting nervous. He sent Zisteau and Pause to go after the lost team.

Z stopped for a moment, pulling out a scrap of cloth from his pocket and wiping his forehead.

“I can’t believe they got lost on this island,” he muttered.

Pause finally caught up with him, pulling the last bit of foliage off himself. “You didn’t act this way when Beef and I got lost at port last year.”

“Of course not, that was a city. You two were just too stubborn to ask for directions.”

The first mate continued, with a smirk. “You’re only this worried because Kurt is with them.”

Zisteau sputtered, “No. Well… but Kurt has a compass! He’s the best navigator there is!”

“Whatever you say, it’s not my fault you wear your heart on your sleeve and-”

“SHHH!” Zisteau covered Pause’s mouth with his hand and then whispered, “Did you hear that?”

Pause shoved his calloused hand away and listened. He suddenly crouched down, shoving Z down with him. Ignoring the irritated look he got, he pointed to a patch of bushes just over to the left of where they were headed. There was the faint sound of voices and footsteps coming from them.

They both stayed crouching, Z too on edge to even shift into a better position. When the voices got louder and the footsteps more frequent, they looked to each other, nodded, and drew their swords. As the unknown people burst through the bushes, Pause and Zisteau leaped out.

Except that the fight immediately went out of them as they fully took in the situation. The unknown people, their own crew, stopped just short of running straight through Pause and Z’s swords.

Both parties stood still, silent except for the sounds of animals and insects from the forest around them.

The entire party was dirty, beaten, with varied states of shock on their faces. Pak’s normal calm demeanor was replaced with what could be described as abject terror. Mhykol and Paul Soares were out of breath, chests heaving. Beef was looking like he had lost a lot of blood, face pale and drawn, hands pressed against his left side. Avidya’s brown jacket had large slashes and was littered with dark red stains, some of which grew darker the longer they stood there.

But Kurt by far looked the worst. In only his white button down and navy breeches, he looked just about ready to collapse. He was carrying his sword, now a rusty red with bits of leaves sticking to it, in one hand and had the other one in a fist. His exposed forearms and calves had a multitude of fresh cuts and bruises. But the one thing that made Zisteau genuinely scared of what Kurt had just encountered was the look on Kurt’s face. It wasn’t just a look of horror nor did it look like Kurt had just seen a ghost. It was the look of all one’s mistakes and nightmares cumulating into one and attacking as one, brutal, mighty force.

“We… we saw- ran into… the crew of The Emerald,” Pak said breathlessly. Z’s and Pause’s eyebrows flew up as he continued. “Barely made it out. No- No idea where they are.”

He got a better look at Kurt. The look on his face was one that he had seen when they first dragged Kurt aboard, when Kurt woke up suddenly, but there was more now. Back then, Kurt had looked frightened and confused, like he wasn’t expecting to be there. Now he still looked scared, but it looked like he was reliving the fear right then, with those awful moments replaying over and over in his head.

Zisteau acted fast. “Pause, check on Pak and Paul, and then you can go to Beef. Give Pak your jacket too, he needs it.”

Pause did as he was told, only glancing at Beef before running to the Pak, taking his coat off as he did so. Zisteau pulled out the small roll of bandages he always kept on him and quickly went around, patching up the major wounds so they’d be able to make it back to the ship. He made a beeline for Beef first, kneeling in front of him to get a better angle. He carefully pealed Beef’s bloodied coat off his skin to get a better look at it.

Just as Pause was about to make a comment on his friend’s poor state, the entire party stopped, frozen as they heard more rustling in the distance. It only took a brief glance around to see everyone wanted to do the same thing. Pause hooked an arm around Beef as they began sprinting back to the shoreline. Everyone else joined, running as fast as they could.

-*-*-*-*-

Once the party boarded, the ship was thrown into chaos. Those on the ship wanted to know what they brought back and those injured needed to tell what they saw. People needed to get medical help, but the mass of crew wouldn’t let them pass. It was only when Guude burst out of his cabin, was order restored with a loud, “What the hell is going on here?!”

Zisteau was about to fill him in, when Kurt finally spoke up, voice hoarse and shaky.

“Ambushed. By the Emerald. We need to get out of here.”

The deck hushed immediately, even the captain shut up for a moment before straightening his back and shouting out, “Hoist the gang plank! Hold sail! Get your asses moving!”

The Mindcrack exploded into activity once again, with everyone scattering and swiftly getting the ship ready to sail as fast as possible. Guude turned back to the group, eyes sharp.

“All of you, get patched up. I want Kurt, Z, Pause, and Pak in my office as soon as possible.”

With that, he left, jogging up the stairs to continue barking orders. Zisteau and Pause shared a look before they helped get everyone in the underbelly of the ship, where Jsano was already waiting. From there, Z lost himself in his work, mind numb to any incoming thoughts about the island. With deft fingers, he stitched up Avidya and helped with Beef’s wounds. By the time he let himself take a break, the island was just a speck in the distance. Just as he was about to get back to work, a hand on his chest stopped him.

“Go to the captain,” Jsano said, lowering his arm. “I can handle the rest.”

With a sigh, Zisteau nodded, not wanting to bother arguing over something pointless. He looked around at the room, only now noticing how Kurt had isolated himself sitting on a chair in the corner, staring down at his hands.

“Kurt?” he said softly, which got a sharp look up. “You ready?”

With a quick glance back down, Kurt got up and walked over. Zisteau allowed himself to gently touch Kurt’s upper back. He immediately tensed up, which caused Zisteau to drop his hand like a rock.

Pause and Pak, clothes still in disarray, climbed the stairs to the captain’s cabin first. Pause didn’t even bother knocking, holding the door open for the rest of them before shutting it behind him with a soft click.

Guude’s office was in disarray, strewn about with papers and notebooks. Guude was standing over one large one, leather bound and full to the brim. He looked up from it as they entered the room.

He didn’t bother sitting beside his desk, opting to lead against it. “Okay, I need to know what happened, in detail.”

Pak straightened. “We were nearly where the treasure was reported to be when we were attacked. We hadn’t heard anything suspicious the whole trip and then they come out of nowhere. We tried to fight, but just ended up running Then we ran into Z and Pause a little bit after running. We thought we heard them again, so we started running again. I… This is going to sound stupid, but I felt like they let us get away. I mean, we were half carrying Beef and Avidya, they could’ve caught us easily, but they didn’t.”

Zisteau and Pause gave similar accounts of the state of the crew and the rustling that soon followed.

Guude nodded, looking grim, “How many were there?”

“At least fifteen,” Pak said.

The captain sighed before cursing under his breath.

“That is not good. Kurt?” And the way Kurt nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of his name, Zisteau had to resist the urge to touch him, hold him, reassure him everything would be okay even if he could do no such thing.

“Yes, Captain?”

“What’s your take on the situation?”

Kurt looked like a deer seconds before being shot. This time Zisteau did brush his hand against his arm, hoping it would help. Kurt took in a deep breath. “I…They… There were only three of them I recognized; Nebris, BTC, and Anderz. They had n-no problem with us, but in the middle of the fight, Nebris gave… gave me this.”

He laid out on the table what Z now only realized had been in his hands the whole time. Everyone leaned in to get a better look at what it was, but instinctively drew back at the sight of it. Zisteau had never seen a black spot up close. It was such a simple symbol, but he could feel his own heart pounding louder in his ears. Kurt decidedly did not look at it or the rest of the group as he continued.

“After that, the fight ended quickly, we ran, but I could feel them staring at me.” A pause. “There’re after me- still after all these months. I- I would’ve thought that they… I understand if you’re planning on dropping me off at the next port, I-”

“Don’t,” Guude said sharply, holding up his hand. There was a moment of quiet as Kurt lifted his head before the captain continued. “I was aware of the risks of bringing you on board, but here you are. You are now a part of my crew and nobody will be dropping anybody on some godforsaken island, understood?”

“But you know that the black spot means-”

“I said, understood, Mr. Mac?”

Kurt sighed, “Yes, Captain.”

“Good.” He looked to Pause. “Any sight of the ship since we left?”

“I can ask Baj.”

“Go do that. Pak and Zisteau, you two are also dismissed. Kurt, you’re going to fulfill the promise you made me when you first joined this crew and tell me anything and everything about the Emerald and her crew.”

Kurt looked paler than before, but nodded. “Yes, sir.”

The other three left the cabin. Zisteau tried to catch Kurt’s eye, but he was already pouring over the notebooks with Guude. He resigned himself to catching Kurt in their room.

Outside it had somehow turned to night, with the night crew shuffling about on deck.

“I should check back with Beef,” he said, mostly to himself, but he was stopped by Pause’s hand on his shoulder.

“Dude, you’re dead on your feet. Go to bed.”

“But-”

“Cabin. Bed. Now.”

And it was then that Zisteau realized how tired Pause looked.

“Fine, but after you check in with Baj, you also have to go to bed.”

“Deal.”

The two nodded at each other before going to opposite ends of the ship. It was only when he was halfway down the stairs did he realize Beef and Avidya would still be in his room and he wouldn’t want to interrupt their rest.

He knew much of the crew slept in a large room with a bunch of hammocks. It’d be better than nothing and it was closer, so he headed down, with each step growing heavier and heavier, his eyes further threatening to close.

He quietly asked which hammocks were available before settling in. The minute he was comfortable, he fell asleep and was quickly subsumed into a dream. It started out as a regular fight between two ships. The opposing ship was nondescript, full of pirates and royal guard alike. It and the Mindcrack came together, and the familiar sounds of a fight rang out. As it continued, however, Zisteau couldn't help but feel as if it wasn't a dream but a memory. The injuries he received in the dream hit in the exact places as some of his scars and some of Guude’s commands and his crew mate’s shouts were all too familiar. Then the memory skipped and it was later in the fight. He was fighting a man in gray and purple, his shirt was torn in the back, a long line of blood cutting through the tattoo of a black serpent, yellow eyes staring straight at him, mouth open wide.

His eyes flew open, sitting up in his hammock. His heart was pounding, and his breathing was quick. He glanced over at Kurt, as he had previous night’s awaking from that nightmare, before being hit with the reminder that he wasn’t in his room, that he’d left Kurt in Guude’s cabin.

He ignored the ache in his chest as he sat up, planting his feet on the -worn floorboards. He was only getting up because his cabin wouldn’t have as many sleeping bodies in it. Because he wanted to make sure Beef and Avidya were resting easily.

Not because he wanted to see if Kurt had made it back

He emerged from the deck, nodding quietly to the skeleton crew still on deck. He looked up, staring up at the full moon in the sky, a halo of light around it, forewarning a storm on the way. Filing away that information to worry about later, it was movement in the crow’s nest that caught his eye. It wasn’t Baj up in the crow’s nest, but a more familiar brown-haired man.

All traces of sleep gone, he figured he might as well provide him some company, at least that was what he told himself as he made the slow climb up the rungs of mast to the top. He quietly climbed up the mast as not to break the silence of the sea at night. It was only when he was halfway up did he realize Kurt might still be jumpy after the terrifying ordeal of the day. Endeavoring not to scare his friend, he started slapping his hands and feet against the rungs, hoping it was enough noise to warn Kurt of his coming. When he got to the basket, Kurt was leaning against the opposite side.

Z cleared his dry throat. "I wasn't expecting you up here."

Kurt turned to look at him, before smiling and relaxing slightly.

"I needed to think,” Kurt said, “so I let Baj turn in early. Quite a view, huh?”

“Yeah.” he climbed in, leaving as wide a berth as he could in the small space. “How did your meeting with Guude go?”

“Good, I think. He knew more about the Emerald than I expected, also knew very little.” He paused, face turning stoic, “I hope I could be of some help.”

“I’m sure you will be.”

“I just… when they do find me, I don’t want the crew to suffer much.”

He blanched at the insinuation of that thought. “Was the Emerald… that bad?”

Kurt turned, his back to the sea, eyes boring into Zisteau’s. "The first week after I joined... it was nice, almost like how it is here. The captains were kind and lenient with rules. We, the people who just joined, and several older members were having a great time, but then... then the captains changed. They became cruel. They treated us like animals, making us work to the bone, giving us bad food, and using the whip whenever they could think of a reason. Not a good enough job cleaning? Whipped. Let too many people go free? Whipped.”

Zisteau had no words, so Kurt continued, "At first it seemed like a small crew, but then suddenly these big brutes got on deck and made it even worse. They watched us constantly, ratting us out of the captains if we stepped out of line.”

“But then how did you end up here?”

“I… I tried escaping once. It didn’t go so well. Then I tried giving the poor cabin boy more food. Same punishment,” Kurt’s shoulders began to shake, “And- and I've brought them to the Mindcrack, oh God."

Zisteau moved over, putting an arm around his shoulders. The silence prevailed like a blanket over the two, until Kurt, trembling a little less, cleared his throat, voice still wavering.

“I… I saw him when we were at the bar. I realized they were coming for me and I just, distanced myself to make it easier for everyone, but...”

He let out a breath, weariness tugging over his shoulders. He needed a distraction, that horrified look coming over his face, so Zisteau started talking.

“I… I used to be in His Majesty’s Navy.” Kurt looked up at him. “But one day, we were moving pirates back home to be tried. I was put on guard duty, and… they weren’t murderers for the sake of killing. They just didn’t like how the king ran things. Now they were going to be killed.

"I… set all them free. Managed to get them in rowboats at night just before we were about to dock. The captain spotted me, and in the ensuing fight I… killed him. First mate had me arrested and put on trial that day. They threw me in jail, but my guards, those sons of bitches turned out to be friends with the captain and felt they had to get revenge."

"What'd they do?"

"Branded me as a pirate, but they didn't have what they needed to do it correctly, so they improvised."

"How'd they do that?"

"See for yourself."

Zisteau turned around and slowly brought his hands behind his neck and fixed his collar so it wasn't turned up. Kurt moved behind him to see what he was talking about and let out a small gasp. He’d stared long enough with a mirror to know what he was looking at; the scar of a “P,” jaggedly cut into his upper back and neck.

"They jumped me and held me down. Then took a knife and carved it right in my skin. I'm lucky they didn't hit anything important, but they got damn close."

Sudden contact nearly made Z jump out of his skin, but it was just Kurt’s hands coming up to pop his collar back up. If his hands lingered longer than he should’ve, Z reassured himself that he was just imagining it.

This close, he could just barely hear Kurt whisper, “Bastards.”

He turned around, a smile on his face. “Woah, didn’t know you had that kind of language in your arsenal.”

Kurt snorted, “Ah yes, because after years of being surrounded by sailors and pirates, I stay clean-mouthed.”

The two shared a laugh, soft enough that the deck crew wouldn’t be able to hear. Z suddenly felt like his heart was being tugged on, like he wanted to take this moment and lock it away in a box, so no matter what happened, he could return to this exact moment, this exact moment of light heartedness.

“We’ll be fine,” Z said, more for Kurt’s benefit than his, “we’ve fought them before.”

Kurt’s smile wanned a little bit. “There’s not a crew I’d rather fight beside.”

And seeing Kurt, bathed in moonlight, tired but hopeful, it was all Zisteau could do to hold onto the rail of the crow’s nest to prevent himself from leaning in.

Fuck, he was in deep.

Comments

[eclipse3]

The whip lash I got from seeing a dreamwidth notif in my inbox was something else let me tell you.
Oh strange dreams? A sign of sinister things to come perhaps?
OH SHIT BDUBS CREW IS HERE AS WELL. THAT'S NOT GOING TO END WELL.
Oh jeez poor Kurt, that has to be hard seeing those bastards again.
never a good thing, when your enemy lets you go.
oh gods that's horrible.
Ah but the image of the two of them at the end is so very sweet. I love it!

[kappa77]

im glad you enjoyed it!!