He paced around the deck. The others were sleeping below deck, blissfully unaware of his troubles. Around him, the sounds of the night surrounded and cocooned him- the grass rustling as the slight breeze blew through them, the cricket-calls in the distance. The air was cool, moist; around him everything was muted, a veil thrown over the usual blackness that was all his life was now.
The red. He couldn't shake the color from his mind- the only semblance of sight he had in a long while. The burst of vibrant color against his arm after it'd been scratched, the red on his fingertips- he could see his fingers then, for a short while- before Astrae had cleaned it away.
He'd asked for red things the rest of the day, but nothing else seemed to work- it was only that one instance which generated some response from his unseeing eyes. Astrae did say his eyes weren't too bad- maybe the poison was relenting? Maybe his eyes were repairing on their own- but still, it took of his self-control to not check if drawing his own blood again would re-trigger his sight.
His self-control was wearing thin. Frowning, Dave stuck his hand in his pocket, felt the jagged edge of the glass shard he had snuck along- the lizard thing, Casey, had broken some glass or porcelain thing earlier in the evening.
Hey...future me...a call anytime would be good...snap me out of this...
But his future self did not conveniently drop by.
Really, he was being quite pathetic. Was he so desperate for some visual that he'd be willing to cut himself like some depraved ...schizophrenic? Was that the right word? He could just imagine himself curling up in a corner and slashing his wrists- how laughable-
A sudden stab of pain alerted him to the realization that he was clenching the shard in his hand. Cutting short a hiss of pain he withdrew his hand, realizing too late what a mistake that was-
-the blood red. It was there. Blossoming starkly against the darkness that was his palm and the rest of the world.
"...red is the most delicious color..." Dave muttered, chuckling weakly at the memory the phrase triggered- perhaps Terezi had more reason than most realized to be so infatuated with the color, after all. There was something about its brightness- maybe, one day, he wouldn't have to bleed to see again-
-but. For now. He stared in awe as his fingertips fluoresced in the darkness. The sting from the cut was easily ignored- he'd had worse. The glass- for no reason at all, he dug out the piece as well, watching its edges glisten red. He held it up, waved it around. The red patches shifted, danced about like moving beacons. Fireflies. Whatever. Droplets of his blood flicked onto the ground, creating more light- little orbs of them- it was- almost intoxicating-
He whirled around, his bleeding hand finding the edge of the hull and sliding across it, leaving a trail of red. There. The edge. He stood back, memorized the height, imagined the line of red going all around the ship-
His good hand was gripping into the glass shard so hard it was beginning to bleed too. He felt around the edge, found one side that wasn't bloodied yet- bloodied it. And slowly, deliberately, spun the edge around as it was partway into his arm, until he could clearly see the whole piece outlined in blood-
-ouch.
-was Dave Strider so desperate for some visual that he'd be willing to pathetically cut himself?
yes.
He let out a low hiss, removing the glass and examined it- the pain was irrelevant. He decisively blocked it out. Glancing down to see just about his whole left hand (he felt the sticky blood all over it too), he put a finger down to the slash he just made across his arm and gently smeared the blood out. It tricked down and striped his arm in glowing bands.
'LOSER'
He didn't argue with what his subconscious rubbed out across his mutilated arm.
He raised the glass shard again-
-my, this was feeling rather like punishment by now-
-deserving punishment, of course, but-
"...dave? You couldn't sleep too?" Jade was at the top of the stairs, sleepily rubbing her eyes. Dave whirled around, dropping the glass shard; his arm pounded against his chest with the shock- he took an unsteady step back, stumbled over and crushed the glass-
Jade's eyes widened. "Dave! What's wrong! You're- you're hurt!"
-and Dave tripped over, his good hand reaching to clutch at the red line marking the edge to stop his imminent faceplant onto the hard floor. He felt Jade's long hair tickle his face as she brushed up against him, clutching frantically at his blood-coated arm.
"There's- there's- is that blood? Oh noooooooo- Dave, what happened? D-did you cut yourself on something?"
It was an absurd notion- there was nothing up here to cut him with, other than the glass. But still, Jade had suggested it. Dave nodded faintly, seeing the red marks on his arm- his first writing in quite a while- disappear as Jade rubbed at the blood in a panic with her sleeve. Wait, Jade didn't see the implicating word- oh, right. It was dark.
"The glass, was it? Oh dear, did Casey bring part of that vase up here? Bad Casey... can you walk? I'll get you to Astrae-"
Of course he could walk. A small cut on the arm wasn't going to cripple him. "I'm fine." Dave muttered, feeling his face heat up a little in shame- Jade had almost discovered him, getting all emotional and uncool and pathetic and sloshing blood around like a savage. Astrae- the woman would probably tell in a second. "Don't disturb her."
"Ooh, but I'm not sure if I'm any good at patching up cuts..."
"It's fine. I'm fine."
He was not fine. But no one needed to know that. Frankly he was already torn between a reluctant gratitude for Jade's caring and an embarrassed desire for her to stop caring so much because he didn't think he deserved it.
"No, you're not! Aahh, my sleeve's all bloodied now..." He could imagine Jade frown as she helped him up, led him across the deck and back down the stairs. "You're bleeding all over the place! This isn't good! Ooh, I'm not sure if we have enough bandages..."
The next day was a flurry of activity. John awoke to find that the ship was already in the air, traveling so fast that birds were hitching a ride along its slipstream. Everyone else was still asleep, so he stumbled up the stairs and out onto deck.
Astrae was still at the prow of the ship. She slowed the airstream so that John could approach without being bowled over, not turning from the wheel except to throw the occasional worried glance past John towards the stern of the ship.
"Madam, why are we moving so fast?" John said, noticing that the ship was only a few hundred metres above the ground, putting the time at about nine in the morning. "Are we going to be arriving- blurrggh!" He gagged as the ship made a beeline for a low-floating cloud, purposely diving right into its midst.
"Shush, child. Go back below deck. It may not be safe out here."
"What's going on? Why are we moving so fa-eeccckkk!" Another cloud.
"Normally we would have reached our destination at lunchtime, and I don't mind- would have certainly preferred, as well- to stick to that itinerary. But our circumstances are different now. We don't have a choice." Astrae glanced back yet again as the ship emerged from the most recent cloud, and this time John did the same, running towards the stern to get a closer look at whatever they seemed to be running from. His eyes were able to discern a dark ship in the distance. It seemed to have eight ... things sticking out of each side, and a particularly long black mast that lent the ship a sinister aura.
"W-what's that?"
"A pirate ship. It looks like the Desert Scorpion, a very dangerous one. We need to get close to the city, and fast- I don't think they've spotted us yet, but if they do, we're in big trouble.
"Why? What would pirates want with such a small gondola?"
"While Aeolite can convert light or heat into energy without much repercussion, for as long as needed, it's extremely brittle- pirate ships run through their supply extremely fast, because attacking other ships puts quite a strain on their own as well. Ship parts can be sold, sailors can be taken as slaves- besides, that's the Desert Scorpion. It doesn't need a reason to take trophies. It's a flagship- there might be a fleet nearby. They say this fleet never leaves battle without spoils. They say their leader once tortured a whole batch of slaves to death, all in a day- that's why the fleet's always on the lookout to take in more prisoners."
John felt his jaw drop open. That was scary-
"So- John, tell your friends to stay below deck. You stay below deck too- on a second thought, if you don't mind could you come back up? We might be able to move faster if you'd help me. If you're afraid, you can just stay below deck if you wan-"
"Okay, I'll help!" John nodded and dived into the hold. After relaying the message to Rose, the second to wake, he reemerged back onto the deck - and was promptly blasted back into the hold. Astrae apologized and lessened the wind, allowing him to stagger forward.
"What can I do?" John ducked as the ship dove through another cloud. "I can't do much -"
"You haven't done any wind channeling then?'
"...what's that?"
"... you'll learn soon enough, dear. Go to the back of the ship and try to boost the wind for the sails. I've reached my limit, but perhaps a bit more from you can increase our speed. Just follow the direction of the flow."
John was still terribly confused, but Astrae pushed him back with a gust of wind. He had never done anything like this, but judging from his previous experience (flying), he supposed it wouldn't be too hard. Moving towards the stern was easy. Staying there was hard. The slipstream converged at the stern, threatening to knock him off. He leaned against the rear mast, hoping that the pole would be able to hold his weight.
It did, but the strong gale tore the air from his lungs. The fact that his wings began fluttering didn't help either - wait - what if he flew above the ship, above the stream? Would that make it easier?
John didn't have to make the choice as a sudden blast from the side whipped him from his shelter and out over the deck. One moment he was still standing on the polished wood, and the next hovering over open air.
OHSHI-
...well, the air was calmer here. His wings whipped out, instinctively kept him aloft- actually, it was quite nice here!
He fell again (he needed to learn how to do other sorts of flying soon), below the ship, making sure to keep out of the slipstream that was so violent he could almost see. Umm...okay, how was he supposed to get up now? Fall backwards- oh no the ship was leaving him behind-
He grabbed the rudder so that the ship pulled him along as he worked out his conundrum.
John squirmed and flapped his arms, trying to get himself to rise. After a lot of embarrassing flailing he managed to claw his way up the side of the ship, kicking off the hull to propel himself up towards Astrae.
"Whaaattt nnooooooowwwww?" His voice was flung away by the wind.
"Let go and listen!" Was what he caught of Astrae's reply- unfortunately, the more constructive instructions were blown out of earshot by the vicious gales.
Flying was one thing, but 'wind channeling' was another. In fact, John was not sure how he was going to do it.
You wonder, child?
It was that voice again. The same voice that had spoken to him when the infernal dragon had ravaged Zephyr Village. Not Astrae. Not Rose. Of course! Any handy hints, voice?
Instead of a verbal response, John felt something change. His mind felt pummeled again, similar to when Casey spoke- something disappeared, his head felt a little lighter or something- his vision shifted- and then, around him, were streams of blue. Some bright, some dark, but blue nevertheless. Flapping like ribbons, tied around the ship like ribbons too.
-wait they were air streams. No one would know that he mistook air streams for ribbons, okay? No one.
He reached out tentatively to touch one of the brighter streams and recoiled instantly as the violent winds nearly blasted his mind to shreds. It was even worse than Casey speaking into his head. He flipped backwards and lost some altitude, but quickly clung to a passing mast to make sure he didn't lose the ship altogether. Taking another breath he vaulted outwards and tried again- targeting a dimmer stream he was able to hold on to this one, gently guiding the flow of air to hit the sails in the same direction as the brighter ones.
Like that?
The voice did not reply, but John knew that he had done it correctly because suddenly the ship put on a burst of speed. At the wheel, Astrae glanced backwards, gave him a thumbs up- which he returned- before turning back, leading the gondola into some impressive acrobatic cloud-hopping.
After who knew how long, John was exhausted from all that flying and wind channeling. Astrae judged them to be sufficiently close to Luthivra, and the Desert Scorpion had disappeared over the horizon. She brought the ship to a stop, letting John fly (read as: fall) down onto deck. At least this time he did not do a face-plant upon landing, which was good.
Jade and Rose chose that moment toppled onto deck, disheveled.
"What was all that?" Jade groaned, rubbing her head. "We were falling all over the place! We could have backflipped more times- landing on the ceiling was so fun!" She giggled, earning herself an irritated shove from Rose. "Dave threw up, he's still curled up in bed looking a little green- John! John, did you fly? You're on the ground again!"
"There was a pirate ship!" John gushed, flailing his arms. "We were almost attacked!"
"Oh?" Jade's grin quickly disappeared. "That's..."
"... dangerous, yes, but it's over now." Astrae finished the sentence, still leaning against the railing for support. "We can afford to go slower now- we're almost at Luthivra, at any rate. Is Dave still alright?"
As if in response the boy staggered up onto deck. He was definitely looking better now, though no less annoyed. "I heard that."
"Alright." Rose started. "Why don't we make ourselves useful right now instead of lounging around. Great Sagittarius, my head feels like it's splitting in half..."
"Rose is right! We should, um, do stuff!"
"That's so helpful." Dave's sigh turned into a retch and he quickly clamped a hand over his mouth.
John pouted. "I tried!"
"Yes. 'Do stuff' is such a testament of your great effort in being useful."
"I said 'make ourselves useful', not 'squabble amongst ourselves like children'." Rose cut in. "Just because we-"
"But we are children!" Jade pointed out. "Not that it makes any difference~" She giggled.
"The circumstances aren't favorable for us to act our age. Really, I don't observe any other juveniles embarking on such quests to find their true selves. Is a little maturity all that overwhelming a concept for the rest of you?"
"There's no need to argue, children." Astrae interrupted serenely as a gust of wind began propelling the ship forward. "Look."
John cast his eyes in the direction Astrae indicated, but all he could discern was a mushroom-shaped object in the distance. He went up to the prow for a better look, and was soon followed by the others. Jade abandoned the railing in favour of a rapid dash across deck, leaving Dave and Rose to slowly make their way forward. As the ship approached, the mushroom revealed itself to be a two-tiered structure of some sort, having a brilliant blue top that shadowed its brown base. John was about to ask Astrae what it was, but she simply put a finger to her lips and smiled mysteriously. A simple gesture later the ship suddenly put on a burst of speed, threatening to knock him off his feet. When he returned his attention to the structure, John was awed.
What he had perceived to be a mushroom was in fact a city. The upper portion was chiseled out of some glittering crystal-like material, and floated a good several hundred feet above the lower portion. The brown structure resolved itself into a sturdy wall upon which a large gondola port was constructed. It was there that Astrae had been aiming for. In a few minutes they were almost upon Luthivra, and its inhabitants bustled about the city. Some floated leisurely on their wings, while others zipped through the alleyways on strange board-like contraptions. The grounded portions of the city were no less populated than its upper half, rivaling its airborne counterpart in design.
Astrae delicately maneuvered the Jade Moth to a stop some distance away from the docks. There were many other ships parked in the gondola port, most painted in blue to blend in with the sky and their Aeolite mechanisms. There were a few red boats with draconic wing sails, along with one ship gilded entirely in gold. A Ventus attendant flew out of a hidden building and landed on deck. He looked pretty young, but then again one could not really tell. A silver badge with a blue swirl symbol pinned to his uniform marked him as some sort of official, along with the clipboard and quill that he held.
"Good to be back here again," Astrae commented to the new arrival. "Morgan, you're keeping fit."
"Indeed! Welcome back!" The official nodded, smiling amiably then he noticed the kids. "Great heavens, Dolorosa, you didn't just go and adopt more children, did you?"
...Dolorosa? Didn't Astrae say her name was Astrae?
"No, of course not!" both Astrae and the official laughed. The children looked absolutely bewildered, and Astrae reassured them with a quick smile before continuing. "Keeping your wit sharp as well, I see. But don't worry, they aren't dangerous or anything. I'll vouch for their credibility."
"As you say, Dolorosa." Morgan consulted his clipboard. "Berth Six. The usual."
Astrae nodded as the official took off, conjuring up another gust of wind. She raised her eyebrows at the sudden flurry of discussion that had broken out, but decided not to investigate. The ship knocked gently against the berth before coming to a complete stop. With a flick of her hand Astrae summoned a gust of wind to blow the boarding plank into place before turning to the kids. They immediately started a barrage of questions.
"You know that guy?"
"You've been here before?"
"Who's Doloro-"
"Ssshh. Questions later; soak in the mood first. This is your first time, right? Really, the first time in such a city can be quite the eye-opener, I'll entertain those distractions later- I think an introduction is in order. Children, welcome to Luthivra - the City of the Sky."