S: 17 Poor Girl, Another Empty Dance Card

In the old simpler days, before the fleet. A storm waged outside of the Hive ship, goblins and crewmen covering most of the deck. Two such goblins walk out of the mess hall carrying five large platters of food, a mixture of meats, breads, and savory pastries stacked high. The two short creatures having trouble balancing all five platters but they continue on their delivery. They weave and dodge all other crewmen while across the ship while two women sit together near the bow, two people who may have been on the Hive the longest. The demi-human being one of the first on the ship "listened" to the elf trying to teach her something. "Alright Morrigan, Morrigan? You wanted me to teach you about Meria...." The elf Zephyria looked at her companion and waited for an answer. Morrigan stopped drawing in her sketchbook and blushed, "Uhhh sorry I was listening! Yes I wanted to know more about Meria...." Zephyria stares daggers at the young demi-human, "You just want to know about combat things, don't you.." Orri sits up and stammers, "I don't JUST want to..learn...that...I mean if you want to tell me that stuff you can...." She looks at her elf friend with puppy dog eyes. The high elf sighs heavily, she hasn't known the demi-human very long, but Morrigan was pretty easy to figure out, "Alright, soo Meria is a series of islands, much like where you come from it's...and....blah....history....demons...blah blah...blah blah" Morrigan tried so hard to pay attention, she didn't miss so much of Zephyria's words on purpose, she just couldn't help it, "Blaaaah blah blah...Centuries....blah blah centau....blah blah fighting..." Morrigan's ears perked up, " ....blaaaah blah blah....so when challenging another Merian to a duel they have no choice but to accept or be dish...blah blah blah blaaaaah blah blah...Strong opponents will usually accept....bah blah blah strong..blah blah fighting....blah blah wrestl...naked blah blah important...blah, still paying attention Orri?" Zephyria looked at her waiting for an answer too see the demi-human was looking at her excited. "I guess you are, great" Zephyria looked pleased. The two goblins with platters finally arrive and hand them to Orri as she immediately starts to eat almost all of it like a flash "YEP duels and stuff great." Orri said happily, Zephyria squinted her eyes suspiciously and worried for the future...."Zephy did you want some of this?"
 
Many years later during the current age, now that that special demi-human has her own ship and is in charge of people. She finds herself eating a large plate of crab meat as she stars out into the ocean from the beach. She does seem to be in low spirits...well as low spirit as this jovial simple creature can be in. There is still a smile on her face with a touch of disappointment, and looks up to the moon. She then checks her small map and looks to the left across the ocean, "Why couldn't you just give a clue...at least something." Turning her head toward the ships watching the lights flicker and thinking about that one thing Zephyria taught her. The boss guy thing was supposed to lead the charge right and accept her challenge, but no, some weak guy got really hurt because she got to excited. From atop a stone Zephyria sits there sipping tea and watching the stars, "What kind of clue would they have given you? One of your Moms?" Her voice tried to come out sarcastic but there was some concern in there. "No not them, someone else, Zephy how come that one guy agreed to the duel when he wasn't the strongest one?!" Orri turned to her almost demanding an answer. Zephyria's eyes go wide with her demand, "Well Orri I can't speak for him...but I'm guessing you are more frustrated that the big burly guy showed up late and challenged Anaxa instead of you. Am I about right there?" She smirks at her friend and lets her stew in it. Morrigan turns back to the ocean and pouts crossing her arms and purses her lips, "NO!" Betraying any credibility immediately, and she sighs heavily and turns back , "......maybe. I was so excited for the fight and even got into a nice outfit! and then the first guy got really hurt because he claimed to be the strongest!" She thinks back to that soldier that agreed to her duel. Her excitement boiled to a fever as she finally remembered what Zephyria told her all those years ago, jumping from her ship and next to him letting off a fiery barrage of precise strikes. Before the soldier could even quip or say something to her, he dropped like a rock. Orri had punched through his shield and dented his armor...he was just some random soldier. Orri looked back up at Zephyria who handed her a snack, "Thanks Zephy, you know I'm sure you and Anaxa would just say "he asked for it, he was foolish to a do that"....I don't know, I had such an idea in my head about how it would go..." She holds her copy of "The Gambit of the Pirate Princess" and looks at it before she puts it back in her Chakra hole. Zephyria sits there hoping that her martial friend is making some progress in introspection. Suddenly Orri makes a fist and reves herself up on the sand, her aura explodes and starts to turn the sand into thin glass, "I'LL DO BETTER NEXT TIME AND GET THE ATTENTION OF THE ACTUAL BOSS, AND GET A REAL CHALLENGE...and maybe finally find my love!!" The light of her energy aura lights up the whole area like a light house nearly blinding Zephyria. The high elf sits there covering her eyes and thinks to herself and sighs, "So close Orri...so close...I'm rooting for you though."
 
The light gets everyone's attention drawing Anaxa's gaze. She arrives just as Morrigan's energy lessens and the moon returns to it's duties of lighting the area. Anaxa smiles thinking Orri is frustrated by not getting to fight the large warrior, only to find her standing dreamily holding on of her horrible love books. The hoplite can swear she sees hearts emanating from her friend and almost retches, "I thought you were over here angry you didn't get to fight the boss, but then I guess we are close to even now. Don't worry I'm sure you will have a strong challenge soon......who you can fall in lo....lov....ugh" She looks at Morrigan as she hugs her book and sighs, "Alright listen, we can hear everything over there, you are as quiet as a cyclops walking through a platoon of hoplites, and yes that soldier wasn't you fault, he did it too himself so don't worry about it." After saying a comforting word her expression gets annoyed, "AND stop taking so much pity on our enemies, THEY WERE THERE TO KILL US!" Morrigan's eyes widen and she stares at the large woman, "Yeah but..." Anaxa jumps in and interrupts, "I don't care if you "sensed" they energy and they were weaker, our enemies must die!" With that piece of "advice" Anaxa nods and walks back to the fire to clean her armor. Orri is left there to ponder Anaxa's words and try to take them to heart, "I guess he WAS kind of old, I was hoping for something..." Orri looks away, and Zephyria nearly falls off her stone, "Orri that was your main worry?!" She says much less surprised than she should be. "Well...a little...it's just been a little while and..you know..." She blushes but doesn't smile and continues, "Well no boys have even approached me since it started..." She blushes as Zephyria listens, "Really? I haven't paid much attention to that, but I'm sorry?" Morrigan turns to her dear friend and smiles cheerfully at her, "It's not your fault Zephy! Unless you stopped people from asking me out?" She laughs and then gives Zephyria a glare, "No you wouldn't besides it doesn't matter, she said there was only one...or something like that. Whoever likes my cooking I guess." She sighs and looks across the ocean to the left again. She wondered if it was in the curse that absolutely no one would ask her on a date or approach her, "Um Orri? Have you EVER been on a date?" Zephyria asked almost to interested or bored to escape this conversation. Morrigan blushes and drags her bare feet into the sand, Zephyria watched her as she blushed and moved like a kid. This innocent minded warrior who devastated a battlefield couldn't be for real, could she? "Well...no..not yet. No one has ever asked me really. I read about it so much in my books I had really hoped someone would come up and be romantic and ask me to dinner. No one in Talon ever asked really, then I got stuck on the Frigid Freezer for a while. No one in Io asked me either..." She goes quite and seems to reflect as she draws in the sand with her toes. Zephyria speaks up, "...Orri, you DO realize I'm cursed to not understand love, right?" She waits for confirmation from Morrigan, "...Yes I remember...it's why I try not to bombard you with love stuff, I know how tough curses can be!" She smiles warmly at the elf, "To be honest Morrigan, maybe some of them are scared and think they have to fight you for your heart and they don't want to die." She giggles at the thought and looks down to Orri who is still smiling and drawing in the sand with her feet. Morrigan suddenly comes out with, "Am I not pretty enough you think?" She says somewhat nonchalant, more as a question than someone fishing for compliments. Zephyria smiles at her and is happy to tell her friend, "Orri you are very pretty, don't worry." The demi-human smiles in thanks and gives Zephyria a long and gentle hug, "Thanks Zephy, I think you are super pretty!" The elf relents and hugs the silly woman back. "I hope someone at the next Simple Pose em's will ask me to dance.." She returns to her dream land of love and romance and dances with an imaginary boy at a grand ball.
 
The night proceeds and the whole group is sitting by the fire winding down for the day, Anaxa teases Orri every so often about the boss, "...Alright it's fine, I said we are even now." Morrigan feigns a pout every time and smiles that Anaxa has forgiven her, her simple mind forgetting about the big pirate. She takes out her sketchbook and starts to draw in it as she scooches in and leans against the Admiral. In the early days Morrigan would do this as often as possible, it was almost culture shock to go from the mean Captain Radish to this scary looking kind goblin lady. The Admiral gets a little squished as she is half the size of Morrigan, but accepts the affection, "What ye be drawin there Morrigan?" Orri yawns and sketches, "Oh just drawing our adventure, like that guy you didn't seem to like. Is Hell so bad Admiral? I mean it's just a place where dead people go right?" She sketches some more and the Admiral thinks of how to explain it to her and then looks at the rest of the crew for some feedback. The crew looks back at her and shakes there heads with a resounding "NO, do not explain hell to this sweet summer child", except for Anaxa who was sporting a mischievous smile and nodded to the Admiral. Squeenifer decided rightly to not explain Hell this late in the evening to Morrigan, who was just leaning against her and doodling pictures of hearts in her sketchbook. As she grows more tired and dozes off leaning against the tiny goblin, she sleepily says, "Admiral...?" Squeenifer perks up and listen. "Why do you keep making me do leadery stuff...I don't think I'm ...good at it." She starts to drift off. "Orri I be trying to make ye a better leader! Yer a captain now! Ye have people to protect.." "Admiral.." Zephyria interrupts, "She's gone." The elf points at the fast asleep demi-human leaning against Squeenifer. The entire crew sighs at this ridiculous member of the Hive that seems to make some of them almost look normal. Edea sits for a moment and watches the young woman sleep for a few minutes, "She looks so peaceful when she sleeps.....an Innocent Monster." she shivers to herself.
 
The martial artist drifts to sleep and her eyes open up back on a ship, it seems familiar but off somehow. It 's definitely not a trireme, it has an odd familiar shape, "Oh it's the Frigid Freezer!" A voice comes from above her, "Why oven cours' Eiht is!" Artemis floats above her in the sky with a weird bird lady in his teeth as she sings a song about loud noises. "Huh..." She says as a loud footstep comes from behind her, "Oh look Dunkampf has returned to MY ship!" Orri's eyes widen with surprise, "Captain Radish?!" She turns to see a horrific mutation of a Daiya-jin and a large crab. Three spindely legs coming from one leg, and a massive claw dragging behind him from what should be his right arm. His face almost half dwarven and half crab, a horrific mandible quivering against his odd human lips, "What be WRONG?!..." His voice goes through a bunch of registers and they separate into her current crew mate's voices circling her and they all speak in unison, "Whaaaats wroooong Orri, is it because he's a monster? We know how prejudice you are against them...." They voices repeat it a few times, and Orri backs away with sad scared expression, Zephyria's and Anaxa voice getting louder than the others, their heads floating and visible until they pop and brown feather confetti rains down on the ship, "No I'm not....it was an accident....Amarabi...scared...strong...." A book flies toward her and she goes to catch it, it's "Pride Prejudice and Monsters" the only reason she knows what the word prejudice means. It flies past her head as dozens of books are creating a vortex around her, until a large map of Meria flies above them all and slowly folds itself into a knife and stabs them all violently. A single book remains and grows into the horrific form of a hoplite, the title of the book across his chest, "The Gambit of the Pirate Princess..." Orri reads it out loud and looks sad, she turns to run away so she won't hurt it. She goes at full speed but her legs don't get any traction, closing her eyes she keeps running....
 
Around the fire, the Hive begins to wind down and suddenly all attention is on Orri sleeping against the Admiral, her legs running against the sand, "Aww guys, she's dreaming. Look at her." Calliope announces and smiles.
 
A torrent of noise fills Orri's ears as she opens her eyes again to see a purple red sky and a dark ridged landscape going on for miles and miles. The sky cracks with noise with such foreboding, in front of her is a massive dark palace silhouetted by the multi coloured sky. Orri looks up at it starts to smile happily when without warning a monstrous creature with giant eyestalks a large left arm covered in tattoos, it looked male. The monster's face seem like half Anaxa's and half some middle aged man, eyestalks coming out of it's feminine parts, and strange eyes on it male pieces. I stood there in it's horrible fury. Without warning it suddenly sprinted toward Orri and chased her down a long outdoor hall, every few feet a large gate would close barring their way back. As the last gate closes and the creature is gone. Orri stands up and her legs are gone, a sword sticking out of one of them. She gets a little panicked and looks at the gate, she sees to silhouetted figures waving at her. She looks excited and tries to run to them without her legs. Then a massive explosion and she is pulled backwards watching them and the landscape vanishes in the distance. She finds herself in an endless white landscape filled with nothing, except a sign, she speeds to it and it says, "Welcome to Hell....bad?" She looks around seeing nothing, with all her imagination she just knows nothing about it. She turns around and sees a twelve story tall crab just relaxing on a small mushroom smoking a pipe and reading a book, "Oh Morrigan yes? Aren't you a pretty lady, I'm sure the boys must fight for you...." Suddenly it's face changes to Zephyria's, "Come on Orri it's a monster aren't you going to you know..." Zephyria's face morphs and suddenly it's half Anaxa's face and they say in unison, "KILL IT! KILL IT!" They vanish and the crab's face returns to normal and he fixes his manacle, "Oh dear, what's that? behind your ear?!" His huge claw reaches for her head and shows her a drachma, "WOW!" She looks impressed, and he does it again and again. His claw moving faster taking coins from behind her ears and above her head. There is a fair pile of drachma on the ground, "Oooooh this must be my bounty, You see Mr.Crab I have a bounty on top of my head..." The crab is gone and she is sitting at a table with another woman. The woman turns quickly and it's Orri, she looks at herself with shock. The both of them moving as if looking at a mirror. She raises her right hand and the duplicate raise HER right hand...completely failing the mirror effect. The duplicate slams her hands on the table and Orri's feet are shackled to the floor, the clone Orri takes a step to the side and stage lights turn on to show a massive cookie rolling towards her. Morrigan pulls at the chains, but can't break them and the cookie comes inches away from her face, it has writing on it,"Captain, leadership"..
 
She is shaken awake by Zephyria, "Orri, you are going crazy over here." Morrigan looks at her dear elf, "You saved me!" Zephyria looks with a smile of confusion, "Um you're welcome.." She leaves Orri to calm down.
 
A few moments later Morrigan sits there pondering her dream, "....what the Fu.."