[ un: black prince / ut malum pluvia | audio ]

[blackscales]

[ un: black prince | audio ]

[ It's been days since the kraken first appeared and half of them were forced to commandeer ships to escape. Some might have already figured out why the danger seems to be receding, however slowly, and so there really isn't any need for some big announcement. Certainly not a whole-ass debate over what to do with a magical object that summoned this mess and nearly dragged them down to the bottom of the ocean.

Some would disagree, and one such red-eyed prince insisted on hunting down an old man who thought they'd settled this already.

The feed that starts is audio only, but the clear sound of Wrathion's voice is easily recognisable. He appears to be talking to someone else, and although his tone is neutral enough anyone who has spoken to him at length can likely discern the faint note of irritation in his choice of wording. ]

This... artefact is alive, dangerous. The mermaids are drawn to it. The wards on the box I have secured it back inside contain it, to some degree, but not entirely. I would still have preferred it destroyed, but if you are so insistent on keeping it I must strongly recommend people are aware it travels with us. This party now has two mysteriously living body parts. You don't consider that a concern they deserve to be made aware of?

[ The voice that answers is, for those that recognise it, Five. He does not sound in the best of moods. ]

There's nothing to say. I told you already, we don't know what happens if we destroy it. We don’t need to make this any more complicated, so the best option is to keep it hidden until we figure this out. [ A pause and his tone gets sharper. ] Trust me, I've —

[ At this point, Five notices Wrathion is recording him when he starts to hear an echo. There's a muffled "really?" and a long silence when the device shuts off. When it turns back on several minutes later they seem to have reached an agreement, and Five's voice suddenly sounds clearer. ]

[ un: ut malum pluvia | audio ]

You might have noticed that we're all still alive. We called off Vane's mission, the magic tongue he used to unleash the undead armada is sealed away safely, and everything should be fine.

[ There. All the relevant details. Happy, Wrathion? ]

Congratulations, we won. Now can we get the hell out of here?

Comments

voice; un: V

[techmaturgy]

[Just, with so much exasperation:]

Next time, let me run some tests on these things before you seal them away.

voice; @Black Prince

[blackscales]

[ Mildly: ]

Given the sea-born monstrosity attacking the vessel, the pirates attacking us, the ghosts lingering and the fact that the artefact being outside the box attracted an increase in mermaid activity it seemed... prudent to delay any further investigation. Safety first, you understand.

voice; un: ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

[ If that doesn't prove he made the right call in getting to it first. ]

What kind of tests?

voice;

[reparo]

Not while we're all still at sea.

un: white pawn; voice

[chosenbylight]

The artifact is... alive?

[Wrathion at least can probably imagine the expression on Anduin's face in response to this information, especially considering the artifact in question is -- a tongue. A human tongue. In a box.]

How can you be certain?

voice; @Black Prince

[blackscales]

[ What a question. ]

Well, it isn't dead or undead.

[ Narrows the choice down, yes? ]

un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ It's a magic tongue. Kept alive by magic. He doesn't know how Wrathion could tell that it's not undead, but he better not be asking to see it. ]

Does that make a difference?

audio | un: workstormit

[bravelyrunsaway]

Oh, grand, why not keep it with the heart the corpse eater has, we can build ourselves a monster!

( zero percent happy over here, but listening and going what storm struck nonsense will come next?! )

voice; @Black Prince

[blackscales]

[ At least Wrathion put his body part back in a box. ]

Abominations are not my strong point, so I'm afraid I'll have to defer that. As for the heart -- I believe he said that particular organ was not human. Interesting, as this tongue seems as if it may be. Not from the same source then, at a glance, so at least we aren't accidentally rebuilding something.

audio | un: ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

[ See, this is why he didn't want to tell everyone. ]

Would you rather we left it with the Captain?

@taken for granite

[rumorate]

I'm sorry, how many undead body parts do we have?

[She's asking you, Five, not Wrathion, though she feels like she might get more straight answers out of the the one she's not related to.

It's weird when you assume straight answers out of a acquaintance over your own family.]

voice; @Black Prince

[blackscales]

[ Helpfully: ]

It isn't undead. It's alive.

@ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

[ He technically still has Anurr's finger...hardly relevant. It would have admittedly looked better if he'd told his family about the tongue first, but he didn't expect to suddenly have to make an announcement. ]

They could be unrelated. [ Just a gross coincidence. Or maybe they are, but he's not encouraging anyone to find out. ] At least we know what this one does.

audio | un: yiling patriarch

[weifinder]

Neatly done, the both of you. Where's the sealed tongue now?

( asking five, because five has a history of bad decisions in deciding what should or shouldn't be known or forgotten. and getting frustrated with unknown objects of power. )

At this point that marks two body parts linked to a life without the host body, and some sort of compulsion... are they cursed, such as the mirrors seem to be? Or a person cursed by one?

( sorry he's just thinking out loud now, meandering along even while it's apparent he'd been, ah, fighting. the dead. if one listens. )

audio | un: ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

It's with us.

[ Even if he's still a little sore that Wei Wuxian had him searching everywhere for a mirror that didn't exist, he might have eventually told him in private. Then somebody decided to let everyone chime in.

This isn't the first body part Five has insisted on carrying around either, but hardly anyone knows that. Which has been fine and proves nobody's point. ]

We can speculate all you want, but ask too many questions and they'll figure out who ended up with it.

voice; @Black Prince

[blackscales]

I'm no expert on curses, but I was similarly concerned at our growing collection. Trying to read the tongue hasn't shown me any active connection to an intelligence, but the fact that I could not detect it doesn't mean it isn't there. What we can confirm is it doesn't appear to decay, since it has been ferried around quite some time and is still in a... fresh state.

un : dappled peals of the parted seas (voice)

[beitangmoran]

And were you ever planning to tell us about this 'magic tongue' if this had not happened, Master Five?

Thank you for your service, Master Wrathion.

un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ Why does he ask questions he knows the answer to? Even if he isn't sure how long Wrathion was recording him. ]

It doesn't really matter now, does it?

voice; @Black Prince

[blackscales]

[ He's going to enjoy this brief popularity boost. ]

Of course.

audio;

[reparo]

[As soon as the device starts to transmit a familiar voice, she pays attention. By her count, Wrathion should be on the Rooster with her, but it's pretty clear right now that she lost track of a whole-ass dragon-shaped friend.

When Five's voice follows, her eyebrows migrate to her hairline. She waits, waits, and immediately in reply to Five's intervention:]

No, I'm sure a lot of us are enjoying this cruise from hell and want it to last longer. But thanks for asking.

audio;

[somebadnews]

[ He's detecting a distinct lack of gratitude for helping them here. This is why he doesn't like to make announcements. ...That said, he can mark Hermione off on his 'people who survived' checklist. ]

Right, well. We can wait to celebrate until we get to land.

Audio; un: Black Prince

[blackscales]

I'm beginning to develop a strong dislike of ships.

[ He doesn't think he's enjoyed a single second of this voyage, truly. ]

un: absterge

[downswing]

( ...and yet between them, which stands the greater fool? Allow Lan Wangji a moment to c o n s i d e r. )

Permit it studied.

un: ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

[ Five could have expected that from Viktor, but this is a surprise. ]

You want to experiment with it?

voice; un: polaris

[chromiums]

Sealed away safely where?

[ sealing something away or burying it means it's still there to be uncovered. ]

voice; un: ut malum pluvia

[somebadnews]

[ He's been getting the third-degree from everyone, so let him just clear this up quickly before Wrathion can jump in. ]

If we announced that, it wouldn't be safe anymore, would it?