Nocturna League- Season One Box Set

by Kell Inkston

  "See you."

  "Goodbye, sir."

  He steps through the doorway and closes it behind him.

  The Captain feels his cap just a moment to ensure its straight, and lines his way right to breakfast.

  He gives a polite good-morning to all of the waitstaff, maids and butlers he comes across, and turning the corner finally spots Miss Irefall, who at once embraces him like a lover.

  "Oh, Lewis! You came for me!" She says with her usual bedroom coo. She is, unsurprisingly, in her nightgown, and unsurprisingly upon that, her nightgown is pretty much just black lingerie.

  "Good morning, Pertalaine." He pushes her away, her softness still warm with the bedsheets. "I certainly hope you're not planning on greeting your guests dressed like that."

  She draws back in friendly distaste. "Well of course not!... Though Jim didn't seem to dislike it all that much," she says, smiling crassly as a confused but confident looking Jim folds out from the corner as well.

  "Heya there, sir," he says with a twitching smile that says "I have no control over anything, but I'll act like I do."

  The Captain looks over Jim. "Had an... eventful evening, I trust?" Of course, the tone of The Captain's voice is severely judgmental, though he can't find himself to blame Jim, he really isn't in control of anything, including himself.

  "Y-yes, sir! Was a night I won't soon forget!"

  "Well alright then." The Captain's tone is plain.

  "What?" Jim says next to a snickering Irefall. "Nothing?"

  "No, Jim," The Captain says between a stretch. "It's precisely as I expected from you. I'm not disappointed in the slightest."

  Jim looks away to the open dining room with dejection. "Oh..."

  "By this point, my good boy, I don't have any expectations of you. The only way for you to improve will be for you to put forth an effort to be even half-decent. Go to breakfast."

  "Y-yes sir." Young, handsome Jim slumps off to the dining room, rich with the smells of coffee and cinnamon.

  The Captain swings over to Irefall. "He fainted before you could even touch him, didn't he?"

  Irefall finally releases her suppressed guffaw. "Oh, Lewis! You know your crew so well! The second I laid my hand upon his bare chest he just sort of clonked out... but then this other gentlemen appeared..."

  The Captain sighs. "Jim's other self?"

  "Yes, what an... adventurous figure he is, living inside that poor boy."

  "Pertalaine."

  "Yes?"

  "Do you find anything wrong at all with having sexual congress with an unconscious, possessed twenty year old?"

  She looks away sheepishly. "Well he is twenty."

  "You never cease to disappoint me."

  "Oh~ you're mean!"

  "I have many adjectives for you, my dear, but I refuse to lower myself. By all means, let us get our breakfast and be on with the day's activities."

  She nods as she takes up his arm and lets him lead her to breakfast. "So..." she says, nodding a greeting to Cooking Minion, who salutes with a heroic pep, "where's our little lady off to? Still sleeping?"

  The Captain hums - she's taunting him already, unaware that his upper hand is so high up it’s practically in the atmosphere.

  "Ahh... well the strangest thing happened. Sometime in the evening, she told me she needed to use the restroom to freshen up; she never returned."

  "Oh?" she says as she takes her seat and The Captain his own, "How very peculiar." She looks over to Martaine, looking as professional and sober as The Captain. "You know, Officer, you are supposed to keep an eye on my guests."

  Martaine winces. "Ah, yes, ma’am. I have no excuse for my incompetence... And Miss Ketiere is also gone, mam."

  Irefall feigns surprise. "You mean they're both gone?"

  He takes a breath. "Yes, ma’am."

  She hisses in dissatisfaction. "Well it looks like Jim's the only well behaved youth of them all, hmm, Captain?"

  The Captain takes a sip of the coffee. "Obviously- can't do much better than Jim Masthaven."

  "Sir, please," Jim says.

  "Such an upstanding bastion of morality and human decency."

  Jim crosses his arms. "Well... where do you think the girls went off to?"

  Irefall smirks as The Captain hums in thought. "I can't say for sure; Probably one of their silly adventures."

  Pertalaine coos with good humor- as if the disappearance was not only expected, but quite welcome. "Well we'll need to find them, certainly!" She turns to the clueless Officer Vangair. "Won't we?"

  Martaine stands up from his breakfast and salutes. "Yes, ma’am!" He turns immediately to search the mansion.

  Irefall and the others watch him step off, and she turns to The Captain. "So, Boris is still sleeping, I assume?"

  The Captain shakes his head. "Doubtfully. I expect he's already cooking in the kitchen."

  Irefall snaps her fingers. "That's right, he always slept in the kitchen. It was his room of sorts... Sorry, Lewis; the old days have become so... misty to me. What about Luisoix?"

  The Captain scoffs. "Unbridled human nature is far too animal to find appealing. You know well how Engineer Luisoix and your assistant feel about each other."

  She scoffs and Jim looks at The Captain as if he said something strange.

  Irefall shrugs. "I say let fish be fish." She leans in. "Now then, tell me more about your firey night, hmm?"

  The Captain sips from his comfy little mug, leaving a thin sliver of coffee-stain on his bandages. "As in, my bunking? It was a pleasant, well-decorated room with a good selection of tea. You're a magnificent hostess, but you cannot be serious if you were thinking I'd do something like you would and be a villain."

  "Oh, but I am serious!" She leans back with intrigue. "You know I'd do anything to make your stay as wonderful as possible.”

  The Captain puts down his mug. He's about to burn her so bad all the water of the Eversea won't be able to quench the pain. "Well, Perta-" "Ugh," Cooking Minion scoffs in disgust, skewing The Captain's words on accident.

  The rest of the waitstaff, Irefall, Jim, and The Captain all look over to the short, unassuming chef.

  "Uh..." Cooking Minion mutters. "By that I mean Ugh! Mayor Irefall is ... sooooo cool! Totally good conduct to make your mansion into a pleasure palace!"

  Irefall's resting bitch face activates. "Oh? So what would you do given the luxury and success of I?"

  Cooking Minion grins. "Give it to my master, obviously. I'm not mentally equipped to handle wealth over my own station, so I should deliver it to he who could use it best."

  Irefall hums and Jim speaks up. "Well that's you, minion. Let her do as she pleases. This is her mansion, not yours. You're her damn employee and have no right to speak up like that," he says, winning a demurely pleased glance from Irefall, and a flinch of disgust from The Captain.

  The waitstaff snaps to see Cooking Minion's expression: confident, untouched, certain. "Alright, cool kid. We'll see just how much that Grancis girl likes you once she finds out you've been playing around."

  Jim stutters. "Wh-shut up! I don't even like her!"

  Cooking Minion grins amidst confused and doubting looks from others. "Your physical tells were way too obvious last night. My eye-sight is infallible."

  "Well your brain certainly isn’t," Irefall puts in with a smile.

  "Wh-ma’am!"

  She steeples her fingers as if at a job interview. "What did you think you were doing, speaking up to one of my guests, and scoffing at my taste of living? I do say that does not reflect well on the character of your master."

  Cooking Minion stands at attention, straighter than ever. "Y-yes ma’am."

  She nods. "You know. I think I'd much rather have you and the rest of the staff off to your duties now."

  Cooking Minion salutes coldly. "Yes, ma’am!" He says just before stepping off with his adorable tiny little blacker-than-pitch feet.

  She also looks to Jim. "And you too, Jim."

  "W-
why me?!"

  "I think Cooking Minion could use some help down in the kitchen."

  "B- I'm a-"

  "Consider it payback for not playing with me last night," she says in a faux-hurt tone.

  Jim mumbles something very inappropriate under his breath and stands up from his half-eaten breakfast.

  "And this is cool with you, Captain? Letting her order us around?"

  The Captain takes a sip of coffee. "Yes," he says with a tone of exceptional plainness.

  Jim groans and turns to go down to the kitchen.

  Now alone in the breakfast room, the two share a suppressed laugh.

  "Oh, Lewis!"

  "Again that's 'Captain' to you," he corrects.

  She giggles. "Of course. You have such a way with your men."

  "Thank you. You set me up for it, though..."

  "Just like old times, eh?" She says, reaching under the table with her leg to kick him in the most-friendly way one could kick someone in the shin.

  "Just like old times..." The Captain pauses and takes in the sound of morning: the waves, the seabirds, the bells at port. "I'm growing tired of this charade. When are you planning on getting this over with?"

  Pertalaine sobers up. "Sooner than you, you coward, but later than your two girls. I assure you they're not dead, just... moved to a more suiting set of quarters, is all."

  He looks out the windows."I'm certain. Where did you catch them?"

  She smirks at her tea's reflection. "Precisely where you sent them, you deceptive bastard. Don't act like they were moving on their own accord. Neither of those girls could resist your control, but I, Captain- I’m in charge of my own fate."

  The Captain sighs— his response delayed, but all the more ready for it. "You're more controlled than ever. I'm certain Beatrice would agree with me."

  Suddenly, for the first time, Irefall's expression is not only cold, but openly hostile. "You would say that, you pretentious fuck."

  "Rather ironic coming from you," The Captain says.

  "Where is she?"

  "I'm certain you've already searched the girls?"

  "Yes, and I had Tidealane search Luisoix, my chef search yours, and I personally checked Jim's belongings... Which means there's only one man left unsearched, Captain."

  "Yes?"

  "I'll let them go if you give her back. Hand her over, and everything will be fine."

  "Not only do you not deserve her, I know for a fact what you plan to do with her."

  "That's none of your business. That's between us."

  The Captain adjusts his glasses, glinting like fire in the sunlight. "She saved you and this is how you plan to repay her?"

  "Better than you, Captain. How the hell do you sleep at night?"

  "You know I don't, and frankly, I'm surprised you can after all you've done."

  She rings her fingers around the lip of her teacup for several seconds until, finally, she places her cup down looking calmer than ever. "Yes... Well you won't have to wait long, Captain. Come dinnertime I'll tear you limb from limb to get her back. I'll do it in front of everyone, all your beloved men and women of command. All of Eversea society will see you crushed, bottled up and thrown in a box forever and all you can do is wait for it to happen and appreciate your last hours before your eternal imprisonment."

  The Captain smiles. "You want me to enjoy things as much as possible, then?"

  Irefall smiles back. "Of course, you are still my captain after all."

  "Then..." He looks at her directly in a way he never has before. It’s an exceptionally rare case when The Captain turns on “the moves”, and it’s for good reason. For a man made entirely out of sand, folks consider him quite the catch.

  "Then I'd like you in my study. I’m sure the guest room you provided would be well enough," he says.

  Shock and disbelief overcomes her like a bullet to the face. A second after her expression melts into suspicion, but the offer is something she has always dreamed of in the further, most guarded parts of her mind. "Captain, are you... are you quite serious?"

  "If this is to be my last day free, perhaps I should let go of the inhibitions that have held me back for so long. I will admit, Jim had me jealous."

  Her face lights up. "I knew it! Captain, you fox! You should have been more open, more honest! I'll... I don’t know what to sa-”

  He takes her hand, and her body immediately melts to his touch.

  “Then say nothing. I’ll remind you why I’m in charge.”

  Irefall can hardly put out words. She just nods with a wide-eyed, overheated expression as he pulls her along.

  She clears her throat to get a word in edgewise in. She obviously wants to be the bottom, but she knows she can’t throw in the reins right away.

  “Now, Lewis. I think you’re getting a little to forward with a woman of my stature. I’ve been so tied up with business that I haven’t had a… suitable partner in years, you kn-”

  “You don’t even know what the term ‘tied up’ means, Irefall,” The Captain says, his grasp sure, probing, and desperately romantic. “But you’re about to,” he says. She can feel his bandages loosening slightly, just enough to catch onto her.

  Irefall’s heart, occult and struck with a thousand dark energies, skips a beat. She shudders with an ecstatic grin.

  "Wo-wonderful! Captain, I can't believe you really feel the same way!"

  "I do," he says, probably lying.

  Mayor Irefall and The Captain take off down the hall. Unable to contain herself, she steps aside to kiss him, and for once, he responds. For the first time, she feels his lips, only a cruel mockery, an imitation of flesh, pressing frankly against her own.

  She draws back for a breath, quickly realizing that the next hour will be her comeuppance. She had always put on the act to her get way, but she’s not sure if she’ll be able to back up her infamy against her idol. “I have a better place. Th-this way,” she says, strained for breath.

  As she leads The Captain at a fast pace down the halls to a guestroom, he nods in. "Well just make sure we're not too late. People will be arriving in only a short while for lunch."

  They kiss again, and a tear crosses Irefall's cheek. "Yes, yes, obviously, my captain, my master... Here it is!" she says, pushing into a door leading into an exceptionally gaudy lover’s suite.

  The Captain swings Irefall onto the enormous, plush silky sheets of the bed. He locks the door behind them, causing Irefall to release an exasperated, high giggle.

  "Th...thank you, Lewis!”

  He draws toward her, looming over like a predator to its next meal as he begins pulling forth a roll of bandages and pulling out some length- just enough to tie someone down with. They both know well Irefall could snap from these at any time, but adults play pretend too.

  "You're very welcome... and that's ‘Captain’ to you," he says.

  As with every other time, he didn’t feel a thing, but his partner sure did.

  The War

  Grancis waits a bit longer than five minutes to go off to the kitchen. Really, “a bit” in this case is more along the lines of half an hour. She spends the time watching the people of the port below, she witnesses a mugging in broad daylight as well. It is strange, seeing two silent dots tangle down a secluded street for nearly a minute until one gets mashed against the dark brick.

  Perhaps naturally for one experiencing what could very well be her first love, she is thinking of Martaine, and wondering how he can possibly keep this port running as well as it is with criminals prowling the streets incessantly.

  She sighs, and looks down and to the left. Through clear glass she can see into the large kitchen, opened up partially by a massive skylight which doubles as a vent for both smoke and steam. Even now she can hear the dense accent of Boris reverberating through the cool morning breeze.

  "...AND I WILL SIMPLY NOT BE OF THE CARING IF OTHER FLESHINGS ARE OF THE SAYING YOU ARE OF THE BETTER COOK. I AM OF THE KNOWING VERY WELL THAT YOU ARE OF THE NERD," she hear
s Boris say. Of course, immediately after there's a stupid yelling noise of another thickly-accented creature, this naturally being Jacqui defending himself from both Cooking Minion and Boris as the same time.

  Grancis scoffs in humor, hearing the two chefs screaming over the top of one another. She's hasn't heard Boris this upset since the flying borscht incident. Grancis takes one last look out to the scene of the mugging, watching the victim get dragged off by myriad ink-black tentacles appearing from a sewer grate.

  Just like now, all she can do is watch and hope for the best... It's time to go down.

  She leans into the door to her bedroom and listens - not a sound. She opens the door and starts trotting through the plush-carpeted hall stealthily. She bows her head politely in greeting to the maids and butlers found around the place, gets lost for a minute, asks for directions, and then takes a spiraling staircase down to the kitchen.

  She steps unto the white tiles of the kitchen, still ringing with the sounds of argument.

  Within is an enthused Jacqui with his sword drawn, a calm, reality-tv demeanor Boris with his claws crossed professionally, Cooking Minion, who noticed Grancis even before she entered the room, and Jim, the poor lad, a whole cooking island away from the others as if taking cover.

  "And I have never, in my life, met one as boorish as you!" Jacqui exclaims, brandishing his long, weird swordlike knife with a pretentious, parade-like swing.

  Boris, with his iconic giant cleaver resting peacefully in an oversized cutting board, laughs. "THEY ARE THE CALLING ME OF THE BORIS AFTER ALL, FOX MEAT. WE'LL BE LETTING OF THE GUESTS BE OF THE DECIDING OF WHO IS TRULY OF THE MASTERING OF THE CHEFENINGS!"

  "You truly have no taste in anything! It was completely obvious last night that they were simply humoring your ridiculous taste in barbaric cuisine."

  "IT WAS OF THE CLEAR TO ME THAT THEY WERE SIMPLY OF THE HUMORING OF YOU, FOX MEAT. YOUR PALETTING IS OF THE TOO UNCULTURING TO BE OF THE APPRECIATING OF MY MEATENING."

  Cooking Minion scoffs. "Yeah, what he said," he adds.

  Jacqui snaps to Cooking Minion. "And you," he starts, pointing his blade at the tiny chef, "How dare you use my forbidden ingredient stash to one up me with your little dessert! If this were a commercial position I'd have fired you!"