Just Finished The Pinch Hit I Was Able To Pick Up For @ghostlyrkive As A Part Of @smpsona-gift-exchange,

just finished the pinch hit I was able to pick up for @ghostlyrkive as a part of @smpsona-gift-exchange, and I had a blast!!! I saw an opportunity to write with pirate bek, and had a lot of fun with the potential of this sona concept :] the wonderful wonderful ghost!!

word count: 1587

The island was one of the smaller ones Ghost had ever seen. Warm, slightly sticky in the air, with that humid heaviness that hung around these kinds of trees. The undergrowth was thick, and bloomed in jewel tones, and generally speaking barbed around the leaves and thorned down the stems. It was a blunt kind of prickle-berry that dotted the spaces between tree trucks. It reminded Ghost a bit of the coral, not too far from here. It was always easy to scrape your knee on that. 

Something snapped, and Ghost turned its head toward the sound. It hadn’t been on the island long, and already night was falling. Good. Helpful. 

Its feet were bare against the emerald grass, but protected from the barbs lining this place. Walking wasn’t like swimming at all, but it was more interesting, in some ways. You have to worry about your weight. Ghost was worried about that, arms out to the sides just a bit for balance, but not worried about pricking its feet. Night was helpful for spawning monsters. Scales were helpful for protecting things like bare feet. 

There was another snap as a twig broke under a lumbering body, and a low groan. Ghost crouched even lower, finned ears angled toward the sound, reaching. Sound moved differently when you were above water, too. A lot of things were different in air instead of the ocean. 

There, between the leaves. A sickly green, another groan. Ghost’s fingers flexed, claws glinting in the dusk light. It almost fit with the growth around it, in its sharpness, but had a sea-worn shine. Everything here was a dullness, a rounded quality, even to the points. 

Just meant its claws would be that much more efficient. 

Ghost lunged, reaching toward the shambling shape and quickly pulling it toward the ground. With a few practiced slashes, the zombie fell, a pile of shabby flesh and a tattered blue shirt left over. Ghost stood up, brushed off its hands, and looked down at the slain foe with hands on its hips. 

“One out of three. Not a bad start.” 

“Who are you?” 

A voice that was distinctly not Ghost’s boomed, and it spun around with a start– almost into the point of an extended blade. 

Bek’s glare was harsh, and hir hand steady as it leveled her trusty dagger, notched and curved in a wicked angle. And pointed right at Ghost’s throat. 

“Oh. Hi.” 

Bek’s hand jabbed a fraction of an inch closer, but far too large a fraction for comfort. “Not an answer, fish.” 

“Oh, right,” Ghost laughed nervously. “Ha. Well, I’m Ghost. We’ve kinda met, actually. You just didn’t know it?” 

Ghost slowly raised its hands, before realizing that baring its claws might not actually be the most pacifying motion. Ghost slowly lowered its hands. Bek blinked. 

“What.” 

“Well, Owen pointed you out, I guess. So I saw you, but you didn’t see me. You’re Bek, right?” 

“Yeah. I’m Bek.” His one eye was very good at glaring. 

“Can you… lower the knife, Bek?” 

Bek didn’t move. “You haven’t explained why you’re a fish.” 

“Bit rude, to ask people why they’re a fish,” Ghost murmured. 

They looked at each other for a moment. 

“I was born part sea creature.” 

That one eye was really good at glaring. 

“I’m a pirate now though, so… truce?” 

After another long, long moment, Bek finally dropped aer hand to aer side, and harumphed with a bull’s exhale through her nose. “So they just let you on the Pirate Isles, then? You’re not going to siren song us all away or something, are you?” 

“No!” Ghost relaxed in posture now that there was no blade at its neck, slouching onto one hip and resting its hands there in fists. “I’m one of you! I wanted something new, adventure, piratey things, so I’m here now. Here, look–” It rummaged through the pouch at its belt, pulling out a small scroll. A quest listing, asking for a quota of monsters hunted off this very island. “I even do quests.”

Bek looked at the scroll without bothering to reach out and unroll it, recognizing the dimensions of the paper. Paid muscle did a lot of questing. “Monster hunting?” 

Ghost sighed. “Monster hunting.”

Bek thought for a moment, nodding to hirself as zhe looked at the scroll, chewing on his cheek. And finally, their posture truly relaxing now, as she finally sheathed their dagger. 

“Alrighty then. There’s probably more skellies on the underside of that cliff over there.” 

Ghost straightened up, as Bek turned on heel and began to cut through the undergrowth in the direction of said cliff. “What?” After a moment of hesitation, Ghost began to trot after the other pirate. In all honesty, the knifed threat didn’t put it off much. That was pretty standard for pirates confronted with a sea creature. It was pretty standard for pirates in general.

Bek explained it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “You have a monster hunting quest, and I have a monster hunting quest. We can kill monsters together.” 

Ghost caught up as Bek came to a stop at the edge of the overhang, peering into the shadow below. Bones knocked together as skeletons patrolled, the groans of zombies were a low orchestra, and the occasional spider’s hiss punctuated the whole scene. It was a bit strange, looking at these things with such a distant gaze, when some people would call both skeletons and sea serpents monsters. 

Ghost wasn’t going to dwell on that right now, though. Bek was willing to work together, and it seemed nicer than going it alone. Even if this was a very skilled monster hunter, and Ghost may or may not fall under the categorization. Truly, who knows if its death would tick the counter up. 

Ridiculous. The scroll specified monster type, after all. 

“Alright,” Ghost piped up eventually, after a moment that felt far longer in thought. 

Bek didn’t wait any longer to jump into the fray. 

Bek, of course, fought with hir trusty dagger, as Ghost slashed with claw at the ligaments of oncoming attackers. It was an interesting dance, fighting through the mob with another person to worry about– there was a jolt of fear each time Bek appeared in front of Ghost in the frenzy, both with the worry that Bek might accidentally stab at it, but also that it might run into Bek. Yet it never happened. Bek dodged expertly, and Ghost had no small amount of control itself. Hunting below the sea was a twirling, twisting dance. This was just a new one. 

The hoard thinned before long, and Bek grinned a proud smile as her dagger poked at the remaining stragglers. One other spider jumped at Ghost, but it was easy enough to parry. Almost fun. A kind of rhythm came with it, as Ghost hit the critter back with each lunge. 

“Not bad,” Bek said. Ghost threw a look over its shoulder, though Bek hadn’t turned aer attention from the mobs with aer comment. 

“I’ve been around quite a bit,” Ghost remarked back. “I’ve killed my fair share of monsters.” 

Bek hummed at that, as he shoved down the last of the beasts. “Which faction are you posted up with?” 

“Um… none, at the moment.” Ghost finished with the spider, and quiet fell. “It’s been… a bit rocky, trying to figure out getting in. What with the whole–” it gestured to its scaled ears, waving its claws “Thing.” 

Bek nodded a bit, huffing as she caught her breath from the fight. Ze looked up, then, to meet Ghost’s eyes. There was something… familiar. Or at least, Bek seemed to recognize something, when they looked at the other pirate. 

And they looked at it like a pirate. 

“Not worth your time.” Bek sheathed hir dagger, clicked aer tongue. “No one’s ever around anyway.” 

Ghost blinked. “I thought that was the Nightingales’ whole thing, isn’t it? Community?” 

“Oh well, sure, they’re around. But that doesn’t count. Kite’s the only faction worth joining, and there’s no one ever around, so it isn’t worth joining.” 

Ghost listened quietly as Bek talked. She kicked the ground, stomped a foot, looked off to the horizon. This whole interaction had been awkward, blunt. But something clicked a bit more, now. Bek’s attempts to reach out were gruff and very indicative of the Kite attitude, but they were more indicative of the Kite behavior. 

It was lonely, on that isle of fighters. 

Ghost knew about lonely. It was hard to find an in, when you hefted yourself out of the sea and had to fight to convince everyone you weren’t a sea monster. Even after initially breaking the ice, it was hard to get further than polite conversation. Ghost wasn’t going to give up though, and there were people who had been welcoming it. Maybe, with Bek, here was one more opportunity to prove itself a true pirate. 

“You know, I happen to know a lot of these islands,” Ghost began. It stepped toward Bek, a bit to the side, so they looked out at the horizon together. Bek’s gaze twitched in its direction, before returning to the distance. “With your monster finding, and my island finding, we could get a lot done.” 

Bek looked at Ghost again. Ghost turned, and gave a quick, fleeting grin. And in the quiet after, Bek gave a flicker of a grin back. 

“We could get enough to afford a pint after, even.” 

Ghost laughed. 

“We could.”