I'M ON A BOAT

[colonel-creepy.livejournal.com]

Who: Jade Curtiss and Guo Jia
Where: On board the Tartarus, near the Imperial City.
When: After Winter Court
What: Guo Jia joins Jade's unit.


"S-sir. The rest of the crew has arrived. I thought you might want to greet the strategic advisor, so I brought him here. He's waiting just outside..."

The new cadet was fresh out of airship training school and the row of brass buttons on his sleeves still gleamed in the light, betraying his trembling hands. He'd probably never imagined that one day, he'd be serving on board the Tartarus. The Tartarus was one of the fastest and most advanced airships in the Imperial fleet... and it was the personal ship of Colonel Jade Curtiss, a man who had once been known throughout Dagaria as "The Necromancer."

Jade didn't look much like a necromancer - or like a colonel, for that matter. He looked like a liberal arts professor sliding gently into middle age, and his office on board the Tartarus was more like a scrupulously tidy library than a mad scientist's lair. There was a book in his lap, and he wore slightly dowdy-looking reading glasses. But behind the lenses were a pair of intense, inhumanly red eyes.

"Excellent. I've been looking forward to having more experimental subjects." The cadet gulped, his starched new uniform collar straining against his throat. Jade's lips curled into a smirk as he set his book aside. "It's been so long since I had a fresh crew, I was afraid I'd have to start re-animating some of the old ones... well then, you're dismissed. Send in this 'strategic advisor.'"

Comments

[gentlemenscall.livejournal.com]

The poor boy looked terrified as he stepped out of the office and stammered something that may well have been "The colonel will see you now," except the words weren't exactly in the right order. Nor were they exactly words. But they were accompanied by frantic hand gestures that got the point across quite nicely, so the cadet was spared having to repeat himself and took the first chance to run down the corridor once Guo Jia had nodded briefly in acknowledgement of the message. Apparently, the colonel's effect on his underlings had not changed in the years since Guo Jia had seen him last.

The strategist let himself into the office and greeted his new superior officer with a pleasant smile and nod. "Guo Fengxiao, reporting for duty," he said lightly, "It's been a while. Still terrorizing your men, I see."

[colonel-creepy.livejournal.com]

Jade laughed, and gave a small shrug. "At my age, a man needs to have a hobby. I tried building model ships in bottles once, but I wasn't any good at it."

Although the smile lingered, Jade's eyes narrowed slightly behind the glasses as he scrutinized his old friend. The other man's face was as pale as ever... of course, it was midwinter, but Jade couldn't recall ever seeing Fengxiao with a healthy complexion, even after he'd downed several bottles of wine. Communicable diseases could spread quickly in the confines of an airship, but Guo Jia seemed otherwise in good health. Nothing to worry about, then.

"Besides, you can hardly condemn me for my hobbies. Are you still working your way through every woman in the Empire, or are have you already started on a second round?"