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THE CAPTAIN:


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PIRATE JENNY GUABANCEX JENNY:

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[CAPTAIN] that night, after the convo with friday + ava

[light_mischief]

[Because he's got to make doubly sure he isn't affected by the stupid curse. secretly hyper-aware of all that moisture out there, man...

But he does arrive outside the bridge door, with a gift! Or, you know, a loaner he's returning. That's right, baby, he glossed over finally devoured your book about alchemizing God's love and he's here to return it like a proper gentleman.

He is also here to monopolize your honesty, but that's beside the point.

Same position as last time, just less angry about it!]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

[the figure that appears next to the door, leaning slightly against it, is more shadow than man at the moment, patches of shifting black that aren't exactly the mind-breakers you'd find internally, but still give the feeling of being A Bit Wrong. illusions are effort; he's able to put forward about half of one.]

You remembered. You didn't knock.

[light_mischief]

I... did remember. [To his credit, he's only momentarily startled by the presentation, and it only shows in that brief pause.

Well... damn if that doesn't paint a picture. It could be an intimidation tactic; something to prevent people from sticking around to ask him questions while he's vulnerable. (Then again, he could just refuse to appear...) It could just as well be a lack of effort, either from overexerting his powers or simply just not finding it necessary to bother with the facade. He does have a minor resistance to beings who are A Bit Wrong now, after all.]

Meanwhile, you've forgotten your skin. Must have been a rough week indeed.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

Just tired. More energy expended than gathered. [half a grin, all teeth.] I wouldn't get too smug about it. Just means I'll need more later.

[light_mischief]

Oh, heavens no. Not too smug. [Just a little. What happened to ~~"I'm a great magician and sorcerers are lame,"~~ hmm?]

Just what were you trying to do? [because this ain't it, chief]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

The logic was... [sighs. a human hand forms long enough to rub at the back of his neck.] "If you are forced to tell the truth, you will reveal the secrets of your subconscious mind."

[waves hand vaguely]

[light_mischief]

Hm... [a curious hm, not a smug one. It's an interesting idea, and it makes sense. Where else would you find deep-rooted memories and knowledge?]

I know that it didn't go as planned. And I know it was something you intended to cast on yourself, not all of us. [not going to get Friday in direct trouble on purpose, but there's no point hiding that the conversation happened.] Do you want to tell me what you were trying to learn from yourself?

[He could ask more pointedly, but...

Well, he's supposed to be doing a pep talk, not an interrogation. And that means giving the poor sulking bastard a way to refuse to answer.]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

My name, I suppose. It's the most logical answer... [shakes head, a bit like a dog.] The charm tends to take a bite out of, say, the last 24 hours or so... Honestly, I'm surprised I've maintained the short-term memory required for human conversation...

[light_mischief]

[He feels that. ...which probably isn't a good thing.]

It's tiresome even with enjoyable company. Well, I'll be here all night, if you feel too weak to soldier on at any point... [a little goading never hurts] ...or if you need to go sulk for a bit. Otherwise, I would love to try prying some deep secrets from that void in your skull.

[he would physically pry them out if you told him he could. there's a patch of inky darkness that looks relatively subconscious-adjacent...]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

[a pause. the briefest flicker of a grin.]

Your name is Skulduggery Pleasant. You have human skin.

[and then he just stares at him. half his face shadow, the one eye black against flesh.]

[light_mischief]

[oh. fun.]

Seems that you've figured out a workaround. Or else I came by just a bit later than I should have to actually make use of the spell... Ah, maybe you're referring to a point of myself where I do have skin?

[as he thinks aloud, he remains with his orbital sockets fixed on the darkness. it's the oddest, most unholy melding of necromantic and eldritch aesthetics he's ever seen. but void-staring has become something of a hobby of his as of late...]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

It was more of a positive side effect than anything intentional, but, yes, apparently the memory charm I use can temporarily negate the influence of the elixir. Mixing magics can be like that, sometimes. [like that rhyme about liquor and beer.]

[light_mischief]

Yes, doubly so if you have no idea what you're doing. [that is definitely targeted at the captain, who is starting to remind Skulduggery of an untrained Elemental living in a dynamite factory...]

What does the charm do to negate the elixir? [that... apparently infected all of the water in reality. That's fun.]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

Oh, I have no idea. It just makes it stop for a few hours.

[pause]

And it has been a few hours, hasn't it. It returns in fits.

[light_mischief]

Unfortunate for you. Is there anything you do know about the magic you use? [he's met eleven-year-old girls with more caution and critical thinking than this]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

That it works. [the truth? a joke? maybe they're both the same?] What else would I need to know?

[light_mischief]

[Skulduggery's just going to take it as both.] Maybe the how would be wise? There's more to magic than the end result.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

[raises brow] Are you sure the water isn't making you lie now, too? That doesn't sound true at all.

[light_mischief]

[oh no he's dumb]

My name is Skulduggery Pleasant, and you are actually... ignorant. [in somewhat awe because wow, did you really stumble this entire way up???] You have so much power and you literally do not even know what to do with it. Is that a result of you giving away parts of yourself? Hard to believe you accomplished this much without any grip on the fundamentals...

[this... explains a lot honestly...]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

I do know some things, you know. I certainly wasn't born knowing how sigils work. Other things... [he looks down at his hand, flexing the fingers as they shift between pale flesh and wisps of black.] I am working in the dark a bit. I can't predict how foreign magics will impact an unknown physiology. I just know what happens when I do it, and then I go from there.

[light_mischief]

[hmm. he pushes off the wall and takes a step - or two - forward. there's no kicking this time, thankfully (??)]

Those are fair points, I will grant you that. I tend to forget that you're something other than human. Other than only human? I'm not sure. I suppose neither are you...

[sictransitgloriamundi]

Pretty good illusions for someone who doesn't know the fundamentals, hm? [slowly but surely, more of the shadows are overtaken by the human form, until the only gaps left are his eyes, stark black in the sockets.] I can't take credit for it, really. Everything else I do, I can remember learning how. From books, from experimenting... But, I could always change my form. Either I was born knowing how, or I was taught. Or both. Who knows?

[light_mischief]

Don't be too smug about it. [Shapeshifting, though, is so varied across reality and fiction alike that it's no wonder he can't seem to narrow any of it down.]

You should probably know that. But... I can't say I'm unfamiliar with blocking out wide swaths of memory. [He didn't sell any of them, he just has them tucked away, nice and neat. He doesn't even know the amount of stuff he's hiding from himself, to be honest!]

Do you have... I don't know, any leads? An early memory, maybe your first time changing? Anything you've already ruled out?

[this is starting to sound an awful lot like prep work for a case...]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

I remember... a billboard, for the 1987 film The Witches of Eastwick.

[beat]

The ocean. I can remember sitting on a shoreline, watching ships. I only ever seem to remember things after I decided to look human.

[light_mischief]

[Contemporary Earth, then. A bay somewhere, perhaps, where ships would come to dock? Or does he mean in the distance -- unreachable? Hmmm.]

When you think about that moment, do you remember anything specific? Maybe about the rockiness of the shoreline, or if there were trees? If it was tropical, or particularly cold? [Unfortunately, considering even Skulduggery knows that Cher starred in that flick, the billboard only confirms the timeline and not so much the location...]