Alliance -- A KOTLC Descendants AU

The Isle of the Lost -- Brumenvale

The Moonlarks explode after that.

Or, at least, that's what the Black Swan wants them to refer to themselves as. Personally, Keefe thinks its a pretty damn stupid name, but Marella and Sophie had worked it out with the Swans, so he figures they'd demanded something worthwhile for the cringy-ass name. He trusts them to make the most out of the negotiations.

Marella, to his left, is swearing up and down. Keefe has a sneaking suspicion she had learned the colorful language from Linh, who they all guessed was who Marella was visiting in the dead of night. It also vaguely explained why the pirates were getting so testy on their territory -- they often let these kinds of things go when their crews were hooking up -- but, hah, jokes on them, Marella hasn't said shit, so the rest of them are 'unaware' of the ties. Dex is furiously grabbing at her arms, which Keefe figured still held the lighter she had so helpfully flashed in Forkle's direction. On his right, Sophie is hissing at Squall something that Keefe couldn't be bothered to pay attention to. On the other side of the room, Forkle is talking with Caprise, who's insisting that she needed Marella at home for the chores that no one actually did -- more often than not, Marella could get away with not coming home for months. Wylie is still knocked out, although Squall had moved him to sit in a chair. Which only left...

Gisela. Or, as she would prefer, Mum. 

The most recent he'd seen her, her face was the last thing he'd seen for two weeks. Even though he refuses to talk about it, Keefe knows that she'd probably drugged him for those fifteen days. He just... 

It scares him, how easily she had. She'd plucked him straight out of his own house, and Keefe didn't want to think about whether or not Father was involved.  He doesn't want to think about it at all, honestly. He just didn't want to deal with... all of this.

Apparently, it doesn't escape Mum that she and Keefe are the only ones unoccupied. Her grin to him is smug when she pulls out the Melder she held earlier and shoots at the ground, promptly shutting everyone up and scuffing up the floorboards. The already-shitty polishing looks like it's been blow-torched.

"Thank you," she drawls, twirling the weapon between her fingers. "I'm here to make an offer."

Mum waits, pointedly staring at Marella and Dex's not-so-discrete wrestling attempts, until they both pull away, Dex's hands empty. It's fucking infuriating, the way she acts as if she owns this place -- it was a Black Swan base, and he hasn't seen her for two years so she couldn't even make claim to him. It takes him a minute to talk himself back down from a clean punch to her jaw, if only because that's probably not very diplomatic and his gang would rightfully kill him. Keefe keeps Marella in the corner of his eyes, though, not because he doesn't want her to burn this place down to the ground, but because he's smart enough to not put a second round of arson this morning past her and wants to see it if-slash-when it happens.

"You see, I have had something you Swans have wanted for a long time." Mum continues, pausing to look at Wylie. The smug look on her face is not helping Keefe's attempts to ward off the beating-her-up vibes he's getting.

Marella takes the opportunity to pipe up, "We're not Swans, asshole," a statement which Mum ignores. "It's a funny coincidence that you brought Wylie here, no? After all, it concerns him."

"We saw Cyrah's body, Gisela," Sophie enunciates every word into a scathing bite, and it's the second-best thing after socking her to the jaw. Foster Annoyance is it's own category -- intimidating and awe-inspiring. Quite the potent blend from someone who was barely over five foot. "You can't play that bluff."

"Can't I?" Mum laughs, then shakes her head. "No, that's not what I'm talking about, little Moonlark. You're getting warm, though."

Dex glances at Keefe, confused. He wishes he could understand, wishes prove that the years that he spent as Lodestar actually helped him, but it's been too long since he's played this game. After he'd left the Neverseen's child gang, the Legacy, Keefe hadn't kept up with Mum, or rather, hadn't seen her for a little over four years. And then there was the kidnapping thing two years ago, and -- well. The last time he'd seen her, it hadn't been like this. he'd been just a little fuzzy around the edges, unseeing and unvigilant, falling to the clutches of the inky-black abyss of sleep, and that's probably why Keefe realizes all too late what she means.