Light of the Scourge (POSTPONED)

Chapter IV

"Together, we can be a thousand times more dangerous." The pirate's faithful spider trickled a baleful Styx of words out her throat and slithered on serpent backs into your ears, nesting in the lacy webs of your skull. Soon, little bastards would hatch and infest you with their mother's schemes.

This woman who understood you was the Achilles Heel. Vriska's ever-consuming presence bound you, skin and bone. Her locked attention was that steely gaze of Hades as his stare swept across the imprisoned Persephone, knowing their bondage was adamantine. A dangerous woman, indeed.

The ship rocked on a bed of sapphire. You sucked in salty air through your teeth and puffed out your chest defiantly. "Oh puh-lease," she spat. "This bullshit bravado act of yours is really starting to piss me off." You could feel her scowl that brandished like a thorn on her twin-cerulean petals, voice dripping acrid hauteur and bubbling impatience in the snark caldron. You could say something, and infuriate her. Or, you could say nothing, and infuriate her more.

Your blind eyes spaced off into a distant corner of the cabin, but truly you could have been looking at anything: A small dresser, worn scrolls and ancient pictographs, the black hammock hanging off cord and wire from the ceiling tops. After letting the perpetrator escape you, you expected no less of the villain than to seize an opportunity like this, towering over your marred figure and circling you like a vulture.

"Your ancestor was the famed Red Glare, her mighty bravo that gave no shits when it came to the guilts and culprits of hundreds, ain't that right? Hah! Seeing you, I'd have thought you were the descendent of the "Dead Glare"! Oh, what a joke."

Her slurs made summer-saults of hate churn in the seething pool of your stomach. Though the soul in your body flared, powerful and unyielding, its vessel trembled against your will. You lifted yourself up on wobbly legs to face her, with fire and ice at war in your core.

You felt the rush, and so did she.

No moments of stillness were spared from abuse when cold fingers donned in riches clasped at that jugular part of you, sending your body flying back into the hardness of the floor. The woman's sooty tufts of hair were in a frizz, and her voice drenched with vinegar," There must be something SERIOUSLY fucking wrong with you. Did you bite off your tongue, as well? What I mean to say is SPEAK, DAMN YOU! Did all the intelligent bits of your devoid-of-gray-matter-brain fall off and leave you retarded? Retarded crew members are worthless here, I've already got one crippled chump on my back. Double losers are twice as worthless, and-"

"And a crazy bitch who gets off on talking down a blind woman is thrice, thrice more, and thrice three times as worthless. How did you achieve your status when you spend hours just bantering back all this asinine rhetoric with your captives... or are you just feeling all lonesome here on this big ship?" You had heaved upward all the condensed frustration from your belly, and the saline air coagulated like rain to snow, plummeting to the floor. Vriska's top lip spasmed and her eyelids folded over themselves a split second before she regained most of her usual spit-fire.

"Oh, ha ha - look at that. You've lost the quiet game. And it only proved that you're still a child. A child that's lost everything to her maker." You lashed your tongue over the smooth, eggshell white of your teeth irascibly as the woman circled her thumb in delicate spirals against your cheek, patronizing you again.

"Remove those bilious digits from my face or I will chomp them off." Your mouth opened a centimeter and her hands, oh surprise, flexed. The she-pirate's fear crept out of her belly this time, but she forced it back inside.

"Fine. I'll bite. You know, I think you've got a slight more of a punch packed than I thought. So, let's say this, I will offer you a deal. But in all actuality, you've got no other option than to accept it, because the only real choice you ever had was your imbecilic decision to give yourself up to me when your weak frame was bagged and left to be thrown away with the garbage. Can I be honest? That was fucking hilarious!"

She hooted at her remark, and you stepped forward with a strong lift in your joints, still proving to the woman that you could stand your ground. The she-pirate narrowed her eyes at you, and sneered. "Save your strength, hunter. I'll gladly take you up for fisticuffs and fun any day of the week, but we've got business here. So, shall we be professional?" She softened a smidge, and her lips became the canvas for a wry smile. "Enough mincing words; Pyrope, be my partner in crime."

A\N
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