Fate - First Reply Bottom of the Barrel

[Nere Ashorn]

It was near on the witching hour, and the bar on the outskirts of the Allirian capital was bustling with a comfortable number of patrons. The establishment was called the Golden Fish. A place of middling repertoire, neither particularly seedy nor reputable. The floors were sticky, the windows were shuttered tight against the winter air, and a number of fish themed memorabilia decorated the walls and tables. If anyone was in doubt about how the tavern had gotten its name. The locals were well on their way to a good time, chatting merrily amongst themselves. One particularly loud sailor was working on her sixth flagon of ale.

Nere Ashorn sat at the bar, deep into her sorrows. She'd just finished telling the tale of how she'd lost her last shipment to pirates and had been cut off from her family's funds for her failure. Stranded in a strange land, without a ship and without a crew. Except she was drunk off her ass, and if anyone could follow the story, they ought to be nominated for Tychan's Voice, for their mastery over the common tongue.

" ... an' then he kicked me outta the house! My own father!" Nere raised her hands up in exasperation, and then slammed them back on the bar table. She swayed indignantly, eyes narrowing as she thought about the injustice of it all. Then, she shifted abruptly, leaning in conspiratorially. She bumped shoulders with the person who had made the innocent mistake of sitting next to her at the bar. Her breath smelled of booze.

"Heyy,," she whispered, loudly. "What to shee shomething cool?" Nere tilted back on the bar stool, somehow not falling off despite her compromised balance, and patted her midsection with both hands. "I got a shword, right here. In mah belly!"

As if intentionally timed, Nere let out an impressive belch. She surprised herself with the noise, and devolved into giggles.

 

[Karnage]

He was separated from his crew again, which wasn’t unusual. Captain was off with something of some sort of importance and the two lil ladies were off… well, Karnage couldn’t remember what they said but he was certain it was also of importance. They were in Alliria after all! Sooner or later they would all meet back up and head up on the Icarus and go on another adventure. But for now, Karnage had found himself in a bar.

He couldn’t read what it was called— if anyone expected Karnage to memorize all the hundred and twenty words there were in the world then they were asking the wrong thing of the wrong shark man— but the decor was comforting. Karnage loved fishies. All sorts of fishies. Especially the shrimp fishes. He had a mug of water and was hogging the salt shaker at his table as he kept shaking more and more salt into the mug to then only take a sip and do it all over again.

Table salt wasn’t like seawater. But sooner or later he’d get near that salinity. Just no brine.

Boy oh boy was he missing his shrimp chips right now.

“Oi.” Karnage mumbled, looking up from his mug of salty water and taking a sip. There it was. Salty salt water! He took another chug and then sighed loudly, his thick, meaty shoulders slumping pleasantly. Maybe he could ask captain if they could fly back to Karnage’s old home. The waters there were the best waters. Oh, how a Kamo missed the waters of his home! Home waters! Watery home!

“Oi oi oi!” His head swiveled slightly so that one eye could peer at Nere with excitement— although it was hard to tell due to his perpetually downturned mouth. “Weez gots a burping contests, doooo weez?” And then without missing a beat, Karnage thumped a heavy fist into his sternum to release decent, middling burp. “Needs sum shrimps.” Was his excuse for his belch that could’ve been a lot bigger.

Nere Ashorn

 

[Nere Ashorn]

Nere was too drunk to be intimidated by the thirteen foot tall shark man seated next to her. She swayed happily as he spoke to her, her giggles being stopped abruptly by a hiccup. Then she started giggling again when the shark man let out his own belch.

"Hold on hold on hold on," she said, tears beading at the corners of her eyes from the laughter. She composed herself. She reached for her flagon. The pale ale splashed down her chin as she took another gulp. She held it there in her mouth till the hoppy liquid got warm. Nere swallowed with a hard gulp. A moment of silence to build up the suspense. And then,

BUURWAP!

Oh, too much. Some of the beer came back up, sour with bile. Nere choked it back down as she reeled. She coughed, and wiped her sleeve across her mouth.

"Sum shurimp sounds good," Nere said after she had recovered from her spell, her voice suddenly mournful. "I'd do anything for a crawdad boil..." She squinted at the bar table again, this time in deep thought. Where could they get fresh crustaceans? The markets would be closed this time of night....

Karnage

 

[Karnage]

With glee, Karnage began to clap his hands together as Nere burped and then proceeded to choke on her own spit. He had done that plenty of times as well, and too many times he had to lean over and make sick all over the floor. At least he never had to try and hold his hair back. There were some pros in being hairless. Regardless, the sharkman was impressed that such a small lil lady as her could make a burp that would much better suit him.

“Shrimps da best shellfishy out ‘dere.” Karnage agreed but then tilted his head a bit. Crawdads? Funny, that she should mention crawdads, especially in Alliria. “I knows wheres da crawdads grows beeg.” Karnage loudly whispered to Nere. His foster dad always told Karnage that dumping the bodies were the crawdads grew was the best thing to do— kept the fishies well fed!

“Oi oi oi, lil lassie,” the Kamo held out a hand for her, “youz follow Meez. I knowsa thang. Youz like ‘dis thang.”

Nere Ashorn

 

[Nere Ashorn]

"I knows wheres da crawdads grows beeg.” The shark man confessed to her in a loud whisper.

Wait... she knew what that meant. They had the biggest, fattest crawdads in the bayou, and a lot of missing persons. A huge, grey hand was being held out to her, attached to a huge, muscular arm. Was she going to die? Nere shrugged the notion off. Hells, if it meant getting some good seafood, it might be worth it.

"Ah, wait, I gotta pay first," Nere said. She pulled out her coin purse from inside her shirt. The clink of the coins made her remember that terrible conversation she was trying to forget... her father had sent her away with nothing but fifty gold coins and passage to the mainland. Said she couldn't come back home until she'd made that back one hundred fold. Weeks later and she was still at fifty out of five thousand. She pressed two coins onto the bartop. Now she was at 48 out of five thousand.

Her unpleasant obligations dealt with, Nere hopped off her barstool and turned back to the shark man. His hand was in the so-large-it-was-difficult-to-grab category. She managed it anyway, holding onto his pinky with a leather gloved hand. She was ready to be whisked away to her doom. Or to a delicious, steaming pot of seafood. Come what may.

"Alllright big guy, lead tha way!"

Karnage

 

[Karnage]

“If youz dun wanna payfer sumthin’ alls youz gotta dooooz is,” Karnage hiccuped and used the back of his hand to wipe his mouth. “Tell ‘em youz wif me.” At least, that how it was years ago. Back then, when he was still a part of his new dad’s gang. They were the toughest, scariest gang ever! Even the sneaky crime syndicate in Alliria didn’t dare try anything with them! Or wait, did they work for the crime syndicate? Karnage couldn’t remember.

Regardless, he was sure with his high charisma of showing off his fists and muscles that they could a few things for free.

As Lil Nere held onto his pinky finger, Karnage began the walk to one of his favorite places in Alliria. One would think that he was leading the young woman to a place that would be the seediest, dirtiest place she had ever seen. But surprisingly things became more residential, and even the lumbering sharkman himself was careful not to make too much noise.

Before reaching the end of the very residential street, Karnage veered off to the left and began opening up a few gates (whether they were left open or Karnage broke the locks has yet to be determined). Still leading Nere, now through backyards or gardens until he reached it.

Warehouses lined the street, and behind them were cool and still waters from the strait.

“Youz waitsies.” He said as he began to undress from his vest and pants— although there was no reason for him needing to wear clothes to begin with. Just something that he always complied with. What he took the most care with was removing all his necklaces and bracelets, setting them neatly on top the ruffled pile of clothes. Then without looking back, he jumped into the freezing water, his tail wagging very much like a dog’s.

Nere Ashorn

 

[Nere Ashorn]

As she followed, Nere started to do the math. If the crawdads were big enough, and she didn't get murdered tonight, maybe she could make a business hawking shellfishes on the street. Alliria could become her new home. She'd sell 'em hot for three coppers a basket and if she sold a hundred baskets a day, she could make her five thousand gold in about nine year's time, not considering living expenses.

At some point they stopped in front of a line of warehouses. It seemed like a good part of town. There were few lanterns lighting the streets, and no guards, which meant crime wasn't a regular occurrence around here.

"Youz waitsies," the shark man said. He began to undress, and Nere forgot to look away politely. She usually did, honest, but the sight didn't bother her. Spend enough time on a boat with the same handful of people in the middle of the ocean, and one got used to seeing the same sights.

"Can do, boss!" Nere replied cheerfully with a crooked salute. As the shark dove into the water, going from a white-grey blob to an untrackable dark blur, she plopped down on a grassy embankment that sloped into the dark waters below. She was happy to wait for the shark man to come back, but she started thinking about how to cook everything once they had the crawdads.

Nere rolled onto her hands and feet, and pushed herself back up to standing, stumbling a good deal. Wandering off to the nearby warehouses, she looked around for the things that they'd need. Someone had left a metal washbasin leaning against one building, another had a stack of untended firewood.

"Ish okay..." she whispered to each pilfered item. "I'm with da big guy..."

Soon, Nere was back on the grassy knoll with a fire going. The basin was filled with well water and was just starting to boil. She'd taken her personal stash of spices out and was liberally seasoning the pot with pepper, paprika, thyme, mustard, and whatever else smelled good in the moment. And then, the finishing touch...

She pulled out a small wooden container, and unscrewed its lid. Inside was a rough crumble of pink crystals. Salt from the waters of the Aina o Ka La islands, which was said to have a sweeter, fresher brine to it than other sea salts. It was one of Nere's prized possessions. Despite her inebriated state, she put all of her concentration into pinching just the right amount of salt into the broth.

Karnage

 

[Karnage]

Strangely enough, somehow, Karnage’s arms and legs seem to fold seamlessly into his body as he went deeper and deeper into the water. Looking more like a hammerhead shark than he did when he was on land. He swam deeper and deeper into water depths, not even shivering from the icy chill that would cause any normal mortal to shudder and flinch as if they were out in a blizzard.

His eyes didn’t see anything except murky blackness, but somehow, someway, he knew that he was getting close to the bottom. He peeled his arms from his side and began the search for the crawdads. More often than not, he would find a boot or some other form of litter: broken wagon wheel, broken barrel, a broken human skull….

Unfortunately, later rather than sooner, he got to where the crawdads were actually crowding around. Karnage knew if he found a dead body there would be crawdads!

Without hesitating, he began collecting them, shoving them by the handful into his large downturn mouth. More and more he shoveled them in, and when there were only a few stragglers did he actually begin to swim up back to Nere. His head broke through the water and looking around he saw that he wasn’t close to where Nere was.

He swam back towards her, now using his arms and legs until he caught sight of her fire. He pulled himself onto shore and then began the process of spitting out the multitude of crawdads jailed behind his sharp teeth. By the time he had finished, picking out a few with a large, clumsy hand, there was almost three dozen crawdads crawling around.

“Lil girlie, looksies, I gots ya crawdads.” He said and clapped in excitement. “Cook ‘em now? Do weez waitsies?”

Nere Ashorn

 

[Nere Ashorn]

The fire was crackling into cooking embers, and the pot was just beginning to roil when the shark man resurfaced. At first, it didn't look like he had managed to find anything, but then...

Nere gasped in delight as he opened his big shark jaws and spat out a crawdad, then another, and another.

"Whoa! That's a lot of crawdads, you did so great!" Nere rocked back and forth on her heels as she squatted down and started counting the shark man's catch. So many that they wouldn't be able to fit in the pot right away.

"Cook 'em now!" Nere confirmed the shark man's question, turning the last word into a howl at the moons. She cut the howl off with an abrupt look, mouth round as she shushed herself. "Shhh, I know, we're being quiet for all the sleepy people," she whispered.

Teetering quite a lot, Nere got on one hand and two knees as she chased after a few fleeing crayfish, scooping them up in the crook of her other arm. Before she put them in the pot, she did... something... quick and sharp to the little red crustaceans that dulled their wet eyes and left their pinchers limp. Better than being boiled alive.

Soon she had as many as the makeshift cookpot could hold, and the rest of the catch got to crawl away to safety. A warm, salty scent wafted up from the pot as the water grew murky with the sweet fish broth. Nere sat back on the grass and let out a satisfied sigh at all their hard work. She gazed out dreamily at the sea below them. At least that would be the same water, no matter where she went in Arethil.

The only bad thing about it all was that the fresh night air and the sparkling ocean water was starting to sober her up.

 

[Karnage]

If Karnage could blush he would have from Nere’s super special compliment. Instead he blinked happily as his large tail wagged behind him. He didn’t hesitate in getting dressed as Nere began to collect the crawdads

It wasn’t long until he joined her in the grass, plopping down onto ground and sighing deeply. He could clearly see Nere as they sat beside each other, his large eyes taking in her somber expression. Karnage had seen that look on others before. There seemed right before that look came onto their tiny faces that a twinge of contentment was there first.

He couldn’t every remember the exact moment when things switched, had never witnessed the switch himself.

Even when it came to lil Sabby. His downturned mouth further dipped lower towards his neck. How such a thing was possible was beyond Karnage, but he felt the downward pull of his lips. He brought a large hand up to trace along the scar, saying nothing for a moment.

“Weez needa be quiets, yes-yes, but youse gotta sing when cooking’ lil crawdaddies.” Karnage said after he thought about it. “Makes da food taste better.” He added in case Nere needed more convincing.

Nere Ashorn

 

[Nere Ashorn]

The shark man broke her gloomy mood with a thoughtful suggestion. She nodded enthusiastically and knowingly. He was absolutely right. Music made most things better, it was the second-greatest expression of language that Tychan had ever created. (The first was magic).

"Oh, I can't sing anymore," Nere said. She still had that wistful look in her eye, but her voice wasn't sad. She pointed at her neck, tilting her chin upwards towards the starry sky. "I got lots of scars in my throat that makes my voice all scratchy. I can play the piano all right, though!"

Not that her piano skills would help them in this particular moment.

Karnage

 

[Karnage]

Karnage laughed. Not because he thought what Nere said was funny, it wasn’t funny. Scars on throat? That hurt! But he didn’t know what to say, so instead, he laughed, a big hardy laugh at that.

“Youz jus’ listen. I gots youz.” Karnage said, standing up tall and placing his big hands on his small hips (Karnage was built more like a upside down triangle rather than having normal proportions.)

“OOOOOOOOOH!” He launched into a loud attack, but paused. Maybe, just this once, he should be more quiet. “Whos lives inna Oysta unda da sea! Shawna Mermaid! Beautiful and Red and Shiny is she! Shawna Mermaid! If nautical nonesense be somethin’ youz wish! Shawna Mermaid! Then goes for a swim and give ‘er a fish! Shawna Mermaid!”

Nere might recognize the song in being a children’s rhyme for a popular puppet show in Alliria. Long gone now, as Shawna the Rascal Mermaid was no longer considered “in” with the youth— right now, it seemed the Adventures of Sin and Nate were all the rage. But it had been Karnage’s favorite puppet show.

Nere Ashorn

 

[Nere Ashorn]

Nere didn't know the song. It wasn't popular in the bayou, and she didn't interact with too many children to begin with. But still, she laughed and clapped along as the shark man gave it his all.

"That's wonderful!" she exclaimed, rolling in the grass with joy. When Nere got ahold of herself and straightened back up, she felt a cold line of liquid drip down her nose. Reaching up, she brushed the little annoyance away, but the pad of her thumb came back smudged and dark. She tasted salt and copper on her upper lip, as her nose continued to drip. A nose bleed.

"Oops," she said, scrounging around for any loose bit of fabric to sop the blood up with. "Musht be the cold air."

And all the drinking. Nevermind that, though.

Karnage

 

[Karnage]

Karnage had many talents. The first talent was smashing in heads, the second was making really good cupcakes, but the third was his lovely baritone voice. It seemed Nere recognized his talent, no his gift! As she clapped, Karnage didn’t even need to ask for a encore, her laugh being more than enough.

He sat himself down on the grass, and was about to peer into the pot and see if the crawfish were done until a coppery-scent caught his nose and made every nerve on his body alight with instinct. Without thought, a hand went to grab Nere’s head, his head turning and his jaws opening wide.

It was only for a split second for before his thick fingers could close around Nere’s skull, before his parted mouth and razor sharp jaws could tear through her flesh, Karnage’s free hand was thusly thrust into his own mouth. He bit down hard and a anguished gurgle of a scream could be heard from within his throat.

Without saying anything, Karnage turned away from Nere and ran. Without looking back he dived into the straight, swimming down deep and away.

Nere Ashorn

 

[Nere Ashorn]

One moment, they were singing and laughing, and then the next moment Nere felt her neck wrenched back, damp breath on her face.

The palm of his hand wrapped round her head and pressed one eye shut. Through the other, between his fingers, she watched as her whole world became double rows of jagged teeth, looming ever closer. Both hands came up to wrap around the shark man's thick wrist. But she didn't pull away, didn't close her eyes against the horror of it.

The crush of pain never came, however. Instead, the shark man released his grasp on her, biting down on his own hand in exchange. Nere fell to her knees, a squeak of sound leaving her. She tried to crawl forward, reaching towards him, but he was already gone. Silver-skinned body leaving nothing behind but a wake in the water as he dove away.

"Please, come back," she cried out, even though she knew it was wrong. The wrong thing to feel, and the wrong thing to say.

Tears welled in her eyes. She sniffed, snot mixing with her bloody nose. Breaths came out ragged, as a sob wound up her whole body. Refused to let her go, doubling her over in an intensity that went past pain and into sorrow. Hands went to her stomach, balled into fists. The sob left her with a choked sound. "Don't leave me, too."

Nere collapsed into the grass, cool blades brushing against wet cheeks, and continued to cry.

Karnage