Yutzen

Pirate who has gone into local port politics

This was supposed to be a routine speech. Brief summary of what the last period had entailed, an outset of what was to come, the usual promises, all in a day's work for the overseer of a busy town like this one...

But the enormous black-iron airship that emerged from the darkness above made a mockery of the idea.

The alarm fires were ordered lit, and the searchlights they powered immediately turned to the vessel above - a schooner from its size, dented and scraped yet tinkered beyond its start - casting its shadow against the cavern roof. The meager crowd that surrounded the podium grew as the sandstone spires emptied out, letting their cloth-buried populace out into the streets to witness the arrival of a dangerous sight, already far too familiar to some. Ballistae and cannons were pointed, trains were primed to depart the many rails that criss-crossed the settlement, and down below, all held their breath in silence, hearing only the thrumming of the vessel's engines...

Until a growing cackle broke the silence, somewhere from above. High-pitched and hissy, and audible to all bellow thanks to something amplifying it. One spotlight saw something and focused it, followed by the others, and spotted the voice's bearer, a short, though elongated figure holding a conical object in one hand and stretching the other one out towards the town. "Come on, Silks", she said, "you know you ain't got the balls, cannon or otherwise."

Wellrey "Silks" Rattlevoice, the overseer in question, recognized that voice, no matter how far he was under his layers of fine, imported silks. Glass-covered eyes turned towards the speaker, narrowing as the airship lowered enough to nearly scrape the tops of the city's taller buildings. That's where he saw the captain of the vessel: A strutting green lizard - more or less - in a sleeveless black vest above a tight white shirt, her bottom half hidden from view by the railings. "And we all know whose fault the cannon part is, don't we?", she continued with a grin, one made very visible as she walked from one end to the other, presenting her side. That long, toothy mouth was visible even at this distance, as was the streak of feathers along her spine, emerald in color and flared from apparent excitement, all the way down her tail - which ended in a hook of shiny steel rather than the usual feathered point. She had one pink-colored eye pointed right at the overlord... Before she turned to face him directly, letting both- no, all three of her eyes glower right at him, the third nestled right above her snout. "Oh, you would've made it so easy, wouldn't you? Just blasting this place open and taking what's inside?"

"Three-Eye" Villiq. Thief, train-raider, extortionist and pirate captain of the Gyre. And that ship had to be the King Charcoal, her current and favorite vessel, hovering right above the town... with cannons pointed upwards, away from all, and not even trying to fire.

The Troxi captain continued to speak into the amplifier, letting the entire town hear. Her voice was mocking, sardonic even. "But I have a problem there, Silks. We all have a problem, and I'm including everyone down there with you too. Hello to you, by the way! You all want to know what problem I mean? What's stopping me from busting open one of those trains of yours, knowing you wouldn't have the guns to stop me?~" Her next words were, for a change, straightforwards, and her tone betrayed genuine anger as he near-bellowed into her amplifier: "Simple! THERE IS NOTHING LEFT! There's not a lot left to snatch up when the fancy fuck in the silk wraps steals it first, isn't it!?"

Already Silks could feel some (though not all) eyes on him from that statement, and already he was raising one finger pointed directly at the captain - but whether he meant to protest or order fire, he was quickly interrupted by the captain once more. "Don't waste your breath, big guy, because I know what I'm talking about. I know about your little lighting project, for example. Keeping these streets of yours lit up, pretty dark for a rail joint like this one, right? Wasn't it supposed to start a couple of weeks from now?" She allowed a brief space, to allow for murmurs and pondering, before continuing with her predatory smile even wider. Her eyes were cast into the distance, towards two large, boxy buildings. "Figured I could use some of that myself, see what else ya got in those big warehouses of yours too! So one of my mates here went to have a look. What'd you find, Shemli?"

And she passed her amplifier over to a slender, copper-green ifchi with blindfolded eyes, who flared yellow gills as he took it to his mouth, and pronounced like he were passing judgement: "Fuck-all." A pause, and once the captain felt enough time had passed for processing motioned for him to go on. "Empty boxes fulla packing fluff 'n sand everywhere. For weighin' I bet. All I found was these pieces o' shit." At that, he rose a clear, glassy orb held by silvery clamps. Tightening his grip on it, the orb lit up... with a sad, red glow more fit for nightlight than the public, which could barely be seen as more than a dot at their distance from the ground. "Yeah, feel scammed, don'tcha? I felt too, 'n I basically walked in 'cause yer guards don't give a fuck. Coulda lit things up better without even tryin' all by myself." And at that, to demonstrate, his gills flared further... and sparked with actual lightning, tiny but crackling and luminous, outshining even the spotlights that pointed at him.

With a laugh, his captain snatched the amplifier away from him - her hook-tipped tail swooped in and snagged it back into her hands. "You got it there. Guy like that sneaked into your stuff, how's that feel, old friends? Yeah, guess he thought he wasn't getting enough of a cut with your tax money. Ohoho, and I forgot to bring up that has been running out! Can't stop dipping into that, can't you~?" Now, that tail-hook was pointed straight towards the railyard, that gordian knot of steel at the heart of the town - full of rails, yet bereft of trains besides a few. "You see that over there? Don't see a lot of actual trains there, do ya~? And don't see much of the business and goodies those trains actually bring around, right~?"

Villiq's lilting voice got a poisonous edge as she paced from one end to the other of her deck, spotlights tracking her the entire time. "Don't be fooled thinking that's a one-off, lads 'n lasses, 'cause I'd know. My job is to open those like tin cans after all, but wouldn't you be disappointed to see that your pantry's so suddenly empty? And you grab the one can that's left and it's also empty!?" Speaking through gritted fangs, she snapped her hook at the railing as she turned around, staring three holes through the overseer's head even from this distance. "I know that's your fault. I know your fucking tariffs, doubled and tripled on train and cargo alike just for passing through! All so you can pocket it, right~!? And you can watch your own damn town starve, because every train in the Subterraneum suddenly has to dodge this place like the plague lest you loot it, right!? Leaving nothing for US to even make a simple living from, RIGHT!?" The now-furious captain smacked the railing with her device, sending a resounding clang of metal that echoed throughout the cavern, making all above and below wince... Before she pronounced, with a seething whisper, once it had died down: "If this had been a plan to starve me out I'd at least respect it, you big oily fuckstain."

The silence grew awkward, the captain bereft of her usual cheer... before that smile came back, more evil than ever, and she straightened her stance once more. "I know what some of you are thinking. Invoke clan rights, call for overturn, overseer re-selection, blablabla. I know what those that thought that would think right next too: 'Oh, if only Shacklecracker hadn't passed away in his own home, if only he hadn't broken his neck down the stairs in an accident, he would've stood a chance!', am I right~?" A dark chuckle filled the cavern, echoing throughout. "There's one bit you're mistaken about, actually, and that's the 'accident' bit, just like some of ya suspected! And how do I know that, you might ask~?"

Before the collective gasps could start or end, and before she could look to her side, the amplifier was snatched out of her hands by a single, spindly limb far longer than she was, emerging from a large bundle of black-dyed linen that hadn't been spotted, until now. The thing was held to a single, begoggled opening on the clothing, and the hollow, raspy voice that came out was one that briefly stopped the overseer's heart:

"She knows because it was me. On overseer Rattlevoice's orders, I myself reached out to break Shacklecracker's neck in my hands."

The silence captain and assassin enjoyed up there, with only the thrumming of the engines for a backdrop, was delicious. But rather than drop the amplifier, the Bannerbound killer had one more thing to say: "See the bright side of it, overseer: You won't have to pay me the other half you've owed me for months already, you cheapskate." And with that, they pushed the device with one disgusted motion right back into Villiq's hands, with enough force for her to almost drop it.

"...uh, thank you, Harwile. ANYWAYS!" With her dose of poison delivered, the captain's cheer was more genuine. "For those of you who thought that, who I'm sure is just about all of you by now, I have a solution, a proposal, like our batty pals in the West would put it. Rather than a dishonest, hidden, slimy scoundrel, I propose a big step up: A honest scoundrel! One looking for the wellbeing of those she'd take from, for she seeks the success of her targets, to take as her own! Clear and open! I propose: ME!"

Three-Eye Villiq motioned towards herself with her hook, posing dramatically with one palm towards the ceiling - and her surrounding crew aided, motioning towards her with varying degrees of enthusiasm. "For my promises count for something, as those who I promised to end could tell you - if they weren't dead! I want you to succeed, because your success is mine - in every way of the word! Put me in that ballot, and I promise you: You will finally have luxuries worth stealing, and even after I am done, even after I am sated, you will have way more than you'd ever have under a certain oily, slimy, silk-wearing, tax-sacking, two-faced, hoarding...!"

Her ramble came to a stop, as she went to point at the Overseer - and found the podium utterly empty. She scanned the immediate area, finding no trailing silk to give him away either. Only after she turned to further streets did she find those familiar bandages trailing in the wind of their sprinting bearer, who wasn't stopping to look back. Not after the lights he should've long replaced came to an end, not after the streets beneath his soles turned to naught but sand, and not after the darkness of the Great Dust Gyre seemingly swallowed him without a trace.

"...huh. Runs pretty fast for a guy his age, doesn't he?" Clearing her throat, the captain hastily brought her grin back on. "ANYWAYS, let us add 'cowardly' and 'town-deserting' to that list, too! I wouldn't abandon you in your direst straits like he just did - after all, I'm here, aren't I~? So I'll keep it simple, and quick, and not waste your time like he would have. Put me on that ballot, and I promise you: There will be more than enough wealth to go around, for me and you alike! Safe and sound from all hands, talons and general graspers that aren't ours! 'Three-Eye' Villiq is the name to remember! CAPTAIN, OUT!"

And with that, and one last audible drop of the amplifier onto the deck, the King Charcoal ascended out of view, the spotlights upon it the whole time - until they, too, were put out, letting the vessel drift away. The last thing the populace heard coming from it that day was a distant cackle, and the captain's mirthful words: "HOW'S THAT FOR A CAMPAIGN OPENER, AM I RIGHT~!?"