all_inclusive | (no subject)

All things considered, Nick thought as he walked back through the corridor towards the pirate door, he probably shouldn't have brought a vampire with him. In his defense, his intentions had been wholly honorable. He knew Bella was having issues with boredom here - being completely unable to sleep she had a lot of hours to fill.

When he'd found the door that opened into a cabin on a pirate ship, he'd thought she'd have a good time. And they had.

Until two of the lackeys got into over something stupid and they'd both drawn swords. They'd taken their swipes at each other and really, it had all been straightforward enough. They weren't all that skilled at it.

Unfortunately, unskilled equated blood being drawn. Lots of blood being drawn.

Bella had good control, exceptional control, but an alcoholic into a vat of whiskey and bad things will happen.

He'd been able to use his powers to bind her and his strength to carry her back through the door and carry her through the hotel to the door to her forest. He didn't know how she'd fare running through the forest in the pirate wench's outfit he'd found in the cabin for her, but at least she wouldn't have human blood in her system and he wouldn't be disposing of a body. He felt he owed as much to Edward...even if he wasn't here, even if this Bella wasn't the same as the one he knew on the island.

Now that she was off hunting, he was in the mood to get back to some piracy.

Find Nick headed back to the pirate door in full pirate gear, with eyepatch. You can also find Bella coming out of a different door wearing her own pirate gear but probably with a few leaves and twigs in her hair and blood on her clothes.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Ah, yeah, that'd be a no," Nick said with a little wrinkle in his forehead. "No one's tried to kill me so I didn't feel the need to go in guns blazing, so to speak. For the most part, they're happy to do their thing and I'm just there for the experience of it."

For a second, Nick felt a twinge in his chest - one that hadn't bothered him in a long time. He felt himself missing Mel, missing her sister, the alien that travelled through the known universe just experiencing planets and their inhabitants.

"Just out of curiosity, why do you ask? In the mood for a little carnage?" The kid was a wolf. Anything was possible.

"Not today," he deadpans, meaning it to be a joke, but Isaac feels like maybe some of it got lost in translation. "Actually, no, it's not..." He glances around them, making sure that no one's about to attack while Isaac talks about his pet theory. "I'm kind of curious about what happens in these doors. I mean, which is reality? And how do you test reality? I mean, the best and worst way I can think of is dying," he says with a fluid shrug -- practiced and perfected by teenage boys everywhere. "If you die here, do you die at home? Will you never go back?"

The quip died on Nick's lips - it was a serious question and clearly was weighing heavy on the kid's mind. He just wished he had any kind of answer. "I honestly don't know, I wish I did. I was a law student before my life went to shit, philosophy wasn't anything but an elective I took as an undergrad and all it gave me was a raging headache. I'd like to think that whatever force brought us here wouldn't allow for that kind of mortal peril, but that might be assuming more benevolence that it deserves."

He wants to know because he nearly dies so much in Beacon Hills that he wants to know if he's going to die if he continues to attract that kind of trouble throughout a number of universes, but here, there are pirates afoot. And honestly, Isaac really does want to let loose and explore, but that fear is hard to wash away. "So it's like a video game, you think?" he jokes. "When you die, you cash in another life?"

"I don't know, not for sure, and death isn't something I'd fuck around with. It's also kind of a personal thing. I've died twice, all it's done for me is to further fuck up my existence. My mother was murdered, but she never came back."

The last was something that fueled his rage for years but time, both linear as well as away from his demon side, had given him the perspective to finally admit that Acheron was right in his decisions. No matter how painful they were.

"Did you love your mother?" It's weird for Isaac to ask, but the truth is that he never knows anymore. After all, he kind of loved his father, but there had been soothing relief when he'd been murdered. Now that they're getting into the depths of the ship, he quiets down, crouched over as he tries to stay out of sight.

"I did. I still do," Nick said, only a trace of the rage he used to feel over her memory evident in his voice. "She gave up everything for me, and I mean everything. And in the end, I failed her."

And he continued to fail her...for years. It was only now that he could see what Ash had been trying to tell him. He only hoped that some day he'd be able to tell him.

Isaac nods, taking a step forward on a creaky plank. He stares at it for a second before giving a surprised laugh. "I'm standing on a pirate ship with a...what are you again?" he asks. "Seriously, I can't keep track anymore."

"You're not the only one. Dark Hunter? Half-demon? Malachai? "Freakishly tall moody piece of shit? Does it really matter what I am?"