they see me trollin' // kiir!

[Adele Grey]

don't forget me, i beg, i remember you said

sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead

She reached up to the sky, arching her back to get a good stretch. She wavered slightly, almost enough to lose her balance -- almost. Not that it would have mattered anyway. If she happened to fall into the volcanic mountain through the top, she could always fly right back up.

She almost pitied those without wings. Almost, but not quite.

Adele had to say, she liked it up here. She had always been fond of heights, but she hated the City in the Sky; it was too windy up there, too difficult to get from one place to another. Snowpeak was too cold, but Death Mountain... well, the ominously and rather appropriately named volcano suited the Oocca just fine.

Waves of heat floated up, causing her face to flush red; she leaned forward, over the edge of the track of dirt that circled the entrance to the volcano. Her wings were folded against her back, the tips tucked beneath the sheath that hung from her hips.

She could live here, if she wanted. It was a nice place, solitary. Maybe in a few years or so, she'd come back. Maybe.

Stability didn't suit Adele all too well, and it wasn't going to cooperate with her anytime soon.

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[Kiir Ophanine]

x x

Speaking of those without wings. Well, actually, those who couldn't fly normally. Kiir had wings, like all Oocca had wings, but they never grew right for whatever reason. They weren't strong enough to grant him flight and could barely maintain a glide past a few seconds before they grew weak and tired. But Kiir had other ways of getting around because of this lack of wings, such as a giant bloody airship at his disposal. One he wasn't supposed to have, but hey.

He was a little testy about this particular recruit. First of all she was remarkably hard to track down. 'Someplace high' was about the only clue he had, but he made it work, and after scouring Death Mountain he had found her. At least it wasn't Snowpeak. He wasn't much for the cold either. More importantly, however, was the fact that she was kin. She was an Oocca as well. While he didn't know her, he was still a little on edge around his own kind after stealing away with the only airship in existence.

"You know the urge to make some kind of 'hot' pun is terribly tempting," he said as he stepped up to her, from behind a boulder where he'd made a few quick observations. He didn't like going into these things unprepared. That and she was fairly observable, all things considered, and thus the urge to make terrible puns. "But for your sake and mine I think I'll avoid that one," he added with a mischievous grin. "You're quite hard to find, aren't you. So aloof and all that."

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[Adele Grey]

don't forget me, i beg, i remember you said

sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead

She didn't acknowledge him at first; she gave herself a moment to breathe and keep her temper down, then straightened up and turned, an easy smirk curving her lips.

"Good call on your part," she said sweetly. "I'd hate to leave you blind." Adele tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, her gaze skimming over the man. Red hair, one eye, Oocca... of course. Really, for a runaway king, you'd think he'd be a bit more sneaky when it came to disguising himself. Honestly, she didn't think he'd done anything other than change his clothes.

Adele stifled a fake yawn, her smirk growing wider. "Being hard to find seems to be a racial trait, Your Majesty." Her tone was snide, her bitchy attitude only emphasized in the titled. "You of all people should know~"

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[Kiir Ophanine]

x x

Okay, she knew. She knew and she made sure he knew that she knew. But maybe he knew she knew he knew she knew. Derp. To most he didn't even look Ooccan. For some reason the eye patch really threw them off on that. Oocca were angelic and whatnot, right? An eye patch was an aesthetic flaw and angels were supposed to be flawless. Thus he wasn't an Oocca. But then she was an Oocca and she knew. Let's not start that again.

Kiir made sure that his brief, momentary panic was not visible. He didn't exactly want to get taken back to the City right now, but he didn't think Adele was that kind of person. At least he hoped not. Instead, he decided he should use that to his advantage. "It comes naturally to some more than others," he mused on that thought, then shrugged his shoulders and offered her a smile. Ice queen, got it. That changed nothing other than the fact that he had to be a bit more careful where he stepped.

"Let's let the heat melt that cold demeanor of yours," he said coyly, and laughed. "I'm not here to cause trouble. I'm here for business, here to make you an offer, should you hear me out."

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[Adele Grey]

don't forget me, i beg, i remember you said

sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead

Oh yes, she knew. And now she knew that he knew she knew. This was delightful, it was.

The idea that Oocca were angels and angels were flawless was a stereotype that Adele enjoyed immensely. Appearance-wise, Oocca were as flawed as anyone else; if anything, people just wanted to believe that they were beautiful because they had beautiful wings. And personality-wise... well, Adele was practically the poster girl of tsunderes.

Minus the -dere, of course.

She couldn't help it; she was intrigued. Adele liked deals, bargains, compromises; she especially liked having dirt on someone, and seeing exactly how far they'd go to keep their secrets hidden. She was just curious enough that she'd let the first comment slide... for now.

"Do tell," she said, her tone bordering on sarcasm.

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[Kiir Ophanine]

x x

Straight and to the point, not chance for him to throw out some purple prose and make the deal seem all the sweeter. But then his usual sales pitch would likely go right by her, considering the fact that she was kin and knew the goings on in the City. Particularly the fact that the airship he had liberated had been built under his watch. Then again maybe they hadn't released that fact considering how secretive they were about the very construction of the ship itself.

Better to play it safe in this case. That cold shoulder, the sarcasm and the chilling demeanor all spoke of danger if he slipped. "Not a lady of many words, are you? That's fine, I can do the talking. You just stand there and look pretty, and hear me out. Shouldn't be too hard," he cooed, unable to really suppress that womanizing nature of his. "To the end, before you give me a curt no and a set your back to me, however nice it may look."

He paused and considered his pitch. "Some engineers in the City were working on an airship. Whether you know that or not, I've avoided that loop. That airship was liberated from their gratuitous amounts of testing and has been taken into my care, as you could call it. Except it's meant to be crewed and while I have been working to gather such a crew, I'm nowhere near finished. Which is where you come in. I'm offering you a chance to join the crew of the Sparrow and take a share of all the bounty she brings to me and mine."

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