Open Post: Treat

[sporesprouter]

Now that the latest burst of activity has actually settled into something like calm for a few days, Tress has settled into a temporary project. In fairness, most of the temporary project took place the previous day in the out of the way kitchen that she had previously commandeered small appliances from. But today requires a bit more wandering.

So she is currently in the process of going around various at least semi-frequented common rooms leaving trays of both nut and honey balls and chocolate coconut balls. Next to each room's tray, she sets down a small card that says in careful handwriting, 'It's been a tough week. Help yourself!'

She's not putting a whole lot of fanfare into the process, but she's also not being particularly secretive about it, so she's easy enough to find throughout.

Comments

[sporesprouter]

"Vines sprouted out of her face and caught the bullet. It turns out that Crow is something called a spore-eater. From how Ulaam described it... it's like she's infected by the moon, and the infection protects her from anything that tries to pierce her skin."

[az_fell]

"How interesting." Aziraphale cocks his head to one side, trying to picture what Tress is describing. It's certainly striking. "Gruesome, but very useful for her purposes."

[sporesprouter]

"Useful, but only to a point. She had to keep drinking water, because the disease leeches it from you, it's painful, progressive, and fatal. She was actively looking for a cure. That's why she wanted to induce the crew to sail the Crimson."

[az_fell]

Aziraphale makes a mild, disgusted face at this, like he's just sniffed the milk carton to determine whether its contents are still good and come up with an unsatisfactory answer. "And how did that go for her?"

[sporesprouter]

"We'll get there soon enough. Anyway, Salay managed to get it in her head that I was secretly an assassin..."

[az_fell]

Aziraphale pauses. He squints. "With all due respect, my dear, you?"

[sporesprouter]

"That's what I thought. But apparently because I supposedly wasn't afraid of spores, she figured out I'd switched the cannonballs, didn't leave the ship when I could have, and kept insisting I wasn't secretly an assassin..."

[az_fell]

Aziraphale has to laugh at that, if fondly enough. "If insisting that you're not an assassin is proof that you are an assassin, that makes that nearly an impossible accusation to properly dodge."

[sporesprouter]

"Well, it would have been kind of simple, really. A King's Mask, which is what she thought I was specifically, can't say they're one. So if I'd said I was... But even if I liked lying, she just seemed so hopeful I'd be able to help get rid of Crow, and I didn't want to disappoint her."

[az_fell]

"Understandable. So you went ahead and let them operate under this assumption for a while, then."

[sporesprouter]

She nods. "I felt bad about it, though. But anyway, she invited me to a secret meeting she was going to have with Ann and Fort, and asked me to bring the cannonballs I'd found. I still wanted to know why, though. So I... I did some more eavesdropping. And found out that Crow wanted to sail into the Crimson Sea because the dragon that lived there would probably be able to cure her."

[az_fell]

"The dragon!" Aziraphale makes a face of surprised delight. He has a newfound fondness for dragons. "I don't imagine this dragon is as kind as our friend Temeraire here."

[sporesprouter]

"Not as kind as Temeraire, no. But that's coming up shortly. Anyway, at the meeting, they independently came up with the idea to try to divert to the Crimson Sea to be out of the way of ships, so no more would get sunk. But they thought Crow would never go for it. I told them I thought I could get her to do it. They... well, they thought I was a secret assassin, so they managed to believe me."

She shrugs. "So then I went to Crow and told her I wanted to sail the Midnight, to rescue someone from the Sorceress. She laughed at me and told me the crew would never agree to it. So I said, but maybe we could start smaller, with the Crimson, just to work our way up. Obviously I knew that's what she actually wanted, but she told me that she thought the crew would never agree to that... I offered to try and convince them..."

[az_fell]

Aziraphale laughs yet again. "That was very, very clever of you. Perhaps you'd make a good secret assassin after all."

[sporesprouter]

"I'd probably have to be a little more murderous for that. And by a little, I mean at all."

[az_fell]

"Details, details." Aziraphale smiles at her, though. "Regardless, that was a clever gambit."

[sporesprouter]

"Well, it was until I found out something from talking to Ulaam. The dragon in question didn't exactly do favors. He makes trades, and the only thing he was really interested in trading for was servants... who, since his lair is under the sea, aren't afraid of spores."

[az_fell]

"Admittedly, Temeraire is uncommonly kind for a dragon -- if any of the legends are to be believed. Most are rather greedy, so I suppose this makes some sense." Aziraphale pauses and darts a curious glance at Tress. "Were you truly unafraid of spores by this point, though?"

[sporesprouter]

"Of course not. But Crow thought I was."

[az_fell]

Aziraphale's expression can only be described as oh no. "I see. So you were a planned sacrifice."

[sporesprouter]

Tress nods, grimacing just a bit. "Crow intended to trade me to the dragon in exchange for a cure. And I had just gotten the crew to agree to sail into the Crimson Sea well ahead of schedule."

[az_fell]

"Well," says Aziraphale with some optimism, "I have a feeling you may have found a way out of that fate."

[sporesprouter]

Tress's practicality can't help but assert itself somewhat. "Well, yes, considering that I'm here and not in a dragon's lair. And I already mentioned I made it to the Sorceress's tower, so it really is taking the suspense out of it a little bit. So that said, I spent a little time feeling sorry for myself and lamenting to Huck-- still Charlie, yes, but I didn't know it at the time so it feels kind of odd calling him that yet? And then I got to work trying to figure out a way out of it." She shrugs.

"I was going through Weev's old notes and starting to maybe get some ideas, when Fort knocked on my door. He was bringing me some food. That's when I found out he had actually been saving aside some food for me first thing, before the rest of the crew got at it... and it was still pretty awful. So I realized how I could at least repay him-- and the rest of the crew, for that matter-- for all of the kindness I'd gotten since getting on the ship. So I offered to help him cook the next day's dinner. And after I made that offer, we crossed into the Crimson."

[az_fell]

The lapse into practicality just makes Aziraphale smile a little. He had been trying to simply go with the flow of the story, but her adherence to facts is charming.

"That was kind of Fort, despite the quality of the food." Aziraphale knows he himself wouldn't have eaten it, but that's the privilege of being an angel. "And what was the Crimson Sea like?"

[sporesprouter]

"The Crimson is... beautiful. In a different way than the Verdant is beautiful, but still beautiful. Everything shifts from green to deep red, and just because it's terrifying doesn't mean it's not amazing. But we also had to turn back for a while almost immediately. You see, what makes the Crimson so dangerous is... yes, crimson spores have much more dangerous effects than verdant ones, but you can take precautions for spores. On the Crimson, though, it's the rain."