no rest for the wicked.

Captain Alexander Barrett. Pirate Lord. 30. That's Lord Barrett to you, grunt.

[joshuadarling-blog]

“If you do find them, give them a few broken bones on my behalf. Can’t believe they thought they could do this without any sort of retaliation or backlash. Fucking idiots. I’ve got to sort out a few things before I can leave this mess, Captain. But, I’ll keep an eye out for Alice and for Nadia. No telling what sort of trouble those two could get into.”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

Broken bones will be the last thing those sorry assholes will have to look out for. Trust me on that one, Eliot. Go sort a few things out, do whatever you need, but after that I fully expect you to be back on the ship, helping Nadia and the others protect our home from pillaging and destruction. Alice is trouble. But she can handle herself fairly well.

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

Beyond the Barrier || Alexander & Sophia

[kittcns124]

Sophia wasn’t exactly sure what it was that had changed between her and Alexander, but it was something else entirely–something new, something more. There was still absolutely no love lost between them, of course–Sophia would never be able to forget the cruelty she had been dealt at his hands, nor did she imagine that The Renegade’s captain would ever truly be able to ignore the fact that she was a member of the species he loathed and despised more than anything else in existence–she was a mermaid, and that meant that, in Alexander Barrett’s eyes, she was less than human. And yet…she had seen the way he looked at her occasionally, when he walked in on her changing or coming out of the bath; his eyes would widen first, and then narrow, and the heat of his gaze on her bare skin would linger all throughout the rest of the day. And how could she ever forget the night they had come close to sharing together on the dock…her attraction to him had been raw, primal, and uncontrollable, and as desperately as she tried to deny it, there had been nothing fake about her body’s instinctive reaction to him in the slightest. Now, all alone with him in a very small and very intimate cottage that had been brought into existence solely for her benefit, Sophia couldn’t help but feel as if the tension that had always been between them had risen to an all time high…and in her current state of distress and vulnerability, every single one of her walls had been torn down in favor of allowing every single ounce of need and attraction to shine out of her freely.

Sophia continued to tremble even as Alexander sunk into one of the cushions of the worn sofa he had somehow managed to find for them, and she could see in his posture that he was every bit as tense and on-edge as she was. He really was a beautiful man…with dark and tousled curls and those bright eyes of his, not to mention that body, it was no wonder that she had been so enticed by him in the first place. It was no wonder that she had been willing to give him everything. She flinched when he spoke, if only because his voice was a rough bark that reminded her of the numerous fights they had shared in the past, but there was something else about it, too…he sounded broken, almost, and just as frayed and vulnerable as she was, and by the time his strong jaw was clenching and his eyes were squeezing shut, Sophia’s heart was racing a million miles per minute. He…he was worried about her safety, first and foremost. Not anything or anyone else…just her. Suddenly, it was as if all of her fear and all of her distress mounted and came to a head inside of her, and without being fully aware of her actions, Sophia was tentatively stepping towards Alexander on her untrained feet, her eyes wide and hesitant and her full bottom lip tucked nervously beneath her teeth. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore,” she breathed, and her voice quivered in time with her racing heartbeat. “I don’t, Alex…I can’t. Don’t you understand? I…”

Without pausing to think or reconsider, Sophia was approaching Alexander as he settled into the threadbare sofa, and her eyes, wide and searching and all too defenseless, never left his as she slowly, purposely, crawled into his lap. It reminded her starkly of the night on the dock, but now there was history between them…now there was heat, and fire, and an intensely complicated mixture of hate and need that she could no longer deny. His body was warm and taut beneath her much smaller one, and Sophia found herself parting her creamy thighs without shame so that she could straddle his lap properly. Her tattered sweatshirt rode up around her hips to bare inch after inch of her smooth and silken skin, and that was when she gingerly slid her arms around his neck, her delicate fingers curling into his tousled hair and tugging gently. “I don’t want to think right now…I just want to feel, Alex. Please,” she murmured softly, and with each word that she spoke, her breath spilled across his lips hotly. “Make me forget…take it all away…” There was a sort of keening edge to her voice now, one that verged on a lusty whine, and that was when Sophia was tilting her head upwards, fluttering her eyes shut, and parting her lips so that they could brush chastely against Alexander’s. “Is this okay?” she asked breathlessly, even as she kissed him once more, just barely testing the waters as she waited for him to respond. Her slim thighs clenched and tightened unconsciously, and the heat between them throbbed with awareness and arousal. “Please…say it’s okay, Alex. Don’t tell me to stop.”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

There was a strange sort of tension in the air; one that Alexander couldn’t even begin to understand. One that, if he was paying close enough attention to his own emotions, he would have found himself too terrified to dissect in the first place. The pirate lord knew that the night was ripe with the passion and anxiety of war, and that said emotions had latched themselves onto him, making the captain (and captor) both eager for daybreak and nervous for what the rising sun would bring to Ronsanella. And Sophia, as loathe as he was to admit it to himself, was at the center of all of Alexander’s worries and concerns. The image of the rogue pirates stealing her away for their own treasure, or of her brother or father finding and claiming her as the sea’s once more was too much for Alex to handle. He couldn’t begin to understand what it was he was feeling for the mer princess; he just knew that being away from her gave him anxiety, and being near her filled him with a strange mixture of emotions he couldn’t even begin to untangle and pick apart. The thought of her being taken from him was no longer one of just possessiveness. It was more. It was so much more.

And whatever strange mixture of emotions were surging inside of him, it all seemed amplified in this tiny cottage.

When Sophia told him, in that broken voice of hers, that she simply couldn’t talk about any of this anymore, Alexander didn’t press the issue. A month or two in the past, he would have gone out of his way to taunt and tease her; he would have explained to her that it was only a matter of time until her precious (and completely infuriating) elder brother met the bad end of a pirate’s sword. He might have taunted her about her father and mother’s tails being mounted on his wall. There was at least a dozen things that Alexander could have (and would have) said to Sophia if this had been February and he was still as vicious and unrelenting in his aggression towards her. But...something stopped him.

It couldn’t be caring for her, because he didn’t care about fucking mermaids, but it meant...something. He didn’t want to think about that, but it did. She meant something.

So stressed out in his attempts to ardently ignore reading between the lines, Alexander nearly missed the way that Sophia sashayed towards him. But then she was...she was hesitantly climbing into his lap, and Alexander was frozen stiff and rigid in his spot on the couch. Just a few weeks ago, he would have either held her in a tight grip and spat insulting things in her face or shoved her off in disgust. But now, he could do nothing but grow still; he was absolutely petrified, even as she begged him to help her forget all of the tumultuous thoughts raging on inside of her head. For all intents and purposes, Alexander might as well have been a statue.

...That is, until she began to kiss him.

For the first time in the few months they’d known one another, Sophia was initiating the kiss and physical contact between the two of them. And this kiss, unlike the previous two which had been founded on power, control, and manipulation, was somehow different. It was a desperate plea for comfort; an urgency for the warmth and protection that Alexander wasn’t even sure he could provide for her. And all at once, the tension that had been mounting and building between them ever since that fateful day he took her to meet the Duponds seemed to burst. He kissed her back with a strange sort of intensity that surprised even Alexander himself, and he ignored her when she pleaded with him not to stop. He said nothing, but reacted positively; he parted his lips, allowed his teeth to scrape across the full plush of her lower lip, and with aching and quaking hands, wrapped his arms around her dainty frame and pulled her flush against his body. He moved semi-mechanically, as if the passion and emotion coursing between the two of them was something he wasn’t used to; he kissed her as if he was just gaining all of his senses. He kissed her as if he was afraid he’d never be able to ever again. And finally, between kisses, he managed to breathe out one sentence he’d damn himself for again and again in the next handful of hours.

“Then don’t stop.”

[50shades]

I don’t like myself without a beard.

[50shades]

[melaniederrieux-deactivated2015]

“Its not an excuse if its true, and I most certainly would not like to get in your way. I don’t have a death wish and you look like you are very good at granting those. In fact….” Melanie decidedly steps out of his way, making a grand show of it, it was her nature after all. She gestured at the trail she just vacated, wordlessly letting him know he could leave and do whatever it was that he intended to do before she showed up.

“As to your question, I only asked because I’ve reached the point to where I don’t care who stops all the chaos as long as it does…stop that is.”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

“Whatever you say, short stuff,” Alexander managed with a snort and a sneer, rolling his eyes and growing stiff and rigid in defense. He didn’t like the way this girl was sizing him up; as if she was trying to figure out who he was. His eyes narrowed when she stepped out of his way, wondering what her motive behind it was, and casually brushed his fingers against the sword sheathed at his side.

He didn’t think he’d need it for an opponent so small, but he knew from associating with Alice and Celine alone that size was no guarantee of power. 

“The chaos is just beginning...this was just the tip of the iceberg, cherie,” Alex stated, his voice cold and cutting.

[joshuadarling-blog]

“No idea. Just heard it was a crowd of rouges, wanting to cause a stir or something. I saw Temp this morning. I think she headed back to the ship after seeing what was happening, though. I hope she did, at least.”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

Yeah, well they’ll have hell to pay from me personally by the time this shit is done and over with. Last thing I needed was to wake up this morning and nearly have a fucking panic attack by hearing there was an attack conducted without my approval. Without anyone’s approval. Here’s to praying she did. I want you all to stay as far away from this mess as possible. I know there’s no talking Alice out of stepping into the line of fire, but I want everyone else to stay sensible and safe.

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

Beyond the Barrier || Alexander & Sophia

[kittcns124]

Sophia wished that she could pinpoint when it was that she had grown to crave Alexander’s touch instead of constantly shying away from it. Perhaps she just liked knowing that he was nearby…she did worry, admittedly, whenever she was away from him, and while that was something that bothered her much more than she could readily admit out loud, it was also something that she couldn’t quite deny either. Whatever sick and twisted bond that had formed between them, it made it impossible for Sophia to feel comfortable with or without him…whenever they were together, she was suffocated by him, drowned by him, consumed by him, and whenever they were apart, it was her need for him that might as well have been burning her alive from the inside out. It certainly wasn’t healthy, of course, for her to feel the way that she did about her captor, but as he carried her through the woods, with one of his rough and calloused hands tucked beneath the soft curve of her thighs and the other curved firmly around the dip of her petite waist, it was all that she could do not to tremble within the makeshift prison he had captured her in…the makeshift prison she no longer knew if she was capable of escaping.

Finally, they had reached the safehouse that had supposedly been put into effect solely just for her, and Sophia tentatively raised her head to look around with wide eyes at her new surroundings. For all intents and purposes, it was a cottage…much like the ones that she had often seen at the edge of Ronsanella’s shore. It was small and quaint, but there was a certain coziness to it as well…or there would have been, perhaps, if not for the sounds of war that could still be heard despite how deeply tucked away in the woods they were. Alexander, with his muscles stiff and tense, lowered her to the floor, and Sophia let out a soft gasp at the sensation of land beneath her bare feet once more. Daintily, she smoothed down the hem of her threadbare sweatshirt over her creamy thighs, and she waited, still more frightened and anxious than she was capable of expressing out loud, as Alexander did a quick sweep of the location. He was on edge, she realized…positively terrified that someway, somehow, someone was going to steal her away from him.

She nodded tentatively when he returned to her and ordered her to go about filling the room with light. She had only seen matches being put to use a few times by both him and Flynn, but it didn’t seem as if it would be too difficult to handle on her own. With hesitant and untrained hands, she accepted the matchbook from him, and while it took her several tries to catch flame, she finally managed to light them, and she used the flickering flames to ignite the small candles that their cottage had to offer. It felt strangely…intimate this way, with their dull glow illuminating Alexander’s ruggedly-handsome features, and when Sophia turned back towards him, one of her graceful hands instinctively rose to rub at the vulnerable hollow of her throat, her eyes still wide and wrought with anxiety. “We’re staying here all night?” she asked in a small voice, because the thought of being alone in the woods surrounded by an all-out war was not a comforting thought in the slightest. “What if something happens, Alexander? What if someonefinds us?  We’re all alone, and—there’d be no way to call for help if someone were to stumble upon us. How is this supposed to be a safehouse when there’s absolutely nothing safe about it?” Her voice broke with the tears that were pleading to spill from her distraught blue-green eyes, and she wondered if he realized why it was she was so distressed at the heart of it all: her family. “This isn’t right…having to hide away like this. People are dying out there!”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

If the circumstances had been any different, Alexander would have felt too uncomfortable at the thought of spending the night in an intimate and isolated cottage with Sophia. Sure, their quarters back on The Renegade were only mere inches apart from one another, but those were also separated by wooden walls and a thick door. This? This cottage? It was small and cozy--just as he’d intended for it to be--and would result in Sophia and Alex needing to share the same bed this evening. That among other things. But the thought of losing Sophia, after all he’d been through to keep her, was enough to nearly rip him apart.

...As was the thought of anyone else being in her presence as constantly as he had been for the last few months. Maybe there was more to it than a strange sort of possessiveness; maybe his feelings towards the mermaid princess were deeper and more complex than he was willing to admit. But if those thoughts crossed his mind--if even for a second--he refused to let them linger for long.

Surprisingly, Sophia went about doing exactly as he asked of her. She was fumbling a bit with the matches, and it caused Alexander to think about the strangeness and differences that separated them. Here he was, shoving a book of matches into her hands and commanding she make fire as if it were the easiest and most natural thing in the world. And she, who had lived in the water for so very long, was still new to the concept of fire. It was...baffling, truth be told, and Alex tried not to think too much on the clash of their worlds as he went about running over to the linen closet in the hallway, retrieving a bundle of fleece blankets he’d picked up at the marketplace a month or so ago. As much as he would have liked to light a fire in the fireplace to help keep them warm, the smoke from the chimney would attract too much attention...and that was something Alexander simply could not afford.

He went into the bedroom, plopped the blankets down onto the bed, and then made his way out into the living room once more. Tense and completely out of his element, Alexander collapsed into the worn couch, exhaling a jagged sigh and running a hand through his hair. He was only barely listening as she fretted over hiding away in a cottage when people were out in the open, being sacrificed and killed for crimes they had not committed (Alexander’s crew and the other law-abiding pirates included). But he couldn’t...he couldn’t sit here and listen to her talk like this. He squeezed his eyes shut, clenching his jaw and exhaling harshly through his nose. Finally, when Alex could stand it no longer, he barked out in a low, broken voice--

“Because keeping you safe and away is more important than anything else in this situation, Sophia. It is the most important thing, don’t you understand?”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

Glory and Gore || Alexander & Alice

[alicebaudin-blog]

      Alexander Barrett had served as a mentor to Alice through her years of living on the ship. She was loyal to him– to a fault some would say but there was no doubt in her mind that he was worthy of it. She knew the man he was and the man he could be and that was enough for her. At his worried urges, her gaze fell from his. Caution for herself never did sit well with her, even when it was suggested by her captain, but this time he would not let it fall unheeded. With a rare type of physical affection, Alexander took her face in his hands and made her meet his gaze. What she found made her throat close up, the finishing blow was topped off by his words following after. She nodded, a clear concise understanding passing between them.

     She would be careful. “You stay well away from Death’s arms yourself.” When Alex’s hands left her face, her attention still remained on him. She gave another nod when Nadia was mentioned, her main goal was to see the blonde from harms way along with the rest of the crew. “I will.”

     Alice could hear screaming, the kind that warned the weak of heart to stay away but she felt compelled to follow to their source. “If I find any who had hands in this, I will part their limbs from their bodies.” She moved by him, his journey taking him to their prisoner and hers to the crew that had found themselves out at the wrong time. “Alex,” she made one last promise to him, a ghost of a smile curling her lips as she drew her sword, “à bientôt.”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

Alexander knew damn well that many pirates (and commoners and merpeople, for that matter) would not make it out of this raid alive. There would be causalities, there would be fatal injuries, there would be people with wounded egos and pride left to pick up the pieces of a mess some disbanded group of rogue pirates had caused. And at the root of it all was Alexander Barrett’s anxiety; his fear that his own crew wouldn’t make it through the mess he’d seen in the human village today. He knew that people would have to face the loss of their crew members at the end of it all, but that...that was something Alex just couldn’t accept for his own crew.

Not for Alice in particular, who had meant so much to him for so long. Even if she didn’t know it.

“I’ll try my hardest, kid,” Alex managed with a crooked, half-assed attempt at a smile. Truth be told, he was too worked up in regards to everything to even attempt to be cheeky. There would be a time and place for that after the raid was done and over with. Hopefully. “Just as I expect you to do the same.”

It was when a burst of screaming broke through their little safe haven and penetrated the air around them that Alexander blinked and snapped into action. He cast one last glance at his quartermaster as she promised him they’d meet again (and that she’d personally destroy anyone she came across responsible for this) and in that moment, Alex swore he felt his heart swell with pride.

He had chosen well in his quartermaster.

And so Alexander added, just as he was turning to leave: “You do that, Baudin...à bientôt indeed, soldier.”

[ellaashes-blog]

“The Renegade is my first priority. It always is. Flares, got it. I’ll wait until a real fight to spring into action. Still have some moves to practice. I’ll get the flares and accompany the princess off the ship, if you’d like. Or the both of you. Then I’ll know no one is stuck on there.“

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

Glad to hear you’ve got your head screwed on right in that regard, blondie; I don’t want to see you near the village unless you absolutely have to be. Consider that an order from your superior, Templeton. Got it?

[love-personal]

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

Beyond the Barrier || Alexander & Sophia

[kittcns124]

It was when Alexander went out of his way to reassure her in regards to her family’s well-being that Sophia felt her eyes widen and her lips part on a silent gasp of surprise. Truthfully, she hadn’t been expecting him to say anything at all, and if he were to have said something, she would have just assumed that it would have been more cruel and damaging than anything else. But in that gruff, offhand way of his that she had come to recognize when it came to him, he soothed her frazzled nerves (albeit only slightly) by reminding her that, as royalty, her family would have been the most strongly protected. It was the truth, and…startlingly enough, Sophia was comforted by it. Unable to say anything in response, she merely allowed him to take her by the hand and lead her off of the ship and into the woods, and…that was when she felt herself grow anxious all over again. Her feet–her delicate, newborn feet–weren’t at all suited for such rough terrain, and so she could already tell that they would be torn up and run ragged by the time they made it to wherever it was that Alexander was leading them to. It wasn’t ideal, of course, but Sophia could only assume that it was better than staying on the ship, and so she was fully prepared to expect the pain that was to come, when…suddenly, Alexander was halting where he stood, and instead of beginning the trek into the woods, he was…turning towards her.

Instinctively, Sophia prepared herself for some sort of slap or tug at her hair to insist that she hurry up, and though her body even tensed in warning, a blow never came. No…when Alexander reached for her, it wasn’t to harm her in any way or intimidate her through the power of his touch, but rather…with all the strength she had come to expect from him, he was bending at the knees and taking her into his arms so that he was cradling her against his body as a groom would to his new bride. Immediately, Sophia gasped, and her eyes opened wide and fluttered upwards to seek his. Less than a month ago and he would have hoisted her over his shoulder as if she were nothing more than a worthless sack of potatoes, and now…now, he was clutching her close to his body as if he were truly terrified of losing her, and she wondered if that was the exact same reason why he had gone out of his way to prepare for her a safehouse as well. Either way, Sophia couldn’t help but notice that his hands, so rough and callous and big, were impossibly warm as they held onto the smooth and creamy curves of her bare thighs, and in that moment, she could only wish that she wasn’t wearing only panties from the waist down. She shivered responsively in his arms, and by the time he was beginning to move and ordering her to stay quiet all the while, Sophia found that she could only nod obediently, tentatively, timidly, even. As shocking as it was for her to admit, she didn’t want to fight him on this, not with the world crumbling all around them. 

Not when…as terrifying as it was for her to realize, Alexander was the only safe place she had left right now.

With that being said, Sophia nodded shakily once more, and then she was leaning forward and burying her face in the crook of his neck to keep herself quiet. She wanted to cry out for her family, to plead and beg with God to keep them safe and unharmed, but instead, she pressed her nose into the warmth of Alexander’s neck, her breaths coming labored and quivering up against his smooth skin. “Tell me when we’re there and I’ll look up,” she said softly, tentatively tucking one of her hands around the back of his neck to hold herself steady. “I–I won’t make a single sound until then.”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

Alex didn’t have too much time to explain anything to Sophia (not right now especially, when they were narrowly avoiding death and her being taken away from him by the people who wished to bring “justice” to Ronsanella and the creatures of the Mer Kingdom). So he walked as fast as he could, carrying the mer princess in his arms and trying not to focus on the way his heart hammered something painfully from within the confines of his chest. For as gruff and brave as he struggled to be, Alexander couldn’t deny that he was downright terrified. The thought of losing Sophia was something he couldn’t bear to think of, and if Alex had been paying close enough attention to his own emotions, then he would have recognized and acknowledged it as something deeper than a morbid fear that the Mer Kingdom or land dwellers would try and claim what he believed was rightfully his.

If he knew himself at all, then Alexander might have realized that his attachment to Sophia was now building a foundation on something else entirely different than just the semantics of kidnapping and holding her as his prisoner.

Surprisingly, she obeyed his orders without any sort of fuss or demand for more of an explanation. Either she seemed to understand the severity of the situation (entirely plausible), or she was finally learning to respect him as her superior and do as she was told (less plausible). Rather than kicking and screaming and begging for someone--anyone--to save her from the pirate who was carrying her deeper and deeper into the words, she murmured in agreement to his demands and buried her face in the crook of his neck. Alexander tried not to focus on how warm and smooth her flesh was against his own (just as he struggled not to reflect on the fact that she was wearing very little aside from the large shirt she’d tossed on. He tried hardest of all not to think about what all of that did to him. Instead, he carried her in silence.

By the time they reached the cottage, Alexander was nearly sighing with relief. He deposited Sophia down onto the ground next to him, fished around in his pocket for the sole key to the cottage he had, and unlocked the front door. It was a quaint adobe, hidden from society and furnished with the bare necessities for situations exactly like this one, and Alexander was grateful now more than ever that he’d spent his time and money investing in it. Silently, he led the mer princess inside the small dwelling, shutting, locking--and finally--latching the door shut behind him. He did a quick sweep of the small house, making sure all the windows were locked and shuttered closed, before making his way to the sitting room, where he’d deposited Sophia at.

“Alright,” he breathed finally, dropping his bag onto the floor and wiping his clammy hands off on his pants. He reached in his pockets for a book of matches, gesturing around the room. “There are a few candles littered about the room. Take a few of these matches and light them...we’ll need all the dim lighting we can get if we’re to survive the night here unheard or unseen.”

[ellaashes-blog]

“Go wound some men so I can be of use, then. I’m kidding. I’ll stay near the docks, Alexander. I’ll keep an eye on the Renegade and other Lords’ ships while everyone else clashes swords. Like a good little girl. What exactly are you planning on doing? Should I keep the princess with me or are you watching her?”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

...The other Lords, sure, but stay close to The Renegade. And if any trouble comes our way, send up the emergency flares we have hidden in the decks below. Thatta girl; following orders, just like I’ve taught you to over the years. I’m...going to scour the village, checking for anyone else, and then I’m taking Sophia into hiding. But just for the night.

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

Glory and Gore || Alexander & Alice

[alicebaudin-blog]

     Alice’s hands were quick over her Captain’s wrists as his hands came into contact with her shoulders. Her eyes roamed over his person, checking to see if he’d been injured. Only when she cataloged every limb and lack of wound did she greet his gaze with her own, relief clear as day in her green-bright eyes. “Captain.” the title parted from her lips accompanying a slight inclination of her head, dropping her hands to her side. “We will never be safe and I am not one to stand idly by and watch things be done in our name by filthy mongrels.”

     “And some of our crew is still out amongst this chaos. I would see them reinforced.” At the word of her captain acknowledging the merpeople’s princess as if he were worried, she cocked her head to the side, a feeling hot as iron cracking through her bone. She gave it a moment and the feeling was gone, her expression returning to a stubborn determination. “I have to go back out and find the rest of the crew…” a wisp of blonde curled around her memory and a slight panic seized her heart, “–Nadia? Is she out there?”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

“I understand your passion and fire against the imbeciles who have dragged our name through the mud; trust me, I do. But we’ve still got to be smart about this; make sure no one loses their damn heads.” Alexander managed with a grunt, resisting the impulse to cry out in frustration. He hated the thought of some amateur group of pirates trying to ignite a raid and pinning the blame on their superiors; he hated the thought of deserters getting away squeaky clean and free and leaving the rest of the pirates of Ronsanella to clean up after their sorry asses. How was it possible--no, how was it fair--for him and his comrades to take the blame for something they hadn’t done? Stealing the mer princess, sure, but this?

This was madness.

“Just be careful, alright, Baudin?” he asked breathlessly, and then--in a strange act of compassion, which Alex expressed to nearly no one--he took Alice’s face in his hands and directed her gaze towards him. “I can’t lose me a quartermaster, can I? Not after all we’ve been through with one another, kid.” He pulled away, letting his hands drop to his sides (but still feeling every bit as electrically charged and pent up as he had when he’d first stumbled across the young woman) and wincing at the mention of Nadia.

Oh, God, Nadia.

“...Check on Tempton in particular. Some of the others can handle themselves well, but...I worry about her. You know I do.”

[gwenmarsh]

I’m sorry, are we supposed to take that threat seriously?

They’re pirates. You are a pirate. They’re just doing what all you land-walkers do best – making a mess and spilling innocent blood.

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

Ah, Big Red. How strange and unusual to see you out and about. And clothed, for once. Your princess sends her regards. 

[joshuadarling-blog]

“You need any help, Captain?”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

In more ways than one, kid; you find anyone responsible for starting any of this yet? Or anyone from our crew, from that matter.

[melaniederrieux-deactivated2015]

Melanie had only been trying to find a way to safety, away from all the violence and death, she is many things, a fighter is not one of them. So how was it that a simple turn to her left had her face to face with one intimidating dangerous looking man? She sent a little prayer to the heavens for the man in front of her to be anyone but a pirate.

“I really hope you didn’t mean that literally because I swear I took a wrong turn and I did not mean to be in your way…. do you actually have such resources to find the culprits?”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

To say that Alexander Barrett was pissed off very well might have been the greatest understatement of the entire bloody raid. Just who the hell were these rogue pirates, thinking they went above and beyond the rules of piracy? The land dwellers and merpeople alike thought them a savage and unorganized sort of people, but Alexander knew--in his heart, in fact--that the other pirate lords would be just as displeased by the outlandish behavior that wasn’t cleared through by any of them as he was.

There would be hell to pay for this. That much Alex was absolutely certain of.

“That seems to be everyone’s excuse today,” Alex spat through gritted teeth, eyeing the young woman warily. “Everyone’s conveniently in the wrong place at the wrong time. And why are you so curious to know?”

[alexxanderbarrett-blog]

I will find out who started this, and I will put an end to them. And everyone else who stands in my way.