#wip:doht

[starrywritingg]

death on high tides, random snippet 1

here’s my favourite laini scene I wrote today! gentle reminder she was just nearly killed and the first thing she does when she wakes up is ask about mel :))

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[starrywritingg]

                  Kato did smile then, the slightest curve of his mouth that promised something wicked. Melora had seen that smile so many times, setting fire to ships and ending lives, any time he could prove he was the smartest person in the room. Everything he did was terrible and unsettling, and Melora stayed by his side still. 

                          -doht, O: Melora

                 There was still a few paces between the gun and Laini’s forehead, but she was still wearing that ghost of a smile, as she stepped forward and pressed it to her own head. When she was being clever, Laini smiled like she knew exactly when the world was going to end. 

                         -doht, XXIV: Melora

[starrywritingg]

(have some gang member- pirate captain drama!)

    “Now, Carlos,” Roman unwound the scarf from around his neck to adjust to the warmth. “I really hope it’s all good to go this time.”

“I’m afraid,” Roman turned at the voice, resisting from reaching for his gun. “That Carlos won’t be able to help you.”

Sat behind the small desk, fire going beside him, was someone who could almost be mistaken for Kato. The resemblance was there, but he was older, his hair cut buzz short and his clothes far too shabby for what Roman would allow his friends to wear. The glow from the fireplace cut his face in half with a shadow.

“Takahiro.”

The man smiled and Roman refused to reciprocate the gesture. Piracy was outlawed in the city; it would be all too easy to go back for the Palace Guards and tip him off. They would have the docks closed before he even had a chance to get back to his precious ship.

Just because Roman liked Kato, it didn’t mean he had to like Pirates.

“What brings you to the city?” Roman continued to adjust to the warm temperature as though this was what he had expected, shrugging off his coat and pulling off his hat. He ran one hand through his hair as he placed it all on the coat rack.

It was a moment that made his heart skip a beat, because at the bottom of the rack, was Carlos. With a knife in his throat and his eyes still open.

Roman was no stranger to death, but he took it very personally when people came into his home, because the city was his home, and broke his things.

He dropped easily into a squat and used two fingers to close the old mans eyes, already planning how they would dispose of the body. There would be no tracing this back to the Cas Ulpita.

“I’m looking for my brother,” Roman squared his shoulders, set his jaw and moved to take the seat opposite the Takahiro. He continued to speak, as Roman kicked his feet up onto the desk and leant back, unbuttoning his jacket as he did. “I hear he runs with your crowd.”

“And what brother would that be?” He took a long drag and blew the smoke up into the air.

“Let us not play games.

“No, lets.” Roman snapped and then finally smiled, the kind of smile he had when he was telling men where they could find the bones of their sons. Roman had clawed his way up the hierarchy of the most dangerous city in the world. Fuck this Pirate for forgetting that.

“Kato,” He practically spat the name, like it tasted bad. “I hear he spends time here.”

“And whats your name, son?” The man was older than him and becoming more irritated by the second. Roman dropped the smile like it was something hot. “Tell me, or I have other ways of making you sing.”

“Hitoshi.”

Roman tilted his head at that. He knew the name, Kato had told him about this particular brother. This was the one he wanted, killing the others was just wasting time until he got to gut Hitoshi Takahiro.

“Why that one?” Roman had asked him once, over drinks at a bar they wouldn’t be recognised in. Kato had rocked up in Amedle injured and someone sent him to Roman. He’d stayed to lie low, until whoever it was assumed he was dead. Roman had enjoyed their time together and had been surprised by how much he liked the young Captain.

“He’s the one my father trusts,” He’d been more talkative than normal.

“Ah,” Roman thought he’d cracked it. “So, he’s daddy’s favourite.”

Kato had nearly laughed at that, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, “My father doesn’t have favourites, he despises the lot of us. But he’s the one he’d go to if he needed something done right.”

“And therefor he has to die?”

Kato had looked at him for a minute, eyes burning, “He’s not just going to die, I’m going to be the one to kill him.”

“Hitoshi Takahiro,” Roman kept his tone as light as possible. “I’ve heard about you.”

He bristled ever so slightly and adjusted his jacket. The Pirate was dressed like someone Roman might found passed outside the Empress, like he’d gambled it all away. Roman was glad he hadn’t changed, glad there was still some blood on his white collar.

“I need to find my brother.”

“Why do I care what you want?” Roman kicked his legs down and rested both elbows on the table, so there was almost no space between them. “I want you out of my city.”

                -Death on High Tides, X: Roman

[starrywritingg]

death on high tides

               ↠  the takahiro family

“ L I VE  T O  S T R I K E  T H E  H A N G M A N  D O W N. “

              TAKUMI TAKAHIRO, CAPTAIN OF THE BLACKMANE, KING OF PIRATES

Takumi is the younger sibling of Aito, but was named as his father heir at just sixteen, taking the ring and the Blackmane at twenty five. After his first three children were stillborn, he left his wife and now has forty sons from various mothers. In them, he instils absolute loyalty, and a fierce competitiveness that has led brothers to turn on one another.

              AITO TAKAHIRO, CAPTAIN OF THE DAMNED ROSE

Aito has always been seen as inferior to his younger brother, because of his morality and traditional ways. A man of faith and compassion has led to a life of freeing slave ships, and his religion has meant that he only has one child due to the death of his wife and his unwillingness to marry again.

              SHION TAKAHIRO, CAPTAIN OF THE LADY BERECALLA

Shion grew up watching her father Aito be treated cruelly by her uncle and cousins, and decided she would best them all. At fifteen, she took some of her fathers crew and robbed a bank on the continent, using the money to build her own ship. Now, as the only female Captain on the Seas, and one of the most brutal, she can kill whichever cousin disrespects her father.

              KATO, CAPTAIN OF THE SILVER SPARROW

Kato has always been shunned by his many brothers because of his sexuality, and so he decided if he couldn't please them, he would do what made him happy. He sails on the most beautiful ship in the seas, throwing grand parties and looting his way across the coasts. The only thing that prevents him leaving the family is his love of his ocean and his crew.

[starrywritingg]

death on high tides

               ↠  main characters

melora of strai

              I tilt my head back into the rain, drape myself over a storm.

              I always feel better in the middle of a storm, there was one the night I died.

             Her blood is still in my mouth, in my throat, on my lips. She tastes like salt and iron, like my fathers tears and my mothers split lip. She should’ve known there was no way to win against me. I wasn't born to the sea, it took me, saw me die and let me live. The sea wont let me drown in it’s depths, it is where I’m strongest.

              I look up to the sky and see anger, look out to the horizon and see violence. No wonder this is who I am.

[starrywritingg]

death on high tides

               ↠  main characters

LAINI ELIANTE

              I've been watching Laini Eliante for a few days now, and everything about her is striking. She’s got a sharp jaw and a pretty face, dark hair that tumbles for miles. And she’s a hell of a lot smarter than she’s trying to let on.

              “It almost feels like you belong there,” She turns smoothly at my voice, and then backs away from the wheel she was leaning on. “Almost looks like you were enjoying it.”

              “I’m not a pirate,” Laini says firmly enough that she’s overcompensating. “And I don’t want to be.”

              “Could have fooled me,” I take her place, leaning my back against the wheel. She glares back at me, arms crossed and hair blowing in the warm sea air. I take off the wide brimmed hat Esmerelda gave me, a peacock feather sitting proudly in the black ribbon, and place it over her dark hair. “And now you look the part.”

              I see the red rising high on her cheeks, “I’m not a pirate.”               “Not yet,” And she smiles.

[starrywritingg]

death on high tides

               ↠  2/4 notable ships

THE LADY BERECALLA

              “So,” I toss the small globe from one hand to the other, just for something to do with my hands. While Laini is onland with the Captain, I’ve been left alone with Kato.“It all seems like a bit of a boy’s club. Are there any female captains?”

              He takes the globe in mid air and gives me a disapproving look. I pout a little and he smirks, his mouth a slash across a beautiful face.

              “There is one,” He leans back against his desk. “My cousin, Shion, she Captains the Lady Berecalla.”

              I pause for a second to think, “I’‘ve never heard of it before.”

              “Few people have, it’s a new ship. Stories go that Shion stole from the Masters of Elendow, the largest bank on the continent, and used the money to hire the best of the best to build her a ship in her mothers name.” Even though he’s trying, he cant keep a hint of admiration out of his voice.

              “It must be quite a ship.”

              Kato laughs, “Oh, it is.”

              “You almost sound jealous.”

              “Oh, I am.”

[starrywritingg]

WIP INTRODUCTION

          title; death on high tides

genre; new adult, high fantasy

          pov; dual first person pov

status; outlining/ first draft

          synopsis;

When Pirates invade her home and kill her Master, Laini Eliante thinks she’s a dead girl. Instead, she wakes up aboard the legendary Blackmane, the ship of the Pirate King, Captain Takahiro.

          Melora of Strai is used to swimming in the depths with her mermaid sisters, but has been a captive for almost a year, and she’s still no closer to knowing why, when a mysterious slave girl enters her dark cell, and quickly proves herself a useful ally.

Laini just wants her freedom, Melora just wants to return to the water; but to do either they’ll have to outsmart the Pirate King and his cunning son before they can fulfil whatever they have planned for the two.

          As they get closer to the end of the King’s Quest, as he collects pieces of the puzzle that will determine life in the Empire for millennia to come, Laini and Melora will be forced to make a choices that will shape the course of history.

Welcome aboard the Blackmane, where nobody and nothing is as it appears.

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