User blog:MockingJester/Haven in the deeps

"Fire the frontal blunderbuss!" A raspy voice shouts throughout the warship, lined and embedded in metal, elevated by an arcane echo, a gift for captains of the Briggs family. Benjamin Spooner Briggs, the last of his family.

His grandfather, Antony Briggs, taken by a shipwrecking Kraken at the edge of the equinox sea, his ancient ship, set asunder by lightning tongues.

His own father, Jonathon Briggs, sunk by another Kraken midway through the occidental and oriental path, carrying refugees. Thunderbolts had ripped it apart, scattering the pieces across his grave.

His uncle, Brandon, departed with the vow of spreading the dust of his brother to the approximate location of his final resting place, only to be attacked by fleeting lightning scorching the heavens and sunk by yet another Kraken.

His older brother, Jacob Briggs, taking a sorrowing journey to the places of their family's demise, to seek to bring proper rest to them. Thunder assailed him from above. Tentacles broke his ship from underneath, condemning him to the deeps.

Four times did Benjamin lose his precious family. A family branching back long before the Great metamorphosis with uncanny respect for the seas and those it shelters. Respect that long saw the Briggs blessed by the god of the boundless domains with premonition and a great attunement to water.

And now, that gift would be used to bring the end of any Kraken he was to set upon, much like the one his crew opened fire at, blessed by his uncanny attunement to water. With a rise to his hand enwrapped in hydro runes, the projectiles were made to pass through a water gate. Their penetrating power dive deep to the approximative spot over the Kraken's head to then detonate.

The merchant ship witness to this sudden array of projectiles sails closer to the newly inducted warship. One not of the Order's sigil.

The captain of the mercantile broadcasts his voice of relief to the Briggs commander "Bless the god Poseidon, someone at last!"

"We have come to rid this place of the Kraken that infests this place! You should move from this, I fear it may try to collapse you and your men!"

"Ohh..." The mercantile commander returns his worry with a greater cause for concern "My good sir...it seemed to have waited..."

"Waited?" Benjamin Briggs removes his tricorn hat, his finger burrowing deep in his brown cowl laced in an afternoon wash. Secrets of his family's long-standing services in the sea spoke to the hygiene they upheld in their ships. Every man, no matter their stature was to keep themselves in serviceable condition. Benjamin made no exception in this warship.

Although now, the clean brand of hair decorating his skull passes unnoticed "Waited...what do you mean, waited? Krakens don't usually wait".

"It's as I've said, captain. This one seemed to have kept itself from touching or even looking in our direction. Almost as if it expected---

"Someone else~ A booming voice scorches the air, breaking the tide of peace circulating the Kraken as the mersharks, Scylla, and even mermaids move from the tendrils now breached through the deep.

"By the sea..." The mercantile's crew take a panic to the impromptu voice beckoning from the tide.

"Get as far as you can! This thing certainly won't be giving any mercy!"

"Quite the contrary...my captain~ The voice once again breaches the atmosphere as the mercantile ship makes haste to depart from the sea embroiling itself in thunder and volatile waters "Four times I've attempted. 8 years, I've waited. And now, you are present--

"So this was a snare intended for me..." Benjamin Briggs' power increases once more with the waters siphoning upward as typhoons "Then so be it! I will plant my hand in the snare in hopes of drawing the trapper and send you back to the Davy Jones' locker! You and every other Kraken who sunk my family and their men, one by one! For the Briggs family!"

With some of Benjamin's crew surviving and serving with him long enough to witness the attempts at his life, they scream in vigor, sharing in his plight. The warship's weapons load, awaiting their captain's sanctified orders. The Kraken, strangely enough, seems distraught by his words, her feminine tone piercing the monstrous appearance "No...wait, my captain. You misunderstand. Your kin, they are--

"Enough, abomination! I have no more to hear from you! Poseidon will be the sole judge of your kin's harvest!" His hand comes slamming down on the wheel of his ship, causing water surrounding it to comes wrapping around its atmosphere as a cocoon of an arcane shield wretched with hydro sigils.

His commanding voice turns to his crew as his finger points to the slumbering tentacles "Blunderbuss ahead! Fire all salvos!" The smell of gunpowder permeates the front. Countless shrapnels fly toward the last known location of the Kraken who since long retracted her tendrils from the air. The blue and green glint in Benjamin's eyes glows briefly, empowering the miniature bodies in their rupture and detonation.

"I see you are unwilling to listen, my captain. He was right to warn me...I'm sorry I have to act in my preservation...perhaps, down in the depths, will you be tempted to hear my words..." The Kraken's voice returns to blend with her monstrous form. Lightning strikes the waters around the Indictment ship, drawn to the bursting tendrils all split four ways into four cardinal spots.

"Captain! It seems the beast is readying a collision of tendrils!" His first mate speaks in caution.

"As expected. Full sail ahead! We're going between one of the two!...the north and east! Full throttle!" The winds to the sails overwork on the silk and cord, pushing the Indictment from the growling whirlpool beneath and the growing storm over.

"Captain! Mines!?" One of the crew members runs to the back of the ship where hidden shafts lay filled with carefully weighed and prepared metallic sphere puncturing the air with spikes.

"It will surely come to pursue us! Drop them!"

"Yes, captain!" The crewmate takes hold of a lever, opening another shaft underneath. The spiked spheres loaded with explosives flood the sea behind them like an infestation.

Predictably enough, the first one laid on the waters ruptures at the faintest of solid contact, exploding upward. Then the second one detonates. Then the third one. And so on.

"As expected, captain!" His first mate, Dowey, runs to the back of the ship where mines continuously slip from their compartment, shortly exploding against the mighty hide of the underwater Kraken looking to keep her prey from fleeting a fifth time "It embroils the chase!"

He speaks correctly. The tendrils cut away at the vast ocean, seemingly with a mind of their own. Two beside the warship, one behind, though the latter is estimated to be of no concern, what with the onslaught of mines pelting it from afar.

"Left and right cannons, line your shots and fire! I don't want to see these things try to set their abyssal snare again!" His voice makes the command, his men make the steps. Each free crewman takes hold of a cannon sanctified in water arcane, blessing each projectile with ice attribute. Extra piercing power against the hide of a squid.

Putting their hands on the back of their cannons, the crewmen are welcomed with an already loaded explosive with an assortment by the side.

The frozen mist of rejection welcomes these sailors in the stead of powder as they fire their frosted projectiles on the tendrils. An array of hurrah comes to the faces of the sailors who bare witness to the exploding shells...

...only to be met with a sordid disappointment as the sky flashes twice with two thunderbolts literally facing from grace to meet the icy detonation head-to-head. A wasted shot for wasted cheering.

At least, the tendril from behind them had disappeared...

"Captain! Behind us!" Dowey screams, prompting Benjamin Briggs to nook his head backward. What he saw...

"Well...it seems this one had decided to evolve its hunting behavior..." He speaks, somewhat mesmerized by the sight of the great beast's yellow glare shining through the darkened sea. No spec of light seeps from the heavens, prone to thunderbolts crashing down to the sea. Down to its tendrils. Down to the Kraken's tentacles gathered around it.

An immense light can be peered at from the deepest of its collapsed maw. A dangerous light flirting with the notion of an imminent wreck. One of which Benjamin's first mate is prone to recognize "Captain! The Kraken...!"

"Tsk, this ship isn't going to survive whatever it has up its sleeves!" His eyes flash with radiance, moving from the wheel "Dowey! Take the helm!"

"Yes, sir!" He sprints to the wooden axis, knowing what his long-standing captain was about to introduce. As well as the rest of the crew watching him make short masterful leaps to the front of the ship.

They brace long before he has to rise is voice "Men! Brace for a Continental shift!" His hands rise to the sky, swelling with waters imbued in power. Light sprinkles the Indictment, from which the world spins around it and its denizens. Or rather, the warship itself spun in place in a rapid fashion. One-tenth of a second, in fact.

They now face the Kraken whose thunderbolts now fully integrated into its maw. "Here it comes!"The men hearing of Dowey's warning all duck under, braced.

A ray of thunder comes spilling from the beast, accelerating in its course. Something so forceful could easily shatter ships of wood and metal, the Indictment being no exception...

Were it not for Benjamin Briggs gathering a flight of water to his side to retaliate with an icy beam drawing strength from the sea to meet lightning head on. This is now a power struggle between man and monster. Heaven and sea. Lightning and ice.

Briggs' returned strife spawns through a focus. A trident, to be precise. One solidified in his aquatic nature only by the concentration of the Briggs captain. A prayer to his patron from his other hand to slay the beast before his crew. In memento of his fallen peers. His family.

Alas... "Captain...are you..." One of the crew members approaches him, his eyes widened at the sight of his losing struggle from up close "Merciful Poseidon...the Cap'n isn't going to win this, boys! The cannons, fire the cannons!"

They load up the frontal cannons, some coming close to the struggling veteran sailor in his elemental joust. His legs behind to levitate as he does, his stance remaining unflinching. The beam from his side loses strength, its grith withering against the unending onslaught of thunder and lightning.

"No..." he speaks with difficulty "Take the ship...and turn...from me...Flee this place".

"What--

"Turn the ship from me!" His voice comes as a snap "Take it with you! Leave this place, we cannot hope to win, not like this!"

"But captain, you're no longer bewitched by gravity! If we go full sail, then you'll be--

"That's the intention! This thing only seeks my end! My death! You men have nothing to be involved in this decade-spanning grudge!"

"But captain--

"Listen now!" Benjamin Briggs turns to the nearest interloper, well aware of the crew moving from their post. Cannons, ammo, and everything in between assembled to the foreground of the ship "As your captain, I order you, take the ship and run! Run as far as you can!"

"Sir...with all respect, we're not leaving you behind!" His first mate wavers a pair of finger ahead, prompting the re-assembled crew to empty their projectile to the jousting effort.

"Damn it, Dowey, I just told you, I'm not going to win this feud! Something is siphoning me from strength!" His speech demonstrates the fact, his power-dampening further against the Kraken's lightning ray.

"We're fine with that, captain! We have the cannons to compensate for that! Besides, we pretty much knew the implication of running after one of the sea's most dangerous creatures! Ain't that right, boys?"

A chorus of cheering spills from the crew who continue to batter the beam endlessly in their frozen projectiles, though even this begins to lose power as Benjamin is.

"Men! I know the oath you took! I know what compels you to remain by my side! But I tell you now! I'm not going to win this! My powers, it's--

His sentence. Their cheering. The cannons' symphony. The sea's rupture at the feud of ice and lightning. All of it, quiet as the last of Benjamin's offensive prowess withers utterly, giving full leeway to the Kraken's lightning flare rushing straight for the Briggs captain. The shield he had blessed the ship with...shattered. By his inexistent power.

The lightning quiets all throughout the ship it devours. The men, fallen to the surface. "My crew...my friends...my subordinates...forget the ship...forget my vengeance...but them...the only thing I was to keep from death...now sinking alongside me to the abyss..."

His eyes, clouded by the cold of the encroaching depth, spot the previously distant amalgam of sea monsters gathering once more to claim his very people so sympathetic to his cause. A singular tear of apology falls from his sailor's eye. He failed each and every one of them. And his kin, forever disgraced by this failure, never to rest in their tombs...

"Then...let this not be a fifth time from which I escape death...let me atone in the afterlife..." Benjamin Spooner Briggs no longer intends on trying his luck once more as ice now gathers around his limbs, gathered at his chest. A frozen coffin, clinging to him, crafted from his very lifeforce.

Soon, his frozen eye would wither...and close...as he falls to the abyss...where Davey Jones' locker awaited in his mind. No longer witness to anything but the darkness.

His sinking body, frozen in a deathly shape, now cuddled by the Kraken who shed its monstrous shape to that of a woman in purple. Tendrils spew from her back, allowing a perfect mimic of human legs to swim effortlessly to the frozen block carrying the sunken captain.

"My captain...I'm so sorry it has come to this. Worry not, however, this...is not your time yet. Your kin has not yet passed to the queen's realm...just you wait...~ The warmth of her body shatters the ice, enabling her to welcome the man's visage in her bosom as she swims to the depths... --- Benjamin wakes, slowly but surely. His eyes are welcomed to an array of water ripples elegantly dancing at the hulls of a cavern, carved for inhabitation.

Besides him, a tray of dishes suited for a Briggs. An oriental dish that only one of them could cobble up to fulfill their immense reserves of power "Huh?"

He raises his head, his nose gleefully confirming how firmly attached to his life he is "A seven sea dressing? My hands couldn't have cooked this family recipe--

"My captain. You finally wake~ An uncharacteristically feminine voice warms his ears, giving ample clues as to where it comes from. To his other side, a woman surrounded by white tentacles with their edge perfumed in purple. Two human legs make their appearance amidst the encircling tendrils, the feet drenched in purple as well.

A long, elegant hair adorns her white visage with a hint of purple over the pigmentation, unlike her lips and visible eye, deeply driven in the color. With no need to show off her magnificence, her attire is but of that of modesty. A woman looking to unite with a kindred spirit.

One she sees in the newly awoken Briggs ~Did I make your dish right? He told me you would enjoy the spicier variant~ Her gentle hand meet at the center of her chest, pressed in a prayer-like stance, awaiting a word from the man.

Alas, her gentler eye now mired in distraught as the captain made no illusion to his hostile get-up "You?--You! Kraken! I'll have none of your poison, beast! You dare to try having me as your captive?!"

"No, my captain! You misunderstand--

"Do not call me 'yours', creature! I have nothing to do with the thing that sunk my men four times in eight years!"His fist clenches with his distance, unable still to gather the strength of his patron.

"My captain, please!" The Kraken rises from her seat, her hands parted from one each other, looking to take hold of his in an approaching embrace  "I wish but to explain--

"Explain!? You explained plenty with all the dead you left in your wake!" Again, he clenches his fist, seeking to draw forth his family arcane, yet unable to call any drip of water to his side.

"If only you would let me speak!" Her gentle voice rises in a way unexpected, even for his first time hearing her tone.

"Let you speak?! Like you let us speak?! Like you let them speak?! Like--

"Damn it, boy!" Another voice from parallel room spills about with another large man with facial sculptures sharing a likeness to Benjamin's. His hands firmly take hold of Benjamin's shoulders "Didn't I once tell you to respect the creature of our patron?! And a Kraken of all people?!"

"Wait, what?" Benjamin's confusion only grows as he recognizes this voice and the next one that strings about.

"Hold on, my boy. Let me..." The hands that grabbed him move from his shoulders. In an instant, an old, yet vibrant visage appears before Benjamin Briggs with the corresponding fingers digging to his shoulders. Dizziness assails him under a scolding voice, his body moving with no warning back and forth "Damn it, boy!? Do you never listen to your father?! To be vilifying a divine creature of Poseidon, in such a callous manner no less!"

"What what? A divine creature--" Only now does his brain catches up to the voice feeding it. The voices feeding it. His hands creep up to his visage "Grandfather...and...father?"

"Well, about time you get a sure footing on this world, boy! We were worried about this sleep stunt you pulled on us!" His raspy tone takes on a much friendlier sail.

"Indeed, my boy" His father's voice, Jonathon Briggs, alongside Antony Briggs, is relieved of the initiate scold "It would have been a shame for the latest of our kin to succumb to depth the way you did".

"I didn't exactly have a choice, did I? It's to be expected when your first attempt at avenging your family ends in such failure...and when your men all drown..."

"So miss Seria was right, you really did try fighting a divine creature of our patron" his father sighs, a hand on his face.

"But, hold on! They drowned you!" Benjamin turns to his grandfather, looking to burst in life still far from ending "They drowned you! They drowned Jacob--

"Lad, we don't exactly exude the drowned visage of sailors, do we? Heck, my other boy and that brother of yours would also make a retort to this 'drowning' you speak of" His grandpa retorts, turning to his own son with a nod. The latter makes a few steps back, letting his old man take the lead of this confusion "My boy, your father told me you are a fervent adherent to our family heritage. The one true oath we take when sailing Poseidon's sea".

"Never bring a man in marriage for he risks his family's disarray..."

"Yes, this one...and caring for those who follow your lead".

"What good would that do? All of them, dead--

"My boy..." Antony Briggs takes on a light-hearted tone to counteract his grandson's grave pitch "...you need to stop being so melodramatic. Dead this, dead that. If you still walk the living world, why wouldn't it be the same for those subordinate to you? They'll be fine".

What?" Confusion once more assails Benjamin, prompting the oldest to explain.

"Confused as ever. It's no wonder you found yourself wondering where this gift went. Truth is, it never went away. Poseidon just didn't take to the idea of one of her oldest family of adherents use her gift against her denizens. That and, I imagine having the same lovely lady trying to enjoy the brand of Briggs for eight years would be trying on our poor sea queen's heart. Quite the stubborn lad you are".

"Grandpa...you're talking as if this was long in the making".

"Well of course!" He expresses with pride in his voice "A saying in our family: The Briggs will return to the sea once our goddess calls to us. When I 'disappeared', I knew it was but our fair patron seeking to bring me close to her queendom long before those Order land-lovers ever thought of squandering our gift in their shady goals"

"What?!"

"Yep! Your grandmother, attuned to a Kraken shortly before her imminent passing. That lady I fell in love all over again even as her tentacles welcomed me to a place in the deep. Hearing her voice assured me that the time had come. And who better to guide me below than your own grandmother, well, after a basic in Kraken physiology by a long-standing family of them".

"Wait, hold on--

"Then, there's your own old man who came under depression because of your mother passing away. Always been a curse in the family, that one. And even then, she kept trucking by his side, so proud of you and your brother for being such strong and fair young men. She watched from beneath, converted to a Kraken by the blessing of our patron, just waiting to recover him by her side".

"Hold on, mom is alive?--

"Of yes, alive and waiting. But anyway, then came your uncle, Brendon. My other lad. The Brimore family, the Kraken who were so generous in their welcoming of our significant other. One of their children had the eye for him. Of course, he was...a bit confused, just the way you are. Confused at her words of our well-being alongside our true place in the world. And...well, a sultry maiden walking his way was apparently enough for him to cast away his doubts, was it?" Antony shares in great laughter in surprise at how easily his second child was convinced to usher in underwater.

"Then, came to be your brother. Honestly, I'm surprised at how long it took you to finally embrace the deep. Eight years, my lad..."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Benjamin takes a deep breath, only now feeling the strength of the deep surge his veins "Ok...you're telling me that...grandma is alive, mom is alive and a Kraken and that uncle and Jacob are alive?"

"Oh yes. Alive and well. As are the men who were staunch in their persistence to follow them, even to certain 'death'. Death of their single life, that is".

"Ohh, so then...my men--

"Well, probably enjoying the luxury of walking on land and sea. With a beautiful lady in their arms. And, in the next days, probably going to be worried about their captain...as is this young lady...for eight years".

"Really?" Benjamin's flood of information prompts him to turn to the Kraken standing back on her seat, hands clasped in the middle of her bust. Her visible eye shines with hope. A hope she sees fulfilled behind his decreasing distance to meet her...and kneel.

"Eight years?" Seeing and hearing of all his concern so tightly bound with the certitude of life alleviated his tone, allowing him brief laughter. His father and grandfather look to each other, a certified grin in their faces, looking to leave the very last member of the Briggs family with his cohort.

They depart the room as the Kraken, Seria Brigmore, finally speaks "The frustration I've had, so nearly missing you for all these times, so fearful that these Order desecrators would take hold of you..."

"I can imagine...though I would never have given to them. They would have asked slaughter from me. I could never bring harm to Poseidon's children..."

"Oh really?" Her eyebrow rises "I recall having an ice beam seeking to collide with me. Good thing our fair patron is an avid listener of prayers. That temporary cease-fire really brought a boon".

"Well, you didn't exactly give me the choice, did you?" The atmosphere relents, giving way to teases and light-hearted jabs.

"Only because you wouldn't talk back. A woman is bound to be frustrated with a man skipping on her confession for close to a decade".

"Hmpf, there are plenty of fishes in the sea".

"Surely you jest!" Her hands come to meet his in a giggling fashion, lifting the man alongside her. Her buxom chest now over his own "A one-of-a-kind sailor of the Briggs clan almost as ancient in their worship to our goddess as my own clan?" Her voice takes on a warmer tone "I couldn't hope to pass an opportunity of this magnitude".

Her smile concords with his apologetic expression, one she just waited to snuff out, judging by her anticipating hands trembling on his chest "Well...I'm sorry. I'm sorry for--

Her lips take at this moment to bring tranquility to his inquiry, sealing them in a kiss. Her arms join behind his head as are her tentacles reaching for his back in a parallel embrace.

~Shh, it's alright, my captain~ She whispers, her lips just barely away from his, longing to 'taste' him again ~This time of worry...over the years is over. I have so many things to show my nascent husband~

"Husband?" Benjamin smiles softly, strengthening his embrace "Where I come from, the man is usually first to propose".

"ha, ha, ha...' divine' entities take the lead, don't you think?~ She approaches again for another kiss, her cheeks shining in a purple heat ~Besides, I've had my eye on you for a long time. Your family told me what you enjoy most and I wish to see my newly anointed significant usher those before are~.

"Fair enough...my fair lady".

"Well, then, come with me~ Her body turns to the open door of the room, sprinting through with his hands in her palms. Her demeanor is that of a giggling woman finding her confession retorted with her beloved's ~I have so much to show you~ --- A boat readying to leave its shore. Its crew, fed, rested and waiting for their travel. Their ship lifts its anchors and moves from the land.

"Captain, the waters! They're still..." A crewmate advances to meet the helmsman, which also happens to be captain of the mercantile shipment. His worry? The tidal sea refusing to calm.

"Aye, the sea is in turmoil this day. I wonder what fool thought it funny to scorn the lady of the ocean. Stand fast! I've received word that an escort to her majesty will be present soon--

"Intruder at the front, captain!" Another shouts. The gray clouds, the hefty rain, all of it almost masks the individual standing at the prow of the ship, standing with perfect balance. The quaking waves seem well intended on lessening with his mere presence.

Several crewmen pull out their curved blades and muskets, much to the captain's dismay "Men, holster your weapons immediately! Captain's orders!" They reluctantly abide, returned to their post with uncertainty as he runs across the ship.

"Very sorry about that. The storms...they've been acting up in the last weeks and--

"Do not apologize for them, captain. You've got a good set of men here. We're the one with an unannounced entry". The voice, familiar to the encroaching man.

"Your voice...I think I've---Ohh..." The captain's words lose their fervency as his 'guest' turns to meet him eye to eye. "You're the one...that Benjamin Briggs. The one who came years ago..."

"When I heard that you sought a passage through the seas, I couldn't help but take on this task". Benjamin Spooner Briggs. A true servant to Poseidon. Coated in azure and green attire. A mask nested to the left of his shoulder. His eyes, brimming with a gentle power, the same looking to calm the sea by his mere presence "It's been a while, captain. Glad to see you still farewell".

"I...I could say the same, sir" He moves his hat in a greeting gesture. Briggs retaliates in a similar gesture, aided by a watery tentacle acting at his arm.

"Very sorry for this...unfortunate storm you're been bearing. Some of the less appreciative individuals have been tempted to swindle a speaker of her majesty and...well, you know how she can be with those people".

"Ahh, I understand. You're here to guide us anyway, so I see no problem".

"Quite so, captain. My little Amelie has been yearning to see the skies anyway".

The captain's eyebrow rises in his inquiry "Amelie...sir?" Answered, by the happy cooing of white tentacles and two tiny hands reaching for her daddy. Daring to approach, the captain is met with the small innocent eyes of a baby held firm in the Briggs' arms. Her mouth, open in a giggling joy over her name being spoken. "Sir...she's beautiful..."

Amelie coos more, waving with her tentacles at the man gracing her with a compliment, all to Benjamin's pride "Ah yes, I forgot to mention. She's the product of a long-standing misunderstanding long rectified. The pearl to me and her mother's eyes. She's been waiting to meet the man who allowed her birth".

"Sir...I, I didn't know..." The captain kneels to his guide "I'm grateful that my call would give birth to a child of her majesty..."

"It is I who is grateful, captain" He turns to the sea, seeing in its incomprehensible pattern. A safe haven drafted by his eyes "Now, let us sail the seas. I doubt they would give in to you tardive excuse"

"Ohh, of course...after you..." The captain chuckles as he returns to the wheel, followed by a man who he thought was the last time he'd see...