Posted by Commander Ardashir “Jack” Creed (Executive Officer / CIO) in Deltana V - The Ritual

Posted by Lieutenant Celina Rodriguez (Chief Tactical Officer) in Deltana V - The Ritual

Posted by Commander Ardashir “Jack” Creed (Executive Officer / CIO) in Deltana V - The Ritual
Posted by… suppressed (9) by the Post Ghost! 👻
SNIP

“Dwynwen,” the guide nodded his head towards the handsome man now sitting on the edge of the bed in the tent.

“Dwynwen? Now you are just slurring words together, that’s not a real word… is that a real word?” Jack asked as he looked over at Celina wondering if he was just hearing things. What have they given him, this wasn’t turning out how he expected. “I’m gunnna keehl Cesar… that حرامزاده موی موش.” Ardashir said as he began slipping into his native Farsi as he looked at the woman entering as he sat up.

“Your blood sugar is just low,” a sultry voice purred as a bronze skinned hand took the apple. Dwynwen was everything Jack admired in a woman. She moved with a slippery grace gliding over the floor with each step. Her movements were graceful and fluid which accented every curve of her body like water over a stone in a river. Sitting on the bed she slowly pulled a knife from a side pocket of her flowing robe. Placing it on the red skin, she pressed. The slight popping sound of the blade breaking the skin of the fruit seemed to fill the room. The juice dripped down her hand as she sectioned off a piece of the fruit. “Take a bite for when you eat from it your eyes will be opened,” Dwynwen silky voice spoke close to Jack’s ear as she lifted the fruit towards Jack’s lips.

“I don… I don’t… من نمی دانم نامزد من این را دوست دارد یا نه.” Ardashir answered with a feeling of guilt mixed with lust as he stared down the bronze Goddesses in front of him. This had to be a hallucination, Celina hadn’t killed this girl yet so that meant it couldn’t be real. Celina would never let someone that looked like this just offer him the fruit.

The site of the apple and the woman’s words made Celina’s mind slid into a different fantasy. No longer was Jack standing on the open sand of the beach in a white shirt with the wind rippling the fabric over his tight pectoral muscles. It slid to Jack in a lush garden under a large tree wearing only a fig leaf. “Don’t eat the ah puh ellllllll,” Celina said as her eyes rolled in the back of there head.

Celina Rodrguiez CTO

“You see her too عشق من؟” Ardashir asked in a confused tone as he couldn’t quite grasp what was going on. This place felt like one long trip but he had just had water… the water. Jack tried with his whole might to focus on what might have been in that sweet water, it wasn’t berries that was for sure, or maybe it was. There were berries that could cause this.

“We shouldn’t eat anything else, the زن شیطان ماسه و دریا ما را می خورد.” Ardashir said, still mixing Farsi and English as he tried to keep his mind from just slipping away.

Creed, XO

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Three hours later
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The sound of the surf breaking on the sand echoed in Celina’s ear. The more the fog in her mind cleared, the more she noticed her surroundings. The soft breeze, the sunlight warming her skin, and the feel of water on her toes. Slowly closing her hand she found a fist full of cool sand in it. “Jack,” she said slowly pushing herself up blinking her eyes. The sun was as blinding as the ache in her each. “Why did you not remind me not to drink the Kool-Aide,” she rolled off her stomach and to a sitting position. Looking around she could not see the tents or the small village they had arrived in. All she could see was sand, surf, and Jack ten yards to the left on the sand next to her. He was no longer wearing his uniform but one of the tan robes with the turtle emblems embroidered on it. While he would look freakishly handsome in anything, this combo was not what Celina would ask to see him in again. “Jack,” she said softly now noticing that he was curled up sleeping like he was on vacation. The problem was he was not on vacation and probably not as relaxed either.

Celina Rodriguez

“What!” grumbled Jack as he pulled the blanket over his head, clearly not feeling whatever she was feeling. “Just five more minutes mom… I will be up soon.” he said with a umpf to his voice as he tried to block the sun from his eyes as he clearly began to snore once more.

“Jack get up,” Celina said a bit more gurffly but then again she was angry and without coffee. Grabbing the blankets, she pulled them off Jack exposing his face to the sun.

“Stop it…” he said as the covers came flying off of him as he looked and blinked as he saw Celina standing over him. “Give it back…” he demanded as he felt his mind begin to awaken, memories of the night before seeming to resurface as he started to look around at his sounding. “I don’t remember this room…” he said softly to her as he moved to the edge of the bed.

Creed, XO

“That’s obvious Sinbad,” she gestured at his clothes of the lack of them. The only Federation clothing remaining between them was thier boots. Jack however was only wearing tan linen trousers the color of dull beige. The fraying hem and his bare chest easily gave Jack the appearance of a pirate. Pulling a knife from her boot, Celina began to cut the sleeves off the tunic dress she was wearing as she continued to talk.

“So I remember we had some feast or something but we were in a village right? Not a bee cha,” she grunted as one of the sleeves came loose.

Lt Celina Rodriguez CTO

“Wait… no we… that was real?” Jack said as he sat up as he looked over at her.

“Riding the chick…en,” she grunted starting to cut off her other sleeve. A soft ripping sound followed by pops of the stitching punctuated her words. “That was real. Drinking the crazy kool-aid was real too,” she dropped the circular pieces of fabric into the soft white sand next to her.

“I remember threatening to strangle a guy if he didn’t stop trying to touch you… and then I am pretty sure you /did/ strangle a girl who kept touching me… what happened?” he asked her as he began scrambling for some clothes as he tried to get the body going but knew it wasn’t going to be so instant. Everything hurt like only an early morning hangover could. “Tell me when didn’t do something we shouldn’t have.”

Creed, XO

“Oh strangling some bronze goddess that was massaging oil all over you so that you glistened like a Persian God while you tell her lower and to the right is something I am always going to do Mr. Creed,” she gave him a sour look. Her frustration with the situation was clearly evident in her voice and the expression she bore on her face. “I mean lower and to the left? Did ya think we were really at some couples spa Jack? Fuiste drogado. No fue tu culpa, pero ¿qué tipo de súper espía se deja emborrachar y luego aprovecharse de una diva de playa doble D?{You were drugged. It was not your fault but what kind of super-spy lets himself get drunk and then taken advantage of by a buxom double D beach diva}. ” When Celina was emotional, she always reverted to Spanish. Right now it served her purpose because the last thing she needed was to fight with Jack. Unfortunately, she was jonesing for a fight and he was the only other person on the beach.

“Hey hey hey, don’t try to sell me out on that puta, you were all about the south side and how you just needed a little nudge… what does that even mean a little nudge? And who the hell is Ming and what does her fingers have to do with anything?” Jack asked her with a gruff tone as he began to feel the haze leaving him as he looked around for more clothing they could wear.

“Ming has the fingers of a god and where I go when I am ready to kill you or as tense as a spring loaded bottle of champagne. If I made any reference,” Celina waved a finger, ” to Ming it was that she is far more proficient at her job than anyone I have ever met. Don’t be picking on my girl,” Celina rolled her eyes at Jack not sure if she was mad and if mad even at what. Last night was a blur and there was still no coffee. How Jack thought she could hold a straight thought was beyond her.

Spreading her legs apart, Celina plunged the dagger at her knee level and began cutting the fabric in a horizontal line turning her Amish skirt into something more practical. While her anger was misplaced it had to be vented somewhere. As Celina watched him looking for something to cover up, the site of his glistening bronze, chiseled chest just mad her angrier with Dwynwen. Moving her hand slightly she noticed the glint of the sun coming off her diamond was blinding. Tilting her hand so that the shine was directly in Jack’s eyes made her feel slightly better as she watched him blink and squint. The move was jealous and petty but there was no coffee and that in itself made her more bloodthirsty.

Lt. Celina Rodriguez CTO.

“Stop it…” he said as he slapped her hand downward. Pointing at her as he spoke it would be clear from the look he was giving her he was about to dig into her on something. “This is Cesars fault you know… ‘Oh help my hermano, he needs us… you are like his big hermano…’ blah blah blah. If I wanted to be his big hermano then that would make this.” Jack said as he pointed between the two of them as to indicate them as a item, “Very Lanister like if you catch my drift.”

Creed, XO

Celina froze struggling to contain the emotions in her body. She started to shake and clenched her jaw biting back every word, phrase and sentence begging to spill from her lips. Her eyes bore holes into him desperate to say with her eyes what she was holding back verbalizing. After several long minutes, all the cascades came crashing down as Celina erupted in laughter. “Stop making me smile,” she said angrily fighting to keep the stern expression on her face.

Jack and she had a very tumultuous relationship, that typically lasted under ten seconds at a time. After ten seconds of fiery rhetoric to two things happened. The first was never going ot happen now because they were on a beach and she learned at sixteen living in Peurto Rico that making up in the sand was a no go no matter what the situation. The other was someone laughed because the other shot, scored, and sunk the comment of the night. “I,” she started before a familiar voice rang out from seemingly no where.

“Dude bro why you wanna make it so weird,” Cesar called out. “I mean yeah she is my sister but why you acting like you are mad at me mi hermano?”

Celina Rodrgiuez

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“Mad… at you!” Jack said, completely bypassing and ignoring the fact that somehow Cesar was upside down and dangling.

“Jack remember your command training to remain calm in tense situations,” Celina tried to keep up with Jack as she half stumbled, half ran in the soft sand about her ankles.

“Phew,” Cesar smiled. “I thought you were mad at first.” If Celina had a gag she would have used it to stifle her brother for his own good. Cesar never seemed to be able to read Jack or that Jack was mad at him.

“Who else am I going to be mad at? You drug us out here for some god forsaken treasure hunt… and for what.” Jack said as he gestured around. “Where is the treasure Cesar? All I see is a bunch of crazy loons who drugged us and… well I don’t quite know what we did… and where are these people.” Jack asked as he looked back over to Celina.

“Over.....there,” Celina gestured to her left dragging out the word. She would have added more to the sentence but it suddenly occurred to her that they were alone. Why this fact hadn’t registered earlier surprised her. “The are....around…somewhere.” Her eyes darted up and down the sand dunes and beach desperate to find another living soul but Jack seemed to be correct. Looking back at Jack she raked her top lip with her teeth.

“Why is it just us three? Does that not strike you as odd?” he asked her, wondering if she was feeling just as uneasy as he was.

Creed, XO

“Because they went to get us breakfast?” Celina struggled not to cringe at her comment.

“Oh is that what they are calling it nowadays when someone just takes off with all your items…” Jack murmored under his breath. He should have known better, he should have been paying closer attention. Never had anything Cesar dragged him into though required this much focus.

“Nah there was no one here when I woke up…upside down,” Cesar responded wiggling some in the cocoon like rope bindings that had him suspended upside down from the tree. “You guys picked a really weird place to camp. Why didn’t you follow the guides I hired to,”

“What guides? This people took us out on bird back and said you sent us to them. They mentioned you by name… so unless there is another group of people these were our guides!” Jack yelled at Cesar as he began running his hands through his hair in frustration.

She fought not to laugh hearing the bird back comment. Seeing Jack on the back of what was basically an over grown chicken with a saddle was going to be a memory to be shared over and over…in the future of course.

“Not helping,” Celina said in a chipper tone. Whatever Cesar was going on about, the last thing Celina needed was for Jack to be reminded of the bird he rode in on. That trip in resulted in avian comments about her mother followed by being drugged. While Cesar seemed more worried about how they got there, Celina could not stop wondering about what had happened last night. The memories were fuzzy yet one thing was sure, she had slept with someone. Celina would definitely need to light a few candes to St. Augustine the patron saint of bad choices followed by one to St. Monica who was not only the patron saint of wives and mothers but also the actual mother of St. Augustine.

“Okay help me get him down.” Moving towards her brother, Celina pulled out the knife and reached up trying to get the rope that was suspending her brother. Unfortunately it was far above her head. Not wanting to bother Jack, Celina began to try and think tactically how to cut a rope that was three feet above her head.

“Celina,” Cesar hung very still with his eyes looking past Jack who was standing in front of him.

“Not now Cesar.” Jumping in the air, she attempted her first swipe at the rope above Cesar’s feet.

“Lina…Jack,” Cesar’s tone was still happy and up beat but a little more urgent.

Lt. Celina Rodriguez CTO

“What?” Jack snapped as he looked back at Cesar, as he couldn’t help but form a smirk on his face as he watched Celina perilously try and cut him down. “You know I would have helped, I could have nicked him slightly and said it was an accident, would have made me feel much better…”

Creed, XO

“I am....fah,” she said turning to face Jack. The look on her face melted into surprise as her eyes widened and her jaw became slack. “Jack,” she batted his arm rapidly not looking at where she was striking him. “Jack we really need to get him down.” Her actions became more intense with the hitting turning into her poking and shoving his arm as if trying to physically move him.

“Fine… fine fine fine!” Jack said as he threw his hands up as he reached behind his back and pulled out a knife.

“Wouldn’t you like to know, you learn a lot of stuff while on Orion.” he said with a wink to Celina as he began cutting the binds that held Cesar in place.

Celina’s gazed was fixed on the horizon and the small boat rowing ashore. It was moving at a rapid pace like the occupants were rowing for thier lives only the people in the boat had an unsavory quality. Plus the seemed to be waving pulse swords and firing some sort of projectile weapon in the air while pointing at them.

“Well they showed up faster then I thought they would,” Cesar announced like it was a fact the group should know.

Lt. Celina Rodriguez CTO

“Who showed up… if you say pirates I will show you knew places I can put this knife at on you and it won’t be as fun… who are they Cesar?” Jack demanded, feeling a bit tired of the games they had been playing so far.

Creed, XO

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