Down to Business
Resplendent Water 25, R.Y. 777
Ash bolted upright, startled as he woke from his sleep, his skin was slick with sweat, though it had nothing to do with the temperature of the room. He blinked several times clearing his eyes as they adjusted from dreaming to seeing. The room was dark, the moonlight that crept in the open window was the only source of light in the small room, the other two figures in the room hadn't woke when he did. He was thankful for that. Ash climbed out of the straw mattress he was sleeping on, bare feet touching hard, cold stone and one hand grabbed his discarded haori from the floor, he slipped it over his shoulders before he stepped over the first sleeping figure in the room, heading for the doorway. Ash tied the cloth belt around his waist, closing the robe, as he stepped through the threshold of the room. There was no actual door on the opening which lead directly out into the main chamber of The Waterfall-Pagoda Manse. Scarab and Yusuf had been the other occupants of the room he’d just vacated, at some point it had been decided that the sleeping quarters in the manse would be separated by gender, Ash was fairly certain he hadn't been part of that decision making process. Then again actually staying in the Manse itself was relatively uncommon, it frankly wasn't all that hospitable. However, it offered a much more solid shelter than the small makeshift shelters at the bottom of the stair and Ash always hated sleeping on The Geronimo when it was docked. So the small uncomfortable rooms of the manse were the most practical solution during times of serious storms. There had been one such storm late last night, but in the wee hours of the morning it had passed into a refreshing calm and the last teeth of winter chilled the air.
Ash walked slowly across the dark, open chamber of the manse, his head throbbed with the beat of his heart, it was rather hard to tell for certain if that was the wine from last night or something else. He found the feel of the cool, grooved stones under his feet comforting and ran his hand along the tall, smooth pillars of chamber as he walked towards the front of the Pagoda and the winding rock stair. The strong winds of the storm had quickly cleared the skies and the moon provided enough light through the sparse cloud cover to navigate by. He often had restless nights within the manse, though it never discouraged him from visiting, however the rest of the crew didn't experience such difficulties so it was with some surprise that he found Tick-Tock sitting on the top step of the staircase enjoying the calm after the storm.
Unlike Ash, who was still groggy from his sleep, Tick-Tock was wide awake and was studying an unrolled piece of parchment studiously. She didn't look up from it when he walked to the top of the stairs and stood beside her, looking out over the steep, rocky descent. Though the staircase went down more than one hundred feet, the canopy of the towering trees of the far east stood higher than the comparatively small stone Pagoda at the top. Ash fished into the pockets of his haori only to find that they’d been emptied at some point last night, discouraged he reached a demanding hand down towards Tick-Tock, curling his fingers several times in a childlike give-me gesture.
Tick-Tock finally looked up, ignoring his hand and looking up towards him, “Can I help you?”
“Come on....” Ash spoke through the heavy, tired sigh of a whining child.
“I don’t have any. Besides you should take better care of yourself, especially if you’re not even going to sleep through the night.” Tick-Tock responded matter-of-factly.
“You’re awake too!” Ash spoke exasperatedly, though not really that loud as he didn't want to wake the others yet.
“That’s because of my Polyphasic sleep schedule, you've known that for 9 years.” She continued to speak in her almost professional tone. “It’s how I keep my youthful appearance.” Finally she cracked a small smile at the subtle joke.
“You’re no help at all...” Ash sank to the step next to her and buried his face in his hands dramatically, forced to face the morning with no tobacco or caffeine until someone else woke up to bring it to him. “And not that funny either…”
“Shush you big baby, the grown ups have important things to do.” Tick-Tock spoke with a stern tone that few took with Ash, even when he was behaving like this.
As she went back to reading the scroll Ash mumbled an inaudible reply through his hands not once, but twice before he finally turned his head enough for her to hear. “I said I already read the stupid message, and it’s really not that important.”
Tick-Tock paused and sighed before giving Ash and exaggerated and scornful look, “You should take these things more seriously, and until you do someone has to do it for you.”
A comfortable silence fell between them, Ash with his head down, resting on his knees with his hands wrapped around his face, though he was also clearly still awake. Tick-Tock glanced back at the scroll that she had been reading when he arrived, but was consistently distracted by looking over at him instead. She had noticed before his tendency to be restless at the Manse, and the sweat across his brow despite the cool temperature and generally unsettled demeanor didn't escape her notice tonight. The peaceful silence between them lasted for sometime before her curiosity got the better of her.
“Captain?” She asked questioningly, unsure what sort of mood he was truly in tonight.
Ash did not reply immediately, when he did it was with more conviction than he had displayed in their earlier conversation. “I think it’s time we wake everybody up, my Muse.” he lifted his head and looked over to her with a smirk though the line was delivered with his classic charisma it was also clearly an end to the line of conversation Tick-Tock had thought about going down.
“Yessir.”
Tick-Tock smiled softly and rolled up the scroll she had been reading, tucking it into the leather satchel that was slung over her shoulder as she stood up. She hadn’t gotten any answers about what bothered him, but she had figured out what kind of mood he was in. She looked down at her watch as she walked back into The Pagoda to wake the rest of the crew, not yet 4 AM.