really cheesy title i know but just bear with me. i was suddenly filled with the motivation to write something at two in the morning. its three o clock now and i think im done

literally its so late and this didnt have any editing so sorry if its a load of crap but i kinda like it so here have a drabble about the AJCO server and lavender’s backstory. more like a narrative than an actual story because im a lazy butt

Warnings: None

Words: ~1250

The sky was blue.

A bright, hopeful sort of blue only the sky could create. There wasn’t a cloud in sight that dared to interrupt the vast ocean of cobalt. The only thing for miles was the looming, purple-sailed airship slowly gliding through it. A perfect day, the woman mused. Her crew had been hard at work the few days before now, stocking up and running– one tends to gather quite a lot of infamy as a pirate of her caliber.

But now they were free. Alone: it was only Lavender and her closest, most trusted companions. The six women she depended on to live her day-to-day life. The navigator, who could always find their way home. The engineer, making sure their ship is safe and reliable. Their Quartermaster, working to make sure everyone is safe and accounted for… Even Lavender’s swabbie has saved her life before. They watch one another’s backs when no one else will.

Lavender was interrupted from her thoughts as she heard her engineer’s call. She’d been watching the weather scans, and noticed that they were on course to hit a storm. The captain, knowing their ship had just been repaired and reinforced with new braces, decided it would be stable enough to make it through.

And so they lowered their sails, spread the side glider wings that’d help them coast (the masts’ sails would likely be ripped apart by the wind they’d face, and so they were better off gliding) and readied themselves for the worst. The grey, ominous clouds gathering on the horizon grew steadily closer, as the Hydra remained rocketing straight toward it. For a long moment, everything was silent. A deadly calm before the impending storm. Only the captain, her navigator, and her quartermaster were on deck. Everyone else was secure below, lest they be blown off by the approaching chaos. Lavender, now at the helm, steadied the ship through the beginnings of turbulence, before the lightning storm swallowed their vessel whole. The intense gales the storm created battered the rather small ship, and the Quartermaster had to help Lavender keep the Hydra steady as it rode through the rains. The ominous creaking vibrated the floorboards beneath the captain’s feet as the vessel fought to remain intact. But Lavender knew her ship had been through storms like this. It was natural for a ship to groan as its supports braced and took off the stress of the rampaging gusts of wind and rain.

Lavender would have guessed they were almost through the worst of it when she heard the crack. It’d followed just after a whine, like one of a tree trunk sliding across another. She felt it beneath her, and saw the whole main deck lurch as the wood strained to remain intact.

The lower supporters, she knew, had given. Their whole ship now depended on the entire stem to remain solid, for if it didn’t, the Hydra would split in half. No longer airworthy, they’d plummet to the open ocean below, miles away from any island: they were on the run, after all. She could only hope her crew could find the damage and remedy it before that could happen.

One stray lightning bolt abruptly interrupted her hoping as it hit the ship’s mizzenmast: meters from where the three women stood. The shock, both mental and physical, threw Lavender back from where she stood at the ship’s wheel. The momentary loss of control was all the storm needed as it finally pushed the Hydra past her limit.

The crack of the supports breaking was nothing compared to the entire stem snapping. A sickening crash as Lavender saw the ship she could almost consider her child being torn in half. The deck was ripped apart, splinters flying through the rampaging, chaotic air. The bowsprit broke and snapped back, crashing down onto the deck and breaking through. The masts buckled, as well. The main and fore masts crashed together, and sails and beams fell from everywhere.

The now-former Captain could only hope her crew were unharmed: though the chance was slim.

Lavender woke up with a startled shout, the shock actually lifting her up to a sitting position. This had been the worst nightmare yet. It would have been a relief to know that it was all an odd thought conjured up by her subconscious, and therefore not a truly real event, but she didn’t care at this point.

So what if that one event didn’t happen: a worse one did. She grimaced as she tried to think of that day. Her mind was still uncertain, and she knew she might not ever get that memory completely back.

She got up, knowing she might not get anymore sleep that night, and crossed over to the tower’s window. Looking out, she noted that it was raining here, too. Her subconscious probably picked up on it and implemented it into her dream or something. Chano, her remaining wolf, padded sleepily up to her, probably roused by her earlier cry of fear. She sat by the window for a while, an arm around her companion’s neck, slowly mussing his wiry fur.

Oh, how she missed her crew. Most mental wounds, she knew, could be healed over time but the aching loss was still as prominent and strong as the day she realized she would never see them again. She’d give anything to see them again.

Though she did meet someone new. Someone she’d instantly bonded with, and someone she then betrayed. Lavender still would never be able to tell why the woman could still trust her as much as she does. There was another co-worker, as well. Snarky, sarcastic, and a bit cynical, he was overall caring behind this front and Lavender came to acknowledge him as a friend. And her new captain… She’d met her, too. The scientist, the one that spent her busy days and sleepless nights working. She’d come to really respect her, and was glad for her protection under the crew she had.

Because with this new world, there had also been dangers to go with it. Another band of scientists. As she had worked for them before, she knew that they were nowhere near as trustworthy as Lavender– and she was a pirate.

And she’d face even more in the future. The mutt that would remind her of the omegas in her old pack she grew up with. A soft, protective instinct will constantly tell her to protect him at all cost but she would force herself not to listen. She would force herself to remain unattached. She already had one emotional bond that served as a weakness, in the future she would know it would be a bad idea to make more.

She would also, one day in a future that now loomed rather close, she would sit in a small, decrepit courthouse. The leader of that band of scientists would be there, as well as the mutt. Lavender would be silent, watching as the psychopathic scientist awaits the verdict. She will be charged with animal cruelty. Lavender will, one day in that tiny, worn old courtroom, feel a looming sense of dread. The court would be quiet as they awaited the scientist’s final statement. A deadly calm before the impending storm. She would look back on this day in the not-so-distant future and remember the fear she felt as her life was once again swallowed up and broken to pieces.

But this time, the sky would be black.