Chapter Text
The Upper New York Landing Fields had caught a break from the poor weather just in time. In a few hours, the largest ship of the Coven Cruise Line, The Hexus, would be taking off for its inaugural flight to the London Royal Landing Fields. As per tradition, and according to many superstitions, an airship's maiden voyage is always a trip across the Atlantic from New York to London, or vice versa, depending on where the ship was built. The Hexus is rumored to be able to complete this crossing of the Atlantic in a mere 6 days. This is a whole day and a half faster than the C.C.L.’s top competitors. The company's executives and airship fans alike were buzzing with excitement at the prospect of such a fast Atlantic crossing. Once the inaugural flight is complete, the ship will then spend the rest of the year touring the globe, proving that she can fly for longer than her predecessors, with little to no maintenance needing to be done to keep her airworthy.
That is, except for Amity Blight, the daughter of Alador Blight, the founder of the Coven Cruise Line. To her, it’s just another one of her father’s dumb ships that she was being forced to ride on. And to top it off, her father had assigned her to be the family’s representative on board for the ENTIRE year-long journey.
“Come-on Amity, cheer up! It’s not often you get an all-expenses-paid trip on the finest airship in the world!” Edric said cheerily from the seat next to her in the car. Amity was being forced to ride in the same car as her twin siblings as they made their way to the Landing Field where The Hexus was moored. Not even at the Landing Field yet, and she was already exhausted with the twin’s antics.
“Edric, If you make one more joke about how ‘lucky’ we are, I’m going to kill you,” Amity responds with a sigh.
Emira drapes an arm around Amity’s shoulders. “Well, we need to cheer you up somehow. The three of us get to spend a whole year together, more or less uninterrupted! Think of the fun we can have!”
Emira smirks mischievously, a look that is then matched by Edric. “And all the trouble we can cause for the crew.”
“Edric, you ARE part of the crew!” Amity nearly shouted after thinking about all the different ways they could cause trouble on an airship. With any luck, Lilith will be able to keep them in line as the ship’s captain. Even still, Edric and Emira do have quite the talent of undermining authority figures.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t cause mischief for the other members of the crew! Oh, I can’t wait to see Lilith’s face when her ‘most trusted crewmates’ are suddenly causing loads of problems.” Edric responded excitedly.
Emira leaned around Amity and looked at her twin with a similar glint in her eye. “And all the praise we’ll receive when we conveniently fix the problems before they become more serious.”
While the twins started rattling off about the different things they could do to the crew, Amity sighed and looked out the window of the car at The Hexus that was now beginning to appear in the distance. She may not be thrilled about the idea of being stuck on the airship for a whole year, she has to admit that it does look really impressive. After all, she will finally get to see more of the places that she always reads about in her books.
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“Luz! What’s the reading on the pressure valve for steam line 4?” Eda shouted from the Control Room of The Hexus’ Engine Room.
“One second Eda!” Luz called, finishing greasing a portion of one of the main engines before running down the catwalk to the gauge wall and quickly reading off the pressure for steam line 4.
“It’s reading about 400!” Luz paused for a moment, tapping her chin. “Isn’t that a little high?”
“You bet it is!” Eda shouted up. “Now look around the rest of the gauges and tell me what you need to do to fix it. And be quick about it!”
Luz took a step back to really study the gauge wall, looking from the line 3 water main pressure to main steam line 1, before landing on the line 2 water intake gauge.
“The water intake for line 2 looks high! I’m gonna go slow it.” Luz said, running off to the waterline controls.
“That’s my girl!” Eda called from below.
While Luz cut the water flow for line 2 water intake, she shook her head, unable to believe how lucky she was. Not only is she being mentored by the best engineer of the C.C.L, but her first official post is on-board The Hexus! The largest, fastest airship in the world! She still can’t believe how lucky she is that Captain Lilith let Eda mentor her on their last ship, The Midnight Mint, or that Eda got her into the C.C.L. Engineer’s Academy for free! Luz’s dream of being Head Engineer was looking clearer and closer every day.
“Alright, Eda! Line 2 water intake has been cut, and steam line 4 is down to 297.” Luz called, leaning over the catwalk railing and spying Eda over by the speaking tube wall.
“Perfect! I’ll let Lilli know that the ship is ready for lift-off. You go watch the launch from the weather deck.” Eda called while leaning in to speak through one of the tubes on the wall in front of her.
Luz screeched, overcome by the excitement of actually being able to see the launch rather than stay hidden in the Engine Room. She quickly covered her mouth after realizing what she did, pulling the attention of the other Engineers finishing their own lift-off preparations, King and Viney, onto her and causing Luz to blush and make sure she regained her composure before calling down to Eda again.
“Are you sure Eda? You won’t need my help managing the lines as we bring her up to speed?”
“Nah. I’ve got Viney to help me with that! Ain’t that right Vin?” Eda asked the other Engineer.
“It’s not like I’ve got a choice,” Viney called from her spot over by the generator. “And please Eda, don’t call me Vin!”
“Whatever you say, Vin.” Luz barely heard Eda call back to Viney, as she had already sprinted up the main stairs to the weather deck, eager to watch the launch of The Hexus.
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The driver opened the door to the car, and Amity and her siblings stepped out to the applause of several dozen onlookers.
Although many of the people gathered knew who the Blight siblings were, most were simply airship enthusiasts too enthralled by The Hexus to really understand who they were clapping for. Amity couldn’t have cared either way. While she wasn’t necessarily a celebrity, most people knew that they were the children of the infamous Alador Blight, founder of Coven Cruise Lines, and with that knowledge in the public’s mind, meant that Amity and her siblings, more or less, had to behave like celebrities, per the expectations of their father of course.
As there were expectations to adhere to, it's amazing the things she and her siblings did were even noticed by their parents. The door to her parent’s car had been opened a moment before theirs and Alador and Odalia Blight were already half-way to the boarding ramp, barely stopping to wave, let alone let pictures of them be taken.
Edric and Emira loved the attention, of course. They waved with large smiles, posed for cameras, and shook hands with people they knew their father would want them to shake hands with (for not everyone was quite important enough, or necessarily available, to join The Hexus in its inaugural flight).
Amity, on the other hand, could not be more detesting of the walk from the car to the airship, passing by all of these peoples. Of course, as the perfect daughter, she smiled when necessary, allowing the news reporters in favor with her father the best pictures for their tabloids, and all the other actions expected of her as the Blight Family’s youngest daughter. It was a pain. And she hated every second of it.
After finally getting past the area with all the reporters, Amity was now walking by the section with people more interested in the airship itself than any rich guy’s daughter. She allowed herself a moment to relax from the stresses of keeping her appearances, and really took in the scale of The Hexus.
She really was an impressive airship.
While looking over the ship, she noticed a girl running along the railing of the weather deck. She looked to be wearing overalls that were extremely greasy and unkempt. The girl caught Amity’s attention because, after running full sprint from the back of the ship to the front, she gazed around excitedly, immediately starting to run to the back of the ship, looking around the back of the ship with the same excited energy as a kid let loose in a chocolate factory. Eventually, she got in the way of one of the handlers keeping the ship from lifting-off too soon. She was scolded by the man and settled on one spot along the railing to watch everything, out of the way of the workers.
When the girl finally stopped moving, Amity was able to get a better look at her. Even though she had just been yelled at by the handler, she was still looking around in excitement and wonder. She had short dark hair and wonderfully tanned skin, which was odd considering the stains on her clothes indicated she worked mostly below decks. She wore a leather vest over what must have at some point been a white shirt, for there’s no way those colors were what was intended. Her pants had all manner of pockets with what looked to be tools in each one. At a glance, Amity would have to guess that she was about her age, although she was pretty high up. It was weird to see such a bright and shining face on the body of someone covered in soot, grease, oil, and all other manner of dirt.
Eventually, the girl’s gaze wandered over to the crowd and her eyes seemed to stop and lock with Amity’s. They both stood there for a moment, staring at each other. Amity started to wonder, “How can someone in such drab clothing look so breathtaking?”
Amity’s thoughts stopped at this point. “Wait. What? WHERE DID THAT COME FROM!?”
It wasn’t until a call from Emira came, that Amity finally broke out of her trance, tearing her eyes from the mystery girl.
“ Mittens … Amity … Hey, Amity!” Emira called from next to where Amity was standing.
“Huh! What?” Amity turned towards her elder sister, slightly flustered.
“You were staring off into space up at the ship. Is everything okay?”
Amity’s mind screamed. “No everything is not okay! I just thought some drab, greasy engineer was breathtaking!” However, she responded casually to her sister, “Just preparing myself for the year of boredom that awaits me.” with a hastily conjured sigh before turning and walking off to board the ship, leaving her sister behind.
Meanwhile, Edric had walked up next to Emira. He had seen most of the encounter. They both looked up to the ship to about where Amity had been looking and both noticed a girl in greasy overalls looking excitedly around the Landing Field. The twins shared a look with each other and smirked. Maybe this trip would be even more fun than they originally had planned.
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“I wonder who that was?” Luz thought to herself as she watched the beautiful girl with mint hair board with the last of the passengers. She was beautiful, wearing a black leather corset bustier over a purple dress that ended in a frilly skirt. The purple reminded Luz of an Amethyst and it complimented her green hair perfectly.
“And why did watching her like that feel so relaxing?”
As soon as she finished that thought, the crowd began to move away from the airship, indicating that the last of the passengers had boarded and that the ship was one more step closer to lift-off.
Suddenly, her vision went dark as two hands appeared from behind and covered her eyes. “Guess who?” said a cheery voice.
“Willow!” Luz cried, turning around to hug her friend.
“How are you doing Luz? I wasn’t expecting to see you until after the launch.” Willow asked while returning the hug.
“I’m doing great! The Engine room is so big! Much bigger than on The Midnight Mint. And I didn’t expect to be up here either honestly, but we finished the pre-checks, got the pressures all regulated, and then Eda said I could head up here and watch the launch! I’m so excited!”
At this point, Luz was practically jumping up and down, and Willow had to giggle at her friend's antics. “Well, it certainly looks like you were just in the Engine Room. Let me guess, you ran straight up here after Eda said you could?”
Luz looked down at her clothes, soot-stained, grease marked, with various other pockets of filth all over. “Yeah, I guess I was just too excited. Speaking of clothes, I like your uniform!”
Willow was wearing her Steward’s uniform, a typical Maid’s outfit, however, just a little less frilly to accommodate the tighter spaces aboard the airship, with green, rather than white, accessories to accommodate the official C.C.L. signature colors of Brown and Green. The Green accessories complemented the green in Willow’s eyes rather well, and her headpiece was almost invisible when holding her dark hair out of her face.
“Thanks, Luz,” Willow said while blushing slightly. Not many people cared to compliment her and she still wasn't used to having a friend like Luz who did it so often. “But you should see Gus’ uniform! I’ve never seen so much brown.” Willow said with another giggle.
“Really?” Luz asks puzzled, “But I thought the guys all had to wear brown suits?”
“Oh, they do!” Willow said affirmably, “but it isn’t quite the brown you think it is. Come on, I’ll show you! He’s in charge of the finishing touches for the stage where Alador Blight is going to be giving his big speech.” Willow finished as she grabbed Luz’s hand, pulling her over to where the speech was going to be given.
As they approached the stage, it wasn’t very hard for them to spot Gus over the heads of the crowd that had begun to gather in preparation for the speech.
Boy, Willow was right.
The suit was a very fine make, as was expected from the Stewardship of a C.C.L. airship, however, the brown was so OBVIOUSLY brown, it looked more like a hue of someone’s hair than the color of a suit. With the color of the suit and Gus’ tanned skin, you almost couldn’t tell where the suit ended and where Gus began! Luz didn’t want to laugh at her friend, but he did look a little silly.
“Oh shoot!” Willow muttered from next to Luz, checking the pocket watch given to her by the Stewardship. “I guess we’ll have to wait for after the speech to say hi to Gus. The speech is about to start.”
As if on cue, the crowd in front of the stage began to quiet down as Captain Lilith, Alador Blight, and what Luz assumed was his family and several other Cruise Line Executives took the stage. Luz was trying to see how many of the Executives she could remember after her year in the Academy when she spotted the girl she had seen walking through the crowd just a minute ago.
“Wow, she’s even prettier up close.” Luz thought to herself as she began to give her undivided attention to the mint haired stranger.
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“I can’t believe I have to be up here for this. It’s not like I’m going to be saying anything!” Amity thought dejectedly as she made her way, obediently, onto the stage with the rest of her family and the other top Executives of her father’s company.
Every inaugural flight of a new ship, her father has deemed it necessary that the whole family, along with Executives from the company, partake in the flight. To kick everything off, her father always gave a long eloquent speech about the ship, the company, the crew, the passengers, and any other number of topics her father has deemed necessary to bring up. It all ended when he said, “Captain, the ship is yours!” To this, the Captain usually said something like “Very good sir,” then gave the order for the ship to lift-off.
Just one more pleasure of being the daughter of Alador Blight.
Almost the second the entourage have reached their positions on the stage, Alador began his speech.
“Today is a new day for the Coven Cruise Lines!” Alador started.
“Wow, dad, keeping it classic huh?” Amity thought with a mental huff.
“Today, The Hexus embarks on her inaugural flight towards the Royal Landing Fields in London.”
“Not again with the ‘Today’ speech.”
“Today, we prove to the world once more why the Coven Cruise Lines is the best there is.”
“Yup, he’s come up with another ‘Today’ speech.”
Before her father could say “Today” one more time, Amity tuned him out and began to focus on the people in the crowd in front of her. Most of them are your typical Inaugural flight passengers. You have your group of shareholders here, other company executives there, and at the back are the members of the public that had to pay quite the high price to get a spot on The Hexus for this first flight. Flanking the whole crowd along both sides is the Stewards, ready to serve anyone on board at the drop of a-
“Wait a minute, wasn’t that…?” Amity thought, midway through her scanning of the people at the back of the crowd. She quickly looked back over the people her eyes had just passed over, spotting them at the very back next to one of the female Stewards.
“It’s her.”
Amity had spotted the mystery girl that she had been staring at while walking from her car to the boarding ramp.
“Her eyes are so..., Golden.”
In the initial shock of having spotted the mystery girl, Amity failed to notice that the reason she was able to see her eyes in the first place, was because the girl had been staring at her since before the speech had even started.
To the two girls, the rest of the world fell away as they stared at each other. Their eyes each expressing their respective amazement of the other. One pair reminded the other of an old bookshelf; safe, inviting, and bursting to the surface with knowledge of things eager to be shared. The second pair, reminding the other of a hard-shelled caramel candy; tough on the outside, but with a sweet gooey center, one that not many people have probably enjoyed.
Time passed in a blur, and before either of them knew it, Alador Blight had reached the end of his speech.
“Captain, the ship is yours!” he announced in a strong, proud voice.
“Very good sir,” Captain Lilith responded, turning to a makeshift speaking tube next to her.
“First Officer Kikimora, we are clear for Lift-Off!”
With the order given, the hiss of steam and lifting gas could be heard as the airbags are filled and the engines are engaged. The rope handlers cast off, severing the ship’s last physical tie to the Earth. In moments, The Hexus was in the air, turning towards the Atlantic, beginning its inaugural flight.