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Nights tended to be long when you flew through the skies.
For a good deal many in this wacky crew she'd found herself in, it was a time of rest and respite; for them to lay their weary heads down in a hopefully blissful slumber. Then there were the ones who claimed to be akin to the gods themselves, for whom night and day held no real sway. Those ones were more likely to spend the night doing as they would throughout the day, whatever that may have been. There were a few night owls among the remainder, but they were usually the ones who had work to do outside of their obligations to the crew.
And then, on the very end of the spectrum, was Illnott.
And that suited her just fine; she'd always been seen as a loner, a freak, someone to be judged and shunned rather than understood. Even as a kid, when she'd had what could only charitably be described as a family that kept her warm in the cold months, it was just her reality. Like a shackle that held her, bound tightly around her waist and neck like they would entomb her within the prison she'd built for herself, ironically out of a desire to be free of all the torment.
Of course, she was elated to finally break free of it all, and find an obsidian crown at the end of her road instead of the hangman's noose she seemed so sure she was marching towards.
Not that that sort of thing mattered now; the past was meant to be the past, and she was always out to kill that past as much as she was ready to kill the lights on any given night. Today's stage for her latest and soon to be greatest artistic triumph: an undescript village, somewhere nestled within the dense forests of the Lumacie Archipelago. The foliage was a beautiful backdrop for her queenly conquest, something she'd have to thank Yggdrasil for when she got back to the boat, assuming she was still awake by then.
Nah, probably not. She'd be up with the sun, that one, and Illnott wouldn't be caught dead in the sun.
Idly, she wondered if she should've asked Vania to come along with her tonight; although, given Veight's usual protectiveness of his little sis, it probably would've been met with a swift 'nope'. Their loss, really; the clear, starry night mixed with the trees was a sight romantic enough to even get Illnott feeling a little wistful, even as she finished mixing her latest paint to ready for the night, counting them off as she did so. One, two, three, so on, all the way to twelve.
Shit, did she leave one of her spares back on the ship? Oh well, nothing to be done for it. She'd just have to make do with a little less fix tonight and a little more the next. Not that anyone could tell her what to do anymore, aside from when they were fighting monsters off alongside their captain.
Ah, what a dope little dude she'd found. If only Djeeta could've come with her tonight, but she had a hell of a day finishing off some missions for Siero. Admittedly, Djeeta being missing stung a bit more noticeably for Illnott than the missing paint, but it was just how life went sometimes - a little less than perfect, but you still had to make the most of it.
Besides, Djeeta'd see the newest piece soon enough; they had a supply run to deal with tomorrow morning before they set out for Mephorash to meet up with some royal or another. Honestly, they had so many of the damn things on the boat Illnott had lost count, and that was just the ones who were open about it. Not to mention a whole pack of fancy dude knights, some secret agents or whatever the hell Dogmeat and his buddies were, and even a dude who came packing his own goddamn robot.
Seriously, it was some killer shit.
Thankfully, though, she knew they were more than just titles. Instead of just some prince of Wales, she saw ol' Percy, the guy who couldn't keep his nose outta trouble unless his big bro Aggy cut it off - and even then, Aggy'd jump in instead. And always right beside them'd be the White Dragons, Lancey and Vane, who seemed like a couple of stiff knights but were real bros when the swords weren't swingin'. Then Siggy'd bring up the rear, always trying to look like a lone avenger but who always took time out to take care of the kids in the crew, and give 'em a dad when they needed one most.
Instead of some stiff-laced agents of the Society or whatever, she saw Nyatrix and her disgustly sweet food. She saw Beef and the joy he tried to keep hidden whenever he was asked to accompany Djeeta and whoever else she brought with her on missions. She saw Piglet and the twinkle in her eye she always got when her two loves - fighting, and Nyatrix - were within her grasp, and the smile it always put on Djeeta's face to see it. And she saw Dogmeat, and how... okay, he was pretty stiff most of the time, but the whole thing melted as soon as he saw a cute dog.
And instead of some sort of Supreme Primarch who was carrying on the legacy of his predecessor, she saw Sandy, the budding barista who was always waiting for her after every night of kingly deeds with a dope cuppa joe every time. Of course, he also had an RBF like nobody's business, but Illnott knew better; he was just putting on a face so everyone'd think he was still some cool and mysterious type.
Everyone was different, and it was wild. Like she'd been tossed out of a life of nothing but shades of the same boring grey right onto a big paint palette, with Djeeta as the painter giving them purpose. Illnott, for all she knew about paints, would have just gotten herself stuck unpainted forever without an outlet to see the world and all it's beauty, even with the ugly sons of bitches the crew ran afoul of sometimes making the picture a bit messed up. But hey, it was kinda fitting for her life; a little messed up, but ultimately colourful nonetheless.
Say... that gave Illnott an idea for a killer mural. But she'd have to work fast to get it done and still get the rest of her tags dealt with.
"'Right, nothin' to be done for it now. Time to get bombing~"
And so, the King of the Night set off on another conquest, painting the town in her own colours.
"Djeeta! You gotta see this!"
"Mrrrrrr..." Djeeta grumbled as she groggily rolled out of bed, the voice of her longtime draconic companion still ringing in her ears. Honestly, right now he looked more like the lizard everyone called him, but she would get over it if Vyrn left her be. And, true to form, he did; flapping off to go wake up Lyria so she could see... whatever the heck it was he was wanting to show her.
Djeeta swore that if it was another apple shaped like Rackam's head, she'd feed him to the next monster she found.
As she strode past the cabins of her crewmates, all in varying states of grogginess and waking, she stopped at the one door she knew would never be opened at this point in the day and sighed wistfully. Truthfully, she knew that Illnott would be a little sad that Djeeta didn't join up with her for another night run of her paintings, but she hoped that the artist would understand. After all, she'd ran ragged around Lumacie all day yesterday gathering materials for Siero's shop, and it drained her so much that not even Sandalphon's coffee would have woken her up enough for a night crawl with the so-called King of the Night.
She hoped that she'd see her work again soon.
Soon turned out to be much quicker than she expected, as Vyrn's big surprise turned out to be the latest mural masterpiece signed with that familiar batty tag. But for once, it wasn't the tag that drew the most attention of her painting, but rather, the content. Djeeta was staring at a mural-sized version of her own likeness, albeit with no discernible features save for her trademark clothing. Her likeness's arms were outstretched with a rainbow forming out of her very hands, with three simple words emblazoned stylishly upon the rainbow:
Life is Beautiful.
Djeeta fought back a smile in the back of the crowd, as the townspeople buzzed around her. Vyrn tugged on her shirt to bring her at least somewhat back down to reality, and whispered into her ear. "Hey, you think Splatters did this last night?"
"Of course she did! Just look at the tag!" Lyria pointed out quietly, and Djeeta couldn't help but giggle as Vyrn pouted at the blue-haired girl.
"Well yeah, but we've seen some imposters before! Like that one we ran into when we first met her, remember?"
Djeeta simply shook her head. "Nah, this is definitely her. Though, I gotta wonder, why'd she paint this last night...?"
"Cuz you're a dope little dude, duh~"
Oh, speak of the devil! But Djeeta looked more puzzled than anything to see Illnott, mostly because it was still daylight. "Uh huh. So, what, are there even more portraits of me on all the other islands that we missed seeing?"
"Nah, but I can totally do that if ya want." Illnott drawled teasingly, with Djeeta's cheeks tinting red serving as her reward. The painter giggled, and added, "I dunno. Just felt like makin' the world look a little bit nicer last night, s'all. Not that I don't do that already, but, well. Y'know what I mean." The last bit turned into more of a grumble, as Illnott's famous disdain of mornings began to win out over her teasing. Djeeta just patted her on the head.
"Well, it was really sweet. Thanks, Illnott." She replied, and this time it was the artist's turn to get red - huh, maybe that'd be a nice shade to see in one of her graffiti tags next time they went out to do some tagging together.
It'd be nice, Djeeta thought, to see Illnott paint the world in her own colours.