From 33 Apocalypse Ave to... Elsewhere, Tuesday Noon

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

They were finally going to do this shit.

Margo had found a bank. She'd cased the bank, like a pro. She'd checked and made damn sure there weren't any anti-Magician traps she had to worry about. (There were advantages to being locked out of her own universe. She was taking advantage of them.)

Now?

Now she and Irene just needed to work out a game plan.

She'd made cocktails, she'd ordered in take out, she'd spread the map across the table. There was nothing to do but lounge on her sofa with a martini in hand, waiting for her partner in crime to show up.

Fuck yeah.

[[ for irene, and a mad slowplay escapade based on The Magicians season 3 episode 3, 'The Losses of Magic'. TW for sexual assault references. ]]

Comments

[begmetwice]

"'Least you look the part, 'round here," Irene offered, giving her a little once-over in light of all that lace and lifting her brows. "Not that I ever doubted, considering you look the part back home, but still."

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

"What's a High Queen for if not looking pretty?" Margo rasped dryly.

The dress secured, she turned around to rummage around for-- ah, there.

Her crown.

And an appropriate eye patch.

"Let's go face the fucking music."

[begmetwice]

Irene, for her part, was pleased with her own, more subdued outfit -- she'd fade into the background nicely, this way. (She hoped, anyway.)

"I've got your back," she promised, actually sincere for once, and not bothering to talk in code. "Wherever this leads."

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

Margo blew out a breath. "Hopefully not into blood and gore this time," she said.

And then, with a nod to Irene, she strode back inside.

-

They set down on the deck of the Muntjac an hour later. The less said about the pegasus flight, the better, if you asked Margo.

"We are very, very lucky Her Majesty the Fairy Queen is so persuasive with the Pegasi. They can be most quarrelsome creatures," Tick said brightly, from several feet away. She immediately wanted to murder him.

"I smell like a horse fucked a bird," she said flatly.

"It was actually the other way around," the Fairy Queen intoned.

[begmetwice]

"Must've been quite a bird," Irene commented, trying to pretend that the transition from pegasus flight to an immediate need for sea legs hadn't done a thing to her stomach. Breathe in through the nose, Adler, and out through the mouth....

"Or a very small horse," she added, now that she was thinking about it.

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

"It was... an equitable match," the Fairy Queen said, chin held high. She looked aside, clearly already thinking of something else. "I'm going to go sun myself up here while you chat with your pirates," she said, making a rather loud gesture with one arm, the eye-cage on her wrist glittering in the sun. "But don't worry. I got my eye on you."

With that, she strode away, and left Margo to turn and find herself face to face with--

"Who are you lot supposed to be?" asked the tall, burly, filthy pirate who stepped out on deck.

"I'm High Queen Margo the Destroyer," Margo said, and gestured at the others. "And my entourage."

[begmetwice]

"What a beautiful ship," Irene commented, nice and loud and broadly sincere-sounding. She even made a little show of walking over to gently pat a mast, looking to the pirate who'd spoken. "Gorgeous craftsmanship. She yours?"

You know, in case they had to be nice to someone in order to borrow this little dinghy without problems.

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“She belongs to the pirate king,” the guy - who was clearly a pirate - said. “By the laws of the sea.”

He peered past all of them, towards where the Fairy Queen was sunning herself. “You brought a fairy with you.”

Margo blinked. “You can see her?”

“Yes, well, most pirates have made a fairy deal at one time or another,” the pirate said, looking unimpressed and… annoyed, even. “My name is Hoop, Ms. Destroyer. Ms. Entourage. I’ll take you below decks to meet our pirate king.” He turned around and began to walk towards the cabin.

Margo tried to follow— but she was quickly intercepted by Tick. “My Queen? A word?”

[begmetwice]

"I feel like we're skating around an IP infringement suit from the Barrie estate, already," Irene commented under her breath, glancing over at Tick and then at Margo before starting to follow Hoop, herself.

If Margo wanted to keep her back, she would. But Irene figured more eyes and ears spread throughout this ship, the better. Bonus points for not engaging in a useless back-and-forth with Tick about how she could hear whatever the Queen needed to hear, too -- if the information was meant for her ears, it would make it to her.

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

What was The Magicians, if not a show that lived to doodle moustaches on the fantasy equivalents of the Mona Lisa?

The pirate looked somewhat disinterested in all the intrigue. “So you’re entourage, are you. What’s that like?” he said, stepping inside the cabin. Something about the wood inside almost seemed to– hum. Like a faint heartbeat.

Outside, Tick waited for everyone else to go and then said, condescendingly, “Perhaps you’re familiar with my family’s reputation around the court as pickpockets?”

“I’ve heard,” said Margo, once again thought about how tired she was of Tick and how little room she had to get rid of him, and continued, “What’s your point?”

“Um, only that my skills in this field could be useful to you.”

“Mm-hmm, I’ll keep an eye on my jewels. Are we done here?” she asked. Only then did she catch Tick’s totally covert pointed glance towards the Fairy Queen. Wait. Wait, was he– “Are you suggesting that you could…”

Tick beamed, leaned in further, and happily patronized, “Although her majesty lacks depth perception, she does not lack in depth. Or perception.”

[begmetwice]

Irene had instantly taken note of the...hum? It was almost engine-like, despite this clearly being a vessel that didn't require that sort of thing, but still. Interesting.

"I think 'entourage' is mostly just a fancy term for the buddy system, in this case," she offered to Hoop absently, straining to try to hear more of that low thumping. "Maybe more like -- a first mate, actually, in your vernacular."

Ooooh, maybe she could get some sort of interesting Fillorian rank out of this herself, by the end! Lieutenant Adler, maybe.

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

The pirate grunted. “First mate, hm?” he said. “So would you say you are valuable? To the operation?”

[begmetwice]

....oooh, careful, there.

Irene had the sudden sense she may have overplayed her hand a touch, but it was also too late to undo it. "I would more say I'm personally important to Her Majesty," she replied coolly, allowing whatever implications he might like to infer linger in the air.

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

“Hm,” said Hoop. “The king’ll like that.”

Before he could say anything else, though, Margo and her two flunkies skittered into the entranceway. Hoop let out a grunt. “All ready, then?”

“Yes,” Margo said, squaring her shoulders. “Take me to the king.”

[begmetwice]

Irene, who -- generally speaking -- had not been impressed by any once-or-future kings she'd met in her lifetime (unless you counted Eliot, but she didn't think this king would be making her a truly fantastic gimlet, or anything), steeled her shoulders in the slightest straightening of her posture, as well.

(Not that she was still trying to look taller, too, or anything, after...any earlier remarks. That was just an added bonus!)

"Lead the way," she agreed, inclining her head in deference. They were, after all, on the pirates' -- well, not turf, exactly, but....

[not_a_goddamn_princess]

The captain stood in the next room, a large open space within the ship that, on its far end, held a large tree. Within the tree sat a large, visible cavity, which pulsed gently with red light, as if it was beating. Not far from the tree stood a comfortable chaisse lounge, and their new… pirate friend gestured for them to sit.

Margo’s eye flicked to Tick, who nodded, and then skittered back up the stairs.

She looked to Irene, then, and opened her mouth–

“Queen Margo the Destroyer, my king.”

The woman who followed their pirate was tall, and had great cheekbones, and dark hair tied back into a series of ornate braids. She wore many medallions, and a long sleeveless coat with a high collar.

As soon as her eyes fell on Margo, they flared with interest.