Ship of Spies RP

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

Ship of Spies

• Character sheets
• Discussion thread

__________________

Years in the past

The figure of man stood at the top of the mountain. He had secured his anchors; things were finally falling into place. Now he could finally start the process; soon he would finally win his deserts.

He looked around, the mountain wind whipping loudly around his head. And this place... this place would do nicely. For the first time in thousands of years, he allowed himself to smile.

__________________

Months in the past

I am leaving the city. I cannot live forever in hiding, on my friends' charity; for my sake, it is too risky, and for their sake, I would not visit this danger upon them if I could.

This city has been my world for so long, but it has given me all it could, and the price it exacted was a high one. I cannot remain here now. This city is no longer my home, no longer my friend.

I will find a path out into the world. I will find work, and people I can trust. I will find a place where I am safe, where I can finish healing, continue learning, start planning. I will find a place and I will make my home there, but not forever.

I take my leave of the friends who have sheltered me and the city that has raised me, but not forever; some day, I will return. I will fight. But not today.

__________________

Not in the past

After signing on some new crew, the merchant vessel Persephone, berthed near the Base in the town of Helem, was finally ready to set sail.

______________________________________________________

Right. So. Rooming assignments, in no particular order and arranged according to some very complicated arcane algorithms:
Cabin 1: The Captain (captain) and Kiva (cook)
Cabin 2: Kasid (deckhand) and Jonathan (deckhand/floater)
Cabin 3: Susan (doctor) and Cheol (navigator)
Cabin 4: Xerva and Leo (mercenaries/ guards)
Cabin 5: Gandal and Bronco (merchants/ passengers)

Note: The Captain has a personal office, and Susan has a small office attached to the infirmary, in light of their respective positions on the ship.

Re: post order and how this is going to work
Right now, there is no set post order. You can post as often as you like.

THAT SAID, I would ask that for this first round of introductions, people please refrain from posting a second time until everyone's posted at least once, so that we'll all be on the same page.

[Guyshane]

Gandal was just finishing checking on his cargo shipment. Excellent, everything seems to be in order. The merchant had been worried about this particular set of wares after the explosion that had gone off nearby in the port. Gandal was wealthy but he wasn't so stupid that he felt he could lose valuable merchandise. However since there was nothing wrong he decided to take a scroll around the ship. While it wasn't the nicest ship he had ever been on it was still pleasant and very welcoming to visitors.

This is the perfect place to get away from the world for a while. No enemies, no business partners who wont leave me alone, and best of all no thrice-damned bureaucrats. I wonder what life is like when you don't have to go through five people just for approval to make a sandwich for lunch, let alone take a bite. The man walked up onto the deck. It was a lovely day and the ocean smelled wonderful. I believe this voyage will go quite smoothly if I'm not mistaken.

After the merchant had his fill of the sun and the ocean he went down to his cabin to await the start of the voyage. [i]The fifth cabin was it? When Gandal opened the door his luggage was there but the other passenger was not. He shrugged assuming his roommate would arrive in good time. Until then he put his things away and got out the alcohol because at the end of the day drinking had made him many more friends than it had lost him.

[narrativedilettante]

Susan walked along the deck uncertainly, wavering in her steps as the ship moved with the dips and swells of the water beneath her. She would get used to it in time, but for the moment she felt like a toddler just learning to walk. A life at sea was intended to get her as far away from familiar surroundings as possible, and it was succeeding; even the floor itself was behaving strangely.

When she reached the door to her assigned bunk, she took a moment to steady herself. It wouldn’t do to go stumbling in. That was hardly how she wished to establish herself.

She knocked before opening the door, but didn’t wait for a response before pushing it open. “Hello? My name’s Susan. It looks like I’m your new bunk mate.” She placed her belongings on the floor so that she’d be free to shake hands.

“I’m Cheol.” Susan’s bunk mate was a noticeably disfigured Sarpaian. A scar crossed her face, and her horn had been damaged, apparently by the same injury. Susan wondered if her magical abilities had been compromised, but thought it would be rude to ask. After the handshake, Cheol excused herself. “I... should consult my maps. Go ahead and get settled in.”

“All right then. Thank you.” Said Susan.

Half of the bunk was devoid of personal effects. Susan set out her fairly sparse belongings. She wished she had a family portrait to set out, something more personal than her daily supplies (quills, paper, a hairbrush, nothing eye-catching) and her almost-completely-unused weapon.

After a moment’s thought, she stuck the sword under the bed. She didn’t feel comfortable with it sitting out in the open, and though it should be easy to grab at a moment’s notice, the few seconds it would take her to retrieve it were unlikely to be of much use. If her combat abilities in a high-stress situation were all that stood between the crew and a hostile takeover, then the ship was lost anyway.

Her belongings were in place, but she didn’t feel any particular connection to what she’d set out there. The bunk didn’t feel like it would be home. She placed her empty luggage bag in a corner out of the way, picked up another bag that was still full, and headed for the medical bay.

***

Here, she could feel a connection to who she was. She set out the tools of her trade: gleaming metal instruments, simple wooden tongue depressors, certain stones and crystals that were useful to focus healing magic. She filled a cabinet with phials and elixirs, being careful to check that the lock was strong. And on one side of the room she set up her books. They covered anatomy, symptoms of common to obscure diseases (and some pitfalls for misdiagnoses), mundane cures and palliatives, and templates for spellwork to be used in the most dire cases.

Susan would have to make a point of finding others on the crew who could assist her if a case required a difficult or powerful spell. Too many times she’d lost patients because the necessary support for spellwork was not readily available.

But that was behind her, and, as the floor suddenly dropped several feet to remind her, she had found a new life now. Everything was ready for her to start completely afresh.

[agoraoptera]

The ship’s creaking was Kasid’s constant companion, lulling him to sleep, warning him of danger, filling up the dull periods of time which inevitably came to pass on the ship. Even the waves were not as constant as the groaning of the wood: the waves were muffled by the hull and at times were little more than distant scratchings. The creaking made for piss-poor conversations, though Cheol more than made up for that. Of course, now that darling Persephone was picking up passengers like the loose little whore she was, Kasid had someone new to speak to. That is, his bunk-mate.

“What’s the story, land-sucker? I fancy you are a land-sucker, land-sucker?”

The boy glanced up. “I suppose so,” he murmured.

“Your name, boy, your name,” Kasid grumbled impatiently, “don’t go a mumbling like a blushing bride, you’re gonna be on my lady Persephone for a while and we may as well talk for as long as you’re here in my room.”

He rose from his bed with a light sigh. “Jonathan Seraia,” he introduced, offering a hand with direct eye contact for the first time. “I suppose we’re all running away from something.”

Kasid shook the young man’s hand with a firm grasp. “Kasid, Onehand on account of this,” he wiggled the iron bar that took the place of his left hand, “and I ain’t running nowhere. Ain’t got nowhere to run. Ain’t got nothing to run from. Ain’t got no nothing anyhow, just this creaky old bitch of a ship.” Kasid shrugged, his wry smile taking away any bitterness from his words. “I won’t ask what you’re running from, if you don’t tell, but hells, you’re never gonna see me ever again after you leave Persephone’s tender embrace, so what the screaming hells, eh?”

Without waiting for a reply, he pushed open the door, casting a dour look at the creaking hinges. “Wherever or whatever you’re running from, this grating howling harridan probably wasn’t the best place for you, you know?”

So saying, he left the bunk to the fine young man’s pleasure. By the Four Sisters, that man looked like one to mope. Hopefully, Cheol would be able to pry him loose from the deep despair Kasid was no doubt certain he himself would end up in bunking with the emotional land-sucker. Or, at the very least, Cheol would provide a target for mocking and sensitive Gentleman Seraia likely wouldn’t take Kasid’s words well. Maybe Gentle’d kill himself. She had been avoiding him for some time though. Who knew?

[Adell]

The hustle bustle below deck was quite a sight to see as men and women lugged around plenty of cargo. Large wooden cases of food and other supplies was slid and stacked atop one another to make room for more cargo. The boat was just barely out to sea, so everything needed to be put into order and categorize for rationing later. One of the sailors began the task with a notepad in hand and an inked feather, checking off a list of the objects and their quantity. Not a fun job, to be sure, but at least it was easy and didn’t require any heavy lifting. “Two-hundred pounds of rice in this barrel…okay check.” The woman muttered aloud as she crossed something off her list, and scribbled a note next to it.

From there, she moved from barrel to box, then back to barrel, writing down more information, and continued to move until her foot nearly slipped on something. “The heck…?” The sailor sniffed the air; the smell of rum caught the edge of her nose. Suspicious, the woman turned down the wall of boxes into another section of the room, only to nearly bump into a horned individual of the Sarpaians race. “Whah!” She yelped, as her head nearly collided with the man’s spikey horn.

“Oh, careful now.” The young man quickly spoke, placing his hands on her shoulders to prevent her from moving any closer to the thing, “Many an eye ‘ave been poked out with this thing, I’m ‘fraid.” The man slipped a hand through his curly brown hair, as if to slick it back to look more ‘presentable’ to the sailor. “T’would be a terrible shame to leave a mark on such beauty.”

“Ah…um, thank you.” The woman stammered, taking a step back from the man, a tint of red in her face. “What are you doing back here, no one but assigned personnel are allowed down here until I categorize the area.”

“Actually I am assigned here.” The man answered with a cool and collected attitude. “...Technically.” He added as the woman’s eyes narrowed at him. “I’m a merchant, ya see?” A small medallion was held up, representing the merchants guild he was a part of. “And it is my assignment to make sure my own cargo is not only accounted for but…uh, in good quality.” He vaguely explained, holding back a light hiccup. With a flirtatious grin, one of his hands snaked around the woman’s shoulder, carefully guiding her in the other direction.

“I have not heard about this.”

“Oh dear, truly?” The man asked with a voice sounding so sincere it had to have been faked. “But I told them to warn the deckhands ahead of time…They should have said Sea was below deck.”

The woman raised an eyebrow, catching the mans name. “Sea?”

“Yes, of course! Sea Bronco. Like it? I thought it up myself. But the people I think are cute can just call me Sea, m’dear. ” The Sarpian flirted, continuing to guide her movements away from where she had bumped into him. Unfortunately, she seemed to be falling for his compliments. “Ah!” He shouted suddenly, snapping his fingers. “I figured it out. They must have told you ‘the sea is below deck’ and you, poor innocent thing, must have thought they meant the literal sea which is, in fact, below this very deck is it not?”

“I…suppose so? Yeah, I guess that must be it.”

“Then we agree, this was all just some horrible error in communication. Those higher ups, they never explain anything adequately, am I right?”

“Yeah, ya know, they never give me any respect here. They just say things and assume I can do what they want. I’m not a person to them, just a number cruncher.”

“You deserve to be so much more.” Sea spoke as if on auto-pilot. To him, this was a conversation he's had as many times as grains of rice in these barrels.

She giggled, another light blush appearing on her face, “Oh…you’re sweet.”

“No…” He grinned, playfully dragging a finger across her chin, “I’m Sea.” And with that he spun around and went up steps directly behind him, steps that he strategically led the girl towards, allowing him to go up-deck and away from suspicion.

The sailor stood there, both caught up in the flirting, and befuddled by his sudden exit. “Oh dear…where was I again?” The woman looked down at her notes, which seemed all out of place to her now.

[eli_gone_crazy]

Cheon chewed her lip thoughtfully as she ducked out of her bunk. That was the first time anyone had spoken to her in days. The crew had stopped talking to her as soon as they knew her name. So, she spent the vast majority of her time in her bunk, pouring over maps and reading what papers she could find about the world off this ship, until the captain, in all his glorious wisdom, decided that there was a need for a doctor.

Cheon figured that she didn't mind the doctor herself, beyond the disgust that would soon be plain on her face once she had a chance to speak to the crew. Ducking into the hold, she glanced around the packed room, looking for a convenient place to read in peace until dinner. Spotting an empty hammock, she clamored in, ignoring the sharp pain in her head as her feet left the wooden deck. Settling down, she began to read.

[Lordxana0]

Kiva for his part was having a rather good start to his day. He had woken up after get quite a few hours of sleep and found to his delight that all of his material objects were still in the case next to him. Yep it was the perfect morning, heck he had slept so well he hadn't remembered even purchasing an inn room. With all of the money... that... he...didn't....

Oh shit. Kiva quickly looked down and noticed a woman under the covers he had just moved up from. Okay Kiva calm down, what are the odds that...

"Delonda I am home!" a booming voice called from the living room.

Kiva quickly bowed his head. "Dear gods I know not what I have done to anger you, but please let me escape this situation" Kiva quickly gathered his things together and noticed that he was still wearing all his clothing, which was a plus for him. "Yes I did not aid a woman in being unfaithful, in the traditional sense" he quickly examined the window and noticed that it was jammed. "Well bugger all" he opened his pack and placed a small piece of paper against it. He tapped it five times with his finger before taking two steps back. After five seconds passed the wall exploded outward into an alley, no doubt awakening his bed partner and alerting the rather large sounding gentlemen who had just arrived home. With Kiva's luck he was a night guard. He ran as fast as he could, moving toward the docks with a grin on his face.

Kiva closed his eyes and sighed happily. "Maybe for once I can leave a town and actually return to it!"

After a few steps Kiva found an obstacle in his way, and rammed into it and fell back on his ass. "Hey" said obstacle happened to be a group of rather rougish looking gentlemen who looked none to pleased to see him. "You are that bastard who was cheating at cards last night"

Kiva gulped and laughed. "Oh yes I was playing cards, but I did not cheat, I would never stoop so low as to do something like that"

"Oi stop that man, he was in bed with my fiance last night!" the sound of pounding feet brought the images of a rather dangerous looking man full of rage about to bring a fist into his head.

This was not something he wanted. "Well gentlemen it appears misunderstandings are all around today" he smiled bright and stood up, dusting himself off. "Now I must be off, things to do" he slapped another piece of paper on himself and after giving a bow touched it and disappeared from sight.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kiva wasted four of his invisibility runes getting to the ship, but avoided any other major delays. He sighed to himself happily and got aboard, hoping that for once in his life he could avoid the bad luck that seemed to follow him.

Some people are born with all the luck

[AMimsyBorogove]

"Hmm. It certainly is a nice day."

This murmured musing, apparently heard by none save the one who uttered it seemingly to himself and the birds that idly circled and perched upon the mast, went unquestioned as the speaker, an effeminate young man with long golden hair, lounged back against the rim of the crow's nest, idly gazing upward alternatively at the sky and at the words on the page of the book he held. Although, given his two main professions - merchant and mercenary - he would usually be looking at either a tactical briefing dossier or a sales logbook, but today he found himself instead perusing the words of a book of tales, a much welcomed break from his usual business routine, just as the breezy, open air of the crow's nest was a break from the stifling confines of the below decks. Well, of course, he wasn't exactly supposed to be reading at all when his duties called for him to take lookout duty, but Leonhardt didn't really see much of a point in getting too bent out of shape over such a trivial manner as scouring the horizons for other ships. If another ship would at any point enter their view, his partner would know long before he himself did. Speaking of whom...

"I suppose you're not feeling particularly talkative then, are you, Xerva?" The blonde man smiled sardonically, turning his good eye up from the words of the page, where his gaze fell upon an unlikely sight: a short, dark-haired man standing perfectly balanced atop the mainmast, already glaring irritably down at his perpetually-cheerful partner.

[Sicon112]

A single dark eyebrow twitched, and twin red eyes slowly turned downward, changing their glare from the horizon to the man in the crow's nest. The owner of the eyes, black coat blowing in the breeze and hands clasped behind his back, ignored the rocking of the ship, which, though gentle on deck level, should have been enough to easily throw anyone from the very peak of the mast. That just so happened to be where the man, called Xerva by his companion, was standing.

"I fail to see why I should be." Xerva sneered, looking perhaps more imposing than he should, as short as he was, due to his perch on the highest point of the ship. "I'm stuck on this leaky hunk of wood with you and whatever idiots the captain decided to bring aboard this floating mental ward back at port." He spat out the title in a way that made the symbol of status sound closer to an insult, a testament to his horrible mood.

Of course, as anyone who had ever met him would quickly inform you, his mood was always terrible. Today, though, it appeared to be even worse than his usual demeanor, if that was even possible. As it was, any intelligent person would vacate the area simply under the sheer force of his glare. His companion, however, was not at all affected. Xerva's mood wasn't nearly enough to put a dent in his cheerful politeness.

[JackAlsworth]

The first day of the voyage is always the shortest.

That might be true, but it certainly didn’t seem like it.

Meeting everyone aboard – passengers and crew, old hands and new – had been oddly draining, considering their small number. Now the captain sat in his office, examining his schedule and his pyramid map.

Should be able to make good time to Relas without too many workarounds… assuming the storm doesn’t hit first. He glanced out the window. The dark clouds met his gaze without so much as a flirtatious wink. If we beat it there, we’ll have to wait it out anyway. Ah, well – better in port than out, I suppose.

He jotted down a few notes on the pyramid. He’d go over them with Cheol later. If she hadn’t noticed already; Sarpians were damned useful when it came to reading temperature changes in the wind.

His thoughts turned to the rest of his crew. They were a motley bunch, to be sure. The cook-cum-magician in the next bunk, the two hired guards who seemed joined at the hip, the doctor with a chip on her shoulder…

I swear, ‘Seph, you have the oddest taste in companionship. Then he chuckled quietly. Course, if you didn’t, where would I be?

[AMimsyBorogove]

(Note: Not part of the main order. Just Leo faffing about.)

"Well, I'm glad to know I don't fall under the category of 'idiot,' then. Thanks for that," Leonhardt replied as cheerfully as ever, his amber gaze returning to the pages of his book, seeming totally oblivious to the true insulting implications behind Xerva's previous statement. Although, given his perceptive nature, it was highly unlikely that he had actually missed this veiled insult, his perpetual upbeat attitude didn't falter for an instant even despite this. After all, it took a certain immunity to verbal insults in order to tolerate even being in the same room as Xerva, let alone work as his partner.

"So?" The reading man asked finally, once again looking back up to his improbably balanced partner. "What's got you so frustrated, then? Present accommodations and company aside, of course." Xerva's poor attitude could almost always be attributed to some sort of perceived problem. Whether it was a major issue or a mere oversight didn't matter. The hypercompetent mercenary would always discover at least one issue yet to be addressed, and then, just like he was now, he would take out his frustration at the mere existence of this trifling error on everyone around him. That was just how Xerva's thought process worked. If those he was assigned to work with gave him anything less than perfection, it would always fall short in his estimates.

So, then, the fact that Xerva was currently standing atop the ship's mainmast insulting just about everything below him meant that something was wrong. And, although Leonhardt was hardly worried - his companion's perfectionist tendencies were bound to sort out any major issue before it could become a real problem - you didn't survive as a mercenary without knowing what was going on around you. If something was wrong, he wanted to know what it was, so that he could plan accordingly for when Xerva decided it was time to fix that error. Or, at the very least, so that he'd know why exactly Xerva was violently eradicating any seagulls that came close to the ship, or something similarly seemingly pointless and insane.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

GM Post-- does not affect regular post order

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The storm the Captain had seen was brewing faster now that they were out at sea, the port no longer in sight. The clouds darkened, coming together in a mask of grey that covered the mid-afternoon sun, making it look as though it were already late evening. The waves crashed and rolled, coming faster and faster until, at the point at which a storm-wearied observer would expect the skies to open up, they... didn’t.

Something happened, though. Where the clouds had been darkening before, now the waves did the same, as though a storm were gathering underwater to mirror the one above. The darkness came together, until there seemed to be a massive black shape hovering in the deeps, very very close to Persephone.

And then the thing reached out. A long, gelatinous arm-- a tentacle, more like-- easily twice the length of the ship, rose from the water, flailing in the air for a moment before reaching out to the boat, giving it what looked like a tentative poke.

And then it emerged. The thing. The kraken. Monster of the deeps, dismissed as silly legend, made flesh here, knocking the ship and its motley inhabitants this way and that, with every twitch of its dozen or so gigantic appendages.

__________

Well... Shane didn’t think much was happening, so in my infinite kindness I decided to give you guys a kraken attack!

Two important notes: One, while the kraken is knocking you guys about a lot (up to you if going overboard/capsizing becomes an issue), it’s not doing any physical damage to the people/the ship.

Two, while you may attempt to deal with the problem as you like, DO NOT place a killing blow on the kraken without clearing it with me first.

[Sicon112]

"What isn't frustrating about this complete waste of my precious time and effort? We have our own goals, you know, if you haven't forgotten them during all of your frivolities. As I've been telling you for weeks now, this assignment is just a wild goose chase. In short, we are getting absolutely nowhere, and even worse, I have to defend the lives and profits of a bunch of worthless traders who have probably never wielded a blade in their lives." Xerva, still trying to burn anything that crossed his vision with his gaze, dropped from the peak of the mast, landing on the spar between the lashings of the mainsail, and casually walked down the beam and out over the ocean below, as though the flow of the sea and the rocking of the ship wasn't even present. "What do I care for merchants and wares, or common sailor trash? Yet I still have to protect these worthless buffoons, so that they never have to lift a finger. If it were up to me, I'd leave them to fend for themselves in an instant."

The wind, which had been calm up til now, began to whip at the unprotected figures high above the deck, but Xerva ignored it as it crashed against his small form, even though it almost seemed like the air alone could fling him from his perch. Red eyes swept the darkening horizon, and at the mercenary's side, his right hand clenched into a fist. "However, since you continue to insist that this venture is going to pay off, it looks like I don't have a choice in the matter. For now." The waves crashed harder against the wooden walls of the ship below, and the sea swirled, but Xerva turned away and walked back down the spar towards the mast. "Oh well, guess I'll find out how many of them can carry their own weight around here after all."

Behind him, the sea split open, and a tentacle swung past the mast with a loud whoosh of air.

[Guyshane]

That is quite certainly something new. Gandal was quite the traveler and had seen several amazing sights in his time but it was safe to say he had still never expected a kraken. How has this thing remain hidden for so long, One would think that something f this magnitude would have been reported with hard evidence. A grimace crossed the merchant's face when he considered the possibility that no one had escaped alive with evidence.

Well I certainly can't die here.

Gandal looked over as one of the tendrils slammed into the deck not far from him. Before the monster could lift it's limb away from the deck Gandal calmly aimed his already loaded crossbow and fired directly into the tendril. There was a loud noise and the tendril whipped in the man's direction. Luckily Gandal was able to roll slightly with the direction of the swing so while he took the hit it was nowhere nearly as bad as things could have been. However the tentacle was still over the downed merchant.

Looking around for something to use he spotted some of his bolts which had fallen from the quiver. Excellent. Grabbing two of the bolts he took one in each hand and drove them into the appendage before twisting them inside the flesh. The tentacle withdrew and Gandal scurried and rolled back to the wall near the door leading into the hull.

He spotted a crew member trying to drive off another tentacle. “Pardon me!” he yelled. “Do you have boarding pikes or something of the sort?!? I would like to help get rid of this beast!”

[narrativedilettante]

Susan sat in her bunk making notes. She wanted to ask the captain about the magical abilities of crew members, but early on in the voyage, it seemed that he would be pretty busy. In the meantime, she could keep track of what she already knew.

Simply walking up to someone and inquiring as to their magical prowess and availability for spellwork seemed inappropriate. Some people might be offended, or even suspicious. And since Susan hadn't really met anyone on the ship aside from Cheol and the captain, her choices were limited.

Crew Members' Aptitude for Medical Spellwork:

-Cheol
Most likely unsuitable due to injury. No need to inquire further unless contradictory information arises.

-Captain
Possible resource? Do not ask directly, wait for him to volunteer. DO ask for recommendations as to crew who would be suitable, give him the opportunity to present himself as an optio____.

A sudden rocking of the ship caused her quill to jump, placing an inconvenient line in the space she was planning to write. The ship's motions had been increasing in violence. Presumably, the storm Susan had heard mentioned was now upon them. She'd decided to stay in her bunk until the storm passed or she was needed, and now she was looking for ways to occupy herself. Apparently writing would be out of the question. She could read, but all of her books were in the medical bay, and she didn't want to walk there unless it was necessary. Traversing the ship in calm seas gave her trouble enough, there was no need to tumble this way and that in the middle of a storm, just because she hadn't planned things adequately.

The ship tilted, sending Susan into the wall. She pictured her medical supplies, arranged so carefully, spilling and rolling on the floor, the bottles shattering... Well, at least most of the glass containers were in a locked cabinet. Hopefully those would be safe. But she had to get to the medical bay and put everything into safe places before there was too much damage.

Carefully, determinedly, Susan stood up, placing a hand on the wall for stability, and she marched out of her bunk and in the direction of the medical bay. The waves were intense, bigger than she'd ever seen them, and they behaved differently than the waves ever did close to shore. She supposed that waves were just different when you got out to sea.

There were shouts, and people running back and forth. The wind, as well as the constant shifting of the floor, seemed determined to knock her over, but she kept holding on to railings and leaning on walls for support, and she thought she was doing pretty well, considering.

She was nearly halfway there when she realized that the unusual waves she'd been looking at were not actually waves. It took one of them rising out of the water, with a visible end, for her to shift her perception from "water" to "tentacle." In a moment, she understood that this wasn't just a storm, it was an attack. She froze in place.

"What should I do?" Susan thought. "What should I DO?"

[agoraoptera]

"Captain, oh Captain!" Kasid shouted amidst the chaos of the deck. Nobody paid attention to him, of course. "Captain, maybe this would be a good time to either pull down the limp-swagged masts or let fly the rigging so we can sail the fuck away from the kraken!"

A kraken. An honest-to-goodness, sailor-devouring, soul-stealing, tentacle-waving, man-killing, cat-fearing kraken. Who would have thought? In fact, a kraken should never have come along to harass Persephone like a drunkard harassing a whore. Tentacles or no, this should never have happened. Kasid clung to the rail with his one hand as a sudden chill seized his heart.

The Captain hadn't brought out a single cat, did he.

Their souls were damned.

"Sea Mother, Tidebringer," Kasid yelled at the kraken as it languidly swiped a tentacle across the deck, "Great Gala of deepest oceans, I humbly plead for your anger to be appeased! Forgive us, Storm Lady, forgive the Captain; he must have left the cats back at harbour! Beg pardon, majestic one, spare this humble carrack! If it be your will, I'll gladly throw the Captain to the waters and leave him to your judgement. Captain!" The one-armed sailor glared all about, particularly at the man who'd just stabbed arrows into the kraken's tentacles- a right waste of arrows and an insult to the instrument of the goddess' wrath- but nowhere could he see the Captain. "Damn it, Captain, come here so we can sacrifice you!" He hollered impatiently, then smacked a palm to his forehead as he realised it was probably just as sacrilegious to sacrifice the Captain. Captains, after all, were considered lay priests of the sea goddess, given a little time spent in the Lady's temples, and so could speak the funeral rites; probably sacrificing the one who did the death prayers wasn't the right course of action.

Nevertheless, not bringing cats aboard was a cardinal sin and so the Captain had incurred the wrath of the sea-goddess. If the goddess was feeling unkind that day, their souls were damned to a watery lingering. There was only one thing that could be done now, in light of everything, and evidently a few other sailors agreed, for he was joined not long after by several.

Kasid genuflected, kneeling on the unstable deck and began to pray loudly for cats to fall from the sky.

[Qara-Xuan Zenith]

GM post-- does not affect order
__________

As though in response to the deckhand's prayers, the ship thrashed for one final time before the massive tentacles of the Kraken seemed to vanish, and a small cat tumbled from somewhere high up, to land on the deck beside Kasid.

It paused there for a moment, looking as lost in thought as a small furry animal could, and then streaked off.

_________
So uh. Guys.... you might want to catch that cat.

[AMimsyBorogove]

(Note: Chronologically, this conversation corresponds to the Kraken's appearance. It'll reach up to the present by the time we finish it. But, since our posts were late... yeah.)

"You know, you should really think before you generalize like that, Xerva." Leonhardt chuckled, shutting his book and rising to his feet, slipping the tome into a small satchel at his belt before reaching down to pick up the large black cane sitting propped up beside him. "You're speaking to a lifelong merchant, after all." The perpetually cheerful man gave one of his usual grins, not even seeming to notice that a tentacle had just swept past his partner and was now headed for him as he casually hopped over the railing of the crow's nest, landing on one of the crossbeams of the foremast, opposite and a short distance below the short, foul-tempered mercenary, completely unfazed by the fact that one of the kraken's many slimy appendages had just passed a few inches over his head with enough force to have taken it off if he'd been an instant slower.

"So, should I be procuring us popcorn, or should I be moving to assist the crew?" The fabulous one asked casually. "Because although all of this is no doubt very amusing to you, if we allow the ship to be damaged, I have a feeling that we won't get paid."

(Sicon and I are going to have a short conversation in the form of several rapid-fire posts, so give us a second.)

[Sicon112]

The shorter of the duo snorted at his partner's assertion, and as the ship rocked below him, suddenly leaned backwards and fell smoothly off of the beam he stood on. Catching a rope as he fell, he slid down and dropped onto the lower beam holding the mainsail in place, as he landed falling back into a relaxed posture lying on the spar with his legs crossed and leaning against the mast itself.

"So, should I be procuring us popcorn, or should I be moving to assist the crew?" Sliding his hands behind his head, Xerva looked over at Leo, who had just spoken, and his perch on the spar of the next mast over. "Because although all of this is no doubt very amusing to you, if we allow the ship to be damaged, I have a feeling that we won't get paid."

"You're the only one of us who cares about the money, and you already have enough to retire to a life of luxury for half of eternity," Xerva growled. "The lives of weaklings who make no attempt to defend themselves are no concern of mine." Suddenly, his crimson gaze shot to the deck below as a form moved quickly through the chaos, observing the creature calmly. A glance was enough for Xerva to peg him as a merchant. Eyes narrowing, he watched the man's progress with interest. "Oh, what's this? I think I found a brave one. Or a stupid one. I wonder which." A twisted smirk crossed Xerva's face as he watched the man withdraw a crossbow and take aim.

The tentacle, which didn't take kindly to being shot, suddenly lashed about, smacking the merchant head over heels and bouncing off the base of Xerva's mast, the collision launching the small mercenary from his perch. However, faster that anyone could catch, except perhaps his partner, Xerva's leg shot out, hooked over the spar, and with a quick flip he was standing once more atop the beam, as though he had never fallen. Glancing down, Xerva was just in time to witness the tentacle, now stabbed with two more bolts, whipping backwards.

[AMimsyBorogove]

Leonhardt gave a quiet laugh at his partner's reply. "I suppose you're right," Leonhardt laughed. "Although, there's also the matter that if this ship is damaged, we'll have a hard time getting back to dry land in a timely and convenient fashion." The fabulous one might have pressed this line of discussion, but the rocking of the ship and the crossbow-wielder's subsequent intervention somewhat disrupted the conversation, forcing him to balance himself with his cane lest he fall down to the deck below. "Oh, my," The gold-haired man said casually. "I would say he's both. Clever move, that, but all he seems to have done is make it angry. How unfortunate. Perhaps I'll have to intervene after all. Or maybe..." His working eye refocused to another shape rapidly making its way across the deck, shouting for the captain, and, oddly enough, also for his ritual sacrifice to appease the kraken. Ah, weren't Human beings amazing in how easily they managed to panic about the most simple things? Like a giant octopus trying to sink the ship they were aboard far out at sea, for example. Where there might or might not be sharks. Yes, people certainly did get worked up over the most innocuous things. But, even though he felt that their fears could often be quite childish, Leonhardt liked his fellow people a great deal. They were always so amusing - especially when praying for cats aboard a sinking ship assailed by a giant death squid.

Oddly enough, Xerva didn't seem to share his enthusiasm for the silly man's antics. Then again, Xerva didn't share much enthusiasm for anything, so actually it wasn't odd at all. Hmm, was that just his eye twitching, or was he having an aneurysm? Maybe both. Leo could never tell.

[agoraoptera]

"Goddesses be praised!" Kasid stared at the furry little beast that sniffed the air with a nose wetter than the Persephone's hull. He hadn't actually been expecting the goddess to respond; she never had before. Clearly, this was a sign that the goddess had great plans for them.

The old deckhand slumped against the main mast in relief; now that they had a cat, they had as much luck as the goddess was willing to give them. Besides, this was a divine cat, probably, so that more than doubled their luck.

"Anyone in the water?" Kasid asked a fellow sailor. "No? Better not be, because if anyone's dropped in, we'll just be troubling the Captain for the death-prayers." The waters were saturated with devilsharks. A man in the water either drowned or was eaten alive, and it was rarely the former. Though the devilsharks were on occasion known to be jumpers, they rarely were out in the open sea. Nearer to the bay was a different matter, of course.

No longer turbulent, the waters rocked the boat in the familiar off-rhythm way that only waves could create and the sailors cheered at the vanishing of the kraken. Kasid glanced about for Cheol; now there was a story to tell eh? The one-armed man who had his request directly granted by the goddess. No doubt about it, there was something significant about Persephone's journey.

One of the sailors started after the cat as it fled off to the hold, but Kasid gently stopped him with his iron rod.

"The cat is king of all it surveys. You know that as well as I, numbskull. We'll just leave out milk and some meat for the little fucker later; he'll come out. Even if he doesn't, it'll be alright. As long as it stays on-board." Surely a divine cat would have the sense not to jump overboard or starve itself; they would be fine.

[Sicon112]

"Tch." Xerva spat out a sound of annoyance and a deep growl of rage as the sailor shouted on about gods and cats and so forth. "Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. And someone thought this fool was a sailor? At the first sign of danger he starts running in circles screaming for his precious goddess and shouting his pathetic superstitions to the winds." Xerva's gaze, now a mask of rage, was focused intently on the one-armed sailor. "If he has an arm, he should be picking up a blade! Even the merchant over there is going for the boarding pikes!" It was at this moment that the man began to shout about having the Captain thrown overboard. "As little as I like the man, at least the Captain has a backbone, scum," Xerva sneered, not really caring whether the man heard him or not.

Then, as suddenly as it had arrived, the kraken slipped back into the ocean, and with a loud noise, a small furry creature fell from the sky. It took Xerva half a second of staring at the new addition to the crew for it to completely register what he was looking at. His reaction, however, was surprising to one who didn't know him or his partner. "LEONHARDT!" He whirled around, facing the man on the other beam. "Do not indulge that imbecilic coward any further!"

[AMimsyBorogove]

It was at this point, of course, that the blonde-haired man could no longer resist laughter. Seeing the raving man answered by a small, fluffy cat falling from the heavens was simply too comical to be ignored. But, despite his amusement, Leonhardt couldn't help but feel a tinge of confusion and regret at seeing the man's prayer so promptly answered. After all, as he most certainly hadn't been responsible this time around, it meant that somebody had beaten him to throwing a cat at the man, and that was a true shame.

"As much as I'd like to say I was the one responsible, my friend," Leonhardt said wryly, turning to his comrade with a shrug. "That one wasn't me. My kitten is still right here!" As though this explained everything, the fabulous man casually withdrew a small, fluffy cat from his satchel, holding it up within plain view of the irritable mercenary, seeming totally unfazed by the fact that the bag from which he had withdrawn said cat was far too small to have held both it and the large book he had placed within it just a few moments before. The kitten, seeming rather confused, gave an innocent meow. Leonhardt grinned. "See? Isn't he cute?" Whether this comment was intended in earnest or simply meant to annoy his already indignant companion was not entirely clear, as the dapper gentleman had almost immediately occupied himself by stroking the small feline's head lovingly, as though completely oblivious of the death glare he was receiving from his partner.

"Put that back where you found it at this instant," Hissed the mercenary at last, looking for all the world as though he intended to cause the kitten to spontaneously burn into a cinder from the sheer force of his hateful glare. Then again, knowing Xerva, that was likely exactly what his intentions were.

"Oh, fine," Sighed Leonhardt, giving a shrug of resignation and, after giving his improbably produced pet one last halfhearted scratch behind the ears, slipped it back into his satchel, from which he withdrew his book once again in the same movement - something which, oddly enough, should not have been physically possible. But, if there was one thing the dandy was more skilled at than anything, it was sleight of hand, a fact which was demonstrated by his seemingly spontaneous production of a cat from thin air.

He just wished he'd been fast enough to throw it at the loudmouthed man before somebody else had stolen his idea.

[eli_gone_crazy]

"Kasid, you idiotic sack of chum, have you lost your sodding mind?" Cheol scowled, pulling herself up from belowdecks. "You know better, sirrah. Get this ship to rights before the captain gets back."

The ship was in a state of disarray. The Kraken, while not actually harming the ship to an irreparable degree, had left it's mark. Several sailors lay prostrate on the middeck, loudly giving thanks to the goddess of the air. one of the merchants seemed highly disappointed that he was unable to kill the Kraken on his own. Two of the paid mercenaries looked like that hadn't even tried to defend anything but themselves, choosing instead to banter back and forth about cats, nonetheless.

Rubbing her temples, wincing at the sudden piercing pain that blossomed as her hands met her forehead. This would not do well at all. Turning to the nearest sailor, she quickly ascertained that the sails and rigging had mostly escaped harm. Biting the inside of her lip, she quickly ducked into her cabin to get her maps.

[agoraoptera]

Kasid glared at the navigator, already walking away.

"Fuck," he muttered, "I'd have preferred to kind of let work elude me.."

He leapt to his feet with a spurious vivacity born of annoyance. Casting a quick eye about the deck, he nodded. As usual, the deck was in a sorry state of chaotic shit.

"Pull together!" cried the first mate, as he leapt atop the capstan. Sailors fell in behind the long wooden bars and quickly enough about twenty men gathered at their positions. "Heave and push now! Start slow, get a nice rhythm going, you mangy mouthbreathers! Feet and shoulders now, brace it together, heave and spin the little bitch round and round! Push and shove and turn me fucking swooning!"

Clank by clank, the capstan spun and so did Kasid standing atop it too.

"Avast heaving, cast the larboard tack," he shouted orders to the fore watch, "fore and main topsails!" A scramble of activity came as men began to rotate the sails. "Leadsman, take a reading!"

"Begging your double-goddess-blessed pardon, Master Onehand, but in case you haven't realised, we're out at fucking sea!" The leadsman retorted.

"Aye, but we've already had one surprise today. Wouldn't be surprised if the sea grew an asshole and we all fell into it. Cast your bloody line or I'll throw you in as weight myself!"

"With all that air he's got in his head, he's better use as ballast!" came a jeer from a passing sailor and they all laughed.

"Get your skiving asses back to work," Kasid cried. "Winds are fickle 'round these parts. You, you and you," he pointed at three random sailors. "Get the grease from Kiva and slush up the mizzenmast. Boatswain! You and you, a fresh coat of paint for the boats. You four bummers, get the brooms and clean up the weather deck! I ain't don't want nobody slipping and braining themselves just because you lazy assholes can't be bothered to wipe. Move! Tacks and sheets, smartly now, you slothful swine!"

"Told you, Master Onehand," came the leadsman, "Water's too deep for a sounding."

"I'll dash your useless brains out later, you dim-witted dog-rapist! Fetch the deep-sea lead!"

"But we're not looking to drop anchor," protested the leadsman.

"And what matter is that to you? I'll throw you overboard! Sound it!" Kasid barely even spared him a glance as he continued shouting orders at the rest of the crew. Life was much simpler, he reflected, much simpler and more relaxing when the Captain had been the one yelling the orders. "Yards around for the larboard tack, lines on, braces on, haul you bleeding maggots!"