private Thread and Needle

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

Edward began to patrol the ship, making sure everyone was doing their job. For the time being, that was about all he really could do. If there was one thing he didn't like about this plan, it was that he had no real part to play in it. But it was the captain's decision, and that was all that mattered.

[Sekel 696]

Pluto heard what the Captain had said and flew ahead and around the ship, zooming his eyes in on points of interest but none of them appeared to be the ship they were looking for.

 

Blake sighed and walked below decks for the first time. Soon as he stepped in and felt the wall, he immediately felt claustrophobic. "This is too enclosed for me, but I got to know what this ship's layout is." Blake muttered and proceeded to walk around below deck., being careful to not bump into anything or anyone he happened to come across.

[RunsWithSquirlz 274]

"Gunny I expect you to take point on this. First mate, don't look so glum, you're ruining your pretty face." London smirked.

 

Delano came back up to the deck with a crate full of various jars of powder. She ran over to Rhonda "Big noise. Big flash.Sparks.Stink. These are color..." Delano pointed to the labels of each.

 

"Only need to use a little. Delano makes them."

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

@@RunsWithSquirlz,

 

Edward was trying really hard not to start sweating again. "I... yes, captain. I'll... try to cheer up, if that's what would please you." He tried to force a grin for a while, but he got the feeling from the way people started looking at him funny that it wasn't having the effect he was looking for. Eventually he settled for just looking stern and serious. At least he was good at that. 

[Flying Ace 142]

Rondra grabbed each ingredient without listing to the labels and laughed gleefully, "my babies mommy missed you, don't worry I'll raise you into children then into teens that have no respect to your parents; going around sleeping with anybody that promises you a bright future; and then when you're woman I shall BLOW YOU SKY HIGH!" Rondra declared walking into the lower deck.

[The Dark Lord 332]

"We are seriously going to have to watch her." John said, looking at Rondra while she grabbed at the ingredients, seemingly at random. "If these pirates aren't going to be the end of us, she most definitely will be." He leaned against the mast and took out a smoke, that he then lit.

[Sekel 696]

@@Flying Ace

Blake cringed when he heard the fire mage shout. He walked carefully to where he can hear footsteps and tapped her on the head. "Whaf's this about being blown sky high?" Blake asked curiously, tapping his stick constantly against the wooden deck. He scratched the back of his head and tilted his head as he felt her weight was heavier than before. "What's in your hands?"

[Flying Ace 142]

@@Dji

Rondra turned at the tap on her head, "the bombs maaaan, that's what being blown sky high I got the ingredients in my hands and I shall make the most beautiful bombs we've ever seen but I need the science who knows what will happen if I got started while making these."

[RunsWithSquirlz 274]

They were well on thier way now.

 

"I don't think we may need that much" London looked down at the collection of bottles. By experience she had learned to use only a little bit of Delanos powder.

 

"Really, only a little. This is some of the strongest powder you can find. Ancients know ive tried to get the girl to sell the recipe. Little bugger keeps mum."

[Sekel 696]

@@Flying Ace

Blake smiled and gestured to what he hoped where the ingredients. "If you got started without any proper help, then you could probably blow us all 'sky high' as you say. But then again, why would it matter to you? You just loove blowing up stuff, am I right?" Blake said, tilting his head in her direction. His body adjusted slightly as he felt the ship move faster. "Seems like we're well on our way now."

Edited August 12, 2014 by Dji

[Shadow Dancer 111]

I was about to offer up more of my expertise, but decided against they were in a pissing contest at least this Anne was with two others. I smiled at her calling a crew member a coward when my job consisted of back stabbing, and otherwise "cowardly acts.

[Torrent505 370]

Anne was surveying the ship from her higher position at the helm, she took in all the crews action without really focusing on it; instead she kept her attention on the open ocean ahead of her and the different billowing flags along the ship. The main sail had been raised the Thread was resistant and sluggish at first but once it seemed to realize Anne was too experienced to let it choose its own course the ship's behavior changed; suddenly it was completely compliant rushing them along faster than any non-Mage supplemented ship she had been on. The Thread's hate was still there, clearly it had decided if it couldn't steer them to their death it would speed them to die wherever its foolish new masters dared to venture.

 

As the sun was setting and the crew would be readying the evening meal and preparing for staggered sleeping shifts Anne estimated they might have already made it a fourth of the way to the targeted deserted shipping lane to meet the pirates.

[RunsWithSquirlz 274]

Delano was busily setting the table, chattering away at herself in a strange foreign tongue. She was very excited about these new people but at the same time, very scared. It had been just her and London for so many years. She wondered if the captain was shy too.

 

London never dined alone, she thought it was stupid. A captain should always eat with their crew; the men they live and fight with. Besides, it was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about these vagabonds. "Mr. Cathus, if you will keep Pluto on watch for us? I'd like every human at the table. Plus, there will be drinks." she pat him on the back and descended to the galley. 

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

Edward was... admittedly a bit nervous after the captain's announcement. He had never actually dined with women before. Were there special rules? He'd just have to be careful and figure it out as he went along. On the bright side, he was proud of how much he'd improved at dealing with women over the course of the day. Now instead of breaking into a cold sweat whenever the captain approached him, he merely felt incredibly stiff and awkward. Trying his best to act casual, he descended into the galley.

[Sekel 696]

@@RunsWithSquirlz

Blake nodded and whistled to Pluto, telling him to keep a lookout. Pluto cawed back in response and settled in on the crow's nest. He scratched the back of his head and wondered where to go, figuring that the best bet was to follow the Captain into the galley, he did so but at a much slower pace as he was still getting use to the ship. He was unsure of how the others would see him as, because of him being a blind man sitting at a table, and his eating habits. He usually eats with his hands but Blake also knew that this would be something completely different.

[Torrent505 370]

Anne scanned horizon and sighed; there was nothing on she could see to justify dodging out of dinner with the crew, at least nothing that London would allow her to use as an acceptable excuse to skip the first meal with a new crew and the first meal of them reuniting. The captain could be very persuasive and stubborn if she wanted to be and fighting with her would only waste time. Anne tied off the helm to keep their current course and slid down the rail to deck level kicking her feet over and hopping to speed her way into the galley. She practically knocked over the blind man and didn't apologize for it as she plopped into a chair. She swiped her cup from the table and was disappointed to find it still empty, Anne held it out towards Delano for the girl to fill it while her other hand pulled an hour glass from the same pocket that held her spyglass. She flipped it onto the table so the sand would being to run, "Sorry Captain I know this is a big moment but I hate to be away from the helm; this ship would be happy to see us dead, so that's all the time I can spare."

[RunsWithSquirlz 274]

Delano whizzed by and filled the upraised mug and then went to fill the others. London gave the hourglass a long look while drinking rum. She turned her attention towarss the others.

 

"Anyone have a good story? I love stories."

 

Delano sat down and helped Blake to sit next to her.

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

@@RunsWithSquirlz,

 

Still incredibly stiff, but trying his best to adjust, and wanting to please the captain however he could, Edward rather awkwardly raised his hand. "I-I have stories from when I was in the military, captain. I don't know that they're necessarily the best stories, but I don't mind telling them. If you want. Do you, um... want me to?"

[Sekel 696]

@@RunsWithSquirlz, @@Alex Kennedy

"Thank you." Blake thanked her as he was helped to sit down. He put leant his staff against the table, placed his hands in his lap and tilted his head in the direction of whoever was speaking. "Stories? I don't think I have any to tell. Although the military ones sound rather interesting." Blake noted and turned his head to who he guessed was the one that called out earlier. "Military life sounds interesting to me anyway."

[RunsWithSquirlz 274]

"A story is a story. Just don't stutter when you tell it." She waved for him to begin and then started eating. "Is it a saucy story?" She scrunched her nose at him playfully.

 

"Delano have saucy stories!" Delano piped up.

 

"Nevermind her, she was raised in a brothel."

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

@@RunsWithSquirlz,

 

Edward was first ashamed of himself when she called him out on his stuttering, and then blushed bright red when she asked if it was a saucy story. He tried his best to collect himself, taking comfort in the fact that at least he wasn't around only women. "Well... nothing like that, captain. I actually haven't... I don't really... I've never... well anyway, it's not that kind of story. Sorry to dissapoint, but we didn't even see many women. Occasionally a soldier would sneak a local girl from the nearby town in for the night, but I wouldn't really know about that.Anyway, this is about my first battle, the one that earned me an immediate commendation and promotion. So were going into the mountains to hunt down a small group of bandits, right? Not exactly a big-time military operation, but in times of peace, that's about we had to do. And we're in the mountains for about four days now, we're running out of food and water, a few lads start talking about deserting, everything is going pretty bad. That said, it's only maybe a dozen guys we're looking for, so it's not too surprising that we can't find them too easily. So says the commander, anyway. But that night, there's a howling in the distance, and then another, and soon a whole chorus. Before we knew what was happening, something had crashed down into our camp and killed the guards standing watch. Then the commander and his first officer. By time we got out there all we could see were there corpses, all bloody and torn up. Whatever did it had vanished back into the mountains. Now, needless to say we didn't get much sleep after that, and in the morning, most of us wanted to abandon the mission and head back to the fort. I was one of the few that didn't, along with a couple guys who wanted to respect the commander's memory, and some who just wanted revenge. So the rest leave, because the chain of command is so messed up that we don't know who has the power to tell them not to anymore, and we head into the furthest parts of the mountains. We set up camp that night, and again the howling starts. This time we were ready. A ring of torches surrounding the campsite showed us why we hadn't found the bandits sooner. We had been looking for humans, and these were... something else. Beasts, some of them on all fours and some walking on two legs like men. Werewolves. When they came down on us, it was like no fight I've ever been in before or since. They had no skill, grace, discipline. It was all speed and power, maniacally charging in and mauling their opponents. Three men dropped in the blink of an eye. By the time I managed to gut one of them, only me and four others still lived. Now we were outnumbered, and we had no idea how to fight these things. So I volunteer to buy the others time to get away, and charge in. Some greater power must have been guiding me, because as many hits as I took, I was able to keep going. Still, I had lost a lot of blood. Things were starting to fade to black when I saw something erupt into flames a few feet away. One of the others had stayed behind, and it turns out werewolves don't much like fire. So he started tossing torches at them, and from what I hear, between that and my blade, we killed them all. I blacked out before the end, though. When I woke up a few days later, the new commander called me a hero. I told him it was the other guy who deserved the credit, and he told me the bad news. I was the only one they found there. Whoever the other guy was, the werewolves must have got him." He shook his head as he finished. "I don't know how good a story that is, but it's the best I've got." He realized when it was done that when he had started talking about the military, and fighting, he felt somewhat more at ease. Maybe he was just too caught up in it to think about the presence of women, but still, it was progress.

 

((I made that up completely on the spot, with no idea where it was going. Not my finest work.))

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

Arellion and "Eleanor."

 

"Reckon the girls stories would be more interesting than this load of blustering..." A dull thump signalled Eleanor's hand colliding with the duelists stomach. He doubled over in reaction, wheezing. "Oof! Hey!"

 

"Werewolves? As far as I have travelled, I've never had the misfortune to meet one - hopefully I never will... which begs the question sir, of if you were bitten during all of this?"

 

It took a few moments for the grin to crack through her forced seriousness of her expression.

 

"I'm joking of course - don't mind me. T'was just in jest."

 

Arellion winced - grabbing for the bottle at his side and taking a deep drink. He rolled his eyes at his employers words and muttered under his breath in a voice too low for her to hear.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Cinderscribe

[Sekel 696]

@

Blake raised an eyebrow at the boy's comment. "You think that the boys don't have just as good stories as girls? If that's the case, then share one of your stories with us. Or maybe you don't have stories of your own and just wish for others to say something so that you can make one up on the spot?"

[The Elusive Cinder 1,328]

Arellion and Eleanor.

 

"Please don't get him talking..." Eleanor had time to sigh as Arellion took another deep draught from the bottle - keeping it firmly in his grip rather than returning it to its place beside his rapier.

 

"Stories?" He smirked. "You wouldn't even believe half the stories I could tell you! I'm the Wavebreaker - I've probably decked more folks than the lot of you have ever even seen!"

 

Eleanor raised a civilised hand to her face in exasperation, shaking her head.

 

"Just last year, I was out of work drinkin' in a port somewhere north of here. Forget the name of the place..." He took another drink. "Anyway! I'm sat there, keepin' to myself when these fellas come saunterin' over an' harassin' the girl at the bar - sweet thing, think she was called... huh, dunno, something' sweet. Anyways, they start causing trouble likes of which you never seen - huge long coats and arned to the teeth! Got real shirty when a few of the regulars told em to leave."

 

The bottle spun in his hands - somehow making its way to his mouth again without spilling.

 

"One of 'em pulls out a sword and runs whatshisname through, right next to me! All hell breaks loose then: there's bottles being thrown an' stools been smashed over folks heads. I'm still sat tryin' to enjoy my Brandy, you understand? Anyway, one of 'em decides its a good idea to pull me into things - grabs my shirt and pulls me off my seat... well, I couldn't have that! I pulls out my sword and the fiend grabs it - calm as y'like! Pulls it outta my hand like it wasn't even sharp!

 

There's bodies all over at this point - the pretty barmaids shooting lightning outta her hands and these folks are just shrugging it off... so I punched him, right in the face. Then I turns to another one and I punched him in the face as well!"

 

Eleanor had at this stage resorted to simply slowly shaking her head: she didn't believe the story any more this time than she had the first two times she had heard it.

 

"... Next one had this monster of a crossbow, was shooting spears and wrecking the place up - I grabbed it, swung around and punched him as well! Oh It was grand - there was two more then: one with this fucking giant sword, and a little lass cowerin' next to him... so I punched him too! Once it were done, I finds the barmaid an' we..."

 

Smirking, he took another drink.

 

"I didnt punch her, if you get my drift! Heheh, Not been back there recently - have to swing by, if I ever remember the name o' the place...

Edited August 15, 2014 by Cinderscribe

[Sekel 696]

@

"You probably have decked a lot more people than I've seen. That's gotta be a nice feeling." Blake sighed and rubbed his face, having a disbelieving look on it. "Why do I have a hard time believing that story? At least this one's story is more believable." Blake commented, waving a hand in Edward's general direction. He moved his hand slowly across the table and he managed to find his cup with out spilling it. Frowning slightly, he raised it up and edged it closer to him. Feeling his mouth against the lip of the cup as it finally reached him, he took a sip and held it in his hand, unsure of where to put it back.

Edited August 15, 2014 by Dji