prologue ♔ everybody scream your heart out

[ironsides]

WHO || Sean, Dovan, Anastacia, Faith, Fred Jr., Lan
WHAT || Sean's on a boat
WHERE || Off the coast of Australia
WHEN || May 28 [backdated]
HOW || Actionspam

Sean's foray through the fog lands ends with the earth seeming to lurch beneath him. Hope he gets his sea legs quickly (and doesn't his sea sickness Fort save)... because it wouldn't take long for him to realize he was standing on the deck of a large wooden boat. Wooden hardly implies rickety, however, as this boat looks masterfully constructed, even lined with what appears to be gold in all the inlaid designs...

But he won't have very long to ruminate on the craftmanship of the place, before a deep gruff voice shouts: "Stowaway!"

The call is echoed from stern to prow, and from out of the rigging and cabins and from down below crawl a number of very short men with thick torsos and long arms, all heavily muscled and decked out in impressive heavy armor. Almost all of them sport impressively braided beards and mustachios, and a suspicious look in their eyes.

Comments

[ironsides]

[ when he raises a hand, there's a sudden rush of movement: hands reaching towards weapons at belts, mostly axes of some kind. they pause there, however, looking to one dwarf with a grayer beard than the others who saunters forward a bit, peering at sean ] Give me one good reason we shouldn't skin ye for followin' us.

[imgonnadie]

I'd like to keep my skin, actually, keeps all my-- [He moves his hand in a lazy circle around his torso, as if he missed the whole they have weapons part. He didn't, he just gives them enough credit to realize he's unarmed.] -- squishy parts together.

[He's pretty sure he should change the subject, lest he actually get skinned alive on the deck of some... random boat. That's a good subject change. Unless they take it for the shameless buttering up that it is...]

Nice vessel you got here. [Diplomacy 25, he is being super honest, okay. It's all shiny and elaborate and fancy. It's nice. He likes it, looks very impressed, but not enough that it could be mistaken as surprise.]

[ironsides]

[ the leader(??) looks a little incredulous, as if he expected some kind of actual badass stowaway worth skinning and this is what he got instead. ]

Ye haven't told us yet what yer doin' on our boat. And considerin' the reasons we took to sea, ye better hope it's a good explanation.

[imgonnadie]

[Sean is super badass OMG.]

I was kind of hoping you could enlighten me, since I don't know what I'm doing here.

[Or... Anything at all, actually. Well, he knows not to whistle.]

[ironsides]

[ his bushy eyebrows dart up and he exchanges a look with his mumbling crew ] Are ye tellin' me you just fell through into this dimension and happened to land on my deck?

[imgonnadie]

Yes.

[...possibly. Maybe. He thinks.]

Unless I can fly. [Which is followed by a laugh because that's absurd.]

[ironsides]

What's yer name, boy?

[imgonnadie]

Sean Cassidy.

[ironsides]

Cassidy. [ he repeats it, as if searching for memory of the name ] An' you claim you would know nothing about this land or these... Australians?

[imgonnadie]

Uh, yeah, that's pretty much it.

[He looks around a bit.] Are we in Australia? [That is... strange. As he doesn't recall where he is supposed to be, but he doesn't think it's supposed to be Australia...]

[ironsides]

Leavin' it behind! Seems t'be the only way to protect what's ours, so we struck out to find somewhere to settle where we won't be harried by those damn humans.

[imgonnadie]

What's yours? [Because that's curious, but he asks another question almost as soon as the first one is out of his mouth, eyebrows knitting together with more confusion.] Wait, why are they bothering you?

[ironsides]

We were stolen to this world out of our own - snatched in the middle of th' night and left here, our entire hall and everythin' in it along with us. These men came pokin' about after not long, and it didn't take them long to decide our gold was ripe for taking. We fought them off, every last one of 'em, and they tried to hold us in contempt of their laws for taking the lives of a few robbers and thieves!

[imgonnadie]

[So they showed up just like he did, that's... Not actually comforting. Maybe a little in the yay, I'm not alone way, but mostly it just makes him feel uncomfortable because thinking of where he came from just comes up blank. Hey amnesia is not cool.]

You killed them? [Its only half a question. They were packing more heat than a radiator, he wouldn't put it past them, but he is looking to clarify instead of vilify. Killing is bad, he gets why the other people would be upset, but at the same time he gets why the dwarfs would react that way. Well, he mostly gets it.]

[ironsides]

They're the ones what put up a fight. And you don't steal from Brightfists. [ there are murmurs of agreement from the other 'Brightfists' around. a few hefted weapons and 'hear, hears' ]

[imgonnadie]

[Sean lets out a low whistle. Damn he is with a bunch of dwarves with axes who kill thieves and he is some sort of stowaway because of... something. This is all giving him a headache and he would like something to make sense. Like, yesterday.]

So where're we headed now?

[You like how he did that, added himself into their little group.]

[ironsides]

Why, t'find a place to call home! In the lands to the north. When we get there-- [ he's interrupted though, but a sudden urgent trumpeting horn from the crow's nest. all of them immediately look off towards the horizon, and then a voice cries out: "PIRATES! TO YER STATIONS!"

yes, this is happening. ]

[imgonnadie]

[WOW THIS IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT SEAN WANTED. Except, well, Sean is... Sean, so pirates and all this bustle cheers him slightly in the absolute ridiculous that is suddenly his life.

And what little boy didn't want to be a priate?]

What's going on? Are we... under attack?

[ironsides]

[ the leader scowls at him as he slaps his axe onto his back again ] Those rotten humans followed us from shore. Pirates lookin' to take us down and loot our ship! We'll show 'em you never mess with Brightfists!

[imgonnadie]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. [He holds up his hands like, horses, buddy, rein 'em in.] How do you know it's the same people? It's a big ocean, we aren't the only ship in it. They could just be regular people out for a sail. [He is struggling to just stop this before it ends badly (diplomacy 13), but since he can't assure them it's isn't... well. He doesn't think he is doing that well.]

Hell maybe they're just looking for me. Let 'em get in shouting range and we can see whats up. And if it's bad... well, I'll fight with you. But give 'em a chance.

[ironsides]

[ his diplomatic efforts are enough to give the brightfist clan leader pause and he looks back at sean, frowning heavily and making it clear he just kind of WANTS a fight. ] And let them get the first volley? Never! [ followed by a rousing chorus of 'Never!!'s from all around them. well shit. ] You know how to man a cannon, boy?

[imgonnadie]

[Sean hates everything.]

No. [The most sullen child. And then!] Wait!

Wait, just two minutes, before you go all Brightfist to the face. This isn't a dumb plan, I swear. I can distract them so they can't fire until they're close enough to talk.

And then if they're not good people... [He shrugs, have at.] I can do it.

[LOOK AT HIS FACE. Just look at it, he is so determined.]

[ironsides]

Distract 'em how?

[imgonnadie]

[Finally, finally, Sean smiles.]

You might want to cover your ears.

[He moves to edge of the ship and puts his hand on the railing, facing the opposing ship. (That way if they don't like him, he can just jump in the water instead of being axed to death. He doesn't know why he thinks this is a possibilty, but he does.) After a deep breathe, he lets out a long, warbling whistle -- aiming to disorient instead of just shatter the other boat. (Attack 17)]

[ironsides]

[ the other boat slowly begins veering off course, as the dwarves rush to cover their ears after the fact, because none of them listened to him in the first place, naturally. ]

Nine hells!