Test Drive for October 2013 Apps

[highseasmods]

Welcome to your monthly Test Drive for high_seas! Here is where new players can test out their characters' voices, old players can try out new muses, and everyone can help each other get some threads for their applications! Feel free to use one of the prompts below, or come up with something on your own! Comment around, have fun, and remember that any CR formed here does not carry over to the game!

See you during the application round!

♦ So you're new to this world and have just woken up in the Town Square. How do you react? What do you do?

♦ You're lost at sea. Maybe you got separated from your crew. Or perhaps you're on an abandoned island. You need help!

♦ "Pirates off the starboard bow!" It's an enemy ship! Attack!!

♦ You and your crew are hanging out on your ship. Just another day at sea!

♦ "LAND, HO!" Hey look, a new island! How about you go explore it? Tell us what you find!

Comments

[awhitecrow]

Nor have I, sir. [It's too ingrained in him to simply abandon.] But it seems we've been brought here. Quite a few of us.

[At least he knows this man's voice. Or it sounds similar to what he's used to.]

...You're the first Englishman I've found, too, sir.

[superstitiouspirate]

Rotten luck to be cast adrift here, and with no rum too. [Gibbs gives a soft grunt as he tucks the neck flask away and rubs his face with a free hand.]

That's surprising to hear. I though we were as common as fleas on a dog's back.

[He shifts his attention away from the other man to look around, noticing for the first time the words on the fountain.] Marry Mudder of god... Davy Jones' lair? It don't mean the Locker does it?

[awhitecrow]

"Or be lost forever." I... am afraid so, sir.

[It doesn't seem possible. Yet, he knows where he was before this. Nothing else seems possible either. Are they all dead? Probably.]

I... don't know what act of God or the Devil brought us here.

[superstitiouspirate]

Given the things I've seen and what I know, chances are god and the devil have little to do with us ending up here of all places.

[Gibbs shifts his attention back towards the young man, figuring that if he has a name to call him, he might drop this sir business.]
The names Gibbs, Joshamee Gibbs. And who might you be?

[awhitecrow]

[No rank attached. Well, then.]

Jonathan Hollom, Mr. Gibbs. Formerly of the Surprise, under the command of Jack Aubrey. [It may mean nothing to the man, but... It might. So, he'll offer it.]

[superstitiouspirate]

[Aye, no rank attached, at least not since he turned pirate some years ago; but he didn't think Jonathan needed to know that.]

Sorry to say but she isn't familiar to me, nor is Jack Aubrey. [Considering that there was over a 100 years difference between them, it wasn't all too surprising.]

mayhap you can tell me if you've heard of the Black Pearl?

[awhitecrow]

I haven't, Mister Gibbs. My apologies.

[The shift away from "sir" and to the formal name marks Hollom more than he knows. Or, rather, more than he thinks about. An officer of some kind, though not a lieutenant. He doesn't have the bearing, the certainty for that. A warrant officer of some kind, rather than one with a commission to his name.]

I'm afraid there's much people speak of here that I know little about.

[superstitiouspirate]

[Given that Gibbs was a Warrant Officer in his time as well, he can well pick up the subtle shifts in speech, even across the differing times they come from.]

Ah well, it was a slim hope at best. Have you been here long then?

[He could forgive the man for not knowing things, after all this was a strange place they had ended up in, especially if this was not some clever hoax.]

[awhitecrow]

Not very long at all.

[Hollom offers a bit of a smile. Wary, careful... but genuine, at least.]

I-- It seems impossible, but I need to ask: what was the year when you last knew where you were?

[superstitiouspirate]

[Gibbs nods. Given the lack of information Jonathan had, the news didn't surprise him. He shifted the teddy bear under his arm nervously aware for the first time that the blasted thing was with him. Common sense dictated that he drop it but it was too late now. The young man had seen him holding it for several minutes now.]


Round abouts 1740 give or take a year. [Given that he spent most of his time drunk int he Caribbean he sort of lost track of dates and times.] Why d'you ask?

[awhitecrow]

[The teddy bear, Hollom had politely ignored. There were things that one simply pretended not to see. Small stakes gambling, tell-tale hints of a woman being hidden on board... Unless told to root all of it out by the captain, there was cause for discretion.

This? Was one of those things.]

Because, sir... [God in Heaven, what madness was this? Yet, for all the strangeness around him, he could not believe the man was having him for a laugh.] I sailed with Surprise in 1805.

[superstitiouspirate]

[That'd do it. The stuffed animal was forgotten as Gibbs stared in surprise. This was a new one, even for him. For once, the usually chatty pirate was at a loss for words. After the initial shock wore off, he wracked his brain, thinking of just how this might be possible. Of course rum would have lubricated the process faster, but there was no use in wanting what he couldn't have just then.]

It must be this place then. No telling what's happened here if this truly be Davy Jones Locker. Time flows differently there.

[awhitecrow]

It... would certainly seem to here, too.

[Davy Jones's locker. He isn't too surprised, really. That was the fate of those who died at sea, was it not? Hell or Purgatory, whichever it might be.]

[superstitiouspirate]

What I don't understand is why. Why are we here? [The last Gibbs recalled was falling asleep aboard the Black Pearl as exhibited by the bear he was still holding, once again forgotten under one arm.]

[awhitecrow]

[He hates asking this. Hates it because he knows the question will be turned back on him. But perhaps there's a commonality...]

What... What happened? Just before you came here? Was there anything of note?

[superstitiouspirate]

None as I can recall. We were at Tortuga resupplying the ship. I lay down to rest my eyes and next thing I know, I'm waking here next to this fountain. [Gibbs doesn't assume anything about the younger man as it doesn't occur to him that he might have suffered a different fate.]

What of you?

[awhitecrow]

I--

[Hollom hesitates for a moment. This is a man who might well be like Killick. Who might suspect the worst if he knew his fate.]

I was on deck of the Surprise. It was my watch.

[superstitiouspirate]

[Alas, Gibbs is a very superstitious man and from a place were such superstitions are well founded. It's better for him not to know details in this regard.]

Must've come as a shock to find yourself here then. But it seems we were both aboard a ship when this happened so maybe there is something in that.

[awhitecrow]

[He had been on a ship, on watch, prior to being here... just not immediately prior. A small omission, he told himself. Completely understandable.]

It was quite a shock.

I-- must admit I don't know what the best course of action would be...

[superstitiouspirate]

Well it seems to me the best thing to be doing would be to find ourselves a way back to where we belong. If we be in Davy Jones' Locker then it is our duty to try and find a way out from here.

[Making escape plans wasn't his area of expertise, but he had been in enough sticky situations before to know that usually there was some way out.]

[awhitecrow]

I'll do whatever I can to help, Mister Gibbs. [Which, that little voice in his head warns, might just doom it to failure.]