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

1 sry for tl;dr

[familyissues]

[ Desmond never would have guessed in a million years that some of the lesser skills he picked up in the Animus would ever be applicable to his life in the 21st century. How often did a man need to handle a gondola, or reload a flintlock pistol in the dark?

Or, y'know, how to load and fire a damn cannon?

While he carried on the proud Miles tradition of being something of a smarmy douche, when it's go time he's on point, and every bit of drilling they'd been doing of late had him ready to let fly some real firepower. Hornblower seemed to know what he was doing, and a man who knew what he was doing spelled a quicker ticket home for Desmond.

Ramming home the whole mess of cartridge, wadding and shot made him nervous, but it was over and he was as yet unexploded; tackle was hauled with his team to run the gun out, sighting up their target. Desmond covered his ears reflexively against the sound of it, the explosion that rattled his teeth and burned his eyes with the smoke. The whole process was repeated again, the other teams and their progress going ignored until his group was finished.

So, Captain- pass or fail? ]

I love tl;dr. so much.

[captainhornblower]

[Hornblower, for the most part, seems to ignore all of the progress made by the sailors. When the last gun is reloaded and the second round fired, he noticably checks his watch.]

Six minutes. You're only as good as the slowest gun crew when it comes to broadsides.

I expect you all to work on learning your duties, their order, and how those around you work.

[Overall, he sounded extremely unimpressed.

...Once the general crew had dispersed, however, his dark eyes shifted their gaze to Desmond, and he approached the other man. Very, very faintly, the captain's mouth turned with a slight smile.]

With men like you, Mister Miles, it's no surprise the colonies worn their wore.

[Someone who knew him well enough -- or knew the type -- might hear the hint of a joke in his voice.]

all that reading was good for something

[familyissues]

[ Desmond turned from his study of their targets, mildly surprised. He wondered what Shaun would be doing in his place. Probably planning his proposal to Horatio and his stiff upper lip. ]

Shucks, Captain, I never thought you'd notice. Does that mean we're all forgiven for the Tea Party?

[ He was cautious about pressing his luck--which for Desmond was incredibly cautious--but his tone held a similar note of humor. ]

[captainhornblower]

I believe it's safe to say you are. [He chuckled just the faintest bit.] Though that was before my time.

[Which sounds strange to his ear. But this place does that.]

It's good to have another sailor on board. Plenty of landsmen who need to be trained, and I couldn't do it myself.

[...And he needs officers. Guess who's being considered, Desmond?]

[familyissues]

[ He rubbed his thumb against his unshaven jaw, contemplative. Part of him thought to protest being marked as a sailor at all- though in a way it was perfectly true. He knew the Aquila from the tops of her canvas down to her bilges, absorbed every last shred of Faulkner's tutelage, and went on to captain a third-rate ship-of-the-line with remarkable success. All through Connor and the Animus, all of it imprinted on Desmond just as readily as those first instances of free-running had been.

He realized he hadn't responded, ]

I'll do my best to be useful. The sooner the greenhorns get more experience in, the better for us all.

[ A beat, then he added, with a quirk of his lips, because the only man he ever really called 'sir' was his father, and even that was sometimes a stretch, ] Sir.

What do you think about this gemstone we're supposed to find? Think it's legitimate?

[captainhornblower]

[But the word comes without Hornblower having to prompt it, so the captain pretends there was no delay at all. This crew will have to be taught, but he's done it before. He's watched landsmen become seamen.]

I would like to say it's pure superstition, and, therefore, nonsense.

...But we are here. In a place none of us remember coming to and where a ghost seems to walk the earth.

It... may be best to assume such a thing is real until we know for certain.