Test Drive for September 2013 Apps

[highseasmods]

Welcome to our first Test Drive for high_seas! Here is where players can test out their characters' voices, 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

[scryinghope]

No, but if there's anywhere you want to be we need to know it before we can get there. Although that's not an issue if you don't have any particular place to be.

[Teenagers are funny and exasperating like that. Emotionally immature, with all the amusements experience can bring behind it. All the frustrations as well. In this case, more amusement than frustration, though the lostness takes the edge off that enough that Descry doesn't have to try to hide said amusement. He remembers what lostness feels like, though his tends to be slightly different in nature.]

My crewmate says we're going to have a storm sometime in the next few days. We should be able to rustle up a spare bit of sailcloth so you can make a tent on the crow's nest.

[polarization]

[ His brows raise at that. ]

I don't hafta be up there if it's gonna storm... [ Most people would just tell him to skeedaddle if he was going to put himself in danger like that. What're you up to, Hopeless? ] Don't worry 'bout it.

[scryinghope]

[Descry isn't most people.]

You obviously don't like to be around people. And below-decks is not a good place to be in a storm; take that from someone who still gets seasick even up on deck.

[He shrugs.]

Besides, if you tie yourself in and can take the swaying, we'd be better off having someone on lookout than not.

[polarization]

[ His cheeks puff out at the "obviously" there, but he doesn't deny it. Part of the reason it works is because he broadcasts that image... which is fairly true nowadays. ]

Tent'd get in the way, in that case.

[scryinghope]

[See? Teenagers. Hilarious, objecting to what they want. (Or what they're pretending they want but don't actually, which does explain the objection.)

[Still, he has a point about the tent. Descry's not a sailor; sue him. He knows a bit about temporary homes, though.]

That depends on how you build it, and which way the wind blows. Or how bad the storm is. If worse comes to worse you can probably build it to flatten so you can it down if it seems like it'll catch too much.

[His brow furrows.]

Although I might ask Skulduggery his opinion on that. He's the real sailor here.

[polarization]

[ To be fair, Sefton really does find the crow's nest to be the best place in the whole ship. It's just neat, okay? ]

Meant I'd be a useless lookout with sailcloth in my face. [ He shakes his head. ] Could do without.

[ Besides, if there's a storm... chances are his feet will freeze to the nest. Not like he'd get much rest during all the turmoil anyway. ]

[scryinghope]

[There are lots of versions of 'getting in the way', Sefton.]

You could. It just wouldn't be very comfortable coming down sick on a ship, for anyone.

[Descry's not exactly looking at him anymore. He doesn't have to; instead the redhead's got his head leaning back against the wall, his eyes closed. Feet freezing. Now there's an odd thought which Descry lets tease itself out. Ah. The shoes. That's interesting.

[He pushes himself upright again just as Sefton finishes his hot chocolate.]

I could use a hand in my garden, if you've got a few minutes.

[polarization]

Maybe not.

[ The mug gets set down and Descry gets a fairly suspicious (and confused) look. ]

Garden? ... S' not full of tropical stuff that'll eat people or anything, s' it?

[scryinghope]

[Descry laughs at the image in the teen's head.]

No. It's just rosemary and lavender. But part of the bulkhead has a crack in it. The salt air is making the flowers sick and putting the bees off. I'm having trouble finding it. I think it might be in a cranny I'm too big to reach.

[polarization]

[ It takes a moment for Sefton to process that. Even as he goes through the steps, gets that Descry needs someone small and compact like Sefton, the need to ask something first is ever-present. ]

Bees?

[scryinghope]

[That just gets Sefton a smile, one that actually registers around Descry's mouth instead of just in his eyes. It is there too, of course, with the twinkle of amusement.]

Skulduggery's the sailor. I'm a bee-keeper. It's soothing.

[It provides a nice physical background hum which takes the edge off the mental background hum. When he was still at the monastery, he'd always been most content in the garden, tending the bees. He leads the way out onto the deck, toward the captain's cabin.]

And honey is a good thing to have on a ship. It never spoils, it can be used in cooking, it has medicinal properties ... and, of course, it tastes wonderful.

[polarization]

[ Sefton resists a sigh and follows up behind at his own distance. ]

How much honey could you possibly make on a ship like this?

[scryinghope]

I don't know. That's one of the reasons I'm giving it a try.

[Also the reason why he used the biggest and most protected cabin--not that Skulduggery was happy about it. It's not like Skulduggery needs to sleep or rest anyway.]

But it's working, to some extent. There was some on your chocolate.

[polarization]

[ Beat. ] Yeah, noticed that.

Just thought it'd make good cocoa?

[scryinghope]

Though it would give a nice aftertaste. Though that wasn't actually cocoa beans.

[He glances over his shoulder, and yes, his eyes are still twinkling.]

That was the bark of a chocolate-tree. By which I mean a tree made of chocolate.

[polarization]

—what? You're joking.

[ There's no way Descry got away with enough chocolate-tree to make cocoa and no one else noticed or said a word. No way. ]

[scryinghope]

[Of course there's a way. The whole mind-reading thing helps with smuggling contraband.]

I do joke, on occasion. But right now the truth is far more amusing.

[polarization]

[ That's so rude, man. So rude. ]

How? Where? [ Beat. ] How much?

[scryinghope]

At one of those various and sundry islands, somewhere out there.

[He waves vaguely out at the ocean.]

And enough to make drinks from it. Here we are.

[The captain's cabin doesn't exactly lock, but the door does at least close properly. Descry opens it and steps aside, a decent distance, to let Sefton in first. Inside? Well, he didn't use the word 'garden' lightly. The air is a bit stuffy with fragrance, but when Descry moves in he goes to open some of the portholes.

[And yes, there is a soft hum of bees. The hive is in the corner. It's a small one, in a worn old log, but it's there.]

[polarization]

[ Sefton waits for Descry to move toward the windows before he lets himself in, hand resting on the open door momentarily before he moves further and leans it partially closed behind him. ]

S' that safe?

[scryinghope]

They're not interested in going anywhere there's a lot of salt and no flowers.

[In the case of being stung, well, every bee-keeper expects stings. Descry can't exactly read their minds, because they don't have minds, but he knows how to read aggression. And how to avoid it.]

I know the split isn't in this corner. The bees avoid that one, though.

[He nods toward the opposite, on the deck side.]

[polarization]

[ Sefton keeps a bit of an eye on the bees as he moves over toward it, tilting his ear toward the wall to both listen for any wind through a crack or feel the brush of air against his skin and clothes. ]

Can't guarantee nobody'll bring more flowers onto the ship, y'know.

[scryinghope]

[It's such an irrelevant, trivial and deliberately belligerent comment that it makes Descry smile.]

True. And some of them will probably escape the cabin to follow up on that, but they'll also soon realise it's not worth their time and the risk.

[To within a given definition of 'realise'. Descry pushes open the last porthole and turns around, more toward Sefton but without actually moving toward the teen. Instead he starts checking the flowers. He chose these for their resistance to the salt water--they grew on shorelines--but the shoreline still had a good chance of a breeze coming from inland. No such luck out here.]

I suspect the seam might be at fault, up near the ceiling and in where the wall meets the bulkhead. It's just that the beams are set too narrowly for me to tell.

[polarization]

[ His attention briefly flickers toward Descry anyway, an instinctual action to keep the man placed within his peripheral. Once he's satisfied that Descry isn't moving any closer, which doesn't take very long, Sefton turns back toward his search. He looks upward at that information, now glancing around for something he might be able to climb up on. ]

Really should just stop somewhere populated 'n have professionals look at this...