Relics of Atlantis

Sven nodded knowingly at Xenon's story. "I hear you. I served alongside a young Pendleton Black aboard the Northern Beauty," Sven sighed. "Now she was a craft who lived up to her name. You should've seen 'er... the ship was sunk in a pirate raid. Damned menaces of the ocean. But now we've got bigger fish to fry..." He clenched his fists and sighed deeper. "I can't wait until I see the look on that royal bitch's face when I run her through with an orichalcum pike. I bet every sailor in all the seas wants to see that..." He crossed his arms. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. It looks like the fiery damsel's waiting for me."

The captain raised an eyebrow, finding Snake's tale hard to swallow, but his credentials seemed sound. "We will need access to food while at sea, considering we won't be reaching our destination for a few months..." he murmured.

Sven instead turned towards the red-headed woman. "Thank you for your patience, darling," he assured her. "Neri, is it? Well, what sort of credentials do you have?"

"I've served as navigator on a few ships. I know how to work an astrolabe and decipher sea charts, my Dad taught me how to spot reefs from afar.. Ah, and my mom's name is Serina Almerin. She told me to mention that, though I'm not sure why.. _{Something about working in the navy for ten years?} "

"Oh, and I have this." She draws her knife and allows it to blow out a small gust. "I can also breath underwater with it if I have it between my teeth. And this thing-" She gestures at her hair ornament- "Allows me to get my bearings no matter where I am."

".. I think that's it. And I can cook pretty decent."

edited 19th May '15 6:12:17 PM by Daydre

"I hear you, I went through the food supplies when I was sailing at sea. I mean, I guess I could have just gone fishing but that would slow things down and my boat was already slow enough as it was, the boats I saw at the docks seem a lot faster. They couldn't build something like that from the island I came from..."

Talking about himself made Snake realise that he probably should also introduce himself. "My name is Snake by the way, I used to be called Monkey but then I got this tail like I told you. Back when I was Monkey, I used to be quite the acrobat but having a heavy tail instead of legs made things harder. At least I can still do some tricks in the water though."

The captain thought for a moment. "Your island... you wouldn't happen to be from the South Islands, would you? You have that sort of air of you," he asked inquisitively. The South islands have been Bellenican territory for many a year now, and the natives often became members of Bellenican ship crews. Sometimes of their own volition, many times not. "I've heard many stories about the hunting prowess of the South islanders. What do you know about... Tethys?" he asked finally.

Sven grinned slightly, nodding. "We are very much in need of a navigator. And such a pretty one definitely shouldn't be passed up!" he teased. "But teasing aside... welcome aboard, miss Almarin."

"Yes I am!" immediately responded Snake to his first question. He's seen foreigners on his home island before and called it a South Island.

"Tethys..." Snake took his time with the second question, he had a think about that word. After his small pause he finally said "I have no idea what that is. I never heard anything called Tethys before. Is this ship supposed to be looking for this Tethys or something?"

"I like to think I have a keen eye for the character of a man. Or a boy. Or a mermaid."

"Mermaid?" Toby asked nobody in particular, looking around to see- a dude with a huge snake tail instead of legs. "Woah!" Toby exclaimed, though it seemed to be more in the moment than of actual concern.

The captain and the snake dude talked for a bit about food on the trip, which reminded Toby. "Oh yeah, I've got this I guess. Don't think it'll go too far, but it's something right?" Toby said, setting down his bag of fruit. It was just the personal supply he'd brought along until he could get on a ship. The captain then brought up Tethys, and apparently Snake didn't know about her.

"Goddess of the sea. People keep saying she's mad at us humans; gonna try and sink all the land or something like that" Toby explained to Snake. "I don't know what to think about that personally, but all the land sinking does sound like a bummer. People need that for like, homes and stuff" he continued a bit absentmindedly.

"Her madness is no mere trifle, boy," Xenon said to Toby. "She would see every last man, woman, and child broken upon the rocks and drowned in her depths as the land itself is swallowed whole. I have seen the fruits of her rage over what are but trinkets to her, an entire crew thrown into the water from her anger. Those items you carry, made out of the ancient metal, she will hunt you and every last one of us down to see them returned to her possession."

The captain nodded gravely. "Indeed. You had best listen to this man. Tethys is... to put it simply... a monster. A blight upon the world. The greatest enemy of mankind. And it is our mission to take her out. By any means necessary," the captain murmured angrily, reaching into his pocket, grasping the locket with the picture of the woman, and holding it tightly. He said nothing more, not even removing this from his pocket... and then re-composed himself.

"I hate to interrupt, but when will we be leaving?" Neri asked.

The captain adjusted his hat. "We leave within the hour, so I expect everyone to do their part and help make this ship... ship shape. You, boatswain," he barked suddenly, pointing at Xenon. "Ready the sails for departure. Navigator!" he shouted, looking at Neri. "Plot a course. We have some stops to make before we go to fight Tethys. First, we have reason to believe that there is a stockpile of Atlantean artifacts on one of the islands near Chao'nu on the Jade Continent. We also have heard word that Tethys has heard of this stockpile as well and is sending troops towards it. We must reach it as quickly as we possibly can!" he exclaimed. "Set a course for Chao'nu."

He then looked at Toby. "You, boy. Make yourself useful, and use that toy of yours to check ahead for a storm. We cannot delay one moment." He then looked at Alaryn. "You, mermaid. Check the keel for damage. If anything seems amiss at the bottom of our boat, do not hesitate to let me know!" He crossed his arms. He then looked at Altan and Snake. "Make yourselves useful, you two!" he barked. Sven crossed his arms and nodded at the captain. He wasn't sure if the captain should be pushing the new crew members this hard right from the start, but he knew that captain always tended to be this rough on new recruits.

edited 20th May '15 8:06:57 PM by AllHailThrall

"Got it. " She pulled a few charts out of her bag, before remembering something. ".. Do you have an astrolabe I can use?" She asked.

"Aye aye, Cap'n!" Xenon said with a grin on his face that stretched from ear to ear. He headed off to do as he had been instructed, and to see what sort of deckhands he'd been put in charge of. Hopefully they wouldn't need too much motivation.

"Aye, sir!" Altan went over to help hoist the sails, after finding a convenient hiding spot and depositing her satchel there. Can't have anyone nicking her money, of course. She kept Khagalak on, being as they were her most prized possession.

"Keel is the bottom of the ship?" asks Alaryn standing up on the railing preparing to leap down... after all, boats aren't exactly very useful under the sea, except for shipwrecks a lairs, ecosystem or salvage and in those cases you don't care too much how most of the thing is called.

Tethys really did sound like bad news, these guys really were on an important mission.

Still, there was little time to reflect on that as Snake has to make himself is useful. "Um, how exactly should I make myself useful? I never been on a boat this big before..."

edited 21st May '15 8:09:18 AM by JustaUsername

"Uh... Okay" Toby muttered after the big guy and the captain followed up his comment on Tethys. He was kinda sorry he had said anything. Then shortly afterward the captain started giving out orders, including to Toby.

"Sure thing, mister Sandersson" Toby replied, picking up swiftswimmer and taking it over to the edge of the boat. He sat on the railing while getting his feet clasped back onto it; he couldn't really move around on the deck with it on, so at the railing he could just swing his feet over and drop into the water with it on. He paused though after getting the second clasp on, and looked up at the captain again. "... Which way are we going?" he asked, since they were docked right now and he didn't know what or where a 'Chao'nu' was.

The captain nodded at Alaryn, Toby and Snake. "I seem to have forgotten. You three have never worked aboard a Tyrian ship before. Well, if you have any more questions, ask Sven. He is my quartermaster." He glanced at them with a piercing look. "Also, young Toby. You are to address me as "captain" from now on. And when I give an order, reply with 'Aye, captain!' Is that understood?"

Sven stepped ahead to address everyone's concerns. First he turned towards Alaryn. "You are correct, Alaryn. The keel is the bottom of the ship. Once we're out to sea, I can brush you up a little more on maritime terminology." He glanced over at Toby. "Chao'nu is far to the west, so the best place to search would be right in that direction, past the starboard bow. Just don't go too far," he pointed out, gesturing in that general direction. He finally turned to Snake. "Snake, perhaps you can help me here. You said you were an acrobat. Perhaps you can help with the rigging."

The deckhands turned towards Xenon and approached him. "You're the new bos'n?" one of them asked. "We're ready to work, sir."

edited 21st May '15 9:20:27 AM by AllHailThrall

"That's the spirit!" Xenon said to the deckhands. "I am Xenon, and I am your new boatswain. I am fair, but I will work you all hard. I expect each and every one of you to put your souls into your work, just as I will do the very same. If any of you are unwilling to give your all for the sake of this ship and her crew, then you best leave now, or when we're at sea I'll throw you overboard myself, is that clear?" He then attempted to learn the names of all the deck crew, and what skills they had, before assigning them to their work.

With a nod, Alaryn hops a couple times on the railing before jumping with her trident in hand down the side of the ship... tail transforming in mid fall as she rejoins her precious water... swimming around the lower part of the ship... she didn't know exactly what she was looking for, but decided to give it a shot to check if anything seemed out of order.

What does this guy think I am, a soldier? Toby thought to himself, rolling his eyes at the captain's scolding. "Whatever you say, cap'" Toby said with some sarcasm, then put on his mask. "Hud hu du huddah!" he exclaimed unintelligibly, seemingly to himself as he swung his feet over the railing to plummet down into the water with a loud splash.

Once underwater, Toby got himself oriented, pointing the tip of swiftswimmer past the starboard bow as the big guy dressed in black had mentioned. Toby then spotted the mermaid down under the boat too, and got distracted for a bit just staring at her; part in wonder and curiosity of her actually being a mermaid and the way she moved underwater with her tail, but part just because she was pretty and Toby had a thing for pretty women. And so he just floated there, a few feet under the water.

Snake shook his head about the comment of acrobatics. "I'm not much of an acrobat anymore, heavy tail. Though, I am still good at climbing, so I think I can do rigging."

He took a brief sight of the lady with fins and saw her transform before she took off. "Wait, she has a tail too!" It did make Snake a bit happy he wasn't the only one with a tail on the ship, although unlike her his tail doesn't get replaced with legs but they both have the swimming tails, so they could talk about that.

Snake shook has head yet again, he had a job to do. "Right, rigging, just tell me what you want to help me rig fellow rigger!"

The captain shot a look at Toby, then continued to supervise the rest of the crew. "That boy needs to learn some discipline if he is going to be a member of my crew," he told Sven. Sven nodded a bit.

"Don't go too hard on him. He has some interesting skills and we can't afford to lose them," Sven pointed out. The captain crossed his arms and sighed again, saying nothing more.

The deckhands stood at attention and acknowledged Xenon's orders. "Aye, sir!" they stated, and got to work as diligently as they could. Right now their morale was high... hopefully it would stay that way.

The keel of the ship didn't have anything wrong with it, just the usual barnacles and algae that tend to attach to the bottoms of boats.

One of the riggers turned towards Snake, and began directing him how to help with the rigging, glancing at Altan in case she was paying attention as well.

Alaryn looked at the underside of the ship with some concern... nothing seemed broken at least but really... this was beyond filthy. Such neglect... had they ever cleaned the underside of the ship? In a mer household you just don't let algae grow to the extend that even barnacles stick to the ship. While she was a heir to one of the mer noble houses, she was a warrior noble... and in the ways of discipline, she had been forced many times to clean up the great temple and training dojo.

Taking her trident in hand, she looked at the biggest barnacle on the underside and spinning her weapon in hand, gathering some water currents with it she then did a clean stab at it... not touching the wood of the ship as she detaches the barnacle and the gathered water pressure hits the area around it, pushing away the algae and making a little patch of mostly clean keel.

Making a little nod, she decides to report what she saw... taking a nice, quick spin with her blue tail when she notices one of the humans staring at her... underwater, making use of the powers of an artifact... was he set to guard or supervise her? She couldn't put it past them... humans had much to distrust from her kind.

After staring at Toby for a few seconds, she waved her tail to take her up to the surface... where using her hands and tail she climbs over the side of the ship to report "The ship looks good on the underside? The wood is not broken or anything of the sort on the underside, though it's beyond dirty with algae and barnacles"

Thrall, you never answered my character's question

Oops, I'm sorry. x-x

Sven looked at Neri and heard her request for an astrolabe. "I have one in my quarters. I will return momentarily," he told the navigator and headed below deck to grab an astrolabe. When he returned, he noticed that Alaryn had returned as well. "Yes, keels tend to be covered in algae and barnacles. Humans aren't able to get beneath a ship to clean them, and the majority of merfolk would rather kill us than clean our ship..." he admitted. He handed the astrolabe to the navigator. "Here you are, darling. I apologize for that one."

edited 22nd May '15 4:45:24 PM by AllHailThrall