Tales of Glory and Valour: the Seafarers Main RP Topic

Mariner breathed a sigh of relief. “Get him below decks. He needs rest.” He then steeled himself for what was to come next.

“No, it isn’t” The two ships of the Northern Fleet were circling, temporarily distracted in rescuing the crew of the doomed third. That was soon to change. “They attacked us by way of their monster. Clear the deck of debris, make ready to fight.”

Mariner could feel his anger, temporarily curbed by his compassion, returning. They had attacked his expedition, and his crew, he was going to make them pay for that.

Up in the lookouts nest. The winds changed due west.

The lookout looked to the east in fear. The storm was bearing directly on to them now. She hurriedly grabbed the bell and rang it 3 times.The signal every sailor feared above any other.

Storm Bearing.

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Of course. It’s never that easy. Mako thought as he rushed down to the armory.

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Karl saluted, and began gathering up a section of destroyed railing.
Good thing the kid’s all right, he thought. It would be awful if…
He suddenly changed the track of his thoughts.
Why is Alexis so concerned about him? Are they related? I’ll have to find out somehow…
He piled the boards with some other debris, and took a look around. The other ships were still circling, though at a distance. One was destroyed, having taken severe damage to its hull. But the other two were advancing, having picked up the crew of the rapidly sinking warship.
I’d better get ready, he thought.

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The Northern ships pulled hard to port, their lookouts ringing the bell thrice. Arcing tightly, they swung round and began to retreat.

“COWARDS!” Mariner proclaimed of them. Hurling verbal abuse after them.

Elsewhere honoured dead began to panic as the storm bore down on the Caelin’s Hand.

One called out. “Captain! Storm approaching!”

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Jade surveyed the deck. After that failed meeting, it seemed danger followed the ship like moths to a light as it hadn’t even been two days since she had boarded for the Caelin’s Hand to fall under attack.

First, three ships of the Northern Fleet had snuck up behind them. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a Thauin of all things had appeared, the multi-armed beast descending upon the ship with the force of a hurricane and an attitude to match. Just as quickly, some of Jade’s crewmates had managed to drive the monster away, taking one of the hostile vessels with it. Two to go.

Can this voyage get any weirder? Jade thought to herself as she observed crew members and ghostly sailors alike scrambling to recover after the tumultous battle.

“Oh come on.” Jade said aloud as she heard the warning. This was certainly going to make the trip quite a bit more eventful; not that it really needed to be at this point. Tying her hair back to prepare for the tempest; she kept thinking. Not weirder, but apparently more dangerous. Hooray.

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“Oh blast!”
Karl, grabbed another section of railing and heaved it into the pile of debris with enough force to break it.
“Someone better get the kid inside,” he commented. “We don’t need him getting more water in his lungs.”

Karl saw someone new by the stairs, someone dressed in dark attire. He wondered how many people were on board. It couldn’t be much more than 75, he supposed. Living, that was.

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Emerging from the lower decks with a spear, Mako looked to the sky with pure dread.
Oh Gods.

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Alexis forced herself to break her gaze from dolphus, they had some really close calls back there and she really didn’t want to be repeating that anytime soon. “someone please make sure the kid gets below deck and gets medical attention.” before looked to the sky in horror. this is just my luck. not only would i need to navigate the ship through a battle but also a storm. maybe the gods really want to test my skills as a helmsman in the most difficult and extravagant way possible.

oh, okay than. that’s not quite as bad Alexis shot to her feet and returned to the deck of the ship. “GET EVERYTHING STOWED AWAY.” she barked as she made her way to the helm. “THAT INCLUDES THE SAILS, WE’RE GOING TO WANT TO RIDE THIS OUT.”

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With a shudder and a gulp, Dolphus slowly dragged his mind back into the real world for a moment. Mariner’s form was bellowing after the retreating vessels, as he proclaimed their cowardice. Why, though? Had not the squid been responsible for the attack? They had clearly fired upon it to stop its advance, even though they missed. Were they cowardly for not assisting further?

Can’t think about it. Dolphus’ neck contracted as another hiccough rattled his frame. Too busy trying not to lapse back into that… Humiliating display.

Dolphus’ mind was a bit too overwhelmed to really think about more than one thing at once, and the signal of a storm was processed and immediately forgotten as his thoughts zeroed in on Alexis’ words. They were soothing, not because she had said anything remotely comforting, but because he just really wanted to be soothed by them and would gladly convince himself of their intent regardless of what it actually was.

Even more so was the fact that, even though he did not realize it until just before she ascended, she had been kneeling beside him the entire time. Somehow, he was able to find the strength to go on.

Of course, it was a silly notion to assume that reinvigorated willpower to not have a panic-fueled complete breakdown would translate into physical capability, and even as Alexis shouted out commands, his pathetic attempts at getting back on his feet were interrupted by two ghost sailors forcefully picking him up and rushing him to the stairs.

His sword rattled against the floor as he was lifted, reminding him that his hand had frozen around the handle of it the entire time he was underwater. I suppose that’s a good thing. Would Mariner have retrieved it if I had dropped it?

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Mako rushed to the ropes surrounding the mast, hauling himself upwards as the rain poured down around him, soaking the bandages, the winds ripping a few off, revealing his pale skin. He began unbind the sails, his hands becoming slippery and the ropes soaked. @N01InParticular

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Mariner turned away from the Northern Ships, and caught sight of the storm. His shoulders fell. He looked defeated.

He felt lost, he knew he’d been reckless in the fighting he should have noticed this sooner. He should have been able to prevent this. His mind began to spiral, sucked in by his own self loathing. He knew he’d be worse than useless soon. Desperately he flung his attention elsewhere, seeking something he could cling to. Something to keep him afloat.

His eyes settled on the small form of Dolphus being carried down the stairs. Someone in need of medical attention. That he could do.

He set off after Dolphus, as he passed Alexis he gave a curt greeting. “You have the deck.” The without looking back, he descended the stairs.

“Sailors” he called to the two Honoured dead. “I’ll take him from here.”

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The angle down the steps ended up being headfirst, and it set his nostrils on fire. The slightest of head movements to alleviate it was successful, and instead made Dolphus immensely dizzy. Struggling to keep his eyes from shutting, he felt around in the back of his subconscious for something, anything, he could hold on to and keep him aware of what was happening.

Bad idea. As the ghost sailors reached the base of the steps and rounded them, the motion readily reminded him of the tentacle, gripping him by the ankle and threatening to crush his leg into nothing. The pressure from his shoe seemed to grow utterly intolerable, as if the wriggling, underdeveloped limb was adhered to him still, squeezing with an incredible force. Adrenaline shot through his body as he tried to fight the urge to wriggle out of the sailors’ grasp and rip them from his feet.

The Honoured dead, who had quickly rushed Dolphus to his room, abruptly darted back out into the hall to receive their instruction from Mariner - which were, in that quick reply, go back to saving us all from dying.

Dolphus, however, barely had the chance to realize he wasn’t being carried before he violently kicked off his shoes, quickly drawing his legs up close to him on the bed and looking in horror at the edge of the sheets, as if the tentacle could suddenly reappear over them at any moment.

“N-No.” he blurted out, the silent resistance to the buzzing of his head and the desire to simply pass out from the experience being forced into audible form from the much stronger desire to not experience the whole thing over again. Sure, he could draw his composure together and stuff his trauma deep down inside himself, as he always did, but alone in his cabin, he found very little motivation to.

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A few moments later, Mariner entered with a bag of Medicines. As he begins to lay them out, he glances up at Dolphus.

“How are you feeling?” Mariner worried slightly his question seemed a bit dumb, so he added. “By which I mean, where is the pain.”

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Oh.

Dolphus moved to put his sword back in its sheath, simultaneously relieved and concerned to see Mariner; his fixation on the vision of the monstrous tentacle had smothered his senses, and the not-captain of the Caelin’s Hand had snuck up on him. Again.

This was becoming a trend and he didn’t know how to feel about it.

He did, however, only slightly poke his wing this time, making him actually look down and watch where he placed his sword lest he stab himself right in front of Mariner like an idiot. Nico had given him far too much grace on that particular incident; he made a mental note not to repay him whatsoever.

Dolphus closed his eyes and quickly found himself squeezing the lids together as hard as he could. The pressure on his head had been intolerable, somehow more so than the entire rest of his body, in spite of it having been the exact same. Probably a result of me falling down both a ladder and a flight of stairs. And then into the mouth of a giant squid at full speed actually I don’t want to think about this anymore.

Dolphus glanced back up at Mariner, blinking until his vision cleared again. His head was a major contender, for certain, but he had to determine if anything else was bad enough that it deserved mentioning - and how much of it was just a phantom pain from the experience.

What- oh.

The glance at Mariner grew ever so slightly sidelong. “I think- sniiiiff” his nostrils lighting up a little during speech didn’t help his composure, “I think it’s mostly my head.” He smashed his sleeve across his nose, shoving the thought of this not being very proper especially for a dress shirt down and out of the way to allow himself complete focus on hoping Mariner completely disregarded everything that had just happened and also pretended it was just his head.

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The torrents of water soaked Mako’s mask, gagging around his throat. He hauled the last of the sails bolt rope, and flung it down onto the deck.By the time he had clambered down to the deck, his mask was so sodden that he ripped it off his face, revealing his lipless mouth. He hoisted the bolt rope, and slowly began dragging down to be stowed. He gritted his teeth, as the heavy rope weighed on the floor, spilling water everywhere. Mako made his way halfway through the cabin hallway, liquid seeping from the rope, before bellowing in frustration: “Will someone help get this stowed?!”

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As Mako began his descent from the mast, the wind picked up, ripping the sail from his grasp. The sail, luckily not the main, flew at speeds barely imaginable. It landed many leagues distant and slowly sank to the bottom.

“I see, did you take the medicine I gave you earlier?” He procured a tub of a thick cream like substance from his stash. “Here, this will alleviate the worst of the discomfort from the stomach acid.”

Mariner could tell the small child was scared. He did the only thing he could think of. Mariner began to sing.

It was not a song like anything humans made, nor was it unpleasant however. The song started soft, yet happy. As Mariner continued however, the song turned more and more melancholic.

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“Haven’t had the time.” Dolphus replied, his eyes averting towards the floor. I hope they didn’t get thrown out from under my pillow and smash all over the floor. That was quite the impact from the harpoon.

Great. He took the tub reluctantly and set it next to himself, trying to decide if he was to just smear it across his face or apply it into his hair, or what. I hope it doesn’t appear like I really don’t know what I’m doing, because then he might offer to do it for me, and yeah I really don’t want that.

Applying some to his fingertips, he reached for his head - although his head decided to meet him half-way.

Dolphus barely got a dot of cream on his forehead before it began traveling slowly upwards, until he was fully glaring at the opposite wall. Great. Now there’s two minstrels on the ship. They should get together and both jump off the boat.

Stop. Dolphus’ brow crinkled as he attempted to curb his ego a little. You know Mako already did that and survived, and Mariner’s a… never mind.

At the ending of the first verse, Dolphus moved to reapply the cream, but was interrupted by the second, and back to the wall he glared. Halfway through it he almost looked at Mariner, but his neck muscles didn’t allow him to get that far. On and on it went, and Dolphus eventually had to admit that, in spite of Mariner’s not necessarily human singing, the song itself was actually pretty good, to the degree that his brow had softened and his back decompressed by the time the lines had reached their most melancholic.

The thought of this being, at the minimum, better than Mako’s singing by a good amount was lost in the moment of the song, as rather than the melancholy making him feel more down, it only made whatever it was Mariner was attempting to accomplish seem all the more interesting.

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Karl jerked upright, his mind wrenched back into the present. The storm was bearing down on the Caelin’s Hand at a devilish rate, the wind whipping the sails as though they were flails. Dolphus wasn’t in sight, as someone had helped him to safety.

Mako had begun dismantling the sails, though one had already escaped beyond all hope of human reach, sinking into the sea at a great distance. Karl realized that if the storm continued to drive them at full sail, the sails would be torn beyond repair, breaking masts and lines…
“Hey! Mako! Let me help you there!”
He ran to catch up with the soaked man who had just entered the hallway, the soggy mask held in one hand like a soulless face dragged from the deeps.

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Mako grunted in acknowledgment, twisting his head to see Karl. What Karl saw, wasn’t pretty. Mako’s face was a patchwork frame of scars, his jaw agape, his hair soaked with water, his skin full of tiny puncture marks, and his skin was so pale that he seemed almost like a ghost. His emerald eyes shone like massive gems. “Could you help me here?” Mako said, tossing some of the massive rope on the ground. @DuneToa

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As the song built to the finale, Mariner was quiet for a while. “I apologise, my mother sang that to me when I was unwell. It always seemed to help. Perhaps not appropriate in this situation.”

Though initially slow to respond,.the crew made relatively quick work of lowering the sails. Using the lines. One hurriedly stopped when he noticed Mako climbing along the spar, in incredulity he watched as the sail was torn away. Then outright disbelief as Mako simply walked away without reaction.

No time for that, he thought, and swiftly moved to help with the main sail.

When the storm came it was violent. The winds, already fierce, shook the masts like pines on a hill. As the rain came on, the intense gale was such that it appeared to be going parallel to the deck. Even those in thick clothing soon found themselves soaked to the bone.

Tharos called from his deck. “Alexis! Whitecap off the starboard bow!” In the direction he pointed an oncoming wave seemed to take up the entire horizon. (@N01InParticular)

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