Pirate RP - Quest for the Snark

[Robyn]

Robyn further assessed the situation as she used her cutlass to delicately pierce a hole in the fabric near her midsection. Whatever this girl was, it was apparent that she was scared, what with the rain-dripping fur and the whites of her eyes showing wild. One of those 'she's more scared of you than you are of her' situations. Robyn sheathed her weapon and tore the cloth all the way around her midriff, leaving a fairly nice makeshift bandage in her hands. Avoiding the opposing blade, she laid a gentle hand on top of the girl's paw, imploring her to calm herself.

"...what?"

"My name's Robyn. You don't need to be afraid; I just want to help you."

Trust me, if I really wanted to hurt you, I could've by now, she thought grimly.

The MacGuyvered bandage had long since grown heavy and slick with the rain, which made it considerably easy to slap onto the girl's injured head. She wrapped it around a few times, and as she did, her patient nervously spoke.

"You're not--that panther. D'you know that panther? Y-you'd better not be planning to--to kill me when I drop my guard, y'hear?! I-I have a crew, y'know!"

Robyn tied the strip securely around the wound, topping it off with a nice, ragged knot right below the girl's left ear.

"That'll do it. As for a panther? No, I can't say I know anything about that. And killing you? Don't you think that I would have tried to kill you already if I'd wanted to?"

The job done, Robyn stepped back and turned her dark eyes to the clouds. Lightning cracked between the churning blackness, and she sensed something...someone...several someones? were approaching.

"So, what was that you said about your crew?"

[Jina]

Upon embarking from the ship, Jina decided she was going to explore on her own. This, it turned out, was a Very Bad Idea.

There were two main problems. The first was that Port Parnassos was full of shops with very stupid-looking shopkeepers, and very valuable items, and said shops happened to be just about the biggest distraction you could give to somebody who'd grown up as a thief. The second problem was that she had neither a map, nor a very a good sense of direction, at least, not while she was being distracted by the shops.

And so, she spent her time wandering around quite aimlessly, until she came across Convenient's Assorted Goods. The shop didn't seem to have any maps in it, but it did have a large sign in the window saying "Magic Compasses - Ask them a question and they'll point you in the right direction - 2,999 shinies each."

This seemed to Jina to be a very easy way of finding her way back to the ship, and a way of finding the Snark afterwards. And, of course, it wouldn't be a problem that she didn't happen to be carrying 2,999 shinies. She took of her cloak, reached into a pocket in it, and pulled out a bottle of chloroform. Then, she put her cloak back on and held the bottle behind her back, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible while doing it.

She walked into the shop, and immediately the shopkeeper came out from behind the counter. He was quite tall, with red eyes, and a black jacket. "Welcome! My name is Mr. Convenient. Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to help you with."

Jina smiled back at him. "Thank you very much. Actually, I was wondering about the magical compasses that you're advertising in the window."

"Ahhh... Yes, a wise choice. They've been seeling well, I only have one left. Allow me to get it for you." He went behind the counter, reached up to the top shelf, and grabbed a compass. "Now," he said as he turned around. "That'll be 2... excuse me, where are you?" There was no response, because Jina had gone back outside of the shop. Odd, thought the shopkeeper. Then he shrugged, put the compass back, sat back in his stool and picked up a newspaper. What he didn't notice was the little pool of liquid sitting on the counter.

***

Seven minutes later, Jina peeked into the shop for the third time. Mr. Convenient was asleep. She took a deep breath, entered the shop, got the magic compass, and left. Then, she started waling away from the scene of the crime, in case Mr. Convenient hadn't recieved as big a dose of the chloroform as she'd thought.

Now, magic compass, magic compass... how do I use this? Jina remembered the sign in the shop window. Ask it a question... okay. She help it up, and said in a loud, clear voice*, "Where is the ship?"

The needle promptly turned. Jina looked at it, and sighed. Typical. She turned around on the spot, and started heading the other way.

***

Mr. Convenient woke up. He started inspecting the shop straight away, and noticed that the compass was missing very quickly. However, unfortunately for Jina, he'd being lying when he said he only had one left. He did, after all, want to encourage people to buy them straight away.

He went into the back room, picked out another compass from the shop, and asked it where the thief was. Then he followed it, closing the shop on the way out.

***

The shopkeeper arrived at the harbour, with the compass pointing towards one of the ships. He started to head towards it, but then changed his mind and went into the harbourmaster's office.

He strode up to the desk, and pushed aside the captain of a merchant vessel who was trying to explain how a large quantity of illegal subtances made it on to his ship. "Mister Harbourmaster, there is a thief on one of the ships in your dockyard who stole something valuable from me, and you're going to help me catch them."

The Harbourmaster gave him a blank stare, so Mr. Convenient put a large bag on the desk that quite clearly contained shinies. Tha Harbourmaster smiled at him. "Show me the way, there's a guard outside who can come too."

The Harbourmaster followed Mr. Convenient out of the building**, and towards the White Weewoo.

He pointed towards a small ship tied up at the dock. "Is that it? It's not very big."

"No, that's a dinghy. The vessel she's on is magnificent, and fierce, and huge..ish. And... gone. Where has it gone?"

"Is that it there?" The Harbourmaster pointed towards a ship that was just heading out to sea.

"...Yes, there it is! Why is it there?" Mr. Convenient pondered for a moment. "She was the only one on the ship, I'm sure of it."

"It... looks like it's being dragged along by something that's under the water. Something big, and black." The Harbourmaster shrugged. "Still, there's nothing I can do now. Tough luck."

"Now hang on, I paid you to help me get back my magical compass!"

"What, did the thief steal it from your shop?"

"...Yes, as a matter of fact."

The Harbourmaster nodded. "I see, I see... so you're the conman that's been selling those dodgy compasses that only work for an hour, are you?"

"Erm... well..."

***

Jina got on board the ship, and since nobody seemed to be around, she went downstairs and laid down on her hammock. After a little while, she got out the magic compass and held it up in front of her. "Where is the Snark?"

Nothing happened.

"...Alright then, where is the crew?"

...

"Where am I?"

Jina sighed. Always the same. It works, until you're too far away to be bothered returning them. She put the compass next to her spare bottles of chloroform, and then laid back. She liked the way the hammock swayed.

...Hang on, these waves are pretty big for a harbour, aren't they?

She climbed out of her hammock and made her way to the top deck. There, she saw Nasue, and someone she'd never seen before and... the ship was at sea.

"O...kay. Anyone want to tell me why we set off so soon?"

<sub>*Because it's impossible to trust voice recognition to understand you, even when it's the magical kind.

**And in the meantime, the captain of the merchant vessel counted himself very lucky and returned to his ship, only to find that the illegal substance he'd been carrying was half gone, and his crew was acting very strange.</sub>

[Huntress]

"So, what was that you said about your crew?"

"For starters, it's mostly rabid," said Justice.

She was sitting on the roof of the galley, watching the whole scene play out. When the ship had all of a sudden started to move a while ago, the meepit had been unsure as to what to do about it, especially seeing that she couldn't man the sails herself. She'd resorted to going down and finding out what happened, and by the time she got back, there was an intruder on board. Who was probably lucky to not have been bitten by any of the other meepits roaming the deck staying unnoticed. As far as anarchy-based gangs went, Hunty's meepits had a pretty deep-seated "someone else's problem" approach to most issues. Except for, of course, Justice.

"While I commend your helping our crewmate," she said, glossing over the fact that she herself technically wasn't part of the crew - at times like these, appearances were important - "you still count as an intruder. So I'll have to ask you to stand still and not move until the captain gets here and deals with you."

The thick grey curtain of rain split in two all of a sudden and the dragon was there, slowing down to match the speed of the ship. Justice craned her neck in disbelief and sure enough, the captain was sitting there atop the dragon, soaking wet and clearly pretty irritated.

"Oh, crap," muttered the meepit. "Not narrative irony."

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached our final station, please disembark in an orderly fashion, thank you for flying with us tonight, the dragon's grim head-voice rumbled through everyone's minds. And don't forget to take all your luggage and swords with you.

"Much obliged," Hunty said, sliding down onto the deck. The blazing pink Sue-sword sizzled in her hand when raindrops fell on it, gradually going silvery-white again as the sword shed any icky dragonblood that could've stained the owner's clothes. Sue-swords were tacky things to own, but you never had to clean them.

The captain straightened her back, looked around at the hovering dragon, then at Robyn and Nasue, then at the looming sunrise that could barely be seen through the rain, then at the door to her cabin, then back to Robyn, then back at the door and sheathed the sword that went out all of a sudden.

"Nothing pers'nal, but I've been up all night and I've a bed in there," she said to Robyn. "You see my dilemma, I'm sure. Just stand here until I've had some proper sleep, there's a good intruder."

"Huuunty," Bloody Mary said patiently. Hunty paused to run her brain through all the priorities buzzing around in her head, then muttered an "oh yeah" and turned to look at the dragon again.

"Know anything about snarks?" she asked bluntly.

There was a pause. To my knowledge, it's an allegory.

"A what?"

A figurative way of representing something that isn't literal. It's symbolic, if you will.

Another pause. "You mean it doesn't exist?"

Oh, of course it does, said the dragon. Allegories want to live too. I've heard of them, I've just never seen one myself, they're too small to concern dragons. Word has it that they're the size of an egg, have feathers and whiskers... or possibly weathers and fishers, I've heard both. And they do funny things to your head when you get too close. They hail from an island to the west from here, shaped like a dragon's head.

Hunty scowled, trying to get the map of Tristan and Belle Archipelago to come into focus in her sleepy mind's eye. She couldn't think of any dragonhead-shaped ones. "Isle of Toves, maybe?"

Don't know the name. Dragons don't care much about names. It's just the way I've heard it.

"Ah-huh." Hunty suppressed a yawn. "Thanks, I guess. I believe you're free to go now. Sorry about the sword thing."

She shot another borderline-accusative stare at Robyn and in doing so, noticed the little street urchin from the tavern again. She'd climbed off the dragon and was now standing there sheepisly, looking around in awe and trying to blend into the background, which wasn't exactly hard with the thick curtain of rain surrounding them.

"Well, great."

[Draco]

Draco looks up from staring at a fish in the water at the sound of the Ninja Sailor, staring at where the pirate's ship was located.

"If they are still on the ship, I don't think we can sneak around them. Pull up beside them, and we can see about boarding the ship. We'll have to give them a reason why we're out here..."

He thinks for a moment.

"Vacation? How's that sound to you guys?"

The ship slowly begins to get closer to the ship, a few of the Ninja Sailors look and point at something under the water, but Draco doesn't notice it.

[Deleted]

This girl--her name was Robyn, she said--had now torn off part of her clothes and approached Nasue. She'd assured her that she meant no harm, and that she wanted to help. The coati remained still, though her breathing had calmed slightly.

And now Robyn had put a bandage on her head, and mentioned that if she had wanted to kill her, she would've done that by now.

Maybe... but I'm not gonna let my guard down.

Except that she apparently hadn't seen the panther, and didn't even know anything about that feline abomination.

"Huh," was all that Nasue said.

Then Jina emerged from under the deck, and there was a familiar voice--one of the Captain's Meepits. THANK THE GODS. Visibly relieved, the coati took a few steps back to get some distance between her and the stranger. They can deal with this better than me.

And then a dragon--that same dragon from before, who had been enslaved--showed up, with the Captain and non-Meepit crew on its back. For the first time in a while, Nasue grinned visibly.

"You're back!" Yeah, she'd just stated the obvious. Shut up. "So, uh, everything went well with the dragon and stuff, clearly. Now I honestly don't know why we're out at sea. I just know that someone--no. Something knocked me out and put me in a barrel. Mongrel hit me pretty hard, too. Next thing I knew I was on the deck and there was this stranger there, and--

Wait a second. Was the Captain talking to the dragon? But it wasn't talking back... telepathy?

"Huh. Guess I should've waited, then."

Nasue shrugged and looked back to Robyn, folding her arms as she did so.

--

As the ninja's ship approached the White Weewoo, one could practically taste the crew's nervousness. But a good number were also clearly eager, particularly the reptilian giant on the deck. Kovaran had actually stood up. If one looked at the boat now, they would clearly see him towering over the others.

One of the ninja sailors looked through his telescope again. "Looks like the whole crew's there!"

Another called, "The whole crew? So that thing under the ship--"

"Under the ship?!"

Kovaran hadn't spoken in a while. When his loud, booming, deep voice sounded, nearly everyone jumped.

"...yes, there's something under the ship," the second sailor replied. "Is it the blarf?"

"Dunno. The reports never said it'd do anything like that," said a third one.

While they were talking, Kovaran listened in, looking at the blackness looming beneath the white ship. Theories were passed around: something had forced the blarf to do this. Maybe it was a threat. Maybe it wasn't the blarf, but something else.

And then someone suggested someone dive underwater and investigate.

"Let me go!"

And then Kovaran crouched, and jumped off the boat, sailing through the air in an arc before crashing into the waves, and beneath the surface of the water.


Underwater, Kovaran rolled so that he was upright, and saw what was ahead of him.

...is that... the blarf? His eyes widened. To see it finally... how awesome...

[Draco]

Draco glanced over the edge of the boat to see if he could figure out what the others were talking about. He had no idea. When he heard someone mention diving under water to look at it, one thing came to mind.

"Kovaran, don't ju-"

It was to late, a wave of water all ready splashed him and the others. Sighing he shakes his arms around a little to get the water off.

"The whole time we've been sailing I was avoiding getting really wet. Now I feel like I've dived in the water myself..."

He looks back up at the ship.

"Continue the rest of the way to the ship, I'm going up. Kovaran can catch up."

As the boat pulls up along side the White Weewoo, Draco stares up.

"So, does anyone have a grappling hook?"

[Robyn]

"While I commend your helping our crewmate, you still count as an intruder. So I'll have to ask you to stand still and not move until the captain gets here and deals with you."

Robyn looked up to see a weird...chubby....rat-thing sitting on a structure above, talking to her. She jumped a bit instinctively, instantly mind-screaming, "OH GOD IS THIS SHIP INFESTED?" But then she realized that if it was talking to her-- which it was-- it must have some level of importance on the ship. She looked around, glad that there weren't all sorts of vermin crawling around the decks. At least, she was until she saw a weasel hiss at her, white teeth sharp and glittering, before skittering back into the shadows. Greaaaat.

There was a tremendous swooping noise coming from the sky. She looked up, and her jaw dropped in awe at the giant mass of gold coming right for the ship. A closer look revealed it to be a great dragon, more beautiful than anything she'd ever seen in the pictures of her childhood storybooks. It had riders. As soon as it got close enough to the ship, a young lady with streaked hair and a magnificent sword hopped off of the awesome reptile's back. The captain of the Weewoo was standing in front of Robyn. Sleepy-eyed and dangerous-looking, she laid it all out for her nice and clear.

"Nothing pers'nal, but I've been up all night and I've a bed in there. You see my dilemma, I'm sure. Just stand here until I've had some proper sleep, there's a good intruder."

Intruder, huh? She'd heard that before, and she guessed that was right. Still, something about it made Robyn bristle. She'd flown all night...oooonto a ship that had no intention of keeping her on it, granted. She glanced over at the girl she'd patched up, who stared at her apprehensively, arms crossed. No help there, she supposed. It wasn't impossible for her to stand there for a bit longer, and you couldn't beat that view. Robyn looked to sea and saw another ship in the distance. She could've sworn she saw someone jump off into the sea, but it was so far away...she must've been seeing things.

[Huntress]

While the scene played out on the deck, Bloody Mary sunk off the captain's shoulder. Over the years the two had been together, he'd come to treat Hunty with a sort of fatherly sense of overprotectiveness, which manifested as constantly watching her back and occasionally doing her work for her. And if she was as sleepy and irritable as she was now, it just made the meepit doubly active. He went to spend a few quick minutes quietly conversing with Justice, then the two were joined by another few meepits who had been wandering around.

Then another meepit trotted in, with much more hurry than the others, and Bloody Mary spun around as soon as he'd heard what the newcomer had to say.

"Hold on!"

As soon as he'd shouted it, the ship lurched sideways and then sunk a little lower, bobbing cheerfully back and forth. The black shadow underneath the ship had swam lower, letting the ship go, and now darted forward.

Hunty, wide awake on an adrenaline rush again, raised an eyebrow at Bloody Mary. While the meepit treated her as a slightly difficult kid, she tended to treat the meepit as a competent secretary. For the most part, it was an entirely justified expectation.

"So I'm a little low on details right now," said Bloody Mary, "but that'd be the blarf. Justice says that he up and dragged the ship out of the harbor a few hours ago. She went down to make sure that it was him, but couldn't talk to him because he's underwater. Guess he found a shark now."

"Ah," Hunty said, or rather yawned, shook herself in the rain and then turned to squint at Robyn again, apparently deciding that as long as she was on the ship-bobbing adrenaline rush, she might as well get everything out of the way first. "So you want to join, I take it? I mean, since we're out here, it's either that or plankwalking, not that we really like doing that but we have some traditions to uphold, I just find it prudent to ask."

"And we also have ninjas," Bloody Mary continued nonchalantly on the side. The captain stopped dead on her tracks, sighed and then turned to shoot a resigned glare at the meepit.

"Ninjas. Sure. Can do. Anything else I should know about? Alien invaders? The IRS? A giant leak in the hull that hasn't showed itself yet solely because it's waiting for a narratively appropriate time to strike?"

"All the alien invasions you get, you seem to be cool with," jabbed the meepit. "Nah, they're right outside."

Hunty edged towards the railing across the slippery deck, wondering if the rain shouldn't be ceasing now that they'd come quite a distance from Port Parnassos, looked down over the railing at the ninja boat, gave a little "hnm", rattled her nails on the railing and then looked back at Robyn. "First things first. Well?"

***

The blarf was somewhat confused. He'd thought that this was a shark, but now that he got closer, he could tell that the food was wearing clothes. There was a time when that wouldn't have stopped him, but he'd learned a lot during his time with the pirate crew and one of the main lessons was that things that wore clothes usually counted as non-food unless said otherwise. At least he got scolded when he ate clothed food. Which was a shame, because he really didn't get as much metal recently as he should have. One of those days he'll have to bring up the question of his necessary balanced diet.

Clothed food also tended to be pointy, so he swam a bit deeper and stretched his neck up towards Kovaran, just to check his reaction. Pointy things didn't work as well in water, especially at this depth.

[Robyn]

The crash of water against wood didn't resonate with Robyn quick enough for her to react. Before she knew what was happening, the floor of the deck seemed to drop out from under her, and even faster, the Weewoo rushed back to the sky, leaving the girl a stumbling wreck and making it painfully obvious that she had not yet gained her sea legs. Robyn clutched the railing for dear life. Her ears rang, but she managed to hear the rodent by the captain mention something about a blarf. In a less tense situation, Robyn wouldn't have minded blarfing over the side of the ship, but this was obviously not the right time. Once the boat had somewhat steadied, she pushed off of the side and met the captain's stare once more. She could see a new kind of energy in her eyes.

"So you want to join, I take it? I mean, since we're out here, it's either that or plankwalking, not that we really like doing that but we have some traditions to uphold, I just find it prudent to ask."

The rat-thing muttered something about ninjas, and the captain tangented into a little rant with him while Robyn thought. Really, though, there was no thought required. This was what she'd wanted-- this was the life she'd set out for. Adventure, danger, treasure...a way out and a way in.

"First things first. Well?"

"Yes," Robyn immediately answered. "Absolutely."

[Draco]

After digging through a few supplies one the sailors handed Draco a grappling hook and rope. Twirling it around a few times Draco lets it loose, hoping it decided to cling onto a railing, and not a person or weasel. When pulling on it to see if it was secure he decided to climb up the side of the ship.

"The memory is still a bit hazy, but the last time I saw this thing it was flying... I'm sure it was..."

After a few moments he reaches the top, poking his head above the railing to look at whoever was on deck. Then he notices the closest person to where he was hanging, Hunty. He pulls himself up a little more, so he was seen better.

"Hi there. We were in the neighborhood, and thought we could borrow a cup of sugar."

[Deleted]

Almost without warning, the ship moved. Any pretense of control that Nasue'd had quickly disappeared, and she gave a loud yelp as she tried to keep her balance. She didn't fare much better than Robyn. In fact, she ended up just pitching forward onto the deck and landing muzzle-first.

Her next few seconds consisted of very quiet and profane grumbling, as well as rubbing her nose. Still, the coati kept her ear on the Captain and... whichever Meepit that was. Blood-something. So when the Captain asked this stranger if she was interested in joining, Nasue heard.

She'd also heard about the ninjas. Wonderful.

And then Robyn accepted the offer. ...what.

Nasue cleared her throat. "W-with all due respect, Captain," she said, lifting her head as she did so, "I think you--no, wait, it's just that she--you know... I just think you should--oh gods. Look, forget I said anything. It's not important."

What do you mean, it's not important? The Captain just let her in!

--

Kovaran was clearly in awe of the blarf. He'd only heard of it from the stories of fellow ninjas and from reports. But though some had given detailed descriptions, somehow he had not seen any images - not even sketches.

The large ninja was clearly a formidable opponent; he was tall, very heavily built, and often carried large weapons. He had taken on foes larger than himself, and won. Yet even he was far smaller than the pirates' "kraken".

And now, it had swum towards him, and was looking at him.

...What am I to say?

For a long, long moment, he gazed at the creature, puzzling the question in his mind. Then he opened his mouth.

He said, "You are the blarf? You are pulling this ship... Why do you behave so strange, creature?"


Or rather, he would have said it except that he was underwater and Kovaran realised, slightly too late, that what he had just spoken was incomprehensible thanks to the water. Also, he now needed to go up and get some air. (The Screaming Dragon was surprisingly bad at holding his breath underwater.)

He quickly pointed upwards, then swam upwards. The moment his head broke the surface and tasted the air, he inhaled deeply, gazing at his surroundings.

Only now did he see where the ninja boat was. Making a note, he dove back into the ocean, looking at the blarf once more.

Kovaran had to be ready. Anything could happen... but at least he had seen the blarf with his own eyes. Perhaps the rest of the crew was on the boat, too. Perhaps, even...

[Zylaa]

New crewmember! Zylaa registered this dimly, as she was still rather shaken up from the flight. Flying in ships of any sort was much different than clinging to some animal. At least the blarf had the decency to come with handholds. And didn't swoop.

Nevertheless, she nodded to the dragon as she stepped off. "Don't go getting captured again. Rescues are time-consuming."

Felt like months, the dragon commented, because really, the fourth wall has gone far too long without a bit of a beating. There was a somewhat awkward silence. Oh, and thank you all, Flame thought, this time to the crew at large. Zylaa guessed that when you were a dragon, you weren't used to needing to thank people.

About this time, a head popped over the side.

"Hi there. We were in the neighborhood, and thought we could borrow a cup of sugar," said Draco.

Zylaa was a pirate of the old school, where ninjas were the forsworn enemy. Her sword was half out of her scabbard by instinct before she could stop herself. Although when she recognized Draco, she wasn't that much more inclined to trust him, given that last she'd seen him he'd been possessed and bent on world destruction.

"What are you doing here?" she said, keeping her voice civil. It can't be bad, at least. The Weewoo knows better than that.

[Draco]

When Draco saw Zylaa reach for her weapon, he instantly reached into his pocket. His hand gripped a few objects, then lets them go, removing his hand.

"What are you doing here?"

"Honestly? No real idea, which is why we were sent here."

He climbs the rest of the way onto the rail and sits down on it.

"My guess this was also a excuse to test us after the whole Underdeep event... But here we are. Well, here I am. Kov is currently swimming with the fishes. Did you know there are flying piranhas out there? Mean little guys..."

[Huntress]

Hunty had spent that time unravelling her corset laces. Which took about a month, because corsets are complicated and we love the fourth wall as much as he hates us. Once she'd produced a tattered piece of parchment and a pencil, she laced the whole thing up again - pull the right strings and it goes much faster - and scribbled something on the parchment, shooting occasional critical glares at Robyn and keeping half an eye on Draco as well. As a result, the ensuing line on the muster-roll turned out rather wobbly.

"Always glad to have more able-bodied men join our noble cause," she said dryly. "Or women, in this case. Well, in most cases, come to think of it, not sure why you don't seem to see many able-bodied men in this line of business any more. Possibly they've all moved over to real estate- what was that about swimming with the fishes?"

"Fooooooooood!" a hollow, tormented choir of voices echoed from below. The captain froze on spot, then sidled over to the railing to look down.

"No, boy, that's a ninja!" she shouted.

"Foooood?" the blarf enquiried. His lifeboat-sized furry head was floating a few feet from Kovaran and the mass of tree-trunk-tentacles made the water froth behind it.

"Yes, I'm sort of trying to figure that out now," said Hunty. "Hold that thought for a moment, will you?"

"Blarp."

She turned away to look at the deck again, shuddering. The rain had eased off a bit, now falling as an annoying drizzle, too scarce to be a proper downpour but just present enough to make you wish that it'd just make up its mind and either go away or fall like decent rain. The sun had presumably risen now, hiding behind heavy stormclouds where thunder mumbled every now and then, too lazy to make an effort.

So, now they had a case of ninjas. Among piratefolk, it was only slightly less embarrassing than having an exotic skin disease you got because you didn't take everyone's warnings about exotic plants seriously enough, but they were currently on peaceful terms, more or less, and ninjas had a knack for being useful when applied to the right spot in right quantities. And they were sort of mercenaries, right? Except with added pointy things, stalking skills and discretion.

"Well, since you're here anyway," she said, "I just might have a little favor to ask you." Stalking skills and scouting skills, that's right. "We're all quite a long way from home. Or actually, you're all quite a long way from home, we're already home. Which sort of puts you guys at a disadvantage. So you can either go back now, tell your boss that you found us and get a nice pat on the head, or you can come along with us and help us find what we're looking for and maybe you'll walk away with a bit of profit in the end."

Bloody Mary's ears perked. "Woah, wait, there's profit involved?"

"The potential of profit," the captain reminded him, waving the bit of parchment with the muster-roll about. "That's why we sail around as pirates in the first place."

"Whole lotta good has that done us," grumbled the meepit.

"If you want to do good, go talk to the blarf and see what you can get from him," said the captain, turning away from the railing. "Folks, we're setting sail for the Isle of Toves and at the very least travel far enough for it to stop raining, to get out of Kassandra's sphere of influence, after that it's brief sleepytime and you ninja-people are free to make up your mind about coming along or turning back in the meantime. I'd go haul your buddy out a-sap, however, it doesn't pay to tempt the blarf."

[Deleted]

And then a ninja had appeared. Nasue saw Zylaa begin to draw her blade, so her own hand flew to her still-sheathed knife. Then she remembered that she was still lying down on the deck. Grumbling, she rolled on her side to get a look at this ninja.

"...huh. You're a human."

From what she'd heard from the rest of the crew, ninjas were somewhere between The Enemy and The Not-Quite-Enemy. So she hadn't quite been expecting him to be so... non-hostile.

Wait. What was that he'd said about the Underdeep event?

"What was that about swimming with the fishes?"

Nasue was on her feet (but stumbling) quickly, and managed to scramble her way over to the rail. And what she saw made her do a double-take, then a triple-take, and then simply stare.

It was a large reptilian lizard thing in leather armour and a red longcoat, just bobbing in the water, in front of the Blarf.

And still alive.

He looked up towards the White Weewoo, and waved.

"Greetings, pirates!" he called in a cheerful tone, and in a voice loud enough to somehow be heard from all the way up on deck. "I am in awe of your Blarf. Never had I seen it in my own presence, so when my comrades spoke of how it might be underwater I went to see it myself."

...what?

"Though I did have to lose a sword in doing so," added he.

Nasue was trying to pay attention to the Captain speaking. She was making an offer - perhaps they could pay those ninjas. But first they'd have to get out of Kassandra's sphere of influence--

"Wait, Kassandra. The Sue." The coati's fur instantly stood on end. In the weeks since the Underdeep incident, she'd had some lessons about Sues, and about Kassandra Amethyst Moonbeam (or simply KAM. Someone had made a 'KAMera' pun and gotten thwacked for it). Aside from the whole reality-warping thing, she knew that there was something very wrong about a Sue's mere presence.

...something which was also very wrong about the panther's mere presence.


Meanwhile, Kovaran had swum up to the side of the ship, grabbed the rope that Draco had used, and begun to climb it himself. He had indeed lost the sword, but his sheer weight was still quite noticeable.

As he neared the top, he listened to the conversation. A grin grew on his face.

"And they had said we were about to fail," he said to Draco, once close enough. "Yet we are here."

Anyone looking in that direction at that precise moment would now see the upper half of a very large komodo dragon, looking at his fellow ninja with a smile. (And they had taken some orders from a talking dog. Yeah, the ninjas were kind of an odd bunch. In their defense, so were the pirates.)