You dismiss all of that,
leading into a few lines of "it's a pirate's life for me."
She smiles and rolls her eyes, then throws in a few 'yo-hos' before
heading down.
You ask where she is
going, to which she responds that she is going to bed. She then
(rhetorically) asks you whose bed you though you were sleeping in
anyways. Admittedly, you hadn't thought of that. You say to yourself
'so that is why it smelled so good'.
Soon after, the sun rises,
and the Captain makes his way up to the crow's nest, carrying on a
one-way conversation with you, explaining their bearing and the
alignment of the sails and rudder-fin in relation to their
destination. When he reaches the top, he sees you fast asleep in the
crow's nest, as the sleep you couldn't find before abruptly snuck up
on you.
Some of the crew is up and
about now, so the Captain takes you back to bed while they watch the
ship. They sail on, and by the time you wake up, they have already
arrived in Auraburg.
Again, you wake up in a
strange bed. It is strangely low to the ground, and is in a room
unlike any you have seen before. The room is furnished with an
abundance of shelves, desks, and tables; each of which is filled with
books, maps, and pictures of ships and airmen. A notable centrepiece
exists within the room, a collection of individual photos of the
ship's crew. On closer scrutiny, several of the photos are of people
you do not recognize, despite having been introduced to the entire
crew.
You run off to ask about
this anomaly. The door from that room leads out directly onto the
deck. You decide that this must be the Captain's room, as only he
would get such a choice cabin. From your vantage point, you can see
the town of Auraburg off the left side of the ship. It quickly washes
your inquiry from your mind and replaces it with thoughts of your
role in the play.
A quick scan of the deck
shows that most of the crew is no longer on board, at least not on
deck. Your thought process is quickly interrupted by the sudden
appearance of a little girl that you recognize as one of the missing
crew members. She bids you hello, calling you Martin, and introduces
herself as Angel.
You introduce yourself,
correcting her pronunciation of your name. She apologizes, stating
that she doesn't meet new people often, so it takes a while for her
to learn names. She expresses her interest in you, you are new to
the crew, you are very young, and her daddy did not tell her why you
joined the crew.
You sheepishly avoid
mentioning that you ran away from home, and instead tell her that it
is because you are destined to sail the skies as a Dread Pirate of
the Seven Skies.
She laughs for a second or
two, then reads your expression and asks you if you are serious (she
addresses you as Martin again). You answer affirmatively. She karate
chops you in the forehead, then begins lecturing you on the reasons
against becoming a pirate.
Parts of her lecture seem
less than genuine, she misuses several words, she makes reference to
years of experience with pirates, her list of possible alternate
careers seems oddly effeminate (including school teacher, stewardess,
and nurse), and at one point she tells you that when she was your
age, she didn't want to be anything but a pirate, but has since
realized the folly of her decision.
In response, you ask her
how old she is. She responds that she is nine. This is very off
because you are fifteen (Dimes age slowly) and therefore she has
never been your age. You start to point this out to her, but she
interrupts by asking if you want to see where they keep the
fireworks.
This catches you off
guard, and she interprets your stunned silence as a yes and pulls you
by the hand with her. She takes you into the blue hallway beneath the
deck, and then down another flight of stairs under a trapdoor.
The room is poorly lit and
quite cold. It looks like a storehouse of some kind, as it seems
loaded with baskets of flour, wheels of cheese, barrels of wine, as
well as a few obscure instruments and various examples of exotic but
useless looking mechanisms.
Angel activates a bauble
on her hairband, and it begins glowing yellow. She leads you to a
stone cupboard with copper locks and hinges and old wooden doors. She
tries to open the door but it is locked. She tells you that Winston
keeps his cigars in here and always leaves it unlocked, but Julie
gets the fireworks and always locks it.
She then drags you away,
and you ask where she is taking you now. She responds that Julie must
have some fireworks if the cabinet is locked. She takes you back
through the hallways, and out onto the land, to where they are
setting up the Auraburg show.
Julie is setting up an
enormous set of drums with the help of Pete and Roger. Near the stage
lies a box with a distinctive red object poking out of it. The two of
your surreptitiously make your way over and Angel begins digging her
way though it. As she is doing this, she is listing off various kinds
of pyrotechnics; the Red Dragon, some wandering candles, a Malichi
Butterfly – she notes her disappointment at the lack of
Earthshakers – several Banshees, a Crackletail, a bunch of
sparklers for the kids – she hands you one and tells you it is
called a Supernova -some cherry bombs, and snakes.
Having looked through the
box, Angel comes out of it, only to look dishearteningly at something
behind you. Following her gaze, you see an upset looking man behind
you. At his side is a pleasantly thin woman in a simple cloth dress
with the darkest skin you have ever seen.
In your surprise and
naivety, you exclaim “Wel Atlas you're dark! What happened to you?”
This serves to disrupt the
collective train of thought of the moment, and everyone – the man
especially – is trying to interrupt your theories of sunburn and
soot with stories of the indigenous tribes of the southern Albrink
plains.
Angel takes this
opportunity to sneaks few paces away, and makes a run for it after
advancing a few yards. The man sees her, and starts chasing after
her, shouting “Bevelle” as he goes.
This leaves you alone with
the strange dark-skinned woman. You ask her candidly if you are in
trouble. She responds that yes, you probably are in trouble, but not
from her. From what she's heard about you, she is probably one of the
few people you are not in trouble with.
She introduces herself as
!loc Al'thur, a forerunner for the show and also a dancer when she
performs. You respond that you are Marvin Gildan, a new performer for
the company. She questions this role, as you are only here
temporarily. You assure her that the Captain has assured you a role
in today's production, and attempt to dispute the 'temporarily' in
her question. She tells you that Tommy is probably looking for you
then in the main stage, pointing to the largest of the buildings set
up by the circus. You run off in the direction she indicated,
shouting “thanks Lock!”, she with a mix of amusement and chagrin
on her face.
Making your way over to
the building, you spot several people outside the side entrance; of
the three of them, two are sporting matching red uniforms. The third
person is not someone you recognize, an older man with a salt and
pepper stubble and an eye patch. He is dressed in simple garb with a
thick fabric cloak with an overabundance of pockets. He is wearing a
conic straw hat on his back, its string securely around his neck,
running through a copper coin with a square hole in its centre. He
has a pipe in one hand, and is gesturing furiously with the other.
Of the two uniformed men,
one can be recognized as Winston the Mouth Mcvale, puffing away at
one of the cigars Angel mentioned. He has a golden badge that depicts
a silhouetted cello on his left arm. His beard is neatly trimmed and
he has an orange bandana with a white skull and crossbones over his
ponytail.
The other man looks
vaguely familiar, but you don't recognize him. He has a similar gold
badge, except that his has a violin. His hair is blonde and short. He
is smoking a cigarette in his left hand and has a flask of contents
unknown in his right, The three of them seem to be arguing over the
best places to buy tobacco. McVale favours Meridian cigars, the older
man insists on Pangaean loose tobacco and – slithering sky nymphs
that's Bill; he really does clean up well – smokes the finest
Olivian leaves.
You approach them and the
door, excusing yourself past them. The man you don't know doesn't
know you either, and stops you, telling you that this building is for
theatre people only. As you begin to correct him, Winston says “back
off forerunner, he's one of ours”.
The man responds “sweet
Able I'm sorry – so you're the Dime everyone's talking about. The
name and moniker is Wescroth 'Hijack' McKenzie 'Gaze'. Nice to
meetcha.”
Your response: “Hi Jack”
And his: “Yes, well you
see I'm more of a storyteller
than a – wait, you just don't know what it means. Call me Gaze. You
should head inside, Tommy is waiting for you.”
Inside
the building it is dark, lot only by the daylight coming through a
few small windows high above. There are an abundance of shelves,
holding rows and rows of costumes and props. There is something
unsettling about the place, and you begin calling out to find Tommy.
There
are some footsteps in the distance that draw your attention, past a
row of costumes. You turn quickly to see, and as you do Tommy appears
behind you.
He
exclaims “there you are! We've been waiting on ya,” promptly
picking you up and putting you on his shoulders. As he is carrying
you out of the building, he beings explaining what needs to be done
prior to your performance; you're going to need some dirt and makeup
on you to look the part, your outfit should be fine as is, hair might
need a bit of righting up, and your knees need to be dirtier.
He
brings you over to a peculiar building, the front of it appears to be
a stage, open to the elements, facing a large crowd of people. On it
is Angel and Jessica, singing dirty limericks of a past lover to a
backdrop of (presumable) Charles Montgomery's piano. The rest of the
building is a circus-style tent, though with no obvious entrances.
He
takes you to a seam in the side of the tent, putting you down and
ushering you in as he lifts the fabric on one side to reveal the
interior.
Inside,
it is less glamorous than you weer expecting. There is no floor
except the grass with a few tables and mirrors standing with even
fewer chairs. In one corner, paper walls divide off an area
containing a rack of costumes.
Among
the meager furnishings are Pete, Mary, the Captain, as well as the
man who was with Lock when they caught you and Angel with the
fireworks.
Tommy
announces your arrival, the Captain acknowledges with a “good”
and instructs Pete to get you ready. He (cap) then asks Tommy how
Bill and the smokers are doing, to which he (tom) replies they
they're due back any moment now. The Captain then asks after Roger,
and Tommy replies that they are almost done. Pete chimes in that he
helped them get the big things in place, so they shouldn't have a
problem with the remainder.
While
this is going on, Pete takes you by the shoulders and tells you to
get on your knees, then asks you to extend your hands. Once you do
so, he grabs you by the wrists and drags you several feet by them. He
then lifts you back on your feet (by your hands) and asks you to
shake your head.
Once
done, he proceeds to tousle your hair and directs your head to
various angles by the chin as he inspects it. Apparently satisfied,
he turns to the Captain calling out to ask if he had heard from
Killian yet.
The
Captain responds in negative, but assures that Donald wouldn't let him be late for this.
Through
the curtain, Angel and Jessica can be heard to a backdrop of piano.
The Captain is listening intently; he (cap) calls out 'Kenneth, are
you ready? They're almost done,' to which he (ken) responds with a
hearty “aye aye Captain!” and makes his way to the black curtain
separating them from the stage.
Tommy,
from behind you, tells you that that is his cue to leave, and joins
Kenneth. Tommy turns to Kenneth and says quite seriously 'keep it
professional this time. If you have anything to say to Angel, tell it
after the show, okay father?'
Kenneth
responds “just worry about catching those knives.”
Outside,
the music reaches its climax, and the audience cheers
enthusiastically. Jessica's muffled voice can be heard, which Tommy
and Kenneth take as a cue and they pierce the black curtain to the
stage.
After
a moment, Jessica and Angel come back through the curtain. Jessica
sees you and looks sad for a moment, saying something to the Captain,
who nods his head. He looks behind you to Pete, w ho picks you up and
tells you that it is time for you to get into character.
The
Captian opens a small giblet that Pete is walking you over to,
Fearing the worst, you struggle, object, and question their
intentions; Pete's grip is too much however, and he and the Captain
force you into the small cage. You tearfully ask them why they put
you in there; the Captain puts on his characteristic accent and tells
you that is is because they are pirates! Never ask when you can take!
Spoils for the strong and cunning! The weak shall fear us and the
strong shall never catch us. Strike where and when they least expect
it!
His
words stop your tears in the giblet.
The
Captain tells the dumbstruck Mary to go check on Killian. He then
sits down and invites Jessica and Angel to join him (in his normal
voice),. He asks Pete how his (cap's) hair is.
Pete
gives his approval, but proceeds to make minor adjustments
nonetheless. As he is working, he begins making small talk with the
three of them, praising the girls' recent performance, asking about
Angel's lessons (which she is decidedly unfond of), asking the
Captain about sales and concessions.
They
continue in this manner for a while, Pete turning to the girls' hair,
outside the muffled sounds of knives hitting wood and various oohs,
aahs, and cheers of the audience.
It
is then that Killian enters, Mary behind him. The Captina turns to
him and says 'good, just in time', The then asks if anyone has seen
Roger; Killian respnds that he was dicing behind the concessions
boooth. The Captain sighs and says that they can start without him if
need be.
This
proves unnecessary, as Rogers enters shortly afterwards, bearing his
unusual smile, proclaiming that he had won 400 Arcs that morning. The
Captain responds that that may be as well 400 tins compared to what
this show was worth to them.
He
then starts asking everyone if they have learned the new words; that
he wants to mistakes like back in Eldershaw. He calls out to the
tent's entrance “and that goes double for you Bill!” - to an
apathetic confirmation.
A
sudden burst of applause signals the end of the previous production.
Everyone suddenly becomes more alerty, and even Bill enters, putting
out a small cigar.
After
a short time that seems much longer, Kenneth steps though the black
curtain, which triggers everyone to head onstage. The Captain goes
first, followed by Killian, then Mary, Roger, and Bill; Pete is last
to go, picking up and bringing your cage with him as he goes.
The
light from beyond the curtain is blinding; you shield your eyes as
you are greeted by a hearty cheer from the crowd as you bounce around
in your bars.
----------
That is all for now. I am almost caught up to where I have written on paper, though I can pad it out a bit with the songs and lore I have written. I have one song in particular I don't want to release until I have finished the entire story, as it outlines most of it, as well as a good deal of the backstory.
Until then,
-Colin
