Giant Spiders Oh My

[youhearthebells]

Who: the current Hazmats
Where: sailing to Manahana-lia Island, then on the island
When: August 27 through September 5th
What: sailing as fast as they can to rescue Cynthia, and the rescue thereof. They'll try to save time by jumping through Empieza but...
Warnings: spiders. Violence, talk of death, Gan Ning's mouth
Style: whatever you want, don't mind the setup
Status: closed to Hazmat crew

The minute the scream came though his journal, Gan Ning was moving. There was no time to waste fiddling around, they had to set sail to find Cynthia before it was too late. He tore through any maps and information they had on the ship, looking for anything that suggested spiders. Her clue, the spider-webs, meant that was all he had to go on. Fortunately, other pirates around the docks totally knew which island that was, and aside from impressing on him the "don't go there" part of the legend, told him where to find it.

It did seem odd that no matter where they were, if they set sail for Isla Empieza, they'd make it there in a day or so instead of weeks. Gan Ning relied on that, even though he didn't do more than skim through the harbor before setting a new course for Manahana-lia in the far west of the land. Hopefully weather wouldn't be against them. They had a long way to go and didn't have Wan there to guide the winds in their favor.

Spiders, the other pirates said. There'd be large spiders and his crew would be killed. Nope, Xingba would not let anyone die if he could help it. But that meant they'd have to fight. Roxas needed to heal so he could guard the ship, but everyone else, well...

Let's hope they make it on time.

[ooc: info on the island is here - make and date your own sailing threads but we'll hit the island about the 3rd or 4th and there'll be a fight log for that]

Comments

Sailing catchall 8/27-9/3

[youhearthebells]

[captain is in full captain mode, and isn't even touching alcohol for a while so he can be in top shape. He's available for sparring, or planning a strategy (hahaha...ha), or chatting with the newer crew members. Hello, Ariel and Owain!

Anyone might find him anywhere, but particularly the helm or using the galley as a map room so he can plot course. Please bother him!]

[heartismyown]

[All this resting is incredibly boring to Roxas so wandering around the ship is a nice break, even if it doesn't involve any actual activities. However in the galley he's not expecting to find Gan Ning with papers out and he wanders over, peering at them, not the least bit inconspicuous.]

What're you doing?

[youhearthebells]

[he grunts and glances up at the query, and then shrugs]

Tryin' to make heads or tails of these charts. It's one thing to know where we're supposed to go, it's another to actually find it on a map.

[he sighs and slumps, chin in hands]

How ya doin' with the arm wrapped up there?

[heartismyown]

[Roxas grumbles.]

It really sucks. It's kinda uncomfortable for my arm and everything. And I'm not supposed to move it! That's pretty hard.

[Ambidextrous or not, still only having one hand is a pain.]

[youhearthebells]

Yeah, I bet. It's how it goes, yanno. Trust me, you'll be glad for it when you're out there swingin' both keyblades around again.

[says the guy who likely would ignore medical advice and rip off any bandages he'd been forced into...]

[heartismyown]

This is all Lea's fault.

[If Roxas thought he could get away with doing that, he would. There were just some fights with people he already knows he won't win.]

It doesn't hurt as much, so that's a good thing, but he said it's going to take awhile before it gets better.

[youhearthebells]

Don't be sore at him, he's only lookin' out for ya.

[Ning nods to one of the empty seats at the table, suggesting Roxas can come and take a seat near him]

A while, huh? Long enough to at least get it to close up, I hope.

[heartismyown]

[It isn't that he's sore with Lea so much as he's sulking about the situation. He does move over and take a seat, resting his good arm down and propping his chin on it.]

Yeah, I think so. He said..uh...[He just needs to focus. It's got to be in there.] Ummm...at least a month! That was it. And he said I should see another doctor before I just take it off to make sure everything is okay.

[youhearthebells]

A month, huh? Damn, no wonder you're already itchin' to take it off. [boy does he sympathize] I'll remember that. We'll find a nice place, someone trusty on Empieza or somethin', and take care of that in a month.

[by_heart]

[Lea walks into the galley with an armload of stiff paper and ribbon, then makes a face when he sees that his usual workspace has been taken over.]

I make food in here, you know.

[Not exactly a convincing way to get the table back, considering there's plenty of counter space and he's obviously not here to cook at the moment.]

[youhearthebells]

Hey, I gave up captain's quarters so the girls could have a space, what am I gonna do?

...you any good at maps, Lea?

[by_heart]

We got a whole ship's worth of deck.

[Lea drops his box-making supplies on the counter and sits down at the table to look at the maps.]

Good at doing what with them?

[Those sure are maps. He can tell because of the squiggly lines and the stuff with names written on it.]

[youhearthebells]

[he may have also taken the liberty of making himself some tea. Poorly.]

And lose all the charts in the first gust of wind? Nuh-uh!

I'm just tryin' to map out the fastest course to this island...I ain't got a clue what some of these coordinates mean. Things were a lot simpler back in my time.

[by_heart]

[He picks a map up and squints at it. There sure are numbers on it, too. He probably had a lesson on this stuff in school at some point, but he either forgot it or he never paid attention to it in the first place. That tends to happen when you have someone to copy homework off and who'd write you cheat sheets if you asked for them.]

All my travel the past few years has been kinda instantaneous, so...

[Oh, he has the map upside down. Right side up isn't much better.]

I don't know. Sail west until you find and island and if there aren't giant spiders on it, ask for directions.

[youhearthebells]

[shoots him a look]

That ain't helping.

[he'll run it past Gaius maybe. And then who knows what.]

Eh, it was worth a shot. I don't got enough information to go on, aside from the name of this island the guys said is famous for giant spiders. []hmmm] Hope she don't get eaten in the meantime.

[by_heart]

Death's not permanent here, not for us at least. Not that it makes it any better.

[He rolls the map up and taps it on the table.]

Well, that got morbid fast.

[youhearthebells]

[reaches to take the map back, not that it's helping him right now.]

I know, I know, it's what they say, but it still can't be a pleasant experience. I'd like to spare anybody havin' that story to tell the newcomers later.

[willwork4sugar]

[The thief-dread fighter's been pulling his usual duties that he tended to handle topside whenever he wasn't mulling about in the galley below deck. With all this talk of spiders and Cynthia getting herself into who knows what kind of trouble again, Gaius has been less in the candy-making mood and more anxious about how long it'd take for them to get to their destination.

He hops down from the shrouds to the crow's nest, turning about only a second or two after his boots hit the deck. Nothing new to report, no land sighted, but better no trouble than something, right?]

[youhearthebells]

[no trouble is always good news]

Hey, Gaius. All clear?

[willwork4sugar]

[He nods.]

Nothing but blue ahead.

[youhearthebells]

Good. At least that's one bit of good luck.

Don' worry. We'll get her.

[willwork4sugar]

...yeah, I know. Just wish this ship could move faster.

[youhearthebells]

[growls a bit] Hard time to be missin' our resident wind-sorcerer. Luck just hasn't been with us at all for the past couple months.

[willwork4sugar]

Sure seems that way, yeah. I'd give it a shot with the wind magic if I didn't think it'd try tearing up the sails.

[youhearthebells]

And we don't got time to limp into a harbor and get new sails. Probably better off just complainin' about it.

[big sigh. He's trying, Gaius, he really is.]