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

[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.

[by_heart]

I hear you. No one even wants to go to that island and live, let alone the alternative.

[He hands the map over and flips idly through the rest of the collection on the table.]

Looks like there are a lot of islands in that general area. Guess we just keep an eye on the sky and the horizon and send out Hiccup and Toothless when it looks like we're getting close to something.

[youhearthebells]

Yeah, they should be good reconnaissance. Find the island that looks deserted. Man, I wish we had time to spare to actually stop on Empieza and get more info. I don't like flyin' by the seat of my pants.

[by_heart]

I don't know how much more info we'd get other than "there are spiders there, are you crazy?" No one has said anything on the journal about going there in the time I've been here, I don't think, but I got here in December and this whole thing started in September. Might've been someone dumb enough to go there then.

[He shrugs and frowns at a map that shows the islands west of Isla Empieza. There aren't many that they'd pass on their way there that are inhabited. Not a whole lot of people to ask for directions unless they overshoot their mark.]

[youhearthebells]

[pretty much his thoughts exactly - he's been staring at that map but it won't give up any extra info on him]

...yanno, I can't let Roxas fight spiders. Not if it's as bad as everyone says, and for pirates around here to freak out about something? It's probably bad. He's gotta heal up.

[by_heart]

No arguments here. Maybe he'll listen to you when you tell him that, because he sure doesn't listen to me.

[Lea rolls his eyes.]

He should be fine keeping an eye on the boat. He's got his magic if something comes up. Send him out to use it on spiders and he'll get the keyblade out, though. Keeping a cool head isn't exactly his strong suit.

[That's an understatement these days.]

[youhearthebells]

Well, I don't wanna whip out 'captain's orders' if I don't have to, but I will if it comes to that. Somebody does need to watch the ship, and anyone who can't fight. [he has no idea whether Ariel can, or would]

Without knowing shit about this island, it's gonna be dangerous. I wanna go in, find her, and get out without losing anyone, so we gotta move fast and hard.

[by_heart]

Well, they're spiders. Even big spiders have to be pretty easy to set on fire, right? I don't think it'll be a problem.

[Lea smirks. He hasn't really been worried about the fighting spiders part from the start.]

[youhearthebells]

Yeah, probably. [grins a little] I wanna see what you can do, in a real situation. Let's get 'em.

[by_heart]

You got it. Prepare to be impressed.

[If there's one thing he's totally confident in, it's his ability to set lots of things on fire.]

[youhearthebells]

Yeah, I'm sure I will be.

Hey, what's for lunch?

[by_heart]

Fish, probably. There's gonna be a lot of fish since we couldn't stop to restock and I want to make what we have left last so we don't end up eating fish for every meal and totally losing our minds.

[And it's kind of unlikely that they're going to be able to find much to scavenge on Giant Nasty Spider Island.]

[youhearthebells]

Better'n pizza for every meal.

I getcha, though. I promise, when we've got Cynthia safe and get outta there, we'll turn back and take a break at Empieza. How's that? Stock up, shop, whatever.

[by_heart]

Sounds like a plan I can work with, especially the "taking a break" part.

[Things have been a little stressful lately. A lot stressful, really.]

[youhearthebells]

Deesuko Ballia was supposed to be a break, but, uh. Guess I sorta wasted it. And then shit happened, so. Empieza it is. Maybe we'll spend a couple weeks there just to be safe.