Trial of the Spades

[hiken]

Who: The Spades Crew + Anyone wandering by or onto their ship.
Where: Isla Empieza, The Sun
When: 12/15 - 12/21
What: Shenanigans! The Cold Curse, Sailing, Etc
Warnings: None so far. Possibly violence, given this crew.
Style: Prose/Action. Either or!
Status: OPEN

Threads below! Feel free to drop in your own, just remember to date them. More 'general' threads will come up after the crew sets sail.

Comments

[thatched]

[...he's not following you at all kid. There's too many somebodys and nobodies and-- well it's a complicated mess that he's glad he's not involved in]

You seem alright for not having a heart. [though he's not sure if Roxas is talking in a metaphorical or literal sense] If someone shoots you in the chest, say, would it damage anything?

[heartismyown]

[Roxas stares at him, processing the question.]

I don't know. I can't look inside and see what's in there. It's never come up. Shooting? Like those people on the island. I took them out with my keyblades though.

[thatched]

Keyblades... Seems like a common sort of weapon where you're from. Does everyone from your world have them? [he's already sort of recruited Lea into his network and it would be helpful to know if the boy could fight]

[heartismyown]

No, I don't think so. I was the only one in the Organization with a keyblade. I don't really know outside the Organization much.

[Actually, Ace did tell Roxas to tell Thatch about his keyblades.]

[thatched]

Hmm. [that doesn't tell him anything about Lea but he'll ask the lad himself if he needs to]

I'll probably put you on ship defense. Think you can do it?

[heartismyown]

Yeah, I can do that. I'm pretty good, I think. I beat Riku! And Lea!

[thatched]

[which tells him a little more about Lea but not much]

Then you'll definitely be of use on board. [maybe put starboard. They could use another man there.]

Tell me about Lea. I haven't heard much about him.

[heartismyown]

Oh, I can tell you all kinds of stuff about him. He's my best friend, and he used to be really important in the Organization, but I don't know what he used to do, his jobs were secret.

[He pauses to do another stitch.]

He uses fire with his chakrams and he's a really tough guy to beat. He also really likes sea salt ice cream like I do, and after our missions we used to go for ice cream. He used to be a Nobody like me, but now he's a heart-person. He had his memories though. He's really smart, he tells me stuff all the time and answers my questions. He was kind of taking care of me when I was like a zombie.

[thatched]

[He stitches as he sorts out the useful information from the interesting information and the information he--just doesn't know how to deal with. Nobodies? Heart-people? It probably wasn't essential to know the details so he made a noise to say that he'd heard but let most of it go]

Sounds like a good kid. Loyal, too.

[which meant, possibly, as long as they kept Riku and Roxas and the others on their side, Lea would be close behind. That shouldn't be too entirely difficult since Ace was charismatic enough to keep most people at his side. His own crew had stayed with him long enough even after he'd joined Pops.]

What can you tell me about yourself?

[heartismyown]

About me? Um...

[Roxas has to stop stitching a minute and think about it. He's never been asked that question before.]

I'm Axel's best friend and I have two keyblades. I've been around for about a year now. Sora is my Somebody and sometimes I don't remember things. Axel's gonna get me a notebook to write things down again because there's a lot of new stuff going on here.

[thatched]

[not much to go on and the more he talks, the younger he sounds and the older Thatch feels. He sighs inwardly and misses the days when Ace was the youngest and they all just chased him around]

Aye, well hopefully you remember how to mend sails. [he peers over at the kid's handiwork.]

Not bad. Ready for the next one?

[heartismyown]

[Well Roxas really is young. He smiles at Thatch and nods a bit.]

I hope so! Okay, sure, I can do another one. When I was in the Organization mostly they just had me beat up Heartless with my keyblade.

[thatched]

Got a kick out of it, did you? [he really sounds enthusiastic about it. Here, have another tear to sew]

[heartismyown]

Kick out of doing missions? I don't know. A lot of them I think, I don't remember that well. It was just work. I'm not sure why I have the keyblades, or how I learned to use them. It must be Sora, I know that much.

[Roxas begins sewing, carefully.]

Namine said we were the bad guys.

[thatched]

[not surprisingly, he still doesn't have much of an idea what's going on with the whole mess. But the 'bad guys' line pings something deep in him]

And what do you think?

[heartismyown]

[He's quiet for a minute, maybe two. It might seem like he's not going to answer Thatch, but he's doing exactly what he asked, thinking about it.]

I think I...

[His brow creases.]

I wanted to destroy Kingdom Hearts. I don't know why. I wanted to find Sora. I was furious with them, and Axel and I think if I wanted to undo the work, they must have been bad. I must have been doing something bad.

[thatched]

Who can say? Time will tell what's good or bad. [he's very much a means to an end kind of guy] So long as your crewmates don't get hurt in the process, you do what you can.

[heartismyown]

I guess that makes sense. I don't want anyone to get hurt.

[He focuses on stitching for a few minutes.]

What do you do?

[thatched]

What do I do? [glance at the kid] Here or at home?

[heartismyown]

Hmmm, either one!

[Roxas focuses on the sail again being slow, but as meticulous as he can.]

[thatched]

Here I do galley work [reluctantly] And make sure the ship [doesn't go to hell] runs as it should.

[he begins to mend another tear, taking a moment to thread the needle]

At home I'm a Whitebeard Pirate, fourth division commander about a hundred men strong. We're the turret runners and the party planners of the crew.

[never give up, never turn back, leave a legacy worth having. Their motto. Also, unspoken, to have really great hair as hair was the fourth division's pride. Something that had always prickled Fossa]

[heartismyown]

What's galley work? [Roxas tilts his head, nautical terms are new to him.]

A pirate. Like here. So you like the water? What's a turret? If you're the commander, you give the orders, right? What kind of orders do you give as a pirate? Are they like missions?

[Roxas pauses to take a breath.]

[thatched]

Slow down. [he's a bit bemused by the flow of questions]

Galley work is working in the kitchen. What do you mean by liking the water? Do I like to swim on it? Sail on it? Drink it? Bathe in it? Aye to all but specifics, lad if you're going to be asking.

I don't have a frame of reference for what you mean by missions but-- [he holds up a hand to stem the flow of questions a bit] I get that you're a curious lad. But nine tenths of learning comes not from getting verbal answers but experience.

Use this more [he pokes Roxas' forehead] put together theories of why you think things are. Look around you and see what other people are doing. See what the day holds and take a guess. If you're wrong you're wrong but you can learn from mistakes, too.

[heartismyown]

[Roxas muses over that. Specifics, huh? When Thatch pokes his head he rubs it involuntarily as a response, that's kind of weird.

He pauses and tilts his head a little.]

You don't want me to ask you questions?

[Lea just asks his questions. Experiences are for people with hearts Thatch.]

[thatched]

A few, aye. But if you ask me questions that I think you can figure out, I'll just have you tell me what you think the answers are.

[experiences are for everyone who is breathing, Roxas]