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Time for some bonding!
Who: The crew of the Katabami
Where: At sea -> Port Chance
When: After leaving the fortress and covering the month of February
What: Catch-all log
Warnings: The usual grumpy, dumb, awkward and maybe some spooooooooky ghost stories
Style: Any
Status: Closed to crew and anyone that may be in the Port Chance area
Itinerary
- Welcoming our poor, formerly-possessed pals back on board
- Visiting Port Chance, finding all their booze, and drinking it
- The subsequent drunken crew bonding time
- Traumatizing Ragna forever
Where: At sea -> Port Chance
When: After leaving the fortress and covering the month of February
What: Catch-all log
Warnings: The usual grumpy, dumb, awkward and maybe some spooooooooky ghost stories
Style: Any
Status: Closed to crew and anyone that may be in the Port Chance area
Itinerary
- Welcoming our poor, formerly-possessed pals back on board
- Visiting Port Chance, finding all their booze, and drinking it
- The subsequent drunken crew bonding time
- Traumatizing Ragna forever
no subject
[It's honestly better than Xun Yu expects... although her testimony may yet change that. Her side of events sounds unacceptable to her own ears; it's easy to imagine His Majesty's contempt. Certainly those she has wronged have every right to depise her. She forces emotional distance to let herself speak of it, though her control over her feelings is tenuous.]
The witch, she...
She was innocuous in the beginning. I barely heard her voice in my mind when she started, weightless and wordless as it was. But as the days progressed it grew louder and more persistent. By the time that her words became clear it was too late. She learned my deepest desire... and my deepest flaws.
[Xun Yu doesn't particularly want to go into those in detail even now, personal as they are. If she is pressed she supposes that she will have to. She hopes that it does not particularly matter, because she doesn't know that she's ready to examine it too deeply yet. Just thinking about it upsets her.]
She promised to grant my desire if only I would kill the interlopers in this realm, starting with this crew. [She cringes at the memory of her own levelled threats.] Who would listen to such a ludicrous and sinister proposal? No person of integrity.
I ignored her voice for as long as I could. But she spoke so loudly and frequently, and when her voice fell quiet a lullaby played over and over in my head. I had no reprieve... no escape. Even my dreams were haunted. It wasn't just constant noise. It was a compulsion...! I tried to speak of it, but I couldn't! My warnings dissipated like vapour before they could leave my mouth. I knew that it was consuming me...! I...
[She trails off and momentarily goes silent as she struggles to reign in her distress and push back the choking horror.]
Looking back, it's as if I am watching a waking nightmare. Suddenly it became clear to me that realising her bargain was my only choice. Nothing else was of any importance or value and my early fears no longer existed. It was a desperate obsession. I remember my every action and each decision I made... I set those traps to wear down and distract the crew, before I attempted to sink the ship and kill everyone. I guarded the Witch in her fortress, and I attacked those girls in her golden throne room to defend her.
I had no concept that I was not in my right mind. Just how distorted my judgement became was lost on me then. [If Xun Yu sounds frightened of that – well, she is. Her whole career is built on her judgement. It's never been something she's doubted before. Yet here she is, having been possessed longer than anyone else. What does that say about her?] Captain... I know how foolish it sounds, but while they were my actions, they were not me. Please believe me...!
no subject
And if you were in your right mind and someone offered you the same? What then? I'll not ask what she offered you, but if it was in her power to grant and you thought you could gain it at the expense of our lives, what's to say you won't be afforded the opportunity again?
no subject
I could not take the opportunity and live with myself after.
[Her moral objection is part of what makes this whole mess so difficult to accept. And beyond that, the idiocy of it is humiliating. Her voice grows subdued.]
...It's folly to trust any offer of its kind to begin with. The distinction of 'interloper' applies equally to me as it does to you. If someone wanted you dead because of it, why would my eventual fate differ? One who manipulates treachery so easily will have few objections acting treacherously themselves.
[She presses her lips together in a tense line as she gathers her courage.]
No excuse pardons my betrayal. Please allow me to make amends.
[Well, she certainly wasn't exaggering her intention to formally beg. Forgiveness, as far as she is concerned, requires fair recompense paid.]
no subject
All I ask is that you return to your usual duties and continue working yourself to the bone as you always do. There's a large pack and a few bags of things I acquired at the fortress that need sorting and budgeting that needs to be done and I'm sure as hell not going to do it myself.
[He has an idea of the sort of punishment she'd face if it was her superiors back home she'd wronged and he doesn't have the stomach for it. It wasn't her fault and he'd certainly come close to committing a far worse betrayal without some witch whispering in his ear, so who was he to exact punishment? That's not how he treats his crew or his friends.]
So stand up and let's be done with this, Xun Yu.
no subject
Thank you, Captain.
no subject
[Forgiving her as quickly as he did was truly out of the goodness of his heart, but he can't deny that he's anxious to have her back at work. He's not so bad at overseeing things himself, but he has his hands full with this crew and he needs someone to oversee the more mundane things so that he has time to keep the peace and keep the ship afloat.
Wait until Xun Yu learns why they ended up short on provisions...]
no subject
How short are we now, and how far is Port Chance?
[Fortunately food shortages are a common concern for any experienced military strategist. She will check for herself soon enough, but an estimate before she takes precise stock of the situation wouldn't hurt.
It occurs to her that the ship is not the only thing that has grown in size.]
How many new crew recruits are on board?
no subject
[He sighs and scratches at his head.]
We've taken on three new recruits. Tao is Ragna's friend and she has a cat's sleeping habits and a bottomless pit where her stomach is supposed to be. Allegro is a comrade of Zozo's and I'm afraid I've had very little time to speak to him what with all that's been going on. Adol would be the third, and he seems quite capable and eager to get involved. I'm sure you could get some hard work out of him if need be.
no subject
Only a week at half ration? [It's less than she anticipates.] I will not fail you, Captain.
[There's the Nav as a last resort for emergency supplies, at least. She'll enforce the necessary rationing to stretch out provisions to cover the week, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared for the possibility of running out before they reach land.
After a small pause, she cannot help but add:]
...Ragna has friends?
[Given that she's found him to be aggressively rude, it's difficult for her to imagine.]
no subject
[It's pretty clear Ragna didn't have much say in the matter. Taokaka does what Taokaka wants, and what she wants is generally eating, sleeping, and bothering "the good guy" to no end. If it weren't for the eating, Motochika wouldn't mind one bit.]
no subject
Tao was the instigator? She must have a thick hide.
[...]
Just how persistent is she?
[With befriending Ragna levels of persistence, managing the rate of food consumption may prove a bigger task than Xun Yu initially thought.]
no subject
[He's taken in enough kittens over the years to know it quite well himself. Her body may be human-like enough, but Tao is a cat through and through.]
She's quite attached to Ragna, though what brought that about we may never know.
no subject
Maybe he can keep her occupied.
[She's certain that if she gives Ragna the choice between keeping Tao in check and working with her, he'd choose Tao every time. A thought suddenly occurs to her.]
Captain... if she's both cat-like and a glutton, won't Pi-chan and the turkey potentially be in danger?
[Extended hunger makes for a bolder predator, after all. Having never met Tao, she can't be sure how deep those animalistic instincts run.]
no subject
[That's something they ought look into, come to think of it. Rise had billed herself as such and then disappeared within a week or two and they've had no one since who could do much more with their provisions than pass them out.]
I've been keeping my eye on her, though. Pi-chan knows to make a fuss if he's threatened, but that turkey is quite a dumb beast.
no subject
[Pi-chan she can understand, but that turkey... not that it's at all important to know. She shifts her weight, preparing to leave.]
Unless there is more that you wish to speak of, Captain, I think it's best I get to work. I have already caused enough delay.
no subject
[He's not answering that question about the turkey, either. They kept it partially because they had no idea how to even get it ready for cooking, let alone make anything out of it. Then by the time they'd put it in the pen, Motochika had already gotten to attached to it to let it go.]
no subject