HazMat Log 005 ♔ The great multicolored north

[anelegantmyth]

Who: Hazardous Materials
Where: Dermaevern, Breakneck Cay and eventually Candy Mountain
When: 5/1-5/31
What: Exploring the north and making Gaius' diet last longer than it should be
Warnings: bore sharks, sugar-free torture, wine that makes you high as balls and our impending doom
Style: Any!
Status: Open if you're in the area?

Hazardous Materials' May log of doom! Date your stuff, you all know the drill.

5/1-5/7: Sailing to Dermaevern
5/8-5/15: Dermaevern Shenanigans!
5/16-5/22: Sailing to Breakneck Cay
5/23-5/24: Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to go here?
5/25-5/31: Hunting down Candy Mountain

Comments

[by_heart]

Ace is a circus all by himself and the people who actually have sense still think he should be in charge for some reason.

[Lea scratches his head. He's never been able to figure that one out. Ace is the one everyone treats like he's the one in charge, Thatch is the one who acts like he's in charge, but Marco is actually Thatch's boss, but no one is actually required to follow anyone's orders because they're more like suggestions because "everyone's free to make their own choices" or whatever. Except when you step out of line, well, you get the treatment Lea got. Which, no doubt, will be spun as Lea "just not understanding what it means to be free" or whatever. It was all ridiculous and he's glad to have washed his hands of it all.]

It's a total free for all and they get angry when you suggest that maybe a little order might be nice. And now they've decided they're going to conquer the world or something. Did you see that one? I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[summing_it_up]

Iii may have come across that a while back.

[It was something he felt he didn't need to get in the middle of, at the time. Plus it was difficult to just ignore the noise from the journal once he had left it open like that. The names are familiar, though, and he remembers hearing enough to get a sense of how a few of these pirates worked.]

I know conquering the world is a thing for some people, but I personally feel like it's not the best idea.

[by_heart]

It's not. Trust me. You wanna conquer your own world? Fine by me. Go home and do it. Barge into someone else's and start throwing your weight around? Bad idea, especially when it's a place as screwy and unstable as this one.

[He's not going to traumatize the kid by telling him the world itself could be destroyed entirely that way, but that is indeed a thing.]

I got an earful when I pointed that one out, though.

[summing_it_up]

[His eyebrows lift at how bluntly this is put.]

I'm...sorry you did? Then again, you were talking to those guys. I've seen that kind of reaction before.

[Because he pretty much experienced something similar himself. Except with less conquering in the mix.]

[by_heart]

Yeah?

[It's not the first time he's heard something like that since coming here. He hadn't had a whole lot of time to make a decision about where he was going to go when he left, but it's looking like he made the right choice.]

From guys older than you, right?

[It's a pretty easy guess to make. Lea crosses his arms and rolls his eyes.]

'Cause that's the worst. Doesn't matter if their opinions are stuck in grade school, as long as they're older than you, they figure they're right and you're too much of a kid to understand. I'm twenty...something, ish, and I still get that.

[summing_it_up]

Yup! That's exactly how it went. Men, women, and even the guys my age.

[He counts them on his fingers, excluding the little kids because they didn't give him a hard time. Thankfully. Hiccup lets his arms swing out before dropping back down to his sides.]

Let's just say I had the worse luck before things turned around.

Ugh, man, you'd think you'd get a break? I know some things don't change very quickly and at the rate they're going, it sounds like it'll take a looong time.

[by_heart]

Old people move slow. We just gotta keep pushing them is all.

No matter how old you get, there's always gonna be someone older, too, I guess. Dunno, maybe that's why some people try to pull off the "live forever" thing. Then no one can boss them around anymore.

[Sounds kind of petty, but he's starting to think that's how "bad guys" work. It's all kind of petty when you really get down to the bottom of it.]

[summing_it_up]

[Some of that will be lost on him. He hasn't run into anyone going down that path.]

Yeesh. That sounds like something out of those old stories.

[by_heart]

It does, doesn't it? Happens, though, and for some reason it's never the nice, friendly, well-adjusted types.

[Funny how that works.]

[summing_it_up]

Well, you never know if the nice ones would end up the same way! I personally prefer not having that happen at any given time.

[by_heart]

What, you think it's the whole living forever thing that makes people crazy bastards and not the other way around? Maybe you're right...

[Definitely possible.]

Let's all live normal lifespans. Sounds like a better plan.

[summing_it_up]

Definitely a better plan!

[Because there's no way he wants to deal with that.]

You think we'd be able to do that? Live normally, I mean.

[by_heart]

Maybe? I already screwed that one up, so...

[Lea shrugs.]

Third time's a charm?

[summing_it_up]

[There's a nod. Maybe some side-to-side bobbing at first, but that's a genuine nod.]

I'd like to think so. Whatever we did before being a part of this crew doesn't matter too much here, at least.

[by_heart]

Yeah, that's the feeling I'm getting. I think I can deal with that.

[For an impulse decision made in desperation, picking this crew is one of his better decisions in recent memory.]

Roxas isn't gonna like hearing that, but that whole thing is kinda a work in progress...

[summing_it_up]

It sounds like you two have been through a lot together.

[by_heart]

You can say that again...

[It's too long a story to even start telling, really, and most of it is a bit too personal and painful to start sharing with complete strangers, no matter how friendly they are.]

Wouldn't want to bore you with all the details, though.

[summing_it_up]

Oh, really?

[While Hiccup sounds skeptical, he has a feeling the story may be a "bit" complicated. He doesn't mind not being told; spilling all the juicy details upon the first meeting is like a one in a thousand chance.]

Eh. I guess that can wait. You've only just got here.

[by_heart]

Yeah, gotta get all my diagrams and flow charts ready.

[He's only half joking. He's getting tired of being told it's all too complicated whenever he tries to open up about what went on back home.]

I feel like I should be giving a quiz when I'm done.

[summing_it_up]

[Hiccup chuckles. He may have no idea how bad it really is, but he'd personally take up the challenge.]

You say it like it's too complicated. Then again, if you do that, I'm sure we'd have some protests on our hands.

[by_heart]

People've told me it is. If I can get through it all without people going "No! No! Too much thinking involved!" maybe I'll waive the quiz. How about that?

[Lea shrugs. It's an awful rude way to react to a guy's tragic backstory, but what can you do?]

[summing_it_up]

[Sometimes easing up on the sardonic tones is hard for him. Second nature and all that.]

Sounds good to me.

[by_heart]

It's a deal, then!

[Lea totally understands. His sarcasm switch is permanently stuck in the "on" position.]

[summing_it_up]

[Looks like they'll get along fine.]