brethrencourt | TEST DRIVE 001b

Entry tags:

mod post: test drive

TEST DRIVE 001b

Try on those ridiculous clothes, sample the catering, and run through your lines. It's time for the Long 18th Test Drive.

ARRIVAL: Characters come to in a dark, tropical forest in a huddle. There are the sounds of strange birds, animals, and insects all around, some of them perhaps worryingly close. With a closer inspection, arrivals realize they're on an incline: Going up will prove fruitless, no matter who they are. The ground there starts to grow rocky the further they climb, and they may find themselves slipping back down to their arrival point, even if they're expert mountain climbers. The ground sloping downward will eventually level out leading toward light, music, and noise. But for the moment, they're simply a group of lost people (or monsters/bipedal animals/robots/etc) with no idea where they are or how they got here. Now's probably a good time to ask, "Who the hell are you? Where am I?" Time to use the buddy system.

TORTUGA: There's a town off the coast of Hispaniola that never sleeps, and that town is Tortuga. It's swapped hands more times than anyone can count, but for now, the French have it. And they do like the extra money the pirates that frequent it bring in; they like it so much that they imported over 1600 prostitutes from Europe to keep them happy. So you might as well relax while you're here, as much as you can with random gunshots and fist fights, anyway. Drop in for a drink at the Faithful Bride, check out the wares for sale (provided to you tax-free thanks to piracy) near the dock front. Visit the warehouse where those ill-gotten goods are stored and distributed. Maybe you're looking for work on a ship? The captains can usually be found - frazzled and busy - in the taverns and at the shipwrights and everywhere in between (just look for the hats), and if they're in a good mood, they might be willing. But the key point of Tortuga is this: Have fun. Some examples might include: A barfight! Wandering into a brothel (maybe by mistake)! Getting duped into joining a crew! There's no end of trouble to get into.

MIRROR POST: When they arrived, every person found, in a pocket or a bag or tucked away somewhere on their person, a little compact mirror. It's nothing fancy: Square, with hinges and a latch that keep it closed, the outer casing carved from seashell, the inner mirror a little spotted with age. But if it's played around with enough, it quickly becomes apparent it works as a communication device. Here you have access to all of the marked folks, no matter how far and wide they might spread. Need to have a heart to heart with a buddy in Singapore? Want to send out a general ad to everyone at large? Looking for answers to questions? This is the quickest way to get all of that.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: The world is open, and it's full of pearls that are just waiting for you to take them. Maybe you want to have some quiet time to scrub clean in a bathhouse in Singapore. Perhaps you're visiting the fabled pirate city of Libertalia in Madagascar. Maybe you've found yourself lost in Mayan ruins or stranded on an island. Or you were shipwrecked in a hurricane. Or you've decided to relocate to Port Royal or one of the American colonies for a quieter sort of life. Either way, this is your story, might as well make it a good one.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[Oh, Lord, it's a child. Her casual, lackadaisacal manner doesn't change at all, but she does explain more slowly and thoughtfully than she would normally. It's not condescending; there's just the effort of a teacher to it.]

Someone connected these other-worldly mirrors t' listen in on each other. Clearly, it wasn't any of us.

[Mary leans back on one hand.] That begs the question . . . why are we meant t' stay connected, and who connected us.

If I were t' make a device tha' magically listened in on conversations--[she says this heavily, as she's come across it before]--I'd make use of it. Ye understand?

Ye ain't in the right place, then. Tortuga is a world away from helping others. [She flops a hand at a tavern as they pass it, the threshold occupied by a drunk and a bouncer in yet another common scuffle.] This is a place for pirates.

[Being one herself, there's no disgust in her voice. But the word carries a warning. Know what you're getting into.]

Ye might be better off joining the Navy or the like, though know we'd be enemies.

[She waves a dismissive hand at the kind sentiment. The boy is perfectly nice enough to strangers, and she doesn't quite know what to do with it.]

The chosen hero of a tragic tale, then? That's not a line o' work ye let others decide for ye, mate.

[Heroes always meet a sticky end, afterall]

[Kubo just levels Tony with another flat stare. He's gonna be needing a lot of those with this guy. He wants to just take him down a few pegs...]

. . . You're no fun.

[Well, knocking him down a few can be for later. For now, Kubo's expression shifts to curiousity and frustration.]

Why can't you just take things as they are? Why do you always have to take them apart?

[Kubo grins. This is the first sign of anyone around her caring about stories, and he's going to give him a Show.

He continues dramatically, hand stilled on his shamisen.]

Pay careful attention to everything you see and hear, no matter how unusual it may seem.

[With a short, distinctly Japanese tune, mysterious and light, blue papers rise from the middle of the now falling gale, transforming themselves into a hideous beast. It's massive, its head the size of Link's own.]

And please be warned: If you fidget, if you look away, if you forget any part of what I tell you - even for an instant - [The tiny red pirate turns to face the monster, cutlass held at the ready.] then our hero will surely perish.

[The dragon noiselessly roars and charges the paper man, who leaps up and over the creature, running up its body. The music is erratic and crazed, a race to beat death.]

The dread pirate Barbossa had lost his ship and his men to the deeps. He, too, fell to Death's clutches . . . [The tiny pirate whips his sword at the beast's hide with no effect.] And now he would fight his way back to the living, and the woman he loved.

[Whispers on the streets may hold true to some of this, which is what Kubo is taking from. The rumor of a man whose heart was so black, Hell spat him back out. But Kubo likes a good hero for a good story. Let's improve on that, shall we?

The dragon shakes off the pirate, who falls to the ground far too heavily than paper has any right. Shakily, the man picks himself up.]

The beast of Davy Jones, a fearsome dragon, had an impenetrable hide. Their fight went on for days-- [The dragon circled around to face its enemy, and both pirate and beast charge toward the other] --for the dead have no need for sleep.

[The dragon opens its great maw, looking to swallow the man whole. The pirate slides beneath it and thrusts its sword up into its underside, cutting it from end to end. The dragon twists and flails, in obvious pain.

Finally, it falls, crumpling itself up into a small ball until it hits the earth.]

The dragon was vanquished, but Barbossa had many more challenges to face before he would again see his true love.

[He raises his brow at the crowd. Suggestions are always welcome, but if there are none, he'll continue.]

[And he is working, thank you very much. The sad truth of the matter is, after the battle there is so much left to be done, between the Pearl needing more repairs than he'd initially considered, refitting, the crew, at least, has been paid and sent on their merry way...There's no end to it.

If anyone had told Hector that becoming a captain, all those years ago, would be mean Tortuga would just be more work...Well, he'd still be a captain now, wouldn't he. The truth is, he won't settle for anything less.

So he simply crosses another item off on the list he's had since the Pearl had turned to Tortuga, and glances up then, seeing the...Thing. For a moment, as it's what's mostly eye-level, it's all he sees, and there's a split second grinding of teeth, thinking that perhaps someone wants to have a go, and that would be a very bad mistake on their part, indeed, until he realizes it's attached to a boy who, by all accounts, is rather on the puny side.

He's already turned down a handful for powder monkey and cabin boy this evening alone, and this one, with that ridiculous hat, is going to be no different.]

We don't need more crew, so me suggestion to you would be go hide in your mum's skirts a while longer.

A raider is someone who raids...stuff. Violently.

[Explaining things, not his strong suit. Talking in general is not a thing he's good at.]

Your clothes are too nice for a raider.

...

For some reason raiders never raid better clothes.

I consider it my duty to warn you. What you do with that warning is your decision.

[He can't protect every hapless person whose wanderings cross preternatural foes. He's only one man and he can't be everywhere. He doesn't have the kind of reach that commanding an armada gives one, and even when he did command and armada he wasn't able to protect Elizabeth. Fortunately, she proved quite capable of protecting herself without him.]

[The young man with the horse was certainly not something she expected to see- though what could she really anticipate when she did not even know where they were? Still, he offered her an answer when none of the others had.

Lizzie offers him a small smile, adjusting the way she's standing to be less regal and a little more friendly. Demanding answers would get her nothing here.]

That certainly makes for two of us, it seems... Even more, by the look of it.

Arrival
[Alone in the jungle is scary enough. Strange calls in the darkness, creeping shadows, moonlight filtering suspiciously through trees and creating gnarled hands to creep across the leaves towards unsuspecting misplaced souls. Showing up at a mysterious place at night is bad enough.]

[Showing up with someone that looks like he could be a blue demon? Worse. With his beady red eyes and sharp, glittering teeth that are bared in a scowl, his head lined with unpleasant scars and wearing a sheer expression of hatefulness.]

[The great thing is that when he opens his mouth the illusion is at least somewhat broken by the sheer folksiness that erupts from it. For a man from space, he manages a particular brand of 20th century American rural gumption that only few can properly attain. Ask him, and he'd just claim it as a Ravager way of talkin'. Right now he's the one with all the questions, though.]

What's this place supposed t' be? Somebody better be tellin' me what's goin' on here!

[He has the right side of his coat held open, arrow glowing at his hip. Which might just look like he's showing off ammo, but at the moment he's looking for the person that is likely responsible for his plight. Or at the very least someone that can take him to them.]

Tortuga
[Some of the whores look better than others, and unfortunately one Mr. Yondu Udonta doesn't have a single scrap of currency to his name or he might have been willing to partake. It's not like he's got much better to do. But hell, as it is he can't afford the cute little porcelain pig he's holding at a stand of stolen odds and ends, very well a pretty Terran woman with poor morals.]

[The little object's got him in a good mood, though. Unlike earlier, the smile he's wearing is genuine as he turns it in his fingers and examines the thin gold trim and flower petals. The man at the stand, however, is not used to blue people here quite yet. The look on his face as he shifts between Yondu and whoever approaches pretty much says he's wandered far out of his element.]

Look at that. He says it come from "Japan". I don't know what a Japan is but this sure is somethin'.

[Yondu likes money, sure. But when it comes down to it, the little trophies are really the best thing. Next to an actual ship, of course, but that might take a little bit of working to get around to.]

Edited 2017-05-15 06:08 (UTC)

[Link isn't one to blink at blue people, so the most he did when the man sidled up to the stand was glance up once because of the movement. But where the man is investigating little trinkets, Link has been investigating a mask. It doesn't seem to have any magical properties that he can tell...

When the blue man addresses him, Link is in the middle of holding the mask to his face. He blinks up at him through the mask, then the little porcelain pig.]

It's cute, [he agrees, with all a child's confidence.]

[Yondu looks down at the smidgen of a pointy eared Terran, and after a moment of evaluation purses his lips and gives him a decisive nod.]

Yeah. I figure you're right. 'Sreal cute.

[He puts the pig down.]

[He wants that pig. He's gonna get that pig, mark his words.]

That mask though, looks like it might eat somebody. Maybe you if you ain't careful. [He grins down at him as he teases, with a mouth that looks like it might well eat people.] You look about bite-sized.

Edited 2017-05-15 06:31 (UTC)

[Link lowers the mask, head tilting slightly.] It won't do that. It doesn't have any magic.

[... he's saying that with a straight face, very seriously.]

It doesn't?

Guess you got it all figured out, don'tcha boy? Here, let me see it.

[He holds his hand out to take it if Link will pass it over. That poor vendor looks like he might have a stroke. Yondu is kidding, but he doesn't know if the horrible blue man is going to try and devour the small rabbit boy. Or whatever he is, with ears like those.]

[Link obediently offers the mask over. He hasn't entirely made the connection yet about that whole "bite-sized" thing. He knows he is bite-sized to a lot of monsters in Hyrule in Termina, so he's taking it a statement of fact, more than anything else. If the mask was a magical monster, then there's a chance it could eat him.]

[Yondu looks into the mask. Turns it over with the same scrutiny as he gave the pig. Turns it again. Sticks it up to his face so his red eyes are looking through it.]

Now it might.

[But then he immediately takes it off and hands it back to Link.]

Here ya go. Better keep it in safe hands. [Or at least ones that can afford it because Yondu can't afford nothin' right now.]

[Link just looks confused, more than anything else. He takes the mask back and turns it over in his hands, inspecting it closely. He doesn't feel any new presence of magic in it.

When he looks back up to Yondu, his expression is a mix of disbelieving and curious.] You put magic in it? [he questions, tone bordering on skeptical.]

No. [Also matter of factly.] I was gonna eat ya. But you're too skinny.

[That's when the vendor pipes up.] Look, I don't want any trouble. Please don't lure small children away from my stand to eat-

I'll eat you here in a second! Don't you know the difference between bein' serious and bein' funny- [Yondu was reeling around in his protestations but it seems the vendor has vaulted the back of his stand and went running for his life because the sharp toothed man is much scarier to him than he is to Link.]

[Yondu watches him go.]

[Free pig for him!]

[He picks it up and puts it in his pocket.] Looks like I just got a brown britches discount. Can't beat a price like that.

[Oh.

...

Well. That happened.

Link watches the vendor flee with a blank look on his face. If he has any opinions about Yondu stealing the pig trinket, it doesn't show.]

I didn't think you were going to eat me, [is what he offers, though he sounds puzzled, like he isn't sure if he should be giving reassurance or... what.]

[Link listens carefully, seriously considering her words. But in the end, he just kind of looks confused.]

Yes, [he answers, slowly at first. Then, he explains his puzzlement.] I hadn't thought about it like that. I thought they were just... [Well.] Magic.

[He's used to magical artifacts falling into his lap, with no explanation as to who made them or why they're magical, most of the time. They just are.]

[Link glances around at the people around them, all in various stages of confusion, some even angry. He nods in agreement.]

I haven't seen magic like this before. [And it must be magic; there's no other explanation that Link can think of. A princess, and a bunch of other people, most of whom look pretty different from each other, if only in clothes -- though, there are physical differences, too. Like Link's ears. The princess doesn't seem to have Hylian ears.]

Nah. You're right. You got me good, boy. I was only plannin' a little bite, anyway.

You oughta get home to your daddy or mama. I'm sure they're already gettin' worried about you in a place like this. [He knows whenever he took Peter into space ports, he always worried his head off when the little bastard would take off and get himself into trouble and then Yondu'd have to go and fish him out of it.]

[Sure it helped learn him how to take care of himself but that didn't mean he didn't worry about the little turd when he didn't know what he was into.]

[Link shakes his head.] I don't have a mother or a father. [Well, he did, once. But he never knew his Hylian parents, and the Great Deku Tree...

But. Anyway.] I can take care of myself. [He shifts so that the Mirror Shield clanks softly against the Gilded Shield's scabbard. He can only hope the blue man is actually going to believe him. That's always a toss-up with grown-ups.]

[Yondu has started making his way away from the stand. Just because if that vendor comes back with back-up, he really doesn't want to start trouble.]

[That is a big butter knife that kid has strapped to his back. Heavy armaments for a half-pint. So he's inclined to believe him.] I'll believe you got the handlin' yourself part of it down but it seems like the people part's still got you trippin' up.

[The kid doesn't get scared. He doesn't find things funny. He doesn't even look annoyed.]

Takes a little more'an figurin' out whose gonna eat you and who probably isn't gonna eat you. 'Cause in my experience? Even if it ain't literal almost everybody's out for a piece. This place is no differnt. If anything it's got more of it than out in the usual universe.

[When Yondu begins strolling away, Link follows, still holding the wooden mask.

And it seems like he's right, because Link just looks confused about the idea that someone might mean more harm than just physical injury.] A piece of... what? [He sounds like he can't imagine what else someone might want.] Do you mean items? [Aka, getting robbed.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 7 of 9

TEST DRIVE 001b

ayyyy! Link! sorry for the late reply

poor girl. they'll have to concoct some stronger stuff, get Captain America involved

no subject

WHOOPS sorry for the late

awww yeah let's do this

no subject

no prob! TGIF!

no subject

no subject

Yondu Udonta | Guardians of the Galaxy (Spoiler Safe)

tortuga

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no worries!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject