HELP WANTED: GOSSIP ISLE EXPEDITION (open RP/all invited)

OoC: Lol! I had to look up trailing ropes... so I'm guessing he's hanging off the side of the boat? Sorry if I'm wrong, but I'm gonna go with that.
..also! welcome back! haha

BiC:
"I hope the man in the brown coat isn't over there dealing with those pirates..." Orty began to say, when suddenly a voice came from the port side of the ship.
"Hey, I'm down here!"

Orty ran to the side of the ship and looked down, the tall man in the brown coat waved up at him from where he perched, securely latched to a rope, his feet bracing against the ship like a mountain rapeller.

"Ha!" Orty laughed, completely entertained by the appearance. "Were you there the whole time? Hang on, lemme pull you up."

Orty concentrated on the man, hoping the same trick that had lifted the boards would lift the man. Nothing happened. He tried again. Still, nothing. Confused, he tried lifting the rope. This time he came up easily, walking up the side as naturally as walking down the street. Still young and not one to linger on things, Orty shook off his confusion for the moment and greeted the tall man with a beaming smile.

"No more questions at the moment, though I doubt we have the whole story, even now." He watched Orty pull the other man up and on deck.

OoC: Sorry guys for the ridiculous shortness, just don't see much to do for my strong, silent type atm, but I didn't want you to think I bailed.

I shall honor the responsibility you have placed on me, Haagar! *salutes*

OOC: Haagar!
I thought we'd lost you! Glad to see you could make it along for the journey! Internet problems eh? I can definitely sympathize with ya on that one... I hate it when I have problems with my connection. You edited yourself in nicely though, I gotta say

[music=Sailing]

IC:

The Zora heard the cry for help and ran to the side of the boat. He leaned overboard and smiled when he saw the familiar face. "You made it!" He cried happily as the man made it over the side of the boat. Taint couldn't stop grinning. Nobody forgot! They were all just really late! The Zora then briefly summarized the story of the voyage and its purpose to the newest member of the crew. "We're all here now! That makes four of us! This calls for a victory feast! Who's hungry?" He asked as he waved for them to follow. He walked across the deck and threw open the doors to the inside of the ship. "Meal hall is this way! These guys are always stocked!" He made his way down the stairs, and navigated right, then left, and then right again before opening another pair of doors. A good sized meal hall was revealed with one long table, and many smaller tables dotting the room. He instantly walked through the stylish saloon doors and into the kitchen. Sure enough, there was plenty of food, including Cucco meat, which happened to be Taint's favorite.

He turned the stove on and removed a few pans from the cupboard beneath the island counter. "I'm-a gonna cook up a feast-a!" He called out in a fake Italian accent as he found his way to the eggs as well. Before long, he'd cooked up a fabulous feast. Cooked Cucco, Eggs, Toast, and a large salad (being sensitive to any healthy eaters or vegetarians on board). The Zora had obviously been a cook before; he never would have thought twice about vegetarians if he hadn't made that mistake before. He also seemed to know his way around the boat rather well. He laid the feast out on the large table. There was quite a bit of food, enough to feet 5 Gorons. Taint stood before them before eating and opened his arms. "This is for showing up for the voyage. Honest to Din, I'd never have been able to take that boat alone. They can't make a Zora walk the plank, so I'd have been straight up done for!" He chuckled and continued. "We have a decision to make, however!" He announced as he rolled out the map. "If we go straight to Gossip Isle, we'll be traveling for two days and two nights." He ran his finger along the map from their position to their destination.

"However," he continued. "if we stop here on Everbreeze Island, we can stretch our land legs, stay the night there, and wake up to a fresh start the next morning. I've been to Everbreeze twice before. It's a bustling trade and market center with lots of tourist attractions as well. It's a fun little place, and I wouldn't mind stopping for a while. The decision is up to my crew, the people who are making everything possible! We can decide while we eat, so no worries. We won't be near Everbreeze Island until tomorrow around noon, so you'll have plenty of time to rest and think it over. But for now, CHOW DOWN!" He tore off a piece of the Cooked Cucco and tossed some scrambled eggs on his plate. His mouth was as full as his heart at that moment, and he was eager to hear the crew's decision!

OOC: This is one of those "choose your own adventure" sorts of deals. I hope I'm not moving to fast for you all. Let me know if I need to slow down and let you fill in the blanks

OoC: Thank you, ZV.

BiC: I sat down at the table, sitting in one of the gorons chairs with plenty of supports. I cut a leg off of the Cucoo carcass, and took a bite. I wasn't able to taste, nor feel hunger, but I would have seemed odd if I hadn't eaten. But there was one thing I did need. I grabbed the little flask of oil in my pouch and took a swig. It kept everything running smoothly. It wasn't a clear bottle, so none of the other crew members knew what I just drank, and even if they saw it, (With the exception of the boy,) they wouldn't know what it was.

I finished off my leg, and went back up to the deck, and took down the flag. I would ask the captain later to make another flag, when he wanted to. We don't want to be mistaken for pirates! I scoffed. When I had left, the captain had been talking to the crew with his map out. I was just along for the ride. I didn't care where we went. I climbed up onto the crows nest and started looking around, with my enhanced vision implanted into my eyeballs. It looked really quiet.

Orty giggled at the silliness of the fishlike man. He was beginning to get used to him, and he found he playful manner comforting. Unlike many of the people he'd met in the past few months, Captain was wonderfully at ease with everything and just seemed to enjoy life.

The young boy let Louie out of his pocket and dug in to the eggs and toast. At last! Something familiar! But he avoided the salad, he still didn't like many vegetables, and without his mom here to tell him what to eat... Orty grinned to himself, maybe he'd find some sweets on board. It had been months since he'd had any ice cream. He looked to his small friend, who was nibbling the crust of a piece of toast.

"See? It's not so bad here. Look! We didn't even have to steal this food!"

"Not from your Captain," Louie agreed. "But we did steal it from the pirates. Who's to say they wont find another boat and come after us?"

Orty wasn't too concerned about that; he made a small grimace when he realized that yes, they'd stolen the food yet again, but he wasn't sure there was anyway the pirates could know which direction they'd gone, and this ocean looked huge. He gave his friend a small shrug. He turned his attention to the three men who sat around the table. Captain was devouring his plate, while the other two men ate more moderately. For the first time, Orty was able to get a good look of the both of them. He still didn't know their names, but he could tell that names didn't exactly matter to this pair. The first had dark black hair, and cool brown eyes. He seemed relaxed, but ready to spring at any moment. It was his nonchalant air that made Orty wary. That, and the fact that his coat resembled long dog fur. Orty made a mental note to keep Louie away from him, just in case he was an animal skinner.

Unnerved, he turned his curious attention to the man in the simpler, brown coat. He too was relaxed, but it seemed more intentional. Everything he did seemed to have a rhythm to it. He had been friendly on their first meeting, and his appearance on the ship earlier was nothing less than fantastic. Orty quickly chewed his last piece of toast and opened his mouth to speak when the man excused himself from the table and went above deck.

He wasn't quite sure if he should follow him, so he remained in his seat. He slumped over and leaned on his propped up fist, thinking about the little Island that they could make a detour to. He didn't have any money, so he wouldn't be spending any time in the market. But he was always up for seeing new things. On the other hand... if they stayed there over night, would that give the pirates enough time to catch up? He shook his head at that thought, he'd already told himself that finding their route was impossible. There could be thousands of islands around.

Orty stood up from the table. There was still daylight left, he wanted to be up on deck. “Excuse me, Captain,” he said, all manners. The captain still had his map out and was pointing out something to the dark haired man. He motioned for Louie to climb up his sleeve, and then left the room. “I'm going back up there, you wanna come?”

Louie shook his tiny head, his silver whiskers wiggling. “If you don't mind, I think I'll check out the boat down here. It's been a while since I've been underground... or relatively so.”

The little mouse scampered down his arm, leg, over-sized boot, and then off into the shadows. Orty turned toward the stairway, and, once above deck, noticed the clouds had shifted, letting the sun shine out for the afternoon. He found his top hat wedged in a corner and shuffled out of his old black coat, laying it by the hat. He looked around the deck but realized he was alone. Where had he gone? Orty went to the side and leaned against the rim, watching the water rise and fall and crash against the hull as the wind blew the ship through the water.

Something moved in the corner of his eye, but when he looked, he couldn't be sure he'd really seen anything. He ran to the prow and put a hand up over his eyes to shade them from the sun. Something out there shimmered, was there, and then was gone again.

“Um, Captain?” he called, but not loud enough. He still wasn't sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Suddenly there was an explosive flash from one of the islands. I looked at the cannonball flying through the air, and saw it was going over the boat, but it would hit the kid. Without thinking, I jumped down next to the kid and tackled him, and not a moment to soon. the cannonball flew over our heads, and I jumped back up. "Orty, go down and get the Captain. Say we're under attack."

I ran over to one of the cannons and loaded it, with the large supply of cannon balls next to me. The gunpowder barrels as well. At first, I shot it into the air, as a warning signal. Another shot came and almost took off my head. I finally decided to hit the guns, and try not to hit any of the people. I looked over the trajectory and gunpowder charge, and fired the cannon. It knocked one of the cannons out of commission.

Another crack resonates through the ship, but it is from our guns. I had shot the hull just below the water, causing the ship to rapidly take on water. I loaded the gun again, and shot it again, hitting the hull........ again. The firing suddenly stopped, and I casually walk downstairs. "What'd I miss?*

OoC:

WHOA!! TOPIC DERAILED!! STOP! DESIST!!!

I'm gonna have to explain a few things. First of all, I'd appreciate it if you didn't take my story in a direction I didn't plan on

Secondly, I'm fine with you all going off on your own to explore the ship. I'll respond to each of you explaining what you find, see, or hear. I guess Role Playing is a little different around here. You can ALL make suggestions. While I'm running the scene, you're all in control of the story in your own small way. If one of you suggests that we stop on a nearby island for whatever reason, I have absolutely no problem looking at it from my Zora's perspective and acting on your suggestion.

Please please PLEASE don't make a major shift in my story without notifying me via PM and waiting for my reply first. I'm going to have to ask for you all to ignore the last few posts. No worries guys, this is easily fixed and I appreciate your thought into the story. I'll pick up on stormslider's post about his eyes playing tricks on him.

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IC:

CAN's eyes scanned far over the ocean. It was a beautiful sight really. The seagulls squealed above as the a cool zephyr brushed the bot's cold exterior. A few islands dotted the vast expanses of water, one of them with its own lighthouse. It was red and white, and jutted into sky as a beacon of safety. White puffy clouds hung overhead, casting small brief shadows on the machine. Nothing else to really be seen from his vantage-point.

* * *

Louie's little feet scampered along the floorboards as he explored the ship. As he wandered along, he'd find something peculiar. A mouse hole in the wall. Perhaps there were already other mice on board! Would he wander into the little tunnel made by his peers, or stay out in the open where it's safe?

"Hey!" A call to the mouse from the captain. He gave Doyle the universal "one minute" sign with his index finger as he made his way over to the tiny rodent. He crouched down to the mouse's level before speaking. "Hey! If you're going to be exploring the ship, there are a few things you should know!" He began, now taking a seat cross legged. "There are surely other mice on board. Don't count on them being too nice though. They're pirate mice. You wouldn't want to anger any of them." He stated as a matter of factly. "And another thing... Where there are men, mice aren't always welcomed. Beware of "Scurvy", the ship's cat! She's a hell of a mouse catcher! If you see her sleeping anywhere, lemme know and I'll keep her in a certain room while you're out and about. Louie, was it? That kid seems to like you a lot... If anything happened to ya, I don't know what I'd say to the kid. Keep safe will ya?" With that he nodded to smallest member of the crew, and made his way back to the table with Doyle.

* * *

Orty's eyes very well may have been playing tricks on him. The sea causes many mirages. Some men claim to have seen flying fish, ghost ships, and even mermaids! However the sun seemed to want to make a culprit of the bottle that floated along the waves. The light kept shining into Orty's eyes, allowing him to pinpoint the source. It was a bottle with a cork in it! And inside, there looked to be a piece of parchment! A message in a bottle! If the magician could levitate it out of the water, he could find himself onto a very interesting message!

* * *

Taint finished off his plate, and waggled a bone in Doyle's direction. "So it looks like nobody can make a decision just yet. Any thoughts?" He pushed his plate away from him, and slumped back in his share. "I'm used to the ocean, so I don't entirely mind a one shot voyage. But there is a lot to do on Everbreeze. Lot'sa cute girls too!" He smiled. "If my soul mate is out there somewhere, I hope she's part of Farore's Troupe. They're a band of the most beautiful women anywhere, and their home is on Everbreeze. How about you Doyle? You got a sweet heart back home?"

Doyle haurumphed. Sweetheart wouldn't be the first word he chose to describe her, but he knew what the Zora meant. "Not at home, no. I have not seen her in many years." He pushed his empty plate to the side. "As for your Everbreeze, I have little opinion on the matter. Two or three days is not so long a voyage, and I would think you would much rather see a bustling port full of fine women after you have found your treasure."

OoC: Oh wow, okay. The way I role play is that any character can throw a twist into a story if it gets slow and it gives the other players a challenge. lol. More of a game that way. But sorry, I didn't know how you wanted this to go... Your zora talks just like a real zora, telling link what's happening in the level. I guess that's the point though, huh. Also, Louie is kind of a side character, I don't know that I'll actually follow him anywhere. It's a possibility, and kind of you to think ahead about that, but I set him down because of his personality, he wouldn't want to follow Orty up on deck. Haha, although, if you want to pick up the cat as another side character, that could be a fun little sub plot. But I'm not into solo plots on ZU.

BiC: Orty squinted his eyes hard. His eleven year old mind was too curious to let the sparkling object go. He lifted his hand a bit, willing whatever it was to rise. He paused, letting the object hover in mid-air, as he reconsidered. What if it were something dangerous? The ship got closer to the suspended item and he realized it was only a glass bottle, glinting in the sun. He lifted it higher and pulled it in.

The bottle was opaque, but white. There was a crust of salt around the cork and made it near impossible to pop off. This, too, Orty used magic on. He was beginning to enjoy his powers of levitation. How had he managed to use it so infrquently before? He faintly wondered what else he could do, aside from the cheap tricks he learned from his father.

The cork came off with a pop! and out came a wrinkley, rolled up, brown piece of paper. He set the bottle down and smoothed out the paper in his hands. A message was scrawled in quick handwriting that looked to have once been pretty, but became smudged and jagged from being shoved into the bottle. Even if it had been written clearly, Orty could not understand it. He'd only ever studied earth English... and knew maybe a few words in Spanish or French. This, however, didn't even seem to use his own alphebet. Discouraged he turned, hoping one of his crew mates would be able to read it.

--
OoC: Damsel in distress? Princess Zelda herself? lol. Young girl from the island they're considering visiting? Last message of a captain, sent out as a warning upon the destruction of his ship? I guess I'll let our fearless leader choose, unless CAN can read this language?

"What'cha got there?" I said, coming up behind Orty. He jumped a bit, surprised I was there. I quickly glanced at the weaved paper, and saw it was in Royal Hylian. "Let me have a look at that." He handed over the paper, and I read it aloud for his sake.

"Alas, it seems this is my last week on this horrible island. I cannot go on much longer without food and fresh water. I can only hope that someone finds this message and rescues me from this Din-Forsaken island. I leave to whomever finds this, all the money that I have left in my pockets. It is surely of no use to me here on this lonely island..."

Sincerely, Moe

"Well, it seems you stumbled upon the missin' princess of Hyrule. Wait, you got somethin' more in this bottle." I took a guick peek, and then dropped the bottle on the ground, cracking it. A silver Rupee came out of the bottle, and I grabbed it. "Well, I'll be darned. Let's get this down to the captain." I quickly ran downstairs, the note and rup[e in one hand.

"A princess?" Orty was struck dumb at the idea. But the tall man didn't hear him, he was halfway down the stairway before Orty gathered his wits and followed him.

OOC: Well, I was waiting for someone to actually give me the letter, but it looks like that aint gonna happen.

IC:

The Zora took the letter from his crew-mate and read it carefully. He looked up slowly at the group with a concerned face, his eyes stone as he was obviously deep in thought on the subject. He looked back down at the parchment for one more read, and closed his eyes. He sighed heavily, and once more looked to his crew thoughtfully. He looked directly at CAN with an emotionless face and handed him the paper.

"I can't read it."

"Alright than." I said, not fazed at all of the captains inability. I read it aloud to the captain, along with the other man in the room. " I believe you can read this." I held out the silver Rupee to the captain.

Taint took the rupee in his hand, and turned it over a few times as he thought the message over. He looked back at the crew thinking hard about it before speaking. "This boat is a democracy. It's up t0 all of us to either answer this call for help, or to ignore it entirely." He put the rupee on the table next to him. My motto has always been all for one, and one for all. As for the rupee however, I feel it's only fair that whoever found the message does with the rupee what he sees fit. As for the message bottled with it... Well I think it might be best to ignore it. After all, who knows how long that bottle was floating at sea? Moe could be long gone by now for all we know- and what island would we search first? We'd need some serious clues as to which island it came from. There's a whole lot of tiny islands out here, it could be any of them!" He urged as he hoisted himself up onto the table and sat there swinging his legs.

"But in the end, I leave it up to my crew. Search for Moe, or leave the message alone?"

OOC: After this decision, it will be nightfall.

"I think we should search for the girl. And I would bet my arm that the bottle was only at sea for a little while, because there is no yellowing of the pages, and the ink is not completely dry. As for a clue where, this letter is written on woven palm leaves, and there are only a few islands with those, believe it or not."

Doyle listened to the conversation in silence. Afterward, he shrugged his broad shoulders. "I would not turn my back on one in need of help for the simple sake of expedience. If what you say is true, and the options of where this bottle came from truly are limited, I see no reason to decline. The island will not be vanishing if we tarry a couple of days."

Taint rubbed his chin as if deep in thought. "Those are some amazing observations!" He exclaimed smiling. "Well done! Anyone opposed?" He asked looking around the room. Doyle was the next voice in favor of saving the lost soul. The Zora doubted that Orty would be heartless enough to abandon someone on an island. Even the only one on board who actually lacked a heart was gung-ho on the idea of saving someone in peril.

[Music = Rose at Meridiem]

"Alright then, it's settled! We're gonna have to work fast, because night is falling! All hands on deck! We've got an island to find! CAN, I want you and Doyle in the crow's nest! Orty, you find Louie and get him up to speed. When you do, meet me by the wheel! I have a special task for him! Let's go!" He shouted as he took off out of the room, and up to the deck.

* * *

The sun was creeping slowly towards the horizon line, but the sky was still bright! There was hope to find this island after all. The Zora scurried to the wheel as everyone moved into their assigned positions. As soon as one of them spotted an island with the special trees on it, they'd make way for it. He glanced nervously at the sun. They'd have to do this as quickly as possible. It would be a lot more difficult to find someone after dark, and Taint was all about taking things easy. He hoped to hear the word from the crow's nest soon.

OOC:

I know we haven't had a super awesome fight scene yet. I want to assure you all that there will be difficult battles ahead, and if you stick with my long enough, I won't disappoint. I have to admit my greatest fear right now is boring the snot out of you guys.

edit: I also notice that SilvaGunner, the youtube account that uploaded the music I've been posting for you guys has had her account suspended. If anyone really cares, I'll fix the links, but I don't know if anyone's listening to the mood music anyhow.

OoC: You don't now my real name, and I haven't given you a name to call me by.

BiC: I quickly scanned the horizon, looking for any sign of the palm trees. Suddenly, a hat body flashed across my field of vision, and I turned off the thermal vision. "Captain! 2 degrees starboard! The right type of trees!" As the ship adjusted itself, we quickly got closer to the island. When we got close enough, I jumped from the crows nest on to land, and landed safely. "I'll meet up with you guys soon!" I ran forward, finally able to turn on my thermal vision again.

insert edit: OoC: oh wow, ha, while I was writing you posted.... ummm... that was a really quick landing. Let us react to what you just said. And that's a lot of time to skip over, unless we were really REALLY close to the island, it would take at least a half hour to get there. I don't want to rewrite everything I just wrote.... so I'm just gonna leave it as it is, even though now the story is somewhat out of order. Please follow the story, don't jump ahead just to get your character going....

OoC: I haven't been listening to the music, but the titles give me an idea and it's a nice touch.

BiC: Orty heeded his captain and ran to find Louie. He hadn't said a word in the meeting, he'd been too shy to talk about rescuing a princess... Magic, dragons, goron pirates... he could handle all those, but a girl? It was beyond him.

He found Louie in a room on the other side of the ship that appeared to be a very unused guest room. To Orty's astonishment, Louie had been able to pry open the flat lid of a chest. It'd only been pushed aside, but the board looked too heavy for a mouse. A few ragged pieces of clothing littered the floor near the chest, more spilled over the side and filled the base. It reminded Orty of the casual clutter of his own room.

"What's all this, Louie?"

If mice could look bashful, he certainly did. "Well I found this trunk full of old clothes and I was trying to find you a better pair of shoes. It appears that these pirate creatures go around barefoot."
Orty smiled as the little mouse scratched his head, showing only slight frustration. "Well, thanks. But I'm all set. I can manage. We need to get up to the deck, we found a note in a bottle from a princess. A princess, Louie! Captain says he has a job for you."

Louie looked a bit green. He'd wanted to remain below deck for the remainder of the journey. "Well, alright. But the moment I'm not needed I'm coming back down here. There's lots of things to dig around in here..."

As Louie spoke he gestured to a shallow, square hole in the wall that looked like some form of closet. Something inside caught Orty's eye. A small dagger. It rested haphazardly on top of it's belt and sheath. Orty smiled with delight and strapped it around his waist. He turned around for Louie to see.

"That thing had better not be out around me!" he warned.

"Some day, Louie," Orty laughed, picking up his friend and setting him on his shoulder. "You're going to have to be brave."

"Yeah yeah, I'll be swimming miles when that day comes."

The pair of them ran back to the stairway that led to the deck. The wind had picked up and the sun was low in the sky; Orty made sure his hat was safe and pulled his coat over his arms, rolling up the sleeves, ready for work. Two of the men were already up in the crows nest, and Captain was at the helm. Orty ran up to the fish-like man and gestured to Louie, who perched on Orty's shoulder.

"You said you had a job for him?"