otter

IC: "That's a surprisingly innocent reply for you." My eyes narrowed. That wasn't normal for her at all. "What game are you playing at here?"

IC: "Well, there you go!" I said to Jolek just as the crewmember walked off. "If he didn't come up here to throw you back into the water himself, no doubt you've already had a good interview, this is probably just the final contractual matters. Don't sweat it too much." Once I was sure he was moving along, I turned back to Skyra, speaking with a much lower voice: "Love tap? Better not let that other one you picked up back in Ga-Koro hear you saying that. I'd hate to get involved in any of your affairs."

IC: Skyra struggled free of my hand covering her mouth, and I grunted as she drove her elbow into my abdomen. Undoubtedly, I'd have at least a bit of a bruise there, although I was used to her antics enough that I'd already been preparing for it. "Always, always you are making me suffer for your own poor decisions. Why is this the way my friendship is repaid?" Krayn might not approve, but Jolek had already seen enough of this back-and-forth as it was, and still seemed at least somewhat distracted with Luten, so I wasn't worried about it.

IC: "If it makes you feel better, none of us know how she works either!" I was glad my initial impression was correct. For a moment there I was worried that I would need to step in between them. "But she really is Kale's mask. He's wearing her right now. Best not to think too hard about it."

IC: "Krayn won't steer you wrong, at least," I said to the Toa sitting on the deck, pulling Skyra back with one hand over her mouth and a glare for good measure. While she may never have been good at following the normal rules of the various guard forces, the ship still had its own hierarchy and rules to follow, loose as they were. Telling new people on it not to worry about things like that would give the wrong impression very easily. Mean as it would have been, it almost made me wonder if she needed a reminder of the amount of trouble she caused us all in Ko-Koro right after I'd stumbled my way into the group. It was almost enough to make me forget how Krayn had completely ignored me. "Anyways. Yes, Luten, I think you can feel free to come out now. He doesn't seem like the sort to get too spooked by you. Jolek, say hello to our first mate's mask."

IC: Well, two out of three ain't bad. Oh dear, I think Skyra's way of talking is infectious. Good thing I didn't say that out loud. "I'm assuming by that last one you weren't fired." I glanced back at Krayn, with a nod to catch his eye—and to keep my mouth out of view of Jolek. Didn't want to risk that he could read lips while I was having Krayn listen in on my whisper. "Sounds like he fits in with the rest of us, and he knew at least one of the right names to drop. You really want to wait for Dekhaz before we at least find him someplace better to sit than the deck?"

IC: "Such a nice girl." Not. Not that she'd have gone to fetch this Jolek something to drink without being prompted, either, no matter her protestations to the opposite. I stood up, bag and knife in hand, and made my way back over to who seemed to be our newest crewmember, hoping he wouldn't pay as much attention to my leg as he had been earlier. Like I said; only I get to look at people that way on this ship. I'm the doctor. "Should have brought some contraband with you. It would've made things a bit more exciting." I set his things back beside him, leaning against the railing at the side of the deck. Hopefully he'd recognize the sarcastic joke for what it was. I also thought about telling Krayn that he could do to relax the same as he told the rest, but we all know that would go over about as well as any other time I've suggested something similar. "So. Here because you want to be proactive, here because you want to go on an adventure, here because you've got nowhere else to go? 'Pretty bad beat cop' opens up to all of those options."

IC: "I doubt it, honestly," I replied to Luten, slowly working the knife back out of the deck. Trying not to bend the blade, but if I did, at least we had Kale to fix it. "If he is, then he's playing at a really strange game. I'm interested to see how that works out if so." With a creaking of the boards the knife finally worked free, and I set it next to his bag. "Skyra, be nice and get him something to drink, will you? He just tried to leap and swim half the harbor to get to us."

IC: I set the sketch materials back in his bag, an oddly cold feeling trying to work its way down my spine. There was nothing threatening in the bag, nothing even outwardly threatening about the Toa himself. I wasn't sure what it was. I turned back at him, my eyes narrowing. He was an observant one. "Quit that," I demanded, perhaps a bit more sharply than I really ought to have. "Only I get to look at people like that on this ship, and I'm not looking for an assistant yet."

IC: "Keep behind me." I stepped around a little, to hide Luten away from the view of our newcomer before he could be pulled fully up onto the deck. Best not to have anything too abnormal shocking show up on his first time aboard, especially if he did have the wrong ship. Besides, it was becoming more and more evident that Krayn wouldn't need my help at all—he was too smart to let his own winch pull him into the water. And of course, the new one rapidly proved he had the right ship. "Well, he knows how to throw names around, at least," I replied to what Krayn had said a minute ago. "Better conditioning than half the ship, too. He ought to give them all swimming lessons." Hoping that Luten would either follow along behind me or stay out of sight for a moment, I stepped away from the edge of the ship, walking over to the bag he'd thrown and unhooking it from the knife. Best to check it, even if he already didn't seem the type to try to smuggle anything aboard that really would be untoward. Obfuscating Stupidity was a tactic that everybody kept in their back pocket. Of course, opening it up and rifling through it, I couldn't help but frown. There wasn't much of substance. Not much of use, certainly out in the wilderness. "Packing light must be more of a goal for you than most," I observed, pulling out a small leather sketch kit. "But I really do question what constitutes 'preparedness' to you."

IC: Somehow, I didn't think that would work out very well, but I decided to just nod and keep my mouth shut for the moment. At least whoever it was Krayn was dragging in had started dragging themselves along the line, rather than just be dead weight getting pulled along. That was good; it meant there was less likelihood I'd have anything to worry about. Content with the situation for now, and knowing that Krayn wasn't so stoic or prone to understatement that he'd let himself be taken overboard without calling my attention back, I turned to look back at the deck. I'd heard something land before I came up, and I wondered what it— "Huh." There was a knife buried almost to the hilt in the deck near the rear mast. With a pack tied off to the handle. I turned back, squinting out at Krayn's catch. "You sure we need any of the disk launchers if he's got an arm like that?"

IC: "If I remember right, he was a Matoran of...Lightning, I think," I replied to Pirok's questioning. Evidently, he didn't care to take any of our warnings into account. "He wore a Komau, and the name he gave us was Aerus. His health wasn't the best, and eventually we lost him. I don't really remember when, specifically—there were other things on my mind at the time than just Echelon and his people." If he wouldn't listen to reason, so be it. I had other things to do anyways, before the ship eventually left again. First, though... "Skyra, if you fall on your head, I'm making you heal the old way." * * * Eventually, dusk did come, and it was time for the ship to leave. Between my own search and what I'd asked Skyra to find for me, my cabinets were well-stocked for the coming trip. But, as I peeked back outside, I had to wonder if I'd be using my mask and supplies sooner than expected. "I didn't take you for a fisherman, Krayn. Want help pulling him in?"

Looks like the hex code is da5100. Just do the usual [color=######][/color] bbcode for it.

IC: "Burn anything you find if you do get into his lair," I added after a moment. "Notes. Experiments. Bodies. Any of it. Save nothing."

IC: "A Lesterin," I supplied, jumping back into the conversation as though that was my cue. Which, in a sense, it was, given that I was the only one present who had actually seen whoever it was. "As best as I could tell, anyways. Didn't have the right proportions to be a Toa...but they were like an infected mask grew legs and figured out how to walk. I've got no clue how they were even alive, but they got in a fight with Leah and managed to poison her. Had to rush her here to do anything, it was beyond what I could fix alone." Spirit forbid that anybody gets attacked by the same and goes to somebody other than myself or Cael for treatment. Thinking of which... "There was some sort of commotion picking up in the market earlier on, but I didn't pay any mind to it until a bit later when Leah more or less upended one of the pads, and about did the same to another right when Krayn and I caught up to her. There might be something to look into out there, or get ahold of the marines and see what they've already found if they've gone and looked." OOC: @Palm@Vezok's Friend@Eyru

IC: "I don't know that Merror ever even found Echelon's base," I spoke up, once it was clear that Pirok still intended to go through with this plan. "Before we got separated in a storm, I had been with Merror and Agni trying to find Echelon's base. We had a Matoran with us who had been working for that madman—but he managed to run off from us after we made it to Ko-Wahi, and there was no way to track him, and with him went our only lead." Probably for the better, though; had we been able to find Echelon's base while he was still alive, I'm not entirely certain the three of us would've stood the best chance. Two fire Toa with morals, and one ice Toa without the power crutch I'd gotten used to using in fights like that, versus Mata Nui only knew what sort of power Echelon had to call upon by that point. "Agni's the only other one who'd have had any idea, and he just told me over in Ga-Koro that as soon as he and Merror made it back here they split up. There aren't any leads we can give you." Good as his intentions seemed to be, I hoped that the bluntness might help dissuade him at least a little bit. "When you're out in the drifts, keep an eye out for any shelter you can find if the weather turns bad, don't think your element alone will be enough to save you, and don't pick any fights with Muaka. If you find any bodies, don't try to drag them along with you—retrieval is more trouble than it's worth unless you've got a Kualsi or a Kakama, and that's gotten more than a few stuck in a position where they were lucky not to freeze." OOC: @Snelly@a goose@Void Emissary@Emzee@Toru Nui@Krayzikk

IC: ... I sighed. "I need a drink."

IC: "You're sure it wasn't this other Toa of ice standing right next to us that you remember?"

IC: Unbelievable. "Because she said it in answer to my saying I didn't have the faintest clue what hospital you were even talking about. You know, like how conversations and questions and answers work. Between reasonable beings."

IC: "Skyra, you literally just said it was the hospital in Ga-Koro."

IC: "That who wasn't me?! Someone with you when Skyra became a woman? No! The last time I was in Ga-Koro I was getting press-ganged by the marines, and before that I was in a fight in the middle of the Koro trying to help Tillian Juturna!" No sooner had the words left my mouth than I wanted to groan. Skyra and Tillian had been great friends. I probably just gave more ammunition to the delusion, rather than trying to defuse it like I'd hoped.

IC: This poor man didn't know how right he was, and yet also how very, very wrong. "I'm really unsure who you think I am right now."

IC: I quickly looked back and forth between the two of them. Looking for some hint of a joke. But in their eyes I saw nothing but wide, empty-headed sincerity. Mata-Nui protect me. "You have a point with the 'despite everything' part, but we've barely been friendly for a few months now. I'm still surprised she didn't gut me when we saw each other in Ko-Koro."

IC: "What."

IC: "What."