video;

[aread]

[Well this sure is a video post. It opens on Kidd, who's looking rather casually bored, dressed up in all the stolen finery one might expect of a pirate. His accent is vaguely British-y, and his tone is casually bored.]

I've heard tell this turtle of ours stops off at locations along the course of its journey. And these shores— would anyone say they at all resemble the Caribbean? Nassau, perhaps?

[He assumes otherwise, but it never hurts to ferret out little bits of information. If nothing else, mention of Nassau might weed out any who know the region and what it stands for. Stood for. He cocks his head to one side, there's maybe a hint of something predatory to his expression.]

I find it curious, aye, to be plain, that we can be so long at sea without fear of outside attack. Pirates, and the like. This place is grand enough, but hardly impregnable. Has anyone considered proper fortifications for it t'all? A blockade, perhaps, or cannons? Or something a sight more modern, I understand there's all manner of things not common to my era.

Thanks be to you, listeners.

[A casual salute, and cut feed.]

Comments

[gathersnomoss]

Maybe once every few months. Unlike a ship, the turtle is self-sufficient, but there's some trade. And items from other worlds tend to find their way onto shore. Don't ask me how.

[aread]

Hardly as fantastic a thing as us ending up here, aye?

[Objects? Whatever, man. People, now, that's a whole other province.]

[gathersnomoss]

They are when they're often people's personal effects.

[aread]

You misunderstand me, lad. We're living, breathing souls, snatched from our lives and duties and deaths indiscriminately. Objects are easier to steal, and are like to cause less trouble. If the Emperor doesn't concern himself with our protestations, our personal effects seem a small enough thing to quibble about.

[gathersnomoss]

Fair enough, but our presence here seems to be a direct effort -- we show up and are quickly shuffled off to rooms prepared to them. The things seems to be... a side effect of the spell, maybe? They aren't as directly linked to the spell the former Emperor used to recruit us.

[aread]

I'd call it press ganged, myself.

[Or a close second to slavery, despite the fineries offered as recompense. Kidd's never thought very kindly of lost freedom, and that low opinion has dropped drastically after Kingston.]

You know a thing or two about magic, then?

[gathersnomoss]

Good word. And yes, I'm a sorcerer.

[aread]

In what sense?

[He recalls the word plain enough, it's meaning boils down to one who casts lots. And in the past, it's referred to those that conjure evil. There are no good connotations to the term, but Kidd's the sort to give folk enough rope to hang themselves, as needed.]

[gathersnomoss]

Right. I keep forgetting people here aren't always familiar with magic.

Most of my training is in what we call shamanism, which is manipulating the five elements: air, earth, fire, water and the 'stuff' of the astral plane. I learned a bit of everything, though.

[aread]

[Which means 'significantly dangerous', in Kidd's native tongue. Being an Assassin means being constantly doing threat assessment.]

I don't suppose raising the dead falls under 'everything'.

[gathersnomoss]

Not generally, and not in my case specifically. Most people avoid magic that pretty much screams 'I am a creepy dark sorcerer and will take over your town'. Unless they are creepy dark sorcerers.

The most powerful white magic can be used to heal people who are at death's door, but usually that's not what people mean when they say 'raise the dead'. And I can't do more than basic healing anyway.

[aread]

And you tell all this to strangers, just because?

[It's not like Kidd blabs about the Sense to everyone that'll listen. There's no such thing as a world in which some secrecies aren't needed.]

[gathersnomoss]

Because it's common knowledge where I come from, and part of my job skills. And it's not exactly uncommon for people to have powers here.

[aread]

So I'm learning, aye.

[No doubt it'll come to be a thorn in his side at some point, these gods among men.]

[gathersnomoss]

[Yes, it's interesting, in the curse sense.]

You... I can't say if you'll get used to it, since it's normal where I come from.

[aread]

But surely there are things you've found hard to swallow, being here.

[It may be a casual dig for information, it may not. Who's to say.]

[gathersnomoss]

The turtles back home are a lot smaller, and people think living on large sea animals is a bad idea.

More seriously, magic is common, but non-humans aren't very common in human towns. Maybe the occasional beastman, especially working as a hired guard.

[aread]

Is that what you are, then? A 'beastman'?

[gathersnomoss]

No. A beastman looks a lot like the name -- people with animal features, but who stand on two legs and can talk. I'm a chimera. It's a term for something made by combining several things by magic.

[aread]

And how is it you talk and walk about?

[gathersnomoss]

I'm part human.

[aread]

[... well that must have been an interesting conception.]

That's fair, then.

[gathersnomoss]

[Zel was actually transformed from human; but do feel free to share that misconception]

It's not that bad here. I suppose shape-shifters stop caring about the difference between humans and anything else.

[aread]

They do, at that.

[And if they've no cause or care for shape-shifting, what else might they find commonplace? A curious notion, to be sure.]

In any case, lad, I best be off. I'm not meant to sit conversing in this manner.

[gathersnomoss]

I'll see you around the turtle, then.