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Recent Statuses

16 days ago
Current Ethical issues aside, AI prose is just really bad.
3 likes
24 days ago
She wanted to read, she wanted to write, but the main thing she wanted was something to fight
4 likes
1 yr ago
Make it clear that you don't need him to be reading Dante tomorrow. Also suggest it would be fun if you had a private language that you could use to mock English speakers in secret.
5 likes
2 yrs ago
Luckily history suggests an infinite ability for people to be shit heads ;)
1 like
3 yrs ago
Achmed the Snake
1 like

Bio

Early 30's. I know just enough about everything to be dangerous.

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Emmaline lay back in the bath luxuriating in the hot water. It was difficult to heat enough water for a warm bath on a ship, the expenditure of firewood alone was very expensive, but fortunately a spell that would warm water was something even a novice could master within a few weeks. The tub itself was a large cask which had been halved when the top had been damaged and the interior sealed with copper. It was large enough for Emmaline to sit in with her knees drawn up and she was able to rinse her hair by emptying a jug over her head. Soap was less easy to come by. Sailors in general and pirates in particular, were not as a rule interested in bathing. Apparently the previous captain had felt much the same way as there was no soap to be found. Doubtless she could pick some up in the morning, or the afternoon more likely, when she went ashore.

She had stripped off her soaked clothes and dropped them into the tub. The silver she had taken from Von Roberts, perhaps a hundred pieces had survived her escape, lay in an upturned hat by the side of the bed, allowing her to run her fingers through the glittering metal at leisure. When she had hit the water, the weight of metal had carried her to the bottom. Fortunately she had been able to use a spell to breathe, a good thing because a trio of musket balls had drawn trails through the water close to her, though they were no danger by the time the reached her, it was clear that surfacing would have had its own problems. Walking to shore she had noticed that Von Roberts had men on the waterfront watching for her, or her body she supposed as they doubtless assumed she had drowned, and had been left with no choice but to walk along the harbor bottom to reach the Hammer, an exhausting and unpleasant task. Several pieces of silver had been used up to create arcane lights for the trek and it was a good thing a moon was up or people might have noticed phantom lights beneath the water.

It was a shame that her pistol had not gone off, she suspected that Von Roberts was not the sort to live and let live and though she was no sailor, it seemed pretty clear to her that bigger meant better when it came to ships. The code of Sartosa prevented ships in harbor from attacking one and other, but she was starting to wish she had started a convenient fire on the Sea Drake before she left. Emmaline picked up a comb, bought with her from her bagage when the last ship had been captured, and began to work it through her hair, tugging out bits of seaweed and driftwood that had become lodged in her golden locks. She had nearly completed the task when the door banged open. She gasped and covered herself with her hands before she realized it was Markus, who looked like he had lost a shilling and found a copper. She cocked an interogative eyebrow at him.
In NULL 5 yrs ago Forum: 1x1 Interest Checks
#CarmillaBestVampire
Von Roberts was a fearsome looking man, perhaps forty years of age, the sea had etched craggy lines into his parched skin. He wore a beared of scraggly black and his left eye was covered by a black patch. He grinned at her with slightly yellowed teeth as he stepped inside and closed the door, sliding a heavy bolt home as he did so.

"You'd think Flintbrook would have better sense than to send a woman to spy," Von Roberts said as he advanced towards Emmaline. The golden haired sorceress backed up, hastily stuffing the last few handfuls of silver into her bodice.

"He didn't send me, I followed your idiot sailors back," she snapped as her rump bumped into the liquor cabinet with a clink of shifting glasses. Von Robert's grinned wickedly.

"Perhaps if he won't give up the quest for silver, he will give up the quest for you?" Von Roberts said raising an eyebrow, he was moving around the central table towards her clearly in no hurry. Emmaline snickered, causing the pirate to pause.

"He cares more about being a pirate than he does about me," she assured Von Roberts. The pirate gave her a questioning look and then his eyes grew harder and colder.

"Well I suppose at least I can sell you at the slave market, you will fetch at least ten thousand silver shcillings," he told her before making a guesture at the chest.

"A real ten thousand schillings that is," he grinned, he stepped towards her reaching out with a caloused hand. Emmaline pulled the pistol Markus had given her from the waistband of her shirt and pointed it at Von Roberts. The pirate captain smirked.

"Please woman, we both know you don't have the..."

Emmaline pulled the trigger, the hammer snapped forward and the powder hissed and sparked for a second, then subsided without discharging the gun. Von Roberts' single eye widened with shock and anger before growing cold and deadly.

"Well it seems like the God's favor me more than you whore," he declared, "looks like you are out of options."

Emmaline hit him across the face with the pistol, the heavy barrel splitting Von Robert's lips in a spray of blood. The pirate staggered backwards with a shout that was half cry and half curse, his thighs hitting the central table and jouncing the chest before lurching forward to grab at her. Emmaline ducked under his arms and darted to the rear of the cabin, crashing through one of the glass windows with a jump. She got one foot down on the narrow balcony before her momentum carried her into the railing at thigh height, toppling her over the side in a graceless cartwheel that ended with a splash in the harbor twenty feet below.

Two Hours Later

Rodrigo, one of the Estilian sailors who had been left aboard the Hammer as an anchor watch, stared disconsolately out towards the town, it was only an hour or so before dawn now and the party wasn't so much ending, as collapsing under the weight of alcohol poisoning. The fireworks had ended some time ago, but a cloud of powdersmoke from the celebrations still gave the air a faintly acrid tinge. A handful of sailors had returned, mostly staggering drunk, to collapse in their hammocks, but the majority were still sporting ashore. A sudden disturbance by the bow caught the sailors attention as a pale silvery light swelled beneath the water, resovled a moment later into Emmaline as the womans golden hair broke the water like a whale breaching for air. A silver halo around her head flickered for a moment and then vanished, transforming her from strange and exotic to bedraggled in a moment. Sea weed was tangled in her hair and around her body, and she seemed to be working very hard to tread water.

"Well don't just stand there throw me a line!" she snapped irritably.

A minute or so later Emmaline had been hauled onto the deck. She was soaked to the skin, her hair matted with sea weed and other pieces of refuse. A small fish had become trapped in her tangled hair which she pulled free and tossed over the side. Her loose fitting sailors clothing was plastered to her body, save around her bosom where it sagged in lumpy bags which clinked metallically when she moved. Rodrigo arched an eyebrow and Emmaline reached in and withdrew a silver shilling, which she flicked to Rodrigo.

"Here," she said, plucking a strand of seaweed out of her hair.

"I'm going to find a bath," she added as shew walked wearily aft towards Markus' cabin, clinking metallically and leaving a trail of sea water with every step.
One of the pirates growled a curse and reached for a pistol at his belt but was frozen by a bone chilling chuckle from Sketti. The dwarfs laughter sounded like timbers cracking during a cave in. Emmaline reached behind her and patted her rump trying to get a her own pistol, which fortunately was inept enough not to look threatening. The remaining pirates froze their faces an agony of uncertainty before the one who had spoken, obviously the leader, dropped his hand to his side.

"Don't say we didn't warn ye," he snarled and then turned and tried to stalk away. It was obviously meant to be dramatic but they fact they had to force their way through the crowd ruined the effect utterly.

"Friendly types," Sketti said, his face drooping in disappointment at missing the chance for a fight.

"Don't take it too hard, sounds like we might meet them again before long," Markus consoled the Dwarf. Sketti grunted.

"Hey, where did your bimbo go?"

Emmaline trailed along behind the four sailors, even with the hood of a stolen cloaked pulled up her gender ensured she recived frequent propositions and pinches. She ignored the latter and rebuffed the former with a giggle and a few 'maybe laters'. Fortunately the four pirates, angry now they were no longer afraid, bulled a path through the crowds and Emmaline could follow in their wake without too much difficulty. The group headed, predictabley, towards the harbor though the oppisite end to where the Hammer was docked. The piers here extened further out into the bay, allowing heavier draught ships to dock. A pair of massively built Estalian Galleons flanked what looked to have started its life as a heavy merchantman from Marienburg. It was bigger than the hammer and much more heavily armed, with guns on the main deck as well as below on the gundeck. The name Sea Drake was picked out in gilt below the windows of the captains great cabins which faced the city. One of the pirates turned abruptly and Emmaline pivoted and walked up the gangplank to one of the galleons as though she had always been headed their. Judging by the lack of outcry the ruse was successful.

"Senoritta, what are you doing here," A disconsolate looking Estallian with a drooping mustache and an odd looking helmet demanded as she stepped onto the deck. He was the only man visible although from laughter below he wasn't alone on the ship. Doubtless the anchor watches were less than pleased about missing out on the festivities. Or, in the case of a man vomiting over the railing of the other galleon, had already enjoyed them too much. Emmaline through back her cloak to reveal her golden hair.

"I thought I might find a couple of sailors sad to be missing the fun," she said poutily. That got the Estilean's attention in more ways than one. He straightened and sucked in his gut.

"Well you have come to the right place," he said, slipping his arm around her waist. She giggled and pushed him away gently.

"Why don't you get us something to drink<" she cajoled, making playful nipping motions. The sentry nodded his head enthusiastically and then all but bolted for the companion way. As soon as he was out of site Emmaline hurried up to the quaterdeck of the galleon, which was high enough that she could look down on the Sea Drake across the pier. As she had hoped there were few crew aboard, the four pirates were exchanging angry words with a man in a dark cloak and a broad brimmed hat amidships where the boarding ramp emptied and there were a couple of idlers in the forecastle who seemed to be absorbed in the bursting fireworks. Emmaline pondered for a moment and then crossed to the spanker boom which ordinarily projected out behind the galleon. She gripped the timber and pushed it, pleased to find that it rotated freely, then gripped it and ran, leaping up onto the boom as it swung out over the peer. She hadn't fully accounted for the fact that the timber was oiled and her grip slipped. She let out an indelicate squeak as she grabbed for better leverage but she was already falling. Something brushed her fingers and she grabbed with both arms, feeling fabric between her fingers. It was the black flag that hung from the stern of the Sea Drake. She scrabbled for purchase as she slid down the flag, her weight swinging her inward so she slamed against the gilt work above the captains cabin a second before she ran out of flag and she fell again, landing on her ass on the small viewing platform intended as the captains retreat. She scrambled to her feet but judging by the lack of an alarm no one had scene her embarass herself. Most of her decsent had been masked by the rise of the Sea Drake's quarter deck and her shout had been just one more in a noisy night. Letting out a breath she stood and tried the door to the Captain's cabin. It was latched from the inside but a whispered spell swung the door open.

The interior of Captain Von Roberts' cabin was far grander than Markus' own. Woven rugs covered the floor and fine furniture had been nailed to the deck. Paintings, mostly of Aryabian Harems hung on the walls and an expensive looking cabinet against one wall held several dozen bottles of wine and spirits. Judging by the stamped rune on the base of one bottle he even had dwarven ale. What interested Emmaline most however was a chest of brass bound teak which sat on the central table. She crossed quickly and pulled it open. Silver glittered inside in sparkling profusion. She began grabbing handfuls of coins and, lacking more suitable pockets or pouches, shoving them into the bosom of her garment. As she pulled away her fourth or fifth handful of coin however she felt the greasy feeling of lead rather than silver. Pausing to examine the contents of the chest more closely she saw that the silver coins had been layered over musket balls. Frowning she rumaged deeper, finding what appeared to be a charge of gunpowder.

"Not quite the treasure you, or that puppy Flintbrook was expecting aye?" came a voice from the door of the cabin. Emmaline world, sending a handful of silver schillings scattering across the floor. Captain Von Roberts stood in the door way with an amused look in his single good eye.
@POOHEAD189 Opportunity calls up James: Umm so this party isn't going quite as I expected...
Describing pirate city
The King In Yellow infiltrates your mind even when you don't realize it!


But stranger still is Lost Carcosa
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