Etherium wasn't dead! It was just resting! Vooom! FWEEWEEWEE!

[imperialkitten]

A variety of circumstances have led me to believe that I have the right to shove Etherium's plot right up to the point where I can play again. If you disagree (or are just curious what they are) you can find it here.

Even though I'm playing with myself, this IS an open post. I don't WANT to RPsturbate, you know! ;)Shin-sin-fa had lookout duty

Comments

[pj_patches]

If Fate were not such a trickster, PJ would have been happily scrawling in her journal in her makeshift hovel, half cave and half lean-to, with all of her clothes on and a warm meal in her belly, when one search party came across her home

[imperialkitten]

The boy had learned within his first hour on the ground to simply ignore the wildlife above him. There were no signs of any large predators (and this planet was of no size to support much of a population of them either). In fact, the animals around him were so unafraid he had the idea that there probably were no large carnivores, and whoever had written the sign was gone. When PJ's morph went over his head, he didn't even look up to notice that it wasn't a monkey

[pj_patches]

Over the back of the prone cat-boy's head, PJ glared at Scrap, who made a phallus and scuttled off to hide from her wrath.

He bloody well knew it was just a boy, she thought sourly. Looking down at the tense but oddly patient form beneath her, she shook her head sadly.

The kid was a pirate all right--the sheer number of blades on his body proved it if the permanent hoops in his ears or the scars she could see up the back of his neck didn't. So many sailors that were treated ill on straight vessels turned pirate, and he'd obviously been treated ill somewhere. She found herself wanting to gather his slight frame up in her arms and squeeze him, maybe spit on her shirt hem and wipe that smear of dirt off of his left cheek...

She firmly resolved to stop thinking that way; he was a pirate, and there might be more that weren't just mere boys. Lucky that he had come this way rather than a more burly companion, one that may have bucked her off before she had her blade out

[imperialkitten]

Shin-sin-fa swallowed hard, feeling the knife bite into his flesh with the action, and tried to think quickly.

Obviously, these were the craftiest damn pirates he'd ever met--how they'd managed to acquire such stealth in the woods, he would never know. Spacers weren't exactly usually trained in woodlore, and you'd need it to be as silent as his captor had proven to be.

There were three main options. He could tell the truth, which was almost entirely out of the question. He could refuse to answer, which he was certain would be hard on his body and do no one any good. Or he could lie, which was probably the best idea.

Then there was the fourth option--stalling.

"I'm not talkin' t'jus' anyone," he grunted. "Take me t'whose 'n charge, an' then we'll see 'bout me talkin'."

[pj_patches]

Patches reined in a snort and lifted an eyebrow at the sheer audacity that came with youth.

"Fortunately for you, you ain't got no one else to go through. I'm the top of it, lad. So speak up." She squeezed her knees hard against his sides to convey the urgency.

[imperialkitten]

Of all the shu sa fen luck, he thought darkly. A woman and the leader. No pirate would dare to mock their democratically bestowed authority by claiming it when it wasn't theirs--so he'd best talk to her. And quickly, because any female pirates he'd known (and there had been precious few) were twice as vicious as the men.

"I'm alone," he said in a forlorn voice. "I were jus' screwin' 'round on my solar surfer, an' I saw this big ole sign on t'side o' t'planet, sayin' 'Come get me,' or somethin' o' t'like, an' thought I'd see. Y'know, real adventure'n all. I knew them back on t'cruise ship wouldn't o' let me go, so I didn't tell no one I were even goin'. An' I thought I'd catch up, only now I don't 'spose I will." He balked at adding, "Please don't kill me, ma'am.

He was not going to beg, even if it would play on her maternal instincts.

[pj_patches]

PJ waited silently until he seemed to be finished and slid her free hand into his short, spiky hair, yanking back hard. Her pity had drowned in ire that he had dared spit out such an obvious fallacy.

"Listen, you stinking miscreant, I know pirate ilk when I lay my eyes on it, and you're damn well it." She shifted her weight, centering it over his helpless arms. I bet they're numb, she thought with satisfaction. Even were he to get free his aim'd be off.

She went on. "There ain't no cruise ships this far out in the nowhere, and they sure as hell don't have no one like you on board unless you didn't came on at an unscheduled asteroid belt stop, and you know what I mean. Tell me again, and this time tell me the truth, or I swear up and down I'll cut your damn ear off, and then you'll tell me."

She wasn't sure she could cut a teenage boy's ear off, no matter what kind of alien he was. She'd more likely let him up and kill him in a fair fight--not cut off bits and pieces while he was pinned under her bulk

[imperialkitten]

Shin-sin-fa shuddered at the threat, feeling a cold wave pass down his spine.

"All right, all right," he gasped, trying with difficulty to hold his head up far enough that her grip on his hair didn't hurt. The knife had moved to his ear, and he could feel the blade pressed against the base of it. He tried not to think about how easy it would be to slice through the soft grey flesh; very little of it had cartilage...

"I did use t'be a pirate," he conceded. "But I ain't one no more. I--cook, on the cruise ship--"

The knife bit into his flesh and he jerked, feeling blood trickle down the side of his face.

"I ain't never meant somethin' more when I tell you that if what comes outta your mouth next ain't the truth, I'm gonna kill you real slow." The thick, determined sound of her voice forced Shin-sin-fa into a cringe he couldn't break out of.

If I end up dead, how will that help them? he thought desperately. Then again, I don't want to leave them vulnerable by feeding information to the leader of a band of vicious rogues."

[pj_patches]

PJ very cautiously slit the fabric open and was only slightly surprised to discover his coat packed with gold coins carefully stitched into place. She knew there was something funny about how his coat felt under her--it was so stiff and thick.

She narrowed her eyes and thought for a moment. She didn't believe anything he said; he was obviously a pathological liar or just bloody cocky. But one way or the other, she needed to turn the situation to her advantage instead of her puzzlement and fear.

One thing was for certain, and she was certain she could "bank" on it: he hadn't been lying about the money. She was holding it in her hand. She cursed the fact that she had no use for it. What she really had use for was being rescued.

Could she buy her own passage with his money? Would she want to? The squalor of a pirate ship...it almost wasn't worth it, after living in clean nature for years. Couldn't she wait longer? And then again, it had been a long time since she'd been able to socialize with people instead of that crabby

[imperialkitten]

Shin-sin-fa's ears pricked up at "save me," and he felt a sting where one ear had been nicked by the knife. He barely paid attention to the wound, though, so surprised and suspicious was he over her claims

[pj_patches]

PJ noticed and stifled a laugh. Boys. He'd been threatened with mutilation and slow, painful death, but he was still embarrassed to be seen trussed up by a woman, or at all