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

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[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.

Instead, she was naked as the dawn and enjoying a frivolous bath in one of the rainforest's many isolated rock pools, much closer to where Shin-sin-fa was skulking about through the underbrush, noting well-used trails and looking for signs of ambush or human encampments.

The tiny planet was very warm, especially on the equator. Since everything was at the very most only a one week hike from the equator, that left it all with a similar climate. There was wet warm, and dry warm. The shady forest pools were one of the only safe places to lounge in the water, and their position under the thick canopy left them cool and soothing.

Chance can be a devil, and in this instance, it must be conjectured that it's a devil with a nasty sense of humor. Shin-sin-fa, the last person to be even slightly interested in seeing a naked woman, let alone a marooned ex-pirate enjoying a bath in the woods, was on a course straight for PJ's pool.

Patches herself would have never known if Scrap hadn't been playing Chase The Monkey And Scare It Until It Craps Itself. It was a game he was quite fond of; he would change shape to look like a big, frightening mask of some much-feared predator, and then he would bound over the branches chasing the primates and mimicking their shrieks. The course of his game on this fateful occasion led him right over Shin-sin-fa's head.

Scrap, for all his faults, must have cared something for PJ. Or maybe he simply cared for her poached turtle eggs or berry pies. One way or the other, he showed an unusual streak of loyalty in racing back to her and doing an impressive theatrical performance of a mini-Shin-sin-fa stalking through the woods.

His heinous sense of the dramatic unfortunately left PJ with an incorrect impression of Shin-sin-fa's exact physique and armament, let alone intent. Scrap's display left her with the notion that what stalked toward her was a rather muscle Felinese bulging with ill-concealed blades, drooling a big and cackling to himself with an almost maniacal glee taken from the hunt.

PJ was out of the water, her hastily-donned clothing sticking closely to her damp skin as she breathed quietly in hiding. A wickedly curved knife was clenched between her small, pearly teeth.

[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.

When Shin-sin-fa reached the pool PJ had been bathing in, he was silent as ever, and he heard nothing out of the ordinary. Still, his defenses were up, and as he peered across the ground in the small clearing surrounding the moss-dappled rocks on the edges of the pool, he noticed a trail of droplets leading into the wood off to his right.

He bent his knees in readiness, his ears flattened against his head, and slid his hand toward his hip to grasp a throwing knife.

The cat-boy was down and pinned before his long slender fingers ever brushed the hilt. If PJ was anything, she was big, and the tree limb she'd been standing on was high enough to make the drop a shock on the frame of such a slight-boned intruder.

He never heard her coming, and the next thing he knew, his mouth was packed with dirty and leaves which he didn't even have the breath to spit out. A warm, considerable weight was pressing him uncomfortably onto sticks and rocks, and as he finally drew in a choking breath, he gave a tug only to find both of his arms immobilized across his back.

When he felt cool metal against his throat, his ears drooped and he flinched. He dropped any thoughts of squirming away and waited quietly to discover his captor's intentions.

[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.

"Tell me how you got here, who you're with, how many, and what they know," she said quietly. She shut her eyes as she pressed the knife closer under his chin, knowing she was probably drawing a thin line of blood and not wanting to see it.

Just a boy. She didn't know if it was his blood or her own sweat that slicked her fingers, but she tightened her grip and waited for the kid to get his breath back.

[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.

But if he believed it, and it yielded results, that was all it mattered.

[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.

"Okay, okay," he gasped, the panic forcing his voice up in pitch. He swallowed, embarrassed, and in his usual affected, husky tone, gave her the closest thing to the truth he dared to spill out.

"I am on t'crew of a straight ship now, only a deckhand like I'm good for. An' I told 'em not t'come inta your trap, but they wouldn't listen t'me, jus' in case 'twas real. They're right sappy sometimes. There's only some five of us left now, an' no cargo anyhow, since we already been attacked by pirates once. That's why they come down, 'cause they thought you was another victim." His ears flattened in ire, and he took a deep breath before volunteering,

"They ain't got nothin', so leave 'em alone. I got more'n 'nough coin on me t'make it worth lettin' them be. Go on, cut t'linin' on my coat an' take a look. Back on t'collar there, by where you're pullin' so damn tight." He swallowed again, grateful the blade no longer made it a dangerous endeavor. "If you leave 'em be, an' jus' take me, there's this an' I've got more in t'bank I'm not averse t'sharin' t'keep my throat in one piece."

[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 morph...

If the kid was willing to try and pay her off to keep her away from his crew, it was a good bet he cared about them. Which meant that they probably cared about him. Even bloodthirsty pirates had their loyalties; Penny Jane understood that well.

"I'm afraid we can't leave them alone," she said crisply. "I wasn't kidding when I wrote that message. I want off of this goddamned rock, and if they're really what you say, they'll be glad to save me. If they're not, I'm gonna be holding you hostage until the next port. Don't move."

Without getting up, she untied a coil of rope from her belt, the same single length they'd left her when she was marooned. It had held up well over the years.

She tied the boy's hands securely behind his back, looping a noose over his throat so any attempt to walk backward through his hands and get them in front would strangle him. He looked at her reproachfully from the corner of his eye, and she found herself amused that he could even bother with care for his wounded dignity at a time like this.

He said nothing as she went through his clothing, slipping out knives wherever she felt them. There was a hefty pile of thirteen when she'd finished everything (including his boots). She flung them into her satchel and stood up, tugging at the rope.

"You too, come on," she said, gesturing lackadaisically with her knife. Shin-sin-fa stumbled to his feet, looking down in apparent humiliation, his cheeks burning red. She could sympathize; pirates weren't tolerant of weakness, and he'd get a dressing-down for being caught. Assuming he behaved well enough to survive, she reminded herself, and swallowing, pointed him in the right direction, following along behind with her knife pointing at the small of his back.

[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.

He hadn't been planning on taking her anywhere near the RLS Etherium; he was going to wander off into the middle of nowhere, hope they got lost, and say it was an accident.

Now, however, he had to wonder about how wise that was. She sounded like she was alone. That meant no danger to anyone but him, and even then, if he obeyed, it would only be his pride.

And his pride was already burning all over his body like the allergic rash he got from chocolate. He knew it was foolish to worry over it, but he was already going to be in trouble for running off--getting in trouble for being captured would make things so much worse. A woman, no less! Ignatious would never let him hear the end of it.

Thinking about the teasing he would endure in addition to whatever heinous punishment Tag cooked up was almost enough to get him to just randomly walk off into the wilderness, but two things stopped him.

The first was, he didn't think he'd survive another lie, and that included a lie about which direction he thought the ship was in. Very likely she would know the good landing places, if she really was a maroon, and she would realize if he was heading away from the places the ship could land.

The second was simply that he wasn't going to let himself be a coward and wander around a lost captive just because he hadn't the guts to own up to his own mistakes. If I was dumb enough to let it happen, I'm gonna take it and not complain, he thought stubbornly.

And so they headed toward where the RLS Etherium was parked, manned by a few crewmembers who hadn't gone off in search of the stranded mystery writer.

In the dense brush at the edge of the jungle, Patches had Shin-sin-fa kneel and they watched the ship from the bushes. Shin-sin-fa could make out a few familiar faces, and certainly a few of them were people he didn't want seeing him captive. His blush was eating his face.

[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.

Hating herself for her pity, she unfastened the rope. She knew she was endangering herself, but the stricken look on his face was heartrending. He looked up at her in consternation, not daring to move until she explained and gave some instructions. Her knife was still too close, and he was no longer armed.

"No use making a big scene," she said, glossing over any explanation. "We'll just find out what I need to know, and then I'll let you off. Walk in front of me, and remember, I can throw this thing just as well as I can jump out of trees, especially in an open space like this desert."

"Yes'm," Shin-sin-fa said with obvious relief, struggling to hold his cold, straight posture. He felt like slumping over and sighing.

"Okay, let's go," PJ gestured, and Shin-sin-fa pushed forward through the bushes, walking slowly and nervously toward the ship.

She followed him with an amused smile on her face. She wasn't sure what pride was like--she remembered vaguely having some once, but that...was a long time ago.