A graceful landing; The Spanish Main--Tortuga [Completed]
After a while of poking around Jack had concluded one thing: This little sloop had a lot of gadgets. Every time he poked a button or groped a lever, some kind of light would respond or strange beep would sound out of nowhere. He spent about an hour searching for the source of said beep, ducking and looking up into the roof of the cabin. After a while of that he gave up. Aside from beepy noise, there didn’t seem to be one spec of valuable things around to be pilfered, and no way to be moving the ship upwards.
An idea then struck him: Perhaps if the beep came out of nowhere, that’s were the controls were, too. Maybe by some magic or curse, they had to speak in order to move the sloop. It was worth a try. “I’m sorry to be disturbing you pretty little sloop, but could you mind moving?” He gestured forward several times but the ship stayed right where it was. Jack frowned, “No. I didn’t think so.”
No way to move the boat. That plot to borrow the boat had, metaphorically, sunk to the sea bottom. Utterly stumped, the scallywag took a seat in the “captains” seat near the window in the front of the boat. It was a very comfy chair. So much, in fact, that he put his feet up on the button-filled panel so he could lounge in it.
Before he knew it another series of beeps sounded-ones that were different from before. The pirate furrowed his eyebrows and looked from side to side quite alarmed. Outside the window, the water seemed to get lower and lower and the dock along with it. Removing his feet from the board, Jack leaned over to make sure that it wasn’t his imagination. Sure enough, the sloop hovered right above the waterline. Unfortunately for the pirate, the further he leaned against the panel, the more downward he pushed the steering level downward-for moving the ship in the forward direction. Whether he was prepared or not, the ship took off like a shot; Since Jack didn’t have his bearings he shot quite in the opposite direction.
Jack was not a daft man despite what others thought of him. He could figure quite easily that the lever was the thing that made the ship move forward. However, he couldn’t quite figure out how to get the ship to stop. He came up with a solution to that pretty quickly- most likely he would have to stop the pretty little thing by force.
On the port town of Tortuga, things went on as normal. People sang, ate, drank, and interacted with their pleasurable company. In one of the taverns, it all came to a halt when something crashed into the side. Tables tipped over, people yelled, but they were soon too overcome with fascination by the strange object.
Jack climbed out of the top of the boat, waving his hand back and fourth to shoo the dust that had been kicked up from the crash. “Smooth landing. Smooth.” Clutching his hat, the pirate slid down the side of the sloop and down onto the tavern floor.
The people of the tavern all stared and gawked-complete silence lingered in the air while they all gazed. Those who were playing piano stopped right above the following key in whatever tune they played, those who were fighting stopped mid -rumble, and all the rum drinkers stared in bewilderment at the craft-letting the rum pour right in their laps!
Jack swivelled around to look at the awestruck crowd, giving the place a wide-eyed look. “Ah!” He stepped over the debris, making a loud crunching sound in the process, to the nearest upright table and snatched a bottle of rum. “....To the best town in the Carribean.” The bottle of rum was raised high in the air. Silence followed. Jack paused, “Oh.” Almost forgot what place he had crash landed in. So he added shortly after: “And to free rum for all!”
Mostly everyone else, who wasn’t unconscious or fighting, raised their glasses as well. A chorus of ‘here, here’s, ‘yeah’s, 'aye's, and whistles followed. The music began to play again and everyone seemed to forget about the ship sticking out of the wall.
Such was the wonderful nature of people in Tortuga.
An idea then struck him: Perhaps if the beep came out of nowhere, that’s were the controls were, too. Maybe by some magic or curse, they had to speak in order to move the sloop. It was worth a try. “I’m sorry to be disturbing you pretty little sloop, but could you mind moving?” He gestured forward several times but the ship stayed right where it was. Jack frowned, “No. I didn’t think so.”
No way to move the boat. That plot to borrow the boat had, metaphorically, sunk to the sea bottom. Utterly stumped, the scallywag took a seat in the “captains” seat near the window in the front of the boat. It was a very comfy chair. So much, in fact, that he put his feet up on the button-filled panel so he could lounge in it.
Before he knew it another series of beeps sounded-ones that were different from before. The pirate furrowed his eyebrows and looked from side to side quite alarmed. Outside the window, the water seemed to get lower and lower and the dock along with it. Removing his feet from the board, Jack leaned over to make sure that it wasn’t his imagination. Sure enough, the sloop hovered right above the waterline. Unfortunately for the pirate, the further he leaned against the panel, the more downward he pushed the steering level downward-for moving the ship in the forward direction. Whether he was prepared or not, the ship took off like a shot; Since Jack didn’t have his bearings he shot quite in the opposite direction.
Jack was not a daft man despite what others thought of him. He could figure quite easily that the lever was the thing that made the ship move forward. However, he couldn’t quite figure out how to get the ship to stop. He came up with a solution to that pretty quickly- most likely he would have to stop the pretty little thing by force.
On the port town of Tortuga, things went on as normal. People sang, ate, drank, and interacted with their pleasurable company. In one of the taverns, it all came to a halt when something crashed into the side. Tables tipped over, people yelled, but they were soon too overcome with fascination by the strange object.
Jack climbed out of the top of the boat, waving his hand back and fourth to shoo the dust that had been kicked up from the crash. “Smooth landing. Smooth.” Clutching his hat, the pirate slid down the side of the sloop and down onto the tavern floor.
The people of the tavern all stared and gawked-complete silence lingered in the air while they all gazed. Those who were playing piano stopped right above the following key in whatever tune they played, those who were fighting stopped mid -rumble, and all the rum drinkers stared in bewilderment at the craft-letting the rum pour right in their laps!
Jack swivelled around to look at the awestruck crowd, giving the place a wide-eyed look. “Ah!” He stepped over the debris, making a loud crunching sound in the process, to the nearest upright table and snatched a bottle of rum. “....To the best town in the Carribean.” The bottle of rum was raised high in the air. Silence followed. Jack paused, “Oh.” Almost forgot what place he had crash landed in. So he added shortly after: “And to free rum for all!”
Mostly everyone else, who wasn’t unconscious or fighting, raised their glasses as well. A chorus of ‘here, here’s, ‘yeah’s, 'aye's, and whistles followed. The music began to play again and everyone seemed to forget about the ship sticking out of the wall.
Such was the wonderful nature of people in Tortuga.