It's just a question of ti~me [Open]

[tidesnpc]

Characters: 4423 crew
Content: It's a race against time as the crew of the 4423 tries to pillage as much as it can before the ship plunges to its doom, or someone comes to ruin their fun...
Setting: Merchant ship near Kropmork
Time: Raidin' time
Warnings: none yet, but who knows.
Notes: Once again, you are free to form your own teams, but please

Comments

[coyotealpha]

Well, it wasn't his fault that he had such a thick accent at times. It ran in his family, and Pip was pretty sure the accent wasn't going to vansih anytime soon. Maybe a few more generations down the road and the accent would start to lighten, but for now the mercenary had the deal with it. Pip was about to try and clarify what he had said when Maxim shouted over the commotion and he watch with a smile as two friends finally met each other for the first time in years.

...man, seeing this really reminded him of Seras now... but he couldn't meet her when he was on this ship; it was pretty old and big news about the whole thing in Kropmork after all. Maybe he needed a change of places... he'd have to bring that up with the captain later, the man supposed. But for now he only watched as the two Jagers reunited.

"Vell if vour a friend o' Maxim's zen I 'uppose it 'houldn't 'urt to introduce m'self," Pip said before jabbing a thumb towards himself. "Name's Pip Bernadette, leader o' ze Wild Geese if y'heard o'it before. Currently workin' on ze 4423 as a 'unner." He then tipped his hat slightly once again in courtesy. "Nice t'meet 'cha, mate; n'uh, zanks fer ze compliment." He added the last part as an afterthought, smiling sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. It was kinda odd to be called as 'fun', especially by a Jager, after all that he had seen about them. Pip supposed it could be considered a pretty good compliment.

[penurium]

Greed snorted with an amused sound and kept up his toothy grin. "I think I like this one," He said a bit to himself and a bit to the others. He watched as Pip actually went about introducing himself and rolled his eyes.

"And you can call me Greed, the Quartermaster," He said quickly, crossing his arms, "But we don't exactly got time for formalities, we're taking these people to the brig."

The ship was going down after all, they needed to get this shit and get out.

[holdon2yourhat]

"Dot's right, pipple, hyu heard him. Get moofink!" Maxim thrust his rapier at the small crowd of passengers. They shied away in response and continued towards the brig.

When they arrived it was a rusty cellar of sorts with a door that locked from the outside. Perfect. The keys were hanging on the wall nearby. Maxim ushered everyone inside and slammed the door shut, locking them all in. He put his face near the door and shouted, "Mebbe if hyu iz schmott hyu vill find a vay out of dere before de ship crashes!" He then laughed gleefully, banging on the door a couple of times with his fist.

"Hokay den, let's go find de odders und loot dis place."

[causink_trouble]

[ooc: she wasn't actually making fun of Pip's accent, just that of course they were taking the loot to the ship, there wasn't anywhere else to go with it]

Maxim seemed to have the passengers well in hand and clearly didn't want any distractions while dealing with them, so Jenka turned her attention to her two new crewmates. Their first reactions to her appearance already told her they dealt well with surprises, and clearly didn't mind violence. Good. They were probably worth talking to, even if unnecessary conversation went against her nature.

Hearing Pip's name, she turned towards him with a surprised expression. "Pip Bernadette? I've certainly heard ov you." This was getting more and more interesting, indeed! She inclined her head in response to his disconcertingly polite introduction. Polite and friendly introductions weren't something that happened much to Jenka. "Iz good to meet you. And you as vell, Greed-the-Quartermaster" - she added, amused by the way he managed to stress his position even while calling for more efficiency and less talking. "Iz you de one I talk to about getting on de ship, den?"

She grinned fondly at Maxim's enthusiasm as their prisoners were finally locked in, and couldn't resist slashing her claws over a particularly outraged-looking man's hand clutching the bars. "Yah, let's go vhile dere's schtill fun left!" she agreed, immediately turning to the corridor she knew lead towards some of the more interesting storage rooms deeper inside the ship.

[coyotealpha]

[OOC: Oh I seeeeeee. I fail at reading stuff like these orz. Also apologies for the late tag. >_>;]

Pip laughed lightly, the sheepish smile still on his face as he awkwardly contiuned rubbing the back of his neck when unlike most people he met around nowadays, someone actually had heard about him. It was really kinda... how should he put it - great? Odd? Sure his reputation was whispered all over Reial but well against someone like a Jager... lets just say it brought the scale here up to eleven. Whatever scale that is was that is. "Ah, I 'ope you're not too disappointed vith vat you're seein'," he added with a weak laugh.

He quickly gathered back himself though at Greed's words, clearing his throat as he snapped himself back into serious mode and casting a mildly sympathetic glance to the people locked inside the cellar. God knew how many times he had been in this same predicament when the Geese had been hired to protect their own vessels. Of course they managed to break free from their prison one way or another but... well, it just really wasn't the post pleasant of places to be, to put it lightly. Not that he was going to do anything about the current situation, of course - they would still be safe enough when the ship crashed, thanks to the layout. Nobody was going to get too injured, hopefully.

The man perked up when Jenka dashed out of the place, and not one to miss out on the supposed action and fun the man quickly followed behind, drawing out his pistol as well in case anyone else was to suddenly jump on him. It wasn't going to be his fault if they died because of that. They had already given them a chance to live, and they forfeited. Life was just unfair like that at times.

[penurium]

Now, Greed felt the real fun could begin. Messing with passengers and prisoners was certainly up there on the list of fun things for him, but looting, stealing, taking. That was what Greed was about, what he lived for.

He had to say, landing a job like this to cater to such a hobby had been a dream come true. There wasn't anything else Greed could probably do with himself if it were not being a pirate. The others could probably see the sort of frightening joy being displayed on his face.

With that he definitely went about ransacking the first room he came apon, shoving it all into the bag he carried with him. He didn't look hard enough at what he was grabbing, he just knew that it was his and nothing more.

[causink_trouble]

[ooc: skipping Maxim to get things going. Also, this multi-timing thing is a bit confusing, sorry if I mess something up! Also, sorry for sucky writing, I'm trying to hurry so we can get some stuff done.]

Human modesty sure was strange, Jenka thought after hearing Pip's comment. What was he looking at her like that for? Deciding this needed some kind of response, she eyed him up and down deliberately and gave an approving look before dashing towards the storage rooms. There was definitely nothing wrong with him. Nice scars.

She run along the corridor until she reached the third door on the left, a particularly solid-looking wooden one with a large lock. "Hy tinks dere's some crates of batteries und schtuff in dis vun!" she shouted to the others, before breaking the door down from a running start. The room was indeed full of crates - lots of them, and no easy way to tell what they contained. "Fastest to break dem and see, Hy tink" - she said half to herself, using her claws to tear chunks of wood off the containers and peering inside. Cloth, grain, cloth, ceramics, bottles... there, some kind of metal things! Better not to damage those too much. She took out a knife and started getting the top off the crate in a less destructive manner.

[coyotealpha]

Pip took the door opposite to Greed's, kicking it open with a loud bang and quickly grabbing whatever caught his eye - one of the good things of having become only reliant on one eye was that you tended to catch things quickly. Anything that registered in his mind's eye as valuable or for good use in the near future was quickly scooped up whatever he could and stuffed them into the satchel that he had taken along with him.

Just as he was done, the man heard the shout from Jenka and hurried up to where she was, watching as the Jager made quick work of all the crates there and looked around as she busied herself with the metal things. Clothes, food, more clothes, china (that was now smashed thanks to Jenka) and... ah. The mercenary grinned as he picked up the bottles and opened one by the cap to sniff at it, grinning in approval. These people sure knew how to choose their alcohol.

[penurium]

Greed made quick work of the room, cramming as many valuables as he possibly could into his bag and then quickly made it to the next room, not bothering to follow after Pip or the Jager chick. There was far too much to grab and never enough time to do it.

Greed started in at the next room, looking a little more closely at what he was grabbing. He filled his bag and started in on the pockets of his jacket and pants.

Finding he could carry no more, he left the room and called for the others, "HOW'RE WE DOING? WE DON'T GOT MUCH TIME."

[holdon2yourhat]

[ooc: And here's Gen making up crap excuses for why Maxim was sort of... not there.]

Maxim had slipped away sometime while the others were raiding the rooms. He now returned, moving briskly down the halls with his journal in one hand. "Captain says ve needs to moof, pipple! Grab hyu loot und get off de ship, NOW! Hyu iz slow, hyu get left behind!"

Without bothering to check the rooms Maxim grabbed a full bag sitting at the end of the hallway and climbed the stairs three at a time to the deck of the ship. Once out in the open air he could indeed see that the ship was failing fast. Taking firm hold of one of the ropes used to swing across he was prepared to jump when something caught his eye. A very familiar something. It was Dimo's hat, no mistaking that, sitting right on the edge of the ship's deck under the railing.

Had Dimo dropped it? That was mighty careless of him. Sighing, Maxim leapt down off the railing and reached under to grab the hat, stuffing it into one of his coat pockets before climbing back up and swinging across.

[causink_trouble]

Jenka managed to open her crate the correct way in a couple of minutes - it was full of various unidentifiable machine parts, including several batteries. Deciding all of it was probably valuable, she left the whole crate out in the hallway to grab on her way out, and continued to the next room, grabbing a few bottles from Pip's crate as she passed by. Today was definitely worth a party!

As she was leaving, she heard a familiar-sounding squeak from behind one of the crates, and stopped with a frown. A fuzzy blond head poked out with a louder squeak: "Miss Alice!" The little girl looked very scared - but apparently not scared enough to hide and stay hidden, Jenka thought angrily. How did she even survive until now?? Clearly she had no idea what could happen to her! In Jenka's experience, every child needed to know about pain and fear, sooner or later.

In a second, she was there, holding the girl up by the throat, her claws drawing blood, her eyes white with rage. "Hyu" she snarled "get beck in dere, und BE QVIET!!" She glared at the terrified girl for a moment before shoving her roughly back behind the crate. After listening for a few seconds to make sure the child wasn't making a sound, she continued on to the adjacent room, calming down slowly. A few minutes later, having filled her bag with all the useful-looking objects she could find there, she came back to the girl's corner and pushed a small knife hilt-first towards her hiding-place. "Und if zumvun hyu doesn't know finds hyu, kill dem." Satisfied with the complete lack of response, she went on to the next untouched room down the corridor.

She pulled herself away from the looting immediately when she heard Maxim's urgent shouts. Taking only a moment to tie her bag on top of the crate, she hoisted the whole contraption over her shoulder and run after him towards the stairs.

[coyotealpha]

Once he had taken the alcohol, Pip headed out of the room while Jenka was still occupied and went to busy himself in ransacking a second room, digging about and stashing whatever caught his eye once more. Wallets, pouches, jewelery, bank notes... whatever that had value, they were all stashed into his leather satchel. He was about to go out when he heard the whole fiasco with the girl and couldn't help but wince a little, but didn't intervene.

He was used to hardships in his life, having grown in the Badlands; try as he might he couldn't bring himself to pity the girl who was so frightened by the Jager. He only turned towards the direction of the room as he passed by when Jenka was out and cast the trembling child a symtheptic glance, smiling slightly and tipping his hat before hurrying up to catch with the others.

He reached the stairs just as Jenka finished to get out, and was about to climb when the ship lurched once, crackling sounds audible as the vessel started to break apart. Pip turned back to see Greed behind and shouted at him gruffly. "'urry up zere now, mate! Ze ship's fallin' apart!"

[penurium]

"I'm coming, dammit!" Greed shouted back as he threw his bag over his shoulders and made after the rest of them. Jenka's spat with the little girl went unnoticed by him and he raced past the rooms to catch up.

One of the ship's lurches, caught him off and he flew forward. He regathered his lost items and jumped back to his feet, running towards the stairs.

[causink_trouble]

The ship heaved under Jenka's feet just as she reached the deck, fortunately throwing her forward and not back down the stairs. She managed to roll as she landed, and even keep her loot more or less intact, but barely avoided sliding right down a widening crack in the deck. It was definitely time to get out of here!

She sprung up and started running towards the railing, weaving somewhat but managing to keep her balance after the initial surprise. Out of long habit she glanced around for Maxim and Dimo, but paid no attention to anyone else, including her earlier looting companions. Seeing Maxim ahead of her and Dimo already back on the pirate ship, she grabbed the nearest rope and swung across, grinning with excitement. "Dot vas fun!" She looked around 4423 curiously.

[coyotealpha]

He nodded to Greed once the man neared him before turning back and quickly made his way up the stairs. What with all the shouts, actions and everything else in-between, the mercenary had never noticed the loosening of the hair that was usually around his neck like some sort of pseudo-scarf. With the force of impact he used to get up the stairs, the hair unfurled around his neck and his braid swept down to the floor of the deck as Pip reached the top.

The mercenary gave the place one last glance, seeing another group (with one guy having pretty spiky hair) ready to leave as well before he started to head out, but then was violently yanked back without reason by the back of his head and he yelped in surprise.

"You're not goin' anywhere, pirate," growled a voice under him before giving his braid a rough tug. Pip barely had time to put two and two together before he was pulled back, hands scrabbling out to grab the closet thing in front of him, which was unfortunately the back of Greed's shirt as the quarterwaster dashed by him unknowingly.

[penurium]

Greed made a strangled sound of surprise as Pip snatched him by the back of the shirt. He was running pretty fast so the abrupt. forceful yank sent him off balance and tumbling down.

Whatever balance Pip had managed to gain by grabbing Greed was probably destroyed when he crashed right into him.