Open Log: Big Blue Wet Thing

[goingtobeunwell]

Terrors waking that morning will find a few things amiss with the ship: 1. it's hot and humid inside their cabins, and 2. the ship itself is rocking.  Swaying, in fact, as though the ice beneath them has melted and the ship is moving. Which it is, actually, and quite quickly too. 

The holes in the side of Terror have been repaired, the rigging put up on the masts, the dual wheels of the helm moving as the ship races through the waves on its own. Up above the sun is shining brightly. 
H.M.S. Terror is sailing once more, destination unknown.

Comments

[heyboss]

He looks out over the horizon. "Well, that's not really surprising. Unless we suddenly get attacked by pirates, I think we are alone out here." He hesitates. "I need to brush up on my history. Are there pirates during this time?"

[una_persson]

"We're about a hundred years past the Golden Age of piracy—Blackbeard and all that," she says, "but piracy never really goes away. It just becomes less ... dashing. Romanticised. But there's not a Jolly Roger to be seen."

[heyboss]

"Shame. I would have liked to be a pirate. It was my favorite game when I was a boy. Used to drive my mother crazy. All her good sheets were tied around trees like sails as my friends beat each other with swords." He chuckles at the memory, obviously feeling better than he had in the ice. There is always the awareness that things can go south very quickly, but he can shove that away fairly easily.

[una_persson]

"Dream it hard enough and maybe it'll happen," she says, nudging him gently with her elbow.

[heyboss]

"Don't tempt me," he laughs, tempted to put an arm around her. So he does just that, wanting her close.

"There is a difference in dreaming it and just being cautious. I worry for them." He gestures to the others vaguely. "Something good happens and they expect it will simply stay in their favor. But am I simply being too pessimistic? I've had the rug pulled too many times, and some of them are fragile enough that a whiplash like that might be what sets them off."

[una_persson]

"I know." She sighs. "If we go back to being trapped like that again, it's ... it'll be especially hard for the original Terrors." Well, Goodsir is technically an Erebite, but no one is splitting those hairs right now. "I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, but I should like them to be prepared, at least."

[heyboss]

He glances to the Captain across the way, the Lieutenant-turned-navigator, then the gentle Goodsir as she speaks. They all seem so happy. "Equally, I don't think we can keep being the harbingers of doom. I tried talking with Strange about it, which was probably my biggest mistake. He is impossibly optimistic." He chuckles darkly. "For a while, I found it easy to believe. To live in it."

[una_persson]

"If we're lucky, we'll ... ease our way back into the ice, if indeed that's where we're headed. Instead of just waking up in the morning to discover it all frozen again. That would be far worse, I think." She sighs. "You're right, though. There is no particular pleasure or benefit in being a Cassandra."

[heyboss]

"If we are lucky," he amends, "we will wake up in a completely different place that has no ties to any current occupants. I can't imagine the torment if I woke up at Ashecliffe and we all were forced to stay there."

[una_persson]

"Point taken," she says with a nod. "Or perhaps we simply ... keep sailing? I don't know. Something will happen, but this is now sufficiently different to the city that I'm not sure any of my guesses are worthwhile."

[heyboss]

He shrugs, though he is coming to a conclusion in his mind. "They may not be but...I think we can have it both ways this time, Una. We can be prepared, but we can also enjoys this while it lasts. Apprehension is normal, but we cannot carry it totally and allow it to cloud our days. Besides," he offers her a warm smile. "You have me. We can share the burden of what we know and what we think we know."

[una_persson]

"Yes, Doctor," she says, grinning a little. She's teasing, but she does think he's got the right of it. "I am glad you're here, you know. For all the obvious reasons. But also because it's good to not be the only one who knows—or thinks they know—what's going on."

[heyboss]

He's glad that she can agree, and it seems time to move on to lighter topics. "Obvious reasons?" He gives her an innocent look. "Tell me, then, what these obvious reasons are."

[una_persson]

She leans over and kisses him.

"Is that obvious enough?"

[heyboss]

He grins, the kiss in the warm air making him feel much like a much younger man. "I think I'm beginning to understand, yes" he teases, his fingers brushing through her hair.

[una_persson]

"I'd be happy to make my point clearer, but you know what they say about scaring the horses," she says. Despite the lightness of her tone, she feels abruptly melancholy on behalf of a woman she's never seen or met, asleep perhaps, lost in her own dreams and decay. Poor Emily. But she also can't take herself away from Lester, no more than she could from Major Nye or Elizabeth. She kisses him again, willing the thoughts to be dealt with later.

[heyboss]

With no knowledge of her shift in mood, he simply takes the kiss as it comes. "Oh, I think they would all appreciate that. But...I am patient," he tells her casually, as if they were simply discussing the weather.

[una_persson]

"Patience is a virtue and virtue is its own reward, or something. I'll make it worth your while." She leans her head on his shoulder. "I really did miss you, you know," she says. "And I'm glad we get to have some time that's not completely iced over."

[heyboss]

He's quiet for a long moment, enjoying the weight of her while he thought. He had missed her, too. And with the void of this unknown woman in his life, all he can recall is that hurt he had when he woke and she wasn't there. He never thought to tell her the depth of that loss because he never could be honest about his own feelings on anyone until they threatened to spill over.

"'Nothing in the world is single; all things by a law divine,'" he recites softly.

[una_persson]

"In one spirit meet and mingle," she supplies. "I never knew that you liked Shelley."

[heyboss]

"I don't. Well, not really," he tells her. "I like that poem. Heard it once and thought, like most young men do, that I knew what it meant."

[una_persson]

"The Romantics are like that," she says. "I used to disdain them in general, myself. But one learns their virtues, in time."

[heyboss]

He finds himself agreeing quietly. "Well, I only know that one, so you don't need to expect any others any time soon," he tells her lightly, though there's something he's deliberately leaving unsaid. He reaches down to pick up his book he had been reading, revealing the cover. "Found this in the library. I used to have these in my office at Ashecliffe. Terrible, but...addictive. This is what I know better than poetry."

[una_persson]

Una grins. "There is absolutely nothing wrong with a good pulp novel," she says. "I've a dear friend who has written plenty in his time. Occasionally he picks my brain for ideas."

[heyboss]

"Una, that is the least surprising thing you have ever told me," he laughs. "Is it anything I might have read, or is it in a different place entirely?"