come_sailaway | Something beautiful happens in this world [Open]

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Something beautiful happens in this world [Open]

Who: Deputy Pratt and YOU!
What: Cake decorating, showing off his artistic prowess, shovel knight time
When: Later half of January
Where:Sand Dollars, the Library, Upper Deck
Warnings: None! (Well that's rare for him)

1. Sand Dollars
Pratt has completed his scientific research (having Sharky eat various cupcakes while naked) and has taken actual notes which are in the little notepad next to him while he sits at a table in Sand Dollars. He has one of the plastic trays from the buffet and has assembled a circle of cupcakes onto it to resemble a cake and is using a plastic butter knife to spread the frosting around so it looks like it's all one piece.

The wrappers from all of them are on the table nearby, along with some colorful other cupcakes that he's going to scoop the frosting off of in order to write out a message on this cake.

Yes, he is making the Captain a "Congrats on the Sex" cake. Sure it's been a few weeks but his memory is trash okay. He's trying.

2. The Library
Well, the binder is gone, which sucks because Pratt has already forgotten 80% of the contents. He assumes one of those people obsessed with blowing the place up stole it. So he will add his contribution to its recovery.

In its place is a Serena Eterna spiral notebook with a ship on the front, the ship is crossed out and instead there's a reproduction of Ryan's original cat drawing of Guatauva, but every page afterwards also has a cat drawing. He has faithfully recreated every cat internet meme he can think of. There's space above and below to make them into ship-centric memes. So have at.

His drawings look like this because I'm not going to draw 30 cat memes.

3. Deck
Pratt picked up the best package from home he's ever gotten. It was huge heavy and when he unwrapped it he squealed like a school girl because he's so damn excited. Friday is his favorite person for the next few hours because he has his shovel launcher now. Which is exactly what it sounds like, it is a rocket launcher, that shoots shovels.

He has a pile of shovels next to him, as he stands on the deck, aiming at the hull of the ship and then KUHTHUWNK the thing embeds itself into the metal siding and Pratt straight up cackles. Oh this is fantastic.

On the other side of him is his Christmas present he never opened which is 99 cans of Pabst in an absurdly long box and he's about to have the best day. Drink some beer, launch some shovels, spend way too long prying shovels out of the ship to do it again.

Montana's finest, right here.

4. Wildcard
Hit me with anything. He's always in the buffet or arcade or around the deck doing random patrols.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't think you get a choice, not like we can get away from people, all stuck in this weird bubble of a reality.

But like.. if we don't have hope what do we have? I spent my whole damn life being fucking miserable and I don't wanna do that here too so.. trying to be more optimistic you know? Turning a new leaf or something.

Anyway, I made you a meme to explain them to the Demon King.

[He grins and flips some pages to show Clarke his beautiful drawing of the captain as a cat with a lot of Clarke threatening him with knives.]

( "you still have hope?" "we're still breathing". sometimes it's almost funny how clearly she can hear bellamy's voice ringing in her ears, like he's not gone to the nothing or drifting around in dead space on board the go-sci ring.

but, more immediately, she dips her head down and doesn't respond. doesn't really want to acknowledge that pratt's the second person she thinks about (natsuno being the first) when reminded that the dead are better off on this boat than back home. that line of thinking threatens the resolve she has for finding a way to kill or incapacitate the captain, and is not allowed right now.

so, meme shift.

clarke blinks at the picture. ) That's not what hap— ( and all of a sudden she gets it, and snorts so hard a hand raises to her mouth on instinct. a second later, a bit wryly: )

I only hit him once.

I'm still trying to think up a good one for cracking his head open with uh.. tongs? A spatula? What was it again?

[Unfortunately the cute cat memes he's familiar with aren't very violent, so he might have to settle for giving Clarke laser eyes that shoot lobster crackers.]

My world uses these to make jokes about shit that's happened, especially if it's awful. I dunno, sometimes it makes people feel better. I just.. everyone's so miserable all the time, and Ava was thinking maybe that's why people disappear. They just kinda give up and fade away, and I don't want that to happen to anyone else. Already sucks it's happened to so many people. Maybe that's not what causes it, but people being more cheerful can only help right?

( other than magic sigils, that image should absolutely be her first real tattoo. teenagers don't actually change all that much, and shitty meme tats feel like a prerequisite before she hits twenty. )

...The method of execution on the Ark was called floating. Council determines you guilty, they put in an airlock ( vague gesture here, as she'd mentioned the graffiti already ) and open the outer door. We used to say "go float yourself" instead of "go fuck yourself". Then on Earth, one of my friends dragged the Chancellors bedmat into a lake while he was asleep, and he woke up in the water having literally been floated... It was really funny. ( clarke hadn't been there to see it, though. )

Gallows humor won't save us from the gallows. But it... makes the mystery less intimidating.

( all that to say she's not completely devoid of humor and does get it. )

I don't think it was giving up. The people I know who vanished, they would have never given up. ( bellamy blake, mizuki... hell, even ebalon. even jinx. ) ...And it was a lobster cracker.

It makes it easier at a uh... micro level so you don't have to freak out about the big picture. Something like that anyway, I'm the last person who should be psychoanalyzing shit. But it works and I'm not gonna question it.

Something got them though. Either it's something internal like they don't have enough emotions to juice the ship. Or it's external like they were sucked through a mirror by the ship ghosts. Like SOMETHING happened, I don't think they're just all hiding out in the VIP lounge.

( some mild humming along of agreement until that proverbial record scratch and keen interest into one of pratt's throwaway lines. )

Oh, you've been thinking about the mirrors too? What all do you know about that?

Pulled Clara out of one when she first showed up. There was this thing in the mirror grabbing at her and her arm from here, [He gestures to his shoulder] to here, turned white, and she couldn't feel it. Looked like it does when someone exsanguinates, just totally devoid of blood, but it wasn't rotting. Weirdest thing, never seen anything like that and I've seen a shit ton of injuries. Eventually feeling came back, an hour later or something.

[He looks away, wishing Clara was still around so they could ask her more about what had happened. Both because of Pratt's shitty memory and just to have her back on the ship. He'd felt a little safer having another person who had effectively talked him down before. That's rare. ]

I asked Friday about that too... after Izzy got attacked and the same thing happened. Like if it was connected. And if the mirror ghosts and the ones that processed people were the same. I think she said they weren't but.. I don't really remember. I shoulda been writing all that shit down. Gonna end up like the dude from memento and just scraps of paper everywhere.

( literally every hair on the back of her neck is standing up on the back of her neck from pure excitement. talk about confirmation of a theory from the most unlikely source. and, sure, the latter half is secondhand knowledge from a man with enough holes in his memory he's kinda like a block of swiss cheese. but it's pratt, and it fits, and — )

Oh, that's what was meant by "blood drinking mirrors"? I was imagining... ( something between stumbling upon a mirror with a random dribble of blood hanging off the lower edge like soup leaking out of a mouth, and an open wound being required. ) Nevermind.

( after the revelation, she's more aware of the fact pratt isn't looking at her anymore. a quiet sort of mourning is recognized in his profile and aversion, but it's hard to touch that without also brushing up against her own. touching him isn't that hard though; between pressing his arm to the table the day after halloween and rubbing circles in his back around the bonfire, it feels allowed. so a hand is raised, and clarke gently nudges his shoulder with the backs of her fingers. i get it, it's okay and hey look at me all in one. )

You know, you could just text me after anything significant happens. I'll remember for you.

Who called them that? I mean, yeah that's... what they do. Except the blood doesn't get sucked out of you it's just gone. Unless that happens on the other side of the mirror and we can't see it. Clara didn't have any actual wounds or anything. Just white as hell and no feeling.

[He does look back at her, shaking himself out of his little reverie before he falls too far down his memories and regrets.]

I really probs should. I text Sharky sometimes but he probably gets annoyed by at least some of it. That's why I got a notebook and been writing all the important shit down. If the ship ever eats me you guys are gonna have the worst diary text log of all time. A bunch of random sentences that mean something to me and no one else.

( when he looks back, clarke smiles at him. well. half smile. a solid attempt, but it comes out the pinched, broken remnants of anything properly relating to happiness. a sad sort of buckled lips. the sentiment is there, though, in her eyes. )

I don't think you're all that hard to understand. And I'm pretty difficult to annoy.

( ... )

Unless it's Darcy. Or Jinx. Or sometimes even Rita.

( a small shrug, then moving on. ) Anyway, what mirror was this? ( totally casual asking! ) Do we need to put like, a warning sign in front of it? ( yeah that's exactly what she's thinking of doing with said blood draining mirror. don't worry about it! )

[He gives a half grin back, they're doing so well at convincing each other everything is just peachy.]

It's one of the ones in the hall off the atrium, but it hasn't done anything weird since then.... I don't think anyway? Not that I've been checking it. And it wasn't really the mirror, there was something in it that reached through it and grabbed her. Like a freaky decaying skeleton sorta.

( everything is absolutely fine. neither of them are dissolving at the seams nor plotting ship-wide chaos at the hands of a vector ghost, what do you mean?

though the hint of wind in clarke's proverbial sails seems to dissipate at that clarification. she'd seen plenty of mirrors around here, maybe even all of them after the several month stint of religiously walking the halls of the serena eterna in order to map them in her brain. and not once had a ghostly arm extended itself towards her. dammit. )

Gross. That does sound really freaky.

( where does she even start with that? is she going to have to make a crapshoot attempt at a single person séance just to set the mood?

... ) It was good of you to save her. It was in the binder, we know what would have happened if you hadn't. And it would have hurt the whole time.

I don't want anyone to get hurt. Or die. Or get their bodies used by ghosts. Which sounds dumb coming from... me. But it's true.

[He can almost hear Jacob telling him he's not a hero, he's a tool, but Jacob isn't here so fuck him.]

Whaddya think we need to do so it doesn't happen again?

( that punishing self deprecation streak hasn't let up, she sees. quietly: ) It's not dumb. It doesn't sound dumb.

( he's better than her, at the very least. the term acceptable losses had started floating around her mind early october, jarred forward when she'd screamed at natsuno that he wasn't one. but it's stuck around since, like a particularly ominous storm cloud above her head.

but, anyway: planning mode. or something like that. )

Mitigate the risk first. Perpetuate the knowledge. Post something next to that mirror, and any others in the common areas. "If suspicious looking, don't touch; you will die" or something like that. And then investigate the root cause, maybe there's something that could be done to fix it at the source.

Ironically if the binder was still around I could add it to that. Though I think I had put the mirror stuff in it already. And the cat.

Maybe it'll turn up again I dunno. It was fucking convenient even if some of the stuff in it sounds like bullshit. It wasn't, but sure sounds fake when you tell people the Captain of the ship is an emotion vampire that sometimes holds game shows.

I dunno. My parameter of bullshit expanded significantly the first time I died and woke up without a kidney, so. ( a shrug.

and, after a beat of thought, a mental pat on the back for herself; clarke's adjusted to the insanity here rather well, all things considered. but that kinda comes with the whole adapt or die mentality that's ruled her entire life, and that of three generation of space refugees before her. )

Anyways, I think Skulduggery burned it. ( the library had smelled like a book bbq for a few days, at least. ) And honestly, if he can't take a bit of criticism, he's no business playing at a leader in the first place. ( says the defacto leader of her people that was routinely shit upon more than praised, but whatevs. ) It's best to take whatever we learned from there, and expand on it.

Like, tell me more about the cat.

Wait, you lost a kidney? How... how did you even find out it was missing? Did you wake up in a tub of ice instead of your bed? I thought that shit was an urban legend...

Ehhhh, yeah, I get that but also, if I had a book with deets on a dude that could be maybe used to kill him and I started fucking him I'd probably ditch it too. Just in case. Kinda weird to tell your boyfriend that you're keeping notes on him... [Though is that weird? It's a skeleton and a magician, everything about that is weird already.]

Oh the cat is in Tauva, and it tried to kill Cap-- Izzy. [A frown because that still feels weird to say, but Izzy isn't his Captain anymore so...] I haven't seen it since but it's probably still around, I think it's tied to the place.

( pratt just. continually. hitting. all her vector ghost. hot buttons with that last bit.

but, he'd also asked questions and added commentary so, in no particular order: the binder. ) There wasn't anything informative enough in that binder to be used to kill him. ( god, if only, and also the driving reason behind hunting skulduggery down in the hallway after the meeting. the skeleton is good at secrets.

then, the kidney. complete with a dismissive handwave, because what even is the best way to describe showing up on palamedes sextus' doorstep covered in saltwater and blood, and asking him to palpate her flesh. on like, their second meeting ever. ) No, nothing like that. My necromancer minored in medicine. Now we just know it's the Stupidity Tax.

Ah, [He looks down at his still missing finger.] Yeah that tracks.

Also, my necromancer? [Cheesy grin incoming!] Dude, that's adorable.

( shit. shitfuck. fuckshit. not the first time she's referred to pal that way, but arguably the first time she's been so spectacularly called out on it. ignore the ugly haze of grey purple staining upward from the collar of her shirt.

grumble grumble ) Shut up.

Edited (icon matters) 2023-02-19 03:10 (UTC)

[Pratt's shit eating grin gets even bigger. The grin that made everyone back home want to punch all his teeth in. It's a miracle he still has them.]

Awww. No it's fine. I won't say nothing. To anyone else anyway. He can be your necromancer, that's cute.

( the want to punch vibes are there! but colored as the reflexive, defensive jabs one might throw when scared. and are ultimately replaced with a shoulder smack. ) Shut. ( aaaaand another shoulder smack. ) up.

It's not — ( like that? the way the horrified dusky blush colors her ears now belays that defense, yet still clarke scrambles. )

I have titles like that for all my people. Friends. People.

[He takes the hits and does shut up, he even manages to grin normally and not like a cocky asshole. That purply blush is a little weird but also pretty cute considering what it means.]

All of 'em huh? Name another.

( staci pratt, stop calling her out like that this instant!

cue the deeply internalized screaming, but she'd laid out the premise of this challenge and now must rise to the occasion. )

Rita Mordio's my mage. Natsuno's my best friend. You're my ice cream sandwich guy. And Sharky's just my favorite.

[Oh he senses that internal screaming. He can just tell. But, he will let her off the hook. for now]

Fuck yeah, being the ice cream sandwich guy is way better than what other people have called me. I'll take it.

And okay, fine, have your nicknames.

Something beautiful happens in this world [Open]

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Just noticed that awesome typo up there. Processed? Go me. Well done.

i knew what you meant!!!!

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