InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "but will it go unrequited???"

Bellum Anon (bellum_anon) wrote in bellumlogs,
@ 2010-05-18 10:00:00

Entry tags:

gretel, moriarty, plot: riddles, snow queen, vasilissa

Group M: Gretel, Moriarty, Vasilissa, Snow Queen

The plaque on the wall says:

A motley crew, if e'er I saw,
And not a one against the law,
Except for that one tiny thing,
But it was hardly worth the sting.
Babies, see, are very small,
And barely worth the fuss at all.

So this boat is in the clear,
From dock to dock and pier to pier.
Except, you see for smaller dings,
Like broken hearts and hateful things.
So for this boat to stay afloat,
Kindness, friends, was all she wrote.

And this hint I give you now,
What you want is near the bow.

The room is not a room at all, but rather a pirate boat, complete with a crew that is ready to wage war against another vessel that is coming ever closer. The vessel is missing two things, which becomes immediately apparent: a captain and a name.

1. Near the bow, there is a captain's hat, but there is no way to place a name on the bow of the boat.
2. The group must decide on a name that embodies all four of them - kindly.
3. They must engrave the bow of the boat somehow.
4. And they must agree on a captain.
5. When these two things happen, the neighboring vessel turns out to be friendly, and a lovely trade of goods occurs.
6. If there is any arguing during any of the activities, the boat sinks and they are returned to their previous locations after an uncomfortable dunking.

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	vasilissa 2010-05-19 06:36 am UTC (link)
	Ileana squinted her eyes, trying to work through the sting of salt water. She pushed her wet hair out of her face, trying not to glower at the others. "How about we all try to take five seconds before we talk, all right?" she exhaled a quick huff with a frown. "So we need to come up with a name. Anyone got any ideas?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	snow_bees 2010-05-19 05:44 pm UTC (link)
	Deirdre gritted her teeth together as the salt water dripped off of her. She knew the second sinking was her own fault, and she didn't want to be responsible for a third go-around. It took her a good few seconds before taking a calming breath, frowning at the way her clothes were clinging to her. "Does it have to be something boat-like? Or just a name?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

lostintheforest
2010-05-19 06:11 pm UTC (link)

Evie gritted her teeth, but the saltwater had gotten in her eyes the last dunking and she didn't want to sink again either. "It doesn't say," she told them as calmly as she could, reading the plaque more carefully this time. "It doesn't say anything about naming it so maybe we can do whatever we want." She shrugged and looked up at the three with a bit of a smirk. "I vote for The Lonely Island."

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	vasilissa 2010-05-19 06:28 pm UTC (link)
	Ileana stared at the plaque for a moment. "'Kindness, friends, is all she wrote,'" she read out loud. Furrowing her brow for a moment, she regarded the others. "Maybe the entire thing we have to be nice for? Like, naming it something nice. Also, how are we going to put the name on the boat? Does anybody have like, a marker?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	snow_bees 2010-05-19 07:58 pm UTC (link)
	Deirdre clamped down on the automatic rude response that was inches from slipping out. "I think it's a good idea to keep everything as nice as possible. Unless we want to take another trip into the water." She pauses, pushing the damp hair back off her face. "I don't have anything to write with though." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	lostintheforest 2010-05-19 09:50 pm UTC (link)
	Evie held up her hands, showing that they were empty. She didn't even have pockets in her jersey that might contain something useful. "What even counts as a nice boat name? The Rainbow?" Then she looked to Jonathan. "So how about it? You're captain. Got a marker or a knife or something?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

dierache
2010-05-19 09:54 pm UTC (link)

He reached into a pocket, pulled out a length of metal, and flicked his wrist. The butterfly knife opened up and snapped to attention. "A good detective never gets out of bed unarmed," he said, with a small smile, and slicked his hair back from his face with one hand. "We still need a name." He shrugged. " 'The Rainbow' will do. It doesn't have to strike fear into the other ship, so who cares?"

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	vasilissa 2010-05-20 12:18 am UTC (link)
	Ileana raised an eyebrow in surprise at Jonathan. Huh. A detective with a pocket knife. Like this building had enough weirdos. "All right, Cap. The Rainbow it is." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	snow_bees 2010-05-20 03:15 am UTC (link)
	Deirdre continued to keep a tight reign on her temper. 'The Rainbow' was not what she would have chosen for her own boat, but it was friendly enough to suffice for this. She eyed the pocket knife that Jonathan pulled out, but sighed and nodded. "Fine. The Rainbow." Her tone was terse, but hopefully polite enough. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	lostintheforest 2010-05-20 03:27 am UTC (link)
	Evie groaned and shook her head. Trust her to get the group that didn't understand the concept of sarcasm. "I didn't mean it," she informed them, keeping her voice perfectly civil, like she was talking to a teacher or something. "But okay. Where is the name supposed to go?" She wasn't about to admit it but she didn't know shit about boats. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dierache 2010-05-20 03:54 am UTC (link)
	"The side of the boat, traditionally," he said. "I don't think the placement much matters. The problem is actually carving it in without falling off the ship. I'd say I'm too heavy for any of you to hold my weight, but I could keep hold of one of you while you carve it into the side." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	vasilissa 2010-05-20 04:07 am UTC (link)
	Someone had to go over the side. She looked around at the other girls. The redhead seemed a little too heavy (especially top heavy, honestly.) It left her and Evie as possible candidates. Unfortunately, Ileana thought she may be the smaller of the two. "Oh good. That's just...awesome," Ileana sighed. "I think I might be the smallest. I can go over." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

snow_bees
2010-05-20 04:16 am UTC (link)

Deirdre was a little startled at the girl's easy volunteering. She had to basically trust them enough to let them hang her over the side of a ship, and (from what Deirdre could tell) she didn't know any of them.

She glanced at the other two, knowing that with the name on the ship, they'd be that much closer to getting back to their own lives. "I can help hold her as well."

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lostintheforest
2010-05-20 11:23 am UTC (link)

Evie shrugged, almost apologetically, and showed them the cast on her hand again. "I can't really hold her. Or a knife. Sucks, I know. If you've got anything else that needs doing though..." She trailed off, looking at Ileana, then at Jonathan, then over the side of the ship. "How's this even going to work? Is she going to have to be sideways?" Hopefully the other boat wouldn't start shooting.

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dierache
2010-05-20 04:41 pm UTC (link)

"We're going to have to hang her partway off, and she'll have to write upside-down." He glanced over to Ileana. "Not an easy feat." He turned back to Evie. "Can you keep an eye on the other ship while we do this? If it starts coming up fast, we need to pull her back on board."

Best that everyone have something to do, so that no one started to grow more frustrated for their boredom and began arguing them into the sea again. But it was also a legitimate concern. They didn't know what the inclination of the oncoming ship was. Maybe it meant to attack, and maybe it didn't. Either way, it was best not to take chances.

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	vasilissa 2010-05-21 12:02 am UTC (link)
	Ileana walked over to the edge of the bow, peering over for a moment at the sea below. Shit this was a terrible idea. She tucked her shirt in to her shorts so it wouldn't fly up when she was hanging over before she looked at the others. "All right, let's do this quick." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	snow_bees 2010-05-21 12:14 am UTC (link)
	Deirdre followed to the side of the boat, glancing over the edge as well and suddenly very glad that she was not the one that was to be hanging over the side. She looked over at Jonathan, actually deferring to him at the moment. "Captain. How exactly are we going to go about this?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

lostintheforest
2010-05-21 12:37 am UTC (link)

Evie trailed along after them to the edge and used her good hand to get herself up onto the wood, sitting with one foot on either side of the ship so that she could see the other ship. "Don't die," she told Ileana blandly as she watched the three of them look over the edge. A second later, she went back to looking at the other ship, squinting to try to make out a flag or some sort of indication as to its purpose. The crew apparently still saw it as a danger and Evie was still burning for a fight. Not so much that it was worth being dunked in the seawater again though.

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dierache
2010-05-21 12:42 am UTC (link)

No one had ever called him captain in his life. He wasn't sure whether to relish it or not, in this situation. "We hold her by the legs, keep her waist on the rail, and she can lean over and carve the name in that way. And if you need a break," he said, this to Ileana, "Just tell us and we'll pull you up. We don't want you to lose your balance because so much blood has gone to your head. If you don't feel well, say something."

He let her get in position, then gestured for Deirdre to take hold of her other leg. He handed Ileana his knife, took the leg on his side a moment later, and then carefully lifted her up onto the rail.

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	vasilissa 2010-05-21 04:12 am UTC (link)
	Ileana bit the inside of her cheek to keep from saying something nasty to Evie. "Don't plan to," she replied. It took her a moment before she went over the rail. It took for a moment for her to get her bearings. "I'm good." She began work on carving the name in to the side of the boat. Surprisingly difficult to do when you're upside down. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	snow_bees 2010-05-21 04:22 am UTC (link)
	Deirdre held to the girl's other leg, not saying a thing and hoping that the carving would go fast. Her vision strayed out toward the oncoming boat, then over at the crew that seemed to be growing more restless for battle. She almost told the girl to hurry with the carving, but kept the words to herself, knowing that they wouldn't help anything. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	lostintheforest 2010-05-21 08:11 am UTC (link)
	Evie watched the boat dutifully, eyes straying to the crew every so often as well. "I think they're getting closer," she warned. She could see people moving around on the other ship now. "Can't tell if they're hostile." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	dierache 2010-05-21 02:36 pm UTC (link)
	"They've still got a ways to go," he said, keeping the same even tone, without looking up. The last thing they needed was for Ileana to panic and drop the knife in the middle of their carving. "These are full sailing ships. They don't move that fast." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	vasilissa 2010-05-21 05:41 pm UTC (link)
	Ileana really just wanted to tell them all to shut the fuck up so she could concentrate, but getting them sunk again wouldn't help their cause. She finished a carve of the last 'W' for The Rainbow. It was a little crude, but it did the job of naming their ship. "All right, lemme up," Ileana called back up to Jonathan and Deirdre. The sooner, the better. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	snow_bees 2010-05-22 12:04 am UTC (link)
	Deirdre started pulling Ileana up the second she said she was done. Thinking back to the verses on the plaque, she wondered if anything else needed to be done, or if that was all. "...What now?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)