Rosa says to Light, “Ok, just checking it wasn’t something gruesome, like...” She stops talking. It seems like Light is having some bad thoughts of his own. “Are you ok?”

She nods. “I heard the noise too. Come on, you know what ships are like – they've got all sorts of odd noises. Let’s go look.”

******

In the Captain’s cabin, Rosa looks at the chest then looks at the others. With a facetious grin, she says, “Ok, so this place is haunted. Who wants to continue looking around and who wants to get out of here?”

She looks up when she hears the hoot. “Ha. He really does hoot. Come on; back to the deck. Let’s see what the hoot’s up.”

On deck Rosa sees the glow and looks over the side of the ship to see what’s causing it. “By Poseidon's beard! That’s big. Ok, time to go, people!” She sticks her fingers in her mouth, lets out a whistle, and gestures for Hugh and Dolf to bring the ship in closer. She then gives the pillowcase full of books to Murleena. “Take that over when you can.” She calls up to Tylluan, “Can you take Light back across?”

She goes back over to the side where the creature is and leaps up on the railings. She holds on to a rope and stares down into the water. What is it? Ooh, this is exciting!

"Okay." Murleena took the bag, and looked at it then at Rosa. She then looked towards their ship, gauging the distance between them. The ship will need to be closer for her to Shadowwalk over to it. She moves quickly to the nearest large shadow that's in a position that allows her to see the deck of their ship, then when it's close enough she will dive into the shadow and out the closest one on their ship.

Things move fast.  Rosa makes a wordless call for Hugh and Dolph.  The crew looked already active - someone must have noticed the light... and then the hoot.  At Rosa's call though, they begin to bring the Darkmaiden's Dance closer...

The risk of the ships colliding must have kept them just a bit further back than necessary... or perhaps the spooky nature of the ship they've found.  As Rosa relays what to do for Murleena, the... thing's swimming motion changes.  The lights around it sink slowly... and the large creature begins to move down deeper under the water.

Under, and over.  Rosa can clearly see it turning its body, as if to ram the side of the "ghost ship's" keel... or to dive beneath it.  Yes, Rosa sees, it's going under the ship entirely!  Is it going to come up from below (capsize?) or will it cross to the other side?

As Tylluan sees Light up on deck, Murlenna moves for the shadows.

She doesn't make it there.

With a sudden noise, Murleena finds herself yanked off of her feet!  She's sent... not into the shadows she was headed towards, but pulled pillowcase-first into the shadows of the belowdecks!  She finds herself tumbling, scuffed more than hurt, her claws ripping rents into the pillowcase as... something pulls it out of her grasp!

Light sees the cat-girl get yanked by something belowdecks, his Eye catching the movement of something long and white for seconds.  It was so quiet and so sudden, so absurd as to be utterly unexpected.  He swore it looked like some kind of long white frog's tongue.

With someone's yarn mitten on the tip.

And while this is going on, the sea monster disappears beneath the 'Journey's Bride'...
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:38, Tue 19 Dec 2023.

Tylluan stares down at the captain for a moment, before shaking out his feathers and nodding. "Yes. When he's ready, I'll bring him back to the ship." As he makes preparations for returning to their ship, he keeps an eye on the massive shape cruising beneath the waters. I am not liking that at all. I've never heard of anything like it, even in my preparatory research for my journey of discovery, and I have a feeling that getting close enough for a clear look could be... fatal. No thank you.

He turns his attention back to the deck and spreads his wings. He's just in time to see Murleena being yanked belowdecks by something lurking below. "Alarm! Alarm! Enemy below!" he hoots out in a loud voice.

"Meeuuuwww!" The catgirls version of a human's squeal or squeak of surprise as she is suddenly grabbed and yanked below decks.

Murleena's tone and mannerism suddenly changed as she stood up. "You've made a mistake dragging me down here." The feline said in a very calm, almost deadly calm, tone. "I will ask that you return the case to me, post haste, or I will be forced to demonstrate why I am called The Shadowcat." She continued looking in the direction of where the tongue came from and the bag had went. Slowly she began to walk in that direction. Ready for anything now.

Rosa had no idea that Murleena was grabbed; she was slightly distracted the huge creature beneath the ships, so when Tylluan cries out ‘Alarm! Enemy below!’, she says, “I know! I can see it! It’s going under the ship!”

She runs to the other side (starboard?) of the ship, the side closest to the Darkmaiden's Dance, and again leaps onto the railing. She deliberately grabs a rope that’s attached to the tip of the yardarm, then holding it tightly she again looks down into the water to what the creature is up to. “Stay away from my ship if you know what is good for you,” she mutters to herself.

Light's one human eye opens wide upon seeing the yarn mitt tipped frog-tongue like appendage wrap about Murleena and thwip her down below decks.

'OH, SUGAR!' He exclaims.

'CAPTAIN, CAT DOWN! REPEAT CAT DOWN!'

If/When Rosa turns to see what the Galley Chef is on about he can be seen standing there, one arm pointing to where Murleena was standing and then the stairs down below decks, back and forth like he might wear a hole in an invisible piece of the air.

He snaps out of it and then starts heading down below with his tea towel at the ready, eye still on Red, hoping to get to the catgirl in time to save her with as little contact with whatever just grabbed her as possible.

Tylluan's outcry is enough to rouse the attention of even Hugh and Dolph... but Rosa's concern was focused on her ship.  She moves fast, crossing the deck and leaping to stand on the railing.  Beneath her feet, the waves kick up the ocean spray.  Water was rolling, not just from the waves, but from the thing.  She could see the glow brightening, the lights around the sea-creature coming into view.

It was coming up on this side.  Was it moving to check on the 'Dance' now?  Or was it aggressively defending its territory?

Dolph moves to rail-edge of the Dance, holding onto the ropes, as Rosa reaches them.  "Captain!"  Whatever he was going to say was lost as his eyes move downwards, and then he swears several oaths on his mother's name.

The thing was rising up, quickly...

--------------

Light races down below, landing belowdecks with a 'thunk'.  Murlenna was sent tumbling as she tore free of the bag, but she's up on her feet just a few meters ahead of Light.  She looks ahead of the hallway, moving towards the source of the event.

To a normal human eye, it was a hallway of darkness and streams of faint light.  But now there were strands and tangles of shadow that moved, a writhing tangle that was not clearly visible.

But to the other three eyes, there was something quite different.  The torn sack was in the grips of... a thing.  Long limbs of cloth and wool spinning a circular tangle to fill the hall.  Despite the tangle, two felt feet with black toy-shoes were planted on the ground, and two woolen-mitted hands held the bag... even as cloth arms wrapped around them.

Above the bag loomed a little body no taller than a couple of feet, red-wool hair in a tangle on the thing's head.  A mouth that was mere black stitches looked to move, like it was expressing some kind of anger or distress.  Black eyes that should be buttons... but instead they were pits of shadow.  Shadow pits that glowed with magical light.  A striped scarf was wrapped around its neck, atop a blueish outfit that held its body.  Murleena's seen some dolls and toys that looked like this in large cities.

None with such long limbs, or that moved.

Or that spoke.

"Mine!  My books!"  She(?) chirped angrily... then gasped.  "The bag!  My bag!  You TORE it!!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:50, Fri 29 Dec 2023.

"And I will tear you if you do not give it back. And you will not see it coming." And with that, in the darkness, she became one with the shadows. Melding so completely with them that her footsteps could not even be heard. She just seemed, gone. She continued to slowly move towards the creature, waiting for it's reply.

[OOC: Her Shadow meld is invisibility to the full sight and sound groups, no fringe. So she likely just vanished from all Light's eyes too. Before she did it though, Light likely noticed she had both set's of claws out.]

Light was expecting something freaky... But wool knit girl wasn't it.

'Uhhhh... Hellooo? We didn't mean to upset you, whoever you are, especially after no one replied...'

'I'm Light Vessel, Galley Chef of The Darkmaiden's Dance.Who might you be, if you don't mind me asking?'

He lowered his tea towel in hopes it was friendly. His Mama taught him that it paid to introduce yourself first if you wanted to converse with a stranger, so that's what he led with. And who could be stranger than an Eye-Borg talking to animated knitting?

Cat down? Rosa turns to see what Light is talking about. She sort of understands, and she gives him a nod when he heads after her. She turns back to the sea – there seems to be a much bigger problem there.

“Pull away! Pull away!” Rosa calls out to Dolph, giving him a clear signal in case he can’t hear her. She looks down into the churning water and wonders what sort of leviathan is below them, feeling fear and curiosity in equal measure.

Belowdecks, the thing continued to clutch the bag with its absurdly long limbs.  She was looking at Murleena warily, and rustled about the sack as Light began to talk.  "Ah, the books'll get wet now."  The doll seemed upset, twisting the sack about and turning it around.  "Mr Light man, galley chef man who dances."

Then the doll's body jerks up and back on those long limbs, its eyes appearing to gape... or maybe it was just that they were always circular.  "Cat gone!"  The limbs twist about wildly, suddenly shooting down as the bag falls through the air...

There's a slap as it hits the floor.  But the thing... wait, where did it go?  The limbs are gone, as is the doll...

What little Murleena caught was the doll seemed to curl in on itself.  Something happened with all the movement of its limbs, and it wasn't there...?

Onto the ground - where it was - flops a big old hat with a red feather in it.  Now that Light thinks about it, he was sure the doll was 'wearing' it somehow, despite it being far too big.  Probably, the hat of the captain they sent overboard...

----

Above deck, things were not going great.  Rosa signals to Dolph, who nods hastily as he begins turning the wheel.  He had the same idea, and the Dance begins to turn away.  The light grows as the sea-creature rises, glowing lights proceeding it.  It was veering as well... coming after the Dance??  But the other ship was outpacing it.

Rosa watches as her ship moves back, the thing veering along with it... pursuing it relentlessly from beneath the surface.  The fog thickens around them... and her.

Tylluan was in the air.  Last he had (on his claws), he was to take Light across.  Except now Light was belowdecks, and the other ship was retreating from the thing.  That... sea... creature wasn't like anytihng he had seen before.  But his eyes pick out the dim shape of stalks... or tendrils, of some kind.  Whiskers, perhaps?  They must be what was tipped with the lights-

Another thing caught his attention.  The fog was slowly circling the 'ghost ship' again.  As if the fog was slowly pursuing the creature.  Or perhaps... being pulled on after it, like it's own wake?

Tylluan wasn't sure.  But the Dance was disappearing from his sight, and the creature's lights were dim and scattered through the fog.

This wasn't great.  Not great at all.

Tylluan watches as the Maiden widens the distance between the two ships drawing the attention of the creature. Oh, not good. Not good at all. I'll never get to my destination at this rate. If we survive, perhaps I should ask for a refund. With his options rapidly dwindling, he comes to a decision. He banks and dives toward the derelict ship, talons outstretched toward the captain. "Captain! Time for you to leave! Your ship is in danger and that is where you should be, yes?" Assuming Rosa doesn't resist, Tylluan will grasp her neatly in his talons and lift her off the derelict and head in the direction the Maiden was sailing before the fog closed in.

Light is about to respond to the knitten ghost about the assumption that Light was a dancer, when she/they/it swirls about and vanishes leaving what appeared to be the dead Captain's hat behind.

And the Cat girl torn sack.

His mouth opened to form the reply, but then shuts again before pursing his lips together and out in a kind of confused pout as he looks around for Murleena.

'I guess... we should... leave?' he says before it sinks in that he wasn't even sure the Five Finger Discount Girl was even present, and that Light looked like he might be talking to the empty walls, floor and under deck for all he knew.

He wasn't sure he had made any real positive impression on the wooly one, but his family always told him that making enemies was easy, making friends took effort. Introductions were just good manners, after all. If it were to be believed, Murleena had inadvertently upset the thing when she let her fingers do the walking, something that you didn't need to be some kind of monster to relate to.

Light may be able to set things right and avoid hostility if he just talked it out.

Books get wet? Might they be further down into the ship?

Light looked for a way further down, and started heading to go there. Perhaps he could help with keeping the books dry somehow.

Rosa looks to where her ship has disappeared into the fog, then at the hatchway that Light and Murleena disappeared down. She would dearly love to go back to her ship, but, after a moment’s hesitation, she calls out, “We can’t leave Light and Murleena behind!”

“Damn, damn, damn.” She hops off the railing and runs to the hatchway. She calls out, “Light! Murleena! Are you ok? It’s time to go. Now!”

The empty sack which once held the books soon floated up, and vanished in the darkness as the shadows enveloped them. "...it took them." A small growl could be heard as soon the empty sack flew from the shadows towards Light. "The books it is referring to are the ones that were in that sack I was carrying. It took them." Murleena's voice could heard from the shadows ahead, she sounded different. Even her speech pattern was different, saying I instead of her name like she normally did.

Soon she would also pick up the Captains hat, and like the sack before it it would get enveloped into the shadows and soon vanish from Light's view as Murleena examined it more closely. "The Captain is calling us. She will not be happy that I lost the books."

Light looked around, still not seeing the shadow cat, and is even more disturbed as the Captain's Hat rises and vanishes from sight too.

'One ghost is enough to deal with.'

He wondered if his Cyborg Eye had a way of seeing the cat girl, but shifted focus to the comment about the Captain calling to them both. Light heads up to see what the commotion is about.

'Cat's fine. We encountered some kind of wool knit ghost thing that seemed to get upset over some books Murleena had.' He is about to ask "what's wrong up top?", but the fog that wasn't there before makes things more obvious. Looking around, he sees the Darkmaiden's Dance getting further away (or not at all if the fog has engulfed it) and makes a face.

'Uh...' Light's comprehension begins loading.

'What the Fog is going on?'

"I am hardly a Ghost, though mistaking me for one when I am in the shadows and the darkness is a an acceptable likeness." She said to Light as he spoke. "As I told that creature, the darkness is my home."

She would follow Light out and when on the surface where there was more light, a shimmer would appear where she was before she slowly shifted into view. "The Ghost-Doll has the books Captain. But I have it's hat." She said, holding up the Captains hat.

“A wool knit ghost thing? Ok...” 

Rosa looks at the hat that Murleena is holding. Knowing something about magic and weird stuff, and maybe just to make the cat jump, she points at that saying, “Are you sure that’s not the ghost thing? It might be its fetish. That’s where it lives.”

Begrudgingly, she says to Murleena, “Don’t worry about the books. We’ve got other things to worry about.” She goes to the railing and checks to see what the sea-monster is up to. “There’s some sort of giant squid monster down there, and I think it might be chasing The Dancer.” She points in the direction her ship went.

“Maybe ... maybe the creature, the ship and the fog are all somehow joined together? It uses the fog as cover and the ship as a lure, and we’re .... hrm...”

She checks again to see what the sea-creature is up to as she makes up her mind what to do. She then turns to the others and says, “I’ve got to get back to my ship. Tylluan will fly me there, then come back for you two... or are you strong enough to take me and Murleena?”

“Light, while waiting for rescue, maybe you can find out more about this wool knit ghost thing? You’re good with that sort of thing...” She half-grins and shrugs as a form of apology. “And maybe get those books...?”

Light looks a little sad that the Captain would suggest he take something that wasn't his. That seemed to be someone else's department.

He tries to avoid looking at Murleena, which he actively has to do now that she side stepped into visibility once more.

He's sure the Captain won't just leave him here, and he did perhaps at least manage to introduce himself with the spirit without getting attacked, so he was at least one up over that Boiler encounter.

'Uhhh if that hat is important to the ghost, I think taking it with you is possibly not the best idea unless you want a turn at talking down an angry spirit.' he says. It had after all possibly disappeared 'into' the Hat, and it might be able to appear again from it. Books taken from it had upset it enough, stealing the hat after already trying to smooth things over could strain relations even further. He holds his hand out to receive the hat so he might return it before the knitten ghost realizes its not where it left it.

'I'll do what I can about getting more information in case the ghost knows something helpful, Captain!' he smirks before going back down into the below decks to resume finding a hatch even further down. Maybe the books held some secret that could solve the mystery in a way beneficial to the crew's current drama, but it felt bad to take it if it was of sentimental value to the entity below.

"Judging by the Doll's reaction to my possessing the books I highly doubt Light will be able to retrieve them." Murleena states with a very simple nod as she continued to speak in that style of speech that's very odd for her. "No, if you wish the books back Captain, then you'll want me there as in the darkness of those lower decks I can move freely without hindrance or notice."

She will hand the hat to Light, reluctantly but only if the Captain says to.

Rosa rolls her eyes at Light’s expression. “I don’t mean steal the books - I mean negotiate for them. Maybe the wool-spirit wants something?” 

She says to Murleena, “It’s never a good idea to steal from spirits. When they get upset they get really upset. No, I think it best you give the hat back and stay up here now.” 

She shakes her head in amusement at Light’s parting words. “Thank you. Good man.” 

She then says to Murleena & Tylluan, “I hate leaving Light alone, but I really need to get back to my ship. Murleena, shadow him in case he gets into trouble, but no fighting and no stealing, unless absolutely necessary. Don’t worry Murleena, we’ll be back. You have my word.”

“Tylluan, it’s time to go. So how do we this? I climb on to your back?”

Murleena nodded then frowned at the Captains words. Giving the hat to Light she would watch him leave.

When the Captain spoke again to her though she would cock her head to the side, thinking a moment and nodded, understanding what the other person meant. "Alright then. I will watch his back, and if his way fails." And she left it at that. Murleena was not one to fight, but she would if she had to.

With that, she shifted into the realm of the unseen. That shimmery fringe visible which outlined her body, and her footsteps rather loud as she walked. Then, the moment she stepped into the darkness of below that fringe vanished, as did the sounds she made as she walked, almost as if she literally became one with the darkness.

Tylluan sighs from where he was waiting above. "Now is time and past for leaving. Yes. Stand clear of rigging and I will lift you in my talons, just like that priest from before. I will be gentler with you, so don't worry."  At least we're getting away from this ship, although I'll need to come back for the others. It is not easy to be the one with wings AND common sense, yes? Danger is for avoiding as far as I'm concerned. Yet is not danger a part of journeys? Would journeys be uneventful without danger? How much danger is too much danger on a journey? I am thinking a giant sea creature chasing a ship is too much, if that ship is the one you are aboard.

Once Rosa has positioned herself, Tylluan glides down and gently clamps his talons on her arms and lifts her up with a few strong wingbeats. "As long as the ship remained on course, I know exactly which way to go. Have no worries Captain."

The group regathers on the deck of the ship.  Tylluan can see the situation with his height in the air (and his vision) better than the others - the ship was faintly visible in the fog to his eyes, but he can zero in on the shape... and the lights faintly glimmering in the fog.

--

Light forges into the darkness.  Heading into danger, he was venturing after an unknown presence.  For some books?

His Captain's love of books was pretty well established, though.  Perhaps that wasn't a surprise.

[OOC]and now, into new threads...

Note: they'll be globally visible so others can lurk/look later.  It's a PITA to change after the thread's been running a while, IIRC.  But I'll be clear which group it is...[/OOC]