vivalaooc | TDM #7

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TDM #7

TEST DRIVE #7

The day begins as any other, you’re going about your day, living your life, when, without warning, you feel the world around you shift on its axis. You feel a great tear, welling from the depths of your soul as you are ripped from all you have known. If you’re lucky, you arrive in the wilderness of an unfamiliar world, where the language is foreign and the people are hostile. To make your escape, you must learn some language, flee, and occasionally fight, all to find your way off the floating isles you find yourself on and to the great ocean below, where rebel forces will welcome you.

If you’re unlucky, you materialize within a room full of armed guards and are quickly subdued with charged nets, stripped of your belongings, fitted with strange devices that suppress your powers and pressed into servitude. Your days are unimaginable pain and toil.

Fortunately, even in this world, there is still hope. For the denizens of this world have not given up. And it is for that dream of salvation that the Crimson Corsairs raise their flags and sail - for liberation. Perhaps you are one who has lived their entire life under the oppressive yoke of the Empire. Perhaps you have seen first hand your family and friends cut down by nobles hunting men for sport, or perhaps you have run afoul with the church and barely escaped with your life. No matter your origin, the Corsairs sail for you, for your freedom, for your life. And today, a taste of freedom will be won for all.

ARRIVAL/LIBERATION
With the impending attack on the Vindess Mines, the Corsairs sent in a negotiation team to get the Miners on their side. Although there was some conflict with the pro-Imperial miner leads, most of those on the ground are horrifically mistreated and open to a better life. As such, the Corsairs have reciprocated their allegiance by quietly evacuating their loved ones and relocating them to the Vault. Among these are some Servants and dissidents who had been held in the mining area for penal labor, and are now enjoying their first taste of freedom as they’re quickly loaded onto a Corsair airship.

During the tense hours of the journey, the ship runs silent and dark, with nobody daring breathe a word and with only the gentle groan of the machinery as its carefully guided away from the Isles Above and descends toward the Eternal Ocean. The silence is finally punctuated by an announcement from the Crow’s Nest - Flotsam sighted! Suddenly the entire ship seems to blaze with light and warmth as cheers from the sailors are accompanied by lamps bursting to life, and it is with this relieved and celebratory air that the ship comes in for a landing and a warm welcome at the hands of the Flotsam crew before their handoff to the Vault.

A NEW YEAR DELAYED BUT NOT DENIED

While the official celebration of the New Year has been pushed back to give the Corsairs a chance to complete their mission, there are still muted observations throughout the three cities. Warm food and drink are passed around table and tavern as those who have been left behind quietly ring in the new year, hope in their hearts that the mission will succeed and give them much more reason to celebrate.

While muted, the taverns are bustling as people share food, most homes partaking in a traditional hot pot-style meal where whatever good food they still have on hand can be tossed in and boiled in flavorful broth to feed a large audience. With hope in their hearts and prayers on their lips for the Corsairs engaged in their most daring operation yet, the Crimson Corsairs watch and await the dawn.

NEW YEAR RE-RIGGING

A major Flotsam New Year tradition is to replace as many weathered sails and ropes as possible on the fleet. The Corsairs spend hours during the colder months sewing sails, weaving rope, and forging hooks to keep the fleet in tip-top shape. During the first clear day of the new year, any hapless soul who looks limber and unoccupied will be pressed into service, working with crews for long hours to replace sails, rigging, and other essential pieces that define a ship’s worthiness. It’s not all bad though, those who do help are plied with copious amounts of grog and food after the job is done.

WHAT’S NEW YEAR WITHOUT A BIT OF GAMBLING?

With a New Year comes bonuses! The Corsairs don’t have much, but it is still customary to give out bonuses to Corsairs who do well. The sums aren’t necessarily much, but they go a long way for the Corsairs with family hoping to get a few luxuries off the black markets of Elysium. For those without such obligations, however, well, there’s always poker. The taverns of Flotsam are bustling with ne’er do wells looking to burn through their new lucre with a game of cards, or perhaps acquire more of said lucre from unsuspecting marks. Care to try a hand? Just be warned, Corsairs play for keeps.

WILDCARD

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OOC
Welcome to the seventh Test-Drive Meme for Viva La! All threads here may be considered canon once characters have entered the game. Threads here are eligible for use as a roleplay sample for applications, which will open on the 15th of December at midnight.
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"That's no excuse," he replies sharply, a contrast with the care he takes with the bandages. His nose wrinkles as he looks over the wounds. Clean is good, at least.

Tsuyukusa pulls out some salves from his belt pouch, and an envelope from which he removes a couple of strangely fresh looking leaves.

"...oi," he sighs as he notices her starting to drift, but he shakes his head, carefully applying a leaf over the worst of the cuts. He adds some salve for the burns before he begins to bandage things up again, as securely as he can manage.

"I'm here!" she answers, as soon as she feels the familiar ache of someone touching raw injuries. She sits back up, straight, as if for military review. A little too stiff and straight for her conditions' liking, but she manages to cover that up. She's suddenly treating this like an inspection.

"No you're not," Tsuyukusa says flatly, pausing only as she shifts. "Quit moving, relax already."

Natalia? Relax?

... Well, okay, slowly, she does manage to stop sitting like she's at attention. But it takes a few breaths to get to a more relaxed posture, and even manages to keep it.

More to keep herself awake than to actually make conversation, she asks, "So. Since you're like to send me back to the ward, any books you'd recommend?"

Edited (gotta keep threads going) 2025-01-19 00:37 (UTC)

Oh good. That makes things easier.

His hands are deft, winding the bandages around with the practiced swiftness of someone who's done this plenty of times before.

"Would you actually stay there if I did? It doesn't seem like you're inclined to stay put for long."

"... For a few more days, at least. I didn't expect to be so tired from just this." Had she even got that far? How could she have miscalculated so gravely?

Were people here that fast at healing? Or had her condition simply been that bad?

"Hm."

Maybe it sounds like Tsuyukusa doesn't believe her, and that might be true. He doesn't know her. But the admission about her being tired is something.

"Your body's mending and from the looks of some of those injuries, you must have gotten pretty banged up. So of course you're going to be tired. You may not like it, but you still need to rest, give your body a chance to actually work at healing." He taps at her shoulder. "Or maybe you like the idea of being in constant pain on every mission hereafter? You want to compromise yourself and everyone else?"

The pain in her shoulder rang, an ungentle reminder of how far she had yet to go.

"... Everyone else..." Forget herself. She could deal with being compromised, dragging herself with pain alight. She'd done worse. She'd been worse.

But Donnie? Harlock? Oki? Aira? Senshi? The crew of the Mad Archer or the Bloody Bun?

... Her workers? It was to make sure she could guide them that she had got out of bed in the first place; she'd hoped to get through the Gate to Elysium to deliver messages.

"Everyone else," Tsuyukusa says again. "You know, your teammates? They depend on you, and you on them, and if you're not taking care of yourself and mess up because of it, who knows who else you'll bring down with you."

He huffs, starting to put supplies back into his pouch. "Or do you not care what happens?"

"... And explaining my--"

She pauses.

"No, I can explain my absence. But only once I can be properly ambulatory. Not like this."

He finishes, folding his arms.

"Well, at least you realize that. You probably don't need an explanation. You're hardly the first one who's been injured around here from something or another, and from what I've seen, nothing related to the activity here."

"That is the issue-- I am not assigned to main force in Flotsam."

Tsuyukusa arches a brow at her. "You say that like people don't go hopping between here and the Vault or anywhere else as they please on their off time." He frowns. "Or are you working under someone who likes running a tight ship, so to speak?"

He knows some Corsairs are like that, his expression dry as he asks.

"Want me to write you a note?" He sounds half sarcastic about that, but he'll do it if it'd help.

"If it were other Corsairs it would be fine." Ah. Elysium Network, then. "... You wouldn't happen to know a good sea or air link? I can talk in terms of negotiating with distant suppliers, but the devil hides in details and..."

She leans up, taps her neck. She's an Outlander trying to hide it.

"Oh. So I suppose threatening to come and punch them or tie them to a tree won't work, huh." By the thoughtful way he looks as he fingers his chin saying this, he's not likely exaggerating. Poke around enough and Natalia won't have trouble finding out that some of Tsu's methods are...more than a bit unorthodox.

"I know a few people around here who can probably help with that. They owe me favors anyway." Otherwise he's not directly involved with those matters. Fishing around in his pocket, he pulls out a scrap of paper and a pencil, jotting down several names before he offers it.

"The first two have spaces in the market area here. Other one's in the Vault. If they try to wheedle out of it just tell them Tsuyukusa will be checking in on them." He smirks, just a tiny bit at that. "They'll get the idea."

She nods. "I'll look into it once I'm..."

She hastily reconsiders, having heard his methods, on saying more mobile, and instead chooses, "Once I'm healed."

Then... "And if you need particular Imperial medical supplies after that, I can help. They'll know me as Nathalie."

Tsuyukusa fixes her with a knowing look. "Should I carry you back?" Probably wouldn't be very dignified, being brought in like a sack of flour, but he's hauled people twice her size in that very manner. That's when he's being nice.

"Heh. Imperial supplies. Well, I guess bandages and that sort of thing is something you can't have too much of on hand. I prepare all the medicines I use myself, otherwise."

"Ah, I see. Compounding, then?" Medicinal herbs for extraction wouldn't be too hard a task, now that she's thinking about it; almost perfect for Penguin, which specializes in guaranteed delivery of small packages. But if he finds and compounds them himself, then there's a level of trust she'd need to gain in regards to quality.

... And so-- "If it salves your conscience. I probably have enough energy to get back, but then, I thought I had enough energy to travel, so what do I know?"

"Good question."

He eyes her at that. "Considering you just fell asleep sitting here, you seriously need to reevaluate your energy levels." Taking a quick glance around to make sure no one else has hurt themselves in the time he's been dealing with her, Tsuyukusa holds a hand out.

"Well, if you're ready. I'll walk you back, just to make sure you don't go collapsing on your face."

She stares at the hand for a long second, then takes it, and slides off the crate as if accepting a dance on stage. "Let's go."

And then, as soon as she moves, the illusion shatters; she's there enough to not drag her feet but is otherwise taking it a bit slow.

That's already too long, and Tsuyukusa's reassessing whether he should just toss her over a shoulder already or not.

For a while he humors her, letting Natalia set the pace. Of course, he only has so much patience, and it'd be a bit pointless if she exhausts herself before getting back to the city.

She does get on the march, as if reading his face and irritation, though she has to control her breathing and marshal her Ether to do it.

Why the hells that's her first instinct is likely a very interesting story which she is not telling right now.

They continue for a while. Some of the Corsairs who have had close encounters of the Tsuyukusa-kind look a bit nervous as the two pass by, pointedly making sure their work takes them in the opposite direction.

The portal's still a way's off, and Tsuyukusa's next action is quite out of the blue as he suddenly lifts a hand to simply try tapping at the side of Natalia's head. Just a test, given all the concentration she's putting into just keeping mobile.

It's automatic. She doesn't move out of the way or stop, but she does, for a fraction of a second, lift her free hand in response and breathe in as hard as she dares--

Before remembering who Tsuyukusa is, clenching that fist and intentionally setting it down. If he wanted to make another inspection, surely that was a medic's prerogative.

"Huh."

Well, that's an interesting response. Tsu's not quite sure what to make of it though. The young woman seems to have quite a bit drilled into her. He sighs. Moving on reflex even on low reserves was going to get her killed if she wasn't careful.

He moves to step in front of her, his expression neutral as he means to have her stop.

"Do you know how the Crimson Portals work?"

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