And the Unpathed Waters - for Ezekiel Jones

[bookbrawler]

It really was supposed to be a routine artifact grab. They actually did get the Shell Crown, and it was actually a successful mission, all things considered.

It was just Stone and Jones on this one, since a more pressing matter had called the others away to Europe, but it's not like Jake was going to complain. The Library had record of an ancient shipwreck off the coast of an uncharted and deserted Caribbean island, and the duo had chartered a boat and gone out there. It was clearly a magic island, it was only accessible during certain times of the year, during certain tides, through a certain channel on a dangerous reef.

Once they passed the reef the island came into view, looking like something out of Jurassic Park. The shipwreck was in a shallow, rocky reef--shallow enough to simply need snorkeling gear instead of scuba diving year, and after a few hours of searching--and complaining--they'd found the crown amongst the wreckage.

It was going so well, until Jake cut his leg on a piece of coral swimming back to shore, in only one of the most magical waters on the planet.

"Damn it," he grumbles through his snorkel, and could only hope there weren't any sharks around, as he kicked towards the sandier part of the beach. At least, he would have if things weren't getting so...blurry? He feels sick, there's something wrong...

"Jones? Jones! Where--"

He spits out his snorkel to yell, but suddenly, everything goes dark. Jake slips back underwater silently.

Comments

[luckythief]

Ezekiel's face lights up with a boyish grin.

"So you do think I'm literate. Why shouldn't I call myself a Librarian then?" And now they've come full circle. Thanks!

"I guess not. Should we check out the ship then?"

[bookbrawler]

...did you just...completely turn what he just said around?

...he's just going to float here and glare at you forever, Jones.

Except checking out the ship did sound like the best thing to do at the moment--other than glare at you with the intensity of a trillion supernovae--so Jake holds his hands up.

"Fine. Fine, whatever, I don't care, let's just fix this so we can get outta here!" He points aggressively in the general direction of the ship, and starts to swim off. Swim badly off, but he's moving, at least.

[luckythief]

"Sounds good to me!"

Ezekiel smirks as he watches Stone flipflop away. He will never tire of this. ... Or the way Jacob hilariously wobbles through the water.

"Hey, try not to hit the hull!"

[bookbrawler]

Jake twists his stupid fish tail out of the way just in time, and crashes into the sand near the hull of the ship, sending up a plume of dust that muddies the water for a second. He waves his hand in front of his face, trying to clear the cloud.

"I had it under control! You messed me up!"

It was totally Jones' fault, of course.

[luckythief]

Ezekiel almost loses his balance, too, he's laughing so hard. Sorry, there's trying to be sympathetic and then there's Stone and his... everything right now. "Oh my God, I wish you could have seen that! It's like a Saturday Morning Cartoon come to life!"

Grinning, he swims over, holding out a hand to help him up. "I will cherish that memory until my deathbed!"

[bookbrawler]

"It's not funny, Jones!"

He's so mad at you right now for laughing, he glares at his hand except that he really does need his help to get back up, his stupid fin is twisted underneath him and half-buried in the sand. "How'd you like it if we were on horses and you kept fallin' off!?"

He just feels relieved there's nothing to record this right now.

[luckythief]

"What are you talking about? It's hilarious."

He's just grabbing his arm now, trying to haul him up. It's a struggle because wow, that fin is actually pretty heavy and it's not so easy pulling someone when you can't dig your feet into the ground.

"I would absolutely hate it and you would be relentless about it?"

[bookbrawler]

Jacob grunts and grabs onto his arm as well, trying to work his fin out of the sand. There's another cloud of grit sent up, but with Jones' help, he manages to free himself, though there is nothing graceful about his flailing.

"Yeah, I would. So how do you think I'm feeling right now!?"

[luckythief]

Ezekiel chuckles, holding him steady until he has regained (some) balance. "Happy because you're bringing me so much joy?"

He nudges him playfully with his elbow. "I'm sorry. You're not a Mudskipper. You're clearly a puffer fish."

[bookbrawler]

"You would take joy at my suffering."

He nudges him back, though it's more of a sulky reaction than anything else. "I am not a puffer fish! How is this puffer-fish like?"

[luckythief]

"You don't know half of it, mate."

Really, this is making his day. Week, month, year potentially even.

"You get all huffy and bristly. Imagine you turned into an angry ball of spikes whenever that happened! 'Oh no, someone told Stone Cubism is just painting by numbers, take cover!'"

[bookbrawler]

If he sees you randomly giggling to yourself in the Library, he's going to know exactly what you're thinking about. Thanks, Jones.

And suddenly he's quite glad he's not actually a pufferfish merperson.

"That's--" Not inaccurate-- "--a completely and utterly false comparison!"

[luckythief]

"Oh no, it's happening! I think your cheeks are already swelling?!"

Is he gonna pinch them? No, he's not that suicidal, but he's absolutely gonna indicate the motion.

"Come on, Stay Puft, let's get our legs back."

[bookbrawler]

"Shut up! You think that's funny!? That's not funny!" Murder. This is murder in his eyes, Jones. You're lucky he's not good at swimming right now.

With a growl, he does his best to swim towards the hull of the ship and not actually crash into it, looking for a way in.

[luckythief]

Uh, no, if it's not funny why can't he stop laughing? Clearly you're wrong about this, Stone.

Ezekiel follows after him with a few elegant strokes, swimming a bit overhead to check for windows they might be able to squeeze through.

[bookbrawler]

You're getting several glares tossed your way, seriously, you can stop laughing now? Jake scoffs before he swims through a tangle of seaweed--fortunately not actually getting tangled--and he spies a crack in the hull.

"Hey! Jones, there's an opening over here!"

And without waiting for him, he squeezes through the split, and into the murky darkness of the bottom of the ship.

[luckythief]

"Stone? Hey! Where'd you go?"

Ezekiel comes back down, checking the outside of the ship for the opening Stone has just disappeared into. "Make a loud flapping noise if you hear me!"

[bookbrawler]

For once Jacob managed to avoid getting stuck in something, but he scowls when he hears Jones' voice faintly through the hull. He thwacks his fin heavily against the nearest bulkhead, sending the sound ringing through the structure. Y'hear that, Jones?

"I'm down here!"

He's in the bilges, where it's murky and only a tiny bit of sunlight filters through the cracks in the hull.

[luckythief]

After a moment, Ezekiel finds the gap and squeezes through to come after him, grinning. Now, in the darkness of the ship he realizes that their vision must have improved, too. It's dark, yes, but considering that he's almost swimming in pitch black water it's surprisingly easy to find Stone in the lower regions of the ship.

"That would work really well for morse code! I'm gonna call you the morse flapper."

[bookbrawler]

Jake's mildly unsettled by how improved his vision is, even in the darkness. This whole thing is unsettling, this whole thing shouldn't even be possible, but y'know. Magic.

"Can you just...not?" Distracted, he nearly swims into a net, catching himself just in time, and almost tangling his fin in it. "Let's just--figure this thing out so we can get out of here! We don't wanna be stuck like this for too long." He can only hope there's no time limit to whatever's doing this to them. It's been something that's nagging at the back of his mind. The longer they were like this, the more side-effects there could be. Mental ones, too. The stories of sirens and mermaids have been repeating over and over in his head, and he hopes that they don't start acting like them. If they got distracted in that way, they might forget about finding a way out in the first place.

[luckythief]

"Alright, alright, calm your fins."

Ezekiel swims closer towards him, ready to help him out if the net catches him but seems like Stone is slowly getting the hang of it. "Let's start where the chest was. Maybe we didn't see everything in the dark last time. Maybe there's some ancient writing stuff you can decipher."

He moves ahead, scooping the place for traps or doors he might have missed the first time around.

[bookbrawler]

"Okay, fine." That actually made sense, and he's not sure if he should be worried that Jones was making sense and coming up with excellent ideas and he was just floating around worried about nothing.

He swims through another corridor, and under a downed beam to where the chest was half-buried in a pile of wreckage, barnacles and coral growing around old coins, cups, buckles, and various other things that Jacob wished they could take with them. He studies the chest for a long while, trying to study its construction, see if there's some kind of inscription that they'd missed.

"I don't..." he frowns, frustrated. "The chest is newer than the shell crown, and most of this stuff in here is from only about 300 years ago. The shell crown dates back to Ancient Greece at the latest, if not older than that. But why did this ship go down in the first place? It could be this place. But there still might be something here that can tell us what happened...check for anything that might keep a journal, or some kind of record..."

[luckythief]

"So someone found this crown 300 years ago and shipped it all the way from Greece over here along with this other treasure?"

Wait.

Wait, does that mean...

There's a beat and suddenly his voice is taking on an excited tone.

"Do you think this was a pirate ship!?"

This changes everything! Particularly in terms of awesomeness!?

[bookbrawler]

Jacob gives Ezekiel a very long look.

"...you know what? I honestly I think it was."

And suddenly he's just as excited!

"This was an actual pirate ship!"

[luckythief]

"Oh my God, do you think there's like hats with skulls on them and, and, hooks for the hand? You think the cannons still work? We should totally check if the cannons still work."

Priorities!