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]

"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!

[bookbrawler]

"Historical accuracy isn't a big thing for you, is it?"

A pause.

"The cannons aren't gonna work underwater, Jones."

Another pause.

"Let's go check out the cannons."

[luckythief]

"Why would I care about that when we're aboard a pirate ship?"

Come on, don't be boring about this!

"Bet they're on the lower decks! Check for trapdoors in the ground!"

And he's zooming ahead, inspecting the wreck's tilted floor. "Maybe we'll find a treasure map, too! To get to even more treasure!"

[bookbrawler]

How is he being boring about this? Historical accuracy is super important!?

"You should, you're a Librarian, and--hey, wait!" He swims after him, why do you gotta be so fast underwater, Jones.

"Why would there be a map to even more treasure when they've already got treasure here?"

A beat.

"Not that it's impossible or anythin', but if a treasure map woulda survived underwater for any length of time it's either inside something waterproof, or some kind of magical document. See if there's any safes around here, or something large and metal..."

[luckythief]

"A pirate safe!"

He looks back over his shoulder, grinning wildly.

"I get to crack a pirate safe? This is the best mission ever!"

[bookbrawler]

"The best mission ever...where we're trapped underwater and have fins." Please accept the longest, driest glare, Jones. "How is this the best mission ever!?"

This of course, causes him to lose track of where he was going in the tight spaces of the ship and he crashes into a wooden beam, sending more wood crashing through a weak, rotted spot in the ship, and there's dust and sand everywhere.

Jacob coughs, not sure how coughing even works underwater but for a second he's afraid he might have trapped himself, or gotten Jones hurt. He waves his hand in the water, trying to clear it in the murk. There's a large pile of debris in front of him, wooden beams askew. There's something large and heavy in the center of the debris, what looks like a rusted iron box of some kind.

"Jones!?" He holds his shoulder, looking around frantically.

[luckythief]

"Two words: Walking the plank."

How awesome would that be if there was an actual plank?! Ezekiel is about to elaborate how after the cannons they could totally--

-- and then the ship just... crashes around them. Ezekiel moves on the instinct of dancing hundreds of laser grids and his reflexes keep him from getting crushed by – oh hey, looks like they found the safe maybe?

But first he gotta make sure Jake is okay. Ezekiel coughs too – which is seriously too weird – and tries to orient himself, following Jake's voice. "Over here! You okay there, Cowboy?"

[bookbrawler]

Walking the plank!? Seriously? That's not what's important here--

Jacob waves his hand in front of his face, trying to clear the water. "I'm okay--I'm okay, I'm over here! Are you okay?" For once he wasn't stuck in something or under something. He feels bad about compromising the structural integrity of a historical artifact--even if it was underwater.

"I don't like how these beams are situated--we gotta get outta here before the whole thing comes crashing down. There's some kind of old safe here, I dunno if we can lift it--"

[luckythief]

"I'm okay, yeah."

Once he finds Stone he grabs his arm, pulling him out of the immediate dust cloud (is it still a dust cloud when it happens underwater?). The ship creaks dangerously but Ezekiel doesn't seem to pay it much mind, his eyes wandering over to the safe instead.

"Looks pretty heavy. Just give me a minute there."

And he moves over, taking a closer look at the lock mechanism.

[bookbrawler]

Jacob immediately looks up in alarm when the entire ship creaks again but fortunately there's not another collapse. He minds his fin, not wanting to accidentally crash into something or get it trapped in some tight spot. He swims forward to take a closer look, but he's still far too anxious about the state of the ship to really get a good look at it.

There's another loud creak and he winces.

"You think we can lift it outta here? If not, you got like, thirty seconds to crack it before I'm callin' it. This thing is ready to go."

[luckythief]

"And have you steer us into the next wall? Uh, pass."

He's already fiddling with the lock, ear pressed up against the side of the safe.

"Please. I'm Ezekiel Jones. I'll do it in fifteen."