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Post by jessimyre on Jun 13, 2007 2:04:01 GMT -5
Please go to the Plot and Characters thread on the other board before posting...
Hattie struggled in the unforgiving grip of the two soldiers frog-marching her down the steps. The stink was awful and she fought all the more wildly to escape rather than try to pick out what the stench was. She could hear conversations, snatches of song, blubbering and the occasional scream.
"Get in there you twisted she-devil!" the soldier growled as he redoubled his grip on her slender wrists. Hattie bit him and then kicked at the other soldier in her desparation. She knew to stay down here would mean torture and death.
The other soldier punched her hard and twisted her arm up behind her back and regained control. "You'll pay for that, witch." he assured her. Hattie knew what sort of payment it would be and redoubled her efforts. But they were too strong, and there were too many.
Within moments a cell door had opened and she was thrust through it. She sprawled on the filthy floor and was up in an instance, her catlike reflexes spinning her around as she sought to escape. The cell door clanged with a finality and the key grated in the lock.
"I'll be seeing you later." the soldier promised. His companions guffawed and the three left, boots echoing iup the stairwell as they returned to their posts.
Clutching her arms to herself Hattie gazed around what little she could see of her cell and the dank prison, her dirty dress all the more filthy from whatever muck she'd landed in, and her face reddening already from the punch.
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Post by Kage Chaos on Jun 13, 2007 17:14:13 GMT -5
Noros was awakened by screaming and guards talking.
"I'll be seeing you later."
He turned his head as some mud water splashed up onto his face. He wiped some of the mud water off and turned his head, yawning, while watching a girl on the other side of the bars spring up out of the mud.
"You might want to calm down," Noros said, "You'll never get out of here with determination alone. Trust me. They have to keep improving these cells just to try to keep me here. I really don't know why they bother. They'll never keep me here."
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Post by jessimyre on Jun 13, 2007 18:14:06 GMT -5
Hattie turned quickly toward the voice and squinted to make out the figure in the cell beside hers in the gloom. He was lying down and seemed in no great rush to get up. She glanced around at the prison again, noting other inmates - some of whom were already leering at her through the bars.
"What d'you mean?" she asked. "Is there a way out of 'ere?"
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Post by Kage Chaos on Jun 13, 2007 22:07:50 GMT -5
"There's always a way out," Noros answered with a whisper, "And they ain't found it yet. We just need to wait until everyone's asleep, otherwise it's not worth it, cuz otherwise they'll find it and fix it for next time."
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Post by jessimyre on Jun 13, 2007 22:15:44 GMT -5
Hattie nodded ferverently and moved over to the bars nearer the stranger but not close enough to be grabbed if he should feel inclinded to do so. She settled in the corner, on the dryest part of the floor and sat down to wait.
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Post by Kage Chaos on Jun 13, 2007 22:36:46 GMT -5
Noros remained silent for a few minutes, then decided to make conversation, "So what did you do?"
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Post by jessimyre on Jun 13, 2007 22:42:53 GMT -5
Hattie turned to face the stranger. He seemed friendly enough. She could pick out just a few features in the gloom but not much. Not a face she recognised.
"Got caught pinchin' bread." she replied and raised her head for a moment, indicating the grubby ventilation outlet, "Up at the markets. You?"
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Post by Kage Chaos on Jun 13, 2007 22:49:21 GMT -5
Noros laughed, "I was just planning ahead. I'll let you know when we get out."
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Post by jessimyre on Jun 13, 2007 22:56:11 GMT -5
"We?" Hattie was surprised. She kept her voice low so as not to be overheard above the general din of the prison.
"You're takin me too?" she sat puzzled. "Why?"
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Post by Kage Chaos on Jun 13, 2007 23:17:37 GMT -5
Noros looked down at the floor for a moment, "Everyone deserves a second chance."
Then he looked up grinning, "And a third, and a fourth..."
He gave her a thumbs up, "Oh, I didn't catch your name.."
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Post by jessimyre on Jun 13, 2007 23:25:37 GMT -5
"Hattie." she answered, warming to the stranger's charm. "Hattie Morgan."
Whatever his motives, she would go - no point in staying for her punishment for staying alive. She really wanted to get out of this place.
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Post by blossom on Jun 14, 2007 6:21:51 GMT -5
Belle twisted and writhed in the iron grip of the soldiers marching her down to the cells, trying to wriggle her way out. They only gripped tighter, mercilessly pushing her down the stairs ahead of them into the overpowering, putrid stench of the prisons. Belle choked and gagged as she tried to hold her breath.
It was the stink of rot, torture and death, of what awaited Belle down there. She screeched in protest at the guards forced her down. Twisting she tried to kick out at one of the guards.
"Stop it Belle," he ordered firmly, and she suddenly recognised him as one of her brother's old soldier friends. One of the friends who had deserted Robert when he was stripped of his rank and cast out on the streets. Suddenly enraged Belle bent and savagely bit on the soldier's unprotected hand, clamping hard with her teeth.
"You little bitch!" he gasped as blood welled up. The other guard roughly punched her in the gut. Belle let go and doubled up, winded. Quickly, the guards unlocked a cell and shoved her inside.
"You'll get what's coming to you," the guard she had bitten promised as the cell door clanged shut and the key scraped in the lock. In reply Belle spat at him, her saliva mixed with his blood. The scar that sliced her face almost in half made her glare even fiercer.
Then the guards stomped away up the stairs and Belle sank back into the darkness, alone and afraid.
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Post by jessimyre on Jun 14, 2007 17:16:11 GMT -5
Hattie watched with interest as another young woman was brought down into the prison. She smiled a grim satisfaction as she bit one of the soldiers. The girl was winded with a blow which made Hattie's own face ache with sympathy.
Within moments the cell door was unlocked and the other woman was shoved roughly into Hattie's own cell. The girl shrank into the shadows.
"'Ello." Hattie said to her. In the fleeting torchlight as the woman was brought down, she had recognised that face. Another serving girl or somesuch in the old Governor's home. Not that they had spoken, their duties keeping them busy and mostly away from eachother but she knew the face nevertheless.
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calis
Chaos Initiate
I never had friends like those i had when i was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?
Posts: 37
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Post by calis on Jun 14, 2007 18:22:05 GMT -5
The sun rose above port royale as the figure crouched in the rooftops.
Wandering the roofs of port royale at night was as good as suicide, they had come to be known as the “Thieves Road” due to being frequented by members of the profession of questionable legality.
Jimmy was that figure. A good humoured man of twenty one he was nonetheless in rather bad humour at the moment. He was suffering from cramps, despite using the pirate’s method of tensing and releasing his leg muscles to avoid it, they had begun to set in about an hour ago and were now unbelievably painful.
He tensed as he heard the sound, his entire body going rigid.
He gave the signal, two seagull calls.
And released his indrawn breath as it was answered in kind.
“You’re late!”
A large, brod shouldered man grunted as he hauled a sack over his shoulder, “and you’re a whoreson but you don’t hear me putting that about.”
Jim grinned, “and you’re ugly but you don’t hear me putting that about.”
The man stopped and let out a bark of laughter, shaking his head in amusement. “You got it?” Jim asked quickly, the words instantaneously changing the mood, the mans eyes reflected the lamplight from the street below as he looked up.
“Aye, what’s the password?”
“Mums the word,” he answered easily, the password was changed every day and he’d got the message left for him at “The Hangman” The night before.
He was handed the sack, feeling the heavy weight of gold, he grimaced as he took it, “heavy load tonight,” he commented. The man laughed, “can’t your little back handle it?” He asked mockingly.
“Shut your trap Dan I can handle it just fine,” Jimmy responded hotly, his temper rising at the babied tones used.
He gave the thieves salute and scurried off, across the rooftops as the sun continued to creep above the horizon.
The thief known as Dan watched him go with amusement, giving a rueful sigh, “There’ll be one more for the gibbet tomorrow.”
……………………………………………………………………………………….
Jim slowly came to, grimacing as he tasted blood on his lower lip and gingerly felt the inside of his split cheek with his tongue cursing himself for his stupidity…….
“Hurts doesn’t it?”
He perked up immediately, “ well stone me if it isn’t the good old captain Gibbs,” Jimmy exclaimed in mock pleasure.
“Damn!” He thought.
Gibbs smiled, “Oh you know….” He replied, as if this stupid statement would explain everything.
The guy was obviously not in a good mood.
“Double damn!”
“Why Jimmy?” He suddenly asked, the question almost erupting from his lips, “you mst have known you were being watched.”
“Aye,” Jim replied with a laugh, trying to think of a way to get out of this situation, “well you know…………” He finished, using Gibbs’s own phrase on him.
Not a good idea.
Gibbs hit hard and his fist came down fast.
“Ah shit!”
The world went blank.
…………………………………………………………………………………………..
Jimmy groaned as the world lurched beneath him.
Steps.
That was what these things were, he remembered!
“Thank god,” he thought, “I was having a terrible dream and……..wait a minute.” He realised the vice-like grip of the men holding him.
“Don’t suppose you’d mind letting me go?” He asked the one to his left with a grin.
Head-butts hurt.
The creak of the cell door greeted Jimmy’s ears at roughly the same time that the stench of the dungeon greeted his nostrils. The combined stench of human faeces, rotten food, dirty straw pallets and unwashed bodies made this roughly as awakening to the senseless Jimmy as anything he’d experienced before.
He was chucked to the floor and found himself having to try hard to get his unresponding body to roll with the momentum, coming short just of cracking his head on the grey stone wall.
“See you later Jenkins,” one spat at him as he and his companion walked away laughing.
Jimmy rose unsteadily to his feet, using the wall as support and coming to the bars.
“I look forward to it,” he called sarcastically after them, “ only next time I get to do the beating.”
He laughed as he turned around to the others in the cell.
“Well where are your manners?” He laughed, “anybody going to introduce their new cell-mate?”
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Post by Kage Chaos on Jun 14, 2007 20:34:07 GMT -5
Noros sighed, "Seems the guards are having a good day. We'll be able to ruin that for them soon enough."
He smiled. In an hour or two it would be dark. That's when he'd get them all out.
It was a game to him, really. Messing with the guards. He never caused enough trouble to be killed on the spot, so he'd always manage to escape through the same passage. Whether it was coincidence or luck that landed him in one of the same two cells everytime, he didn't know. He didn't really care. This time though, he'd be leaving for good.
Noros had been breaking into houses for the past two weeks, then getting caught and escaping over and over again. The guards would be there waiting for him each night, and each night he'd make it just a bit harder for them to catch him. He knew they'd be there again tonight, but they'd be waiting an awfully long time.
Tonight was the night he'd finally sneak away, hop onto a ship, and get a free ride to another country, or anywhere really. He'd always wanted to travel, but he'd never had the means to do so. Maybe he'd even get to meet a pirate or something!
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Foxee
Chaos Lieutenant
Posts: 208
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Post by Foxee on Jun 14, 2007 22:55:35 GMT -5
From the outside, Joss was sure, the Wobbly Pheasant must indeed look as though it was moving drunkenly from side to side. It seemed that the whole tavern had joined into the spirit of the two combatants who had started the brawl over something stupid.
Who really cared if someone else called their ship a ‘leaky barrel of nails?’ she wondered, bringing a plate down over a man’s head as he bowled her over. It smashed satisfactorily and he yelped and rolled away. She regained her feet, tucking into a crouch as the fight raged by above.
She really could have used Virgil’s help about now. As it was he was about some business of his own and had left her to mind things. She began a careful duckwalk toward the back of the bar where the sturdy blackthorn club was kept.
Joss had to stop twice, patiently waiting for fighter’s legs to move out of the way before she could get around them. She stretched her arm around the corner, fingers seeking…
…and found it. Her hand grasped the wood and she pulled the club toward her. A quick look around revealed that she had a little clear space.
Joss propelled herself to her feet, swinging the club from somewhere far behind her and dropping the nearest man like a sick ox. The man he’d been fighting turned, shocked, and his cocked fist relaxed.
Joss jumped up on the bar, brandishing the club.
“Now, you useless pack of addle-pated putrid scum!” Her voice carried admirably above the din and it began to die down. “You’ll all leave –
Something hit her, very hard indeed, on the head. Everything went away.
***
When the world drifted back again it included smells that were far from satisfactory. Rough fabric rubbed her cheek and something rustled under her hand. The rumble of voices seemed to go up a notch when she moved.
“There now, lass.”
Joss opened her eyes. William Bobbin, one of the Wobbly Pheasant’s regulars was looking down at her, his creased whiskery face anxiously wrinkled like a prune.
“We was a bit worried about ye and that’s a fact.”
She pushed up from the straw quickly, noting that was where some of the unsavory smell was coming from. Iron bars and the many half-familiar faces told her that the soldiers had simply swept in and arrested everyone.
Boots scuffled and stomped on the stone steps and all eyes turned that way. Three guards came down the steps and directly to Joss’s cell. The men crowded around her, eager to get out.
“You’re all to be let go.” The guard sounded deeply gloomy about it. The key turned.
The door squeaked open and the men began to file out, stamping on toes, packing together like frightened cattle. Joss began to eel out the door sidewise but a rough hand shoved against her collarbone, pushing her back.
“Not you!” A guard growled. His small piggish eyes were set deep beneath a beetling brow.
“Not me?” Joss asked tartly, hands on hips.
The last of the men from the tavern quick-stepped through the door without a backward glance and Joss determinedly followed.
“No! If they get to go, I get to go!”
Once again she was shoved back ungently for her pains.
“What is the meaning of this?” Joss’s voice once again carried well, as it usually did when she was upset. “Why aren’t you letting me go?”
“How should I know?” sneered one guard that looked like a dyspeptic horse, “mebbe the Governer wants to see you!” He raked her up and down with a lascivious glance.
The door clanged shut and the key turned. Joss hurled herself against it.
“Let me out!” She shrieked, “I haven’t done anything wrong!”
The guards just stood back and grinned at their handiwork as though they’d caught something that they might torture and were deciding how to do it.
“Mebbe we see you later, pretty,” the horse-faced one said. And they left, laughing at their cleverness.
Joss watched them go, mouth shaped in a little ‘o’ of shock. Then it snapped into a tight line and her eyes narrowed. They’d never get away with this…
She rattled the bars, "Get back here you dimwitted sons of a putrid sperm whale! Let me out right NOW!"
…right? Right! Virgil would come for her. Maybe. Her shoulders slumped a little and she leaned against the bars, wondering what on earth would happen to her now.
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Post by blossom on Jun 15, 2007 9:33:14 GMT -5
"'Ello." Belle turned and saw her cell was shared by another girl of around her own age. Peering closely at her, Belle suddenly recalled her from the old Governor's household. A maid, or something.
"'Lo," she replied, just as the guards marched another poor sod down and threw him into the cells. Belle grimaced. It seemed the new Governor was determined to look the entire town in Fort James.
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Post by Kage Chaos on Jun 15, 2007 15:10:51 GMT -5
Noros sighed. There were an awful lot of prisoners. It seemed the men were being put in one cell and the women in another, as usual.
Noros was uncomfortable when there were too many people. He remained silent. He decided not to talk until he needed to.
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Post by jessimyre on Jun 15, 2007 18:03:43 GMT -5
Hattie looked over to the cell opposit as soldiers came stamping back down. She listened as they allowed the men to go free however watched with surprise as they kept the woman behind.
"Get back here you dimwitted sons of a putrid sperm whale! Let me out right NOW!" she screamed as the men left. Hattie half smiled to herself, somebody after her own heart but with a more inventive string of insults.
She noticed the man whom she had been speaking to had withdrawn himself and was no longer talking. It looked as though her chance of escape had been nipped in the bud. Too many people.
Somewhere, somebody began to sing. Drunkenly. She sighed as the off-key voice stumbled through a verse, forgetting most of the words.
"
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Post by twilightblade on Jun 18, 2007 5:07:06 GMT -5
Alois ran along the rooftops, searching for that one distinctive outline that had been described to her by the captain. There? That looked like the warehouse...wait...no. She hesitated, then ducked low and slipped behind the nearest chimney, listening carefully. There was someone up ahead. Or was it? There were plenty of voices, a woman shouting. She eased forward, slipping from one shadow to the next until she had tracked down the source. There was a gap in the roof, so well hidden by the angles of the wood that it looked to be only a deeper shadow. It was quite wide enough for her, but she hid beside it instead and peered below.
A putrid stench rose to meet her nostrils and she grimaced but kept listening. A moment longer, and she knew where she was. Over one of the prisons, and at entirely the wrong end of Port Royal. How could the directions have proven so useless? She shook her head, then hesitated. Maybe she should help them. Some of them might have been her mates at one time.
"'ey! 'Ey you!" she called down in a harsh whisper. "'Wha y'al fer?"
For translation purposes: Hey! Hey you! What you all for? --as in, what are you in prison for.
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Foxee
Chaos Lieutenant
Posts: 208
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Post by Foxee on Jun 18, 2007 11:26:53 GMT -5
Okay, I'm dropping out of this RPG...in too many as it is and this one needs another female like a hole in the head. I'll just leave her here...if I'm able to rejoin in the future is that ok?
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Post by twilightblade on Jun 18, 2007 11:33:04 GMT -5
Awww.... I like Joss... Don't go away....
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Post by Kage Chaos on Jun 18, 2007 14:36:17 GMT -5
Foxee, are the RPGs too much for you? If you don't like the Pirate story, that's fine, but why stay in the future one if it hasn't even started? (Unless of course you just like that genre more?)
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Foxee
Chaos Lieutenant
Posts: 208
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Post by Foxee on Jun 18, 2007 14:42:11 GMT -5
Okay, I'll stay in but if I start to feel like I'm not pulling my weight I'll go. It has nothing to do with liking or not liking, Kage...I just felt that these were the two I was weakest in so if I cut I'd cut these.
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Foxee
Chaos Lieutenant
Posts: 208
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Post by Foxee on Jun 18, 2007 19:11:56 GMT -5
Joss stood in the center of the cell. Now she noticed that other women were in it with her. Criminals. Things had come to a fine pass when she was locked up with a bunch of criminals.
"'ey! 'Ey you!" came a harsh whisper from high up. "'Wha y'al fer?"
Joss looked around at her fellow inmates then upward.
"Who said that?"
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