Silly Plots 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Recaiden]

Heave, ho, into the ocean it goes.
Omiko hops on, twirls around the mast, and points off to the featureless horizon.
"Let's go!"

This time, she will help with the sailing.

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

Clara wades into the ocean after the boat, dragging herself in.
"Well, I'm glad for the wetsuit I guess. I'd rather not get soaked. Let's follow that lead." she declares, and hopefully they can track down the pirates without too much trouble.

[Recaiden]

"You're welcome."
Omiko replies sarcastically. Complain even when you're being grateful. Just what one would expect from a land-lubber.

The clouds intensify ahead, the winds start to pick up. At first, this leads to faster sailing, but soon it becomes the sort of weather you wouldn't want to take a cat-boat like this out into.

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

Oh, dear.
"This looks bad, Captain. Should we turn back, or is this something you can handle?" Clara asks Omiko as they're hit by a particularly big wave. She makes no suggestions that she's experienced in the seas but it's fairly obvious this is bad weather for a boat.

[Recaiden]

"Well, I can handle it. Don't know about handling you along."
Omiko scowls.
But we'll probably get further behind if we take time to head around this."

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

"Well then you gotta make a call! You're Captain, you have sea experience. I don't know what's the best call here." admits the minotaur, looking to Omiko to do something as the wind howls around them. For once, her shape provides some advantage, as her mane can't get whipped into her face by the wind as might have happened as herself.

[Recaiden]

Omiko turns to look back at Clara.
"I guess it would be a shame if you drowned, or something."
The ship is angled off to port and maybe will sail away to clearer waters.

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

Clara rolls her eyes but is happy to not be left to drown. They should be able to divert past the worst of the storm, but it's unlikely they can get far enough to completely avoid the storm in their tiny cat-boat.
Passing through a wind, Omiko should be careful to avoid the hidden sandy shoal off the port bow, where a number of reasonably-sized boats and small ships have run aground in the past.

[Recaiden]

Omiko pulls in the sail and has them go wide around the shoal.
"Uh-oh. You see that bit of wreckage there?"
"That looks like it's from my ship. We had hatches like that. But it isn't a whole ship..."

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

"Well, do you want to anchor and check the wreck? The rest could be underwater. I don't know if there's an island close enough for anyone here to swim to but with the wreck over the water I doubt your crew wouldn't be with one of the halves."
No pirate could be dumb enough to just swim out into the ocean. Though Clara considers that they might have built a raft...

[Recaiden]

"We've gotta take a look!"
Leaving aside that they still don't have an anchor.
Omiko brings them as close as possible before furling the sails and lowering the daggerboard, then hopping out to swim over and take a look.

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

Clara nods and joins her. Swimming is a bit hard for her since her legs and feet are so different, but her arms are strong and she can do it just fine. At least enough for this simple task.
They should reach the wreck without much trouble, but will they find the crew inside?

[Recaiden]

Please, Clara. Even elephants can swim. No excuses.
"Look around the top pieces." Omiko suggests, before taking a deep breath and diving down to look at the bottom of the wreck. The breathing is mostly for show; she can't drown. On the other hand, going without oxygen is uncomfortable even for her.

Clara quickly finds a waterlogged human skeleton (one missing lower leg), but for all she knows it was just bones beforehand. Mostly, the wreck seems empty.

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

Clara frowns, and will give the wreck a good once-over before reporting back to Omiko.
"One set of bones, Captain. Not enough for a crew. So either they're down there somewhere, they're with the rest of the ship, or something else I can't think of happened."
They could have all been cursed by a sea-witch or eaten by mermaids but those are fairly big jumps in logic just from a shipwreck.

[Recaiden]

Omiko pops back up to hear the report.
"I only found a dead parrot and a few barrels. So I guess I they made it away from here, more or less. But I thought I heard something. Dot didn't hear it, though. You mind taking a listen?"

If Clara does, she might just hear faint singing, carried not through the water but along some subtler waves.

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

Clara lowers her head and turns to face the water as she sits on the wreck.
"It sounds like something's there. Are there porpoises in the area? Or other things that make noises underwater?" Clara asks. She's not much of an expert on sea life.

[Recaiden]

"Oceans are remarkably inscrutable. The Central Empire never even managed to fully explore the oceans of the home system. It could be porpoises, whales, demons, volcanic vents, submarines...anything, really."
Omiko shrugs.
"Think we should check it out?"

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

"I'm not a strong swimmer, Omiko. I'm working on it but I don't think I can dive very well unless you can give me a water-breathing spell. There's a chance it might be your crew as mermaids but I doubt that's the case. I don't really see how marine life is going to help us find them, but we don't really have any other clues..." she admits.

[Recaiden]

"Well, there's supposed to be another island further the way we were sailing right? So we can carry on that way."
Omiko says with a smile.
"We can always come back, right?"

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

Clara nods.
"Sure. Well, we got a whole lot of wood over here. Could you add it to the boat like you did before? Maybe with a bigger ship we could make it through the storm." Clara suggests to Omiko. The prospect of heading through there normally doesn't appeal to her.

[Recaiden]

"Yeah, I think I could. Hold on."
Omiko sinks away under the water, but a short time later, a big magical circle appears just over the water surface, centered around the wreck and the old cat-boat. And including Clara.

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

Clara waits patiently for Omiko, whatever she's doing down there. With all the wind, it's not incredibly obvious that there's a slight shine in the water. Even when she does notice, Clara momentarily just figures it's the sun. But then,
"Oh no," she mutters, and dives off the wreck, but she likely can't get far enough to avoid being swept up in Omiko's newest project.

[Recaiden]

Afraid not, Clara.

The catboat, wreck, Clara, Clara's wetsuit, and other assorted things all gather together and shape into a little caravel. It's got the same red sails, but it's rather weirder than the original. It has eyes instead of portholes, and skeleton arms gripping the lines - guess that dead pirate got swept up. The figurehead is pretty much exactly current minotaur-Clara in shape. The hull seems to be almost one piece, the beams aren't clearly separated.

Omiko pops up astern.
"Make it through the storm indeed."

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

It's almost exactly her, but wearing a nice dress that's more appropriate for a figurehead. Clara has a rough time getting used to all this extra space, eyes, cannons, and all this. She even feels a little bit fat with this wide frame.
What the hell Omiko? Do I even want to hear your half-baked explanation for this one? the ship demands.

[Recaiden]

Omiko climbs aboard.
"This is more quick and stable than a ship made of just the wreck materials."

"But mostly I just wanted to."

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

How does me being here make it more stable? And you better un-want to when we get there. she grumps.
Clara is expecting a lot from a pirate, probably.

[Recaiden]

"First, more to work with."
"Second, it's magic. Inexplicable sometimes."

Omiko unfurls the sails, takes hold of the wheel, and gets ready to go.

"Going to need you to work with me to get anywhere though, with all this."

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

I'll try but there's more sails now. I have no idea what you put those stupid arms there for, they're totally creepy. Best I can do for sure is steer for you and keep the main sail going while the lines get managed. she offers, grumpy.

[Recaiden]

"Well, that'll do. You're a good ship." Omiko comments, patting a nearby railing. Then she sees to the foresail, and hopefully they can get on their way, heading not-so-dangerously close to the storm.

[Deathkeeper]

Sailing

Don't patronize me Clara says, figurehead glaring daggers at Omiko.
They shouldn't have too much trouble from the storm itself, with the ship's heavier frame and extra sails. Omiko will have to do some skillful rope-work to keep the sails from being a little damaged but the skilled captain should be fine if she can work hard and give her ship clear instructions.
That's managing just the storm though, of course.