I'm still keeping the Herons within my sites with my hand on my pistol. I don't trust them as far as I can throw them,which is about the distance between Tortuga and the Stag and Otter inn. So they better not try anything funny during this little truce.

[ooc: Wall, can we keep the dimensions straight, please? This isn't the "real" world, but the Shipping equivalent, so the closest thing to Tortuga would be the port-city-states of the Slash Island buccaneers such as Wolfstar, Pistolcuff (Harry/Draco) and the others... although. if you think it, the throw you describe is practically extra-dimensional, therefore they should be trustworthy]

(Back on the Rose, Me and Cricket are having a... discussion)

Cricket: So, If I understand the plan, we float you out in a dinghy and wait for that infernal serpent to snap you up, I use this ship to rescue the other kings and queens, and then we get the certain object and use it to find a way to rescue the Harrys... and you.

Completely right... except for one point.

Cricket: And that would be?

I get set afloat in my ship and get swallowed by said infernal serpent, You find some one else to provide a ship for the rescue, have them take the rescuees to a safe place, and then find another vessel to bring you to the Graveyard.

Cricket: (chuckling lowly) Think I'm just made of ships, eh? And where might I aquire such a wealth of craft?

I'm sure a person like you has friends in high places, low places even. I'll leave this up to you.

(I'll walk away, while Cricket's still chuckling to herself. Unfortunately, that usually means she's imagining or planning on doing something nasty to someone. Elsewhere, Nerd is discovering just how synchronized the two Hermiones' pregnancies actually are.)

Nerd: I should have known... matching timing, matching mates.. and now it's matching morning sickness. Is there anything that the present weirdness hasn't synchronized you two on?

HermioneP: (wiping her mouth with a rag after upchucking overboard) From available evidence, not much. Except that she still has her husband... but since he's not the father anyway, I don't think that counts. And don't think this hasn't got me worried... a pregnant woman who hasn't seen a hormone muffling potion in almost two weeks can sense these things. Something's wrong here... and i don't mean just politically. The entire world seems out of sorts. My Canon counterpart should have never have sought comfort in her brother-in-law like that... it just doesn't make sense in her world. But what could shake reality so that the lines between Fanon and Canon start to blur?

Nerd: Not to answer a rhetorical, Yer Majesty, but I don't know beans about the mystical wossnames of the universe. But it's got to be bad. (looks to the side) Writing to those Dragoons of yours, yer other Majesty?

Hermione W: Yes I am. I hope they can meet us at a predetermined point.

Cricket: (coming up to them) Well, you better not tell them to expect this ship.

Bob: What do you mean?

Cricket: (doing the "reminding people of the code" tone ala Barbossa) It seems that our good captain, glorified powder monkey that he is, wants the snake to take this ship down to Voldies' little prison with him. He's also laid it at my feet to provide vessals to head up both the first and second parts of this rescue attempt. Still think he hasn't taken leave of his senses?

Nerd: Cricket.. I'm sure he has a plan.. and besides, he's not working fully in the pirate mindset yet. He still has notions of a command structure.

Cricket: Well if you want to beat it out of him, just say the word. But if I need to call in all my favors, you'd better be willing to work with the last non-aligned pirates in the world.. besides myself. You ever head of the Smilin' Jack?

Bob: I've heard they were once the terrors of both coasts... of course, that was when most peoples grandparents were young.

Cricket: But they are the best. Oh, sure, they may all be between the ages of 80 and dead... but they are the best.

(as Nerd and Bob digest this, the owl carrying Hermione Weasleys letter flyes off toward the western horizon)

(ooc: adding this because I forgot an option that needs to be addressed)

Nerd: What about Rapticon? He's got a ship, a crew and he's been known to bite peoples noses off when necessary.

Cricket: Yes he does. But he is also a Harmonian. We don't want anyone spooking and firing anything off accidentally, do we? I say we use him as a scout for your fleet. There'll be a Choclan warship headed for Wolfstar I think, and you can bet that, since the slashers won't appreciate heavy gunplay in their front yard, they should move out before it arrives.

FairyCat: Why should we take advice from you?

Cricket: Well, for one, your captian has apparently taken leave of his sanity. Secondly, I've been a captain the longest and thirdly, did you really have any other plans for what to do when a heron warship comes across your flett, armed to the teeth with not only the finest magic and muggle weaponry of the age, but also swivel-mounted gatling guns on the railings, a weapon that shouldn't technically exist yet?

(Hermione Weasley gasps)

Nerd: Gatling guns?! They have those?

Cricket: Oh aye they do. Imagine it... one hundred armored and helmed household cavalry charging up the Great Heron Battery, swords drawn, yelling all kinds of oaths... when suddenly, from between the big gins comes this weird little sound... "pup-pup-pup-pup-pup-pup-pup". Horses go down screaming, their shoulders and flanks riddled with bullet wounds, breastplates crumple with every impact, blood and gore streaming out from the riders backs, their heads thrown back in pain or slumped forward in the sleep of death... does that sound fun?

Though all of this depends on whether or not the Herons agree to work with us. There's no guarantee that they'll believe the letter is from the Queen, after all who is in charge if we have their monarchs? And wouldn't it just be throwing oil on the flame if we go confront them in one of the most recognized pirate ships ever? And besides Crickets, the captain being nuts means that we don't throw you to the snake.

"Great, out of all the things I could've picked up, back when we were looting the 'Good' ship, I had to leave the spinny thing of now apparent doom. Though, I did pick up a fair few of these from the chest..."

*pulls out a handful of metal cylindrical things with pointed ends from his sack of loot*

"Not exactly the best things to fire out of your average musket, but they look about the same size as the inside of the barrels of one of the guns I now so regrettably left behind."

*baffled by the RPG jargon*

Admin Note: Guys, I'll try moving this to the Non-Shippy Talks About the Potter-Verse section, okay? For one, this is HP related. For another, that section allows post count incrementation - ie, your replies to this thread will raise your post tallies.

Let's try it for a week. I'll leave a link topic here in Exploding Snap so that people can still find this thread.

(ooc: please excuse my absence)

Cricket: Actually, Bob's point is a good one. They were famous when most peoples' grandparents were young, being some 60 oe so years ago. They were, some say, the last gasp of the Golden Age of Shipping Piracy to exist outside the Slash Islands (and anyone who says that has obviously never met me). But most people think they're all dead by now. So... if we convince them to keep themselves anonymous and, just maybe, avail ourselves of their various skills, we can keep things to our advantage.

Hermione W: If you say so. But unless you have a another owl, we'll have to wait. I just hope everything is alright at home.

(scene shift: Heronis Major, Heronia)

Major William Ludlow, Commander of the 2nd Mugglenet Heavy Dragoons, was, for the first time, seriously questioning his orders... internally of course. His current assignment... was crowd control. His troops were on horseback, holding back a mob, the size of which he had never seen before, that had gathered in the streets directly adjoining the main square in front of the Spring Palace, where the new head of State... Ginevra Potter... was proving herself just as ruthless as her reputation had become.

A multiple Gallows had been set up in the square, and it's current use was in the execution of a portion of the Harmonian POW's. As a Choclan offical read off edicts and proclamations about the "state of emergency" and "Harmonian Treachary", and furthermore, relaying that despite an uproar in Parliment, and the House of Mods, "Mrs. Potter", present in a black veil of apparent mourning, was cutting all ties with and declaring all out war on the Fanon Kingdoms.

It was when the remaining members of the Portkey Fusiliers were led onto the platform that things started acting... unusual. The hangman asked for any last words from the condemned, the traditonal response being either inspirational or profane. But Soap did something else.

He started to sing.

The King and his men...
stole the Queen from her bed...
and bound her in her bones.
The Seas being ours...
and by the Powers...
where we will we'll roam!

The Scene when strangly quiet, everyone falling silent as if not knowing what to expect. Then, far back in the crowd that the Heavy Dragoons were holding back, someone began singing what was vaguely recognizable as an old sailors' chanty.

Yo ho...
all hands...
hoist the colours high!
Heave... Ho...
Thieves and Beggars...
Never shall we die!

The wind began to swell, the air just got a little colder, but something was spreading among the crowds. An anger, an indignation, an outrage at having every treaty ripped up, call it what you will. But more and more people started singing until it was almost deafening.

YO HO...

HAUL TOGETHER...

HOIST THE COLOUR HIGH!

HEAVE HO, THIEVES AND BEGGARS...

NEVER SHALL WE DIE!

And then the lever dropped, and the Portkey Fusiliers went down in fandom history as those who, indirectly, convened the 7th and last Shippers' Court.

(ooc: i apologize for mine as well)

"Cricket, are you okay?"

As I ask this, my sister lets out a string of curses that make all of us blush and our eyes go buggy

Bob: Cricket!

Cricket: It's too soon, i'm going to emasculate whoever did this!

detritus: perhaps you'd be good enough to tell us what this is all about?

cricket: it's got nothing to do with you so lay off! and how long will it be before that bloody owl returns with the answers?