The New World

[Rosalia]

And so Rosie waited with Falko. She was exhausted, but she couldn't fall asleep just yet.

Fergus had left and she was scared to death of being by herself. What if something terrible happened? She make sure that she was in arm's reach of her pistol and the metal pole.

She stroked Falko's hair and kissed him.  "It's going to be alright." She said reassuringly.

She wondered what was going on outside with Julius.

[The Corsair]

He became aware of a splashing sound. He half-heartedlynpushed Rosie off motioning to where the sound was.
"Julius..."

He didn't want her to leave but he was a little too out of it to remember there were other people on board besides the three people in the room that were just as capable of saving Julius.

[Rosalia]

Rosie was surprised that Falko had the strength to push her away at all, but she quickly rebounded and rush back to his side.

"Fergus just left, he knows what he's doing." She grinned reassuringly. Honestly, she didn't know if that was the truth or not, she was just trying to be as cheerful as was humanly possible.

[Man of Steam]

Alex was in shock over what he heard. He had never thought something like this would happen. He was about to run up there, when he heard a splash in the water. He ran over to see what it was, and saw Julius struggling in the water.
"Man overboard!" he shouted, grabbing a life preserver and jumping into the water. He swam to where Julius's body was quickly sinking, and grabbing his arm, threw it over the preserver.
"Someone help us!" Alex called out between spitting out sea-water.

[The Corsair]

He heard everything around him. Rosie talking. Alex saving Juilius. Fergus heading off. He felt like he had so little control over the things that were happening and he hated it. Even in the hell that had been his home he'd controlled something. His job, his friends, his hobbies, whatever, he had a say in what happened or at least some choice in the matter but in his present state he had nothing. He could talk to Rosie but he never wanted to be dictating what she did so his lack of control over her was something he forced upon himself. He decided to make conversation while he lay there waiting for whatever he'd taken to take effect.

"I saw something strange just before."
He was surprised at the coherency of the sentence.

[Rosalia]

Rosie, despite her fright, had managed to sit down in a chair and was almost drifting off when she heard Falko speaking to her, "I saw something strange before."

She looked up, "Hmm? What was it?"

[The Corsair]

He laughed a little
"I sound crazy but angels. There were all these colours. It was like some secret dimension."

[MWBailey]

"Cuish la mah Cri--!" Fergus swore in his native tongue, then yelled out at the two in teh water, "what inna bleedin' 'ell you lot doin' out there!? Fergus yelled, and grabbed the life preserver line. " 'Ang on, I'll pull ye in! He had come out on deck to see what was transpiring, and heard Alex' shout. He managed to haul first Julius, then Alex aboard; all three sat ion the deck planking for a moment, trying to catch their breath, then Fergus pulled the tarp off of the longboat that sat there on its davits beside them. 

He put it overJulius and Alex, and said, "It's nae a blanket, but it'll block most o' the wind. Alex, bring Julius down 'ere," and he helped the two ove rto teh hatchand down into the yacht, ytoward where he thought the Galley should be. "If we kin git some hot water or tea inter ye both, ye should be alrigh'."

[Rosalia]

Rosie knelt down beside him and took his hand. She pressed her head to the bunk and took a deep breath as not to cry.

"Oh really?" She smiled weakly.

[The Corsair]

"I have no idea what it really was. I may not be the authority on such things but it was definitely not a normal reaction to a bullet wound. We should talk about something else..."

He noticed her expression and realised what it meant. He had been around her enough to read her somewhat.

"You are trying not to cry." He smiled at her.

[Rosalia]

"I'm exhausted, that's all. Today has been quite a busy day!" she laughed, "I'd never done anything like that before and this you got shot."

 she sighed and looked down at her hands.

[The Corsair]

He watched her look down at her hands. He reached out and held one.

[Rosalia]

She smiled up at him, a real smile, "We'll make it through alive. Together."

[Mickey Malone]

Anna quietly followed behind the others onto the yacht. To be honest, she hadn't been paying much attention to the actual plan. It didn't seem to really involve her.
Find the money... came a quiet voice in her head. You might need it.
Automatically she headed off to find the Captain's lodgings, ignoring the various shouts and yells coming from behind. Keeping to the shadows, she began to search for the cabin. It wasn't long before she had found the cabin door, picked the lock and snuck inside, closing the door quietly behind her.
The room was rather well furnished, with fine leather upholstery and expensive looking tables and cushions. Anna was heavily tempted to collapse on one of the soft looking chairs, but she knew that if she did, she would surely fall asleep. With a sigh she tried to remember the last time she had slept well - she had been awake and alert for too long.
Instead she began ransacking the room in search of the valuables.

--

Anna approached Rosie kneeling beside a bloodied-looking Falko, quickly stuffing jewels into her pockets.
"Been busy, have we?"

[The Corsair]

"Been busy, have we?"
Pickpockets. Always the cocky ones.
"Busy actually taking this ship rather than robbing the owners blind. Bloody hell you're lucky they're not aboard." It was no secret he didn't like pickpockets and other such urchins. He may not have been wealthy himself but damn it he worked for every coin he spent.
"If you want to stay with us you seriously have to give us reason to trust you. Judging by your choice of lifestyle I'd say you can't swim and though I may have a defunct arm I'm sure someone else would gladly toss you over the side. I'll let you keep those but we're using them to buy new clothes and other supplies seeing as we left our valuables on the boat."

[Mickey Malone]

Anna blinked.
Her eyes narrowed.
"I don't see how this is any different. By the looks of things you've taken out a lot of men. I think you've done a lot worse than I have."
She paced forwards and sat cross-legged next to Falko.
"Think of their families. Their children. How will they get their keep now, eh?" She looked right into his eyes, attempting to catch a glimmer of guilt.
She got up quickly and turned away.
"And how are you to know if I can swim or not?"

[The Corsair]

"I have learned to make assumptions. I have been in fights. Many fights. I am not the strongest, I am never the strongest, but I have learned to guess what I can and use it to my advantage. And I managed to live without everyone else paying for me, especially not my parents. Some people will just have to be like that."

There he was, lying there with a bullet lodged in his shoulder, lecturing some thief and being the heartless brawler he had tried to leave behind.

[Mickey Malone]

"And you think the wives of those men will just be able to find a job, and carry on?" Suddenly Anna found herself in a rage, and she began applying her justifications to herself. Something she never did. People weren't supposed to know who she was. What gave them that right, when she hardly knew herself at all?
She began shouting, "I have tried, believe me, I have tried so hard to be a regular, respectful citizen. Nobody respected me. Nobody listened to me. I was given no consideration, no opportunity, I didn't even...How could I..."
She felt dizzy. She sat down, head in hands, and tried to justify her life to herself.

[The Corsair]

"We all came here because we had no opportunities back home. Because we needed new lives. Don't single yourself out, we're in no better position as it is."
He paused and thought about what he himself had just said.
"Look, this is my old life talking. I learned to hate the urchins that would try and rob me as I went home from work having sweated and grunted my way to a minimal amount of pay. We're all equals here. We should act as such. I am Falko Hendrick Hoogenboome from the Dutch province of Zeeland*, This is Rosie Kaylock. I won't say I am pleased to meet you but at least we are meeting like this rather than in an alley with a wooden pole."

(*pronounced ZAY-lond with a soft 'Z'. The province gives its name to New Zealand but is not pronounced in the same way.)

[Alexis Voltaire]

As Luke was about to go up on deck to find out what was happening he found Fergus and Alex helping Julius, who was soaking wet and appeared to be unconscious, down below.

"Just a minute, I'll see if I can find some blankets or something warm from one of the crew cabins." Luke said to Fergus, and turned to head back down the passageway to find one of the now-unoccupied cabins. He pushed aside the first half open door he saw and found a small cabin much like the ones they had shared back on the ship, with four empty bunks that from the looks of them had been occupied just a few minutes ago.

He realized that he was still holding onto the bloodied length of metal he had picked up on the tug, and he set it down within reach on one of the small dressers. He didn't know if he could bring himself to use it again if he had to, but he also wasn't sure if all of the crew had been taken care of and he wasn't willing to risk not having a weapon at the moment.

You did... alright, Sher Bay-ta. Ashima's quiet thoughts came as he gathered a few of the gray wool blankets from the bunks.

'Did I.' he muttered, not exactly a statement or a question. He was still a little too shaken by what he had done to either agree or argue, and was trying his best to put it out of his mind long enough to help the others. 'Could you have tried to do... what you did back on the ship-' He started to ask after a moment, but Ashima's quick response interrupted him. I cannot use the power to command others on more than one person easily, and if I had tried and failed they likely would have killed you... I would have done something if I could. He couldn't tell whether her words were meant to be defensive or sympathetic, and he wasn't sure at the moment if he cared.

He found Alex and Julius in the mess hall a few minutes later, and he guessed that Fergus was in the galley heating something up for them. "Here, I found these." He said, handing the blankets to Alex.

[Rosalia]

Rosie eyed Anna nervously. She had never been in contact with any real pickpockets. She had read about them, but then they had glorified, and she was certainly no chipper young orphan in London working for an old Jewish man named Fagin. She let Falko do the talking. She nodded when he introduced her.

[MWBailey]

They had used an old woodstove at the family farmhouse in County Clare; that had been easy enough to start up and use, as long a one didn't mind waiting a bit for a usable fire; there were almost always coals or even a small heating fire burning, even in summer.

This stove on the yacht was a different affair, however. The yacht's owners apparently being the sort who were always seeking to conserve space and weight, the stove was small, almost down to what Fergus thought of as a "Princess" stove, but if it had ever been woodburning, it wasn't now. It looked, from the soot-stains on its painted surfaces, to have originally been used for coal, and the burner assembly inside seemed to have been originally designed to burn some kind of light oil, then converted to its current kerosene burners, one inside for the oven and three topside for the cooking top. A pressurizing pump lever kept the fuel feed up to pressure, and what looked like miniature porcelain doorknobs controlled the fuel feeds to the individual burners.

Fergus found the box of Lucifers on the counter beside the stove, and finally got the cooking top started with a frighteningly bright blue-flamesd FOOMSH that started at the burners and ended around his ankles, but thankfully only startled him and didn't set any clothing on fire. "GARGH!" he yelled, as the fire flashed around him. "Bloody stupid newfangled kerosene buggery!" He finally got some water to boil and steeped the tea in the infuser pouches that he found beside the tea canister. Before very long, he set three large, steaming mugs of rather strong tea on the table, with a battered teapot beside them, a fluffy towel covering the pot to conserve warmth, and all three men absorbed themselves in the restorative warmth.

[The Corsair]

He reached out for Rosie's hand and found it not far from his own. He gripped it tightly as a surge of pain hit him, followed by a pleasant numbness across the affected area.

"I think the painkillers have set in Fergus." he called out

[Man of Steam]

Alex took one of the blankets,and wrapped the other around Julius.
"Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done." he said with a grin,as the color returned to his face.
Alex took one of the cups and held it close to him,feeling the warmth seep into him.

[Augustus Longeye]

Julius gave a start and crawled back into conciousness. He opened his eyes and saw Alex dripping gently beside him, and Fergus opposite him and considerably less wet.
"I guess you pulled me out, thank you gentlemen..." Julius murmured, and quickly wrapped his hands around the mug. It was scalding hot, a fact made worse by his own coldness, but he didn't care. "has anything else happened? Did we make it?"