Open Post: Treat

[sporesprouter]

Now that the latest burst of activity has actually settled into something like calm for a few days, Tress has settled into a temporary project. In fairness, most of the temporary project took place the previous day in the out of the way kitchen that she had previously commandeered small appliances from. But today requires a bit more wandering.

So she is currently in the process of going around various at least semi-frequented common rooms leaving trays of both nut and honey balls and chocolate coconut balls. Next to each room's tray, she sets down a small card that says in careful handwriting, 'It's been a tough week. Help yourself!'

She's not putting a whole lot of fanfare into the process, but she's also not being particularly secretive about it, so she's easy enough to find throughout.

Comments

[sporesprouter]

She shakes her head. "I only really went into detail on the verdant spores as an example in the pamphlet, so I shouldn't have expected you to know. They're from the Sapphire Sea, and when water touches them, they burst into air. They're used to shoot cannonballs and flares."

[az_fell]

"Immensely useful, then." Someone really did put quite a lot of work into this story of Tress'. "And rather convenient as a time for you to begin learning sprouting, with that vacancy on the crew."

[sporesprouter]

She frowns a little. The convenient timing isn't exactly forefront on her mind, nor was it then. "His name was Weev. He'd been the only one to stand up to Crow when she decided they should turn pirate. So she threw him overboard."

[az_fell]

Regrettably, Aziraphale has gotten a bit too caught up in the story of it all and not quite remembered that this was all very real to Tress. That, however, is a good reminder. He winces. "Dastardly indeed. That may be too milquetoast a descriptor, in fact."

[sporesprouter]

"She's terrible," Tress agrees with a nod. "Anyway, I really would have rather not helped. I was still terrified of spores. But I was new to the ship and I didn't want to be an inconvenience. Or to be thrown overboard myself. So I got to work. While I was filling the pouches, I noticed that the barrel of spores had a false bottom. I got it open and I found a cannonball inside."

[az_fell]

Aziraphale's eyes widen. "A false bottom with a cannonball beneath it? In the barrel of spores that burst into air? That sounds dangerous."

[sporesprouter]

"The barrel was lined to protect the spores from water. It was probably at least safe enough unless something very bad was happening, at which point one cannonball... or three, even, because that's as many as the compartment would have held... would probably be the least of anyone's worries."

[az_fell]

"All right, all right. You certainly know best." He leans back again, but loses none of his attentiveness. "And then?"

[sporesprouter]

"Well... I realized that the hidden compartment would have been a perfect way for the cannonmaster to secretly switch out the balls that were being used in an attack. I put everything back quickly so nobody saw what I'd found, because I didn't know who else might know about it. Ann came up after a while to talk to me, which was a little worrisome as she was also assistant cannonmaster. But the conversation went well enough until I accidentally blew up my face a little."

[az_fell]

Entirely caught up in the story, Aziraphale does in fact make a shocked little face. "Tress! Blew up your face a little? It looks entirely intact these days."

[sporesprouter]

"I wasn't really thinking. I was wearing goggles, got distracted by the conversation, reached up to scratch near them, I had a spore or two on my fingers, it touched some sweat, and they went off and blew the goggles clean off. Once Ann stopped laughing, she took me to Ulaam, who's the ship's surgeon and... sort of a zombie."

[az_fell]

"Not another zombie," says Aziraphale with a laugh. "I hope that Ulaam was a more pleasant zombie than the ones who befell us here recently. For your sake."

[sporesprouter]

"Oh, no, nothing like the ones here. And he doesn't even really prefer the term. It's just easy because he has cold gray skin, red eyes, and no heartbeat. I'm pretty sure he's from another world beyond the stars." She smiles fondly. "Anyway, he gave me a salve which worked wonders. Pain stopped immediately and it didn't even leave a wound. So I got to go back to work scrubbing for a while until... well, until Huck interrupted me. He'd found Laggart sneaking some cannonballs into his pack. So I kept an eye out until I saw him go and hide them in the false bottom of the barrel before going to talk to Crow. I had to know what they were saying."

[az_fell]

Another world beyond the stars. This doesn't seem to have piqued Tress' interest nearly as much as Aziraphale would have expected it to, so maybe it's commonplace where she comes from? Hm.

Anyway: "Well, now I also have to know what they were saying."

[sporesprouter]

It's not so much commonplace as Tress specifically met a few such visitors on this very adventure, so it's less remarkable for her now than it might have been earlier.

She smiles softly. "Well. Conveniently, I had a small, quick, nearly unnoticeable companion nearby who I could send to eavesdrop."

[az_fell]

"Huck," says Aziraphale easily, and then all of his many, many years of enjoying various narratives jump to the fore and he smiles. "Or should I say, Charlie?"

[sporesprouter]

She stops short and gapes at him. "I didn't even figure that out until we were in the Sorceress's tower."

[az_fell]

Pride is a sin, of course, so if Tress sees a bit of smugness on Aziraphale's face, well, she must be mistaken. "I've been alive for several millennia," he says, in a sideways bid for humility. "I have a bit more experience than you."

[sporesprouter]

"She cursed him to turn into a rat. He couldn't talk about his curse, but she sent him to bring me to her tower to curse me, just to hurt him. The closer we actually managed to get, the more he kept trying to stop me."

[az_fell]

"Ah," says Aziraphale with understanding. "He wanted to protect you." Crowley would be very moved, and pretending not to be, by this portion of events. It's a shame he doesn't read.

[sporesprouter]

"He did. And I was trying my hardest to get to him and save him."

[az_fell]

"The romance runs both ways, of course." Aziraphale smiles at her, charmed. "Don't let me divert you from the tale as it happened, though."

[sporesprouter]

"All right. Where was I? Oh right, sending Charlie to go listen in on Crow and Laggart. It turns out that Crow was trying to force the crew to become deadrunners in order to force them to stay with her and sail into more dangerous seas. The ship I had come from was their first attempt at it, but it didn't end up doing what she wanted, because the one sailor she had left alive in a lifeboat apparently died before any rescue arrived. So with no survivors from the ship, there was no one to pass on word of who'd done it."

[az_fell]

"That Captain Crow," says Aziraphale with a sincere sigh. "I'm looking forward to finding out what becomes of her." Unless Tress' genre is much darker than he assumes it is, based on her demeanor, he has to imagine Captain Crow will get some very just desserts.

[sporesprouter]

She smiles just a little bit. "That's one thing I don't think you'll be able to guess in advance."