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Wilsoon


Walin

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So this comes from someone reading one of my posts (which included "Wilsoooon!") in the Discord channel. It was saying a temporary goodbye to Calderis: "Caalddeeeris! (To the tune of 'Wilsooon!' by Tom Hanks)" They said that they misread it as Wilsoon, like Tensoon. I then said that Wilsoon was a kandra who formed into a volleyball on a deserted island for survival. No relation to Wilson, because this island was on Scadrial. Then, someone said "I would read that fanfic."

So here it is.

Wilsoon was hardly eighty years old, and had obtained permission for sea travel. The other kandra saw it a fitting first training assignment, to learn trade with foreigners. He had multiple optional objectives, but only one requirement: to trade for coppermind memories of the Survivor. This action was obviously much different than Wilsoon's other objectives, which were just continuations of his training as a kandra. He could choose to complete or just attempt any number of them, which was fine with him. He often had a habit of indifference to his studies, and had a preference towards more vague projects.Thus, he could put out however much effort he wanted, and call the goal achieved.

In order to have a higher chance of success, the older Generations determined that a voyage by sea was necessary. Medallions that stored the Survivor's memory had once circulated in Northern Scadrial, according to rumor among the historians. However, those who found the memories most important--the inhabitants of the southern continent--would have taken better care of the memories, and kept more copies.

For some reason, Wilsoon was not to have a mentor on this trip. He considered the frustration of his teachers, and had determined that they would rather be studying history in peace than to spend more time trying to explain things to him. They would choose this, even if the time spent would be on a quest to discover new knowledge: some that Harmony had declined to share.

The briefcase Wilsoon carried contained his journal, clothing, a compass, and the assignment log. The kandra had sent him to the docks with a few coins and a general sailing ticket. It took him the better part of the day to find the ship he was supposed to board; there seemed to be more passengers there than would be expected on a merchant's ship. He supposed that one-way tourism was still popular, though he didn't know why. 

 

This is the first post of maybe some more; I'm splitting it up because I write slowly and would rather notify people that it's starting right now, rather than dump it all at once.

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Part 2:

Wilsoon walked towards his rooms. He attempted the first optional objective, greeting the captain, though there was enough happening that it wasn't possible. Sailors were loading crates, tourists were being given a summary of the journey, recorders were taking memories of the ship for bookkeeping, and it seemed that dinner was being served. The captain was not on the upper decks, and none of the sailors that Wilsoon questioned seemed to know where the captain's quarters were.

There are still four months available in which I can complete that objective, and it's an easy one too, Wilsoon thought as he began to open his briefcase and set his room in order. It was as small as could be expected for a trading ship, though it still seemed too large for how much cargo was getting stored. Perhaps the ship was being converted for just passage, and the mentors had lied to Wilsoon about this being a merchant's ship. Well, that seems a bit far to go just to get rid of me.

Wilsoon began an entry in his journal that detailed his 'adventures' of the preceding hours. He had bought some rotting food, which tasted delicious. He then went over to the docksmaster's office and asked what exactly a general sailing ticket was, and to what ships it could grant voyage. Apparently, a general sailing ticket could grant access to any ship on the docks for a full trip, or even buy one small boat. After learning this, Wilsoon asked which ships were going all the way to Southern Scadrial.

Ten were going, and it took some figuring to find out which one would stay at the continent for a good amount of time. A month would be the best, as it would allow Wilsoon to search around for trading posts and still get back to his homeland within a small enough time window. The touring ships that went to the South all would either stay in harbor for another few weeks, arrive at smaller islands rather than the main continent, or stay for too short of a time. That left two possible voyages on merchant vessels; Wilsoon picked the bigger ship. He had the idea that the greater size would let it cut through the sea more effectively, and that it would make this assignment end faster than on the smaller ship.

I mean, since this is a Castaway-like fic, of course it won't end faster. That assumption would actually turn out to be right, though not for the reasons he thought.

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Part 3

Wilsoon finished his journal entry. After that, he walked over to the meal area and got some food. The line still contained half as many people as when he arrived on the ship, which seemed strange. He then went back to his rooms, having eaten after being told that no dishes could leave the meal room. On the way, Wilsoon passed five people walking around in the halls. There sure are a lot of people here. Am I sure this was a trading vessel? ...How can this ship even have enough space to carry all these people and supplies, too? I don't trust what's going on. I'm going to add my own objectives to this mission.

After getting back inside his room and locking the door, Wilsoon opened his assignment log. He wrote a few lines in it, and depicted his efforts on a couple of the objectives. There was a full page dedicated to each objective, but it seemed like they would be full by the time this trip was over. Details were going to be important, if Wilsoon's suspicions meant anything.

Wilsoon went to sleep uneasily, but woke up in the morning without any changes to his room. He opened the door, and didn't see any evidence of death, either. He heard a bell, and realized that the ship hadn't even left harbor yet. It was just doing so now, and three more bells pealed to indicate the end of the undocking process. I'm probably wrong about anything suspicious happening. Those huge numbers of people were probably just investors and observers, who weren't actually on the ship. I have nothing to worry about.

At least, not until we're out of sight of the docks. I'm not sure I'm competent enough to stay on even a lawful vessel. I just wish I had listened harder to those lessons about ship etiquette, or at least watched some examples.

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Part 4

Once the harbor was out of sight, Wilsoon returned to his room. He opened his assignment log, and began writing on the tenth blank page in the back. Surprisingly, there hadn't been a table of contents written when Wilsoon was given the book. There were enough blank pages, however, to write one in and still leave room for additional objectives to be added. Wilsoon wrote the following:

Assignment Log Table of Contents

Required Objectives

--Trade for a medallion with a memory of the Survivor. Page 1.

--Return to the Conclave. Page 2.

Optional Objectives

--Exchange greetings with major crewmembers. Page 3.

--Avoid discovery as a kandra. Page 4.

--Learn new accents or dialects from sailors or crewmembers. Page 5.

--Learn new dialects from passengers. Page 6.

--Memorize the layout of the ship(s) used for passage. Page 7.

--Obtain disguises in the form of items or clothing. Page 8.

--Discover any criminals via spying. Page 9.

--Impersonate someone without getting caught. Page 10.

--Learn how to bribe. Page 11.

--Access rooms that are locked. Page 12.

--Find a blueprint of the ship(s) used for passage. Page 13.

--Learn habits of crew and passengers. Page 14.

--Store food and culture it without getting caught. Page 15.

--Fulfill any objectives Harmony may introduce. Page 16.

 

EDIT: I'll come up with more later, I can't think of any more that meet the constraints I set.

EDIT 2: I'm busy right now with finals, but in a week or so I should get some content back up; sorry to anyone expecting some new posts with the same regularity as at the beginning of this.

EDIT 3: I added three more things to the list, and will add more later. I won't write any more EDIT: remarks to this post. I will be adding Part 5 today.

Edited by Walin
Added 4 more objectives and fixed a continuity error.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Part 5

The morning passed without any major incidents. Wilsoon managed to complete his first optional objective, greeting the major crewmembers of the ship. It took less time than he expected, seeing as how there were a huge number of passengers. That would have indicated a larger crew, but it seemed that despite the number of people milling about on the ship, this was still what seemed to be a merchant's ship. The crew consisted of 10 sailors who sorted the cargo, cooked the food, operated the masts, steered the ship, and sorted out any concerns among passengers.

That was strange. Ships should always have a crew of specialized workers. Of course, there were a lot of strange things happening on this ship. Wilsoon decided to do some investigating--he watched the facial tics and patterns of nearly everyone on board for the next two hours. It was hard to compartmentalize the information, so he took some notes in his assignment log detailing specific people. He had nearly filled the "Impersonation" page, and had only gotten through half of the peoples' descriptions. He finished the notes in the "Bribery" page, then set about searching the ship unsuspiciously. Or at least, Wilsoon searched some public places where it shouldn't be suspicious to look around.

Surprisingly, none of the personal quarters had locked doors. At the time that he checked them, none of the quarters had their occupants inside. Wilsoon decided not to enter, however, because he would lose all invisibility if he was caught snooping inside a private room. He didn't see anything that indicated an affiliation with Trell, or any criminal organizations, but he didn't look very closely. Sabotage could be happening to the ship, or the crew could be holding its passengers for ransom, but there wasn't any immediately available evidence that indicated so.

Why am I so suspicious of this place? Wilsoon thought. It's probably just inability that's keeping me from understanding why this ship and its passengers are perfectly normal.

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Part 6

Wilsoon checked all other, non-quarters doors, and they were locked. The locks weren't the type that Wilsoon had learned to break, but it was one he had been taught. He decided to wait for a crewmember to show up, and then ask them what was contained behind the doors. He leaned back against a door that didn't even have a handle, and kept track of the time.

It took him half a day, just loitering. He drew some suspicious looks, both metaphorically and literally. He saw multiple passengers pass by more than once, and they seemed more confused every time they looked at him. A couple of people leaned against the wall and stared at him. They did this individually, and only once each. That was the most strange thing that had happened so far, but at least it was useful. Wilsoon could sketch some faces for impersonations, and the expressions were kept steady while he drew.

The last person to watch him finished, and a couple of minutes later, a crewmember came by, wearing a uniform. Near the shoulder, there was a patch with a strange logo. Wilsoon remembered the captain wearing a similar patch, and even a couple passengers, but none of the other crewmembers had shown the logo on their person before right now.

"Hey, you're that one guy who talked to all us sailors. Dunno what you're doing, but the other passengers said they were getting weirded out. Mind telling what you're up to? By the way, my name is Marshen."

Wilsoon replied, "Ah, I was just wondering what's behind all of these locked doors. I'm a little confused as to how you're feeding this entire ship, and I want to know how much of this is food and how much is cargo."

Marshen said, "You could have just asked us. It's kind of spooky to just sit there and look at people. And now you're staring at my patch."

"I would rather not have to search this entire ship and talk to two people in the wrong uniform to find someone who knows what's behind this door. I'm more proficient at waiting, and I can get things done while waiting."

"...Like sketching some peoples' faces? Days--Rusts, man, if you act up like this again I'll have to bring you to the captain. Just...can you stop loitering, and acting insubordinate (even though you're not technically in a command structure)?"

"I see you've avoided answering my question."

"I heard you phrase it as a statement. I won't answer a question if it's phrased like an answer. And secondly, I don't know what's behind that door. Talk to the captain, and try not to weird anyone out again."

Well, there went any sense of anonymity. I better practice those other faces soon.

Edited by Walin
fixed some grammar
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If you want to read the Castaway part, I think I’ll be writing it in about 5 more Parts. If any readers want me to do that, then the intrigue on the boat, upvote-then-downvote

EDIT: Alright, I'm going to put up "Part #" and edit it later, so that I don't keep hogging the top of the post feed. And I'm not going to skip the boat intrigue, because I didn't get any notifications on this. Good to know; I like writing this even though it's not Castaway yet.

EDIT 2: So far I've been writing this in the post thread, without major editing other than proofreading and revising. I'm now going to do writing offline, with drafts and such. Maybe the quality of writing will improve, maybe not--but uploading will be slower than it already is. This is my heads-up and apology in advance for further delay in posting.

EDIT 3: Ok, I think I should finish Part 7 by Monday. Sorry to anyone who's been waiting for some more posts; there's not really an excuse for being this late. I'm just a procrastinator in all projects soon after I start.

EDIT 4: I shouldn’t have said “by Monday”, but rather “on Monday.” I forgot to make that distinction; I will post it late today, because it’s busy. I’ll put the first half of the rough draft up, though.

Edited by Walin
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Part 7

Wilsoon sat in the captain’s room. There wasn’t anyone else inside. If he could go outside, and do other things on the ship until he saw the captain enter the room at the head of the ship, he would. However, due to a short series of mistakes that were worthy of a Spec-Memory [sitcom episodes in the form of medallion subscriptions, which are memories of people watching the show take place. Memories are used because I’m operating on the assumption that copper Compounding multiplies memories, and that this is cheaper than broadcasting.], Wilsoon had locked himself inside.

There wasn’t a lot to record in his assignment log, so he wrote a journal entry describing the day. As he wrote, he thought about the week so far. In the span of two days, I’ve managed to attract suspicion of the crew and passengers. If I continue to attempt anything, I’ll end up either causing mutiny or being tossed overboard. I think that after the talk with the captain, I should lie low for a while. Perhaps I should interact with the passengers and show them I mean them no ill. That is, if my own suspicions of them don't give me away.

The captain still hadn’t arrived, so Wilsoon began to search the room. After all, he hadn’t yet talked to the captain, and there wasn’t anything left to do in the confining office.

He found a drawer full of medallions, none of which were copper. Another drawer held some papers drawn in a foreign language, one that looked familiar. The rest of the drawers held office tools or similar, non-informational objects, so Wilsoon went to the last storage container in the small room. It was a metal strongbox, and it was locked.

Wilsoon was unable to open it, and let out a sigh. He put the box back, and began to return the contents of the drawers. He had left the papers and tools out when he was searching, and had decided to put them back later.

Before he finished, the doorknob rattled on the entrance to the captain's room. Unless the captain assumed the door would be unlocked, and had neglected to bring keys, Wilsoon would be discovered. Well, he assumed the crew had watched as to whether he had left the room or not.

But it would be undeniable what he had done here.

Edited by Walin
Added some stuff
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Part 8

The door opened, and the captain stepped inside. Farther down the hallway, there was a pair of guards which had been absent when Wilsoon entered the room. They didn’t do anything, so Wilsoon didn’t focus on them. He focused on the captain’s face, and tried to guess what kind of reaction to expect for sitting in the room for hours. However, the captain didn’t look at him, and almost ran into him while reaching into a cupboard. The captain grabbed a Bloodmaking medallion, stuck it in a pocket, and grabbed a vial from the same cupboard.

By this point, Wilsoon had realized the captain was partially blind, giving time to quietly slip outside. However, when he tried to exit the door, one of the guards outside gave him a glare and a hand gesture. Alright, I’m to remain inside until the captain is done with whatever they’re doing. And, while the captain can’t tell if I move everything back to where it was, the guards will know. Nothing to do but sit and wait.

After a few moments, the captain sat down in a seat behind the only table in the room. It faced the cabinets, in the room, and Wilsoon wondered why the captain hadn’t sat down facing the guards. The position would do nothing to stop him from escaping out to the outside of the ship, because Wilsoon could just dodge the captain.

“Sit down, Wilsoon." As there was only one chair, Wilsoon couldn't do that. So he just walked over to the cupboards, and faced the captain.

"Ah. I forgot, I moved the other chair somewhere. Well, prepare yourself so you don't fall over while I'm speaking. This conversation may take a while, and could also make you fall due to surprise and not boredom. I will try to be clear in what I am saying; listen clearly as you brace yourself. The crew, and frankly, the passengers, have been feeling confused about your recent actions. I don’t doubt you already knew this, but we need to talk about your role on this ship. I understand that you are either a follower of Trell or a kandra—”

Wilsoon picked himself up off the ground, and healed the new bruises in his shoulder. “How in Rusting Ruin did you come to that conclusion!? I’ve been here two days! Sure, I’ve acted odd, but how the—I mean—I’m sorry for that outburst. I’m just surprised that you say that so nonchalantly, and with no leadup, and with little evidence.”

“Oh, I am certain there's evidence. I’m a Lurcher, and am currently using a Booster [I don’t know if Nicrosil Feruchemy medallions have a name, so I’m just going to use that name] medallion. You have two spikes sitting in your torso, and you don’t seem to limp or wince with movement using abdominal muscles. As I was saying, you probably have some reason for being here that isn’t personal. Some group sent you here, and there’s a purpose for going on this vessel. So you’ve been searching this ship, hoping to find something in it. Either that, or you’re trying to learn the people here, in order to spike them or to know how to impersonate them. As far as I have seen, no one has been harmed by your actions. However, I will not stand for them.

“Whether you are a follower of Trell, or a kandra, you are probably Realmatically aware. You know that there are people here who are not from Scadrial. In order to persuade you that we have nothing to discover that would be of interest to you, I will tell you what we are doing here. We truly are a merchant’s ship, and are bringing items commonly found at Sel, Taldain, Roshar, and Silverlight to Southern Scadrial. Before you ask, the perpendicularity on this side of the planet was better for us to come through, for…reasons. While shipping an extremely valuable load of goods across an ocean is risky for us, it is better than coming to the south first.

“I digress. What I am saying is, we’re worldhoppers bringing free trade to a new society, and hope to see what will happen to the society we are shipping to. Now, as you promised, reveal what your purpose is here and why we should allow you to stay with full freedom on this ship.”

Wilsoon was flabbergasted. The other kandra had told him very little of worldhoppers, and he didn’t recognize the planets’ names other than Scadrial and Taldain. Hadn’t that planet been barricaded to travel, or something? And these people were casually shipping from there to Scadrians? He had so many questions. Why hadn’t he heard more of this? Why had he not studied worldhopping trade? Why was the captain dodgy about why the Northern Perpendicularity was used, when being so frank about everything else? And… “W-wait, what? Can you, er, repeat that last bit again?”

“We’re traders. We’re also scholars. The effects of this trade will be a great source of study, and allow us to fund more research; it is quite a great deal we have here. And also, you’re going to reveal what you’re doing here so we don’t throw you in a storage bin, because you promised.”

“I…promised no such thing, but…I’ll do so because I think I can trust you.”

Edited by Walin
Added Part 8
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Sorry, I forgot about this for a while. I will try to write more, which may be up in a week or so.

EDIT: Ok, this Part will definitely be up sometime this week, and I’ll try to put out a Part once a week from now on.

Part 9

“So this whole adventure was meant as a mission to trade for copper medallions. To be specific, ones with memories of the Survivor. We don’t know the reason, but Harmony is declining to share them with us. He’s willing to actively prevent us from finding them ourselves; I don’t even know if Harmony knows if I exist, but I do know that my spikes were made to prevent any Connection. They’re made from an alloy…I digress. Anyways, I’m only eighty, but The Council decided to send me already for this mission, and I’m going to trade on Southern Scadrial. As you can see, my training was not entirely successful, and I don’t know how to sneak about, or to be discreet.

“I’m the only chance the kandra have at learning what *truly* happened, during the Survivor’s time pre-Catacandre. I don’t know whether I will reach success, but I do know that this necessary. I didn’t know anything about this ship before boarding, other than the fact that it’s delivering goods to Southern Scadrial. This is all I have to clear me; I hope my actions don’t cause me to be thrown into on-board prison.”

Wilsoon stood up and started to pace around the room as the captain considered the explanation. It wasn’t long before he got motioned to sit down again, and the captain’s eyes appeared to focus.

“You seem sincere enough. However, you will be on watch for the rest of your travels with us—you don’t need to roam about this ship to trade for copper medallions. Secondly, the crew and passengers have research to do, and I would prefer to eliminate as many distractions as possible. Thirdly, we have other passengers who aren’t affiliated with us. The pins on our lapels should have taught you something of the levels of authority on this ship, but in case you didn’t see those, I will explain: silver pins indicate regular people. They have the authority of an ordinary ship passenger. The shapes indicate their opinion on the discussion of the day. I will not explain any further, however, because you aren’t entirely trustworthy yet.

“In a few weeks, we will meet with another ship to resupply. Then, you may board their ship—it returns to Southern Scadrial—or you may stay with us. If you stay, you may join us and our operations, but you may have less freedom to acquire Memory medallions once we reach the continent. Take this letter,” and at this the captain handed Wilsoon a small paper, “and go to your room after it is opened. Thank you for not being an assassin—I do hate it when that happens.”

As Wilsoon left his seat and walked down the hallway, he heard the captain scoot back a chair and shuffle some papers. The guards nodded to him as he left, and he made it to his room.

Edited by Walin
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Alright, this one’s going to be finished tomorrow, in about 26 hours hopefully. Sorry again about the procrastination, if you were looking for an earlier post.

EDIT: It’s been 29 hours. Within about two hours now, I’ll do it.

Part 10

As soon as he opened his door, Wilsoon knew something was wrong. It smelled like…no meat had been rotting in here. Rusts! Well, he was snooping around, and the ship probably wasn’t airtight in all aspects. There was nowhere else to put his food, though. Ah, well. Wait.

His room had been cleaned, so it must have been checked as well. I’m sure I didn’t leave anything suspicious around here. Either way, the captain is smart, figuring out I’m a kandra and all. If anything I left around here is suspicious enough to get me framed, I won’t be framed, Wilsoon thought.

He made an entry in his journal chronicling the events of the day, and the fact that he’d still be able to make it to Southern Scadrial without going overboard. He sat on his bed and considered the situation he was in. He didn’t have any options, but he didn’t have any danger either.

Wait, again.

He had forgotten to open his letter before going to his room. What had the captain said again? “Go to your room after it is opened.” Well, Wilsoon assumed that nothing would come of it, and he opened the letter currently.

It read, “We have sent some of the investigative crew to search your rooms; before discussing your purpose here, I wanted to check if you had any contingency plans, should you be detained by us. No hard feelings are meant.”

Oh. Alright, then. No fuses in the room to cut, or anything. Wilsoon checked for anything he could do in his rooms, and decided to go to bed. It was the middle of the afternoon, but he didn’t have anything else to do, other than snooping around yet again. Wilsoon had been taught to sneak pretty well, but once he got in the mindset, he couldn’t get out of it easily. Besides, this way, he’d be up in the middle of the night should anything dangerous happen.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I may as well do annotations now, if just to explain some things that are happening here. The quote about not entering Wilsoon's room before reading the letter was just lampshading on a grammar mistake; it should have been "open it once you get in your room."

Another thing in this part--the figuring out of Wilsoon being a kandra obviously has nothing to do with cleverness or watching his doings on the ship; he just had forgotten some of the conversation with the captain.

Edited by Walin
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The post should be up in half an hour, barring any technical issues.

Er, now in half an hour.

...Sorry for getting you to believe I am prompt when I say I'll be. I will finish this in some manner of time, but before the next day arrives, probably.

Ok, I'm finishing this tomorrow.

Part 11

Waking up, Wilsoon tasted something on the air. It smelled like smoke. Huh, the cooks must have burnt something. I thought they didn't roast anything during breakfast hours...oh. RUSTS.

He jumped out of bed, pulled open his door, and ran out onto the deck to see sailors frantically trying to put out a fire. It seemed that someone had been experimenting, trying to get Allomantic primer cubes to work with Feruchemy. They used brass, and it had overheated instantly.

Why on rusting Scadrial would someone ever do something that foolhardy? Just use steel, or something. Seems like either some kind of freak accident, or someone really didn't know what they were doing.

The fire was put out pretty quickly, though the boat would need some repairs. The deck now had a massive scorch mark, complete with an ashy trail that led towards what looked like a locked door. It appeared the contraption had caught fire, and was moved all the way to the center of the deck, to minimize damage. Well, looks like I can be analyzing something around here without looking like a spy. I'm going to go get ready for the day, then come back and see what really happened here.

Wilsoon dressed and ate, then wandered back up to the deck, noting the glances of a couple guards at the captain's door--and a new one, who was standing at the locked door behind which was whatever had burned. The deck was getting cleaned, and some wooden boards were out in a pile for patching. After about ten minutes, a sailor asked Wilsoon to help with cleaning up—and he saw one of the boards finally get nailed into place over the major scorch mark, and a few were being moved towards it to be nailed down as well.

As he joined the group sweeping ash and nailing boards, Wilsoon noticed that all of them had silver lapels on their collars. Perhaps, when there was nothing especially interesting going on, the passengers were to be available for helping the crew. Indeed, after they had been working for a few minutes, a member of the main crew called them over to help with the rest of the burns along the deck. After about an hour, no one remained on the deck; in some kind of organizational mishap, no one had been sent to man the rudder for the last few minutes. None of the crew were manning anything else, for that matter. Wilsoon looked at the locked door, the one behind which was the contraption responsible for the fire. Could I unlock it quickly enough before someone came up on deck?

While he was thinking that, a group of higher-authority passengers marched up the stairs to the deck, and all headed towards the captain’s room. Each of them had either purple or red lapels on their collars, which probably meant they were scholars. Investors on the ship, Wilsoon had figured out, had black lapels.

All of them immediately went inside the captain’s quarters, opening the main door with a key. Wait a second. There weren’t any guards there! What’s happened besides the fire that leaves the ship so shortstaffed right now? …I should go over and tell some of the crew, if they’re around.

While he was considering that, a guard ran up the stairs and rushed to guard the post to the captain’s room. He had missed the group of people, and maybe didn’t know they were in the room. Wilsoon went to go clarify that with the guard.

While he was doing that, the captain marched up the stairs and swiftly walked over to the guard, passing Wilsoon. They spoke softly, then the captain went inside the first door, revealing that the group of people were in the hallway to the captain’s room, and closed it. As Wilsoon got close, he heard the door lock, and met the guard’s eyes. He declined to say anything, and just walked back to his rooms. It was just a meeting with poor scheduling.

--------

So, in this chapter, I don’t really know what I was doing. I was kind of setting up the tensions on the ship relating to the researchers on board, with the explosion of sorts from their Feruchemical box. The ship kind of gets busy trying to sort out everything, and uses some of the passengers to clean up while they (the crew) deal with the logistics and meetings to discuss what really happened.

This wasn't an assassination attempt, just an accident, but it does reveal that there's ettmetal on board, which should sound ominous, seeing as how this group of people is on the sea.

The last few paragraphs, where Wilsoon would be doing something right as people came up the stairs, were just me having fun with the situation, and getting into a bit of a sketch comedy kind of thing.

Edited by Walin
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Part 12

Wilsoon ate some food, studied his objectives for the journey, and tried to stay inconspicuous for the rest of the day. Considering that most of his optional objectives would be pretty suspicious behavior, much of Wilsoon’s time was spent talking with other passengers and trying to figure out their backstory and reasons for going on the journey. Most were scholars, or investors with a heavy interest in their cargo. They gave some information worth learning, but what was most important to Wilsoon was learning their mannerisms. This he could do easily and non-suspiciously, and allowed him to actually be entertained on the ship.

It wasn’t until the afternoon that yet another fire started, this time with all of the passengers awake to see it. Judging by a couple of posts’ positions in relation to the fire, Wilsoon noticed that this new “accident” had happened in the same place. And people weren't putting it out, but running around in circles and evading others who looked intent on attacking them.

Oh, it's mutiny. I wonder what happened to raise tensions so quickly. Wilsoon noted that he seemed detached from the situation; humans were likely to panic in such a situation, thus placing Wilsoon as an oddity on the deck. This...is probably not a good place to stand. Could I get back downstairs or something...? Turning around, Wilsoon was distracted from the action once he saw the captain. The captain looked determined and unfazed at the amount of action happening all around, running in a relatively straight line through the battle and dodging attacks as they came. Once the captain got near the prow of the ship, the door broke open away from the captain, seeming to push back despite there being no contact.

The captain is definitely a Coinshot, Wilsoon thought, when he got pushed into a hole in the deck. He'd been standing still this whole time.

Part 12 continues here, but with a PG-13, or Mistborn R, rating (and as of now I haven't finished that part yet).

Spoiler

The landing was decently soft--he'd landed on a couple bodies in what looked to be a storage room, which seemed quite spacious. There were about twenty barrels in various states, ranging from overturned or standing to completely broken. The situation...seemed as though Wilsoon should be a lot more scared and a lot less calm than he currently was. However, he knew a few key reasons why he needn't worry. He had no chance of dying here--the captain knew he was a kandra, but surely no one who was attacking would have the foresight to pull out his spikes were he to play dead. The captain looked like the kind of person to avoid revealing potential cards unless absolutely necessary. He ran over to the corner of the room, hiding behind a barrel near the back of the room so as to avoid any attackers just in case. The only door was in front and to the left of him, open, and extremely close to the hole in the ceiling. Were someone else to fall in here, they'd either hide or leave--without catching sight of Wilsoon.

He took one more look around the room. There were about three or four bodies spread about, with gaping wounds in their necks, like someone had tried to slit their throats with an extremely dull knife. They wore passenger clothing--no sailors down here, it seemed. Perhaps the crew were more skilled at avoiding attack than those who were running around on the deck. Come to think of it, Wilsoon hadn't seen any of the main crew up on deck. What were they doing? And was that meeting earlier somehow because the crew knew of the attack beforehand, long enough to escape the ship?

There wasn't much time to dwell on that thought. As Wilsoon heard a few shouts outside, another passenger was dropped into the hole, to land hard. Dead already, it seemed, then used to cushion the fall of an attacker jumping in. Armed with a knife, the only other person alive in the room peered about. Wilsoon ducked, but it appeared he had been seen--another one of the mutineers entered the room from the door, and started talking.

"What did you see?"

"I don't know. It looked like a survivor, but this room's been visited already. Get the Seeker, or the Lurcher if they're not busy. If there's more Investiture to pick up, I want to know about it before the contingency plan comes into effect."

Wilsoon had little time. They were coming for him, and even if they didn't see anything, they'd find him using Allomancy soon enough. He needed time.

"I'll search the barrels. You go get the Lurcher."

No use hiding in those, then. If the 'contingency plan' wasn't happening soon, then the Lurcher would find him to be a kandra, and not only slit his throat, but take his spikes. He had to use his last resort. He dilated his pupils, looking around the room for anything he might use to escape without detection--and he saw, across from the door, a pile of balls overturned from one of the barrels within the room.

After the second attacker left the room, calling for "Penosken," Wilsoon ran to attack the woman who had entered the room. If he had a few seconds of surprise, he could probably take her knife. Threaten her, get some answers. Then lock her out while he hid in the ball.

"Eeeh!" He reached for her knife hand, but his opponent spun and slashed him across the chest. He reached again, and she stabbed him in the arm. He kicked out, but she dodged instead. Wilsoon dropped to the ground, hoping she'd run out to get the man who'd come in earlier. Instead of just leaving, she decapitated him. Then left, with the knife buried in his chest.

...

Wilsoon recovered from the shock, dropped his bones, grabbed the knife, and rolled over like a wheel over to the ball, finding his way using a new eye. It took him a second or two, but he managed to find stitching on the ball. He cut it open, pulled out...whatever that fabric was inside, and tossed the knife. He stuffed himself into the ball. It was just bigger than his minimum-required size. He pulled the edge in, and waited.

The murderers entered the room again. "So it turns out there was a survivor, who attacked me. Didn't last long, though almost eager to fight, and--what...KANDRA! We've got a kandra; we have to leave! There's no way we'll kill them fast enough, just go! We have to outrun this ship in case they're storing ettmetal on board."

Wilsoon was left, alone in the room for the space of about five minutes. He let go of his ear-shape he had been holding while they had talked. It was nearly impossible to hold even small structures like that in a functional manner without bones; he shouldn't have dropped those when he escaped into the ball.

Now all he could do was wait.

-------------

This chapter is where the action begins, but it's also really hectic with so little explanation of surroundings that you're not really sure what's happening. This could be said to be intentional, but the truth is that I don't know how to write and describe the surroundings without disrupting the tone and pacing more so than I did with the description of the captain's actions.

Basically, what happens here is a couple of people who got spiked with Trellium, or had spikes they didn't notice before. Anyways, they got taken over by Trell and tried to take over the ship before the captain figured out what was happening. In the meeting in the last chapter, the captain hadn't swallowed any steel, and hadn't converted any nicrosil medallions to power steel Allomancy to really make sure whether someone had spikes. This is what happened when scanning Wilsoon, by the way--the captain had used nicrosil Feruchemy to give a short boost to steel, to determine whether the spikes weren't just objects lodged inside Wilsoon.

Lastly, the objective Wilsoon was working on in this chapter was preparation for Number 10.

This is the second to last bit before it's really Castaway. Thanks again for reading this, everybody, and I hope to write the story well once it gets to the main part.

Edited by Walin
Done, after three months of procrastination!
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Part 13

...I'll stop th

EDIT: Alright, I'm getting pretty busy this week, but school also ends in a bit. I will probably not update this Saturday, but if I don't, I'll definitely try to finish this part, the end of Part 12 (which should be about the length of a Part by itself), and perhaps Part 14.

Back to the top of the subforum! (In a week...)

 

 

A WEEK LATER: ...I haven't done the next bit that I said I would do. Sorry; somehow stuff got much busier than I expected due to graduation happening, which I should have expected seeing as school got out. Also, some obligations came up on the same subject; next week I should fulfill my promise here--hopefully, I'll be done with Part 12, 13, and 14. Maybe 15, but don't count on it.

 

It should be all done in about three hours; if not, then something must have messed up.

 

Quote

Alright, for this Part my comments about my editing and posting stuff are in quote boxes, so you can collapse the boxes and read the story. I've learned that I'm probably not going to do everything in one go, as I put it off, so I'll type stuff for each Part probably daily, and finish it by the end of the week. And Part 14 should also be coming this week, but I'm not entirely sure about that. Once again, thanks for reading, and sorry for the delay these past weeks.

(A short summary of the spoiler'ed bit in Part 12: Wilsoon got inside a storage cabin, saw a pair of attackers enter the room and start searching barrels for captives, and hid inside a volleyball to avoid detection. Getting inside required removing all the stuffing and ripping a small hole in the stitching. Other than that, the volleyball was mostly intact. The attacker left the room in a rush after finishing the search.)

Part 13

The ship rocked. Hidden inside the leather ball as he was, there was nothing to do but wait. Water filled the cabin, and he realized that something must have severely damaged the ship. A loud report sounded outside, and the water had started to trap Wilsoon against the ceiling. He pushed out a small tendril, pulling himself along the ceiling. Then, he realized that he couldn't see, and didn't have time to look around before he'd have to breathe. He took a breath from the rapidly diminishing pocket of air above him, and began a short quest to find the exit.

He emerged from the sinking ship, letting the waves carry him as he attempted to retain sanity with a dangerously low body mass. After a few hours, he came into contact with a small fish that had come to the surface looking for...food, probably. Wilsoon eagerly devoured it, letting the extra mass float beside the contained leather. It took another few hours to learn how to create gills from the fish, and after making such, Wilsoon allowed himself to fall unconscious.

He awoke on sand, and quickly he realized he was on an island large enough for humans. With that in mind, he made an ear and an eye, checking for any observers. When he found none, he looked for some cover. There was a forest nearby, which he eagerly scurried towards. Or, rather, attempted to. Sand was...not conducive to movement. ------------

 

Edited by Walin
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