we will grow up

[lost_boy]

On the coast of Peter's Island was a dock and at the dock was a ship. The Jolly Roger. A boy named Jamie would captain it one day, though he didn't know it now. And he was far away this morning, waking under the roots of a tree he hadn't seen in over a year, a tree that had once been home.

The pirates had no captain. A boy named Jamie had killed their last captain and none had been willing to take his place, because that boy always killed their captains and always took the right hand of the first mate. None of the pirates wanted to die. They wanted to go home, to sail the Jolly Roger away from these shores and find a new place to be, but every time they tried, they would return here instead.

They didn't know, like Jamie, they were cursed. They were playthings for a boy named Peter.

As the sun came over the horizon, the pirates began to wake. They grunted and groaned and cursed. Spit over the side of the ship, relieved themselves where they could. They ate what they had plundered and what animals they caught. They didn't realize at first that not everyone waking up aboard the Jolly Roger this morning was a pirate.

What Peter didn't know was that sometimes his lost boys came to join the pirates when they began to grow up. When they couldn't stand Peter any longer. The pirates were used to new faces. It wasn't surprising to find strangers among their number. Sometimes they welcomed the newcomers. Sometimes they liked to give them a hard time. It depended on how they were feeling that day.

Most of the pirates weren't sure how they were feeling just yet.

[And the post for everyone over 18 plus Eddie. XD This can be used for figuring stuff out, confrontations with pirates, running into the crocodile or mermaids or the Many-Eyed. Hopefully someone can work out where they are and what the connection is.]

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[eddie_spaghetti]

Something seriously fucked up was happening to him. Again.

He woke up in a hammock. That was the first clue something was wrong. He hadn't dozed off in a hammock in... There was a memory, far off, impossible to hang on to, chased away completely by the sound of grumbled voices, of footsteps on hollow wood, the smell of brine and sea and piss swelling up in his throat, nearly making him gag.

"What the fuck?" He grumbled, arms flailing as he peeled back stained canvas and struggled to sit, but there was something else seriously wrong. His voice didn't sound like his own. Like, okay, his voice had been getting deeper over the last year or so, but this was insane. He cleared his throat once, then again, but was distracted by the long, hairy legs stretched out before him... His legs. Not his legs.

"What the fuck??" He yelped, and in his panic, Eddie tipped himself over in the hammock, landing on the filthy gunner deck of a pirate ship with a pained groan.

"Watch it, mate," someone grumbled as they trudged past, wearing long johns and an voluminous shirt which reached down to their knees.

"What the fuck?" Eddie wheezed, pushing himself up to sit. Weirdly, he was wearing the same kind of weird, puffy shirt, which was untucked from a pair of wool knee breeches. Definitely not what he'd been wearing the night before. Also? More importantly, his body wasn't what he'd been wearing the night before.

"Um, hello?" He said urgently, pushing himself up onto wobbly, unfamiliar legs. The ground beneath him rocked and his stomach lurched, but he somehow managed not to puke all over himself. "What the hell is going on?"

[[The beginning of Eddie's age-switch is coinciding with this homeplot, yay! He's forty-years-old in body, but still fifteen-year-old Eddie at heart, so... IDK, somebody help this kid before the pirates throw him overboard.]]

[speakordie]

When I hear a voice that's obviously as confused as I am, I make my way toward it even if it does feel unfamiliar. I woke up on the deck in some sort of billowy pirate shirt and breeches, and by now I've amassed a pair of boots, a waist coat, and a belt from scared pirates who seem to think that offering me something will put them in my good graces.

Little do they know that I have no good graces, not for them, and I'm not even who they think I am. I'm certainly not going to tell them that, though. Since these people thinking I'm Jamie seems to give me some sort of leverage.

"You're looking well tall," a pirate says, trying to give me a hat with a feather in it. "Grown a bit, have ye?"

I take the hat and wave the pirate away, but I'm not about to put the damn thing on. Instead I make my way towards the voice and find a man I don't recognize tripping over a pirate.

"Please take a breath," I tell him, because his freaking out is obviously not helping and my fuse is so short.

[eddie_spaghetti]

Eddie didn't take a breath.

"Oh, thank God. Elio! Holy shit," he yelped, practically launching himself in Elio's direction, his feet too large, and his center of gravity all wrong, but he somehow managed not to fall on his face.

His face, he thought, reaching up to grope at his cheeks, which were covered in coarse morning stubble, instead of the peach fuzz he was used to. "Holy shit," he wheezed again, his eyes wild.

"Elio, it's me!" He reached out, gripping Elio by the arms. "It's Eddie. Oh my God, what the fuck is happening?"

[speakordie]

"What the fuck," I breathe out, taking a step back as this crazed man comes barreling toward me. But he knows my name, and there's something about his eyes-- and then he introduces himself, and I stare at him wide-eyed as he grabs my arms.

"Okay, first off, stop saying my name," I say through gritted teeth, putting a hand on Eddie's chest to push him back and away from the pirates. I'd rather not find out what happens if they find out that I'm not-- fuck, their future leader. I wonder if Eddie knows he's dating Captain Hook. If not, I have a feeling he's about to find out.

Also, it's kind of funny that Eddie knew it was me, and not Jamie, with barely a glance. I'd wonder how such a thing was possible, but I experienced it myself with Cameron. Aside from that very first time, I never once mistook Cam for Oliver again.

"Okay, take a breath. This is a thing-- a Darrow thing," I tell him in a low voice. "It's probably all a Darrow thing, but this-- the age thing. Wait-- it happened to Richie, right? So stop freaking out about that because we have other things to freak out about right now."

[high_warlock]

"Easy, easy."

Magnus doesn't recognize him at first. What he's focused on is the fact that someone's in a panic, which means they're not used to this, not a pirate. Which means they're from Darrow, just someone that Magnus doesn't know. So the warlock is naturally inclined to help him as opposed to any other activity he might engage in.

"It feels like Darrow magic." That doesn't do anything to reassure anyone, Magnus is sure, but at least it's something familiar, in a way.

"It'll probably pass. Are you-- You going to be sick?" He had that look, at the edges. Not everyone could instantly adapt to the sea.

[eddie_spaghetti]

"Darrow magic? No shit!" Eddie yelped, reaching out to steady himself against a nearby beam, his feet set awkwardly apart as he tried to keep his balance.

"Something seriously crazy is going on right now, and I'm freaking the fuck out. What am I, like, fifty?"

He really wanted a mirror, but he also really didn't.

"Oh my God, please tell me this is temporary, like it was with Richie."

[high_warlock]

Magnus quirks a skeptical brow at the guess of age fifty. Definitely not fifty, but also definitely not something someone would normally say.

"How old are you really?" the warlock asks. Then proceeds to answer the question, as best he can, because he's supposed to be reassuring, right, not just satisfying his own curiosity.

"People's ages change all the time in Darrow. I've... never seen it happen outside of Darrow but why not?"

[and_survive]

She woke up not knowing where she was; she woke up moving. This had happened before. She'd thought about it more than she'd like. Going into the water, the flood, the burning lungs, passing out. Waking in the car. Going back. Turned around. No Fireflies, no cure.

Here she was again. Except... not. The motion was different. No engine sound. Just water. Gentle water, not unalike the sound the lake made sometimes. A sway. How the fuck had she gotten in a boat? Had she been taken?

She reached under- not her bed. No knife. She opened her eyes, and saw, immediately-

That was a fucking pirate. He wasn't paying her any mind right now, but it was a fucking pirate. She couldn't immediately put it together. It reminded her of something. But in addition to whatever that was, it was also a seedy as fuck guy, and she was she didn't know where the fuck where. She pushed herself out of the pile of rags she was lying in. Where she'd been dumped, presumably. Started to stalk towards the guy as he coiled a rope. There was a knife in his belt. She was going for the knife.

[interrupt, I... guess? or turn up after she has taken a pirate hostage, idk]

[high_warlock]

It's cheating, but magic can be used to stop a fight just as easily as to start one. Ellie finds her hand stalled, held by a light circle of blue mist, fingers just centimeters from the handle of the blade.

If she looks, which Magnus is sure she will, she'll see him approaching, shaking his head in a slow manner.

"I think we need to go about this a different way, darling."

[and_survive]

She still had it. Even on unfamiliar ground, on a deck that shifted and creaked under foot in ways she had no idea how to compensate for, she was going to make it all the way up and-

Her hand froze, held by some... fucking mist?

"What the fuck," she said, without thinking, looking around. Oh. Magic guy. The pirate turned around at the sound.

"What the fuck?" he said.

[speakordie]

This isn't the first time that I've woken up in a strange place since getting to Darrow, but it's the first time that I've done so alone. Waking up in Oliver's New York apartment was a shock, but Oliver was there. It was easy to figure out what was going on, or at least what we thought was going on.

But now, it's completely different. I woke up on the deck of an ornate sailing ship, and no one will tell me what's going on. The people I've encountered have acted like they're the ones with reason to be terrified, but at least one of them gave me a pair of boots, and other pushed a bowl of some sort of stew in my hands and ran off, so I'm not going hungry.

I eat the stew and wear the boots and I try not to panic but instead think, and a few things are abundantly clear. I am on a ship full of dirty pirates, and we're docked near an island. These men seem to fear me, for reasons unknown to me, but the longer I think about it, the more things start to make sense. Or, at least something resembling sense.

"Hey," I call out to a dirty man with a bandana tied around his head. The man stops and looks at me with wide eyes, but it's clear he wants to run away. "What's the name of this ship?"

"I-- is this a trick question?"

"No," I sigh out, feeling my stomach sink as my suspicions are all but confirmed. "Just tell me."

"You know as well as I do that this is the Jolly Roger," the pirate says, looking around before talking a step back from me. "And you should also know that I am just a grunt around here. Nowhere near bein' in charge, nope. You don't have to worry about me none."

"Great," I say through gritted teeth, waving the pirate away and looking around to see if I can spot a familiar face. "If Jamie is lounging around my Italian villa right now, I'm going to be so pissed."

[high_warlock]

"What was that all about?" Magnus asks as he makes his way over to Elio. He's been trying to orient himself, get his feet under him and a weapon at his hip, even though he's perfectly capable of magic here, he's checked. But seeing Elio and the pirate interact makes something click in his mind, too. It's on the edge of his consciousness, just coming into fruition. But he's more concerned about his friend than the thought, at the moment.

"You alright?" There was no scuffle at all, but Magnus wants to know how Elio is generally, too.

[speakordie]

When I spot Magnus, I nearly sag in relief. It's not like I'm happy that he's here, ripped from his family, but it gives me hope that this is some weird Darrow thing and that it isn't just me here, all alone.

"Better now that you're here," I admit freely, because even aside from being a pretty good clue that we'll get back to Darrow somehow, hopefully, Magnus is powerful. But as I watch another pirate see me and get all wide-eyed before scurrying away, I think I might have a power of my own.

"So," I say as I lightly grip Magnus's elbow and lead him over toward the railing, where it's a little more private. "How much have you put together about Jamie. Like where he's from, or... who he grows up to be?"

I've never even talked to Jamie about this and it feels a little like a betrayal to discuss it now, but it also might be the key to figuring things out. And Magnus might know already, anyway. I can't pretend to even comprehend the amount of things that Magnus knows.

[fatesdesign]

"Is this rope?"

"Does it look like rope, idiot?"

"It could be fancy rope, but I dunno where it came from. It looks like it's made of gold!"

"Well, grab it! Gather it up!"

"Ow!"

Rapunzel wakes up to someone pulling on her hair, and at first she thinks that Peter might have rolled over onto it. But then she remembers that Peter didn't stay the night. He went home like he always does, and Rapunzel is in bed alone. Except she isn't in bed. She's laying on something hard, and she groans as she reaches up to grip her hair.

There's a loud squawking sound in her ear and she startles a bit, shooting up into a sitting position and yanking her hair back from whoever is pulling on it. She hears the shouts of two men and she looks around, only to find herself face to face with a parrot on her shoulder.

"What."

"Bwaaak! Pretty girl!" The parrot cries out, and Rapunzel ignores her new, entirely incorrect animal companion as she pulls herself to her feet. It only takes a quick glance around to see that she's on a big ship, like a pirate ship, docked somewhere that looks nothing like Darrow. Or Corona, for that matter.

"Oh, come on," she grits out in a frustrated tone, utterly confused and cold in nothing but some sort of sleeping gown that she definitely didn't go to bed in. The parrot's talons dig into her shoulder and she shoos it away, only for the bird to settle right back down onto her. "Again? I am not in the mood to be kidnapped!" She yells out, trying to figure out who it is that took her this time. "I have so many things to do!"

"She has things to do!" The parrot cries out as he flaps his wings, and Rapunzel hangs her head with a sigh.

[high_warlock]

"Wow."

Magnus has had a few more minutes than Rapunzel to orient himself. He knows they're on a pirate ship and that it's Darrow magic. He knows he has to blend in and find others, figure out what they're doing here and what inevitable danger is going to assault them. But he doesn't expect Rapunzel to show up or for things to take a turn for the so... pirate-y.

"Can I have that?" he asks, nodding towards the parrot. "I think I need an eye patch, too. What do you think?"

Even as he's joking, he's searching a pile of rolled up clothes, locating a smaller pair of trousers to offer out to the petite young woman.

[fatesdesign]

"Oh, Magnus. Thank God," Rapunzel breathes out, grateful beyond measure to see a familiar face. "Do you have any idea what's going on?"

She reaches out to take the pants and pulls them on under the gown, wriggling into the stiff fabric with a wrinkle of her nose. Still, they'll be better than the probably see through nightie she's currently in.

"Sure, take him. He's no lizard," she mutters, hoping that Pascal is safe back home in Darrow.

"Bwaaak. I eat lizards for breakfast!" Says the parrot, and Rapunzel shakes it off of her shoulder with an affronted gasp.

"Go away!"

[high_warlock]

For a terrifying second upon waking, Magnus thinks that somehow that archivist has gotten into his head, turned the world all pirate just to fuck with him. But that's not an ability that the other strange man has, as far as Magnus knows. It's much more likely to just be city magic.

And it is, he realizes, as he looks around at the others waking up with him. Some are, of course, tried and true pirates, dirty and rough. But some are familiar faces from Darrow and Magnus instantly goes to them. He tries to calm where he can, reassure, because this is just Darrow magic and it always goes away. But even though the pirates are relatively welcoming, if cool and disinterested in their way, Magnus thinks that a pirate ship is not the place to be. They have to figure out where they are and what dangers are coming.

So he decides to venture off the boat. There's a sword at his hip, something he stole from a now very confused pirate, and, for once, caution in his step.

[ Join Magnus in an attempt to scout the island and probably just encounter from Many-Eyed. Or be one of the people he reassured/encountered first. ]]

[ghost_holder]

"Are you sure it's a good idea to just wander off?" Aggie asks that question as she's jogging up to Magnus' side, a newly acquired set of trousers and boots on her person. She nods at his sword and thinks, belatedly, that she ought to have considered getting something of her own. Although her magic seems to be in good working order, there's no telling what's out there.

"This seems like something out of a fairytale." Which means there very well might be fairytale dangers off in the distance.

[high_warlock]

"Since when have you known me to be a bastion of good ideas?" Magnus counters. Granted, in recent times -- hell, in recent years -- he's been much less of a troublemaker than he ever has before. But this is an adventure and he needs to indulge a little. He's quite sure they'll all get back to Darrow in the end, but maybe they need to help push the plot along, so to speak.

"We already did the fairytale thing, remember?" Magnus says. "You think the city would repeat itself like that?"

[underthefloor]

Octavia wakes up, rolls over, and promptly falls out of bed...onto a wooden floor?

So she might have drank a little too much last night, and she might have a bit of a hangover this morning, but she's pretty sure last she checked her bedroom floor is carpeted. She also can't hear the ocean from where she lives, and yet, she's hearing the ocean quite loudly right now. And as she peels her eyes open, sitting up as she scrubs them with the heels of her hands, she realizes she's definitely not at home. She's on a...pirate ship?

Squinting slightly as she looks around her, Octavia realizes now is really not a good time to have a headache, or to be thirsty as hell. What was that saying she learned a while back? Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink? She groans and pushes herself to standing, her hair disheveled and in her face.

"When did I become a pirate?"

[shieldmaiden_rohan]

Eowyn was unsure how she had arrived on this ship. She had been in her own chambers in Darrow, and now she was here, and surrounded but what seemed to be Corsairs. Never had she been to Umbar, nor did she wish to go. How had she been brought here, and what was she to do?

If she was taken from Darrow to anywhere else, she wished it to be her home, not this strange ship with strange people. But this was not her choice, as so many things had not been, and she must understand this new place. She gathered herself and left the small, dank place she had awoken.

[ghost_holder]

"What kind of pirate are you?"

Aggie wakes up to a stranger leaning over her and she frowns up from where she's swaying in a hammock (very comfortably, actually). For a long moment, she says nothing as she takes in the new smells and sights around her and wonders what exact Darrow mischief is about. Every one of her senses tells her that she's near water, near the ocean, with people whose clothes are suited to at least a century or two before the one she calls home.

The moment goes on perhaps too long because the man repeats himself. "What kind of pirate are you?"

"None at all," Aggie says, finally finding her voice. She eases herself out of her hammock and looks down, bemused to find herself in some sort of overlong nightshirt. It's very much like the kersey shift she would have worn beneath her dresses several centuries and a lifetime ago. Her answer seems to baffle the pirate but he lets her pass and Aggie climbs a ladder, following the smell of ocean.

"Well. This is new."

[wildmage_daine]

Daine hadn't wasted any time checking the other hammocks belowdecks before hurrying up here, herself. But when she sees a familiar head pop out, she wishes she had.

"Aggie?" Daine waves at her from over by the rail. "You, too?" Goddess, it's a relief to at least see one person she knows. Though she's fair certain this isn't Aggie's dream, so that mystery still remains.

[ghost_holder]

"Me too," Aggie says, a frown crossing her face. She'd sort of hoped that maybe Daine would still be safe at home. Instead they're probably both unconscious at the farmhouse with no one to keep their bodies safe, and worse yet... "Who's going to feed the dogs?" It seems like the least of their worries but the situation is still so bizarre that she can't help but focus on the little practicalities.

[wildmage_daine]

If not for the fact that Regan and Martin had been through something similar not so long ago, Daine might've thought she'd lost her wits. She's plainly not in Darrow anymore -- the city isn't hiding any ships like this one -- but she's not back home, either (for all that the loose blouse and breeches she woke in are nearer to home than anything she's bought recently). It does occur to her that some other place might've snapped her up in much the same way Darrow did, but it seems more likely than not that she's just having a very long, very realistic dream.

Very realistic. All her senses are engaged in a way they usually aren't when she dreams. The ship feels solid beneath her feet; her clothes rub against her skin, she can smell the salt on the air and the not-thoroughly-washed bodies of the pirates (they'd given her a start, but they don't seem inclined to attack, at least not yet), she can hear water splashing against the hull and the cries of seabirds. And it's all at once, not just flashes of detail that fade into nothing the moment she stops paying attention.

She makes her way up onto the deck as quickly as she can, wanting fresh(er) air and the chance to get a proper look at her surroundings. If this isn't her dream, then it must be someone's. Maybe she can figure out who.