Re: Discovering the World

[Achlys Adonia Argyris]

Adonia was surprised and a bit confused to see Cedric blushing, and responded "Let it be? I can't just look the other way when someone's been... wronged" her face fell for a moment before looking at him directly and saying "What kind of person does that make me?"
She had to fight not to wince as she said that. She hadn't any place to speak of such things. Not after what had happened in her own past -- what she had done.

[Guest]

Jack had zoned out of the insults, watching the cherry blossom float from the tree. "Aye give it a rest will yar" he muttered distractedly before crawling into the tree's trunk and out of view for a minute or so, just to poke his head out of the bottom and the rest of his body he pulled out with a pop. "God...need to give the rum a rest..." he said patting the smallest amount of flab around his hips and smiling. Taking some flat metal objects out of his pocket he jingled them around in his palm before flicking them up towards Cedric and Achlys. "Payment for the crime so to speak aye" he smirked and with the old (out-dated) coins he held up two rounded pieces of glass. "The guy who's these were, widney be needn' um no more"

[Guest]

"Well..." Cedric was still slightly embarrassed by being protected by a woman "You were just trying to make justice but it's not worth it... Mister Jack was just trying to make his dramatic entrance." he said, rolling his eyes a bit, before adjusting his glasses.

As Jack threw the coins, Cedric couldn't help but to stare at them, curiosly. "What time are these coins?" he asked, blinking his eyes.

[Achlys Adonia Argyris]

Adonia looked at the coins for a moment, turning them over in her hands. "They're not entirely unlike some things that I've seen in shipwrecks back home" she said looking at them curiously.

[Guest]

Jack looked confused and looked at the remaining coins in his pocket, making him smirk slightly. "Umm theres normal ones, and there be a Aztec one, Eygptian, umm I think that un be Incan" he eyed the coin, inspecting it like a professional before being happy with his Incan conclusion. "Theres a load of Italian ones...howd they get there...Anyway!" he pocketed the spare change and looked quizically at the pair. "What you saying about what time they be from...my time and the time before that" He reached a hand from the floor and uncurled Cedrics hand, picking out a intricate and heavy golden coin. "I'll be having that" he smiled crookedly "Woudn't want the good sir to be gettin any nasty curses of them there Aztec coins, best be left with a cursed man already aye"

[Achlys Adonia Argyris]

"Cursed?" Adonia asked cocking her head and eying the strange coin. "Do you believe in curses Master Jack?"

[Guest]

Cedric looked amazed to the coins "Aztec? Incan? The lost civilizations?!" he cried in excitement. "Jack, were did you get those?"

[Guest]

"Sure I dee, its the one thing that keeps me on the straight and narra...almost anyways" Jack jumped at Cedrics excitement and made a calming motion with his hands. "Woah hold yer horses Cedric man, use yer head, ya can't be a pirate without doing a lil' lootin and plunderin along the way" he winked and jingled the coins around. "I actually do have good tales, but its either people wedney listen to em' unless their drunk or mad...aye, me tales are more suited to inns and taverns..not in the presence o' civilised people". The pirate frowned and tugged at the large charm on his necklace, its stone weighing heavily against his collarbones. "Unless yer wanna hear em of course, I'd gladly oblige"

[Achlys Adonia Argyris]

Adonia, ever curious, could not help but wan to hear the pirate's tales. She had always wanted to to venture out around the world, but had been to afraid to venture away from her tiny island and her solitude. Hearing this man offering tales of adventures across the seas was more than she could resist.
"I-I guess I could listen.... just a bit" she said offhandedly sitting by the pool full of lilies once more, though failing to mask her curiosity and interest.

[Guest]

Cedric looked up to Jack, his curiosity raising the more. "Well, now that you mention it, please proceed to tell me. Tales don't divide themselves into civilized or uncivilized." he said, politely, sitting next to Adonia.

[Guest]

Filling to the brim with mirth, Jack laughed happily and palmed the old coin, pressing the print into his skin. "Alright then~ lady and gent, make yourselves comfortable and then we can begin~" he purred, running his hand through the air, a stream of rainbow tinted water following and proceding to snake around his torso to evaporate around him like a veil of mist.

[Achlys Adonia Argyris]

Adonia watched the rainbow glisten as it moved before evaporating. It was beautiful magic that showed not only power, but a certain gentleness she found startling coming from the somewhat abrasive pirate.
"Perhaps he' not as harsh as he makes himself out to be" she thought with a smile before allowing herself to become absorbed in Jack's tale.

[Guest]

Emmerging from the misty veil, hands open in front of him with the ancient print marked into his palms he smirked crookedly and summoned a small figure of water that shaped itself into a square pyramid with many steps. "The Aztecs were very much alive in my time, they weren't a 'lost' civilisation as you say then. Amazing people they were, could predict the future with stars and sky". The air seemed to shimmer and sparkle around the pirate as his memories seemed to leak into the atmosphere, parts of the scenes he had witnessed were being absorbed by the air around him. "They couldn't predict the terrible tradegy that would befall their people however, one such came at the hands of the bastard Spaniard Hernán Cortés"

Jacks grin grew more phycotic and he flipped the coin into the air and caught it between his thumb and forefinger. ""This is Aztec gold. One of 882 identical pieces the Aztecs delivered in a stone chest to Cortés himself. Blood money paid to stem the slaughter he wreaked upon them with his armies. But the greed of Cortés was insatiable. So the heathen gods placed upon the gold...a terrible curse. Any mortal that removes but a single piece from that stone chest shall be punished for eternity."

[Achlys Adonia Argyris]

Adonia was completely absorbed by the pirate's tale, seeing beyond the world around them and into the faraway worlds Jack's tale laid out before them.

[Guest]

Cedric remained silently, hearing the pirate's tale. A world of possibilities was in front of him, in Jack, a true book he was. Cedric loved good stories and this seemed to promise.

[Guest]

Seeing that his audience was contented with the pace of things, he decided to skip a couple boring parts and got straight to the point. "Well~ Cortes was afflicted with the curse...the wine he drank would not satisfy, food turned to ash in his mouth, couldn't feel the warmth of another, the spray of the sea or the bite of the wind, stuck twix life and death, nor was he alive...nor was he dead" Jack rolled his eyes back into his skull, showing the pale white backs making him look quite frightening before he snickered and returned his eyes to normal.

"Many think I tell a tall ghost tale...and thats what we thought when we first heard the tale, That's exactly what I thought when we were first told the tale. The Spanish buried it on an Isle of the Dead what cannot be found, except for those who know where it is. Find it, we did. There be the chest. Inside be the gold. And we took 'em all!" Jack made a snatching movement with his hands.

"We were honest men then however...kinda...we planned on returning the blood money to the Aztecs but somewhere along the line that plan went to boot". Jacks grin grew sharp toothed and slightly insane as he memories saturated into the atmosphere, fireflies resembled dangerous firey sparks, faint screams and warcry's in the ancient language permeated the glade, fire burned behind Jacks eyes, turning the usual calm blue the hue of an angry sea.

"Our thirst for plundering couldn't be quenched...we thought if this-" Jack moved his fingers in a wave motion sending the ancient coin running along his knuckles back and forth "-was what the Aztecs could give what else did they have in their marvelous golden cities, seemed selfish to keep the treasures all to themselves..."

[Guest]

Cedric listened to Jack's story carefully with his eyes closed and arms crossed. He adjusted his glasses at the end of the tale and rubbed his nose lightly. It seemed that even when Jack was a pirate he still have a heart, to return that gold to the Aztecs was really the right thing.

"Cursed gold...." he mumbled, almost to himself. He always found it interesting how these story seemed unreal but at the same time they could have a logic explanation. "Too bad that it didn't turn out what you had in mind. I guess some people are just greedy enough to die and kill for some gold." he said, sighing.

[Achlys Adonia Argyris]

Adonia sat lost in thought. The effects of the curse were not entirely unlike the effect her giving up her singing had had on her. It saddened her to know that Jack had suffered that way. No-one should be subjected to that kind of miserable existence.

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