Standard Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah, I don't own Gaia. Neither does anyone else on the site, I would guess.
The barrel was cramped and stuffy. Gino found himself wondering exactly how he had ended up getting into it and onto the airship without being noticed. Then he wondered why he had thought it was a good idea to do so in the first place.
After Liam had kicked him out – he said it was because it was too embarrassing to be seen with Gino after the Halloween incident, but Gino suspected it had something to do with Sam – he had gone to the Harem.
Admittedly, he had no idea what the girls were thinking when they chose that name. It made it extremely awkward if his fan group came up in conversation. It seemed even more awkward when he actually visited them, because the majority of the girls there tended to be more on the mothering side of fan behavior.
It was the day after he arrived, when he heard that the Overseer and the Sentinel were taking Christmas into their own hands. Gino couldn't help but be a little annoyed – after all, the Overseer had caused him extreme embarrassment, what with the Halloween incident and its aftermath of pearl vomiting and glowing anatomy. And it didn't help that he suspected that a number of the Harem girls had gotten pictures.
He kept up with the events of the next few days, in addition to hanging out with the many girls and few guys of the Harem and stuffing himself with gingerbread cookies. He wasn't entirely sure why. Sure, he was still upset over the Halloween incident (especially since he was still glowing in certain unmentionable areas), but he wasn't the sort of person who would seek revenge. If anything, he wanted a sincere apology.
He didn't mention this to the Harem girls until Christmas day. They decided that it was their duty to help him, so they drew up a plan of action. Apparently, their plan consisted of hiding him in a barrel and sneaking him onto the former demigods' airship while they weren't looking. Gino wasn't very surprised when he realized that none of them had thought past that point. It was just a pity that he came to this realization while in the barrel.
Gino gave a silent sigh and leaned against the inside of the barrel. That action made it tip slightly and hit the mast with a loud 'THUNK', making him squeak in surprise and try to right the barrel.
"Show yourself, stowaway!" A harsh, female voice cut through the air. It was the Sentinel. Gino mentally cursed his luck and decided to stay silent in the hopes that she would decide it was just her imagination. "We know you're in there!"
Gino panicked. Okay, that didn't work. At all. Think of something, think of something, think of some-"La la la, I'm a talking barrel!" The words had barely left his throat when Gino realized how incredibly stupid he sounded. Obviously, he hadn't inherited his father's talent of quick thinking under pressure…
"Oh, yeah, don't we have a policy for that?" The Sentinel sounded cheerfully maniacal. "Talking barrels get thrown overboard!"
Gino panicked even more. The Sentinel would throw him overboard, no doubt about it, and he had no idea how high up the airship was at that point. "All right!" He shouted, pushing off the top of the barrel and peeking out. "You caught me. I'm a stowaway." When Gino saw the Overseer's completely baffled expression, he couldn't help but add, "But you guys owe me. You owe me!"
"We owe you nothing, piglet!" The Sentinel snarled in Gino's face, making him flinch back in fear.
"Actually, I think I might know what he's talking about…" the Overseer said mildly, irritating Gino all the more.
"Damn right you do!" He shouted furiously, standing up in the barrel. "You're the guy who… uh… It was weird! And I was naked!"
Gino's anger didn't faze the Overseer at all. "First of all, it was only out of necessity that I took control of your body," the former demigod said mildly. "Second of all, there is nothing 'weird' about nudity, so…"
"You humiliated me!" Gino shouted again, cutting the other off. "My roommate threw me out because he was so embarrassed to be seen with me!" Although I'm pretty sure he just didn't want me around when he was screwing Sam, Gino silently added to himself, before flinching at the mental images that he really didn't need.
"I sincerely apologized if I inconvenienced you, but I fail to understand how stowing away will help you," the Overseer replied, while the Sentinel muttered something sarcastic. Gino blinked. After all, all he'd really wanted was an apology. Now he had to come up with an excuse for stowing away.
"I just need a change of scene," He supplied, hoping the two would buy his excuse. Well, it was sort of true… "And you happen to have an airship, so…" He watched as the two former demigods had a short discussion. "Come on!" Gino snapped, annoyed again. "This clam guy took over my body! The least he could do is let me ride in his ship."
The Overseer was the one who replied. "If you're looking for a change of scene, I must confess that we're going… nowhere in particular."
Gino shrugged slightly. "I can be your navigator," he supplied, smiling. "I've been all over the place, so I know what's what." Before he could react, the Sentinel was next to him, with an arm draped uncomfortably close to his throat.
"So make yourself useful," she said, as cheerful as usual. "Which way do we go, piglet?"
"That way?" Gino pointed in a random direction, hoping that it would get the woman to back off a bit.
"Sen, set a course for that way!" The Overseer proclaimed.
The Sentinel rolled her eyes. "Aye, Capt- eh, I mean, sure…"
-
On the fourth day of their somewhat aimless journey, Gino came to three conclusions. First, the Overseer was an idiot. Second, the Sentinel was scarier than a swarm of Animated on speed. Third, he was actually enjoying himself despite it all.
Gino leaned over the rail of the airship, trying to get a better view of the landscape below. From the look of the buildings, they were somewhere over the towns south of Durem.
"Ya know, it's really tempting to push you overboard when you do that," the Sentinel commented from her perch near the bow. Gino immediately stepped away from the rail, making the Sentinel start laughing.
"Sen, stop messing with the navigator," the Overseer cut in, looking annoyed. He leaned forward against the wheel, being careful not to jostle it. The Sentinel glared back at him.
"We've got to find something to amuse us with until we get back to being gods," she stated in a matter-of-fact tone. "And the piglet's hilarious when he's scared. It makes perfect sense to me." That sparked yet another argument between the two former demigods. One of the first things Gino had learned as the airship's navigator was that the two argued given any chance. The blond had wisely decided to stay out of any fight that happened. He also came to the conclusion that any comment about how they sounded like an old married couple would most likely result in large amounts of Sentinel-inflicted pain. In his musings, he looked off past the port stern.
He went pale. "Hard to starboard!" He shouted, trying to be heard over the shouting. Thankfully, the two demigods seemed surprised enough at his interruption to actually stop and look around. Their expressions soon mirrored Gino's as they saw the behemoth of an airship approaching. It was headed straight towards them, and showed no sign of slowing or changing course.
The Overseer yanked on the wheel, pulling the airship out of the way just in time. The leviathan missed them by about a meter. Gino relaxed, sure that the ship would just keep going and leave them alone.
It didn't.
The other ship slowed down so it stayed even with them, and a voice rang out, "What do you fools think you're doing?!" Gino could tell that whoever was speaking was definitely used to giving orders. "You could have damaged my ship!"
"Oh no," the Overseer groaned, "It's Cresento again."
Gino recognized the name. Cresento was the owner of the largest airfleet on Gaia, and was notorious for his incredible arrogance. Gino stepped forward, a half-insane plan forming in his mind.
"Actually," he called back, "You were in clear violation of section 7a, subsection D of the Airship Navigation laws. If a collision had occurred, you would have been the one responsible for all damages." During his speech, Cresento had stepped forward as well, coming into the view of the occupants of the smaller airship.
"Who do you think you are to boss me around?" Cresento shouted, clearly infuriated that someone had the nerve to throw the book at him.
That was the opening Gino had been hoping for. Growing up as the son so Johnny K. Gambino had taught the boy two very important things. The first was to never, ever go to investigate any strange noises coming from the basement at night. The second was how to pull rank on someone if he had to.
"My name is Gino Gambino," he called back confidently. Watching Cresento's expression change from indignant arrogance to confused shock was priceless. Virtually everyone on Gaia knew the Gambino name. Even with rumors of Gino falling out of favor with his father (not quite true, his father had informed Gino that he would prefer to see him make his own fortune, so he should not expect any financial help), nobody dared to mess with a Gambino. If the Gambino family grew angry with a person, then they could easily cause financial ruin.
"Wait, wait!" Cresento called back. "There's no harm done, am I right? I mean, we don't have to do anything about this, right?"
Gino considered his options. There was something satisfying about the tone of panic in the other's voice, but…
"Just have a bit of respect!" Gino called back, taking care to sound just irritated enough. "You may own the Bifrost, but that doesn't mean you're exempt from common etiquette!"
"Yes, sir!" Cresento called back before vanishing. His airship pulled away from Gino and the two former demigods.
It took a few moments for Gino to notice that the Sentinel and Overseer were staring at him incredulously. With Crescento gone, Gino suddenly felt very nervous. "…Um…"
The Overseer interrupted him before he could even start. "How did you do that?!"
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