Yup. New chapter. Same stuff. Review responses now:
Tallemera: I'm glad you like it. And I'm glad you think the character development is progressing. I've said it a billion times, but here's a billion and one- the song montage scene does wonders for the characters. But that's next week's update ;-)
Kim: Totally? Cool, lol. Here's some more for ya'.
Abby/Angie: I will email you eventually, I'm just scared that when I do everything will be all wrong and that I'll have to go change all my chapters lol. I'm just lazy and a procrastinator, mwahaha. You can email me if you want. Just click that little button that says "email author." Hehe
arwen.pirate: Thanks for the review, but is it necessary to shout? Glad you like it, keep reading and reviewing!
Dreaming: Incoherent babbling works for me. When I've got some people to tell me I named characters wrong and others to judge the plot, I always need a couple people just to be like "oh, it's awesome!" hehe, thanks again.
Something funky is going on w/ my formatting today, so in the places there is supposed to be a large space, you know, to separate what would be shots in the movie, I put three asterisks like this- ***. It's not a big deal though.
Oh, and around here is where I start taking major liberties with the storyline and tweaking it a little. You'll see what I mean with dialogue in this chapter, but in a few scenes it will really begin to deviate in that slight "there's another character" way. Just giving the heads-up, if anyone sees something really OOC, please tell. Enjoy.
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"Yeah, I got your 'Mr. Mop,'" Jim grumbled only minutes later, as he pushed the mop across the floor. Skye scoffed in disgust at the grimy water into which she was continually thrusting her hands. She wondered how the deck could get so filthy with such a small crew.
Strike that- not all of them were small. A Gravitas who went as "Mr. Hands" rumbled past Jim, pushing him so he nearly tripped over Skye. Heavy and hulking, Mr. Hands turned and growled in a deep bass, "Watch it, twerp."
"Hmm, yeah, whatcha gonna do about it, punk?" Skye muttered to herself, attempting the sarcasm would enable her to brush it off. When Jim looked over and saw her face screwed up in a silly pout, he couldn't help but grin. In a newly (and strangely) playful mood, he flicked the mop at Skye, sprinkling her with water. She let out a little shriek, and then bristled the wet scrub brush, spritzing water right back. He smiled and shook more water in her direction, when she suddenly grew quiet. Following her line of sight, he saw three pirates muttering in a corner. When they saw Jim and Skye watching, they instantly hushed.
One of the pirates with tentacle-like hair said quickly, "What are you lookin' at, weirdo?" With that, the head lifted off the shoulders to reveal that the head was in fact a separate alien from the body! The chest of the torso (which was really its face) also glared in their direction, and echoed, "Yeah, weirdo!"
Jim pretended to continue mopping, but Skye was still watching them out of the corner of her eye. Her attention was caught, however, by a large red alien crawling down the rigging above her head.
"Cabin girls should learn to mind their own business, assuming they have any on a ship at all," this bug-like sailor told her, approaching her fiercely. His voice was raspy, but smooth- somewhat like a snake.
"Yes, well," Skye said, sneering with an attitude Jim immediately recognized, "if I see anybody with no business here, I shall inform you straight away, but first I have to tell Mr. Silver to keep his cockroaches out of the rigging."
The sailor's claw hand snatched Skye around the collar. Lifting Skye into the air, he replied close to her face, "Maybe your ears don't work sso well." She grimaced and struggled to get free, but to no avail. Her thrashing attracted the attention of other sailors, who gathered to watch. Jim stepped forward and pushed past several creatures.
"Hey!" he yelled, rushing to Skye's defense, "By the look on her face, I can tell her nose works just fine!" In rage the bug tossed Skye to the deck, where she was seized by one of the other sailors and held with her arms pinned behind her. The bug grabbed Jim in her place, and lifted him up against the mast.
"What did you say, you impudent little-" he asked.
"You heard me. If you have a problem with her, it's with me too."
"Jim! Don't!" Skye called to him, but was quickly muffled by the sailor holding her and drowned out by the excited crew members cheering on the bug.
The bug opened his left hand claw and held it up to Jim's throat. He tried to tilt his chin away, but was trapped by the mast behind him. The bug's eyes gleamed viciously and ignored the look of panic on Jim's face.
"Any last words to say to your little friend there, cabin boy?" it snarled.
***
Suddenly, a metal vice-like grip seized the bug's arm and pulled it away from Jim's throat.
"Mr. Scroop," Silver addressed the bug coolly, "you ever see what happens to a fresh purp when you squeeze real hard?"
Silver twisted Scroop's arm back, so that in his pain, he dropped Jim to the deck and lay panting with relief. Another voice was heard descending the steps.
"What's all this, then?" Mr. Arrow approached the crew member holding onto Skye. It took only a stern look from the first mate to convince him to release the girl. Arrow helped her to her feet, then turned to the rest of them.
"You know the rules; there'll be no brawling on this ship. Any further offenders will be confined to the brig for the remainder of the voyage. Am I clear, Mr. Scroop?" Arrow leaned in as if in challenge to the spider-like sailor. A threatening glance from Silver to Scroop prompted the response.
"Transparently."
Arrow walked away, with Scroop glaring angrily after him, but soon he left the deck with the remainder of the crew.
***
"Well done, Mr. Arrow, sir! A tight ship's a happy ship, sir!" Silver called after Arrow, who paid no attention to him or the clearing deck. Silver then turned on Jim, brandishing the mop like a weapon.
"Jimbo, I gave you a job!"
"Hey, I was doing it, until that bug-thing started threatening Skye and-"
"Belay that!" Silver roared. "Now, I want this deck swabbed spotless, and heaven help you if I come back and it's not done." Handing the mop to Jim, Silver turned to the pink blob floating beside him.
"Morph! Keep an eye on this here pup, and let me know if there be any more...distractions." On this last word, Silver glared at the girl standing next to Jim, and then he turned to go below deck.
Jim flipped the mop right-side up and sighed, as Morph hovered about his and Skye's heads with wide eyes the size of saucers.
***
In the kitchen below deck, the crew was assembled in a type of meeting. Silver entered the room.
"So. We're all here then." He sauntered among the crew as he spoke.
"If you'll pardon my plain-speaking, gentlemen, are you all," he flipped his mechanical hand around to reveal a sword, "...STRAK-RAVING, TOTALLY BLINKIN' DAFT?!" He swung the sword wildly about the room, slicing the hat of a Mr. Onus in the process. "After all me finagling getting us hired as an upstanding crew, you want to go and blow the whole mutiny before it's time?"
Scroop hissed, "The girl was sniffing about...and the boy has the audacity to defend her."
"You just stick to the plan, you bug-brained twit. I wouldn't worry about the girl, but as for the boy- I'll run him so ragged he won't have time to think."
***
Skye had been scrubbing the deck near the kitchen ventilation grating when she heard the muffled yelling below. It had been hard to hear with Morph jabbering away so much, but she had thought she heard...was it possible?
No. There was no way she had heard what she thought she heard. She must have been wrong.
Besides, a false accusation of mutiny brought almost as much of a sentence as the deed itself.
And who would believe her, anyway?
Skye pushed it to the back of her mind and continued scrubbing.