Staten Island Ferry, Elvish Style! [Video/Action ]

[so_dark_a_road]

[ Curufin and Margaery Tyrell set sail from the bay of North Island, the same day as he puts the finishing touches on the boat. It is clinker-built (also called lapstrake), which makes the hull flexible, good for sailing turbulent waters. It has a single square-sail (sewn by Margaery), though it also has rowlocks and oars, in the unlikely event of the winds dying. It looks something like this.

It can be crewed by two people, but more would be nice! Give Margaery and Curufin a holler if you want them to come pick you up! Either because you want to come along for the ride and learn something about sailing, or because you need to be ferried to a different island than the one you're on. They'll take you wherever you want to go. Also, call if you want something picked up and delivered to you, or if you just want the sailors to come and visit you. ]

Hello, Hadriel! The ferry's in service.

[ OOC: Either or both Margaery or Curufin will answer! But you can also request one or the other. ]

Comments

[so_dark_a_road]

[ Curufn grins back. ]

I literally have not slept. Well, just a few fifteen-minute catnaps here and there. Luckily for me, Elves can live with sleep for quite a while!

Pleased to meet you, by the way.

[storyseeker]

That is lucky. For all of us, I think.

[She gives the camera a little wave.] And likewise. I'm Elena.

[so_dark_a_road]

Heh. I hope to provide the community with a few boats that will ride the waves safely.

[ He smiles and waves back. ] Hello, Elena! I'm Curufin. Which island are you on?

rises from the dead

[storyseeker]

Up north. I've been doing a lot of exploring on foot, but I'm going to run out of land here eventually. Boats are definitely needed.

\o/

[so_dark_a_road]

Margaery and I are also based on North Island. Yes, it's not such a large land mass that one can explore forever! Of course, Hadriel never did provide a person with much space, but now we have less. Unless you count the water. [ Chuckle. ]

Do you want us to come pick you up on our next go-round of the islands? We can take you wherever you want to go.

[storyseeker]

I count the water...mmm, say fifty percent? It's all pretty much the same, sure, but there's something to be said for getting out on the water.

[A sort of freedom, even if they're trapped.]

Really? You sure that wouldn't be a bother? I'd love it.

[so_dark_a_road]

Fifty percent sounds about right! And there is indeed something to be said for getting out here on the water. I don't know what it is about boating, but it feels like freedom to me. Maybe because sailing a ship was all bound up with my first experience of being a rebel.

It wouldn't be a bother for us to come and get you, not at all!

[storyseeker]

I think I get that. I was born on the coast and spent a lot of time on the water as a teenager. Which is kind of like being a rebel. [She laughs.] If you're sure, then I'm not going to turn down the offer.

[so_dark_a_road]

A teenager and a boat? -- ah, the perfect recipe for rebellion! [ He laughs, too. ]

I'm sure. What's your purpose? Visiting people you know, or is it just the lure of exploration? [ He could barely stand being trapped on the same island and was really glad when the boat was finished and rigged. ]

[storyseeker]

[The perfect recipe. Of course, she was a good girl, so it wasn't one she cooked very often...aside from those times her parents never knew about.]

I wouldn't mind touching base with a few people, but we've got these things for that. I want to know more about our new home, for however long it is one.

[Who knows when they'll make another jump? And who knows how long they might stay?]

[so_dark_a_road]

[ It's the times one's parents never knew about that make adolescence bearable! ]

You're an explorer at heart?

[storyseeker]

[Ain't it just?]

I like to think so. One of my first jobs out of college was hosting a show that let me travel the world. I do a little less of it now, but I still get around. Or I did until I ended up here.

[so_dark_a_road]

That must have been an interesting job. What lands did you visit, in your world? What does a show host do, exactly?

Yes, ending up here does tend to put a damper on the wanderlust.

[storyseeker]

Well, my show was on an American network, so we tried to showcase a lot of international locations—which I know means nothing to you. Different continents, mostly, as long as the budget was there. Tropical places with a lot of natural beauty, or areas with ruins from old civilizations that hadn't been completely overbuilt.

It was kind of like couch tourism, but I tried to add as much educational value as I could while keeping it entertaining. Too many amazing things have been lost to history as it is.

[so_dark_a_road]

I have heard of this country, America. My world has only two continents, and that was quite challenging to our civilizations, which had to do their communicating on horseback and on foot. We had a few magical means of instantaneous communication, but these were not widely known.

It makes a lot of sense to me that in your world, anyone with modern media capability would want to collect news and information from as many continents as exist. And to educate others about these places. It is well that you had the opportunity to be such a person!

Did you still have that job before you came here? Or did you find other work to do after the show host gig?

[storyseeker]

Well, it took us a while to get there. Before humans invented planes, trains and automobiles, we had the same challenges without the magic.

That job was a long time ago, though. I moved over to actual journalism, war correspondence and the like. But lately I was doing more travel-oriented stuff again. It was a little safer.

[That's said with the smallest amount of regret.]

[so_dark_a_road]

I have never seen an airplane, though I did help build an airship in another world, once. It used a vast helium-filled balloon as its suspension principle, but it had turbo-prop engines to move it swiftly through the sky. And a bit of magic as well. I've seen a train in a vision here in Hadriel. Oscar, my colleague in the Fire Brigade, comes from a world of vast expanses of steppeland, criss-crossed by train tracks, and I saw them in the Dreamwalk of last year. I know how an automobile engine works, though we Elves certainly didn't have them. I and other Brigade members built the fire engines on the same model as an electric car. But if I had never left my own world, I'd still be taking it for granted that the only safe way to get to another continent is by ship, and the only fast way to cross one is by horse! But pardon me, I do tend to babble on about technical things.

You became a war correspondent? Well, that doesn't sound safe! But you must have had strong reasons to do it. What was it like?

[ He hears the regret, and understands it. ]

[storyseeker]

[She listens carefully, fascinated by his experiences as well as his perceptions of others'. From his perspective, is it similar to what she's felt, learning about magic? Some amazing force she's never been exposed to, which is
capable of amazing things but still has methods and rules?]

You understand better than some of my college friends already. [She gives him a crooked smile.] I wanted to tell the world's stories. It's easy to stick to your bubble and never know what's going on far away, good or bad. I could do something about that. And if I'm being completely honest, I'm a little bit of an adrenaline junkie.