Post by Mr. Moshypocrite McSlowbro on Mar 15, 2014 3:58:42 GMT -5
Seated quietly with his legs dangling over the edge of the dock, he had just been watching as ships and the people on them went about their day’s respective tasks. As expected of a place as expansive as B-1, the port was constantly buzzing with activity. More often than not, any vessel docked here was unloading something or other and bringing it up the hill to what he figured was a storehouse. But there were cases of the opposite happening. In those instances, the laborers were generally followed by a veritable wave of white uniforms. Going off on patrol, maybe? Or whatever it was they did. Another group of men had the ever important job of scrubbing barnacles off of the hull of any ship presenting with them. Boring, yes, but it had to be done. In significant enough numbers the creatures would increase water resistance across the bow, effectively reducing a ship’s top speed. Worse, they could pull apart the outer coating and let rot into the frame. More than once they had to send an otherwise fine looking boat to the salvage yard due to damage done by the little critters.
Shaking his head, Ruo put the thought out of mind. It’d been a good while now since he had worked at the yard back home. Would probably be an even longer while before he got the chance to again. The truth of that made him a little sad. He liked working with his hands, fixing things and whatnot. Unfortunately, he had done more breaking than fixing as of late. Because of that, he had been trying to keep his hands to himself for the duration of his trip. Not only did he dislike breaking things, but at this point he could not afford to fix much of anything he broke. That was the second reason that he had decided to stay here and twiddle his thumbs rather than try to explore the fortress behind him, even though he had very much wanted to do just that. No, he would wait patiently. If he stood perfectly still, then he could not possibly get into any trouble.
No more than a few seconds after that thought had crossed his mind someone had started yelling at him.
“Ah!” The sound made him leap out of his skin, surprise causing him to fumble the elderly snail he had been palming idly. He managed to catch hold of it just before dropping it into the murky deep, which to someone like him meant it would have been lost forever. After breathing a sigh of relief, he wheeled around to find the source of the startling noise. What he saw glaring back at him was a small red haired woman with eyes that looked like she was but a hair’s breadth away from hitting someone. Besides her fierce countenance, the white garb clearly identified her as a Marine. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that he was indeed the only person in the general direction the lady was yelling. Which did not make a lick of sense. What would a Marine want with him? Still baffled by that question, he pointed a large finger towards himself and began to ask. “Me?”
However the words never had a chance to leave his lips. She was already a step ahead of him. "Yeah you! You're big enough, come help us with this large crate. Hey, I'm talking to you!"
There was a certain steel in her voice that made him immediately straighten his posture as if he was being reprimanded. It carried the sort of undertone he remembered hear his Pops use when one of them had been slacking off in the middle of a job. There was only one answer this officer wanted to hear, and in all honesty he was not a brave enough man to say anything else.
“Uhh. Yes M’am!” The words were accompanied by an awkward salute, the sort you might expect from one who had never done the gesture seriously before this very instant. Stashing the Den Den Mushi away into his pack Ruo hopped up to his feet with all the grace one might expect from him, and rushed over to the cargo she had indicated. In a practiced motion, the (former?) dockworker slipped his fingers beneath the crate and the pallet it sat on, and hefted up against his chest. From the clanging it made, whatever it contained was large and made of metal. It could have been considered an impressive feat that he lifted it so easily, given that it might have taken a handful of normal men to carry otherwise. But he had been carrying heavy cases back and forth like this since he was little. Plus, well. Even as the shortest sibling in his family, he still stood at eleven or so feet and with shoulders wider than some were tall. If something this size didn’t come easily to him, he wouldn’t be able to stand under his own weight!
Falling in behind the authoritative marine, he followed obediently despite not having the slightest idea where they were going or why. There was a black-haired man next to her, standing a few heads taller, but he wasn’t wearing a uniform so he assumed the guy had been pulled in to help just as he had. Tiny-angry-woman had a voice like a whip! She was definitely a captain, the Bangira thought to himself, if she can boss everyone around like that. It was the only thing that made sense.
Off in the distance he heard a sound that could best be described as a mix between a thunderstorm and blender full of rocks, except magnified to the sort of volume that you felt rather than heard. And for what seemed like the umpteenth time in the past few months, Ruo wondered what exactly he was getting into.
Shaking his head, Ruo put the thought out of mind. It’d been a good while now since he had worked at the yard back home. Would probably be an even longer while before he got the chance to again. The truth of that made him a little sad. He liked working with his hands, fixing things and whatnot. Unfortunately, he had done more breaking than fixing as of late. Because of that, he had been trying to keep his hands to himself for the duration of his trip. Not only did he dislike breaking things, but at this point he could not afford to fix much of anything he broke. That was the second reason that he had decided to stay here and twiddle his thumbs rather than try to explore the fortress behind him, even though he had very much wanted to do just that. No, he would wait patiently. If he stood perfectly still, then he could not possibly get into any trouble.
No more than a few seconds after that thought had crossed his mind someone had started yelling at him.
“Ah!” The sound made him leap out of his skin, surprise causing him to fumble the elderly snail he had been palming idly. He managed to catch hold of it just before dropping it into the murky deep, which to someone like him meant it would have been lost forever. After breathing a sigh of relief, he wheeled around to find the source of the startling noise. What he saw glaring back at him was a small red haired woman with eyes that looked like she was but a hair’s breadth away from hitting someone. Besides her fierce countenance, the white garb clearly identified her as a Marine. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that he was indeed the only person in the general direction the lady was yelling. Which did not make a lick of sense. What would a Marine want with him? Still baffled by that question, he pointed a large finger towards himself and began to ask. “Me?”
However the words never had a chance to leave his lips. She was already a step ahead of him. "Yeah you! You're big enough, come help us with this large crate. Hey, I'm talking to you!"
There was a certain steel in her voice that made him immediately straighten his posture as if he was being reprimanded. It carried the sort of undertone he remembered hear his Pops use when one of them had been slacking off in the middle of a job. There was only one answer this officer wanted to hear, and in all honesty he was not a brave enough man to say anything else.
“Uhh. Yes M’am!” The words were accompanied by an awkward salute, the sort you might expect from one who had never done the gesture seriously before this very instant. Stashing the Den Den Mushi away into his pack Ruo hopped up to his feet with all the grace one might expect from him, and rushed over to the cargo she had indicated. In a practiced motion, the (former?) dockworker slipped his fingers beneath the crate and the pallet it sat on, and hefted up against his chest. From the clanging it made, whatever it contained was large and made of metal. It could have been considered an impressive feat that he lifted it so easily, given that it might have taken a handful of normal men to carry otherwise. But he had been carrying heavy cases back and forth like this since he was little. Plus, well. Even as the shortest sibling in his family, he still stood at eleven or so feet and with shoulders wider than some were tall. If something this size didn’t come easily to him, he wouldn’t be able to stand under his own weight!
Falling in behind the authoritative marine, he followed obediently despite not having the slightest idea where they were going or why. There was a black-haired man next to her, standing a few heads taller, but he wasn’t wearing a uniform so he assumed the guy had been pulled in to help just as he had. Tiny-angry-woman had a voice like a whip! She was definitely a captain, the Bangira thought to himself, if she can boss everyone around like that. It was the only thing that made sense.
Off in the distance he heard a sound that could best be described as a mix between a thunderstorm and blender full of rocks, except magnified to the sort of volume that you felt rather than heard. And for what seemed like the umpteenth time in the past few months, Ruo wondered what exactly he was getting into.