Boat Trolls planning thread! (full of spoilers, non-players enter at your own risk)

man if erskin wanted to grow weed tho he'd probably do really good at it

 

ok! ummm i will make stuff up.

how about, whitey offers to throw money at the problem until it is fixed. erskin and bel make a lot of noises about how very many people want the sunslammer and its captain to have some fatal fucking accidents, so it's really not a question of money so much as trust and family connections, HINT HINT. maybe then they go into talking about making the ship over? they were considering dipping their toes in, with murfey's seedy-but-legit bar and all, but now, fuck it why not start a serious goddamn enterprise, and what does whitey think he can bring to the table?

 

also an offer like 'we can ship in the very best surgeons of the fleet!' can be met with, 'um, well, the very best surgeons of the fleet work personally for the guys who want me dead, SOOoo.'

 

how about, write him making some big grand offer while bel's coming back, and when he sits down i can gloss over the meal and What Was Decided

 

it was great! i hope my summary lasted a decent length?

also, erskin's definitely playing another roll, here, just like he played Jailbait Bimbo with whatserface. the sort of Urbanely Dangerous Young Gentleman lets on a lot more of his cleverness than he likes anyone to see, but he's covering up for his emotional vulnerability here and how he probably wants to climb into Whitey's lap for a cuddle.

 

ok gnight!

btw we should endeavor to pack bel and erskin off somewhere for victory makeouts

edit: erskin is probably going to be very plaintive if he is put off again on makeouts. bel could probably take advantage of that if he felt like being a huge dick (and putting off makeouts again).

 

Hmm, I think Erskin glossed right over that with an eyeroll, like 'yeah, duh'. In his opinion he's already under siege, with his crew and quadrants threatened, that's why they're talking with Whitey in the first place.

He's already facing a death sentence with his leg. With him gone (he thinks) his crew will go back to dying off at the intended rate for a dregs ship. Lainey's colder than he is about that kind of thing, and he thinks Bel is too. Plus they already just escaped another straight-up death sentence, with the plague ship, where no one would send any help. The people who could/should have sent help for that actively wanted to wait it out till everyone on the ship was dead, then start over again from scratch. Wavescar overtly has it out for them now, so they're trying to anticipate whatever form that fuckery is going to take.

So— if Whitey reiterates that his activities would be bringing more danger and hostile attention to the ship, I think Erskin would throw the breaks on, and go 'wait, then why the fuck are we making deals with you, we want less danger'. And if the answer to that is like 'the less you know, the less danger there will be', he's still going to refuse, it would go against all his survival instincts. You don't keep safe through ignorance.

I think Bel might understand better the notion of like, don't ask, don't tell, plausible deniability, pointedly ignoring fuckery so as not to get dragged into it. But Erskin and Galley would be incredibly anxious about potential dangers happening nearby that they don't get to monitor.

 

Okay, I edited it so that Erskin is more overtly like 'haha yeah, duh,' with his face and posture, and his bit about how he and Galley can personally handle it will sound very confident and proud. He's saying, yes I know we have a lot to lose, but not from something as silly as people trying to dig secrets out of us.

Does that work?

 

Yeah that does sound like an impasse!

If Erskin can't know what's in the shipments without endangering everyone further, he's just not going to go for it, and will be kind of angry and upset that the options Whitey's giving him seem like 'charity case' or 'unwitting stooge'. It also sort of begs the question, what precisely is in it for Erskin here, is he taking on a whole new set of enemies just for money?

Ummmhnmmgh. This is hard and frustrating ):

Is there anything that would profit them both that doesn't involve Erskin either being clueless about what's going down on his own ship, or endangering the ship further by being an active participant?

 

Okay, what about this. Galley is the only one who knows what's on the sneaky undocumented ships, and doesn't commit anything to record. Bel and Erskin point out that they already protect him, zealously, and would be more than happy to step the guard up. They patch Galley through and Galley is very interested in a) having more power and authority, b) getting even more invasive surveillance upgrades, and c) doing crimes. Oh, and d) lording all of this over Arguus with an added 'neener neener i know even more things than you do'.

To demonstrate Galley's autonomy, they encourage Lord Dasyat to give him an order. Galley tells Lord Dasyat at length exactly where he can stick that order.

 

heh, galley isn't a racehorse, he's a mean old mule with a lot of whip-scars and a tendency to bite first.