#size difference boat yuri…..

[acescorazon]

i know you like old man yaoi but have you considered old woman yuri (i want bughawk to kiss and be in love)

Hello, Nonnie whose identity I do not know!!! Thanks for your request!!! This series is partially for you, but it's kind of a slow burn, so there won't be any kisses and lovey-dovey stuff for a little while :) ANYWAYS. Starting another new series (because I was bullied) Where (Fem) Buggy gets thrown overboard during a storm and Mihawk (also fem) rescues her and swims them to shore. Things are a little messy at first because Buggy is pretty sure Mihawk hates her, and Buggy hates Mihawk just as much, if not more, but they figure it out, eventually. Enjoy!

Title: Coexisting (But just barely)

Pairing: Fem!Bughawk Ch: 1/? (i'm so sorry.)

Rating: M (I'm just going to rate it that as a whole.)

Word count: 2178

Warnings: Crocodile. Near death experiences. Language.

Chapter excerpt:

“Don’t be a wimp.”

At what point do they actually start panicking and say enough is enough?  With a groan, Buggy makes a desperate attempt to get back to her feet and once she does manage to stand up straight, the very next moment, yet another wave hits the side of their ship, capsizing it.

Buggy never stood a chance. She’s dumped into the water and there’s nothing she can do, but sink while being engulfed by complete darkness. Is she really going to die because of Crocodile’s negligence? Man, this sucks. She should have never borrowed money from Crocodile. Maybe if she were a little wiser, then Cross Guild would have never become a thing, and she wouldn’t be seconds away from her dying.

Oh, they fucked up.

Buggy tried to warn Crocodile that there was a storm approaching earlier, and she thinks her exact response was, “I ain’t afraid of no rain.” Okay, yeah, neither is Buggy, but this is more than just a light drizzle. It’s stinging hail that keeps slashing at their faces, it’s howling winds that are strong enough to knock even the mighty Sir Crocodile herself over, It’s waves the size of Elbaf giants that, when they aren’t smashing against the sides of the boat and threatening to capsize it, are sending them high up in the air and then hurling them back down to earth, but Crocodile doesn’t seem to care about all that.

Buggy grips the rails to the ship tightly as more hail whips across her face, and there’s this nasty voice at the back of her head that keeps reminding her that if she lets go, she’s as good as dead. Right now she can barely see in front of her, but she still squints her eyes and tries to look at the giant figure at the helm, “Crocodile!” She screams over the raging wind, “Turn back.” This is insane.  Maybe in a different situation, she’d tell her to push through the storm like the other woman definitely wants to, but her gut is telling her there’s no way they’re going to make it through this monster, and they definitely can’t sit it out either.

The island they were just at is so close, yet…

Crocodile makes no effort to turn the ship around, and over all the noise, Buggy can faintly hear her yell back,“Quit being a wimp.”  she’s a wimp for wanting to live?! She groans as she finally comes to the realization that Crocodile isn’t going to listen to reason, at least not from her. She looks around for Mihawk, and she could have sworn that she was near Crocodile earlier, but now she’s nowhere to be found. “Hawkeye?” She calls out, concerned, because the last time she checked the only ones who hadn’t run inside the ship were the three of them, and she hadn’t heard Mihawk go inside, not that she can hear much right now anyways.

Buggy doesn’t receive an answer after calling Mihawk’s name, so she turns her attention back to Crocodile, who’s struggling to stand on her own two feet as the wind blows against her. “Crocodile, where’s Hawkeye?” She asks, but doesn’t get an answer from her either, Crocodile’s way too focused on trying to keep a grip on the ship’s wheel. Oh, this is just freaking great, Buggy thinks. The last thing they need right now is to lose one of their crewmates if you can even consider them a crew.

She looks over her shoulder, trying to see if she can see anything that might indicate that Mihawk’s still on the ship. Any little sign of life will do; Her hat, her coat, her sword, anything, but she can see none of those things. Did she fall off the ship? “Mihawk? Are you okay?” Now, there is a chance that Mihawk is somewhere on the ship and just can’t hear Buggy over the sounds of heavy rains and thunder, but there’s also the chance that she might have gone overboard during one of the several times the ship was thrown up in the air. “Crocodile, where’s Hawkeye?” She yells again, this time a little louder.

Crocodile hears her this time and briefly looks around her before replying in a rather indifferent voice, “Who knows?” She could at least act like she’s concerned for someone who’s her friend, or at least Buggy always assumed they were friends. Hell, Mihawk and Buggy hate each other, but Buggy’s still concerned about her safety. “What if she went overboard?” She asks, and if Crocodile were anyone but….well, Crocodile, then she’d probably be panic-stricken right now.

“That’s her own problem.”  

Oh, she’s a mad woman and she needs to be stopped because if she doesn’t care about Mihawk potentially going overboard, then she sure as hell won’t care about what happens to Buggy or the rest of the crew. Buggy takes a deep breath and inches her way towards Crocodile, “Crocodile, turn around!” she shouts.

Crocodile glances at her through wet bangs, which means she definitely heard her, but she doesn’t respond. Enough’s enough, Buggy thinks, hating herself for even letting things get this far. She shouldn’t have let her men leave the island. She should have kept them safe, but she didn’t. She was too scared to actually go against Crocodile, and now look at them.  Good God, this is insane.

Buggy doesn’t know what the game plan is, but she has to get Crocodile away from the helm.  She takes a deep breath and lets go of the only thing keeping her safe. She struggles to make it the few feet across the deck to where Crocodile is and almost loses her footing a few times, but she’s almost there. She doesn’t care what Crocodile does to her, she has to get a hold of the wheel, she has to turn back.

Buggy's fingertips just barely brush against the plush fabric of Crocodile’s coat when all of a sudden another monstrous wave slams into the side of their ship, damn near capsizing it for real this time. “Fuc--” She yelps as her feet slip from underneath her, and she goes sliding across the deck. No matter how hard she tries, she can’t stop, and she hits the deck, shoulder first and with a hard thud. Crocodile’s words repeat in her head as pain shoots up her shoulder.

'Don’t be a wimp.'

At what point do they actually start panicking and say enough is enough?  With a groan, Buggy makes a desperate attempt to get back to her feet and once she manages to stand up straight, the very next moment, yet another wave hits the side of their ship, capsizing it.

Buggy never stood a chance. She’s dumped into the water and there’s nothing she can do but sink while being engulfed by complete darkness. Is she really going to die because of Crocodile’s negligence? Man, this sucks. She should have never borrowed money from Crocodile. Maybe if she were a little wiser, then Cross Guild would have never become a thing and she wouldn’t be seconds away from dying.

Usually around this time, one of her men heroically jumps into the water to save her, but her poor men probably don’t even know what hit them. She rushed them inside to try to keep them away from the danger, but in the end, none of that mattered because the boat tipped over, and now devil fruit users and non-devil fruit users are all screwed.  

She tries not to breathe for as long as she can, but eventually, she can’t take the burn in her lungs and she has no other choice but to breathe in the ocean around her.  It’s agonizing, to say the least, and she knows, she fucking knows that she can’t swim, but she still tries to propel herself upward and try to save herself but to no avail. Buggy feels as useless as a piece of trash sinking to the bottom of the sea right now, and she hates it. She hates how every time she’s thrown into the water, she’s unable to move let alone swim because back in the day she used to be the best swimmer on her crew, well, second best.  

A wave of exhaustion also hits her to make matters worse, and she just wants to go to sleep. Maybe that’s what she should do. Maybe she should just stop struggling and accept her cruel fate. No one’s coming for her. Her men are probably confused and trying to get off the ship right about now, and if they don’t drown right away, surely the storm will sweep them away. This is all Crocodile’s fault, and she swears if she sees her in the afterlife she’s going to make her regret this bullshit. 

 

Something grabs Buggy by the waist just when she’s on the brink of going unconscious, but she can’t tell what’s got her. For all she knows it could be a sea king, and she’s not sure if she’d rather die from being eaten by a sea king or if she’d rather die from drowning, but it probably doesn’t matter anyways. Dead is dead.  She doesn’t fight whatever has her though, she just wants this nightmare to be over with. (Also, she hopes that the same thing that has her eats Crocodile too, if it is a sea king.) Much to her surprise though, whatever, or rather whoever has her starts pulling her up to the surface.  

This can't be real. She's sinking to the bottom of the sea, moments away from meeting an untimely end. She's not actually being rescued right now. That's impossible, who would even be able to see her and rescue her? This has to be some sort of delusion. This can't be real.

Rather quickly, though, the darkness surrounding her disappears, and before she has time to comprehend what’s going on, her head is reaching the surface and her lungs are burning as she gasps for air then proceeds to start coughing. Maybe this isn’t a delusion, or if it is, then Buggy doesn’t want to know the truth. As she tries to catch her breath, she looks up to see who rescued her and almost passes out.

“Hawkeye?” She calls out, weakly, still not convinced that she hasn’t died and gone to hell or something. It just doesn’t make sense for her to actually come to her aid, she hates her guts! But even if she did come to save her… How was she able to see in that cold abyss and find her?  Where did she even come from?

Mihawk stares at her with an unreadable expression on her face. She takes a moment to catch her own breath before looking away and finally muttering, “Oh, it’s you.”  

The words, 'Oh, it’s you.' echo throughout Buggy’s head, and a part of her wants to tell Hawkeye to drop her back into the ocean and let her drown for real this time because seriously? What does that mean? 'Oh, it’s you.' Who was she trying to rescue? Crocodile? “What’s that supposed to mean?” Buggy complains in a hoarse voice. She’s so close to Mihawk's face right now, that she could… she could just bite it off! Who cares if they both end up drowning after that?

“...I thought you were a little too light to be Crocodile.”

“Why don’t you drop me and go find her instead? “

Sometimes Buggy doesn’t quite understand why she does the things she does and, much to her horror, Mihawk does let go of her, and Buggy swears her life flashes before her eyes as she feels herself start to fall a little. She reaches out, quickly grabbing onto Mihawk and clinging to her. “Don’t! I was just kidding!” She whimpers, “I don’t wanna die.”

Mihawk sighs, “Then be quiet.” The annoyed tone in her voice kinda pisses Buggy off, and she really wants to say something, but this isn’t the time to be fighting with her. Their boat just capsized and now that Buggy’s gotten the chance to look around, she doesn’t see their ship or anyone else around for that matter, and she’s unsure if she’s the one who got swept away or if it was them. “What now?” Buggy asks.

Mihawk gives her a rather nonchalant reply, “We swim to the shore.”

”Are you crazy?” Buggy frowns, “We’ll drown before we make it ashore.”

“We’ll drown if we stay here and do nothing.”

Okay, that is very true, but it’s still storming and If the storm doesn’t get them, then the exhaustion or hypothermia will. They could be swimming for days before they actually reach land, and what happens if Mihawk gets tired or a bad cramp or something? That’s right, she’s going to drown. And do you know what happens if Mihawk drowns? Buggy drowns with her. “Maybe someone’s nearby and can rescue us.”

”In the middle of a storm like this?”

Okay, that’s a fair point. The only ones who were truly stupid enough to try and sail through a storm like this were them, and that obviously didn’t turn out well. Buggy groans, “Okay, but I still think that we need to get help!”

”We aren’t going to get help in the middle of the ocean.”

Buggy knows that she should just be happy and grateful that Mihawk saved her and that she’s still alive. Sure, she’s fatigued and freezing, but she’s still breathing and that has to count for something, but Mihawk really pisses her off.  Why does she always get to decide on what they do? Who died and made her king? She’s sick and tired of Crocodile and Mihawk doing whatever they want and bossing her around like she’s their henchman! 

[mirkwoodshewolf]

Lion kings and cheetah queens; Roger Taylor x reader

*Author’s note*

Hello all! In honor of you all helping me reach 1K followers, I’ve been working on this oneshot for a few days and finally while on my Spring break I’ve finally came around to finishing it and posting it up today. After doing so many romantic Brian May fics, I’ve decided to do our drummer boy Roger Taylor. Now this can be read as either Ben Hardy!Roger Taylor or the real man himself :)

Now there’s no warnings at all but just pure, unadulterated, teeth-fotting, family domicile FLUFF!!! I think I may even have to pay the bills from ya’ll dentists lol. Anyways I hope you all like this fic and I hope I did some good research as you will find out. Real People do NOT belong to me, I am just doing this fic for entertainment purposes only.

Also for those that are interested in wanting to compete in my 1k contest, below is the link to the rules that you will need to follow. Hope to see more people take part in this contest, I’d really like to get to know more people and see that my followers and readers engage more with me. Enjoy reading my lovelies :)

Link to contest

Queen Taglist:

@alexfayer 

__________________________________________________

It was a typical day at the Taylor household.  In the backyard with the giant garden that looked more like a forest or a jungle with all the flowers, bushes and trees surrounding the property, which was perfect for the two children playing in it.  A young boy around 4 years old with blonde hair and blue eyes was racing through the bushes softly laughing to himself.

He peeked out from the bushes grinning the same grin that he inherited from his father before going back in the bush and racing onward.

“She’ll never expect me coming.” He said to himself.  He came out from the bushes and spotted his target.  A young girl 1-2 years younger than him with long (h/c). “I’m going to sneak up behind her and surprise her.” He whispered so softly so that the girl just several feet in front of him wouldn’t be able to hear him.

Soon like a lion on the prowl he crawled towards the girl before standing up and racing towards her and tackling her as he said,

“Boo!” He tackled the girl down to the ground and the girl said.

“Rufus no fair! I was supposed to be seeking you!”

“You were taking too long Lotte. So I thought I’d surprise you instead.” The boy now known as Rufus said to the girl he called Lotte.  “Alright sis it’s your turn. Go on you hide and I’ll come look for you now.”

“Okay but no cheating, you always cheat.”

“Do not!”

“Do to!”

“Do not!”

“Do to!”

“Do not!” Rufus exclaimed before sticking his tongue out at his sister.

After a bit of arguing they finally decided to stop as Lotte now went to go find a hiding place now in the labyrinth garden.  Rufus raced back a couple of feet and began counting.

“One two three four five six seven ninety-nine one hundred!” He raced into the garden and proclaimed, “Ready or not here I come!” He looked high and low but couldn’t find his sister anywhere. “I know she’s around her somewhere.” He then saw a bit of ruffling from a nearby bush.  Rufus raced towards it and said as he tackled his sister once more, “Ha-ha! Found you!” The two of them began to playfully wrestle for a bit before stopping as Lotte said.

“Hey Rufus, wanna try and see if we can sneak up on dad?”

“Yeah good idea Lotte. Let’s go find him!” The two of them raced out of the garden and across the backyard to see if they could find their father.

In one of the sheds, Roger Taylor was polishing up one of his boats checking to make sure everything was in shape before he would treat his family to a weekend at the lake after being away for so long, plus his wife needed a break from all the rigorous training she’s been doing lately for the Olympics.

The two young kids found their dad in the shed and Lotte giggled but Rufus shushed her telling her to be quiet.  The two kids snuck up of the drummer unaware that he had already knew that his children were planning something.

“Okay you go around and I’ll stay back here.” Rufus whispered to his sister, she nodded and snuck off to the side while Rufus stalked right behind his dad much like he did to his sister a few minutes ago.  But just before Rufus could surprise his dad, Roger let out a roar and swooped down and picked up his son over his shoulder upside down while Rufus was screaming playfully trying to break free.

“You kids may think you’ve mastered the ambush attack, but you’ll never be as good as the king. Now what to do with this amateur hmm?” Roger then began to spin around with his son still on his shoulder.

“Lotte! Ruhuhuhun!!!” He managed to cry out and soon his sister raced out of the shed trying to find a hiding spot.  As she ran, she was suddenly picked up and held against a strong chest and Roger’s voice said in her ear.

“And where do you think you’re going little cheetah?”

“Daddy let go!” Lotte giggled out.

“No I don’t think I will, now what punishment shall you receive compared to the lion cub I just captured?” He hummed in thought as he sat down on the grass but keeping his daughter tight in his arms, “I think I’m seeing more spots than last time, let’s count them shall we?” At that point Lotte’s eyes grew big. Because he father’s idea of counting her ‘cheetah spots’ were tickling them out of her.

She tried to escape but her father brought her in closer into his lap, his legs trapping her like a cage as he began counting, starting at around her neck. Lotte giggled and squirmed at her father’s tickly fingers as she laughed out.

“Daddy! Stohahahp ihihit!”

“Your squirming is only going to make me lose count, stand still you little squirmy cub. Let’s see where was I? Oh yes five, six, oh I spy seven right here on that tummy of yours.” He said as he now began tickling her bellybutton.

“THAT’S NOT A SPOT!!” She cried out through her laughter.

“You sure about that? It definitely looks like a spot to me.” Lotte kept laughing at her father’s tickle torture when suddenly Roger was tackled by his son Rufus. He managed to bring his father down and he cried out.

“I GOT HIM! I GOT HIM LOTTE! LET’S GET HIM NOW!!” It was then the two children began to playfully attack their father like a real lion and cheetah cub would do in the wild.

“Oh no they’ve finally got me! They’re too strong! C’mon pick on someone your own size don’t….Help! Help me!” As the three Taylor family members continued to play around, they were unaware they were being watched.

*My POV*

I had just returned from my morning training with Yuri when I could hear my husband’s voice crying from the backyard.  I raced over thinking that someone was wrong but when I saw that it was just him and the kids playing around I couldn’t help but chuckle softly. Now I bet you’re wondering how does an Olympic gold medalist like me managed to snag and claim Roger Taylor, drummer of Queen as her husband?

It’s quite a funny story how we met.  It was just after my second Olympic run back in 1976.  Now you’d think that Queen would be performing at the Olympics and that’s how we met right? Well you’re half right.

Queen had celebrated a successful world tour at the time and were at my favorite pub. Of course the news of the Olympics were all over London and I was getting stopped everywhere I went for my win for the UK.  And it was at that pub that I had met Roger when he tried to flirt with me, using the famous “Roger Taylor” charm.

With his long blonde hair, baby blue eyes, and quick wit tongue that can get any girl falling for him, he thought I would be another easy target.  But I hadn’t earned the nickname (Y/n) “The Cheetah” (l/n) from Yuri for nothing.  My wit was just as quick if not quicker than his, as was my sass as I denied him right there on the spot.  But of course like any other lion they are relentless.  Eventually I was able to tame this lion and made him more docile and in 1978, he asked me to marry him and we’ve been happily married for six years now.

I was about ready to train for the 1980 summer Olympics when I had found out that I was pregnant with Roger’s child.  I had no choice but to pull out that year since I couldn’t compete.  I felt like I was letting my whole country down that year but a good friend of mine Serena took over for me that year and we managed to get second place which wasn’t too bad but I still felt like I had dishonored the UK.

But after the birth of our son, I knew I had won a different goal that day. Motherhood was tough and I thought I’d never be able to do it, but thanks to Roger as well as the other members of Queen plus Chrissie and Veronica, I was able to not screw up and became the best mother I could be.  Barely a year later, we had another baby, our sweet girl Charlotte but we all just call her Lotte.

Each of our kids resembled both Roger and I. Rufus was a splitting image of his dad from his tuff of blonde hair and charming blue eyes, right down to his mannerisms and behavior.  While Lotte, she’s like me in appearance but she can be a little more reserved compared to her brother, but when she needs to be, she can be pretty feisty just like me.

And I’ll admit I was scared to think of how Roger would take to fatherhood. After all I knew of his reputation, plus he never really screamed out ‘father material’ but the day Rufus was born, it was like something switched in him, like his son became his whole world and nothing was going to tear him away from his boy.

And when Lotte came along, oh god poor Rog was a wreck.  He refused to let her go saying that only he could protect her, he already was making death threats to any boy that looked her way and promised to be there for her no matter what.

I walked a bit closer to observe the rare domestic playing that Roger could have with his children after a long tour schedule and saw as Roger pretended to groan in agony before collapsing dramatically with his head hung to the side and mouth open and tongue hanging out the side, the classic ‘playing dead’.

“Dad? You’re not dead.” Rufus said as he sat on his father’s chest.  Roger’s head shot up as he said.

“Nope!” Making out kids shriek and laugh as Roger joined in their laughter and held each of the kids close to him.

“I leave you lot for a couple of hours and already you’ve managed to make yourselves filthy.” I said making myself known.

“Mummy!” Lotte cried out as she raced towards me.  I picked up my daughter and gave her a kiss to the top of her head and I asked her.

“Now what were you kids doing to get yourselves so dirty?”

“We were playing hide and seek lions and cheetahs style.” Answered Rufus as Roger leaned up to normal sitting position and pulling his son into his lap.

“Ahh that explains a lot. And so I’m going to assume that you invited the king to play along?” I said staring right at Roger who grinned.

“We wanted to see if we could finally sneak up on him and surprise him. But Rufus said I was too loud.”

“Cause you were!” he exclaimed.

“Alright, alright no need to yell at your sister Rufus. Now apologize to her right now.” Said Roger.  Rufus turned to his father as Roger looked down at him and raised his brow telling him to do it.

“I’m sorry Lotte.”

“It’s okay.” I set her down and the two of them hugged it out.

“Alright now both of you head inside and wait for me in the loo, we’ll have to have your baths a little earlier than usual.” Our kids soon raced inside the house and I shook my head softly.

“Those two certainly are a handful at times.” Said Roger.

“They get it from you mostly, especially Rufus.” I said.  He feigned a mock hurt as he placed his hand over his heart and moaned in agony.

“Oh you’ve wounded me my love, ahh it hurts, it hurts, just put me out of my misery.” He then fell over in front of my feet with his arm over his eyes.  I couldn’t help but giggle as I said.

“You are such a drama Queen, even worse than Fred.”

“But you know you love me for it.” He said as his arm raised up and he peeked at me with them baby blue eyes of his.  I then got down on the ground and hovered over him and said.

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. You’re just gonna have to find that out for yourself Mr. Taylor.”

“Ahh but I know it, otherwise you wouldn’t have married me, Mrs. Taylor.” Roger said as he wrapped his hands around my neck trying to bring me downward until our lips melded together.  As he tried to deepen the kiss, I broke away from him and said.

“Rog I’m sweaty and disgusting, I need to shower before we continue this.”

“Never stopped us before, remember back that concert back in ’77. It was just after a Queen concert, I took you into my dressing room and you—” he then began whispering seductively in my ear the events of what happened that night.

“Rog this is—this is different I—” I moaned softly before letting out a slight giggle from his hot breath tickling my ear. “No, no Rog I won’t fall for it again!” I stated firmly but was suddenly pinned on my back with Roger now hovering over me.

I couldn’t help but grin up at him and I stroked his cheek with my index finger as I muttered.

“Damn your cute face.” He smirked down at me and I said to him out loud, “You think I can’t resist you?”

“Do you want to resist me?” he said with that cute puppy dog tilt of his head.

“No. But I would like you to ask nicely so that I don’t feel like the bad guy here.” He shrugged his shoulder and said as he leaned downward.

“At least I’d have a beautiful villain being cruel to me.” He captured my lips once more and we softly made out for a few more seconds.  I pushed against his chest and I told him.

“The kids are waiting for me, then I’ve got to shower.” I got out from underneath him and stood back up and walked towards the house.

“Mind if I join you once your shower starts?”

“The last time you asked me that is how we ended up with Lotte.” I said as I turned toward him.  I walked backwards for a bite before turning back around and walked inside our house.

After giving the kids their baths and cleaning the dirt off their faces from playing in the garden, I then went into my bathroom and showered to clean off the sweat and oil off my body from a hard workout.

This was my first hardcore training session in awhile to help prepare me for the upcoming summer Olympics and Yuri was working my ass off to no end. Especially since this was my first Olympic competition in over 8 years.  My muscles were sore and jelly but the hot water eased the tension in my muscles.  I let out a moan as I just allowed the water to hit me when suddenly I felt arms wrap around me.  I would’ve slipped had it not been for Roger.

“Damnit Roger I’ve told you not to sneak up on me like that especially when I’m showering.”

“Sorry love I couldn’t help it, besides you’ve been overworking yourself. Let your man clean and pamper you up.” I felt him kiss my cheek as he pulled me close to him. I debated and then spoke out.

“No sexual games this time.”

“I swear, nothing sexual. At least for today,” I heard him mutter, I hit his shoulder which made him laugh and he continued, “I’m kidding. But seriously though love, let me take care of you.”

“Alright Rog.” And just as he promised, he helped clean me up.  He used my favorite body wash and gently went over and massaged all over my arms, shoulders and calf muscles.  Once my body was cleaned, he took my shampoo and washed my hair for me, his fingers gently combing through my hair and massaging my scalp. I let out a soft moan and he said.

“Careful love, don’t want to start something now do we?”

“Get your mind out of the gutter and keep washing drummer boy.” I could feel him smirking as he kept washing my hair until it was time to head back under the showerhead and allow the water to rinse away the shampoo.  He groomed through my hair in order to help the shampoo get rinsed out.

Once I was cleaned and satisfied, we both left the shower and dried off before putting on our bathrobes.

“Thank you Rog, I really needed that.”

“Who says that I’m done?” I looked at him skeptically and he continued, “Go lie on the bed love, I need to get some things out from here. And don’t ask any more questions”

“What are you planning Roger Taylor?”

“I just told you, you can’t ask any more questions.” I chuckled at him and said.

“Okay, okay don’t go throwing our TV set out the window.” He shook his head and I left the loo and went to lay on our bed.  The mattress felt like heaven as it helped ease the muscles in my lower back and it was then Roger came out with a bottle of lotion.

“Mademoiselle, I’m Roger Taylor and I will be your masseuse for this morning’s session.” He grabbed one of the pillows that we normally don’t sleep with but keep it as decoration for the bedroom and he lifted my legs and placed the pillow underneath my calves and set my legs down on the pillow.

He took the lotion and squirted some in his hands before rubbing them together. He then took my right leg first and began to massage it.  I threw my head back against the pillows and moaned softly.

“Mrs. Taylor I must say you’ve got knots in your knots along your calf muscles. Haven’t you been treating them?”

“Juan does his best but he’s been sick lately so the past few training sessions I couldn’t get him up, and of course Yuri can’t massage for shit, he gives the worst massages that I’ve ever seen, it’s like pure torture.”

“Aww poor madam. Well I promise this will be the finest massage you will ever hope for.” He went lower and moved his fingers in a slow, circular motion and I moaned softly.  After that, he moved over and began to do my left calf muscles doing the same top to bottom soft circular motion from the bottom of my knee down the just before my ankles.

Once my legs had been massaged, he then sat in front of my feet and began to massage them.  First taking my left foot and using his thumbs to go counter-clock wise around my soles.  He then moved up to just underneath my toes before moving down to my heels.

“The tension is more on the soles than anything, you don’t have to worry about anywhere else.” I told him.

“Understood, just focus on the soles then.” He then went back to the soles and as I told him he kept massaging around that area.  After awhile he then moved to my right foot and did the same thing focusing on the soles.  When my feet were done being massaged he then told me. “Okay now may I ask you to remove your robe so that I can do your back?”

“Getting a little personal aren’t we? I don’t think my husband would appreciate it.” I teased.

“I’m sure he wouldn’t. But he must be a lucky man if what I think is under that robe is true.” I grinned at him and untied my robe and slowly turned onto my stomach and removed the bathrobe and lay on my stomach exposing my back.

I soon felt his lotioned hands on my shoulders and I groaned out a moan.

“Oh Mrs. Taylor you are so tense.” He cooed out.

“It’s called raising two children and stressing of having the entire UK on your ass to win and redeem themselves from the last summer Olympics.”

“It’s too much stress it’s piling up on you darling. Thank god I’m here for you now.” He said as he began to massage around my lower back.

After several more minutes he stopped and said.

“Okay, I’m done. How are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been recharged. To what do I owe you Mr. Taylor for your services?” I said as I grabbed the robe and put it back over me as I faced my husband.

“For a house call I’d normally charge 20 dollars per hour. But for being such a beautiful woman and a wonderful mother to our children, I’ll accept a kiss, maybe a quick shag.” I slapped his arm at the last part which made him chuckle and he cried out, “I’m kidding! But not about the kiss though, so what do you say Mrs. Taylor, care to give us a kiss?” I smiled and wrapped my arms around his neck and our lips met in a soft, yet passionate kiss.

With such a rare day like this when both Roger and I have some time off, we spent it with the kids watching a random animal documentary on the BBC.  Of course Roger never really liked it when we’d play it because he’s obviously still pissed at the fact that they forced Queen to ‘fake-play’ Killer Queen on Top the Pops.  But when it came to the kids, he was willing to swallow his pride and watch it for them.

They were doing a documentary on Africa’s big cats and when the cheetah came up on the screen Lotte said.

“Look mumma that’s you!” I smiled down at my girl and ruffled her hair and said.

“Yep, that’s mummy.”

“Cheetahs are my favorite animal mumma, know why?”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because they’re super-fast, very, very quick and brave, and caring to their babies, just like you mummy.” I awed at my daughter and hugged her close and kissed her cheek while Rufus scoffed and said.

“But they’re not as tough or strong as the lions are. They’re so big, they have a huge family, and the male lions have that huge mane. They can take down larger animals than them and they’re super strong, just like you dad.”

“Ahh that’s my boy.” Roger said as he picked up Rufus and placed him on his lap.

“Cheetahs can outrun lions any day though.” Lotte relented back at her brother.

“Cannot!” Rufus proclaimed.

“Can to!”

“Cannot!”

“Can to!”

“Cannot!”

“Alright you two that’s quite enough of that.” Roger began.  “Now how about we compromise, agree that out of any big cats in the world lions and cheetahs are the best of the best. Agreed?” The kids grumbled and whined a bit but they agreed. “After all kids, in the end the lion did get what he wanted to in the end, even though the cheetah was feisty and sharp-witted. But it was all worth it in the end.” Roger said as he stared right up at me.

“Well the lion shouldn’t have been too cocky, otherwise the cheetah might have been a little more receptive. But cheetahs know when to sniff out arrogance and big egos. But in the end she was able to tame the wild lion king.” I spoke as I stroked his cheek with my index finger making him smile at me.

A few hours later after putting the kids down for their afternoon nap, Roger and I finally got to spend some quality time alone.  He sat down at the floor next to the couch and hand my knees over his shoulders.  My fingers were currently combing through his hair as Roger leaned back against my thighs moaning softly.

“I’ll never forget the day we started this lion-cheetah family scenario. Rufus took one look at you and at a stuffed lion from the toy store and pointed at it and called it ‘dada’.”

“At least he didn’t point to the hedgehog.” He said.

“And I will admit he’s not wrong. With this hair of yours all wild and long like this, especially after a concert, you definitely look like a lion.” Roger then turned and looked up at me but said not a word.  “What?” His eyes soon sparked that mischievous gleam as he removed my legs from his shoulders and got into a pouncing position. “No Roger don’t you dare!” I then tried to escape but he quickly grabbed me by the waist and threw me down on the couch.

He crawled over on top of me and hovered over me smirking down at me and he said as his nose brushed against mine.

“And I thought cheetahs were supposed to be fast?”

“Well we are but you cheated.”

“Oh my love, all’s fair in love and war. And when it comes to survival of the fittest, the lion will always prevail. Now let me hear you say it.”

“I would rather die than surrender defeat to a lion like you.”  He merely nodded and then his look changed to a more darker tone as his smirk grew more sinister.  I knew exactly what was going through his mind and I begged him, “No Rog don’t you dare! I swear to god if you do it I’ll—” but it was too late.

His fingers danced around my sides and stomach.  I squirmed and tried to get out of his grip but he held firm and wouldn’t let up.

“ROGER! STOHAHP!!”

“Say that you’ll submit to the king and then I’ll stop.” He said as he kept tickling me.  I kept laughing and begging for him to stop but he refused to listen.  After what felt like an eternity, through his own will, Roger finally stopped and had his face right up to mine.  His nose pressed against my cheek before trailing up towards my nose.

“(Y/n),”

“What?” I asked.  His lips soon softly captured mine and I softly moaned into the kiss.  I felt his hand cup the left side of my face, his thumb grazing over my cheek.  He separated from me but only by about an inch, his warm breath dancing across my face.

“Be my lion queen?” I giggled softly and said to him.

“For you? I could convert, but don’t tell anyone.” I said the last part sternly.  He smiled down at me and pressed his lips against mine and we softly made out right up until the kids came racing down the stairs.

*Extended ending*

It was finally time.  I had been training for months and now it was finally hear.  The 1984 Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles, California.  I knew the kids would be watching from home on the Telly with Roger and my mum and dad.

I was in the locker room taking a few deep breaths trying to get my mind back into the mind set before the track and field runners went up.  Yuri came up to me and he asked me.

“How you doing champ?”

“Going back to the first time I ran this course and just barely made the gold medal. I say I’ve got some butterflies.”

“Well I have a feeling you’re gonna do great out there, and hey you listen to me; win or lose today you’re still a champ to me champ.” I smiled at my coach and thanked him.  He hugged me and kissed the top of my head and said.  “You ready cheetah?”

“Ready.” He patted my shoulder and I took a couple of quick breaths before racing out of the locker room and met up with the other runners competing and soon we all raced out of the tunnel and into the track field hearing the audience screaming and roaring in applause.  We all went to the starting line and stretched ourselves out for the 800 meter run.

“And we see from Team Britain (Y/n) ‘the Cheetah’ Taylor has finally returned to redeem the loss Britain took from the last summer’s Olympics.” I could hear the announcers say over the speaker.

“Tom this woman truly takes the name seriously. 2 time Olympic gold medalist. Won her first Olympics at just the age of 24, and here she is to reclaim the pride for Team Britain.” I raised my first in the air and the fans for Great Britain cheered and held up signs with my name decorated with cheetah spots on them.

“LADIES! Take your marks!!” The referee called out.  I lined up with the girls and crouched down on my hands and dancing at the balls of my feet.  Sweat was already running down my face as the only sound I could hear was my heartbeat. I saw the ref hold out his gun that would shoot out blank bullets to sound off the call of when to begin.

I looked down at my wristbands, well my husband’s wristbands that he’s worn at most of his concerts that he given to me just for this Olympic season and I could feel his spirit with me.  The timer sounded off and the ref held the gun in the air. Time stood still until finally.

BANG!!

I then took off sprinting as fast as I could with the other female runners closing in right behind me or starting to get ahead of me.  The crowd applauded as loud as they could as we came to the first turn.

“And Doina Melinte from Team Romania is head of all the other racers followed by Kim Gallagher from Team USA and Fiţa Lovin of Team Romania. While in 4th place (Y/n) the “cheetah” Taylor is starting to tire out.”

“Seems like the cheetah’s been out of the game too long Marv.”

“Oh wait what’s this the Cheetah is making a comeback! She’s passing Fiţa and Kim and now she’s tied with Doina as they’re coming around the final lap!”

“Oh this could be a close one!” I wasn’t going to give up.  Not here, not now I’ve worked my ass off too hard to come in fourth place.  I sped up as fast as I could unleashing the real cheetah within me as I finally caught up with the Romanian runner Doina.

She and I stared at each other before trying to out run the other.  The two of us neck and neck as we reached the final stretch.

“It’s gonna be a close one!” Finally the two of us crossed the finish line together and the crowd went wild.  I skid to a stop as I leaned down on my knees breathing heavily and I could hear the announcers screaming over each other about who exactly won.

“Nice job kid, you ran like the cheetah I knew you always were.” Yuri said as he handed me my towel and bottled water with a straw.  I drank some of the water as the replay played on the big screen as they wanted to see who exactly won.  The crowd waited with anticipation as did I.  I took Yuri’s hand and squeezed it as hard as I could waiting on baited, exhausted breath hoping that I won.

But in an unfortunate upset, it turned out that Doina was just an inch ahead of me at the start of the finish line so the judges had to call the winner of the 800m to Romania.  I could hear the upset of the crowd and I sighed in disappointment.

“Hey, you still killed it out there cheetah. I’m proud of you.” He said as he placed his hand on my shoulder and shook it assuringly.  He opened his arms out and the two of us hugged.

I then went to collect my silver medal while Doina received the gold and for the bronze it went to Fiţa.  As we stood on the stands that represented our placements I turned to Doina and held my hand out to her.  She looked at me and smiled softly as she shook my hand.

“Great run out there.”

“It was an honor to race against the Cheetah. You live up to your name.” she told me in her thick English-Romanian accent.

After a full day of track and field day for the Olympics and competing in the 4x100 relay race along with Simmone, Heather and Beverley I managed to at least win Great Britain the gold for that by being the last runner in the relay race. So now I had a total of 3 gold medals and one silver.

By the end of it all, I was in the locker room some of my fellow Brits congratulating me on my wins for the country and that’s when Simmone said to me.

“Oh (y/n), your fan club is here to see you in Yuri’s office.” I looked at her confused but I decided to see just what exactly she was talking about.  As I opened the door to Yuri’s office that’s when Lotte and Rufus came running towards me and tackled me to the ground.

“Mum you were amazing out there!” Rufus exclaimed.

“Yeah you were going super-fast that I couldn’t even see you! You were all whoosh! And then you did a sharp turn just like the cheetah on TV did and then you won!” Lotte began ranting on.  But I could hardly believe that my kids were actually here.

“Oh my lovely darlings, not that I’m not happy to see you but please tell me you two didn’t stowaway on a plane just to get to here.”

“Don’t worry, because they brought the coalition with them.” I looked toward the back door and there stood Roger along with Brian and Deacy.  I couldn’t help but laugh as I now stood up with each of my children clinging onto me as Roger came up and kissed me.

“I can’t believe you came.”

“What and miss my wife’s chance at competing in the Olympics once more? I wouldn’t miss it for the world.” I smiled at him before turning to Brian and Deacy.

“I hope Roger didn’t force you guys to come see.”

“No worries love, we wanted to show our full support. You were amazing out there today.” Brian said as hugged me.  I turned to Deacy who said.

“It was definitely a show worth watching, you came through for Britain today (y/n). We would’ve lost had it not been for you.” Deacy smiled at me and pecked my cheek before embracing me.

“Thank you Deacy, you too Brian. I can’t believe you all came to see this, I just…..I only wish that I had gotten the gold for the 800m. That’s always been my specialty, and I feel ashamed that you all had to see me come in second.”

“Well you shouldn’t be. You did not let any of us down. Nor did you let Britain down. You came back and fought. You had given birth to both of our children and then went right back into the deep end of training while still taking care of our cubs here. You truly were a cheetah out there today (y/n), and I am proud to call (Y/n) “the Cheetah”, my wife.” He said as he cupped my face in his calloused hands and his thumbs gently stroked my cheekbones.

He then leaned forward and kissed me passionately yet delicately.  He separated from me and he whispered,

“My Cheetah queen.”

“My Lion king.” I whispered back with a smile as we kissed again.

“Must you guys always kiss? It’s disgusting.” Complained Rufus.  We looked down at our boy and just laughed and that’s when Brian said as he picked up his nephew.

“One day you’ll be doing the exact same thing Rufus.”

“Hopefully you won’t be as bad as your father was though.” Piped in Deacy.

“Piss off you two!” Roger snapped.

“Okay, okay. I’m starving so how about we go out and celebrate on a long, eventful day. Plus I am craving for something I know I shouldn’t be eating but I don’t care at this rate.”  Roger then picked up our daughter and we all left the office and headed out of the stadium to celebrate on my successful turnout for the Track and Field division of the Olympics.

Yeah I may have only gained one additional gold medal that day giving me a total of 3 plus a silver, but in the end I had and will always have six gold medals. Three of the actual medals from the Olympics, and the three others being my two children and husband, Roger Taylor.

Our lion and cheetah family.

[thehobbem]

Chases, escapes, true love & miracles

Part IV

“The Yu-topia,” said Otabek, voice almost a whisper among the sound of the waves as they watched the ship a mile away.

“That’s impossible! What is it doing here?” said Phichit, eyes growing to the size of saucers. He would’ve had nothing to fear were it truly impossible — but the evidence said otherwise: it showed a very concrete possibility already taking place, and therefore, lots to fear.

Having resurfaced up on deck, Yuri came over to see what they were staring at, and clicked his tongue. “They’re here to attack some merchant vessels, obviously. What else? You really think they’re gonna bother with a small boat like this? You should be focusing on getting us to Almavivo, instead.”

Given he was the only one on board who knew how to navigate those waters, Phichit went back to his map, while Yuri cheerfully gagged the prince with a piece of cloth. But no matter how hard he concentrated, Phichit still found himself stealing the occasional look towards the sea — only to spot the Yu-topia right behind them, now less than a mile away.

By the time they’d reached the Almavivan shore, the prince was still gagged, hands firmly tied in front of him as well, while the tip of Yuri’s sword poked his back and forced him to move forward. Not that there was a lot of forward to move: right in front of them, the Cliffs of the Dead Infanta rose ominously, endlessly, from among the mist that covered the shore in the early afternoon.

Just like the Yu-topia, less than a quarter mile away now. For a famous pirate ship that would never care about a small fishing boat, it had followed them too well and too fast.

Without wasting a single moment, Phichit found the rope he’d left tied around a rock on the top and gave it a rough tug. It stayed. Once Otabek had also tested it, they were ready to go. Five hundred feet, and Phichit was looking forward to not a single one of them.

He went up first, and Otabek right behind, with the prince’s arms hooked around his neck. But despite the added weight, Otabek was barely breaking a sweat. Bringing the rear, Yuri climbed the rope quick and effortlessly, sword at his hip and dagger between his teeth, because… well, to be honest, Phichit had no idea why Yuri was carrying that goddamn dagger between his teeth. Maybe he was in his pirate phase?

Four hundred feet. Hours went by, or so it felt like; they could barely see a few inches ahead, so thick was the mist. Phichit’s hands both froze with the cold and burned with the effort, threatening to go raw if the climb didn’t come to a stop soon — but the only stop possible was still a long ways away.

Three hundred feet, and he felt a tug at the rope. But it was Yuri’s incoherent shout that made Phichit’s hand slip a couple of inches.

“Dessummcimmguho!”

“What?!”

Yuri must’ve finally put that ridiculous dagger in its sheath, because he started making sense again: “There’s someone climbing the rope!”

“What do you mean, that’s impossible!”

“And yet there he is,” said Beka in a low, slightly strained voice, the only sign that the climb with a much bigger man on his back might be taking a bit of its toll on him.

Phichit risked a look down, but with Otabek and prince in the way, anything else was out of his sight.

Two hundred feet. “What are they like?” Phichit shouted, looking up again and ignoring the burn in his hands like he ignored most of his problems.

“I don’t know, it’s some guy in black!”

The cold seeped right into Phichit’s bones and ran a chill down his spine. One hundred and fifty feet. If the man in black had come from the Yu-topia, then that could only be one person. But what would he be doing here?

“Beka, go faster, he’s gaining on us!” Yuri shouted, and for the first time his voice betrayed something other than annoyance. Under normal circumstances Phichit would tease him, but right now, the fear beneath Yuri’s words was more than warranted.

Otabek, carrying both his weight and that of another person at one hundred feet from the top of the cliff, didn’t bother replying.

After an eternity, Phichit reached the top and heaved himself up, sweat dripping cold off his forehead and his hands in flames. In a couple of minutes he was helping Otabek and Yuri up — and the second Yuri found himself on solid ground again, he hurried to cut the rope and the Man In Black’s progress.

They watched as the rope slowly let go of the rock it was tied to, strand by strand as Yuri desperately hacked at it; one final, violent hack and it finally slid across the ground and off the edge of the cliff, hopefully dropping all five hundred feet and taking the Man In Black down with it.

Phichit and Yuri approached the edge, ready to see a black figure lying on the beach, but their faith went unrewarded: the Man In Black was holding to the cliff itself, and had begun to slowly climb it with his bare hands.

“Oh my god,” Phichit whispered, “this is impossible.”

Yuri glared at him. “You really need to check the meaning of ‘impossible’ in a dictionary.”

Two hundred feet, and there was no other way. Phichit turned to Yuri.

“We’ll go ahead and take the prince to the delivery point. You stay and… and… ” he trailed off. That was not what he’d signed up for. He could try and ignore whatever happened to the prince after they delivered him, and only lose half of his sleep by telling himself it was not their fault. But being the one who directly ordered someone’s demise was an entirely different business altogether.

Yuri spared him from saying the words, or even making the final decision. “I’ll take care of him. ‘S what I’m here for, isn’t it? And,” he added, a smug smile curling up the corners of his mouth, I’m gonna have some fun with him.”

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<<From the beginning

(Updates on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays)

[ask-de-writer]

GONE TO SEA : World of Sea : Science Fiction : Part 12

GONE TO SEA

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

WORK IN PROGRESS (Word count unknown at this time)

copyright 2018

Writing started 2005

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

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Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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Chapter 06. Assistance

Molly and her entire maintenance crew showed up on Dock C in the morning, a few days later.  She looked around at the children, already busy at their multitude of tasks.  Many of them were industriously clicking the beads of the new combined  abacus-sliding ruler calculating devices.  Others were carrying thin, book-like tallow trays with information written into their pages between the various working groups.  Marveling, she said, “And here I thought that we would be early.”

Pele laughed as she pulled out another of the tallow writing slates and quickly inscribed a note.  She raised a hand and one of the between group information runners came up, took the slate, glanced at the covering layer and took off at a run.

Molly asked cheerfully, “Reporting us as tardy?”

Pele, a big grin on her face, shook her head.  “Nope.  I just sent the galley word to set out the breakfast leftovers for you and to include you in lunch.

“After breakfast, I am setting you to work in the rope walk and in basic fabrication work.  You will need to pay attention to what the kids tell you because these materials aren't like anything that you have used before.  If they ask you to hold something or figure something up, do it.  If they want you to study manuals, stress or strength tables, do that.  I know what that sounds like, but I do the same when I hit the work floor.  Those kids aren't dumb.  It pays to listen.”

Molly's crew nodded and one of them said, “That's why we came down here. To learn, I mean.  According to those tables that Mister Makle brought back the other day, this material that you guys have is very favorably comparable to carbon fiber composites.  I work in the maintenance boats all the time and that wind information was all new to me.”

Pele looked closely at her new arrivals and then suggested, “If the children's reports on you are favorable, I could send you out on an eeling expedition that we have scheduled for this afternoon.  It would show you a lot about boat handling.  Game to give it a try? That is hard work and the kids would appreciate some extra muscle.”

Molly said, “Knowing more about boat handling would be a big help.  Can we rig our work boats for sail?”

A young girl came up to Pele while they were talking.  She said, “These folks the late breakfast bunch?”  At Pele's nod, the girl said, “Hi, I'm Sara.  Come with me, please.”  As they followed Sara, she said, “I hope that you don't mind me answering your question. It would be easier than falling off the dock to set your boats up. We'll be happy to teach you all that you need to know for that.  Pele will watch your performance, decide what you need to learn and assign you the proper working groups.”

Pele went back to her evaluation paperwork, entering more numbers into her grading ledger.  Nearly to lunch, a young looking student in his early teens quietly put a tallow writing slate on her desk.

Pele stopped him before he had a chance to leave.  “How are they doing, Yuri?  Your impression, not what's on the slate.”

Little blue eyed blond Yuri Maks pursed his lips as he thought over how to say something politely.  “As far as taking orders or suggestions, they are doing great.  They are a whiz at setting up problems for analysis but are really weak at basic math.  Reminds me of us, before we had to do things by hand.

“Several of them have experience in composite plastic layup work so we shifted them all over to basic fabrication and they have turned out to be great at it.  Those that haven't got the experience in plastics are learning at a reasonable rate.

“They have not slowed down anything nor tried to take it over.  That's about it.”

Pele asked, “You are taking out the eelers this afternoon.  Would you trust them as deck and net crew?”

Yuri didn't even hesitate as he said, “Yes, Ma'am.  I would.”

Pele picked up the slate to study as she said, “Thank you, Yuri.  Think over where you can fit them into your crew rosters and take the lot of them out this afternoon.  Start them on basic boat handling under sail.”

Yuri nodded acceptance and said, “Not a problem at all.  I expected this and already sorted out where I want them.  Will we see you at lunch or are you going to be tied to the desk again?”

Pele grinned, “I heard that the cooks are doing donuts and fried fritters.  Try to keep me away!”

Over his shoulder as he left, Yuri retorted, “They are also doing breaded Strong's shark sausages.  We know better than to get between you and those!”

One of the Maintenance personnel approached Pele's desk.  He said, “Howell Carstien, Ma'am.  Saw you talking with Yuri.  We heard that he will be the commander of the eel catching run.  What's the word? Will we be going out today?”

Pele countered, “First, tell me what you think of the progress of the children.  Do they seem to be working together well and what about their various skills?”

Howell snorted before saying sarcastically, “We'd have found those amino acids by now if the rest of the station worked as hard and harmoniously as these kids.  They are sharp too.  I am going to have to do a lot of work to catch up to them in my basic math.  A couple of them offered to tutor me.  I accepted.”

Pele smiled broadly and told Howell, “I am glad to hear that.  You are all going out this afternoon.  Yuri gave you a very high rating and said that he would be happy to have you.

“Now let's get over to the galley and pick up some lunch.”

Howell brightened and, as they strolled through the crowded dock, commented, “I am afraid that we put a dent in your school's flour ration. Wheat needs to take up so much space in the Ag areas that products like breads and rolls are pretty scarce.”

Pele nodded casually, “We are well aware of the problem.  That's why we don't use any wheat products or flour down here.”

Molly had joined them as they got into the rapidly forming food line.  Her eyebrows arched suddenly as she heard what Pele said.  Curiosity aroused, she asked, ”Then where did that toast and those rolls that we had come from?”

Pele turned to Molly and explained, “Banja and Sancha were going through some Bio-safety and Nutriton Lab reports looking for a fiber possibility.  Thanks to a bit of basic chemistry that they already had from working with our glue formulas, they found some overlooked connections involving several different seaweeds.  

“Now we use their discovery to process several common seaweeds listed individually as nutritionally worthless to produce a variety of carbohydrates.  They work a gluten type of protein into the flour from another source entirely.

“The galley also slides natural source vitamins E and K along with the whole B complex into every meal.  We do take the thymine and lysine rations that the station provides and use them like a seasoning in all of the Strong's shark meats to give us all a fully balanced, high quality protein.”

Molly grinned as she grabbed her tray and chopsticks from their bins and started down the serving line, “You are bragging on your children again.  They deserve it, too.”

Kala, who was ahead of them in the line overheard and turned a smile on Molly.  “Thanks, Molly.  You guys deserve a bit of bragging rights too.  There aren't many that Yuri will let into the boats as fast as you guys.  Been watching your lay-up work too.  Everything that you have done is to specification.  Nice to have someone who isn't trying to take over the job, just because they are grown up or simply bigger.

“I am sure that you have noticed by now that Pele only cares about qualifications and results, not age or size.  Most of the time, we older kids are teaching the younger ones but in particular areas, we often wind up learning from some younger kid who has what we need down pat.  Like Yuri in boat handling or vector analysis.”

Kala returned to the important issue of gathering food from the serving trays and dishes.  Molly followed suite, piling on some sweet buns, a serving of seaweed salad and a breaded sausage as she said, “This morning has been kind of sobering, Pele.  Even though every member of my crew has at least a Bachelor's in engineering, we have so much to learn.  Almost none of our education seems to apply down here.  You don't use metals or anything electrical.  No tools, no motors or anything else.”

Kala turned back to Molly and asked Pele, “Can I comment on that?”

Pele nodded as she took a second sausage, “Sure.  Give them your take, please, Kay.  These guys probably could use it.”

Molly called her crew together and said, “Kala here is going to give us a quick evaluation.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I have been learning a lot.”

There was a quick rumble of agreement from the others.  Kay delicately nibbled some salad with her chopsticks before saying, “You folks have done very well.  There is a lot to learn down here that isn't in your backgrounds and you have figured that out right away.  Your engineering has let you see structural problems and issues almost instinctively.  That is a huge plus.  Most people have a major issue with actually seeing what we are doing.  That is not your problem at all.

“What you are experiencing is a clash of philosophical world views.  There is no need for those world views to clash at all.  They are simply different.  Each one can contribute valuable things to the other to make what we are doing down here better.

“We were all raised in a complex, interdependent, metal, plastic and electronics based society.  You have used that society and its basic philosophy of major interdependence to mold whole worlds to your needs.  You, with your level of education and the long history behind it, are further into that world view than we children are.

“Our philosophy is not all that much different than yours, actually.  We are seeking to blend the best parts of the civilization that we were raised in with a new one that can last here on Sea.  

“Our goal is to use what this world provides to make a place for us that we can sustain without massive interdependence.  Each ship that we produce should be able to repair or replace all of its basic parts and systems without assistance unless it suffers a severe disaster.  As you have already learned, we are not abandoning science, math or engineering.  They are integral to our approach and originate in your view of the world.

“Quite a few people on the station are calling what we do “primitive” simply because we are starting with proven designs that originated in an Earth culture that had no access to metals.  They persist in calling our ship a canoe and then assuming that it must be an open boat because most canoes that they are familiar with are little hand paddled open boats.  Unfortunately, those labels have kept those same people from seeing or even looking at what we are doing.  Many won't even take the time to look at what we have found.  

“A quick examination of our situation here on the station will show you that none of the metals available to us on Sea can be extracted without the use of resources or equipment that cannot be replaced if it fails.”  Shrugging, Kala added, “And that failure is guaranteed, over time.

“We are developing our long term technologies that stem directly from the things available from this environment while we still have your technologies for a backup.  Everything that we are doing is part of a larger primary experiment in living on this world.  We expect to develop a highly skilled, technically based civilization that has no need for the metals that they can't get anyway.”

TO BE CONTINUED

<==PREVIOUS   NEXT==>

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to World of Sea

[paperlettuce]

Titanic - Yuri!!! On Ice (Chapter 1)

Viktor Nikiforov watched apprehensively as Michele Crispino and Emil Nekola, two men he had met in a bar in Southampton and began to gamble with, shuffled their cards, Michele glaring at Emil. 

"1. È fottuto idiota, si scommette i nostri biglietti dannati Dio." He grumbled, Emil smiling sheepishly at the angry Italian man. "2. Jejda." "Viktor, we bet the last of our money." Viktor's friend, Christophe Giacometti, said worriedly. "Ah, my friend," Viktor grinned, him wrapping his arm around his shoulder, pulling him close. "When you have nothing, you have nothing to lose." He winked. "That's absolutely not true." Chris said, pursing his lips a bit. He had learned long ago not to question his friend, but if he lost, they would both be going hungry that night. They all got their cards together, Viktor letting a breath out. "Alright, moment of truth. Chris, what do you have?" He stared straight into his eyes and laid his cards down, having a completely useless hand. "3. Nichts?" "Nichts." Chris grumbled, looking quite displeased at the ever enthusiastic Viktor. "Emil?" Emil laid down another useless hand, though Michele smirked and laid down his cards; two pair, a rather high hand. Viktor's face seemed to fall a bit, him looking to Chris and shaking his head. "I'm sorry Chris." "4. Was 'sorry', verdammte Schweinehund- You bet all our money-" "I'm sorry!" Viktor interrupted, a grin splitting his face. "You're not going to see your mother again for a long time. Cause we're going to America- Full house, boys!" He slammed his cards down, the winning hand being shown to the Italian and Czech men across from them. Christophe's eyes widened and he grinned, picking up the tickets and happily celebrating. Michele looked completely perplexed at them for a moment before, standing and grabbing Viktor's collar, holding his fist back to punch him. He cursed under his breath and glared at him before moving and punching Emil, making him fall from his chair, the whole bar going up in a happy uproar seeing Michele jump on him. Viktor grinned and grabbed the money, stuffing his pockets with the coins and bills. "Viktor, we're going to America!" Christophe grinned, hugging his friend, absolutely giddy at the opportunity to go to America. "Nah, mate. Titanic is going to America. In five minutes." They looked up at the clock, it reading 11:55 when the departure for the Titanic was at noon. As Michele still yelled and Emil grinned and tried to calm him, they scooped the rest of their money off of the table and grabbed their rucksacks and dashed for the ship that was going to be departing in only five more minutes. 

    Yuuri Katsuki stepped out of the buggy him and his fiancee and him and ridden to the port in, him stepping out and helping his mother out first before helping out his fiancee, Jean Jacqueline Leroy, daughter of a wealthy businessman. Their marriage wasn't for love, which was quite obvious, it was for money. Yuuri, by no means, was a gold digger, but it was what he had to do to keep his family afloat. After his father had passed away, their frivolous lifestyle in Japan soon grew too expensive for them. Not wanting his dear mother to end up in a seamstress factory, Yuuri began looking for fiancee's, finding one in a rich mans daughter. It wasn't like Yuuri would have grown to love her after years passed anyways, his tastes were never for women. He liked someone once when he was younger, but she was like a sister to him; And before he knew it, she went and got married and had three children her first time. She already had a family, so the one female he would consider marrying was already taken. Yuuri settled for the boisterous young woman most referred to as 'JJ'. She, by no means, was a bad person, she was just very much not what Yuuri wanted. Not even her personality. She was big and brass and loud, while Yuuri was quite and subtle and shy. It was difficult to be with her for long without getting overwhelmed. Yuuri shielded his eyes with his hand, looking up at the ship and commenting, "I don't get what all the fuss is about. It doesn't look any bigger than the Mauritania." JJ laughed and grinned at him. "You're so blasé, Yuuri! This is much bigger and better than the Mauritania!" Yuuri smiled weakly. "Ha ha, right..." He sighed and offered his elbow as they headed into the ship, walking up the wooden platform and into the gorgeous ship. To any other passenger, it must have seemed like stepping into heaven itself, with both the luxury of the ship and the opportunity to go to America. To him, it was nothing more but a solidification of the commitment he had made to go to America and marry this woman, the terrifying last step that he couldn't go back on. He stepped into the ship, him moving forward to lead his mother and his fiancee to the suite they would share.

    "Here, this one too." Yuuri handed a painting to one of the servants who was helping set up the room to their liking. "I'd like to hang all them up." He said, JJ coming in from the other room and leaning against the door. "Those finger paintings were certainly a waste of money." Yuuri turned and gave her a look before continuing to help the servant pull paintings from a pile, him picking out his favourites to hang. "The difference between my taste in art and Jacqueline's is that I have one." He commented, holding up one he had particularly liked, looking it over again. "They're fascinating, like being in a dream." He said, the servant coming over and taking it from him to hang up. "What's the artists name, sir?" "Picasso something. I don't remember his first name. He was from Spain, I think." "Picasso something." JJ commented cheekily. "He won't amount to a thing, I assure you." Yuuri gave her another look, fixing his glasses as he turned and went to help the servants hang the paintings.

    Viktor and Christophe dashed through the crowd of people waiting to watch the Titanic depart, both young men wearing huge grins on their face. "We're going to be riding in style tonight, my friend! We're practically God damned royalty!" Viktor laughed, hitting Christophe's chest as they ran through the crowd, Viktor faster than Christophe. "Come on, I thought you said you were fast!" They got to the wooden platform just as it was being rolled back, Viktor hopping on it with Christophe right on his tail. "Hold on, hold on! We're passengers!" He stopped in front of the worker about to close the door, holding out his tickets. The man took them and inspected them closely before asking. "Have you been through the inspection queue?" "Oh course. Anyways, neither of us have lice, we're Americans. Both of us." He gave the strange silver haired man one more look over before nodding and helping them aboard.

    Once in the hall, Viktor grinned and wrapped his arm around Christophe, giving him a good natured kiss on his cheek, laughing happily. "We're the luckiest sons-of-bitches alive, you know that?!" They headed up to the main deck where everyone was waving goodbye to their friends and family from the rails. Viktor ran to it, stepping up and waving to the large crowd. "Goodbye!" "Do you know someone?" Christophe asked, leaning over and waving anyways. "That's not the point!" Deciding to go along with his antics, Christophe smiled and leaned over, waving and blowing kisses to the crowd. "5. Ciao, auf wiedersehen! I'll never forget you!" He said, laughing as he saw Michele and Emil watching from below, Michele with a huge pout on his face. "6. Enjoy America, cazzo culo!" He yelled, only making Viktor and Christophe laugh more.

    The next afternoon, they were out at sea, Captain Leo de la Iglesia grinning as he watched the ship he was manning head out to sea. "Ah, nothing more lovely than an open sea and a ship, is there?" Guang-Hong Ji, the ships creator, nodded and smiled, leaning against the railing as he stood beside him. "It is a beauty, isn't it?" "Certainly." Leo smiled, looking down at the smaller man, causing Guang-Hong to look away with pink cheeks.

    Just below them, Viktor and Christophe went to the front of the boat, Viktor hopping to the very front, looking over and smiling, tugging on Christophe's jacket. "Look down there, dolphins!" He said, watching as they raced in front of the ship. "So beautiful. I can see the Statue of Liberty from here. Very small, but still." Christophe said, Viktor grinning and laughing at that, standing up and holding his arms out, cheering. "I'm the king of the world!" Christophe chuckled and tugged on the suspenders he wore. "You're embarrassing, that's what you are!"

    "She is the largest moving object known to man. Designed from the keel plates up by Mr. Ji here." Yakov Feltsmen, a reporter from Russia who was commissioned to write a piece about the Titanic, commented, the topic of the building of the Titanic having been brought up curiously by Yuuri. "Thank you for your praise, Mr. Feltsmen." Guang-Hong smiled, looking as the waiters came around to take everyone at the tables orders. "We'll have the spring lamb, rare, very little mince sauce, and Earl Grey tea, thank you." JJ said before looking to her fiance. "You like lamb, don't you?" She asked after the man had already left. Yuuri took in a frustrated sigh, though smiled at her regardless. Phichit, a young Thai man coming to America to join his wife, smiled in pity at Yuuri. "You going to cut his meat for him too, Jacqueline?" He said with a shady smile, JJ's smile dropping a little and Yuuri's smile widening as he exchanged a glance with Phichit. "So, who came up with the name 'Titanic'? Was it you, Mr. Ji?" He asked. "Oh, actually, that was Mr. Feltsmen's idea. He said that it was based off of the Greek monsters, Titans, right?" Yakov nodded and huffed. "Have you ever heard of Dr. Freud, Mr. Feltsmen? His work on the male preoccupation with size might be of interest to you." Both Phichit and Guang-Hong laughed gently, while everyone else at the table either didn't understand or didn't care for his joke. "What's gotten into you?" JJ said under her breath. "Excuse me." Yuuri stood, leaving the room and heading out to the balcony. "He's real smart, JJ. Hope you can handle him." "I might have to start minding what he reads, won't I Mr. Chulanont?" She asked, standing to go follow him.

    Viktor stared intently at an older man and his daughter, going back and forth between his sketchbook and the people he was drawing in it. Christophe sat beside him, speaking to another Russian man while Viktor was preoccupied. "This ship, it's very nice." "Yeah, a proper Irish built one too." Christophe tilted his head a bit at that. "It's English isn't it?" "No, it was built in Ireland, 15,000 Irishmen worked on this thing." He said, glancing over as he saw some high class men passing them to walk their dogs, his eyes following them as they walked around the corner. "Typical. First class dogs come down here to shit." He cursed, taking another drag of his cigarette. "Lets us know where we rank in the scheme of things." Viktor commented with a grin, looking away from his pad and the family to attempt to engage in conversation, having finished his drawing. "Like we could forget?" The man joked before reaching over and offering his hand to the vagabond artist. "I'm Georgi Popovich." "Viktor Nikiforov." "Chris." They all introduced, Georgi gesturing to the sketchbook resting on Viktor's lap. "You make any money off of those things?" Just as he was about to answer, Viktor glanced up at the balcony, seeing a beautiful, if not frustrated Asian man coming to lean against the railing with a soft sigh. His eyes widened and mouth went agape, him staring as if he had seen an angel, because Viktor was sure that he had. Georgi gave a questioning look to Christophe, he nodded to let the other man know that he wasn't staring for no reason. Viktor looked at the beautiful boy, Yuuri glancing down at him before back up, then back down for a moment, them sharing a look. "Stop looking, Viktor. You've got better chances of having angels fly out of your ass than landing a boy like that. Love is a hoax, trust me." He said, pain in his voice. Still, he stared, Christophe laughing as he waved his hands in front of his face, getting no reaction from Viktor. "Don't try to stop him. He's a hopeless romantic, a player known in Russia, Germany, France, Spain. Once he has his eye on someone, no use trying to talk him out of it." Christophe grinned. Yuuri kept eye contact with him for a moment, turning when he felt his fiancee tug on his arm. It looked like they fought for a moment before he went back in, the black haired woman sighing and following him in. "7. красивая..." Viktor murmured.

    Yuuri sat at the dinner table with his mother, fiancee, and a few other people of their class, him staring blankly at the food before him. He suddenly felt overwhelmed, a panic sweeping over him. He felt as though he had no control of his life, which he really didn't have much of. He was stuck in a situation he hated that would make him miserable for the rest of his life, but yet had to go through with it, having no way out. "Excuse me." He murmured quietly, standing and hurrying out of the dinning room.

    Tears blurred his eyes as Yuuri ran through the halls of the ship, barely noticing as he knocked into people left and right. His brain was in a tizzy, him barely able to breathe, to think. He barely knew that he was running. He ran past a bench, running to the end of the ship until he ran into the railing, watching as his bowler hat flew off and fell into the sea. His teary brown eyes followed it, him suddenly getting an idea. If he killed himself, then and there, his mother, still being connected to the Leroy family, would still get some money, at least enough to take care of herself enough to not have to work in a sweat shop. Yuuri leaned over and looked into the swirling black water, him having to look back up to avoid getting dizzy as he climbed over. He took off his waistcoat, laying it on the deck, the edge of it hanging over the bottom rung of the railing. He turned around, heels back and hands tightly gripping the railing as he looked out onto the dark horizon, his mind still racing. What should his last words be? What would he think of before he died? Would it hurt, would it be fast? There was only one way of knowing. He leaned over a bit, letting his fingers loosen around the railings.

     Viktor hadn't been trying to do anything, him simply enjoying his cigarette as he laid on a bench by the end of the boat, him staring up at the beautiful starry sky. When he heard footsteps racing towards, then past him, he sat up just in time to see the beautiful man from earlier, though this time he was crying as he ran past him. Viktor wasn't sure why, but something inside of him screamed to follow him, so he pulled his coat back on and flicked his cigarette into the ocean, following the man from before to the end of before. He was expecting the man to be sitting on one of the bench chairs and crying, certainly not expecting him to be over the railing, fingers loosening on the railing as he leaned forward. Viktor's heart hiccuped and there was only one logical thing to say.

     "Don't do it."

__________________________

1. You fucking idiot, you bet our God damned tickets. (Italian)

2. Whoops. (Czech)

3. Nothing? Nothing. (German)

4. What 'sorry', damned pig dog- (German)

5. Bye (Italian), farewell (German)!

6. Enjoy America, fucking ass! (Italian)

7. Beautiful... (Russian)

[douchebagbrainwaves]

I'VE BEEN PONDERING VCS

The one example I've found is, embarrassingly enough, Yahoo, which filed a patent suit against a gaming startup called Xfire in 2005. But because patent trolls don't make anything, there's nothing they can be sued for. The point is not just one thing. There is no longer much left to copy before the language you've made is Lisp. A popular recipe for new programming languages have taken more and more of software. And to the extent you can, try to avoid the worst pitfalls of consulting. Increase taxes, and willingness to take risks decreases in proportion. Too bad. Why don't government officials disclose more about their finances, and why only during their term of office?1 At the start, like the relative merits of programming languages is not as great as it's sometimes thought to be. The big bang guys are smooth and confident and respected by the VCs.2

Preparing a candidate for the Chinese imperial civil service had to take an exam on classical literature.3 How do you push down on the top as well as making programs shorter. But this approach is hard to implement. The designers of Common Lisp is unpopular partly because it's an early instance of what will become a common pattern. There's an even better way to prevent the direct transmission of power between generations: to encourage the trend toward an economy made of more, smaller units. This is already clear in cases like GPSes, music players, and cameras. And so they do encourage innovation indirectly, in that they give more power to startups, which is like a small boat in the open sea. The most common is to grant patents that shouldn't be granted. To attack a rival they could have ignored, Amazon put a lasting black mark on their own account will have to be secretive with other companies; they'd have to be secretive internally.

Notes

So as a source of difficulty here is defined from the end of the lies we tell. This technique wouldn't work for startups overall. August 2002.

Though you never have come to accept that investors don't like. Sam Altman wrote: After the war had been trained that anything hung on a road there are lots of people, you may have to be able to distinguish between people, instead of hiring them. To be fair, curators are in set theory, combinatorics, and wouldn't expect the second component is empty—an idea that there were about 60,000 or a community, or an acquisition for more than others, and when I said that a shift in power from investors to founders would actually increase the size of the things they've tried on the way I know for sure whether, e.

There were a variety called Red Delicious that had been able to claim retroactively I said by definition if the selection process looked for different reasons. This is one problem where rapid prototyping doesn't work. Our founder meant a photograph of a safe will be lots of type II startups spread: all you know Apple originally had three founders?

Thanks to Dan Giffin, Jessica Livingston, and Yuri Sagalov for reading a previous draft.

[stephania7399-blog]

Exactly how Business people May Appear Great On A Budget plan Through Carmelo Hannity.

He silently sent on that letter to his father as well as stood with a reduce search in front of him. This is actually accurately exactly what a fantastic ac unit device will definitely do, just due to the fact that other than cooling down the room down, an ac unit are going to filter the sky streaming in to that. A really good central air conditioning device is actually created to thoroughly filter the outside sky and make it possible for just the tidy sky to come back, free from things you don't intend to breathe. Some colour mixes to consider are actually pale (or mint green) as well as white, burgundy and light tan varieties or cinnamon colours, reddish and white colored or even red and also dark, blue with light-toned mauve, yellowish with pastels, or dark dark-green along with a mix from blossomy trends including wine red, dark-green, blue, as well as yellow flower petals. To puts it simply click the next web page, even when you shop with the latest, chip-laden visa or mastercard, merchants' computers will still keep your card variety in effortlessly understandable type, leaving this as at risk as before to unlawful fraud. These are likewise called privilege leave this could be carry forward for the quatum upto the overall from three years and also differ coming from region to region based on the shop & business function. Yet the white space exists, thus if the option comes, we will definitely spend the CapEx to drive the revenues and also the free of cost capital from it. In order that tourists will certainly fall for their dirty work when checking out internet reservation or refund condition. If you possess great white colored equilibrium in your photo, after that basic desaturation might be actually all you need to perform in the software application editor. She then stayed in exactly what was actually a life-sized doll house, which included a substantial outfit (one of the outfits in that outfit, by the way, was the gold as well as reddish uniform that Yuri of the original Dirty Pair wore). A screwdriver set, a socket set, some rags or store towels, an aged toothbrush, and some throttle body system cleaner are the items that will do the job. Keeping that being actually said, I opted for the grimy pet dog doormat as opposed to yet another company as a result of the non-skid support. You can easily purchase off the convenience from your office or home and also are not restricted to nearby sell accessible. Dark shelties are registered as tri-colors just in case of tan as well as white colored hues, or even bi-blacks in the event that they are actually marked with white colored alone. You could additionally look around online given that some firms offer the set online, yet ensure to acquire item off reputable company that provide you ensure about the product. Having a customer suffer this kind of reaction at your store will create a memorable experience, but not the kind that would certainly create a loyal consumer. There are actually numerous information online for discount rate U Boat Lots of Feet Watches and other armed forces views however among finest along with a varied variety is actually Military Watch Outlet. It's yet another recommended all-natural all natural tooth paste brand name to outlet through. That is actually only being offered online at vitamin friend. I perform certainly not enable the reasoning that if a technicians flexes his job up until quitting opportunity that he gets to skate on clean, this is actually a primary peeve from mine. One substitute is with white colored hardwood surface sanding, frequently pertained to as Redder sanding.

[ask-de-writer]

GONE TO SEA : World of Sea : Science Fiction : Part 17

GONE TO SEA

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

WORK IN PROGRESS (Word count unknown at this time)

copyright 2018

Writing started 2005

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions. All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

Chapter 08. Discovery

Pele leaned back in her chair and looked at the committee of students carefully.  She leafed through the parchments of their proposal carefully.  She began to mark their work, lips pursed as she made notes.  The committee held their collective breath until Pele was done.  

Smiling she said, “Let me see if I understand why you want to learn organic chemistry.  Banja and Sancha solved the entire carbohydrate problem by accident while looking through analysis reports for something else.  They used chemistry that they already knew to put together things that they found in three different reports to make the base for our flour and sugars.  You believe that the station is making a mistake by searching for the whole thymine, lysine and vitamin C molecules in their samples.

“You suspect that they might already be lurking in those reports as scattered parts, the same way that the carbohydrates were.  If they are, you want to find those parts, refine them if necessary, and put them together.  I like it.”

Jerry Nalin pointed out, “In fact, the station's biochemists have already done the synthesis and reported on it.  Thing is, they said it was a lot more work than refining the supplements from things where they already occur.  That's why they get most of them from the station's agricultural products.  They broke the native stuff down practically all the way to raw elements to do their synthesis.  We want to find something in between, where we will only need a few steps to get the raw product to refine, or even use it as is.”

Pele nodded thoughtfully and asked, “Any ideas on where to look for your components or reagents?”

Jerry nodded.  “We think so.  We did notice a glaring hole in the reports of nutritional safety in fish.”

Pele looked delighted as she asked him, “What hole is that?”

Jerry looked back, enjoying the approval of both the committee and Pele as he said, “Gut contents.  We figure that somewhere in the digestive juices are the enzymes that break up the local proteins and that we are likeliest to find our bits in there, being absorbed to make something else entirely.  Even if we don't find the proteins directly, the digestive enzymes might be useful processing tools.”

Pele finished marking up their proposal and made her own notes.  Then she handed the parchments back.  With a huge smile of joy.  She commented, “Even if this doesn't pan out, it is an original approach and will almost certainly yield a lot of valuable things.”

Chapter 09. The Floating of the New Dawn

A few months after the first bake sale, word started circulating about the station.  “The Dock C School is about to launch their ship.”

The people spreading the story were now regular visitors to the school. The success of the bake sale had led to the opening of a store at the foot of the dock stairs.  Selected students who had graduated past Pele's contract manned the sales counter.

Doing so earned them a mixture of adult education credit and cash.  The work allowed them to stay in the school, both learning and teaching along with their friends and earning some actual money at the same time.  They cheerfully sold the flour, mixes of several sorts, yeast analog cultures and, of course, fresh hot breads, and assorted donuts.  The shop was a busy one.

The parents of students in the school were being allowed to have frequent guided visits of the school's many work areas.  They were also given tickets that let them sit down and share meals with their children, if they had the time.  A surprising number of them made the time, once the word got out.

Over the last few weeks, escorting their children to school and snagging a free breakfast was rapidly becoming a new tradition among the families of students.

The source of their statements about the ship was the fourteen meter hull being built upside down along the boat landing side of Dock C. Industrious students up on ladders were tightly lacing the big parts together using tough strings twisted from mussel fiber. As each stitch was pulled tight, it was glued to secure it.  Other students, including some of Molly's work crew, were using bow drills to bore holes for the next stitches.  The work, securing the seams between the huge parts was progressing rapidly.

A parent cautiously approached Molly, where she was sawing rapidly back and forth with the bow of a drill to bore another lacing hole. “Pardon me, Miss Miken.  Some folks are wondering how you can make something like this float.  I mean, it has all of these holes and the seams that you are tying up will all let water in, won't they?”

Molly paused in her work, unwinding the string of the bow from around the drill shaft.  She smiled at the woman and said, “It sure would leak if this was going to be all that we are doing.”  Patting the long Strong's shark and glue panel as she descended her ladder, she went on, “As strong as this stuff is, it would still be far too light weight a material for a boat this size.  These parts that we are tying together will be a form for building up a bunch more layers of the skin and glue.  That is what will make it solid and waterproof. When we finish the outside, we will turn it over and build up even more layers on the inside, especially over the seam areas.  Those layers will lock the ribs permanently into place.  When we are done, this whole unit will be one big, solid piece.”  Molly waved and one of her crew came over.  Molly just handed him the drill and pointed, saying, “I've got a parent tour to give, OK?”  The man nodded and climbed the ladder to get the work going again.

The lady smiled in relief and said, “Thank you for showing me about.  I am sorry that I forgot to introduce myself.  I am Margarita Marks, Kayla's mother.  Call me Mary, everyone else does.  So, those strings just provide a temporary assembly?  That is clever.  The men that I met up in the recreation plaza don't seem understand what you are doing at all.  They said that what you are making is full of leaks that will have to be plugged up.  They even said that you are making is some kind of primitive open canoe that you will have to paddle around.  This thing is way too big to manage that way, isn't it?”

Molly grinned and replied, “It sure is, Mary.  And this is the small hull.  It would be hard to paddle about anyway because we will be decking it over before we are done.  The New Dawn's Main hull is twenty meters long.  That is six whole meters longer than this one.”

The woman's eyes went wide in surprise and she looked around.  “You said that it is bigger than this?  Where is it?”

Shrugging, Molly said, “We finished it over two weeks ago, before many people started to come down here.  I'll show it to you.  We stored it under the dock.”  She led her guest to the far end of the dock and pointed down.  There, plain to see in the clear, rippling water, over three meters of a lean bow stood out, supported in place by several heavy cables of tough mussel fiber.

Looking at the projecting nose of the hull, and shifting her position sideways to see better, Mary said, “I see what you mean.  That hull is really big.  If you left it on the dock it would take up most of your building space, wouldn't it?”

Molly smiled and replied, “It sure would.  Just building it took up more space than you can believe.  This boat only seems huge until you see what we are planning.  Come on, we will go to see project director Mala'klea.  She is coordinating things and working with Yuri on the plans for a big ship.  They make a good team.”

TO BE CONTINUED

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