We'll be sailing to the sun til the voyage is done

[sergeant_slick]

WHO: Slick and Anduin
WHEN: Before the ship arrives.
WHERE: Boat!
WHAT: Slick drops in on Anduin. Also, here's your legally required shanty.
WARNINGS: The dropping in is pretty literal, so... vertigo, maybe?

This wasn't the sort of ship he was used to, but that wasn't stopping him.

Every clone, pilot-trained or not, had to get used to the deck moving under their feet. LAAT-i transports had you standing shoulder to shoulder in a metal box, swinging wildly through the air as the pilots evaded incoming fire. Compared to that? A predictable roll was nothing.

But looking up at the tall masts, he could see why the crew tried to foist lookout duty onto him. The swaying up there was magnified by the height. It'd be rough, but if he sat through a shift without turning green, it'd be easier to get them to stop treating him like a dumb clodhopper. So he'd just given them a confident smirk and started climbing.

That was hours ago. And he'd been right--this sucked. But he'd snuck up a few bits of dried meat to chew on when he needed a pick-me-up, and generally tried to stay relaxed. That kept the nausea under control. Looking down still wasn't fun, but he did so occasionally, just to spectate. Wave down to fellow offworlders he spotted.

...And plan how to show off. The sailors that stuck him up here would be watching to see how unsteady he was, and it was his duty as an army guy to make sure navy knew who was better.

When the whistle sounded for the shift change, he hauled himself out of the crow's nest, ignoring the--what'd they called them? Rattlins? The rope ladder things. Too slow. Too unfamiliar. And boring, when the unknotted ropes in the rest of the rigging gave him a direct line all the way to the bottom of the mast.

He grabbed onto a rope and slid, kicking off the mast when he needed to avoid the unidentifiable boat stuff tied to the mast every few meters. If he'd been barehanded, this would've sent him straight to the medic. But he was still wearing the tough bodyglove from his armor. That let him descend fast and brake hard, hopping off onto one of the cleats and down onto the deck, smiling triumphantly. Nearly turned an ankle, but nobody needed to know that.

"Well, that was alright. Not enough to make me go navy, but alright."

Comments

[chosenbylight]

Anduin has been up on deck, enjoying the fresh ocean air and trying to do his best to help when needed, and stay out of the way when he wasn't. He isn't a sailor by any means of the word, it isn't as though the crew had let him assist on any of the voyages he had taken in such a fashion, but he is fairly strong. And a very capable healer, should any particularly nasty injuries arise.

It's easier to keep your sea legs if you've got your eye on the horizon as well. An old guard had once taught him that trick, and while he can't say that it works quite the same on airships (nor that he's exactly got the luxury of keeping his eye on the horizon when everybody always keeps insisting on stuffing him in the most secure space possible), he's grateful for the man's kindness those many moons ago.

He's doing exactly this as the shift changes -- trying to stay out of the way of the crew -- when a man nearly drops out of the sky right in front of him.

The mast. The crow's nest. He had seen him up there before but he hadn't expected -- well. He supposes in retrospect he'd have to come down sometime.

Anduin tries to calm the rapid beating of his heart as he plasters what he hopes is a convincing enough smile upon his face.

"You did seem to enjoy yourself up there," Anduin observes.

[sergeant_slick]

He grinned in response. "Certainly enjoyed showing up the crew. They thought I wasn't gonna last up there." They hadn't counted on how much crap the army put him through already. And from the looks he was getting, they definitely hadn't expected the fast-roping. Showing off successfully accomplished, then.

Although technically you were supposed to call down to clear the drop zone if somebody was unawares. "Didn't mean to surprise you there--I'm Slick. You're Anduin, right?" He wasn't always the best with non-clone voices or faces, but he could remember the basics.

[chosenbylight]

Anduin's smile brightens, before he offers a nod in return.

"That's right," he says, somewhat sheepishly. "Anduin Wrynn. I suppose I must be making quite the reputation for myself, for you to recognize me on sight."

He's only made a couple of posts himself thus far but he supposes there's a chance the circumstances surrounding them both may have been memorable. First with the whole Rigarda situation, and then with the incident with the boat.

[sergeant_slick]

"Well, you've definitely been working on one." He couldn't tell if the earnestness was a formality thing, or a shiny thing. "And you're speaking the same language as Wrathion, or something close to it." He tried to keep an ear out for what people were actually saying underneath the translators whenever he could. He still didn't trust the things to be completely accurate, or that they'd always be available.

"We get along, and he hasn't warned me off from you, so I figure you're alright." Vaguely complained about him? Yeah. But not in the I hate this man kind of way, the I like this man but so help me kind of way. And as far as he'd heard, the feeling was mutual.

[chosenbylight]

Anduin does laugh at that, a sound that isn't forced into politeness by the manners that were drilled into him since infancy.

"Well, that does make me feel better about myself," he replies. He hesitates for a moment but then -- well, there's no harm in elaborating to Slick now is there? Especially not when Wrathion has already trusted him with far more personal details than this.

"He and I have known each other for... quite a long time," he says, at last. "It is good to hear that he has made a friend such as yourself."

Someone like him. He does not want to say it out loud, in case it seems insensitive, but. He gets the feeling that Wrathion has been alone in his experience for so long, to share this with Slick will be good for him.

[sergeant_slick]

Hey, that was a genuine reaction there. Good to see it.

"I figured you had." You didn't build up that kind of drama with a stranger. "And it sounds like I'm getting a reputation too. That or Wrathion's mentioned me. Who's he to you, then?" Which was a slightly more polite way of asking who the hells are you, anyway?.

[chosenbylight]

No, Slick. No, you most certainly do not build up that sort of drama with a stranger at all.

Of course, even that isn't exactly an easy question to answer. He wonders whether he had asked Wrathion the same thing and what sort of answer he had provided if so -- but no, this is his response to give.

"Wrathion is... very dear to me," Anduin says, at last, choosing his words carefully once more. "Our friendship has been through some trials, over the years. I am not certain what he has told you already...?"

He trails off, raising a hesitant eyebrow to Slick. Has -- Wrathion mentioned any of this at all?

[sergeant_slick]

He shrugs. "That's about it. He's made it clear you're a priority for him, and that you two aren't always eye-to-eye on things." The messages he got out of the blue a few days ago kind of made that one clear.

"No gossiping, though."

[chosenbylight]

Anduin can't help but smile slightly at the way Slick phrases that. Blunt and to the point, but he can still imagine what Wrathion might have said to invoke such a statement.

"Not always, no," he agrees. "But I would not ask for him to."

How to say this without giving too much information about himself away?

"Wrathion has always been -- headstrong. But there are some times that I have needed that extra push of motivation and support which his confidence has given me. And there are times when... I would at least like to think my gentler approach has gotten through to him as well."

[sergeant_slick]

Good. It wasn't easy to find relationships like that outside of your own kind. Come to think of it, he had no idea if Wrathion was part of a production line, or some sort of one-off. All he knew was how Wrathion had reacted to the description of clone life.

"Does he have anybody else like him out there? That he can count on?" Slick had millions, but he hadn't met another clone he could talk to on the stuff that mattered.

...Which was a reminder he shouldn't discount non-clones, much as it still took effort to think of them like he would his brothers. "For that matter, do you?"

[chosenbylight]

Does he have anybody else like him out there that he can count on?

Anduin's expression saddens slightly, which is probably answer enough. But Slick cares enough to have asked, which is more than Anduin can say for many. He owes him some sort of a response for that, although an answer that does not say more about Wrathion than he has given of himself is... Difficult.

"You have met Wrathion," Anduin says, after a moment, with a wry twist of his lips. "I am not sure there can be anybody else out there quite like him. But...no," he continues, all humor aside. "That is not to say that he does not have support, but. Everything he has, he has built himself, I think. It is one of the reasons it is so difficult to get him to ask for help."

Anduin had thought the question about Wrathion was difficult to answer, but how to even address his own situation.

"Our backgrounds are very different," he says, at last. "Wrathion and I. I think when we first met, we were both very much in need of each others' friendship. Then again," he adds, smiling apologetically -- sorry Slick, if he is being too honest, that's just who he is, "I cannot say I am not equally in need of it, even now."

[sergeant_slick]

"I know the feeling. The only reason I'm so chipper is because none of you have a stake in the Galactic Republic." Nobody even knew what it was unless he told people. If things were different, he might've been stuck in the Good Soldier act.

Still, that also meant most people here didn't understand the situation either. Anduin was obviously a natborn, or whatever the equivalent was here. And from somewhere that cared about discipline, to a degree that made him seem shiny as a cadet. "I don't see a problem with that. If it was just one of you leaning on the other, it might not be fair."

[chosenbylight]

Anduin cannot help but smile at that. No, he has no idea what the Galactic Republic is, but he understands the sentiment.

"I am quite relieved that the same troubles back home have not followed me here myself, truth be told," Anduin replies. It's a relief, to be anonymous here. Not to have to walk around with a guarded escort everywhere he goes. Not to have a council of advisors arguing about his safety and the choices he makes. He has been suffocating back home.

No one here knows that he is High King of the Alliance back home. No one but Wrathion. And Wrathion's friendship and support has very little to do with all of that. It's really quite refreshing.

"Wrathion has not exactly made himself many friends, back home," he points out. "More the opposite, I am sorry to say. But... He has done good too. Sometimes it would do him better to remember that."

[sergeant_slick]

Whatever 'troubles' Anduin's dealt with, he's got no idea. All he can tell is that Anduin's probably somebody important back on his homeworld--or at least in the vicinity of important stuff. Nobody else enunciates that carefully. "Sad to say this planet's a vacation for me too, killer mermaids and all." At least their casualty rate so far was low. He doubted it'd gotten any better back home, though.

Or 'home', rather. It wasn't like clones had a home, and he definitely didn't. "Well, being popular's not as important as being right. Or at least I keep telling myself that." He'd managed both for a while, but that was because he'd been lying through his teeth about the Republic. "As long as he's pointed in the right direction, that's all I care about.

[chosenbylight]

Slick is definitely right about that much. Even if Anduin would try to go under-cover, there's no hiding the years of training in posture, manners, and courtship that he had had to endure...

"I'm starting to get the feeling that it is much the same for many of us," Anduin says. "Out of the frying pan, into the fire, as they say."

He takes in a deep breath, letting it out slowly, before turning to give Slick a more direct look.

"Can I ask you a question?" he says, looking somewhat hesitant. "Given what you have said about your homeworld, the troubles awaiting you back there -- you are still eager to return to it?"