[h3]Carter, Aden, Zoe & Hamelin[/h3] Cowritten by [@InfamousGuy101], [@Terrans], Dyelli Beybi, [@PrinceAlexus] [hr] Where Aden and Zoe tease Carter for his outlandish stories of the other continent. [hr] Carter had been standing at the helm, his hands steady on the wheel, eyes fixed on the horizon. The soft murmur of conversation drifted to him from the others on the bridge, but he made no move to join in. He adjusted the course slightly, the ship responding with a gentle groan as it held steady through the frigid air. The colder temperature didn’t seem to bother him much, his focus entirely on guiding the airship forward. He glanced briefly over his shoulder, catching fragments of introductions and polite exchanges between Zoe, Hamelin, and Urses. Their voices were low and measured, a stark contrast to the earlier tension. Carter didn’t interject; he preferred the quiet distance, letting them carry on while he kept the ship on its path. A merry whistling preceded the opening of the rear most hatch of the bridge. Aden appeared, the last notes of the marching hymn dying with a slight embarrassed grin, "Hello." The marksman gave a perfunctory wave of his hand before he closed the hatch behind him; standing beside it in a obviously loose posting. His rifle still slung across his back and his pistol holster snapped in place. His helmet was missing at least; replaced with a dark stocking cap that allowed wisps of hair to curl from underneath. Carter, still steady at the helm, let out a low chuckle, “I had my fair share of run-ins with a sort of air pirates back in the Evig. They’re not as fancy as they sound. Most of ’em don’t have their own airships—just small boats with harpoons. They’ll try to snag low-flying crafts, drag ’em down for plunder. Only works on the smaller ships, though. The big haulers like this one? They’re a little too much for those harpoons to handle, that and they can reach higher altitudes." Carter adjusted the wheel slightly, his eyes flicking to the horizon. “Now, down south in the archipelagos? That’s a whole different story. Ain’t just pirates down there—there’s all kinds of nasties waiting for anyone foolish enough to fly or sail through. Heard stories of crews vanishing without a trace, ships found adrift with no one aboard. Some folks say it’s just storms or bad luck. Others? They think there’s... other things out there.” "Harpoon an airship?" Zoe raised an incredulous eyebrow, "What kind of tuppeny-ha'penny airships do you fly in the Main?" "Sounds like something in the penny novels." Aden piped in. The man having dragged a chair to where he could sit down. His notebook balanced on a knee and opened to a page that was on one side a range estimate and a half finished journal entry on the remaining space. Carter smirked at Zoe’s incredulous tone, keeping his hands steady on the wheel. "You’d be surprised what desperation can do," he said, his voice carrying an easy drawl. "Harpoons aren’t just fantasy. You take a rigging gun, fire off a steel harpoon with reinforced cabling, and you’ve got yourself a problem. They aim for control surfaces or latch onto the hull. Once they’re hooked, they’ll drag you down or force a landing. It’s not always the harpoon that gets you, though—it’s the crew panicking. Seen more than a few greenhorns tear their own rudders off trying to escape. That’s a quick way to kiss the ground—or the sea." He glanced at Aden, his smirk deepening, "Yeah, it does sound like penny novel stuff. Thing is, a lot of those stories? They’re based on real tricks pirates pull. I’ve flown in the Main long enough to know better than to laugh it off. All it takes is one harpoon to ruin your day, no matter how ridiculous it sounds." "Sure thing. I'm sure they also launch flying machines up to force zeppelins to the ground." Aden was still grinning as he scribbled away at his journal entry. Summing up two weeks of hell and horror into two paragraphs that did little to capture the enormity of his journey. A tear threatened his eye as his thoughts turned to the 46th Alpine, or rather, where they had died. The mountain pass had been held against the first few assault; but the fourth one came at the heels of clouds of gas and artillery. Faces contorting into terror as the gas or the Calarian's caught up with them.... Aden threw a grin onto his face and squelched the tear. He finished the paragraph and began the ones about the zeppelin. The cocky Mainer, the young silver tongued spinster promising gold, the civilians and military factions forming. His pen moving rapidly as he turned to the next page; a sketch of the air ship developing as if to illustrate his new home for the foreseeable future. "Perhaps you could train a troop of flying monkeys to claw their way into the helium bags?" Zoe suggested deadpan. "Maybe we could get a catapult and launch bears at the gondola's to eat the crew?" Aden finished the outline of the Zeppelin and begun to add the gondola and engines. "Or train an albatross to mimic human speech, fly in through the window and command the crew to land in the voice of their Captain," Zoe added, clearly finding teasing Carter quite entertaining. "Has to be a parrot." Aden began shading his sketch. "A parrot is colorful enough to fool them into thinking they're a captain." Carter glanced briefly at Zoe and Aden, their banter about flying monkeys and bear catapults still fresh in the air. He didn’t take it personally; it wasn’t malice, just ignorance. Folks of the old continent had no clue what went on beyond their neatly drawn borders. "Never trust a sea story, I've not told or heard one that was ever completely true. Even if you float than fly. I've told plenty to know." Hamelin put in. He had taken the opportunity of Aden's arrival to start working on plotting out exactly where they were on the charts.