World Tree MUSH

    Vines have really been showing up in Justine's world a lot more often lately. Sometimes they're a random dump, but lately the place has been making attempts at extending its reach and colonizing or setting up trade routes with others. This means a lot of bridging effects, including radio signals... and with radio being relatively new to the world of Ether Skies, it's blasted pretty constantly.

    So the message from the RMS Titanic came through loud and clear, and not just random dumps are here, but a few curious people loading up ships. Local ships, for convenience, so mostly little steamers and the like kept aloft with the magitech engines for space travel, and a few fast wooden ships. One in particular is being loaded for offworlders, sponsored by... a young blonde girl with clockwork arms.

    "We leave within the half hour, everyone get your things together! Estimated time of contact is only a few hours, we're cutting it close!" Justine, apparently, has decided to get some people together for reasons of her own.

    Magilou has gone through a lot of trouble to try to fit in to this world, and not stick out like a sore thumb. Of course, she'd been out of sight for a little while, doing witch-y things...

    Well, not stick out like a sore thumb other than the hat. And the outfit. And the being an obnoxious, loud traveler. "..No, I don't care about if that ship is in trouble." She's explaining to her familiar, to try and justify herself. And not really caring that she's surrounded by people who DO want to investigate if the ship is in trouble. "But do you know how big it must be to have the name titanic? It must be something really special, or else they'd have been laughed out of the.. wherever you go to name your ship. Hey!" She'll yell over at whoever might be closest. "You have to get some kind of approval to name a ship, right? You can't just go calling it titanic if it's, like, average-ship-sized? I'm occasionally with some pirates as well as being a witch, so I'll know if you lie!"

    Magilou is here for only the purest of reasons, really.

Holly's kind of surprised someone would name of the ship the Titanic, that's just asking for trouble. Of course the witch already has two ghosts following her before she steps on the ship. She's not actually subtle, but as she notices Magilou she might not be the most oddly dressed one here. It's certainly a close contest. "The Titanic is a ship that sunk hundreds years of ago, so what's doing here?"

One of the ghosts following Holly speaks up after here,"Perhaps it's a reproduction?"

    Magilou might not stick out as much as she thinks. She's not the only one with a pointy hat. ... Nor is Holly for that matter.
    It's not Salome Highscribe's first time working with Justine Lawson. It likely will not be the last. But the dusky skinned elf clad in red is already aboard the boat, seated on the taffrail with one leg crossed over the other as she loads an ornate revolver. She pauses between each shell, squinting at the cartridge as she etches intricate designs upon the head of each bullet and even upon the jacket for some, as she murmurs to herself.

    "Sandra's seen a leprechaun,
    Eddie touched a troll,
    Laurie danced with witches once,
    Charlie found some goblins gold.
    Donald heard a mermaid sing,
    Susy spied an elf...
    But all the magic I have known...
    I've had to make myself."

    Funny thing about people dressing oddly. Her hat cracks open an eye, which peers RIGHT at everyone as they walk up the plank to board, and splits open a fanged lip to hiss a creaking laugh... That the red-clad witch pays absolutely no mind to in the least.
    "Sally. You might want to look up." Says the black cat settled on the rail beside her.
    "Oh what is it Pierce, can't you see I'm bus--... I see." She trails off, when she actually spies Magilou and Holly. "... I seeeeeeeee~..."
    How cryptic.

    Dante wasn't exactly sure what bright spark thought 'Titanic' was a good name for a space ship, but in any case, that issue solved itself. By sinking.

    he was mostly hanging out aboard the vessel, recognizing Justine and Salome from the other day. Buncha witches today, why is this so weirdly specific today?

    "This oughta be...intriguing." He muses, not seeming to need any space equipment to survive in a vacuum. "Been a while since i had to deal with a shipwreck."

The instant she heard that this was about the RMS Titanic, Anna had exchanged a look with Spiral and immediately said, "There's no way I'm gonna pass this up, no matter what there is!"

Now, she's boarding the boat with everyone else. "Oh, hey, long time no see!" she says to Justine with a grin. "My powers have fledged! Betcha I could even run across the Atlantic by myself!"

The golden-furred catlike creature sitting on her shoulder facepaws. "Please don't try to run across the ocean under your own power."

"What?" Anna peers at Spiral. "No, no, I wasn't actually gonna do it!"

    "Hello again, Anna," Justine says. "Please do not try running across the ocean," she agrees. "We will be leaving the ocean shortly and going into space, where the ship was struck by an asteroid. Actually we'll be trying to meet it, which is what doesn't make sense."

    Calling Magilou over, Justine nods, "I'll explain once we are underway..." Though Holly gets a funny look, Justine did ask for various adventurers, and the captain of the ship is the sort who doesn't seem to care. No, this isn't Justine's ship, she doesn't own one.

    Salome arriving as well gets a small smirk. "Curious, hm? Looks like a ghost ship. Though it was all over the papers at the time..." she admits, before loading up the ramp. Dante gets a nod hello, "Hello there again. We shouldn't be getting into any arguments here, we're here for the same thing this time... finding out what happened."

    And as the ship lurches up from dock, trailing water when taking to the skies and space with a thrum of arcanotech engines, the crew scurries to adjust the sails and rudder steering them on course. Justine steps up to address her recruits.

    "Right, this is probably a ghost ship," she says bluntly. "The RMS Titanic is a large ship, as the witch over there guessed. Was a large ship. Designated 'unsinkable' because of the numerous protections against stray asteroids, it nonetheless was crippled on its maiden voyage and the crew and passengers were forced to abandon the ship, while it sank into the stellar gasses. Many passengers died, but now a year later it is requesting docking." She gestures with a clockwork hand. "We should be coming on it soon, and with the speed of our departure, we'll have a few hours before the official royal investigation arrives. Try not to destroy anything, I just want to know how this could happen. I can sense the anguish from here."

    Indeed, those with sharp eyes can even see the 'ship' approaching. Or ships. The Titanic was split in two, and both halves are not quite lined up properly, yet it's still chugging along. Unlike the faint blue 'exhaust' of the mystical engine pushing the ship they are on, this one is showing an eerie, sickly green trail from the stern...

    "No hard feelings, babe." Dante waves a hand absently as he listens to the briefing, arms folded. "So much for unsinkable." He says with a scoff, as the ship comes into view. The amount of casualties from this incident must've been *immense.* It actually leaves Dante silent for a moment as he wonders what kind of accident would cause this.

    Once the ship is close enough, Dante just up and leaps over the edge of their transport, flinging himself towards the Titanic's remains. He uses asteroids and bits of debris to bounce himself about, giving him things to propel himself from. "WOO! WOOHOO!"

    At times, you can see him bouncing off -nothing at all- thanks to red sigils around his feet. He makes his way toward one of the halves.

    Magilou will make her way over, totally seeming to not notice Salome. "Ghost ships are the sixth scariest type of undead! We should be really careful. It's good of them to call ahead, though, usually they just send out fog and then you're just stuck there..."

    At the request to not destroy anything, Magilou will fold her hands behind her head. "Well. I'm okay with not having to destroy any ghosts. But it looks awfully, um, predestroyed." She'll state, nodding out towards the ship that's approaching. Splitting things that are too large for one showing into two parts really is all the rage these days.

    "Anyway, you just want us to try and figure out what happened? I'll just take my usual role in managing a ship." From her long, long experience in just standing there. Magilou, and by extension Bienfu, will not be rushing towards the ship unless someone specifically asks her to, or possibly if it somehow becomes less helpful for her to help than for her to stand there.

Holly can feel her stomach churn a bit as they enter space, she's never been into space before. "Wow! This is much higher than I've ever flown before." And Justine's already lost Holly as she gazes up in the stars impressed by it all, Magilou's comment does get a glare from her. "Why would you destroy ghosts?! They're just like the rest of us. Besides it doesn't sound that dangerous...Come on Servis and Lavaux, let's make some new friends!"

 Noticing Dante jump off the ship eagerly, she tries to mimic him but instead smashes right into the side of one of the asteroids breaking a piece off and goes flying into the ship with a crash, "Ouch! I'm okay..."

Anna pauses. "That is also a good reason not to try running across by myself!" she says.

She spares a wave for Dante, the only other person here she recognizes, though they only met once a while ago, and then ... just watches as he goes off. "Well, then!"

She looks like she's about to respond to Magilou comment about ghost ships, then just doesn't say anything. She waits until they're a lot closer to the ship, then Spiral floats off her shoulder to land on the edge of the ship, and Anna concentrates, gathering energy into herself as her body glows pale blue. Then it dissipates, revealing that she's now wearing a flashy blue dress with green and white trim, slacks underneath the dress, and her hair is cobalt-blue.

She then climbs up off the edge of the ship and shoots forward at the speed of a car, surrounded by a pale blue glow like she was before. She blinks as she sees Holly crashing into an asteroid. "Oh! Uh ..." She tries to stop and the glow fades, but in space, inertia just keeps you going. Anna grimaces and resumes boosting towards the nearest half of the Titanic with that glow so that she can at least find purchase before trying to mount any other rescue.

    "Hmmmmm..."
    Mismatched blue-red eyes notice the difference in the engine exhaust, but Salome simply focuses on finishing up the loading of her pistol, which she slides into the folds of her coat as she slips herself off the raill and back onto the deck, when the ship takes flight.
    "Me, curious? As a cat." She replies to Justine.
    "I take insult at that comment, I am not curious." Her cat notes.
    The witch in red, though, sets her hands on her hips. "Well, I have to agree with my sister's 'pre-destroyed' assessment. It looks like someone shoddily glued the thing back together at the middle." Idly mulled as she taps on her lower lip. Dante, who gets a finger-waggling wave of recognition as he goes, Anna, and Holly are going on ahead, but Salome opts to wait a few beats before she makes any move to follow.
    Reaching up, she taps her hat gently, and it opens its mouth wide with a 'bllleeeeehhh!' as she casually reaches her hand into the fanged maw and pulls out an old broom. Settling herself on said broom, sitting side-saddle, she crosses one lag over the other and lets it lift off and start puttering along to follow the others towards the ghost ship.

    Aaand Dante is already off. "Well, that one has some impatience," Justine notes, but she's smiling. Apparently the 'no hard feelings' part was important to her. The young girl lowers a bag to the deck and starts to unload her wings, so she can join the others. "Captain, hold position for a few hours. If something dangerous occurs, send out a flare first and wait as long as you can for us to get back, but I don't expect you to risk your vessel. We'll find a way off if we get stranded." Huh.

    Dante meanwhile lands on the deck with much more grace than Holly, who crashes nearby. Each impacts against wooden walking decks, rather than the steel hull at least. It creaks eerily, and has signs of damage from small craters in the hull, but is surprisingly intact otherwise. Nearby, a skeleton clings to a ladder, apparently tangled up with a rope there. Yet... something is wrong...

    Anna changes, getting a raised eyebrow from Justine. "Huh..." Interesting but not to be worrying her yet. She turns to Magilou, "Not planning on checking out the ship? Heroes outside my world sure are lazy about their jobs."

    Meanwhile, Anna lands on deck on the second half, while Salome is gliding alongside the ship. It shouldn't be holding together this well... anyone with even a hint of seamanship or architectural knowledge can tell the keel is snapped clean in half. It's a dead ship. A little TOO dead. Salome can spot a few skeletons through the portholes, while Anna can see a few caught in places where they fell during the sinking. Toward the stern a faint rumbling howl seems to drift, and the boards sometimes pulse with green, but there's something missing from either end...

    Ghosts.

    Of course, nobody is inside the various cabins, either for the command crew, the guests, the ballroom, or so on. But for a ghost ship, it's lacking quite a lot of ghostness.

    "...Huh. Did I ever say anything about being a hero?" Magilou asks, curiously. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing she would say. "I didn't mean to give the wrong impression. Though I am lazy about my job, my job really is more to be lazy and imposing. A witch's powers shouldn't be used lightly, or else everyone would be expecting her to show up whenever little nuisences like hordes of monsters or undead ghost ships turn out. But I guess if you want me to just pretend to be a hero, I can go over there."

    She'll be rather more.. cautious about making her way towards the first deck, even so. Heroism is hard work. "..Do you think they'll having dining service on this ship?" She'll call after Holly, as she follows along to the front half of the ship. "Don't eat anything, if they do. It'll probably turn you into a ghost, forever doomed to roam the seas, looking for some sauce to give it some flavor..."

Thankfully, Holly isn't strong enough to decompress the ship but she did go right the wooden deck and inside of the ship. Servis and Lavaux seemed to have better luck getting on the ship but being ghosts they aren't bound by the laws of physics. She doesn't see other ghosts besides those two. Maybe someone managed to survive? "I'm not really hungry right now, all this flying through space is kind of disorienting..." Or that could be crashing into the ship as she pulls her onto her feet.

 "I wonder if there are any magical artifacts on the ship?! I wonder where the cargo hold is?" Given her luck it's likely on the other half of the ship.

    Wheeeeeee

    With the majesty of a coked out rock star, Dante lands onto the deck and strikes a pose, coat flowing dramatically and sword entering his hand. He stands up, twirling his blade happily. Testing the stability of the deck, he seems satisfied as he carries onward. The sight of a skeleton on the ladder makes Dante move closer, and he leaps up the ladder in order to rifle through the skellie's pockets. MIght be a letter or some kind of clue.

    Lightly touching down with the clink of spurs, Salome gives her broom a twirl and feeds it right back to her hat, cat hopping off soundlessly beside her.
    "A lot of spooky, scary, skeletons. But I didn't see much sign of ghosts on this ghost ship." She points out mildly. "Though the whole ship is holding together suspiciously well."
    But then it's something Holly says that has the witch flashing a fanged smile. Magical artifacts?
    "Just my question exactly."

Anna looks around, frowning curiously. "Hmm ..." She clenches her fist, and it glows briefly, but she doesn't actually do anything with it. Honestly, now that her initial excitement has worn off, she isn't entirely sure how useful she actually is here. That said, her destination on this half is pretty obvious! Surrounded by her own glow, she boosts her way all the way to the end of the stern, and peers over the edge towards the green glow, trying to discern its source. "Hmmm ..."

    Justine puts on her wings, then shrugs them with a click as they seat into place. "I don't really care, but it looks like it isn't dangerous. If you want any clue as to what's going on it's up to you. There's a boat if you don't want to jump. I'm just wanting to know what happened..."

    Though Salome might have a clue on why the ship SANK anyway. The hull has a lengthy score along the side, tearing through multiple chambers, and despite space not being water, this has definitely thrown off the weight distribution dramatically. No wonder the ship snapped.

    Holly can see some under the deck, where some of the entertainment is. Or was. Broken glass, chandaliers, and various furniture is strewn about, not repaired at all. The hull creaks more inside, but the first class crew quarters are not far away.

    Meanwhile, Dante goes through the rotting clothing for papers or the like. He doesn't find those, but does find a wallet, so that's something. Justine chooses the main group to join, and adds, "I don't mind if you loot a little, but I'd like to know what's going on first."

    Salome's comment, along with Holly's, does bring her to that. "Well, we had a transmission sent, so the radio room up at the top there is one lead," she points up. "And if it's magical artifacts... the cabins down below would be most likely. This was a passenger liner for the wealthy, so anything interesting would be in their quarters, maybe in a safe. But the glowy girl is in the back looking at the engines, which I think I might want to see too. This whole place makes me uneasy... there's something WRONG with the terror I'm feeling. Like it's too fresh."

    Speaking of Anna, she is in the stern! And peeking over the edge, she can see the screws turning and a thread of green energy going into the back, while under her feet the deck vibrates as if the boilers were active.

The nice thing about having a super-speed power in a situation like this is that you don't need to worry about things like 'communicating remotely.'

Anna zips back to the main group. "Hey," she says. "I don't know what color these things are supposed to be, but it looked like the engine-screw-thingies were turning properly, and that green glow was coming from 'em." She pauses. "And the deck was vibrating. Like, as if all the stuff was still running underneath all that."

... Erudite when it comes to the technology of this world, she ain't.

Holly's got to beat Salome down to the cabins now if they're after the same thing. Besides if there are ghosts they're likely down there as well and the radio room doesn't really interest her. Of course she's not really quite sure what the other woman is capable besides being a witch. She's a bit surprised as Anna rejoins them. "How did you run here from the other side of the ship?"

    "I was working on that." Dante says, dropping down and letting the skelly keep his wallet. Robbing a dead man? So gauche. "I'm gonna go on a limb and guess meteors did it. Maybe demons, I dunno." He says, unphased by the quick return of Anna. "She's fast. Duh." He says with a cheeky grin to Holly. "I'm gonna go check out the lower levels. Peace!" He does this by simply going toward the edge where the ship was broken, and promptly *LEAPS* down to a lower floor!

    This might be a bad idea.

    Magilou is not particularly interested in magical artifacts, unlike the other witches. She's got magic already, and those usually have a downside if they even work. No, she's not here to play artifact or artifiction. "I guess I'll go check on the radio. Do you think we should finish asking for permission to dock? It seems like the ship might dock with or without permission, anyway."

    With that asked, whether or not it's answered, the blonde witch will head up for the radio room, planning on having a long, long conversation with somebody. If the radio will even work, without actually knowing anything about how to use it. Hopefully it's preset to the right channels and everything.

    "Pretty sure it was meteors." Sally says, in accordance with Dante's assessment.
    "There was a pretty long gash in the side of the hull. Impossible to miss. Now, I know there's no water in space, but there's no way that could have been good for internal pressure, or how the ship kept its weight balanced." The red witch adds on just as Anna reconvenes with the group.
    "You'd think after 'sinking' in space, all that delicate equipment would just... Stop working. But nope, apparently not. Chalk that on as something to check out too." She muses before peering at Justine.
    "Fresh terror?" A genuine curiosity there as she narrows her scarlet eye quizzically. But then she starts searching for a means to get below deck. "Well, let's get going. Daylight's burning, and even I wouldn't want to be on a wreck like this during the Witching Hour."

    "There shouldn't be anyone feeding coal to the boilers," Justine points out to Anna. "We'd better check that out when we can." The radio is completely forgotten by Justine now, between the boiler concern and... what people are about to do.

    This is because Dante decides to jump down to the lower decks of the structurally-damaged ship. The hull and keel appear to be mystically bound, but the lower decks... not so much! Dante gets a glimpse of the fine ballroom before crashing RIGHT THROUGH And into the cargo area, full of broken crates and a surprisingly-intact old automobile. Looks a bit dinged up but functional... and of course built in 1912 so...

    Meanwhile Holly and Salome decide to go for the cabins below deck. Lots of finery here, both nice clothing(most of it damaged) but also jewelry, but so far nothing magical. So far. Some of the rooms have safes...

    "Technically," Justine calls out before she leaves, "They're asteroids until they hit the atmosphere. Anyway the terror is fresh but kind of muted. I've never felt anything like that before, but with this many people dying at once, it's definitely making my skin crawl." She has a dislike of that? Go figure. "Come on... Anna was it? We'll take a look in the back, the rest of you join us." Though getting through the skeleton-ridden lower decks back there to the boilers is something of a harrowing experience.

    Magilou climbs up to see the command deck, where there IS one ghost. The captain, apparently, with an obvious hole in his head. Repeating the same message over and over, an echo of his former self.

Well, the valuables would cover her expenses for a bit, but Holly's a bit disappointed that there isn't magical artifacts. Then again picking a fight with Salome in a ship that's falling apart might not be the best idea. It's a good thing she didn't go to the radio room because she would be upset if saw the captain. "If it was meteors wouldn't there be holes through out the entire ship?" She doesn't think it would just have split in half like that.

    "Oh!" Magilou will say, a little surprised at the obviousness of the ghost. And the hole in the head. Did the captain get murdered separately from the boat sinking or something? She'll not be stopped from approaching, however, because she's not scared of a little bit of dead company.

    "Hello, we've come to rescue you! Sorry, I'm not very practiced at the heroic versions of these scripts.. Let me see." Hopefully the ghost is patient, but Magilou is getting somewhere. Somewhere certainly heroic! "You're dead, and you've failed at your only purpose in life, not sinking this ship."

    No, that's not quite right. "..I mean, what happened to your ship?"

    "Blah blah blah tomayto tomahto." Dante says lazily before he makes his way into the cargo bay. OW OW OW OW!

    He goes through the walls and other debris after getting a look at the ballroom, only to land just short of hitting a crate or two. He stops his landing by planting Rebellion into the deck, and ends up stopping short of hitting the car. "Huh, nice ride." He comments, prying his sword free and sheathing it. "So where are all the ghosts?"

    Yet meanwhile, Salome is cool as a cucumber. No sign of hostility in the least in spite of the fact that she and Holly are potential rivals in terms of loot and spoils. Hands folded behind her head, she walks alongside the younger witch, spurs clinking with every swaggering step.
    "Could've been a big one. It was a nasty gash in the side. Just ripped right along the hull." She notes, casually running her hand over what was once a fine dress, but has since gone space-moth eaten over time. It's a safe that pauses here.
    "Hold up a sec~." She says, tapping her hat and reaching into the gaping mouth again. She pulls out what looks like a calligraphy brush as she kneels in front of the safe.
    "Let's see, if I square root the... And subtract the difference, carry the one..."
    She's muttering what sounds like some really complex formula to herself as she starts painting the beginnings of a runic sigil on the safe's dial and handle. This might take her a second or two.

>> SUMMARY[Salome] >> My Magic would be quicker if I had a calculator.

Anna beams at Holly. "My magical ability is called 'Windrunner'!" she says. "When I'm transformed into this form, it lets me glide, too."

She nods at Justine. "Righto!" she says. She lets Justine take the lead, and doesn't use her super speed to try to get ahead; apart from anything else, Justine seems to know her way around this ship much better than Anna herself ever would.

"Y'know, the World Tree is more impressive than even I gave it credit for," she remarks as they start to head belowdecks. "If someone had told me when I decided to become a magical girl that I'd end up investigating the literal-ghost-ship Spaceship Titanic with an empath ..." She shakes her head. "Man, I don't even know how I'd react."

    It's a little odd there aren't more magical artifacts actually. Oh there are one or two... Holly can probably tell that the gas lamps aren't actually gas, but fueled by some kind of mana lines. Everything else though, every little trinket that is not part of the ship, is lacking magic. Even if it looks like it SHOULD have some. Maybe Salome popping the safe will find something.

    Up top, with Magilou, the captain pauses and turns to look at her with hollow eyes. "Wrong way... the lookout called the wrong way..." That seems to be the only other phrase he can say for now though.

    So with Anna and Justine, Justine climbs down into the boilers. Of course she knows her way around, this is her era. "Huh? Spaceship Titanic? Is there any other kind?" She drops to the final deck from the ladder, and frowns at the green glow of the boilers and engines. "This isn't normal, it's supposed to draw in ambient mana. And the boilers are... I don't think I can get any closer. Something is wrong with the boilers. They aren't supposed to glow like that."

    "No, no, that's not right. As the captain, you're responsible for all of your people; if your lookout didn't know left from right then that's really on you. Um, how did you get that, if you don't mind me asking?" She'll ask, putting a finger to her own head where the captain's stylish hole is.

    She's still going to approach a little closer, because she has to make the call on the radio, after all. There's a hiss out the side of her mouth, as she edges towards the ghost. "Hey, Bienfu, don't you want to help me with interogating the gho.." And then she'll notice that her malak is gone.

    Someone downstairs may notice him trying to hide under his tophat, however, shaking frightfully.

    "...You traitor!"

Magical lamps aren't what Holly's looking for but Salome's already beat her to the safe, but she notices what looks like a small doll trying to under a top hat.""What's this doing here?" Did one of the passengers leave it behind? The witch picks up the top hat with the normin hiding inside curiously. "A survivor?" Maybe the creature knew what happened here.

Anna grins at Justine. "Let's just say that in my Blossom, 1912 was very different," she says. She frowns at the green glow. "Not sure what to do about that," she says uneasily. "You mean you can't go any closer because of your empath senses, or because it's danger in general? I'm, uh ... not entirely sure if I'm appreciably safer getting in close." She gives Justine a lopsided grin. "I become considerably less reckless when I don't have anyone to protect." Well, at least she's self-aware about that part ...

    "What'd ya find there?" Salome calls back over her shoulder to the other witch, while continuing her work.
    "Now if I adjust the angle there and ... Ah right. Of course...!"
    A few last strokes of the brush finishes her work. Scrawled over the handle and dial of the safe is an intricate runic sigil; something between a spell circle and a pentagram, with some extremely complex mathematical equations drawn within the ring itself.
    "You might want to cover your ears and take cover." That's the only warning Holly gets as Salome sliiiides aside. "I'm multiplying the force by three~."
    Whatever that means is explained when the sigil suddenly glows, coming to life with arcane power- before it erupts with the force of a high yield explosive compressed into a tightly packed space, to blow the safe open.

>> SUMMARY[Salome] >> Ka-bewm.

    The cargo area is full of various finery for shipping... but also a lot of mundane cargo. The car is really the only noteworthy thing, but it is strapped down pretty good. It would be easy to release it, as the dings are from other boxes that were snapped free. Though how to get it out of the ship might be a problem. Otherwise, the cargo area is... uneasily quiet. Of anything but a creaking noise. Unless Dante wants to go underneath...

    To Anna, Justine shakes her head, "Because of the Empath abilities. I COULD get closer, but I'd need to get pretty angry and probably just destroy them. They could be dangerous maybe, but... I don't think so," she says, deciding to be honest. As amusing as it might be for Anna to blow herself up, she has no real malice toward the girl yet.

    Magilou's question just gets a gesture toward the captain's sidearm. Self-inflicted. Which likely means he's stuck here until he can be exorcised, thanks to being a suicide. Then he repeats, "They said starboard..." The scoring is along the PORT side, so that might be a problem.
    Holly gets sadly distracted by Magilou's malek, though she's found quite a lot of info on how these ships are made, once she puts it all together. She might also be distracted by the explosion, as Salome blows open the safe and reveals the insides. A bundle of cash, more jewelry, some papers... and a gold watch that starts to sparkle blue. The blue energies have little flickers and sparks lifting off of it, turning to green as they swirl toward the stern of the ship.

    Dante rubs his chin, and shrugs. "Not much I can do with this, maybe sell it off to a collector..." He mutters to himself. This entire place has been extremely...empty. He was expecting demons, or aliens...or alien demons. Or maybe space pirates. SOMETHING to fight! Did they miss all the fun fighting?

    Bienfu will start to sob as Holly picks him up, screeching out. "Oh, you've come to rescue me from the horrible ghost! Miss Magilou's already been eaten, I'm sure of it! They'll have wanted her brains! I'm going to need a new witch..." And then he'll try to hug Holly. Who might remember that he had accompanied Magilou earlier, now that he's not hiding quite so much.

    Magilou, meanwhile, currently undevoured and with at least as many brains as she started with, will sigh. "Well. I guess I can see why you'd be upset. I'm not really a priest or anything, though, so we might need to find someone who can help you. Can you let me take the radio? You'll probably have a little bit better luck in your next life, after all, and haunting us here is just no good."

    It should have had something, shouldn't it? How odd. Dante is instead left with... a car. And an empty ship that has a vague feeling of wrongness to it. At least there's that to worry about.

Thankfully, she's too distracted by Bienfu to notice the explosion and the the"Wait, there are other ghosts here?" Holly's purple eyes light up with that. "Ghosts don't eat people's brains. That's zombies. It might have possessed her though." Servis and Lavaux look a bit surprised as the witch mentions posession and turn the other way whistling.

 "We need to find a way of getting the ghost out of her without huring her." She finally turns her back to Salome, "You wouldn't hap...hey what did you find there?" Her turns towards the watch.

    The cash and jewelry are ignored outright. It's the watch that has Salome's attention as she boldly reaches into the blown safe and plucks it up into her hand.
    Mismatched eyes narrow as the blue glow turns a familiar sickly green and...
    Salome whistles.
    "Yo, Little Witch Academia, we're heading for the stern." It's the only explanation she gives Holly as she starts trying to follow the watch-- and those green energies- like a compass towards the stern. Though she pauses briefly.
    The malak says the other witch got eaten? Sally clicks her teeth.
    "A witch ought never be frightened in the darkest forest, because she should know in her soul that the most terrifying thing in the forest was her." She asides to Holly. "If that other witch is anything worth the salt in her spell circles, she's not going to get eaten by a ghost."
    Oh hey she's already moving on after showing the utmost concern for Magilou. That is to say: None at all.

>> SUMMARY[Salome] >> Yes I went there. No, I don't care. Have fun fending for yourself Magilou, try not to get eaten by zombiegoasts

Anna nods. "Righto, then!" Cautiously, she walks up to the boilers, peering over them, frowning curiously. "So ... what sort of thing should I be looking for?" she says. "I mean I don't really know how any of the magic or technology in this world works." Once again, she's feeling kind of useless ... "Or should I try and find one of the witches and bring them over?"

    It's when the sparkles swirl down the hallway and into the boiler that Justine can finally answer for Anna. "Ah..." She nods to herself, and waits for anyone else to arrive, just a few minutes. "Ladies and gentlemen-" Hey, Holly has a male ghost. "I think I know what happened here. HEY HUNTER BOY, GET UP HERE!"

    Also, as Holly approaches her companions will feel a small tug. A little detail only, which is explained soon enough.

    "The boilers are enchanted to draw any magical energy out of items that have been nearby too long," Justine says. "We should... probably destroy them. They've also claimed the ghosts. This ship is literally being powered by the souls of the victims. My mother used to do this sort of thing all the time, I should have recognized it sooner."

    Magilou, as the only one up above and still on task, will not get an answer from the ghost... but he won't stop her from commandeering the radio. He's repeated the same action multiple times, so she should know the basics of using it.

    "Okay, then.." Magilou will say, sighing to herself. "Well, at least you're happier than the last person I spent time around who just said the same things over and over. Rawr, vengence, death, blah blah blah." She'll say to the ghost before taking the radio up.

    "Hey! This is the magnificent and magical Miss Magilou, mayday mayday mayday, ghost ship with ghost captain is ghost toast. I think we're going to need someone who's an expert on exorcisms. Or we may just want to blow the boat up. If you see explosions, we probably decided on the latter."

"Hey Holly, you're not going to take that from her are you?" Lavaux finally speaks up as Holly balls her fists. She's not little! She's 21 and 5' 8" without her hat.

 "Did you feel that? This isn't the time." Servis tries to talk some sense into the pair.

 "Yes, actually I felt something and wasn't pleasamt." She nods as she follows Salome. "You're right, she should be able to take care of herself. Wait for me!" Well, at least Bienfu gets a bit of break from Magilou.

    "Keep up or eat her dust. She's always like that."
    That would be Salome's cat as he pads along and passes Holly and co. "Heck, she's left me behind once or twice once she set her sights on something, there ain't a thing in the world that'll get her to back down.
    Yep, Salome is following the trail the watch gives off with a pretty intent focus.

Anna nods along with the explanation. "Destroying them is something I can do, as long as we don't need too much precision," she says. And then Justine's words catch up with her. "Your mother did what!?" And then she immediately shakes her head. "Ugh, y'know what, I'm just ... not gonna go down that rabbit hole, jeez."

She waits for more people to arrive. "So how fast will we have to run when we destroy the boilers?" she asks. "I mean, I'm fast, but I wouldn't be able to carry more than one person."

    Magilou's message gets a cracklee of a response. "Say again? Exorcist? We'll try to have one ready!" Seems like they're used to weirdos taking control of this sort of situation! The captain keeps gesturing like he's taking the radio, caught in his loop again. Strong enough to keep him from being yanked into the boiler at least?

    Justine glances at the people gathering, and then... "Well it shouldn't sink again that fast, so we can probably just make a brisk pace," she says. Then she realizes why the question was asked. "Oh. No, they won't explode, at least not in a way that will blast the ship apart. It might be a little painful for the supernaturally sensitive, but we should probably try to get all the boilers at once. I'll leave that to you guys."

    

    That's something at least. Magilou will rather reassuringly pat the air in the captain's direction. "Don't worry! We'll send you off to oblivion soon enough. Or whatever it is that's coming for you." And then she'll head back down the stairs, planning on informing everyone in a helpful and normal way.

    Bienfu will just enjoy Holly's company for now. At least, right up until the other witch grabs him by the leg, almost seeming to come from nowhere. "What kind of a servant runs just because of one little tiny ghost with half a head and blood running down and a thirst for vengence against everyone on his ship, Bienfu? I'm very disappointed in you. What's going on, everyone?"

"I would never leave Servis and Lavaux behind! We're all friends! Oh, she's okay! You're not possessed or anything right?" The two ghosts do their best to look nonchalant. "Sorry Bienfu, but I think Ms. Jesterwitch wants her familar back." Holly never got Magilou's name so she's not quite sure what to call her. She cringes a bit as she gets closer to the boilers. "Yes, why don't I feel so great all of a sudden..."

Anna nods at the approaching others. "Okay," she says. "Like Miss Justine said ... for best results, we need to smash all of the boilers at once, and then we can make our dramatic exit!" She turns to the boilers, and starts gathering Heart Power into her hands. It's also quite clear that it's shaking in her hands; she's still less-than-experienced controlling it. "Yyyyyeah ... Uhh ..."

And then the shaking stops. Mostly. She's not that inexperienced, it looks like. "Okay, whew!" She shakes her head. "I'm ready when everyone else is!"

    So the boilers all need to be destroyed at once.
    There's just a slight problem.
    Salome isn't in the boiler room. The watch she was holding? It's on the floor.
    Where could she have gone?

    It doesn't take long for Dante to be summoned. "Is there demons?!" He asks with some alarm, hoping there's something to shoot. When he's directed to the boilers, he almost looks disappointed as he draws Ebony and fires a few times. "Jeez, this place is giving me the willies. I'd be less scared if we *had* any monsters to kill."

    "I'll handle the other one," Justine says to everyone. "Yeah... this place is giving ME the creeps. I think it's all the emotion sunk into it. This place is steeped with it. I could..." She shakes her head. Even she has standards, and turning the Titanic into a monstrous final boss would be awesome, but rather disrespectful of the dead.

    Instead, Justine flicks her clockwork fingers, some of the debris lifting up and swirling to form a vague shape. The sharpened remnants thrust into one boiler while Dante is blasting another, letting the other girls and witches assault the other two. Four boilers, all now howling as the ghosts are released and swirling about, many swarming out toward Europa and perahps rest.

    The boilers DO explode, but only in the burst of fire way that makes them fall over. What does happen is the ship starts to list as the green glow fades. "Oh right, the keel is damaged. I guess we'll need to run a /little/ to get out."

    Magilou will kindly let everyone else blow up the boilers, letting them feel the thrill of hard work. "Oh, running? That is the usual way for a witch to make an exit, I'm afraid." She's been chased out of all the best cities and hotels. She won't hesitate as Justine makes it clear that they're going to need to speed up to make it clear, trying her best to ignore those psychic backlash effects.

    She's good at it. Broken emotions aren't that easy to play with, after all, no matter the level of despair.

    "I did tell them there might be explosions, but I didn't warn them about a horde of ghosts!" She'll call over to Justine.

    KABOOM!

    Despite near tanking a blast ot the face, Dante doesn't look too affected. He does brush soot from his coat, as he watches the ghosts float away. "Adios, fellas. Sorry you had to be stuck like this..." He says, waving goodbye. "We better get going before we join 'em." He concurs with Justine, clapping on the back as he heads on out where he hopped aboard.

Of course Holly could just punch the boilers but that wouldn't be too magical now would it. She points her staff at the boiler and tries tosummon an exploding jack-o'-lantern. Instead an ordinary christmas ornament falls down into one of the boilers instead. Maybe she'll get lucky and it'll jam something important? At this point she's a bit green and not in a stereotypical with sort of way.

    Meanwhile, elsewhere aboard the Titanic... While the others are dealing with the boilers, Salome is...
    In the engine room.
    "You sure this is a good idea, Sally?"
    "Of course it is, my ideas are always good ideas." The witch replies to her cat as she slowly draws an ornate revolver from the folds of her duster. "If I just put a bullet into the engine and give it some juice we can fly right out of here with it."
    "I'm not sure that's how engines work." Pierce counters his master, who simply tuts at him.
    "A spell bullet not an ordinary one, furball."
    "Oh that makes more sense." The cat relents as the elf gives Baba Yaga's cylinder a spin and stuffs the barrel into an intake port...
    The others may or may not feel the explosion from the other room as they tend to the boilers, when she pulls the trigger.

>> SUMMARY[Salome] >> ELSEWHERE, AT THE LEGION OF DOOM...

"HA!" Anna finally fires the orb of heart power she was carrying, smashing through any surviving boiler-ness. She winces as the ghosts start swarming out and the entire ship begins listing. "Okay, do we stroll away with our back to the explosion, or --"

And then there's an actual explosion elsewhere. "-- or run like hell!?" she says, clearly more enthusiastic for this second option.

    "THAT WASN'T EXPECTED!" Justine shouts, right after Dante claps her on the back. The second explosion is in fact the engine, for the arcanotech flight, tearing itself out of the moorings and blasting through the back of the stern, right out of the hull. "Guess this wreck is... oh no... WE NEED TO MOVE NOW!"

    Looks like there IS a reason to get out fast. But is it a rumbling explosion that is destroying the ship? No, it's instead a lightness of the step, a vertigo induced as something alters fundamentally about the ship that is now breaking apart in every direction. It's a good thing that the nearby ship they came in on isn't far... because Justine explains in a shout as she takes to the air, "That was the main engine! We've lost gravity!"

    Whoops.

Anna boggles as she starts flying, but not under her own power! "Right," she says firmly. "Anyone need help getting the hell out of here? I can carry, like, one person at a time, but without gravity holding us down it should be basically a snap to get out of here!" Anna isn't sure how whether the laws of physics work differently in this world, but her gut tells her it will be cumbersome to change direction ...

    Magilou is advantaged in the sudden urgent need to flee by having started to flee before it became a real necessity. As such, even though she doesn't have that many magical methods of movement handy, she's able to clear the deck quickly enough, pausing near the side of the sinking ship to fling Bienfu in advance of herself towards the boat they'd come in on.

    This is for a vitally important role in her escape; the witch herself will follow soon after, landing atop the tiny malak to break her landing from being too rough. He's using magic to do it, of course, without being crushed, but it still manages to look unbelievably cruel and unnecessary. Which is rather the point.

Holly's feeling a bit better now but getting off the ship will pose a bit of a challenge, she's strong but not fast. Maybe she can slam into objects until she lands in the general direction of the ship. It shouldn't hurt too much unless she gets caught in the explosion. Suddenly Lavaux climbs inside the witch and she starts floating smashing through everything in her path.

    Annnd the engine came off the moorings.
    Annnnnd the engine tears off the hull.
    Annnnnnnnnnnd Sally is blown out into space.
    Spiralling end over end, head over heels, our of control for a moment, the witch just holds her hat into place, while a yowling cat Familiar clings to her for dear life.
    Before her hat spits out her broom and she mounts it side-saddle.
    "Mimsy. Rope please."
    "Blehhhh!" The hat replies as it spits up a large quantity of rope, which she starts tying to tether herself and her broom to the engine.
    If anyone looks out a window...
    Well, they'll catch Salome Highscribe waving goodbye rather cheerfully as se flies off on her broom.
    ... With the ship's engine in tow.
    "Yeehaw~."

>> SUMMARY[Salome] >> BYE

    Dante, lacking options of flight, is quick to approach Anna. "Might wanna make this quick, or we're not going anywhere." He says, grabbing onto her. Frankly, he looks ridiculous clinging to Anna like this, but it beats dying by space.

Anna blinks, and nods. "The two of us it is, then!" she says. Weighted down by Dante, it is indeed a bit cumbersome, but once she gets going, moving in a straight line isn't a problem, and they're soon boosting back to the boat.