Pirates! RP for ambitious_woman

[rude_not_ginger]

Italy is the most beautiful country in Europe as well as the weakest. France is invincible when attacked on its own territory. My country doesn’t like the sea so the fleet won’t be powerful.

Reinette had said that, or she would say that in one of her letters, historically. France's Navy was far from powerful, and that was well known. They weren't an attacking nation, not since Napoleon. A navy wasn't necessary.

Which was, of course, why this small but very direct pirate ship decided to attack the wealthy-looking French vessel sailing from England back to France. The captain and sailors were more concerned for the large chunks of ice and the falling snow than the possibility of pirates in English waters. And then, there they were.

The commotion caused by the attack woke the Doctor, who had been snoozing over the captain's logs, and by the time he had his senses about him, he was huddled on deck in a fur coat that was two sizes too big with the rest of the male crewmembers. He didn't know where the females were, and therefore didn't know where Reinette was.

He remembered studying pirates in his youth. He was terrified for her safety. Even if they believed her ransomable, they might not be so delicate with her in the voyage back to France.

Snow fell in his lengthening hair, and he bundled himself tighter against the spray of the icy sea water. The pirates appeared to be searching for treasure and staying warm below, while the crew they kept alive froze on deck.

Comments

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"There are several barrels of both in the hold," Reinette offered. Accustomed to running several households, it seemed she was running their cargo as well. "They are all excellent vintages. It will be wasted on them, I fear."

There was a great deal of merit to this plan.

"I worry about getting them to deck quietly. They are not the -- sturdiest of creatures." And not her normal sort of company. "Though I regretted leaving them alone. It was difficult to do so."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"One of us could take him to the wine. You, as you know where it is. I'm a Doctor. I can get the women up, saying I need to tend to a wound, or I need a nurse of some sort. I'll figure something out. Once they're up and they have their wine, we advance."

He didn't want to have to leave Reinette so out in the open, but what other option did they have? It would have to do, and they could do it. He had faith in her acting, if not in his own.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Reinette all but stilled completely as she considered their options. It was not what she would prefer, but it was action. And to that end, she embraced it.

She nodded firmly. Perhaps a bit too firmly, dandy that she was intended to be.

"I can do that." Something bothered her, however. It was not that she had no father in her Doctor. Rather, that she had none in the pirates. "You -- need to prepare yourself that they might not let you near the women. Health or no, they most likely will not care."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"How would we get them on deck, then? No distraction would be fast enough to get them on deck and the others downstairs. Not without the chance of them being injured or someone dying."

The casualties had been few, but each one the Doctor noted. Most importantly was that of the captain. They were leaderless, save for the Doctor and Reinette.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"I am not saying you should not try," Reinette urged. "Merely that -- you might fail." She sighed. "And that they will most likely cry as well."

Something Reinette herself had little time for.

Her own decision was made.

"I should go now. There is no reason to waste anymore time."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Yes, that...just be...careful, please."

He looked behind him at the guard. While she was within, perhaps he would follow, and the Doctor could wander downstairs to fetch the women. Crying women. Brilliant. He'd be better off with rabid squirrels.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

While there was a temptation to linger, Reinette could see no strong reason to. There would be time for lingering after, she was sure.

"When am I not," she tossed flippantly, preferring that neither answer that question as she turned to approach the guard. He all but towered over her, but that did not impact her performance.

"It is frightfully cold out here," Reientte challenged. "You do think if I showed you where the captain hid the real alcohol, I could engourage you to learn meaning of the word share? Warm us both?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor took a breath.

"Coward," he spat in Reinette's direction, "Next thing you know you'll be tossing the women up here so you can share their room because it's warmest."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"The women you say?" All courtly accents and elegant drawl. "At least I know what to do with one?" There was a moment when Reinette took life and role into her hands as she acted as comrade and elbowed the guard in the ribs, as if to share in the joke. She breathed. Then breathed again. So far, all was well.

"You should see how he pranced about this ship the past few weeks. He nearly is a women. If you as me -- and you should ask me -- you should be keeping him with them. There is hardly any difference, after all."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The pirate seemed to think that Reinette's dandy was rather amusing, and he guffawed on the suggestion with another mate. It was reasonable, the Doctor supposed, considering he had tried to talk his way out of the situation and had frustrated this pirate already to the point of punching him.

At least his Time Lord physiology had kept him from bruising badly enough for Reinette to see.

"Oh, that's rich. Fluffy little dandy like you?"

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"Fluffy?" Eyes narrowed. "At least I will not blow away in a stuff wind. I may lead the maids on a merry dance?" Something about her own words charged Reinette -- encouraged her to move forward with their plan. "But I know the steps when it counts."

Between her and the Doctor. For the Doctor. If that could pass unnoticed, then surely an escape might as well?

"You should toss him in with the other women. See which is the prettiest."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The pirate agreed, and the Doctor found his arm grabbed, and himself all but flung downstairs into the room with the women. The door was slammed in his face, with a few words about dressing like the ladies.

Wonderful. This was not what he'd intended, but it at least left him in the room. Reinette was far more charasmatic than he.

The women left in the room looked particularly broken. One of them had several bite marks on her shoulders, and she clutched at her dress as if worried he might follow suit.

"It's all right," he promised, "I'm the Doctor. I'm going to help you."

Just outside the small window in the room was an expanse of icy water. Above them lay the deck. He grasped a metal nail file and pried open the glass on the window.

"This way," he said, "We can climb. Don't be afraid."

The women were, of course. He offered them trousers and turned his back so they could change into appropriate climbing outfits. They cried and moaned and worried that they looked bad. It was pathetic.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Even as the Doctor was being hauled away, she felt a firm hand shove at her back. Again, she checked the security of her had. It seemed they wanted her to move as well. She understood the message.

Down she lead them, past cabins and crews' quarters, hammocks swinging. Down past the galley to the deepest part of the hold. Several barrels were there, tucked away behind the flour.

A firm hand grasped her shoulder, she shoved her so that Reinette sprawled onto the floor. Several of their captors joined her.

Were they -- they intended to share a drink.

The guard gestured, grunted. She translated roughly -- she was to be funny again?

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

He worried over Reinette. Oh, but she was probably fine. Doing much better than these little girls were. Their perfectly manicured hands couldn't quite fit into the slats on the side of the ship, and they most certainly could not handle the icy water splashing up against them. He had to all but shove them up the side of the boat to the deck. One of the women lost her grip and nearly fell into the water below, but the Doctor managed to catch her wrist and pull her back up onto his back.

When they finally reached the top, the women fell forward with exhaustion, and the Doctor crept over to where the guard was watching the crew. They were playing dice, it appeared, while the others drank below. Where was Reinette?

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

The drinking continued for a good half hour or more, though Reinette would be the first to admit she struggled to say for sure just how much time had passed. Though she normally had as excellent sense of it -- too many years literally watching it pass by -- now there were more critical things to focus on.

She continued her witty attack as best she could, keeping them distracted and amused so that the Doctor might free the other captives. But it was a fine line between what might be made fun of, and what were the more sensative pirate parts.

It continued on until one, then two, then three of the men declared her no longer amusing. (Or something with less syllables.) Reinette rather suspected they no longer wished to share their alcohol.

Again she felt herself shoved up, up, and towards the deck and the cold once more. Two hands were firm at her back, and she was shoved with an almost brute force towards the deck. Not for an upset, the thought, but because the pirates seemed to think it was their turn to be funny. They opted for physical humor, and people falling down.

Which Reinette would have accepted as well and could, until her fall, combined with another gust of winter wind, separated her from her hat. She felt her hair tumble free.

This was not part of the plan.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

Merde. Reinette's game was up.

The Doctor pulled a loose board free, and swung it towards the head of one of the stunned pirates. He cried out, and tumbed backwards down the stairs. The others turned to face him, stunned by his miraculous reappearance. Wasn't he downstairs? How did he get upstairs? Why was he all wet?

Enough of a chance for the Doctor to pull a sword off of the door and slide it across the deck towards Reinette. She was a far more skilled swordsman than he, and he hated weapons.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

The Doctor had been complaining about that loose board on the deck their entire journey. And again and again she had attempted to explain to him that the captain would not take kindly to his repairing it, for as much as she allowed him carte blanche at home.

The booming crack of board to flash unfroze her, where Reinette was still just as startled as the pirates by her hair's sudden appearance. A sword skittered towards her and she caught it, even as two of the men lunged towards her, neither with an especially pleasant look in their eyes. In response she cut a wide arc with her weapon.

"I assure you I do know how to use this."

With one hand she urged the Doctor to keep moving, and to get the other women to safety.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor circled around, so that they could be in a more offensive position. The men on top had swords, but the one downstairs had guns, and they would be arriving with the loud noises that were being made.

"Downstairs," he ordered, "Go!"

They stayed frozen in place, looking quite angry and vicious.

"Oh, you order them, Reinette. You're much better at that than I am."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

In their sobriety they held slight advantage. Not because the pirates were any less dangerous, but because at least now the struggled to hold their ground.

"They did do everything I wished for before, it seems," Reinette advanced, engaging in sword play with the shortest, burliest man. He was not properly trained, but life skill was evident. "How does it feel, knowing you were ordered about by a woman?"

Inch by inch she advanced forward. Only once did her attacker's blade find her coat. Each attack was countered.

"You heard the gentleman. Downstairs."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The man before the Doctor made several attacks with his blade, but the Doctor was exceptionally skilled in defense, even with a wooden board. He blocked the attacks, and the two of them gained ground.

The rest of the French crew, who had been sitting idly before, stood behind them, suddenly realizing they might well win this. Cowards. This was the reason why the Doctor chose company with Reinette over any of them. She was brave.

"Come, come, now we don't have all day." There was a scurry of noise downstairs, and the Doctor swung out, thwacking the man before him with the board, and setting him to tumbling into another pirate. Both fell down the stairs. Hopefully slowing any advancing assistance.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

"That might have broken something," Reinette commented on the Doctor's strike, encouraging her lone, remaining attacker towards the stairs.

"Not that I mind, of course."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Well, there's plenty of medical supplies down there, aren't there?" the Doctor replied, "Though against a gun wound, I couldn't say. They won't wait for you to move, if the door's open," he said to the pirate. "They'll just shoot through you. Step back, let me shut the door."

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Her own man half fell towards the stairwell as her sword caught his arm, drawing blood. As if to affirm the Doctor's threats, a gunshot sounding. Somehow it narrowly missed them all, cutting a hot path as it traveled up, and out.

"Thank you for your cooperation."

With that Reinette slammer the door shut, pausing to lean against it and catch her breath.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The danger wasn't over yet. The Doctor roughly---rougher than he'd meant to---pulled her away from the door.

"Bullets can go through that wood," he warned, and he pushed the board he'd been brandishing as a weapon against the door, securing it to either side with the very last reserved energy in his sonic screwdriver. The last nail slid into place just as the final reserves sputtered and died.

At least it had those reserves when he needed it.

He turned to one of the other French crewmembers, "There's an open window on the starboard side, there. Make sure none of them get the bright idea to climb up!"

He then turned to Reinette. His initial reaction was to ask if she was okay. It was, of course, overturned by his initial initial reaction, which blurted out: "You were brilliant!"

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

He was right, of course, and briefly Reinette chastised herself for her own foolishness. The door was not where she should have taken to resting -- no matter how she needed to catch her breath.


Focusing on just that -- breathing -- Reinette willingly yielded control for the moment, allowing the Doctor to bark orders. A a part of her argued there was no time for compliments. A part of her, however, basked in his praise.

Her own smile flared bright.

"I was at that."