Time passes much more quickly in Rohandor and many long and happy years have gone by since the characters retired to enjoy their respective 'happily ever afters,' their greatest foes were imprisoned in the Forever Stone, bound in an eternal sleep. Until Now.
Happily Ever Afters takes place in Rohandor, a mystical realm on another plane of existence from our own. Here our favorite Disney heroes and villains live in a world all their own; Alive, but far from well. Heroes and heroines fight to keep peace while newly freed villains seek their revenge. Come join us in an epic adventure as the characters you love clash in a struggle that will determine the fate of Rohandor!
HEA is an AU canon-only animated crossover Disney Play-By-Post Role Play with minimal word count.
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4/24/21: We've been on hiatus for a number of years now. I don't know that I'm entirely ready to return BUT I have been cleaning up the site and working to update everything since a number of movies have released. There is still A LOT of work to do but if you see this update and were an active member of the site prior to the hiatus, please send the Yen Sid account a DM to let me know you're still interested in playing and if you wish to retain your current roster. I hope you've all been doing well and staying safe!
Happily Ever Afters is a play-by-post forum role playing game based on the movies and television series of Disney and Pixar. It was created for recreational and entertainment purposes only and not intended to step on any toes, offend, or infringe. We did not create nor do we own the content from the Disney and Pixar stories and movies. None of the threads and writing on this forum is associated or affiliated with Disney/Pixar in any way. We do not make any money off of this site or its content. The icons used in the Forum Information & Statistics and those like it throughout the board as well as the BBC buttons and smileys were taken from a layout called Absolute Madness made by PookyTart from Userbar Depot. All of the other graphics used on this board were found, created, or otherwise edited by Yen Sid or Te Fiti. Please don't steal or use any graphic from this board without explicit permission. All storylines and plots used in the threads/topics were created by the staff and members of HEA and should not be copied or used on another board without permission.
For it is plain as anyone can see. We're simply meant to be.
Post by Sally on Aug 8, 2017 8:53:25 GMT -5
Participating Characters:Sally and Moana Forum Location: The Ocean, Other Locations Time of Day: Mid-morning Weather: Overcast, but no rain Thread Location: The open ocean Premise: Sally got whisked out to sea on a raft... and she can't swim!
Sally knelt on the shore of a particular lake. Her small, delicate hands nimbly wound leather thongs about rows of sturdy sticks, binding them in a flat, buoyant square. The particular lake that Sally had come to that morning wasn't the more central, broader, deeper one that was located nearer to Halloween Town proper. No, it was further and higher in the forests in quite the opposite direction from the holiday crossroads.
Once upon a time she hardly left the confines of the downtown area of the land of Halloween. Since escaping Finkelstein, however, Sally's adventurous, restless spirit had lead to her wandering much of the lands. That's how she found this lake in the first place. She finished tying off another thong and paused to admire her work.
Sally's eyes flitted up to what spawned the need to fashion a makeshift raft in the first place. Located on a small isle in the heart of the lake was a mound of flowers with black petals that were extremely rare to come by in Halloween Town. Sally hoped to take some clippings and raise her own strand of them back in her garden behind her boutique in town.
One of the downsides of being made of thread and stuffed with leaves meant that swimming was kind of impossible. Sally would come apart and her filling would wash away. She wondered if she'd float, even? Maybe asking a more amphibian denizen of Halloween Town would've been wiser, but Sally was determined, and wisdom occasionally left her when her will was firm.
The ragdoll pushed her raft into the water and frowned, waiting to see if it floated. When it did, Sally reached out a foot and tested it, seeing if the thing would hold her weight. Fortunately, she didn't weigh that much, being full of dry leaves. Smiling, Sally cautiously inched onto the raft, kneeling, and got into its very center. Lastly she grabbed a long stick carefully found and chosen and began pushing it against the bottom of the little lake to send her raft forward.
Everything was going well until halfway to her destination. Sally's look of concentration was interrupted by confusion, because her raft was suddenly listing to the left, away from the isle. She tried to correct it with a jab of her stick, but rather than help, the thing snapped promptly in two. Sally gasped, because now the raft was gaining speed and momentum. She noticed only then faint ripples in the water that spoke of an undercurrent.
Large, round eyes looked ahead, following the vague lines to where and why the water was being diverted. "Oh, no!" she said. Sally tried to paddle with her hands - to do anything - to send the raft away from a shallow cave mouth that it was being drawn toward. Nothing worked, however, and soon the cave swallowed her up, leaving nothing but a yelled, "Help!" that was cut strangely off once Sally vanished into the darkness of the cavern.
Moana's sailboat rocked beneath her feet as it was gently lifted over a rolling wave, carrying her toward an island's sandy shores. The sun beat down on the drua, and a soft breeze caused it's white sail to ripple softly, mirroring the motions of the sea itself. There could not have been a finer day for sailing; there was no inclement weather in sight, no dark clouds on the horizon, or indeed cloud at all. Even Pua, who sat nestled between the young girl's thighs as she operated the craft's rudder, looked calmer than usual, and he hated the open water.
The land they travelled toward was a small one – a little green oasis surrounded by blue. Having sailed around it ore than once, Moana had already learnt its layout. It was small – likely far too small to support a civilization – and from what she'd seen, it was completely uninhabited but for birds and tree-dwelling creatures that hung listlessly from branches. It was thus the perfect place to explore – and even though it wasn't large enough to host the people of Motunui, it may well have contained resources they could use.
As the sea's current shifted slightly, Moana changed the lay of her sails to correct her course, aiming to land as centrally as she could on the white stretch of sand ahead of her. That was, until, she heard a strange sound, carried on the wind that filled her sails. The fabric seemed to trap it, make it more audible, and though it was incredibly distant, the Motunui native found her ears pricked. Blinking, she shuffled her pig forward from between her legs, and slowly rose to stand. “Did you hear that?”
Neither animal answered in the affirmative. Heihei the Rooster, whose head poked out the top of a create, just stared blankly at the ship's captain. Pua, on the other hand, ignored the question completely, just hoping to reach land and indeed, safety. “There was definitely a noise...it sounded like a voice,” Moana continued, looking about her for the source, though she could see nothing obvious.
There was, of course, the chance she was imagining it. The wind did funny things when it passed through rocks and trees, and had no doubt tricked many a sailor. Shaking her head, she was about to return to her rudder when the noise came again, louder than before. It echoed about her wooden craft, and made her eyes go wide. It was a single word: 'help.' Not even Pua could ignore that, and his reaction told her it wasn't her imagination. Someone, somewhere, was in trouble.
Rushing back to the position she had been sat in previously, Moana yanked her rudder hard to one side, adjusting the sails to take her away from the isle, using her oars to help beat the natural drag of the sea. Once she was certain she was skirting land, rather than heading toward it, she craned her neck and peered around her, looking for something – anything – that would tell her where the troubled other would be. Moana had never been one to ignore another's cry for help.
But as minutes dragged on, she was still unable to pin-point the sound's origin. “Where are you?” she said softly, to herself, before her rooster squawked rather indignantly, turning his head, as if pointing with his beak. It took Moana a moment to realise the bird was directing her – gesturing toward a dark opening hidden by rocks – cut into the island's side. “A cave...” she whispered to herself, staring at the yawning portal, through which little light seemed to escape.
“Well done, Heihei,” though knowing the bird as she did, it was likely to be accidental guidance – proved seconds later when he pointed his beak back out to sea, and repeated his cawing and gesturing in the opposite direction. Usually, she would have laughed, but Moana was far too focused on what she'd decided was their new destination. After all, it would explain the sound's echo.
Guiding her craft toward it, Moana stopped at the cave's mouth, using an oar to prevent her ship being carried by the current into the deeper darkness beyond. Raising a hand to her mouth and cupping it, she shouted into the gloom. “Hello?” Her voice reverberated off rocks, making it sound as though there were a hundred of her. If anyone was trapped in the cave and needed aid – they most certainly would have heard her call.
For it is plain as anyone can see. We're simply meant to be.
Post by Sally on Aug 9, 2017 8:55:42 GMT -5
Sally strove to remain calm when the edges of the cave parted around her. The current was too strong and she had no recourse, just then. She was still susceptible to falling apart when wet, and even if she jumped overboard the current would just whisk her away. Resigned to these facts, though anxiety gripped her chest, Sally gripped onto the sticks of the raft and held tightly. She didn't know what the cavern held, but the water being sucked in by it wasn't reassuring.
Eyes used to the gloom and smog of Halloween Town adjusted quickly to the relative dark of the cave, even as its entrance was lost behind her. Sally bit her bottom lip. Her brows knit in a frown and the water carried her continually forward. Twenty feet in she felt it. The shift in atmosphere was as sudden and perceptible as stepping out into a chill, dank night from a warm, dry home. "Oh, dear," Sally fretted softly in a voice pitched higher than normal with panic.
That could only mean that she'd passed out of Halloween Town from one of its many outlets to the world beyond. Outlets discouraged from use except on Halloween night. Outlets that were finicky and most of the time didn't work on any night but the town's namesake. Light shimmered and bloomed ahead of Sally and if she wasn't a ragdoll the building heat and humidity would've been stifling in comparison to the crisp lakeside weather she'd just been in.
Sally squinted against the gathering glare - gold, vibrant, healthy light in contrast to Halloween Town's normally pale, leering Jack-O'-Lantern sun. Then a voice rebounded down the rest of the cave toward her. The thoughts of a stranger, or possibly interacting with a mortal outside of Halloween night couldn't begin to puncture the overlaying hope that hearing that voice created. That voice meant someone was on the other side, and that meant help!
"Yes!" Sally called back. "Hello! I'm stuck," she tried to explain. The raft jostled in an eddy and she fell forward a bit. Grunting Sally winced and held on tighter. "I'm stuck on a raft." Then the water seemed to surge and she was dislodged from the cave mouth into an entirely new world, and onto water that stretched to the horizon. Sally drew up an arm to screen the blinding sunlight and said, desperate, "Please, can you help me? I can't swim."
Moana listened carefully as her voice continued to reverberate about the cave's mouth, bouncing off rocks and returning to her, distorted. At first, there was no reply – just her own call echoing in the gloom. However, she was a persistent young girl, and she was certain the watery cavern she waited at had been the source of the initial distress call. Thus, re-cupping her hands about her mouth, she tried again – louder than before, elongating the word so it was less likely to be missed. “Heeelllllooooooo?”
That second time, the reply was almost instantaneous: a high pitched and frantic 'Yes!'. With a little gasp – a noise that was a unique blend between surprise and success – Moana leaned forward, closer to the hollow, as if to better hear the person speaking within, her wild hair dangling just above the lapping waves. Whoever needed aid was stuck on a raft, and before the native of Motonui could ask anything about said raft, it was disgorged from the darkness, carried by the sea's current.
Freezing for a moment, Moana's eyes went wide as she saw the simple raft's pilot: a pale, sack-skinned woman, covered stitches. She looked akin to a life-size doll, the sort some children in the tribe played with. Was she like the Kakamora, a strange creature that outfitted itself in rags rather than coconuts? Or was she something else, something enchanted from Lalotai? Were she a human, she was most certainly a sickly one.
However, Moana didn't have time to consider the possibilities of the sailor's origin; she was trapped on a square of rather flimsy looking wood, and couldn't swim. “I can help! Just...give me one minute! Stay as close to the middle of your raft as you can!” It would, in theory, help prevent it from over-turning. With her advice given, the chief of Motonui turned on her heel and ran to the hold of her canoe, and started pulling from it various items she might require on any given rescue mission. At her side, she stock piled a length of rope, a spare oar and a few buoyant wooden orbs – the only extra items bar food she really carried with her.
Then, she slung the rope over her shoulder, lifted the oar under her arm, and moved back toward the front of her vessel. Taking one end of the rope, she tied it around her spare oar, and then hurled the other end toward the raft, hoping to get it as close to the strange looking woman as she could. “Tie it to your boat! I'll use it to pull you closer!” She could have paddled her drua further into the cave's mouth, but doing so ran the risk of shunting and capsizing the smaller craft. It was far safer to keep hers anchored, and reel the raft in.
For it is plain as anyone can see. We're simply meant to be.
Post by Sally on Aug 10, 2017 8:09:14 GMT -5
The pure, unfiltered sun was dazzling and disorienting. Sally had only experienced it once or twice in her life. Halloween Town had its own version of the sun that was much different, and mostly whenever she ventured beyond it, it was Halloween night so there was no mortal sun to speak of. Blinking rapidly, squinting around her lifted arm, Sally's ears found the direction of the voice that'd been talking to her. Her eyes fastened on a nearby ship of some sort and a human girl with chocolate skin therein.
Sally was still primarily worried about getting to safety, but the practical part of her brain reminded her that she was a ragdoll monster. It was her job to help terrorize humans on Halloween, and so she was probably a very disconcerting - maybe even unnerving or scary - sight to behold. Sally hoped that her outlandish (by mortal standards) appearance wouldn't make the girl hesitant to help her, and that quiet worry was quickly put to rest when the stranger called out that she could help.
"All right," Sally answered when instructed to wait in the middle of her raft. The thing hit another ridge in the water and jostled. Sally had to drop the arm used to shade her so that she could use it to hang tight as water sloshed up over the side of the sticks. She closed her eyes tightly, wincing while she waited. Once the raft resettled Sally chanced a look at the nearby boat. The girl on it had knotted a rope to the end of an oar and, with a snap of her arm, sent the line through the air to hit the water just beside the raft.
The ragdoll woman reached out with one hand. Thankfully her limbs were inhumanly long and slender, allowing her to grab the end of the rope without leaving where she was, knelt in the middle of the raft. Sally wound the line around both hands to better anchor it and then looked up at the girl again. "I'm ready!"
Moana watched the strange looking woman on the raft with wide eyes as the thrown rope slapped against the ocean's surface, landing just next to the rather make-shift vessel. Biting her lip, as the throw wasn't quite as accurate as she'd hoped, the chieftain of Motonui was all but ready to reel the rope back in, when the sack-clothed red-head reached out an impossibly long arm, and plucked the line from the water. Ever better – the tiny craft was only slightly jostled by the movement, and though small waves lapped over its edges, it wasn't enough to unseat the trapped sailor.
In moments, the rag doll had wrapped the rope around both her hands and clung to it – a literal lifeline in the open ocean. 'I'm ready!' she shouted over, and Moana nodded, moving the oar she held to rest on the floor of her drua – it's weight providing an anchor for the line. “I'm going to start bringing you in! Just...try to stay central!” Biting her lip in concentration, the young girl began turning the oar where it lay. Each turn shortened the rope a little, and the applied weight of the wood atop it stopped the pull of the sea from loosening it.
It was a slow process, but it was the safest way that Moana could think to draw the raft close. With a few more turns of the oar, she looked up to check the small vessel's progress, hoping that it's occupant had coped with the slow movement, and hadn't slid closer to the water. Satisfied that she was still afloat, she continued her turning of her makeshift reel – until Pua starting snorting wildly, clearly distressed by something.
Turning toward him, Moana raised a brow. “Pua! She's in trouble!” she began, at first thinking he was disturbed by the woman's appearance and protesting her rescue. It took only a moment to realize his panic wasn't caused by the doll at all, but by a large, rolling swell of water that listlessly travelled toward them. It wasn't a storm or tidal wave, nothing of such magnitude, but it was more than enough to push the drua toward the cave and ragdoll – and it would hurl the tiny raft about with ease. Moana's eyes went wide.
“Uh...I'm going to try something that should work a little faster! Hold on!” She tried not to panic the woman, though it was hard to sound completely calm, and taking the rope in both hands, standing on the oar so it wouldn't slide, she started tugging – far firmer than before. It would indeed drag the raft in more quickly, but it also relied on the other woman keeping her balance, and not slipping and sliding upon the raft.
For it is plain as anyone can see. We're simply meant to be.
Post by Sally on Aug 11, 2017 7:05:52 GMT -5
The young stranger continued to call out instructions and Sally nodded to them. She was incredibly grateful for the help this human was offering, and tried her best to do as she was bid. Sally stayed knelt in the heart of her raft and found she was wishing she'd used more sticks, or broader ones. One voice in her head suggested "what if she had just left the flowers in the lake alone?" but the majority of Sally's stubborn mind shrugged the idea off.
She could get those flowers. She just need another chance.
While Sally maintained her balance on the raft - easier thanks to how low she was, thankfully, than if she'd been standing - her eyes played over the vessel she was being reeled toward. Sally hadn't seen anything like them before, not in Halloween Town, not in books she's read or scary stories she'd heard as lullabies when she was a newly-created monster.
During the ragdoll's visual assessment of her rescuer's ship, her overlarge eyes fell on a small creature that was snorting and squealing in distress. Sally was momentarily distracted from her own plight, worried instead about what was wrong with the poor thing. She saw it and the young woman look out toward the sea and Sally turned with them. Her bottom lip trembled when she saw the oncoming wave.
The wave drew nearer, its murmur growing to a soft purr and then a roar in seconds. Sally's eyes flitted back and forth from the boat to the wave, boat, wave, boat, wave... At the last second Sally sprang forward, making use of her extremely long figure to cover more distance than a human may have been able. The wave rushed over her raft the second her feet left it, breaking the loosely-bound stick sand swallowing them up. Sally landed on the ship of her rescuer and stumbled to her knees as it was knocked by the same wave.
"That was close," she whispered absently, trying to control her lingering anxiousness. Sally looked up to the human, more aware now that she could be a little... spooky, and smiled in a tentative sort of way. "Thank you so much. I don't know what I would have done-" she trailed off, looking out to the water, where the smashed remains of the raft floated like flotsam. Sally knew very well what would've happened without this young human girl, and the thought made her swallow loudly.
Moana used all the strength she could muster to pull the little raft toward her much larger drua, praying that her efforts didn't just tug the cross-stitched woman from her vessel and into the water. Within moments, the force required to pull the stick-built craft lessened, the backwash before the wave aiding slightly – though the young sailor knew all too well it heralded the coming of a tidal surge. As she felt her canoe bank sharply, the swell of the rolling sea lifting her transport, she tugged as hard as she could – as the rag doll woman leapt.
Tall, thin and light-weight, the strange looking red-head crossed the distance between the two ships – and only just in time. Seconds after her feet left her raft, the wave took it, hurling it against the rocks of the cave's entrance, splintering the branches it was made from. Both Moana and the rag doll stumbled, falling on their knees as her drua rocked in the surge's aftermath, Pua sliding down the ship a little, snorting.
It was only when the craft finally levelled and stilled that Moana realised she was holding her breath, and letting it out in a soft gasp, she looked up from where she was downed – on her hands and knees – a few feet away from the rescued woman in sack-cloth clothing. She too glanced up, regarding the young chieftain with huge eyes, and offered a smile. It was an expression Moana almost instantly returned, and another sigh left her – relief washing over her.
“I'm just glad I could help,” responded the young girl at length, her former urgency gone. Dropping back onto her rear, she sat with her back resting against her sail's mast. Her large, brown eyes came to rest on her new passenger, and she looked at her for a long moment, then began a customary introduction. “My name is-” The girl was cut off when she noted a colourful patch of feathers at the woman's side, beak hovering – ready to peck at what the rooster assumed was cloth; no doubt filled with feed.
“Heihei, no!” Scrambling forward from her seated position, Moana whisked the bird into her arms quickly, stuffing him in a one-armed hold beneath her arm pit, before grinning sheepishly. “My name is Moana, chieftain of Motonui...and this is Hiehei,” she finally finished, nodding her head at the rooster, who had affixed their passenger with a hungry stare. “Welcome onboard my canoe.”
For it is plain as anyone can see. We're simply meant to be.
Post by Sally on Aug 14, 2017 10:09:07 GMT -5
The girl slumped back on her rear, leaning in relief against the mast of the little ship that they were on. Sally, too, eased out of her kneeling position, letting her legs fold neatly to the side and beneath her. She reached up a hand and rested it on her chest, still lifting and falling more quickly than it usually did thanks to the lingering excitement from the danger a moment ago. There was some uncertainty that Sally detected in the girl's eyes, no doubt aimed at the ragdoll's appearance, but it didn't show in anything else she did or said.
In fact, the girl assured she was just happy she had been able to help. Sally traded a tenderhearted smile with her rescuer. The stranger just opened her mouth to start to introduce herself when surprise split her warm expression. Sally's eyes widened, she followed the girl's alarm to a rooster near her, whose head was falling down to peck at the hand that she was using to brace her weight against the wood of the ship's hull.
Sally gasped - at the girl's alarm as well as the rooster's intent - and snatched the hand out from under the diving beak to cover her mouth with. The girl snatched the feathered animal and stuffed him under one arm sternly. Sally's hand remained over her lips until the girl named herself Moana and gave herself the title of "chieftain" (though Sally didn't know what that meant or entailed, even if it sounded very impressive).
Drawing her fingers away finally, it was to reveal a gentle smile rather than any look of offense. "Hello Moana," her gaze drooped to the captured bird, "and Heihei. My name's Sally and it's very nice to meet you." The ragdoll glanced down at herself and the obvious stitching that held the components of her body together. "I'm sorry if I look a little... odd. I'm not from around here." Sally lips flicked upward at the edges, tiredly and dryly. "But I guess you knew that already."
Sally's attention was stolen by a snorting sound further along the canoe. "What's your name?" she asked kindly to the pig that was eyeing her skeptically, shooting fervent, almost nervous looks toward Moana.
Luckily, Moana's new passenger seemed unoffended by Heihei's attempt to eat her, smiling and offering a greeting, introducing herself as 'Sally.' Still, the young chieftain of Motonui glared at the rooster when their guest mentioned his name, though she knew it would make little difference to his dopey-eyed, hungry stare. The second she placed him back upon deck, he would return to the position from which he'd been forcibly removed, and attempt to peck once more. The adage 'he never learns' was, in Heihei's case, not so much an adage but entirely true.
Thus, the young woman kept him firmly affixed under her armpit, before looking back to the cross-stitched castaway she had managed to rescue, who explained the land she'd found herself in was not her own. Moana's eyes went wide with interest. Perhaps she was from Lalotai. However, she had chance to say little more before a snorting attracted both of their attentions, and the girl descended from voyagers quickly found herself turning her gaze on Pua, who was snorting nervously and staring at his friend for comfort.
Smiling warmly, Moana made her way toward the pig, and knelt at his side. Patting his head, she then scooted him a little toward their new acquaintance, pushing him across the wooden planks beneath his trotters. Though clearly nervous, the snorting stopped as his beloved companion was close, and he eyed Sally carefully. “This is Pua,” the little chieftain offered. “Unlike Heihei, who fears nothing...Pua is...cautious. Too cautious,” she chided lovingly, earning a few snuffling snorts of protest from the pig, who finally decided it safe to approach the ragdoll.
“Do you have animals like these where you come from?” Moana queried, using the adorable hog's newfound bravery to turn the conversation back to the odd doll and her origins. “Wherever that is...”
For it is plain as anyone can see. We're simply meant to be.
Post by Sally on Aug 23, 2017 8:04:43 GMT -5
Moana moved around Sally on the hull to the small piglet who looked so timid and perplexed. The chieftain introduced him as Pua and explained that, contrary to Heihei's total lack of fear, Pua perhaps had a little extra in that area. Sally tried to look kindly and as nonthreatening as possible while Pua made his judgment about her. Lifting one hand, she twiddled her small fingers at him in a wave.
With a not-so-little bit of urging from Moana, Pua grumpily edged closer, not losing any of his wariness while his snout wrinkled and quivered with each investigative snort. "I don't know of any pigs in Halloween Town," Sally said thoughtfully when Moana asked what sorts of animals were native to the ragdoll's home. "We mostly have bats and spiders and stray cats and things."
Sally glanced up from Pua with a small smile. "Oh, and rats! Some as long as my arm," she added brightly. When another wave knocked the canoe enough to send it rocking, Sally reached out to the nearest stable surface and clung to it fiercely. Until that point she'd been too apprehensive to ask a question laying heavy on her mind. The rocking strengthened Sally's anxiety enough, though, to get it out. "I hate to ask - you've already done so much - but is there any way we could possibly get to land?"
The ragdoll's round, frowning eyes darted to the nearby shore of the smallish island that the subterranean river that snatched her raft fed out of. "I can't really swim," she explained, hoping that that made the request less irritating. "I would come apart, you see." Sally gave an apologetic smile, her brows drawn together in a frown while she continued clinging to the canoe for support.
Moana's eyes widened as the woman listed off various creatures found in her home – a place known as 'Halloween Town'. Of those listed, the Motunui native had witnessed the ethereal, sinister grace of bats in flight, the silent and deadly steps of the spider and the hungry gleam of rats' eyes – though she'd never seen one as big as a human arm. Holding up her own forearm, she bit her lip, imagining the length suggested. “Rats can grow that big?” she queried, somewhat amazed, before dropping her hand back into her lap. “I've only ever seen smaller ones...no bigger than Pua.” While the young chieftain disliked no creature – for everything had its place – she couldn't help but think the idea of giant rats was a little unnerving, and wondered if the ragdoll's homeland had any animals that weren't the kind often found in children's nightmares.
She felt it rude to ask, though, especially given how Sally smiled at the mention of the giant rodents.
When another wave rocked the canoe, their red-haired passenger reached out and gripped the nearest surface as hard as she could. The sudden movement caused Pua to snort and scamper back toward Moana, who merely slid across the wooden deck upon her rear a little, used to the ebb and flow of the sea, and the movements it caused her drua to make.
As the craft steadied, Sally was quick to ask that they make their way toward land, casting furtive glances out toward the island Moana had been headed toward before hearing her cries for help. She suggested that she couldn't swim, and that should they somehow end up in the water, she would simply come apart. The young chieftain was quick to nod her agreement, smiling comfortingly as she stood. “I was headed toward the shore when I heard you,” she suggested – hoping it would help the ragdoll feel less guilty for asking. “It won't take long to sail around this rock formation. As long as we don't get too close, the waves shouldn't be too big.”
With that, the young sailor began adjusting the lay of her sail and pulling on the little craft's rudder, hoping the wind alone would be enough to carry them from the cave's mouth. If not, she would have to row. When she was sure it was, and the drua began along its chartered course, Moana cast a furtive glance at the stitched-up woman. “So...” the girl bit her lip a little, hoping the question she was about to ask wasn't too pointed, “If you can't swim...why were you at sea on such a tiny raft?”
For it is plain as anyone can see. We're simply meant to be.
Post by Sally on Aug 28, 2017 10:01:30 GMT -5
Still holding fast to the canoe in a bid to quiet the discomfort in her chest, Sally frowned through her anxiousness when Moana seemed doubtful that rats could get so large. She said she'd only seen ones, at their largest, the size of the little piglet, Pua. "Well, that's not very scary," the ragdoll said, as though this were all the logic in the world to explain that rats were, in fact, as big as Sally said in Halloween Town.
Rather than look hesitant or even annoyed by Sally's request to go to shore, Moana was eager to acquiesce and the ragdoll was deeply grateful for it. She even sighed in relief at how swiftly the young human girl moved to adjust ropes and sails and other components of her sea craft to get them on their way. "Thank you so much. Is there anything I can do to help?"
Sally was fearful of falling into the ocean, but she was more worried about inconveniencing Moana and dearly wanted to be of more use than she felt. When Moana reassured Sally that, before she'd found her, she'd been intending on landing on the island anyway, she felt fractionally less burdensome. With the deft skill that Sally made a stitch or ground ingredients for a potion with a mortar and pestle, Moana directed the canoe.
The ragdoll didn't relinquish the hold she had on the drua to brace herself. She watched the mouth of the cave that she'd exited roll away with a grimace, wondering how she would make it back to the thing. Getting on land was her biggest priority just then. Moana asked her a question tentatively, and Sally could detect the note of worry in it, like Moana was paranoid about offending her.
Sally laughed nervously. "Well, I wasn't at sea when I started. I was just getting across a shallow pond. Then my raft got pulled into this cave I didn't know about and spit me out here." The canoe carved through the water masterfully, gliding around the perilous rocks and toward a stretch of beach. Sally waited until the hull of the ship rocked against it underneath and then carefully jumped to the safety of dry land.
The ragdoll bent over, braced her hands on her knees and took several deep breaths to calm down from the tenseness the last few minutes had held. "There's nothing larger than the lake in Halloween Town. I've never seen so much water," she said, straightening and turning to frown at the unbroken blue of the ocean that stretched to the misty horizon.
The living ragdoll chuckled nervously at Moana's query, and the young chieftain turned her chocolate gaze to Sally, who still clung to the drua, bracing herself against the rise and fall of the craft as it sailed around the rocky outcrop that had initially hidden the cave's mouth from view. She offered a smile, hopefully reassuring, though it seemed that until they reached land, the resident of Halloween Town would struggle to feel comfortable, no matter the sailor's actions.
When the cross-stitch castaway started explaining her arrival, Moana's brows rose in intrigue, and she leant toward her a little. She'd always loved stories, after all, especially ones about strange lands and surreal happenings. Sally's was no disappointment. “You were on an inland lake, and it somehow led to the sea? Through a passageway found in a secret cave?” Looking back the way they had come, the girl's adventurous spirit soared. “Do you think it's possible to go back through the same passage, but the opposite way?”
Not that it was perhaps time to imagine such exploration. The ragdoll was still on board, and she was no less afraid of the waves that lapped at the drua's side than she had been. Temporarily putting the thought from her mind, Moana continued to guide the craft, until its hull met with sandy shores, a swell of water carrying it up onto the beach. Hopping from the boat only seconds after Sally, Moana moved around the back of her transport, the rising and ebbing sea kissing her ankles, and pushed against it's rear firmly, digging her toes into the wet sand for purchase, shifting the boat so the tide couldn't carry it away.
Only when it was a foot or so away from the tide did she stop, pushing hair back from her face and smiling over to her new companion. “It's best to keep it away from the sea...just in case.” She didn't offer much more in the way of explanation, just a shrug of her shoulders. “We don't want to get stranded.” Then, snagging HeiHei in one arm – Moana placed the bird in a crate to prevent him wandering, before lifting Pua from deck and placing him on the sand.
Instantly, the pig set off exploring – sniffing at the ground – though he didn't stray too far from Moana, who had joined the ragdoll at her side. “It's beautiful, isn't it?” she asked, rather earnestly, following Sally's gaze out to sea. “I've always loved how endless it seems...how far it stretches.” Then, she looked to the red-head. "Don't you have an ocean around Halloween Town?" Moana couldn't imagine a world without an ocean - in her experience, every land was an island, with the sea integral to inhabitants way of life.
For it is plain as anyone can see. We're simply meant to be.
Post by Sally on Sept 1, 2017 8:29:31 GMT -5
Staring out to the misty, blue horizon, Sally decided that she much preferred the ocean when she wasn't stuck on it. It was unfortunate that her makeup meant that she had to stay away from water for sheer survival. Now, standing on the shore, safe on dry land, Sally was able to appreciate the grandeur without having to fret about falling in. The breadth and size of the sea was hard for her to wrap her mind around, and as she moved from relieved to puzzled, Moana came abreast with her.
The chieftain spoke, commenting on the ocean that Sally had been staring out at, and the awe in her voice drew the monster's inquisitive gaze. Turning the syllables of Moana's sentence over in her head, Sally faced out toward the tide again, her perspective adjusted thanks to her companion's example. Sally moved past her aversion enough to think of the ocean as simply majestic and full of a primal mystique. She smiled thoughtfully.
After a pause, Moana asked if there were oceans in Halloween Town. Her tone was very clearly skeptical, as though the thought of anywhere without an ocean was fictional. "I don't think so," Sally said, frowning. "Not that I know of, at least. No one in the Town really goes much outside the general area." The denizens of Halloween Town were comfortable and at peace with their existence. The cemeteries, haunted mansions, slimy lake, pumpkin patches and withered woods were enough to satisfy them.
Only one person that Sally knew of had ventured far abroad away from Halloween Town, and that was Jack. He'd wandered away into the woods, past charted bounds and found the Holiday Crossroads - a wondrous site he'd shown Sally not long after the fateful Christmas Jack had tried to... borrow. Sally moved in her tilted, precarious way to a nearby heap of boulders. Gathering her skirt against her leg, she perched on one and crossed her ankles, still staring out to sea.
"The people of Halloween Town are in charge of bringing scares and fright to Rohandor every October Thirty-First," Sally explained. "There are all kinds of shortcuts hidden around the Town to help us get around the different kingdoms on our holiday. I guess the cave river is one of them." The ragdoll bit her bottom lip in contemplation. "I hope it works both ways. I'm not really sure how they operate," she confessed, looking doubtfully and apologetically to Moana.
Sally's expression shifted, like she just realized something. "I'm sorry. Here I am going on about myself, and I hardly know anything about you," she paused to nod at Moana's familiars, "or Heihei, or Pua. Except your names. Where do you come from? Why were you near this island?" Sally came upon a thought and looked out at the trees that clumped together on the small isle. "Is it your home? Is this Motonui?"
David Xanatos: Kat's back. Hope the vacation was fun.
Jul 21, 2018 21:00:05 GMT -5
Professor Ratigan: 'Twas a good trip! I'm sad it's over, but at the same time I'm glad to be back home so I can finish up my cosplays for a con next month and hang out with my cats
Jul 26, 2018 12:34:56 GMT -5
Basil of Baker Street: Hope the cosplay goes well. I'm putting away a little extra for a con in a few weeks. and yay cats, they're always good company. Except for that one who slaps me unprovoked XD. So what cosplays do you have in mind unless they're secret?
Jul 26, 2018 17:07:41 GMT -5
Professor Ratigan: I'm cosplaying Pearl from Steven Universe and Joseph Joestar from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure!
Jul 26, 2018 23:16:41 GMT -5
Professor Ratigan: I'm almost done both of them, I just have to finish styling Pearl's wig and fix up Joseph's gloves and wristbands
Jul 26, 2018 23:17:31 GMT -5
Basil of Baker Street: Awesome. Had to look up Jojo because I'm not hip with the modern pop culture but I hope they turn out well.
Jul 30, 2018 15:33:15 GMT -5
Professor Ratigan: I only just started watching the anime last year and I haven't even touched the manga, so I'm barely hip with it lol. fortunately I have my cosplay buddy guiding me through the whole experience
Jul 30, 2018 22:29:38 GMT -5
Professor Ratigan: also I finally finished the gloves! They were more of a pain to work with than I expected, but they'll hold together... I hope...
Jul 30, 2018 22:30:13 GMT -5
Basil of Baker Street: Niceness. Hoping they hold also. Got the Dublin comic con next Saturday here. Hoping to meet Karl Urban.
Aug 1, 2018 19:05:32 GMT -5
Professor Ratigan: Cool! I think he's coming to my city in the fall, if I remember correctly. Hope you enjoy the con, Daryl!
Aug 2, 2018 19:10:23 GMT -5
Basil of Baker Street: I spoke too soon. Karl Urban had to cancel for schedule conflicts. They got Nick Frost though, I'm gonna ask him if he'll sign my Hot Fuzz.
Aug 3, 2018 18:08:47 GMT -5
Professor Ratigan: Dang! Nick Frost is great though, I love his character in Into the Badlands
Aug 4, 2018 22:54:36 GMT -5
Basil of Baker Street: Enjoy your weekend Kat, hope the costumes came out as you wanted.
Aug 10, 2018 16:49:31 GMT -5
Basil of Baker Street: Met Nick Frost and Michael Dorn at the weekend. Both very nice blokes.
Aug 13, 2018 15:22:59 GMT -5
Dodger: Happy 2019 everyone
Jan 1, 2019 10:54:04 GMT -5
Yen Sid: If anyone is passing by I posted a Hiatus update. Hope everyone is doing well!
Apr 18, 2021 11:31:09 GMT -5
Yen Sid: I've temporarily disabled account creation while I update the site. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for your patience!
May 9, 2021 18:31:45 GMT -5
Owen Burnett/Puck: Checked the site again and saw the update! Here's hoping to a revitalized 2022.
Dec 15, 2021 14:41:27 GMT -5