fandomhigh | Being a Proper Sea Dog, Friday, Period 3 [Session 2]

Hook's time spent reading the Danger Shop instructions had paid off. Today's class met inside that wonderous room of programmable places, where Hook had created a simple replica of a three masted vessel.

He had a series of handouts for the students, showing illustrations of various knots.

"Today we're going over that staple of seamanship," Hook declared, after the handouts were passed among the students. "Knots. Rope is very important, very important indeed for the average ship. And before we can go into things such as rigging and nets and so forth, you need to learn the basic knots. For practice today, and for a bit of fun, we're going to split into pairs. You'll practice tying your partner to something on the ship. A mast, the wheel, the anchor, something. The idea is to use a knot that you think will hold them tightly. The partner then, of course, is to try and break free. If your partner fails to break free, then bravo. Midway through the time of the class, please untie your partner if they've not already obtained their freedom, then switch places as to who is being tied to what."

Hook chuckled. "And no, no one is allowed to tie me to anything."

He snapped his fingers. "Chop chop, get to it, that's a good crew. It's all very self explanatory. Yo ho and all that."

[ooc: ~~OCD first, plz~~ Up and ready to go!]

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There was a moment's silence, and then Zack laughed a little and shrugged. He was way stronger than he looked, but the mast was probably the sturdiest thing around here, and so it was easily the best bet.

He shot her a quick thumbs-up, and then made his way toward the mast, leaning back against it.

"Like this?"

"That'll work." Claudia held out a length of rope between her hands, tilted her head, then set to work wrapping it a few times around his chest and arms at his elbows. She didn't want to make it TOO easy for him to get out. She decided to go with the one labeled a sailor's knot on their sheet. It seemed appropriate.

Zack watched her tie the knot, whistling a little as she went. It wasn't just a really heavy-duty looking knot... It was kind of pretty, too!

"I don't think I've ever seen a knot with that many ups and downs and stuff," he admitted, tilting his head as he looked down at it. "Pirates must really take their rope seriously, huh?"

Claudia shrugged. "I guess so. I mean, they do use rope a lot, you know?"

"Well, yeah," Zack replied, grinning as he tried out an experimental squirm, "they probably do a lot of tying people up!"

... Yes, Zack. That, and almost everything that had anything to do with getting the ship from one place to another.

"Well, that or shoot and burn things."

"And pillaging and plundering," Zack continued, with another wriggle that served, mostly, to tighten the knot. Darn. "And burying treasure?"

The buried treasure part was always one of the more awesome things about pirates, Zack always thought. And not just because he seemed to have a knack for tripping over treasure chests in the middle of nowhere.

"With booby traps and weird maps." It was kinda fun watching him try to get out and only tighten the knot. Dude, she totally ruled at this.

She did! Zack was duly impressed!

"And eyepatches and awesome hats and parrots that tell you to shiver their timbers!"

Clearly, the squirming wasn't going to do it for him. Hm. This meant that he was going to have to give the ropes a somewhat thoughtful look-over. They weren't fraying at all anywhere, were they? Darn.

"I don't know," Claudia said thoughtfully. "This Hook guy doesn't look like the parrot type."

"No?" Zack pursed his lips thoughtfully, craning his neck a little to try to look Hook's way. "I guess with all that really fancy clothing, he probably wouldn't want to get pooped on, or something."

Squirming really wasn't working, and so he attempted a different tactic, planting his feet against the mast and pushing himself bodily outward against the ropes.

This was having marginally more success than the case of the wiggles had, really.

"He is into the ruffles," Claudia agreed. "D'you suppose it's to make himself look bigger? Like when cats raise all their fur up?"

"Oh, hey! It could be that!" Zack's efforts to shimmy free paused for a moment as he looked toward Hook again, and then laughed. "Do all pirates dress that way, do you think? I can't imagine that something so lacy as that is very practical, when you're out swashbuckling on the high seas..."

And now he was momentarily tempted to try it.

His attention span, Claudia. His attention span.

Well, it was at least terribly entertaining. "How often do you think his hook gets caught on his shirt?"

"With that many ruffles?" Zack was smiling broadly as he put his feet back on the desk and steeled himself to try the wriggling tactic a little more. "He must go through new shirts all the time."

"He's probably a little sensitive about it. Better not mention it to him."

"Oh, no, I wouldn't dream of it," Zack replied, thoughtfully. A little too thoughtfully. Maybe he was actually taking this conversation seriously, who knew? "I bet he would appreciate gift certificates for a clothing store or something, though."

He wrenched one of his arms upwards, ignoring anything resembling rope-burn against the bare skin of his forearm, and set about to working that free, instead.

Claudia would feel really bad if she knew he might end up with rope burn. "Huh. Do you think any of the stores on the island are his style?"

Well, if he did end up with anything like it, he wasn't going to broadcast that fact. Zack was kind of made for pain, after all.

"They have really fancy clothing at the Pixie Dust, don't they?"

Zack's brilliant ideas. This could only end in tears.

"You know, I've never actually been there."

"Neither have I," Zack confessed, and if there was any sound-effect most fitting for the gesture that he made as his arm finally jerked free of the ropes, it would have been a merry little pop sound. "But then, I don't really have to go clothes shopping all that often, either."

This possibly had something to do with the way he wore the same thing darn near everywhere, darn near always.

He gave the fingers on his newly-free hand a wiggle.

Claudia's eyebrows went way up. "And here I was thinking I'd have to untie you."

"Nah," Zack laughed, poking at the knot with his freed hand. "I'm pretty much squirmy all of the time. It was really just a matter of how long it would take for me to get this far."

That said, he'd managed to tighten the knot pretty well, there...

"And besides, I think I'm going to need my other hand, anyhow."

Sigh. Repeat the wriggling process.

Being a Proper Sea Dog, Friday, Period 3 [Session 2]

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