Redwall MUCK Forum

SCENE:  A slaver's boat somewhere along the River Moss...

LOG:
At any other time it would have practically been a miracle to have all the dibbuns asleep by nightfall following a day of fun with cookies and tents but the horrible reality was instead just starting to be recognised as the dibbuns woke up in a very different world to the one they'd gone to sleep in. Chained by collars and locked aboard a boat the first few awoke and Isa was among them. The herbs had given her some of the worst nightmares she'd had in a while and she felt sick and dizzy as she groaned quietly and tried to squint in to the gloom in the hold of the ship. She was barely conscious and already very confused.   

The vermin made one of the dumbest choices of their lives by kidnapping Redwall's children. Another really dumb decision was kidnapping the DAB. Another stupid decision was doing anything to make Squirrelbabe upset. Which she is the moment she wakes up and discovers that she's not in Redwall anymore. The DAB Ringleader sits up, holds her head, and howls, yelling the profanity she knows at the very top of her lungs. Just wait until her headache dies down and she can start thinking up dastardly plots again...

Isa is just about able to get her eyes to focus and stop the world from spinning when the squirrel starts yelling and she flinches with a hiss as the noise hurts her head. The vermin no doubt heard that but it's Isa who goes to try and kick Squirrelbabe, she doesn't get up to do it, she just happens to be lying down within kicking range "Shuddup" she groans "M'ead hurts"   

Squirrelbabe doesn't expect the kick, and it just makes her howl louder as she tries to swat at the kitten. "My 'ead 'uwts, too! Dat's whys I be a scweamin'!" She tries to stand, but falls over when a dizzy spell hits. "I wants Muvvew Kwisha! Where's are we's?!" She rattles the chains, which wakes up most of the other Dibbuns, some of whom start whimpering as they realize they're not at home.   

Isa grimaces and covers her ears with her paws as Squirrelbabe gets even louder. She kicks back more when she's swatted though "Shuddup shuddup shudduuuuuup" Isa whines but she falls silent when Squirrelbabe asks where they are. Part of her was still wandering if this was still a dream until then but she stops and slowly looks around. She lifts her head and looks confused by the chain as it rattles "Not in the abbey" she finally answers.   

Squirrelbabe rolls her eyes. "No, duh, shtoopid! But WHERE are we??" She tries to stand again, her stubbornness coming to the fore. The other Dibbuns huddle where they are, although some of the bolder ones sit up straighter.   

Isa instantly turns a glare on Squirrelbabe "Why don't y'find out y'self then" she snaps back, not feeling like helping the squirrel at all now. She slowly sits up and as the chain rattles again she looks back down at it and then starts feeling her way around the collar on her neck. She gives it a testing tug...then properly tries to really force it off over her head! After several seconds she gets nowhere though, it's just too tight.   

Mistclaw is on the deck and seems rightly annoyed "This was stupid....and what of the two shrews you killed" She decides to go quiet down the dibbuns and checks on them none too happy "Shut up ya annoying brats!!" She stays a good few feet away.   

Squirrelbabe will do no such thing! "Wheres are we's?! Takes us back homes, ya meanie face!" Most of the other Dibbuns pipe up, agreeing with the DAB Ringleader.   

Isa freezes when she hears an adult she doesn't know yelling at them. Several of the dibbuns look scared, for some this makes them quieter, some panic and get louder. Isa is silent for a moment, foxes don't worry her but she's cautious. She eyes Squirrelbabe when the squirrel keeps yelling before she quietly asks her own question "Why are we here instead f'in the tents?"   

Mistclaw smirks "You are going to your new home, all of you...to be slaves. Gorax will pay highly for you"She sneers, a weasel taps her "Umm not ALL Of them" She rolls her eyes "Yeah yeah the strip hound baby...what ever, that's kurgun's kid now, gonna raise it to be an assassin"She chuckles now and smiles "Achallly that may be intresting a stripe hound assassin..evil and powerful, hmmm maybe Kurgan isnt such a fool after all"   

Squirrelbabe launches herself at the vixen, trying to claw whatever she can reach. "YOU LET'S US GO!! Ya shtoopid meanie face!!" Most of the other Dibbuns have quieted down, although a little leveret (who enjoys books because they taste good) is about to start crying. A couple of the bolder DABers stand up and start shouting that they want to go home!   
   
Isa just looks confused at Mistclaw and no where near as afraid as she should be about the threat of becoming slaves but then she doesn't know what they are. She knows thieves but for all his bad points her father didn't deal in slavery "Tha's stupid. Assassins are quiet and sneaky but badgas are big an' stompy" she protests quietly just a second before Squirrelbabe pounces and Isa erks as the chain attached to them pulls her over.   

Mistclaw chuckles "Just get cozy, we have a long trip to Gorax, oh and dont expect very good food"She slams the door and heads back to the main part of the boat.   

Growling and spitting, Squirrelbabe is obviously furious at having missed her new enemy! "I'sa gets yous, *insert bad word*! I'sa wips yous face off in da night!!!" Such pleasant thoughts for a lady, no? The other Dibbuns stand or sit shocked, and one little mouse starts to wail. "We's no gets no food??" This starts many of them crying.   

Isa frowns at Squirrelbabe as she picks herself back up off the ground and tries to mover her collar to make it more comfortable but it barely moves at all. Whatever slavery was if it involved uncomfortable collars and being chained to annoying squirrels she was not a fan. As the others start wailing about food she sighs quietly and sits down, curling her tail around herself. They'd woken up late in the day, she was hungry too but she'd been worse "Krisha n'Sista Ginny will come give us food soon. It's probably just some game adults do" she's not really convinced and is worried but she hides it well and lies for the others.   

A young otter shakes his head. "I fink we on da wiver. Feel us wocking? Why Muvvew Kwisha an' Sistew Ginny no tell us we goin' on a boatie ride?" The other Dibbuns are somewhere between sitting around shocked and crying pathetically. Squirrelbabe scowls. "We'sa gonnas get outta hewes! I no be a....a /slave/!"

Isa stops to feel for the rocking but finally shrugs "Adults don't tell us stuff" she looks back at Squirrelbabe but between the collars, chains and being locked in a boat who knows where she's not sure how they would get out. She's thinking about it though as she looks at someone else (Because she's not going to expect Squirrelbabe to be helpful) an she asks very innocently "Wha's a slave?"
   
Squirrelbabe scowls when she's not directly asked. But a young ferret, the only vermin Dibbun in the group of Redwallers, starts to cry. "Swaves are when you made to work an' you get 'it an you don'ts gets food an' you nevver see you fam'ly agin!" This starts more crying, but Squirrelbabe is sceptical. "Oh, yeah? An' how's you knows dat??" "I was one 'tiw Bwisa rescued me," the ferret replied, hugging his legs close. The adults of the Abbey know that some of the Ferravale guards had found this young ferret, along with some woodlanders, in the grips of some slavers. Ferravalians despise slavery, and so the slavers were all slain and the slaves were brought to Redwall by the Chieftain after their wounds and hungry stomachs were treated.

Isa will ask Squirrelbabe things if she wants to be called stupid. Which is basically never. She listens to the ferret and she slowly looks down as her ears fold back. She sits there looking at her feet while Squirrelbabe questions the ferret's credentials "...I don't gots a family t'see...n'we always had t'do work...n'mum couldn't get much food" she's trying to rationalize it into being alright and something normal "...Maybe Blisa comes t'rescue y'again?" there's a tiny offer of hope that someone might get them out of this.   

The ferret wipes his cheeks, but he can't stop crying. "Muvver Krisha's my fam'ly an'....an' I wants ta see her agin." Squirrelbabe can't think of any retors, so she is miraculously quiet, for a change. The otter sniffles. "I 'opes Muvver Krisha finds us soon." What they don't realize is that they're slipping farther down the river, and as such are losing less and less of a chance of being found. The little male leveret starts sucking on a chain, hungry, but not able to talk yet.   

Isa has a thought. It's a bad thought. The kind that dwells in the brain and grows worry and doubt. She tries not to say it. She's silent for a while, sitting and hugging her tail as she's trying very hard to say nothing at all but she keeps thinking about it and she just can't help herself "Wha' if they killed everyone when they took us" everyone dies to her. Thinking of the abbeyfolk as like a family just makes her imagine it more.   

This does not help matters, and many of the Dibbuns start crying in earnest. Squirrelbabe scowls and stomps a foot. "Dat would takes fuw/evew/! An', like, DwowaWose would just whup dey're /tails/ wif her sword! She go CHOP CHOP an' make /soup/ outta dem! An' da Abbot an' Muvvew Kwisha just hit dem wif sticks on da bottom an' make 'em go 'way! Dey all gonna come find us'n's an' save us!!"   
Isa shrinks down a little and goes quiet for a while again as she upset everyone but again she can't help it and quietly speaks up again "But why didn't dey do tha' when we got taken?"   

Squirrelbabe is not going to be outsmarted right now! "'Cause dey do-ed it when we all's ashleep, shtoopid!" Well, the kitten asked a question, and now she has to deal with being insulted. "DwowaWose an' Muvvew Kwisha an' da Abbot alls be'ed ashleep whens dis 'appened, an' sho dey couldn't stop 'em! But dey'll come get us an' CHOPPY CHOP da baddies into bits an' turns 'em intos /soup/!" Because apparently that's what happens to bad guys? This squirrel is very morbid.   

Isa doesn't see chopping bad guys in to soup as anything bad. She saw first hand Dora dispatching justice by choppy chopping her dad's head off, she gets what's going to happen to the bad guys and she's fine with that. What bothers her is being called stupid again and her fur bristles "Stop callin' me stupid! Yer stupid!"   

Squirrelbabe's tail swishes back and forth in agitation. "I no shtoopid! /You/ da one askin' shtoopid questions! /I/'s be's tryina fink of a way t'get outta 'ere!!" The DAB Ringleader starts poking the floor underneath them and the mast the chain is connected to, looking for...well, anything her fertile DAB mind could use to escape.   

Isa glares back and the squirrel again. This was going to be a very long journey "Oh yeah? Wha's yer plan then?" she was confident Squirrelbabe had nothing and they were just doomed.   

Squirrelbabe matches glare for glare. "I's lookin' f'w nails, dummy. I'ma twy t'pick da locks!" There are no loose nails to be found at this moment, but maybe they'll find some soon?   

Isa snorts at her "Y'don't know how t'pick locks. They'd never teach /you/ how t'do tha' at the abbey" implying that they'd teach better behaved dibbuns. The idea itself mind wasn't too bad. Maybe she'd try to claw a nail out later when Squirrelbabe can't see her and take all the credit.   

If the kitten did that, Squirrelbabe would throw a fit! For now, though, the Ringleader just sticks her tongue out at her, scowling darkly. "Maybe I leawned fwom me daddy afore 'e was muwdewed by foxies!" The rest of the Dibbuns have quieted down, and now are staring between the 2, waiting to see if everything comes to blows.   

Isa just snorts again and turns away, going to curl up and coil her fluffy tail around herself "Y've never tried t'learn anythin'" the DABs use of class time was rarely in line with the lesson plan. Though if they taught things like lockpicking that might change.   

Squirrelbabe is too busy looking for things and finding the end of her ability to roam to really pay attention to the kitten anymore. Which is good, since that comment may have cost Isa her ear should it have been heard...

~*END*~

Thanks for reading!

Okay, so first: I apologize to Adrian for getting drawn into the drama of attacking you on the forums.  I should've talked to you directly more (as was encouraged of me by a player whose permission I do not have to name in this post).  I'm sorry.  I should not have handled any of this the way I did, and while I stand on everything I said that we all need to collaborate on MUCK things and not spoofing other people's characters, I am very sorry you got attacked, especially on the forums.

And now for my plea:  Y'ALL.  Instead of talking to each other and posting on the forums about things specific people are doing, we should first ask those people to stop.  (This is something I need to work on, too, as this whole mess made evident.)

Over the years I have had people autohit and godmode and whatever my characters without permission, and they (almost always) stopped when I asked them to.  I know I need to work on my communication skills (this whole mess being proof of that), but could we all work on it together?  Instead of taking it to the forums with specific examples and naming names?

And whenever someone breaks the rules (or we have any kind of problem with another player at all), instead of talking to each other about it, we should email Otter.  I can't actually do anything; only Otter can.  And if it's not worth talking to Otter about, then why is it a big deal at all?  His email is brianj@otterspace.com for those who aren't sure where to find it.

I'm sorry if I'm making this worse; I'm just getting really tired of people pmailing me stuff about other players and not emailing Otter when I suggest that they do so.  And I also wanted to publicly apologize to Adrian for publicly joining in the attack on him.  That was dumb of me, and I am sorry.  I also believe in publicly apologizing for doing something wrong in public, so while I have pmailed him, I'm also posting this here.