The Captain of Her Heart script
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Lettermoogle
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All the realm knows, the deputy postmoogle has nothing but confidence in his assistants! I shall entrust you with a letter so important, they had to cross the “T” twice, kupo!
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Lettermoogle
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The letter is for a Maelstrom sergeant at Camp Overlook! Pirates, pirates, everywhere, terribly exciting─and terrifically dangerous. I love my aaarghs and mateys as much as the next moogle, but I have pressing duties elsewhere, kupo!
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Lettermoogle
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This Sergeant Swygrael is scarier than most. Why, I used to vanish right into thin air whenever she turned her bloodshot eyes my way. Thanks to aspiring carriers like yourself, I needn't do that again, kupo!
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Lettermoogle
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You will take the letter to Sergeant Oh-so-scary. Are we understood, kupo?
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Lettermoogle
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Deliver the letter to Sergeant Swygrael at Camp Overlook. Happy message-carrying, kupo!
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Lettermoogle
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What's that? Is Camp Overlook a dangerous sort of place? Absolutely, oh yes, full of roughnecks! A perfect opportunity for my trusty assistant to go in my stead, kupo!
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Swygrael
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Delivery? Is that what they're callin' it now, sweet thing? Oh, a letter, eh? Thanks. Useful things, better than creamer's rum for puttin' me to sleep. Give it here.
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Swygrael
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“No thank you, I've taken up farming”? Curse you, matey, and your godsdamned letter! Rip it in half and water it with piss, see if somethin' grows! Farmin', he says, farmin' he chooses over the Red Swallows? Gods damn him and his shrinkin' violet balls!
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Swygrael
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Now, where are my manners? Left 'em on land when I went to sea, come back and the swivin' things hadn't waited a fortnight before goin' off with someone else. I got reasons to take the news hard, treacle tart. We don't got enough men...or women, mind ye.
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Swygrael
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Not going to recruit just anybody though, we bein' the meanest, nail-chewingest levy in the whole damn Maelstrom. No offense an' all, but we ain't interested in a sugar skull like the one atop yer shoulders.
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Swygrael
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So out came the paper and ink and out went them letters to likely roughnecks what retired from privateerin'─and not by the way o' the scaffold. No, no, and more no. That was the last, but one.
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Swygrael
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As for that last one...the bloodthirsty bitch should've been here long 'fore now. Set out from the Mill to bring some lumber to the camp with another Salthound, they said.
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Swygrael
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Sweet face or no, you got land sense, you do. Oi, do us a good turn, eh? I'll wager the miniature marauder ran into a spot o' trouble out near yon Floatin' City. Help 'em out and I may start feeling grateful-like!
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Swygrael
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I've got a job for ye. Go on out to the Nymian ruins, help the miniature marauder get here in one piece.
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Popmessage
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You sense a hostile presence!
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Expressman
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Not a good day to die...not for me and not for her, by the bloody salt...
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Latata
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Ye took me kill. Ye didn't. Even. Ask.
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Expressman
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Now don't be like that, Cap'n. You was pressed, you know that. I'd say that deserves our thanks, at the least.
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Latata
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The bloody bastard took me kill. I like being pressed. Sends a tingle up me thighs, it does. If ye want to thank the bastard fer savin' yer knickers from a right soilin', ye go on and be me swivin' guest.
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Expressman
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I 'pologize, the cap'n has never been one for social graces, what with all the killing and marauding. Thank you kindly from both of us for lending a hand.
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Latata
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Ye've the look of a fine killer, though. Sharin' slaughter's not as bad when yer shadow's an appetite fer carnage.
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Expressman
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Well, if salt ain't sweet! The cap'n don't usually have a good word for anyone outside our humble crew.
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Expressman
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Sergeant Swygrael sent you? Why, that's another surprise, she's not the sort to watch the clock hands. But Ratata's your miniature marauder, sure as salt.
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Expressman
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We ha'n't had much truck with time, down at the Mill. Poor Maid's Mill─abandoned it was, when we Salthounds settled in to make a new life. A ghost town? No, adventurer. For old pirates, the only ghosts are out on the open water.
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Expressman
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And even for not-so-old pirates, like that one. Oh, I know what they call her, “Rabid Ratata,” “Mad Dog of the Mill,” and they ain't wrong, but...
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Expressman
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She got nothing but fighting in her blood...which is why I worry... 'Twas the cap'n's idea to clean our hands of reaving and start a new life at the Mill.
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Expressman
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Damn it, now I've gone and put her in one of her moods. Time to haul anchor! We're for Camp Overlook, adventurer.
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Latata
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This place bores me. I need summat to flay.
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Expressman
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Ahoy, adventurer. You was a big help back Nym wise, thank you. Can you believe, Sergeant Swygrael offered the cap'n a berth in the Red Swallows? Now, if only she had the sense to say yes.
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Swygrael
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Oi, there you are. Got me lumber thanks to ye─but not me new recruit. Weren't forsaken for farmin', that's some swivin' comfort, but bugger if I know why she said no.
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Swygrael
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Got her hackles up, that one. My ma always said, every dog needs a little pettin', a little treatin'. A bit o' cannikin cake/salt beef from a new friend? Might do, might do. How about it, sweet thing, are ye up for talking to her?
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Swygrael
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Talk to that damned Salthound, will ye? I'm offerin' her a place in the Red Swallows, gods damn it. She don't have to be grateful but ain't nothing to spit at.
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Latata
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You. Ye took me kill. I dinnae like that. But ye fought like a Salthound, so ye have me ear until I grow tired of ye.
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Latata
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Hmph. Ye damned adventurers are all alike. More words than sense. Well, if it's words ye wish to waste, waste 'em on the stevedore. He's thrice the patience of all us hounds combined.
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Expressman
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Not interested, eh? Think well of her, if you can. The cap'n is what we made her, like as not.
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Expressman
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Her mama got her chest stove in boarding a merchantman, and the very next moon, what does her papa do but make a right mess of the steps of some rathskeller? And she but a swaddling babe. Born on a pirate ship, raised up by pirates, weren't no life for a child.
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Expressman
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I can still see her toddling along the gun deck, or swinging her wee axe with the blunt edge. Didn't stay blunt for long. And never another child to play with. We should've put her ashore for fostering, but we ha'n't the heart to.
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Expressman
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Got nothing but marauding in her veins, aye. We tried to show her how other folk live, draw her out a bit, but...'fore we knew it, she'd gutted the former captain and taken his place at the fore.
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Expressman
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I'd be lying if I didn't say part of me feels it'd be good for her to join the Red Swallows, though we'd be heartsore to lose her. She'll have her battles, make boon companions. She'd be a swallow instead of a dog. As fer us, we'll find ourselves a new cap'n. We always do.
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Expressman
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You wasn't scared of Ratata the way most are. That's why she liked you, I know it. Can't you talk to her again? You'll find her near the Floatin' City, she likes the air there...and the prey.
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Expressman
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Will you talk to Ratata again about joining the Swallows? She's out Nym wise.
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Latata
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You again. I could kill ye. I can kill most things if I'm in the mood.
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Latata
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Let me serve it to ye straight, like. I don't need them Red Swallows. 'Tis them what needs me is all.
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Latata
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I know me men call me rabid. Does it look like I care a whit and a half? I know I ain't the sick one.
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Latata
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Dogs is loyal. I kill for them Salthounds. I kill for me family. I dinnae ken what Red Swallows kill for. That's sick, if ye ask me.
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Latata
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Maybe I'd kill for you sometime. That might be right agreeable.
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Latata
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<sigh>
Enough words. I'm headin' home.
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Latata
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Ye keep that gob o' yers clapped or I'll find a dead rat to stuff it with.
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Latata
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A good hound keeps her/his maw shut. You a good hound, 'venturer? Or a dead one?
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Expressman
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Any luck, adventurer? The cap'n hasn't uttered a word since she came back from Nym.
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Expressman
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Let me guess─this dog won't fly, eh? It breaks my heart to see her becalmed like this. A young girl shouldn't be holed up in a hamlet with nothing but axes for company. I suppose she ain't no young girl anymore...
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Expressman
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Well, we'd best be on our way, back to Poor Maid's Mill. Give Sergeant Swygrael my 'pologies.
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Swygrael
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Sweet Navigator, no, no, and no! If one swallow don't make a summer, what's no swallow make? All that work and not one recruit won! Still...if Ratata's there, we won't have to worry none about the Mill. Not even a kobold's brain-blown enough to take the place when she's about.
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Swygrael
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Not the finest hour for the Red Swallows...swive 'em that don't know what they're missin'! Mayhap I need to rethink our recruitin' standards, seven hells. Lower 'em a bit, try out a few weaklings, real solybubbes...
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Swygrael
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Might work, if I can get the Swallows to take it easy on the sweetlings. Maybe train 'em separate-like for a while...?
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Swygrael
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Try as I might, I don't see it working. Be like putting tar in grog, calling it as good as! Jes' going to have to divvy up extra duties, be patient...
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Quest complete.
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