Cruise Party 2 (before battle)
<I still don't see anyone on the deck...>
Wait but a moment. I shall make use of mine lungs to howl a bellow so powerful that they have no recourse but to heed us!
HAAARK!!!!!
Shut it! You'll burst my eardrums.
By the way... is it okay for us to just barge into a... yacht party like this?
We don't have the, uh... an invitation or anything like it, either.
Puff out your chest, Greg~ The more the merrier, right? They'll understand~
I couldn't care less about a party. We're here to gather intel. Waste any more time, and I'm leaving you behind.
Wow... This... this place really is fancy...!
Numerous liquor bottles and half-eaten food were strewn about haphazardly all over the deck.
It appears that this party must have ended very recently and abruptly.
Ah! I spy light shining from the ship's interiors! I shall go swiftly like the wind and verify its sources!!!
Don Quixote, running on sheer excitement for a party, scuttled to the cabins.
Well, that's one loudmouth gone... Then...!
Heathcliff slammed his fist into the loudspeaker that's been blaring music this entire time.
Blimey... Now that's a relief. Thought my eardrums were about to burst.
<…….>
I decided to remain silent. The music *was* pretty loud.
Well, it's awful quiet up here now that the music's gone.
Oh, this reminds me of a similar story my nanny used to tell me. It's an old story, but...
Don Quixote returns with a dumbfounded expression on her face.
There was... naught...
What? What was naught? Food? Drinks? Both?
There was... no one.
Yet... the lights were left on... With nary a soul to be seen inside...
Ridiculous. It is clear that, mere moments ago, a large group of people were having a party on the deck. How could there be no one aboard?
F-for truth! Mayhaps... they are busying themselves with a game of hide-and-seek...?
Can't imagine that the crowd that left all these liquor bottles behind would be the kind that enjoys playing hide-and-seek like kids at a party...
So what, they just vanished into thin air? Like they were - Wait, did the Waves already...?
There is one remaining possibility: the ship's storage space.
Are ya saying that these party people... left all this uneaten food and liquor behind just to huddle in a cramped storage room...?
Ohh~ I remember now! Yes! The story went just like this!
Once, a huge manor sent out invitations for a grand party. But when the guests arrived, they found the manor vacant and engulfed in deathly silence...
H-how about we get the music going again?
I smashed the radio, lad.
If this ship was struck by the Waves, we have to get out of here, now...
Then... Boom! Boom! Banging noises, coming from behind a door slightly ajar...! So, of course, they went in there to investigate, and...
And...?! And?!
…….
... And there they were! Bodies as stiff as corpses in rigor mortis, arms stretched forward, hopping, up and down...!
OH! That's... I-I...!!! I think I'll go check out the storage space!!
Sinclair, wherefore art thy palms so sodden?
It's genetics...!
Sinclair hurriedly left the room in search of the ship's storage.
... Which was the dance that was all the rage back then, apparently~
... The art of dancing... must truly be an art of great profundity...
Well, that was some damp squib. I thought it was actually going somewhere.
I had thought with quite the confidence that this would be a tale of the living dead.
Now what'd ya do that for? You scared the kid off... Where'd he go?
<... I'll go find Sinclair.>