Aaron eyes open suddenly, and he tries to sit up, but his throats has other plans. Some remains of sea detritus is expelled to his side.

Ezra eyes flicker open, but they sting with some sand that got stuck there at some point. He tries to rub them clean before attempting to open them again.

“Ah- you aright, lad? Two of you, are there. Odd, but I’ve seen odder.”

The man speaking looks to be about fifty years old, and is smoking a cigarette. He offers a hand to help Aaron up before searching his pockets for a handkerchief and handing it to Ezra.

Ezra accepts the handkerchief.

Aaron accepts the hand, though he stands up with relatively easy. "Thank you, Sir...?" He asks, looking around at their surroundings.

“Oh, just call me The Harbormaster,” the man says cheerfully. “I assume you have questions?”

The waves lap at the edge of a wooden platform on which they stand. To one edge are several boats, anchored to the platform. To the others is endless ocean, blue-gray and deep, seeming to go on forever.

Aaron nods. He reaches for his brother's hand and... something crosses both their faces, they flinch from some invisible source of discomfort. But after that they stand a bit straighter.

"How... how did we get here?" Ezra asks.

“Your memories are likely a bit… mhm, fuzzy, yes? You’re travelers. Sometimes people arrive, here, from other places. I doubt you intended to come here.”

Ezra makes a distressed sound at that, trying to see into the past but finding a fog before they woke up.

"Yes, I think... My head should be fine, but I can't really make sense of my last memory and this," he is patting Ezra's back. "Where is this, by the way?"

“You’re on the Endless Ocean. Nothing stays in the same place here - even islands shift locations, and people are forced to move one way or another. It’s just ocean, forever. Maybe some icebergs, small islands, shipwrecks. Very appropriate name, all in all.”

"How is that possible?"

"Is this like... some kind of Bermuda Triangle and now we are lost in it?"

He shrugs. “The Ocean does as it may. I confess I’ve never been out by Bermuda, so I can’t rightly compare.”

"How do we get home?"

“The ocean’s your home now, kid. It takes and gives.”

He turns around, and waves at the ships. “I assume you’ll be wanting to stay together?”

"Yes, we are twins." He puts an arm around Ezra to keep the other steady. "Do you guys have... dunno, some kind of recruitment program for lost people?"

He blinks.

“Generally, it’s the other way around, to be frank. Seekers attract opportunities, as well as risk, and plenty want to get in early. I suppose I could try to call in a favor or two, but it’d be much easier to do this as usual, giving you a ship, and a few usual doodads.”

"You're just going to give us a ship?"

“Yes.”

"Thanks for giving us a ship! Ezra don't be ungrateful."

"Thank you for giving us a ship... and doodads."

He smiles slightly. “Well I’m certainly not keeping you here - I quite like my place without everything on fire. Too many Seekers ends… interestingly, for good or ill.”

He waves dramatically at the ships.

”You have a few options. The pontoon is your friend if you want many people, and it’s the closest you’re getting to dry land. Hard to steer, though.”

“The galley’s large, powered by rowers. Simple as it gets. Might not go as fast as some of the others, but you won’t be dependent on the whims of the weather nearly so much.”

”Sailboat’s the opposite, really - wind powered. In good weather, she’s fastest on the sea. In bad? Well.”

”Steamship. She’ll take anything that can burn as fuel, but she’s hard to upkeep. Respectably fast, and more durable, but the sea’s less fond of her, and the smoke can get uncomfortable after long. Not for me, but popular with some others I’ve met.”

”I can answer any questions you have. Well, I’ll try, anyway.”

Ezra prevents himself from saying is that "actually a ship and not a patchwork of driftwood?" Honestly it looked like part of the platform at first glance.

"I guess the steamship is the safest then?"

"I think the sailboat has more aesthetic but I would hate to get stuck in dead winds. Do all of those need two people to pilot?"

“Oh, more than that. We’ll discuss crew later. Steam, then? Or galley, if it’s wind you’re worried about?

"Please, let's go with the steamship. You can attach a fake sail if we survive long enough."

"Hey, no worries. I guess the smoke sounds better than the constant need to row. So... steamship it is."

He nods.

”Right. You’re going to need help navigating. Even without things constantly shifting, it’s difficult.”

He moves over to a table, covered in various objects.

”Simplest option is the Sea Chart. Roll it up and put it back in the tube, and it’ll…” [Insert the Navigation Aids, in the form of slow speech, minus the quests].

Well... that is something, it's not like the twins didn't expect some weird magic. "May I..." Ezra says tentatively, "take a look at the ship logs while we decide? I will return them to you. I am just... curious about history and journals."

Aaron steal him a glance. "I think either the map or the Dolphin Figurehead? I think the others require too much, err, of us learning how to use them."

He nods amicably. “Well, you’d best decide that soon. Sure, feel free to the look at the book- take care not to damage the pages, though.”

"Okay, okay." He is in fact paying more attention to his surroundings than the pages themselves. But he is very careful with them.

"Alright. So, before we go to the next point. You called us Seekers, right? Is that, like, some kind of special chosen one thing? Or I guess not just one."

“Hmm. Seekers are… seeking somethin’, I suppose. Something they couldn’t find on their own world, not necessarily something that they know that they want, even. The Unstoppable Force - er, that is, the force that keeps folks from settling down in one location - will affect you more, and you’ll likely find adventures, discoveries, an’ what not. Special, maybe? Chosen? Also maybe. Frankly, I don’t know. Might be something of yourselves, might be the Ocean. Heh, maybe you’ll find out.”

"That's awesome!"

Ezra doesn't throw what he is holding at his brother, because what he is holding is an valuable artifact.

The Harbormaster, if he knew this train of thought, would appreciate his valuable artifacts staying intact! Unfortunately, he is not psychic (probably).

”Right. Made a decision on the map or dolphin, or should I give you more time to think and move on to other stuff?”

"As fun as playing around with dolphins might be, I guess the map. Just more useful on the day-to-day."

"Much more reliable," Ezra says in a tone that sounds conclusive. "Yeah, nothing against dolphins, but we should go with the map."

He keeps flipping the pages of the Ships log.

He nods, and settles into a more comfortable position for some Exposition!

”Right. There are a lot of hazards and stuff out there, so I’ll just tell you of some of the weirder, or more useful, things. You’ll find crags - be careful not to scrape your ship on ‘em, but they’ll have gulls with tasty eggs and meat, if you can climb decently. Other abandoned ships can contain useful supplies, but you won’t be the only person thinking that way, so be careful. You can get gyres, where all sorts a’ debris get swirled up into a sort of raft-thing. Stuff you find probably won’t be good quality, but anything that floats can end up there, so keep an eye out. Good source of fuel, which will be good with that ship. You might come across me again, of course. I do repairs for a quite reasonable price, if I do say so myself, and I’m also up for some tea and a chat.”

“Lots of normal animals out there, but I’ll just talk about the, er, odd ‘uns. Goldfish- I know, those little orange fish, normal things - they’re magic here. Don’t know why, so don’t ask. Put them in sea water, and they’ll turn it fresh, enough for ten folks a day. Lotta folk hold ‘em sacred, say that invites the sea’s wrath to catch ‘em, but I’ve seen no real proof of that. Just something to keep in mind.”

He takes a gulp from a canteen of something at his waist, before continuing.

”Now the nasty stuff. Drakes. Shadow of one has folks runnin’ for cover. They swoop down and grab people to eat. Blood attracts them, so they’re especially bad for more violent folks, but anyone’s at risk. They ain’t picky about their food.”

”Then, the deepwater creatures. They mostly stay, well, deep, don’t come to the surface much, and thank the gods for that. They’re big, slow, and horribly dangerous. Their meat’s poisonous, too, don’t try to eat one. If you do take one down, cut open its belly - might have gold, jewels, even magic artifacts.”

Ezra does not comment on the hygiene of using fish to make drinkable water. Maybe it is the best option available, maybe it is actually magic and not disgusting.

Flip flip. He can't help feeling fascinated by the book.

"Drakes, you say? Are you sure it isn't possible to tame one and use them as a ride?"

"Fff, Effin No! You're not the only one who has to deal with the inevitable broken bones if you survive."

"You never let me have any fun."

"It goes against keeping you alive."

He opens his mouth. Closes it. Repeats that a few times, silently. Shakes his head.

”You’re either going to go far or die young kid, and heck if I know which. Maybe both.”

"Hey, if I am going to have to deal with an ocean of full of danger, I might as well enjoy it."

He shakes his head. “Well, good luck. Right. Onto some of the other dangers.”

”Simplest, but still plenty deadly, are storms. Cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes, whatever name you like. Those sorts of things are plenty likely to kill you, don’t discount nature’s wrath.”

”You’ll find these spots of ocean, sometimes, where the ocean’s been… contaminated, maybe. Thick black flammable stuff, bad-tastin’ orange foam… stay away from that stuff, it’s bad for yer health.”

”Next things are related, I suppose. Ghosts, or two varieties. First are the ghosts of crew - of you treat your folk bad, they can come back, and sometimes they think that others are their own poor captains. They’ll make a racket, cause bad luck, mess with supplies… they’ll generally go away if you give them a good offering and some rites, though. Sometimes entire ships come back as ghosts, with literal skeletal crew. They’re always faster than a ship they’re chasing, but they melt away at dawn. Plus, they might be dead, but you can smash the skeletons just fine.”

"Right. So being nice to your crew will keep Captain Barbossa away, most of the time." Aaron doesn't comment on the thing that sounds like oil spills and sewage waste.

"And be extra vigilant regarding the clouds on the horizon." Ezra adds, wondering if the pollution comes from their world in particular, also noticing that the man is speaking English for some reason. "Do the ghost ships have... I don't know, some sort of goal?"

The man shrugs. “If they have one aside from death, I don’t know it.”

"You know what? Fair enough. It's not like I was expecting fighting skeletons any time soon. And you have been really helpful.

A sort-of half grin. “Right. And now, onto the more interesting monsters: people. I’ll tell you the major groups I’m aware of - I’d be willing to write you a letter of introduction, even, which should get you on good terms to start off.”

”Buccaneers. Pirates, really, although most follow a code of sorts. If it gets broken, other’s’ll hunt you down, to keep others off their backs. The code’s simple - no scuttling a ship that can still sail, and no takin’ slaves. Most’ll accept surrender, seeing as they’re in it for the money.”

”The, ah, ‘Royal Navy’” (he puts that part in air quotes). “I suppose no matter where you are, some folks’ll don weird hats, claim they’re in charge, and tax folks ‘Peacekeeping Taxes’ in the name of the queen. A lot of people don’t like ‘em, although they do interfere if they seen anyone getting raided.”

”The Royal Navy’s best chums, the Endless Ocean Trading Company. Attack their ships and the Navy’ll come after you, ‘cause of all the friendly donations. They have a very expansive trading network, and you can get practically anything from them for a little more than a fair price.”

”The Guild of Explorers. Lots of fellow Seekers in it, they’re a bit of a laughingstock, since they’re dedicated to mapping the Endless Ocean. Still, they’ve discovered a lot of wonders, and they’re a good source of information, even if it does go out of date fast.”

”Carthago Nova, largest pontoon on the Ocean. Basically a city state, they claim the waters around them as their own, and have their own navy, merchant ships, and harbors. Can be a powerful ally or a dangerous foe.”

”The Servants of the Sea. Depending on who you ask, they’re a religion or a cult. They claim the ocean is alive, sentient, and able to communicate and potentially be influenced by humans. They’re friendly to outsiders, but I’ve never met anyone who’s left the organization, so be careful.”

"The Guild of Explorers!"

"Or, before we make a decision, which one of those sounds like the safest to get involved with? Or... err, actually, do we have any chance of getting on good terms without a letter of recommendation? I want to know how much weight we need to put in the decision. Though, I vote against Buccaneers and the Servants."

“Oh, absolutely. Nothing stopping you from making friends. I’ll just pull in some favors, get you known, is all.”

"Ah, alright." Ezra flips the ship logs, still not paying a lot of attention to the individual pages. He wonders how this person got friends in so wildly different places. But again, it might just be the sort of useful sort of thing one does at the ocean. "I guess I can't convince you of the sensibility of going for Carthago Nova? We could just... make a life there or something."

"Okay, I am definitely sure that if there is a secret way home, it won't be in a large city. Unless it's hidden, I don't know, but I think we can always, like, find some riches and then settle down later. And for all we know, maybe we won't like Cathargo. We can figure that out later. And I bet we will best suited for the explorers given our talents."

"Okay, but you own me one."

"I will own you a half."

Sigh. "Deal. So a letter of recommendation to the Guild of Explorers."

He nods, looks around for a moment, then calls over his shoulder, “Hey, Elia! Get me a pen and paper, please?”

He then turns around a grabs a stethoscope from the table.

”Every Seeker reacts differently to coming here. Give me a moment and I’ll figure out what you got.”

Ezra makes a questioning noise, looking at the stethoscope.

"We should be perfectly healthy?"

“Some are harder to notice than others, and it’s not like checking will do any harm. Err, the stethoscope’s enchanted to tell me what maladies someone has - including curses.”

"Ah, okay, go ahead? Should I remove my shirt or something?"

He shrugs. “No, no reason to.”

He listens to Aaron’s heartbeat for a few seconds, frowns slightly, and moves on to Ezra’s. Then he stands back up. 

“Well, Ezra, your blood’s delicious to the animals around here. I mean, disregardin’ their safety tasty. You’re gonna get singled out by predators, and I’d highly recommend staying out of the water.”

”Aaron. The Unstoppable Force is even worse on you than most Seekers, and that’s already pretty bad. You’ll have a constant desire to be on the move, and will only be able to stand being in the same place for half as long as most Seekers. As long as you keep moving you’ll be fine, but any crew might not be happy with the pace you set.”

"Uh, is there a cure for Ezra's condition? Or somewhere safe to keep him while I go around... seeking?"

"I am probably safer with Aaron," Ezra sighs. "Should we be thinking of having, like, a rotating crew or something then?"

The Harbormaster shrugs. “If there’s a cure, I don’t know it, but it would be a worthy goal to sail towards. How you handle any crew is your own choice.”

"Okay, I guess the sooner we get that figured out the less unstoppable the force will be at me."

He hums noncommittally, and turns around to another table.

”Right, that’s the unpleasant business out of the way, back to the journey. You can pick… hm, three of these. Normally I give two, but there are two of you on the same ship, so I’m going with an in-between option.

The twins convene among themselves, occasionally asking about a given item.

They rule the revolver right out. They are surprised about the Cool Shades and privately wonder how hard it is to reinvent sunglasses. Wooden Crane... sounds useful if they want to make salvage their goal, but they don't want to commit to it just yet...

They can heal themselves and avoid diseases that way. Supposedly, there might be magical diseases, but then would the vaccines even work on those? If their own twin-healing doesn't work, then it's unlikely for vaccines to be any better. So they pass.

They talk some more. Some of these items are so mundane that it's hard to get a good sense. Normally people shouldn't drink ocean water but, again, twin-healing can help with that.

After much more hushed talking. They decide on the Hygiene Unit, the Galvanic Anodes and the Sound Mapper as the best balance between useful, uniqueness and Ezra wanting to cling to some aspect of civilization.

He nods. “Good choices. Help me carry em’ to your ship?” He starts packing up the Galvanic Anodes into a wooden crate with some sort of cloth packaging.

They can help for sure. And they are stronger than they look. Plus, it's good to get a bit better acquainted with their ship.

How convenient! The stuff is quickly moved, then.

The ship is… ship-like. Are they looking for anything in particular, or just getting a feel for it?

Just the feel for it.  They don't plan to take the Harbormaster's time.

Very nice of them! Unfortunately, this author knows very little about ships, but be assured it is a very average steamship!

They move back to the platform.

”Right. Those items work off good scientific-ish principles, even if they might seen magic. These are just magic. You can each take one. May they serve you well.”

This prompts another round of discussion between the two brothers. Eventually they decided onthe Luminous Lantern, which sounds prudent given that Ezra will be a tasty snack for monsters.

And Orpheus decides to go with the Extra Life Ship in The Bottle.

“Alright, you’ve got a ship and some bits ‘n bobs, but I’d feel better if you had something to protect yourself with. Each of you, choose a weapon. There are plenty of dangers out there.”

"Swashbuckler sword!" Aaron says immediately upon seeing the six options.

"You could pretend to be less impulsive than a six-year-old," Ezra says. He looks at the options and tries for balance. "Okay, I would normally want more range, but I don't find the harpoon and the whip that reliable, and I figure the wrench is the best for me? Or at least I rather also be able to use it to repair things."

He lifts the wrench with more easy than his frame would imply. He is not skinny, but he is not exactly very built. Still, he manages a solid grip with the weapon while carefully swinging it around for practice.

“Solid choices. I hope they’ll serve you well.”

”Right. Plenty of folk will jump at the chance to be on a Seeker’s ship - but that doesn’t mean they won’t leave, if you don’t treat them well, mind. And they will expect opportunities. Here are the general groups here that I know are looking for an opportunity.”

"Huh... Given my extra tasty blood, I would like some muscle, but I don't know if the retired soldiers is the way to go?"

"Don't be ageist. I think it would be nice to have people that have survived this long to teach us the ropes."

"Okay. Fair. I guess we do need Crafstmen because I ship is sort of higher tech than average around these parts, right?"

“That would be reasonable. And the old soldiers are very good at their jobs - you don’t survive a job like that without learning a thing or two!”

"I guess we should decide between Sailors or Sages, then?" Ezra asks his brother.

"I was thinking that we could go with Seafarers. They plus the Soldiers should amount to having Sailors, or close enough." Aaron turns the Harbormaster. They discuss a bit more before deciding. "Does Seafarers, Soldiers and Craftsmen sound like a well-rounded crew to you?"