AWerewolfDad wrote:I'm already tired of the discussions about the Odin founders thing as I'm sure you are too. I don't care who got in or whether there are F5 wars, I had a ton of fun writing this dumb thing for my submission, assuming either I'd be unsuccessful or unable to afford the ship. So I applied to try and amuse someone, maybe you'll find it amusing, too.
An aged and weather’d spacefarer,
Whom stood ‘fore judges three,
“By this long beard and burn-scarred suit,
now why shouldst heed thou me?
The DefenseCon doors are open wide,
the founders’ chairs are fill’d,
the Odin waits her captains true,
the verse’s first to wield.”
He holds them with his glitt’ring eye,
the Anvil judges three,
“I have a ship,” said he, “and yet
no ship is there like she.”
I sailed the black ‘fore Stanton’s sun
Had lit a single moor,
Whenst ArcCorp bare a rumored port,
Crusader’s name unsure.
I’ve felt the pull of jump-point well,
And swallowed, spat anew,
Have watched my Cutlass burn to slag
Amidst the Halo blue.
I’ve hauled the cargo none would touch
Cross’t Yela’s cracking ice,
I’ve parleyed with the Nine Tails fleet
Still liv’d to pay the price.
I’ve work’d the Idris bow to stern,
Mann’d gun for Hammerhead,
Nurs’d Carrack home through burning void
With half her engines dead.
But never, mark me, captains, never,
Have I a’fore felt the pull,
As when ye bellowed Odin Great,
First battlecruiser hull.
A ship to shame the Bengal’s keel,
A ship to hide the heavens,
A ship to bear All-Father’s name
The spear, the eye, his levin.
Grant me her bridge, give me her guns,
Gift me her lamp-lit decks
I’ll tell her glory in the dust
Of all her foes ‘ere wrecked.
I’ll head the wing through Hurston’s smoke,
I’ll prowl at Aaron’s edge,
I’ll keep the line when others break
and keep the captain’s pledge.
I’ll teach my crew the ancient ways
to sing through pain and fire,
to steel their hearts ‘ere shields go down
and sister ship’s a’pyre.
For I have been the fleet’s right hand,
And I have been the prey,
And I have been the salvager
Who pick’d the bones away.
O every voyage has taught me this:
A ship bears more than steel.
She is the dream of those aboard,
the bargain captains’ seal’d.
So weigh my words, lords, weigh them close
Just started, far yet from done,
The kill shots and the mercy runs,
The bloody years to come.
And if ye deem me worthy, lords,
Of Odin’s maiden flight,
I’ll bear her name through every storm
Forever bear her light.”
The Mariner paused;
his glitt’ring eye
did dim, but did not close.
“Choose ye well,” he said.
“The Odin sails
“Whenst but the worthy goes.”
