#escapees

Malconaire had always been a place of rest and quiet, but tonight it seemed doomed to stress. With their father's sudden announcement of Guinevere's betrothal, earlier that day, and Aria's equally sudden illness a bit later (Arthur, given his own experience with poisonings, had always had a fear of maladies, particularly sudden ones), Arthur could hardly focus on the festivities, despite Valentina's best efforts to enchant him with some one or other of her daughters. Lovely as they each were, Arthur had learned only lately that his heart was irrevocably in another's keeping...only to learn but days later that his own betrothal was pending. This was no time, in his mind, for merrymaking.

As soon as he'd been able, Arthur had stolen away, looking for some place of refuge, and creeping, unobserved, into a quiet alcove, tucked away, in a place Eithne had once shown him with the words, "We'll not be disturbed here." He hoped it proved just as true today, as it had then.

Arthur was no sooner through the door, however, than he turned to find the little apartment already occupied. He paused a moment, seeing his sister's face, and smiled half-apologetically. He could only think how she must be feeling, right about now.

"Had the same thought as I did, did you? Mind if I join you?"

When she didn't tell him to leave, Arthur walked over to her, flopping down beside her on the couch. "Rough out there, isn't it?" He turned to her, compassion blazing in his blue eyes. "How're you holding up, sis?"

He didn't say it was beastly of their father. She already knew that. And what was the point in it, anyway? Unexpected as it was, and though everyone had been quite blindsided, in retrospect it was also somehow the most natural thing in the world that he, of all people, would handle it in just that way.

"For what it's worth, Guin, I'm up next, apparently. I got a little warning, at least, though." He wasn't sure if that was because he was a son, or because he had a mother, but either way he didn't envy her. His chest constricted, thinking how his sister must feel. Reaching out, he put his arm around her. "But...I think I do perhaps understand some of what you might be feeling, about now, notwithstanding."

Arthur paused, "My mother told me at the feast on the second day, so I've had a little time to think about it..." he exhaled slowly. "But I'm not sure its coming as much help, for what its worth. In truth, I doubt as I shall so much as meet my bride before the wedding day."

Gently, he kissed the top of her head. "I wish I could make it all better for you. And, for what its worth, if Eoin doesn't prove the perfect gentleman, I'll destroy him. Just say the word. He's dead."

I wanted to do @actuallyrea 's silly little character challege so!! The siblings of the ever :D

Apart from Henry “Box” Brown, who mailed himself to freedom in a wooden box did you know there was a woman who also did the same?

Lear Green’s story is less well-known.

Green was an enslaved young woman who made one of history’s most daring and innovative escapes in order to marry the man she loved. Green was able to flee her slaveowner, James Noble, in an old wooden sailor’s chest during a long and arduous shipping journey from Baltimore to Philadelphia. Slaveholder and butter dealer Noble had “inherited” Green from his mother-in-law.

Green, born in 1839, was in her teens when she fell in love with a free Black man, William Adams, who asked her to marry him. Green initially refused because she did not want her children to be born into slavery. “How can I perform the duties of wife and mother while burdened by the shackles of slavery?” Green reportedly asked Adams. But Green later changed her mind after Adams and his mother, also a free woman, came up with a plan for her to escape.

Green, who was now determined to escape the oppression of slavery, purchased an old sailor’s chest and placed various items in it, including “a quilt, a pillow, and a few articles of raiment, with a small quantity of food and a bottle of water.”

Her fiance Adams and his mother fastened the chest with heavy rope, with Green cramped inside. Adam’s mother boarded an Ericsson steamboat in Baltimore and brought the chest with her. The chest was secured with rope and stowed with other freight. During the 18-hour journey to Philadelphia, Adams’ mother snuck into the compartment and from time to time lifted the lid of the chest to check in on Green and allow her a breath of fresh air.

After 18 hours in the chest, the ship arrived in Philadelphia. Green would meet with Underground Railroad conductor William Still before making her way further North to marry Adams and move to Canada. As expected, Green’s slaveowner Noble named her a fugitive slave, and a manhunt was launched to bring her back.

Noble reportedly posted an advertisement of her escape, which read as follows: “$150 REWARD. Ran away from the subscriber, on Sunday night, 27th inst., my NEGRO GIRL, Lear Green_about 18 years of age, black complexion, round featured, good looking and ordinary size… I have reason to be confident that she was persuaded by a negro man named Wm Adams…he had heard to say he was going to marry the above girl.”

Challenge #03598-I309: It's Expected?

Several humans and Galactics start to play music and sing for a crowd getting off of a large vessel. The vessel is carrying many, many individuals who recently stole the ship to escape from a brutal Deregger polity that had just collapsed. -- Anon Guest

They expected police. They expected to be shot. They did not anticipate doctors. They did not expect music. The musicians were behind a barrier, but the music played through speakers as the livesuited Mediks ushered them towards a very prepared area.

They were singing in their variant of Deregger English[1]. Something that must have taken some time to do. "What can we say except 'you're welcome'/ To the beds and the meds and the food/ Yes it's okay, okay. You're welcome/ Don't refuse, it could be rude..."

They also wondered how they got away with that when the Owners were still litigious[2]. It was sufficient distraction to see groups into treatment areas and, thereafter, free treatment.

still from the Charlie’s Angels (2000) with Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu as escaped convicts

Dark and cold were good words to describe the feeling of the cell. No one in the dungeon got rest, always hearing the screams of someone else. Emma had been there a while, long enough to figure out the cycles that the torcure took place. Now the torcherer wasn't here and she had to enact her plan fast. All she needed was an amimal, a rat would work.

Spotting said rat she sang softly under her breath. The rat in turn found the keys and brought them to her. With the keys in reach she let the rat go.

Shakily she stood up and fumbled with the keys to unlock her door. Once she was out she let everyone else out. However she stopped at another cell and looked at its inhabitant. She unlocked the cell and hesitantly stepped in to unlock the restraints.