Not down on any map

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Regardless of who can read them in this time, the seats at the table go to the experienced detectives, with the lower ranking officers scattered across the deck. The DPD normally doesn’t enforce rank much, except in this situation, where they need to hold fast to their selves.

“So we’ve got a ship that’s guaranteed to sink, joy”, Daniel remarks. “What are we going to do?”

“Whatever we want”, Hank muses. “The moment the “Diamond” left port, she was of no more consequence to history. As long as we stay away from people, we don’t run the risk of changing the flow of time.”

“Staying clear of other people? Who’d thought there was an upside to our situation!” Tina cheers.

“So what we’re going to do”, Hank continues”, “is set a course for the Bermuda Triangle and search it high and low for a way back in our time! Then we’ll make our way back to the DPD, touch our unconscious bodies and swap minds back with our hosts. Everyone survives, end of story!”

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Connor raises his hand.
“I second the plan, but we should make not the Triangle, but Selvadorada our destination!”

“Oh, wow, after you guys blocked every last travel route there for me six years ago, now you’re giving me a free ride?” Sigstein sneers. Still on parole for his various crimes, the spellcaster is still not allowed to leave Detroit for any other purpose than his job at the Magic HQ. “If I’d known that all that takes is abducting you to the past, I’d done so myself!”

Selvadorada! Known as the Cradle of Magic, it is where the phenomenon got academically studied for the first time. By 1818 the Omiscan cities have been ruins for four centuries already and the original priesthood long disbanded. But half of the involuntary sailors have been to the ruins before and know their way around. If anybody has figured out time travel, then the ancient Omiscan Clerics. At the very least the ruins should contain a means to contact Sixam (another secret the clergy had kept from the rest of the world).

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“Selvadorada… Yeah, makes sense. Good call, Connor!”

“Yay, Selvadorada!!!” Rika rejoices. Gavin to the contrary moans “Noooo… not Selvadorada again…”. Sigstein keeps his silence. He has already said too much in his first excitement.

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So now the displaced officers have a plan. Except for the tiny detail of them still being at risk of sinking, even if they do not retrace the exact route the “Diamond” had taken in the past.

“So, uh, what will we do to prevent sinking again?”

Hank’s mimic changes at these words, as if the seaman had said something incredibly stupid.

“We’re going to get us a Physeter catodon and any species of Eubalaena, of course!”

Right, that had been Sigstein’s suggestion, born of the union of his soul and an only somewhat compatible brain. Now Hank repeats it as the one true course of action. In fact, it feels as if chasing down those two whales is something like a personal crusade to the man.
Nobody objects. The sailors want to survive, and if the two whales come in handy for that, then so be it. But they also cannot find the mental strength in them to disobey THEIR CAPTAIN.

The very moment the sims sat foot on the ship, they did something that revealed what was really happening to them. (Yes, even though Free Will was off, the spoilery action counts as a conversation choice. Tina casually happened upon the absolute worst one when it came to the story/my lore.) You as readers are likely fully aware of what’s going on, but my sims are still ignorant and I don’t want them to acquire that knowledge at this point already. So I moved the screenshots to a later scene.