Mice of Vengeance

Mice of Vengeance is a crew in the flag Trans-Atlantic Empire on the Cerulean Ocean, and was founded on August 23, 2004.

The Mice are known for their extensive shopkeeping and merchant work. Crewmembers own or manage several shoppes and too many stalls to list, mostly based in Ruby, Diamond, and Sapphire archipelagos.

Public Statement
Ahoy and Yarr! from the Mice to ye! We are the cheesiest pirates on the seven seas. We pillage, we drink, we dance and have fun. We eat cheese and cheesecake, and always have rum!

Our nest of choice is Cranberry Isle. Come visit our home, and stay fer awhile! If ye need a sword or a ship, then take my advice, Make sure ye visit Mice Cold Steel or Sea Blind Mice. Shop at The Cat's Pajamas when your knickers turn to dust, Consult fashion expert Pinkie if your outfit is a bust!

So how do ye get promoted besides a cheese diet? If ye subscribed, meet any officer twice and ye become pirate. Guidelines are strict to become officer here, But many will help ye, so never fear.

We would love ye to join our pillages, even cats and their ilk. Just don't forget ye battle cries, "Fer the Cheese!" and "warm milk!"

History
Originally members of the Moose of Doom, the Mice of Vengeance was formed by Mousebeard, Cygnii and Drakeeye, with Sirlansolot joining within minutes. Mousebeard and the former captain of the Moose of Doom, Lostromeo, had a disagreement, and Mousebeard decided to start a new crew with different guidelines and goals. He promised his former captain that he wouldn't ask any current Moose of Doom crew members to join, which would cause numerous problems in the future. Feeling the need to start fresh, the Mice of Vengeance moved from their former home, Turtle Island, to Guava Island in the Emerald Archipelago. Although this may have seemed like a good idea at the time, many members that joined later had stalls in the Diamond Archipelago.

Mousebeard was the officer trainer of the Moose of Doom, and as such, many officers that received said training joined the crew. A cry for revenge swelled within the Moose of Doom. Ytse, newly appointed captain of Moose of Doom, vowed to attack all Mice ships on sight. In truth, this was orchestrated between Ytse and Mousebeard, as a means of keeping the two crews separate, while giving each other time to build.

When the new crew was started, Mousebeard asked Mousepq to join the Mice, and after much deliberation, she decided to join on a temporary basis, eventually becoming a cornerstone of the crew. Mousepq owned a weavery stall, which supplied goods to the other Mice stalls located across the Emerald Archipelago. At this time, the Mice were mostly forum-illiterates, and had no idea how labor, alts and stalls actually worked, but everyone wanted to run a stall. Mice stalls were popping up everywhere. Mousebeard took it upon himself to figure out a way to evenly distribute labor. He made a list of all crew members, and worked on a method to make sure that all stalls would get equal labor. This was the start of the socialistic approach to crew stall keeping of the Mice, which in its early stages was a total disaster. An argument over labor caused Conchfritter and her son, Conygham, to leave. Conchfritter had been the most active Mice, always pillaging, and her departure was a big blow to the crew. Because of the terrible reprecussions of the 'labor mess', Mousebeard began to study in earnest how to manage stalls.

All of the hard feelings between former Moose of Doom crews were resolved, and the Trans-Atlantic Empire, started by Bibity of the Moogles of Mischief, became home to the Mice. Bibity had her mind set on obtaining an island, and Cranberry Island became her target. The Mice did not have ships, PoE, or supplies, but had a large number of enthusiastic pirates. The Cranberry Island Blockades began, and not only Mice, but the hearties and friends of the Mice came and helped, many of whom would later join the Mice. Crews within the flag were rewarded shop plots according to contribution during the blockades. Mousebeard made a case that although the Mice did not contribute to ships or supplies, the high number of participants during the blockades warranted first choice of a shop, and Bibity finally conceded. Mousebeard chose a Shipyard, and a few months later, Sea Blind Mice would be born. Stainedshirt of the crew BRC owned an Ironmonger shop plot, but had other plans, and wished to sell. Several excellent offers for the shop fell through, so Stainedshirt accepted Mousebeard's weekly payment plan. The crew pillaged and pillaged, trying to make the payments. It was at this point that Mousebeard 'figured out' Battle navigation, and started to get Kraken's blood, which opened the doors to the forums for the Mice (first blood pillaged was sold for 47k on the forums), and provided a means to make payments on the iron monger shop. Mousebeard would say that the Ocean Masters knew of the Mice's plight, and were giving them kraken's blood when they needed PoE. It was deemed that the placement of shops would deter future blockades, so the construction of the first shop on Cranberry was of top priority. Although the plot for the iron monger shop, soon to be named Mice Cold Steel, was paid for, the Mice did not have enough PoE to pay for wages to build the shop. As such, an idea for arguably the first raffle on the Midnight Ocean was born. Wages for construction were set at 1 poe, and all workers were asked to quit all other jobs, so that all labor would go to the construction site. The winner of the raffle would win a sloop, based on the number of hours of labor done by each pirate. This method was so effective, that a war brig raffle was done for the shipyard, Sea Blind Mice, later on.

Mice Cold Steel experienced hard times, being before the implementation of the global purse, since no one had PoE on Cranberry. The managers came up with the 'pay-on-any-island plan', which basically meant that a customer would 'place' an order for a sword with a manager, and the manager would then follow the customer all around the ocean and receive payments, no matter how little, equal to the amount of the sword. Charsi and Hinga, new members of the Mice, actively helped Mousebeard and Cygnii forage the needed minerals, allowing for prices of swords to be set at half the ocean price. Hundreds of swords were sold, but the poe was scattered all across the ocean. With the advent of the global purse, such drastic measures were no longer necessary, but a customer base was established, allowing for continued growth.

The Mice transformed into shop keepers, and the shops were virtually built on the sails of Cygnii and Sirlansolot, argueably one of the best sailors in the ocean. The fact that the Mice were shop keeping all of the time did not bode well with some of the Mice, and once again due to the stubborn and overbearing nature of the captain, Losgunna and Nolalily, key members of the Mice rejoined the Moose of Doom.

Mousebeard decided that the crew needed new blood, and thought that the best method would be to find an active pirate that could battle nav, rather than start from scratch. He used an alt, and began jobbing off of the notice board. After a few days, he noticed that a pirate named Icezy was always sailing whenever he checked. Mousebeard enticed Icezy away from her crew, and the Golden Age of the Mice began. In addition, the Mice came up with 'idiot' pillaging, which basically meant that everyone would use low sea battle rating alts, so that everyone could take turns battle naving without worrying about losing battles.

Unfortunately, the good times would not last long. Drakeeye's family had become a large part of the Mice, consisting of Drakeeye, Lunis, Meany, Twigbeard, Misslunis and Missmeany. A harmless question concerning the requirements for promotion by Meany to Mousebeard became the start of the end of the original Mice. Right about that time, Kingofcards, designer of many islands in the newer oceans, and who also designed the placement of the new shops and all the new housing on Cranberry Island, was promoted to Senior Officer. Questions about who should be a Senior Officer arose, and what constitutes an officer in the Mice were brought up. After many regrettable words were exchanged, and a failed mutiny, Drakeeye and her family all left the crew.

With the Moogles long gone to the Cobalt Ocean and Simply Pirates joining Carpe Noctem, the Mice of Vengeance and Moose of Doom were basically alone in defending Cranberry. With very few ships, and limited supplies, the Mice felt the urgent need to build up an adequate defense. Tearydaze, a relatively new Mice, led the way, constantly urging the crew to pillage, and vast riches were amassed, which were then used to buy ships. From the beginning, all shop profits were spent on rum and cannon balls, and ships were bought by pirates for the flag. Hinga, after quickly learning the ins-and-outs of stall keeping, inherited Meany's apothecary stall, transformed what was once Losgunna's tailoring stall then Charsi's tailoring stall into the Cat's Pajamas, increasing the overall value by orders of magnitude. She started a furnishing stall on the day it was implemented, which had an escrow of over a million poe in orders within a few days. Cygnii, the governor of Cranberry Island, used his market savvy acquired during the early days of Mice Cold Steel, to turn a nice profit at Cluckingham Palace, even at a tax rate of 0%. Successful management of the palace and the various crew shops helped to amass a fleet worthy of Cranberry Island.

All of this shop management and pillaging became 'work', and crewmates were tiring. Fortunately, after a short break from pirating, Pinkie, currently a Shanty Raid-io jockey, returned to the Mice, and brought fun back into the game. Clothes became more important than ships, much to the captain's dismay, and being 'hawt' became as important as any puzzling skill. Actual conversations occurred, beyond the yarr's and arr's, and the crew became a place to not only puzzle and have fun, but to talk about personal triumphs and defeats.