The sun is rising and the captain told the crew to meet him down in the common area of the tavern to get the ship ready. The tavern seems to be in relative order though a few drunks can be found sound asleep on the floor, some with a bottle still in their hand. The only women that can be found are the two bar maidens; the promiscuous-looking ones are still in beds with their new “friends.” The captain can be seen leaning against the rail, waiting for his new crew to come down from their slumbers.
Lyell roams into the bar at his own pace, right on time, never early. He was scratching his head, having woken up only in time for shaving his face, which he would have done even if it had made him late. Although now his hair felt itchy from not having been washed in awhile. He grumbled a little, hung over more than he was comfortable being for the first day on the job, and mumbled something along the lines of 'morning Captain' at his new boss.
Captain Page looked to his newest crew member and replied, "Morning Mr. Lyell, how did you sleep? Hang over?" The captain asked professionally but with a hint of joking around. "Hopefully everyone else will be here on time."
"Mmph," Lyell replied, almost missing the joking, but at the very least pleased at the lack of yelling. At the very least, the yelling would have hurt. He shifted his bag to rest on the floor as he took a seat near the guy.
For the moment, the familiar shadow behind the captain in the form of Tepinoc was not seen. The member of the crew had left for the ship the night before to do some last minute cleaning. He wasn't so mean as to make the woman coming aboard sleep with the men and had cleaned a side room to make it a makeshift cabin. Not to mention the Captian probably ordered him to.
Kitty came walking, with a bag in her hands. "Good morning, Captain Page!" She waved as she approached her new captain.
Marco enters the tavern with his shirt only half on, obviously rushing. He doesn't have a hang over, but probably would have been late this morning if Lyell hadn't accidentally stepped on him on his way out the door. He nods to the captain as he enters, but heads straight to the bar. "Hey, can you cook me up the special real quick? I'm shipping off soon, and I wanna something without fish before I'm stuck on the ocean."
Seril, a light bag tossed over her shoulder, came into the bar wearing her crushed velvet coat depsite temperatures. "Goodmorning," She said, taking a place next to Kitty, whom she hoped she could become friends with, if not all the other sailors. "I hope you all slept well, including you, Captain." She smiled.
Captain Page nodded his head slightly in reply to Kitty, "Morning Ms. Kitty." Then looking over to where Marco was he asked without a hint of sarcasm, "not much sleep?" The captain turned to Seril and smiled back. "Well, I slept just fine, thanks for asking, and yourself?"
The barkeep turned from wiping glasses with a dirty glass to Marco with raised eyes.
Some sailor this one will make he thought as he put down the glass and stoked the fires of the grill to prepare some food.
Captain Page leaned against the bar and looked over his new crew. "Well, it looks like we're just missing Clova. Once she is here, we'll go to the market square and load up the Lyre with the supplies I bought earlier this morning."
"I slept well, thanks." Seril said, sitting on a barstool to wait for the others. She set her bag down and crossed her legs simply, smiling.
Clova approached the group quietly. She addressed the captain, and looked only at him. "My apologies if I am late this morning, sir." She kept her hands clasped in front of her.
"You're not late at all, you're right on time," Captain Page replied to Clova. Turning to the group, the captain addressed his crew. "Well, since we are all here, lets load up the Lyre for the journey. Onward to the market place."
Even though the sun has risen barely above the horizon, the market place is already buzzing, merchants and sailors rushing to buy much needed items for their voyages. The captain stops right in front of a mule with a cart attached to the end and all of the supplies the captain has bought; flour, sugar, tar, extra wooden boards, a few food producing animals, cannon balls, powder, etc.
The captain started to heave the supplies onto the cart and motioned for the crew to do the same. After a minute, Captain Page asked the crew, "So where are all of you guys from?"
"Canso Island," Lyell grunted as he swung a few fifty-pound sacks easily into the cart. "I was from a fishing village, so it was a bit more populated than the rest of the island, but still a small town."
"My father was a cargo-sailor." Seril said, "So we never stayed in one place much." She left the rest of the history out, but smiled despite the memories. "I must say, I've been to quite a few places."
"Puerto Philo," Marco says. "We called it Phi-Rock. But I left it pretty quick for this shipyard gig on Isle de Ti. I don't know how anyone lives there." He lifts the end of a wheelbarrow filled with cannon balls and pushes it toward the cart.
Clova moved the caged chickens onto the cart. She was glad they would have fresh food on the voyage. "My family is from Isle de Ti. It is very small, sir, but you may have heard of it in your travels."
Marco snorts at the priestess' comment. "Small and bloody boring," he says. "You could walk the whole shoreline in an hour, and when you got back, everything and everyone will still be just as you left it. If you asked anyone the time, they'd tell you - as though it were some big revelation - 'Sun's out' or 'Moon's out.' Because that was the only thing that ever changed throughout the day."
Lyell grimaced. "Sounds like a shit life, but I've seen worse," he said. "Besides, there are things to do to alleviate the boredom." He leered towards some of the tighter clothing worn by the female members of his current crewmates.
"That don't involve slewing the women, yes?" Seril asked, a smile on her face to show that she was teasing him. "I grew up mostly in Sprini. Quite bland and exceptionally boring, but as children, we often fished and the like."
"I dont know where I'm from, sir." kitty said low. "I've allways been on some ship, so.." She still tried to keep herself from swearing. She glanced at the others, then looked at the captain again.
Captain Page looked over at the supplies that the crew were loading and noticed that it was everything he had bought. "Alright, time to get to the docks and to the Lyre. Time to get familiar to your new home for the next several months at least." With that the group set off towards the docks.
It is like many of the wealthy docks and the Alxes Island docks were one of the greatest. Ships and flags can be seen in every direction, with hundreds of sailors working to repair ships, loading them up, or simply taking a break and drinking rum. The captain’s ship, The Lyre, can be found traveling left of the docks. Though she isn’t the biggest ship in the docks, she certainly looks sleek and fast.
"There she is, the best ship in all the seas if you ask for my opinion," said the captain to his crew.
Lyell grunted, going to withhold his position on the matter until he got on the ship in question. It wasn't a bad grunt, just noncommittal. He rolled his shoulder out of boredom and headed to the back of the cart, ready to unload.
Leaping down to the deck, Tepinoc saluted smartly to the captain then went back to his duties, glancing at the women before nodding to Page about his earlier job.
Lyell grabbed a few large sacks and began hoisting them towards the cargo area, or at least where the storage deck is on every other ship he's been on.
Clova kept her retorts to herself. If she started fighting with Marco before they even got on the ship, the captain could easily leave her behind. So she shot him what she hoped was a withering glare and remained silent. Captain Page was right, though, the ship looked good, and would be by far the nicest, most sea-worthy vessel Clova had ever set foot on.
Marco is puzzled by Clova's glare, especially since he hasn't spoken to her for the better part of an hour now, what with the loading of things in town onto the cart and then dragging it to the docks. He shrugs it off, assuming she was just in one of those moods that women get. He helps Lyell carry some of the larger sacks onto the deck, and looks around. "Nice," he says of the ship's condition. He taps the wood with his boot, testing it. "Yeah, if we get a hole, she'll be good to float for probably an hour before we're toast."
"Oh bloody hell, what a nice ship.." Kitty grinned to herself. "Eh, I mean..The ship looks great, sir.." She smiled to the captain, looking at the ship.
"Ah." Seril said, standing with a bag over her shoulder and a grin on her face, hands on her hips. "Magnificent ship, Sir." She said, "Perfectly amazing."
A group of strangers approached them from the dock, one wearing the fashion of a ship captain gone bad, with another to his right wearing a red bandanna. "Well, well, well, what have we here 'gents," said the one in the middle in a mocking tone. The stranger in the red bandanna responded, "Looks like there's a crew aboard this worthless piece of wood, Captain." The first one, obviously the captain replied, "You sure about that? There's women among them, and all of the mom don't seem man enough to even be able to fight off a rampaging chicken." Throughout all of this, none of the men looked to each other while talking, just looking straight at the crew of the Lyre in mockery.
Lyell looked one of the men up and down, folding his arms and flexing to show off his impressive muscles. "Why don't you boys run off and play," he growled, looking down his nose at the Captain. "The adults are working."
Kitty glared at the men. "Listen shithead, just fuck off.. I bet I could beat the living shit outta you any day.." She growled. She had totally forgot about trying to be nice and not to swear. Men like those guys just made her so damn angry.
Seril came up to stand beside Kitty and smiled at the men with a slightly evil smile. With one hand on her sword hilt, and the other on her hip, she stood her ground with the force of a woman. "You speak such oddities when you know not what us women are capable of, dear
Captain." She mocked him, putting plenty of emphasis on the word captain to show that she was mearly making fun of him. "Our men are fine workers,
Sir, But who will tie them to the masts when sirens are found?" She laughed, a toss of her hair. "I do believe that all the men on your ship would be lost if you ran into such a problem. At least our captain has the mind for diversity, and strong willed women."
Lyell shifted his position so he was closer to the newcomers than the women. It wasn't that he wanted to be the first to fight so much as he figured if a fight broke out, he'd be better capable of dealing with it than they.
Marco peers out over the edge of the ship at the men below. As his fellow crew have already done a sufficient job of boasting, he simply folds his arms smugly and contemplates hocking a loogie onto their newest adversaries.
Also on the ship, Clova observed the encounter. They seemed to have things under control, but her hand moved instinctively toward the bundles on her sash anyway.
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The Captain