Private Tales Above Deck

[Selene]

Selene squealed, gasping upwards at the sudden noise. Her hair was knotted messily around her, her limbs tangled in the blankets she had all to herself.

A glint of metal flashed inside her hand, sloppy jerks trying to untangle the diner knife and her arm from the fabric. She noticed the source of the commotion at the same time she felt the head ache, a small groan catching in her as all fight fled her body.

"Have you been out there this whole time?" She rasped, her throat sandpaper.

 

[Gal]

Gal paused midway through the cabin, like a thief caught in the torchlight of a patrolling guard. A chanced glance at the pile of sheets and princess erased all her grogginess, however – a smug smirk split across her face instead.

“Not one of my brightest moments, admittedly,” she said, finishing her stroll to the desk. A few maps had scattered during the storm, and she collected them all with the ginger movements of a sailor after an allnighter.

When she finally plopped down, her grin was positively wicked. “Sleep well?”

 

[Selene]

Gal was given as much of a disapproving look as one could when they couldn't find their eyelids enough to open them properly.

"You're nude. There's men out there." She pointed clumsily in the direction of the door, the knife still attached to her hand. Never mind the fact that Selene's preferences were well stated and the blankets had fallen down around her waist. No. It was the propriety of it all.

Never mind the storm or the cold either. No. Gal had shown her fleshy bits and the scandal superseded even a hang over.

Royals.

 

[Gal]

Her eyebrows did a little dance, but she was too tired to keep it up for long. “Your point? There’s also women out there. Nobody gives a shit. It’s a ship, not a brothel. Some people fuck to pass the time. So what?”

Gal rolled her eyes and settled deeper into the plush chair. God the leather felt good. Her lids were already drooping as her body relaxed into the comfort.

“Long as it doesn’t screw with their work. ’Sides…” she shrugged, trailing off for a moment, “why’s it rude? Showing off these beauties,” she gave her tits a little squeeze, “is fucking magnanimous.”

She snorted. “Hey, I used a fancy word. You like that, princess?”

 

[Selene]

Selene blushed heavily, her gaze tearing away and the knife dropping into the bed with a soft thump.

She folded over, face planting into the blankets and groaning in protest. She didn't even know what that meant, her fluency with the language decent, but limited. She did not point this out, not wanting to give anymore fuel to Gal's drunken mood.

"You are impossible to contain," she grumbled, gathering the blankets around her and stumbling down. She swayed her way over to the desk, grabbing a water flask and struggling to get it open while remaining covered. She held it out to Gal in a silent request, huffing.

"...Okay, what does it mean?" She asked, unable to help herself.

 

[Gal]

“Damn right these are impossible to contain.” She glanced down at her tunic and the straining laces at the front. Another scuffle on the deck and the whole lot were going to come spilling out.

Gal grinned at the thought.

“What’s what mean?” she echoed, delayed by the amusing sight of Selene struggling with the flask. Once she got her hands around its neck, the bottle was opened in seconds, much to her self-satisfied delight.

She handed it back with an insufferable grin before standing from the chair with the grace of a wet rag. Her legs barely got her back to the bed before she collapsed headlong and headfirst onto the mattress.

 

[Selene]

Selene drank desperately, yesterday's swim and the hang over leaving her feeling like a wrinkled prune. She breathed heavily once the flask was emptied into her stomach, relieved for the moment.

"...Magnanimous," she reiterated, stumbling over the pronunciation. "Magnanimous? Magnanimous." She dropped the flask, looking around for the dreaded piss bucket and a private place before dragging the blanket over into that corner of the room.

Silence.

This was so indecent.

 

[Gal]

It was the tinkling that finally dragged her back out of her daze, not the thrice-repeated word (Selene got it wrong every time).

Gal smacked her dry lips as she looked up. Sunlight was pouring through the window. Weird.

“Why’s—”

Oh. The memory of last night crashed back down quickly and painfully, and with it the regret of a night poorly spent.

“Ugh.”

The pirate flopped back down and dropped an arm over her eyes.

“It’s magnanimous, by the way” she added after a beat, loudly enough to be heard over the pissing. “Means ‘really fucking generous’.”

 

[Selene]

Selene emerged with redness to her cheeks, her energy spent and her head pounding. Why did she carry this blanket around? It was ridiculously heavy. She stumbled back into the bed and made noises of exertion and complaint as she dragged the rest of the blanket up with her, her arms feeling like limp noodles.

It wasn't until she was flopped face first into the pillow beside Gal that she reached for words again. "Why are your tits giving me things?" She echoed, mimicking the word she had heard for breasts and flat out misunderstanding the latter.

"What are they even going to give me? Docatte?" A chortle caught in her throat. She rubbed at her face, laughing again, clearly amused by the concept.

"Can you imagine? Tit bank, gods-- you'd be the worst pirate."

 

[Gal]

“I— what?”

If she were any less exhausted, Gal would’ve rolled off the bed.

As it were, she just buried her face in the pillow, thankful that it was muffling her guffaws or the whole morning crew would’ve heard her laughing her arse off at that shipwreck of a translation.

When she’d finally caught her breath again, Gal rolled onto her back with significant effort. “I am an amazing pirate, thank you very much. One of your fancy nobles pays me shitloads because I always deliver, and I always deliver the best merchandise.”

Nevermind that the merchandise were people.

“My tits are giving you things. Fuck.” She chortled again. “Do you even hear yourself, woman?”

 

[Selene]

Selene laughed by very nature that Gal was besides her, a bit confused but too beat to care. "Yeah, well, maybe some words are too big for even a princess of Vel Anir."

She picked up a pillow and flopped it on Gal's face, retribution for the continued amusement. "Shuddup, I'll shove you in the bilge." Gal got a nudge too for good measure.

 

[Gal]

A snort.

“As if. Bet you couldn’t even find it.” She yanked the pillow away and eyed Selene with a skeptical gaze. “Have you ever even been on a ship before?”

 

[Selene]

Selene slowly sobered, giving a heavy sigh. "I mean. I had to get to that tower somehow." She rubbed at her face, turning her gaze to the ceiling.

"Had this whooole room to myself then though," she told her, eyes tracing the length of it. "But no, I never left it. 'It wasn't safe'," she mocked. She looked to Gal then, annoyance in her tone.

"But leaving me to be grabbed by whatever rift raft could get by a dragon-- that'll save my honor."

 

[Gal]

“And they say commoners are idiots.”

Gal rolled her eyes and rolled over, hogging as much of the sheets as she could pry from Selene’s fingers. Like taking candy from a baby.

“Well, you had some unsafe shit yesterday. How was it? Feel better?”

 

[Selene]

Gal got as much until the very edges began to slip off the woman. Then she gave a small squeak and grabbed at it, moving closer to gain a little more.

"Yeah. I'm fine .... thanks to you," came the soft bout of appreciation.

"To be fair, though, I don't think most captains carry spirits in their back pockets. And even so-- next time, I can fight it off." As she said that, she recalled what it had costed Gal to save her. Her gaze flickered to the woman's arm, the concern poorly masked as she searched out the state of the slash.

 

[Gal]

“Just protecting my investment,” Gal replied with a shrug, words sluggish again as the cocoon of warmth lulled her back to sleep.

“Yeah?” Even in her drowsy state, the mocking tone made it through. “And how’re you planning to do that, princess? Gonna talk it to death?”

 

[Selene]

Selene frowned down at her, watching her start to hit the stage of drifting off.

"Or smother you in your sleep," she grumbled, rolling onto her back. The talking and the moving and the pissing had all left her feeling distinctly more awake, but it did little to dull the consequences of the alcohol. Despite her jump in consciousness, she too remained settled down inside the blankets. The reminder of her talking too much would do good to keep her quiet unless addressed again.

 

[Gal]

“Uh-huh,” Gal mumbled into the prickly straw of her pillow. “It’s put up or shut up where I come from, princess.”

“Haere ki te moe, kotiro iti.” She reached over to tug the edge of the sheet over a dishevelled blonde head, her lips quirking up where Selene couldn’t see.

“We go hunting tomorrow. You will enjoy the freedom.”

 

[Selene]

Selene's muffled complaints cut short at the reveal, the sheet flopped back by a pair of pale arms. Her eyes were wide, staring unseeing with excitement up at the ceiling.

Freedom, huh?

The prospect was so delicious she didn't dare utter a word and risk shattering the illusion.

"Right," Selene breathed after a spell, acknowledging her. She turned on her side, giving Gal her back as she put on her best behavior. "Good night." Her native tongue slipped out of her, unnoticed to her as she continued to stare in anticipation at the cabin wall. Freedom...

She would spend a good portion of the night imagining what that would look like, until the pull of sleep dragged her back under.

A bit too spritely and a touch too young, she had moved to the deck at the first morning light, dressed in pants and a blouse from Gal's own wardrobe. She seemed unaffected by last night's drinks as she tried to make use of a telescope grabbed off Gal's desk. Land had been spotted. It had caused quite the bustle.

 

[Gal]

Gal hadn’t even noticed the missing telescope until she strode loud and foul-mouthed on the deck, grabbed at her belt— and came up empty. Her dark brow frowned as she looked down, but the space where it should hang remained stubbornly empty.

Despite the early hour (and the drink, and the midnight swim, and all the other ill-advised shit pirates got up to) Gal was as eagle-eyed as ever. Dawn was just creeping over the horizon, and nighttime was where Nazrani thrived most.

Unlike her esteemed ancestors, who hunted in the darkness and painted their dark skin darker with blood and tattoos, Gal used her sharp sight to spy her spyglass in the grubby hands of one thieving lass.

At the sound of her voice every man on the ship snapped-to and shuddered.

“Selene!”

 

[Selene]

Selene turned, a grin on her face as she looked up from the spy glass. "There's land."

 

[Gal]

“It’s Cortosi. Of course there’s land.” Gal snatched her telescope from Selene’s pale fingers, folding it and stuffing it into her belt.

“That over there is Gagnano,” she said after a few beats, pointing to a ridge of land far off the port quarter. “But it’s just rocks and a couple fishing villages.” She wrinkled her nose. “Not even worth raiding.”

“Anyway, we’re not going. Ascia, though.” She turned to lean on the gunwale, jerking her chin to an emerging green slope on the starboard side of Her Ladyship. “Lee side’s got hunting grounds for miles.”

Her mouth split into a toothy smile. “You ever fish, princess?”

 

[Selene]

Selene furrowed her brows at each piece of land pointed out to her. Admittedly, it had been some time since she had heard their names in a tongue that wasn't her own. Her mind churned as it pulled up lessons of maps and lands and languages until she began to piece things together. She blinked, interrupted by Gal's strange question.

Vocabulary spun through her head, slow and dredging as she replayed the question through her mind.

"You mean... like... the food?" She responded slowly, not wanting to sound uneducated. Oh no. Never that. "Yes... I do believe fish is accessible in Vel Anir. It's not that far from the sea." The look Gal received suggested she was the uneducated one for thinking otherwise.

 

[Gal]

Gal chanted in her head about the fantastic heap of gold she would receive upon delivery of this little princess, unharmed, into the hands of her bastard (but rich. so very rich) father.

It was what stayed her hand in the end.

Might’ve flicked the insufferable blonde overboard elsewise.

(And then jumped after to drag her back up.

Again.)

“Yes, like the food,” she said instead, making use of her most unimpressed drawl. If it worked in negotiations with Cerak cutthroats, it should work on a Anir highborn.

Right?

“Except you have to catch it, alive and wiggling, with a piece of string on a stick.” Her lips ticked up, already self-satisfied at the thought of Selene failing miserably at menial work. “Think you’ll manage?”

 

[Selene]

Selene caught the tone, her joyful mood dropping to insulted in beat. Her lips pinched in return. The was a long silence, her thoughts hidden behind a prim expression.

"Of course," she replied, dropping right out of their shared language and using her own tongue. "The same way you manage with Common I would assume. And don't get me started with High Anirian." That tongue was switch to in turn, Selene turning with a dramatic flair that sent her hair whipping up right into Gal's face.

"Insufferable pirates, always spoiling the best of things.-- I'll need a pair of shoes." She did not return to Mantessant.