Chapter Text
“Hey, watch it Racoon!”
“Oof! Oh s-sorry!” The man scoffed and continued to walk away from you. You sighed and continued walking into the port's marketplace. You were looking for a new job and some food for the meantime ‘til you were off again. Off to the next town, hell, maybe off to a new continent. Looking at all the stalls there were no job openings, and that was another reason to get something and head off to a new place, or a new life entirely. It’s not like you haven’t done it before, but this time it’s gonna be harder. You hit the end of the marketplace and look at the giant ships and admire them. One caught your eye. It was the famous Casted Serpent owned by the Heelshires. It was a huge cargo ship with sky blue sails, deep blue painted walls on the outside, and a giant siren at the front. You stared at her for a while. She was carefully carved into the wood, tears lining her perfect yet scaled face, hands with claws cupped to catch who knows, her hair was messy and beautifully framing her.
“Hey, she’s pretty ain’t she?” You jump a bit to the voice and look to your left. There was a woman with curly, shoulder length hair that was tied back with a silk scarf. She has gray-blue eyes and tan, sunkissed skin. She was wearing a cream button up shirt with a red silk scarf around her abdomen, and black ripped jeans with brown, lace up, knee-high boots. She had a honeysuckle sweet smile on her face when she looked at you. You blinked a few times and nodded your head.
“Y-ea, I absolutely love her. Whoever made her really took their time.” You said looking back at the siren. The woman nodded her head.
“Yep, took over ten people to carve her. Her name is Slangekvinnen.” She said, putting a hand on her hip with a calm look on her face. You look over at her and ask,
“What?” She looks at you and chuckles.
“Right, not a lot of people know. Slangekvinnen is Norwegian for The Snake Woman. Though here we like to say Serpent rather than Snake. Sounds better, ya know?” You smile and nod at her. She returns the smile. Then a voice rang through the air.
“Sue! Can you help us out over here! The ropes not being nice!” You heard and you both look over at the ramp. There was another lady. She had long blonde hair with loose curls in the front and a Celtic hair charm. She had green eyes and wore a long, flowy pink dress with a transparent, white over shirt on top along with a red bandana on her head. The woman, who you now know as Sue, smiled and looked over to you.
“Hey, wanna help us out?...” She paused, realizing she didn’t know your name.
“It’s Y/n, Y/n L/n.” You said with a smile. She smiled back.
“Well Y/n, it’s nice to meet ya. Wanna help out? We could use the extra hands.” Your eyes widen a little and you smile and nod. “Great,” She said and grabbed your hand. “Let me take ya to the rest of the crew.”
After a minute you both found yourself on deck with very few people walking around. It was quite the surprise to you since the Casted Serpent is a Full-Rigged-Ship. She takes you over to a man in a blue trench coat with a big brown leather hat that has white feathers sticking out of it. He’s facing away from you and talking with, who you assume to be, a crew mate before Sue shouted over to him.
“Hey, Cap’! Got someone to help out!” The man jumped a bit —The crew mate snickering who then walked away shortly after— and turned to the two of you. The first thing you notice about him is the mask on his face. It covers the right half of his face from the cheek up and his forehead. It’s gorgeous with the white porcelain, and the gold lines making a beautiful organic pattern across it. The left half of his face is exposed. He has a green eye, —you can’t see his right eye due to his mask— a short, thick beard, and tan skin. He has black, short curly hair that seems to be damp due to the sea water —you hope. Along with the coat and hat he was wearing he had on a white ruffle shirt, brown pants and black, knee-high buckled boots. He gave a small smile and walked toward you. “Y/n, this is Captain Heelshire. Though we just call him Brahms.” You smile at him and shake his hand. “Well, Hannibal calls him brat most of the time so I guess that's an option.” He pauses and gives her a look that clearly says, ‘bitch, did you REALLY have to say that?’ She snickers a bit and so do you, and Brahms just sighs.
“I know of ‘im. One of my family members worked for his father before he died.” You say, your smile getting wider. Brahms looks at you with a bit of shock and grins.
“Well I’ll be damned. Who was it? I might’ve known ‘em.” He asks in a semi-thick British accent, bending a bit down toward you. He’s 6’3 and you're 5' 7, average height but he still towered over you.
“My great grandmother, Michelle L/n. I believe she was a cook and nurse when she was a part of the crew.” You tell him, putting a finger to your chin when remembering the last part. His grin grew and he nodded.
“Yep, I knew her before she retired. I never knew she had a grandchild though.” He says. You just smile and nod, and right after Sue chirps up.
“We heard there was somethin’ wrong with the ropes?” She questioned, crossing her arms and supporting her weight on one leg.
“Yea, we’re having some difficulty with cutting one of the gaskets.” Brahms confirms to the both of you. You nod and say,
“I’ve got some experience with gaskets. I’m like a wizard at ‘em. I can unwrap them easily.” and put your hands on your hips triumphantly. Brahms beams and tells you that the Main Royal is the one that's causing difficulty. You accept the task and head off. You easily scale up the Main Mast all the way to the top and start releasing the sail of its rope bindings. Brahms and Sue stare at you with astonishment. They couldn’t have guessed you could do that. When you’re done you cut the gaskets of the rest of the main sails and jump down, landing on your feet with ease. Brahms and Sue walk over to you, Sue wrapping an arm around your shoulders.
“Damn! That was quite impressive there Y/n! You gotta tell me how you got so skilled!” You chuckle and shrug.
“I was on a ship for a while so I got pretty good at it.” You tell her. You look over at Brahms, who has a look of astonishment and shock on his face, and he smiles at you.
“Y/n, do you mind helping out a bit more? We just need some help with loading some more cargo and getting the anchor up.” You smile back and agree to help. He leads you and Sue over to an area with a few crates. “We only have five more but since the crates are heavy it takes a few people.” You nod and the three of you walk over to a crate that was about three feet tall and four feet long. “Alright, Y/n you take the right side, Sue you take the left and I’ll take the back.” You all get in your places, and Brahms counts to three. On three you all lift the crate and make your way to the ship.
Once on the boat you all head down under the deck and down further to the cargo area. You set the crate down and wipe some sweat from your brow. It was hot and humid above on deck but down here was dark and cool, a much needed break from the harsh Australian sun. You all go back up on deck after a few minutes and Brahms asks you something you weren’t completely expecting.
“Y/n,” You hum in response. “Would you like to join the crew?” You pause your steps and look over at him. He's looking down at you, a bit of anxiety clear on his face. “We haven't had that big of a crew since the pneumonia incident with my father, and since you know a thing or two about ships I thought you were perfect to join us.” You grin at him and violently nod your head. Finally, this is what you were looking for. Away from this town, somewhere new, something familiar, something exciting. He grins from ear to ear, and laughs a bit. “Ha! That’s great! It’s gonna be a lot easier with you around.” You chuckle and you both leave to get the anchor up with the others.
“Alright, I assume you know how to weigh the anchor right?” He asks you, tilting his head to the side. You grip a rod on the capstan and nod.
“It's like steerin’ a wheel. Easy as pie.” That makes Brahms chuckle and he calls to the rest of the crew to weigh the anchor. You saw the lady with the pink dress, and Sue again but this time you saw two new people, one of which you saw talking with Brahms. The first one was an older man who has gray hair, some sticking out from under his red bandana. He has green —almost gray— eyes and is wearing a white button up shirt, with a dark brown jacket on top and dark brown pants, with black lace-up boots. The other one —who you saw with Brahms— was much younger, with black hair and brown eyes. He wore a hat similar to Brahms’, but it was black and had no feathers. He was wearing a light green button up with a dark blue trench coat over it. His pants were black and slightly baggy at his calves, but his laced up boots helped reduce it. They all grabbed a bar and Brahms ran off toward the steering wheel, yelling back to start turning. You all start walking, pushing the bars around and around. The physical exertion and the humidity and heat cause you to sweat to where your red button up is sticking to your chest and your h/c locks are stuck to your face. You tough out the heat and keep raising the anchor and finally, it’s up and you can breathe. The humidity makes the air feel thick and almost makes you have a coughing fit.
“Finally! Hooo my god, haven’t done that in a bit!” You shout, laughing a bit at the end. Sue walks up next to you and slaps your back with a grin.
“You did amazing, kid! You’ll make a great addition to the crew!” She congratulated you, grinning up at you. You chuckled a bit at the height difference. It was only three inches but she still had to crane her neck to look up at you.
“Thanks, but I’m not a kid.” You laugh out. She looks at you with a bit of shock.
“Well, how old are ya?” She asks you, tilting her head and crossing her arms.
“I’m 23. Recently had my birthday too.” You tell her, to which she scoffs with a smirk on her face.
“I still have a year on ya! So I’m still gonna call ya kid.” She announces and you roll your eyes at her childishness. Then the lady with the pink dress comes up to the two of you.
“Sue, who’s this?” She asks, entwining her arm with Sue’s. Sue turns to her with an expression that says ‘oh right, forgot.’
“Hey, everybody! This is Y/n! And it seems like he’s gonna be a new member of the crew.” She says as the other two come over. Before the younger man can say something the older one speaks up.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Mr. Y/n but we gotta get this ship sailing. Everyone get your asses in gear.” He announces and everyone goes to where they need to be. You decide to help set the foremast with the young man. You and the rest of the crew hear the command ‘Sheet home lower Topsails!’ from Brahms and everyone gets to work. Since there are only a few of you —including Brahms who decided to help you guys a bit before getting back to the wheel— you guys had to focus on one mast at a time. Going from foremast to main to mizzen, which took an exhausting amount of work. You were used to working with at least twelve other people when doing this, but there were only six of you including Brahms every now and then. ‘Hoist upper topsails!’ is heard and you groan and already feel dizzy, but you do as commanded so that you can get out of the port. You all haul the halyard and the upper topsails are finally set. You then hear the command for the top Gallents and royals, sigh, and get right to it. After that you all get the sails in the correct angles and the ship starts moving out. A few adjustments are made and the ship is fully out and floating away from port. You all cheer and you yawn, you’re absolutely exhausted. You haven’t eaten a ton today and you just did the most physically tiring thing you’ve ever done in a long time. The young man from earlier, who you now knew was called Norman, came over to you and put a hand on your shoulder.
“A-are you o-okay? You-you’re sw-swaying a bit.” He asks, his voice and face are flooded with concern. You nod and tell him,
“Y-yea I’m fine. But I definitely need to sit down for a bit.” You’re defensive and don’t like admitting when you need help, but you knew it was better to admit you were tired then fall flat on your face and risk getting hurt. Norman nods and leads you down to the lower deck and over to the berths where the crew slept. He opens a door to a very small room with a bunk, window, a desk with a candle in a brass taper holder, and a dresser that has two big drawers. He leads you to the bunk and sits down on the bottom bed. He says he’ll be back and leaves the room, closing the door behind him. You lay down on the bed after he leaves and don’t notice when you pass out.
You wake up to the sound of a door slowly creaking open. You brush it off as Norman coming to check on you and try to fall back to sleep. But the overwhelming feeling of dread washes over you like a tsunami and the weird muttering and whispering finally reach your no longer deaf ears, and makes you realize. ‘That’s not Norman’. When you open one of your eyes the room is now dark, the only light being the candle on the desk next to you. You immediately regret your decision to make your wakefulness known when you look above you to see the silhouette of a person, and the only thing clearly visible being their owl-like eye, illuminated by the candle light. Surprisingly you don’t scream. You don’t even move, hell, you barely breathe as you have a staring contest with this unknown entity. That is until you finally decide to speak.