Thread: A Zailor's Life (Sunless Sea, Red/Tune)

Czarina kept meticulous records. Legal cargo was to be sealed, stamped, and delivered promptly to receive the maximum payment offered by the contractors willing to hire the Haypenny Whore for their delivery needs. In her tiny, cramped office aboard the rogue vessel - which was really just a repurposed supply closet big enough to put in a filing cabinet, a squeaky chair, and a desk Marcus was kind enough to saw in half for her - she kept ledgers upon ledgers, neatly stacked, that detailed every single transaction and voyage the Haypenny had taken since she joined its crew eight years ago. She started off as a simple zailor looking to escape the gutters and trash bins of London, but she had one quality that made her recognizable above all the others an eidetic memory. And that was where the ledgers detailing the contents of all their illegal goods were kept. It was hard to find proof of smuggling when it wasnt written down. The nimble redhead with a pleasant bust and rump, who wore her hair down in long, loose crimson curls, was an asset to the Haypenny, which was why her pretty little mind was best put to work not on the ships deck, but rather in the wheelhouse, navigating the long stretches of nearly endless zee so that the crew could find its way home again. She bore the title of First Officer proudly. Near the rear of the ship, a lone figure stared off into the darkness, her plump lips wrapped around a smoke that showed up as a faint little red glow against the nothingness of the zee. Rubys dark hair, as always, was swept back into a tight ponytail, her trousers held up by suspenders over the dirty, grease stained shirt she normally wore to zee. As the ships gunner, she was responsible for the Haypennys equipment. She took care of the deck and forward guns, as well as polishing the light on the bridge that lit their way. She worked hand in hand with Marcus to keep the ship up in tip top working order, but her specialty was blowing the zee monsters to bloody little bits if they came within a hundred yards of the Haypenny. Ruby grew up a butchers daughter and never had qualms about killing anything, but she prefered to do it with a long range weapon rather than a butchers knife. Her heavy boots made loud thumps against the deck as she walked up towards the front they were docking. Wolfstack Harbor was relatively safe, but she gave the men and women on the docks a steely stare, just daring them to touch the beautifully polished guns she so casually called her babies. Among those in the crowd was a young, fair haired lass named Cynthia. She had been at the docks since dawn, waiting for the Haypenny to pull into the harbor. She wore a full length blue dress with white lace, her hair pulled back into a neat little bun at the base of her neck. She did not fit in with all the gruff dock workers and zailors, but she hoped to change that soon. Convincing her sister, Czarina, to put in a good word with the Haypennys captain took a lot of hard work. Her sister would have rathered that Cynthia finish her schooling, become a teacher, and settle down in the nicer side of London But like Czarina, Cynthia could not deny that something in the darkness of the zee called to her. As children they ate from garbage cans on the dock, watching the dark waves roll in, weaving their own stories about what it must be like to be a zailor Czarina went on to realize that dream, sending money back to put Cynthia up with a good family and send her to a good school, making a proper young lady out of her sister. But the blonde wanted more. Their father, as far as they knew, had been a zailor thats where Cynthia swore she got the zee fever from. Supposedly he died in the darkness and for one reason or another, she had been driven to see the same things he did Perhaps she could even find his bones. Cynthia waved to the crew as they began to disembark, most importantly to her sister. She planned on taking the place of the cook they lost at zee when the last one shacked up with a monkey in the Empire of Hands It was mildly disturbing to think of a man and a monkey together, but it presented as the perfect opportunity for Cynthia to join. Now she just needed to convince the captain.