Octavius strode proudly back onto his ship. He'd made some rounds, picked the best of the best for his crew, and now they had a decent enough bunch of cutthroats and killers to get them to the [i]Powder Keg[/i]. With that settled, they needed a name for their ship. He paced the length of the vessel twice before accosting the nearest sailor and ordering them to grab a bucket of paint and a brush, and to find the best ship-painter available on short notice. That didn't take long, mostly due to the fact that everyone was about equally qualified at this point, so he ordered the man who'd volunteered to paint over the current name of the ship, and get ready to re-christen it with something a little more appropriate. It was just a matter of wasting some time until the painter was ready, at which point the captain grinned. "This ship, henceforth, shall be called the [i]Duchess Gambit[/i]." he declared, and the nearby pirates gave him a look.

"Like the albatross?" they wanted to know.

"Exactly like the albatross." he replied. These being new pirates, they had missed the fiasco with the waterspout, so of course they would have to be educated.

"How do you figger? Seem's strange." was the response he got, and one he had expected.

"There's a woman on this crew. She's the first mate, and she's an albatross, I'm sure of it." the crew were understandably upset by the idea of a woman being in charge, but upon hearing that she was an albatross, they got more curious than shocked and angry and scared

"How did you find out?" of course they wanted the whole story. The pirate lord decided they could have the abridged version.

"She steered us straight at a waterspout, and the thing fucked right off, like it were scared of getting hurt by her." he explained, looking very serious. The series emotions that washed across the faces of those in earshot was comical, and Captain Cuttlam wandered off right at that moment. "Get the ship painted." he ordered, wondering what to do about their cargo. He figured that they would need to cash it in at some point, but where? Not here, obviously. But they would definitely need money soon, and they would need to find a market for their valuables before then. Nothing he could do about it just yet, though, and Octavius did his best not to stress about it. He figured they could make do without at least for the time being. He figured it would probably be best to save it all, anyway, since they would need all the resources at their disposal just to catch the [i]Simurgh[/i]. With that in mind, he decided to do nothing for the moment, and instead invest himself in preparing to run down the [i]Powder Keg[/i]. That was going to be entertaining, of that he was very certain...