Time: Evening
Location: The Bridge
Interactions: No One
Elenei sighed.
The diminutive woman stood at an old, c-shaped oaken desk, it took up about half of the room, and sat in front of the windows. One whose legs had so lovingly been sawn in half by the crew to accommodate for her height, her hands were pressed against the table and fully extended from her body as she leaned against the table, no one ever came in here anyway, 'sides the lookouts and occasionally Aharuhn for...
Aharuhn reasons. So her only real company here was this damn table. It might have even been considered nice once, if not for the years of wine spilled into it, the wobble of one of it's legs, and the creeping sea rot that eventually got to everything around here. It smelled distinctly of death, which comforted Elenei more than she could say. The desk was here before here-- The 777 willing it would probably be here after her, yet somehow it felt like an freshly-made companion every day, still.
Strewn about on this mess of a desk were all the tools a navigator of her caliber could ever want or need. Sextants, calipers, sea maps, nautical charts, both fake and real, common logs both broken and unbroken, for some reason, a whole mess of calipers, mostly broken out of frustration-- she even had an astrolabe. Who even used those anymore? Well, her Pa was an old school kind of guy-- to her, these tool were mostly superfluous-- for him, it was important she know how to get back home no matter what and well...
She looked at the dusk with a gleam in her eye, a small smile could help but creep it's way across her face.
Well, she preferred the night. For many reasons, some more lustful than others, sure-- the smile became a smirk, as she thought of all of her conquests from over the years, fair tavern wenches, busty maids, lonely noble-men's wives, and there were so many innocent things to deflower-- the smile became a bit more bashful as she thought to her failed attempts, namely, pretty much every female member of her crew. She would get her sweetest Nur, as far as Elenei was concerned, that flower simply required being in the right place, at the right time for... Captain Nightingale was forever a game of cat and mouse, she liked flirting with her sure, but at some point you have to up the ante. Cap didn't swing her way, sure, but perhaps if there was a mediator... Yes! Malek would do perfectly, too-- Elenei may be a bit oblivious, but she wasn't blind, there was definitely something there between the First Mate and the Sweet Captain... and honestly? If Elenei
had to be with a guy...
She shook her head. Taking note that she had begun to lean against the wall rather casually as she fantasized about threesomes. Debauchery wasn't the only reason she was fond of the night. The ship she basically grew up on, The Black Ballerina, was painted, well, black! This made sailing during the day a gamble, any vessel takes that risk in these waters, but at night it makes you practically invisible-- to pirates and Navy alike. The Mermaid's Fortune wasn't entirely black, but it was mostly-- which meant it would be a challenge for many navigators to see it at night. As a creature well versed in betting, Elenei would take those odds over the bright whites of more boisterous pirates and the Navy any day.
As the sun completed setting and the sky continued to darken, revealing the glittering stars above, Elenei's smile became a toothy grin. There was another, more personal reason she preferred the night, and that was the stars. Elenei pulled her favorite star map out of one of the many inner chest pockets of her vest, this one was well-wrinkled and worn around the edges, and signed with her Pa's initials in the corner. She doubted she would need it, but she liked having it out still, it made her feel as if her Pa was with her, watching her, helping her along somehow. She didn't know. It was silly, but she enjoyed the thought, so she hung on to it.
She spread the chart out mostly on auto-pilot as she gazed up at the glittering white lights in the sky, gaining her bearing much easier from the sky than from the chart. Her Pa used to say that the stars were all 777 gods winking down on us, granting us a wee bit of fortune in our journeys-- and the luckiest of all also happened to be the dimmest-- the runt of the gods, and if you could find him, he would be the one that would always take you home. Elenei believed this tale fervently as a whelp, and spent months trying to practice techniques to find the runt star from all over. She can find it easily now, of course-- the trick is to look for his family, they surround him in an upside-down 7 shape. Leaning over the star chart, Elenei easily performed the technique she had so struggled with as a child. Looking out the windows of the bride into the night sky, she closed one eye, she reached out with her right hand, fingers locked together save for the thumb, which jutted out to left forming the "7." she searched for but a moment before she found him. The dimmest little runt in the night sky.
She wondered if she believed his stories, sometimes. After all she'd seen, and heard from all kinds of different people from all kinds of different backgrounds. She felt bad for thinking it at times, but there probably were more than 777 stars in the night sky. She had no way of knowing, it's not like she could ever count them all-- it was just a hunch. Not really a place of study where people like her belong anyway. But, and maybe she was just stubborn for this, she believed his his dreams and myths and fantasies anyway. Even if she logically knew they weren't always true, she believed them fully, even now. Someone needed to carry on his stories, anyway. And what good was a daughter who couldn't even do that?
"It's okay," She spoke gently to the star,
"Big sister Elenei's here t' spend some time wit' ya now." Finding the star would have made her smile, were she not already grinning. She reached for a bottle of wine that wasn't there and her smile dimmed a bit. It occurred to her that she
still hadn't eaten. She hadn't eaten anything all day! She pushed these thought's aside and returned to the star, he'd just poked his head out! She wanted to at least know where she was going before she left him alone, even for a few minutes.
"Ya know..." She continued speaking to the star,
"I prolly would be yer big sis, wit' you bein' a runt n' all... ya might nah know this, bein' so far away an' all, but 'M actually pretty tall fer a Gnome, 'specially a lady-Gnome." She paused, to let that sink in,
"'M taller than all my brothers, I am. An 'M strong too! I coulda gone into sportin'!" She nodded, satisfied with the star's non-response. She pulled out a good pair of calipers, and between, glances at the stars, the ocean, and the helmsman--- charted a course for tomorrow, and if the weather was bad, the next few days after that.
Much of today was spent between the lookouts, Royston the helmsman, and her, pulling whatever maneuvers they collectively knew out of their asses to avoid sinking them all. Furling and unfurling the sails as rapidly as possible, rudder switching, firing cannons at boat carcasses in the way, relying on sheer luck.... Getting a ship this big into Parlay Cay was one thing, getting it out? As soon as you've woken up? Without prior knowledge of important things like...
the wind and weather? Needless to say, the entire navigation crew could use a break. Elenei was glad to be done with it all, aside from the occasional crag of rock and half-drunk lookout could spot from several knots away, Parlay's perils didn't stretch this far out into the ocean.
Elenei sighed once more, followed by a growl in her stomach.
Her job, aside from giving the rotating crew of helmsmen direction, was done, thanks to the runt star, and the relative ease of orders from the Captain. She wanted the fastest route to Shadowmount. That was easy. Hugging Sunken Reef we'll run right into it if we go south-west. Speaking of! She went to tap Mr. Royston on his back for some of the first non-frantic human interaction she'd had in hours.
"Hay," She pulled out her compass, north-- good, with Parlay Cay this far behind them they could safety follow along the edge of the island with reefs and such messing up the hull,
"Head south-west-west for now, come mornin', we're headin' south-west-- this is a good distance from th' island 'n I want t' keep it," The man responded with a single gruff nod. Gods, what a smooth guy.
She was halfway headed back to the bridge before she heard the Captain's booming voice. Rousing speeches were always her forte. Elenei didn't know how she did it. She supposed she'd have to learn, if she ever wanted to become Pirate Queen. Anyway! Booze was mentioned? She wasn't a rum girl herself, but perhaps someone could be convinced to uncork a bottle, or 12, of the King's Red? And a fiddler kitten... the Captain knew Elenei's love for music... and pussy, had she gotten her a gift perhaps? Yes... she would certainly participate in the night's festivities, and luck be with her she remember almost none of it come morning.
Elenei's stomach let out another growl. She sighed. Yes, yes-- she would get drunk as hell and hopefully fuck SOME woman on this ship, but first, she would eat.
kapuchu
