viara_tremaine (viara_tremaine) wrote in thedas, @ 2009-12-19 09:34:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! narrative, & 9:45 (4) eluviesta, @ viara tremaine |
Character narrative: Choice
Who: Viara Tremaine. Guests Elven Pirates #1-3 (one of whom is named Reara) and Precious Cargo (all NPCs)
Where: Aboard The Northern Star, in the dead of night.
When: Four days ago
Summary: Precious cargo is welcomed aboard.
Rating: K-T, for brief language
Viara couldn't take two steps without something apparently needing her attention. Crossing the deck from the kitchens towards her quarters was like facing a gauntlet of inane questions, and she snapped her teeth together in annoyance. There were too many new people aboard for her temper to take. Her heart reminded her that it was for some kind of greater good, but the rest of her wanted to throw them all overboard. She really must be getting soft as Bob had proclaimed - she'd bought more precious cargo in a shorter amount of time than she ever had before. This must be why she normally didn't do that. Lesson learned.
She'd already sent two younger children scampering when an older elf - must be 17 or so - popped seemingly out of nowhere to her left, coughing as if requiring an audience. Patience, Vi. She gripped her hands into fists a few times and stopped, although her skin crawled with tension and exasperation.
"Uh, Captain Vi?"
"It's Captain. Just Captain."
"Sorry, Captain." The elf mumbled and Viara turned her head quickly, allowing the elf to see her exasperation. This one she'd picked up on the shores of Highever making a run of legitimate shipments along the Waking Sea. He hadn't been rescued, he'd simply volunteered. Apparently she'd saved one member of his family or another, Vi couldn't remember, but she did recall his youthful face and striking blonde hair.
He was a mess of a pirate. Too young, too naive, too good. But she made the same deal with him she'd made with the others who wanted to try their hand on board, and Vi kept sworn promises. But only if she swore. He was currently mumbling and shuffling his feet along the docks, traumatized by such very simple chastisement. She hadn't even raised her voice. Pathetic.
"What. Is it?"
"Oh! Ah. Are we going to be docked here for the next day?"
"...That is the usual arrangement, yes." Viara found herself perusing his skull and wondering if it was especially thick. Had he not picked up on any of the boat protocol yet? The Star ran like clockwork.
"And me and the others can get off?"
Vi snapped her teeth together. These were not questions for the Captain.
"Yes, boy."
"Uhm, and we can go to...Th-The Pearl?"
Vi widened her eyes at the ridiculousness of the question. "I don't care if you go to suck the titties of Andraste herself, so long as you're back by nightfall." Viara growled and the boy yelped, stepping back out of her way before she bowled him over, continuing towards her quarters.
Honestly. Asking permission to go whoring.
If they were confined to the boat, they would have known already. She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath of air. Young ones like that always riled her temper, and she was incensed anyway at having to have paid more for the precious cargo than usual. Money was thin. She was going to have to wait awhile before the next batch, and that pricked at her above all.
Two slim bodies flashed at the periphery of her vision, and Vi came to a halt, recognizing one and letting out a sigh of relief. Reara.
"Captain." The woman's voice was crisp, and Vi turned on her heels to regard her and the younger woman with her. Both were black of hair, but Reara was infinitely more able on her feet, and of an age with Vi. She made a note of the younger elf's face in the starlight - lean, with scars around her neck. She'd chosen well, if she'd chosen to follow Reara. Good judgment.
"Reara. Is everything settled in the forward hold?"
"Stuffed to the brim. Came to tell ye there's no more room. Alerrin's takin' some weight out as it is and movin' it back. He said ye'd want to know."
Vi crinkled her brow and nodded. She was a bit obsessive about everything on her boat, but Alerrin knew that, and he'd make a note of exactly what had gone where and tell her in detail, later. It could be a week or a month later, and he'd still know.
"Aye. Off with you." She waved a hand and Reara nodded, moving and beckoning the girl with her. In general, the crowd on board was finally beginning to move below decks - she could hear sounds and shouts below her feet. That was good.
Finally making it to her cabin, Viara took a long breath and stepped inside, kicking the door closed behind her and immediately taking off her brown leather jerkin and boots, throwing them in the direction of her bed. With bare feet gripping the worn wood of her deck, she immediately felt better, and started to pace a little back and forth to calm herself, stopping in front of a small mirror she kept on one side of the quarters.
She looked tired, very tired. Viara's hair, long and auburn and almost never neat, hung limply around her shoulders, and she had bags under her medium-brown eyes. Her tunic was too big; but then again, they almost always were, and of the crimson color she usually wore. It was cinched neatly to her small waist with a black leather belt, and her tight-fitting black breeches clung to her legs, tapering to her ankles, where she'd cut them off raggedly. It didn't matter -- boots covered it when she needed to look presentable. Her rapier rested at her left side, her dirk was in a sheath at the small of her back. She raked her fingers back through her heavy hair a few times and scoffed, turning from the mirror. Her quarters were undisturbed, as usual, even considering that the precious cargo had been marched through here. A bed, a bookshelf, a small desk, a mirror - she kept it spartan. The bookshelf was the most important, but she would deal with the ledger later.
Viara padded towards the wall between bed and bookshelf and slid her foot under the bed, hitting a pressure pad that caused the wall between them to swing open, and she walked down stairs to the forward hold, the door closing behind her.
~*~
The five of them were huddled there, in the small room she'd carved out of the confines. There was basically enough room for them to stand or lay down in the hammocks provided; the space was small, but she kept it clean. As Viara entered, the lantern-light in the room revealed that the man had obviously taken charge, and he stood in front of the other four as Vi entered. Her hand went to the hilt of her rapier for half a heartbeat before she realized that they would not fight - one never knew.
They stared at her. She stared back for a long moment, and then cleared her throat.
"Welcome aboard The Northern Star. I am the Captain of this vessel. That is all you need to know of me. I have bought you, but as of this moment I no longer consider myself your owner. You are free."
As one, they blinked, and Viara continued, the speech practiced and precise.
"You have one day to tell me what you would like of me. If you want me to take you somewhere, you will ride aboard this vessel until we make berth at the area of your wishes, during which time you will make yourself useful in whatever way you are fit. If you want to return to Denerim, you will be let off the boat tomorrow night. If you wish to remain onboard indefinitely as a member of my crew, you will have a trial period of two months in which I assess your worthiness. However, be aware this is not by any means a simple merchant boat, and I am in charge. If you do not like the lifestyle I provide, you may leave at any time. Simply tell me. If, after two months, I do not think you should stay aboard, I will leave you wherever I happen to be at the time, though I swear I will not leave you before such. Is that understood?"
Viara waited. Normally, it took a few minutes for the information of freedom and you get to make a choice to sink in, and this time it was no different. She watched their faces, eyes flicking back and forth, absorbed. The old woman seemed to ever-stiffen as Viara made her announcement, and the two younger children shook, eyes wide as they looked to each other in complete indecision. The man was... stoic, and watchful. The woman was weepy. They seemed to calm after a few minutes and returned to looking at Viara, and she continued on in the same detached, matter-of-fact manner.
"You have until tomorrow at nightfall to make your decision. In the meantime, if you are ill or in need of assistance, tell me now, and I will see you get attention. During the evening hours you have free roam of the entire ship, but in the daylight, you are not to go topside. Directly behind you is the door to the lower decks and the rest of the ship. The door I came through is one-way only; you cannot go out through it. You will eat with my crew and you will sleep here, and if you remain on-board, you will be assigned duties by myself or my first, Alerrin. My crew will not be cruel to you, but you are not to get in their way unless instructed."
Thus finished, Viara looked around one last time at them, waiting for inevitable questions or declarations of illness, although this particular group seemed prone to silence. Maybe their voices were all beaten out of them. She growled inwardly at the thought, but nodded after she considered enough time to have passed.
"Very well. I suggest you get some sleep."
She moved forward and the elves parted before her stiffly. Without words, she demonstrated how to open the door to the rest of the hold and ducked through, moving between tightly-packed crates and sacks. It really was full - just in time to make a run of deliveries. By feel in the pitch black she found her way to the stairs leading upwards, gulping in more air.
How anyone could live in a cramped little house was beyond her - it always gave her claustrophobia to be below for any length of time, but it always seemed to help the ones she rescued. What happened to them next was entirely up to them, and as always, Vi smiled at the thought, wondering how long it had been since any of them had made a choice about anything.
Choice was the most important thing in the world.