WHO: Isabela & Molly WHEN: December 29th WHERE: The docks & the Siren’s Call II WHAT: Loading barrels of rum and coming up with a clearly genius future endeavor. WARNINGS: A lot of cuteness and general past trauma for Molly.
No matter which way you sliced it, rum was the best thing in the world - well, one of the best things. Let’s just say it was up there on the list - along with a refreshing sea breeze kissing your cheeks with salt, good sex, and good food. And family times, of course, which she cherished more so these days now that she was older and recognized how important shit like that was.
Both rum and family were a feature for today. Isabela’s booze cruise hustle had become an actual business of sorts - she was doing well with it, and had found herself a decent crew composed of some Outlanders and some locals. Getting to sail and earn cash was all she could have hoped for, and she was glad the Siren’s Call II had appeared here in Vallo in a completely fortuitous stroke of good luck - all of it was much better than wheeling and dealing at a stuffy Black Emporium, and she only did that because she was ride or die for Hawke. Now that Hawke was gone, well - no sense in keeping that up.
But alright, back to the rum. She had barrels of it, the good stuff, dark and boasting so many complex flavors and notes from tobacco to caramel. It tasted of swaying in a hammock on the beach, and was completely perfect for her cruises. The weather was weird but she still embarked on them since many of the surrounding islands operated on their own weather patterns, and were still quite sunny. That was why she enlisted Molly to help her load the barrels of rum onto the ship, into the cargo hold. These barrels were full of the stuff she’d been brewing for awhile, and she figured it would all go quickly.
Lots of drinkers around here.
She wasn’t a huge fan of cars, or trucks, but was mostly alright with renting one to drive to the port town. The barrels of rum were all in the back, loaded there by Molly, and Isabela stopped to get them both coffee in case some fueling up was needed. “Almost there,” she said cheerfully, from the driver’s seat. It was essentially a giant carriage, this thing. “Thanks for helping me out today, love. All the booze cruise passengers will appreciate the rum.” There was nothing like it, saluting the setting sun with a glass in hand. One of the best parts of life on the water.
Molly might have taken a long time to get to the point where she agreed to stay with adults again. The last one had tried to kill her friends. Probably her eventually. But she was here instead with none of her friends except for Rufus. It was weird to feel so separate from home and yet also so surrounded by the wrong people she knew (or at least knew about) from home. She didn’t personally know Pietro or Kurt, but she’d heard of Kurt at least. Nightcrawler. It was about as weird a name as any other. Unfortunately, there was also Captain America and Iron Man. She didn’t like that, but she’d allowed for a very prolonged, probably years long probation until she was certain they weren’t up to something decidedly not good.
But so far Isabela and Diego had proven to be not murderous or anything. And they didn’t treat her like a baby, which was nice. She’d grown to like them. And she liked that she could get coffee and carry heavy things without being told she’d stunt her growth. And it was fun to get to go on a pirate ship sometimes.
She was comfortably sitting in the truck, legs folded as they drove along to the dock. She smiled brightly as she looked over at Bela, tugging her fish hat down on her head more securely. “It’s heavy stuff and I can totally carry it! I have TWO-” And at this point, she held up her coffee cups. “Coffees! I’ve got this!” She considered things for a moment. “But I might need a small nap on the ride back.”
Two coffees it was, and Bela didn’t see the harm - coffee didn’t stunt your growth anyway, that was a bloody lie. She had come from a world where science was a joke, it was all magic all the time, and even she knew that much. And she was glad that Molly decided to move into an apartment with her and Diego, one with two bedrooms so she could have her own - they’d gotten everything settled just under the wire too, before the big snowstorm hit, and the thought of Molly being in an abandoned house, in a place with no source of heat, during that -
It didn’t sit well. Perhaps it was those long-dead maternal instincts kicking in, or maybe not. She still didn’t really want babies or whatever, but Isabela had her moments of softness she supposed. Those were applied to a headstrong teenage girl who had been betrayed by so many adults back in her home. She was actually warm and fuzzy over the fact that Molly trusted her and Diego not to try to kill her. So sweet.
“Feel free to take a nap on the way back or at home, I’ve got nothing else planned after this anyway. Some days it’s just too cold to be fucked,” she said wisely, guiding the truck to a stop at the docks. The Siren’s Call II was docked near a couple other ships, but her beautiful lady clearly stood out. “Alright, here we are,” she unbuckled her seatbelt. “You remember where the cargo hold is?”
Molly wouldn’t admit it out loud, but sleeping in the cold, even with all her blankets, was her least favorite, but she didn’t have Nico or Chase to figure all that stuff out for her. They couldn’t fix things and make them livable so they could live in places that weren’t exactly where anyone else was willing to live. They’d made every place into a home and looked out for each other. It was Nico and Chase getting kidnapped that really broke everything up and no one really looked for her after. But things were complicated and it wasn’t really anyone else’s fault. She was just glad she had her grandma and that her friends were okay.
But Bela and Diego were the kind of people she liked and they didn’t seem to mind that she offered them up as points of danger against her perceived enemies based on who they were...even if they weren’t from exactly her universe. That didn’t mean she was going to just trust them. She wanted to know the other mutants, though...even if they were adults. Ew.
Molly perked up when they stopped at the dock, carefully putting her coffees down before opening the door and climbing out. She’d come back for one of those in the middle of the moving part. She grinned widely. “Yep! I remember!” But she needed to carry some barrels, so she’d have to grab them first. She started by carrying about ten out of the truck so that she could more easily grab them and go. “I’ve totally got this!” she said before starting to walk barrels onto the ship like she was carrying Rufus instead.
“Maker’s cock,” Bela chuckled, not expecting Molly to start with so many barrels - but then again, she supposed she couldn’t be surprised at all. The girl was a go-getter, that was for certain. “Here, let me open the hatch for you, love.”
Heading onto the docked ship, taking a breath of that salty air - she liked being close to the water, where every cool draught brought the taste of the sea along with it. Living on her ship was always a dream but she knew Diego wasn’t into it so she compromised - ultimately, he was more important than her ship anyway. Having one wasn’t everything, as she’d learned back in Kirkwall - but it was still nice to have one anyway.
She unlatched the hatch, pulling it open so they could take the ladder down into the cargo hold. There wasn’t much that happened to be exciting in there now, just some supplies - crates, bags, boxes. “Bring down one barrel at a time, maybe?” she suggested. “I can help with that part, at least.” She had impressive enough guns to handle at least one.
It really was just a few at a time, but it was easy. She didn’t really mind. She could lift a whole jeep if she wanted to, but she nodded as she brought one barrel down, setting the other one down on the ship while she went down to the cargo hold. She’d go back for the other barrels and then maybe just leave them on the ship before she took any more down. “Do you have a lot of people coming on the ship soon for the rides?”
She came around the ship sometimes just to watch as everyone got ready to set sail. She thought it was cool how they all worked together and knew what to do. But she didn’t bother them any while they were working. She peered up through the door. “Do you all have to wear bandanas and pirate hats like in the movies?” She was pretty sure the answer was no, but she was curious just how many people dressed the part of a pirate for these cruises.
Weren’t those questions adorable? Isabela chuckled, sliding another barrel toward the hatch and she’d just let Molly grab it - it wasn’t too heavy for her, so Bela didn’t need to worry about the girl getting flattened. So overall a very efficient method for getting this rum down into the cargo hold.
“Bandanas and pirate hats are not required,” she assured. Bela was fond of bandanas herself, usually preferring them when she wanted to keep her hair pulled back and out of her face. “They’re optional. But there’s something about a pirate hat, isn’t there? Arrr,” she added playfully, a little pirate growl and swagger.
As for the people, she was looking forward to the future - her business was doing well, and she was glad she made the choice to go forward with this. It was nice having Diego’s support with it too, when he was basically like ‘do whatever makes you happy.’ And sailing did make him happy. Very happy. “I’ve got quite a few cruises scheduled,” she said merrily. “Some don’t even want to go in the water and lay on the beach, it’s just about lying about on a ship and drinking.” Which was fair, she supposed.
Molly laughed at the act, climbing down the ladder and placing the barrel before coming back up. “It’s not a fish hat, but it’s still pretty cool. There’s probably a pirate superhero. If Victor was here, he could tell you. He knows everyone.” It was possible the pirate was a villain, but she didn’t want to say anything about that.
“Well, I guess not everyone likes swimming, which is dumb cause it’s great. But we didn’t really do a lot of swimming back home either.” She shrugged slightly. She brought another barrel down the ladder. “Maybe we could do a kid’s cruise and have a hot chocolate cruise. Because I definitely can’t have a rum cruise.”
Most of the time pirates were considered ‘villains’ anyway, and Isabela knew for a fact that she wasn’t perfect - she’d done a lot of bad shit (and pilfering booty wasn’t exactly on the up and up when you considered pesky things like ‘the law’ either), but also some decent shit. She freed a ship’s worth of slaves and then had to answer to Castillion, since freed slaves were bad for his trafficking business - and just to protect her own arse, she’d stolen an ancient relic for him, the Tome of Koslun, all of the Qunari’s philosophical brouhaha packed into many old, withered pages. Technically the prize had been in the snooty hands of the Orlesians as a war trophy, but in order to save her own ass, Bela had kind of intercepted the return of the relic to the Qunari. Oops.
But it had all turned out alright in Kirkwall, eventually, after a shipwreck and Hawke battling the Arishok so she wouldn’t be dragged away and punished for her crimes - she even returned the relic eventually anyway. What a ride. Regular piracy was so much simpler.
“Not sure how much of a superhero I’ve ever been, but technically I helped save the world, I suppose?” she mused, thinking back to her raids during the Inquisition. That had been important work. “Never understood people who always want to take over the world anyway. It’s old and tiresome.” And what would they even do with it?
She’d been leaning on a barrel but then stood upright, considering Molly’s suggestion. “Oh, that’s actually a cute idea,” Bela noted. She’d certainly been drinking at the girl’s age but not every teenager wanted to drink - it was admirable. “Plenty of younger ones might appreciate that. Or people who can’t drink for whatever reason. And most everyone loves hot chocolate.”
“I mean, that’s what we did, too.” A few times. Mostly they’d just been living as kids with super powered abilities. It was saving the world when she was eleven. Of course, saving the world meant getting their parents killed and fighting the Skrulls, but that was just part of everything. She kind of missed when they had more to do, but not when ‘more to do’ came with people trying to kill them so they’d look cooler or more tragic or whatever Doc Justice was doing. He super sucked.
“My parents were sacrificing teenagers to some weird gods, so I dunno. They wanted to take over the world, I guess. All our parents.” She didn’t know what the gods wanted with it outside of feasting on souls. That’s probably what it was, but wouldn’t they eventually end up being killed, too? Even if there was an agreement? She was pretty sure they would have. So whether they wanted to allow all six of them to live or sacrifice some of her friends to have adults get to stick around, what would they do?
“Yep! I love hot chocolate. There could be like...all the kinds of stuff to put in it. Like marshmallows and umm...something minty? Maybe candy canes or something. It would be cool. I bet everyone would love it!” Mostly she was sure she would love it. But she didn’t think anyone would really disagree with her.
“Peppermint sticks,” Isabela agreed, and she too was a fan of that whole tingle and burn of mint mixed with the sweet creaminess of hot cocoa - it wasn’t a drink she’d had before arriving in Vallo, but she definitely liked it. “Could do truffles too! Or cookies, little ones. Maybe bits of toffee.”
Now she was just thinking of all the possibilities - and they were entirely delicious, every single one. What a genius Molly was.
And speaking of her little teenaged genius, she noted that all the barrels were now in the cargo hold - well, the ones they’d brought onto the ship. Progress! “I think we’ve still got a couple left in the truck, are you alright to get those?” Bela asked, making sure Molly hadn’t gotten tired or started to overextend herself.
Molly would never disagree with anything where someone considered her a genius. “Yesssss. ALL THE SWEET THINGS!” It sounded delicious and she wanted the delicious cruise of deliciousness to happen. Especially when it meant she could gorge herself. She bounced slightly in place before pulling herself through the doorway.
“Yep! I’m totally fine to get those!” She grinned widely. She’d stop and drink one of the coffees before bringing them back. So she went off and grabbed the coffee from the truck, drinking it quickly before grabbing the last couple of barrels and making her way back to the ship, setting them down on the deck. “So we’re definitely going to do a hot chocolate cruise, right?”
Isabela still had the hatch open - once they got the remaining rum barrels into the cargo hold, they’d be good to go. That hadn’t taken long at all, yet they’d still earned a nap. Well, Molly had - Bela herself didn’t usually take naps. Maybe she’d try, however, since it was fucking cold outside and a good time to wrap up in a few blankets and get cozy.
“Of course! When I announce it and sign sailors up, I’ll make sure to say it was your idea too,” she winked. “I’m sure it’ll be a hit. You’ll be on board too, so you’ve got to enjoy yourself. I’ve got a boatswain who can handle hot chocolate prep.” He already did tea and whatnot, and other sorts of snacks, so she was certain he could handle a hot cocoa bar and maybe some cookies to dunk into it all.
Molly smiled brightly as she started to carry a barrel down into the hull. She placed it and came back up for the others, going one at a time until they were all down in the hull. When she came up after the last one, she rubbed at her eyes and yawned slightly. “I should drink the other coffee soon. Or sleep, I guess.” But she didn’t really want to fall asleep on the ship and then have to be carried off the ship. She remembered when she fell asleep in the middle of a fight and had to be moved out of the way to avoid dying. And her friends had had to carry her sleeping form multiple times.
“But good. We’ll tell all the people and they will ALL come and drink hot chocolate and it will be super awesome.”
Job well done. Bela put her arms around Molly from the side and gave her a squeeze, a hug if you will - she didn’t do this with many people but her barrel-carrying teenager was one exception to that rule.
“Well, alright - I’ve got no more rum to bring onto the ship so we’re good for now,” she promised, closing the hatch and locking it (didn’t want any critters or people getting into the cargo hold). “Thanks for the assist, love. If you want to sleep on the way back that’s alright.”
Or at home, even. If Molly was tired, Isabela would tuck her in and ensure no one bothered her for awhile. Her room looked like a Pokémon shop exploded every which way, but if that was how she liked it then that was the way it was going to be. Because it was nice to have her there - one little happy family, all knives and brute strength. What a delight.