Chapter Text
When you lived in the New World there were certain things you sometimes had to get used to. Such was life. Not that you knew much about anything outside of the New World, or outside of your island really. When you lived in Storm’rilla you were lucky to get proper education on learning how to read. Shit, you’d be kissing God’s ass learning how to read a single letter from a fucking rat. The population sitting either in absolute poverty or barely hitting the average line of income to get by. There were no riches in an environment such as this.
How could there be? Storm’rilla had barely anything to offer in terms of resources or services. In fact, if you tried to remember the last time anyone had ever wanted to do business here, you wouldn’t be able to find a single point in time where they didn’t immediately change their mind as soon as they got here.
People not wanting to have anything to do with this place did invite a crowd you weren’t particularly fond of. Criminals. Of all kinds, really. Some seeked shelter from the watchful eye of the navy that never bothered to show their face here anyway unless it was in the form of a bunch of power hungry soldier who wanted to push some little people around without getting the hammer, some just wanted to have a place to do their crooked business deals at without having to worry too much about keeping up civil appearances.
It usually wasn’t difficult to decipher who was a local and who wasn’t based on the fact the locals were dressed for war. You kind of had to be if you lived in a place that had raindrops as large as your own head coming from the sky over 16 hours a day and sometimes all day, all week.
Usually clad in robust uniforms that let neither strong winds nor cold water inside, heads covered in helmet like constructions to keep from drowning if the rain got particularly cruel that day and of course, never to forget and lost without it, a sturdy umbrella made out of nothing but solid steel that were coated with rubber to not attract lightning. If you tried your luck with a regular umbrella you were being an idiot and laughed out of any town in the village. If you lived long enough to witness it. The only upside to such a getup really being the muscle you ended up developing just to stay upright. Even you, weakest of your group, had probably more than the average traveller.
But the rain wasn’t even the worst part, be wary of winter when it turned into hail and going alone outside was only possible if you had enough shoulder strength to keep from buckling when a literal barrage of cannonballs hammered down on your umbrella. You, personally, didn’t have that, so winter times were spent inside and digging in the mines for the little resources that were left.
The population was holding out, despite being as oppressed as it was. Day in and day out, the people of Storm’rilla prevailed in the face of difficulty, the weather and the scum of the underworld making life more difficult than it already was when you could barely feed yourself but if there was one thing they were, it was persistent. The locals all had that in common, the biting drive to live even when the odds told them that life would never get better. Still, their numbers were slowly going down if only for the dwindling resources, people dying because of the crime count going up and illness taking hold.
The lucky bastards that managed to fight their way out of this place was who you wanted to be.
If there were any windows, you’d be looking out to the world to contemplate your life but windows were made out of glass and you don’t think you’ve ever seen a single piece of glass in this place. You’ve lived here for your whole life too, so you were pretty sure that Storm’rilla either never had any resources for glass or people were smart enough to not absolutely waste those resources on something that would be ultimately useless in this place.
You could hear the persistent hammering of the heavy hail outside, cursing winter time as you turned your to look at the other people currently occupying this space with you. Never having been able to live on your own on account of a weaker structure you’ve been nothing short but a leech on society, they took pity on you and made sure you lived but the bitter resentment of having to do anything at all to keep you around was well felt even today.
People didn’t talk to you unless they wanted to try their luck and see if you were desperate enough to whore yourself out for an extra piece of bread.
No. The answer was always no. Would always be no.
But if there was something that was good in being ignored and not being taken for full was that people didn’t care if you heard them or not. So, word got around. There was a pirate ship that had dared to dock during winter and was still holding out ar the harbor. The mere thought of what kind of monster ship that had to be just to exist here while there were balls of ice hammering down and splintering whatever fragile thing was left out there made you wanna see it.
That was the problem though, wasn’t it? There was no safe way for you to leave the habitational quarters unless you wanted to be hammered to death. The hail was too strong for you to make it five steps outside without buckling and if your umbrella failed.. the thought made you wince. It wasn’t too rare that once winter ended and people ended going outside again they would find corpses left and right, clobbered to nothing but a fucking paste. Unrecognizable, made by the hail. You didn’t wanna end like that. It made you ill to think about it, honestly. But you plotted regardless.
You thought, harder and harder, looking to see if there wasn’t a way to go and check it out. There had to be. If you were going to be stuck in this shithole until the odds finally overwhelmed you, you wanted to see a real ship before you went out. One of the ships you always dreamed of boarding and leaving this fucking place with. But the how was almost impossible to come up with. You had a single umbrella and the same uniform as everyone else, no other resources were in your name. You could crawl maybe but with the suit you’d never fit underneath.
Unless you went without the suit..
The mere idea had you almost laugh out loud from the sheer stupidness of it. You didn’t, opting to just smiling tiredly to yourself and ignoring the few odd glances that got you.
But time passed. Whether it was night or day was only told based on if you could see anything looking out of the doors or not. People talked, the ship was still there. You got more desperate. It was like you had developed a sudden addiction to danger and you needed your fix. There wasn’t a sensible explanation to your sudden urge to see this ship in person but the more people talked about it from the snippets caught by the provision gatherers, the more you felt like you would die if you didn’t at least check it out once. You had to.
In the end you broke on day five. Previously having chuckled over the sheer idea you found yourself dressed in nothing but a piece of fabric that resembled more a sack of potatoes than anything else, armed with nothing but a broken umbrella. It wasn’t yours. You had, dumb fucking idiot that you were, traded your whole umbrella for a broken one. People were staring at you as if you had finally gone insane and two senior members of your hive had attempted to convince you that you could still grow stronger, you’d just need a little bit more time.
Supposedly, you got why they thought you were about to kill yourself. With nothing but your clothes, no fucking shoes unless you decided to try and go with uniform after all and a broken umbrella.
There wasn’t a lot to be said except thank you, maybe you’d be back later and then you were off in probably the most dehumanizing way ever invented on this earth. As soon as the door opened you ducked down, put the shell of metal over you and inched outside like a fucking turtle. You probably looked mad to anyone looking at you right now but knowing the law, the doors were already closed again as soon as you had stepped out. Which left you with nothing but yourself. Maybe this was really it. Maybe you had gone mad. Maybe this was your last ditch effort of seeing anything worth while before you majorly bit it. Turned to paste like all those before you.
You hadn’t thought this through.
Struggling to climb over mountains of hail while being bombarded from above was like an extreme sport no one should ever invent or practice. You’re not gonna make it. You barely even knew where you were going, only able to catch occasional glimpses at landmarks in the form of large blocks of steel that had dented and bent in the wrong shapes. How much time passed was beyond you, you just knew that it was crawling at a snails pace while you attempted to breathe, trying to not just give into the sweet release of closing your eyes and going to sleep when your hands and knees were bleeding from cutting themselves on masses and masses of ice.
Inch by inch. You kept crawling like the loser you were, driven by the minimal shimmer of hope that maybe this view would be worth it. Maybe there was something more than this. Just a glance of the outside world and it would be ok, you just had to see it. A ship of the New World, able to withstand this awful place in ways you as a local had never been able to.
With a struggling wheeze you managed to crawl pathetically over another mountain of hail, sweating and feeling hot despite the biting cold underneath and around you. Maybe you were freezing to death, also an option. It was below the freezing point after all. The exercise was only dragging out the inevitable at this point. Where were you? You couldn’t see dirt- had you gone the right direction? Where you even still in the village? Anywhere near the harbor? Checking outside there was nothing but ice and wind. Whiteness, nothing else. There was nothing.
You knew better than to waste your energy on tears but the biting frustration of having maybe killed yourself over nothing made you wanna just get up and scream at the sky. Obviously you didn’t but you had to figure out where you came from and start the crawl of shame back to the habitation quarters.. if they’d even let you back in. Some were probably rejoicing in no longer having to feed you. Bastards. All of ‘em.
God you’re fucking tired. It was getting worse, it was getting dark. You couldn’t do this as long as you thought. Realizing there wouldn’t be a crawl of shame back made you feel like the biggest idiot in the universe, having given it all up for a dumb ship in the middle of winter. Your arms refuse their service, so do your legs. It’s getting colder without you moving much anymore. It was cold enough to make you numb at least. What did people say? You got warm before you really died? Maybe it’d be comfortable. More comfortable than being beaten to death by ice anyway.
It stops.
Your eyes open and you blink a few times trying to figure out what the fuck would make the hail stop beating down on your turtle shell but before you can actually check it’s lifted off of you and you blink in confusion at a blonde, masked mountain of a man who was holding an umbrella large enough to fit a fucking wagon, two other, meeker men standing right behind him and blinking curiously back at you.
“Local?” His voice is deep. An unforgiving baritone that made you feel like he didn’t like having to waste his time talking to lesser beings like you. You nod quietly.
“Here for the recruitment?” You forget to blink for a bit, staring at him and trying to make sense of what he just said. Recruitment. You.. you didn’t know exactly what that word meant. “..What?” Your voice was small in comparison to his. Weak from struggling for what was probably hours. Maybe even the whole day. The man rolled his shoulders, looking completely unbothered by the fact that he was holding what was probably the equivalent of a small building or whatever- not that you knew how much a building weighed.
“Are you here because of the flyers? To join the crew?” You didn’t see any flyers and if you had, you wouldn’t have been able to read them anyway. “..Ehm..” You stared between the man, feeling slightly panicked and ill. “I can’t read.” Which was a fucking dumb thing to admit to this guy who just asked you if you read a flyer about joining a cult- crew. A crew.
He was staring you down and you felt it. Like tiny needles pricking into your filthy skin. The silence was heavy and you were sure that he was going to toss your shell and leave you here to die an awful death and what not- “Can you cook?” It was by god’s mercy that he hadn’t just dumped you yet and was still entertaining this conversation. You shifted to be on both knees and counted off on your fingers. “Clean, Cook, Sewing, Babysitting-“ “We don’t need a babysitter.” He interrupted you but dropped your turtle shell, reached down to grab your shoulder and drag you up. “But good enough.” Didn’t sound like it. He sounded like he was pained to be taking you along.
“She looks ready to fold.” One of the men piped up and you wanted to tell him to shut his rotten mouth, the blonde didn’t care in the end but it made you anxious as he began to drag you after him. “Beggars can’t be choosers.” But he sounded like he was exhausted just by the mere thought of having someone as malnourished as you along for the ride. Ride? Where were they taking you? You wanted to see a ship and get off this island but as a slave to pirates wasn’t the preferred way to be going. Still, you don’t fight this.
Technically, this could be worse. He asked if you could cook, not if you were good at sucking someone’s wiener and sometimes that was all that mattered in life. In your life anyway.
“Beggars can’t be choosers, got that, but the captain isn’t going to-“ “You guys gonna stop acting like toddlers and do your own laundry?” Silence. “Right.” The masked man huffed, giving you a shove that encouraged you to walk on your own and stumble over sharp ice that had you wanna cry. You didn’t. You just pulled your mouth into a tight line and kept pace.
Was this really happening? It felt like divine intervetion. Fate. Destiny. You wanted off this island and you just got a free pass. Holy shit when did something like that happen? You didn’t even know how to read! There is slowly coming a bit of pep into your step despite the agony your soles are in at this point. If any of the men noticed, none mentioned anything as you looked around in awe at the scenery. The massive metal plate the guy was holding was staying strong and for the first time in your life you saw the world in white without struggling to live.
It was ugly.
Nothing survived the invasion of hail, hammering anything that could have existed aside from the hard rock or metal buildings into nothing but paste. In the distance you spotted a broken metal umbrella. You knew that if you were to check, there’d be a corpse. No one ever left their umbrella’s behind. You only got one and getting another was virtually impossible unless you had the cash which no one did. Ever. No sane person would leave it behind, no matter the condition. It was cheaper to have one repaired than get a new one.
You turned away, continuing to stay on path with the strangers as you left the village all together to head for the harbor.
You never had seen a ship like this.
Or.. or such a contraption.
The ship itself was massive beyond your wildest dreams. Bigger than some of the navy ships you had seen in your life but that was nothing to the metal structure that was build around it. It looked like a massive metal tarp made out of whatever was available. Trash, actual slabs, umbrellas- anything really. Even some weapons here and there. Holding strong. Welded, you believed.
To say you were in awe would be an understatement. You felt like you were about to meet god. Whoever made this had to be some form of deity or some weird, cryptic shit. That or a monster. Maybe both, hell, neither- didn’t matter. You wanted onto that ship so badly you were right about ready to piss yourself if they asked you to. Thankfully they didn’t. Just kept walking until the blonde was able to disregard his massive umbrella once you had reached the even bigger metal roof, rolling his shoulders and boarding the ship without a second glance to you.
The two men were shoving past you, chatting amongst each other and you followed as you assumed was expected of you, only to flinch away a little at the odd sensation of the blank connecting the land and the ship. Wood. You blinked at it and tested it again carefully, ignoring the stinging pain of your cut soles. Hahh.. There was no wood where you lived, it being only for people who could afford it and your hive was rock bottom. You shivered a little, looked up and spotted that the blonde was watching you carefully from the railing, his arms supporting his upper body against the wooden frame that ran around the deck.
“..It’ll hold.”
You stared at him, then down at the wood. You grit your teeth and hastily tip toed up the ramp, hissing a little in surprise at the wood’s texture. Your legs were bright red from the biting cold at this point but you didn’t even care as you finally made it on deck, doing a happy little tap dance for yourself at, for the first time in your life, being off that fucking shit hole. Spinning around to take everything in with wide eyes.
“Don’t get so excited in the middle of the deck, you’ll attract attention being dressed like that.” The blonde hummed from his spot, which caused you to absolutely stiffen up and stop any movement and motion, which caused another hum from him as he tilted his head, thick locks of blonde hair unlike you’ve ever seen rolling over his shoulder and pooling near his chest. “Quick. That’s good.” He pushed away from the railing and glanced around, you followed his gaze and the first thing you noticed were the splatters of blood here and there. That and that there were barely any people on deck.. For a ship this massive, they seemed awfully understaffed.
The blonde has gone and left you behind on the deck without giving you any incentive on what to be doing next. Really, maybe he just wanted you to break into work immediately. Cook, clean, right. You clapped your hands together and wrung them in an excited manner, tapping around the deck with your bare, hurting feet, ignoring the pain in favor of staring around at the huge mask, large sails, strange people from all over the world probably. How big was the world? You weren’t sure. The elders said it was large. How large?
You needed roughly four days to cross the entire island if you had a fast pace and the weather was merciful. How large was larger than that? A week..? Holy heck, two? The possibilities were endless.
No one was really paying attention to you, you merely got an odd glance here and there and it made you feel weird, but not in a bad way. Maybe you ought to make something out of it? Ask someone something, that only someone off this island would know- but whom..? Your gaze wandered and got stuck to the obvious choice. A tiny man near the mast, standing seemingly alone from where you looked upon him. Just perfect, unassuming and weak looking.
You make your way over, ignoring the blood prints you were leaving on the wood, knowing you’d be cleaning them anyway. If anything, if the blonde came back looking for you, at least he’d find you with relative ease. “Hello!” You bellowed over, your voice slightly cracking from underuse but catching the attention of your target- also of another person you hadn’t seen behind the mask but when a large figure loomed from behind that very mast you felt like your heart was about to go through your bladder and onto the hardwood beneath you.
Heavens, he was large.
The shorter man didn’t seem to notice your horror, peeking past you to stare in bewilderment at the foot prints you were leaving behind. “..Are you supposed to be here?” Clearly caught off guard by your sudden approach and the fact that you certainly didn’t look like you belonged here. You felt like you had walked into a bear trap with that massive guy giving you the silent stink eye. “Mhhyep.” You crossed your arms over your chest to appear more casual than you felt. “Just joined up though..” You stopped crossing your arms to scratch the back of your neck with a nervous cough.
“..and looking for work?” You finished lamely, shrugging at the man you almost towered over with his posture. “Eh.” The short guy glanced up to the large man who just gave his companion a shrug, to which the short guy looked back at you. “I’ll take it. Well, if you wanna work, how about getting your feet bandaged first before you turn the rest of the deck into a pig pen?” With that he glanced past you, same as the tall man who raised his eyebrows at the sight of the blood pattern you were leaving behind. You also glanced over your shoulder to look at it but not seeing too much of a problem with it. The hive was messier, often smelled like decay thanks to the fact that malnourishment and any kind of open wound didn’t mix well.
Slowed down the healing process and all. “Got it.” You deadpanned, glanced back straight ahead at the men. “Where?” To which the large man finally moved, twisting his upper body a little to point at a door on the other side of the deck. You’d have to climb some stairs to the second level but it seemed doable. “Wait, yeah.” The smaller guy shrugged now. “Where Wire’s pointing, just make sure to hammer the shit out of that door before entering. You don’t wanna catch Doc doing something. Also wait like, ten seconds before going in there.” That sounded ominous. “Alright. Will do.” Guess they had a point about your feet anyway.
Bandaged. You didn’t think you ever got bandaged anywhere before, medical supplies were for providers only as a privilege for risking their lives trying to get enough rations for everyone.
It rarely ever was. That wasn’t the point though. Everyone was unimagineable grateful for the sacrifices those men and women made for the sake of food and other supplies they could use. Considering the majority of their diet was fish based it was a real hassle too. Having to catch it first and all.
“Right, when you are done and did that, find a large guy with a mask on. He’ll give you something to do.” You blinked back. “The blonde?” A thumbs up. “That’s Killer, he’s the vice captain and tells us schmucks where to do what usually if the captain isn’t yelling it at the top of his lungs.” Got it. Loud captain. Good to know now so you wouldn’t flinch later. The large man was still staring you down and you felt like that ought to be your cue to leave. So you slipped past them and began to trot towards the place where the bandages were supposed to be and this creepy guy named Doc.
You felt eyes drill into the spot between your shoulders and ignored the urge to turn around and check out who was giving you the tingles, if anyone at all. Maybe you were being paranoid in your new environment that would, hopefully soon, turn into your new home. Because if they thought you just wanted a ride to the nearest island they’d be wrong. You wanted to travel. See all of the islands that there were.. unsure how many that was but you were going to find out!
“You’re making a mess.”
Oh. You turned your head to look over to the left where a large.. relatively sad looking guy was giving you a suffering look. What. A. Sight. You’ve never seen someone like this before. “What happened to your face?” To which he scrunched it up and almost frowned if not for the weird, constant disdain in his features making him look closer to breaking out in tears. Blue dreadlocks rolled down his scalp to frame his stitched up features. “What happened to your feet?” The voice was husky, hoarse, deep, like he swallowed metal scraps.
“I stepped on ice.” He tilted his head to the side and glanced over your head where he could probably see the massive mountains of sharp hail coming down. “..How anything managed to root life into this place is beyond me.” He just murmured. Then pointed down at your feet. “Just make sure to clean that once you’re done.” He hadn’t told you what happened to his face but you could take a hint. “Understood. Thanks.” You turned your body away to continue walking, hearing him mumble ‘thanks for what?’ but not giving it another ear. You had a job to do! First, get bandages. You were very excited for them- then, clean your blood off the wood. After that? Only fate would tell! You were so very excited for it anyhow.
You made it up the stairs, checked around and for good measure gave a look to where the mast was. The short guy was still talking to his massive buddy but, said massive buddy was staring you down as if you had committed murder. You felt something clench inside you at the weird.. hungry stare he seemed to have adapted. His eyes half lidded and head tilted back slightly to lean against the mast, showing off his throat to the world as if he didn’t have to be scared of anything, his cape-like hat encompassing him like the wings of.. of something. Hfn.. You turned away without giving an outwards reaction, lifted your hand and hammered against the door.
Only to realize quickly upon entry that this Doc character was not at all what you expected him to be. For one, he was dressed like a chess piece in yellow- (not that you knew how to play chess but some of the elders owned a board that they traded in from travellers.) For two, he was eating some weird fruit you’ve never seen before in your whole life en masse. Pink on the outside, soft and squishy but with a hard core in the middle that you only knew existed because he kept crunching them up between his molars as if he was a machine that didn’t care about the solidity of certain materials. What’d he call them? Peaches?
Whatever they were, it hurt to listen.
Also hurt to sit through this guys rambling, for boy could he talk. For as long as you were in that room he chewed your ear off about quite literally anything before finally dismissing you after treating your feet and sending you off again. He did tell you to find some shoes in the future unless you wanted this to be a regular occurance. As someone who hadn’t owned a single fucking shoe in their life that seemed a daunting task you didn’t wanna think about right now, so you left it at that and began trying to find stuff to clean with with mixed results. On one hand, you found nothing- which made you return to the mast and ask the short guy again. In itself not a problem until you began talking about his large buddy who continued to look at you as if he was starving for human contact.
Once acquired, the short guy was gone, off to do something else, somewhere else. Which left you and Mr. Huge and Silent alone with one another. It wasn’t like he was just loitering around either. He was deliberately watching you. You knew because you purposefully positioned yourself so that the mast and him would be between you at first but the damn bastard just continued to put himself in a spot from where he’d have the perfect view on you. It was definitely unnerving. Especially because he didn’t tell you what he wanted. Nothing. In fact, he said absolutely nothing in total. The large man just continued to seem to analyze whatever you were doing and catalog it somewhere within his head.
Who knew for what purposes but something told you, you weren’t interested in it. So you didn’t try and make useless conversation with the maybe-murder-friendly dude giving you the itchies. Holy shit you wanted him to leave you alone so badly. You could imagine nicer things than rob around on deck, on all fours, to clean off that blood you’ve been leaving behind. Worse yet was when he was behind you and you felt like he was staring at your starving ass.
“You’re already working.” You blinked and glanced up, torn from your thoughts of self defense and contemplating your gender to spot the blonde, masked man from earlier. Now that you looked up again you noted that it had gotten dark, the ship illuminated by multiple lanterns here and there. “Deep into the night as well.” He rumbled, crouching down and putting his arms on his knees. Like this his hair actually almost touched the ground, some strands even doing so. “I suppose I could have picked worse then, mh?” The tone of voice wasn’t unfriendly but also not warm, polite, kind of. You sat up a little and clung to the rag in your hands without saying a thing in return, unsure on what to make of it. He continued regardless of you not answering.
“I see you and Wire are getting along too.” Who? You turned your head, it got stuck on the only other person close, still giving you a cold stare. “He’ll be watching you only until we leave shore, so unless you cause issues nothing is going to happen to you.” Ah. You raised your eyebrows at the masked man. “You told him to watch me?” Confusion riddling your voice as he tilted his head. “Not very bright, are you?” Which was true- you were illiterate, couldn’t write, never spent a single day being educated on anything and all you knew was the little area that had been your home for the past few years you’ve been in this world.
“Just a precaution. Your people have shown how uncomfortable you can be if you really want something.” Which made you narrow your eyes in mild understanding.. If they had been part of some of the more robust clusters, you could see how he would be saying that. The blonde was standing up again and rolled his wide shoulders, making you watch the muscles move in an impressive show of strength without doing anything to even proof those muscles- no.. you had already seen that. He was strong. “But just to note.” He was walking away again. “If you do end up making an issue out of yourself, Wire will show you the exit.”
You knew that he knew that you understood what he meant by that. Your face a grimace of disdain at the badly veiled death threat. “Got it.”
Your first night on board was.. it was nice. Nicer than sleeping in your old group by a mile- you got to sleep in this.. this sack of fabric that was suspended in the air. What was it called? A hammock? The swaying of the ship didn’t even bother you inside it. Your weight balancing you out, keeping you even. You didn’t even have to share it. It was just given to you, one for yourself and yourself only. No one got to touch it. No one had ever gifted you anything aside from the basic neccesities and technically you could have been left to sleep on the floor but no, they gave you a fabric sack to sleep in.
Life was great.
Despite still being shadowed by the guy larger than life at any given corner. In fact, you didn’t even care! Breakfast rolled around and while you busted your ass in the kitchen you got to eat not just scraps here and there, you got to actually sit at the table and eat the meal you had helped make with a bunch of other guys. For once, without your caped shadow. During this time of fighting over food with the rest, some of the henchmen, you were also now a part of, learned the hard way that despite your meek appearance you were a local of Storm’rilla and had a grip like a vice, trained into you through years of carrying an umbrella heavy enough to equal a bolder and a suit heavy enough to feel like you were wearing another two humans on you.
So despite some of them being shitheads about you wanting to eat and trying to steal what you had, you ended up victoriously chewing down more than you had ever really eaten in one go. Not just that but the fact that it was delicious. Some of the products you’ve never seen before. Eggs? What were eggs? They were great! Milk? Never heard of it but god was it filling. Jam? Out of this world. List went on.
At the end of the morning you basically waddled back into the kitchen to clean and do the washup while many dispersed aside from one other guy you ended up chatting to as you both already prepped for dinner later on. It was such a domestic picture, one you’ve never been apart of in your old group. Felt so good it was like having been stung by a pufferfish or another toxic fish. Unsure which one would make you this elated though.
Of course, all good things have to come to an end and as soon as you stepped out of the mess hall to continue your work as a cleaning lady there he was again, looking down at you with silent disdain. You could tell he didn’t wanna be wasting his time with you but did as he was told by, you assumed, the blonde. Or the guy who screamed louder than any seaking you’ve ever spotted in the distance (and there were a lot in the area. Another downside to living on this rock if you felt brave enough to board any vessel but a this point you were desperate enough.)
The constant noise of hammering ice on the weird rooftop made out of steel and trash never bothered you much, considering you were used to it but you could tell it was bothering your guardian more than he liked to let on. Same for everyone else. Some guys were even loudly complaining bout their eardrums popping at this rate. Well, guess it was a little loud.. Not too bad though.
There was a click of the tongue, making you look up from the railing you’ve been scrubbing down for almost an hour now to look up at the silent guy, who began to flail at you. You blinked. Blinked again, watching this man make weird hand movements at you and it was beyond you of why he was doing so. So, of course, you carefully waved back- which only seemed to piss him off as he pulled his left upper lip up slightly to growl at you. Growl. A deep, rumbling noise that was going straight down your spine and into a place you didn’t even remember existed. It certainly made you raise both eyebrows in a worried fashion.
“..What?” He’s signing wildly again and it was just irritating you. “What are you doing?” Was he dancing? You’re not dancing back if that was what he was doing. Ok, coming closer now- you leaned back and against the railing, baring your teeth and snarling in slight panic and discomfort. “What’s your fucking issue?! Get the fuck off my ass you-“ A hand swung between the two, seperating you before the large man could kill you. Your eyebrows shot up at the figure now greeting you. It was the zombie.
“He doesn’t talk a lot.” Who was this? You never asked a name and frankly didn’t care at this point as the teal haired man was pushing his friend back with a miserable scowl. “So he uses sign language.” You blinked at them like an owl. “Language?” Unsure what he meant with that, never having heard any other language than your own, not even from travellers. “..What’s your name?” Suffering and sad. You couldn’t describe his face any other way. “What’s your name?” The large man grunted loudly and turned his head away. Crossing his arms with a scowl that pierces the nearest barrel.
“Heat.” The shorter man was uncomplicated in comparison, pointing with his thumb over his shoulder. “This is Wire and he doesn’t like talking to strangers-“ He got elbowed as the guy hissed and signed frantically at his partner, who lifted his hands in surrender and stepped backwards. “Whatever, fine. Do that then but stop fucking around, the captain wants to check the progress later and I don’t wanna have to clean today.” He was pissing off again. You stared after him and felt abandoned.
Rightly so, because as soon as the blue haired man turned his back to you a hand, large enough to grab your entire upper arm, snatched you and tore you close where you were nose to nose with the fucking bastard. Hot breath puffing against you as he opened his mouth for the first time since you’ve seen him you believed to hiss at you. “I told you to hurry the fuck up , you dumb piece of trash.” His voice was deep and gravelly from what you assumed was either underuse or an unfair advantage against the rest of the male populace who didn’t sound nearly that dangerous when opening their mouth.
He’s gonna break your fucking arm, which made you squirm and grunt yourself. “Says the guy turning into a potato watching me do all the work!” His grip was getting firmer, it hurt and you began to slightly panic, glancing around but finding no one- you felt your bones begin to crack under the pressure and balled your free hand into a fist to uppercut the man right under his chin with everything you had. The fact that you were a local woman seemed to have slipped his mind, as the noise he made when you punched him almost square in the throat reminded you of someone bumping their toe somewhere unfortunate.
At least he let you go as he reeled up and rubbed the spot you assaulted. Snarling, not much unlike a feral animal. His eyes slipped to your biceps which were bulging slightly, ready to punch the guy again and his eyebrows furrowed before going up, just to turn into a frown again.
The movement that followed was so fast you barely even registered it as he jerked his left leg up and sideways to hammer you to the side, where you grazed against the railing slightly and then crashed onto the deck with a sputter, wheezing in agony as the air in your lungs had been literally kicked out of you. For a moment you couldn’t even properly control your limbs as your brain tried to register what happened but the Storm’rilla resident within you was already picking herself up again, this having sucked but being the equivalent of being beaten by hail and boy, if you hadn’t already been beaten by that before.
You crawled onto all fours, holding your side with your left arm and throwing a look back to glare the filthy fucker down who was currently flipping you off. Unbothered, unwinded and uncaring. He didn’t have to tell you that he’d been holding back. The fact that movement came so effortlessly gave you the impression that you’d be dead if he hadn’t. Your teeth are gritted and you taste copper, wanted to lay back down and just breathe this out but if you did so, you felt like he’d fucking kick you. The filthy, fucking bastard. Fuck him.
He didn’t talk again. You didn’t either when you went to grab the rag you dropped to continue cleaning only slightly faster than you had been doing previously, a sense of grim satisfaction bubbling within you as you caught him rub his throat again when he seemed to think you weren’t paying attention. But you were. Growing up in an environment where you couldn’t hear anything but the rain and hail hammering down made for sharp eyes. Of course, you don’t mention it and reprimand yourself internally for almost getting killed over cleaning duty.
It won’t happen again.
Wire, right?
You hate him.
You didn’t think there was anyone on this vessel worse than this man and every moment near him was proving it to you. One hour until departure, six days into your stay and the man had proven just how big of a piece of shit he really was if you went by bruises alone. Bastard refused to talk and got pissed at you not wanting to entertain his weird game of charades to decipher whatever the hell he wanted at the time. If you stressed about it and didn’t get it you’d get kicked and if you didn’t stress about it and didn’t get it you’d also get kicked.
The result was the same and you weren’t bothering with it. But you were bothering with him. Mostly because he was dangling you like a ‘fruit.’ Supposedly those grew on ‘trees.’ He told you that you’d get this reference soon. Which was nice and all but right now it did little to calm you down, as you were kicking and scratching and hissing at the large man while he pranced around and paraded you around as if you were some kind of trophy. Still in silence.
By now, a few days in, the average henchmen already knew to not try and touch you unless they wanted a mean bruise, which seemed to amuse the stronger members of the crew to no end because it ended with you being picked on by some of them. Nothing actually vicious in most cases, Heat for example was just a fan of making you arm wrestle him for a few dozen times before your shoulder was about to dislocate.
You hadn’t actually had any direct interactions with the captain yet but you’ve seen him. Heard him too. Man was loud enough to make the wood rattle.
“If she’s hanging like a shirt she can’t work.” Saved by the mask. Killer was sauntering over with a heavy sack of.. whatever it was on his shoulder. It reminded you of the fact that you had no fucking clue of why they were even in this shit hole. You didn’t care enough to ask though, just happy they were willing to take you along. One single hour. You just had to spend one single, miserable hour in this place before seeing the world.
You couldn’t wait.
You were also being dropped, landing on your ass and cursing it off as Wire clicked his tongue and signed in an aggravated manner at the blonde, to which he just shrugged. “..Teach her then. If you don’t no one will and nothing will change.” He didn’t really sound all that convincing though, more like he didn’t care about what he was being informed about. A moment of silence where you fought to get back up on your legs before Killer held his chin, scratching his goatee and humming in thought. “..Or just verbalize your thoughts. Don’t feel like she’s getting off deck anytime soon.” Could be sounding ominous but you just giddily smiled at Killer at being told that you got to stay.
“Stop looking at me like that.” The man was leaning away a little but you doubted it was out of actual fear. He could probably throw you further than the eye could see judging by what he was lugging around day in and day out. Mhh you turned your face away regardless to use the chance to get away and jog back to where the spectacle had originally started, cleaning utensils all about. You could hear his footsteps though and checked over your shoulder to see he was coming after you with a frown on his face- Instead of chasing after you though he just positioned himself back at the mast to grumble under hot breath and glare daggers after Killer who was now heading in the opposite direction.
Mh. You crouched to pick a sponge up, squeezing some residing water out and looking at it. You’ve been told that once you were established to your new living conditions you’d be getting some more balanced work instead of just housework duties. Barely able to wait for those. Regardless, you crouched down and began to scrub while feeling an intense, by now almost comfortable gaze upon your back. You didn’t know what to do about that. Wire was always staring at something. Like he had to glare people into the ground or he couldn’t sleep at night. With that getup of his he reminded you of a massive owl about to swoop down and pick someone’s brain off.
You stopped soon again though to look over to said man and wave at him, to which he raised an eyebrow and squinted in question. “Short question-“ If you’d even get an answer. “But what do you think we’ll do first once we leave shore?” He’d oughta know, right? Guy seemed close to the captain.
For a moment he actually relaxed a little, seemingly thinking it over in his head before lifting his hands. You already prepared for not understanding a single, fucking thing but he put them down again, coughed slightly and spoke up. “..We’ll head to a nearby island for supplies.” Gravelly and hoarse in a way- it was a nice voice. It also made you wonder why he didn’t talk. “Isn’t that what you’re getting here?” He shook his head. “Just materials.” And with that his end of the conversation seemed to be over. It certainly wasn’t for you though. “How far is that island away?” You didn’t wanna admit it but you’ve never been on a ship until today. The thought of being in the middle of open water without even knowing how to swim was making you a little anxious.
He rolled his shoulders. “Few days. Maybe a week.” Wire dryly supplied, inspecting his knuckles now in a casual manner as you fully turned so you could face him while you scrubbed the floor. “Really? Woah.. The world’s big, innit?” So excited just thinking about going somewhere so far away. The man scoffed. “A week’s travel isn’t that long. Longest we’ve been out in the open is, give or take, three months.” He made a vague hand gesture. “I grew so tired of fish I refused to eat it a full week once we’ve finally hit land.” He’s never talked this much in one bit. Maybe Killer really opened up the floodgates but all you did was stare up with wide eyes. “ Three months?” He looked down, dumbfounded. “..Yeah?” Holy shit.
“So you’ve been all over the world then? I heard that you need just a few weeks to cross the ocean and back or so-“ “You could spend your entire life travelling from one place to the next and you’d still end up not having gone everywhere.” He interrupted your swooning, making you shrink in awe and slight shock. “..Life.. span..? I don’t.. How long is that..?” He sneered. “What do you know? I don’t think I’ve ever met someone as dumb as you.” It made you feel self conscious because it wasn’t even wrong. You were dumb. Even for the standard of your own people. It definitely shut you up as you began to scrub a little harder, fixating your gaze down onto the wooden floor.
“Are you crying?” He sounded like he was about to break into laughter and in turn you clicked your own tongue and turned your back to him. “What the fuck, it’s not my fault you’re the hammer in the shed. If you bug Heat enough I’m sure he’s gonna teach you something. Him or Doc.” That was an idea. Still.
“..Now that you’re talking I wish you’d stop.”
The comment gets you kicked in the gut again and you spend the majority of the remaining hour being in Storm’rilla holding your middle and trying not to retch onto the deck you just cleaned.
It was time. You were standing at the railing and clinging to it, right next to Wire. The man seemed to have an issue of finding some form of balance, because now that he’s started talking it was like he couldn’t find a reason to stop. Given, he still wasn’t very talkative in comparison to his companions but since he was stuck with you he seemed very keen on reminding you just how happy he was to have you off his ass soon. You too. Told him that. He kicked you again and you felt two new bruises form on two different spots on your body.
But, you were resilient.
And there was nothing that could make you miss the departure. Leaving this shithole behind after learning the world was much bigger than two weeks worth of travel was just.. so much better. Because at some point Wire finally explained the average lifespan of a human being and considering people didn’t make it over 50-60 in your community, hearing there were people pushing about in their 100s just made you wonder how long you could live, travelling about.
“HOLD!” The bellowing, booming voice of the captain didn’t even manage to make your head turn. The red haired devil had been stomping around on deck and yelling orders at people left and right, overlooking you almost purposefully. He probably didn’t take you seriously and knew what? Good on him. If he didn’t take you seriously then he wouldn’t be making you do things you didn’t wanna do, hopefully. Like hard labor. You were willing to do it but that didn’t mean you liked doing it.
Something creaked.
Your gaze tore up, realizing it was the fucking metal ceiling above you jittering about like it was about to collapse and with a shriek you were about to try and- and nothing. Wire caught you mid-jump in a random direction by your neck and held you in place without even looking at you. “That’s the captain. Don’t do dumb shit even if it’s in your blood.” Fuck him. You missed the time where he’d be silent. An hour of his sass and you wanted him to never speak again. “..How’s he doing that?” Was all you said instead, watching with wide eyes as the pillars of the structure began to float up and join the roof of trash and junk.
“Devil Fruit.” Wire wasn’t even blinking and neither were you. “..He’s the devil?” His hand left your neck but you still felt the warmth moments after he’d done so. “No, numbskull, he ate a devil fruit. You can’t tell me you don’t know what that is.” Now you gave him a dumbfounded expression which seemed so lost it made him almost laugh out loud, settling for a weak snort. “..It’s a fruit that gives you powers. The captain controls metal.” “Woah..” Metal. Controlling metal? You’d never have to hold a single umbrella your whole life!
“That’s cool.” He snorted. “Yeah.. but bastard can’t swim worth a damn.” You looked at the hail outside. “Me neither.” “But you could learn.” That made you squint a little, tilt your head. “I don’t have money to pay for that.” The large man bent forward, basically folding in half and keeping his back straight as he leaned his elbows onto the wooden railing, following your gaze with half-lidded eyes. “If you make some puppy eyes I bet you’ll be able to convince some sucker. These guys haven’t gotten their fucking dicks wet in an eternity.” Eh.. Wire just continued, shrugging. “No opportunities I guess. The navy has been riding our asses lately. Another reason why this place was a good pit stop.”
“Mhh.. Because people don’t like coming here?” “Even so, this weather is great.” That statement alone made you wanna kick the guy in the shin but you refrained from doing so and asked no questions regarding the weather. There was a moment of silence. He seemed to be thinking, you could see it by the way his brows furrowed as he stared out at the mountains and mountains of hail. Just looking out there, remembering the hive you’ve abandoned for this.. part of you felt guilty. You knew they’d eventually succumb to the changing climates of this island. Either they managed to leave or they’d die out.. There were many who wanted what you had right now but you didn’t actually feel inclined to try and help them.
Survival of the fittest, yes? Growing up here taught you to look out for yourself and yourself only.
“Have you ever seen the sun?” You checked to the side. He wasn’t looking at you. “The sun?” He hung his head a little, now looking at the water and you noticed the ship was moving. Slowly inching away from the shore. “Killer said the sun never shines here. Either rain or hail.” Sun.. what was.. you didn’t think you’ve ever seen anything about a sun. “It’s either rain or hail, yes.” Wire pulled his mouth into a tight line. “..Good.” You raised an eyebrow as he glanced you up and down. “I wanna see your face when you see it.” That was a weird statement. “Why?” He snorted and looked ahead again, you too. The ship was actually leaving. Taking you along.
“Because you’ll probably look dumb as shit again.” This time you swat him, right on the shoulder since he was low enough for you to actually reach and the response to that was so quick you couldn’t have dodged if you tried. Grabbing your neck again and shaking you like a dog.. but gentler. It didn’t really hurt, just made you struggle against his hold that wrapped around your entire throat like a collar. His eyes were burning into you and made your gut grow warmer. “For someone who’s lived in this dump for so long you sure like picking fights with odds that no sane person would prefer.” Almost fond if not for the mocking undertone.
“You could just stop insulting me.” Whenever did the two of you slip into something friendlier? Being stuck almost an entire week to each other seemed to have done wonders for his opinion of you. Fair: he still bullied the shit out of you but holy fuck who cared at this point? This was more human connection in an hour than you’ve had your whole life. “That’s the only thing that makes me tolerate you, though.” His hand squeezed your throat slightly, making you wheeze as he loomed over you a little. You grabbed his wrist and were about to cuss him out as the ship suddenly jerked. His hand let go immediately as he straightened his posture to look ahead again.
Now there was some speed. Storm’rilla was actually turning smaller. You could see the entire shore, the hail beating down on the now floating roof. You grabbed the railings and hopped from one leg to the other. It was happening. “..I’m free.” You muttered quietly, a wide smile on your face that hurt your cheeks which weren’t used to this level of motion. Wire grunted next to you and looked down at you, didn’t say a single thing though as he looked back to the island again. Only for a moment though. “..I’ll teach you sign language. Saying everything out loud makes me aggressive.” You didn’t wanna look away from your old home. You didn’t. “I have nothing to-“ “It’s free, idiot. I’m tired of having to accomodate you.”
Ah. To serve his own purposes then. “I don’t learn very quickly.” You cringed at the realization at what that meant. He seemed to catch it too, because he grinned down at you with an amount of malicious intent that made you wanna jump overboard. “We have time.” Eughhh.. You refused to make eye contact, surprised at just how quick Storm’rilla was turning into a smaller and smaller thing in your life. Another moment of silence. Wire leaned against the railing again, turning to sit on it and look over his shoulder effortlessly to watch it disappear from your existence with you.
“..You gonna miss it?” He sounded awkward asking that. Like he wasn’t used to making conversation like this. You tilted your head. Stared the island down. Thought very hard about it. The struggle, the hunger that you didn’t need to be fighting with here, the days and weeks of not getting to wash yourself because of dwindling resources, the freezing cold at any given point in time, the infighting, struggling to live every single day and not submit to illnesses or depression-
“..Yeah.” Your features softened. “My hive.. they weren’t exactly good to me but.. good enough.” It never crossed your mind to ask the captain to take them along. Wire huffed through his nose. “Not good enough for you to stick your neck out for them though.” It made you almost snicker as you shook your head. “We’re not that sentimental. Why risk my position over them?” “You could have asked the captain regardless.” Moment of silence. “..Would he have taken them?” “Not if he had to go to them and pick them up.” Knew it. You blew a piece of dirt off of your nose.
“Still surprised he took you.” Wire grouched. “What do you think made him let me stay?” “One, you kind of came to us and in that weather that’s not exactly something you do with grace when you have the muscle mass of a cockroach. Two, you do the shit no one else feels like.” One, fuck him? Two, made sense. “Never seen someone so passionately make out with the floor-“ “You say that as if I’m cleaning it with my tongue.” Wire snorted and actually tilted his head up to laugh a little into the cold air, hot puffs of steam forming outside of his lips. “With as close as you get to the fucking wood you might as well be!” He’s looking at you as if you’re some pitiful creature and it made you roll your eyes before looking back to the now much smaller island as Wire’s laughter started sounding numb in your head.
Your new life started now. Adventures unlike any you’ve ever had before on the horizon, food you’ve never been able to taste before, now actually reachable. You would learn how to read, how to write- swim? The world was a fresh fish cadaver that you would take out as much as you could, get whatever you could get your hands on. Whatever was going to be the next step, it would be so much more than what you’ve ever thought your life could be-
A heavy, muscled arm puts itself onto your head and almost made you headbutt the railing as Wire growled in an unfriendly tone at you. “Don’t ignore me, you tiny shit.”
Ahh yeah, and this guy. He’s also there, somewhere.
Didn’t wanna jinx it but could be worse.