Yo ho Yo ho! a pirate's life for me.

[Loki-chan]

We're devils and black sheep, really bad eggs,
Drink up, me 'earties, yo ho.

Singing pierced the decks below, where a lone cabin boy was being forced to mop the eternally dirty floors. It's not like there was anywhere to mop too, below deck. Sometimes the pirates above would come down below to drop something, spit their tobacco, or just do something as equally horrible to the cabin boy. Ren was not happy. It wasn't like he'd been press ganged, in fact, he'd asked to be here. But it was starting to seem like the torture here equated to what he received back home. And at least at home, he had a sister... given of course his father had taken to torturing her too, recently. Mostly for the purpose of further gnawing away at Ren's fragile existance.

Ren could practically hear the bottles of rum flying. Thus was the problem with a crew full of crazed male pirates. Ren had never believed in the woman's touch until he'd seen this lot. He bet none of these scum had come in contact with a woman since they last ported at Tortuga, let alone been laid on a regular basis. The vast quantities of alcohol they consumed had to be compensation for something.

One drunken pirate staggered down the latter to below decks, swaying as he made his way toward Ren, who's hands instinctively gripped tighter on the mop.
"Oi! cabin wench!" He laughed like an imbesile. Ren knew they'd taken to calling him 'wench' because of his feminine appearance. He grinned and swung a punch at Ren, this kind of thing was common, and then Ren turned to slap him in the face with the mop. Because the drunk missed, so did Ren, and the heavy mass of man meat came toppling down on little Ren in all it's drunken glory. The mop flew up and whacked the bucket, dumping the disgusting water all over Ren's head. As if it wasn't enough he was being virtually groped by the fat lug of a pirate as he attempted to get up. The small cabin boy felt disgusting.

[Emma]

"Oi, you!"

A slightly less drunken voice bellowed, hauling the inebriated pirate off the deckhand and shoving him in the direction of the stairs. When he was gone, the first mate swept his long hair over one shoulder and offered the small chinese boy a hand. "Ignore them, lad, they're only doing it because we've not been to Tortuga for a couple months." He said with a small chuckle, looking the boy over quickly.

Mithos had, once - like many pirates - been a navyman. He had grown tired of chasing pirates around the world for rewards he wasn't allowed to accept, and so he had made his way to Tortuga by way of a passing merchant vessel, then hopped on the first pirate ship likely to stay afloat for a while. That was in the past, though, years ago. He was still only the first mate, but that looked to be changing, soon - he might have been a little peculiar with his lasting manners, but he was better than the selfish idoit captain that had almost gotten them hung many a time. Mutiny was afoot, but few knew the details.

"Not a decent one among them." He added offhand, sighing quietly and shaking his head. "Most of them are stragglers, whore's children from Tortuga. Not so many ex-military men as there used to be. Shame."

[Loki-chan]

Ren grabbed the first mate's hand and hauled himself to his feet, staggering forward as the ship made an inconvenient lurch. Ren ended up with his face firmly plastered against the first mate's chest, which caused Ren to then panic and nearly fall down again. In a fit of acrobatics, he kept his balance.

"There's something wrong with a man when it takes Tortuga to keep him civil." Ren muttered, unhappilly examining the raggety clothing he wore. He was drenched in that godaweful filthy brine he'd been mopping with. He looked quickly over the the first mate, and blushed slightly when he saw his dirty face had been so disgusting that it had left a stain on the mate's already offwhite shirt. Ren's pale skin was splotched in brown flecks of god only knew, and his long hair, slick and purple, had split ends. He was so miserable.

"Just throw me overboard already. This is-" Ren was going to complete his emo angst when another lurch threatened to disturb the scraps of food Ren had managed to scrounge up. This was another bad reason to board a pirate ship, Ren was seasick. He hadn't even eaten that much (as most of the other pirates either barred him from the food or stole it from him), but here it was ready to challenge Ren to come back up.

[Emma]

Following the deckhand's gaze, Mithos half-shrugged and brushed a stray piece of... something from his shirt. Noticing the younger man's utter lack of, for want of a better word, sealegs, the first mate stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder, holding him steady as the ship lurched. He was, really, first mate in name only, as the captain was so busy being an idiot and drinking with the rest of the crew that he pretty much gave Mithos his cabin.

"You're a right state, mate. Bastards been stealin' yer food?" He asked, shaking his head. "Come on, I'll get you fed - the crew might think me peculiar, but they daren't mess with me."

[Loki-chan]

Ren, out of necessity, grabbed on to Mithos to steady himself. Though slightly green, he was able to follow Mithos in their quest for the gally. Or at least as Ren assumed, he didn't know the first mate had veritable ownage of the captain's quarters. As Ren's stomach settled, he became increasingly suspicious, however. He hadn't been on the ship more than a week or so... he didn't know this pirate from the rest. He just identified him as first mate... he could be a bastard like the rest. A cunning bastard. Ren could smell the alcohol on him... unless that was just the natural scent of the boat (it did reak something aweful, this rig.)

"Oi, wait, how'm I supposed to expect you're not just trying to get me somewhere you can abuse me in private, like the rest of the crew? The other pirates won't let me have my own food, much less give me theirs. Is there something wrong with you?" Ren eyed the first mate. He really didn't trust anyone abord this ship. And Mithos sure was right when he said the crew would think him peculiar... Ren thought him outright loony.

[Emma]

Mithos laughed shortly, shaking his head as he looked over his shoulder at Ren, pushing a couple of drunken men out of his path as he wandered into the galley. "You've my word as an ex-navyman." He said, rather unconvincingly, as he snatched up an empty bowl and began filling it with food - bread, dried meat, the usual. "Now come on." And with that, he half-picked the smaller man up by the back of his collar and made his way back onto the empty deck, then into the cabin that was practically his. Dropping Ren in a chair beside the table, Mithos rolled up his charts, placed the bowl down in front of the deckhand and leant back against the wall. "Eat up."

[Loki-chan]

Ren didn't have much of a choice, he was being dragged now. That did make him more suspicious, of course, but Ren was used to being pushed around. He was strong, sure, but Ren's size resulted in him neading a whole load of leverage to get any advantage on anyone. He usually just succumbed to the abuse.

He looked around the captain's quarters warily... why were they in there? Ren's mind buzzed with paranoia, he just couldn't trust this drunken pirate. He couldn't trust any of them. He figured he'd probably go crazy after not too much longer...

When Mithy spoke Ren snapped out of his thoughts. He didn't have much of a choice, and he was hungry. With a short glance at the first mate, Ren surrendered and dug in. He finished it with an unusual degree of neatness and manners for a pirate, and this added sufficiently to his feminine appearance. He even /acted/ like a girl. But to everyone else on the ship, he was different regardless of gender- he was the only sober one. That alone made him act differently.

[Emma]

Raising his dark eyebrows, Mithos watched Ren, then shook his head a little. "Noticed you're the only sober man on this ship, laddie." He said almost conversationally as he pointedly picked up a bottle of rum and drank from it. "Can't hold yer drink?"

[Loki-chan]

"Even if I couldn't, would it make a difference? Seems like drunk's the way to be on this ship. d'just drink less." Ren planted his elbow on the table and rested his head on his arm.

"If I wanted liquor I couldn't get it. Not that I really do, but sobriety is starting to get to me when all these imbesiles are drunk. Tried to join in once two days ago. Got the bottle smashed over my head. Still hurts. None of the pirates aboard'll let me drink." Ren complained lightly, eyes looking over at Mithos, who was swigging away at his own personal bottle of rum. Even the first mate was drunk. How did this ship run, anyways?
"And anyways..." Ren paused, it seemed like a really weak excuse, aboard a pirate ship. "...m'not of legal age. To drink."

[Emma]

He had nodded thoughtfully during the boy's explanation, but at his final excuse, the first mate actually burst out laughing. Taking a minute to get his laughter under control, he looked back at Ren. "Hell, lad, if it makes any difference, I think I'm the only person on board who didn't drink before he was legal to." He told Ren, shaking his head with a smile. "And take it from me - being drunk constantly is better than only being drunk occasionally."

[Loki-chan]

"Or not being drunk at all might actually leave this crew able to preform..." Ren didn't like the whole idea of drunks running the boat. "Or even better, leaving them sober might get them depressed. Imagine if those bastards committed suicide. Brilliant, I encourage the idea. Let's do that. Confiscate the rum. No. Burn it. Burn the rum." Ren was glaring at the bottle in the mate's hand.

"And i'm only going on 17. Not even really legal for anything yet... though I bet that doesn't matter in Tortuga, either. I hope you said we were going to make port there. I can't take much more of this."

[Emma]

Mithos was slightly taken aback by Ren's ranting, and held his bottle of rum to his chest protectively. "You're insane!" He exclaimed, looking at the deckhand critically. "If they weren't drunk all the time, they wouldn't work half as well as they do, take it from me. They been drinkin' since they was kids, if they stopped now it'd kill 'em. And we certainly don't want that. At least not until we reach port. Tortuga, yes, in about a week. Reckon you can abstain from burning any rum until then? They might kill you otherwise. I might, come to think of it."

[Loki-chan]

"Another week, grand. Well if they don't die they might well kill me. I think i'd prefer the rum be gone." Ren said, folding his arms and crossing his legs. "So the chances of bathing in Tortuga are slim too. Whore town. I think i'll stay on the boat. The last thing I want is to be exposed to such indecency." Ren was perhaps, the type of person who sparked the comment 'really needs to get laid'. That didn't change the fact that Ren was a dutiful virgin... and didn't intend on giving it away to any prostitute. Certainly he wouldn't degrade himself to paying for sex. As if he had any money.

[Emma]

Mithos' eyebrows shot up as he swigged from his bottle of rum again, making a mental note to hide it from the diminutive deckhand. "If you want bathing, lad, there's a whole sea out there." He told him pointedly. Most of the pirates on board tended to live by the philosophy that you could only get so much dirt on you before it started falling off of its own accord. Mithos did not subscribe to this philosophy, but he wouldn't go out of his way to find somewhere to bathe. If the opportunity presented itself, brilliant, but if not, oh well.

[Loki-chan]

Ren's eyebrow twitched. Nobody seemed to understand civilized society on this boat. Of course, what was Ren expecting? Sadly, not even this ex-navyman could understand him and his quest for cleanliness.

"You seem to be neglecting the fact that if I went swimming, it would be aweful hard to get back up, onto the ship again." Ren told him in a flat voice. Ren wasn't really much for castes, he'd even talk down to the first mate.
"And besides, brine's not that much better'n dirt." Ren grumbled, prodding the bowl he'd long since emptied, and realising now that he hadn't had anything to drink. In fact, fresh water was pretty hard to come by on this ship. They had maybe three or four kegs full, just for if somebody dehydrated or ran out of rum. Ren had been more or less sneaking it when he needed it, but since he hadn't eaten in a while, he hadn't gotten thirsty either. And now, he was. Ren groaned, hoping he died before they hit tortuga.