There had been rumours around the port. Not your everyday scandals and shit-shows, but a fearful rumour about a pillaging maurauder who intercepted trading routes and committed bloody murder. Soon these stories struck fear or inspiration into the hearts of grubby kids whose mothers told them bedtime stories to stop them from being brats. whispers told that this captain was a woman, which was preposterous at the time, no one took it seriously. The thing was, no one had seen them. The crew were skilled at covering their tracks and stayed far from the press. This led people to believe all sorts of tales in their paranoia, the most creative being that she was a siren that led men from all classes to their deaths and seduced women to join her. All of it was mindless drabble though, for this girl was really just a scrawny drunkard.
Captain Lapis Lasuli, a slim, tall girl who wore flowing blue dresses and had tan skin, short black hair and eyes like the ocean trenches was this raider who was so feared by those who dealt in trading overseas. She was a businesswoman, a vixen and a warrior. She was also drunk off her mind and about to fight the biggest man in the tavern. Her sleeves were rolled up and showed off little muscle, and she was leaning over the table and sneering in the face of the man who had stashed an ace up his tunic.
'Tryin ta cheat me outta my win eh? we'll settle this over a fist fight.' It wasn't as if she wasn't guilty of stashing cards up her own sleeves, she was just a pissed off drunk, and did it better than this unfortunate chap anyway. Her chair screeched as she wobbled to her feet, no one seemed to notice over the clamour of drunk people and the out of tune piano in the corner, but her firstmate Jasper had spotted her and was pushing past to get to her.
Jasper grasped the back of Lapis' dress but not before the girl threw a knuckle shattering punch into the burly man's jaw. The man stumbled back and glared daggers at them.
'I want no trouble, jes keep yer bitch on a leash alright!' Lapis struggled against the strong grip of Jasper and hurled insults at the man. Jasper understood the situation well enough, she knew Lapis wouldn't be angry over nothing.
'Yeah, right, make sure you keep your cards in your pocket then.' Jasper directed Lapis to the exit, grabbing her other mate Amethyst from the bar, forcing her to leave her fifth shot. Jasper pushed the protesting women from the warm demanour of the bar into the cold night air, boots clacking on the cobble loudly. she whirled on Lapis.
'I told you not to cause trouble, we were supposed to wait here for Pearl to bring us some info and you blew it, bartender's gonna be fuming.' Lapis rolled her eyes and folded her arms.
'Was just tryin to make a bit of coin here, then the bastard drops an ace? Deserves to be cut down a size if you ask me.'
'Yous never let me stay in there for more than an hour.' Amethyst sulked. Jasper sighed at them.
'Pearl will be here in a minute, calm yer tits.' Sure enough, a shady looking Pearl came around the corner and handed Jasper a roll of paper.
'I take it chief is too drunk off her mind to read this?' Jasper gave a nod and examined the page.
'Looks good enough.' She traced around the paper.
'So this is the trading route for the Diamond?.' Pearl nodded.
'I got it from a reliable source, Lapis should want to prepare in the morning if shes not too hungover.' Jasper took a look at the Captain, who was currently trying to lick sticky alcohol off her elbow and causing Amethyst to guffaw.
'Aye, she should be fine, i'll make sure she gets off her ass anyway... d'you even think it'll work? this is our biggest tackle yet.' Pearl nods.
'I have everything planned, we can drive them into some rocks near here if we're careful enough, and relentless.'
Jasper schemed with pearl about their plans until she had had just about enough of Lapis groaning about her headache and how her knuckles hurt, they went to each of their quarters in the boat. Jasper tended to Lapis' hand, not being too gentle about it either.
'Ow, fucking watch it.' Jasper paid her no mind but went a little slower with the bandaging. She made sure Lapis could actually get into her hammock. She leaned in the door frame and spoke.
'You should probably stop drinkin yourself silly boss.' Lapis pulled off her dress and flung it in a crate under the hammock.
'Yeah sure, try to convince me again an i'll cut a hole in your hammock in the middle of the night.' She pulled on a tunic and clambered into the hammock as Jasper smirked.
'Alright, alright, just get some sleep. You need to be ready for tomorrow.' she left, closing the door gently. Lapis stared at the ceiling and rubbed her bad hand as the boat rocked gently to and fro.