1) Beginnings
At first, Penny had been a bar wench. It's something that would surprise the fleet of pirate ships she leads as the Pirate Queen. Penny doesn't blame them. It's hard for her to remember that she used to be one of the pretty girls taken in by a pirate's charm, too.
It hadn't been the most glamorous occupation. It had kept a roof over her head, food in her stomach, and plenty of beer in her gut though. As the pretties wench in the tavern, she'd also had her choice of whatever strapping young lads had arrived to port.
It was a good life, not in the married with kids way her parents had wanted for her, but it was a life Penny had chosen for herself. Which made it much better than the engagement to a farm hand her parents originally had in mind. As it was, it was something of a small miracle Penny had hadn't been in the marrying kind of trouble before her sixteenth birthday.
Running away hadn't been hard. Her taste for ale and good old fashioned fun between a man and a woman had made her perfect for her job. Unlike the women who didn't bother with tending the bar, she never sold herself, though she'd been offered the occasional nice bit of gold.
As far as Penny was concerned, being able to choose who she slept with, and refuse anyone who was rich, if anything but attractive, was much more important than the pretty garments whores so liked to clothe themselves with and gold. Tending the bar was good enough for her, even if she had gotten used to missing more meals than she ever had in her parents farm.
Of course all that changed when she met Kurt.
Kurt the Pirate King.
He had bade her to follow him to sea, sweet talked, and romanced her with tales of his battles, and the luxury of living on a ship. Living a life of danger and adventure at the whims of the waves. Being the young stupid thing she had been, Penny had gone.
Well, she had just been younger really. Penny didn't feel she'd become much smarter or any wiser since then. It's barely been four months, if that, since they met. So it had to be even less than that since she had become the Pirate Queen.
She supposes in her sadder moods that it had always only been a matter of time before whatever magic had convinced her to follow a guy she'd just met out to sea would fade.
Especially considering that the reason Penny had gone from Consort to Pirate Queen had been because of her reaction to the presence of the other girl Kurt had brought onto the ship. Another consort, as was his right as Pirate King, he'd claimed. Penny is no one's other woman, thank you very much.
The sheer savage brutality with which Penny beat Kurt to death with a broken table leg earned her the entire crews fear and obedience. The poor girl he'd brought onto the ship with him had jumped overboard out of fear she'd be next. Not that she would have been. Penny could be reasonable, really. It just isn't very apparent when she's busy being angry and heart broken.
Kurt's blood hadn't even finished drying on her hands before the roar of, "All hail Penny the Pirate Queen!" rung out.
They barely finished dumping the former Pirate King's body overboard before the Navy shows up and attacks. It's been a few hours after her unforeseen coronation by then, of course, but it certainly hadn't felt like it.
"Man the cannons," Penny roared then, taking charge, "Arm yourselves! Don't let them catch you off guard!"
The crew rushes to work, drawing their weapons. Penny welcomes the outlet to work out her frustration and bewilderment on the enemy and grabs Kurt's fancy sword. Apparently being the first to board the ship and the last to leave elevates her standing even further in the eyes of her crew. Adding respect to their awe and fear.
There is a lot of fear.
xXx
Sheldon tries not to rue his station in life very often. There is no benefit to being bitter that he is low born and that his parents had no resources with which to educate him. Like his father, he makes it to a dock once he's old enough and he finds work as a ship hand.
He hates life at sea most days, for all that he has nothing against sailing, or the ocean. He's a great navigator actually. Which is very convenient because typically his reputation precedes him and there is always a captain willing to take him on whenever another has enough of his 'fussing' and boots him from the crew.
He'd probably manage to find a crew he could stick with if he'd just learn to keep his comments about efficiency to himself, but he genuinely can't seem to help himself in the face of such blatant incompetence. The crew's ability varies depending on the captain, but even the good ones don't seem to be willing to improve their current systems.
He never even officially joins the navy, just because he can't seem to keep to one ship, so he has nothing to fall back on should his reputation fail him. It's with that in mind that he sets out to contacting merchant ships and offering his services exclusively as a navigator. Glad that he has figured out reading and writing through observation, though parchment and ink remain an expense his gold pouch is keenly aware of.
His efforts bear fruit soon enough. The pay is better, he doesn't feel the responsibility to attempt to improve the ship's efficiency once he isn't an official part of anyone's crew, and his reputation as a navigator grows much better. Eventually he even manages some noble clientèle, which means he can afford a few books and is thus, more than worth his time, despite how unpleasant it is to be reminded of his lowborn status at every turn.
His latest client is a Noble named Leonard Hofstadter. It's a long contract that consists of sailing towards his intended's home, procuring the young woman, a Bernadette Rostenkowski, and sailing back towards his lands to hold their marriage. There seems to be some urgency behind the impending nuptials, thus the truly extravagant amount of gold they offer for his services. Sheldon can typically reduce the travel time by several weeks, if not a few months outright. A trick of reading the waves no one else seems to be capable of. He doesn't know why they just don't remember the weather conditions that matched the current ones and recall what type of weather follows, but he has long since given up on understanding his fellows.
The amount of gold they offer him means that Sheldon does his level best to be pleasant, but for him that typically means keeping his mouth shut and he has never been on a ship where his company is sought so often.
Leonard Hofstadter seems to be under the impression that he is something of a seaman and delights on speaking to him about ships at length. That had been very aggravating during the first part of the trip, but it had just been one person, so it was bearable. Once his intended and her staff was introduced to the ship, however, everything changed.
The captain, A Howard Wolowitz, apparently had fallen head over heels for the noblewoman at first sight and often sought him out to bemoan his station in life as a humble ship captain and not Bernadette's intended. One of the noblewoman's ladies in waiting, a woman named Amelia Fowler, seemed to hold some sort of fascination with navigation and often sought him out to speak about it.
To top it all off, the ship's cook, an Indian man named Rajesh Koothrappali, paid just as well as Sheldon by Leonard once he heard his intended was fond of Indian cuisine, shared his quarters and did nothing but complain about how no one aside from Bernadette appreciated his culinary art.
Its almost a relief really, when the Pirates attack.
xXx
For the Talk like a Pirate fall challenge. I had most of this written out to begin with actually, Pirate queen Penny tempted my imagination years ago, so it was nice to be half way there to begin with. I'm almost done so I should have the rest of this up soon. Happy Halloween!