Angela's legs wobbled haphazardly as she clutched the top of the crow's best, crouched low with her head held down, a loud whimper escaping her every time the boat swayed, the slightest motion down below still sending the best rocking rather violently from side to side. Her shoulders jostling, Angela's eyed shut tightly, completely focused inward and entirely ignoring Lena's speech.

The third mate was sitting atop the wooden railing of the best, her lithe body merely rocking along in time with the boat's movements as if she didn't even notice them. Lost in her own obliviousness guised as excitement, Lena had gone through five telescopes, demonstrating them for Angela and going on about their functions and distances, oftentimes simply throwing her hand out to slide them into functional use.

"Finally, here's the best one; a Westhouse Hawkeye, made from the finest glassiers in Prague!" Lena explained with a low, suspenseful voice, "In the right conditions you can see clear across Oahu if you're high enough!"

She swung the largest of her telescopes like a sword, giggling excitedly as she pulled it up to her eye, holding either end carefully with both hands, a grin appearing below the instrument as she turned toward the continent to their right, "It's a bit cloudy, but you can kind of make out Mexico. I was hoping to see some burros with this thing- that's-"

"I know what it means," Angela muttered queasily, feeling waves of nausea run over her.

With her exhibition completed, Lena finally caught onto Angela's distress, turning her body to hop down to her feet, crossing her arms, "Ahh, we're still breaking you in, eh? They say you're not a true sailor until you puke, you know?"

"Well we passed that ten minutes ago…" Angela groaned, much to Lena's dismay.

"I missed it?!" Lena wondered aloud, "Aww, man! That's always the best part!"

Angela turned her head slowly to shoot an unenthused glare at the third mate, who went on in frustration, "Aww man… That look in their eye when they're totally done with all this only to realize there's no escape until we hit port. Kind of like a sickly mouse."

She turned to meet Angela's stare, Lena's face lightening up into surprise, "Yeah, yeah! Kinda like that!"

Groaning, Angela retreated to her nauseous pose, trying her best to remain composed despite her fluttery insides, Lena going on with a cheerful air, "You should see your dad up here! For all he's done insofar as captaining ships, the guy can't be up here for two minutes before clamoring to be let down."

"Must be hereditary," Angela frowned, suddenly upset at her father for such an existence he'd given her.

Lena shrugged, "Maybe. Kinda surprised me though; I'd always look up to the Cap'n as something of an omnipotent being- I mean, I hadn't ever seen him as anything less than a fantastic man and captain. Like, back when he was swabbing the deck with us? D'you know how many captains out there are too good for such things? Not Cap'n Morrison; he ain't afraid to meet us on our level, y'know? It makes want to be at our best for him."

She tried to hide a snicker, "And makes us not want to tell our crewmen when he blows chunks up in the nest! It was a tizzy gettin' a bucket up here to clean!"

Her uneasiness slightly abated, Angela managed to roll to her side, not sitting against the wall of the circular nest her hands pressed tightly into the wood below, its cool surface relaxing her roaring nausea a bit, "I didn't know he was so respected."

"I haven't had parents for most of my life; I just sorta scrapped my way around the streets of London growin' up until Cap'n noticed my 'slight of foot' he said," Lena smirked at the thought, "I've always sorta seen him as a father, I guess. I mean, I've gotten farther in life aboard this hunk a' wood than I ever would'a back home. I mean, everybody else respects the mess outta him, but they all coulda gone their own ways 'n stuff. I was the only one he sorta took under his wing, I guess."

She smiled thoughtfully, "It just means a lot to me, you know? Certainly you feel the same way?"

Angela lowered her head, almost ashamedly, twisting her lips with dissatisfaction, "I mean… I knew he was pretty cool as far as fathers were concerned, but- I don't know; I was such a troublemaker sometimes. Maybe I just didn't realize it enough to appreciate it."

"Bah," Lena scoffed with a grin, "Judging from my visit, I think you're still quite the troublemaker, Ang!"

She grinned, "Maybe."

"Probably why he brought you along finally!" Lena wondered with a curious tone, "Figured the sea would whip ya into shape!"

Angela eyed her mischievously, "Oh, there's no chance of that. He gave me this nausea; I have to blame him for my feistyness too."

At that, Lena's bright face slightly fell in thought, her eyes suddenly glazed over as they blinked beneath the light of the sun, "Nah, that was more your mother, I think. Judging from all I knew about her, anyway."

Angela's eyes shifted nervously, not exactly wanting to open such a line of questioning. The topic had always sort of taboo to her, she knew, and given her being upon her father's ship, she figured it was the absolute last place to bring up such a discussion. Lena must have felt similarly, as she suddenly grew quiet herself, as if waiting for Angela to bring up some other topic for the two to go over.

"So, uh, what else does a third mate do?" Angela wondered, shifting the tone.

Lena nodded attentively, "Well, I'm so 'slight of foot' that I don't actually chill out up here all day, since I can scurry up here in an instant if I need to. Outside of my watchkeeping, I'm in charge of the general safety of the Splitstream, and just a usual 'do everything' kind of person. When Cap'n and Jess aren't on deck, I'm in charge as well."

She leaned over with a teasing smirk, "That's the fun part."

Lena giggled, almost evilly, probably recalling the moments with Hana just moments ago, "But seriously, more than anything else, I make sure we don't run into anything that might pose a threat."

Her face fell in a flash, "…be it rocks or other ships."

"We're, uh- But we're not gonna run into aggressive ships on this trip, right?" Angela asked cautiously, earning a complicated glance from Lena, "I mean, how often could that happen?"

Lena replied darkly, much to Angela's continued unease, "It's probably guaranteed. Especially with the Shimada Trading Co. posing more and more of a threat to us."

Angela's heart plunged alongside her stomach as her insides quivered at the thought, wrapping her arms around her waist as she groaned painfully, "Oh…"

"Don't worry," Lena assured cheekily, "You've the best in the business aboard with you! We've yet to take on more that a few liters of water; you think the one time you join us will be the one we lose this baby?! Pfft, not a chance!"

Angela couldn't help but feel a rising interest in Junkrat's operations beneath the deck, now hoping that, for all its accouterments, the Splitstream remained armed to the teeth, if only to ensure safe passage through these waters that now seemed immensely uncertain.

Angela tried to remain somewhat proper as she sat outside the comms closet, Hana refusing to allow her to sit beyond the barrier of the threshold. The officer hadn't said a word since Angela had arrived, having already sat up the chair at Lena's earlier behest, and now simply fiddled with the giant mechanism, holding her hand against one of the giant earmuffs of her headset, as though emphasizing the fact that she was too busy listening for something to be involved in conversation. Angela merely watched, attempting to gather what she could, though she was beginning to understand Hana's early objection, even if it was only because of Hana's own self-fulfilling prophecy- if she never taught anybody, of course she'd be the only one to work this behemoth of metal.

The young-looking woman reached over toward the metal interface, pulling out the large plug from a slot that read '148' with a dial beneath it with its own notches at its perimeter, methodically sliding her hand across the machine to '141', sliding the plug into the socket and lowering her hand to its corresponding dial, rolling it from side to side as her eyes narrowed seriously, stopping at no discernable point before lowering her hand, penciling in something on a map on her desk, moving next to writing on a sheet of paper at its side.

Angela leaned back in her chair, turning her head up toward the sunlight making its way through the cracks between the planken walls, frowning now that she was slowly regretting her father's decision to get her acquainted, not only with the crew, but with their activities, knowing that Hana was in no mood to be doing so. She twirled her lips, trying to come up with something to do in the meantime, reaching for her bag that she'd brought with her, full of things to entertain herself despite her father's insistence that the trip would be work, rather than fun. Still, she pulled her bag onto her lap, pulling out a book and opening it to its bookmark, sighing inaudibly as she began to read.

"That book's crap," she suddenly heard, her eyes jumping up to just see Hana's side-long eyes returning to her work.

With an uncertainty about her, Angela turned back to her book, pulling its cover back to check its title before returning to her spot, asking in confusion, "What?"

"I think they call it 'drivel' where you come from," Hana muttered, taking her pencil once again, scribbling as she held her other hand to a dial, "It goes nowhere."

Angela stared down at the book with which she'd only gotten half-way through, frowning as she pulled the bookmark from its pages with a sigh, "Well, I was hoping it would get better. Thanks for letting me know."

Hana shrugged as though preferring not to be the center of even an apology's attention, merely returning to her work as Angela reached into her bag for another book, pulling out a slim volume and holding it up for her to see, "How about this one?"

The officer turned her head only slightly, not wanting to appear too interested, "It's okay."

As quickly as she'd given her input, Hana returned to her work, leaving Angela to once again return a curious glance back toward her lap, critiquing the book in her hand. She slid it back into her bag, eyeing Hana with the same sort of critiquing eye she'd given to her book, trying to figure her out somehow. For one apparently so focused on her work, the officer didn't seem hesitant to keep tabs on whatever Angela was up to, though even then, she wasn't particularly sure whether Hana was taking the role of a chaperone or of somebody seeking out attention from outside the group.

Deciding to further test her thoughts, Angela reached back into her back, rummaging around long enough to deflect any suspicion, before pulling out a pack of playing cards, using two books as a playing surface on her lap. Not daring to give away her intentions by trying to sneak a look, Angela simply played by herself, constructing a makeshift solitaire game for herself in what little space she had, already intending not to finish to begin with.

Sure enough, Hana quietly muttered, still putting on the appearance of business, "Now what are you doing?"

"Just a card game. You've heard of solitaire?"

"Of course I have!" Hana raised her voice as though Angela had insinuated something of her intellect, though she quickly recoiled back into quiet grumbling, "I used to play cards all the time back home."

Angela's eyes lit up with inquisitive zeal, "Really? What kinds?"

As if weighing whether or not to continue, Hana bit her lip as her pencil stopped atop the map, a nearly inaudible groan escaping her as she decided to answer, "Poker and stuff. Hanafuda was brought over not long ago and some of us got into that."

"Hanafuda?" Angela asked, "I read about it in a compendium of card games once. That's where you match designs instead of suits or numbers, right?"

Surprised by her guest's rudimentary knowing of the game, Hana red her curiously with a side-long glance, not sure what to make of her now, "Something like that."

"It has your name in it too," Angela observed with a friendly tone, sending Hana's face spinning away as the officer hid a blush, chewing her lip angrily as if she'd given away too much information unknowingly.

Angela still continued, the shirk of paper cards being sent against others filling the air as she did so, "I was left at home a lot growing up, so I had to entertain myself when let with sitters with zero tolerance for anything relating to fun. or laughter. Anything that wasn't straight up boring, really. It's nice to know you've got your own ways of having fun though. So many of those crotchety old people, they always looked so dulled by lifetimes of nothing entertaining."

Without allowing it to affect her face, Hana couldn't help but feel a slight pang of Appreciation from her words, even if she'd worked hard to convey something of a professional air. Being as introverted as she was, she legitimately enjoyed being alone, though she enjoyed the sense of being somewhat understood, choosing not to exactly open up to anybody, lest she risk being the center of attention.

crackle

Hana's ears perked up, her nose popping to life as the smell of candied watermelon puffed through the air, sending her head turning toward her guest with a expectant look on her face, Angela peering back up toward her from a downturned head, surprised by Hana's sudden attention. Her hand was buried into a plastic sack of saltwater taffy that she'd brought with her, now frozen beneath Hana's heatedly inquisitive stare.

"Would you like s-"

"'s that taffy?" Hana interrupted with a persistently quiet voice, as though asking for something illegal.

Angela nodded, "Yeah, I bought some back home from a trawler that had stopped in port for some new fishing. They were some Dutch guys who figured they'd sell some-"

An unmistakeable string of saliva had worked its way just below Hana's lips as she nearly found herself shivering at the thought, her voice trembling, "Dutch taffy you say… How much you want?"

"Uhh…" Angela replied, still confused as she stared down at the bag of candy that, to her, had seemed like any other, "I mean, if you want it, you can have it; I didn't think-"

In a split second, Hana bolted from her stool, snatching the taffy from Angela's hand as she pulled her hands into her torso as she pecked at the small rolls of candy with two fingers, her nose quivering as she took in the sweet smell, "There is nothing, nothing, like this stuff. I would sell my soul to Davy Jones if it meant a lifetime of these."

Angela grinned, "You like candy?"

"Freakin' yes!" Hana shot back in reply, abandoning her professional grasp of the English language for a moment, "I mentioned Vancouver back on deck? They have the best maple candies in the world. It's like your mouth explodes in a crescendo of sweetness; the guys who make 'em, it's like they're writing personal love letters to your taste buds!"

A chill ran up Hana's spine as she recalled the taste, having gone without since the Splitstream's last voyage, though she took solace in the handful of taffy in her hand, quickly burying a piece in her mouth and swaying back and forth as she held it atop her tongue, simply allowing it to desolate there into a puddle tangy sweetness. Her lips fell back into her mouth as she mewled quietly to herself, wholly enraptured by the taste.

Revitalized almost, she hopped back onto her stool and, as though having passed some esoteric initiation, she waved for Angela to step into the closet-like room toward her, "Okay, so I'm supposed to show you what's going on with all this?"

"Uh, I mean…" Angela stammered weakly, unsure of this sudden change in Hana, "If it's not any trouble or anythi-"

"Pfft; I read books while doing this, I can show you some of it while I'm working," Hana assured easily, pointing toward the console as she tossed another piece of taffy into her mouth.

She explained attentively, "Okay, this equipment is so state of the art that it's not actually state of the art yet, you get it? As of right now, we only operate on the easiest bands available- you can literally access the channels from a box with wire hangers sticking out of it. Those are 140 to 148; don't ask why, somebody somewhere did all the math."

"Within those bands, there are even more wavelengths; so I plug into a specific band, then spin this dial between channels one to ninety-nine. You essentially end up with signals, like, 145.83, or 141.29," she explained further, pulling out a notebook and flipping open through pages of notes, "Ports will generally keep the same signal, so I keep records on each one, and then however few ships that are out there we communicate with, I keep tabs on those as well. San Francisco, for example… Here, 148.54. So when we get close enough, I'll plug into that signal and get word from the port manager where we can dock and so on. Saves a bunch of time, and hassle."

Angela nodded, "So what have you been doing if we're not close enough?"

"Well," Hana answered, "Since I can multitask, I don't exactly mind keeping an ear out. I mean, if there's a distress signal going out, you're rarely going to find it unless you go hunting for it, right? It's mostly just due diligence on my part; plus, I know the Captain appreciates it."

"Uh huh," Angela spoke, reaching out to poke the machine, much to Hana's bemusement, though she didn't say anything as she merely dropped another bit of taffy into her mouth, "How much did this all cost, anyway, if it's not even state of the art yet? or however you put it?"

Hana's face slowly crept into something of a worrisome grin, her bottom lip trembling as her eyes shot away from Angela, "W-We were told never to discuss that part…"

How own face falling into suspicion, Angela turned a glance toward Hana, who simply spun away on her stool, now facing the wall as though it were a completely normal thing to do. Still, she managed an awkward reach for another piece of candy, having to pull her head back and down to fit anything into her mouth she was so close to the wall. Angela frowned, suddenly worried at all the birthdays and Christmases she could have potentially gone without, a victim of such a breathless purchase as this one.

"Oxton seems to think the Captain stole it from a ghost ship," Hana muttered quietly, trying to deflect attention onto her, "Not that she bothered to explain how that could have even happened."

Angela sighed, falling back into her chair, "He wouldn't have done that. As cool as all the sailors made him out to be, he never came across as one of those swashbuckling guys they write about in my books, swinging from ship to ship and plundering loot like a deranged lunatic of the high seas."

Noticing Hana's body still facing the wall, though her face was turned to give her a side-long glance once again, Angela spoke up curiously, "Wait, he went all the way to Korea to get the best of the best when it came to this stuff. How much is he paying for you?"

Hana jolted in place, her shoulders trembling nervously as her head fell against the wooden planks of the wall with a soft thunk. She sent a shaky hand toward the desk, grabbing her headset, and pulling it over her head and upon her ears, drowning out any further questions as she remained transfixed by the wall itself, seemingly. Angela, for her part, only sighed nervously, crossing her arms in her seat as she worried about her father's ability to forecast the future.

What good would this thing be out in open waters, anyway?