(About 6 years ago)
New Providence: an island that served as a popular stopover for pirates. It was one of the few harbors that provided services for plunderers and marauders alike. As a result, the island was nowhere near lawful - pirates from all over the globe seemed to splay out directionlessly, with their bases of operations scattered all over the place. It was a infamous island, too; the whispers of names of notorious pirates were quite the often case, and rough customers were a common sight.
It wasn't long before rumors of a ship whose name was familiar to every pirate started to spread in the close-knit network of the harbor. The Argo II is here, they said. And with them they brought the final one. At last, the Big Three have arrived.
The rumors were true. But the Argo II didn't need anyone to find out.
The crew had deliberately chosen a rowdy, messy port so that they could easily blend in with to teach the new member a thing or two about trade. After Leo put the ship quite a far distance away from the port, the crew would take turns to head out.
On the third day, Jason and Percy took the new member, Nico, out to the bustling harbor. It was Nico's first time at a port, and he was doing a pretty poor job of concealing his excitement under a mask of apathy. Even before they'd arrived at the island, he couldn't bear to tear his eyes off the weathered, black-tipped buildings that seemed to compete with each other for height, as well as the huge variety of ships that dotted the circumference of the stopover surrounded in thin waves of azure.
Now that he was here, the buildings seemed to tower over him, taller than ever - and what a maze of buildings this place was! The streets turned and swerved with no logic whatsoever, yet every inch bursting with activity. The only pattern that played on this island was the identical black-shingled roofs of every building; in the previous two nights, Nico had watched warm, deep glows bounce off the surfaces of the tiles.
Needless to say, it was a beautiful sight to behold. Nico even let it make up for the events of the past few days.
The three set off early after slipping on simple disguises. After looking at Nico's pathetic excuse of clothes, they agreed on going to the tailor for the first stop (to which Percy muttered something about "shopping" and "boring"). The seamstress didn't even bat an eyelid at her new customers as she continued bantering with a regular.
"Typical," Nico heard Percy mutter. "No one here actually bothers about tailored clothes. They just grab whatever they like and if it fits, it fits. End of story."
Nico stood at the door, waiting for the other two to do whatever they wanted to do.
The two stared at Nico, waiting for him to move.
Awkward silence ensued.
"Well," Nico started uncertainly, "are you two going to do anything or not?"
Jason and Percy exchanged a confused glance. "Uh, we're here to get you clothes, y'know," Percy said. "You go and pick what you want."
"Yeah, so -" he stopped abruptly. "Wait, I get to pick what I want?"
Jason laughed at the fair mix of confusion, shock and suspicion on Nico's face. (What's so funny?) "Yes, little bro. Go and get what you want."
Nico barely had time to let out an undignified squawk in response to that stupid nickname before he was playfully shoved into a huge array of fabrics.
Scratching his head, he decided to start with the rack in front of him. On the rack were haphazardly hung pieces of clothing of all sorts of color, types and sizes...it was too much information in a single sight for him to process, but at the same time, too little. How did this piece of clothing work? What purpose did it serve? How was it made? Huge surges of unanswered questions flooded into his mind as he picked up piece after piece with growing intrigue, feeling the subtle difference in each piece of fabric. It was going to be difficult to make a choice.
After bouts of choosing and picking, Nico settled for something that seemed to compliment his current plain, white shirt fairly well. It was black and had golden buttons in the center, its edges trimmed with gold. The sleeveless garment made his white sleeves puff out in an interesting, humorous way.
He read the label. Vest.
He then went off in search of the other two, whom he quickly found quite close by. "Done choosing what you want?" Jason asked.
Nico held up the black vest. (He'd learnt a new word today!)
"...that's it?"
Nico nodded, confused. Was it too much?
Percy popped out from behind, holding out something maroon. "Hey, Nico! I think this'll suit you. Want to give it a try?"
Nico squinted at the thick long sleeves. "What's that?"
"It's a coat," Percy smiled, handing it to Nico. "You just wear it over whatever you're currently wearing, and it makes you look cool."
...what kind of clothing only served to make you look cool?
"Well, it also keeps you warm," Jason added. That made much more sense.
Nico hesitated. "...so, I'll have to choose one of these?"
Jason laughed again. (Seriously, what was it this time?) "No, Nico! You get all of them. We're not that poor," he said, adding an extra piece of clothing to the pile. "And we'll get you some new pants, too."
As Nico was dragged to the counter, he couldn't quite name the warm feeling washing over his heart.
He also couldn't quite help but smile.
They passed by the next few shops in a similar fashion, picking up all sorts of things for Nico along the way. The three had just exited the bookshop with a stack of books about mythological creatures in Nico's arms when one of the shops caught his eye.
Like any other shop, it had the same black-tiled roof and an unassuming glass windowpane. But behind the window revealed a softly-lit store, with little trinkets and strange items that Nico was sure he'd never discover the use of. The dim, orange lamps in the shop further increased the mysterious aura surrounding it, greatly piquing Nico's interest.
"Let's go in and take a look?" Percy suggested, noticing Nico's intrigue. Nico nodded and stepped inside.
As soon as the door closed behind them, the shop lapsed into complete silence. Nico looked around for a shopkeeper, but no other soul was in sight.
Despite the stifling and slightly suffocating effect of the stillness, he found a twinge of tranquility and a strange sense of belonging. It prompted him to uncover the secrets laid out before him in the shop, where his eagerness was well-met with a wide array of shiny diamonds and precious metals sparkling under the orange glow, their sparkles seemingly watching him wherever he went. Surprisingly, he recognized quite a lot of them, and even knew how much they were worth. His eyes swept over object after object, some of them looking so fragile and valuable that Nico was pretty sure that he risked breaking them just by looking at them (as well as knowing how much he'd have to pay if he did break them).
"Careful, Percy. You're probably going to break something if you don't watch your step," Jason warned.
"What do these do?" Nico found himself whispering, but he still felt as though he was sticking out like a sore thumb.
Jason shrugged. "Beats me. New Providence always has the strangest things." Nico continued to comb through the store, spotting a shiny white object at the counter, among one of the many things.
When he did a double-take.
"...that's a scale of a leukai siren!" he breathed, inspecting the object intently. Jason curiously peered over. He glanced around briefly for anything that would discourage him from taking the scale before he picked it up gingerly. Turning the scale in his hands, a million questions passed through his mind. Why did the storeowner have this? Where was this from? Was the storeowner related to the siren in any way? He wasn't even sure if things like these had any monetary value, because leukai sirens were pretty much unknown to the vast population of the world. All the more making its presence in a dingy, modest store tucked away in the disorder of a lawless harbor very, very strange.
Perhaps the strangest thing of all was the slight tinge of black spreading up from the bottom of the scale, as though a drop of ink had unfurled in a pond of pure water. It also kicked up certain unpleasant memories that Nico had tried not to think about.
"What's that?" Percy called from the other side of the room, trying not to knock anything over.
...emphasis on tried.
Percy froze at the sound of shattering ceramic. "...whoops. I think I might have knocked that down with my elbow," he said, looking down at a broken cup.
Jason sighed loudly and pinched his nosebridge with his fingers. "I told you..."
Percy grinned sheepishly. Jason stared back, frustrated.
Silence.
Then Percy started sweeping the shards underneath the shelf.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Jason hissed, making his way where Percy was as quickly as possible.
"Well, nobody saw a thing! The shopkeeper's not even here, he probably won't even notice that it's gone. Strike when the metal's hot, bro!" Percy whispered, hurriedly sweeping more pieces.
"Wha - You can't just break someone's stuff and then leave, Percy! Do you even have any morals!?" Jason snapped.
"Well, for the record, I don't have any morals and that's why I'm a pirate! Besides, what do you suggest we do?" Percy argued, spreading his hands wide.
"We apologize."
The bickering duo turned to face Nico.
"...uh -" Percy began, interrupted by a piece of paper and a pen thrust in his face.
"Write an apology note to the shopkeeper. Then sweep the shards back out and put the note on it," Nico said (although to Percy it felt more like an order). "That was made out of very expensive ceramic and probably costs more than your life; if you sold it, you could use it to cover all the expenses of repairing the Argo II. The least we can do is apologize."
Percy stared at Nico, baffled.
Nico stared back expectantly.
"Ugh, okay. You win," Percy obliged grudgingly, starting on the note. "I'm not even sure how this can even work out or why I'm even listening to you, but fine." (Nico thought he heard Percy mutter something along the lines of "two moms for the price of one", whatever that meant.)
As Nico and Percy argued about signing off on the note ("That's just stupid! We're in hiding, for goodness' sake -"), Jason's face took on a calculating expression.
"What?" Nico said bluntly in response to Jason's hard stare.
"...Nico, do you know anything about prize? Like things that pirates would hoard...for example, precious jewels or metals?" Jason asked.
Nico furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "Well, if you mean things that are like valuables you can find in this shop, I'm pretty familiar with them. I can probably tell you how much everything in this shop is worth," he contemplated. "Probably. What about it?"
Jason beamed.
"Familiar with prize, a natural at keeping order...I think we've found our quartermaster."