Quartermaster

Penny Dreadful Sentence Starters

Kane thought for a moment, wondering why Charlie was thinking about such a subject, but he supposed that everyone had their more introspective moments, even the kid. “I dunno,” Kane answered, his usual gruffness still present in his voice despite his attempts to sound less gravely than usual. “I guess I believe in something higher, if that’s what you mean by it. I know that there has to be something more than just this place. I believe that we are all here for some reason, but I don’t know if I believe in any kind of destiny for me. How about you kid? What is it you believe? You think that fate was what brought you to Neverland and had you run into the Captain and Nod?”

“I was gonna give it back,” Nod whined in a perfectly un-Grown Up like way. “And I didn’t mean to drop it. I was just gonna borrow it and see how long it took you to notice.”  And the answer to that last question was apparently very quickly.  Nod had barely slipped the thing away from Kane before the other had noticed.  His specific reasoning for why he had wanted to do that escaped him. Very likely there had been no good reason, but any reason was alright for Nod.

Nod scoffed, “Like you would have given me time to take off my boots even if I hadn’t run.” He accepted the hand that Kane held out to him. He’d never admit it, since it made him look weak, but he did try to pull Kane down into the water with him. But with Kane’s stance ready to pull him out of the water already, and the fact that the Quartermaster was the size of a literal mountain, Nod only managed to pull himself up out of the water. He did get his revenge by shaking his hair out like a dog when he had his feet under him. Nod knew better than to splash water up at Kane, not that he didn’t want to, but really didn’t want to take a second trip into the ocean.

“Of course you were, but it’s the taking it in the first place that got you this wonderful swim.” Kane gave Nod a wicked smile. The boy had gone for a particularly bad possession of Kane’s to try and steal; his ax was almost an extension of his body, had been for years upon years. He even slept with the weapon tucked in the corner of his pillow, easily reachable in case some kind of Lost Boy made it into camp trying to make a name for himself. Now, the metal was wet and Kane didn’t fancy having the wet wood handle banging against his side as he walked. The only just retribution had been to throw Nod into the surf.

Still, his anger was gone when he pulled Nod out of the water and he was grinning like a cheshire cat when Nod responded. The first mate was probably right, but Kane didn’t press the issue. “Well, Nodder, now that you’re nice and soaked, I might as well ask what the captain wanted us to do today now that it’s warming up. Should we be fortifying the camp just in case some scraggly children start heading this way?” He clapped his hands, suddenly more eager to get to work. He’d have to thank Nod later for the distraction, even if he’d chucked him in the water for it.

“Good to know that I won’t have to worry about them for the slow death. I’ll hand it to them that they at least have a personal touch.” They’d be better off with the poison if one of them was going to try to take down Kane.

“But I might as well take the scar so stitch me up Doctor Nodder, I think I could stand another identifying mark anyways.” A cut on his cheek couldn’t be anything compared to the line through his eyebrow, Kane figured with a shrug. He just hoped that Nod would hurry. The cut had stung, of course, but Kane knew that sometimes sewing up a cut was far worse than allowing it to stay. Still, he had no want to get an infection so he let Nod do the work.

@nodofneverland

Every single time Ace heard that blasted axe click behind him, it sent another jolt of terror flicking through his veins. That’s why he’d spoken up, to put an end to the uneasy silence that had fallen between them. He couldn’t stand the suspense, especially since he wasn’t the one with the advantage. And two weapons. Ace only had the one, a knife tucked away in his belt. It was a measly little thing, mainly used for cutting vines or clamshells, or other things he was unable to pry apart with his bare hands.

“I have plenty of meat on my bones,” He grumbled, eyes scanning the forest. “I didn’t take pirates for the type who stuck too closely to truces and whatnot, anyway. Isn’t treachery written into your code somewhere? For all I know, you’re just going to chop my head off as soon as I show you the best hunting grounds and eat me too.”

Ace really didn’t want pirates snooping around the herds of deer that tended to graze by the outskirts of the plains, but Kane didn’t seem keen on giving him any openings to escape. It would be easier to lead him to the bear cave and then bolt, let the grizzly-esque man try to take on an opponent his own size. Unless of course, the pirate knew that area. And there was a pretty good chance he did. There were trails around the den, well-worn from the lengths most would go to avoid a run in with the creatures. No, it seemed as if Ace was stuck en route.

Ace’s disgruntled huffing occasionally cut through the silence of their trek, and after a few minutes he piped up again. He hated that every time he tried to speak, there was a noticeable tremor of fear that undercut his more brazen statements. “It’s not too far now. We’re almost there.”

Kane had learned from a very young age what silence could do, the fear that it could bring. His first captain had been a normally very jolly if gruff man with a ragged rough jet black beard and a scar on his lip and a chunk out of his nose; those who weren’t on his crew had only to look at him to feel uncomfortable, but when his silence was used correctly, he could go from being a discomfort to a threat. Suddenly, in the absence of his gravely jokes, he seemed to be a cutthroat; certainly, the British Navy found him to be. 

Kane had learned very quickly, even as a fourteen year old cabin boy; he was a large boy and he grew still larger over the next few years. Unlike some, he took puberty in stride, enjoying the growth and the burst of power that filled his limbs as he went from boy to man. The boy in front of him seemed stuck in that uncomfortable age inbetween boyhood and manhood, too tall to simply be a child, but too slender to really be a man.

“Meat on your bones? I think I could get more meat if I shot down a particularly thick squirrel, not that your skinniness would be your saving grace if you dared to cross me boy.” Kane found it utterly ridiculous that the boy was so convinced that Kane would be the one to enact the treachery when he was a Lost Boy where treachery was something of a way of life. “Pirates at least have a code, what do you have? The rules of one boy above all?”

Kane had heard enough about Peter Pan to have a rather definite opinion of the tyrant and his band of feral children. From everything he’d heard from the others aboard the Jolly Roger, they were the ones to watch out for, more than pirates ever could be with their rules. At least pirates had reasoning for their actions rather than just whims and fancy. “Good, I’m eager to return to my more comfortable company. Here’s hoping you have the sense to return to yours.”

fIt was the middle of the winter and we were all freezing cold on the ship. Charlie thought he would walk around without a coat and suddenly the whole crew was on him. You have never seen such a group of mother hens as this bunch of pirates. Hook was chiding him and Nod threw his own coat on him. Isadora threw enough wood on the fire to send it shooting up and Anna made him sit down. I can’t really say that I wasn’t part of it too though. I made the boy have a warm drink and then I gave him some hot stew. It was a funny thing, but it felt like family.

Soon afterwards, Kanaloa sent us something fantastic, a seal. A seal somehow found its way to the shores and it provided us with food for weeks. We ate and we drank and we sang. We told stories about places we’d seen and battles we’d fought. It was one of the first times that I looked around and knew that The Jolly Roger was home.

I owe her my life and it would be hers to take if she wanted it. I doubt she would recognize me though. She is an eternal being after all and I’m sure that she probably has saved and killed many a sailor in her time. It would be for Kanaloa to decide again if it was my time to join the sea.

Blonde. And a mermaid. 

I was afraid when the Harpy was going down; I could taste it in my mouth like blood in the water. It was hard, metallic, like copper. It wasn’t so much that I was afraid of death, but at the same point, I can’t say I greeted it like a friend either. I know that one day the water will take me under and I am scared of that, of slowly feeling the breath leave my body and being unable to take in any more, but I know that’s what’s going to happen one day. It’s fear, but it’s coming and it doesn’t do to dwell on it.

“Now what fun would that have been Nodder? I would have had to give you warning for that and you didn’t give me warning when you took my ax, now did you? Plus, it isn’t my fault that you spent time running from me rather than taking off your boots.” 

He should have thanked Nod though; the moment his fellow pirate had hit the water, all thoughts of his hurting stomach had fled and he was beginning to feel far better than he had when he woke up. It wasn’t as if he could give his friend the satisfaction though. Instead, he merely extended his hand to help him out of the water.

@nodofneverland in response to this

@kaneonboard // original post

Isadora had enjoyed the opportunity to get away from the ship and stretch her legs. It wasn’t that being around her crewmates was the problem in so much as her restlessness always caught up with her. The mountain range was risky, but with the warmer climate, it also meant less ice. Trailing behind Kane, the man seemed to have no problem climbing over the terrain, easily able to traverse without much effort. She was keeping up with him, but she was smaller and certain boulders required some strategy to safely get around.

Isadora rolled her eyes. “If you left me here, you’d have no one to protect you.” Isadora grinned, whilst eyeing the narrow-looking passage. Nodding affirmingly at Kane, Isadora aligned herself with the passage wall as close as she could ready to mimic Kane’s actions. “You better not, otherwise I’m coming back as a ghost and haunting you.” She mused, to quell the bubbling dismay at just how endless the cavern was. She knew she didn’t need to worry, for much like the mountain at her back, Kane always had the crew’s.

If there had been a time when Kane had been against having women on a ship, he couldn’t very well remember it; The Righteous Harpy had not been his first ship, but it had been one of his favorite and the fact that Anna had been aboard was one of the reasons. Some sailors had blamed her whenever things went wrong, but Kane knew that things went wrong on ships no matter what rules a sailor followed. The sea could be a cruel, unexpected master, but it had nothing to do with sex. After all, he had never met a pirate as fierce as Isadora Booth. She had twice as much grit and determination than most pirates he’d known and three times the stamina. He could think of few people he’d rather have by his side in battle, and she knew it.

“Plus, having a ghost following behind me would scare all my animals away when I hunted. They can see things like that, you know. And I think this island probably has enough ghosts on it. You I’d rather keep living seeing as it’d be hard to replace those sharp eyes.” He looked back at her and watched as she scaled the rock behind him, her slight stature proving no match for her determination. He could see the end of the cavern and finally, he pulled himself up to more of a plateau, reaching down for her hand. “See, no rope needed. You’re a practiced climber Isadora, I’m always impressed.” It wasn’t a joke, in spite of how he smiled at her.

The answer was undoubtedly yes, but Kane merely shook his head as Nod prodded the deep cut into his cheek. The wound throbbed as blood pushed to his face, flushing it, with pain, but mostly anger that he had actually fallen into some Lost Boys’ trap. He had been collecting wood in the forest and he had tripped a vine of some kind, springing the net. Luckily, he had managed to throw himself out of the way of the net, but a bramble that had been set snapped when he moved and flicked back to cut his face. 

He had put a rag on it and headed back to camp to get the thorn out of his skin, but Nod had seen him first and offered to help. Kane had wanted to brush the first mate away and take care of it himself as he was wont to do, but Nod knew enough to know he could sew the wound much cleaner than the quartermaster. Finally, Kane had consented and sat down, allowing Nod to pull the barb from his face and start to clean it out.

“Did those feral children put anything on the barbs that I should be worried about or does it look clean enough?”

Was he somehow getting bigger? Ace could swear the man was literally growing in front of his eyes, becoming more domineering by the second. Or perhaps Ace’s quivering knees were just vibrating him into the ground. Either way he didn’t dare counter the pirate’s promise with a snide remark of his own for fear that the cocksuredness would be the literal death of him. He wasn’t quite sure what ‘notoriously’ meant, but from the context he could assume it was akin to ‘very, very, very’. Turning, ever so slowly, Ace silently nodded and began to march through the underbrush.

Formulating an escape plan was difficult when one knew a bullet could shatter their spine if they made a single misstep. Even if the bullets missed, the axe could easily crack his skull like an egg. Maybe he should just take a hard right and sprint to freedom. Maybe he should climb a tree and pray the pirate had very few bullets left. All the while, Ace wrestled with his deep desire not to share. This was Peter’s domain, which meant any wild game here was designated Lost Boy Food. Sure, it wasn’t a hard and fast rule, but it was certainly implied. And it definitely wasn’t fair. Kane wasn’t playing by the rules and it twisted knots in the guts that would be spilled if Ace voiced his complaints.

After minutes of silence, which was a very long time for him, Ace piped up. The tremor in his tone served as a reminder of who was in control. “You’re a pirate, aren’t you? I thought the whole lot of you lived off fish and grog and seaweed, that sort of stuff. Why do you want our food? ‘S not like you don’t already have enough where you are. ”

The boy reminded Kane of a squirrel, all nervous energy and anticipation; it wasn’t to be underestimated, however. Squirrels were quick and squirrels were hard to catch once they got going; this boy would be impossible to track if he actually found an opening. Kane didn’t plan on making it easy for him. He deliberately set out to make the boy uncomfortable; he kept quiet and kept his eyes open. His steps were soft on the forest floor and the only sound he made was the occasional tap of his finger against his axe, a reminder that he had it close by his side.

“Yes, I’m a pirate, but do I look to you boy like a man who doesn’t enjoy more than seafood and ale? Don’t get me wrong, I like seafood and ale, the latter which I doubt you could handle being as slight as you are, but I also like meat. The only reason I’m not just saving myself the trouble of all this and taking you back as dinner instead is because I don’t want to be the first to violate the truce. Plus, you look like there wouldn’t be enough meat on your bones to feed three people let alone the crew. Still, the longer you take to find the replacement, the more I might be prone to reconsidering.”

Silence before he spoke and Kane let silence fall heavily once again. Silence worked for him, almost better than his words. His size, his eyes, and his looks could do most of the work on their own; it was a useful trick he had found out being in charge of discipline.Sometimes a man didn’t need to say anything to elicit fear, sometimes he just had to be.