Yes I know this is late. Shoosh. I dedicate this fic to Galapagos Marine Iguanas, and the 2003 movie Master and Commander. Here’s some very self-indulgent Mer-Genji.
The Overwatch was a proud three-deck, 110-gun ship, and Jack Morrison was its equally proud captain who would probably also carry 110 guns if he could. A disgraced naval officer and now privateer, the Overwatch was his last home, and his and his crew’s sole means of subsistence. They had a code, though. They had standards. Mercy wouldn’t have come on as the ship’s doctor, otherwise. When Mercy had first stepped up its gangplank with her leather bag hefted under her arm and her cello on her back, the whole ship stunk of gunpowder, blood, lime, lye and men, and it had only gotten worse these past few months. Still, life at sea had its pleasures. The call of gulls, the sun and salt glittering in the air, the songs of the crew and the tunes of her own cello on quiet evenings, even working in the claustrophobic cabins, shifting her weight with the swaying of the ship, calling for more sawdust on the floor to soak up the blood, Mercy couldn’t see herself anywhere else.
After an attack from the french privateer, the Talon, they had dropped anchor off the coast of a rocky little uninhabited island in the equatorial pacific to run repairs on their ship. While the crew was still anxious to pursue the Talon before it could target other trade ships, few were willing to turn down the prospect of being able to walk on dry land (despite the lack of towns, taverns, and brothels). Mercy was probably more excited about it than anyone.
“Fascinating,” murmured Jack, leafing through her leather-bound sketchbook as Mercy grunted with the rigging of a lifeboat. Mercy had dated every sketch and written down their coordinates in all their margins. There were sketches of medicinal plants, mushrooms, and seaweed from previous islands they had visited, sketches of the seabirds whose species seemed to shift along with their locations, and even unusual fish, reptiles, and insects and tide pool life. “And you’re hoping to find more medicinal plants on this island?”
“Without a local guide, I don’t think I can really forage safely,” said Mercy, taking ahold of the lifeboat to guide it down to a level she could clamber into, “This particular trip is more for the sake of natural philosophy than anything.”
“Natural philosophy,” Jack repeated with a sigh, “And every day that passes, the Talon puts another hundred leagues between us.”
“Well we can’t very well go fight them without making sure the old girl will hold together first,” said Mercy, giving the ship’s guardrail an affectionate pat.
“The Overwatch is not an old girl, she’s in her prime,” said Jack, clearly trying to ignore the hammering coming from the deck behind him as he tossed Mercy’s sketchbook into her lifeboat.
“Of course, Captain,” said Mercy with a conceding smile before stepping into the lifeboat, “I’ll be back by sunset,” she said, lowering the lifeboat down into the water.
“Stay safe,” he called after her as she rowed toward the shore.
“I always do!” she called back.
