Sail Away ϟ Bobbi
TIMING: December 1, 2022 LOCATION: The Docks, White Crest PARTIES: @timetide SUMMARY: Bobbi takes her crew and sails away from White Crest's destruction! CONTAINS: N/A
It was raining when the boys arrived, and Bobbi could hear the engine of John’s truck die down before a throng of footsteps began to descend upon her medium-sized fishing boat.
She had told her crew to send their families away from town days ago and join her on her boat for one final sail. They all knew that something bad was happening to the town, and even if they weren’t sure what kind of bad it was and if it could be stopped, they were at least sure that it was time to abandon all hope.
White Crest had been good to them, but with all the supernatural bullshit that had been plaguing the town, they needed to ensure their and their loved ones’ survival. Bobbi made her choice, too.
John waited for her just outside the captain’s quarters, wearing a black shirt over his usual pair of jeans, the same ones he’d wear for an entire week, thinking that no one would notice. Bobbi noticed, but she didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to. “We’re good to go, Captain,” he greeted her with a wide grin, following her as they made their way to meet the others. “The last voyage of Salmon Ella, away from the town where the wicked rests.”
Her first mate no longer seemed as vaguely disappointed as he had been when they all discussed the town’s inevitable destruction. Bobbi didn’t attend the town hall meeting, having been busy with trying to retake the Jade Wind from the Lost Fleet but to no avail. In her place, Peter volunteered to go, only to return with the darkest of news. A dark cloud hung over the rest of the crew, and when Bobbi returned empty-handed, she realized it was finally time to make the choice: her past or their future. Easiest decision she had ever made.
“Are they all right?”
John nodded. “Pretty much. Families all left ahead of time, even the aunties. Your friends made sure everyone was accounted for. Didn’t know they knew each other?”
“No,” Bobbi replied calmly. The faceless woman who owned the houseboats for rent around Finney Docks, except Bobbi’s, was an old friend of hers. The others were clientele for their side hustle in smuggling, too wealthy people that didn’t have much else to do with all their money. None of them knew what she really was, and only Mrs. Gao had any inkling that she was more than just a fisherman. The old woman even knew her Baizhou name, considering her as her lucky charm just because her houseboats started surviving every storm that tried to take the docks after Bobbi stayed. “They don’t.”
“Well, like I always say, glad we have you on our side, Captain. Docks’ been lucky that way. Wherever you go, we’ll go. Or we’ll at least try and pay you a visit, especially if it’s a country away,” John shrugged. It was no secret, especially between them, that Bobbi could have left town any time during the past year. The way she spoke too many languages made it clear to him that she wasn’t as bound to the town as the rest of them. She was the daughter of the world, and the world was now wanting her back.
She simply nodded at him in response, not even a faint trace of a smile on her lips. Bobbi had lost the very battle that made her stay in town, the very treasure that gave meaning to her life. Or so part of her still thinks. The truth was, Baozhai had been dead long ago. Ever since the Lost Fleet took her ship, the legacy of the man who rescued her from boredom in the mountains and gifted her with adventure through the seas.
Would he hate her for never avenging his vessel, the crew they had lost to the town? Bobbi tried her best to make it up to their descendants, the ones that stayed in town and made the docks their own. Maybe he would have hated her more for staying, for abandoning the adventures over the oceans of the world for the comfortable treasures of the surrounding waters of White Crest. But what could she have done? Piracy died with him, and there had been far more adventures without it.
“So, where do you guys want to go?” Bobbi greeted the rest of their crew, hands on her hips. Even without wearing a smile, she managed to still win them over. The boys cheered her, all excited, despite the dangling sorrow of future mourning. Some of them yelled out names of towns and cities on the opposite coast. Others went further and claimed locations outside of the country.
From the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Andrew, whose nose was broken by a newly made friend all those months ago. Bobbi had sent her a message about joining them but was politely rejected. She understood that the girl was probably busy with her own problems, she told herself all those days ago. Tracking down a loved one, your own mother, that you’ve never met was a more arduous task. Bobbi could only imagine what Christie, Cass, was going through, what she’ll be going through, but she was still proud that the kid was finding her own way.
“How about we tour the rest of the East Coast as we make our way to the West, eh?”
The crowd cheered her suggestion, much to Bobbi’s discreet delight. She turned to John, giving him a nod, gesturing to take care of the rest of their departure. John was only too quick, and seemingly too excited as well, to take charge, fulfilling what could be his final tour as her first mate. In an ideal world, Bobbi would have kept him and all of them on her ship. With all things considered, however, especially the uncertainty of their lives outside of town, Bobbi wasn’t even sure she’d keep the ship.
END.
