it was friday morn when we set sail

[blindsider]

[ It's an exciting career, piracy. Danger, adventure, freedom – and always something new. Ignis likes to keep things fresh, likes to keep himself, his crew, and above all his competitors on their toes, and it's to that end that he'd hatched his latest plot. A new captain of a new ship bragging far and wide about the vast quantity of precious jewels he'd come by might not have been much cause for concern – after all, Ignis himself is no stranger to a certain amount of showmanship – if said captain hadn't been quite so persistent in his pursuit of Coctura, woman of culture and captain of the Mother of Pearl. She'd bemoaned it to Ignis over a copious amount of very fine brandy when last they'd met, and come by the idea of parting the man from his jewels by.way of provoking a mutiny among his men. Ignis would talk his way onto the ship to agitate, and then Coctura would lead both her crew and his to loot the cargo in the ensuing chaos.

It hadn't worked. The evidence of this is currently clearest in Ignis himself, who'd managed to talk his way out of a keel-hauling and been put to sea in a rickety old dinghy instead with nothing but his own clothing and jewelry and one short knife – ostensibly to allow him to catch food, but more truthfully as an escape if the thought of dying adrift, taken by thirst or hunger, became too much to bear.

Ignis, however, is not a man who gives up easily. The sparse little island he's spotted dosn't look close to big enough to make a life on, but it's more than big enough to build a signal fire and tide him over until his crew comes looking. So he's in good spirits as he makes for it, singing loudly to himself as he rows. ]

O, auburn was the colour of his hair
and his eyes were blue, and his cheeks were fair
and his lips were of a ruby fine
ten thousand times they've met with mine -

[ It's full-throated and spirited, until he's so caught up in his song and the hope born of spotting the island that he forgets to check the patterns of the water, and rows himself right over a rock jagged enough to rip a hole in the bottom of his boat. It starts to take on water immediately, and at a rapid enough rate that he knows he can't possibly make it to land before the entire thing sinks. In truth, even this isn't enough to dampen his spirits – he was a sailor before he was a pirate, and neither is a career any sane man would take to without being a strong swimmer -

until he sees the fin of a shark cutting through the water towards him. ]

Oh, fucking hell.

Comments

[linkstrike]

[ if there's one rule that his kind holds sacred, it's that humans are dangerous and utterly forbidden.

... and if there is one thing that has always been true of noctis, it's that he's terrible at following rules.

humans are interesting, especially those that thrust themselves out into the sea in their crude floating homes as if they've never realized how ill-suited they are for the ocean. he likes trailing after them sometimes, stealing close enough to pick up snatches of conversation -- it's how he learned that the humans call these odd little floating homes ships, and that they like to sing out in voices rougher and far less polished than those of a siren. sometimes noctis even steals their songs for himself; they aren't woven with the old magic that makes for enchanting prey, but still. not all singing should be about hunting, sometimes it's simply for the pleasure of sunning himself on a warm rock and singing about far-off people and places that he knows he'll never see.

it's a song that's drawn him today.

he's trailing along after the smallest ship he's ever found, keeping himself far enough away to be out of sight but close enough to take stock of this peculiarity. one lone man bobbing about in a ship that barely seems big enough to stand a wave, singing out in a voice loud enough to carry across the water. weird. maybe the song is meant to call his kind to him? do all ships start out like this, sprouting over time like kelp?

-- and then the human smashes his seedling of a ship directly into a rock, which is absolutely baffling. is it meant to have a hole in it? probably not, if the man's vain (and brief) attempts at bailing water are any indication. this is also the first time noctis has seen a human come into contact with the water, and he's interested to see whether or not those spindly little legs will be as useful as his fin, but --

then a shark has to come and try to spoil his fun.

cutting it open with his teeth or claws would just spill blood into the water and draw more sharks, so. instead, noctis warps himself into its path, and slaps it soundly on the nose with his tailfin. it immediately attempts to chomp down on him, but sharks are stupid and slow compared to sirens -- it's nothing for him to twist out of its way, then deliver another firm blow to its tender gills. and that's enough for the creature to decide this meal is more trouble than its worth, so it turns itself away with a frustrated gnashing of its teeth and makes for open water.

and with that taken care of, noctis turns back to his human, pleased to see that he's still bobbing about in the waves even though his ship is nowhere to be seen. he's been warned at least a thousand times never to approach them, but... well. how dangerous could one of them be, especially when all his limbs are occupied with kicking out clumsily at the water? so he circles closer, swimming a lazy loop around the human and keeping himself out of arms reach. ]

Are you drowning?