Case #45: Video

[19centconstable]

[There's a gangly teenage girl in a shabby dress, with a particularly twee bonnet pulled low over her face. Her face is rather too goofy to be pretty, so it's not any great loss. She clears her throat, then nervously squeaks:]

I'd like very much to speak with someone from the vessel known as 'The Slayer', if I may?

Comments

Private

[grand_lotus]

A man learns to know a face when he's seen it every day for twenty years.

Of all the ships, George. Why this one?

Private

[19centconstable]

I thought they'd be most likely to take me on. Since I'm not very imposing.

Private

[grand_lotus]

You are also, ah...lacking in particular aspects that Captain Summers demands of her crew.

Private

[19centconstable]

But I feel confident that I could learn them!

Private

[grand_lotus]

...I don't doubt that you could. But those things that can be learnt are not the aspects I am referring to.

Private

[19centconstable]

...And I have a dress.

Private

[grand_lotus]

George.

You are not a woman.

Private

[19centconstable]

Well, no, but is that really such a problem?

Private

[grand_lotus]

It is when Captain Summers is quite widely known for accepting no men into her ranks. Should you succeed, what will happen when your deception is discovered, do you think?

Private

[19centconstable]

I don't intend to allow it to be discovered. I've quite a long dress.

Private

[grand_lotus]

The sea is not a predictable place. What you intend and what will happen are always very different things.

Private

[19centconstable]

That's why I want so badly to see it. I feel that if I don't go out and find adventure soon I'll dry up and blow away.

Re: Private

[grand_lotus]

Ah, George...

I have no argument with that. You are a grown man, and you deserve so much more than this small place can offer. Though it will pain me to see you go, you know that I will not try to keep you here.

But when you take up with a crew, you become a small part of a living thing that is greater than yourself. They must place their trust in you just as you do in them. It is a poor thing to ask that trust of them when all you have to offer in return is a lie.

Private

[19centconstable]

I wouldn't like to lie, but I just don't see that I have any other choice.

Private

[grand_lotus]

Wait for a better ship. I know that The Slayer is a good ship, and their crew has more honour than most - and if a baby girl had been left to me all those years ago, I would commend them to you myself.

But this is the life we have to live, and they will not have you make fools of them. Do you understand, George? They will most likely kill you. And there are things at sea enough to threaten your life.

Re: Private

[19centconstable]

But a better ship may never come!

Private

[grand_lotus]

George. Any ship is a better ship, for you, than The Slayer is.

Re: Private

[19centconstable]

I can certainly point to ships about which that is very much not true.