Stavanger Bay Shaded me on summer days

time to kick this off <3 referencing things that haven't happened yet but will, if anyone has any issues lemme know and I will edit!

And just like that, he was leaving.  She wished she could be surprised, but all she felt was... she didn't know.  Void.  She'd known where his priorities lay from the start, but having them laid before her so plainly wasn't a pleasant encounter.

She'd said a lot (I assume, because it's her) and she stood by all of it.  And now she had to pick up and move on, keeping the crew until he returned.  If he returned.

If he deserved to get them back.

Bitterly she limped along the beach.  First on her list was seeking out @Raptor.  He'd been distant lately, but he was a friend to her, and she needed to know where he was on this.  Besides... he was Smoke's.  If she was to lead, things were going to change.  She wasn't going to just be a stand in.  This ship would be hers for as long as she remained at its head, and she had some of her own ideas for how she wanted it to run.

He could leave. He toed the imaginary line between the ship and unclaimed sands. He tried to imagine that expanse ahead of him was something magical. That it was freedom and independence. That it was the gate to a new life where he was happy and where all the follies of his past and all the pains that went with them had been left behind here in Ironsea. He could leave. But he could not imagine those things and his paws were stone heavy.

The sound of the waves rolling on the beach was trance-like. Raptor could have lost hours staring down the empty shoreline awaiting a spark to ignite life in his breast once more, but movement from the corner of his eye interrupted his stupor.

"Roz?" He squinted into the sun at her back.

"Mhmm." She affirmed as she pulled to a stop in front of him, tension in every line of her frame.  Where he was a dour sort of despondent, she felt like she held a thunderstorm in her chest, and it needed an out.

"Smokestep is gone, off to find Sandpiper."  Gone or leaving, tbd.  "Left me Captain, and I need to know where that puts you."  

It was brosquer than she wanted to deliver it, but she wanted to glaze over the departure as much as she could, not dwell on that and instead keep to what she could do.  He'd been a lackaluster Quartermaster so far, to the point where she wondered if he even wanted the role.  If he did... he'd need to keep an eye on the crew, for perhaps unlike Smokestep, she thought the position vital.  If not, she had another thought in mind.

That thunderstorm in her chest found its way out alright; it struck him — hard and fast. Lightning. It took the breath from his lungs and shattered every thought in his head until all he heard was the anxious thump of his heart. This was not the spark he was looking for, this was not the way for him to be roused.

"He..." The words died on his tongue. So he stood there stunned at length, his burnt umber eyes flickering across Roz's face. It registered, and then, his face darkened, and his mouth turned down in a deep scowl. "Left, huh? To find Piper? The sea took her!" He spat, brimming with pain that his friend should abandon him so, and boiling with anger at the same.

Raptor spun, pacing a tight circle. He bristled and bared his teeth, tossed his head and squeezed shut his eyes as his expression frantically fought between rage and despair. "Didn't even say a word to me!" He had sucked as a Quartermaster, and he knew it keenly, and yet, he felt betrayed that Smoke had passed the reins to Roz and simply left.

He stopped. His eyes bored into the sand.

"Put me where you want." He muttered. "Bury me here for all I care."

Rosalyn agreed.  Whether she'd said as much or not was unknown, but there were two possibilities here from where she stood... Sandpiper was dead, or she had run, and by the Captain's own ruling the first would need to be true after.  Yet she doubted that little rule applied to family.  True family.  She had a while yet to be bitter, and while she wasn't exactly processing Piper's disappearance (one thing at a time) she had a number of things to be upset about.

Raptor was giving her another.  Her expression darkened as he fell again into that damnable self-loathing.  She could appreciate his sentiment when it came to Smokestep, but she felt the rest had about run its course.

"If that's what you want," she said, her patience thin.  "Then fine.  I just know I can't have a quartermaster that avoids the crew.  So if you want it, you gotta do it.  And if you don't want it?"  She shrugged.  "I'd take you as my first mate, you might have some advice worth hearin.  But first you'd need to get your head outta your ass enough to give a damn about the rest of us."

Rosalyn was never good at mincing words or sympathising.  And even less so when her own edges were so frayed... the timing was unfortunate, and Raptor was getting an unfair share of an internal storm.  But they were words she still thought needed said, even if they incited the male to attack her.  It was a line she walked with almost alarming regularity.

He lifted his head only so that he could stare her in the face and curl his lip over his teeth... but that challenging, angry sentiment disappeard as quick as it had come. Raptor looked away with a defeated, throaty sigh and slicked back his ears. She was right. He hated to hear that truth but knew it to be just that. The sable wolf had taken a fall and had not stood himself back up. He chewed his lip, taking the time to calm down and dig deep.

"I ain't worth the Quartermaster title," he murmured. He hadn't meant to sound self-loathing that time. He errrr'd and followed up with: "I mean... I never earned it. I failed." He looked back toward Roz, his eyes were soft with his question. "So why would you want me for a First Mate?" He was no sage wolf. He was more commonly a bonehead; a young, inexperienced wolf that was also often insecure.

For a second, she thought he might actually go for it... and she wasn't positive she could win.  She tensed briefly, but the look disappeared, and instead she breathed out as he looked away.

"Because you seem like me; learning from mistakes.  Unless I'm wrong, you got experience worth hearin."  She smiled.  "Besides, you brought me on.  Of everyone here, I've known you longest."  And he was staying... unlike Smoke, he was choosing the crew.  That told her a good deal about his loyalty, despite his recent anti-social tendencies.  Ultimately, though, it was up to him. "If you don't feel up to it, I won't hold it against you."

She warmed him with her words, but even still, he was uncertain. It was no new uncertainty. It was a stubborn feeling that had stuck him like a thorn in the paw a while ago, and was left alone to root itself in deeper with each new folly and disappointment, until the injury had festered terribly and was now so much harder to repair. But one look away, casting his eyes down the vast shoreline, was enough to start the process. Because when all was said and done, Raptor was a wolf who wanted nothing more than companionship and family, and Roz was the closest thing he had to that right now. Her company looked a hell of a lot more inviting than the lonely coast before him, than a life he had never lived. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't.

"I'll be your First Mate." He answered, quietly, as he turned his head back to her and took a pace toward her. Raptor shifted his paws. "I can look out for you," he said. He had no desire for a promotion. He did not aspire to the rank of Captain when he hardly felt fit to call himself a pirate at all. He had never been ambitious that way and was surprised to have even been named Quartermaster. His reason for agreeing to the rank was simple. "I think that's something I can do." He did not know the crew and he felt unable to attend them the way a Quartermaster should. But he knew Roz and he trusted her. Having her back was not only something he thought he could do, but something he had at least some want to do.

He would - and this meant he would stay.  She breathed out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding as he confirmed, and she gave a toothy smile.  "I'll try not to give you too much run-around keepin up, but no promises."  Recent weeks she hadn't exactly been careful, but with the new responsibility, she would step back a bit.  He was an apt fighter, though, and more important - she doubted he would have issues keeping her in check.  If she needed it.

"Thanks, Raptor," she said finally, allowing some of her relief to show.  It was good to know at least someone would have her back.  She liked a lot of the new crew, but they were new.  It would be some time before they built true trust up.

Somehow, surprisingly, and against all odds, Raptor felt a tremendous weight lift from his shoulders as Rosalyn thanked him. He inhaled a deep breath and sighed, feeling also that his chest had been constricted and now was free. The turn of events was not enough to remove all his uncertainty and worries, but he had least felt ready to stand up.

"So how do you intend to do things? What are your laws?"

"Been a long time since I led anything."  She responded thoughtfully, but she did think hard about it.  This was a good chance to get some of his thoughts on how she ran shit.

"Guess first is kinda obvious.... I don't much spend the energy huntin down deserters.  If ye see em and get the itch to kill em, well... that isn't my problem." She said with a small smile.  "But seems a waste, spending all that effort on someone not worth the time.  Better to find new, loyal crew mates out to take their place, yeah?"  She wondered if the rule would be deemed soft, but sometimes smart and soft weren't mutually exclusive.  Crew ran better when everyone wanted to be there.  Period.

"D'you think the crew has any interest in raiding?"  She asked suddenly, not really giving him time to answer the first.  It had been on her mind, and she thought perhaps he knew of that particular piratical custom.  She wasn't opposed... so long as they were smart about how they did it.  Lotta packs around here, and close together too.  Might not be entirely possible to hit an isolated group.

He assumed as much given one of their previous conversations, but at least it had been said. Raptor did not want to hunt anyone down, he was no killer at all, and he liked to think he stood some chance at a life beyond these shores if he continued to, well, suck at being a pirate. He nodded in agreement, unable to say a word before she proposed another question. One that, for Raptor, was another concern.

"I would think so." Most of the crew (he assumed) were more piratey than perhaps him. More coarse as it were. "That's what pirates do, eh?" Raptor laughed, cutting it short. "Look, I'll level with you Roz. I ain't no killer." It occurred to him at that precise moment that Roz had no idea about his whole fuck up with Wylla. Maybe she did not need to know right now or right ever. "I can steal the whiskers off your face though and I'd be down for that."

The sable wolf twitched his tail and canted his head a bit.

Rosalyn listened with interest, and as she did, her smile grew.  "Glad to hear it, cuz that's a part of the rules." She said, happy because she honestly hadn't known where the new First Mate stood on that.  Some pirates like  to flaunt their kills, but again... sometimes soft was smart.

"Killin makes it personal, see? And we don't need anyone followin us back with intent to kill.  Nah, I'm talkin pure sport here."  Team building, really; it let the crew work together and got the blood pumpin.  They'd just have to choose their targets carefully.  "We'll just have to make sure the rest of em see it our way.". A rogue kill could put the entire crew in jeopardy and needed to be a last resort, not a goal.

His tail started to wag as she spoke and with each word it wagged harder. Raptor found himself genuinely grinning. "You know," he said, looking upon his new Captain with a warm appreciation. "I think this is going to work out just fine."

She was gratified when finally, finally he started lookin like the old Raptor, the one she'd met on the coast.  She wasn't dumb enough to think he was gonna magically get back to that, but if she could help him sort through whatever the fuck was goin on with him (probably using good old fashioned diversion tactics) then she would.

"I think so too," she responded, grinning back.  If he was on her page, then she would just need to ensure the same was true of Erzulie and the rest of the crew.  

we can wrap this if you like!! And have a new at some point <3