Chapter Text
The wind up key José’s lackeys had found glinted in the morning light, from where it rested on the captain’s windowsill. The pirates’ latest adventure had seen them through various unexciting islands, though they had picked up a few stragglers oddly dressed in sleepwear along the way; one of them had discovered a golden wind up key shallowly buried in the island they’d found themselves on next. Mostly barren and covered in dust, they’d explored deeper and found ruins poking of the dirt, and inside the ruins… dolls. Strange humanlike dolls with intricate clothes and beautifully sculpted faces.
“I’m going down to the cargo hold, watch the ship for me Demi.”
José walks through the lower deck door without waiting for a response, barely catching the teasing “Aye, aye!” given in response. The golden key is clutched tightly in his sole hand. They’d stashed the dolls in the cargo hold after digging them up, he’d let some of his curious crew clean the dirt off, and then ordered all members to leave the hold well alone. The distraction could be revisited under better circumstances, or rather, when José had a good look at them himself. One could hardly blame him for the desire to find out more personally.
Arriving in the hold, he closes the door gently behind him. No need to lock it, he’s lucky to have a crew that listens to him now. Mostly.
The dolls are gently placed next to each other on the floor, whoever had rearranged them was obviously feeling a little sentimental at the time. José’s eyes roam over them, most of them seemed to be fashioned after ordinary greek people, but one had caught José’s interest the minute he’d first laid his eye on it. A beautiful young man with long tied back hair and a laurel crown… and also the only doll they’d found a keyhole on, placed on the doll’s right shoulder.
He leans down, key in hand, and touches the doll’s pale hair, marvelling at how life-like it feels. The golden jewellery on its chest even looks to be real, though he’s definitely going to get someone to check on that later. José takes a moment to wonder how on earth such amazing craftsmanship was left buried in some remote island ruins, and eventually summons up the courage to place the key in it’s home, and twist!
“What on Earth are you doing so close to my face, mortal!” Immediately, the doll jumps to life.
“Whoa!?” José’s shock sends him to the floor, the doll now leaning over him. “Wh… Huh?”
“Speechless? You should be.” The doll checks his immaculately sculpted nails before turning his disdainful gaze back on the Captain. “At least you know your place is on the floor. How rude of you to wake me so close.” It sniffs.
Unable to formulate any thoughts, José’s stunned silence seems to eventually unnerve the doll.
“What? Don’t look at me like that, you’re bizarre. Where are we anyway?” It turns to the rest of the room, looking around casually before freezing up at the sight of the other dolls. “Ah, I see your game now.” Its voice tenses. “Pillaging barbarians think you can take me as your prize, having slaughtered my people?”
José finally finds his voice. “Wh- No! You’re not even meant to be alive to begin with! We found all of you dolls buried on an island, I should be the one asking what’s going on here.”
“Dolls? What nonsense, I know I’m attractive but buttering me up isn’t going to do you any good.”
“What are you… ? You’re-!” Slowly trying to piece things together, José stops himself. “Okay, let’s start somewhere else. What- ...Who are you?”
“You don’t even know?!” The doll sighs in an exaggerated fashion. “You barbarians disgust me. I am Apollo, god of music, song, dance, and poetry. Protector of seafarers, guardian of the young, patron of shepherds. I could go on.”
The puzzle slowly starts to come together in José’s head now. ‘I’ll play along...’
“Well then, my lord Apollo, I’m very sorry for dragging you from your land. Your people are merely sleeping, we mean them no harm. Despite our unorthodox meeting, I have nothing but the highest respect for you, and I must beg a boon of your radiance.” He bows, adding the fancy little flourish needed to make his words seem more genuine, or at least he hopes.
The doll raises an eyebrow, seemingly placated for now. José tucks the information that it responds well to flattery away in his head.
He continues. “We are a group of seafaring treasure hunters, humbly seeking your guidance and protection across the seas. In return we will offer you whatever you desire, that is within our power to grant. Are you amenable?”
The doll sniffs the air again, but pauses this time to think. “We’ll see. I want to see the rest of your ship and your crew.”
José nods and smiles. “Oh, wonderful, I’ll open the door, you first my lord-” He slides behind Apollo as he talks, and yanks the key out of it’s hole. The doll immediately collapses to the floor, as lifeless as it was originally.
José takes a moment to collect himself. A beautiful doll… that thinks it’s an ancient god? The gold being real certainly seems more likely now, the question is whether to sell it separately or whether to sell the doll as a whole… surely there’ll be a score of interested collectors and historians. He wonders if the rest of the dolls have their own keys too. This could be the haul of a lifetime. A grin breaks out on his face as he pockets the wind up key once more.
—
The wind up key had remained heavy in his pocket ever since the discovery. José hadn’t explained to anyone what he’d discovered about the Apollo doll, when Demi cornered him a few days later in his quarters.
“Captain.” Her arms were crossed.
“Quartermaster.”
“I won’t beat around the bush, you found something out, right?” She leans closer. “Spill! I wanna know! You’ve been acting all weird ever since.”
José sighs. “Only because it’s you.” He steps out from the door, closing it behind Demi, walks towards his desk and sits down. “That key we found… I tried it on one of the dolls. The real expensive looking one. It came alive!” He pauses. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m serious! The thing came alive and started talking, apparently it thinks it’s some kind of ancient god, Apollo?”
“...Riiight. You’re gonna need to show me that after. More importantly, when are we selling them? And when are we leaving this island? We’re good on supplies since Naib and Kevin went out hunting, but we can’t stay for too long. And we have to get those kids to dry land soon, before anyone catches up to us.”
“You’re right, of course…” He furrows his brow. “But what if there’s more to find? The rest of the dolls must have their own keys too, that will affect the price, trust me.”
“...Lead the way, Captain.”
—
If it was anyone else, José would’ve thought a lot harder about whether to trust them with this. As much as he loves his crew, some things have to be kept a mystery, for the sake of their own coffers. His quartermaster though, is a different story entirely. Demi has been his closest friend for years, and understands the kind of emotional detachment needed to captain a ship of this size; everyone knows the thing belongs half to her anyway.
Reluctant to share his secret perhaps, but José knows Demi will understand.
He closes the cargo hold door behind him, where the dolls sit undisturbed since he last visited.
“The regal lookin’ one, right?”
“Aye.”
The key is twisted in its rightful place once more. Apollo opens his eyes, oddly quiet this time, taking in the new person in the room.
It takes Demi a few seconds to get over the initial shock, though it’s faster than José did, he thinks bitterly.
“Well, hardly the first magical item we’ve come across but… I see what you mean about the price now. Isn’t he pretty?”
Her comment jolts Apollo out of his silence. “You have some gall, human! Price? You couldn’t hope to purchase my favour in a million years.”
“Huh. You weren’t kidding were you Captain.”
“I would never.” José’s voice has a note of sarcasm. “Well, you believe me now.”
“Aye… maybe we should stay and see if we find more of those keys. Apollo, was it? You wouldn’t happen to know where they are, would you?”
“Keys?”
“The little wind up keys apparently used to power you toys.”
“Toys? How dare you!? I am a god!”
José steps in, putting himself between the two. “Now, now. She’s just unaware, that’s my mistake for not properly informing my second-in-command, your radiance. I assure you, it won’t happen again.”
A huff. The petulant stare doesn’t go away, but the words quiet Apollo down, perhaps temporarily.
Demi looks him up and down. “...Sure. You know what? I’m gonna let our Captain deal with this one, seems delicate.” She turns to José. “Pretty boy is all yours. Could even be fun to keep around, since I get to see you grovel. Might be good for you, Captain.”
She leaves before José can respond, sending him a salacious wink as she does. He doesn’t know if she sees his glare, but he hopes she does.
“What happened last time? I seem to have blacked out.”
Apollo’s words strike a chord in José. He really had no idea what he was or what had happened. “You… don’t remember.” He pauses, and looks Apollo in the eyes. “I’m not sure what happened either but, we shouldn’t keep you down here, should we? I’ll let you sleep in my room for now, if it pleases you.”
This brightens Apollo right up. “Well, I certainly won’t refuse a fine offering like that.”
“Wonderful, I’ll give you the grand tour later too.” José can’t keep the wide smile off his face.
—
He’d given Apollo his bed in the end, something about the pleased look in his eyes had José’s heart wavering, and he couldn’t refuse. José had slept on the floor that night, suffering the knowing look Demi had shot him when he’d emerged to find extra blankets, unsure of why on earth he was letting a wind up doll have the comforts it didn’t need.
Not that he regretted it. For some reason.
The next morning, he’d been surprised to find Apollo had woken up before he had. Or that the doll had gone to sleep at all.
“Hey, you. Wake up.” And now he was being woken up to violent shakes. José grumbles and turns over. The shakes turn to slaps on his face, and prodding fingers at his lame eye. José weakly bats them away, but Apollo isn’t to be deterred.
“I want that tour! Get up!”
Grumbling, he flings the blankets over Apollo and moves to sit on the bed. Very slowly. He rubs his eyes.
It’s at this point that Apollo seems to take in the fact that José is missing an arm, and the dark pit where his eye should be. He’d taken the eyepatch and hook hand off to sleep. Apollo stares, but doesn’t ask; instead his expression changes back to expectant.
After José wakes himself up and gets dressed, trying to ignore the doll that won’t avert its gaze, he opens the door and jerks his head.
“Come on then, I made you wait long enough.”
Apollo follows, and José wonders if it knows about the excited look on its face.
“There’s three decks to my ship, you were kept in the cargo hold originally, there’s nothing particularly exciting there so we’ll skip it. It’s just used for storage.” He holds a hand up in greeting to some of his crew passing by, the early birds, and one of the new kids waves from his place next to the railing. William, José thinks? He’s a good, smart kid. José can tell he’s bursting with curiosity, but seems to hold himself back.
“You said that woman from before was your second-in-command, right?” Apollo speaks up from his shoulder. Now that they’re standing next to each other properly, José is surprised to see the doll is around the same height as him.
“Aye, Demi is my quartermaster, you’ll usually find her on the lower deck. If you run into any issues and I’m not around, she’s who you'll want to see.”
Apollo makes a face. “I won’t need help.”
José notes yet another facet of the doll’s personality and doesn’t argue the point. “We have three guests on the ship right now, other than yourself, so be aware of that as well. I can introduce you later.”
He motions to the stairs, hailing another of his crew members. To their credit, no-one has butted in yet. He feels oddly proud.
“The lower decks here have our kitchen, infirmary, and crew quarters. And the gun deck, but if you don’t mind me saying, m’lord, that’s off limits.”
José knows he shouldn’t have said anything when that look flashes across Apollo’s face. He’d have to keep Naib and Kevin, his most adept fighter and gunner respectively, informed of what was surely mischief in the making. He’s not even sure Apollo knows what a cannon is .
“Say, I still don’t know your name, dear Captain.”
“Oh. José Baden, at your service, sir. Though people have taken to calling me Captain Hook, on account of my hand, or, well, the lack thereof.” He flourishes with another bow.