Chapter Text
Jester is the first person he approaches about Mollymauk.
Well, technically, she approaches him, again, finds him curled up near the front of the ship, tea in hand. The talk they had earlier after the Nein killed a lot of people on the docks in Nicodranas and promptly stole the ship of their victims, and boy, that was a thought he should probably shut down before it spirals. But Jester, unsurprisingly, was the first to reach out to him, to notice the tension he carried; to Caduceus’s surprise, it helped a great deal. Right now, his wakefulness was less to do with stress and more to do with the trouble of adjusting to being on a ship.
Caduceus is just about finished with the brew he made to settle his stomach when Jester finds him, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders.
“Hey Caduceus. How are you feeling?”
“Oh, I’m doing alright. My stomach was a bit unsettled so I came out here to have some tea. Come join me.”
Jester plops down next to Caduceus and cranes her neck to look up at the stars.
“Are we like, pirates now?” Jester ponders, “I think this makes us pirates. Man, I bet Molly would have loved to be a pirate.”
“I don’t think I actually know what that word means. Pirate. I don’t know much about the ocean.”
“Well, pirates are people who sail around and have lots of adventures and also steal things from other people. Kinda like we stole this boat. So I think we’re pirates now.”
“Huh.”
They sit in silence for a bit longer. Caduceus contemplates brewing another pot of tea when something Jester said clicks in his brain.
“You, uh, you mentioned Molly. Haven’t really heard you all talk much about him.”
Jester visibly deflates at Caduces’s words but almost immediately perks back up again. “Yeah. We all just miss him a lot, you know? Caleb and Beau and Nott had a little bit longer to adjust to it, cause Fjord and Yasha and I weren’t there when it happened. Other than what we said at his grave, we haven’t really talked about him.”
“Miss Jester....would you like to tell me about him?’
Jester sighs and settles in against the side of the ship, tugging her blanket closer. “Mollymauk was....really incredible. He was a tiefling, like me, but he had beautiful purple skin and all kinds of tattoos and jewelry and piercings. Very, very pretty. He was the first tiefling I ever met, other than my momma of course. But we’re not very common in the Menagerie Coast, or the Empire really, so it was really good luck that we met him and Yasha in Trostenwald.”
Jester trails off and they sit in companionable silence for a while. Caduceus can sense that Jester isn’t done, so he waits patiently. He’s had a lot of practice listening to the grieving.
“He had these tarot cards and he would always read my fortune whenever I asked him to. He was very kind, even if he didn’t seem to be. Like, he would make jokes about things, like making fun of Beau, or messing with Nott, but he loved us, I think.”
Jester trails off once again and tugs her blanket tighter around her shoulders, folding into herself.
“He sounds lovely. I wish I could have met him.”
“Oh, he would have liked you for sure, Caduceus. I mean, your hair alone, he would love that. It’s very pretty, you know.” Jester pulls out slightly from her blanket bundle to smile up at Caduceus, who smiles back softly.
“Thank you, Miss Jester. That’s very kind of you. And thank you for sharing your story with me. I’ve always found that death is never really the end for a person, not as long as they leave behind people who love them. That’s how they live on, in all of you.”
Jester smiles at Caduceus, the lantern next to him highlighting the moisture on her cheeks. “I’ve never really thought of it like that. That’s really nice. Molly would like that too, being unforgettable.”
The two continue to sit in silence at the front of the ship, listening to the crashing waves around them. Eventually Jester starts to yawn, and Caduceus’s lantern begins to die down, so they pick up their things and head down to the sleeping quarters. Before they separate to their individual bedrolls, Jester takes Caduceus’s hand and gives it a squeeze. “Thanks again Caduceus. Let me know anytime you want to talk, okay?”
Caduceus squeezes her hand back and nods. “Of course, Miss Jester. Have a nice night.”