Chapter Text
You breathe in the salty, warm air that fills your lungs. You can hear the wind blowing through your hair as it plays with it. You love it. You love this~, this comfort, this peace.
Right now, you’re standing on the balcony, facing the sea on the tallest point of RoseHallow. The town is well known for its wealth and beautiful views. You could say it was the most prestigious port in the whole Caribbean. Flowers and plants would decorate every house, any were you looked each window seal would have a flower bed.
You heard the playful song of the sea, brushing up against the rocky shore with sweet almost silent splashes of water. You smiled in awe of the beautiful melody it created, filling the air with its harmonious notes. You had the perfect view of the horizon. Your timing was always excellent, the sun was only half way up and giving the earth its glorious golden hue.
What a beautiful sunrise.
“AAAAAAAAAAAA!!! THIIIIIEF!!”
Aaaaand there it is. Time to start the day.
Today’s gonna be fun.
When you turn around you see a woman who’s accused you of theft!? No, no, no. you were not standing in the same room you just trashed. You were only trying to find the map, Promise! Not your fault the man (you think his name was Eliot, Edward, his last name starts with an M, doesn’t matter) was good at hiding. You thought to look everywhere, under the floorboard, inside and out of every book, looking for any hallow walls, and behind painting.
You finally find it when you decided to open the liquor cabinet. Bastard hid it in one of the empty wine bottles with a completely blacked out cover…
You might have also taken some money…
And some of the jewelry...
(And a trinket or 2) through your search.
…
Okay, you lied; you were definitely steeling.
Meh nothing new to you, they were rich bastards anyway, never shared their money with anyone, using it for their own pleasure.
Staring at the woman, you could only feel disgust. She was an old hag wearing too much makeup to hide wrinkles and dry skin, full on ABUSING it. Just looking at it made you cringe. (Ya crusty dusty dinosaur gets some lotion!) Hearing the commotion coming outside the door, thankfully snaps you out of your trance of discomfort (honestly you wanted to vomit) it was the man of the house himself running up the stairs, in his night attire.
“Thief! Come back here before I call the guards!!” yeah ok, like they will stop you. You could feel yourself start to smirk and roll your eyes at that statement. hopping onto the balcony, you salute them a goodbye and shout a quick "good luck!" before jumping off and landing on the next building.
"Get back here" and "bloody thief" were the words the man yelled, all of which made you smile and laugh harder (do those ever work?). You’re running, jumping from building on building. Listening to the klick clack of the shingles, feeling the swift wind fly passed you, letting that sweet adrenaline runs through your lungs and body, dodging any obstacle in your way with swift and practiced motions.
At some point you finally heard the guards chasing after you. A chase, how fun! Your day just gets better and better. You jump down into the quickly crowded streets to become less of a good shot from up on the roof.
You run through the streets covered in brick roads, and two storied buildings, turning into the closest market with the guards close on your tail. You knew how to avoid hitting or bumping into people, eventually having to slide underneath a cart full of oranges. Unlucky for the guards, they did not. Tripping into that same cart full of oranges angering the shopkeeper and getting a small laugh out of you.
You took that chance of a distraction and slid into the nearest dark alleyway. Watching as the guard’s rush past you, finally giving you a chance to get a full breath and a successful laugh out.
Yes, your lungs were burning, and you felt as if your legs could fall off, but you enjoyed the chase, the adrenaline, the adventure that came with it all.
You regret nothing.
You took a long drink of water that you kept around your waist. This was held by a leather belt with a couple of small pouches that hold your compass and a small number of doubloons. You had a pretty neat appearance in general. A pair of dark brown cropped jodhpurs, they are baggy from waist to knees and turn tight at the ends, perfect for your black leather knee high lase boots (with great durability might I say) for a shirt you wore a cream white men’s Renaissance shirt that had a loose ruffled collar topped with a black leather cincher corset, a variety amount of jewelry, and a pair of dark brown leather glove bracers with the left one holding a little dagger. It was perfect and comfortable for parkouring and running through the streets. Many pockets means many trinkets.
After drinking almost ALL of your water (you’ll have to stop by a well later) you decide to finally take a good look at that map you stole.
Yup, this is the one you were sent for. You wouldn’t go through all that trouble for yourself… today at least. You were hired by a pirate crew to steal their treasure map back. Which is foolish in the first place to even have. Morons, don’t have a direct hint at where you keep your treasury! (ya idiots)
Not dwelling on that subject any longer, wanting to get your promised doubloons faster, you dress yourself in a black hooded cowl and head straight down to port.
It’s the late 17th century. Houses of brick and wooden construction cover the streets, and with little to no architectural design, each house seems like a copy but still looks unique. The only transportation was to be a horse or carriage, and if you weren’t an upper- or middle-class citizen you only got your own 2 feet. Trades and merchants were more valued, bandits and piracy is at their peak. You being one of them, Welcome to the 1700s!
You were a wanted criminal, mostly for petty theft and disobeying the authority. But you had a heart of gold and lived by the morals of Robin Hood (Laws are boring, do crime!) Plus, you're too talented at it, you can't just waste all those years of practice. you would steel for yourself and to those in need. But mostly you would steel for a good price of course.
In the criminal community you were referred to as the Swift Bandit, known for your skillful stealing abilities. You'd be hired by various people to do, guess what? That’s right, to steal for them. It didn’t matter if they were from the upper, middle, or lower class. But, only a few people knew your true name.
The survivor.
known not only for their swift stealing abilities, but for many assassinations, and murders. For example, they were able to sneak into the emperor's castle and murder the Lieutenant-General (well Of course it was easy, if you were already inside the area as the Swift Bandit, not the survivor) But you didn't earn that name for nothing. The name came from a pirate crew that had sworn they sunk you. They made you walk the plank for stealing their stuff. For them to see you come back alive the next day. You managed to survive.
You sank their ship in the process.
But more on that later. Right now, you have a map to return, and doubloons to gather.
…
They double crossed you! Can you believe it?! (Can’t trust anyone here can ya?)
Well in all honesty, you had already suspected it due to the captain’s history. You'll call him out on it later. Right now, you need to get out of here. And sure, you could fight, but not the swift bandit. That was the Survivor part in ya. And you couldn’t call yourself out like that, not yet.
When you handed the captain (name you never cared to remember) the map and he confirmed its legitness, he handed you a pouch full of rocks (how iconic) and laughed in your face, the whole crew joining in. Then he ordered you to be thrown overboard.
“don’t ye ever learn lass?” he grinned at you, looking all smug. “Ne’er trust a pirate”
And the next thing you knew… you were hitting the cold… endless… freezing ocean.
……
How predictable.
It only takes less than a second for your legs and body to transform into a gorgeous, shiny long tail.
That’s right.
You were a real siren. the whole secret behind the Survivors… well, survival!
Nothing special really. Down in these parts sirens are rare but known to be very dangerous and to avoid at all costs. You, however, are different. You don’t see humans as food unlike other sirens.
Ever since you were a kid you found them fascinating and when you learned that you can actually interact with them, you did everything in your power to learn everything about them including their culture, social values, and their language. You learned 4 of those actually (English, Spanish, French, and Russian). You were an immortal siren species (immortal till killed) so you had a long time to learn. You’ve lived for a little over a century, so you knew how to do a lot for someone who look to not be a day over 20.
You swam through the cold, refreshing ocean water. Watching as your beautiful tail glimmered under the sun light. Not including your human half, your tail was a solid 6ft long. Frilly fins and metallic scales cover your whole-body glimmering. In your favorite colors non the less. How could you not love yourself (Right?). human ears, replaced with fins. Teeth grow a pair of canines, and your eyes switch into a cat like stare. The only thing that decorates your appearance, was a single set of earrings. You’d never hide them.
You weren’t far off from the cave where you’d keep your collection of little nick-nacks of things you stole or found on the sea floor in some shipwreck. The entrance to it was under water, but when inside, it had a nice lake like appearance where you could also walk on land and the only light sores being cool bioluminescent plants and bugs. It was your little piece of haven. That’s where you’d be planning your revenge. All you wanted to do right now is to see the face of the captain, when he figures out you still have the map and his pouch of doubloons.
“Ahoy ’ya ya scallywags” you called out to the crew of pirate from their own very ship. By the looks of it they left their ship unattended to go celebrate at some nearby pub.
“Who in the Davy Jones’ locker are ye?!” that’s right, you hid your face from the crowd of people. Can’t let them know the Swift bandit and the Survivor are the same person just yet.
“Someone to be feared” all of them laugh in unison.
To be expected.
Jumping off the ship to the docks got their attention “Afeared? O’ ye?” the captain called out, laughing unnecessarily loud “I would’ve mistaken ye fer a shrimp” Ow.
“You may laugh now captain, but. How long do you expect to do that after I tell these people what you have done” your mouth and head might have been covered, but the menacing tone and the look in your eyes, showed enough to bring chills down people’s spines. This was serious.
He leaned down, inches away from your face (you were kinda short:) “Ye don’t scare me ye shrimp”
The tension in both of his and your eyes grew before spoke back.
“Too bad”
BOOM!
Fire and smoke come out of the ship (perfect timing)
The explosion was huge. Yells and screams fill the harbor. The crew could only watch in horror as their vessel sinks and burns down to the ocean floor. Mean wile you leave yourself standing still, watching with amusement as the captain flinches and takes a step back. Eyes shot open and fear running through his whole being.
“Blimey…” his quaking and trembling voice called out before he clenched his fists, putting up his defensive stance. “WHA’ ‘AVE YOU DONE!?”
“I’m not done yet” you blurt out, using your best bittersweet tone. You noticed how much of the crew look ready to pounce and rip you apart. “Frank Finn” you were talking to the captain’s right-hand man, so to speak. “Did you know your captain has been, repeatedly molesting your daughter…” Ohh-ho-ho-ho, that made everyone go silent, you could see how the captains color drained from his face. “it’s true, bastard even documented it in a separate journal, with ALLthe details” to prove your point you flung the journal out and “jazzed hands” your hands when emphasizing the word “ALL”.
Panic filled the captain’s movement; fear froze him when Frank looked at him. Trembling like the Bilge rat he is. Uttering a pathetic “its not what it looks like”. trembling and nervous laughter fills that sentence.
You move forward towards the crowd, leaving that pig behind “Not only yours, but Henry Warrens, daughter too” the barrel man “Julian MacLeay, Dave O’Malley, Arlie Ruth, all of your sons and daughters names are recorded in this very book” you toss the journal to Frank, him visibly being the new one in control “This fucking cunt, has been lying to you and manipulating your families, to satisfy his own sickening needs” you snap back at the captain, by this time he has fallen down to his knees, his own legs giving up on him “Are you laughing now… Captain?” you walk up closer to the shivering rat he’s become, kneeling down close to his pale face.
“I DO learn… captain”
And just as you thought his eyes couldn’t have gone bigger. They look as if they could pop out any second, irises almost gone. “you… its You!” good to know he’s got the message “ill kill ya, ill Bloody KILL YA!!!” aaand that’s your que to leave.
Suddenly he moves back to life, swinging out his sword (ok you didn’t think he’d do that) logically he should be completely drained and devastated from that whole situation, but… ahh yes, he’s driven by anger how could you forget that exists.
He swings his sword, and you book it down the dock. Heart pumping, you ran through the crowd. Then you stepped on an old brittle plank, having one foot fall through completely, twisting your ankle in the prosses feeling the pain surge through your whole leg.
Turning around you see him getting closer pushing through, closer and closer. You twist and turn frantically (you need to get out of this) come on, Come on!
Snap
The wooden plank breaks and you lift yourself out of the hole scrambling away. You felt the blade swing inches away from your back. You heard screaming and shouting, but your brain was too busy blocking out any sound, adrenaline pumping you, telling you too move faster. You finally turned around when you start to pass by buildings, hiding in the nearest corner of some bakery. Looking back, you could tell the crew was not happy, You, yourself wanted to suffocate that bastard. When you found that journal you were looking for some petty tax crime that would land him in jail at least, but not that.
They had him in their grasp (yeah, he’s not coming back alive) Pinned down by his own crew, he brought it on himself.
He deserves every agonizing bit of pain coming his way.
You decide now is the perfect time to rest and take a bre- Mm! nope bad idea, bad idea!
“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, Oooow!” the adrenaline now abandoning you, leaving you alone to deal with your own sorrow, disappears from your body and now all you feel is Pain and suffering.
The sun has set, and the lanterns are lit outside. you were seated at your favorite Bars pub table; it took you a wile to get here due to the injury you sustained hours prior.
Your ankle had swollen up bad after that quick escape, putting any pressure on it would send you into a silent fight with yourself, attempting to prevent yourself from crying or screaming. So you chose to goto a pace you knew you could rest at for a moment asking for a ride from one of the folks you knew in this harbor. Sweet guy would always hand you some fresh baked buns from his bakery after you saved it from bankruptcy.
Plus, you couldn’t give up the chance to celebrate that bloody bastards demise, and it looks to be the town felt the same, because the pub was PACKED. Well at least you’re not the only one happy.
“STICKY!!!” you’d never thought you could groan so loud in your life!
After taking in a deep breath… “Jeremyyyyyy, howAreYouStillAlive” oh Jeremy (you don’t give him enough credit)
“Oh, stop over exaggerating, ya love me” well he’s not wrong there. Jeremy Tulip is your BEST friend for the past 20 years. You met him when you first visited RoseHallow and he helped you to adapt, to the people and the environment of this place. He is also the ONLY person who has figured out that you’re the swift bandit, the survivor, AAAAND asiren, and all together still being the most supportive friend you’ve had for years now.
He is also the whole reason why this is your favorite pub with him being the owner of it.
“You will never let me live that down, will you?”
“Nope!”
“Oh, come on it happened ONE time!”
“Stealing from my wife ONE TIME! Is enough to give you the title of “sticky” hands”
“First of all, she was your girlfriend at the time, she couldn’t be trusted. Second, I was stealing it for you!”
Stern looks filled the pub table. Almost turning into a never-ending staring competition to assert dominance, when you saw Jeremy huff out and relax before giving the softest and most genuine smile that you haven’t seen for a while.
“Get over here ya dumbo” he stretches out his arms prepared for a big embrace when you jump over the table and give him a warm hug almost tackling him down in the prosses.
“Now… where have you been, for so long!!!” he starts to ruffling your head, messing up that hair style you took so long to perfect. (Your gunna kill him)
“Stop THAT! Ya Prick!” you manage to escape out of his grasp, shoving and wailing your arms at him in a playful manner “Jeremy Tulip, more like Jeremy big thorn in my ass” you hear him chuckle while you try and fix the lump of chaos created by him. You could already see that proud smirk grow on his face.
But you couldn’t stay mad at him. Jeremy was more like a brother to you, older younger didn’t matter. You might have met when you were 80 years old while he was 20, but you were both still as mature as 5-year-olds. you took care of each other, that’s all that mattered.
“I’ve been around”
“Not getting yourself into trouble?”
“You wound me; how could you assume such a thing?”
“Oh? so that ship explosion wasn’t one of your doings?”
“Nope!” you finish with a pop.
He looked at you for a solid 30 seconds. “Glared” would be the right way to put it actually, eyes narrowed with arms folded.
“Good. It was tacky anyways”
You mimicked a gasp that was as long and loud as you could manage. To say that you’re disappointed would be an understatement “tacky? TACKY?! I used up all of my dynamite reserves for that performance! What do you actually know about showmanship anyway!? You are as knowledgeable as a circus monkey, I wager!”
“A circus monkey can do better” he dead pans you, leaving you speechless. You have nothing to say.
The look you gave him spelled out that all you wanted to do right now was punch this prick in the face.
“Come on sticky you know I’m joking” he grins.
“liar”
He lets out a soft laugh, before directing you out to the outside, side if the pub table walking back and starting up a drink for you. “I’m just worried about you, sticky. You’ve been gone for well over 2 months, and don’t think I didn’t notice you limping in when you came” he shoots you a stare. (Oooo! Busted)
“I’m older than you, you know that? When did you become so wise? I remember when you would always come looking for me after you’d get yourself into trouble, id have to patch you up more than once” that’s true, you might have shared on brain cell, but back then you still were the smart, and logical one. Just not reasonable.
He huffed out a laugh shaking his hole body with his shoulders while doing so “I guess we humans are just forced to grow up faster”
What is he only 40?! “Well, that’s lame” you gave your best frown.
“Heh… yeah” he slides you a glass of Blackstrap rum decorated with a pineapple on the edge “Here ya go on the house” suddenly it was like all of your energy was rejuvenated and first thing you go for is the pineapple slice, biting into the sweet, blessed fruit, sucking out all the juice from it. Fruit for you was like a gift sent from heaven. You cant find that at the bottom of the sea.
You picked up the glass filled with the strong sweet tase of rum, taking in a huge sip when you overhear some conversation occering across the pub, you had great hearing due to your siren genes.
“Have ye heard?”
“Heard o’ wha’? yer blabber mouth makes it hard t’know wha’ exactly yer natterin’ about”
“The new ship that has docked up on this port”
“The one that blew up?”
“No! the new one!”
“Are ye natterin’ about that vessel which be filled t’ the brim wit’ Cursed”
“yes “The Golden Hour” is here”
Ah yes you’ve heard brief stories of that ship, but nothing too imformational.
You place the glass back on the table. downed more than half of it in one sip. “Do you know anything about The Golden Hour?” you look back at Jeremy, he was busy trying to serve some other guests when you interrupted, finishing their order, and heading back to you. With that smirk on his face.
“I thought you new how to use a clock?”
“Not that golden hour, ya cunt. You know what I’m talking about” he chuckles.
“Sorry couldn’t help it” he wipes away his imaginary tear, given your expression he knows you do not appreciate the joke. He still laughs “I would have thought you knew everything about them already, with them being the talk of the town lately.”
“Well unfortunately, I don’t know” you were too busy planning out your “tacky” revenge inside your cave on the other side of town.
“Well, I’ll give you a quick summery,” Jeremy told you that the ship had to switch ports recently due to their last one being overrun by the navy. The crew had 2 captains, and every one of them is very strong and dangerous, and that you should avoid them, Especially the gator blah, bla, bla (you weren’t listening to that part) All of the crew members were cursed, that’s what’s so special about them. Its not un-natural to see a cursed now and then but having a full ship of them was something almost impossible. No one knows how one would become a cursed, but no one wanted to figure out anyway.
Jeremy had to leave again. The audacity of these guests stealing your precious time with your friend >:(
You thought it was starting to get late anyways, so you finished the rest of what was left in your glass. Before getting up you leave a generous tip and walk out the door saluting Jeremy a quick goodbye making sure he saw it, before disappearing into the night.
Jeremy comes back to your now empty seat and empty glass. Looking at the same pouch of doubloons you stole from that rat with a note scribbled on a napkin
“Tell you daughter I said hi!”
You walked down the empty streets, humming the song you heard last in the pub. With the market and every shop closed, the only lighting left are the occasionally lit streetlamps and the clear star filled sky.
Your about to pass the village boundaries to get to your cave when in your line of vision, you spot the bounty board. Why not take a look, lets see for how much you are wanted now.
Oh, wow The Survivor (you) have been raised up to 10 million (you feel special) that gets a little chuckle out of you.
Your wanted poster was your most proudest accomplishment, your pretty sure Jeremy would frame every new one he found. All though, you were proud of the picture, yes. But you were still a little disappointed. The person who had caught you with your cowl off, let’s say caught you on one of your bad days.
You cut your hair that day (yourself) therefor you didn’t look so good, and you haven’t slept for days so your eye bags could be visible over a mile away. So, when your hair grew out in less than a week (siren logic) and after 48 hours’ worth of sleep, you looked nothing like the picture, making you almost unrecognizable. That there, you should be thankful for… (but couldn’t they have gotten you on a better day?!)
Never mind that. Now it doesn’t matter, and you can’t change it, might as well move on.
Until you spot something shiny in the corner of your eye. Below the bounty leaning against one of its legs stood a sword. Case and everything! (Who would leave their sword?!) you pick it up noticing the gorgeous, welded design on the handle itself. The handle was coded with a black metallic polish with a beautiful star/moon themed carved in design. At the tip of the handle was a leather string holding some crystal or beads and a feather. When you finally took the sword out of its casing, you reviled in its glory, it was so polished you could see your reflection in it perfectly. At the edge of the sword where it would connect with the handle there was a little black moon engraving. How pretty.
“Mine now”
“Ya leave it, I steal it” that’s your motto. Plus, how could someone leave something so fabulous out in the open?! It’s like you’re asking someone to seal it. (the person who designed it tho, dose have great taste mind I say) still doesn’t give them the right to leave it like that. Well it’s going home with you now, plus you do need to use something like a cane for the moment.
Today was a great day.
Today has been the worst day, how did you manage to get here?
“This, is who stole my sword?...
… I thought they’d be taller”