Work Text:
The sun had just gone down and Marnie and Alyssa had first watch for the night. The waves were a little heavier tonight but the skies were still clear, stars beginning to twinkle above.
It was quiet on the deck as the rest of the crew had just headed to their sleeping quarters. Marnie always liked having this lookout, the sunset and moonrise were beautiful to watch, and it was made even better tonight because she was on lookout with the most beautiful person on the whole ship.
Alyssa stood across from her, leaning against the railing and looking up at the sky, which was layered with darkening hues of blue. Her sun-kissed face was soft but not round, and covered in more freckles than there are stars in the sky, and made her look even prettier than the gods themselves, Marnie thought so at least. Her hair was a curly, light brown that framed her face perfectly.
Alyssa glanced over at her, and caught her staring, "Looking at something?"
Marnie blushed and quickly looked away. "Yeah uh, th- the deck?" Her soft voice cracked as she said it. She was so bad at hiding how much she liked Alyssa.
"Ah come on, don't hide that pretty face from me sea-bird" Alyssa leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. "Thought you'd be done with all the embarrassment by now."
Marnie looked up at her, still flushed, "well I, it-" she took a second to think, "it's just, hard to believe y'know?"
"What? That a girl like me, practically first mate of the ship, and a girl like you, the navigator we found a year ago after our last one failed a mutiny, could really make this whole thing work?" She was saying it sarcastically but...
"Well, yeah." Marnie responded.
"Wait really?" Alyssa was actually surprised.
"I mean you're just so cool, and I'm probably about as far from being a pirate as anyone on a pirate ship could be." She looked away from Alyssa again, this time disappointed with herself.
Alyssa pulled Marnie's face to look her in the eyes again, "I was flirting with you the minute you stepped on the ship sea-bird." Marnie's whole face went red. "Did you seriously not notice?"
Marnie shook her head aggressively, "I- I was so- I just thought- you, are so cool, and I didn't, think I had a chance." She stuttered out.
"Of course you did!" Alyssa let go of her face. "You're hot as shit!" Marnie's face couldn't get more red. "And you're the only person in the crew who's ever managed to soften the captain up."
Alyssa leaned back down on the railing, her expression a bit more intense now, "If I can be honest, before you got here, the captain was pretty brutal, "Leave no survivor's!" kinda stuff, y'know?"
Marnie leaned in, surprised to hear the captain she knew to be that dangerous. I mean sure, he could be tough and she'd seen them take some heads from raiders but they were still a good person in her eyes, and the whole crew usually avoided fights where they could.
Alyssa saw the surprise on her face, "yeah, it was, pretty rough for a while, he was ruthless." She scoffed, "There's a reason the guy you replaced tried to kill him."
She sounded sad, Marnie put a hand on hers to comfort her, "I was uh, pretty close to joining in on that." She looked up at the stars again, "I guess I'm just saying I'm glad you're here now, and the rest of the crew is too."
This time Marnie stood up on her toes and gave Alyssa a kiss on the cheek, "I'm glad I'm here too." She brushed some of Alyssa's hair out of her face and pulled her in for a proper kiss, which lasted until the ship hit a wave and their teeth knocked together.
"Fuck!" Alyssa put her hand to her mouth.
"Ow!" Marnie pulled back from her, "Are you ok?"
"Yeah," Alyssa spit a little to make sure nothing came out, "Yeah everything's still in there."
Marnie stood there thinking for a while, there was something she'd been hiding from Alyssa and she's wanted to show her for a while now.
"Hey is your head ok?" Alyssa snapped her back to the moment, "You kinda just spaced out."
"Oh, sorry." She focused on her again, "actually there's uh, something I wanna, show you." Her heart started beating faster.
"Cool, what is it?" Alyssa seemed oblivious to Marnie's rising anxiousness.
"Uh, I- I think I'd, um, prefer more privacy." She paused, "I- in my quarters."
Alyssa suddenly looked a lot more excited, "Ohhhh, am I gonna be showing you my something too?" She said flirtatiously.
Marnie was confused for a second then blushed so hard she thought she might faint, "No no no that's not what I meant!"
"Damn," the excitement left Alyssa's voice, but she perked up again, "Whatever, lead on sea-bird."
Marnie brought her down below deck, and into her quarters, her hand lightly shaking as she opened the door to her own room. She knew she had to do this, had to be honest with Alyssa, and with herself.
Inside her room was her bunk, just a few blankets over a few planks of wood jutting out from the hull of the ship, the only other thing in her room was a small, unused desk she'd taken from an empty house on an island they passed during their journey, and a small candle in a holder on the desk.
She sat at the foot of her bed, Alyssa sat on her pillow, she felt so tense even though Alyssa was so casual about it all.
"Soooo?" Alyssa broke the silence.
"Right, so, uhm," Marnie stammered, "You- you have to be cool about it, ok? Or, at least, just, don't be mean? Be honest though please." She was sweating profusely.
"Marnie you said it yourself, I'm always cool." Alyssa finally seemed to realise how serious this was to her, "And at the end of the day, as long as I'm still me and you're still you, there's nothing to worry about."
Marnie couldn't understand how she was this cool. She took a deep breath, "Ok, just, I'm still Marnie, alright?" She closed her eyes. She took another deep breath.
As she slowly breathed out, her face and body changed. Her skin faded from a warm, dark brown to a pale, ghoulish white. Her soft, round face became sharp and scarred, the curly brown hair that flowed down to her now flat chest became a straight silver. Her previously curved body now thin to the point that her skin was almost being stretched at the joints.
"Marnie?" Alyssa's voice was hesitant.
She opened her eyes, which almost blended in with her skin, the rich brown iris' now completely missing along with her pupils.
There was a look on Alyssa's face that Marnie couldn't figure out, maybe fear? Disgust? Sadness? Disappointment? Maybe it was just her own fears getting the better of her.
"Marnie is this, is this you?" Alyssa's voice was too conflicted to give anything away.
"I don't-" Marnie's voice had changed too, gone from soft and gentle to scratchy, "I don't know?"
"What do you mean you don't know?" Alyssa was clearly trying to keep calm while she tried to put together what this meant in her head.
"Well-"
*CRACK*
Marnie was cut off by the sound of lightning as it shook the entire ship and knocked the two of them off the bed.
A storm had somehow snuck up on them in the few minutes they were below deck.
Marnie shot up off the floor, Alyssa, for once, was slow to respond, and just stared up at her, but Marnie ran out of her quarters and onto the deck.
She'd only been through two storms in her year at sea, and she slept through one of them, but she knew she had to act fast to get through it.
Lightning had struck the figurehead, almost blowing it clean off, and the waves were almost coming up onto the deck. The captain was already at the helm, though she could barely see them through the heavy rain.
She ran to grab rope to tie everything down, as she had been taught to do, but the captain shouted down to raise the sails.
She knew it couldn't have been right, you're supposed to wait out storms, not sail through them, but she wasn't about to question the captain during an emergency.
A few men from the crew ran up on deck and saw her, *help* she thought.
"We're under attack!" The one closest to her shouted, and they all drew their swords and charged forward through the storm.
She forgot to change back. She didn't have time to anymore, and four of her crew were running at her blades drawn, blocking the only way to a safe place on the ship.
She ran for the bow, but lightning hit again, the ship rocked and she stumbled and fell towards the railing, catching herself on it as the ship swayed back the other way.
The captain was screaming curses, her crew was getting up to continue the chase, even with two of their swords overboard.
Through the storm Marnie spotted Alyssa stumbling up from below deck. For the first time since Marnie met her she looked terrified. She locked eyes with Marnie and screamed something Marnie couldn't hear.
Her crew was almost on her and she knew she didn't stand a chance. She had one way to get out of this alive. One way she could possibly see Alyssa again. She took a deep breath, shut her eyes, and slid through the railing into waves below.