Date: 6-th of July 1719
Place: aboard the "Caribbean Siren", in the open sea, at night

Benjamin wanted to fight!
He wanted to avenge the ship, the wounded pirates and make those god damn privateers regret the day they attacked the Caribbean Siren!
And bloody Tar was calling for parley?!
What in the world was he thinking?!
With a grunt, Benjamin left the side of Kanyi and quickly scurried across the deck until he came to stand next to Tar, nose wrinkled in annoyance and hands resting on his hips.

The blood, still freely runnign down his face and clumping his dirty hair together, made him a sad sight to behold.
It wasn't a life threatening wound, and would easily be taken care of. But head wounds were always annoying and a bloody mess, so at this point in his life, Benjamin couldn't care less.
All he wanted was to see the blood of his enemies.
"Parley?! PARLEY?! What in the bloody hell, Tar! We could've taken them down! Could've taken over their ship in less than an hour! What do they have that we don't? Huh? He complained, his disapproving face slowly turning into a grumpy one.
Bloody hell. He wanted to fight.

"At least take me with you? I could bring those buggers down before they knew what hit them!" He held his daggers tighter in his bony hands, as if to prove a point. "I can climb up their masts and tear their sails!
Parley?
Who in the bloody hell called for parley?
Wiping a hand across his face to get the blood out of his eyes, he focused his pale blue eyes on Tar, clearly unhappy about the way the situation had turned out.
He wanted revenge.
He wanted them to bloody suffer!
"At least let Kanyi have a go at them?"

Swearing softly under his breath, Tar looked over at Benji. Yes, he loved a good fight, too, but now wasn't the time. He could understand how his young blood boiled with thoughts of revenge--he thought much the same way when he was his age. But not now, not when the threat of being stranded or worse loomed. He looked to the mast, to the cracked and splintered wood. Not good at all... He turned back to Benji.

"No. You're not going." Revenge wasn't happening. One boy's enraged attempts at revenge could devastate and even kill the entire crew. That wasn't an option. Not now.

Oh, Akai thought as after a great deal of effort and foolish wriggling about of legs he managed to extract himself from the barrel into which he had fallen into mid crack repair as he's started at the sounds of cannonade fire.

he rubs his bald head still holding the half completed container in his hands looking about now as everyone seemed to be gathering. oh, not again! he puts down the half done project and sidles his way over to Pavoun catching Tsrrega's words to Benjamin.

Pavoun looked at Benji with a condescending smile.

”Benji, can your sleepy head full of bedtime stories assess what has happened already here? They had us by surprise. They could have taken us down with another cannonade!”

He liked the little imp, but only up to a point. Now he was exaggerating, and the carpenter was definitely in no mood for jokes.

”Don’t worry, mi capitan, he’ll stay here with us and help us mend the rigging. You can go and negotiate without worries about keeping things done here aboard!”

He had seen Akai, and he called him:

”Akai, Baptiste, Kanyi, I will need your help! Others who want to help us, bring more lanterns, let’s light this ship as if it was All Saints’ Day! We have to clean the splinters, to find jury masts to replace the broken ones, to mend yards, shrouds and everything we can!”

The “Caribbean Siren” and its crew had to survive... And while the acting captain, their siren, the sailing master and another man were descending into the jolly boat and rowing towards the privateer ship, the ones remaining aboard had lots of things to do.

Merde! What a mess! Baptiste hurried to help Pavoun. Merde! That was all Baptiste could think right now. What else was there to think? They had really done them in good. Any one of them could have been killed. And that was the last thing he wanted to happen. Not now, not when he had finally found love. He wanted to bask in Belle's love for as long as he could.

But at the moment, Baptiste was concerned only with finding the jury masts, for one thing, and whatever else Pavoun had said to find. It wasn't easy, especially since there wasn't much light yet. Even though whoever could was finding lanterns, you almost needed the lanterns... to find the lanterns! In fact it was so dark that he tripped over something, not sure what it was. He sucked in his breath, blinded by pain
"I've found something!" he said after a moment. He didn't know what it was, but it felt heavy. As someone ran over with a lantern, he asked them to tell him what it was. "Sorry. My eyes are still adjusting. What did I bump?"

(OOC: He probably ran into one of the masts.)

Kanyi hid a smile behind an irritated grunt at the pup's enthusiasm for fighting. He didn't want to yank the boy down to reality just yet. The Siren was hurting, and in no shape to do any fighting. He diligently followed in Benji's footsteps to the small crowd of pirates around their temp captain, listening in to the discussion. He didn't feel it necessary to add any of his thoughts as all had been shared. And it didn't seem his place. He was a simple pirate after all. No more and no less.

His attention faded as he looked out into the dark, in the direction of the enemy ship. What is sit that they wanted? Was it another pirate's ship or something worse? He doubted it was a Navy ship. The attitude was too cloak and dagger. In his experience, the Navy tended more towards bold as brass and louder than canon fire. That was the preferred approach of the Captain on the ship which he served as slave. Shoot first, think later.

He was brought back to attention by Pavoun's order for his assistance in fixing up the deck. Now that was something he could certainly do, and well. Hard labour was a good choice for Kanyi, and a job he enjoyed. It was a good thing to be useful. But the deck was such a mess now it was hard to see where would be the best place to start. Perhaps fixing the worst problem would be the most ideal start to cleaning up the ship.

"Er... Deal with the mast first, then?"

This voyage was becoming delightfully dangerous. Elinor was certain that this week would prove the most unusual over the course of her lifetime. She very much doubted any event could top the death of a much unbeloved husband and enjoying the hospitality of pirates responsible for said death. Straight out of a utterly fantastic romance and what she would have once considered an impossibility. Then again, life in the Caribbean had once seemed straight out of the amusing, and addled, mind of playwright. Yet here she was.

One would think that her first reaction to the obvious signs of attack (what else would cause the ship to quake so?) would be fear. And somewhere inside it was there. Elinor didn't pretend to be some fearless, adventuring lass like the good doctor on board the ship. Practical and at times ruthless in business affairs, yes. Adventure? She preferred to watch it one stage. Even if it was a little exciting. Much more so now that she'd had a great deal more sleep and that her aches and pains attended to and healing. Living in the throes of danger really wasn't worth the excitement rewarded.

With a sigh, she blinked up sleepily at the top of the small cabin assigned to Elinor and Sunny. She had taken the more comfortable... er... bed, if once could call it that, and her servant took a mat on the floor. For a moment, she considered slipping back to sleep, but soon realized that sleep would not come. Her curiosity was awake and itching to know exactly what was happening. Some part of her realized how useless she was in this situation. What help could a mere duchess offer on a ship? She couldn't shoot a gun, swing a cutlass, climb rigging or swab the deck. But none of that stopped her from waking Sunny (who was most likely awake anyway, but Elinor couldn't tell in the dark) and ordering her to help her dress.

"Sunny. Be a dear and fetch my gown."

A simple every day dress, though cut to flatter her figure and color, and fashioned from the best materials money could buy. One had to keep up appearances. And she wasn't about to show any more of her underthings to this ship of degenerates, no matter how obligingly useful.

One of the reasons she liked Sunny was that the girl was fast. A wonder with laces and multiple, ridiculously tiny buttons. Once she was modestly attired, she snatched up the lantern generously provided for their use, lit it, and made her way out onto the deck. It wasn't her desire to get underfoot of the busy seafarers, but... well... this was most intriguing. She lifted the lantern and gingerly stepped out onto the deck, hanging back by the walls of the cabins and eyes wide at the destruction littering the deck.

"My God... What happened?"

Benjamin stared unhappily up at Tar.
He felt somewhat betrayed, being banned from going with the small group over to the enemy-ship.
How could Tar even come up with the idea to leave him behind? What bloody use was he here? There were no enemies to maim and no revenge to....
The voice of Pavoun interrupted his thoughts, and the young man spun around to sneer at the older man.
"Mind your own bloody business, Pavoun!" he snarled, but none the less, stomped over to one of the masts, where he kicked the splintered wood, muttering curses under his breath.
If he was mad? No. He was furious. Furious and...well...perhaps not furious...Perhaps just a bit tired and a bit hungry. He had, after all, worked himself to exhaustion before falling asleep, only to be woken up a few hours later by the attack.
And as for his hunger...Well, he was always hungry...So that didn't really matter at the moment.

He listened as Sara, Andrea and tar left the ship, refusing to look after them, preferring instead to rest his forehead against the poor mast, glaring at the wood as if it was its fault for him not being allowed to go.
They didn't even take Kanyi with them.
He would have been a bit happier had Kanyi gone with them. Kanyi would've taught them a lesson or two.
But no. And Sara? They took the bloody doctor? What in the bloody hell was she going to do that would intimidate them?
Heal their wounded?
Still muttering to himself, he gave the mast a kick.
Bloody Tar and his bloody decisions.

Thank whatever stras were in the dark skies above that somebody brought over a lantern and made it easier to see as he and Kanyi began the clean up as per captains orders!

What a damn mess. Akai sighed and spotted Bapiste not to far from him, having fallen over one of the broken mast by the looks of it.

Surpressing a grin of some amusement at the sprawled figure Akai extends a hand to help the man back to his feet.

Pavoun was not the man to take crap from a boy. It was so much to be done and he was protesting. This, definitely, didn’t go over. It was enough that Cass, Kanyi and a few others seemed to protect the shameless brat, but Cass wasn’t here, Kanyi was more focused on helping with the mast than minding Benji’s fits, and he could answer:

”YOU should mind your bloody business, whelp, and learn how to behave with your elders… Otherwise, I will tell in front of the council that you have infringed the articles – the part of <obeying civil and rightful command>, and I don’t guarantee which punishment you might receive for this. There will be enough lanterns soon and we’ll need every help possible for good repairs. Including yours, given that you are a brazen boy, but a good rigging rat!”

Kanyi, Baptiste and Akai came to help with the repairs too. Well, at least they tried, given that it was still dark and Baptiste stumbled upon something… Then Lady de Vere appeared, asking what happened. Fortunately, she was bringing a lantern, which Pavoun hurried to take from her hand and hang it somewhere handier for the works.

”Thank you for bringing it. We have been attacked by privateers. The captain asked for parley, and went to negotiate with them. Meanwhile, we are trying to repair what we can. Their guns had good aim despite the night.”

He could admit the truth even if he didn’t like it. And the lantern came at the right moment. Paul got him another. Now they were better seen from the privateers side and more vulnerable, but nobody would strike during parley… at least Pavoun hoped so. Besides, the privateers could see that the action wasn’t happening in the guns area, and no porthole got opened.

Benjamin hunched his shoulder slightly at Pavoun's words, and he glanced over his shoulder at the older man, worry clearly shown upon his young face as he suddenly seemed to remember that he couldn't do what the bloody hell he felt like.
There would always be people there to put him in his place. And while he didn't particularly enjoy Kanyi boxing him over the ears or the kicks he received every once in a while from the crew...He'd rather take a few kicks in the stomach rather than to end up in any real trouble.
Trouble like the kind of trouble Pavoun was hinting at.
The offense wasn't one of the worst ones, but could easily land him getting whipped for stepping out of line.
And he had just grown used to sleeping on his back for the first time in years.
He was not giving that up.
Scurrying past Pavoun, blue eyes lowered in submission, he took his place next to Kanyi, as if the giant man would provide some sort fo protection against the fate he just might meet, if Pavoun was feeling ruthless enough.
he hoped Kanyi would provide enough protection...for now.
Tugging unhappily at Kanyi's shirt, he looked up at the much bigger man.
"Give me a lantern so that I can climb up the mast...well, what's rest of it. And we can see what we'll do from there...You're too heavy, and will probably ruin it beyond recognition...Perhaps giving me more of your food will help in the future?" He gave Kanyi a grin, before turning his blue eyes towards the masts.

Kanyi didn't hear a word of the conversation between Pavoun and Benji as he was busy hauling away debris and forming a neat little pile. Had he heard, he would have come to his young friend's defense. Once much of the stuff was removed from around the mast, he stood and stared down at the larger pieces on the deck. The task of fixing this was daunting. And it didn't help that everyone was still shocked from the explosion in the first place. He ran a hand over his bald head and sighed. What a mess.

The familiar tug on his shirt announced Benji before he opened his mouth, and he grinned at the boy, shaking his head. He wanted to climb up the broken mast? That didn't sound like the smartest of ideas. But who was he to tell him no? The boy made his own decisions, that much was clear. And Kanyi mollycoddling wouldn't help him any. He shrugged and accepted the inevitability of Ben getting himself into trouble.

"I think it not a wise decision. Dangerous with all this stuff lying about. But do as you wish."

He chuckled again at Benji's plea for food and affectionately kicked him in the leg. Only meaning it to be a gentle shove.

"And you'll get no more food from me. If I became a bag of bones like you, you'd be out of a job. I be the one climbing and you be the one cleaning."

Now able to see and dropping the offered hand up for Bapiste figuring the man wished to get himself up Akai followed Kanyi lead and helped his fellow ex slave now prate pile the wreckage into a semi neat heap.

Of course the work became quicker when Pavoun hung up the latern Lady De Vere had brought up to the deck with her, glad for the light Akai redoubled his own efforts.

It was a big mess to be clean up no sense dithering about.

Pavoun looked kinder at Benji when he heard the lad asking for a lantern and willing to climb the mast.

”Wait a little for Baptiste to bring you the jury mast and for me and Akai to give you what to fix it with. You have got a good idea, Benji!’” he praised him honestly for his initiative.

The Provensal wasn’t holding any grudges now – Benji might be obnoxious so often, but he was a good rigging rat, and he had just proven courage… Or recklessness, perhaps, or both… He smiled at Akai and Kanyi, who didn’t need any more incentives to start working:

”With such good helpers, things would go quickly. When Tar will return, he’ll see already work in progress. And as long as we succeed to have at least a something to spread a sail on, we will arrive back to Basse Terre, even if slower…”

This meant, of course, if the negotiations were progressing.

”And you’ll get some more food this morning, Benji, I’ll make sure,” Pavoun promised.

Even if it meant from his share…

Ah- the jury mast! Was it any wonder why his leg hurt? Because it did hurt, and for one horrible moment of excruciating pain, he wished Belle were here to comfort him. Sacre bleu! he thought. The pain was so great he knew he sweated with the effort of not screaming. With a little maneuvering- and a hand from Akai- he managed to get up without a twisted ankle, though it might be sprained a bit later. As soon as he was on his feet, Baptiste wiped the sweat from his brow as if nothing had happened, rubbed his leg a little to ease the pain some more, and then said cheerily:


"There! That's one less piece to find!"

He walked around a little, to make sure he still could. It didstill hurt after all. Then he picked up the heavy thing and carried it over to Benji, whom he had heard speaking with Pavoun. What exactly they were talking about was a little blurred in his brain, but he knew Benji wanted to try to help and that Pavoun had said to wait for him.

"Show them what you are made of, kid. You can do it." he said with an encouraging smile. In some ways, Baptiste might not be the whelp anymore, but he still remembered Jamie saying it to him, and how it felt. No one had encouraged him then- or, in fact, much of his life. But that didn't mean he was going to let the same thing happen to Benji.

Dangerous? Nothing was dangerous enough for Benjamin to be put off and run in the other direction.
Well...except water. Water was an exception...And women...Couldn't trust those either...Not to mention dogs....Shaking his head slightly, the young boy choose to wrinkle his nose at Kanyi, instead of verbally disagreeing with him.
Sure, the larger pirate had said that he was welcome to climb the mast...But to call such a feat dangerous?
Benjamin just had to disagree.
However, the voice of Pavoun distracted him from berating Kanyi ( such a large and intimidating man should not know of the word 'danger', according to Benjamin) and his first reaction was to twist his fingers into the fabric of Kanyi's shirt, worriedly regarding Pavoun as the man spoke.
Not moments ago he had been sure that the man was just waiting for him to step out of line again so that he could whip him and put him in his place.
But when he realized that Pavoun was praising him rather than scolding him, he relaxed slightly, and smiled proudly.
Good idea? It was a brilliant idea!
Nodding at Pavoun's words, he glanced up at the broken mast.
The trouble would be climbing up the broken mast and getting the bloody heavy jury mast up there so that they could move out of the spot instead of drifting into an entirely different direction then the one they were heading.
However, as Pavoun mentioned extra food, he turned his head so quickly towards the older man that his neck made a painful sound.
Eyes bright and stomach rumbling, he nodded furiously.
He'd get the bloody jury mast up there...Even if he would have to break every bone in his body.
The ropes didn't look particularly steady, and though he was willing to do anything, he was not willing to break his jaw if he fell. How would he be able to eat then?
But he was quite sure, that if he wrapped his shirt around the mast and pushed against the mast with his feet...
Yes...He could do this...
He bloody well do this...Food was on the line!
Giving Baptiste a grin, feeling nearly dizzy with the encouragement he received from his crew, he then turned his attention to Pavoun, excitement making his fingers twitch.

"Alright, sir! Give me the orders on what I shall do, and I won't let you down!" He was clearly eager, seeming not to mind at all the fact that the jury mast would be entirely too heavy for him to carry by himself.
If Pavoun gave the orders that he should do the entire work by himself, then he'd bloody well do it.
Because in his head, only one thought kept repeating itself; 'Food,food,food,food,food...'

He felt the tug on his shirt as he lifted a large piece of debris, and looked behind him with a puzzled look. Ah, Pavoun. The boy was apparently expecting a scolding for something. When only praise came his way, the boy relaxed and released his hold on Kanyi's clothes. Kanyi bit back a chuckle and grinned instead at Pavoun, almost like a proud papa. He lifted the debris onto his shoulder with a grunt and made his way across to the deck to the every growing pile, where the other pirates were sorting out the now trash from the stuff good enough to use.

He returned to find his white shadow looking at the mast. "See what I mean by dangerous now, boy?" He clapped a hand on his shoulder and gave him a nudge. "Go find a rope in yon pile." He pointed in the direction. He remembered finding something useful like that lying around. Finding another large piece, he lifted this one and released a rush of air from his lungs, staggering a little under the sheer weight.

Pavoun looked at all his helpers with a smile, getting into a chuckle when Baptiste said that “it was a piece less to find” since he had found it …head first. Then, his encouragement to Benji made him think about his own younger brothers, remembering that many years ago this was the kind of atmosphere daily at home, while helping their father.

When he had mentioned food, Benji’s dedication to the task increased – this definitely couldn’t pass unnoticed. Only that he wasn’t quite in the mood for teasing, in general, and even less somebody who didn’t speak French. Especially that they had so many things to do.

”I know you won’t let me down, Benji! Paul will be with you to help you, too! First of all you’ll have to cast the yard and lower it away like we have done so many times during the exercises, then the mast piece itself.”

It certainly wasn’t a job to be done, normally, by two green lads, but Baptiste was still dizzy following his encounter with the jury mast he had been asked to bring, so it wouldn’t have been wise to ask him to accompany them. And in the given state of damage… who knew if the yards and remaining piece of mast would be able to hold the weight of more men, especially stronger, mature ones?

”Cast off lower lift and brace!” he shouted at the right moment.

Soon, the yard got lowered towards Akai.

Half a grin sort of graced his face as Bapiste was finally back on his feet and even keeping a good positivity up declaing he had at least found a piece!

Akai did laugh a little, but only to himself turning his attention up to Pavoun as the man shouted something and began lowering a broken piece down to him.

And Akai not all that familiar with ship speak (as he called it in his head) cast an uncertain look at the man for some instructions as to what to do.

Benjamin listened eagerly to Pavouns instructions, and had not a large hand landed on his shoulder, he would probably have started to run around like a little terrier, annoying many men in his eagerness to please.
"Well...Maybe it looks a bit unsafe..." He finally agreed, throwing the broken mast yet another insecure glance. He didn't like to admit that he was wrong, or that he had made hasty decisions. But he couldn't deny that no matter what happened, Kanyi was always right.
Heck, even when Kanyi was wrong he was right. At least according to Benjamin, who had seemingly vowed that Kanyi could never be in the wrong.
And it wasn't all that hard to figure out why.
Kanyi was like his uncle. A male mentor who made sure he had enough to eat at every meal, kept him out of trouble and reprimanded him (somewhat.) gently whenever he stepped out of place.
And though Benjamin was nearly just half the size of the black man, and could probably be broken as easily as a matchstick between his hands....He still never considered Kanyi a threat.
And at times, he seemed to find it to be his duty to protect Kanyi in some ways.
But then again, he seemed to be overly protective of everyone in the crew.
Perhaps it was because in some twisted, weird way, he considered them to be his family.
They didn't get a long at times, and most of the time they made him feel like a little boy instead of a grown man of fortune...
But they took care of him, and therefore he saw it to be his duty to take care of them.
And though he wasn't much to look at, they all could count on Benjamin to have their back through thick and thin.
Family was everything to him.
Heck, he still found it horribly troublesome to speak ill about his birth-mother, a woman who had treated him like a dog before throwing him out.

Nodding enthusiastically at Kanyi's words, he quickly turned and did as he had been told.
And it didn't take long before the yard was lowering towards the deck, Benjamin doing everything he could to help, while trying to stay out of everyones way at the same time.
It wouldn't do to cause any distraction, when there was a risk of getting crushed.
He had survived a lot of things, but he doubted he'd win against the yard.

Pavoun caught Akai’s lost glance and he approached him. The Provensal was no officer ordering people around, he was willing to work together with the others. And as strong as Akai was, he probably couldn’t do it alone, so he needed help. From a few steps, he was by the cooper’s side, catching the other part of the yard and, together, they had put it aside, to be checked later.

”Now let’s go back to receive the piece of mast!” he told Akai, while shouting to the riggers: “Rig up relieving tackles and cast off the mast! Brace it well!"

He looked up, at Benji and Paul:

”Lads, after lowering the mast, please come down carefully! We still need you one piece each for the reverse operation, later!”

He wouldn’t say that he simply needed them… because they were part of the crew. And once the mast down, Pavoun, Akai and Baptiste could repair it somehow… With other helpers, if needed, but this ship had to be able to sail her way back to Tortuga…

…Provided, of course, that the negotiations went well, because it was awfully silent from the other ship… Or was silence meaning good news?

Nodding Akai followed Pavoun back to the mast to help as told, he could not see how they were going to patch it enough to sail the rest of the way of their journey and was curious to see this if he was honest with himself. Learning new things was always good surely, his own craft was all about barrels after all.

Readying himself to recieve the mast he watches the youths above once they were told to come back down now. He hope negociations were going well and supposed that everyone else about him were a little worried the talks where taking forever.

Still there was no shouting or any sounds of aggressiveness so that had to be a good sign surely.

Back to the ship, Cesar was grinning despite himself. Even if some opposed it, he felt they chose the right route. Better alive to snatch more treasures another day than to be at the bottom of the sea. It would be an unpopular call, though. He called to the others to come near, crossing his arms and putting on his best "not-taking-shit" face.

"All right, boys. Here's how it's going! We're giving up half the cargo and our lovely Duchess in exchange for repair time and our lives." He didn't wait to hear opinions--dissenting or otherwise--before he started moving again. He patted the nearest man, Akai, on the back as he passed. "Good job, not sitting idle."

He stopped, looking up to the others, then taking his place with Akai to receive the mast.

Benji and Paul were doing as asked, all the eyes upon them. Akai and Kanyi, as usual, were ready to help. While the men were just ready to receive the mast and start repairing it, the negotiation party returned, with partially good news. Tar went to help Akai, praising them for their initiative to patch up the ship, and told them the results of the talks.

Enrique took a deep breath. Half the cargo was a little much, but taking the duchess out of their hands was a good idea. This woman was nothing else than a pain. Besides, if they still had half of the cargo and the ship to sell in Tortuga, it still meant an acceptable share.

”We have seen better days, but we have seen worse too. Cutter won’t be too pleased about it, still we can put a jury mast and sail to Basse Terre,” Pavoun said.

”Indeed, it isn’t as if we would have let our bones here on the bottom of the sea. There would be time for bigger prey,” Enrique approved.

The Duchess and her servants were already getting their things to leave the ship, probably relieved to arrive to Kingston sooner than they had expected, and the men who weren’t involved in repairing the mast, including Enrique, went to the holds for the transfer of goods.

Pavoun snickered – would Tar’s sudden willingness to help with carrying the mast have anything to do with the desire to delay a bit conveying the bad news to the quartermaster? It wouldn’t be impossible… However, all of them knew there were only a few moments gained until the unavoidable. And the important things were that they were alive, aboard a floating pinnace and in the position to sail it to Tortuga. Sometimes, partial losses might be blessings in disguise – like this one…