[Week~9] [P] [Captain Monoka Devona III] SM: Sid Viscous

[i_am_a_virus00]

On a particularly unpleasant afternoon, the weather outside 'literally' was frightful. Ordinarily small, cresting waves suddenly turned into squalls as walls of water churned about like a witch's brew within a cauldron. Torrential rains spilled over the sides of her ship, pelting everything from the sails to the deck with large amounts of water. Lightning weaved its way through a dismal sky with the occasional thunderclap. The captain was asleep in a drunken stupor passed out beneath empty bottles of rum.

Lou “Ghastly” Morrison kicked in the front door to his captain’s office, his boots soaked to the brim with water; and found his captain asleep with a somewhat content look on her face. “We don’t have time for this.” He said aloud as he ran over to his captain and kicked the chair out from under her. “Wake up! Half the ship is flooded! At this rate we’re going to lose our precious cargo captain, or didn’t you notice that there’s kind of a storm going on outside.”

When she finally awoke, slightly dazed and stumbling about with the mother of all hangovers, Monoka propped herself up; palms flat on her desk, and noticed Lou sopping from head to toe, despite the several layers of rain gear he was wearing. She couldn’t help but laugh as she dragged the rolled-up part of her jacket sleeve across her mouth, ridding herself of the drool. By then water had already managed to find its way in as she walked across the floor.

3 inches of water had collected beneath her boot heel as she stepped lively to the porthole. “Please tell me you and the rest of your men secured the cargo, first and foremost?” Monoka inquired, as she stared intently at the gray skies before her. Lou swallowed his pride before answering her. “Yes, and no, captain.” Lou replied as he was prepared for whatever punishment his captain would hand him. Monoka simply turned to face him, sloshing through the water as it steadily began to accumulate more and more beneath her feet.

“Alright, let’s hear your excuse.” Monoka told him as she quickly made her way above deck. Surprisingly the main sails were still intact, whipping violently back and forth upon the mizzen mast. The mast itself began to creak like a rusted hinge on a gate, yet despite the sharpness of the wind coming in from the west, stood tall and sturdy amidst the center of the ship. Monoka quickly found herself being doused by the rain as she watched her crew batten down the hatches. “Well Lou.” Monoka said while relaying orders to Sid to come down from the crow’s nest. “I don’t have all day.”

Lou stuttered as he struggled to come up with an answer. “I’m not the one you should be directing that question towards, captain.” Lou mentioned as he gestured towards the crow’s nest. “You really should be asking Sid. Personally, I would have keel-hauled him for what he did. That fucking prick refused to come down as we were trying to secure the cargo, and because of his insubordination, when the storm was at its peak, we ended up losing about a third of it as a result.” The rain was ceaseless as it fell harder and harder making visibility even more scarce. A surfacing vein appeared along Monoka’s neck, a perfect indicator of her rising temper.

Sweeping rain fell upon the deck, coasting from left to right as it descended the stairs below deck, filling the cabins one by one. Winds howled as they came down from the sky battering her ship like a toy in a bathtub. Monoka simply looked at Lou, as if dismissing him from her sight, and gripped her gloves tightly only to ascend the hooks leading up towards the crow’s nest. In her mind she knew what she was doing was the very definition of insanity. But she also knew that if she didn’t do something, she just might very well cut Sid’s throat and toss him overboard. She didn’t want to do that, but her anger was slowly getting the best of her and she didn’t like it when her emotions were more in control of her than she was.

The more she climbed, the more she was thankful her heavy jacket and thigh-high boots were more than enough to keep her body from being sent into the sea. Just about the only thing she was worried about, was the fact the hooks themselves were even more slicker than she imagined, and the heels of her boots weren’t gripping against them too well. Faster and faster she climbed until the crow’s nest came into view. A two-man wooden basket, weather-proof but looking a little worse for wear as she began to notice signs of fading and cracking. Monoka immediately spotted Sid looking through a telescope out to sea, and yelled as loud as she could against the intermittent chorus of thunder.

“Sid! Sid, get your ass down from here or I’m going to drag you down from there myself!” Monoka ordered while maintaining her position. She felt Sid turn a deaf ear to her plea and began to grind her teeth back and forth, gnawing into the gum and lower lip which began to draw a slight trickle of blood. By then her anger had completely boiled over, so she climbed all the way up to the top and pushed Sid aside while stepping inside the crow’s nest. Sid continued to ignore her and opted to face the other way. Annoyed with Sid’s recent behavior she simply looked over the side of the basket and watched her crew. “They seem to have everything under control.” She thought to herself as she watched them secure the last of the cargo, as others ran below deck to relieve the flooding.

Out to sea a vibrant streak of lightning illuminated the sky as Sid turned to face her captain, choosing to stow his telescope within his right side pocket. Aggravated with her subordinate’s childish behavior she simply asked to see his telescope. “Do you mind if I borrow that for a second?” Monoka asked him, as she turned away from him and pointed out to the direction her ship was heading. Hesitant at first, Sid heaved a sigh before reluctantly reaching inside his right side pocket to retrieve his telescope. Before handing it to his captain Sid promptly asked Monoka what she was going to use it for. “Mind if I ask what you need it for, captain?” Sid told Monoka as the telescope finally managed to exchange hands. Monoka held it from the base in the slick grip of her gloves and simply told him. “Sure. I plotted certain coordinates in this location on the map. I was sure there was an island around here somewhere.”

Sid seemed elated at the sudden news from his captain and asked to have his telescope back so he could scout for the island in question. She grinned as she wiped the rainwater from her face and promptly sent the base of the telescope straight through Sid’s right eye socket, killing him instantly. With a tug of the collar on Sid’s vest she sent Sid careening into the clashing waves, a cloud of crimson collecting on the surface as she watched the current carry his body further out. On her way down, Lou couldn’t help but notice his captain was all by herself and grew somewhat suspicious of what had just transpired in the crow’s nest.

When Monoka safely touched down on deck, her boot heels squeaking from the dampness of the water; Lou asked her why she wasn’t with Sid, to which Monoka replied while heading towards the helm. “Sid’s been relieved of his duties Lou. Look at it this way, at least now he has all the time in the world to view all kinds of things through his telescope.”

[1321]