Swabbing the Deck | 2/21, noon | Lily/Gespard

[Lily]

As far as Lily was concerned, everything sucked. With Rowan's presence on board, her mood had turned gloomier by the minute. It was almost impossible to escape anyone on board, one had the tendency of encountering the person one tried to evade. Unfortunately, that also meant that avoiding Rowan was out of question, which was the main cause for Lily's permanent grumpy expression.

She couldn't figure out why in all of the Heavens, Azrael had chosen someone like Rowan as a wife. He could have had anyone else, perhaps some girl who wasn't from the mainland and thus, was more suitable, at least in Lily's opinion. If Tennyson had noticed her temper, he hadn't mentioned it around her yet.

With a frustrated sigh, Lily twisted her hair into a thick knot, as it kept falling into her face, and continued to scrub the floor. It was a grueling task, kneeling on the rough floorboards and from the constant friction, her knees were beginning to chafe. It was punishment for the cheek she had shown Ben the night before. He had asked her to do something and in her irritation, she had snapped at him. Oops. Usually that would have merited a different punishment, but Ben after three years, Ben was bound to know her.

She could readily deal with pain, but boredom was her enemy. Plus, she did not really like having to be on her hands and knees all day. She felt it was degrading. She would have happily preferred a different punishment. At least a whipping was over with fast and it was less humiliating. But this deck swabbing was dreary and set her teeth on edge.

[Gespard Shadowmere]

“Well, look what we have here,” Gespard said to James as they walked upon her. He smiled down at her, amused that she had managed to yet again become a swab… He knew why, of course. Nothing happened aboard the Orpheus that he didn’t know about. It was, after all, his world, a place of his making. Yes… he was a god on the Orpheus. It was a joke he’d made with James and Ben and they’d teased back that soon they would make a statue out of shells and seaweed to worship.

“Stand up,” he ordered, his voice demanding but not cruel. “Have we learned our lesson, swab?”

[Lily]

Lily slowly put the sponge down, upon hearing the rather familiar voice of Azrael. There was no way in all the hells that she would continue to swab the floor while they looked on. She would gladly continue once they were gone. But they did not go. She looked up him, then, catching sight of James' amused grin, she could not withhold a glare. James snickered.

Even though she often pretended not to take Azrael seriously, she had never defied a direct order of his. So when he ordered her to get up, she did so immediately. "Aye, Captain, I have." She just hoped that she would finally be let off duty. There were far more interesting jobs to do on board. She was not a lowly swab anymore, not like she had been three years ago.

[Gespard Shadowmere]

“See how she wears that frown,” James pointed out literally, his index finger directed right at her face. “She’s been wearing it for days now. Maybe we should keep her as a swab lest her sour mood effects her work.”

Azrael laughed. “Come now, James. That is hardly fair. At least give the girl a chance to speak for herself.”

“Aye. I suppose that would be fair.”

The captain stepped forward, crossing his arms and giving her a somewhat lopsided grin. “Why do you look so forlorn, Lily? Did your cat die or something? Or did Lester finally snap and eat him? Or am I confused about which one of you has a cat?”

[Lily]

Well, this was plain perfect.

The last thing that Lily wanted was for Azrael to know that she despised his wife. "I've never let my mood effect my work," she said a little indignantly. She gave James a rather annoyed look. This was not turning working out the way she wanted it to. "Is it so wrong for a girl to look unhappy every once in a while? It may be the air." Or the new presence on board.

But she couldn't admit that, not to her captain. It would be embarrassing to admit that she hated everything about Rowan simply for being who she was. The men had all shown interest. Maybe not in front of their captain, naturally, but in private talks, she had heard several members of the crew talk about Rowan in ways that would make the lady blush. But they were seafaring men, what did she expect? Sometimes Lily wished that she were as coveted, as desirable as the beautiful lady from the mainland. She thought that perhaps the men just weren't aware of her in that way. After all, she had matured on board the Orpheus. Maybe they all thought of her as a child still?

She looked at her captain and shook her head. "No, I don't like cats very much. I am not sure what Lester's been eating. He smells of something," she smirked, "and it's not of roses."

She sighed, realising that she should probably say something about her bad mood. "It is nothing of interest, Captain, I'm sure."

[Gespard Shadowmere]

“Do you even know what a rose smells like?” James teased, laughing aloud.

“Jim…”

“What!?” he said, laughing more at Gespard’s expression. “Lily… clearly you’re mistaken. I’m looking at you now. Your disposition has been sour, to say the least. Bitchy at best. Ben obviously thinks it is effecting your work or you wouldn’t be swabbing the deck.”

Gespard stayed silent. After all, it was within James’ rights to scold any member of the crew.

“That we’re speaking of it already contradicts your point that it is nothing of interest.”

[Lily]

"It is rather difficult to come by a rose at sea," she shot back, not really in the mood to be humored by James. She might have laughed on another occasion. "Though it seems that you have found one anyway," she said, now looking at Gespard. She swallowed, knowing that she had just possibly said too much. At once she stared down at the deck and at her feet, finding them suddenly deeply fascinating. Her feet were bare as always. She hated the way that shoes made her feel and no amount of stuck splinters could make her think otherwise. "I..."

[Gespard Shadowmere]

James chuckled at her, but said nothing else because he saw the look in her eyes that said the line to not cross was coming up fast. Azrael was about to come to her defense again until she said that last bit. His face went blank, and then his eyes went cold. “Is there a problem with my rose?” he asked, crossing his arms and glaring down at her. “Has my rose done something to offend you of late, Lily?”

[Lily]

Lily looked up, hearing the change in his voice. The moment she did, she wished she had continued to absorb the patterns in the wood beneath her feet. The look in Azrael's eyes chilled her. The glowering look only strengthened the scary fact that he was so much taller than her. Really, it was not fair. 5 feet and four inches could hardly compete with a man that was well over six feet tall.

"Not exactly... no." She's offended me by breathing. Now that she thought about it, she could not think of anything that Rowan had done wrong. "She doesn't belong on this ship," Lily said, startling herself. But now that the words were out, she could hardly take them back.

[Gespard Shadowmere]

James wisely took a step back, realizing that this was no longer a moment of levity. Azrael, however, took a step closer, his hand coming up to grasp a strand of her hair, his fingers lightly moving over it. “Is that what you think?” he asked, his voice still dangerously even. “That my wife does not belong with her husband? That I ought to have left her behind?” His fingers continued higher, threading through her hair until he had then near her scalp. And then in the next moment, he was grasping a handful of her hair and tugged her close to him, nearly snarling as he looked down at her now. “If she doesn’t belong on my ship, Lily… then neither do you. Perhaps you could lead by example… Demonstrate how best to extricate yourself from The Orpheus. Perhaps walking the plank?”

[Lily]

Even though Lily was usually quite adept at controlling herself and usually managed to remain stoic, she could not stop herself from trembling when she heard the danger in Gespard's voice. It was a cutting kind of danger, even though his voice remained calm at first.

Her instincts told her to run while her fear had her frozen in place. She yelped, surprised when he pulled her closer, her eyes burning, unfamiliar to tears. "I... no... I never," she stumbled over the words, unable to form even a coherent thought because of the way he was looking at her. Real tears gathered at his words, not brought on from the sharp, quick pain caused by the pulling of her hair, but because of what he said.

Her heart dropped and she felt sick. "The Orpheus is all I have," she said quietly. Silent tears rolled down her face now. "I'm sorry. I... please, don't." It was not the plank that she feared that much. It was being alone that she was afraid of. And dying alone.