a better man

[apiratereject]

“Yes,” said Mari. “But a big and fierce kind of fish. Elasmobranchii fish. It’s very specific,” she nodded. “It’s worthy of a pirate.” It was something messy and chaotic and dramatic and that really encompassed who Mari was as a person. 

“I am,” she said, looking back at him. “I wouldn’t say too. Just as a hobby. I draw maps when we need them and then I also like drawing something more personal when I can.”

[kai-pak]

Kai, obviously, had no idea what an Elasmobranchii fish was. "'Course," he said anyway taking a deep drag of the cigarette in his hand. "Would be some kinda fucked irony for a pirate to die anywhere else but the sea." He gave a small shrug. "Reckon if you're making art you're an artist, yeah?"

[apiratereject]

“Yes,” said Mari, though she didn’t say anything else. As a pirate, dark topics were often discussed. They were essentially raiding and pillaging, after all. Sometimes even going to war with other ships on sea. The life of a pirate was bloody and gory. She didn’t really even think about the idea that he was a banshee and the insight into death was part of their DNA. 

“Shark,” said Mari. “I think it would be a very dignified way to go out. Not to mention, my body would be returned to the sea, her royal majesty and I would be truly at peace. Dying on land seems absolutely terrible, and I’d hope someone would drag me to the ocean and shoot me out of a cannon at the very least. This way the fish can still feast on me.”

"Maybe I'll draw that," she said. "Make it a giant mural on a wall in the city."

[kai-pak]

"Ripped apart by a fish," Kai pondered dryly. It wasn't something he would choose. Life had been hard enough the last few years, death for Kai was a peaceful thing. Maybe it was the banshee in him.

"Sounds glamourous." Somehow he could picture it. Mari on a pirate ship, flinging herself into shark infested waters. It would make a good mural. "You an artist too then?"

[apiratereject]

“Well, yes, obviously,” said Mari. At least to her it was obvious, though she didn’t point to anything that might be useful in identifying her as a pirate. She probably looked homeless more than anything else. “I’ve never had a personal run-in with a siren, but I’m not trying to test my luck, am I? I’m too young to die at sea just yet, though. Besides, how anticlimactic would it be to be taken down by a siren? I’d rather be eaten by a shark and taken out in a very gruesome but noble way. Although, I don’t think even that would happen since sharks don’t actually like eating people. Which is so boring of them.”

"Now, there's an interesting question. If you could choose to die? What would your preferred manner of death be?"

[kai-pak]

"Obviously," he repeated, lips tugging in amusement. Last time they'd spoke they'd not exactly exchanged much small talk, and well -- most pirates Kai knew weren't like Mari. "Try 'em out on land. Maybe one will surprise you."

"Fucking hell," he let out a breath of smoke. "That's dark." Not the weirdest question he'd ever been asked, but not exactly one with an easy answer. He'd experienced his fair share of pain, especially with his time in the penitentiary. Fights, stabbings, it was ruthless and Kai felt immune to much of it.

Banshee's had a weird relationship with death, after all. The way it surrounded them. Kai was no different to anyone else. An easy death, painless -- that would always be preferable. But knowing his luck, knowing life, it wouldn't be like that. "Whatever it is, hope 'm not sober when it happens." He took a deep inhale, refusing to dwell too much on what his death would mean. "You?"

[apiratereject]

Mari snorted. “Good luck with that,” she said as he mentioned not getting on her bad side, mostly because her moods could swing wildly, so it could be hard to avoid. She was self aware to know that about herself, and just didn’t care enough to course correct.

Mari didn’t answer that question right away, as if contemplating the answer to that question. “I could, if I wanted to, but trying to dock my little rowboat in waters with sirens doesn’t really seem ideal.” Pirates and sirens had a history after all. “So, I just spend my time out in the waters of Blacksand Beach. Or somewhere else if I can find a place on actual land.”

[kai-pak]

Kai huffed out a small laugh. Maybe it was a Wailing Waters thing, but he'd had his fair share of experience with Sirens. There was a mutual respect between the two species, a shared home. Plus, given Kai liked his women hot and crazy, he often found himself drawn to sirens without them even needing to use their song. But still -- it was valid of Mari to not want to spend too much time in those waters. He raised his brow slightly. "You a pirate?"

[apiratereject]

Mari gratefully took the light, and breathed deeply, before the smoke came out of her nose with an exhale. She nodded. “So, what about the rest of you?” she asked, tilting her head. 

She waved a hand. “Only in the bedroom. I’m human,” she pouted. Mari didn’t mind that she was human, but it certainly contributed to her impulsive and slightly unhinged nature. She had to keep other people guessing, otherwise they might see how she looked and think she could be overpowered. “Don’t think that means I can’t take care of myself, though,” she added as if he might think otherwise. “I’ll slit a throat if I need to just like any good redcap.”

[kai-pak]

"Human," he replied easily. Generation by generation the banshee in the Pak family got less and less. In truth, Kai didn't know what Min's mother was. Banshee, human, something else? He was sure as she got older it'd come out, but for now the Pak's had their history, and that was that.

A smoke filled huff of laughter left his lips, because she said exactly what he thought she would. Despite hardly knowing the woman, he felt like he could read her quite easily. "I'll try not to get on your bad side then." He gestured towards her with the hand that held his cigarette. "You live around here too?"

[apiratereject]

Mari’s eyes widened. “Oh, so you live in, like, a house?” she asked. For Mari, that felt unimaginable and the epitome of luxury, but considering she lived out of a small boat half the time or on the sea, having any sort of stable environment felt fancy to her and like something she could only dream of. 

She gasped at his recognition. “I love Fisheye Bob,” she said. “He’s so talented.” She went ahead and took one of the cigarettes he offered. “So, does that mean you’re a screamer?”

[kai-pak]

"Uh, yeah." He answered, not bluntly, simply like it was a fact. Of course he didn't know Mari's thoughts, just like to him she couldn't know that it was a luxury. That the shitty cottage down by the beach, that had been fixed up over the last year, was everything he could have dreamed of. He'd learned pretty quickly he couldn't be a big dreamer, and Kai was content with what he had.

Lighting up her smoke, then his own, he took a drag. "My gran is." It left him with enough of an intuition that he knew he had to trust his gut (even though he often ignored it), but that was about it. "You?" He would probably regret asking.

[apiratereject]

“Live here?” she asked, pointing down. “On this street corner?” Though, far from looking like that suggestion might be mildly unrealistic her face lit up. “Ohmygod, I know someone who lives right down here,” she said. “Fisheye Bob? Do you know him?” she asked. “He’s got a hook for a hand, so you have to be careful because he might swipe at you, but he knows how to play just about any song on the harmonica.”

[kai-pak]

"Like, around the corner, yeah." They'd never made it back to his place last time they met. For obvious reasons, he didn't make a habit of taking any girls he met home, but this one even more so. Not that he could fault her for that, given his own taste in women.

A glint of amusement crossed his face. "I do, actually." Growing up and living in one place for over thirty years, give or take a couple years for his time spent in jail, meant none of the town weirdos were lost on him. He especially had a soft spot for Fisheye Bob.

He fished in his pocket and pulled out a pack of crumpled cigarettes. "Want one?"

[apiratereject]

when: 1 november 2024 where: wailing waters who: @kai-pak

Make-up was smudged on her face, tears streaming down her cheeks. She was currently thanking the kind stranger who had handed her some cash out of sympathy. Mari counted off the money in her hand, before tucking it away, but then wiping her tears from her face. 

It was often easy for her to put on a dramatic display and beg for money. Mari wasn’t above it. She often did exactly what she needed to do in order to survive, and she used her feminine wiles and innocent looks to put on a very public display of distress to get money from strangers. Really, if her life had gone differently, she could have easily been an actress. 

She turned around, once she had made sure the money was stored safely away in her chest and realized she was face-to-face with a familiar visage. “Hey,” she said. “I know you. “What’re you doing here?” She asked as if she knew his habits, though she definitely didn't. Perhaps he was exactly where he was meant to be.

[kai-pak]

Kai had always been an observant man. Given his preference for solitude, a hatred of small talk (unless the woman was hot), and his inclination to always have a drink in hand, it gave him a lot of opportunity to do so.

Even now, having just dropped Min-ji off at preschool on his day off, he couldn't help his attention be caught by a crying woman being given some money, recognition lining up with the way she turned around and wiped away her tears. Amusement tugged ever so slightly at the corner of his lips and he set to head off to his local, only making it a few steps before him and the woman who's name escaped him ended up face to face.

He raised a brow ever so slightly, he never forgot how unhinged the women het met often tended to be. "I live here."

[kai-pak]

[apiratereject]

The bartender grunted and was quick to pour out two glasses of whiskey, handing it to them, before stalking off to the other end of the bar, seemingly to help more customers.

Mari, meanwhile, picked up the glass and downed about half of it in one sip. The pro that she was, she swallowed without making a face. "So, what's your name, anyway? I'm Marianna. Or Mari. Nice roll on the R and everything."

[kai-pak]

"Kai."

And so it went. Kai bought one whiskey, and another, never revealing more than amused tug of his lips when the woman next to him that would have sent smarter men than him in the other direction. As it got darker outside, it's between the pair what was discussed, what was shared. Until the next tme.

~~~ fin ~~~

[kai-pak]

"Don't mind the manual labour," he replied, as they moved further away from the bar she'd just been removed from, the one his coworkers were waiting for him in but also wouldn't be surprised or probably care too much that he never showed. "Or being outside. Like keeping my hands busy." It was like at the mines. He'd liked the job, for all it was worth. The easy access to ethereum was just an added bonus, until it wasn't. But the grunt work meant his mind couldn't wander.

[apiratereject]

Mari thought he might have made a good pirate. After all, being part of a crew was all manual labor that involved keeping your hands busy and being out on the sea. She was sure he’d never been given that she didn’t recognize him. It was hard not to eventually run across most crews. “You ever consider a career change, bet you could go into piracy. Pay’s better, too.”

She walked into the bar. “Your finest whiskey available, please,” she said. The bartender gave her a look as if to silently ask if she was really going to pay. “All on him,” she said as she pointed to Kai.

The bartender looked at Kai as if to first confirm what the order would be. “She’s crazy,” he added in a grunt, almost as if he might be warning the man. Mari merely smiled as if it were a point of pride.

[kai-pak]

Kai's lips tugged up in amusement at the warning. A warning he didn't need. It'd barely been fifteen minutes since they met and he was well aware the woman next to him was crazy. Instead, he gave a slight shake of his head. "We'll take the house whiskey. Two. Thanks man," he wasn't made of money, and he wasn't going to waste what he did have. Even if crazy was good in bed.

[apiratereject]

Mari hitched her bag up on her shoulders and followed suit. "So, like, if the pay for being in construction is shit, why do you do it?" she asked. "Surely there are better jobs and jobs that don't involve manual labor. Or jobs that pay just as bad and still don't involve manual labor. Anything indoors, even."

[kai-pak]

"Don't mind the manual labour," he replied, as they moved further away from the bar she'd just been removed from, the one his coworkers were waiting for him in but also wouldn't be surprised or probably care too much that he never showed. "Or being outside. Like keeping my hands busy." It was like at the mines. He'd liked the job, for all it was worth. The easy access to ethereum was just an added bonus, until it wasn't. But the grunt work meant his mind couldn't wander.

[apiratereject]

Mari was ready to put the heat, quite literally, back on him as he stepped back. However, she seemed to pause at his question. She looked at him as if she was weighing her options. She shrugged as if she hadn’t just been making violent threats and trying to burn him. “Yeah, alright,” she said. “Don’t think this takes you off the hook, though,” she added. She waved the cigarette at him again. By now, it was down to the filter. She took one deep breath from it to finish it down as far as she could, before she flicked to the ground.

“And don’t think I’ll be settled with any old cheap shit. I can tell.” She couldn’t. Her tastes were far from refined and she, in fact, put more stock into the cheaper rum as it was what she was used to drinking on pirate ships.

[kai-pak]

Of course it would be cheap stuff, they probably both knew it, but they could pretend. Maybe he was just trying to convince himself, but something about the sharpness of a cheap whiskey cut through all the noise in the way money couldn't. After all, he drank to quieten his mind. "There's another pub a block over," he said, taking the first steps.

[apiratereject]

There was a moment where it looked like she might calm down and back down. However, she was as unpredictable as the sea she was raised on. “Are you calling me stupid?” she asked, her nostrils still flaring. The cigarette in her hand seemed to burn brighter with her temper, her finger now digging into his chest. “Because I’ll have you know, I’ve cut men’s dicks off for less, so, you keep going on like that and we’ll see what happens.” 

In fact, she looked down at the cigarette as if she just remembered she had it in her hand and moved to press the butt of it into his chest instead of her finger. Then he might take her seriously. Or think she was insane. Mari would take either.

[kai-pak]

Any normal man would've been turned off, take that as the queue to back off. Kai on the other hand -- even before his time in prison (especially before, really, when he took on life with less care than he did these days) there was nothing like the thrill of the unhinged. Especially when paired with a drink. He didn't answer her question, instead took a slight step back as he felt the cigarette and asked, "You wanna go get a drink? I’ll buy.”

[apiratereject]

“It fucking is,” said Mari. She inhaled some smoke herself from the cigarette he had offered and watched him cough, looking rather impressed. Her eyes were to narrow, though, her nostrils flaring and smoke coming out of them as if she were a dragon about to breathe fire. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? What? Like I can’t do physical labor or construction?” she snapped as she poked a finger at his chest. Whether he had meant it as a dig that she might not be up for a construction job or not, she was quick to react with her gut instincts. "I could if I wanted to."

[kai-pak]

It was a slow and non-committal movement, the way he held his hands up in surrender, smoke curling up from the cigarette held in one. A small fleck of amusement tugged at his lips. It was a terrible habit. Not the smoking, but the way his interest peaked any time a woman showed she might be unhinged. Hot? Sure, that was always nice, and often it was enough for him (he normally didn't see them again after a few hours after all), but there was just something about a girl who might burn someones house down.

"Just that it pays like shit." He glanced down at her finger then back to her. "'M sure you could. The sites are normally full of idiots." Was he baiting her? No. He meant it -- the job wasn't hard and he got the impression she was capable. But was he interested to see how she'd react to a comment like that, said in his dry tone that was hard to read? Well -- he couldn't be blamed for that.

[apiratereject]

“Owe them money,” she said as she rolled his shoulders and straightened up, the cigarette in her mouth as she breathed deeply on it. She was clearly no novice. “Owe them a lot of money, actually.” She frowned slightly, though mostly because she was trying to figure out how much money that actually was because it meant that she had no place to stay until she could come up with that money, plus any other money to cover a future stay with them. “Hey, what do you do for work?”

[kai-pak]

"Must be quite the tab." Kai took a deep inhale at the worst timed moment, as she asked what he did for work, the laugh mixing with his inhale of smoke causing a cough that made him sound like a novice. "Nothing that could be of any help. 'M in construction." Paid labour wasn't the most lucrative gig. It wasn't like when he was in the mines, and given his history he was sure he was being paid less.

[apiratereject]

“He can, same way I can be just as suspicious,” she said as she narrowed her eyes at him as if to emphasize her point. Mari went ahead and took the light, though, as if negating that she might be suspicious. However, that was the sort of person she was. She walked a tightrope, always swaying, she was hot and cold and it was impossible to know what she might really be thinking at any given moment. She reserved the right to act on her whims as she saw fit. 

“So, then what do you want?” She asked the question because everyone wanted something on the island. No one gave anything away for free and Mari never assumed anyone did anything out of the kindness of their own hearts. She could only assume the cigarette and light came with some sort of strings attached. It might have seemed small and insignificant to most, but she knew most people would leverage anything and everything.

[kai-pak]

Kai didn't comment on the fact that she took the smoke anyway, that she had lit it, and was still standing her talking to him rather than take it and run. He took a deep drag from his own cigarette, blowing the smoke out slowly, savouring the feeling in his lungs before asking, "Just wonderin' what'd you do to get chucked out of this place?" He jerked his head towards the door she'd appeared through moments before. It was a dump, and Kai knew because he frequented many dumps on the island. But dumps meant it took a lot to be kicked out.