Fang stood in front of her mother, doing her best to keep her chin up and her face placid as ever. A young man she only vaguely recognized stood beside her mother silently, staring down at Fang where she stood. Her mother’s eye was critical as ever as she looked her daughter over, a stony frown etched into her wrinkled face. Eventually, after what felt like hours of tense silence, she spoke. “Your excursions are the talk of the town.”
Fang opened her mouth to respond, but held her tongue when her mother held one hand up. “Your excuses won’t get you out of this one. Your mistake has ruined the family image, and it could bring our business down. We can’t have one of…those people running things around here.” Fang’s blood boiled, but she held still and kept her mouth shut.
Her mother motioned to the man standing beside her. “So, to quell any rumors that you started, I’ve arranged a husband for you. You will marry this man and set yourself straight before this hobby of yours gets out of hand.” she ordered, her tone leaving no room for argument.
But, leave it to Fang to find away. This time ignoring her mother’s hand of warning, she spoke. “Mother, I -“
“Enough! You have caused enough trouble! I will not have my eldest daughter eloping with some woman under my watch!” her mother’s voice was loud and drenched in anger, making Fang flinch. “The town will not let a gay woman run the biggest business on this island and neither will I! You will remedy your mistake young lady!” she ordered, rising out of her chair to glare down at her daughter.
Fang trembled where she stood, clenching her fist in front of her chest as she sniffled back building tears. For a brief moment she debated doing as her mother told her and letting things go back to normal. But the thought was brief and brought her more grief than anything. “I have not made a mistake!” she snapped back, her voice just as venomous as her mother’s was, if not more. For the first time in nearly 15 years, she had raised her voice at her mother, and the surprise and rage was clear on her face.
But, Fang wasn’t about to start now. “I will not marry a man I don’t know - I won’t marry any man! This entire, terrible town is backwards and I will not let them sully my life!” she continued, the tears falling freely down her cheeks now. “I am not wrong, mother!”
——
Fang nudged the door to Orrin’s room open, watching as she slid one of her masks on before turning around. “Orrin, I’d like to speak about what you said today.” Fang began speaking before Orrin could even get a word out.
What she said made the smaller woman hesitate, but Orrin nodded a little regardless. “O-of course, captain. What did you want to ask?” she asked, sounding nervous. She always looked so small, but now she looked even smaller, shrinking back into her heavy jacket.
Fang hesitated for a moment, fiddling with her fingers in front of her. “…are you really gay?” she asked after a minute, though she felt stupid for asking it right away. Of course she was - why else would she come out like that? “I mean…I’m..I’m proud of you for being able and willing to tell all of us like that.”
Orrin stared up at Fang before nodding a little, letting go of her large sleeves in favor of scratching at the back of her neck sheepishly. “W-well, yeah…I figured I should get it off my chest after what happened to Bismarck with his brother. I don’t want to die holding something like that back from all of you.”
Fang felt a lump growing in her throat and swallowed around it, trying to keep it under control. “I’m glad you told us,” she repeated, her voice cracking in the middle of her sentence. She raised her sleeves to wipe at her tears, hoping in vain that the doctor somehow hadn’t seen them yet.
Fang didn’t know what she expected Orrin to do, but sitting her on the side of her own bed wasn’t one of them. The smaller woman, still standing, pulled Fang’s head to her chest and wrapped her in a tight hug. “Captain…you aren’t wrong.”
How Orrin had figured it out so quickly was lost on Fang, but that was the least of her worries as she let herself cry, pulling Orrin tighter against her as she buried her face into Orrin’s old, scratchy jacket as she wailed like a child. The weight on her shoulders seemed to lift, but the tears still flowed. She was just so…happy. Happy that Orrin was willing to share such a heavy topic with them and happy that she didn’t have to keep such a heavy burden hidden from her nakama.
Fang was born to a wealthy family in the textile industry and pretty much ran the island she was born on. However, her mother was extremely strict with her as she was the eldest and was set to take over the family fortune. Above all, her grandmother wanted grandchildren to keep the family business within the family and was constantly trying to find Fang a suitor she could tolerate even slightly. She didn’t seem to realize one big thing, though: Fang was a lesbian.
Fang had a short fling with another woman - someone who worked in the business her family ran. It was happy until her mother found out and she freaked out. The woman Fang had been seeing seemed to vanish from Fang’s world (she has no clue if her mother had her run of the island, killed, fired, or anything) and her mother put her foot down, insisting that she marry a man before rumors of her fling got out into the public and ruined the family image. Fang finally stood up to her mother and fled that night after being dealt her punishment, taking sail and leaving her family fortune behind.
Soon she met Emin, who had the same desire to get away from the world his parents had built and the two continued running together, eventually throwing around the idea of forming a pirate crew, which was made much more achievable when Odette joined their ranks. Fang isn’t doing this only for the treasure hidden somewhere in the vast oceans but in hopes of inspiring other people to liberate themselves from oppressing families and situations like her own.
ask-the-fringeheads replied to your post: You know, I think both our crews would benefit...
“Excellent. Now just how would we all "benefit” from this alliance?“
“Well, neither of our crews are the largest compared to many of the stronger crews out there, and a mixture of experiences will make it easier to deal with a bad situation should it arise.”
