ahoy, me hearties !

It wasn't long before everyone around him noticed the seasickness this particular fairy was prone to-- and if he wasn't puking up his motion sickness, he was retching his drinks into the sea. When he did have his rare lucid moments, he was sidling up to his other crewmates, passing along flirts and snarks in his sultry tone, which held more weight with the men rather than the women. Rose was unreceptive and turned his own thoughts back around on him, hence how he'd quickly learned to avoid her, and Elise was more attentive to her child than to him; meanwhile, Wes and Mars proved to be more entertaining company to keep, exchanging wits and old tales of grandeur they each recounted from their travels. Ezra, mostly relegated to Pyxis and Vela, ate these stories up and regaled his own triumphs-- which were far more lewd in nature.

However, he was swift to clam up when Charlie was around. The kid was spry and saw the world through rose-colored glasses, owed to his youth and his mother's protective child-rearing, and as a result of his own abusive childhood, Ezra didn't want to sully his golden years of innocence. You'll never be this young again, his mother would tell him, though a younger version of himself had dismissed this notion and fantasized of the future and how brave and important he would one day be. A load of crap, he thought dismally, but his smile at Charlie was unaffected.

"Hello, Charlie. My name's Ezra." He clasped the tiny, smooth hand in his own, which was rougher and calloused. He'd wondered when Charlie would venture away from Elise's side and meet him, but hadn't made any efforts on his own to approach the lad. He knew he could be intimidating to kids, standing tall with strong shoulders and a stern expression when a grin was not fixed on it, so he just let things be until, finally, the boy pranced across to him. "I'm a fire fairy, so I can do stuff like this." He held a finger out and a small flame sprouted off it, flaring into the shape of an elephant that traveled the length of his hand until it wisped away on the breeze. "Are you a fairy?" Over the last few days, he'd learned a bit about the boy's abilities but curiosity still prickled the back of his neck.

At Charlie's ensuing barrage of questions, he grinned, then tried his own hand at juggling, managing to last a bit longer before one of the balls bounced gently atop Charlie's curls. "I guess I can juggle a little bit. I bet you can't do this, though." Thin, flickering flames curled around one of the balls and, with a wink at Charlie, Ezra lobbed one at Westerly's approaching form.

God, the kid was a menace. A cute one, and Mars wouldn't lie and say he didn't feel at least some sort of affection for the child, but that didn't change the fact that one mishap and their whole ship would be at the bottom of the sea.

"If that child breaks anything it's on you, woman," Mars snorted, standing next to Elise. She was still angry at him, that he could tell, but the malice seemed to have faded somewhat since the discovery of the boy's powers. Frankly, Charlie was still a mystery to him. He didn't understand how a non-fairy parent could give a child such powerful magic.

"Honestly I should've never told you the story about the kraken if you keep making more to scare me," Mars joked, his voice brightening as he spoke to Charlie. As wary as he was, he'd never truly be cruel to a child who didn't know better, at least not until he had destroyed the ship. In Mars' books, he was still in his good graces. With his good arm, he picked the child up, hoisting him on his hip.

He turned to Ezra with a chuckle. "Told him about the battle of a hundred ships and I think it's his favorite story, unfortunately."

"I can juggle," announced Wes as he retrieved the now slightly charred ball from the decks and liberated the other two from Ezra, making good on his promise as he tossed the balls in the air, refraining from any lewd jokes about the other things he could do with balls for the sake of the kid.

After a moment, he drew his hands out from under the balls, letting the wind tumble them above his outstretched palms without touching them, and he turned to show the group with all the excitement of a child proudly showing off his drawings, only for the three balls to hit the deck as he was startled by the shadow kraken suddenly looming over them. "Holy fuck, kid," he said, momentarily forgetting his resolution to keep it clean.

"So what do I get to do in the fight against this fearsome beast, huh?" he said, turning back to Charlie.

"Uh....huh. Great idea, mate." The shadow of the beast draped across the ship, tentacles drawing towards them, and he swore he was either going to puke or piss himself. Thankfully, before he had the chance to do either, the kraken dissolved back into the sea in the same manner in which it had risen from it, fluidly becoming one with the water and tucking the shadows back into the deeper, darker abysses. He might have stood there forever had a bright, curious voice not spoke up instead. 

"Fuck," intercepted Ezra, Charlie's question freeing him from the trance he'd been in, trembling at the sight of the horrific monster the child conjured seemingly with ease, "is a bad, bad word that no one should say. Right, Uncle Westie?" He ruffled Charlie's hair with a light hand, though a sidelong glance was cast to the boy's mother, wondering just who she had to fuck to create a child with powers of this magnitude.

"Why don't you show me around the ship, Charlie? I bet you know more about it than I do. You can give us all a tour," he suggested afterward, volunteering the rest of the gang as it would be a good distraction from the current topic, noting the boy's eyes light at the Very Important Task.

"You want me to see the sights?" She asked with a grin, but she stood anyway, saying goodbye to Elise and heading off with Mars. They walked a bit behind the others, and when Elise was out of earshot, Rose cleared her throat. "You may want to ask Elise about a man named Cato," she said casually. "She was thinking about how similar Charlie is to Cato, and I've heard that name a few times from her before. Usually in a wistful, sad, context."

Charlie pulled Ezra by the hand, leading him around the ship. "This is where me, Ma, and Rose sleep. That's the kitchen where I help my Ma shell peas and boil potatoes. Do you cook?" He asked Ezra and Wes, peering up at them curiously. "You can help us in the kitchen. You're probably old enough to use the knives. I'm not old enough."

Mars gave Rose a chuckle at the joke. He had gotten used to her dry sense of humor, and to be honest, found it quite amusing. He made similar jokes about his hand, after all. Not everyone thought they were funny, but she certainly did. As they walked behind the group, as if they were parents watching over a bunch of raggedy children, his brow raised at the query Rose brought up.

"Cato?" he frowned. He had never heard the name before. What did that have to do with Elise? He was confused. "Wait a minute, can you explain a bit more? In what context is this about?" He frowned, mulling it over, "wait, but...she told me Charlie was Lord Wharton's son. Said that there wasn't any doubt about his parentage...?" 

Chuckling a little at Wes' save, Ezra was happy to be guided around, absorbing the knowledge Charlie deigned to share while only feeling a little insecure about the fact that a ten year old knew more than he did. "No, I don't cook," he answered Charlie, "but I am old enough to use a knife, unlike Westie here." He dabbed a damp towel to the new wound and clicked his tongue in a chiding manner, a knowing look shared with the young boy at Westerly's expense.

"Maybe Westerly needs to take my sword fighting class. What do you think, Charlie?" He knew that somewhere on board, Mars definitely had some weapons on board and that a selection of those were blades crafted by Ezra himself, owing to the trade deal they'd had over the last decade. Elise probably wouldn't be too approving of her son being shown around swords if he wasn't old enough to use the knives yet, but did he care? Nah.

If that was what she was thinking about, he was sure it wasn't some brother or cousin or something. It sounded more like a lover. Then again, Elise was pretty, and she was the child of some rich merchant apparently, so she must've had quite a few people interested in her. Mars would've been even without the riches. It wouldn't be surprising if she had a lover she lost during her pregnancy; from what he had heard, the man responsible for all of this was cruel enough to lock her away from society. 

That thought still made him angry. 

He'll talk to her later. First, there were the boys he had to take care of. "Oi, you better not do anything stupid," he called out to the two, "if he even gets a papercut, I think Elise will actually murder you, and don't be a bad influence on the kid." 

Mars was standing next to Elise now. "Hey, mind if I talk to you for a bit?" he asked.

Mars hesitated. This was a weird thing to confront Elise about, and he didn't really know where to start. 

Unfortunately for them, it seemed like the conversation would have to wait. There was a fog that seemed to suddenly enshroud the ship, and Mars looked up, his brow furrowing. Something was up. Whatever this was, it felt unnatural, as if there was something in the air that felt heavy, thick. 

"Give me a second, something feels wrong," he replied with a frown, turning to the others, "hey guys, you feel that?" 

He heard a sound in the distance, but he wasn't so sure what it was. It sounded like...singing? Music? There was something beautiful about it, but haunting, yet he wanted to know more, to hear more. "Do you guys hear that?"