With everyone around you dead and the ship slowly sinking, you're sure that you're done for when a pirate ship chances by the wreckage. Instead, the week you spend among them is one you'll remember for the rest of your life.
CW: GN reader/pronouns...
The Marine ship is almost fully submerged when they come across it in the open ocean. Through the spyglass, Roger can see bodies on the exposed deck, but it's not until they board the ship that they can identify what killed them. Gashes and gunshot wounds indicate an attack by pirates, and by the smell and the bloating of the corpses, it's been a few days since it happened.
"Yeah..." Roger's not too disappointed–from the size of the Marine ship (and the fact that the crew was easily defeated,) he doubted it carried anything of interest in the first place. He's about to call his crew back when he sees Rayleigh perk and look in the direction of the cabin.
Roger focuses, sensing what the first mate does. "Oho? Seems they missed one."
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You are a high-strung, anxious mess on the best of days, easily overwhelmed and prone to breaking down at minor inconveniences (though they did not feel minor to you.) So when your Marine escort got attacked by pirates, you were hopelessly struggling to keep it together. The captain shoved you into the corner of his cabin, dragged the heavy dresser in front of you, and told you to keep quiet no matter what.
Listening to the pirates slaughter the Marines had almost spiraled you into a panic attack. It took far less to trigger one normally, but you pushed it back through sheer survival instinct, desperate to stay silent as the pirates ransacked the ship. They almost found you in their search, only inches away on the other side of the dresser–but they never thought to move it, and finally left after taking everything of value on board, including the only transponder snail. Once they were gone, you stopped holding back, going properly ballistic. The hysteria worsened when you left your hiding spot, not only because of the sight of the dead, but also due to the discovery that cannonball damage had the ship slowly filling with water.
That was three days ago. The pirates looted all the rations, and hunger made you weak, but the thirst was what really threatened to kill you. That, or drowning. With more than half of the ship underwater, it was a race between that and dehydration. As a result, you thought the ship you spotted in the distance was a dying hallucination at first, but as it got closer, you felt a glimmer of hope.
You were saved. You were saved!
And then it got even closer, enough for you to make out the Jolly Roger on the sails, and the hope was rapidly bowled over by newborn panic. You squeezed back behind the dresser and prayed. Things couldn't get any worse. Even if these new pirates didn't find you, the chances of a friendly ship happening by to rescue you in time were slim to none.
You hear the pirates board the ship. After a few minutes, the sound of multiple pairs of footsteps echoes through the cabin and you tense, heart in your throat. You expect them to start combing the room for spoils, but to your dismay, the footsteps go straight toward the dresser.
