Il libro di Jaylos

what happens between a pirate and a mechanic?

"CJ, Gil!" Uma shouts over the noise. She has a grin on her face and a light in her eyes and a sword in her hands that she is twirling dangerously. Well, more dangerous than Uma usually is with a sword. "Go check the shops on the south side! Harry, start loading up the ship! Harriet, Jay," she falters, pauses. "You...you two..."

"Go check what the citizens are hiding?" Harriet offers.

"Yes! Go rob the citizens!" Uma declares and the light returns to her eyes. "Leave nothing of value!"

Harriet immediately leaves for the civilians, but Jay stops long enough to whisper a quick "you're doing great, Captain. First raid is a success!" He gives Uma a thumbs up, then jogs to meet Harriet as she stands in front of a line of people huddling in on each other.

"Alright maggots," she jeers, "empty your pockets!"

The citizens do so, rustling around in their clothes and murmuring to each other as their change and trinkets rattle to the ground.

"This is it?" Harriet sneers at the piles at her feet, walking up and down the line. "This is everything?"

"Why don't we check their pockets?" Jay shouts down at her, placing his sword back in its sheath and stepping up to the first couple. "Make sure they're not hiding anything from us?" He distantly hears Harriet agree as he lifts a man up by his shirt collar. "Arms out." Jay orders and the man quietly follows his instructions. The pirate searches through pockets and the folds of his shirt. Jay runs his hands over the man's arms and legs.

"I don't huh-have any more muh-money," the guy stammers. "I pr-!"

"Aha!" Jay exclaims at the knife he finds in the man's boot. "I found it, it's mine!" He shouts at Harriet, twirling his new toy between his fingers. "Alright, buddy, you're done," Jay moves past the man and onto the woman, probably his wife.

She looks up at him, reluctantly releases the child in her arms and shakes as she stands, but Jay extends a hand down to her and helps the woman to her feet. "Hello ma'am," he chirps. "Can you turn your pockets inside out please?"

The woman obeys, shows she has given everything already.

"Alright, just one more thing," Jay runs his hands over her arms and legs, feels she is truly hiding nothing. He eyes her necklace, but decides against it. "Have a nice day!" He turns to the child on the ground and instead of asking him to stand, Jay crouches down to his level. "Hey, little man, you hiding anything else?"

The boy shows a teddy bear from under his arm and holds it out with a sniffle.

"You know what?" Jay looks at the stuffed animal and pushes it back to the kid, "I don't think he'd be very happy with me. I think he better stay with you. Go see your parents," Jay gestures in the direction of the adults he checked over and the kid can't run to them fast enough.

Jay picks up the coins from the family and shoves them all into his satchel. He stands and moves to the next person - a guy all by himself. Jay regards the puny pile on the ground - scrap metal and broken wires were all this guy had on him?

"You better have more than that," he scoffs and tightly grips a black collar, hoists the young man to his feet. "Why do you have junk in-? Oh hello," Jay's voice drops as he gets a good look at the face before him. Wide brown eyes surrounded by heavy lashes stare back at him. "You've gotta be the prettiest thing I've seen in a while. What's a boy like you doing in a place like this?"

"I...live here."

Oh right. "How do you like it?" Jay steps closer and the guy stumbles back. "Because I think my room's a lot nicer," he throws in a wink as if his flirting isn't painfully obvious already. Jay hadn't been kidding when he said the guy was the prettiest thing he's seen in a while - they had been at sea for almost a month already.