Yarr!

A delicate tendril of smoke wafts artistically out of the barrel of a gold-plated pistol before being blown away by a pair of plump red lips with a stylish mustache.

"They call me 'Bullet-in-the-Eye' Julian and if any of you so much as breathes a word to the authorities, you'll find out why. But if you are interested in glory, gold, and girls then come have a seat at my table and I'll see if you have what it takes to be one of my crew."

Raucous cheering ensued as all the patrons of the dockside teahouse, the Fallen Lily, drained their sake and danced about drunkenly. No one pointed out the absurdity of the situation, indeed they reveled in it. Julian and his crew were a sorry lot of castaways skipping over the waves in a stolen shrimp trawler called 'the Rusty Nail' in no position to threaten anyone, much less offer glory or gold (an absurd metaphor in anycase, since anyone worth their salt would want to be paid in hours and minutes). Julian was known in these parts, but not by his dangerous sounding nickname. He and his followers were called the Rusty Nail Rogues and they were the butt of many jokes in the villages around Omexon. But no one felt like ruining such a wonderful night by throwing his insignificance back in his face.

Trencher, the Mechified who followed Julian around, with a scoop for a left arm, had a lusty voice it turns out, and he lead the crowd in a variety of bawdy songs. Raul, a scoundrel, swore he'd done everything the lyrics described with daughters of honorable Allskin families from Matamos and Zamar. Meanwhile Julian's girl, Tara, danced from tabletop to tabletop kicking over carafes of Sake and nearly setting the place on fire, but it only made people hoot and cheer all the more.

Beneath all the laughter and drinking there was in fact something of substance occurring. Several things.

Firstly, people forgot about the impending war for a while. Honest people. Frightened people. People whose lives depended on the sea trade they knew the Geneva Prime Navy would disrupt if it came to war. Instead of thinking about enemy soldiers teleporting into their homes, they sang and they danced and they were happy, for a while.

Second, some real alliances were made. Not the kind that determine the political landscape. These kinds of alliances rarely make it into the history books. They are written with warm memories, firm handshakes and sexually transmitted diseases. The Rusty Nail Rogues may have been fools, but they were quickly becoming popular fools. At least in the ports of the Northwest.

Third, one person was actually listening. She was no one of account. Just a slight Biomade girl with startling red eyes. She laughed and drank along with everyone else, but she paid attention more closely. She heard descriptions of the whole crew, including the fox-girl who could conjure a sea-snake and the one known as Maverick. When Julian began going on about how he was going to capture Rodan once the Omexon Navy was done building it for him, the corners of her mouth turned up in an attractive little smile. After a month of searching, she was pretty sure she'd found what she came for.

Everyone else in that teahouse was just happy to get drunk enough to forget, though no one was liable to forget the time when Julian shot a cork off a reclining woman's nipple. He'd been given a sake shower for that one and the woman swore her nipples had never been harder and offered to join his crew right then and there, but Tara told her to put some clothes and go home or she would lose the only two things she had going for her. Later the sake ran out and Julian left without paying (though Trencher went up and settled accounts afterward), and the fun kind of went out of the room, so the crowd stumbled home to their beds.

As they walked down the darkened streets they invented new verses to a local folk-song and renamed it for the Rusty Nail Rogues:

They swear like your mother and drink like the drowned,
the Rusty Nail Rogues!
They howl like wolves, but they bite like a clown,
the Rusty Nail Rogues!
You can't get them out of your bar late at night,
the Rusty Nail Rogues!
And if you should try they will give you a fight,
the Rusty Nail Rogues!

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