Below deck, a lilting voice floated through the swinging doors of the kitchen and down the halls, cheerful despite how quiet the lower decks were.
"Hoo~rah~ and up she rises hoo~rah and up she rises~"
Singing lightly to herself as she wiped at the freshly washed mugs with a clean rag, Lotte was growing increasingly accustomed to doing chores that were once reserved only for those far below her status. Wiping windows, tables, chairs, and things that Lotte had never known accumulated dust and dirt without regular attendance-- washing dishes and doing laundry, hanging out sheets and hampers to air on deck-- she was determined not to be a complete burden. Though they'd both boarded the ship in a last ditch effort, Vance was useful as a navigator- indispensable, irreplaceable, and capable of fighting. While she couldn't quite fathom being booted off of the ship for her uselessness (because quite frankly, nobody ever said no to her when she really wanted something,) she did have a firm understanding in that she had to do her best as well, to contribute to the journey one way or another.
"What shall we do with the drunken sailor, what shall we do with the drunken sailor..."
"Hey there," Kuzo stated as he entered the kitchen to find Lotte tidying up a bit. He sat down at one of the stools at the countered and smiled warmly at her. "Nice song. Where'd you hear it from?"
She looked up, a bit surprised to see the captain. To be honest, she hadn't really spoken to him, at all as of yet-- having pinned him as one of those members that she just wouldn't ever get to know. Yet here he was. She smiled too though, continuing to wipe the mugs after her surprise had passed, "I heard the sailors on the ship to Loguetown singing it- It's quite repetitive so it was easy to pick up. Do you know it?"
"Not really," He replied with a light chuckle. He leaned in on the table, his elbows on the counter with one arm crossed over the other. He lifted the stool forward, balancing himself on the two front legs of it with his elbows. "But I'd love to learn it! We pirates have to know a lot of drinking songs, after all! It's gonna be a long journey!"
Brightening that he was so easily going along with it-- everything had seemed difficult with Skellen and Leon-- she set the mug aside to free up her hands. "Okay! It's easy- The first part goes 'What shall we do with the drunken sailor?' and you sing that three times! Then at the end you say 'Earlye in the morning!'-- It's the same tune the whole way through!" She clapped her hands and demonstrated the verse with a grin on her face, before holding her hands out to show that it was Kuzo's turn, "Okay, I'll do it with you so ready? One, two--!"
Kuzo continuously nodded as Lotte explained how to do it. Seemed easy enough, just say the first verse, sing it
three times, and end with the last one. "Alright, I think I got it!" He exclaimed, clearing his throat and began.
"What shall we do with the drunken sailor, what shall we do with the drunken sailor, what shall we do with the drunken sailor, what shall we do with the drunken sailor, what shall we do with the drunken sailor, what shall we do with the drunken sailor, what shall we do with the drunken sailor..."
He was on a seemingly endless loop, not realizing he was only supposed to say the verse three times, or perhaps just not realizing that he didn't say it three times.
While Lotte had sung along for the first two rounds, she quickly realized that Kuzo was getting a little too excited and laughed along as she clapped her hands, helping him with the beat as he went on and on-- what a funny man!
"Early in the morning!" He sung loudly the last bit, throwing his arms in the air, and grinning at Lotte. "That was cool, how'd we do?"
"Terrible," Morgan said out of nowhere, sitting at the table, sipping tea quietly with a very morose expression painted about his face. "Are y'all truly incapable of doin' any sort of math?" Morgan sighed, continuing to sip his tea. "Also, ya were off key a bit. Then again, we can't all be as talented as Lotte over there, now can we?"
She managed to chime in with Kuzo in time to sing the last bit of 'morning' with him, clapping her hands enthusiastically before smiling over at Morgan's rather apt assessment of their duet. "If it's fun that's all that matters! I've practiced a lot, but singing with people is a lot better than singing by yourself. So! Your turn!" Grinning at him she clapped her hands, counting him in, "One, two--!"
"Yeah, come on Morgan. Your turn to prove you can do any better," Kuzo shot back to Morgan with a grin, leaning back in his stool across the counters and crossing his arms.
"I ain't much for singin' but if I need to show ya how it's done, you got it!" Morgan knocked back his little bit of tea as Lotte was prepping to counting him in.
"What shall we do with the drunken sailor, what shall we do with the drunken sailor, what shall we do with the drunken sailor, Morgan said before stumbling over the last phrase as he completely forgot the words he was supposed to sing. He mumbled under his breath keeping the beat right but covering up his little mishap the best he could before bursting into flames out of embarrassment.
"Early in the mornin'~" Avril chimed in, walking into the room with a small grin on her lips. She glanced over at Morgan, giggling at his little mess up. "That wasn't
terrible, Pepper-kun... Nothin' that some practice couldn't fix. Still, I think the little lady here has ya beat by a mile."
The second time had certainly gone better than the first, and Lotte broke out into a smile mid-song when their trio unexpectedly became a quartet. (And was particularly entertained by Morgan's little kaput at the end, even if it had made her jump a little in surprise.) "We have lots of time to practice~!"
Putting down the last of the mugs, she opened the cabinet in which they were kept, putting each one back inside one by one without realizing that she could be doing multiple mugs at a time. "Aren't you two pirates?" She asked Kuzo and Morgan with a playful note of doubt in her voice, "I would've thought you'd known songs like this~"
Morgan's face turned a bit sour at Lotte's little jab, taking her assessment of him as an insult. She was right though. He
should know more pirating songs considering how long he had been sailing, then again he didn't exactly have time to learn. "I spent a lot of my time on the seas alone," Morgan finally admitted. "I didn't exactly have anyone teach me how to sing between avoiding marines and...a few other hobbies of mine."
"Hmm," Kuzo placed a palm on his cheek and stared out the window silently for a few seconds, thinking back on his times with the orphans, and everything that transpired afterward. "Truth be told, this is my first official pirate crew. I was on the seas for a while, but we were never really pirates. I guess because Koan didn't want us to be called that." He chuckled lightly. He turned back to Lotte, Morgan and Avril. "But you're right Lotte, we'll have lots of time to practice, and lots of time to pick up more songs!"
Holding the last mug in her hands, she blinked as she felt as if she'd unintentionally caught a glimpse of her two crew members' pasts. Their stories were... much different than how she'd envisioned it-- swash-buckling, merry-making crews were what being a pirate was all about! Or so she'd thought. Ignoring, or perhaps not noticing Morgan's sour face and Kuzo's silent contemplation, she put her arms down, leaning on the counter with curious eyes. She opened her mouth, looking fully prepared to pry even deeper-- but instead: "I actually don't know very many sailor's songs either. I only know two; the ones I heard on the ship to Logue Town. I'd never been on a ship before then! But from now on, I'll learn lots more and we can sing them all!"
She glanced over at Avril with a cheerful smile despite the others' slight gloom, "What about you, Avril? Do you know many songs? Skellen said you were in the Marines...? Or was that the other guy..." Putting her finger on her chin, Lotte stared up, rifling through her memory or lack thereof, having not paid much attention to the specifics during introductions....
"Hmmm... I really don't know many tunes myself," Avril replied, glancing down at Lotte as she spoke. "Well, at least not those that may be appropriate for pirates to go 'round singin'... A pirate singin' Marine songs might turn a head even more than a crew sailin' in a Marine ship."
She paused for a moment, crossing her arms for a moment and closing her eyes as if she deep in thought. A small smile slowly formed at her lips, her eyes opening up with the light of an idea shining through them.
"Ya know, Loli... I bet instead of just learnin' songs that are already bein' sung all over the place, ya could probably rack your noggin' and come up with a tune or so yourself..." Avril mused. "I mean, you're not half-bad at singin'... and it looked like you were havin' fun with Pepper-kun and Ku-kun... Maybe ya should put that sort of energy and talent to use and be the musician for the crew, yeah? Ya know, someone to go 'round and keep the spirits up."
"Ah, I like that!" Kuzo exclaimed, slamming one fist into his open palm. "Good idea Avril. Lotte, you can be the new musician of the crew! Lead us in a song!" He turned around, examining the rest of the crew inside the galley. "And everyone has to be apart of it. Captain's orders!" He added with a wide grin.
The door to the galley suddenly creaked open, Vance's head poking itself through the doorway, quickly locating the group seated around the room. He gave a smile and waved, still in the doorway. "Oh, hey. I, uh, heard you guys singing from upstairs and wanted to come see what was going on. What're you singing?"
Looked like it was going to be harder to learn pirate songs than Lotte had anticipated. Drumming her fingers on her arm, she brightened at Avril's suggestion. Musicians? They had those?? "I can do that!" She raised her hand excitedly at the prospect of something she was actually good at. Chores, she'd been learning- but they were definitely not her forte. "I can sing, and play piano and violin. A little flute- but I'm not so good at that compared to the others." Listing them off on her fingers, she seemed a little surprised at Kuzo's sudden declarations-- and order? Bursting out into giggles, she waved Vance over when he poked his head inside with perfect timing.
"We were singing Drunken Sailor!" She started to clap her hands to a steady beat again, the few gears in her brain working away at a tune and some lyrics.
"Well, since we don't have any drunken sailors -yet-, I'll teach you this one instead!:"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib9tdGBqtnM
Making a delivery-- bringing it across the sea!
Binks' Sake in the hold, as we sail through the breeze~
Far across the eye can see, the sun is shining merrily-
As the birds fly in the sky as they sing out with glee!
"Whenever I motion, you guys sing
'Yo ho ho ho'' like I just did, okay?" Giving a few beats for her crewmates to absorb the information, she motioned them in--
Avril nodded and smiled at Lotte. After all, it had been her idea for the shorter girl to pursuit this title, so she did not mind indulging her a bit.
"Yo, ho, ho, ho~"
Vance, having taken himself a spot at the very end of the counter, resting his forearms on it, looked pretty baffled at how well Lotte was actually singing. Without any hesitation and with a bright smile on his lips, he chimed in as Lotte motioned to them.
"Yo ho ho ho~!"
Kuzo smiled and nodded silently but enthusiastically, extremely pleased that Lotte was going along so well with his suggestion, and getting into the singing immediately. He tried to pick up the tune of her song, nodding happily at her instructions, then burst out singing at her mark.
"Yo, ho, ho, ho, ho~!" Kuzo smacked his head with his hand. "Aww, dang it too many." He inhaled and tried again.
"Yo, ho, ho~!" Kuzo shook his head again. "No, no not right," He tried to follow the beat of the music, and open his mouth to sing once more.
"Yo, ho, ho, ho~!"
Morgan pretty much followed their leads, shrugging a bit as he took a breath. Singing wasn't his thing, and he was terrible at any sort of memorizing of lyrics, but Kuzo's enthusiasm rubbed off on him. If he was going to give it a shot, Morgan couldn't let him get too far ahead of him:
Yo, ho, ho, ho~!
Laughing mid-song as Kuzo slipped up again, she waited from him to try again-- and again, before he finally got it right. Nodding and smiling enthusiastically at him, she took a deep breath,
"Bid "Adieu" to everyone, as we sail under the sun--
Sailing on from dusk till dawn and singing out--" She glanced at their captain with a knowing smile,
"--as one!"
"Cross the gold and silver waves, changing into water sprays,
Sailing out on our journey to the ends of the sea!"
After cueing another round from her crew mates to finish off the song, she broke the beat she'd held steadily thus far, clapping her hands together in applause for everyone's performance. Or, in some cases, efforts.
Brimming with glee, Lotte put her hands down, leaning over the counter as she looked around at the others with eyes gleaming, "I'll learn lots and lots of songs at the next island, and the one after that-- and I'll make lots of new ones just for us!"
With his spirits clearly lifted high after the song, Vance gave a bright smile to everyone, finally looking back at Lotte. "That was really amazing. You're a fantastic singer, Lotte!" He paused, glancing over at Kuzo. "We really need to get her an instrument. Do you think we could get her a piano?"
"Yeah, sounds good to me," Kuzo replied, as he crossed his arms and returned Lotte and Vance's smile with a grin of his own. "Our new musician will need it anyway. We'll put it on the top of our list of stuff we'll need at Dinas. Along with...." Kuzo placed a hand to his chin, scratching it while he thought, before remembering what else they ought to pick up. "...some paint! For a new flag!"
Avril offered Kuzo a small smile. If anything else, he had optimism for his new crew. Still, it seemed like he could use a small amount of guidance in the right direction towards other things they could and most likely would actually need.
"Those sound good, Ku-kun... But how about we add food, drink, medicine for your doctor to treat with, and clothes to that list as well?" the woman suggested. "Even with a clever new flag, we won't be able to get very far if we starved to death or died of illness out on the sea..." She paused for a moment, glancing down at herself and then Morgan. "Clothes might also be on that list... A few of us are starting to look a bit rough after all that commotion on Duke's Island."
"Yeah, I guess most of us could use some new clothes." Vance commented, pausing and nodding his head. "Avril's right, we need to focus on the important things first. And -then- get some paint and a piano!"
Kuzo nodded back to Avril. "Makes sense to me. Add those to the list," He declared with a smile. He suddenly began looking around thoughtfully, then spoke once more. "Probably a good idea if we make a list as well." He added with a chuckle.
"One tiny lil' thing, guys. Who's steerin' the ship?" Morgan said, disrupting their talk.
"It doesn't steer itself?" Lotte asked, tilting her head at Morgan's interjection.
"Some can, but I think this one usually requires steady guidance from an expert navigator," Alby replied, glancing over at Vance with a grin. "What do you think, Vanny?"
Vance blinked a little as everyone seemingly turned to him, realization slowly painting across his face. "You know, I-" He was interrupted as the entire ship suddenly shook, causing Vance to stumble a little backwards, before the ship seemed to settle again. Without another word, Vance spun around on his heel and darted out of the galley, disappearing from sight.