The captain had begun to make her way over to examine the cargo when she heard Jackson yelp.
"Open it," she instructed, pointing to the crate the sound had come from. Someone grabbed a crowbar, petting the top off to expose Jackson. The Captain's eyes flashed once, turning a yellowish gold for a split second before returning to normal.
"What's this? You boys brought me a snack?"
Jackson gulped and looked into the Captain eyes. As he stared into her eyes pieces of buried memories started to surface. Those cold eyes reminded him of a person he
lost and cared so much about. He shook his head scolding himself.
Jackson, you are not going to become a emotional wreck in front of a group of good for nothing pirates.
Phillips wasn't really in the mood to see the captain eat someone at that moment. He examined Jackson, looking him up and down. He walked back over to the crate, bending down to wrap his arms around Jackson.
"Follow my lead if you don't want to get eaten," he whispered quietly.
"I kinda like him," he said louder, looking up at the Captain. "Could I keep him?"
Jackson nodded and looked at the Captain waiting for her response. He really did not wanted to be eaten, because that would just end his mission.
Oh, please, don’t let me be eaten. I’m not sure witches in training taste good.
The captain looked at Phillips and Jackson for a moment, contemplating.
"Fine," she said. "Just be sure to get a collar on him so I remember he's yours and I can't eat him." Phillips nodded, pulling Jackson up out of the crate. By now, the rest of the crew had been busy getting them it off the dock, and they were in open water. Phillips looked at Jackson for a moment.
“I don’t really understand why you did that, but I thank you for that.” Jackson sighed and smiled sweetly at Phillips. He was taught that pirates were cruel and menacing people, but maybe they weren’t as bad as everyone said they were.
(when you suddenly realize your character is 100% tsundere)
"I only did it cause I'm not in the mood to see Captain eating someone right now." Phillips shrugged. He liked that smile Jackson gave him, but he gave no sign of this.
"Come on, you heard Captain. We need to find a collar for you."
[Me: Oh, gods, What have I done?]
He immediately frowned. He didn’t want to be a pet, but he told himself that was much more better than being eaten. “Right, a collar.”
(XD)
Phillips took Jackson's hand, leading him down below deck. Several of the other crew mates gave Jackson a strange look, but one glare from Phillips was enough to get them to look away.
"So, what's your name?" Phillips asked, not looking back at him as they weaved through the crates to find a collar.
He moved some crates around before responding. “I’m Jackson, what’s your name?” He peered at a open crate and spotted a black collar.
"Phillips. I think the others are going to expect you to call me Master, but I honestly don't care when we're alone." Phillips spotted the collar as well, reaching out and grabbing it.
"Come here so I can or this on you."
Jackson walked to Phillips and waited patiently for him to put on the collar. “I guess from now on I’ll have to call you master.” He starting inspecting the collar from afar.
"Guess so." Phillips slipped the collar around Jackson's neck, fastening it. It looked easy to take off, but it would be very difficult for Jackson to get off on his own. It was simple too; a black collar, with a gold tag and ring to attach a leash. Phillips dug around in the crate, pulling one out and putting it in his pocket.
"Com'on, it's my day off." He took Jackson's hand again to take him back up on deck.
As they walked back to the deck, Jackson stopped to smell the breeze. “Salty, just like I imagined.” He starting coming up with a plan on how to leave the ship.
"Well, you couldn't have really expected it to be sweet, now could you?" Phillips chuckled. He led Jackson over to a rope net that led up to the crow's nest. No one was in it. He started climbing up.
"We need to talk. In private."
Jackson tilted his head to the side, but followed him anyways. He made blue harmless flames appear in his hands and started inspecting them. He looked up at Phillips and smiled slightly. “Is there something wrong?”
Phillips glanced at the flames, unimpressed.
"I'm just gonna cut to the chase; you obviously don't want to be my pet, and I don't want you as my pet. Here's my desk; we pretend to be pet and Master until the next time we're at a safe, human dock, at which point you can take off and we never have to see each other again. Deal?" He sat down on one of the crates up there, gesturing for Jackson to sit on one of the other ones.
Jackson just glanced at the crates, but didn't sit down. He thought for a while before responding. "Deal."
"Great. And for the love of God, try to make it convincing." Phillips sighed, looking out over the sea.
"This is pretty much the only place where we won't have to actually do that; this hasn't been actually used for years. It's become my private space." He pulled it a cigarette and a lighter, both of which shouldn't exist yet. He shifted his mask slightly to reveal a hole in it, inserting the cigarette and holding the lighter to it, taking a long breath.
He nodded and observed Phillips. He shook his head and looked out into the ocean. He suddenly heard a meow and turned his head to the direction of the noise. A black cat with white spots stood next to Jackson. "H-H. . W-What. ." The cat looked up at Jackson and purred.
Hunter. . how is he here!?
Phillips glanced over when he heard the cat. It wasn't one he recognized as one of the ship cats.
"Your cat?" He asked.
Jackson nodded and looked at hunter. "You've been following me, haven't you?" The cat meowed. He shook his head and sighed. "I told you to stay home." Jackson said, as if he could understand everything the cat said.
"Familiar?" Phillips asked, looking between the cat and Jackson. He figured Jackson was some kind of witch, with the flames he had summoned earlier.
Hunter looked at Phillips and hissed at him. "Woah, boy. He won't hurt you." Jackson made the flames on his hands dissapear and picked up Hunter. Hunter hissed at Phillips and then licked Jackson's hand.
Phillips rolled his eyes when Hunter hissed at him. He pulled his cigarette out, flicking some of the ash off and blowing smoke away from Jackson and the cat.
"We should head back down," he noted.
Jackson nodded and made his way down without dropping the cat. Which was quite impossible since to climb down you need both hands and he was not using any hands. The cat tilted his head at Jackson and in response Jackson only smiled.
Phillips grabbed onto a loose rope, walking his legs around it and sliding down. He landed gracefully next to Jackson.
"Com'on, it's-" Phillips was cut off by a bell.
"Chow time!!" One of the other crew mates called. Everyone started filing towards The entrance to below deck.
"Just- follow my lead if you want to sell this."
“Right, gotta make this as believable as possible.” He looked at Hunter for a moment and let him down. “Hunter, go hide until I get back, understood?” The cat meowed in response and Jackson smiled. “Good, now sho.” The cat ran off to his hiding spot.
Phillips watched quietly.
"Fair warning; you're gonna have to sit at my feet. You should stick as close to me as you can get; it can be really crowded." With that, Phillips turned to start heading down. The was a large table, crew members and various human pets crowded around. Those designated as pets wore collars, and were only given the scraps off of their owner's plates.
He wrote that down mentally and looked around. He couldn’t believe how many humans the pirates had as pets. It truly did shock him, he would be lying if he said he didn’t open his mouth in shock a couple of times.