<span style="font-family:Spectral">Joanna felt a spark of hope replace the slight panic she'd felt confronting the captain. It was courageous, she knew, and for once in her life, she felt damn proud of her accomplishment. In this day and age, not every woman would've had the balls to speak up and stand her ground. Ellen giggled and squeezed Joanna around the waist, hiding her face in her sister's shirt. Elation vibrated through her stomach and a few tears touched her skin. Joanna hugged her sister tightly. "Come on, let's get away from these sweaty old men," she spoke in a low voice. Ellen half-mumbled, half-giggled into her sister's shirt and the girls headed towards the bottom deck.<br/>
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The bottom deck was notoriously difficult to find. After some time of exploring a bit, trying to find the room that the captain had directed them to, Joanna felt lost within the Galleon. There were too many rooms, too many places to which one could preoccupy themselves with. "It smells like fish and we don't know which room is which," Joanna muttered and rubbed her hand over her dirty face. "We're not asking for any help from those buffoons, Ellen. They obviously already got their own way of doing so and that ain't telling us where the cabin is. We've got this. We just gotta search a little more, okay?" <br/>
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"But we've gone around in circles a thousand times," Ellen whined.<br/>
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"Not a thousand, just two. Let's look down this hall again."<br/>
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Ellen huffed and turned the corner, running straight into a stranger. She stumbled back abruptly and rubbed her nose. Joanna stepped in front of her sister and grabbed her wrist. The form of an average man with a round body, oily skin, and black stubble appeared. "By the gods, what has the captain brought on board?" He had a strange, unyielding spark in his eye that Joanna was conflicted about whether or not his somewhat endearing presence was acutally safe or not. Joanna felt her cheeks burn, unsure what to say to the fat man with the apron on. "I'm working here now. Nothing much else to say."<br/>
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"Louie, you fool, let the girls be. Go back to cleaning the dishes and cooking," A familiar voice spoke.<br/>
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"Of course, Tim." The older gentleman grinned, revealing a gold tooth at the upper right side of his mouth. Joanna took an immediate step back with Ellen and the cook laughed before returning to his work. "What a strange man," Ellen spoke, curiosity peaking in her tone. "He wants your body, is what he wants," Joanna mumbled.<br/>
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"Ah, no, he can't do that any longer even if he tried," Tim stated.<br/>
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Joanna glanced over at the man Louie, as the fat man was called, had addressed as Tim. Tim looked young to be on a board of old men; he had some kind of sense about him that the other men didn't have, but Joanna wasn't about to let herself or Ellen have a chat with him or otherwise. Joanna recalled him yelling at the men earlier, to let the captain speak. She wondered immediately what his position was on board; It must've been some kind of authority type position, though that was hard to believe. She stood up straight, cocked a brow in suspicion, and crossed her arms over her chest. "And just who might you be?" <br/>
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"Ah, forgive me and my lack of introduction. Timothy Gilbert, most just call me Tim. I'm the captain's first mate. A pleasure."<br/>
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He did a theatrical kind of bow, like the one Joanna had seen in theatres with Ellen, and Joanna scrunched up her nose in disdain at the unusual customs aboard the ship. This wasn't a performance, nor did the ship seem to be a place where you could have fun and games. Joanna pursed her lips and nodded, "Uh okay. Thank you. I mean, we were just passing through, sorry to be a bother." <br/>
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Tim laughed, "Not a bother. I noticed you both looked lost and I wanted to extend my services in helping you both find the cabin Harrington has assigned you both." <br/>
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"What? No, we haven't," Joanna immediately denied. "We were only exploring. We know where the room is, thank you." <br/>
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Ellen nudged Joanna, "We don't act-" Joanna returned the favor and gave the first mate an uneasy smile. <br/>
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"We know what we're doin' really."<br/>
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"I find that hard to believe seeing as you'd been around the same places three times. It's okay to not know where everything is, or what you're doing," he laughed. "I didn't know what I was doing my first time here either. I don't bite, just here to help you. Besides, like the captain said, there's cannon balls in that room. A lot of them. You aren't gonna be done with moving them all out by dinner time if it's just the two of ya." Joanna disliked that Tim was right. It frustrated her that the men thought she wasn't capable of doing anything, so asking for any sort of help on her first time here was asking for judgement. <br/>
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Tim, however, did not seem like he was looking to judge her or Ellen. <br/>
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"Well, okay. Fine," Joanna stated in a reluctant tone. "You can help and show us the room. We, uh, we don't really know where it is."<br/>
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"I'd be more than happy to," Tim stated in a warm tone. "Right this way."</span>