Boat Trolls planning thread! (full of spoilers, non-players enter at your own risk)

hmmm i generally think of them as sobriquets or even handles, assumed or given by others, about some sort of feature or function, and over the sweeps replacing the hatchname. like, how i prefer to go by roach now and when people call me rachel it feels very informal, like they're talking to a kid.

i suspect marquis spinneret mindfang was just a fucking pompous-ass overacheiver, hence the three fuckin titles.

 

the eight letter tradition is SUPER OBNOXIOUS i agree.

erskin's growing a new eyeball in under the eyepatch. it is extremely gross. also, confusing to look out of.

 

help they are so so cute

any ideas on what should happen now/next?

 

HMMMMMM hmm hm.

-erskin would be tired and in a lot of pain the next day so he definitely wouldn't be upbeat, if bel even saw him at all once lainey hauled him off. i think this version is a lot more... responsible? more tightly self-controlled. so he'd do his best not to be a dick to bel, i don't think, or if he did snap he'd apologize right after. so, prickly, i guess. he'd probably mostly seem withdrawn: quiet, unhappy with being stuck in his chair, very strained and perfunctory joking around. he'd be tired and sore but feel bad about being inactive. he'd be up and about in at most three days.

erskin's crew is used to erskin, who acts only as reserved and superior as maybe a store manager, making a lot of decisions but also doing a lot of the same work. he's only called sir by trolls who think they're in trouble.

higher-blooded trolls aren't allowed reserve or formal deference and erskin rides them hard until the higher-bloods learn not to expect it. after all, if the captain's going to weed and mop and fetch coffee and eat at the same tables as everyone else, it's not as though his leutenants can demand extra consideration. though i think there's only a few turquoises around.

the crew would respond with startled irritation towards bel if he tried to shape them up or insist on the formalities owed his rank. this would be being saluted, called sir consistently, anyone rising from their seat when he entered the room, anyone stopping what they were doing when he wanted to talk to them, anyone automatically serving him the nicest portion, anyone relinquishing something to him if they got to it first. if he was around, erskin would chide bel for wasting time or being rude or hassling an ensign, with the focus on how bel is expecting something he's not entitled to. obviously bel's not an asshole and has some nice ideals about respecting everyone regardless of blood status etc etc but after a smartly-run marine squad(ron?) i would expect bel to be really taken aback at the reality of actually living somewhere no one really cares you're a nobleman.

at the same time, erskin would chide anyone who specifically went out of their way to be a dick to bel— it's not his fault he's brass, knock it off— and would get very impatient with insubordination and passive aggressive disobedience. there's always so much to be done and he's the guy who has to pick up the slack. he'll remind his crew of that. he has this notion, that the crew's certainly never corrected, that since the captain is the guy who runs the ship, the captain is the guy who's job description amounts to 'do all the things'. he's got to keep the ship running, he's the captain, he's the guy who's supposed to do that.

bel would probably find out that erskin has no real understanding of a work shift and considers himself to be permanently on duty— he's the captain, a ship doesn't stop having a captain just because the captain's asleep—and does anything anywhere that needs an extra hand, is pretty stressed out under the cheerfulness, and passes out if he sits down for more than a minute.

hardcase would absolutely try to get in cahoots with bel. it would be great if, after a bewildering few days of adjusting to the crew's disrespect and erskin's schedule of 'live on snacks and naps', bel's invited over for a civilized dinner at hardcase's and is really buttered up.

 

that might actually be something that bel and erskin could lock horns over! erskin's mostly only seen rank structures from the outside, as executed by assholes. so he would see nearly any insistence on formality— except for arguing, i think, he doesn't have the patience to tolerate too much arguing— as a dickish rank-pulling move, so his crew functions more like, hm, a clan? a cluster? a gang? and because his crew is composed of rejects they're happy to ditch military discipline.

so bel would want things to function properly, erskin would think things were already functioning properly, and i bet the crew would start to have divided opinions. some trolls would get more defiantly casual, others would smarten up and enjoy the clear command structure.

also, as previously noted, erskin has no clear concept of what 'off duty' even means. so he'd think bel was being, hm, inconsistent? arbitrary? and just fussing at people when the mood struck him.

 

yeah, definitely!

erskin and lainey are both very cagey about saying anything about arguus. he prefers a minimum amount of people to know he exists.

 

btw what do you think of them forming a black diamond? maybe more emphasis on the diamond than the black, this time around, and the ability to not immediately find one another's soft spots and chomp down.

 

So idk how i quite feel about this idea but, what if, if bel does carve his way out, erskin gives him the same punishment he gives ensigns that kill another crewmember? You have to sit there and tell him what you did and why you did it and their name and how they died and who they're survived by and how you could have avoided killing them. Then erskin tells you he's very disappointed in you, and you're dismissed. No punishment but having to internalize it as a brutal murder rather than some necessary or laudable action.