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Queen loved the smaller outings at some of the various islands they stopped at during their travels. The short time they had been with the Riptide pirates had already lent itself to plenty of chaos, so the supply runs that she often tagged along with Gryffon on were fun!
She was humming a soft tune as she looked around the various shops along the side of the road, rabbit ears twitching beneath his hat.
“I'll be surprised if we don't end up with either another crewmate or enemy by the time we meet back up with the captains.” Gryffon remarked gruffly as they pushed through the opening to a store that seemed to have enough various food supplies to last for a while.
“Is it really as- hmm- common as that? Lala~?” They questioned with a small tilt of their head.
“Well we have you now don't we? I'm pretty sure the captains don't know how to avoid picking up any stray in their path, though I suppose that goes for me too.”
Queen let out a small chuckle as he helped begin to fill up crates with various stuff they needed and the extra requests that practically everyone had a list of as well.
She could've sworn there was a prickle on the back of her neck that felt like someone was watching him, but when she turned around there was no one there.
She chalked it up to it likely being the shopkeeper. After all this was a small town, and most customers were likely residents or smaller crews who didn't need as much as they did.
He was la-ing a tune as he browsed and occasionally helped Gryffon carry loads of supplies back towards the docks.
After their second to last trip, Queen split off to look into a bakery they had noticed, Gryffon assuring them that he could handle the rest.
She paused with her hand on the handle of the bakery, ears twitching as the sound of something coming from the alleyway next to it. He slowly padded towards it, oboe clutched close to their chest. Despite what little memory he had, he liked to think that she wasn't stupid. She was tense and ready to bolt as they peered into the shadows further between the two buildings. They lifted their foot and stomped once in the way she tended to do when stressed.
As they opened their mouth to call out to whoever was back there, a hand clamped over it from behind, an arm squeezing her throat and kicking their legs from beneath them as they frantically scrabbled with their hands.
“Oh you're going to fucking pay for what you did to one of our own.”
Fear filled her entire being as her air rapidly ran out, only faint squeaks escaping as they desperately fought for even a single moment of opportunity to explain.
Slowly, his vision faded, with the last thing he heard being the clatter of their oboe onto the stone.
They came to rather quickly, all things considered, if the way their head and wrists already hurt as she snapped her head up with a gasp was any indication.
Her breaths were rapid and shallow, and as he frantically tried to push himself against the wall the flooring seemed too slick beneath them to get enough grip on their boots to stand up.
“Lala- Shit” they muttered as they glanced up, noticing the way her wrists were chained to the wall spread apart from each other behind her back. His hat was missing, and their ears twitched at the cool temperature of the room they were in.
This couldn't be good. A part of Queen had always wondered if there was a reason they couldn't remember their past, and as much as they wanted to hope that this incident was just a case of mistaken identity, she knew better than to rest all hopes on that slim possibility.
He began singing a small tune he had heard from Chip a few times while he waited for whoever had taken them to show up, trying to ease the fear that clawed at her throat and screamed to bolt as fast as they could.
She cringed away as the door slammed open, the person standing there immediately snapping at them as they invaded her space. “Shut the fuck up you snake, at least have the decency to act like you know what's coming for what you did.” Their dark eyes stared into what felt like Queen's soul, with everything else about them lending to what they could assume was usually an air of warmth, with tanned skin and light brown hair fading to pink near the tips of the bun it was in.
“I-I,” Queen swallowed thickly. “I swear to you and the goddesses above -hmm- that I have no recollection of whatever you might remem-” he was cut off by the impact of a boot to his chest, coughing as the person grabbed her face.
“I don't believe anything you say for even a second. Not even a monster would be able to forget our faces, her face,” they snarled, Queen unable to do anything but tremble as they stood back up, placing enough pressure against their chest before walking away that Queen was certain anymore and her ribs would've cracked.
“You’re lucky Taz isn't here yet. He'll get to give you what you deserve,” they spat before slamming the door.
Queen quietly whimpered as she pulled her legs as close to her body as she could, fighting the wave of tears that rose to his eyes. They couldn't begin to imagine what their captors might do to them, but what was even worse was that they weren't even sure they could say he didn't deserve it. Queen hated the likelihood they were truly a despicable person before she was cursed, but just because they no longer remembered their crimes, did that mean she suddenly shouldn't be punished for them?
She wondered if her captains would come looking for her. A part of him knew they were too generous for their own good and would likely search for him, but another part hoped that they had spoken to someone who knew whatever she had done and they had given up.
She resumed the soft melody of the song from before, cutting off every few lines before resuming in a new place. As jerky as it was, it was comforting, and without their oboe or room to weave his fingers into his hair there was little else to do other than succumb to the despair this place seemed to ooze.
She wasn't sure quite how much time passed until someone new entered the room, skin slightly paler than the other person with green eyes and wavy hair the color of honey. Queen was distracted from their features shortly by the point of his knife against her throat.
“You some sort of musician now? Singing half baked and repetitive songs in the hopes it'll distract everyone from the rot underneath? Sing anymore and I'll cut out your godsdamned vocal cords.” Queen swallowed thickly, nodding with the little room they had before the person, presumably Taz, pulled back and punched them in the face.
They turned their face to the side, blinking rapidly as blood slowly dripped from their nose. There wasn't more than a second to recover until she felt the knife bury itself in her shoulder, squirming as a muffled scream clawed its way from her throat.
“Now Reed told me you tried to act like you didn't remember your little stunt here. That's fine, because I'm here to make you suffer enough to where you'll never be able to forget what you did to our friend for as long as you rot in this miserable basement,” Taz hissed as Queen frantically panted, seeming to get a sense of enjoyment through their pain.
“I really don-”
“Likely story,” they were cut off as Taz slammed her head into the stone wall behind her, head lolling forward afterwards as black spots danced around their vision.
“It's true, la,” they slurred, letting out a squeak as he grabbed their ears to hold their head up.
“You disgust me.” He muttered before yanking out the knife still buried in their shoulder, Queen screaming and leaving her throat raw as blood slowly soaked their shirt, vision already blurring and darkening as he left the room.
Chip wondered if it was too late to say he wasn't panicking. He didn't think that letting the group split up for a few hours to visit the town and get some supplies would've lead to Gryffon finding them not long after with what Chip thought was the least composed he'd ever seen him and coughing out a “Queen’s missing.”
They had been frantically searching since then, with most of the people in town having no information to offer and the couple that had seemed like they would being strangely closed off.
And as the day slowly drew to a close, Chip was being forced to reckon with the fact that they might have to wait until the next day to resume the search.
Gillion had practically had to drag him back to the ship, with his lashing tail telling Chip that he would much rather still be looking for hints as well.
“What if it's someone they used to know and we can't even predict what they might do,” Chip paced around the captains quarters.
“Orrr, what if she found someone they knew who could help them and they just forgot to tell someone he was going to talk with them,” Jay spoke up from where she was sitting. Chip could tell it was mostly to make him feel better, but he appreciated the effort.
“There's nothing we can do until people are back out tomorrow, so at least try to be well rested for resuming the search,” Gillion added, clawed hand hooking around his wrist. “Just because you're a captain does not mean you can take the burden of everyone's constant safety on your shoulders when there's nothing to be done.”
“You're one to talk,” he grumbled but relented, the three of them curling together as they often did for comfort.
The next day Chip finally managed to find someone who seemed both knowing and actually forthcoming with knowledge to help them, and he was trying really hard to not snap at the black furred elderly tabaxi in the bakery.
“Long white hair, tophat, usually singing, you've seen them?” he huffed exasperatedly.
“Well I didn't recognize them, but I remember hearing they had some business with Taz and his friends. Truly awful what happened some months ago. They-”
“Where would they have taken her.”
Her whiskers twitched and she shook her head before responding. “You don't want to get involved in that son. They really haven't been the same since that other group came through here. But beneath the old library would be your best bet.”
Chip nodded and tightened his grip on his swords as he went to get the others.
Queen woke up much slower the next time, though she wasn't sure how long it mightve been. As far as they could tell they weren't bleeding anymore, but a half dried pool of blood next to them suggested it hadn't been for long. Their shoulders strained uncomfortably where they had been held for surely hours at this point, and he was pretty sure his face was swollen from before.
You're the reason you're in this mess she reminded herself, shuddering at the chill that seeped through the floor.
They began humming a quiet tune, however rough and grating it was on their throat, it was all she knew to do at this point.
Time passed in a daze. Their head was killing them and everything felt fuzzy. The only source of light was a grated window that was closed near the roof, so at least he knew it was daytime again? Or still?
He heard the quiet thumping of shoes approaching the door before anything else, hums dying in her throat as fear rushed back to them.
The door opened to Taz once again. Queen felt as if whatever they had done had likely impacted him the most, or maybe he was just the most vindictive.
What made them gasp was the fact that he was holding her oboe. She lurched forward in the chains, hating that even while they were in this condition chained up, they still noticed a moment of fear and hesitation cross Taz's face.
Only the goddesses can forgive me for who knows what I've done here.
“Maybe this will help you feel what it's like to watch someone else destroy someone you care about,” he said with a grin already replacing the brief second of vulnerability Queen saw.
They let out a wail as the wood splintered and shattered across the floor. This only made Taz angrier as he planted a kick squarely into their gut, cries slipping to coughs as she instinctively tried to curl inwards to protect herself but only succeeded in straining her shoulders where they were hung from the wall as something popped in an unsettling way.
He was in front of them again in another couple strides, staring down at Queen with a careful mask of indifference. “I hate that I still feel bad for this after everything.” He clenched his fists at his sides. “And I hate that you got to move on and do whatever you've been doing while I sat here and lived with the consequences.” He stepped closer, one hand gripping Queen's where it was shackled to the walls.
“I hope if you get out of here you can never play another godsdamned instrument again,” he hissed as the bones in her hand cracked in an instant. He stood up afterward, gaze flickering over them before rushing out of the room.
Queen waited as their vision finally came back to them as the white hot agony from their hand faded into a sharp pulsing ache. Tears slipped out as he muffled his cries as much as she could.
The sound of multiple sets of footsteps approaching came much sooner than they thought it would.
“No, no, no” they quietly muttered. They couldn't handle both of them here, not so soon.
She closed her eyes and braced for the worst as they continued to cry.
The “Queen?” they heard as the door opened sent a short spike of relief through them.
She glanced up, half convinced that it was a product of her head injury and the amount of pain she was in and that she was hallucinating.
The three captains stood there along with Gryffon.
“Where are the others?” He questioned breathlessly as Chip rushed over and began picking the locks holding their arms up.
“Back at the ship. Let's go,” Chip spoke quickly as he worked.
His arms dropped loosely to his sides when Chip was done, Queen biting back a whimper of pain as it tugged on the clearly out of place joint in their right arm. Gillion pressed his fingertips to their skin and Queen felt as the cool feeling washed over them.
They still felt dizzy and half out of it, and she was pretty sure her shoulder was still messed up, but at least their hand seemed to have healed correctly and the knife wound had fully sealed over where it had previously reopened in his struggle.
Chip met their gaze after looking around the pieces of their oboe that lay shattered across the room. He silently began gathering them and stuffing them into his bag before Queen interrupted. “You don't need to do that captain It's… it's gone.”
“Yeah? Well I'm doing it anyway, you deserve to have what's left of it at least,” he huffed and Queen had no energy left to argue.
She leaned heavily on Gryffon as they stumbled out of the room, Jay behind them and the other two leading the way as they climbed up a staircase.
They were met by Reed and Taz at the top of the stairs as it opened up into what appeared to be a storage room. They glared daggers at the group, but at least seemed to see how they were outnumbered.
“Do you even know what she did,” Taz said as he seemingly refused to look at Queen.
“No.” Chip responded in a way that seemed as if he couldn't care.
“That monster nearly killed my sister. Poisoned us beforehand too and all we could do was watch. Then I had to watch for weeks afterward as she wasted away from infection. If a cleric hadn't been traveling through the area she would be dead and it would've been their fault.” He practically spat the final sentence, pointing at Queen without their eyes ever leaving Chip's face.
“Why couldn't you have said that?” Queen asked, shaking where they were practically being held up by Gryffon. She wondered if they would leave her here now that they knew that. He didn't even want the tender generosity that she knew they'd give if they left with her. They didn't deserve it.
Chip butted in before Taz could say more that he clearly wanted to.
“She's not that person anymore, and can't remember anything anyways, and whether you like it or not, they're one of ours now. So you can either move or we'll leave with you knocked out,” he snapped with little room for argument in his voice.
“You really believe that don't you?” Taz questioned, stepping to the side as Reed tugged on the back of his sleeve and tilting his head up as they moved to pass.
As Queen got close enough he lunged, fist balled tight as he aimed to punch before Gryffon blocked it with his gun arm and roughly shoved him to the ground.
Queen shifted where she was standing and followed after, kneeling next to Taz as she grabbed the front of his shirt with their good arm.
“You know more about me than even I do. What's my name, who was I, anything please,” She begged, but Taz only stared at him with a mixture of fear and hate in his gaze, even as Chip pried her away and Gillion knocked him out with the hilt of his blade as Reed clutched him close and glared at them the entire way out.
Queen sobbed the rest of the way back to the ship, Chip's arm around their side his only consolation until she could collapse into her bed in the shared crew quarters which was miraculously empty.
The whole crew noticed how much quieter the ship seemed while Queen was gone, but now that they were back it was even more eerie.
From the condition they were in when they found her, no one expected them to be unchanged after, but they had all grown used to the faint humming and singing they'd hear on deck or a few rooms over so quickly that the sudden silence felt oppressive.
Queen moved with light and fast footsteps now, anywhere they stood looking as if they were a wrong breath away from bolting. Her hat couldn't be found, but this didn't seem to bother him much as her ears were always twitching, straining for the sound of seemingly anything. They always had their back to a wall or the railing too, and the crew had learned quickly to avoid approaching from behind on accident to avoid a panic attack.
After around a week since they were back Chip found them one day standing on the railing of the ship and gazing out into the sea. He took care to make his steps extra loud and let his chains clank against his swords as he stood next to them.
“What'cha thinking about,” he asked softly, continuing to watch the waves as she turned to look at him, seemingly searching his face for something before speaking.
“Chip, why were you so determined to save me,” she asked, voice quieter and a much less boisterous tone than he was used to.
“I-”
“I haven't been a part of this crew long enough to see practically any of your major battles. I have enemies that I don't know when, where, or why they could come for me and hurt you in the process. I have no useful knowledge because I remember nothing but something that's likely not even my name, and all my songs are never finished and repetitive. What use am I to you, Captain?”
Chip had turned to face him fully by the time she was finished speaking. He hated how much of himself he saw in Queen, from the attempt to convince him that she was worthless to the way that they held themselves. It stung a part of him that would forever be 14 and stuck on Skullslice, especially when he remembered how excited she was when Gillion first found her.
“Wanting you on our crew has nothing to do with whatever perceived use you may have. You're far kinder than anyone who may have used to know you will give you credit for, and whatever that asshole said, I for one love your songs. It's started to feel lonely on the ship without them,” he slowly reached for her arm as he spoke, leaving plenty of time for them to pull away if he wanted until he gently grasped his forearm.
“I can't,” Queen whispered, glancing down to the side.
“It's ok, you don't have to,” Chip muttered back, because he would rather take a silent Queen over a suffering one.
Chip noticed the way Queen still seemed to reach for their oboe at times. Gryffon had noticed too and managed to gift her a small carving of one. The crew had had a collective heart attack as he began sobbing, but relaxed slightly as he clutched it close and fell into Gryffon’s fluffy chest.
After that Chip threw open the door to their shared sleeping quarters and pulled Gillion out of his tub as he floundered, still half asleep.
“I need you to fix Queen's oboe,” he said, pulling open the bag that held all the various sized chunks and splinters he had managed to salvage from when they were rescued.
“Wha- Chip I don't even know-”
“You have the mending spell. Please Gill,” he begged , watching as Gillion shook off the rest of the water and fully woke up before nodding and getting to work.
“I have something for you!” He surprised them with the next day, running up to her excitedly where she sat against the crows nest, scribbling down then marking out lyrics being the one thing related to his music that they had kept.
The oboe was wrapped in a long swathe of cloth to cover its gigantic size as Chip cradled it in his arms.
Queen glanced up, eyes instantly locking onto the shape of it in his hands.
“Captain I. I don't want something new,” he said, a guilty look crossing their face as they felt perhaps they were being ungrateful.
“Just, please try it. I promise there's no pressure,” Chip reassured as he set the weight into her hands, unwrapping the top part.
Queen's hands shook as they felt the instrument, edges a little more jagged, a few pieces replaced with streaks of gold and silver, but unmistakably hers. She pulled it the rest of the way out, resting his hands in the right spot as he blew a quiet note and flinched at the volume. It still felt wrong, as familiar as the weight felt, and she swallowed thickly before looking back at Chip.
“I appreciate the effort Captain,” they offered with a half formed la dying in their throat at the end.
The crew had begun to gradually adjust to the changes on the ship. They had given Queen space when it came to their music as at a certain point they had noticed how it just made him feel worse.
Occasionally someone else would begin singing quietly while they were on deck to fill the silence, and Queen would look up with a sad sort of smile before going back to what seemed to be her main hobby now, sewing, if they weren't lost in thought at least.
The amount of times Chip awakened to hearing the door to the crew's quarters frantically open then shut as steps retreated upstairs gradually lessened too, as did some of Chip's nervous impulses to check on them stiflingly often to make sure she wasn't gone again.
One day Chip was sitting on a barrel in one of the corners of the deck, polishing his swords as he heard the faint clashing of Gillion’s swords while training in the background.
He began singing one of the few old sea shanties he remembered from his time with the Black Rose under his breath.
He had to stop himself from slipping off the barrel as he heard a quiet voice, interspersed occasionally with hums or a lapse of silence before joining in again, begin singing as well from a few feet over where Queen was sitting on the railing and playing with their hair.
Chip blinked away the burning feeling behind his eyes and fought to keep singing as usual. Chip wasn't used to feeling hope, but for Queen he would hope until they could find her own confidence to sing again.