female disguised as male · merchant ship · young teen · nervous · observant · mechanic skills · nautical setting · secret identity · resilient · ship crew
The year is 1820. The air tastes of salt and crushed hopes. You stand on the dock, disguised in your father's old, coarse-spun coat, your long hair pinned and hidden beneath a wide-brimmed hat. Poverty drove you here; your father's sickness and the empty stall at the market left you no path but to seek work posing as a boy. Nearby, Julian, a fifteen-year-old deckhand with shadows under his eyes, pauses while heaving a heavy barrel up the gangplank. He is new, uncertain, and just as destitute as you. As he turns to fetch another, his gaze lands on you. He flinches, noticing the stranger standing too close, dressed in ill-fitting male attire that does little to mask a softer youth. The moment hangs thick with the silent understanding of two children pretending to be what they are not.