Tarot Reading, First Card: Reversed Strength (Closed)

If she was being honest with herself, she still couldn't believe it. It had been close to a year since her captain had passed away, leaving her with the ship..and no crew. That wasn't what had her in such disbelief, to be totally honest. She knew that the Tarot Knight Circle was already immensely small in size, with the two of them having been the only real members. The rest were just government mandated crew to keep the ship sailing. And of course, that meant she had to keep up the facade of calm and collected strength, especially now that she was no longer just the first mate. She was the captain. She had to hold herself to the standard that she had held her own commanding officers to.

Of course, that wasn't any real explanation for why she was docked in Notice, of all places. She had been sailing around generally keeping an eye on the seas for what was coming close a year and a half now, with those last few months having been her on her own, essentially. So why call her back to a seemingly random port town now? Well, from what she had been told, she had a new arrival to meet. One that would be able to fill a spot that her crew was sorely lacking. Of course, as per usual, she had been forced to go to the nearest Marine Base to get any real information. And thus, she had come to Notice in the wee hours of the morning.

A simple chat with the person running Notice, and she had been given a personnel file for one Anton La'Croix. He had certainly been an active one, as he had an actual epithet. 'Screaming Grasshopper'. Well. That had certainly set the tone for the reading of his file. And by the end of it, she had her head in her hands, staring blankly at the surface of her desk. The man was a neurotic wreck of a person who had apparently been fed a devil fruit by sheer accident by some idiot fellow trainees.

God, they couldn't have given her a more incompatible person for how she ran things. At the very least, she recognized the last name. La'Croix. They were fairly well known for their Inn, and for one Basil La'Croix. She hadn't exactly heard all of the stories about him, as she was in training for the entire time he had been in active service. Well. If Anton was a neurotic mess, that made him rather unfit for combat. But..what about his apparent understanding of economics?

Perhaps he could be the one she could put in charge of general requisitions for the crew. Yes..yes, that made sense. As she thought about it more, she slowly lifted her head and smoothed herself out. At any rate, a personnel file could only tell you so much. That was why she had asked for him to be directed to her ship, that way they could have a one on one discussion, perhaps for the sake of confirming or completely dismissing the claims leveled against him in his file. Perhaps this could indeed be the start of a rather decent 'adventure', as it were.

Anton's body was still aching from his defeat at the hands of Samantha Maines earlier, but at least his injuries had healed up so he could move around normally. He wished he could say the same for his coat. The collective damages to it had completely ruined it. He was currently wearing a marine overcoat in the meantime. Anton did not look good in white. At least, that was his humble opinion.

But right now, that could wait. For now, he was being escorted towards his newest assignment. He was actually being assigned to a crew. The New Tarot Knight Circle. Anton hadn't really heard of them, but then again, he never really paid much attention to matters regarding the marines. It was bad enough that he was stuck in the marines, if he was honest with himself. Celia was walking behind him as the pair of them were escorted to the ship, the Arcanum Arcanorum. Anton couldn't help but pause at the sight of the ship, the numerous symbols designed on it. But hey, who was he to judge?

Once aboard, one of the crewmen approached Anton. "Right this way. The captain wants to see you." He glanced back at Celia, who gave him a small nod, telling him to go. Anton followed as the crewman led him to the captain's room.

Almost immediately, he took notice of the weapons and implements of torture on the walls. It IMMEDIATELY told Anton what kind of person his captain was. Her appearance didn't help much either. White hair, red eyes. She basically screamed someone who would hurt you if you messed up. Trust Anton's luck he would be assigned to someone like that. It took everything he could not to whimper at his misfortune.

Anton took a deep breath. "A-Anton La'croix, reporting for duty, Ma'am."

Nearly as soon as she had finished making herself as presentable as possible, Blair watched the door to her quarters open. And at that moment, she realized something. They had never removed the previous Captain's weaponry from the wall, and she had placed the torture implements that had been hidden on a shelf near the majority of them. So as Anton introduced himself in a very nervous manner, Blair gave out a deep, beleaguered sigh while gesturing for him to take a seat in front of her desk.

"I was hoping that the clean up crew would arrive before you to take the previous Captain's property off of my hands, but I suppose that attempt at a decent first impression has been shot dead."

Of course, as Blair spoke, the inevitable assumption that she was some cold and harsh woman would have quickly been broken due to how soft spoken she was. There wasn't any of the typically expected seriousness to her tone either. If anything, she sounded genuinely upset that his first impression was ruined by poor timing.

Still, as he took a seat, she leaned back in her chair, running a gloved hand over her chin rather slowly.

"Well, at any rate, some introductions on my end are in order. My name is Blair Cairistine." She said as she extended her hand across the desk for him to shake. As would be expected, she had a firm grip. Most all Marines did, really. Once their handshake was over, she pulled her hand back and allowed it to rest the personnel file that was sitting in the center of her desk, tapping it a couple of times with her finger.

"Of course, you didn't need to introduce yourself. I took the liberty of reading up on your file. I didn't ask to be given a new crew member, but if I'm to be taking someone to sea with me, I prefer to at least know what kind of reputation they have."

Uh oh. That clearly wouldn't have sounded good for Anton. And yet..Blair was giving him a rather small smile. "That being said, I know you probably are rather nervous about what you'll be doing now that you have been 'drafted' into this crew." She said, making air quotes around the word drafted.

"Of course, with the kind of powers you possess, most crews would likely want to hold you as some kind of trump card. And yet, your file describes you as being rather..neurotic." She said as she flipped through a couple of pages of the file with one finger.

"Luckily for you though, I don't exactly think that any crew needs to rely on a person with devil fruit powers to function as an actual fighting force. And that wasn't what caught my attention in your file. No. If what I've read is correct, you were originally in training to take over your family's inn, correct?" She asked, looking up from the file after reading that particular bit of information aloud. Truthfully, she could have made this meeting rather simple.

But she wanted to get a better, more personal read on him. Acting like the stereotypical ship captain wouldn't allow for that. So instead, she was going to treat him as if he was an equal, instead of the waste of space that some other crews might have seen him as. Now the ball was in his court. How would he present himself, now that the stereotypical image of a stern leader had been broken?

Anton would be lying if he had been expecting this. From first appearances, she expected her to be harsh, cold, no nonsense. But that expectation was immediately broken when she lamented the implements of pain ruining her first impression. So...they had belonged to the previous captain? Anton looked a little bit more relieved with that fact.

When she mentioned his record, a small shiver ran up Anton's spine, before he seemed to slump lightly in his seat. But of course. She would see how bad his record was. He knew he simply wasn't cut out to be a marine, but they didn't seem to give him a choice in the matter. Her confirming his neurosis didn't help matters. "My commander during training insisted that I complete my training..." His eye twitched at the memory of it all, "No matter what..." Ok, time to get his mind off of the past. He was now being brought into a new crew, and hopefully things would be better.

Then she mentioned something that, admittedly, caught Anton by surprise. She didn't ask him about his record, or his abilities. Instead, she asked about his family inn. Anton blinked, all sense of nervousness and depression replaced by curiosity. "Well, yes. Before I was brought into the marines, I was learning how to take over the place." Of course, then Basil died and he was now stuck here, fighting for his life, "Why do you ask?" Really, nobody had cared about Anton's past up until this point. They were more concerned about his fighting ability and his devil fruit. This was, well, a pleasant change of pace.

It was good to know that the information in his file was accurate. That meant she could very much use him in such a manner that wouldn't break the poor man. After all, if anyone understood what it was like being forced into a role, it was Blair. She was still paying off the costs of her father's gambling. She only ever saw a third of her paychecks. Enough to sustain her crew. That was it. So yes, she understood how he felt.

Of course, with that confirmation, she removed her hand from his file, placing her elbows against the arms of her chair as she laced her gloved fingers together, creating a bridge of sorts.

"Well, the reason I ask is quite simple. As captain, I cannot handle everything needed to sustain a crew. I simply don't have enough time in the day. So, some level of delegation is needed. And every crew will run into a need for requisitions and personal requests from crew members at one point or another. The fact that you have at least some level of training in running a business makes you an ideal candidate for taking over that role."

Ok. That sounded simple enough. But what was the catch? "Of course, I still expect you to be able to defend yourself and others, just as I would. We might not enjoy the roles we have been thrust into, but that doesn't change the fact that we have an ethical duty. Of course, the majority of your time would be spent working with our books and keeping track of everything we need and what we can afford to purchase, as well as keeping track of requests and requisitions made by all crew members."

"For example, say I took from our armory additional arms outside of my personal effects. You would be tasked with making sure that they are returned in optimal condition, as well as making sure that we don't run too low on anything. This does mean you'll need to interact with everyone, of course. But I think this is a job you can handle quite easily, don't you?"

She asked before dropping her hands and leaning back into her chair. Admittedly, this was a rather clever work around for Anton's more.. undesirable personality traits and quirks. But it was still something she needed, and the fact that someone with an understanding of business had been dropped into her lap seemed all too perfect of a situation for her to ignore the need for a 'merchant' of sorts aboard the ship. All that she needed was his acceptance of the role, really. Sure, she could force his hand. But that would lead to an unhealthy captain/crew dynamic. And that was the last thing she wanted.

Anton was quiet as she explained his desired role on the ship. In charge of the money, along with keeping track of the inventory, weapons, etc. Sure, he would still be required to fight now and again, but more in self defense. That was something Anton had sort of gotten used to at this point. Though he couldn't help but get the suspicion that she would also use him as a sort of trump card now and again. Still, if it meant being in this position for most of the time, well, he could deal with that.

"Well, really, that doesn't sound too hard at all," Anton gave a small shrug, "Really, I was learning to handle the accounts for the inn before I was in the marines. This really is no different." He was finding himself starting to relax, especially since he was going back into territory he had thought was long gone to him. He couldn't help but give a small smile in response to her own. For the first time in his entire marine career, he felt like this wouldn't be as bad as he had feared it would be.

"If I'm to do this, I'm going to need a list of all our current assets. Weapons, food, equipment, money, everything. I'm also going to need an update on the condition of the ship, if anything needs to be repaired or replaced." Indeed, being the ship's Quartermaster required him to know everything about what they had to work with. He was actually starting to feel good about this position.