April 21st, 1891 — Voyager, Portsmouth

"I'm not complaining," Alfred assured Pablo as he ducked below a beam that was currently leaning against the upper deck, forming a triangle-shaped hole right in the center of one of their main walkways. He glanced back only briefly to ensure that Pablo was following him, then continued towards the seaward side of the Voyager's main deck. The ongoing repairs had made the ship a bit of a hazard to navigate through, but Alfred was used to it already. Besides, on a few occasions in his career he'd done refits at sea, and this was nothing compared to having all the same obstacles laid out but adding the swelling of the waves and the strong winds to the mix.

Reaching the starboard side of the vessel — which still had a bit of rope and a magical barrier in place of her sturdy wood railing, having lost the latter to the sea monster — Alfred turned towards an ice box which had been tucked away in a corner of the deck. Lunch, courtesy of the Ministry, for all of the men working on the repairs. Alfred doubted anyone was going to do an inventory and notice if one sandwich went to another purpose, so he handed one over to Pablo before taking one himself. "I'm just confused. I don't even know how you heard about it."

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Pablo Medina Roberto Devine (FYI I'm down to rapid this <3)

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Pablo was saddened to see the state the Voyager was in. For the sake of his dearest friend and the fact he was fond of the ship itself. But even so, it did nothing to pale his awe over the fact that it had faced some sort of sea monster. He wanted to know all about it. He was almost sad he had not been there. Darn it all, he should have stayed on the ship!

Pablo took the sandwich in hand. "I have my sources but Alfred. How could you not tell me? It was able to do all this, was it large? I assume it had tentacles? Did you see a face?"

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"Well, I've been a bit busy, haven't I?" Alfred returned with a sarcastic shake of his head. What he'd been busy with was fairly obvious, given the state of the ship, but there had also been the whole to-do with Zelda breaking into his cabin in the middle of the night, which had been weighing on his mind more than he would've liked. "And I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. Minister's orders. But, to your questions," he continued — if Pablo was already here and already knew the monster existed, he saw little harm in providing such innocuous details. Anyone who had been onboard could have answered questions like these, and if he refused Pablo would probably just take his inquiries to someone else. He was like that: he liked to talk to people more than Alfred did, and could be tenacious when he wanted to. "Yes, it was large; yes, it had tentacles; no, I didn't see a face."

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

"Fair enough," Pablo conceded with a chuckle. His mind was just so overwhelmed with the fact that if he had just stuck around on the ship, he might have seen something that would have satisfied his lifes purpose. Not that he was happy that his friends beloved ship had been wrecked or that lives were in danger, of course. "Imagine. If something like that is out there, just what else have we not yet discovered? A shame about the Voyager though. Need any help getting it fixed up?" He wasn't the wealthiest man in the world but he could spare a bit of funds towards a good friend and a ship that he was also fond of.

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J. Alfred Darrow

  

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Alfred was finding it a little hard to be empathetic about this particular desire of Pablo's, but he was still willing to be charitable due to the strength of their friendship. And Alfred did know a little about the allure of discovering the unknown, after all, though his unknown had nothing to do with creatures that wanted to kill you.

"I think the Ministry's got it covered," he said with a shrug. "Since I was out on their errand, you know." Not that Alfred wouldn't have been willing to help regardless, but — well, this was his livelihood, and someone had to pay him to do it. In this case, that someone happened to be Minister Ross, which meant the Minister was covering the repairs.

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

"That's good. It is the least they can do," Pablo said as he perched against the side of the ship. "Still. It is a mark of the original craftmanship that it managed to hold up at least this much against such an attack." The fact they had been able to have some form of ship to still stand on was a sign of the ships strength.

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"Mmhm," Alfred mumbled, suppressing a smile of pride at the comment. This was a ship that he had a good deal of history with, stretching back from before the Sycorax expedition. She hadn't always been called the Voyager, but the changing of the name didn't change the ship beneath it. "She's a good one," he agreed. "Sorry I can't tell you more about sea monsters."

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

"You will just have to make it up to me with some bourbon," Pablo said with a faux dramatic sigh. "Come, my friend, let's partake in a drink. Was the galley left intact or did the creature ruin that too?" He hoped not. He was rather fond of the space as he had snuck a kiss or two with a handsome sailor inside of it once or twice.

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