Daphne TartNSweet
| Name: | Daphne TartNSweet |
| Location: | The Koumori |
| Rank: | Quartermaster |
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Biography
I am Daphne TartNSweet. I was born in County Cork, Ireland, the daughter of modest but loving parents. Me da was fond o’ music and drink, and not necessarily in that order. Me mam met him in the county hall where they was having a rousing session, and fell in love with his playing as much as his face. They were young and foolish, and married soon. Some would say t’was suspect the speed with which I appeared and made whispers behind their hands.
Their marriage was like a piecrust; easily made, and easily broken. After concocting stories of me da’s untimely demise, me mam found herself in want of work and struck out to the fields, leaving me in the care of a strange old woman, who looked different and spoke with the tongue of a foreigner. Me nan, (who I later learned was from Spain) told me exciting tales of oversea journeys and lands far away, instilling in me a great desire to see more of the world than my green isle and stony fielded future. I spent the first 5 years of my life happy at the hearth.
By a stroke of fate, me mam was promoted to be the housemistress of our towns only well off family, and there met the Steward, who she captured easily with her fair face, able mind and sharp wit. Over the next few years, they courted and married. My life would ne’er be the same. From famine to feast overnight. We moved into a large respectable home on the outskirts of town and settled into our new life.
As the years passed, it became apparent that me and me mam’s new husband were bound to interact as oil and water, with the mix getting slicker the taller I got. By the summer of me fourteenth year, relations between me and were taut to the breaking point. One day after we had traded blows verbal and physical, I overheard the folks speaking of sending me off to convent, so I ran away.
I was blessed with me real da’s voice and penchant for music, so I busked my way to Dublin. Over the next 10 years, I discovered that his love for music wasn’t the only thing I inherited, and danced with the Mistress O’ Whiskey until I found myself on the doorstep of the bowery brothel. That time was hard and the lessons were bitter, but a necessary foray. I was one of the ‘parlour girls’ who brought men in with a flash of me smile, a flash of me knickers, and a promise. I knew it was only a matter of time before I was ‘promoted’ to a chamber girl, where that promise was fulfilled if the caller had the bankers blessing.
I began singing in the parlour to entertain the clientele and was noticed by the Osteler, a man that upon first meeting I found to be unbearably cocksure, but with time, I softened my gaze. He vowed to lift me from the quagmire and turn my life around. Being naïve, I agreed to marry, but soon found that his idea of a better life was a far cry from my own. In a heated argument late one night, he advanced on me with fists raised in fury, and I slew him. I buried him in the garden under the moonlight and covered his absence with the tale of a pregnant mistress in Munster. It wasn’t till after his terrible ‘accident’ that I’d found he’d left me with child.
I headed for the docks, where I stowed aboard a merchant ship until I was discovered by her crew, and hid my femaleness under rough breechcloth and short hair until me burgeoning belly made trickery impossible. I learned to crew, fight, and sail, courting the harsh mistress o’ the sea and seeing faraway lands and peoples until the call of The Celt thundered above the beckon of her salty voice. So I returned to Dublin once again with Ayslynn, my Dreamer.
Shortly thereafter, I met a man named Bardkin in a pub where I was working. We drank the evening away and traded songs and stories. Now I’ve been told I have a large voice for such a small mouth, and ne’er thought I’d meet one who was louder than me, but Bardkin could give me a run for my ploughman’s notes. You’d a thought we were reuniting and not just meeting fer the first time, but sometimes folk are like that. You just know you’ve known them before, and you welcome them with open arms.
We decided to throw our lot in together and formed a band, taking the name of his old act, The River Wynde. We performed throughout the countryside for two years, earning a modest income, drinking some fine mead and making good music. After a while we realized that as a band, we were missing something, and put the call to the universe to aid us in filling this need. We chanced to hear of a couple who had retired from the gypsy road. Strings and Sasha. As luck would have it, they were in search of a band to join, and so we decided to meet. We played reels, ballads and whirling jigs. It was magical, that first time we four made music.
During this time, I met one of Bardkin’s dear friends, a striking woman by the name of Traveler Hawk. Behind the fence of a traveling fair, Miss Hawk and I would steal behind the scenes and sing together, culminating in me inviting her to perform onstage with us. She was powerful shy at first, but you just knew there was something brilliant inside her waiting to be set free. I hear tales of Miss Hawk starting a band of her own and pleasing the masses with enchanting melodies, and it makes my heart smile.
After a few years more playing the local taverns and faires, I got to be fast friends with a rowdy group of pubcrawlers and discovered that they were pirates who had vowed to drink all the gold they had hoarded, and so took up residence at The Pirates Pub! Captain Moon of The Rising, loved the music we made so much, he invited me onboard as his bard. At that time I’d found I was once again blessed with child, and being that me own family had turned their backs on me, I readily accepted, and I met her crew. Among them were Sachiko, her First Mate, Merlot, her scribe and Boutz. I discovered that there were ships of this fleet that were on the ocean, that my dear ‘mate Bardkin was a crewmember of one vessel called The Raging St. Mae and that my other dear friend Traveler was her Captain! It seems I was destined to be involved with this group. The Captain and crew, my new brothers and sisters, supported me through a long and trying pregnancy that year. And that fall we all welcomed Ava. Captain Moon christened her Blue Moon, saying babies that sweet only come along once in a blue moon.
Sometime in the following spring, I chanced to meet a Jackass who won me for first prize at the faire that summer. Though it took us awhile to realize it.
After a while, I heard tales in the pub of a ship that had been in a terrific battle, and in the course of her sinking, the souls of her crew brought the Japanese ship that had defeated it back to port, whereupon Captain Moon gifted her to his First Mate, and made Sachiko a Captain. It was a proud and wonderful day when Captain Moon introduced Captain Zetsumei and her fine vessel, The Koumori. Three cheers for the Purple and Black.
Captain Zetsumei, accounting for how deftly I handled drunken patrons at the pub, knowing of my years sailing, my thirst for adventure, and the secret I had confided to her about the (mis)fortunes of my deceased husband, made me her Quartermaster. Now I’m the one who cracks the whip.
