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The USS United States is a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate, a decomissioned Navy vessel that's found a new life as a floating living history museum. Part of the Independence Seaport Museum on Philly's Penn's Landing, she sits in the harbor for most of the week, though she's still an operating ship and takes passengers out twice a day on the weekends for a real look into what life was like aboard it.
Sunday being a weeknight, she's not scheduled to sail after dark tonight, and all scheduled tours have been over for hours. That doesn't mean that Cian's off duty, though - no, he's got the night shift, helping clean up from the day and prepping the ship to open for visitors in the morning. Still in his 18th century sailor's garb, he putters around the deck, not really paying attention to anything happening past the CLOSED sign hanging from the chain that closes off the gangway to would-be visitors.
The night shift is always stuck with some of the security of the place, too.
"HEY!" Calls a voice from gangway. "Ahoy? AHOY!" Waiting right at the sign, respecting it by not very respectfully, is a petite brunette, her curly hair cut short, watching Cian with surprisingly bright green eyes. "Whatever it is that people are supposed to say." She starts waving frantically, trying to urge Cian over.
Currently June is just walking through the area, sweaty from having been running, which she's now walking off. In a lot of cases running alone as a tiny woman like June, in the middle of the night, is probably something that people would think twice about. June's probably just figuring that if someone harasses her, it just means she gets a chance to take out some trash. As she approaches the giant frigate she peers at it, curious. That's when she starts to hear someone yelling, and meanders that way to make sure it's not a problem.
Cian starts in surprise, and stands from where he was coiling (and re-coiling, and re-coiling) a line, striding across the deck of the ship with his sharp eyebrows drawn together in concern. His cheekbones are sharp too, as are the slightly downturned corners of his lips, and he waits to get close before speaking, though he doesn't leave the ship.
"...Can I help you?" He has a light Irish accent, and his waistcoat is unbuttoned to give him a little more ease of movement. He leans against the rail, looking down at the unfamiliar face.
"Oh, you can, I'm sure. I want to check out how all the rigging is..." Lucia laces her fingers together and then twists them. "You know. Put together. So I can replicate it. Want to show me around?" She seems completely oblivious to the fact that she's standing right in front of a closed sign, even if she actually stopped in front of it. There also seems to be some kind of belief that Cian might actually want to do this, for some reason.
June walks up to where Lucia's calling up to Cian and squints into the night before she looks at Lucia again, definitely trying to figure out just what to make of this odd situation. "I think they're open for tours during the day," she points out. "It might be easier to see what you're looking at in the daylight, too."
"...I...I'm sorry I can't do that...? You're welcome to return tomorrow...?" He seems confused enough that his retail voice drops slightly, and he gestures to the newcomer. "Yes, exactly. We're closed for the evening, though we do offer a wide variety of tour times." He starts to go into what is clearly a rehearsed spiel, about the tour times, and the sail times, and the variety of things that the Independence Seaport Museum has to offer, and...
Lucia lets out a longsuffering sigh, like she half expected this but really hoped she'd get another reaction. "What if I pay you like a hundred bucks?" she asks. "I really just want to look at some ropes. I'll be in view the whole time. Right over there." She points, then looks at June. "Are you security or something?"
June does have a strong Summer Mantle, which for people who can perceive it readily does kind of suggest she's sort of security, in some kind of way, but she answers, "nope. Just someone who was wondering what the commotion was all about while I was out on a run." She looks at the ship again. "It is kind of impressive." She calls up to Cian. "What is this ship? Why is it here?"
"...You're welcome to come back tomorrow. The tours allow ample time to look at things like that, I promise you." A polite smile to Lucia, before turning to June. "This is the USS United States, a decommissioned Navy vessel that is now owned and operated by the Independence Seaport Museum as a living history museum. I...have an entire speech, but...it's slightly more impressive as part of the actual tour." His smile turns a little apologetic.
Lucia chews on her lower lip in thought, deciding what to do about this situation. "Do you know anything about this stuff yourself? Maybe you can tell me if the way I have things diagramed is right? It would save me having to drive back out here tomorrow. It's annoying to make extra trips into the city." She slides her backpack off one shoulder. "I've got my sketches in here."
"That's actually pretty cool," June says with a genuine interest, and her eyes sweep up and down the length of the vessel. "I grew up in Vermont. There's not a lot of giant seafaring vessels there, you know? What kind of ship is this? Is it a sloop? I guess it's probably not, I just like saying sloop." She turns to peer at Lucia, then at the backpack. "I want to see, anyway. I'm June, by the way."
"I do, yes...you do model shipbuilding?" Cian arches an eyebrow, his interest clearly piqued. Then he huffs out a soft laugh at what June's said. "Vermont is rather landlocked, yes. This is a frigate, though it's larger and more heavily built than most, as it was one of the US Navy's original six frigates. The very beginning of the young Navy."
He makes his way down the gangplank as he speaks, and holds a hand out to see Lucia's sketches.
"Not specifically. I repair things, regardless of what they are." Lucia unzips the bag and pulls a sketch pad out, which she starts flipping through. "Someone brought me an exquisite ship in a bottle. It got knocked off their mantle, and the glass and the ship both broke. Their great-great grandfather had built it, a model of the USS Independence." She starts to offer it to him and then stops, like she realized she doesn't want it to leave her hands, so instead she holds it up so that he and June can both see it. It is, as she said, about 95% of a detailed sketch of the USS Independence.
June is exactly the kind of person to delight in this kind of story, as well as things that people are passionate about, even when its a situation where she has no idea what's going on. So, she does! "That's really cool," she says, peering closely at the displayed drawing. "You're really good. When was it built?" she looks at the ship right here. "When was this one built?"
Cian looks fascinated at the drawing, taking the last few steps down the gangplank to get a closer look. "This is...quite skilled..." He murmurs as he traces the rigging, his finger a centimeter or so from the page. "And the rigging...looks to be correct, as far as I can tell." A nod. "The United States was ordered in 1794 and launched in 1797, right here in Philadelphia," he explains to June. "Do you have an interest in history? Or merely experiences that differ from those you may have had in Vermont?" A small smile at that.
"I try to make sure I'm doing things right, if I'm going to do them," Lucia says a little defensively. "That's why I came to get a view in person." She gestures irritatedly at the ship. "I just didn't really account for scale in how close I could get." She finally gets around to registering the introduction that was made to her and tells June, "Lucia."
"Really? I didn't know they built ships here," June says with fascinated surprise. "I guess I'm not surprised now, with the rivers, I just didn't think about it." She grins, which for Lucia at least shows teeth that are as fangy as a vampire's, but for Cian it's just a big smile. "I love listening to people nerd out about things that are important to them," she says. "It almost doesn't matter what." She looks up at the ship again. "Are you going to get in trouble for chatting?"
"Philadelphia was a major shipbuilding hub in the 18th century," Cian nods to June, and then addresses Lucia. "And I can certainly understand the use of seeing a similar ship in person. But as I said, your rigging looks correct. The skill behind it is clear." He glances back at the ship, and gives them a little shrug. "It only means I'll be here a little later, it won't get me in trouble. Nights tend to be fairly quiet, here, anyway."
Lucia looks like she's vaguely considering being mollified. Like she tried being mollified once and isn't sure if she's up for the experience a second time. "Well, good," she says, and she folds closed the sketch pad and shoves it back into her backpack. Is that a whip in her backpack? That's definitely a whip in her backpack. She gets the sketch pad caught up on it as she's trying to put it back, and when she pulls the pad back out the whip snags on the pad's coils and comes out with, meaning the whip flops out onto the ground. "Fuck," she says, not really in a panic, just matter of fact, and she puts the pad in the bag and the leans down to pit the weapon up. At least it has a strap around it to keep it coiled.
June was about to say something, but then Lucia just drops a whip on the ground, and she blinks her large eyes at this for a second. "I don't think I've ever seen someone just drop a whip in public," she says. "I don't actually run into many people who use them, actually." She blinks again, just shrugs like it's no big deal, and tells Cian, "well, we haven't been talking for too long, so hopefully it won't keep you too late. I'll have to come back for a tour! Maybe I can get one of my partners to come with me, it sounds like fun."
Cian arches an eyebrow at the whip, and opens his mouth to presumably say something about it, when there's a muffled call of "Cian!" from the ship. He sighs, his shoulders slumping a little. "It seems I spoke too soon - duty calls. Please do come by, I work most evenings, and always on our night outings." He produces a small stack of cars from the pocket of his wide legged white pants, and hands one to each of them - they have the museum's logo and information. "It was lovely to meet you both." A salute, and he flashes a grin at them to break the formalness, before the strides back up the gangplank and onto the ship.
Lucia bundles all her things up and puts the backpack back on her back. "I got what I need, so bye." She doesn't seem embarrassed, exactly? More annoyed at herself. She takes a card, waves at both the others with it, and heads off at a brisk pace.
Everyone has to go, so June takes a card for the museum and calls after Cian as he departs, "thanks, this seems really cool!" And then she waves to Lucia, who is already zooming off, decides to just be on her way, and starts walking while looking at the card again.
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