![]() ![]() They fastened ropes around the waists of the pollywogs, tied to belaying pins on the other end of the deck, and the pollywogs were commanded to run the gauntlet. The shellbacks lined up on either side of the canvas with paddles, floggers, and ropes knotted at the ends. Then canvas was laid out on the deck and strewn with garbage that would normally have been fired out of the catapult. They were dunked three times and required to call out “shellback!” with each dipping. Then they were commanded to take the “Royal Bath,” which meant bathing-in their dress uniforms, no less-in a tub of the waste water from the mess mingled with spirits. Again, the character of this teasing varies from affection to aggressive mockery and humiliation.Īfter that, Sylria, the “Royal Barber” cheerfully cut their hair into ridiculous, completely unwearable messes. Trials are usually associated with quirks or personality traits for which the spacefarer is known among the crew, and they are designed to tease the pollywog about it. Shaundar was put in a group where they were to act out scenes as described by “Arianrhod.” He laughed so hard his knees gave out when he was directed to enact a starshark chewing on Yathar’s arm. Some of them were ordered to dance, others to sing, still others to recite poetry. The pollywogs were then directed to entertain the Lady and the Old Man of the Void. Each was announced as though they were heads-of-state. The two of them were seated in prominent thrones on the main deck, which were painted with images of stars and nebulae (which Shaundar guessed must have been kept somewhere in the hold, though he didn’t recall ever seeing them while loading.) They set about summoning their “Royal Court,” which Shaundar suspected was an excuse to incorporate all the shellbacks in “official” capacities. The Lady of the Stars is accompanied by the "Royal Baby," which takes various forms, depending on the ship and culture in question. She is even present in all-male crews, such as on orcish ships. When a ship is multiracial and multicultural, she is usually referred to simply as the "Lady of the Stars." She represents the hope of life and the joy of spacefaring. Often, the Old Man of the Void is accompanied by a Royal Consort, usually representing the main creatrix goddess or celestial goddess in a culture's given pantheon. She had a little smudge of polish left on the end of her nose where she had scratched it. Sylria’s smirk as she ran black polish over Shaundar’s boots was a little disturbing, he had to admit, but there was no way he was going to allow this to spoil his entertainment. Along with the other pollywogs, who vastly outnumbered the shellbacks on Queenie’s crew, they assigned the shellbacks, mostly senior crew and officers, to such ignoble tasks as emptying the head, scrubbing the scuppers, swabbing the deck, barnacle scraping and polishing all the pollywogs’ boots. He, Yathar and Garan took great pleasure in teasing Sylria and abusing the Exec. Shaundar was not surprised to see that Sylria was a shellback already. To start with, everyone stripped to the waist so that they could see who had shellback tattoos and who did not. Those who had never been through interstellar space before, known as “pollywogs,” were allowed to deliver whatever abuse and hazing they saw fit to assign to those who had already crossed the stars, the “shellbacks ” though this was understood to be repaid in kind on the following day. Shaundar had heard bits and pieces about this ritual from his father and uncle, so he had some idea of what to expect, though not specifics especially since each ship and sailor had its own take on it. The Lady Arianrhod was given lip service by almost all elven starfarers, so by tradition, She presided over the ceremony of Crossing the Stars. ![]()
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