ｔｈｅ ｙｏｕｎｇ ｔｏｐｍａｎ
Meet Lenwood Greene, an able-bodied topman who is barely seventeen. For three years he has been a faithful hand before the mast of the Vulcan's Wrath.
Lenwood (or Len for short) was born in England to a very poor family. Shortly after his mother died, his father cast him out and he became a street urchin, an orphan for all that he cared. For many weeks six-year-old Len wandered the streets, and was forced to beg for his food, until by chance a kindly old woman adopted him and took him in. When he grew older he was apprenticed to a swordsmith, and it was through this art of making weapons where he learned how to handle a blade himself.
Everything changed, however, when he was ten. He had been delivering swords to a ship's crew that had ordered them when he found himself abruptly seized by navymen. Thus, he ended up as a powder monkey, shanghaied into service and forced to work beneath a commanding Navy officer's iron fist. It was by this cruel act, however, when he was first introduced to the coy mistress that is the Sea.
Compressed as he was, stuck on the HMS Venture, he found himself relishing work and hardship on that Navy vessel. On the endless ocean of freedom, that was how he found out where he truly belonged.
Things took a turn for the worst after a year and a half or so serving on the Venture. On one fair day they happened to be attacked by the scourges of the sea - pirates. The Venture certainly did attempt to fight, but the pirates outnumbered them literally ten to one, and soon had the navy ship looted out. Twelve-year-old Len was kidnapped along with a few other sailors, previously intended to be held for ransom. The kidnapped were forced to work for that pirate ship, a fair-sized sloop called the Storm, doing the most mundane and dirty chores, such as cleaning out the bilges. Time passed, and the money poured in. Slowly the prisoners left, one by one, until only poor Len was left. No one had answered the ransom, and as he was faced with the choice of death or serving permanently beneath the Storm, Len agreed to sign the ship's articles if only to save his own life.
More time passed, and Len found himself actually liking the life of a pirate. It was infinitely freer than working with the Navy, he polished up his sword skills, and his new mates were agreeable and friendly to their new cabin boy,
Ironically enough, it was a storm that eventually brought the Storm down to the depths. When Len turned fourteen, they were hit by a typhoon that wiped out the entire crew of the Storm. Len found himself clutching to a piece of wreckage, when he was found and picked up by a frigate ship, which was another buccaneer crew who happened to be the Vulcan's Wrath. Since then, he has served beneath the Vulcan.
Greene, unlike other young men his age, is thoughtful and oftentimes quiet. Despite his skill with a blade, he doesn't enjoy fighting, and despite his pirate life has not yet killed anyone. Even though he couldn't afford to be educated as a youth, he is a fair-spoken man due to the training that was hammered into him during his Navy years. He is fairly good with a blade, can climb like a monkey in the rigging but unfortunately is not the best at swimming, something that gives him a bad disadvantage.
He is obedient and friendly, but possesses a surprisingly spitfire temper if one provokes him enough. He can be extremely stubborn at times, as well.
He has a mop of curly blond-brown hair that hangs down to his shoulders, but he often keeps it tied up. He is English, though his skin has tanned him considerably due to his time in the sun. He is of average height.
He is dressed in traditional sailor's garb; a dingy white shirt with a plain waistcoat overtop, loose black trousers, a weatherworn green bandanna and faded brown knee-high boots that are folded over at the top, though he doesn't often wear the latter especially while performing his duties as topman. His sword he keeps at his belt at all times.
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