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<span class="mu-r">"Hrrm. I don't want to have to sell the seeds at a loss. I mean, this port among any has no shortage of food, it's not like the Fruit Barons are in heavy need of new agricultural seeds."</span>
"Oh blast it! Just sell the damn crate, Captain. You're leaving a hundred pearls on the table, ye fool! Or else you want us to risk breaking this glass jug in transit!?"
<span class="mu-r">"Alright, alright. I'll sell it off at the port. Who knows, maybe another merchant can benefit from it. Or settlers looking for a new island to live on and need a starter crop. Maybe it can do some good, even if it costs me some pearls..."</span>
In the meantime, you walk the boardwalk of the Fruit Baron port again, making sure your crew is all accounted for and new preparations are made way. While you'll lose out on some pearls, you figure Squint can at least outfit your crew with some more supplies on the cheap. You'll even take a trade, until you see a long line of people. The people, looking very dour and lifeless, are lined up towards one of the fine stone and sanded-coral arches that lead in towards the "middle city" of the Fruit Barons. There, one large door has actually been opened, with three gruff rifleman standing guard to keep the unwashed masses from entering. Still, the crowd has brought your attention. You see a foppish man setting up a small metal box on a metal stand, a crank on the side, with a spigot facing outwards towards the crowd. In front of it, a man kneels behind a line painted in black.
"Hear ye, hear ye! The Fruit Barons daily alms for the poor. The flesh, seeds, skin and all- pressed and given out to those in need out of great charity!"
Wow, you didn't know the Fruit Barons would do something so kindly. You thought they were called Barons for a reason. You knew they were rich, probably the richest people on the ocean, so at least they share a little bit. Would you share at all if you were in there position? Maybe, your father would have wanted that, you think...
"And today we have, ah, a fine red apple! Look upon it! The daily donation to the poor and thirsty souls!"
Your heart sinks. There are over two hundred people in this "line", though the crowd seems pressed forward. You realize just by looking at them, so many are already <span class="mu-i">scurvy</span>. Their hair a frizzy mess, skin patched with dry scale, many are wrapped in bandages from wounds that won't heal. The hopeful look onwards. The man puts the apple in the box and cranks, cranks, the sound of a crushing fruit inside sends a veritable wave of hope and excitement through the crowd. You see, on the wall, several well dressed men and women watch from below. You can tell from the way their skin glistens in the sun, these are the Fruit Barons, their diets so rich in vitamin c. The man closest to the machine is invited forward, and stopped just before his lips touch the spigot.
"Ah! Wait, let me check to see if its safe."
