Band of pirates sets out to conquer NYC dive bars:
By day, they are mild-mannered civilians with jobs at banks and well-meaning nonprofit groups.
But on those nights when pub piracy is nigh, they don eye patches, hoop earrings - and colorful bandanas, too.
They also carry a paper parrot dubbed "Harvey" and a plush monkey named "Monkey."
And being pirates, they call each other "Matey" and growl things like "Arrrrrrr" and "Shiver me timbers" to anyone who dares approach them.
The idea was hatched in March when "Scurvy" Kiera (The Dangerous) Downes-Vogel, 26, of Astoria, Queens, spotted an issue of Time Out New York that listed 41 great dive bars in the city.
She suggested to a couple of friends that they should go check them out - all of them - and her friends instantly agreed.
MacLeod, 25, also of Astoria, quickly realized that in order to scout out all of those bars they would need a map - and being a graphic designer, she drew it up herself.
The crew dubbed it a "treasure map," and burned the edges for effect, and soon the idea that they were pirates hunting for the treasure was formed.
The pub pirates have three rules: Don't ever leave a fellow pirate behind. Don't do shots. And, perhaps most importantly, always wash your hands.
The shots rule? "We already broke that," Downes-Vogel admitted.
And a couple of drunken, stubborn pirates have been left to fend for themselves on a few occasions.
"But we always wash our hands," MacLeod noted.