Caintry heard the crew’s vote, and he listened, taking in everything from everyone as attentively as the next. He knew he could not please everyone, he would most likely even anger some, but as captain he had to choose what is right for the ship. Not for the individual, not the minority, and on the rare occasion, not even the majority when it lacked the intellectual potence of an educated decision; he had to decide what was best, for all of them despite their opinions. For, not only could they have an irresponsible amount of ignorance such as some drunks that Caintry could think of, they could have what he feared worse than stupidity when it came to voting; they could have personal bias or interest that would cloud their judgment when enacting with the responsibility of other lives on their shoulders. He could not fathom a better example of evil than knowingly leading anyone, even if they were evil themselves, into certain death over a feigned guidance in which you are truthfully only acting selfishly, and so he would have to try and deduce the actual best choice for him and the people he must guide, especially the young ones that he must raise and would die to protect. He thought long and hard about where to go, and them suddenly he recalled one of his many memories from his hundreds of years, this particular year being some time ago when he was still a cabin-boy for the Drunken Waitress. They docked in Paradiso…
“Lad! Get er` damned face out yer ass and let me celebrate us making it over here in one piece!” his former captain roared, harsh and demanding, and it sent the even younger Caintry startled and scrambling to complete his task, it was his first few months on the ship and he wanted to impress. All around them, a coarse myriad of shouting and noises rose from the docks that were alive around them, the smell of foreign spices and perfumes from the far east mixing with the usual pirate stench, and he saw all the strange people walking around wearing anything from colorful silks to tattered brown rags, some men and even women bound in chain were wearing nothing at all as free advertisement for the common sex-slaver. Caintry was excited, disgusted, amazed, horrified, and even intrigued by the scene, his romanticist hunger for adventure and experience raging like a fire, the sights around being the oxygen for it to feed off of as he engulfed himself in his wanderlust flame.
“Got any of the finer batch left for the captain?” asked Caintry as politely as he was taught to a fellow crew member he understood to be the acting Quartermaster, seeing the other just died last week, as he passed by, but Caintry realized that his geniality was soon to be scorned as the man’s face, painted by scars and purple-red bruises, soured into a rather hostile scowl. His furrowed brow showed his hair loss not only was on his balding head, but also patches were falling off from his eyebrows and his scruffy beard.
“You dat ittle` twat, ain’t ya? I’ll let ya lern a lesson dat ye er` never forget.” And with his cacophony that he must call grammar, he let out a grunt as he hit Caintry’s cheek with the back of his large and scabbed hand with as much force as the stout man could muster. Caintry took the blunt force unexpected of its coming, and so he whirled to the side as pain seared its way through his cheek all the way to the entirety of his face. Caintry, with his vision blurring from his already swelling eye, looked as most of the off-deck crew was staring at him with amusement, the others only missing his embarrassment because they were “prospecting” some of the slavers’ merchandise, and Caintry knew if he did not show strength soon they would leave him in Paradiso without a second thought. He had to show strength, zeal. So, he reacted as he knew his new captain would want him to.
With a boyish howl that was his best attempt at intimidation, Caintry jabbed the man’s throat with a concentrated and hard punch, feeling his fist driving the man’s bulging adam's-apple deeper into his throat, and when the man was brought unto one knee, holding his throat with wheezing gasps, Caintry grabbed the man's head with both hands. With a quick motion, Caintry brought his knee up as hard as he could, also pulling the man’s head down with equal force, and he felt his knee shatter the man’s nose, quickly spewing crimson blood unto the dock wood. Within another few seconds, the makeshift Quartermaster was laying in a heap, barely breathing with red liquid gushing from him unto the ground, and Caintry stood out of breath as the fresh pain of the slap still was on him. The captain walked over with even more amusement than before, and then with a grin he chuckled and spoke with a slight laugh in his words.
“Oh meh own Quartermaster is beatin by a boy! I em serry for yer embarrassment mate, but I am more serry fer dis.” Caintry watched in horror as his captain, his smile never faltering, kicked the bloodied man off the pier, and Caintry winced as a shriek of terror pierced the air when the live body disappeared over the side of the dock, flailing in a desperate attempt to grab abhold of something, so he listened as the wails slowly faded and grew fainter until he heard no more, knowing that the man had finally fallen to a distance out of earshot. Caintry was petrified as the captain came closer to whisper in his ear.
“Take that as an example, my dear lad, and know that fear and strength rule a ship. You shit-head Denaucane need to understand that democracy is fucking dumb idea.” Caintry was shocked at his words, for they were, although vulgar, more proper than he had ever heard his captain speak, now clearly his informality was a front to relate to his men. Caintry decided he would indeed learn much from this man, but he would not learn how to be a captain by following the captain’s example, he would by going against it…
Caintry returned to reality and thought on of his other occasional times to Paradiso, he had been many times, and he came to realize for the first time that the colony was one of the few places left he had not been. Also, to add to that, he could be the first to make contact to a lost colony or even play detective a bit and discover some new volcano that wiped them out or even hunt down the pirates that savaged the innocent colony, no doubt the Avanessee paying them heavily for gracing them with revenge, but any way it played in his head, he saw grand adventure and danger that bested some of the more ostentatious pirate tales even. He felt the gravitational pull of the uncertain, of adventure, tug at his soul just as it did when his intuition drug him away from the peaceful island of Denauc, with its quiet rolling hills and tranquil streams flowing through lush forest, and into a life of gunpowder, splintered wood, and the love of the future, not of the gains it may hold but just the possibilities. Also, for a selfless reason, it was ,in fact, safer, so he made his decision.
“We will go to the island that holds the most safety, and also the island that won the vote. We go… to Perodo!” Caintry shouted with as much charisma as he could muster, his voice powering through the atmosphere of the deck, and he raised his saber high in the air, it gleaming a sparkling silver in the intense and golden sunlight. His signature smirk devilishly crept across his lips, and his eyes twinkled with the excitement for the coming events.
Onwards we go!