Mitsuhide Akechi's Story

Mitsuhide heard his name and followed the Captain, taking his place to his right. He stood before the crew and heard their words, taking their votes and voicing their opinions and yet... he was distracted. His mind kept pulling him elsewhere and while he did try to take interest in the conversation, he was having a very hard time doing so. His conscious was weighing down on him. Mitsuhide sighed and endured as best he could.

From what he had heard thus far, it seemed everyone wanted to go to Perado, an island with a small colony  that had gone dark, however this was a bit of risk considering they didn't know what awaited them. Paradiso on the other hand was obviously a dangerous place and while it had all the necessities that they would need, it would be very possible they   may pay more than what they should've. Still neither would be a problem if they had the proper supply stocks to confront the pirates at Paradiso, should it need to come to that, or brave whatever waited for them at Perado.

After some thought Mitsuhide made his decision. "My vote is with Paradiso. We do not know what to expect on Perado, we do know what to expect from low lives.". With that stated Mitsuhide thought to himself.

"Now if only Democracy did not take so long.".

Aurea remained silent as the proceeding began on the deck. Tucked away in the back, out of sight, out of mind, she could listen to the others without disturbance from any form of confrontation. Not that there had been much on the ship; overall, the crew was fairly well bonded to each other, even despite her attempts to form any sort of bond. Passing remarks over one of the meals, assisting in the completion of one of the various jobs ever unfinished, all added to the weight of duty which she felt towards the crew of The Phoenix. Not a strong connection at the moment,- they were still not much more to her than passing acquaintances- it may very well grow if she decided to stay on the vessel for any significant length of time.

Absorbing the different opinions of those who had spoken, she began to store and catalog the information in her mind, utilizing her exceptional memory to preserve information that might be useful later. A smile tinges her lips as Amelia jibes Varsh, something that had become a form of relief for Aurea during her stay on the ship. Said smile shifted to a sneer as the advisor on the ship announced his part. Anger writhed within her slowly, twisting knots around her insulated mind. How she despised that smug grin and aloof attitude. It reminded Aurea of her family, the good-for-nothing bastards. If only she could have put a bolt in him.

With the vote at four against two in favor of Perodo, the final destination could yet take a turn anywhere. Sufficient people remained so that the outcome remained as of yet uncertain. Originally, her vote had leaned towards that of Perodo. Dealing with whatever trackers her adversaries hired did not appeal to her at the moment however easy it would be with support. Yet without any form of information about Perodo- something she quite liked having- she hesitated. Paradiso could harbor opponents, adventure, fortunes, danger. Perodo was simply a mystery. There was, however, another option not presented. Now why would Captain Osborne hide the existence of an entire island?

Biting her lip, Aurea stood from her leaning position, inching forwards towards the rest of the group. Clearing her throat, Aurea spoke, "I support the vote for...Paradiso." Having said her part, she stepped back, drawing deeper into the cloak.

Her eyes slightly opened as she watched the voting take place in silence, her leg up to her chest as she rested her chin on her arm that propped itself on the top of her knee. While the warmth did keep her somewhat calm, the memory of her brother and she playing pirates still remained in her mind making the votes seem even more important than before. She was happy with the fact that Parada was pulled from the polls, but Blue was nowhere near being satisfied- she wouldn’t unless the vote narrowed itself down to Paradiso. While it was true that the Black Ship was recorded to be docking at both ports, Blue had earlier decided that Paradiso would be her best shot.

She shuffled on the barrel a little before lowering her slender leg to sit in a much taller position, waiting for the other voters to finish.
“To be completely honest, I’d have to choose Paradiso as well. I doubt we would run into any serious problems we couldn’t solve on our own, not that we ever travel peacefully. If I am not wrong, I do believe that every time we stop, there always seems to be some sort of conflict so it’s pretty unavoidable. Plus, from the research we gather, we know exactly what to expect from Paradiso versus Peredo which seemed to be in complete darkness at the moment.” Blue crossed her arms underneath her chest as she watched them while keeping her complete composure.

Selitos had waited patiently while the other spoke their piece. Their reasons for going to the different places were myriad and yet no decision had been reached one way or another. Most people seemed to be leaning away from Paradiso, all well and good as far as he was concerned. He had gauged his audience carefully, enough opinions had been heard that they could consider the matter fairly deliberated on, yet not so many as to have utterly convinced people to one side or another. Instead of going down and joining the group of crew on deck, he stood up on the capstan where he had been sitting, drawing everyone's attention to him as he did.

He looked around and smiled broadly as he began.

"A fairly momentous choice lies before us and we have heard much discussion as to where we should go. Some of you favour Paradiso as a sure choice. This is true, it is a known quantity. We know it to be full of slavers, criminals, swindlers and crooks. We would have to be constantly on our guard there should we go, and this voyage has been a long and tiring one. I ask you all, do we not deserve the chance to relax? Have we not earned the right to put our feet up, to not look over our shoulders and to hospitality, and welcome? Yes, Perodo has gone dark, no ships have come from there recently, however it is the harvest season and that is always a busy time of year. We might even be in time for the harvest festival." He looked around the crew gesturing broadly with his arms "Think of it! Roaring fires, hot meat so tender it almost falls from the bone, and beer, beer so dark and brown as to shame the very soil it came from. My kinsmen are a generous people for those that can pay and those that offer them aid. We can be more than marked men and women for a change. I urge you to consider what I have said. Perodo is our best hope! Last I had heard they were a prosperous town, even if it has been abandoned there will still be much wealth and loot to be had.

Elweise paced up and down the dock waiting for everyone to leave the captain's quarters so that she can speak to him, but it seems just as people start to leave more people just go in. Elweise, being probably the shyest member to The Phoenix, didn't want to deal with the other members of the crew, so she didn't go in with them. But soon the announcement of a vote came to the attention of the crew, and everyone was needed on the deck. To Elweise convenience, she was already there. Instead of going to see the captain, Elly decided to just wait for the vote. All the members of the crew started appearing on deck. Elweise tried her best to stay out of everybody's way, and heads to the back of the people crew.

One by one, the crew gave their opinion on which island they are going to land on. Paradiso, an island of crime, or Perodo, an island which has gone silent, were the choices being given to the crew. Elweise knew little of the islands, her isolated upbringing has made is so she knew very little of other places, and she has never been to these particular islands and knew nobody from them. She heard a little about Paradiso from other crews she's been on, but Perodo was mystery to her. There is apparently a small colony on Perodo, but she never heard anything more than that. When she felt like it was her time to vote Elly raised her hand to get attention, "Ummm... I vote for... ummm... Perodo... As the medic, it's my job to advise you to head to the safest island for the crew. Paradiso sounds to dangerous to me. Even if everyone on Perodo is gone, at least there would be nobody there to harm us. Uhhh... Yeah... In a crime hole like Paradiso, it's almost guaranteed that one of us will be shot, or stabbed, or poisoned, or hurt in some way."

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!

Drifting towards the island of Perodo…

The Phoenix was on the direct path towards the island, its green wilderness emphasized by the bright blue that the upper-sky held, and the mountains blocked the view of the inner island. The Phoenix gracefully neared the island, coming almost in shooting range to the lush and grown shores, having no good place to land for the mountains went straight up leaving no flat ground for standing or makeshift docking, so to find any hope of landing one would have to circle the island for a spot to set foot, hoping there was one at all. The Phoenix trudged along as if it was tired, being out at sky for so long, so the need to land was immediate, its back rotors now seemingly sluggish compared to the usual spritefulness in which the ship operated. It was mid-day now, the sun towering high and powerful in the middle of the sky, causing a radiated heat if one were to sit still too long, but a breeze would occasionally come in almost as if to save the day, cutting through the humid heavy air giving the relief of a cool feel on the skin and a clear breath in the lungs. The ship turned to avoid getting to close, and now hugged the island to circle it in the search for the landing spot, and the man that was making the maneuver at the wheel was none other than Caintrty himself.

He was alone on the deck to his thoughts while everyone else was someplace other than there, under the deck or in some other nook and cranny they find themselves in, so he was contently steering in peace. Food had grown to near none now, no one having what they preferred anymore, but nothing else had really happened on the peaceful drift towards the island from where they were, a boring affair. It was not long, however, before hunger would set in, no doubt setting in too soon for some already, and that meant that any differences or arguments that were small before could be catalysed by the hunger. So, it was imperative that they find a source of food soon to keep up morale and save some needless fights, and Caintry was doing just that, keeping both eyes wide for anywhere to land but hopefully the colony, wishing the navigator was here to help. The day was continuing with no doubt troubles ahead, from within crew but definitely outside, however the Phoenix had more daunting tasks before.

And so the crew would come to find that Phoenix had not had a more daunting tasks...

Alexandria sat in her room oblivious to how close they were to their destination. Her tail was swaying in annoyance as she tried to figure out how to make the rations work. The stew had become soup and the soup had become thinner and thinner. Finally giving up she poured a bowl for everyone and again skipped her bowl. Only those who had known her awhile could tell the true amount of weight she had lost. She had taken it upon herself to have only a nibble here and there, only enough to keep her alive.

Setting the bowls on her tray she set about making her rounds. Setting their bowls on the outside of their doors as they were getting more and more irritated and she didn't feel like dealing with their crankiness. Her new way of letting them know their food was up was a series of five knocks exactly. She took the Captain his last, knowing that he would be steering the ship.

First thing she noticed when stepping on topside was the heat. Looking around she saw that they were near land and she headed up to where Capt. Caintry was a smile on her face. The wind ruffled her hair a little sending small strands everywhere. The sun showed just how pale she was from staying below deck and skipping meals. Halfway up the stairs she ended up ripping off her sleeves and stuffing them into her pockets the head getting to her. Her tail flicking back and forth she finally approached him.

"I see we made it Captain Cainy. Err I man just Captain." she looked down and held out her bowl, her hand shaking slightly from weakness. "Heres yer meal. I ope ye enjoy it. put me heart and soul into tryin to make it bearable. I just hope there be somthin here ta feed the crew. They're gittin hungry and cranky, like them bears I be feadin about sometimes." she said then went quiet watching as they looked for somewhere to dock. She lost herself in her thoughts and the feel of the warm sun.

Sebastian was constantly hustling around the ship. While he was glad that the vote swayed in favor of the dark colony, it had its downsides. For one, the crew would need to arm themselves properly if they were to meet considerable combat. If say the colony had been taken over by hostiles, then the crew would need every bit of ammunition available to them or possibly find injuries, perhaps even death.

The quartermaster rushed to each cabin, to each room placing sacks of ammunition on tables for each crew member. The amount varied on their job. Of course the gunner would get the most bullets, then the captain, and everyone else would get an equal distribution of powder and shot.

Sebastian himself was the lowest priority to arm, since he was an automaton after all. The advantage of being a machine was that he was less susceptible to taking damage as his more organic counterparts. On the other hand he could take more risks in a fight because of that factor. Of course a strong caliber shot at the right place in his skull could take him out easily, but that was unlikely. He armed himself with his pistols, knives, his sword, and two granadoes. He placed a thin leather vest over himself for deception. He felt they were ready for near anything.