In The Hooks of a Pirate -Pt. 2-

While Rose was away, she apparently got some sort of code to spawn a bunch of tier one starter items. She suggested we have Tensei input them into her command prompt and see if anything that spawns would be useful.

I had my doubts, and figured some sort of problem would present itself, but it was worth a shot.

Items spawned in a ring around Tensei. She was just far enough that some of those things actually appeared in my hand. Everything here was simple though. Basic level armor, weak potions and brewing items, but just to her right was a collection of weapons, one happened to be a simple dagger.

“Ten, can you twist yourself 90 degrees clockwise?”

She caught on and did as I instructed, then tilted her body until she was angled exactly like I needed.

Once she was in place, she input the command and spawned all the items a second time. The dagger appeared right in my hand. Rose was given a prompt to free me from the rope. Almost instantly, and with zero effort on my part, a split formed in the back and the rope collapsed to the ground.

I cut Tensei free too and the two of us bolted for the edge of the boat where a life raft was hung up.

The pirates reacted by drawing their swords in the confusion and chased me down. Rose had picked up a sword for me and I traded some swings with these swashbucklers.

*Tink Clank Clink!*

I kept up with the several swords in the chaos, somehow only taking a bare minimum of damage during the fight. Not only was Rose’s skill in battle getting better, but my stats were too.

Despite how proud I was feeling, I was shocked when Ginger Snap pushed aside her own men and reached through the chaos to grab me with those burly arms. Her grapple was so strong that it didn’t even give Rose a prompt to try and break it.

“Yee fools actually thought yee' could pull a fast one an me? Pity, yer’ so dumb.”

She shoved me to the edge of her boat to personally drop me into the water. By sheer chance a circle of sharks formed near the boat and were ready to bite me the moment I got in reach.

“W-wait!” I spoke as her hands choked hard around my neck. My hands automatically clamped onto her’s, but couldn’t do anything to get a little more breathing room. “Please, don’t do this…”

“Cap’n…” the first mate uttered.

Ginger Snap wasn’t going to let up on me, despite the nervous looks her crew was giving. “If I let yee’ go now, don’t ya’ know how foolish I’d look? Yer’ dyin’ today, Flower Boy.”

“Bu-but… I know where the treasure is!” I tossed my hail Mary.

“Lies!” she shouted. “Yee could never know where the Golden Flame is!”

“No, I do!” I said. “I can take you there! But please, let us go after!”

“I have no reason to believe yer’ tellin’ me the truth, lad. A weak man like yourself would say anything to git’ out of trouble, am I right?”

I couldn’t outright tell her that I was part of the team designing her DLC missions, but I did know exactly where the treasure was. If I could convince her to listen to me, then there was a chance of getting out of here.

“Before your father passed away, I was on the crew who… His crew that helped him hide the treasure!” I said.

“M-my father…? Her voice turned soft along with her eyes. “How did you know…?”

-Wait, what?-

“He always talked about you. Said you made him proud to be a parent, and that he was even more glad to know you’d one day rule the high seas, just like he did!”

-( - _-)-

A tear fell down her face and for a moment I gained a glimpse of the true girl that dwelled under that manly exterior.

“Cap’n!” the first mate put a hand on Ginger Snap’s big shoulder. “Maybe we should think a’ takin his word. We don’ have any other leads.”

“Fine!” Ginger shouted, then tossed me into a collection of crates with all her brawny might. “If yee’s liein’, I’ll personally tear yer’ head from yer’ neck!”

“I promise you, you’ll have that treasure in hand before the night is up.”

💻⚔️💻

We arrived on a little island down by where the river emptied out into the ocean. It was sunrise, the fresh rays of light were at our back as we docked by a large cave.

We dismounted the mismatched pirate boat. I was free to walk where I pleased, but Ginger held Tensei tightly in her grip, a knife to her throat in case I decided to make a break for it.

“You play with my emotions, I send yer’ lil’ one to the afterlife. Got it?”

“I understand.”

Ginger only brought along her first mate and left the rest of her crew near the beach. We all entered the cave with a large pile of rocks that had long since collapsed and blocked further in.

“Tensei, can you spawn an access point for me here?” I asked.

“Uh, I can…” The access point wasn’t far in. Tensei spawned it remotely, even while she was held hostage. “How did you know one was here?”

“This cave used to be a little test ground for us devs,” I admitted. “So I figured a spot like this would probably have one.” It was a small risk, but high reward.

“There ain’t no treasure here!” Ginger shouted. “Just a big cave-in!”

“It’s here, I promise."

My fingers tapped away at the keyboard quickly, skimming through the whole companies database to gather up everything I needed.

Once I finished, I de-spawned the rock wall and exposed a large flat chamber of stone. Little crystals all around lit it up in pretty glows of all kinds of colors.

At the very center of the chamber was a small pile of items. Tarnished jewelry, an old rusty compass, some indoor furnishings and a book. Nothing quite on the extravagant level of treasure anyone expected, but…

“Yee’…” Ginger uttered, her mouth agape. “Yee’ were tellin’ the trut’. It really is real…”

“Cap’n…” said the first mate in disbelief. “How is that pile o’ junk what yer’ searchin’ fer’ all dis’ time?”

“Seal that pie whole!” she shouted as she ran to the trinkets. “Me gods, this is…” Her now soft lips quivered as she collected the items, pressing them close to her bosom. “Me can’t believe it…” she began to sob. “It's the real thing.”

In all that emotion she’d dropped Tensei, who flew up to me with a confused look on her face.

“How did you know the treasure was here of all places?” she asked.

“It wasn’t actually here,” I admitted to Tensei. “I spawned it myself from the studio’s unfinished files. That’s why it’s such a little pile of place holder junk.”

That wasn’t all I did. I made sure to turn each of the crew members to their proper genders and added back their textures. Apparently, all the rainbow imagery was because the directory had replaced them with debug textures. Now they looked like the proper crew they were.

It was sad seeing the now slender Ginger covet that small pile of old junk with such remorse in her eyes, but her moment with those once proud items of her father gave us an excuse to sneak out of there.

“Father… Papa…” she continued to cry. “I’m going to be the pirate queen, I promise! I know I'm not a man like yee' were hopin fer... but... I... It’s just hard bein’ tough all of the time, but I’ll do it, even if it kills me! Even if I hav’a kill someone else! I’ll make yee’ proud in heaven! I miss yee’ so much!”

-( T _T)-

Rose stopped me for a moment, then turned her camera back to face Ginger.

“Rose, we need to...” I said, suddenly realizing that this probably hit Rose a little too close to home. “Hon… I…”

-Wait. Let me talk with her.-

“Lady Rose?” Tensei had a worried expression. “I don’t know if this is…”

“Ten, let her do this,” I said.

Rose walked me up to Ginger and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Ginger looked up from her crying to see the solemn expression I wore.

“You…” She breathed out softly. “Yer’ the reason I found this at all.”

-Can you see my message, Ginger?-

Ginger reacted to Rose’s text with a nod. I had a suspicion she was one of those advanced AI NPC’s.

-How old are you?-

“Seventeen. Who are ya’?”

-My name is Rose. I’m his wife from another world, and I'm guiding him around.-

“Anoder world?” Ginger's eyes narrowed with tears. “Yee' tellin' no lies?”

-No lies coming out of me :) -

-When I was born, my father was disappointed that I wasn't a boy. He was big into sports, so he wanted someone to carry on that spirit for him.-

-It was always hard to connect with him, since we both had different hobbies. I liked math, cartoons and girly things... Just the complete opposite of him in everyway.-

-Well, in middle school...-

-I realized even if I couldn't live the dream he wanted, I could at least cheer on those who could. I became a cheerleader for sports.

-I busted my beautiful butt all day long to look good, learn routines, and cheer on those boys. I got pretty popular. One of the best in my class.-

-Dad was sure proud, but I could also tell he was disappointed. For the longest time he didn't tell me why. I kept trying and pushing  to get better until I burned out. Then finally told me the truth.-

-He told me he was never really disappointed. He loved me with all his heart, even more so when I told him I wanted to make him proud, but he was upset that I gave up my own dream to do it.-

-My grades dropped because I stopped focusing on school. There was a lot of drama in my life that bled into my home. A lot changed with me, and not all for the better.-

-Dad wasn't the type to express himself unless it was important, but those were the last things he ever said before he died.-

Ginger was crying, filling the puddle under her with her own tears. She reached out and hugged me tightly.

“I… It’s hard being captain! All me crew are good lass and lad, family, but I’m always pushin’ myself hard for their sake. They need someone perfect and strong to keep ‘em in line, and if not me…”

“Cap’n…” the handsome first mate, now a strapping young lad, knelt down and turned her toward him. “We don’t follow ya’ because yer’ tough. We do it because we want to see yer’ dreams come true too. We’d do anything for yee’, even lay our lives down.”

“Davy…” she said as the boy wiped the tears from her eyes.

Davy placed his hand over her hook hand and removed it, revealing that she had a fine hand of her own the whole time.

“Yee’ ain’t the only one who sees the ship like a family, Cap’n.” He winked. “If somethin’s needin’ to make yee’ cry, us boys and gals will be’s there to comfort ya’.”

“Th-thank yee’.” she sniffled and stood up, then turned to me. “I can’t thank yee’ bunch enough. Sorry things started on rough waters betweenst’ us.”

“It’s no problem,” I said. “But, if you want to make it up to us, I have a favor I’d like to ask…”

“Name it, and I’ll kill every beast from here to The North for yee’ wit’ me bare hands…”