I wake up in a candlelit room that has a strong scent of alcohol. I sit up, and almost passed out from the pain.

“Fuck, what all muscles did I tear?”

I hear Doc Thomas rise from a chair in the corner, “Son, I’m not sure what to say. I would say that you need to stop tearing your body down like you have been, but you’re not only healing at a mind-boggling rate… but you are healing injuries that shouldn't be possible. Not only that, but you saved us. If you wouldn’t have slaughtered that crew like you did, I’m sure they would have sunk us. We lost 29 men, about a quarter of the crew. Zijde is a marvelous captain, but I don’t think he would’ve been able to get them organized enough to run. Son, I’m not sure if anyone has told you, but I thank you. You’ve saved dozens of lives, but I honestly don’t think we would have outrun the Spanish Conglomerate ship if you didn’t take the Narwhal by yourself when we first met you. That, and I think we would’ve have all died today if not for you… thank you.”

He puts a massive hand on my shoulder, his face sets into hard scowl, “Now, listen to Doc Thomas boy, I’ll whip your ass if you don’t heed my instructions. We have a week until we make it to Cuba. I have a week to get you into tip top shape. I don’t care if I have to tie you down, drug you, or turn this boat around to Nassau, you will do as I say. The Cap’n, Bheki, and myself have decided that you are too important to lose. Now, if you want to leave one day, no one will stop you, but we will not have you pirate yourself to death.” He looks at me, waiting for me to acknowledge him.

I give him a solemn nod, “I can do that Doc, but what ended up happening? What was on the ship?”

A huge grin spreads across his face, “Oh my boy, we caught a mining supply run. We got plenty of the cinnabar that you needed and a pretty penny from their payroll. Now, we are still heading to Havana so you can complete your task for Mrs. Brown, but this voyage is already a success. Everything now is a bonus.”

“It was that easy? We’re done?”

Doc Thomas snaps his head towards me, holding my gaze for a moment. Then, I see a massive hand flying towards my face. I try to block it, but there is just too much mass coming too fast. His hand pushes my arm to the side, and then slams into the side of my head. I feel my ass leave the bed as his slap picks me up, sending me through the air, into the wall. I crumple into a useless pile, and I feel the deep, thunderous steps coming towards me. I try to look up at him, but I honestly don’t know which way is up right now.

“Son, I know you saved a bunch of lives today, but I want to bring to your attention, almost thirty fucking people died taking that ship. Yea, if they would have listened to you, that number would’ve been lower, but how do you justify that? You are a great leader when they listen, but I bet you tell yourself, ‘Well, I told them if they followed me they would’ve been fine.’ Utah, I’ll tell you now… that’s a crock of shit. You didn’t train those men well enough. ‘Oh but I only had a month to train them’... fuck you Utah, I save lives and I thought you were of the same mindset. But if 29 fucking lives were cheap to you, this will be the last fucking time I ever treat your sorry ass.”

I look up to the good doctor for quite a few moments. What the fuck have I become… I just said 29 of our own lives were cheap… who says that? Each one of those men were their own being. Certo made their personality just as real and complex as a real human. When did that happen?

Doc walks over to a drawer and sets up an opium pipe. He brings it over, “Smoke this son, I think you need to rest and reflect.”

I start to refuse, but a hard look from the good doctor changes my mind. A few moments after my long drag I feel the opium hit me. The euphoria is amazing, and the pain I feel starts to melt from my body. I take a couple more drags and find an opium ball in my hand. I wash it down with a swig of spiced rum, and I am able to relax completely for the first time in quite some time.

After what feels like a couple seconds, I awake to a pressure on my chest. I look down to see Hybi sleeping on my chest. I cant help but smile, but I am also hit with a difficult realization… every npc has the same level of personality as Hybi. How did I begin to overlook that? When did I become any other player? As I look down, and I can’t help but play with her hair as I contemplate what the game means to me. She stirs, looking up at me with a sleepy smile.

"You need to quite getting hurt. If you don't stop I'll make sure you can never leave me again."

She gives me a hard look... which just ends up look adorable, "I don't want to lose you, because you make me feel safe. Now, you go to sleep and take care of yourself."

Without another word she puts her head down to go back to sleep. I feel myself nodding off as I untangle her hair.

"Wait, how the fuck did she get on the ship?"

I wake and frantically look for Hybi… but there is no sign of her. I check my clothes for her hair, smells, anything, but there isn’t any sign of her. I can’t help but feel disappointment as I realize her presence was nothing more than a dream.

I get up, taking stock of my battered body. I have over a dozen gashes stitched up, and my knee is swollen and aching. Looks like I tore ligaments or my meniscus pretty badly… probably both actually. As I stand up, I realize two things, it’s going to suck walking for a while and I have to shit so bad. I start hobbling up to the deck, and I see it’s late at night. I suppose that is for the best, I really don’t want to talk to anyone right now. As I get topside, I revel in the cool night air for a moment before I make my way over to the edge of the ship.

“Ugh… I hate doing this.”

I throw a bucket over the side and haul up some seawater, placing it beside me. Then I pause remembering something. I check my streaming status and see that I am currently broadcasting… I breath a sigh of relief as I turn it off. Then, I squat off the side of the ship. I try to ignore my knee screaming at me as I hold onto the banister for support. After I drop my brown into the blue, I splash some water on my ass to ‘clean’ myself before pulling up my trousers.

“Jesus, I miss toilets, toilet paper, and daily showers. I am going to get a better ship designed at some point... a outhouse can't be that hard to build on a ship. Well, at least I remembered to turn off my stream first. I mean, who the hell would want to see or hear about me taking a shit off the side of the ship?”

I make my way back down, but stop at the cargo hold before I try to go back to sleep. I look around and see that there really was a huge load of cinnabar on the Spanish ship. I couldn’t imagine that Liber would need anymore for quite some time. I guess the Spanish really are trying to take advantage of peacetime to refill their royal coffers.

Notification

Hello Utah,

This message is to clear up any questions about the live streaming service. We a the Rio Grande Gaming Division first set the streaming service to be completely up to the players, but the AI Certo realized that many players were forgetting to turn their stream off during potentially private points in time. So, she has been manipulating players streams so any sensitive information isn’t released to the public. This option will now be the default setting. Players can turn this function off, but it is not recommended. We hope that this will answer any concerns players might have.

Happy gaming,

RGGD

P.S. You’re welcome Utah.

Certo

Hmmm, I guess that answers the questions I’ve been having about how I haven't fucked myself over with the streaming. I guess that’s one less thing to worry about. I mean, looking at the postscripts I’ve been getting from Certo, I think she has my best interest at heart. I open the door to Doc Thompson’s infirmary, lay down, and shut my eyes. I think back to the dream of Hybi taking care of me, and drift asleep thinking about how real it was.