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Questioning the Captain [Short Story]
Topic Started: Thu Dec 28, 2017 1:56 pm (81 Views)
Buddy
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Many things were very quickly not right. The sky was a dull gray, yet there was no wind, nor roiling clouds catching and bleeding faint hints of light, nor crackling with sparking energy. There were no waves on the sea, leaving it dead as flatlands, and so no noise from them lapping against the vessel's mighty hull. The sails were all furled, and no words of the ship entered to the Captain's mind. The deck was clean and neat, clear of obstacles and crew alike.

Holly exited cautiously from his quarters, no weapon to be armed with, no armor-like captain's clothing to protect him. He was on his own with his wits, with not but his faithful feline companion, Zangetsu, sitting calmly on the railing of the deck and watching the human's cautious movements. At least it seemed well that the cat was so fortunate as to adjust quickly to this oddity of reality, but Holly would not feel relaxed until he was certain that nothing was about to spring to his death.

"Hello, Buddy Holly." A voice called to the captain as he looked out at the dead sea.

Buddy's pivoted fast towards the source, but not a soul was left before him, nor great below him, save for Zangetsu watching him patiently from the rail. Unless a spirit was hovering aboard his ship, though he only crewed proper undead with bodies, the only likely perpetrator of the unfamiliar voice would have to be the black bobtailed cat. Slowly he approached his longtime friend, blue eyes wide against the gray world, "Say that again?"

"Hello." The cat's mouth indeed moved with the words, open and shut, two syllable movement. Straightforward and clean.

"Well that settles it, I'm dreaming!" Buddy laughed as he straightened his posture, turning to look at the world about him once more, "Strange, though I usually dream in color more vivid than this."

"This is no dream." The cat responded to dash that assumption.

Buddy spun and pointed an index finger at what he was convinced was nothing more than an argumentative figment of his imagination, "Of course it, because try as I might, I've never gotten that cat to talk to me."

"You are correct." The now-talking cat nodded.

"I'm glad we agree, now--"

"I'm not your cat."

The captain sighed, a frown overtaking his cleanshaven face as he spun about a few times with frustration before addressing the very real possibility of that statement, "Bloody sea. Alright then, what are ya and why do ya look like me cat?"

"Because more than anybody else, you confide in him the most."

"And now why would that be a thing? And where are we?" Buddy demanded in his most captainly of a way.

"The Ethereal Plane, my own little corner of it." The black cat explained, "I'm curious to learn more about you, Buddy Holly."

"Look, call me 'Buddy', 'Captain'. or 'Captain Holly'." Captain Holly rapped his fingers impatiently on the railing next to the cat, staring the feline in the still-golden eyes, "I thought the Ethereal Plane was a singular thing."

"Nothing is ever so simple."

"So what do I call ya, then?"

"Many call me The Gatekeeper. This is my realm, and if you answer my questions, I will let you leave."

"Eh, too busy a name. I'll call ya, 'Gatey'." Buddy said, turning about and sitting himself on the rail next to the cat, "Some questions and ya'll let me leave? I'm not tellin' ya where me treasure is."

"Nothing so mundane are material."

"Alright then, we'll see. Ya're not going to be tellin' everybody about this, are ya?"

"I promise that I will not tell anybody."

"Guess that's as good as anything in the Ethereal gets." The pirate sighed, "Alright, fire away, ya blaggard."

"What is your idea of perfect happiness?"

"A mountain of gold and a lass on each arm. Next."

"Please answer honestly."

"What? That's honest. Ask anybody, I'm a terrible liar."

"You might be more clever than you let others believe, but here I can sense the truth." Despite the intensity of the words, the ethereal cat's voice did not waver, staying neutral, "Please, answer honestly."

"Rather heavy lead anyway, isn't it?"

"Would you prefer something simpler?"

"Aye, I think I would."

"What traits do you value most in your friends?"

"Loyalty. Next."

"Buddy."

"Fine." The captain pouted, wanting this to be over quick and clean, but it seemed that his abductor and host had other plans, "Honesty. Ya happy?"

"How curious to value it in your friends but not yourself."

"It's called a 'double standard', and every captain does it."

"What is the best gift you could ever receive?"

"Gold."

"No."

"No? What do you mean, 'No'?" Holly sort of half-spat and mocked the answer, annoyed at how difficult this was proving, "Gold is the perfect gift for the man who has everything!"

"For you, though?"

"Aye! Gold gets me what I want."

"But it is not what you would most like to receive."

"I'll pass again, if ya don't mind."

"Very well. What do you care about most?"

"Treas. . ." He paused, looking at the cat's unchanging expression looking back at him, so familiar yet so alien. No, that answer would not quite do, would it? He thought a second more before answering, "Me crew. That do ya?"

"What do you consider your greatest achievement?"

"I suppose that'd be an 'aye'." Finally, a good answer, "Surviving the destruction of me homeworld."

"Truly an impressive feat, but not what you consider your greatest achivement."

"Anybody'd be floored at that one."

"But not for you."

"Hmm. Outwitting that daft wyrm, Bluespeaker."

"A true testament to the legend you've built so far, but still not your consideration."

"Bah, there's no pleasing ya, is there? Stealing the Haunted Ardanian out from under that blonde lass."

"Truly your crucial flagship, but nothing more than a staging ground for your legacy."

"Awful knowledgeable for all this. What are ya on about, asking questions ya already know the answers to."

"I only know when you are not wholly truthful with either of us."

"I don't like ya bein' in me mind."

"This could be quick if you only answer honestly."

"Well if those aren't good enough for ya, then I don't know what to tell ya!"

"Then tell me, what is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?"

"The most embarrassing?" Finally, a question he could answer with true confidence. Everybody knew this one by now, much to his chagrin, "Oh, now that'd be easy. The first time I turned into a lass! Wasn't sure what to do with the new bits and how afraid to be for the old ones. Glad that was temporary, but it has haunted me every since."

"What price could someone pay you in order for you to betray a friend?"

"Depends on the friend."

"A true friend."

"Then. . . There's no price. I don't like people tryin' to game me or me mates."

"What is the worst thing you've ever done to someone and why did you do it?"

"Keel-hauled a mutineer."

"To you, that was just maintaining order aboard your ship in a time of turmoil. You thought nothing more of it."

"Don't know what to tell ya, then." This was beginning to get uncomfortable. The questions had started out nice enough, then grown a bit easier, but now they were shifting.

"What haunts you the most?"

"Skip." A question that could lead to all sorts of trouble for Buddy.

"What is your greatest fear?"

"That I'll be stuck in here with you. Next."

"Temporary."

"Skip, then."

"What is the trait you hate most about yourself?"

"I'm lazy."

"Untruthful."

"Skip."

"What is your greatest regret?"

"Skip."

"What do you think is the worst fate that could befall a person?"

"Answering to you." Buddy spat, quickly growing frustrated as he lifted himself off of the railing and back to the deck, taking everything in once more. It definitely felt and sounded real enough, with his boots meeting the deck, but no smell of the ocean rising from the water.

"You know this is easily escapable."

"Then skip!" Again, the captain turned to face the false cat, though now from a safer distance.

"What would be your preferred way to die?"

"I would really rather not."

"You have one way--"

"Skip."

"I have no more questions."

Buddy's stance eased at the revelation and his expression softened to one of hopeful surprise. His arms crossed before his chest and he regarded the host, "That it, then? I'm good to go."

There was a pause as the golden eyes of Zangetsu, or rather Gatey through that form, regarded his interview in turn, "I am unsatisfied."

"Whoop-di-doo, now let me go--" The pirate began to demand, but the cat leapt from the railing and to the sea. For as fast as his feet could carry him, he could not reach the side of the ship before the cat was gone. There was no splash, no words of farewell, there was nothing but Buddy alone on the ghostly version of his ship without so much as a wind to guide, "Where the bloody sea you be goin'? Gatey? Gatekeeper?"

The captain began looking around the deck of the ship, confused and a bit unsettled by the sudden change in the pact of their interaction. He had already been abducted into this strange world, and then the Gatekeeper just up and left him alone. Well, surely that could not have been quite right. If the books on pocket dimensions were anything to read by, then this all had to be a very limited area to operate in. The real problem was that, if the whole of the area was the Haunted Ardanian, and Buddy was to hunt for a shadow the size of a cat, then what real hope did he have of finding it? Definitely none if he did not at least try to find the Gatekeeper to this realm.

It felt like hours of searching without yielding results. Fortunately the ship seemed to be as well-stocked as ever. The kitchen at least proved a good source of a meal, though the empty mess left Buddy finally realizing just how large and empty it was by that pervasive gray lighting that polluted every lantern and glowing node in the ship. The sound of each bite of food and drink of freshwater echoed off of a ship that only now did the corsair realize did not so much as rock or bob on the water, but instead sat frozen on its surface.

"I'm ready to answer your bleedin' question!" Buddy called out after several more hours of his failed search, but no reply came from the empty halls and rooms. Not even ghosts lurked on this ship, just him and the ethereal being that trapped him here. There was no immediate threat of death, no worry to survive. There was food and drink plenty to keep the captain well for quite a while, but that spoke nothing to his sanity. Of course, he was a strong-willed and clever sort. If this was a test of minds, a battle of wits, then he felt confident in his ability to sustain.

A few days came and went. Each day was the same routine building up. Awakening in his quarters, going to the mess for meals, searching the ship to not avail, and then returning to sleep. Buddy walked silently, he changed his travel patterns, he looked in all sorts of nooks and crannies, searching and searching crates and barrels from inside to out, and even checking every bit of treasure that the crew had amassed for signs of some cursed object to be blamed for this predicament. Each day, same as the last, yielded nothing but leaving the captain alone with his thoughts and the questions he had been asked.

He had given good answers to the questions he had been asked, he believed. They were as good as any pirate could give, and even better because they came from him! He had no reason to lie if it meant his escape, but the ethereal decided it was unsatisfied with him and his answers. So what was it searching for in his mind? Why did it insist on being so stubborn and cruel, or did it even realize that this was maddening? For all that Buddy survived, to find his end on this ship in some pocket mimicry of reality.

Well, what other way was there for him to go? He would be satisfied with nothing he was provided. Death was something that he spent his years running from, and he had done a fine job at that. He ran so far and fast, gathering momentum and collecting all sorts of things to protect him, surrounding himself with a crew he led into greatness, all to be undone by some deity that nobody had even heard of. Buddy certainly recalled no Capital "G" Gatekeepers in his readings from Balefire.

Then, that was it, was it? Days passing and this was his fate. Lost to the gray, a slow perishing with well-preserved food. Alone with his ship, his treasure, and his thoughts. He began to sing songs to pass the time, changing the lyrics to match himself better. He sang and he wandered until he wound back up where this nightmare began, at the railing, but this time he came prepared. Yes, this time he had a bottle of wine for true company. It helped a little, the sweet taste of some old Cascadian year that was slipping through the cracks in his mind with each sip.

"Where's the crew with which you run,
Hurroo Hurroo
Where's the crew with which you run,
Hurroo Hurroo
Where's the crew with which you run,
When first you went to carry on
Indeed your sailing days are done
Buddy I hardly knew ya"

"A fair reshaping of the song." That new but already familiar voice came from the railing above the blonde's head.

The blue eyes of the captain wearily rose to see that black shape above him against the gray unchanging sky behind it, recognizing the black fur, but feeling too exhausted to get snippy, "Thanks."

"Why do you not want to answer the questions?" The Gatekeeper asked.

"Because the truth is terrifying thing and I've spent me life hiding from it, so why would I change that for you?" Buddy answered with a shake of his head, rewarding himself for staying so articulate with another swig from the bottle.

"So why do you value honesty when you would lie?"

"Because if ya make a big enough stink about the truth, then nobody thinks ya'd be the one lyin'." Holly spoke wearily, staring straight ahead at the opposite railing on the ship, far better to him for it was void of the ethereal and himself.

"Are you ready to tell the truth?"

"It stays between us, yeah?" The captain asked, trying to hold on to one last shred of any agency and power in this exchange.

"I keep my promises." The Gatekeeper affirmed.

"Fine then, Gatey-Zan. We taking this from the top, or just the ones I skipped?"

"Which would you prefer?"

"That we get this over with fast and finally." The pirate reaffirmed, wanting to leave this drab place.

"What is your idea of perfect happiness?" The question was asked with the freshness of that first day. Not a second lost, not a even a slight pitch off.

"I don't know." Buddy answered, "It's been so long since I can remember being genuinely happy that I don't know if I'd recognize it if it were right in front of me face."

"What is the best gift you could receive?"

"To learn what me idea of perfect happiness is, so that I can chase it." For this, the blonde turned his gaze upwards at his interrogator, curious as to the response to that one, "That would count as a gift if someone gave it to me, right?"

"What do you consider your greatest achievement?"

"Guess that's an 'aye'." Buddy said, apparently only to himself, as he looked forward once again, "That black bobtail yar masqueradin' as. Remember him as a kitten a hair's breadth from bein' tossed in a river with his kind. Saved them all like a gods damned hero."

"What is the worst thing you've ever done to someone and why did you do it?"

"Convinced a fine lass to love me, if even for a while." He sighed, "She was a right pure beauty, a genasi girl back on Cascadia in the early days. I knew in me heart it wouldn't last, but I thought that if I could fake happiness until it was real, then that love would be good as the real thing. Hard keepin' love, fake or real, when ya choose the life of a pirate. Not a lot of lasses want to keep up with that, and most pirates are half off the plank. She almost got killed because of me bein' selfish."

"What haunts you the most?"

"The destruction of Arda." Buddy recounted with a chill shuddering his spine and his heart dropping to his stomach. No part of him wanted to answer this, but it seemed to be the only way out, "Watching a world crumble away into nothingness, the home you've known for yar whole life, where ya expected to die. The sound that the world makes as it does what ya thought impossible, as everything rises into the infinite. Countless lives all being snuffed out at once, imagining them screaming, or worse, accepting their fate quietly. Sometimes I wake up in a cold sweat, fearing that Chaon's just a dream, and I'll wake up to see Arda in those last moments, and there's nothing I can do to escape it."

"Is that your greatest fear?"

"No." He clarified, "Me greatest fear is that this is all real. Out of everybody from Arda, all the good people of that world, it was really a blaggard like me that lived. The last memory of a dead and gone world, and it's a pirate, selfish, greedy, and me. Everything I do becomes the legacy of Arda, of all the far better people. One mate might've even died just getting me here, and he likely had no idea he was saving someone like me."

"Is that what you hate most about yourself?"

"No. I hate that I'm okay with me. I'm building a nation of pirates, an armada of criminals. I've keel-hauled people for examples, killed good men and bad who were doing their jobs, and I steal from people to sell to others. I don't feel regret, no remorse, in fact I feel good with the big hauls. The swag and the booty, the rewards and the trophies. I've even got a crew that looks to me with that same pride, but we're all blaggards."

"So that is not your greatest regret?"

"No. That would be not becoming a fisherman like me father. I could have died with Arda, unable to run away, accepting me fate. I could have died happy and content, but I chose this life on stories from retired pirates in me village, and now I'm here."

"Would that be your preferred way to die?"

"Aye."

"So then, what do you think is the worst fate that could befall a person?"

No answer came from the Ardanian. He did not move, did not breathe, did nothing but stared forward. To consider that was a shattering thing, to answer it seemed insurmountable, and so he froze, not sure of how to proceed. Somehow he felt like he knew the answer, but to put it into words felt like deciphering the mind of a true god.

"I'm satisfied with the answers you've given, you can leave if you want."

"The worst fate. . ." Buddy Holly spoke up finally, "Standing among many but standing alone. All the fame, respect, and people, all the smiling and cheer, the memories. It's horrible how little that actually does. I've yet to meet a one that truly knows what it's like to lose everything familiar when you're old enough to be comfortable with it. Something special about losing everything when you're too young to know how much you truly appreciate it. So I smile and laugh, I lead the crew the best I can, and I quip but I never crack. There's nobody who would understand, nobody I could actually tell, so I smile for their sake. It's tiring, lying all the time. That's why I take so many naps."

The Gatekeeper said nothing. That was the final question that was asked, and it had received the answers it wanted, truthful to the core. With the paw of the cat, the ethereal reached down and placed it upon the captain, letting it rest there for a moment before returning the captain to his proper ship.




The Captain awoke slowly to the colors of reality, the browns softly illuminated by the natural light seeping in through the curtains, the colors of his bed and the things he decorated the captain's quarters with, the paleness of his own skin rich despite the darkness and contrasting with the tanner tones of the crewmates that had gathered in his quarters for whatever reason while he was out or away or whatever it was.

"What are ya all doing in me quarters?!" He shot up to his feet, bright blue eyes darting accusingly between the various leading members of his crew, with Gregor at the front of the pack of wide-eyed scallywags, "I ain't dead yet and none of ya are the Captain and I know none of ya are lookin' to be joinin' me in the bed!"

"Captain, do you--" His first mate tried to find the words, "You were enveloped in some darkness, floating there like--"

"Aye, that was some Ethereal thing, but it's gone now!" Buddy waved the thought away, not wanting to think any more on that, "Follow its example, get back to work. I'm gonna take a nap, unless any of ya blaggards care to join me?"

"No, Captain!" His command said in a broken attempt at unison, though the harmony was lacking, their agreement was clear.

"Didn't think so!" Their captain waved them away, "Back to it! Out, out!"

Like children rushing from school when the teacher was in a tizzy, some of the most skilled leading mates that a captain could have scurried onto the deck of the ship and shut the captain's door behind them. Before it could clap shut, the true bobtailed black cat snuck through the crack and leapt effortlessly to his spot on the captain's bed. For a long moment Buddy stared at the cat before turning his attention to the floor. He was tired, exhausted, but he for as much as he wanted that nap, he simply could not sleep. His mind was to affixed, and only the cat had any shared experience with him.
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