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Oit was the new guy in the ship commanded by captain Dam. Being the new guy came with a couple of problems, for one, every small and annoying task was pushed onto him. Sweep the floor on the deck? That's him. Check the ropes on all the lifeboats? Him. Keep guard over the prisoner while he is not being "interrogated"? That's Oit. How come their group was holding a man prisoner, while being docked in a city, and were not taking him to said city's cells? That was a bit of a story.
Recently, a bigwig from the upper echelons of the city had come to the royal guard over a stolen family treasure, taken away by pirates. Obviously all the marines had been notified, it was a big deal for them, since this specific wealthman "donated" a lot to the royal navy, and not getting said treasure back would risk losing their "support".
The warship Oit was assigned to took to the seas soon after the search for this treasure was official, and rumors went around the ship of captain Dam trying to secure ties with the wealthman to reach for a higher position in the navy. Oit spent those days cleaning and doing menial tasks as the officers on board talked about captain Dam.
On the third day at sea, Oit could hear gunfire ringing through the whole ship. He was below deck, cleaning, when many officers came down and positioned themselves on the canons and started loading them. Oit decided to steer clear of the conflict, after all, he was in no position to join a battle. He went down to the quarters and stayed down there until the gunfire stopped. When it was all over, he went back up to check what the situation was on deck. There, stood the captain. "Report!" the closest officer stood straight "We lost 6 men sir! Most of the assailants got away, but we captured who seemed to be the captain of the ship sir!" The captain paused at that "Where is the prisoner?" The officer turned to the other people on deck "Bring the prisoner here!" As he said this, the other officers brought a man over. He had white hair, in an absurd hairstyle of spikes pointing up at the sky. He had a big red suit jacket that was open showing a white handkerchief around his neck and a bare chest. He had rope tied around his arms and chest as he was being pushed towards the captain. He looked very calm for a prisoner.
"Hey" the bound man said, with a cocky grin on his face. The captain looked down at him with a glare that clearly held more contempt than he would have for a regular pirate. The captain turned around and started walking away "Take him to the cell, make sure to get out of him where the goods are" As the captain left, the two officers holding the man started to walk towards Oit. As they passed him, the man looked at him and winked.
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To say that Vam's plan hadn't panned out as he hoped would be an understatement.
Without going into much detail, he really wasn't prepared for an encounter with a navy warship today. They were even so close to getting away! But those bastards got a lucky shot that made him fall off his ship. At least they had the consideration to pick him up instead of letting him drown. But now he had to figure a way to get off this ship and to a town. As the men escorted him to a cell in the bottom of the ship he was taking note of everything he could use to get away. As they went down, he could hear the man that was looking at him follow them.
The cell was small, barely enough space for one chair and a bucket in the corner of the room. The two men sat him roughly in the seat "Heyyyy easy there, fragile goods!" As he said this, one of the men moved to tie him to the chair, the other one harshly grabbing Vam's hair "If you know what's good for you, you'll start talking very soon." Vam was still smiling "Ask away! I'll need to know the lyrics if you want me to start singin'!" "Then fucking tell us where you all put Percival Van'Acken treasure!" Vam looked contemplative at the roof "Mmmmh, no, sorry, don't know any Percivals, imma have to check back with you at a later da-" At that, the man in front of Vam punched him in the face, making pink blood start to spill out of his now crooked nose "Wrong tune, music man. But we will get you on the right key very soon" Vam looked a little offended "Ouch! No need to get like that! I work better with positive reinforcement!" The man then kicked Vam in the gut, tipping the chair over and leaving him back against the wood floor "Such a shame pirate scum like you deserves nothing that good" he then stomps on his stomach again, sucking all air out of Vam's body "But we will make sure to give you the 'royal' treatment, better be grateful, you unwashed criminal" With that, the man took a small blade and jammed it into Vam's right tight. He let out a small grunt "...Hey, I get it with all the physical stuff... But calling me 'unwashed'? That's just mean" Vam still spent some of his energy to smirk at the man as he twisted the knife in his leg, making him hiss at the pain "Hm, well, we will have enough time with you, let's leave you here for now and see if next time you have contemplated more on it and want to cooperate" The man yanked the knife out of Vam's leg, now covered in pink.
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As the men walked out of the cell, Oit turned around and got farther away from them, trying to act as natural as possible.
"Hey you!" He was paralyzed, already expecting the worst. "We need someone in front of the cell! make sure the prisoner doesn't do anything stupid." The officer said, throwing the keys at his chest, as they both left. With a new task on him, Oit went to the cell, a bit worried about what state he would find the other man in.
When he got there, he could see they left him tied to the chair, with his back to the floor. He also could clearly see pink liquid running down his side from the leg. After quickly checking that no one was nearby, Oit went to open the cell. "Well, you all came back soon!" Oit looked at him, alarmed "Hey! Shush." The man tried to move his head a little "Oh? Who's that? here to break me out?" After fiddling with the keys enough, Oit managed to open the cell, and went to pick up the man from the floor. "Oh, it's you! Pretty boy from the deck! What, you fell in love at first sight and are here to save me?" As Oit picked up the man tied to the chair, he was feeling more exasperated by the minute "Would you mind being a little more quiet? I'm clearly not supposed to be doing this" Oit took out some cloth he had in his pocket "Anything for my knight in shining armor~" With this, Oit went to press the cloth against the man's open wound. "Aaand what's the name of my saviour~?" Oit, being nervous about getting caught helping a pirate, said. "I'm NOT saving you. I just couldn't watch them tie you up and beat you in good conscience, ok?!" The man chuckled "Ok, ok, no need to get mad, I’m just playin~, so, what's your name?" Oit took a slow breath. "...Oit" The man smiled "Good to meet ya pal, the name’s Vam" Oit continued to put a makeshift bandage over Vams bleeding leg with the cloth he had.
"Soooooo, how's the weather?" Vam was starting to get on Oit's nerves, he couldn't be caught talking with a criminal! if someone came in they would berate him. "Please, stop already, you know why i can't be talking with you" "C'mon pal~ You don't expect me to be all quiet and mopey the whole time, do ya? Don't know how long I'll be here before I get out, I need something to do to pass the time~" Oit had been tapping his foot against the floor impatiently "I already risked enough by helping you, please, make this easier for me at least" Vam hummed sadly "Mmh, ok, ok, I get it, you won't entertain me... How about I start singin'?" "Please don't" Vam chuckled a little at the quick response "What, you won't talk to me, and I can't sing? Then what do you expect me to do?" Vam said it still with a smirk on his face, which was starting to grate Oit's nerves "Just... be quiet, please" Vam decided to have a little mercy on the man. "So, you're stuck looking after me? They don't seem to like you too much" At that, Oit let out a sigh "No. They really don't." That got Vam a little curious. "And why is that? You seem to be such a charming man~" Oit chuckled under his breath. "I'm the new guy in the crew, and they kinda have a thing going, being the crew of captain Dam" Vam scowled a little at the name, but Oit was sitting looking away from him, so he didn't see it. "They all have been going up the ranks alongside the captain, so they are a bit tight-knit. Im basically a stranger that got 'lucky' to be under Dam's command" He said 'lucky' with a clear disdain to the idea, and Vam looked at him with sympathy. "So, basically, they got their little possy, and they are all pissy cause' you got stuck here with them?" Oit let out more of a laugh at the comment. "Haha, yeah, pretty much" Vam felt a little pride at making the
man laugh. "Well, I wouldn't know about it, 'cause' my crew's the best!" And that actually managed to make Oit a little curious too "Yeah? Are they fun?" Vam perked up at the question "Yeah! They are the best, we play together, I'm the singer of course, and we always rock it out like crazy! My man, Chef, plays the drums like a devil, and our girl Iris, oh, she plays the bass like you wouldn't believe. And Jochino..." and like that, Vam rambled on about his crew and their adventures, with Oit intervening ever so often to ask for details about their tales.
Hours passed without them noticing, until Oit heard a sound from the floor above. "Shush, I think someone's coming" They went quiet as two new officers came down the stairs. "Hey, new guy, time to move, we have to... 'interrogate' this criminal" Both men laughed a little at that "Go clean the deck or something" Oit looked at Vam for a second, then got up and left.
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"Now that you had time to think back, will you tell us where the goods are?" Vam looked straight into the man's eyes. "Yeah, I think I remember now... I left it in your mom's room after we had fun last night" The man lost his cool for a second, but pulled himself together pretty quickly. "So, since you aren't gonna cooperate, I guess we'll have to provide a little incentive" The man then grabbed Vam's left hand ring finger and pulled it up as far as it would naturally go "How many till' you feel like talkin'?" Vam, again, looked straight into the man's eyes "well, i can tell you what your mom likes in bed" Then the man pulled the finger backwards, bending it out of place. Vam scowled, letting out a low groan. "Will you talk now?" Vam talked in a hiss. "She is really into rope stuff, really freaky" The man groaned, already frustrated. Then pulled out a knife. "Lets see how long you can keep this shit up" he then moved the knife above Vam's middle finger. "Honey, I can go all night~" Vam speech was forced at this point, his breathing ragged "Let's see then, remember, no safe word" The man grinned at his own joke, and went to roughly cut off the finger, serrating back and forth, the wooden skin splintering, until he broke through bone and left the finger hanging off a bit of flesh. Through all this, Vam did his best to not scream, not wanting to give them the satisfaction. He bit his lower lip until it bled. "I'm tired of waiting for you to answer, so let's make this faster. I'll just keep going until you decide to tell us what we want" Vam already had a response on the tip of his tongue when the man moved the knife's tip underneath his pointer finger's nail. He decided to hold off talking and braced himself for the pain coming his way. As the man started messily pulling his nail up, breaking it at places as it came off, Vam shut his eyes and grinded his teeth together, breathing heavily. As the nail was mostly off, the man grabbed it and yanked it out with a sadistic smile on his face. Vam leaned forward trying to hold off a scream. "Hey, your turn!" The man called out to his colleague, passing the knife to him. The man looked at the knife for a second "Mmmh, let's start with..." Then the man spun the knife around, now holding the handle downwards, and moved it just above the middle of Vam's hand. He then started slamming the butt of the knife into his hand repeatedly, crunching sounds mixing with wet splashes of blood as the hand looked less and less recognizable. Vam kept his head down, but his breathing was getting faster and faster. The man stopped, breathing heavily, with a crazed smile on his face, and moved to grab Vam's hair to pull his head up. "Now... lets do some wood carving" The man pulled the knife close to Vam's eyes, and he couldn't really see what the men did, but the vision in his left eye soon filled with blood, and he could feel the stinging pain coming from his eyeball as the men cut into him. His knuckles turned white on his remaining working hand as he gripped the chair. When he was done, he punched Vam in his already bruising stomach, then pushed him down with the chair with a kick, and plunged the knife into his right foot, and then went to beat Vam, pounding his fists against Vam's face. After that, things became blurry for Vam, and he didn't even notice when the men got bored and left him there.
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After Oit left the cell, he went to the deck, and he could see they were nearing the docks to the city. He went to ask a crew member that didn't look too hostile "We are stopping for supplies?" The man looked at him, a bit confused "Yeah, we are" Oit then, acting as cool as he could, asked "Then I guess we are dropping the prisoner off in the city cells?" At that, the man laughed. "No, we aren't, captain Dam needs to find that treasure, so that man isn't leaving the ship until he spills some information or stops breathing" Oit, somehow, managed to keep his cool as his chest threatened to stop taking in air. "Huh, ok" Oit then left the man and went down in the direction of the cell.
One floor above the cell, he encountered the two men that went in last time. One of them had blood on his sleeve "Hey! New guy, we were just about to look for you! Go keep an eye on the prisoner, we are done with him for today" Oit responded with barely any emotion in his voice. "Understood." As Oit left, the two men looked at him, a bit weirded out.
As Oit got to the cell, he could see Vam, again, on the floor and bleeding this time from his foot. As he opened the cell and went to check on him, he could see his left hand was in a terrible state, bloody, broken and with a finger missing, and his arm seemed to be barely usable. His face was badly bruised and seemed to be barely conscious, and unresponsive. As Oit went to patch him up where he could, he said "Tonight, I'm getting you out of here."
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When Vam eyes... Or eye, cleared up, he saw Oit again, sitting in front of the cell. The little chill he felt informed him that it was probably already night. He talked, his voice a little slurred. "...Heyy, knight in... shiny armor, how's it going?" Oit turned to look at him, and he looked oddly... determined? "You're up? Good, I think they are already sleeping" Oit got up and went to open the cage. "Oh... coming in to say hello? Or for... something else?~" despite just having woken up, Vam already had his signature smirk. Oit went behind Vam and started undoing the ropes around him "I'll go check if the coast is clear, then we move. We just need to get to the deck unseen and we'll be gone" Vam raised a brow after hearing him say that, his mind a lot clearer now "What? Why are you suddenly planning an escape? You were so worried about being seen talking to me and now you're gonna escape?" Oit paused for a second, then answered "They are gonna keep you here until you break, and I can't bear to watch that" Vam started feeling some concern. "And what? Now you wanna leave it all behind and follow me? Your job, and whatever family you have?" Oit didn't even look up as he answered "At this point, i dont even care where I end up." He finished freeing Vam from the bindings, and went outside the cell. "So? Let's go" as Oit looked away from him, Vam took the chair with his good hand and approached him slowly. "Yeah, let's go." And just as he turned to look at Vam, he was hit in the side of the head with the chair, with a strength no injured man had the right to have. "Sleep now, my knight..." Those were the last words Oit heard as his vision went black.
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The next time Oit woke up, he was in the infirmary of the ship. He was informed that, somehow, the prisoner got out, knocked him out and escaped into the city, being currently on the run. Oit's heart ached deeply, as he realised what Vam had done for him.