Origin Stories
Author: Amata le Fay
Title: Origin Stories
Story: Ether Lands (RP)
Flavor(s): Summer Challenge TV Tropes Bunnies 16 (what could have been)
Toppings/Extras: None
Rating: PG13 (light swearing)
Word Count: 388
Notes: This is what happens when you can't figure out your character's backstory because all the options are equally badass. All of these except the first are origin stories I'm considering.
“I heard some of the idiots on land think Cap'n is the love-child of Xelis and Miqa, that she the goddess of pirates.” The woman adjusted her worn-out eye patch, then spat on the card she'd laid down. An ace. The other players rolled their eyes, though whether this was a reaction to the ship swaying, the sailor's winning the game, or the outlandish tale she was telling, no one could say. “The lubbers can't stand to see a real flesh woman commanding a ship, now can they?”
“I 'eard she started by getting kidnapped by the 'ighwayman to be 'is Thief Queen,” said a blue-eyed man as he started to sharpen his knives. “Nika Donne, Road Robber o' Death 'imself, took 'er when she was twelve years old. She got a look at 'is treasure trove and shot 'im to take it all, then bought our boat with the gold.”
“Captain, kidnapped without a fight? Bitch, please.” A thin, dark woman who looked like she could be the Captain's sister moved as if to cough, but instead broke into a fit of mean laughter. “She don't let men be her boss, even at age twelve.”
“Then whaddaya think happened, Buff?”
Buff shook her head. “All she told me was she came from caravan family inland, all dead.”
“Did she kill 'em?” another woman asked. “Shoot 'em all dead and stole their gold?”
“They'd've died when Nika Donne attacked the caravan,” the blue-eyed man from earlier insisted. “That's the true story, mates, it all adds up.”
“You all wrong as the land idiots,” said eye patch woman, rolling her good eye. “Does Cap'n never tell you nothing? She got married to this guy, Enry, but soon as he got the dowry from her father she killed him for it. Claimed the dowry as her birthright and shot all the men in the camp. That's how she get all the woman's lib thing going on.”
“If so, why's she not shooting all us men dead now when we claim some of the plunder?” a dark man in the corner who'd lost miserably at all the card games muttered.
“Face it, we never gonna find out.” Buff slung her rifle over her shoulder. “Think I hear the captain calling. Let's move on out, there's a scholar ship we taking down.”