Jeff the Accountant Escapes the Wretched Burning Depths of Hades

30 Days

In earlier talks with Olu, Cinna confessed that he was frankly disappointed when he wasn't recognized as the person formerly know as The Gentleman Pirate.

Though his encounters with the greater pirating world had led to tales of his and his crew's escapades, they were usually tales told to bring on laughter. That "the Gentleman Pirate" got himself killed - on dry land, no less, in his own hometown, multiplied that laughter and derision.

But Cinna had grown to accept the trade off. The Gentleman Pirate wasn't legendary for the reasons he'd hoped he'd be, but Pirate Captain Cinna's renown more than made up for it. And he could almost convince himself that he'd earned it.

Olu's talks helped build his confidence. And confidence breeds success, so Cinna grew to truly be the pirate captain the bigger world believed him to be.

But it wasn't enough.

"What's it all for, Olu?" Cinna forcefully kicked a chair, surprising him.

"Captain?"

"What's it all for if I can't be happy?"

"I don't..."

"You were amazing!" It was Pete. He and Buttons walked into the captain's quarters without knocking. Cinna had an open door policy that, Olu thought, was probably going to change in the near future.

"Two of Blackbeard's crew members! Joining your crew! By choice!" Button's said.

"And what about this? 'I go by Kirk' 'well, I'll just call you 'Kirkland', anyway.' "Pretty badass, captain" Pete fawned.

"Yeah, Ed would be super impressed, I'm sure." Cinna hurled a handful of doubloons at the wall as he said that.

"This is new" thought Olu. "Uh, guys, maybe just..."

"Yeah. I guess we'll go." Pete knew something was wrong too.

"You did good, captain. You did good." Buttons hoped his words mattered, hoped his captain knew the respect he held for him.

"You were saying, captain?"

"Olu, I thought this was what I wanted. To be a pirate captain. And, well, I do - I do want that. I want the recognition. The spoils of conquest." He was running more doubloons through his fingers, from a large pile on his table.

"I wanted the respect of a crew."

"You have that. Captain, you have more than earned our respect."

"Have I? How? By some twist of luck I was able to buy a ship that strikes terror in men's hearts. How did I earn any of this? Just sailing the damn thing bought me time. Time to learn enough to actually be a pirate captain."

"But you did learn, Cinna."

"And that!" "Cinna!" "We were supposed to get new names together!" "That's all he asked me to do." Cinna's tone was shifting. "Think up new names, cool ones." Cinna was reliving the last minutes he'd spent with Ed. "Meet me at the dock." "Get some sleep." "Olu, why haven't we found him?"

"Why haven't we found them?"

"I don't know, captain. I don't know."

"30 days." "If we haven't found them in 30 days, we're sailing for China." Cinna knew it was a huge outside chance of finding anyone there. Maybe even finding China itself, though he had boatloads of confidence in Buttons' ability to do so.

This simply couldn't go on. He loved the sea. But what he loved more was missing.