This is a commission for CallforHope on Ao3! Thanks a lot for letting me post and share! Happy birthday~
Smut warning for the second half
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Mingi's head thumped against the rough stone of his cell. Shuffling to rub the sting off, he directed narrow eyes at the cast-iron bars separating him from the corridor leading outside. The scent of the sea and cooked food travelled from upstairs, luring with a promise of freedom. Taunting since the locked-up pirate couldn't get access.
In here, Mingi saw neither the sun nor his beloved sea. The cells left and right of him were empty apart from leftover bloodied fabrics and stains of urine.
This side of the prison rarely kept its inhabitants for long. Easy come, easy go. They all danced the hempen's jig as soon as the prior bodies had been carted off to make space for more. No fool kept the pirates alive for longer than necessary.
Iron shackles bound Mingi's wrists before his body. They clicked against his many bracelets and rings, none of which had helped him break them open.
Mingi sighed. The solid rock behind him was cool against the heat of the tropical islands beyond. Mingi still wore his headband and his belt, only stripped of his weapons when he had been thrown in here after his trial.
If that could even be called a trial. He had his rights read to him by some young lad, barely a proper man of the law. After convicting him without allowing a word in response, he had been sentenced to hang. Ever since, Mingi wasted away here. Alone. Living on mouldy bread and stale water shoved into his cell with crude laughter.
Today, as well, Mingi was unattended. And while it hadn't been that long, it gnawed on his sanity. This place was harrowing, and he often listened to the wails of pain down in that 'investigation chamber'. Whenever they dragged the poor bastards outside after having their way with them, their broken limbs towed behind unconscious bodies.
What was the point of executing them if they wished for death?
No, Mingi wanted to be free. Wanted to get out of this grisly place no pirate would subject their prisoners to. Wanted to return to the sea and breathe its salty breeze.
Mingi stood and peered through the iron bars, trying to glimpse down the shadows in the corridor. He was in some kind of naval fortress and countless guards in orderly uniforms and bayonets patrolled all exits. Even if he broke out of his cell, an escape would end murderous.
But Mingi rather died fighting than going mad here because of a parched throat and a lack of light.
"Oi!" He yelled down the corridor, rattling his chains to get anyone to step close enough to hit him. The sickening joy these guards had with their prisoners deserved them to get their brains smeared over the iron bars. One step too far and Mingi could access their keys or weapons.
But nobody was around. They left with the keys, uncaring of Mingi's noise. However he raged, he wouldn't get out of this cell.
Grumbling, Mingi leaned his head against the bars. He had been pondering how to flee for days and it became harder to think. By now, his brain probably got mouldy like anything else in this rancid hell.
After clanging his bindings against the cell bars for a few more times, Mingi gave it up. He rolled up in his corner where countless other bodies had smoothened the stone as they sat in wait, praying for a liberation that would never come. In his sleep, Mingi was free. Sailed the seven seas with its salt on his tongue and the sun in his hair. Oh, how good that rum had tasted. How he should have appreciated every game of dice.
