The Adventures of the HMS Harlot

Part 4: Captain Victoria Neckett

I was betrayed twice today; once in action and once in words. Odessa actively hid her deepest secret from me and endangered our entire crew. Am I so terrifying to her, my closest friend....my only friend, that even she feels she cannot share her past with me? Many of the crewmembers fear me, but not Odessa, never Odessa. It was not her secrets that brought out the anger in me; it was the lack of faith; the lack of trust. Maybe, if she had known me before; before the Harlot; before the fall of the Capital, she would not fear me. She would know that deep down inside me there is a human being and that I am not a murderous monster all the way through.

It was never my intent to earn respect through fear; it was my intent to earn respect through strength and confidence. But I suppose after all these years fighting for survival what I view as strength and confidence, other's view as evil. And now the one person who never saw the devil in my eye, I have learned always has. Maybe it was the stories...

I am sure she had heard them. Maybe not as bedtime tales, but surely around the firelight. It did not take long for the stories to start; only a few months after the royal navy took to piracy. Parents would tell children stories of me to scare them; and children would tell stories to each other for the same reason.

The first time I heard one we were on a pillage. The story began as they do "Once upon a time..." and continued "There was a decorated Monarchy Captain, who made a deal with the devil." They said my hair was made of fire and my eyes matched those of a lizard. It's no wonder so many people fear me. Mix the truth with fire hair and lizard eyes; I would fear me.

Does Odessa see me that way? If Odessa had heard the stories, she probably already had me prejudged when I pillaged her caravan. Of course, she knows I do not look like that, but does she believe that though on the outside I look normal on the inside is a hideous demon? For how could someone so cruel as I not be controlled by evil?

As for the second betrayal, Otto deserved it what he got. 

Captain Victoria Neckett