piratejournal | A Written Warning

WARNING:

I will no longer condone the continued harassment of local innocents nor the willful and callous destruction of their property.

The next one of you who throws a temper tantrum that causes harm to homes, stores, livelihoods, or scenery that do not belong to our enemies THE NAVY will find yourself tied up and punished in the same manner of your wanton destruction.

Davy Jones can bring you back from being murdered, but let's see what he can do with someone who is burned almost to death, shall we?

If you do not have respect for the sanctity of the lives of those around you, then I shall have no respect for you.

This is a promise.

Signed,
Elissa Cousland

[Elissa doesn't use her usual blue, ballpoint pen for this entry. While she may be overly enamoured of the wonders of plastic pen technology, a noble just doesn't make a formal proclamation with such an implement. Since she's long since rid of her old quill and ink, she has borrowed Haytham's to write out this decisive statement of warning. In it, she uses a formal, calligraphic font that is almost Celtic. It is signed with a bold, angry flourish.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The fire after the Naval Ball? That was acceptable. The target was our enemy. That child's tantrum on Eternal Bliss? Unacceptable. She ruined lives because she was having a temper tantrum that had nothing to do with them.

Is that so hard to understand?

It is.

Not all other pirates are our friends or foes. I'm fairly certain my vengeance for the navy isn't universal, and if I don't limit it to those who cross a line, it would become meaningless.

Nothing is so simply black and white, eh. Even when I was at war with the entirety of the marines in my world, there were a few among them who did not wish to cause me and my brothers pain, and a few who threw down their arms. Even Ace's grandfather who stopped me from saving him, later saved my life. It's always complicated, yoi.

[Elissa releases a heavy sigh.]

You are right in that. I would have expected it to be rare to meet someone with a complete lack of compassion or consideration for others, but it seems there are many within our population.

Perhaps, if that child had experienced the horror of having her home set on fire, she would better understand. It is not something that I wish to live through again.

Perhaps, Elissa, you need to explain that.

[He can't openly tell her that immolation is how Ace died, nor that he understands from Leanne how scary it is to have one's home razed.]

If it is any small comfort, from what I understand, she did not burn houses, merely the wedding chapels, and the people of the island are very forceful about their desire to see people married.

According to my girlfriend the people of the island wouldn't stop trying to get her married and eventually she was forced to pretend to be engaged to one of her nakama in order to get them off her back about persisting.

For someone such as Kodachi wielding a broken heart of her own, it would be like rubbing salt in an open wound every time they asked her when she would get married.

Not that she wasn't rash, but we all have our moments, eh?

If she harmed no homes, then I do feel better about what happened, though the loss of work will make it difficult for those families. Still, she could have simply retreated to the ship for some peace.

I would have.

Any further explanations about my feelings on the matter will likely fall on deaf ears, Marco. The number of arguments I have had to answer grieves me.

Maybe she could have, but don't expect everyone to do as you do, eh? It will just lead to heartache of your own.

I hope then you won't have to hear of anymore razings in the near future, but I think you might want to hear a story first.

My father often took over islands to protect them. We flew our flag over any lands he decreed our territory, not to force tribute or taxes or whatever else, but to protect those regions from exactly that. It started with Fishman Island, when we saw how many slavers were using it as hunting ground for the tenryuubito.

Such a thing worked because anyone who wanted to fight Pops to prove they were the strongest had to come find him directly. Anyone who had the sense and brains to protect their lives knew that defying Pops' laws, either killing someone with our tattoo, or firing on our flag would be viewed as an act of war we'd punish with death, knew to avoid doing such things.

All the same, there were many men like Crocodile who would try to gain reputation and power in any means they could.

When Pops died, his islands fell to me to protect, and right now, I cannot. That is... [Beyond painful. What does he tell people he always protected now that he can't? "Find the lesser of two evils?" "Sorry but I'm not as strong as Pops."? There's no right answer of course.] Troubling. The day he died, people all over my world threw celebrations and parties, in victory for the marines, and in honor of defeat of the 'monster.' Pops' islands did not party of course, they were mourning him, because they knew him. They didn't have much time to mourn him however, because they were almost instantly attacked by all the pirates we'd always held off.

Without Pops, those islands would always have been attacked like that, so it's good that they even had as long a respite as they did.

Still, what once was a shield, now is a target.

I've made sure to blaze my words of war for all the ocean to hear, but I mean it as a lightning rod. I hope to find those who'd be drawn to it specifically for that reason. Don't be careful just for your own sake, eh? If I named a mere useless rock out at sea under my protection, there are those who would wish to blow it up just to prove that they can. Be careful what you paint a target on.

[It takes her a moment to answer after he finishes. When she speaks, her voice is tired.]

I had not realized that I might be endangering others, but tis too late to back down. I cannot do that. Even after so many months here, this is new to me. My world has its share of evil and I have fought the worst of it, but it seems my war isn't done.

Marco, I simply cannot condone one of us harming innocent islanders for fun. It isn't right. If these things were happening to the populace of Highever, I would not stand for it. How can I ignore it here?

I'm not asking you to, but you shouldn't think of us as all allied pirates up against the navy.

My family fought a war against all of the marines in our world, but they aren't our only enemy.

Good, evil, innocent, righteous, that kind of thing will trip you up on the seas.

There's what you can do, and what you can't. We made it an unbreakable rule of the seas, that no one could touch any of our crew without retribution. We outlawed slavery, we enforced our protection. Paint too broad a circle and you'll run into area you can't protect.

Figure out what's most important to you, protect that.

You're right. I had been mistakenly thinking we were allies simply because we were all brought here by Jones. It was foolish, perhaps, but I did.

I won't do that anymore.

I'll speak to the crew since I have probably put them in danger with my words. Find out what they are willing to protect, if anything. I know that I would protect them just as you protect your own.

Good girl.

Careful, aye? It's easy to be rash, but it's harder to refrain from vengeance when we want it most.

Would you be careful, if I asked the same of you?

My father's final wish was for me not to pursue vengeance, but to get my family out alive.

Caution is what I live and breathe, no matter how much I hate it.

Besides, if I don't play cautiously for Ace's sake, he can't go wild, eh. Someone has to be reasonable.

If more people around here were reasonable, I would not have felt compelled to write what I did. Tis both frustrating and horrifying to realize that I cannot make people like Kodachi understand that what she did was wrong.

A Written Warning

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