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Black & White
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“Beware that, when fighting monsters,
you yourself do not become a monster...
for when you gaze long into the abyss.
The abyss gazes also into you.”
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
For with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged
and with what measure ye mete,
it shall be measured to you again.
- Matthew 7:1-2
King James Bible
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The Brew D'Agon's boson worried over everything aboard ship; it was his job. There were so many things to oversee aboard a boat this size that Robert Crane (AKA Rob the Hook) compartmentalized his thoughts, otherwise they made his head swim. Nothing could crack Rob’s scowl as he surveyed the immense ship.
All the crew on the forecastle except two hurried about their work. Boson Crane immediately recognized the newlywed couple. “Black” Jacques LaMoor and Stefanie “Sally” LaMoor (nee McQueen) were married just a fortnight ago here aboard The Brew D'Agon by The Right Honourable Reverend Doctor himself. The boson wasn't concerned with them; the lovers’ were off-duty. Jacques was true salt, and Sally was no longer a lubber; they knew to stay out of the way of the watch.
Rob was surprised to see the pair not running a card game and fleecing the rest of the crew clean as usual. His own pockets had been relieved of the weight of more than a few pieces of eight by those two and their unnatural good fortune. While they’d never been caught cheating, the thought had crossed a few minds. No one dared accuse them to their faces, not out of fear of Sally’s infamous wrath, but because Jacques was arguably the most honest pirate any of them had ever known. If Jacques and Sally beat you at cards, it was because they were both skilled and lucky. Remembering the financial losses he had suffered at their hands deepened the frown on Rob's face, but he didn't have time for miserable, miserly memories at the moment.
Bosun Crane’s mind turned away from the newlyweds long before his gaze did. The bosun double-checked his mental list, then triple-checked it, as he continued his dutiful worrying.
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The two lovers leaned into their embrace, temple to temple, hand in hand. In this day and age, theirs was a love only possible on pirate ships such as this, or so Sally thought as she gazed out and over the bowsprit and the painted gorgon sea-bull maidenhead of The Brew D'Agon. She looked down and stared at her and her love’s interlocked fingers, marveling at the simple beauty of the contrasting hues; his skin so dark some would call it blue-black, hers the color of milk, of cream, of sun-bleached bone.
Back in Virginia they were persecuted; their loving union had been ruled an illicit “abomination against God and Race”, but now they were free to love as they chose. Sally believed they had finally sailed far beyond the reaches of her family and its culture of damned, ignorant, racist hatred. She had forced Jacques to wait for so long, but she couldn’t marry until she felt safe from all the hate.
And yet, even here Sally thought she felt judgmental eyes upon them. She peeked aft. Boson Crane scowled at them from midship and then turned back to his work. Oh my God, her mind raced off in the wrong direction, why does racism always seem to rear up its ugly head when you least expect it? Sally buried her head in Jacques’s chest. Her heart burned fiercely, flooded with agony and desire. Sometimes all the hate in this world made Sally want to stab a bitch. Goddamn it, why does everyone have to be so quick to judge what they know almost nothing about? She seethed.
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Christian Love, the first mate of The Brew D'Agon, frowned as he observed the young woman’s mercurial mood swing. Standing near the helm in the shade of the poopdeck, hidden from the view of Boson Crane, the first mate read Stefanie’s body language like a cunning fortune teller might read your future in Tarot cards, tea leaves, or the palm of your hand. It was one of his talents, part of his blessed curse, to see things where others were blinded Therein he saw a shadow fall over the two lovers’ otherwise bright future.
Christian had learned from experience; he knew with total certitude that love and hate were not opposites. In fact, if the human emotional spectrum were imagined as a circle, love and hate would meet at the point of extreme emotional attachment. Therefore, the shift from one to the other is quick and easy, and at times, instantaneous. The true opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is apathy, indifference, unfeeling-ness. In mythic terms, Hate and Love are both forms of fire. Apathy is ice. And all experienced explorers and adventurers know ice to be as deadly as fire.
Christian knew, if this young couple did not learn how to live and love free and unaffected by other people’s opinions, if they did not learn to balance and control the elemental forces within themselves, their love would quickly shift to hate and back again and again. Catastrophic burnout would be inevitably followed by the fall into cold-hearted apathy. These kids had a whole lot to learn and they had best learn quickly, if they wished to experience True Love in this lifetime. The first mate whispered words of wisdom he had first heard from The Right Honourable Reverend Doctor Heronimus Jones.
“Love is the root of all agony.”
A woman’s voice called to him, whispering in his ear from afar. No one else could hear her. He heard her voice only in his mind, although “heard” is a somewhat inaccurate description; it was more a visual sensation. He saw her silent voice writ in fiery letters upon his soul.
Christian? Love?
Mr. Love’s worried frown reversed into a widening grin. He called to her – vocalizing though he did not need to do so – as he scurried gaily across the deck to the ladder down toward the ship’s galley and her.
“I’m coming, beloved.”
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"Oh God! I'm coming!"
The quartermaster roared as he spurt his seed deep into his lover's anus. He was careful not to crush his smaller mate under his gigantic frame, even as he collapsed, spent and exhausted, on Rob's back. Arthur nuzzled his grizzled chin playfully on top of the boson's head before tenderly showering the same spot with soft kisses. Rob turned his head and brushed a kiss against Arthur's collarbone.
"I love you so much, my big bear. You know the only time I don’t worry is when we’re together."
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“I know you, you know me”
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together, right now
- The Beatles
Come Together
And the shadow ship started to emerge from its shadow.
- A.E. Von Vogt
Earth Factor X
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