pirate king (pirate!au) ➵ ateez ✔️

confrontation

For a moment, there is nothing but the sound of the sea winds sweeping over the sandy beach. His father takes a deep breath, exhales and speaks.

"The being you call Chin Hae..." he says softly, words carried over by the wind, "It is the essence of the sea that people call the sea goddess."

Wooyoung stills completely, so shocked by the man's words he can't seem to move except to utter a single 'what?' from his lips. Yeosang, too, seems similarly stunned, eyes wide with surprise. Only Hongjoong swallows at the confirmation from his own father's mouth, jaw clenched.

"What you call Chin Hae is nothing more than the essence of the sea in a vessel of clay." His father says calmly, and every word resounds in his ears like a gunshot. "All the memories, every kind word it has said, every warmth and every embrace it has ever shared with you: it is most likely fake. The sea goddess has some sort of agenda in mind, I know it. The gods do not extend compassion to human beings - it simply isn't their nature."

You had come to his ship without memories, and they had found out that you were a a living, breathing, walking body of clay. The way all of the people they had encountered in the attempt to discover your identity had spoken of you as if you were something not quite of this world, something special, it all points to what his father is saying: you're the sea goddess, and the very same one who had saved him all those years ago on the beach his father had marooned him on.

The sea is a cruel mistress, it does not discriminate, he remembers his father telling him that all those years ago. It is unfeeling and merciless, and cares nothing for humans. You must learn to overcome it yourself, son.

Hongjoong remembers the way your eyes had flashed stormy grey last night, the colour of a raging sea ready to pull him under, the knife in your hand an inch from ending his life. What if... but no...

The silence is broken by a snort, before it suddenly turns into full blown laughter. Hongjoong turns to see Wooyoung wiping away the tears at the corners of his eyes, laughing so hard that he can barely keep himself upright if it weren't for his shotgun supporting him.

"Sea goddess!" Wooyoung wheezes. Hongjoong presses his lips together, and Yeosang inhales slightly. Is their gunner alright in the head? "Chin Hae, a sea goddess?"

Hongjoong's father does not reply, simply watches as Wooyoung regains his bearings. The gunner shakes his head, determinedly raising his gun once again to point it at his target.

"You thought just telling us that she was a sea goddess was going to be enough to get us to give her up to you?" Wooyoung says sharply, teeth gritted. "Let me tell you something. You've never felt the warmth of her hug or the softness of her hand in yours. You've never seen the way she cries because she's worried for you." Wooyoung's hands tighten on the gun, shaking near imperceptibly with his anger. "But we have."

At those words, the air suddenly drops in temperature. Thunder rumbles somewhere off in the distance, lightning faintly crackling overhead, and Hongjoong shivers ever so slightly. Unease begins to pool in his gut, rising with each passing second as the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. What is happening?

"You're talking about things that you do not understand." Hongjoong's father's voice turns cold, and for the first time in his life, Hongjoong senses anger in his father's words and his heart plummets in his chest. "Do you know just what the sea is capable of? Have you ever been on board of a ship in the middle of a hurricane as the waves and storm rips your hope to shreds right before your eyes?"

Wooyoung falls silent at his question, unable to say a word. His father presses on, voice growing more and more quiet until there's another voice speaking with his, distorted and mangled like an echo overlapping with his words. "Have you ever stood at the helm, watching your crew members get swept overboard by waves as you try to steer the ship out of the storm? Look on as their friends scream and cry for them before they too, in the next second, are lost to the sea? If you have, tell me if you think that anything capable of doing that could ever be kind and loving?"