Hello, Planeswalkers! For today’s Throwback Thursday the Social Team has put together a piece of flash fiction about a card from Ixalan. We hope you all enjoy this very short story about Captivating Crew.





I remember when I first met the captain.

It was in a tavern in High and Dry, one of the grimy ones that have barnacles growing on the floor. The ship I’d been crewing for had recently gone down in a storm. One harbor master said it was the leeches that sunk it. But I wasn’t on it at the time, on account of I’d overslept and missed the boat. Bad luck turned into good, I guess.

It can be a tricky thing for an orc like me to get a job on a crew. Sure, I’m strong. And real good at fighting. But, well…not a lot else.

So there I was in the Crooked Bilge tavern, drinking away my troubles, and in swaggers the handsomest fellow I’d ever seen. Long black braids decorated with golden bits of treasure, skin the color of rum that glowed in the dim torchlight, and the fashionable clothes of a pretty man who knows he’s pretty and wants other people to notice it. I was captivated.

“Oy, ye lot!” he bellowed. “I’m looking for a couple of new sailors for my crew. It’s hard work, but I promise there’ll be lots of treasure in it for the brave.” He smirked with a mischievous glint in his eye. “And we’ll have some fun along the way! Who’s interested?”

A few older, salt-crusted sailors grumbled, while a couple of the young ones perked up at the mention of treasure. A young woman with orange hair and only one eye studied him with suspicion. He was too gutsy—it was clear they didn’t trust him.

Before I knew what got into me, I stood up and cleared my throat. “I want to work,” I said.

Dumb. You sounded dumb, I thought.

But the captain smiled at me and I couldn’t help but smile back.

My rash decision turned out to be a lucky one. I worked for the captain on his ship, the Dandy, for months after that. He was as good as his word—the work was hard, but the treasure was plentiful. I figured out quick how he could afford such fancy clothes and golden beads for his braids. And he was a good captain too, everything a leader should be: clever, charming, and confident. His crew was right loyal. We all loved him.

We had a few close calls with bloodsuckers from time to time, but me and the other gunners always managed to blast them to smithereens.

Life on the Dandy was never boring, and I did everything I could to make the captain proud, to get him to notice me. I even started wearing nicer clothes, the fancy kind, made of soft materials and colors bright as the feathers on one of those dinosaurs onshore. He laughed at me, though, told me the colors I picked didn’t match up well. Of course, only I’d do something that dumb. I gave up on trying to be spiffy.

After a while I got an idea of how I could earn the captain’s respect for sure—I’d become his first mate! But proving my worth could take years. So I came up with a scheme. For over a month I snuck important bits of loot from the captain’s quarters and hid it away. Eventually he noticed and searched the whole ship. To his shock and rage, he found his missing loot in First Mate Gorrey’s cabin!

It wasn’t in my plan to fight Gorrey, but in the end I had to, on account of him accusing me of being the real sneaky thief. So I tossed the blaggard straight off the ship.

That’s when the captain looked at me with pride in his face and patted me on the shoulder.

“Won’t be any more thieves with ye by my side. They’ll all be too afeard of ye!”

And that’s how I became the first mate of the Dandy.

Not long after that, we docked at Rapscallion Wharf to celebrate my new title and spend our recent spoils. Our crew put on a great many parties, thanks to the captain’s motto, “We sail. We plunder. Then we dance.”

The whole crew drank and sang and danced till their faces turned red. But I just sat alone with my mug, sighing and daydreaming. I always get sappy when I drink.

Just then, I looked over to see the captain swagger my way, hunting for his next dance partner.

How lovely it would be to dance with the captain, I thought. To be close enough to see the color of his eyes and smell his hair…

But he passed me by and picked Belinda, the navigator. He always did pick the pretty ones. Sigh.

Art: Captivating Crew by Winona Nelson

