Off the coast of South Los, on Coconut Island.
Nearly two thousand pirates on the island were so drunk they could barely stand.
South Los was celebrating the Wintertide Festival.
The pirates on Coconut Island were celebrating the Wintertide Festival too, and indulging themselves far more than most people in South Los. Heaps of roast meat, plentiful booze, and heavily made-up women were the centerpieces of their festivities. They roared with laughter and ate and drank with abandon, while the occasional shriek from a woman only made them laugh even louder.
But that was as far as it went.
Although plenty of pirates wanted to take things further, these women were under protection.
Bloody John had promised them protection as soon as they arrived on the island, and had announced it at a formal gathering there. No pirate was willing to challenge Bloody John.
Not even those who belonged to different pirate crews.
Because-
Of the four pirate crews gathered on Coconut Island, Bloody John's was the strongest.
The Caspian Sea Ravager, the Dokiman Island Devils, and the North County Gentlemen Pirates had all acknowledged Captain John and... submitted to him.
Those who neither acknowledged him nor submitted?
Captain John had chopped them up and fed them to the fish.
Those who acknowledged him but refused to submit?
Captain John had hanged them, then fed them to the fish.
Only those who acknowledged him and submitted could stay alive.
And the abundant food and alcohol made the surviving pirates' approval of Bloody John soar, as it did that of the women invited to the island.
They made no bones about being prostitutes.
That was right!
They were prostitutes.
But they were only prostitutes, not spoils of war.
If the pirates wanted them, they had to pay.
No money?
Then no