Sway

Sway von Buque

Name:	Sway von Buque
Location:	The Harbour
Rank:	Harbourmaster
Step Name:	Jambi
Rogue since:	2016

Noted Favors and Awards

• 2016 Top Step
• 2016 Won Men's Arm Wrestling
• 2017 Won Men's Arm Wrestling
• 2017 Rummy Award for organizing and running Pirate Bowl
• April 2019 Voted in as Harbourmaster

Biography

 Thinking back, I’ve always felt I had a good childhood. It’s hard to imagine a time when things were bad. I believe I was a happy child. As happy as any child could be. Those memories came crashing down as I got older. My mother was very young when she conceived me. My father was much older and decided his life would be much better minus a child and a woman to take care of. Because of this, my grandmother sought out help to have me removed from my mother’s womb. Thankfully, my mother protested. 
 It wasn’t easy dealing with such knowledge as I got older. That feeling of not being wanted. Thankfully I had my mother’s love. Or so I thought. As I got older, my mother begun to resent me for reasons unknown. Maybe I looked like my father. Maybe I was the reason no man would have her. To this day, I don’t know why. I just know that no matter how my life would turn out, I would always be a disappointment to her. Once I realized this, I left home. I was 14.
As the years passed, I felt myself being drawn to the sea. I hung around the docks, trying to find work unloading ships and cleaning fish. I soon found permanent work aboard a vessel called The Southern Eye, a merchant ship. She was captained by Jonas Costa. It was from this man that I would learn how to become a man. 
Months went by and it wasn’t long before I fell in love with the daughter of a local merchant. Lucinda. Whenever the Southern Eye would come to port, Lucinda was there, waiting patiently for her love to return from the sea. In time, Captain Jonas had taken on another merchant ship and assigned me to captain it! Life was good. So good that I soon asked for Lucinda’s hand in marriage. 
That evening, while having dinner with Lucinda’s family, questions were asked of me that had not been asked before. Who were my parents and what kind of work did they do? What village did they reside? Of all the times spent with her parents, they never pressured me to answer before. They were content to accept that I did not care to talk about my past. But not now. Now that I had wished to marry their daughter, they wanted to know everything.
 So I told them. That I was born never knowing my Father and left home at an early age due to resentment from my mother. That at one time, my grandmother sought to end my life before it had even begun. I was a bastard and I had no family other than the sea. 
As tears begun to gently slide down my cheeks, Lucinda’s father placed his hand on my shoulder, looked me in my eyes and said “You have grown to become a fine young man, but my daughter’s hand is not to be had by a bastard.” His words did not sting. I’ve always felt that I’ve disappointed those in my life. What stung, no, what cut like a dagger was the lack of words from Lucinda. Her eyes never gazed upon me. She simply got up from her chair and went to her room. I knew it was over so I returned to what was now my ship, The Northern Eye. 
The following morning I could not wait to set sail. I had to get out to sea. I had to get away. As my crew prepared to set sail, Captain Jonas boarded the ship and had wished to talk with me. To bid me safe voyage. Or so I thought. I was informed that The Northern Eye was to be captained by some son of the governor! Before I could even ask why, Captain Jonas had already exited what had been my quarters. I was left standing there. With nothing. Nothing but orders from this, pretended captain. I don’t even recall what was being said. I just left to catch up with Captain Jonas and demand an explanation!
All I got was, “It is what it is. Be a man. Get over it. We set sail within the hour.”
That day, The Southern Eye and The Northern Eye, set sail minus a crewman. They set sail, minus a bastard. That day, a man left a town without a bride. He left with nothing more than a name he never asked for nor wanted.
That day, a bastard realized what his grandmother had known before he even was born. That he had no place in the world. 
I again found myself in yet another shipping port looking for work. Looking for anything. Looking to belong. I drank. I fought. And I drank some more. And fought as often as I was drinking. How was I not dead yet? It wasn’t from a lack of trying. So, I tried harder.
One night, after yet another drunken ass kicking, I managed to find my way in the kitchen of an Inn owned by this woman. Or man. Or something. I couldn’t tell you. I was too far gone but the next day I had awaken in a bed and my clothes removed. I had been cleaned and found some food on a table. Before I could take a bite this nice spread, a woman with the eyes of an angel came into the room. 
I asked who she was and she simply replied, “A friend.” While I ate, she brought in some clean clothes and said I was more than welcome to stay for as long as I liked. I told her “Thank you but that’s okay. I’ll be on my way once I get dressed.”
She then took my hand, looked me in my eyes and said words I will never forget. “You have a kind soul. A soul that has been tormented. Let me ease your pain. Let me love you.”
I was speechless. This woman did not know me. I was a stranger she had saved. 
I told her. “I’m a broken man, not worth loving or saving. I belong nowhere. I fit in nowhere. My own blood wished me dead. Those who were to help me find my way in this world had abandoned me. One I had looked up to, simply cast me aside. I was not good enough to be loved. My only desire is to just fade away.”
Tears rolled down my face like a raging river. I had never felt so beat down. And what did she do? She wiped away my tears and simply said “Let me love you.”  I didn’t reply and again she said “Let me love you.” I asked her name and she said, Katoo.
In time, we were married and I was helping her with the Inn. I was happy but I missed the sea. Oh how I missed the sea. It was just by chance one day that a man came into the Inn and had asked me if I knew of any able-bodied men that would like to set sail with him and his crew. I quickly volunteered myself but he made it clear, that this would be no ordinary voyage with no ordinary crew. He told me his name Ohm, retired Captain Lorrance Ohm. Before he could say anything else, before he could entice me, I told him that I was once lost, but found my way to the life I have and I am content. I wasn’t even sure why I had even volunteered to join his crew. 
At this time Katoo had come over and I introduced her to him. He smiled and said “I understand the change of heart. Be well my friend.” As he got up to leave, Katoo stopped him and asked what his ship’s destination was? 
He replied, “Some place, where you can call home. Some place where you find peace and be one with the sea. But you have to want it. You have to work for it. It isn’t for everyone.”
I didn’t know what to think. I looked at my Wife, she smiled and said “this is what you have been waiting for. To belong somewhere and to finally find yourself.” I felt more bad then excited because I knew this meant leaving Katoo behind. I told Captain Ohm thank you but I could not leave my Wife.
He replied, “Who said anything about leaving her behind? How can you find happiness without the one you love?” We set sail in the morning. You’ll meet the rest of the crew then. 
As he left, I realized I had never given him my name. I yelled out, “Captain Ohm, my name is…..”
 He cut me off and said “That name, whatever it may be, no longer exists. Tomorrow, you will be given a new name for a new life.”
 What must a person endure before coming to peace with who they are? How much do they have to go through and for how long? For me, it has taken 48 years. 48 long years of hurt, doubt, ups & downs, love, lust, pain, joy and loss. Could my journey to find myself finally be over?

To be continued. Sway’s New World.

Previous Ships

2016 - Graduated from The Harbour's Step n Fetch Program