[M]: This post was made primarily because I suddenly realized how depressing I've been, and I wanted to try my hand at writing something that wasn't horrible and doom and gloom and cynical and shit.

That means it might end up being sickeningly sweet, hackneyed, and cliche. Don't worry, I'm right there with you. But you can still go fuck yourself.

Alfonso van der Golven watched the sunrise. It was his favorite time of day! One of his mothers sometimes came out to picnic with him, but most of the time he just watched the sunrise by himself. Today was a special sunrise, though! He watched father's ship dock in Port Ribellarsi, right after the orange sun rose!

He dashed down the hill - it was a little over two miles to the town, and his father's guard were never happy with him with that, but Alfonso didn't care! His dad was the burgher! The admiral! He was the greatest dad ever!

Port Ribellarsi was still somehow lively even this morning! People were always unloading and offloading! So many ships came through here, going north, going south, going east! It was all so exciting! Father pointed to all the places on the map that ships went! Their names were so weird and bizarre! Port Aurora, Starburst, Cornya, Ally-beedo, Tarango. Fort Dolshe! Fort Dolshe was the best one, Alfonso decided. Father said he'd take Alfonso there one time.

Father wasn't at the ports though. His first mate Hoobart told Alfonso that father had gone up to his house to see Alfonso's mothers immediately, and that Alfonso should be in bed instead of running around. Alfonso didn't care what Hoobart thought, he was only a first mate. So, Alfonso ran as fast as he could! That was really fast! He even filched a sugartreat from the market and the baker scowled at him and ran after him, but that wasn't really stealing - his father owned everything here!

Finally he came to his house - it was big and white and had pillars! All the best houses had pillars. Did you ever notice that? They all did. When Alfonso grew up, he'd have a house with a million pillars! His boat would have a thousand pillars too!

Mothers didn't have dad with them. One had a big belly though. She said that Alfonso's little brother was in there. Little brother? Alfonso never noticed he had a little brother, but he hoped that neither of his mothers ate him too! They said to wait for father, and they played with him a little. Alfonso loved playing with toy ships!

Father finally came out of his room, he had his "mates" there! Those doors were always locked when Father was sailing, but one time Alfonso found a key, and found all sorts of really weird things! Maps of places, pictures of weird ships! The maid caught him in there, and he was grounded, but he snuck out after the tutors came in. He hated those tutors. Know it alls, snobs. So what if he didn't know how to read. Nothing was really worth reading anyways, and even if it was someone would read it to him. He always had the servants read his fathers letters to him, and write the letters back for him!

Father went on so many wild adventures! He went up to Fort Dolshe, and beat up the evil Nexans! He took back the booty from smugglers and pirates - and gave it to the needy! He was in sword fights with illegal pirates and stuff, and he said he found lost treasures, and he went to every far-off place! One time, he even went to Wumangje! He said nothing really interesting every happened there, just that he had to deliver letters. Boring, boring reading!

Father always said that he loved the letters back that Alfonso had the servants write. He didn't know why, everything always seemed dull in comparison to Father's adventures. There were no pirates or swashbucklers here. There was no evil Nexan for Alfonso to defeat! Maybe those Salvadareans would work though - they were all stinky and stupid and smelled, just like the servants!

But finally, Alfonso got to spend time with Father! This was the best day ever!

[M]: This might just be the most pointless thing I have ever written. I have turned a 12 year old character into a total spoiled jackass. That reminds me of my cousin. Why did I write this.

I guess I characterized Basheer van der Golven a little, and set up his eventual shenanigans. Humanized him a little.

Also! Established Port Ribellarsi in Novoporto! It's a tradestop mostly. We seem to have a lot of those.