august van de hoek — dutch privateer turned pirate captain ; teetotaller ; navigator and tactician ; starting to grey at his temples ; weathered by his years at sea ; the stuff of legends although is wholly unrecognisable as such because the legend has been twisted, bastardised, and no longer reflects the true image of its source material ; his crew is a patchwork of misfits but are more than capable hands before the mast ; he can be called auggie by his closest allies ; he has been called captain hook by those who have felt his wrath.

august giving off the ‘gentleman pirate’ vibe until you look into his eyes and see the subtly concealed ferality sitting beneath the surface. wondering why he has a kaginawa tied to his belt alongside his cutlass and pistol until discovering it’s his go-to choice for a weapon in the worst way. there’s a reason ingvi fits so well in the crew. there’s a reason she’s recognised as van de hoek’s attack dog. not de vlinder’s, van de hoek. there’s a reason others recognise the butterfly tattoos across the caribbean and beyond.

CREW of DE VLINDER ( an incomplete list ).

august van de hoek. captain. expert navigator and tactician.

atsuyuki nakamura. quartermaster. skilled in multiple forms of close quarter combat. met august off the coast of madagascar. taught him to fight with a two pronged kaginawa.

fabian de la fuente. ship’s surgeon. deadly with a knife. met august when de vlinder crossed a spanish patrol while still privateering. it took very little convincing to get him to defect from the navy and join their crew.

cornelius smeenk. bosun. very bad at playing the panflute, very good at keeping the ship in order. met august aboard their first ship as cabin boys. kees happily follows him from merchant seaman to privateer and pirate.

ingvi vik. gunner’s mate. attack dog. met august when she snuck aboard de vlinder at sixteen, two years into his pirate career, and incapacitated two of his crewmen. the closest thing he has to a daughter.

pascal descoteaux. cook. bemoans the lack of fresh ingredients when they are long at sea, makes a mean bouillabaisse. met august at twenty, four years into his pirate career. pax had never been on a ship before de vlinder.

hugo would lick a hand even if it wasn't covering his mouth because he's just. he's hugo.

max would not lick a hand covering his mouth bc he'd resort to tickling to get you away. or like, flipping you over his shoulder, whichever was more appropriate.

august would not lick a hand because that would be unbefitting a reaction of a captain ( bc he knows cyrus is a hand-licker and aug is above that ).

oz would lick your hand. unless you asked him not to, in which case it would depend on if he had his fingers crossed when making his promise.

tange would try to bite your fingers tbh.

jb would Not but his glare would be cold as ice.

kiki absolutely would after failing to bite your fingers.

good luck catching bernie but yes, she would lick your hand.

baz says he wouldn’t, but he’s a Big liar.

pekka would Stab You for so much as touching him, so.

if their narrative wasn’t warped by time and tall tales woven around their names turning them into people they were nothing like, august van de hoek and cornelius “kees” smeenk would have been considered by historians to be “Very Close Friends.”

august isn’t necessarily fluent in many languages but he does make it a point to learn several phrases in every language his crew speaks. his native tongue is dutch and he is fluent in english and german. he knows more spanish than french and is better at understanding / reading than he is at speaking either. japanese has been tough, but he can speak a handful of sentences and can get the gist of a slowly spoken one in return. he has a piece of parchment in his cabin on which atsuyuki has illustrated august’s name ; auggie studies the way the lines swoop but thinks he may never master the written form. the norwegian has proven more of a challenge than expected, but his knowledge of it quickly outpaced that of the romance languages.

august had a very profitable career as a privateer, though he was dutch and sailed under dutch colours, he held letters of marque for england as well.

he wouldn’t have turned pirate when he did but for the english lord admiral that raised a dispute with one of van de hoek’s prizes and how it was captured. this leads to a trial during which august is drawn into a volatile argument before the admiralty and he and his ship are stripped of their status. before he and his crew can run home to the netherlands, his name is slandered and the dutch revoke his letters as well. he is only just able to avoid another trial that would have seen him hanged, instead escaping back to his ship and crew, incensed in a way many of them had never before borne witness.

once back aboard de vlinder he puts it to a vote – this is to be a democracy if piracy is on the table, after all, and it’s not just his own neck on the line. the ayes are almost unanimous and those not quite keen on the act of fully unsanctioned piracy are paid their lot and sent on their merry way.

if he is to be their villain he will let them feel his wrath, but he refuses to act the part of a brute to his crew.