High Seas: The End

Originally written to announce the ending of High Seas, our second “Universal You-Ship-We-Ship” program which ran during the winter of 2024/2025. Subsequent to the end of this program, teenagers all over the world organized over a hundred physical meetups to find the other High Seas participants in their area as part of a worldwide in-person connection building effort called Mystic Tavern.

High Seas: The End

Trashbeard and Arrpheus backed their ship into the docks at Bootymouth Bay. “Beep… Beep… Beep” Arrpheus said quietly to herself, pretending the ship was a great big truck as the stern of Le Dumpstairè II slowly approached the pier. Seconds later their ears were greeted by a familiar cacophony: a bellowing stomach-churning crunch, the splintering of wood, and the frightened screams of dockworkers, most of whom had barely managed to leap out of the way in time to avoid an unscheduled swimming lesson. The horrible noises concluded as the ship ground to a halt—except for the angry dock people, who still sounded very pissed off. This relative silence was the signal for our crew to disembark.

Arrpheus flung the rope ladder over the port gunwale and the duo climbed down to a section of dock that was still mostly intact. Captain Trashbeard gave a friendly wave to the dockworkers, who seemed curiously upset about something. Perhaps when she returned she could gift them each an old banana peel, or an empty Doritos™ bag with a few crumbs still inside, or some similar treasure as a way to lift their spirits. She was positively loaded with good stuff like that after the last haul. Arrpheus looked back over her shoulder at Le Dumpstairè II with her dinosaur dinner-plate eyes, wearing a frown that refused to turn upside-down. She was happy to be home, but she didn’t feel quite ready for the adventure to be over. She stopped and turned back toward the harbor, her gaze sweeping across the water as it tangled and played with the sunset in a blazing kaleidoscopic dance.

“Goodnight, water.”

She took a big breath in.

“Goodnight harbor. Goodnight docks. Goodnight sunset.”

Her raccoon friend watched her in reverent silence.

“Goodnight beaches, goodnight islands. Goodnight seagulls. Goodnight fish. Goodnight wind, goodnight waves, goodnight storms… goodnight kraken.”

Arrpheus stumbled over her next breath, her chest heaving as a handful of tears made their way down her cheeks. She looked longingly at the magnificent vessel sitting nestled among the fractured beams of what used to be a pier. Her quivering voice dropped to a whisper.

“Goodnight, ship.”

The captain stood beside her now, looking up at the silently trembling dinosaur. A tiny raccoon paw reached up to tug gently at Arrpheus’s big dumb hoof. “Come on, buddy. It’s time to go.”

Arrpheus looked down—smiling at last—and nodded her assent. “I’m ready now.”

Paw in hoof together, they turned once more and walked up the the hill toward the beckoning glow of the Mystic Tavern, where their friends sat waiting with stories all their own.