Mercy Offered, Gravity Accepted

I was playing this game, and obviously theft and general tomfoolery are part of the game. That stuff doesn’t usually bother me. This session was no different. I had just finished scouring a shipwreck that contained a Reaper’s Chest and hauled all the loot I’d dragged out over to the Reaper’s Hideout.
At some point, someone managed to sneak aboard my ship and started selling loot I hadn’t gotten to yet. I noticed them running down my harpoon line with an armful of treasure just as I was climbing back up. It would have been easy to shoot them or slash them since you can’t fight properly while carrying loot, but I was in a good mood. I let them have it. Honestly, they saved me the trip. I didn’t care about the gold or the reputation gain.
Once the selling was done, I raised anchor and started sailing. That’s when I noticed them hanging off the side of my ship. With voice chat on, I told them I could see them perfectly clearly and that they weren’t hiding nearly as well as they thought. They didn’t respond. So I got more specific, calling out exactly where they were clinging to the hull, and told them there was no need to hide. If they wanted to sail with me, even though they weren’t part of my crew, that was fine. I’d allow it.
Still nothing. No movement. No response.
Now I’m annoyed. I don’t like people hanging off the side of my ship. It draws attention, and while I’m confident in ship combat, that doesn’t mean I want to paint a giant target on myself for no reason. So I repeated myself. I told them again that I wasn’t mad about them sneaking aboard and that all they had to do was come up onto the main deck.
Then I issued my first and only threat: if they didn’t come up on deck, I would shoot them.
If you’re surprised they didn’t listen, you haven’t been paying attention. Of course they didn’t move.
At that point, I was done being patient. I pulled out my pistol and shot them square in the rear-end. I didn’t hit hard enough to kill them, but anyone who plays the game knows that taking damage makes you lose your grip for a moment. They dropped straight into the water while my sloop was moving at full speed.
Bye-bye.
Next time, maybe don’t test a captain who was being