The 'service' completed, the group breaks up into smaller pairs and trios and goes about the rest of their evening.
”sorry that was a bust...” Azadi whispers to Sandara and Samms as the meeting starts breaking up.
Stopping to shake Donomsail’s hand before leaving, he returns to his normal speaking voice to say ”Thank you for that, I hope the Wind and Waves does bless our time at sea.”
Tessa looks around and shakes her head as she leaves the meeting, frustrated. She heads aft up on deck to cool off.
Almost two weeks on the ship and the sound of the dawn bell is becoming part of your daily life. It looks like it'll be a very warm day as you arrive on deck to receive your morning biscuit and receive your daily tasks.
To her dismay, Tessa is assigned her most hated task; Pumping the bilges. Her apprehension is increased when she arrives at the bottom of the stairs to the lower hold and finds Master Scourge waiting there for her along with Cut-Throat Grok. Grok looks like she'd rather be anywhere else but here.
"Ah, White Ass, just the woman I need to see," he says with a gold-toothed grin. He steps in close and a hand reaches down to her waist. As she's just about considering taking her life in her hands by striking him, his hand closes on the hilt of the rapier at her belt. With a deft motion, he pulls it from her belt.
"Not sure how you came upon this, but we wouldn't want any ... accidents ... down in the bilges today," he says as he hands the weapon to Grok who's eyes speak an apology to the swashbuckler as she takes the weapon.
After checking Tessa over for any other weapons (and relieving her of them), Scourge turns and steps aside. He gestures for her to proceed him to the trap door to the dark and damp place. There's light shining from below in the bilges from a lantern sitting on a crate. Two other sailors are already there, working one of the temperamental pumps.
As she reaches the bottom of the ladder she hears the door above close with a sound of finality. When it does so, the other two sailors turn to face her.
Aretta Bansion and Patch Patchsalt, the Boson's Mate. Both the human and the gnome smile at Tessa, but the smile carries nothing but a threat. "Get to work, White Ass," Aretta says with a gesture towards the pump.
Azadi climbs up into the crows nest once again, wondering if he should be flattered that he keeps getting assigned such an important task or concerned that he keeps getting isolated from the people he’s building friendships with. In either case, he settles in for a peaceful day of feeling the rock of the ocean waves and scanning the horizon.
Tessa had been ready to strike Scourge when he put his hand on her waist. In retrospect however, she wished he would have tried to touch her instead of stripping her of Wayfinder. As she takes it off her, her safety net dissolves and slight panic shows in her face. To make matters worse, her second least favorite person is waiting for her.
Looking to Aretta, she crosses her arms on her chest. ”Alright big ears, I’m going to get right on that. Why don’t you get started, I’ll be right behind you. Cuz if you think I’m working while you stand around and watch, you got another thing coming.”
Donomsail goes topside to discover that she has once again been put on vermin catching duty. "Welp looks as if I'll be catchin' the little critters again. Mayhap this'll give me a chance ta talk ta Polli 'n' Marisan ta see if'n they had any ideas yet."
With that she looks around to see if any of her friends are working close by where she would have an opportunity to talk to them.
Donomsail pulls aside those that she had been grouped with to figure out what to do with those that might be a problem on the ship "The way I see it we have most o' the officers ta worry 'bout 'n' only one crew member that will most likely be a problem that bein' Aretta she be the only one that's still tossin' daggers in our direction. A couple o' others seem friendly like as long as the waves donna get choppy. Those being Maheem, Tate, 'n' Fipps. So far they been nice ta us but who knows what's ta come over the horizon. Now I be thinkin' that we no be needin' ta kill 'em but we might be able to put them outta action temporary like." With that she looks towards Polli "You've got a lotta skill 'n' knowledge 'bout different medicines 'n' stuff, what exists that could put someone down fer awhile 'n' how can ya get yer hands on some?"
As Azadi keeps his eyes peeled, he does notice Scourge come back on deck and he seems quite pleased about something that he's telling Mister Plugg about.
~~~~~
"Listen, Fat Ass," Aretta says with a sneer as she steps up, chest to chest, to emphasize the extra two inches she has on Tessa. "Ya best get pumpin' afore I get pumpin' on you." The woman raises a fist as if to make it completely clear.
Tessa had been hoping that Aretta would take the bait and move in on her. As the larger woman pushes against her body, Tessa shows signs of fear and cowers before the larger woman and lowers herself to a crouch. She holds her right hand up towards Aretta’s face, obscuring what she is going to do next.
Slowly moving her left hand to Aretta’s thigh where she saw the dagger sheathed, she ever so gentlyslips the blade from it’s sheath and grasps it in her hand, slowly pulling it back away from the large woman and concealing it from view.
While this retrieval is happening, Tessa cowers and ”Oh, oh. Please don’t hurt me Aretta. Please? I was just kidding, I didn’t mean it. I’ll do anything you want. Just don’t hurt me!”
The woman's self-satisfied smile grows wider as Tessa turns timid in front of her. "Then get t' work before I slap the pretty off yer face."
Azadi shakes his head with concern at the sight of Scourge and Plugg commiserating. Knowing he can’t be gone long, he climbs quickly down to the deck muttering about having drunk to much water and heads towards the edge of ship. He pauses to piss over the rail then, on his way back to the rigging, he whispers to Marisan, ”Scourge took Tessa down to the bilge himself and came back looking pretty damm pleased with himself... if you have a chance to slip away it might be worth checking on her...”
Not wanting to risk drawing attention to the mwangi warrior, he doesn’t wait for a response before scurrying back up to his post.
Tessa rises from her crouch and backhands Aretta across the face with her right hand. ”I think you’ll be the only one getting to work down here today. I tell you what, you get started pumping right now and no accidents will befall you today.”
Having learned rather a lot from Fishguts about how much you can overhear from the galley under the right conditions Harmony keeps her ears peeled, especially once she sees Tessa being led away by Plugg.
With Fishguts generally on side it is an easy matter to slip away from the 'cooking' when she hears Scourge gloating to Plugg about the bilges. She doesn't get everything, but she certainly gets the gist - and it isn't good.
She hasn't been down the bottom of the ship much, so it takes a little while to find the trap-door, but once she hears the meaty sound of a slap coming from beneath her that narrows the search area dramatically and she wrenches open the trap-door, ready to drop into a certain fight.
Marisan scowls when Azadi passes the message along. She abruptly stops swabbing the deck and rushes down to the bilges to help Tessa!
Polli is regularly oblivious to the movings of people, so she spends the day mending. The big Rahadoumi, Maheem, lets a rope get away from him, giving him a nasty rope burn. "Settle" Polli insists, though he is just scowling down on his hand not whining in the least. Still, she puts a cream on it and wraps it in a bandage. Looking way up at him she gives the large man a Its Better Now Go On smile, and then gets back to her work, humming a little.
"I know of several tranquilizers, but Vi has referred to the cook having oil of taggit. That is the best option I know of." Polli says quietly back to Donomsail.
Maheem looks down at the sylph with grudging respect. "Thank you," he says in a terse voice before returning to his tasks.
~~~~~
Aretta's hand goes to her jaw and then she spits out blood into the foul water.
"You just saved me the trouble of waiting, Fat Ass," she says, a vicious smile spreading across her face. "I hate waiting." Her hand slaps to her thigh and a look of surprise appears on her face when the weapon that was there isn't there. She takes a half step back and waves Patchy forward. The gnome moves closer, drawing her own dagger in the process.
"You're going to die down here, Fat Ass. And it'll take almost no effort to make it look like an accident," Aretta says, her confidence returning.
Combat Begins
"For shame." Tessa responds when big ears talks about waiting, flipping Aretta's dagger into her right hand and preparing to strike "You must learn to appreciate the chase and the wait. It makes the pay so much more glorious."
Tessa moves first and steps five feet up to Aretta and slashes her dagger at her left ear, intending to cut at least half of it off.
She looks over to Patchy and shakes her head. "You don't need to be here, Patchy. Turn around and just walk out now and let Aretta and I settle this between ourselves. I've no qualms with you."
Tessa's slash does more that cut half of Aretta's ear off; It opens a slash down the side of the woman's face and across her neck.
"You b~$$!!" the woman screeches as she stumbles back a step. One hand reaches up to where blood is running freely now. The other hand fumbles around until it closes upon the removable handle of one of the bilge pumps. She pulls it off with a quick jerk and hefts it like a club.
Patchy grins at Tessa, displaying a smile missing numerous teeth. "I don't have to be here, Thweet Cheekth," she says with a spitting lisp. "But Thcourge gave me the opportunity and I canna path it up." The gnome steps in close, slashing wildly with her dagger, but Tessa easily shifts out of reach.
Round 2
Tessa grins as Aretta’s ear flops to the floor. She says ”Oh dear! Someone’s going to need a new nickname!” as she dodges Patchy’s attack. She five foots to Aretta’s right to avoid being flanked. She lashes out at her with her blade again, going for the right ear this time.
Tessa's attempt to equalize the sides of Arett's face is nowhere near successful as this strike simply draws a horizontal line of blood across the ear.
Aretta steps up attempting to position Tessa between her two assailants, but the swashbuckler is already moving to prevent that. And the woman's clumsy swing with the pump lever is easily avoided - so is the dagger thrust from the lisping gnome.
Round 3
Tessa keeps moving around Aretta, knowing she needs to avoid being surrounded by these two buffoons. She largely avoids Patchy’s movements and dodges on instinct.
Her attack the third time comes when she is off balance and she misses quite badly, leaving off her insult or taunt this time as she tries to focus.
Tessa's off-balance attack is just the opening that Aretta needs as she slams the lever into the redhead's stomach, causing her to stagger back and Patchy to miss with her blade.
Round 4
The trap door above slams open and Harmony and Marisan's faces peer in.
Tessa groans loudly when the club impacts her body, feeling what likely is a rib cracking on her left side from force of the blow. She tries to lash out again, but winces in pain when she extends and the bolt of pain flares up her body, she cries out and misses terribly.
Realizing she is overextended and exposed, she stays out of position in the hopes of luring an attack that she can counter.
Aretta swings wide with her improvised club, but Tessa steps inside the woman's reach and sinks her dagger into the woman's belly. Aretta's mouth opens in an 'O' of surprise as she looks down to see the blade in Tessa's hand. Her eyes then roll back in her head and she drops with a splash into the filthy water.
That moment is enough for Patchy to slip in and open a searing gash along the redhead's thigh. With a lispy laugh the gnome dances back.
Marisan grabs the lip of the open hatch and swings into the bilge, trying to kick Patchy! But the gnome is shorter than she anticipated, and she sails over her head instead, landing with a splash behind her.
Tessa screams out in pain from the dagger attaclfrom Patchy, the redhead had simply been not paying enough attention to her and wasn't surprised she had snuck up behind her. Looking over her shoulder she sees Marisan and Harmony approaching and shouts to Patchy "Your next, toothless! You should have walked away when you had the chance!"
Harmony drops into the bilges and snaps her fingers. The sound is quite loud in the confined space but Patchy's head snaps back as though she's been struck by a hammer.
Patchy claps her hands over her ears to block out the sound that no one else but her hears.
Round 5
Taking advantage of Harmony's distraction, Marisan drops into her rocking dance. She kicks at Patchy, performs a sideways flip through the air, then spins around and delivers another punishing kick!
And with a pair of kicks Patchy drops unconscious into the foul water.
Combat Over!
But for the ladies heavy breathing, stillness descends upon the bilges.
Marisan quickly props both unconscious women up so that they don't drown to death. She turns to Tessa, eyes wide. "You are hurt! What happened?" She looks back to the swashbuckler's assailants. "And what do we do with them?"
As soon as Patchy goes down, Tessa turns to Marisan and puts her hands on her hips "Awww, were you worried about me? I could have easily -" she winces and cries out in pain as she tries to twist her hips to swing the blade through open air. She moves her hand on her ribs and groans. "Thank you for coming, I do appreciate it."
Looking back to the fallen attackers, she explains what happened. "So he led me down here, took away my weapon and gave it to Grok and he armed both of the these two." she says, pointing at the women. "I'm not sure if they just intended to watch me suffer down here all day and do their work or if they intended to try and kill me regardless. Either way, he said he didn't want any accidents to happen which is what I assume we should do here. Make this look like an accident. I'm not inclined to save either one of them at this point, they wanted to kill me."
Marisan crosses her arms and shakes her head. "No. Whatever their intentions, we cannot just kill them. We should inform the captain that they attacked you unprovoked so that they will receive the appropriate punishment."
Tessa scratches her head ”Uhm.”
”Good plan, except, I struck first. They were about to start it, but I needed to swipe her blade and act quickly before they cornered me and stuck me. So yeah, not sure if they approach works. They’re were going to kill me, Marisan. If we don’t eliminate them now, someone is going to die. They won’t move past this, this is the second time I’ve taken down Aretta. She’ll die trying to kill me. I will get punished as well, you know their twisted system of justice.”
She turns to Marisan and puts her right hand on her cheek ”You don’t want me to die, do you?”
"No. Of course I do not want you to die." Marisan chews on her bottom lip, obviously conflicted. She leans into Tessa's touch, but her hand clasps the butterfly pendant she wears, as if seeking guidance from her goddess. "I do not think Desna would smile upon us if we murdered them."
Tessa holds her hand there while turning to point to Aretta "There's two of them and only one of me, they'll never believe me! We've been talking about ways to get rid of her and others and this was just handed to us! We could come away one step closer to freedom!"
Tessa sighs and lets her chin flop down to her chest, pulling her hand away to rub her forehead. While staring at the floor, she says softly "Will Desna smile on me while I'm getting the cat tonight?"
Lifting her head back, she looks into Marisan's eyes while slowly shaking her head back and forth but never breaking eye contact with the brawler "Alright. I trust you. We'll do it your way."
"We can't talk to the captain." Harmony points out. "Ypuve seen what happens when someone does and besides he won't act against his officers. It'd just be more blows for us. No, the way to deal with this is to send a message, a very very clear one. Tie them up, then Tessa, you stay out of this. Marisan can you back me up, look threatening and what not?"
Harmony takes a minute while Marisan sees to binding the two women to compose herself and decide what she's going to say.
Tessa frowns. "Stay out of this? I'm all up in it!"
She holds her hands up and says "Alright, alright. I hope you two know what you're doing here."
With the two women securely tied Harmony takes a deep breath and then encourages them both back to consciousness, without any great concern for their wellfare.
"Listen well you two, because I'm only going to say this once. Stay away from us. The Captain doesn't give a rat's arse about you, and neither does Scourge - else you'd never have ended up drowning in the bilges." She offers a grin that aims for menacing. "You're lucky we didn't leave you to drown down here. A tragic accident as far as anyone is concerned and I don't imagine you'd have been missed." The grin grows more predatory, and more confident.
"Even with all the advantages - numbers, weapons and you were still beaten even before I arrived. So remember. You are no match for us. We watch each other's backs. Something happens to one of us, then the others will come to help, we will heal our friends and we absolutely will avenge them. Who do you have?" She asks, quirking an eyebrow. "You're already a pariah Aretta and being Scourge's lapdog is not going to help. Especially not when you still lose."
She sits back on her haunches and holds their gaze, one at a time. "So, for the last time. Leave Tessa alone. Leave us all alone. Or learn how to breathe underwater." She stands easily and turns back to Marisan. "We can leave them here. I'm sure Scourge will come looking for them later..."
Marisan does her best to be intimidating, but uncertainty is clear on her face.
Tessa listens to her companions put forward a sound argument, but she feels they aren’t selling it enough so she pushes off the wall and steps up. Looking down at Aretta she adds ”Do as she says or you won’t get to lose to me a third time.”
Once the ladies climb up into the sunshine Domonsail pauses as she goes past them in her duties of vermin catching. "Oh ma poor dear what happened ta ya?" Donomsail kneels in front of Tessa and softly places a hand on the slash. "Gozreh laat u dienaar toe om hierdie een te help om voort te gaan op die pad wat u voor haar gestel het."."
"Who did this to ya? If'n I had ta make a guess I'd say Aretta, as far as I've seen she's the only one with a hate on fer ya."
As Harmony, Tessa, and Marisan do their best to intimidate Aretta and Patchy, Sandara's head pops in through the trap door above.
"What're ya all doing down there?" she hisses in frustration. "You two" she continues, indicating Harmony and Marisan, "Have got other jobs to do and ya best be about 'em a'fore Scourge finds ya down here havin' tea. And the rest o' ya are supposed to be pumpin' out that water."
"Look," Patchy says, showing a smile that is missing a few more teeth after Marisan's attentions. "We wath jutht followin' orderth. Thcorge thaid to get rid of White Ath there and make it look like an athident. We won't thay nothing if you don't, right?" she looks at Aretta for confirmation who simply nods her head, her eyes not lifting from the foulness you're all standing in.
Harmony nods and accepts a hand out of the bilges. "Thank you Sandara." She says quietly, squeezing the woman's hand gently. "It's good to have people watching your back."
Marisan stares at Patchy and Aretha for a few moments before nodding in satisfaction. "See that you keep your word."
She climbs out of the bilges and waits till Donomsail heals Tessa. Once she and the swashbuckler are alone, she pulls the redhead into a gentle kiss. "I have to get back to work. Try not to get killed again, okay?"
"Well, it's not like yours is a horror to watch," Sandara says with a smirk as she makes a point of leaning back and looking at Harmony's back - or rather the bottom portion of her back. She gives the woman a push towards the galley and heads off to the main deck herself.
"Yours is sweet too." The words are whispered right into Sandara's ear, with the breathy tone of a lover. When the woman spins around however she just sees Harmony's behind disappearing into the galley - she was nowhere near...
Tessa climbs out of the bilges so that Donomsail can heal her wounds. She breathes out a sigh of relief before clasping the tiefling on both shoulders. "I can't tell you how much better that feels! Thank you, friend. You are keeping me on my feet despite all of the dangers I seem to keep finding."
Turning to Marisan, she thanks the brawler and rests her head against the Mwangi's. "I need to get back into the bilges as well. Thank you for coming to my rescue. My hero." she leans in and returns the kiss, not wanting to return to the shit hole. She gives the woman three more quick pecks on her lips before turning and dropping back below where she gets to work.
Tessa does do her share of work down below and she makes sure the other two do as well. She does her best to generally avoid the two women, but takes more precaution than normal to ensure they are working hard and not causing trouble.