15[22:39] Well, that went about as well as you could've hoped. About as uncomfortably, too. But that's narrative editorializing - how does Piu feel about her bath with the girl the earth talks to? Does she feel better after her bath? 15[22:40] She can hear Dryas cross paths with Garnet outside. Sounds like Dryas is looking for a nightcap. [22:42] 4Part of her absolutely does! 14Frankly, the other part of her does too, but it's tempered by some recriminations for the security risks present in opening up like that to the possible-Empress. Everything's still technically on V'neef's head -- and she feels a bit guilty about that, too, though House V'neef could stand to cultivate a reputation for remorseless violence when pressed [22:42] 14-- but the lines to draw back to Iselsi are getting firmer and firmer for someone who knows precisely what to look for. 15[22:47] Maybe so... but who knows what to look for? And doesn't everyone have enough on their minds as it is to go fishing among their closest and most-trusted for spies? After all, it's not Piu's matriarch roving the oceans somewhere out of sight like a shark beneath the waves. It's not Piu's sister who's gone mad or worse and crippled the Realm thereby. It's not Piu who seems to be sliding 15[22:47] ever-closer to Hell. [22:48] 14Eh. Some scholars may differ, before we're done. 15[22:48] It's not Piu who... well who really knows what's up with Zhangyu? 15[22:49] That boy ain't right. [22:49] 6Not Zhangyu. [22:51] 4Anyway! Piu will head back to her room and change into something comfortable, and that Ratel's fucked her in before. [22:51] 4It's time for the more difficult, probably more fun, part of the evening: in-group diplomacy! 15[22:54] Piu knows which suite is Ratel's, whether because she's a savvy operator who adeptly absorbs information from her surroundings, or because Ratel made sure to tell her. There's light coming from beneath the door, though it's pretty quiet within. [22:55] 4Ratel is an incredibly talented officer and savvy people-wrangler, which means there's a good bet she can identify Piu's knock by now. 15[22:58] The door swings open just enough for Ratel in to fill the gap, standing there in her nightclothes. She's got the doorknob in one hand and her big flame piece in the other. "What are you doing out of bed?" [23:03] "Not doing anything between the sheets for like, twelve hours got borrring. So I thought the ship's captain might wanna debrief me." [23:03] 4Ah, puns. [23:04] "You know how the Blood is. A little poison, even really bad poison, is only gonna keep us down for a couple hours." [23:05] 4She almost says 'and Daizo and Caxi are excellent doctors,' but bringing those two up together might ruin the mood. 15[23:05] "No kidding." Ratel clears her throat. "Listen, I'm, uh... I'm pretty drunk. I don't know what kinda company I'll be. But if you can't sleep either, come on in." 15[23:05] She gestures into her suite casually with the giant jade hand-cannon. 15[23:06] "There's no one--" Ratel clears her throat again; this time Piu realizes she's stifling hiccups. "--under the bed or anything. So, speak freely." [23:06] 4Hah. [23:07] 4Does Ratel usually hit the bottle alone like this, or is this stress-drinking? 15[23:09] Piu cannot recall the last time Ratel spent a night alone. [23:10] 4Sigh. Well it's a good thing she's here. [23:10] 4She'll perch on the edge of the bed. The view's good enough without her having to strategically position her legs to try, but she's clearly right there if Ratel wants to have a go. 15[23:14] If it's not her, it's Caxi, or Caedus, or some stranger in port... the windows are open, at least, so it smells like sea air instead of rum in here. Ratel's suite, unlike Piu's own, has a balcony, and the doors are thrown open to admit more sea air and the first waxing crescent of the new month's moon. "How's Dryas doing?" asks the Commodore as she pours two more drinks, up to one of 15[23:14] which can be Piu's - but neither of which has to be. [23:15] 4Piu will take one, if only to slow this train down at least until she figures out where it's headed. 15[23:15] Cheers, then. [23:17] "She's...uh. Less than impressed with my judgment on who I buy coke from. I think we'll be fine. She and Lena weren't all that close, though. And now she's the head Cynis on the island." [23:17] "So, things have been worse?" 15[23:19] Ratel flops down on the bed beside Piu with a force that belies how steady she manages to hold her drink. They're close enough to touch, but Ratel's hands are occupied - one propping her up, and one holding the tin mug - the bog standard variety every enlisted sailor gets their daily rum allowance in - that seems to hold the bulk of her attention. "That's good. Another business 15[23:19] opportunity." [23:24] 4Piu: "She'll be great at it. Except the slaving parts. Kinda hope she fucks those up. Or ends them." 15[23:25] Ratel contemplates her rum. "I don't think she's got it in her to do either. Maybe... maybe you could get her to give it up. But if it's not her, it's gonna be somebody else. And if it's her... she's gonna do a job." [23:27] "Mmmm. Oh." 4Piu's smile turns into a conspiratorial grin. "Our passenger has a request." 15[23:27] Ratel: "Her Imperial Majesty?" 15[23:28] That gets her to take a swig of rum. "What does she want?" [23:29] "Dick." 4Piu pauses dramatically. "But she's got hangups about fucking boys with girlfriends, so the rest of the senior staff is out. Even Samperson, who she has decided is my boyfriend, without consulting me." [23:29] "Well. The rest of the senior staff...except two." 15[23:29] Ratel: "You're joking." [23:30] 4With her 'absolutely not joking' face: "I am absolutely not joking." 15[23:33] Ratel cackles, and the cackle breaks the levy holding back her hiccups. "Of all the bullsh--*hic*-- of all the bullshit to be shy about. That is not the Empress I know. The Empress I know would just... point. Or give a look. And whoever it was would just know." 15[23:33] "Does she want me to pass them a note?" [23:36] "Oh no, she's not really asking permission like that. I mean, she kind of is. But she's more worried about, well, yeah. The whole Empress thing." 4Piu sips her drink. Is Ratel drinking straight rum or...what's in this? "We talked about it and both agreed that if she tried to keep the veil on it'd just fall off while she had one boy going at each end, right before climax. Hilarious, [23:36] but with dire implications." 15[23:39] It's not straight rum, or if it is it's got something added to it - likely a syrup made with local sugarcane. This must be one of the bottles from the open bar for the princess's wedding rehearsal. "If they were triplets, then she'd have a real problem." [23:39] "Hehe." 15[23:39] "You think it's safe to bring them in?" [23:41] 4Of course she swiped one. Pure Ratel. "Yes, but even if I didn't, I think we kinda don't have a choice at this point. They're goofy and dumb, but they're not stupid, and they can tell they're the only dynasts on the ship being boxed out of senior staff meetings about Garnet. They're gonna get resentful. Especially since one of them already tried his best to die for this mission." [23:41] "Better to have them inside the teahouse pissing out." 15[23:42] Ratel: "Stupid's not the problem. Loyal's the problem. See, the rest of you, with your extracurriculars... ranging out like that keeps you close, you know? You're all putting yourselves in a spot where if the mission gets sunk, you have more and more to lose." [23:42] 4She giggles. "At the same time, we should probably do it in a way that's not like, 'And so now we're only telling you because we except you to go sling that dick on demand.'" 15[23:43] "Not them. They stay in their cabins, they do their work like good little boys. Good little Cathak boys." [23:47] 4She giggles again at her school memories of good little Cathak boys. "Well, Ito Pan at least should have some goodwill for us. Or at least curiosity about how we were able to fix him. But it sounds like what you're really saying is we need to get them out and about more often. Get them messy." 15[23:50] Ratel: "It's either that or getting the mission back on course so there's work for everybody. But all this *hic* milling around... weeks of work and one cold lead. It's no wonder you're all trying to fish while the tide's in. It's not like like got anything better for you to be doing. So, yeah, maybe. Mess *hic* 'em up a little. 15[23:51] *It's not like I've got [23:57] 4Piu feels a little guilty about not letting Ratel in on the Deled thing just yet. But this isn't the setting for it, since she'd just go charging out of the room drunk to find the guy and then we'd have a whole situation. She'll find out soon enough anyway. Deled will make sure of that! "I don't think it's so bad as you make it out to be. But I did kinda want talk about that directly. [23:57] The extracurriculars." [23:57] "Not the extracurriculars themselves; just, like, the fact we have them." 15[00:02] Ratel slides off the bed to go get the bottle and bring it back. This time she leans against the headboard, her knees up, white silk nightclothes riding up to expose that weird tattoo on her upper thigh. She pulls a cigar box out from the travel bag under her nightstand. Offers Piu one before lighting up herself. [00:03] 4Sure, why not. And as a fire aspect, she can give them both a light. [00:03] 4What is that tattoo? Piu's certainly had time to inspect it up close. 15[00:04] Just some weird swooshes. https://i.imgur.com/rErpLj4.png [00:04] 4Huh. 15[00:11] After a couple of pulls. "What've you got for me?" [00:17] "Nothing...yet. But in the next, let's say, two days at most, something connected to Furia is gonna surface in Brightwork, probably in a pretty dramatic fashion, because of our extracurriculars. And it just...has to happen that way. For secret reasons. And I wanted to give you that heads-up because it's a pretty extraordinary circumstance and I wanted you to be ready for it, and because [00:17] I can tell the tension is kinda building between us as a hearth and you as a captain, and I wanted to do my best to ease that tension, ma'am." [00:17] "And I don't mean in bed." [00:17] "Well." [00:17] "Not just in bed." 15[00:18] Ratel looks levelly back at Piu. "Why?" [00:20] 4Piu sighs. "Because we don't need any more friction among the senior staff than what's clearly going on with Caxi." 15[00:20] Ratel: "And what makes you think that tension's coming from me?" [00:22] 4Piu: "With all due respect, ma'am, you were problem-drinking alone in your room in the dead of night. We all have, to some extent, been there. And Caxi's a bitch about it." 15[00:23] Ratel: "So then do what she won't, and look me in the eye and tell me what the problem is." [00:27] 4Piu's been looking her in the eye the entire time! That's never Piu's issue. "Well, it's going to be difficult to swing a threesome with Daizo and frankly I just wouldn't attempt it. I would have it out with Caxi in a way that's healthier than taking frankly embarrassing digs at each other in public in front of the sailors, which you've both done twice now and which Caxi is both [00:27] too immature and too unincentivized to do on her own. But mainly I'd like to avoid more situations where you feel like you need to walk into Dryas's quarters and threaten her. And we can do that with more talking about stuff, and more clarity around the stuff we can't talk about." [00:27] 4Hopefully that's honest enough for the Commodore. 15[00:29] Ratel drinks from the bottle and rinses her mouth out with smoke. "Start with what you can't talk about." [00:32] 4She sighs. "There's an up and coming crime syndicate in the near archipelago called 'the Garden.' Word is that they don't deal in the third arm of the triangle trade -- no slaving -- and make up for it with even more murdering and smuggling. The crime lord Nn Tloc isn't very happy with them right now. They operate mostly out of Abalone, but strangely, there's been word of a new [00:32] branch growing in Brightwork. They are not fans of Nn Tloc. The feeling is mutual." [00:33] *4She sighs. "There's an up and coming crime syndicate in the near archipelago called 'the Garden.' Word is that they don't deal in the third arm of the triangle trade -- no slaving -- and make up for it with even more murdering and smuggling. They operate mostly out of Abalone, but strangely, there's been word of a new branch growing in Brightwork. The crime lord Nn Tloc isn't very [00:33] happy with them right now. The feeling is mutual." 15[00:33] Ratel: "She's got my daughter smuggling?" 15[00:33] She waves a hand. "Whatever. I'm interrupting." [00:35] 4Piu: "No, that's basically it. Garnet's not really connected to any of our outside work. I really was just fucking Ted on the side in a bad series of coincidences for everyone involved. I guess we do a bunch of illegal underground fighting as well but that hardly counts as a huge revelation?" 15[00:36] Ratel: "What about Lena? Was that really an accident? Or was it weeding?" [00:53] 4Piu, 14after a pause: "The Abbot has ruled it an accident, and the Knight will respect his ruling. It positions both Dryas as the head of her House on the island, and frees Bodease to help her and us without administrative interference and incompetence. So I'd ask you if you really want a direct answer to the question, given what's implied by asking the question itself. Before you [00:53] answer, I should tell you that the first thing Lena said to me was to ask whether I was for sale to own or just rent, before ordering me into the powder room to be her toy." 15[00:56] Ratel draws in a deep breath and then lets it out. "I appreciate what you're trying to do here. But you need to understand that deniability *does not protect me*. The four of you are my best people, and if you get out of your depth then I have to back you up for the mission's sake. And even if you weren't my best people, you'd still be my people, and my people don't get left behind." 15[00:56] "So if you're really concerned about my safety or my peace of mind, don't keep secrets." 15[00:57] "If you're concerned about yours... I don't know what to tell you. Except that that's not a tension that just gets eased." 15[00:57] Or Bodeased." 15[00:58] "What do you want from me, here? What purpose do I serve to you?" [01:02] 14Piu: "Well. If we're being honest. You're competent, you're loyal to your people, you do what you say you're going to do and you're personally invested in the mission's success. You're not directly and actively reporting to someone higher up in the chain, you're conflicted about the state of the Realm and I'm pretty sure you haven't taken sides in what's looking like an incipient [01:02] civil war brewing in the Realm. You're a misfit like me, the bimbo bitch hired killer, Dryas, the Cynis who's squeamish about slavery, Daizo, the Immaculate monk with wings, and Zhangyu, the guy who might actually be too strong and too silent for polite society. [01:03] "Cynically, your flaws make you predictable to an extent, and thereby controllable to an extent, and thereby safe for us. Less cynically, we just like you more than a bloodless Mnemon or Ragara overseer we'd have to constantly hoodwink." 15[01:04] Ratel: "'Cause I'm just the fun slutty Peleps overseer you have to constantly hoodwink." [01:05] 14Piu: "If that were true we wouldn't be having this conversation." 15[01:06] Ratel: "I still don't understand why we are. It doesn't sound like what you want from me is compatible with what you're doing out here." 15[01:06] "Logically this points me in one of two directions: you want me to be different, or you want me to stop you." 15[01:07] "Ah, I'm sobering up. Fuck." More rum. [01:08] 14Piu sighs and leans back on the bed. "We're having it now because we were gonna have it eventually and, despite the barbs, I respect you enough to give it the fair shot. Frankly, I'm fine just going back to the vibe where we don't tell you anything and you get kinda mad about it later but it all works out in the end because we're just that good at our jobs. Because we are." [01:09] "And if the worst consequence of that is you get to vent at me about it afterwards, well, I can take my dressing downs." 15[01:11] Ratel: "I don't want to go back. If I'm good enough to keep in command, then I'm good enough to let in. This entire inside-outside bullshit, where you four are your own little fief inside the mission-- it's done nothing good for me or for the mission. How can you say what you said about the Cathaks with a straight face and then say what you just said to me?" [01:15] 14Piu sighs again. "Because I'm excellent at compartmentalization and hypocrisy. Obviously I have to take this to the rest of the hearth if you want to know specific operational stuff, but for the rest...are you sure you want all the way in?" [01:15] 14She knows the answer here, but she's gonna make Ratel give it. 15[01:18] For just a moment, the ghost of a smile dances across her lips. It's fully dissipated before she says, "Yes, I'm sure. Do you think that'll be a hard sell to the others? I can make it. There's no reason you have to be the CO Whisperer if you don't want to be." 15[01:18] "One of the many advantages of not being a double agent within your own crew." [01:22] 14Piu smiles slightly back. It'll fade halfway through for obvious reasons. "I enjoy the position. I am not and have not faked my fondness or respect for you...which is why you're still alive. You were never supposed to be Commodore of this mission. Certain factions -- not just in House V'neef, either, though I wasn't privy to the discussions -- wanted you removed and told me to do [01:22] it. That speech I made at the banquet? That was me refusing." [01:23] "And at substantial reputational cost, I got my way." [01:23] "Mnemon Dusk, Mnemon Hedrin, and Cynis Lena I was not so fond of." 15[01:25] This gets a fuller smile from Ratel... and a laugh. It bubbles and builds, rolling higher than a giggle but not quite incapacitating her. She slumps her head back against the headboard. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. I buy that." [01:26] 4Whew. "I would have said something earlier but like...there's no way to have that conversation out of the blue without it seeming like you're trying to hold it over that person's head, you know?" 15[01:26] Ratel: "Yeah. Not unless everyone knows they've passed the point where one can swim if the other sinks." 15[01:27] "Thank you for saying that. A lot of people in your line of work would not have." 15[01:27] "Of course now I wonder why they wanted me to recruit the crew if they didn't want me to lead it. But why would you know that? I bet nobody really does." [01:27] 14Piu: "People in my line of work are genuinely fucked up in a lot of really bad ways." 15[01:29] "Once... when I was younger than you are now... and I was sitting where you are now... the Empress was sitting where I am now. I asked her, how do you keep it all straight? So many plans? So many schemes? So many ambitions?" 15[01:29] "She told me that she had come to view the Realm as one great beast, with ten arms, ten hands, ten knives, and no eyes." [01:31] 14Piu: "That's...pretty perceptive. But then she was the Empress. Is? Who knows at this point." 15[01:32] Ratel: "I thought that it'd eventually get less weird, her not knowing me. Not recognizing me. Not remembering me. But it hasn't. It's just gotten weirder." [01:33] 14Piu: "I never met the Empress, but I still think that Garnet has her heart and her mind. And somehow, also her deep and abiding regret." 15[01:35] Ratel: "I still need to talk to Caxi. But that's not your problem. You're sure your exposure to the Skullstoners is covered? What about with Cynis?" [01:38] "Lena's mother will be a problem. She was specifically looking for us." 14She'll pass Ratel the note from Lena's quarters here. "The Skullstoners are perfectly content to let Lena's 'accident' go but it cuts both ways; they probably won't mind much if Falen comes back on us for it. The good thing about the cover story is that it'll limit her vengeance to me, and I'm pretty sure I [01:38] can take any hired killers she has reach to throw at me all the way out here." 15[01:42] Ratel: "Falen will have no compunctions about hurting Dryas to hurt you, directly or indirectly." 15[01:43] "If that's what she thinks her best option is." 15[01:44] "Mnemon earns her reputation, but for my money Falen is the coldest bitch on the Blessed Isle." 15[01:45] "Her daughter was not extraordinary." [01:46] 14Piu: "If she decides hurting Dryas is the way to go, then she'll quickly learn the only thing keeping me restrained was Dryas's feelings on the matter. As both a practical matter and one of basic respect I can't just keep going around killing her family members. Shouldn't even have done it with Lena, despite it being a perfect opportunity and execution." [01:47] "She might be the coldest bitch on the Blessed Isle. But this is not the Blessed Isle." 15[01:47] Ratel: "Now you see my point, before." 15[01:47] "This is the kind of party I really need to be able to RSVP for." 15[01:48] "If I'm worth having around at all." [01:48] 4Piu grins. "Oh stop putting yourself down, ma'am. Instead...why don't you come over here, and refill my drink." 15[01:49] Ratel picks up the bottle... and pulls Piu in toward her with her free hand. [01:50] 4A few minutes into the festivities, she'll giggle from...parts further south and ask, "What is this tattoo anyway? It's real pretty." 15[01:52] Ratel: "Heh. That's a memento. A girl from my first command. She was kind of like you. Tough, Outcaste. Outrageously hot. She was covered in tattoos. Eventually we got close enough that she gave me this one. She had one just like it." [01:53] "Mmmm. I won't break the mood asking how it ended." 4A kiss. "How it ends isn't the point." 15[01:55] "Mmm." Ratel savors the kiss. "Happy memories. But they're just memories. Right now..." She doesn't need words to make herself clear. [01:56] 4And so it goes. One more time, with feeling.