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Mito and Clematia carefully scale down the worn and narrow stairs of the Drunken Sundowner.

He almost tumbles down when one of the pirates tailing them pushes him forward.

“Faster ye cripple, we don’t got all day.”

“Kekekekek.”

Huh, Mito’s at least seen three pirates with missing limbs since he came here, he rolls his eyes. “What do they want with him?” He attempts now that one of the pirates broke the uneasy silence.

“We got a talkative one with us boys!”

“Ye better hope your red haired friend likes pirate games~”

“Too bad he looks like a goodie two-shoes!”

They all cackle and snort, knowing very well that a fair game doesn’t exist on this ship…

A bunch of pirates just came in and separated them, each group taking a share to play with: Cyrus was led upstairs, Konran was left behind with two pirates as the three others dragged Yohei and Clematia downstairs; and now they have reached an even more disgusting and neglected room…

It reeks less than the prison but is still pretty gross. The air is thick with humidity, mold and algae are absolutely everywhere and there are very random furniture and items down here. More like a trash bin than a storage room. The pirates lead them to the entrance, but they themselves do not step beyond the door frame.

“Why dontchu clean up around ere a little? It’s gotten pretty rusty kekeke.”

Yohei seems deep in thought, brows furrowed as he walks in aimlessly.

"E-errm, can we get some cleaning equipment?-please?" Clematia asks. The place is disgusting, but she doesn't mind cleaning if it'll keep her out of trouble.

“Huh? Oh right, ey where did we put em last??”

One of them shuffles through a torn and worn closet between the furniture, then takes out some equipment. Brooms, dusters, cloths and empty buckets… all saturated with filth already, the cleaning equipment itself needs cleaning!

“This place better be squeaky clean ay?!”

Bringing his attention back to the present, Yohei glances toward their captors that are leaning on the walls by the door. ‘....Aren't they going to leave? Don't tell me they'll be watching us...’ He gathers up his spirits and turns to Clematia with a small smile, he doesn't want her to get so scared on the start of their adventure. "What should we start with?"

"....I think first we should tidy up, move some of the furniture and organize it so that we can move and access things more freely, after that we should start by dusting the ceiling, then the furniture, and finally we'll mop the floor.” Thinking about their cleaning strategy helped her relax, now she had a task to focus on, and stop thinking about what they might be doing to Konran and Cyrus.

Yohei nods along, and the two of them get down to business, cooperating quite efficiently as they move furniture together and agree on an organization pattern, they quickly fall into a comfortable rhythm, and even though they are being forced to clean, the two of them find quite the satisfaction in it, as the room is slowly but surely being transformed.

“Haa~ they’re really cleaning!!”

“And that guy’s almost as competent as a woman!”

The pirates seem bored as they grumble and groan… almost an hour passed…

“Ah you kids, ye know when we’ll get to the dock?” One pirate speaks up with a smirk as he leans against the wall, crossing his arms.

Yohei pauses for a bit.

"It shouldn't be much longer… I'd say half an hour or three quarters of an hour at best, you guys have an awesome ship." He says as he recalls the speed at which the massive vessel ambushed them. He seems to be in a better mood, organizing is fun, and he found some enjoyment in finding odd forgotten items and dusting them. Clematia had also relaxed considerably, so he considers it a win.

The pirate who asked walks up to Mito, He glares down at him for a few seconds— before smacking him across the face.

“I wasn’t actually asking you dumbass. What, are you trying to suck up to me now or something? Why are you lying? This ship is old.”

He smacks him again, and again and again. As if he’s been waiting for the opportunity for a long time… the other pirates laugh in the back…

“Oooo he’s pissed now~”

‘This bastard!! Why out of nowhere?!’

At first Yohei guards his face with his arms and backs away from the attacks without much resistance, waiting for the pirate to be done with his little tantrum, but the pirate… doesn't show any signs of stopping, hitting away at him as if he was a punching bag, his strikes getting bolder and bolder. Yohei tries to dodge, rearing back until he hits one of the drawers.

The moment he is cornered, the pirate grabs him by the collar and pulls him to the side, with a swift sweep of his leg he trips Yohei and shoves him to the ground with an umph.

“YE THINK YER REAL SMART AY?!”

The pirate starts kicking at him in earnest.

“Haha look at him go!!”

Stinging pain strikes him with every blow, stealing his breath away, and it quickly becomes too much for him to tolerate. Yohei's pain fueled anger gets the best of him and he abandons his plans to just take the beating. He jumps out the way of one of the pirate's kicks, whose foot instead connects with the wooden cabinet with a yelp. From his position on the floor, Yohei shifts his weight on both hands and pushes his foot off the ground as if doing a handstand, attempting to kick the guy's gut.

⋅⋅⊱༻ • Yohei roll for kick ༺⊰⋅⋅

Roll Request: [d20]

Dice results: “ 3 ”

Yohei, going for a kick, accidentally uses his wooden leg which the pirate blocks, grabs and yanks off roughly, throwing it to the side before he resumes kicking down on Mito with rekindled aggravation.

The wooden leg is sent flying towards Clematia, barely missing her as it SLAMS against the wall behind her.

‘GASP..!!!’ Clematia was holding her hands to her mouth and standing still, horrified, but she stops herself from doing anything that will make their situation worse... this was just an angry fool's fit of anger, there was no need to escalate it or prompt others to join, not in the tiger's den...

The cackling from the spectating pirates fills the room along the harsh thuds and slams of Yohei getting his bum beat. He gasps, struggling to suck in air. Despite curling in on himself, his attacker's continuous blows are lowering his defences and making his limbs go numb from pain.

To his relief, the power behind the attacks soon goes on a slump as the middle aged pirate tires out of the movements, the cackles dwindle as well, and the spectators start loosing interest…

“Wouldn’t it be more fun if we watch the game upstairs?”

“Probably. This guy promised us fun but all I see ‘ere is a grown man throwin’ his arm around.”

“What you said, I had another idea of fun anyway…”

The guy who said that glances at Clematia, his conversation partners doing the same before they continue.

“What was the punishment again? ‘T was three whips every loss ay?”

They all laugh maniacally…

“Oh that’s boring!! I actually made a personal suggestion a few minutes before we got ‘ere kekeke…”

“Hah why didn’t you say that sooner, mate?! We’re wasting time ‘ere let’s go!!”

....It seems the situation upstairs isn't any better... they should have expected as much.. they aren't having a jolly ride on a pirate ship with no consequences... Clematia watches intently as the pirates make their way out: looks like her patience payed off after all.

She swiftly pulls out a tranquillizer dart and throws it at the pirate's back with one quick motion.

⋅⋅⊱༻ • Briony roll ༺⊰⋅⋅

Roll Request: [d20]

Dice results: “ 13 ”

The dart hits the pirate’s neck, making his body freeze then limp as he falls on top of Yohei.

Yohei mistakenly thinks the man is lunging at him to choke him and freaks out, the weight hits him hard.…. but then nothing happens.

“MITO!! Oh my god are you alright?!”

She tries to lift the pirate off of him, Yohei attempting to punch his face as he is still confused on what the pirate is doing.

“It’s fine it’s fine he's out, oh my god I'm so sorry...”

She crouches next to him and assesses his state.

Trying to breath with difficulty, after a bit of wheezing Yohei reaches a hand out and pats her shoulder in appreciation, or so she guesses, he's still curled up, face down, trying to get his breathing to a normal rate.

"Alright, alright, steady... I'll go get your leg, wait here."

Ugh, this is stupid, if he was alone he wouldn't have had to deal with this kind of crap, and in front of Clematia too… it was a one on one and he messed up so bad...

When she came back he was halfway through standing up, hand braced on the drawer behind him.

"Hey, just sit down for now, your state is worse than you think, the adrenaline won't let you feel the pain."

"I know but it’s not that bad, I can tell..." He says while wincing, his voice is weak and exhausted, the pirate went easy on him too, he could've gone for the head, but instead kicked his body, well, in the end it’s his pride that took the toughest blow..... He's still lightheaded, so he waits for a little before putting his prosthetic back on, but his fingers are shaking too much and he struggles to tighten the laces.

Clematia meanwhile attempts to pull the pirate behind the cabinet so he isn't discovered if his friends come back early, this way hopefully they'll think he simply left.

"How are you feeling?"

"F-COUGHCOUGHCOUGH"

She shoots him a scolding look with her hands on her hips.

"Siiigh, you know what? don't tell me, you look like crap."

"Cough-ugh, noooo Clematiaa." ‘Don't do me like thaaaat.’

She chuckles and helps him walk, supporting him with her shoulders as he was shaking a bit.

"Come on, we need to check on Konran."

She helps him up the stairs and they climb up to where they have been jailed before, dreading what they might find...

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⋅⋅⊱༻To be continued༺⊰⋅⋅