[Fury] Mission of Mercy (Bon 2.1, Valentine 2.1)

Rich

Bon and Valentine,

A couple days have passed since the motor duel. HM earned enough jingle to pay for Gates and his folk to move his folk to SafeCo. He paid you an extra jingle Valentine, just to come along. He said he had some “extra something” to hand over if you made the trip. Is that why you came along, Valentine? Or is there another reason?

Bon, the morning of the trip, Hope, who said she wasn’t coming because HM gave her to Admiral, came down to your infirmary.

"Bon, please go to the harbor. There’s something bad wrong with some of the older girls. They’ve been around the red too long or something. We were careful, but something got to them. They’re sick. He's going to leave them behind.”


Here you are, trudging through the mud to the harbor. Gates and his flock are ahead, moving over the small bridge to the boat where HM is eager to grab all his stuff. How did you travel here? By foot? Do you have anyone with you?

Mischa

I like to travel. Living inside limits one's vision. Also, I'm getting paid to travel, which is a nice bonus. I admit to being curious what Harbormaster could offer me as his "extra something" that's not inside his pants. I'm grateful for Needle's company. Ivar can handle the brews for the brief time I'm away... And some of the regulars will miss me, too.

I've heard stories of the dry times, how people could drive for days and days, just to see what's over the horizon. Our world is smaller now.

Pine is Harbormaster's chauffeur of sorts. He can wrangle the vehicle, the "truck" to move people and cargo and such across the landscape- he cuts a fine profile sitting up high. I bend down so I can take a look at the clever wheels that can raise and lower and adapt between land travel and rail travel. My father would have loved this, and I can just imagine him talking happily for hours about the relative merits of a gear versus a flywheel versus a doodad gizmo. I dust my gloved hands and stand up to regard our group. The horse keeps capturing my attention- it's a fine animal and moves like a dream. Pine let me feed it a piece of fruit, and it startled a laugh out of me. I'd love to learn to ride it.

I miss my hat. I should really see August if there's some way I can adapt this staydry hood to look better on me. I like to have a strip of cloth to cover my nose and mouth tucked under my chin. You never know when it's going to be soaking.

"Pine, dear, how long is the trip to the Harbor in the rig?" I'm not petulant, I'm honestly curious.

Rich

Pine looks back at you over his shoulder, Valentine. He's worked up a good sweat helping the horse pull this cart over the rails, sometimes the mud caused a small stumble, so he's got red knees as well. He responds tersely, "All together, it's a few hours walk, tops. Carrying all kinds of stuff? That's gonna slow us down. Can't be helped. What the master wants, he gets." He turns back to his work, making sure the horse is pulling you along.

Anyone else from the Yacht Club with you, Valentine?

Mischa

There's a bead of sweat that trickles down his neck and moves further down. I watch it, imagining how far down it might go. I let him catch me looking and give him a little wink and smile number three. "Who gets left in charge when he's away, Pine? I can't expect that the Harbor shuts down when its master sojourns."

Well, Needle is along, of course. I hear he has a sweetheart at the Harbor, so he jumped at the chance for travel. And one of Admiral's personages of violence and presence. I've seen her before, the girl Grunge. Her makeup is stark and reminds me of one of mother's stories about a man named Barn 'Em and his partner Bay Leaves. She's very nice to me, nicer than I'd expect.

trevis

I glance up at Valentine on the cart, looking much like the regal animal on the cup again. I have disembarked, myself, leaving my kit aboard and am walking through the reddened mud in my heavy, practical boots. Ostensibly I am doing so to watch for problems near the back of the wagon, but I wished to relieve some of the weight and difficulty on Pine and his animal, however little it might be. It gives me the opportunity, too, to watch Pine’s limp.

What did I find with him during his examination, or have we had it?

Of course I could not refuse such an appeal for aid as Hope presented. I should, really, be much more mercenary than I am. I endeavour to harden my heart to the suffering from time to time. See it dispassionately, mechanically, but alas, I seem unable to prevent the barrier from breaking.

Shy has remained behind at the infirmary, to address any issues that arise. She is capable for most issues. However Mox is with us, and also riding the cart. I am sure he would like nothing better than to walk through the mud, but I have already denied it. Even now he is staring impatiently at the glorious amount of dirt around him.

I am still contemplating my uncharacteristic reserve with you two days ago, Valentine. I wanted to tell you about the incident in the greenhouse with August, but even after Gates had left and the Yacht Club quieted, leaving us largely alone, I found I simply did not have the energy. Or perhaps it was simply cowardice. No doubt you sensed something amiss, then, didn't you? You read me better than nearly anyone else after all. And you knew that there was even more than the issue of Shy. But since what was happening with Shy was on the table, what advice did you give about it?

Rich

Valentine,

"Latte runs the harbor when the master is away." Pine answers in a tone that says plainly he does not like Latte. He makes a tsk noise to get the horse moving and looks over the horizon. "We're almost there. I'll introduce you to Latte when we get there."

Mox shifts up to the front, sitting nearer to you. He's still a boy, but he seems to find you exotic. How are you handling that?

Bon,
You did get to examine Pine. His left leg was broken and it was set improperly. He doesn't explain how it was broken.

Both,
True to Pine's word, you see the clear open crimson sea ahead, and mired not far from shore is the boat HM calls his headquarters. You see some of Gates folks are already crossing the bridges to get to the boat. You'll be there soon enough.

Mischa

>

"Simply fantastic, Pine. You're too good to me." A choice nugget of inside information is worth its weight in coldclear. I pause to recall what I've heard about Latte, what will be useful in the upcoming interaction. "How is it between you two these days?" Should Harbormaster become professionally unseated, one must determine who would and could sit in that seat.

With Mox? I love the attention, youthful it may be. Inspired by the horse, I capture more of it by telling some of Pa's stories. Not the one about the lady with a beard and the coconut tree. He needs some more years before he hears that one. I teach him a few road games: a finger counting game, a clapping game and rhyme, thumb wrestling, and I Spy. If he has his letters and can read, I'll try Hanged Man. It's more of a challenge to play in your head, instead of the mud, so that's what I push for.

I wave to Bon, walking below. I have some ideas about being a parent from my own upbringing, but I don't see that particular avocation in my future. Now, should you bring up employees, I can help you without a splash.

"Truth, Bon," I remember saying. "The light of truth burns away doubt. It's different because ye're both family, but don't play games or lie or hide when you deal. Be up front and forth right. In my case, I'd give Shy a little project she can own for herself. It could recharge her and destroy the doldrums. When replanted, people will flourish or wilt. I bet she'll flourish. Shigusa is young and as full of hope and life as the child she was; I think she needs something new... and the Arrows are something new." I raised my cup and drained it. "That's my advice."

There was something else behind her eyes... but it seemed to close off when I got closer. My dear Bon, I respect you greatly. But let me get closer so I can be your friend.

Mischa

[OOC: Everybody eats, even that guy. Thinking about Latte. Roll+hot, marking XP]
(Rolled: 2d6+2. Rolls: 1, 1. Total: 4)

Mischa

[OOC: On a miss, ask 1 anyway, but they hear about your interest in them.]

Who do they know, like and/or trust?

trevis

Yes… that was what you said, and I shall be watchful of deception as well as on the lookout for a project to occupy my niece. As for the other… perhaps we will yet have a moment. It has continued to prey on my mind.

Mox indeed can read. It amuses me to watch Valentine entertain him on the cart with her stories and games. I have not been able to teach him any, not knowing them myself. The Arrows of course, taught him some too.

Pine’s broken leg is troubling. I told him that I would need to break it again and set it properly. It would take three to five months to heal naturally, with bone binder might take it six weeks. Either way he would be unable to work for a time, as he no doubt was when it was first broken.

I stride ahead to catch up to Pine, and look ahead at the bridges.

“For which of them are circumstances the most dire?” I ask, quietly

Rich

Valentine,
Latte trusts HM. They're kin. She wouldn't betray him, not for anything.

Bon,

Pine wouldn't agree to another broken leg. He wasn't afraid of the pain, but that much time away from earning, he knows HM would not allow it.


Pine looks over at you, Bon, more pleasant than he was with Valentine. Not that he was rude, but zir up there and him down in the mud, it rankles. "The older ones, who can't earn, they sleep father out in smaller boats. Too long near all the red tides. They're never sick from tasting it, but being so close for so long, something's wrong with them. There are five of them. Now."

trevis

I glance back on Val and Mox a moment, then forward again.

“I shall do my best for them.” I say to Pine, turning their condition over in my mind. I pause, trudging a few more steps in silence, then: “How came you by your injury, Pine? Are… such things a frequent issue among you?”

Rich

Bon,


"You can probably guess, Bon." Pine says as he looks away, up towards the bend where HM's boat lies. "None of the other whores are as stupid as me."

trevis

“You are not stupid. Never say so.” I say, sharply, anger for the man who treats other human beings in such a way boiling within me. I wonder how Admiral can make a deal with such a monster. Seeing the relative isolation of the boats however, I can only think this will hurt the monster’s interests. Out here it was no doubt easier to control his people. Safeco is quite another story.

“How is it he kept you so long? What hold does he have over any of you, that he is not overwhelmed?”

Rich

Bon,


"Home." Pine says simply, a little smile on his face. "He gives us Home, it's wonderful. The only place where I'm happy."

trevis

“Such a home and yet you have suffered in such a way and though your injury is the most extreme, it is not, if my guess is aright, the only such amongst your people.” I say it gently and evenly. I look ahead again.

“I know something of leaving homes that degrade self and soul though they are our very heart. Though no doubt it seems beyond impossible, it is not.” I smile slightly, bitterly. “Nor is it easy.”

Rich

Bon,


Pine looks at you, Bon, then back to the rails. "I've tried to get away, Bon. Many times. I keep coming back, to take my punishment. Each time, the Master takes a piece of me. I wonder. I wonder when there won't be anything left."

The mud and the scrub ahead give way to the red shores, and you see it, HM's boat, mired in the silt and the viscous molasses of blood and other muck. Gates' folks and Vignette are already there, people moving things out quickly, loading them onto palettes on wheels.

Across the horizon, there are dark clouds. The wind is picking up as you come closer to the harbor. A storm is coming.

What do you do?

Mischa

"I don't like the looks of that storm." I purse my lips, looking at the boat. How long will we find ourselves staying there? If I've got my druthers, and it comes to that, I'm staying with Bon. Nodding at the weather, I ask, "Pine, how bad does it get out here?" I feel a fool not offering him to ride. I wonder why he's not up here now? Even the back must be better than the mud. Or riding the animal itself, that'd be peaches.

Professionally, of course, I'm keen to see Harbormaster's operation... And how Latte handles it in his absence.

Rich

Valentine,


Pine looks back at you, completely serious, "Bad, Valentine. Each storm gets worse. Been shutting down the trade for the last four months when storms come. We don't want to be here when it rolls in." He smacks the horse's flank to speed her up.

You reach the harbor in a few minutes, lots of people working, getting furniture and clothes and mirrors and whatnot on the palettes. HM isn't around, there are a couple guards watching over everyone.

What do you do?

trevis

I do not say any more, only wonder at what it is about the Harbormaster that hold his slaves so, and I watch the darkening sky.

When we arrive I wave Mox down from the cart.

I retrieve my kit and swing the heavy bag onto my back and begin to look for ways to cross to the outlying boats to find those who need my help.

Mischa

I clamber down from the cart, resting a hand on Pine's shoulder in an attempt to placate, or foster camaraderie, or acknowledge him as a person instead of a flesh. My boots squlech familiarly in the muck. "It will be better when ye lot don't have to worry about these storms." Smile number six. "Let's see to this work." I wave at Needle to follow close for now. I bet he's looking for his sweetheart first. I throw a questioning look over at Grunge, she's been unusually quiet.

"Pine, who has the plan for what comes back with us on the cart? You, Latte or someone else?" I look a the horse again. Does it have a name?

Bon and Mox are all business, and I follow her gaze to the boats. When I'm closer to her, I say, "Be careful by the red, my dear sweet Bon. Do you need anything?"

Rich

Bon and Valentine,


"Valentine, I don't make any plans. I do my job, more or less." Pine says as you come ever closer to the boat. You see Gates urging his folks to hurry up, intent on getting everything moving and gone.

Mischa

"Everyone has plans," I murmur, loud enough for Pine to catch. I'll check on the others and do a quick headcount out of reflex.

I will pull my scarf over my lips and mouth as we march.

trevis

I shake my head at Valentine’s inquiry. “We are well in hand, I believe. We shall be caution itself with the water as I trust you will be with the Harbormaster and his lieutenant.” I touch zir arm briefly, then begin to make my way out in the bridges, Mox before me.

Rich

Valentine,
Please go here with Grunge and Needle.

Rich

Bon,

Valentine, Grunge and Needle head to HM's boat while you, Mox, and Pine walk to the shore. Pine leads you to a raft and starts poling you across the sludge.


"I know I shouldn't hate Valentine, Bon." Pine admits as he works hand over hand, poling you across the nasty crimson sludge. "There's something about zir confidence. Ze has it so easy in that pretty club with the tomatoes and the Admiral's favor."


"If you hate zir," Mox says quiet while moving to the dead center of the raft, "Then you've never had the coffee. Or seen what ze does with those tomatoes."

trevis

“Resentment is a contagion, my friend, it’s best to be careful of it.” I say as I crouch, balanced on the raft.

“Ze is not what Ze appears to be. Zir life is not one of idleness and pleasure. Instead, Ze swims the seas of politics and power, seas as treacherous as these, and more that that, ze does so as a champion of those not as fortunate. Your master, and you, come to Safeco and away from this danger as a result of zir careful influence. Do not think for a moment it was because Ze has any affection for your master, rather than compassion for you and your friends.”

Rich

Bon,

The sludge is dark, but you swear you could see something moving underneath for a moment. Like a tendril, or a tentacle. Pine interrupts you with his words.


"They seem friendly to me, Bon." Pine says simply, a bit leery of trusting Valentine, but reluctant to ignore you outright. "The Master will bring lots of jingle to zir, and the Admiral, both. With my flesh, and the flesh of my friends."

Mox quietly watches the two of you talking. What does Mox know about sex, Bon? I'm sure you taught him the "mechanics" of coupling, of the workings of the machine. What about the emotions of it?

trevis

As you say, the mechanics he plainly knows. His is an inquisitive mind and he has delivered many children with me and one nearly on his own.

But the emotions. What have I to tell him about such things? That desire is a product of humors in the brain, and that those who feel it engage themselves in these expressions which result in physical Union, even if no offspring would result? It was useless to hide such things among the arrows. I have no doubt he’s spoken to the others for their view of it, gathering evidence as a good doctor should.

It is just as well, for I have not provided any example in that regard and my direct experience is profoundly limited.

“Politics is nothing but a seeming.” I answer Pine as I continue to scan the water warily. “I do not ask you to take it on faith, only to reserve your judgement for a time and watch zir closely. Perhaps your conclusions will differ. It is not as if I do not sometimes err in my diagnoses, it is merely exceptionally rare.” I glance up at him and smile. A small joke.

Rich

Bon,

Pine huffs a quiet laugh at your small joke. He doesn't say it aloud this time, but he's told you before that you are a worker of miracle, that you've saved lives, and that's something precious and wonderful. Today, he doesn't say these things. He poles you over to the first boat, one that is less than half the size of HM's, it is yellowed with age and showing rot and grime from years of poor upkeep.

Pine lashes the raft to the boat, helps you and Mox up the ladder to the deck. The place smells of vomit and bile, faintly at the edge here, but as Pine leads you inside, pulling open the door to the inside, the smell grows worse. Mox pauses to put a scarf over his nose and mouth, hands a strip of cloth from his little satchel to Pine.

Inside are a half dozen people lying on mats, three women, three men. No caretaker, just buckets for waste or puke. The place is dark, only the stormy daylight leaking inside. A frail-looking man in his forties looks up at you with red eyes, begging for succor.

What do you do?

trevis

I kneel immediately taking a canteen of clean water from it’s place at my side and help him drink a little. I smile at him. If there is anyone who sees my smiles the most, it is those who suffer. “What a handsome fellow. Shh… yes, I know. I am here to help you.”

A couple of swallows, then I lay my hand on his forehead, his cheek. “I beg your patience, friend. I will be back soon.”

Triage first, I need to see who is the worst, who can be treated at all, who needs treatment before transport, and a best guess at a diagnosis.

“Clean water to them all.” I say to Mox and Pine. “No more than three swallows at a time while I evaluate what is needed.” I walk among them, kneeling, speaking gently, and examining.

Rich

Bon,

The frail man relaxes slightly when you offer him a smile. He drinks in sips, weak and fading. Mox and Pine move in, your nephew following instructions without hesitation while Pine is slower.

The six patients, you might as well call them patients now, right? They are in various stages. Two of them, both women, are in rough shape, but not progressing (6 o'clock). The man near you is on death's door (11 o'clock), while the other three are fading quickly, (9 o'clock). You need to get them to your infirmary to work on a out and out cure, but that's quite a few people. And a storm is coming.

What do you do?

trevis

I confess I hopes things were not quite so desperate as I can only carry so much, but I will do my best to stabilize them with what I have. Enough for transport.

“Mox, please go and tell Gates that I will need him and his people.”

Rich

Bon,

Mox nods, then looks to Pine, since there's only the one raft. Pine gives you a questioning look, silently asking if you're okay by yourself.

What do you do?

trevis

I wave them on. I shall be fine for a short time. And Mox is proof of my request moreso than Pine.

Rich

Bon,

When you try to stabilize a group sick with the pink without an infirmary, Roll+Sharp or +Stock. On a hit, choose options. On a 10+choose 3, On a 7-9, choose 2
* Nobody dies
* A couple of them actually recover
* Nobody else gets sick.

On a fail, you either lose someone or get someone else sick.

trevis

(Rolled: 2d6+2. Rolls: 3, 6. Total: 11)

Rich

Bon,

Some water, cleaning, getting a couple of them to move around, it helps. One of the women who was stable gets much better, while the man you first spoke with is sitting up and able to move around a bit.

"Your letter," he says quietly. looking at your forehead, "I've seen that before, on others. So far away."

trevis

I look up for a moment from where I’m working on gently cleaning the sickest of the three women.

“Yes… quite far away.”

I think of how proud I was when I recieved the mark. It was one of the few days when I did not feel completely in Nee’s shadow. I had worked furiously during my Internship and Residency. I was, at 14, perhaps the youngest Fellow in the living memory of the Medicai and no less than three of the Attending requested me as a pupil, including Elder Myra. The Chief Attending himself, blessed my mark. It was the first time he had touched me. I remember those eyes. Like Gate’s eyes, so deep. His beard and graying hair too. And how he told me my father would be proud and that I would be Attending myself before long. He was wisdom itself and his approval filled me completely with happiness.

All was right with the world, which was the surest sign of an illusion, though I was too young to know it.

“I left them a long time ago.”

Rich

Bon,

The little ship groans a bit, rocking gently with the breeze as it picks up with the coming storm. The man with blood-eyes asks, "Why? Why leave... for this?"

trevis

I consider the question a moment. He says he’s seen the mark before, not that he knows much of those who wear it.

I smile slightly. “Oh, Love, of course. What else explains so strange an adventure? Though perhaps youth and folly had their own parts to play. But what of you? What turned your path hence to this luxury?”

Rich

Bon,

There is a deep thunder sound further out towards sea, the boat shudders slightly. It's going to be dangerous here. The blood-eyed man casts a wary look towards a porthole covered in mire as if he could see out. "Luxury..." he repeats the word with dry lips, looks down at the tattered pair of shorts he's been lying in for days on end. "When the Master loves you. When you earn. You are the most wonderful thing. But oh... when the skin sags, when the body aches, when Home doesn't feel like home anymore, you're... nothing. I gave up my father's trade at Pike's for easy money and sex. It was a good ten years, I won't lie." He clears his throat, looks to the others, "What I can remember of it, at least."

The other one recovering, she stirs slightly. Blood-eyed man blinks, starts to try and get up, to go over to her. "Lissa, need to help her."

trevis

“Nay my friend. Please.” I step in front of him settling him back gently. “You needs must rest as you may for we are all for the journey in a but a little while, once my companions arrive. Save your strength, I shall care for her.”

So saying I step over to Lissa, giving her more water.

“But pray tell me what is this Home is that rules you and your friends so, for I begin to doubt we speak of a location. Do we speak of a substance?”

Rich

Bon,

This is the blood-eyed man, by the way (he's not as "clothed" as the pic):


He sinks back to the blankets where you found him, too weak to protest. "The Master makes it. It is... heaven on earth. For a very long time."

Outside you hear the raft coming back, sounds of the pole, men talking, coming this way.

trevis

I can feel the pressure in my face, brow furrowing, lips pressing together. So the mystery is revealed. The master keeps his chattel with alchemical chains, enslaving minds as well as bodies.

I work to keep my breathing even as something very near rage boils inside of me.

“What else do you know of it?” I say quietly, when I can speak again. I turn to look at him. “From what is it made? And how?”

Rich

Bon,

As you tend to Lissa, Decatur answers. From his tone, you can tell he's mixed with emotion, like he shouldn't be talking about it. But you saved his life as far as he's concerned.


"I've... I've never seen him make it, but he's the only one who knows. It's why none of us hurt him. It's why none of us leave, even when Home isn't what it used to be. Always the hope that it might be.... again, someday. You know?" He shifts a little under your gaze, like maybe he thinks you're angry at him. "I'm sorry, sweet Angel. We all have escapes, don't we? What's the phrase I heard from one of your people? Coping mechanisms."

trevis

I shake my head and school my expression, running through a mental exercise to regain my composure. “Indeed we do. Please do not apologize, my friend, you have done nothing Which requires contrition. I am only upset that such suffering was inflicted upon you and yours. I pray your pardon, it was wrong of me to burden your mind with my wayward and undisciplined emotions.”

Rich

Bon,


"Forgiven." he says softly, reaching a frail hand to touch your arm, then pulling back. "I admire your concern."

You hear a raft ka-thunk up against the hull of the boat and Pine lashes it fast. Men scramble on board and start coming in to help carry away your patients, all six of them. Sure, they're not happy to carry such pitiful and sick folks, but they're Gates folks, and Gates asked them to help.

trevis

I direct them, helping to improvise stretchers and even lifting and carrying some. I’m quite strong as my duty requires that I’m able to lift my patients if necessary.

Rich

--END SCENE--