It is an average night for Mindfang. Drinking in the Captain's cabin while watching her young descendant, who is only three and a half sweeps old, running around with a toy sword in hand. Mindfang does not hold back a smile when Vriska starts swinging her toy at Terezi, who was sitting on the floor with her scalemate. She had to admit, her decedent was already a wild one. Mindfang admires her free spirited and outgoing attitude. It truly reminds her of herself when she was young.
Mindfang could see the annoyance on Terezi's face as she tries to get off the floor and get away from the wannabe pirate. "Stop it!" Terezi starts to complain as she gets to her feet and Vriska continues to swing the toy too close for Terezi's comfort. Mindfang mentally debates on if she should stop this nonsense before it gets out of control. However, she likes for the young ones to learn the hard way on some things and at this rate Terezi looks ready to punch Vriska. Yet, Vriska laughs and starts jumping side to side in an attempt to 'dodge' Terezi. The young Cobalt blood does not fear her friend, but Terezi reaches for the sword and actually gets a hold of it. Vriska is taken by surprise and both get into a tug a war fight over the toy. However, with Vriska being a bit taller and stronger than Terezi already, one hard tug sends the Pyrope face first into the ground. Seconds later, Mindfang could see teal tears streaming down Terezi's face and soon followed was loud crying. "Vriska, don't play like that with Terezi. You should know better by now."
Mindfang states lazily while putting down her rum and she slowly makes her way to the crying Pyrope. "I didn't do anything!" Vriska starts to complain but soon shuts up right after getting a sharp look from her ancestor. After all, Vriska knows when to stop misbehaving when it comes to Mindfang. After multiple spankings and time outs, Vriska learned when to not fight back. Mindfang could only fear how Vriska would act when she is older, but she is sure that Vriska would grow out of her current behavior.
"Come here, Terezi." Mindfang calls. Yet, the Pyrope stayed put on the floor, crying. Mindfang groans and picks the teal blood off the floor. She continues to cry and Vriska frowns as her friend gets attention. "Ok, it is already getting late. Both of you need to go to sleep before you two cause more trouble." Mindfang picks up the white scalemate off the floor and hands it to Terezi. With her toy in hand, Terezi starts to calm down and soon the tears start to dry once she gets a hold of her stuff dragon. Vriska still stands close to her pirate ancestor with her sword in hand. "No. I want to stay up forever!" Vriska starts swing her toy sword again but this time it is in no ones way. "Go to your Respiteblock. should have went to bed hours ago." Vriska makes a face but starts to walk to the door. Mindfang could hear the girl mumble under her breath but does not say anything about it. By then Mindfang is already putting Terezi down so the teal blood could sleep as well. It did not help that it is already late and the wigglers should have been to asleep a long time ago. "You too. Go to your block."
Terezi clings to the scalemate and too, begins to walk out the door. She wipes away her tears with her shirt as she tip toes to up reach the doorknob. When she finally leaves Mindfang sits back on her chair and enjoys the absence of the two trolls. "These fucking wigglers are going to make me want to jump ship." She grabs a bottle of rum and chugs as much as she could handle.
(MUTINY)
"Nice job, Terezi! You got me in trouble." Terezi hears the words as she walks into the shared block. "No. It was your fault!" Vriska throws herself on top of her toy box which was in the shape of a treasure chest. "Not my fault this place is 're boring!" Terezi sits on a pile of dirty clothes that was a combination of the two trolls. "Maybe you are the boring one. Mindfang only got mad because you were being dumb." Vriska grunts as she dramatically slides off the fake treasure chest. The young troll blue blood opens the toy box to put her toy in. "It's not my fault you cry like a wiggler. You would be a bad pirate!" Terezi stares at her scalemate, not really interested in talking with Vriska. "I don't want to be one." Vriska pulls out a cheap pirate hat from the box that reminds Terezi of Mindfang's hat.
Yet, she knows that it is one that Vriska got when they made a stop at the docks a few Perigees ago. "Being a pirate is the coolest thing you can be! You get all the stuff you want, all the trolls listen to you, and no troll can beat a pirate!" Terezi huffs. "If pirates are the coolest then why is this ship so boring?" Vriska laughs and jumps next to Terezi, almost landing on the small troll. "Booooooooring? This place is fun!"
"How?"
Soon, Vriska starts pushing herself close to Terezi, who tries to make distance between them. "We can have an adventure." Terezi holds her stuff dragon above her head, as if the toy will take off in flight. Yet, it does not. "Like what?" Terezi questions. "You know that drink the Captain always have?" The Pyrope already does not like where this conversation is going but allows her friend to continue. "Yeah, why?" Vriska reaches out and grabs Terezi's scalemate successfully. "Let's take some! Then we can be real pirates." Terezi whines when her toy is taken away from her. It is not the first time that Vriska held one of her toys hostage to get the teal blood to cooperate with her mischief. Which Terezi hates due to the fact that she has also gotten in a lot of trouble because of it. Reluctantly, Terezi gives a soft "ok", and Vriska jumps off the pile of dirty clothes in excitement with Terezi's toy in hand. "We will get in trouble though! Mindfang will be mad." Vriska pulls Terezi up off the clothes even though she groans. She could tell that Terezi is already sleepy but knows that this little game of theirs would not be fun if there is only one player.
"No! We won't. We will steal the pirate drink from the mess hall." Vriska pushes Terezi to the door. "Let's go!" Vriska tightly holds the toy in her right hand as she walks quietly through the hallways, and after going up some stairs, they found themselves outside. Luckily for the two foolish trolls Mindfang owns a special walkway to allow crew members to move about freely on the ship when it is daytime. The walkway prevents the harmful rays from hurting them and the two trolls jump for joy when no one is on deck. After all, most of the crew members are sleeping and the few that are awake would use the below deck walkways to get around the ship.
However, not wanting to get caught, the two troublemakers decided to take a different approach. They run across the walkway to reach the other side of the ship. As they run Vriska can feel a gust of wind hit her face and the way the ship wobbles, makes her truly excited and reminds her why she wants to be a pirate. All while Terezi does her best not to puke her guts out due to the constant movement of the ship. Her illness has gotten better but every once in a while she would want to vomit because of it. Today is sadly one of those days where she feels sick, but the Pyrope would have to admit that this is only light nausea and nothing too bad.
"We're almost there!" Their shoes made loud noise against the wooden floor as they eagerly make their way to the other side of the ship. Vriska makes a quick halt in front of the door, that led down to where the mass hall was located, that it causes Terezi to bump into her. The impact forces Vriska forward but does nothing more. She growls and turns around to see the Pyrope. Terezi gives an innocent smile and Vriska decides not to do anything about it accident.
With a turn of the knob, they enter back inside the ship. They walk down the stairs, which leads them into a very large room which is used for the crew members to sleep. It was cramped down there and there is only a few Recuperacoons down there. Clearly not everyone could not sleep in one and Terezi assumes that they rotate in sleeping in them. To make up for the lack of Recuperacoons, there are hampics and piles that are scattered about the sleep quarter. Walking through there, they obviously gained attention because of the fact they are the youngest ones on the ship. However, the crew knows who they are and do not bother them out of fear of how might the Captain might react. The deck hands don't even eye contact and that's when Vriska notices how the members were dressed very poorly. Many of them ragged clothes and were not as fit as some of the 'higher ranked' members.
She takes note of a small door on the right side of the ship that has a small window that had bars on it. Vriska knows it is where the forced and uncooperative help is being held. In fact, she could see a few of them pushed up against the door. Well, that is what Mindfang told the both of them. In reality Vriska heard Mindfang calling them dirty lowblood slaves and she even remembers a few times to where Mindfang was whipping one of them. The sick and weak ones would be thrown overboard and some would look like skin and bones. None of them have ever said anything to her because of one incident with Terezi.
All she remembers was that Terezi was eating grubloaf and a young slave asked for some. Being a young, innocent troll, Terezi gave the female troll a couple of bites. However, it just so happens that Mindfang was on deck that night and witnessed the outcome. Vriska remembers watching from a distance as their Captain walked up to the troll. Mindfang grabbed the food and threw it over the side of the ship. The scared face on the young troll made Vriska, to this night, feel bad for her. Then Mindfang's colorful language spills out and soon a whip clips off the side of her belt. Vriska would wince every time a blow would land on the troll and soon Terezi was asking-no begging for Mindfang to stop. Yet, the Gamblignant showed no mercy and soon maroon blood started covering the deck along with tattered rags that once covered her. Eventually, the girl's tears and blood started mixing and no one did anything but to watch the scene unfold. Yet, even though the maroon blood was in pain, she did not struggle as she knows that her punishment would be worse. So she cried and begged for mercy as she apologized profoundly. Soon, the young girl stopped cry and she layed on the deck, unmoving. It was then that Mindfang stopped. She shouted out orders to her crew and the next thing Vriska sees is the maroon blood was being thrown off the side of the ship, into the cold ocean.
Vriska could see Terezi crying in fear of what had occurred. Mindfang turned her head to Vriska's direction and in fear, the descendent does not meet her glance and instead stares at the floor. Yet, Mindfang does not linger looking at her young blood and turns to Terezi. The poor girl was trying to hold back her tears as she worried that she would be next in line for punishment. Her hands clinged to the side of her pants, a habit of nervousness that she had developed. There had been plenty of times where Terezi would get in more trouble because of her crying. Yet, being young, Terezi was not fond of the constant violence she was exposed to but Mindfang would tell her that she needed to toughen up or she would be next. Therefore, Terezi would always try her best not to cry in front of the Gamblignant. Luckily, for her that night, Mindfang just stared at the little troll and waited for her to calm down. Seconds pass and Vriska could tell that Mindfang was talking to Terezi but with her distance, she could not tell what was being said.
One male troll came up with a mop and started cleaning the blood off the floor but Mindfang pulled the mop away and dismissed the older looking troll. He complies and walks back to where ever he came from. The mop was then handed to Terezi, and Vriska could tell that Mindfang ordered her teal friend to clean up the blood. Terezi's hands shook as she grabbed ahold of the mop and quickly started cleaning. The Captain stayed watching for about a minute but soon walked off once she knows that the job would get down.
That night was a night that Vriska would never forget. There were many occasions that something similar would happen and when Vriska sees the trolls begging for food and their release, she looks away and pulls Terezi to follow. She feels no pity for them. Vriska is only planning to watch out for herself with Terezi second and if that means leaving those trolls to suffer in the room, then so be it. "The mess hall is this way." Terezi starts to be dragged by Vriska further into the the crews sleeping quarters, and Terezi could tell that Vriska wants to get out of there. So, she follows her friend as they weave through traffic. One troll bumps into them and the young man apologizes without giving a second glance. Which was fine with the duo. The less attention, the better.
They finally arrive to the opposite side of the room and go through the door. They get a few worry glances their way but they enter to the mess hall anyways. It is dead inside there and Vriska is glad that no one is inside. There are many round tables with stools next to them. However, there are not nearly enough tables for the whole crew and only maybe one third of them could eat in there. On the left side there is a large counter with a door behind it. Vriska knows that the food and drinks are stored back there. "We are almost there." Vriska whispers loudly and finally hands Terezi's scalemate back to her. Terezi hugs her scalemate. Even though she got her stuff dragon back, Terezi unwisely still follows her friend. They walk behind the counter and Vriska tries to push the door but it does not budge. "It's lock! Ah!" Vriska pounds her fists against the door but it stays still. Terezi assumes that the noise was too loud because a deck hand walks into the mess hall.
"Hey. You two wigglers should not be in here." Both trolls jump in fear out of being caught. They turn around and a young male, with sharp curving horns, pushes to get to them. The troll is maybe about eleven sweeps old and his shaved head makes him a bit intimidating. "Yeah we are!" Vriska starts to lie. "The Captain wants her rum! You better open this door or she will be mad!" Terezi had to admit that she was impressed with Vriska's lying skills. The young blue blood did not hesitate to come up with an excuse.
Due to this, the older troll is caught off guard. He stands next to the door and stares at Vriska for any hint of deception. He glances at Terezi for any signs of the story being false. Yet, Terezi stays looking at the her scalemate and when the young pirate finds no obvious lie, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a key. The door gets unlock and Vriska runs inside. "Just get what you need to get. I don't want the Captain getting mad about missing supplies! It will be my head on a stake if trolls start eating each other because of the lack of food."
Vriska laughs and see a bottle of rum sitting on a shelf. She jumps up and is able to grab a hold of it. The bottle is heavy and it almost slips out of her hands. Yet, the scorpio holds onto it for her dear life and carries it back out the door. The older troll looks around in hopes of no one else seeing the exchange and for his benefit, no one does. He closes the door once Vriska gets out and there is a big smile on her face. All while, Terezi is frowning at how her friend tricks the male troll. She knows that once Mindfang finds out, which she will, the boy would surely die. Mindfang would accuse him of thievery, which would be ironic due to her own lifestyle. Then he would deny it and try to explain himself but he would not be able to. He would then drop dead with a sword being shoved through his throat.
Terezi knows that Vriska is aware of this and also knows that Vriska does not care. "We will go back to the Captain now." Terezi mumbles and grabs Vriska's left arm in hopes to get her moving. The troll nods his head uncaringly and starts locking the door back up. "Alright. Get out of here you two. Make sure someone older gets sent next time!" Yet, the two are already running out the door and back to the large block being shared by the crew. They continue to run back to where they came from and soon get back to their own privately shared block.
"Yes! Let's drink." Vriska's face is showing complete joy as she takes the drink into the center of the block. She sits on the floor and waves for Terezi to follow. Terezi sits down next to Vriska and she can see Vriska struggling trying to open the bottle. She tugs and pulls it, in hopes of opening it. Vriska then tries her teeth in opening it and as she does so, a growl can be heard from the scorpio. "Do you got it?" Terezi questions. There are many tugs on the bottle and soon a loud pop is heard and the alcoholic beverage is open. Vriska spits the cork out of her mouth and clings to the bottle. "I try first." Vriska states eagerly and Terezi does not argue and places her scalemate next to her. There is a moment of hesitation from the cobalt blood but she ignores the mental warning and takes a big gulp of the drink. It does not taste as good as she thought it would and it makes her wonder why her ancestor drinks it. Seconds later, there is a slight burning sensation in her throat and it makes her start to regret consuming it. "Ew! It's gross."
As Vriska makes her faces at the bottle of rum, Terezi starts laughing cruelly. The big smile on her face sickens Vriska even more and she pushes the bottle to her. "You try it." Vriska states as she hopes for the burning to stop. "Unless you're scared." Vriska reflects Terezi's shit eating grin and waits to see if her friend would chicken out or not. Terezi knows this and slowly picks up the bottle. It reaches her lips and Terezi can not stand how it smells. Yet, her pride prevents her from backing down and she takes a large amount of rum in her mouth. The few seconds that it sits there, makes her hate herself for agreeing to this nonsense. Terezi spits out the drink and some of it sprays on Vriska.
The blue blood yelps and stands up in shock. "Terezi!" Vriska is complines and Terezi can tell that she is mad, but her anger causes Terezi to laugh even more. "That doesn't count. You need to drink it!" She uses her right foot to push the drink closer to her friend and the smile is still on Terezi's face. "No. It's bad." Yet, Terezi picks up the bottle again. She holds it close to her face again as Vriska hovers over her, waiting. She gives in and opens her mouth. The liquid quickly goes down her throat this time and to her it is worse than anything she has ever tasted. It too starts to irritate her throat but not wanting to look weak in front of Vriska, she keeps a straight face. "You're the real wiggler! You whined about it."Terezi laughs again and Vriska gets mad at the comment. She yanks the bottle from her friend and drinks more of it.
Vriska stares at Terezi as she drinks more of it down and Terezi keeps a smile on because she knows how bad it tastes. After a few seconds later, Vriska can no longer handle it and stops drinking it. "Wrong again Pyrope!" She extends her arm out with the drink in hand. Terezi knows this is now a challenge to see who will fold first and yet again, her pride forces her to play along. She takes the drink and could tell that it is lighter than how it was originally. Terezi could already feel her stomach starting to react to the rum and is leaning towards not drinking it. She unwillingly drink more but it is not as much as Vriska. "This is dumb." Terezi complains. Vriska smirks and leans down to grab the bottle. Terezi does not think twice on giving it to her. However, she regrets it once Vriska raises the rum over her head and allow the contents to spill on her. "Stop!' Terezi jumps to her feet and pushes her so called friend away from her.
Yet, Vriska moves back and throws more of the rum on her. There is a cruel laugh coming from the Serket. However, when the door to their block opens suddenly, Terezi and Vriska freeze in fear. Terezi turns around and Vriska's head shoots up to the door. Standing there is Mindfang, with a frown on her face. Vriska drops the rum in shock and it shatters on the floor. "What the fuck is going on here?" Mindfang demands and shuts the door behind her. She walks to the two trolls and Terezi picks up her scalemate in fear. Yet, the rum still drips all over her clothes but she stops worrying about that as it was the least of her concern. Vriska bites her bottom lip and she knows that she is in trouble. "I come in here to check up on you two and I walk in on this shit!" She stands over Terezi and she looks down at the floor. Vriska tries to stutter up an excuse but is quickly silence when Mindfang reaches out her. Her shirt is tightly gripped by her ancestor and Vriska tries not to cry. "Explain. Now." Mindfang demands.
"We-we just wanted to be pirates." Mindfang stares at Vriska and to Terezi, who was refusing to look at the Captain. The anger of on Mindfang's face fades with confusion replacing it."What makes you think drinking would make you a pirate?" Vriska could feel her hands clamming up as she tries to explain herself. "We always see you do it..." Mindfang sighs and lets go of Vriska. She gives a hand gesture to Terezi to look at her. The teal blood gets the message and looks up but Vriska can tell that Terezi is terrified. "Listen you two. I never want to see something like this again...but... I am not really caught off guard by this. Who's idea was it?"
Vriska thought she was off the hook but once the question came up, her blood pusher picked up speed again. She did not want to get in trouble. She is only six and is scared of her ancestor. Vriska knows that she is sure to be disciplined if she admits to the crime. So out of fear she points to Terezi. The slightly younger troll is shock by her friend's accusation and is also very angered by it. "She's lying!" Terezi starts pleading and tears cover her face yet again because she knows that there is no way to convince Mindfang that Vriska did it. "It was Terezi's idea." Vriska keeps a straight face and stops her nerves. She stares Mindfang in the eyes as she lies right through her teeth. Mindfang keeps glancing between the two trolls. They can tell that she is having trouble deciding who was really the mastermind of the theft of the rum.
Mindfang lets out her breath and kneels down next to Terezi. "Did you do it?" The words came out slowly and Terezi feels more nervous. The Pyrope shakes her head no. "I want a verbal answer. Yes or no?" Terezi's throat tightens and see feels herself start to shake. She almost wants to vomit but she is not sure if it is the smell of the rum on her, the the amount she consumed, or if she was really just that scared. Mindfang takes the silences as a sign of guilt and rises to her feet. "Here's what's going to happen. You," She points to Vriska. "are going to sleep. Right now. Tomorrow you will be scrubbing the deck at dusk and when we reach land you are not allowed off ship." Vriska groans and is ready to complain but somehow refrains from doing so.
Her attention goes back to Terezi and even Mindfang almost feels for the troll. Almost. "As for you! Since this was your plan, I am sure that you think you are such a big troll." Mindfang plucks Terezi's scalemate away from the girl and into her own hands. "I am sure that means you have out grown this. So I will be holding onto this for a while!" Terezi starts to whine even more and tries to reach for her dragon back. "No! Please. That's mine! It's mine!" Mindfang pushes Terezi away. "Who payed for it? You? No. I bought for you and you have lost your privilege to have it. You can earn it back once you make up for your behavior and I think the cargo crew could use an extra hand in moving all our heavy shipment for a couple of nights." Terezi could feel her anger boil. She is angry at Vriska, Mindfang, and herself for allowing all of this to happen. Then the way Mindfang makes her comments so calmly only fuels the fire.
"No! It's not my fault! I don't want to be here! I hate it here! I don't want to be a dumb pirate!" Terezi tries to push Mindfang but the pirate does not budge. "Never lay your hands on me! Do. You. Understand?" Mindfang grabs Terezi by her left arm and places enough pressure to stop the troll from moving. Vriska just watches the scene unfold and was secretly glad that the attention was off of her.
Terezi starts to cry even more and Mindfang decides not allow this from going on. Out of anger and tiredness, Mindfang raises her hand and strikes the Pyrope in the face. This resulted in Terezi standing there in shock and soon she looks up with her eyes still watering up. She slowly starts to make sounds of crying again. "Be quite! Do not cry anymore or you will get hit again." In fear, Terezi bites her lip and stands there, with her hand on the spot where she got slapped. Once she feels that the situation was under control, Mindfang points to the Recuperacoon. "Go to sleep. Both of you and this time really go to sleep. Next time something like this happens, you get a worse punishment. Never take anything on this ship that isn't yours again." Vriska does not say anything and quickly walks to her recuperacoon, not want the situation to linger on any longer. Terezi stays standing there for a moment but walks to the pile of clothes instead of her own coon.
Mindfang shakes her head and walks out to the door. She glances back at the two and the silence is almost unbearable. Mindfang stops glancing around when no one would make eye contact with her. Instead, she looks at the stuff dragon in her hand and she gets a sick feeling from it. It was mocking her somehow and Mindfang is tempted to trash the toy. She sighs and leaves the two trolls to their own silence. Once she leaves Vriska turns to Terezi, who haves her face buried in the clothes, crying to herself. "Terezi?"
"Leave me alone..." The words are muffled but still understandable. "Sorry I got you in trouble." Vriska apologizes and knows that it is pointless. "Leave me alone." Terezi repeats the words and Vriska gets inside her coon once she reaches the conclusion that now was a bad time to talk to Terezi. Yet, right before she went to sleep she says one more "Sorry." and hopes it will be that last time she will ever have to say it to Terezi.