Open The Bilge In The Bucket Little Rascallos

[Curie]

She strut down the street with a swagger in her step and song in her throat. It whistled out between a twisted tongue and crooked teeth, lips pursed tight to push the air out just so. Heads turned as she passed, eyes wide. Some beasts retreated. Some craned in for a better look.

Curie Rascallo, her head covered in a broom-like mop of bright green fuzz, basked in it. The dye hadn't washed off her paws, and she'd tried to wipe it off on her tail before remembering her tail was not a towel. She radiated with buzzing energy, hopping, skipping, occasionally waving at passerby and helpfully explaining she was not diseased, nor contagious. Although she hoped her joy was.

It had been months since she'd seen her sister, and now almost weeks since she'd seen her other sisters, and that was the most she had ever been away from them. Today, that changed. She'd arrived in Bully Harbour, she'd gotten her papers sorted out, she had her map in paw, her belongings in a rucksack over her shoulder, and her mission was to find the beast who, of all the beasts in Bully Harbour, was most likely in the top 0.05% of beasts who didn't wish to ever be found and perceived.

She was gonna perceive the heck outta Cryle when she found her.

There would be hugs. There had to be. She wouldn't tolerate any of Cryle's flinching away, not this time.

Curie arrived at the Bilge in the Bucket, the eponymous tavern, the Big BB, where legends were born, raised, and murdered in wacky high-jinks-filled bar fights. A Bully Harbour legend, that's what she was going to be. Curie and Cryle together, the dream team! Part of the dream team, anyway! Of course, they'd need Kylrie at some point...

The doors swung open. She stepped through the threshold, mismatched boots thudding on the plank floor, and imagined the shadows were just right so that nobeast could see her face, just her silhouette. Unfortunately, the tavern was quite well lit. She gently closed the door behind her and tried not to apologize for interrupting a card game near the entrance.

And then swaggered up to the bar, drawing herself up to her full height, tail stiff and straight behind her. She tried on a mysterious, brooding expression, and leaned one elbow on the bar, leaned back against it, and turned her head over her shoulder to the barkeep. A guttural, growling tone would do, she decided. Something to make sure that everybeast knew she meant business.

"I'm looking for thomebeatht," she said, squeakily. "A criminal. A ne'er-do-well. A proper villain, aye. Goeth by the name Rathcallo. Cryle Rathcallo. Heard of her? Bet you have. The Shadow of Magh. The Thcourge of Polithe Cuthtody. She'th never been caught. I aim to catch her."

She tilted her chin up, defiantly, and gave a huff and a derisive sniff at the thought of this particular rat ever evading her.

"Nameth Curie," she continued, unfazed by anybeast's reaction thus far. "Bounty Hunter."

She patted her stomach and gave a commanding belch, which came out as a small hiccup.

"Do you have any drinkth with appleth in them? I'm in the mood for thomething thpithy. Maybe even..." Her voice dropped to a whisper as she pushed her glasses up her long snout, conspiratorially. "Alcoholic."

 

[Herman Lasichin]

"Forests above, Mister Lasichin!"

"I prefer being called Herman honestly. Hmm, let me see what I have here..."

The weasel looked carefully at the cards in front of him. Four of gilders, five of daggers, six of daggers, and a six of hearts, with a five of gilders turned up some distance away. Herman came often to the bilge in the bucket, but only entered it once or twice. He could always find his way there from wherever he was in Bully Harbor. From then on he learned how to get to other parts of the city from the bilge, and thus his city navigation somewhat improved. This time he was drawn to stay by a promise of a good round of naughty kits, and the round didn't disappoint. It was shaping up to be a close game with the older fox he was sitting against, who hawkishly watched his every move and was ready to pounce at every counting mistake he might make. But the second lap ended with a leap for the mustelid, he just needed to count the cards carefully and the game was his.

He and his opponent were momentarily distracted by the entrance of the joyful rat.
"What you figure, my beast Herman? A be or a wannabe?"

"A quadrupal run of 3 makes 12, 2 pairs make 16, and 8 counts of fifteen makes 24"

herman picked up his peg to move it along the board, but the fox just pulled out a gilder and slid it over to Herman.

"Mister Craftpaws, we agreed not to play for stakes..."

"I prefer to be called Ferion, and don't mention it. That gilder will serve you more than it will serve me, since youth and fortune are on your side".

"Please don't be so defeatist Ferion, your days aren't over yet"

"Oh my good days are well behind me, now it's all work, bilge and sleep until...until...oh you know, whatever ends up going on when we fall down and never get up."

Herman nodded but his ears were listening to something else. A low voice towards the counter, whispering words that sounded familiar. "Goeth by the name Rathcallo, Cryle Rathcallo".

"I can tell you're about half way to the evergreen forests by that grin of yours, Mister Herman. Sorry to leave you so early, I have my own naughty kits to take care of. But like clockwork you can find me here at the same time, we must play again"

"Until next time, Ferion"

herman stood up and made his way over to that joy-radiating rodent. He looked her over, wondering if she really looked like his colleague or if all rats looked the same to him. Either way, it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"Excuse me, did you say something about Cryle Rascallo?"

 

[Curie]

"Yeth. Yeth, I did."

Curie had watched the weasel slink over, watched him watching her. She straightened her shoulders, coiled her tail, jutted a leg out in a way that she thought might make her look like she was ready for action, if action dared to be ready for her. All while trying to play it cool, suave, relaxed, sophisticated. Unhurried, unbothered, in control.

"She'th a thcoundrel and a thcallywag, and I aim to bring her to juthtithe. I'm a Bounty Hunter," she added, crisply pronouncing each word in a way that would have made her sister proud. "And if that rogue ith in prithon already, I'll jutht have to break her out to fathe the proper authoritieth!"

She flexed her arm, her lime-green paw clenched into a fist, and smirked as she tried to kiss her bicep and only succeeded in wiping her face on her sleeve.

"I athume you've ran into her by your interetht. Tell me, how hath the villain maligned you? I will thee to it reparathionth are made."

The bartender grunted and nudged a drink over towards her. A drink as green as her headfur sparkled inside the glass.

"Your appletini, marm."

"Why thank you good thir! How much doeth thith cotht again? I've got thome gilderth here, hold on..."

She began digging in her rucksack, one ear quirked towards Herman, the other towards the bar.

 

[Anise Wainswright]

Today, Anise Wainswright had been saddled with a most important quest; today, she was making a delivery!

She couldn't say why exactly she was tasked to it, as Uncle Noah was being a most quiet beast about his reasonings, but the what was clear: bring the Vixen Barmaid at the Bilge in the Bucket, @Mina Rose Brewer, a few mint plants as a gift. Normally, Anise would be protective of her leafed charges... but, soon to be on her gap-year voyage, the little Jill had agreed to disperse some of her extra stock over hoarding it in the family's arboretum.

Plants—like beasts—were made to flourish and grow in new places, after all, and they wouldn't be doing that locked up tight in a greenhouse.

Briefly adjusting the brim of her wide-brimmed straw sunhat, the jill clutched the pair of pots protectively against her chest as Uncle Noah hauled forth the family's smallest rickshaw, a dual-seater with a collapseable canopy. They wove past other beasts on their way through the Slup's streets and though he puffed quietly from the exhertion of it, a cheerful smile still managed to remain solid on his white-furred cheeks as they travelled on his small marvel of carriage engineering.

"Are you alright back there, my star?"

She couldn't help but wring her paws in worry; It was not an overly short trot between their Estate in the Trenches and the Bilge.
"I'm just fine, Uncle. But are you sure you're alright—? I can take a turn if you need—"

"No, no, no; that won't do!" He chided, continuing at pace. "Just make yourself comfortable. I need the exersize anyhow..."

"If you say so, Uncle..."

---

"Here we are, my star!" Noah said with a heaving breath and a smile on his lips, craning back to show it to Anise. "The Bilge in thee Bucket~!"

She couldn't help but smile back. "Thank you again, Uncle~! Any idea where I might find this Vixen?"

"Oh, uhm..." A blush roiled under his fur, obvious beneath the white. "I'm not sure! She's been around most times I've been here..."

"Well... not to worry. I'm sure someone will know where she is."

With a small chuckle, Anise hopped down to the lovely cobbled path surrounding the most notorious establishment in the Slups and, giving her Uncle an otherwise determined nod, headed for the side entrance with a swish in her tail. As she walked, sparing a moment to straighten her dress with a wriggle, a rare tingle of anxiety shifted its way out from beneath her breakfast and she clutched her pots tighter.

Hopefully today there would be no brawls...

Slipping inside, the little jill took a few moments to sway in the doorway and allow her eyes to adjust fully to the dim light of the Tavern's interior.

When, at last, her eyes had adjusted with a few extra bleary blinks, her attention fluttered and landed upon the most colorful character: a raidmaid with the most vibrant dyed green fur she had ever seen swirling a glass with liquid to match in her paw. Her cool, calm demeanor exhuded confidence, one leg arched gracefully as she talked with a nearby Jack.

Anise was wowed—and, as quick as that, she was distracted from her task. She could think only of the ratmaid, even as she looked around the Bilge for the target of her gift, her mind running fast as she pondered the use of dye. How lovely a canvas her own fur would make for such a task!

With the brightest smile on her face, she strode up to the bar, the rim of her sunhat bobbing with each step. Carefully waiting for a pause in their conversation, the little Jill glanced between the two conversing beast and cleared her throat gently.

"Uhm, pardon me for interrupting," She jostled her pots, the mint plants within curtsieing as she did. "I hope you won't mind me saying, but I adore your fur!"

Her cheeks flushed as she stumbled over more complements. "The color and luster is beautiful! I simply must ask—what's your secret?"

Almost under her breath, she began to speculate rapidly. "All I can think is some kind of combination of urtica dioica with a batch of indigofera tinctoria... but would it sting because of the dioica? No, surely it must be something else; salvia rosmarinus? Solidago?!"

Remembering herself, her cheeks lit up even harder. "Oh... uhm, sorry!"

 

[Herman Lasichin]

"Aha, ok, huh, mhm..."

"Yeah, this is Cryle's sister alright", he thought out loud under his breath. It wasn't that they had anything in common. Cryle preferred to keep quiet, this one liked to be loud. Cryle hated attention, her sister was straight up desperate to be noticed and appreciated. Cryle hated company and wanted to be alone, he met her sister at the bilge in the bucket. The only thing that they had in common is that Herman would classify them both as crazy, mad and insane, and while he wouldn't usually trust anything a dangerfurred beast told him he couldn't imagine a reason why someone would pretend to be related to Cryle Rascallo unless they at least knew her well.

"We are colleagues, that means we work together. She was a navigator on the black ship while I was the assistent quartermaster."

Herman paused for a second, more than enough time for another beast to join in their conversation. He wasn't sure whether that was a good or bad thing at the moment, he felt very uneasy about talking to somebody who could potentially be very mentally unstable and believe that Cryle was truly a merciless outlaw and would see fit to charge him as one of her coconspiraters. Of course, it could have also been her attempt at being playful and not understanding that the barkeep and random strangers at the bilge wouldn't be in on her family's inside joke, but Herman preferred to assume the worst.

Herman was stuck in place when he set his eyes on Anice. His first thought was that she was pretty, and then he just kept looking and finding more and more things to compliment her for. The color of her paws, the length and softness of her tail, the enchanting features on her face. She was the weasel jill of the dreams he was certainly going to be plagued with every night from now on. And then he heard what she said. "I adore your fur!"

Herman followed her eyes, and saw that, as he was afraid, she was talking to the ratmaid. Oh well, true love didn't mean perfect, he after all was a reasonable jack, and would let her have a few opinions that differed from his, and were also terribly wrong. He returned his eyes to her.

"Oh, you would know a lot about beautiful things, miss."

He chuckled as he said it, and then added his eyes still focused on Anice.

"May I know your name? Oh, and yours too"

He remembered to nod at Curie at the end, so she would know that the question included her as well.

 

[Curie]

"She wath a navigator?" Curie asked, more to herself than Herman.

She turned to the interruption, and was welcome to it. Compliments were the best!

"Thank you!" she said, beaming and giving her glasses a little nudge of acknowledgement. And then another, slightly shyer "thank you" to Herman, assuming that his flirting was also in regards to her. Her cheeks felt hot. Weasels! What fun little animals.

She bit back a giggle as the weaselmaid babbled in those science-y words that Cryle and Iskra had so loved.

"It'th grath!" she chirped, swiping a paw through her spiked headfur. "Alcohol, grath, thpinach, boiled, thome copper helpth, and thea algae with a little jellyfish pathte! And thome other powder, I forget... Anyway, I'm Curie. Curie Rathcallo. Bounty Hunter," she added, squinting off towards the rafters with what she imagined was a noble and steadfast expression.

Having since finished paying for her drink, decided it would look cool if she gave it a little sensual swirl before taking a sip. She was right; it did. And then, when she raised it to her lips to try and sip from it, her paw began to shake, spilling the alcoholic beverage right up her nose and down her chin and shirt. She managed to keep a straight enough face and get at least a partial, messy slurp in before half of it was on the ground, and was very proud of herself for being able to put the glass back on the bar afterwards, even if there was only a tiny bit left.

She sneezed into her elbow and pinched her nose until the burning had lessened to something tolerable.

"That'th one thpithy drink!" she bellowed, pounding the bar. Then she belched, to make sure the whole tavern knew she was still cool and not to be messed with.

It came out as a cute little "bip" sound.

"Tho!" she turned to Herman, once again squinting Noble and Steadfastedly, her nose upturned a little to present her bounty hunter scowl, "What newth of the Thcourge I hunt? Ith she in prithon? Jail? Thtockadeth? Where might I find her? Mum'th worried about her."

 

[Anise Wainswright]

Anise flushed full red when the Jack complemented... her? Oh dear, was it her or the ratmaid? The ratmaid was getting red cheeks too... Oh, it didn't matter, she would have secondhand embarrassment anyways! She wasn't used to being complemented by non-family members; the beasts at school were more likely to leave her to her plants than flirt with her. She thought...

She swayed her hips nervously and jostled her plants, tail swishing along with the hem of her dress around her calves.

Thankfully the ratmaid saved her from an immediate stuttering response with the answer to her question, and a good answer at that. As she spoke with her adorable lisp, Anise echoed her words in a whispered harmony and added a few of her own.

"Alcohol, grass—hum I wonder if it's Oxalis or... perhaps Miscanthus—spinach—Spinacia! Delicious... a touch of copper—oh, jellyfish and algea! That's what allows it to make such unique shapes in your fur! Thank you so much! I simply must try it myself sometime! Though... maybe without the jellyfish."

Then she added her name, and she chirped that along too. "Curie~! Cute! I like it!"

As Curie went to take a sip from her drink, hand shaking the whole way, she curtsied again. Her gaze traveled between Curie and the Jack.

"Well, my name is Anise! Anise Wainswright. Horticulturalist. Much less interesting than a Bounty Hunter or Assistant Quartermaster on the BlackShip—Oh! That reminds me! I'm actually going to be sailing on the BlackShip soon, I think! It's part of my 'study abroad' program with the University. There was a paperwork mix up and..." She trailed of into a series of barely audible and mumbled explanations about how she'd never sailed and how worried her parents were before remembering herself. "...oh, but you probably don't need to know all of that! Hah... "

Shifting the terracotta pots in her arms off onto the counter, she extended a now-free paw towards the Jack. "Uhm... and I didn't catch your name, Mr. Assistant Quartermaster?"

Her handshake, should he chose to accept, was more a business related shake—her scratched paw pads worn in places and incredibly soft in others. Her fur was also divinely soft...

Looking back to Curie at her tiny, cute 'bip', Anise's eyes widened. Curie had a way of being so cool...

"You're hunting someone...? From here in the Bilge? Oh, woah..."

Then she looked back to the Jack, eyes glittering as she waited on his word.

 

[Herman Lasichin]

"I think that she's being a little silly, Anise. Her sister Cryle is a perfectly fine if imaginative beast, she doesn't need to worry about bounty hunters or anything like that"

herman explained, feeling bad for Anise's naïveté. It was harmless when Curie Rascallo was involved, but there were much worse swindlers in the imperium who would love to take a pretty weasel for a ride and charge all the gilders she has for it. He thought it would be a great gesture of him to show her just how to confront boasting beasts.

"Curie, I know Cryle. She is no scourge and you aren't hunting her. She isn't in prison, nor in jail, nor in any stockades. In fact, she is a free and successful beast, working to make the imperium a better place. I have gone with her through thick and thinn, tough and rough, she could handle it all. If I'm not worried for her, nobody else has any right to be"

He made a dramatic pause, before turning to Anise with the widest grin he ever had.

"Sorry, I needed to set the record straight, you know how important that is. My name is Herman Lasichin"

He stretched out and held Anise's paw, not shaking it, just feeling it. He smiled at Curie, hoping he didn't take his demonstration too far, and then turned to the barkeep.

"I'll have a beer, and I will pay for whatever these two femmes desire."

 

[Curie]

"It'th not quite my plathe of operation, yet... jutht on an information gathering mission!"

Curie regarded the weaselmaid with a skeptical eye, once she mentioned her, ahem... profession. She glanced between the two weasels with an expression that slowly softened into one of perplexed discomfort.

"I don't think you know thith Cryle ath well ath you think you do, thir! She ith a thcoundrel of the highetht order, a cutthroat beatht of thienthe, and a matherful thwordthrat, both with a rapier and a quill, with prothe that would take your breath away. I've read her journal," she added, tapping her nose. "Chapter four getth wild. But that'th private. The retht doeth thound like her, though."

She cleared her throat and swiftly picked up her appletini, raising it before her paw could start to tremor. She downed what was left inside, and began to slam it down when she remembered that the glass was, well, glass. She placed it gently on the bar.

"I could do with thomething perhapth a little leth... oh, I wath thailing! I might have thcurvy, I'll take an orange juithe! With lime!"

She nodded a thanks to Herman for his generosity, and angled herself towards Anise, regarding the weaselmaid with a nervous twitch of whiskers and ears.

"I didn't think the Imperial Navy would have thuch interethting arrangementth with professionth thuch ath yourth," she said, slowly, delicately. "And you thay there'th a Univerthity for it? That mutht be where the culture cometh from. Back in Magh, ourth weren't very educated at all. That'th why they tend to go into that, um... line of work... Not that I've ever thought about it, mythelf... not much interetht in either... Tho, er, how did you come to choothe thith life path?"

 

[Anise Wainswright]

All of Herman's talk about rightness and setting the record straight only made her more curious as to the nature of Curie's supposed 'hunt'.

"I'll have a beer, and I will pay for whatever these two femmes desire."

"Oh! Thank you, Herman—!" Anise gave him a bow of the head and glanced at the barkeep. "Uhm, excuse me, barkeep: I'll get a Certainly Cathedral. Thank you very much!"

Another small blush graces her cheeks at Curie's mention of Cryle's skill and especially diary.

"Oh my! Sounds like quite the interesting beast."

Anise listened with care as Curie began in on her questioning, finally settling down her other pot beside the first.

"And you thay there'th a Univerthity for it?"

"—Yes, the University of Length!" She said excitedly.

"...Tho, er, how did you come to choothe thith life path?"

Anise's black-tipped ears wriggling in thought, she paused for a long moment after being asked, for the first time by a stranger, why?

Gardens had always seemed like her destiny; from since she was very small, toddling along behind her father in the woods behind their house and babbling joyfully at each new fern, to now. But did she really know that she would be happy with it? Her family had always been supportive and they said that working in a field your passionate in made it hardly feel like work at all—but would it burn her out? Set aflame the withered edges of her mind?!

Pupils dilating rounder and rounder, her very wet, very pink nose twitched twice before she went very still. Moisture gathered at the edges of her eyes.

"Oh... I... "

Her tone wavered and she sniffed once, despite the colorful drink that the barkeep slid before her—interior stained red and bubbling, with a cherry on top! She took a ponderous sip, briefly distracted from her darkened mood, before being thrust back into it by the mere sight of her plants before her. Even with their adorably shiny, shovel shaped leaves and fragrant scent!

Looking back up at Curie, then over to Herman, then back again to Curie, she deflated visibly.

"...I'll be honest, I don't know!"

Circling the mouth of the glass with her pawpad, she let out a small-yet-dramatic sigh.

"I've always loved it—but when I think about doing it for the rest of my life, not knowing anything else outside of Bully Harbour, something in me freezes up! That's why I wanted to take a year to think and study and explore the world before I committed to the University..."

Her watering eyes flicked between the two beasts rapidly. "You're both beasts of the World... what do you think?"

 

[Herman Lasichin]

"Yes, she is very imaginative just like you Curie"

Herman saw that convincing the rat was not going to work, so he tried to end the conversation with a thought terminating cliche. He had to learn a list of those by heart in his rhetorics class and he is ashamed at how often he needed them in arguments. At least this time he could be creative and play on a theme.

he pulled out 4 gilders from his wallet, putting three in the barkeeps paw and the forth one in the tip jar. He was very interested in Anise's story and listened to it carefully, and nodded along in understanding as she explained her trouble. He knew that nearly every young beast wasn't sure of what they wanted to be in life, and those that thought they did would usually end up regretting their choices. Anise was at least open minded to consider different options, to see more of the world and life before finally making her decision.

"Oh Anise, things aren't so dire. You have your whole life ahead of you, and you have all the energy and bravery to try out whatever you fancy. You can always decide to go with something else if a thing isn't appealing to you anymore. Or you can do it like I did, and study one thing and then another, and go between those as you see fit. I was an interpreter first, then a numbersbeast, now I'm a math instructor."

He gently placed his paw over hers, gently caressing its surface.

"I think that spending a year exploring and discovering is a wonderful idea. I wish I had a journey like that before I began studying, but alas only now did I got to take it."

He paused a little, before asking.

"So that university of Length has a silly name I must say. I guess that Length is a place? Or did they really name it after the word?"

 

[Curie]

Curie tensed at the look in the weaselmaid's eyes. Specifically, the widening. Some distant, ancestral part of her brain screamed hunter mode activated. Predator has seen you. Prepare to be disembowelled. The rest of her brain went: Awww, she's so cute - wait, is she crying?!

She watched in quiet fascination as the weasels's soul left out her nose in an exhale of sorrow. She recognized this. She had lived it dozens of times over. It would come back in time. Herman was already patting her paw and offering wisdom of the elders. Curie jumped in when she had the chance, babbling in a blur of thoughts and distressed emotions.

"It'th called Length becauthe of how long it taketh to finish learning," she said, nodding sagely. "Altho it'th a plathe! I know that much."

Turning back to Anise:

"You can alwayth pick thomething elthe to do! If you can go to Univerthity for that, you can go to Univerthity for anything! And being a thailor, that'th an adventure. You can help with the ship, you don't have to be doing your current job there all the time. It'th... good that you love it, I gueth motht beathtth do. I know my mother doeth," she added quietly, with a little tittering and a downward glance at the floor. "Cryle might, going by her writing..."

Her ears felt hot. She adjusted her stance at the bar, properly hefting herself up onto a stool and accepting her orange-lime juice with a smile.

"Come, thit." She patted the stool between herself and Herman. "Let me tell you thome of the jobth I've worked. I thtarted ath a dock worker, then tried shoe cobbling, then haberdashery, then warehouthe thecurity, then alchemetht'th athithtant, then blackthmith'th, then woodworking, then porter, then Mithertrothe Potht thtuff, baking, gardening, bookbinding, tailoring and dyeing, fishing, wheelwright, thcrivener, roof mending..."

She took a deep breath and picked up her mug. Halfway up, her paw started to tremble and she put it down again with a little frown, rubbing her wrist with her other paw.

"Tho now I'm trying bounty hunting! I figure onthe I find Cryle, the hardetht beatht there ith to find when she doethn't want to be found, I'll have the thkillth to take on even bigger bountieth! Oneth that pay." She winked at Anise with a rogueish grin, green-tipped tail flicking defiantly. "Tho you thee, you don't have to be thtuck in one thing forever, even if Univerthity feelth like forever. You can pick any other job to try out, then you can thave what you do now for thomebeatht you truly love. Your body ith a lovely gift... but that doethn't mean you have to share it with whoever hath money. When you give it freely to love, then I bet you'll love doing it for the retht of your life."