New short story, sorta, only have another chapter outlined for this one. Wrote it last year but never finished. I'll get around to finishing, I think, based on the response I get here. Enjoy!
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"I know ya want eighty, but I ken't give ya eighty. I ken give ya sixty."
Mordicia Bluestein looked like a man made to scare children and induce vomiting. Well, male specimen. Massive jowls from eating good food and not leaving his tiny, cluttered desk all day, the worst part Jyne couldn't stand was the flop sweat. He had a condition, apparently, even now mopping his bad combover and wringing out a solid stream of rancid ogre fluid into a bucket. Pebbly gray skin had the toughness to stop a cannonball at close range, but it looked soft and flabby in the doublet and hose he wore to appear gentile.
"We agreed on eighty," Jyne insisted, leaning over the desk to glare a dagger at the ogre's yellow eyes with her sharp emerald glower. "You TOLD me it would be eighty when I left port three days ago. I'm not leaving here until I get my eighty."
"Threaten me all ya want, Jyne," the ogre said without malice, yet also without caring. "I'm da only fence left in Olgutra Port that'll work wid ya. Yer haul will have me barey makin' rent. " A meaty three-finger paw the size of Jyne's head clunked down a leather purse not large enough for the agreed eighty bars of gold. "Sixty."
Jyne Argon's eye hole itched underneath her black patch. The missing optical orb in her head didn't bother her as much these last three years, but when irritation filled her past any woman's tolerance, she wanted to rip the cloth off and dig fingers inside her skull to relieve an itch that could never be reached. Instead, those that knew her only saw a scowl turning pouty lips into a sneer worthy of a pirate captain.
"I'm going to find another fence, Mord, even if I have to sail to the Eastern Potentate," Jyne whispered through grit teeth, slapping her hand down and taking the gold. "I've got a big score next, and you just lost it. Savvy?"
"Yer done, Jyne, you an' yer wenches." The massive ogre reached down and pulled out his pen, dipping it in the ink and already forgetting the stunning and furious woman in his office. "When ya robbed the Saintly Bounty, ya pissed off the King. They're coming fer ye."
Wanting to get in the last word with all her furious soul, Jyne beat that reflex down and turned to leave with a bit of dignity. She slammed the door, though.
"That bad?"
"That bad." Jyne didn't look up, but Berry stood there in those stupid fancy robes she'd inexplicably worn for the last few months. Tall with flowing blond hair, boobs the size of large fruit (and were they getting BIGGER?), pale skin that wouldn't tan beyond her milky cream color, Berry Cuddles used to command top dollar at the red light district. If Jyne wasn't confident she could bed any man in the city herself, she might be jealous of the thaumatic mage who served as first officer on their ship.
Holding up the too light purse, Jyne jingled bars of gold sarcastically. "I got sixty."
"That's not enough."
"Ya think?" Jyne was in a mood, stomping her boots through the back offices while Berry calmly followed her captain. "Maybe I can get us some cheap lumber, and the alchemy supplies for Stef will need to be a priority, but food is going to be tight."
"JC will have your head if you can't get her galley stocked." Berry didn't sound too concerned, but nothing really fazed the magus, always had a calm demeanor, whether in battle or the bedroom.
"Then JC can find us a fence, because..."
The women were leaving the building when a little goblin ran from the back holding an ugly statue. An ugly statue Jyne recognized.
"You take!" the goblin shrieked, pushing the statue into Jyne's arms.
"Wha...?" Jyne's confusion overflowed because this didn't make sense. "No, I just sold it to your boss, Mordecai. Its his piece of junk now."
"You take!" the goblin insisted, still pushing it into Jyne's hands and wrapping the captain's fingers around it to force her to hold it.
"What is it?" Berry asked, more curious than anything.
"One of the art pieces from that ship we raided two days ago." Jyne held the statue and became more befuddled when the goblin made a fast retreat. "I recognize it because I thought it looked hideous when we were sorting the booty." The whore-turned-pirate paused, giving the statue a critical appraisal. "Those eyes, though, look like gemstones."
"Hmm, didn't get a look at it before." Berry said, carefully leaning down and giving the dark stone carved into some lewd and naked demonness thrusting her cunt into the air while smiling a mouth of fangs into the sky. "I think it is supposed to be a representation of Cluothe, the Eastern goddess of terror and change."
"Don't care," Jyne replied, almost chucking it but changing her mind at the last second, thinking she might get a few silver if she could pry those gems out of the stone. Decided, the pirate captain stepped into the busy traffic of the street and made her way back to the ship. "You coming?"
"I'll be back in a few hours, need to get some herbs for my pregnancy."
Jyne stumbled and nearly fell to the cobbles, but managed to spin around to witness a rare smile on Berry's face.
The surprise announcement distracted Jyne from noticing the statue in her hand heat with inner fire.
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The Black Heart Pirates were not the most feared rogues sailing the twelve seas of Yerm. In fact, they fought for every scrap of reputation built in the last three years when a group of working girls burned down a cluster of whore houses in the red light district of Olgutra, stole a ship owned by the deceased brothel owner, renamed the ship the Scorned Lover and flew colors of a black heart on crimson cloth. For a time they were lauded by some people as fighting back against oppression and other such nonsense.
Those idealists changed their tune after the Black Hearts raided Volup Colony and burned it to the ground. When a whole fleet went missing off the coast of Wylo and survivors told of the horror caused by a ship manned entirely by prostitutes, sailors learned to fear the black heart on red.
However, nothing lasts forever. The Breen Empire began cracking down on piracy and sent their royal fleets out in force. The fact the Black Hearts singled themselves out when they raided a ship containing the special honeyed wines of the Eastern Potentate meant for the Emperor himself was just bad luck.
"Berry is pregnant?" Xorli, quartermaster and towering over the other girls on the deck at eight feet of green orc, hauled the last of the supplies on a pulley by herself as if she were lifting a teacup.
"Berry has BEEN pregnant for five months!" Jyne announced maybe a bit loud, still reeling from the revelation less than an hour ago. "How did no one notice?"
"You're the one spending the most time with her, pouring over those charts in your cabin." Xorli grunted as she pulled the net of crates over the deck and eased them onto the planks, letting other girls take over stowing the gear. "We all though you were 69ing behind the closed door."
"I go down on ONE GIRL and everyone thinks I'm a muff queen," Jyne grumbled, waving the statue as if to include the crew in her assertions. "Not one glass of wine since!"
"Hey, my pussy isn't complaining, just surprised you haven't wanted more orc meat in your diet." When Xorli smiled, her tusks flared outward in a truly terrifying display. Jyne was immune to such antics, though.
"Back to Berry..." Jyne tried to say more, waving the statue around at the girls on deck like a frantic madwoman, yet nothing came out. The crew of former sex workers ignored their high strung captain, immune to HER antics.
"She probably didn't want you worrying." Xorli said, coming around and setting massive green tits on top of Jyne's head while reaching down and put her calloused hands around the captain. "None of us want you to worry, we all know how hard you work to keep us safe and fed."
"Your captain appreciates any and all boob hats the crew will provide," Jyne said deadpan, though she didn't make to move away, "but I don't think it gives the sense of menace we are trying to cultivate as a pirate crew."
The orc quartermaster laughed and got back to work, leaving Jyne to slink to her cabin even as other crew members lit lamps around the deck and the twin suns sank into the vast ocean.
"...how are we going to survive?" Jyne asked no one, idly running her fingers on the warm stone of the statue in her hand.
"Ow!"