The Pirate-Infested Wanderlust Cruise Ship

"Eh, we elec navis might as well stick together. Don't worry, Clipper won't get me any trouble. Unless you mean 'troubling me for a spot of tea' or something. That damn woman's so stuck up and prissy, it's like she doesn't get what a pirate is," Power scoffed, while Lyn took her leave by way of necessity. If Lyn didn't, the group of gray men would close up and soon there would be no way for her to escape without another very uncomfortable hug. She made her way through, then headed below deck, seeking to make sure that Clipper got up above deck so the Jolly pirates could leave, if not also Bomba's pirates.It might strike Lyn, however, that the Jolly pirates didn't exactly seem to be waiting on the first mate... it appeared they were already busily boarding the ship.

As she made her way down, she'd find that the first deck down was now empty. Several things like lamps, bath towels, and the like were strewn across the hallway; it was likely some one (or several people) had stacked their piles a little high when making off with all of Tango's assets, and as a result, part of the bounty had tumbled off the top of the pile and been left behind. While this area was now quiet, it sounded like a lot of noise was going on downstairs. Below, the sound of some kind of chanting that didn't sound at all like the promising sound of Bomba's pirates preparing to leave the ship, was reverberating.

Still, Lyn had already determined to take a peek down there, so take a peek she would... carefully, of course. Downstairs, she'd see many people wrapped in white bandages, standing all around and chanting. The lowest deck was exceptionally dark, lit mostly by candles, which looked exceedingly dangerous given the setting and that some of the machinery of the ship appeared to be down here, though none of it appeared to need any manual input. The men standing around, waving their bandages, seemed vaguely like ghosts in the darkness.

In the center, one woman, wearing a white cloak with the hood pulled off from her hair, was standing with her arms folded and leading the chant. Her hair was brown-black and somewhat unkempt, but her face was pretty, with striking, fire-colored eyes and lightly tanned skin. She wore a very severe expression, as her mouth moved in time with the words coming from everyone else around. There was no sign of Cutlass. Finally, she modified her words, beginning into a speech. "Our long-time nemesis, Captain Cutlass of the Cutlass Pirates, has finally surrendered to us! The terms: we will not burn this ship as we originally planned and we will not pursue her pathetic excuse for a replacement, Captain Jolly. In exchange, she will remain with us as her captive!" she announced in a booming voice. The others all cheered, while her grim smile slowly changed to a smile of self-satisfaction; her eyes appeared to be shining. "And to start with, I plan to have a little chat with her... I'll gather all the intelligence she has and pay her back for the humiliation she's caused me and all of you!" Another great cheer followed, which she accepted. "All of you, I want you to move to the back of the ship and watch my family for now... If Cutlass's men decided to come for her, defending the family is your top priority, though I suspect those skull-heads are running now with their tails between their legs, useless without her leadership."

The men rooted for her again (it turned out their chant was actually her name), while obeying her orders to take to the other side of the ship. In the mean time, Bomba, taking a deep breath as if preparing herself for something, went into the other room on the opposite side. It didn't sound like it had locked behind her.

At this point, Lyn may want to run back up and tell Jolly what was happening. If not, she could stay where she was at the top of the staircase and continue watching without too much danger of being seen. If she still wanted to proceed, however, she'd find that this may be her best opportunity: almost all of the men were retreating to one side of the ship, away from the correct direction to spot her in, and Bomba had just shut a door behind herself. There may be a way to sneak into the room with Bomba and presumably Cutlass... but what would Lyn do if she got inside? If she continued stepping down, she might find she nearly tripped over bandages; as if the fire hazard wasn't enough already, it appeared that discarded white wrappings were all over the floor of the deck, though they'd been hard to spot from a distance due to the darkness.

Quick steps crossing the deck saw Lyntael moving as subtly as she cold, to avoid the attention of anyone else after she nipped out of the ring of grey figures surrounding her and Power. Below deck, however, she hesitated; the stairs to the lowermost level, in the gloom, with the sounds rising up, were an ominous thing already, and along with the warning that Cutlass had given before, refusing to send her down in the first place, Lyntael was more than passingly worried about what, exactly she might be sneaking into, in order to help someone who, fair and considerate as she'd seemed, was still effectively a pirate...

With along, slow breath, she focused her thoughts. This was to help her grow stronger, and more confident; it was to help her be more useful to Rogan, and to not be so afraid all the time. That meant she couldn't let every little worry make her nervous, so long as she was careful. The other pirates had been strange, but still reasonable in their own ways, and even if cutlass had been protective of her, she had to suppose that Bomba and her crew would be similar in some way. What did she know? Bomba was supposedly the more 'dangerous' of the pirates, but she didn't know what that meant. She was fire element, but, the relationships between the crew stretched to style and technology balances as well. Had any of the other pirates mentioned what that meant for Bomba's style? Something in her head tickled about one of them saying something about looking after her own, but she couldn't remember exactly. It would have to do. She squared her shoulders and descended.

She took a moment for her eyes to adjust as she crept onto the lowest level, but crouched in low and pressed herself to whatever cover the stairway provided while she looked around; the circle of chanting figures didn't look particularly friendly, but she was fairly confident that the woman in the middle had to be Bomba. Briefly she wished that her clothes weren't such sunny colours; something more subtle would be helpful, here. Gradually, she dared to creep forward a little bit more, keeping to the cover of the ship's machinery as best she could. She couldn't see Cutlass anywhere... But the speech that Bomba was giving sounded like... Lyntael bit her lip, brow furrowing. She was saying that they were going to leave the ship alone, like they'd made a deal, but also that it involved Cutlass as a prisoner. Was that really what the other woman had planned, or had something gone wrong? It sounded like an agreement, and if it was what Cutlass had actually decided to do, then she probably shouldn't interfere, but... it also sounded very extreme.

She remained where she was as the chanting circle began to break up, and watched the bandaged crew men move away, before letting her eyes flick to the door. Cutlass had to be in there, and the path to the door seemed mostly clear, but, with no idea what was on the other side, sneaking in probably wasn't wise. She had to get closer though, and learn something. She looked back for the rest of the crew. Bomba had tasked them with protecting the family first and foremost... if she was lucky that meant that they wouldn't be paying too much attention to the door, and might not get in her way if they did notice... maybe. Unconsciously, two fingers circled and tapped at the emblem on her chest as she debated nervously with herself.

Her eyes moved to the discarded bandages on the floor, then, thoughtfully, to the crew members on the far side of the deck. She crouched to pick one up tentatively. Maybe... There didn't seem to be any crew members that really matched her.. proportions... but it might help them turn a blind eye, just at a distance and a glance, in case any of them happened to look her way. She nodded and began picking up lengths of the bandages. This would have to be quick, one way or the other.

Starting with her arms, Lyntael made a quick close tie around her thumb and wrist, then spooled the strip up to her shoulder before repeating it with the other arm. After that, she made a couple of cross-hash loops to cover her shoulders and up to her neck, then used another strip to circle down from under her armpits over her chest and down to her waist. there was no problem wrappinghte bandages over her vest, but she realised, before she began on her legs, that her skirt would be a problem; it wasn't divided in any way, and she couldn't just warp the bandages over it would restricting her legs. The problem left her to hesitate for several precious seconds. At last, she pouted to herself in the gloom. No. This happened every time and she wasn't going to let it happen again on a whim; there had to be some other way to do this that didn't involve undressing. It was then that a small thought struck her.

As much as she'd not heard back from Martia about her other emails, the information on crosses had been helpful, and she understood the process more now. One of her idle GMO designs had been partially subsumed when she'd designed a new costume for the aqua navi she'd met back in the city what seemed like an age ago now, and if she was right.... Lyntael closed her eyes and focused as near as she could on the friend she'd made back then, and the helpful advice he'd given her. Her brow furrowed for a few more seconds until, with a small shift like a gate opening, she felt her internal senses begin to change. Her head nodded as she embrace the shift and drew on it more, encouraging it.

The ever-present hum in her chest shrank to a quieter sensation, and she felt her hair droop down lank and flat; just like when she'd crossed with Martia, her extended senses oft he air and the weather around her dulled as well, but they were replaced by a stronger vein of calm reason than she'd previously been able to hold onto. The energy in her body began to feel less arcing and sharp, and more.. fluid, in a way.

As she'd hoped, Lyntael felt her physical appearance changing as well. Underneath the upper bandages, her vest dissolved away, replaced by a tight and firm, if very minimalist chest band. It was cool, make of wetsuit material, and blue with a yellow edging. She could feel, more than see, the fact that it was fairly narrow, especially in the centre, where the front zipper was covered by a protective guard, though it was a bit higher across her back, where a second zipper also fastened. Below the line that she'd wrapped the bandages to, Lyntael also felt her skirt swiftly dissolve, along with her underwear, both replaced by a simple bikini bottom in the same material and style as the band. It was properly covering, but she had to admit, upon a brief glance, that this hadn't actually bee n that much of an alternative to simply stripping off her skirt; she was still, effectively, in underwear. But, these were swim-wear, so, she supposed, it sort of didn't count and was, really, much better. Sort of. Or it would have been, if not for the fact that the bottom piece was secured by a pair of short zips on either hip, where the garment was thinnest already. at least they were also covered in fabric guards. A more rational thought meandered though her mind; if she wasn't prepared to wear these outfits, then she shouldn't design them. Idle fashion design was one thing, but it would be irresponsible to make something that she wouldn't herself be happy to wear.

Shaking her head, Lyntael let the changing energy slide away and looked herself over briefly. There was a visor across her eyes, but she tapped it with a finger and it swiftly receded outwards, collapsing into a small pair of compact buds that rested just behind her ears. Right. It was something, at least. the fact that the shift in her elemental energy was better suited to negotiating with fire-aligned pirates was also a benefit, even if it would be mostly bluff on her part. she swiftly bent to wrap up her legs as well, tucking the end of the last bandage into the last fold of the upper one. It didn't quite cover everything; a portion of her midriff was left exposed, but by tucking an edge of bandage just into the top of her her swimwear, she could ensure that none of it actually showed. She looked, as near as she could tell, as though the bandages were all she had on. It would have to do for now, as she didn't want to delay any longer.

Walking swiftly now, as but smoothly as she could, Lyntael crossed the space between her hiding spot and the door that Bomba had passed into; she wasn't sneaking deliberately, but instead doing her best to affect a casual air of belonging where she was. A sneaking figure would draw eyes, but it was her hope that a more certain pace wouldn't catch the eye of anyone who might glace over to her and simply see another bandaged figure. Her aim was to make it to the door and listen as close as she could manage, to get some kind of idea of what she might be sneaking into, if she did creep in, or even if it would be safe to do so.

Lyntael made up her mind to check in on Cutlass, but before that, she determined she would go for some field camouflage in the form of the various discarded wrappings that were cluttering the floor and making the whole place a fire hazard. Once she was wrapped up (mostly, not quite all the way), she'd head for the unguarded room where Bomba had entered moments ago.

Pressing quietly against the wall, Lyn could hear two pairs of voices going back and forth in a conversation. One voice clearly belonged to Bomba; the speaker was projecting her words with the same bombastic volume that had been used earlier. The other was probably Cutlass, but none of her words could be heard. From Lynn's previous interactions, she probably knew Cutlass as a woman who rarely raised her voice, and it would appear that held true even as a captive.

"Explain it to me so that I can understand! We had something special, you and I! I can't do it with Jolly, not the same way I used to do it with you. You've heard this before... but this time I'll force you to answer! You're not leaving this room until you tell me why you threw away our history together!" the fiery captain boomed

There was a lull while Cutlass answered, but it didn't last long before Bomba interjected again. "Youth?! That's your big reason?! R-Ridiculous! I mean... I know the importance of setting an example for younger navis very well! But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't still be able to do it like we did in the old days..."

A sigh came next, followed by more quiet words. It almost seemed like Bomba was the one to feel sorry for, given the coldness of the other woman's tone and the apparently intimate subject matter.

"I won't accept it! I don't want Jolly, or Power, or Clipper! I want you!"

By the sounds of it, this was a conversation Lyn could listen to all day... and Cutlass could be stuck listening to all day. If Lyn really wanted to make sure all pirates left the ship, she might need to intervene. Unless, of course, Cutlass had a plan that wasn't evident. Lyn might also want to peek out of simple curiosity... but the door looked pretty hard to open noiselessly. From this distance, she could see there was a window on the door, installed somewhat unfairly high up. Even if she could look through, though, it seemed like the room inside was dark. It was worth her wondering at this point if Bomba's group all had night vision or something, to be comfortable in such low light.

As much as none of the other crew seemed to have noticed or spotted her yet, Lyntael remained nervous about being caught as she listened at the door. the more the conversation went on, however, the more embarrassed the young girl grew. A blush managed to make its way across her cheeks, despite the situation. This really didn't sound at all like the pirate interrogation she'd been expecting. Honestly, she hadn't known what to expect, but not this. As the arguments and declarations when on, she stepped back from the door briefly and pressed the backs of her hands to her cheeks, taking a longer breath. She didn't exactly want to start jumping to any unusual conclusions here, but the more she saw and heard from each of the other pirate captains, and now this, the more it was beginning to look as though the captains... maybe five if cutlass and Jolly were both included... all knew each other on far more intimate terms than as rival pirates. It was beginning to sound like a complicated lovers' tiff.

Even so, there was no doubt that actual banditry and destruction was still going on, and it was probably still endangering lives, so, really, it was very irresponsible for these women to use dangerous and criminal organisations to fuel and to play out their personal problems. She folded her arms across her middle while she pondered what to do. the tuck ins on her wrappings weren't really holding up so well, and even a small amount of movement and left the the main wrap that ended at her midriff beginning to trail away and unwind. Oh well. As it was, she didn't really want to interrupt their discussion. It didn't actually sound like anyone was in any real danger, and by all accounts, it did sound like Bomba had agree to leave the ship alone... when she finally did go. Lyntael bit her lip, pacing slightly back and forth. Her leg wrappings didn't care for this, and were beginning to slip a little as well, but with none of the other crew seeming to pay any attention to her, she had mostly disregarded taking care of them now.

At the same time, Bomba didn't exactly sound calm, and if she wasn't satisfied by the conversation they were having in there now, how sure could any of them be that she'd keep her word? Lyntael didn't want to judge, but she also wasn't about to trust blindly either. She returned to the door, doing her best to listen in further. As she bent in to listen further, glimpses of her swimsuit and her skin were showing through the bandages in many places, but her thoughts had moved away from the crew and focused on the darkened room beyond. she'd have to interrupt at some point, probably, but there was still a chance that they'd reach a content resolution swiftly, and save her needing to. She swallowed and drew a long breath; if it sounded like they were going to come to blows, or like Bomba was going to decide to destroy the ship anyway, then she'd have to knock, and do her best to calm things down. Other than that, the safest thing she thought she could do for now was listen, and be ready.

The voices continued on the other side of the door; they'd reached a stalemate, but Bomba continued on all the same. "I can't believe you! You know you're so good at it; the best, even! None of the others feel right! My body... it just learned to anticipate you-"

"Bomba, I want you to cool yourself down and listen to what you're saying. You're mad if you want to go back to that. You can't handle it; you never could."

That seemed to taunt and enrage the fire-based pirate captain; a literal explosion came from somewhere inside the room. That probably wasn't healthy for the ship's integrity, but at least there wasn't the sound of a leak or anything of that sort following it. "I've trained so hard! Not for that little girl, for a true adversary! My body is ready!" she shouted, unironically.

The conversation wasn't the only thing heating up; Lyntael would notice that being wrapped up like a mummy wasn't actually comfortable at all. The air didn't seem to circulate so well down in the lower deck and the numerous candles weren't helping. The bandages were actually pretty heavy; whether she noticed it or not, it would feel better the more they slipped and gave her some air to breath. She'd probably end up sweating soon, to the point where a dip in the ocean or the pool would be pretty nice... assuming it wasn't still storming outside.

Another navi, like a ghost wrapped in white, seemed to appear behind Lyntael; he was seemingly male, but short enough that for a rare moment, Lyntael was finally the elder in a meeting. The kid was very tan, like Bomba, with messy black hair sticking from a few spots in his bandages, but his face was unassuming and curious. If he was upset or found Lyn unfamiliar, he didn't show it; he announced his appearance by tugging on the bandages around her shoulder. "Hey, hey... You're one of us, aren't you? Big Sis will get angry if she sees you're not wearing your bandages right... I can help you wrap them up, if you want me to," he offered. His eyes were big and orange-tinted like his sister's, but not nearly so fearsome in terms of expression. "Big Sis will also get upset if you listen to her through the door... I do sometimes... I actually came to do it again, but... she'll get really, really mad if she finds us..."

As she listened, Lyntael tried to ignore the way the wrappings she'd put on quickly itched and scratched, and tried not to think about the stifled and stuffy air that was making it uncomfortably hot and sticky. The conversation continued behind the door, further confirming the feeling that what she was eavesdropping on was not an interrogation, but a quarrel of past lovers, and despite herself it wasn't just the dry air an over-warm stuffiness that were pinking her cheeks.

Without really noticing what she was doing, one hand unconsciously eased the bandages here and there, trying to let more air in, and by the time the sudden explosion startled her the girl looked far more like a swimsuit-wearing girl with some bandages than she did a properly wrapped mummy. The sound of the blast itself made her jump and she reached for the handle to intervene, but another voice, from her own side of the door stopped her short. Her heart jumped, sending a jolt of adrenalin and nerves through her as she spun to face it, pressing her back to the door instead to see who had caught her, but she relaxed a little when she got a better look at the supposed pirate who had found her.

"Ah! Um, I..." As much as she was shocked and obviously worried about being caught, the boy's own words sounded like it was something she could cover up with just the eavesdropping itself, and she tried to recover her calm. "I just wanted to hear..." she let her eyes flick up over her shoulder to the door behind, then back to the boy. He'd identified her bandage job as clearly not rihgt, but apparently it was close enough that he'd still assumed she was supposed to be wearing them. She winced slightly, and shuffled the bindings a little to let more air in. A thin sheen was reflecting in the candle light across her skin wherever it was visible and the heat was making her draw longer, deeper breaths; the idea of being even more wrapped up wasn't a fun one.

"I, um, I don't really know how to do it," she admitted. It certainly wasn't a lie, after all. "and they're all scratchy, and hot and uncomfortable, and I feel like I can barely breath here... I've, um... I've not been here long." Again, true, she mentally checked off in her head, as she avoided telling direct lies. "Could you, um, show me how...?" Try as she might, there wasn't really any disguising the fact that the idea of wrapping up more firmly in the suffocating bindings was a very unpleasant thought for her, but given everything else she'd said and the boy offered, it was probably an excusable emotion in the circumstance, she hoped.

She had to admit, a swim really was sounding like a fantastic idea now, and it grew more appealing the longer she had to stay on this deck. Her eyes pleaded with the boy and she gradually began undoing her earlier efforts at binding up, stripping the wraps off and holding them neatly in one hand, or giving them to him if he wanted, as she exposed the rest of her body and her stylish swimmers. Yes, stylish was the right way to think of her fashion designs that she'd never really believed she'd ever wear where anyone would see them; they were entirely decent, really, and she shouldn't feel uncomfortable about the teasing design placement of the zips. Her efforts at reassuring thoughts weren't as reassuring as she'd hoped, and she was more aware than ever that the blush on her cheeks wasn't just from the heat of the room.

Even so, she was still doing her best to listen with as much of an ear as she could manage to the goings on on the far side of the door, in the darkened room. Like it or not, she would still need to intervene if it sounded like it was breaking down in there, and as much as she was worried by the earlier explosion, it sounded like they'd returned to talking after it, sort of. What wasn't happening yet was any clear agreement that the fire pirates would be leaving the ship soon, but she had to try at least to give them more time to resolve their personal matters first, or else it was all going to go up in flames.

The boy was just mature enough to realize that there was something overly erotic about Lyn's appearance, now mostly unwrapped and standing in her bikini, sweating in the low candle-light, but thankfully, it didn't deter his motivation to help. "That's okay... I just wanted to listen in to," he responded, casting no further suspicion over her. "My name's Bombie. Bomba's in there, she's the oldest. There's also Bombo, Bombe, and Bom-Bom." Lyn hadn't asked for all this information, but the whispering went on and on anyway. "Bombo's a little older than me. He likes girls a lot. Bombe's the same age. She acts a lot like Bomba. Bom-Bom's the youngest. Bom-Bom can't even talk..."

Lyn finally managed to get a word in and put the conversation back on track, although her attempts were a little nervous. He watched her unwrap her remaining bandages, sniffling a bit; he looked over her body curiously and unabashedly. While she was busy with that, Lyn could hear a little more coming from the room:

"You're obsessed and it's clouding your judgment," Cutlass' voice continued. "You're letting someone younger and healthier get away while you focus on me. My days of doing this sort of thing are behind me-"

"Look at you! You're still a... the picture of a model captain! Those legs, those abs, that bu-... body!" Bomba protested. "When you say foolish things like that, it just makes me want to... rrgh!"

From there, the two stopped talking; it sounded like suddenly, both of their lips were occupied, and although both were still making noise, it was muffled by something their mouths. One could only imagine what was happening in there.

Bombie had moved over to grab up the wrappings in his hand and began to do so, collecting the ones pooled at Lyn's feet first. He squinted in the low candle-light, then looked up at her curiously. "You missed some of it... When we wrap our bandages, we always start with these ones," he murmured, reaching out to give her zip-ties a gentle tug and try to loosen them up.

While Bombie introduced himself and began to chat in quiet whispers, Lyntael tried her best to settle her nerves and focus. She'd finished stripping off her remaining bandages, but even so, the heat of the lower deck would still have made her sweat without them. She did her best to pay attention to her unexpected partner in crime while he spoke about Bomba's extended family — it seemed like she had literally meant family, when she'd spoken about them earlier, unless the brother and sister terms were just affectations — but between the dryness in the air, the bead of sweat she could feel edging down the centre of her back, and the numerous other factors on her mind all at once already, it was making it hard to focus attention on something else new. Also, stylish or not, decent or not, and young as he might be, she was far too conscious of the feeling of eyes on her while she was wearing something she'd never intended to show off in public.

"Bomba... told all the crew to watch her family... how did you sneak away so easily?" She murmured in response, though after a moment her eyes turned back to the door when she heard more of what was going on. What was going on was something to make the blush in her cheeks burn harder and without really thinking about it too much, Lyntael put her hands up to her face, peeking sideways between her fingers unable to stop herself listening despite the now very obviously private nature of the... ah... negotiations.

She was still mostly facing Bombie while she listened, and the secretly false pirate was far too absorbed in the revelations from beyond the door to notice him reach towards her from where he was crouched gathering the bandages. Her eyes had gone to the door, and unconsciously, she presumed he was pointing out a particular bandage when he spoke next — it wasn't until she felt the soft tug that she realised anything was amiss. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, depending on how he felt, the design of Lyn's cross outfit was, as with many things she designed in private with no plans to wear, designed to be sexy and alluring, as well as classy, and the real protection to the zippers was the cloth guard cover, which Bombie had already circumvented by taking the zip's tab. They wouldn't ever come undone on their own, and the guard would protect them from the rigours of rapid currents and the like... but a simple tug in the right direction from someone actually holding the tab was all it took. The zips at the hips of her bikini only had four teeth to them in the first place, and the boy's experimental tug unfastened the one he was holding with a couple of soft clicks.

This, of course, made one whole side of the bikini bottom fall open as gravity began to do the rest of the work. From where he was crouched still, Bombie was likely to get a close proximity glimpse of something that Lyntael herself was completely unaware of: in her current cross form, the stylised lightning bolt shape of blond hair cresting her private area had changed into an equally art-style water drop, for the time being. It hadn't changed colour, and still matched her hair, but it was a detail that really had to make one wonder.

Lyntael took no part in any of this thoughtful reflection. She felt the tug and gasped, flinching, but it was already well too late to prevent the exposure.

"Wait, don't—!" It was half a gasp of shock and unfortunately, half a shriek of fear, the need for silence forgotten for just that sudden moment. She stumbled back from him a step, scrambling for the falling garment with one hand even as she tried to cover her mouth with the other. One zip was still fastened, but with the other side loose there was nothing to stop it from attempting to slide immediately down her leg. Instinct made the girl press her thighs together to stop it falling further, but halting the debacle at just above her knees didn't really do much for protecting modesty.

Her shoulder thumped against the door frame while she tried to rescue her dignity, bend awkwardly and moving one hand to cover herself while the other fumbled with her swimwear. She leaned the small of her back against the door now, and with a hand still covering the important area, spared a look for Bombie.

"You can't just do that!" She hissed in a whisper again. "It's all I'm wearing!" As though that fact hadn't already been made very visibly obvious. She turned her eyes down again, beginning to pull the garment back up to her hips awkwardly with one hand, while struggling not to give the poor boy any further view of her intimate places. It was a difficult thing to do in the first place, with only one hand, and it would be even more so to try and keep both halves up to align the zipper again when she got to that bit, but the unexpected disaster had her thinking in one stage at a time. Her skin had flushed a burning crimson now, covering her cheeks, neck and down over the top of her chest, but it was a detail that Lyntael was only very distantly aware of. It would be far easier just to stand up straight, right the article and fasten it again with both hands, but that was something you did in a change room, because it meant leaving certain places uncovered while you did it — not an option with a boy close to her own age watching.

If she'd been calmer, Lyntael would probably have noticed that, despite the panic, her hair hadn't started sparking yet, and though the hum of energy in her chest was as alive as ever, it wasn't going haywire in response to her shock. If she'd been calmer she might also have been more worried about the way she'd shouted a moment earlier, than about her decency in front of the boy, but for the moment she was far more embarrassed and shocked, than she was thinking rationally.

"Oh, uh... Well, I can't say for sure. I'm small, so it's easy to move around without people seeing me. But I think more than that, they just think Bomba is having fun and they don't want anyone to get in between her and the other lady while she is. It just sounded kind of interesting and... well, it's kinda sweaty and cramped in here. So it seemed like it'd be more fun to listen in..." Bombie explained in a lengthy whisper, as he went about the business of helping Lyntael out of her swimwear. His curiosity seemed to be giving the better of him as he stared for a bit, but eventually, Lyn's mood became contagious and he got the hint. "Er... uh... Sorry, I normally do it for the others, so it's not usually so embarrassing," he murmured. "You have to get naked when you wrap them though. So I thought you knew that when you said I could help. Usually you have some smallclothes though... only Jolly and Power usually wear clothes like you're wearing. Actually... you're wearing a little less than they normally do, even."

That probably didn't make Lyn feel any better, but at least Bombie had stopped staring so she could put her bikini back on. Unfortunately, as soon as he'd stopped watching, someone else had started... a look back at the door would show it was parted slightly, with a frightening, fire-orange eye glaring downward through the crack. Bomba would open the door further, seeing Bombie first, but caught Lyn with him soon enough. "Power? You fool! You've come down here on your own?!" she asked, bringing her fist through the opening in the door first. Lyn would see the fingers unclench quickly, a fire forming inside the palm, before a shining black orb appeared, clutched by the curled fingers and thumb. Her eyes narrowed as she got a better look at the still bottomless Lyn. "What are you doing in front of my younger brother?!" she asked, then added, "Stranger! You're not Power at all. Who are you...?" Notably, she hadn't gotten rid of the bomb just because she now saw that Lyn probably wasn't a pirate.

"She's my new friend... We weren't doing anything bad. We were just standing out here..." Bombie protested, but Bomba hit him with a withering glare.

"Ha! Standing out here is doing something bad. I told you to wait with the rest of the family on the other side of the ship! I'm in the middle of very delicate negotiations right now, Bombie. And you know that any new 'friends' you made need to be thoroughly vetted by me first! They could be dangerous. This one's indecent, even!" she grumbled, finally dismissing her bomb so she could help Lyn get her suit back on. She did so with an adept efficiency that indicated she either had fixed a lot of swimsuits in the dark or had some kind of night vision. "Now, quickly tell me what you're doing here. I'm very busy right now, so make it quick! And make it good. Just cause I didn't blow you to smithereens earlier doesn't mean I won't do it later..."

This was probably about the fourth or fifth time Lyn had been asked to explain her mission so far, it was certainly getting a bit tedious. If Lyn looked through the door that had been left open, she'd see that the room full of machinery used to accelerate the cruise liner, though none of it was currently active. Interestingly, there weren't a lot of stations here like a whole crew might use, just one console, and it looked as though it only had three settings: OFF, LOW, and HIGH. More importantly, Cutlass was indeed inside the room. Disappointingly, she was fully dressed and the only thing that seemed to have changed was that she had been gagged and tied to a chair. The gagging would explain her silence since a moment ago. Notably, the floor was also scorched in many places, but not on fire anywhere.

All other panic and embarrassment aside, there was a part of Lyntael that wanted to snap at the boy that she was only wearing less than either of those two because he'd just stripped and exposed her without asking, but there were far more important concerns for her to actually say anything to the extent. In her mind, she managed to think for a moment of what Power and Jolly had been wearing, and she was sure that even then, her own outfit when it was decently on, was just as modest, if not more so, than either of theirs.

"Well I didn't know!" She managed to hiss in something approaching a whisper again. "And of course I'm not wearing any underwear underneath it; it's a swim suit!" She gave up trying to get things decent without re-exposing herself to use both hands, and instead cast a pleading look to the boy, desperate. "Now, please, could you at least turn around while I—" And then her lack of quiet from before made things more interesting.

When the door opened, it upset Lyntael's balance enough, leaning against it as she had been, that she stumbled, threw out a hand to catch herself on the door frame and shifted her feet, and subsequently lost the unfastened garment to the floor completely. The exclamation from Bomba, and the sudden proffering of a bomb dangerously close to her face make Lyn gasp and strangle back a cry before trying to back away both from the doorway, and from Bombie at the same time, to relatively little effect. Mostly she just ended up backing into the poor boy as she raised her hands towards the one brandishing a weapon.

"I'm- I'm not..." It was an excuse she was getting tired of making, especially when she would have been happy to explain calmly without being threatened. As it was, she didn't seem to need to make a more sensible declaration as Bomba put at least some of the facts together herself and conclude that Lyntael was almost certainly harmless. It wasn't exactly an awkward moment when the pirate boss broke the tension to help her get dressed again; she didn't have any problem with Bomba seeing her exposed areas in the same way that she had a problem with someone like Bombie seeing her so, but she still made sure to be quick about it, reclaim and sliding the garment up and into place again and holding it correctly when Bomba assisted with the zip. Despite everything else that was going on, she still murmured a quiet, nervously appreciative 'thank you' to the other woman as the task was done. That taken care of, she swallowed and took a few breaths, still blushing bright when she glanced at Bombie in between. In truth, she was getting tired of explaining, and tired of being threatened, and exposed, and everything else as well.

"My name is Lyntael, I'm not here to interfere with anything. I just came looking for miss Cutlass, because she hadn't returned yet." She cast her eyes quickly past the door to the other woman, but the conversation that had gone on before the door opened made it look far less like an actual hostage situation than it otherwise might have, to Lyntael. "And to make sure that you and your crew were still planning to leave this ship and head back to your own some time soon." As everything else crowded in on her mind, the young girl put both hands up to her face for another second or two before continuing with a weary look back to Bomba.

"You all seem like decent women, and not like ravenous, violent or bloodthirsty pirates at all, so it's really none of my business what you choose to do personally with each other. You and Cutlass will have all the time you need to work out your private affairs in whatever way you are both happy with; you and your crew are going to have to be her ride for now, since it seems as though miss Jolly took her last instruction seriously, and has gathered and prepared her own crew for leaving without her. They are probably gone by now. If you could please pass that on to miss Cutlass when appropriate, I'm sure she would be grateful." She thought about how to convince Bomba to leave the ship in peace, but as she did, Lyntael could feel the strain of everything else that had happened in the past hour, on what she had really hoped would just be a relaxing cruise, and coupled with the dawning realisation that the women in charge were mostly just playing games with one another and didn't truly seem to want to see anyone hurt, it all just left her feeling drained. When she next looked up at Bomba it was with a flat, exhausted expression.

"This is not the work I came to this ship expecting to do. I enjoy fun and games as much as anyone and more than most, but since I came here I've been terrified, insulted, assaulted, threatened, attacked, and, if I'm completely frank, sexually harassed or assaulted at least twice, not counting the misunderstanding with Bombie a moment ago... and I am just very tired of being scared and feeling afraid. So, Captain Bomba, please... Whatever other business you need to work out with miss Cutlass, I would be very grateful if you would take care of it back on your own ships, in your own waters, and leave the crazy woman who runs this cruise ship alone as soon as you feasibly can. No tricks, no schemes, no ulterior motives... no more games... just that, and that's all I'm asking." Her body language had dropped to a weary neutrality as she spoke, shoulders sloped downwards and hands clasped loosely behind her back as she looked to Bomba for her judgement. In one sense, the most tragic part of the situation was a girl as young as Lyntael looked sounding as emotionally tired as she did.

"I didn't know... I've never seen under Jolly's or Power's before," Bobbie answered; it was easy to believe he'd never seen underneath those before, but harder to believe that he couldn't have imagined. He ended up trying hard not to look again as Lyntael backed into him, sans pants. Soon enough, Bomba and Lyntael addressed that issue, so he was free to rejoin the conversation.

Bomba's orange eyes flared with the challenge stated in Lyntael's intent, first widening, then narrowing. It was hard to make out many of her features through the shadow cast by her hood, except for those intense, fearsome eyes. "Cutlass?! You're here for my captive? I hardly intend to surrender her to you when I, at long last, have brought her to heel," she scoffed, losing whatever sisterly compassion had compelled her to help Lyntael moments ago. "Still, you are correct that we are planning to leave rather soon. Having Cutlass secure, I've called back my fleet. We'll soon be boarding with the intention of heading back to our native waters. Nothing would be more embarrassing than losing the home turf while playing around here..."

She crossed her arms and listened as Lyntael continued, though her foot was tapping. She didn't seem like the patient type. "Hmph. I'm a reasonable enough woman, but I'm no stranger to violence either. If you think you can soften my disposition, think again," she warned Lyntael, pointing one finger out from her cloak. Lyntael could see that her body was heavily wrapped in tight bandages, much like Bobbie's was, but also that, based on her physique, she must be designed to be a fair bit older than him. "And I'm under no obligation to pass on anything to my captive! You watch yourself and don't speak as though to command me..." Still, from this distance and with the door open, Cutlass had probably heard regardless. Something about Lyntael's weary expression just seemed to be making Bomba angrier, as though it was provoking her.

"Well, my pirates are all strictly disciplined... except for Bombie here, he seems predisposed to make trouble. None of them would assault you unless I instructed you. Ordinarily, hearing you were sexually assaulted, I'd assume Clipper... but she's nowhere around here, doubtless scared away by my supply of firebombs. Which, of course, we agreed not to use to blow the ship. I can only assume it was one of Cutlass's thugs... You can expect no better from those louts. Their discipline has suffered severely ever since she transferred her captain's position to that foolish girl. At any rate, I am leaving and taking Cutlass with me; consider yourself finished with... whatever it is you came here to do."

Bombie frowned and scraped the floor of the ship with his bare toe. "I'm sorry, Lyntael, I just wanted to show you how to wrap yourself up..." he apologized.

"Yes, well, I'm rather certain I told you something about only helping your sisters with that sort of thing," Bomba muttered irritably, perhaps biting back the urge to scold him harder. "At any rate, I must attend to my captive. You should finish up whatever you came here to do and leave this vessel." Her cape fluttered as she turned around and quickly re-entered the interrogation room. Just before the door slammed shut, Lyn would see Cutlass give a quick nod. It was affirmation of something, though it was hard to say what.

At some point during Bomba's spiel just now, Bombie had disappeared; he seemed to be pretty good at that. Unless Lyn had any intentions of trying to get Cutlass free, the last loose end was to let Tango know the progress she'd made.

Ideally, Lyntael probably should have guessed that showing an energetic and volatile woman a world-weary demeanour probably wasn't the best way to placate her, but the younger woman simply wasn't thinking along those lines as they negotiated. she'd spoken clearly enough for cutlass to hear, which had been her intention, and in what small glances she'd gotten, the 'captive' didn't seem too perturbed by the information. In the end, Lyntael just nodded her head to Bomba, and murmured another polite 'thank you' to her before she shut the door and went back, presumably, to continue her 'interrogation'.

The girl stayed where she was for a little while, staring at the closed door for another solid thirty seconds or so while she processed everything in her mind, then shook her head and turned away. A few steps back towards the ladder up, she paused and looked around, then put a hand to her face.

"Drat..." Bombie had vanished again, and between his expression, and what he'd said, and what she'd said, the edges of guilt over her own reaction were needling her. Shock or not, he was just a boy, and younger than her, and she shouldn't have snapped at him like that. "Bombie...?" She kept her voice low, though it still ended up coming out as a carrying stage whisper while she began to look for him. "Are you still listening somewhere...?" Tango could wait just a couple more minutes while she said her sorry, at least. If Bomba's pirates were going to take a little while to get going then she would hopefully at least have enough time to mend a bridge before she headed back. "I'm sorry for snapping... and I bet you didn't run away too far..."

On the whole, the stifling deck was still stifling, and sans any bandages her skin still reflected the low lighting with a gleam of perspiration, but at least it felt like she'd gotten used to breathing the dry air, and it wasn't irritating her throat any more. She bit her lip a she searched. She really had over-reacted. It had just been instinct really, but when she looked at herself, Lyntael was aware just how... sensitive to any kind of male and that whole area of thought, she was. Not without good reason, she reminded herself, but, even so... the most rational parts of her mind, when the could step aside her emotions, knew that the fear of any male, because of the actions of a few, wasn't fair.

Setting aside those feelings when a male was present and her state of dress was less than secure continued to prove mostly impossible, of course, but she was determined to be stronger about it, and that meant not lashing out in fear at people who didn't deserve it. All the same, she hoped to find the boy sooner rather than later.

Bombie indeed hadn't gone too far; he poked out from behind a piece of machinery, about head height, that was mostly hidden by the darkness. He shuffled back out and nodded, seeming to accept the apology quickly. "It's okay. I shouldn't have tugged your pants off either... I knew better than that. I guess I just wanted to... um... I don't quite know," he murmured, tensing his eyebrows as he just tried to reconcile his two previous explanations, one that he'd mistaken it for a bandage and the other that it had to come off anyway to fully wrap the bandages. "Anyway, I can help you finish wrapping up before you go out, if you like. Bomba says that it's not good to go out without your bandages and she doesn't like the suits that Power and Jolly wear either, or the frilly dress Clipper wears. She only likes bandages... she thinks everything else is... vulgar or frivolous," he continued; the last few words there sounded memorized from Bomba's own complaints.

Presumably, she would decline that offer, but he'd help this time if she wanted. Either way, he'd shoot the breeze a little longer, or perhaps he was being nosy again and trying to satisfy his abundant curiosity. His voice remained quiet, since Bomba had, after all, ordered him to leave earlier. "That's Cutlass in there... She used to be the leader of the Jolly's Pirates. It's funny, cause I always thought we were a lot worse off when Cutlass was the leader... cause she was really good at blowing up our ships whenever we get into combat... but Bomba seems angrier than ever now that Cutlass has turned it over to Jolly. To me, it seems like a good thing. Nobody fights so much any more, so I like it," he whispered. There was probably a lot more to learn about the pirate situation if Lyn was interested, but it could also be a good idea to refocus back on Tango's assignment and report in. There was no telling what the daffy dancer had been doing this whole time while Lyn did all her footwork.

When the boy popped up again, Lyntael jumped slightly at first, but took a long breath to regain her composure and tried a grin instead. He seemed more uncertain about what had happened than she'd expected, and the awkward exchange as he explained, or tried to, his actions made her frown softly and tilt her head. Lyntael began to move away from the door and and gave the boy enough sign that he should walk along with her as she wandered the darkened lower deck.

As a girl who'd only recently spent a good deal of time reading up about what new and unexpected things her body was doing, Bombie's own uncertainty had tickled at her own desires to be informative and to help, and she thought she knew at least a good deal about what he was confused about, and why. Rather than being intimidating to her, the thought was more reassuring in a way; it reinforced to her that this one, at least, was innocent of meaner intentions, and not someone to worry about. she glanced across at him in the low light and bit her lip as a thought drifted across her mind. Bombie had kept chatting after he'd explained himself and she nodded in response, before stepping out ahead of him so she could turn to face a little more.

"I think there's a lot more going on between your sister, and the other captains, than just ships and fighting, Bombie... the sorts of things that she'd probably tell you you'd understand when you're older..." She, too, was keeping her voice to a low whisper, but the thought that that particular line might not have been used, if he was always going to be that age, didn't occur to her. "But I think it's good that she and Cutlass are, ah, talking things through now, together..." She hesitated as the part of her that wanted to be helpful and informative brushed up against the part of her that said this was a good opportunity to help herself get past certain things, and they both struggled against the deeper, more instinctive feelings of panic that she knew weren't rational.

"So, listen..." unconsciously, she rocked on her heels a little, and eventually leaned back against a bulkhead while she looked at him. Bits and pieces of all the things she'd read while reading up on her own 'growing girl' issue drifted up in her thoughts and she knitted them together. "You said you didn't really know exactly why you did that to me... Tell me if I'm wrong about any of this, ok?" She took a breath while watching his reaction. "You mostly knew what you'd see, more or less, but you really wanted to look anyway, and you don't exactly know why, only you didn't have a good reason, and you felt like you needed to come up with one, because you felt like wanting to look was 'naughty'... and there's probably stuff you want to ask, but you don't want to ask your big sister, because it seems weird, or she'd get mad at you... is that right?" Lyntael looked around to make sure no-one else was in this part of the ship, and that they'd wandered somewhere well out of sight while she contemplated just how much she was going to say in the name of being educational and helpful.

If Bombie confirmed these kinds of feelings and thoughts, she still wasn't sure if she was going to be able to press herself to do 'show' as well as 'tell', but she could start with 'tell', and see how it went. Mentally, she re-affirmed that this was ok, and that she could, because Bombie was just a curious innocent, and it was just being informative, and not anything more at all.

"So, I don't need to wrap up in bandages, but... What do you want to know," with a sudden thump of her heart, in the moment, Lyntael pushed herself on. "And, ah, if you promise to behave, what do you want to see?" Despite herself, her cheeks flushed crimson as she finished talking. To stop herself fidgeting, she clasped her hands behind her back as she looked at the boy who was probably, really, not as much younger than her than she was trying to convince herself.

"Things I'd understand when I'm older? She does say she wants all of us to stay out of her business with strategy and stuff until we're mentally prepared," Bobbie nodded along, trying to come up with an example to match up Lyn's words with. "But I wanna know about it now, if I can... Maybe the reason Bomba has such a hard time with the other captains is cause she's always trying to keep us safe and she won't let us help her with things... You really think she's going to discuss that kinda stuff with Cutlass? Or is it what they call... um... parlay? I think I heard somebody call it that."

He hushed up for a bit longer, long enough to learn that what he was thinking and what Lyn were thinking were two different interpretations. He tensed up a bit, beginning to think he was in for another lecture on why it was wrong of him to pull off Lyn's bandages, but that wasn't exactly what he got either. "Well, I... I guess I sort of knew what'd happen... but it didn't really occur to me it was gonna embarrass you until after I did it," he murmured, looking uncomfortable. "I guess there are a lot of things I want to ask Bomba, but I know for sure she'd get mad about it. She gets mad about almost everything," he complained, casting his eyes to the door his older sister had told him to stay away from.

Once he finally caught on to what Lyn was saying, he shook his head slowly, but a blush was creeping up his neck, barely visible in the low light. "No, uh... Bombo is the one who likes looking at girls without their clothes on. But I guess I've never really looked a lot... I mean... Are you saying it's not bad to look? It's gotta be bad, though... Bomba gets mad if she sees Bombo looking at pictures of girls without their clothes," he reasoned. "But then, she gets mad at everything. I mean... I think I'd get kind of embarrassed if you looked at me without anything on. Hm... What's the difference? Why would you want to show me that sort of stuff?" he asked, walking in a little closer to whisper and also so he'd be a bit further obscured from Bomba's site if she walked back out. "I know one time Bomba played cards with the other captains, they called it parlay, and she ended up naked because she's so bad at cards. Are we parlaying?" he asked, becoming increasingly confused. "That can't be right, only pirates can parlay... And you're not a pirate."

He pressed his hand to his chin and shut his eyes, then furrowed his brow, thinking hard. "I dunno Lyn... this feels really weird. I guess it does feel kind of like something I shouldn't be doing. Or maybe that's why I have to do it now, cause I won't get to again?" he asked, then suddenly gulped and walked a bit closer. "Actually, you know... I dunno if we should talk about it. I asked Bombo one time why he likes girls and why sometimes, when he looks at pictures of girls, he touches himself down there... But he just laughed and he said he wants girls to touch him there, but since they won't, he has to do it himself. I didn't get it... It's weird to touch yourself there and it feels like it'd be even weirder if a girl did it," he continued, now starting to sound frustrated. "Yeah, I want to know what he's talking about! Dumb Bombo... But uh, don't actually touch me there, c-cause I feel like it'd feel... um... really weird," he stressed, tentatively hovering his hands slightly over his groin as though he wasn't sure if he ought to be protecting it from Lyn imminently grabbing it.

From inside the door, Bomba's voice had suddenly reached a fevered pitch. Now that they were no longer at the door, it was hard for either of them to tell what she was saying, but something had clearly made her even more furious than usual. Only the loudly shouted word, "WHERE", could be understood. Lyn would need to decide if the ongoing sex ed class was worth waiting around there for, if maybe they should relocate, or if perhaps she ought to evacuate altogether.

Try as she might to be putting on the face of the informed and helpful educator, Lyntael was blushing every bit as much as the boy opposite her... who had edged closer a few times now, despite his apparent uncertainty. She lowered her eyes fora moment, unconsciously folding her hands over her chest.

"It sounds like your big brother already knows as much as he needs to about this..." between her whisper and the edges of embarrassment, it came out more as a mumble than anything else. It took a moment of her to remind herself that she was supposed to be the educator here; she'd just learned about all of this stuff and read up on the sorts of things that boys and girls of their age go through, and feel, and get confused about, and now here was someone else who didn't know, so of course she wanted to share and be informative... she was calm. Yes. Deep breath. The sudden shout form Bomba's room made her jump and flinch and she winced. But maybe being informative a little further away might be better...

She edged further down the gap between the machinery and further out of sight, trying to bring Bombie along with her. She wanted to make sure that they were both absolutely out of sight if anyone came rushing out of the room. It wasn't like she wanted to report to Tango before it was absolutely sure that the fire crew were leaving as well, so however long their 'negotiations' took, before Bomba actually gave the orders for the crew to pack up and move out, seemed to more or less correlate with how long she had to chat to Bombie. She took a slow breath by tried to get her 'helpful educator' face back on.

"Well, first thing that's important is that there's nothing wrong, or naughty about those parts of our bodies, boy or girl. And there's nothing wrong with being interested in them." Given Bombie's fluctuating certainty, Lyntael kept her hands behind her back as she spoke. "It's normal to be curious about it; what's important is that you try not to make anyone else uncomfortable. I reacted badly before because, then, I wasn't prepared to show that part of myself to anyone, and I wasn't expecting it, but if I showed you now, it would be ok, because it would be me choosing to do it, and it would just be to held you understand things more. There's nothing innately wrong about the parts themselves, ok?" The darn blush wasn't going away, and the light wasn't low enough to really hide it; if anything the thin sheen on her skin from the heat made it more visible. She took a moment to look at Bombie more closely and gauge his reaction to what she was saying, but provided things weren't looking too far off track, she went on.

"So, you're at an age where, pretty soon, you're probably going to be getting much more interested in these parts, and not just because they're something you know less about... looking at those things or thinking about them, will probably start making you feel certain ways, and it's ok if it's a bit confusing at first. That's normal, too. Maybe you'll find you're more interested in seeing other boys, or maybe girls, or maybe the gender won't matter to you, and you'll find yourself feeling excited by lots of different things." The blush raged on her cheeks while she tried to be as inclusive as she reasonably could; that was important too, so she'd read, because everyone's tastes were different and it wasn't fair to try and colour someone's impressions while they were learning. "But as long as you're respectful about it, it doesn't matter who gets you excited." She paused for a second, running through points in her head to try and cool her embarrassment.

"When something does get you excited in that way, changes will happen, especially down there, and that's normal too. um... for boys in particular, at this age, I've read that it can happen even when you're not thinking about it, and from tiny stimulations and other unrelated things, while your body is getting used to responding in that way, so you shouldn't worry if, um... if ah... if it starts... em starts er, 'waking up', randomly or at embarrassing moments. It happens, apparently." She stopped again, this time to catch a breath and recover from her stumble of nerves.

"You, ah... you know all about how boys and girls are different, don't you? Did someone already teach you about what all of the parts are, and what they're for, and those kinds of things? And, um, how things change, when you grow up, and why?" As soon as she asked, Lyntael realised that, the way Bomba had spoken about her family, and Bombie's own reports, probably meant he actually hadn't ever been properly informed about any of that at all, and if he was still curious that was likely going to have to be her next topic.

The surreal nature of the conversation, in the setting they were in, hit Lyntael more palpably as she considered that she wouldn't really be able to make any indication about breasts, when her own weren't filled out at all. The fact that the boy had been around proper breasts plenty, and probably knew as much as he needed to about them already, slipped her thoughts while she sorted them. Instead she spared a moment to glance down the secluded pathway between the machines that they were in, and make sure no-one had discovered them yet.

Bombie stared hard, disarmingly so, as he listened closely to education that was clearly not anything he'd heard before; his wide eyes focused on Lyn's face most of the time, but occasionally went down to her other parts. He was probably having a hard time keeping the eyes respectfully upward when she kept mentioning said parts in her speech. He tensed his eyebrows thoughtfully, then spoke in a very quiet whisper. "So it doesn't matter who makes me feel that way? What if it's one of the enemy pirate captains that Bomba hates so much? What if it's Bomba? What if it's you?" he asked, seeming eaten up by questions.

He stopped his questions for a moment to finish listening, then nodded. "I know about that much, anyway. Even if I didn't... Bombo's pictures and things kind of gave me the idea," he murmured, looking annoyed again, as though he was blaming Bombo for his continued thrust into puberty. "And uh... I know that sometimes, when I see girls in their swimsuits, I guess I kind of feel it down there. I've never really told anybody that before... I guess it's cause almost everyone else is my enemy... a-and if I told Bomba I feel that way when I see her without her bandages on, like when she takes a bath, it'd just be... I mean, that can't be right," he grumbled, looking increasingly unsure if he should be telling Lyn any of that. "Sh-She's too old to be taking a bath with all of us... She should know better than that. Well, she won't take one with Bombo anyway. But she still lets me in... and Bom-Bom, of course, but he's just a little baby still, and Bombe, cause she's a girl. I should probably start saying no when she asks me to join the family... Or is it okay?"

Lyn had ended up tackling a complex issue, that was for sure. Unfortunately, this wasn't a particularly private place to deal with it, and furthermore, another familiar danger re-emerged as Bomba threw open the door to the room she'd locked herself up in. "Where did you go, Cutlass?! You can't hide from me! I can see in the dark, dammit!" she shouted out. Despite her claim and her effort, which included actually kneeling down to check inside a steel grate on the floor, it didn't seem like Cutlass was anywhere to be found. Doubtless, this was part of Cutlass' escape plan and the reason she hadn't been worried coming down to surrender to Bomba to begin with, but it was also likely Cutlass had expected Lyn to be gone by this point, given that Bomba was now holding a bomb in each hand, seemingly squeezing them like stress balls.

For now, Bombie and Lyn were hidden between the machinery, but all it would take would be Bomba looking to the right to catch both of them. Bombie made a motion for Lyn to lay low, then wiggled his palm down horizontally, perhaps indicating she should lay flat. He'd give her a moment to make herself as invisible as possible, or possibly run out if she fancied trying to escape the old fashioned way, then he moved even further inward. If she was still in the crevice, he'd be in enough so they were now in very close proximity, and would attempt to hide her with his body as much as possible. His breathing was still clearly heavy, invigorated as he was with their prior conversation.

Bombie's initial confirmation sounded solid, and Lyntael started to reassure him that it wasn't wrong. What began as slow, gentle nodding, however, briefly frozen into a small start as Bombie added Lyntael herself to his list of possible excitations. Unconsciously, she tried to take another small edged step away from him while she recovered herself, but found that she was already standing with her back pressed to the bulkhead. Her hands fidgeted instead, ans she tried to keep nodding, less smoothly than before. One rose up to run a fingertip around her emblem, while the other slipped around her own waist to the far hip, in a vaguely protective manner.

"Um, Ah... Me? Ah, well, I mean, I guess, if the way I look is, ah, is what..." she paused to swallow, the dry air not helping her suddenly much drier throat. "Is what, ah, excites you, yes... There's nothing, er, nothing wrong with that, but, um, remember to be mindful of, of respect and, and comfort... We just met, so, um, it wouldn't be bad for you to, um, feel excited by seeing me dressed like this, or, um, to feel that way if I had to show you more, but, you'd understand that it wouldn't be okay to, um, to, to do a-anything to me, unless I told you it was ok, right? You understand that?" Her stammering and faltering explanation increased along with her fidgeting as she fought to keep control of the situation.

"If it's... Ah if it's your sister, well, that is... there's not really anything that's, um, objectively wrong about feeling excited by seeing her like that... but, um, you'd need to be extra special careful about being respectful, and thinking about her comfort, because, um, a lot of people think that it's not proper to have those kinds of feelings, for um, for family members. If she isn't comfortable with you, you know, getting excited, when you see her like that, then you can talk to her about it, to be clear, but, you have to respect that if she tells you she doesn't want you thinking of her that way, that you, um, that you don't bring it up again, and that you, ah, stop trying to. If, um, if she's okay with it, then there isn't anything wrong with that either." Her eyes had dropped down, looking more at the deck than anything else while she went o, and her words had gotten more rushed and pressed together as the embarrassing nature of the questions she'd ended up with strayed off the carefully lined out path of what she'd read. Something else he had said in between brought her back to firmer, if no less blush-inducing ground and she looked up again, wincing.

"I'm, glad you know the basics, but, well, if, um, if you got most of it from the sorts of pictures and videos that I think you're describing, well, they aren't exactly, um, they aren't very good guides or very accurate representations of... of this kind of thing. They really, really aren't the sort of thing you should base your understanding on, I'm afraid..." she trailed off, unsure exactly where she could go from there, on that particular topic. She was saved from having to suggest a more in-depth demonstration of what parts were what and how things worked by the sudden reminder that they were not, in fact, in a private room or a particularly safe environment for hanging out and chatting. The sudden re-emergence of Bomba, wroth with cutlass' apparent escape, made Lyntael clap one hand up to her mouth to prevent a startled squeak from escaping. Her eyes had gone wide as flicked towards the sound first, and then to Bombie, though her thoughts were still catching up and she wasn't sure whether she was looking to him for a solution or out of mutual fear. If not for her current crossed state, the shock would likely have resulted in a burst of static that would have been bad for both of them, but for now, Lyntael just felt the jolt race through her in away that didn't reach her skin.

She tried to press herself further back, flat against whatever was at her back by now, but there was no more room to retreat. she did crouch right down when Bombie gave the signal, though. She wasn't quite eager to lie prone, given the circumstance and the likelihood that she might need to run, quickly, but instead dropped to a low crouch that bent her knees to the side and gave Bombie a little bit more room to back towards her, while still remaining on the balls of her feet. She put one hand against the machinery on one side to steady herself while the other rubbed and tapped nervously at her emblem, unheeded. When Bombie pressed back further against her, it brought his feet into the arc of her knees, and his waist awkwardly close to her head, and had the situation been any less panic-stricken, Lyntael would probably have realised just how indecent it looked. As it was, she just tried to make herself as small and quiet as she could, closing her eyes and barely daring to breath as she listened to Bomba's angry searching.

"Sorry, it's just sort of... exotic. Everyone I'm around sort of looks the same: tan skin, brown hair, orange eyes. So you... and the other pirate captains I guess... all look kind of interesting. And I guess that makes me sort of... react," Bombie murmured, shifting uncomfortably. "I don't want to do anything to you! I just meant it's sort of... you know... happening. I can't really control it," he continued.His eyes widened and he shaked his head, causing the tufts of hair under his wraps to flip wildly. "N-No, I couldn't talk to Bomba about it! Besides, what would I even do about it? I don't know if I can stop myself from doing it... I-If she'll just stop taking baths with me, I'll be okay. I don't think about it while she's got her wraps on... A-A-And, if she was okay with it, that'd be even weirder! I... I don't even know what that would be like..."

His embarrassment turned to mild frustration as he realized that his current level of knowledge was based on more misunderstandings. "Geez... Why does Bombo even watch that stuff if it's all wrong?" he grumbled, deflecting his mistake back over to his sibling. "He's so dumb... Hey, you gotta show me the way it's supposed to actually work-" he encouraged her, then finally, quieted down, hearing the approach of his angry sister. The two made sure that Lyn was hidden to the best of their ability, which unfortunately put that part that Bombie couldn't quite control pretty close to Lyn's face. If she was looking, she could see that a bit of a slight bulge at the bandages there, although it would be pretty impolite to stare at it. Thankfully, she wouldn't be locked in that state for long, because he stepped back out of his hiding spot to confront Bomba, perhaps realizing that Lyn would only be seen thanks to his sister's supposed night-vision.

"Bombie!" Bomba snapped again, although she actually seemed to relax a bit upon seeing him. "I believe I told you to return to the others! Were you eavesdropping?"

"No, I-" he began, but she waved one hand authoritatively to quiet him again.

"I don't care right now, Bombie. The important thing is where Cutlass went to. She's no longer in the interrogation room, which means she must have come this way! You must have seen where she went!" she insisted, coming closer. Perhaps due to the recent subject matter, Bombie backed up a bit, clutching his hands to his lap nervously. "... Are you hiding something from me?"

"U-Um... Well... I didn't see Cutlass, but-" he began, seeming to shrink as Bomba approached, looking more impatient and looming over him. She wasn't all that tall, but she was still good bit older than he was; he probably still had a growth spurt coming, if such things were possible for him as a navi.

"How?! There was no way out of that room except for that doorway!" she growled, squeezing her bombs so hard that they probably would have exploded if her physical strength was a little greater.

"But! But I think we need to stop taking baths together! It's making my penis feel really weird a-and unless you're comfortable about that, we need to stop! And I don't really think I'm comfortable with it, s-so if you're not comfortable with it, we just need to stop!" he ranted, stomping his foot once and sticking his chin out to show how serious he was.

Bomba dropped both of her bombs onto the floor, which, blessedly, caused them to roll off to either side into the darkness, rather than exploding. Her face reddened rapidly, visible despite her cloak, and she clapped two hands to her cheeks. "B-Bombie! No, no... You can't say something like that to your sister... Or, no, you can't be..." she attempted to correct herself, gulping hard. "Listen Bombie, your..." she continued quietly, before looking either way to see if anyone was around. Thankfully, she wasn't far enough down the hall yet to see Lyn by doing so. "Um, if it starts feeling weird, okay, I know you can't help it, but... Um... Okay, let's both calm down..." she sighed, stepping forward to pat one hand down on his shoulder. "When two people... love each other very much, then, at that time, it's okay for boys to get um... hard penises," she explained, seeming incredibly ill suited for this job.

"But what if it's just me that feels that way? And what do I even do when it starts to feel that way?" he asked, trying his hardest not to look over to his left, where he thought someone was lurking who could give him the actual answer to this question.

"You should... clear your head. That's what's best. Try not to think dirty thoughts about me, or um, whoever's making you feel that way. You know that's why Bombo gets in so much trouble, don't you? Try to be like your sister! Bombe is about the same age as you, but she doesn't think about dirty things like that. Maybe ask Bombe what she does to take her mind off of it?" Bomba encouraged him. To her credit, it looked like she was concerned enough about her family that she'd forgotten Cutlass for now. To her detriment, her continued thoughts on how to handle sex ed still seemed to consist primarily of avoidance. "We should talk about this more later, Bombie, privately. For now, I have to track down Cutlass' ship! I can only suspect she escaped to them some way," she exclaimed, although it sort of seemed like she was just trying to buck the topic now. She patted him on the shoulder once again, than began to stride past him towards the opposite end of the hallway, presumably to gather her crew.

She already seemed to have missed Lyntael, so at this rate, it would really just be a matter of escaping once she was out of the hallway, if she was willing to let such an egregious failure at sexual education go unaddressed, at least.

There was a moment, amidst Bombie's quickly uttered answers, that Lyntael felt her eyes widen suddenly and her heart tense, before she managed to remind herself that, in this circumstance, it honestly did just sound as though Bombie didn't truly understand what he was asking when he asked her to show him. Or rather, she took a breath and corrected the thought, she was misinterpreting. The request to show him how it was supposed to be done came from innocence and curiosity; where a lesson on the matter, maybe with some diagrams, would be most like what the boy was thinking of. Probably. She hoped.

She didn't move from her hiding spot until Bomba herself had passed by, and inwardly, Lyntael caught herself feeling faintly proud of Bombie for speaking up as he had; he had been honest and forthright, and she was glad to hear that, when pushed, there really was no deeper motive to any of it. If not for the frightening circumstance she would have cheered for him a little. His sister, less so... Well, she was trying at least, but trying by trying to push the issue away, and with a worrisome angle on the score of talking about it like it was dirty or wrong. Despite everything, Lyntael felt herself raise an amused eyebrow as Bomba extolled the virtues of the younger sister. If she was the same age as Bombie, and Bombie was at that point in his life, there was really no way that Bombe was blissfully free of such thoughts or feelings... if her reading was correct, in fact, it was likely that she was a bit ahead of Bombie on that particular roller-coaster. She was probably just better at hiding it... though it made Lyntael wonder if Bomba herself had ever been a young teen in the first place...

She dared to stand up properly and creep forward once Bomba strode off, approaching Bombie from behind cautiously. If the Captain was off to round up her crew and leave, it looked like her job was done, but...

"Hey..." she spoke softly, putting as much reassurance into her words as she could. "You did really well. I'm proud of you, ok? I know that was difficult for you to do, and you still said what you needed to." With any luck, the boy had turned back to face her, and she smiled for him. Her heart was still beating quicker than was strictly calm, more from the danger of being discovered than anything else, but she worked hard to keep her features bright.

"I'm going to have to leave soon, and it sounds like your sister is gathering the rest of the crew to go as well. She'll be mad if she sees me still down here, but, your crew are the only ones left on the ship now... if we go up to the top deck, out in the air, we can talk a little more, just while you wait for the rest of the crew to be ready to leave, it'll all be perfectly safe, and then neither of us will get in trouble. How does that sound?" She grinned again and tilted her head to see if he'd agree to stroll with her for a little longer, then, hopefully with her new friend in tow, began to make her way back towards the stairs up. She chatted quietly as she walked.

"So, I know that Bomba got about as flustered as I'm sure you felt back there, but don't worry, alright? Most people find, ah... I'll be blunt, um, most people find sex and sexuality hard to talk about. This is the first time I've ever spoken about it directly with anyone, and I'm a lot more nervous than I'm hoping it looks like..." She managed a small giggle here, and the effect spread through the rest of her body, finally releasing at least some of the tension that had been building up during the mission. "I just had to read a lot about all of this stuff recently, because it became important for me to know, and I didn't have anyone to teach me... and it made me realise that lots of people our age end up going into all of this not knowing nearly as much as they should."

She climbed the stairs slowly, setting a casual, comfortable stroll, though as she walked her clothing rippled and changed. Her hair regained some of its spring, and as the gradual wave rolled over her skin from the centre of her chest, the altogether too racy swimsuit was subtly replaced by her yellow vest and skirt once again. She noticed the cross disengaging, but didn't pass a great deal of attention to it, unless Bombie mentioned it specifically. It was probably better that she wasn't wearing the outfit that caused excitement any more anyway.

What she was really hoping was that, in the time spent below deck, and with the other pirates and the old Blesser having moved on, Beach Net's normal sunny skies would have returned. Bright sun and afresh breeze was what she really needed now. If her companion was still following she moved to the rail at the edge of the cruise ship and leaned on it, breathing deeply.

"At the end of the day, she's family, and that's important; she cares about all of you a lot, just from the little I've seen, and, even if she doesn't really express it in the best way sometimes, or doesn't know how to express it in the right ways at times, even, none of us are perfect..." It didn't occur to the once-more electrical navi that she might be overlaying a little bit with that pronouncement, but she went on anyway, glancing occasionally to her friend, but mostly looking out over the ocean.

"So, I'm sure she doesn't actually think that sex, or sexual thoughts and feelings, are dirty, or naughty or wrong... but she just wasn't prepared to deal with the fact that you, and probably your other sister as well, are at the age where you're starting to have them, and doesn't really know how to handle it... that's something I've read happens a lot, too. Just make sure you keep being honest, and always be respectful to other people's limits and comforts, ok? And your own. that's important as well. Just because someone else might say that it's ok to do something sexual, if you're not comfortable with it, don't let them pressure you. It's always ok to stop and to talk." She felt more relaxed now that she'd moved away from things specifically about her, and back into general themes, but she was still aware that the boy probably wasn't going to get satisfying information from Bomba herself.

"And if you need more answers, and you can't find any, it's ok to at least ask Bombe if she's comfortable talking about those things with you. I'm betting she probably knows more than Bomba thinks she does." Lyntael folded her arms on the rail, bending down a little to rest her head on them as she watched the sea and glancing across to Bombie in between. "Also, um, probably worth mentioning... I don't think it's entirely normal for two complete strangers to end up having a conversation like this right after meeting each other. It was a strange situation for both of us, I think." Despite everything she giggled again. for now she was content to wait until she could see sure sign that Bomba's crew were also leaving the ship, before heading back to Tango. Idly, she wondered what the dancer would think of the fact that she'd convinced all three pirate crews to move on.