Henpecked (Day 2 - Evening)

"... I mean are you really surprised?" Leo said sipping his drink that evening surrounded by some passengers, including Ms. Meadow as they gossiped about recent events.

"I mean look at him. He is hardly respectable looking." One of the passengers agreed.

"I think he might have been some sort of gangster he has an impressive tattoo on him." Leo said adding a bit of fact. That certainly had the hens clucking.

"He does walk with a bit of swagger, though I wonder why someone like Keller would hire such a … a … ruffian thug like [I]him[/I]. Clearly he is a source of the trouble." One passenger tsked.

"Well I hear he isn't very well-liked anyway. Yelling at his crewmates the way he does. Like he's the boss or something. Didn't one nearly quit?" A passenger inquired.

"Well, I have no way of knowing that for sure, though I wouldn't be shocked … what I do know … " Leo said leaning in. "... Is, he certainly takes advantage of his position. Let's just say a lot goes on in that laundry room with that pretty young deckhand? Ms. Edwards … the only one I hear that didn't get yelled at." Leo said making a clear but socially polite implication.

Ms. Meadow literally clutched her pearls and fanned herself ferociously. "Oh my! That poor innocent child! The captain must be aware of such … inappropriateness."

"Oh I doubt it. Even if he did he can't prove it. Not like the child could defend herself from retribution from her … monstrous crewmate." Loe said with a sorrowful sigh.

"Clearly if he abuses one he must have abused the other when she turned him down! Why else would you have so many female deckhands and only one male deckhand lording over them! How grossly inappropriate." One of the passengers noted.

"Well if there is any justice in the verse. This will be his last flight on this ship. Maybe then the crew can work in peace, safety and harmony while he is properly confined and maybe even ejected from this respected ship when we land."

“Who’s gettin’ ejected from a respected ship?” Serena asked as she skipped past the lounge. The room got quiet. Serena checked under the table for Daisy, sometimes she’d eat Roose’s cooking and could clear a room, she thought maybe that’s what they were reacting to.

“You poor thing.” Ms. Meadow - the crazy bat - said. “If only I’d known!”

“Known… what?” Serena asked drawing her hand back as the woman with a cat teapot who didn’t have the good sense to actually use it attempted to pat her arm comfortingly.

“We were just talking about your Crew Chief.” Leo said haughtily. Serena’s eyes narrowed. “And the mistreatment at his hands.”

“Only one with mistreatin’ issues on this boat, Leo is you.” She challenged. “I’ll go get the crew chief, and he’ll tell everyone what you did and then ---”

“Poor, sweet thing.” he said, dropping an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into half a hug, her face to his shoulder,

“Cào nǐ zǔzōng shíbā dàibā dài” Serena told him, attempting to bite his forearm. “Wángbā!” (Fuck your ancestors to the eighteenth generation, stupid soft shell turtle.) From the corner of her eye, she could see Esteban, drink in hand, rise from the corner he’d been situated in.

“Leo!” The captain reprimanded sharply. Seeing the situation in hand, Cortez excused himself from the lounge.

“Sorry Captain,” Leo apologized, letting go of the deckhand, raising his own while lowering his voice. “I didn’t think you’d want your high paying passengers subject to that sort of language. I meant no harm.”

The captain just nodded his head. “Make yourself scarce pigtails, adults have talking to do. Now I know you all must have questions, let me assure you that everything is all right. No one is in any danger --”

Serena shot one more death dagger look towards Leo before scurrying off..