Log:Calimari, Extra Spooky

Calimari, Extra Spooky

OOC Date: September, 2020
Location: Mon Calamari
Participants: Hex, Kasia Ciph, Rheisa Dirleel, Naia , Sajin

A spooky excursion reveals Jehn's disturbing affinity for tentacles. The gang gets wet.

---

The 'official' story is that Jehni'va secured this vessel for some deep-sea fishing. There is plenty of convincing equipment loaded up on board, some harpoons and thick lines included; but to those that understand subtext, they will know that there is not going to be much fishing happening on this excursion.
At least, not if everything goes according to plan... We'll get to that.
Their real destination lies in a set of shadily-acquired coordinates located several hours from the shoreline, and an even more shadily-acquired series of rumors that have spurred the pilot to head this expedition.
"Treasure!" Jehni'va Cihn boasts again, now that they are all safely out to sea and out of earshot of any nosy civilians or law enforcement. She looks the part of a salty sea captain at the helm of her rented waveskimmer; short sleeved, barefoot, with a big, ugly hat and pant legs rolled up past her knees. It's not a great look, but it is an appropriate one.
"Th'story goes that there was once this pirate - right? Like an ocean pirate, not the ones we normally deal with. He was called Blarnik or something like that - anyway, he was ruthless, right? Absolutely terrorized the seas until one day he just -" she makes a dramatic motion with her hands "-poof! Vanished. Not a trace - until his ship was seen drifting out at sea. No one dared board it, but it was all torn up. Every once in awhile, someone reports seeing th'ship drifting, and we are headed to a projection I calculated off th'last known coordinates an' some currents an'kriff. It's /said/ that th'thing is loaded with stolen goods, probably worth a fortune now." Turning away from her driving, the human woman grins at those gathered the boat bumping along and dousing her in spray as she does.
"Any questions?"

Hex has been on sea excursions with Jehn before. Everyone was drunk, and then there were sea monsters. You'd think that this would be enough to give him some pause about getting on another sea excursion with Jehn... but he was drunk then, and he's drunk now, and that means that he's pretty sure that this time will be great. If he even remembers last time, which is questionable.
The big Twi'lek has on a colorful shirt, Dad Level cargo shorts that show his legs are as cybernetic mismatched as his arms, and his goggles are settled over his eyes to tone down the sun rays.
"So'cha ka, I have a question," Hex swigs his beer, "What if the real treasure was the friendship we made along the way?"

Sajin was here, in his Void armor, helmet on because... don't tell anyone... old Sajin couldn't swim. Though, he had no aversion to being on a boat. Either way the EVA suit had a jetpack on it which could keep him from sinking to the bottom... or at least if that didn't work he'd have a chance to survive for a few hours like some sort of exotic sea creature before he ran out of air.
"I used to be a pirate..." Chimes in the King of Drik... "Space pirate though..." he's mentioned it before, probably for the millionth time. He turns a his head towards Hex, "Because... it is?"

Rheisa thinks Jehn's barefoot look is just fine! For what it's worth. The Togruta is as she always is, toes free to get snared in line or trod on a hook or slip in chum, etc so on. She's wedged herself in as central a seat as she could get and has a deathgrip on either side of the cushion under her bum. Headtails are tucked tightly up against the rest of her, eyes narrowed to mere slits, brow and cheeks thrashed by her whipping headdress. All those teeth from past victims/prey are getting a chance at revenge here.
"How big is trrreasure." Rheisa's question comes out sounding more like a demand than inquiry, because it is. Because she's experiencing more than a twang of regret about being out here in the middle of the HUNGRY SEA where even hungrier tohg'na ki live. Will Umak have a third mother, come tomorrow? Maybe. Maybe she'll be fathoms under the waves in the belly of some monstrosity. Unlike Hex, the only thing she is drunk on presently is fear. Garnished by a sprig of loathing. Naia (naya) pages: OKay, I'm in the landing cove, I guess.

Kasia is a bit more cautious than her intoxicated husband, and as such she's brought along things to help them when this goes wrong. It's not that she thinks it'll go wrong, it's... no, she definitely thinks that. Her bag has weapons in it, and a medpac, and snacks, and probably some sort of beacon for Naelyn to track eventually should they all get lost at sea. Tissues. Normal stuff. In spite of her certainty that things will go wrong, she's dressed for a nice trip out on the water, a bathing suit beneath a flowy dress that's just a little bit sheer over it. Her hair is up, and she had a hat on, but trying to keep it on got problematic and it currently lives beneath her overpacked bag.

By contrast, (or maybe not), Naia seems perfectly at home on the boat, despite the fact that they are going treasure hunting and that things may very well go very, very wrong. Then again, being able to breathe under water probably helps in terms of boat anxiety, because knowing that you're not likely to drown and you can literally just walk along the bottom if worst comes to worst is some kind of comfort. It doesn't particularly help with the potential problem of predators, but one thing at a time. She's got pants on---pants with lots of snaps and what looks like a bathing suit underneath them because you might as well be prepared for a dip if you're going to bother being on an ocean planet. The nautolan is a stranger, at least to an extent, and so she's not invited herself to say anything. Not really. Mysterious.

"We found this friendship in th'dump and don't you forget it." Is Jehni'va's reply to Hex's storybook optimism - but she also means that to be taken very much literally. She met this group in a dump. An actual one. Like with trash - real trash, not people trash - though there was plenty of that, too.
"The last time we went through here it, uh, well..." She nervously checks the scanner for the hundreth time. "It didn't go exactly according to plan. BUT! I've done more research into the breeding grounds of this planet's 'unidentified squid-like creatures' and am at least 50% sure that we are circumventing it." Since things have a dark tendency to take unfortunate turns when Jehni'va is 100% sure that they are safe, her current predictions are deeply disconcerting.
"There's absolutely nothing to worry about... Oh! We're getting close!" Jehn shouts suddenly as some piece of machinery lets out a soft alert beep. She slows the vessel, the waves of their wake catching up and rocking the boat more dramatically for the span of a few heartbeats as they settle. They coast for a long moment before, with excitement, Jehn leaps up onto the railing, trying to gain height. "I was right!" She finally chirps, clamboring back down and accelerating the boat once more. "There it is!"
And there it is indeed. The ship itself is creepy enough, its age apparent in its antiquated design and the way it lists in the water, like it's just been waiting for someone to give it to permission to submit to the will of the deep... But not while it holds so many secrets, so much promise of wealth! "I'm bringing us in alongside and you lot can board. I'll stay here with th'boat in case we need to make a speedy evac - which we shouldn't, but... Y'know. Just in case." She taps the comm at her belt. "I'll be in touch, though."

Hex contentedly ignores Jehn's certainties and assurances about the squid-like creatures, he is merely nodding contentedly, awash in his beer-soaked buzz and the fond memories about that time he met Jehn and then almost immediately ended up in a trash compactor. Good times. Such good memories. What nice kids.
The big man's lekku do stir in surprise as there /actually is/ another ship to be found here, and Hex lifts his goggles back to the top of his head, perching them at the base of his lekku and squinting at the other vessel in surprise. "I didn't really expect this to happen, honestly, I came prepared for just Friendship," he admits, then downs the rest of the ale and burps demurely. "Friendship and tentacles." It's gonna be the title of Jehn's memoir.
Owing to the last factor there, he does root around among a pile of beach towels and withdraws a hand cannon of a pistol, which he belts around his wide waist with the easy familiarity of someone who's been in too many gunfights. "Here we go then. Easy mission, ok ka?" Hex weaves a bit as he studies the 'pirate' vessel, then heaves his prodigious bulk across the gap with surprising agility!

Sajin stares at Naia a moment, arms crossed over his chest plate as the Hapan leans back against the side of the boat. He rocks side to side as Jehni crashes it against the rough waves. Really, it was a great time.
<<"You look familiar...">> He says. His finger comes up as if he's about to make a point... <<"That's right... at the smoke house with Jynessa, you were just leaving.">> He nods, proud at himself for at least remembering. He might have continued the conversation but they have arrived. He pusehs of the side of the boat and looks towards the wreck. <<"Hermmm.">> He hops up onto the side and... jumps. Landing almost perfectly with a loud thunk. He turns around to the others, waiting to 'spot' them on their trip over.

Rheisa eyes the ghost ship like she eyes ANY craft that dares to tread across bodies of water larger than leaky faucet dribbles. Equal parts contempt to distrust. Maybe bigger is better though, because that deck appears to be sitting higher over the water than - yeah no definitely it's a taller ship!
Rheisa makes a speedy evac from peppy lil fishing boat to the giant, lurking death ship. Like an orange blur, a smudge of sunset streaking across the deck (almost, in that 'swim' wear) that's clung to chair one moment and scuttling over the rail the next. Her fingers and toes masterfully navigate the decaying bits of rigging swaying to and fro over ghost ship's side and before anyone can shiver their timbers, she's sitting down on the ancient deck.
"Am here." In case anybody missed that. Her head is perpetually on the swivel, montrals absorbing every breeze, every flutter or tip of discarded items on deck. She. Trusts. Nothing.

Kasia has a similar expression to Sajin as she studies Naia, and then it hits her. "Oh, you were the one with that guy who was wearing the leg, weren't you? At Twi'licks." She could be wrong, the smoke was thick and she has sad human eyes that are limited in their capacity to see.
There is actually a boat, and like Hex she's surprised that something is here, but now that it is she snatches up her bag and slings it across her body, plops her hat back on her head and moves to the edge of the boat. "Don't say that," she calls to Hex, grinning. "You'll jinx us." She tries to make a graceful leap over to the other boat, but apparently she's just not as agile, and the sandals she's wearing certainly don't help anything. Which is fine, because after a started yelp when one foot slides out from beneath her, and a brief tumble into the water, she loses one of her sandals to the ocean. Gone forever.
She thrashes her way back up to the surface, unhappily paddling her way over to the boat she was meant to land on, and begins to climb. It's... not graceful, and she slips more than once with cursing that's fitting for the pirate setting, but eventually she makes it back up over the rail and onto the boat to join the others.
She is out of breath, but she still has her hat.

Naia glances at the two of them---first Kasia, then Sajin. Those nictating membranes flutter against an ocean-dark backdrop of full-black eyes as the woman seems to contemplate the question. "Yes, that was me. Probably." She says, because she's purple, and that all sounds familiar, and at this point she's willing to give other people the benefit of the doubt in recognizing her. And then they all start the boarding process, so she follows after them, in her baby pink bedazzled tear-away pants. Haute couture, babey.
Bonk. Look, her landing isn't graceful. It's like someone throwing an octopus at a wall---all flailing limbs and sad desperation. It's also rather like someone throwing a wet paper towel against a wall for the same reasons, sans limbs and plus extra flopping for effect. But the point is that she technically did it. She /technically/ did the thing with her arms and legs correctly. And that's the best kind of correct. She makes it onto the boat, and manages not to die. It's a win for the day! Hopefully it will not be followed by failure in the form of tentacles.

So, now they're on the boat... And it looks even creepier on the main deck than it did from the water. Holes pepper the flooring, and a constant smell of salty, fishy death lingers. Ropes and cloth rotted away to naught but dust, identifiable only by their locations and a degree of guess work, litter the ground.
There is a hatch, half-rotted away, that leads to a hold of some kind, a closed cabin at the rear of the deck, and a stairway that leads up to a poop deck at the fore. There's also a single barrel leaned against an ancient mast.

Hex has decided, through his many long years of exposure to Jehn's ideas, that it's better not to face this sober. He has a flask, from which he drinks contentedly, one lek twitching just a bit as he hears something go splash. He screws the lid back on the flask. Splash splash. Must be the boat down there, or a big fish, or... Hex peers over, "Oh, shik," it wasn't a fish, it was his wife, oops. Gross, she's all soggy. Alive though, that's good. "You got this, babe!" he encourages her, with a thumbs up! #AshkuriRomance
Like Kasia, Naia receives no helping hand up, because failure is an accepted standard of success here among these people. "I'll check the hatch," Hex volunteers, and then heads that way. A tug at said hatch doesn't get great results; he'll have to slip through the broken portion. That would have been easier 60 lbs ago, but he's an intrepid spirit, he sucks it in and perseveres, disappearing down under the deck with a last glimpse of tattooed lekku the last thing to vanish belowdecks.
"It's dark down here," his disembodied voice observes, followed by "WHOA," and a crunch and what sounds like some quick moving. A bit more scuffling around, then Hex remarks with some surprise, calling up, "I found a Golden Compass!" Now all he needs is a rad daemon companion.

Sajin looks like he might go diving in after Kasia falls into the drink. "Oh no... Kasia!" Though as she surfaces, he pauses and watches he paddle over. His hand reches out to render aid in her not so graceful climb back up the wreck.
Once that is settled, he turns and starts towards the Poop Deck. It's not too far. As soon as he arrives, he gets a sinking feeling... "Someone is watching us..." He looks around, he was alone... "Me..." He slinks forward, having become slightly more adept at sneaking.
He turns his head rapidly, his Series III flying out of its holster and into his hand. He swore he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Even his HUD tracking thought it saw something. Though, as he looks with his pistol pointed ahead there is nothing to be found but... "OH MONEY..." He waddles over, leans down, and picks it up as if nothing crepy just happened ten seconds before. He turns towards the others wherever they are, raising the money in his hand and waving it back and forth. "I FOUND MONEY!"

Rheisa's come a long way from her ancestral land and ancestral ways and leaving a pal behind because they are too weak to succeed isn't so much a practice she adheres to anymore, but....
Well, there's a long moment of considering whether or not that'd be best when Kasia goes in the drink, because nobody else has hopped in after and she certainly isn't goi---end though. The loving aunty to their Boon steps aside to make room for Kasia's re emergence with a relieved smile. "Water is bad, I know," she tries to commiserate with the soggy woman from a dry gal's perspective. And because water is bad, she is going to explore a place that's shut away from all things wet.
A cabin! It takes a little bit of shoving, kicking, and prying with her bow, but the gruta manages to convince the door to open wiiiiide. Or at least wide enough for her to slip easily through.
Stillness reigns in here. It's a cocoon of solitude, this lonely, empty room. Bare feet tread cautiously over the creaks and groans of an aching floor and leave little ghost prints through the salt creep in her wake. It is a tomb, this place. It smells dank, like stale death and once her eyes have adjusted to the drastically darker scheme, she can see the grey pallor of old bones. A few hearbeats later she's crouching before the tattered skeleton and the chest it's slumped over. Much like the door, this chest requires a bit of coaxing but eventually she pries it open, being ever so gentle as to lay the skeleton down first.
All that glitters IS gold. And gems.
Rheisa throws a look back over shoulder to the doorway, then closes the lid.
And screams. "MEHKT TOHG'NA!" Because it did. Assumedly. The skeleton is no longer there.

Kasia was cheered on by Hex, and assisted by Sajin, and it's the latter of the two that gets a grateful smile once she's done gasping for breath. Climbing is hard, y'all. "Thank you." She pushes her gross soggy hair out of her face and does her best to look dignified, but she had makeup on, and so she's looking a lil bit streaky in the whole face area as she adjusts her floppy, soggy hat, kicks off her one remaining shoe, and treks the distance to the barrel. "Water is bad," she agrees with Rheisa along the way. Oh, huh." She glances up at the call from Hex. "You found a compass?" And then Sajin. "And money? I ... I found a skull. With gems in it." Then it crumbles. "Well, I found gems anyway." She snakes a real tentative hand into the barrel to try and pluck the gems out.

The door is easily wrested open, although it's kind of gross and crumbly, and Naia is starting to half-heartedly wonder if jumping at the chance for an ocean adventure in order to enjoy the humidity was a poor decision. Many of her decisions are poor, but this is still up in the air. It pulls aside with a screech---she has help from the togruta, so that's great, because it means fewer chances of splinters for both of them, and that situation is definitely adjacent to her jam. The room inside is just as icky---dark, dusty, full of the smell of moldering wood and tarnishing metal. The nautolan's nose wrinkles slightly in distaste, but it's hardly the /worst/ thing she's ever smelled either so the sensation of disgust passes. A charming skeleton has draped itself over a very stereotypical-looking chest, but that doesn't really interest her---her gaze wanders the dimly-lit area and---wait, is that something shiny?
Naia advances to delicately shove aside a loose wallboard, and those nictating membranes flutter in surprise at the beautiful box inside. She turns to look back at her companion but---Oh dear. Mr. Skeleton is gone.
"Okay, I /hate/ that. Did you steal that skeleton? Please say you took it and hid it in your clothes or something." Please say JK. Naia has the look about her of a woman who is not about to die on a boat.

This ship seems totally fine and not a single member of the crew experiences anything remotely spooky... That is, until the ship gives a long, ominous creeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaak... But that's probably normal - it's an old ship, it's bound to settle and make creepy noises! However, what cannot be explained away by 'old' and 'creepy' would be Jehni'va's voice suddenly crackling in over the comms.
<<"Um - okay hi, hello - hope you're all having just a spiffin' time, but it's -">> From outside the ship there is a loud, wet, CRASH and an earsplitting 'KREEEEEEEE!'.
<<"IT'S TIME TO GO!" >> Underneath their feet, the ship suddenly bucks, and with a heart-stopping 'CRACK' it lists HARD as it falls back towards the sea... And it does not take a high perception roll to realize that this thing is going down after that abuse. It is very clearly starting to roll and sink beneath them all, 'floor' and 'ceiling' threatening to become a more abstract theory. What is causing that is less clear... Though it's not hard to guess.
Outside, eight massive tentacles have burst into the sky like great, slimy, green pillars of the sea, flailing desperately. The shriek of blaster fire signifies that Jehn is, at least, fighting back and isn't (yet) trying to make any absurd animal handling rolls. Yet. She is struggling to shoot with one hand, while she keeps the tiny vessel perpendicular to the pirate ship as smoothly as possible with her other. "GET IN!" She shouts at anyone hitting the main deck, but even as she does so, a tentacle bursts between the two vessels, batting the pilot and her waveskipper aside like it is nothing but a bobber toy, stranding the landing party on the ghost ship for the time being.
And those tentacles are reaching for them, now.

Hex tucks the compass into his cargo pockets. What now, Kasia who didn't like his cargo shorts?! They're carrying CARGO, it's important. A pause lingers as he thought he heard someone laugh -- even scanning the darkness with eyes evolved for the dimness of caves on Ryloth doesn't help, though, he can't see anyone. "Kasia? Jehn?" he wonders who might be laughing at him, then shrugs when there's no response. It must have been one of his companions, even if they don't hear him now. Who else would it be?
He is just climbing up the rickety stairs back up through the hatch again when disaster strikes, and the tiny ship is tossed! CRACK! Hex falls his fat ass right the hell back down those stairs, tumbling and stumbling back up to his feet. "JEHN! MAKE FRIENDS WITH IT OK KA," he shouts advice out a crack between the timbers. Maybe she will be able to hear him. Then it will eat her and they will have more time to escape.
This hatch-hold seems claustrophobic now, taking on water, and he looks around wildly again.
Is someone here? It can't be - who would be here?

Sajin stumbles back and forth, flailing his arms as he tries to maintain balance when the ship starts to shake. He's rather good at it moving with the flow of the ocean. He ends up back with the others, the tentical monsters now threatening them. "Woah!" He shoots his blaster, twice... they are too Fast... "Oh man... we're going to DIE out here... Tell Oriana I love her!"

Rheisa stares at Naia like she's just sprouted ten more headtacles. I mean how many does she have, anyway?? "No," the Togruta grunts and gestures to her sun basking suit. "I do not have. Am stealing no bodies." Or FROM bodies, either, as bad luck would have it, because that dreadful sound and lurch of their world being turned upsidedown interupts any attempts at rooting around in that chest. She can barely stay on her feet, fleeing the cabin with as desperate a look in her eye as ever was seen.
"WILL NOT BE EATEN BY THE SEA!" She shrieks upon hobble-hop-scurrying back to the main deck.

• WHOOSH* a hefty tentacle comes out of nowhere (the SEA) and takes a swipe at her, but the grabby grabby beasty's movement is betrayed by its very existance, in motion. Rheisa's sixth sense sees it coming and she lists far to the right, letting it sweep over her head. In the same moment, she pulls the blowgun from its strap over back. Two stagger leaps later, she's twisting around to fire one poisoned dart at the giant squiggle.
  

It thuds uselessly into the cabin door.

"What?" Kasia calls back to Hex, then freezes as she shoots a suspicious look down into the barrel. There is something /off/ about it, but she has sparkly gems in her hands. To be sure that she doesn't contract evil from them, she uses her soggy dress to wipe any of the remaining skull dust from them, then does what any reasonable person does when they find gems on a pirate vessel. She stashes them in her bra. She's only just gotten the gems tucked away when there is an alarming creak, which makes her tense and whirl around. "WHAT?" she hollers back at Jehn unhelpfully, eyes going wide as she spots the tentacles. "Oh, no no. I am not prepared for this." She does, at least, manage to stay on her feet mostly, digging into her bag to pull out a weapon and aim it sort of at the tentacles. She fires twice, and misses twice. Watch out, Jehn!

The crack of the boat is ominous as heck, and it motivates Naia to grab her box that she is apparently intent on dying for, because if she's going to die now she's going to die with treasure, at the very lease. Frack. She hustles out of the cabin, rolling with the motion of the besieged ship, and clutching her dumb box because, again, if she's going to kriffing die, it's going to be for a reason, even if it's a really, really, really dumb one. But oh, the horror. The horror from the sea---giant tentacles start ascending from the depths and the nautolan grows somehow pinker in response---probably paling in fear or at least concern. Because this is concerning. A knife skitters across the deck and Naia dives for it, even though part of her brain is telling her to just try and dive head first into the boat---there's only one tentacle guarding the way, what's the worst that could happen? Death? Cool. She grasps the knife and throws it but it is bad. Everything about the throw is bad. It misses a tentacle the size of her thigh at least, and then heads back to her hand. Aaaaw, boomerang.

Jehn can occasionally be glimpsed between the flailing tentacles, trying to wrestle the boat in closer to rescue the crew - but it just ain't happening. <<"STAY ALIVE!">> Her voice urges them, the whine of the motor retreating as she swings around to find a better angle.
It looks like they are going to have to either send this thing packing, or stay alive until Jehn can get there.

With another mighty SKREEEEE a massive tentacle goes slamming down towards the deck - buckling the aging infrastructure but not taking it down just yet... And unfortunately for Jehn, another goes shooting out after her buzzing nuisance of a vehicle as well. It crashes into the sea, and rocks her boat with the wave of the near miss. <<"I'M COMING!">> She promises through a literal sea of troubles.

Hex has his shortcomings, among them the flask that has reappeared in his hand. But once upon a time, not unlike Rheisa, life was different. Life was closer to nature, albeit a far less watery nature, and men and women lived and died on the strength of their perceptions and reflexes. Something is here. Someone is here, and Hex pauses, closing his eyes, slowing his breathing, listening, listening for who is there, and it's...
No one. Certainty, dead sure -- no one is here. Yet it all seemed so strange. Despite the chaos around him, Hex shifts his lekku in confusion, then decides, "Spirits..." The man makes a brief, private gesture with his hands that might be a ward against evil, and then hustles back up through the hatch to reappear on deck, careful not to fall this time!

"Okay... why are we still here?" Sajin asks as he points his pistol again and takes another two shots. This time his blaster bolts hit dead on. "AHA! take that." Maybe they were waiting for Hex, he was getting slow with that Dad bod of his. Either way, he continues to retreat towards Jehni and the boat.
"Sprits... oh maybe... I just thought it was merkin who lives in my head..." Was Sajin okay? He had heard soemthing earlier like someone who said no. It sent chills up his spine but the immediate threat of tenticals overruled investigating such oddities.

SPIRITS!? Honestly, Rheisa wouldn't be surprised, what with the creepy feels and vanishing skeletons and all that. If they don't convince these flailing, wormy arms that they aren't food in the next few minutes though, there will be five more spirits walking this deck. Forever.
"JEHNI'VA!" Rheisa roars over the deck rail, heaping all the blame in this moment on the one woman who might get them out of this situation alive. When another tentacle rears up from the churning water below, she plucks another dart from the strap and reloads.

• DOINK*
  

Right in the sucker. And then she staggers off some place else to avoid being squashed.

Things are unsteady, and their foe is wiley, so it's with an exhale that Kasia flicks the safety of her blaster on, and shoves it back into her bag. Then it's into a side compartment she reaches, pulling something else out instead. "We need to get back to the ship. Hex?" she hollers over at the hatch she saw him squeeze through. "Hex, we should go, ka're." She doesn't know about spirits, or the creepiness that he's encountering, her brain is too full of flailing tentacles right now. Then Hex reappears, and she says, "It's okay. Okay? It's okay." Which might not make sense to anyone else, but he'll probably get it a moment later as she activates the golden weapon in her hand, and with a snap-hiss a glowing blade appears.

Aaaw, boomerang, no. Not again. Look, she's not helping with this, but in fairness, she probably hadn't expected the ocean to explode into tentacles. That really hadn't been on her bucket list, or any of her other lists of expectations and anxieties. It was totally out of left field. Good job, universe. She's still clutching her box though. It's a nice box. If she survives it will be a really cool reminder of that time that she nearly died. She had legitimately thought this was about a fishing trip, but these fish are too spicy. Extra calamari. Unpleasant. The ocean spirit is angry, but at least if she dies here she'll go to the grotto. You paged Hex with 'Aw bb I appreciate that. You do a ton, I'm glad that I'm able to start playing again and running shit'

If the boat starts a rockin' - definitely come a knockin', because everyone is in danger. Anyone looking (or screaming) out to sea will see Jehni'va expertly weaving the tiny boat in and out of the writhing mass of tentacles - like the grace of a seabird skimming the waves, the pilot looks at home out there on the water. The wind in her hair, the spray against her skin, the way she soars higher, and higher, and higher.... Oh, wait. A tentacle has wrapped around Jehn's little boat and has lifted the whole thing bodily into the sky. It drops Jehn and the boat, and they hit the water with a sickening CRASH. For a long moment, the waves and tentacles hide the result from sight... But then - "GET ON!" The whirr of an abused motor and a bruised pilot are at the ship's side once more. Escape is now an option!
Another tentacle swings for the ship again, smashing through an already aging mast and sending it to the deck with a sickening CRUNCH. Naia is the closest to the impact, and is sprayed with sharp, heavy debris.

That snap-hiss is a sound that's walked Hex's nightmares for years. That saber, that blade -- But this is here and now, not the haunted halls of memory, and he draws a breath to steady himself. Pink blade. Not red.
"Kas can hold those things off and I suggest you let her," Hex calls advice to his comrades, while his lekku do coil around his shoulders like frightened anemones. "Jehn says let's go, let's get GONE! Sajin!!" He prepares to jump, reaching a hand out for his friend!

Sajin gladly takes Hex's hand with his free one. "Okay!" That's when they jump, togeher, hand in hand... while they leave Kasia to fight the moster. THey land safely in the boat. Letting go of Hex's hand, he turns to see if Rehisa and Naia might need help getting in.

"Am trying!" Rheisa hollers as she makes her way back to the deck. A look goes to where she last saw the Nautolan. Maybe Nautolan is kin to whatever this thing is? Maybe that's why it's so bent on giving them a giant hug. Rheisa hikes one leg over the edge and hesitates. The tumultuous rip and roar of waves down below is a bit intimidating but the real reason is a more literal obstacle. TENTACLE! The Togruta rolls back onto the ghost ship to avoid being food. Better luck next jump. Maybe!

"Get to the boat," Kasia shouts to the others as she goes from appearing as though she's a non-serious, and possibly slightly vapid and soggy woman into something more formidable. She charges in the direction of the nearest tentacle with a speed and grace that you wouldn't have guessed after her topple into the water, but she's more focused now, expression set. She brings the blade around in a low arc that cuts upwards, slicing through the soggy flesh with a sizzle, and then again with a second pass. HISSSS. The third strike misses, simply taking out a chunk of the railing on the offending boat that brought them out here.

B O N K .
The mast goes slamming into the deck before Naia is really able to do anything short of staring at it like a dumb dumb. So she does that, just barely skittering out of the way in time to get blasted by splinters and a chunk of wood the size of her palm. Bonk. In the cheek. Well, better than taking it to the noggin, all things considered. The boat has arrived, but she's stunned by the blow and as a result she definitely isn't quick enough to make it, even as Hux and Sajin do ballet off into the empty air and land safely on the deck of the fishing boat. A tentacle slams down and Naia yelps as she scuttles out of the way of that too---possessed by a dogged determination to hold on to her box and also escape. That's what the medic is /supposed/ to do. Get to cover.

The water froths and boils with activity as Kasia carves into is a sushi chef at dinner time. If only someone had brought an incinerator, they could be munching on calamari! As it is, they are hoping to simply munch on some SURVIVAL at this point.
Aboard Jehn's little boat, Sajin and Hex are in no safer a position than they were before, just a little bit harder to hit!
And that becomes a useful fact, because this native is not going to let these little morsels go without a fight!

Hex is, mind you, still drunk. But it adds courage to the situation! Courage! "You know I'm damn sure that ship was haunted?" he remarks to Sajin, raising his pistol and firing! The plasma sails off into nothingness and nowhere, a shot across the bow, perhaps quite literally. He adjusts, rethinks, and fires again, this time striking a more satisfying, sizzling burn into the tentacles -- hoping it will be enough to distract them off of the other escaping prey! "I took a compass out the hatch, you think I should throw it back into the sea? Am I gonna haunt my whole-ass life, bringing this home now?" Important questions for mid-firefight.

Sajin could shoot, but as Hex covered them he decided to go down onto his knees and reach his hands out towards the girls. "Over here!" He shouts, leaning over far to grab hold of the Nautolan's arm. He hefts, attempting to pull her up and over the lip of the boats edge. He grunts, struggling. "Damn... youre heavy!"
He wouldn't have made a very good fisheman.

Given all the unfortunate activity to happen recently, Kasia's hair has fallen half down out of the braids she had it in, and as she moves and spins, her dress flares out and flutters in the breeze, making her look like some half-mad vengeful goddess with her glowing pink murder-stick. She charges down the ship to lash out at another of the tentacles, lopping off a large chunk that hits the deck nearby with a meaty thud, all while keeping half an eye on the others to ensure they make it to the not-haunted boat. Another of the slippery limbs dares to get within her proximity and SLASH, it receives the same sizzling treatment as its fellows. "Go, go!" she encourages Naia and Rheisa as she takes another slash, once again missing, and this time leaving a scorched gouge in the deck.

Naia seems to recover from the shrapnel hit, and in fact manages to dive across the deck toward the railing in order to escape to the smaller boat, box still intact. Sajin's help is...appreciated, until he makes a comment about her weight, which has her shoving the box over onto the deck and then climbing him like a really aggressive hermit crab. Or spider, if you prefer. She uses the poor man to pull herself onto the boat and then grabs her box in order to make sure that it will stay safe. She's liable to start throwing that ill-aimed boomerang if Kasia doesn't scoot her boot over onto the boat. Because at this point it is kill the tentacles or die.

This is Rheisa's worst nightmare realized, ten times over. Her second attempt to leap to freedom is halted by another WHOOSH of tentacle across the rail and she trips over her own heels, reeling away from the near miss. The ship is being crushed and cracked apart all around them though, so time is not on her side. With a scream of genuine ire AND terror, the Togruta takes a running leap of faith into the abyss.
Less faith, more 'I feel you down there', but it is NOT a graceful landing. The blowgun almost goes up her nose when her knees buckle beneath her and she crumplerolls across the fishing boat deck. Pain jets up the left knee from an old injury reawakened and the ferocity of her hissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss might well be heard down in the depths.
This is the last time Rheisa Dirleel is getting on a boat. For reals.

"Th'boat wasn't /haunted/." Jehni'va scoffs. "I'm just glad that th'bloke up on the crow's nest didn't give you lot any trouble." She is idly, glancing back over her shoulder, enjoying this like any other casual, easy conversation in a perfectly normal situation. WHUMP goes another body hitting the boat, alive. "Hope he made it to safety - he's not there anymore." A shrug. "Ah well - C'MON YOU LOT!" This last bit is directed at the ghost ship as, one by one, they all finally leap to safety.
Well. Almost all of them.
A splash announces where the most competent amongst them has gone, but luckily they have all hands on deck, so to speak. Thus, it is with Kasia fished from the deep, and the rest of the party safely on board, that Jehn punches it forward, leaving the tentacles - and the ship - behind without a second glance. "Drinks on me tonight!" She boasts over the whine of the engine. She certainly owes them that much.