Torsty was laying in his bed while his own nurse, Margaret, were mixing up some potions for him. Much younger than him, she was surprisingly calm and cool for a girl her age taking care of a man of his reputation.
"I think you might have caught an alphavirus, Sir." Margaret said with her usually steady voice.
"Meaning what, exactly?" Torsty questioned.
"Well, you've most likely picked it up on one of your latest trips in the wild. You must have been bitten by a mosquito and from there the virus entered into your blood-stream."
"How will it affect me?" Torsty wrestled with his tiredness to let out another question.
"Well, since I've been able to prevent it from developing further, you should be doing fine in a couple of weeks time. Still, all your symptoms fit. Fever, headaches, drowsiness and your sudden signs of fatigue matches with encephalitis."
Torsty sighed heavily in response, his head resting on a pillow, looking up at the roof.
"How does your neck feel? Is it stiff?"
"No, it's fine. Feels normal."
"Good. Thats a good sign. You should get some more sleep now."
Sleep?! More sleep? He thought to himself, frustrated from lying in bed all day, feeling like a heap of dead-weight. As if the way he had arrived earlier that morning was not embarrassing enough for someone like him. Keeping a strong figure while in public had always been one of the keys to success in his field of work.
Him and his men had boarded the ship before the sun had woken up that day, hoping that no press would be at the harbor. He had payed out of his own savings to make sure he would have no trouble with the captain for allowing himself the special treatment. He could have asked his partners in Iwaku City to pay for him, but he didn't want to link any debts to his name with those people. No matter, they had gotten aboard under special circumstances, hours ahead of the pack. Torsty came in a wheel-chair, he'd covered his face with big black sunglasses and a top hat. He had even brought cash, just in case they had to pay off people to keep quiet.
While he had been laying in bed, he had listened to the commotion build up gradually outside his cabin. From the chatter outside he could hear more and more people gather to have a look at the HMS Firefox. Some had simply turned up to see the sight of Asmodeus himself. Apparently someone else had caused a bit of a scene among the common folk though, and that was exactly why he had chosen to bring Margaret along. He would not put his trust in Doctor Jack Surgeon treating his illness. As history had proven, working for the government of Iwaku took it's toll on your sanity. Eventhough, Torsty was more curious about how his former colleagues would greet him. Further he pondered who else he might find among the crew that could serve to his interests.
A couple of hours had passed since Margaret had left him alone to rest. Torsty lifted himself up so he could sit on the bed, moving his legs to left so they could touch the floor. He felt dizzy. His medication must've done him good, because he had none of the aching pain from earlier. He took a heavy breath as he steadied himself with his fists planted in the mattress. Most of the pain was gone, but moving around was still more complicated than usual.
Getting out of bed and on his feet was still a small victory, making sure to stretch out his body before leaving the bedroom. He entered the livingroom catching the attention of Margaret, Alfred and Jonas. The latter two being representatives of the mercenary crew. They could roam freely around the ship as they wanted. Torsty did not hire them to be his guarding angels around the clock, their part of the job really didn't start until they had reached Moonwings.
The living space was crowded with places to sit, chairs and couches put in a circular pattern, making for little room to manouver around. The only thing that stood out in the room was the tiny round table that was placed in center, mostly used for card games and the like.
"What are you doing up?!" Margaret bounced up from her chair, clearly not expecting him to be up this early.
"Sit down!" Torsty retorted. "As a nurse, I'm sure you would agree that too keep me in bed against my will...causing me mental ills..is not healthy. I'm feeling fine! Only a bit dizzy. Hand me a glass of water and I'll be fine!"
Torsty finally made it out of his cabin, supporting himself with his right hand while moving down the empty aisle towards the stairs. He concentrated on taking deep breaths while closing in on the deck-floor. Whatever it would take for him to look as healthy as possible, he had told his crew that if anyone questioned them about his well-being he was only going through a case of bad fever.
On deck, Torsty took time to have a look at the people. Sniffing in the air while reaching with his arms for the sky. To be among the living again felt so good.
Adjusting his suit-jacket as he started walking to wards where Asmodeus was greeting new crew-mates and assigning roles for them to fill. It only seemed right to greet him now, besides, witnessing the circus that was Tegan was out of the question currently, from what he had overheard the commoners say.
It was around this moment that one of the corgis decided to involve him into their play-time, using his shoes as a chewing-toy.
"No-...Wait-...Get off me!" Torsty reluctantly tried to get the dog away, by any means not trying to make a scene. The dog responded with growling as he clinged on to the shoe with his sharp little teeth. Torsty reached for whatever he could find nearby and got hold of an iron-pipe that was just lying around. He bowed downwards to swing closely at the corgi, only to warn it off, never with the intention to hurt it.
Truth was, Torsty loved the four-legged fluffy creatures. Though it seemed that today the world was not working in his favour.