The untamed Lili was high as a kite or drunk as a skunk, depending on your interpretation of her behaviour.
She had downed a third glass of muscat, despite her Captain's warnings.
She looked incredible in her orange strapless dress. She was dancing so wildly that her dress kept slipping down, exposing a matching orange tiny string bikini that clung on desperately to her breasts, in a battle it seemed destined to lose.
Ruby was trying despairingly to keep things nice, pulling the dress back up every so often, but it was a losing battle.
Every time the dress slipped, Cormac would glare across at Magnus, who would studiously focus his eyes on Ruby.
After spending quite some time studiously focussed on Ruby, Magnus realised that Ruby was a stunning natural beauty. Much more delicate than her twin, whose surgical enhancements meant that she looked almost like an overblown sexy cartoon version of her smaller twin sister, who had a more classical loveliness.
Magnus could tell from Ruby's care for Lili, when she was under the influence of alcohol herself, that she was gentle and kind.
With her bouncy white-blonde waves and matching pastel yellow dress she looked like a little fairy, and he gradually found he didn't need to pretend to stare at her, he couldn't look away.
Lili's level of crazy went up another notch when a bouncy song with lyrics that were mostly 'hey ya,' came on.
She grabbed Ruby by the hips and shook the girl's hips at a frenetic pace, in time to the song. Ruby burst into hysterical laughter as she was shaken silly by the girl, in time to the music.
Lili then took the lead and dragged Ruby on a conga line style dance across the mats at a frenzied pace that also had Ruby in fits of joyful laughter.
After they had bounced and danced around the room like a pair of deranged bunny rabbits, 'hey ya' came to an end, and they fell to the floor together, laughing and wiping away sweat from their temples.
Lili sat up and looked at Ruby with wicked intent.
"Oh no you don't, Lili," screamed Ruby, crawling off on her hands and knees to escape the wild girl.
Lili pounced on her, flattening her to her tummy. She dragged her dress off and ran off with it, leaving Ruby in her skimpy buttercup bikini and gold heels.
"Li. Li!" she shouted, and sprinted after the girl, who weaved in between the other dancers, laughing and dangling Ruby's dress at her.
Lili was very fast, so Ruby was puffed and tiring before she managed to get near her.
Ruby sprang, cat-like, at the girl, and managed to get her hands on the bottom of Lili's dress, stripping it straight off, as she dropped to the floor.
Lili, who was running away, ran right out of her dress.
"I thought you were trying to keep me in my dress, Ruby?" Lili, who didn't care a jot to be in her swimsuit, pealed with laughter.
Cormac cared, many jots.
He settled back down when he saw that Magnus was perving on Ruby in her bikini, and that none of the other men had spotted Lili in her bikini yet, preoccupied as they were, by other women.
That lasted barely a few seconds though, before all of the men noticed that two of the girls were out of their dresses, dressed in skimpy swimsuits, and their gazes magnetically shifted.
Cormac silently fumed, until Lili stepped into Ruby's yellow dress that she was still holding, where her larger bust stretched the little slip of fabric way more than the size was built for.
"Girls," Lili called, "time for the games part of the evening now. Line up over here. This is the match order."
She spun over a whiteboard to face them, that read:
WRESTLING MATCHES
1. Lili v Ruby
2. Araminta v Winter
3. Loveday v Indy
4. Delphi v Feifei
"I've filled this box with punishments for the losers. The loser reaches in and chooses a piece of paper, and they have to do whatever it says on it."
The girls all cheered.
"You won't be cheering if you lose," Lili warned.
Alton blanched. If that diabolical girl had set the punishments, he was concerned…
"That was the entrée, now for the main course…" Delphi whispered to Feifei, peering up at the balcony through the veil of Feifei's ponytail.
They had managed to rustle up a little gong, and Delphi took over as the match referee for Lili's match.
"Up first, the wild Bai Lili versus our sweet Ruby Rose. I think we might all know how this one will play out, but you never know, Ruby might be a dark horse, she is a gymnast after all, and she's got some muscat on board for a bit of Dutch courage."
Everyone cracked up laughing, looking at the two girls crouched opposite one another. Lili was almost a head taller than Ruby, and a much more robust build, though there was not an ounce of fat on her, thanks to their years of strenuous training. Ruby was so slim she looked like she might blow away in the wind.
The girls were back in their own dresses and had removed their heels. Their skin glistened with oil.
"Ding, ding, ding!" Delphi rang the boxing gong.
The pair circled one another on their knees.
Even Cormac felt a little sorry for Ruby, who looked like a lamb to the slaughter. He was definitely betting on his woman. In fact, he would probably bet on her to take down any of those girls, he thought proudly.
All of a sudden, Lili pounced on Ruby. She looked very tiger-like in her orange dress with her long black hair flowing free. She flattened the smaller girl.
Ruby bucked and rolled to topple her off her back, the slippery oil helping to dislodge her unwelcome rider, but not before Lili managed to grab ahold of the bow to her string bikini top and undo it, pulling it free from her dress.
"Oh!" Ruby pouted.
Sweat started to drip down the commander's temples as he realised what the rules of the wrestling match were, and what he and his men would be spying on.
He looked furtively across the team, but they all had their eyes pressed to the convenient gap in the balustrade and were watching the proceedings with rapt attention.
Ruby had managed to sit astride Lili's tummy briefly, and she leaned forward, scrabbling for the girl's bikini string, which was behind her neck.
Lili easily managed to slide Ruby off before she could grip the string, the oil making it hard for Ruby to grip and stay on.
Ruby scrambled away on her hands and knees like a little mouse, but Lili did a flying crash tackle and grabbed her back legs, pulling them flat behind her and dragging her backwards. As she dragged the girl, Ruby's dress bunched up above her hips, exposing her little string bikini bottoms.
Lili latched onto the fabric of the bikini bottoms and stripped them off in one sweeping motion.