Fighting Over Spilt Milk?!

[Vio]

^{Yanmei #1}

---

The mid-morning sun had subtly burned its way through the cloud cover of the overcast skies, enough so as to infuse the surrounding waters with a glimmer of dull sapphire and bring some brightness to what had been a very gloomy first few hours. Its sail full, the small boat cruised across the choppy waters, headed to the visible coastline of an island just a mile or so away. A greenish grey place that had recently seen a rainy night, the isle’s name was unknown to Zhu Yanmei, who eagerly and rather precariously perched atop the ship’s small cabin, one hand clutching the corner of the roof as she peered ahead.

Land! Finally… After some days — weeks in her specific case — of travelling across the open waters, this was the first true landmass the fledgling piratical duo of herself and John Culliford had seen. True, wild greenery adorned its edges and hillscapes, while the stony grey silhouettes of buildings could be seen protruding from the forest. Perhaps it wasn’t as welcoming a sight as one might have expected, but dry land in and of itself was a blessing; especially if it was inhabited.

Minutes later.

“Ooh~! It’s nice to be on dry land again, huh, John?” Mei smiled, feet hitting the wooden jetty that jutted out to sea as she jumped directly from the cabin’s top. Scaffolds and similar frameworks surrounded much of it, forming the shell of what was likely supposed to be some sort of checkpoint — perhaps an attempt at expanding or supporting it. It definitely lacked the weathered and well-trodden look that most docks tended to have, as if it had been built fresh, and the damp look it possessed was clearly a result of sea spray and rainfall to the trained eye.

Jade eyes glimpsed the town proper; an overgrown landscape of old stone buildings that had crumbled in some parts, exposing rusted metal beams as twisting branches pierced their windows and walls. Mosses and lichens clung to the walls which, alongside rusting iron, painted their grey shells with blemishes of reddish-brown, dull yellow, and dark grey-green. Desolate was the best way to describe it, with just a wrought iron arch set where the pier met the land itself supported a worn sign…

^{WELCOME TO
PORTIS CITY}

---

SPOILER: Click to show

{Post Synposis:}
<sub>Yanmei and John arrive at Stetson Island, where they witness the desolate yet still slightly active town of Portis!

Notes: fearjunkie, pepsi</sub>

---

Zhu Yanmei | #301934
John Culliford | #4b6f44

[fearjunkie]

John #1

---

John hopped off the ship and stretched out his legs, finally freed from the cramped confines of the dinghy. His dark green longcoat billowed faintly in the gentle breeze as he surveyed their landing site. The first thing that came to the sailor's attention was just how run down everything seemed to be: the rust, the moss, the overgrown trees, and the general lack of people out and about.

"...are we sure this is a good place to stop?" John wondered aloud. He walked into the town, occasionally stopping to peer inside a building through its windows. "This town seems to be abandoned..."

[pepsi]

-- CHAPTER 1 // FIGHTING OVER SPILT MILK?!

Her pilgrimage had gotten her very far from home. One thing was exploring every bit of water in her own Blue, the North, and another was hitching a ride to a different one entirely.
The sky looked incredibly different in the West Blue. So different, in fact, that she had trouble recognizing the constellations she was used to seeing every night; at least half the sky was completely new. Every night she would scribble a few more stars onto dry paper, onto wood, or even just onto the sand, when the clouds decided to yield and let her peek around in the hopes of discovering another piece of it. There was just so much to see, all at once.

Galatea Parthenos reached Stetson Island in perhaps the best and worst occasion. Every year there would be a big event on the island, the event that the residents just call "The Deathmatch"; it's hard to miss it, because the whole island gets plastered with leaflets - and nobody takes care to remove the ones from the year before at any time, so sooner or later one is bound to find a flyer describing the event even if the year won't match.
Signups would end very soon, and all those who didn't apply would lose the opportunity to win the sizeable sum of money every flyer promised them.

But she wasn't in a rush. She much preferred the silence of the abandoned buildings - sleeping giants of concrete and rusty iron and discoloured steel and shattered glass and green ivy. At night she liked to slip into one abandoned building and look at the machines; she wanted to understand the way they worked, how those rusty gears would turn and move if only the rust wasn't there. What powered them? What made them turn, and what would happen if this gear just wasn't there? Learning by subtraction, she liked to dub it.
Why the place would be so deserted, despite having so much to see and discover, was a mystery to Galatea; perhaps the people of the island already knew everything, and lost the appetite for the new.

-- NAME // Galatea Parthenos

-- CLASS // E

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Vio]

^{Yanmei #2}

---

“Yep! Why wouldn’t it be?” Zhu Yanmei quizzed as John showed signs of doubt about their chosen port, the First Mate taking it upon himself to peer through broken windows at the quiet innards of the settlement. It was then that he stated what was somehow not so obvious to the girl, prompting her to turn her head every which way in a search for something. The man’s assessment was no deception — there was not a peep of a person to be heard through the ruined streets and not even the slightest sign of business. She opened her mouth to speak, but then it hit her.

Literally.

Slap…! A single gust of wind billowed through the silent streets, carrying with it dust and leaves and other lightweight debris. One such article found itself folding about Miss Zhu’s face, surprise knocking her back off her feet and onto her butt as she flailed her arms like some sort of agitated bird. This, strangely, wasn’t the first time in her life that temporary blindness had overtaken her, and fingers clutching at her face soon peeled away the culprit. A piece of old brown paper, upon which something was printed.

“Hmm…!” Mei squinted, squinted further, and squinted some more until her eyes were practically closed, scouring the parchment in her grasp with undeniable scrutiny. To anyone with the vaguest idea of what the object was, this was a peculiar sight to say the least; a strange girl peering at the page as if reading the fine print on some kind of legal document, when the reality of said pamphlet was far from that. An advertisement of some kind, print faded from aging, yet the titulature and some segments were still mostly legible save for where ink had run from being soaked by the rain and then dried by the sun. Of course, it didn’t help that the fledgling Captain was holding the thing upside down…

^{THE DEATHMAT—
…
PRIZE: 250 0—
SIGN UPS END 12TH OF—}

^{“Hey! John?” Yanmei asked:
“What’s this mean?”}

Goro– Goro… Goro… From the heavens above, still laden with grey clouds despite sunrays piercing through, the familiar low growl of thunder rumbled. Perhaps the weather wasn’t yet taking a turn for the better, though it certainly wasn’t in any rush to take a turn for the worse, remaining overcast yet dry for the time being. The girl with jet odango hair cast her gaze to the heavens for a few seconds, again as if looking for something, yet finding it not. Standing again, now with a furrowed brow, her vision dropped back to Mister Culliford, revealing an expression that could only be described as annoyed and confused at the same time.

“People keep telling me weird things, but I never get what they mean,” she pouted. “My mom told me to count elephants to see how far away a storm was, but I’ve never seen them! Then you said,” Yanmei continued, clearing her throat before putting on an admittedly terrible impression of John’s own voice that sounded more like she was trying to stifle a yawn: “‘This town seems to be a banana’, or something, but I don’t see any bananas anywh–?!”

Boom…! The sky bellowed, clouds having closed up those few gaps that the sun had formed between them, and within just seconds the sounds of heavy droplets slamming into stonework and leaves started to fill the air as a wave of rainfall came upon them in a sheet…

---

SPOILER: Click to show

{Post Synposis:}
<sub>Yanmei gets hit in the face by an old flyer and proceeds to reveal unusual frustrations to John, but the onset of torrential rain changes the situation entirely!

Notes: fearjunkie I’ll let you decide what to do about the sudden deluge! Ideally, we’ll all be meeting up next round!</sub>

---

Zhu Yanmei | #301934
John Culliford | #4b6f44

[fearjunkie]

John #2

---

"You're holding it upside down..." John sighed, taking the tattered pamphlet from her hands. (She has the right spirit,) he thought to himself as she rambled on about counting elephants, (but her....foolishness could be a problem.)

John took a long look at the piece of paper, trying to fill in the gaps in the text with context clues. "Deathmat...deathmatch?" John muttered, thinking out loud. "Probably some sort of fighting competition...prize is 2500 or 250,000...maybe even 2,500,000....but I can't quite make out the last bit...'sign ups end the 12th of' and then it cuts there...twelfth of what...."

John then realized something that hadn't occurred to him since Yanmei came across the Redmoons ship.

"Ah...what's today's date....? I lost track of the days waiting to starve to death on that ship-"

The unlikely survivor's sheepish admission to being unaware of the date was cut off by the peal of thunder and sudden downpour. His hat drooped significantly under the relentless rain, causing the brim to completely cover his eyes.

"...well, this is unpleasant..."

[pepsi]

-- CHAPTER 1 // FIGHTING OVER SPILT MILK?!

A drop fell right into her eye. "Ouch!" she whined, rubbing the poor eye with the back of her hand. She hated the rain with a passion: whenever there was rain, there were clouds, and whenever there were clouds, there was no sky, no sun, or no stars.
Shielding her head with just one arm, she looked for a place that wouldn't let the rain inside; hiding inside one of the buildings was out of the question, because the rain had already found its way through the roofs and the ceilings. Perhaps it was the reason why everything had taken a layer of rust, she thought.
The girl from Rime Beat concluded that the best way to find shelter from the rain was to go where the animals go, out there in the wilderness. So she picked up the pace towards the trees nearby, taking the best route she could remember through the buildings.
Once every few steps, she would still try looking up - just to see if a patch of sky had cleared. Perhaps she could get a better glimpse of it, if only the damn clouds parted...

TOK!
[BONK!]

The most familiar pain, banging her head against something while she was too distracted looking up. "Ouch!" she whined, for the second time in the span of mere minutes, this time having bumped against something instead of something bumping into her. Or rather, someone. "Sorry!" Galatea said to the tall figure clad in a dark coat.
They seemed relatively unfazed by the collision.

"Oh, excuse me, Miss. I must've been distracted."

The deep, calm voice of the stranger took Galatea by surprise. She was certain anyone would be furious, in his shoes! But maybe it was better this way, she reasoned.
Galatea picked herself up again; she reached barely the man's elbows - guy must've been three meters and then some. "I was looking for... the Arena. The one where the Deathmatch is. Are you... from around these parts?"
The girl hesitated for a moment, trying to make out the stranger's features. The man had bandages going all around his head, covering one of his eyes, his nose, his jaw; a few locks of blond hair broke through the bandages especially around the top of his head. "No, I'm not from here. I'm from Rime Beat, far away from here" she said, "and I'm sorry, I have no idea where the Arena is." "Oh, that's fine. Me and my mates have landed at the wrong town, it seems. I must've been very distracted to do that."
The stranger straightened his back a moment after, as if he had realised something. "Rime Beat? Is that right?"
"Yep, Rime Beat." Galatea replied.
"Are you sure... it's Rime Beat?"
"Absolutely."
"Really, Rime Beat?"
"Positive."
"I see. I thought you meant something different. I must've been distracted."
The situation was quickly becoming awkward; Galatea's lips pursed, and for a few seconds there was no sound other than the rain. "Sorry, I really have to go find shelter from this rain!" Galatea said, and ran in the same direction from where she came. A really weird encounter, for sure.
The idea of finding shelter in the wilderness was quickly scrapped in favour of simply going back to the abandoned buildings, perhaps find a structure sturdy enough - the risk of finding another weird stranger, or the same creepy person again, was well worth the struggle. Lucky for her, she found an overhang not too far away from the docks, one large enough to stand below, and perhaps, or even sleep below.

-- NAME // Galatea Parthenos

-- CLASS // E

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Vio]

^{Yanmei #3}

---

“Probably some sort of fighting competition,” First Mate Culliford had explained, having examined the paper with his own more knowledgeable scrutiny before the rain had set in. Unfortunately, Zhu Yanmei had not been able to answer his question before the deluge had started, and so the two were stuck standing and soaking in the torrent from the heavens. Where the rains weighed down the brim of the swordsman’s hat, they too forced the youthful martial artist’s hair to fall heavy.

“Oh! Over there,” Mei pointed, jade eyes settling upon a patch where rainfall failed to reach. Running streams slipped from a slanted overhang still secure to the side of a building, raised decking serving to prevent the waters from pooling underneath. Protected from the elements yet still open, it would make do until the downpour passed. At least, that’s what she assumed. “Let’s go,” she exhaled, energetically dashing for the shelter. The actual innards of the building were not so dry, but that mattered little.

^{“Uh… Hmm,” Miss Zhu began:
“I… I have no idea!”}

Thunder rumbled distantly.

“The something of June, I think? Wait, no, it’s been how many days since my birthday…? Lemme count,” the girl said, shaking water from her body with an energy and motion akin to that of a cat caught in the rain before raising her hands before her. “One, two, three…,” came the counting, each number accompanied by a raised digit until she reached the tenth. A pause. And then, kicking off sodden shoes, she sat down upon the decking and continued the counting. “Eighteen, nineteen, twenteen… Ah! Hey, John, can I borrow your– Huh?” Her numerics halted when another entity entered her periphery — a similarly soaked through figure with ivory hair and impressive height. Had Yanmei actually been standing, the difference of an entire foot was clear.

^{“Hey! Tall lady! Over here,” she beckoned with enthusiasm:
“Can I have your hands? I’m trying to work out the date…”}

---

SPOILER: Click to show

{Post Synposis:}
<sub>Yanmei and John, find shelter, but soon find themselves with company as Yanmei tries to figure out the date.

Notes: --</sub>

---

Zhu Yanmei | #301934
John Culliford | #4b6f44

[fearjunkie]

John #3

---

John ran right behind Yanmei to the impromptu shelter. John leaned against the wall of the building, taking off his now-droopy hat to take a better look at the storm clouds.
"Well, we're not getting off this island until the storm passes." John surmised. "Visibility on the sea would be too poor and we could start taking on too much water from the rain alone..."


He let out an annoyed sigh.

(Is she seriously counting on her toes?!) John thought as his captain tried to determine the date. However, Yanmei's continued shenanigans stopped being his focus when an unfamiliar face entered the scene. While Yanmei's greetings were very nonchalant, John was far more cautious. His hand slowly went to the hilt of the sword he'd taken off of the Redmoons ship as he eyed the stranger warily.

[pepsi]

-- CHAPTER 1 // FIGHTING OVER SPILT MILK?!

It seems that she just couldn't get a moment to breathe. First, the creepy encounter with the tall bandaged man and second...

Galatea's ears picked up another voice, specifically addressing her tall self; the voice of a woman, one she hadn't met before. She was crouching - no, sitting - on the floor of a building. Her feet naked, her clothing half-soaked with rain, her hair done in two buns.
Great, Galatea thought, she seemed to have found another creep. What was with that island? The girl sighed, and hopped over to the weird barefoot girl. As she approached, yet another figure entered in her vision - this time, much more similar to the man she had enocountered earlier. At that point, there was no doubt in her mind.
"My hands?" she asked back, "No, I'm too young to think about getting married." The true meaning of the woman's words had passed over her head completely.
Her gaze shifted over both of them. The other one, who appeared to be a young man, was sporting a hat drooping from the rainwater - truly a random bunch of people, Galatea thought. "You're with the tall mysterious guy covered in bandages, right?" Galatea inquired. "I think he's looking for you."

-- NAME // Galatea Parthenos

-- CLASS // E

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Vio]

^{Yanmei #4}

---

Now, Zhu Yanmei didn’t know a lot about sailing — those who had travelled with her thus far could readily confirm that — but even John’s comment about the downpour made sense. The point, however, was lost as the third figure chose to approach. Her response to Yanmei’s query was unusual, causing the martial artist to do two things; first, she completely and utterly lost count. Second, she squinted at the other woman’s features — eyes and hair specifically — and could not help but show a small smile as she reminisced. Alas, for all her comparability, this lady was not Bai Meifeng.

“You’re with the tall, mysterious guy covered in bandages, right?” the tall lady asked, snapping Mei out of her brief little trance and causing her to hop to her feet, sliding shoes back to where they belonged. Truth be told, she knew nothing of the person being referenced, though could not help but be reminded of a certain swordsman that she and John had previously clashed with. Surely they couldn’t be one in the same? If he had survived his duel with John, then perhaps? Whatever didn’t kill you made you stronger, apparently; and bigger people tended to be stronger, so maybe he’d grown after being defeated?

“Nope! It’s just me and my First Mate! Isn’t that right, John?” Miss Zhu stated, standing as tall as she could muster while presenting a broad and friendly smile. “Oh! Right, I forgot,” the girl uttered, clearing her throat in a mostly exaggerated manner, much as she had seen her best friend’s… What was it called, again? She was pretty sure it had the word ‘butt’ in it, which had always made her giggle. Rich folk were weird. Who paid somebody to look after their butt? All the same, she smiled and spoke.

“I’m Yanmei! Captain of– Um… Of the… Crap! Jooohnnn,” the fledgling Captain groaned, somehow managing to slide across to her comrade without really moving her feet, looking up at him with jade eyes filled with what were most certainly false tears. “We never came up with a naaame…” The tears and vague puppy-dog eyes didn’t last, replaced by an enthusiastic spreading of the arms towards the skies. “All the best pirate crews have names!”

---

SPOILER: Click to show

{Post Synposis:}
<sub>As the tall lady questions them, Yanmei introduces herself and John, but realises they’ve not yet named their crew!

Notes: --</sub>

---

Zhu Yanmei | #301934
John Culliford | #4b6f44
Galatea Parthenos | #fdfff5

[fearjunkie]

John #4

---

John had to suppress the urge to facepalm at the stranger's interpretation of Yanfei's request. Surely, not everyone in the West Blue can be this dense... he thought to himself- a thought that felt more like a plea to the powers that be.


However, his exasperation was interrupted when the white-haired woman spoke of a 'man covered in bandages'. Like Yanfei, John immediately thought of Teazer's first mate, Caleuche. But surely, it couldn't be him? John stabbed Caleuche in the heart, surely he couldn't have survived an injury like that...


"This bandaged man...did he have a sword?" John asked. His hand gripped tightly around the hilt of his weapon, as if he was expecting Caleuche to jump out and attack at any second.

The swordsman sighed when Yanfei lamented their lack of a name. "I'd hardly call two people in a ship a pirate crew. We're too understaffed at the moment to have a name for ourselves..."

[pepsi]

Galatea noticed something odd in how the black-haired girl stared at her. Like she wanted to really see who she was, discern her features. She didn't give it too much thought; she noticed that both people acted weird after she mentioned the man covered in bandages. Maybe they had already seen the man, or a similar man, she thought; for all she knew, the man's entire party could be made of bandaged up people.
Galatea shook her head, looking at the one with the big hat. "I don't know if he had a sword" she replied, "he was wearing a big coat."

The girl introuced herself soon afterwards. Yanmei, captain of an unnamed pirate crew, and her First Mate John. "Pirates?" Galatea thought out loud, tilting her head on one side. "I thought pirates had no business coming here. Except for the deathmatch, maybe." Perhaps they were lost, or perhaps they really wanted to discover every island available; but then, her instincts kicked in. She smirked, her eyes hopping from her to him and back: "Do you have a ship? A big one, one of those that look like they can sail through the Seas?" She'd heard stories of great ships, and she'd seen great ships herself. She always wanted to sail on one, and she always wanted to be at the helm of one.
Galatea believed that every pirate should have a large, strong ship capable of reaching the end of the New World; if they were pirates, they either had one or absolutely needed one. The one called John mentioned that they were understaffed, so Galatea made a mental note not to expect too much from them.
But maybe they were serious about this Pirate story, and if that were the case... It could've been an interesting flow of events for sure. The gears of the world were turning, Galatea thought.

-- NAME // Galatea Parthenos

-- CLASS // E

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Vio]

^{Yanmei #5}

---

“I’d hardly call two people in a ship a pirate crew…,” John announced, bringing down Yanmei’s elation just a tad as he made the all-too-true statement about their numbers. The rain itself almost seemed to laugh at the pitiful example of a crew, but even the dreary atmosphere and being snapped back to reality by her First Mate did not dampen Miss Zhu’s spirit. Really, there was very little that could.

“I thought pirates had no business coming here,” the tall woman spoke, showing some understanding of the local customs — this ‘Deathmatch’ that happened every once in a while. But before the curious Captain could question it further, the leggy lady posed a query of her own. “Do you have a ship? A big one, one of those that look like they can sail through the seas?”

“We have a ship! Well– Uh– It’s more like a boat,” Mei answered, piping up with enthusiasm, than reeling herself back in at least a little. By this point she was on her toes, precariously standing in such a way as to make herself seem as tall as possible, which wasn’t by much given that everyone else present was taller than her by quite some margin. For a moment, she averted her eyes from the lady, glancing at John, and then looked back. It was time to deliver some news about that boat.

“I don’t think it can take more than one or two more trips, though,” she continued, remembering all that the little sailboat had gone through to get here. By sheer luck it had survived despite previous damages sustained, but even Yanmei knew that luck alone wasn’t going to let that dinghy sail on indefinitely. “It kinda got beaten up by a storm once, and some friends I made on a pudding island fixed it– Oh! Hey, are you from here? Why is it so empty? What’s the deathmatch…?”

---

SPOILER: Click to show

{Post Synposis:}
<sub>The conversation continues!

Notes: --</sub>

---

Zhu Yanmei | #301934
John Culliford | #4b6f44
Galatea Parthenos | #fdfff5

[fearjunkie]

John #5

---

"I wouldn't even go so far as to even call it a boat," John interjected. "It would be more apt to call it a dinghy. Or a liferaft. Getting a new ship has to be our number one priority before we reach the Grand Line."

John took a moment to relax, reassuring himself that Caleuche was not in face still alive and somehow on this island. 

"I'm also curious about this deathmatch," he admitted, glancing back at the worn, water-ruined flyers. "You'd think an attraction like that wouldn't be found in the West Blue....Grand Line, maybe, but in one of the Blues?"

[pepsi]

Truth be told, Galatea was left quite disappointed by the words of the two pirates. Realistically speaking, she could have expected something between a glorified raft and a small galeon given the amount of interest the average person had in boats this side of the Blues; but a dinghy? There went her opportunity to see a proper pirate ship.
Well, at least they weren't creepy men twice as tall as her cladded in a black coat and bandages. She still had to shiver off all the chills from that encounter. "Two people, a dinghy for a ship..." Galatea reasoned, "... you must be new to piracy. Everyone has to start somewhere, I guess."

Hands on her hips, the girl pondered over the questions while she smirked at Yanmei's attempt to seem taller. The Deathmatch, the creepy guy was looking for it too - she didn't know much about it, but the little she knew she could share. "Apparently the Deathmatch is something Bounty Hunters around these parts like to participate in. It sounds like a fight to the death is involved, but I don't know about much more. I wouldn't participate myself, anyways..."

"As for where I'm from..." she said, turning to Yanmei. "Not here, no. I come from Rime Beat, the forbidden land. Do you happen to know it?" She waited for the answer, and then continued to explain.
"It's so cold there that people from other islands believe if we step out of Rime Beat, we'll melt and turn to slush. Well, I'm still here, aren't I? Granted, it's been very cold in every island I've been - but for me, the 'cold' of other islands feels like laying in front of the fire."

Galatea looked up. She sighed, and began pacing towards the nearest tree; it was growing through one of the abandoned machines, swallowing every bit of the old rusty mess left behind. On the ground, dead old branches just waiting to be set on fire.
"Look up to the sky" she explained, "it'll get colder soon." The stars already occluded by the rainclouds had to wait some more, for the rain seemed to thicken more and more as time passed; an effect that Galatea learned to recognize as a precursor to colder temperatures hitting the island.

"And while we wait... where do you two come from?"

-- NAME // Galatea Parthenos

-- CLASS // E

-- TECHS USED // None.