The Great Pirate Crew of Gecko~ [Private]

[resonate]

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Vegetables?

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They couldn't leave her alone could they?

Three hours of sleep. Just three hours. Rubbing her eyes she pushed herself from the desk, feeling the cool smooth surface for only moment before plucking Gikyo and her arrows from the stand next to her. She slung them on her shoulder, the weight digging into her collar bone much more than it usually did. Perhaps it was the fatigue?

There was no time to change into her outdoor gear as far as she could tell. What she had on now would have to suffice, her sapphire blue dress and legging boots could be washed and were comfortable enough. Plus she was rather snazzy looking, a welcome bonus.

Slipping the shop keys from the shelf next to the door she stepped out into the open air, revelling in it's warmth for a moment before closing the florist door, locking it with the loud click of a mechanism not used in quite a while. The metal bar almost seemed joyful to be serving it's purpose after the amount of time Maria had spent in her shop, rather than in her nice comfortable bed. Her mouth salivated just thinking about sleep right now.

Pushing away from the door, several steps down the western-most road and she encountered a mental block, one that she was determined to shovel out of the way. What had he asked her to do again? Geez, she didn't forget things very often like this but it would be nice if her brain cooperated, however dead it currently was. A loud sigh and a vague idea popped into her head about what Oly-jii had asked her to do. Those damned kids that called themselves the 'Usopp Pirate Crew' seemed to have disappeared. Good riddance as she assured herself, but nonetheless, a little extra money for very little effort was always good, right? Finding a couple of kids. Heh, how...

Wait...

If it was just 'finding' these kids then there would be no need to send her out fully armed and battle-ready. Unless these kids were up to something and her suspicions were correct of course, but even then to injure those kids would cause quite the mess, in more ways than one. So then, why would Oly-jii send her of all people? The tang of excitement flitted on the end of her tongue for a second, before she got a hold of herself and pounded hard once on the wooden door of Oly-jii's house.

No response huh...?

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[Cirrus]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=valign,top][atrb=CellSpacing,10,true][atrb=style, width: 450px; height: 500px; background-color: #835854; border-radius: 25px; border: 6px solid #503533, btable] THERE AIN'T NO SWORD IN A LAKE 1277 - MARIA - WEIGHTS AND MEASURES - MADE BY CIRRUS [atrb=valign,top] ( JUST A FUNERAL WAKE ) The reason Oly-jii didn't answer the door was simple: he was not there. Circumstance appeared to have conspired against the undisturbed passage of Maria's mission, for her likely expectations - that of the man actually being there, did not match up with the reality. Time had fallen slightly out of sync with the pace required for Oly-jii to be lying recumbent in his comfortable sofa-bed, reading his favourite book 'The Dark Continent', and wasting the time before he was due to accompany the florist to go and search for some children from the village. He was a wily old man, Oly-jii; evidenced by the wiles that laced themselves in a delicate pattern around his skin - known to the folk of the world as wrinkles. But to the old man they were more than that; symbols of experience, tales of adventure and when he was younger. To the old man his wrinkles were like timeless poems; decanting fitful flights of fantasy to any that'd listen. Alas, today his frail form was not idle. Today he was running late. That was never a good sign. Oly was known for his 'Clockwork Heart'; never a second out of time, never a moment off the pace: when he said he'd be there, he was there. When needed, he arrived. Some thought it was magic, but they were too charmed by the old man's quick wit and zest for life to say it was something as dark as that. A prime figure of the community, the old man was loved by all... But he was late. So there was trouble. Those that would normally listen to the old man's stories had been vanished from the town. Tamanegi, Ninjin and Piman were all vibrant faces of the island. If Oly-jii was the brain then those three were the beating heart; pumping life and joy into all those around them. Despite their youth, they had a big weight on their shoulders; a weight that had only recently become apparent. With the hurricane trio gone Gecko Island was a graveyard. A graveyard filled with those mourning for their loss: despairing wails and silent vigils had become commonplace now, the only things the citizens of Gecko could do as they waited on baited breath to see if their trio of troopers would return from whence they came. Oly had tried not to let it show on his face that he was saddened by the disappearance. As anyone educated in biology knew, once the brain shut down the whole body shut down, and the old man wasn't quite ready to die just yet. As of late, his wrinkles were currently furrowed in a deep procellous frown. Oly-jii was running. Not quite ready to die? Those hooded assailants seemed to think otherwise. The old man's footsteps pounded on the cobbled roads on which he ran, clacking like an urgent telegram: an encrypted scream to anyone who had the brains to hear; a subtle shriek for help. He was not as sly as he once was, he kept on thinking. It was a bad thought. Thoughts like that didn't give old men god speed. Still, it was a thought to reflect on, and Oly did like to reflect, after all. Even now, as he ran for his life, he reflected upon how circumstance coalesced at the scene of his surveillance, how a slip of a roof tile could have sent his whole life careering into free fall. A fall into the hands of fate. Oly-jii disliked fate. When you got to live as long as he did you stopped believing in it, started mocking it. Ah, but that was only for show, was it not? Fate was waiting silently, taking the burden of the insolence; only consoled by the fact that all would fall into its hands one day - all would discover Fate was always lurking... But he still had quite a distance to fall. The old man had steadied himself, before trying to make the descent back down into the swirling mist of the unknown (the home of those bumps in the night), hopefully before the people he had been spying on spotted him, and not after. Unfortunately that tile had been quite desperate to smash into a million pieces. Oly-jii had miscalculated. He had been wrong. He was never wrong. But then again, Syrup Village was never quiet. Fate had been planning this for quite some time, perhaps... At any rate, the lively old man who read books and gave advice and turned up to school fêtes and smelled of plum cake was now fleeing, his short legs carrying as fast as they could. Behind him were three hooded shades; black knives from the outskirts; bandits. As Oly-jii ran he wondered what rowdy people like that were doing in his village. When he found the answer that raging frown of his turned into a supercell: a storm was brewing on the old man's brow; so knotted were those lines of wrinkles that lay upon his forehead. The shadows behind him were nearing. But what the 'Clockwork Heart' lacked in pace he more than made up for in cunning, surely? 'Yes, surely...' Mused Oly. He turned a corner, into a back alley. It mattered little that he had just run into the hooded figures' domain; the old man knew the networks of fenced off lanes and clichéd settings for murders that lay near the outskirts of Syrup Village. He knew them like the wrinkles on his body. He knew he could get back home that way, lock the door, find that ol' Blunderbuss to protect himself with. Another day, perhaps - if of course, there was another day to be had in Oly's life - he'd have laughed at the notion of pulling out that brass trumpeted weapon and actually firing it. But it was a real possibility. There were many real possibilities. It was a real possibility, for example, that there were more than three thugs sent to deal with the transgressor. It was a real possibility that they were lurking in their domain. It was a real possibility that the owner of that hot breath on the back of his neck was not one of the three original hired hands... Oly-jii was found dead in an alley today. It is unknown what he was doing there, and the police are considering murder. Quite who would want to bring harm to such a vibrant part of the community is beyond this reporter. More news as it happens... And so the Den Den Mushi radio report ended. One more name to the despairing wails... - - - - Just because Oly-jii was not in his house did not mean no one answered the door. In fact, hushed muffling could probably be heard before it finally opened; the kind of hushed muffling that is nigh on impossible to decipher for no reason other than the sheer lack of interest in it - that is of course, until it is too late: it is, obviously, at that moment the door opens. This occurrence was no different. The door opened and Maria was greeted by a shaking knife and a hissed, "G-go away!" The door then slammed shut in her face and the knife disappeared from view. If Oly was in Maria's position, he'd probably have taken the time to wonder what point there was waving a knife around like that if the person waving the knife was just going to slam the door shut anyway. But Oly was not in Maria's position. Oly was dead. Tamenegi, Ninjin and Piman were missing. The face of Gecko Island was changing...