The First Hand of Ambition!

[Tori Tori Chopper]

The world, adjusted by ambition and dreams of the individuals who strive beyond that or normality. Seeking fame and fortune, a challenge or a cause, such romance had inspired the figures of yesterday to become legends amongst land and sea. Such tales of adventure were considered rare, maybe to the degree that they were myth or placed on a high enough pedestal to be invincible figures of that age. One man changed that with only a few words, the concept of becoming the best in the world imprinted into every man, woman and child with a single life ending with a dream, a goal..

The One Piece.

Though many by choice hoisted up the black flag to make a name for themselves on the ocean waves, some were born into this era with desire without direction, in times such a these arguably destined for greatness with such a natural drive. To some it is thrust upon them through lifestyle, to others, it arises in more unique ways. This is the birth of another amongst the masses, their story.

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'And that's how I beat her into submission!'
'Yea, if you call that beating her.'
'Hey! She was a strong woman, what did you expect!'

'You talk as if this was years ago, you still have that black eye.' The shaggy haired, jacket clad captain laughed nervously to join in his crew, casually walking back along the wide docks of the market to their ship. A few drinks in their gut and a treasure well spent in the depths of the dealers stalls had them in otherwise lightened spirits, their presence however enough to have the common folk steering clear of the fool-hardy atmosphere they carried along with them. They were an otherwise generic bunch when it came to their ways of piracy, getting by enough to steal and fight without exactly being seen as the worst scum of the blues, a sense of morals to the degree that a pirates life would grant.. And in turn limit in quality. They quickly approached their ship in their rather impressive mass and numbers, slugging along to the gigantic black and red vessel fitted with cannons beyond comprehension and a nice vintage feel, however lacking a figure-head, as was common amongst pirates to stick out from the rest.

'So where to next Captain?' A voice, though unique, seemed to just ring out from the crowd. 'I think we've done our bit here guys, nothing more for us on an ocean without grandeur, if you know what I mean.' His subtle go ahead towards the next part of their journey seemed to inspire cheers and dance more so than the norm in their ship-ward-bound march. Everything was looking up for them, the first part of an epic journey coming to a close in a most glorious and merry fashion. Their walk-way had been lowered since they left, save any of them who were a little light on their feet from their day about the market otherwise falling into what they sail across on a daily basis. No one was going to do anything to their ship, they were known all over the South Blue for their victories and admirable achievements. 'Alright then, I guess theres no harm in a little peace and quiet for the rest of the day, and set sail by nightfall?' The Captain spun on his heel, slowly beginning to walk back up the ramp as his crew seemed to begin pointing and staring in shock as he made a display of charisma. 'We'll be there before we knooooooh!~' His body bent back and forth, his foot realising that there was no wooden surface to support him, just the drop into the sea.

'What the hell?!' He fluttered his arms left and right to regain his balance, throwing himself back towards solid ground as soon as the opportunity arose, spinning around with sheer confusion on his face to the slowly retracting bridge, and the girl on deck winding it back into place. 'Hey! You!' His crew joined in the beckoning as the girls seemingly innocent face came into view aside from her large baggy hat, blinking as if oblivious to their protests of her actions. 'Uuh.. Hey.. guys!?' The little lady in question gave a light wave, vanishing from their sight and then back again as she began to jump from branching to branching of the large sail and its many supports, unhooking the fabric from its holding and surfing down it as it unfolded with a sudden though graceful thump onto the deck. The actual crew of the vessel had stopped a small while ago, looking to one another in disbelief and jaw dropping expressions as her large and odd looking hat bounced from one side of the ship to the other with crates to barrels. 'Hey! Little girl, do you want to join our crew or something?!' The joking manner of the situation rang true with his company, the Captain and his crew laughing amongst themselves as her head popped over the side. 'I'll pass, thanks for the offer though!' They were ruling out any and all comedic options.

'So what're you doing on our ship?!'
'Whaat?~ This is my ship!'

'So you didn't notice Jolly Rodger and my hat?!'
'.. Hey, it looks like you!'

Thats because its our ship!

'... Oooh~'

She really didn't know!

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'Guh.. Well I'm afraid to say that we can't let you set off.. Obviously!' Though she had popped up and down between their conversation, this one apparently deserved a little more credit than the previous.. Hopping over the side and perching herself on the ridge of the ship with an concerned look. 'Hey guys? How do you stop this big mast from creaking so much..' They looked to one another, then back to the her, then the mast.. Yup, it was creaking alright. 'What did you do?!' She shrugged at the question, proceeding to produce intangible nonsense which involved her displaying her weapon of choice from her back, a battered and bruised baseball bat which she seemed to swing around confidently in her short story. 'Wait.. So it..' His voice drowned off by the ever increasing volume coming from their ship, the girl flinching in panic as the mast suddenly began to collapse right in their trajectory. What the hell did she do to make the mast break of all things?! Many questions like this ran through their mind in the seconds of escape, though only one was ever audible.

'What the fu-!!'
CRASH!

The dust cloud picked up around them, complete lack of visibility while some were squashed in its decent, other dazed and confused by the whole event happening at all. From the gleaming sun behind their ship posed a figure, quickly approaching toward them then out of site, in the clearing of the wreckage she stood happily, her bat tapping agaisnt her shoulder while the pirates rose one by one from the unintentional sabotage. 'I tried to make it drop the sails, though none of the levers were working, so I tried hitting it and.. Yea...' Her lips pushed off to one side, watching the smaller parts of the mast collapse and crash about the ship, making her flinch every time.. The masses of injured and dusted pirates crowding in mumbles as the Captain rose to the front. 'Well, I 'gotta go get myself a ship, see 'ya round!' With a quick salute, and a spin of her bat, her small figure darted off down the dock with a trail behind her. the grunts and moans said it all from the men as they got back their bearings. 'Alright, now we can kill her.' And with the drawing of their assorted weapons, one by one they broke into a sprint to chase the just as fast girl for what she had done, the most obscene thing they had ever heard.

With a cheerful tune humming out of her as she nearly skipped in leaps and bounds, her long streaming hair bouncing around frantically and her vibrant clothing collectively catching the attention of an old fisherman just off the dock, he too was speechless to the event that was unravelling from the crash and fuss.. Putting two and two together when the large mob followed closely behind her with sharp tools and angry faces. 'Hey! Young lady!' He waved, the girl noticing him and waving back with a large grin. 'You do realise you're being chased by a group of pirates, right?!' She titled her head back, almost fidgeting with excitement from the discovery. 'Thanks for the heads up mister! They're probably looking for a ship too!' He shook his head frantically, his mouth almost enlarging while trying to make his point. 'I don't think that why they're chasing you!' He'd lost her though, to the fun of it all. 'I'll be careful, thanks!' At that point she spun back in the direction of where she was actually running, rather than backwards like she was before to keep in eye-contact with the fisherman, quickly taking notice of the small vessel which propped itself up beside the corner of the dock, bingo.

'Aaady-Oop!~'
A quick jump closed the gap.

'Safe!'
tumbling into the small one room vessel.

She quickly backtracked, pushing it off with a sharp kick and victory pose. 'Yesss!~ Finally got a ship!' Her laughter spilled through her speech, waving with her weapon at the slowly halting and insult throwing group she had just unknowingly avoided with a fair amount of luck. 'Aah.. Well that was fun..' She placed her weapon of choice beside the bench style outline which levelled the ship, placing her hands on her waist as it switched from right to left focus, looking out to the sea and pretty oblivious the the idea that her boat was facing the wrong way.. Quickly jumping to action once that little hiccup was finally realised. But that was it, the goal of the day, oddly enough those people at the dock were still waving her off, maybe they were congratulating her..

'.. Thanks guys! Better luck next time!'
That certainly didn't help their moods.
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[EriChar]

A rhythmic rolling creak, like a rocking chair swaying back and forth, this is the sound that anyone who has spent any significant amount of time at sea would have become used to; the current of the ocean tide making the floor beneath you and the walls around you move in the a slow and gentle rise and fall of the craft you inhabit. In bad weather, with storms raging a waves climbing, the rock and roll of a boat’s deck becomes more pronounced and bothersome, but the very nature of the sea upon which your ship stands is almost a constant, the antipathy to the usually steady and stable earth on which most humans would choose to live because of the permanence it provides. However, as is with all cases of the creatures with freedom and the intelligence to pursue their desires, not all of the humans choose the unwavering constancy of the ground for their home, for some there is an intangible longing for the rock and the roll of the oceans, as for one reason or another it feels at that particular time in their life to be much more welcoming and natural to them than the stale stability of the rock and the dirt. One such individual had passed out in the small cabin of the equally undersized ship which had been declared ‘home’, swaying from side to side peacefully in a hammock strung up in what looked like a kitchen.

Long hair, the colour of the brightest gold coins was strewn messily over this sleeping individual’s delicate features, partially obscuring and wrapping around a sharp nose and tight jawline, as quiet breaths slowly poured in and out of loose but soft looking lips, forcing the figures chest to slowly rise and fall. It was when the eye was drawn by inhalation to the chest that one would realise that the soft features of this person actually belonged to a male, with unbound white shirt exposing a decidedly masculine chest, shaped with muscle rather than mammary. However, the shaping of musculature was not the only thing that was apparent through the open confines of a shirt and the waistband of dark coloured slacks that he wore. Decorating his flesh was no coloured image of a tattoo, but rather the warping and twisting areas of epidermis that were unmistakeably the sites of former wounds. Scarring his skin in irregular patterns, the sight of these marks would no doubt incline one to believe that this young man was not the delicate figure of false femininity that the faint features of his face might imply, but rather he was someone who had risked life and limb for a purpose he believed to be worthy of such a price.

The deep slumber that gripped the male gradually seemed to be losing the hold that it had gained on this rousing individual, his breathing rate become a little faster and after a few moments, a pair of gleaming beryl blue gems sprouted from opening eyelids, showing dazzling but mildly vacant looking eyes. For a matter of seconds, these ice-like sight catchers rolled around their opening slowly, lazily gathering information on their surroundings until the rest of their attached person caught up to those in the waking process. With a blink, then two more in quick succession, much of the emptiness of the eyes vanished and was instead replaced by the shine of intelligence. Arms thrust upwards in the direction of his body, the waking male shut his eyes again tightly, and let his mouth be the one that erupted into a crevasse, allowing a long groan out alongside a yawn as the recent sleeper stretched his body outwards. The yawning stretch done, once again the maw between his lips was closed, as they were together in a few smacking motions whilst the stretched arms fell back down limply.

Thick curtains did their best to block out the light of the sky around the ship, but alas as light often does, it managed to creep it’s way around the cloth drapes at their edge, intruding into the room and giving a very rough estimate for the time of day.
I suppose I better get up… His right arm thrust up to that delicate looking face, the occupant of the ship rubbed his eyes slowly with his fingertips, before pushing the hair that tried to obscure them back and away. Swinging a leg over the side of the hammock, the young man pulled his abdominal muscles tight together and propelled himself upwards, into a sitting position now with both legs hanging off the hammock. The ground sway backwards and forwards slightly a few inches below his toes, the blonde male placed his hand on the window hanging and peeled them back a few inches, narrowing his eyes into an almost closed squint as the light flooded towards them.
It’s already so late in the day… The squinted sight of the horizon told the young man that the official ‘morning’ of the day had already passed him by, and now his vision was cast over a sky that was slipping into the afternoon. Relinquishing his grip on the drape, the blue eyed boy dropped from his wavering bunk and onto the ground, bare feet softly touching down on the varnished wood deck of his craft. Strolling across the kitchen room and to the sink, the man scooped an overturned glass from its draining area and ran the tap into it, filling the transparent beaker with equally clear liquid. A sip was taken from the glass silently, the blonde enjoying the refreshment that the cold liquid gave his dry throat, and then he exited the cabin of his craft and stepped out onto the deck, taking a second mouthful from the glass of water he had brought with him.

However, the liquid was not immediately swallowed down by the man as, after exiting the confines of his cabin, he kept the drink within his mouth and glanced from side to side of his ship bewilderedly.
Where did the dock go? When he had awoken, the young male was sure that once he stepped out into the open, he would find the mooring that he had left the ship tied to the day before. The ship, whose name as it happens was ‘Full House’, had been secured firmly by her owner upon arrival to the Pirates Market, and the man doubted that any kind of alcohol or excitement induced stupor would have led him to accidentally unsecure it. Clearly, the man now realized, he could remember returning to his craft with only the mildest of merriness, and hadn’t yet caused enough intrigue on the island to warrant him fleeing it in the night, so he had not done that either. And yet, despite the clarity of these memories, the Full House’s owner now found himself not only removed from the dock where he had fastened, but also land entirely; the only sight either side of him was that of a rolling ocean.

“What in the world…” Still scanning around his craft now with fully awake and alert eyes, the man who suddenly found himself unexpectedly sailing had his attention caught by a prominent head covering, which was also on his ship. The head covering, which seemed to be attached to a teen with long brown tails either side of her head, was rather unique and greatly resembled a cartoonish version of a penguins head.
Who is this…? The boy with blue eyes and blonde hair had lost none of his confusion at the sight of the alien hat on the unfamiliar girl, and the fact that he was in the middle of nowhere with a stranger would, as you might expect, inspire further mystification within his mind. Something would have to be done, for it was a poor captain that let his craft be the master rather than him, and so the male spoke up, intending to catch the attention of his stowaway and find out exactly what was going on.

“Why Miss, I would like to welcome you to my craft, as I would any beautiful guest that saw fit to grace me with her presence…” With one arm thrust to the side and the other across his diaphragm, the hosting male bent his tall frame forwards in an elegant bow, smiling as he stooped into position like the highest order of servants from shops and manors. One might have expected someone who found an intruder in their harm to react aggressively or even violently, but this young man was not that sort to do such a thing. Charlemagne Strangeways was not the type of person who would contemplate such behaviour towards an unknown guest.

[Tori Tori Chopper]

'Five more minutes.. Jeez..'

Tetra hadn't exactly been through a lot, you could call it small-time in comparison to someone with the same adventurous mind-set as her, eager and impatient to the waves that lay before her to the degree of insanity in their decisions. Her obtaining a boat and unknowingly escaping conflict with only a slice of her day so far, and she would rather not get into the first week she's had on her own in general.. It took her this long to get on her own two feet, and to admit that she couldn't handle some of the things she has encountered would imply weakness. The world, despite her previous guardians knowing all four corners, is completely unknown to her.. Its the reason she wished to find its wonders first hand after all. This was the first real mile-stone she had made since her parents dropped her off in this blue by request. There was something about the south which had a nice ring to it, not like the bland simplicity of the East or West. In her very technical mind, the South blue meant the top, the best place to begin, hardly logical but she had no one to argue otherwise. So much to see, to much to witness.. This was the first proper step since she had began her personal journey! And while she rolled in aggravation over activity on her deck, the first time she had slept in a week also.

Her ears perked up, though hardly what you'd call awake, her attentiveness for the sudden noise beside the wind and waves tracked the person from left to right, eventually her whole body jolting slightly when the male voice spoke up from beside her. After the initial suprise to her unconcious system, she rose perfectly from her stretched out body pushed up by the front of the ship, crossing her legs and flapping her eyes repeatedly as means to adjust to the sudden change in lighting since she last opening them. A long inhale, and a sharp exhale, she patted herself down to make sure everything was still where it should be, before reaching around behind her for the handle of her trusty weapon. The baseball bat slid from its holding, pushed up agaisnt her back and bag, sliding up and out towards the newcomer with a stretched arm and a half-asleep attempt at a curious face. She didn't say anything though, just stared at him as her bat made little circles in the air.. As if trying to calculate something to herself before moving onto any kind of verbal interaction. 'How did I get here..' Something she should really know, though using her bat, suddenly lowered as means to help her onto her feet.. She leaned agaisnt it while looking over her surroundings, nothing but blue.

'Eeeh.. I don't remember pushing off at all..' Noises of confusion moaned and chirped from her mouth, as if walking back and forth over a small path of flooring at the front of the ship would suddenly change the scenery before her. 'Don't suppose you know where we are, do you?' Her back bent backwards, rather than turning, she seemed it more efficient to just send her whole upper body upside down to make eye-contact with the gentleman. 'Wait! I got this..' Her body flung back up to an upright position, tapping her chin and bat in rhythm before remembering, signalled by a louder thump agaisnt the deck than before. 'Ah, I set off from that marketplace, and must've fallen asleep.' She nodded, content with her discovery of the obvious, now what to do with the guest..

'How did you get here though?'
She began to stride over the small deck, circling the man.

'I don't remember kicking off on this boat with company..'
As if the plague, she poked and pondered the man in question.

'And this is my craft!'
Just realising his introductory key words.

Though pulling a very childish-serious face, she raised her bat to tilt her hat, moving her head as to allow a nod and hat gesture combined and choreographed to perfection. 'I, Uuh.. I'm going..' She licked her finger, raising it to the air before pointing in the obvious direction that the ship was awkwardly sailing. 'That way.. I think.' She was content with her answer, walking back to the front of the ship and sitting at her previous spot with one leg over the other and her hands used as a rest for he leaning head. 'You can come along, if you like.' As if he had much of a choice at this time, though the sudden lull of peace had spawned curiosity about the ship she hadn't exactly investigated to its full potential, her stomach also henced forth with the loudest grumble it could muster. She looked to the man, and then to the door which he had seemingly come out of, that is unless he swam here. She rose slowly, dragging her bat behind her as she made for the door and investigated its insides. There had to be some sort of food in this place, what kind of ship doesn't come with food? Her large sniffing noises and flaring nostrils didn't seem to be picking up anything, though that just made it a worthy challenge.

'Foood-food-food-food-food-food-fooood~..'

[EriChar]

Ah, so this is why the ship isn’t where I left it… It quickly became apparent from the sprouting speech of his apparent companion that she was the reason that the ship was no longer in port, apparently have been ‘sailed’ by her out of the docks and away from the island upon which they both had, apparently, been visiting. Although, Charlie had to note that her display of navigational ability might be painfully lacking if she had thought it acceptable to rest her eyes for a wink or forty, particularly since the girl seemed to have assumed that she had been alone on the ship. Perhaps it had been a good thing that she wasn’t? Charlie could only imagine the sort of mishaps that might have befell his beloved Full House if the girl had decided to commandeer the craft whilst he wasn’t asleep inside it; he’d likely lose his lovely home to the horror of the depths, along with it’s would be sailor.

Silently, Charlemagne Strangeways simply smiled as he scrutinized the response and action of the intrusive girl onto his craft, finding it somewhat cute in an endearing way when she claimed to the contrary, calmly trying to get a feel for her character. It made no real sense for him to act rashly, particularly when she had a weapon in hand and he did not; his cane having been left in the cabin he had just left.
Being caught by an enemy without my weapon, perhaps I’m a disgrace as a warrior? Despite not having his full arsenal at hand to defend himself from this girl, Charlie felt little need for it at this time anyway, as he had already guessed from her behaviour that the girl would be no threat unless provoked. Whilst this girl made a big show with her bat, if she had truly intended to harm him with it, she would be doing that rather than conversing in a somewhat incoherent style. Charlie sensed no signs of ulterior motive within the penguin girl, and honestly, he found her to be quite straightforward. There seemed no tell of grand plans or attempt to hide a malicious intention in the small show of actions he saw from her; she was either a very honest young woman, or a skilled bluffer.

'I, Uuh.. I'm going..'
'That way.. I think.'
'You can come along, if you like.'

How generous, permitting me to accompany her as she wanders with my craft… Glancing in the direction that she had indicated, Charlie sought to better gain a grip on his bearings, and as he slowly returned his eyes to the girl, checking the status of his ship as he did so.
“Eh heh heh heh, I’m not so easily wooed that such an invitation would be accepted… But I am thankful for the offer…” Charlemagne Strangeways was more reluctant to accept the invitation of an unknown seafarer than he had been the last time he had been in this sort of situation, which happened to be the best part of a decade and a half previously. While he wasn’t particularly disinclined to finding himself within a group of seafarers again, Charlie considered himself to have been a little ‘spoiled’ during that adventure, having been blessed to travel with someone who was so gifted and wonderful. Knowing that inevitably the time in the present would have been compared by him to the time in the past, Charlie had decided that in future he would ensure that his choice of travelling companions were in no way inferior to those of the past, so that they weren’t found lacking when said parallels where drawn.

“Although, I wouldn’t say I’m not tempted by the offer… Perhaps it could better be evaluated through dinner and discussion?” The girl’s admission of hunger had made Charlie realize that he too was feeling rather peckish, and in an honest area of his heart, the young man would have to confess that despite only having met this young girl, there was a charming intrigue about her that he would have enjoyed exploring more. He was perhaps not looking to join this petit female’s adventure at this point in time, but it seemed like an interesting way to spend time by gaining a grasp of her intent and character, so a sense of hospitality would absolutely do little harm in this kind of curiosity piqued circumstance. At the very least, an entrance into the cabin of his craft would bring Charlie closer to his weapon, so that if the situation did indeed turn south, he’d be in a better position to deal with a nautically downward incline.
“I’m fairly certain that your craft will have some food supplies left…” Emphasizing the ownership of the ship with a subtle intent of sarcasm, Charlie was not particularly inclined at this time to welcome trouble by calling the true possession of his craft into question; he hadn’t gained enough of a read of the girl to tell if the sense of confidence that she gave off came from a solid grounding, so it probably wasn’t a good idea to be baiting her into anything at this early point in their meeting.

“Oh, but it wouldn’t be terribly gentlemanly of myself to offer a young lady dinner without introducing myself, now would it?" Those intimate with me tend to call me Charlie, but my full name contains the surname of Strangeways.” Again Charlie engaged in a long, low, sweeping bow, seeming to imitate the action of a nobleman when introducing himself to a lady. Of course, this didn’t come as unnaturally to Charlie as his seamy current circumstance might imply, but the story behind these details was more one for another time of the day.
“My names is Charlie Strangeways; I tend to think of myself as a gentleman of leisure and pleasure, and in the case of the latter, I’d say it’s certainly mine in having met you, miss…?” With a little wink to his new ‘companion’, Charlie extended his hand to the young maiden as if he were expecting to kiss her hand, perhaps with a hope that his flirtatious behaviour might glean more of an insight into the girl’s persona. At the very least, even if his dallying was rebuffed by the girl, the questioning inflection at the end of his comment might at least give him a grasp on her name…

[Tori Tori Chopper]

'Its okay, I think I found some..'
She raised from the corner of the room, grasping jars.

'Uuh.. Never mind.' Her appetites intuition chose agaisnt questioning or investigating the jars contents, placing them back down with a withdrawn posture while shimmying them back into their respective places with the end of her curved wooden stick. The man seemed to be in attempts to introduce himself in a more formal manner than simply waking her up with questions and pondering, having more of a grasp on the situation than he did before surely. Tetra seemed to be quite monotone in her attitude despite the realisation of another on her newly acquired vessel, it wasn't as if she could do anything about it, and he seemed okay to top it off. Despite her most recent and only discovery along the lines of consumables, she continued to rummage adamantly amongst all sorts of belongings, slowly becoming more curious of their contents in their entirety rather than just food. The man seemed to follow suit, talking of dinner and conversation which apparently went right over the young girls head, more translated to her as food and talking while eating food.. Sorta deal.

The boat's insides began to take presidence of interest, her search slowly coming to a halt to eventually just having her circle her current position in attempts to look at everything around her, her lower body switching from one hip to another while leaning in and out at different points of interest, simply too lazy to approach them individually and examine them. Though her discovery of her own ship stopped as she spun around enough to be facing the man once more, bowing, hand extended and in a lull while she leant back with a hint of confusion. Was she supposed to do something, another half to the practice which she knew nothing about? Her eyes flicked back and forth before coming to a subconscious decision, arcing slightly herself into a more sleepish attempt at grace, grabbing his hand by the end of his middle digit and giving it a light shake. It overall felt pretty dumb, standing up straight with a confused smile and a scratch at the back of her head. 'I'm Tetra.' Well that went pretty well, as far as she was concerned, spinning on her heel and continuing her business.. Even though it was just blankly looking into everything around the room as her usual casual pace of attentiveness.

'Aha! I got it.. This is defiantly food..' A loaf of bread emerged from amongst the stored supplies, or at least she presumed the other crates had something or other, as this large load simply rested upon the box's surface. She inhaled sharply over it, though she never really mentioned her well being to others outside of being directly asked, she was nigh on starved for just about anything right now. She turned back to her company, content with her discovery and a mouth-full already too large for her to handle with manners dangling yet slowly being drawn into her mouth while her face simply screamed content. She parked herself up on the crates of interest and gobbled away without so much as a word, making all sorts of noises while her legs dangled and danced to themselves. Though it was mere seconds, one could feel that her cheerful slanted eyes looking right through you in silence would be somewhat unnerving.. As if nothing was needed to be said, though her attention was still required.

'So are you a pirate or something?' Said more out of curiosity than the desire to know the mans alignment, gasping for breath after finishing half of her discovery in moments without so much as taking a moment to breath in-between. '.. A fisherman?' As confident as she made herself look most of the time, her lack of knowledge on the world at large due to her time in confinement left her to generally spit ball the mans agenda. she somehow felt like she knew the type of person that he was, though had never met anyone she had talked to for more than a few minutes bar her parents at all in her life.. One of those gut feelings, her reliable source. 'D'you have like, a crew?' Maybe she wished for him to be some sort of pirate, an adventurer in more simplistic terms such as herself, though she wasn't looking for a life story, her small-talk and curious nature had her asking questions on a wider scale than she'd ever require. 'Can't stay on my ship forever 'y'know..' She shrugged, still oblivious to the obvious, her body coiled and vanished half-ways into the supplies, her legs spinning around, up and down while she examined the other things to eat and drink.

'I think this'll do for dinner!' She emerged, slowly and with a few wobbles and noises to accompany them, stacked in both arms were numerous assortments of edibles, lugging them over to a lower and flat surface before taking a seat on the ground, crossing her legs and clapping her hands together with a bow towards her feast. 'Thanks for the food!' The bread was just the start, and hardly the pace she was common to, slowly and surely picking up speed with one bite after the next like some sort of machine revving up to get in the action. 'Yo' ca' ha' so'.. 'e 'yo 'li~' A grin barely noticeable between food getting shoved into it came and went, her attention had diverted.

At least while the food was still visible.

[EriChar]

Blinking for a second, Charlemagne Strangeways gave a soft smile to the girl as she responded his extended hand in her own odd little way, allowing his mitt to be waggled up and down by the soft fingers on the young woman who had grasped his own. Charlie found the noticeably awkward and slightly confused way that his current companion responded to his introduction to be somewhat adorable, similar to how one might find a sense of gratification from witnessing a stray animal accept scraps from ones hand; there was a charm about the unexpected manner in which the girl had responded to him that the young Mr Strangeways was not entirely blind to, and was appreciative to find out the name of this subtly charismatic young lady.

“Ah, Miss Tetra, a fine name for a fine young lady…” Even if the girl’s attempt at appealing to him had not seemed to be entirely intentional, Charlie responded to it with his own little lick of sweet talk, not wanting to lose his footing even in a one sided battle of flattery. Lifting his finger up to his jaw and letting it curl around his chin, the ship’s owner watched with a quiet smirk as his unknowing guest rifled her way through his cupboards on her hunt for foodstuffs, restraining his impulse to point out where she might have found what she was looking for and instead indulging himself in his habitual observation of persons. It was somewhat amusing for Charlie to observe the way that the girl finally found herself some foodstuffs to devour, snatching away a few of the boxes that he had stored within the cabin to last him the journeys between the lands that he visited, and was somewhat surprised by the amount that the girl seemed to seize for herself.
Her metabolism must work hard to accommodate such sizeable meals in such a small frame… Scrutinizing the somewhat scrawny stature of the girl who had just picked up what he had reckoned to be a week’s worth of rations and begun to tuck into it, wondering where exactly this ‘Tetra’ was planning to put all of the food within the narrow confines of her body.

'So are you a pirate or something?'
Apparently, with the need to sate her hunger satisfied, Charlie’s companion had the attention to spare to turn onto him, in between the shovelling of food into her mouth, of course.
'.. A fisherman?'
Before Charlie had received a chance to convey his current lifestyle, despite the piracy in his past, the girl had already mashed up the contents of his maw enough to ask another question, which was of course repeated several times, until, at last, the morsels of the meal which were forced into the mouth of Tetra occupied the girl for long enough so that Charlie could finally answer some of the queries which had been put to him in rapid succession.

“Well… I suppose there was a time when the black banner of piracy was raised on a craft that I travelled on, and I do enjoy fishing when I have the time for it. As for a crew… While I find myself surrounded by people on a regular basis, they aren’t always the same ones on every occasion...” Given Charlie’s penchant for secrecy; his desire to keep his ‘hand’ as close to his chest as possible, so too were his answers to the girls questioning kept as vague as he could make them, without being overtly rude. Charlie, having spent years in the smoky rooms of poker houses which were kept aloud with small talk of little consequence, had become accustomed to engaging in discussion where he said a lot without really telling the people around them anything. It was perhaps a useful, but mischievous habit of his.
The girl was still adopting her ‘finders, keepers’ policy towards his craft, adamantly inferring that the ship belonged to her, despite the fact that it actually belonged to the on-board male, who playfully refused to state this despite the fact that the topic was beginning to wear.

“Are you sure you don’t want to cook some of those things?” Plucking a carton that he knew had eggs in from the mass of boxes that the girl had gathered, Charlie steered the flow of the conversation and its emphasis on his own history away and toward something productive, because he didn’t really like the dwell on his own past; it was too sad a story to bog down the excitement of a new meeting.
“Eggs are generally better eaten when they’re a little less fresh…” Opening the carton, Charlie eyed the round shells carefully with a small smile, checking to make sure they were still intact before he continued with his action. Hopping across the kitchen-cabin, Charlie placed the eggs on a countertop next to a quartet of rings before crouching beneath the workplace to pluck out a large pan and an equally sizeable bowl, into which he cracked half a dozen of the eggs. The way he blindly snapped his hands around his workplace, snatching seasonings to add to the broken eggs, would demonstrate to the casual observer that this was a place he was not entirely unfamiliar with working in, and as he trotted back to the table and snapped up a chunk of cheese, the son of the Strangeways continued to steer the conversation away from himself, inferring that if his own past and intent was fair game for his guests questioning, then the same would be true of the youngster that now unknowingly enjoyed his hospitality.

“What about yourself, Miss Tetra? Your action in seizing this vessel seems like that of a pirate; do you have a crew and a grand plan to follow for your future?” Of course, the girl had never let on that the ship had been stolen by her in the utterances that the pair had between them, but Charlie was in the rather unusual position of knowing the girl had stolen the ship since it did truly belong to him.
“Even for a captive guest, it would be nice to know a rough purpose of our current expedition?” Flaky chunks of cheese dropped into the seasoned mixture of eggs, the owner of Full House turned to the girl who devoured his foodstore and gave her a playful wink alongside a soft smile, swirling a fork in the bowl which he now gripped with his other arm…

[Tori Tori Chopper]

'... Cook?'

A clearly dumbfounded expression covered the little lady's face as she hovered a half-cracked egg over her wide open mouth, her other hand holding tightly to her hat as she had leaned her head back to allow the insides of her held shell to just drop in to the bottomless void which seemed to be her stomach by itself.. To of course avoid any kind of additional effort in her fast action consumption process. Though funnily enough, the thought of a well cooked meal in front of her made her pause, at least as far as her 10 food items per minute was concerned. The egg shell thrown side, she let out a light cough as if to indicate to herself that she had paused in her butchering of a mountain that could feed ten men, her legs sliding out from under her as she collapsed onto the floor with her hands behind her head to cushion her quick decent. 'I'm not very good at cooking things.' She dangled her shoe over a stray apple from the feast, kicking it up and over, caught in her hand for her juggling pleasure while she pondered over more recent yet valuable memories. 'I had some peach pie, and a slice of peach cake.. And some peaches.' She paused, as if someone were to ask where they were now. '.. I ate them.' For some odd reason she found that slightly embarrassing, a honest chuckle escaping her while she tossed the apple up and down from hand to hand.

Though along with her nose, her lips pushed off to one side, the crafting of things of more delicacy and design were in process beside her, her eyes becoming fixated on the location despite it being concealed by the acquittance's body, her apple still happily going up and down above her without her even really needing to give it any attention.. More so attention in fact being on the man's practice, her head tracking his every move, continuing to do so even when he began talking to her. 'Getting a boat is what pirates do? I knew they had boats but, I thought it was more..' She gave the apple a little more buck, its air-time allowing her to make a hook with her hand, a menacing claw with the other, and what could only be described as a 'pirate noise' as she tightly shut one eye. Being her usual self in no time to once again catch the fruit in its decent. 'I heard about pirates, but never really seen any before.' The concept of what does and doesn't appoint you to piracy was beyond her understanding, all she'd done thus far was get shoved on a boat and ended up at the market somehow. The ocean was a weird place in her opinion, lots of the same thing yet you were always making progress.

'I want to see the world though, my parents became really cool people because they were out at sea, I want to be famous like they were when I was little.' She shrugged, to her the venture so far felt like a to few many steps away from home already, despite it only being a couple of days. 'Guess I'm a pirate though, if I took your ship, and you're my captive.' Suddenly her mental switch had gone from ignorant to simply accepting of a previously unknown situation, accepting something maybe quite life-changing in nothing more than a moments thought. '.. Is something supposed to happen? I don't have to lose an eye or anything do I..?' Her face shook from the thought, genuinely wondering if that was the price her natural actions would cost her. '.. Where are we going.' A realisation of his last curiosity sprung her to life, sitting up suddenly and getting to her feet with just as much speed, she adjusted herself and patted down her waist before lowering her hat and grabbing her bat, striding out the door once more as if she had a score to settle with the vast nothing.

'I think we're going..'
She let out a breath of thought, a hum lingering on it.

'Where are we going..'
She circled the small ship, as if something would come of it.

'There! Thats where we'r- Waaaait~ a second..'
The blip in the distance did seem familiar, even for a blip.

She almost reversed in her enthusiastic attitude, slowly waddling back into the vessels only quarters, sitting back beside her food with a thump as her behind suddenly descended onto the floor boards, her knees pulling up to her chest as her arms wrapped around them. 'Why are boats so dumb..' So she blames the inanimate object. Though she quickly shook it off, her legs stretching out and her arms supporting her slightly arcing back as they quickly crossed, her mouth letting out a puff of air which left her hair to dance around her forehead. '... I have no idea where we're going, but the place we were at before keeps following us... Or the boat really likes it.' That was her divine knowledge, her first day as a pirate, or so the man had proclaimed her, and she was once again on a boat, relatively by herself, miles from anything of interest. She shifted her seated stance, sitting up on her legs and bowing quickly as if intended. ' Please help me get back to land!' Her head near bashed agaisnt the floor with the speed she descended, it didn't exactly raise after that either, she could have easily knocked herself out.. Though it didn't take her long to peek up at him to discover his reaction.

Quickly lowering her head again as if he had caught her being sneaky.

[EriChar]

Charlemagne Strangeways listened quietly to the girl as she took her own turn to attempt to tell her tale, using the time to further his preparations of an egg-based meal, wrapping together the mixture of eggs and cheese with a forked eating instrument.
Heard but not seen? So, she’s still very new to the game, it would appear… As he grasped a slither of ham from the mass of food and loosely tore through it on the counter with a knife, Charlie noted that the girls largely innocent and cute behaviour very much reflected her lack of experienced life as a brigand; she certainly didn’t give off the impression of a hardened sea dog. In fact, the closest comparison that Charlie could draw for the girl rather more resembled someone else that Mr Strangeways had met many years previously; the captain he had served under in the dubiously described days that he had spent in the engagement of piracy.
Have you been sharing your bad habits from the grave, D.D? Of course, Charlie knew far from enough about this strange young woman to draw anything close to an accurate comparison to a young boy with the surname of Caeser, but there was a certain parallel between them; that habit of rushing into things without really properly thinking them through. Charlie had witnessed near-innumerable times that D.D had thrown himself into situations and ideas on impulse, and he couldn’t help but draw a comparison to the way that this girl had taken a ship since it seemed the ‘pirate’ thing to do, and also without seeming to have any particular skill in operating such a transport form.

As he silently drew what was perhaps a sentimental comparison between his current companion and one of his past, the kitchen’s chef had lit one of the rings on his stove and was dropping pieces of cooked meat into the yolky mix, as an eye kept watch over the butter that oozed from a solid knob of cream into golden liquid. Mr Strangeways made no comment on the ideals that the girl described, her want to follow in the footsteps of beneficent forbearers was none of his business, thought he did in his own way find the idea to have its own unique appeal; chasing across the land to hold a sense of justice inherited from ones parents, it was a concept filled with the romance of adventure and the awe of expectation. Though, ‘justice’ might not have been the appropriate term to associate with a girl who had stolen a ship in a somewhat misguided attempt to push her position into the realms of piracy, but such semantics were likely a case of relativity; Charlie Strangeways had learned many years ago that ‘Justice’, or what was broadcast as such, was often far from what the word would claim it to be. In a world in which he had seen many shades of the monochromatic spectrum of morality that individuals possessed, Charlie had decided that it was up to the individual to decide what he or she deemed to be the right action or the wrong action.

“Ah ha ha ha ha! I think a soft face like your own wouldn’t be suited to scars and eye patches…” It was amusing for Charlie to imagine this petit young woman walking around with a bat for a peg-leg, an exotic animal sat on her shoulder, and the girl’s faced scarred by the marks of a scar and butterfly stitches; apparently she had a rather stereotypical view of what made up the features of your bog-standard brigand. In actuality, despite having spent more than a year in the pursuit of piracy, Charlie had seen very few pirates that fit the description that storybooks and rumours might have one believe a pirate to be; most seemed to be largely ordinary folks, with a spectrum of characters as wide as any rainbow.

Finishing his rather grand omelette whilst the young girl named Tetra had popped outside, Charlie placed it on a plate and gathered up a knife and fork to eat it with. Condiments were a must when enjoying a good omelette, to further the experience of the palette, and so from the ransacked collection of ration boxes a bottle of red ketchup was plucked by the pile and readied for action. However, even with the lid loosened and the bottle tilted, ready to deploy the crimson contents, the plate nor omelette would not see delivery of the ketchup from Charlie’s hand at least. Seconds away from eating his breakfast, the ‘kidnapper’ returned to the company of the young Mr Strangeways, slumping herself down in dejection, presumably at her own skills in navigation, or lack thereof. His breakfast in hand, the ‘captive’ found himself a little bit startled for a moment at the way she asked for his help; bowing down deep and respectfully to him as the girl practically begged him to take over control of the craft once more.
Oh? There’s not many proud men or women on the sea who would so easily bow their head to a stranger and ask for help… Pausing for a moment, Charlie mused over the actions of the girl in front of him, impressed by the brazenness of her request; ceding her own sense of power to him to easily when it appeared she wouldn’t be able to handle the situation around her. There was a quality about Tetra that seemed at the same time childish and mature; asking for help in the face of adversity seemed like the sort of thing that a child would do, and yet there was no self-imposed pride to get in the way of such action. The young Strangeways could plainly see that there was certainly something different about this girl.

“Yare yare… Looks like you’re in a pinch, Miss Pirate. I had better get to work, then...” Charlie elected to the help the girl more out of curiosity than sympathy or need, finding himself somewhat fascinated that a girl who was confident and driven enough to do something as outrageous as stealing ship whilst at the same time be the same kind of person who would happily reach out to others for help if she needed it; such an odd mix intrigued him.
Placing the plated omelette and ketchup next to the pirate girl, Charlemagne Strangeways had the strong impulse to place his palm on Tetra’s head and give it a little ruffle, but instead elected to duck over to the place that his waking body had risen from only a handful of minutes before. Retrieving first what looked to be a rather bulbous pendant that had been loosely tied to his hammock, Mr Strangeways then stopped off at what remained of the rations on the table, pulling a piece of jerky from the pile and taking a bite from it.
Looks like this will have to do for breakfast… Taking a bite from the dried meat rather than the succulent omelette that he had just prepared, Charlie scooped his cane into his hand on his way out of the kitchen-cabin’s door, stepping into the light of the deck once more. Titling the pendant over to reveal a small, needled dial beneath, the master of the ship once more took charge of his craft, spying on the horizon the silhouette of the island that the girl had earlier mentioned having trouble escaping from.
“Chart a course for land, Mr Strangeways…” Muttering playfully to himself with a wistful smile, the ship’s owner grasped one of the ropes that held onto the single sail of the craft with one hand, and poked the rudder with the cane in his other, resuming his usual role of navigation…

[Tori Tori Chopper]

'Eh..?'

The chirp of confusion followed the man out the door, sitting up with a bit of a dumbfounded look about here as to how that actually worked. Not that she's ever tried it before, though there was some sense of contradiction in her actions, like she wasn't supposed to be doing it. It was this whole pirate business, she'd been planted with a title for her actions that she didn't really understand.. She'd heard stories, history even to the degree of her parents travels, but never had she met one or been one. She was near close to going right red, for some odd reason the collective process of complicated thought had her holding her breath while she did so, discarding it as she did the practice and gasping for air moments later. What she caught wif of in the process of trying to regain complete conciousness however, was the meal that had been set down before her. radiating flavour as if beckoning to her, unlike the now much smaller stack that she had previously collected from around the ship. 'Hey can I have!- ... This?' She turned to ask but the man had long since departed, closing the door behind him was obvious, though she still seemed to look around the room as if he was standing in a corner somewhere. 'Uhm..' She couldn't help herself, between the food in comparison to before and the taste she could just envision, she spun around on her knees and gave a light nod to the door. 'Thank you for the fooood~'

'Aaah~..' She paused, her hands close to simply gripping the collective cuisine, noticing the cutlery that had been placed beside it, she came to a conflicting choice. She looked to the door, as if his looming presence lingered, gesturing her to do the opposite of what she planned to. She took the knife and fork in question, holding them as if they were cursed and slowly placing them in their respective places on the dish. 'Hi-ya!' A single swish of her knife as if it was a blade had the whole thing destroyed in regards to visual appeal. 'Eeeh?~' Her attempt had failed! Her practice of manners just spiralling down her theoretical sink more and more by the moment. She fidgeted and swiped, eventually taking a small part of it, horribly clamped between an angled knife and fork towards her mouth, and upon consumption? Success.. Immediately scoffing the rest with a tilt of the plate and a scooping hand, it becoming apparently that she only felt the need to use them once before going back to her ill-mannered ways.

Licking her lips and fingertips, she quickly looked about as if someone was going to attack her for acting in such a way, despite her being the only one in the room yet again. Though with her meal finished and her hand patting her stomach repeatedly as she rolled around the floor making strange comfortable noises, the idea of her captive being outside and actually moving the boat spurred about the picture of progress in her mind. 'Stra.. Cha.. Uhm..' She'd completely forgotten his name, even as she jumped from the ground and nearly pushed the door down she had paused moments away to think of it. Maybe if she just looked him right in the face and blurted out what first came to mind, it would naturally register him with what he previously introduced himself as, that was the logic she was going to go with. She swung the door open, throwing her arms into the air with a grin on her face just ready to put it into action. 'Chaaar!... Char..' This wasn't going as well as she hoped, she had to make a compromise to hide her forgetfulness. 'Char! I wan't to hear more about pirates.' And so the crisis had been averted.

'I mean you've been one before, right? Is something supposed to happen, am I supposed to do something?' Her eyes scanned his actions, for some reason finding it fascinating that he could do the simple work of controlling a ship, something which left her completely brain-dead just by wondering where to start. 'Cause I'm not really a bad person, so I can't go around pushing people over, laughing at them then blaming it on me being a pirate y'know?' A very childish take on the life of a probably looter, murderer even.. It wasn't that she was oblivious to the harsher side of the world, she'd in some cases seen it first hand as opposed to being sheltered.. She just didn't affiliate it with that of a pirate. Other than relish the after-taste of her meal, she didn't really have much else to be curious about, feeling a bit sleepy now that she was no longer hungry. Her attention however was not strayed, the focus of the island becoming larger and larger ahead of them, proof that the things he was doing about the place was of actual effective worth. 'I should really learn to sail a ship, its going to be pretty important out here I think.' She leaned forward, supporting her behind with the side of the ship and her descending upper-body with her hands as her arms fell onto her knees. 'A lot of stuffs going to be important..' She vented out a sigh, biting her lip as her eyes flicked around the location ahead of them. What to do next..

Sleep, would be a preferable first choice.

[EriChar]

There we go, back on track… Tying off the last of the adjustments that he had made to the lengths of woven rope that bound the craft’s only sail, the young Mr Strangeways had deftly dealt with the indecisive direction in a way that only someone as experienced with their craft as Charlie was with the old girl called ‘Full House’ could, having the dark outline of the nearby island now growing steadily larger beyond the ship’s prow. The piece of jerky that he had taken with him still hanging from his mouth, Charlemagne strolled over to the rudder of his craft casually, wrapping his fingers tight around the loose end of his dried meat meal and tearing a piece off with his teeth as he laid the other hand on the long bar of wood that controlled the steering board of his ship, to hold it steady.
It seems that I’ve run into another interesting person… Casting his eyes up into the skies as he finished his slab of dried animal flesh, Charlie took a moment to mentally mull over the recent succession of actions, starting from that first moment he had encountered the penguin-hat wearing girl upon his ship.
Demanding at times, but others quiet naïve and charming… This was the opinion of the girl known to Charlie only as ‘Tetra’ that he had managed to develop over the course of their so-far short but eventful encounter; the ‘pirate’ girl had certainly done a good job of turning what had started out to be a fairly dull summers day into something much more memorable.

I wonder what will happen when we reach the shore? The soon to be had landing of the craft on the island in front of it raised a new question, however, for Charlie. A temporary peace had been reached between himself and the young pirate girl regarding the supposed ownership of the craft, thanks to the fact that neither could really ‘leave’ while they were in the middle, that stalemate may very well be called into question when one had the chance to force the other from the craft without worry. While Charlie had little intent to toss the girl from his craft unless she became a big problem for him, the same may not have been said of her; as she did seem to now consider the craft to be her own; would she fight Charlie to keep it? Or would she relinquish her claim on ownership when he revealed that the craft had been his all along? Exciting times likely laid ahead for the son of the Strangeways estate.

Before Charlie had much more time to dwell on the future prospects of the fledgling relationship between himself and the little pirate girl, the sound of the door to his cabin almost exploding open snapped the young sailor’s mind away from musing and instead forced his attention back onto the situation in front of him.
Char…? Is that some sort of nickname for me? Tetra had returned to the company of Charlie, the sight of the girl grinning and waving her arms around in the air adding to the sense of naiveté and innocence that the girl seemed to naturally demonstrate, which was complimented a little by her small frame and ‘cute’ dress sense.
“Hmmm… What do you want to know about pirates?” Apparently the young woman had returned to him with the intention of adding to her rather modest knowledge on the bandits of the sea, but because of the lacking areas of insight that the girl had demonstrated in the field, young master Strangeways had trouble summoning a specific field for himself to attempt to elaborate on.

“Ah ha ha ha, I suppose I did spend at least one summer sailing under the banner of a great man, but that was quite a few years ago…” Again Charlie kept a veil over the description that he gave to his history, vaguely confirming what Tetra had earlier garnered but keeping clear of any specifics, maintaining the habitual mystery he almost unconsciously cast over his character and past.
“Supposed to do something…?” Despite that confidence and daring nature, it was made plainly obvious to the boat owner that his new guest was still missing something, aside from any large insight into the nature of piracy; direction. Despite claiming to want to be a pirate, and perhaps because of her absence of understanding into the very nature of the pirates on the seas, the girl was struggling to find a reason to do so. Tetra wanted to be a pirate, but it seemed to Charlie that she wasn’t really complete in her desire… The girl had the ‘what’, but not the ‘why’ or ‘how’.

“Well… I don’t think there is anything at all that you’re supposed to do…” Scratching the back of his head with the hand free from the ship’s tiller, the son of Strangeways tried to think up the best words he could to convey to the girl that these sorts of questions were ones that are best answered by only one person in the world; herself.
“The life of Piracy would be one of freedom… You’re free to say or do whatever you hold in your heart. I believe, that if there’s something you’re ‘supposed’ to do as a pirate; it’s that you’re supposed to follow your heart and stay true to yourself. Isn’t that the greatest freedom there is?” Smiling softly for a moment towards Tetra with his eyes shut, soon after Charlie cast his vision skywards as he often did, a habit that he had developed in the years following his own career in piracy, as he looked the cast clouds and thought of the lost friends that had departed in those days.
Is that what you would have said, D.D? Maybe, you’d probably have told her to do whatever she wanted… With a small chuckle at the departed memory of his deceased friend, Mr Strangeways turned his attention back from the sky and onto the penguin-hatted pirate who continued to witter away in front of him, who now seemed to be seeking knowledge on navigation and other useful seamanship skills.
“Well, I suppose I can at least show you a little bit of navigation while we wait to be carried into port…” Offering the would be pirate the compass end of his strange pendant, Charlie again flashing her that shut-eyed smile of his…

[Tori Tori Chopper]

'Oooh~ a great pirate?'

Simply the thought of placing such a glorious word in front of a known figure left sparkles in her eyes, sliding down from her position on the boat into a more eager cross-legged seating method while she subconsciously rocked herself back and forth, lost in her admirations more so than usual. 'Sugoooi...' Maybe he wasn't a large mountain of a figure with an impressive beard and cutlass to match, but she was content with such an image. 'I wanna be that guy! y'know?!' Her eagerness got the better of her, her hands quickly coming up to her chest in close vicinity to shake in plea. 'I-I mean as a woman, of course.. But someone who people talk about with such respect.. Like heroes!' She wasn't exactly getting herself out of her small hole that she had just dug, but she seemed to brush it aside with that easily misunderstood correction alone. The man continued, his tone and grace with words cutting no slack on Tetra's over-active imagination, the poor girl was was in a near drooling mess by the time he had given his speech of purpose. Though contrary to her previous outburst of enthusiasm, this time she did the opposite, ceasing her animated spectacle and rubbing her chin with what could only be described as her trying to pull of some sort of serious mental process. She eventually looked back up to her company, smacking a fist into an open palm with a serious chirp of acknowledgement. 'I got it.' a gap in speech proceeded as her eyes looked off to the sky while she made sure.

'Mm, I've made up my mind!' and that was that, apparently, picking herself up from the ground with a little tumble from trying to scramble to her feet with an unnatural pace, brushing off the little mishap by dramatically posing.. One foot placed firmly on the boats edge while her arm pressed firmly against her waist, her second pointing to the island that drew ever closer. 'I shall be a great pirate! Of greatness!' Another stern nod, just to confirm the kind of great she was talking about was rather serious, completely aware for once of her otherwise childish appearance maybe not presenting this intense moment as much as she hoped but none the less, the image to mold was therein reality! '... So how do I become a great pirate..' He pointing hand retreated to the side of her head, pushing the hat slightly aside as she scratched away in confusion. It was more rhetorical if anything, to the degree that she didn't expect an answer rather than it being actually something that wasn't supposed to be answered. Her ranting seemingly giving her companion an idea, her mouth slowly converting to more of an O shape, leaning in to examine what was offered to her.

'Woooah~ Its a.. Uh.. What is it?'
'It's the end for you little girl!'
'Haha, whats that supposed to mean?'

She looked up to Charlie with a raised brow, only to hear a cheer coming from a direction that she hadn't previously considered. Though the distance between that of the ship and the dock was still quite considerable, the voice of the Captain and his crew who must've been lingering around for hours now echo'd across the quiet ocean they bounced around on. '... Hey guys!' Their bodies flung themselves to the ground in suprise, the very little very who destroyed their vessel had the nerve to act as if nothing had ever happened? The Captain seemed to be furious, beginning an impressive monologue of curses and threats, complete with crew interactions at certain intervals.. While Tetra completely ignored their existence. 'These guys were looking for a ship too, but I beat them to this one, and I think they wanted it pretty badly. They got all angry when I left, and seem to have hung around like they knew I was going to come back too.' Their impressive story didn't even tap the girl on the shoulder as she continued, coming to the conclusion that she wasn't actually listening.

'You think you can just break our ship then get away on your own? Who are you with, are you a marine?!' Though her attention was diverted, watching the out of breath men stand poised ready to bad mouth or retort to any kind of response she was going to provide, she simply tilted her head as if not even remembering the event. '.. Doesn't ring a bell!'

She's forgotten it on purpose!

The collective pirate force screamed in harmony with large mouths and sharp teeth. 'Well whatever you are, you don't seem to realise who we are! we're pirates little miss, And for what you did to us we're going to do back to your ship ten fold!' The cheers spurred on the Captains big words, laughing to himself while he drew a large sword from his back, a signal for all of his crew-mates to do the same. 'But this is Char's ship! Why would you want to break it at all?' The laughter continued, though fuelled by a different source, even Tetra registering who it was aimed at with a flinched reaction. 'Because we can you idiot! We get mad, and others get hurt, that's what we do!' The ship was fairly close to the dock, not enough for an attack to incur just yet.. Though close enough to see the look on their faces when they spotted her's. Her hat lowered as did her her head, an intimidating shadow settling over suddenly narrowed eyes and a scrunched up nose while her hand slowly moved collect her weapon from beside her. The bellowing group had turned quite a few heads of passers-by, the early evening glow usually left a more peaceful atmosphere around the docks, so an exception did bring about curiosity.

'Thank you, for your hospitality.'
She slid her finger across the rim of her hat, tipping it without direction to Charlie.

'Oioi, didn't realise who we we're huh? Its okay to be scared!'
Their ambience, auras even, darkened with every word.

'And for everything else.'
The creak of skin agaisnt her bat as she clenched it pronounced itself amongst the ruckus.

'Now lets get this over with, huh gu-!'
CRACK!

The moment seemed to take forever, the small girl lunging through the air with a bat cocked behind her, sinking into the side of the Captains head as he turned to address his minions. He didn't so much move as he did fly, his body slowly giving way to the impact as it dug further and further into his posture before eventually spiralling off into the wall of housing behind him, Tetra skidding to the ground with a quick hop on one leg to gain balance, ignoring the small blip in her otherwise dynamic entrance and pointing her wooden stick to the Captain who slowly rose from the cloud of dust that he produced in his landing. 'W-Who the hell do you think you are?!' In the clearing fog of war his injury was evident, even his Nakama coiling as the large mark the impact had left behind became evident. His crew clenched their weapons, though the attack was intense it obviously wasn't some sort of power-house they were dealing with for their Captain to still be standing, though were equally terrified when her eyes rose from the shadow her cap produced.

ド 'I'm a pirate!' ン

[EriChar]

“It’s a handy little piece of kit… A compass on the bottom, and on the top-” A loud disturbance prevented Strangeways-sensei from giving his student much of a lesson, loud voices of unscholarly individuals intruded into the less, just asking for the firm hand of a teacher to toss chalk their way like deadly white bullets; but Charlie didn’t have any at hand… Nor did he have the inclination to so violently object to his lecture being interrupted by these loud-mouthed persons on the docks.
“Oh, friends of yours?” A smiling shut eye expression resuming, Charlemagne shot Tetra a sideways glance as he eyed the figures collapse comically at his current companion’s reply, wondering of the association between the girl with the penguin hat and the thugs on the dock.
Looks like you’re popular today, my lady… Placing the palm of his hand on the bulwark belonging to his little craft, Charlie gave his ship a small stroke, quietly observing the pirate girl’s remarks as the apparent leader of the would-be intruding group called from the firm footing of land towards them, sprouting a largely uninspiring and nonsensical monologue that even his men seemed to be largely disinterested in.
“He seems to enjoy the sound of his own voice, doesn’t he?” With a chuckle, the ship owner gripped the tiller of his small sailing craft and kept an eye on the sail and surroundings as he guided his ship closer to land, preparing his vessel to dock.

It seems that most of her actions seem to draw those around her in, for good or bad… Quietly concentrating on the operation of his water home, Charlie allowed the penguin girl to exchange ‘pleasantries’ with the people on the edge of the dock, curiously observing with what attention he could afford the situation between the young woman known as Tetra and her brigand associates. Charlie was unsure of what his response would be if the proverbial hit the fan between these people and his companion; he had no duty to help either side out, but at the same time had been mildly amused by the young pirate girl who had invaded his ship, and didn’t particularly like the idea of her going up against a gang of men alone… It wouldn’t have been a gentleman’s prerogative to permit such rough and unbalanced treatment of a lady, regardless of how young she was.
“Wait, break the ship?” Still steering his craft, the matter of it’s supposed destruction now drew the attention of her owner, the pirates on the shore making a good argument against Charlie having any sort of inclination towards siding with them.
“Now, now, let’s not be hasty… The ship isn’t the one to have caused offence here…” With his sole free hand raised peacefully to show the pirates his palm, the man whose beloved vessel was in danger of some sort misplaced, childish reprisal attempted to solve the situation peacefully. Of course, a man of Charlie’s experience and skill likely wouldn’t have lost a battle against the level of strength that he perceived from his enemies, but the fickle will of the battle maidens was always unpredictable; there was no point in senselessly engaging in a fight when it could easily be avoided.

”Hey, don’t just leap headlong into danger!” To the wide eyed surprise of Charlie Strangeways, during the attempts to peacefully solve the situation, his small and female shipmate had vaulted from the deck and launched into an attack on the leader of her enemies. That solid shaft of wood that had been pointed in the direction of the Full House’s owner only a short while earlier now plunged practically through the head of the verbose pirate captain, the force of which struck the long-winded brigand into the air like the ball that the bat was usually employed against, a feat which drew a little of an admiring eye of a certain Mr Strangeways as he watched.
Not as weak a girl as she may look… The initiated eye might have seen the young Miss Tetra as a small and scrawny young girl, but a man with the experienced of Charlemagne Strangeways knew better than to judge a ‘book’ by whatever happened to be on its ‘cover’; in his days he’d seen people the size of pygmies toss around foes more than ten times their size like they were rag dolls… The gambling ship owner had long been taught that strength, in this world, was about a whole lot more than the degree with which your body bulged, a fact that was reinforced by the sight of the wishing-he-was grand pirate now slamming against a heavy wall through the force produced by this ‘scrawny and small’ girl.

Inspiration was a funny thing; wild and unpredictable like the seas, it could strike you hard and fast without you even properly realizing what was going on, and finding yourself being driven into something that you otherwise may well have sought to avoid has that spur of stimulus not struck you with its heavy weight. Snapping the tiller of his ship around to the side and loosening the rope that held his sole mainsail fast, the Strangeways son did his best to reduce the damage that his craft would suffer from a crash caused by him choosing to temporarily abandon it, seeking to follow the young pirate girl’s example and storm his way into battle.
Silent and speedy, young master Strangeways snapped up the grip of the cane which he had earlier brought onto the deck and himself hopped across the distance of wetness that separated his still travelling craft from the stable shores of the dock. With his staff held tightly within his left hand, Charlie covered the body of water like a speeding cannonball, thrusting the heel of his boot forwards as his frame moved above a surface far more stable, imparting a firm boot to the pirate lackey that stood in his landing spot. Using the other man’s face as something of a ‘break’ for his momentum, Charlie Strangeways pushed off from his target with the implanted foot, sending the pair of them rearward and away from each other. His foe forced into a backwards crash, Charlie hopped backwards and regained his footing, a few inches from the steep, several foot drop back into the sea at he grinned at Tetra happily.

“Arara… If I allow a girl to do all of the work, my sense of manliness will suffer…” Instinctively, the ship owner had elected to side with the young girl who he had only moments before been held captive by, using a joke as justification in place of the motivation that he didn’t quite fully understand. Whether it was because he had a liking for the girl or a dislike for her enemy, or even just wanted to alleviate a spell of time, for this battle at least, Charlie was on Tetra’s side. Plucking a short end of his staff away from the rest of its body, the new entrant into the battle revealed that his rather ornate weapon actually contained the shining steel of a sabre’s edge, which he skirted around the fingers of his right into a sword-like grip.
It seems that my fate is to always be entangled with the affairs of piracy… His weapon ready, the swordsman gave a quick wink in the direction of his penguin-hatted ally, before scanning over the condition of the pirate enemies who had happened to remain on their feet, ready to battle whichever wanted to come his way. The cards of this game had now been dealt, and so for Charlemagne Strangeways, it was time to make his ‘hand’ count.

[Tori Tori Chopper]

'Eheheh.. I think I got a little carried away..'

As if a shade of red had been painted over, her attitude quickly reverted back to its previous state, that serious glare which occupied her sinister appeal was replaced a nervous laugh and a slight rose tint occupying the tops of her cheeks from the small event being recalled in her mind. The many minions of the Captain who nearly grinded his teeth down to stumps were he to press them any tighter agaisnt one another seemed speechless, there were no words to accompany such a brash act followed by ignorance to competition. 'You think this is a joke? You pick a fight with someone like us and laugh about it?!' His consistent verbal abuse reigniting in his soul caused the otherwise dazed batsman to focus on the bellowing origin with a wide eyed shocked look about her. 'D-Don't bring that up again, it was embarrassing!' taking the opposite direction in all facial features, a scrunched look formed as her accomplice left behind landed nearly as dramatically as she did, moving slightly into a pose out of impulse as he regained his footing with a little more ease then she did. '.. That was pretty awesome I guess..' Her mouth pushed off to the side, looking away as if intimidated by his entrance, though quickly recovering to focus on the slowly massing weaponry that moved to guard their Captain.

'Captain, are you okay?'
'Of course I'm okay! Why aren't you killing them yet?!'
'W-Well.. We wanted to see if you were okay.'
'We wouldn't have stood a chance otherwise.'

'You idiots! theres only two of them, and one of them's a little girl! Go get them dammit!' The crew seemed to be quite withdrawn from the anger that they witnessed, none the less turning from concern and beginning to divert their crowding mass around the opposition instead. Said little girl however was in quite the predicament, never really one for picking as fight as it were, despite her never really having a chance up until now in her life.. Leaving the choice of pacifism really the only choice while she lived in away from the world. 'So they want to fight?' The laughing and chuckling amongst the numerous bodies sporting all sorts of ragged and colourful clothing seemed to answer the question themselves. 'Eeeh.. I don't think I should be fighting with you guys.' The strange counter-logic which came from the girl didn't seem to phase them in the same comedic sense it usually did, they were ready to brawl, no doubt about that. 'I guess theres no reasoning with them anymore..' That however, paused them in their tracks, shaking their hands as she shrugged at the lot of them.

'Oioi, you attacked us twice, did you forget?'
'Y-Yea! But... Uuuh.'
DONK!

Her body had lurched forward, smacking the nearest target across the head while they made their gestures. 'That's it! Get 'er!' Despite all her presented strength, by that example showing her above and beyond any of the men that stood before her, she still felt obliged to protest. 'Stop! Stop making me defend myself!' With closed eyes and a panicked squeal with every swing, ducking through the ranks she submerged into the numbers as bodies began to trail in the jumbled hordes attempt to follow her along.. Even bodes began to launch from the dog-pile like situation that sprawled all over the corner of the dock. A sudden obvious feminine yell came from the core of minions, all of them launching back into a ring formation around her while she spun her bat in circles, oblivious to their cease-fire of blunts and blades. Suddenly stopping in her repetitive cycle, she opened one eye to see the many bodies left complaining and flung around her. 'Oh hey, I beat some of them.' With that vision of inspiration beneath her feet, she placed one on a nearby fallen opponent, posing with a pointed weapon to the remaining enemies who littered her vicinity. 'Yooosh!~ Now I'm all pumped up!' She was practically sparkling at this stage, leaping off the body and jump-kicking another into the sea behind him.

'Muwhahahahaha!' Her triumphant pose regardless of the countless enemies that still stood before and around her continued until someone stopped it for her, giving her a quick swing of their mallet as she deflected it away with a squeak, skidding along the ground back into the general circle shaking anxiously for the next attack. 'Unlike you, I'm not going to strike you while you're off guard, Petite Pirate!' She froze solid, her limbs locking up straight and narrow as if she was pretending to be a needle, slowly turning her head to the large shadow which rose behind her. 'You think you're the only one with a little hidden strength?' Her jaw dropped, though where maybe some sort of fear was expected as the now hulking captain smirked with more then just evil intent, he near growled at the chuckling fit she collapsed into. 'Thats awesome! you're like a giant now!' He was hardly a giant, his muscles however tripling in size, making him a giant of his former self. 'You may have caught me off guard before, but now that I'm in my ambitious form, you don't stand a chance!' He spared no time in explaining either, something Tetra was eager to know, throwing a hammer-like fist towards her. The impact crushed the ground around it, the small girl barely rolling off to the side and grinding to a halt.

'How do you do that?!'
'You should be more focused on the fight at hand!'
'... Uuuuungh!'
'W-What are you doing now?'
'I'm trying to become giant too!'

It doesn't work like that!
'Aww..'

[EriChar]

“I’ll gut ya lik’a-“ You’d be surprised just how effective that a heavy blow with the ‘sheath’ of a bladed walking stick could be when delivered to the right area; perfectly capable of stopping motions and even speech if hit in the right area, and if that location happens to be their trachea, the flow of air into the lungs could even be one of those things to come to a halt, obviously facilitating the aforementioned cessation of movement and vocalization that the speaker suddenly felt as Charlemagne Strangeways planted the club-like weapon concealment into his neck.
“Oh, sorry, you were saying?” There was time for a small, smart act of sarcasm from the blonde-topped battler before he was set upon by further pirate foes, a chance to impart a little insult on top of the debilitating injury that forced his opponent to slump onto the dock in front of him.
With a sharp, swinging swish, a blade aimed for the skull of Mr Strangeways instead met with only the empty space it once occupied, separating a few dragging strands of hair which were lacking the pace of the escaping head and allowing those tresses to flutter free in the air; dancing through the space between Charlie who turned to face his newest challenger.

I’ve gotten out of shape… This many would have been a morning warm up back in those days… Finding himself to be a little bit behind on his own intake of air, like his recently collapsed pirate foe, taking a deep inhalation as flakes of black paint were cast into the atmosphere alongside the golden hairs as the sound of clashing steel rung through the air, the enemies sword having been forcefully struck by the makeshift baton in the boat owner’s left hand. Wielding his dual offensive with masterful efficiency, like the two differing armaments were two ends of the same weapon, Charlie’s sudden strike with his baton was followed by an even stronger strike with the sword in the young man’s opposite hand, an action which was facilitated by the small, circular pirouette that the swordsman performed to cast his blade around. Stylish and graceful, perhaps one might not infer the destructive potential that was held within the second strike of Young Master Strangeways if they did not see the result of the swordsman’s strike, the momentum of which carried the sharp steel of his weapon straight through that of the pirates own, disarming his foe without ever letting the other’s blade wriggle free from the grip within which it was held.

“Cheap blades break so easily, don’t they?” Catching the eye of his current combatant, Charlie Strangeways flashed the stunned man a small smile of apology before smashing his foe over the head quite firmly with the heavy sheath belonging to his cane sword, obliging a second of these brigand lackeys to collapse, before another decided it was their turn to draw the eye of the blonde young male, who happened to be squinting down the sights of a pointed pistol.
Ducking downwards more from instinct than conscious direction, the booming crack of the dark powder within the weapon’s chamber signaled its firing, and a single small, round projecting passed over the rolling back of its intended target, instead finding a resting place in the wooden railing of a ship behind the fleshy body of the male that was aimed at.

“Whoa… That’s dangerous!” The sudden necessity to move at a faster pace than he had become innately acclimatized to, did nothing to help the relaxation of respiratory motions of the young son of Strangeways, the young blonde having to gasp in a few breaths as he sped towards the gun-toting foe that stood before him. Charlie was no stranger to combat, of course, but he had perhaps let some of his ‘best’ slip away in more recent years, being challenged only by the bruisers and the bodyguards of the gamblers that had found the luck of the game not to their own satisfaction. It had been getting around to five years since this young blonde man had faced off against a fairly strong force of foes numbering in this sort of region, that time taking its toll on skills that were once a great deal sharper.
“You’ll have someone’s eye out like that…” Finding his feet again in front of the firearm-brandishing foe, the rather rough fencer that was Charlie Strangeways sank the butt of his sword into the enemies stomach, the carried force from his short wheel doing a good job of ‘knocking the wind out of the sails’ for the man he struck. With a gasp of breath, the male who happened to have recently earned the new name of ‘Char’ took a step backwards from the blow and lashed his stave over the hand that now loosely gripped the pistol, dislodging the armament and causing it to clatter harmlessly to the ground.

“Whew, you guys are causing me no end of trouble, you know…” With his foot raised onto the buckled pirate’s shoulder, Charlie let out a long breath as he waited for his body to catch up with what expectation he held for himself, ramming the first brigand into another with his heel, after spotting another one that ‘fancied a chance’.
Just keep coming and coming… I wonder how the little miss is getting on? Glancing quickly around himself in the short lull that he was afforded at this moment in the battle, Charlie caught sight of the aforementioned ‘Little Miss’, who now happened to be looking all the more petite when compared to the opponent that she now chose to face off against. Hitting the stunned second opponent with his cudgel, Charlie struck the man’s skull on either side with a rapid succession of forehand and backhand strikes, no doubt leaving the pirate hand with whatever constituted ‘cartoon birds’ for the man ample chance to perform a few rotations around his shaken brain basket.

I suppose it is a bit lacking in sportsmanship for me to bully the weaker foes… Springing from the pair of dazed pirates he had just dealt with, Master Strangeways sprinted across the dock to the side where Tetra was engaging the large pirate captain, his fingers twisting the baton-sheath within his left grip to a more reverse position, like one would adopt for a ski-pole. Drawing both of his armaments, the sword and the short staff in each of his hands, back to strike at his foe, Charlemagne engaged in his first fight with the captain of a pirate crew for a good long time, swinging his weapons across his body with the force and momentum his body and run could deliver. Contrary to the last time he had faced off against a pirate captain, at least this time, there wasn’t a hurricane sitting on the horizon…

[Tori Tori Chopper]

'Stay! Still!'
THUMP!

'Go! Away!'
CRASH!

'You're not going to win by just running!'
'I'm gunna try anyway!'

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Another heated sensation consumed the soles of her feet, the friction of her footwear sliding agaisnt the rocky tiles of the dock-yard picking up trail after trail of dust and cobble.. Launching off in the blink of an eye the moment she considered stopping as the gigantic right arm of her opponent came round for another swing. Another scar to riddle the stone-work of the area left debris to launch into the air like a stone had been dropped into the sea, Tetra suffering from some serious deja vu while the scraping of her evasive manoeuvres became a slowly familiar sound. Her flips and spins away from each strike ended with a narrow miss at best, the constant need to push her limits just to avoid a single attack beginning to wear away at her system, sharp breaths escaping after every minute lull of action. Her strain had cost her the opportune moment, and in a quick flinch of finding footing had that same ferocious fist soaring towards her. The impact was deadly, with such force that her body was nearly magnetised to the right hook as she attempted to tumble over its initial contact.

After the sluggish swipe of his whole arm, he had felt the small being it had hit fidget and scurry all over his hand, his arm being used as a staircase to hie upper body before he was even fully aware. The small figure had taken to using momentum once more against the much larger being she faced, running up his stretched out limb and slamming her force into an ungrounded arc of her weapon precisely onto the pirates skull. Counting her blessings, despite the monster of a man's neck folding inwards from the sheer force of collision, and in turn hurling himself unwillingly into a heap on the ground, The little miss had slid down his other side, landing with a much more delicate tap agaisnt the surface as her enemy did.. Once again presenting her unnatural strength upon the unlucky soul in one obliterating blow. She didn't bother turning around this time, her body slightly slouched from the straight legged landing causing a bit of back-lash on her muscles, her long hair dancing around in front of her as the wind the falling had caused mimicked a cushion being pushed out from him in all directions.

'Jeez, pirates are pretty tough..' She brought her bat up to her face, scratching an itch with the wooden surface while she turned to examine the after-math of her second blow, a sudden recoiling upon movement as the connecting punch from moments ago seemed to have had more of a lasting effect than she thought. The sudden cough and clench of her stomach sent specks of blood to paint the gray palette beneath her feet, wiping her hand across her mouth to see that there was more where that came from. Despite the obvious internal injury she had sustained, she seemed to stretch it off as her adversary regained his footing for round two. She would have continued her duck, dive and dodge routine around the now lump covered though obviously enduring mammoth of a man had a third party not suddenly catapulted in from the side-lines with what could only be described as a flurry much more effective as the girls prior combat phase. The Captain began to take the pressure but not without consequence, strike after strike having him take steps back from the attacker in a constant state of defence.

'H-Hey! I was totally gunna try that next!' The small temper tantrum had her stomping the ground with arms uncontrolled and frantic, deciding that she would take the chance to rest up on the otherwise weaker remaining foes who her current companion had also dealt with in their majority. The guy had just walked all over them and then skipped over the to head honcho without so much as a second thought! It was certainty something Tetra showed envy towards, mumbling and bickering with herself as the remaining foot soldiers of the crew attempted to tail their elegant target, only to collide with the tip of a more intentionally blunt instrument as their previous opposition, taking steps back or spiralling back in the case of two who were unfortunate enough to be on the front lines, and directly in front of the anger-venting swing. Her foot pressed firmly onto the recently fallen, the man flailing in panic as best he could between conciousness and pain while she bared fangs to the slowly retreating accessories of piracy. 'Think's he's better than me, huh?!' The wide and sharp eyes moved back, fixated on the person below her as she grabbed hold of his legs in hooked arms.

'I-I don't know?! The Captain's pretty strong!'
'Oh yea? well he won't mind this then!'
'Nonono-ooooaaah!~'

Before the grown man could even count his blessings, or contain his masculinity, he was spinning around in the air like a windmill before being violently and suddenly thrown off in Charlie and the Captain's general direction, the petite pirate wobbling on the spot with her hand to her forehead, blinking slowly and examining her surroundings after what seemed to be an unintentional spur of actions. 'Woah, I don't know what came over me..' A confused look towards those more mentally stable over the last few minutes were simply stunned and treading away from girl in question of sanity, others realising that the only way to bring her down was to use their remaining yet still evident numbers. 'I better deal with you guys before going back to him.. He's strong even without you guys..'

'Give me a minute though, I'm so tired all of a sudden..'
'Oi, who do you think we are right now?'
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