300 [Mission #97] [Blab/ Squash]

[Blaka]

Quite the dump this Stetson City. And compared to the rest of the Island it was like a marvellous beacon of civilisation. Plant life had taken the ruins of the other once beautiful cities. But even here in the capital, most stores were left in to the dust and mould. Sure, the little number of inhabitants left was doing their best to lighten up the mood by covering their gray skyscrapers with colourful flowers. But even the flowers' heads were hanging down today, forced to bow by the constant rainfall.

A rainfall Queen B. Melosa had not been prepared for at all. Soaked to the skin the pirate princess sprinted through the main street, past the abandoned shops, on the lookout for some place to stay. Her high-heels were stepping in a puddle every other step, hurling mud upwards onto her yellow skirt. Of course her trademark sleeveless top was drenched by now, sticking to her upper body like a second layer of skin.

Finally the Queen Pirate found a place with open doors. "Kansouchi Inn" it said on the wooden plate above the door, barely legible. Under normal circumstances the noble lass wouldn't have set foot into a shady place like this but this was an emergency!

Inside was exactly how you'd expect. Holey wooden planks everywhere, stained tabled, wobbly or otherwise broken chairs. The wind from outside was only held back by filthy curtains that were actually nailed to the wall because the broken windows sure wouldn't do the job. At least the room was relatively big. The guests had enough personal space for sure.

Given the weather, very few people had left their home today. Only a few patrons sat around the mostly empty joint, each sitting alone looking down into their beer, pondering about personal stuff. Not even when the completly soaked young lady entered did anyone but the bartender react at all.

"Oh my." said bartender was the only happy face around, a tall thin man in a black suit and a gigantic twirly mustache on his face that was so big it almost looked fake.
"No umberella madam?" the man laughed and pointed to his right where a large fireplace lit the room "take a seat so you don't catch a cold!"
"T-thank you." Melosa stammered through her teeth before wading towards the assigned table. Of course she left a trail of water on the floor in the process.

Still shivering she sat down near the fire and started by warming her hands and feet. She didn't want to have the leather smell after all. Hopefully, she thought, the trip here would have at least some use once the rain stopped. The Stetson City she had read about was a town where the gun trade was booming, not a run down sinkhole. Her book about the West Blue had to be rather old looking at this place now.

Shortly afterwards the friendly barman brought her a blanket and something to eat. The Stetson cuisine wasn't what she had read about either anymore, yet it did the job. Bread, butter and a couple of carrot sticks. Quickly the pink haired pirate munched it all up. Her footwear was dry now at least, but the actually clothing would have to be changed soon.

"Mister err..." inquired the beehive woman when the innkeepr came back to get her plate.
"Doraijin, miss. Kamban Doraijin." he smiled and bowed his head politely.
"Right, Mister Doraijin." Melosa nodded back. "Can you tell me what actually happened here? I read about the capital of gunsmiths before coming here!"
The barman's smile vanished.
"When was that?" he asked, rather aggressively, screwing up his nose "It's been like this since I was born. I don't know what you are talking about."

Taken aback by the previously so nice guy's reaction, Melosa made sure to apologise quickly:
"Sorry sir, it must have been very old information then.."
"Right." taking the plate, the mustache man grunted, turned around and walked back to his counter. "You can dry up, i'll give you an umberella then you can show yourself out!"

[Deleted]

Creaking and squeaking, the umber boards played their tune to the melancholy rainfall dropping down outdoors. The room was silent of life save for the infrequent humming of a patron on the far right side of the bar, who pleased his ears with the sound of some childhood hymn that had been long forgotten through the years. The other degenerate sacks of skin were all piled low and heavy on the wooden platforms that held them from sinking to the floor. Occasionally, a wet tapping could be heard dripping onto a splatter of liquor on the drenched floorboards, quenching the dried lumber ever so much with a, quite literally, intoxicating odor. Some of the drinkers were asleep while some couldn't bother to care about a proper posture in their stupor. Almost every single one of them were half asleep in their drunken slumber, all but one who jumped at excitement when she heard the doors to the inn opening behind her.

Jades turned her supple figure a full 180 to see the image of a drenched, pink haired lady entering the establishment. Oh? Who might you be, sweetums? A fighter? The curiosity got the best of her and she silently stood up from her liquor stained seat to stalk the unexpected visitor. For days now, Jades had been camping in Stetson out of boredom. Her stint as a pirate back south had been tiresome and mundane so she simply moved to the west for a change of pace. The only issue was that however amount of money she spent getting here was wasted as Stetson was far too remote for any true criminal activity to transpire. She had spent most of her time drinking in the inns around town and doing odd jobs just to get by. However, today, she had acquired the greatest news since her arrival. The advertisements for the job were issued all over the city on every wall you could find. There was trouble brewing in Stetson and the "Celestial" sinner wanted in on the chaos that would ensue. As she got closer to the bumblebee patterned princess, Jades noticed two swords strapped to the woman's back and knew that her initial perception of her turned out to be right. A swords-woman? Hehe, nice.

The pale pirate was ready to greet her when the bartender intruded upon this encounter, "Right. You can dry up, I'll give you an umbrella and you can show yourself out!" How rude, she thought. The woman was curious, a trait perfectly fine for one to have about subjects that were not within one's field of knowledge. If she wanted to ask a bloody question she should be receiving a bloody answer and not a boot to the rear in the cold rain. Jades walked up behind the woman, placed her hand on her shoulder and faced the crude server of this establishment with a gnarled grimace. "Yo chump, if the lady inquires give her what she desires." A click of the tongue and a subtle wink back at the girl let Jades signal that she had the stranger's back. And as much as she hated social introductions, she could manage a few gestures here and there to break the ice and ease the mood. "Speaking of giving what 'she' desires, why don't you tell me your name Pinky?" The buxom blonde spun around the woman's shoulders and leaned on the wooden tabletop, waving her hand to let the bartender know he was not welcome and proceeded to gaze back at the green eyed girl with interest. If she's the real deal, maybe this job won't be so bad, she thought to herself.

[Blaka]

Quite baffled, Melosa observed the strange pale lady standing up for her. To the pirate princess, the bartender was right to be offended at her ignorance, and furthermore had the right not to talk about it if he didn't want to. Obvioulsy throwing her out was a bit much, but she would have accepted it.

However, the barman seemed to be familiar with the blonde. Instead of retaliating he mumbled something inaudible and trotted back to his counter to wash some dishes. The Queen Pirate couldn't tell wether he was actually listening to the rather impudent patron or just waiting until Melosa was dry before throwing them both out.

At first 'Pinky' was too surprised to react in any way but quietly look up and down the stranger's figure. She was older than herself, at least two or three years. Definetely not from around here either. Instead of the dreary Stetson fashion she was wearing a white tummy shirt with an maliciously grinning face plastered on it. On top of it, a short black and red jacket and skintight pants of the same colour. Dangerous looking golden spikeplates adorned the shoulders of her jacket. A black mask only covered her eyes for some reason. Just like the Melosa, the woman's hair was tied into two pigtails and her hands gloved, by black armbands in this case.

"Thank you" the Beehive Woman finally replied with a diffident smile "My name is Queen B. Melosa, captain of the Queen Pirates. And you are? Actually, d-don't you wanna sit first?" she inquired, fidgeting around on her chair. The amount of personal space between herself and her new acquaintance was a little small for her tastes.

All of the sudden, a new guest entered the Kansouchi Inn. Barging in was a better word for it. The doors were slammed open, heavy boots stomped on the wooden floor. The noise was so loud the bee lass quickly turned around to see what was going on, ready to defend herself if necessary. A big, sturdily built man with a black goatee, huge bushy eyebrows, sharp yellow eyes and dishevelled dark hair stood in the doorframe. Clad in a black suit like everybody else with a brown trenchcoat thrown over it, he did look rather menacing. However none of the sleepy drunkards appreciated the noise he made, so loud that even the sleepiest drunk was rudely awakened:
"Today is the day people! Roseveld is coming for us all!"
Most of the bar collectively groaned.
"Damn it old fart, shut your face!" yelled somebody from the back
"We ain't afraid of a guy like that!" grouched another.
"I told you not to disturb my customers anymore!" hissed Mister Doraijin from behind his counter.

The new arrival kept standing there despite the people's shouts. In his hands he held a up a bounty poster, but it was too far away for the girls in the far corner of the room to see the name or amount on it.
"Rosepeld is brutal and barbaric and he never goes back from his word! We need to pick up arms or else he'll kill us all!" Clearly desperate for help, the man looked pleading at every single annoyed face staring at him before his eyes stopped at the two young women near the fireplace, at least one of which didn't look resentful.
"YOU!" he rejoiced "You're new here right? Will you help us!? I can pay good money if we all survive!" Not even waiting on an answer, he hurried over to their table.
"Keep your voice down at least!" the barman warned him.

"W-what's going on?" Melosa asked, worried about comments about a brutal person. Not once could life slow down, could it?
"This savage" the man slammed the bounty letter on the table "is coming to town. And the last time he left, he told me he's going to burn us all!"
Looking at the poster the Queen Bee couldn't help but awkwardly chuckle in relieve. The guy on the poster was worth no less than 50 beri. And he didn't look dangerous at all. In fact, he didn't look like a guy at all. More like a plushie. Granted, all you could really see was his head and parts of a button up shirt. But what you could see made the sceptisism of the other patrons clear as day. The head was that of a fuzzy polar bear smiling sheepishly at the camera. A monocle sat on right eye. And his shirt was riddled with a light red rose pattern. Nothing about him screamed dangerous criminal. 'Ted Rosepeld' said the letters below the picture.

Raising a brow, Melosa looked first at him, then at the masked blonde, trying to figure out if this was all a joke. But the desperate man didn't give any reason to think so.
"Please! I know the prize isn't high but Rosepel's a psychopath! We need as many people as we can to stop him and I'll pay any amount you want!"
With an uneasy smile the pirate princess carefully agreed.
"I mean...If it's that important to you...I have nothing else to do if we can't stay here..."

[Deleted]

(I don't know if I could but I didn't really know what else to write so I ended up taking control of the NPC a bit.)

Queen B. Melosa was her name. Strangely, the name fit this pink haired pirate as the very feathers that lay atop her crown surely resembled a crest of royalty. Along with the black and yellow color scheme she shared with that of a bumblebee, Jades snickered to herself the irony of having such a convenient name. She would have continued asking the swordswoman a few more questions until a ruckus interrupted her train of thoughts. "What in the hell?!, she exclaimed as a black suited brute stomped his way through the doors of the inn and stormed right in. Jades skyrocketed out of her chair with a vengeance as her hand reached down below to grasp the iron mallet strapped to her belt. For that moment, she was infuriated at the interjection until her eyes detected the identity of the man in question. "Oh hey, it's Grouch!" 

The Jolly jester sat back down as the man in the suit explained the situation to her partner. He gave her a briefing that, unbeknownst to Melosa, was already provided for the pale vixen. "Hey Grouch, I thought I was your go-to gal? Princess here doesn't need a cut of my cake, capiche?" In the same manner of a mobster, Jades' accent fluctuated from her own to that of a gangster's to define how she felt about this whole situation. Not being one to share a prize and certainly not one for cooperation, she saw no reason to let this newbie cut into a slice of her action packed day. Besides, a sword couldn't possibly do much against the number of men they'd be facing in the very near future. With her own power, Jades could send any thug flying off to god knows where without so much as breaking a sweat. All this with no slice and dice, and all of it could be done by standing around and doing nothing. That's the beauty of it. The Kidou Kidou no Mi. Not only do I get a front row seat of the violence, I'm the center of it all! Hahaha! she smiled blissfully at the thought of her domination when suddenly, "Venus! You wretched sloth!" 

"Huh?" The girl gasped at this sudden malicious exclamation. "You're the only defender I got for this town and you're sitting at the bar?! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Without a doubt, 'Grouch' was perfectly in the right to yell at this lady of laziness who spent her time in an inn enjoying some liquor rather than preparing for the inevitable attack that was yet to come. No one could argue that he had the right to berate the lone soldier he'd be paying to keep his home safe. Yet by some stretch of the imagination, and to no surprise at all, Venus Jades saw it as hostility and reacted accordingly. "I'm just waiting for the attack to happen, ya bum! You think I'm gonna stand out there in the rain playing lookout instead of enjoying a nice cup of booze indoors?" The furious fighter gestured to the woman beside her. "And if you gotta problem with me, why would you ask this bubblegum mophead to help fight? Hell, why don't you just hire us both?" At the instant those words left her mouth, she deeply regretted them. The spontaneity of her aggression had caused her to make that action quite rashly and without much thought into their consequences. Like they always did. A wave of remorse flooded her visage, twisting the ghastly white plane of skin into a mess of contortions. Her right eye began twitching whilst the eyebrows above her icy cold hues furrowed into a distressed portrayal. The opposite edge of her lip curled inward to reveal a bleached set of fangs whilst the pale, soft surface of her cheeks stretched into a tight complexion riddled in anxiety. In short, Jades was deeply regretful of her heated yet random proposal and nervously awaited an answer. Me and my big fat f**king mouth.

(I'm guessing you can have the guy hire Melosa in your post? I've been low on muse lately. Sorey aboot that.)

[Blaka]

At first Melosa had been too focused on the stranger and his yelling, but now slowly registered how her pale faced table-mate had been reacting. A rather worrisome reaction, instantly grabbing her weapon like that before sitting back down as if nothing happened. Something was definetely off about this lady. A feeling that intensified more and more the longer she was talking.

Careful not to say anything that might set her off, the pirate princess listened to 'Grouch's' and 'Jades'' conversation, wrinkling her forehead at every other word. For sure, if it was that important to her Melosa didn't want any piece of the blonde's cake. But if the only hope this sorry town had was somebody who would rather have a drink inside instead of doing what she was paid for, maybe the Queen Pirate should be considering helping out for free. Or so she though until the hammered lass dropped the term bubblegum mophead. That one coaxed an indigant gasp out of her.
Manners, woman! she thought to herself. Sure, very few people out at sea were as polite as herself, but really the bee lass hadn't done anything to deserve such an insult now did she!
Yet, the pink haired pirate was not one to hold grudges over silly things like that. Her would be partner's crazy facial reaction was enough to make her forget all that and embarassingly laugh instead.

However, 'Grouch' seemed just as enraged about Jade's words. Not about the mophead, but about the rest.
"I shouldn't pay a slacker like you anything!" he snarled back "I told you we can't let him into the town, it will be too late then! For all you know he could have started the first fires already! I....uuuuuugh!" His large fist slammed on the table so hard that the poor piece of furniture jumped up a few inches and made a respectively loud noise. For a few seconds there was nothing but silence as the goatee guy angrily stared at the female.

"Hey hey now!" Melosa tried to calm the situation before one of the parties would do something regretable "You need everyone you can get, right?" Her green hues jumped back and forth between the man and his employee to make sure she could notice fisticuffs flying at one of them fast enough to dodge. "If this Rosepeld is as bad as you say, we should focus on beating him before discussing the prize." With her index finger raised she continued lecturing the two squabblers "The lifes of people matter more than money."

"Agreed." Grouch grunted. Slightly friendlier, he turned his head to the swordswoman "If you and your...friend here are willing to help, follow me." With these words he turned around on the spot and stomped out, much to the relieve of the other patrons.

Smiling a heartwarming smile at her new sister in arms, Melosa peeled herself out of the blanket. Her clothes were still drenched and sticky, but whatever. A true pirate captain like herself wasn't made out of sugar, a little rain was nothing if people's lifes were on the line. Thus, the Queen Bee rose from her chair and turned towards the exit.
"Coming?" she yelled over her back "I bet it won't take longer than an hour!"