Of Stowaways and Men [Plot/Vanessa]

[Fluffy Horror]

Things were not looking good for either Taavi or Vanessa. The former was currently quite a bit tipsy and attempting to fight pirates while in the aforementioned state, while the latter found herself trapped in the cargo hold with a brigand set upon dognapping her!

The dog child couldn't help but preen as he complimented her breed, quite impressed this lout even knew what a Papillon was. "Wait, BREEDING? Oh heck no, I'm a virgin, dammit! I'm too young for puppies!" Screeched Vanessa in canine language as soon as she got the gist of his statement. She bolted through his reaching hands, quite adept at evading in an agile manner, tumbling through his legs and winding up on the other side of him.

She had to find a way to protect herself! She was far too tiny to fight him. It was up to her brain. Dancing out of the man's way every time he tried to snatch her, the Papillon pup scanned the room carefully, her gaze alighting on a few things: the barrels, a wooden ladder firmly lashed down, and a fire extinguisher.

Well, now or never. Darting over to the stacks of barrels, she began using her needle sharp teeth to work the firm knots out, one after another. Darting to the next stack of barrels, she began to do the same thing. As the ship tossed and turned with the fighting and the waves, the barrels, once firmly lashed to the hold, began to slide and tumble dangerously. The teen was quite adept at evading the barrels rolling about all over the place, but the pirate attempting to abduct her couldn't say the same!

As he flailed in vain, attempting to keep from being crushed, Vanessa trotted over to the fire extinguisher, hopping up and bumping into it in an attempt to free it from the hook it rested on. "Gotcha, you little-OW!" While she had been distracted attempting to get the fire extinguisher down, the man had managed to get to her and scoop her up. The motion caused his arm to bump into the fire extinguisher, which promptly came free, dropping on his toe, causing him to drop Vanessa once again.

The Papillon fruit user scattered as he hopped about on one foot. He was rapidly knocked over as a barrel took out his remaining leg, smashing to pieces and covering the man in fresh water. Daintily padding over to where he lay on the ground, stunned, the child braced the fire extinguisher between her two paws and operated the handle with her mouth, getting him directly in the eyes- and all over his body, and on the floor, and walls, as she was comically rocketed backward from the force of the spray, unable to properly brace the large item.

Slamming into a wall, Vanessa slid down into the white foam, dazed. She attempted to get to her paws, but the entire floor was now covered in a foamy white substance, the rolling barrels having quickly spread it. Uh oh. At least he was having a harder time than she was!

[tried]

After some time, Taavi finally reached the ship-connecting planks. The rickety planks didn't look to be the greatest way to reach the enemy ship, especially considering Taavi's drunken state, but nothing else came to Taavi's slightly dazed mind. However, the planks themselves were less of a problem; enemy Marines were having a shootout with Taavi's ally Marines. Both sides were attempting to stop the other from sending troops across the planks. Taavi ducked down and hit his back against what little cover the railing of the ship provided. Coincidentally, one of Taavi's buddies was part of the rifle volley and happened to be positioned right next to Taavi's current position.

"Taavi! You're alive!"

"You, too!"

Taavi was glad to see that a friend was still alive and helping out despite the situation. Unfortunately, neither could concentrate on each other. Taavi continued to think about his options while Taavi's buddy shot and reloaded every now and again, ducking out of cover when he did so. Taavi still had the loaded rifle in his sore hands but didn't shoot. The blonde's plans didn't involve this skirmish of bullets and gunpowder. Thankfully, Taavi's buddy noticed.

"Hey! Fire you jackass!"

"I need this rifle for something else!"

"What could be more important!?"

"I need to get to the enemy ship's gunpowder reserves!"

Surprised by Taavi's answer, Taavi's friend simply shook his head. That's crazy is what he'd like to say, but what else was there to do? Taavi was known for being a hard worker, but also for being sharper tool than most. If his blonde friend had a plan, then as a fellow Marine and buddy, he had to trust Taavi. Getting up from his ducked position, Taavi's buddy shouted to the rifle-armed Marines and told them to cover for Taavi. What good this would do was up in the air...literally.

"Wha-!? TAAVI!"

While his friend yelled for cover fire, Taavi had a drunken idea to get to the other ship's gunpowder reserves; the blonde Marine slung the rifle over his right shoulder, got out of his ducked position, and jumped off the railing with all his might!

---

The yipping little dog was causing all sorts of trouble and headache for the scrawny fake Marine. Was this dog worth all the beri to catch it? At this point, the fake Marine honestly didn't know. But! An opportunity has presented itself! The scrawny Marine noticed how slick the floor was. As long as he could stop himself from slipping using his cheap saber as a crutch, then he would have a much easier time than the Papillon. After all, a normal dog wasn't smart enough to maneuver around on a slick surface. The lucky tricks the dog had performed up into now were just that, lucky. At some point, the pup's luck has to run out, right?

Getting up from his fallen position using his cheap saber as a third leg, the scrawny fake Marine slowly made his way to the furry ball of beri, "Nehehehe...nice try ya twerp! Hot diggity dog, I'mma 'bout ta be rich!" He reached out slowly so as not to cause himself to fall. And sudden motion would likely cause the scrawny bastard to slip.

[Fluffy Horror]

While Taavi was drunkenly trying to blow himself up in the battle raging above deck, there was a different sort of battle going on down below: one of wits. The more intelligent of the two combatants was not immediately obvious- after all, one would not expect a dog to be smarter than even a very dumb human. But this was no ordinary dog. The dog was, in fact, a human, a smart one at that, even if she sometimes forgot that, indeed, she had not been born with four paws and fur. It was her humanity that would save her from this peril, in the end, for no dog was capable of conceiving the plots she was planning in her head.

Mentally cursing as the human thought to use his saber to get to his feet, she gave him a once-over, privately celebrating the fact that he seemed distinctly the worse for wear. Point for the Papillon pup. Carefully worming her long claws (they hadn't been clipped in a while) into seams in the wood, she made her way toward the ladder on the wall. The man dragged himself resolutely behind her, limping along with his saber for balance. Once or twice he almost nabbed her tail in their slow-motion chase scene through the very slippery foam, but she always managed to whisk it away just in the nick of time.

The chase ended as he had her cornered right against the wall where the ladder was tied. "No where to run- HEY!" The brigand was dismayed to find that she did, in fact, have somewhere to run- straight up the ladder. With the catlike climbing ability the breed is known for, Vanessa skittered up the rungs of the ladder, gripping tight with her paws and teeth. Reaching a point where he'd have to climb the ladder after her if he wanted to get her, she balanced herself precariously and began to work at the ropes tying the ladder in place. Any bump could send her flying, so she worked quickly.

Meanwhile, the pirate began climbing up the ladder after her! Just as he made a swipe for her, the final rope was undone, and the whole ladder, no longer lashed to the wall, began to fall. Uh-oh. The zoan user yelped as the ladder toppled, making a wild leap and barely managing to land atop one of the barrels not currently sliding about the room. Well, that had not gone entirely according to plan.

Vanessa had initially planned to use the ladder over a barrel as some sort of elaborate catapult (which she might have found difficult to set up in her puppy form). Fortunately for her, the man's head and part of one arm had gone right through a rung when the ladder fell, and he was currently helpless, on the ground, trapped in the ladder, swearing up a storm. Well, the ladder served its purpose, even if it was not the one she had initially intended. This way was probably better.

Furtively glancing around to make sure no one was watching, she hopped off her barrel sanctuary, staying behind it and out of view of the door. Paws became hands as she transitioned to her human form, making sure the bandit was still blind and trapped on the ground by the ladder. Picking up an intact barrel, she hauled it over and dropped it on one end of the ladder. BANG. "H-hey, what's going on? Who's here?" The man, only able to hear human footsteps and the dragging of a barrel, unable to see what was going on, began to look terrified. She did not answer him. Picking up another barrel, she dropped it on the other end of the ladder, slamming him painfully to the ground, the wooden rung of the ladder now pressing dangerously on his neck, forcing him to focus all his effort on pushing up just enough so he could breathe.

As the man grunted and gasped for air, Vanessa ducked behind a group of barrels and transformed back into her puppy dog form. She took a moment to catch her own breath- even as a human she was a scrawny thing, and hauling barrels was hard work. She didn't envy those Marines. Finally, she trotted over to the trapped, and now terrified man. He whimpered in confusion as little puppy paws rat-a-tap-tapped on his chest. She licked the foam out of his eyes so he could see her, made eye contact, and whispered loudly, so that he and only he could hear, in perfect human speech: "Who's going to believe you?"

Standing, she turned around and scuffed her paws on his chest, kicking foam back into his eyes as his howls of shock and rage echoed in the cargo hold. Hopping off of the man, she raised a leg, peed on him just for the heck of it, then trotted back to one of the still lashed barrels, glancing about as she did. Boy, she'd really destroyed this place! The cargo was basically gone, strewn about everywhere, along with broken bits of wood, foam, food, and water. Assuming her hybrid form (carefully, behind the remaining stack of barrels) once more, she removed the lid of a barrel of salted pork, climbed in, pulled the lid back over her head, turned back into her Papillon form, and started munching on meat again, content to wait out the battle now that she'd taken care of her little problem, the sobbing and gasping of the man fading into so much background noise...

[tried]

Hanging Nail

And Taavi nailed the landing! Taavi's drunken idea to use his nailing powers to climb the side of the enemy ship like a spider worked, barely. The Marine Devil Fruit user was dangerously close to the ocean waters below. If Taavi or one of his one of the four nails attached to his extremities was so much as spritzed by seawater, he'd drop into the sea devil's domain. Taavi's level of drunkenness was close to increasing with those four nails, one phantom nail for each hand and foot, but that level would slowly increase with each climbing maneuver Taavi made.

Both sides of the rifle volley, enemy and ally, were stunned by the spectacle of a drunk Marine climbing the side of a ship with no visible equipment. Though, the jump from one ship to another alone was enough to shock the masses and stop the shooting. Unfortunately, Taavi wasn't in the clear just yet. One of the enemy Marines got the bright idea to snap himself out of confusion and point his rifle at the climbing blonde Marine.

BANG

"C-cover fire!"

Taavi's buddy from earlier was able to stop the enemy Marine from shooting Taavi by shooting first. He then stuttered a blanket order which didn't technically hold any weight given Taavi's friend's rank. Thankfully, Taavi's allies didn't care about rank at the moment and simply followed orders, proceeding with a volley of cover fire for Taavi as he scaled the side of the enemy ship.

The hammered Taavi didn't pay attention to the commotion above. He simply climb up, one phantom nail at a time, slowly getting more and more drunk. The drunk Marine climbed until he reached the second to last row of cannons. He was lucky that no cannon was fired on his way up. His tipsy state allowed Taavi to be fearless, but in a reckless sort of way, if that wasn't already apparent. This recklessness if why Taavi never wanted to use his powers while on the job.

Anyway, the row of cannons that Taavi stopped climbing happened to still be firing at Taavi's ship. Through his drunken state, he was able to eek out some conscious thought, realizing that if they were still firing, they must still have gunpowder. He drunkenly maneuvered his way over to a cannon that just fired and subsequently reeled back from the force, leaving behind a small opening in which the drunk Taavi, not the conscious Taavi, decided to climb through.

"OOOOOOOH!~

We're gonna dress like Marines,
And disguise our ship.
We're gonna sink the enemyyyyyyy~

We'll rob their riches,
And pocket their pick'ns,

We're privateeeeeeeers,
And we know no shame~

Now I'm gonna reload and fire agaaaaaaaaaaain~

OOOOOOOO- AAAAAH! Who're you, mate!?"

"TAAVI *hiccup* SMAAASH! Ah, wait. I meant to *hiccup* say NAIL PUUUUNCH!"

Taavi punched the surprisingly jolly cannon operator twice and used his nailing powers to keep the enemy nailed down, adding to the overall drunken state of Taavi the Marine. What little consciousness Taavi had left allowed him to stiff out the gunpowder in the room and stumble himself towards it. Meanwhile, Taavi attempted to hum the tune of the enemy's informative song, but couldn't quite find the rhythm again. It was as if the song was put together on the spot with no regard for rhythm or rhythm. A travesty of a song, to say the least.

[Fluffy Horror]

Taavi was busy having a grand, epic, and daring adventure on the false marine ship of the interlopers. Vanessa, meanwhile, was busy doing absolutely nothing. Idly nibbling on cuts of salted pork, filling her belly once more (though not too full this time, she didn't want to puke again), the Papillon pup attempted to get some more sleep, to no avail. She'd done plenty of napping in that first barrel on their initial excursion, and now she simply couldn't fall back asleep. She was also too full to continue eating, which left her in quite the predicament: Vanessa began to grow bored. And a bored Papillon is never a good thing.

Staring at the wooden walls of her tiny, rounded, self-imposed prison, the pup listened hard to the shout above deck. Were they still fighting? You'd have thought one side would have triumphed by now! Why, if all the pirates were like the buffoon currently semi-suffocating under a ladder and barrels in the hold a few feet away from her, the marines should have easily defeated them by now. Then again, in her general experience with marines, they were pretty grossly incompetent as well. It almost made one want to whip them into shape, out of pity. Almost. Vanessa, if anything, was a girl out for herself and herself alone.

She tried playing with the meat, tossing it around. Due to the enclosed space, it mostly just hit her in her puppy face. She tried digging a hole in the meat. It was uncomfortably salty. Finally, Vanessa gave up, and decided to go above deck to see just what the heck was taking everyone so long. Popping the lid off the barrel, she hopped out, leaving the man to choke and cry on his own. Hopping up the steps, she grabbed the handle in her mouth again, turning it and allowing the door to swing open.

The scene she was greeted with was rather promising. It seems the real marines had managed to beat back most of the fake ones, who lay on the deck, dead, dying, or tied up, in pools of their own blood. However, the marines seemed to still be firing at the other ship and screaming words of encouragement to some Ta-somebody or other. As it seemed safe to roam about the deck of the ship, she did so, clambering up onto some crates to see just what was going on. That was when she spotted what everyone was yelling about. The yellow-red-green man was climbing the side of the enemy ship like a goddamn spider! He seemed a little the worse for wear, though, swaying, though she could see no visible wounds on him. What on earth was he doing?

Vanessa watched as he climbed into a temporarily empty gunport. Was he attempting to infiltrate the enemy ship for some reason? Whatever for? Was he mad? Surely the yellow-red-green man did not have a death wish! He did seem rather gung-ho about justice before...

[tried]

Luckily for Taavi, nobody else occupied the deck of cannons he entered. Now that Taavi had a couple barrels of gunpowder at his disposal, all he had to do to complete his scheme was find a way to reach the hull of enemy ship. Drunk Taavi took over and attempted his own sub-scheme for getting to the lowest level of the enemy ship. He scooped up some gunpowder from one of the barrels, dumped it into an unlocked cannon, put a cannon ball into said cannon, and lit the fuse using the knocked out cannon operator's lighter.

"Fore! Ugh, I mean *hiccup* fire in the hole!"

Taavi stood beside the cannon, plugged his ears, and kicked the end of the cannon at the last second to tilt the barrel towards the floor. The The outside of a ship is made to take hits, not the inside! Granted, the hole created by the drunk Taavi wasn't bigger than a cannon ball. Therefore, he stomped on the floor boards around the hole to widen it. When the hole in the floor was large enough, Taavi dropped a barrel of gunpowder through the hole. The barrel broke open, dumbfounding the drunk Taavi.

"Woops, didn't think that would happen. Oh well, not like I've reached the bottom floor yet. Another fire in the *hiccup* hole!"

Sober Taavi's original plan was smarter than just blowing a hole in the enemy ship. The original plan involved setting a timed explosion that would allow him to set up the explosion just right and get away. However, with Taavi being far more hammered than he originally anticipated, he no longer controlled where this plan was going. Anyway, Taavi dropped the lighter down the hole, quickly dove behind a nearby cannon, and waited for the lighter to fall on top of the pile of gunpowder.

BOOM, to say the least.

With the enemy ship being as rickety as it looked, the floorboards where the gunpowder was dropped allowed some of said gunpowder to 'leak' into the other floors below, subsequently creating a chain reaction which reach the hull of the enemy ship. Certainly not enough to sink the enemy ship, but enough to allow the drunk Taavi to continue his work without thinking too much, if he could still think at all.

"Whoowee! *cough* *cough* One more barrel ought to do the *hiccup* trick!"

As Taavi was dropping the only other barrel of gunpowder left on his level, enemy Marines flooded said level. Apparently the fighting above deck had reach the point of retreat. The enemy was no long fond of the idea of doing privateer work against well-armed Marines. Drunk Taavi over to the angry flood of enemy Marines and spoke the first thought that came to mind.

"Oh man, if I had just been a little faster, I wouldn't have had to see those *hiccup* ugly-ass enemies again."

Some of the ugly-ass enemies the drunk Taavi just spoke of didn't take too kindly to his drunk statement of truth. Those with rifles or pistols point said weapons at Taavi and attempted to fire. However, drunk Taavi simply followed behind the barrel he just dropped, landing on the floor one level down.

"Ouch, *hiccup* is probably what I would say if I could feel pain, tehehe."

The bullets of the enemy missed the falling Taavi. The only injury Taavi sustained as a twisted left ankle and a splintered right shin. If Taavi's pain wasn't so dulled, he'd be in agony. Before the enemy rushed towards the hole Taavi escaped through, he grabbed the rifle he brought with him. The barrel Taavi followed dropped further than one floor, going right down towards the hull, barely. With the little bit of consciousness Taavi had left, he pulled the trigger of his rifle, but made sure to nail the hammer of the rifle down in the meantime. Doing so would give Taavi one minute before the rifle fired. Taavi dropped the rifle down the remaining holes in the floors, aiming for the broken apart barrel of gunpowder at the very bottom of the enemy ship.

"Ask the law pizza, baby."

Taavi then stumbled towards an empty cannon port and used his nailing powers to climb out in an attempt to reach the planks hopefully still connecting the enemy ship with Taavi's ship. Those outside would be able to see Taavi doing his spider climbing again, but this time something different would happen; Taavi lost consciousness halfway towards his destination.

"Hiccup...tehehe..."

Taavi's nailing wouldn't disappear because he produced the phantom nails rather than actively controlling them. The blonde Marine simply hiccuped one last time before his head dropped backwards and the rest of his body relaxed and went limp. His hands and feet were still nailed to the ship, so Taavi looked rather silly. However, Taavi was in a dire situation that needed urgent attention!

15 seconds until the gunpowder in hull of the ship would blow up

1 minute until Taavi would fall into the ocean

[Fluffy Horror]

Leaning as far forward as the crate stack she was on would allow, Vanessa strained her ears for any sound that could indicate to her what was going on in the other ship, where the yellow-red-green man had foolishly climbed into only moments before. It was far too difficult to piece together anything that made sense, what with all the shouting going on on this ship. All of yellow-red-green man's friends were screaming encouragement to him, the fools. Someone should be screaming at him to get back! The battle was already basically won!

If she concentrated and focused, she could barely make out loud, drunken hiccuping, some rabble... And something about pizza? Was he raiding the kitchen over there? WITHOUT HER? The audacity! Vanessa skittered over to the edge of the ship, clambering up onto the railing, peering just over with her little head. There, in the gunport! He was emerging! Without pizza, sadly. And without his rifle! Had he lost it? Used it in some cockamamie plan to... To blow up the enemy ship? No, no, that was silly. Surely he wasn't so foolish as to attempt to blow up the enemy ship with himself still on it! The Papillon dismissed this far-fetched plan immediately, there were far too many factors in play for it to be viable. He'd probably just lost his rifle.

And his senses, apparently! The idiot just passed out! "HEY! NOW IS NO TIME FOR A NAP, YELLOW-RED-GREEN IDIOT!" The child barked loudly in beast language, drawing attention to Taavi's plight- and to herself.

"Oi, Taavi's in trouble, men! What do we do?" Staring incredulously at the man who'd spoken, Vanessa hopped down, ran to the life preserver (attached to a very long rope), and began barking at it, hoping these idiots would notice and throw the yellow-red-green man a line or something. She certainly wasn't transforming into a human and risking her own neck just to save one idiot.

"HEY! This dog is onto something! It wants us to save its Master!" The buffoons jumped to the logical conclusion, grabbing the floaty loop and tossing it at the passed out Taavi, trying to hook and reel him back in. The Papillon pup howled in protest, "HEY, HE'S NOT MY MASTER! I HAVE NO MASTER!" The marines took her desperate howling as encouragement, unable to understand the language she was speaking in. "C'mon boys! Let's save Taavi! FOR HIS DOG!"

[tried]

BOOM

The ship's hull was blown to pieces, causing the enemy ship to sink. The life preserver missed the unconscious Taavi, hitting the area just next to him instead. The toss was well done if not for the explosion that rocked the enemy ship. Slowly the enemy ship started to sink and still Taavi was stuck to the side of the ship, unconscious. The efforts to hook him inside of the life preserver were becoming difficult with the resurfacing of the enemy Marines.

"Swim away! Save yourselves!"

The Lieutenant of the real Marine Ship had finally dealt with his group of fake Marines, either tying them up of knocking them out cold. He noticed a bunch of his men crowding one side of his ship, yelling words of both encouragement and grief. You almost hooked him that time! Hang on Taavi! or Stop missing you jackass! Wake the hell up Taavi! He quickly made his way there to check on the commossion.

"Recruit, what's goin' on!?"

"We're trying to save Taavi, sir!"

"Taavi!? Where is he!?"

The recruit pointed towards the unconscious Taavi stuck to the outside of the sinking enemy ship. The Lieutenant then noticed the enemy retreating from their own ship. As a stern fellow, the Lieutenant was having none of this nonsense and used Geppou to rescue Taavi just in the nick of time. After all, nearly a minute had passed; Taavi was on the verge of peeling off the enemy ship and falling into the waters bellow!

As the Lieutenant returned, he barked louder and harder than Vanessa, ordering his able-bodied men to subjugate the ocean-ridden, fake Marines. He was pretty irate at the moment; Taavi was screwing around, his men were screwing around, and everybody was ignoring the escaping enemy! The Lieutenant would not stand for such disgraceful behavior!

"ALL ABLE-BODIED MARINES! SUBJUGATE THE ESCAPING ENEMY! DON'T MAKE ME DO IT MYSELF!"

The Marines stood at attention, terrified at their irate Lieutenant. They'd never seen him this furious before and did exactly what was told of them as quickly as possible. They prepared boats and fired into the water as they descended, attempting to subjugate the escaping enemy. The rest of their day would be spent chasing around what fake Marines they could find swimming near the sunken ship, desperate to reel in at least one prisoner, for the Lieutenant's sake.

The Lieutenant landed, dropping Taavi's limb body to the floor in a huff. "SOMEONE ATTEND TO THIS LAZY SACK OF- Erhmhm, I mean, someone get this recruit to the infirmary, asap! Those that aren't going after the escaping enemy, drag the already captured enemy into the brig down below! Hop to it!" Taavi was quickly scooped up and promptly taken to the infirmary one level below, as per orders. Once Taavi was able to speak and listen, he'd have a lot of explaining to do; what was he doing? Why was he unconscious? Since when did he own a dog?

[Fluffy Horror]

The dog zoan yelped as the ship was rocked by the explosion from the other ship, tossed into the leg of an observing marine, who picked her up, much to her consternation. "There, there, we'll rescue him! Don't you worry, lil' cutie!" The man soothed, stroking her head all-together too roughly with one hand as the other cradled her against his chest. "Put me down! I DEMAND YOU PUT ME DOWN!" Vanessa barked shrilly, but her doggish protests were ignored, dismissed as more frightened barking for Taavi, and only earned her more overly enthusiastic head pats. She eventually gave up and settled down in his arms, not wanting to bite him and incur the wrath of all the marines surrounding her. At least she had a better view of the ongoing rescue effort from up here.

Ugh, they kept missing the yellow-red-green man and it looked like he was doomed to a watery grave. Well, at least I tried! The Papillon pup thought rather too cheerfully to herself, the sheer incompetence of the marines beginning to amuse her. A man's life was at stake and they couldn't even manage to throw a damn life preserver properly. It was just astounding how superior she was to all these foolish people (in her own mind).

"A little to the left." Yipped the child at the man currently throwing the life preserver (they kept passing it around, hoping someone else would have better aim). Though he would be unable to understand her, she still felt satisfied that she was helping, in her own special way. After all, every time she made a noise they seemed to renew their efforts, convinced she was going mad with worry for the yellow-red-green man looming dangerously close to the waters.

Finally, someone with authority showed up. Vanessa was very pleased by the hasty manner in which the captain/lieutenant/commander/mayor/whatever rescued the yellow-red-green man and sent marines scattering every which way to do his bidding, including the one who'd temporarily abducted her, who hastily put her down with one more irritating head pat. "Freedom at last! Vanessa crowed delightedly, adding more barking sounds to the din caused by the entire ship scrambling to obey.

She trotted over to where Taavi had been unceremoniously dumped, sitting on his chest and batting at his face with a paw. "Wake up, ignoramus! This is no time to be sleeping!" The Papillon pup barked sternly. A few marines, seeing this sight and unable to understand what she was saying, "awwwww'd" at the adorable pup pawing at her "Master" to "see if he was okay".

The fellow assigned to move Taavi to the Infirmary also scooped up Vanessa, denying her her chance to escape. "Don't worry, you can sit at his bedside! I'm sure he'll be overjoyed to see you when he wakes up!" The man informed the irritated dog. Well, there went her chance to escape in the chaos. Rats.

[tried]

The orders barked out by the Lieutenant were quickly dealt with. On top of all that, the Lieutenant was rather pleased he didn't have to tell anybody to take the yipping dog somewhere else. After all, the Lieutenant hated things that barked back. With a stone wall demeanor, the Lieutenant enthusiastically looked upon the wreckage of the sinking ship, wondering who he had to thank for this. Granted, he didn't actually care and his obligation to reward hard work was almost nonexistent. Hard work is natural, laziness isn't. Why should I reward natural behavior? A philosophy of the Lieutenant, priceless.

Anyway, Taavi was quickly taken to infirmary by order of the Lieutenant. The unconscious Seaman Recruit had overused his devil fruit powers and therefore had to pay he price. Thankfully, his state wouldn't affect his liver like actual alcohol would, but his mind risked damage. On other hand, Taavi's ears were also suffering; the puppy dog just wouldn't stop yipping! Picking up the dog didn't help, that much was certain. The way towards the infirmary was just as horrible for the medics as it was for the dog, maybe more so, but the troops kept at it, doing what they were told and making sure the dog wouldn't bother the Lieutenant. However, they did rush, stumbling here and there, causing Taavi to hit walls every now and again, but rushing would get the job done quicker.

After the grueling journey towards the infirmary, Taavi was hoisted onto a rickety bed. Taavi was slowly starting to regain consciousness, maybe only taking a few more minutes to be able to open his eyes and speak. Though, moving his arms and legs would be another challenge altogether; having injured himself a whole lot during his drunken 'rampage', so to speak, Taavi was given numbing medicine in order to allow the doctors to heal his injuries. Bandages were then placed over his limbs to stop Taavi from making major movements when he woke up. Meanwhile, the Taavi's handcuffs were taken out of his pants in an attempt to restrain the yipping dog near Taavi. If the medics were successfully able to cuff the dog's midsection to Taavi's bed, then the keys would be put on a small stool next to Taavi's bed. The Marines didn't want to dog running wild in the ship and accidentally bumping into the Lieutenant. They would chase after the dog if they had to! Anyway, other injured Marines needed attention so Taavi was left alone while others were slowly brought in.

[Fluffy Horror]

Vanessa protested mightily all the way to the medical bay, squirming and yapping, doing everything just short of actually biting them- now that she had been discovered, she didn't want to make any enemies. Better to play the part they'd assigned her. At least, until they weren't looking, and she could make her escape.

Eventually, she quieted down, having come to the realization that they were not going to put her down. Alas. Hanging dejectedly under the arm of the unfortunate Marine tasked with bringing her along with Taavi, the Papillon pup observed as they repeatedly ran the man into walls and doors and such. Ouch. Hopefully that wouldn't cause any permanent brain damage.

Upon arriving in the infirmary, Vanessa attempted to hop up on the bed with the injured marine. However, a fluffy ball of Papillon, while undeniably adorable, is not very conductive to applying bandages, and so she was removed post-haste. HEY! I was sitting there! Grumped Vanessa as she was denied her prime resting spot. Unfortunately for the canine child, her complaining got her the sort of attention she didn't want, and she soon found herself roughly scooped up once more.

Hey, what are you- HEY! NO! If people thought that her barks were annoying before, nothing compared to the unearthly SCREECHING the tiny pup was now emitting from her throat as she had cold metal placed around her middle and was promptly handcuffed TO THE BED. THERE WAS NO WAY THIS HAD A HAPPY ENDING. She continued screaming loudly, pulling desperately at the metal that encircled her small ribs, lamenting the fact that she was so underfed that an object meant for a human's wrist could circle her belly.

On the bright side, she was on the comfy bed. On the downside, there was a freaking PIECE OF METAL AROUND HER MIDDLE. And the key was so close! And yet, so far. The tiny puppy struggled desperately for the stool as soon as the other marines had left Taavi alone, only to find it was just out of her reach. She didn't want to risk transforming into her hybrid form to get it- her waist was quite a bit bigger in hybrid form, and she didn't want to find out what would break first, the cuff, or her.

The only thing to do was to wait for this asshole to wake up. Trying to get comfortable as best she could cuffed to the bed, Vanessa flopped down with a large doggy sigh, fixing baleful eyes upon the red-yellow-green man as she awaited his wakening from slumber.

[tried]

Taavi's slumber was peaceful considering the pup's cries. However, Taavi was eventually able to wake up. The blonde Marine didn't know how long he was unconscious but he was in the infirmary, alone. Why alone? Probably because of the yipping dog. The other injured Marines just couldn't bear to hear the yips and yaps, choosing to tough it out in their bunk beds. Since nobody seemed to be fatally injured and the ship was closing in on Marine Base B-4, the medical personal allowed the other injured Marines to choose their resting place. Taavi and the pup were now alone to speak, so to speak.

"Ugh...my head hurts...where am I? The infirmary? Tsk, I must have used my powers too much. I guess I'm lucky that I'm even alive."

Taavi looked around, feeling his injuries in the process. Every part of his body was sore to the core, for one reason or another. However, Taavi's chest felt a little heavier than it should considering the light bandages. Taavi lifted his sore head and noticed the puppy dog from earlier, looking back at Taavi. The blonde Marine was surprised by the presence of the dog and the cuffs used to restrain the skinny thing. Taavi eventually noticed the key on the stool next to his bed, assuming his next job would be to uncuff the dog.

"Oh, it's you. How'd you get here? Ah, whatever. You can't understand me, but you can sure bark. I think I heard you in my sleep...but I can't remember. Anyway, let's get those cuffs off you."

Taavi reached as best he could, only barely being able to touch the key with his heavily bandaged hand. The real issue wasn't whether or not Taavi could uncuff the dog, but whether he should, for multiple reasons; the dog was a nuisance , a stowaway, and Taavi would have to use his power to get the key. At the moment, the dog looked to have some patience, so maybe Taavi could just not uncuff the dog.

"What do you think, pup? Should I use the power that got me in this mess to uncuff you and set you free to yip and bark wherever you want on this ship? I don't see anybody else in the infirmary, so I assume they didn't get injured, healed quicker than me, or you drove them out. If I use my powers, I might become instantly hammered...again."

Taavi signed and finally wrapped up what he felt like getting off his chest, "Fine, I'm gonna try and uncuff you, but you have to behave, deal?" Taavi looked at the dog, hoping for some response, but knew he wouldn't get a legitimate answer, "Alright, enough stalling." Taavi once again reached for the key on the stool, touched the key, used his power to nail the thick bandages to the key, and lift his arm. Knowing the time limit, Taavi attempted to hurry up, shakily moving the key to the small hole in the cuffs. Taavi missed a few times but eventually got the key in the keyhole.

"Aha! Now to turn- dammit, the nailing wore off."

The key was thankfully still in the keyhole, stuck there until an outside force acted upon it. Taavi would have to use his power again in order to nail the key to his hand, but at what cost? Taavi hesitated to use his powers again, opting instead to try and manually turn the key...in vain. The injured Marine just could not get the key to turn. The force required was just not within Taavi's grasp at the moment. However, he kept trying anyway. His attitude to a problem was simple; get it fixed now, not later. Unfortunately for the dog, she would have to wait a while for Taavi to get anything done.

"Ugh, just wait a sec...I can do thi- dammit. Ok, I can do this...just...a...little...mor- dammit. Again!"