Initiation! The 22nd Division is formed!

[Fennec]

Bitter cold. That was the best way Reynard could describe Tequila Wolf. The bitter biting cold that cut even through the thickest of clothing layers. Reynard was feeling the cold in the marrow of his bones! What sort of punishment had he deserved to end up in this hell hole? Oh, yea... that's right. Recently a new Seaman named Jon had joined the ranks Reynard and him had been butting heads. One of their craziest escapades had resulted in some damage to a minor marine base and hurt some fellow seamen in the process. Jon had been punished to work as a chore boy for a month. Reynard, on the other hand, was sent to Tequila Wolf for an investigation... one regarding recent attacks caused by the Revolutionary army. The punishment? Being sent to this freezing hell!

The seaman had been sitting on the deck of an ice breaker for a while now looking at the sea filled with chunks of ice likely the remnants of a giant iceberg. He had yet to meet his new superior which apparently had been part of his punishment. An Ensign knew as Rosalyn Lovelace... to Reynard that seemed like a lovely name! I mean it even had love in it and the name Rosalyn reminded him of roses the most romantic of flowers. His eyes turned into two red bright hearts as he tried to envision what this Rosalyn lady looked like. Probably gorgeous! But then he remembered! Rosalyn had a reputation for being strict. Reynard scratched his chin. Normally strict superiors were annoying... but if it was a cute girl with pink hair he could forgive that. At that moment his daydreaming was cut short as one of the sailors aboard the ice cutter barked at him.

"Oi lad! We have arrived!"

Yelled the man, he pointed at Reynard who instantly woke up from his trance-like state. He got all his stuff together and bowed to the sailors thanking them for the trip. In all honesty, it hadn't been all that comfortable of a trip. After all eating hardtack, every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner was not ideal for anyone not even the hardiest of sailors. But he was still grateful he had arrived at his location safely. Reynard left the ship and began to head onto the dock as his feet hit the metal dock he reached into his heavy coat pulling out a map.

"Let's see here... the office is just ahead!"

Reynard walked past many workers. Some Marine guardsmen who had a unique uniform while others wore... well slaves something the young seaman was sadly unaware ignorant about. He passed many people many of which were hard at labor being constantly monitored by guards all of which gave him bad vibes. Why was this place so strict in stringent? Something animal... a vestigial aspect of his ancestry perhaps that told him something about this place was off. No matter! He moved forward and into the main office building. Reynard opened up the wooden door and was instantly hit by a draft of warm air to his face. Something that was very welcome, the Kitsune closed the door behind himself and approached the receptionist table.

"Hello! My name is Reynard Ayoki! I am here for the Tequila Wolf investigation!"

He offered the old woman at the table who was looking over some paperwork. She was a secretary type with grey in a bun and round glasses connected with beads. The woman lifted her face to look at Reynard her face blank yet seemingly annoyed.

"Let me see this... ah yes, go down the hall and into the door to the left! Ensign Lovelace is awaiting for you there alongside the other seamen."

The woman said, her voice was raspy and sarcastic sounding yet it seemed what she said was genuine. Reynard bowed thanking her and then left! Down the hall to the right! As Reynard opened the door his heart began to pump extremely fast! The anticipation to meet this lovelance lady was getting to him! He wondered what she would look like. Reynard... opened the door. What would he find? Only time would tell... or well rather only a couple second really.

[Mr. Moon]

Daniel #1 

Cold, that was something Daniel got accustomed pretty quickly as on Terquila Wolf, the cold was omnipresent. It was already two weeks since he was transferred to this place on his own request, as this remote piece of nothing was as far away from his family´s grasp as he could get. For him, leaving his unit at Grand Line was very hard decision, but one that he had to make as he discovered, that after his first battle, his father did what was in his power to pull him off from any dangerous duties.
“As if it wasn´t enough that he tried to stop me from being enlisted at the first place”

He muttered for himself as he was watching group of slaves doing their hard work. Usually new recruits had hard time to cope with the presence of slaves and conditions they were forced to live in, but Daniel didn´t cared at all. As his orders were very clear: “Be part of regular patrol duties, look for any suspicious activity, watch over the slaves, don´t pity them and if necessary, shot anyone who try to escape.”

Clearly cut, easy to follow. His day quickly turned into boring routine that was intermittent only by regular training with his fellow seamen. Fortunately, this boredom was about to change, as his new orders were: “Join ensign Lovelace and her squad to investigate suspicious activity of Revolutionaries on the Terquila Wolf.”

“Sure”

Daniel noted for himself. Orders are orders and he will carry them out as always, even through the chances of finding real Revolutionaries were very slim, after all, why would anyone want to attack this frozen wasteland?

Either way, he wake up early for that day and headed to the briefing room almost half an hour earlier than necessary to wait for his new commanding officer and teammates. As he knew that place pretty well after few weeks spend on it, he has no problems finding the correct room, where he sat down on a simple chair and waited.

It took more than twenty other minutes for someone else to arrive. As the door opened, he glazed upon tin man who was roughly his height in the uniform of seaman recruit.

“Morning”

He nodded on his new colleague while remaining seated. If not for the military decorum he would probably started laughing at this point, because if the rumors were true, Ensing Lovelace, aside of being very strict was supposed to be giant of woman.

“Big woman leading squad of small guys, like in kindergarden that will be definitely something.”

He nodded ironically for himself.

[Fox]

Ugh. Rosalyn definitely hated it here. Although her commander had said this wasn’t a punishment, it definitely felt like one. He had decided that she needed a bit more… development as a commanding officer. Goodie. Well, at least it wasn’t the worst case. He could have buried her in years worth of paperwork. With a soft sigh, she adjusted her glasses and took a sip of some hot, steaming coffee. Her circles under her eyes betrayed how little she had slept the night before. The cold was tolerable, but the fact that this place existed rankled her sensibilities more than a little. Her commander wasn’t aware of her background, but still...

“Mm.. I do hate that man…” she grumbled under her breath as she rubbed the bridge of her nose. Glancing over at the time, Rosalyn supposed that it was time to get a move on. She had a briefing to go to, some recruits or… maybe seamen would be there. Her commander was allowing her to oversee them as a provisional sort of division. Goodie. Well, maybe she ought to look at it under a different light. It would help her rise through the ranks if she managed them well.

Shaking her head, Rosalyn rose up from her desk and headed out into the pervasively cold outside and to the briefing room. She was glad that she had designed her Needlers with enough forethought to line them with some kind of fabric. Otherwise, the metal might have burned her skin with cold.

After a fairly short walk, Rosalyn arrived. She opened the door and stooped slightly to fit under the doorway. Inside, awaiting her, were the marines that she was meant to brief. Her tired eyes looked over all of them from behind her glasses. Some of them shot to their feet at her entry, standing at attention with a prompt salute. Oh, look. They were so well trained. She smiled faintly, amused before moving to the front of the room.

“Good morning. You may be at ease,” Rosalyn said dismissively, waving them down. They looked a little tense. How cute. She took another sip of coffee before resuming. “I am Ensign Rosalyn Lovelace, and from this moment on, will be your new commanding officer in the formation of a new division.”

[Fennec]

The Fox opened the door... he was met with complete and utter disappointment. A man... there was a man some random Seaman. Reynard's cheeks got a light shade of pink as he blushed in embarrassment. Seriously? Just a random Seaman? Where was his boss?!? Where was Rosalyn Lovelace!? Reynard felt cheated... no, he had been cheated! He thought to himself. No matter, this seaman was going to be his comrade... he figured the least he could do is kindly greet him and take off the dorky expression he had. Reynard dusted and stood up straight.

"Hi... I am Reynard."

The Fox finally spoke up bowing respectfully to the other man in the room before going to take a seat. After about three minutes of utter disappointment, the room began to be filled with other seamen all of which began to take seats... all the seats had been taken... all but one. Someone must have been running late Reynard thought to himself. Finally, the time came and Rosalyn entered the room! Everyone rose to their feet and saluted the ten-foot woman. Reynard spotted the pink hair... and the nerdy looking girl who donned it. Wow! He thought! Not exactly what he envisioned but she was most certainly cute. He'd be sure to buy her some roses to show her his admiration soon enough.

[Mr. Moon]

Daniel #2 

Daniel didn´t know who the other guy expected but his disappointed face almost made him burst in laughter, almost. Fortunately he was trained too well for such things and so he immediately mastered his expression as he was standing up from his seat to greet the fox man according to the military code.

“Seaman recruit, Daniel Ortiz.”

He paused for a moment, before adding

“nice to meet you”

So he wouldn´t sound to strict to his new colleague.

With all this formalities behind them, Daniel sat down once again to wait for their commanding officer, only to repeat this procedure several times over as the others were gathering in the room. Finally, the Ensign Lovelace came in, so for the last time, Daniel shoot up to give her proper military welcome with the salute and other things, staying up until she allowed them to sit back again.

As he was looking at her, he had to disagree with all that crazy stories he heard about her. She really was giant of women, standing almost three meters tall, but with the pink hair and nerdy look she was everything but imposing. Strict? Maybe, but threatening? Not even in the slightest.

[pepsi]

Tap tap tap tap.

The sound of her footsteps echoed in the corridor as she made the run of her life. "The first day I'm supposed to be on time," she thought, "and I'm running late?" She dodged the guards trying to ask her where she was going, and tried not to look back when some of them yelled at her for leaving such a mess behind. It didn't matter, she would have picked it all up in a matter of minutes.

Turn left, turn left, then right. The room where her superior, Ensign Lovelace, was supposed to give her speech was just a few steps ahead. Nora grit her teeth and ran as fast as she could; maybe a little too fast. After turning, she couldn't put on the brakes fast enough, after noticing the door was closed.

SLAM.

A fine, sparkly dust oozed from below the door into the room; purple glitter, permeating through the gaps of the wooden frame. What a spectacular entrance, was it not?

She slowly reached for the handle, and turned it. She was sure, absolutely sure, that everyone in the room was looking at the door right that moment; so in an act of pure audacity, she zoomed in and saluted. Given the disposition of the people in the room, it wasn't difficult to identify her superior. "Sorry I'm late, Ensign Lovelace! It won't happen again, ma'am!" she yelled, trying to straighten out her spine.

The dust seemed to follow her as she moved towards the single empty spot in the room; strangely, the blue patterns of her white Seaman recruit clothes sparkled the same exact way.

[Fox]

Rosie’s eyes scanned over the lot of the marines assembled before her. She scooped up a clipboard off of the desk behind her and leafed through the memos silently. Ah. Yes. So, there was one recruit missing and one who had been only temporarily assigned to her. How fun. She lifted up her eyes to look right at Daniel Ortiz.

“You there. Seaman Ortiz, yes? I don’t know if you’ve been informed, but your tenure with the new division is only on a temporary basis. Don’t get too comfortable.”

She took another sip of coffee before continuing and addressing the lot of them. “Now then, our-“

SLAM!

Rosie cut off abruptly as something or someone crashed into the door. When she looked over, Rosie was half-surprised that there wasn’t a comically shaped indent in the door. Oh well. The sparkling dust oozing out from under the door was vaguely concerning though. Someone actually did open the door, and Rosie was… well, mildly amused to see that it was the recruit that was running late. What an audacious girl, saluting and apologizing like nothing had happened. Oh well. Rosie took another sip of coffee and glanced back down at her clipboard. Quite the rag tag bunch.

“See that it doesn’t, Seaman Leblanc, or it will be an amusing punishment for everyone but you,” Rosie said with a calm menace, flipping over one of the pages of the clipboard. Ah. There it was. “Now that everyone has assembled, I’d like to welcome you all to the 22nd Division. Some of your tenures will be shorter than others, but we can let that aside for the moment. Command has gotten wind of Revolutionary activity near Tequila Wolf. We’re to investigate it. Questions?”

Rosie glanced down at her cup of coffee. Hm. She’d have to see if there was any tea in the officer’s quarters. This coffee was really not to her taste.

[Fennec]

Ok, let's get it out of the way. Reynard is a bit of a perv. So when he saw the tan sparkly woman with pizzazz walk in along with the pink-haired geeky girl. He was overwhelmed! Reynard had more than one type... well... he liked almost all types. That is to say he had none. A woman was a woman and they all had different things that appealed to him. His eyes got into two pink hearts as he looked around! Back and forth between the commanding woman and the sparkling woman.

It... it was too much. He bit his lips as his face began to turn a light shade of pink, then red, and finally purple. What came next was a show. If a stream of tears was called waterworks... them what was a stream of blood called? Blood works? A jet of crimson warm blood came out of Fox's nose shooting him up high like a rocket.

CRASH

He slammed into the roof. Half his body sticking out as his legs twitched comically! All the disappointment from early was gone now! His patience had been rewarded! He had been rewarded with not just one beauty but two! As he was stuck up there he began to daydream. Playing ring around the roses with the two of them in an open field full of tiny pink flowers. Ah... yes... how lovely.

"I... I am in... l-love."

[Mr. Moon]

Daniel #3 

Daniel was surprised...no, that wasn´t the right word. He was shocked by the state of division in making. Not only there was someone coming late for the meeting, but the marine in question wasn´t looking like a marine at all with all that sparkling dust and extravaganza. He clenched his teeth in silent protest, rolling his eyes, when the recruit sitting next to him was propelled up in the ceiling by his own nosebleed, claiming that he is in love.

Daniel silently sighted. His previous commander was right when he complained about discipline of many marine officer.

“Ah well.”

His attention was attracted by ensign Lovelance´s voice, addressing him directly.

“Yes ma´am”

He confirmed his identity to her, before hearing what she wanted to say to him. The fact, that he was only temporally assigned to his division was surprise to him, since he explicitly asked for permanent reassignment, but it probably shouldn´t be as he knew already way to well how far his father´s money could reach.

“Understood ma´am”

He said very formally once again and shifted on his chair a little bit sideways so his uniform wouldn´t be stained by Reynard´s blood.

Since he didn´t have any additional question, he staid silent, but his mind was working on at full speed. Revolutionaries on Terquila wolf? So the rumors were true? Now that was definitely interesting. Up until now, he never met any members of this much feared group, so he was naturally curious about how much was their reputation deserved.

[pepsi]

Nora's shoulders became a little tense after she was addressed by her superior in such a cold manner. It wasn't different from life with her parents after all - always the same story, she thought. Mess up, get punished, mess up again, get punished again. She pouted ever-so-slightly, acknowledging the reality of her situation: was punishment the only way of straightening a misbehaving kid?

Casually she looked to the side, only to find a boy looking back and forth between her and the Ensign. He had definitely noticed her: that little attention was definitely music to Nora's ears.

Right afterwards, however, the boy looked rather unwell - Nora was genuinely worried. When he finally rocketed into the ceiling leaving behind a trail of blood, worry became amusement: she grinned, and partially covered her mouth with one hand. Did the boy get so excited just from seeing her? "Well then," she thought, "it's one man down already." She made a mental note to wink at him next time their eyes would meet.

Nora listened to what her superior had to say. Revolutionaries? In Tequila Wolf? That could have spelled real trouble, but it was also a possibility for her to finally prove herself - imagine if she had caught one of them!

When question time came, Nora knew she had to make up for her past mistake - and one way was, in her mind, to show interest in the topic at hand. How? Naturally, by asking at least a question.

She immediately raised a hand, and when given the permission to speak, she'd say: "How recent is this activity? Is there a chance Revolutionaries could still be around here?"

[Fox]

Hm. Very… interesting. Rosie stared at Reynard as the man totally lost his composure. A spray of blood shot him up into the roof and sent him crashing through it. She made a mental note not to pit him against any woman pirates or revolutionaries. While she was vaguely amused and had a morbid curiosity on whether he would survive losing that much blood, it was also slightly annoying. Daniel gave her a short acknowledgement, hiding his… exasperation perhaps? At the antics of Seaman Recruit Leblanc and the idiotic with his top half in the ceiling.

At least one of them showed some initiative and asked questions, though Rosie was a little surprised that it was Leblanc. Ortiz seemed more the type. Rosie just nodded to Leblanc as she raised her hand like a girl in a classroom. Good questions too, though the answers were more obvious to someone like her who had encountered them recently. Perhaps this was the true reason for her reassignment. Setting down her coffee on the desk, she walked over to where Reynard was firmly planted in the ceiling and answered her by sliding her jacket back.

Underneath the jacket was her arm in a sling, still healing from the damage that Deman Reeves had done to it back in Loguetown. At the time, it had merely disabled her, but not having both hands was a true inconvenience. Getting dressed was a particularly unique challenge.

“I’d say fairly recently. I encountered a small cell in Loguetown not long ago where I received these injuries.”

Reaching up with her good arm, Rosie grasped Reynard’s ankle and slammed him back down into the floor. She might have broken the chair or him in the process, but she didn’t much care at the moment. “I would say that Tequila Wolf poses itself a prime target for Revolutionaries, and this cell in particular. Fortunately, I possess intelligence about this particular cell. Their leader is a white haired man named Deman Reeves. It’s possible he will be wearing a mask of a white tiger. He’s a skilled sword fighter and highly intelligent.”

Rosie made her way back to the front of the room and drew a very derpy looking rendition of Deman on the board. Her artistic skills weren’t the best. Next, she drew what she remembered of the Fishman accomplice. This ended up looking barely like a person. “He’s accompanied by a sniper. A fishman. After their attack on Loguetown, they freed many slaves, notable among them was a devil fruit user who can elongate the environment into sharp spikes.”

This time she hardly even tried to draw him. She just drew a face with spiky hair. She thought it looked decent enough. She supposed that it was also worth mentioning Kikori Suto. His involvement with the Revolutionaries was questionable given his massacre, but she figured he was worth mentioning. She just drew an angry bug face for him with dinky looking chainsaws. She didn’t really need to, given that he had a wanted poster.

“During their attack, Kikori Suto also appeared and caused casualties on both sides. We don't know if he’s associated with the Revolutionary cell, but I suppose he’s worth mentioning. Any more questions?”

[Fennec]

Reynard flinched as his head stuck through the roof hitting the bottom of a bed that was in the room above. Lucky for him no one was in the bed or in the room to startle or that would have been a whole other can of worms. The Fox looked around the underside of the bed his head was stuck under. It was dusty and dirty filled to the brim with junk. The bloody nosed pervayoki gave a sneeze clearing some of the dust and revealing a rat munching on a piece of moldy pizza in the corner of the darkroom. That scene was utterly repulsive and Reynard's face scrunched itself in a visage of disgust.

"Dear God, this is disgu-"

But before he could finish his statement he felt warm hands gripe his legs followed by the feeling of being tugged below. However, it seemed whoever tugged him had not planned on creating a cushion for the poor lad and as such he came crashing down onto the wooden floor splintering it. Reynard felt his head rang as he viewed Ensign Lovelace's face of amusement mixed with disappointment. Well... multiple faces... twenty-two if he had counted correctly. This normally would be a dream for the pervasive fox if it were not for the fact he was in excruciating pain. He lifted his upper body up and shook his head.

"Th-thank you, Ensign."

He managed to utter, his voice a bit all over the place due to the major disorientation caused by the slamming his head had taken. He finally managed to get up and dust himself! Standing straight and taking his place next to Ortiz. He turned his bloodied face to look at what his superior was pointing out on the board. Revolutionaries? That's what they were after? In his time as a Marine Reynard had fought some pirates, defeated a Mobster and been in a tussle with a serial killer. Never had he interacted with Revolutionaries, as a matter of fact, he didn't know they existed.

Reynard played close attention to the woman drawing comical figures on the board. Some guy called Deman and a few other companions of his. Stuff Reynard had never heard of but it seemed important given what they had been dealing with. The other thing that confused him were slaves... he thought slavery was illegal. That... something was not right. That train of thought was however broken thanks to the newest addition to Rosie's roster of caricatures. A familiar despicable face with immensely recognizable chainsaws. His face was overtaken by a pallor color. He sure hoped he would not have to meet Kikori. That man still haunted his nightmares a bit.

"You... fought Kikori? I fought... Kikori... man almost shred me to bits. I am surprised I still have all my limbs."

[Mr. Moon]

Daniel #4 

Daniel was sitting in the briefing room, with a perfectly neutral face, which was as far as possible from the real state of his mind. This division looked like a bunch of pretty crazy weirdos, far away from his ideal of how marine division should look like, but on the other hand, If they could get the job done, who was he to judge them?

Sitting on his chair he was carefully listening to both the questions of the sparkling lady and the lengthy answers of their officer, who was describing to them cell of revolutionaries that she encountered on Loguetown.

“Guy with a white tiger mask, sniper and devil fruit user.”

He got a slight goosebumps from the last one, as his last encounter with a Devil Fruit user almost ended in catastrophe, but quickly collected himself. There were no need to worry. Not all fruit users had to be monsters and after all, he was definitely more prepared than the last time.

He tried his best to imprint into his memory both their description and the rough sketches of them provided by the Ensign, but than she mentioned another name, without further description capturing his attention especially given the way Reynard reacted to it.

“Kikori...Kikori...should I know him...oh yes...”

The proverbial bulb turned on in his head as he suddenly remembered.

“You mean “The Mad Butcher” Kikori? Isn´t he just a some low ranking pirate with a bounty of...what was that 6..no 8 millions? What so wrong about him?”
This question was directed to both of them despite the fact, that Daniel was looking straight at his current commanding officer.

[pepsi]

Nora's interest turned to worry when her superior mentioned the wounds - not to mention when she extracted the man like an old dead weed and slammed him into the ground. She gasped, and the sudden motion induced a tiny cloud of sparkling glitter.

When the Ensign started drawing the portraits of the supposed cell, Nora felt the need to look away in order to not laugh it out loud. She looked left and right, hoping to catch other Seamen doing the same thing. It was impossible, she thought, to understand what they looked like - impossible with those portraits. She even had to stifle a laugh when the Ensign drew bug antennae on the last one.

Still, she figured that the more questions, the better she would've looked in the eyes of everyone in the room. So she raised her hand high up again, and asked: "If we were to confront one of them directly... What should we do?"

[Fox]

Rosie’s eyes fell on Reynard as his expression shifted from its usual nonsensical, if attentive, one to a pallid color. Hm? Kikori’s name had struck a nerve. Curious, she listened to his explanation. Ah… so that was it. He’d had an unfortunately close encounter with the madman. Hm… Rosie hadn’t had nearly as much trouble with the man, though she had found him an extreme annoyance. Perhaps she ought to have prioritized his capture over Deman’s… No. She had made the correct decision given what she had known at the time. She would just… be more wary of Deman the next time. Things would not go quite the same way. Rosie glanced to Daniel as he spoke up, nodding in answer to his question.

“Yes, Mad Butcher is an apt description. He slaughtered several marines and civilians at Loguetown recently. He’s fast and rather durable. Paired with his unique… adaptations, he can be rather formidable.”

It was Nora speaking up that allowed Rosie to easily segue into her next point.

“If you confront one of these individuals, first call for backup with your Den Den Mushi. Be specific about which it is… I’ll need to know to dispatch the appropriate reinforcements to send, and then… capture them if you can, or else stall for reinforcements to arrive. Above all, do not let them escape. Understood? Good.”

Putting the chalk back down onto the board’s tray, Rosie turned back to her newly assembled troops. This room would suffice for the moment. The roof was already broken as it was, so what was the harm in breaking things just a little bit more? Rosie walked around to the front of her desk and gestured for the marines assembled to rise.

“Now… Clear a space. We’ll need room to assess your combat abilities. Consider it a way to get to know everyone. Who wishes to go first, hm…?”