Post by Jade on Aug 4, 2021 21:13:43 GMT -5
Harley Post #1 / ??? Post #1A peculiar, leathery-bodied beast flew through the nearly cloudless sky, considering the ship sailing along the calm ocean below. While the creature would normally fly out over the ocean in order to hunt for fish, occasionally, one of those peculiar wooden vessels with strange, fleshy creatures would come by - and they tended to have things more interesting than the usual fare, or made nice treats themselves. But this ship was odd; there seemed to be no activity on the deck.
Slowly, the beast began a lazy descent, observing the surface of the vessel from above. Eventually, it spotted something that matched with its memories of other ships - a body, laying down upon the deck, not moving. Well, if there weren't any others about, and no good treats out in the open, then that would have to be its treat. With that decided, the beast's descent accelerated, bringing it down to descend upon the ready body-
Only to stop at the last possible second as light glinted off something, and a tip of cold, sharp metal pressed against the beast's throat. The body hadn't been dead after all, and now held its own weapon upward and outward - one cold eye, more piercing than the weapon, considered the beast as it quietly, stoically panicked. "You... Were going to try to eat me?" the fleshy creature slowly asked - and then took a slash at the beast, who hurriedly beat its leathery wings and flew straight back and away from the ship at the last possible second.
Sayuri watched the strange beast fly off before she resheathed her blade, and then properly sat up and looked about the deck. Things on the Skipping Stone were a little worse for wear after the freak Grand Line storm had hit them - parts of the rigging were torn from the gale-force winds, holes had been punched into the deck and the hull from the bowling ball-sized hailstones, and a hatch that was meant to cover some on-deck storage had been ripped up and ruined by who-knows-what. The quartermaster picked herself up and walked over to it, prodding the metal grate with the end of her sheath, and sighed as the cause for the damage became clear: From the way the metal was partially torn asunder, it was clear that the damage had been done by extremely large, extremely powerful humans hands. Harley's hands.
Thinking of the rest of the crew, Sayuri panicked for a split second - and then the last few memories from before she’d passed out on the deck came flooding back. None of the Riot Gang members had been lost overboard; the storm had passed as quickly as it had come after what had felt like a grueling eternity of manual and mental labor on her part to keep the ship afloat. But if none of the Gang had fallen overboard, and none of them were on the deck with her...
Harley raised her head from where she’d been resting on the couch as the door into the common area slammed open, revealing the still slightly damp figure of Sayuri seething in the frame. "You guys just left me passed out on the deck?!"
"Uh..." The captain considered that for a second - first looking to Lea, and then over to Holly, who was sat up at the dining table with a thick book from one of the shelves laid out in front of her. "Yeah...? You looked like you needed a nap."
Moving stealthily through the dense underbrush of the prehistoric island, the predator chased after its prey. They were the best of the best - at every turn, they caught the signs of their target's movement. Upturned dirt, where a foot had dug into the ground in their hurry. Vegetation that had been trampled under their weight. And, as the predator reached each sign, it became more and more clear that they were gaining on their-"D'Artanyan? What are you doing?"
The clothed silver cat leapt straight up into the air, out of the waist-high grass he’d been play-prowling through. He hit the ground a second later, and then stood up on his hind legs, dusting off his official-looking regalia, readjusted his little cavalier cap, and then saluted the purple-haired woman who was looking over at him with mild concern. "I was attempting to capture a small lizard, meowster!"
The woman, dressed in matching formal-looking armor, tilted her head to the side. "First off, I told you, you really don’t need to call me that. Second... Why?"
"Oh. Um." The cat took his hat between his front paws and sheepishly kicked at the ground. "I was bored."
The woman laughed a little at that - a rare thing to see, but not so rare in their time alone on this strange island together, which had been quite a treat. "Well, if you're so bored, then why don't we try to work on lunch. Shall we go hunt some real game, d’Artanyan?"