Big Appetites on Little Garden! A Hunt for Good Food!

[Jade]

Harley Post #16 / Brandy Post #16

"Gararara~! That's the spirit, Guy!" Harley called out in support of the brawny carpenter putting his best foot forth, working alongside Lea to drop one of the enraged herbivores.

Standing now in the middle of a ring of the beasts, creating a horned wall with their frills, the trio of Riot Gang members and the one Triceratops still locked in a grapple were locked into the fight. Harley put her back to Guy and Lea, wild grin never faltering even for a moment. "I've got this half, alright? You can handle the ones behind me!" Her rumbling laughter shook the earth as she pushed forward and lifted, raising the Triceratops she was wrestling off its feet, and swung the wide-eyed beast back around like the world's most awkward club.

The wall of frilled titans paused for an instant, not quite sure of what they were witnessing - and then the moving mountain surged forward, swinging their fellow down and around into their wall, bowling them over.

"GARARARARA~!"

---

A beast, not so out of place on the island of Little Garden, sprinted through the dense jungle. Brandy's amber-gold eyes flicked from points of destruction - toppled trees, torn up earth, trampled plants - up to the path ahead, ensuring that she wasn't on a course that would have her sprint into a low-hanging vine or branch.

Fortunately, the trail wasn't hard to follow by any stretch of the imagination. If she hadn't seen the woman who created it, Brandy would have almost assumed one of the more territorial monsters of Gaea Step had been let loose on the island - and then that rumbling laughter, coming from somewhere to her right. Her elongated head turned in the direction of the sound first, and then the rest of her body followed suit, rerouting.

A mere few seconds later, she broke into a newly-trampled clearing, sickle-shaped talons digging into the ground to help her brake as she took in the sight laid out in front of her: a Triceratops herd circled around something, that black-maned woman swinging one around like a club into the circle, and an enlarged... Cat... Man. Presumably the blue-haired woman was with them, unless she had wandered off on her own, but she couldn't see Lea over the massive bodies of the herbivores.

Without an ounce of hesitation, she jumped toward the back of one of the dinosaurs, shifting as she did into her hybrid form and taking out her two axes. The massive talon on each foot dug into the beast's back, locking her in place even as it suddenly reared back and roared in pain, and then brought her axes down into its neck. "What are you guys doing?!"

[The Prettiest Squish]

"Oh Brendan! Wassup? Wha-whoaaaah!!"

As Brandy came upon this ridiculous scene of madness and stupidity, she would have found the Riot Gang hard at work trying to earn their Darwin Awards with great enthusiasm. Harley, being the brute that she is, used her ancient animal as a sort of baseball bat to strike home runs with herd of Triceratops lined up before. On the side, Lea attempted to pilot her new pet Trihorncycle by riding upon its head and dragging its horns in different directions. Guy, the most reasonable of the lot was cleverly using his catlike speed to dash across the field as prey and alluring the beasts into charging headfirst into the trees, exhausting them one by one.

With the latest of the walking trident puppies down for the count, Guy took a moment to breathe when he saw Brandy come across their little playground. "M-Miss Brandy! H-Hello! Um...sorry to disturb your lovely island. The girls just needed to get some pent up energy out! Haha, oh uh excuse me~" A quick chuckle left the lad's mouth before he pounced away again, fleeing for his life from the rabid behemoths still chasing after his fuzzy tail. 

While the feline fellow ran off in search of another mighty pillar of bark to hide behind, Lea did her best to steer the armored creature thrashing and bellowing under her butt. The sponge puffed up her chest at this defiance and huffed,  "Calm down Gary! Sheesh, you're embarrassing me in front of Brainy!" A cruel mistress to her pet, Lea licked the palm of her hand and slapped the saliva ridden appendage all over the beast's face. Unsurprisingly this agitated the monster even more and caused it to buck and rock violently like the most turbulent of waves. But of course, as a master surfer, Lea felt no trouble navigating this swaying of the hips - it was rather enjoyable really, being on such a wild ride so far from the sea. So enjoyable she hardly realized that this ruckus was malicious in intent and not done to please her whatsoever. That did not stop the girl from laughing and patting Garry's horns. "Bahahaha! Now that's a good boy! C'mon aboard Brummie! There's seats for two~"

[Jade]

Harley Post #17 / Brandy Post #17

Brandy swung her axes out of the Triceratops's neck, and then down again, repeating her prior motion. The beast under her let out another pained bellow and charged for a tree, aiming to knock the bestial woman on its back into the trunk. The hunter put pressure into her axes, forcing the beast to divert from its intended path through pain, all while doing her best to actually listen to what Lea and Guy were telling her.

"What?" she called out toward the cat-man. "This isn't my island, we crashed here-" She pulled on her axes, dislodging them yet again, and then swung them inward once again - and this time, it seemed to do the trick, sending the Triceratops she'd been riding toppling forward under its dying momentum. She unhooked her talons from the beast and hopped off before it crashed into a tree and swung about to try to take stock of the chaotic situation, only to have to jump backward a moment later out of the way of another one of the massive herbivores falling from the sky.

"Oh, hey Brandy!" Harley called out, standing upright and waving toward the knight in a rare moment of relative calm - and as their eyes met, the monstrous woman was slammed into from the side by one of the still-standing Triceratops.

The purple-haired knight gasped openly, and moved to assist before she noticed that the immense momentum of the charging beast was cut short - and then the prehistoric creature was lifted off of its feet, up and over Harley's head, and then back down onto its back on the other side of the woman. "Glad you could make it! Hope you don't mind we got started without ya, garararara~!"

The half-beast knight blinked, still not quite believing the sheer strength on display - or the utter idiocy. "I... Are you guys always like this?!"

[The Prettiest Squish]

Gary the Triceratops continued to shake and buck itself around but no avail as the hollering harlot sitting atop its head was only enjoying the wild ride it provided for her. With no escape and no stamina left to use, the poor creature ran aground and collapsed between the dino-gal and mountain mistress in a heavy and arduous crumble. Ironically this was the maneuver that caused Lea to fall forward and tumble down its head. She rolled like a ball until landing at Brandy's feet before groaning from the subsequent dizziness of her descent. "Bluhhh, I'm seeing stars, dude."

The sponge did struggle a bit to get back to her feet but managed well enough by using Gary's horns for standing support until she could get the twinkles out of her head. During this downtime, Lea looked to Brandy again and beamed when questioned of their ridiculous lifestyle and antics. She proudly stuck a thumb in her chest and chuckled with glee, "Hehe! You know it, sister! Go all out, that's what the old Harlady says~" The scrawny surfer attempted a flex of her biceps but could produce about a centimeter of additional width before returning the limb to its twiglike structure.

"We've been doing this kinda stuff since, well, since we met really! I remember when Harley and I first bumped heads, she practically destroyed half the island trying to kill me, bahaha! I tell ya, hanging with these peeps are a whole bag of fun!" Lea giggled excitedly as she regaled the knight with only a crumb of her adventures with the Riot Gang. To any sane person, such events would sound horrifyingly disastrous and life threatening but for this dainty, scrawny, goofy looking girl, it sounded as though her experience with these people was a genuine blast.

"There are some downsides though," she continued, now pouting ever so slightly and looking past the beast-woman's shoulder. In the distance, a tiny furry creature darted their way through the tall grass. Once nearby, it leapt up and perched itself on the knight's shoulder guards before purring and rubbing its whiskers against the lady's cheek. Lea frowned and huffed an exasperated sigh, clearly unhappy with what she was seeing. "We got a funny Guy who think it's real hilarious to nuzzle up this random chick - but not let ME rub his belly and poke his beans, EH?!" The Maine Coon sitting atop Brandy's shoulder hissed at this sorry attempt at subtlety. A gesture the gremlin did not take lightly.

"What did you say?! Yo Brandeen, you speak cat right? What did that bastard just say to me? You wanna tussle, little Guy? Paws up, meow-therfucker!!"

[Jade]

Harley Post #18 / Brandy Post #18

While Harley brawled with titanic herbivores around them, Brandy enjoyed a surreal moment with the other two Gang members. Lea happily told her a story of how she'd met Harley - which involved the partial destruction of an island - while the large, fluffy cat that the large, muscular man had become hopped up onto her shoulder and purred loudly.

At that, the half-raptor woman stood stock still, her long tail straightening out like a rod, and her face once again began to flush. "I... I don't speak cat?" What was meant to be a strong, definitive response came out as more of a question. She haltingly placed her axes back into their holsters, and then reached up to the ball of fluff rubbing against her and gingerly pulled him off, holding Guy directly out in front of her as if she were worried he'd suddenly explode. "Why would you think I... Oh, it's because of d'Artanyan. No, see, he-"

The bellowing of a beast cut her off, heralding the beast that shortly thereafter charged through the spot where Brandy and Lea had been talking - or attempted to, as its head met the huge fist of the woman who had instigated the fight in the first place, stopping the Triceratops dead in its tracks. The absolutely baffling moment went on for what felt like an eternity, and then Harley pushed through, forcing the beast backward through the dirt.

If nothing else, that brought Brandy back to the present moment and the sheer insanity of what was going on. "I... Can tell you more about it later, if you're really that interested." She lowered herself closer to the ground and placed Guy there, and then drew her axes again and sprinted after Harley.

Not longer after, the Triceratops herd had been stacked on top of each other, forming a strange hill in the middle of the trampled section of jungle. Harley clapped her hands together and swept them off each other twice in rapid succession, and then them on her hips and beamed. "Now that's what I'm talking about! A good brawl really gets the blood pumping, gararara~!"

"Ha... You think that was exciting...?" Brandy sat against one of the bodies to catch her breath. After a moment had passed, she stood up again, running a hand through her messy hair, and smiled. "I'll tell you about some of the monsters I've hunted over dinner."

The moving mountain turned to the knight with stars in her eyes, fists raised upward. "There's bigger monsters on this island...?" she asked, childlike wonder in her voice - which was made somewhat disturbing by virtue of the fact that it was incredibly obvious she just wanted to punch them.

"N...no. Like I said, I'm not actually from here; D'Artanyan and I just crashed on this island and have been stuck here for a while."

[The Prettiest Squish]

While the two real fighters of the group finished off their last monster of the day, the sponge was doing some hunting of her own - specifically chasing her furball of a companion around the tall grass. Upon hearing of potentially more dangerous beasts to face, however, Lea's face brightened up with intrigue. "Whoa. I know Harley's tough and all but you're a pretty dynamite gal yourself, huh Bransen?" Lea stopped following the furry feline for a second to gaze admiringly at the armored knight in all her radiant glory. "There's just something I can't quite figure out though. Someone that capable should surely be able to y'know...sail off this crazy place." She tilted her head with bewilderment and blinked. "And what do you mean by crashed?"

Suddenly, a meow came from below. The bluenette looked down to admire her whiskery pal only to find the transformation was already underway; that bushy tail she'd been chasing soon retracted into its human posterior as Guy stretched back into his gentle and gigantic self. "Mmmm, that's much better! Oh, uh sorry for using you as a rest stop, Miss Brandy~ I managed to get the ones chasing me to run straight off a cliff when I shrank into that form. I'm not nearly strong enough to contend with those beasts like you and the captain here." The man nervously blushed and chuckled, rubbing the back of his hair as he did so.

But the sponge had a question that needed answering and this disturbance got in the way of that. She kicked the lad in his calf - squeaking upon impact - and crossed her arms at his inconsiderate behavior. "Uh, excuse me Guy? Wait your turn, old buddy old pal!" Lea shook her head and glanced back to the grape-haired girl with that same inquisitive look. "Like I was sayin', you keep mentioning you and the beans crashed here but I don't see a ship anywhere or nothing. Did you come from the sky? GASP! Did you come from a falling star?" Immediately, Lea made a point to get uncomfortably close with Brandy's chest, inspecting it a bit too intimately while poking at the armor with her tiny finger.

At the same time Guy stood behind her cringing with a red face at this completely inappropriate invasion of personal space. What was more irksome to him however was that he knew exactly why she was doing it as he'd heard the story of Harley and her's first meeting several times. "SIGH...Miss Lea, can we not do this again please? You're clearly making her very upset."

[Jade]

Harley Post #19 / Brandy Post #19

"... huh Bransen?"

"Brandy," the woman in question corrected, ignoring the fact that her face was heating up again under the bluenette's compliments. "And... Yeah, actually, that's not too far off. We didn't come from a falling star, though, we- Eep!"

Lea suddenly coming up and poking the knight's breastplate got a little yelp of surprise out of her as she hopped backward and held her hands over her torso to ward off any further attempts. "I- You-" Brandy's face contorted into a certifiably adorable pout. "D-don't do that. Please?"

"So you did come from the sky?" Harley asked, stepping up behind the thoroughly embarrassed knight, meeting Brandy's upturned gaze with a big grin. "I've crashed into a couple islands myself, you know. How big of a crater did you leave?"

"Uh." Brandy's flushed face reached critical levels again as she found herself staring upwards at the immense woman's face peeking over her bust, doing her absolute best to focus on Harley's red eyes and not... The other thing. "Um. N-no. We, uh, didn't. Leave a crater. It's just, we, our, uh, our airship hit some bad weather... And we went down on this island..."

"You have an airship?!" Harley mercifully decided to take a step back, leaving Brandy to take a stumbling step forward and cover her face with her hands. "That's... Like a ship that sails in the sky? Do you need to sail on clouds or something, or is it just in the open air?"

"Had. Had an airship," came the mumbled response.

[The Prettiest Squish]

Lea's opened wide upon hearing the truth of Brandy's arrival to this quaint place. She immediately looked to the carpenter with sparkles in her eyes and a drooling grin. "Did you hear that Guy? A flying ship! How cool would it be if we had one of those, eh? Ehhhh? Ehhhhhhhhhhhh????~" The lass' elbow poked into the man's kneecap like a machine gun at the rate it was going. Clearly it was beginning to get on his nerves as he adjusted his leg before clearing his throat to speak.

"Yes, well, that's very fine and dandy but I don't know how one would even begin to build an airship. That requires a whole other degree of engineering that I just don't have in my repertoire." He tapped his chin as he scanned the huntress top to bottom, inspecting the craftsmanship of her armor trying to get a clue to something. No leads. "Hmm, that being said...I'm curious what society you come from where something as sophisticated as an airship exists. That kind of technology feels like decades of years away in terms of common use." Then something unexpected happened. The carpenter began to blush and sheepishly kick at the dirt as he looked away rather upset. "S-sounds like a really cool place. Some people might really want to visit and learn how such devices work."

Then without warning Lea hopped into the air to get a closer look at the man's increasingly glowing visage, much to his dismay. "Ohhh, you're turning into quite the tomato aren't ya Guy~? Looks like someone's a little jealous they're not as skilled at shipbuilding as they thought hm?" The flustered fellow opened his eyes to the widest they could before hiding himself behind the veil of his shirt collar. "N-n-no. That's not it at all, p-p-purromise. D'oh!" It was too late, he had done it now.

"OH MY GOSH." Lea exclaimed with both hands squeezing her cheeks. She excitedly pointed at the red-hot man and turned to Harley and Brandy with the open mouthed smile of an ecstatic child. "DID YOU HEAR THAT?! PURR-OMISE! CAT PUN! OOOOOOOH, SO CUTE!~" Now that the cat was out of the bag, no pun intended, Guy was hopelessly unable to stop Lea from skipping and frolicking around his legs making kitten noises in response to his accidental flub. It was bad enough that the smuglette was the one to point it out but it was another thing to announce it in front of their distinguished and dignified guest. Brandy was such a classy woman, it'd be humiliating for him to been like this, he thought. Best to change the topic.

"Er- So! Uh - We - UM - should get back! For dinner! With food!...Yea! That sounds good!....paw right, AH FUCK - I gotta go!" Beet red in the face, the lad sprinted back to the beach while Lea continue to sing of cats and beans all to herself. "Bahaha, see ya later Guy! Ah what a fun dude, he tries to be so serious but he's such a dork, I love it~" Finished with her little teasing session though, Lea returned to their guest of honor who was still a complete mystery to them outside of her cooking and hunting skills. They had all the time in the world to beat up goons and schmucks, why not make some new friends along the way. "So Bambi," the bluefoon was now beyond aiming for accuracy at this point, "You sound like you got an interesting background, what is it you do anyways? How'd you get stuck all the way out here and whatnot? And where the heck did you learn to fight, especially with the dino power?"

[Jade]

Harley Post #20 / Brandy Post #20

All of the discussion about flying ships being super advanced got a weird look from Brandy, though she didn't interject - after all, her own knowledge of the actual construction and science behind such vessels was lacking. Guy's accidental cat puns got a small laugh from her, though, as she finally shrank back down to her fully human form. "You'd get along with d'Artanyan, that's for sure. I'd ask if that's just a cat thing, but he picked it up from my mom..."

And then, after a thorough wringing of comedy from the moment from the resident jokester, Guy slipped up again and sprinted away from the trampled battleground. Harley and Brandy both just watched him run off, not taking any steps to stop him.

"So Bambi-"

"Brandy," came the flat correction again. "And, well... Um... That's kind of a long story, and it might be easier to explain with d'Artanyan. And! Um. If you guys are interested in it, I could... Tell you about it on the way to where we've been holed up...?" The knight took a strand of hair between her fingers and twirled it, looking away from the other two women. "I mean, it's really not all that interesting, so I totally understand if you'd rather... Not..."

"You and that cat have a hideout on this island?" Harley once again turned to Brandy with childlike wonder on her face and in her tone. "Hell yeah I want to see it, I love a good hideout! What are we standing around here for, let's go!"

Just before the big brute could rush off - in completely the wrong direction - Brandy raised her hand and spoke up. "Actually... I was thinking that, maybe, we should go get the rest of your friends and transport some of this meat with us...? And then, well, if you wanted, you could... Stay the night...?"

Harley stopped and tilted her head. "Oh. Good point." She turned back around, in the direction of the beach, and then lowered herself down like a sprinter standing at the starting line. "Last one back to the beach gets cleanup after dinner!" And, without any sort of warning, she charged forth through the underbrush yet again to the sound of splintering wood and the shaking of the ground.

Brandy glanced over at Lea once before she too sprinted off in the same direction as Harley, her body shifting forward and lengthening considerably as she took on the full form of a Deinonychus, and then disappeared into the jungle.

[The Prettiest Squish]

With tensions dying down it was nice to chat among her peers in such a casual way. Contrary to popular belief, Lea enjoyed these calm quiet moments where nothing nonsensical could possibly interrupt her - "Wait. What?" The little lass opened her eye just in time to see Brandy dashing off into the woods leaving her alone with nothing but her short shorts and fragile pride on the line. "A race?...You dummies are going to race me?" She ground her teeth from side to side as her twig fingers balled themselves into squeaky fists. Lea glared into the vast wilderness and shouted at the top of her lungs, "You're on!!!" And with that proclamation, the agitated athlete sprinted back in the direction from whence they came.

---

"Hoo...hoo..whew..Hey girls..." Guy walked wearily out from the trees to greet his doctor and quartermaster with a halfhearted wave. From the looks of things his shirt was stained profusely in sweat as evident by the dark spots around his armpits and chest. With a moderate amount of effort he walked over to the beach and collapsed on his back with a massive exhale making sure to remove his bandana and fan his face with his hand.

"I. Hate. Running." he muttered mechanically. But with that dreadful marathon complete, he finally had some time to relax. As expected of a kitten, Guy enjoyed these calm quiet moments where nothing nonsensical could possibly interrupt his- "YEAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!"

His pupils burst open, bloodshot and trembling. "Oh no." Before he could react, a blue barefoot blur shot out of the jungle and landed straight on his chest, causing him to sit upright and heave with pain. The cannonball that attacked him however, gleefully bounced into the air thanks to his stomach and did a multitude of flips before landing on the sand intact.

"HA HA!! WHAT DID I TELL YOU HARLS? Ya can't outrun a surfer on land, it's a law of nature!! Isn't that right Sayuracer?" The spongeboob pointed to her past competition as a means of justifying her utterly ridiculous claim. As this was happening, poor Guy held dearly onto his sore stomach, unsure if he'd make it to the morning.

Oblivious as ever, Lea strolled up beside the man and looked to Holly for answers. "What's wrong with him? Is he gassy?"

[Jade]

Harley Post #21 / Brandy Post #21

"Oh, hello Ms. Lea!" Holly beamed as the surfer chick sprinted out of the tree line and turned to follow the blue blur's form as she passed. When it became apparent what Lea was sprinting toward, the young doctor's eyes widened, but it was already far too late to call out a warning - and she winced when Lea came down on Guy's gut. "Oof."

"Isn't that right, Sayuracer?"

The resting quartermaster didn't budge from her hammock, though she did once again raise a hand up, middle finger extended in the direction of the voice calling out to her. A moment later, the raised hand dropped back down on top of her body, setting Sayuri to rocking gently.

Seconds later, a huge shape burst onto the beach before shrinking back down to the shape of the purple-haired knight, crouched down with her hands on the ground to help keep her steady. "First," she said, entirely to herself, and then glanced upward toward the others gathered on the beach - including Lea. She popped back up onto her feet with a look of confusion, glancing between the woman she thought they'd left in the dust and the jungle behind her. "I... You... But..."

A few seconds after that, heralded by the sound of trees splitting and falling, Harley charged onto the beach and suddenly slammed on the brakes, skidding through the earth and sand a few feet and sending both in a large spray over the rest of the beach. She turned completely around toward the jungle she'd just raced through and put her hands around her mouth, beginning to bellow back the way she came. "First! C'mon, slowpokes, I'm-" She stopped suddenly, frozen in place, and then looked over her shoulder to where Lea, Guy, and Brandy were standing on the beach, in the splash zone from her rough entrance; the knight herself was using a combination of wiping and spluttering to remove the sand from her face. "... Wait, what?"

[The Prettiest Squish]

The smuglette had great satisfaction in seeing Brandy's face contort into one of confusion as she realized her placement among the racers. "Haha! That's right! I am victorious! Didn't think I was so slick, didja Bruno?" Lea hopped around on one foot and began to dance and clap around her runner-up, singing a song of triumph to herself. "I win~ I win~ I-I-I-I-I win~" The champion sprinter performed a few more tippy taps of her toes before flaunting a dramatic pose for all to admire.

But before the crowd could applaud her killer dance moves, another rustling in the bush announced the arrival of their third place winner - Miss Slowpoke herself. Through a mask of sand, Lea tried to stifle a giggle when she saw Harley boast of her supposed victory only to realize she received the bronze. "PFffffft...BAHAHAHAHA! LOOK AT YOUR FACE!" The lass scampered up her captain's body until she was perched on her shoulder yet again, legs crossed and eyes covered in sunglasses. From where she obtained said shades is a mystery a.k.a her top.

"Well, well Harloser. It looks like you're on dish duty for today. But don't be sad my dork of a captain! You never stood a chance against my sea legs, no ma'am!" She rubbed her silky smooth thighs and hummed with glee, pleased to herself at the outcome of this little game. It was still a close race to be sure, all of them arrived one after the others only seconds apart. But to the sponge's credit she was left behind thus giving the other two a head start. Nevertheless as winner of this day's contest, she required a feast in her honor. She pointed to the armored woman and proclaimed with pride, "Bronco! As you are the chef of this party, I demand a banquet worthy of a champion! Oh and uh get yourself something nice since you're the Silver and all but whatever."

And with that she hopped off of Harley's trusty shoulder and landed on the sand, toes squirming with delight. "Oh boy oh boy, more dino meat means more to eat! I hope you got plenty room for seconds and thirds, everyone~" She looked back to the Gang with raised hands, expecting a bigger celebration. Instead, the man on the floor groaned with pain and mustered up a meager, "I don't think I have room anymore, Miss Le-"

"Can it! You are going to finish your dessert and you are gonna like it!!"

[Jade]

Harley Post #22 / Brandy Post #22

Each time Lea said her name wrong, Brandy chimed in with yet another correction: "Brandy."

Harley on the other hand just rolled her eyes at the blue blur's gloating, but didn't brush the little lass off her shoulder or anything. "Uh huh," she said in response to the "sea legs" comment, and then strode across the beach toward where Sayuri was resting in her hammock. "We're gonna go hang out at Brandy's hideout. You coming with?"

The gently swaying swordswoman pretended not to have heard the question for a minute, but as her huge captain loomed over her, she eventually cracked her one eye open and glared up at Harley. "... Why are you like this?"

"You don't even have to get out of the hammock," the black-maned brute suggested. The two women stood in relative silence for a moment before Sayuri processed the offer and she rolled out of the hammock boots-first. "Aw, you don't want me to carry you?"

"You really don't understand how uncomfortable that would be, do you?" Sayuri set to untying her hammock, back turned to Harley. "Yeah, I'm not terribly excited with the idea of being carried around like a fish captured in a net for a hike through the jungle."

"Eh, suit yourself! Holly, you want a piggyback ride?"

"Oh, sure!"

While Harley bickered and bantered with her Gang, and after she'd finished removing the majority of the sand from her face and clothes, Brandy approached the silver kitty who had been working hard on cleaning and collecting the various pots and bowls they'd used for lunch. "Hey, sorry for rushing off without much warning. Do you need any help with cleanup?"

"Nope! I'm nearly done~" d'Artanyan responded, and then plopped one of the pots nearly the size of his own body down and wiped his head with his paw. "There we go. So, what are we doing now?"

"Well..."

---

The trek to the knights' hideout was quite the physical ordeal - with their full group, moving only as fast as their slowest (which turned out to be Harley, after Sayuri demanded their boss carry her as well as Holly), it was about an hour and a half hike traveling through the dense, hot, and humid jungle. In a stroke of luck, no more large dinosaurs waylaid them, and the smaller ones that fled from the group didn't catch the battle-hungry Harley's attention.

And in a stroke of even greater luck, the otherwise dull trip passed in what felt like no time at all with the company of the Riot Gang. Soon enough, they stood at the edge of a large clearing that had been carved into the jungle, and Brandy stopped and turned. D'Artanyan, who had been riding on top of the purple-haired knight's backpack filled with cookware, popped his head up and grinned at the Riot Gang. "Okay, we're here. I think now's as good a time as any to mention that it's not... Well..."

Brandy closed her eyes, inhaled through her nose, and then led the way into the clearing, where the so-called "hideout" was immediately visible. The still-smoking, mangled husk of a metal-reinforced wooden vessel, not so different in original shape from a sea-bound ship and maybe a little larger than the Skipping Stone, dominated the edge of the torn-up landscape. A splintered entrance had been opened in the bottom of the vessel, and a stomped-down section of land served as both a path up toward that entrance and an outdoor section; the tattered remains of sails had been strung up to provide some level of shelter from the skies above. "It's not much, but, well... It's better than sleeping out in the open?"

[The Prettiest Squish]

For the attention deprived tot, the long journey to Brandy's hideout was a perilous test of patience and endurance. They hiked the tallest hills, roamed the grandest valleys, braved the harshest elements and nearly died in the process. Or at least that's how Lea would describe it. For Guy and the rest, it was a mildly uncomfortable walk spanning a couple hours, max. Additionally with plenty of observational games to play during their time together, they arrived at their destination in no time at all.

With an anxious introduction to her humble abode, Brandy welcomed the Riot Gang to the place that she and D'Artanyan called home. "FINALLY!" the smallest 'adult' of the group cried with desperation. Lea was first to burst onto the scene, hopping about like a spring ooh-ing and ahh-ing at everything she saw. Guy followed close behind sharing a mutual sentiment. "Amazing!" he gawked at the architecture of the airship. "I wonder if we could try to build it backwards with a sort of - um - method that would let us know how things worked from the past?" He fumbled his way in an attempt to explain a concept he heard but couldn't quite explain or define all that well. Fortunately for him, the well explored surfer by his side had the answer to his problem, "Reverse engineering you dolt." she said as if she were the genius who coined such a term.

"Yes! That's it! I - how the hell did you - never mind...Reverse engineering some of this machinery would be highly useful if we could apply some of it to our own vessels in the future! Wouldn't you agree, captain?" The carpenter excitedly looked to Harley for acceptance over these ideas only to find Lea holding a giant quartz geode to the giant, the child and the cyclops. "Look at this shiny thing! I'm gonna put this in my room next to the lamp! Oh it's gonna look so gnarly!"

The gentle giant did his best to hide his discontent with the Gang's lack of attention but could only manage a dull grimace as his mask. Alas he sighed with exasperation and resigned his proposals for the time being, choosing instead to follow the path to the interior of the ship where certainly the more interesting parts of this hideout were to be uncovered. But first, before entering such a place, "Miss Brandy, this is a lovely place you have~ If you could please uh, give me a tour?"

In the background the shortstack continued to talk about her lustrous hunk of rock much to the very probably chagrin of one exhausted Sayuri.

[Jade]

Harley Post #23 / Brandy Post #23

"What are you talking about? This place kicks ass!" Harley declared in response to Brandy's humble introduction to the crash site-turned-hideout. A slap to the bicep from Sayuri, no doubt due to the profanity used in front of Holly, was completely ignored by the big brute. "How long have you guys been here?"

"A week or two, maybe?"

"Ms. Harley's right, this place is really cool!" Holly gave the once again blushing knight two thumbs up, and then set to carefully sliding off of Harley in order to walk herself, now that the Gang was out of the jungle. Sayuri, still being carried by the huge woman as well, similarly slipped down to the ground.

In order to distract herself from the completely undeserved praise, Brandy turned her attention over to Lea and Guy's bickering at the sound of "reverse engineering" from the bluenette. "Um. I mean, if you want to take a shot at it...? I don't really have the head for that sort of thing, myself, but from what I do understand... I... Don't know if it's half as advanced as you may be thinking...?"

"If you could please uh, give me a tour?"

"Oh!" The Guild Knight lit up, blush fading away, and started walking toward the crash site. "Sure, sure, we can do that! You guys are free to stay as long as you need, so it'll be for the best if you know where things are. C'mon!"

As the purple-haired huntress led the way, Sayuri was subjected to a session of Lea's show-and-tell for the fancy rock the quartermaster had just watched the surfer pick up. "Where did you even- Yeah, Lea, that's great, you can totally take it back to the ship, I don't care-"

---

The interior of the ruined ship opened up like a cavern as the Gang was led inside. The ship had evidently rolled onto its side during the crash, judging from the awkwardly angled walls that had once been the barriers between levels - but the majority of the space was left open, with strange, deflated bags drooping down from the walls. "Those were filled with a gas that's supposed to help keep the entire ship uniformly buoyant," Brandy explained, and then continued to lead the way through the vessel.

For the most part, the ship was fairly standard fare, although much larger than one would expect for just two people. Much of the space was given over to things to help the ship stay up in the air - tanks for storing gases, pipes controlled from a busted control panel that transferred those gases to the bags that lined the inside of the ship - and then storage. After an awkward walk, half-walking up the bent-in hull, they finally reached what had been the ship's deck, which was partially covered by another massive tarp-looking material that cast a deep shadow over the remains. "And that was the primary balloon. It provided most of the lift." Brandy cocked her head to the side, looking about the broken ship, and then gestured toward the stern. "There was a propeller that was used for going forward, and some mechanisms for steering, but... Those, uh, broke."