Post by Jade on Aug 24, 2021 18:55:17 GMT -5
Harley Post #31 / Brandy Post #31"Yes, I believe so," Brandy called back. "Sorry to keep you all waiting, I just needed to get-"
"The recipe book!" D'Artanyan's head popped out from between two boxes that had been loaded onto the cart, followed by the rest of his body as he vaulted himself out of the cart entirely in order to run up to Brandy. "It would've been real bad if we fur-got that!"
"Recipe book?" Harley and the Iguanodon tilted their heads at the same time. "You mean like a cook book?"
"I... Suppose it's not that dissimilar, but..." The knight reached a hand up to her face and swept her hair back, giving her an excellent excuse to look away from Harley and Sayuri. "Kind of the opposite? It's a book I'm filling with recipes, from all of the places we go. So I guess it will be a cook book?"
Harley looked over to Sayuri, and the two held eye contact for a few seconds - long enough for the quartermaster to realize that her captain was about to say something monumentally stupid, but too short to stop the thought from coming out. "Huh. I didn't know people made cook books."
"You..." Sayuri pinched the bridge of her nose, and then took a deep breath before continuing. "What, did you think they just sprang out of the ground, fully formed?!"
"Pfft..." Captain, quartermaster, and dinosaur looked over in unison toward the purple-haired knight standing a little ways away. "Hahahaha! Y-yeah, no," Brandy's laughter transitioned into a giggling fit, through which she did her best to keep talking, "people have to put them together. Hahahaha~!"
Harley's frown lasted all of two seconds before she cracked a grin and joined the knight in laughing. "Gararara! I guess that is pretty obvious, gararara!"
It took another minute or so before the laughing came to an end - and then the three women and the cat set out from the clearing, Sayuri steering with the reins that had been attached to the Iguanodon's head and Harley walking alongside the prehistoric steed to ensure its continue cooperation. And in the cart, among their things, Brandy sat cross-legged with d'Artanyan on her shoulder, a pen in hand, and the book of recipes cracked open in front of her.{The Grand Steel Flotilla, Snake Route, Grand Line}
"Heeeeeeeeeeey, Captain~" A young woman's voice came from the partially-ajar door of the small office, heralding her presence before she poked her head in through the gap, bright blue eyes and blonde pigtails visible but nothing below the nose. "You still got time for lil ol' me with that fancy new title you got~?"
The young man with steel-grey hair looked up from the papers at his desk with a frown and a sigh, but he waved the girl in. "I wish you'd act a little more professional, Clara. Come in, please, and make sure you close the door behind you. What is it?"
Clara slipped in through the door and made a show out of carefully closing it behind her, doing it as slowly and silently as possible with just one hand before turning around to see the Captain's reaction - and then went into a giggle fit at his look of sheer exasperation. "Well, look at you in your new office! I've gotta say, Xander, Captain-hood really suits ya."
"Clara..." Xander sighed. "Look, it's not that I don't appreciate the visit, but I'm really very busy. Can this wait until I'm done for the day?"
"Well, it coooooooooould..." Clara took up the end of one of her pigtails and twirled it around her index finger, smiling coyly as she sat herself on the edge of the Captain's desk. "But I thought you'd like to see what some of our old pals were up to." The hand that had been intentionally hidden from him since she entered was produced from behind her back, an unmarked file in hand that was summarily slapped onto his desk, on top of the paperwork he'd been filling out.
Xander met the young woman's eyes - joyless steel-grey staring down the wicked mirth in her blue - as he reached for the file and opened it. His eyes narrowed as he processed what he was looking at, and then he slammed the folder shut and chucked it toward the door. "Those idiots."