Dreams Start Today! Bad Luck Brings Friendship!

[Kami-Gaz]

Today was the day! Today was the day that life really began! It was the day where all of the world would be introduced to the cutest and most fashionable freedom fighter it had ever seen! A freedom fighter of short stature and incredible tastes, of long flowing blue hair and golden flecked eyes. A girl who had just woken up to her alarm blaring beside her bed with the first rays of sunshine peeking through her window. This was a different morning indeed! Why? Well firstly because she had not smashed the alarm, that usually happened every morning without fail. Secondly, she fact the young woman woke up with a smile on her usually emotionless face.

In a record time the young miss of the mansion had hopped out of bed and darted to her ensuite bathroom. By the time her maid came in half an hour later Annika had showered and dressed and was mid application of makeup. This caused the maid to startle and jump. “Miss Annika! Up so early! What is the occasion?” The older middle-aged lady in a traditional black and white maids uniform asked as she finished batting her chest just where her heart beat and smiled. “Is this to do with a new clothing line opening today?” Her grey eyes gleamed behind her half-rimmed glasses, her short cut greying brunette hair.

“No Liane!” Annika replied with a sideways glance, applying the final hint of eye shadow. “It’s a secret! I am going to do some super-secret shopping and even Fonzie isn’t allowed to come.” The girl announced just as the last putt of the dark navy blue was applied subtly under her eyes. Once she finished, she took a moment to button up the top couple of buttons of pale blue and orange lettered sport jacket. Her arms had gone through the arms and rugged on the black cuff trimming to properly situate the coat. Once it felt comfy and still showed off her midriff the young woman looked to the maid properly and cracked a small smile. “Please don’t tell Father or Fonzie that I’ve gone out. It is a surprise.”

With a soft nod Liane stepped to the side and looked at the room, the bed was unmade and yesterday’s clothes hung loosely off of the hamper by the bathroom door. “Well, if you insist Anni. I will not tell a soul, but can I ask you to bring me back that carrot cake you got me that last time you went shopping?” A small cheeky smile appeared on the maid’s face, her wrinkles curling with it in an adorable show of happiness in the memory of that treat.

“Deal!” The blue haired rascal replied as she ran over and hugged the maid, returning the soft cheeky smile. “I’ll even take you shopping for a new uniform! That one is already out of season.” The girl giggled before letting go and running out of the bedroom to let Liane give it a quick tidy up. Her mad dash for freedom was uninterrupted as she left the mansion out of a side door and out of the grounds through an over grown side gate. She had worn jeans because the bushes could sometimes scratch up her legs.

By the time the Sun was fully up Annika Stratonovski had made it to the bustling trade port, her purse in hand and a can of Pipsi in the other to help her keep awake as she waited. Why was she waiting? Well because today was the day her grand purchase arrived… Today was the day she would officially acquire her devil fruit. She didn’t know what power it held, not much else. All she had was stories. Stories that helped her form her dream to help the world.

[Bobbie]

Simon was up early that morning but no earlier than usual. With his most recent promotion, although not what he himself would have opted for, he spends most of his mornings watching over some high profile goings-about, which warranted an early alarm. This week, he was on port duty. It meant he needed to be present at the port to make sure no ‘funny business’ was going on – mainly no smuggling of illegal merchandise, ships and boats were docked correctly and officially licenced and registered, and so on. He was promised this was quiet work that wouldn’t get too crazy.

Just the way he liked it.

Once breakfast was prepared with very delicate care, and devoured less delicately, Simon carried on with his morning routine until he would finally leave his little home and make his way to the busy trade port, dressed sharply in his police uniform and his weapon securely fastened on his belt, along with other standard police officer equipment.

“Thanks, bud.” He politely said as he stepped off the yagara bull that was steered by another fellow who offered to split the rent cost and share the ride with Simon, since they were both heading in the same direction. He patted the young man’s shoulder as he got off, and once on solid ground, he offered his classic friendly smile, his dimples burrowing deep into his cheeks while his eyes were hidden behind tinted sunglasses. With a brief salute, the bull paddled off to the next stop further down along the canal.

Simon took in a deep breath of fresh air before he walked along the stone path away from the edge and before long he’d be at the port. Right on time!

With a satisfied grin, his attention went to the large shipments coming in at the port as his inner traffic warden took over and he approached the bay to help guide the ship inward as well as keep any civilians out of harm’s way. There seemed to be a lot going on at the port today – some larger ships must be undergoing repairs, as at least two docking areas were completely blocked with ships that really didn’t look like they would be going anywhere anytime soon, surrounded by scaffolding and cranes to assist with the many repairs.

“Whoa, you’ll need to move away from there, ma’am.” Panic rose as he hurriedly approached a woman who was standing dangerously close to a slowly descending loading hook that swung from the arm of a crane which she didn’t seem to notice. The woman frowned at being told what to do, but Simon’s smile seemed to quickly diffuse that situation and her body floated along to follow his instruction. With a gentle sigh, he stood there for a moment to shout out warnings to other civilians who were about to make the same mistake – and then he followed his own advice to quickly move out of that perilous spot.

He waited on the pier for the captain to moor his ship and approach the officer in order to sign off on any legalities and register his drop-offs. This was standard procedure and was usually followed by a brief inspection of goods – sometimes the ship had its own registered inspector who would simply offer a signature to confirm everything had been checked prior to docking. The quick and easy way.

Everything appearing to be in order, Simon returned the signed documents to the helmsman, the all-clear stamped by his signature as supervising officer, and he went on to assist with the next ship.

Ah, today was going to be a good day.

[Kami-Gaz]

Dock Six, that was where the young woman had to go. That was the allocated port of call for her contacts, the people carrying her purchase. The Devil Fruit that will make her strong enough to make a real difference in the world. She headed there, making her way between dock officials, the local law enforcement and people who were on some of the ferries that had arrived earlier to visit the city and had not been on the sea train.

When the girl arrived the moorings were empty, untied with no ship docked. With a frown the girl looked around and let out a pained sigh as she saw the ship slowly making its approach to the final destination. Of course! Only the ship that was smuggling weapons, stolen art and HER DEVIL FRUIT would be late. That was just the world conspiring against her, was it a sign? Was this to say she shouldn’t have spent what she had saved to buy a soul stealing, power giving fruit that gave greatness?

Well, she could wait. She had done for a month already, what was a few more minutes? It was enough time to polish off her Pipsi cola, to get some caffeine inside of her system. The people that had wandered around stuck to the rules, stayed behind the yellow lines, avoided the paths of the cargo cranes and operated any dock machinery with care. That really did fill the fashionista with confidence, and a sense of pride of being brought up on an island like this. Though she did have to stop herself from making public comments on some peoples clearly prehistoric sense of fashion.

Her ship finally pulled up just as a dock officer walked up, perfect timing. The smugglers can get rid of him and then hand her the fruit with no problems. Well, that was what she thought as she hopped over to the gangplank that had just been thrown down and secured. When the young lady arrived a well-dressed man with greased and slicked back black hair walked down the plank with his paper work. Horribly forged to a trained eye and seemingly a rush job.

“Captain Bell! Do you have my package!” Annika called before the captain could even open his mouth to announce his presence or intentions to the Port Cop/

“Ahh… Miss Annika, yes. I will get it for you just after I get the paper work in order.” He said, his voice sounding as slimy as his clothes looked. He was obviously a man that liked to cut his corners and do dodgy deals… in short, the worst kind of pirate. “Here you go good man.” He said handing over the documents.

---

Post 2            
Annika: acd1fc 

Captain Bell: 86810a

[Bobbie]

Simon approached Dock Six with confidence, mentally checking off boxes that his work for the day entailed to keep a healthy and positive morale that worked on his accomplishments more than failures. It was a good outlook that he felt always kept him going.

As he reached the mooring, he noticed the impatient girl who stood out – her clothing was just… something else. Despite looking like her outfit had little thought thrown into it, it seemed like everything just fit together so perfectly, unlike most people present at the port that day. He shifted his attention back onto the incoming ship. With a warm smile to greet the captain, despite his slimy appearance, he waited for the man to approach him, rather than rushing up to him as rudely as this girl just did.

He wondered what package a man like this could have for a sweet-looking young girl, but he decided not to question it just yet. First things first – the documents. With a friendly nod, he took the papers and lowered his gaze to look at them through the shaded perspective of his sunglasses.

The police officer almost immediately frowned – something was clearly wrong with this picture. The official template of the form was not even followed and it lacked the proper stamp at the bottom. There was a stamp alright, but it wasn’t quite accurate. The signatures of on-board inspectors were dodgy and all seemed to be simple variations of one another to the point that making out initials was almost impossible.

Oh no…this is going to be a headache. Simon glanced at the man with slick black hair to get a better look at him, masked behind a smile. This guy does not look like an easy fellow to deal with. Okay, just follow procedure… he took a deep breath and removed his sunglasses out of courtesy, his eyes twinkling as he smiled, as if they had a charm of their own. “Sir, Captain Bell?” he glanced down at the paperwork as if to confirm the name, hoping that it was actually written there somewhere so as not to reveal that he was eavesdropping earlier, then back up at the man. “I’ll need you to come with me for a moment to address some minor irregularities in this form and then you can be on your way.” He played the situation down in hopes of getting more cooperation that way as he pointed over his shoulder to a little sheltered area designated for law enforcement at the port that had a den den mushi for direct contact with the reinforcement if necessary.

He then turned to the woman, sunglasses in one hand and the forms in another, “You as well, please, miss..?” he prompted her for a name.

[Kami-Gaz]

The young woman looked over her shoulder to see the drably dressed police constable who was stood there, smiling away as happy as can be. He looked so… boring. That uninspired uniform of his whilst being effective at keeping him cool in the heat of day was just an eye sore! Hell, she had A rotation of clothes picked out for each servant and bodyguard on her father’s staff and routinely updated them to be more appealing. It helped to keep their morale high and attitude positive. Now sure this… constable Rickshaw… seemed to be a happy chap, but how he was wearing that awful uniform was beyond Anni.

“Can I just get my package first Captain?” Annika asked, shifting to look at the slime ball of a man, his own outfit being ratty and worn. It was fashionable once, a couple of decades ago in an age where pirates genuinely did wear that… but now it was just cheesy and tacky and screamed. ‘I’m a bad person come and arrest me now.’ Now the fact she was being pulled away with this sleaze ball by the policeman was just annoying her.

“Sorry Miss, Annika. I’ll get this sorted and then get you the package.” Captain bell said, a twitch appearing in his permanent smile. This client was proving to be more annoying than the massive amount of money she had dropped on them. “Yes Constable, I’ll be right with you.” He said before turning to bark some orders at his men. Simple orders, keep an eye on the ship, the merchandise and done let anyone on to the boat that isn’t him.

The young woman whilst the captain was doing that turned to face Constable Rickshaw and let her distaste be known as she pulled a lollipop from her jacket pocket and started to unwrap it. As she kept her eyes on the policeman. “You know that uniform is borderline offensive to the eyes.” The fashionista spoke in a matter-of-fact fashion before plopping the blueberry flavoured sweet into her mouth for a moment.

“Right, lead the way Constable.” Captain Bell spoke, dispelling the air of tension that was brewing around Annika and her piercing gaze that judged every fibre in the pair’s clothes. He kept the smile and moved forward. “Is there a problem with the paperwork? I think you will find it is all in order we are only transporting cutting tools, firework launchers and packages for the people of Water7.” The captain carried on, spinning his web of lies to try and pacify the good policeman.

---

Post 3            
Annika: acd1fc 

Captain Bell: 86810a

[Bobbie]

Simon’s smile wavered as he frowned ever so slightly at the girl’s request – he really did not want her going on the ship to fetch anything, but luckily the captain himself put a stop to that before Simon had to. He nodded to show he appreciated the captain’s cooperation and then turned his attention to the sound of crackling wrapper while the man barked his orders.

First he watched the wrapper unfold in her fingers, then looked up to meet her gaze, his eyebrows raising in surprise to realise that she was unwrapping the sweet without even looking at it, she was looking at him – yet she still offered no name. No matter, he nicked it from the captain’s dialogue. Miss Annika… hardly an adult miss at all, she looked so young, but of course he’d be polite.

Her next statement definitely got a reaction out of the officer. His grin grew wider and he let out a loud genuine laugh. “Oh, you think so? Well I didn’t design it myself, but I think it’s okay.” He replied, seeming to take absolutely no offence to her comment. “The nametag has got a nice border.” He added, with a light shrug and another chuckle.

His smile diminished as the captain’s voice rang through his ears again and he dialled down his chuckles to be more serious. “Right this way, both of you.” He began leading the way to the little makeshift station in the centre of the port to provide good coverage of all docks, but waited a moment to ensure that they were both following him. “Just some irregularities in the details, Captain, I’ll just need to clarify a couple of things with HQ. Cutting tools, firework launchers and packages, you say?” he asked, glancing down at the form. He quickly scanned the information printed on it – or handwritten in ink, he honestly couldn’t tell – trying to find anything that he could pin this on. Lying was not exactly his forte.

“Yes, it’s not specified very clearly here,” he gave an excuse which was technically not untrue, but he didn't know what else to say, so he quickly moved on. “It’s standard procedure, just a moment of your time. Have a seat.” He gestured to some foldable chairs placed by the stand, hoping that the man would just go and sit quietly without asking questions. Surely he couldn’t be expected to deal with this situation at the port alone. What happened to this being quiet work that wouldn’t get too crazy? This seemed pretty crazy! Who forges documents so blatantly obviously!?

He picked up the speaker of the den den mushi, trying to at least look like his nerves (and hands) were steady as he began to operate it.

[Kami-Gaz]

The policeman in drab clothing responded in a way she didn’t think he would. She assumed the man in the dead-end job would just roll over and take a jab like that and focus on work… no he had some bite to him. True he didn’t design the uniform but he could add some small personalisation… like the name tag with a fancy border. It took Annika a moment of leaning in a little closer as she sucked on the lollipop but she saw it properly now. That was cute, she had to give the man credit where it was due.

As she stepped back onto the balls of her feet, she pulled the blueberry treat away from her mouth and the corners of her permanent frown shifted in to a slight playful smile to the officer. However, before she could react Captain Bell returned from his order giving frenzy. That wiped the small smile from her face and returned the girl to her resting bitch face as she followed the pair, listening to the excuses and explanations of the sleazeball.

“Irregularities?” The captain had asked as Simon carried on his explanation. As the official pointed out some foldable chairs the captain let his visage of a smile slip with a small sigh. This was going to be a pain in the backside again. Begrudgingly he took the seat that was offered to him and sat closest to the wall at the table and watched the others to see what they did.

The blue haired sweet sucker had stepped next to the table and looked back to the constable. “Am I in trouble because the Captain messed up his paper work?” She asked, before spinning on her heel and staring down the captain and making her emotionless face twist in annoyance. “Did you lose my package?!” Her words rang out, making the captain shiver on the spot.

“No!” He adamantly retorted. “My quarter master was sick so I did the paper work!” He admitted, which would explain the quality of it and the fact it looked like a toddler could have written it better.

“Can I go and get my package?” She asked as she spun on the spot again and locked her shimmering big eyes on those of Simon, who was mid tamper with a snail phone. If it had to be processed with all of the crap that the Captain was smuggling then she was going to need to wait for months before she got it back. People could easily steal it… a devil fruit is too tempting not to eat to some people. “Please Mr Simon? It’s very important to me, I don’t want to lose it or need to wait because the prehistoric clothes wearing buffoon messed up his paper work!”

---

Post 4            
Annika: acd1fc 

Captain Bell: 86810a

[Bobbie]

Although not addressing it, Simon was quite pleased to see that his response brought a smile to the otherwise frowning girl's face. As he reached the small ‘police station’ which was more of an open tent than anything else, he placed a lot of his focus on the snail phone as an indication to those who followed him that they were to sit down quietly and not ask questions. Especially questions that he couldn’t answer without the risk of a brawl.

He wondered how many men the captain had on his ship if things escalated and what he- his thoughts were then interrupted by Annika’s voice. “We’ll have to see. What exactly is this package being delivered on the ship?” he asked, putting the task of phoning HQ on hold as he looked down at the forms again. “I don’t see any miscellaneous packages mentioned in the inventory list here, so it will need to be checked.” He mumbled with a sigh. So much for simple and quiet work. By his standards, this was turning into an utter disaster.

The girl’s next question got a quick response from the offer. “No, you can’t.” he quickly got back to making the call – if she went back and nicked whatever this package was, he would be the one who’d get in trouble for allowing said suspicious item on a suspicious ship, steered by a suspicious captain with suspicious paperwork!

He then smiled to her, “If it’s on the ship, it’s not going anywhere, I assure you. I’ve got my eye on the cargo from here.” He tried to reassure her before his call was finally answered, facing the ship to keep an eye on it as promised.

“Simoooon~! How’s it going at the port? Have any unfortunate falls yet?” the voice sang as his fellow officers could be heard on the other end laughing in the background. This was Miguel. Miguel, Simon believed, was the very reason the sergeant pushed Simon into this ‘promotion’ just because he couldn’t accept the fact that not everybody was as miserable as the lad was while working.

“Hmm, run into a slight obstacle, Miguel, some irregularities in the items description on the form.” He explained – again, all true – but he was beginning to worry that he was repeating that word too many times now. What was he supposed to do, blurt out that this was all illegally forged and whatever was on that ship needed to be confiscated? Maybe, though in a more tactical manner, but he was only one lonesome officer, and the captain had an entire crew! “It looks like a code 512 that’s causing the issue, I need some help with getting it resolved.” He paused to glance at Captain Bell. Did he know? That idiot, Miguel, better be well-versed in the codes and procedures in their handbook. “Quickly, please.” He added, before smiling yet again and letting out a chuckle, “I don’t think this gentleman would like to wait for much longer…” and there it was, Simon’s subtle cry for his own safety as he noticed the Captain appeared to be losing his patience with the occasional twitch here and there.

“Code 512?” Miguel replied in a contrastingly more sober tone than the one that greeted Simon just moments before. “But that’s-“

“Yes, the one of the items irregularities!” He laughed, now avoiding looking at Captain Bell or Annika as his back was foolishly turned to them and the ship. “There may also be a woman’s package that got mixed up in all this too which she would really like to secure sooner rather than later.” He genuinely believed the girl meant no harm in all of this was caught up in it, hoping to get her out of this mess if possible.

“We’ll send someone over with the correct forms to address the issue, Simon. Hang tight.” The other man was a significantly better liar than Simon was.

---

Simon: d2ce2f

Miguel: ffdfb2

[Kami-Gaz]

The magic words were said by the overly mean drab dressed policeman. He said that she could not go and get her package because it wasn’t on the manifest. He did however explain that he would be keeping a personal eye on it. That was a good thing, the fact he would in fact watch over it for her from here on out. It was a little comfort considering the man who was charged to deliver the small chest with the fruit in was such a buffoon.

Before she could carry on and attempt to get what she wanted from the man he continued his work by talking over the Den Den Mushi. He talked to a colleague who was clearly teasing the fellow, and just what did he mean by unfortunate falls? Was Simon accident prone? Well either way she had to pull out the big guns to convince the man to let her get her fruit.

Through the entire conversation Captain Bell watched the constable with the same slimey gaze he always fixed on unsuspecting marks. The captain was thinking he was getting away with this, a simple 512 code. Pfft, this was nothing the captain hadn’t dealt with before. Though the codes changed from port to port… what was a 512 code here in Water7? He didn’t know, if it were anything like the last port her was in it was for the wrong stamp used.

Annika listened to the call with great detail, she heard the shifting tones in the other end. She heard how Constable Rickshaw pushed on with his nice guy routine and wore a smile… He was calling in the big guns, something with Captain Bell’s work was really wrong. ‘Oh no…’ She thought as she stood and leaned over the desk where Simon was making his call. She had to think fast… then he made mention of her being innocent? THIS WAS PERFECT!

“Mister Miguel! Please I just need my package I shouldn’t have trusted this fashion show reject.” She called hoping the snail picked up her voice as she shifted her frown from annoyed to upset. This was amazing! She just had to tip the constable for his amazing ability to see innocence. With this development Annika could eat the devil fruit and gain the power she needed to finally fight the good fight… like Constable Rickshaw does but without that hassle of paper work, or being looked down on by the world government.

“Constable, this better not take too long. My crew need their shore leave so I would like to unload and send the merchandise along.” He noted, leaning back in his chair with arms crossed in a comfortable position to wait for all of this to blow over just like he had planned. Truly he was a criminal genius.

---

Post 5            
Annika: acd1fc 

Captain Bell: 86810a

[Bobbie]

Simon frowned as the girl reached over and spoke louder than him in her attempt to be heard over the call, even pulling away just slightly. He was quite sure that Miguel wouldn’t hear her and probably already ended the call, but his voice could soon be heard to prove his theory wrong.

“I thought you said a woman, Simon, that sounds like a little girl.” Miguel’s voice rang through the speaker as if he didn't realise that he wouldn't be heard - but how could he? Not daring to answer that, he looked at Annika in fear of an explosive reaction to come out of her, and he quickly felt obliged to smile apologetically on his co-worker’s behalf. It was like Miguel just had to make it a point to close off with a stupid comment, or it simply wouldn’t be Miguel. Having received no answer from Simon as the officer was busy preparing himself in case she needed to be held back from destroying the snail phone, Miguel ended the call.

Simon quickly put the receiver down to indicate to Annika that the call was over – there would therefore be no point in any shouting or snatching of the snail phone, or whatever other destructive behaviour may come next, if any at all. To be fair, her style seemed to be a verbal assault more than a physical one.

Next – captain Bell. This was going smoothly enough, he could see from the smug look on the larger man’s face that he must have thought this wasn’t going anywhere big.

“It shouldn’t be long, sir, somebody will be right over to handle the situation.” He smiled before putting his sunglasses back on, which had since been hanging on his shirt from the moment he got tired of holding them after he took them off. It would only take a couple of moments before a second officer would approach their stand with a matching uniform, apart from a few badges that were slightly different. His uniform was slightly more fancily decorated along with all the necessary tools and equipment clipped onto his belt. He also held more papers in his hands. The name-tag read ‘Miguel Spievack’.

“I’ll take things from here, Simon, why don’t you accompany this young lady to the ship to get what she wants from it? The captain and I will sort out these forms and see what went wrong.” he spoke quickly and with authority, but in a slightly cheeky tone as this also meant he’d be taking all the credit for this catch. Simon didn’t mind too much about that, but he vividly remembered the captain barking his orders at his crew not to let anybody aboard other than him.

“Go on, Constable Rickshaw, I shouldn’t need to say it twice.” He seemed to command others in the same manner as the captain, he was a very unpleasant man to work with.

Simon offered a smile and a little nod to Miguel, but his smile was actually more directed toward the captain – he’d rather smile to that slimy sleazebag than Miguel. “Permission to go aboard, captain?” he grinned at his own joke, suppressing a little chuckle. Was saying no to a Constable really an option?

Miguel inhaled deeply and looked at Simon, his eyebrows raised and his jaw very clearly tense in annoyance at this stupidly happy man.

---

Simon: d2ce2f

Miguel: ffdfb2

[Kami-Gaz]

There were few things in the world that could really bring about the Icey cold stare that could pierce the soul and freeze its target to the marrow. A stare that Annika had mastered giving over her many years of battling on the front line of fashion. Staring people down to make them leave that pair of shoes that were a perfect fit for her and the outfit she was planning was an acquired skill that even the hardest of Police, Marines and government officials couldn’t master. Annika had. And now Miguel had said some of the magic words that caused that very stare to be directed at the poor innocent snail that was only relaying the message.

In the corner of her eye, she could see the disarming smile from Simon, but no. The damage was done and the young woman was extremely pissed. The glare moved to him as he did his best to pacify the buffoon of a captain that knew nothing. “Constable Simon. Your companion has made a short but very powerful enemy today. Make sure he knows that Annika Stratonovski is not to be belittled.”

The moment the door opened that piercingly cold gaze was shot at the man who entered, in his uniform that was similar to Simon’s but Peacocked in the worst way possible. It was more disgusting that what the Constable had been wearing. The stare looked the man up and down before locking onto his face as she walked out beside Simon, and his admittedly funny childish joke. “Officer Miguel, I though Simon had a Drab outfit… I was wrong. His is tolerable compared to that garishly peacocked monstrosity you wear.” She hissed at him, not an ounce of warmth or kindness in her voice or mannerism as she walked out. Even the captain actually took notice of that as he burst into a chuckle of laughter before locking his eyes to Simon.

“Permission Denied, me Crew won’t let you on. But you can try.” The sleaze bag spat as he leaned back in his chair and waited for Miguel to come closer to start the official process of sorting the paper work out. “So, what’s wrong with me paper work?” The captain asked as the door behind Annika and Simon closed.

“I don’t like your friend… He seems very rude and it sounds like he bullies you!” Annika grumbled as the pair started their slow walk from the cabin towards the ship in question. Her little but fit frame easily keeping up with the long-legged giant that was Simon. He seemed nice and to genuinely care… which was a nice change.

---

Post 6            
Annika: acd1fc 

Captain Bell: 86810a

[Bobbie]

Simon sighed in response to Annika’s warning and simply offered a nod, unsure of what he was supposed to do in such a situation. Miguel deserved it after shooting himself in the foot like that. Then the person in question arrived, and the onslaught began. This time, Simon had a hard time remaining serious as he took in every word from the woman’s verbal battering. Frankly, he thought it was quite amusing – Miguel on the other hand did not.

Unlike Simon’s, Miguel’s reaction was a bit more aggressive as she snarled at the girl, “You watch your mouth, girl! I’m the law, you run your pretty little tongue off like that again and I’ll book you and you won’t ever see that package of yours again!” he rattled off, though Simon knew a lot of that was empty threats. He looked at Annika and then shook his head disapprovingly, though it couldn’t be more obvious that he completely approved of everything she said. Even Miguel could see it and he was very unhappy.

Simon avoided looking at Miguel, but meeting Captain Bell’s gaze was really not any better. Well, he would indeed try, though he wasn’t quite sure how he’d go about succeeding at such a task. It was starting to look like Simon would have to pull out the big guns and threaten people with arrests. Captain Bell was well on his way, after all, he was certain Miguel would take care of that.

Left in the tent with the slimy captain, Miguel dropped the ruse and immediately went for the arrest as he slapped a pair of handcuffs on the man’s wrists. “What isn’t wrong with it? Everything on here is fake and the signatures are clearly forged, though I’m not quite sure whose you were trying to imitate here.” He said, his stance shifting to pure arrogance now that he was heavily annoyed by both Simon and that girl, who apparently seems to have become Simon’s closest friend all of a sudden, enough for the pair to gang up on him! The very thought of it was appalling in Miguel’s mind.

Simon walked out with Annika, the manifesto in hand to cross reference with items on the ship, presuming he would be allowed on board. He looked down at her as she spoke, “He’s not my friend, and I don’t like him very much either.” He chuckled, “But you know sometimes you just have to learn to work with people you don’t like. ‘Bullies’ is a strong word, I wouldn’t say that.” He shrugged.

As they made their way to the ship, Simon slowed down and just took a moment to size her up – and all the people on board. He took a deep breath and swallowed hard. ‘Here goes nothing…’ he thought to himself before gesturing for Annika to follow him as he approached the gangplank.

“Stay close to me.” He tried his very best to muster up all his courage and at least sound like he was confident in what he was doing. In reality, he already felt queasy just looking at the wooden plank that was getting closer and closer.

He barely took one step and the instability of a thin wooden board as suggested by the loud creak sent a shiver down his spine. Next, he looked up to meet the first crew member who’d be keeping watch to follow their captain’s orders and prevent anyone from infiltrating. For a moment, it seemed a cat got his tongue, as Simon couldn’t manage more than a whisper. He cleared his throat and frowned, steadily gripping the papers in both hands to hide their little wobble.

“I need you step aside, sir. This is official police business and it is imperative that the items on this ship are checked and verified by me or there will be some very serious charges that your captain and all of you will be facing very soon.”

The sheer volume and strength in his voice surprised even himself.

---

Simon: d2ce2f

Miguel: ffdfb2

[Kami-Gaz]

With the advent of Miguel blowing his top when he did Annika knew she had won, a fully gown man, a police officer reacting like a petulant child to a matter of fact. Annika had dealt a serious blow with every single hollow threat he had made. All she said was his outfit was Garish, if he arrested her for that then her father would play hell and bring Fonzie along to crack some skulls. Her frown however stayed until she had left with her until they left, an unchanging face to weather an idiot’s verbal floundering.

It was good to know that Constable Rickshaw was not friends with that bully of a man, the man who was probably taking full joy in unleashing his anger on Captain Bell. At least that idiot was going to get the punishment he was deserving for being such a failure of a smuggler. “He bullied you on the phone, and me. Then is stealing your credit for doing hard work… he is a bully.” The young woman spoke simply as she walked by her companions’ side, coming to a stop at the gangplank to let him take the lead.

“Yes Sir.” She spoke plainly as her little sports shoes covered feet made their walk up the boarding apparatus of the ship. Annika was not even phased by the potential of falling as she had an amazing sense of balance and could pull some sort of acrobatics off to make a safe landing. Though she did stop to leave Simon his space as he made his attempt to talk to the goon of a man.

“I don’t care if you are a navy Admiral. You are not getting on this boat.” The man said as he stood straight from the box he sat on and squared up to the police officer that was in front of him. He had a more menacing look and an air of real menacing behind him… a far deal more superior than Captain Bell… it led Annika to think the man in the cabin was just a patsy. There to take a fall for the crew.

The girl frowned with that revelation and decided it was her turn to do some persuading. Annika skilfully slipped around Simon and lunged at the smuggler goon and poked her thin finger into his chest. “Do you not know who I am?!” She growled in the most threatening way a lollipop sucking blue haired teen can. “I am Annika Stratanovski, Daugher of Oleg Stratanovski… the C.E.O Of C.R.A.C.K Ships. I have more money than god and patience that is as thin as the material your greasy shirt is made out of. Now if you don’t want me to call my father and get him to set our body guard Folonzo ‘The Shipbreaker’ on you you should just let us on this boat and do what we need to do!”

With the start of every sentence, she prodded his chest and got commanding, her Icey piercing gaze has returned and was more damaging than the prodding finger that was making some real bruises on the simple man’s dirty shirt. Her other arm that held her purse was pressed into her hip to make her have a power stance.

“Whoa Whoa Whoa! Calm down Calm down…” The once threatening man spluttered out as he backed away from Annika and her outrage. “We can let you on, just… don’t call your father. But the Cop is going to be watched.” He said as he raised his eyes up to watch Simon and then lowered them down to the girl who was already walking past the unfortunate man to the captains cabin entrance.

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Post 7            
Annika: acd1fc 

Captain Bell: 86810a

                                                                                                           Dirty Shirt: bebebe

[Bobbie]

Simon frowned as the man met him and denied him entry onto the ship, which was not a situation he has ever been faced with before. This man was clearly not someone he wanted to mess with and seemed quite unafraid of an arrest or, well, the law in general. He couldn’t help but wonder what this tough guy would be doing working for the scruffy Captain Bell – there was a huge difference in the air surrounding these two individuals and it didn’t take much detective work to hazard a guess at which of them was the more dangerous.

The officer looked past this obstacle of a man to get a quick look at the deck and the rest of the crew. Were they all like this guy, or were they more like Captain Bell, with whom he could manage to scrape by in an encounter. Before he could utter a word, Annika was in front of him.

Her sudden but swift movements made the gangplank shake just a little, and his immediate thought was that they would fall as his gaze dropped in an instant to watch his footing and her own.

‘This woman is confident…’ he thought to himself, only confirming what could easily be determined in their initial encounter by her commentary on his uniform or the uninterested frown on her face as she stuck a lollipop in her mouth. Listening to her words, he could understand where this confidence came from, as although he’s never had any unpleasant run-ins with her father, even he recognised the name. Automatically, a smile started to form on the man’s face – this girl was his ticket in, and boy was he grateful! She handled the situation so smoothly she came across as a natural. Clearly flaunting her family name and riches with such a forward attitude was not something that she shied away from.

With the man’s comment about the cop being watched, that very same cop offered his characteristic smile that had a rather distinct feature to it, the dimples digging into his cheeks seeming to double the intensity of his grin.

“I don’t mind.” He cheekily and genuinely replied as he moved up along the board to finally be on the more level wooden dock that felt a hundred times more stable – until the boat rocked.

“Nice work, Miss Annika.” He addressed her with the title he felt was deserving of the young lady after a stunt like that, having proved to be a more effect partner than Miguel in just five minutes, if it even took that long. “Okay, let’s go have a look at the cargo. We should be looking for crates and packages of cutting tools, and firework launchers according to the captain.” He consulted the documents that were brought on the ship with him. “Then we’ll have a look for your package. Don’t go far from me and we’ll go through these one at a time.” He added, glancing at his temporary partner on the job, as he removed his sunglasses again and slipped one of the temples over the first done-up button of his shirt while the other one folded down to let them hang on his chest.

He actively needed to remind himself that she could be mixed up in all of this too and may perhaps not be as innocent as she appeared. Getting onto the ship was in her best interest as well, after all.

[Kami-Gaz]

It felt good to be recognised for her stubborn acts of confidence. her threats which she would wholeheartedly follow up on if were incredibly effective. Her disinterested frown remained as she pulled out the now completely finished lollipop stick, it caused her face to twist up in some genuine annoyance at the fact her sweetie was now finished. It caused the crew, who were moving to intercept the girl and her copper companion to have second thoughts and divert their paths away.

Each and every one of the men on this ship looked as hard boiled and experienced in this business as the last. They each carried a cutlass or other single bladed sword of some kind and a flintlock pistol attached to their belts. Whilst their clothes weren’t uniform, they all showed the signs of rough use and laborious work. The pair were being tailed by a small distance by the same man that had attempted to block their entry to the vessel, keeping his distance from the pair.

“Yes, I believe that will all be below the deck in the hold.” She said as a matter of fact, shifting her walk and heading to an open hatch that had a ladder poking out of it. That was as good a place as any to have an entrance to a hold on any transport ship. The main lift in the centre was only to be used to move cargo up and down from the place after all.

“Let’s not take too long Officer Simon, my father is expecting me home for lunch relatively soon.” She said in a loud voice that was dripping with venom to the crew of the ship that was around but with the utmost respect for Simon and his profession. He was an honest man in a cruel world. She had honestly taken a liking to the Policeman, one that made her route for him in his work.

As the young woman finished her decent down the ladder, she looked around the dim room and sighed… It was filled with unlabelled crates from wall to wall. This was going to take ages, like more time than she had planned for this to take. She was already running late as it was, there were plans for her to go to the bakery and get the Maid Liane her carrot cake. “Ugh, this place is awful!” She said as she waited for the policeman and his distant escort to make their way down into the cramped cargo hold.

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Post 8            
Annika: acd1fc 

Captain Bell: 86810a

Dirty Shirt Guy: bebebe