A Bugwatcher’s Dream: A Beetle-ful Encounter

[Bobbie]

Alabasta Island… this was the place Susanna’s father needed to be to follow a lead for his work. It was meant to be their weekend together back at Water 7, though she wouldn’t have minded too much if it had to be postponed - Jason, on the other hand, was ridden with guilt and so he came up the brilliant solution of taking his daughter with him here, to Alabasta Island!

Susanna was excited to travel, but less so under these circumstances. However, she did not want to offend him, knowing that her father was a lot more sensitive than he generally seemed to most people, so she agreed and put on the most enthusiastic face she could - which was not very different from her usual bored, unsmiling expression.

Now, here she was at Nanohana, alone, right where her father left her to pick out a nice perfume as a gift, though it seemed more like a bribe to silence her complaints of him leaving her stranded in a foreign land to go and chase after some information on his target. He had at least left her with the address of their hotel and a hand-drawn map of all the island.

With a sigh, she walked through the streets, clutching her hand bag tightly as if it would somehow grow a pair of wings and fly away from her if she dared to release her grip for just a second. Within it, her sketchbook was securely tucked away, as well as the money her father had given her to find a nice perfume and treat herself to it. It was a nice gesture, but despite his efforts, she sometimes felt like a stranger even to her father - she was too anxious to walk through the streets like this, talk to a shopkeeper and ask to smell different scents until she found one she liked. Instead, she kept her head down as she picked up on so many smells, some spicy and some sweet, but most of them sickeningly pungent to her.

I’ll just pick one and buy that. One that will use up at least half the money dad gave me so he wouldn’t make me come back for another one… she thought to herself as she stopped outside a shop window, her long hair tied in a high horsetail that was long enough to go well past her hips nonetheless, her bangs reaching her middle.

Her brow knotted with worry, the young Suzie took a deep breath and stepped into the shop. She eyed the other customers, trying to be as least conspicuous as possible, willing herself to be invisible - though, sadly, she could not be. The ordeal would last for what felt like an eternity though in reality it was only a matter of minutes as she picked a random bottle of perfume based on its price alone and refusing to smell a sample, and then she was out of there in a brisk pace, eager to get away from all the hustle and bustle around that her made her stomach tighten.

Quiet place, quiet place… her shoulders tense and her arms wrapped around her handbag as her breathing grew sharper and quicker, she rushed through one side street after another in attempt to get away from the crowds until she finally found herself passing the port and approaching a calm sandy beach.

As her sneakers sank into the sand, she paused and looked around her, before a smile finally appeared on her face. Yes! She mentally exclaimed to herself as she was finally able to relax and she continued walking along the shore. The beach seemed to be entirely empty as she had the whole space to herself to take it all in without having to worry about any unwanted interactions. Her gaze dared to rise higher as the threat of making eye contact was no longer present, but she soon found it dropping lower once more, this time in fascination of her surroundings. She wanted to explore and take in every pebble, sea shell, or any other signs of sea-life that washed up on the sand.

It wasn't uncommon for crustaceans to wash up, so the girl kept her eyes peeled for any new specimens that she hadn't yet drawn in her sketchbook.

---

Susanna: #018a34

[pepsi]

-- CHAPTER 3 // A BUGWATCHER'S DREAM

The gentle swinging of the waves lulled him to sleep. How many days had passed? He had completely lost count. He wondered where the sea would take him next on his grand adventure, as the winds pushed his little flute past the West Blue, past the Calm Belt and into the Grand Line.
It was a remarkably effective way of traveling.

Not long after she'd sat down on the beach, Susanna could spot something floating in the waves not far from the shore. Eventually, it would wash up, ending on a dry patch of sand where the waves couldn't properly reach anymore.
Titho peeked out from the inside for a brief moment. He identified a completely new place, judging from what little he could see; another land of opportunities where to make a name for himself and regain the honor he lost.

And as he felt the flute shake more vigorously, as if being moved by something other than the gentle push of the waves, he peeked out once more.
He saw a hand, gigantic if compared to him, holding the flute that brought him to the place; curious, he ventured out and crawled on top of it, hoping to have his first interaction of that new, amazing place.

-- NAME // Titho Kjartan Morana

-- CLASS // D

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Bobbie]

It was easy to spot the flute washing ashore as Susanna was looking for anything of interest. It wasn’t any fascinating crustacean, but it was still something of interest and a new finding to examine and possibly even learn from. Of course, she couldn't really make out what she was looking at until she got closer.

As she made her way to the spot where it landed, she waited for the waves to wash out and made sure they couldn’t reach and wouldn’t soak her shoes, before she picked up the item in her rather little hands.

Holding it gently like a delicate piece of treasure, she walked away from the sea to take it to a safer spot yet. Little did she know that something was lurking inside it as she turned the item around in her fingers out of pure curiosity and with a gentle hum but no words. Finally, she pulled her bag out in front of her and plopped down in the sand to take a seat, whipping her hair out behind her so she wouldn't sit on it while the flute was held gently atop her bag - just as a little beetle crawled out of it and on top of the wooden structure, so close to her hand.

With a sharp inhale, the girl gasped, before a soft smile appeared on her face. “Hey there, little guy…” she giggled, tilting her head and now moving the flute more carefully so as to limit the amount of earthquakes the poor creature would experience, while she tried to get a good look at it from all possible angles before it would run away from her. While she didn't particular bother as her attention was all focused on this creature, her incredibly long horsetail dragged along the sand with her head movements.

The girl’s face completely lit up. This was the best kind of surprise she could have asked for, choosing this sort of company over a stranger’s any day!

“Please don’t go anywhere,” She held the item with the beetle on it in one hand she lowered her other hand to level out the sand beside her and then slowly lowered the platform upon which the beetle stood down onto the sand as steadily as she could. "I'm just going to put you down here, don't be scared."

As she avoided moving suddenly, she brought out her sketchbook from her bag and flipped through the pages with countless sketches of all sorts of insects, winged or not.

“You’re a cute little thing, aren’t you? I’m Suzie, and you are one beautiful beetle!” the girl’s charisma and confidence was through the roof in comparison to what she was like when interacting with another human being, but she was not yet off her rocker - not once did she expect any form of response to what she was saying. This was just a beetle after all, unable to comprehend human language or emotion… And so her sketching of Titho began as she rattled on.

“How did you even end up inside that flute out at sea? It’s pretty amazing that you didn’t drown…”

---

Susanna: #018a34

[pepsi]

-- CHAPTER 3 // A BUGWATCHER'S DREAM

To his surprise, it was... just a girl. A human, presumably, who had just found his flute washed ashore and decided it would be a cool item to check out.
But Titho quickly realised that it wasn't the flute the one to occupy that woman's attention, as much as... himself? He felt slightly embarassed by the attention he got, even though he was just running around as a beetle. Nobody ever really considered him as a beetle - it was the whole point of turning into one!

But that girl proved different. He was immediately placed down in a small little alcove dug into the sand. He stood perfectly still, as he didn't want to give the impression that he could run away at any moment; however, when the girl asked him how he managed to get into the flute, he quickly escaped his sitting spot and went back to the item. There, he lifted up a small hatch in one of the flute's compartments with his small beetle arms, and pointed inside.

That was when the Giant noticed she had started drawing his likeness on a piece of paper. The girl must've really loved bugs, he concluded; to think he actually wasn't one - on the one hand, he could enjoy playing the role of his beetle self for one day, but on the other his Giant pride couldn't stand lying to the girl.
Dragging his hind legs across the fine sand, Titho made an attempt to draw something on the beach. T... I... T... H... O...
It was his name, but by the time he got to the "O", he was almost out of breath. He hoped that the girl would get where he was going, and start calling him by the name he was known as.

-- NAME // Titho Kjartan Morana

-- CLASS // D

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Bobbie]

While Susanna sketched the beetle, she would frequently turn her gaze away from her paper and toward Titho, partly to scan the model for her art piece and also just to give him the attention he deserved. When she noticed that it was actually answering her question about how he got into the flute, her hand stopped drawing and her brow was raised.

“Well… you are very clever… can you understand me?” she asked, leaning forward to move her large face in comparison closer to him. She soon withdrew and laughed, shaking her head as she realised how unlikely that actually was. Then the tiny creature started to spell out letters in the sand and once again Susanna’s jaw dropped. Closing her sketchbook, she set it down in the sand beside her, her pencil carefully placed on top of it, and focussed entirely on the beetle. “You’re spelling something out for me?” she asked, confused by what she was seeing.

Reading the letters, she tilted her head and narrowed her eyes, her mouth slightly agape in confusion. It wasn’t a word she had ever heard before, as she read it out loud. “Tith… o? Is that an ‘O’ at the end?” she looked at the beetle, then back at the unfinished letter, figuring there was nothing else it could have been for it to be possible to pronounce.

“Titho? Is that your name?” The girl asked, cautiously. She couldn’t believe she was talking to a beetle, and it seemed to be able to understand and answer her. This was the first time an insect communicated with her, but it didn’t speak… she considered the possibility of this little bug being a human who had eaten a devil fruit, just like she had, that would enable them to be in this form, but if that were the case then it would be able to communicate in human language.

In any case, she simply couldn’t get over how cute the inch-long six-legged creature was, which was made very evident by the growing smile that reappeared on her face. She adjusted her seating position, turning her body to face him and crossing her legs before taking her sketchbook again to continue her drawing. “I’m not from here, I’m only visiting because my dad has work to do here. I can’t offer to be much of a tour guide, but I can be your company for as long as you’ll be mine.” Happy to have somebody to talk to, Susanna smiled and laughed, “Until I have to get home to my dad and you have to move on with your beetle life. An ironclad beetle life, I think?” she stopped drawing again to lean closer once more, scanning his shell to look at the patterns. “You look like a pretty ironclad.”

She didn't have much left to sketch in, as she was used to drawing things hastily without having the quality suffer, since some insects tended to be rather quick and would often scurry away instead of pose for her. This one right here was exceptionally friendly... she also wanted to find out if he really could understand her or if this was all just a mixture of her loneliness causing her mind to play tricks on her and a series of coincidences.

---

Susanna: #018a34

[pepsi]

Titho was simply amazed at the girl's pure heart. In just a few beats of interaction she managed to convey such kindness: she didn't lash out at him the moment he started writing, she didn't flinch, she didn't run away.
No: she stood right there and continued to scribble with her little notebook.

And that was when she said it.

"Ironclad".

Titho had never heard of that name before. Was that really, the name of the animal he could turn into? It was a fitting name. He had been stepped on, pierced with spears, squashed by heavy weights, and his shell never cracked; he chalked it up to his own toughness, of course, but he never once considered the fact that his shell actually contributed to it.
A fascinating name; Titho made a mental note to compose a song about it the moment he'd turn back to a human-size form.

But first, he wanted to know more about the Ironclad Beetle.

The little insect scurried over to the girl, climbing up her leg; cautiously, at first, as he was certain the most likely response would be to run away from him. Then, he reached the torso, the arm, the hand, and finally...
Titho walked over the girl's sketch. He looked at the lines, where he could barely make out the big picture; he turned to her, and lifted his tiny little front arms into the air - a cheerful gesture, or perhaps a form of thanks.

And in doing so he wondered what else that kind girl had in store for him.

-- NAME // Titho Kjartan Morana

-- CLASS // D

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Bobbie]

Susanna was so focussed on her artpiece that she initially didn’t even notice that Titho had moved. It wasn’t until she looked away from her notebook that she realised he wasn’t where she left him and then she spotted him crawling up her leg.

A soft giggle escaped her as she remained still so as not to scare him, “Where are you trying to get to? I’m trying to finish my drawing of you.” She moved the notebook slightly to watch the creature as it kept ascending along her body, and before she knew it, the beetle was standing on the paper that she had been scribbling on. As she stared at Titho, she grew silent, amazement washing over her. It moved with such purpose, this was a very strange encounter with a beetle, one that she had never experienced before. It seemed to display genuine interest in what she was creating and it appeared to be trying to communicate with her.

“Are you trying to see my drawing?” She asked in a hushed tone, somewhat embarrassed to be asking such a question to an insect. Once it paused on the paper and turned to her, its tiny little front arms in the air, her smile quickly returned. “That’s you! Well, it’s not a perfect sketch, but that’s more or less what you look like.” She said, modestly, although her drawing skills were quite advanced and the sketch truly was almost a mirror image of Titho’s current form. "See how beautiful you are?"

To say that she was lost in admiration for the creature would be an understatement, yet something else did catch Susie’s eye. Turning her head to look toward an elevated area on the beach, she spotted two ruggedly dressed hooded figures who were eyeing her and Titho, but promptly looked away when Susanna glance in their direction.

Discomfort grew within her as her stomach was in knots within seconds. She then reached out to gently place a finger just below Titho and very carefully gave him a little nudge. “I should go home, but you can come with me, unless you have beetle things to do.” Pausing, she anxiously glanced at the two men again only to find that they were both gone, then back down at the beetle as she stood up, letting Titho remain on the notebook if he didn’t wish to move onto her finger instead. She didn’t know either of those two individuals but they made her feel uncomfortable. If people were going to start gathering at the beach, it would defeat the purpose of her coming here anyway.

Her bag on her shoulder once more, sketchbook in hand, Susanna briskly began her walk away from the shore to leave the beach and go home.

---

Susanna: #018a34

[pepsi]

It was astounding. Titho had never seen himself in a mirror, if one doesn't count the times he's tried to drink water and saw his reflection in it. And in all those instances, he'd never noticed the interesting patterns, the interesting shapes that the "beetle" in him actually sported.
It was just a sketch, but all the elements were there: the black dots on the back, three-dimensional and glossy, as if burning hot tar had been poured over his body. And the rest, white and smooth; one would argue, like a natural shield.

It was amazing. Titho was an artist with his flute, but this woman - this woman was an artist with her brush.

The small beetle climbed upon her finger almost instinctively when offered the opportunity. Titho needed to know what else that woman could show him that would turn his world upside down once more; of all the islands he'd visited, it was the second time he felt like he could truly go on an adventure - at the hands of a woman, no less, though she was completely different from Lady Isolde.
And while Lady Isolde had showed him the value of knighthood, this time he was shown the value of something he'd never even considered: the other side of him, his curse, the beetle.

That was when Susanna's stroll had to take a sudden stop, for two looming shadows caught up to her. "What's a cute little girl like you doing here?" said one of the two. He wore a black and white striped bandana across his forehead, and towered over the girl by at least twenty centimeters; he had brown hair and a long beard with braids and metal rings. "All alone on the beach." The other was a little bit shorter, less beefy than his companion; olive skin and black hair, with the same bandana tied around his neck.
"How about you give us your money? Jewellery, all that stuff?" the taller one said, crossing his arms. Behind his back, a large double-edged battleaxe. The second one taunted: "You don't want to bleed out on the sand, do you?". He paired this threat with a casual swipe of his leather vest, which revealed a set of short knives on the underside.

The situation had immediately become worse. What was Titho to do? He wanted to stay concealed, as much as possible, so that she'd treat him like any other beetle and show him the value of one. He was conflicted, but he needed to spring into action. And so he did.

The olive-skinned man, in one swift motion, swept his hand inside the vest and produced three knives - one placed in each gap between his fingers - and took a stab at Susanna.

[KREEK...]

The man took a step back, surprised by what just happened. He looked at the knives in his hand: the blades were bent, dented, dulled, almost broken off the handle. It was like he tried to shank a brick wall.
And between Susanna and her assailants stood... a knight, clad in black and white. The beetle, on the other hand, had completely vanished.

-- NAME // Titho Kjartan Morana

-- CLASS // D

-- TECHS USED // None.

[Bobbie]

As the little beetle followed her prompt to climb onto her finger in an instant, the girl smiled. “Aren’t you a clever little thing?” She cooed softly to the creature, being a firm believer that insects were not given the credit they were due. This one, for instance, was magnificent in its manner and its wit.

However, she didn’t have much time to focus on Titho as while one hand was preoccupied with the creature, her other busied itself to gather up her things and start her walk. All the while, she was vigilant and attentive toward the two individuals who seemed to be lurking. When she thought they were gone, she let out a soft sigh of relief; yet that relief was short lived, as they quickly reappeared, having caught up to her with ease.

As they blocked her path and spoke to her, she froze, not quite sure what she was supposed to do. She had her devil fruit abilities, of course, but she wasn’t any great fighter. Her father had been trying to get her to learn self-defence for some time, but she had always been stubborn about it so her progress was slow. Now, she wished she had listened.

“I… please excuse me.” Susanna muttered in a small voice as she held her notebook tightly, her bag on her shoulder. She wasn’t sure what she valued more, whether it was her money in her handbag or her sketchbook. As much as she enjoyed Titho’s company, having a hand occupied with a little beetle sitting on her finger was not much help in the situation. Her fearful eyes grew wider as she spotted the bandana - she didn’t recognise the pattern of the woven fabric, but it was obvious that these two formed some kind of crew, and that usually meant more trouble than just a casual unpleasant run-in.

“I don’t…” she started, her brow twisted with worry as her voice shook and her body began to tremble. As her heart raced, she was already beginning to feel faint. “I don’t have a lot of money.”

Susanna looked away from them for a moment and lowered her gaze to her bag as she opened the overlapping cover to reach in and take out the perfume and her purse, dropping her sketchbook in the process. Daring not keep these two men waiting any longer, she didn’t pick it up and fumbled in her bag to take both items out.

The bottle of perfume was in her hand when the second man of the two made his threat, and the green haired girl simply froze, looking at his knife collection hidden within his vest.

They don’t even care about your money, Susie…

The realisation hit her when she noticed that they weren’t even giving her a chance to hand over any items of value and seemed to immediately threaten her life. Her breaths became shorter and quicker as she considered running, but she doubted that she could move faster than these two, based on how easily they caught up to her.

Before she could think up a plan, the man jabbed three knives in her direction and the girl flinched, closing her eyes and taking a little step back, but she didn’t scream. No, Susie wouldn’t be able to make herself as heard as that by any vocal means, and so only a sharp inhale through her teeth and a gentle whimper could be heard coming from the girl.

What’s going on? I don’t feel anything… did he miss me?

Slowly opening her eyes, Susanna found herself in the shadow of a knight, fully armoured in black and white, while upon her finger, the beetle was gone.

Frantically, she looked around for it, worried that she dropped it while her hands were shaking. It must have felt like an earthquake to the poor tiny creature, but she knew that a beetle’s grip would be stronger than to allow it to fall off so easily. Then she stared at the knight once more, seeing a similar pattern in the black and white armour that it wore.

No way…

“Titho…?” she gingerly asked, though immediately felt stupid for doing so.

Of course it’s not the beetle, not every insect you see is a devil fruit user like yourself, don’t be ridiculous… and why would he be a knight? Stupid… but… wait, why is there a knight standing right there in front of me?

The girl’s thoughts ran wild and she could probably continue to have an entire conversation in her head if time was not of the essence as they needed to get away from these two predators. She swiftly dropped to her knees and picked up her sketchbook before stuffing everything back into her bag, then rose to her feet and spun around to leave, only to find the other man on her side, blocking her once more.

“Where do you think you’re going, girl?” he snarled, leaving his unfortunate ally to deal with the knight as he grabbed Susanna’s arm in one hand and raised his battle axe in the other, swinging it down with the intention of cutting it clean off.

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Susanna: #018a34
Thug 1: #dd7a11