Dragon
lover of milotics
- 11,151
- Posts
- 10
- Years
- Age 31
- Viridian City
- Seen Apr 26, 2024
****
Quinn scrambled, the small Rowlet flying as quickly as her little wings would let her while keeping a tight hold on the bucket of berries in her possession. Behind her, the angry and understandably hostile Grovyle was chasing behind her while uttering a barrage of curses that she was fairly certain she had only heard from Holt before stopping on this island. With every passing second, the distance between the duo was closing. The bucket of oran berries growing heavier and heavier as the Rowlet's fatigue began to settle in.
"Ya got to the count of ten to drop those berries, thief!" the Grovyle shopkeeper shouted. "And I'm runnin' out of patience to count every number!"
The Grovyle only made it to "two" before a whistle, a thunk, and a scream took the place of footfalls in hot pursuit.
Quinn's eyes widen at the sound, the Rowlet turning to see the Grovyle laying on the ground in agony before adjusting to the sight of Baryon standing shortly before her, carefully re-wrapping a crossbow. A relieved hoot escapes her beak, before the Rowlet proudly makes her way towards her crewmate. She takes a moment, puffing out her chest in an attempt to look intimidating, before returning her focus back towards the Grovyle who had been chasing her.
"Ha! Just in time, Baryon! I knew I could count on my right-hand mon to save his captain!" the Rowlet boasted.
Baryon gave her an unimpressed once-over, then turned his attention to the writhing Grovyle. "Sorry 'bout it. I'm sure ya had reason to chase her down."
"What are you talking about?!" Quinn snapped. "I was just minding my own business, picking out berries and this jerk just up and chased me down like some kind of thief!"
The Grovyle groaned, still clutching the foot with an arrow through it. "You stole them…"
"I liberated them!" Quinn stressed. "There's a huge difference!"
"Thought I gave ya enough cash," Baryon muttered.
"Look… I… Um…" Quinn stammered. Her eyes narrowed in annoyance at her crewmate. "Just who's side are you on?!"
Baryon took a moment to contemplate. "Anne's," he concluded, with a laugh. He plucked Quinn up by the back of her cloak and started toward the docks. "We're keepin' the berries," he announced, loud enough that the Grovyle could hear over his whimpering. "Pay ya back… sometime."
"See ya later, sucker!" Quinn waved as Baryon carried her off. "That'll show ya for messing with the captain of the Frozen Roses!"
Baryon rolled his eyes. "Dream big, birdie."
From the stairs that lead to the bowels of the ship, Fungele slowly shuffled up to the deck. The light of the midday sun blinded the doctor for a short moment, causing him to curse the orb in the sky, with a, "Scheisse!"
He pulled out a pair of attachment spectacles that acted as sunglasses, covering his lenses to protect his tired eyes. He shifted to the starboard side, resting against the railing. Once again, he pulled out his pipe, lit it, and began to have a quiet smoke as he gazed out into the open sea.
Hartley, feeling quite pleased with himself, walked up onto the deck of the ship, noticing the crew's doctor leaning against the railing. He moved over to where Fungele seemed to be stuck in some sort of wistful daydream and smacked him jovially on the back, far too hard to be remotely reasonable… just about hard enough to create a risk of a fungus going overboard. "Lookin' gloomy as always I see, Doc. Aren't you plants meant to thrive in the sun or somethin'?"
With the hearty smack, and a "Baaaahhh…!" Fungele nearly lost his prized pipe after the air was forced out of him. But, with a quick swipe, Fungele managed to secure his prized possession. "You damned oaf, vhy do you do zhis," the doctor spat as he turned to see the boisterous Blastoise. "First off, zhat's typist. Just because I'm a "Grass-type" does not mean I need zhe sunlight." He glared, before he cursed at the sun in a different language again. Turning back, he continued with, "Unt secondly, try to be more careful vith zhe doctor, yes?"
Turning back was a mistake.
"Bweeeeee!" Trilled a ghost, its wicked grin confiscating a distressing amount of the doctor's field of vision; a cruel substitute for the calm backdrop of the sea.
The doctor sighed. Heavily. "Yes, Vylantiremnosta, very good scare. Nearly knocked my socks off," he said as he laid the sarcasm as thick as possible. Fungele was always on his guard, knowing that not only was Hartley a rough housing brute, but that Vylantiremnosta tried to scare Fungele at every turn. The ghost in question scoffed, disappointed, blowing an ill wind in the amoonguss's face.
"Go eat socks you grisly prune shroom! Weee…" Vylanti twisted her ghostly form up a ways and floated lightly over the ship.
The doctor grimaced, and grumbled aloud, "Be grateful I can't dissect you alive." He took another long moment with his pipe, before puffing a large cloud of smoke. And just like that, he was calm again.
Then Hartley smacked him on the back again. "Tha first one was 'cause misery loves company and ya looked far too happy. That was just because I felt like it."
With a heavy "Bwahhh," Fungele hung his head after the mighty slap, his teeth clenching the pipe to keep it from falling into the ocean. The blood began to pump harder, as he thought to himself, "I vonder if Blastoise feet are a hot commodity at zhe Black Market…."
"Doctor, plopter, company of two…" The ghost-witch sing-songed from above. She rotated to levitate upside down, face staring down at the crewmates like a creepy moon. "He keeps making threats, but they work on who…? You can't eat a soup without a good spoon. And you can't hear the augury without indulging… a loon! Listen, listen."
"I hate to break it to you, but you can't eat soup even with a good spoon, my dear." a Braixen that just stepped right in out of nowhere said. "I mean, I don't understand most of the stuff you say, so I won't give it much thought. Yo, Hartley! Heard you made a mess out of a restaurant and some shop out there." he laughs. "Did you at least save some of whatever thing you used for that? Blowing stuff up is my specialty, I would be very offended if you didn't save some of that for me."
"'Course I did!" Hartley grinned, showing the now somewhat emptier pouch still clutched in his other hand, "But I dunno about sharin'. We'll have to see about that."
"I didn't say anything about sharing, did I?" Fawkes shrugs "I'm still going to make better use of what's left of it than you did back there. I'm not asking."
"The good spoon freezes soup, 'specially for you," Vylanti rattled off, eyes closed. "Makes ice of a broth or snow of a stew - but! That's merely a backdrop, for the events that I view. Come around and listen; no need for a queue…" The ghost rotated ominously in place. "Whilst the Captain stayed here, away the witch flew! Still, the visions the winds of fate bring her ring true. They cry 'out with the old', and 'in with the new'! Yet, the old all come back. And the new-" She opened her eyes. "Stinks! Captain, give it a bath! Ew! Blech."
"Can someone translate what she just said?" Fawkes asks "For real, I feel my head is about to blow up, and not in the good way."
"Seconded," Hartley agreed.
Skip dashed away from the two punk pokemon who unsuccessfully attempted to reprimand him for this thievery. A sly smile was written on his face, concealed beneath a patterned black bandana. He headed in the opposite direction from the town square, though he still heard the aggrieved Passimian's curses from afar. He gazed at a nearby shop window as he continued forwards, his eyes fixating on an iridescent pearl necklace placed on the velvet plush of a jewelry box's interior.
That could go for a lot of money on the black mark- His mischievous train of thought was interrupted as he thumped into a much taller pokemon.
The Pokemon he ran into was a disgruntled looking Floatzel wearing a tattered sailor's coat and a bandana. She was knocked off balance from the surprise thump of the small Pokemon, causing her to fall backwards onto the sacks of coffee beans she was carrying. Unfortunately, one of the sacks tore a bit from the impact and some of the coffee beans spilled onto the street. She cursed Raymond for apparently cheaping out on the bags and turned her anger towards the Pokemon who bumped into her.
"Hey punk, watch where you're going!" She got up and dusted herself off. Whitney finally took a good look at who she bumped into and saw it was Skip, the cabin boy. She narrowed her eyes at her fellow crewmate and scowled. "Damn kid."
Skip held her gaze, crossing his arms whilst trying to resist the urge to deck her square in the nose. He recognized her as Whitney, the crew's pilot. He didn't know much about her, hadn't said as much as a word to her for the short time they were acquainted. Not like he cared to.
Tch. You can't hit her, moron. Anne will toss your ass overboard if she found out.
He simply scoffed. "Look, I don't give a muk about your stupid beans. Why the hell do you have so many, anyways? What, you can't do your lousy job and you need caffeine to keep yourself alert?" He snickered to himself. "Just stay out of my way."
Whitney growled in response, "Better than the job you have, boy. Unlike you, I have a lot of important things to do, so excuse me if I need a cup of joe to help me out."
"Listen here, you stuck up bi-" He clenched his jaw and exhaled sharply, glaring at the water type in front of him. "You look at the weather, don't think so highly of yourself. Tch. Anyone could do that bullmuk." He rolled his eyes then. "Some of us actually have to lift a paw and don't stand around tryna look pretty. Clearly hasn't been workin' out for ya." He smirked at his own jab. "Like I said, stay out of my way and we won't have an issue. Got it?" With that, he brushed past her, bumping into her shoulder and shoving his hands in his pouch, fiddling with the bag of loose coins inside.
She's lucky she's part of the crew. Otherwise she woulda been done for. Cocky water weasel.
Whitney picked up her coffee bean bags and tried her best not to let any more coffee beans fall out, following Skip as where he was walking was where she had to go anyway to get back to the ship. The grouchy sailor mumbled to herself, miffed that half the bag was gone to waste on the street. Similar to how he couldn't lay a hand on her, she couldn't do anything to him either and was stuck with the possibility she might run out of her personal stash and be forced to drink the dishwater Hal calls coffee. Not that it'd be a close fight anyways in Whitney's mind due to her type advantage and experience.
"Y'know kid, I'll give you this. You got some nerve talking smack to a Pokemon with the type advantage. You're either very brave or very stupid."
He stopped in his tracks at her quip. He clenched his fists as he struggled to contain his indignation. "Keep talking, hag, you'll look pretty damn stupid when I beat you into the ground." He then continued forwards once again, forgetting all about the pearl necklace that had caught his eye only moments before.
Whitney raised an eyebrow, scoffing with a smirk, "Yeah right. We're crewmates, remember? You may talk tough, but even I know you don't want to mess with the captain on that. I can assure ya I would teach you respect the old fashioned way, so I guess none of us are going to have our way."
He sighed in exasperation. "Oi, consider yourself lucky, then, crewmate." He continued onwards, turning a street corner and glancing at the docked ship from a distance.
She's lucky alright.
Finally satisfied, Soren left the tavern with a wave of his hand and a toss of a coin pouch to Al. "Til next time ol' friend! And bring some information for once!" the Swalot called out the door. Soren merely rolled his eyes and grunted a one word response, "Whatever." Leisurely he made his way back to the ship. As much as he loved the sea and his job, the rest of the crew...was a bit much for him. So he was in no real rush. Unfortunately, the walk wasn't a very long one and he found himself at the port in no time at all and sure enough, things were anything but quiet. Arguing crew members, the boisterous voice of their gunner and of course that crazy ghost. Sighing, he walked aboard the ship, preparing himself for the noise to come.
And noise there was, as the upbeat tones of a love ballad washed over the ship upon Anton's approach. The fox was singing at the top of his lungs, an atmosphere of positivity radiating from him. Positive to anyone not already in a glum mood, that is, which wasn't oft something going in Anton's favor, considering the crew he found himself with.
Hannah was lounging on the ship looking at everything that was going on. She let out a deep sigh and stretched. "The usual" she states as she looks at everyone. "Wonder when we will set off" she thought
"PIRATES! ALL TOGETHER!" the loud roar of Captain Anne's voice echoed throughout the ship. With her, she was carrying a somewhat large map that was cradled on her left arm, and she was dragging behind her, a small table from her quarters. She brought the table to position and slammed the map right in front of her, and unrolled it. She then, with her arms crossed, turned to face her crew.
"Alright you weenies," Anne addressed with a softer, yet firm tone. "I hope you've all had your fill in town, and I really, really hope none of you got into trouble that would have given us the boot for life. Especially you, Doc and Vyl and ESPECIALLY you, Quinn. Nonetheless! It's time for our next set of plans. Oh but before that…"
Fungele scoffed at the accusation made in his direction, and continued to smoke his pipe.
She glanced towards the small Eevee. "We've got a new kid. She's Seraphina, and if you need a hand with anything, she will be gracious enough to help. But please… nothing weird, okay?"
Seraphina was still a bit awe struck by how sudden she was recruited and now suddenly in front of… everyone. She was used to standing in front of crowds but this was different. She was basically invading their living space. "Uhm… Hi." She spoke.
Skip rolled his eyes and grumbled under his breath. "A pipsqueak, oh joy.."
Fawkes is the first one to walk forward. He looks around her, pokes the Eevee's cheek with his branch and then picks her up in his arms. "... too thin." He says in a low voice and shrugs. "I'm happier with Quinn honestly, she's smaller and her Grass type makes her easier to cook. Right, Hal?"
"Meat and veggies in one easy package! But we couldn't eat Quinn, she's too tough!" The cook joked, but was otherwise distracted with cutting tiny pieces out of an apple to snack on.
"I'm not on the menu!" Quinn snapped, her feathers ruffling in defiance.
"I assure you. I'm not edible." Seraphina replied, not batting an eye and looking kind of ticked off from the dude suddenly poking her cheeks and picking her up.
"Name's Dedan Fawkes. If you like blowing things up and making chaos, then you'll have a great time with us here." The Braixen says. He puts Seraphina back on the ground and pats her head before going back with the rest of the crew.
Vylantiremnosta's ghostly form mingled amongst the crowd rather than above, and her hat had morphed into a tricorn hat especially for Pirate Group Meeting Piratical Pirate Time™. She was, however, still upside down and rotating slowly.
"The new is still stinky, captain…" She sing-songed.
"I agree it be best to give her a bath," said the Noivern. "Also food she is too thin," Hannah added.
"As if any of ya smell any better," Baryon contributed easily from his chosen corner. "Quinn, toss her some of those Orans before ya hand 'em over to Hal."
Vy giggled, "My ominous odours are deliberately crafted!"
Anton scoffed. "I always smell divine, thank you kindly."
"I smell like gunpowder… nothing out of place, honestly." Fawkes points out.
"Yeah, what's wrong with a little whiff of gunpowder?" Hartley said, sniffing himself.
Quinn huffed and made her way forward. She placed her bucket of berries down on the deck of the ship, before sighing and offering Seraphina an apologetic smile.
"I'm sorry about them. They're just a bit rowdy, that's all. They've been this way ever since they begged me to join the crew, you know? They'd all be lost without me," the Rowlet explained. "Just stick with me and I'll teach you all you need to know!"
"T-Thank you." Seraphina smiled in return. They were indeed rowdy and rude but judging from this welcome, they didn't seem all that bad. She grabbed a berry and gracefully stuffed it in her mouth, very much like a Pokémon that hadn't eaten decently in days but gracious enough that she didn't completely look like a savage.
Why did I leave my practice for this buffoonery, again?, thought Fungele as he puffed into the air.
"Listenin' to the captain is your best bet at learnin', shiny." Baryon nodded toward the Froslass. "What's the plan, Anne?"
"Right," Anne began, opening the map she was holding. "As you all know, we have no leads to the Wishmaker. But, a small-time broker shared with me a rumor. This is strictly rumor mind you, but supposedly, there is some sort of guardian deity somewhere in this side of the Vast Ocean. And it is riiiiight… here!" She placed a small copper tack upon a contracted space on the map. "This is called Giant's Island, supposedly. Other than coming up with the name, the island itself is not very known to explorers from the Black Sea, so this must be uncharted territory! Now, I don't know why it's named "Giant Island", but rumors say there is a Deity there who has the power to change the landscape of the island, and many more miraculous feats."
Anne then slammed her hand on the map. "Our task is to explore this island, and find this Deity! And if the rumor is true, this Deity must be the Wishmaker we've been looking for, or at least, one that can give us some more clues about it! So, I want each of you to explore this island and find whatever secrets, or other treasure you see around there. Quinn and Hannah? Try to find some food supplies there if you can. As for you, Sera, do what you can too, and try not to get in anyone's way. As for all of you, you're free to partner up, or go about this on your own. And don't worry, as promised, all the treasure we find will be split among ourselves."
Anne then crossed her arms, looking up on her crew. "Any questions? If not, I want you all to prepare to sail right away!"
Seron, hovering in the back of the group and arms crossed, listened intently as the captain spoke. Finally, the crew had a lead to the Wishmaker. It had taken a bit but he always knew the captain would come through with something. He was a little nervous adding another crew member though, especially one so young and frail looking. Seron would have to keep an eye on her. This Giant's Island didn't sound like a place for kids after all. With a shake of his head, Seron got to work, heading down below to get the anchor pulled up.