Wealth, Adventure, and the Open Sea: A One Piece RP.(Arc 4: Porte Carlo.)

[tsatoma]

"I always found there to be alternative ways to relax after a tough battle that don't involve potential death, or at least it's harder to die from them," Alaena admitted, keeping her pace slow to stop from overtaking Hal. She appreciated that he was willing to at least not go overboard with drinking, though she wasn't sure if he'd stick to it.

"I'll be keeping an eye on you then on that, especially since you didn't particularly drink much before becoming drunk. You seem like a sort of lightweight, at least compared to people like Sammi. I plan on having everyone go through a medical examination before we hit Porte Carlo; making sure that everyone is perfectly healthy and not suffering from anything that they might not know of. For instance, just from looking at you I can tell you seem pretty slim. More than one of your height should be. Potential malnourishment and a lack of consistent meals are probably the cause, so the answer for that would be proper meals each day," she told him, adding, "Not sure who will be making the food on board, but I'm sure it will be at least sufficient in keeping everyone alive and healthy."

 

[CounterAttack]

"Oh hey... Yoje, right?" Marielle checked before continuing. At Yoje's nod, she gave a proper answer. "I was gonna head down to the docks, see if I can pick out which ship you guys arrived on. Maybe see what it's like on board before we set sail," she explained. She then paused for a moment: Yoje hadn't been with the group when Marielle had requested to join up with Peter and his crew. That too needed an explanation.

"Oh yeah... you weren't there at the time. That's right. So a while after I left the inn when I tagged along, a couple of the others followed me, and eventually Peter ran into us. So... I told him I wanted to join up with you guys, and he let me on board." Marielle gave a slightly embarrassed, but also proud, smile when she said the last part. It was good that she was leaving Lasklee behind: no-one here had the answers to her missing memories, so maybe it was time to move on.

"So yeah... I'm part of the crew now. Don't really know what I'll be doing, but I'll find a way to make myself useful."

 

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

"A light weight huh.... Normally I'd tell you I can hold my liquor, but after last night I guess I can't really argue with that." Hal muttered in response to Alaena's analysis. She really knew her stuff if she could tell all that just by looking at him. "Well, business hasn't always been good to me so I can't always eat as much as I'd like. Here on Lasklee and everywhere else, I always seem to have the worst luck. But things are looking up with this," He said holding up the briefcase of valuables he had gotten from the Budero safe. "So I'm gonna be eating plenty good as soon as I get the chance."

The mere thought of food made Hal's stomach twist in protest. It sounded real good right about then, but in his condition he knew he wouldn't be able to keep anything down. "Ugh... And by that I mean once my stomach unknots itself. I don't wanna talk about food anymore.... Oh, and I definitely won't be doing the cooking. That's probably another reason for my 'malnourishment' as you put it."

 

[GoWithDAFro]

"Really? Well, welcome to the crew then! Good to have you. And I wouldn't worry about finding a job too much," Yoje said with a small laugh. "I actually only joined this crew about two days ago, and I don't have a real role on the ship either. My main skills are just fighting, and teaching the martial art I use."

I guess I'd be a decent lookout, since Moon Step would let me scout out the waters around the boat... He put the thought away for the moment to continue talking to Marielle. "Well, Peter said you could join us, so he clearly doesn't care that you're not sure what you'd do. You're bound to figure something out eventually."

 

[tsatoma]

"You can still drink more than I can if that makes you feel any better. I can only ever drink one cup of wine or cider before I start to feel the affects. If everyone is drunk enough though I imagine anything I cook would be quite appetizing, though since I imagine everyone will be sober most of the time it looks like I'm out of the chef position myself," Alaena responded, looking at Hal's briefcase while he had it held up. She wondered just how safe it would be to get the valuables exchanged in a city with a large Marine base like Porte Carlo, and she decided to bring it up.

"I know your job involves exchanges and that you must be experienced with them, but I'd advise to be extra careful at Porte Carlo. I imagine that it's going to have quite a bit of security, it might even be harder to buy things there from the sellers. They're probably told to keep a lookout for any suspicious activity. Along with that everything is expensive there due to the quality," Alaena said, making a quick whistle to make sure Fletch was following her.

 

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

"You're no good at cooking either huh... I can't really see any of the others being good cooks either. Except maybe Marielle. Oh, well. Anythings better than nothing really." Hal said with a shrug. He had gotten by on his own shitty cooking when he had food for a long time so he could live with just about anything at this point.

Alaena brought up a good point about the risks of doing business in Porte Carlo. He hadn't been there himself, but with the Marines in charge he already knew getting everything he needed would be difficult. "Well... Yeah, I've already got some plans for how I'm gonna go about unloading all this stuff. The quickest way would be to find someone like me who's willing to do some... Shady business. They'd be hard to find if there's even anyone like that willing to risk operating in Porte Carlo and they definitely wouldn't be willing to pay what I'd be asking. I'd get less money, but I'd be able to unload everything I have in one go." Hal was more than happy to explain his plans for Porte Carlo since talking about took his mind off his massive hangover. "If I go through legit merchants, I can't try to sell more than a few pieces at a time without raising some red flags. And I probably won't be able to sell all my stuff, but I can get rid of most of it as long as I'm careful. I think I'll be all right as long as no one recognizes me and my bounty is pretty small time so that shouldn't be a problem."

"Of course, Peter asked me to get supplies for the ship too so there's that. Buying supplies isn't nearly as suspicious as selling off lots of valuables, but it's too risky to have the stuff delivered to our ship. I'm gonna have to carry it all back myself I guess." Hal groaned at the thought of that. He was gonna be a lot busier at Porte Carlo than he had first realized. "Oh, that reminds me. You need any medical supplies? If you want, you can just give me a list of what you'll need and I'll get you a good deal on it. It's what I'm here for after all."

 

[tsatoma]

"I need so many medical supplies to sufficiently take care of this crew while I'm here that I doubt we'd be able to cover it even if I gave all the money I have on me. Even if we wait until I get my next allowance, it still probably wouldn't be enough with Porte Carlo's prices. Plus it'd be suspicious. No, I plan on going about getting my own supplies in a not very legal sort of way. I'll just have to do some recon first, maybe grab a few things for an escape route, but after I'm done with that I can help you carry anything you need help with if you'd like," Alaena told Hal with a playful smirk, already planning out exactly what she'd be doing once they land there, "And then if you want to return the favor you can help me carry back what I plan on getting later on in the day. It might take a few trips though, so I might need to recruit another crew member or two to help out."

 

[NeoAC]

A night on the rum wasn't a new experience for Sammi. She had done it multiple times with many different people, mostly fellow crewmates or guys who didn't realize who she was and were more than willing to pay for her beverages to have a mildly attractive girl actually pay attention to them, if only for about 40 belli worth of time. This morning was no different. There was a little bit of a headache as she awoke in the inn, but nothing major. The sun coming in the window was a right bastard though.

"Fuck," she cursed. "Where did I put those shades? I know one of those rich folk from the resort had a pair stashed." She moved over to her sack, laying at the end of the bed and rummaged through it for a moment. Finally she fished out an expensive looking pair of designer sunglasses. They had jewels all over them, and a logo prominently stamped on the earpiece near the lenses. "Uggh, these are ugly. Going to have to hock them quick, but they'll do for now." She slid them onto her face, scooped up her sack and headed downstairs.

At the bottom there was no one, save for the innkeeper and a lonely old patron in the corner. "Hey," she asked the man. "You see a short guy around here? Black hair? Goatee?"

"Yeah, he left a while ago," the innkeeper confirmed. "Said something about the docks."

"Fuck. All right, thanks." Sammi sprinted off, not worrying about any bill. Merchant should have that covered anyway.

It was a few minutes, even while running, but Sammi made it down to see Yoje and Marielle hanging around, Peter was off in the distance, she noticed his head on the edge of the dock. The sun was shimmering off the water, the sunglasses were performing lifesaving duties right now. "Hey you two," she said casually walking up to them. "So all ready to ditch this place?"

 

[CounterAttack]

"Yeah... I guess you're right. I'll ask around, see what roles people have already covered, and then figure something out from there," Marielle answered. Sammi had mentioned something about a lack of a decent cook the night before... she knew a bit about preparing food, but not as much as the rest of her family. Still, there was some knowledge in Marielle's head.

At that point Sammi joined Marielle and Yoje... Marielle did a double-take at the sight of the bizarre creation that was supposed to be a pair of sunglasses. They didn't suit Sammi at all, nor anyone else, she thought; she wondered why the axe-wielder was wearing them. "Not so much 'ditch' as 'leave behind', but yes. I've got all my possessions and I'm ready to go. Um... which is your ship?" she asked, uncertain.

Marielle was of the mind that saying 'our ship' sounded a tad weird since she had only been accepted into the crew the day before, hence her phrasing it as 'your ship'.

 

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

It took Hal a little to bit to catch on to what Alaena was insinuating. Is she really gonna... Steal medical supplies from a Marine outpost? Well, I've seen her in action enough to know she can probably pull it off but still. This chick's got balls... Hal thought, a grin slowly spreading across his face. "Is that so? I gotta admit, I didn't think you had it in ya to do something like that. I like it! You got yourself a deal too. Help me carry my stuff, and I'll gladly return the favor."

As Hal spoke, he saw that they had almost reached the docks. In the distance, he could see that the rest of the crew had already gathered making them the last ones to arrive. Which made sense since hungover Hal had been trudging along so slowly the whole way.

 

[tsatoma]

"You'd be surprised at how often I do this stuff to the Marines, though usually not such a big outpost like Porte Carlo's. I figure recon should only take a little bit of time, then taking a few things to make sneaking in a bit easier and then I'll be done until that night. So I can help you once I'm done. Do you know what sort of supplies Peter needs or is he going to tell you later? I need to see what the medical room on the ship looks like so I can plan where things should go," Alaena replied, happy that Hal was enthusiastic to help her out. Ahead was Peter's ship at the docks, with most of the crew approaching it.

"Enough with the slow pace, let us just hurry and catch up. The sooner we get there the sooner we can be out at sea," she told Hal, picking up her pace a bit.

 

[NeoAC]

Sammi shrugged at Marielle's question. "I don't know," she told her. "It was an ugly thing coming in, and I don't know what Peter has had done to it, so I wouldn't be able to tell you if it's the same ship I yo-yoed the Governor off of or not. I hope it's not. It looked like it couldn't even take a cannonball if need be. One of those pleasure type cruising ships."

It was big though. Still smaller than the Thrasher, a good size smaller, but it should hold six to eight people easily enough. And with the disappearances on Lasklee, that's what we have. As Hal and Alaena came to join the group, it looked like everyone was here except for the magic man. Sammi adjusted her sack on her back and called over to Peter. "Oi! Captain! What's it looking like? Are we ready to head out yet or what?"

 

[Mr. Omega]

Spoiler: Ok...

Xero hasn't posted in a while, and he's had repeated disappearances, usually in situations that needed him responding. I know not all of them were his own fault, but this can't keep happening. Xero, if you read this, please contact me. Until then, I'm sorry, but I'm writing you out of the RP.

Peter walked up to the others. "So you're all here. Well, most of you. We seem to be short one. I did tell him what time we'd be leaving, but I'm sure we can wait a couple minutes. Until then, everyone, introduce yourself to everyone here in case you aren't all acquainted. As for me, I'll introduce myself. I know we haven't all met under the best circumstances, so some of us know very little about each other.

Name's Peter Tew. I'm an inventor, and a decent shipwright. I'm the captain of this ship, but I ain't exactly a dictator. You all are free to come and go as your heart desires, but have the courtesy to tell me. Now then, I'll take you to the ship, feel free to keep the conversation going."

He jumped up from where he was sitting, walking backwards towards the dock "How about we start with the ladies, common courtesy and all that good stuff." He then started mumbling "Then again, we are pirates, so maybe that doesn't apply... y'know, I wonder if there is any courtesy among..." he wasn't even paying that much attention as long as the others weren't speaking, lost in his own pointless ramblings now.

 

[NeoAC]

"You could start with me because I'm technically the second longest tenured person on this crew," Sammi pointed out as she followed with the group. "Instead of the whole women thing. Or because of the axes. Take your pick, Captain."

She turned back to the rest of the members. "Anyway, my name is Sammi Makela, 23, I'm the first mate on the ship. Been out on the sea causing hell for Marines for the past seven years, don't cross me and we'll get along great. Do and you'll be dragged from the back of the boat until you're eaten by a shark. Unless you get me a drink. I'll forgive for that.

But yeah, second in command. That's the main thing."

How awesome is that anyway, second in command. See the guys on the Thrasher believe that. Laddie thought I'd never make it that high. Well fuck you Laddie.

"Next!"

 

[CounterAttack]

Since the group appeared to be operating on a 'ladies first' procedure, Marielle spoke up. "Um... I'm Marielle A. Villeneuve, and I'm the most recent addition to this little band. Um... there isn't much else to say. I can't claim to have been anywhere in particular or to have done anything special. Most of you have seen my Devil Fruit power, and I don't know what else I can bring to the table. Perhaps during the time I spend on your ship, I can learn something to make myself useful."

She paused for a moment, unsure of what else to say, and settled for a simple conclusion. "Erm... I guess that's it from my end." She felt fairly awkward introducing herself, especially since she had no claim to fame or any stories to tell.

 

[tsatoma]

After Marielle awkwardly finished her introduction, Alaena paused to think of what she wanted to say before speaking up. "As the last woman of the group I shall go next. My name is Alaena, and I will be traveling with the crew for awhile. My role will be that of the doctor on board, so if you have any injuries or are feeling ill you should come find me. On that note once we have some down time at sea I'd like all of you to come see me so that I can make a profile on all of you," she stated calmly and professionally as she followed the group.

"That's all that needs to be said about me at this time. If you have any questions, again just come and find me on board. I assume I'll either be in my own room or in the medical room if we have one," she said, looking towards Peter for the answer to the last part.

 

[Fragrance of Mtn Dew]

Hal waited quietly for the women to finish introducing themselves before he spoke up. He didn't really have a whole lot to say about himself and his hangover wasn't making him any more talkative. He'd try to keep this brief then. "Yo. Name's Hal Granada, merchant extraordinaire. I'm damn good at doing business so I'll take care of supplies for the ship. Also if you guys need to sell off some loot, I'll take care of that and get you max value. Same thing if you want to buy something. Let me know and I'll get you a good deal on it." He told them all before pausing to consider if there was anything else they needed to know.

"Oh yeah. I can hold my own in most fights, but I'd prefer to run away or just not get involved. I'll do what I can if I have to, just don't expect much out of me. That's about it."

 

[GoWithDAFro]

"Looks like I'm the only one left." Yoje said, raising his voice. "I'm Yoje Taruki. I've been training in the Rokushiki style for most of my life, and I have a Devil Fruit that lets me turn into a kangaroo. I'll mainly be a fighter for this crew, but I could do lookout duty. And before I joined this crew, I got by giving others Rokushiki lessons, so I'd be happy to teach you some if any of you want me to."

He looked back past the docks, towards the center of town. "Well, introductions are done, unless Grana shows up soon. Did any of you seem him last night? He told me he'd wanted to check out Inshi's resort..."

 

[Mr. Omega]

"Look, if he isn't here by the time the ship is ready to go, we might have to leave him behind. We need to get out of here now." He didn't want to leave Grana behind, but he knew that not everyone was going to come. He already knew Jacque was staying here, and that Alaena had plans to leave. "There are plenty other ways off. Plus, he'll be safe here." He saw the ship on the horizon "Aaaah, there it is. My finest work. Well, work in progress. The outline is done, but the interior is almost..." once again, he started rambling, zoning out as he talked to himself, discussing dozens of ideas he had for the ship, including more cannons, a flag, a kitchen and more.

 

[NeoAC]

"Oh yeah, probably should have mentioned that I'm Devil Fruit too, I guess," Sammi admitted. "I figured you all saw that, but yeah, the rope thing, that's all from the fruit."

She saw the ship up in the distance, it had been upgraded from the tacky looking pleasure the boat the Governor had before, but according to Peter it was nowhere near completed. He kept talking to himself on and on. "Look Captain, as long as I got a separate room and a place where food and drink is, it should be just fine. Don't need to deck it out so much we can't fight on it, know what I mean?"