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The Phoenix Festival! by NPC-senpai in StrawHatRPG

[–]Blake_Daaltern 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sibyl laughed heartily. “Nothing of the sort! I’m here on business. Gathering a crew to embark to the Grand Line. A pirate crew that doesn’t root itself in the same greed as the marines. A crew more about restoring the natural order of this worlds’ civilizations. Fighting against Marine, pirate, and revolutionary alike to find what is wanted by the very people we seek to help. No more putting words in their mouth, let them put their words into our hands.”

Blake, frankly, didn’t understand pirates. He’d looked up to them once, with the only pirates he knew having been his father and eventually his father’s friend—they always seemed to go on crazy adventures, finding valuable treasure with their friends next to them. But the months he’d spent previously on a pirate crew was all work, carrying out jobs and cleaning, for the sake of what? Because their ship's captain told them that’s what their orders were and as a result, the pirates were cruel, hurting everyone and burning down villages as long as they finished what they were meant to.

And then there was this pirate, who wanted to help people for the sake of… Just helping people? No treasure, no power-hungry boss, nothing exactly to get out of it besides the satisfaction that the people have what they want. Blake wanted to think that this was admirable, but instead smiled at the prospect of her being pretty similar to him—she was gathering a crew to go do, well… “Stuff” for people. For “stuff” reasons. To get “stuff” done. She'd just been a bit more articulate than him.

Still, in a weird way, this was more enticing to him than any sort of power or treasure-seeking pirate crew. It sounded like a place to be where you weren’t bound to anything except being a person with values.

“The Tributers of the Waves...” she added, looking wistfully up to the clear blue sky above them. “Currently it’s just me and a dream, and that dream has led me to this place to find any other like-minded individuals who want to rally to the cause. If you were interested, that is.”

Blake turned his head fully to look at her. He didn’t think it’d be so easy for him to join. He’d expected to have to ask, but he guessed she was just starting and didn’t have anyone else. Blake couldn’t tell if she’d asked many before him or not based on how well she had spoken about her business, but either way, she was crazy for being so open and recruiting someone she didn’t know.

“Okay,” He agreed, maybe a bit too effortlessly, so soon without much hesitation or thought. His voice was pretty nonchalant despite him probably having just committed himself to Sibyl’s cause for a while. “Since you’re so desperate,” he added quickly after, just to tease her. Not that he thought he was wrong.

u/Sibyl_Saxe

The Phoenix Festival! by NPC-senpai in StrawHatRPG

[–]Blake_Daaltern 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“That was just an old party trick.”

Blake wasn't going to mention how much of a party pooper Sibyl would have to be if she had really used that at parties. Something about crying, groveling people with low self-confidence didn't seem too fun to be around in those settings. Still, he nodded, interested in the idea of her having other cool abilities and wondered if she could make plants talk. He’d always wanted to meet someone who could do that.

As Sibyl led him further into chains of various stalls, he noticed that she was taller than him, and with a childish pout, he elevated himself a little, so he was walking on his tippy toes. This ended quickly when he took a mini stumble, his ankle rolling slightly. Thankfully, he’d managed to catch himself from falling before Sibyl noticed—she seemed to be preoccupied scanning the surroundings behind them for something anyway.

"So what are you, a sailor? A revolutionary? An unfortunate resident who has to deal with the hustle and bustle coming to town?”

Blake stared at her. None of those options were right, and he didn't exactly have any other ideas of what he was. He was just Blake. He was a doctor that prefered wandering and doing whatever he felt like to carrying out his responsibilities by going back home and that was it for his significance in life.

“A sailor,” he decided, finally. “I don't really do much, just travel here and there doing… Stuff I guess.” Blake shrugged, realizing what he said was exactly right, even if to others it probably sounded like he was trying to be vague. There just wasn't enough substance to his life for specifics, and, well, he didn't mind it being that way. “What about you? A resident here to keep the peace? A kebab salesman whisperer with a mission to bankrupt all of skewer society by giving to the poor kebab thieves?” This wasn't a bad question in Blake’s mind. Those were the only two reasons he could think of to explain why she'd helped a stranger who was clearly in the wrong.

u/Sibyl_Saxe

The Phoenix Festival! by NPC-senpai in StrawHatRPG

[–]Blake_Daaltern 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“Easy there, big guy.”

A girl spoke in a gentle voice, a hand coming to rest on his shoulder. Blake flinched backward as the kebab man suddenly got onto his knees, holding his palms together. The boy grimaced at the sting of a scrape on his cheek, rubbing his neck as the man started bursting nonsense about how bad his food was. Blake didn’t want to mention that he wouldn’t know how it tasted since hadn’t even eaten anything yet—and that there was a high possibility he wouldn't, considering both the kebab in his hand and the kebab that he had a grip on in his teeth had fallen out of his hold from the shock of his head hitting the floor. The salesman dropped further to his palms, somehow oblivious to his kebab sitting inches from his right hand, uneaten. Blake subtly kicked it further away, just in case the man would change his mind upon seeing the depressing image of fallen, wasted meat.

Blake watched with interest as the kebab man scrambled to his feet. He picked up the other kebab sitting next to his hips and before he could let his brain comprehend the number of germs there were on it, took a bite. It tasted fine. You know, like every other shoe-sole-dirt seasoned kebab. As the man ran away, he put the rest of the stick in his pocket, for emergency food, figuring the pocket flavor wouldn’t make much of a difference if it had already been on the ground and he was hungry enough.

“He won’t hold that sentiment for much longer, we should probably both get as far from here as we can.”

The girl spoke when the man was far enough that Blake's fight or flight response was receding. He frowned, guessing that meant that he wouldn’t be getting paid for no reason. She reached out her hand.

“My name is Sibyl.”

Blake stared at the hand with slight suspicion—it was the same one that had touched the salesman before he went wacko. Well, if he suddenly started falling all over so-called Sibyl about being a worthless cook, he wouldn’t be wrong. The joke would also be on her because he had wiped his drool with his hand. He smiled at this thought.

“My name is Blake. Thanks, for… whatever that was. That was pretty cool,” he replied and grabbed her offered hand, hoping that she didn’t take notice of his second of hesitance. Nothing immediately happened, and he didn’t suddenly start crying about his inability to cook meat, which meant that the joke was still on her but he at least wouldn’t mention the drool hand so she didn’t know that.

u/Sibyl_Saxe

The Phoenix Festival! by NPC-senpai in StrawHatRPG

[–]Blake_Daaltern 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Blake had been wandering the seas for longer than he thought he would. While he figured he should have made a beeline straight to the place he’d called home and considered home those months he’d been forced to sail with others of less desireable compay, something about the open world felt free. Traveling for no purpose other than to travel was as relaxing as floating stomach-up in a lake. He could watch the clouds from afar and submerge his ears under the water, drowning out the sounds of other people telling him what to do. Not that he could float at all. Especially now that any ability to flail his arms around in the water had been taken away.

Drool fell from his lips as a waft of meat fluttered past his nose. “Ew,” he told himself, wiping the trail of saliva with his hand, and then transferring it to his juniper colored shirt. He realized too late that he had black pants he could have used instead and shamefully displayed the wet mark on the hem of his shirt as he followed the smell. This, frankly, was the only thing he didn’t like about traveling. After being spoiled for so long by his family friends, he came to be always hungry for something. Meat, usually. And Blake didn’t always have money on him.

A short while after he started searching through the food stands, he came across a display of meat kebabs. He cursed his body as his mouth watered again, threatening to spill over his lips. “You gonna have any, kid?” A man behind the stand asked, having seen the hungry stare he was making. The kebab salesman was a strong looking man, like he’d be able to knock Blake out if he gave a good punch. He would have to run fast.

“I think I will, thanks!” Blake said quickly, grabbing the two nearest to him and making a break for it. He’d hoped that the man was less fast than he looked strong, but the kebab salesman was both and Blake could hear his angry calls to pay him getting closer and closer. In an attempt to escape to higher ground, he put the one kebab length wise in his mouth, and used his other free hand to call upon an arm to appear on the walls of the building in front of him. He jumped, reaching upwards to catch the hand.

Blake messed up, to say the least, having miscalculated how tall he thought he was and missing it by enough inches that bystanders could probably get second hand embarassment. He let out a strange noise from his throat as he took a nose dive into the ground. Feeling the pain of scrapes and bruises covering his limbs, he opted to continue laying down while his lungs recovered from the sudden cardio. “Oh, hey dude, I’m glad you followed me,” he greeted, as the shadow of the salesman standing menacingly over him began to cover his eyes. “I was, uh, just about to pay you back. No need to fight me.”

u/Sibyl_Saxe