[Social] Meeting a New Foe Or Friend

BLACKBELL A. WREN

“I see the port!” cried Wren, pointing excitedly as the sight of Lvneel island drew closer. Her silver hair flew wildly in the choppy sea wind, the hazel glint in her eyes bright with the prospect of another adventure. “Row, faster! Faster!!”

“Calm down, Fluffy-Fluffy,” mused her favourite grunt from her crew, Primetime.

He was a grotesque creature, covered head to toe in unruly brown hair like a sasquatch. His appearance was very much like a sasquatch too, tall, wide, long-limbed and much like a lot of Primetime pirates, he disliked the feeling of shirts covering his chest. This was an unfortunate and uncomely sight, as this grunt was prone to drinking an excess of ale and beer, and as a result of consuming the party elixir in such quantity for years, he’d developed an enormous belly that drooped over the waist of his ripped cargo shorts.

It would have been a great relief if his face was at least more charming to look at, but that wasn’t the way the world treated this lamentably ugly man. His skin took on a yellow complexion, his lower lip was constantly jutting out like a gorilla and his eyebrows were so hairy, his eyes were completely covered. Yet, the sweet fairy who shared his company loved him immensely.

This girl, no larger than a thimble, was a tontatta with a silver squirrel tail that lent her a very fitting nickname: Fluffy-Fluffy. With skin as white and smooth as marble, delightfully pink cheeks and thick, curled lashes, she often threw famous tantrums if Primetime duties separated her from the sasquatch-like grunt. So unlike her companion in the way of the beauty and the beast, it was unbelievable they got along so well. In fact, it was completely unimaginable to believe Wren was a Primetime at all.

She neither fit the reputation of a big, bad, blood-lusting pirate the Primetimes were so renowned for, nor was she particularly intimidating like her captain. She was by no means an ugly grunt (and all things considering, her favourite grunt wasn’t the least attractive being to sleep on Big Time either) or an ambitious, swash-buckling pillager. Yet few among the Primetime pirates themselves considered her anything less than one of their on.  

“Hurry~” groaned Wren impatiently, pounding her fists with little effect against the wooden edge of the boat. “And stop calling me Fluffy-Fluffy, Sassy!”

“When you stop calling me Sassy, I will,” retorted the sasquatch.

The grunt was heaved the oars to their tiny rowboat (a boat they hadn’t entirely obtained permission to use, but that would have to be a problem to take with their captain later), until the bow knocked against the port. Sassy lumbered unsteadily off the rowboat and tied it haphazardly to a post, smack right in between a beautiful galleon and an even grander warship. Their modest rowboat was a mere ant amid the giants.

“Yes!” squealed Wren, zooming into the air, her mechanically engineered wings buzzing like a hummingbird’s. She threw her arms into the air and inhaled deeply, letting the fresh, crisp ocean air fill her lungs. “Ahhh! So this is Lvneel! It looks so...quiet!” A cheeky, mischievous smile spread across her plump cheeks. “Shall we show this lovely little island how the Primetimes like to party?"

Trackers:

BLACKBELL A. WREN

“Fluffy-Fluffy, slow down,” huffed and puffed the poor sasquatch, the weight of his beer belly swinging wildly and hindering his movements.

“No, you hurry up!” retorted Wren brazenly, whizzing over the heads of the crowds with unrestrained glee. “Gosh, what should we do~~?”

She turned her head over her shoulder to check if Sassy was keeping up, but his magnificent form had lagged behind by several paces already and was still only a few steps from where she had left him. She clicked her tongue and shook her head. Retracing her path, she paused and hovered just at Sassy’s eye-level. She crossed her arms and pouted, twisting her pretty face into an expression of adorable annoyance.

“Geez, how are we going to get anywhere with that rate?” she demanded haughtily, the air around her suddenly shifting as her tail unfurled violently in the air behind her.

The little fairy suffered from a mental affliction, one that would sometimes change her personality faster than the switch of a light. Yet, she appeared to live in begrudging harmony with the various identities stuffed within that small frame of hers and those closest to her, such as Sassy, were already more than used to her constant mood shifts.

“I’m an old man with old bones, Fluffy-Fluffy,” he grumbled, shuffling to the side of the street and flopping down on a bench.

Wren shook her head, but before she could retort, Sassy suddenly reached upwards and snatched up the tontatta girl, cupping his leathery hands around her. A giant figure had just brushed by and would have barreled straight into the thumb-sized tontatta like a passing train if Sassy hadn’t just narrowly saved her. Wren turned her head, her eyes widening in wonder as she beheld the man’s sheer size, his body laden with iron-like muscle. Even the vein pulsing dangerously close to bursting, an indication of his foul mood, was almost Wren’s own size.

Yet despite his intimidating aura and Wren’s own comparably small figure, the curious and inquisitive nature of the girl was all the more imposing. Once the initial shock of the giant’s approach was over, and all too soon it did, pure and unadulterated admiration washed over her expression. A wide, beaming smile spread across her cheeks and her eyes sparkled with wonder, like a child seeing a giant mechanised robot for the first time.

Sassy was one of the many Primetime members possessing enormous and monstrous size, and while this was another stark reminder of Wren’s own discrepant position in the crew, it certainly meant she had her fair share of giants. Especially when giants were never in short supply with her size.

While beings larger than Sassy were not completely unheard of, especially on the Grand Line where all sorts of individuals from all walks of life gathered, the man who passed the two Primetimes was on a completely different level. To Wren, who loved nothing more than the new and unusual, this man immediately grabbed her interest and once she found something that held her interest, she must thoroughly familiarise herself with it.

“Hey, watch yourself!” snapped Sassy, still cupping Wren in his hands protectively. “You nearly crashed into my friend!”

As he voiced his complaints to the giant, he took a seat beside the sasquatch, which immediately fell apart from his sheer weight. Startled, Sassy fell into the timbers, landing unceremoniously on his rump and Wren squealed as her entire body was jostled. Sassy unconsciously squeezed his fingers together and her wings wailed to a stop.

“Alright, you!” growled Sassy, jumping to his feet. He shook a fist at the giant man who had demolished his seat, Wren still clamped uncomfortably tight in his other hand. “Get up and start apologising!”

Trackers:

BLACKBELL A. WREN

While the two Primetime pirates had yet to ever witness a true giant before this day, both had their fair share of criminals with giant bounties. Their own captain was testament to this fact: one of the strongest men to currently exist in the North Blue. It was largely this very reason that inflated Sassy’s ego so large and wrongfully so, considering it was borrowed power.

Yet this realisation never once occurred to the sasquatch and the words of the giant, whether or not they were intended to anger, still riled the man up.

“You think you’re some big shot just because your size is big, eh?” grunted the sassy sasquatch. “Let me tell you something, punk.” He wagged an accusing, hairy finger at the giant. “That ego of yours is gonna get you into some bigger trouble if you don’t learn when to apologise for your own errors.”

While all this ensued, Wren’s own appetite for trouble was growing all the more. Her irritation at being ignored in this whole ordeal miffed her and by the time the giant’s attention had turned to her, she was ready to let loose. Extremely pleased to have caught the interest of the giant without even trying, Wren’s beaming smile immediately returned.

“This is my best friend, Sassy!” she said proudly, pointing audaciously up at the fuming sasquatch. “And I am…!”

She flung her arms into the air and suddenly her size shot up from the little tontatta she was to a giant with the same eye level as their new acquaintance. Nearby pedestrians shrieked at the appearance of a giant that had appeared entirely out of thin air. The young girl was a Devil Fruit user, a human who had complete power over her hormones, thus allowing her to control her size and appearance freely. Or as freely as her hormones would allow.

“I’m Wren! And we are both pirates belonging to Primetime, a nefarious crew led by the almighty Brood!” she exclaimed gleefully, swinging her arms around dangerously and narrowly missed smashing into a nearby store.

At the mention of her captain’s name, the enormous crowd that had been idly enjoying their day on Lvneel suddenly turned into a raging stampede. A stampede to get away.

“It’s those wretched Primetime psychopaths!!”

“Someone call the marines!”

Sassy glared up at Wren, gripping the land he had formerly held Wren in. “Oi! Fluffy-Fluffy, if you’re gonna grow all of a sudden, next time warn me ahead of time, will you?”

Wren glanced down at her companion, grinning from ear to ear. “But then the surprise would have been ruined!” she laughed mercilessly, before turning to the other giant. “Now...I believe you owe us an introduction?”

Trackers:

BLACKBELL A. WREN

“It’s okay, Sassy,” said Wren, without glancing down at her comrade.

A tiny, unreadable smile accessorised her features and she kept her eyes trained upon the giant before her. Behind her, as though under the giant tontatta’s protection, the sasquatch was red and fuming.

The denied “egoism” of the giant named Makaze seemed to belittle the Primetime grunt and the hot-hotheadedness Sassy was so known for among their comrades was close to exploding. It wasn’t entirely clear what Wren thought towards the insult of her dearest friend in the crew, but the sparkle in her eyes never once stiffened.

“Marines?” she repeated naively, tilting her head to one side as though in doubt of his words. “Oh! That sounds fun~ Sassy, can we fight them?”

She glanced down at her friend, her expression completely lit with excitement. Sassy, in turn, swallowed his anger and shifted his gaze to meet Wren’s.

“We don’t have any backup,” he replied, after some consideration, but there was some regret in his voice. There was no doubt he wanted desperately to release some built-up steam from engaging in a futile argument with Makaze.

Wren’s shoulders slumped. “Yes, you’re right,” she said in resignation before turning back to Makaze. “I ate a devil fruit that grants me the power to control my hormones. I can change my height, weight, age, gender and even my facial features however I want! I can even play around with yours if you let me!”

She lifted her hands in demonstration and flexed her fingers, letting her nails grow into a set of five syringe-like claws. “Of course, I would never change someone just for fun. I’ve been told it’s incredibly rude to not get consent first, so don’t worry!”

She then paused at Makaze’s next question. “My captain is the strongest in all of the North Blue and we’re going to take over the Grand Line soon!” she boasted, puffing out her chest proudly. One could even imagine her nose elongating with her inflated ego.

“But we aren’t seeking members!” interrupted Sassy bluntly, a sizzling glare burning into Makaze’s form.

“Yes, unfortunately,” agreed Wren, her expression becoming forlorn. Then her expression lit up again, this time with mischief. “But, how about we play a game together instead?”

Sassy pursed his lips, glaring up at the girl. “What game are we playing?”

Wren grinned boldly and rubbed her hands together with irrepressible blitheness.

“A game to see how many marine hats we can snatch,” she flashed her pearly white teeth cheekily. “And to make the game harder, we can’t kill them! We can’t be caught and we can’t be seen either. If we break any of the three rules, we get disqualified and let’s say the game will go on until sundown.

“Whoever collects the most hats gets to draw a funny picture on the loser’s face with this marker,” she dug into her pockets and drew out a pen. “It’s one of my latest creations! The ink doesn’t wipe off no matter what you do and will naturally fade after three days. Well?”

She then turned to Makaze. “Would you like to play with us? Well, I suppose it will be hard for you to stay hidden because you’re a giant. So how about we all do this at the size of tontatta? I can make you both smaller with my devil fruit powers, after all!”

OOC:

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