Fated Meeting: "King of the Pirates" and the Red Storm

quest:

Birds happily chirped in nearby trees as Niko flattened a large roll of paper across the table at the cafe he had chosen to stop at. Upon this paper was a work-in-progress map of the Black Drum Island. Niko dug through the travel sack at his waist for a moment before pulling out a mostly used stick of graphite. He set the graphite on the table and next fished out an eraser. Niko set the eraser next to the graphite stick before looking out upon the surrounding plaza. Denizens moved about going to and fro wherever their business took them as the day crawled closer to mid-day.  Niko closed his eyes and took a breath as he shifted his head back forward. Niko took a deep breath as he focused on the new path that he'd taken that morning. Taking up the graphite as he exhaled, Niko began sketching on the paper, continuing from where the existing sketch had stopped.

Niko sketched for about half an hour before he felt eyes upon him. Niko turned his head and glanced to the side to find several pairs of eyes peering over the edge of the table to try and see what he was doing.

"What is it?" a child's voice asked pointing over the edge at the paper.

Niko gave chuckle accompanied by a small sly smile. He leaned over his paper, blowing the bits of graphite and eraser shavings from the surface, before holding the paper up for the young kids to see. "It's the island." Niko said. Then he took a finger and pointed to a spot "We're about here." he said.

The children looked over the paper wide eyed with awe. They excitedly started to point out parts of the island that they recognized.

"It's not quite done yet." Niko said carefully placing the paper back down onto the table. "I've still got a bit to go. But I'll get there." He assured. But the children had been distracted by something else, and already run off. Niko briefly sighed. "I'll get there." he said to himself. He waved over a waitress and requested a water. Then he returned back to making his map.

Flaire sat in a small building in one of the smaller port villages of Black Drum island, she wasn't well liked in the larger villages of the island due to her trouble making nature and of course her bounty. This village however found her to be quite different, that this whole charade of being the embodiment of evil was lost on them. Flaire of course used this place as her safe haven when she was in a less troublesome mood. "Wow Flaire you eat a lot." Said the tavern keep as Flaire chowed down on a large plate loaded with meat. "Whaf youf meaf? I eaf likef thif all the timef." She commented with her mouth full of some sort of animals leg meat. Swallowing she gave a toothy yet cute grin. "Thanks Danny, I was getting hungry." She managed to speak out before returning to her ravenous eating spree. On the other side of the building a gathering of children gathered around a rather tall man and were commenting on something he was drawing which Flaire paid no mind to. "Ah when I go to become Pirate King are you going to stock my ship up with Meat Danny?" Flaire asked as the tavern keep which was responded to with a smile. "Oh but of course, but only if you have a ship to begin with, unless you intend to swim." One of the regulars pipped up. "Danny, she has a devil fruit there's no way she would be able to swim." Which was followed with laughter throughout the rest of the regulars which caused Flaire to spark with a little rage. "I'LL DO IT EVEN IF I HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO SWIM DAMNIT!" She screamed with only caused the laughter to increase. "Now now Flaire, you know they're just joking." Flaire turned back to her plate of meat looking rather upset now.

Niko continued scratching lines onto his roll of paper. The town seemed to move about him while his focus remained on completing that day’s section of his map. Niko’s process consisted of closing his eyes to remember where he’d been, transfer the thought to paper, carefully take a drink of his water away from his paper, and repeat. Every now and then he’d break from his methodical cycle to sharpen his graphite stick or stand up, take a few steps back from his map, and stretch his back.

Amidst one of his tiny breaks, Niko opened his eyes from his from his stretch to look towards the source of some yelling from across the way. He hadn’t been too focused on what was being yelled, all he really caught was the word “swim”. Niko shrugged and exhaled deeply before turning back towards his temporary work area.

Niko had only sat down and picked up his graphite stick, when he begun to notice an increase of whispering around.
“Oi, isnt that…”
“What’s someone like that doing down here?”
Niko looked towards where everyone else was looking at. Upon the horizon at the edge of the village, approached a small entourage. As they came further into town, Niko could see that there were five people making up the entourage. Two were obviously body guards, wearing suits and shades. One seemed to be a servant garbed in rags, following behind with their eyes on the ground. The other one looked to be of working class, wearing coveralls and denim. The last stranger was obviously wealthy, contrasting the village in his clean suit and groomed composure. Niko’s eyes narrowed as the strangers slowly strolled into the town, the worker pointing and making gestures as the wealthy one seemed to nod every now and then after the worker spoke.

Niko leaned over to someone at a nearby table. “Hey, who is that?” he asked. His neighbor looked at him with a raised brow. “You don’t know?” he asked. “Can’t say I do. Not really from around here.” Niko replied. “Oh. Well he’s a friend of one of the council members.” the neighbor explained. “Though, not on the council himself, he throws around his friend’s name as though he had the same weight, reaping the same benefits and wealth. Though it’s a little odd to see him in a place such as this.” the neighbor said.  

Niko returned his attention to the rich guy in the approaching group. Now that they were closer, Niko could make out more details. The guy was relatively thin, with dark green hair combed back, and an equally dark green, small handlebar moustache. In comparison to him, the bodyguards were both pretty well built, though one was a little taller than the other, and both were only slightly taller than the guy they were guarding. Niko shook his head “It’s not my business.” He told himself. He took a breath and reached for his graphite.