[Social] Gathering A Crew, Episode One: Rumors and Myths (Closed)

The South Blue. One of the furthest places away from home. At least, that was how it felt, looking out at the endless blue and black of the nighttime sea. It had been two years since she'd gathered up her crew to run the ship. But there was a problem. Some of them were temporary members, at best. She wouldn't need to worry about Charisma. She absolutely loved being able to wander around and find new ingredients for everything. But Coranthal..she was starting to get antsy. She had been brought on because one of the riggers had fallen and absolutely shattered part of their leg.

She had been the first person to see through their outward guise of being merchants, and had offered to be the ship's doctor. But nobody had gotten injured since then. If anything, they had been bringing on more and more people, but were more careful than before. So the good doctor, she was constantly hinting about eventually leaving and going back to wandering the seas on her own.

And she wasn't the only one. Dumas had made it clear that he was only going to stay with her for as long as it took for him to properly teach up a small group of gunnery staff. He was simply getting too old to go on some grand adventure for a treasure that multiple people had found, and deemed to not have been worthy of their time. The worst part of that was that Dumas pulled double duty. On one hand, he was their Master Gunner. But on the other, he was also the only one who knew how to care for the various weapons of the crew.

Alexa sighed deeply and ran a hand through her hair as she mulled it all over. "Christ..it's almost enough to drive a woman to smoke.." She muttered as she for once walked across the deck to head down to her quarters, rather than just sinking through the deck. She was going to need to find a real crew. Dumas and Coranthal were the only ones who were hinting at leaving her and Morris behind..but she could feel the unease amongst the group that had kept the ship running when Jason was the one in charge of the ship.

Of course, she was really in her head at this point, and didn't even notice as she walked past the man in question, who was leaning against one of the walls of the hallway that led to the Captain's Quarters. "Well, good to know I'm not the only one that's too worried to sleep." That made Alexa jump, but she sighed softly and ran a gloved hand over her face.

"Yeah..I know. If those two leave..I don't think we'll be able to really sail safely. We're gonna need to start gathering more people.." She said as she slowly crossed her arms underneath her bust, her brow furrowing as she tried to think of a place to start. As she tried to think, all she could really focus on was the fact that Jason had just started chuckling. That made her turn on her heel, glaring at him.

"You know, if you'd care to share what's so funny about our fucked situation, I'd love to hear it." She said, scowling a bit. Of course, Jason held both hands up in a defensive manner. "Hey, if you wanna get hostile, I guess I won't tell you about the rumors the crew have been hearing."

Well. That was one way to get her attention, and it was clear that Jason knew it, as he continued to talk. "The boys have been talking amongst themselves about some giant fire breathing dog hiding in one of the nearby islands." That made Alexa raise an eyebrow. "Ok..so assuming we can capture the thing..what are we going to do with a fire breathing dog?" And once again, Jason laughed at her, earning him a second scowl.

"Think a little more. If it really was a big, angry dog, how would we have heard any rumors? You can literally walk through walls and people. What makes the idea of someone being able to turn into something like that impossible, huh?"

God, she really wanted to be angry at him..but he had a point, so she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. "Alright..where's it supposed to be?" She asked before looking at him, crossing her arms back under her bust. "Karate Island is where the rumors're coming from. If you want, I can get up some of the boys, and we can keep sailing through the night, and we'll be there by morning."

Hm. It took a moment of mulling it over, but eventually, Alexa nodded. "Yeah. Get up just enough people to keep us heading that way, and let me know when we've docked." She said as she turned around and walked forward, opening the door and closing it behind her before she flopped onto her bed.

---

The night had been uneventful, as had the morning. They had made it to Karate Island, sure. But nobody was being quite honest with them as to where the creature that the rumors talked about was hiding. At this point, Alexa had to sigh, running a hand through her hair as she made her way to the edge of the village, where two of her most trusted crew members were waiting: Jack and Edwynne.

"So, did the villagers give you the runaround too?" Edwynne asked, her voice as quiet as ever. Alexa just sighed and nodded.

"I'm guessing you both ran into that problem too, huh?" A nod from the other two confirmed it. Well..fuck. This island wasn't large, sure..but it wasn't small by any means. And if Jason was right in his assumption that the creature they were looking for was like Alexa, and had a Devil Fruit power..that meant she could be just about anyone, right..?

There was something about Karate Island that left an interesting impression upon Noir. She wasn't exactly certain on how to describe it, perhaps, in the end, it was simply the fact that this was an island full of people wanting to prove themselves when it came to being strong. Indeed, there was no doubt about it that martial artists were quite close to the essence of a hunter that Noir's tribe had valued so immensely. The desire to prove one's worth by challenging worthy foes, certainly they weren't the monsters and animals of the wilderness, but it was often said that humanity was the most clever and savage of all beasts, a saying that Noir had grown to respect. In the days she spend in the care of Master Hong and learning to properly wield the power of the Cerberus that slumbered within her, a power granted to her by means of the consumption of a devil fruit, Noir still had to admit there was something... missing.

It was somewhat hard to explain, but there was something missing in her life. Even if she had to admit that every day in Karate Island was interesting and exciting in its own way, it didn't change the fact that by all means, every day still felt the same. It was starting to become predictable, and lately it even felt like she had fallen into a routine, waking up in her quarters in Hong's dojo, participating in the morning training, eating breakfast and then train some more.

Frustration started to overcome here, and with her anger getting the better of her the young raven-haired woman's arm wrapped into the familiar obsidian aura, and with a burst of feral energy her arm turned into its bestial shape, the claw slicing into the torso of the training dummy while she roared in anger. "THIS IS GETTING ANNOYING!" She yelled in frustration, just to feel a heavy weight crashing down the back of her head, making the young woman let out a soft whine as she turned around, her untransformed hand rubbing the spot she had been whacked at.

"What are you making all that noise for Noir?" It was Master Hong, wagging his cane lightly toward her with a glint of amusement in his eyes. It seemed almost as if he had anticipated for this to happen in some way or form. "It's not the same as back home, this place lacks the excitement the wilderness gave me-" Master Hong nodded his head knowingly, answering the message she was trying to convey. "What you are missing is the thrill of adventure, the challenge of the unknown." Noir nodded her head firmly in agreement to the master's words, and after a moment he seemingly had an idea, a solution of sorts. "I heard some foreigners arrived on the island today, who knows they might possess that thrill you are looking for."

Foreigners from far away? They certainly seemed like the type of people to possess a healthy assortment of stories and adventures to share with her, and perhaps if they were interesting enough they could even help her find the adventure she desired! "Where are they right now?" It was evident in the excited look upon her face that Noir intended to search for them, and Master Hong wasn't about to stop her. "I believe their ship docked at the nearby village, if you're fast enough you might find some of their crew in the village."

If speed was an issue... A glint of mischief in her eyes Noir started to dash outside the dojo grounds and once she left the large gate allowed her body to be consumed by the power of her devil fruit, transforming into the giant three-headed cerberus as she started to dash and leap across the fields, clearly making her way toward the village in a 'impossible to not notice' fashion!

Yeah. We got given a pretty severe run around, even with Jack's attempts at turning on his businessman charisma." Edwynne said, her voice barely able to be heard over the wind. God, she was far too quiet. But, Alexa had learned how to hear her, so it wasn't a real problem. So, she sighed, even as Jason playfully bopped the top of Edwynne's head. A bold move, considering she was the strongest out of all of them.

"Well, all that really means is tha-" He started, only to be cut short as the three of them not only heard a loud crashing noise. They FELT it. It was like some massive creature was running. A simple look back towards the village showed something insane. The source of this tremor? It was the very creature they had been looking for. Alexa could also see that the villagers were scrambling to get things out of the way, a few even going as far as to gesture in such a way that made it clear that they were trying to get the creature to turn back around.

Well. That was certainly one way for this thing to introduce itself.

"Well, is that what we were looking for?" Edwynne asked as she crossed her arms over her chest. Of course, Alexa had to chuckle and stretch a bit. "I dunno, Ed. Does that look like a massive three headed dog to you? Cause it certainly does to me." She said, her grin now blatantly obvious as Jason chuckled.

"Well, do try and be careful this time. We don't need you tumbling over something in your excitement to catch up to it. Ed and I will get there as quick as possible." Of course, Edwynne only nodded in agreement. "I doubt Coranthal will be happy about treating a broken leg, even if it gives her something to do." She chimed in before Alexa dismissively waved one of her gloved hands.

That being said, she stretched one last time..and she was off. Of course, one look at Alexa made it clear what she was built for, in terms of athleticism. She was definitely a runner. And thanks to her work over the past two years, she was a damn good one at that. The village was closing in rather quickly, and to her two crew members, she was a bit of a dot on the horizon after a short while.

Of course, the villagers already had one problem on their hands with the Cerberus. So to see the outsider that they had spent all day giving the runaround sprinting back towards the village at a similar speed to that creature? To say that people were running away from Alexa in both exasperation and fear at this point was an understatement.

Eventually though, she was forced to slow down. The closer she got to the center of the village, the more massive the tremors from that creature's bounding got. For now, she was going to have to come to a stop, and even grab hold of something. For once, trying to make things easier by using her power to slip into the earth wasn't a viable solution. Getting into the earth now would be like jumping headfirst into a whirlpool. She would just wait it out, and get ready to come face to face with the source of these tremors. If she was lucky, then Jason would be right, and this creature would turn back into a person. If she wasn't? Well..she wasn't really sure WHAT she would do. But she certainly would have to do something.