Grand Line Adventures IC - Part 2

AProcrastinatingWriter wrote:[color="gray"]"Appears to be instructions to draw a very specific pictures...or perhaps, how to write down something in a language I haven't heard of. I don't have the steadiest hoof," [color="gray"] Sixty-Two rubs his chin before bringing out his book, "But I believe my spellbook might have something to help recreate the image in my head...ah, here we are!"

That said, he raises his hoof, creating a small illusion-space in which glowing motes of light serve as the pen of his mind, drawing the exact thing he has been instructed to.

62 draws out a set of strange runic symbols closer to an alphabet than pictographs. They are distinct enough that it would be simple enough to recognize almost immediately given an example.

Up on deck two rather peculiar events occur. First a bird flying over head drops a mason jar containing a tiny crystalline pony. Then a gunboat flying a marine flag and a flag of truce approaches hailing the group's ship.

"Interesting...", Shallow comments, copying the runes onto another piece of parchment. "It mite' be prudent to keep an eye out for... wat'ever dat' may be. Thank you for your assistance, 62. In da' meantime, let's see if da' 'Tusken' situation improved.", he calmly says, pocketing both of his notes, and heading for the deck.

Perception:

Zarhon wrote:"Interesting...", Shallow comments, copying the runes onto another piece of parchment. "It mite' be prudent to keep an eye out for... wat'ever dat' may be. Thank you for your assistance, 62. In da' meantime, let's see if da' 'Tusken' situation improved.", he calmly says, pocketing both of his notes, and heading for the deck.

Perception:

The pony seems to be alive and well. The boat appears to be in good condition and heavily armed. The ghost is still "playing" with Tortoise.

"Were did dis' come from?", Shallow asks, holding the jar with the diminuitive pony pebble within, tapping lightly on the jar a few times. "Hello dere'! Welcome aboard!"  , he eagerly greets. "Speakin' of which, are we doin' anyting about dat' gunboat? Da' Marines mite see it as bad manners if we just ignore dem'."

The tiny pony yawns, color and luster coming back to her body, then she suddenly jumps to the other side of the jar. "WhoareyouwhereamIwhatareyoudoingPUTMEDOWN!!!" She squeaks, her size making her voice tiny.

"Wat? I can't hear a ting' you be sayin', itty bitty pon'. Can yah' speak louder? Or wait, maybe I can assist you instead...", Shallow says, reaching into his pouch and pulling out a long, curved horn of some creature, hollowed out similarly to some musical instruments. He puts one end inside the jar, whilst listening in to the other. "Dere' you go, try speaking into dat'."

Magical Tricks:

"Please just put me down!" She cries.

"Alright, put the poor pony down, Shallow," Sixty-Two says, then pauses. "Ah. I seem to have become already somewhat used to strange things occuring around you all, as this most recent event hasn't made me confused in the slightest. Odd, no?

"I like to tink' of it as da world's findin' us as very accommodating hosts, pon!", Shallow quips, letting the height-challenged pony out of the jar and onto a barrel. "May I kindly ask your name, miss, and your business aboard our humble little vessel? Lost by whims of fate an' luck, or simply travelin' da' seas wit' intent? Were' did you come from, exactly? Jars wit' tiny ponies rarely be a natural occurrence."

Carat jumps off the barrel and starts growing in size, until she's the size of a normal pony. "I was just wandering along a beach when it started raining, so I took shelter in the only thing I could find, that jar. I decided to take a nap, then I wake up here! Anyway, my name is Carat D. Bright. Who might you ponies be?"

"I come from Witherswatersrand Island, and it is not normal. I ate the Size Size Devil Fruit." Her stomach makes a noise, and she blushes. "Do you have any food? I have not eaten in a long time."

"A devil fruit, you say? Wat' a coincidence!", Shallow exclaims, plucking a single strawberry, roughly the size of the pony it is promptly offered to. "Hoof-grown! Or maybe you would like some more hearty meal? Boomer, care tah' prepare one of yah' specials for us and our guest?"

Carat stares at the fruit with wide eyes. "That is a big strawberry."
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OOC: Carat is at this point the size of a normal pony her age. When she was in the jar, she was 6 inches tall. Like she said, that is a big strawberry.

OOC: Zarhon, did you mean a strawberry the size of Carat's smaller size, or some mondo-berry the size of a regular pony (which is Carat's size now)?

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"I can't imagine supplying rations would be too difficult for you...unless your body only metabolizes food in proportion to your regular size rather than the size of consumption. But would that mean the food in your stomach changes sizes with you or..." Torque shook his head. "I suppose it doesn't particularly matter. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Ms. Bright. My name is Torque Szarnowski, inventor extraordinaire. Um, pardon me for a moment, there is something that I need to examine."

Torque tried to get a better look at the approaching Marine ship. "They either don't realize we are pirates or they are particularly desperate. Perhaps our rivals did a number on them."

Rolling Perception... Nat 20 + 8 + 3 (Sharp Eyes) = 31

"Wait, you ponies are pirates!?" Carat freezes, body locked while she thinks about how this could help or harm her. After a moment she unfreezes and squeals. "Awesome! May I join your crew?"

(OOC: I assumed she was a bit smaller than 9 inches, typical-strawberry sized (strawberries can be rather large on their own), so the strawberry would at very least be larger than her head/mouth/eyes and thus large enough for a decent meal in either case, at least until she decided to un-shrunk. Boomer can make a instant party for her, though.)

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"Eager, I see! Well, normally I'd say 'welcome aboard!', but yah' size mite' bring yah' more trouble an' peril, den' worth, out in da' devil-fruit-engulfin' open seas, and we earned da' notability of a few individuals dat' would be more den' willing to stomp on you, small or regular sized. Yah' any good at combat? Or some otha' tricks you got? Cause if not, dis' mite just be a ride yah'd need to be taller for. Marines got a bone to pick wit' us, and dey' don't turn a blind eye to any 'accomplices'."

Boomer sighs as she hears the newcomer wanting to join the crew so quickly... That was weird, but at this point the Bombermare knew they could use all the help they could get.

Lyntermas wrote:

Torque tried to get a better look at the approaching Marine ship. "They either don't realize we are pirates or they are particularly desperate. Perhaps our rivals did a number on them."

Rolling Perception... Nat 20 + 8 + 3 (Sharp Eyes) = 31

Torque sees that the marines on the small ship are quite different for most marines. All of their uniforms are worn and patched in various ways, most of them are wearing significant amounts of jewelry, almost all of them ,to Torque, posses a greedy look in their eyes. In general they give off an sense of corruption. However Torque can see that all of this is fake in the ship's commanding officer who appears to also command the fear of the rest of the crew.

The ship itself is armed with a mortar and what looks like a mine made out of ice that would be able to immobilize most ships.

"Well, if you're going to be joining the crew, you should know who we all are, no?" Sixty-Two asked, stepping forward a little and extended a friendly hoof to shake. "I am Sixty-Two, known spy for the marines. That grumpy soul over there is Boomer, our explosives expert, and this," he turned to empty air, "Is our good friend Invisible McGee. He doesn't talk very often."

"OH! And this..." he suddenly started, allowing the portacular fanfare to play itself out as A.R.C. practically spilled forth from the portal, "Is our other good friend and my personal companion, A.R.C. 413. Codeword: SALUTATION."

"HELLO," responded the floating robot.

Zarhon wrote:"Eager, I see! Well, normally I'd say 'welcome aboard!', but yah' size mite' bring yah' more trouble an' peril, den' worth, out in da' devil-fruit-engulfin' open seas, and we earned da' notability of a few individuals dat' would be more den' willing to stomp on you, small or regular sized. Yah' any good at combat? Or some otha' tricks you got? Cause if not, dis' mite just be a ride yah'd need to be taller for. Marines got a bone to pick wit' us, and dey' don't turn a blind eye to any 'accomplices'."

"Well, small is not the only size I can become, thankfully." As example, Carat increases in size until she can barely fit on the ship anymore, then shrinks back to normal. Then she snatches up the strawberry and eats it in two bites.

Carat squeals her delight. "Yay! Celebratory Fourth-Wall breakage!"

4th-wall breakage?:

She starts singing cheerfully the One Piece Rap, occasionally breaking into giggles.

"Nice ta meetcha!  Glad ah'm no' tha only new crew aboar'!  Sorry fer tha shor' welcome- ah'm still 'entertainin'' this wee gian' spirit."

Tortoise stopped momentarily to greet the new pony before being assaulted by Tusken again.

"Though speakin' o' visit'rs (an' ah sure hope this Tusk'n won' be stickin' aroun'), somep'ny oughta thinka somethin' ta do abou' thos' marines..."

He scurried off again so that the ghost wouldn't get distracted by the new pony as well, yelling back at his pursuer some more.

"Hey!  Keep up!  Ye'll nev'r be best 'pony-squasher' if ya can no' squash one pony!  If ya hit me enough times ya might beat some kinda record!  Not that ya can coun' high enough, ah'm sure!"

Tortoise screeched to a halt again, hooves scraping the deck's boards.

"Hey, did ah jus' see ya change size?  Perhaps if ya grew ta tha size of this awf'l critter here (or larger), ya migh' be able ta actually talk ta him!  He at leas' don' resp'ct us normal-sized ponies!"

Carat looks at the giant ghost, then grows to about the size of what she estimates to be the size of a pony of the ghost's race. "Hey there, Tusken. What game are you playing right now?" Carat smiles kindly at the ghost.