What happens in Deesuko Ballia...

[seadevil]

Who: The crew of the Katabami
Where: Deesuko Ballia
When: February 1st - Valentine's-ish
What: General crew log
Warnings: Mawwiage
Style: Any
Status: Closed to crew

It's party time on Deesuko Ballia but things get a little out of hand and the brave crew of the Katabami find out that sometimes partying too hard can have serious consequences.

In other words, apparently this is a harem anime now.

Comments

Motochika - Before the Disaster

[seadevil]

[This island is a pirate's paradise, so the captain can be found drinking, gambling, entertaining the locals with his manly stories and generally being an attention whore as per usual.]

[A]

[He's hauled out the Rising Sun again, and apparently working on the mechanisms that make it spin attracted enough locals to start a dance-off. Can you out-breakdance a giant wooden spider robot? Someone has decided that Motochika is a worthy judge for this sort of thing, so the prize is a barrel of wine. Good luck!]

[B]

[Motochika is holding court in one of the nicer (this being a relative term) bars on the island. The booze is flowing freely and he's already gotten into several bar fights, as evidenced by the big bruise on his jaw. Join him for a drink and get this chain reaction of bad ideas rolling!]

B

[cherrybombpie]

[Kodachi was taking a break from cooking for once and had ordered food from the kitchen. The food was quite good - better than she'd expected, at least - and she was watching all the brawling with amusement.]

[She was sitting at the bar beside the captain, and someone was just about to smack his head with a pint when she lashed out with a club hidden in the folds of her kimono, knocking the other pirate out cold. The whole bar fell silent, and someone let out a whistle.]

[She blinked at everyone.]

Hm?

[And suddenly everyone erupted in cheers, offering to buy her a drink.]

[She looked at Motochika as several mugs of all sorts of booze appeared before her.]

That was funny.

[seadevil]

Did you see the look on his face? Utterly dumbstruck!

[Motochika was finding the whole thing to be utterly hilarious. He snagged a few mugs that were technically Kodachi's with one hand and patted her on the head with the other.]

Good work, Kodachi, good work. Now just don't start too big of a fight before we have a chance to get some drinking done. It's a terrible shame to waste free booze.

[Wise advice, if he said so himself.]

[cherrybombpie]

That's what he gets for being so daft.

[She giggled as he patted her head, even letting it past her that he got some of her beer. She didn't really drink, after all. She was too young for that sort of thing . . . ]

[Though it was indeed a very strange world in which she was too young to drink but old enough to get married.]

Is it really that good?

[Kodachi picked up one of the mugs of beer. It was cold, and the foam on top was quite nice, she had to admit.]

[seadevil]

What, beer? It depends on who's brewing it, I suppose! This is no better or worse than most, I think. After a while, you don't really notice the taste as much. Of course, if you're looking to get properly drunk, this isn't going to do you much good.

[It was why he'd never quite understood why everyone was so preoccupied with it in this place. Sure, you could store a lot of it and serve it in great amounts, but it wasn't exactly the best tasting thing you could toss in a mug and shove across a bar, nor was it really that potent.]

I'm sure the barkeep could make you up something a bit more interesting, though the louts wouldn't know how to go about ordering it for you.

[And neither does Motochika, honestly, he's just seen it happen.]

[cherrybombpie]

[Kodachi decided to try her first ever sip of beer. It looked quite nice and golden, and well, she was older now, wasn't she? Surely a few sips wouldn't hurt.]

[She tried a dainty sip - almost just a splash - savoring the taste in her mouth. It wasn't one of the best beers in the world, but it was alright. That earthy taste was actually quite nice.]

Why would you want to get properly drunk?

[That was honestly something she was curious about.]

[She also looked to the barkeep, who was watching her with interest.]

Make me something nice.

[He quickly got to it, and a moment later, she had a drink with chocolate in it.]

[seadevil]

[Motochika eyed Kodachi's drink with interest. It was probably something the men around here looked down on as a "girly drink," but Motochika was willing to drink just about anything with alcohol in it, regardless of its intended audience.]

Why would you want to get drunk? [He scratched at his chin, pondering that one.] It's a good bit of fun while it's happening, I suppose. Not so much fun afterwards, but you learn to manage that. I've had some of my best ideas while I was drunk.

[Mind you, these were good ideas by Motochika's standards...]

[cherrybombpie]

[The men around the bar may have thought of it as a "girly drink", but they were too wary of her clubs to say anything.]

You think it's fun?

[Oh, no. She was getting some bad ideas right here.]

[She took a sip of the chocolate drink and found that she liked it much more than the beer. She'd had rum chocolates before, of course, and this was something like that - just in a beverage!]

Oh, this is nice!

[seadevil]

Of course it's fun! The more people around who get in on it, the more fun it is. It does something to the inhibitions, you see, so if I've thought of something particularly good, it's far easier to get everyone else on board with it!

[Motochika, after all, didn't have much by way of inhibitions to start with.]

Not that it helps with everyone, mind you. Ragna's a bit more agreeable for a bit before he gets to starting fights again, for example. Then there are some who fall right asleep and others who get a bit gloomy and keep to themselves. It's a matter of choosing your company, I suppose.

B

[harbouredheart]

[Xun Yu hates Deesuko Ballia.

Which isn't all that surprising given her background, but does make the fact that she's on the island something of an issue. She's done her best to minimise sticking out: she swapped her expensive armour for plainer, practical clothes before she left the Katabami and she's loosened her posture to appear less military. There's nothing she can do to change the fact that as a 5'5'' woman she's not physically intimidating and presents a more attractive target for the kind of lowlifes slumming around. Not that she's worried about losing any fights -- she just doesn't want to have them in the first place.

Motochika is a solution.

Perhaps she should feel a little ashamed of using her captain as a means to an end, but right now when she spots him at the bar she doesn't hesitate to slip into the space next to him. She rests her forearms on the bar, slouching forward, and motions to the bartender for a drink. The key to deception is commitment: a few drinks of dubious quality is a small price to pay for peace. Really, the only flaw in her act is the flicker of disgust that she cannot quite keep from her expression as her sleeves stick slightly to the tacky bar top.]

I don't think that I want to know what's coating any surface here.

[She says to him quietly, as she looks at him and finally sees his new bruise. She raises her eyebrows.]

You look like you've been enjoying yourself, Captain.

[If the impression that they are together is clear then she'll have less trouble coming her way, since Motochika is physically intimidating and seems to have already laid the foundations of reputation down. Any trouble that does come he can soak up. He enjoys brawling, so she won't have to feel guilty about it either. What could possibly go wrong?]

[seadevil]

[Motochika is momentarily dumbstruck by Xun Yu's sudden appearance. It takes a second to register that it even is Xun Yu because there are just places where you don't expect to see people. Admittedly, this entire island isn't exactly a place where you would expect to see Xun Yu and she has to go somewhere...]

It's been an exciting sort of evening!

[He rubs at the the bruise, smirking a little. Bar fights are a pastime he's come to enjoy a bit too much since arriving in this world.]

You don't seem to be enjoying yourself nearly as much. I'm sure the barkeep keeps the counter clean enough, you know. Cleaner than the floor, at least.

[harbouredheart]

[Honestly, when she returns to the ship she's not stepping foot back on this island, but that's a journey she'll undertake in daytime. She can survive an night in Motochika's company.]

I stepped on a tooth making my way over. Was that your doing?

[The positioning of that bruise rules it out as one of his, at least.]

[seadevil]

It might well have been!

[He looks rather proud of himself because of it, too. Really, considering the state of the teeth of the sort of people who frequent these bars, it's not much of an accomplishment, but even small accomplishments are enough to feed the ego a bit.]

Sometimes you find a gold one, but I don't suppose they're really worth cleaning off for the money you'd get for them. Best to leave them to their owners to retrieve later, I suppose.

[Pirate economics.]

[harbouredheart]

[She's at least keeping all comments about how uncivilised it is to herself, though she does make a small noise of distaste. She prays that they'll never be desperate enough to crawl after knocked-out teeth.]

I'm happy to hear that you have standards, Captain.

[Not that they seem to be particularly high, but some dignity is acutely better than none.

She takes her drink when it's set before her, and tips it back -- it tastes unpleasant and burns down her throat. Not to drink it shows weakness, however, and showing weakness in a pirate den is to invite misfortune upon yourself.]

[seadevil]

I might consider a big tooth.

[He holds his arms out, indicating he means something closer in size to a small boulder than a human's tooth.]

It'd have to be something big enough to mount on a plaque and hand on the wall, I think.

[Apparently, he's put some thought into this.]

So what brings you here, anyway? This isn't usually the sort of place you frequent. Was there something you needed me for?

[harbouredheart]

[Xun Yu shakes her head with a faint smile at the comment about the tooth. She doesn't answer the question that follows immediately. How much should she say? There are times when it's inconvenient to lack the kind of feminine charm that Kodachi and Diao Chan wield.]

Well, I... I would rather not head back alone. Am I inconveniencing you?

[seadevil]

No, not at all! You only surprised me a bit.

[Motochika shrugs that off immediately. He always has time for his crew and Xun Yu rarely asks for it, so he's more than willing to spare her as much attention as she wants.]

I was meaning to stay around and drink a while, though, just so you know.

[No one will give her trouble while he's around, surely, but she most likely won't enjoy the, er, ambiance of the place all that much. Still, if she's willing to put up with that, he's happy to have her company.]

B

[rebellions]

[To someone as allergic to fun as Ragna, this island is a real nightmare. There are people in his personal space (read: around twelve meters radius at least) and that's absolutely terrible. All of them loud and ready to share their happiness (or exchange a few punches) on top of that, which only makes matters worse. Overall, the Grim Reaper's mood is about as foul as usual, or perhaps a little worse if those HELL'S FANG and GAUNTLET HADES that can be heard every now and then are anything to go by.

By the time he reaches the counter (and Motochika) everything about him suggests he's more than ready to murder the first person who so much as breathes in his direction.]

... You look like you're having the time of your life here.

[Which he finds kind of hard to imagine, considering his experience with this hellhole so far.]

[seadevil]

Why wouldn't I be? I could spend a month here and not run out of things to do! It's almost as much fun as that Aeolipile place! If we could tether the two together, I believe I'd settle down and live there!

[It would be a paradise. He'd never want to leave. Well, he'd want to go sailing eventually, but perhaps he'd stay on dry land more often than usual. He doesn't expect Ragna to understand that, though. Ragna doesn't really get how fun works.]

[rebellions]

[He really doesn't. But life would be boring without someone being a wet blanket to everyone's fun out there, right? Although one could argue the fact he even bothered to come and talk to Motochika means he's trying to do that "a bit friendly" thing... albeit not too hard.]

Don't be stupid. You just do the same things no matter where you go anyway.

[For all he knows, it's always drinking, talking, maybe fighting and tinkering with his machines with him. None of which are necessarily bad things, mind you, unless of course you happen to be Ragna the Killjoyedge.]

Feels like a waste of time to me.

[seadevil]

True, true, but some places are better suited to it than others!

[Even Ragna the Killjoyedge can't put a damper on Motochika's good mood when he's this much in his element (and this far into his cups.)]

After all, we're free to sail wherever we please on the Katabami, but there's not nearly enough room to build anything truly impressive. I can't store all the things I might need, after all, which is what Aeolipile would be for. Well, I suppose "all the things I might need" includes the beer and rum and wine I'd get from this island as well.

[He seems to have this all planned out.]

[rebellions]

[Perhaps if it was anyone else, the fact he's putting so much thought into organization would be both reassuring and impressive, but considering what sort of things Motochika might have in mind here, Ragna isn't too thrilled.]

Bastard... You've got it all figured out already, don'tcha.

[He orders a drink from the bartender, resignation audible in his voice. If he's to be subjected to all this loud insanity around him, then he doesn't want to be sober anymore. Clearly, Motochika has been a terrible influence (pun not intended).]

Any other great ideas, genius?

[seadevil]

Well, if I can figure out how to untether one island from the sea, perhaps I could free up both! I could build battlements around them and finally have a proper ship beneath my feet.

[Yes, he's advocating turning two islands into one boat. Sadly, this really only on the larger end of the sort of ships Motochika usually builds and not anything out of the ordinary for him at all.]

It would greatly increase our numbers as well!

[rebellions]

[For all the weird things present in his world, island-sized ships full of deadly traps are not among them, and as such Ragna finds the idea completely crazy. Unfortunately, he also knows Motochika well enough by now to realize he's absolutely serious.]

What? No! You can't just steal an island and its people! That's impossible! And insane! Not to mention immoral!

[Because Ragna of all the people gets to claim the moral high ground here. Sure thing.]

[seadevil]

I'm a pirate! None of that matters! If I say I can do it, then don't doubt that it can be done. It may well be that no other man could manage it, but I haven't the slightest bit of doubt in my own ability.

[If nothing else, Motochika's ego is completely indestructible. Even if he doesn't completely believe what he's saying at the start, he usually ends up saying it enough that he convinces himself. In this case, he at least knows for certain that he can build the sort of ship he's planning. It's detaching islands from the ocean floor that he hasn't figured out yet. Still, with the right amount of time, tools and manpower, he figures he should be able to make it happen.]