"Did your Log set already?" Charlotte asked, leaning against the wall. "If not, you'd better stay in the port town. The island's government is as crazy as those guys on the beach: they enforce crossdressing. Everybody must wear opposite clothes to go anywhere outside of it. And the Marine captain here really hates pirates."
She walked to the railing and leaned on them, staring into the distance.
"Oh this is going to be fun..."
After finishing his meal too, and Koya gnawing on some special made cat food, Max stretched in the air as they made port. "I'm not sure how long it will take the log pose to set. These things could take a week or a year. Hopefully, a few days, but we should ask people around" he explained, and yawned. "Oh oh, here comes trouble" he murmured and a tough looking official, looking tough despite the flowery dress he wore, came to the ship with a clip board. "Your name?" he asked seriously, standing just on the dock. "Sound Strikers pirates, on the vessel Ocean's Rumble. We just want to take on supplies, ma'am" offered Max, the 'diplomat' of the group, as the others consisted of an epileptic captain, a grumpy mechanic, a weird chocolate logia man and an unconcious medic. Oh, and a sheep girl, can't forget her. "Hmm. Very well then. You are not on any special watch list, so you may make port here, but know this. If you cause trouble, we will alert the Naval base here" explained the master of the dock, and walked off.
Inspirational quote against powerful image of nature."What sort of marines are we talking about here?" Mousa said as he pulled him self up over the railing from off the ship, right besides Charlotte after doing a brief scan of the ship, he was going into more detail, which involved a lot of crawling around.
"How are the islanders treated?" He said with shifty eyes and an almost accusatory disposition.
The Blog The ArtThe dock master paused, and walked back to the ship, not noticing the smaller vessel next to it at first. "Depends on who you ask, sir. For us native crossdressers, the Marines respect and encourage our tradition. The Captain of this base, Boris Yasenov, is an okama himself. But for foreigners like you, and pirates as that, well... just don't try to leave the Port Town without getting into a dress, or a suit for the women on your vessel. Just don't earn anyone's wrath here, and you should fine. I should warn you, we don't deal much in scrap or metal" he said, pointing to Mousa's ship. "Any more questions, sirs?"
edited 6th Feb '12 3:25:05 PM by BigDaddyP
Inspirational quote against powerful image of nature.With a sarcastic "Oh yeah, 'not earning ire' is the important part," Charlotte went back to the kitchen to check on supplies.
"How are you guys with money, by the way? Are we facing bread and water unless we find some income right now scenario, or does that usually not pose a problem?" she asked from inside, while digging inside the fridge.
edited 7th Feb '12 2:30:13 AM by Adannor
"Money's not an Issue. I just have to flash my World Noble credentials for some credit." Xander snarked, being disrupted out of his sleep due to bickering. "Dressing up, huh. I think i'll pass. Medical reasons."
The man finally walked away as Max wiped his forehead, then turned to Charlotte. "Well, when we were in South Blue, we took down a pirate named Greybeard, and by pretending it was someone else who did it, we managed to get the money for his bounty, about 50,000 Beri I think it was" replied Max, actually taking out his notebook and flicking pages up. "We have maybe half of that left. Maybe we'll run into another big name pirate with a beard" he joked, not realising that yes they probably would be.
Inspirational quote against powerful image of nature.Riitta couldn't believe what she heard. If she heard the dock master correctly, correctly, crossdressing was not only encouraged, but enforced on this island. A revoltingly bad sense of fashion was law here.
She gritted her teeth. Dammit dammit dammit. That Log Pose had better do whatever it does soon!
"Heh, that was a good fight, that's for sure..." Akoti said as he reminisced about fighting Greybeard. "Course I wouldn't doubt it if there were other colorbeards out there. Whitebeard, Blackbeard, Greybeard...there's a whole color spectrum out there, it'd be weird to not see a few more of them...and what's up with Whitebeard man? He doesn't even HAVE a beard! Just a really, really, REALLY awesome mustache."
"Whitebeard sounds better than Whitestache, don't you think? As for the colour spectrum... come on, seriously? Whitebeard and Blackbeard sounds awesome, as does Greybeard, but... Pinkbeard? Violetbeard? I know there's a Red Beard but... that would be taking naming conventions too far" replied Max thoughtfully in response to Akoti, and began leafing through his Devil Fruit compendium, trying to pin down Charlotte's one. "But yes our captain here certainly surprised all of us when he took down Greybeard."
edited 7th Feb '12 4:19:06 PM by BigDaddyP
Inspirational quote against powerful image of nature."Yeah, people always try to cheese themselves some prestige from famous names."
Charlotte shrugged.
"I've hear about a whole crew of low-timers that started calling each other 'something fist' after Ace. Must not have gotten very far - the stupid names was the only thing I've heard about their exploits."
And now her crew mates were now talking about utterly ridiculous names that were really just a color and the word "beard" put together, meaning that there are people out there with a naming sense almost as bad as this island's inhabitants' fashion sense. Riitta almost felt like congratulating the universe for being so thoroughly out of its mind.
She resisted the urge to scream and continued listening to the conversation, but she wasn't really interested in what her crew mates were talking about.
"Sounds like there isn't any trouble here," Mousa said, satisfied with the explanation of what the island's Marines were like. It wasn't oppression, they were almost symbiotic and he liked that, so what if they were all freaks? "We should probably stick to port and leave to avoid trouble" He said to the others as he was inspecting the rails very closely.
"Forcing us to crossdress is no reason to start a fight."
edited 8th Feb '12 5:19:38 AM by MousaThe14
The Blog The ArtMax shook his head to get out of the silliness routine, and turned to Mousa, the only other serious member on their now five strong crew. "Yes, so it looks like we can go ashore, get some supplies, and then just spend some time... relaxing, i guess? As long as we're not spotted by Marines it should be pretty easy sailing, considering they think I'm a woman." He remembered something and looked at Charlotte. "Actually, speaking of women, why were they chasing you? You're not a man, so what did they intend to do with you?" he asked of the cook suspiciously.
Inspirational quote against powerful image of nature.Riitta stared at Mousa like she saw him spontaneously combust. Not a reason to start a fight?! That's like one of the best reasons for starting a fight!
(Note that Riitta's idea of a "fight" was chaining the crossdressers to some chairs in some theater and forcing them to listen to a very long lecture on the fundamentals of fashion. And of course they'd realize how stupid they have been all this time and declare her their goddess of beauty.)
She jerked back to reality upon hearing Max discuss their tentative plans for their stay. He then asked Charlotte something which made her curious as well.
Max let the book drop out of his hands in surprise, letting the heavy volume fall on his foot. He let out a yell of pain and began hopping around the deck while cradling his injured foot, nobody sure if he was reacting to the pain or the revelation. "... if he can be so convincing..." he murmured after a while, Max turned to Riita. "Riita... are you also a man...?" he asked, still on one leg.
Inspirational quote against powerful image of nature.The moment he heard those words, Mousa nearly fell overboard and nearly vomited. He was over the side of the ship, desperately holding on to the railing, looking down wildly at the raging waters below. He climbed back over and took a deep breath. He looked at "Charlotte" one more time, spat and went back to maintenance, muttering something about traps and freaks.
The Blog The ArtCharlotte was male.
Charlotte was male.
CHARLOTTE was MALE.
Riitta had studied fashion extensively for ten or so years. She knew how to make the seams accentuate the models' curves, which fabrics should be used for the hem, even how to estimate her client's measurements on sight. She thought of her academy, one of the greatest schools of fashion ever to be established; of her classmates and the genius of the designers of the past in which they immersed themselves in; centuries' worth of hard-earned wisdom and information on how to attain beauty in its finest, purest sense—
— and then Charlotte turned out to be a guy, and that was that. Everything she ever believed in has been rendered at least partially false. Riitta had to push her hand against a wall to steady herself.
And then Max had to doubt her gender. As if the shock wasn't enough already. She turned to face him, and said, with all the control that she could muster, that yes, she was a girl. Idiot.
edited 8th Feb '12 6:11:38 AM by fillerdude
The words passed through Xander's ears almost as if there was no response. Then the librarian questioned the other girl's gender.
It was a situation he could not stand.
His deftly hands reached for the walking dilemma, and a quick hand to the crotch was placed, before anyone could react.
"Yup. It's a guy. I'm a medic, so I know what I'm saying." He declared, completely oblivious of the groping and invasion of personal space he was doing FOR SCIENCE on the newcomer.
"You've got an awful fashion sense, by the way." He added. "Now, there was someone's else gender in need of a check?"
edited 8th Feb '12 7:42:54 AM by AtomicNut
Max kicked the medic away from them. He could take sillyness, and the odd joke. But vulgarity? Hell no. "We don't touch crotches on this ship. If you must touch a crotch, try the Captain's or your own" he said, and then realised that it was getting a bit too much. "Captain, why don't you find out more about these two freaks while I go ashore. With her" he said, grabbing Riita's arm and dragging her off the ship. "If I'm with a woman, they won't care about me" he explained.
Inspirational quote against powerful image of nature.Despite the result of examination, the reaction of examinee was pretty girlish: screeching "Pervert!" and slapping him in the face.
"I'm not a freak!" Charlotte then objected to Max, and finished the tirade with her arms crossed: "And there isn't anything else to find out: I'm the best damn cook ever stranded on that goddamn island and I really want to finally get off of it."

After being fed, Xander felt much better. He threw a taciturn salute. "Hey, I'm Xander. Thanks for the food." He said, pausing for a while afterwards. "I'm going to hitch a ride, if you don't mind. I'm a medic." He added.
But he did not wait. The second need of his organism prompted him to lean in some corner on the deck, pull his hat over his eyes, and snored audibly.