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Post by Kyubey on Aug 21, 2014 3:10:12 GMT -5
"I... I don't think 'human' is a good word for me. My body is human, so it's not a wrong word... it's just not very right."
Lizard cocked her head at Sharp. While she knew from the beginning that her existence was an anomaly, and she was simply using the form of a human, the way the reporter asked made it feel like an insult. It was strange sensation, being hurt by being called by what she was. She did not like this intruder very much, but, as it seemed at the moment, there was not a whole lot she could do about that.
"I've never seen a camera before. I think. I won't tell you that I haven't heard of the Daily Ticker, because you told me not to. But I still don't know what's happening."
As the crew talked with the intruder about newspapers and interviews, another memory surfaced in Lizard's mind. While she still wasn't familiar with the Daily Ticker, she did know what newspapers were. Lynwood, when she was sailing alone, had used them to teach herself how to read. The image of the Urdian hunched over a wrinkled newspaper, under the blazing sun, carefully studying each word until she could make sense of them, was as fresh in her mind as if it had just happened. The harder Lizard thought, the more she comprehended what Sharp was saying, like she was learning these things for the first time. No matter how hard she thought back, however, she still didn't know what a radio was. It must not have been in Lynwood's memories, Lizard guessed.
Seeing Sharp throw the candy all around, Lizard caught a piece, and held it up. She knew it had no value as a food, but seeing the treats get thrown around like that still seemed wasteful.
"Does Ticker Island have anything to eat? I will gladly go there, if it does."
Mr. Dark's comment, about Hil being in danger, did not go by unnoticed, but Lizard was not all that concerned at the moment. She knew that Hil didn't like her that much, and as such, saw him as a threat. Him being threatened, in turn, sounded like it could only work out for the better.
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Post by CJ on Aug 21, 2014 15:02:18 GMT -5
Mr. Dark came upon a rather dark scene.
Hil's body laid before him, bleeding out on the ground in black blood. His head had been severed as though it was cut with a precise blade. It rolled away and stopped with his face upturned toward the ceiling. His dead, yellow tinted eyes looked all the more horrific now that they no longer moved.
His shadow was unnaturally stretched across the room. It was in the shape of the zombie, but the head remained on his body. It went so far that it crawled up the scene, looking down at the body below. Light appeared where his eyes should have been, as though it recognized Mr. Dark's entry into the room.
All was silent.
"Mr. Scary Man!" Kusu called out from below. "What's going on with Hil?"
"Brat... huh..."
Hil's eyes blinked and looked to Mr. Dark. He seemed to be in shock, not understanding what had happened to him until he saw his body out of the corner of his eye. He didn't seem to notice his shadow's oddity.
"What the fuck did you do to me, you freak doctor?! It took me forever to heal up and now you've cut my freaking head off? You piece of shit!"
The headless body became animated and actually began to crawl toward the head with very slow success.
"What's wrong?" Kusu called again.
"Ow! Damn glass!" Hil shouted as he cut his hand on some of the glass from the broken window.
The shadow began to slowly retreat away along the ceiling, sinking back into its normal state and separating to account for Hil's missing head.
---
Sharp looked worriedly at the noise and scene from the command room. She pressed her hand to her mouth, appearing fearful of what was going on.
The tension went away though when Kalen described his adoration for her work.
"Lehrer? Meyer? Pfft!" she said in a snotty tone. "I'm way better than them! And you'll help me be even better! We need soft news like yours when there's not a lot going on! I'm sure the readers will love to comment on whatever juice you can give me!"
For a brief moment, her eyes seemed very cold. Kalen might assume that she could have been lying.
She smirked and peered over at Lizard. It was evident she was very interested in what the hunter had to say.
"So, what does someone "not human" like you eat? Ticker Island has some cuisine, but it's mostly specialized to keep reporters like me busy and active, not for pleasure."
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Post by Kuro on Aug 22, 2014 14:11:41 GMT -5
Admittedly, curiosity entered his head before concern.
It was a rather strange scene, more so than he had expected. What had he expected? Perhaps an assilant of some sort, one who had worked to kill Hil while the journalist distracted them. Yes, a partner in crime of some sort. At the moment though, it seemed that the only possible assailant was Hil's shadow. A shadow that had failed to mimic the scene at his arrival. Interesting.
Ah, and now Hil was yelling. If only the immortal pest had vocal chords to tear out. While he knew that Hil was important to Kusu, a part of him had hoped that perhaps this would have been the end of one of the loudest and angriest problems he had ever had to deal with.
"What's wrong?" Kusu called again.
"Nothing is wrong, Kusu. My mistake. Continue your merrymaking."
He had not turned towards the window to call out to her, for he did not wish for any of this curious room to escape his sight. He ignored Hil's baseless whining, instead choosing to focus on the realization that no one had even come up here yet. What a useless crew this was. Lizard, at the very least, should have made it up here by now. Ah well, perhaps she simply did not care for Hil's well-being. He could hardly blame her, he himself had no desire to be subject to this child's tantrum.
Wishing to put an end to the boy's noise by apprehending the culprit, he shot his fist into the air, wishing to hit the shadow on the ceiling with his fear-filled fist.
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Aug 24, 2014 17:50:59 GMT -5
"Oh my..."
Kalen removed his bandana for a moment, exposing his messy blonde hair, so that he could dab the sweat forming upon his brow when Sharp talked about juice. He noticed Mr. Darks actions around that time, but when the shadow man mentioned there seemed to be nothing wrong, Kalen let it pass and just held his bandanna in his hand for now.
"Well I'll be happy to help out however I can. Just curious though, but how far back does your reporting on the crew go? Is it really just since Mr. Dark gained a following, or do you have stuff on us before that?"
Curious about something Kalen asked about Sharp's methods. He was at least a little interested in learning more perhaps, about the past of the crew. The current one formed around when he joined, but he knew since then and hearing from the others, that there were previous crews to speak of.
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Post by Kyubey on Aug 26, 2014 19:56:28 GMT -5
"Oh, I still eat like normal humans," Lizard said. "so I can't have poison. Do not poison me." She said this last part quickly, as though she really thought that Sharp might poison her if she didn't make it clear not to do that.
She still wasn't sure of Sharp. Lizard thought that if the reporter was going to turn evil and kill them, she would have done so by then, but one could never be too sure. What was clear, was that if Sharp was trying to hunt them, she was doing all the wrong things, so Lizard could be at least a little bit at ease, as much as one could be when there was a foreign and still very much unwelcome presence on the boat. She took a seat in an empty chair, or rather, she perched on top of it, never ceasing to stare at Sharp intently, while never actually making eye contact.
"I can eat anything, but no candy, please. Also, I can't kill anyone, so only give me food if it's already dead, please."
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Post by CJ on Aug 26, 2014 21:51:09 GMT -5
Hil's eyes followed Mr. Dark as he walked across the room. His face was twisted in anger as he found himself unable to do anything with his head so far from his body.
"What the fuck are you..."
The shadow was hit by the fear filled fist. Unfortunately, for Mr. Dark, the zombie started to make much more noise. He yelled out in terror as his body was knocked back, as though it had been struck physically. It then curled up into a fetal position. It was as though Mr. Dark's punch had contacted Hil, rather than the shadow on the wall.
Tears actually began to form in the zombie's eyes as the fear overtook him.
"I'm not a freak, he muttered quietly to himself. "I'm not. Please... don't... leave me..."
A clink and clatter sounded from outside.
"Hey! You lied, Mr. Scary Man! Something's wrong! What's going on? Why is Hil's head off?"
Kusu arrived at the window, now in her "Angel" form. She perched there, holding herself steady with her talon-like hands. The wings that protruded from her back were stuck out. Her pupils were huge.
She hopped down and frowned when glass crunched underneath her feet. She knelt down and peered at Hil's body.
"Shitty Sword is in Hil's hand, but the black blood's on it. Why is that?"
Now that the sword was out in the open from Mr. Dark's fear attack, it could be seen that it was dripping with Hil's blood, yet it was in his own hand.
---
Sharp watched with quiet attention as Kusu, upon hearing Hil scream, transformed into a parakeet hybrid using the powers of her Zoan Devil Fruit. She actually jumped off the table and with a quick few boosts of her wings was able to reach the control room.
The reporter jotted a few notes at this. Oddly enough, she didn't seem very interested in what she saw.
"Sounds like your friend isn't doing too good," she commented plainly. "He's lucky though. If he was attacked by a boogeyman, he wouldn't be alive."
Looking to Kalen with a fake smile, Stacy gripped her bright blue fountain pen rather tightly.
"Well, I've been working on your case since about that ruckus you caused on Jubilee Island. To be honest, I've had an interest in Kusu R. Kidd since the Regala disaster, but only recently got the opportunity to write on her. The Mr. Dark Fan Club only publicly made themselves known a little while ago. It's been hard to get insight on their workings, so I'm hoping a direct source like Mr. Dark can help."
The hunter meanwhile was providing some very interesting insight to her character.
"Poison you?" Sharp asked Lizard with a cackling laugh. "I'd only poison you if you got in the way of one of my stories! And why can't you kill anyone? I mean, I'd understand if you wouldn't kill anyone, but makes it so that you can't?"
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Post by Kuro on Aug 29, 2014 10:19:02 GMT -5
Hm. Well, that was certainly unexpected. No creature had come out of the shadow like he thought it would, but apparently there was some sort of connection between it and Hil. An unfortunate connection at that; now he had to listen to Hil scream for everyone to hear. Perhaps he could better appreciate such a noise in a different situation, but now Kusu was undoubtedly going to -
Ah, and yes, there she is.
He did not answer her questions at first, instead choosing to focus on the scene before him. His attack did not seem to have any effect besides hurting Hil, altogether not too bad but not helpful at this time.
At Kusu's mention of the sword and the blood on it, Mr. Dark raised an eyebrow at the sight.
"...Kusu, ask Ms. Sharp if she might have brought anyone or anything with her." He wondered if Kusu or Lizard would be able to see through a lie, in case the reporter tried to tell any. "I will see what is happening to Hil."
With that, he stepped towards the body, wanting to see how it might react to his presence, if it would at all. He went to place his boot upon Hil's body in order to remove the fear, although he was cautious of any possible attack.
Hil's own blood on his own weapon? Sharp's doing? Or was it the work of someone associated with her...?
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Sept 6, 2014 19:18:51 GMT -5
"Since Regala? Well that is a long time then."
Kalen brought his hand to his chin in thought, wondering what sorts of things Sharp might know. He had heard quite a bit about Regala and how this crew or at least some of them were involved. That was about the extent of it though, so he was somewhat interested to hear Sharp's take on the matter. He could talk with her about it more freely than he could with the crew, he felt.
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Post by Kyubey on Sept 7, 2014 1:12:01 GMT -5
As Kusu took flight, and Hil screamed, Lizard glanced upwards, but did not seem to care. What was happening was indeed something that had happened, but the important thing was, it wasn't happening to her, and there was no reason for that to be changed.
"He isn't my friend," Lizard said. "He hates me. Unless you can hate someone and still be friends with them. I wonder if that's possible."
Lizard was aware that Hil didn't trust her, and would have been happier if she wasn't on the crew. She had, once, wondered why Hil didn't just kill her, before remembering that he was probably held to the same rules that she was. Looking back from the incident above, Lizard looked back to Sharp, who had asked her a direct question.
"Kusu won't let anyone who kills on her crew. I need to be on the boat. I don't like the rule much at all. I can't hunt if I can't kill."
Having got that question out of the way, she looked very intently at the intruder. At first, she was willing to accept the presence of this new person, though she did not at all like it, but now things were starting to become confusing, and not in the way that things normally were to Lizard. Putting aside the conversation about Regala, which the hunter knew nothing about, there was a distinct contradiction in the woman's words.
"Stories?" she asked. "So... you're a storyteller? But you said you were a reporter. Can you be both? Or are you telling lies? Explain."
From her expression, Sharp would be able to tell that the hunter was not joking. It would probably have been apparent by that point, that Lizard had a tendency to take things literally, and had a hard time with phrasing that wasn't direct.
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Post by CJ on Sept 9, 2014 0:13:08 GMT -5
"OK, Mr. Scary Man!" Kusu said. She saluted the doctor and took off on her new mission. As usual, their roles were reversed, with the captain obeying the first mate.
By this time, the shadow had mostly retreated back into its normal state, looking entirely normal. As soon as Mr. Dark began to remove the fear from Hil's body, the sword began to twitch. It leaped up and twisted in a abomination of metal. It was clear exactly what was going on. The spirit was trying to murder Mr. Dark where he stood.
But then it stopped. Retreating back, it morphed into the form of the spirit within, appearing like a statue.
Hil brought his hands up and peered at the black blood that was caked on them.
"What the fuck... You didn't do this. I did this to myself."
He stepped forward and grabbed his shirt on his decapitated body. He began to drag it forward to reunite it with the head.
His face was twisted in frustration and pain.
"What the fuck is this shit? I don't remember doing this. I didn't attack the others. Did I? Tell me I didn't, you freak."
If Mr. Dark was paying attention, he would be able to hear Sharp's laughs from down below.
---
"So Kusu R. Kidd runs a crew of pirates who don't kill people," Stacy commented. "That's odd, given her history. Well, let's hope you all don't kill each other when no one's looking. You guys still have amazing stories to create."
She pressed her pen to her lips and thought for a moment about Lizard's question. She laughed, though not because she thought it was a joke, but that the question was even brought up in the first place.
"Reporters tell stories that actually happened. Sometimes we embellish the details, but most of the time it's based in reality."
As she talked, the captain flew down from the control room and landed among the balloons. They went flying this way and that in a glorious display of color.
"Like the Boogeymen that have been appearing all over Ticker Island. We have no idea what they actually are or why they cause people to kill themselves, so we assume. They attack you from your shadow, so maybe they spook people. They scare them so bad they kill themselves out of fear!"
Kusu's beak nose twitched.
"Did you bring one of those things with you? I think one of them attacked Hil!"
Leaning back in her chair, Stacy shrugged and chuckled.
"Impossible. Sure, he's screaming, but he's not dead. Boogeymen don't leave anyone alive."
Walking up to the table, she shook her head furiously. Her talon-like hands were clenched in anger.
"Hil isn't alive. He's a zombie! His head popped off and I think it's the booger man's fault!"
"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT."
Sharp's face faulted as she turned pale. She fell backward and hit the deck, chair and all. She squirmed about the floor. It took her a long while before she could regain her senses properly.
"Are you serious? A zombie? And it survived a boogeyman attack? THIS IS THE STORY OF THE YEAR."
"You didn't answer my question," Kusu muttered. But she wasn't loud enough. Stacy began to chortle with glee. Having just re-positioned her chair, she rocked back and forth in her chair like a giddy little school girl.
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Post by Kuro on Sept 13, 2014 15:11:56 GMT -5
He had leapt to the side when the metal came for him. He looked up, ready to rid himself of this threat, only to see Hil in its place. A rather distraught Hil at that.
At his questions, Mr. Dark gave a slight shook of the head. "You only attacked me, Hilbrand, although I suspect you would not have needed any outside influence for that. Still, I know not what has happened here. Undoubtedly it has something to do with -"
The laughs finished his sentence. He looked down and narrowed his eyes at the guest. Leaning over the railing, he listened intently to the new annoyance. As he did, his grip on the railing tightened.
"Hilbrand, I suggest you pay a visit to the reporter below. It seems she has quite a story to tell you."
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Post by Shark a' Pult on Sept 17, 2014 20:25:58 GMT -5
"Wait, boogeymen on Ticket island killing people? Why are we going there when that's happening? Can't we just like... go around?"
Kalen made a confused face in a rather exaggerated manner, speaking in a tone to match. They had just come from something of a nightmare in Victoria, so why go on to yet another? From Sharp's descriptions alone, he had a feeling it would be better to just steer clear, but then he didn't call the shots.
He made note of all the commotion going on with Hil and Mr. Dark, but figured it was something he'd do best to stay out of. If anything, he moved to try and keep his distance, in case things got dangerous.
"At least, that's what I'd do. Maybe though docking isn't such a bad idea... is it safe to stay on a boat with a... zongbi?"
Assumedly, he was not aware of the living dead, or their kin.
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Post by Kyubey on Oct 2, 2014 1:34:48 GMT -5
Lizard wondered at what sort of history Sharp meant. Did Kusu kill someone in the past? She thought she remembered someone saying something like that once. Perhaps, she thought, Kusu just didn't let anyone on her crew kill so that she could hunt all by herself. The very notion, however, conflicted greatly with the impression Lizard had of the little girl. Since Sharp was a reporter, and could therefore tell stories of the past, maybe she could someday tell Lizard more about the crew's history.
Sharp's account of the Boogeyman fascinated Lizard. It called to her mind Lynwood's memories of stories the Urdians would tell each other at night. That these Boogeymen, in their description, sounded so similar to some of the spirits and creatures that were common in Urdian legends was peculiar. It could be that the tales had more truth to them than Lizard had believed.
"It wouldn't work on me," she said. "I don't think I could be so afraid I'd kill myself. I know something bad would happen if I got too afraid, though. You would probably be happier if we could avoid that forever."
She looked at Kusu, and then stepped off of the chair, as if in deference to her.
"If Hil isn't alive, does that mean he can't die?" she asked. There was no intent present in her tone, but anyone who knew Lizard well enough could probably work out what she was thinking.
Finally, she had heard Kalen's concerns, but did not pay them any mind. He seemed to her like a rather fearful sort of person, the kind that would be easy to hunt if it ever came down to that. Still, if there was the threat of a Boogeyman, it only seemed most sensible that they would be wary. From the little that Lizard knew, Kalen seemed like he was particularly vulnerable to Boogeymen. Either way, they would find out, should Hil and Mr. Dark fail to deal with the threat on the boat.
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Post by CJ on Oct 3, 2014 17:16:44 GMT -5
"My brother is at Ticker Island. If you don't want to go, I understand. I'll at least be OK going alone to make sure he's OK."
Kusu was oddly comfortable with Kalen's fear of Ticker Island. Their time in Victoria was fresh on her mind too. She wanted her friends to have adventures and fun, not to constantly meet tragedy after tragedy.
Her eyebrows went up when she heard the shepherd ask if staying on the ship with Hil was alright. Lizard prodded further, asking if Hil couldn't die. She had been friends with him so long that she forgot the significance of his condition.
"I don't know if he can die twice. I know he's been hurt a lot. But he's just like you and me. He can be mean, but he's nice too!"
"Dangerous or not, it seems your friend has a great deal of fear in him," Stacy chimed in with a beaming smile, wiping some tears of laughter away. "The Boogeymen have been known to only attack those with a terrible amount of anxiety or fear. They began to sprout around the same time as the Mr. Dark Fan Club. They have a connection, but we haven't found out just what it is yet. Whatever the case, Boogeymen disappear after they kill people, rarely striking again in the same place, though I don't know what happens if their victim survives. My guess is that it followed me here in search of prey. Whoops!"
Kusu's face turned bright red in apparent anger. She looked down at the reporter, relaxed at the birthday party table.
"What?" she asked slyly. "Hey. At least it attacked the dead guy. Don't get mad at me. It's not my fault. Besides, with the content you guys will provide me, you'll be celebrities of the Grand Line! That more than makes up for any silly little mishap. Don't you agree?"
---
The metal man peered down at the deck in the shadow of the control room.
To Mr. Dark, Hil's fear would be as clear as the light of day. Anxiety and terror was building up within the spirit of the sword. He didn't want to be anywhere near the crew. All this talk of him being a "zombie" and not being alive was making him feel the worst he had in a long while. Anything to remind him that he was a "freak" was enough to set him off. He hated mirrors, old photos and comments from others. He had no intentions of ever being friends with the awkward shepherd boy and the abomination possessing a young girl's body, but if they thought he was dangerous and odd, how could he possibly hope to be accepted by anyone again?
For a moment, he thought of his old friend, Sam.
With an ethereal sigh, the moving statue moved back and grasped onto the shirt of the headless body on the floor. He began to drag it toward its head.
"I have to maintain the ship," he said with his face turned. "You should go down instead."
The statue melted and morphed into a bracelet that clasped onto the wrist of the body. It then picked up its head and began to move about. Hil reattached his body and kept his hands on his temples to keep himself from falling apart again. Normally, he'd ask Mr. Dark to sew his head back on, but he was too distraught to want to talk for very long.
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Post by Kuro on Oct 11, 2014 17:24:21 GMT -5
For a while, Mr. Dark lingered, watching as the zombie lumbered back to work. Interesting; he had assumed he would wish to confront any threat to him or the crew. Always so angry, so scornful, and now so somber. Hm.
He walked down the stairs silently, preferring a more subtle approach in contrast to his rather sudden entrance. When he came upon the deck, he looked to the reporter speaking of celebrities, calm and relaxed in spite of what had just happened. Smugness? A lack of knowledge of consequence? Confidence in their own ability? Or just idiocy? It was difficult to tell. But none of them were any excuse for her "silly little mishap".
"We would hardly benefit from celebrity status, so forgive us for our lack of interest. Bringing a hostile killer on board is inexcusable; we have every reason to throw you overboard immediately." He paused, then looked to Kusu behind his sunglasses. He could only wonder what trouble would occur were they to meet Uzo. For some odd reason, he doubted that her brother had their best interests in mind.
"When we reach this Ticker Island, we will act according to our own agenda. I do not see any reason as to why we should allow you to interview us, especially after what has just occurred. Would it be possible for you to produce even one?"
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