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[img]https://i.postimg.cc/DyH88WMW/Kid-s-Hat-Final.png[/img]

[color=8258fa]Level:[/color] 6 (51 -> 53/60)
[color=8258fa]Location:[/color] Eryth Sea - Smash City Alcamoth -> Edge of the Blue - Inkwell Isle Three
[color=8258fa]Word Count:[/color] 1040 (+2 EXP)
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Through the panoramic portals, down the hole in the Guild Hall in Lumbridge, through the Casino’s front doors, and out of the cave that housed it--supposedly representing Hell itself--Blue Team took their first steps into the Edge of the Blue. For some of them, including Hat Kid, this technically wasn’t their first trip, but it was their first time entering the region proper since the initial incident that brought them effectively to the other side of the continent. Maybe they should be thanking Gneidxick for making it so convenient for them. Not only did they get to skip over the Dark forest to get there (even if it meant having to backtrack through it later), but once they were done they would have their pick of where to enter it from when they got back around to it. The fogged town beyond the treeline under creepy moon-gaze just [i]screamed[/i], “You’ll definitely be going here later.”

She eye-traced the picturesque coastline starting from the Forest in question to the other end of the horizon as far as she could see. Over the cartoon landscape she could spot the sea-borne city in the distance, but could make nothing of it from where she stood beyond the simple fact that it exists. She had to admit, when she signed up to travel to the world’s shore, she was a little surprised to have not seen (yet, at least) some element of a [url=https://gameplay.tips/uploads/posts/2017-10/1507664566_02.jpg]familiar locale[/url] she had expected to find. Though the idea fell in line with what she knew about the world, for the same reason, there was no telling what to expect from it.

Speaking of the unexpected, another black coat, hitherto unnoticed, made her address to Peach, laying out instructions for the next leg of their journey a tad too conveniently. As if it wasn’t hard enough trusting any of the faceless exposition machines that were these “Organization” agents (or just anyone who wouldn’t show their face to a supposed ally), she flat out handed them a set daunting and unscrupulous directives with some… [i]interesting[/i] word choices: Gather a near dozen [s]victims[/s] “guests”, lure them aboard “The Maw” for a proverbial ‘Bermuda’ cruise, [i][b]survive[/b][/i] the voyage to the “black” Bottomless Sea, and [i][b]escape[/b][/i] there. Yeah… [i]that[/i] sounded like a plan; nothing sketch about it [i]at all[/i].

Of course, she claimed mutual interest in their quest with a desire to help, and in contrast to the last guy (Gneidxick), who had made a game of jerking them around “qualifying” them for the hunt, she was offering them a fairly direct route to their objective. That being said, if she really wanted to help that badly, couldn’t she have already had the necessary ten “guests” lined up for them to take aboard? Especially if she had been there for apparently “months”, as she said. Moreover, she clearly knew an awful lot about how this process worked and what it entailed to be so dry on helpful key details, yet heavy on poeticism. It sounded like something she could have possibly done herself, or volunteered to help with, for one allegedly so interested in seeing it through. Here, her similarity to Gneidxick showed in a patent lack of candor regarding her motives. What was really her ploy here?

Between her last adventure and the current one, as many times as she had been duped and cheated by people she worked for, it was little wonder that Hat Kid harbored acquired trust issues, and the hooded woman leading them on was setting off her scumbag radar. Was this woman going to somehow betray them at (or close to) the end of all this, regardless of what road they took there? Most likely, the child thought. Was that going to stop her from considering the way given and acting on it? As always, of course not, because she didn’t exactly have a better idea at the moment, and it wasn’t as if she would find one where they stood if she thought really hard about it for long enough.

Naturally, the given plan incited a moral quandary among some of the others, who proceeded to debate over the possibility of a better solution, or lack thereof. It didn’t seem to occur to some, as it did to the child, that they were perhaps jumping to conclusions in their assumption that the prospect sacrifices were necessarily worth saving, or as Ace suggested, that they had to be sacrificed at all, rather than additions to the hunting party, perfectly capable of handling it, that could more than help. The only way they would find out for sure is if they started looking, so instead of competing philosophy, Kid decided to get a head start on their search, consulting her top Hat for a heading toward her next objective as she looked back out over the island. For good measure, she would also be checking her Compass for anything of value she could pick up along the way before taking off.

Just as she was about to take her first steps away, the black coat spoke up once more, elaborating slightly more one what would await them aboard the monstrous vessel, and incorporating a degree of flexibility in the plan. As far as taking control of the ship, THAT was something the child could do. As it so happened, she actually had some experience with exactly that before. Well… wrecking it, anyways, but from what they could infer about it so far, this one probably deserved to be wrecked. If it came down to it, and none opposed for any good reason, the gang could count on her for that much. Though she still wasn’t feeling that great about the plan, it was certainly starting to sound better already.

At the black coat’s direction, Hat Kid sauntered aboard the afforded pirate ship, heading straight for the bow to scope out their destination whilst checking her Hat and Badge once more. Once the captain showed himself again, Hat Kid turned her attention to him with a [url=https://i.redd.it/zc2wrlzpz5i21.jpg]salute[/url] in an enthusiastic show of eagerness to set sail… or just as part of her playful nature. She figured it would PROBABLY be better to let [i]him[/i] man the wheel on this one.