LostDestiny

Di'Siveks: Adventure (A D&D 5E Game)

If yall would like I am perfectly fine with moving along in the story, get everyone together. Head out that kinda thing. I was just going to change Hawk's form to a pseudodragon since I can with my pact ability. But that doesn't have to be role-played or anything.

Di'Siveks: Adventure (A D&D 5E Game)

Aura pursed her lips when Cascade mentioned her meting her father. "Uh, yea...He actually raised me." She seemed apprehensive to mention this to the other Genasi, the others hadn't taken that information the best. Aura was sure Flicker was still at least a little bitter about the whole thing. "My reward for knowing my genie parent is *not* knowing my planar parent, or any of my relatives, it was just me and my father." She shrugged. "Anyway we should get back to the others to fill them in and make a game plan." She was obviously looking for a way out of this conversation.

One Piece: The Devil's Due (Always Accepting!)

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For the first time in a long while Maxwell wandered the streets of Pol Stictid without a chaperone and he couldn't have felt more free. Well…he could, he still had to make sure to avoid his two babysitters but with his lookouts that wouldn’t be too hard. The hard part was getting through the crowded streets of Brutos’ territory without being recognized as the Shark’s “little pet”. Though he quickly realized that he had bland enough features that if he simply kept his head down he could weave through the crowded market streets with little to no effort. Nobody would touch him in his territory if they realized who he was, so he wasn’t worried about his safety, he simply didn’t want to be recognized. Despite Brutos’ attempts to keep him hidden it was hard to do so in his own territory, where the group conducted the day-to-day when not on the sea. It was when and if Max left the territory that things might become an issue, not that he intended to, not today at least.

Today the young male had a pocket full of gems he had kept for himself, small ones that weren’t worth too much but when traded would get him just enough money to play with, as long as the shop owner didn’t try to stiff him. He was known to heavily undervalued things unless it was Brutos himself the man was dealing with.

Weaving through the last bit of crowd before the shop doors he took a deep breath and walked in. It had been ages since he had done this alone and the first and only time had gone over horribly. This time would be different. He squared his shoulders and opened the door to hear the little jingle of the bell as he entered. The jingle was almost immediately followed by a sudden crash, a curse, and the sound of someone gathering something. Walking up the counter Maxwell’s eyes landed on a younger male than he was expecting, who quickly scrambled up, leaving the spilled box on the floor. He was gone before Max could say anything and eventually the older man he was expecting made his way to the counter, staring at the mess on the floor. He didn’t seem surprised but Max couldn’t tell if it was masked emotion or not.

“Welcome young sir to Wizban’s Trader Emporium where the deals are good and the prices are…” He paused midway through his extravagant announcement when it seemed he fully registered just who was standing in front of him. His face seemed to drop a bit, though he looked at Max curiously. “No entourage today?” He questioned as he leaned up against the counter.

Maxwell shook his head. “No, I need you to appraise these.” He laid the collection of small gems and rings on the counter.

“You usually come in with a much bigger haul, or at least one of Brutos’ goons do.” Wizban remarked looking at the small pile. The older man had never been one to be nice because he feared someone. In fact Max was sure Wizban was the only person who didn’t have even a shred of fear of Brutos.

“Was off island for a bit, could only gather a little.” This was a lie, Max had a much larger stash he intended on selling later, but he wanted to wait till the end of the time Brutos would be out to sea.

The older man looked down his nose at Max and the small pile, without picking anything up, simply said, “five thousand beri, all I can do.”

Maxwell almost scoffed, “Five thousand beri is a joke and you know it. This alone,” he picked up a small diamond ring on a gold band, “is worth that much at least, try again.” This was already going better than last time, a much younger Maxwell would have taken that price and left with his tail between his legs.

Wizban squinted at Max. “Grew some balls since the last time you came in here alone haven’t you? Fine, let me see.” He picked up each item in the pile one by one and scrutinized each item. “Then thousand beri, I have to turn a profit, kid.” He placed the last item back on the counter.

“You can do better, a little birdy told me you had a side hustle smuggling marines in and out of the island.” A bird had indeed given Maxwell this information though he honestly had no intention of turning Wizban in. Despite being a little seedy, he was a decent person, with a family who he cared deeply for. “I know how to stuff those rumors deep, deep down, just give me a fair price for my stuff.” Nobody else knew what Max knew. Wizban was very good at what he did. He left no traces, no paper trail, he had simply been unlucky one early morning when one of Max’s birds had flown over.

Wizban’s eye twitch, it was a small movement that Maxwell would have likely missed if he wasn’t used to reading the body language of small creatures all day. “Twenty-five thousand.” The old man hissed. “Bold kid, to blackmail someone like that. That damned Shark must be rubbing off on you.” He slid the beri across the counter.

Maxwell nodded, taking the money and shoving the pile toward Wizban. He took the money and left swiftly. The whole exchange left a sour taste in his mouth. He knew he would have to do it but he hated stooping to the levels of this Island. It made him feel dirty, especially when it was a man who was just trying to do the right thing, in his own strange, twisted way. Rumors floated around that Wizban was an ex-marine, turned shady business owner when he defected from his unit. Though if asked he always had a different story as to what he did before he came to the island. The age he arrived always changed too, nothing about that man was consistent.

At least now he had some money to go do things with, not that it would last long and not that he had any clue what to do. The last time he had this much freedom he was a small child. He would figure it out as he went.

Di'Siveks: Adventure (A D&D 5E Game)

Time blindness hit hard, as well as mental health shit so I have just been vibin XD. Life do be lifin!

Di'Siveks: Adventure (A D&D 5E Game)

I am glad I could give you that gem :P

Di'Siveks: Adventure (A D&D 5E Game)

Aura blinked a couple times. Knowing she was going to have to explain the whole "power from her father" situation to Cascade or she would never fully understand. Not to mention she would have to also explain how she and Hawk were connected. She took a moment to really think about how she was going to explain this. Cascade was pretty but it appeared she was just as dense, not everyone could be blessed with both looks and brains it seemed.

After a moment she decided to take the information one step at a time. "I am a Genasi yes? Specifically an Air Genasi. Like you I have a Genie parent, my father. He gave both this chain, which is what allows me to cast spells and have Hawk here, he also gave me this bottle which acts as my own personal vessel and the groups personal storage space. We will get into the bottle later it's not important here. This chain allows me to cast a spell that summons Hawk, as well as change his form if I so chose. It's the same spell all the bookish casters know to have animal companions. The biggest difference is I have a much stronger connection to Hawk with this than I would if I were simply to learn the spell the old fashioned way. This means I can see and hear through Hawk's senses at will so long as we are on the same plane of existance. That's how I managed to get the information about the enemy so easily. I can also mentally communicate with Hawk, which is why you might hear me talk to him like we are having a full conversation, it's because we are. Additionally I can speak through Hawk, which is what I was doing earlier in the fight to help you guys out. Finally I can cast certain spells through Hawk. Only spells that require touch but it's still helpful." She paused hoping that wasn't too much information for Cascade to take in.

Eventually she decided to speak up and once again encourage the Water Genasi woman to speak up and ask any questions she might have about what Aura had just explained. "Does all that make sense. do you have any farther questions? Ask now or forever be confused." She wasn't totally serious about the last part but knew it was better for Cascade to ask now than not understand later and Aura have to explain things to her again.

Di'Siveks: Adventure (A D&D 5E Game)

All good I just figured I would ask I know life happens. ^-^

Di'Siveks: Adventure (A D&D 5E Game)

I am waiting on you @Guardian Angel Haruki not sure if you wanted to have Cascade reply to Aura's question or not/

Di'Siveks: Adventure (A D&D 5E Game)

@Birdboy I just wanna say I love Rala. Puts up with the never ending sarcasm that comes out of Aura's mouth, and manages to not clap back too hard. :P

One Piece: The Devil's Due (Always Accepting!)

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It wasn’t long before the fleet set out again. Brutos decided that with Maxwell not with them they might need some extra time out. Of course before leaving Brutos set out a whole list of rules that Max was to follow while most of the crew was gone. The shark man had even taken the time to write them out though the handwriting was horrible. If Max was honest up until then he was convinced that the Boss didn’t know how to write.

-No leaving the house unaccompanied
-No talking to the Muckrakers
-No talking to anyone for that matter.
-No leaving the territory even accompanied.

The list seemed to go on forever with about a million other things Brutos had deemed Maxwell was not allowed to do though those four seemed to cover most of it. He was also left with a list of things he needed to do, most things boiling down to getting Brutos more money, and any useful information was to be passed to his “caretakers” so that they could take it to the proper channels. Maxwell was sure that Brutos had left a similarly large list with the few men he left behind to ‘watch’ Maxwell. Though the boy was sure they would only care to uphold it for the first week or so at least. Afterward they would get bored of watching the boy who talks to animals and would do off and do their own thing.

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It took less than two days total for Paul and Hendricks to lose interest in Maxwell and go off to do their own things. Neither returned to the house the second night and Max couldn’t help but think that this was some kind of new record for the speed in which someone disobeyed Brutos. It made sense though, those two were the newest editions. Max wasn’t sure about how or why they joined, not totally, but he knew at least with Hendricks it hadn’t been a very pleasant experience. Was Brutos so sure that his crew was totally loyal to him and or afraid of him that even the newest members would follow his orders blindly, or was he losing his edge? Whatever the reason Max couldn’t help but be at least a little relieved the two of them had left him alone so quickly. It meant Max had at least 2 weeks to do…something…

If asked what Maxwell was doing he honestly wouldn’t have an answer. He only had a handful of Berri to his name and honestly he wasn’t sure what he had was really enough for, well, anything. Either way he bribed some of the local birds to keep a look out for his babysitters so that he wouldn’t get caught out and slipped into the streets of Pol Sticid, something he hadn’t done in a long time. Not alone at least.

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Elsewhere unbeknownst to the young brown haired boy Hendricks was meeting with an old associate, an enemy of Brutos and the Saw-Tooth Pirates. Money and information was quickly exchanged and the two parted ways. Hendricks knew if he lingered too long one of Maxwell’s little animal informants would catch wind of it and inform the boy. Even new, the older pirate was well aware that Maxwell got information from all over the island rather quickly, and discreetly. All he had to do was sow enough worry in the Muckrakers that the boy could just as easily get and sell information on them that might potentially cause trouble with The Grime King himself. This one stop was all it would take to get the word around and then the “Mighty Brutos” would lose the one thing that put him so far ahead of all the others in terms of information. What happened to the boy was none of his concern; he, much like many others on this island, simply wanted to get ahead. And Hendricks had his eye on “Riptide” Brutos’ cut of territory.