Pirates de les Cirque On San Faldo Island

The sea-raccoon, spotted with paint, was back in Naneun's arms. The girl thanked the bandaged man although he seemed a little intimidating. However, he wasn't nearly as intimidating as the second man who walked up to her and kneeled down to her level.

Naneun didn't like the fact that he was ruffling her hair. He had a very sadistic aurora around him. She kept her calm until... he said "rat." 'How dare he call Ace a rat.' Naneun grabbed the loaf of bread from behind the bushes when the man turned around and ran.

After running for a while, she finally managed to find her boat. 'I'll make him pay.' Pushing her boat off and jumping in, she started rowing toward the ship that the painter was painting. 'But he seemed pretty strong. Ughhh but I won't let him get away with insulting Ace.'

Quietly, she snuck onto the boat and hid herself.

The pirate said that his painting will have to wait, because of marines. Silvio could understand that and decided to get on board. "Well, might as well get on. I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Silvio." He climbed on board and saw some other people on board, obviously part of the pirate's crew. He was not sure if they were friendly or hostile, so he kept his guard up. "Quaint little boat you got here, not too bad." He walked around the ship for a bit to get comfortable, then unwrapped his bandages and removed his cloak. He felt comfortable enough to reveal his face, the marines weren't here yet so he guessed it was fine. He threw away the used bandages and set down his cloak, then waited for the ship to start its course.

"The Ringmaster seems to have a tendency to pick up whoever he comes across, whether they attempt to mutilate his property or not," Jackson sighed, turning in Jay's direction. "And we're probably going to be the one's cleaning it up later, unless he turns out to have a generous streak and does it himself... I doubt it."

He frugally scanned the newcomer that boarded the ship from head to toe, scoffing with distaste when the man decided to sit down and make himself comfortable. "Shouldn't he get off his rump and start to be somewhat useful? We already have one person who's helpful as a sack of potatoes, and that's because she doesn't even know how," Jackson harshly complained as he looked over to the captain of the ship and pointed a finger in Silvio's direction.

Ziv had overheard what the cat guy had said, and, even though she knew it was true, couldn't let it pass. She hit him hard on the shoulder, and turned away, pouting.
When she leaned against the reling on the other side of the ship, looking over the ocean, Abo turned his furry littly head and looked at Jackson. He looked just long enough to make it feel creepy and borderline insulting.
Then he turned his head away to receive a rodent treat from Ziv.

Jackson couldn't contain a smug grin upon realizing that an annoyed Ziv was within earshot of his previous remark. He had no intention of apologizing for what he said, and getting a negative reaction from her made it all the sweeter. Jackson was hardly intimidated by Ziv. He felt confident that there was little that she could do to harm him, since without speaking an audible insult she could only attempt to damage him physically, however meager the attack may be.

What he wasn't expecting, though, was the area she decided to strike. Whether it was because of malice or pure accident, Ziv's forceful strike hit him on the shoulder he injured in the prior fight. Jackson flinched immediately as a throb of pain shot up his shoulder and pulled away, his opposite arm reaching over to protect the joint from anything else the rat girl could dish out.

He felt further damage to his pride when her pet stared at him from the safety of his owner's shoulder, and Jackson responded with a bitter stare of his own. His face flushed from anger and mild embarrassment, he retreated to the opposite side of the ship across from Ziv, darting his eyes towards her every so often to make sure she wasn't planning to strike once more.

Matt stared at the little girl sneaking onto the boat with her loaf of bread. He shrugged. "Heh," he chuckled, then resumed looking at the sky.

Then, he spotted it.

A fleeting, winged shadow flew across the town's skies. No one was paying any attentionn to the swift shadow but Matt could not help himself any longer. Here, he thought, was a bad-ass steed. "Sweet!! Im gonna tame you!!" He roared at the sennenryuu flying away; With that, he began to run through the street. People stared at the odd spectacle, then looked away.

Meanwhile, Sarceau sat atop the tower, spying the black leather figure running after his target.

"Challenger~" he muttered, almost humming, switching aim to the feathered serpent.

"Hey guys let's not fight okay?" Jay said putting his hands up in defense as Jackson got hit in the shoulder by Ziv's ferret. He seemed actually in pain for a moment and then quickly swolled it up. Uh-oh that must of been his injury from earlier... Jay thought as he watched the spectacle. He really didn't want to deal with any of this.
Jay decided he'd rather be away from any fighting that may occur and shifted into his lark form. He flew over by the new guy and perched on one of the nearby rails. His wings still ached from earlier so he began to mindlessly peck at them with his beak as he watched to see what woud happen between the quote on quote cat and rat.

After a while, Ziv decided the ocean wasn't that fascinating after all.
She turned around and rolled her eyes when the first thing she saw was the cat man. No matter how boring the ocean was, at least it was soothing.
That guy, on the other hand, was making her angry, and afraid at the same time.
She knew she had hit the injury from the fight before, even though she had only really noticed it later, when she had thought about it. Maybe she should apologize. Then again, who had ever heard of a rat apologizing to a cat? It was him who should apologize.
After she had decided on this, she looked away from him, making clear that she didn't regret hitting him in any way.
Even though she was a little sorry...

The shadow in the sky was moving faster and further away with each passing second; Matt kept running through the street chasing the dissipating shape in the horizon; now no one was paying any attention to him; they had seen enough 'extraordinary' (or weird) things happen here to care, though some children with their families walking down the street stared, as their parents urged them to ignore the spectacle.

Now Matt was running out of breath, so he came to a slow, reluctant, humiliating stop; he hadn't eaten in a while, for he had been in this town for quite some time and was, quite frankly, broke. It was remarkably hard to find a job here; no one had bothered to take him seriously, and some that did had apologetically waved him away since the job they offered was more often than not taken. Huffing and wheezing, Matt gasped "Ok....start simple......no....big...fish...off...the..bat." Maybe a sabre toothed tiger for starters?

Then Matt remembered his father's words.
"A man always keeps their mind on the task at hand, and always keeps trying, no matter how much he fails."

He shook his head vigorously. Dad was right! He adjusted the burden he kept hidden under his jacket, and still held the Night Hermit form; Maybe his tall and dark appearance would help elsewhere. The question is, where would it exactly help him get a job? It had creeped the hell out of the first two employers he had met in this form. So where could he go? He had no money left to even buy a pass onto any boat, not that there was a single boat in dock any-

"....Hold it....." he muttered, suddenly remembering something. That wasn't right. There was a boat in dock! And there were people on and around it.

weird people. ((no offense to anybody!))

Matt grinned. That was where he was going to get a job! No one would be freaked out by his appearance there, or realise that he was in fact, a 12 year old kid in a warped duster coat! Then his smile vanished when he also realised that the boat could leave any minute; he knew from experience that boats at harbours rarely left with a bang. "Crud!" He hissed, and ran the opposite way he came. Hopefully he could get there before it's departure.

Feeling rather satisfied with the number of people he had gathered today, he sauntered back onto the ship with a wide, mischievous grin. He had recruited a lot more people than he had originally thought he would. This meant that he won his bet against Shira. As if on cue, Shira dropped down onto the deck out of seemingly nowhere, wearing a rather disappointed expression.

"Well my dear, it seems that you owe me something." he purred, entrapping the contortionist in his arms. Rolling her eyes in annoyance, she rummaged around in her pockets and produced 500 belli.

"Happy now master?" she said, with a lilting laugh, suddenly cheery again.

"Exceedingly." he rumbled before turning to his newly acquired crew. "Alright! Weigh anchor men! Let's set sail!"

Jay watched as the Captain spoke to a woman and then turned to the crew yelling for them to drop the Anchor. Jay sat wear he was he didn't want to shift out of his bird form it was too comfortable. He ruffled his feathers and watched to see if any one else the captain recruited knew what they were doing. He seemed to pick up stray dogs without thinking twice about it.

( Hey I think this'll be my last post before I leave for another week i'm going to Tennessee with my church so it make take a little longer than a week. The buses tend to break down in strange places)

(Have fun on your trip, Gail ^^)

A strange woman caught Jackson's attention and snapped him out of his sulking, and he peeked over the railing in curiosity. By the way that the Ringmaster greeted her, they seemed to be somewhat intimate with each other. It was difficult whether they were actually close, as Jackson had noted by this point that the man enjoyed getting near to any female he may be interacting with, whether she enjoys it or not. At the very least, the woman appeared to be a member of his crew.

Before Jackson could observe any further, the captain ordered the ship to set sail once more. Jackson looked over expectantly to Jay, as he seemed like the only other capable person on the ship. Upon seeing the lark simply fluffing his feathers, Jackson grumbled something inaudible to human ears and rapped his fingers in irritation on the railing of the ship.

He wondered how it was again that he ended up on such a ship. It was only in a few seconds that he recalled the dragons, blue gorillas, and probably unhappy marine that may be lying in wait on the island. He unhappily walked over to a rope he thought might raise the ships anchor and grasped it, even though his shoulder ached at the thought of it, and slowly beginning to pull it up with minor difficulty.

Matt ran like the wind; the more he ran, the more hungry he got; as he neared the docks, he saw the boat. Triumph beat in his chest as quickly as his heart was beating.

Except it began beating faster when he saw the anchor slowly lifting.

"A man seizes the day, and crafts his own destiny, no matter what problems they face."

And these words of his father made him run faster; what the crew would do when he got on the boat wasn't important right now. The first step was getting there. Then he'd deal with the latter issue. With every ounce of energy and hydraulic stress he could place on his leg muscles and his nerves, he made a final jump-

THUD

And landed face first on the deck, a heap of black leather coat and sweaty black hair. Matt lifted his bruised face from the hard wooden deck. That was one problem down; and a bigger problem to come.

Ziv, who had been watching the other woman curiously until now, was.... surprised, shall we say, when someone seemed to fall on their ship. Okay, he had most likely jumped, but still... why someone would want to get on this ship this badly was beyond her imagination.
She definitely wouldn't be the first to run and help him, who knew what kind of nutcase he was. And she was still wearing her dancing outfit, which wouldn't help matters either.
So she continued to stare at him suspiciously.

"Ccccchhhhhh" Matt hissed in agony, as his jacket slowly slipped off his back; now he slowly and cautiously got up, no longer looking like his disguise as a tall, faceless stranger in a jacket, but like the 12 year old kid he was. He looked about, feeling like he had just ran into a den of lions. Matt cautiously picked up his jacket, with his precious bundle wrapped up within. Despite his anxiety, however, he steeled himself, and cleared his throat.

"S'cuse me, but can i speak to the boss of the boat?" Matt asked, with the most deepest and mature voice he could pull off. With luck, they wouldn't boot him off the ship.

Jay stared at the man who'd just landed rather un-gracefully on the deck of the ship. He quickly jumped off the railing and shifted into his hybrid form drawing his sword simultaneously and landing the tip mid air in front of his face.
"Who in hell are you?" Jay asked a little miffed at the fact that the man felt he had the right to ask questions first.

Matt's jacket slipped lower, and he stood shorter, now clearly visible as a 12 year old kid; he stared at the sharp metal end of a blade, then at the bird man hovering just above him. Now Matt had three instinctive desires:

1: he wanted to turn tail and run.
2: he wanted to pluck the man's feathers off his face slowly.
But he chose the third choice of action, as he remembers his father's words:

"A man and leader never runs from a problem, or uses violence off the bat to solve it."

So he took a deep breath again, and said: "I mean no harm, ladies and gentlemen," he deepened his voice, straightened his back to look a little taller than he was, acting confident even as sweat poured through his shirt. "I am here to offer my services to the boss of this ship; i am able and ready for any job you give me." And with that, he waited silently for a verdict.

Jean could smell the boy’s fear from a mile away. Such fear was the kind that his mangled and twisted mind relished. His brows quirked into a dark expression as his lips curled back into a feral grin. The poor boy had no idea what he was getting himself into at this point. The Ringmaster would have to commend the boy on his bravery—or mock his idiocy—later.

“This ship has no ‘boss’ as you put it, but it does have a captain.” He said, bumping Shira aside with his hip. “Capitan Jean Lafayette at your service lad.” Removing his hat, he bowed in an exaggerated sweeping motion. Replacing the large, tattered top hat where it belonged, he crossed the deck and circled the boy like a hungry vulture.

“You say you’re ready to obey my each and every command young man?” he asked in a patronizing tone, “We’ll see about that. I plan to make you cabin boy, and you must fulfill my every whim without complaint. You seem a tad too young to be part of a pirate crew, but if you prove your worth to me somehow, perhaps you'll move up someday... Alright everyone! Enough shenanigans. Let’s get out of here!” With that, the preparations necessary to leave were made and the Le Mystère began making way to their next adventure.

At the first sign of Jean excepting the boy into the crew Jay withdrew his sword and stared. He wondered what was with this man he picked up any stray like he was some animal lover. Jackson and Jay had at least proven their worth and the woman well she was their for the Captain's shear desire, even the man who had been painting showed some sort of skill but a twelve year old boy baffled Jay.
What on earth is the captain thinking? Jay asked himself as he walked over retracting his wings and resting against the rail of the ship near the cat man. He watched to see what the Captain would do with their new ship in a curious fashion.