8Marines Guide to Pirates, Pillows and all the Jazz
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Lesson Prologue
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If you cut down a Devil Tree and replant it, you will be granted the spirit of a Sea Demon and a tree bearing fruit of its power
"Pirate King" Morgan Heller died 45 years after learning this
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It was not like he was worried- his comrades did the worrying for him, in fact they worry so much that he would feel a lot calmer by just standing next to them. This was what probably got him his promotion in the first place.
You see a bunch of men parading their idiocy in the public eye 24/7, screaming and gawking over every pirate they see, and every commissioned Marine officer they see, and every delicious looking pie they see. Then there was a quiet man in the background, standing with a vacant expression, hands folded neatly behind his back.
Normalcy is on the decline everywhere in the world, so they greeted it with open arms in the Marines. That was how Noh rose the ranks to a Lieutenant position under a period of a year. Two weeks after his new post he received an order to go to the Admiral's office.
His comrades worried. They worried terribly.
"Maybe they're jealous of how quickly you got to be a Lieutenant," Szymon suggested in a hushed tone, as if their room had eyes.
Noh had doubted that, he really doubted that.
The Admiral who had wished an audience with him was no other than Admiral Tsuka, one of the most happiest beings known to man. And fish. Everywhere Tsuka would go he greeted the world with a smile and a (peculiar) laugh.
He was also known to be a thoroughly odd person as well, his brain spilled over with absolutely erratic and unusual ideas, frequently causing a lot of trouble for his colleagues. He was completely unpredictable with his illogical sense of logic and happy-go-lucky personality, but still extremely friendly and amiable- even so, there was something uncomfortably churning in Noh's gut.
It was not like he was worried.
He approached the office door, flashing a piece of paper at the guards outside to show them his appointment was arranged and was then guided into the world Admiral Tsuka lived in. Potions? Spell books? Skeletons? Masks? Flowers? Sunshine? Rainbows?
All the rumours that Noh had collected over the few months shattered as he found himself in a very ordinary spacious room with a tidy work desk and a fat, frowning bulldog sitting next to it. Nothing out of the norm at all.
Nothing like Tsuka.
The man himself glanced up from the newspaper he was reading, he gave Noh a wide smile and folded the tabloid away. "Thank-you for coming Lieutenant, I have a lot to talk to you about!" He shook hands with Noh eagerly and gestured to an empty chair. "Would you like something to drink?"
Noh sat down on the allocated seat. "No thank-you sir."
Humming to himself; Tsuka cleared away his workspace until all sign of white was gone from the varnished surface besides for a scrap piece of paper. "How long has it been since your new position, son?" he inquired.
"Two weeks, sir."
"Good good, that means you have most certainly not stepped into any major missions yet, have you?" Tsuka pressed on. "No direct contact with pirates at all?"
"None sir."
"Excellent, you're hired!"
Those were the last words Noh imagined to hear. "Excuse me?"
His very reaction seemed to put Tsuka into childish excitement, he danced around the desk and knelt down to pick up his dog, nuzzling her affectionately.
"You're hired Lieutenant! You're hired to take part in my new magnificent secret project which only my darling girl and an important friend knows about!" He didn't give Noh a chance to even open his mouth and continued on rapidly. "I've been wondering Lieutenant, I've been wondering. How do the legendary pirates do it? How did they pull it off? From what we know, most of them started as nothing, just a new stone in the field of mud, nothing to stop and stare... but now Lieutenant, they're the new kings! The kings of the ocean! How did they get there?"
He turned to face Noh, probably meaning to finally allow the startled young man to speak again. "I... I don't know sir."
Tsuka jabbed a finger into the air and slowly lowered it onto his bemused guest. "Well you're going to find out son, because you're going to try it."
Blinking madly did the young sailor tried to work out what was meant by you're going to try it. "I-I beg your pardon?" His first thought was that he was going to be involuntary offered up to the world of piracy, which he had quickly dismissed.
"It's a brilliant plan," Tsuka went on, as if never hearing the confusion in Noh's tone. "I just thought of it yesterday when having lunch with Betty here. What exactly makes the pirates go from the stuff of potatoes to the stuff of nightmares? They must've discovered things, learnt things, experienced things during their journey on the sea! With the entire world chasing after them! Quite a goat chase don't you think?"
"A goose chase, sir."
"That too!"
Noh cleared his throat and regained composure, doing his best to keep an aloof expression to coat over his surfacing apprehension. "I apologise if I'm misinterpreting this; but I feel as if you are asking me to pose as a pirate."
A toothy grin stretched across Tsuka's shining face. "That's exactly what I'm telling you to do!" he set the bulldog down and patted his junior on the shoulder. "You catch on well, Lieutenant, I like that in people."
"Admiral Tsuka, d-do you have permission to perform such a devastating opera-?"
"Devastating?" Tsuka echoed with great surprise. "Now now son, what part of this ingenious mission is devastating?"
Everything sir. Just about everything.
Noh received a beefy slap on the back. "Come on boy, everyone needs a little fun! Haven't you always wanted to round up your own crew and travel the seas as if it was your own?"
"I-"
"But don't worry, I won't leave you completely on your own," Tsuka then picked up the paper sitting patiently on his desk and pushed it into the officer's stiff hands. "If you're going to mingle with pirates, you're going to have to do it professionally. This chap is an experienced pirate himself, I'm sure you'll get along fine with him! I met him and he's very friendly."
He then chuckled to himself, as if replaying the scene at the back of his head.
Noh's apple-green eyes began widening as he realized the Admiral was completely serious about the mission. "No wait sir, you actually met up with a pi-"
He was cut off in midsentence as Tsuka pulled him out of his seat and steered him towards the door. "Can't waste a single moment Lieutenant, there's a world waiting for you out there! Find the pirate, he has the details and the ship, find yourself some pirates, an ocean to wander in and see where everything takes you!"
"Ad-Admiral!" Noh spluttered. "I can't accept!" He couldn't hold it in anymore, he was worrying. He was worrying a lot.
Silence drowned them after his last three words, Tsuka stopped and craned his neck slowly to stare deeply into Noh's quivering eyes. He held his gaze for a few moments before swivelling them away towards the window.
"Well, that's a surprise," he said in an oddly toneless voice. "Your father thought you might like a bit of adventure and suggested you to me."
That explains pretty much everything.
Noh resisted the urge to smack his forehead, his father was losing it, and was in a worse state than Tsuka. Even though Noh's sister has taken their father under her wing, he could not help dreaming every night of his mad parent talking to himself and still pretending he was battling against Sogeking.
It was not like he was worried. He was only musing.
Noh politely bowed his head at the Admiral.
"I apologise sir, I am content enough with my rank and despite how... resisting this offer may be, it is not one I can take," he said in a low, grave voice, thinking it might not be completely convincing he hastily added, "My father as you know is quite ill and my sister and I have to take care of him together."
That was when Tsuka gave Noh a look he had never seen before; surprise.
"Are we talking about the same man here?" Tsuka said in between chortles of laughter. "Your father is a smashing man, still have enough courage to brave the seas and put his heart and soul into battle. And you're declining so you can take care of him? My dear boy, he told me that if you just happened not want to go, he'd do it himself!"
He was worried. Worried. Worried. Worried.
His demented daddy who still loved his action at the age of 66 would without doubt flag a Jolly Roger without second thought. Noh felt himself drowning in distress, his jaw hung open, absolutely frightened with the idea, and by the time he felt for his voice he said something for the first time without thinking over his words.
"I'll do it."
In a few hours; dressed in a threadbare garb and a scarf wrapped round his neck, Noh reached the restaurant which was to be his meeting point with the pirate- Koobii Samura. He was still rather stunned with everything that just flew by in the past three hours and was quite shaken with the secret assignment shouldered on him.
"Do it for father," he muttered under his breath. "Do it so for our lunatic father and prevent him from leaving his post at headquarters."
Don't worry about the first step, Tsuka's words were still reciting over and over in his mind.
I'll get the notifications you're a pirate going in no time at all. Just meet up with young Koobii and leave the rest to us. You have nothing to worry about.
There was in fact a lot to worry about. Noh just hoped the senile old fool (who was as of today just as batty as Noh's predecessor) wouldn't frame him for murder.
Noh was worried. He was also all on his own. If only Noh had some of his men here, they would be panicking to such an extreme extent that one just had to feel calm. He just hoped the pirate was as friendly as Tsuka claimed. Noh was going to need a lot of moral support through the mission.
As he stepped into the restaurant and allowed himself be guided to an empty table, he fished out the piece of paper from inside his jacket to run through any details that might be on it. Only then he realized that the scrap paper was the back of a bounty poster.
Hesitantly, he flipped it over and wanted to worry more than ever.
"175, 000, 000 beri huh? Wow, that's a biggie."
"He's not even in the damn picture though."
A man with freckles squinted into the poster. "Oh yeah... all you can see is some beaten up looking guys and a kid in his pyjamas."
"How did he even get in the shot?"
Walking past them was a boy, he had heavy-lidded brown eyes and a blank expression, also notably clothed in blue and white striped cotton sleeping clothes. His naked feet padded noiselessly passed them, walking rather aimlessly.
The freckled man's friend pointed out another thing missing on the bounty poster. "Look, there's no name either, just his pirate name. Seriously, this is the worse WANTED poster I've ever seen."
Behind them, the boy tugged on the man's sleeve. "Excuse me sir... where is the Golden Apple restaurant?"
Without tearing his eyes away, the man pointed to his left. "Straight ahead kid, there's a big sign you can't miss."
"Thank-you, sir," the boy offered a lazy smile but the attention was already gone for him. He trudged away, stifling a yawn, searching absently for the sign.
The two men took one last scoff at the peeling poster and walked off the other direction. They began muttering a few more stories they heard about the pirate, his evil deeds, his demonic powerand his tyrannical dream.
WANTED
Sleep Walker
175, 000, 000 beri
I made this for the sake of just making it. This is mostly a humour-based story and I genuinely will not take most things seriously as I write this.
Well, perhaps a few things. Just to create some drama.
Still, if you would like to submit a character, the more comical the better.
COMPLETELY AU, Luffy does not even belong to this universe, not even Roger for the matter.
Red
What is Available
Captain- Noh by RedxAlert
First Mate- Koobii Samura by FanFicAA
Cook-
Doctor-
Navigator-
Archaeologist-
Sniper-
Shipwright-
Musician- Ridgel by This Is An Adverb
Marines
Yes, there is a reason behind the very short list needed for Marines. There are a lot of ranks and we don't think we'll ever be able to fit every character in fairly from the Marine ranks so I shortened it. I may do need other ranks in the future like Commodores and such, but until then this remains as a close.
Captainx2.
Lieutenantx2.
Photography team lol Military paparazzi XD I'm kidding, these people are the ones taking photos of the pirates (and paparazzi in disguise)
Bounty Hunters
Gender doesn't matter, specie doesn't matter, you could be a flying fishcake for all we care. Remember, you are on a different team from the Marines- may even be rivals!
Other Pirates
For pirates who could not get main pirate positions will be grouped together to form ally or enemy pirate groups X)
Hell Pirates
The Pirate King's crew. Three spaces open. Not looking for any particular rank, just some bad-ass characters. The death of the Pirate King occurred ten years ago so you have to at least be over the age of ten as well please. For long time friends, you'll be in your fifties.
Name: first then last
Alias:
Age:
Gender:
Specie:
Occupation:
Personality: the more detail, the better- you also have more a chance of being accepted.
Physical Appearance: just the usual, try not give your character multicoloured hair or something... a trademark feature would be awesome
Clothing+Accessories: something unique is appreciated
Weapon: it can have a name :D
Ability: devil fruit and whatnot all here.
Strengths: what is your character good at? What kind of enemy or battlefield suits him/her?
Weakness: a balance of strengths and weaknesses is essential
History: just to say, this doesn't have to bee too overly detailed.
Like-Not-Like Scale: does your character like Noh or not? 1 for 'I am going to effing kill him' and 10 for 'lets get married!'
Other: since I've probably missed something out
Hope you (somehow) enjoyed reading!