A New Recruit

**Date Started:** December 7th, 2021
**Date Completed:** Ongoing
**Previous Roleplay:**
**Users Involved:** User:TheCheeseMeister, User:Logan Smith1, User:XxxSammy, User:DuckDominator, User:Jmayfie01, User:MadaraCheese
**Setting:** Paradise
**Characters Involved**:
* **Cinci Panj, Belvedere Queenie, Hayden Samuel, Tyrellia Eve, Foxtale, Lysandre Hatsa**

### Party Planning

A large castle sat in the middle of a green field, a town not too far from it. Standing tall and refined, kept in pristine condition with a cool finish. One could only imagine what classy people lived inside of it. "We need to get ready for the party! I need all hands on deck." Queenie yelled throughout the castle, running through the hallway to alert her two crew members. A party invite had been sent to everyone in town, being hosted by none other than Belvedere Queenie, not widely known throughout the town but by the size of her home it could be assumed that she was a wealthy lady. Only having two crew members meant that they couldn't do much against bigger crews or against marines a lot of the time.

That's why Queenie decided to host a party and find the real talent that lurked in this town, even the weakest of people could secretly hold a useful talent. Quickly rushing down the stairs, Queenie ended up tripping and falling like humpty dumpty. Once she reached the end of the stairs, she announced yet again. "Wake up! If I don't see you two down here in five minutes, I'll have the castle bring you down here!"

Elsewhere, Hayden Samuel's eyes fluttered halfway open. Samuel found himself face down on his lone desk, having passed out in the middle of his work he assumed. Samuel slowly sat upright, wincing at the now present crick in his back. He sighed and tried to work out the soreness with a closed fist.

"Whuzzat? 'M up... ahm comn..." Samuel mumbled, his eyes still only open halfway. Samuel was so groggy that he couldnt even recognize the small plastic brick nearly embedded into his right cheek, which remained stuck as he slowly stood up from his chair. After a minute of presumably stretching, Samuel began to slowly, exhaustedly walk towards the Castle Lobby, slowly stepping down each individual stair. Once he reached the bottom, his mouth unhinged widley to yawn.

"Yeah, I'm here Queenie..." Samuel said quietly, still not noticing the brick stuck to his face.

Queenie was busy sweeping up the floors, quickly shoving most of it into a newly formed hole in the floor. Looking up, she saw Samuel in a tired state with a Lego brick stuck to his face. "Samuel! I told you to get to bed early. This is an important day, and we need to make a good impression on these people, one of them could be your new crewmate." She put her hands to her face, sighing. "Go get washed up, I can't have you looking like you slept in a dumpster last night." With a snap of her fingers, the bathroom door flew open. The curtains of the shower stretched out the door and wrapped around Samuel, pulling him into the bathroom. Once he was inside, the door shut closed.

"Now I still have to make sure Eve is up, if she isn't down here in five more minutes then I'm going to have her bed catapult her down here." Queenie usually let her crew members sleep in, seeing as their days were mellow with such a small crew but today was not one of those days! A chance to expand the crew meant that they could face off against more powerful foes and more importantly, make a name for themselves.

Deep within the bowels of the castle in her room, Eve was sat in front of her personal vanity, applying those last few touches of eyeshadow before she left her quarters. Having finished her personal business, Eve steps out into the hallway and sprints towards Queenie's location, far more preferring to see her captain under her own movement, instead of being catapulted by her own bed.

Screeching to a halt in front of Queenie due to her sheer velocity, Eve gives a cheery wave as she greets her captain for the morning. "Morning Queenie! Hope I'm not too late at coming down here." Taking a quick glance around the lobby, she notices the distinct lack of her other crewmate. "By the way, where's Samuel? Did that idiot oversleep on the day of the party?" She asks annoyed, as it wasn't the first time the first mate had overslept for an important event.

Queenie turned around to the sound of Eve's voice, smiling at her. "Good morning, Eve! I'm glad to see that you decided to get up." She quickly snapped her fingers, causing a mirror to rise up from the ground. Looking at her makeup, queenie made sure there was no imperfections. Appearances were everything to her and if she accidentally looked ugly then it would be the end of her! "Close, he spent all night working on one of his projects, so I quite literally threw him into the shower.

"The party is in less than 20 minutes now so we must prepare. Eve, I need you to make sure everything is clean. I'd do it but I'm lazy and I don't feel like it." She said bluntly, waving her hand to make the mirror vanish back into the floor. "If everything goes well, we will have a few new crewmates. I can see us now... On the cover of pirates weekly." A monthly magazine subscription service that queenie used to look at hot rookie pirates.

Samuel, having not even fought back against being taken to the bathroom, allowed himself to be thrown into the shower. After a few minutes of just letting the water run, he was swaying back and forth in the shower, so groggy that it seemed like he had a tired hangover. Even as warm water ran down his back, it felt like anvils were dragging at his eyelids.

"I need... caffeine... coffee... something." Samuel muttured as he turned off the water. There were bags set underneath his eyes big enough to put a body in, but otherwise, the rest of him seemed clean and restored. After the arduous process of drying his body off, and fumbling to put on his clothing again, Samuel exited the bathroom, stumbling like a zombie as he walked back towards the main lobby.

Bossa Nova had woken up in a smaller room of the castle, the stables to be exact. She woke up in a bed of hay and she would have slept in longer if a horse hadn't been nibbling on her hair, slurping it up like spaghetti. That's when Nova realized. "I'm late for work!" She shrieked, getting up and tying a bandana over her head, wrapping that apron around her waist and she was out the door!

The castle was a maze. Nova couldn't tell why, but the layout seemed to change every day. It made it nearly impossible to find the kitchen, much less the show room. Finally she managed to stumble upon the group. To this day she didn't know who any of these people were aside from Queenie. She assumed they were bus boys or stable boys or some type of boy that did some type of work around this crazy 'restaurant'. The only one she truly knew was Belvedere Queenie, her boss.

Approaching the group with caution, she could see Queenie barking orders at everyone in attempt to wake them up. "Sorry I'm late everyone... I didn't think I was on the schedule today. I also need to talk about my last eighty five paychecks? Miss Belvedere? I haven't gotten one." Nova tilted her head in confusion, being much shorter than Queenie, she looked around at the lest of the rag tag team. It was weird, she never saw THEM working like she did.

Finally, the hardest working crew member made her appearance. Well, hardest working when it involved bad coffee and breakfast food. At the mention of paychecks, queenie started laughing loudly. “Oh gosh, You are so funny!” That paycheck joke never got old, one of the many reasons she recruited the girl into her crew.

“Anyways, listen up everyone! It turns out I got the time wrong… Which is probably one of you all’s fault. The party guests will be arriving any minute so quickly try to shove everything together last minute.” Despite her love for parties, she was a horrible party planner.

"Im not usually an angry person... but... \*yhaa~n\*... I cant help but feel slightly annoyed." Samuel muttered under his breath, having rejoined the larger group. His head was hung as he began a march towards the front gate, thinking that he might be able to buy some time with politeness, or maybe take the edge off the what he assumed to be amassing crowd.

## Early Birds

Joyous smiles lit up the town as the citizens eagerly awaited the doors to open for another of Queenie's extravagant parties. The massive crowd formed an ocean in front of the doors due to the overall anticipation. Men, women, and children alike all recounted stories of other parties they had attended as well as their expectations of this one, creating a veritable cacophony of boisterous ecstasy washed over the entire island. Due to the magnitude of people just outside the door, the vision of many of the smaller inhabitants was shrouded by the rears of others.

Among the crowd, one individual stood out much more aggressively due to his size and stature. Towering above the crowd, one set of his arms crossed while the other rest with hands on his hips was Cinci Panj. His gaze panned through the crowd as one thought ran through his mind, *"I need a date."* Yet this search had been interrupted by a light tug on one of his fingertips, drawing his attention to the small child standing on his foot just to barely reach his hand. A light breeze brought a flutter to his sash and rustling of his earrings as the child raised their hands up to the sky, suggesting to be lifted. Grabbing the child's hands and passing them to his other set of arms, until placed gently on his shoulder, the child smiled at him to which he returned. This interaction momentarily distracted him from his desire for some intimate company to the party.

A rather eccentric, noticeable individual glances around the large crowd. "Huh, I guess I wasn't too late for the party. That's great, I probably wouldn't be let in anyway..." He'd finally found a decent place to live after the fiasco and disbanding of his old crew. All that without landing a bounty so he could actually enjoy life! The phosphorescent rays of the sun shone down upon the pathway as citizens ambled on to observe the large castle. He glances over to the easily noticeable four-armed man and scratches his head in thought. "Haven't seen that before." Gazing around him, the man who the wind seemed to favor was Lysandre Hatsa.

Behind the crowd, a tall red-haired man could be seen walking to the castle. His proud tribe's ears were peeking out of his unkempt hair. As he got closer to the castle, his head had fallen down below his shoulders. He was covered in scrapes and cuts, as if he'd just returned from a skirmish. He was drawn here by the scent of humans and the scattering footprints on the ground. More importantly, he detected the aromas of food and a variety of leisure beverages. He could also detect a faint whiff of a peculiar perfume emanating from the castle's perimeter, which intrigued him.

"Relaxing in the Marine ship was a bad idea. I told them Marines that I had cut their ship by accident but I guess it didn't matter since I was a random stowaway. They had good drinks but nothing too potent. It must be my sense of taste going numb. I need something GOOD. This castle must be the place where I can find something interesting, if not at least I'll get free food and drinks." the man said.

The man raised his head, revealing a ferocious-looking visage and razor white fangs. With his sharpened claw, he tapped on the shoulder of one of the people in the crowd politely. "What seems to be the occasion for this event?" He let out a big smile to try to be friendly

The crowd member was a little taken aback by the man's appearance and even more creeped out by his attempt to make a smile with his sharp teeth. "Uhhh...I heard about this event from my friend who lives next to me. It's supposed to be a party hosted by some lady. It'll start any minute now. From the way my friend described it, it is like a leisure fantasy for whatever you like."

"Ohh I see. Then it seems my instincts were right. Please forgive me for being so rude and not introducing myself. I go by just Foxtale now, nice to meet ya." Foxtale said.

Lysandre had been listening into their conversation, not really bothering to say anything. Although, he seemed to just be gazing forwards at the castle and waiting, scanning the crowd noticing this multitude of individuals. He eventually turns around to face Foxtale. "So that's what the party is?" He finally joined in. "To be honest, I had no idea what this was all about, it just seemed pretty extravagant, and I thought it wouldn't hurt going..."

Foxtale narrowed his eyes as he peered down at the somewhat gleaming white figure. "Don't you think it is a bit weird to wear all that white. It's hurting my eyes but then again I just woke up a few minutes ago, so I guess this won't be the last time I'll have to strain my eyes. You also have a unique smell. Doesn't seem similar to the one coming from the castle but much more similar to mine. My name is Foxtale. Would you care to share you name?"

Lysandre was..wearing a LOT of white. Almost like he'd gone out for a stroll in the dark and he didn't want to be trampled over. "Meh, it's more of a trial I give myself to keep my clothes clean. I don't wear this all the time...and, my name is Lysandre. Nice to uh, meet you I guess? And I don't know if the 'unique smell' thing was a compliment or an insult, but I can live with it." The man did smell like he just walked out of a tea shop.

"Lysandre huh...Even you're name sounds weird but I have no room to talk since my name is Foxtale." Foxtale said as he started to sniff himself. He stopped sniffing to ask, "You also interested in this place? I got here by accident but it seems like I've been dealt a good card."

"I'll agree, my name sounds pretty weird, haha...nice to meet you, Foxtale. Yeah, I'm pretty interested in this place, I was invited by card since I happened to be at Paradise at the time." He tapped his foot while idling.