Alright, JRWIeners, since Riptide is coming back in the next few months, I figured I finally get this discussion going again. Who do we think is the mole in Lizzie's crew?
The obvious answer is Caspian. He's kind of the odd one out in the crew, being the only one who predates the campaign. But also. Caspian seems to have been around Lizzie since the Shadowbeard days. Either this is a really long con or something else is up. I think if the mole is Caspian, then he's been replaced by a duplicate, as we saw with the whole DoppleGilly issue.
Then theirs John. While he is a former Navy soldier, I don't think he's the mole. If he was, why'd he get sent to the BLOCK? Unless they made a deal with him there or something??? Also he's been around the crew so much and there hasn't even been the slightest hint of any ulterior motives from him.
Aannnd I don't know enough about Rudith to make a judgement on that. Though, point on their favor, we found them on outlaw soil. Considering Jay got jumped just for looking like a Ferin (granted, she was actually a spy, but Lizzie didn't know that until well after), i doubt a navy rat could survive there for long.
I don't think we know about any other Grandberry pirates members. Idk. What do yall think? Sorry if this is ass, I'm typing this on my phone.
outlaw, traitor, exile [chapter three: the village of mornstead]
FINALLY UPDATING! this chapter is literally over 6k words long so i hope you all enjoy the update!
"I got some reports from other pirate crews that I've come across that this island up here has a pretty nasty curse on it." Chip says while looking at a map with Jay and Gillion. He pointed to a little island called Loffinlot. "We're only a few miles from it."
"Hmm, Loffinlot..." Jay tried to think if she had ever heard of this island, and she definitely had not. Loffinlot was a pretty small and out-of-the-way island compared to the other major areas in the Southern Sea. The people and creatures of Loffinlot prefer it to be that way. It's not that they hated strangers; their reasoning for not wanting strangers on the island was more related to the curse that befell the village on the island. At this moment, the Riptide Pirates don't know anything about the curse on the village, and they have no clue about the troubles that await them there. They don't even know that their arrival is planned by a dark, evil presence on the island. This force of nature can't even be perceived by Gillion Tidestrider and his divine sense until the very moment it wants to make itself known, which is incredibly rare. Speaking of, it doesn’t want to be known right now, the time isn’t quite right.
The crew looked out to the golden horizon as the sun rose and illuminated the sea in a warm amber hue. The contrast of the sun against the evergreen color of the trees on the approaching island made a smile creep across Chip’s face. This view, this feeling, is exactly why he began sailing, and he’s thankful that he can be reminded of that every morning. He felt the warmth of the morning sun hug his face and the soft splash of salt water from the ocean kissed his face as the body of the ship cut through the waves. He felt nothing but true bliss. He looked around to his crew that worked diligently to keep the boat afloat before his eyes laid on the most important people of his current crew. He looked at Jay Ferin as her fiery hair seemed to elegantly float on the wind and gusts seemed to just play with her hair instead of whipping it around aimlessly. He glanced over at Gillion who was leaning over the starboard side of the boat and letting his hand graze the top of the water. He seemed to be speaking to the fish below that were happily following his hand. Chip had never really met someone from the Undersea, and Gillion’s actions continued to intrigue him. Gillion was a strange man, but Chip knew that he was going to forever be useful to him and to the crew as a whole.
His thought processes were quietly interrupted by Marshall John tapping on his shoulder. “Captain, we’re about 30 yards from the shore. Just thought I’d let ya know.”
“Ah, ‘preciate it, John.” Chip gave John a firm pat on the shoulder and turned to the crew. “RAISE THE SAILS, LOWER ANCHORS! WE’RE DOCKING ON THE SHORE!” The crew quickly got to work at the sound of Chip’s command.
Jay began to approach Chip. “Navy can say whatever they want about you, but it’s clear you have a hand on your crew.”
Chip shrugged. “It’s easy to command a group of people that share your views and are willing to work towards your goals. The Navy wouldn’t understand that.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
“From what I’ve seen,” He gestures to his crew that are mostly ex-Navy soldiers of all ranks except vice admiral and admiral. “The Navy isn’t all that united. Everybody there has a different idea of what they want and what the Navy is. None of them are working towards the same goals except for the bastards higher up that have all that secret intel and are barking the orders.” Chip looked back out at the shore as the ship began to turn to match the side with the shoreline, making it easier to board. “Pirate crews are different. Generally, we’re all working towards the same thing. That could be fucking shit up or trying to make the world a better place. This crew is kinda a mix of both, but we all know what we’re doin’ here.”
Jay nodded. She never saw pirates vs Navy in the light before. She always saw the world through a navy blue lens. There wasn’t much room for expression or differing ideas in the Navy for her, but it clearly wasn’t that way for lower ranks. People in the Navy could’ve been there for multitudes of reasons whether it’s power, they were born/forced into it, or they truly believed the Navy was the way to make the world a better place. Either way, they were all supposed to be working towards the same goal even with conflicting views. Pirate crews weren’t like that. If you didn’t have similar views, you weren’t generally part of the same crew because every crew worked towards something or did something specific. One thing that she would never mention to Chip is just how thankful she was to have the opportunity to breathe fresh air with him. Most other pirates might’ve killed her on the spot if she tried to show up to their ships, but Chip decided to try and change her views and then welcome her with open arms to his crew. Jay was incredibly thankful for that.
“Alright, Cap’n! Where do ya want us?” John asked Chip with the rest of the crew behind him.
“John, Gillion, Jay,” He pointed at each of them as their names left his mouth. “You’re with me. The rest of ya, you’re on the ship. Don’t let my shit get taken, don’t let our ship get taken. I know it’s a hunk of junk right now, but it’s all we got.”
Marshall John, Gillion Tidestrider, and Jay Ferin each went to quickly prepare themselves before heading into the dense forest on the island of Loffinlot. “Now remember,” Chip stated as he began to walk into the forest. “We’re here because we got word of some dangerous curse on the island. We aren’t here to cause trouble this time, we’re here to fix trouble.”
“Do we have any clue what this curse could be? What if we’re walking into some sort of trap?” Jay questioned.
“Hah!” John chuckled. “You’ve still got that Navy mindset on ya!”
Chip smirked. “Don’t worry ‘bout it, Jay. I heard about this island from some other pirate crews that came here, got freaked out, and left. If it was some sort of trap, I don’t think those crews would’ve survived.”
Jay simply nodded and kept walking.
“What is that DEVILISH noise…” Gillion stops dead in his tracks. At this point, the crew had only been walking for 20 minutes. The chirping and buzzing sound of the bugs around them is something that everyone else had tuned out completely, but Gillion was from the sea and had never really heard such things before. He’s heard the chirping of birds or the buzzing sound of a fly before, but never in this quantity.
Chip and Jay looked at each other before looking at Gillion’s shoulder to find a beetle calmly resting on the shoulder plate of his armor. A smirk tugs at the sides of Chip’s mouth before he speaks.
“Oh no… Gillion, thank the gods you caught that! That noise is the sound of some dangerous beetles that can only be avoided by crawling on the ground where they can’t see you!” Chip dramatically drops to his knees and tugs Jay and John down with him. Gillion quickly follows suit.
“What are these… beetles… that you speak of?” Gillion asks in a hushed tone.
“They’re a type of bug.” Jay speaks up, a smile forming on her face as well. “They’re incredibly dangerous. Watch out for them.”
“Dangerous…” Gillion looks around, still missing the beetle on his shoulder. “Would they be… evil?”
“Oh, absolutely.” Chip says. “Some of the most evil bugs in the world.”
Gillion remained low to the ground as he quickly looked around. He wanted to make sure that he didn’t spot any of these dastardly bugs. Due to his drastic shaking around, the beetle that was on his shoulder flew off and landed on a strand of grass in front of him. Chip and Jay watched, nearly spitting from trying to hold in their laughter, as Gillion spotted the bug. John was extremely confused about what was happening and tried to speak up to tell Gillion about Chip and Jay’s blatant lie, but Chip quickly motioned for him to stay silent.
“There you are…” Gillion whispered as he raised his blade above his head. “Do not worry, friends. I will purge this evil…” Gillion’s sword quickly fell upon the beetle, effectively chopping the poor bug in clean halves. Gillion then stood and raised his hands in a victorious vigor.
Chip and Jay stood with him and small giggles escaped their lips before high-fiving Gillion. “Good job, man! You did it!” Chip laughed as he threw an arm around the shorter man.
“IT IS MY DESTINY TO CLEAN THIS WORLD OF ALL EVILS, NO MATTER HOW SMALL!” Gillion yelled with a large grin on his face. He then held up the bowl at his side with his trusty companion, Pretzel, inside. “Pretzel, we have done it yet again!”
At this point, Chip was completely hunched over with his arm around his stomach and Jay had an arm over his back as she was hunched at his side. Both of them were laughing hysterically. John was still confused, but he was continuing to follow his captain’s orders to not reveal the lie.
Chip stood up and wiped sweat from his brow as he took a deep breath. “Phew, Gillion Tidestrider… You’re one hell of a guy.”
Gillion’s head turned in confusion, but before he could utter a word, the crew heard a rustling a few feet in front of them. Gillion’s head shot in the direction of the sound, Chip quickly gripped his shortsword, and Jay pulled out her bow with lightning speed and aimed it in the direction of the sound. They all crouched down in an attempt to hide in the tall grass. They had no idea what it could possibly be, but they hadn’t seen any creatures in the woods thus far and didn’t want to take their chances with anything that they haven’t seen yet. The crew held baited breath as they watched the bushes move as something tried to cut through them. Even Gillion was being generally cautious, but that wasn’t going to last long as Gillion began to stand.
Then they heard laughter.
Chip’s eyes widened as he looked at the bush to see an old halfling man walk out. He was bald, except for a singular hair at the top of his head, and he wore a tattered white tank top with some stained khaki shorts. Jay quickly noticed that he wasn’t wearing any shoes either. He was walking through the forest with absolutely no protection on his feet, and that seemed to baffle Jay.
Her baffled reaction caused her to loosen her grip on the arrow that was strategically aimed right as this man’s head. Luckily for the halfling, Jay just narrowly missed his head. Chip shot a glare at her as she tried to explain herself. Before Chip could even say anything, the man spoke up.
“Eh?” He laughed. “You must be a pretty bad shot, hahaha!” The halfling looked over at the group. Jay let out a nervous laugh as she waved at the man and his eyes narrowed. “Ain’t nothing funny about it, hahaha! You just tried to take my damn life!”
The crew all looked at each other with narrowed eyes and perplexed faces. The old man claimed that there was nothing funny about this situation and immediately laughed after. In fact, the man had been randomly laughing the entire time that he had been in their sights.
The man then began to approach the crew and they all seemed to somewhat relax at his slow attempt to get to them. They quickly noticed that he wasn’t a threat at all. He was barely even a threat to a bug on the ground. He walked up to them while laughing uncontrollably, which sent a slight chill up Jay’s spine.
“What are you kids doin’ out here! I ain’t never seen anyone by the looks of you here, hahaha!” His laughs weren’t accompanied by a smile. He laughed like it was just a basic sentence coming out of his mouth. He was right, there’s nothing funny. He just couldn’t stop laughing.
Jay tried to answer his question, but Chip took a step forward. “We heard that there’s somethin’ strange goin’ on here. You heard anything about that?”
The man’s eyes narrowed as his head seemed too look Chip up and down. “Eh, are you one of them pirate crews that keep comin’ over here? Hahaha, there’s been a bunch lately that keep washin’ up here.” He coughed and laughed again. He noticed Gillion about to try and laugh with him. The triton still had no real clue what social cues were, he just knew that there must be something to laugh about if this man was laughing. The halfling held a hand up to him. “Hahaha, ain’t nothin’ funny!”
Gillion’s mouth closed in a tight line as he looked at Chip for some sort of explanation, of which Chip had none. The old man continued to laugh and it seemed to irritate him more and more. “One of ya tell me somethin’ funny so I actually got somethin’ to laugh about!”
They all looked at each other. All of them were mostly unsettled just enough to not have anything funny to say. Except Gillion Tidestrider.
“I only know fish jokes. I don’t think they’re going to land.” He said with a completely straight face.
The old man looked at him and laughed, which caused Gillion to laugh as well. “That joke wasn’t funny! I said tell me somethin’ funny!”
Everyone just looked at each other before the man spoke up again. “Listen, I’m gonna tell ya what I told the other pirates that washed up here. Ya gotta leave! Ya can’t stay on this island, hahaha!”
Everyone looked at each other again before John spoke up. “Hey, why are ya laughin’ so much anyway? You keep tellin’ us that nothin’ is funny, but then you laugh right after! It’s confusing!”
“That ain’t important. What’s important is you kids leavin’! Ya can’t stay here! Get on your ship and get outta here, hahaha! In fact, take me with ya!”
“Why do you want us to leave so bad?” Chip asked. “What’s going on here?”
“Just leave! Take me with ya! I need to get outta here!” The old man sighed.
Jay shook her head. “We heard from those other pirates that some weird curse was on this island.”
“Eh? Hahaha, those pirates left after I talked to ‘em. Those damn pirates just fuckin’ scattered like mice, hahaha! I tried to get ‘em to take me with ‘em, but they just ran!”
“Maybe this little man needs help! We must help him, Chip.” Gillion looked over at Chip and Chip sighed.
“There has to be something wrong with him. I mean, why does he keep laughing?” Jay questioned.
“Don’t talk about that, hahaha!”
“Jay, you must be very funny for this small man to still be laughing.”
“Hey! Don’t call me a small man. Ya ain’t got nothin’ to say, fish bitch!”
Gillion looked completely shocked. “Did he just… Fish bitch?!”
“Okay, do you have a name?” Chip looked down at the old man.
“They call me Old Man Earl. I run an inn/bar thing in the town nearby.”
“So there is a town! Where is this town? We need to get there.”
“No! I wanna leave it all behind! Hahaha, leave and take me with ya!”
“No no no. We want to go to this town.”
Gillion steps in front of Chip. “I am Gillion Tidestrider. This is Chip, that one is Jay, and that one is Marshall John. He is very cool.”
“What-” Chip stutters.
“Gillion, don’t just tell him our names!” Jay sighs again.
“Gillion, you are very cool!” John smiles and lays a hand on his shoulder.
“Nice to meet you.” Earl says.
“Please, shake my slippery hand.” Gillion says as he raises his hand to shake Earl’s. Earl shakes his hand and his face contorts in disgust.
“Why is your hand all wet? Gross!”
“Why is your hand all wrinkly? Have you been swimming for too long? I heard that does that to land people.”
“Hahaha, what. That’s not funny, don’t laugh!”
Chip quickly interrupted. “Where is this town. Can you lead us there?”
“Ya already headin’ towards it! I was out here gettin’ some new fruit for the ol’ kitchen when I saw ya and… Well, ya have a way off the island, right? Ya have a ship?”
“I mean… Yeah, but we’re here for a reason. We need to get to that town.”
“Why do ya need to get to the town! There ain’t nothin’ nice there, hahaha!” Earl begins walking towards the town. The crew then follows close behind.
“Well, we heard there was a cur-” Gillion begins to speak up before Chip interrupts him. “Gillion, look! Another beetle!”
Gillion then darts towards the beetle.
“We just need a place to set up for now. We do have a ship, it’s just not gonna set sail tonight. Captain’s order, ya know.”
“Where is ya captain then! Let me talk to ‘im, I’ll convince ‘em to leave! And take me with ya!”
“Uhm… I don’t really know. He’s uh… He went off to do something else.”
“What’s wrong with ya friend?”
The crew looks over at Gillion, who is crouched in grass and frantically looking around for the beetle. “Chip! I am struggling to find the beetle! Where did you see it?”
“I think it’s gone now, Gillion! Don’t worry about it for now. I’ll tell you if I see it again!” Chip calls to Gillion and gestures for him to rejoin the group.
Gillion dejectedly goes back to the group and John gives him a comforting pat on the back.
Earl stops and turns back around to Chip. “Do ya got any coin for a stay at my inn? I ain’t gonna let ya stay there for free.”
Chip looks to Jay then back at Earl. “We’re paying you in travel! You let us stay at your inn, and we’ll let you off the island when our captain comes back.”
Earl seemed to stop and think for a moment. It wasn’t a very long moment, mind you. He knew exactly what his response was. “Fine! Deal! But ya also gotta do some errands for me. I need sum shit for my bar… Damn customers runnin’ the taps dry, hahaha! That ain’t funny.”
As the group approaches the town, the sounds from the village people seem to grow in volume. The crew follows Old Man Earl through the town to his inn and instead of getting stares from the villagers, they all seemed strangely cheery. While walking down the main– and only– road, Jay watched as all of the village people were laughing loudly and seemingly uncontrollably like Old Man Earl. They were all generally smiling and being incredibly friendly with each other. In fact, it seemed like Old Man Earl was the only one that wasn’t completely jolly. Only Chip and Jay seemed to fully notice this. Marshall John was enjoying the friendliness and interacting back and forth with the villagers while Gillion followed suit.
“Newcomers! Hello, hahaha!” One of the villagers stopped their conversation with another and waved at the group.
John smiled brightly and waved back. “Hello, joyful people! Hello! Hello!!” He continued to wave and smile at everyone who greeted him, making finger guns or hand hearts at random points. Gillion was attempting to copy John’s gestures, but John was moving his hands too quickly for Gillion to fully process it. He did manage to wave to some people.
Chip and Jay walked behind the rest of the group and reluctantly waved to some of the villagers. “This is weird right… Like, why are all of these people so… happy?” Chip whispered to Jay while looking at some children who were running around and playing.
“No, you’re right. This is so weird… And they’re all laughing uncontrollably. Old Man Earl would laugh and then say ‘nothing is funny’ right after. It completely freaked me out.” Jay whispered back. She noticed an elderly couple walking together and laughing. They weren’t even saying anything to each other, but they were laughing like someone had just told them the best joke they’ve ever heard. “I couldn’t tell if this was freaky to me because I’ve never met anyone this happy in my life or if this was actually weird.”
“This is fully weird. I’ve been to a lot of places in my 19 years of life, and I’ve never come across a place this happy before.” Chip looked at John and Gillion and noticed that they both were starting to get an unsettling look about them. He gathered that they were finally realizing how strange this all was.
John looked back at Chip and gave a nervous smile. Chip motioned for John and Gillion to move in closer. “We can’t stay here for long. This is seriously freaky. We need to just figure out what’s going on, fix it, and leave.”
Gillion wasn’t paying any attention. He was still trying to learn how to do finger guns at one of the villagers. The human man was trying to teach him and he eventually ends up putting up his middle finger and turning his hands horizontally as if he’s making a finger gun with his middle finger. Instead of getting offended, the man just does it back to him. He then goes up to another man and the rest of the group can’t quite hear what they’re saying, but Gillion raises his hand up like John had taught him on the ship to try and dap him up. It completely fails. Instead of the standard and steady dap up, Gillion’s arms seem to be sliding around in the man’s grip. Gillion says something to the man with his head down and then walks back to the group with a dejected sigh.
“What was that about?” Chip asked. He didn’t really care to know, but he figured he would ask anyway.
“I don’t wanna talk about it…” Gillion says as he walks up to right behind Old Man Earl. He is no longer greeting the other villagers and is instead walking with his head down and his arms limp at his sides. Chip decides to just shrug it off and keep walking.
Old Man Earl stops outside of his inn. “This is the place. The ol’ Orinnge. Hahaha.” He looks at the group. “See them bitches over there, the real lively ones? One of ya grab me some oranges. Two stalls, they both got oranges. Just get me some ‘n bring ‘em in, hahaha.” Earl hands Chip a few gold coins to purchase the oranges with.
“Alright, we’ll be right in. Just give us one minute.” Chip says to Earl. He simply lets out a grunt and mutters something under his breath before walking inside the Orinnge. Chip then turns to the group. “This place is insane.”
“This place is joyous!” Gillion smiles before looking at the inn. “What is an orange?”
Chip points over to the stalls selling the bright oranges. “They’re over there, man.”
“You just pointed at an entire stand. What exactly is an orange.”
“The orange fruit that they’re selling, Gillion.” Chip laughs. “It’s called an orange for a reason.”
“Right, yes.” Gillion’s eyes narrow at the stands. “Yes, the orange ones. I see them.”
Jay sighs and attention is diverted over to her. “Listen, why don’t we just leave. We can take the money he gave us and just leave!”
“We cannot just leave! This place is wonderful. This is the place for me.” Gillion argued.
“What? No, Gillion-”
Gillion interrupted Chip. “I can defend these people. I can fulfill my destiny here.”
Chip sighed and looked at the coins in his hand then looked at the stands. His eyes widened and he smiled before turning to Gillion. “You know what, this is the place for you, Gillion.” He placed the gold coins in Gillion’s moist hand. “Take this money. Your first task here is to go up to those stands and then buy oranges. Use this as a lesson on… on interacting with people! So take the money, go to the stands, and use the money to get oranges! You know, the big, round orange ones?”
“You are belittling me.”
“No, no. I am not. This is just a lesson for you. It’s training!”
“So…” Gillion looks at the coins in his hand. “I cannot just take the oranges? I have to use these things to go and get them… And the oranges are those… they’re the round things over there? Are those orange? Your colors are all so strange.”
“What? Do you not have colors in the Undersea?” Jay asked.
“We do. Not these ones.”
“What?” Jay looks blankly at Gillion who is avoiding her gaze. Gillion is completely focused on the oranges.
“The oranges are the round ones over there right. The red ones?” Gillion asked. Chip and Jay glanced at each other.
“No, they’re not red. They’re orange.”
“Those are red.” He pointed at the oranges.
“What…” Chip sighs. “Yes, those ones. The red ones. If you get confused then just hold them up and I’ll tell you if it’s the right ones. You got this, man.”
Gillion puffed out his chest and clutched the gold in his fist. “Okay… I got this.” He muttered to himself before he walked over to the fruit stands.
“Chip, what are you doing? Why are we actually getting this old man oranges?” Jay asked, still looking over at Gillion who now looked like a pufferfish with his chest and cheeks puffed out to try and exude confidence.
“If things go south, we’ll run. We might have to ditch him, but we’ll just have to get out.”
“WHAT?” John looked at Chip, who had forgotten that John was there because of how shockingly quiet he was being. John was too weirded out to actually have any commentary for this situation. “We can’t just leave ‘im! He’s my bro!”
“Fine, if things go south, we’ll try to get him too.” Chip rolled his eyes. As much as he liked Gillion, Chip knew that when things went wrong, he would have to make sure he gets out and to his crew. Everyone else be damned. Not to mention, Chip knew that Gillion was the biggest liability right now. The man barely had any comprehension on what things were like on land. Chip was sure that he had potential and that’s why he let him on the ship in the first place, but if he managed to mess things up when trying to get oranges, Chip knew he would have to ditch him.
Gillion begins to decompress as he approaches the two fruit stands. He looks to his left to see a humanoid fox behind the wooden stand showing off the orange fruits. Gillion tried to avoid eye contact with this fox, but his golden eyes seemed to be peering into his soul while his happy expression was attempting to charm him. Gillion looked the fox man up and down to fully take in his appearance. He quickly noticed that instead of having a singular tail like Gillion assumed he would, the man seemed to have two. Before Gillion could look to his right at the other stand, the fox spoke out.
He also laughed like the rest of the village did, but his was more like a fox’s call than a normal laugh. “Kekeke, you want to buy my tangerines, hmm? Tangerines?”
Gillion had absolutely no clue what tangerines were. He thought that the fruit in the stand were oranges, as per Chip’s description, but this fox was saying something else. “No… I uh-”
The woman on the right quickly cut Gillion off. “You don’t want his tangerines! You want some of my clementines, hahaha!”
This salesperson was a chubbier orc woman. She was paler than most orcs with a light fern green skin tone– not that Gillion would notice that– and she has beautiful, long blonde hair that was braided neatly and put over the front of her shoulder. Most orcs seem intimidating, but this lady seemed nothing but jolly with her rosy red cheeks and toothy smile.
“Hey, hey!” The fox person speaks up again, causing Gillion’s head to whip back around to face him. “You don’t want those! Kekeke, my tangerines are the best! They’re smaller-”
“Hahaha, you definitely don’t want those small things! You want these clementines!”
Gillion’s head snaps between the two so quickly that it might’ve completely snapped off if he went any faster. “Uh… which ones are oranges…?”
“What?” The fox person asks.
“Are tangerines oranges?”
“Well, kekeke, it’s a type of or–”
“Don’t listen to him! He knows nothing of the fruits he sells. Not like me! Hahaha, these clementines aren’t just mere oranges, they’re mandarins! They’re superior to–” The saleswoman interrupts the fox man just to be interrupted by him in return.
“No no no! Kekeke, you want to buy my tangerines!”
Gillion looks between the two of them. “So neither of you have oranges?”
Both of the salespeople look at each other and then at Gillion before jumping at the opportunity to convince him that their fruit is in fact an orange and is better than the other person’s orange. In unison, they say, “Yes, they’re oranges! But mine is better!” before they both laugh.
The salespeople both continue to argue over which fruit Gillion should purchase, but he’s tuning them out at this point. Their arguing is just continuing to confuse him, so he resorts to the only thing that he knows to do. Gillion looks down at his left hand, the one that isn’t hold the gold, as it begins to glow. “It is my destiny to find the orange…” He then casts a spell called Minor Prophecy on himself before closing his eyes and pressing his hand to his chest.
“Reveal yourself to me, orange…”
He takes a deep breath before looking to his left at the fox person. He feels a sense of joy and pride in this man’s soul. Staring into his eyes, Gillion learns that the fox does truly believe that he has picked the superior fruit. His passion for his trade overflows Gillion’s senses as he continues to laugh in the back of Gillion’s mind. Somewhere in the fox’s mind, Gillion can sense that these tangerines truly are oranges, and it is his destiny to pick these.
destiny to pick these.
Just to be sure, Gillion then looks over that the orc woman. That feeling of joy and pride for the orange trade begins to be siphoned from his mind as Gillion looks into this woman’s eyes. A feeling of what can only be described as greed and disinterest flows over Gillion’s body as he peers into her soul. This woman is trying to sell her fruits to Gillion with false promises and lackluster enthusiasm that Gillion couldn’t manage to sense before, but he is glad that he can now.
It has finally been revealed what fruits Gillion should pick.
Gillion’s senses come back to him and the light from his palm fades. He blinks and the sounds around him return to his ears as the two salespeople are still trying to convince him which fruit he should purchase. Without a word, Gillion turns to the fox and hands him the gold before picking up some of his tangerines to take back to Old Man Earl’s inn with him.
“Kekeke, pleasure doin’ business with you!” The fox smiles as he counts the coins and puts them in his coin purse.
Gillion then turns to the orc woman who is still smiling, but there is a sense of sadness about her. “Miss, do not let your spark fade.”
“W-what? Hahaha?” The orc woman’s laugh has a confused tone to it instead of the hearty, jolly laughter before.
“Do not let your spark fade. You may have the inferior orange now, but you still have time to ripen and let yourself continue the conquest for the superior orange. Continue your fight, and one day, you will succeed.”
Before the woman can speak a word, Gillion turns and walks towards his friends.
“Oh! Perfect timing, Gillion!” Chip says as Gillion approaches. He says this as if they had been talking about something of importance previously, but they were simply talking to each other about how strange this whole situation was. Well, Jay and John were talking. Chip was devising a special task for Gillion. “We were just talking about how we completely forgot to properly greet Old Man Earl!”
Jay and John both look over at Chip with a puzzled stare. Chip just smiles and nods, implying that they should go along with what he’s saying. “Well, you see how he’s bald, right? He doesn’t have any hair.”
“He has one hair. On the top of his head. I checked.” Gillion stares blankly at Chip and Chip’s smile drops.
“Wha- What, how do you… Okay, not important.” Chip shakes his head and finds his words before continuing. “He has basically no hair. Well, you don’t know this, but it’s a great honor– a sign of respect– to just slap the top of a bald person’s head.” At the word ‘slap’, Chip claps his hands together to make a slapping sound.
“What? No, it-” John tried to correct Chip, but Chip puts a finger to John’s mouth and smiles. “John, it’s a- It’s a pirate thing, you wouldn’t really know because you’re from the Navy. Neither would you, Jay. But promise, it’s a pirate thing.”
Gillion’s eyes narrow at Chip and then at Jay and then at John before going back to Chip again. Both Jay and John look confused. Jay can tell that Chip is absolutely lying. Not only has she spent ages studying pirates– especially him– but she also can tell from his tone that he’s just trying to trick Gillion. John, however, is not as bright as Jay.
John was starting to believe Chip.
“So, it’s a sign of respect to slap some bald guy over the head? Just ‘cause he’s bald?” John asks.
Chip smiles and nods. “Absolutely.”
“Hey, Chip… Hey- Uh, Chip? What- What are you doing?” Jay asks with a nervous tang to her voice. She wasn’t really nervous of the consequences as she knew that she had definitely seen worse than whatever is about to happen, she was more concerned with how well this lie was working with two people that she’s supposed to be part of a crew with.
“Jay. Listen, just- Just let me have this. Let me have this, Jay.” He whispered back to her and then held his finger to his lips.
Gillion and John both looked at each other for a moment before nodding. Gillion turned to the door to the inn.
“Get in line.” He clapped his hands together and they made a slight squelching sound from the wetness of his hands. “I’m first.”
“Of course, of course. You first, Gillion.” John ushered for Gillion to move in front of him. “I can’t believe we waited this long to do this. I hope he ain’t mad at us or nothin’.”
Chip stifled a laugh. “Oh, I’m sure he’s not mad. He’ll just be happy that you guys finally paid respects to his shiny bald head.”
Right after Chip ended his sentence, Gillion threw open the door to the inn. Chip’s eyes seemed to twinkle as they widened along with his smile. “Ohh, boy…” He whispered to himself.
The crew looked on in awe at the men in the room. Gillion’s jaw dropped and John rubbed his hands together as they scanned the room. Almost every single chair from the tables in the center of the room to the seats by the bar were filled with people. All of these people had one specific thing in common that might not be of any importance to anyone else, but was an incredibly noticeable trait to Jay, Chip, and especially Gillion, and John.
