Tying up and bringing in the foolish five hunters, The crew reconveines with Gaimon on the island's beach. Gaimon is so touched by the strength and valiance of the crew, he is waterfalling tears. "Thank you... so very much..." Then, a loud MOOOOO! is heard, coming from the still partially detained Sea Cow. Russ looks over and grins, runs up and unties the ropes. "Alrighty, Mohmoo! Go! Swim!"

The sea cow, with a moo of happiness, goes out to sea. Hearing the moo, the other animals of the forest come and gather around Gaimon, and some of the more... carnivorous ones look at the now quite scared hunters hungrily.

Russ then looks over at the other side of the beach, where the Hunter's ship still sits. Glancing at Otter, he says, "Hey, Otter! You still want to take that one? If you ask me... I'd rather take one that doesn't look like a dying whale." Looking at the other crewmembers, he says, "How about you guys?"

Otter shrugs.

"We can still take it, and then sell it to outfit our own ship. Sure it's a whale, but the cages and stuff'll be worth some cash."

OOC: Partly to bump and keep this up, and partly as a reminder, as I said in my other threads, post coming on saturday. if you have anything to add, say it.

OOC: Alright, I'm sensing everyone is losing interest in this game. We're going to end this little story arc and move onward here.

Russ ponders Otter's opinion for a moment, and then grins. "You've got a point. I mean, we need a ship that'll cross the grand line, and to get that, we'll need as much money as we can get. We'll take it to the Shipyards Tegoro is from, scrap it for cash and get the best ship we can!"

And so, Canto's crew boarded the gangly ship after tieing their small boats to the back, sailing off with Richard guiding them. As they sailed off, Gaimon and his strange friends waved farewell, for as long as the monstrosity of a ship was visible.

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Once the ship disappeared from his sight, Gaimon turned his attention to the now stranded and captured poachers, a big grin on his face. "Now... what should I do with you?" Pondering and occasionally kicking sand in their faces for several hours, Gaimon cnsidered options. However, after some time passed with no real ideas popping into his head, a ship, not too much larger than a Caravel, landed, and 10 people stepped off. As these shadowy new visitors appeared, the faces of the poachers transformed into images of pure fear, and Gaimon's jaw dropped in shock, shouting on the word "YOU!!!"

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Several days passed on the sea. During that time, Canto's crew talked and Tegoro helped draw up plans for what would be a good ship. (OOC: I'm gonna RP Tegoro a bit since Syggy is AWOL.) Looking at the crew members, Tegoro asked, "So, what kind of things do we want our ship to have? There's alot of planning involved in making a good ship, you know."

(OOC: not that I actually know anything about boats...)

"A fishing station! Can't you see it?" Canto shouts, his eyes looking off into his dreams. "Padded rotating chair, with seat belt of course, interchangeable hooks, maybe even an automatic bait changer. Basic hook end, and harpoon launcher for the really big'uns. Ahhh, the wonders of the sea are best appreciated on the dinner table, my friends."

Tori flops her arm over Canto and agrees, "That's mah kinda man! He cacthes the fishys, I cook em up! And then we feast. I will require a kitchen of no less than an entire cargo hold in size, with twice the space in storage for the meats, veggies and fruits, cause nobody is getting scury on my watch! HA HA HA!!! Dem bones..."

Otter shakes his head.

"NO! We need a small fast boat. We're pirates. Sure, we need a good sized hold for the loot, but when we're chasing after someone, we need the speed! And cannons. Cannons are good."

"Hold on there. Much money as we have, funds ARE limited. We're going to need to compromise on some things here. Canto, I think we can swing a belay hook, but you'll probably end up standing. I think a harpoon gun would be a good investment, for both fish and offense, along with a heavy harpoon with a good chain on it for boarding. I think I can make you a tackle box into one of the rails, too, so that should be good there." Tegoro starts, "Now, Tori I don't think we can get anything that big without a floating island, not that that's a bad idea, but it's a bit much for our budget. We don't have time to build our own, so we'll just play it by ear on the kitchen and cargo hold, but a big cargo hold is a must. The kitchen has to be at least moderately well equipped, but nothing too extreme. Cannons are good, but expensive; we should go for one starboard, one port, one fore and one aft, at least. Anything else?"

Richard stares out at the sea from a good seven feet from the rail, still convinced that any minute now a ship will appear on the horizon or some big fish will rise from the depths. At first his watch for inevitable doom was extremely vigilant, but over the days he'd relaxed a bit... although not by much. In fact, at the moment, he's just barely paying attention to the conversation going on behind him.

"Yeah. Cannons. Good thing, cannons. Fast boats better. Easier to ru... GAH!" Richard jumps back, pulls free his rifle, and then charges to the rail and starts firing into the water. "GWAAAAAAAHHHHHIMTOOYOUNGTODIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEoh its just a fish." He relaxes and steps away from the rail again, not even the least bit embaressed about his sudden outburst. "Um, yeah, something about cannons, right?"

Besro smiles. "That all sounds great. And i could make the cannons even better! That reminds me. do you think the ship would be tough enough to survive, oh, i dunno, accidental explosions of gunpowder if i were to have a lab to work in?"

Russ grins. "And I would like a decently sized deck for training purposes. Not too big, but wide enough that I can actually keep up with my training. Your suggestions are good, Tegoro, but I think we could fit something like a fishing seat on the ship... after all, every ship needs a figurehead, right? Heck, as I recall hearing, the Pirate King Luffy used his ship's figurehead as a seat all the time."

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OOC: If you want more discussion, we can do some Retro RPing, but for now, I think I'ma gonna advance the "plot."

Eventually, the ship reaches the famous (OOC: Pulling a name out of my ass here) Funejima Shipyards of East Blue, home of some of the best Shipwrights in all of the Eastern Sea, including TEgoro.

So why is it so empty?

Indeed, there is not a ship to be seen in the shipyards, and the famous shipwrights are only sitting around, tired and depressed. Eventually, they see the incoming monstrosity of a vessel... and Run for cover, screaming "OH MY GOD THEY'RE BACK! QUICK! RUN AWAY! THEY'VE RETURNED TO TORTURE US SOME MORE!!!!" This continues for several minutes, until the ship finally gets close enough for one of the shipwrights to see a familiar hulking figure. "Hey! It's Tegoro-aniki! Guys! Tegoro's back!"

As the ship docks and the Canto crew unloads, several shipwrights run up, cheerful to see the large Tegoro, but also with a look of anxiousness and worry in their eyes. "TEGORO-SAN! TEGORO-SAN! IT'S TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE!"

OOC: You can make names for these NPCs if you like, Syg.

"First thing." Tegoro yells as he swings down from the ship and ties it off on the dock, "Calm down. Wayne, what's going on here? What happened to all the ships?" he says, adressing one of them.

OOC: Also drawing names out of my posterior, so excuse any crappiness.

Richard is practically dancing on air at this point, positively delighted that whatever happened here happened before they arrived. In fact, judging from an actual victory in their last battle, followed by no problems at sea and now their arriving late for a tragedy, it seems his luck may have finally taken a turn for the better. He suddenly freezes at this point, and then takes several steps back towards the ship. Trusting luck is something he learned long ago not to do, and judging from the past, when it turns bad again, it'll mean whoever attacked this island returning.

"Ummm... does anyone else this we should be leaving now?"