Yulippe Island Arc - One Piece RP (II)

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Still clinging to life the day retained it's light, the sun having not yet begun to set, though it was early evening. The taste and smell of salt lingered in the air, a permanent accompaniment to the gentle sound of the ocean's waves. The occasional presence of gull or two and their accompanying wing flaps would only serve to complete the picturesque view.

Shiori sat with her legs dangling over the rail-edge of the fishing boat, her bright green eyes hidden behind her eyelids. The tawny haired captain found herself breathing in deeply as she took in the atmosphere of the ocean around her with her other senses. The scents of the ocean were those she had come to associate with a sense of freedom, and with their constant presence since they had left Carat Isle two days ago, Shiori felt content.

A sharp tug on the rod she clutched in her hands brought Shiori back to reality, her eyes flying open as a broad grin spread across her face and she hopped to her feet. Despite the dangers, Shiori managed to balance quite skillfully on the rails, as if she'd done it a thousand times before.

"Oi Caim! I think I finally caught something!" she grinned, "I bet it's gonna be massive and it'll kick the asses of all the fish you've managed to catch!" she laughed, tugging back on her line and hopping off of the rails and onto the deck so that she had a larger surface area to brace her feet against.

The afternoon-to-evening fishing competition had been Shiori's idea, since the fishing boat they'd 'recycled' had happened to have a few spare rods on board. However the odds were not in her favour so far, as she'd managed to fish up exactly nothing. It wasn't much of a surprise that she was beginning to get bored of reeling in an empty hook, but each new tug on her line seemed to bring new hope that she might finally catch something.

Shiori just grinned and moved to follow their new friend as he lead the way towards his house. She chuckled to herself when Caim referenced their fishing contest from yesterday evening.
"I thought we agreed you were the expert fisherman of our crew for now anyways?" she replied with her trademark smile, glancing back at Caim briefly before turning her light green gaze back to Hayes as she remembered the fruit she had bought earlier.

"Oh! Have you ever cooked anything with a dragon fruit?" she asked the cook, holding up the bag as if to demonstrate that she'd bought one earlier, "I got one cause i've never seen one before but I don't know what it tastes like..."

At Caim's comment about catching their lunch, Hayes thought back to the large freezer that was implemented in his house when he was thirteen. Do I still have any Rainbow Halibut left in it? I think I do. Oh well, if I don't, I know I have something similar if need be.. He looked back at Caim. "I don't think we'll need to do any fishing for my ingredients, anyways. You couldn't find the right one in our streams or nearby waters anyways."

"Dragon Fruit, eh?" He replied, shifting his icy blue stare at Shiori. "I have a few deserts I can make with that. I could make a smoothie using that and some mango. Depends on if I have enough ingredients or not." Hayes pushed some brown strands of hair out of his eyes, seeing the edge of his farm a few meters away. "We're almost there, so I can check soon!" His thoughts turned back towards more meals he could make with it.

"Good to know then... either way, this should be interesting, and yes Shiori, since you literally could only catch the smallest fish in existence" Caim chuckled, shrugging somewhat. He continued to follow the two, but he kept a wary eye open, unlike the Captain he wasn't so trusting... this could easily just be a Marine trap of some form.

"A tiny fish is better than nothing!" she replied positively.

"That sounds super tasty," Shiori replied, not stopping as she followed Hayes towards his house but losing herself in her imagination as she wondered what the smoothie might look like. Mangos were yellow, but this dragon fruit was pink, at least on the outside. Would that make the smoothie orangey-pink? Would it taste sweet or sour? What did dragon fruit actually taste like on it's own?

Hayes almost burst out with laughter when Caim mentioned Shiori's catch. "The smallest fish in existence?!" He asked, barely stifling his snickering, his blue eyes tearing up from trying to keep it in. "Was that the only one she caught? And how many did you catch? And how big?" The young man started burying the older gentleman with questions.

Soon after calming down from his silent laughing fit, hearing Shiori ponder about the taste of the smoothie, ready to talk about food, besides fish. "It's really more of a mango smoothie, if you went by the taste. Dragon Fruits usually don't have much of a taste, and only a bit of mango would be able to overpower it. But I've found ways to enhance the flavor of only one ingredient if needed, or wanted."

He thought back, again, to his immeasurable stock of food and spices, which had somehow been devoid of cinnamon. He also needed to prepare the cinnamon coffee cakes for the party tonight, but that wouldn't take too long. He could use the company of someone other than his parents, and he didn't have anything else to do, anyways. Maybe he could convince them to stay for dinner.

A few moments later, they arrived at the entrance to his large, tan-colored home. Or, at least large compared to most of the other houses on the island. Three stories tall excluding the cellar and attic, and about 15x16 ft, it was pretty sizable. It also happened to be the main building on a large area of farmland. It was 10 acres long and about 15 acres going across the fields. "Here we are! Make yourselves at home, and leave your footwear at the door." Hayes said politely, running his hand through his coffee-colored hair embarrassed. A few seconds passed before he said sheepishly, "I don't remember if I mentioned it earlier, but I live with my parents."

"Let's put it this way, she'd caught a fish that wasn't even an inch in size, as for what I'd caught, it's back in the hold of our ship, a fishing Vessel. And yes, That was the only one Shiori caught" Caim commented, in no way lying, every word that he spoke was the complete truth. Paying attention to the size of the structure when they arrived, it was definitely bigger than he had expected.

At the mention of him living with his parents, Caim was already starting to regret the choice, if they were found, innocent people would be in harms way. "Understood" Caim commented, waiting for his captain to make the first move.

(Pirate time?)

Shiori just continued to wander along, imagining what a dragon fruit might taste like and letting Caim explain about her tiny fish and the larger fish that he'd managed to catch.

As they approached the house, Shiori glanced around wondering just what they grew on the farmland that seemed to surround the house. She blinked as Hayes asked her to leave her footwear at the door, pausing for a moment before unlacing her grey combat boots a little reluctantly. Kicking someone directly was always more effective when you were wearing shoes, but she figured that she didn't plan on getting in a fight for the next few hours anyway and it wasn't a huge deal to fight without them as long as she properly utilised her fishman techniques.

The tawny haired captain didn't seem to care that Hayes lived with his parents, completely ignoring the fact. However, as she glanced over to Caim she noted his odd expression to ask about later, not entirely sure of the helmsman's train of thought.
As she removed the shoes from her feet she glanced at the soles before turning her green gaze to the cook and holding up one of her shoes. The soles were riddled with slash marks from where she had fought the marines carrying swords back on Carat Isle, and to be honest she'd rather have these shoes repaired than get new ones.

"Hey, Hayes?" she asked, "Do you know anywhere I can get shoes repaired on this island?"

"Shoes? I think there's a shoe maker who is pretty good at repairing shoes in town. I've never been to the place, so I may be wrong. Never had any need to." Hayes replied to the girl as he walked over to the dining room. "Make yourselves at home. The stew should take about thirty minutes. If I had more time, I could probably marinate the fish a bit better." The chocolate haired man started mumbling to himself about multiple different cooking terms that would make no sense to someone who didn't cook for their entire lives. As he got lost in thought he entered the kitchen, donning his pink apron which he loved so much.

Seeing how the situation with the shoes had sorted itself out well enough, Caim followed suite and removed his shoes, after which he quietly walked inside. "Affirmative" Caim spoke when Hayes said to make themselves at home, naturally he was just going to sit down and read... He'd purchased that book for a reason, for moments of downtime like this. "Take a seat Captain..." Caim spoke, he still was somewhat concerned about what could possibly happen, that innocents could come to harm.

Shiori nodded at Hayes' advice and made a mental note to try and find one of these shoemakers later. It would definitely be wise to get her footwear repaired before they left the island just in case they ran into any unexpected company on the seas of South Blue.

Tossing both of her shoes out of the way, near to where Hayes had put his own, Shiori followed him into the dining room and took a seat, flashing a small grin at Caim as he called her Captain. It was almost weird to know that she really was a captain of a crew now.

As Caim turned his attention to his book, the tawny haired captain laid her green gaze on Hayes.
"So.. how come you don't like pirates?" Shiori asked suddenly, remembering the conversation the cook had had with the fishmonger. The fish salesman himself had fainted at the mere mention of pirates, and Hayes had already incorrectly assumed that she was 'too nice' to be one. The captain of the Chime Pirates supposed that it wasn't really an uncommon reaction to the concept of piracy, but at the same time it made her curious.

Hayes was pulled right out of his thoughts, like a fish on a hook. Captain? Maybe he's talking about some other type of captain. I could of heard it wrong, too. The blue eyed man looked back at the two. He turned away for a moment to get some spices from the cabinet. He bent down to get a pot when Shiori asked about his dislike for pirates.

The young man got up, filling the pot with water as he looked back at the woman. "It's a long story. If you want, I can tell you it after I finish cooking." Hayes said calmly, looking away as tears started to form in the corners of his eyes. "But it's a pretty tragic one." He went and grabbed the fish he needed for the stew, and started to marinate it in his special blend of spices.

Caim quietly focused upon his book, studying the words and everything images carefully, he was intent on learning as much as he could in the half an hour or so he had... going off of Hayes's prediction at least. "Pretty tragic... I guess it'd have to be to some form of loss, logically speaking of course" Caim muttered under his breath... More chaos... brilliant. "To be honest, you don't have to tell us if you don't wish, considering how you said it was tragic, I presume it's personal..." Caim spoke towards Hayes, looking up from his book for a moment.

Shiori shrugged, seemingly satisfied with Caim's deduction based on Hayes's words.
"Yea, you don't have to tell us. I mean we're strangers to you," she reiterated the helmsman's words, her eyes lingering on the different spices that the cook was putting into the meal. She wondered silently just how many herbs there were in the world and quietly amazed at the different tastes that each could bring out of different foods.

Whilst Hayes was cooking and Caim was reading, Shiori opted to turn her attention to her journal. She didn't want the atmosphere to become awkward by Hayes revealing so much about himself, especially when it was clear that he had a reason not to like pirates and they were already hiding their true nature from him. So instead she flicked to the last few pages of her book and continued doodling as she had the previous evening, focusing half her attention on asking Hayes any questions that came to mind and half on her drawings.

"So how did you become such a great cook?" she asked him, referring back to the title he had given himself. They had yet to taste his cooking for themselves, but she figured at least that he would have some reason to make that claim about himself.

ooc// Btw suds if u want/need to timeskip just do it u don't need to ask rlly since ur kinda in control of the situation at this point.

Hayes stopped putting the different herbs and spices on the fish as the other two claimed he didn't need to tell them about his past. He started on the broth of the meal when Shiori had asked her question. The teen looked down at the pot, contemplating on how he should phrase it. He could say something without giving away that tragedy, but he didn't know if it would be enough. In the end, he decided to just go with the simplest part. "It's not all that interesting, really. It's just like how most people obtain their skills. A lot of practice. I've been cooking since I was ten, so that would be around seven years of practice, some of it at an early age." He hoped that would be enough for them, and continued with his cooking.

Twenty-five minutes later, he had called down his parents for lunch, saying he brought guests. He poured five bowls of the stew, adding spoons to each one. He set the table, getting napkins for everyone. "Enjoy." His ice blue eyes sparkled at his guests, hoping they liked it, and started to eat.

"That's the best way to learn, taking you time and training, if you rush or try to bypass the process, you will only cause more issues for yourself" Caim spoke as he looked up from his book momentarily. He understood this well, he had to train and learn much to achieve where he was, at least qualification wise and skill wise with his blade.

When he put down the food on the table and said for him to enjoy, Caim quietly got up and put his book away. Looking towards his Captain, he motioned for her to go first, he understood good manners after all.