267/A Pirate and a Mermaid

A Pirate and a Mermaid
Date of Scene:	20 August 2023
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Coco catches up with Jolly Roger late into the night.
Cast of Characters:	Erika Shimizu, Coco Kiumi

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Erika Shimizu has posed:
    It's a bit late, but that never stops thins in Tokyo. The city almost never sleeps, especially when youma could rear their ugly heads at any time day or night. Leave it to the local Magical Girl populace to be a little sleepless.
    One such magical girl is taking a break though; plopped down in a bench under the bright light of a street light. It's a little out in the open, but as far as she can tell no one is around, and the light of the street lamp keeps the moonlight away.
    Jolly Roger sits with one leg crossed over the other, whistling a merry tune to herself as she takes some time to just... Kind of recover from the previous day's chaos. She can't sense any treasure-bearing youma out and about tonight, anyway.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco had brought Hannah to the safety of her dorm room, the dark hours offering protection from prying eyes since almost everyone was asleep. The girl was going to recover from the attempted assassination well, but for extra safety Coco had sung an extra round of Legend of Mermaid to facilitate her recovery.

Now Coco was out, having left the noble in the care of her roommate Ami. She wasn't really in the mood to sleep, the thoughts about who could want to assassinate Hannah swirling in her mind. She is so distracted she hasn't even bothered untransforming, the silence of the night offering an opportune moment for her chaotic thoughts.

She is easily brought back to Earth once a tune breaks through the air, distracting her from her questions. 'Who else is here?', Coco thinks gazing forward. The light of a lamp gives an easy answer to the mermaid, revealing the pirate girl. "Oh, Jolly Roger", she calls out plainly, remembering the name of her newest albeit reluctant ally. "You can't sleep either?" she says, sitting down on the bench next to her.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    "Hmmmm?" The sound of a somewhat familiar voice calling out to her makes the pirate's head tilt to a slight angle, brow cocking inquisitively as she turns her head to the source of the voice.
    "Oho, and look who it be." She murmurs, foot kicking lazily at the air as she drums her fingers on the back of the bench.
    "Small world, innit?" She says before her lips tug into a smirk, when Coco joins her on the bench.
    "I can sleep when I'm dead."
    Well. That's not saying much considering... Things.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Then now would be a perfect time to sleep, wouldn't it?" the mermaid quips, not really sure about how to act around Erika. She looks up at the twinkling stars of the night sky, still visible despite the light pollution of the city. "That was rather chaotic, wasn't it?" she says, still distraught about the attempted assassination on Hannah's life.

"I wouldn't have thought someone could want to kill her", Coco says fixing her gaze down. She takes a breath before addressing the subject that Jolly Roger reminds her of.

"But you could easily shrug off things like that, right?", she adds, turning her gaze down towards the pirate. "I saw how you look under the moonlight. You aren't human, you are dead. And yet, you walk and I assume you eat and drink too."

The statement comes out of Coco's mouth as if she was hurling a weight out, the revelation from under the moonlight still in her mind ever since the aquarium.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    Thankfully the light of the street lamp has the pirate looking fairly normal. But there's no denying what Coco saw that night, is there?
TNo, no there isn't.
    "Ye'd best bet if that was a targeted attack there'll be more. That girl ain't safe just because we fought off that one monster freak." She points out. "There'll be more where that one came from, I tell ye."R    But then she purses her lips briefly.
    Slowly, Jolly Roger reaches into her greatcoat and pulls out... A bottle of cola. Thumbing off the cap she passes it over Coco's way.
    "Oh no, I'm very much human." She says. "At least I'm pretty sure I'm human, still." Murmured before she taps herself on the chest where the chainsaw-axe tore into her. She looks pretty fully recovered by now, though, at least. "But aye. Dead, undead. Whatever ye wanna call it. The moonlight reveals me for what I truly am. Ye'd best start believing in ghost stories, Miss... Yer in one."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco nods at Jolly's remark about Hannah's situation. "I am going to have her chased by some of my otters at all time", Coco remarks as explanation of her plans. "I have no intention of leaving her in the open like that", she grimaces, remembering the maid robot almost succeeding in choking her friend. She holds her shell locket, absentmindendly thinking out loud. "Maybe I could try one of my otters carry a speaker. My powers lie in my voice, so I don't really need to be present with the technology up here."

When the pirate girl brings out the cola, Coco gets agitated and embarrassed. 'Huh? What now? I can't tell her sodas would get me drunk, no way she would believe me.' She gives a nervous smile to the pirate and says "Sorry, I'm... uhm... allergic to sodas, I can't drink that." She really hopes Jolly Roger isn't going to insist.

"I have heard reliable stories of ghosts in my career", she says. Less stories of ghosts she heard, and more accounts kept in her kingdom about magical beings of the past that died and stuck around. "So, I have no issue in believing you. You are the first one that is solid, though." she specifies. "How old are you then? Are you an actual pirate from the 17th century?"

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    A slow nod and Jolly Roger sits back a bit. Though she does quirk a brow when Coco says she can't drink the soda, the pirate shrugs.
    "Suit yerself." She says before taking a sip for herself. "As fer yer friend, it'd be best to keep an eye on her, aye." She does agree. "In my case, if she really be a noble like that youma said... Well." She smirks. "I could always use a good Letter of Marque."
    But then she snorts. "Ye really take me for that old, lass?" She chuckles, shaking her head. "I just turned twelve!" She answers after a beat. "I be cursed, nay ancient!" She points out before knocking back the cola bottle to start chugging.
    This lasts for a moment before she pauses.
    "I have me own problems on my hands. But if somethin' happens again and I'm around, I'll keep a weather eye out, savvy?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco doesn't like when Erika mentions the Letter of Marque. "Legitimate piracy isn't any better than an illegitimate one", she snorts. "We had a similar problem, 300 years ago or the likes: Aqua Regina had to use the vast majority of her power to seal away the magical people warmongering in our territories." Her contempt about piracy causes her to slip more than she intended.

The remark about the pirate being 12 years old catches Coco by surprise. "Oh, well, sorry for presuming wrongly", she says, sincerely, taking a brief stop from the nervosism. "Why are you so fixated on being a pirate then, if you didn't grow up with past... well, customs?" she resumes. The comment about being cursed similarly requires additional explanation to her. "How did you get cursed? Have you tried seeing if someone could dispel it?"

"Thank you for doing that, Jolly", Coco says, that offer starting to put doubts in her opinion of the pirate.

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    Legitimate piracy is way better than illegitimate. At least Jolly Roger seems to think so when she sticks her tongue out. But that's not what's important here. She narrows her eyes.
    "Three hundred years ago, ye say?" She asks. Though she doesn't press TOO hard on the matter, that's when something glittering and golden gleams in Jolly Roger's fingers as she flips a single Spanish doubloon from knuckle to knuckle.
    "I took from the Captain's Share of treasure on a haunted ship. And cursed I was to join the crew." She explains. "The only way to lift the curse is to re-gather every last coin now and return 'em whence they came. Only then will I be free of this." Jolly Roger explains.
    "Only thing is. Now the coins be showin' up here in Tokyo in the form of monsters."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco shrugs when Jolly Roger remarks the date. "Or the likes", she repeats, not wanting to give the other girl the wrong idea. "Aqua Regina isn't really about to write an autobiography, so we only have second-hand accounts of the event. It could have been earlier, it could have have later."

Coco puts two and two together once she mentions the coins showing up as monsters. "So, that's the reason behind you taking the money for yourself at the aquarium. You want to go to normal, not become rich", Coco says, realising she may have somewhat misjudged the other girl and Cho was right. "I think I owe you some apologies. You showed up when Hannah needed it despite you gaining nothing out of it, or even knowing her. I was greatly mistaken about you, and I hope you can forgive me for my rude assertions", she says, leaving the matter of the Letter of Marque aside, since Jolly couldn't have known she was a noble then. 'And I hope she doesn't start pestering me about it, if she finds out I am a princess', she adds in her thoughts, vastly preferring to avoid the annoyance.

"What are you going to do once you have gathered the treasure and lifted the curse? Are you going to leave Tokyo?" the mermaid asks, thinking about the abilities she demonstrated at the fights. "If you choose to stick around, you would be a great help."

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    "Aha." Oh so it was secondhand reading, that makes a lot more sense and dispels some lingering thoughts. And once again the pirate takes a swig of her cola.
    "Aye, that be the right of it." She replies after a beat, pausing to glance down at the half-empty bottle in her grasp, before she up-ends it and rapidly chugs down the last of the pop.
    Taking the time to make a baskeball throw, she chucks the bottle into a nearby trash can with a ~clink~.
    "I don't wanna spend the rest of my days like..." She motions herself. "This."
    "I wanna live wild and free, and without the anchor of a dead man's curse hanging on my like an albatross around my neck."
    But then she settles back down a little bit...
    "Apology accepted." She decides before folding her hands behind her head. "I was born an' raised here in Tokyo." She does add. "I'll likely stay, once this be lifted off me shoulders."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"I understand the desire to want to be free, and in your case it's much worse, since your prison isn't one you can't simply escape from", she says trying to sound sympathetic, going back up to glancing at the night sky, keeping some memories far away.

"Is the curse really uncomfortable?", Coco asks uncertainly, not sure if she was overstepping but on the other hand it being a good occasion to give the pirate something more concrete a sign of her apologies. "I am not able to dispel it, but I can probably allievate the discomfort for a time", she explains.

Coco nods as the pirate mentions her intentions to stay. "You must know this place a lot. I have just barely gotten used to Tokyo, after a transfer here a few months ago." She smiles as she thinks of everyone she met and got helped by ever since she got here. "I really like the school here. My classmates are really friendly. I hope we will get to spend a festival together while we are both here."

Erika Shimizu has posed:
    "Prison is one way to put it." Jolly Roger replies, staring down at her hands thoughtfully. "And it certainly ain't the most comfortable of feelings." She replies on the topic of her curse, before she frowns.
    "My parents travel a lot. I get dragged with 'em often. I finally managed to convince them to settle back down at least for a little bit. They think it's so I can start up school again, but it's really 'cause I wanna find that treasure and be rid of this. ... But that don't mean I can't enjoy it while I can, eh? ... Maybe I'll see one of those festivals." She mutters before green eyes fall closed.
    "Sing me a song. A song of the sea..."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
And so Coco sings, a melody of the roaring sea, with feelings that overwhelm your heart, but messages drawn with stardust await to be gathered, an exhortation to engrave them in one's heart.

The magical notes talk of a splash dream, that turns even the raging wind in a chorus of blessings: leaving one's tears to the sea, the love that surrounds the seven seas becomes visible.

https://youtu.be/s7CEmqAZxV8