Prologue
An Odd Farewell
Hissssssssssssssssssss
"Gooooooood." The machine wrapped around the inside of the small hut continued to hiss and thrum, steam occasionally bursting forth from some of the large pipes. Some parts jiggled and rumbled as their gears clicked and clacked through their processes, and other parts bubbled as liquid boiled inside. Standing in the middle of the room was a teenage girl, alternating between observing the machinery and sketching notes away on a clipboard.
She looked to be about sixteen years old, slender with smooth, healthy skin. Her black hair was tied in a short, high ponytail, and she was wearing a blue spaghetti strap top, a pair of black shorts with black suspender straps sliding over her shoulders, and a pair of black boots. She was very beautiful, although there were two things that might set some to give her a strange look. The first was that her right eye was covered by a black eye-patch with a grinning jack-o-lantern stitched into it, and the second, which was probably the most noticeable, was her arm. Where her right arm should have been was a menacing mechanical arm instead. It looked like something straight from a horror story, scary in its entirety with specialized knives made to look like talons instead of fingers.
The girl quickly turned her head and rushed over to a certain part of the machine as it began to rumble. For a moment she just stared with intense concentration as the rumbling increased.
'Come on…Come on…'
She continued to stare until finally the machine stopped shaking, going completely still. There was a moment of pure silence in the hut. Finally, after about ten second of waiting, the machine hissed letting out a large amount of steam, and causing a long stream of dark liquid to pour into a waiting cup below.
"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" The girl laughed maniacally while striking a triumphant pose. "At last! My "Make the best Hot Cocoa in the World" machine is complete!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!"
Suddenly, the entire hut began to rumble. The machine began producing large amounts of steam. Leaks broke out in the pipes. The girl began looking quickly around.
"Oh, No. Nononononononononononono!" she quickly ran over to a desk, opened the drawer, and, after a second of rummaging, pulled out about six different colors of duct tape, some nails, planks, and a hammer. She began rushing around the hut in a panic trying to patch up all the leaks as quickly as possible.
"Come on, come on, come on, come on…" The machine began to increase in rumbling until, finally, the entire machine let off an extremely bright white light.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" The girl covered her head.
In a not too far away village, all the citizens were busily going about their work, tending the crops, doing the laundry, and all the things that small towns do. The buildings of the town were mainly colored black, purple, blue, and other dark colors as an orange sky hung overhead.
"Ah, another beautiful day." said a man standing up from tending the garden before whipping the sweat from his brow. He was youthful looking man with scruffy copper hair, and a simple outfit.
"Kitsubu-san!" The man turned his head to see a man with black hair approaching him with a donkey-pulled cart plodding along beside him.
"Ah, Tezuka-san. Good afternoon."
"Good afternoon to you too." said the man smiling. "So, is that daughter of yours ready for her big day?" The copper haired man smiled nervously, and started rubbing the back of his head.
"Weeeeeell…" An enormous explosion sounded off in the not too distant background. "She may need a liiiiiiittle more time."
The black haired man sweat-dropped.
A distance away, in place of where the hut had once been, lied a pile of charred wood, and scorched metal. All was silent around it. A small squirrel came over to investigate the pile right before a metal arm thrust up through the wreckage startling it and causing it to flee. The arm bent down, pressing on the wreckage, before the rest of the girl's body emerged.
"Owowowowowow…" she muttered to herself rubbing her head. "You know, it'd be nice if, just for once, one of my inventions decided to just stop working instead of simply having to explode."
"Jacklyn!" The girl turned her head towards a woman with long black hair that was jogging towards her.
"Hi, Mom!" said Jacklyn waving.
"Another explosion?" asked the woman smirking slightly as she slowed to a stop.
"What do you mean another?" asked Jacklyn, pouting slightly. "I haven't had that many."
"No, no. Just six in the last two weeks. I hear that's quite normal for arsonists."
"Who are you calling an arsonist?!" yelled Jacklyn, waving her arms in frustration.
"Now, is that really any way to act on my big girl's special day?" Jacklyn stopped her angry waving to pause for a second before smiling brightly.
"You're right! It is today!"
"Oh, why? Oh, why did I get such an absent minded daughter?" asked the mother overdramatically.
"Who are you calling absent minded?!" yelled Jacklyn, once again waving her arms angrily.
The entire town was dressed in their finest clothing, which to anyone not from this particular island, might have been viewed as clothing for a very interesting funeral. The town's people were divided on either side of a large black arc, with a large, round man in a black tuxedo with a ridiculously tall top hat standing in the middle. Organ music started to play from somewhere in the town. Every one turned to the end of the tunnel of people, away from the arc, to stare in anticipation. A moment after the music started, Jacklyn appeared in a gothic style wedding dress that mixed shades of black and purple with dark blue flowers above the veil. She began to slowly walk down the aisle of people in town square in time to the music.
All the towns people were either crying hysterically, or shouting wishes of good luck and much prosperity. Some old ladies began throwing rice as Jacklyn just kept still behind her veil. She finally reached the end of the aisle. The large man smiled before he took out a book, and began reading.
"Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today to…"
"I OBJECT!!!" Everyone turned to stare as a copper haired man ran down the aisle towards the arc.
"I object to this union! I haven't approved any marriage! I don't even know who the groom is!"
"It's not a wedding, dear."
"Huh?" The town's people began to talk amongst themselves.
"No dear." said Jacklyn's mother walking up to her husband.
"Then what in the name of pumpkin pie is going on here?!"
"It's her send-off ceremony." said the mother, turning towards her daughter. "Our little girl is becoming a pirate."
"Oh, of course. I knew that." said the dad nodding. "But why is she wearing a wedding dress? And why does this seem exactly like a wedding?!"
"I've been wondering that myself." said Jacklyn flipping back her veil.
"Weeeell…" The mother began nervously scratching her nose.
"You see, deary," said an old lady from the crowd. "The one event that the entire town has been looking for ever since you came of age was the day that you would get married. We didn't know to whom exactly, but we knew it would happen eventually." Jacklyn nodded.
"Then you decided to go off, and become a pirate." said another old lady. "Naturally this put a bit of a damper on our plans. I mean, what if something happened to you while you were out at sea? Or what if you meet some boy, and felt so passionately about him that you couldn't wait until you came home? We had to take precautions."
"So, the village decided that, since we were going to have a going away party for you anyway, we'd do it in a wedding style so that we'd all get to see it." said the mom.
"…Seriously?" asked Jacklyn with a cocked eyebrow.
"Unless, of course, you'd like to quickly pick a groom, and get hitched for real." said the first old lady.
"Oh, pick me! Pick me!" said one boy in the crowd.
"No, pick me!" said another. Jacklyn sighed as various boys in the crowd began jostling for her attention.
"Can we just get on with it?" she asked looking pleadingly at the man in the extremely tall top hat.
"Of course." said the man as he opened up his book again. "Dearly beloved. Friends, family, and town's people. We are gathered here today to celebrate, and mourn, the departure of our very own Jacklyn Kitsubu as she embarks on her journey into the world of piracy." Several people in the crows started tearing up.
"She will be severely missed, but we know that one day she will return to us as one of the greatest pirate who ever lived." The man smiled at Jacklyn, who smiled back.
"Now, as we prepare to say our good-byes, let's take a moment to appreciate all the wonderful things she's done for the village, most noticeably our town's pride and joy, The Twilight Generator." The mayor turned around to indicate a large, very tall black machine sitting in the middle of town square. It looked rigid, and gothic in style with two large mirrored panels on top and orange light leaking out from several separations in the metal plating. The mayor turned back around smiling.
"Yes, the Twilight Generator. And it only took her seventeen models, forty-seven explosions, and numerous bandages to get it right." Everyone in the crowd started snickering.
"Hey! That generator is an essential part of the town!" yelled Jacklyn.
"Oh, and let's not forget the multiple hours of brainstorming and modifications it took to figure out what it could be used for." Jacklyn sweat dropped before crossing her arms and taking on a nonchalant expression. Everyone laughed once again.
"Now, Jacklyn Kitsubu. Do you solemnly swear to do your best as a pirate, to never give up, never surrender, and never stop aiming for your dreams as long as you may live till something does you in, or you die of old age?"
"I do." said Jacklyn smiling.
"Then, as mayor of Dusk Town, I now pronounce you an official pirate! You may kiss, I mean, you may now go out to sea to pursue your dreams, but make sure you come back." The man smiled kindly before closing his book. The town's people cheered as Jacklyn just stood and smiled.
'Weirdest going away party ever.'
Jacklyn stood at the docks of the town with the rest of the village before her. Her parents approached her and gave her a big hug.
"Now make sure to take care of yourself." said her mother with tears in her eyes.
"I will." said Jacklyn smiling back. Her father started crying profusely.
"WE'LL MISS YOU SO MUCH!!!!" he yelled grasping her in tight hug.
"I'll miss you too." she said returning the hug. "Don't worry. I'll be back…eventually."
"We'll keep you to that promise." said an old lady from the crowd as she walked forward. She had long black hair, wore a white robe with a brown vest, and walked with a large wooden staff.
"Elder Kara."
"I'll be watching you." she said smiling as several crows started cawing in the background.
"I have no doubt." she said smiling.
"If you see my granddaughter while out at sea, tell her I said hello. Oh, and, before I forget, give her this too." Elder Kara reached into her robe, and pulled out a medium sized black box tied with a red ribbon.
"It shall be done." Jacklyn took the box, and smiled at everyone one last time before stepping off the dock onto what looked like a steel plated bathtub with a happy bat figure head and a pair of small paddle wheels on the side. She took out a small vile filled with some glowing orange substance from the large bag of things she had on board, and stuck it in the back of the bat's head. Immediately the bat's eye lit up. The wheel on the boat started moving, propelling the vessel forward. Jacklyn turned around to wave good-bye as the boat continued to move forward.
"Bye everyone! I'll be back before you know it!" The crowd immediately started waving and shouting after her.
"Take care."
"Do your best."
"I love you Jacklyn! Come back and marry me!"
"Quiet, you!"
Jacklyn smiled. They may be weird, although she was far from normal herself, but they were her family, and she loved them all. Besides, weird is where it's at! After about five minutes of paddeling, her boat sailed beyond the curtain of twilight that always hung over Dusk island, and she was immediately surrounded by the brilliant white light of day. She had to shield her single eye for several moments before it began to adjust to the unaccustomed light.
"So bright." she muttered to herself before removing her hand. She looked back at her island. From outside the twilight curtain, the island itself was simply a menacing shadow, making it look as if some dark monster resided within. Although she could no longer see the island, she knew they could probably see her. She gave one final wave before turning back around towards the helm.
'Don't worry everyone. I won't return until my dream is fulfilled.' she thought to herself. 'When I return, I'll be Queen of the Pirates.'
The boat continued to quietly chug along, further into the light of the outside world.
"Wait, did I remember to pack a map?"
Crew members:
Jacklyn Kitsubu: Captain/ Mechanic
Hey everyone! Sparkling_nexis137 in the house! Note: That's nexis with an I, cause that's how I roll. *makes gangster face* Just kidding! XDDD
Okay, yes, I know, there are probably ten kagillion submit your own character stories out there, but A) Everyone loves to play with them, B) They can sometimes turn out to be the most fun of all stories, and C) I wanted to make one, so, by gummit, I did, and if you don't like that…I'll accept your opinion, though I'll probably cry a little. ;-;
Anyway, to submit a character, please fill out the application below. Now, remember, your characters cannot have any previous acquaintance with any of the Straw Hat crew, nor can they have any grudges against them. We're looking for a lot of characters, so feel free to submit anytime, and remember, I HEART YOU ALL!!!!! ^o^
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Race: (Please, Canon One Piece Races only)
Devil Fruit/Weapon/Attacks: (Devil Fruit are not required. Please make a list of attacks/weapons used)
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