Pick Your Poison
Chapter One

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She was on a mission.

"Granny, I need a job to stave off this boredom..."

The old bartender 'tutted' as she wiped the last glass dry, weathered hands making quick work of the job.

"S'bout time! How long 'ave ya been lazing around at mah counter like that? A week? Two weeks? A month?" She huffed. "And ya call 'ourself an odd-jobba', Panny!"

"It's only been two days... And it's Pandora, Granny..."

'Panny' cringed. She really hated her name. One of the reasons being that one couldn't make a good nickname out of it. While other girls at her village got cute nicknames like Milly or Gabby, she got stuck with names like Panny, Pancake Chest, Dora Dorkus- She paused in that train of thought. The last two were from the village boys when she was a little kid. Now that she thought of it, those weren't really nicknames. They were more just juvenile taunts and names they had made up because of her funny name. Dammit. Being named something normal like Michelle or Annie would have been preferable, but she had lived 19 years with this name and it wouldn't do any good to change it up now. Still...

Stupid dad.

Pandora wondered for the umpteenth time why she was trying to find the old guy. Not only the name situation was her reason for this question. There were just so many personality and behavioural problems with her dad that she wondered if she had inherited his stupidity just for trying to find him like this.

"Oi! Panny! Wha's wif that ugly expression ya makin' on tha' face 'a yours?"

"...Anyway," she ignored how the old woman ignored her request to call her by her proper name. "You know anyone in this town that needs help? Something short would be best since the Log Pose will be setting in a few hours."

"Hmm...lemme think..." The bartender took her time. There was really no rush since it was the day and thus, there weren't any customers besides her and the drunkard snoring in the corner who seemed to live in the slightly grimy bar.

Fingers snapped.

"I gots it!" The old woman who Pandora had grown quite close to in the past few days beamed. "Ya kno' how ya've only been 'ere for an hour? Well, an hour ago, The owner of the costume shop around the corner came in blarin' an' yellin' about how some no-good punk 'ad stolen his money!" She winked at the young woman, who was slowly getting more excited the more the situation was explained. "Ya think ya can handle that?"

Pandora smiled confidently. The type of smile she used to reassure her patron when they thought she couldn't do a job just because of her gender and appearance. She was getting into business mode.

"It would be besmirch my name as a jack of all trades if I couldn't!"

"You got the goods, toots?"

'Toots', otherwise known as Pandora, stared blankly at the man behind the counter. He was her customer. This was ironic seeing as how he was the proprietor of the costume shop she was in right now. The tall, thin man had a very obvious combover that was hidden by a detective hat plopped on his head and a rubber cigar clenched between his teeth. Granny had told her the guy would be weird, but seriously, this was kind weird and creepy. Who the heck called people 'toots'? And what were these goods he was speaking of?

Face still blank, she silently turned to the windows behind her. Snapping up the closed shutters to let the sun into the dark room and ignoring the agonized, 'The light! It burnss!', she turned back to him and eloquently said, "Uhh... Rosie sent me here to see if you needed help catching that person who stole money from you."

The man stopped rubbing his eyes. "Old Rosie? You're shitting me! When I said I needed help, I didn't mean little weakling like you." He said 'you' as if she wasn't even good enough to be dog crap on the bottom of his shoe. And now he was staring at her with so much scepticism, it was blinding her. With anger.

Deep, deep breaths. Don't punch potential customer in the face.

She had to keep her anger in check.

"Look," Pandora said sharply. "You can either give me the job with success guaranteed or your money back or you can just sit here twiddling your thumbs and pretending you're someone you willnever be instead of you, who is leading this sad, sad life."

She had failed to keep her anger in check.

Well, he deserved it, she thought defensively.

A simple nod from a now very depressed man was all Pandora needed to step out of the store to find the thieves.

The first place to look would be...

...Pandora had no idea.

Even though she had been in the town for a little more than two days, she had either been in the bar or in her boat. Sure, she knew where the various supplies and clothes stores were since she had made them a priority when she first landed, but besides those places, she didn't really know where to look for a little teenage thief. The town was a decent size too, so it would take her a while to walk around everywhere, let alone search. She sighed and ran a hand down her face as she thought about the task ahead of her. This may take more time than a few hours...

She smiled.

So it was a challenge then.

"You seem to be looking for something, Miss."

Pandora's feet stopped walking as her wandering eyes settled on a man sitting down on a crate. He was leaning back with his hands behind his head and resting against the wooden planks that made up a small building that looked to be another bar. Inside, she could hear the raucous roars of men that were much too drunk for a sunny afternoon like today. She squinted against the bright sunlight. Unlike the man, who was hidden from the sun in the shade and looked to be perfectly content, she was slowly boiling in her casual clothes.

"Yes..." She walked toward the man, but stopped a safe distance away when she noticed a very, very long sword propped up against the wall. It was within arm's reach too.

That was kind of suspicious... Pandora relaxed stance tightened defensively as he smiled up at her. What people would have taken for a polite smile, she immediately took as chilling. It didn't reach his eyes, which were nearly hidden by an admittedly neat-looking hat that didn't quite fit in with the summer island's weather. Maybe he was from somewhere cold, like the North Blue. The rest of his attire certainly wasn't appropriate. Pandora frowned. Why was she the one sweating then?

"Mind telling me who or what it is you're looking for? I may be able to help," he offered affably.

"..." Well, she did need help and she had been planning on asking some people if they had seen the boy anyway. More importantly, the man didn't look as if he was about to jump up and use his sword to slash her to bits. He completed every requirement of Pandora's People to Press. Oho, she had just made a wonderful alliteration. Certainly genius amidst trying to find a metaphoric needle in a haystack.

"I was wondering if you seen a boy. He has brown hair, blue eyes, about 12... Kind of looks like a bum..." she said, listing off the traits that Carter had given to her.

"He went in that direction a long while ago," the man said lazily. She looked at him questioningly. She could see a smirk twist his lips. "About two hours ago."

"Shoot!" Pandora's eyes comically widened, not even contemplating how or why the man had been sitting out there for two hours. Who knows where the kid could be by now. She was hoping beyond hoping he was still in that area, at least. Hurriedly, she made her way past the man, but not before hollering a big, "Thanks! I owe you!"

When she was out of sight, Law stood up with an intent to head back into the air-conditioned bar.

"...Maybe if I see you again, Miss."

Neither of them had expected to meet each other again.