A Mockery of the System

Raijin Island:

Callie had well and truly messed up. Through sheer willpower, a touch of idiocy, a whole handful of illiteracy and just a smidgen of dyslexia she had managed to mistake the word Raijin and Training. She could sort of understand how it had happened, with many of the letters shared between the two words, though the idiocy came in when she began to ponder why a ship would be labelled with 'training'. The willpower presumably came in when she realised it took her a long time to realise she'd messed up.

So, now Callie was stood on the shores of the frankly rather weird and scary island. Up above she could see rather concerning amounts of electricity arcing between the clouds, akin to lightning but off colour for it. In the distance she could see a collection of clouds which seemed even more focused than up above. She hadn't heard a whole lot about this island, having been a little too stubborn to admit her mistakes and ask the people on the transport ship about it all.

With a sigh, the young fighter / tinkerer began to wander. A large group of individuals had wandered off earlier towards the towering behemoth of buildings in the centre of the island, fit with a giant pole which she was guessing somehow working alongside the electricity due to how it arced across it fairly frequently. Did it harvest it? Or... Did it create it? Perhaps she could find the answer with time, but for now she planned on exploring. Wherever she was, she was sure she'd find something tough to fight and train, or perhaps some fun people to talk to.

DISCLAIMER!!!:

Mock could no longer stay on Illusia saftley after the raid on the Mock orginzation had been raided. Mock held no attachment to the snow capped mountains of Illusia, nor the corrupt government officials with all of their oppressed sheep. Mock had needed a way off of the island without being noticed, and luckily for him a large ship had been docked off shore in a remote part of the island. It didn't seem affiliated with the government or pirates, so Mock snuck onto the ship, and hid away.

The ship sailed, and sailed, and sailed. It seemed like it was going on an extremely long journey that Mock was not prepared for. One day he was a bit too daring when he went to steal some food, and was caught by the crew members of the ship. They were unhappy with Mock, and they questioned him vicously about why he was on the ship. Mock didn't crack however no matter what they asked him. Even when they threated to through him overboard he sat in silence. It was only when he overheard a conversation about the Revolution Army that he spoke up.

Mock told them about what happened to him on Illusia, and eventually they agreed to drop him off at the next island. Mock soon learned that the next island was in the New World however, and that he was about to reach the point of no return. Mock had nothing to return to however, and decided to stay on the ship. Mock considered almost asking the crew to introduce him to the Revolutionary Army, but they seemed to unorginized. They had no real plan on how to dethrone the government, and what to do after they have done so.

Mock woke up when the boat arrived at the port of Raijin to the loud sound of violent thunder, and bright flashes of light. He looked out of the port hole and saw countless lightning strikes around the island. "So, this is the Grand Line eh?" There was a brief knock at his door, and then one of the crew members walked in. "All right kid this is where you get off."

Mock stood up and grabbed his bag. "All right, guess I'm off. Thanks for the ride." Mock got a few odd glances from the crew as he walked off of the ship, but paid them no mind. There was a metalic smell in the air from all of the lightning as he stepped onto the dock.

Callie had always enjoyed the idea of adventuring, however thanks to her other loves such as inventing and fighting, she'd never really dedicated much time to it. In fact, in all her life this was the first time she'd ever left Loguetown. She couldn't say she missed it yet. After all, she felt very little attachment to the island, having had multiple arguments with people there, such as the marines which scolded her for 'dangerous' actions, the social workers questioning her why she was a 'trouble child' and most importantly that asshole Bill who charged her way too much for her rent that time her parents kicked her out.

Now on a completely new island, the young tinkerer couldn't help but feel a well of energy inside of her build up, a grin across her face. She would certainly find strong people to fight and train against here, and with such a magnificent sky and spectacular buildings in the distance there was no way they didn't have technology she could learn from. As she power walked towards the centre of the island, she found herself tinkering with a little contraption she'd been working on; a small metal bird sat in her hand, with one of it's wings acting as a switch to cause it to begin to 'peck' at whatever was in front of it. It was overly simple, but there was something satisfying about it. With a screwdriver from her pocket she began to poke around at the mechanisms, hoping to change the speed of the pecking to something a little slower.

A whirring noise could be heard as the bird began to move correctly, ticking only when it moved it's head down to 'peck' at Callie's hand. As she watched it, she couldn't help but hold a dumb grin, only letting it pass as her eyes trailed down her arms. The scars which coated them still bothered her, but not for any other reason than how tragic at inventing she'd been at the time. She huffed to herself, switching her new invention off and placing it back in her pocket. Looking up she'd seemingly met the first building of the island, and was at the edge of town.

Mock looked around the dock as a few more crew members got off of the ship to stock up on suplies. There seemed to be fairly decent security around the docks from the Marines, but nothing too severe. It's not like they would have any reason to think that Mock was there to cause trouble anyways. Mock didn't want to gain the attention of the Marines, so he began to make his way from the large ship and towards the brightly lit, neon colored, town before him. The sound of the multitude of lightning strikes seemed to be drowned out more and more as he got closer to the edge of the city.

Mock analyzed his surroundings as he prepared to enter the unfamiliar city. There appeared to be giant metal rods littered throughout the city that he could see the lightning striking. 'I wonder what purpose those polse serve' thought Mock. The buildings on this island were unlike any he had ever seen, and many of the locals were dressed in strange robes of some kind. Mock spotted an extremely pale woman wearing a dirty, greasy, outfit that seemed to be a strange mix between a mechanics outfit and some kind of street fighters clothes. She's surely a visitor here as well, lets see how the locals interact with outsiders.", Mock whispered to himself softly.

Mock did his best to hide himself in back allies and shadows to hide as the woman entered the city. As Mock ducked into a back alley he could here slight arguing and footsteps coming from behind him. Mock quickly climbed into a half full dumbster near him and closed the lid, but left a small crack for him to observe from. He slowed and quieted his breathing as he looked out, and put his hand on the handle of his revolver just in case he had to defend himself.

As Mock looked out of the small crack between the lid of the dumbster and saw a large human woman, about 8'7" and weighing close to 400 lbs, she was wearing sweat pants and a purple t-shirt that said "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder" circling around a large green eye. She had medium length honey colored hair pulled up into a loose bun on the back of her head, and multiple piercings. She cracked her large knuckles, that appeared to have diamond encrusted brass knuckles addorning them, and yelled at a small, sheepish man. He was maybe 5'5" and weighed about 145 lbs. He had messy black hair and ragged wizard robes. He had a wild hunger in his eyes, and was scratching his arm nervously.

"You tryin' to play fuckin' games boy?! No way in hell is that enough money for what you're asking! Hell, you still owe me 15,000,000 beli from your last order!" The small man gulped nervously as the large woman closed in on him. He adjusted the collar around his neck slightly as he began to sweat profusely. "L-look Xanthidae, I promise I'll pay you back. I-I just need a bit longer. C-come on d-don't be like this man. I need my fix!" The woman, who was presumably Xanthidae, nostrils flared wildly as a deep rage filled her eyes. She grabbed the small man by his throat and lifted him up right to her face.

"Look Lanis it seems you leave me no choice but to tell Magister Shorish about this." Lanis cried out in pain and horror as this happened. "N-n-no a-anything but that! P-please, here take it, it's all I have!" Lanis pulled out a stack of beli from his pocket. Xanthidae snorted and dropped him as she counted the money. "You're lucky this covers what you owe Lanis, but yain't getting any shit offa me today. Come back when ya got some money." Xanthidae skulked off into another back alley that connected to this one, while Lanis ran in horror.

A calm anger bubbled up inside of Mock as he sat in the dumpster and watched this all unfold before him. This Magister Shorish person seemed to be in high power, and important. They were using that power to distribute drugs however, and to poison the people. Mock couldn't stand for such corruption. "Seems I've found my next target."

Callie liked to remain fairly oblivious to things, which was why she didn't notice the commotion going on in the alley fairly near to her. Instead she was transfixed with the buildings around her. As she wandered along the street she couldn't help but wander up to one of the windows, placing her hand against the metal exterior and peering inside. Her eyes practically lit up as she noticed a variety of unique items inside, all made of different metals performing different roles. This was the type of place she liked, and now she was even more eager than before to find out about all this stuff.

Rushing on, she noticed the various buildings of similar design around her. Metal seemed to be heavily prevalent around here, which was curious considering that metal brought lightning to it, yet it didn't seem to happen here. The huge conductor in the middle of town, yet it had to be a conductor, that was presumably which kept the town safe. They presumably harvested the energy it could collect too, right? Maybe that explained why there was so much metal and unique items. She was practically in awe at the posts around either side of the street which produced light up ahead, and imagined that they must be linked somehow. Otherwise, wouldn't Loguetown have had something like that too? They just had a few lanterns outside of houses and the sorts, nothing quite like this.

She didn't have much money on her, but Callie was overly excited to try and buy something from here. If she could just find a shop which sold what she wanted. Or, maybe she could ask to help out there? She'd happily stay around here for a while, perhaps working to make these items would be a good idea. Plus, if they were somewhere tough like she'd heard then there would presumably be people to fight. Or maybe... Maybe they had some sort of... Robot to fight. That would be fun.

Mock waited in the dumpster for another minute before carefully climbing out. His feet landed softly against the ground, and he did his best to clean himself off completely before continuing. Before Mock could do anything to help free the people of this island from the powers that poison them he had to learn more. Mock turned out of the alley and saw the person he had been tailing hadn't really gone far. They appeared to be window shopping at the moment, and Mock had to admit that this city looked and felt incredible, even if the higher powers appeared to be corrupt.

Mock walked past a toy shop, and saw some truly incredibly crafted dolls in there. He was unsure as to why, but something about it called out to him. Mock's hand instinctively went to the small doll inside of his cloak pocket. It was of a girl he didn't know, but he could never find the strength to get rid of it. Mock walked into the store unable to resist the temptation to look around.

A small bell rang overhead as Mock stepped into the store. The young woman behind the counter seemed surprised to see someone like Mock walk into the store. He normally didn't stand out too much, but certainly wasn't dressed like the average patron of a toy shop. "Can I help you with anything today sir?", the young woman asked Mock. She appeared to be in her early twenties. She wore a simble beige apron over a blue blouse and a long black skirt. Her brown hair was pulled into a pony tail, and she had a fairly average frame with a plain face. "I'm not sure yet, I'm just looking around at the moment."

Mock walked over to the front display and admired the craftsman ship on all the various dolls and figures. They all seemed to be exquisite in craft, and looked to have an exorbitant amount of time and soul put into each one. Mock adjusted his color slightly. He could feel the woman staring at him, and was not a fan of being noticed, let alone stared at.

Callie hadn't noticed all too many people on these streets despite the impressive shops about. That was why she actually noticed the man with silver hair wonder on past. He looked as pale as she was, and didn't dress like she'd seen many other people dress. She had a feeling he wasn't a local just from the few she'd actually seen about. Most looked like weird magicians, but this guy just looked... Weird. She shrugged, glancing only briefly at him again as he entered a shop to observe it as a toy shop. She would have entered too, but somewhere else had already grabbed her eye.

The weirdly unfocused Callie rushed across the street towards an appliance store of sorts. It seemed to sell the sort of thing you'd expect to find, with useful things for around the house like special ovens and fridges and all the food working stuff. But then they also sold more weird things, like something which apparently would clean your clothes for you, and another thing which would dry them afterwards. With intrigue she pushed open the door to the shop and made her way instead. The door creaked as she did so, and once she released it, it swung shut rather heavily. This drew the attention of the man stood at the front, who raised his head enough to look through a pair of dirty glasses to notice the young woman. He wore a dark brown robe, some sort of pointy hat and had silvery grey hair. She shot him a smile before beginning to browse on her own.

The next few minutes were spend curiously inspecting all the weird and wonderful appliances which this island had. They were certainly superior to any she'd seen back home, but also happened to be a whole lot more expensive than she could afford. Perhaps she should ask him about some work, although maybe it wouldn't be worth doing that just yet. She wanted to see more of the island too, and maybe there was stores even more interesting than this one.

Mock sighed slightly, and picked up a small wooden figurine in front of him. It appeared to be of a strange, muscular, long haired man with a tattoo of the Beli symbol over his eye. Mock looked at it a bit confused as to whom this was supposed to be, and then placed it back down. Mock left the display case at the front of the shop and walked around the store a bit more. Being the only person in the store meant the the woman behind the counter was looking at him the entire time, which served to unnerve Mock slightly. In one of the back corners he came across a plushie that was a little bit bigger than his hand. It was in the shape of an egg, and it had a face on it. The small card beneath it read "Humpty Dumpty"

Mock picked op the plush stuffed egg, and thought it looked rather cute. Something about it made Mock feel something warm, something he hadn't felt in a while. Mock took the stuffed Humpty Dumpty to the counter where the woman was waiting. "I'd like to purchase this please." Mock set the Humpty Dumpty down on the counter gently, and the woman picked it up and looked it over. "Humpty Dumpty huh? I always thought that the story behind this guy was a little weird, but I guess you like it huh?" Mock looked at her and shook his head. "Can't say I've ever actually heard the story, something about the stuffed egg man just called to me."

The woman put the toy back down on the counter and giggled slightly. "Ah, well, Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall and fell off, and then he broke and no one could put him back together again. That's a poor summary of the story, but it hits the main points. But anyways that'll be 2000 beli." Mock pulled out a bit of the little amount of money he had and put it down on the counter. The woman took the money and put it in a drawer. "Anything else I can help you with? Oh, I'm Morgana by the way."

Mock took the stuffed Humpty Dumpty and placed it into his bag, and then looked back at Morgana. "I'm Mock, and yes there is one thing. If you couldn't tell I'm not from around here, and I was wondering what those big metal rods were for, and who runs this place." Morgana smiled at Mock and said, "Yes, you don't really look like a local. The Lightning Rods draw the lightning away from the buildings and protect us, but also provides magic to the entire city. The people that run this city are the Wizard Council. They meet up at the Hogwash School every so often."

Callie continued to stare at the contraptions for just a little longer before finally deciding that was quite enough. She could have inspected them all day, even pulled them apart to learn how they worked, but she had a feeling the shopkeep wouldn't have appreciated it. As it was he was giving her a weird look which made her think it was probably best just to move along.

With another thud of the heavy main door, the young inventor was back on the streets. She didn't feel like talking to any of these locals, not because she was scared or concerned, but purely because she was still in awe at the place. Her mind was going a mile a minute and if she wasn't careful she'd lose track of herself. She needed to remember that now she was here, she should begin to figure out how to set herself up. A job, a place to stay, a stable source of food and water. Those were all important, albeit not as important as finding the toughest git around and throwing a punch to see what would happen. Additionally, she needed a way to continue inventing and exploring the inventions of the island, though a job could indeed provide something like that.

The young woman found herself looking to the sky again, observing the arcing lightning, feeling the pulse across the city each time it struck. The hairs on her arms (or what hairs remained) were stood on end almost the entirety of her time outside, and even inside she felt a certain hum from each creation there. This whole island was alive with power, and that fascinated the inventor, so much so that she continued to stare up at the sky, imagining all the possibilities. All the contraptions which could be controlled with this. Though, why did so many of the people she'd seen so far wear weird magic related outfits? Did they not understand the science they had at their fingertips? Bizarre indeed.

Mock stared at Morgana blankly as he processed the information he had just recieved. 'So they seem to have some sort of magic here on this island eh? I have certainly seen things that seem to defy logic like magic. If it is magic, what exactly can it do? And how powerful is it? It seems that the people in charge of this island seem to hold quite a lot of power that they can use to defend themselves unlike the politicians of Illusia.' Mock adjusted his hat, and began began to turn to leave when he stopped to ask one more question. "One last question, have you heard of someone named Magister Shorish?"

Morgana scratched her head for a second as she thought over the question. "Uh, yeah Magister Shorish is a professor at the Hogwash School. Oh, he's also assitant to Archmage Norbert." Mock turned and began to walk out of the shop when she called out one last time. "Come again!" Mock looked over his shoulder slightly and did a small wave. "Sure."

Mock stepped out into the brightly lit street and looked around to make sure no one was following him. 'So this Magister Shorish character works for one of the Archmages, does this mean he's involved or is he simply unaware of what's happening around him?' Mock continued down the street very cautiously, and avoided catching anyones attention. After walking a bit he noticed that even though hundreds, if not thousands, of lightning bolts were constantly striking down from the heavens and hitting the various so called "Lightning Rods". Even though he could see the large flashes of purple light, he couldn't hear any of the thunder that lightning of this magnitude should be creating. He wondered if they were using their magic to somehow remove the sound of the lightning from the city.

Callie's gaze lowered after spending way too long admiring the conductor, whilst thinking about where her life might be going from here. As she went to continue walking, she noticed the man from before looking up at the exact thing she had been looking at before. She was no detective, but to her that basically confirmed he wasn't from around here. You didn't stare at spectacles you saw every day, well unless you were going through a bunch of introspection. She couldn't tell if he was thinking to himself or just admiring the view, but she didn't particularly care at this point. New people had to stick together, and new people could always help each other out.

"Yo, you're new around here right?"

She asked quizzically, wandering over to him and following his gaze up to the magnificent build in the sky. She imagined if she made this a habit she'd slowly go blind, although from what she'd seen of this island so far it wouldn't have completely surprised her if they had a way around that here too. Maybe they could revert injuries, or maybe they just had special goggles to help with it. She could probably fish hers out of her pocket, but opted not to more out of laziness than anything else.

As she stood there, Callie thought to herself about being cautious around new people. She'd grown up being taught about stranger danger, but her confidence in combat had lead her to not really caring too much. That made her both a rather confident and friendly person, although it also made her appear a little too trusting. That wasn't the case, but instead she more just didn't care for the consequences. In all fairness, she would have been more accurately listed as carefree, instead of trusting. In actual fact, she was wondering if this guy would attempt to pull a knife on her or something, and if she'd be able to react soon enough. Perhaps she'd find out soon.

"It's impressive isn't it? I wonder how it works"

Mock was looking at the lightning rods when he was startled by the girl he was following from before approaching and talking to him. The hand that he always kept near to his gun quickly went to the handle, and tightened around it. Mock looked at her from the corner of his eyes without moving his head, and didn't respond to her initial question. She continued to speak anyways however, and asked him how the lightning rod worked.

Mock stood quietly without moving or speaking, and observed the stranger very carefully. She didn't seem to be making any sort of aggresive movements towards him, and she didn't seem hostile or malicous. Mock did find it suspicous that someone would just walk up to him without any provocation. Mock put his finger over the trigger of his flintlock revolver, and was careful to not make his movements obvious. 'In the event she attempt to assualt me I should be able to draw and fire on her within a 3 second time frame at the most. Best case scenario in optimal conditions I could have my gun out and a shot fired in 1.23 seconds. The fact she's so close and the lack of any obvious weapons makes it seem highly likely she either has a concealed blade, or uses some sort of hand to hand combat to fight. In the even she strikes at me I should be able to react fast enough to withstand at least one powerful blow and still be able to return fire before backstepping away.'

Due to Mock's highly mistrusting, cautious, and calculating nature a cascade of thoughts on how to escape from, and successfully eliminate this new potential threat filled his head. After standing still for about 30 seconds, Mock's gun was now discreetly out of it's holster and angled slightly at her hidden beneath his cloak. "I'm not from around here. What's it to you?"

The time for introspection had long passed, and the conversation had now passed into the awkward phase. No normal person could stand looking at something without responding for half a minute, but it felt like forever. Callie felt herself internally cringe a little bit. She was way better at fighting than she was at conversing. Had she picked the only mute on the island to try and hold conversation with? Wait, could it be that he was deaf?! That would be a little awkward, the first guy she tried to talk to was completely unable to hear her monologue. But she couldn't help it, she was on an unknown island and it seemed like this guy was too, why was her being nice always so likely to backfire? As she tried to remember her very brief lessons of sign language back in school, the man actually spoke up, relief flooding her brain finally. He'd kept her nice and tense.

"Don't worry, me neither. I just felt like us newbies have gotta stick together, right? Ah well. I'd say the pylon is some sort of conductor for electricity, although it could also actually be producing it somehow. My eyesight isn't perfect so I can't exactly tell if it's going out or into the top of the rod, but I'd swear it's going into it, which would imply this island's technology perhaps comes from it"

She spoke rather excitedly about the topic, focusing heavily on it due to her interest and therefore presumably misinterpreting the man's question. It seemed like a common interest to them, so of course she'd want to talk about it. Though, now that she calmed down to think for a moment she actually began to realise perhaps that's not what his question was. His long pause could have been deliberate to think about things and be cautious, and his tone of voice had implied he was being a little cautious. She thought for a moment, before continuing:

"I didn't actually mean to come to this island, so I'm a little lost. So uh, I'm Callie, I'm an inventor and fighter, also known as a nuisance sometimes. How about you, got a name mystery man?"

She grinned a little bit, wondering if perhaps she could get this guy's expression to alter at all. His heavy cloak over him was hiding much of his body, which had her wondering if perhaps he was taking action beneath it. If he swung with a weapon she imagined she would be prepared, but some sort of gun or stabbing attack would probably be too fast for her, the noise would register too late and it would be too direct. At least a swing she would be able to react to, but the other stuff could be tough. What if he had an explosive? She supposed if he did at least he'd be in the blast radius too, and she was versed enough in them that she imagined she could tackle a situation like that if needs be. Perhaps... Slowly she extended her hand for a handshake. At least then she might be able to gauge if he was armed via that, although if she ignored the attempt that'd just make things awkward. Would he care? Did she care? What was she even doing? Who knew.

Mock looked down at the woman next to him as she rambled on about the supposed technology of the Lightning Rod in the center of the city. The details and incatricies of the technology made Mock's head swim a bit. "Looks like magic to me.", Mock grumbled to himself. Even though the technicallity of the words was a bit too complex for Mock, he still was sure to carefully disect every word that came out of her mouth, and the tone and body language that accompanied it. She seemed to be genuine as she spoke, if not a bit nervous, and her body language seemed to imply hapiness. Even still doubts filled Mock's mind, and cried out at him to get out of this situation, but her opening statement stuck with him. She paused slightly before speaking again, and Mock took advantage of this time to slowly reholster his gun, but he still kept his hand on the revolver.

Mock took a moment to completely analyze and process the information he had just recieved from the woman known as Callie before responding. Now Mock obviously couldn't just give out his name to any random person that approached him not that anyone would think Mock is his real name so he just came up with a random name on the spot. "I didn't really mean to come here either, but here I am. I'm... Amos, Amos Leroux." Mock slowly extended his hand out to hers and shook it. Mock's eyebrows knitted together slightly as he did so, 'She's known as a nuisance? That doesn't bode well.', and this was the first time in a long time he had come into contact with another person that didn't involve being tortured so he was on edge and his nerves were palpable. "So, what is exactly you want from me Callie?"

Callie couldn't help but smile a little as this unknown figure mentioned magic. Perhaps it was, but she hadn't ever heard of magic which couldn't be explained by science, and she was pretty sure she knew enough science to explain it. Maybe she was wrong, but she was confident that she wasn't. If he wasn't into science, what was this guy into then? She pondered it as he suddenly spoke again, this time announcing that he hadn't intended on arriving on this island either, and then introduced himself as Amos. She hadn't heard of a name like that before, which at least told her he probably wasn't a violent killer, or not a known one. Finally, he asked what her reason was for talking to him.

"Nice to meet you Amos. I'm just looking for someone to explore the island with, and considering we're both a little new here it seems logical right?"

She thought about his handshake for a moment. It wasn't too firm or too gentle, perhaps someone that was used to business? Maybe he was a people person, although he seemed a little... What was the word, cold? So, who was good with people without liking people? A psychopath! Oh no, she'd found the wrong crowd hadn't she? Her parents had often warned her about talking to strangers, and now she'd met an antisocial sociopath. No... He was too cold to be one. Was he a NEET then? It might explain the getup, and the lack of social skills and science knowledge maybe. What did people like that even do?

"So, what do you do for a living?"

She asked curiously, genuinely wondering more and more about this man. She herself could be considered a freelance inventor as well as a fighter of sorts, neither of which brought in much money. Perhaps that's why she'd been doing badly as of late.

Mock thought about Callie's proposition, for a moment. It seemed logical and mutually beneficial to both of them for him to agree to travel with her for at least the time being, but at the same time he couldn't shake the feeling that he was in danger being here and that she would only make things worse. The positives seemed to out weigh the negatives however, and Mock put his doubts aside for the time being. Mock sighed as he shook her hand. "All right, for the time being it seems like staying together would be the smart thing to do."

The handshake seemed to be going on for an uncomfortable amount of time, and Mock desperately wanted it to end but she seemed to be lost in thought as she continued to shake his hand. Mock finally got fed up and and gently took his hand back. Callies next question surprised him, and he carefully thought over his response so as to not reveal anything that could expose him for being a revolutionist.

Mock ran his hands through his hair and adjusted his hat before responding."I'm an auditor of sorts. I investigate high powered government officials and rich buissness owners to make sure they're not corrupt. You can think of me like the immune system of the proletariat. If I spot corruption in the powerful and rich I expose it, and insure that the corruption of the bourgeoisie doesn't spread." Mock watched her extremely closely as he spoke. He wanted to make sure he saw no signs of hostility arise in her as he spoke. Mock was primed and ready to bolt and get into a defensive position in the event of an attack on himself.

"So Callie, what do you want to do?", Mock asked carefully. He glanced around at their surroundings to insure no one was eavsdropping, and while it appeared that no one was listening to them, a few people were giving the pair some odd looks. "Uh, maybe we should move to a place a bit more private."

Silently the young woman congratulated herself. Amos had joined the fray. Amos had joined the party. A new cha-... No, she'd stop herself there. Still, she'd made herself a friend to travel around the island with, and whilst she still had no idea if he'd actually be any use to their adventures she supposed she didn't mind because at least she wouldn't feel constantly like the only lost person about.

An auditor? Amos continued to talk, this time explaining his job and how he worked to remove corruption from important businesses including the marines. This was indeed a rather interesting individual, and in that case she imaged she would have no issues with him. She didn't have the strictest of morals, but her general code was just 'don't be a dick'. So, someone that worked strictly on morals wouldn't attack her out of the blue, unless her looser morals made things a bit of a challenge. She'd cross that bridge when she got to it though, because right now she'd made a friend.

Before being able to explain what her role in society was, her new friend encouraged her to move somewhere else with him. For a second she struggled to read the tone of his voice, interpreting the meaning as something completely different. However when she looked around like he was it became obvious that it was because they were talking in the middle of the street and gaining looks. That make sense. New people tended to draw looks especially when they looked so contrasting, like the duo did. As the two would presumably make their way in whatever direction this Amos chose, she explained a little quieter:

"I'm an inventor, I like tinkering and seeing how things work. I like to practice fighting in my spare time too, I'm quite skilled at Savate. Oh hey, that totally makes me like... Your bodyguard right now or something"

Mock turned and began to walk towards a back alley by the toy shop that he was in earlier. He continued to weave his way through the alleys of the city. Mock made sure to evade detection as he did so, and made a mental map of the city as he did so in order to find his way out of the maze of the urban jungle. Mock was careful to not leave himself defenseless to both Callie and anyone else who may ambush them. Mock carefully listened to Callie as they walked. 'Hmm an inventor could certainly be useful in this strange land, and could make a powerful ally in the future.'

"Well I don't know what Savate is, but based on context I'll assume it's a fighting style." Mock considered showing Callie his gun, but he decided against it. He came to the conclusion that it would be better if Callie thought that he was defenseless and needed her to protect him. In the event that she turned against him he would be able to catch her off guard and that would hopefully give him an advantage.

Mock stopped walking and leaned against the wall so that no one could get behind him. He was sure to keep an eye on both way into the alley. "So, I'll ask again, what do you want to do?"

"It is indeed. I kick people to cause varying degrees of pain, usually lots unless I'm holding back"

She practically gloated, kicking the air a few times now that the two were away from prying eyes. She felt fairly happy getting to show off like this. She knew very little about the fighting style and it's origin, she just knew how to perform it and she liked to think she was quite good at it. It was also one of the only martial arts which allowed you to wear shoes, and also it often aimed to cause breaks which was fun.

"What do I want to do? Hmm... Look around really. Now that we're here, may as well see the sights right? Maybe find out if there's anything of interest to do, maybe there's some jobs about or maybe if we're lucky some fights"

She grinned, itching for some sort of fight or some sort of breakthrough. She'd been so... Bored back home. Now she was somewhere new she wanted to explore and see new things and get to experience everything they had to offer. And she wanted to be challenged. Surely they'd have a few tough fighters about, and surely they'd have a few puzzles to solve or problems to fix. She just wanted... Something, and she was excited for it.

"What about you? What do you want to do whilst you're here? We're a team now so we each should have an input, right?"

Mock took a few steps back in caution as Callie kicked the air, and his hand instictivly went to his gun as she did so. He took a deep breath to calm himself down after the display was over. It had caught the man off guard, and he hated being surprised. While Mock was fine with her suggestion to do a bit of sight seeing in this seemingly magical city, he was concerned with her desire to get into a fight. Mock had heard many rumors about the Grand Line while he was in training, and heard even more things about the dangers of the supposed "New World" while he was on the ship here. Based on what he heard you'd think that everyone here would be the size of giants, and as muscular as a bull. Based on what he had seen with his own eyes however it seemed that everyone he had seen so far was not too different than people he had seen back on Illusia. If the rumors could be trusted though, anyone with fighting ability would far out class anything that he could do at the very least. He had yet to see the full extent of Callie's ability to know how she would fair here.

When Callie asked him what he wanted to do he was unsure on how much information to give her. Mock carefully thought over his options, but he was painfully aware that thinking too long would just cause another akward silence to occur. Shortly after he decided on an answer he thought would be addequate enough. "I recently was witness to a vile act of corruption, and based on what I saw I suspect Magister Shorish to be involved. He's a proffessor at the Hogwash Magic School, and assitant to someone on the Wizard Council. A man known as Archmage Norbert. I need to determine if Shorish is actually involved, and how far his corruption spreads into the council."

As Mock finished speaking his highly cautious nature allowed to pick up on the sounds of someone walking closer to the pair. Mock moved in closer to Callie and looked down the alley where the noise was originating from. A large man stumbled slightly down the alley, and reeked of alcohol. He was wearing roughspun cotton clothing that was smeared with dirt and sweat. He looked up at the pair and grinned, revealing rotting broken teeth inside of his mouth. "Ooh what 'e got 'ere? A couple of love birds? Foreigners by tha looks of it." The man stood up to full height, and seemed to tower over the two. He swung his arms slightly to loosen them up, and revealed them to be thick and muscular. "Tell ya wat, if ya give me all the money ya got on ye, I'll be sure to put in a good word fer ya and make sure no one attacks you." Mock began to walk backwards slightly, and glanced around to look for an escape route. There was only one easy route out of here, and a large burly woman walked out chuckling to block it.

The man seemed amused by Mock before glaring at him menacingly. "Ya seem to think I'm really askin' ya punk. Give me your money, now." Mock's hand drifted to the inside of his cloak and towards his gun. "Are you sure this is what you want?"

DISCLAIMER!!: