stbrown02
Pirate
Posts : 19
Join date : 2018-03-25
Part I
Bander looked through a peephole he carved, he was looking into the ship's kitchen; around sat about three crewmen. Ban had been listening in on them for the past hour, "Yeah we should be there in no time." Based on what they had been saying, this ship was set to dock in Alabasta in just under another day. "Finally, I'll get off this boat." Ban thought to himself; his life up until that moment consisted of stealing and stowing away. He'd been held up in this trading ship for the past two and a half weeks, hitching a free ride from sea to sea. In all honesty, he didn't even know what to expect in Alabasta; he'd only heard a few things here and there, but still he was slightly excited. Deep down something was telling him big things were coming.
Since his departure from his village, Ban had come to find that the open seas was quite the harsh experience. Since he was a runaway, Ban had decided to hide inside a ship; holding up in an obscured section of the ship. Mostly based on the idea that any reasonable crew would probably try to return a runaway in; or maybe he was the one who was confused.
After a couple of days on board, Ban recognized and charted the crew's routine movements; when they slept, ate, went on break, and all the above. During the safe hours, as he had come to call them, Ban would journey around the ship; mapping it out and jotting down where everything laid. During these hours, Ban did everything he needed. Like cleaning up, gathering information, and most importantly, he would raid the ship's kitchen. This all became a routine to him, and it was starting to somewhat wear him down. While rummaging through the fridge, Ban's thoughts weighed on him, "My whole reason for coming out here was adventure, and I'm doing none of that." He sat his loot, dried meat and bread, in a bag he'd found lying on the kitchen counter, tying it up, he turned around and started walking back to the storage area.
Moving and scurrying around crates, he finally reached his spot; a dark corner, shielded by barrels. Ban crawled back onto the floor, nestling himself against the wall, he put his sack of food next to him and he grabbed his travel bag. He unlatched the bag and took out a blue notebook and pen; this was his journal for developments and such, it being the thing where he wrote down and fleshed out his ideas. Ban opened it to a random page, on it read, "Smokebombs, unfinished." Ban snickered at the page, he remembered this project especially well, as it was one that both him and Ibuki worked on together. "I remember this like it was yesterday." Ban said to himself, a smile starting to form over his face at the memory. Thinking back on it, it was quite the wonderful experience.
Last edited by stbrown02 on Sat Mar 31, 2018 2:21 am; edited 1 time in total
stbrown02
Pirate
Posts : 19
Join date : 2018-03-25
Part II
"Ah!" Ban slapped his arm, raising to inspect it, a crushed and slightly bloody bug laid against his upper. It happened to be high noon at the time, the weather was warm and slightly cloudy. He'd had been trying to enjoy the wonderful day by sitting outside, he'd been up to the usual, reading. Ban had been laying outside in front of Ibuki's wooden lodge house, he was in the middle of reading a slightly aged book, titled "The Art of Reactions." During the "attack" Ban had dropped it on the ground, Ban stood up and reached down to pick up the book; as he bent down, a small buzzing started up. The buzzing got louder and louder until it was right above Ban. Right when he was grabbing the book, a sharp stabbing pain came from his neck; quickly taking his left hand, he moved it to behind his neck and slapped it. Rubbing the back of his neck off, he looked at the smudge, "Yep, another fricking mosquito." Ban immediately grabbed his book, and turned to head into the house.
He walked in and shut the door quickly behind him, "What's with all these mosquitoes!" Ban yelled, he walked over to one of multiple book stacks in the house; he started looking up and down at the titles. "I would've thought you'd've know by now." Ibuki yelled from the upstairs area. A stout, silver-haired woman scrambled down the log steps slowly one by one, assisted by a cane. "Well about a month ago, it seems that a rather unusually large number of mosquito larvae got released into some of the island waterways. And now they're hatching." She walked around to one of the book mountains; leaning in and adjusting her glasses, she looked over it for a split second and pulled a book from the bottom corner of the stack. "So, now there's a sudden population boom. How do you think this even happened?" Ban had stopped his book search and turned towards his mentor. Ibuki moved towards another book stack and pulled another one out, leaving the tower in a precarious position. She scuttled towards the kitchen and dining room area. Walking across the tiled floor, she pushed a step ladder to one of the chairs; Ibuki climbed the ladder and took a seat at her lengthy marble dinning table. "Well from what the shopkeeper told me, quite a few got out. And I don't think it's a common practice to keep mosquito as pets; so this outbreaks point of origin is probably the fish hatchery." Bander had started to walk over into the kitchen and to the marble table. "Well that makes a lot of sense seeing as how the only useful thing that could come outta these pests is fish food."
Walking around to the table's end, where Ibuki sat, Bander stood beside her and looked over the two books she had. "Chapter Title: Mosquitoes Repellents and West Blue: Flora and Fauna" Ban stood and read a few sentences from the mosquito book, "Natural repellents include... So are you planning on dealing with this? Because it seems that way." Ban looked down at the tiny lady, who was currently in the middle of squinting at text through binocular-sized glasses. "Of course, I honestly don't think anyone else is fit to do it. These mosquitoe could throw this island's ecoststem outta wack." Ibuki said in an overly dramatic way, "Wouldn't that take like a year or two to do?" Ban questioningly. "Don't get off topic! We need to get a better handle on this." Ban read a little bit more of the mosquito book, "Hm, I'll go do a little more digging and see what I find." Bander looked over the entire page, getting slightly more acquainted with these things; Ban then got up and moved to the entrance, "I'll be back soon."stbrown02
Pirate
Posts : 19
Join date : 2018-03-25
Part III
Ban was on his way to town to investigate the mosquitoes. Before setting out, he had decided to change his clothes. It wasn't smart to go after mosquitoes with summer wear on; he'd decided to put on a white long-sleeved hoodie, knee high socks, and a yellowish scarf. These colors were observed to be less attractive to mosquitoes and that's exactly what he wanted. Ban was sweating as soon as he left the comforts of his room; but he still started on the dirt trail to the center of the village.
The village was filled with numerous wooden buildings, several of which were two-story buildings. Some had signs, indicating businesses being located there; carts stood in front of these shops holding goods, indicative of the respective shop. With a slight look around, anyone could see that the town wasn't in that lively of a state. Bander stopped in the middle of the street, he looked straight out; tiny black flecks flew around the area. "Oh man!" Ban started running towards in the direction of the Hatchery. Zooming past the different shops, Ban could just barely see that the town's people had taken to the stores and taverns to evade the bugs.
Finally, he ran up upon a small cabin with a sign saying, "Fish and Bait Hatchery." The small wooden building was a ways off from the rest of the town, about 400m. A small pond, probably a circumference of 2m, sat to the left of the cabin; a thin, dried up ditch ran from the pond and into the woods and beyond; a white 2ft high fence looped around the pond. Looking at the window, Ban saw a red closed sign. "Huh. Closed." Walking around to the pond, Ban peeked over and gazed into the water; numerous black spots swirled around in the water and small fish darted around under it, picking at the black spots. "If this so called, enormous outbreak, started here then it's surely not showing. Hmm, maybe fight might be a viable option from control these mosquito." Ban looked at the dried up ditch, walking down the beside it, he followed it into the woods.
Ban stepped over branches and rocks while still following the stream. Pushing past a couple of juniper bushes, Bander stepped out into a opening. "Oh..." There lied a bigger pond, it being around 60m in size. The ditch lead right into the pond, leading to the answer of how this started. Walking to the pond's edge, Ban peered into it; numerous larvae filled the deeper and shadowed parts of the water, presumably thousands filled the portion that Ban could see. Looking around, numerous other buzzing black spots swarmed around the area and they formed a thin cloud above the water. "I gotta tell Ibuki about this." Turning around Bander left the site with haste.
After stopping at a few shops along the way, Ban ran up to his mentor's lodge. With bags filling his hands, he pushed open and then closed her door. Looking over the stuffed bags, Ban saw that Ibuki was still at the table reading but she'd also begun writing as well. Walking over, he sat the bags beside her, "I got some materials, while on the way here I started on a plan." Ibuki looked up a her protegee, "Well I've been doing that as well. So tell me, what did you find; I looked out my window earlier and saw those little buggers everywhere." Ibuki said with disgust. Bander was in the process of putting the materials onto the marble counter, "Oh it was horrendous, I went to the Hatchery and followed a stream from his pond to one ten times bigger. There were mosquito and larvae everywhere. Making this solution even more urgent."
Ban had just about finished setting all his materials on the table, "So, I was basically thinking about corralling the adult mosquitoes, trapping them, and burning them alive. One part of my plan that I worked out is the implementation of smoke; I was thinking that we should make smoke canisters, these canisters would release smoke for a while, or something like that." Ban started drawing a basic outline of the item, his picture depicting a can-shaped device with a sprinkler type head on the top. Ibuki looked over the device and the materials, "I like that idea, I suspect that you'll need a little assistance figuring out the rest of the details." Ibuki slightly smiled at the drawing, turning back to her work; she let out a long sigh and picked up her papers. "We'll also have to get some stuff from Peterson's flower shop as well, I know how we can purge those little larvae away." stbrown02
Pirate
Posts : 19
Join date : 2018-03-25
Part IV
Bander grabbed a yellow covered book from a stack, it being titled "Quick Guide to Compounds." Flipping through it, page by page, Bander was looking for anything with explosive properties that'd be easily accessible to him; he'd already had most of the reaction thought out except for the explosive part. A quarter of the way in the book, nothing was coming simple was coming up, Ban raked his head, searching for key phrases. "Ah ha!" He opened the book back up and looked for the word nitrate. Going through the book again Ban saw a compound that looked familiar, "Potassium Nitrate." Turning around he looked at Ibuki, "Potassium Nitrate? Do we have that around here?" Ibuki didn't even hesitate as she pointed towards the storage area of her house. Running back there, he pushed barrel of water to the side and looked around the room. After about five minutes of ransacking the room, Ban found a bag labeled "Food Preservative" and in smaller word under it, "Potassium Nitrate."
Picking up the five pound bag and bringing it into the living area, Ban continued with his work. Getting a bucket, Ban poured three pounds of the potassium nitrate and pouring two pounds of regular cane sugar in it; then a thorough mixing started. "Can you cut those cans in half." He asked Ibuki while moving to his bag, picking it up he went over to her stove. Putting a pan on and turning it on high, Bander took great chunks of beeswax from out his shopping bag and onto the pan. After about five minutes of stirring the wave and Ibuki cutting cans, it was ready. Taking the cans, Ban poured the mixture have way up the can, he then took the wax and poured it into the cans. Going back into the back storage room, Bander got out a bundle of fuse; putting one in each can, along with a piece of lemongrass for extra repellent. Ban took some pliers and bent and prodded some metal into the the sprinkler hood; which would restrain the smoke slightly, allowing for longer smoking. He then made one for each can and put them on; securing them with two rubber bands each. In the end, his grand total of canisters being seven. "I'm ready."
Ibuki grabbed her cane and a shawl, "Let's go!" She screamed as she was walking out. Bander gently packed all seven of his smoke canisters into his bag, and before he left he grabbed a glass bowl. While walking through the village, the pair approached Peterson's flower shop; Bander looked at Ibuki, "I'm gonna go ahead and set up the trap. You know what to bring for it." Ibuki turned to her protegee, "Gotcha, I'll be right along." and she scuttled into the store.
Walking up upon the Hatchery, Bander looked at the store again; the closed sign was still hanging up in the window. The small pond was teeming with little silver, gleaming fish, all of them eating up the larvae. "Excellent." Bander easily stepped over the fence and knelled at the pond's edge; taking Ibuki's glass bowl, he plunged it into the water and scooped up about a dozen fish. He continued on his way to the bigger pond, steeping over the fence.
Pushing through the juniper bushes, he walked out into the clearing where the big pond laid. Observing the atmosphere, groups of faint black clouds scattered the sky and hovered over sections of the pond. Walking over to the pond, mosquito larvae swam under the water; Bander lowered the full bowl into the pond, releasing the hungry fish. "That might help a little." Turning back to his project, Ban went into a more empty part of the area and slid his backpack off. Taking the bowl he dung a small hole in the muddy ground, putting the bowl on the ground; he put rocks and timber into the hole, it to become a future fireplace; reaching in his backpack he took out a bottle of sake, and poured it in the middle of the fireplace. Backing up three or four, he grabbed his backpack and started placing his canisters; evenly spacing them around his fireplace. He then laid the other end of the hanging fuses onto the fireplace.
The grasses and bushes rattled as a little stout figure pushed through, it was Ibuki, carrying two bags of supplies in one hand and a cane in the other. "Ibuki!" Bander waved her over to him, "Do you have the stuff?" Ibuki handed him a bag and she started walking to the pond, but she suddenly stopped and looked over, "My nice glass bowl is covered in dirt." She said shaking her head. She grabbed it in her offhand and continued to the water's edge. Ban watched Ibuki from his fireplace, "You see, I plan on routinely treating the main mosquito breeding waters with this concoction to destroy the larvae." Bander watched as the elder took out various plants and oils, two of them Ban recognizing as lemongrass and garlic. She poured the oils into the glass bowl, threw in some leaves, branches, stems, and such; and started to push and crush them with her hand. "I really should've brought my tools. Crushed lavender flowers, cinnamon oil, neem tree oil, lemongrass, garlic, and a few more. The key ingredients being cinnamon oil and neem oil, that's what really kills them off." She lowered the bowl and its contents into the water. "The flying ones won't even want to go near this stuff." Ibuki stood up and brushed both herself and the bowl off. "About a hundred more treatments to go."
Somewhere in Ibuki's demonstration, Ban had started to take off his hoodie and scarf. Reaching into the bag, he got out a black hat and put it on; "Black colors turn them on!"; and he got out a vial of rose perfume and sprayed it all over his body and the immediate area. "So does perfume." He thought to himself. His task was to attract the adult mosquitoes and he would have to use just about every method to do it. He started to do jumping jacks, "Sweating is a top attractor for mosquito. And this will raise my body temp too." After about fifteen minutes of this, a few of the mosquito clouds wandered closer, "We need more!" He yelled at Ibuki, "Carbon dioxide, light something on fire." Ban jumped up and down while looking around, he couldn't light the fire as that was the killing mechanism.
"Ah!" Reaching down he grabbed his scarf; reaching in his pocket, he pulled out a matchbox. Striking the match and putting it against the cloth, caused the flame to slowly crawl up the long apparel; black wisps of smoke coming from it. Usually, fire and smoke would scare mosquitoes away but maybe since it was slowly burning and carbon dioxide was being output, it could lure the closer. About five minutes late, the scarf was halfway gone and after peering out, Ban could see steady approaching clouds were coming towards him; in an effort to keep them coming, Ban threw the scarf towards the muddy shore. All these various attractors caused several of the larger thin black clouds to move into the area; Ibuki watched closely as they moved into the canisters range and she yelled, "They're in!" Ban quickly took out another match and struck it; fire flickered from the thin stick. Seeing that the clouds were in the circle, and we starting to land on him, he threw the match down and leaped out the circle. The sake-covered fireplace erupted into a tower of flames as big as Bander himself, the fuses lit and flew up into the cans setting off the reaction inside; plumes of white smoke erupted from each can, and additionally the can also started to flame. "I'll have to fix that later." Bander snickered and walked over to Ibuki, "It seems we caught a great deal of them, not all of them though." White plumes of smoke rose from the cans, the fire illuminating the area, "I wonder if someone is gonna come to see what's going on here." Ban looked over at Ibuki smiling.stbrown02
Pirate
Posts : 19
Join date : 2018-03-25
Part V
Ban was awoken by the squawk of seagulls flying around the boat, he'd accidentally dozed off. His bag of food laid against his leg, still untouched. The ship rocked back and forth on the sea, riding wave after wave. The blue diary lied on the boy's lap, still on his smoke bomb page. The idea was an offshoot of his smoke canister design, Ibuki was the one who originally suggested it; at the top of the item's page, right below the name was a quote by Ibuki, "Lugging cans around is stupid" Ban chuckled at the words on the page. A sudden burst of energy went through the boy; picking up his pen and putting it to the paper, he started righting vigorously. "Maybe I could finish this recipe up before we dock." Ban whispered as he viciously scribbled onto the paper.Similar topics
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