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Post by luckystooge on Jun 22, 2023 4:55:42 GMT
It was time. Odette walked up to a higher vantage point and turned to look forward. She held out both arms then performed a spin that turned into a waltz, moving both hips and shoulders in tandem. Her neck began to outstretch and her arms began to grow feathers that turned into wings that concealed her features. She then unveiled her new form by waving her wings down in a fan-like motion. Her elgant swan neck swayed out as her beaked head hung above then bowed down beneath her wing. She then raised her head up andproudly displayed her wings.
It was always a treat to watch her put on a display with her Zoan Fruit power. Even as a swan, Odette displayed a level of decorum and grace that was rivaled by no one in the Marines that any of her crew were aware of. "Operation Commence!" she called out. Her eyes shimmered as she beat her wings and took flight. She brought her legs down and caught Yori's outstretched arms in them before taking off from the back to make it look like she did not come from the ship at a distance.
Odette in flight looked as natural as any other water fowl. Not to mention she kept a steady speed and even her wing beats were going to the rhythm of a waltz. It wasn't long before she reached the target ship that she graciously passed then said quietly to Yori. "I'm letting go now. Best of luck!" She did as she said she would then flew off to scout the ships at a distance while making sure to look asif she was still playing the role of an everyday swan.
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Post by cmd1095 on Jun 23, 2023 23:45:23 GMT
As expected nobody noticed Odette herself, though they did eventually notice Yori splashing about in the water and bring her aboard. The operation was underway. Tibley would take one of their lifeboats to get into position to jam the rudder, the small boat attracting no notice as he laid low inside it, even if anyone spotted it, they'd just see an empty lifeboat, probably think it was Yori's that she abandoned in order to swim towards the big boats that could rescue her.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan... for about five minutes. But then the sounds of commotion could be heard on the boat Yori had boarded, and the ship wasn't turning. There were however, pirates being thrown overboard and figures fighting on board... it was Yori! She was trying to fight her way to the rudder, but struggling a bit with the numbers. It seemed the cover story and going undercover as a doctor hadn't gone quite as planned. Either they saw through her, or someone had set her off and sparked an argument that escalated. 50/50 odds really. Yori was a kind person, but she tended to be unable to hold back the urge to call idiots out for being idiots... some pirate could've easily said something so stupid she couldn't help herself.
Either way, she was struggling now... well struggling wasn't the right word. There was a path of carnage behind her of knocked out or incapacitated pirates, and a good handful of them had been tossed over the side into the ocean below, but there were too many for her to fight alone and her progress to the rudder was slowing down as the numbers started to overwhelm her.
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Post by luckystooge on Jun 25, 2023 4:20:08 GMT
As expected. Odette as a swan smiled to herself. She gave the signal to Tibley who would likely give the signal to Yori would see it. Now was the time as Odette flew back to the ship. Flying overhead, the ship would be in position to fire upon the enemy ship.
"All starboard cannons FIRE!" she commanded before swooping down. She landed before Polly as large as life and courteously performed a bow, got low, then flipped her lieutenant upon her back. The down was soft and plentiful that it was a silk between Polly's fingers. The captain chuckled as she started to flap her wings and extended her neck to give Polly a place to wrap her arms around. "We're going aboard. Stay close to me."
She took to the skies to get a bearing on how the operation was being carried out as per her plan. It might not go exactly as said but there were going to be a few parts that were infallible.
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Post by cmd1095 on Jun 25, 2023 17:44:40 GMT
Polly blushed as Odette swooped down, graceful as ever, and bowed to her. God she loved this woman, she should be bowing to her... and yet Odette was always so courteous to her regardless. She eagerly climbed aboard, savoring that soft down feel and wrapping her arms around that neck lovingly, she'd savor the ride as long as she could, though she knew it was all business she couldn't help but fantasize about going on a ride like this for more romantic reasons.
The sudden cannon fire alerted all three ships, who began responding accordingly, the ship cannons that were already in position to fire at the new enemy would begin to do so, and even more pirates flooded onto the decks of all three ships... including the one Yori was on
To her credit, Yori made it most of the way to the rudder of the ship, but at this point she was struggling just to keep herself from being brought down at the pirates had surrounded her and were poking and prodding at her with longer weapons like spears or gunfire, they'd already learned she was too dangerous to get in close to, and while she was large and had a lot of reach, she couldn't take down every pirate with a spear or gun that were chipping away at her. She was blocking and deflecting most of the incoming attacks, but taking very few enemies down now... and the occasional hits that were getting through were going to wear her down. She needed help immediately... Tibley was in position ready to fire but if he started shooting before locking the rudder it could jeopardize the whole operation
Thankfully the three ships now focusing in on the new assailant did draw enough attention away from Yori and Tibley that Odette would at least have time to bring herself and Polly back to assist before things went horribly wrong
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Post by luckystooge on Jun 28, 2023 22:01:37 GMT
Odette swooped in to the vessel under siege, first off going for the wheel to ensure it crashed into the ship next to it. She then let down Polly near Yori who she deigned would be able to weaken the others long enough for Yori to complete her tasks at large. Odette then swooped around again, unleashing her swan kicks to deal with stragglers as she landed. She then morphed her legs back into her human ones and unleashed her signature Tempest Kick which sent a slashing waves toward the more distant ones.
She eventually took her human form and drew her blade. She swished it a few times, pointing at the pirate crew."Pirates, what is about to happen should be relatively painless if you give up Coleson right now!" declared the captain in a commanding voice. She provided the best distraction she could while the rest of the plan could go off without too many hitches. Odette, however, knew that while the leader of this operation was not yet shown, she shouldn't let down her guard.
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Post by cmd1095 on Jun 28, 2023 22:43:53 GMT
With Polly's assistance, Yori did indeed begin making progress again. Polly could only weaken the people she touched, but her very presence diverted attacks away from Yori, and since anything that touched her would be weakened, that meant she effectively cut the pressure on Yori in half. With Odette also landing and taking down swaths of pirates on her own, the rudder was soon locked in place, and the ship they were on set to crash into the Coleson's ship.
With his role in locking the rudder completed, Tibley would support Yori and Polly by sniping any pirates who he could see from his vantage point, and so the three of them working in tandem were doing quite a number on the crew. Yori was starting to look worn out though, help or no, she'd just had to brawl her way through dozens upon dozens of pirates. She was a huge woman with a lot of skill, but the strain of it all was going to catch up with her soon.
The threat from Odette wouldn't do much, as a bunch of pirates would respond by firing their pistols or rifles at Odette, they had all seen what Coleson had done to their respective captains when he'd absorbed their crews into his fleet, and while Odette's tempest kick had been impressive in taking down a group of them, they were all far more afraid of him than they were of her... plus surrendering to her meant prison anyway so they weren't exactly incentivized to pick her side over the one that meant freedom and plunder.
Meanwhile, the ship they weren't interfering with had brought it's guns to bear on the Cygnus and was opening fire on it. Their ship was doing a good job evading so far, and would win a one on one confrontation pretty handily, but the enemy ship was moving to force the Cygnus between it and the other two ships in the fleet. Even smashed together there would be guns on these ships to catch Cygnus in crossfire, greatly increasing the chances it would be damaged
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Post by luckystooge on Jun 29, 2023 6:34:20 GMT
The situation was increasing drastically and Odette was not liking how this were progressing. There was an errant flaw here and flaws were unacceptable. It disrupted the rhythm of the plan and if she didn't address at least one of them, they'd all come crashing down. The pirates chose to follow her target even if that meant defying the Marines which meant they feared him more. Yori was worn out and weathered. She needed to be taken back. She had done enough. Moreover the other ship were corralling the Cygnus into a pincer attack. Lann was a great helmsman and knew his ship inside and out but there were limits to what he could achieve. She had put alot on her crew since the start.
Where was it? The rhythm. If she could find it, she could find a way to set things right. They hadn't even encountered the ringleader yet. If they were going to be that obstinate, then there was no helping them. After elegantly avoiding the pistol fire, Odette took a step back to perform another Tempest Kick while bringing herself closer to Yori and Polly. “Let’s get you back to the ship.” said Odette to Yori who then looked to Polly. “Shall we go drop her off?”
Odette intended to carry Polly once again on her back and carrying Yori from below in her Zoan form. She couldn't leave Polly alone unless she wanted to. Her idea was to drop Yori off on the Cygnus, distract the other ship and maybe pick up another crewmate to aid her. But she had already put so much on the others' shoulders.
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Post by cmd1095 on Jul 2, 2023 19:58:43 GMT
Polly would suddenly dart past Oddette, intercepting a sword strike with her arm, her devil fruit protecting her much to the confusion of the pirate who had tried to backstab the marine captain while she was focused on her crew. Yori followed up with a roundhouse kick that sent the pirate crashing into several others, creating a gap in the attacks for her and Polly to grab on.
Once they were in the air, Tibley moved his rowboat up right next to the ship so he could be out of the firing angles of any cannons. The pirates would detect him soon enough regardless, but in a gunfight between the pirates and Tibley, he'd last a while even at the lower elevation. He was their sharpshooter after all, he could hold his own for a little bit.
Odette's transformation in front of everyone seemed to alert the pirates to the fact they were facing more than just your standard marines, and several of them darted inside the main ship screaming for the captain. Their target would probably be coming out soon, which was good for being able to take him out. But they needed to clear out as many obstacles as possible before he showed his face. Most of these pirates were little more than slightly stronger than average civilians who let it go to their head... or people pressed into the pirate life by the aforementioned cocky ones. But Coleson was a genuine threat, having assembled this many, it would be dangerous to fight him and whatever officers came out when they had too much support.
The Cygnus was doing well avoiding the pincer attack so far, two of the ships being smashed into each other and interfering with each other's movements gave Lann a lot of leeway, a few cannonballs did damage the ship, but it was nothing they couldn't repair... which was more than could be said of the still mobile enemy ship which had been taking a hell of a beating from the superior Cygnus, it was still big and loaded with weapons though, and Lann was going to have to make a choice to risk the pincer or start taking heavier hits very soon.
Still despite all the complications and disruptions to the flow of their plan, up in the air taking a big picture view of things Odette could see they were doing extremely well. All of the enemy ships were heavily damaged, and they'd taken out dozens of enemy pirates, a rough estimate being maybe a quarter of the total enemies, and a disproportionate number of those were from the ships they'd be fighting Coleson on, which would help. Meanwhile all they'd suffered was some minor damage to their ship, and Yori being a bit battered and worn out.
Now they just needed to clear out the main ship a bit more, and take Coleson himself out. Once he was gone, it'd be a mop up operation they could probably either handle themselves, or leave to local marine ships as the pirates scattered.
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Post by luckystooge on Jul 5, 2023 22:49:25 GMT
There it was. There was the rhythm she wanted. That sweet fortissimo of advantage. But the finale had yet to emerge. After gliding low toward the Cygnus, she let down Yori. She had full faith in Lann. He hated to see his ship get messed up but he also knew how much damage she could take and how to repair her like new. "Yori, tend to any wounded if you can. We may not have any now but if this skirmish goes forward, expect a few injuries." How he proceeded was up to the helmsman. But whatever his choice, Odette knew who their main target was and made a beeline straight towards it with Polly in tow. Together, they could take down most fleets by themselves. Especially the head honchos. They weren't to be underestimated, however. Even if they did seem like easy pickings to some, they always had trump cards hidden under their sleeves. Like swans that kept their toiling feet hidden beneath the water.
As she initially made a beeline, she'd fly in front of the other ships to disrupt their cannonfire with a mid-air Tempest Wing which she herself made her own. An art known only to her due to her Zoan form. After which, she'd tuck in and made a landing on the deck of the main ship but not before transforming back into her human form and letting loose a series of kicks to clear the way of any would-be adversaries. SHe then whipped out her weapon and held it to her side. "I'm getting bored of these stagehands. Where's the villain of this show? Show yourself!" she demanded boldly.
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Post by cmd1095 on Jul 10, 2023 23:48:46 GMT
Almost as if on cue in response to Oddette's demand, the speakers of the main ship changed to a new tune, blaring loudly as smoke machines on the main deck surrounded a rising platform with smoke as multicolored lights flashed to color it "Villain? Nay! That title belongs to you, devilish marines! With your lack of wit, your oppressive rules, and your utterly disgraceful lack of style." a loud and obnoxious voice blared over the speakers as the smoke began to clear from around the platform to reveal an arrogant looking man striking a pose that he clearly thought was cool... but looked kinda goofy in practice  "I am the hero of the seas, the spectacular, stylish, popular, irreplaceable!" the man said, doing a spin and striking another exaggerated pose "Micheaeeeeeeeel Coleson! Sonsonsonsonsonsonson he laughed, even his laugh was exaggerated. Clearly this man absolutely loved attention and showing off, and had the confidence of ten men... but he also clearly wasn't weak, just looking at his build it was clear he was a powerful combatant, and he still had his devil fruit powers. To either side of Michael were pirates who looked decidedly more skilled than the grunts they'd fought so far. One was outfitted with an array of daggers and guns, and the other was a hulking brute of a man with a warhammer on his shoulder. In the smoke behind the stage a third figure slipped off, probably another officer that was more skilled at surprise attacks, but with so many smoke machines clouding up the place they were out of sight before Oddette could get a good look at what their equipment was like. Over on the Cygnus, Oddette's interference with the wave of cannonballs gave Lann a bit of leeway, and they made good use of it, part of the deck rising up to reveal a huge artillery cannon facing forward, the Cygnus's secret weapon. The ship was coming in towards the pincer maneuver, but before it would get caught between the two ships it had one clear shot with the artillery to use, and it fired with a deafening boom that almost even drowned out Coleson's obnoxiously loud music The shot struck low on the mobile ship, just as planned, the blast would definitely make them start taking on water and have to retreat, what wasn't planned was a bit of good fortune, as the blast also hit the ship's cannonball and gunpowder storage, igniting it in a huge explosion that instantly rendered the ship not seaworthy. It would take a bit to actually sink, but pirates were already rushing to the lifeboats and abandoning ship without even bothering to try and assess the damage. The ship was beyond hope after that. With that ship out of the picture, and so many grunts from the main ship and crashed ship already down, things were looking up, but Oddette still had Coleson and his officers to handle as well as a not insignificant number of grunts who might interfere |
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Post by luckystooge on Jul 11, 2023 4:58:24 GMT
Odette watched the show unfold before her and her eyes looked positively blank to match her flat expression with a shadow cast over her eyes. Before even more words could be said, she simply took one arm, morphed it into a wing and used it to blow away a good majority of the smoke without even batting an eye. Turning it back, she clasped her sword and swished it about while turning up her nose.
"Rhythm, none." she said, pointing her weapon at him. "Form, sloppy!" she made a face now filled more with disgust at what he was presenting rather than what he was in general, declaring the next phrase with a scathing tone "Style, zero points!" She stomped on the ground once and thrust her chest out proudly. "I was here to apprehend you for your activities but you stand before me for a crime I cannot forgive...." she breathed sharply through her nose and stated angrily a most absurd reason that maybe Polly only had a grasp of, "...POOR SENSE OF AESTHETICS!!!!!!!!!!"
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Post by cmd1095 on Jul 15, 2023 23:35:07 GMT
Michael looked genuinely wounded by Odette's tirade, as if each point she made was shooting a giant arrow into hie heart and damaging his inflated ego. His hurt quickly turned to rage and doubling down however.
"Why you...! What would a MARINE know about style? And I have tons of rhythm, more than you'd ever have! he barked back angrily "you're just too limited to understand true aesthetics! All that white and blue, so boring! Tacky! And you just mindlessly obey whatever your higher ups tell you, cringeworthy! A government lapdog has no business lecturing me!"
Michael stamped his foot and pointed at Oddette "you're just a puppet dancing to whatever tune your masters play for you. You don't have a sense of style or aesthetic!" he spat, then shot a beam of light out of his fingertips towards her, spreading out like it was the beam of a spotlight about to shine down on her, courtesy of his devil fruit power
"but if you're gonna dance to someone else's beat anyway, you may as well dance to mine!" Michael said as his officers charged in to hedge Oddete in and limit her options for dodging the beam.
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Post by luckystooge on Jul 16, 2023 18:19:05 GMT
His barking at her only made Odette smile with quiet confidence. He had been insulted and was now showing his hand quite openly. All of which she wanted. Like the noble swan, all his venomous comebacks were as water on her that simply glided off of her. They did nothing to wound her pride nor her determination as she stood her ground and stared directly at her adversary as he shot his beam at her. Was this how this power worked? She had already elected to take it if nothing else.
"I'll play along." she thought to herself with confidence and head raised. She looked at the targets hedging her in and made a smirk. This captain was intending to keep her from dodging but he didn't need to know that this was going according to plan. With another set of attacks, she would appear to be doing her best to keep herself from being boxed in but wouldkeep herself right where the beam was heading. Even without the subordinates closing her in, she had always intended to get hit with the power and see the effects for herself firsthand.
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Post by cmd1095 on Jul 21, 2023 23:39:24 GMT
As soon as the beam hit her, Odette could feel the effects kicking in, as her body would immediately begin moving in time with the music playing around her her legs kicking and arms swaying as she began dancing against her will. She'd find that she had some degree of control over it though, which was good. There had been a distinct possibility that letting herself be hit would've removed her bodily autonomy completely, and she'd have been helpless... but so long as she moved in time with the music around her and her movements were dance-like, she could move as she pleased.
That didn't mean fighting like this was going to be easy though, because while she was forced to move in time with the music, none of her opponents were restricted. One of the officers moved in, daggers at the ready to strike distinctly out of time with the music, so that the timing of Oddette's block or parry attempts would be off and she'd be left open.
Polly moved to intercept, Oddette was strong, but a three on one battle while she was affected by this power was going to be rough... she only got one step before a new wrinkle in the situation arose. The enemy who'd snuck off earlier reared his head, as chains with weights attached shot through the air and wrapped around Polly's legs and torso, tripping her up and making her fall to the deck. Her devil fruit protected her from most forms of attack, and it seemed the pirates had realized that from the scuffles so far, so instead of trying to injure her, they were opting to disable her. Since her fruit also made her extremely weak, she wouldn't be able to break free of the chains as she was dragged away
The situation was getting bad quickly again, but the Cygnus was nearby, Oddette could call for more backup if she chose, or she could handle things herself
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Post by luckystooge on Jul 22, 2023 18:43:01 GMT
The poor fool had no style but at least he did have a modicum of rhythm with this music. Even if it was slightly atrocious in presentation. She was no stranger to to the dance and found herself at home with her body moving on its own. All was going well until the fiends decided to do the most horrid thing in her eyes besides have no style...and that was to engage with things out of rhythm! The nerve! The audacity! But if they were going to play a little dirty, she was going to throw a bit of difficulty in their wake. especially if they were going to treat Polly in such a method.
In time with the beat, she morphed into a her Zoan form and ruffled up her feathers before unleashing said feathers outward like a cloud in a poofing manner; her Tori-Tori Cloud. If nothing else, it would obscure her assailant's ability to see her exact movements in the dance. if she got struck, it would be off the beat but this would mean she could counter on beat with a sudden stretch of her neck into a powerful beak strike as if bobbing her head to the tune.
Furthermore, amidst the chaos of her sudden burst of feathers, she could manage to utter an elegant honk of alarm as if to signal a certain irate cook who had likely been prepping meals and was rudely interrupted by enemy fire aboard the Cygnus. If anything was less than perfection, there would be hell to pay.
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