Like Shooting Fish...

Riding on a boat to the shore, Victoria finally arrived at Crescent Island. She decided to take a beach day after rescuing Officer Amstel in Hargeon Town. He had expressly warned her to stay away from Hargeon Town for awhile and let the heat die down because corrupt cops and Anlecotti goons would be looking for her once they realized that Officer Amstel had been rescued. They could look all they wanted, but they would not find the brunette there. Victoria was on an island far away from them.

She doubted that the Anlecottis could get to her this far out, so she decided to relax. Still, she took the precaution of changing up her wardrobe so that she would look like a tourist. Today she wore a green jacket over a striped shirt and wore a brown skirt. Her white tennis shoes were on her feet, completing the look and looking somewhat color-coordinated.

Victoria walked off the boat and was greeted by a large building. The building in question was a palatial resort that housed the island's numerous visitors. It was a modern structure that was painted bone white. It was made of concrete and boasted numerous glass windows that glistened in the late morning sun. She was tempted to try a drink or two at the bar, but she was not here to get toasted.

According to the job notice in her pocket, Victoria was specifically commissioned by the hotel manager to find out why sea creatures kept beaching themselves before the problem cut into the tourism industry that was the island's lifeblood. Her first order of business would be to chat up the manager and get some background info, like when the occurrence first started. Turning towards the hotel, Victoria began to make her way through the crowd and walk towards the entrance. Hopefully the manager would be able to fill her in on the details.

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Victoria's Outfit:

-Inside the hotel, Manager's Office-

"Welcome, my dear! You must be the Black Rose mage I hired to deal with this problem! I'm Martha!" A red-haired woman with large gold hoop earrings wearing a blue shirt under a yellow jacket and with a matching blue skirt greeted her warmly.

"Yes. I understand you're having a wildlife problem?" Victoria asked.

"Yeah, it's the strangest thing. Fish keep beaching themselves and no one knows why. It's starting to threaten business here. Wealthy families like the Bandurvilts, the Fellerrocks, and the Gormans have already cancelled their reservations... we can't afford too many losses like that!" Martha explained what little she knew. Victoria was puzzled. She was no wildlife expert, but even she knew that fish did not just beach themselves without good reason.

"I'll go take a look. Maybe I can find something out." Victoria said. Martha's blue eyes flashed concern.

"Be careful, dear. I've heard reports from tourists that things bigger than fish have washed up on shore!" Martha said to her.

"I'll be careful. Just be warned... if you hear gunshots, it's me using my magic. But I can use silent magic if you want." Victoria said.

"Oh, yes. Please do use silent magic, my dear. I don't want to frighten the guests." Martha pleaded. Victoria nodded. Thankfully she had a few tricks up her sleeve that were not very loud. Today would be a great chance to try some of them out on live, less than threatening targets. It would be like shooting fish in a... wait, that one was too easy.

-On the beach-

Victoria was strolling along the sparsely populated beach looking for fish. She had taken off her shoes and was carrying them in her left hand. Suddenly she spotted something that looked suspicious.

Martha's Appearance:

[Word Count: 298] [Total Word Count: 617/500]

Victoria Sheridan rolls one Monster Die.

The member 'Victoria Sheridan' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

Victoria looked towards the sound of splashing water and spotted two sharks floundering in the surf. She laughed. This was almost too easy. She had just the weapon for this occasion.

Victoria raised her hands and brought out her sniper rifle. She aimed at the first one's head. It turned its head just in time for its lifeless black eyes to meet her own. It went down with a single Kinetic Shot that sent it flopping back into the ocean. That was easy.

Victoria then steadied her aim and aimed at the second one's head. Unlike its friend, it turned to the side, then suddenly turned towards her, trying to use its momentum to get to her. The brunette screamed and jumped back. She then took aim again, firing another Kinetic Shot that pierced its head and sent it sailing back into the ocean to join its friend.

That encounter was over. Victoria noticed a nervous crowd staring at her. She sighed. She then sent away the sniper rifle and the crowd breathed a sigh of relief. To avoid spooking the tourists, she would just have to use her other ranged weapons... except for her shotgun and grenade spells.

Now to find the other wildlife and deal with them.

[Word Count: 209] [Total Word Count: 826/500]

Victoria Sheridan rolls one Monster Die.

The member 'Victoria Sheridan' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

The brunette came across another pair of sharks floundering in the surf, but this time she was dealing with hammerhead sharks. This was almost too easy. She raised her hands to bring out her sniper rifle when she remembered that people wigged out whenever she used it. Victoria sighed. She instead activated her Mini-Crossbow and fired it at the shark.

The dart hit the head but did not punch through. Rather, the small projectile only annoyed the aquatic apex predator. Victoria tried again, this time aiming for the softer tissue in the mouth. That did the trick... the target shark flailed about before going still and dying. Victoria fired another dart into the mouth, then shifted her attention to the next one.

Victoria repeated the performance and killed the second hammerhead without much issue... two darts inside the mouth did the trick. The pair were dead and she could move onto the next "threat", if beached fish merited the term. She could not complain too much because this job was easy money.

[Word Count: 172] [Total Word Count: 998/500]

Victoria Sheridan rolls one Monster Die.

The member 'Victoria Sheridan' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

Victoria strolled along the beach until she heard splashing and spotted another pair of sharks. Judging from their stripes, they were tiger sharks. She was not going to mess around with a wimpy Mini-Crossbow because they were too dangerous. If they got their teeth on a tourist's leg, the hapless person would most likely lose it. She did not even want to think about what would happen if they got lucky and dragged the person into deeper water.

They would get the sniper rifle. Victoria raised her hands above her head and brought out the weapon. She took careful aim just above the cold, lifeless eyes and fired a Kinetic Shot. The shark flipped sideways and into the water.

She took aim again and fired. The second Kinetic Shot easily punched through its skin and sent the shark pinwheeling into the water, where it did not move. Victoria put away the weapon before the watching crowds got anxious again. She did not understand why weapons made them so anxious. Oh well... she would be out of their way soon enough.

[Word Count: 180] [Total Word Count: 1,178/500]

Victoria Sheridan rolls one Monster Die.

The member 'Victoria Sheridan' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

Victoria walked along the waterline until she spotted a giant flounder. It was floundering helplessly on the shore. Unlike the sharks, it was not a threat, so she laid down her shoes and went to lift it. She picked it up and threw it back in the water, expecting it to go swimming off, but she was destined to be disappointed. The flat fish soon did an about-face and beached itself again.

Victoria picked it up again and threw it in. Maybe it would get the idea and go home to its cute little flounder family. Again the brunette was disappointed. It swam away from shore a bit, then turned around and beached itself again. There had to be some other explanation, but she was no scientist, so that kind of work would have to be left to them.

She tried one last time to free the fish. She picked it up and threw it into the water. For the third time it came back. Victoria readied her Mini-Crossbow and killed it with one dart. She almost felt sorry for it because this incident was not its fault. The fish was just reacting to natural instincts and those instincts happened to inconvenience humans, which made it a liability.

Victoria took a deep breath and walked away. There were more fish to shoot and not enough daylight to do it in. The tourists were getting restless and wanted to do their tourist things, and time was money.

[Word Count: 246] [Total Word Count: 1,424/500]

Victoria Sheridan rolls one Monster Die.

The member 'Victoria Sheridan' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

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'Monster Dice' :

The brunette kept moving until she spotted a crowd gathering around something very large. A pair of bulldozers sat nearby as if waiting for something. Victoria had a bad feeling about this. As she got closer she spotted a large animal and her heart sank. It was a whale.

Victoria had seen one a long time ago, back when Lawrence was still around. One year he had taken her to a beach and she had the privilege of seeing a blue whale "breach" the water. It was a sight she had never forgotten. Her reminiscing was interrupted by screaming as the giant creature flailed about, nearly striking a careless tourist with its giant tail. Apparently the male surfboarder wanted to win a Darwin Award.

"GET BACK!" Victoria shouted while brandishing her sniper rifle. The frightened crowd eagerly obeyed. She was not sure whether they were frightened of her or the whale, but as long as they moved she did not care. She wanted enough space to get this right. She would kill the marine creature quickly.

Victoria raised the weapon and aimed for the side of its head. Its big eye looked into hers and she felt a wave of emotion as she lowered the rifle. Was it regret? She did not know for certain. She raised it again and took careful aim, then fired into its bulky form.

She fired another shot, then another, and one last shot. The whale stopped moving... it was dead beyond a doubt. Victoria dismissed the weapon and turned around, wordlessly walking towards the hotel as the bulldozers moved in to do their job and push the corpse into the ocean. Why did she feel empty? She had no idea.

-Martha's Office-

"You did it!" Martha said to her. Victoria felt glum. She had not discovered any hard facts about what caused the animals to beach themselves.

"I didn't come across any hard evidence about what's causing the animals to beach themselves. All I know is that putting them back in the water won't do any good. They'll just beach themselves again. You'll have to clean their bodies off the beach. I don't know what else to tell you." Victoria reported. She had had enough of Crescent Island for the day. She just wanted to get paid and go home.

"Well, I'm sure there's an explanation somewhere. It'll likely take scientists and their fancy equipment to find a reason. But that's for another time. As promised, here's your payment. Thanks for getting rid of those sharks for us!" The redhead thanked Victoria, handing her a small bag of Jewels. Victoria pocketed them. She had been paid... now it was time to go home.

"No problem." Victoria said before turning around and leaving the manager's office. She put her shoes back on in the hotel lobby, then exited and waited on the dock for a boat to the mainland. When it arrived, she wordlessly boarded and was soon on her way back to Rose Garden.

[Word Count: 500] [Total Word Count: 1,924/500]