Alright so real talk. Who would expect a boat to crash into a freaky magic island surrounded by strange fog and panda people? Not Tsubasa, that’s who. Unfortunately for literally everyone who may have needed his help, he had been feeding Ahab when the boat suddenly crashed, which threw the small creature into the freezing water. Potentially forsaking literally dozens of humans, Tsubasa had instinctively dove into the water to grab his flying squirrel who, incidentally, could not swim. There was less than an instant between the two of them falling and diving respectively, with the young man catching his friend and pulling him into a mommy fall as they headed for the water. He hit the water hard at roughly the same time as one of the pieces of flotsam, the latter breaking the surface tension for Tsubasa to smash into the water and just hurt a little bit instead of a lotta bit.
Though it was not his first move that had been act first, think never, he managed to secure the little creature, though the hazardous waves still threatened to take them to the briny depths. Attempting to connect to the limited water spells he knew, he found nothing, grappling with the fact that he had lost that connection. The water was harsher than he expected, for he was not as sturdy as others may have been. Struggling against the currants, he reached behind him and pulled what looked like a skateboard from his back. He had no idea if this thing would work underwater, but had no other choice, squirming and writhing against the water. He held the board with his hands and shoved his hand on the ignition, causing the repellent energy to work against the water, albeit not as easily as it would have if he had been on the ground.
Once it made surface, however, it picked up speed exponentially and began to race towards the island. It did so silently, therefore drawing no real attention to the boy and his squirrel. As they neared the island, he nearly passed by someone who had been missed by the others and seemed to be drowning. Such a thing was difficult to see and even more-so in fog this thick, but making a turn around to confirm, Tsubasa reached a hand out and grabbed the person. He now had one hand gripping a very fast hoverboard and another gripping a passenger, with the squirrel he had jumped into the water to save now clinging to his face. When the three of them made landfall, he let the passenger go, depositing them (relatively) unscathed onto the beach, while he, the creature and the hoverboard continued forward. It was only at the last moment that he saw a figure in front of them and powered the board down, gravity forcing them forward ass over skull until he smashed into a large, furry belly.
Looking up at the creature, Tsubasa’s eyes widened. A Pandaman. A Pandanian. He had no weapons on him but scooted back to give himself room to fight this awful new opponent. Instead, the giant furry beast reached down and offered him a hand up. “That was a sight to see, young speedster.” It pulled him up with such force that Tsubasa was lifted off the ground for a moment, before being deposited on his feet. The Pandapovian helped dust the sand off of him (without asking permission, rude) and introduced himself as Ping Penscrawl, a storyteller and scribe for his village. Looking behind him, Tsubasa saw that other Pandanese were helping the survivors to get up, get situated and retrieve whatever they could.
Among the survivors were two really cool looking people who seemed to step out of a movie. They were as soaking wet as anyone else, but they really seemed to rock the look. The female one was really, really hot, and… I mean the guy was too. Like in that ‘I don’t care’ type of way. Did that take work, he wondered, or was that just a thing some guys could do? Could he learn to do it eventually? He wondered if there were lessons somewhere.
Turning his attention mostly from them, he started to find his hoverboard. It had been thrown As Tsubasa went to help the others, the squirrel in his hoodie was scooping water out of the hood like a miniature flood victim. At one point he plopped a tiny little fish out of there and started to shake his fur dry, “What the hiccup just happened??”
“Well,” Tsubasa responded casually, grabbing his hoverboard, checking it for damage, then returning it to its slot on his back. “I think we were on a boat to go get those scrolls, and then the boat crashed. Then, I think you fell overboard and I saved your life. So. Not gonna forget that anytime soon.” He started to help people up and make sure no one was too severely injured. He knew how to perform basic first aid and with the help of the Pandavians, there were no critical injuries.
Over the next few days, he kept busy, working with the Pandaranians to create meals for the groups and swapping cooking techniques with this new race of people. They shared stories with the stranded party and eventually let on that this fog was probably something super weird happening, which was stopping everyone from using magic. After a little while, he watched from afar as three of them, including the two hot ones, started talking about what to do moving forward. Just as he was going to try to offer an idea, the entire situation was stopped by the arrival of a bunch of stone dog faced men who decided to be a bunch of jerks.
The third figure, an older man who looked really cool but wasn’t hot like the other two, tried to talk to them. Unfortunately that ended with the three people beating the shit out of the stone dog men. It was then that they decided that they must go off and do some things in order to make the fog go away. They took a Pandanan with them, which left the group relatively unprotected. Therefore, rather than offer his own services as an awesome hero, Tsubasa elected to stay with the stranded.
However, in an entirely characteristic move, a day or so passed before he began to get antsy. They hadn’t come back and the fog hadn’t been lifted. There had been no discussion of how long it would take them to get to where they were going, solve the problem and return, and the insecurity of that was making him want to do something. This problem was unfortunately solved when, in the middle of the day, the Pandajin began murmuring and the women and children headed back into their houses.
The male Pandapopulous stood in a straight wall before the city and Tsubasa had to push and squirm through the black and white fur in order to get a look at what was happening. There seemed to be an argument between one of the elders and another one of the stone dogmen. Thankfully this dogman seemed to be alone, but he looked bigger than the others. A Captain maybe. Captain Dogman. Lieutenant Dogmansir, perhaps.One of his face-tusks had been sheered off by something, and it didn’t seem like it was capable of growing back. Was that true for other animals? Not to call this guy an animal but—
His mind wandering was cut short when the Captain Lieutenant Dogmansir produced an axe of massive proportions and raised it above his head at the elder Pandapoodle. Time to move, Tsubasa thought, squeezing himself through the crowd.
“Tsubasa what are you doing?” Ahab whispered.
“Somethin’ stupid I bet,” The young man responded. His hoverboard was already on the ground and he activated the thing, pushing himself forward with surprising speed. He focused his personal energy on a simple spell, a push of energy that, truthfully, wouldn’t even reach the Dogman, but it didn’t need to. The energy that it provided was enough for Tsubasa to catch the tail of, boosting his speed even further to get him between the two in time. He had been cooking at the time of the intrusion, and thus the sleeves of his hoodie had been pushed up. With a quick jerking motion of his forearm, he dropped the hoodie and threw his arm up in between the axe and the elder as he grabbed the black and white senior and pushed him out of the way of the strike.
The force of which had caused him to stumble off of the ride and barely catch the hoverboard before it zoomed off. Sparing a glance to ensure that the elder was fine, he looked up at Captain Lieutenant Dogman who was rounding on him now. The two of them locked eyes. Tsubasa knew that his power was severely dampened right now, but as long as he held eye contact with this guy, he could maybe—
In a surprisingly serious voice, Tsubasa asked, “What are you afraid of?” And although the warrior couldn’t understand the words, he stopped in his tracks as he seemed to be able to understand the sentiment. His eye twitched and he dropped his weapon, lost in his own fears for the briefest of moments. The magic wouldn’t last much longer than that, but that was all he needed. Getting to his feet, Tsubasa hoisted the weapon up just enough to slice through the gut of the stone man. He let out a muffled grunt and fell to the ground in a heap.
Such a big axe had weighed even more than it looked. It was only the adrenaline that had allowed him to pick it up in the first place. He dropped the weapon, which shattered under its own weight, and examined his own arm. Without the protection of his hoodie, that strike would have likely taken his arm clean off. Although there was a red stain of fresh blood underneath, he seemed to be more or less in tact. He put that first aid to use, grabbing gauze from his pack and applying it to his arm. The little creature that had been in his hood was now assisting in the application, using a cotton swab to clean the wound before it was wrapped.
“He said they knew that the others were coming,” The elder said. “You must try and warn them. They could be walking into a trap!!”
“I’m on it,” Tsubasa grabbed his hoverboard and under his breath he said, “Oh no, if only we knew someone who was incredibly fast and cool and could catch up with them.” He looked around and grabbed a chunk of the axe's remains, what appeared to now be a makeshift dagger. He took off in a sprint, throwing the board underneath him and sped off towards the others.
WC: 1829/2500