Chapter Text
Calmness, tranquility, and peace; three very simple ideas that should be very easy to attain. Hell, that's what yesterday was about almost, everything replaying in Chip's mind like a VHS tape. He just lays on his makeshift bed with his eyes closed, just for a bit longer while the noise outside begins to raise. He estimates that he could stay for 20 more minutes in his quiet den, lackadaisically lost in his own mind. However, he could only get a few more moments before he felt something drip on his face. He knew it was only a matter of time before something, now more of the ordinary than not, was to happen.
Chip slowly opens his eyes to see what was waiting for him on the other side of sleep, and to no one's surprise it was Gillion directly staring into his eyes, mere inches away. Another droplet fell from his forehead to Chip's - just how, the sea is currently not unlike a poison, how is he wet.
"Good morning Chip!" Gillion leans back to his knees and stands up. He then puts his hand out to help Chip up from his sleeping position, to which he hesitantly accepts. He almost immediately regrets it as Gillion grips onto his forearm and pulls him out of his tent with the force of a raging bull and into the forest, but he figures that, with yesterday, this is the day Gillion is giving him. So, he lets it happen, again, letting his mind wander to what Gill could have in store for the two of them. He also thinks back to how many times he had been pulled into a forest for any and all shenanigans, which was a lot.
After only a few swift seconds of pondering, they arrive at the same clearing that Jay took him to the day prior, but they didn't stop there. Gillion brought them through the same clearing where the two animals went yesterday and ventured deeper into the wood. It seemed like a path was already carved out for them to follow; did Gillion prepare this all morning for them? Now this really has Chip's mind rolling, what the hell on god's green earth are they going to do today. Chip is starting to get antsy in both excitement and genuine fear. To try to calm himself down, he started to take in the surroundings: there was a light rustling coming from the direction they're heading, the path they were taking became more like a trench with how much flora was around them, the animals were still scurrying around them.
The thoughts are soon thrown away when they reach their final destination, a body of water completely surrounded with tall grasses and even taller trees, on the other side of them was a large cliff-face with water falling from above. Gillion lets go of Chip, finally, and walks towards the lake. Chip stays still for a moment, taking in the sweet scent of fresh water; compared to the rancid ichor of the sea surrounding them, this is like a slice of heaven. Gillion turns back to him to motion him to come forth, adding, "It's actual water! It's not salt water but it's something. Better than out there. I found this while exploring more of the forest after I woke up. This island is extremely immense despite what we saw before we docked." Chip follows the cue and joins Gill by the side of the lake, the water is so clear that they can see straight to the bottom, rocks embedded into the ground like a mosaic and small minnows swimming around. Maybe Chip assumed wrong, maybe today will be just as peaceful as it was yesterday...
"This is what I have planned, we are going to cause havoc." It took Chip a second to register what was just said, he quickly looked over to Gill whose face was still, with a sharp, shit-eating smirk plastered across his face. Spoken as if this was a regular weekend activity, Gill continues, "we are going to fuck shit up and do a prank. The best recipe for the best day" Chip can tell that he thought long and hard about how to give Chip the Gillion version of 'The Best Day Ever' , maybe thirty minutes of brainstorming before Jay had to intervene, but Chip will give him the benefit of the doubt and go along with the plan to wreak havoc on the island... Whatever that means.
"But before we start..." Gillion turned to face Chip directly, "Do you want to take a swim in the lake? It is quite nice: not too warm, not too cold, but it is fresh water so be wary of that." Gillion grimaced at the last part. Chip thought about it for a second, this will probably be the only good source of water they'll come into contact with for a good while, he might as well make the most of it. Then he thinks about it again, he is bones, it wouldn't be the same as before. He shakes his head and answers, "Nah, I'm good for now, so how are we going to 'cause havoc' in your mind?"
Gillion responds with a sharp, toothy grin and starts to use his magic. Moving his hands in an upwards motion, blueish green mist surrounds his whole arms as the water from the lake moves with him. He then pulls it in front of them both into various pillars of different heights and widths, all topped with a formless mass. Once over a dozen water pillars are in place, he shuts his fists and they completely freeze in place, the masses freezing in all different shapes as well. The mist dissipates as he puts his hands on his hips, looking very proud of himself, and twists to face Chip.
"Destruction in a controlled environment. Plus, you", Gillion goes and boops Chip on the nose, "can practice your magic. Go on, shoot the pillars. Turn them into dust!" Gillion stepped back to let Chip take center stage, crossing his arms like he was going to judge Chip's work. He closes his eyes, breathes in, rolls his shoulders back, breathes out, and opens his eyes with the fury and determination to absolutely demolish the various structures that laid before him.
He starts simple, producing a flame in his left hand then rolling it between his hands. He shifts it to his right hand and throws it to one of the pillars that matched his eye-line that had a cube on top. The projectile explodes upon impact with the cube of ice, making the rest of the pillar look like a candle wick, steadily melting down until there is nothing left. Chip chuckles a bit, feeling the adrenaline course through his body. He's fired up now; he sets his sights to one of the short pillars farther away from where he stood. He only points his finger at the pillar with an almost perfect sphere on top, only standing about a foot off the dirt floor, he squints to get a better aim. He once again takes a breath in and holds it for a second. He steadies his hand, the extra moisture in the air causing a slight chill to pass by them, he breathes out and shoots. A small bolt of fire shoots from his fingertip and starts to zip around the other pillars, almost like it had a mind of its own, before finding purchase upon the sphere, causing it to smash into tiny ice shards that imbed themselves into other nearby pillars. That was a bit weird, Chip turns back to Gillion for approval, to which Gill just shrugs. He doesn't know what that was either, but it was cool as hell, so Chip continues.
One after one, Chip shoots fire bolts at the pillars, each having their own distinct flavor of casting. Some of them, Chip names the maneuver like "The Hammy Whammy" or "The Beaver Cleaver". Eventually all of the ice pillars are reduced to shards, small plumes of smoke disperse in the air. Chip starts to shake out his hand to release the extra energy and turns to Gillion, who has a smile as wide as his ego smeared across his face, he has something else up his sleeve. They stare at each other for a good minute, Chip's forced breath showing its shape versus Gillions intensely sharp grin, both waiting for the other to make the first move. This is now combat - fire versus water, Chip versus Gillion.
In a swift motion Gillion lifts his arm to summon one of the ice shards near him to his hand to use as a makeshift ice knife and throws it towards Chip's shoulder. He reaches across his body to catch the projectile and it immediately evaporates in his hand. Gillion repeats this motion over and over again, staying in the same place but throwing the shards all over the place, making Chip really reach to grab them, speed training one might say. Soon enough, the shards are turned back into water and seep back into the ground. Chip is breathing more heavily from running back and forth for this insane game of catch, he bends over and clutches his knees to try to catch his breath. Gillion finally moves from his place to put his hand on Chip's shoulder. A weird feeling travels from the touch throughout him, making him feel weaker and more feeble than ever before, even to the point where he shakes a bit as if a chill wind blows by. Gillion jerks his hand away and raises both to his mouth.
"I am so sorry, I forgot. I just tried to heal you. I... I..." Gillion starts to desperately apologize. Chip goes straight into damage-control mode, "Gill, Gill it's okay I'm fine. Just got a lil too cold, heh." He says, attempting to lighten the mood, "Did you have anything else planned for today?" Gill breathes in and out to steady himself, he looks at Chip and nods.
"I was thinking of performing a prank on Jay and/or Drey, similar to ones that you've described whilst with the Black Rose..." Gill said, with a twinge of uncertainty of if it's a good idea, but Chip smiles wide.
"Say no more, what did you have in mind?" So before heading back, they came up with a plan to prank both Jay and Drey in one swoop. It took them a bit of working and re-working, but they came up with a solid idea. On their way back they pick up some sticks and loose grass that Gill cut earlier when making the path to the lake. They get back to the beach but a bit farther out from where they entered to set up the trap.
Chip rejoins the beach camp, from behind Jay mid conversation between her and Queen. Without paying much attention to what they were talking about, Chip puts his arm around Jay's shoulder and says, "Haha yeah, that's the end of the story, May I borrow Jay for a second, great, thank you." and pulls her away. She tries to get away from Chip's grasp but utterly fails, lightly slapping his face in the process.
"What the hell chip, we were talking about something important!"
"Well, I have something even more important that I need you and..." Chip stops for a second and scopes around the camp for any signs of Drey, spotting him leaning against barrels at the makeshift juice bar, talking to Earl and Igneous. Chip shifts his course over to them and, like before, ignores the conversation and hooks his free arm around Drey. "Great times, great times, anyways I need Drey for a hot minute, thanks' ' and they all walk away from the camp.
"What the hell is happening?" Drey questions as they are pulled, rudely, away from their conversations.
"Beats me, but it better be good" Jay responds. Chip just beams forward to a crudely drawn 'X' scratched into the sand.
"Okay, I wanted to show both of you something that I think you would thoroughly find... SMASHING..." Chip screams the last word while moving off to the side, waiting for something to happen. When nothing happens after a minute, he repeats, "SMASHING...". Again, to silence. He sighs, "Wait here for a sec." He runs off to the tree line, whispering something just beyond their sight. They watch him then disappear into the forest. Drey and Jay just look at each other with concern.
"What do you think he wanted to show us?" Drey said.
"It's probably something stupid, but let's just roll with it when he comes back." Jay shrugged.
After a few minutes without Chip they started to get worried, what is happening just beyond the brush. Then, like an eclipse, a large shadow hovers over them.
"Did it just get even darker- oh fuck" Jay looks up to see a solid disc of something. Not just something, pants, and not just pants, jorts.
A plague of jorts descend upon the Ferins. The last thing Jay and Drey saw before being smothered by the cropped jeans was the shit-eating grins of both Chip and Gillion. In victory, the two boys jump and holler, jubilantly laughing while walking towards the messy pile of pants and Ferin. Chip helps Drey as Gill helps Jay up.
"Where in all of Mana did you get that many pairs of fuckin' pants, man" Drey kicks at Chip's shins in retaliation.
"Ow, quit it, ok ok, i'll tell ya later, but... get pranked" Chip finger-guns and winks at the old man.
"I knew a prank was part of your day but I thought it was gonna be only Drey" Jay punched Gill on the shoulder, then shook her hand in pain from punching his armor.
"Sorry, I almost fucked it up so i added you to the roster to make up for it" Gillion apologized, tanking the feeble punch.
"What happened?"
"I'd rather not say right now, we should be in the moment ... for him." They both look over to Chip who is being chased around by Drey, still trying to kick him in the shins. They giggle and join in on the fun, strolling behind the other two running back towards camp. From the distance they hear Chip yell, "YOU CAN'T CATCH ME OLD MAN, I'M FAST AS-" before he trips on a singular stray branch and lands flatly on the pristine sand. Drey gets up to the unmoving mass and scratches at his side with his toes, causing Chip to roll and giggle a bit. The other two catch up finally and they all walk back to the beach camp, with smiles on their faces.
The following day they figure a route to, what should be, an abandoned navy stronghold using the map from Captain Rose's treasure. Jay is very adamant about going there, despite their previous struggles, but who knows what could be locked in there, untouched by the world for the past decade. They pack up the camp and load it back onto the ship. Before they push the ship off Chip pulls Jay and Gillion off to the side, when he fully gets out of the rest of the crew's sight he pulls the two in for a hug.
"Thank you so much, this was the most fun I've ever had, and will probably get while we're in here." Chip squeezes their shoulders, and they hug back with the same amount of force, and they stay like that for a bit. Jay breaks the silence first, "there's no amount of stupid magic bullshit that can keep you away from us, away from this crew...". They pull away from each other, beaming with the whimsy of reuniting with a childhood friend, then Chip lightly pushes Jay and says, "Tag you're it", and runs onto the ship. Gillion looks over to Jay for a second, then to Chip, back to Jay - who was getting ready to pounce - then books it to the ship as well. Jay sighs and runs after the two. They really are just a bunch of kids who grew up too soon.