Chapter Text
”Aaaaaaargh! This is impossible!”
The 2nd Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates raised an eyebrow at his fellow commander, who was seemingly having a mental breakdown over a map.
”What's up with Thatch?” he eventually asked, glancing at Marco, who was looking bored at the shenanigans happening not five feet from them. This had probably been going on for a while, then.
”The idiot is trying to track down the Bate Entertainment Company. It's proven to be a much bigger task than he first anticipated. I did warn him, yoi.”
Ace fought the snicker attempting to burst through. Ho boy, Thatch had no idea what he had gotten himself into. Honestly, those guys never had a set route for their tours and could go for a while before putting on another performance, making it even more difficult to track them. Not to mention the fact that no one knew what their ship looked like. There was a good reason for that, and it wasn't even like they were consciously hiding their tracks.
But, if Thatch was really that desperate, Ace wondered why he hadn't just asked for help. Any help. Hell, it was a wonder he hadn't thought to call the Informant... then again, she had a reputation when it came to payments...
Eh, maybe he should take pity on the chef, though he did wonder just why he wanted to track them down so badly. He'd been on the Den Den with Edwina about a week ago, so he knew where they were heading next.
Sliding beside the frustrated man, Ace grinned as he snatched the map and waited for Thatch to look at him. Once he did, the Logia sing-songed ”Rumor has it~”
Hey, he'd been stuck for a month on a ship with a constantly singing crew. Something was bound to stick. Well, stuck was relative, it wasn't like he'd really tried to leave...
Thatch looked torn between amusement and exasperation ”Alright, you little sneak, what have you got?”
No one really knew where Ace got his information from and the Logia wasn't sharing, but they'd learned not to question his so called rumors by now. And if Ace was interrupting him when trying to plot out the Bate's most probably route, then it had to be about them. He'd take anything he could get at this point.
Ace waved the map idly, smiling even wider ”The Rilla is sailing to Fishman Island~”
The tall-haired chef tried to swipe back his map, but his half-hearted attempts didn't let him snatch it from the younger Commander ”And the Rilla is?”
”Name of their ship, of course~”
Thatch really didn't like when Ace got into his singing moods, he sounded way too smug when he did, but he'd take it. The only way he'd sound more smug would be if he kept saying 'I now something you don't know~' on a loop for a few minutes. Besides, Ace had no idea he'd just helped Thatch with his own Birthday party, which Thatch had braved The Informant for the date.
Worth it. Even if the Informant's payment was to hire the Bate Entertainment Company for the bash. He'd have taken a boatload of chocolate instead of this any day. But oh well, he'd sealed his fate when he'd called the woman.
Now, he just had to get to Fishman island before or during the time Bate was there. Fun.
Oh well, no time like the present.
Damn. Thatch had to admit, he'd never thought he'd be missing all that much for not having seen a single show by them. But damn. They were good. Especially with only seven actors doing all the roles. Sure, the immersion was ruined a little by the fact you could tell which actors were playing which characters, but once you got past that you could definitely see the talent behind it. Though honestly, Thatch wondered where the hell they got their ideas and if he could get away with calling Ace a Hobbit even though he was way taller than the fictional beings in the play, which was apparently supposed to be three plays but Bate had decided to pull all three as a special for the Royalty of Fishman island. No one was complaining, even though the showing was ungodly long. He wondered how the theater group was still going- never mind, he could smell coffee. And a lot of it. He also really wanted to shield surf now, but if he got injured doing it and Bate left while he suffered a concussion he'd never live it down.
The 4th Division Commander waited until there were less people around after the show had ended before approaching anyone from the company. They were already dismantling the stage and the man had to admit it was impressive how easily it folded up into a smaller space and smaller pieces. It was obvious they were professionals. Or at the very least good at what they did. The brunette overseeing the labour seemed like a good option in approaching them.
”Yo,” Thatch called once he was close enough, catching the girl's attention. She couldn't be older than Ace, he thought as he continued ”I'd like to book you guys for a birthday party on New Years, who do I need to talk to?”
The girl opened her mouth in understanding and nodded, before turning and calling ”Hey, we got a booking!”
There was a faint call of ”A'ight!” and some rustling and crashing before a black haired guy appeared from behind some boxes with a clipboard ”Got it!”
The brunette he handed it to did not look amused ”You're a walking catastrophe, you know that right?” she deadpanned as she turned to face Thatch again.
The raven walked away with a huff, probably to resume whatever he'd been doing previously
The brunette ignored him and instead handed Thatch the clipboards and a pen ”Fill that out would you? We can talk specifics after that.”
The Whitebeard nodded, clicking the pen and turning his gaze to the questionnaire he'd been handed ”Alright.”
He had to admit, the text was pretty straightforward with mostly just checking the correct box and a few places that required actual writing.
This is a party for:
Pirates [ ]
Marines [ ]
Civilians [ ]
Catering: Yes [ ] No [ ]
People in attendance: ______
D's in attendance: ______
Secret D in attendance, do not reveal: Yes [ ] No [ ]
Performance/s:
Song [ ]
Dance [ ]
Play [ ]
Other, what? (Further negotiation required)_____________________________
What kind of party are you hosting?: ______________________________________
And so on it went, asking for detail about the person the party was for, if it was a party meant for a specific person at all, allergies if BEC was required to do catering, which he'd already answered ”no” to, where and when the party was to be held and so on.
He wondered how much needed to be discussed further as he handed the clipboard back so that the brunette could read it.
Eventually she spoke ”Whitebeards, huh. In that case I'm so glad we don't need to do catering. I assume it's just the main ship that will be attending, then?”
”Yup,” Thatch said, popping the p as he spoke ”We rarely meet up, all of us, but New Years is often a leave period where a lot of us go back to our home islands. The Moby is gonna be at Foodvalten this year, though.”
The Bate member nodded ”When you say New Years, is the birthday in December or January?”
”January 1st, I'm gonna make everyone shout Happy Birthday instead of New Year, Ace is gonna be so surprised! I guess it would be best if you start your thing pretty much immediately after that, for maximum effect.”
The brunette smirked at him ”I like the way you think. So, are you gonna have the party on shore or on deck? Either is fine, it's just that setting up the stage on deck would take a lot more effort and sneaking around, so we'd need help on that front.”
Thatch rubbed his chin at that ”... Shore, I guess, I'm sure I can get you some help in the set-up anyway.”
The brunette nodded again ”Alright, considering the fact you crossed only ”Song” and we don't need to do catering, not to mention we have an infinite Log Pose for Foodvalten already, the end sum will be 3,000 Beli. Payment can be made after the performance if you can't pay upfront.”
Thatch was surprised by the low price, but didn't comment and paid upfront. He'd brought way more money than that, with Oyaji's permission, but he was glad he didn't need to spend it all. He received a receipt of his ”purchase”, which also meant he could prove that he'd booked them for the party if they failed to show up.
He wondered how many people had tried to make fuss over them not appearing even though they'd never been actually booked. Oh well, at least the Informant couldn't rip him a new one, he had proof that he'd paid the toll!
Still a weird payment, if you asked him.
Thatch had no idea how hard he'd just been duped.
Tbc...