I Got Taken to Hinoto-Ri and All I Got Was This Lousy Persona

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

Who: Guybrush Threepwood with El Pollo Diablo, open.
Where: Pretty much damn well everywhere in the city.
Summary: Guybrush, we're pretty sure this is a gross abuse of your Persona's abilities.
Warnings: Treasure hunting without logic or sense.
Guybrush still finds the giant chicken embarrassing.

On the other hand, it turns out that Guybrush can be quite forgiving when he wants to be. Especially when that want happens to, say, coincide with the unlocking of a new ability. And ESPECIALLY when that ability apparently detects treasure, because what sort of pirate turns down a treasure hunt?

So here's Guybrush. And here's a giant chicken. And they're checking out every garbage can, barrel, and other random container in the city. Some of the "treasure" turned out to be junk even Guybrush couldn't utilize properly, but they've found a few things, like potions, and minor items, and even food! (Yeah, like heck he's eating that.)

Naturally, this is going to, well, turn some heads.

Comments

In the alley with the dumpsters behind the cafe Minato works at in Saggitarius

[fools_journey]

Minato is just coming outside to take some of the trash out during a non-busy moment in his shift when he hears a cluck and some rattling. Wondering if maybe there's some chicken demon going after their trash, he hurries, rounding the dumpster to see who's on the other side only to see...

"Threepwood...? What are you... doing?"

He's staring at the chicken persona more than he's really staring at the pirate.

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

It's a pretty angry-looking and demonic giant chicken. You should probably be thankful it's just a Persona, or else you'd probably be hearing about most of the chicken restaurants in Hinoto-Ri going down in flames.

"Treasure hunting! Did you know this big ol' guy can apparently tell me where stuff is? It's pretty amazing."

He pulls out something. "Huh. Who'd throw away a perfect good tomato? It's not even that soft."

[fools_journey]

Minato is very thankful it is just a Persona and not a demon, but it's still... what a persona.

"Yeah, that's -- pretty amazing," Minato replies, though he doesn't sound too enthused. It's the rooting around in the trash. "Maybe it rolled into the trash bin accidentally... can I put these in there before you look more?"

He holds up the two trash bags he is holding. They don't have all that much of value in them - just pastry wrappers and used paper doilies and napkins and sugar packets and so forth. There might be a couple whole stale croissants in there, though, which might meet with Guybrush's approval. Or perhaps not. It depends on how much of a treasure those might be. Also, someone threw away a good spoon, though Minato doesn't know that.

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

The chicken turns, and seems to be looking at those trash bags VERY intently.

Guybrush perks up. "Oh, go ahead."

[fools_journey]

Minato eyes the chicken for a moment before nodding slowly and putting them in the bin for said chicken and pirate to rifle through. He doesn't leave right away, though, curious in spite of himself.

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

He immediately descends upon it, and sure enough, hey, look at that spoon! "And voila! ...er, actually this is a little underwhelming." He glares at the chicken a bit. "It's not even made of metal!"

[fools_journey]

"... I'm not sure that was meant to be thrown away, actually. It looks a little too sturdy to be disposable."

[gforceinmyfaaaace]

Birds of a feather will flock together, they say, and so another, smaller chicken is staring at Guybrush as he steps out of Gabriel's sweets shop in Virgo. The little chicken might be of interest to the big chicken, as force of habit has seen Pit wearing his golden laurel crown despite never wearing his tunic beyond excursions into sparring and the 13th hour.

"What the..."

It's not the chicken he's responding to so much as the human frantically searching every nook, cranny, and garbage can he comes across.

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

"Ah HAH!"

He triumphantly pulls out what appears to be some sort of egg-shaped stone. "THIS would be useful in a proper switch-a-roo -- oh, uh, hi there." He looks at the can. "Well, THIS passes safety standards."

[gforceinmyfaaaace]

"It's a trash can," Pit replies. "It doesn't pass any safety standards. What are you doing, anyway?"

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

"Oh you know. Looking. For stuff." He coughs a bit.

The chicken suddenly lifts its head, and seems to be looking in a different direction. Guybrush closes his eyes. "Oh, hey, how about that? Three blocks down, huh? I really hope this isn't another bag of chicken feed."

[gforceinmyfaaaace]

"You're looking for chicken feed?"

If Guybrush wants Pit to go away he clearly hasn't picked up on the clues.

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

"I'M not. The big guy over here seems to think that counts as treasure, though." He begins following along with the chicken. "Finding all sorts of potentially useful stuff this way, actually."

[echo_of_a_jedi]

......

Meetra's not sure if what Guybrush is doing is legal here or not, so she's just going to quietly observe the lanky, roguish, slightly smelly figure go through mailboxes here for a while.

"Find anything useful?" she asked, eventually.

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

"Well, I just found a gravy boat shaped like a whale. Only slightly chipped! Geez, what a waste." Something shifts, and before you know it, said object isn't present anymore. "Huh, seems like that's it here."

[echo_of_a_jedi]

"So...that counts as useful?" she asked further, not quite sure. Admittedly, she was no stranger to rifling through assorted public containers herself, but that's what happens when you live on your own wandering the galaxy for ten years. At least she was pretty sure that was when she picked it up.

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

"If there's one thing i've learned, it's that any given object that seems like you have no use for it now will have a use SOME day. It's just a matter of figuring out what that use is." He nods sagely, a true veteran of the Adventure Game School of Acquisition.

[echo_of_a_jedi]

Meetra, being from a more modern RPG, is just surprised there aren't huge wads of cash in there just lying around. Okay, not really, she still had a fourth wall.

"I'd imagine that leads to having a big collection of stuff to have on hand 'just in case', doesn't it?" she asked.

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

"Well, yeah..." He scratches his head. "This place is kinda wide open, so it's hard to tell what you're gonna be able to use. Never hurts to have a bunch of stuff in that case." He nods sagely. "Why, you never know if you need a gravy boat to hold a small amount of caustic substance a short distance, or something!"

[darkbaptist]

It wasn't the giant chicken that caught Hikawa's attention so much as the fact that the giant chicken and a man were scavenging through garbage. Weird creatures were par for the course all things considered, but watching this man rummage through trash...it was distasteful.

So for a moment Hikawa just stops and watches before stating, "Can you not just buy what you need from the store?"

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

Oh hey, it's Mr. Eggs. He holds a finger up. "Please. ANYBODY can just go to a store. A PIRATE treasure hunts." He pulls out a horseshoe. "Mmm, could be useful."

[darkbaptist]

Hikawa purses his lips a bit as Threepwood holds a finger up to him. He doesn't appreciate the gesture, or the challenge on what he said. Treasure hunting. Are you a child?

"I suppose it might come in handy if you work in a stable.

You do realize there is a reason these are garbage, correct?"

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

"You have NO imagination." He pockets it. "Anyway, haven't you ever heard the term 'One man's garbage is another man's treasure?' You'd be AMAZED the sorta use I've gotten out of stuff people just threw away for no reason."

[darkbaptist]

"I'm being practical."

But no. You're right. Hikawa has no imagination. He sniffs a bit, disdainful, before responding.

"Tell me what you're going to do with it then. Do you work in a stable, or have a horse?"

[a_pirate_meant_to_be]

"Well, let's see. You might need to trade it with a stablehand for something, you might need it for an impromptu horseshoe-tossing contest, you could find a way to magnetize it and tie it to a rope to pull up something, it can be used as a weight in case you need to disguise the weight of something..."

He counts off a myriad of different uses like this. For a guy with no metaphorical imagination, he sure has a ludicrous number of ways to use a mundane object.