As the fire crackled and their meal was cooked and dished out amongst them, Gerard listened quietly to Valentine's tale. She was a creation of some kind? And had been frozen in ice until recently? Needless to say, this was all a big surprise to Gerard. The fact that her fruit, the Paw Paw fruit, allowed basic teleportation abilities was almost secondary.

"Well, that's quite a life you've had so far," Gerard replied once she had finished, "Gotta say I wasn't expecting that.." He took a gulp of the juice Valentine had brought them, before continuing. "I can't say I'm familiar to Trost. I've only been in the North Blue, South Blue, and now here. Though now that you mention that log pose, perhaps we can help eachother out." He gave the masked beauty a smile. "You have a log pose, and I have a ship and a navigator who can use it. We don't we team up? Go see the world together. I'll help you work out what you want to be in this world, and if I get some money to bring back to Minion, even better."

He extended a hand out to his new partner. "What do you say? When by friends come along, let's get off this island together."

"Well, to be able to travel to an island through my means I need to have my log pose attuned to it, and seeing as I was frozen I guess my log pose didn't track that time, or it did and we got a little while left to go, but after it's reset sure, I need to explore the world to be able to increase the places I can travel to on my own after all." she said as she took a hold of his hand and shook it.

"Well, to a new partnership!" she said as she raised her cup made out of some of the wood that she had collected, it was more of a mug but it worked its due. As they ate and drunk the rest of the night they laid in to sleep before waking up on the now albeit more cold island, the trees had their leaves change colors and it all was as if the autumn was coming even though it felt like the middle of the summer just yesterday. "Hey Gerard, wake up, we got training to do if we are just going to sit around here till we get a ride.." she said towards the man that she had greeted the other day and made her companion. During the night they had informed each other more of their abilities than what they thought, both now knowing what the other does even though Valentine doesn't do a lot at the moment, but she wants to become a free agent, a mercenary some what.

They both were now informed of the others abilities of haki and willpower and the like, and gotten to learn about each other during the nights harsh partying to celebrate their newfound friendship. They knew their capabilities now if one was to say it like that. As they both started to wake up more and more they sat around the blistering corpse of the campfire and the skeleton of the bear was close by which Valentine had started making a throne out of, but she needed more animal bones if that was to work out, sinister yes but hell if it wasn't fancy with a throne of bones of her fallen enemies. A few roars came out of the rumbling jungle in the morning of the island, and it was as if she had flashbacks from the night before as wolves with 3 meters in length and 2 meters height crawled out of the forest, at least 10 to 15 of them surrounding the camp, it seemed as if they got the training delivered to them as if it had been take away food.

infoz:

As their new partnership was set, the pair would turn in for the night, the warmth of the dying fire keeping them warm throughout the cool night.

Gerard would be awakened the next morning by Valentine, telling him they may as well get some training in while they wait for his companions to arrive. Yeah, some training wouldn't hurt. It would help pass the time while they waited. As they got ready, he noticed the makeshift throne of bones made out of the bear skeleton. "Nice throne," Gerard chuckled, before suddenly multiple wolves burst out of the trees. Guess they smelled the remains of the bear and thought to come for an easy meal.

"Well the, let the training begin," Gerard said with a small laugh, before suddenly a burst of poisonous gas surrounded himself and Valentine. He figured her gas mask would protect her from the poison, and would provide some decent cover. Drawing his cane, the Dandyman began opebing fire on the wolves, the gas keeping them at bay, lest they get a good mouthful of poison. He didn't have much to worry about though, as he figured these wolves didn't possess any haki capabilities of their own. A walk in the park really.

skills:

It would probably be pretty easy seeing as the man before her had gaseous like powers and the like, plus the fact that he can make any type of gas that he wanted himself, plus the fact that he's a scientist so he could alter the effects of the gases themselves to a much higher level than any normal person would be. This made it so that she didn't know if she was going to get anything to train against even.

So she hurried, rushing towards the wolves she wanted to actually take something down for once instead of just sending it across the world to decrease her worries. "Been awhile since I've tested my skill against some proper opponents, lets go you savages!" she screamed as she rushed towards the pack animals on the other side of what Gerard was clearing as they were all around them. She took her palms to her sides as she rushed towards her, as her hand shook several times she aimed it towards the wolves as she manevoured under some of them and shot paw printed projectiles through them making them quiver as they screamed with blood filling their bodies. Several wolves was now out of combat and laid down as they were defeated by her powers.

She looked behind her to see Gerard fighting them off with his gas powers valiantly. "Hey Gerard, scream if you need any help my dapper gentleman of a partner!" she said as she wrestled one wolf down to the ground with her repulsing powers.

As Valentine ran out of Gerard's cloud to attack the wolves behind him, many of the wolves in front of him dashed into the poisonous cloud to try and attack him. Despite the poison in the air, they were willing to charge in to take a bite out of the gasman.

As they dashed and leaped at him, Gerard ducked and rolled out of the way to avoid their attacks. The poison stinging their eyes made their attacks easier to dodge, as Gerard swung out with his cane to counter attack, hitting them squarely in the sides. Normally he wouldn't have bothered with dodging, as his logia powers would have made their attacks useless. But then again, the would have defeated the purpose now wouldn't it? Just because these wolves possessed no haki, didn't mean future opponents wouldn't. As such, Gerard would train himself on dodging attacks, for when those attacks were infused with haki. So far, the training was going well.

As Valentine called back to him, Gerard took note that plenty of the wolves were inside the poison cloud. He looked back at his partner and smirked. "Thanks for the offer my dear partner. But I think I have this handled." As two wolves dove at him, Gerard suddenly shot skyward, causing them to collide with eachother. Gerard burst out of the cloud from above and pointed his cane downward. A stream of flame shot out, connecting with the gas and igniting it in a small explosion. Sand was sent flying in all directions, and Gerard set himself down amongst the smoke, taking note of the unconscious wolves. "Not bad," he murmured to himself with a grin, looking around to see how many wolves were left.

"You never know, you know." she said as she panted and cleaned her face of the dirt that had taken its new home on Valentines face before she could feel some rain drops on her silk smooth skin. "After the last few, wanna set up some sort of actually applicable shelter?" she said towards her gaseous partner as she scouted on the field to see how many more of these savages were left for her to take down. "You take those two and I take these two alright?" she said as she hinted towards two wolves that were trying to sneak up on Gerard and two ones that were already circling around Valentine after the smoke had passed from the grave fight that went down just mere moments before.

She needed a new fighting style that allowed her to make use of her strength more, at least she thought so, plus this power she had was pretty dangerous after all seeing as it had no friends or enemies, just victims of its grand power. She wanted something were she herself could decide who to target, like something involving kicks and punches maybe. Or maybe a sword style? She didn't know exactly what she wanted but she wanted something that allowed for more versatility and possibly saving her hands for her ace, so no one would know her style exactly making for a lot more ways to engage in combat and the likes of it, but for now she had to survive on the island with what she had and who knows maybe afterwards she would have a fighting style worthwhile of mentioning that isn't reliant on her Paw powers, but for now all she needed to have her mind on is the wolves around her that are diving in for her flesh and bones.

Just as Valentine mentioned the last two remaining wolves, they lept at the Dandyman from behind, only to pass through him harmlessly. Needless to say the canines were very confused by this sudden turn of events. Gerard on the other hand was thoroughly amused. "Ah, ah, ah. Naughty." he chuckled, before suddenly there was a blast of compressed air, sending the wolves flying into the air. Quickly drawing his cane, Gerard opened fire, hitting the flying dogs and sending their bodies crashing into the ocean.

Gerard let out a small sigh of satisfaction, dusting off his hands before he noticed the rain drops beginning to fall. A decent shelter would be a good idea. As Valentine finished off the remaining wolves, Gerard flew up amongst the trees and began gathering some of the more larger leaves, of which there were plenty, to use as a cover for their shelter. He did see a decent spot further inland, amongst some trees which were decently sheltered. Maybe Valentine could use her strength to bend them down a bit to make them more secure.

"I found a good spot whenever you're ready," he called out to her.

One of the wolves stalked her like prey when walking around her whilst the other one looked as if it was trying to go for the kill whenever an opening showed itself. She didn't want to risk anything and thus when she moved one tiny step one of the wolves leaped for her throat, not realizing that it fucked up. She quickly reacted, sidestepped around the wolves flying body as she raised her right hand and punch repelled the wolf with her palm tens of meters away into the jungle with a booming explosion of it landing being heard.

The other one started to run but she wouldn't allow it as she repelled the air behind her in spurts to allow her to fly closer and closer to it before doing the same to the other one. After having collected the wolves she dragged them towards where Gerard had mean't just moments before.
"So Gerard", a looming explosion of sound could be heard as she dragged and bended down trees to serve as a better way of protecting them from the rain, they didn't know how long they would be here after all, "You're made of gas, but whats the standard gas? Like is there any limitations to it, can you alter it to different types? How does it work exactly?" she said as she tried to get a wider scope on the mans abilities to know his full potential.

Gerard couldn't help but chuckle as she launched one of the remaining wolves flying, only for it to explode in the distance some time later, as Valentine used her enormous strength to bed down the trees. Gerard was able to use some vines to tie them together like rope, enabling him to set the leaves out together as some sort of roof.

At her question regarding his abilities, Gerard murmured quietly to himself as he worked. "Well, I guess my default gas can be, well, just plain gas. No taste, no smell, no ill effects. But I can change that when I use it. I can make it poisonous, I can make it explosive or at least combustible. I can make it cold, like with hydrogen for example. Hell, I can even manipulate the air around me." He gave a small shrug. "After taking control of Minion, I've started looking into chemistry, see what I can really do with my gas."

He fixed the last leaf into place. "And done! Oh..." The shelter was handsomely made, and would do in providing shelter from the coming rain. The problem, which Gerard now realized, was that there wasn't much room under it, at least for the two of them to spread out. "Might be abit of a fit."

Gerard fixed it pretty handsomely as expected by of such a dapper man. As she walked closer and closer towards their newly established camp as she shrugged herself in among the leaves before gesturing for her male companion to join her by patting lightly on the ground next to her as she took of her black hat and put it in her lap as she sat as a cross. "Well, after meeting you Gerard, quite honestly," she said as she flung her head back and fourth to swing her hair around to get it all in one place, being in front of her pale face for it to be brushed by her nails and to be groomed to perfection. "I've actually felt calmer than usual, and not even a bit shy, I just wanted to say... thank you" she said as she looked through her hair towards the dapper man before sheathing her face into her hair again as she tries to pick out the leaves and dirt that had stuck itself together in her hair.

"And to be honest, you're one of the few people that I don't feel weird around, maybe it's because of the ways people disrespect me seeing as I'm not made, "naturally" as many others as I was actually cloned from someone else that has probably passed away by now..." she said as she lowkey tried to explain where she came from to Gerard before continuing on her life history, "thus the ID number for a name, and the paw fruit wasn't really mine to take, I stole it, they found me, they imprisoned me on this island and well, " she took a brief pause as she flung her hair back behind her and looking straight into the gentleman's eyes, "That's why I'm here...".

As they worked on the shelter the sun started to go down and she had already set up a brazier for them to sit around whilst the cooking of the wolves for dinner proceeded to go down, smoking the meat this time to make for quite an interesting gastronomical experience. "You mentioned Minion, which sea is it in? And how much of a resistance was it for you to take it?" she said as she took a big bite out of the smoked wolf leg she held in her right hand next to the warm campfire in the albeit pretty cold night.

Thankfully she didn't seem to mind sharing the space with him. In fact, she invited him to join her as she let down her hair to clean it out. Gerard sat beside her, blushing lightly as their bodies brushed together. It was then that Valentine explained more of her a story. So, she was a clone, had stolen her devil fruit, and was frozen as a result. He couldn't help but feel sympathy for her as she spoke how others found her unnatural. [Color=orange]"Well, Gerard said, reaching out to run his fingers through her hair, "I think whoever made you was right on the money." He quickly pulled his hand away, blushing when he realized what he was doing.

Thankfully, working on straightening out the shelter and getting dinner ready cut through any potential awkward silences. As the two sat bunched up together, eating. Valentine brought up the topic of Minion, asking how he got control of it. "To be honest, it was a long road before I got it. I had to fight representatives of each faction. Pirate, revolutionary, and marine. And let me tell you, the pirates and revolutionary didn't play fair. It was me versus about ten of them at a minimum! Only the marine fought me one on one. And, well, that was when I learned about Haki." he chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Anyway, I beat them and the people of Minion accepted me as their leader. I've been working on building up the place ever since." He took a bite out of some smoked wolf. Who'd have thought wolf was so tasty?

"I wouldn't mind leading an island actually, I guess I'll have to set it up as a goal of sorts!" she said as she chuckled with some meat still in her mouth before swallowing and brushing herself clean with nearby leaves, "Sorry, where are my manners? Thanks for accepting me, honestly.. it feels great to have someone that doesn't run from me because of my powers..." she said towards Gerard before looking down on her hands, her pulsing palms which she could almost guarantee have a curse seeing as she has hurt many loved ones in the past using them. "I've hurt many people in the past, I just don't want to do the same thing to you because of some stupid reason, so I say we set up a pact right here and now..." she said as she looked towards him again.

"We promise to always stay true to each other whatever happens..." she said as she raised her hand towards him to indicate a handshake between the two parts. "Alright?" she said as her eyes glinted in the moonlight, as if the stars had appeared in her eyes before she blushed a bit on her cheeks as she realized what she was saying, she didn't care how he interpreted it as long as he agreed to it, if anything she wouldn't mind being this man's woman after all, seeing as she needed to be loved in one way or another.

"Considering what you're capable of, I'd say go for it. I think you have what it takes to be a Queen." Gerard chuckled as he remembered seeing the throne of bones and imagining her sitting on it. The image seemed appropriate.

Then the mood took a dip. It seemed that Valentine was a bit scared of her powers, more importantly scared of hurting HIM. Gerard was flattered by her concern, and understood it. When he started out with the Gasu Gasu no Mi, he trained by himself to avoid harming others. Some practise with her fruit would solve that problem.

And then came her proposal, for the two to remain true to eachother. Gerard blushed lightly at her wording, and judging by the look on her face, she only just now realized how it sounded. Then again, was that really such a bad thing? Valentine was beautiful, at least what he could see, and she was certainly very capable and intelligent. The fact that she was a clone was of no consequence to him.

Looking into her eyes, Gerard gave a warm smile. "Alright." He took her hand gently, taking note that those pads on her palm were quite soft to the touch. But as he looked into those shining eyes, a thought occured to him. "If I may, why do you wear that mask?" He had noticed she kept her face covered, even while they were eating. He couldn't understand why.

"I've always thought that I'm not that good looking, and my mouth well, is probably my worst aspect..." she said as she noticed him getting closer, then she thought about it, maybe this person wouldn't be such a bad person to have around, and she gets along with him a lot better than any other at the moment seeing as she just got unfrozen, but getting in a relationship this early on? Maybe she thought as she sat there by the fire as the man got closer and closer.

"Please, I don't want to disgust you..." she said as she noticed him going further, seeing as she thought of herself as a monster under the mask as she only remembers ever having worn it all the time, she doesn't know how her mouth looks as she doesn't remember ever not wearing it on her face like a plastered band aid, and it felt like one too, like it shouldn't be on anymore, but she didn't have the courage to do it either as she had been told that something awful would happen if she was to ever show it to anyone.

Maybe this was just to keep her safe from things such as Gerards gas body or anything else of that nature, harmful gases, fluids and the like, to give her more security, but in any case that mask hides what she truly has underneath, a beautiful all natural face.