Book 5: Chapter 6: Patch 1.0: Forming Alliances
Book 5: Chapter 6: Patch 1.0: Forming Alliances
None of those new to Rainbow Afro have any idea of what to expect at the sight of him. His appearance matches his name and reputation without fail. From head to toe, not a single thing on his body isn’t rainbow-colored other than his skin and eyes. Even his nails are painted the color of rainbows!
With the Rainbow Galaxy docked, Rainbow Afro himself leaps from his ship’s bow, doing a midair flip, and lands on the wooden walkway where he straightens out his clothes and runs a comb through his afro.
While the scaled alligator men may be acting as if nothing that is going on is out the usual, the same cannot be said for Fenrir, Tabitha, Corwin, and Nell. The first three are watching on with wide, empty eyes with no idea how to react to what they are seeing while Nell offers a polite smile.
Should they be amazed? Amused? Offended? Shocked? Scared? Confused? Inspired? Afraid?
Not a single one of those words could appropriately describe how the group feels at the sight of Rainbow Afro.
But, he’s just a man who looks… unique. Surely, he has a regular personality and doesn’t have anything that could be more surprising than his looks.
“Howdy, y’all,” Rainbow Afro says to the four after catching them staring at them.
They become even more confused.
Not only is he covered in rainbows, but his accent is one with the most heavy, Southern drawl that they have ever heard before.
They had no idea that it was possible for somebody to still sound so stereotypically Southern, but he manages to pull it off while also looking like the true origin of rainbows.
Yes. It is not Rainbow Afro who wishes to mimic the colors of rainbows; it is the rainbows who wish to mimic how Rainbow Afro looks. Rainbows even stole their name from Rainbow Afro. Unfortunately for rainbows, they can not also grow an afro, because such a thing would be silly. Why would it be silly? Because the rainbows know that growing an afro as bouncy and full as Rainbow Afro’s would be impossible and anything less than perfection would be an insult.
“He-hey,” Fenrir forces himself to say after clearing his throat. “I’m Fenrir, leader of the Soaring Wolves.”
“Glada meetcha, Fenrir. Bring yerself a harem there?”
Nell steps up and says, “It is a pleasure to meet you, Rainbow Afro! Sadly, I am the only member of his harem present. I am certain that the others would love to meet you someday. Ah, and you may call me Nell.”
Fenrir tries imagining what it would be like for the others to meet Rainbow Afro.
Serra would probably hide behind him and laugh.
Cassiel would either be dumbfounded and silently judge Rainbow Afro, or she would be upset at just how immersion-ruining his looks are.
As for Azalabulia, Fenrir isn’t entirely sure how she’d react. She would either see Rainbow Afro’s personality and appearance as some sort of roleplay, and love it, or she would react similarly to how Cassiel and Serra might react.
Then there is Nell who is already proving her proper upbringing. She may not legally be a princess, but she’s able to treat everybody with respect without showing any cracks in her smiling expression.
“How’s about we head up to tha meetin’ togetha?” Rainbow Afro asks the group.
“Sure, that sounds good to me,” Fenrir replies.
Meanwhile, Corwin has managed to regain his composure and is joining Nell is politely smiling, but Tabitha… Tabitha just has no idea yet how she’s supposed to be acting right now. Part of her wants to swing her hammer at the man for how utterly ridiculous he looks. The other part of her wants to offer her respect for looking exactly how he wants to look obviously without caring about what anybody else thinks. She is torn between disrespecting and respecting him.
For now, she settles for just following along as the others approach the meeting area. How she is supposed to feel regarding Rainbow Afro is something that she may not ever find out.
“By tha way, ‘at’s a pretty nice ‘ammer ya’ve got there,” Rainbow Afro tells Tabitha, looking over his shoulder.
“And that was one nice ship ya had back there!” Tabitha happily responds with a wide grin on her face. She has decided to like Rainbow Afro.
With that being settled, the group walks into the large building near the back of town as a group of friends – or, at the very least, as a group of people who like each other so far.
King Cat is already sitting at the round meeting table and offers a friendly wave to Fenrir and Rainbow Afro upon seeing them, and Rainbow Afro doesn’t hesitate to wave back and head over to the table.
However, not even Nell can keep a straight face for what – who she sees sitting at the table.
Tabitha, on the other hand, can’t help but to awkwardly smile and even blush a tiny bit.
Sitting at the other end of the table in a skull-adorned throne larger than all the other chairs is a massive woman with bulging muscles and a skull on top of her head. One might think that the horns sticking out from the sides of her head are actually coming from the skull, but they’re coming from her. They are horns that would put any bull to shame, and a single fang-like tusk sticks out from the top of the left side of her mouth that her lip seems to be caught on.
It isn’t just her veiny and defined biceps and forearms, nor her ripped abdomen, that give her the mighty appearance that she has. Everything about her is big. Her biceps alone might be thicker than Fenrir’s head, and her thighs may be able to easily squash a steel watermelon between them, but she’s also easily the tallest one in the room. She’s sitting down and Fenrir feels short just looking at her.
The primitive, leather garb that she’s wearing does little to hide the more feminine parts of her body and her red skin.
Fenrir gulps, not even out of excitement, when he sees that she has those two things on her chest larger than her own head, and she has a pretty big head.
He also doesn’t know if she’s trying to look more like a traditional oni or a minotaur. Maybe a combination? Either way, just being in the same room as her is enough for him to feel like a little boy instead of a man.
“Hah, they’re all staring! Everybody does that the first time,” King Cat calls out. “Don’t think there’s anybody alive who can not stare at you for the first time,” he teases the powerful woman.
The stern expression on her face shows little emotion until she finally relaxes and offers them a gentle smile. “Welcome to Spike Port, my guests,” she says, her soft tone completely betraying her rigid – her brutal appearance. “My name is Marija, and I am the chieftess of this town. Please, feel free to take a seat.”
Tabitha is the first one to grab a seat.