Nidia was walking through Loguetown, while this wasn't the Island she was born on, this had been where she had ended up recently. Having taken a boat here, with no purpose but to adventure around the world with what little money she had earned during her time spent in her home town. She decided that if she needed to come up with more money, she could pass as a mercenary, protecting merchant ships from Pirate Raids. She was fairly handy with a rifle, after having spent a majority of her childhood spending time learning how to wield firearms correctly, through books and trial with error. Besides her Firearm knowledge, she also had a practice with martial arts, being somewhat stronger than the typical fighter, that alone could probably make her a decent body guard. At least, she hoped anyways.

The day was nice, there were clouds in the sky, almost completely blocking the sun overhead, though not so much that it blocked out the blue sky entirely. There was a nice breeze that had a sort of chill to it, making it slightly cool out. The town seemed busy, her being still somewhat near the docks, she could hear the shouting of the workers as they loaded boats with their cargo.

Walking around Logue Town, she wielded her sniper, due to a having no where else to leave it without it potentially getting stolen, and her being far from home she didn't want to leave it there. She decided that she would bring it along, hoping that it wouldn't get her in too much trouble with any law enforcers. She had put the barrel through a loop on her pants, and had it rest there, as if it were a sword, sheathed into a scabbard. She kept the bullets to load it in her pocket, probably not the best idea, all things considered. She walked wearing a jacket, despite it not being entirely cold, she liked the look of it. Besides that, there was no real significance to it. Her jacket, along with a majority of other things she was wearing, was green. She had green headphones. These were to block out the sound of her rifle when it was fired. She pushed one ear off, so she could hear everything better than she could than when she had them on.

Today was supposed to be like every other day, another peaceful afternoon where the civilians could go about their business and Dallas could have just laid on the ground and watched the clouds roll on by with Annabelle. Unfortunately that wasn't the case as Dallas heard the sound of a commotion coming from the middle of the street, while it normally wouldn't have been his business, he had heard something about Annabelle that came off as rude -- most likely those that continued to harass her for her short stature.

Seeing as Annabelle had asked of Dallas not to use his sword unless he absolutely had to, he figured that dealing with the punks wasn't exactly worth his time and took hold of Anna's hand. "Leaving.." He'd tell her, being one that was short on words when it wasn't just him and Anna alone, he never liked talking to begin with since most of his words were wasted long ago.

The change of location and walking away from those that wanted to bother Annabelle wasn't too difficult and it wasn't like just traveling could cause a scene but it had provoked Dallas into a rather sour mood. It'd come at no surprise to Anna then when the older boy had bumped into a rather slender girl carrying a weapon at her belt oddly like one would have a sword. He wanted to tell the girl that she should have been watching where she was going but one sharp look from Annabelle telling him not to be rude to this new person was enough to sway his mind to a more peaceful resolution.

A hand was outstretched to the girl in case she had fallen or stumbled in attempt to help her up or catch her mid-trip. "Are you.. okay?" His voice was rough, almost hoarse from it's gravely tone that gave off the impression of either long-term ware or damage from long periods of shouting? Hard to tell from just the first time without knowing anything about Dallas but at the very least he was trying to be polite to the person he had knocked down at the behest of his smaller companion -- whom he treated mostly like a little sister if anything at all.

Today had begun like any other for the young Annabelle: She prepared for classes by donning her casual attire and brushing her long, red hair with a smile to herself in the mirror as she said softly: "You are ready for today - You can take on the world!" She exclaimed to her reflection, reassuring herself as she moved to then gather her small assortment of books and headed out the door of her relatively modest home with a wave 'good-bye' to her parents as she cheerfully headed along her way.

Eventually, she arrived at her school and went through her day as normal. She cheerfully answered every question and listened to each lecture although inwardly she did feel a bit cooped up and resentful of being stuck inside of the classroom rather than outside in the fresh air where she often enjoyed being. The young girl liked the feeling of the fresh air moving through her ruby locks of hair and the kiss of the sun upon her skin as she stood in it's rays.

With the girl's love of the outside, it would come as no surprise that the girl quickly made her way towards the middle of town, wanting to visit the docks on the other side of town before being rudely interrupted by a group of ruffians who began jeering the girl on her height as well as a few other indecent things and just as Annabelle was about to interject and speak back to them she felt herself being pulled away with a familiar voice calling out. She did not even have to look at first in order to know that it had belonged to her close friend and surrogate brother of sorts, Dallas.

Although annoyed at first from being pulled away, Annabelle eventually cast a smile in the man's direction as she regained her cheerful appearance once more. "I owe you one - I almost said something really mean to those guys.. It's a good thing that you watch after me, Dally." She admitted, seeming grateful at having been pulled away - going so far to even call the man by a sort of nickname that she had for him.

The two had eventually come to bump into a new person, a pretty looking girl with modest clothing that she had not recalled seeing before. No doubt she would have remembered running into someone so unique in both appearance and in choice of weaponry, seeing as whatever the weapon itself was, it seemed to be worn like a sword but had none of the general appearance of one, but whatever it was, Annabelle figured it must be special for the woman to be carrying it around like that.

As they bumped into the woman, she looked to Dallas who seemed to be ready to say something rude to their new acquaintance and so she shot him a look that told him it would be best to be nice to this stranger, rather than rude for no real reason. After a short moment had passed and Dallas seemed to be offering niceties to the stranger, Annabelle herself spoke up towards the woman with a bright smile on her lips and a sort of shimmer in her blue eyes that contrasted her velvet red hair: "Hey there!" She exclaimed happily, moving a bit closer to the new person and giving her an excited look. "Name's Annabelle - Star student and Compass-User Extraordinaire!" She said, proclaiming her academic prowess and navigational abilities all in one excited and partially boastful statement that was meant to introduce herself properly.

"What's your name..?" She then asked, tilting her head as she hoped that the other girl would give Annabelle her name or at least say something in reply to her, since she felt like she wanted to be friends with this new acquaintance somehow - even if it took a while to do so.

Nidia slowly began to daydream as she walked, not really paying attention to the area around her. She was thinking of her future, of the places she wanted to go. The grandline seemed to be appealing, though there were a shit ton of strong people there, from what she had heard rumors of, and considering all she had was a simple flintlock rifle, she doubted her ability to stand a chance in the Grandline. While she was daydreaming, she ran into a man who was walking beside a child. She eyed him, about to say something, before she noticed the girl giving him a glare. The two seemed to be friends, though right now she didn't care for that. Her bumping into the man neither caused her to fall back or trip, thus she took out her rifle, and whacked the man's head with the butt of her rifle. "Fool! Watch where you're going next time." She would say, looking over towards the woman who seemed to be more polite. The child which identified herself as Annabelle would greet Nidia, addressing herself as a compass wielding student extraordinaire, as she spoke Nidia would proceed to put the rifle back where it was once resting, on her side through the loop.

Annabelle would proceed to ask Nidia for her name, to which she would answer by telling her: "My name's Nidia, and.. uh." She would say, stuttering a little as she would attempt to find something overly decent about her, and then looked at her rifle. "I can shoot shit pretty good.." She would say, trying to tell her that she was pretty decent with fire arms. "I'm also somewhat decent with Martial Arts." She would continue. She would then proceed to look back over to the man who'd been thwacked on the head. "Pardon me, for running into you earlier, I mean. But you should really watch where you're going, I was thinking." She said, insisting to him that it was his fault, which to her it seemed to be. She would look back over towards Annabelle, "Nice to meet you, Annabelle. I'm somewhat new to Loguetown, I assume, since you mentioned you were a student, that you're from around here?" She would ask, considering on asking Annabelle if she knew anywhere to find easy work around Loguetown. She figured the docks might be a good place to start, considering the fact that, as she thought of before, she could offer her skill in Martial Arts and Fire arms as protection for merchant ships, but anything on land within Loguetown might be better, she would be able to spend more time and tour around the city that way. She would wait before asking about a place of work until Annabelle would answer the question, not wanting to jump to conclusions out loud. Since the man here seemed to be friends with Annabelle, Nidia could assume that, if Annabelle had been from around here that the man had also been here for quite sometime, though that wasn't entirely relevant, as she really only needed information from one person, which Annabelle should be able to come up with. For now, she merely waited for a response from Annabelle.

Dallas frowned when his attempts at being polite were wasted on someone who was just going to give the same reaction he was going to. He turned his gaze onto Annabelle for a moment but then took a seat, rubbing his head with his fingers to inspect where he had been hit with the butt of the rifle. So she was some kind of sharp-shooter kung-fu fighter? 'Odd mix' he'd think to himself but retained his silence, even when she tried to pin the blame on him in saying it had been his fault. It didn't matter to Dallas who bumped into who anymore, it wasn't as if he could reverse and fix it even if that would help but since she wasn't being as direct about her attitude anymore he still tried to be the 'nice guy' in this scenario. He just lifted and waved a hand dismissively at her and spoke up. "Sorry, wasn't watchin'.." His voice rang out again.

From that point onward he just remained to the side, watching as the duo seemed to introduce themselves. Most he bothered to do was speak up towards Nidia and give her his name; "Dallas.." Though he thought perhaps it was unwarranted, having not been asked to introduce himself in the first place. Other than that, he could spot out that the two seemed to have delved into a conversation all their own, leaving Dallas to tilt his head back and begin to zone out a little, figuring Annabelle could handle herself when it came to being social -- this just left him to begin staring up at the sky as the clouds rolled by, left hand resting on the edge of his sword's hilt which was fastened onto his left hip at the belt.

Annabelle gave a soft laugh towards the woman who introduced herself as Nidia, the introduction in and of itself being humorous and at the question that was asked of the young red-head, she gave a bright smile and responded with both a nod and her own words: "Yup! I was born and raised here - It's my home.. Does that mean you're new here?" She asked, giving a slight tilt of her head as well as placing a finger to her own chin in a curious manner, seeming to be looking over the other woman for a moment before nodding to herself and continuing further. "Well, if you are - You could always hang out with me and Dally, here! We can show you around and get you on your feet, how does that sound?" She offered, giving a cheerful and kindhearted gaze towards Nidia as she awaited an answer from the rifle-wearing girl, hoping that she would take her up on the offer.

Eventually, her gaze turned to Dallas who she judged as being mopey due to the fact he was staring at the sky and had seem rather dejected when he had been speaking earlier after being thwacked on the head by the rifle-wearing Nidia. She cast the man a small smile and gave him a little nudge. "We can show our new friend the Docks if she wants, how does that sound, Dally?" She asked, trying to engage the man a bit more in the conversation so that he would warm up to the newcomer and perhaps they would even become a little more friendly with one another as the last thing she wanted was for Dallas to feel left out or ostracized from the group.

She waited, then, for either of them to speak in response to her words as she looked between them with the same youthful and sparkling eyes as always, smiling happily as she typically did.

Nidia would listen, she was correct in assuming that Annabelle had been from around here, in fact she had replied to Nidia's question by saying that she was in fact born and raised here. Comforting thoughts in case Nidia actually needed any directions towards anywhere, mentioning that it was her home. She proceeded to ask Nidia as to whether or not she was new here, to which Nidia proceeded in reply; "Yes, I'm new. Doubt I'll be here for long, though I will try and prolong my trip for as long as possible." She told Annabelle, trying to not make her feel bad, while also saying she'd be here to hang out for as long as possible. Annabelle proceeded to say that she and Dallas would show her around, starting with the docks. Despite having just arrived in Loguetown, and her first visit to it having been at the docks, she decided to agree with the child's idea on showing her around. "That'd be great, thanks, Annabelle." She agreed to tour around the town with the two.

She looked towards the man Annabelle had just called Dally, and would proceed to say "Sorry, I didn't catch your name." It was a joke, of course, probably not a very funny one to him, and maybe not even Annabelle either, though she found it funny, and had decided to say it. Though, to make it clear she wasn't being rude, she would proceed to smile, and continue speaking "..Kidding, of course. Nice to meet you, Dallas. As you've heard, I'm Nidia." She would say, expecting Annabelle to at one point lead the three towards the docks. "I've been meaning to find a way to make money, I've got a few ideas; one being able to use my expertise in fire arms defending merchant ships against Pirate Raids, though I doubt that alone will make me enough money to support my journey into the Grandline and beyond, as well as all four blues." She would say, then looked over to Annabelle, who had announced earlier that she was a mere student, "What do you plan to do after you finish with your studies, Annabelle?" She would ask, trying to create some form of conversation. She would have asked Dallas the same question, carrying around a sword like that, he looked as if he could handle himself at least for a few minutes in a fight,'lest the sword be entirely for show. However, Dallas hanging around a younger child hinted at the fact that he might not have much to do in life, thus she intended to avoid the subject unless he bought it up himself.

Dallas let his eyes follow along the slow movements of the clouds above, shaping their set designs into thoughts of what they actually looked like. He was nearly relaxed again when a sudden nudge by Annabelle had pulled him away from everything. She seemed to have offered up the idea of taking Nidia with them and showing her around the place. He was almost against the idea after having given it some thought until Nidia seemed to like the idea and had actually paid note to his name and acted polite finally.

He stood straight and moved a hand over to Annabelle's head, giving it a short little rub before nodding towards Nidia. Parting his lips to speak again, he stated; "Shouldn't be much trouble.." he'd pause mid-way and thought on something before commenting further now that he had something tugging at his mind.

"..Nidia is a pretty name.." It was likely him giving his best at a compliment outside of Annabelle's request for him to be nice, probably trying to even out how he and Nidia would come to act during their walk around the docks and anywhere else Annabelle might take them -- not that he minded or had much of a choice to do anything else. "Anna knows the area better.." Dallas would've turned his head back down to look at his companion and nod his head. "..I say she'd be better off taking the lead."

The young girl smiled brightly towards Nidia at her question as to what she planned to do after her studies had ended, placing a finger to her lips in the same curious manner as before, speaking in reply: "Well, I've always wanted to travel the world, honestly.." She said, removing the finger from her lips and then using it to begin twirling a strand of her own hair around it idly. Annabelle would then begin to walk towards the docks as she had been told to lead the duo in her company by Dallas who seemed to still be a bit out of things, but she figured that he would warm up soon enough.

"Well, it's nothing real special out here, but I always like to come out to the Docks anyway to watch the ocean when i'm not studying." She said, giving a little dreamy sigh before then shaking her head and gesturing out at the docks before them. "If you're looking for work - I bet a lot of people would pay a lot to have someone that's good at shooting things on their ship here!" She exclaimed, before beaming towards Nidia directly. "You could get a job working on one of these ships, I'd bet!" She added cheerfully, before looking to Dallas. "Dally - What do you think?" She asked, wanting to include her good friend in the conversation seeing as she had been mostly speaking directly to Nidia and not to Dallas.

She would then wait for either of them to speak, looking between the two slowly as she observed them with her sea-blue eyes quietly.

Nidia would listen, Annabelle had mentioned that she wanted to travel the world, same as Nidia had wanted to. Nidia smiled a little, it seemed to be a common dream, but she didn't mind sharing it with people, because it wasn't her main goal. For now, though, the three seemed to be heading towards the docks. Disregarding pretty much everything Dallas had said, as she acknowledged what Annabelle had said about her being able to get work around the docks, as she figured. Annabelle had mentioned enjoying going there when she wasn't studying. "Thanks." Nidia would say, in response to Annabelle confirming that she could find work on the docks. "I'll start looking for work around there then, soon." She would say, there not being much left to this, she would continue to the docks, whether or not Annabelle and Dallas would as well was up to them. [Exit]

Dallas listened to what Annabelle had to say on everything and just when he was going to suggest something about the docks, it seemed that he was given the cold shoulder and walked away from by Nidia. He shrugged his own shoulders and moved to Anna's side, offering her his hand so that they could leave together. "I think you come up with great ideas.. don't let anyone say otherwise.." He'd pause for a moment though, trying to contemplate momentarily what else he wanted to talk about with her but just decided to summarize it. "Does this mean we'll be working more..?" Thinking on it now, Annabelle and him had by this point probably already done some side work around the town to earn themselves what they could to fuel the embers of their grand adventure on the open world, but the realization that they just might be leaving soon enough with some effort, to actually go places made him expect that their lives were about to get a lot more active. [exit]

Annabelle watched Nidia leave the two, considering following her for a moment until she heard Dallas speak up and reassure her on her ideas along with asking if the two of them would be working more because of this. She gave it a little bit of thought, smiling softly towards the male as she turned to face him and responded in the cheerful tone she often used: "Maybe we will - It sure would be nice to have the money, don't you think? And all of the stuff we would get to do wouldn't hurt either!" She exclaimed, her eyes seeming to light up at the thought of doing work around the docks and possibly getting to see and do more than just schoolwork and chores, she wanted to begin the life she dreamed of on the seas and around the world - to explore what had not been explored and to travel where no others dared to!

With that in mind, the young girl would take the man's hand in her own and begin leading him off so that the two could begin to look around town for something to do for the next while so that they could earn some Beli and maybe even join up with their new-found friend. Of course, it might be a bit difficult for the young girl to really go out and explore the seas while she faced the most dangerous task of all in her near future if she did so: Ditching school.

Whether or not Dallas wanted to follow her on her search, however, was completely up to him and Annabelle would not force him to if he did not want to - But either way she would begin searching the town up and down, trying to find any work that people would let a young child do. This would be the first step, Annabelle was certain, towards earning her way to her very own ship and the freedom of the high seas!

[Exit!]