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incorrectshantaequotes · 8 months ago

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REVERSAL AU - The Chimera Pirates

So, for all of you who have kept tabs on the Reversal AU and read my previous headcanon and transcript posts regarding it (said posts can be found in the appropriate tag, which is linked in my pinned post for this blog, but if you want to go through them in chronological order use this link instead), you'll know that Captain Shantae/R!Shantae, in contrast to Risky in canon, explicitly doesn't use the Pirate Master's old gear or his Tinkerbats, instead getting her own weapons and forming her own crew known as the Chimera Pirates!

Why is this relevant to anything other than a simple change to the enemy lineup? Because, unlike the Tinkerbats, who are by design faceless and voiceless goons, these guys are not. Granted, the only difference between most of them and their non-pirate enemy counterparts would just be a change in outfit, but there are a few named ones with personalities, and they're who I'm going to cover in this post! Starting with...

The "Elite" Trio:

Let's start with the first three named Chimera Pirates, the so-called elite of Cannonball, Bilge, and Scurvy! I say so-called because, to be quite blunt, even if Cannonball and Bilge aren't any slouches in a fight, they don't really have the competency needed to be elite; only Scurvy actually qualifies for the elite title.

If you're unfamiliar, Cannonball is a Harpy, Bilge is a Wetman, and Scurvy is a Scorpgal. They're the only Chimera Pirates who AREN'T Captain Shantae that have actually been talked about in any capacity before this post (save one, who I'll get to later), and have actually shown up in my transcript posts! Their first, unnamed appearance is here, and their appearance where they're actually named is here.

Tangentially related - I've actually drawn Cannonball and Bilge (though I didn't say their names in that post), and they can be seen here along with the art for the Chimera Pirates' jolly roger! Scurvy does not have any art however, so for a brief description - she's a Scorpgal dressed in a black corset and white, ruffled dress shirt, with her hair done in a ponytail rather than the Trolls-ass updo most other Scorpgals have. Her mandatory Chimera Pirates bandana is tied around her frontmost right leg.

Anyway, with that out of the way...these three are supposed to be the "representatives" of the Chimera Pirates, if that makes sense. In general, any scene with a Tinkerbat in it (save for the ones in Pirate's Curse for obvious reasons) will have either one or all of these three replace said Tinkerbats 95% of the time, and on occasion they'll even show up where you'd expect Captain Shantae to, as she's more inclined to let her minions do the dirty work compared to canon!Risky doing everything important by herself.

For example! In the first Shantae game, Risky tries to get each stone herself, to no avail (save for the Twinkle Stone, which is when she wises up and elects to disguise herself and pretend to be an ally so she can swipe all the stones in one fell swoop). In the Reversal AU, Captain Shantae would try to get the Bubble Stone, fail, and then realize she's not going to get through the defenses, so she sends the trio out to see if they'll have better luck getting the others. Cannonball tries to get the Golem Stone (and fails miserably), Bilge tries to get the Sizzle Stone (and fails miserably), and Scurvy...is the one to pull the "pretend to be an ally only to stab the hero in the back" trick, thus succeeding in taking ALL the stones, though she does feel a bit bad about the whole thing.

Moving on, the quick and dirty summary of the trio's personalities is that Cannonball is an excitable and aggressive gremlin who typically acts as the "face" of the trio, Bilge is an easygoing but thick-headed brute, and Scurvy is the dour and more competent of the three with something actually resembling a moral compass. This is all fairly easily visible on the surface, and it's a very accurate summary for each of them, but there's more to them then just that.

Let's start with Cannonball. There's a rather...interesting question that comes to mind when you actually take her species into account - because the thing is, as I've very briefly discussed before, I headcanon harpies to be a rather solitary species, who rarely interact with anyone else and try to avoid that kind of contact if it isn't strictly necessary. So...how does a Harpy end up joining a pirate crew? Simple: She had nowhere else to go.

When Captain Shantae found Cannonball, she was half-starved and incoherent, clinging to the pirate like a life-preserver and pleaded to not be left alone again. Upon being nursed back to health, she very hesitantly explained that the reason she was like that in the first place was because she'd been exiled by her clan. She didn't do anything wrong, really, she just...wasn't very compatible with the harsh lifestyle necessary to live that high up in the mountains and be entirely self-sufficient. Too much energy to sit still and listen to how things were supposed to be done, too impatient to wait for the right moment to strike and scaring off any potential prey, and perhaps most damning of all, she was too curious, her thoughts often turning to the world below and questioning what could possibly so dangerous down there. For all this, the clan forced her out, privately hoping that living on her own for a while would let her shape up into a proper harpy.

Needless to say, it did NOT work, and Cannonball was utterly miserable throughout the entire experience. While she often felt alone up in the mountains, at the very least she was alone and surrounded by people - being well and truly alone, she found, was much, MUCH worse. The whole ordeal left her with massive self-esteem issues, which she tends to cover up by playing up her aggression, and an unhealthy amount of loyalty and codependency to Captain Shantae as the one who saved her life, which flares up especially bad during Pirate's Curse. Poor girl is going through it there

Now, Bilge...here's a fun fact about him: Unlike the vast majority of Wetmen, he has the Wetgal's ability to liquify his body and move it around, even able to manipulate his liquid body into shapes beyond a puddle to some extent. Why does he have this ability? Well, if the Reversal AU were an actual series of games, the out of universe explanation would be that it makes him more dynamic and makes him more of a challenge to fight in any boss appearances he makes. The in-universe reasons, though? Yeah he's trans. Let's go trans pirate crab-man thing rights!

This is actually how Captain Shantae managed to recruit Bilge - she found him while he was still a Wetgal, having figured out his gender identity but with no way to do anything about it, and offered to help him find a spell that would let him transition in exchange for him temporarily being part of the Chimera Pirates while she searched. He agreed, and cut to a few months later, with Bilge having the spell he was looking for and the option to leave...well, he didn't really see any reason why he should leave.

And finally, Scurvy's story? She's effectively the closest thing Captain Shantae has to a first mate - and, more to the point, she was the first to join the Chimera Pirates, period. I'd go into more detail, but in all honesty I'm thinking I might make a fanfic covering this? As well as covering the stories of Cannonball and Bilge in more detail. I'm aware that might not do too well with how the Reversal AU is, well, an AU and all, and these are all OCs, so let me know what you guys think of the idea below so I can see if anyone's actually interested!

Cutlass:

Next up, we're getting into the Chimera Pirates introduced in Pirate's Curse, starting with Cutlass (pronounced like Douglas)! To quickly summarize what the deal with these guys are - in the Reversal AU, Captain Shantae very intentionally scattered the Pirate Gear long before the events of any of the games, rather than them being scattered as a result of the Pirate Master beginning to awaken just before Pirate's Curse. This means that the bosses that WERE in those areas were cleared out by Captain Shantae before Risky could even get there (minus the ones that don't exist because of the swap, i.e. Squid Baron and the Steel Maggot), and these guys effectively take their place!

Now, back on topic...Cutlass is a Batdude (i.e. a male Batgal; I don't think I have to explain why I broke the tradition of -man for male variants of enemies and -gal for female variants of enemies for this but if you don't get it think about it for a few seconds and you'll get it) who dresses like a cowboy, with all the necessary gear being done in black leather as is typical of his Batgal associates. His weird hat-helmet thing is shaped like a stetson, his Chimera Pirates bandana covers his mouth and neck, he has jeans to cover up his legs, and he has massive bat wings coming out of his back that can conveniently fold over his shoulders to act as a poncho.

Cutlass holds himself more like a western vigilante than a pirate, mainly because he intends to actually be one at some point. Cutlass believes the law to be corrupt, and fully intends to challenge it head-on, but he knew he had to train up his skills before he could do that, and with law enforcement out for obvious reasons, he figured the Chimera Pirates were the next best option. Despite him fully intending to leave at some point and both parties being fully aware of that, Captain Shantae and Cutlass have a very amicable relationship, and he and R!Risky end up with a mutual respect for each other as well, despite some initial reluctance from Risky's part.

When he and Risky first meet, while there's some initial suspicion and hostility on Cutlass' part, Risky manages to explain the situation and prove she's telling the truth with a letter from Captain Shantae, which is enough to convince him to let Risky in without any fuss. So, how does he end up as a boss? Well, the answer to that comes when he and Risky get to the Flintlock Pistol. As you may or may not recall, whereas Shantae in canon ended up losing her magic and only got it back at the end of Pirate's Curse, Risky did manage to get her magic back at the end of Risky's Revenge when she defeated her doppelganger...but it's all DARK magic rather than her regular magic, causing everything she tries to use her magic for to go haywire. Now, Shantae was able to use the Pirate Gear no problem thanks in part to having no magic, but R!Risky? Yeah, here's the thing: the Pirate Gear is absolutely drenched in dark magic, so even her getting near the stuff is a bad idea, and that's proven when she tries to collect the pistol for Captain Shantae's plan and it promptly springs to life, floating in midair with a malevolent aura around it.

Almost immediately, the Flintlock Pistol tries to steal Risky's magic, and, because Risky is able to recognize the feeling and is NOT letting that happen again, she gets into a brief tug-of-war of sorts with the cursed artifact. It ends rather quickly, both because the Flintlock Pistol is nowhere near as suited for the task of stealing genie magic as something like the magic lamp and because Risky actually put up resistance this time, and as she recovers from the incident, she realizes something - somehow, in the process of all that happening, she actually managed to purify some of her magic! A small amount, mind you, only a tenth, but that's good enough for her! Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for her to realize the catch - the Flintlock Pistol was also partially successful in taking Risky's magic, making off with a tenth of Risky's magic itself, and promptly puts it to work forcefully putting Cutlass under its control and corrupting his mind and body.

With his mind addled by dark magic, Cutlass comes to the conclusion that this power will give him all he needs to challenge the law, and darts off before Risky can stop him, forcing her to go further into the Spittle Maze to both get it back and snap Cutlass out of his trance. Along the way, Risky makes a (correct) guess that that strange tug-of-war is likely to happen again when she runs into the other pieces of the Pirate Gear, and makes a mental note to try and avoid this situation happening again. She...doesn't get much luck in that regard, but at least she tries!

"wait so what does R!Risky use if she can't use the Pirate Gear" excellent question, and one I DO have an answer to, but not entirely relevant to this post so I'll save that for later. So! After Risky literally knocks some sense into Cutlass, he agrees to give the pistol back (albeit in a very thick, magic-resistant case to avoid a repeat possession), and Risky goes on her way.

Lanya and Lubber Mire:

Get it. Because. Because if you. If you put their first names together. If you put their first names together it sounds like-

ANYWAY. Lanya and Lubber Mire are a pair of twins, a Muckgal and Muckman respectively - though they take after the Seven Sirens redesign where Muckmen/gals are more fish-adjacent rather than the blob monsters seen in the original Shantae and Pirate's Curse. Lanya is a short, plump Muckgal, with a tattered cloak and her Chimera Pirate bandana firmly tied around the side of her head and covering one eye like a bandage, while Lubber is a tall and lanky Muckman with an underbite only wearing a pair of shabby jeans, a red bandana tied around his head, and his actual Chimera Pirates bandana hanging out of his jeans pocket like a handkerchief.

The Mire Twins are a pair of incorrigible pranksters, having joined the Chimera Pirates to spread their mischief across the seven seas without putting too much thought into it. Though neither of them are necessarily the brightest bulb in the bunch, their pranking expertise can be surprisingly useful in the field, as shown by their method of guarding the Pirate Hat - they created a massive costume out of various branches and vines, and take control of it by turning into sludge and shimmying inside, using the massive looming form as a deterrent for anyone who gets too close to the cursed artifact - there's a rumor of a massive swamp monster running around the woods of Spiderweb Island because of their efforts! Personally, Risky's thoughts on them are, to paraphrase and slightly edit Queen Deltarune, "there's nothing wrong with them, they're just annoying." Like, she's fairly certain that, objectively, they haven't really done much wrong, but that does NOT stop Risky from wanting to throttle the two of them.

They try to do their usual shtick on Risky when she shows up - and fail, because unlike literally everyone else, she chooses fight over flight - but then she explains the situation and they agree to take her to the Pirate Hat. Some adventuring through the Cackle Tower later, and they get to its room - though not without Risky advising the two of them to take a few massive steps back. And, sure enough, another magic tug-of-war ensues, with Risky managing to purify and get another tenth of her magic back and properly functional, while the Pirate Hat takes a tenth of Risky's magic for itself. But, to Risky's credit, her making sure the Mire Twins aren't near the thing does work out! Kind of. The Pirate Hat ends up going for their costume rather than the twins themselves, and when they try to take it back, they just get kicked out before the hat takes its new vessel further into the Cackle Tower. Aaaaaand cue Risky's pursuit and a boss fight when she catches up!

Kaly:

Kaly, short for Kalypso, is a particularly muscular Naga, and the only other named Chimera Pirate I've actually talked about besides the trio and Captain Shantae herself! She can be seen here - and, since I didn't draw the bandana, because the Kaly in the pic is post-Pirate's Curse, I'll just mention that her Chimera Pirate bandana is tied around her arm.

Out of all the Chimera Pirates, Kaly is maybe the most morally decent of them all. She's an optimist who, well, isn't naive, per say, but she wants to believe the best in people, even when that's backfired on her several times before. Case in point, her story for why she joined the Chimera Pirates is similar to Cannonball's in that Captain Shantae saved her life, but whereas Cannonball's circumstances were a result of outside influences beyond her control, Kaly's circumstances were that she found a caravan of shady individuals dying of thirst, and, deciding to hold off any judgement for their suspicious appearance, very familiar to those same suspicions being directed towards her purely because of her species and muscular appearance, guided them to an oasis where they could get some water...whereupon she was promptly "thanked" for her assistance by getting knocked out and having all her supplies stolen.

Now, you might be thinking, "weren't those circumstances also outside her control?" And the answer to that is yes, yes they were! But Kaly doesn't see it that way. Again, similar to Cannonball, she has crippling self-esteem issues, but whereas Cannonball hides those with over-the-top aggression, Kaly hides hers behind her smiles and optimism, though she doesn't quite realize that's what she's doing - ironic, considering she's actually very good at picking up on that sort of thing in other people. Honestly, she joined the Chimera Pirates half out of gratitude to Captain Shantae, and half because she figured, "well, this is the best some muscle-bound moron like me's going to get, so I might as well take the opportunity while I can, right?"

Risky's relationship with Kaly is...a bit more involved compared to the other Chimera Pirates, to say the least. Captain Shantae does take the time to briefly go over the Chimera Pirate guarding whichever piece of Pirate Gear is on whichever island they're on as the game progresses, though she doesn't go into too much detail, not even mentioning names (keep this in mind, it's a surprise tool that'll help us later), but for Kaly, she actually goes out of her way to ask Risky if she can convince the naga to quit - Kaly might think she was being slick, but Captain Shantae managed to pick up on the fact that she joined more out of obligation than anything else. Risky was somewhat doubtful of those claims, considering the other Chimera Pirates she knew, but agreed, figuring it wouldn't really amount to much, but if Captain Shantae was telling Risky to try and get one of her pirates to quit, she might as well oblige.

Then she ran into Kaly during the whole Tan Line debacle, though first she ran into Lich Baron and Rattle ("wait why was Rattle there-" don't even worry about it), and, after a brief blue-screen of "oh no she's hot" upon seeing Kaly in the princess outfit, she managed to actually talk to her...and, after Kaly actually explains why she's there, then promptly amended her earlier thought to "oh no. oh no she's hot and a genuinely good person. OH NO," and her attraction spirals into "down atrocious" territory faster than you can blink, which Kaly is completely oblivious to, Lich Baron thinks is hilarious, and Rattle...is a bit too filled with fuming rage towards the Tan Line Temple's inhabitants to enjoy Risky trying to act like her normal composed self around Kaly and failing miserably. He does NOT enjoy being forced into the princess outfit.

Anyway, after the Tan Line debacle is over (with the reveal of "the princess was gone for literally only thirty minutes" serving to frustrate everyone, even Kaly - she wasn't captured so much as she willingly went along with what the Tan Line Temple residents were doing, under the impression that they mistook her for a long-dead royal figure, and only intended to go along with it for a few hours before finding a way to gently break it to them that she wasn't whoever they thought she was and that they needed to let go, so with that theory getting officially thrown out the window...yeah, not even Kaly can put a positive spin on the whole thing, she's just really disappointed in them) and Kaly gets her normal outfit on, she and Risky head to the Lost Catacombs, where Risky actually tries to get Kaly to stay out of them - partially because she's trying to avoid another fight, partially because she really doesn't want to fight a corrupted version of Kaly. Unfortunately for Risky, Kaly refuses, saying she can't in good conscious leave Risky to fare against the dangers of the dungeon alone, but she does agree to a compromise of staying a minimum of a room away.

And, after some progression in the Lost Catacombs, Risky comes across the Scimitar, and, after another magic tug-of-war, she briefly feels triumphant, because, HA! The Scimitar doesn't have anyone or anything to possess, so what's it going to do now? But that feeling of victory doesn't last long, for the Scimitar elects to summon a ghost of its own...specifically, the ghost of Queen Echidna (who is not actually new to this AU or this blog in general; she's briefly mentioned here), a petty and cruel woman whose beauty was more than outweighed by her reputation as the most cruel tyrant Sequin Land has ever known, only thwarted when she and her followers were banished to a remote island...that island being Tan Line Island. And Queen Echidna immediately shows her centuries-long reputation was well-earned as she wakes up, takes a moment to observe her surroundings, and decides on the spot that every single one of the descendants of her and her followers needs to die for failing to uphold her beauty standards, and after their deaths, she plans to ravage Sequin Land as revenge for being banished so long ago...and to fulfill those plans, she wants to use Risky as her vessel.

But, just before she manages to possess Risky, Kaly bursts into the room and takes the hit, forcing the malevolent queen to possess her instead. Echidna isn't very pleased (she thinks everyone falls short of her beauty, but Risky was the closest to her standards, much more than Kaly, who she considers to have entirely too much muscle), but figures that, if nothing else, Kaly has more than enough physical strength to carry out her plan, and so goes further into the Catacombs, forcing Risky to go after her and fight the possessed Kaly to send Echidna back to the afterlife where she belongs. Risky immediately checks to see if Kaly is alright, to which she ensures Risky she is - according to her, the worst she endured was a stream of belittlement and deridement from Echidna throughout the entire possession, and, well...it wasn't anything she hadn't heard before, anyway. And Risky, on hearing that...yeah, she does not take that as "alright."

Risky proceeds to give Kaly a very aggressive pep talk, refusing to let her for a second think any of Echidna's insults had any basis in reality, listing off all the good traits she knows Kaly has from her brief time with her, and culminating in stating that not only is Kaly a good person, but she is far more deserving of being called beautiful than a tyrant like Echidna ever was. And, while Risky doesn't realize it, that moment manages to make her "down atrocious"-levels of attraction mutual, and contributes a large amount to her leaving the Chimera Pirates after Pirate's Curse!

I'd go into more detail, but A.) I'm focusing primarily on Pirate's Curse here; I can save Kaly's role in the future for later, and B.) I'm running into the text limit issue I ran into when I wrote up that romance headcanon post, and while I DO know a way around that, since I managed to get around it for that post, that method will also make this post near impossible to edit later so I'm going to ignore it. Anyway, next pirate!

"Jones":

When Risky shows up to the Oubliette of Suffering, Jones introduces himself as the Chimera Pirate in charge of guarding the Master's Boots, already aware of the situation thanks to the Pirate Master's awakening making stirrings in the Village of Lost Souls. He's a cyclops who...well, to put it bluntly, he's dressed like a Final Fantasy character, with an incredibly elaborate outfit that makes him almost look like the protagonist of an entirely unrelated game, with the whole ensemble being topped off by his spiky black hair and the big scarf obscuring most of his face. And yet, the Chimera Pirates bandana is nowhere to be seen. How peculiar...

If Kaly is the Chimera Pirate Risky gets along with the most, then Jones is definitely the one she gets along with the least. In contrast to his heroic appearance, Jones' defining character trait is a sadistic streak and an unholy bloodthirst, intentionally making the Oubliette of Suffering much harder than it has to be by intentionally pissing off the enemies inside and challenging Risky to see who can beat the most, and refusing to let Risky pass if she can't beat him. This pisses off Risky to no end, and when she tries to bring up the imminent threat the Pirate Master represents, Jones doesn't really seem to care, remarking that if he did come back, it could be fun. Yeah, Risky haaaaaaates his ass, but since they have to work together, she sucks it up and deals with it.

...this lasts up until they reach the boots, where, upon trying to convince Jones to stay behind and let her deal with this, to no success (not that she protests too hard; Risky wants an excuse to beat Jones like a dream), Risky deals with the usual magic tug-of-war, and as soon as she stumbles back, another tenth of her magic reclaimed (and another tenth stolen), Jones runs up and willingly puts the boots on before they even have a chance to try and possess him. But, as Risky begins to yell at him, he laughs. He laughs, and laughs, and his true form suddenly flickers into existence - the ethereal, bird-like form of a Shrieker, rather than a cyclops. And this is when Risky realizes that "Jones" was never a Chimera Pirate at all.

Yeah, remember how I mentioned that Captain Shantae kept the descriptions of the pirates guarding the artifacts vague, not even mentioning their names? This is where it bites both her and Risky in the ass; all she said about "Jones" was that he was a cyclops who loved fighting, and that he might challenge Risky to a spar or something similar. As it turns out, "Jones" isn't even the name of the Chimera Pirate who was supposed to be guarding the boots; that poor shmuck is actually named Dave, and Jones just knocked him out, dragged him elsewhere, and took his appearance. In reality, Jones is a Shrieker who, once upon a time, saw the legacy of the recently deceased Pirate Master, and decided, "you know what? that guy was onto something," and elected to become a pirate himself, fully intending to follow in the Pirate Master's footsteps every step of the way...but, before he could even make a name for himself, his pirating career was brought to a screeching halt by the then-fledgling Chimera Pirates with extreme prejudice, resulting in his demise and subsequent appearance in the Village of Lost Souls.

Ever since, he has held a MASSIVE grudge against Captain Shantae, and upon realizing that the Pirate Master was making a return, he saw his chance both to have his payback and endear himself to his pirating idol. He disguised himself as Dave with his spectral abilities, though he didn't bother trying to act like him, and even altered the disguise to get rid of the bandana because he hates Captain Shantae that much, and intended to stall for the Pirate Master to regain his power and overtake Captain Shantae as the true master of the seven seas with what he genuinely believed to be an impossible challenge. Of course, Risky proved him wrong, but Jones did have a backup plan - mainly, claiming the boots for himself, and using their power to take down Risky, and then Captain Shantae when he was done with her. He just needs one more component...and before Risky can stop him, he runs off deeper into the Oubliette of Suffering to get said component. Risky follows, incensed both about being tricked and how far the depravity of Jones truly goes, and when she finally catches up, she finds Jones donning his disguise once more...and with a certain massively misspelled monstrosity as his steed. Oh dear.

"But what about Dave?" I hear you ask. Well, Risky actually runs into him as she makes her way out, and while she doesn't spend nearly as much time talking with him, he makes an infinitely better impression than Jones did. His bandana is actually an excessively long one that he wears as a scarf rather than the plain one Jones was wearing, and his personality is...have you ever seen a clip of Aquaman from Batman the Brave and the Bold? Yeah that. Dave does enjoy a good fight, but that's more him enjoying a good challenge than, you know, "I want to see my enemies dying before my feet." He joined the Chimera Pirates as a way to travel throughout Sequin Land and get the good fights he wanted so badly.

Musket:

And now, we have the last of the named Chimera Pirates! She's a female Ice Werewolf, and, unlock most of her compatriots, she has some level of control over her transformation, appearing to be more half and half rather than purely human or purely wolf. In my heart of hearts I'd like her appearance to fall into the uncanny valley and be a bit unnerving (if you want to get an image of what I'm talking about, google "an american werewolf in london transformation," pause when the face is transitioning into full wolf right when it makes you viscerally uncomfortable, and yeah, that's what I have in mind), but I acknowledge that it is both more realistic and less taxing for any artists for her appearance to be more "cute monster girl" with wolfman features (i.e. the dog nose and the hair spreading along the sides of her face and under it to form a pseudo-beard, along with her limbs turning into wolf limbs), so I'll go with that instead. Her outfit is a very tattered blue and white striped shirt, a ripped-up skirt, a metal claw replacing one of her hands, and some hairties pulling her ice-shard hair into pigtails, with one of said hairties actually being her Chimera Pirates bandana.

Musket has a very harsh, dour, and paranoid personality, being more or less stuck in a "wilderness survival" mindset as a result of being on Frostbite Island for years, and initially is incredibly suspicious of Risky, even after she explains what she's doing on the island. But, seeing as the situation is so dire, and she happens to be dealing with a problem of her own (which I will elaborate on in a moment), she doesn't really have much of a choice. But, as she hangs around Risky, she gradually realizes that no, Risky is completely genuine, and slowly but surely loosens up before revealing a surprisingly cheerful persona underneath all the ingrained survival instincts. She joined the Chimera Pirates when Captain Shantae came to Frostbite Island looking to hide the Cannon, and, when seeing a pack of Ice Werewolves parked outside her tent one night after she hunted down some food, waiting to strike when her guard was down, she actually offered to share her meal with them, much to their shock. While most of her fellow Ice Werewolves dismissed Captain Shantae as a sucker, Musket thought differently, and, out of curiosity as to what the Captain's deal was, left her pack to join the Chimera Pirates.

Musket is the Chimera Pirate Risky runs into the earliest, much to her relief, and, thanks to Captain Shantae providing a more detailed description this time to avoid another Jones incident, Risky is able to explain the situation to Musket without issue. Unfortunately, as mentioned before, this does not stop Musket from being suspicious of Risky, and, well...remember that issue brought up earlier? Well, as it so happens, before she runs into Musket, Risky first sees a meeting between Wrecker Baron and Huntress Baron, the former commissioning the latter to assassinate the king of Sequin Land. And Huntress Baron agrees, already having all the things she needs to pull off the assassination, she just needs to finish her current hunt first...and the one she's hunting? Musket. Yeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaah. Stuck between the rock of "I need Musket alive to stop the Pirate Master and more to the point I don't think she deserves to die period," and the hard place of "I can't just let this madwoman assassinate the king of Sequin Land," Risky finds herself juggling pretending to "help" Huntress Baron with her hunt, in reality just keeping her distracted long enough to sabotage all the tools she needs to assassinate the king, and making sure Musket avoids Huntress Baron's traps and efforts to hunt her down.

Risky and Musket end up gradually bonding as Risky slowly sabotages all of Huntress Baron's equipment and efforts, culminating in her tricking Huntress Baron into blowing herself sky-high and revealing the entrance to the Despairing Arctic (the replacement for the Abandoned Factory, seeing as Techno Baron is, well, not Techno Baron here, but rather Gizz). The two head down there, and in the midst of it all, Risky takes a moment to admit her manipulation of both Musket and Huntress Baron, feeling guilty about the fact that, while she never intended for Musket to get hurt and in fact never did get Musket hurt, she was still helping the person hunting her down. But, as it turns out, Musket doesn't mind, even finding it hilarious that Risky was playing Huntress Baron like a fiddle, and fully accepts Risky's apology. Risky's surprised, but glad to hear it, but as she goes down, she can't help but feel like she's forgetting something...

The two make it to the Cannon, and Risky has her final magic tug-of-war, and with that finished, Risky's system is finally clear of dark magic!...at the cost of the Pirate Master having about half of it. And it's after she considers this that she realizes what she forgot - with her complete and utter exhaustion running between Huntress Baron and Musket, she forgot to warn the Chimera Pirate about the threat of possession! She tries to tell Musket to get away, but before she even gets the chance, Musket's pinned to the ground by a net thrown by a smoking, burnt, and very peeved Huntress Baron, who intends to kill the two of them right then and there and be done with it...and then the Cannon takes the opportunity to warp Musket into its vessel, and suddenly both Huntress Baron and Risky are facing bigger problems. After blowing Huntress Baron away a second time, the possessed Musket runs deeper into the Despairing Arctic, and Risky goes after her, knowing the Cannon is the last thing they need to ensure the Pirate Master never returns...

Aaaaaaaand I'll leave it at that! Obviously, there's more to the story, but I'll save that for the headcanon post covering Pirate's Curse as a whole. But yeah, hope you all enjoyed this!

#shantae #not a quote #reversal au #headcanons #long post

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