Name: Calico Sushi
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Species: Mink - Red Panda
Height:2'11
Weight: 28 lbs
Appearance:Devil Fruit(if any): None
Weapons: A real chef doesn't need weapons, but Calico uses spices as his weapons. Particularly hot spices are his specialty.
- Hot Spice Gas: regarded as the hottest spice ever discovered on land or sea, this spice can bring a full grown man to tears. Vomiting can happen in those with a weak stomach. Utilized as a gas using a grenade delivery system.
- Itch Spice: A sprinkling of the Itch spice can make the human body break out into painful hives. Those with this affliction will be left in severe pain as a result, and there is no hope for them. Leave them. They are dead and going to spice hell.
- Ignite Spice: A uniquely volatile spice that reacts incredibly poorly to electrical charges. As a result, an electrical charge can be channeled through the spices and ignited in much the same way one would set a bomb. The difference is this spice is easier to get a hold of than gunpowder on certain islands.
Skills:- Electro- Refined Master Chef: As a red panda, Calico is uniquely qualified in such ranges as sense of smell, and other such things. In fact, his palette of taste is well refined and he is a master chef. Helpfully enabled by his omnivore nature, he cooks every single meal on the ship. There is one catch though, he is notoriously picky about what he cooks with. As a result any crew that employs him often finds themselves struggling less with eating regularly, and more with making sure the red panda has all the spices he requires. He does almost all the shopping for food as a result.
- Small Size: Being small has its advantages. Like being able to get into small spots, or even hiding. Lots of hiding. In fact, that brings up the next important trait...
- Speedy Red Panda: A red panda can climb, run, and get anywhere if you're not careful. That is also true of Calico, who usually spends his time darting from hiding place, to hiding place. Most humans cannot match him in speed since he has four legs to help with that little issue.
Background:Where does one begin when talking about Calico? Well, he's a Mink for starters. Nobody really knows the hows or whys, but the Mink tribe managed to make headway into the East Blue, where they settled on an island split from their old home and culture. This island was called Animal Island, because people have no imagination. Animal Island is a unique land that claims a unique spot in the East Blue as the island that touched heaven. In the very center is a large pillar, but nobody has ever been there, since it was guarded by the fearsome boar tribe. All other tribes and animals learned to live in fear of the boars and their claim to the area around the tower. The tower itself stood as a symbol, endless and vast where no living creature has ever seen the top.
But, from time to time paper falls from the heavens. Nobody knows who drops them, but to the animals they where a sign of a greater power. The boars of course took claim to all the papers, which became holy artifacts among them and revered from a distance by the other inhabitants. But, there was one inquisitive Red Panda without a name who wanted to see the holy relics up close. He was an orphan, with no family to watch over him, and still just a cub. The cub would hide in trees, staring out at the tower in interest, but never approaching. Until one long night, a piece of paper fell from the heights, and before it touched the ground the cub snatched it out of the air.
The sacred text he read changed his life. For on it, was a name in glorious bold text. That name... Calico Sushi. Below was a series of ingredients, and instructions. Now, the panda didn't know how to really read well, but he knew enough from travelers who visited the island that this was important. Instead of surrendering the paper to the boars, instead the newly named Calico took his paper, and gathered the ingredients. Fish, seaweed, rice from a trader. Special herbs where gathered from around the island, and finally... The red panda made sushi. He didn't really understand it, not at first. But when he tasted it, the flavor leapt onto his tongue. He couldn't keep this to himself, and began to visit the other animals of the island, sharing his new discovery of sushi.
The boars naturally caught wind, and demanded to know where Calico learned this new trick. At first, he refused, until they raided his little home in a tree. There, they found his paper, and took it. Without his paper, Calico could no longer remember the recipe, and instead was left to watch from a distance as the boars hid it with all the others. The red panda would never see his recipe again, until he had a brilliant idea. What if all papers that fell from the tower where the same? Other treats he could make? Calico went in the middle of the night, climbing along the outside of the tower and the vines that spread along it like a web. He climbed for what he guessed was days, until another paper fell down to him. Snatching it out of the sky, he continued to climb, until another. His stomach growled, starved of food, and his body ached in pain. But curiosity drove him higher and higher. At night, to ease his hunger he would turn to each new recipe. He would read, and dream of a feast of stunning new foods. Then in the morning he began to climb again. Days turned into weeks, and then, finally his body gave up. He fell from the high tower, only to awaken to the smell of food.
The first thing he discovered, was Calico Sushi. Yummy, delicious sushi that he shoveled into his mouth. Until a hand slapped against him from behind and he spat it out. There, an old man with shaky hands sat next to the red panda, and he gestured to the food. "You are starving, but do not shovel it down like a beast. Taste it slowly. Appreciate the labor and hard work I put into the meals before you." Finally, and only then did Calico see the rest of the spread. Tuna steamed to perfection. Broccoli simmered and dipped in a blend of herbs. Chicken dipped in a honey sauce with onions sprinkled on top. But, Calico ate slowly, making sure to savor every bite. While he ate, the old man talked.
His name was Captain Cook. Long ago, at least a century ago according to him, he came to this island of animals. There he discovered herbs he'd never imagined before in his life. But, he needed a place to live, and the idea struck him to make a tower. A tower to store himself and the culinary meals he would construct. Day by day, he would collect the herbs of the island, and then lay a brick for his tower to store it all. He continued and continued, and until he knew it the tower was well above the clouds. A single window was his connection to the outside world, and the food he had collected for his cooking blocked the exit. He toiled endlessly, making new recipes, and sometimes the breeze would catch a paper and send it fluttering out the window. In time, he believed he'd be alone forever, and would never share his discoveries. Until... He looked out the window, held a hand out to block the sun from his gaze... And he caught a falling creature. Saving Calico's life by mere happenstance, he discovered the panda had been collecting his fallen papers. Amused and curious, he decided to make the cub his apprentice.
Four years passed as Captain Cook taught the panda. Their daily grind became that of food, and talks about their lives. Calico quickly ran out of things to say, but Captain Cook never ceased. For in his youth, he had been a pirate. "I sailed all the seas! North, South, East and West! And do you know what I discovered? Everybody has a traditional recipe. Indeed! My mother and father cooked the greatest gumbo! But in the west I discovered a recipe for shrimp that would blow your socks off! In the South a man introduced me to a method of barbecue that he made me swear to take to my grave." Naturally he told this story while teaching Calico that very recipe. "In fact, one day I'll teach you my ultimate recipe! But... It's not done. You see, there is one place I have never been. The Grand Line. It is said there that all seas will meet, and I will be able to combine all my culinary knowledge into one dish. For now, all my recipes are separate. You can tell the south from the east, can't you?"
Alas, Captain Cook never visited the Grand Line. One day, he became sick, and his hands could no longer hold a knife. Calico knew that the old man would not survive, and one night, he began the difficult task of finding the exist to the tower. Days and weeks, but he never stopped. Till the whole system seemed ready to collapse on top of him. Until finally, the exit was in reach. Taking Captain Cook by the hand, Calico led him out to the world, planning to take a ship to the Grand Line. They met the boars instead.
"How dare you trespass! This sacred tower has been tainted by your touch!" Calico protested, revealing who the old man was. He held up the recipes as proof, but none listened. The boars desired the sacred text for themselves, demanding the cub surrender them and then face execution. Calico refused, and the boars attacked. And old man and a panda cannot defeat boars, and with his body... Captain Cook protected a terrified Calico. His body took each tusk, skewered and ripped apart. But as he covered the panda, he coo'd softly. "There there... Don't cry. Don't cry." Until finally, only the panda remained, staring into those empty eyes for hours until the boars left. Taking the sacred text with them.
Calico carried the body of his mentor back up the tower, and laid him in bed. There, he sat weeping by his side for hours, pleading for the man to return to life. But nothing came of it. Nothing ever comes from tears. Finally, pulling himself away, Calico resigned himself to a life in the tower, never to leave... Until he went to the kitchen. There, sitting on a piece of paper was a final note from Captain Cook.
'Dear Calico. Thank you. Thank you for giving me the chance to leave this island and fulfill my wish. I don't know if I will ever succeed, or if the Grand Line really holds the secret. But, you have given me the chance to give it a go. I leave with you, all the food you will ever need, and all the recipes I have created in my life time. You have a future on this island, but off it? I don't know. You could be happy here forever. Or, outside, you could be the greatest chef to ever live. You are my finest recipe. Honed from years of small kindnesses, and my many hopes and dreams. You can simmer forever, but one day you will boil over the small confines of this island. This island is too small for someone like you. I leave you with a little food for thought, with my final recipe on this island."
That was the tastiest broth in Calico's life. That soup he made that night gave him hope, and cooled his heart. As he stirred fruits and vegetables into that broth, he had an idea. A slow burning idea that gave him a taste of something new. Freedom. The next day, Calico made the plan to take back the stolen recipes, and then flee on a trip to the Grand Line to achieve Captain Cook's dream. The boars where the only thing to stand in his way. Using his knowledge of spices, he mixed up the finest of ingredients. Making bombs, he blew the boars away, leaving the boars terrified and split up. The island no longer feared them, and Calico... He had a new dream. Taking his recipes, Calico took the very next trading ship, and was gone. He just managed to somehow end up in the West Blue along the way.
