Fortunately for Fenrir, Corwin apparently carries some bandages in his bag with him at all times and is able to carefully remove the lure from Fenrir’s ear without much trouble.

Fenrir crosses his arms and glares at the lure as Corwin bandages his ear.

“What the heck is going on?” Fenrir asks.

“I do not know, Fenrir, but perhaps you have forgotten how to properly cast a rod as you have not practiced in a couple of days?” Corwin suggests.

“There’s no way that’s true. Try it yourself!”

Corwin finishes wrapping Fenrir’s ear and then does just as Fenrir suggested. The line is cast without any issues. In fact, it is a beautifully done cast that results in the lure plopping into the water farther away than Fenrir has ever managed.

“What?” Fenrir asks. “Seriously? How did – no, I know I didn’t forget. Let me try again.” Fenrir takes the rod from Corwin’s hands and begins reeling it in.

Only, it doesn’t reel.

“Seriously? What the—” Fenrir is cut off from Corwin taking the rod back to demonstrate how to properly reel the line in.

They’re doing the exact same things, yet it’s only working for Corwin.

“Alright, there’s some sort of fuckery going on here. Why does it work for you but not me? Come on, you saw me reeling it in just like how you are now,” Fenrir says.

“I – I do not know, captain. I will admit that I do not see any flaws in your actions, so I struggle to understand why you are unable to perform properly,” Corwin says.

Fenrir is happy that Serra isn’t around again.

“Alright, hang on.” Fenrir grabs the rod back and holds it down in front of Rock. “Rock, bat the reel handle downward,” he says, holding the spinning handle of the reel directly in front of Rock.

She smacks her paw down against it.

It spins—reeling the line in—without any problem.

Fenrir tries smacking it himself, using brute force, using his mouth and even his feet – nothing will make the damn thing work!

“I’m beginning to think I’m getting pranked here. Either you two are working against me, or this rod is possessed and hates me for some reason,” Fenrir theorizes.

He holds the rod up right in front of his face.

“What’s wrong? Am I not holding you gently enough? Is it because I didn’t take you out to dinner first? Tell me how to make you work, damn it!” Fenrir pleads.

There is no response.

Of course, there is no response. It is just a fishing rod.

“How am I supposed to fish with a rod that hates me?” Fenrir asks, looking over to Corwin with sad eyes.

“A-ah, captain, perhaps we should swap rods?” Corwin suggests.

Fenrir immediately hugs the rod close to his chest. “No way, she’s mine. I already let you manhandle her enough.”

“Your rod is a she now?”

“Well, yeah.”

“I had always assumed something with such a long and firm length would be referred to as a male.”

Fenrir looks like he just saw a ghost.

He’s either handling a man or a futa.

How did he not realize this sooner?

No, he shakes the thought out of his head. His rod is a girl, and one that doesn’t have a dick. End of story.

Furthermore, after hearing what Corwin just said, Fenrir realizes that he’s only safe around Cassiel, Tabitha, and Rock. Oleander, Serra, and apparently now Corwin all have their minds in dirty places.

“Onii-chan! Is it really appropriate for you to think they’re all perverts considering that you love tentacles, have an unhealthy obsession with girls in sweaters, and haven’t masturbated to anything but hentai in years?” Saya chimes in within his mind.

Fenrir mentally swats her away before returning his attention to the matter at hand – or rather, the rod at hand.

“Alright. Seriously, what’s the problem?” he asks his rod. “Is there like… a fishing skill requirement? No, that wouldn’t make any sense, because Rock definitely wouldn’t have higher fishing than me. Uhhh, what if… please let me reel you in?” Fenrir tries reeling it in after asking nicely, but it refuses.

He looks like he’s ready to cry.

“Ca-captain, it is alright, please do not let it get to you,” Corwin tries comforting him, patting his shoulder.

Fenrir turns to look at the newest crewmember with rod in hand. “She doesn’t like me,” he says with large, watery eyes and his ears folded down against the top of his head.

The only other person to ever see Fenrir this depressed over something is Oleander.

“What if – captain, what is that?” Corwin asks, pointing at the bottom of the rod’s handle.

Fenrir lifts it up and turns it over. There is a small but beautiful opal embedded into the bottom of the rod’s handle. It is a filled with a myriad of light colors and is the most beautiful gem that he has ever seen.

He gets an idea.

He lets Corwin hold it. Now when Fenrir looks at the opal, it has a soft glow to it. When he lets Rock handle it, it has a soft glow. When Fenrir tries handling it, the glow disappears.

There is only one thing in common that Corwin and Rock have that Fenrir can think of that he doesn’t have.

“Corwin, let me see your card again,” Fenrir asks.

Corwin pulls it out to show Fenrir. He has a positive standing of seventeen. Rock’s is five. Fenrir has negative thirteen.

“You’re kidding me. This rod only likes good people? But I am good! I only killed assholes, I think,” Fenrir says.

“That… does not sound quite right, Fenrir, but I cannot think of any other potential cause,” Corwin replies.

“I’ll be back in a bit. Rock, stay here with Corwin. Try… I don’t know, convincing the rod that I’m nice or something,” Fenrir orders.

Rock barks as if she actually plans on trying to talk to the rod.

“What are you going to do, captain?” Corwin asks.

“Be annoyingly nice and helpful to people until my Standing goes up.”

And so, Fenrir runs off motivated to be the nicest he has ever been.

He has no idea what his Standing is unless he goes to get an entirely new card, so he just has to try and be as nice as possible to everybody in hopes that his Standing goes up.

He helps people out on the docks loading and unloading cargo for free, helps elderly NPCs carry groceries around, breaks up any fights he sees – or at least tries to, and even buys a couple of freshly-caught fish to feed to any stray animals!

Grinding for a positive Standing score eats up a few hours of his time.

Finally, he makes it back to Corwin and Rock who are still sitting on the pier.

Rock looks betrayed when she sees the harem of cats and dogs following behind Fenrir.

However, having predicted Rock’s reaction, Fenrir pulls out a few rocks from his pockets and tosses them over to Rock.

All is forgiven, and the stray animals following him eventually disperse when they realize he has no more food for them.

“Alright, I’m ready,” Fenrir says, standing before the goody-two-shoes of a fishing rod.

He lifts it up.

Sure, checking to see if the opal is glowing would be the easiest method of determining whether it’s worked or not, but he just wants to test it out and see for himself.

He holds the rod, pulls it back, and then swings it forward!

The lure goes soaring into the air! It doesn’t travel nearly as far as Corwin’s did, but it travels far enough to prove that it’s working!

“I did it! Corwin, did you see that? Rock, did you see that? I did it!” Fenrir cheers, his tail excitedly wagging so quickly behind him that it causes his hips to sway along with the motion.

Now he looks at the bottom of the rod. Surely enough, it’s glowing. It might not be glowing as brightly as it did for Corwin and Rock, but it’s still glowing.

“You’re stubborn, Rod. Seriously, what kind of rod cares if somebody is good or not?” Fenrir tries asking it, but doesn’t get a – wait, did the glow just pulsate? “…Rod, can you hear me?”

It pulsates again.

“Don’t tell me that you’re also going to turn into a puppy. How would that even work?” Fenrir asks.

Rock whines from the sidelines. What’s wrong with being turned into a puppy?

“Alright. Pulse once.”

The gem pulses once.

“Pulse twice.”

It pulses twice.

“Alright. Pulse once for yes, twice for no. What the hell are you?” Fenrir asks.

“Ca-captain, I do not think that is a yes or no question,” Corwin interjects.

“Oh. Right. Okay, next question. Rod, are you going to turn into a puppy?”

Two pulses.

Rock doesn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed.

“Got it. Do you only let good people use you?” Fenrir asks.

The gem pulses once then twice after a short pause.

“I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. Is the reason why you wouldn’t work for me because I had a negative Standing?”

One pulse.

“Did you… did you purposely hook my ear?”

One pulse.

Fenrir’s eye twitches. He wants to embrace his inner Cassiel and call this rod a bastard. “Those things are sensitive, you know.”

One pulse.

Yeah, this rod is definitely a bastard.