driftfleet | At least there's no elevator music...

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At least there's no elevator music...

[At least two weeks have passed since the Drift Fleet passengers woke up on this strange wing of the Marsiva... Some new passengers have even joined the group instead of being Shuffled off to a fleet ship! The large monitor in the central room remains quiet for now, so how is everyone holding up?

Have you been relaxing? Enjoying the Earth media? If you can even remember them, how have Calibrations been treating you? Has anyone started getting a little stir-crazy?

Don't worry... This ship has no shortage of mysteries, and you'll be seeing a few more soon.]

ooc: here's another mingle for the current game event! players can start or continue threads here from any point during the event. the additional setting information is still being postponed due to sickly mods, but y'all are welcome to post additional topcomments for reactions and investigation once it's up!

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[Nami almost misses him. It's the net effect of being so disgruntled by these weirdass dreams that she's keeping to herself just so she can have some quiet time, because she sure isn't getting it at night.

But odd clothes or not, it's very, very hard not to immediately focus on that unforgettable straw hat. She checks her stride, coming to a stop to stare. Jeans and a hoodie is not Luffy's style, and he didn't have clothes like that when she last saw him besides. It's a coincidence. That's all. A hurtful one.

...but the way he's plastered against the window is so very Luffy-like. Maybe--

Yeah, she's kind of edging closer in a hopeful sort of way.

Real gentle like, real slow...

...to snatch that damn hat off his head. WHO ARE YOU.]

HEY!!

[ A lot happened, Nami. There are places where it's advisable to cover the color of your hair, where concealing your frame in layers makes you harder to identify later without retina-scanning equipment. When almost all the stuff you showed up with has been taken away and all you have is what's available in street markets, even in some far-flung future he'd otherwise never know. Things change, and survival means adapting.

Luffy's reaching out to snatch back his treasure before he's even turned around, and as he does there's already a snarl ready on his lips; he's always been protective of that hat, maybe a little more aggressively so after it's already once been taken from him and so recently returned. ]

GIVE THAT BA--

...Nami?

[ His disbelief lasts approximately as long as it takes for him to blink.

And like a switch, his attitude swings all the way around to overjoyed surprise. Nami may or may not still have his hat, because all at once he's aiming to grab her about the middle and literally lift her off her feet in a hug. He practically dances -- no, maybe he is, practically hopping from one foot to another before he twirls, taking her along with him.

All the while it's a litany of: ]

Nami! Nami! Nami!! Oh wow!! Am I happy to see you!

[He might be angry at first, but for once it makes no impact on Nami. Her face is already lighting up at that first outraged Hey!!, grin wide. The clothing might be weird, but she doesn't give a damn.]

Luffy! [Whoa, wait, dragged off her feet. She breaks into laughter, still holding onto his hat, but after a moment it gets mashed back onto his head with rough fondness so she can hug him right back god she has missed you--.] You finally got here! You followed me! You're--

[Poking him in the collarbone with a finger, thanks very much. Though she makes no move to get un-hugged first, so this is probably the least intimidating thing ever--]

You're late.

[ That cord laden with heavy stone beads -- maroon, deep purple, red -- clatters against her fingernail, and provided she isn't looking too closely, the faint and jagged scar circling his throat will probably escape her notice. It's hard to pay attention to anything when Luffy's squeezing hard enough to make one short of breath, when he's cheering and practically dancing a jig.

It's like he hasn't seen her in ages or something. ]

You're the one who's late! I've been here for--um, I'm gonna have to check!

[ He sets her back down again, abruptly unnerved by the idea someone might have seen them. All they'd notice is the color of her hair and the color of his, and then they'd really be in trouble. But this worry soon gives way again to his joy at seeing her, and he throws his arms into the air, beaming hugely at the navigator. ] Come on! Let's find the way outta this weird building! I gotta get my Reader, and then I can call everybody! You're not gonna believe this, but Vivi's here!

She's gonna want to see you, too!!

I gotta be careful, though, or the chrome are gonna give us trouble, okay?

Edited 2015-11-08 06:49 (UTC)

[She does notice the scar, actually; it's the presence of the odd necklace that draws her attention and from there the jagged scar behind it stands out. But before she can do much more than draw breath, he's going on and she's being put down in a way that feels off and then she's just blinking at him as he prattles on. The rising surprise (and faint joy/worry) that comes from hearing that Vivi might be here is dashed almost immediately as she realises he's... talking about somewhere else.

She thinks. Maybe there's another ship here that he arrived on? It is weird that he didn't follow her straight away. But that doesn't make sense either, he's not familiar with--]

Luffy. There's no way out of this building. It's not even a building; it's a ship. A really big one.

[Something is so off here.]

Where have you been...?

A ship?

[ The pirate's expression is swept clean into neutral curiosity. No, he's familiar with the ships of the Aerospace port, stared at them for hours trying to determine just how many of those actually come and go (not many, not many at all, never enough to account for the disappearances of people claimed by the government to have 'gone home').

He doesn't remember entering any contests, and this seems too big to be a ship embarking for the nearby resort planet. At first he thought this was a museum or something, with its huge display windows and weird, box-like rooms empty but for a few personal items. ]

You mean we're actually in space?

[ All former excitement about this is notably absent. But, then, he's thinking about everyone left behind. Frowning in concentration, he sweeps his gaze from one end of the curving hall to another, reaching to seize Nami by the hand. ]

Then I'm gonna take a ship and go back! I have to get back!

[She notices. But it's also the reaction she'd expect if Luffy had come in from Adstringendum, given they were meant to be leaving and then didn't. Crossed wires.

She curls her hand around his wrist in turn.] Get back where? Home? [We don't need to go back to Adstring, that's for sure.] We can't just fly off! First, I need to know how to get us back home, and I don't have the charts. It's like being stuck out in the middle of the Grand Line without any Log Pose, Luffy. We could leave, but which direction would we go?

[All delivered with an odd thread of hope, because Nami knows she's still missing something here (get back? did Luffy manage to make it home and then get dragged here?) and she's really hoping it's the most simple explanation, because this is going to get confusing enough as it is.]

[ It's alright, they're going to have a few wires crossed for a while, and eventually they'll adjust. They've been through worse, so much worse, and they have the added benefit of being nakama. Nothing will break these ties.

He drops his eyes to her hand on his wrist and then back to her face, eyebrows furrowing again. ]

We--

[ His eyes flick one way and another, fishing for something. Any idea. ]

We steal a chart! There's got to be one around here somewhere, we just have to look -- c'mon!

[Patience. It's easy to have, given she was expecting that response exactly, and he can't possibly know how long it's been--]

I've already been here two months. [She doesn't sound irritated. More tired, patient, kind of breaking some bad news here. It feels kind of the same as in Adstring, getting a brand new captain to the mix after being trapped there for so long, and the comparison makes her frown unhappily.] Don't you think if I could find a chart, I would have by now?

There's a lot I need to fill you in on. Are you hungry?

[ Two months, yeah, of course she'd have found a chart by now. Out of ideas -- too quickly, but that's the luxury of the ignorant, and he's got that in spades -- he drops his hands to his sides. At least this place still has sunlight, if you're occupying the right part of space. And food! If you don't mind it being gels or tofu.

She provides an excellent distraction though, and it's timely at that; mention of hunger has Luffy's stomach chiming in with the usual approving grumble, and the captain (former captain? captain on hiatus) bobs his head in a mute nod.

There's frustration there and something new, something a little like resentful resignation, like he can't get what he wants now, so he'll bide his time until he gets the chance. ]

You didn't mention the rest of the crew. Were you alone?

[...something's wrong. He wasn't like this even at Deireadh's worst.]

When I got here, yeah. I was kind of expecting to go home with you. [Watching him so carefully.] But I turned up here alone. Failed on both counts.

Luffy-- where have you been?

With me..? [ But that would imply they were together to start with, and that wasn't even the case back home, last he remembers and--

Oh. So... was Nami some other place, the way he was on another world before he was brought here? Except she was also with him and this...

This is officially headache-inducing! Luffy pulls a face, tosses his hands in the air like 'screw it'. ]

Uh... somewhere else. Like you, 'cept you never showed up there. It's been... um, it's been a long time, and I really didn't mean to leave you alone! Or any of you! We've been trying to get back for ages!

You didn't leave me alone! At least, not until I got here.

[Her face is falling, because goddammit.] You don't remember Adstringendum at all, do you? You were there with me and Chopper and Sanji-kun. And we found our way home, but I ended up here and you ended up--

--somewhere else. And you don't remember.

[What the hell. Is this like Steven? He was in Adstring and he doesn't remember it either.]

This astringent place, that's where you were? I'unno how two of us could be in two places at the same time, but I don't think it's gonna get us anywhere closer to getting home finding out!

[ In other words, too complicated. Luffy's going to discard the question until it somehow becomes relevant to his desire to get back to that dead planet, rescue his friends, and all of them return home.

Which means taking Nami too. He doesn't want her to be exposed to the life that awaits people with her hair color, but he can't abide losing another crewmate, either. ]

[Please excuse your navigator just staring at you dumbly for the next few seconds, captain. She knows you just threw that whole question out the window, and she's trying to think of a way to push the issue in a way that's even worth it.

It's not. She'll just. Work on that herself. But she's frustrated beyond belief now-- someone finally followed her here, but under these circumstances?

...

At least he was spared the despair that came with their last few weeks in Adstring. And how sick he got. And Sanji.

She puts a hand over her face.]

Fine.

What was this other place?

[She really is happy to see him, so don't mind how curt she sounds. It's just a lot of annoying shit has been happening in the last few weeks and this is just the icing.]

[ That was a bad story with a happy ending, an enemy they could take down and wrest from it their freedom and happiness. In the end, everything worked out fine -- they were supposed to go home.

Now it's another story and Nami would be extremely lucky if this one ended in her return home without worse incident. ]

Um... it's the-- thirteenth? Or maybe it was the eleventh planet in the... Flan system? No, Glan! I think.

[ Tides, Nami, he's trying really hard to remember how it was described to him, and he's already screwing up. And he doesn't have his old device, he can't look it up. (And she probably doesn't need to know he'd been recording hours and hours of video 'letters to his crew' over the last few months) ]

Ever hear of it?

[Yeah but Nami doesn't know that, brackets. Shush.]

No.

[Flatly.]

What, it didn't have a pretty name? Four syllables long, maybe?

[EVERYWHERE ELSE DOES.]

...

[ He stands there for a moment, mouth working, until sweat might just be starting to stand out on his brow in concentration. ]

...

...!

[ Let's try that again, shall we? ]

..? I forgot!

[ Nami, no one will blame you for hitting him, but this is going to happen intermittently for a little while. ] I think it began with a-- um...

[He may relax, she's too much a combination of relieved and worn out to employ violence right this second. But she does give him a long-suffering look and a sigh. The more things change...]

Maybe you'll remember later. [She doubts it.] In the meantime, c'mon. I'll show you where you can find food and I can tell you about this place while you eat.

[Draggin' you this way, captain.]

[ Those effects may fade with time, or they might not. Either way, it's tough to dwell on it when one's navigator is promising food; he trots along in her wake as he's hauled on the way to the kitchen. ]

This place is huge!

[ He adds: ]

And kinda empty? I mean, there's people, but...

How many are there here, anyway?

The fleet's pretty small. Ah-- usually, we're not all in this big ship. It's a whole bunch of smaller ships. Kind of like a pirate fleet, only it's space and not the ocean.

[It gives her pause, though, stopping to count. How many of them were there?]

Seventeen ships... most of them have a crew of around six to eight people, I think. So I'd guess a few over a hundred. Everyone new turns up on this ship, and then in a few days they get automatically transferred to a new crew.

There's that many new people?!

[ Because even if he hasn't had the chance to chat with all of them, he's still spied quite a few other people here, besides Nami and he. He didn't exactly hear (or retain) anything about maintenance, either. There's also a slew of other questions he's got to ask: ]

Wow, a fleet of seventeen ships? And all of them with crews smaller than ours, why are they here? Looking for something?

[ Probably a tired question: but why are they here? and so on. Are there audience members who ask what it is the drift fleet is even searching for? Is there even an audience at all?! ]

No. [She gets what he means-- it's a pretty understandable conclusion to jump to. And she doesn't mind explaining-- he still feels off to her, and that's got to do with where he came from, which she's gonna ask about-- but for now the sense of offness colours her explanation in neutral tones, unsure of what tack to take.]

Right now, there's a lot of damage to the other ships, so we all got brought back here for maintenance. I think a couple new people have turned up while we've been here, but mostly we're just... waiting. Until they fix things.

[And traipse through each other's heads. Does she tell him that? But if he only just got here, maybe he won't be affected.]

As for what they're doing, supposedly we're all on TV as entertainment for some audience nobody has any proof of. TV is-- [She stops. He's been somewhere else.] Did your other place have it? It's like being broadcast on the den den mushi all the time.

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worst castmate returns from the depths

no way!!

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