At least there's no elevator music...

[thespaceopera]

[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!

Comments

[ino]

Yeah. And the money can be used to buy things at the places we stop, or upgrades for your ship.

As far as leaving goes, we've been told the only way to go home is to be the most popular, or most interesting. They haven't exactly been very forthcoming about all that.

[rubbernecking]

[ He laughs, but it's different than before. Not humorless, exactly, but a little tired. This game is one he's a little familiar with, but only recently. A delicate balancing act of holding up appearances even when the whole mechanic of a place chafes something fundamental to how one views the world and what's right in it.

Right, okay. He's not so good at this kind of game, but he's learned how to survive in it.

The trick is doing so without the support he'd been accustomed to. Seas, he misses-- ]

Sure! No sweat.

...What's going to make you more interesting?

[ino]

[ She shrugs a little. She's not really personally interested in catering to what Atroma wants from them, after years of being toyed with in a similar fashion. So she sympathizes with the laugh, at least.

... But ... she has noticed the change in her paycheck after certain things happen, so: ]

It seems like stuff like fights or love drama tend to get you more attention and money.

[rubbernecking]

Fights I can do.

[ Gross understatement. He can fight, does fight, because that's pretty much the only way he can protect his crew, when he lacks a startlingly long list of skills otherwise deemed necessary for survival in the world's most dangerous and unpredictable sea. Love drama, though?

He's not interested in the formalities, the trappings of romantic love. Remembers a time when he was asked if he knew the difference between love and being in love, which he thought was a dumb question. Of course he knows he loves the people important to him, but he's got other loves too: adventure, his ambition and dream.

And a lot of those have been on hold lately. ]

What did you say we spend it on?

[ Sorry to make you revisit information, but he's still getting his head around this situation. ]

[ino]

[ Well, that was exactly what she expected from him, anyways. ]

Yeah, yeah ... just be careful? We can't exactly breathe in space, so if you break anything it might make the oxygen cut off.

[ She rounds the corner into another hallway, leading back to the common areas ]

You can spend it on upgrades for your ship. So you get better food, bigger beds, longer showers, more shuttles -- that kind of stuff.

[rubbernecking]

Cut off..? [ Luffy thinks back to those bright lights burning in the deep black past the windows. Thinks also of how it had felt to be utterly unable to breathe, that time gas-guy stole all the air out of the area. ] ...You mean there's no air to breathe out there?

[ He only has very limited understanding about 'space'. He knows you need a ship to navigate the sea of stars, but nothing else. Considering his engineering augment, this is going to result in some hilarious confusion.

Fortunately, Luffy's pretty good at just letting his body do its thing and everything turning out alright. He might literally be fixing things on 'auto-pilot', while having absolutely no idea what he's doing. ]

So... you spend money so you can be more comfortable? I don't really care about that, 'cept for the food.

How long have you been here?

[ino]

Yeah. You can't breathe out there. It's only when we stop on a planet -- then we go into their atmosphere, so it's where people can live and we can go outside like you normally would. But while we're out here traveling, we have to stay inside the ship or else we'll die.

[ Ah, the good old "how long have you been here for" question. ]

I've been here a little over a year.

[rubbernecking]

[ Planets and atmospheres, those, at least, are concepts Luffy's become slightly more familiar with, because of where he'd ended up for over half a year. And there's really little difference between 'leave the ship and you die because there's no air' and 'don't step off the ship or you'll drown', technically speaking.

That's not why he gives her a look. ]

Over a year?

[ His stunned silence includes an attempt to open his mouth to speak, and he shuts it again without saying anything.

A few moments later, he tries again. ]

I can't stay that long. I've got friends waiting for me!

[ino]

Do you think we had a choice?

[ All right, Ino, that was a little harsh. She tries again, a little less touchy. ]

There's no way to leave of your own will, at least, none that we've found yet.

[rubbernecking]

[ No, not really.

Because he just woke up here one day, just like he did at that other place, and the hours turned into days, and days into weeks, and while Luffy was starting to set down roots and cast out a net wide for friends and people who could help each other, those weeks turned into months and he started to have a routine in that place. People he grew attached to, who he would never see again when he left.

Months might turn into years yet, except that got interrupted by another journey to yet another place. ]

...

[ He promised.

He promised he wouldn't be another in that chain of people important who just fell out of it again, who disappeared or were stolen away. Broke that promise, entirely without meaning to. Luffy tips up his head to look at the lights above, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his hooded jacket. ]

And if you 'win' this game show thing..? You don't leave?

[ino]

They say the point is to be the most popular "character" on their show. If you have the best ratings, you supposedly get to go home.

[rubbernecking]

Okay..!

[ He crosses his arms, squares his shoulders, stands right there in the middle of the hall like he means to make the declaration of his goddamn life, and it's not 'I'm going to be Pirate King', seeing as his ambition's on hiatus. ]

I'm gonna do it! I'm gonna get the best ratings, save my friends, and take us all back home!

Whatever it takes!

[ino]

[ ... Yeah, except they have no idea if Atroma is lying about all of that or not ...

Still, he just got here. She doesn't want to kick him while he's down. ]

Yeah, yeah.

[ ... So she'll just round the corner into the kitchen instead, gesturing for him to follow and to have a seat at the nearby table. ]

Here -- it's gonna take a few minutes to cook. You like steak, right?

[rubbernecking]

[ Why not? Gather enough money, they'd said. You could buy a ticket home from the aerospace port terminal, they said.

Except people vanished in droves, and not enough shuttles ever left the station to account for even a fraction of them all.

It wouldn't be the first time those winds have been taken from his proverbial sails. One might say anyone hailing from the same circumstances, deep down, expects it. He drops himself into a seat, pulling off his straw hat to have it rest in the cradle of his hands. It probably should alarm him that she's already known, but he's still kind of reeling. When he was an Elite, he didn't have to care about politics or popularity, had to learn a little. Now, he doesn't have a choice.

It's sink or swim now!

He looks up again, suddenly, but isn't asking about the steak. ]

Do you know if we can send messages?

[ino]

[ She blinks. She was kind of expecting him to get excited about the steak ... ]

Uh --you mean to other people in the fleet? Yeah, you can use your communicator to do that.

[rubbernecking]

[ With one elbow on the table, he plants his cheek in his palm. Sure, any other time he'd be jumping with joy at the prospect of steak -- and give him a day on the ships with nothing but gels or tofu and he'll be even more enthused!

But the conversation's left him feeling something... not new, exactly, but rare, and it's withered up his appetite for the time being.

Once he smells cooking meat, though, that's bound to change. ]

...I meant to people back where we came from. [ It's hard for him to care about the strangers he's about to get to know, right now. He's still thinking about who he left behind. ] Guess not.

[ Seas...

Have Law and Vivi started their day already, only to discover he's nowhere to be found? Have they filed a missing persons report with the Chrome... broken to Sanji and Perona the news? What about his other friends? Ryuko, Anders, Zuko, Iori... what about his brother, Sabo?

Is this what really happens to the ones who disappear? --Wait... he lifts his head from his palm, blinking owlishly. ]

Did you say there's steak?

[ino]

I mean ... you could try -- but I think the network only really works between all of us on the ship. Right now, anyways.

[ He might be able to try sending out some messages once they get back onto the ships ... if they ever do, but. For now ... ]

Yeah, I was just asking if you liked it. I'll make some?

[rubbernecking]

[ He lifts his cheek from his palm, and with the other hand, scoops his hat up off his lap and plops it back onto his head, his grin visible from beneath the brim of his straw hat. ]

Yeah! Steak's my favorite!

[ Sounds like he really means that, too, but... hey, Ino probably knows all about that, huh? There are few things that can stand between the captain of the Strawhat Pirates and his love of red meat.

Unfortunately, losing people important to him just so happens to be one of them, but only for a short while. ]

You can cook?

[ino]

A little bit.

[ She'll be retrieving some meat from the fridge, starting the stove. ]

I'm not a professional like your cook, but enough people seem to like it when I do, anyways.

[rubbernecking]

[ Fondness and pride roll off him like warm sunshine, and he starts to grin. ]

Yeah, Sanji's really--

[ His face blanks out with surprise. Once, he wouldn't have cared, but where he's been has really made him more suspicious of people with unexpectedly intimate knowledge of his history. ]

First you know my name, then you know one of my crew. How do you know this stuff?

[ino]

You told it to me.

[ She doesn't look up from the pan, setting the meat inside it. ]

I met you in a different place, one you don't remember. Your memories get erased when you leave, usually.

[rubbernecking]

So... like how you don't remember us meeting outside Dana Burn?

[ That explains a few things, opens up a whole other world of questions in turn, but along with his initial confusion there's also a sense of relief.

Maybe it'll take him a while to shrug off suspicion for the sake of one's survival, but at least for now he doesn't have to worry about some kind of ulterior motive! ]

...Okay. [ And Luffy just accepts that, that she's from Somewhere Else that isn't Amoi, and that's fine. It's the other part that makes him look up at her again, sharply. ]

What?!

[ino]

That's right.

[ But she does turn to look back at him at his exclamation, waiting for him to elaborate on what he's questioning, exactly. ]

[rubbernecking]

If you leave here, you really forget everything?!

Everything?

[ino]

Not here -- a different place. Like the place you came from to get here.