piratejournal | [Voice & Written]

Maybe I just need to slow down a bit.

[He lets out a weak little laugh.]

Yeah, but I'm an easily overpowered headcase.

Nonsense. [Laughs right back.] You're a cute one!

And if there's anything I hope you've gotten from my stories today, it's that that's how we got Ace in the first place.

[How do you even argue with logic like that?]

[He nods a bit.]

Yeah. I like Ace a lot actually. I don't mind following him. If he wasn't a good guy I'd have a problem with that. I would have just left.

It's not just him though, I think...well I like almost everyone even if I don't really know what to do about that. I didn't want Aya to leave.

[Nods softly.]

[And his hand covers in blue flames, completely encompassing the quill though it doesn't burn, even where it touches the paper.]

Ace is very good with people.

[He looks back up to catch Natsuno's eyes.] So long as anyone is determined to protect his dream for that, I'll protect them no matter what. [But don't be surprised if there's something a little off in the eerily calm way he says it either.]

I don't really know what his dreams are. I never really asked but...I'm the kind of person who wants to protect people. It's kind of funny, isn't it? Everything I thought, everything I experienced and all the people I disliked and I wanted to protect them.

If I just wanted to get revenge I could have just gone after Tatsumi and Shimizu. Why did I go after all of them?

To send a message?

No. I just felt like what they did wasn't right. It's not right to go in and kill a huge amount of people for no good reason. You could live rather comfortably in a place that size, peacefully even.

I might be wrong, but in my opinion they are and I am willing to fight. Even if I had no skills at all. Whatever it took.

I can't even explain it. It was personal, but at the same time not. Maybe if Akira and Kaori weren't with me...I don't know. It's hard to say. I could have just left.

It makes sense.

[He feels the same way, really. Kairi's just too damn young for the marines to decide to make an example of her. There's a line. Even Blackbeard hasn't crossed that line yet, and he's crossed every other there ever was!]

Revenge is for the living as much as the dead.

Thinking about it, it wound up seeming rather stupid. Although they did kill me so they were obviously worried about it. I'm the one they made an example of. Man, Tatsumi was angry when he found I came back and didn't come running to him begging for sanctuary like the rest of them.

[He considers it.]

Akira and Kaori were both younger than me. They were poking around them and I didn't think they should be alone. But no one would believe us or anyone else who expressed doubts. Even Ozaki-sensei just gave me a strange look when I asked him. It wasn't until after I died that he told me he came around. Then we had an adult involved at least.

He says I saved Akira and Kaori. I'm glad for that, really. It's not as strange to hear about my future as you might think. It's only a couple of days. To know that things were accomplished and that my father is doing better...it's all I could ask for really.

If time really has stopped for me, I'll know that my time will be up in a couple of days when I go back, but...

I suppose I'm thankful for the time here in a way. At least I got to meet some people who weren't like those I knew. Broadened my horizons. That's enough.

[He gives him a soft grin.] That's exactly the right perspective, eh.

Thatch and Ace both only have this world right now, although Chandra says she'll take them traveling with her through the planes. [He's jealous about that... suddenly. He wants to go. Duty to the rest of his family in his time or not. Is it possible to split? Well hell, Chandra can summon phoenixes, why not him as well?]

Either way, you're in good company.

This place is strange and defies all logic. I suppose I can't really argue logic anymore considering everything I've seen and experienced though.

[A small laugh.] We used to hear that all the time in just my part of the ocean back home.

I'm not the kind of person who believed in anything like that. Part of that is my parent's doing, but mostly I'm a rational thinking person. Usually. A few months really just turned everything on its head.

That's the nice fucked up part of being a phoenix. [He relaxes against the wall with his arms behind his head.] Even as a logical pragmatic thinker, I'm still automatically an impossible mythical thing.

It makes me open-minded.

I suppose. I don't really know anything about phoenixes either. There are a lot of things, especially in this world that I don't understand and I don't know if I ever will.

[This is good. At this point he's feeling a lot more on an even keel. Marco's idea was brilliant. He might be able to suffer through the rest of their time at the island and hopefully, never return.]

Sometimes understanding is overrated, eh.

Yeah.

[He's quiet for a few moments, gathering his thoughts mostly. He was supposed to be telling Marco stories from his home, so he tries to come up with another that's really not as depressing.]

I'm not sure I have any more good stories. Most of my stories are pretty, well, you know. [He waves his hand.]

[A random thought occurs to him, one of the conversations of note he had with Riku comes to mind.]

What do you call the language you're speaking, Marco?

Right now?

Yeah, right now.

[He sits up a bit, looking at him curiously.]

Riku and I talked about this once and it was really interesting. I really should ask more people.

Human.

[Hand to forehead.] Ah, and not Wano Island dialect I guess.

Why?

Humans have a wide variety of languages. Riku for example speaks English, whereas I speak Japanese.

What I see in my journal is probably vastly different then yours. I could show you, there's a way to override it, if you try. Riku seemed surprised at the time. It's just something I thought of one day.

I can speak English, but not terribly well. It's more conversational than anything, but we understand each other all fine.

[A head tilt and he starts whistling in phoenix.]

Wait so then does this make any sense to you?

[In theory it should, but Marco's whistling has always sounded like whistling to him.]

I don't know what that is.

[He pulls out his journal and lays it out in front of Marco to the end of where they stopped talking there. To Marco it probably looks normal but he pulls out his pen and just by willing it, he signs his name in Japanese.]

結城夏野

That's my name. That's what it looks like when I sign anything.

[SUPER HEAD TILT.]

It looks like Wano dialect, but I'm not proficient.

[Runs his quill over the back of his neck again.] I wonder how that works, yoi.

Everything in my journal looks like that to me. I was wondering that too actually. It's a bit of a mystery. Is it a type of magic of some kind? What other things can they do with it, because I guarantee someone who can affect this many people with a translation spell of some sort can do more then that.

But will can completely override the translation. [Natsuno pushes it aside to demonstrate.]

You can cast it off. Why do we come back from the dead here?

[Maybe he's overthinking things again.]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject