piratejournal | 5th rise of the phoenix ஜ Audio / Action for Spades possible

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5th rise of the phoenix ஜ Audio / Action for Spades possible

[The message comes at night, as he's wandering on the deck. He's not up for guard duty tonight, but he still can't sleep, even if now that island is at a good distance away from them, the effects it had on him haven't vanished. He's still too close to his boiling point, or maybe he's already boiling and it's just a matter of time before he explodes in a ball of fire, anger and hate. Sleeping isn't an option in this state and he knows it better than anyone else. While asleep he may not be able to control his Cosmo, or he may enter into a nightmare that finally tips him over the edge. He may fall into sleep deep enough that he won't be able to know where he is when he wakes up, if someone comes to wake him up he may attack them driven by instinct and the thirst for destruction and release. He may attack Ace if his game of musical beds leads him to his bed, and while he doubts it would cause lasting damage, he would prefer to not do that.

So he doesn't even try to sleep, instead he wanders around the ship and enjoys the silence of the night. Not everyone is asleep yet, but it's calm enough that it could seem so. Eventually, he hits the journals after finding something floating in the water and that he picks up.]

Anyone else thinks that sleep is overrated tonight?

[There's a short pause.]

Right, I almost forgot, we're in Easter period. If anyone wonders why there are eggs in places there shouldn't be or weren't before, it seems this place wants to celebrate that with us.

I found a golden egg floating besides the ship just now, or an egg painted with a gold like color at least. If memory serves well those things should be made of chocolate or actual hard boiled egg-

[There's a cracking sound as the egg's shell starts to break, causing Ikki to stop talking. A few seconds later the chirps of a little chick are heard.]

Or a fucking fluffy chick apparently. What the hell?

[That's definitively not what he expected.]

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Nevertheless, I found it interesting. I have a certain interest in tales of rebirth and birds, yoi.

[Speaking of birds, HELLO FLUFFY LITTLE CHICKEN! Don't mind Marco tickling it under the chin.]

You do? I wonder wherever did you get that interest from.

[Rolling his eyes. He offers the chick for Marco to hold it on his palm when he appears.]

It's quite fluffy, isn't it?

Shocking no doubt. [Sticks his tongue out in deadpan and pets the chick's head.]

I have genuinely never seen a chicken like this before. [Tickle tickle awwww it's so cute.] Must be a species only in this world.

Marco is interested in rebirth and birds. Feels as if my world has just fallen apart and everything was a lie.

[That's as drama-queen as he's going to get, though, just words, no special intonation or anything other than a deadpan to return Marco's.]

It's a silkie. It will remain fluffy like that even when it grows up. There was one in the household Esmeralda belonged to, the rest were normal chickens. As far as I know its caring is the same as with them, though its eggs were worth more, at least in there.

I knew it.

Eh, really? Well, if the eggs are gold, I can see why. [Gently tickles under its chin again!]

The silkie on that household never laid gold eggs. But who knows, maybe this one will.

[The egg it came from was a golden egg after all.]

Unless the gold is an easter thing.

True, though the eggshell seems to really be gold, at least even the interior is painted.

[And he shows him the broken eggshell.]

That is extremely odd, yoi.

Not as odd as finding an egg floating in the middle of the sea with a freaking chick, alive and healthy, inside of it.

Good point.

[Puts her on his head and tickles under her chin, chirping happily.]

Who's a cute chicky out of the ocean? Aye you are!!

Who has the most lunatic uncle and godfather? Aye, you do.

[That's for the chick, of course.]

Seems we may end having to build a chicken pen or something for all the ones we may end with.

Probably a good idea. I'm sure Zeff won't mind having extra eggs. And if they do lay gold, that'll save a lot on resources, eh.

[Tickles under her chin, so cute!]

It will also help to keep them alive and healthy. Even when they grow up, if we get them too used to being with us and going around when there's a battle we will have to lock them or they will roam around and be in the way. And that would cause them unneeded stress most probable.

[A pause.]

Are there religions in your world?

Good thinking.

[Marco runs a hand through his hair in thought.] Not exactly. The Government set themselves up as the descendants of the Dragon god kind of. [There's something inherent in that which makes Marco want to fight them, the anklet he wears a little more obvious.] And the tenryuubitto are known as Saints.

Some of the sky islands have a belief in their Emperor as God, but eh.... [Shrug.]

Impel Down was made to be hell though, as much as the government could manage, but even that is too good for Blackbeard and the bastards he broke out.

[Ikki actually lets out a pained groan at that. Really and actually pained.]

So basically the government and the religion are the same thing. Your world's situation sucks.

[It's not even a question.]

There was a time when in my world the government and the religion were almost the same, in some places it may still be so. Those weren't good times and at the lowest of the times many innocents were murdered because of it.

Nowadays they are separated things, though. If any member of the government tried to say that he was a descendant of a God or something people would just laugh and send him to an asylum.

Do you know how that place, Impel Down, actually is? Because as someone who has been a regular visitor in Hell I could tell if they achieved their goal or not.

Aye.

[His eyes flash briefly at the question, then shut entirely, along with a clenched fist.]

[If he was starting to get some of his temper back to simmering, if he was starting to let go of the rage and hate he felt for the marines and navy, it all came back in a flood.]

They do everything they can to torture the weak. You're initiated with a baptism where they boil you alive. The amount you scream determines how weak you are and what level they place you. The first level is all needles and blades, a forest of them covered in blood as the prisoners prick themselves on the fake grass and trees. The second level they trap zoans they convinced to awaken. Zoans are animal users like me, but awakening is a joke. They lose their minds, their sense of selves and brains, and just become a bundle of instincts and nerves. All in the name of strength. And who the fuck even knows how much they've experimented on them. That's one of the reasons they want their hands on me. On the third, everything is heated by the fires below. It's called starvation hell, because everything in that place turns to dust and ash, even the other prisoners.

On the fourth is the pit of pure flames, but since too many of us pirates would like that, they also work all their prisoners to death as slaves at meaningless tasks, churning the flames and carrying around boiling metals. On the fifth it's frozen over completely, too deep under the ocean to be anything else. And the sixth is where they held Ace, Jinbei, and anyone they tried to erase from history. Ace and Jinbei refused to make a sound at their baptism. [Crocodile too now that he thinks of it, but he won't say so.] So they knew they couldn't torture them with the usual methods. And really, why bother? It's not like they could touch them anyway. So that's where they left them.

If you want to know more, ask Ace. I don't know if it'd help him to talk about it or not. Sometimes we both get a little crazy, and usually the reason he'd hold back is for somebody else's sake, and with you, I don't think he'd need to worry. Then again, he might not want to add more fuel to our ire, because I'm pretty damn sure Davy Jones and the navy here aren't much fucking different.

[Ikki listens to it in silence and by all appearances he's actually unaffected. But that's just appearance. He learned long ago the futility of raging at Hell and to instead store it inside, add it to his usual anger and fury. He senses Marco's temper and for once reaches out with his Cosmos so the other can know that despite looking calm, Ikki understands and rages as well.]

For a world where Hades doesn't exist, they did a close job for it. Though now that I think of it, in a way he exists? I recall that marine reacting to his Roman name, Pluton.

[A pause.]

Do you think talking about it would help Ace?

[He narrows his eyes.] Pluton?

That's...

[He'd almost be startled out of his rage, if not for the fact that he was also used to suppressing it and holding onto it until he could unleash it.]

God of the Underworld, is it?

That's....

I don't know.

[Both about Pluton and Ace...]

Ace is hard.

Sometimes, he's too much like me, eh. And other times, I think I understand him when I don't have the slightest clue after all.

Ask him. You can tell by his reactions if it's helping or not. It might, but it wouldn't help if I asked him, so I won't. Someone who understands him though might help a lot.

As for Pluton.... [He hesitates all over again, mind racing.] Can I talk to Robin about that? It's important. [His eyes narrow.] Damn. This is why maybe romance will never be worth it with her. We both have too many important things--

Ahhhh.... [He shakes his head.] My Pops wouldn't forgive me if I use that as an excuse. Let me talk to her about it. The reason she's wanted by the government in my world is related to it. She'll probably have a billion questions for you, but I don't know enough of it.

I'll keep it in mind then.

[For future reference or if the chance appears. He's not going to go bulldoze at Ace and give him an interview about his time in Hell. Ikki wouldn't appreciate it if it was done to him, and he is sure Ace would think the same. But if somehow the topic pops up, he will give it a try.

He's quite confused about the reaction regarding Pluton, even knowing what it is he can't help to find it just... Strange. How can something they only know legends of at most alter people that much?]

Talk to Robin all you want. I don't care, I'm not going to ask about Pluton or Poseidon or whatever else you guys have that gets your panties in a knot if you don't want me to. It's just strange to me, that despite those deities not existing in your world their names would be. And there's a certain irony as to how you know them.

[He shrugs.]

If she wants to ask, I'm free all day. Though I don't know how useful that will be to her.

There are weapons which have the power to destroy our world.

Pluton, Uranus, Poseidon, and the World Government has done everything it can to prevent their awakening. They blocked out the entire century of history, forbid the learning of poneglyphs, the writing used on the indestructible obelisks that identify those things as markers, and they've destroyed entire islands all to keep it as secret as possible.

Nico Robin is the only living person who can read those characters. She's a genius code cracker. She's already cracking avian just from being around me. That's why she makes me so nervous. The only other person that smart was my Pops.

[He shakes his head a little wearily.] Pops told me some things. Gol D. Roger could hear the voice of all things, his haki was that strong.

I don't know what One Piece is, never cared to either. But it's definitely tied up in all of it. We all used to think Ace was going to chase it down, so we were ready to back him up, but he chose his little brother instead. Roger is waiting for someone to find One Piece, to wake up the world, and the Government wants more than anything to stop that. I have my own reasons to stop Blackbeard from that, but I vowed no matter what to try to help Ace's little brother reach that goal. That's Ace's will, and his little brother carries it. That's really what it means to be a D. And Marshall can burn forever I wish.

[And before he can even give Ikki time to respond he pauses again.]

What do you think it means to be a phoenix?

You talk of gods you have to thwart, and one you fight for. What then, of dragons?

Is there such a thing as inherited destiny? [He takes a deep breath and shakes his head.]

[He's thinking too much and the rings are piling up again where he can't sort them out or disentangle them.]

Our World Government created its religion during the Void Century. The twenty nobles who formed the government and all their descendants are known as tenryuubito. Descendants of the thousand year dragon.

On Wano island, dragons used to exist, and the samurai, the bushido, they have a long standing enmity with them. So much so, they even kept the World Government out, even after all these centuries. They hate dragons that much. Wano is where I took Ace to learn how to weave straw, so he could practice control over his temper, eh?

[Dragons, dragons, phoenix... Monsters.] I wish I knew why Garp, Ace's Grandfather, named his son Dragon. Monkey D. Dragon is the most wanted man in our world, and the leader of the Revolution. Robin has ties there as well now. [Another gulp, and Marco actually grabs a seat, his back to the mast.]

Pluton. Hades... I don't know. I think it was a ship meant to be able to fight Poseidon. And Uranus.... [His eyes darken considerably.] To control the sky.

[He tilts his head and looks at Ikki, unlike ever before.] Tell me more about your gods, please, little brother.

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