immamartillo | 5th Hat Flip [Voice/Action]

Entry tags:

ic,
luceti

5th Hat Flip [Voice/Action]

[Voice]

[It's early in the morning-after a night of much boredom and little sleep- when Firo opens his journal.]

I've been wonderin': what kinda weapons do people use back where you guys come from? Where I live, people'll fight with anything from fists to tommy guns, but I figure everywhere's gotta have somethin' different.

[Action]

[Later that morning, Firo sets off running for the Battle Dome. He hasn't been too pleased with himself lately: he failed to be effective against the droids that attacked a few weeks ago, and then he couldn't even protect his friend from being mallynapped. Actually, ever since Ennis was kidnapped before his arrival in Luceti he's felt nagging feelings of uselessness. They've only been intensified by recent events.

He has to get stronger. The capos of his Family would be disappointed if they saw him like this. In the back of his mind Firo can practically hear Yaguruma berating him.

He spends most of the day at the Battle Dome, focusing on training until he's ready to drop (though feel free to interrupt him). Maybe trying to go so long without a break isn't a good idea, but that doesn't matter to Firo at this point. When nightfall comes, he wanders outside and slumps by the door, exhausted.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You know, I thought that for myself for the first two years here.

Maybe you just haven't found out what you can do here yet that can't be done anywhere else.

Well, maybe but-

[Wait a second. He can't rescue Ennis, but he can, for instance, try and chip away some more at Czes's shell. And then there are things he can do for the friends he's made here.]

...I guess you're right. Thanks.

[A shrug.] So long as it works out all right.

[No harm sharing experience after all.]

I don't think I can mess things up too badly here. I hope your stuff works out alright, too. Whatever it is.

Mine can't have a happy ending, but I'll take whatever happens.

...Oh. Well, um, good luck with that.

Thanks. It's been better than expected honestly.

Really? Glad to hear that.

...Unless that's only because you kept your expectations low in the first place.

Well.. it's complicated.

We're on different sides of a war, but he kept arguing we didn't need to fight. I disagreed, but after the war... Things changed.

["Justice" was in the wrong as much as the pirates. Both sides so bloodthirsty. Vengeance versus ruthlessness.]

And here... [Rubs his chin.] Suddenly the excuse of "So long as you're a pirate and I'm a marine," doesn't cut it. [And really it's all Straw-Hat's fault, turning everything upside down. It helps that Fire Fist is dead. If he wasn't... Smoker would still refuse, still fight. But it's why it's something he can't resolve in their world either. Just keep moving forward and never look back. In Luceti though, he's got no choice but to examine it. For his justice.]

"Things changed"..? Like that stuff you mentioned earlier about not agreein' with other guys where ya work?

It doesn't sound like you guys could help fightin' if you're ordered against each other.

[Firo's well aware of that; he and some of his closest friends are in different organized crime families and have agreed that it's Family first if the two organizations come to blows. Fortunately their alliance has lasted.]

Correct. I've always been at odds with the Brass on a lot of things, but the whole world changed from that war.

[Thinks it over.] It's not that I don't disobey orders. And he doesn't have any regarding me. [He's sure of that much. However much Portgas might want to get along, if Whitebeard ordered Ace to take Smoker's head, he's certain the brat would try. Then again, Smoker doesn't know the Whitebeard crew or Ace as well as he thinks. He does know they're insanely loyal however.] It's just principle. He's had his own crimes to his name, reasons to be caught and executed.... [But being born shouldn't be one of them.] It's just... moot here. The person he was protecting I'm not doing anything about right now, and his grandfather was a marine, one of my bosses actually.

Why do ya gotta take care a' this here? It seems to me like this is the one place you could let it go. Not like you can really execute him here.

[Quiet for a bit and a heavy note.]

That's why. We tried to avoid each other, but the Malnosso get other ideas.

I don't intend to hunt him. Here or there. [Well, he can't at home, but whatever.] This is just the only place where anything can get resolved with it. Has to get resolved, whether we like it or not. [And... Smoker doesn't hate it. Actually, it's a lot less stressful this way. But hardly something he'll admit. He realizes that doesn't completely answer the question, if anything, it's just more repetitive. But it's difficult to explain how things are with him and Portgas. With Straw Hat, he's going to catch the brat no matter what, but not here in Luceti. It wouldn't count here, and it's moot. With Luffy's big brother... it's a mess. Even straightening out the mess is still a mess.]

I'll explain it better some other time in the future. Remind me of it and ask again.

Sounds rough.

[He laughs self-consciously, wondering if the whole thing is that complicated or if he's just too stupid to understand it.]

Yeah, I'll hafta remember to do that. Sorry, but I don't think I really understand what's goin' on with you two.

[His unfamiliarity with their world probably doesn't help much either.]

It's all right, I'm leaving things out. It's still a work in progress and half of the story isn't really mine to tell yet, if that makes sense.

[So it's sort of the line between wanting to help using his own case, and yet not wanting to give away too much of what Portgas might consider personal. Granted, Portgas might not even consider it personal, but whatever. Safe side for now.]

Maybe I should track down this pirate guy and ask him about it.

[He's only half joking. A cool story like this might be worth the effort.]

You could try. I don't know that he'd be too forthcoming.

If it helps, he likes fire. So you could probably do something with that.

Fire, huh? I can try and take somethin' from my friends' bag a' tricks; they got a thing for it too.

[It makes them great extortionists, but Firo's keeping that information to himself.]

[He can tell Ace about that since the Whitebeard pirates have their own issues.]

Yeah? My men at G5 are the same way. I wonder why there's so many pyros out there. [Yeah right, like Smoker isn't a little bit pyro too, okay.]

I dunno. Probably has somethin' to do with how much destruction fire causes.

[Plus it is kind of cool to watch somebody burn their glove or light an evil guy's head on fire.]

Oh great. Just what G5 needs. [All the sarcasm.]

Is it already bad there?

The men are. The base would take a buster call to destroy. It's in the New World after all so it has to deal with some pretty extreme conditions.

What's in the New World? Besides crazy marines, I mean.

Crazy pirates, lightning rain, pirate emperors, monsters... it's a fucked up place.