2008-12-26 (PreU) Pirate Wars - Episode IV: A New Trope

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Pirate Wars - Episode IV: A New Trope

Summary: I absolutely refuse to allow Ash dominance of this logs page. How dare you post two in a row! To make up for it, here's a scene that took basically all of Christmas Day. But it's okay! There are lots of hooks! And pirates. Is this a coincidence? I think not. Also it's Niamh's first appearance. Be gentle. <3



Who: Luffy, Niamh
When: December 26th, 2008
Where: The Twisted Arenas


Luffy-icon.gifNiamh-icon.gif

The information contained within this log is to be considered information gained Out of Character (OOC).
This information may not be used as In Character (IC) knowledge or in roleplay unless it has been learned in-game or permission has been granted by the parties involved.

Questions should be directed to staff.


The Twisted Arenas

Far above the skies of Twisted, or perhaps you've crossed into another dimension somewhere along the way, lay the Twisted Arena's. Island upon island floats in the sky here, some of them connected with thick black stone streets, others by a simple thin wire, while others just hang by themselves. Each arena varies in size from continents to hills, some are actual arena's, with the traditional seating for viewers, while others are great expanses of debreee and rocks. There seems to be no end to them, and any type of landscape seems available to fight on. At times, some of the islands will even change and morph into other landscapes.



Last night was Christmas Eve, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring.
Not even a--- blistering scream of agonised metal broke the silence as it does now. Chaos reigns over Twisted at the best of times, and yet today it seemed a tiny pocket of peace had been found. For the eclectic blend of multi-dimensional citizens, there have been a few precious hours not packed to the gills with brutal murders, high-powered battles on sky and street, and delirious screams as the latest batch of new arrivals glimpse a new kind of madness for the first time.
But now, now metal screams, pockmarked bronze buckling as it overheats. Dimensional impacts are unpredictable by their very nature, and this one is no exception. As a shockwave runs through the skies, the source of the explosion grows larger, more visible to those nearby and below. A snub-nosed hulk rides the wave of heat and light, it's shape not a thousand miles removed from a brogue shoe - only faintly more aerodynamic even were it not currently warping in as much perceived pain as a manmade object can seem to feel. It is a thing of metal plates, suspended in the air by means of eight whirring rotors, rotating blades that project out from the hull and pivot to guide it's path. They don't seem enough, these flimsy things, and sure enough the beast is soaring down from the heavens...
Onboard another scream rings out, this one far from pained or terrified. But frustrated, angry, and shrill with passion. "Damn you! I gave you an /order/!" A leather sole slams violently against a projecting lever, exerting the full force of a mid-sized female human frame... and then some. With a further muttered objection the hulk obeys the given order, canting it's nose upward as rear rotors shift several degrees toward the ground. The sole occupant of the craft throws out a brash whoop of jubilation and spins toward the foggy glass viewport of the cluttered bridge.
Bright blue eyes immediately widen, lips pulling to a perfect 'o' and then to a wide scowl. Niamh mac Lir's skirts and hair swish about her as she strides forward, slapping a palm to the window as her left foot rises and clamps against another lever. This one bearing a floor-level label. 'Emergency Use Only'. Leather creaks as pressure is applied.
"Let's get this show back on the road already! Come on!"

An airship. In Twisted. That isn't something you see every day, not even for those who came from worlds with that technology. It does draw some curious attention from a few random denizens of the melting pot of cultures, especially from one that's seemingly made of rubber. A fleshy red blur suddenly rockets upwards into the sky, colliding directly with the viewport of the ship. The glass rockets inward, shattering into billions of little pieces, the outside air rapidly cooling down the bridge, causing the steam to get worse. Through the steam where the viewport glass once was, the figure of a teenager can be made out. A bit of steam whips around the figures face, revealing part of it, as a strawhat covering messy brown hair, and a lone scar under his left eye can briefly glimpsed.

Hell, it's not Christmas every day either. Not even for those that celebrate it - unless perhaps you're some kind of extra-dimensional sorcerer. Or wizzard.
"Come on, come on, come OOOON!" Teeth initially gritted as pressure is increased soon part as Niamh opens her throat in a guttural roar for the last extended syllable. She sways her hip with the cry, fully committing her honed frame to the motion. The lever gives at this instant, slamming parallel with the grilled floor. And in this instant, a certain rubbery denizen makes his appearance...
Glass explodes, fragmented shards catching the dingy light within the airship interior, some whipping past the astonished fairy woman in a flashing gleam and others embedding themselves in soft flesh. She's too alarmed to cringe, staring at the opened viewport with some level of admiration. Yet, she doesn't immediately stare at Luffy. Could that be - surely not - self-admiration? The shit-eating grin that encompasses her face a moment later would seem to scream 'yes', and she steps away from the triggered lever with a swagger. "I never even /knew/ I modified it that well! Fantastic!"
Her angular features stream with sweat in the searing heat, as she stands a moment with hands pressed to her hips. Failing to notice that the palm formerly pressed to the glass is pumping out blood at an alarming rate. It's not important; what's important is that she managed to get the viewport clear. So much quicker than running all the way back to the landing ramp and getting it lowered - plus no extra drag to cope with! She's a GENIUS.
She's about to swing away and deal with the rest of her preparations, bending a little further at the knees than she was to account for the drag of the wind. Her hair streams around her in a raging torrent of tendrils, her skirts snap and her sheathed sabre slaps at her thigh. And it's like this that she stops dead, meeting the one revealed eye of Luffy with one of her own. The accompanying eyebrow curves upward, her lips purse, and she lifts her bleeding hand, palm upward, in a questioning gesture toward this interloper. "Not to rain on your parade," she cries out against the winds, "But you've stumbled on a private party! There's only enough inevitable crash landing here for one person!" She raises her hand, sending crimson goblets scattering toward the wide open viewport. Sweet; the first time she's ever bled on this dimension. Shoving the hair back from her right eye, she extends a single finger, indicating her rather incredulous face... "And that would be me!"

A blank stare is given at to the woman as Luffy cocks his head to the side. "Ara?" He blinks once before pointing at the uplifted hand. "Oi, you're bleeding." He starts walking around the bridge, whistling in amazement as he starts to poke and prod different buttons and dials. "Hey! This is cool!" He suddenly starts to rush around, soaking in everything he sees with childlike curiousity. "So how does somethin' this big fly! Is it a bird? Can we eat it if it is?"

"Sprechen sie human?" Niamh shoots back to that first puzzled reply, before following the pointing finger to her hand. Her head cants faintly to one side, left shoulder rising in the laziest of shrugs. Spattered fingertips lower in a flick, sending their gathered ichor into the winds before they close into a loose fist. "Thank you," she murmurs, inaudible in the howling air, then watches as the boy begins to reveal himself as an irritant.
And what does an eccentric, self-confident changeling do when faced with this behaviour? She doesn't seem too bothered, actually. Her cheeks puff out as she exhales, eyes briefly rolling heavenward in a display of vexation, and then she simply strolls over to a certain bank of switches. There's plenty to choose from; Luffy can take his pick from seemingly thousands of buttons, levers, dials, knobs, devices and doohickeys. The bridge is almost a hundred square feet of steampunk technology.
Here and there is a dishevelled or outright broken component, or a pipe - many run along the walls - bearing a huge gouge and ejecting an appropriate burst of piping hot steam... The place is a mad engineer's wet dream. If he happens to never have gotten past the Jules Verne school of engineering. It's all very good fun for the curious, and surprisingly hard to do any real damage to. Almost as if the whole thing were a fantasy, and worked only because it's owner believed it did. Which is, of course, a foolish idea.
"It's not a bird," Niamh distractedly shouts as she leans her stomach and crotch against an unyielding surface of polished bronze, easily alighting her hands on the unit's angled upper half. "Though I could introduce you to a few 'people' who could eat it." Fingertips no longer dripping blood swiftly manipulate the bank of equipment. "If you're one of them, I'm in trouble!" She flashes a feral grin and glances back toward the marauding fiend, "But I'm in trouble anyway!" Turning back to her work, she suddenly leans back and slams the back of her right hand against a dial in the upper left corner. The metal plate mounted on her glove ruptures the thick glass, sending out a spray of yellow fluid which she avoids with a graceful sideways curve of her upper body.
"By the way!" She holds up her hand, waggling a finger back toward the presumed location of the straw-hatted pirate, "If you break anything, and I survive, /I/ break /you/!"

"Huh?" The moment she says that, a large important lever suddenly snaps, and is now resting firmly in Luffy's right hand. "I'm sorry." He suddenly starts bowing towards Niamh, as if he's just doing this to get out of any trouble. The lever is dropped to the floor as Luffy looks over to a pipe that seems to be jutting out at an awkward angle, which he then grabs, only to burn his hands. "HOT HOT HOT!" Now rushing around the bridge, knocking over things left and right, breaking anything that is in his path as he rushes around, blowing on his hands feverishly.

There are certain tropes which any story - real or imagined - must obey. You'd think someone who claims to be a mythical being from another dimension would understand how storytelling works, and the truth is that perhaps Miss mac Lir does understand. It certainly causes no immediate explosion when she realises her comment has foreshadowed a catastrophe. But she feels the lever snap, deep in the root of her soul. Call it 'spider sense', the 'bump of trouble' or a woman's intuition, she knows as soon as the sound reaches her ears.
First, her brow twitches, then she calmly sets her hands to the edge of her workstation and uses the leverage to turn around. Her arms come to rest at her sides as she plants her footing firmly, standing easily in the absolute chaos that breaks out as the airship /slams/ to one side, metal walls around the bridge quivering and causing the sturdy mesh that makes up the floor to shift out of alignment. Alarmingly. Outside, a sixty foot panel of bronze bursts open, splinters of red-hot metal hissing into the atmosphere. What happens to the unruly missiles is of less concern than what happens next, as a spike of greyish mist /explodes/ from the back of the craft, speeding it's velocity to a point that the poor rotors just can't keep up. Most simply stop; but one crumples, and another goes flying into the ether with yet another metallic scream.
It doesn't take an engineer of any level to know that anyone onboard is completely, utterly screwed.
No matter what happens to Luffy following this event, the dirty blonde Sidhe strives to keep her attention upon him. "Funny thing!" She practically screams, anger flaring into her tone and skin flushing bright red, "But it's about to get HOTTER!" Wherever the pirate may have ended up when the airship lurched, she is suddenly bare inches away, her form flickering from view and shifting through the shadowy interior - a ghost upon the considerable strength of the winds. The last thing he'll glimpse is a bloody-minded grin, before she becomes a storm of lashing skirts, the toe of her right boot rising to strike the pirate brutally in the forehead.
But it's not an attack - it's an encouragement. Assuming the astonishingly fast blow lands, she is set to fly with him toward the open viewport, lashing out a sleeved forearm in a lariat to the upper body and clinging on to drag him with her into a daring dive toward the ground. Wherever the hell the ground is. With the velocity the airship's going, they might land anywhere...
But hey. Perhaps he has a better idea?

The moment the fist lands, Luffy's upper torso suddenly lurches backwards unnaturally, his head slamming into the floor, then bouncing back up to catch the lariat to the throat, causing his neck to stretch slightly before he rockets out the window, faster then one would expect. The moment they both are out of the viewport, Luffy starts to grin like a maniac. His arms stretch upwards, latching onto the jutting hull with Niamh latched onto him, most likely hanging on for dear life. It doesn't take long for them to both rocket far into the air above the doomed airship, causing Luffy to laugh loudly. "That was fun!"

"Excuse me?!"
The exclamation comes once they're free from the rapidly accelerating ship, the baking heat of reddened plates abating as chill, open air threatens to immediately numb the skin. Her flushed cheeks paling at the edges, Niamh fires a ping-pong glance toward each of Luffy's raised arms, unconsciously tightening her extended hand to turn her vicious clothesline into a half-hug. Uncanny balance and speed be damned; she's got some distinctly human instincts.
Instincts which don't leave her much time to consider further before she and the marauder are launched further skyward, the force of this rattling Niamh's teeth in her skull. "H-H-Hey," she manages to grit out, alarmed wide eyes focusing on Luffy's own as she wriggles about and starts to push away from him in mid-air, "You think that was fun?" The disbelief in her tone seems to boost her determination, and with sudden resolve she lifts both her legs and uses the boy's stomach as leverage to throw herself backwards.
"YOU THINK THAT WAS FUN?" Rage sparkles in blue eyes, and though she immediately starts to fall her arms are moving on a different kind of instinct now, one lashing out sidelong for some semblance of balance while the other gropes for the sturdy revolver at her back. It comes around as she begins to freefall, aviator helm somewhat remaining in place even as messy hair whips around it's limits. Teeth bared, the fey woman brings the pistol to bear with desperate strength, cocks it in a blur of dextrous fingers.
"YOU'RE AN IDIOT!" She screams, voice cracking. An untruly teenager throwing a tantrum. Below them, the Rogue Ember rockets past toward the horizon. It won't get far; relatively speaking, with the nose dipping further and further toward the ground with each passing moment without the Sidhe's quirky expertise at the helm.
And then there's the report; her finger has tightened upon the trigger.
Grapeshot scatters out and upward from the revolver's engorged lower barrel, peppering the air with heated iron. In all likelihood they're far enough apart that the damage to even a mundane person would be merely moderate... to Luffy, it might only tickle. But it's the thought that counts.

"Gomu Gomu no..." The moment the bullets strike Luffy's chest, he inhales deeply, suddenly expanding out like a balloon, "BALLOON!" The words echo out loudly as the bullets suddenly ricochet upwards, moving at the same speed from when they first were fired into the sky. His head turns unnaturally, pointed directly behind him as he exhales violently, causing his body to twist rapidly, hurtling back towards the Fae girl. He easily passes her, but his hands launch out, moving to wrap themselves around her as they both hurtle downwards, gravity getting the better of them. If they manage to grasp their target, she'll find herself floating in the air once more, as Luffy expands like a balloon.

"What in the name of..."
The exclamation dies on Niamh's lips as she washes this being shift his form before her very eyes. It's more the manner of shifting that alarms her however, along with the speed - is this really the same butter-fingered imbecile that just wrote off her most prized possession in a flurry of unbridled idiocy? As he soars past her, however, she is on her guard; powerful legs lunge beneath her skirts, bracing against the force of gravity as she twists herself around to face Luffy.
By the time he grabs her she is, coincidentally, in a rather comfortable position to be grabbed, her sides and back open as her arms remain outflung from her aerial manuevers. It doesn't change the fact that his rubber band limbs are not an entirely pleasing thing to be gripped by, nor that she's being grappled by a vandal she just attempted to turn into a novelty salt shaker. She struggles only briefly before considering another option, which is soon cast aside when the boy inflates.
Soon enough she hangs hundreds of feet in the air, suspended by rubbery arms from a body apparently far from human. Her brow is creased not with worry; but with intelligent curiosity. Her lips are pulled taut as she stares at Luffy, apparently content to be held prisoner for the moment. Lowering her gun-bearing hand, she allows it to rest, wrist tipping to remove some of the strain. It's a pretty big revolver. Her head lolls backward too, shifting some of the hair from her face and providing her a welcome opportunity not to look at the bizarre creature retaining her in mid-air.
"Do you mind telling me," she speaks after a further moment, far more composed then she was - and why not? She doesn't appear to have too many choices available to her. "Why you're bothering with all of this?" Her lips twitch in an amused smirk, and she tips her gaze back to Luffy, "I /know/ I'm nowhere near home any more, and the only thing of value I have is moments from exploding into a thousand superheated pieces. You're not much of a pirate, and I'm pretty sure you're no welcoming committee."

A loud laugh comes from Luffy as he starts to deflate, causing them to start drifting towards the ground. There's a jarring thud as Luffy lands on the ground hard, but oddly enough the most the girl may have felt is a slight shake. He continues to laugh loudly as he slowly gets to his feet, having landed on his back. He slowly pulls the strawhat from his head, dusting it off slightly before placing it back upon his head. "Yep! That was fun! I've never seen a metal ship fly before!" He looks off into the distance, watching the metal craft strike into the ground hard, the resulting tremor being felt from the distance they're at. "And I said I was sorry anyways."

"You /are/ an idiot," Niamh mutters with an unconcealed sigh as she dusts herself down with her free hand, before imitating Luffy's own gesture in setting straight her begoggled helmet. She barely pays attention to her inordinately dishevelled hair, merely blowing out of each side of her mouth to dislodge the worst of it from her previously sweat-drenched cheeks. The tremor of her beloved airship striking wasteland, she ignores.
She's too busy training her revolver back on the pirate boy, setting her stance as she lifts the polished firearm to her flank. One eye slips shut, the other squinting down the barrel as she nonchalantly levels it between Luffy's eyes. "I'll level with you," she wisecracks, open eye glinting and mouth again forming a wide, roguish grin, "That /was/ the best fun I've had in a while. But I'm gonna have to find the Ember and fix her. Problem one," she lifts a finger on her other hand, tapping the side of her head and then jabbing it toward Luffy, "Is that I have no idea where I am. That's what you'll be telling me in a few seconds."
"Problem two," she holds up a second finger and waggles the fingers together, somewhere between scissors snipping and antenna wiggling, "Do you know how hard it is to find a good mechanic? I end up doing it by myself, and it takes ages, and I don't really know what I'm doing, and-" she stops the mock-whine she's fallen into, and widens her grin to almost impossible proportions, the expression standing out on her otherwise narrow face.
"That problem, is why I'm going to have to shoot you when you're done telling me the answer to number one. Oh, and," she lifts her right shoulder in a similarly lazy shrug to before, and her grin slips into a cute little pout, "I'm sorry, by the way. What was your name?"

"Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy." The boy stands with his back turned to Niamh, staring at the flaming wreckage that was once her ship, and nods. "I know a good shipwright. I just need to find him. But he can make the best ships there are." His arms reach above his head, as he rests them atop it, before reaching into his left pocket with his left hand, retrieving an immense piece of cooked meat, still on the bone, that under no circumstances should have fit into the pocket in the first place. He turns around, taking a large bite out of it, before offering some to the girl. "You want some?" He didn't chew, he just... swallowed a good portion of that meat, which doesn't.. what in the world is he?

Mac Lir doesn't budge an inch throughout the boy's half of the exchange, leaving her two fingers extended a couple of feet back from the revolver, the latter trained between his eyes. Apparently through the back of his head, before he turns. Of course she can do that; it's not rocket science - it's simply biology! Besides, otherwordly powers. Worthy get-out clause. Which is precisely what her brain ought to find rather than linger on the subject of what Monkey D. Luffy happens to be. Unfortunately we're instead privy to her own answer to that unspoken question.
"...Troll." It's spoken matter of factly, a final stab of the raised fingers punctuating the statement before Niamh lowers that hand. It hovers just shy of relaxed however, as she pauses. "No, wait. Even trolls need to masticate." Beat. She chuckles, both eyes opening wide with expressive mirth, "Ooh, I know a great joke about that. It-- waitwait." For a fraction of a second both eyes are closed, and then the visage of the intense highwayman is resumed. "Right. Idiot."
"I don't want any, thank you, and I applaud your efforts at nimbly evading the first problem. Sadly, not answering won't save your life. All we'll end up doing..." She tails off suddenly, mid-sentence. Though the fae hardly looks doubtful, or confused, it does seem clear she may have experienced a change of heart. A smile, relatively soft compared to her other gestures toward Luffy, creeps across her lips, and she lowers the aimed handgun. Tucking it away, she slips into a relaxed, easy stance, hands lifting open to either side. "Let's try this again, shall we?"
"Luffy," she indicates the boy with a tip of her palms, then sweeps them back toward her, fingertips curling inward, "Niamh mac Lir. Niamh, Monkey D. Luffy." Drawing in a swift breath, the blonde crosses her arms loosely about her chest and leans back upon her heels, "Don't worry about the shipwright. Three simple questions. Where are we? Where's the nearest town? Is there a war on?"

Another loud laugh comes from Luffy, before his eyes suddenly narrow on Niamh. "Idiot." He turns around and slowly starts to walk away, taking another bite of the meat, heading towards the wreckage of the woman's ship. "Don't know, don't know, and don't know." The boy seems to answer all of the girl's questions as he continues to move away, as if he weren't even afraid of her killing him. He easily cleans the bone, before tossing it behind him. "Man... I'm still hungry...."

The thing about possessing an inflated sense of self-confidence is not that insults are easily ignored or deflected; they simply don't make any sense. Niamh calmly bats her eyelids as her word is flung back toward her, and it appears she might actually question what in the multiverse Luffy is talking about. 'Idiot? Who? Is there somebody behind me?'
Sanity, however, prevails. It's not important enough to warrant questioning, and it's the next seven words she reacts to rather than the single perplexing one. There's no annoyance at the boy's answer though; far from it, she responds with an amused peal of laughter, boisterous and sincere. The bone is paid no heed - curious as she is as to the nature of this thing, it would be hypocritical to care too much. There's plenty of 'things' that don't choose to appear as normal as she does. Different strokes... "I appreciate your honesty," she calls out to the pirate captain's retreating back, the situation considered defused and her anger dulled to a throbbing, aimless ache in her breast. She just sounds in good spirits now. Three cheers for optimism. "And there's nothing out that way. Weren't you paying attention?"

Silence seems to come from the boy as he continues treking through the wastelands, whistling loud enough to wake the dead, almost as if he doesn't even know what fear is. The landscape around him slowly starts to shift, as the wastelands randomly connect themselves to one of the more 'stable' parts of Twisted, the City Ruins. "I wonder if Sanji's come back yet..."



Thousand Sunny - Land Ho!

Well, this is an... awe inspiring sight. There's a massive Brigantine Sloop-of-War that for lack of a better term has been pimped out by only the strangest designer possible lodged around one hundred feet up in a crumbling sky-scraper, both lodged in it and yet still largely intact. How in the name of Gol. D. Rogers did it get lodged so far up- when there's not even a sea to be found within a hundred mile radius?! Luffy, future King of the Pirates that's how!


The Straw-hats have made the best of circumstances yet again, using an intricate soda-powered rope and pulley system running down from the Soldier-Dock system wide open and far above to traffic crewmates and visitors up and down from the massive height where the Thousand Sunny is beached. Though there's no beach so it's more like 'scrapered'.

For anyone not used to the antics of the Straw Hats they might just shake thier head and walk past pretending they never saw it, but for the exceptionally curious they might want to take the ride in the rickedy-seeming 'tub' for lack of a better description and put thier life in it's hands. Since it's quite a fall it's a bit more risky then sharks unless you're made of Rubber!


Proud, arrogant, vain; whatever other flaws she might seem to have, Niamh mac Lir actually isn't a complete idiot. While she initially makes no move to follow Monkey D. Luffy - rolling her eyes as he serves her a helping of ignorance, and then taking a few moments to make a mental map of the area before she turns away and takes a few steps in the opposite direction to the rubber-bodied meat-devourer. He's still in view when she pauses, considering one or two of the apparent facts about her situation.
A considered gaze shifts back over the Sidhe's shoulder, watching the day's undesired interloper until he is almost upon the horizon. He's called 'Monkey'; not a good sign but possibly irrelevant. A person doesn't generally choose their given name, and namegivers can be as stupid as anybody else. The second point of concern lies in his physicality, his appetite and his abilities clearly placing him firmly in the 'unknown' species bracket. As hang ups go, the latter strikes Niamh as more than a little overcautious. By which she does, of course, mean 'boring'.
That just about decides the whole argument and so, a pace before Twisted begins to organise itself around his very step, Luffy is joined once more by the roguish fey. From her motionless point on the opposite horizon, in an instant she strides a step to his right and two behind, hands folded up behind her head as she moves in a brisk lope. He doesn't speak, so she doesn't either, until such time as they arrive at ground zero. Wasteland, ruins, ruins, ruins... "Huh." The blonde glances upward, blue eyes rapt upon the scrapered seacraft, "Besides everything, is there something I'm missing here?"

"Huh?" Luffy blinks at the girl, and is confused by her statement. His arms stretch upwards about 30 feet, "Gomu Gomu no..." He suddenly launches skyward, rapidly hurtling upwards, before stretching his right arm out to latch onto the hull of the ship, landing on the deck easily. His voice echoes out loudly from atop the skyscraper. "Use the elevator! Come on up!"

Never was a more tempting offer made to one of the fair folk. Niamh keeps her hands clasped in place as she watches Luffy's ascent and hears his proposition, making a show of walking slowly over to the very classy lift contraption as she saves her throat some exertion by simply talking back. "So let me get this straight..."
"You want me to ride in a bathtub." A boot lifts onto the tub's edge.
"To get aboard a sailing ship." She kicks the other around and leaps lightly in.
"Lodged in a building." Her hands lower from her head, one taking the rope.
"Owned by the mutant cross-breed of a human and a rubber plant?" Flashing a wide grin upward, she lets the last of her speech seamlessly reach Luffy - hardly something that makes sense in itself, though her tone carries clearly. She could be standing beside him. Which she soon will be; any answer he gives is irrelevant. Curiosity killed the cat, but you can be sure there was a Sidhe standing somewhere nearby taking notes. Giving the rope a sharp tug, Niamh assumes the signal will be enough to get her lifted upward.
"I suppose it's a pleasure to step aboard... captain?"

You slide into the Tub-like... well, let's face it, it's a Tub. You then yank one of the cords and there's an explosion of above, the sizzling of Soda, and the whole thing begins to rock with you in it... and you're suddenly catapaulted upwards at breakneck speed!


Thousand Sunny - Precarious Footing Well the wind certainly is fierce up here, where there's only a slight bit of concrete ledging and scaffoldin to stand on outside the massive hull of the Thousand Sunny that dwarfs anyone standing near it, high above the ground as if sailing the skies themselves. Imagine how it looks from the crow's nest!

There's sounds from the deck far above and the rustling of... trees? Why is there the sound of trees in the middle of a ruined city, one hundred feet up from the deck of a ship? This just keeps getting wierder and wierder. You might be able to yell out and get a rope up, or else you'll have to take the more tricky way. There's also the massive lion's head visible, poking out and watching over the Straw Hats, surveying thier future dominion.

What's the more tricky way to get in? Rubble and the half-slid out Mini-Merry Two (Like a dingy with a funny face on the front) are wedged in the Soldier Dock, like a dry-dock in the side of the ship in the shape of a massive circular entranceway meaning that there's a lot of squeezing to use it as an entrance. Still, it can be done.


There's a loud laugh from Luffy as he watches the tub rocket upwards, coming to a stop at the 'dock' for the elevator. Luffy's already there, grinning widely as he starts making his way back towards the Mini-Merry and back into the ship itself. "This is my ship, the Thousand Sunny! Made out of the strongest wood in existence! Ada-something or other." He nimbly moves past the small dingy, and can be heard making a loud ruckus inside the ship itself.

Calling Luffy 'captain' was hardly a cunningly incisive remark on part of the fairy woman; in fact, she had assumed it was the sort of crack that might go overheard instead by the real captain of the ship. Doubtless, hilarity would ensue. In this case, she's far more astounded, and though it could be partly to blame on the dizzying ride up to the Thousand Sunny she.. pauses for several seconds, until she's forced to clear her throat and resume normal service with a shake of her head.
"Fabulous," she murmurs, glancing from the strange little pirate captain to his ship, and back again. Sure enough, she's wearing a grin once again. "I don't suppose," she calls, not repeating her trick once again as she lingers outside the ship, "Using the strongest wood in existence prevents you breaking everything in sight?"

"Yep!" Luffy suddenly pokes his head out the side, and grins. "Yep! I just wish I knew where my crew vanished to." He vanishes once more, and is standing on the deck once again, dropping down a tangerine to the girl. "So, if I find him, I can introduce you to my shipwright! And he can make you a new ship like he did for me!"

"I'm impressed!" Niamh immediately shoots back, throwing up both hands in a distinctly wowed gesture. Lowering her gaze as Luffy vanishes once more, she scans the exterior of the dry-docked ship a little more carefully - though notably not with anything approaching an expert's eye. She'd get a lot further in her examination if the trees used to prepare this juggernaut were still standing, draped in green leaves and chattering squirrels. Sad but true, and probably why she doesn't miss a beat when a tangerine plummets from the heavens. It lands in her suddenly upraised hand with a soft slap.
"You lost your crew too?" She can't honestly say that she's surprised, but clearly there's more to Luffy than meets the eye. Or impacts any of the other senses. Lifting her shoulders in a dismissive shrug, she rolls the newly acquired fruit between her fingers, flicking it idly up and catching it a few times as she muses. "I don't think your shipwright could do me the same thing he did for you. I don't want a new ship."
"I want /my/ ship." Her eyes flash a bit as she concludes, settling back upon Luffy as her tone also loses the distance of thought. She's more determined than angry; but that doesn't save them from simple facts. She bares her teeth in a crooked grin, keeping the straw-hatted pirate fixed in her gaze, "Have to wonder why you need one at all, though. Is this where you usually keep it? What do your crew do? Mine were mostly there so I could go to bed occasionally..."

"There was a storm... and we were tossed into the air.." Luffy scratches his head, laughing loudly. "Nami is my navigator, Sanji is my chef.. Brooke is my musician, Franky is my shipwright, Robin is my historian, we have Chopper as our doctor, Usopp is the sniper, and Zoro is Zoro!" He grins wildly and drops down from the deck, back down to where Niamh is.

A storm? The explanation is refreshingly sane and sensible, all things considered, and Niamh bestows Luffy with a nod of understanding. There's a thousand possible explanations for a storm this severe; and she's just seen the landscape of this world bend itself around a couple of wandering souls - at least one of whom doesn't belong here. Logic would seem to dictate that neither does the other. As the man named Monkey regales the changeling with his list of personnel, she allows her attention to wander somewhat, right hand drifting downward to rest upon the hilt of her sabre. The left slips forth from it's baggy sleeve to oh-so-idly head in the opposite direction. Up to the edge of Niamh's leather helmet it goes, and the index finger slides up under the flap, shifting the helm to one side and allowing easy access to the ear. Pleasant. Polite. Ladylike.
When Luffy launches himself from the deck to land beside her, she stops abruptly and pivots on her heel to face him. The hand makes a quick adjustment to pull her helm back over, then drops to her hip. By this point Niamh appears distinctly blonde, though rest assured she's taken it all on board. This comes to light a beat later when she suddenly bites out a barking laugh, "You have a ship's musician? That's got some class, pipsqueak!" Hey, he's an inch shorter then her. A whole inch! She doesn't actually phrase it in too patronising a manner, and seems genuinely impressed for the first time. Style goes a long way.
"Okay." She draws herself up, and sucks in a deep breath, "Since you've shared so nicely, I'll do the same. I called you an idiot, and you might be. Got some ideas though. You're definitely a bizarre young thing, but aren't we all?" Grin. Glinting eyes. "Now, I don't know what a Zoro is, but it sounds like you know some interesting people. You've definitely got some /skill/. So how about we help each other? I need to get my ship back - shouldn't take more than a few days. Let's me get around. Let's me explore. So, tell me what you know about where we are - including why the ground moves, or at least how to work around it - and I'll keep an eye out for your crew."

There is a look of puzzlement upon Luffy's face for a few minutes as he tries to think of how to explain it. One can almost see the gears turning and the smoke pouring from his ears if they look close enough. He then suddenly gets a look of realization, then darts into his ship, coming out with a letter, which he then hands to Niamh. Upon opening it, the handwriting is neat, like a woman's, which reads ~"Our captain is an idiot. However he is still our captain. If you're reading this, then it's come down to something catasphrophic where we are either seperated and he has yet to find us, or we may be dead. Explaining things to him has always been challanging, and sometimes creates more problems then they are worth.. Try and keep him out of trouble if you can."~ Luffy laughs loudly and grins once again, as he looks out over the city. "I think it's called Twist-tie or something that we're in."

Niamh stares unblinkingly at the unlikely captain as he ponders her proposal. An idiot savant is a rare thing to find; she's been jumping to various conclusions throughout this particularly unhinged day, and at this point realisation may just be starting to dawn. Luffy confuses matters further as he darts off, and the Sidhe glances away with a puff of her cheeks, looking from the scaffolding down to the dusty ground so far below.
"Must have been quite some storm," she murmurs, producing the tangerine from earlier with a flick of her fingertips. She sets about peeling it as she considers her conundrum... But it's only a couple of moments later when she's thrown a lifeline. Bright blue eyes shift to the letter as she takes it in her other hand, flicking it out and then doing it again as the wind makes a concerted effort to prevent revelation. Shifting her back to the breeze, Niamh reads the note through and then looks up, a relaxed smile on her lips. Perhaps the right way to deal with Luffy is...?
"This explains a lot!" She declares happily, turning back to the straw-hatted pirate as she refolds the letter, passes it back and resumes work on that tangerine. "You seem to be managing fine on your own," she says between pickings, "Why don't I head off and look around, while you keep watch here in case any of your crew manage to make it back?" She looks up, pulling a chunk off the peeled fruit off and popping it in her mouth, chewing comfortably while curving an inquisitive brow at Luffy; got to make sure he's keeping up. "No matter what happens, I'll be back in a couple of days when I know what's going on in," she hesitates, then imitates the boy with a shrug and a grin, "Twist-tie." As she pops another piece of tangerine into her mouth, she appears a little less.. smugly opportunistic than she has. And perhaps a tad more kind. Something might be said about honour among thieves, if she really was the swashbuckling pirate she seemed to be...

"Nah. It gets boring sitting here alone." Luffy sticks the letter into his pocket, and gets a blank look on his face. "Besides, there's a lot of other people who could help you. Like the ice lady. She'd be able to help you as well. Erm... there's also the UR... They've got a lot of food there..."

"No skin off my nose," Niamh responds with a chuckle, shifting her weight from one foot to another as she again glances off the edge of the scaffolding. This city definitely hadn't been visible before, and yet Luffy found it... how vulnerable can he be? The only trouble he found was the captain of the Rogue Ember, and he's managed to deal with her pretty easily. Still... "Just don't go doing anything stupid." She glances sidelong at the straw-hatted boy, her eyes narrowing faintly, face growing serious, "You're the captain for a reason, right?"
The Sidhe shrugs, relaxes her expression, and steps to the edge of the platform. She pops the last of the tangerine into her mouth, chews, swallows, and then graces Luffy with what may be the last broad slash of a grin he gets to see today. "Do what you like, Cap'n Luffy. I'll look for your crew and this 'ice lady', might even bring back some food... Unless you're tagging along. That's fine too."
"By the way," she pauses in the act of heading back down to more solid footing, half-turning and raising a finger toward the would-be King, "I'll let you off breaking my ship. It's been an interesting day, and I probably would have broken it myself anyway."

"It's been a fun day!" Luffy grins wildly as he suddenly stretches his arms thirty feet outwards, latching onto another building's roof. "Come on! I'll show you the other places!" He doesn't... he does.. He wants her to latch onto him again, so he can send them flying into the air like a rocket...

Keep him out of trouble. He is still our captain.
Niamh hesitates. The note may have explained a lot, but doesn't explain how exactly this particular invitation should be treated; is Luffy a danger to himself, or is he a capable and skilled rubber-man who just happens to be lacking in the brain cell department? But it's only he she's concerned about at this point. Which decides it. It's better to go on gut instinct with most things anyway.
She dithers at the brink only a moment before stepping over to the assuredly unhinged captain in the straw hat. "Take it away," she murmurs, fairly convinced that she can't be doing any harm at this point; but she is saving valuable time and effort hiking across an unknown city in search of a place and people she's never heard of before today. And that's not even going into the strangeness of the city... the real surprises are yet to come...
So this must be fine. Really. She's seen weirder.
Somehow that doesn't help.
Her eyes slip shut a moment before she attaches herself to Monkey D. Luffy.
When they open again, she's grinning. It's a good day for adventure.
It's ALWAYS a good day for adventure.
Perhaps they're not so different as it first appears.



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