[Action/"Voice"]

[mikangirl]

[Nami for her own part is content to either stay with her mother or go out exploring with Sanji for the first day or two she's home. It's bitterly cold out there and she doesn't like it much at all-- it's nothing like Cocoyashi-- and her feet are a little red from early barefoot adventures in the snow, but luckily she doesn't catch cold. She's more grounded and less restless than Sanji is, because Bellemere is here. And that means she can let Bellemere take care of things. Because after all, didn't mama say that they wouldn't be here for very long? She misses Nojiko, but if it's only for a little while, then maybe she'll just treat this as a holiday.

Then the second night passes, and Nami turns 10. And everything changes.]



[She's had nightmares before. And the last night was unsettling with the dreams she had, but they weren't bad dreams-- just ones that feel like she's lived a lifetime in one night. Or...one year, as the case may be.

The second night, she wakes up with a wail (muffled brutally by shoving the blanket up to her mouth, because nobody likes a crying human) and tears and her arm hurts but mostly all she can remember right now is Bellemere and the screams when they stepped on her arm and the blood and the way Arlong just shot her down--

die for your pathetic love--

--and everything that followed. And she knows why her arm hurts, but that doesn't make any sense, and Bellemere is right upstairs and Nami just spends the next ten minutes crying into the blanket and not daring to look at her arm. And when she can separate dream from reality just enough, she slides out of bed and doesn't even bother to dress properly, running for the stairs to the next floor in an oversized tshirt that hangs off her arms and going straight for her mama's bedroom.

She eventually falls asleep again and further returning memories distance her from the shock of that death, but none of them are good memories. And now she's confused to boot, because sometimes when she closes her eyes she expects to open them somewhere else entirely. And Nami grows to like the cold, because as long as there's snow outside, it means she's not at Arlong Park, and that means that maybe she can put it all aside as an especially bad nightmare and it didn't really happen. Because it didn't. Because Bellemere is here.

Anyway, distracting herself from darker thoughts is a damn good idea, really. Best to try and not think about it and just...stick with Bellemere a lot today.]

["Voice"]

[So in the afternoon, Luceti, there is a little girl staring back at you from the journals. And doing the most awesomely intelligent thing:



[Yeah. Because making faces at you all is really mature. She just wants to see how many people notice her, because damn this magical journal is fun.]

[Action]

[If people want to run into Nami at varying ages, she can be found:

-- At the library on Monday when she is 12, trying to reach that top shelf of navigation books;

-- At Good Spirits on Wednesday when she is 14, trying her luck at being served underage drinks (look, she can hold her liquor okay B|); and

-- Pretty much anywhere on the following Friday when she is 16, because she's smitten with a severe case of wanderlust; a rooftop, a shop, the forest, the battledome...anywhere. Chances are if you run into Nami today, she might attempt to pickpocket you just because she's got the suspicion she's damn good at it. And those ships out at sea hold her attention for a fair while, because...well, wouldn't it be nice to sail one away? These dreams, man. 

For ages 17 and up, well... there'll be another post much later.  Just to avoid confusion.]

Comments

[mikanthief]

[YEP.

THOSE ARE BUTTONS ALL RIGHT.

...yeah, she has no clue. Just gonna stare down at it with a baffled expression.] So what is this?

[generalflirt]

Well, it's sort of like a computer, I think. It took me a while, but if you see this- [A screen with an up and down button] This is basically letting you pick up some pre-made things. And then you can program specifics with the rest of this. There's also a programming section, but I'm not as good with that.

[mikanthief]

Ah, okay.

[Stare. Staring some more.

...yup. Sorry, Masaomi.]

So what's a computer?

[generalflirt]

[ORZ]

...Aaa...haha. That's a complicated question, Nami-chan...

[mikanthief]

Hmm, okay. Well... you hit this up or down button? Is that a good start? [She reaches forward to do just that, head tilting as the display changes. Okay, she thinks she gets that part. Not that she knows what she's really looking at, here.]

[generalflirt]

Yeah, see - they're pre made. Sadly, it doesn't come with a picture, but if you look at these other screens there's some text descriptions of the parameters in there and the enemies. Thiiiis one looks like...

[...Okay he doesn't know what to make of the setting, but the enemies are zombies. Huh]

Zombies?

[mikanthief]

Zombies!? [NUH UH. Excuse her, Masaomi, she'll just be...behind you now. Like the interface was going to attack her.] Pick something else.

[generalflirt]

Don't like zombies? Welll... I guess no one really does. [Okay, short laugh to himself. Scroll... scroll- dinosaurs, really? No okay this works! just some thugs, the usual stuff]

[mikanthief]

Not unless there's musical pirate zombies. [But she thinks Brook may have a patent on that already.] You've found one?

[generalflirt]

Yep! Something simple and in room One.

[So, let's go there- He waltzes on over to room one and dramatically opens the door for her. The scenery inside is nothing particularly special (by his standards) in that he just input the streets of Tokyo (in this case Shibuya square) at the destination]

[mikanthief]

Ahh...okay, then. [She smiles at him as he opens the door and slips inside... only to stare upward with her mouth agape. Holy shit. She doesn't rmeember seeing anything like this.]

Everything's so tall.

[generalflirt]

You think?

[He's smirking to himself, from a relaxed position. It's still jarring to see things so empty here, but...]

[mikanthief]

Yeah! I don't think our cities are built like this. [Not that she's ever seen one. Island girl and all. Nami turns in a slow circle, still staring up. She may have forgotten there's meant to be something else in here.] Can we go up top?

[generalflirt]

I don't know, actually. Never tried in this sort of program... maybe?

[He, however, is looking around waiting for thugs. He considers... maybe they should try a door of some of these bigger ones]

[mikanthief]

Oh, that's right. Not real. [And now she glances over the streets curiously. Everything looks real.] I guess we could try. Later. Is there a time limit?

[generalflirt]

Usually it'll stop as soon as we stop the baddies or if we get too injured... but, other than that, I've known people to have parties, so probably no--t.

[Hm, there was some movement from that alley to the left]

[mikanthief]

[She can't help but jump a little-- she's not actually sure what Masaomi programmed in, but at least it's not zombies-- wait. Wait.] How injured do people get in this place?

[generalflirt]

Well, if you have the safeties off...

[And out come.

Well, thugs. The only pattern is that they have blue somewhere on them]

[mikanthief]

Annnd do we have the safeties off?

[And here she is without her quarterstaff. Well, Nami can fight. Just...not so many at once. She's just going to trust this guy knows what he's doing.

...did we mention she's behind him again?]

[generalflirt]

You know... I don't actually remember?

[He shrugs. And then cracks his knuckles.] Either way, you don't need to worry, Nami-chan. There's what, thirteen guys here? I can take 'em.

[Seriously, he's done better]

[mikanthief]

Can you? [Man, they look so real... but Nami is more than willing to hide behind a guy, especially when he seems so confident.]

All right, then. Let's see what you can do.

[generalflirt]

Of course!

[And this'll be fun. Alright, let's charge right in. Right off the bat the closes the distance with frankly impressive speed, punching the first thug in the face before the stimulated Square even has time to react. Which... pretty much sets the tone for the rest of this. Guys will try to punch, hold him, but a swift kick to one's face, an elbow in the gut to another... frankly, things are going to quickly seem lop-sided in his favor. Even though he does take some punches himself he gives out just as many if not more and his blows are clearly much stronger.

As he gets most of them down, the last three surround him and one of them pulls out a knife. He sighs to himself - man he programmed something this cliche?]

1/2

[mikanthief]

[...whoa. He's pretty damn good. Nami is far and away content to just watch in awe and respect and a little bit of calculation while he cleans house.]

[mikanthief]

[Only a knife versus someone barehanded is a bit much, isn't it? She keeps losing sight of the fact that this isn't real.

And it occurs to her after the fact that Masaomi was likely more than capable of dealing with it himself, but in the meantime there's something sailing across the space to clip the knife wielder in the ear just hard enough to distract him. She hopes. (It's a wallet. It's not even hers.)

...okay, so she improves at the whole fighting thing over the next few years.]

[generalflirt]

[Masaomi blinks.

...Wow, so that happened. His battle lust sort of distracts enough for a brief moment and he bursts out laughing at the fact that totally distracted the knife guy. You know what, that was funny.

A second later the other two are going to try to get his arms, but despite the laughing he just all but casually goes for a spinning kick to hit both and then leaps for a final punch to knife-guy, fortunately evading even being stabbed]