[Action/Voice] Forward dated to the 19th

[mikangirl]

[Nami comes back to Luceti with a bang.

...literally.  Because the first indication of her arrival on the networks is her journal hitting a tree at high velocity.  The journal window won't pick up more than a whole bunch of dizzily swirling forest scenery and then a bare, reddened foot as she kicks it afterwards for good measure.  Then she just abandons it in the grass and stalks off.  Incredibly useful contribution to the journals, isn't it?  Sorry about that.

She's not really in any hurry to go home, and in no hurry to go announcing herself through town, but she is cold.  So after some indecision, she heads for the Avatar house instead, knocking hesitantly on the door in her New Feather dress in search of warmth and other things.

A little while later, having borrowed a coat and some shoes and feeling a little more herself, she heads for home, letting herself in quietly and... sort of standing there and listening for voices, noise, anything.  Then she'll come say hi.  Sort of.

Whether she stays there or not after that, who knows?  But she does eventually make a journal entry in the evening, borrowing someone else's.  She's not cruel enough to pretend she's not here when there are friends in town.]

[Voice]

Shirahoshi, are you still here?  I remember you, now.  Just thought I’d let you know.  

For everyone else... hi.  I'm back.  Again.  All that.  Business as usual, I guess.

[She sounds cheerful enough.  Just tired.]

Comments

[mikangirl]

That's right. Best way of looking at it, huh?

...home is very cold. We were on a winter island trying to rescue a whole lot of children. I'm... not sure how that turned out yet. Kind of turned up here halfway through.

[savedtheworld]

It is.

[But he goes quiet as he listens to Nami's account. He'd heard very little about the Straw Hats' actual adventures. It sounds almost like a dire situation, but it confirms for him how heroic they are.]

It stinks when they take you in the middle of things like that. Still, I know you guys are gonna make it. I'm glad you're doing what you can to rescue children. But it's probably a more that this place isn't really helping you to get warmer.

[mikangirl]

This place is actually warmer than where I was. [She looks sheepish.] I wasn't dressed for it there, either.

[Something about being dragged off to frozen wintry cells while still wearing a bikini >_>a]

[savedtheworld]

[That's rough, buddy. Even Aang knew better than to get half naked in the South Pole.]

Wow, you must've been somewhere really cold then. Were you by one of your world's poles? But at least it's warm and toasty indoors.

[mikangirl]

[Nami's pretty special when it comes to dressing practically >_>a But you know, talking about home is kind of fun.]

We actually ended up on an island that was half boiling hot on one side and half freezing cold on the other. I mean, literally... there was lava on the one side.

It turns out that apparently two devil fruit users had a huge fight there-- one used magma and one used ice, and they pretty much wrecked the climate between them.

[savedtheworld]

[That story might have sounded cool in a way, but it manages to press Aang's buttons.]

Whoa. That sounds... horrible. They devastated an island's environment that much? Who could be so careless?

[mikangirl]

The marines. [Not to worry, Aang. While she doesn't have the same trigger points, it's a little unnerving for weather to be ruined permanently by the power of a couple people fighting, for a weather geek like Nami.] It's...a complicated story and won't make much sense if you're not familiar with our history. They did choose a tiny and uninhabited island for it, which had been supposedly impossible to live on beforehand anyway.

[...] Mostly uninhabited. There was a lab there.

[savedtheworld]

[He shakes his head.]

Still not right. I've heard some things about the marines, from people from your world. [Like Marco and Smoker.] But I don't think I know enough to understand. Were the people in the lab okay?

[mikangirl]

...well, that's. A long story and only half done, I think. I'm not sure if they were at the lab at the time. But they're here now... well, there. Then. [She pauses, trying to get time right in her head. Everything's frozen back home, now. In more ways than one.

She shakes her head.] Whether or not they were there, they're not good people. They're experimenting on children.

[savedtheworld]

[He replies automatically.]

Definitely not good people. [And after a second to think.] Like the Malnosso?

[mikangirl]

[...she hadn't thought of that before.] Yeah. Kind of. More...directly malicious, but they lie just as much.

[savedtheworld]

But you're gonna stop them. [At least in that world it's a possible goal.] You and Luffy and all the others.

[mikangirl]

Of course! [That gets a much stronger smile. She's confident in that regard.] I've no doubt. We're getting those kids out and we're taking them home to their parents.

[savedtheworld]

I'm glad. And I believe in you. You Straw Hat pirates are real heroes.

[mikangirl]

Ahaha, you know actually, I don't think we are. At least, as far as Luffy and Zoro would like to think.

[savedtheworld]

What do you mean?

[mikangirl]

[Nami manages to look aggrieved and amused at the same time.] Luffy got mad at someone who called him a hero. Said heroes were always required to share the meat and he wanted all the meat to himself, thanks very much. And then Zoro followed up that same argument-- just switch out meat for booze.

[savedtheworld]

[That Luffy and his meat. He never thought someone that awesome could be that carnivorous.]

Oh, I see. Because they want to keep good stuff for themselves. But you guys still help people, right? When they need you and when you could leave them behind instead? That makes you guys heroes to me.

[mikangirl]

Hmm. Well, I don't mind being called a hero. [There could be money in it, for a start. ...okay Nami doesn't make a good hero. >_>] But Luffy just likes to help his friends.

...of course, it really doesn't take much for him to call you his friend.

[savedtheworld]

I'm glad for that. Helping friends is real heroic. And I don't see why anyone would take a lot to call someone their friend. [Clearly Luffy has a young disciple in this monk.]

I know that I used to always admire pirates when I heard stories about them as a kid. They sounded like they lived really adventurous lives of freedom, but when we actually met pirates, they were mean and attacked us just because Katara stole something from them. Pirates stopped being my heroes then. So I'm glad that you guys have given me reason to admire them again.

[mikangirl]

[...no sorry




...uh.]

Katara stole from pirates?

[savedtheworld]

Yeah, she never told you about that? It wasn't long after we first met, and we were trying to learn waterbending. The pirates had a really rare waterbending scroll, but they charged a lot of money for it. So Katara decided to steal it instead, and she said it was okay because they stole it to begin with!

[mikangirl]

[Oh good lord. Well, Katara already reminded Nami of herself. Only...much younger. She grins.]

It is always okay to steal from pirates.

[savedtheworld]

I believed Katara then, but I gotta say, having the word of an actual pirate gives it more credibility. But I won't steal from you, Nami.

[mikangirl]

That'd probably be wise. It's find to steal from pirates, but they do tend to hurt you for it if they catch you.