toujoursfluer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
toujoursfluer) wrote2013-09-17 02:52 pm
toujoursfluer) wrote2013-09-17 02:52 pm
Entry tags:
Log 17 [video]
[Robin looks quite serene today, though those who have known her will notice a certain glint in her eye that spells trouble. It is high time she gets one certain thing straight in her life]
Hello, Luceti, and new feathers. Welcome to our little town where you will both make wonderful friendships and suffer traumatically for making them. However, that's life, ne? It will all work out in the end. [after we break them in half like twigs]
Speaking of trauma, however, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to kidnap a certain longnosed sniper, who is fond of elaborate stories but not so much of mushrooms. I was thinking a baited trap of some sort and briefly considered an arrow to the knee but that may be going a bit far. I do want to keep him around, after all.
[in other words, Usopp... 1, 2... Robin's coming for you. There is nowhere to run.]
Hello, Luceti, and new feathers. Welcome to our little town where you will both make wonderful friendships and suffer traumatically for making them. However, that's life, ne? It will all work out in the end. [after we break them in half like twigs]
Speaking of trauma, however, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how to kidnap a certain longnosed sniper, who is fond of elaborate stories but not so much of mushrooms. I was thinking a baited trap of some sort and briefly considered an arrow to the knee but that may be going a bit far. I do want to keep him around, after all.
[in other words, Usopp... 1, 2... Robin's coming for you. There is nowhere to run.]
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[if you don't stop being absolutely adorable, you're not going to make it any easier on yourself]
My name is Nico Robin.
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[hands, blossomed from the ground, lightly tug at Usopp's pants]
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But what is that-- ]
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First ghosts, now this?!
Usopp very bravely... attempts to run away... bravely. ]
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It's nothing to be afraid of, only me.
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It's- it's just you?! You're definitely sure, right? [ Because if a bunch of zombies are trying to dig their way up to him, he's got to get some garlic fast. ]
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[the hands close into fists and then open all at once, each with a blue eye blinking at Usopp from the center of the palm]
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But... pretty true to her word, on the one hand. (Hands.)
And he did swear to himself that he'd patch things up when he didn't stop feeling guilty, and he's still got that shirt... breaking a promise to yourself, he briefly thinks, isn't as bad as breaking a promise to somebody else.
(But it does say a lot about your pride and honor, and your reliability as a warrior. If Kaya or Zoro could see him now, or knew what he was thinking. He'd lose a lot of face.) And she hasn't done anything untoward to him, or to Nami (which he has to factor in regardless of whether Nami counts as a crewmate or not. She's still his friend. All things considered, she's probably the most important person he has in this place, so.) Nico Robin hasn't been dangerous, hasn't been dangerous, hasn't been dangerous, and he made a vow as a man, and anybody else who hasn't insulted him or his friends or attacked them, he treats with the same friendliness and chatter.
Yep.
He's pretty much proving himself as a terrible person if he backs out now. Affairs of the social variety are so much simpler than affairs of battle. He wants to talk to people. All the people he can, because people can usually be pretty great. To tell stories or hear stories or to have for company at all! Especially in a place like this, where all of those things are ten times as great. So, he obviously has to try. ]
I- I guess... you've got an ability, then, huh? [ That's right, Usopp, steel yourself and also try to figure out what is going on. ] Kind of like Luffy.
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[and have half a Robin appearing from a wall behind you and running a fingertip up the back of your neck]
Well almost anything.
[she can't do people here for some reason.]
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And kind of go between looking at her and looking at the journal because he's not exactly sure which one he's supposed to be talking to. ]
A- almost is still a lot better than anyone else manages, you know! [ The obligatory overreaction is a brief one, really. He can see why Luffy would have someone like this on the crew, he guesses. It's a creepy ability, but it's also pretty cool. And it would definitely have to be useful. He's curious in spite of himself (and isn't that the story of his life). If he weren't so torn between creeped out and general good manners, he'd probably ask to prod her with a pin. As it stands, Usopp settles for leaning to one side to better observe the wall she's hanging out of. Or blossoming herself from. If that's really what she calls it. ] But it's not... I mean, isn't it weird to be in two places at once like that?
[ Four eyes and hands to think about and two different points of view and hearing him on the journal and in person- that has to be weird, right? Maybe she's really used to it? Nobody ever puts plain old logic to devil's fruits. Luffy's a shining example. ]
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I'm used to it.
[she's about to tell him more, but hesitates, an idea forming.]
Would you like to come visit me so I can tell you? [ah, but that sounds too much like a trap and he isn't Luffy after all] Or perhaps meet for coffee?
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It's all coming together. He can make amends in person like a man. And... well, the nakama issue is still kind of a waffling debate, since it isn't a word to throw around lightly after only a little while in this place, but she really hasn't been anything but nice, either. In an occasionally unsettling way, like asking people how to kidnap him and sprouting hands from the ground out of nowhere, but still nice.
They could probably be friends. At the least. ]
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Follow the hands please, and keep the journal trained on them if you will.
[and the her in the tree disappears into a burst of petals and a small line of hands appear out of the ground, pointing in the direction, dissipating as he passes and reappearing a little further on.
She will have disappeared from the journal's video but there is a hand with an eye on it watching so that she can keep going.
When Usopp arrives at house six, the door is pushed open for him by another set of hands. The bottom floor of the house looks deserted except for a tray with two steaming cups of coffee. Once he's there, all the hands will disappear into petals and after a moment she calls from the top of the stairs:]
I'll be down in a moment.
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Usopp enters the house with the mix of skepticism, nervousness, and curiosity that one could typically expect of him in any given situation, though curiosity is definitely winning out. It's an awkward entrance by all means- he keeps his shoulders a little hunched and his hands in his pockets, because man, when was the last time he got invited into a nice-looking house through the front door? And this definitely qualifies as a nice-looking house. It's kind of weird after all that time he spent hanging around Kaya's window.
He glances towards the stairs when she calls and offers a smile. Cheerfulness is one hundred percent the best way to ignore any nerves. That's an Usopp Science Fact. ]
Okay, I'll be here! Take your time! [ All the more time to stare at the place. ]
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Please, sit. It's not booby trapped.
[though she did manage to scalvage a few bear traps from Trap-san after she'd left]
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Though on thinking about it, it actually sounds pretty great. Someone could hide a lot of emergency defenses in one of these things. Usopp rummages around in his handy-dandy purse for a spare bandana to toss down before he sits. He could only wipe his boots so much and all and it's not like it's made of gold and silk, and she did invite him apparently knowing the kind of guy he is already, but he's been messing around outside all day, too. It only seems fair to try not to dirty up someone else's furniture.
You mess up your own house and you just have to fix it up since it's your responsibility in the first place. You mess up somebody else's and you usually get chased off. Then maybe called back later to fix it up. Or they'll clean up after you and you'll feel really guilty and they'll sort of watch you like a hawk when you're near their fragile treasures or blank walls for the foreseeable future. People are so mistrusting anymore. ]
If you ever want it to be, you should let me know. I bet I could make this thing really great to have in an emergency!
[ If by 'great,' he means 'steampunked out and liable to backfire.'
... which he generally does. ]
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Her smile only brightens at the offer]
Would you? I'd like that.
[she would get to spend more time with him and a couch set with pranks and bear traps is always amusing.]
Have some coffee if you wish.
[she sits in the chair opposite him, holding the box on her lap, her thumb moving restlessly over the lid.]
I wasn't sure how to fix it but feel free to help yourself.
[Sanji--usually thought of those things. Her heart breaks a little but she squares her shoulders.]
Would you like a snack of some sort?
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Oh, don't worry about it! I probably wouldn't have thought about how someone takes their coffee at all, either, even just about not knowing! It was really nice of you to go out of your way to make it!
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[she smiles. She can't help it! He's a middle-aged lady at heart. Or at least some part of him is, and it's absolutely adorable.]
Well then... [might as well get the hardest part out of the way] I am an archaeologist, which means I not only interpret the past and try to preserve it but...also try to recreate what has been...missing in some small way.
[she sets the box on the coffee table and slides it across to him]
And since... [you were here once upon a time. Though not that she can remember] ...we are nakama. I made these.
[so people would know about Usopp if they cared to stop by.
Inside are a small collection of pachinko balls and...the ones with the tobasco inside, fire star? And one or two that explode. And one with glitter inside just because no one would know and it had amused her at the time]
I don't know if they will be of any use to you but--
[and she shrugs delicately, sips her coffee and sits back]
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These are… [ His weapons of choice. Maybe not exactly the same in superficial ways here and there, but for all intents and purposes, these are the things that he makes. Same purpose, same method. Usopp is officially shut up for half a minute or so, busy picking one or two up to roll in his hand with an experienced pachinko-tinkerer's discerning air.
She really must know him, to get it this right. And it's kind of a nice hopefulness to get hold of- if she's his nakama from the future, then he's still with Luffy and Zoro and whoever else they find in that future. And she still wants him around, which is a big plus, since he normally just kind of ends up annoying adults. Going to the Grand Line and finding adventure, on the road to Luffy becoming Pirate King...
A few weeks ago, he probably wouldn't have even lied to himself about where he's headed now. He'd just be sitting by the shore waiting for things that wouldn't come and making up stories about going out to find them for himself.
The future looks kind of great. Or he's going to tell himself it does. Either way. ]
These are pretty good, Robin! I can definitely use them!