meteorical | Forty-Eighth Shower

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Forty-Eighth Shower - [Voice/Action]

[Action]

[Today if anyone's wandering into Seventh Heaven, they'll find Kairi sitting at a table by herself. Thanks to Sanji, she's agreed to pick up a few shifts at the restaurant as a part-time waitress. She's just finished her shift for the day and she's got her Luceti-provided journal open in front of her, along with a sheet of what looks like purple paper. She had leafed through the pages of the Luceti journal, checking on the village, but now she's occasionally writing lines on the purple page. If anyone were to get close enough to look, they'd see:

Thinking of you, wherever you are. It's been a little over two months since you left...almost three, actually, but I still think about you every day. I think we all do.

[She pauses in her writing then upon realizing two things. A.) This is very much like a letter she wrote to Sora about fifteen months ago and B.) It's been almost three months since the brunette left. It felt weird the longer she thought about it, thinking about how close she had become to some people and how distant she was starting to feel from the boy who was...no, is her best friend.

It disturbs her, in a way. Enough to cause her to push the letter aside, turning her attention back to her Luceti-journal to address the public. Her voice is pretty casual, but anyone who knows her well enough may notice there's a slight hesitance.]

[Voice]

What would you consider a good balance between making a life here in Luceti and keeping your life in your own world in focus? I mean in the sense of...well...let's talk about jobs for instance. Do you think it's important to make yourself useful here, or would you rather wait until you go home since it may not matter once we leave anyway?

Or friends, even. Do you only call people from your world your best friends, or have you made new best friends here?

[She pauses, trying to think of how to wrap this up. Keep it casual, keep it light.] It's not really a big deal, I'm just kind of curious what everyone thinks.

[Filtered to Riku]

...can I talk to you about something? Just when you have some time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Definitely nothing wrong with it, no. I'm just curious how people feel about these best friends compared to the best friends back home.

Ah... I try not to rank my best friends too much, you know? My Pops tried to love us all equally and there's 1600 of us, so that's no easy feat. I mean they're my family, so that's already extremely close, and I was closer to some of the commanders or people like Ace I had more in common with.

But I think the same principle goes for here. A friend I make here is going to have a tough time competing with dozens of years of history, but there's no reason for it to be a competition either.

There's how many? [She heard, but how is that...what is...what?]

It's not really about competing. I guess it's about how much you trust people here, how much you rely on people here.

[Laughs.] Yes, 1600. Probably what, at least quadruple the number of us in Luceti? It was my Pops' dream to have a big family. Guess he succeeded, eh?

Ah, either way though... It's one thing to trust and rely on them, it's another to compare that to someone in another world, time, place, and totally different circumstance, eh? Of course they won't match up, but that doesn't make one more or less. Let's say one friend saves your life from a fire. Others probably would have if they'd been there, but they weren't. That doesn't mean they're not as good of friends as the other. I can't say I trust someone here the same as I trust Jozu or Vista. I've been through years of war with my brothers, had a million jokes and drinks, secrets, and all of that. But there's still a chance someone here could be trusted "that much" through time and circumstances.

I'd say he succeeded pretty well, yeah.

That's a very good way of putting it. I like to believe that the people here are willing to jump in, play the good guy and fight to protect each other. [Still...she can't help but feel there are some people she trusts a little more than others no matter what.] Are any of the members of your family here with you?

I'm sure he'd be delighted to hear that.

Thank you. Yes, my little brother Ace is here. Freckled kid in the orange cowboy hat if you've met him. So far that's it from my family, though a traitor was here earlier and an ally. They were both sent back at the same time however, which is just as well, I suppose. How about you?

Oh! Yeah, I've met Ace once or twice. [She gave him a wagonful of cookies, does that count?] I didn't know he had family here. That's good that you've got each other.

Well...I've got a few people from my world here. One of my best friends is with me. I've known him since I was five, so it's kind of a relief he's still around. Our other best friend was here for a long time, too, but he's left. Otherwise we've got...[Give her a second to do a headcanon.] Six or seven others besides the two of us here.

Aye, he gets around. He's got me and Luffy is his little brother. He and Luffy grew up together so they're pretty close.

Whoa... That's quite a few friends then.

[She's heard a few stories about Luffy from Sanji, but not enough to know much beyond he eats. A lot.] But Luffy doesn't count as your little brother?

There were more of us a while ago, but people started leaving little by little. I guess that's how things go in this place.

Well, Ace and I have the same father. Luffy is more like... [His little brother's little brother? The person carrying on Ace's will? Someone Marco rescued more often than Ace, because he knew that's what Ace would want most? It gets confusing.] brother by proxy? When he meets up with my crew in the New World we might all adopt him, but it's complicated for now. However he wants to view it is fine by me.

Aye. Maybe they'll come back though, eh?

[Ah, okay. Kairi just assumes it's all kind of a mess of different timelines and people and such. It's not like her world makes much more sense.] Complicated seems to be normal around here. Wait, so what crew are you a part of?

Maybe. Some I'm hoping will, others...maybe not so much. [She could do without seeing Xigbar or Vanitas ever again, really.]

Whitebeard Pirates. First division commander and temporarily acting captain at your service. Ace is second division commander. There's 1600 of us back home, 16 divisions of 100 each.

I know the feeling.

Well, I can't say I knew that part. All I knew of was Luffy's crew...are there more crews around here that I don't know about?

Every world's got 'em, don't they? You've never seen the really bad guys from your world turn up here, have you?

Dr. Trafalgar Law is captain of a Rookie crew called the Heart Pirates. Jack Sparrow was temporarily working in Blackbeard's Crew, though I understand he considers himself his own captain. He's not from my world though so I don't know him as well as the others. Red-Haired Shanks was here for a bit and he's a pirate emperor like my Pops was, but he went home the same time as Blackbeard.

There's... literally no one worse in my world than Blackbeard. He used to be our nakama until he killed our brother and eventually my father. He's everything even the lowest scum of pirates try not to be. The only reason I can assume he didn't wreak more havoc in Luceti is that he probably didn't have my Pops' devil fruit and everyone from my world would have teamed up to kill him a thousand times over if he tried anything too big.

Sounds all kinds of complicated. [She doesn't like the idea of people killing people. She's gotten the drift of what nakama means, and that just makes it worse.]

...devil fruit?

Pretty much, eh.

Devil fruit are what gives super powers in my world. Like Luffy is rubber, and Ace is fire.

And what are you?

Not everyone has one, eh?

Although, admittedly I do. It's no fun to just tell though. You'd have to guess.

Well that's not fair. I don't even get a hint?

It's related to the color blue.

Something to do with water then? [If Ace was fire...it would make sense, right?]

Nope. More like the direct opposite of that, eh?

...another form of fire.

Indeed. You're certainly getting warmer, eh? [Shameless pun get.]

That was kind of terrible phrasing, you know. [But it still causes her to grin.] Okay, so something warm and like fire...[She may or may not figure it out.] Well wait, how many forms of fire can there be?

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