Smoker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
justicereigns) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
genessia2016-07-27 03:48 am
justicereigns) wrote in genessia2016-07-27 03:48 am
Entry tags:
Migraines and things
Who: Smoker & anyone for any reason
Where: Fayren shore
What: Mr. Grumpypants marine has a migraine headache.
When: July 27th at like nearly 4 am.
[Leaving a small note, a pot of coffee sans one travel mug worth, and a pot of ramen soup sans one thermos worth, Smoker isn't completely sure that it'll be enough, but probably better than alerting any general populous that he's not there, even if he did set a couple of metaphorical watchdogs to keep an eye on things.]
[He takes along a small pocket radio, half curious if it'll even work in Fayren, and heads out to the beach.]
[For a breath of fresh air.]
[And to eat his ramen.]
[And think.]
[And overthink.]
[And over think everything ever.]
[As he does.]
[And to try to deal with a migraine headache that won't let him sleep.]
[But if he can't sleep? Neither can you.]
[Which is why he's sitting on the shore, trying to fiddle with the radio player.]
[And maybe toast marshmallows for s'mores.]
[Or roast fish he caught.]
[AND stack rocks.]
[And make a small sand castle you literally won't see until you crush it oops. That's okay, he didn't like it anyway.]
[But at least he'll get to greet the sunrise.]
[He hates sunrises =\]
Where: Fayren shore
What: Mr. Grumpypants marine has a migraine headache.
When: July 27th at like nearly 4 am.
[Leaving a small note, a pot of coffee sans one travel mug worth, and a pot of ramen soup sans one thermos worth, Smoker isn't completely sure that it'll be enough, but probably better than alerting any general populous that he's not there, even if he did set a couple of metaphorical watchdogs to keep an eye on things.]
[He takes along a small pocket radio, half curious if it'll even work in Fayren, and heads out to the beach.]
[For a breath of fresh air.]
[And to eat his ramen.]
[And think.]
[And overthink.]
[And over think everything ever.]
[As he does.]
[And to try to deal with a migraine headache that won't let him sleep.]
[But if he can't sleep? Neither can you.]
[Which is why he's sitting on the shore, trying to fiddle with the radio player.]
[And maybe toast marshmallows for s'mores.]
[Or roast fish he caught.]
[AND stack rocks.]
[And make a small sand castle you literally won't see until you crush it oops. That's okay, he didn't like it anyway.]
[But at least he'll get to greet the sunrise.]
[He hates sunrises =\]
Re: [Action]
Ted grinned. "No, he wasn't entirely enthused. Ace scoffed at the notion that someone as modest as myself might be an ensign of fate. I told him he was being pretty snobbish for a pirate. Then came the fighting." It's a lot funnier in retrospect, especially now that he doesn't have to nurse bruises. Boy he wonders what sorts of gyms you pirates and marines go to.
Ted looked at the jacket. "Is that what those characters mean? Justice? Goodness, if so, I might almost call you a fanatic. In the best way, of course." Even Ted didn't wear a cross or something, lonely a believer as he was. Humility was probably the reason; he didn't quite feel worthy to be the standard-bearer for his faith, as Smoker might've felt for justice. But if no one else steps up, his hand may be forced.
He nodded in agreement at 'true justice is universal.' "Mm. In my own world, we have a saying, or a scripture: 'every man did what was right in his own eyes.' It's used, of course, to describe an especially degenerate city in a depraved age. The upshot being that when good is personal and diverse, then evil is unified and omnipresent. There's another like it: 'all the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.' Without deference to the Lawgiver, law seems to tear."
Half those names weren't familiar. "Akainu? Fujitora? I haven't heard. Judging by your tone, I shouldn't wish to."
"That's my sober estimate, anyway. My cheery one would say that perhaps there are truths that some men see more truly than others." He laughed for 'lazy justice.' "Oh no, Kuzan has succumbed to sloth? And here I thought he might aid me some. Alas. Well, charitably one might say justice is sometimes served by being patient or pensive. Blind justice is a well-known allegory to us all, I expect. Absolute justice...does that mean something merciless? And finally, yours: true justice. If it's as you say, I'd say you've done better than all.
But that hasn't given you any comfort. If I may pry, why not?"
[Action]
"Akainu is the fleet admiral of our world now. Fujitora is a friend and admiral. Red Dog and Purple Tiger respectively." He rubbed his chin, "I don't think that's quite what Kuzan's justice means. It's more like... not taking action until it can be useful. All actions are like throwing rocks in a pond, they cause ripples, and if you throw too many rocks in, you just wind up cluttering it all and can't see things properly. He takes action when he knows it'll do good, but otherwise he'll wait it out. Akainu's... is definitely merciless." Smoker's eyes grayed to an even more steely expression.
"Portgas... I tried to arrest him myself after that announcement, but I think he just wanted to make a point to someone. That his nature is what it is... I don't... I don't believe that. Akainu does. Well, I can't say for sure what that man thinks or believes, but he says and acts like it. The idea that bloodlines can determine a person's outcome. Like rabid dogs. Only rabies is an external affliction, hardly genetic." Smoker sighed, pushing the smoke out with the breath from his nose like a cartoon bull. "Bloodlines is something that will really rile him up. He's very defensive of his father, and the world decreed that bloodlines mattered most."
Smoker waved a hand. "That's where my justice is... I don't know." Confused? Muddled? Blurry? "Hard to get a hold of. Like smoke." Immaterial. And for a man whose sense of justice was his rock foundation...
"There are many things I know, some things I definitely do not know, and... it's like assembling a motorcycle engine. Every cog, every piece, they have where they belong and are supposed to be. But there's a jam somewhere in it, and I need to take more of it apart to get a good look at it. To clean out the pieces from whatever is messing it up. Akainu's justice.... would involve melting the whole thing down." Another snort. Sometimes Smoker wasn't sure that was such a wrong idea after all.
Re: [Action]
It's strange; Ted felt Smoker like a man after his own heart, in a way. His frustrations at trying to right a world that seemed intent on damnation. A continual grasping at something he couldn't quite get a hold of. A struggle that he couldn't give up, but couldn't clinch either. That turmoil resonated with him deeply. All he could say to that effect was a simple, "I know what you mean. My own is something like fog."
If Smoker was someone like himself, then Kuzan was someone very distant. "Ah, you know the four cardinal virutes? Prudence, Justice, Temperance, and Courage? It sounds like Kuzan has Prudence down pat, if he's all you say. I should...enjoy an alliance with him very much." By now Ted had learned enough to know that Prudence was his greatest weakness; timing, knowing what hindered and what helped. They were very unlike, and for that reason Ted knew he needed someone like that.
"Ah, Akainu believes in the sins of the father. Suppose that puts me in the awkward position of agreeing with Ace, albeit in part. I'm glad, also awkwardly, that he's something of a liar, and doesn't entirely mean what he says. During our fight he gave off a hint of light. There's some hope yet." That's certainly the impression Smoker was giving.
Ted's smile, while thoughtful, didn't waver in the conversation. The beach, once a lovely novelty, faded out of mind as he became absorbed with the man and his thoughts. Maybe it was rude; Smoker definitely seemed stressed, but Ted couldn't help but love talk like this. It was a rare and unexpected surprise. More's the pity; what Ted would say next would almost definitely upset him. At least at first.
Ted crossed his arms, breathing out what little prudence he had in a similar wisp. "Otherwise, Akainu is right." He paused, looking at the sand and collecting his thoughts.
"That is, I think if everyone got what they deserve; if justice really did have its way, we'd all be dead. If practically everyone's a sinner, and the wages of sin are death, then...what comes next isn't hard to guess." For such grim ideas, Ted had a macabre smile regardless.
'It's funny; when I was young I used to pray for justice. That the wicked would be suitably slain and the righteous would prosper. Then I grew up, lost innocence, and joined the ranks of the wicked like everyone else." He grinned wryly. "So now, at least in my more sensible moments, I ask for mercy instead."
[Action]
"Never heard of the virtues before," Smoker admitted, listening and absorbing it all like a sponge nevertheless. "Kuzan's one of my best friends, provided you mean well, he's definitely a good man to have on your side."
An enemy of the marines now. Defeated by Akainu, lost his leg, and his justice or convictions were proven not strong enough... wasn't that it?
And yet...
It would have been considered treason to voice that out loud in his world in his current time, but it was true all the same. Kuzan had rescued Smoker from the brink of death by a supposed ally of the marines that Smoker couldn't legally lay a hand on. What was he supposed to do? And the Straw Hats had saved far more than just Smoker's pitiful existence. The world had long since stopped making sense.
"So where does mercy fit in?" Smoker asked quietly. "I'd rather not kill any enemies I don't have to." Only if he couldn't stop them any other way, if other people were going to die from it. Maybe that was another reason why Portgas' execution didn't sit well with him. "Even pirates can turn into good marines sometimes. And the idea that fathers and sons will turn out alike is just an excuse. A cop-out for people who don't want to take individual responsibility," and if anything, that bothered Smoker almost as much as doing fucked up shit in the first place. And then to claim it was just destiny? Tch.
"Portgas is a mess."
Just in every single way. "I think he could have lived differently, if the world had let him. He wanted to prove that it's not about them, he just does what he wants, and no one can change him." Smoker rolled his eyes. He wasn't trying to change him. But it didn't seem like they could reach a better understanding than no one was allowed to kill Smoker but Ace, and no one was allowed to arrest Ace by Smoker. For both their prides.... or something. Maybe that was fate or destiny in its own way. Hell if Smoker knew.
Re: [Action]
"Heh, well then I believe I qualify." 'Meaning well' and 'good intentions', i.e. one of the keys necessary to go to hell, was about the only virtue Ted could confidently lay claim to, even if it was damning faint praise. "Throw in a good word for me next time you meet, won't you?"
Ted didn't bring a chair, and he wasn't feeling up to whipping one out of the hole, so he opted to lie down in the sand and enjoy the coming sunrise. Just the right level of light; not too bright to see yet.
"I'll say. Ace sounds, if you'll forgive me for being candid, like an imbecile. Maybe a damned imbecile. Doing what he wants, proving unmovable. Pirates must have invented a lot of romantic dress-up for the word 'pride', as sure a way as any of staying hellbound. I don't wonder you worry for it. Still, he sounds lucky to have a lawman like you on his tail. I encourage your efforts at arrest, both physically and spiritually." Speaking of spiritual matters...
"Heh, you're rather taken with mercy, aren't you? Suppose you might have to get another jacket if that keeps up. Or maybe a shirt with whatever the kanji is for it on the front; Mercy on one side, Justice on the other. You'd be a balanced man, then." He's met enough Japanese to get the gist. Why this world favors that island country is a riddle he hasn't solved. As for Mercy itself...
"I know, for one, that mercy cannot rob justice. Its claims, as Aikanu might say, are absolute. If death is the dessert, then the only possible way out, as far as I know, is an exchange. Letting it fall on the willing head of another. A substitution of blood. Mercy, I think, allows for the ransom."
Re: [Action]
But by the end, there was a darker frown back.
"Then that was already paid," Smoker said quietly, somberly, morosely even.
It drove him insane, a little. Or a lot.
What options had there ever been? They made a sacrifice out of him, and that was never justice. "Portgas... doesn't have much by way of prudence."
Smoker looked out over the ocean, at some faraway place he couldn't reach. "But he's very much the type to sacrifice himself for others." In a way even Smoker admired, as much he loathed to admit it. Straw Hat was the same way. Sacrificing their lives and dreams for their friends, for a kingdom or more, just because it was important to their friends. Kuzan too. Smoker craned his neck back again, to look up at the stars through the hazy smoke over his head, idly making shapes with the smoke.
"I wouldn't say I'm merciful," his eyes hardened, and the smoke transformed into a jitte blocking a sword, and stabbing a straw hatted kid. "Far from it. I take them in alive because if they're alive they can provide an example for others, and death is a cop-out. Yeah, I do hope they'll find something useful to do for others, not just provide an example of how or what not to do, but only because that's the harder way. You speak of pride and hellbound, and arguably, we all are. Marines, and pirates alike. But I'm going to make my road mean something. And I'm not going to take the easy way out. Portgas is a lot of things. A nuisance, a pain in the ass, an idiot through and through, but he doesn't take the easy way out." Smoker squeezed his eyes shut and the smoke drifted from a baseball bat with nails in it back to simple smoke. "Probably for the same reason as me, come to think." Drove him crazy indeed.
Re: [Action]
"Oh, Frieza? Maybe it's a little cowardly, but I left that alone. I try and do what I'm told, here in fairy land, and if people say not to go near, I'm happy to oblige. Besides, people have a way of meeting their match here, and sooner than they expect." Not that he didn't wanna clean his or any villain's clock on the double, but even Ted knew what was out of his league. Only a truly desperate situation would make him fight that one.
Ted couldn't help but laugh and play the foil to Smoker's solemnity. "I was told, once or twice, that pirates and marines were enemies. I'm sure I must have been lied to, for you've no end of good things to say about him. Doubtless if I could meet Ace without striking him, he'd have his own barrel of compliments to give. Though I don't think he could match you for platitudes. But I might. Hahaha!" He sat up, refreshed by the comedy. "That's not mercy, perhaps, but if I didn't know better, I'd say it's love. Indeed, you've got the 'love your enemies' bit down solidly." He cooled a bit, turning his eyes toward Smoker.
"No, you don't look like the kind for whom much comes easy. Well, it's not like death is an option to anyone anyway. The only way to defeat someone here is either confinement, turning their spirit, or breaking it." Ted was entertained by the smoke play, curious to what the stabbing meant. Then again, it felt like the kind of thing he wanted left unsaid. "I wonder which you mean for your enemies."
[Action]
He could barely love himself, much less the pirates he hated and tried not to despise so he didn't beat them beyond survival point.
Smoker dragged a gloved hand over his face.
Ace D. Portgas being dead made things so damn complicated. And technically if Straw Hat didn't do anything...
Was it justice to let the deputy guardians and guardians handle things? Law, order, and keeping things at bay. If he hadn't ditched the marines of his own world and still kept trying to work within that eternally fucked up "system," then he could certainly withstand the so-far-better version here. But he wasn't a young pup anymore. 36 was still a damned sight younger than Kuzan or Garp or Akainu or anyone else with half of Smoker's reputation, but...
If he was going to start fresh, he didn't want to repeat everything. What was the point? Why bother? Do things all the same? No. He wanted to make the most of everything. Including being in an absurd unlikely situation with dead pirates, no Akainu, and an even murkier sense of justice than before.
"I don't wish to break anyone's spirit," he admitted firmly, biting hard on his cigars. The idea of dousing Ace's flames... what was the point? Like killing an innocent life. Ace needed that spark. He just needed to figure out how to use it for something better. Protecting people was a start, even though it meant Ace also ran off on his own and --
Gods it was a headache.
"I don't know," Smoker admitted. "Like I said... my justice seems hazy here."
Re: [Action]
He laughed, trying to calm him down. "Just the one! I'm sure you've a healthy hatred for the rest, if indeed there are any. I'm sure there must be, if this age-old conflict from another world is making a return, however tepidly." He didn't know Nemur was a pirate yet, but if he did, he'd probably warm up to them to a similarly conflicted degree. Boy, those smoke shapes were funny. Is he doing that on purpose or do they merely represent his emotions subconsciously? What a clown!
"Heh, I didn't think you would." He felt Smoker for a good man; or maybe he just likes him because he's one of the few who would put up talking with him quite this long. "So I guess it's indefinite detainment, or else conversion, for you. If you figure out the latter, promise to tell me how? I've been meaning the same for a long time for a great many." The metaphysical equivalent of trying to make whores into housewives. Very trying work.
"Forgive me for trying to advise my elders." Annoying boy-scout altruism is just his thing. "But it'll be the last for today, you've my word on that.
So long as I'm asking for forgiveness, I'll ask it again, for I'm about to make a comparison you won't like. You and Akainu strike me very similarly. Heh, let me explain.
They say maniacs, or at least the ones who can talk, are actually very methodical. Especially the monomaniacs. They know their own subject, as round and complete like a circle, and so can go endlessly round about till any who'd dare challenge them end up dizzy and defeated. Akainu seems like that. I'm willing to bet he knows all about justice, absolute or otherwise. He could probably knock my head off in any argument about it, and I'm a man easily given to reading about virtues.
But that's the thing; the circle is too small. It's bereft of all the healthy multiplicity normal minds have. You know the old saying: when you're a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Your advantage, I think, lies in the fact that you've obviously made some inroads in areas except justice.
You see, my own world was a bad one. But it was good, too, and that just made things worse. The virtues became disconnected and inflamed, each putting its claims above the rest. Kindness, for example, was much cheered. to the point where they were perfectly willing to kill if it meant less suffering. It led to some pretty nasty outcomes. Their justice became unkind, and their kindness became unjust. And so on.
Suppose what I'm trying to say is that, perhaps you're so addled because...well, the nails are getting 'screw'y. And even what nails there are seem bent beyond recognition." He smiled in some self-deprecation. "Tell me if I'm making any sense."
Re: [Action]
And Straw Hat was because he was so much like Roger. The puzzle piece that could solve the full mystery. Or destroy it. And he had to stop the destruction. Solve the mystery.
As for Portgas...
It was difficult to explain without explaining the circumstances of his death. That he was killed for being Roger's blood. Because they feared he could be used to represent a new worse era of Roger's successors.... and in so doing they made one worse of all.
"I don't... I don't love anyone." Well, Tashigi. And sort of Adela. It was still too new, but Smoker felt as fierce about defending her budding sense of justice as he did about Tashigi's. And if there was anyone who could ever break him into action despite his "prudence" or Kuzan's "lazy" wait and see side of justice; then it was Tashigi. Usually because she was being rash herself, but Smoker could understand that. He wanted to, often enough.
Smoker rubbed the back of his neck with his hand uncertainly and let all of the words sink in with a nod.
"Killing pirates is supposed to be in order to prevent them from killing others. Innocents, or civilians, or other marines. All out war. But it's too much supposition. What might happen. What they might do, because they're capable of it."
But then...
"But even a child can kill. A child can hold a sword or gun and kill in accident. It doesn't mean they will."
His eyes narrowed.
"I don't think Akainu would do much talking about justice, no offense." His cigars tasted bitter and acidic all at once, just at the thought. At knowing how Akainu was, and trying to figure out how to explain it. "He doesn't care if people understand or agree, so long as they obey. More like Freeza in that."
As for the rest...
He closed his eyes again and frowned lightly. "I don't know what I'm trying to do with the pirates here," he admitted. "It's not like I could prevent a war if Akainu came. At first I just wanted to have something proven to me, that Akainu was wrong, but I think I already decided that somewhere along the way. I just don't know what to do with it."
Justice, vengeance, family, friendship, nakama, justice. What was right? Killing Portgas over being born, trying to do it via killing his brother, via emotional sabotage of his entire family was just fucked up. But he couldn't change that. He wasn't sure he even would if it were in his power. "Prudence," was it? He couldn't see all that would have happened, could have, might have...
"If Kuzan mastered prudence... then Akainu's problem is he's the opposite. He doesn't let anything carry through. Just assumes the worst to its absolute conclusion."
Smoker closed his eyes, leaned his head back to look up at the stars, except his eyes were still closed, thinking of Fujitora. Blind justice.
"I think... I usually focus my justice on what is. Each situation. As it comes. How they effect each other." Head back down, he tilted it to the side. "But here... Although you said it sounds like I'm too focused on the one circle, like Akainu on his sense of absolutism, perhaps I'm expanding too thin. It's like looking at a grand puzzle or the entirety of a machine. I need to focus on just one piece at a time, rather than trying to take it all in at once. Only then can I find out which piece is off, and how to replace it."
Re: [Action]
Ted's eyes closed. Not that this bored him in the least; it was just what he did when matters of the mind and spirit became so vivid that they eclipsed reality. That and it's just plain easier to think that way. He know he said he'd advise only once, but...didn't mean he was done.
"Not a bad strategy; 'give us this day our daily bread', and all that. Certainly one can think too much about everything, and not enough about something." Ted usually had that problem. "Akainu sounds...afraid. A man without faith." That...that might be the answer to the riddle. Another pithy aphorism came to mind.
"We spoke of the four cardinal virtues. They belong to the sad and sensible people, like yourself. Like your jitte; straight and narrow and solid and something everyone can see the point of. Akainu probably had room for only those, and saw them through to the end; indeed, they seemed to have made an end of him. Four sane virtues, four of you. Some connection, perhaps?
Regardless, there are yet three more virtues, less sane but more exuberant: Faith, Hope, and Charity. They are called for when they're least reasonable. You seem to be grappling with charity even now; that is, reverent agnosticism towards the complexity of a soul. You've expressed hope in the desire for reformed criminals; is that not why your jitte is blunt? And finally..." Ted impregnated the pause.
"Another aphorism for you: "the just shall live by faith". If the four practical virtues are a truncheon, then the three impractical ones must be a cloud: white and wispy and lodged in the heavens. Not unlike your smoke; your chief pleasure. Maybe your justice is like smoke because it is, even now, living by faith."
Re: [Action]
He too closed his eyes, simply to think harder and concentrate on it. "You're right that Akainu has no faith but..."
He kept his head leaned back, facing up to the stars. "I'm not exactly sure what I have faith in either."
The just shall live by faith?
The only thing Smoker knew he had "faith" in was justice, and his own strength and convictions. So if his justice was supposed to be clarified by faith... then it was doomed to fall apart for being too circular.
He snorted quietly about there being four of him. Marines? Admirals. "I'm not an admiral, or even a fleet admiral like Kuzan and Akainu." They both were. And that was the problem. There could only be one. Was Akainu's conviction really that much stronger? He somehow still doubted it. Just like he believed that Portgas could have taken Akainu, or Freeza. Was that faith? Eugh. Smoker's face came back down so he could smack himself with his own palm.
"It's not that I keep them alive just for them," he insisted through his fingers, almost trying to convince himself more than Ted. Soft. Everyone always said he was too soft-hearted. That was why he couldn't stand letting Tashigi cry. Seeing her justice fall. Was it why he let Straw Hat go? No matter how he tried to rationalize it. Too soft to ever be absolute enough? "It's -- Like I said, because they don't deserve the weaker path. And others can learn from their example. Just killing them doesn't really solve anything. It still creates ripples, just underneath the service instead of pitching in rocks, like bubbles."
Smoker dragged his hand down his face. "I sure as hell don't have faith in their ability to change. It's just... justice is giving that equal opportunity. They never had that--"
His jaw instantly clenched and tightened on the cigars. "Well, at least some of them anyway."
Portgas, in particular. Why did it keep coming back to him?! Why did it all seem to connect through this one man? What had society done, did it weigh out what he did in turn? Ace and Straw Hat's grandfather had tried to give them that chance and yet...
Was Smoker just trying to outdo his hero? Do what even Garp couldn't? Prove something to himself, that Akainu was wrong. Well if Akainu had no faith, then fine, Smoker was fine with having an abundance. Except... blind faith was pretty fucking new to him. Even as a concept.
Re: [Action]
Ted, if he may think so himself, thought the smoke metaphor was becoming more apt. Like all abstractions, one could make out the shape, before it became formless and drifted off into the ether above. Smoker's riddle seemed to be that of a practical man finding the end of the practical road, and unsure of his footing as he stepped beyond into the mystical and the unseen. It was funny because Ted's road practically ran backwards; he had found the sun before he'd ever found the things it was supposed to light. He had known ghosts and spirits before he'd ever laid eyes on flesh and bone. It felt like a miracle, as if two parallel paths really did meet, contrary to all arithmetic.
He could've stayed like this forever. But then, Smoker, for all his cigars, didn't seem to be taking any pleasure in it, as he was, and this seemed as good as time as any to let the thinker alone. He fell silent for a while; the longer of about half an hour or as long as Smoker would allow. Ultimately, Ted couldn't do much better than the simple pith of "the just shall live by faith", much as he might try to explicate and expound. Far better to let it ripple and echo like a mantra. So he merely looked to the stars, seeing their minor and many lights gradually outdone by the king of them all. Perhaps a symbol of pointed and plain virtues fading in front of the greater. Another metaphor, lovingly provided by nature herself. Or perhaps something outside nature?
Ted got up and dusted off sand. On the whole, he thought Smoker was too hard on himself. But then, humility, though not one of the seven, was the healthiest virtue he knew. He wouldn't dare stop Smoker's self-abasement for that. Just hint a little more than maybe Smoker wasn't as just as he claimed. "Is hell so sure?" Funny how some had absolute faith in that infernal place, but comparatively little in the other. Comes from humility, perhaps; not wanting to presume salvation.
"Suppose it's natural for someone named 'Smoker' to be familiar with evanescent things. I've faith that one day, that smoke of yours will grow whiter and more solid than your jitte." He smiled, eyes still looking towards the horizon.
"You...really don't know how much good your indulgence has done me. I've been marooned at sea for some time; a miserable castaway. It's really too fortunate I find a marine, and an idealist marine, at that! Could any pirate boast the same?
And just like me, you prefer the attendant miseries of ideals to the happiness of the world. I could've sworn I was the last of our dying breed. Well, if I don't sound miserable, it's because I'm delighted to find another turning on the racks. It's as if I spent all time in a dark dungeon, only for the first light to be a fellow inmate roasting above the faggots. Well is it said that misery loves company.
Indeed, your own love is spoken for, despite your protest. You're more seasoned in charity than you say. Does not justice mean simply finding a man's due and giving it to him? Yet here you are, treating me far better than I deserve. You've been unjust and...I'm grateful. Thank you. I should like to shake your hand."
[Action]
"I don't..."
"That isn't..." More stammering and Smoker just barely refrained from rubbing the back of his neck, though even his smoke seemed embarrassed for him.
"It's not what's due... It's not even for you? I mean. I... Thanks for listening too???"
He fails so hard at this sort of things. So hard.
"I'm definitely not in love. Or charitable." Okay there were a few orphanages around Loguetown who would love to disagree with that, and Portgas himself probably would, and Straw Hat might, but fuck all of them, they didn't know.
"But thanks... for everything."
One day he hopes to be less awkward as hell with people.
But he doesn't expect it. It seems he only has three gears. Dead neutral, casual as hell best friends forever that you can treat like an ass but they know what you mean, and hatred and loathing of pirates and criminals.
And Ted thought he was charitable somehow?
Re: [Action]
At a loss for words, huh? Wow, that must have been the best speech ever! Ted's beaming. "You're very welcome." Of course he thought Smoker was charitable, though perhaps more for what he was than what he said, or allowed Ted to say. It's a lonely world out there for an idealist. You mostly find disagreement or indifference. Finding another was the sort of treasure pirates can only dream of. Smoker's lucky he's sitting down, else Ted might have pushed his luck and gone in for a hug.
"Remember, talk me up to Kuzan, and live by faith. Let's talk again about ideals sometime. Until then, good morning."
[Action]
OH GOD TED DO NOT HUG HIM, HE IS ALREADY SHORT CIRCUITED AS IT IS!