genessia | [video] with action in Fayren

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[video] with action in Fayren

[from the angle, Bartolomeo's phone is lying on a tabletop aimed up at him as he sits, chin in one hand, squinting down at it in annoyance. His hand moves from turning on the video to pick up a glass of something amber-colored. He's in a tavern in Fayren, the timber rafters are a dead giveaway.]

I don't know what's what anymore. This holiday ain't really a thing that I know about but I guess some people really like the pretty, fancy shit, and some people are cryin' about not being around family, blah blah blah. New Year's is comin' up though, so that's gonna be a thing. Anyway, if you're like me and fancy dress balls with snooty food and stuff ain't your style, come hang out with me at the Drunken Monkey. I'm not nice enough to buy anybody drinks and I kinda can't afford to anyway but I'll tell ya pirate stories if you want.

It's funny, innit? Everybody making these normal little lives, all neat and tidy. Voting for protectors. The illusion of safety and security. I didn't ask 'em any questions because I don't have any [lies, he couldn't figure out the hashtag] but it's all real funny to me. I bet they got no idea just how much crime really happens right under their noses. [he grins a little at the phone before taking a sip] It's all an illusion, really. This place, the people living in it, even the sea itself. Nice to look at, but what does it mean?

...ah, shit, I get philosophical when I drink. Someone come drink with me, tell me stories.

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[he believes Barty is right. But he also believes it is true everywhere. Ever since the battle at Marine Ford nothing has sat quite right with him about anything and the longer he's here and the further away that is the more he's unsettled by it all.

It's a disturbing question to think about. What does it mean. What does any of it mean. He doesn't know and he can't. Though he's thinking of perhaps finding out sooner than later.

However, Barty wanted a story and so shall have one]

the meaning of life, in limerick.

There once was a man from Skypiea
Who frequently had diarrhea
He sat on cloud ground
As he let it go down
And that's how this land came to be-a

[okay first he busts a gut in public in the tavern because that is fucking brilliant. And then he texts back terribly because drunk.]

i give it a A++ nice work

unless yur smoker because no credit for bein smoker

but ur from home so hi

Maybe I am Smoker. On the other hand that is too much work.

Do you not have family you miss?

wel maybe granny a little bt I aint seen her in 2 yers so

be nice to hve my crew but I got good pals around so, its not so bad.

You're more fortunate than others. Some are all alone.

then they can b sad I guess, I dont care. thas on them

unless yur gonna cry cuz your alone too?

That's to be expected from you. [he's not entirely surprised in other words. Though he is a little. He has gotten too used to great pirates and peons are as they are]

Hardly. I prefer the solitude.

oi oi you sayin you know me? u better not be smoker, asshole!

[he thinks] It is I, Monkey D. Luffy. Don.

[OMG NO DID HE JUST CALL LUFFY-SENPAI AN ASSHOLE wait

waaaaait

there's something about that...]

pull the other one! Luffysenpai prolly can't type so good

Are you really underestimating the man who would be Pirate King?

[SO MUCH FLAILING god the people in the tavern must think he's completely nuts by now]

I DIDNT SAY THAT shit okay what look here

yuo tryin to make me look bad in front o my favorite person?

You seem to be doing that all on your own. After all Roger was a very articulate man.

.... Or did you not know?

[very heavily implied judging]

the hell do I look liek? Gold Roger was executed like months befroe I was born. I never met the guy.

Yet he left a large enough impact on the world for those who seek his treasure to learn a great deal about him and his life.

...unless of course they are lazy.

[even more judging]

no shit! I was born in the shadow of that platform, I know shit. not all the shit but I know enough shit. you sayin I dont know where I came from?

Prove to me otherwise.

liek how I mean

shit I hate typng on this little thing. come down here and I;ll prove everhthng to yu!

Only if you buy me a drink.

ok but its gotta be like the chepest drink cuz I don't got a lot of money

Very well. I suppose it's the most I can expect. Where are you?

drunken monkey. [though it doesn't occur to him to maybe mention it's in Fayren] spose it wouldn't be too bad to drink wtih someone frm home

I'm sure we're well aware of how much crime happens around here. That's why we need protectors. Imagine how much worse it would be without them...

Very well

[and he will be there presently. Maps are a thing that exist after all. As well as a very nice network that allows you to look up things. And so in about a half an hour or so he arrives, folding himself to get in the doorway and sighing at the usual too small chairs and tables and piratical atmosphere. But he will find Barty and plunk up an ice stool at the appropriate height even as his knees bang the underside of the bar]

Well then...

Edited 2016-12-19 03:07 (UTC)

[he grins over his glass at the video screen]

Oh, I know, right? Why, criminals could just be wandering the streets, openly robbing people right and left. Vulgar graffiti on every wall. Chaos, I tell ya. Pure chaos.

[just a hint of sarcasm in that]

[whatever Barty was expecting, it sure as hell wasn't MOTHERFUCKING ADMIRAL AOKIJI sitting down next to him. So he falls off his stool in shock, first, and then whips up a hand with fingers ready to cross at an instant's notice]

Are you telling me that was you on the phone thing?!

[glances at him at moment. Then raises his hands. Peace. Peace.]

[all right, fine, standing down the panic]

S-so. It's come to this. Me buying a drink for a Marine.

[for a moment he's tempted to order the shittiest watered-down grog they've got, but he actually has more money than he lets on so Kuzan gets what he's having - a halfway-decent brandy]

The hell were we talkin' about anyway? I cooled down since the last message.

I'll return the favor. [especially since he sees the quality isn't half bad considering what he'd expected. Which was near bottom of the barrel]

We were talking about what you know about Roger.

[Barty eases back onto his seat and settles his feathers down, making sure the phone is off before actually having a chat]

Ah, right. Well, see, I grew up on Loguetown, where you can't flick a booger without hitting someone who watched the execution or knew Roger or somesuch. So I've heard a lot, but I got no way of knowing what's true and what's a bunch of bullshit. The future Pirate King is my area of study.

Everyone's area of study. [these days anyway. Even Smoker is obsessed. Not that it takes much once he scents trouble but this is even moreso than usual]

What did you hear? What did you believe most?

Oh, you name it, I've heard it. How he was eight meters tall and breathed fire, how all he had to do was walk onto an island and it would be decimated. [snorts into his glass, those are obviously the stupid tall tales] Back then I didn't really care much about pirates so I never asked for the good stories, like why he fought Whitebeard or how he managed to escape the admirals for so long.

That's the real shit, y'know. [turning suddenly in his seat and jabbing a finger onto the bar next to him] Certain things get way more important when you set out to sea, compared to living on land. Like, someone coulda told me five years ago about what it meant for Gold Roger to be the only man to ever reach the end of the Grand Line, and I'd just shrug it off. Like, whatever, man, I don't care. But now, I wanna know that. It's not just some story, it's important.

[Kuzan snorts in amusement too, sipping his own brandy and impressed in spite of himself. He doesn't know Barty exactly, but he knows his type. Like an old story where the character's names and set pieces might change, but you still know the ending.

And yet the ending is not quite what it was. As with everything the Strawhat shifts it a little to the unexpected, a little to the motivating, to the endearing even. Though looking at him--no he wouldn't go so far as the last. Leaving it at motivating will prevent the dry heaves.]

They used to say he didn't. That it was all dreams. Propaganda. I've heard that he destroyed every island he set foot on just for the fun of it. That he slaughtered everyone in reach and worse. Drank the blood of dying mothers... [not all Navy propaganda either. They usually didn't get as lavish as all that. It was easier to let people embellish how they would]

What it means is that he became a legend. What it means is that if he did it once, someone can do it again. The reason why people say all those impossible things about him is either a deterrent or an excuse. No mere man could have conquered the sea, will of D or not. It must take a God to do that.

[he swirled his brandy thoughtfully. Taking in the (relative) silence for a moment]

But you know he was born in a town of scoundrels. An even rougher place then than it is now. He made himself into what he became by his own hands and his crew. And he died like anyone else would. Rumor had it he was very sick at the time as well. Already on the black ship, so they say. If he wasn't executed...

[Kuzan shrugs. Glances over at him]

What do you make of that?

[Barty listens keenly, not fanboying like he would with stories of Luffy but taking it all in. The 'town of scoundrels' makes him laugh]

You know, sounds like something Granny would say. How things were so much worse when she was younger, before us kids were around. She thought stories about pirates weren't appropriate for impressionable youngsters, and by the time I got old enough to listen I didn't care to ask anymore.

[he mulls it over, taking the bottle left for him and pouring both himself and Kuzan a little more]

If that's true, then the execution was his victory, not his defeat. He went out on his own terms. Now that's the mark of a King. But I can say one thing for sure... [giving Kuzan a fangy grin] It doesn't take a god to perform miracles. I've seen it with my own eyes.

[He's going to regret this.]

[He ALREADY ALMOST REGRETS THIS.]

[Yet here is Smoker, sitting two barstools down from Barty, because... hell if he knows why. Nostalgia really.]

[It's sure as hell not because he knows you miss your Granny punk. That's for damned sure. Because even if Smoker did know such a thing, there's no way in Impel Down he'd acknowledge it, much less take an action because of it. Fuck no.]

[He orders a rum, and turns on his stool slightly so he can look at Barty.]

Christmas present for you. Tell anyone I did this and I'll present you with a spiked dildo so far up your rectum you'll be spitting teeth for a week, got it?

[Is that suitably graphic enough to be intimidating? Because he can get worse.]

[And holds up his pinky and ring finger:] I ran into Straw Hat twice in Alabasta. Both times at a restaurant. First time, his brother fell asleep in his food so I went to inspect. We were about to fight when Straw Hat interrupted. [HE AIN'T TELLING YOU SHIT ABOUT HOW HE INTERRUPTED GO TO HELL.] His brother rescued him and I lost the trail.

Second time he told me he was going after Crocodile. No reason to believe him as telling the truth... but my instincts said he didn't lie. Nothing to do but wait for him. Finally he showed up -- and just like the first time... he sprayed food and drink all over me. Never sit near a D when there's food around. Merry Christmas ya punk. [And with that, he gets up and goes to a corner booth so he can lean back and smoke and TRY to tune out any laughter from Barty after what he hopes will be stunned silence long enough for him to get over there.]

[the sad thing about Barty's mere existence is that a graphic threat like that only makes him grin. And there's the rum, too.]

Why, Smokey! You know just how I like it.

[Luffy stories are the best stories, though, so he takes them with only a slight raise of his nonexistent eyebrow - because why, Smoker? He knows about their exploits in Alabasta, somehow, he knows it was epic and he knows what the newspaper reported was a lie. But the tale is welcome all the same, and Bartolomeo lets him escape afterward, remaining on his stool to drink down his rum in one shot and grin and wibble to himself.

But that can't be all, oh no. He lets Smoker have his privacy for less than it takes to smoke a cigar and then gets up, taking his original glass of brandy along and going to slump to a seat across from him]

You missin' somebody so bad that you decided to fill the hole with me?

[haha he said hole...]

[Snorts.]

Hell no. [Playing with his lighter a little.] My kid's missing her Uncle a ton though, so it's quiet. Too used to G-5 never shutting the hell up. Getting hard to think.

Too quiet, huh? Yeah, I get that.

[he toys with his glass, sliding it back and forth along the table]

So how come you Marines ain't chomping at the bit to be Guardians? Gotta say, the current crop just makes me laugh. Buncha cute little do-gooders...

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[video] with action in Fayren

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