high_seas | Manly Drinking Times

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Manly Drinking Times

Who: Marco, Thatch, Logan, Namur, Roxas, Vyse, Chandra, Natsuno, and anyone else who wants in on this drinking game
Where: The Sun! And the Moon! And all the ships in between
When: Sunday May 4th, pursuant to this hilarity
What: MANLY DRINKING TIMES
Warnings: Ehhhhh ARRRRR For Rum. And drinking. And war. And fuck who knows what else, remind me to update if needed.
Status: OPEN!!!

Marco quickly set up a couple of kegs at the ready for the drinking party. Because it was just plain necessary, and a lot like old times. The last two weeks were still weighing on Marco's mind. War, Peace, phoenixes. Was it a good idea to really enjoy war so much? Was it a bad one? Maybe it was inevitable, so he might as well enjoy it. Like life, right? Or should he not encourage it just because it was amusing?

It was too much of a headache, that's why he was just going to drink.

He also set up some non-alcoholic drinks for Leanne and everyone else. Green tea, fruit juices, but they were all clearly marked.

Marco gave a quick piercing whistle. "OI SPADES! Roll call and drinking games!"

And maybe drunk board games, he would blame that on Ace though.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I don't know. I don't think we have had very much." He looked around and lowered his voice in a secretive manner. "Don't tell the Chef but I don't remember a lot of what we make for food. I know I'm supposed to. He said I'm supposed to remember what everyone likes but I don't."

Food didn't rate terribly high on the scale of things Roxas had to remember.

Awww Roxas, cutie...

Marco just reaches out and ruffles his head again. "Hey don't worry, eh? That kind of thing takes time to learn. You can make a cheat sheet if you want. Write it down on cue cards and keep them in your pockets. Wanna know a secret? I had to do that for my crew back home. We have sixteen hundred, and then a couple thousand allies, it took me forever just to remember all their names and faces, eh?"

"Really?" He grins brightly. It was absurdly comforting to know that it isn't just him who can struggle that way because it seems like it sometimes. He tilts his head back and drinks the rest of his drink. He was feeling a little warm, actually.

"I try really hard, but sometimes it doesn't work and I know people get sick of it. I can tell."

Marco nods his head, "Really. It was hard for me because I was more used to bird faces and landscapes. Adjusting to people took a lot of work for me. And don't worry. They just get frustrated because they don't know how to help it and whether to blame themselves or not. So just do your best, and you'll keep getting better at it, I'm sure."

"Maybe, but it's okay. I don't need much help, I can figure things out on my own if I have to. I might not remember everything important, but usually I can figure it out, I think. But I end up with a lot of questions but Lea is really good about answering all my questions. I don't have as many anymore because I remember more things now but when I first got here it was really confusing you know."

Another head nod. "I still can't really imagine what it must have been like for you guys. I grew up on the ocean, and I've been a pirate for a lot longer than I want to admit, eh? But I guess it'd be like if I tried to go to school or something." A head shake, "Nay, more like if Namur tried to go to school."

"I don't know what school is like, I never went." Roxas shrugged a little bit. "Sora must have gone once but because I don't remember his memories, I can't say. For me it was just Organization XIII. Then a prison...then whatever comes after that. Nothing good, I think."

A soft glance. "Sounds pretty terrible. I didn't go to school either, but I usually try to avoid prison. A few of my brothers have been caught a few times though. Good thing you're out and here now instead, eh?"

"Yeah, but the prison was okay most of the time. I didn't even know then that it was a prison until Naminé told me." He frowned a little. He had words for her too when he saw her next, if he ever did.

"It was a fake life where everything around you isn't real, even what you know isn't real. Knowing what I know now, it's a horrible place."

Marco rubs the back of his neck in thought, "Was there torture involved too?"

"I don't know if you can call it torture or not. To me, I think it was."

He seemed to be thinking how to explain it.

"I woke up in a room, I guess you'd call it a typical kid's room. I thought I was a kid on summer holidays that in a week summer would be over. I spent my days playing with three other kids, solving a few puzzles and trying to get to the beach, only we could never leave the town itself." His lips pressed together.

"There were even some kids there to pick on me. It's what I imagine life might actually be like for Hayner, Pence and Olette. None of it was real though. Even my skateboarding skills are programmed into me. They had to give me something to think about because they took all the memories I had. Every night I dreamed of Sora and the things he'd done. It was okay for a few days, but when I met Naminé she told me everything. How I shouldn't exist, how I was going to disappear, to rejoin Sora like I should be. They needed to keep me there until his memories were restored. It's like a puzzle and I was the last piece. Without me, Sora won't wake up. He's been asleep a long time."

He put his hand to his head. Usually people stop him long before now but he pressed on anyway. "Knowing that made it worse. My 'friends' asked me to do things but it was like...when you know something isn't real, there isn't much point is there? I don't know. I had a lot on my mind and my memories of Sora were interrupting me during the day too. Naminé said that it was all part of the process. I was missing chunks of time again and when Axel came for me, when he found me I didn't know him. That didn't hurt me until I did remember him."

Roxas shook his head. "Maybe it doesn't sound like torture. I felt like I was going crazy. On the seventh day, that was it. They were ready for me."

Marco's not sure what to say at first. No, it sounds plenty like torture to him. What memories he has are very precious to him, and no matter how they hurt, he wouldn't give them up for anything.

He doesn't have an answer for Roxas, just acts on instinct again and picks the kid up and sets him on his shoulders, like his father did for him when he needed it. And then he hands Roxas a small bag of sunflower seeds.

"For what it's worth, it sounds terrible, but I don't think you're crazy, eh?"

He frowns and taps his foot to the deck irritably for a little bit before going back to fixing up the drinks. "There are a lot of things the government in my world tries to do like that." He waves a hand vaguely. "To block out memories. They eliminate people in their way, erase records, and some people they're afraid to kill, so they just to try to lock them away somewhere to experiment on them, and try to make the world forget about them."

There's a pause, and Marco sips some of his own drink for a bit before reaching up to steal some of the sunflower seeds from the bag he just handed Roxas no less. "You can't really do that though. Oh, believe me, they've tried. We have an entire century that people don't know the full story of called the Void Century. All because the government didn't want anyone to know what happened during that whole one hundred years." He finishes off his handful of seeds and puts his hands in his pockets. "But such things can't be hidden forever." Marco would know. He's always trying to hide a lot of things. And juggling too many balls. He tried not to let Thatch find out about his own death, but that hadn't worked or lasted either. Or the devil fruit. And he was still trying to keep it secret about Blackbeard stealing Whitebeard's devil fruit. He still would for as long as he could.

"You especially can't hide a whole person."

Marco rubbed his chin irritably. "One of them was a ex-jailer of the prison where they were kept, and a bunch of the others were guys we helped defeat." A sigh, "And then they were all broken out." He looked around for something sweet to hand Roxas, but settled for the kid's punch since it was filled with enough juice to be sweet if not sugary. "Ace was hidden away too, you know? They were hunting him for a long time, and then they put him in prison. But we could never have hidden Ace. He blazes too bright. So it sounds like you're in the right place now, eh?"

"Ack!" Roxas cried out when he was picked up because let's face it, that's never happened to him before. He couldn't possibly be that light, he figured, but once he's settled he just blinked at him. Next thing he knew he had sunflower seeds and another sugary drink pressed into his hands.

"Axel told me he was looking for me for awhile. It seemed like he had a hard time finding me." His words came a little more unsteady, uncertainly laced in his memories. "But I didn't know him. Not until it was too late. I think if I knew him then he would have helped me. I hurt him badly because I didn't remember him until after."

"Nobodies don't shine in the light like Ace. We move in the darkness. Even if I have some magic with light, it doesn't change that fact. I can't remembers some really important things but in the end even Axel was dangerous. He wanted to take me from there, back to the castle. Saix, Xemnas...they would have eliminated me. It isn't his fault that those were his orders. It's mine. I know that, but not why." After sipping some more of his drink, he settled his chin on Marco's head.

"Yeah. This is the best place I've ever been." He sounded worried though, something off in his voice...suspicion.

Marco reached up to gently pet Roxas' head, thinking to himself. "Ace shines because he wants to. I think that's why he wants to be the best so much. He spent a long time hiding, and now he doesn't have to." He gave Roxas a few more thoughtful pets. "Thatch is dark, because that's who he is, eh? I don't get it though. Lea-- I mean Axel wanted to help you even though his job was to eliminate you?" He tilted his head to the side a little.

"It's really hard when you're best friends." Roxas said softly. "I think if I asked for help he would have helped me. He told me that now and it's nice to think it's true."

He's quiet for a moment, letting a pause in. "Not that I wouldn't kick his ass again, I would, but I'd understand if he did it. It'd be me or both of us."

The Organization didn't screw around with traitors. It was always hanging over their heads.

"There's more I'm missing. Puzzle pieces that aren't there, but Lea doesn't have them either. I don't know why I quit. I don't know what happened after that until Riku locked me up in that prison...there's a lot I don't know." He couldn't help but mutter one word that described how he thought about that fight. "Cheater."

"Eh?" Marco reached up to pet Roxas' head and grab a few seeds for himself. "Who's a cheater? Riku?"

"Yeah, Riku is." He grumbled. Roxas didn't lose a lot and that was such a dirty win on Riku's part that it bothered him as much as everything that followed.

"He was losing. I totally had it but he did something. He changed himself. He looked completely different and then there was nothing I could do. He beat me and he was working with DiZ, I think. So when I woke up I was in the prison."

Roxas was annoyed that Riku won that fight in the end. He was mad at him for what he did but Sora liked Riku and he could feel that too. It was terribly confusing sometimes.

"Sounds weird, eh? I haven't spoken to him much, so I've really just heard about him from you and the others, yoi."

Marco munched on the seeds in quiet thought. "So changing forms is cheating?"

"Not really, it's just how he did it. It's hard to explain. I didn't have a problem with him and it's not like I was going to kill him. I just wanted him to let me go. He did...whatever it was. Embraced the darkness maybe? I'm not sure. I don't know what darkness does to people who have hearts." He played idly with Marco's hair as he thought.

"But I don't matter, Sora does. He would do anything for Sora."

"You matter to me," Marco said softly, "And to Captain Ace and Lea. But I don't know what darkness does to hearts either. Thatch is worried about me doing that, I think." Even though it was the kind of thing Marco wouldn't normally voice to anyone, Roxas had long since become an exception. "Taking the darkness into my heart or something like that. Like he's one to talk, yoi. We're brothers, so shouldn't we do things like that together?"

He nodded against his head. "Yeah, you should. Even if I don't have a heart and I don't understand everything, I've been trying to tell Lea he should let me help him. He has darkness there...there's no way he couldn't. Now I know some of the things and maybe he feels a little better. I don't really know. Maybe I can help share his darkness. He knows most of mine anyway. I know he wanted to protect me but I got really stubborn. We fought a lot but we're pretty good now."

"I'm glad," Marco smiled softly enough that it even reflected in his tone as he patted Roxas' head. "Thatch and I are selfish. We don't want each other to hurt so we always try to take it all for ourselves. And then it ends up hurting anyway, eh?" Marco gives up with a small shrug and an even smaller shake of his head so that Roxas won't get unbalanced. "I'll have to talk to him I suppose, but he won't like it, yoi."

Roxas seemed to be thinking for a moment and he held down his cup for more. "Well, I think that's what happens. Lea didn't like what I had to say either because even if you hide things you still hurt other people. I wasn't very nice about it either. I said some mean things, but if I didn't do that, he wouldn't listen to me, I think. He was afraid to hurt me and I knew that but I don't like being lied to. I don't like not knowing what's going on. I hate it. He's really bad for it sometimes. I thought he didn't trust me."

Marco took the cup and mixed up more of the drink, heavy on the fruit juice but with a splash or two of rum and handed it back to Roxas. "Thatch and I trust each other at least." A frown as he rubbed his chin, thinking harder. "But ahhh I guess...." A slight head tilt, "A little pain now is probably better than a long dragged out thing, you think?" Yes, Marco, good idea. Taking advice and social cues from a one and half year old now.

"He trusts me, I just didn't really know it." He smiled a bit and drank it. It's so sweet, it's just what he wants to drink right then.

"I think so. Instead of us fighting all the time over the same things, about him not telling me important things instead I know them so we don't have to fight about it...and I know he trusts me so I didn't get as mad last time we talked. I was just...you know..." He waved his hand a bit. What word was he looking for?

"Worried, maybe? I wanted to know he trusted me."

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