INTRO LOG: MAY 2014

[highseasmods]

WELCOME NEW CHARACTERS!
Have an intro log for the month of May!

Who: Any and all new characters, as well as anyone hanging out on or around Isla Empieza!
Where: Near the fountain in the town center.
When: New characters will arrive around May 10th! The log is good for as long as you need it.
What: You've just been dropped on your head in a weird new world. Time to figure out what the heck is going on!
Status: VERY OPEN.

It's a brilliant May day, with blue skies and a soft breeze as you wake up. Everything about the otherwise grubby pirate port you are in speaks of spring. There are flowers surrounding the fountain, draping in colorful garlands over railings and balconies and tucked into all corners. There is a certain cheerfulness to it all and those in Empieza seem friendly and welcoming (to those who've been there before, they are far more pleasant than usual).

Feel free to throw your characters here if you need a place for them to get situated and start figuring things out! Start new threads, tag into others, meet the people who might just become part of your crew! Older characters will be in and out, too, depending who is on the island at the current time.

HAVE FUN! And welcome to High Seas!

Comments

[warriorofthesea]

...luh...y

[there's no sense of recognition in Usopp's voice. if one weren't listening closely, they might just think that exhale was a strange-sounding sigh and not meant to be a name. but it is. perhaps he was just imagining things, but for a moment there, he could swear he'd heard Luffy calling him...]

[...and then Luffy shakes him less-than-gently, and the fresh wave of pain is enough to cause him to slip into unconsciousness again. he still manages to let out some gasps and groans as Luffy jostles him through the streets, but for now, it's nothing more than a reflex]

[allendsmeat]

[He keeps calling for Bepo until he realizes that Bepo isn't here and that makes him screech to a stop. He doesn't know where any doctors are around here and he doesn't really have the money. He hefted Usopp over his shoulder but most people seemed to want to avoid him than help him-- so in the end he took Usopp back to the inn room and lay him on the bed to wait for Nami. She would be able to figure it out.

And Usopp didn't seem like he was dying, just beat up a lot, but it was hard to tell. But while he's waiting he looks for things he can make bandages out of, finally ending up tearing a bedsheet and trying to tie them on himself. He's not very good at it, as it turns out]

[warriorofthesea]

[Usopp thankfully is out for most of that bumpy ride, and once Luffy gets him into a soft bed, it helps. not a lot, but it's enough for his body to relax a bit and for his former unconscious state to melt into true sleep. he even begins to dream a little, until a sense of pressure on his arm wakes him]

...o-ow.

[he's not reacting specifically to Luffy's inelegant bandage-work. it wouldn't be an exaggeration at all to say his everything hurts right now. there's something else troubling him though, another reason he keeps his eyes closed even after waking. oh, soon enough he'll see who his mysterious benefactor is, but right now he's barely aware he isn't actually alone, his mind so preoccupied with the reason he's in this state to begin with]

[he'd fought. bravely. but in the end, he'd still failed the Tontatta. frankly, he's a bit surprised he's even still alive]

[allendsmeat]

[by the time he's done, Usopp pretty much looks like a giant lumpy bandage, but Luffy sits by his side, watching him, having the presence of mind after a long moment to give him a nose hole and then watches more. Maybe he can help somehow...]

Na, do you want some milk? [that would make his bones heal if they were broken, right?]

[warriorofthesea]

[it may be a minor miracle that Usopp managed to sleep through Luffy wrapping him up like a lopsided mummy. it's also probably a testament to just how tightly he pulled that final knot on Usopp's arm. in fact, from the bicep down, it's starting to go a little numb. even though that means it doesn't hurt as much, Usopp realizes he should probably say something to whoever it is that rescued him. a sharpshooter with only one arm isn't much of a sharpshooter, after all]

[but then Luffy speaks before Usopp has a chance, and now his eyes fly open, because there's no mistaking his captain's voice. so he didn't imagine it after all!]

Luffy--! [his speech comes out a little mushy-sounding, but if Luffy listens, he should still be able to decipher it] What happened? Did the plan work? [there's a slight hitch in his voice as he tries to continue, which quickly escalates into a full-blown coughing fit]

[allendsmeat]

[he can make out what he's saying but he's not sure what plan he was talking about. It must be something from back home]

I dunno. You're in that ghost guy place again.

[warriorofthesea]

[...what? yeah, he has no idea what Luffy's talking about. once he stops coughing, he wipes a little blood from his lips with the back of one hand--and instantly regrets the movement]

Huh? The factory! Did you guys wreck it? [winces] Uh, can you loosen this a little? [he tries to wiggle his fingers, and isn't sure if it's successful or not, because that knot is clearly way too tight]

[allendsmeat]

I don't know. [tries to tug it loose and tightens it accidentally] I think it's stuck... I need to get scissors... [hunt hunt. There has to be some around here somewhere] Anyway, I told you it's not home. It's the ghost guy's place.

[warriorofthesea]

[Usopp sighs, settling back onto the pillow. maybe he really hurt his head or something, because Luffy is making a lot less sense than usual. obviously it's not home; they should still be on Dressrosa, right? he closes his eyes again]

...what do you mean, ghost guy? [the only thing that springs to mind is Thriller Bark, which makes no sense either] Look, where's everybody else?

[allendsmeat]

The green farty ghost guy who brought everyone here. [can't find the scissors but does find a dagger that someone left behind. That'll work]

Nami's in town somewhere but the rest are on the Million Merrily.

[picks up Usopp's hand and tries to figure out how to cut it free] How thick are bandages?

[warriorofthesea]

[now he's starting to wonder if Luffy hurt his head too. he probably would have asked him, except as he continued, the name "Million Merrily" jostled something loose in his memory]

Wait...

[does that mean..? Usopp groans, partly pain and partly the realization that however dreamlike they seemed right now, maybe those faint memories of being on a completely different world were the real deal]

[he opens his eyes and tries to sit up a little, to get a better look at Luffy. more groans at the effort, but now that he's looking closely, he thinks he can seen some slight differences. Luffy's younger again?]

We're back in this place?

[allendsmeat]

Yeah... [well, he never left and that's starting to become a problem, but...]

I'm glad you're back, Usopp. I missed you.

[warriorofthesea]

[Luffy missed him? does that mean he was still here even after Usopp got back home? he's definitely not happy to be back here, but the thought that Luffy was on his own for a while makes him feel a little guilty. not that he had any control over it]

Uh. W-well. At least I wasn't gone for too long, right? [he closes his eyes again to help him concentrate on remembering. once he got back home, it seemed like he'd completely forgotten this place, but now the memories seemed to be trickling back...]

[when he got here before, it was just a little while after they'd landed on Dressrosa. so he can't have been gone much longer than a day at most, the way he figures it]

1/2

[allendsmeat]

[kind of long but it doesn't matter] Kind of but you're back! [so who cares?]

[allendsmeat]

But, Usopp, you missed Candy Mountain.

[they'll go back but he has to let him know how serious that was.

Candy. Mountain.]

[warriorofthesea]

Candy...mountain? That's a real place? [something about the name is ringing a few faint bells for him, but his memories of this place are still elusive, like a half-remembered dream that slips away when you try to recall it]

[another small groan of pain as he adjusts his position in bed, and now he's pretty sure he can't feel his hand anymore. he tries to wiggle his arm to bring Luffy's attention back to it] Hey, hurry up and loosen this. I think my arm's gonna fall off...

[his mind is still stuck on trying to make sense of what's happened, and trying to remember this place] Did Sanji go back too? Or Brook? Or... [he wracks his brain trying to remember who else had been here before. he had some vague notions Zoro had been here too, and...a pink...horse? he shakes his head a little]

oops this tag got lost

[allendsmeat]

Yeah! But I couldn't sleep for a while. [it sounds like it's more funny than anything though. The knots are too tight for him to get loose so he carefully cuts them off]

No one else left. We were all waiting for you. [him especially] I got some great new crew, too! Elsa can make it snow and ice and she's coming back with us. Isn't it great? We can build snowmen anytime we want! And Bepo's our doctor, but he's actually that guy's nakama.

[he can't remember if Usopp knows Bepo or not]

[warriorofthesea]

[there's a lot of information flying at him, especially in his current state where he's sure he's missing a lot. he replies to the last thing Luffy said, partly just because it was easiest and partly because he's curious]

That guy..? [the way Luffy said it suggests it's someone Usopp should know, but does that mean it's someone from home, or someone he met when he was here before?]

[allendsmeat]

Yeah uh... hmmm. [he tries to remember about him] We saw him in Sabody. He has the cow hat and goes 'room'.

[warriorofthesea]

Ohhh, Tarao. [yeah, of course, Luffy would barely know him yet. he wouldn't even know about their alliance, unless someone from then told him]

So one of his crew is sailing with us, huh? That...kinda makes sense. Not that you'd get it.

[allendsmeat]

Trowel? [he laughs] What a weird guy. Yeah Zoro said something about him coming, but I don't wanna know much-- just if he shows up and is nakama I wanna know. [nods]

By the way, Usopp, what happened? [pokes lightly at a bandage]

[warriorofthesea]

[Usopp winces, partly because that poke, despite its relative gentleness, still hurts, but mostly because of the question. he lets his gaze slip away from Luffy's, too ashamed to look him in the eye]

...a fight. [which was probably obvious, but he's working up to it] It was...bad. I mean. [a beat] I lost. He beat me. [his hand forms a loose fist, a sign of his frustration]

[allendsmeat]

Usopp...

[Luffy watches him for a moment. It was still weird to think that even after they all got stronger, they still lost but...

He smiles and flops beside Usopp on the bed.]

It's okay. Don't worry about it. You're still alive right?

[he hasn't really seen Usopp fight all that much. He's usually ahead or elsewhere... but he knows how Usopp fights and that he does his best--and there hasn't been a fight that Luffy can remember that Usopp didn't use up most of the bandages so.]

It'll work out. [whacks Usopp arm with the back of his hand in a friendly way]

[warriorofthesea]

[he wants to feel reassured, but even Luffy's words don't help. he sighs again, this time sounding frustrated] It's not okay. Maybe I messed everything up! [not that helping out the Tontatta tribe was exactly part of the plan in the first place...]

[he tips his head back a little, wishing he could just sink into the softness of his pillow and stay there. it was as if what scant energy he had left simply drained out of him] And now I'm here, and I don't even know how things'll end up back home.

[that was the worst of it. oh, the fact that he was defeated so easily even after his years of training stung, but it wasn't a surprise to him, exactly. there was a reason he'd first tried to flee instead of facing Trébol. but it was the not knowing that made this unbearable to him. for all he knew, he might even have ended up dead if he hadn't been brought back to this place]

[allendsmeat]

So what if you messed up. [he folds his hands behind his head and looks at the ceiling, his voice is serious] Everyone loses fights. That's how you learn to win. Whatever happened, it's not over yet, Usopp.