fierybluebird | Appointment Post 2.0 since the other is pretty full

[He doesn't even bat an eye at the shredded hand, though the soothing licks are appreciated.]

You want to help your nakama, but you're not sure how, eh?

You can't know how yet. You'll know better than me, because each one will require something different. Atomos was puppeted by Doflamingo and attacked his own division. Squardo was tricked by Akainu and attacked Pops. [He waves the clawed and licked hand with a bit of blue flames.] These things were devastating, eh? But they do not make everything stand still.

Ah, forgive me if I sound harsh. I do not mean to. These are really bad things and I hate the Malnosso for causing this. [Blue eyes burn, that is certainly a true statement. A true understatement.] But the only way I know to keep healing, to keep moving forward, to keep protecting and helping nakama; is just that.

You will have to trust your nakama's bonds to get you all through this. [Another frown and he holds up the hand.] I know that sounds easy, but it is more complicated than it appears. [Puts the hand back down and offers to let her knead it again.] When Zoro's been incapacitated before on the Grand Line, what did you and your nakama do for him? To thank him, to cheer him up, to show what it meant?

[Runs his other hand through his hair.] In my family it's always death or parties it seems like. Someone tries to kill Pops, fails, so we party. Someone tries to take over an island of ours, fails, so we party. It's different after Pops died. None of us wanted a party and that would have hurt more. But we all stood together. Simply having your nakama's support means a lot. Having... anyone's support when things are this bad means a lot. It's why I owe Shanks so much. [Crouches down on the bed so that his chin rests on two hands, face to face with Robin though this puts his face within easy clawing range.]

How to support each of your nakama, they may require separate things. But they'll all just require you. You're strong, and I have faith in your crew, you'll all get through this. And if there is something else I can do to help, you need only suggest.

[He wants to ask her about Nami's milkan. Would arranging a harvest like last year help? But with Bellemere gone perhaps the sad memories were too strong for such a replicated attempt to do anything but sting. This is why Marco doesn't know, he doesn't know them as well as his own nakama, but he believes what he's told Robin, Ace, and Sabo. Trying, just being there, it counts for a lot.]

Want ink again? [Delayed reaction, he was distracted with nakama! thoughts.]

[She has heard about the battle of Marineford and how the Whitebeards fought. Though it had seemed distant at the time, now it is almost painful. To care for others means to care for their nakama as well. Strange how pain is transferred that way.

She knows his words and that they make sense but some wounds not even nakama can heal. Not even strength of others. Killing a friend. Watching them die. That stays with you. No matter how much others believe or trust in you it is a shard that bites and never fades...only becomes less noticeable over time. She wonders if Marco has ever done so? It is hard to tell and she doesn't want to know. Not now.

She sighs.

When he mentions the ink, she nods. At least they have not stopped her words completely]

[Marco would appreciate that Robin didn't ask about his having to kill nakama, if he knew her thoughts. It's not a good discussion for here or any other day. Dealing with Blackbeard, a traitor, was hard enough. Dealing with Squardo, nearly a brother, and still an ally, that was still a headache he knew would continue back home.]

[He gets out ink again and hands her a notebook. There's a slight pause in which he worries about the blanket; he's fussy and the idea of getting ink accidentally on it bothers him, but eventually he just moves the notebook more onto the quilt away from the blanket. Hopefully that'll take care of any errant ink splats.]

Here love.

[She wonders at the pause and is faintly amused when he sets the notebook away from the soft looking blanket. She wonders if he is attached to it. She wonders if he would let her wrap herself up in it one day. Though that seems intrusive somehow. Instead she is extra careful as she writes with the ink, using a little less than what she needs so that nothing will drip.]

There is a kind of pain nakama can't even take away. Though it is better together [she hesitates a moment] Nami suffers. She is so far away lately. Everyone seems close and distant.

[And Marco has been fighting with Ace. She remembers that, too. It seems that Luceti is adept at pulling nakama apart, thread by thread, through terror, grief and regret. She knows not to voice this, though. Some terrible things must remain hidden, especially if they can't be fixed. And...he probably knows, if only unconsciously.]

There are some things which cannot be helped.

[He gives her a soft grin, appreciating the amount of care she's taking with the ink and patiently waits for her to finish writing.]

[Nami does suffer. Ace feels alone in his death, and he wonders if Nami feels the same about her pain. In everyone's attempts to be strong individually, to not weigh down their nakama, isn't it creating more problems than not?]

Some things can't be helped, aye. But some things can. Some other little ways will help. Take heart Robin, it's not hopeless, eh?

The milkan are from her mother right? [Sighs and lays down on the bed next to Robin, leaning on one arm and protectively shaped like a crescent around the cat.] Shanks helped me a lot by helping set up the memorial for my Pops and Ace. A lot. I do not say this lightly, because if losing my father, my captain, could be helped by even someone such as Shanks, then I know we can still find a way. I don't know what that way is, but I know it has to exist.

[She feels strangely protected, though she isn't sure why this should be so. There is nothing menacing her right now but he is so much larger that she can't but feel that he would shelter her from anything. It reminds her distantly of someone else from long long ago.

She shifts slightly so that she can press her side against him, soaking up his warmth, and takes a moment to think and rub her head against him, kneading the quilt absently.

Marcchan...

But he is right.]

No one wants to hurt anyone else so they don't rely on anyone else. [She thinks a moment]

We are all nakama here, in a way. All interdependent. If we all were together would it be easier or harder? Would losses be felt greater or less? How can we soothe pain when it is continual?

[She is not so much asking him as she is tossing questions into the void. Who can say. Who can know?]

But I think I would do anything to help.

[He loves her. Between her leaning up against him and the adorable way she's kneading the quilt, Marco's just overwhelmed with a surge of affection that only doubles at her words.]

We are are all together. I do not know Nami and Zoro and Sanji or your crew nearly as well as I'd like, but even what little I do know, I adore. The Malnosso have accidentally given us a great gift in each other. It is very easy to say we will stand apart on our own, but we're much stronger if we stand together.

[Honestly, his own confidence is rebounding, hell, surging just in saying it. Even though he tried to tell this to Sabo and Ace, he was hurting himself too much at the time to really take as much heart in his own words about it. Saying it for truly and utterly someone else's sake however, saying it in effort to help protect someone else; that did the trick. He was absolutely convicted in those words and believed it more strongly than ever.]

I told Ace during one of our fights that in the Grand Line, in the New World, we've faced hardships such as these before. There is always something going wrong, but we were still very happy; because we had each other. I believe that can be true here too. Missing nakama or not, fallen nakama or not, we've regained nakama, and we can still find our own pieces of joy here. They cannot take that away forever if we don't let them.

You'll do anything to help, and so will I. And Ace. I think all of us can say that. [He gently stroked her ears with a lazy hand, simply enjoying the touch, being in contact with her.] It is going to be hard. I'm not sure Nami knows what would help, anymore than you know what would help you if such a thing happened. Still, we will find a way Robin. Don't give up.

[Rolls onto his back and gently picks Robin up to put her on his chest.] I'm thinking... Ace cheered me up with a party when you and Norma were kidnapped. It's strange because, I usually don't like parties. But it was so like home and it reminded me how many people here have actually touched this strange life I have in Luceti. I am not saying we should have a party for Nami, but what things does she like best? Mikan and pinwheels I remember, but surely there is something more. Something that speaks to her dreams or a greater purpose?

[Maps? She did make a map of Luceti he borrowed, but Marco has no idea the significance. Is it a hobby, something she did to remember her mother? The tattoo really stood out the most to him, and as such; that's why the mikan and pinwheels did. (Her birthday party theme also helped.)]

Edited 2012-11-02 00:18 (UTC)

[She is so intent on focusing on his words and thinking of what she can do that the shifting is unexpected and she gives a startled half squeaking sound. How strange to be picked up at will. To be that helpless. Yet she doesn't feel helpless. She settles on his chest instead, crossing one paw over the other.

What to do for Nami. She knows what she does like. Freedom. Her nakama being safe. Plentiful drinks. Though they have become almost too plentiful. There is nothing she can think of that they can offer. Robin carefully writes the word "home" on his chest, soft pawed so as not to mar the tattoo. It is not the answer he is looking for but it is the truth]

Mm. [Gently pets her head as soothingly as he can.] Ace tried to bring a little of that here for me, and I want to do the same for him.

[Home. What does that really mean sometimes? Where the heart is. Marco's serious when he tells Ace his home is in Luceti, because Ace is there. Sabo's there. Marco's heart is in it. Still, a way to bring a bit of home to Nami in Luceti?]

Having people around me helped, but I don't know if it would go the same way for her. Maybe card games or a means to have some freedom to do something like she'd do back in our world?

[Card games? A means to have some freedom? Robin is not sure how the first one would help or how to even attain the second. For the most she can gather, the biggest problem with Nami is Luceti itself. She has been here so long. It's grinding her down. Eating her away. Robin would take away the precise cause if she could but she doesn't know what it is. Loss? Plain fatigue? She heaves a sigh. She's beginning to wonder if she actually knows Nami as well as Marco seems to think she does.

She gives a cat like shrug instead, resting her head in her paws again, the tip of her tail twitching with indecision]

Maybe it'd just help to try to give her a break from the Malnosso and restore a sense of stability, eh? If nothing else, it helps to know people have your back.

[Gently pets her ears.] Speaking from experience, even having almost strangers pay their respects to Pops was pretty touching.

[She thinks on this. Perhaps it is possible that just being there will be enough. Or, if not enough, something. Better than nothing. She twitches her ears and lifts her head as Marco speaks of Whitebeard.

After a moment, she jumps off his chest to get her ink and paper and writes]

I would like to pay respects.

[She would have liked to have met him. There were so many fascinating people to meet, all of whom died too soon. But at least his legacy survives.]

Some day, eh? His grave is with Ace's, so that no one ever forgets they were father and son. So I've no doubt your captain will want to come see it when he can.

[And for Luceti... well April 6th is when Marco needs it the most, since that's Whitebeard's birthday.]

[She nods and moves the paper to his chest so she can settle comfortably there and write but...finds she has nothing to say. Though something does occur to her and she writes it carefully before pushing the paper at him with a paw]

I hope to meet you as well. Even if I don't remember you.

[Kisses her head.]

Won't that be exciting? I get to try to seduce you all over again.

Hmm. Is it really possible to fall for a Pineapple twice?

[Probably. But it would be a challenge and she wonders now what he'd do. She wonders how she could run. How they would flirt and tease outside of this place and into the open sea with nakama and dreams and the New World. Her fur ruffles at the thought]

[Laughs and picks her up over his head, because he's evil and this is what he does with his loved ones when they're smaller than him. And with that he cheerfully kisses her nose and nuzzles against the whiskers.] It can be both testing my luck and my destiny, eh?

[But he sets her down so she can write again should she wish.]

[Well one thing about being human that she's looking forward to is not being so easily picked up. She imagines it's a natural impulse so leaves it alone for now but it's beginning to get a little irritating that he can do that whenever he wants. She licks some fur back into place and licks her nose as well.]

Let's hope your luck holds out. [In more than one way]

Then again, who knows if we'll even be the same people when we meet. The New World still seems so far away

I'm luckier than I thought possible so far.

Mah, Robin, you're not worried, are you?

[She thinks about this for a moment, washing herself absently.]

No. Whatever happens we have today, ne?

[And then after a thought]

Turn into a bird

Indeed. It's thrilling, no?

[Switches into a phoenix and cocks his head to the side curiously. Honestly as a cat she does make him a little wary like this. Bird and all. She's totally going to pounce him isn't she... oh his god.]

My love? [Whistled of course.]

[Maaybe she is. Maybe she isn't. He's so beautiful this way. Even more so than before. Everything is alive and flickering. Shifting. Continually burning. It raises the fur on her back, partly in some primordial cat fear partly in pure burning interest. She stalks around him in circles, her eyes taking in every aspect of his form.]

[He flicks his tail nervously at first. It's a little intimidating to be stalked by a cat and it makes him that much more keenly aware of how even like this she always seems to have the upper hand. Still, he intimately trusts her, more than he's even willing to realize himself, just enough to know it runs that deep, so soon enough, the tail flicks switch to happy swishes.]

You're like a little panther, eh? I love your eyes like this too. Same Robin, windows to your heart~

[Stop the tail swishing.

bat.

She can't help but want to bat it.

bat. bat.

and it's very distracting.

Still she pulls enough of herself in to stop and you might see her come around to your front, settling back for a pounce. What do?]

[Swish swish swish.]

[He birdie grins at the pouncing pose. Obviously he doesn't intend to move. And besides, it's kind of thrilling. Yeah, he likes it. Must be a masochist after all.]

Appointment Post 2.0 since the other is pretty full

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