4th Wall Break Time!

[fierybluebird]

[Wow, this is a lot of people. Marco gives up fighting his way through the crowd and just switches to hovering. Don't mind the half phoenix, half man above you, okay? He's relatively tame...ish. After flitting about for a little though, he gets tired of trying to spot everyone through the crowd.]

[He gives a sharp piercing whistle and yells out loudly:]

MARCO!

[One might wonder why he's calling his own name, but he's trying to see who will call back Polo. For science! Or you know, so he knows who will be interesting to go fly down to.]

[And later on, he'll be playing hopscotch, and that night he'll be hanging out on the roof of CH3 drinking and saying a toast to his father's memorial. Anyone care to join him?]

Comments

[fierybluebird]

[Face palms.] Don't suggest it to Haruhi. I'll go nuts if she gets a whole bunch of the village to call my name and run around back and forth.

Drinks are always preferable, eh?

[aerialassault]

Haruhi? [He studied Marco for a second before he raised an eyebrow.] Haven't met her....and don't think I wanna if that's how you feel.

Let's go get a few cold ones and think about the game later.

[fierybluebird]

She runs the S.O.S. Brigade. They're a good group of kids, but they set up big events for the people here.

Sounds like a plan to me, eh. [Gestures a thumb to the bar.] If nothing else, at least half of my nakama are likely to make their way there eventually.

[aerialassault]

Hmm...some organization.

[Cliff nodded in agreement at the gesture--let's go, bro!] Question. Whaddya mean by 'nakama'? Sounds like an old Terran word to me, before they made a standard.

[fierybluebird]

It's like comrade, or best friend. [Rubs the back of his neck.] It differs crew to crew, but in my family, it literally means family. Our captain was our father, so all my nakama are brothers to me.

Nakama are people so close that no matter how they fight, or even if they really dislike each other, they'll find a way to get through it. For the sake of each other and their other goals, eh? People who'd give their lives to protect each other. So family, eh.

[aerialassault]

[He considered these words, and found that he couldn't fight off a smile about how familiar it sounded.]

Y'know? That sounds kinda the crew I'm a part of back home. The Diplo ain't a big ship, but there's no better crew in the galaxy.

It's...kinda like a home, ya know?

[Notwithstanding the fact that he used to be the captain of that vessel, and is indeed the founder of the organization that the vessel represents.

[fierybluebird]

Diplo, eh? [Grins.] Aye, that does sound like you have your own nakama then. Is Mirage one of them?

Our own ship, the Moby Dick, was our nakama too. [Was, was. Blah. Not going to think too hard on that.]

[aerialassault]

Mirage is my partner-in-crime. [He gave a short laugh.] Aah. Ya could say we're 'nakama'. 'Least, we're a relaxed bunch.

They kick me outta strategy meetings, saying that there's no room. The nerve of them!

[At a height of six-foot-five and with the build of a rugby player that could bench Marco himself, Cliff had no right to complain.]

I, uh, thought that Moby Dick was the name of a novel from Earth, written 'round the late 1800s by their calendar.

[fierybluebird]

The most important kind of nakama. [Grins.] Hah, you should meet my brothers. Most of them are half again your size, and the rest are even bigger than that. [Y U P.]

We have a book named that too. It's my father's favorite. Our ship is a big white whale, and we coat it to go under water so when she surfaces, she looks even more like one. Plus white things and vengeance, it's what we're the most famous for, eh. Same with Moby Dick. He was a whale getting revenge for his brothers who were being hunted and killed for oil.

[aerialassault]

--Whoa, really? [Some crew. Cliff was used to being the tallest one around 95% of the time.]

Sounds like a wild bunch, if ya have a name like that. What kinda ship is your Moby Dick anyway? I dunno of too many kinds that can go under the water...

[fierybluebird]

Aye. My Pops himself was over twenty feet tall after all.

Oh, we can get a bit rowdy. And normally it wouldn't be able to, but we coated her with Sabaody bubbles... you kind of have to know my world to get it. Basically tree resin that makes a giant bubble for the ship.

[aerialassault]

Twenty--

[Quick mental conversion from the old Imperial system on Earth to the Metric that was used in Federation space and adopted by the rest of the developed galaxy...] Seven meters?!

[That...yea. That was almost as big as the Marquis.]

Wow, that's--

Huh. Some world.

[fierybluebird]

[He laughs softly.]

Everyone says that. Pops and my brothers had nothing on Little Oars Jr., eh? He was about three hundred feet tall.

[aerialassault]

[Cliff scratched the back of his head, not entirely sure what to make of this...]

Wow. And I thought dragons were bad.

[fierybluebird]

Dragons?

[aerialassault]

Did I say something weird?

[fierybluebird]

I'm not sure the context.

What were the dragons like where you're from?

[aerialassault]

Big. Scaly. Stubborn. Ya need to punch 'em a few times to 'negotiate'.

[fierybluebird]

You punch dragons.

[aerialassault]

We needed his help. He didn't agree, so we had to fight him.

[fierybluebird]

Did that work?

Dragons talk where you're from and occasionally offer help? [Shrugs.] I guess I've heard of stranger, but in my world dragons are usually just Wano Island's enemies. And they're not usually that bright.

[Not that the phoenix is biased or anything, oh wait.]