Day 29: Cafeteria (2nd Shift)
Nathan had never actually been in a nuthouse before and had only recently contemplated checking himself into one in a fit of sarcastic, self-depricating humor as of late. It was safe to say that he wasn't terribly familiar with the typical layout, even though he guessed it wasn't too hard to assume in this case. Everything was clean and painfully
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It still sucked, though, because that meant Luffy was bored again. Not to mention his own Cat Lady had become concerned once she'd seen him play around with that ball, so she'd started hovering around him again. The more he thought about it, the better going back to the cafeteria sounded, so he didn't waste any time in heading there once the next shift began.
Food was always something that put Luffy in a good mood again, so he was practically grinning to himself once he'd gotten a bunch of snacks. It looked like Sanji was here, but he was already talking to someone, and there wasn't really anyone else from his crew around.
Shrugging to himself, he sat down in the next available seat he saw, which happened to be next to a pretty interesting-looking guy he'd almost approached on a couple of occasions. "Yo!" he said brightly. The pirate peered over to have a look at what he was reading, not really giving any thought to whether it was rude or not. "I didn't know they kept books in here!"
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"I was allowed to borrow it from the library here," Qui-Gon said. "It's an interesting read, from what I can tell of it so far."
He was still unsure of if it was fictional or not yet. But maybe this young man would be able to shed some light on the issue; he certainly seemed friendly enough, and had no problems with smiling. Qui-Gon's command of the Force was strong enough that he could sense a strong, almost piercing sureness emanating from him, a feeling that he hadn't felt in awhile, especially here in Landels.
He dipped his head slightly in a nod. "My name's Qui-Gon."
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"I don't know much about books," he admitted after scratching his cheek. "My friend Robin knows more than I do about that stuff, but she isn't here." The pirate took a closer look at the memoirs. It didn't look like anything he'd seen before, but, then, that wasn't saying much since it wasn't like he'd read many books.
"Qui-Gon," Luffy echoed slowly, as if he were giving the name a sort of test run. It was a really weird name, but still pretty cool! Grinning, he jerked a thumb into his own chest. "I'm Luffy! Nice to meet you!"
He took a bite of a muffin, looking content for a moment. Then he swallowed. "Where're you from?" With a name like that, it could have been all sorts of places -- a strange, exotic island, maybe beyond the ocean in the sky! It was exciting to think about!
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He smiled at Luffy. "I'm from Coruscant," he said. He didn't expect Luffy to know - almost all the patients he'd met in Landels hadn't ever heard of the Republic, much less Coruscant. "And what about you?"
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He laughed a little, stuffing more food into his mouth. "Me and my friends were out sailing on the Grand Line before we woke up here. It's this really dangerous part of the ocean. My world doesn't really have a name, though. Just a bunch of tiny places inside it."
The pirate curiously tilted his head. "Are there any other people from Coruscant here?"
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"It's in another galaxy," he said. "So yes, in the stars."
Qui-Gon wasn't sure what the Grand Line was, other than that it sounded like some kind of important sailing route. Was Luffy even from Earth? It sounded like maybe he wasn't - he was one of the few non-Earthian humans that Qui-Gon had encountered in Landels, although the fact that he couldn't give a name for the planet wasn't too helpful. No way to locate just where Luffy was from without a name to go by. It was odd that his planet didn't have a name, though. Almost all the civilizations he'd seen named their worlds, even if the "official" names could fluctuate depending on who was in power.
When Luffy asked if there were any others, Qui-Gon paused for a second. He didn't see any harm in admitting that no, he wasn't alone. Luffy's signature in the Force was...well, was genuine if he had to call it anything, and he had the impression that he had a trustworthy, if single-minded, character.
"A former student of mine is here as well," Qui-Gon said. He sighed. "It's unfortunate that he is - his place should be elsewhere. And how about you? You mentioned your friends woke up here."
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He just wondered what kind of ship you'd need to sail that far.
"That sounds really interesting!" he said with a laugh. "I mean, I've been up to the clouds before, but I didn't know there were people beyond even there!" Had Gold Roger visited space before? It was fun to think about!
"Are you a teacher, then?" Luffy asked when Qui-Gon mentioned a student. "Or maybe you run a kind of dojo?"
He scratched his cheek, thinking a little. "And, yeah, I have a bunch of my crew with me! Actually, my friend Zoro was with me when I first got here, and then he disappeared along with Sanji, and then they both came back not that long ago. But they don't remember their first time being here. It's pretty weird, if you ask me." He took another bite of his food. "There's Nami and Usopp, too. They're all really nice guys!"
It sucked they were here, but it was better than being alone, right?
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"Yes," Qui-Gon said. "Or, to be exact, I was a teacher: where I'm from, we usually will take on an apprentice and train them one on one, until they are ready to move on. My student reached the point where I could no longer train him as his teacher."
Now they were equals. Now Obi-Wan was a Jedi Knight and Qui-Gon still found himself shamelessly proud to look back at his accomplishments and see how much he'd grown, the man he had become.
"That's unusual," Qui-Gon said as Luffy rattled off how many people were from his world that he personally knew. "I haven't seen many instances where there were so many people from one group here in Landels."
As for why Sanji and Zoro didn't remember things...Qui-Gon knew that brainwashing and memory wipes were possible and that that may have been the case for them. But disturbing as it was, Luffy didn't seem too bothered with it.
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"Is it really so strange?" the pirate asked when Qui-Gon commented how unusual it was. "I guess it might be. I mean, I was by myself for a long time, too, which was even weirder for me. But now that we're together, I'm sure we'll be able to find a way out of here!" He laughed. "I can't lie, or make maps, or use swords, or cook, so teaming up is really the only way to go." It still sucked they were all there in the first, but there wasn't much they could do about that except find a way out, right?
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