[RL w/Rob Lucci: The Consultation] [COMPLETE]
Shuraiya was relieved when he finally saw the giant fountain that loomed over Water Seven crest the horizon -- he had been sailing for a few days now, the longest he had gone without using his ship to world hop between islands in a good month or so. The skiff, he'd discovered, could hop just as easily within the Grand Line as it could outside -- ever ambitious (and broke), Shuraiya had taken advantage of this ability, gaining notoriety and garnering false rumors of having eaten a Devil Fruit that gave him the gift of being able to move from island to island like magic. If they only knew.
However, the sheer indignity of having Rob Lucci nearly stomp his ego to the ground called for a different course of action -- sailing to Water Seven would be best. He made sure to make himself visible, picking off a few lesser pirates along the way, weighing the skiff down with extra bodies, making clear his place in the pirate world.
All to impress a damn carpenter.
The clear skies made Water 7 glow amidst the blue-green ocean. Many tourists had arrived to take advantage of the warm weather sales and sunny forecast. The sun, however, held no mercy for the backs of the company men. Orders were piling up by the day, and Galley-La buzzed with seafarers in need of everything from rail repair to entirely new vessels. Sweat decorated the workers' bodies like a million glittering jewels, each one catching the daylight. Lucci had been on the clock hours before the sun decided to join him that day. Hattori diligently sat atop a stack of blueprints, keeping them opened for his human companion.
Lucci pulled the suspenders from his slick shoulders and let them hang against his black slacks. The muscles in his legs were tense, and they momentarily twitched from even the small feeling of the elastic loops against his thighs. His calloused fingertips rubbed at the boxed "X" adorning his upper arm, in the hopes of easing the tension. Even the conditioning his body had taken since childhood couldn't entirely negate the soreness he felt from working the docks two weeks in a row. His slender fingers reached into a front pocket for his watch, and the time displayed deepened his frown. The bounty hunter was scheduled to arrive within the hour.
Shuraiya alighted at Blue Station, his bounty hunting permit allowing for dockage there -- he weighed anchor, roping the skiff to the dock with expert knots, then hefted the bodies onto the dock carelessly, having no other option than to take them along -- he couldn't leave them to rot in the summer heat, could he, or worse, have someone else find them and claim their bounties.
He strode through the alabaster gate into the city, following the pillared walkway to the lumberyards, a slow, crooked grin growing on his lips as he approached Yard 1 -- he was getting stares already. Oh, this was just great.
A long whistle echoed through Zousenshima, the center of the city. The companies were beginning a shift change. Lucci narrowed his eyes as Paulie, the ever-bothersome ropes specialist, laughed loudly and waved as he sauntered past. The bastard had time off in the middle of a massive order, and Lucci could not figure out how he managed it. Iceberg must have had a few free hours the night before, he sourly mused. Lucci, on the other hand, still had work that spanned the remaining daylight hours.
The new shifts were trickling in, and with them always came city gossip. Lucci never paid much attention to talk of famous pirate sightings, or lost jewelry, or tourists crashing their yagara bulls into each other and causing a mess. All city news was the same city news to him. Only today were his interests piqued, when overhearing rumors of an unusual young man - carrying body bags over his shoulder through the city - sparked a sense of familiarity.
Lucci had barely stifled the grin that was threatening to expose him.
Shuraiya managed to brush past the laymen leaving for their breaks through the gigantic gate marked '1', ignoring at their curious looks and whispers of, 'Kaizokushokeinin!'. Never heard of him? Bullshit.
The enormous wooden doors closed behind him with a thunderous rumble, closing the bounty hunter in with the last of the new shift members. He ignored them as he had the others, reaching 'round one of the bags to lift his hat, scanning the crowd for one Rob Lucci.
The glint of sun from polished metal appeared like a spark just beneath the bounty hunter's head of messy curls. Lucci patiently waited for the new arrival to look in his direction, as he held a saw the size of a grown man at Shuraiya's slender neck; the jagged teeth waited mere millimeters away from Shuraiya's throat, like a beast awaiting the order to attack.
Hattori flapped down to the extended saw and perched comfortably near the handle. "You had better be Shuraiya Bascùd," the bird stated. "Or your business here is finished."
"I am," Shuraiya looked up at the bird, his youthful face surprised but unafraid. He grinned, unmoving, blue eyes instead sliding from the pigeon to the man wielding the saw. "You must be Rob Lucci. I'm not early for my appointment, am I? I'd fuckin' hate to see what you do to customers who are late."
"Apologies, Mr. Bascùd," Hattori cooed and quickly hopped from the saw edge as Lucci lowered his arm. Workers who had been anxiously waiting to see what would happen had turned back to their work, their minds sufficiently satisfied that Rob Lucci had taken care of the situation.
"We've prepared some plans for you to look over. I figured you were more interested in upgrades," Shuraiya was once again addressed by the tie-clad pigeon. "Follow me over here."
The carpenter was mindful of the fact that Shuraiya moved as if his bags were filled with feathers, rather than corpses. Lucci's half-lidded eyes watched as Hattori guided their customer away from the main entrance, and he got his first real look at the Pirate Executioner. He was strong, but definitely not the man Lucci had been expecting. No, not a man; he was still a boy, nineteen at most. Lucci had definitely not expected him to be so young.
"'S fine, I can't fault you for wanting to keep people outta here," he shrugged under the weight, still addressing the bird rather than the man. He followed them deeper into the lumberyard, watching the workers with a bittersweet look in his eye; he remembered when he, too, was meant for this life. "Have you really? What a clever bird you are."
Hattori cooed and puffed out his feathers, then shook himself and tugged at an opened book with his beak. The page turned, and he waddled across the tabletop to Lucci's waiting hand, using it to crawl up the carpenter's bare arm.
He chuckled, dropping the bags heavily to the side to look over the book, impressed that Lucci had known in advance his make of ship -- there it was, in blue-and-white, with scribbled notes of what could be added or replaced.
"The headstay, it's badly damaged, and the third jib hank--" Shuraiya tapped the paper, "It's busted to fuckin' hell and back, I need it replaced. The mast is fine, though it could probably use some reinforcements... The tiller's fine, so's the keel -- but if I can get the whole thing tarred and resealed, that'd be fuckin' fantastic."
Lucci slightly raised a brow at the way the boy spouted off his boating knowledge. Although they were by no means unusual or intricate, one would be shocked to learn how many people came to Lucci knowing absolutely nothing about the craft they'd been sailing in for months.
"Very good bounty hunter, but those are fairly minor repairs, and work that could be easily done by the morning," Hattori shook his head and motioned his wing to the blueprints with more professionalism than expected from a bird. "From the way I hear you've been frantically traveling, however, the rudder and tiller may be falling off. And going off the way I've known your type to treat boats, the keel could be badly damaged at this point."
Lucci stepped forward and placed a new and used ship catalogue in front of Shuraiya. If the keel had sustained heavy damage, the book's contents were going to be the bounty hunter's only other option.
"Could it?" He cocked a brow, a sly grin gracing his lips at the backhanded compliment -- so, the bird (no, Lucci, he had to remind himself, but it was hard with him acting as a puppet, instead of the other way around) hadn't expected him to know anything about sailing, had he? The smile fell, however, at the suggestion of having damaged the ship to the point of replacement -- Shuraiya shook his head, ignoring the catalogue Lucci had set on the table.
"I haven't checked the rudder in a while, but the tiller, like I said, is just fine -- and the keel, too. The ship's only eight months old, I've taken good care of her."
"We won’t know what is entirely necessary until Kaku returns from inspecting your craft," Hattori snapped. Lucci smoothed the feathers of Hattori's head with his thumb, and the bird cooed contently. "An expert opinion is preferred before repairs are made."
"How long will that take?" Shuraiya asked coolly, hands slipping into his pockets casually in order to keep from strangling the bird. He couldn't very well kill the voice of Rob Lucci, despite how annoyed he was getting with Hattori -- fuckin' bird, acting like he knew shit.
"As long as it takes," Lucci began to unfurl a few more papers and pin them to the stack on his workspace. His shoe brushed against one of Shuraiya's bounties, and he looked down at it with a slight sign of amusement. He wondered how far out of his way the messy-headed male had gone simply to impress him, a carpenter he'd never met. Hattori mimicked Lucci's actions and looked down at the coarse sacks, only adding a soft coo every few seconds. "You're in no rush, bounty hunter."
Shuraiya thought he saw a flicker of amusement cross the carpenter's face, but as soon as he noticed it, it was gone -- Lucci was as emotionless as he had been the moment before.
He chalked it off as a trick of the light and shrugged, following the path of their gazes to the body bags with a frown. What was so damn funny? "I'll take these to the morgue, then. Do you carry messages, Hattori, or should I just come back 'round sundown to see if you're finished?"
Lucci was enjoying the boy's array of reactions. It was like continuously giving a child a puppy, only to take it away and kick it. He wondered how Shuraiya would react if he knew Lucci had told the ship's inspector to take his sweet time. "Oh, I'm sure they'll need the whole afternoon to process those impressive bounties you've brought."
"I'm sure," he echoed sourly, swooping down to once again lift the body bags near effortlessly, pitching them over either shoulder. Straightening, Shuraiya addressed Lucci instead of Hattori, deciding he preferred his stoicism to the bird's expressive cooing, "I'll be back an hour before the shipyards close, then."
Lucci turned his eyes to his workspace, and his back to the young man. The carpenter secretly wished he could've held the gaze a few moments longer; there was something in the bounty hunter's eyes he couldn't quite place, and it intrigued him. But there was no time for petty distraction with the workload the boy would likely offer him. Lucci raised a hand and waved a nonchalant dismissal.
With no hands free to return the wave, Shuraiya simply turned and started back toward the gates, suppressing a cold shiver as he went.
(Feel free to leave OOC comments about the interaction, if you like. We'd love feedback! :3)
However, the sheer indignity of having Rob Lucci nearly stomp his ego to the ground called for a different course of action -- sailing to Water Seven would be best. He made sure to make himself visible, picking off a few lesser pirates along the way, weighing the skiff down with extra bodies, making clear his place in the pirate world.
All to impress a damn carpenter.
The clear skies made Water 7 glow amidst the blue-green ocean. Many tourists had arrived to take advantage of the warm weather sales and sunny forecast. The sun, however, held no mercy for the backs of the company men. Orders were piling up by the day, and Galley-La buzzed with seafarers in need of everything from rail repair to entirely new vessels. Sweat decorated the workers' bodies like a million glittering jewels, each one catching the daylight. Lucci had been on the clock hours before the sun decided to join him that day. Hattori diligently sat atop a stack of blueprints, keeping them opened for his human companion.
Lucci pulled the suspenders from his slick shoulders and let them hang against his black slacks. The muscles in his legs were tense, and they momentarily twitched from even the small feeling of the elastic loops against his thighs. His calloused fingertips rubbed at the boxed "X" adorning his upper arm, in the hopes of easing the tension. Even the conditioning his body had taken since childhood couldn't entirely negate the soreness he felt from working the docks two weeks in a row. His slender fingers reached into a front pocket for his watch, and the time displayed deepened his frown. The bounty hunter was scheduled to arrive within the hour.
Shuraiya alighted at Blue Station, his bounty hunting permit allowing for dockage there -- he weighed anchor, roping the skiff to the dock with expert knots, then hefted the bodies onto the dock carelessly, having no other option than to take them along -- he couldn't leave them to rot in the summer heat, could he, or worse, have someone else find them and claim their bounties.
He strode through the alabaster gate into the city, following the pillared walkway to the lumberyards, a slow, crooked grin growing on his lips as he approached Yard 1 -- he was getting stares already. Oh, this was just great.
A long whistle echoed through Zousenshima, the center of the city. The companies were beginning a shift change. Lucci narrowed his eyes as Paulie, the ever-bothersome ropes specialist, laughed loudly and waved as he sauntered past. The bastard had time off in the middle of a massive order, and Lucci could not figure out how he managed it. Iceberg must have had a few free hours the night before, he sourly mused. Lucci, on the other hand, still had work that spanned the remaining daylight hours.
The new shifts were trickling in, and with them always came city gossip. Lucci never paid much attention to talk of famous pirate sightings, or lost jewelry, or tourists crashing their yagara bulls into each other and causing a mess. All city news was the same city news to him. Only today were his interests piqued, when overhearing rumors of an unusual young man - carrying body bags over his shoulder through the city - sparked a sense of familiarity.
Lucci had barely stifled the grin that was threatening to expose him.
Shuraiya managed to brush past the laymen leaving for their breaks through the gigantic gate marked '1', ignoring at their curious looks and whispers of, 'Kaizokushokeinin!'. Never heard of him? Bullshit.
The enormous wooden doors closed behind him with a thunderous rumble, closing the bounty hunter in with the last of the new shift members. He ignored them as he had the others, reaching 'round one of the bags to lift his hat, scanning the crowd for one Rob Lucci.
The glint of sun from polished metal appeared like a spark just beneath the bounty hunter's head of messy curls. Lucci patiently waited for the new arrival to look in his direction, as he held a saw the size of a grown man at Shuraiya's slender neck; the jagged teeth waited mere millimeters away from Shuraiya's throat, like a beast awaiting the order to attack.
Hattori flapped down to the extended saw and perched comfortably near the handle. "You had better be Shuraiya Bascùd," the bird stated. "Or your business here is finished."
"I am," Shuraiya looked up at the bird, his youthful face surprised but unafraid. He grinned, unmoving, blue eyes instead sliding from the pigeon to the man wielding the saw. "You must be Rob Lucci. I'm not early for my appointment, am I? I'd fuckin' hate to see what you do to customers who are late."
"Apologies, Mr. Bascùd," Hattori cooed and quickly hopped from the saw edge as Lucci lowered his arm. Workers who had been anxiously waiting to see what would happen had turned back to their work, their minds sufficiently satisfied that Rob Lucci had taken care of the situation.
"We've prepared some plans for you to look over. I figured you were more interested in upgrades," Shuraiya was once again addressed by the tie-clad pigeon. "Follow me over here."
The carpenter was mindful of the fact that Shuraiya moved as if his bags were filled with feathers, rather than corpses. Lucci's half-lidded eyes watched as Hattori guided their customer away from the main entrance, and he got his first real look at the Pirate Executioner. He was strong, but definitely not the man Lucci had been expecting. No, not a man; he was still a boy, nineteen at most. Lucci had definitely not expected him to be so young.
"'S fine, I can't fault you for wanting to keep people outta here," he shrugged under the weight, still addressing the bird rather than the man. He followed them deeper into the lumberyard, watching the workers with a bittersweet look in his eye; he remembered when he, too, was meant for this life. "Have you really? What a clever bird you are."
Hattori cooed and puffed out his feathers, then shook himself and tugged at an opened book with his beak. The page turned, and he waddled across the tabletop to Lucci's waiting hand, using it to crawl up the carpenter's bare arm.
He chuckled, dropping the bags heavily to the side to look over the book, impressed that Lucci had known in advance his make of ship -- there it was, in blue-and-white, with scribbled notes of what could be added or replaced.
"The headstay, it's badly damaged, and the third jib hank--" Shuraiya tapped the paper, "It's busted to fuckin' hell and back, I need it replaced. The mast is fine, though it could probably use some reinforcements... The tiller's fine, so's the keel -- but if I can get the whole thing tarred and resealed, that'd be fuckin' fantastic."
Lucci slightly raised a brow at the way the boy spouted off his boating knowledge. Although they were by no means unusual or intricate, one would be shocked to learn how many people came to Lucci knowing absolutely nothing about the craft they'd been sailing in for months.
"Very good bounty hunter, but those are fairly minor repairs, and work that could be easily done by the morning," Hattori shook his head and motioned his wing to the blueprints with more professionalism than expected from a bird. "From the way I hear you've been frantically traveling, however, the rudder and tiller may be falling off. And going off the way I've known your type to treat boats, the keel could be badly damaged at this point."
Lucci stepped forward and placed a new and used ship catalogue in front of Shuraiya. If the keel had sustained heavy damage, the book's contents were going to be the bounty hunter's only other option.
"Could it?" He cocked a brow, a sly grin gracing his lips at the backhanded compliment -- so, the bird (no, Lucci, he had to remind himself, but it was hard with him acting as a puppet, instead of the other way around) hadn't expected him to know anything about sailing, had he? The smile fell, however, at the suggestion of having damaged the ship to the point of replacement -- Shuraiya shook his head, ignoring the catalogue Lucci had set on the table.
"I haven't checked the rudder in a while, but the tiller, like I said, is just fine -- and the keel, too. The ship's only eight months old, I've taken good care of her."
"We won’t know what is entirely necessary until Kaku returns from inspecting your craft," Hattori snapped. Lucci smoothed the feathers of Hattori's head with his thumb, and the bird cooed contently. "An expert opinion is preferred before repairs are made."
"How long will that take?" Shuraiya asked coolly, hands slipping into his pockets casually in order to keep from strangling the bird. He couldn't very well kill the voice of Rob Lucci, despite how annoyed he was getting with Hattori -- fuckin' bird, acting like he knew shit.
"As long as it takes," Lucci began to unfurl a few more papers and pin them to the stack on his workspace. His shoe brushed against one of Shuraiya's bounties, and he looked down at it with a slight sign of amusement. He wondered how far out of his way the messy-headed male had gone simply to impress him, a carpenter he'd never met. Hattori mimicked Lucci's actions and looked down at the coarse sacks, only adding a soft coo every few seconds. "You're in no rush, bounty hunter."
Shuraiya thought he saw a flicker of amusement cross the carpenter's face, but as soon as he noticed it, it was gone -- Lucci was as emotionless as he had been the moment before.
He chalked it off as a trick of the light and shrugged, following the path of their gazes to the body bags with a frown. What was so damn funny? "I'll take these to the morgue, then. Do you carry messages, Hattori, or should I just come back 'round sundown to see if you're finished?"
Lucci was enjoying the boy's array of reactions. It was like continuously giving a child a puppy, only to take it away and kick it. He wondered how Shuraiya would react if he knew Lucci had told the ship's inspector to take his sweet time. "Oh, I'm sure they'll need the whole afternoon to process those impressive bounties you've brought."
"I'm sure," he echoed sourly, swooping down to once again lift the body bags near effortlessly, pitching them over either shoulder. Straightening, Shuraiya addressed Lucci instead of Hattori, deciding he preferred his stoicism to the bird's expressive cooing, "I'll be back an hour before the shipyards close, then."
Lucci turned his eyes to his workspace, and his back to the young man. The carpenter secretly wished he could've held the gaze a few moments longer; there was something in the bounty hunter's eyes he couldn't quite place, and it intrigued him. But there was no time for petty distraction with the workload the boy would likely offer him. Lucci raised a hand and waved a nonchalant dismissal.
With no hands free to return the wave, Shuraiya simply turned and started back toward the gates, suppressing a cold shiver as he went.
(Feel free to leave OOC comments about the interaction, if you like. We'd love feedback! :3)