Day 28: Bus 1

[accursed-rock.livejournal.com]

Zelgadis was not happy, at all. Not that this was any change, but the events of the past few hours had given him more to angst about than usual. Nightshift had been dreadful: first he was attacked by a small green man and then covered in leeches, neither of which lead to warm fuzzy feelings.

And now this.

When the nurse had come into his room with new clothes he had a small glimmer of hope-- some thief had taken his normal Landel's wear in the night, so perhaps this was a change in luck. However, it was not the godsend he had hoped for. Minus the threat of sedation, there was nothing in the universe that could make Zelgadis wear a bright lemon-yellow shirt. There was a jacket of a slightly more tasteful variety, so Zelgadis made good us of it-- he put all his coupons in a pocket and pulled up the hood. It was almost as good as his cloak. Well, no it wasn't, but it would have to do.

With mild protesting, Zelgadis was lead to a large yellow vehicle. He climbed the stairs, took a seat towards the back, and readied himself for another frustrating day of being attacked and threatened with spoons.

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[rubbermancan.livejournal.com]

He took Nami's instructions to heart. It'd be hard not to just walk out and go wherever, but he could always take a nap or doodle in his journal while he waited. "I'll hang around in my room for at least a little bit," he said stoutly. "But you have to show up really fast, Nami, okay?"

He listened to her logic behind the monsters here, watching her intently before grinning.

"Oh, yeah, the monsters will get you if you don't watch your back!" Luffy said with a laugh, seeming more amused by the idea than anything else. "They've got giant scorpion-shrimp! Isn't that cool? But next time, try not to let anything put you to sleep. It's dangerous, you know!"

He stuffed the entire muffin in his mouth and fished through the bag for more food. The disappointment on his face was pretty obvious once he discovered there wasn't anything else to eat, however.

"They took my roommate last night," Luffy explained, his eyes narrowing. The serious look was kind of diminished by his hamster-like cheeks and the fact his words were pretty muffled. "Went to go find the bastards who did it. I thought he was out in the courtyard, since that's where they put me the night they took me. But then I found you, and then I woke up."

[navigating.livejournal.com]

"You bet, Luffy." Nami already had a good idea of where the male blocks were - simple deduction, combined with having watched quite a few men come out of a certain hallway that night, could do wonders. And she was confident she could get there in a few minutes, too - less, if there were no distractions.

Then Luffy was explaining about the monsters and how they had apparently taken his roommate - what?! Nami stared at him, eyes wide. "No! Giant scorpion-shrimp are not cool - if you got stung by something like that who knows what kind of poison there is here, and there's no Chopper to make an antidote, and it wasn't as if I was trying to get put to sleep. But we're going back there tonight, and I know exactly what to do."

There probably wouldn't be the same monster in the kitchen tomorrow - if they put the same things in the same places every night, everything would be far too predictable... but at the same time, she couldn't assume anything. She wouldn't go alone, either. Nami could do well on her own - she'd done it for years - but it was best to trust in a friend.

She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose - when something suddenly occurred to her. "Wait. They took you?"

[rubbermancan.livejournal.com]

Luffy blinked. "What? Not cool! Why not? I think they're crazy!" He laughed. "And don't worry, I've already been stung by one before. It hurt really bad, and I got really sick, but I didn't, like, die or anything! Hah hah hah!" Boy, though, it kind of looked like he was going to for a bit, hadn't it? That would have been a weird way to go!

"Do you know where Chopper is?" he asked, suddenly curious. It seemed like if anyone in their crew would know where everyone was, it'd be Nami. She was really smart like that.

"And why're we going into the kitchen again?" Luffy leaned towards his navigator with a gleam in his eye. "We're gonna raid their food, right? Am I right? Man, Nami, you have the best ideas, I knew it!"

Her surprise at learning he'd once been taken wasn't unexpected, but the pirate blinked at her anyway. "Yeah," he answered simply, expression oddly blank. "Awhile back, not long after Zoro and Sanji disappeared for the first time. I was eating dinner, and they hauled me off. It's kind of fuzzy after that. They did stuff to me, I guess. Next thing I knew, I was doing stuff, but I wasn't." He shrugged, frowning some. "I don't know. I fought a couple of people, though. Had to do a lot of apologizing afterwards." He took off his hat and gazed at it. "I'm just glad I got this back after all that."

[navigating.livejournal.com]

"...You were stung by a huge scorpion monster?" Nami paused, shaking her head. It was probably because Luffy was a rubberman that he was able to survive it - though she wasn't sure exactly how rubber would protect him from poison. If it had been her, she was sure she would have perished.

If they were going to be stuck on a planet that wasn't their own, why did it have to be one that was crawling with monsters?

She sighed. "Unfortunately, I haven't seen Chopper. It looks like I'm the last person to show up, from what Sanji-kun said. Zoro and Usopp I haven't run into yet. Robin and Chopper aren't here, as far as I know. And that makes seven.." The navigator trailed off.

Nami knew that Sanji had been hiding information from her yesterday, but she hadn't asked him if they'd pick up any more nakama on the Sky Island... or even beyond that. The chef probably would have told her if she'd pressed, but she wasn't sure if she really wanted to know all about her future just yet.

"There will be answers in the kitchen. Weren't you listening to the box on the wall last night?" Nami snapped, standing up as all the other patients did. She'd never filed off a bus before, but enough people were walking off that it seemed a bit obvious what they were supposed to do. "Down in the kitchen. 'Down, down, into the ground, where the answers to riddles await you.'" She shook her head. "There are too many riddles here." She looked back at Luffy momentarily. "But you can get a snack on the way." She tossed him the remnants of her muffin.

The other topic could wait until they were safely out the door to the bus - she would rather talk about it apart from prying ears.

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