Day 32: Sun Room (2nd shift)

[heraldric.livejournal.com]

After the couple glasses of water Leon managed to gulp down during breakfast, the mage felt immensely better. He was still a bit tired, but that was nothing a little lounging on one of the sofas wouldn't cure. Stretching his arms above his head, he couldn't help but wish he'd had the chance to grab one of his new doctor's coats before leaving his room that morning. Maybe they would have let him get away with wearing it. Maybe.

He grabbed an empty sofa, pulling out the journal he tried to keep on him at all times. It was nearly complete now. Just a couple more pages to go. It might not improve his spellcasting that much, but any improvement was better than none. It was getting to where it might be too dangerous for him to use spells at all, if it left him so worn out without even finishing a monster off.

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[promisedawhale.livejournal.com]

"Of course! "Just Dead Bones" Brook, at your service!" He had no hat to tip, but still feeling it was just as necessary as everything else, Brook bowed just slightly (not enough to whack Luffy with his afro though) at the secondary introduction. "I promised to dedicate my flesh and bones to your crew, and now I even have the flesh to do so with! I have skin! Yohoho-- eh?! Wait, really?!" The joke broke away at the laugh once Brook realized what Luffy had just said, "You mean... it's s-still all right?! Really, really all right?! I can still come with you?!"

More babbling, and this time babbling that really wasn't needed. Brook should have known how it would go, and that Luffy would say those exact words regardless of whatever situation he found himself in - alive or dead or transformed into some three-ton sea king that couldn't carry a tune in a bucket with limited handles!

That would have been unfortunate though.

"I-it's... my... thank you! So much!" The relief was immense, and Brook felt on the verge of tears. Not as bad as when he'd learned about Laboon still being alive, but still a very tear-jerking moment. "Thank goodness! I was so worried! This is so great! I wish I had something I could play right now!" he exclaimed, thoughts of his life story's explanation having been pushed away to the back of his mind. He was still with them, still a Nakama even if this was Luffy's first time meeting him!

[rubbermancan.livejournal.com]

"Yep!" Luffy replied brightly. "It's really, really, really all right!" The more nakama, the merrier, right? And Luffy could tell Brook would make a great addition to the crew, just from simply meeting him! He'd have to tell the others about it at some point, but they'd be okay with it, he was sure.

The pirate captain didn't think he needed to be thanked for letting his own nakama stick around, future crew member or not. Man, he'd really been worried, hadn't he?

This guy sure was interesting!

"What kind of stuff do you play?" Luffy said, leaning forward a little bit. "They've got a music room over there." He pointed to the room on the otherside of the sun room. "But the Cat Ladies won't let us go in there except for sometimes." And he knew what they did if they were mad at you, which wasn't so great, actually. His eyes lit up as if he had an idea. "Oh, oh! We could definitely go during the night, though!" Nevermind monsters and all that -- playing music was way more important and fun!

[promisedawhale.livejournal.com]

"I almost can't believe it! Yohohoho! I wish I could make sure this wasn't a dream!" Suddenly, he froze in the middle of his rant. He had skin now, didn't he? If this still wasn't some strange delusion of a dream! And since the less-than-graceful slide down the wall - for which his nose was still screaming at him for - then there was only one way, one he'd not been able to do for the last fifty years! "Wait, I can pinch myself!"

He looked down over himself, debating what place would be best to try out something that could prove painful, end ended up deciding on his face! Pinching his cheek should do! He reached up and pinched his hardest, then immediately cried, "Ouuch! I' hur's!" without releasing the skin so that he could talk properly. "I' reawy reawy hur's!" he said again, and this time there was no holding back the tears. It did really hurt, and this time it wasn't anything to panic over. He really had skin, and he was really still part of the Straw Hat Pirates. Laboon would be able to really see him like he used to be - skin and all! Oh, and his hair could grow like this! Not that he was going to sacrifice his afro for any reason, but still, it was a comfort!

Once the wave of emotions had come (but had not necessarily gone), he sniffled long hard to clear the snot, then wiped away the residue on his arm in the same lack-luster fashion. He had to answer the questions of his Captain! "I c'n pway... ah!" Oh, yes right, the pinching! He took his fingers away from his cheek finally, leaving behind a small bit of red swelling, "There. Where was I? Oh, yes, I can play anything at all! Though Sanji-san and Zoro-san did say that my usual instruments are not here. And that we're not allowed to go into this Music Room I keep hearing about until nightfall. I cannot wait! Do you know if they have a violin? That's my favorite!"

[rubbermancan.livejournal.com]

Luffy watched with a mixture of fascination and amusement as his musician (oh man, it was so cool he had one now!) pinched his face like a guy who'd been missing out on it for a long, long time. He laughed, grabbing the side of his own face and pulling on it just enough to make it stretch a bit.

"Nope, nah 'a dream!" he said with a vaguely muffled voice before letting his skin snap back into place. "See? I didn't wake up either."

The captain couldn't help but laugh again at how thrilled Brook was over being about to pinch himself. "Having skin can be pretty nice, right? But it must've been cool being a skeleton too!" Not many people could say they'd done both! But if Brook was stuck with skin for now, it was probably a good thing he was so happy about it.

He listened with wide eyes as Brook explained he could play anything at all. Wow! That was great! A guy who could play anything at all would definitely know all sorts of pirate songs to sing and dance to. It was really too bad they couldn't go into the music room right then, but they could fix that later.

"We get to go in there during the day sometimes, but if you really want to do whatever you want in there, you gotta go at night," the pirate explained. As for a violin, though? He scratched his chin and squinted in thought, trying to remember. "Ummm, I don't think I saw anything like that. Stuff like drums and a weird piano thing, yeah, but pretty sure no violins."

[promisedawhale.livejournal.com]

"Yohohoho!" More laughter came as Luffy mimicked himself, "Then we're both awake!" Or both dreaming, but that would have been more than just a little stretch for what could and couldn't happen! Speaking of stretching, shouldn't Luffy have been able to stretch his cheek much more than that? The Captain was rubber and all - down to his bones too! Oh, Luffy should try some Skull Jokes once in a while! He was bound to like making some himself with how much he liked hearing Brook do them!

Still grinning, Brook finally decided to have a seat on the couch alongside the younger man. Those people in white were still giving him those strange looks, but why wouldn't they when he was so easy to spot while standing?! Sitting was better for conversing anyway. "Fifty years it's been since I've have skin, or anything other than just dead bones! Even blinking is strange!" he admitted, naturally choosing to blink a few times to prove a point, "and other things too! Like my heart! I can feel it beating in my chest! Yohohoho! Having skin, how I've missed it!"

Surely if he had been talking with any other member of the crew, or at least with one of the ones who didn't know or remember him, the conversation would have been going in a far different direction. This was a re-introduction for him, but a first for everyone else, with only difference being that he had skin. Telling them that he'd met them all as a skeleton would be the same as having met them as a skeleton, he was convinced. He could still remember little Chopper and Usopp's panicked shrieks about ghosts an vampires, and Nami's equally as harsh shouting. Zoro too had been really upset! But he usually was about something or another.

But not Luffy! Luffy had liked him right from the beginning and hadn't been scared at all! Really, he'd found himself a great friend that night (or maybe it had been morning)!

"How sad!" he exclaimed at the mention of no violins, "Not even anything stringed? The piano counts of course, but that would not be particularly easy to tote around!" Though the added "weird" and "thing" made him wonder if it truly was a piano. Even a standard type would have been recognizable at the very least, so what could incriminate a piano as being a weird thing? "Maybe there is something small I could play. A flute perhaps. It's no good if I cannot have something with me!"

[rubbermancan.livejournal.com]

"Looks like it!" Luffy replied with a chuckle. "'Course, you don't really get to sleep very much in this place. So I guess it's not surprising!" Not that he usually minded very much. If Luffy just wanted to doze off or nap, he usually just sprawled out and slept wherever it suited him.

He was glad when Brook finally took a seat next to him. If he noticed the Cat Ladies watching, he didn't let on. Why would he even care? This guy was way too much fun to let anybody spoil it!

"Wow, fifty years?!" Luffy echoed with wide eyes. "That's a long time to be without skin, eyelids or a heart!" Not that it was like people who lost all that could readily get it back, but that was beside the point. Actually, fifty years in general was a really, really long time. "How old are you, anyway? A hundred?" Unless he aged as a skeleton, but did skeletons age? Could they even poop?

"Nope, I don't remember seeing anything with strings," Luffy said with a frown. Cat Ladies were probably afraid the people here would break them. How boring! "I think they've got smaller stuff in there you might be able to carry around, though!" He'd have to put it on his list of things to get for his nakama -- metal for Zoro, and some cool instrument for his cool, new musician!

"Until we get something for you, you can sing songs, though, right?" the pirate captain added brightly. "You can sing, can't you?"

[promisedawhale.livejournal.com]

"No sleep? That must be tiring!" he said first, then quickly realized that he'd inadvertently made a joke out of that and lifted his hands in shock. "Ah, that was a joke! But not a Skull Joke! Yohohoho! But I guess Skull Jokes won't work anymore since I'm not a skeleton.... but that's all right! I can just make new ones! Yohohoho!"

The returned echo of fifty years caught in his ears (which he had as well!) and stopped his laughter a moment. It was a little different hearing someone else say it. Brook knew just how long it had been - a whole half-century since he and his crew had died in that god-forsaken Florian Triangle. But now others knew, or well, did know where he was from. Luffy didn't exactly know the story, not yet, but he would. Everyone would. And then it wouldn't be something only he had to know and remember. "Hmmm, the years would be... let's see..." Brook mumbled a little, raising his lanky fingers for a little counting math. How old was he really? "Eighty-... eight about-- yes, eighty-eight! That's how old I'd be! Though," he looked down at his hands, "Physically I'd be the age I died at. Forty-one then! I age well don't I?!" he asked suddenly.

Then his mouth fell. "What kind of musician would I be if I couldn't sing?!" 'Could he sing'? Really! "Any pirate should be able to sing, you know! That's a merry-making standard! Yohohoho!"

[rubbermancan.livejournal.com]

Luffy laughed, clapping in approval at the joke. He had to stop when Brook mentioned something he'd never heard of before, though. "A Skull Joke?" the pirate said curiously. "What's that? You can only be a skeleton to make them?"

A musician who could play anything, and tell jokes. Luffy liked this guy more and more!

"Eh!? Eighty-eight?! Wow!" Luffy leaned forward, peering at Brook curiously with wide eyes. This guy was old enough to be his grandpa, but he was right! He didn't look a day over forty! "That's amazing!"

Well, he was glad to hear Brook could sing! "That's great!" the captain said with a grin. "You gotta be able to sing songs and dance if you're a pirate!" Man, having Brook around was going to be so much fun!

It was about that time the intercom sounded, and Cat Ladies began to make their way towards everyone. Luffy stared up at the intercom, his arms folding over his chest. It was weird Martin Landel wasn't the one giving the announcement (that guy probably loved hearing the sound of his own voice), but the thought was soon squelched by the thought of food.

"You're really interesting!" he told Brook with a bright smile, trying to get a few more words in before they were separated. "I'm glad Future Me recruited you!"

[promisedawhale.livejournal.com]

"A Skull Joke! It's a... well, yes it does work better when you're a skeleton - it's funnier that way, you see!" He was going to have to give an example so Luffy would understand. He pointed to one of his eyes. "Let's see: like if I were, as a skeleton, to say that I didn't believe my eyes! But then, of course I wouldn't have eyes! That's a Skull Joke! It makes it funny!" With his finger so close, he could very well see the skin on it as a reminder that he was no longer skeletal though. "But! I'm not a skeleton anymore, so I'll have to find some new material! Maybe some Skin Jokes! Yohohoho!"

He grinned at Luffy's shock for his age. "Yes, yes, I'm quite old, you see! But I won't let that stop me! Even this old geezer can still sing and dance like in the olden days!" he announced proudly, "I'll be sure to do you proud as your Musician, Luffy-san!"