logsinthenight | EVENT LOG: BOTTOM OF THE RIVER

Entry tags:

EVENT LOG: BOTTOM OF THE RIVER

characters: everyone.
location: everywhere.
date/time: april 15-30.
content: preparation begins, and rain falls.
warnings: n/a. please cw tags appropriately.

an early warning: april 15-17

When someone goes to check the readings at the weather station in mid-April, they notice something - an immense low-pressure system incoming in just a few short days. Looks like rain on the horizon, although it isn’t immediately clear how long it will last or how much will fall - but it seems like spring has come to Beacon, and April showers bring May flowers, right?

Better get to work.

into the water: april 18-30

Thick clouds obscure the light from the stars. The air grows thick with humidity, and soon, showers begin to fall. It’s gentle at first - a pleasant sound as the drops hit the earth and tap out patterns on the roofs.

This only lasts an hour or two before the heavens seem to open up, letting loose sheets of pounding rain that make it hard to see more than twenty feet ahead of you. The sound is immense and deafening, and you find yourself shouting over the noise as you scramble to make the last of your modifications, find your friends, and take shelter.

Within days, the water falling constantly off of the edges of the rooftops has begun to dig trenches in the soil, and the river swells and overtakes its own banks. Town becomes a moving stream of water that threatens to knock you over and take you with it, and entire sections of Beacon are cut off from each other as you find yourself unable to cross the former banks of the rivers even through flight. Torches get swept away, bridges collapse, and buildings begin to crumble.

Were you prepared?

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Ah, that's a piece of context he hadn't grasped before. Soldat, or Bucky, whoever they were back then, was not only uprooted from their time period but their captors who they had been forced to aid were the very people they had been trying to fight against as a footsoldier. An additional layer of cruelty, that.

"Steve sounds like a good guy. I'm glad you had someone around like that." Both before and after his jump through time, though, however that might have happened. At least there was someone on Soldat's personal side despite what that "Hydra" group had done.

"He was a good guy." Pretty sure, still, that past tense is appropriate. There's nothing they can think of that would have gotten Steve out of that alive, without help, and there was no one there to help.

Soldat has a gulp of their drink, then stares at it a moment. "He was my last target, too, did I ever tell you?" They sound kind of sad and tired to recount it, but recount it they do. "I didn't remember him. But they made me try to kill him. Twice. That memory you saw. With the Chair. That was after the first time."

"You did tell me," he says, nodding. "Yeah. I... can't imagine. I'm glad you're out of their hands."

Dead though, so, not the best outcome. But at least here they can make their own way in whatever is left of their existence. Being dead and yet sustained by a lantern isn't all that bad, though. Could be downright pleasant if it wasn't for things like world eaters.

Soldat should maybe keep a record of what they've told everyone else, too, along with memories. It's getting hard to keep track, when everyone has slightly different pieces. They nod. "Me, too. Probably one of the only people happy to be dead, around here. Even you seem to miss your home, yeah?"

"Yeah, I do. I'm all right being here, though."

Sort of. It has its pros and cons. If he could have a wish magically granted, he knows which misstep he would try to correct, but dreaming about the impossible will lead to a whole host of problems, so he tries not to dwell on those thoughts. But being here does mean a very specific sort of freedom from the weight he has had to shoulder since birth, and that's refreshing.

"Mostly I just miss the people," he says as his mouth slips into a solemn frown.

Resting their chin on a fist, a more casual pose than usual, in no small part because of how exhausting fighting all that water was, Soldat watches Rosinante around the edges. Eyes on the side of his face, his shoulder, his messy hair. "You told me about your father. The one in the military. And your young friend from the memory. Are there others you miss, too?" Two people is already good, especially given how sweet that memory had been. Soldat's people to miss are all dead, but hearing about someone else's might be good.

"Mostly just them," he replies. "Hadn't really kept up with anyone else. Too busy with work. For a while I kept thinking about when I'd finally get to go home, and see people I used to spend time with, but..."

He shrugs. But a lot of things. He literally hadn't spoken a word to anyone other than Sengoku and Law for years. Couldn't have, since it would risk blowing his cover more than the risks he already took. He tried to keep up with the news from Marineford and the people he knew there, but there weren't many he'd been particularly close to. More than a few he only heard updates on when he saw their obituaries in the papers. And then he was killed, and that was that.

"They were enough, though. I'm glad I had both of them."

Soldat's glad, too. Everyone should have people. Even not-quite-people murder machines need people. After another sip of self-made mocha, they ask, "Did you find a lot about your young friend in those newspapers? Law, right?" There were so many newspapers in that box, they remember. There had to be a lot of good shit in there.

"Yeah," he says, and despite the general mood of the conversation he can't help but smile a little. His voice softens, indisputably fond as he continues. "Yeah, he's... he's doing all right. He's a surgeon now. And, uh..."

He'd omit the real, full details but he's so proud of the kid for just living that he's tacked up all the bounty posters on his walls, which means anyone who enters the room will see them. Might as well own up to it. Given the smug look in the artists' work, Law's probably damned proud of his criminal activity. He'd be disappointed if he wasn't just so glad to see all that white gone from his skin.

"Well, he's one of the world's most wanted pirate captains now," he admits with an awkward chuckle. "But I wanted him to find freedom, so I guess he really took that to heart."

Soldat pauses and frowns a little, not in disapproval, but in thought. "Don't you. Didn't you. Chase pirates?" Because that seems kind of ironic, and possibly a little baffling, if Rosinante's favorite person became the thing he actively hunted for most of his life.

"Yeah," he says, wholly aware of the irony, which just makes his smile widen. It is sort of funny. If their lives had taken many different paths, and if they were both able to meet now for the first time, a Marine officer and a pirate captain, they would be enemies by definition.

"It's not what I would've wanted, obviously. But it's his life to live. From what the papers said, he's mostly causing trouble for the Marines and other pirates, but leaving civilians alone."

All of Law's targets reported on in the papers are familiar names - people in Doflamingo's underground trade network, or people Doflamingo had planned to include further down the line. One Marine officer killed - a man both he and Law knew to be his brother's spy. Law maneuvered himself into a position with enough power and allied support to put Doflamingo in prison, and is cleaning up the rest of the criminal underground, one name at a time. It is never what he would have asked of the boy because it's immensely dangerous, but he swears he can feel love radiating back to him, years and entire lives apart, when he links together every little detail in those articles.

"That's probably not too bad, then." Especially if the Marines aren't all they're cracked up to be, which is possible. Soldat knows not all authority groups are necessarily good all the way through-- case in point, HYDRA hiding inside SHIELD. "So long as innocent people aren't being hurt. Maybe he shouldn't be called a pirate, then. Something else." They wrack their brain for an option, and offer, "Vigilante?"

Well, all right, so no harm to civilians is a bit of an omission, if the details of what happened at Rocky Port are to be believed. But it was resolved so cleanly, with every innocent islander saved from the terrible Surgeon of Death, that he has to wonder what the real story behind it was. He has his guesses, though.

"Vigilante," he repeats with a chuckle, and a shake of his head. "How would that make him not a pirate? The Marines and the World Government carry out the law, not individuals. Besides, he captains a ship, he has a crew, he flies a jolly roger. He's allied with some of the most wanted pirates on the seas, people who've declared war on the government. I'm not going to deny that's what he is."

Or how he's presenting himself. Law has always been clever. Rosinante is proud of him for that, but it makes it a bit of a challenge to fully guess at his motives beyond carrying out Rosinante's own mission over a decade later while giving the Marines the middle finger the whole time. But that in itself is pretty stunning now that he's pieced it all together. Is there anyone alive in Law's time who realizes what's happened? Does Sengoku see it? He must, surely.

Soldat actually smiles. "Yeah, okay, that's a pirate." They're vaguely surprised that they know what a jolly roger is, wonder briefly if anyone ever tried to make fun of Steve using that word and that's how they know it, or maybe read about it? They're pretty sure they've never encountered actual pirates. The kind that used that flag went extinct before even they were born, they're pretty sure.

"You seem proud anyway, though," they add, amiable.

"I probably shouldn't be. Can't help it, though."

He's simultaneously proud and incredibly worried. Law has gotten himself into a deeply dangerous situation. Eventually the news tapered off, with no further sightings of the Polar Tang and the pirates aboard it menacing the seas. Did Pluto's search eventually fail, or did Law come across trouble he couldn't handle out there in the farthest, most lawless reaches of the Grand Line?

"Whatever he makes of his life, I'm just glad he gets to live it," he sighs as he slouches comfortably back in his chair.

"Seems like he's done a lot of living. Given the number of newspapers Pluto found for you." That was a big crate, and very full, as they remember it. "Was it all just reports of his piracy?" They can't help but be curious if there was anything in there about Law's friendship with Rosinante himself. Had Rosinante been in any of those newspapers?

"No, I asked her for other stuff too. Every four years, all the leaders in World Government-allied nations come together to discuss events and policies together, so I had her send me a bunch of the papers reporting on those also. It wasn't all about him," he replies, chuckling again.

Though, okay, a hell of a lot more of it was than he had expected when he asked. Law had sure made a name for himself over the years.

"I figured it would be an easy way to keep track of what else had happened in the world afterward. That was my main request, actually. I wasn't expecting so much about Law to turn up."

Sometimes his paranoia rears its head and tells him he should dump those papers in the river now that he's read them all. The less people know about his world, the better off he is, and it wouldn't exactly be hard to break into his room and go through them. What stops him is the knowledge that probably nobody cares enough to bother, and that really, whatever they would find wouldn't actually hurt him, probably.

While there are many things Soldat does and thinks that might be considered invasions of privacy, sneaking into someone's room to read their papers about home is not remotely among them. Seems pretty pointless, here and now, and risks pissing people off. And for what? Learning something about someone's past, in a life they no longer live.

Doesn't stop them from asking curiously, "Was there anything interesting in there beside what you found about Law?" They would probably like to learn what happened to Steve and HYDRA, if that could be possible. Maybe Pluto could look up a newspaper from DC from around the right time. (Maybe Steve survived.)

"Sure. Lots of politics, lots of drama," he says, as he considers what information from those papers would make for a good story without getting into subjects he doesn't want to go into detail on. The continuing efforts of the Fishmen to have their status and their kingdom recognized as equal to the human nations, for example - he completely sympathizes with their plight, but telling Soldat about the racism and slavery and Fisher Tiger's terrorism in the name of revolution is a heavy topic for a coffee break.

"One of the topics brought up in the last one I was able to get news on was about a system we have in the Marines," he says, having decided what to talk about. "It's always been controversial, so I'm not surprised it's come up. We call them 'Warlords' - pirates with a high degree of skill and influence over other pirates. The Marines recruit a few pirates into this Warlord position periodically, freeze their bounties, and allow them to operate under supervision. They're not allowed to attack government members, only other pirates, so they benefit from having the freedom to operate mostly according to their own rules still, and they don't have to worry about being arrested. In return, they help keep other pirate crews in check, and feed us information. Law was one for a while, actually."

Bear with him a moment, Soldat - it's a lot of talking in one go for Rosinante, but the context was needed. He just has to have a sip of coffee before he continues.

"Anyway, it's always been shaky. Pirates are pirates, and some of us, and some of the royalty, didn't like the idea of working with them. And then apparently, my brother was appointed as a Warlord for a while, which he probably figured was the world's best cover while he did... everything he did, and other Warlords were similarly atrocious, and now as of the last vote, the whole system has been abolished."

If he sounds frustrated, it's because he is, by pretty much all of it. It's like he said, the system was always controversial, but it helped provide stability. Figures his own asshole brother was one of the people whose actions ended up ruining that.

It's actually kind of fascinating, the insight into Rosinante's world's politics. Soldat hadn't ever really been privy to the reasons behind things, whether in the war or as HYDRA's pet assassin, but it's interesting to think about. Interesting to wonder what HYDRA would have done with them, in such a situation (nothing good, certainly). Also makes them glad they they're never going to be in a position with enough power to have to make moral decisions like whether to support an enemy force for the sake of intel.

Also an interesting insight into Rosinante's past. "I didn't know you had a brother," they say.

Ah, so Soldat was one who hadn't come across an opal - and they had arrived well after the first month when everyone's deaths were fully on-display. The fact he has a brother is no secret, though. He just doesn't enjoy sharing too many of the details with those he doesn't have a good read on.

"I don't talk about him much here. He and I weren't close. He's in prison now, hopefully for good."

Nah, the only opal of Rosinante's they found was the one about Law. This is all new information. They knew about his father, but not any more of his family.

"Oh." Soldat pauses, blinking once over his mug, then offers, "I'm sorry. Was he a pirate?" Since he was a Warlord which was a pirate thing, and he did "everything he did" which sounds pretty negative based on tone and expression. Even if Law was one, Rosinante still seems pretty set against the pirates.

"By definition," he confirms. "One of the worst. I don't know who decided to give him Warlord status, they should have known better not to trust him with it. He pulled the strings on every corner of the black market."

Except he's quite certain he can guess at why. Not the exact details of how he pulled it off, perhaps, but both he and his brother know things - are things - that could be used to leverage the government into giving them what they want. The difference between them is that Rosinante would never wish to play those cards, while Doflamingo absolutely did.

He also can't help but blame himself, just a little, for not getting all the dirt he'd accumulated on Doflamingo over to Sengoku. Blames himself just a little, too, for the massacre of Dressrosa's people. But that's a complicated, messy chain of events and it's too easy to start attributing more and more of it to being his own fault when he knows better than to allow himself to do that.

"He'll live out the rest of his days in Impel Down, the government prison. Law helped put him there," he says, a touch of smug satisfaction behind the vitriol.

What an awful situation. The very idea of their own sisters in jail was horrifying-- but then, Soldat only really remembers them as children. Maybe if one of them grew up to be a terrible person who was involved in the black market or was a pirate, they'd feel differently. "If he was hurting people. It's good he's locked up. Guess Law learned a few things from you."

Meaning to put away those who hurt people, but it could probably be interpreted as getting intel from Rosi, too.

Hurting people is possibly the mildest way to put to words what Doflamingo is responsible for. Rosinante nods, though, weighing the benefits versus the costs of saying more. The only reason to condemn him further, here, now, where nobody can do a thing about it, would be to make sure they are well and truly set against him should he ever arrive here, and the chances of that seem remarkably slim. No, it's better not to elaborate, he decides. He gains nothing. Doflamingo's punishment is not increased by having a bunch of dead people hate him as much as the living ones already do.

"Guess he did," he says with a shrug. "Especially given that my brother ended up in prison, rather than in the ground. As a kid, he was so angry. It's nice to know he learned some mercy along the way."

Either that or he decided prison was a longer form of punishment with a lot more suffering involved, which it probably is. It's intended to be, which is why the Marines prefer it over executions except for in cases where an extremely public statement needs to be made. Someone like Doffy will be in for life, in the lowest, most secure, cruelest level of the whole system. He doesn't deserve the spectacle and glory of being killed in front of a crowd.

Besides, that idea makes Rosinante uncomfortable. He couldn't even pull the trigger. His brother may be a monstrous tyrant, but they're still family.

EVENT LOG: BOTTOM OF THE RIVER

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