127 Rein's new talent!

I couldn't help but sigh as I sat silently in the waning sun light. Beside me sat a slightly drunk Fawkes and a wasted Thatch. Marco looked at me apologetically but made no motion to relieve me of the annoyance that was his crew mate. He merely sat at a fair distance sipping from a canister of fresh water and indulging Angella in pleasant conversation.

After close to half an hour of getting used to the entire tavern save for the tavern owner had shifted here, an open hill with a wonderful view of both the sunset and the bustling town below. It seemed that this time of the day was always kept for leisurely sun gazing for as if by prior motions the entire crew had vacated the tavern just as the sun went down.

Most of the rest of the white beards lay snoring at the back of the open area, the few that were still awake sat silently in remote circles playing cards amongst themselves.

"So what's your plan?" Marco asked out loud as he shot me a look, as he did, the rest of the crew shot me looks as well. I hadn't gotten to telling them the plan that I had in mind, Rein and Barts from a game that they had been recently dealed into and Angella from across Marco.

"Eh, I don't really know. To be completely honest we go where the wind takes us, though I do wish to visit Dr Vegapunk on Punk Hazard sometime in the future. "I said flippantly, though looking at Marco's disbelieving gaze my plans would be extremely hard to fulfill.

"You, want to meat Dr Vegapunk…. Even pops can't do shit like that!" he spluttered, his overall feeling of disbelief only mounting as he looked at the crew's serious façade.

Fawkes looked as calm as ever, while Angella looked like she didn't have a single care in the world… Rein looked flabbergasted while Barts just looked clueless, at this point what more could I expect from my crew?

"What about you? It must be quite exciting to be an emperor's commander." I asked, at this point slightly peeved at the amount of surprises that I had laid into the commander.

He sighed as he gave us another glance, giving up whatever it was that he was about to say. "Eh… The same old. We go back to the Moby Dick and party with the old man, and at around the same time next year we come back here to ensure that nothing happens on our territory." He said shrugging.

"No dreams, no goals?" I asked probingly, unhappy with the level of information that he was providing.

"Nope. I'm quite happy the way things are…" He said as he gazed off into the distance, a fond glimmer in his eyes as he looked at the flapping flag in the center of town.

"…If anything, it would be to get pops the throne.." he said almost as an afterthought, his voice barely above a whisper as he slowly got to his feet. The sun began to disappear behind his back as he walked over to the muttering Thatch, kicking the downed man in the forearm.

With him the rest of the pirates began to stir, pocketing the cards that they had been playing with and the wads of cash that they had made in their little gambles.

Rein looked at the pocketed cards sadly, he had discovered a knack for the art as evident with the sizable pile of paper currency that he had placed before him.

"We'll be off then Jagged dagger!" Marco called out, amidst groans from his crew mates at the loud nature of his abrasive farewell.

"Yeah, we'll be here for a bit. Two days I guess. " I called out.

"A word to the wise rookie, if ever you dock on an emperor's territory its best if you get their permissions for it. If this was ol' Linlin's land she would have you gobbled. " he called out with a cheery and mischievous smirk.

With a chuckled I slowly got to my feet. "O' virtuous and pineapple headed pirate commander, may we dock here for longer?" I called out, and with extreme satisfaction I could barely hear a pleasant sounding retort.

"Who has pineapple hair, ya bastard!" Ah music to my ears.

*****************************

Whitebeard couldn't help but groan at the hardy drink that passed through his massive mouth as he sat leisurely on his throne like seat. Wood beams stretched on in rows as they held up the massive wooden ceiling.

This was the captain's quarters. And he fucking loved it.

Around him he could hear the massive cheer of his crew as his children celebrated. Today was a Friday, and thus the entire ship had gathered here instead of on the deck to guzzle alcohol like there was no tomorrow.

"Oiiii! Ya wanta wrestle wid me?!" A completely wasted man called out as he went against another equally wasted mook. Then the duo began to dance around each other weirdly, obviously attempting to hit each other but both too drunk to see straight let alone walk straight.

At the end of their glorious brawl the duo could be seen on the floor slithering around and cursing fluently. At one point one man even decidedly confused his opponent with the rather more sturdy flooring and began to attempt to pummel it.

And this was where he was stopped with a quick chop to his neck, by the multitude of medics that existed on the ship. The duo where then dragged sanctimoniously to the healing ward amidst good natured applause and laughter.

Scenes like this could be seen all around the old emperor, and he only smiled as it happened. They were his family after all.

His alcohol abuse was suddenly interrupted by a rather bleary call that he could only barely hear over the rambunctious din.

It was a transponder snail that stood solitarily over to a beam on the side that had been till that moment chewing happily at a leaf placed before it.

With a small groan of annoyance the old emperor got off his throne and walked over to the muttering snail.

At this point the loud noises around had descended to a manageable limit, for most of the mostly sober crew were quite curious as to the contents of the loud interruption.

At that very moment the door banged open, as a pudgy pirate walked in.

"Sir, Marco just reported in. There was a new crew that landed in Sphinx! He says they're pretty all right though."

Edward Newgate smiled good naturedly at the message before flapping his hands out dismissively. If his son said they were trustworthy then they probably were.

His smiling face did not last long, for as he saw the individual that had gotten in touch with him, he could only grimace in annoyance.

For the one that had currently given him the call was a certain young'un brat that he found pretty infuriating. Not infuriating like 'tear your throat out' but more a 'the neighbor's kid dropped his ball in the garden for the third time this hour ughhh' kind of infuriating.

it was a certain cocky little red haired shit, though he said so himself, that was giving him a call.

"What do you want brat?" He roared out, as he glared at the snail, more with annoyance than with actual malice.

"Well. two things. The younger pirate called out breezily. First off I wanted permission to dock at Sphinx.

There's a nice rookie that I want to have a chat with. And second. It seems that the rabid beast and the you wannabe glutton are going at it. And their duking it out close to Sphinx too." Shanks said, hanging up as soon as he had finished sending the messages through.

And now, the hall had pretty much frozen over, the high of the celebration ending mockingly insufficient at the monumentous declaration.