hadriel_logs | Event Log: Is It a Wonderful Life?

Entry tags:

Event Log: Is It a Wonderful Life?

Who: All characters participating in the event
What: The event log for Is It A Wonderful Life? event
Where: All over the city
When: Jan 4th-8th
Warnings: None

Throughout the next few days, you may find yourself plagued by visions and dreams of back home. The dreams will be lifelike and difficult to tell apart from reality, as the world will be constructed from what you remember of your world. However, unlike usual dreams, you won't be present, and will find yourself unable to be seen or heard by those around you.

The dreams are vivid reminders of what might happen in a world without you: a world in which you disappeared when coming to Hadriel, a world which desperately needs you back for some reason or another. You may see your parents putting up missing posters, your significant other moving onto their next relationship, or even your hated villain finally taking over the world without you there to stop them.

When the vision leaves, you're back here and nothing about the city has changed. Though maybe you have a different outlook on it now...

► This log covers January 4th-Januray 8th.
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!
► If you try a weird solution to make it back home, please let us know here.

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Deadpan. "I don't care about that."

It's not about health this time, but it still takes Law an awkward moment to figure out how to really broach this. He tries to cover it by reaching for the box and uncovering his delicious lunch. God, he does owe Black Leg a hell of a lot for this, keeping him on a regular diet instead of whenever he cares to bother to eat. Without looking straight at him, he murmurs, "You're seeing it too, aren't you? Wano."

As boastful as Sanji is when it comes to food, he's just as thankful for the chance to cook as Law is for the chance to eat. Preparing food for people he cares about in a kitchen he's maintaining... It's as close to home as he can get while he's here, and he needs that chance to breathe.

He certainly needs it now. One word from Law, and his throat constricts like it's caught in a vise.

Wano.

Luffy, Nami, Carrot, and the others have been defeated, destroyed on their shitty quest to find their shittier cook. His precious Robin, Usopp, even that damn marimo... No one is left to come for them. They're trapped in a hostile country, and they have no way out. One by one, they fall - like assorted fucking chocolates tumbling from their box into the greedy hands below.

It makes Sanji want to vomit. He won't allow himself that relief.

"Fuck you."

Law isn't the one he wants to kick as scream at. But he is the one who has the nerve to put this utter shit into words, and that is something Sanji absolutely does not want to do. He can't give this physical form. He can't.

So he snarls, teeth bared, and kicks a damn chair.

Yep, that's what he thought. Law has been through this before so while he can't brush it off entirely, he's coping considerably better than most. Better than Sanji, at least. If the cook wants to be angry at him, so be it, he can take it. But since Rage isn't around he's pretty sure both of them being pissed as they are isn't doing anyone any good.

"It's not real," he says in a low, quiet tone. "They've showed me this vision before. Kaidou, winning. It's not real, it's never real."

Words are faint comfort, but Law is determined to get this fact across. Without fact and logic he would be far worse off than he is.

Law's valiant reassurance is met with a bestial growl, too desperate to be truly dangerous.

"No shit! If they were really dead, then I'd be dead too!"

It's hard to put stock in those words when this tantrum just goes to prove Sanji doesn't believe them himself. Still, he clings to them. It's all that's keeping him from leaving on his own, the only reason he hasn't stomped off into the deadly tundra with nothing but the determination not to stop until his stubbornness destroys the dimensional barrier obstructing his way home.

Edited 2019-01-26 23:34 (UTC)

What he wouldn't give for Cora-san's power right now instead of his own. Looking both ways, Law swiftly gets up and moves in to use his looming presence to herd Sanji away from the doors and other people who might overhear, giving him a prod in the shoulder with one finger to encourage him to put some distance between them and the rest of present clinic staff.

"What are you actually seeing?" he asks, feeling like he really needs to know. He wants to compare.

He's doing this. Law is really doing this. Sanji can handle being prodded away from the rest of the staff, Law ever so politely (the shitty bastard) leading him further from making another scene. He doesn't like it, but as long as Zoro isn't the asshole doing it, he can handle it. Sitting back and chatting about what he's seen though? Playing intellectual analysis with a doctor like either of them can change anything in time? Does Law really expect him to do this?

What the fuck else is he going to do?

Teeth grinding, he turns his back to Law, but still, he stalks over to the corner where he's being led. He's already pulling a cigarette out of his jacket by the time he plants both feet firmly on the floor. Then he slides it between his teeth unlit. It doesn't help to calm him down, not really. He chews at it anyway.

"You wanna play this shitty game, you're taking the first turn," he seethes at the wall, taking great pains not to shout this time.

Fair enough. Law respects him on a level more or less equal with his own crew of idiots, and they don't even get to know everything about him. Breathing a soft sigh, he turns so that they have all the privacy possible from their turned shoulders and the wall, and drops his head slightly so that his hat's visor obscures his eyes. "I see everything on Wano turning to shit," he admits. "Straw Hat-ya doesn't know my plan so he doesn't know what to do. My crew keeps doing stupid shit to get themselves in trouble. Found out, attacked. Our entire alliance wiped out before any of them can even consult each other and figure out what I had meant for them to do."

The expression he makes is one of pure frustration. Keeping his plans to himself and only doling out each step as it becomes relevant is a hard habit to break. But that's what was done. Not even the half of Sanji's crew on his ship know what he meant to do once reaching Wano, not Kin'emon, no one. So if this really came to pass, his carefully-laid plans which even survived his mess-up on Dressrosa would come to a screeching halt and result in the deaths of two crews. Good job, Law.

Inhale, exhale. Sanji has to sound out the words in his mind with every breath. He can hear the controlled frustration in Law's flat explanation. It's always sobering, to witness for himself something he'd known logically but hadn't quite accepted. Law's as fucked over this as he is; he just knows how to handle his shit. Sanji's not sure whether that revelation makes this better or worse.

Either way, he can't dodge this. He'd be pissed at himself for even thinking about it. Law's laid it all bare; now it's his turn. Even if it's just more of the same.

"Nami, Luffy, everyone who came after me... They don't even make it to Wano." Sanji shuts his eyes, grinds his teeth. Law doesn't need the sordid details. "The others don't know. How could they? They wipe themselves out waiting for back up that's never gonna show."

Hearing it like that, Law can understand his anguish. The gods are only showing him a Law-less world, one where Black Leg and Straw Hat and all of them were still there to do what they meant to do. In Sanji's scenario, he's the one missing and the reason why Straw Hat doesn't escape Tottoland. As little as he knows about the machinations of Big Mom's crew, Law knows enough to know how very real and terrible that would be.

He breathes in and out deeply, slowly, looking to one side to make sure no one barges in on them. "You see it, now, don't you?" he tries to encourage. "The contradiction. My nightmares still involve you and Straw Hat-ya making it to Wano. Yours don't. That means it's not really happening, because we can't both be right."

Really. It's no wonder Law isn't supportive more often when he's this shitty at it. Still, he's right. There is a contradiction there. Sanji scrunches his nose, lips pressed into a disgruntled, crooked line. He runs a hand through his already tousled hair and sighs. Honestly, that information doesn't leave him feeling relieved or angry so much as tired.

"It's not really happening," he parrots monotonously. He feels stupid repeating it. He repeats it anyway. "You sound pretty sure of yourself."

Logic, not comfort. It's his way, and why no one likes him.

"Shortly after I first got here," he says by way of explanation, "there was something eerily like this, thanks to our delightful benefactors. Every shop window, mirror, even polished metal surfaces here in the clinic, people could see visions like this. Basically, whatever I saw, they saw. It was the same thing, more or less. I was there, but we were still all dying under Kaidou's fist. Then, the time everyone else got to peek into my nightmares." He makes the same face as Sanji, lips pursed, showing just how much he really didn't enjoy that. "This happens frequently. If this is the first time you've experienced it, I can imagine it must be jarring. But remember."

A deep breath, and time for more logic. "...when the Door went haywire, and Nico-ya, Zoro-ya, and Bepo were here." And Cora-san, but he doesn't count for this. "They said everything was fine, and we weren't missing. Bepo saw me at breakfast days after we left Zou, while I only remember leaving Zou. It's not happening, Black Leg-ya."

Too bad, Law. You now have two entire crews of people who like you, and you have to fucking deal with them. You know, by occasionally reminding one of them that everyone he knows and loves isn't dead. Thanks for that.

Sanji remembers that - when the door went haywire, when Zoro and Robin and even a past version of himself appeared on Hadriel soil. He remembers talking to the marimo bastard about his note, Luffy's intervention, the fact that he is absolutely returning, everything that matters. That guy, that absolute and unapologetic asshole, had been completely safe. The timing doesn't match up exactly, not the way Sanji's irrepressible nerves need it to. There's always room for doubt. But Sanji is in desperate need for straws to grasp at, and he's sure as hell going to snatch up any he's offered. If Law's crew isn't missing him, then Sanji's crew can't be missing him either.

If Luffy has no reason to go back for him, then he's safe.

As if his shoulders are suddenly too heavy for his body, Sanji slumps into the wall. He barks a laugh that's far from friendly. "What a crock of shit. They've done this crap to you three times already? You'd think they'd have better material by now."

There are brief moments when Law gets a little taste of the warmth that comes of making other people happy, or at least not sad. This is one of them. He looks a little abashed but otherwise as line-faced as ever. "That's putting it lightly," he sighs. "I don't exactly sleep well most nights as it is, you can imagine what it's like when someone else gets an intimate glimpse into what actually scares you."

That's as close as he'll come to admitting his human weaknesses. But, hey, he respects Sanji as a fellow smart person, he can handle it. He waggles his finger in the general direction of Sanji's heart. "They're uncannily good at digging deep into everything you'd rather keep hidden. Just remember that, so the next time it happens you can figure out what they're doing before it gets worse."

Not that Sanji has a stellar record with hiding things. He's not hard to read, and he knows it. Even the very existence of his wanted poster is enough to destroy over a decade of detachment apparently.

He can only nod at first, most of his brain power focused on not crying in front of the stoic captain. That would be too pathetic, even for him. A few deep breaths later, he manages to redirect Law's pointing finger to the abandoned cabbage burritos on his work desk.

"You wanna get a good night's sleep, eat everything I put on your plate. We're having tuna fried rice tonight. I'll prepare some nuts and cheese you can take home with you." Seeing as rice, fish, walnuts, almonds, and cheese are all food known to promote sleep, Law can assume this is Sanji's way of expressing thanks. "Keep the late night snacks light though. Got it?"

Law takes the advice in stride, as a fine trade for his own. He spends a lot of time telling people what to do for their health, it's only fair. "Sounds good. Good proteins for energy and warmth."

He refrains from touching as per his usual, just giving Sanji a manly nod and brushing past him to go back to his desk. Every ounce of food is crucial in this frozen waste, he's going to obey the directive and hope that it means when he next sets out on a hike, he'll be all the more prepared for it. He may have cornered Black Leg before but now he leaves him free to escape.

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Event Log: Is It a Wonderful Life?

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