So We Ought to Leave

It was over, so back it was to business as usual, for the week.

Once the group of four reached Iasus' and Elaina's home the sun had been getting lower and lower. It was yet to set so Stoker and Moria went their way further inland to where they had been living as roommates for almost a decade now.

While Stoker went to bed immediately once they got back to their apartment, Moria took the bound pirate, Stark, with him. He intended to traverse all the way from where they were near the southern shore of Alclara across the decently sized island nation to the nearest Marine base situated on the kingdoms most populous port which, being on the east-northeastern shores of the island, shook out to about a two days round trip. Surely when Stark woke up they might have a somewhat pleasant conversation.

In the meantime Elaina returned to her home with her father to end the day.

They came back to Vik sitting on his chair, looking almost content at how far his niece had come over the years that she could now handily deal with his younger brother's job.

He shakily got up from his chair, taking a cane in his right hand that one wouldn't be able to notice was on the ground by the side of his chair at a glance. His age was doing him no favors as arthritis had claimed his right knee so moving it excessively caused him immense pain, though to someone as disciplined as he had been, such pain wasn't, as it might have been for a normal person, debilitating.

Opening the front door first, Elaina heard her elder brother...

"SISTEEEEERR!"

… calling out heartily and she proceeded to clothesline the young man hurtling towards her, who was just about the spitting image of her father, so that he smacked right into her upper arm, flipped his legs up, and smacked his back onto the ground.

"Yes we're home Daniel and I've had something of a tiring day, so let's not do this now Big Bro," she abruptly cut him off.

"Yeah..." a young girlish voice belonging to her sister responded from inside, "Something interesting happen today?" Beside her sat Price, quiet as he usually was, electing to listen to his sisters' conversation for information on his eldest sister's activities.

As Vik looked down on the eldest son of the house in concern while Iasus merely continued inside, Elaina responded to her sister "Yeah, some dumbass-"

"Language!" her father called out.

"Right, my bad. Some onion thought it would be a good idea to screw with some pirates when he was down shopping in Lumen so I had to help with the cleanup."

"Huh?" she heard her brother Daniel call out after he'd finally gotten up, "I figure Moria wouldn't have so much trouble, did he sell back a shadow recently?"

"Actually he did. Some gangster came crawling to Moria with eight million belly to buy back the shadow he had taken from him in the last big gang brawl."

"There has got to be a better way of using that power of his to make money than extorting people with a threat to their life." Iasus followed up as he began walking past the now stopped Elaina towards a backroom, the kitchen, to check on his wife. So too did Viktor go, himself aiming to sit down at the dinner table in advance of the rest of the family.

"Well, when you don't even have to bother constantly holding a gun to someone's head to do something like that it becomes easy to get in the habit of doing it. Besides, the guy had a bounty on his head anyway, it was more a matter of bribing Moria to make sure he didn't try turning the guy over to the Marines," Elaina concluded just before the men left the room.

Elaina then moved to sit next to her younger siblings. When her brother followed however, she sat down and turned back to face him. When he stopped walking a few feet from her before his expression turned serious and he asked his sister a question with a, "So... are you really gonna set off?"

"Huh...?" The youngest in the room squawked weakly in response as her elder sister turned her face up at Daniel's question and looked him in the eye with a sort of determination.

"Yeah. I'm leaving in a week and a half. Already told dad so our generation's first parting will be in about a week," she responded, she wasn't especially happy about having to say it but she put on a brave face as she looked at her brother.

As her father and uncle told her: great men, great pirates, never compromise on the things they desire most, that they dream of. Of course this was selfish and was bound to leave some people wanting.

"Eh...?" Elaina's sister croaked out in confusion.

They sat in silence for a moment, the eldest siblings staring at each other. Daniel had an irked look about him, his eyelids lowered still staring, trying to get a read on Elaina's feelings. They had thought this was coming but that didn't stop them from putting off the conversation that needed to happen next, and what happened next was one of the reasons why.

"Wait, wait, wait... Sis, what are you talking about?" the youngest stammered as her elder siblings cocking their heads to look at her. The girl got up and stepped towards her sister.

Price started to get up and stop his youngest sibling, "Diadna..." but Daniel held out his hand signaling him to stop and let the sisters meet.

Diadna rushed into her sister's arms, breaking now into tears and sobs.

It was going to be a long week for Elaina.

It might seem strange to preemptively abdicate a place by the side of the ones you love, but it is necessary, lest the guilt of taking from them more and more pile up.

It is in this way that those not destined to succeed their better's and guardians leave their homes.

In this, for men of action, the only way forward to greatness is to step into the chaotic storm of the world, and to grind themselves against it, like sandpaper, so that they may shine, no matter how fast such a sheen will inevitably be covered up by dirt, stone, and the metal of other further enterprises.

Sink or swim, be just another man or be as Achilles, be nothing or be something. Is that the truth, or just their presumption.

---

"Uuuggghhh..." Stark groaned, squinting intensely as the midmorning sun greeted his eyes. He tried to move his hands but found them bound in rope. His vision and body bobbing, Stark found himself being carried down a busy street in a suburban town on the back of someone, tied up entirely and physically helpless.

"Well would you look at that," Moria said as he begrudgingly tolerated and prepared himself for the intensifying of Stark's thrashing, "Someone's finally up."

Hearing the voice of one of the people who had steamrolled his crew, Stark predictably thrashed about, causing a small scene that drew some eyes from around the road. Stark didn't scream, not only because he doubted help would come, but out of his own sense of pride. Regardless, nothing came of it. Moria turned out to be more physically capable than Stark anticipated.

Coming to rest again and catching his breath, Stark relented and sighed saying, "Well... it was a fine run."

"You seem awfully defeatist...," Moria commented in response, "... for a pirate at least."

"What do you know about piracy? Who are you to criticize my perspective?"

"Oh please. I'm actually rather sympathetic to the concept. I'm more concerned that your ambition died so quickly."

"...Who says my dreams are dead?" Stark questioned grumpily

"No one has the right, it just depends on what you think about the one who beat you. Do you think you could stand up to them given enough time and the right circumstances? If so, there's still a chance, no matter how many times it happens and how many people it happens with." Moria concluded, leaving Stark to ponder.

The last words that Moria heard from Stark, the last whisper and mutterings that caught his ear, were "...but I hardly know what hit me. How could I know what chance I stand?" before Stark whisked himself away into silent ponderance.

Moria had gotten a cheap hotel room the night before and started traveling early in the morning, getting only 4 hours of sleep.

Moria had always been like that, he could feel refreshed with what others might call not even close to enough sleep, just another way he was different from normal people but of course if one looked at him and all his strange physical features, you would hardly think it the strangest thing about the man.

It drew eyes and the interest of young, inexperienced children, but to anyone who had traveled the seas he couldn't even begin to be called a Giant.

Lucky him, the infrastructure of the Alclara kingdom was developed enough that he could plan the route of his travel along road and rail rather than navigating forests and hillsides with guesswork using general direction.

By the time Moria caught a tram to the port city of Radios, where the lone Marine base in Alclara was situated, he had been walking for a little over 2 hours. He had to ride it from where he got on all the way to the end of the line to reach his destination which would require three whole hours of travel time.

As usual, Moria had to bend down to enter the tram and took up four seats including the one he set Stark down in beside himself which earned him the annoyance of several other passengers when the tram became more crowded as it moved inland through several city centers.

The attention wasn't all bad though, as those annoyed were only made up of those who weren't already befuddled or outright intrigued looking at Moria. To top it off, while the line was boarding halfway he caught sight of a group of three men wearing three of the exact same pale red jackets, with a -T- overlaying the line through a Capital -A- on their backs, all talking excitedly as they walked down the aisle.

When the three men met Moria's gaze while walking by, they all shrunk and turned their heads away and kept walking further down until they quietly took their seats at the edge of the car.

At this sight Stark was somewhat confused and it showed on his face, not that Moria was looking at it of course. Stark didn't take Moria as someone beyond strong but it somewhat surprised him how he was renowned and recognized at a glance. Such interactions portrayed to him a history of scuffles and conflicts, the kind waged by rag tag gangs where reputation was easily spread through word of mouth.

One might say the effects of such conflict were common to see around West Blue if, unlike Stark, you had indeed been around West Blue, but clearly the strength of body that earned Stark his pirate's reputation was cultivated mostly at home through personal training, not experience.

As the time passed Moria asked Stark a few questions about his adventures. Much to Moria's chagrin, Stark wasn't so forthcoming with information and mostly dodged answering questions directly and with much depth of description.

With only a marginal delay, accounting for the growing weight of the people boarding, the tram arrived nearly on time in Radios Central Station.

As for Radios itself, the sprawling cityscapes surrounding the large crescent shaped bay were as beautiful as one could ask for, blocky architecture giving way to bustling street corridors and walk spaces. The markets, busy but well furnished and orderly. A traveler might say it wasn't so unique a place among the decks of the world but those anchored to the land, sentimental and prideful of their place in the world, called it "Beacon City" and "The Jewel of Alclara".

Nonetheless, the orderly atmosphere veiled thinly the seedy underbelly of the city, where a modicum of gangs roamed free and corruption in their interest by the city's leadership was almost openly undertaken.

Just another day in the West Blue.

The walk to the Marine Base, which was situated on the furthest edge of the farther north part of the crescent shape of the bay, would take about three quarters of an hour at the fastest. So Moria got walking. He also needed to take at least one detour to avoid the more dangerous roads, as someone transporting a head worth 25,000,000 belly in the open ought.

Stark closed his eyes and entered what can only be described as a meditative state, relaxing his body completely, his legs even swaying with Moria's stride.

As he walked, The gazes persisted, now in greater numbers due to the higher population density, but it was of no bother to Moria as he had become used to them over his lifetime and was himself somewhat fond of the attention.

He was even stopped by a group of patrolling marines, wondering why... a man was tied up on his back. The four men with flintlock rifles attached to straps looped around their shoulders, were wearing the standard issue of marine uniforms: a white short-sleeved button-up shirt displaying the Marine emblem, a simplified seagull, with "MARINE" underneath it on the back, and two horizontal blue lines around the collar; a blue neckerchief; dark blue trousers; and a white baseball cap, aqua-green in the front, with "MARINE" across the front in blue letters.

They let him go once he explained the situation and had them verify Stark's status as a wanted man, Stark himself not even acknowledging the men's presence or regarding their concern.

Right on time, Moria arrived before the Marine base also known as the 93rd branch, a huge frustum shaped brick building easily 5 stories in height. He stood before the white painted, wooden double doors that lead to the lobby where, as he had done several times before, he would speak to a receptionist and wait as his prisoner would be hauled away, receive his prize, and he could be on his way.

Stark opened his eyes, perhaps sensing a change in Moria's mood or the aura of marines nearby, whatever that means.

"Rather Understaffed for a Marine Base," Stark called out before wondering aloud, "isn't it?"

Responding to Stark's question, Moria didn't even meet his gaze as he explained, "Can't expect much for this part a' West Blue. I'll collect my bounty and then you're gonna be stuck in your cell until they can get ya a transport to Impel Down, since they don't really execute people, not at this base as far as I understand. Your crew could break you out until then but I'd give ya about a month max. Then it's all over."

Moria then walked forward, pushed the front door open, and entered.