34th Teddy Bear [Voice]

[asobouyo]

[An hour or so after bed, Elicia hears something creak. It's harmless and probably something like a tree scratching something, or a mouse finding its way. But it sparks a barrage of images within this small child's brain that would probably make a therapist shake their heads. Things like floating objects and scary figures and things under her bed oh god. Acute paranoia tonight, this one. So she speaks in a really low whisper as though she's on a secret mission, hidden up to her ears in blanket. Must be a nice windy winter night.]

Um....

Are ghosts real? They aren't, right? But—But I guess good ghosts are okay! Do those count? Are they real either?

[Her eyes dart from one side of the room to the other, and she's totally expecting something scary to happen on one side or the other. Any minute now. No, no, be brave, there's nothing going on. Nothing at aaaaall. ;~;

Gulp.]

Oh! New Feathers are here, too... huh...

I'm Elicia, and I'm six years o—

[rustle rustle]

Meep!

[...And back under the sheets. Yup.]

Comments

[Voice]

[mikangirl]

Good ghosts are real.

[It's okay, Elicia. We can just ...not talk about bad ghosts at all. >>]

[Voice]

[asobouyo]

S-so ghosts can be real! [8^I] You have ghosts in your world, big sis??

[These blankets. Never lettin' go.]

[Voice]

[mikangirl]

[Yes and they're TERRIFYING OKAY but really, she's thinking of one particular story so she'll just...skip all that part. >>]

Well, I didn't really meet this particular one. [Not until the end.] But our ship had a ghost, you might say.

[Voice]

[asobouyo]

Your ship had a ghost...?

[That's kind of scary. HOW DID YOU EVER SLEEP AT NIGHT.]

[Voice]

[mikangirl]

Mmhmm. It was called a klabautermann, and it was the spirit of our ship, the Going Merry. Want to hear about it?

[Voice]

[asobouyo]

A klabata.... A kablaur....

[NO FOCUS ELICIA]

Yeah! I wanna know about it!

[Voice]

[mikangirl]

[It's okay, Elicia. You can call it the klabawhosiwhatsit if you really want to, Nami won't tell anyone.]

The Going Merry was our first ship. [And for the heck of it, she's just going to sketch it loosely in the journal while she talks.] And we were sailing on the Grand Line back home-- that's our biggest ocean at home-- and we learned along the way that there were rumours of an island in the sky.

So of course, we wanted to see it. [We meaning Luffy, but let's not complicate things.] Travelling into the sky on an ocean ship is kind of hard, but we found a way. There's a very special current in that part of the ocean called the Knock-up Stream, and it sends a huge fountain of water right up into the air. So we rode the ship right up it, and found an island in the clouds.

But it was a really dangerous way to travel,and our ship needed repairs before we went there. By the time we arrived, the Going Merry was pretty badly damaged.

[Voice]

[asobouyo]

Aw, that's not good! [;~; poor ship] So... then what'd you do...?

[YOU FIXED IT, RIGHT]

[Voice]

[mikangirl]

Hmm, well, we had lots of other adventures while we were there. There were some bad guys, and we had to fight them, and we found a lot of treasure too. But then we camped out in the jungle-- a jungle in the sky!-- and we tried to work out what to do next, and we worried about our ship, because we didn't know if it would manage to make it all the way back down to the blue sea again. And we might have danced with some wolves, but that's another story too.

Then we slept. And in the early hours of the morning, Usopp woke up and heard the sound of hammering coming from the Going Merry.

[Voice]

[asobouyo]

[Screaa--!!

THESE ADVENTURES, I WANT THEM]

A hammer?? What was the sound from, sis??

[Voice]

[mikangirl]

Well, he went to see like the brave warrior he is. [Elicia may or may not be old enough by now to hear the amusement on those two words.]

And what he saw was a small, shadowy figure in the mist, standing by our ship out of the water hammering slowly at its side. Bang... bang... bang.

[Voice]

[asobouyo]

...


W-who was it?

[Don't leave me in suspense, man.]

[Voice]

[mikangirl]

Usopp didn't know at first, because he ran back to camp as fast as his legs could carry him. [Which ...wasn't exactly right, but hey. The art of storytelling. >>] And we all thought he was making it up, so we didn't know at first.

But when we went back to the ship the very next day, we found that someone had come and repaired it in the night-- but there was nobody else around, and none of us were responsible.

Re: [Voice]

[asobouyo]

... Then...

Who was doing all that?? Was it a ghost?

[voice]

[mikangirl]

Mmhmm. Or rather, you could say it was the spirit of the Going Merry - Merry himself, creeping out in the middle of the night, to make repairs so we could continue sailing together forever. Or...as long as possible, anyway.

[voice]

[asobouyo]

The ship was fixing itself? Even though it didn't have any arms??

[voice]

[mikangirl]

That's right. Because the ghost of the ship had arms. He was a shadowy human figure, and pretty young, too.

He looked after us really well.

Re: [voice]

[asobouyo]

You weren't... scared of him? Because he was actually nice, even though he looked like that...

[voice]

[mikangirl]

Well, we were scared at first. Some of us were, anyway. Your big brother wasn't. [Grin.] But that's because we didn't know what was going on. Once we knew, it was just... a really good thing to know. And we wanted to do right by him.

[We really did. But there was only so much they could do, in the end.]

[voice]

[asobouyo]

Then you're right! He's a good example of a good ghost, huh?

[voice] A weird nose... '_'

[mikangirl]

That's right! And he's also a good example that sometimes things are frightening, but that's just because we don't quite understand them properly. If we don't know why there's a weird noise, it's a little creepy.

[Coming to you from a woman who still shrieks if something goes bump in the night. DOUBLE STANDARDS ARE OKAY BY YOU, RIGHT.]

[voice] are you insulting my nose madam

[asobouyo]

Okay... Then I'll make sure it's something that's really actually scary, before I get real scared! Right?

[voice] Damn right. THAT ICON HAS NO NOSE.

[mikangirl]

Sounds good. I mean, it's always a good idea to be careful, just in case!

[voice] oh yeah well you have a WEIRD WAIST!!

[asobouyo]

Oh, yeah! Then maybe I should keep lots of lights nearby; papa says ghosts are scared of lights, too!

[voice] It's not bad. It's just drawn that way. '_'

[mikangirl]

Ahh, well he might be on to something! And the good ghosts might like having a light on too, because who knows. They could be really frightened of the dark too.

Do you have a night light, Elicia?