5th Turn [Video/Action] Forward Dated to the 26th

[redjacketthief]

[It's late at night that the video feed opens. The thief is there, not remembering proper camera etiquette again, with a finger held up to his smiling lips. "Be quiet," he seems to be asking. Not that it would save him.

While he's requesting quiet, he himself is haphazardly humming a soft, haunting melody, the title of which he will swear to the day that he dies that he doesn't know. For a man who hasn't spoken to God in years, his humming is strangely reverent.

The viewers soon realize why.

The thief removes himself from the video feed, presenting a scale replica of a cathedral that some may recognize as the forever incomplete Sagrada Familia, the magnum opus of the deceased architect, Gaudi. Done up entirely in matchsticks and glue, and delicately standing on the coffee table in front of Lupin's zebra print sofa, it is but a faint echo of the original's majesty.

Astute observers will notice something different about it--it doesn't look as incomplete as it is in real life. The thief comes back into view, smiling.

There are secrets lingering just beneath the surface of his gaze. He will say nothing that will indicate what, though.]

Beautiful, isn't it. Been feeling a little nostalgic, for some reason. I thought the Old Man would appreciate it.

Comments

[redjacketthief]

Just was thinking a little about my mentor is all. He carried a heavy secret for decades...I hope it doesn't take me that long to get us out of here.

[justicereigns]

You have a mentor?

[Thieves have mentors?!]

[redjacketthief]

What, did you think I was born from a crimson egg in the catacombs under Paris as a fully grown man already knowing how to play the system? Even a well crafted blade needs a skilled handler.

[justicereigns]

I always thought thieves just became thieves over... other reasons. Not that anyone taught them how.

[redjacketthief]

My grandfather was an art thief and a gentleman. We have the same name, how can I be any less?

[Some men just didn't fit into the traditional system at all, Smoker. They had no choice but to be themselves, regardless of the consequences. It wasn't an easy balance to manage, maddness and freedom.]

[justicereigns]

Less? I'd call it more. Bloodlines don't mean you have to follow footsteps.

[redjacketthief]

Unfortunately, my mind moves too fast, and the world is too slow. I don't fit in with the rest of society at all.

At least my work keep my mind moving, gives me challenge. It's more than a lot of people can say about their jobs and lives.

[justicereigns]

Tsk. And you think Zenigata's life is too boring?

[Well okay, stakeouts are boring. And being stationed in Loguetown was extremely boring, but that was why Smoker was trying for G5, and all its insane problems.]

[redjacketthief]

No.

Because he's chasing me.

[justicereigns]

You said it yourself, he catches other criminals too.

[redjacketthief]

Ah~ But, like how the Familia was Gaudi, the architect's, masterwork and preserving its secrets was my mentor's, catching me and keeping me in prison will be Pops'.

I've helped him catch a few of those criminals too. See? I'm not all bad~

[justicereigns]

Like I said before, so they all say.

So what is the building supposed to be then?

[redjacketthief]

[He's just going to ignore that...]

It's the Sagrada Familia, a cathedral that's been under construction for over a century. Gaudi, the architect, died over 70 years ago, but he left records of how he wanted it to be completed. My mentor kept a part of them, in a way. [it was the simplest explanation for the missing Dark Diamond and the majesty created by rare astronimical occurances and refracted light.]

I caught a glimpse of them for a few moments, once. It'll probably never be completed within my lifetime, or even within this century...


But I feel a little responsibility for it, I guess. Both of it's caretakers are dead--who's going to make sure that people remember now?

[justicereigns]

So you're in charge of reminding people how to complete it?

What's it do? Just a church?

[redjacketthief]

No one gave me the responsibility...I just feel like I need to protect it's memory, is all. [It wasn't often he felt any kind of responcibility to anything, but this was the Old Man's life long secret. It didn't feel right that he, the boy that the man took under his wing, should abandon such a duty. It felt dishonorable.]

And yeah, it's a church. A really big one, though I think it gets more tourists and construction workers than worshippers.

[justicereigns]

Is most of your world's architecture like that?

[redjacketthief]

Nope. Only old style cathedrals. It's too dark, to awe inspiring, for regular living space. It's the only one being constructed in the current era--the rest were made centuries ago.

[justicereigns]

And your religion has nothing to do with the governments?

[redjacketthief]

That's the way it should be, but there's so many different religions and so many different goverments that the ideas change over time. More likely, the government tries to ban religions, or enforce a specific one.

You wouldn't believe how many wars start because people don't have the same interpreation of the same god.

[justicereigns]

[A shrug.] I read some of the library books on it.

[ooc: Aka CC's copout for "One Piece religion is too confusing to really properly utilize at this point in time."]

I take you're not that religious? Or is the cathedral of your faith?

[redjacketthief]

It's kind of hard not to have some religion, growing up where I did. I just prefer to have faith in my friends than faith in a god that doesn't like people like me.

[justicereigns]

Makes sense I suppose.

Faith in your friends, huh. [Does he give off the sense of checking off something on a mental checklist? Because he totally just did that.]

[redjacketthief]

Isn't part of that nakama thing we talked about before?

[justicereigns]

So it would seem.

[redjacketthief]

You can have faith in other things too. Yourself. Your beliefs. Your cause.

That's only a few.