Queen of the Pirates

Criminals in Skypiea

"Ours is all old and beat to hell," Usopp reminds. "After 200 years of disrepair, I don't think it will run."

"A dial is merely a shell of a dead shellfish," Conis says, "so as long as it remains intact, then it should still work."

"Really!?" Luffy smiles, jumping around on his toes. "We should go get ours to look at!"

"It still probably won't work, Luffy," Usopp sighs.

Luffy's smile falls quickly into a frown. "Ugh, damn it."

"And there are other kinds as well?" Robin asks.

"Other kinds of what?" Conis asks.

"Of dials." She motions to the shell on the coffee table," That is a dial too, right?"

"Yes, that is a lamp dial. It collects light to be used later."

"The shell lights up!" Chopper slides off my lap, getting closer to the lamp dial.

"The civilization of Skypiea owes almost everything to dial power. There are flame dials that preserve heat, and scent dials that keep smells, and vision dials that archive pictures, and still more that do all kinds of things for us."

"It's fascinating!" I pinch Chopper's sides. "I bet that life in the sky would be nearly impossible without them."

"That's right," she nods. "We wouldn't be able to live up here without them."

"GAH!" Sanji's scream floats in from the kitchen.

"Sanji seems to be having fun back there," Luffy chuckles.

"I think he is probably overwhelmed by all the new ingredients that he's being shown," Usopp says.

"Sanji is already an amazing cook, but now he is going to have all kinds of new ingredients and techniques from all these different places that we are visiting," I settle back into the couch, glancing over at a sleeping Zoro. "He's going to be the best on any pirate ship."

"I wouldn't expect anything less," Luffy grins, plopping down next to me. "Oh, maybe you and I could go out on a waver together! I bet that we could ride it together no problem."

"I'd rather figure out how to use the skates Conis was talking about earlier. The waver looked a bit too difficult for me, and I don't want you to fall into the sea again."

"Fine, fine," Luffy grumbles, crossing his arms.

"Why does it matter if you can ride one of those things or not?" I poke his side a few times. "You can do plenty of other cool things."

"The waver just looks super cool, and it was fun before it started shaking uncontrollably."

"Its hard to practice when you can't fall into the water," I slightly pout. "The price to pay for being a rubber man."

"I guess so," he sighs.

As if on cue to cheer us all up, Sanji and Pagaya burst into the room with all kinds of food on trays that they are balancing on their hands and arms.

"Dinner is served!" Sanji announces. "A seafood extravaganza featuring only products of the sky island to please your palates!"

"It looks delicious!" Luffy, Usopp, Chopper, and I exclaim as everything is set down on the coffee table.