1st Chapter [Voice/possible Action] Forward Dated to May 8

[no_compromise]

[It was raining, something that rarely happened in the arid region of the Far East on his homeworld. It was raining when he pulled himself up out of the mud three days earlier with a soreness in his shoulders and a baffling block of missing time that he could not explain. With his immortal body, sleep was optional and even unnecessary--the last time he slept was over seven years ago, just before the fall of the Spiral King and his army.

The black out bothered him more than the wings, but his inherent pride as a warrior and a beastman kept him from more than a cursory question here or there over the journals. Soaked to the bone and thoroughly irritable about the information he absorbed via the strange journal that arrived with him, Viral finally emerges from the silence he had built up around himself.

The video feed opens to the beastman sitting in relative comfort in a shabby fort he built for himself amongst the fallen branches from the winter. It was obvious that this wasn't the first time he had broken his needless exile, as the new feather pants had been traded out for his comfortable travelling gear, including a very ragged brown cloak and an equally worn red scarf. Though dry for the moment, his hair was still tangled and not fully cleared of the mud.

Clearly his isolation was more important than finding an apartment. Though, if pressed, he would explain his thoughts on that manner.]

[Very Broken Filter away from all possible members of Team Dai-Gurren]

Luceti. I am Viral. [Pronounced like the word 'virile.' There's a subtle pause, either from the inherent awkwardness of this or his noticing that the filter is terribly broken.] If any of you here have ever encountered someone by the name of Simon [pronounced 'see-mon.'], from a place called Jeeha Village, who also calls himself 'the digger' and is currently ranked at High Commander in our world, if you have met his brother Kamina or any of their friends in Team Gurren or Team Dai-Gurren, I will not ask you to disregard anything you may have heard about me. Whatever they said is likely true.

[From a certain perspective and point of view.] I only ask that you keep an open mind.

Also, is there someone on this network who can explain why the animals are talking? Does the rain normally last for this long? [Another beat.] I've been here for a few days now, so I understand enough, but this climate is unfamiliar.

[With that he ends the feed, not wanting to say much more. Though tempted to just shut the journal, his questions about the local fauna and climate are pressing enough to be a bother. He's there, in the woods toward the west. Feel free to find him.]

Comments

[fierybluebird]

Animals can always talk, you can just understand them now. No, the rain doesn't usually go this long, but it's Spring, so it's more prone to.

[no_compromise]

[Certain animals he could understand, sometimes. It was dependent on the conditions they were in, but normally they were never quite so vocal about becoming dinner.

Then again, he has yet to find wood that was supple enough and dry enough to fashion into a bow.]

I'm used to more arid climates, like deserts or savannahs. Rain is very unusual there.

...if we can understand the animals more easily, how do you manage to hunt with a clear conscience?

[fierybluebird]

[Moro is really going to hate you Viral.]

Desert summer island? Okay then yeah, it rains a lot more than you'll be used to. Storms too, though nothing close to what the Grand Line gets, and in about 9 more months it'll get really cold again. Damn I will never get used to being on a regular 4 season weather system though.

[Arches an eyebrow at the question and tilts his head a bit.] You... don't. There's a grocery store if you really have to have fresh meat. Or if you're like Luffy and want a meatcake. [WEE reference he totally won't get.] In any case, that's farmed meat, pre cut, you just have to cook it.

[no_compromise]

[He's a hunter at heart, no thanks to his blended genetics. Both felines and sharks are known for their prey drive--at least he has a tight reign on his. If Moro is angry, she would be happy to note that he's done no damage as of yet, and makes proper use of what he hunts. Nothing is wasted if he can help it.]

Not so much of an island, but yes. If we're stranded here, they couldn't try to make lives a little easier? [He speaks because he's used to the 'other side,' and he knows the picture. The Spiral King at least gave the humans underground enough to survive, with little problem more than possible earthquake and soldiers above to keep them down.

He knew so little back then.

He snorts at the mention of grocery stores.] The only places I've heard of like that are in Kamina City. [A place he's never actually set foot in before his trial.] Is this another case of bizarre wisdom from humans?

[fierybluebird]

[Marco is a zoan and thus knows quite a bit about carnivorous zoan. Still dude, ew.]

They did make it easier. You don't even have to hunt, skin anything, or so forth.

[Idly plays with some blue flames from one finger to the next as he thinks this over.] Yes, you could call it that. If you'll forgive me though, you don't look much like a fishman. [Unlike Smoker, Marco does not thing sharp teeth = shark fishman. Because Marco also was a big part of Fishman Island, and he has a shark fishman brother. But yes, that was his way of asking, "What are you?" without being quite so blunt.]

[no_compromise]

[He's familiar with hunting as a means of survival--it was either that or boil tough grasses into an edible pulp. Roasted flying raccoon was a better alternative.]

...I'm not a 'fishman', though you're not incorrect. I'm a beastman, a being of recombined genetics and cloned tissue. There is some 'shark' in my DNA, but I've never encountered an unaltered one to know for certain.

[fierybluebird]

You've never met a shark, they just added parts to your DNA...

May I ask how?

[no_compromise]

...Although the Spiral King granted me knowledge, even I don't know the 'how' of what he did. I'm a soldier, not a scientist.

[fierybluebird]

So kind of like a Vegapunk project. I see.

[no_compromise]

...what does that mean?

[fierybluebird]

He's a crazy scientist working for the marines and trying to make super soldiers.

[no_compromise]

Yes and no. Beastmen were not created by a crazy scientist to make super soldiers, but we are different from humans.

[His world is...complicated.]

...Our worlds sound oddly similar. What is a fishman to you?

[fierybluebird]

So how were you created?

You think so? My world's all ocean, so if your world is mostly desert, that's pretty polar opposite. A fishman is -- [Friend, brother, someone he'll protect for life, wait that's obviously not what Viral meant.] have you ever heard of mermaids?

[no_compromise]

We were created by the efforts of our King in order to be different from humans, not as super soldiers. Our worlds only sounded a little similar because of this--no one knew our King's reasoning until he lost the war, not even myself.

It was the secrecy, the intent to create something different.

[fierybluebird]

Why not human?

Eh, that sounds more like Vegapunk still. He does weird things with devil fruits too and combining species is more about zoans than fishman, eh. Fishman are their own species, just like giants.

[no_compromise]

Because the presence of too many humans triggers a system that none of us can stop. I didn't understand it then, but the phrase "The Moon shall become Hell's Messenger" makes more sense now.

...I don't understand what you mean by 'devil fruit', and I've never found any legends involving mermaids. There are tales of warriors fighting giants in certain regions though.

[fierybluebird]

What?

Devil fruits are a cursed fruit where I'm from that carry a superpower with them. Merfolk are people with a human head and torso, but with a fish tail. Fishman are more the reverse of that. More fishlike in face and body, but human legs and feet.

[no_compromise]

[He was going to need to explain. The problem was figuring out how without making enemies that he didn't need.]

Humans, on their own, are a destructive force in my world. The Spiral King, my creator and the creator of all beastmen, held it as his duty to keep them in line. He made us to help him with that, altered our DNA so that we are better soldiers and do not set off this system.

He was defeated, however, and left us with some very strange words. "When one million apes roam the surface, the moon itself shall become Hell's messenger and destroy the Spiral Planet."

...it was meant literally.

[There's a pause, enough for the strange man on the other end of the network to absorb that information and for Viral to process the rest of it.]

Fruits with superpowers and fish people that aren't beastmen, huh? That is a very strange place you come from.

[fierybluebird]

Yeah, but at least my world doesn't blow up at a one million population. [Clearly he's just amused by this however and lightly teasing, too jovial toned for anything else.]

So ah, why does the moon become a weapon to destroy the Earth under those circumstances? Something your creator also did?

Hell, there's a bunch of islands in my world with a ten million population. [Well at least one we know of canonically.]

And the fruits superpowers can only be activated by being eaten by an animal. But of course, then they activate the curse too.

[no_compromise]

No. The Spiral King didn't put that system there, but the decisions he made were to prevent it. My information on recent events isn't entirely clear, however, so I can't provide many more details.

...ten million humans, cursed fruits...I can't begin to imagine that. Sorry.

[fierybluebird]

[Chuckles softly.] Ten million on one island. The world as a whole is far far larger.

If it makes you feel better, there used to be at least five million fishmen on Fishman Island.

[no_compromise]

That's still far more than is currently alive in my world.

[fierybluebird]

Aye, so I'd assume. And again, there are many more spread throughout the world.

[no_compromise]

How is such a large population managed under those conditions? Humans instinctively are destructive in my world. It takes time, but it is why the systems were put in place.

...they can't keep themselves in check.

[fierybluebird]

Some people can, some people can't. Some people try to keep the others in check, some people really resent those attempts, so it's an ongoing war.

My father had the power to destroy the world just by himself if he wanted to. He never had that desire though, so he was always quite careful. Conversely however, an enemy of ours has that power now and he's a lot more reckless with it. He won't destroy the world, because he wants something else from it, but he will destroy a lot along the way. On the other hand, the people trying to "keep the world from being destroyed" and stop the others are also the ones who destroy entire islands in one go.

Things aren't so absolute as some minds wish they would be.