A Flash of Green in the Smog

[strawberrymilk]

Nian had never before thought that air could have a 'taste'.  Perhaps it was just because the island she grew up on was simple and clean, a smell in the air she was used to, but air that tasted foul when you sucked it in?  Never in her life had she experienced anything of the kind until arriving on Dauntaun, which had definitely been a mistake in the first place.

This place was wretched, if she ever saw the guy who had told her this was a great place to go if one was looking to build their own ship she'd hurl him into the sea.  She hadn't even been here for a complete 72 hours and already she was set on one thing, and that was leaving as soon as possible.  Of course for that she needed a few supplies.  Her small boat could at least get her from island to island as long as she didn't go too great a distance but she still needed to stock up on food and water.

Unfortunately the prices for things like that were...perhaps a little extreme.  She didn't have a ton of money either, and so yesterday and at least part of today had been spent shopping around for jobs.  Nian did have a selection of very useful skills in terms of carpentry and engineering, she was a highly qualified shipwright and those skills could be applied to other places.  It put her in a better position than most of the people she passed by on the street but it was obvious from the handful of people she'd spoken to in her search that they'd be trying to tie her down.

Nian stood back up against a wall at the edge of one of the city's many crowded busy streets, there was a cloth wound around her face, covering nose and mouth like a mask.  It had been lightly doused with a sweet smelling liquid and was about the only reason she could tolerate walking through this place at all.  'Maybe I should just steal some food and run...ugh, but that sounds like such a lame start to a career of piracy...and could I even do that without breaking my promise?'

She had promised her father that she'd only fight to protect her own life after all.  She could steal without fighting of course, but if she got caught and attacked, would defending herself qualify?  Nian tilted her head up to look at the smoggy sky, green hair drawing a few looks from passersby...along with her curious outfit. There really only seemed one thing to say about her current situation.

"This sucks."

[Kami-Gaz]

Barrels, it was nothing but barrels that filled Mika’s dreams over the last few weeks. She had been spending all of her time in the warehouse filling barrels with the salt that her devil fruit powers generated. This said salt had properties that cleansed all toxins both in the body and air that it came into contact with in a spectacular white blaze of fire. The very same salt that was being used in a hair brained plan to clear all of Dauntaun of the poisonous smog that hang over it.

“All done Mister Mousie!” The soft voice of Mika called, the tall child shaped lass had spread her wings and poured the salt that they had generated into six barrels, the last ones that had been prepared for her. She sounded a little tired but happy to be working towards a goal that helped so many people. “Can I go out and have a walk?” She asked, prancing through the rows of filled barrels that had fireworks strategically inserted at the bottom to launch them high and explode in a way that dispersed her salt.

The energetic man popped his head out of the office that was at the back and beamed an award-winning smile to the not so little angel. “Mika, you’re technically the star of the show! You can do whatever you want!” He intoned as he walked out and headed her way. “I will get another shipment of barrels in a few hours, so go wild out there!” He said, waving a firework around in one hand as he twirled his cane in the other. Each spin of the cane produced a different sound as he covered varying holes in its surface with his fingers and thumb to change how it interacted with the air.

The girl grinned brightly as her wings flexed slowly and the tail that hung behind her wagged vibrantly. In a moment she sprinted to the door and slid the peep hole to the side so she could check if anyone was near by to see her then with a confident nod that made her dog ears flop she opened it up quickly and pushed out into the smog. "I'll be back later!" She called, her smile as bright as the sun on a clear day. The second the smog hit her salt covered wings and halo became a blaze with that brilliant white fire it has when it encounters toxins.

Mika the Angel of Purity was going to do what she did best, give people her salt and do her darnest to make them feel better and that together we can all get a miracle. That was the line that Mousie the head of PR had told her to say… it was meant to make her be a hero when their plan went off.

---

Post: 1
Mika: acd1fc
Mousie: efff9b

[strawberrymilk]

Holding the handkerchief in her hand Nian Gao carefully flecked a few drops from the bottle of perfume she was holding before stowing it back in its pocket.  "If I ever get back home I really gotta remember to thank Mrs. Belos for that perfume."  She said before exhaling completely as she pulled the cloth back over her mouth and nose, tying it back behind her head.  Then she'd inhale, and heave a sigh of relief.  It wasn't perfect but it at least made walking through the streets tolerable. 

She could still just barely smell the smog in the air though, like something unpleasant right on the edge of her senses.  It was obnoxious.  "Alright that does it.  Screw food, I'll just fish for my meals until I get to an island that doesn't have toxic damned air."  She had seen absolutely nothing to make her want to stay and frankly there were other places she could get the resources to build a ship.  With her mind made up she prepared to head out when she saw it, that flashing, fiery halo down the street.  Naturally the people about, those few who either had lunch or were fortunate enough to not be on one of the brutal factory shifts at this current point in time were going to flock to something like that, but Nian approached more carefully and curiously.

Was that a person?  It was...but she was radiating light, burning wings and halo as if trying to burn away the smog in the air.  Certainly it was the strangest thing Nian had ever seen, watching the crowd slowly grow as she observed from a distance, one hand on her chin.  Who was this person?  It would have excited her under normal circumstances, but in this awful place it felt like some kind of actual angel had descended to answer the people's plight!

[Kami-Gaz]

There were so many people who were sick, stung by the toxic air. It was something that tore at the pups heart as she was crowded by a mass of people. Everyone here had been subjected to foul air through no fault of their own, simply living and doing their best forced them to breath this in all the time. It was almost overwhelming to the empathetic angel as she brushed her wings over as many people as she could, washing them in the cleansing salt that burst into flames purge their bodies of the toxins.

This was enough, she needed to get more in a bigger burst. With a smile Mika outstretched her wings, “Time to make a scene!” She spoke, just as the salt form her wings grew in intensity. A moment later and it exploded everywhere in a white fiery burst of light that expanded over the entire crowd and them some, washing over each and every person that was there coated in the holy fire that swirled around everyone as the smog burned. It took a few seconds, but a dome of purified air sat inside a burning bubble of burning salt. For the first time in many of their lives these people breathed clean air.

The salt stopped burning the toxins out of the civilians after a short while, leaving them all with the cleanest bill of health they could get. Mika herself stood proud, her wings now free of flames, the feathers glittering with light as the crystals of salt reflected the flames that swirled around them in the bubble.

“Everyone breathe easy! The air in here is clean… one day I’ll clean it all. And make it stay clean!” Mika announced to the congregation, like a prophet proclaiming a great miracle was on its way. It was… just it needed some prep time and elbow grease from her friends to keep the air clean.

---

Post: 2
Mika: acd1fc
Mousie: efff9b

[strawberrymilk]

Nian was already impressed and intrigued by the display, the burning wings the woman was emitting and more than that the way she seemed to be healing the people understandably sick from living in this awful smog.  Yet then...the air cleared, a great rush of it cleared away burned up.  Nian actually flinched having expected it to burn but it didn't and lowing her handkerchief carefully...the air smelled clean, it smelled fresh!

"Incredible..."

This woman was promising one day she was going to clear the smog entirely which was nice.  Nian could definitely approve of that kind of goal although frankly it seemed like it was probably a long term project in the making.  The green haired foreigner watching from the edges didn't know enough about the island's rule or its manufacturing to realize what it would mean to clean the air entirely.

Right now she was just still lingering because this fresh air was far preferable to heading out into the smog to start preparing to leave.  That fiery cleansing though...was that one of those devil fruits her father had regaled her with so many stories of?

[Kami-Gaz]

The crowd that was encapsulated in this burning bubble of purifying flames burst into a chorus of cheers as the angelic figure was raised high and surfed around by larger adults that had congregated. The canine eared girl giggled as she was moved around the bubble of salt, doing her best to maintain its position as to not wash people with fire multiple times.

Not everyone in the crowd was showing such jubilation at the prophecy being foretold by the angel, they however were not the rank and file of the Dauntaun working class. They were agents of the corporate overlords that relied on the factories that created this smog, that relied on these people being downtrodden and struggling for their health and survival to keep them inline. Something that Mika was struggling to notice as she was being lauded as a hero.

“Okay okay! I need to get back to working so I can make it happen!” Mika called out, shifting in the crowd surf and flapping her wings to get some airtime and spreading a spray of salt all over. “I love all of you so please just carry on like normal, and when the day comes, we need you to break the machines that make the smoke. You will know the signal when it comes, it will be unmissable!” She carried on, her form shifting to make her taller, the cloths she was wearing hung tight as her form seemed to age up to that of an adult. The halo above her head grew brighter as salt dripped from it over the sides of her face to form two more faces. From her back sprouted more salt glistening wings.

“Trust me and my friends and you will all be living better lives soon!” She called out, stretching out an arm to motion the people away, her enhanced presence doing just that as the people seemed to back away as the dome of burning salt finished its duty.

Smog began to encroach again as Mika touched down in a clear space, the only people remaining being her and the well dressed mooks and a few stragglers who were wanting a few last gazes at the Angel. Mika transformed back into her dog state and let out a long sigh as her tail wagged softly.

---

Post: 3
Mika: acd1fc
Mousie: efff9b

[strawberrymilk]

Nian had heard all kinds of stories about devil fruits but seeing one in action like this?  The wings the...the multiple faces!  It was unbelievable!  No wonder so many people thought they needed one if they wanted to compete on the global stage of piracy.  A part of her couldn't help but start thinking wondering if those two faces were even vulnerable to attack the way the main face was, if the wings were even safe to touch without harm. 

Being at the edge of the crowd Nian didn't quite see what happened but seeing just a little dog there.  She blinked was this...where had that woman gone?  Was she the dog?  She...her eyes shifted glancing across the silhouettes of the other people still hanging around.  As reluctant as her father had been he'd taught her quite a few things and one of them was how to tell if someone was up to no good, there were a few things you could look out for.

A group of people all dressed similarly but not the way the locals did, someone or someones trying very, very hard to not look at someone or something, and then the opposite someone way too interested.  She was seeing all three right now.  Why would someone who had been part of this crowd be not looking towards where the angel had been, and for others why were there expressions so stern when looking towards that dog?  They sure weren't dressed like the downtrodden commonfolk either.

Nian started to move, walking forwards and towards the dog at a slow and steady pace, her eyes flickering from one mook to the next.  She had a bad feeling and she'd been told that in times like this you should listen to your gut.