'silly Me Thinking It Wouldn't Have Taken So Long.'

　　　　'silly me thinking it wouldn't have taken so long.'

　rosinante nodded, knowingly ー tiredly. he knew the feeling intimately, having experienced it in different stages of his life. hell, he was still experiencing it now: starting out a journey determined & optimistic, assured that you would find what you were looking for in no time at all ー only for the days to drag on, the weeks, the years... it sucked. whatever this girl was looking for, he empathized.

　❝ no trouble at all, ❞ he shut down the thought immediately, a tidge of desperation in his tone, not wanting his new company to leave so soon. ❝ i have a lot of bedrooms ー but it's just me & plenty of empty space right now. payment isn't necessary. depending on how long you'd wanna stay, you could help with chores, but... i wouldn't make that a requirement. i'd rather just help those who need it. ❞

rosinante once again nodded at her request for a transponder snail, turning heel towards his home with the intention of leading her inside. though, as karma for the folly of overestimating himself, (and perhaps his excitement), worsened by the simple fact that he couldn't see where he was placing his feet ー the man tripped. the logs he had dropped, rife with jagged bark & splinters, served as a painful landing bed, and he pushed off them with a groan.

　❝ right. so, ❞ his recovery was clunky, but he pushed on without so much as acknowledging what had happened. ❝ sure thing. my snail's in the kitchen. ❞

this was the first house on her path, pudding knowing far too well that if it took so long to find it then the next might be even farther. she doesn't want to give up on her search so easily, but there's no denying that every attempt she's making so far seems to lead to nothing but disappointment - how long can she follow this pattern? perhaps the rumors are true and the entire tribe is dead, which would then put her in a whole differend situation, but at least pudding would have some peace of mind.

"i don't want to impose..." she begins to say, and putting it in the mostle simple way, life made her wary. the man himself doesn't seem dangerous, but then again she knows better than to judge a book by its cover - especially these days. "and i don't have any money." a lie actually, for a few in between jobs have granted the necessary to keep going for at least this month. "i wouldn't know how to pay you back for letting me stay." the uncertainty in her tone is not an act for once, doubts that her safety might not be granted always looming at the back of her mind.

"it is getting dark though," a pause and pudding hesitates for a moment once again. "do you happen to have a den den mushi? i would like to let my sister know that i'm alright," and since pudding has taken on the habit of keeping in touch every night so that nobody would worry, a missed call would totally seem strange. "but i left mine on the ship - silly me thinking it wouldn't have taken so long."

big fan of how multiple people are now invested in mine & lala's plot of penguin needing to help cora take care of his injury or law is going to kill both of them lol

🍭 by 五@GO524GO

did he hold that pose for two days or did he rush to the room corner the moment he sensed cora stirring awake so he can look cool

the way i set my queue to run to finally cycle through all my drafts through tonight & tomorrow unaware of what was just posted and was jumpscared by three separate people the moment it hit the dash 😭