[Written]

[tsuntrader]

[There's nothing better to do after three days out in the cold and a chat with your best friend than to stare at your journal and idly contemplate whether or not interacting with People sounds like a good enough idea.

But something's on his mind. Or, well, a few somethings, but it's persistently sticking there enough to be worth asking.

To the journal.]

Could anyone tell me about leaders? [Well that's vague. ...Whatever.]

[...]

And while I'm here, what are elves? [...] And what's "tsun"?

Comments

[tsuntrader]

Someone you'd follow. Someone you'd look up to.

[fierybluebird]

My Pops was my captain and a pirate emperor. He was the best leader I ever knew. Even his foes respected him, eh?

What would you like to know about leaders?

[tsuntrader]

[Even his foes respected him...]

What makes a good one? What you would do for one? How loyal would you be? [Yeah, that... Sounds about right.]

[fierybluebird]

[A small laugh.]

My Pops was known as the strongest man in the world, eh? And some people think that was because of his size or devil fruit. It wasn't. It was because he always protected his crew, his sons. He adopted all of us into his family and we protected him right back. He was able to protect entire islands like that, eh?

I'm... extremely loyal to him. Even now. I took his flag as a tattoo on my chest, and I was his right hand man. I'd have done anything for Pops. Sometimes before he could even ask. He was my father, so it wasn't just that he was my captain. We were very close. [His voice trails off near the end, a little choked up.]

[tsuntrader]

Sounds like the best dad anyone could ask for. [It would have been nice to know his father like that. To have that close of a bond with him. To be able to trust him and fight by his side. ...Is his father like that with his team? Of course, even if he is...]

...Did something happen to him?

[fierybluebird]

He was.

It's a long story, but the short version is he died in a war. He was seventy-two as it was, anyway, eh? So at least he went out the way he lived; larger than life.

[tsuntrader]

[...Oh. ...Well, people don't usually live much too longer than that, do they? And it sounds like he had a good life...]

...It's not the worst way to go. [...Right?]

[fierybluebird]

It's... complicated, but it was more or less the way he wanted. He died standing and protecting his family, so that's what he wanted. Larger than life, eh.

[tsuntrader]

[There's a bit of a pause as he nods at the journal... Before remembering that he should probably actually say something.]

Right. [Dying protecting his family. ...It's a good way to go, but... Death is death. Even in this context, hearing about it is bittersweet.]

[fierybluebird]

[Very bittersweet. More bitter than not, Marco's just trying to be mild about it.]

Anyways, I think a good leader protects his crew no matter what, eh? And inspires them to protect him back.

[tsuntrader]

[Nod nod- book, stop nodding.]

Yeah. That's what I thought. [Crew, tribe, whatever the word for it is. He gets the picture.]

[fierybluebird]

So does that help answer your question?

[tsuntrader]

Definitely. [...] Thanks for sharing that.

[fierybluebird]

I'm glad to be of help, eh?