Someday, or soon enough, Mikhail will admit he was being sarcastic about his desire for a girlfriend... or Luffy will see that it's a truly impossible "dream", because of Mikhail's unique talent of repelling women the moment a single word comes out of his mouth. At any rate, finding the One Piece is definitely more likely to happen, no matter how many times Mikhail would insist otherwise.
He'll save the rebuttals for later, though. The shipyard isn't big enough to get easily lost within the bustle of people at work. It's also definitely loud, which is to their advantage, but Mikhail has no intention of sneaking around and avoiding detection.
As it turns out, he's as much of a skilled thief as he is a ladies' man: that is to say, he was definitely not the strategist on his old crew.
With a careless pew pew gesture with his fingers, he says: "I distract 'em, you nab 'em. Just grab as much as you can— we can sort out the bad wood from the good wood afterwards."
He said the other guys in the shipyard wouldn't notice the theft. Which, in his mind, would technically be true regardless of what else they would notice.
That makes Luffy's manic grin crack even wider in excitement, clearly Luffy takes no issue with that pedantic distinction.
That's his kind of stealing, anyway! He definitely does not have the learned skill or even deft touch of someone like Nami, but what he does have, is years of experience doing insane smash and grabs with his brothers in the Goa Kingdom. For food (though obviously those were more dine-and-dash flavored), or treasure, or other things that they just couldn't get out in the jungle or Grey Terminal's junkyards. The noble's guards were no joke, certainly not afraid of dealing violently with children, but if there's one thing Luffy was good at (even as a dumb little kid who had no real idea how to actually utilize his bizarre rubber body to its full destructive potential), it was making chaos work for him.
And he's way stronger now, in case this all goes wrong. (He may or may not be hoping it does. Hey, brawls are fun! And now that they've got a shipwright on the crew, they don't have to worry about running away before getting their ship fixed because they started a fight with an entire island!) "Okay! Meet me back at the ship," A beat, and he considers he doesn't actually know if Mikhail is any good in a fight. "Or just scream if you need help." That would definitely make it harder to sneak away with the wood, of course, but if Mik gets killed by a dock full of shipwrights before they leave, that'll defeat the whole purpose of this little shortcut and they'll be back where they started!
Either way he gives Mikhail a cheesy thumbs up, jams his straw hat down harder on his own head to make sure it stays secure, and then... reaches out one impossible long, stretchy arm to grab the top of the insurmountably tall privacy fencing around the fancy-pants shipyard, catapulting himself over it and into the back of the yard where all the lumber not currently in use is stored like a human-shaped slingshot pellet. Godspeed, Mik.
Mikhail lets out a (pointedly) loud scoff at the suggestion that he would scream for help. The only reason he would ever scream is because he's the best damn decoy the four seas have ever seen, and making noise is what decoys do!
He yells after Luffy: "Yeah, yeah! Just try not to get distracted yourself!"
He counts to seven before making his move, casually strolling into the yard with his hands jammed in his pockets, like it's any other day of the week and he hadn't just joined a pirate crew on a whim. The opportunity for a distraction comes in the form of two workers hauling wooden beams over their shoulders: without even trying to be sneaky about it, Mikhail sticks out one foot as they pass him, sending the man in front tumbling hard to the ground.
The rest of it naturally falls into place: the crash of timber, some very loud shouting and cursing, and Mikhail jeering at the guy for being such a klutz, he should watch where he's going, really, someone could have been seriously hurt!
His own Devil Fruit, in comparison to Luffy's, is nothing flashy nor practical. It was a failed experiment in all definitions of the term, whipped up by a fanatic who couldn't hold a candle to Vegapunk's intellect. Most don't even notice the effects of Mikhail's ability with how unremarkable it is. While other Devil Fruit users can harness flames or create shockwaves or turn their own bodies into weapons, all Mikhail can do is hold someone's attention once he has it. No matter what they do, they can't turn away from this buffoon if he simply wills it.
And this is why he truly is, in all likelihood, the best in the world at playing the role of a decoy.
But he probably could have accomplished the same even without that poor excuse of an artificial Devil Fruit. More workers come to gather around the commotion, pissed off by Mikhail's nonchalance and unaware that he has, quite literally, captured their attention. Luffy is free to do whatever he wants without any danger of being caught, while Mikhail is dodging punches and egging on the man he had tripped to aim better.
On any given day Luffy veers wildly between being the most distractible person on the planet, and being a creature of pure single-minded focus to the point of absurdity. Luckily for the both of them, he heeds the warning to not get distracted and he busies himself with his own task instead of following Mikhail's progress as excitedly as he definitely wants to. His new shipwright is fun!
Unfortunately, he still doesn't actually know what oak lumber looks like by sight. He ends up wandering around in the back until someone spots him, half-listening to the sounds of Mik's far off shenanigans to make sure he's not calling for help, so he uses that to his advantage and points across the shipyard to where the commotion has started getting bigger and bigger and just says "whoa, what's going on over there?"
Then he watches in amazement as that actually works and the poor shipyard worker actually starts wandering over to see what Mikhail is up to in an artificial Devil Fruit-induced daze.
In the process, he abandons a pallet jack loaded high with a pile of pre-cut cedar planks (it's not oak but it's another beautiful quality hardwood, because clearly lady luck plays favorites), so even without being sure of what it is, Luffy decides that's good enough for him and he starts tugging it towards the insurmountable fence.
Huh. He hadn't planned things this far. Well... Mikhail seems to be doing a really good job being distracting, so maybe Luffy can just take it out the entrance that the shipwright used? After a moment of waffling, he decides that the worst that can happen is he can get dragged into the brawl that he's pretty sure is brewing around his new crewmate, and he wouldn't actually hate that. Once he gets close enough to the escape route that a mad dash would be pretty easy to execute he bellows: "Hey, we can leave now, I've got— uh," he trails off, finally getting snagged by Mik's powers himself and totally forgetting what the rush is as he watches the chaos unfold.
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no subject
He'll save the rebuttals for later, though. The shipyard isn't big enough to get easily lost within the bustle of people at work. It's also definitely loud, which is to their advantage, but Mikhail has no intention of sneaking around and avoiding detection.
As it turns out, he's as much of a skilled thief as he is a ladies' man: that is to say, he was definitely not the strategist on his old crew.
With a careless pew pew gesture with his fingers, he says: "I distract 'em, you nab 'em. Just grab as much as you can— we can sort out the bad wood from the good wood afterwards."
He said the other guys in the shipyard wouldn't notice the theft. Which, in his mind, would technically be true regardless of what else they would notice.
no subject
That's his kind of stealing, anyway! He definitely does not have the learned skill or even deft touch of someone like Nami, but what he does have, is years of experience doing insane smash and grabs with his brothers in the Goa Kingdom. For food (though obviously those were more dine-and-dash flavored), or treasure, or other things that they just couldn't get out in the jungle or Grey Terminal's junkyards. The noble's guards were no joke, certainly not afraid of dealing violently with children, but if there's one thing Luffy was good at (even as a dumb little kid who had no real idea how to actually utilize his bizarre rubber body to its full destructive potential), it was making chaos work for him.
And he's way stronger now, in case this all goes wrong. (He may or may not be hoping it does. Hey, brawls are fun! And now that they've got a shipwright on the crew, they don't have to worry about running away before getting their ship fixed because they started a fight with an entire island!) "Okay! Meet me back at the ship," A beat, and he considers he doesn't actually know if Mikhail is any good in a fight. "Or just scream if you need help." That would definitely make it harder to sneak away with the wood, of course, but if Mik gets killed by a dock full of shipwrights before they leave, that'll defeat the whole purpose of this little shortcut and they'll be back where they started!
Either way he gives Mikhail a cheesy thumbs up, jams his straw hat down harder on his own head to make sure it stays secure, and then... reaches out one impossible long, stretchy arm to grab the top of the insurmountably tall privacy fencing around the fancy-pants shipyard, catapulting himself over it and into the back of the yard where all the lumber not currently in use is stored like a human-shaped slingshot pellet. Godspeed, Mik.
no subject
He yells after Luffy: "Yeah, yeah! Just try not to get distracted yourself!"
He counts to seven before making his move, casually strolling into the yard with his hands jammed in his pockets, like it's any other day of the week and he hadn't just joined a pirate crew on a whim. The opportunity for a distraction comes in the form of two workers hauling wooden beams over their shoulders: without even trying to be sneaky about it, Mikhail sticks out one foot as they pass him, sending the man in front tumbling hard to the ground.
The rest of it naturally falls into place: the crash of timber, some very loud shouting and cursing, and Mikhail jeering at the guy for being such a klutz, he should watch where he's going, really, someone could have been seriously hurt!
His own Devil Fruit, in comparison to Luffy's, is nothing flashy nor practical. It was a failed experiment in all definitions of the term, whipped up by a fanatic who couldn't hold a candle to Vegapunk's intellect. Most don't even notice the effects of Mikhail's ability with how unremarkable it is. While other Devil Fruit users can harness flames or create shockwaves or turn their own bodies into weapons, all Mikhail can do is hold someone's attention once he has it. No matter what they do, they can't turn away from this buffoon if he simply wills it.
And this is why he truly is, in all likelihood, the best in the world at playing the role of a decoy.
But he probably could have accomplished the same even without that poor excuse of an artificial Devil Fruit. More workers come to gather around the commotion, pissed off by Mikhail's nonchalance and unaware that he has, quite literally, captured their attention. Luffy is free to do whatever he wants without any danger of being caught, while Mikhail is dodging punches and egging on the man he had tripped to aim better.
no subject
Unfortunately, he still doesn't actually know what oak lumber looks like by sight. He ends up wandering around in the back until someone spots him, half-listening to the sounds of Mik's far off shenanigans to make sure he's not calling for help, so he uses that to his advantage and points across the shipyard to where the commotion has started getting bigger and bigger and just says "whoa, what's going on over there?"
Then he watches in amazement as that actually works and the poor shipyard worker actually starts wandering over to see what Mikhail is up to in an artificial Devil Fruit-induced daze.
In the process, he abandons a pallet jack loaded high with a pile of pre-cut cedar planks (it's not oak but it's another beautiful quality hardwood, because clearly lady luck plays favorites), so even without being sure of what it is, Luffy decides that's good enough for him and he starts tugging it towards the insurmountable fence.
Huh. He hadn't planned things this far. Well... Mikhail seems to be doing a really good job being distracting, so maybe Luffy can just take it out the entrance that the shipwright used? After a moment of waffling, he decides that the worst that can happen is he can get dragged into the brawl that he's pretty sure is brewing around his new crewmate, and he wouldn't actually hate that. Once he gets close enough to the escape route that a mad dash would be pretty easy to execute he bellows: "Hey, we can leave now, I've got— uh," he trails off, finally getting snagged by Mik's powers himself and totally forgetting what the rush is as he watches the chaos unfold.