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 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.