East Blue

The East Blue is commonly known as the weakest of all the seas. Pirates who are considered great and threatening in this sea are regarded as low rate compared to pirates from the other seas and especially in the Grand Line.

## Arrival at Loguetown! Bellamy's Scheme!

Hope pulled up to the docks of the bustling harbor city of Loguetown and dropped her anchor into the sea. Pirates came across the deck and looked out into the city full of life and commerce in the distance while the quiet docks' gentle breeze blew through the warehouses and had the smell of cooked fish from a nearby fish market. Hunter was the first off the ship and landed gently walking with her hood up over her face into the city. The pirates merely watched this before looking back towards the Captain's Nest and then back at Hunter. "H-Hey! Hunter, why are you leaving without Captain Cross?" one yelled. Hunter turned and only her nose and mouth could be seen. "Watch the ship you guys, I'll be back." she says before hurrying off.

Within the major part of the city people were moving around all the time from shops to streets to bars and all sorts of riff-raff. Hunter made her way towards the Marine Base located towards the eastern half of the city and walked inside with her hood still over her head. As she got near the Admiral's office and knocked two Marines rushed over and grabbed her shoulders. "Um, Miss, the Admiral doesn't have time for--" the Marine was cut off when the door opened and Admiral Smoker stood at the door looking down on all of them. The Marines quickly jumped to a salute and Hunter looked up slightly and smiled. "Let her in, we have business." he said as Hunter walked inside of the office. The Marines were merely dumbstruck but Smoker's look drove them away.

The room from the outside looked like nothing but smoke clouds and on the inside it was no better. Admiral Smoker opened the window and the smoke drifted out into the city. Smoker was a huge man with broad shoulders and always had two cigars he was smoking at once. "You know, those are bad for your health I hear," Hunter says taking a seat and crossing her legs. Smoker sits across from her and begins stacking stones. "Cross is ashore I assume?" he asks. "Yes, we're here looking for Bellamy. Your message you sent us said he was docked here?" Hunter asks. The two talk for a short while longer before Smoker dons his Marine jacket and Hunter walks out of the Marine building.

Cross jumps off the ship's Fore and landed on the dock taking off with four others behind him trying to keep up. "Captain, slow down! You said it yourself Hunter's fine!" a pirate wielding a strange revolver like pistol in his holster yells. Each pirate had something unique about them that were following Cross; one had two revolvers, one of them had many knives, another was tall but had large muscles and the last one had her sheathed sword in her hand. "Cross, please, slow down!" the female shouted, already winded from Cross running into the main part of the city before stopping in the plaza. He stretches and yawns, "Man, I was so cooped up on the ship that I thought I'd never run again!" he shouts. The five of them laugh together and Cross makes plans for them to meet back up in the Plaza. Cross travels to a nearby fruit vendor and scans the wares quickly until he spots something strange at a nearby vendor.

Cross walked over and leaned on the counter and picked up a fruit from the vendor and began studying it as the vendor's owner smiled seeing he had a customer. "Why, you've picked my strangest fruit sir, I don't quite know how to explain that one, not even sure if it's good anymore." he says. Cross smiles and hands the vendor a few Beli for it and then puts it away in his satchel under his brown jacket. "Sir, I'm sorry to inform you that I may have to arrest you." Cross says with a slowly forming smile. The vendor is taken aback and backs off a little. "What, what for?!" he asks. "You've just sold me a Devil Fruit. You know it's illegal to sell these on the regular market." he says. The vendor begins sweating and has a panicked look in their eye until Cross begins laughing. "Hehahahaha! Oh, I'm only kidding man. It is a Devil Fruit but it must have formed into one of your produce when its own died. It's not your fault at all." he says paying a little more for entertaining him and walking off. *This Devil Fruit looks very familiar, I could have sworn I've seen it somewhere before...* Cross thinks to himself as he looks at the yellow fruit inside his satchel with sickle shaped designs on it. *Whatever...*

Hunter was walking towards the south part of town when she noticed someone duck behind a corner when she looked behind her. She unsheathed her dagger under her cloak and continued her way towards the docks picking up her pace. "Spring Snipe!" Bellamy shouted as he launched forward towards Hunter with a loaded punch. Hunter moved to the side just in time and only her cloak was caught and torn off. Hunter wore a one piece underneath with a bandoleer near her leg that held her dagger and she had a whip connected to her right hip from the diagonally clipped bandoleer. Hunter had small boots that barely passed her ankles and when she looked at her attacker Bellamy could see her blue eyes and short brown hair. "Bellamy the Hyena." Hunter said holding her dagger forward."So, you're 'The Deputy of Death' everyone's talking about. I know, I'll take you and then I can flush out that useless bounty hunter! Hahaha! Spring Snipe!"

Alcatraz D. Jensen is sat in the bar to the right of the Fruit Vendor. Jensen takes a seat at the front of the room and orders and bottle of beer, smiling as he pays the bartender as he brings forth a bottle. Jensen pops off the top of the bottle and takes a sip before getting back up and pushing hair out of his face. He walks to the back of the room, taking a seat in the back corner, carefully watching the entire bar as he slowly sipped at the beer.

Cross walked into the nearby Bar and sat down on a stool in front of it ordering some water. Some men laughed at him but he only smiled as the Bartender did as he asked. Cross took a sip of the water but left it there as he scanned the room then took another sip. He began thinking back to what his mission was here but entirely forgot hoping that Hunter would remember. *My memory is just horrible. I'm glad I have Hunter.* Cross thought to himself as he took another small sip. There was some noise form a few blocks away but Cross merely laughed and looked out the small windows to see people running. "Maybe some pirates, who knows."

Hunter struck back before being flung into the plaza several blocks from the bar Cross was in. People ran away screaming as a man who seemed to have arms and legs made of springs began bouncing off of every surface from the ground to the buildings building up speed busted onto the scene. "Hahaha! You're in for it now, Deputy! Spring Hopper!" Bellamy shouted as he dove straight towards Hunter. Within the span of what only seemed like a second, Hunter was hit and flung into a nearby building with a horrible gash on her arm. Bellamy had barely missed her but the force of that attack would have broke her in half had it connected fully. She stood up and took out her whip as Bellamy got closer and threw it wrapping around his leg, which Bellamy counteracted with by turning his leg into a spring and bouncing away with her holding onto the whip for dear life. "Let's go for a ride! Spring Hopper!" Bellamy shouted as he began bouncing on all surfaces again horribly ragdolling Hunter.

Jensen looks over to the stranger who walked in, keeping an eye on the man. Jensen finished his beer off and got up, making his way over to the counter where he sat next to the stranger and ordered another bottle of beer. Alcatraz smiled lightly as he took a sip from the new bottle but this time, stayed in place. He spoke quietly to the man, "What do you think is going on out there?"

Hunter finally untangled her whip as she fell and crash landed onto a vendor in the plaza and got up, pretty badly injured as Bellamy landed in the center of the plaza unharmed. "This will be a cinch. You're coming with me little lass." he said as he neared Hunter who was only sitting in place. Bellamy prepared a spring loaded punch as he got closer and Hunter quickly leaped out of the way as he punched into the building causing a huge hole. Hunter took out her dagger and quickly moved forward slashing his arm and then jumping away before he caught her with a spring loaded arm and pinned her against a wall. He closed in and smiled eerily. "This will do, now, how to make that Bounty Hunter appear...?" he asked as he drew back a punch with a now sinister look in his eye. "I know..."

Cross looked over to the stranger and laughed a little before finishing his water and raising the glass for a refill and the bartender took it. "Well, who knows. Loguetown is pretty infamous for pirates so maybe it's a pirate attack. I can't remember why I'm here so I'm just relaxing." Cross told the stranger. He gets his glass back and takes a sip as more people run screaming but Cross is just oblivious to the fact. "So, what brings you here stranger?" Cross asks looking over to the man with a smile before taking another sip.

Jensen shrugs, "I'm a freelancer, I'm looking for a Job." He takes a sip from his beer and puts it down on the counter. "I typically do jobs for the Marines and Pirate Hunters, helping out or taking matters into my own hands." He takes another sip from his beer and smiles lightly. "I rarely do work for other Pirates too."

"CROSS!"

Cross shrugged as he looked at the man. "Well, for what it's worth I'm both a Pirate and a Bounty Hunter. Mostly though I collect these weird fruits, not sure if you've heard of them but its these things." he says as he pulls out the Sickle Sickle Fruit from his bag. It's a pear shaped yellow colored fruit with sickle shapes on it. "No idea what kind it is but it was at a fruit vendor. Scared the Hell out of the guy selling it." he said before putting it away. There was a shout for someone, everyone could hear it, the name "Cross" which had many people looking around and some even frightened. "Cross? THE Cross is somewhere?" "Quickly, let's get out of here!" people in the bar were now in a panic as many ran out. Cross himself merely stood up and threw a gold doubloon onto the table paying for his water and turned to exit the bar but he stopped and turned around waving a hand and half his face was visible. "Oh, by the way Stranger, my name's Cross Bizen. Good to meet you." he says before exiting the building and running to the voice with a smile on his face.

Jensen smiled, finishing off his beer and paying for it before standing up. 'A Devil Fruit? This is just getting interesting' He smiled and walked out after Cross, taking out his black leather fingerless gloves and putting them on. "This should be fun." He grinned to himself as he started running after Cross.

Hunter held her breath as Bellamy began choking her against a building. "So pathetic, you should have shouted louder, what if he's on the opposite end of the city? Hahaha!" he laughs as he begins punching her again. Bellamy shook his head as he let Hunter fall to her knees and cough up some blood before he backed off and began compressing his fist. "I'll just kill you, this isn't worth it. Spring Death..." Bellamy stopped as he felt his arm grabbed and as he turned around...

Cross reached his gloved hand forward and grabbed Bellamy's face as Hunter smiled and leaped out of the way as Cross continued his push and slammed Bellamy into the ground causing cracks and the plaza to shake. Bellamy yelled in pain and then using his springs bounced away to get space between him and Cross. "You bastard!" Bellamy shouted. Cross merely turned around and rotated his wrist. "Right, I was sent here to capture you of all people. The man worth 195 million Beli. You'll pay the bills alright." he says smiling. Bellamy compressed his arm back into a sling as his broken glasses fell off his face. "SPRING DEATH KNOCK!" he shouted as he let loose the near invisible spring punch and punctured straight through Cross' chest and the fist landed on a building behind him. There was the sound of dripping and Bellamy standing in shock as Hunter cleaned herself up getting serious. Cross smiled. "Now you've done it..."

Jensen kept running until he saw the strange looking guy with his fist through Cross. "Well, here we go" He spoke to himself as he jumped high into the air and dived down, "Bujutsu Style: Furaingukikku!" kicking Bellamy in the face with his two feet, sending Bellamy head first into the ground, cracking and shattering the stone. Jensen jumped up and brushed off his coat with a light smile.

"Thanks, Stranger, he was occupying my gut." Cross said as there was visible water trickling down from his gut as his body began turning back to normal and filling in the hole. Cross ran forward and Bellamy began counterattacking by using spring loaded punches and jumping away. He was a skilled adversary. Cross jumped over by the stranger and opened his left hand creating water and flung it at Bellamy. "Mizu Mizu no Mi Arrest!" he shouted as the long pole of water slammed into Bellamy's legs and turned into cuffs made of water. Bellamy hit the ground and turned his legs into a spring as the cuffs fell off and flung himself into the air. "I won't let you beat my that easily! Don't forget I can turn my legs and arms into springs. Now, I'll kill you both with my Death Move! Spring Death Knock Bazooka!" he shouted as he super compressed his fists into his arms to where they was no longer visible and unleashed the punches towards them. When it connected with the ground it broke the very plaza around them. Bellamy looked down as he retracted his arms and looked to see if he got them until he felt a dagger at his throat and Hunter leaning on him. "Too slow..."

Jensen moved out of the way of the attack, jumping to the side where he stood with his hands behind his back. He looked to Cross, "I'm Jensen, Alcatraz D. Jensen" He gave a slight bow before he looked to Bellamy, "Is it over now?" He laughed lightly.

Cross stood where he was as he was now standing slightly obtuse on the cracked and broken ground as he looked up to Hunter who was pushed off of to give Bellamy space to jump towards Cross and began compressing a spring once again. "You're Spanish ain't ya?" Cross asked as he side stepped Bellamy and then crated another set of cuffs and threw them on Bellamy, this time freezing them around his arms. The convict quickly sprung away using his legs and tried breaking the cuffs but they were too solid to break. "Well, I say this is about done. With his arms stopped there's not much he can do." Cross says. "You wish! Spring Hopper!" he shouts as he begins bouncing off of the surfaces gaining more and more speed. "This guy doesn't know when to quit." he says as he looks over and Admiral Smoker and the Marines arrive. "Hey Smokes, we got a situation here." Cross says nonchalantly which makes Smoker facepalm as Hunter lands next to him.

Jensen coughs lightly and laughs, "I've got this" He leaps after Bellamy, darting from side to side as he caught up before tackling him. Jensen wrapped his arms and legs tightly around Bellany. "Bujutsu Style: Shasatsu shi rokku." He grabbed hold of Bellamy's head and slammed his forehead against the back of Bellany's head. Bellamy collapsed with blood dripping from the back of his head, knocked out cold.

Cross nods and goes over to Bellamy picking him up by his collar and tossing him to Smoker. "Take him to the execution platform and have my money ready." he says as he walks over to Hunter and crouches slightly then rubs some blood off her face and she bats his hand away. "Cross..." she says irritated as he ruffles her hair. "Just making sure my daughter is OK." he says as Hunter puts her dagger away. Smoker shakes his head and he and the Marines begin leaving. Cross turns back to Jensen and raises an eyebrow. "That's an odd technique you have "Prison of the Seas"." Cross says with a smile. Hunter looks at him and opens her eyes slightly wide at the mention of the name and looks at the man.

Jensen smiles and brushes off his coat, "I see you recognize my name. That is a technique I was taught by my last teacher." He takes off his gloves and put them in his pocket, "So, what are you going to do now?" He placed one foot in-front of the other and held out his arms giving a strange stance.

"Who knows?" he says walking off with Hunter who shakes her head at the man. Hours later there is a gathering in the Execution Ground in another plaza far from the destroyed one. Bellamy is in seastone shackles and two executioner guards are next to him holding long swords with long handles and Cross is up there near the front right corner chewing on an apple. "Any last words?" one of the guards asks Bellamy. He merely holds back his tears as his frown grows larger. Cross sets down a pineapple in front of Bellamy just out of his reach and chews on his apple again. The executioners raise their swords and Bellamy shouts out: "Save me, Donflamingo!" before he is beheaded and blood shoots out down the front of the platform. One of the Marines walks up to the top of the platform and hands Cross a large bag filled with bills adding up to Bellamy's bounty. "You know what...? I don't want it." Cross says as he tosses it over the crowd and then covers his fingers in water and then ice. "Mizu Mizu no Mi Shedder." he calls out as he throws the two icicles against the bag ripping it open and having all of them money fall like snow into the crowd as they cheer.

Hunter shakes her head and Smoker growls. "That idiot... he doesn't understand the concept that Bounty Money is blood money. Yet anytime he doesn't return these assholes to HQ he throws away the money like it's confetti." Smoker complains. Hunter simply giggles, now wearing her cloak again but leaving the front open and the hood over her head. She notices the fruit Cross set down begin changing until it becomes gray with circular shapes on it and Cross picks it up putting it into his satchel. "Well, we got what we came for. We have over 500 million Beli back on the ship from prior profits, I'm sure the citizens won't mind a little green." Hunter says as she catches one of the bills.

Jensen is back at his still docked ship, sitting on the deck of his small boat. "Nothing better then a little work out, eh?" He laughs lightly as he sits back with a beer in his hand. "That Cross guy is interesting, wonder what his crew is like" Jensen starts to hum to himself quietly as he watches the area around him.

There was the sound of clicking and Jensen could see a revolver pointed at his head with a dark tanned man holding it and another one in his other hand. "You asked?" he said smiling before he lowered the pistol. On the other side of Jensen was the large man with muscles so large he shouldn't be from this planet. "My name is Otto. That over there is Rad, say Hi, Rad." Otto says. "Hello." he says in a deep voice. Both seem friendly enough as Otto puts his revolver away but keeps the other one out. "So, what brings the Prison of the Seas to Loguetown, eh?" he asks looking him over. "And why did you mention our Captain a moment ago?" Rad asks. Otto is a dark tanned man with green eyes and blonde hair and a medium sized build to him with a tattoo that shows a pistole and three bullets saying "Deadshot" above it. Rad doesn't wear a shirt and has huge hulking muscles that take away from his brown yes and short green hair that is slightly spiked. The two of them have average pirate garbs with some slight modifications to them to suit their style with one apparently being a Cannoneer and the other being The Muscle.

Jensen smiled lightly, taking another sip, "I'm looking for work. I don't have a crew nor a big fancy ship, just this little old bucket" He laughed lightly, drinking the rest of his beer and putting it on the table. "As for your Captain, I helped him out earlier by knocking out... Um... What's his name... Bella... Bellie... Bellamy, that's it, Bellamy" Jensen relaxed in his chair with a big smile.

Otto nods and smiles. "Well, mighty kind of you. Did he say when he'd be back yet? We're a little worried about Hunter. She ran off by herself before Cross woke up." he says. Rad simply begins wlaking back to the ship and Otto scoffs and shakes his head. "Hey, Rad, why don't you stop acting shy and talk to people?" Otto calls but Rad simply jumps from the docks onto the deck of the ship and walks out of view. "I do apologize about that guy, he's always shy around people but he's one heavy hitter, he once lifted a Marine Warship out of the water with his bare hands at a dock just like this and threw it at the Marines. Hoo-boy you shoulda seen their faces. I'm honestly more worried about the two Devil Fruit we have on board the Ship. Cross needs to absorb those puppies quick and nullify them." Otto says pulling a rum bottle out of his jacket and taking a sip.

"Eh... Devil Fruits aren't that bad, they make the world more interesting, don't see why someone would want to remove them" Jensen laughed, placing his hands behind his head, "Besides, it puts people on even terms with monsters such as that Vegapunk and his creations."

Otto nods. "Right. Nobody however can stand up to Cross, nobody we've seen. We were hunting down people in the East Blue mostly from their Wanted Posters. There's four left here in the East Blue who are of high Bounty. Alvida, Kuro, Krieg, and Arlong are the last remaining Bounties in the East Blue. Oh, I forgot to mention, where ya heading man?" Otto asks taking another sip. He then offers a drink to Jensen.

Jensen takes the bottle, "I don't know, I don't have a job yet, and I need to find one soon." He takes a sip from the bottle and hands it back to Otto. "Thanks for the drink. Pirate hunting is kinda fun. I brought in a crew myself a while ago, it was alright. But yeah, I'll just stay in port here till I find some work."

Otto nods and finishes the bottle before tossing it into Jensen's boat. "Well, Cross is heading to All Blue out in the Grand Line, if you want you can come. I'm his next in command after Hunter so I don't think he'll mind. You'll work as an Odd-Jobs until we find you something nice I guess." Otto begins walking away waving before he looks back. "Oh, and Cross has an even bigger target than All Blue," Otto reaches the ship and then looks back. He smiles large as Cross and Hunter arrive with Cross throwing his Satchel onto the ship. "We're going to find One Piece!" he shouts.

## Yet Another Bounty, The Black Cat: Captain Kuro!

Jensen sits at the front of the ship, cross legged with his eyes closed, meditating quietly. He could smell the sea air but kept himself from falling off.

Most of the pirates on the ship were playing games while other were checking on vital functions of the ship as underwater its propellers were working hard due to the lack of wind in the air. One of the crew members rested on the ship's fore next to Jensen and sat crossed legged. It was a woman in her mid to late twenties with a sword laying across her lap and she wore a yellow button down shirt underneath a jacket and red shorts with blue shoes. "Hey, you having fun up here Jensen?" she asks with a smile. He green eyes shine against the reflection of the sea but the hood of her jacket covers her hair.

Jensen smiles lightly, opening his eyes. "Yeah, I am thanks." He stands up and stretches, walking onto the main deck of the ship, "Meditating is always fun."

The woman follows him and places her sheathed weapon on her shoulder with the handle over her head. "Well, by declaration of Cross I'm the one who is suppose to be watching you to make sure you don't do âanything rash." she says with a smile and stays near him. "It's not that we don't trust you, but Cross has done this sorta thing before where we've had a prisoner seem nice and they turned on us even with our hispitality of not watching after him. I personally dealt with it."

Jensen raises a brow, "So I'm a Prisoner now, am I?"

"You're my prisoner at least. Honestly as long as you don't cause trouble I don't care what you do. I won't have to use my seastone cuffs on ya." she says walking past him and looking down at the crew. "So, where exactly are you headed, Jensen?" she asks.

Jensen shrugs, sitting on the deck, "I'm a freelancer. I was offered to join in here for a bit by Otto." Jensen lets out a yawn, "Well, I can assume you know who I am, but I don't know you."

The woman nods. "My name is Amanda Bonsley, and I'm on of this ship's main swordsman." she says with a smile. "I fight using the Fencing Style combat and currently I am undefeated in all of the North Blue. I joined Cross' pirate crew upon his request because I wanted to see the world." she explains.

"Hmm... Amanda" He gets on his knees, taking Amanda by the hand. "What a beautiful name for a stunning woman, even your style of fighting is exquisite. Astounding! Amazing!! Breathtaking!!!" He says with seemingly love hearts in his eyes.

Amanda pushes Jensen away by his forehead with her sword's sheath. "Calm down there crazy, don't forget I'm the one keeping track of you." she says before standing up and taking her hood off revealing long brown hair. "Stop playing puppy, or if you want to then go swab the Deck for me, would you?" she asks.

Jensen sits back to where he was, "Alright then" He laughs lightly. "So, any idea where we are headed?"

"We're heading to All Blue, out in the Grand Line. Cross hasn't told us what for yet but I'm sure he'll explain it." she says walking down some steps. "Oi, oi, Amanda? Would you go make us some lunch? Everyone's starvin out here!" Otto shouts. Amanda shakes her head and walks towards the inner parts of the ship. "I'll see what we got, ya'll wait tight." she says disappearing from view.

Jensen waves to Otto, "Hey there." He rests back, rubbing the back of his head lightly, "Well, All Blue, huh?"

Otto nods to him and takes a sip of a Rum bottle. "Yeah, we're heading there first for some reason. Cross likes to keep these little vacations to himself so who knows why we're heading there. First we have an island coming up in about four hours that we'll stop at and then we'll be prepped for Reverse Mountain. You ever been to the Grand Line, Jensen?" he asks coming over and sitting with him taking another sip. "Anything you need to know about the crew just ask me, man."

Jensen looks down to the deck, "I've been there once, when I was a child, but that is it. It's also one of the reasons why travel and do jobs."

Otto nods and offers him the bottle. "Well, speaking of jobs, you can mop the Deck, I've gotta go check the Nest and see if we're close to the nearby island." Otto says leaving the bottle and moving towards the main mast.

Jensen sighs and takes the bottle, taking a sip before placing it on the side. He gets a bucket full of water and a mop and starts cleaning the deck.

There is an island in the far distance after a few hours and then Amanda comes back out and shouts: "Oi, dinner's ready you blokes. Get it while it's hot." shortly after she shouts, the pirates head inside of the ship following the smell of food.

Jensen stays on the deck, mopping it until clean before sitting back down. He picks up the bottle that Otto left and takes another sip before sighing and placing it back down. "Hopefully there will be some fun soon."

A black man laughs heartily next to Jensen looking at the island. The man has blonde hair and brown eyes with many assorted weapons on a wheel on his back. "Of course there will be fun you fool! Geahahaha!" he laughs.

Jensen looks to the man and smiles lightly, "Yeah, wouldn't expect any less. So, who might you be then?" Jensen got up and look out to the island.

"Myself? I am the eccentric Anderson Bell, a man with a six hundred thousand bounty on my head. I collect weapons from my opponents and use my Chakram to hold the more powerful ones while I wield multiple weapons at once and love having a wonderful time." he says in a boisterous voice.

"Ah, Anderson Bell... Never heard of you." He shrugs, "What have you heard of me from the Captain?"

"Absolutely nothing." he says laughing. The ship begins nearing the island and a large ship can be seen docked with a strange cat-like jolly roger flying on it's top. "That's odd, looks like another pirate ship is here. Looks like we'll be getting some excitement straight off the bat!" he yells.

Jensen looks further in the island, "Huh... I'm going to have to make a pit stop of my own in the Village nearby. There are some things I need to buy." He stretches his arms and lets out a light sigh.

Anderson lets out another hearty laugh and Jensen has a sense of small foreboading as if there were a large body standing over him. When he would turn around, Johnny Radson would be standing there looking out at the local isaldn. "That is... my home." he says watching the approaching island that has a clear view of the Red Line, albeit foggy but direct in the distance. He merely stands there and looks outward as Anderson slaps one of Rad's large arms. "Cheer up fella, I'm sure the folks will be glad to see you again!" he says with a boisterous happy voice.