"You Played well. You won those rounds, fair and square. I hadn't said it before. Lucky fore you, High Roller is active for as long as the Games Continue, and until a winner is declared after the total games are passed."
"Or, until I deactivate it myself. But- it'd cost me extreme fatigue."
"There's technically one more round left- But. after I tell you what you want to hear. I will forfeit." She spoke with closed eyes, before giving a sigh.
"Lets begin."
"The Name of This Island Is Wringly Archipelago. The once famous island known for its wood and agriculture. Now turned into nothing but a barren wasteland of dried fields and cracked earth."
Across the Islands, the Crew watched with widened eyes as Mary revealed that the Island they thought was a mistake, was indeed the island they were looking for. Kirks hand coming to his mouth, while Raven looked in horror.
"For years, we were the top grower of wood in this route. Second only to Amaretto. Our wood was bought and sold to Water 9 to be used in ships. Serving as both flexible, and durable building material."
She sighed again. Clearly this took a lot of energy for her to speak on. Mary then pulled a pack of cigarettes and lit it in her mouth before releasing the acrid smoke while she continued to speak
"I grew up on this island. Lived in this exact house. The others lived in other parts of the Island." She pointed to the screens, to the other Islands in the Archipelago. "Poch lived there, Oko Lived here, and LeBau there."
"That was until the Dragons Came."
"Celestial Dragons Specifically. World Government started small. Buying up all of our stocks. And at first, we prospered. The profits rolled in droves. We were able to improve our houses, our best Axemen and lumber workers had more time off, but worked even harder to keep it coming."
"Then- The wages were cut, and a Mandate was put in place. '15,000 tons of wood a week.' It was ridiculous! Thats almost thirty trees a day! Sure, there were entire islands of the Archipelago stuffed with ten times that!"
"We thought we were literally doing the gods' work! A Celestial Dragon? Wanting our wood? Use our island? People fuckin, Cheered hearing it! 'We must be grateful. For the Dragons to have been gracious to choose us!'."
"What a bunch of idiots we were. What I was…So we accepted it!"
Mary bit her lip hard "It was such a hefty task. For even less. Some of the workers started setting up permanent camps to eat and sleep at the job sites."
"But we did it. We got it done. Month after month. We did it." She pushed her self back in her chair. Giving a quick sniffle and a rub of her nose. Before leaning forward to continue
"And then, get this. 6 Months after that. They hit us again! You wanna know what they did?"
"They started stationing marines at Jobs sites, said it was 'For Protection'." She shook her head.
"But the whispers said otherwise. The Bruises. They were whipping us into shape. And you'd think it wouldn't get worse from there! We could be happy for a little bit."
She scrunched her nose, as her eyes became slick with tears.
The same happened to Raven as well. Who couldn't help but fall to her knees, and begin to sob. Gripping at herself as she curled her body forward. Hot tears streaming down her face.
This place- A place that she saw as safe. Ruined! A place that she cared for, even in passing…She couldn't handle it. What it meant.
Mary slammed her hand into the table again. Harder this time.
"They increased quota! Hahahaha! Could you believe it? They increased…the fucking quota. Not to 16,000. Or 17 Thousand. No! That'd be too generous for them."
"100,000 tons…A month. A…Fuckin. Month! Almost 200 trees! It already took at least 4 hours to cut down one!"
"I became a lumber worker because of it! Hear one of the guys say, that it'd take 33 days to do it. So it would require at least every person on the island to cut at least one."
"But but but!" She began to wag her gloved finger at Leroy "Thats not the worse of that part. The Real…The Real kicker was-"
"There was a decree of ownership. Enacted by the World Government. A lot of Islands aren't tied to the world government but still supply them. And then theres ones that willing join the World Government."
"Places like Beckett. But, then theres the rare cases for Decrees of Ownership. It was a lot of paper work on the World Governments hands. Required them to get a full up to date sensus, evaluate the entire island, and a bunch of other red tape. Which would usually be done by the Island itself in the case of willful joining."
"But when they did it themselves. They dictated far more. I don't know why they don't do it on every island. But for here?"
"They required weekly payments on all of our homes. Ringing us even more. And when we couldn't pay? The only place to go was to the Job Sites. Marines using the houses as shelter."
"Enforcing the Marine Quartering act."
A piece of law that's existed for as long as people could remember. It allowed for any marine on active duty to request shelter and quarters from a homeowner. But it required consent in the cases of non-affiliated islands. But on an Island Affiliated without a base? They could do as they pleased.
"We worked. Tirelessly. Through out the nights. I took shifts with a man. We slept for 30 minutes. Some times 2 hours when the other could keep going."
"Some of em was able to smuggle in Glimmer. The Shine. Few puffs of that? Kept 'em working for hours."
Glimmer. A Notorious drug that was made from processing a specific jelly fish, the Glimmer Jelly, into a dried state and then processing them into a thick viscous liquid, drying it again, and finally powderizing it. Or keeping it in a form to smoke
Stronger than opioids, or amphetamines. And with enough, gave a high that was like no other.
Mary tugged at the tips of her gloves before tossing them harshly on the table, showing he palms in view of the camera and the Captain.
"This is what all that did to me."
Her hands were cracked, and callused. Scars on the pads of her fingers and at the top of her palms where the axe and saws had ground away at. They were gritty and rough like sandpaper.
"We were able to only to do it for two months. 200,000 tons of lumber. Nearly deforested an entire island in that time. Some were hopeful that it was the end. And others. Other just awaited what came next."
Marys eyes seemed dead. No longer filled with anger.
"But then. Warships came. Forced us out of our homes, out of the camps. And declared that the island wasn't meeting quota. And because of it, could no longer be considered as a viable source."
"Then, with such precision. They forced us off the island. Some fought back. And caused a firefight."
"Some got away. Many didn't me and the others were lucky. We were gone for 3 months before coming back."
"Only to find this." She lifted a hand, gesturing around.