Zoro
He didn't know where he was going. At the moment, he was tied to this post, relying on the integrity of a spoiled brat to keep his word and let him go without hurting that little girl afterward. But he didn't know where to go after this.
For years, he'd worked with one goal, to be the best. That was the promise he and Kuina had made to each other. He refused to break that promise, he refused to give up on his ambitions. But lately he'd been wondering what would happen once he reached that goal.
He knew that there would be no shortage of challengers once he reached that point, there was no shortage of challengers now, and he'd only been on his own for a year.
But none of them were a challenge. How could they be? He was the acknowledged best swordsman in the East Blue. He felt like he'd learned all he could here, but he had no idea how to go further.
His life was starting to feel repetitive, dull.
Aside from the occasional fights for bounties and challenges, all he seemed to be doing was eating, sailing aimlessly, and weight training where he could.
He couldn't have known all that would change with one rubber-brained idiot of a pirate captain with a dream even crazier then his.
Nami
She was stuck.
She had to gather one-hundred million Belli, or her home village would be in Arlong's control forever. She'd heard what happened to Gosa, and she knew that someday that would be Cocoyashi. The people's pockets weren't very deep to begin with, and were getting shallower and shallower, especially the more they were forced to stop trade with other islands so they focus on their own survival.
She knew that no matter what, Arlong would find a way to keep her. Deep down, she also knew that he had no intentions of ever letting Cocoyashi go, no matter how long it took her, or how hard she tried, or how much money she gathered. No matter how much she convinced herself that he would honor his word, she knew.
But she couldn't stop trying. This was the only thing she could do, the only way she could help her village survive. They didn't need to know that she was leaving enough money for those that couldn't pay that month, so that they could pay. She also knew that if she missed somebody that couldn't pay...
She knew that Nojiko wanted her to just leave them, to go out and be free.
But she couldn't leave her home behind, she couldn't leave the villagers that helped raise her behind.
She didn't see a way out of this, she knew she was going to die as an 'officer' of the Arlong Pirates.
How was she supposed to know that a loud-mouthed rubber-brat was going to change all that?
Usopp
He was always talking about getting out in the world, and following his fathers footsteps. He was always talking about being a brave warrior of the sea.
But everytime he thought about actually leaving, he was too scared to go through with it.
He tried to be content here, playing with the kids, calling them a pirate crew, but he knew they were just playing at being pirate. He wanted so badly to go out to sea, to see what was out there in the world, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.
After Kaya got sick and he started visiting her, he told himself that it would just be until she was well again. But by the time the one year mark had passed and she wasn't better, he knew he was just making excuses for himself. At this rate, he was never leaving this island, and he tried to make himself be alright with that.
That all changed when a rubbery pirate captain and his crew of two and a half (Nami claimed to not really be one of them) landed on his beach promising adventure.
Sanji
He'd long since given up on his dream of finding the All-Blue.
Maybe he really did just want to stay out of a sense of debt and loyalty to the old geezer, maybe it was fear that his family would find him, he didn't know. Whatever the case, he was probably going to die in this restaurant, running it alongside Zeff and refusing all his attempts to run him out.
Eh, he could go out doing something worse, he supposed...
He ignored the itch in the back of his mind every time he looked out at sea, and forced himself to stop imagining himself sailing on her, finding the All-Blue...
He tried to tell himself he was content here, he couldn't just leave, he told himself the old geezer had to acknowledge his cooking first. He ignored the part where that likely would never happen, that just wasn't how the old man was, he ignored where the fact he was the Assistant Head Chef over all the other professional and experienced chefs hired on was his acknowledgement.
He found himself excited again to pursue his dream for the first time in years.
And it was all because of a strange, fearless kid with wild dreams of his own, and crewmates that almost killed themselves for their own dreams.
Vivi
She was stuck. She knew who was behind the unrest that was tearing her kingdom apart, she knew exactly who it was.
She just didn't know what exactly she could do about it. She knew that she had to do something, she wasn't about to stand back and do nothing with it.
The problem was, what?
They could appeal to the World Government to control their dog, her family held quite a bit of influence with them, and for good reason, but that would open the door for them to be able to come into her kingdom and meddle where they weren't wanted. For centuries her family only managed to keep them out by the skin of their teeth and the knowledge that the Nefertari family had knowledge that could destroy them should they be pressed enough. Ignoring the fact that that knowledge was in an ancient language that few, if any, could even read.
Crocodile had an army behind him, and so did Alabasta, but Crocodile was also using the people of Alabasta to fight his war for him, she didn't want anybody to die, even though all of her training in battle strategy said that was inevitable.
Then she met a cheerful pirate crew, led by a lovable idiot of a captain who accepted her without question and agreed to help her get home to stop the war without a second thought.
And even though she stayed behind with her people, she knew that she would always be one of them.
Chopper
He thought he was happy.
He was learning medicine, he had Doctorine, and he was able to help people. He was doing what Doctor Hiriluk had always wanted to do, and had taught him was one of the important things in life.
Sometimes, though, he would go to the top of the castle towers, and he would look out over the island, at the ocean. And he would imagine everything the doctor had told him about those who sailed it, the adventures they could have.
Sometimes Doctorine would ask him if he ever wanted to set sail, and he always denied it fiercely, after all. What could a monster like him possibly do out there? At least here, even if he had to stay hidden in his natural form, he could still help the people, even if it was to just carry the doctor's supplies and hand her what she needed...
Then he met an even bigger monster in charge of a crew of monsters. They wanted him... for him! He couldn't believe it when the captain was shocked that he was a doctor... after he was already on board as a member of the crew.
Robin
She'd been running for years.
Running for the next lead on the Void Century, running from the World Government and their lackey Marines, running from bounty hunters, running from shady organization after shady organization that thought they could use her.
And now, she was so close she could almost smell it, only for it to turn out to be yet another false lead. She didn't care about the weapon Pluton, that wasn't what she wanted.
She was tired of running. She'd thought... But that didn't matter anymore.
And then she met the cheerful captain who didn't care about her past, but promised her a safe place where she could stay, and stop running.
Franky
He was content, happy even, where he was.
Sure, he didn't build that ship he wanted to build (no matter how much he blamed it on the lack of money, he was the one that called for a party to spend all their money, after all...), but he had the Franky Family all around him. They were his family, the family of misfits and outcasts that he put together and formed a (rather formidable, if he says so himself) bounty hunting, black-market running, and ship scrapping crew.
His dream... well, let's just say that it's never going to happen, not anymore. He'd once dreamed of building a ship even better then Tom's Oro Jackson. A ship to sail anywhere, through anything.
Unfortunately, after everything that happened to his mentor, he wasn't quite willing to actually do it. Even if he did get the materials he needed.
He shook his head and almost commanded himself to stop mentally building the blueprints of his dream-ship. It wasn't going to happen, so there was no point to having blueprints, mental or written down.
Besides, he needed to stay here and protect Iceburg should those government goons come back for the blueprints to the Ancient Weapon. Just because Iceburg didn't have them, didn't even know where Franky hid them, was no reason to assume they would just let him go. He knew how these goons worked. They were the ones that attacked the island using his mini battleships, then blamed it on him, all to get Tom's probationary sentence revoked.
No, he was happy here.
He found that he didn't know what happiness was until he met a bouncy captain, willing to risk it all for a crewmate telling him to go away.
Just like Tom.
Brooke
He was literally stuck in the fog. His crew was long since dead, his shadow had been stolen from him years ago, and he longed for nothing more then to at least see the sun again. Unfortunately, because of his missing shadow, to see the sun again meant his death.
He'd long since resigned himself to sailing on a ghost ship, playing his violin until he either drifted out of the fog, the creatures of the Triangle finally found him, and talking to the caskets he'd built out of wood scraps taken from other ghost ships and long since laid the remains of his friends to rest inside.
He'd long since run out of paper even, so he wasn't able to write down his new songs until he found another ghost ship to raid for supplies like paper and dried milk. He might as well go through their treasuries, too, while he was at it, assuming that ship hadn't already been stripped of all it's valuables. He had a stash of useless (to him, anyway) medical supplies, treasure, and weapon maintenance supplies. He didn't know what he was going to do with it all, either. It was just sitting there, just like he was. Once in a while, he did some training, and tried to see what the limits of the Devil-Fruit that he once thought was a dud were, but there wasn't really much for him to do.
He'd seen nothing but fog and broken down ships for so long...
He saw the sun again in a bright grin on the face of a rubbery pirate captain and his cheerful looking ship.
If anybody were to ask any of the Strawhats, they would say that they were completely content with where their lives were when they met Luffy, that they weren't in any danger. That they didn't need any help.
Truthfully?
Luffy saved each and every one of them.
They would do anything to save him in turn.