#depending on the vibes you're getting from luffy i guess

[basedkikuenjoyer]

Hidden Scenes for a Snowy Queen

Doing something kind of simple because Christmas is gonna be slow. If you celebrate hope you're having a Merry one. We're having some friends over for lunch, making a big pot of curry! Tomorrow we'll have what I guess you could call a tale of two girls out of time. Today...it's been a while and I don't think I ever did this just all at once. Yesterday we talked about how Kuma's alternate vantage point flashback sets a precedent because that's what makes Kiku's role in Wano weird. You could do that so well. The key is having specific points an attentive reader can guess at what may come up:

A bit of a weird one but one you gotta mention. Getting through having such a big presence in the arc and never opening up about the month at Tsuru's Teahouse. Focusing on what that blank slate revealed about what you really want. Coupled with more of her own perspective on Bakura Town.

End of Act 1. Cutting off the way we do leaves a lot of room to have said more than just what happened to Luffy. Taking responsibility is a big, believable thing to add on.

Night with Chopper at Tsuru's is a blank check for character building, but mainly showing what we know about being the quiet leader of the breakout plan.

Where were you when the gang went to rob Yasu?

Don't sleep on Luffy being a sharp dude who probably thought of Iva the second he heard what he heard about Kiku in Udon and would know now's not the time. Especially when Act 3 for him gets tied up around a foil for Kiku that doesn't understand the concept. All of this weird way of going about things is because our core point revolves around tact, etiquette, sensibility.

Ending Act 2 gives you a lot of little ones with plenty of room to play with. Returning the Nidai Kitetsu, how the Sunacchi element comes back up and honestly just having a friendly time in the grove. Something got her to "Torao-san." Biggest thing that makes me wonder though is just into Act 3, how the armor scene is so weird but couched in mentioning Jinbei followed by an interesting interlude for Tsuru that drops a big, if understated reveal for Kiku. That piece of context, Tsuru letting her think she was getting away with being incognito, is critical because it's an existing example of this kind of storytelling.

Special note how the flashback in general is perfect. Casually folding Izo in makes it a big, big deal for Kiku and we get pretty much her whole life...except for the interesting personal drama points you'd expect based on the character we'd set up. Specialer note for leaving a perfect opening to roll Shanks & Buggy into when you found out about big bro's decision.

Then this one could go a lot of places but how we seed the idea that Kiku was maybe a little more Toki's retainer by the end. She doesn't talk about Oden much, there's a nanny vibe with the kids that makes sense if you think about it, the actual Rashomon-style subtle reveal of where she was in the jump forward scene. But it was already hinted from here in the example of how Toki rehabilitated Oden's image:

The Raid is a different beast altogether. It's showtime, there's no trick. Kiku just has the odd one out internal Akazaya emotional journey that bounces off the Straw Hats. Did you notice or was there too much going on? Yamato is the star right? Don't think about the enormous butterfly effect potential if he hadn't dragged Luffy away from meeting up with his samurai buds. Seriously, you have it here, all the potential in the world. Luffy plus the samurai could have beaten Kaido quick, Yamato dragging Luffy away hampered that but it was a necessary step to setting up the Awakening. This all fits as an interpretation of Toki's prophecy. Essentially, "Play your part even if you're unaware of the deeper meaning. Because the world depends on what happens tonight."

And of course finally, the aftermath. Skipping Ryokugyu when the fight makes a specific note of "people about to leave shouldn't be here" is one thing...adding that to Ryo hammering the other shoe dropping on the caste theme with Urashima? Playing coy with you and that absence as we set up our endings for Carrot & Yamato?

I still don't know what to think. None of this is new, I was saying it by the end of Wano. While we've been on Egghead a while it was always playing with similar themes and now this Kuma flashback started and ended setting important "precedent." Our idea for a plot resolution looked a lot like how Ginny saved the day at God Valley and Kuma showed us how much POV can change what you thought you knew. We'll get back to the why tomorrow but it felt worth it to reiterate why there's so much potential. I know this bag of tricks has been out of style for some time but it just feels like ground I've seen other series walk so well, the only innovation is letting the trans girl be the mysterious ingenue rather than her vain, worldly foil.

But of course...nothing is weirder than this girl hopping over into the Academy universe and doing the exact same thing, just way less subtle. You already had Kikuhime & Kamatari hanging around a girl that just on her own started off being one of the most meta characters in a silly series where 4th wall gags are a rare final frontier. Call it copium or hopium or whatever cool Gen Z slang you wanna use, I'm ready to keep huffing it well into a new year at this point.

[maddmuses]

NAME?: Madd

PRONOUNS?: Friend (Any/All)

MOST ACTIVE MUSE(S)?: *sweats rapidly* uhhhhhhhhhhhhh... It really depends on both who I'm talking to, and the media I consume at that moment. I wanna say Nami, Mina, Sakura, Goba, Shoyo, Luffy, Naruto, and Byakuya are my most consistent muses to draw on.

RP PET PEEVES?: Hmmm... Little things but rarely are they deal-breakers. I guess if I had to say the conflation of muse and mun bugs me because as a person I wouldn't even get along with a great number of my muses, much less make the same choices. Also just the habit of others to put baggage onto my case when I don't know wtf you're talking about.

EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS?: I think for about 18 years starting in like smaller ways that I couldn't initially identify as RP, but around 14 or 15 more pronouncedly, I got into D&D not long after, forum-based RP around 17, and I made a tumblr around the same time but didn't use it until I was 19 or 20.

FLUFF, ANGST, OR SMUT?: Yes. In the case of the first, please. In the case of the second, if you're good at it. In the case of the last yes I'm a turbo-slut.

PLOTS OR MEMES?: A little of both, but I think plotting is great because some people on this site are bad at writing assumptively.

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES?: A healthy mix.

TIME TO WRITE?: I work, like most adults, but I also have other projects and have recently started helping a friend with her YouTube Channel (she's already at over 100k subs it's more about managing her team)! The reality is that I write as I vibe it on blog but write every day otherwise.

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S)?: It depends on the muse! Some I am VERY similar to, and others I could not be further from. I suppose Shoyo is the closest to being a lot like me as a person.

Tagged by: @infernaliscor Tagging: The cutie reading this right now

[chenziee]

The Fire in your eyes

! MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MANGA CHAPTER 1044 !

My thought process: I headcanon Luffy as ace, Law as sex-repulsed -> oh god Gear 5th Luffy doesn't seem ace, just look at him -> "oh." 

So yeah, this was supposed to be like a 3 sentences long post on here but it got a little bit out of hand so here we are, I guess

! MAJOR SPOILERS FOR MANGA CHAPTER 1044 !

[Read on AO3 | Ko-fi]

—————

The dust hasn’t even settled over what was left of Onigashima. If he listened closely, Law would probably still be able to hear the echoes of Kaido’s final, pained cry before he fell unconscious at Luffy’s feet, taking the last standing wall of his castle down with him. It was the only sound to be heard, after all. None of the pirates, samurai or ninja present were able to utter a single word for minutes now, simply staring in shock at the scene before them.

At Straw Hat Luffy, beaten and presumed dead twice in the span of an hour, standing victorious with a wide smile on his face.

Law himself still couldn’t say anything even as the other members of their anti-Kaido alliance cheered all around him. He couldn’t take his eyes away from Luffy’s strange form when he finally landed on solid ground for the first time in what felt like hours. Law could tell he was barely standing, his consciousness slipping as exhaustion from the long, stressful battle slowly started to catch up to him.

Yet, Luffy’s grin still widened when his eyes met with Law’s. The man, who didn’t even seem fully human now, took a few wobbly steps in Law’s direction and quickly, Law moved forward to catch him, to support his boyfriend’s weight. He had thought Luffy wasn’t awake yet and almost started to panic, wondering whether this endless night of fighting could have pushed Luffy a bit too far, far enough to match his half-dead appearance.

But then, Luffy’s arms slowly circled around his waist, his head coming to rest against Law’s shoulder, his fiery hair brushing over Law’s skin, making him hiss from how hot the simple, brief touch felt.

Before he could so much as complain or ask Luffy if he was okay, all thoughts deserted him when warm lips pressed to his jaw, then moved down the slope of his neck, leaving a trail of kisses behind. At the sam time, the hands on his back moved down, sliding underneath his shirt to touch his bare skin. As fingers ran lightly up and down his sides, their touch teasing and promising so much more to come, the cursed lips came back up to Law’s ear.

“Torao, I need you...” Luffy breathed. “Let’s go somewhere private.”

Law couldn’t move. He didn’t understand what was going on; couldn’t even begin to wrap his head around the situation he had suddenly found himself in. He had no idea how any of this happened or how he got to be in this position but he did know one thing.

He hated it.

His skin was crawling, his stomach almost turning. He wanted to push Luffy—or whoever the fuck this person was—away but he had no strength to do so. He was frozen, had no control over his body, simply letting his... person do whatever he wanted.

And he hated that, too.

It was only when Luffy’s wet tongue ran over his earlobe that Law finally broke out of his stupor.

He couldn’t—refused—to deal with this right now. No questions asked, no negotiations; instead, Law’s fist shot out, aiming at the solar plexus with precision and finally, Luffy slumped in his arms, unconscious.

He carefully laid Luffy’s lifeless body to the ground, he realized he was shaking. And he knew he couldn’t take care of Luffy’s injuries like this. And so, he didn’t protest when Chopper rushed over, basically pushing Law out of the way while he fumbled with his medical supplies so he could treat his captain’s injuries.

Getting up without a word, Law let everything up to Chopper, trusting the reindeer would do a better job that him right then.

Law needed a damn break.

—————

It took five days for Luffy to finally wake up, and then even longer for them to finally be alone for longer than three fucking minutes without someone bursting into the room with tears to either thank Luffy or express their relief he was even alive.

And ironically, it seemed like for once it was Luffy who had been dying to get a moment in private. After a long moment of him just chewing on his lip and obviously wrecking his brain of what he’s even trying to say, he finally blurted out, “What the hell was that?”

The pure, honest confusion in his voice could only be matched by Law’s own in that moment. “What?”

“That thing that happened right before you knocked me out! What was that?” he asked, his brow furrowing.

“It’s called lust, Straw Hat-ya,” Law told him flatly.

Luffy silently stared at him for such a long while that Law wasn’t even sure if Luffy knew what that word meant anymore. But then Luffy opened his mouth once more.

“Weird,” he said. “Also weird that was the first time I felt something like that.”

“Probably the adrenalin rush or something.” Law shrugged dismissively.

“I’m sorry,” Luffy said quietly then, peering up at Law with a serious, earnest expression on his face. Only when Law gave him a questioning look, did Luffy elaborate, “Because I know you hated it.”

Law was silent for a while, simply studying Luffy’s sad, apologetic expression before he finally sighed, “You’re not getting any extra snacks from Black Leg-ya for a while, if that’s answer enough.”

“Okay.”

Law startled at the immediate answer, not a single trace of hesitation or sulkiness in his firm voice. When Law met his eyes, Luffy was looking at him with eyes full of determination, a fire in them which was so familiar, so alive, and so very Luffy that...

That Law could almost cry from the relief he felt in that moment. He didn’t realize just how worried he was when he first saw Luffy rise from the dead, hair aflame and laughing like a maniac. How scared he was when he saw the crazed look in his eyes. Or how panicked he was when Luffy had started sucking and biting on the skin of his neck.

How positively terrified he was that Luffy was slipping through his fingers, losing himself in his newly awakened powers.

That was why, seeing his ally, his boyfriend, the love of his entire, miserable fucking life being completely himself again... nearly broke him.

Something must have showed on his face because only a second later, Luffy was standing right in front of him, pulling Law into his arms and hugging him tight, his hand slowly runing up and down Law’s back.

Law didn’t have the energy to fight it. He didn’t even hesitate in wrapping his own arms around Luffy’s waist and burying his face in the crook of Luffy’s neck. He took in a deep, shaky breath, and took comfort in Luffy’s familiar scent; in his warmth, his steady heartbeat, his fingers running through Law’s hair.

He almost thought he’d lost it all.

“I’m not going anywhere, Torao,” Luffy mumbled softly once Law’s breathing calmed down enough to be considered normal. “I’ll learn to control it by the next time I use it.”

“I know,” Law sighed. He knew Luffy could do it—he was honestly likely the only person in the world capable of controlling such a ridiculous fruit—but he still couldn’t help but hug Luffy closer, almost desperate.

They didn’t say anything after that, not for a long time. Luffy waited patiently for Law to gather himself and Law... Law was too tired to pretend he was fine anymore. He’d been putting up this facade for days; five whole days of Luffy sleeping the strain on his body away, two whole days of chaos after he woke up... and seven whole days of telling people he was okay over and over again.

Now, Law’s composure was falling to pieces but he didn’t care.

After all, it was Luffy—not Nika, not Joy Boy, not anyone else—who was right there with him, ready to put the pieces back together.

And Law had never been happier.