#i'm thinking character study but. idk

[adnrewminyard]

imagine being kevin day, son of exy, born and bred to be a cog in the well-oiled machine that is the edgar allan ravens. all you know being the routine of practice and practice and practice and performance and victory alongside those you call brothers.

-and then one day you wake up in your estranged father's apartment between a bottle of painkillers and a bottle of vodka and there is a knot of bandages where your future used to be. you don't wake up at 4am anymore. you sleep until noon and vomit the remainders of life as you knew it into unfamiliar toilets. you watch orange and white clash against each other from sidelines you haven't touched since you started growing facial hair.

your brother doesn't ask you to come home. you would come if he asked. the days are longer here and the food is too rich. the colors are too harsh, the language barrier is too much. you speak and no one understands.

they feel sorry for you, but not for what you have lost, instead for what you have suffered. you try to show them what belonging means, to sever parts of yourself to fit inside a uniform, but they don't understand the necessity of the blade the way your brothers did. they don't understand that suffering feels religious if you do it right.

the therapist tells you it's survivor's guilt but the only survivors you can see are on the court in black and red and they read your eulogy after the game at a press conference. you are not a survivor in any way that matters anymore. how treacherous your heart is for continuing to beat when you can't even hold your lifeline in your hand without dropping it.

you want to go home but your key doesn't open the same door anymore. you want to sit beside your brother but there is no space on his side of the table. you want to be a raven but you are a fox.

you grieve for connection until there is a knife where your neck guard used to sit. you grieve for your life until a boy offers to show you how it feels to survive. you offer to show him how it feels to live. he tells you he won't sever parts of himself to fit the uniform, but there are telltale bloodstains in the fabric from long before you asked.

you wake up at 4am again. you take turns vomiting in the toilet, you when the alcohol level dips too low and him when his smile runs out. he doesn't speak your language but he understands it. he keeps the car running when you visit the therapist. he keeps an eye on your back to watch the 02 on your jersey turn orange. the colors don't seem as harsh anymore.

he offers you safety. he offers you belonging. he offers you the only thing he knows how to give, the only thing you know how to take.

he offers you a lifeline. you pick it up with your right hand.

[littlelightfish]

This half-foot. Dandan.

Looks preety similar to this lady here (I'll put them together so you see):

Half-lidded eyes, black hair&eyes, small eyebrows, curly hair... Dandan's skin is lighter probably because of low sun exposure (dungeon), and he has tons of freckles because he preety.

This two are clearly relatives if not siblings.

Flertom is a mirror image of the lady up there. She got Chil's eyes. She even has almost the same haircut (a bit longer). She's clearly the mother. We've solved Chilchuck's wife mystery.

But this wasn't what I was going to say.

This implies that Wife and Dandan both knew Chilchuck since their childhood. Because there's no way that Chil was just friend of the sister. They're both close to the same age, and I'll say Dandan is a Younger sibiling (she gives big sis vibes, and he gives young bro vibes). So either she introduced him to her brother or he introduced him to his sister and they became best friends as kids.

Could you imagine how their relationship was after Chil's Wife left him?

He knows he has to say something, but he doesn't want to end his relationships. At the end he takes his sister's side. He distances a bit from Chilchuck, calling him an "aquitance" rather than a friend. It isn't that he hates him, is just that it's complicated. And they both know it. They're in good terms tho, they just aren't best friends anymore and they don't talk about it. Their worry is the guild, not their personal stuff.

That's why Dandan introduces Chilchuck to Laios. If they were in bad terms, he would've suggested any other half-foot. They both priorize the guild and general safety of their own race. That's why Dandan suggests Chil instead of a less experienced hafling. He cares about the union and respects Chil's time and experience in dungeons. They're on good terms, at least good enough. Summing up, I get the feeling Dandan doesn't particularly likes Chil after what happened with his sister, but he respects him at least.

[yoosung-ah]

a brief summary of Mystic Messenger (OG edition) x

[fairmerthefarmer]

I don’t know how I never played any of the Nancy Drew games as a kid, I love point and click and I love Nancy drew and I would have been all over them!! My sister and I are playing through them together now and it is just an absolute joy. (She is however much better at puzzles than me so idk maybe they would have frustrated me as a kid)

Also it’s giving me some inspo to ~actually~ practice drawing and backgrounds etc. so anyway here’s treasure in the royal tower WIPS. I really want to do some actual illustrations from these games.

Also Evelyn/gabsmolders streams are just prime content for background comfort noise when pain flares or fatigue keep me in bed.

[cangrellesteponme]

the options are: - very stupid fembastian AU but it's mostly just humour - sonboy is NOT doing well and the hungry demon isn't helping... until he is for some reason???? (dadbastian but in the fucked-up way i enjoy writing dadbastian) - grelle character study that's kind of cute but depressing - weird sebagni "fix-it" except agni still dies - finny-centric early days of phantomfam fic because i need to learn how to write finny at some point

now the real question is which writing wip do I want to work on

[dootznbootz]

I think some folks MAY have gotten the wrong idea about how I feel about Circe with some of my posts. So, to clear the air...

Homies, I love that fucked up sorceress.

I love how we're never given a reason why she turns people into animals. That's so funny and so awful. And another potion-making magic gal?!?! I love that she's just basically vibing on an island doing whatever she wants. I even love the fact that she scares Odysseus shitless! She's morally gray and that's why she's FUN.

I just sincerely hate when people try to girlboss her or have her be a victim of SA when she never was Looking at you, Miller. Especially when she was actually the one who coerced Odysseus in exchange for his men being transformed back into humans. And even then, while he was clearly afraid of her, (it's in the language of the Odyssey) she likely meant him no harm after a certain point. He just didn't know that.

Why does she need a reason to do awful things? Why can't she just be a goddess who does whatever she wants? That's the reason why I love her!!! She's fucked up!!! :D

I hate what the Telegony did to her as well! >:( You're telling me, this sorceress goddess, who makes potions (!!!) wouldn't have magic contraceptives??? Would WANT CHILDREN?!?! WITH THE PATHETIC WIFEMAN?! No. Fuck no. Eugammon of Cyrene, I have beef with you 🤬

Anyways!!! Understand all the "#anti circe" I have is simply Anti "Girlboss Circe" or the book. I genuinely think she's neat af as her morally gray, fucked up sorceress self and just get frustrated with...everything :'D

[protagonist-art]

"Uh- I'm Arnold. Bennett. It's profoundly difficult to get your lifes works and studies accepted if your name isn't... yes, oh! Are you a fan of moths, sir?"

NEW RDR2 OC!! a reclusive, clumsy entomologist and bug collector; cooped up in his study of uniformed clutter

[averlym]

miscellany (again),, tags in the last image by @pyrotechnicarus

[hecatesbroom]

did I finally manage to write a brand new fic? I sure did!! with many, many thanks to the lovely @eeblouissant for inspiring me with these beautiful drawings of Blanche dipping Dorothy (and the incredibly sweet follow-up with Rose playing the piano, after our chat about this scene!!) I hope I managed to do it justice ;)

Summary

When Dorothy mentions she’s never been dipped before, Blanche and Rose decide to take matters in their own hands.

[agapestricken]

hello, hello, you all — so... i hope you all are having a great thursday thus far, and i thought i'd bring this up now since i hadn't before; but with ana's zombification comes some noticeable differences to his behavior as well as appearance. because, and don't get me wrong, he was already pale before... but now anastasiy's skin now has this pallor that takes on a sickly look. and it has become necessary for ana to have to apply some concealer to his skin daily to hide the fact that his lips are, indeed, sort of tinged blue + some veins (particularly around his eyes and mouth) can clearly be seen and it definitely isn't the most uhh. natural look, to say the least JSJSJ

now, i'll probably cover more about his behavioral differences later, but one thing is that this man does have these SICK and TWISTED urges to consume human flesh as a zombie would in typical fiction would... so that's lovely / j LMAO nahhh, i'm totally being sarcastic with y'all right now as that is actually horrifying. but anastasiy does try his darndest to resist giving into this temptation because cannibalism is a BIG no-no in society for a reason (because its absolutely terrible and extremely gross) + with... slightly mixed results 😬

[harmoniouseclipse]

Me and my freaking ship charts for my freaky mind

[petrichorade]

Local loser yapping about ratiomei again

Related to this reading material and Ruan Mei's annotations towards it

[talentforlying]

priest: i don't, ah, quite know what to say to you. if you are in such terrible danger, why are you taking it all so calmly? constantine: hmh! i dunno, father. i had a bloke beaten to a pulp earlier this evening. that sound calm to you? priest: you did what...? constantine: i must've been off me bleedin' rocker. i've never done anything like it before in me life, y'know?

constantine: but there's header gets his guts blown out, and george is stickin' his head in the noose, and helen gets ... jesus, then friggin' sarah bites me head off — ! everything's coming to bits in me hands and it's so easy to just see red and now, shit, they could've killed the tosser for all i know! and now i'm just like the bastards i've hated all me life! kill him! fire him! close them down! piss all over him! screw you, i can do whatever i want! i so much as blink and you're dead, pal! i'm in charge!! ...

constantine: 'scuse me, father. i'm always like this when i don't get me own way. — hellblazer #81, "rake at the gates of hell pt. 4"

babygirl you are just....so, sooooo offputting. (and grieving, and guilty, and terrified, but yeah: offputting.)

anyway, it's issues like this one that remind me why i kind of hesitate over some of the retcons in the recent spurrier runs, like the one with him now having opened dream's pouch of sand and stolen some before they even met. because like, it's easy enough to look at john constantine now — with 70 years of worst possible choices and unresolved trauma crystallizing underneath his skin to cover up all the soft, hopeful bits where he's used to getting hit — and assign him arbiter of ill intentions, magus of wasted potential, saint of shit choices, but man . . . he was new to this, once. he was still new to this 80 issues in.

80 issues in, and he's not used to losing friends yet; he even has time enough between catastrophes to grieve each individual one. still has enough left to live for at this stage to necessitate running and hiding, instead of bodily throwing himself at the problem like he learns to later, or sitting apathetically by to do nothing except smoke and watch the world fall apart when he finally gives up. fuck, he still apologizes.

and you're telling me this guy, this soppy wet cat motherfucker hiding from the devil in a church basement, so guilty over not knowing what happened to the guy that he paid people (paid chas, so chas could pay people) to attack that the bottle he's holding in this scene isn't even his second or third........this guy's past, more innocent self lied right to the face of DREAM OF THE ENDLESS and got away with it?

hm. i just don't know about all that.

[korrasamibottles]

That different people can engage with the same piece of media and come out of it with wildly different interpretations is a testament to the evolutionary miracle that is the human brain. It is also very annoying.

[lucem-stellarum]

So this is what, the 3rd time Porter has been decked by a character because of his attitude? At minimum?

Under the cut for long and rambling character and literary analysis

We have the initial fight 4-5 years ago between Porter and Vincent

We have Lovely getting him during their "Switzerland" talk before the Summit

Now we have Asher at the Summit (part II electric boogaloo)

At this point, I'm starting to wonder if we're even supposed to like him as a character. Sure, he's charismatic. Porter got Treasure wrapped around his finger in less than an hour. But Mr. Redacted is usually pretty clear about delineating between who is intended to be the characters we're supposed to be supporting (with enough moral grayness to make them complex and interesting). So many of his characters are a great example of the difference between the narrative 'protagonist' and the narrative 'hero'. Going back to the more technical literary term, a protagonist* is the character the story is about, but they're not necessarily the same as the hero of the story. Yandere!Ivan was a great protagonist, but he's very obviously the villain of that plotline. If you want a classic example, Michael Corleone (The Godfather) is a villain protagonist.

*I'll point out that depending on what exact definition you're using for "protagonist" that you can argue that the listener character is supposed to be the main character. I don't think that fits because in many of Redacted's cases the listener falls into the "sexy lamp" trope, where by design they have few if any character traits of their own so we as listeners can project on them. To me, they're the point of view character, which though usually is not always the same as the protagonist. IMO, a protagonist should play a more active role in the story. Overall it's a fascinating way of capitalizing on the limitations of Mr. Redacted's chosen medium, and I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this phenomenon.

Most characters fall into either the 'hero' or 'villain' category. Characters like David, Asher, Vincent, Elliott, Guy, Ollie, and Gavin are all clearly hero protagonists**. Their respective stories revolve around their interactions with the listener character, they're the good, upstanding citizens that we want to support. They've got flaws, sure, but for the most part they're meant to be appealing characters that we agree with. Characters like Marcus, Yandere!Ivan, and Regulus are clearly the villain protagonists; they're the "bad guys", we want them to fail in whatever terrible thing they're trying to do. (Which isn't to say you can't enjoy their particular brand of twisted. Dark characters and themes are important and have their place).

**with the caveat that different focal length of a particular story can change who is the technical 'protagonist' and 'antagonist'. Kody, in his Water Elemental videos, is a 'villain protagonist'; when you look at the DAMN series overall he's better classified an antagonist of season 1. The fact that there's so many perspective changes across Mr. Redacted's overall work means that a lot of these terms can get muddied depending on which specific set of videos you're referring to.

Which brings me to the 3rd type of protagonist, the anti-hero. The anti-hero is a protagonist that the reader/listener wants to succeed, but generally lacks the traditional/universal moral traits that usually define the classic hero protagonist. Examples of an anti-hero protagonist include: Deadpool, Walter White (Breaking Bad), Huckleberry Finn. In particular, the mark of a well-written antihero protagonist is the fact that it can be difficult to distinguish them from a villain protagonist. Vega is a good example of this; in the Sadism's Hold/DAMN S1 series he's an antagonist for Freelancer and Yandere!Ivan. He graduates to a villain protagonist in early Carpe Deus, and with his stated goal of preventing another Cacophony he's morphing into an anti-hero in the more recent videos. I'm sure you can get hyper-specific if you start going through all the TVTropes pages to find the perfect flavor for individual characters, but most major protagonists can be classified as one of those three groups (with eternal, ongoing debates on where specifically you draw those particular lines based on your particular morals).

Bringing it back to Porter, I'm not sure that he's meant to be an anti-hero. He's charming, intelligent, capable, and likeable (to those not biased by his history like Vincent and Sam). But I don't think we're supposed to support him as a character overall. We've had too many "hero" characters come to conflict with him; Vincent, Asher, and Lovely explicitly. Even without getting into the fine distinctions between a protagonist/supporting character/POV character that's an awful lot of animosity from some very well established people. We might not know all of his goals/motives yet because they haven't been revealed to us (Porter wants to support William, wants to gain 'power', but why? What history drives him? What is his specific end goal with that power?) but his manipulation of other people, ruthlessness, and his own acknowledged boot-licking to increase his own social power disqualify him from a traditional "hero protagonist" role. An anti-hero is one we still are intended by the author to want to support, a character we want to see succeed. But because Mr. Redacted keeps putting Porter into direct conflict with more traditional protagonists it sets him up to be an opposing force; by definition he is an antagonist to our established hero protagonists.

I've talked a lot about the different types of protagonists and some of the minute distinctions between the different types of protagonists. Antagonists can be even more variable; you have your classic Devil, Sauron, and Darth Vader trying to kill your protagonist heroes. Technically speaking, antagonists don't necessarily have to be characters, either, they can be forces or concepts. An antagonist is just someone or something that opposes the protagonist. I won't divert into the different types of conflict in a story, but I'll point out how much more variety there is for your villains than your heroes based on their particular blend of moral alignment and narrative framing. (It's a lot easier to make things go wrong than it is to make things go well). You can also have sympathetic antagonists, where the villain has acceptable motives even if their methods are objectionable and cement their status as villains. Think the Wicked Witch of the West; Dorothy killed her sister, revenge is an entirely reasonable motive even if we're not supposed to be on her side. Adam and Quinn are the clearest unsympathetic antagonist villain characters in Redacted-verse. Blake is a sympathetic antagonist, vacillating between a villain and an anti-hero depending on whether we're looking at him from Sunshine or Bestie's POV.

As far as my initial claim that we're not supposed to like Porter, we have to consider which lens we're looking at him through. From Vincent's perspective he's an unredeemable asshole. William, however, clearly sees something in him. Other characters we trust that don't have that skewed perspective because of baggage, like Asher, don't like him either. While Porter is the protagonist of his own videos (you are the main character inside your own head) he's not being cast as a classical hero. Morality wise, even in his own story he's an anti-hero at best (he wasn't honestly trying to warn Treasure off, he was luring them in to SkySide). He's got the potential to be sympathetic (at least, according to Sam and William) but he's outnumbered in the narrative of protagonists (at the very least, by Vincent, Lovely, Asher, and there's evidence for Milo and David because of what he put Sweetheart up to) who consider him an antagonist, causing them problems or otherwise being obstructive. Considering the weight of numbers and length of existence in the overall story Mr Redacted is telling, Porter so far is generally being portrayed as an antagonist to our hero protagonists but not necessarily as a villain (like Vincent wants him to be) of Close Knit's caliber. So, this leaves him in a very interesting position on the morality/perspective spectrum. Essentially:

[Photo ID: a graph running from Villain to Hero along the horizontal axis and Protagonist to Antagonist along the vertical axis. Gavin, Lasko, Guy, Ollie, Caelum, David, Asher, Milo, Vincent (post-Adam) are in the Hero-Protagonist Corner. Regulus, Yandere!Ivan, Kody, Vega (DAMN S1) are in the Villain-Antagonist Corner. Vega (early) is in the Villain Protagonist Corner. Vincent (early) and Vega (later) are in the Protagonist Antihero area. Porter is in the Antagonist Antihero area. /end ID]

Because of these mostly negative relationships to our established characters I don't think he's meant to be "supportable". There's too many reasons someone could write him off as unredeemable, based off of his history, his current actions, and his morals. Mr Redacted obviously intended us to be pitted against certain characters like Adam, Kody, and Yandere!Ivan in the same way the author intends us to like and support wholesome characters like David, Huxley, and Guy. I think Porter was written in such a way that we're supposed to disapprove of him despite his likeability in the same way we're "supposed to" disapprove of most of the Imperium characters or Alexis. There's a glimmer of "redemption" deep down for how good they could be if the universe was a little kinder towards them and they didn't have to resort to morally questionable (at best) actions and perspectives, but harsh circumstances left them protecting themselves with sharp edges designed to make anyone who gets too close bleed. Character complexity is attractive, but that's not the same thing as being sympathetic.

After all of this I have to say, death of the author is 100% valid as a concept. At least half of a story is determined by the reader themselves, and this in particular is just my interpretation of these particular facts and classifications. Depending on how you want to weight certain factors and perspectives you can come to a completely different conclusion. By trying to define a particular character the act of applying a definition means you have to be reductive; making a decision on which box to put them in flattens out their complexities. You don't have to APPROVE of a character to LIKE them. There's also a difference between a morally GOOD character and a COMPELLING character. Not every character has to be redeemed, it's not a prerequisite for finding them interesting. Just because Mr Redacted wants us to hate certain characters doesn't mean everyone is obligated to; you're entitled to your own opinion.

[supermarine-silvally]

Could I pretty pretty please ask for 💗 for my beloved Portada, Hadley love? 💜

Here you go, my dear Dolly!! <3 tysm for the request; it got long af but I always underestimate how much I enjoy writing Ace Angst heheh

No direct spoilers, but written in such a way that anyone who Knows can read between the lines lol hope you enjoy!! <3

💗 slow kiss / gentle kiss / inevitable / soft

Ace hated Loguetown. 

It wasn’t the shops; those were objectively fine. Maybe a bit pricey at times, but there were enough of them around that he could easily take his business elsewhere if he felt he was getting a raw deal. Nor was it the pubs (well, save for one notable exception), nor the tourists, nor even the occasional increased presence of Marines. No, what he hated about Loguetown was that he couldn’t exactly tell anyone that he hated Loguetown. 

Because that would always lead to the follow-up question he really didn’t want to answer: Why?

And sure, he could lie, and blame it on pricey shops or low-quality pubs or loud, annoying tourists or having to outrun a determined Marine captain once in a while. But anyone who knew Ace knew that he didn’t have a problem with any of those things on any other island they ever visited. Which would lead him back to the infernal question of why. Why Loguetown? What could possibly be there that turned an otherwise cheerful, fun-loving guy into a broody, angry young man?

There were three people in the entirety of Whitebeard’s fleet who knew Ace’s secret. The first to find out was Deuce, his vice-captain from his Spade Pirates days and who now served on Whitebeard’s massive medical division. The masked man had learned of it back when the two had found themselves stranded on Sixis Island at the same time. Ace hadn’t admitted it so much as Deuce had sort of managed to guess it. His initial negative reaction had been what Ace always feared, but Deuce had fortunately come around shortly before luck would bestow them with the Mera Mera no Mi, and Ace had gained the powers he would become infamous for.

The second who knew was Whitebeard. What sort of ‘son’ would Ace be if he kept such a massive secret from the man he called Pops? Ace had feared the worst when the words left his lips, but Whitebeard had merely chuckled in response. “We are all children of the sea,” he had said, and Ace had felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted from his shoulders, if only for a moment.

And the third, of course, was Yara. His Yara; Yara who had shared her secret in turn, removing her eyepatch to reveal the most beautiful heterochromatic eyes he had ever seen-- and boy, did he want to punch anyone who had ever made her feel otherwise. He could have kissed her that night, underneath the stars, but it would take him much, much longer before he finally surrendered to a love he had no chance of ever winning against. As far as Ace was concerned, those were the three people who would ever get to know. Even his other closest friends would have to be kept in the dark. It was better that way. 

All of those things floated around Ace’s mind as he returned to the small ship Whitebeard had ordered him to take for his mission. It was a simple enough task; all he had to do was meet with a supplier who had promised the Whitebeard Pirates a new supply line running from the East Blue into the Grand Line. Fairly standard pirate stuff, especially for an Emperor’s crew. Usually it would be something that First Division would handle, but Marco was away dealing with a distress call from an allied fleet who had encountered an unknown illness and required the support of a skilled doctor. So Ace, as Second Division Commander, gladly stepped up to the plate. 

Until he heard that the site of his mission was fucking Loguetown. And by then, it was too late to back out. 

So he had gone to Loguetown with his men, and he had hated every second of it, determinedly keeping his eyes on anything but the town square and the ghastly tourist attraction located there. He had done his best to keep up with the jokes and the good humour that he was known for, but by the end of the day, he was exhausted and absolutely determined to go somewhere he wouldn’t be reminded of that man. The navigators, however, had decided against trying to tackle Reverse Mountain in the dark, meaning that he had to wait until daybreak before he could finally be out of there. It was such a pain. 

The port they were anchored in was fortunately far enough from the main town that Ace at least wasn’t confronted with too many reminders of the answer as to why he hated Loguetown so much. He could try his best to forget about it for a few hours, at least. 

Or that’s what he hoped, anyways.

Sighing, he leaned against the edge of the anchored ship, staring out at the open ocean, the tiny glints of stars reflecting off the water’s calm surface. Everyone he had met in town had been so pleasant. He thought of the old lady who had given him a discount on three bags of rice to take on their journey back to the Grand Line because he was just ‘such a nice young man.’ Would she still say the same thing if she knew about the blood that flowed through his veins? 

Do I deserve to be alive?

Ace had asked himself that question many times before. It was only fitting it would return to the forefront of his mind in this place, of all places. And it was all the fault of that man. 

“You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?” a familiar voice spoke.

Ace sighed again. “Am I really that obvious?”

“To me, you are.” Yara perched herself on the gunwale. She was wearing the new sundress that she had purchased for herself back in town, her long violet hair swept over her shoulder in a loose ponytail. “I should’ve insisted Pops find someone else for this mission. It wasn’t fair to send you.”

“Eh, I can cope.” He tried to shrug it off. “And besides, you look gorgeous in that dress, so it was worth it in the end.”

Yara frowned. She clearly wasn’t buying it. “Alright, now tell me how you really feel.”

“I said I’m--”

“Ace. Please. Don’t bullshit me.”

He let out a heavy sigh, his gaze resting on a buoy that bobbed a few metres away from their ship. “I hate it here. Everywhere I looked, it was like he was tormenting me from beyond the grave. Him and his damn legacy.” 

The look in Yara’s eyes was sympathetic as she reached out, smoothing a strand of raven hair behind his ear. She kept silent, allowing him to continue rambling.

“I know it’s bad to say, but I wish I could torch this whole place to the ground. Then maybe the world could move on.” Maybe I could finally find a shred of peace from it all. 

“You know the World Government would never let that happen, Loguetown or no Loguetown.” She laughed bitterly. “They certainly love their bogeymen.”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “I know. It’s never gonna end. I’m just… cursed forever, doomed for the entire world to hate me because of him and his stupid treasure. Maybe there’s no way out, except…”

Yara gently tilted his head, bringing their eyes to meet. “Now you listen to me, Portgas D. Ace.” She cupped her hands around his face, thumbs brushing tenderly against his freckled cheeks. “You are not your father. None of his deeds are your deeds. None of his sins are your sins. Anyone who can’t see that is an idiot of the highest order, blinded by World Government propaganda or their own ignorant grudges.”

Ace blinked, feeling the conviction behind her words. Yara leaned closer to him, her breath ghosting against his face as she pressed her forehead to his. Ace’s arms wrapped protectively around her waist, his fingers tracing the zipper at the back of her dress.

“You are the most wonderful man in the world, and the best thing that has ever happened to me,” she whispered, her lips hovering only centimetres away from his. “Fuck your father. Fuck Loguetown. Fuck the world. You deserve to be alive, and you deserve to be loved.”

He swallowed, emotion gathering as a hot lump in his throat. “Yara…”

She pressed her lips to his with such adamant tenderness that it stole the air from his lungs. He kissed her back with the devotion of a prayer whispered in an empty cathedral, the softness between them melding together in slow, careful movements. Ace’s tension ebbed away, leaving him with the sensation of floating among a sea of stars, anchored to Earth only by the honeyed taste of Yara’s lips. 

“I love you,” she breathed as she pulled away ever so slightly, fingers stroking the side of his face. “Never forget that.” 

“You really don’t think he was a monster, huh?” he whispered.

She shook her head. “The biggest monsters in my life have all carried the World Government’s flag. I can’t see how a man who opposed that could be so evil.”

Ace stared at her for a moment before letting out a small laugh. “I can’t wait to introduce you to Luffy. I have a feeling the two of you are gonna get along great.”

Yara smiled as she slid down from the gunwale. “I’m very much looking forward to meeting your brother someday.”

“Just to warn you, he’s a handful.”

“So are you, my dearest fireboy.”

Pulling her close, Ace pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “…Thank you, Yara. I shouldn’t think too much about my old man; not when I have the perfect family right here. You, Luffy, Pops… You’re everything I could ever want.” Everything I never dreamed I could have.

“C’mon.” She offered him a hand, and he took it. “Let’s get some rest before we depart.”

Nodding in agreement, Ace allowed her to lead him towards the captain’s quarters. Soon, Loguetown would be behind him. And while he could never truly escape his bloodline, he could at least take solace in those who loved him despite it.

One Piece OC friends taglist: @auxiliarydetective @oneirataxia-girl @daughter-of-melpomene @box-of-bats @starcrossedjedis