#op monet

[where-does-the-heart-lie]

Some characters who i love the designs of!

[vampenjoyer]

twitter requests i really like 🥱 (HIS HAND IS ABOVE THE PANTS THIS IS A SFW IMAGE OF TWO GROWN MEN CUDDLING LIKE LITTLE HOMOS).

[crowliphale]

Twitter character requests

[vogelspinne]

Harpy Monet ❄

[tuquidflamingo]

Happy birthday to best girl Monet! 🪽🪽

[askharpymonet]

(( She's far-sighted. ))

@askcoracaesar

[fmlopla]

Punk Hazard Arc!

I have many more episodes to go but I just couldn’t help myself

[tokiro07]

I've been talking about Monet so much on twitter lately that I didn't realize there was analysis I did there but not here

Stussy has been being built up as a parallel to Monet for a while now

Both work for World Nobles (Monet for Doflamingo, Stussy as a member of CP0)

Both are assistants to MADS scientists (Monet to Caesar, Stussy to Vegapunk)

Both were "created" in a lab (Monet was turned into a harpy by Law's surgery, Stussy is a clone created by Vegapunk)

Both were double agents (Monet was spying on Caesar, Stussy betrayed CP0 upon Vegapunk's request)

Both intended to sacrifice themselves for their masters (Monet for Doflamingo, Stussy for Vegapunk)

However, more than being a 1:1 recreation of Monet's character, Stussy also serves as her narrative foil

Monet's wings give her an angelic aesthetic, while Stussy's give her a demonic one

Monet pretended to work for a scientist while hiding her association with a World Noble while Stussy worked for the World Nobles while hiding her association with a scientist

When Monet told Doflamingo her plan to sacrifice herself, he ordered her to die for him, while when Stussy told Vegapunk her plan, he ordered her to live

With how closely their stories resemble each other, it's interesting that Stussy's introduces an extra wrinkle: her feelings on the team that she betrayed

While we don't know Stussy's opinion on the World Nobles, she is stated to consider her fellow CP0 agents Kaku and Lucci to be her friends. Vegapunk apologizes for forcing Stussy to choose between loyalty to him and her friendship with them, when under better circumstances she would have liked to be true to both sides of her life rather than compromising one for the other

If Monet and Stussy are so similar, why then doesn't Monet have a parallel conflict of interest?

Because secretly, she does have one

I've said many times that Monet viewed the Punk Hazard children as her own children, and that while she was complicit in the inevitably fatal experiments being performed on them, she made every effort to give them happy lives in the time they had. She was protective of them despite Doflamingo only being concerned with Caesar's SMILE production, and she even referred to herself as their parent

So when it came time to choose between the children and Doflamingo, just like Stussy, Monet chose loyalty over personal interest. Their lives and everything they want are secondary to the people they've already dedicated their lives to

When Vegapunk told Stussy to survive and follow her heart, she chose to free Kaku, her friend. Given the opportunity, if Doflamingo had told Monet to follow her heart, what would she have done with that freedom? I would like to think that helping rehabilitate the children from Caesar's experiments would have been high up on her list

Perhaps that's why Monet hasn't come back into the story; with Doflamingo imprisoned, Monet is free to follow her heart (though I suppose she'll have to find it first), and may either be trying to help the children, or she may be trying to find a family of her own. Personally, I hope her journey circles back to the main plot and her found family ends up being the Straw Hat Crew

[moxie-girl]

one piece x gravity falls au. i looove putting law in situations™

doffy is grunkle stan in this au, just fyi :3

[the-bar-sinister]

Taken In By The Mark (3026 words) by Dave Strider Chapters: 1/1 Additional Tags: Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, Backstory, Pre-Canon, Angst with a Happy Ending, Found Family, Twisted Hurt/Comfort, Homelessness, POV Monet

-

The back alleys of Caladiea weren’t any place for a child. The small summer island in the North Blue had long since been overtaken by factories and the smog of modern industry in the service of the World Government. Unsanitary streets, disease, and the growing population of cutthroats and thieves born of desperation all made for a dangerous childhood.

But as far as Monet was concerned, anything was better than the heavy hand of her parents and the brutal control they exerted over her until her escape into the muck and ash of Caladiea’s streets.

The day she found Sugar, younger than even she was, cowering by the industrial trash with sunburnt skin and a feverish temperature Monet had taken her in as a younger sister. The world wasn’t kind, and it wasn’t any place for anyone as young as they were but at the very least Monet could protect her.

Monet could read very well. It was the only thing she would ever thank her parents for, in their insistence that even a ‘worthless leech’ like her should know how to read and apply herself to succeed in the world of industry.

With her reading came knowledge, skill, guile. It was that guile that she turned towards the protection of her newly bonded little sister and herself. Quick fingered pickpocketing turned to the use of charm and deceit to fool hapless idiots out of their berries before they’d even known they’d been robbed.

Con jobs, helped by her little sister and her extraordinary innocent act, became the only thing that kept the two of them fed. They were dirty, covered in the ash from the factory’s smokestacks, they slept in the streets or in the occasional abandoned house, but they were at least able to eat enough to survive another day. That was what was important. 

Today was a day like any other, Monet had washed herself in the polluted river enough to pass for a respectable citizen and scouted the town for marks as her sister prepared the supplies back in their makeshift home. 

They didn't have to wait long before a very likely looking pair happened along from the direction of the city's port. They were a pair of quite tall men and obviously visitors since Monet was sure she'd have recognized their looming figures and flashy looks if she'd ever seen them around town before. 

The taller of them had a long, expressive face and long honey colored ringlets of hair under a bicorne hat in an outlandish pattern.There was a cloak around his shoulders, and he walked with a distinct slouch, hands on his pockets, as if instinctively trying to put himself more on the level of the others around him. His companion was not quite as tall but walked straight backed and proud, turning his head with interest at the various sights in the streets. His hair was cropped short and he wore a bright pair of sharp sunglasses, and a long feather cloak over flashy beach fashion.

They had three traits that Monet looked for in a mark. First, they were foreign. Second, they looked rich.

And third– they looked stupid.

The calculation was easy to make. These dumb, rich men from some distant island were going to put food on Sugar and Monet’s table by the end of the night whether they liked it or not. Not a single merchant or traveler could resist their ‘sad little orphan girl’ routine.

She blended into the crowd just behind them before she conjured up some fake tears and ran forward to bump into the taller of them with a squeaky shout. The first thing she had to do was conjure up a little sympathy.

The illusion of tearful desperation always made a good start. 

The idiot kept walking. He almost stepped on her, before his companion put an arm out in front of his chest.

"Di, I think somebody just bumped into you," the one in sunglasses said, tilting his head down to look.

Monet looked up at the man with tears streaming from her eyes and a look of anguish etched on her face. Her deep green hair had fallen out of its messy bun, and her glasses lay askew on the bridge of her nose.

It looked pathetic, something she knew would only help her as she sniffed and pressed her hand to her face. “O-ow.. I’m sorry, sirs…P-pardon me.” 

"Di" looked down at her with a dubious expression, and the edge of his wide mouth twitched. "Yeah, you're pardoned. Don't worry about it, kid."

He moved to step around her, but his friend blocked him again. There was a wide, almost worrying smile on his face.

"Hold on, Di. Give me a sec." Sunglasses smiled broadly, and the other guy looked between him and her with raised eyebrows.

Di held up his hands. "You got it, Doffy."

"Doffy" squatted down toward her. "Hey kiddo, what's up?"

Monet sniffed again, almost choking as her nose started to run. 

“S-sorry, I shouldn’t trouble you! I have to f-find someone to help me, it’s my sister!” She glanced from side to side, brow furrowing as she watched the crowd move around them in typical city indifference. “Nobody’s listening to me when I t-tell them, but she’s in danger.” 

"She's in danger, huh?" Doffy said, his smile never wavering. "And you're looking for some help? What kind of help does your sister need?"

"Doffy," Di sighed again, but there was a patient affection in his tone that Money rarely heard. What troubled her more was the way his posture shifted, and his hand went to the hilt of a sword that had been hidden under his cloak until then.

Monet jolted backwards, and made it as clear as she could that she noticed. The real sting of terror helped the act as she took a step back. 

“I’m s-sorry for bothering you, sirs. I d-didn’t even mean to run into you, I s-swear.” He gave them a nervous smile as her too-large glasses slipped down her face. “We need to s-sell our stock by nightfall or they’re going to withhold my rations and take her away.” 

At that, Di's hand left his sword. "See? She's just a beggar, Doffy."

"You were worried she was going to lead us into a trap, Di?" Doffy laughed. He crossed his arms over his chest, and turned back to look at her. "Are you a beggar, kid?"

This was not the way the con was supposed to go.

“N-not exactly.” Monet murmured as she pushed up her slipping glasses “...my sister and I are orphans.”

She shifted uncomfortably at the crowd, and internally…as her expectations for the grift went awry. Her voice dropped into a whisper. 

“Some men, I think they’re in a gang, make us sell stock they steal from the factories for ‘em. If we don’t, they…they don’t feed us. They’ve threatened to take my sister, too. I think they might want to sell her to the World Government, or to pirates!” 

"Is that so?" Doffy asked with a frown of concern. He leaned closer toward Monet. "And these men– what would you do to them if you could?"

"Doffy, she's just a beggar, don't bother. If you want me to give her some coins, I will, and we can check out the rest of–."

Doffy held his hand up, and snapped his fingers shut. Di immediately stopped talking.

Monet was taken aback for a moment, staring up at him through her thick glasses. The men in question didn’t exist, just the cobbled together amalgamation of everything that kept her and Sugar in the streets. A little of her father, a little of whoever had thrown a little girl in the trash, a little of the rough and cruel residents of the criminal back alleys who’d steal what little they could make if they weren’t just as rough and cruel as they were.

So she answered honestly. 

“If they threatened Sugar and I…if they hurt us or tried to tear us apart” she murmured. “I’d make them suffer before I killed them. If I could do anything, if I were strong enough, that’s what I’d do.”

She wiped at her eyes, grimacing slightly as she wondered if she was too open…if it broke her character too much to be honest with the looming stranger. 

The strange, sunglass wearing man called 'Doffy' smiled widely again as his friend loomed over them dubiously. Doffy looked up at the other man, and gestured to Monet as if to convey something that she couldn't quite understand. Di shrugged, and nodded.

Doffy turned his wide smile back on her. "These men don't exist, do they, kid?" The truth lanced right through her and she looked at his smile with wide eyed terror. Her heart hammered in her chest before he continued. "But that anger– that desire to make people hurt for hurting you, and your sister, that's real, isn't it?"

She answered slowly, hearing her own voice shaking.

“How…how did you know?” She swallowed thickly and nodded her head “it’s…yes. It’s real. It’s as real as anything.” 

The impenetrable red lenses of the man's glasses seemed to reflect a fire that simply wasn't there as he pinned her with his gaze.

"I know because I know what it's like to be where you are. To have to do anything to survive. To eat out of the trash. To be angry at anyone and everyone and ready to move the world if only you had the tools to do it. Is that how you feel?"

Monet felt the horrible itching feeling that the polluted water she had to wash with always caused, remembered the taste of half-rotten food eaten out of the trash behind restaurants or mockingly discarded at their feet by the factory’s rich.

Sugar’s face as she suffered from heat stroke and exhaustion in a back alley alone flashed in her mind as she nodded with a hardening of her golden eyes.

“Y-yes sir. It is” her fists clenched tightly beside her as she took a deep breath. “I hate the world with all my heart. If I had the chance I’d burn it down if it meant makin’ it a little better for Sugar.” 

Doffy's smile, if possible, got even wider. Unsettlingly wide. He leaned his face close to her face, squatting on his tiptoes.

"I'm going to make you an offer, and I'm only going to make it once," he said. "Come and work for me, you and your sister. Join my family. I'm a very bad man, and if you work for me, you'll hurt a lot of people who walk by orphans on the street every day. Join my family, and we can burn the ugly world down together."

Monet’s heart skipped a beat but didn’t hesitate. She nodded firmly. She knew Sugar would understand, she’d make the same choice in her shoes.

Neither one of Caladiea’s Forgotten would turn down the promise of vengeance and fire.

“Thank you, sir…We’ll join your family, if you’ll take us, we’ll join you. You won’t regret it.” 

Doffy stood up, looking regal suddenly in his feather coat framed by the little bit of light that filtered in between the buildings and the smokestacks. "Welcome to the Donquixote family!"

Monet felt the sting of genuine tears at the corner of her eyes, and found herself genuinely smiling as the light caught her glasses.

Family had never been kind to Monet before, not the sort you’re born into. To a girl of the streets, family were the people you found who you could trust to stand with you against the cruelty of the world. People who’d be just as cruel as you if it meant mutual protection.

The Donquixote Family, if it lived up to its promise, might have been Monet and Sugar’s first shot at a real home.

000

Doffy had asked her if she wanted to be carried as they headed off to go get her sister. He'd asked her her name, and told him his– Doflamingo, and his friend was Diamante.

Diamante had told her that she should address Doffy as 'young master' for the most part.

The group of them headed through the winding alleyways, past the makeshift and ramshackle shelters of her fellow downtrodden as she curled in Doflamingo’s arms. She’d allowed herself to be carried, too curious about the ‘young master’ to say no to the offer.

She knew she shouldn’t trust anyone, much less strangers, implicitly. The times she’d tried, she’d only ended up worse off in the end. But there was something about the grinning man that calmed her fears. Maybe it was the malice in his smile, none of it directed at her. Maybe it was the honesty of his promise. He was a bad man, and she wasn’t much better. But good men don’t shake the world– and Doflamingo, her young master, seemed impressed by her drive and fury.

Would Sugar feel the same way when she met him?

She hung tighter to him, pointing him down a narrow inlet behind a packaging facility. “That way.”

It was a cramped, narrow space between discarded boxes and refuse…a bit further in , Monet knew her ‘home’ was. Formed of wooden shipping crates and blankets stolen from homes and washing lines in the middle of the night, it was a rudimentary shelter for two where they could divvy up the spoils and eat whatever they had earned for the day.

It was a hovel, for children of the street.

They didn’t even have to reach it though. Huddled pathetically next to a shipping box of matchboxes was Sugar, visible mostly as a shaking form wrapped almost completely in a ratty old handmade cloak.

The matchboxes were stolen from one of the matchstick factories in town. Day by day the ‘little salesgirl’ con would go off with different stock depending on what they could find.

"Well, this definitely does suck," Diamante grumbled, shoulders hunched even more as they navigated the narrow alleyways.

"It's disgusting," Doflamingo said brightly, pushing one of the crates with his foot. "Bet you want to burn it before we leave."

"You know me so well, Doffy."

"If Monet and her sister want to burn it, we'll burn it," he cooed. "Go on and bring out your sister."

He set Monet down, and wiped off his shirt.

Monet smiled nervously up at him before she straightened out her mussed dress. “Alright, young master…” 

The word still felt strange on her tongue. Not bad…but strange.

She scampered expertly past the boxes, and called out “Sugar! It’s Monet!”

The lump of fabric by the matchsticks shifted and rose with a bleary exhaustion typical of the malnourished. It was part of the 'act' that was unfortunately easy to tap into for the two of them. Her cloak fell down. Her sea-green hair was a mess, hardly resembling the rough-cut bob it really was with how it matted down with sweat and chemical-laced ash from the smokestacks.

She looked up at her with a smile, watching her with one good eye, her left eye cloudy and damaged ever since she found her baking in the sun. 

“Monet…” She coughed softly and reached to fish around in the wooden crate “you brought someone who’s gonna buy ou–”

Monet dropped own to her knees with a shake of her head. “We don't have to do that act right now, sis.” she said with a wide smile. “Maybe never again.” 

Doflamingo was watching them from just outside the junk heap shelter, his arms crossed as he seemed to take stock of the environment, his head turning rather like a bird's as he did. She heard him and Diamante talking in soft voices that she couldn't quite make out as she explained the situation to her sister.

Sugar’s eyes widened, and her good eye flicked to Doflamingo and back to her sister. Her pale lips formed a wide smile when Monet explained as best she could the promise of the unfair world in flames.

Sugar stood, her cloak hanging off one shoulder as she pointed to Doflamingo “You.” 

The 'young master' smiled brightly and put his hands to his chest as Sugar approached. "Me?"

Monet followed behind her with a glance down towards her sister. She knew Sugar well enough to hear the joy in her monotone voice when she spoke.

“Big Sis Monet says you’re the young master,” she said without inflection. “Does that mean you’re really going to take care of us?” 

"The people in my family take care of each other," Doflamingo nodded. "If you join my family, that includes you."

Monet pushed her glasses up. “I’d told you.” she murmured to Sugar “they figured out our scheme right away too. They’re smart…we’ll only get better if we join them.”

Sugar put her hand to her chin. “Food. You’ll feed us? You won’t throw us away?” 

"That's right," Doflamingo nodded. "As long as you're loyal to me, we will always be loyal to you."

"Plenty of food," Diamante chuckled from the background. "You definitely won't go hungry."

Monet put a hand on Sugar’s back with a grin “I told you…they’re bad guys, they’re like us. I think we should be part of their family.”

Sugar’s face lit up in an angelic smile that contrasted wonderfully with her words. “Then I want to help you burn the world too, Mr. Flamingo!”

Money grabbed her shoulders as her glasses bounced on the ridge of her nose with the force of her leaning over. “Doflamingo, sis! Young Master Doflamingo!” 

Doflamingo laughed at that. "Welcome to the family, Sugar. Now girls I have an important question for you."

"Oh here it comes," Diamante chuckled from where he lingered nearby.

Monet looked up in tandem with her sister, blinking owlishly at him behind her glasses. “What kind of question, young master?” 

He leaned forward, his moon-slice grin widening further as he opened his arms.

"Is there anyone that you want to kill before we leave this island?"

[onepiece-birthdays]

It's August 27th

Happy birthday to Monet of the Donquixote Pirates! She was 30.

[where-does-the-heart-lie]

Art ive made for the OP Met Gala Zine i worked on! @opmetgalazine

The top link is for the tabloid-esque website to see all the sneak peaks and ads, and the second link is where you can access the zine fully!

Here are some wips i made for it too!

[sonicasura]

In the Corazon in TFP AU, during the Shadow Siege do things become tense when the memvers Strawhats see Monet? Especially with what happened on Punk Hazard and the children kidnapped for Cesar?

There's definitely tension until they realize Monet has severe amnesia with a huge impossibility of her memories ever returning. Everyone puts aside the entire incident to give the harpy another chance in this new life. To lash out at someone who can't remember their sins isn't worth it.

Amnesiac Monet encompasses legit kindness but one not perverted by her allegiance to Caesar Clown and Donflamingo. She genuinely cares about everyone who helped her after being found lost in the wilderness. Even if she does regain those memories, Monet won't return to her old ways.

The snow woman will take this new opportunity at life and have a fresh start.

[sarah-dipitous]

Monet looking like a twisted version of Nike of Samothrace is something I’m gonna ponder over for a while

[genericpuff]

Tbh at this point you should just make your own webcomic app/website because it would probably be 100 times better than whatever going on with webtoon right now.

hahaha it wouldn't tho, sorry 💀

Here's the fundamental issue with webcomic platforms that a lot of people just don't realize (and why they're so difficult to run successfully):

Storage costs are incredibly expensive, it's why so many sites have limitations on file sizes / page sizes / etc. because all of those images and site info have to be stored somewhere, which costs $$$.

Maintenance costs are expensive and get more so as you grow, you need people who are capable of fixing bugs ASAP and managing the servers and site itself

Financially speaking, webcomics are in a state of high supply, low demand. Loads of artists are willing to create their passion projects, but getting people to read them and pay for them is a whole other issue. Demand is high in the general sense that once people get attached to a webtoon they'll demand more, but many people aren't actually willing to go looking for new stuff to read and depend more on what sites feed them (and what they already like). There are a lot of comics to go around and thus a lot of competition with a limited audience of people willing to actually pay for them.

Trying to build a new platform from the ground up is incredibly difficult and a majority of sites fail within their first year. Not only do you have to convince artists to take a chance on your platform, you have to convince readers to come. Readers won't come if there isn't work on the platform to read, but artists won't come if they don't think the site will be worth it due to low traffic numbers. This is why the artists with large followings who are willing to take chances on the smaller sites are crucial, but that's only if you can convince them to use the site in favor of (or alongside) whatever platform they're using already where the majority of their audience lies. For many creators it's just not worth the time, energy, or risk.

Even if you find short-term success, in the long-term there are always going to be profit margins to maintain. The more users you pull in, the more storage is used by incoming artists, the more you have to spend on storage and server maintenance costs, and that means either taking the risk at crowdfunding (ex. ComicFury) or having to resort to outsider investments (ex. Tapas). Look at SmackJeeves, it used to be a titan in the independent webcomic hosting community, until it folded over to a buyout by NHN and then was pretty much immediately shuttered due to NHN basically turning it into a manwha scanlation site and driving away its entire userbase. And if you don't get bought out and try your hand at crowdfunding, you may just wind up living on a lifeline that could cut out at any moment, like what happened to Inkblazers (fun fact, the death of Inkblazers was what kicked off the cultural shift in Tapas around 2015-16 when all of IB's users migrated over and brought their work with them which was more aimed towards the BL and romancee drama community, rather than the comedy / gag-a-day culture that Tapas had made itself known for... now you deadass can't tell Tapas apart from a lot of scanlation sites because it got bought out by Kakao and kept putting all of its eggs into the isekai/romance drama basket.)

Right now the mindset in which artists and readers are operating is that they're trying way, way too hard to find a "one size fits all" site. Readers want a place where they can find all their favorite webtoons without much effort, artists wants a place where they can post to an audience of thousands, and both sides want a community that will feel tight-knit. But the reality is that you can't really have all three of those things, not on one site. Something always winds up having to be sacrificed - if a site grows big enough, it'll have to start seeking more funding while also cutting costs which will result in features becoming paywall'd, intrusive ads, creators losing their freedom, and/or outsider support which often results in the platform losing its core identity and alienating its tight-knit community.

If I had to describe what I'm talking about in a "pick one" graphic, it would look something like this:

(*note: this is mostly based on my own observations from using all of these sites at some point or another, they're not necessarily entirely accurate to the statistical performance of each site, I can only glean so much from experience and traffic trackers LMAO that said I did ask some comic pals for input and they were very helpful in helping me adjust it with their own takes <3).

The homogenization of the Internet has really whipped people into submission for the "big sites" that offer "everything", but that's never been the Internet, it relies on being multi-faceted and offering different spaces for different purposes. And we're seeing that ideology falter through the enshittification of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. where users are at odds with the platforms because the platforms are gutting features in an attempt to satisfy shareholders whom without the platforms would not exist. Like, most of us aren't paying money to use social media sites / comic platform sites, so where else are they gonna make the necessary funds to keep these sites running? Selling ad space and locking features behind paywalls.

And this is especially true for a lot of budding sites that don't have the audience to support them via crowdfunding but also don't have the leverage to ask for investments - so unless they get really REALLY lucky in EITHER of those departments, they're gonna be operating at a loss, and even once they do achieve either of those things there are gonna be issues in the site's longevity, whether it be dying from lack of growing crowdfunding support or dying from shareholder meddling.

So what can we do?

We can learn how to take our independence back. We don't have to stop using these big platforms altogether as they do have things to offer in their own way, particularly their large audience sizes and dipping into other demographics that might not be reachable from certain sites - but we gotta learn that no single site is going to satisfy every wish we have and we have to be willing to learn the skills necessary to running our own spaces again. Pick up HTML/CSS, get to know other people who know HTML/CSS if you can't grasp it (it's me, I can't grasp it LOL), be willing to take a chance on those "smaller sites" and don't write them off entirely as spaces that can be beneficial to you just because they don't have large numbers or because they don't offer rewards programs. And if you have a really polished piece of work in your hands, look into agencies and publishing houses that specialize in indie comics / graphic novels, don't settle for the first Originals contract that gets sent your way.

For the last decade corporations have been convincing us that our worth is tied to the eyes we can bring to them. Instead of serving ourselves, we've begun serving the big guys, insisting that it has to be worth something eventually and that it'll "payoff" simply by the virtue of gambler's fallacy. Ask yourself what site is right for you and your work rather than asking yourself if your work is good enough for them. Most of us are broke trying to make it work on these sites anyways, may as well be broke and fulfilled by posting in places that actually suit us and our work if we can. Don't define your success by what sites like Webtoons are enforcing - that definition only benefits them, not you.

[askharpymonet]

(( this Friday I'll be reblogging black and white fanart, so I thought I'd make an old photograph type of drawing. Here's Monet inspired by 1920s, in a cloche hat! ))