#sir gabriel

[pointycorgiears]

Sometimes I think Buggy is beside himself with worry about ensuring his sons don't grow up resentful of each other like what happened with him and Shanks. It was something he was concerned with back when it was just Gabe and Gryphon since they're the same age yet so different in personality. But then Nemo came along and he knows how easy it is for kids to be jealous of the new baby. Hell, he and Shanks felt that way for a time when Momo and Hiyori were brought aboard the Oro Jackson.

It's funny how out of the three dads, Buggy appears to be the most exoerience with children. That worry was something he brought up to Mihawk and Crocodile right away once the Gabriel and Gryphon arrived. It was something the other two didn't even think about, but they eventually came up with a game plan for it and things were going smoothly.

Then, Nemo comes along, and their meticulous plan gets shaken up. Now there is a wildcard. Buggy goes into an internal panic again, but at least he has personal experience with this kind of situation too. He lets the boys help with the baby, but he's adamant that it is not their job and they should help only because they WANT to, not because they HAVE to. He makes time to spend time playing with them, and just them, during his very busy schedule during the day. When one kid is occupied with something else, he finds the other and scoops them up and hugs them, and just sits with them for awhile on their own. Everyone gets special attention. He is making sure of it.

It's something Buggy kind of works through in his own way during all the craziness of adopting a baby into the family, so he hasn't sat down to explain it to Mihawk and Crocodile yet. But, they do start to notice the things he's doing and so they begin copying him. Very quickly, they have a nice rhythm going again that benefits all three children.

[cryingpariah]

You know how kids these days are getting more tech-literate younger and younger? Considering that Blue Planet is only now starting to receive something of a technological revolution at least on a small scale with Vegapunk, this means most of the world has very little clue about how to adapt to it. Especially the Warlords, the majority of whom are in their 30s-40s.

This is my long-winded way of saying the Seraphim run circles around their templates when it comes to technology. Especially since they themselves are technology.

A Cross Guild meeting is starting and Gryphon says in his outside voice "Baba! Your snail pad flashlight is on!"

Ah yes, the true curse of youth: having to explain technology to your parents.

Many a time has Gryphon had to explain how to flip the camera around only for Mihawk to just…flip the tablet completely?? It works but still.

Buggy constantly forgets his passwords to everything and is flabbergasted every time his kids say that they too don't know his password and therefore cannot help him.

Richard and Isabella are actually halfway decent on the desktop snail-puter but how slow they type drive Lami and Monty up a wall! Koalas and Turtles could run marathons in the time it takes for them to access the World Wide Web!

Boa absolutely hates texting. Truly and honestly can’t stand it. What was so wrong with letters? Or just showing up in person? This new generation…Her workaround is sending every text like it’s a letter, signing it off with her name and everything. Thea cringes with every notification.

Jimmy and Bonney take it upon themselves to educate Sorbet on all things tech…it goes about as well as you’d expect. There are lines around the block of people asking why the pound signal is now called a hashertag.

Now Perona being significant younger than the others should objectively make her better at tech…and that’s half right. She has this habit of never charging a device ever so when it dies she just buries it and buys another. The amount of snell phones and snail pads Ashken has had to grave-rob is truly ludicrous!

Tech and sea water don’t really mix but when the new 1000% waterproof versions drip-dropped Jinta was ecstatic! His parents now had a way to enjoy the wonders of technology. What Jinta did not account for was hearing the blaring volume that every video is played at.

[mjrtaurus]

It's been a while since anyone has seen the boys so Dragon goes to check on them and finds them in a mudhole big enough for an entire herd of Goa boars. They're making mud pies for Sabo's birthday because they remember hearing him talk about doing that in the mountains as a boy (Luffy always tried to eat them no matter how many times Ace and Sabo told him they weren't actual pies).

Gabe made an entire three-tiered mud cake with frosting ruffles to boot. Speaking of cakes, the mud's completely caked onto their feathers. And their hair. And maybe up Nemo's nose too. 😭😭

Now you’re run of the mill parent would probably be exasperated by the sight. Maybe even cross.

But Dragon is seeing the distinct reddish-beige tones of the mud (that Ryu’s olms are having a fine time of wriggling in) and thinking about Urpi teaching him about how their ancestors used to shape clay- because that’s what this mud seems to have a lot of in it- into pottery and other utilities and decorations back before Jaya was thrown into the sky. He remembers her showing him, Dadan, and Kuzan how to make a pot or a bowl with a basic coiling technique. Gabe already had a good grasp of the concept, but was unaware of and deeply intrigued by the score and slip method. It would make for a lot less failures in the kiln.

So that’s how Dragon and the kids come home covered in mud, but with neat coil pots!

Everyone gets thoroughly hosed down before they’re allowed inside for a proper shower. Easier to contain the mess.

The coil pots are fired, glazed, and then fired again. They now rest on the mantlepiece in all their multi-colored, glossy glory.

[mjrtaurus]

Vivi finishing a very long afternoon of settling into her temporary Cross Guild suite and the new daily ritual of not thinking about Cobra because she's Alabasta's last hope, she can't afford to be grieving right now.

But then there's a knock on her door and

It's him.

One of the little Seraphim that were apparently living here. And just her luck it's the one who looks just like Crocodile.

She already made up her mind before laying eyes on this boy that she's not going to fault him for the crimes of his source parent. That would be completely unfair to him, and besides she doesn't know if he's already dealing with any number of identity crises that must come from being cloned from an infamous pirate.

But Sobek be damned, it really does send a chill up her spine how close the resemblance between them is.

Before she can say anything, he's smiling a very Luffy-esque smile and shoving something in her face. It's... it's a plate of curry. There's a little dish of custard on the side that's clearly been shaped into a duck by the clumsy hands of a child. This child.

How could he have possibly known this was her favorite? Did Crocodile tell him? The warlord was a rather frequent dinner guest at the palace.

Her father used to help out the kitchen staff whenever he could. If his people worked so hard to grow and prepare the royal family's food, he could at least play a part in getting it to the table. Vivi would sit on the counter and watch him preparing the curry and be his little taste tester. It was her special job to transfer the custard from the mixing bowl to the duck molds she adored so much. Then they'd laugh as they placed little sesame seed eyes on the ducks,

They wouldn't get to do that anymore...

Her father is gone...

It's also at this time that Gabe is really discovering that he's very much not used to grown-ups falling to their knees and breaking down in front of him and all he can do is stand there in the doorway with the curry and duck custard like

Did the duck really look that bad?

Had Gabe been any less well adjusted, he would have let that thought consume him and be inconsolable for the rest of the day about it, but…

There was something else here. And he could recall bits and pieces of it here and there.

Her father was the king. The king gave her the giant duck she was friends with. The king died very recently. She liked ducks. Ducks reminded her of her father now.

Gabe sets the plate on the closest raised surface and comes over to her.

He doesn’t really know what to say, so he hugs her instead.

He would be sad too if he never got to see Baba or Tayta again…

[cryingpariah]

Okay but the fact that Gabe has the Glorp-Glorp Fruit means that he has green blood made from Prince Grus's lineage factor.

PRINCE Grus.

He really is a little prince, it cannot be denied! 😭😭😭

This also may be why Gabe is fond of potato chips and dancing.

(Speaking of, Prince Grus's whole ass name and his favorite food may in fact be a reference to Pringles which is romanized as Puringuruzu. Japan apparently really loves Pringles.)

(Side note but wouldn’t it be funny if Prince Grus wasn’t actually royalty and Prince was just his last name? He just acts like a snooty royal for no reason!)

In the pretty unlikely event of the two meeting I don’t think Grus would like Gabe 😭😭 I mean we all saw the salty shade he was throwing Koby, the golden boy!! He’d probably think of Gabe as a slightly shorter Koby that commits crimes. Don’t even get him started on the differences between their abilities! How dare this child have colour creations while he, the original, doesn’t not! It was completely ridiculous!

I don’t think he’d be outright rude though, just haughty and uninterested while lightly seething on the inside while Gabe yaps on about their shared devil fruit and how they’re both princes and is your hat super long because it’s your crown or-

[mjrtaurus]

"Where's my other grandma?"

Gabe asks Crocodile this one day when they're reading together in the drawing room. He really shouldn't have been surprised. That particular query was bound to come up at some point, especially since Urpi's been dropping by. If this were a few months ago, he might have shut down or snapped at the boy, but Crocodile is not keen on repeating that mistake. But he also can't lie to his son.

"She passed away, hayati. She's been gone for a long time"

"Oh," he's quiet for a bit as he absent-mindedly tugs at the carpet for a minute "Did someone make a clone of her?"

Croc has to take a deep breath at that. It's not Gabe's fault in the slightest, but they really need to sit him and Gryphon down at some point and explain that regardless of what the Vegapunks cook up in their labs, cloning is not an undo-button for death. There are things and people that truly are lost for good. But that's besides the point.

"I highly doubt it. She died a long time ago and wasn't someone the World Government would have taken notice of ("at least not for that reason" is what's left unsaid)."

"Oh... what was she like?"

Hell if he knows. His mother perished before he had left the haze of infancy, and in a way that was slow and torturous. Of course he doesn't tell Gabe the last part but he's honest once more about being just as in the dark on the details as his son. Well, he did know some things.

"She had hair like mine. And there were patches of her skin that glimmered like jewels. I think they might have been fishman scales"

"Like ours?"

Ours? What could he possibly mean by that?

When he asks, Gabe climbs up on the couch and lifts his shirt sleeve so Crocodile can see the tiniest little patch of lime-green scales growing right under the transparent tube of green blood.

"You have some on your neck next to your bumpies. I saw them when you were carrying me to bed last night. We match! 😊"

(Gabe calls scutes 'bumpies' and I just find that really cute)

“… What… happened to her, Baba?” It’s asked cautiously. There’s something in Gabe that’s always felt uneasy and upset when thinking about this branch of the family tree. He can’t place it, but it all just feels sad.

And maybe that’s why he’s asking about it.

What can Crocodile even say? How can he even explain?

“Hayati… you know how Tayta loves me? How he’s there for me if I’m hurt or sick, or even if it’s just to be there?” Okay, strong start. Let’s hope the comparison he’s setting up actually works.

“Yeah?” Gabe says expectantly, star-bright eyes wide.

“My father- not Pops, just to be clear- wasn’t like that for my mother. He was… not nice to her. Did bad things to her. And to me. He… didn’t love either of us.” He spoke carefully, riding the line between not wanting to sugarcoat and not wanting to distress.

“When I was four, she got very sick… and he wouldn’t help her. One night I feel asleep next to her, and when I woke up… she didn’t. I never even knew her name.” He remembers the rattle of her breath, how her scales and scutes slowly but surely lost their iridescent luster, how her hair had thinned. How still she was… too still…

Gabe looked at him as if what he was saying was the most alien thing he’d ever heard. Crocodile lays a kiss on his brow, and holds him close.

The silence is heavy, but Gabe’s tears haven’t come just yet. He can tell from the quiet that his son is putting pieces of some bigger picture together.

“…Is that why Vang covers his eyes?” The boy asks, resting his head on his father’s shoulder. He sounds… sad.

“It’s part of it…” Crocodile sighs, carding his fingers through starlight silver hair. “Though not all.”

There’s more to Rocks D Xebec than being a horrible partner and father. Much, much more. But for tonight, that’s enough to chew on.

To divert the conversation, he looks over the little scutes and scales that had cropped up on Gabe’s arm. They were new. Very new. Possibly the cause for the irritable streak the child had been having these last few days. And the voracious appetite.

They are very uniform and healthy, like little plates of bright green armor. Crocodile remembers how his had come in a little wonky, with plenty of uneven edges. He takes it as a comfort, knowing Gabe was far healthier and happier than he had been at his age.

Come to think of it, Crocodile’s had only come in when he was sixteen. He imagines early life malnourishment and eventually running out of puberty blockers had something to do with it.

“They itch when they come in, don’t they?” He asks, scarred lips turned into a lopsided smile.

“They feel like feathers, ‘cept more.”

[mjrtaurus]

There are two stuffed animals in Gabe's collection that stand out among the others. They're not particularly unusual, just a bobcat and a wolf. Gabe doesn't play with them very often, but he gets upset whenever they're moved from his bed as Gryphon found out one day when he thoughtlessly tossed them aside looking for his missing sharpening stone. The few times Gabe does play with them, he usually makes it so the dolls are fighting until Gabe comes in and tells them to stop because they're brothers and brothers shouldn't hurt each other. Then he hugs them both and stares off into space for a while.

The bobcat is named Nod, the wolf Fog. The same names as two cabin boys of the Sobekneferu who looked up to Crocodile like a brother, or perhaps even a father. They were always rolling around on the deck punching and pummeling each other over something in the way only brothers did, until Crocodile had to pull them apart with one boy in each hand and scold them for being idiots. Then he'd send them on their way with ruffles of their hair and the argument would be forgotten until the next one happened.

Fog met his end from a cannonball during their attack on the Moby Dick while Nod drowned shortly afterwards. That was the reason why poor Gabe had screamed when Nod the bobcat was first washed and that he's now only cleaned with a damp cloth.

They were twins. They had died far too soon, but they had left this world the same way they had been brought into it. Together.

That was the only comfort.

They had been little pickpockets in a port city somewhere in Paradise. Smart kids, using their wits and their looks to befuddle and confuse the rare person who caught them in the act. Their only problem was that they weren’t counting on the sucker they were stealing from being a logia.

That’s how Crocodile met them. They worked in perfect sync, if a bit prone to squabbling after the job was done.

It was like seeing him and Marco all over again. Before things went to hell in a hand-basket.

Sentiment is what brought those two aboard the Sobekneferu. Crocodile saw a memory that could be fostered into a better future, they saw him as the one who caught them in the act and- rather than be angry- laughed at being had and praised them for it.

The twins were right at home under the sun-and-crocodile jolly roger.

Nod was the quieter, slipperier one, while Fog was the showman who could make the perfect distraction. Together they were a force to be reckoned with, but apart they were pretty damn clever, too.

They just… fought sometimes. Not the kind of fights you see in a healthy home. The kinds where it was clear that all they knew was survival. There was no boundary or line to push or cross because they had no concept of them.

Crocodile tried… but he was admittedly not in the best of mind even then. Certainly not the spiral that lead him to Alabasta, but it was still worrisome.

Sometimes, when Reed comes by in the evening to reminisce with him, they think about those two boys. They definitely talked about Gabe and the two plushes. It hurts… to think if he had just listened to the mermaid, they would still probably be alive today. He would still have his hand…

But Reed is quick to boot him out of that mindset.

What’s done is done. Staying stuck in the past is how you forsake the future. Mourn and remember, but do not linger longer than what is healthy.

[mjrtaurus]

Omg, Gabe getting Ryu to play Nesting Grounds with him and Ryu being scared because he doesn't want to break or rip any of Gabe's toys since he's still of the mind that someone with the Arms Arms Fruit like him can't be gentle.

But then Gabe puts a stuffed animal in his lap that's going to be his 'baby' and Ryu instantly holds it with a hand behind the head and the other delicately supporting its body. Like gentleness is second-nature to him. This game puts him at peace like nothing ever has before which of course gets the Monkey D crybaby genes acting up, and Gabe is a very empathetic child so it gets to him too. That's how Dragon and Crocodile walked in on them crying and getting snot all over a plush axolotl.

When Crocodile was still with the fledgling Revolutionary Army, one of the things that Dragon was adamant on in training with the newer recruits was not what a weapon was meant for, but when. It was good to know how to wield one correctly and skillfully, but if you can’t learn when you should or should not be using it, you couldn’t be trusted with one.

Crocodile can see how some of that philosophy bleeds into Ryu. Or perhaps Ryu is how Dragon might been when he was forming that philosophy. More than a little bit scared of and doubtful of himself.

He consults with Dragon about this. Ryu is a gentle soul. As gentle as they come, really. But he’s a hurt soul, too. A hurt soul makes for a frightened child, and when a child is frightened, they fall back on instinct. Ryu has been created for violence to be the failsafe. He doesn’t mean for it to be the case, but it’s simply in his coding.

They’re trying to figure something out on that. Another visit from Uncle Franky will be necessary here.

In the meantime, while they get the kid adjusted, Dragon has a gift. Well… not so much a gift as a tool to be used at Ryu’s own discretion.

A small, child-sized ring made of low grade seastone, made to suppress the wearer’s devil fruit without draining them of energy. It’s made to look like a very plain piece of jewelry, undesirable to a thieves and made difficult to identify as the mineral in question. It was meant for helping child devil fruit users to have an “off switch” to their powers, should those be overtly dangerous. The idea behind is to ease said child into how to control their powers.

A little rain deity capable of flooding islands with hurricanes, toppling mountains with earthquakes, and sending hundreds to their maker with the payload of a single drop of venom… that’s just as terrifying a thing for a kid to be as a walking armory.

The ring had served Dragon well in his youth. Maybe it would do the same for Ryu.

When the little angel puts the ring on, starry eyes soften with relief as the presence of the fruit becomes distant. Not cut off, never cut off, but distant.

Ryu plays a lot more, keeping the band tucked under his shirt on a chain around his neck for any impromptu size shifting shenaniganary. There will be a time when he’s ready to tackle his devil fruit, but for now they’re all content for him to be a child.

[mjrtaurus]

Gabe's Devil Fruit is a Special Paramecia instead of a Logia like his father's, so he doesn't reflexively turn into clay when he's struck. He'll probably be able to replicate Katakuri's trick of using observation haki to mold his body around the direction of an attack one day. He was able to do it back when he had his programming, but now he'll have to learn it from the ground up again.

For now he mostly uses his Devil Fruit like a mix of Galdino and Magellan, making structures and gator-headed golems and coating himself in a protective layer of clay. Very colorful clay at that. He gets specks of it stuck in his wings like pieces of Playdoh all the time.

Also, Crocodile being course, rough, and dry like sand while Gabe is soft, squishy, and flexible like clay is just a delightful contrast to me!

When the summer hits high and hot on Karai Bari, you can often see Gabe sweating in streaks of iron oxide oranges and reds. It was a terrifying sight at first, given nobody knew why for a time.

Until Buggy, hidden genius that he is, pointed out that clay is literally just dirt with a high iron content.

Kid is just sweating a little bit of iron oxide. It always happens around the time that he’s used his powers, so it’s his body cleaning itself.

Mihawk and Crocodile are fascinated by that, but overall very happy that their muddy angel isn’t actually ill or compromised in some way.

[mjrtaurus]

Gabe saying he wants to grow up to be a sugar baby bc it sounds like some fun treat-related thing and Tayta is one so it must be good!

Cue Crocodile looking at Iva like

“What have you been teaching my children?”

“If I taught him that, I would have been very clear that that sort of thing is- and always should be- a grown ups only affair.”

“Fair point. So who did say it around him?”

Cut to Buggy, notorious filter-free chatterbox, who may or may not get his hair and skin care products from Momoiro directly, and may or may not have gone there for a fun little trip with the kids to visit Tayta and Auntie Iva, who may or may not also like to gossip with the Kamabakka about the mysterious and enigmatic (and drop dead gorgeous) RA leader.

[mjrtaurus]

Now that the weather is starting to get colder, this is the first year that Crocodile doesn't just have to worry about himself or the wanis feeling the negative effects of the drop in temperature.

Gabe has inherited his baba's intolerance to cold. Seems silly given he'd a Lunarian, but he's still a very young Lunarian whose flames can only run so hot. He didn't get to build up much of a resistance to lower temperatures on Egghead like his siblings did since he was in the Labophase most of the time and didn't get exposed to much of the winter climate outside the tropical zone.

His nose is starting to run more, he's got goosebumps practically all the time, he's becoming more lethargic and sometimes even grumpy, and it's hard for Gabe to even vocalize that he's cold because he's not very accustomed to what coldness even is. He mostly just curls in on himself and chirps unhappily until he worries himself into a stomach ache.

The poor boy is even starting to have accidents at night because the cold makes him too uncomfortable to get up and go to the bathroom.

He and Gryphon are practically sharing a bed now because Gryphon ain't gonna stand by and let his brother shiver all through the night, even with extra blankets.

At first, Crocodile thinks it to be phantom pains (phantom phantom pains?) of a missing hand that Gabe sometimes feels. This consistent level of crankiness on the boy only tends to happen when that’s the case.

But the whole not wanting to get up at night thing is what clues him in. When it’s cold out, and he’s already called it a night, it takes an “all the gorosei are at our doorstep bringing death and destruction” level emergency to get the man to even consider getting out of bed. Obviously he can wait out until morning to relieve himself, but Gabe is still a little too young and still a little too unused to the mundane needs of his body to be able to pull that off all that well. The stress of it being cold doesn’t help that either.

They’re at a bit of a loss for a while. If they made their tent any warmer, it would force poor Gryphon right out of it. If they gave Gabe a heated blanket, that could cause a fire (which wouldn’t hurt the boys, but could destroy a lot of sentimental things)…

Until Crocodile has a lightbulb (pun not intended) moment while tending the smaller wani. A heating lamp. Portable, powered by a negligible amount of energy in the little lunarian’s flame. When brought up to Gabe, he was ecstatic because he could be just like a wani in the winter. Perfect!