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cuckoo-on-a-string · 10 days ago

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Pay the Piper v. 1

mdni

Summary: If the Red Haired Pirates would kindly fuck off, it would make your job a lot easier.

Pay the Piper Master Post

Chapter warnings: language, implied threat of murder at sea

“They’re stealing our wind.”

The mass of sails grew in your spyglass. What the crew had whispered might be a Jolly Roger clearly wore Redhaired Shanks’ stripes over the left eye, and the Red Force’s dragon figurehead bared its teeth in your direction.

For fuck’s sake. It couldn’t just be any pirates. You had to run across a whole-ass Yonko.

Lowering the glass, you blinked, taking the moment as your vision adjusted to consider your options. Without the telescopic lenses, the puff of white gradually eating the horizon could almost be mistaken for a cloud. It looked so harmless and far away.

“Even if your ship was faster, captain, they’ve taken the advantage.” You held the spyglass out to the beef-brained Marine you’d been bullied into accompanying.

Grinding his teeth, he ignored you, lifting his binoculars to see the same vision of approaching doom.

Apparently he liked you even less when you were right. “We can’t outrun them like this.”

“What’re you gonna do?” he growled. “Sing ‘em to sleep?”

A few of his favorites tittered, anxiously holding onto fading hopes that their commanding officer knew what he was doing. Marines usually buried their heads in the sand, up to the waist if need be. To be fair, it was what most were trained to do, and it kept (some of) them sane as they climbed the ranks from Entirely Helpless to Relatively Hopeless.

Without the constraint of rank and oath, you were much more realistic. The Red Force was gaining, and the pirates would close the distance even faster now. Your hand drifted to the railing, thumbnail digging into the paint. Even with the wind, you couldn’t win a race with that monster of a ship. The Marine’s tub was old. Even the mild breeze that kept the sails from falling entirely slack brought shrieks from the aging masts, and despite the good weather, the hull groaned like an old man.

You dug deep, working a splinter out of the rail to ruin the smooth white finish.

Fuck old men and the ships that sounded like them.

“This isn’t my first time sailing around pirates I’m ill-equipped to fight. We’ll try a few tricks and play it by ear.”

“Tricks, huh?” The captain’s voice dripped derision – for your lack of strength, for your very presence, for all the rules you could slide under without entirely breaking.

But even if you weren’t in the pecking order, you weren’t above yanking on the invisible leash of command.

“If Vice-Admiral Garp thought brute strength and speed would do it, would he have bothered with me?”

The ship shuddered as the Marines unfurled another sail, hoping to catch even half a knot’s more speed.

The captain grunted and dropped his binoculars to his chest. “Do what you want.”

He didn’t even glance your way as he left, and you smiled at the “Justice” signature scrawled down his back, spyglass tapping against your thigh.

“Oh, I plan to.”

You kept time with the captain’s receding footsteps, wandering the quarter deck with an eye on the billowing cloth overhead, tracking the sun’s path behind it. It would be dark in another three hours. Give or take. Enough time to launch Plan B, and Plan B almost always worked. The pirates would have just enough light to recover the wager, and once the pirates had what they wanted, everyone could use the moonless night as an excuse to lose sight of each other.

Plan B had never been tested against a Yonko, though.

It relied on giving the pursuers what they wanted with the least amount of fuss. No risk. All reward. The only gamble was that the prey had even more loot on board, but few crews were all that interested beyond a good haul. Seas knew if a Yonko wanted the same thing as any other pirate.

Still. Worth a shot.

You wrote a letter, a reverse ransom of sorts, and set it on top of the glittering Berries in the small chest brought for just this situation. Self-funded, of course, because if the Marines couldn’t spring for a proper escort, they couldn’t dream of providing expensive countermeasures.

You kept the message simple.

Apologies for our trespass in your territory. We are not seeking a battle and sail on a humanitarian mission. Please accept this modest token as toll and tribute.

The Marine captain would not see the letter. As amusing as watching him turn a dozen shades of puce would be, you had a job and a will to live besides. Stroking one man’s ego while sparing the other’s might be the difference between ending the voyage in a port or a shark’s belly.

The chest went in a barrel packed with straw, and you attached a tall rod with a yellow flag. Not white. Because the Marines would have a conniption. And the Yonko may get the wrong idea. Yellow caught the eye and reflected what bounty lay inside, so it would work well enough.

With a deck full of men staring at you, you rolled the barrel to the side and heaved it over. It landed with a terrific splash, and even at your tub’s leisurely speed, the peace offering soon floated far behind. You watched to ensure it flipped the right way up, flag streaming over the water with the demanding poise of a News Coo.

Half an hour. You watched the barrel sway and bob, picked out new details of the Red Force as it closed in, and kept time with your foot where you sat on the rail. The hiss of spray, the song of old wood flexing under its own weight, and the work of a dozen trained men boiled into something you could pick a tune through. Minutes dripped orange into the sinking sun, and you hovered in the rhythm of it all, caught in the song’s sway.

At last, your pursuers reached the barrel.

You kept your spyglass to your eye as grappling lines flew from the deck, hooking the prize and hefting it up, up, up to the deck. They’d drawn close enough that you could make out vague figures, but no faces, and you had a shit angle, besides. Once the barrel was aboard, you lost sight of it. The next move was theirs, but you’d prefer knowing what it was sooner rather than later. Any little move could tip you off. A reaction. Laughter. Signs of discord. Anything.

The Red Force didn’t lower any sails or shift course, but you’d doubted they would until dark. Nothing else seemed to change, and you swore under your breath.

More waiting then.

Dawn would reveal how screwed you were.

Just as you prepared to give up your watch and hunt down dinner, a glint near the pirate ship’s prow snared your attention.

You weren’t the only one watching.

For a beat, it wasn’t a game of survival between ships. It was you and a stranger linked by line of sight. You felt marked. Noted. Like if you spoke, the other would hear you. You’d begun a correspondence, and the reply glimmered back, intangible and compelling as a ghost.

You pulled away from the connection, lowering the glass, going below decks, and trying to shake the feeling of the pirate’s eye.

“Douse the lights at twilight,” you told the captain. “With luck we’ll lose them in the dark.”

“Already planning to.”

“Sure.”

_____________________

Morning came.

You rose before dawn, leaning on the rail with a cup of coffee to greet your fate. Even before the sun’s disk broke the horizon, you saw the Red Force in the pre-dawn gloom. You didn’t raise an alarm. No need. The warship hadn’t gone dark, and the men on watch must’ve seen the inevitable truth swimming along in their wake all night.

Poor things.

The coffee wasn’t terrible. Since you wouldn’t have time for a proper breakfast, you drank it down slowly, savoring the fresh air and spinning out next steps.

The captain likely wouldn’t listen to you after this failure, and that really was a concern. But the Red-Haired Pirates had such a mixed reputation – if the captain hadn’t insisted on flying the Marine colors, your hunters might’ve eased off. This ship really wasn’t a great prize in any traditional sense, and no rare wonders sat in crates below deck. But you made such a sad little target with your shitty boat and your scant crew that you must’ve sparked some curiosity.

The last of your morning brew hid a mouthful of grounds, and you nearly gagged forcing it down. At least there was something solid in your stomach now.

Rosy light flushed the world red and gold. The fanged face of the pirates’ ship was close enough you didn’t need the spyglass to make it out anymore. It looked hungry. You’d have to feed it some answers.

How much could you reveal without giving the game away? Finding the sweet spot between enough of the truth to bore someone and so much of the truth they took interest always frustrated you, and the stakes had never been this high.

“They didn’t go for your trick.”

The captain, binoculars up, appeared beside you. Even in a life-or-death situation, apparently you were only worth half his attention.

“They didn’t.”

Since he clearly didn’t care much about manners, you left the conversation at that and started crafting your back-up peace offering. No pre-packaged loot this time. You made the rounds with an empty box, asking for anything of value the Marines cherished less than their lives. Most sniffed in disdain (and poverty). A few shakily removed wedding bands, fetched little heirlooms from their lockers, and dropped in their scant wages.

You took the little hoard back to the workspace you’d stolen for yourself below deck and penned another letter.

Please fuck off.

The coffee burned in your gut, threatening to return as you considered your own sacrifice for the tithe. It was a gamble. One you didn’t want to make either way, but it might work. It wasn’t the sort of token someone would surrender lightly. And it might underline your point that there was nothing of value left.

If, on the other hand, this was purely about the fact that Marines dared sail through a Yonko’s territory… well, you’d all be dead, and it wouldn’t matter how much your heart bled to give up the thing, would it?

You pulled the pendant from around your neck and immediately missed its weight. Your shoulders were too light to hold down breath, and you chewed the inside of your cheek to banish the burning in your nose.

When had you last taken it off? To clean it, maybe, a few months ago? You hadn’t suffocated without it then. You'd live now.

But –

Two things mattered more to you than anything else in the whole world, and here you were, giving one up without a fight.

You allowed yourself a minute to look at the smooth stone and delicate silver, rubbing your thumb over the little masterpiece like you could press it into your skin. Keep it. Memorize it or absorb it or anything except –

You put it in the box.

A little cadet helped you find another barrel, and together you put together another flag to ensure your suffering wasn’t all for nothing.

Over the side and into the sea, the barrel rode the wake of your sad little tub until it was close enough for the pirate crew to snatch with hook and line. This time, you only had to wait ten minutes.

You were ready with the spyglass.

A figure approached the prow, and as he came out of the sails’ shade, you spotted the telltale hair. Red Haired Shanks lifted his own spyglass, looking straight back at you with your pendant glittering in his hand.

You snapped the glass from your eye and – confident he could see you – made a grand and exaggerated shooing motion. Ushering him away like a persistent gull.

Shoo.

Fuck off.

Please.

If his sense of humor was anything like you’d heard, maybe he’d spare you for the laugh.

But when you peered through the glass to see if he had an answer, you could’ve sworn he was laughing.

Laughing and shaking his head.

#one piece x reader #shanks x reader #shanks x you #red haired shanks x reader #multiship #fic: pay the piper

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thowawayuntilfurthernotice · 1 year ago

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The same industry that spent decades covering for the likes of Weinstein, Cosby, Spacey, Polanski etc. is actively blacklisting anyone who is willing to speak out about what is currently happening in Palestine.

Hollywood has no ground to stand on when it comes to morality, I’ve seen tons of celebrities posting Islamophobic propaganda on Twitter and Instagram, yet they still get to work.

Meanwhile, Melissa Barrera speaks out about what is happening in Palestine, and Spyglass decides to fire her without any hesitation!

Fuck Hollywood and fuck the entertainment industry.

Pirate everything and buy DVD’s/Blu Rays second hand.

Don’t give these ghouls your money.

#Palestine #Free Palestine #Melissa Barrera #Scream #Scream Franchise #Scream Series

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alexa-yukiyu · 10 months ago

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hiya! How are you? :) so i was thinking like child reader and the whitebeard pirates and basically reader gets caught like sneaking out at midnight and they sneak out of moby dick and whitebeard is still awake and sitting on his like chair in the middle of the deck and notices? I think this one will be quite interesting to read! And i gotta say dude, your pretty damn talented.

Bright Escapes (Whitebeard x gn!child!reader x Izou)

A/N I ‘m SO SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG I DON’t EVEN KNOW IF YOUR STILL HERE IM SORRY BUT HERE YOU. It is still kinda flop so I apologize but I really hope that it gets close to what you were thinking

Reader here is Replaced by Dokucha as a placeholder which stands for Reader in Japanese

Dividers by @/saradika

The Deck of the Moby Dick laid quiet, not even the talk of the night watch to be heard. Only the sound of the waves crashing against the ship and the port they had stopped at could be heard.

Perhaps that’s why they thought that the night watch would hear the sound of their heartbeat as they hung from one of the lower sails, preparing to jump again to the next one, trying to evade the sharp eyes of the night watch. They regretted not checking which of their brothers would be leading the night watch today, as now they had to hide from the two who had the best eyesight and ability to spot moving targets, Izou and Curiel.

But they couldn’t back down now, not when they had gotten so close to sneaking off the ship. They would only jump one more time, and then they would be off the boat.

“Heh, I'm so closed!” They grinned

That feeling was short-lived as once they made their final jump, a familiar shock traveled through their air, breaking their balance and causing them to fail the jump, only to something to catch their fall.

“Where are you going, twerp?”

They wince at the booming voice, turning on their palm to face him

“Ummm, Hi Papaw….” The child mutters

He narrows his eyes at them as they drop them to the ground, ignoring the yelp they made as he did.

“Ow… Listen, Papaw, it’s not what it looks like?”

“You’re going to tell me one of my children was not sneaking out of the ship at this time of night.”

“I had a good reason!”

“What?”

“There are fireflies on this Island, Papaw! I’ve never seen them; everyone always says how beautiful the sight is.”

“You tried to sneak into a dangerous Island alone, at the darkest time, to see some insects?”

“Umm…pretty insects?” The child tried to fix it with a nervous smile

“You’re grounded.”

“Okay,” they said, slumping down defeatedly, a pout on their lips

“Seeing as we can’t trust you to stay in the quarters, you are to stay with one of your brothers for the rest of our time here. Go to the Crow’s nest, and you'll spend the night with Izou.”

“Yes, Papaw…”

Izou lets out a chuckle at the sight of the frowning child who had taken to sitting down knowing the crow’s nest

“It’s not funny!”

“I beg to differ,” he said with a smile

“You know, if you had asked, I doubt he would have said no to taking you to see them.”

“As if! He and all of you are so overprotective he wouldn’t have risked the chance of me going out on an island like this.”

“You do have to understand our point of view, Dokucha; you are our youngest sibling; you’re only a child.”

“I know that,” they grumble, pulling their knees to their chest and placing their head on top of them

“But I just wanted to see them, only once. We usually only stop on Papaw’s lands, and his lands don’t have these views.”

“Come here,” he said, lifting them up and sitting them in the railing of the nest

“Don’t say I never do anything for you,” he said, handing them a spyglass

They glanced at him hesitantly, looking over the spyglass only to come up with nothing, simply the dark land staring him across the instrument

“Gee, Thanks; I‘ve always wanted to look at grass at night…are you just rubbing it in?”

“Just keep looking,” he mutters, ignoring the kid’s jabs as he pulls out his Flintlock and fires a shot toward the land

Just like that, a blanket of fireflies welcomed them as the fireflies scattered from their hiding spots among the grass, trees, and bushes to escape the sudden movement

Dokucha looks in awe as the fireflies flicker around, giving the coast an ethereal glow as the insects flew around, some illuminating the crashing waves, the blue sea below them reflecting the light in a show of lights orchestrated by mother nature.

“Wow…”

“Still think it’s just grass at night.”

They take their eyes off the spyglass to look at Izou

“Thank you, Big Brother! It’s everything I thought it would be and more,” he awed, returning his attention to the spyglass

In response, the Sniper ruffled their hair

“Anything for our little sibling.”

I have let you down anon im sorry ✊🏽

Taglist:

@imaginarydreams

@amethystviolin

@h0n3y-l3m0n05

#one piece #one piece x reader #one piece imagine #one piece fluff #one piece x child!reader #oc x whitebeard pirates #whitebeard x gn!reader #whitebeard pirates x child!reader #whitebeard pirates x reader #whitebeard x reader #whitebeard pirates #op whitebeard #whitebeard one piece #whitebeard crew #izou x reader #izou one piece

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chibinasuu · 6 months ago

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Money and Tangerines | Nami x Reader

Part of the Thousand Sunny Slice-of-Life Series

Find the other parts with the rest of the Straw Hats here

Summary: You and Nami sort out the crew's budget under the shade of her tangerine trees as the Sunny approaches a new island Word count: 792 Tags: one-shot, pure fluff, domestic bliss onboard the sunny, platonic straw hat pirates x reader, main pairing could be interpreted as platonic or romantic, no use of y/n, GN but written with F!Reader in mind

You look at the numbers on the Straw Hat Crew’s finance logbook, slowly being filled with dread as you put your head in your hands.

“Nami...” You started hesitantly, “We’re broke.”

Nami sighed loudly, but you swear you could hear a hint of a smile as she replied, “Well, that’s not exactly news, is it?”

Nami went back to watering her tangerine trees, while you return to calculating the meager amount of Berries that your crew has left.

You and Nami usually sort out the crew’s finances inside the library, but today she took your hand and practically dragged you outside as she said, “Don’t you think it’s a waste to be inside when we have such perfect weather today?”

So that’s how you ended up at a picnic table on the Sunny’s upper deck, shaded from the sun by Nami’s tangerine trees. A slow breeze picked up, offering reprieve from the heat.

Nami told you yesterday that the ship has entered an island’s climate, likely a summer one, and just this morning, Usopp shouted “Land ho!” as he pointed out the barely visible stretch of land on the horizon. It would still take the ship around a day to reach the island, but Usopp was positive that he saw a town when he stole a look with his spyglass.

Landing at town usually means Luffy, Zoro, and Chopper going off on an ‘adventure’ the second Sunny touches the port. They will likely get lost, but you always find them eventually, often at a restaurant, ordering way more food and booze than they could actually afford.

Sanji takes care of groceries, while Franky and Usopp resupply necessities for the ship. Robin, Brook, or Jinbei – the three most seasoned pirates of the crew – are usually the ones who offer to stay behind and watch the Sunny, content to leave the exploring to their younger crewmates.

As for you, well, more often than not, you find yourself trailing beside the orange-haired girl as she enters store after store, finding items to fill her already overflowing wardrobe. You usually opted to just window shop, not buying anything unless absolutely necessary, but Nami always managed to swindle some poor shopkeeper into giving her huge discounts after some harmless flirting (or resorting to not-so-subtle threats if that fails).

That is to say, landing at town means spending some Berries, and it’s up to you and Nami to sort out a budget to make sure the crew doesn’t go overboard with their purchases.

You sighed again as your thumb and forefinger flicked through the banknotes, setting aside the proper amount needed for groceries. You know Sanji is more on the financially-responsible side among the crew, but his self-restraint may have crumbled once or twice before whenever he saw the rare, not to mention exceptionally pricey, Blue-Finned Elephant Tuna at the fishmonger. You had to admit the damn fish was delicious though, so you’re not exactly complaining.

“Oh, cheer up! I’m sure we’ll figure this out.” Nami said as she poked your cheek playfully and took a seat next to you, “We always do, don’t we?”

She put on her reading glasses and leaned over to scan the logbook, her nimble fingers absentmindedly peeling the ripe tangerine that she just plucked from her tree.

She took the pencil from you and crossed out a few items off the shopping list efficiently, muttering a series of nope’s, nuh-uh’s, and we-still-have-enough-of-that’s. You also offered your inputs, pointing out which items seemed unnecessary at the moment, and which ones could be replaced with a lower-cost alternative.

The sun slowly dipped into the horizon as you and Nami got lost in your discussion, often going off on a tangent while munching on some tangerines, before ultimately getting back to the task at hand.

You stretched your arms above your head with a groan as you two finally finished divvying up the crew’s allowance. Nami brought the last wedge of her tangerine up to your lips, and you leaned forward to accept it.

“Told ya we’d figure it out!” She chimed with a big smile on her face.

The sound of footsteps approaching caught your attention, and you saw the telltale moss-colored hair of the swordsman peeking out as he ascended the stairs to the upper deck.

“Oi, Curly said dinner’s almost ready.” Zoro called out.

“Be right there!” Nami cheerfully replied.

She got up and plucked a few more tangerines from her tree, handing over a couple to you, “C’mon, let’s get Sanji-kun to make some dessert with these!”

Nami excitedly linked her arm with yours and headed towards the dining room. You eagerly followed her lead, already looking forward to the fresh, citrusy delicacy that will surely grace the dinner table tonight.

a/n: it’s canon that luffy is reckless with money so i sometimes think about how broke the straw hats must be lmao. yet they always seemed to manage somehow and i think that must've come down to nami’s super efficient and tight money management. we love our economical queen 👌🏻

Find the other parts with the rest of the Straw Hats here

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