#this but luffy is actually happy to be there

[mangyraccooon]

November rolls into December and the straw hats haven’t left.

Dragon has tried to ask Luffy and when that failed Robin and jinbei why. But he hasn’t received an actual answer.

Part of him misses the snow he experienced on the baltigo, but the old geezer part is very happy with the mild climate foosha has year round.

Luffy splits his time between the cabin and his ship.

It’s like a fever dream, waking up and sabo and luffy are sitting in the kitchen talking.

“Hey dad.” Oh and Luffy randomly goes between calling him Dragon and dad. He’s pretty sure he experienced a heart attack the first time.

“Do I have a mom?”

Dragon can tell it’s a question someone asked Luffy and judging by the side eye Sabo is currently giving him. Luffy isn’t the only curious one.

Dragon takes a seat at the table and decides on the truth (or most of it.) “no you don’t. The person who gave birth to you wasn’t a woman.”

“Huh,” Luffy shrugs, “ok.”

“Are they around?” Sabo asks, looking far too invested for his own good.

Dragon sips his coffee. “Thats none of your business.”

“Oh Come On!” Sabo exclaims, smacking a hand on the table. “I’ve been waiting for an answer on this for years! Who would be crazy enough to have a kid with you!”

There’s a long silence and Dragon can see his reflection in the coffee. For a second he can feel warm breath on his neck and the smell of smoke. And then it’s gone.

“Dad..” Sabo says miserably. “I didn’t mean..”

“Nobody.” Dragon laughs at the empty air, at his empty heart. “Nobody was crazy enough.”

He forces a smile that feels like a grimace and goes to ruffle Luffys hair but falls short and simply taps his son’s hand gently. “Luffy you weren’t a planned baby. But from the second I held you, I- well, I never wanted anything else.”

He stands up and walks back to his bedroom. He needs to lay down for a bit.

Hours later or maybe a whole day, Dragon loses track of time laying there. A quiet voice asks to come in.

He isn’t sure if he answers but Luffy enters anyway. The book tucked to his chest. His hat is missing and Dragon thinks he looks younger without it. Like a lost child, instead of the man he’s become.

Luffy doesn’t ask, simply crawls into the bed right beside Dragon. Still clutching at the book like a teddy bear.

There’s only the sound of fabric rustling as Luffy settles. A photograph is stuck into Dragons face. Luffy peers over it a very obvious question in his eyes.

“It was your second birthday.” Dragon answers his voice too flat, too uncaring. “You got a stuffed lion you couldn’t sleep without.”

“You kept me.” It isn’t really a question and Luffys voice is far too small. Too uncertain.

Dragon closes his eyes, rain drops prick the inside of his eyelids. “I tried.”

“What happened?”

A tiny island, he had been so careful. Blood on the floor, luffy screaming. Metal sliding into his throat.

“Someone got lucky, I almost died. I realized that the life I could give you wasn’t one I’d want for you.”

“You kept Sabo.”

It took Dragon a moment to recognize the tone Luffy used was petulant. Pouting.

He looked at his son, whose curls spilled out on the pillow and his heart ached.

“I did, and I regret it but I didn’t have a lot of choices at the time.”

The things unsaid will the air like smog and fire, choking Dragon in his inability to say what he wanted to say.

Luffy inched closer, like an aggressive worm. “You’re warm.“

A different island, snow building on the window. A crooked smile. “My own personal furnace.”

Dragon says nothing as his son slowly snuggles up to his side and into dares to brush the ringlets out of his eyes, when he is sure Luffy is asleep.

“I’m sorry.” He whispers.

For the first time in a long time, Dragon dreams. He dreams of a something warm and bright. When he wakes all he can recall is blurred edges and a sense of loss.

He watches his sons crew spar and bicker and he feels

Empty

So fucking empty,

Like a towel wrung dry or an empty bottle save for the droplets around the mouth.

He wants to care, he really fucking does. He wants to spar with his kids, give them advice, tell them everything they want.

But he can barely get out of bed.

He’s so tired.

Mealtimes become sacred, if Dragon can’t get to the sunny. Luffy or Sabo will sit with him in bed.

He usually doesn’t eat much during these times, maybe because he feels so fucking pathetic bed bound by his own fucked up mind.

Or maybe he just wishes they would stop trying.

Monkey D Dragon and the auDHD/depression/vocal cord paralysis induced curse of “I need to eat, but I don’t want to”.

Oh it’s the worst, the only effective method they have found is if Sabo or one of the younger members asks him if he can make some food

Then he’ll wander into the kitchen and make something and end up joining in the eating out of habit.

At his worst kuma had to hold him down while Iva shoved a tube down his throat (it only happened a couple times but still those weren’t good times)

Dragon had been brought kicking and screaming back from near death multiple times and it is the biggest tragedy that it doesn’t bother him whatsoever

[beanghostprincess]

This is how Zoro reacting like a hater to Sanuso feels to me:

Zoro you hypocrite!!!!

[itsthatlake]

“Icarus.”

it's all about freedom really

Credit goes to An Sifakah for the poem. Enjoy!

Support me on Ko-fi maybe?

[deadeery]

26 YEARS AND STILL GOING STRONG 💪 🏴‍☠️

redraw of one of my fav official arts ^_^

[arunneronthird]

do u think they look at maps together and laugh like students looking at expensive restaurant menus

[commander-spaceboy]

Lusopp my beloved!!

Smthn smthn falling in love with your best friend can do wonders for you

[tinukis]

DAY 7 - HAPPY LUFFY DAY 👒🏴‍☠️🎂♥️♥️♥️‼️‼️‼️

i did it... I FINISHED A WEEK CHALLENGE NO WAYYYY.... THIS WAS ALL FOR YOU, CAPTAIN ♥️♥️♥️♥️

[madbard]

I love shipping characters who hate each other in canon.

I love shipping characters who have had exactly one (1) conversation in canon.

I love shipping characters who have never met in canon.

I love shipping characters from different pieces of media.

It starts off silly. The notion of the pairing is so weird, so unexpected and seemingly dumb that it makes me laugh a little, perk up, look into it and see if this is really a thing.

And then it becomes a joke. Haha, look at this ship I’m shipping ironically, isn’t it silly, it would obviously never work out in canon but I’m looking at it and producing content for it anyway because it’s fun.

But as time goes on, it starts filling my feed. I start thinking about it - really thinking about it. Why did someone put these characters together in the first place? How would they really interact? How did they end up together, and why would they stay together?

What started out as a joke becomes a diving-off point, an opportunity to really think about both characters. The dynamic isn’t canon, so it’s yours to shape. The dynamic isn’t canon, so now you must delve into each character on your own, figure out how you perceive and understand both of them, learn to see them in a different light. What started out as a joke encourages you to dig deeper, think harder, fall even more in love with those characters as you consider the potentials which lie outside of canon, but which ultimately trace their roots through the core of the characters themselves.

Because by their very nature, crackships and rarepairs are not based on plot, and they are not based on canon. They are so seemingly random and odd that they disrupt your typical view of these characters, making you think more deeply about them. The non-canon ships you embrace or reject can inform your perception of these characters on a deep level. They can make you cry just as easily as they make you laugh. They add so much flavor.

And they can also be really, really funny.

[kacievvbbbb]

You ever think about how Mihawk definitely does not hear his name alot?

Like there are probably only 2 people in the entire world that consistently refer to him by name. To the rest of the world he’s just an epithet. He might as well have no real name for as little as he hears it.

He’ll hear it at introductions always preface by his epithet, he’ll see it in the bounty posters and notice it in the history books. But barely anyone will ever calm him that. Just a pink headed ghost girl and the red headed half of the most complicated situationship panning 20 years.

You ever think about how Shanks probably has a thousand and one nicknames for Mihawk he cycles through at a whim but maybe Mihawk’s favorite will always be the soft way in which Shanks calls out his given name like that’s all there is too it like there’s a Mihawk that exists all on its own. No matter the situation Shanks calls him Mihawk and he has his full attention

[happychi]

Simplifying Luffy's personality as "childish" does such a huge disservice to his character. During his introduction, we just see him as this goofy sheltered kid who doesn't realize how awful the world is.

Then we finally get to see his childhood and we realize that he knows first hand how fucked up the world is. He's been beaten mercilessly, abandoned, witnessed genocide, etc, all while he was just 8 years old. Despite all of that, he has managed to retain his childhood wonder.

Luffy is clearly emotionally intelligent, a strong leader, empathetic, and mature when he needs to be. He's traumatized AF and smiling through it all. He's allowed to be a lil silly.

[beanghostprincess]

luffy knowing a bit too much information about beetles and zoro being oddly good at math are concepts that make me extremely happy for no reason

[120percents]

i just think it’s so funny that zoro does not even wanna comment on the usokaya situation when usopp explicitly asks and he very pointedly looks away when they kiss and yet he proceeds to butt in every single time sanji flirts with a woman or implies he knows about romance to redirect attention back on himself like god i wonder where your interests lie…

[diggitydangletmelive]

zolu aroace positivity post!!! because if you're aroace and you celebrate the gift that is zolu, I want to share why they mean so much to me as an aroace.

what makes zolu so special to me is because first and foremost, zoro and luffy went out to the vast open seas of the world to chase after their dreams. luffy wants to be the pirate king, zoro wants to be the best swordsman. even after being recruited, even after all they went through, they never stopped having their dreams as the forefront of their characters. but it just so happens that both their dreams are intertwined with each other, the best swordsman in the world's most fitting place is by being right next to the pirate king, and the pirate king believes that he would reach his goal by having the best by his side.

the reason why I believe zoro and luffy's relationship is so strong is because by fighting for their own dreams, they also strengthen their bond with the other. zoro wants to be strong to be the best swordsman, but it's also to protect the crew and to best support luffy as he guns for the title of pirate king. luffy wants to be strong to be pirate king, but it's also to protect the crew, but also? by being strong, he proves time and time again that his crew did not make the wrong decision to follow him, that he is a Captain that deserves to obtain the one piece (i think of luffy aiming to be strong so that his crew will never have to falter about his leadership, especially after water 7).

as an aroace, this feels like the best way to showcase love and devotion and trust with each other. knowing that someone's dream becomes a part of your own, that every time you fight for yourself and you aim to be a better version of yourself, you're not only working for your own sake but for the better of you and your partner. that i come to love my partner because they understand me, and they know why i fight so hard to reach my goal. and not only that, they fight as equally hard for their own goal. together, both of our dreams ultimately help each other become the best version of ourselves.

knowing that zoro believes in luffy wholeheartedly that he fought for his dream too, enough to put his life on the line for luffy. knowing that luffy can leave his most precious family and crew to zoro because he trusts zoro wholeheartedly to win.

to me, this is how I envision love. it's about getting to know each other, understanding each other, loving each other to the point that their dreams become yours, and fighting together side by side to make that dream come true.

zoro and luffy have that in spades. imo, zoro and luffy's appeal as a relationship is that they are intertwined with each other, and they go through hell and back and fight for each other and their dreams together. it's no wonder that aroace people like me are drawn to them, their love and bond transcends just having an attraction to each other. because it's also about having this person change and inspire me to be better.

[shima-draws]

Sanlu marriage proposal but it only happens because Luffy’s jealous

“If Pudding got to (almost) marry Sanji then why can’t I??! >:((((”

[spideyachilles]

happy valentine's day! have this doodle sheet of zolu being happy and in love

[badninken]

It's finally TEAMWORK TIME!

Where do I even begin with this. We have Zoro stepping up to Kaido, declaring that if Luffy dies he intends to die with him, granting Luffy at least 500% more power because dramatic displays of friendship AND friends in immediate danger work like instant Luffy doping.

and THEN we have these guys immediately stepping up like "hey don't you dare leave us out of your self sacrificing power moment"

and then they all sync up by the magic of fighting for a bro <3

and, and then, then there's the Kid and Law Luffy toss! T_T <3

and it's so so beautiful <3

and then they all start combining their abilities in all kinds of smart ways without even having to discuss things, because that's how powerful friendship/rivalry is in the face of almost certain defeat.

We have first mates Killer and Zoro working their blade magic in perfect sync, Kid and Law constructing genius traps and was that Zoro splitting the whole floating island thing at the end? I love it when he splits huge things. I was so impressed that time when he split one train cart in two and look where he is now!

Now I'm gonna watch the intense flower petal bro moment again that was great.