#to be fair lucci will also not be much better when he finds out about what happened on sabaody with kizaru and the celestial dragon

[bipherpol]

“Nico. Lucci.”

He’d known it was coming, but that knowledge doesn’t make hearing Robin say his name in that tone any less terrifying.

Slowly turning on his heel, Lucci looks at his sister, who stands with her arms crossed, eyebrows raised and lips pursed. He knows that look. Despite only being with her until they were eight, he’s caused that expression more times than he cares to count.

That is Robin’s ‘explain now or I start yelling for mom and you get to explain it to her and die’ expression. He hasn’t earned it since their reunion.

The fact that their mother has been dead for twenty years really doesn’t negate the effectiveness of it. That just means that Robin will skip straight to murdering him.

have a post-marineford snippet

[ethain]

you'll rebel to anything

[somewhat a continuation to 'i predict a riot', tbc]

Kaku is used to Lucci’s atrocious timing. 

He doesn’t mind it, actually – his life has a steady tact, and although Kaku isn’t one to just ‘shake things up’, he’s not opposed to someone doing it for him. Someone who offers no explanations for what he does and when, either; if it gets too much, Kaku can always put his foot down. 

Hasn’t done that, yet. Hasn’t objected to anything Lucci does or doesn’t do, like put a label on what they have going on. Because honestly, Kaku’s life has enough labels as it is. 

That sounds too simple, like he wouldn’t care if Lucci disappeared from his life: like he could stop dropping in on Kaku’s mostly prim and proper schedule and that wouldn’t hurt. Kaku hasn’t given it much thought – Lucci introduced him to his friends, so they couldn’t simply drift apart, and they can’t break up if they’re not an actual couple. Whatever exists between them is surprisingly good, and demanding more isn’t necessary for now. Kaku’s not a complicated guy, he prides himself on that at least. Things will come up or they won’t. 

Paulie says he’s being an idiot, but he has commitment issues that Kaku is nice enough to not bring up. 

(Also, he’s sure that Lucci made Paulie struggle with bi-curiosity the moment he swiped the mass of black hair from his neck to his shoulder on a hot day and Paulie hates him for that. 

He’s also sure that Lucci knows he did that. Possibly did that on purpose. God, he’s an asshole and Kaku still can’t disapprove.) 

There is also the fact that although Kaku knows Lucci’s friends, there is someone he hasn’t been allowed to meet yet, someone who’s way more crucial for defining whether they are a thing or not. 

Hattori. 

The pigeon is probably Lucci’s actual partner: the individual closest to him. Which sounds weird, but few things about Lucci aren’t weird. The others don’t really mention it, like they don’t find it weird either – Kalifa one time suggests that Hattori ‘puts him in touch with himself’, like an emotional support animal. And at the same time, it’s not just that, more like Hattori is a person that everybody acknowledges. Even though Jabra insists that his chicken is better and smarter and far superior. (Her name is Fah Loh Suee, like the daughter of Dr. Fu Manchu.) 

Kaku has seen Hattori, but he’s watched his fair share of history channel and he knows Lucci’s oddities – they haven’t been formally introduced, so he can’t approach. And the only one who can allow that is Lucci, and so far, he hasn’t done that. 

It’s a weird limbo and it gets weirder when you explain it, so Kaku doesn’t. Not much, anyway: he lets something slip on a night out with Paulie, and it’s enough to have the man wisely nodding, as if he’s being presented with a variety of complicated knots. Meaning, something difficult for everyone but him. 

“’m pretty sure your guy’s in the mafia or something. Any day, he’s gonna ask you for a favor and you’ll be in so much shit. Better break it off now.” 

“Not gonna happen, Paulie. And I mean, none of that.” 

Kaku is in no rush to call Lucci his boyfriend or something conventional, but he wants him around – more frequently, if that’s possible, but he’s not quitting or anything. 

Paulie places his cigar in the ashtray and eyes him warily over the rim of his beer glass. “Even you gotta admit he’s sketchy.” 

“If I were to describe you to someone, you’d sound way sketchier,” Kaku replies cheerfully. “But you’re a swell guy, so why can’t he be?” 

That’s obviously not a reasonable argument, but Paulie gets easily flustered when receiving a compliment for anything other than his professional work, so he splutters a little and frowns. “Just - if you get a weird vibe, you better-... agh, I’m telling you, he’s in some organized crime shit!” 

Kaku shrugs and grins. “Pretty sure if that were the case, Mr. Iceberg would get him off his turf.” 

Paulie blinks at him, apparently not catching the meaning, and Kaku leaves it be. As much as Paulie warns him to be cautious, he’s not as sensitive to that ‘weird vibe’ as he pretends. 

And that’s fine. Kaku feels at ease with him all the same, but he also likes being around Lucci’s friends, who... are not as pure as Paulie. 

Does he have to choose? Is he stuck in limbo if he tries to have it both ways? 

Is that why he doesn’t know Hattori yet, despite knowing his owner quite carnally? 

Kaku ponders those questions while his elderly neighbors sit across him on his couch and talk both his and each other’s ear off. They’re his landlords, too, very sweet, a little nosey; they want him to fix the roof rail, which he’s fine with, and since he doesn’t want payment for a minor job, they at least brought him cake and candy and fresh fruit and the newest gossip and perhaps he’s interested in one of their grandchildren? They’re all wonderful (and plentiful), so whatever his taste is, they could hook him up, if he catches that meaning... 

(As much as Kaku appreciates their openness, he knows that if he were to date into their huge family, he’d be doing maintenance jobs all over town for them.) 

This is the normal life he could have. An invitation into the large family he doesn’t have, mundane and friendly and peaceful. And a part of him wants that, but the other... wants to riot and do graffiti and sneak into places illegally, wants the people Paulie and probably everyone else calls sketchy; those people who are strange and laugh strangely and have strange pets and strange hobbies and are rough and mean on occasion. Who yell at each other because Fah Loh Suee is better than Hattori, but Kumadori’s impression of her was insulting, and whose mother was just mentioned, and why is it sexual harassment to pop your joints loudly?! 

Those people would never bake whole batches of cake and put perfectly caramelized bananas on top, and they break rainwater pipes by climbing them, they don’t care about fixing anything. 

Something behind Kaku crashes, following by a muffled thud. His closed bedroom door trembles a little. 

The old man squints at Kaku. “Oh my. Even I heard that.” 

Kaku gives him an easy smile, hopefully a reassuring one. “Probably a stray cat. Must’ve left my window open again.” 

Another thud, and what the fuck is Lucci doing in there. Kaku knows the old folks are cool with pretty much everything, especially when their tenant fixes stuff, but they’re still his landlords... 

“The poor thing!” The old lady sits up straighter, eyeing the closed door curiously. “Is it the spotty grey one we’ve been seeing? It sounded like a big one.” 

“It’s a black one,” Kaku grits out. “I’ll deal with him, I’m sure he’s just... tickety-boo.” 

“Our Lilo recently started training as a vet,” the old lady tells him. “If you catch that stray, you could get it looked at? Or, I’m sure they do house calls as well – stray cats can be so fickle...” 

Kaku doesn’t know what’s more bizarre: that he has to dodge another grandchild (that probably never agreed to be offered) or that she’s describing Lucci somewhat accurately. He has to forcefully swallow a hysterical chuckle and rises, hoping they will do the same. 

They do not, staring up at him expectantly. 

“It’s fine, thanks. He’s,” the chuckle threatens to rise again, “a troublemaker.” 

The bedroom is quiet. And Kaku looks for a way to polite shoo the couple out when from behind him, the most obviously fake ‘Meow’ is spoken. 

Like, just fucking... "Meow."

Lucci is very good at auditory illusions. He can do ventriloquism, he can imitate sounds – one time, he did a perfect cricket chirp simply to point out how unfunny he found Jabra’s joke. 

But this is voluntarily bad. Like he’s clearly not trying to sound like an animal, much less a cat. 

Kaku freezes, heat rising in his face. The old man stares. His wife clears her throat. 

“We better get going,” she announces and nudges her husband – then she honest to God winks at Kaku. “No hurry about the roof rail, dearie.” 

The old man rises carefully, and while Kaku is still somewhat shocked at his sweet landlady winking at him for a ‘cat’ in his bedroom, her partner eyes the closed door again. “This is the fifth floor,” he mumbles. “Ah, to be that nimble again...” 

His wife giggles and elbows him gently, and they shuffle to the apartment door, candid in their sudden hurry: they smile conspiratorially at each other and at Kaku, who feels like he might be in some sort of weird dream. 

Also, he swears that just as he closes the front door behind them, he hears the lady whisper: “So then the roof is getting in line for railing, I guess.” 

Kaku doesn’t know whether he’s mortified or amused. Both, probably – because that’s what his life is like now, hovering between normalcy and whatever the fuck is in his bedroom now. 

Time to find out. 

...

[danwhobrowses]

One Piece Chapter 1078 - Initial Thoughts

All have been sus

But suspect no.1 is now headshotted on the floor It's time to find out just who this traitor is

EMERGENCY MEEETING!

Spoilers for the Chapter, Support the Official Release too

Unsurprisingly, Caesar and Judge agree to team up, I wonder if they'll try to seek out Queen next for 'Neo-MADS'

Stussy has been briefing Sentomaru on the situation, and to be fair the thought process of the World Government kinda makes sense; they know Vegapunk was continuing Ohara research and since it's more fortified than Ohara they're sending more reinforcements

Not condonable of course but the missing CP agents very much doesn't help Vegapunk's side

The conversation also convinces the Egghead civilians to leave, so we won't have collateral damage like before *stares a hole into Akainu*

Franky is still only partially stoned, but S-Snake is in no mood of depetrifying him, Usopp or Lilith

We don't see it, but pretty brutally S-Snake stomps Pythagoras to death

Quite an explosion that left though

Interesting though, Lilith wasn't attacked after being stoned, does S-Snake interpret petrification as death? Even though it can be undone?

Atlas doesn't want to believe a Seraphim is on a rampage, but she does remember that there's a sealed off lab that they can check

Robin going to a secret room filled with starving CP agents may be a risky deal

Back with S-Shark, looks like Brook is gonna go searching using his ghost form, while Edison is tended to by Nami

I feel like even though it's a dirty joke there's a missed opportunity to tell Edison 'don't get any ideas' when nestled in Nami's chest

Reverse Brow Sanji tanks a punch by S-Shark (unclear if it was Fishman Karate), there's visible damage but Sanji does like to shrug off attacks when he's in chivalry mode, his dialogue also notes that he still has a handle on his emotions, overall still need to study

Over with the Shaky Alliance, the Seraphim are keeping their flames up, which prevents the chance to attack

S-Hawk has also disappeared, implied by Lucci to have reprioritized taking out the weaker targets

Very un-Mihawk like that is, he wasn't one for little frogs in a pond after all

Regardless, Zoro decides to make chase, so Luffy - calling him Usopp - tells Kaku to make sure he doesn't get lost, expect comedy there

Luffy decides to gatling S-Bear to try and force the flames away, which of course Lucci doesn't think will work, though I have a sneaking feeling there's maybe a limit to how much a Seraphim can tank

Brief look at Bonney too, looks like she's still processing the flashback bubble which I hope Oda doesn't gloss over

But it turns out we're on the verge of the 'Egghead Incident' which'll happen the next day, a situation that started 3 months ago when our traitor leaked intel about Vegapunk continuing Ohara research

Thus, the CP agents were sent to find evidence, and when they didn't come back a decision was called - a decision orchestrated by said traitor

Again, you can see why the Gorosei came to this conclusion, not that it's right since Ohara research shouldn't be forbidden, but the rest of it from the missing CP agents does provide the reasoning to try and quietly assassinate Vegapunk

Seems Saturn was coming to Egghead regardless of Luffy too, being brought with Kizaru as escort and some vice admirals in case of retaliation

No sight of Tashigi though :/ we do see Doll among the vice admirals

And in true One Piece fashion though, Luffy is the monkey with the wrench, the pain in the ass, the bolt from the blue. In One Piece plot doesn't happen to Luffy, Luffy happens to the plot

'Not again' is a curious choice of words for a Gorosei, unless this is just Enies Lobby vibes

Oda's really setting up something big to fallout from this arc, calling it an 'unbelievable shock'

But it's time to find out our traitor and it is...

YORK!

She says she's gonna be a Celestial Dragon for this too

And the intent is clear, 'the world will be better off with just one of us', we've got Highlander rules here: there can be only one

So it was York all along.

She wasn't high on my suspects list but I like this twist; York is after all considered the least intelligent given her purpose is to fulfil all the bodily needs of the other punks, they are all reliant on her. She too would be naive enough to believe that the WG will let her live and be a Celestial Dragon too, not to mention her aspect is 'Greed'. It's a Tobi move as well because her aloofness and early stoning was used to reduce suspicion of her.

Her combat properties will be interesting, since Sanji cannot hit a woman he won't be there, but I do see S-Hawk perhaps entering the hidden lab to confront Team Atlas, then Zoro can come in and resume that fight. Where S-Snake goes will be interesting, since she's just leaving Franky in that state, again I hope they can find a means of undoing the petrification.

Though RIP to Pythagoras now too, we've lost Daft Punk and one of Eggman's minions, who's next to fall do we think between Edison and Atlas? Given how Lilith is still stoned.

The fact that shit's gonna go down the next day makes me curious to how Oda intends to push it to another night, do the World Government arrive before then too? You would suppose so, but the crew will still have to leave the Labophase first (maybe Oda calls the Egghead areas phases because the arc is going into different phases? And the Labophase is the Vegapunk Among Us plot and then the Fabriophase will be the Navy vs Yonko plot?). Overall I still hope to see the Kuma flashback Bonney saw too, she needs to be reintegrated into the plot, Jinbe needs to do something too, and we can't forget about Caribou.

No break means we'll wait for next week to get more answers, but we got a satisfying answer on this chapter which is what counts.

[all-blue-headcanons]

Hi Blue! Can I get a match up please if you've got time. Reasonably laid back most of the time, ready to fight in 3 seconds flat though. Will fight people well out of my league if I'm in the right. Creative. Listens to music a lot. Quite open minded and a good listener. Reads a lot. Enjoy napping. Sarcastic and swears a lot...

Your match has been made! You’ve swiped…

Eustass ‘Captain’ Kid! Now this is an interesting match indeed; Kid is such a wild and fierce man at heart, so incredibly violent and aggressive that people are actually surprised to find out he’s so into somebody like you! It works out well as despite your being ready to throw down anytime, your ‘cooler’ nature matches his own pretty much; being laid-back is a necessity with somebody who has blood as red as his hair, with Kid enjoying your quieter nature and ability to be a good listener as well as sarcastic tongue when mad. There are things he can’t talk about with Killer, so he’d definitely appreciate this side to you and how reasonably laid-back you are most of the time.As a captain, it’s his duty to handle most of the work so he does not mind you reading or taking naps between your own shifts. Sometimes he’s inclined to join you if you’re all sailing somewhere, napping by your side while you’re into deep into a good book and vice versa if you’re the one in need of rest. Kid certainly enjoys the fact that you’re into music as well; he enjoys creativity what with his powers and style of fighting, needing that inspiration to intersect so many compartments of metal together as he does with his hands.You being ready to fight in 3 seconds flat is a riot to this guy; you don’t even seem to care that most of your opponents are well out of your league, Kid being excited that you’re actually about to go through with it, you absolute madwoman. He’ll be ready to throw himself into the brawl just as quickly, because while it’s fun to fight, it’s even better when he can show Killer he’s capable of reason too and just had to help because you were about to get your arse kicked!He loves everything about you, more so than he ever expected in anyone as you just match him so perfectly… finally he has met somebody just as impulsive and violent as he is!People who’d also be interested in you: Lucci; you’re just as aggressive as he is but somehow he finds it cute and likes your laid-back/listening side. Bartolomeo, who’d enjoy that aggressive side to compliment his more defensive one. Killer also shares Kid’s interests and tastes in partners so wouldn’t mind you at all. Ace, who is capable of a fair amount of aggression himself but is drawn to your gentle, more laid-back half.