#until then it remains a useless brainworm

[nyarlathotep-thecrawlingchaos]

I've had this dumb headcanon floating around for a while for absolutely no reason

That Buggy's real name isn't "Buggy", it's just a name he's been using to hide the embarrassing truth that his real name is a very proper and distinguished sort of name, and he absolutely hates it because of that.

Something like "Bertram."

And the only person who knows is Shanks, who obviously uses it to get on his nerves.

And also obviously threatens to tell Mihawk and Crocodile when Buggy's being an overdramatic jerkface.

[cheswirls]

i got (sa) sw au brainworms a good 3hrs ago so like last semester im gonna dump what i have here and move on bc i Cannot w it rn. these arent bulleted like last time but ill try and structure them a lil as i copy/paste from my phone.

kinda long?? watch the cut (again rip mobile users)

"i wasn't born with the aptitude for the light side of the force." "i'm not like you," sabo spits, directed at ace.

they are twelve when sabo's face ends up under stelly's boot. he has to breathe carefully, one side of his nose crushed under a hard sole. stelly's toes dig into his jaw. there's pressure on his bad ear.

they are twelve when stelly taunts and taunts and taunts, to the point that sabo bursts, energy seeping from every pore, enraged and infuriated and crazed and hunted. he scares stelly away with mere threat of harm, his aura enough to back his words, and the insatiable need for violence nearly forcing his hand.

he gets lost in his head, in his thoughts. so much so that he only manages to sit up from the floor. he's barely had time to calm down and process things before his mother is storming in with a trio of (empire) soldiers, stelly lingering in the doorway.

she's had enough, she declares, and with his father away on business it becomes the perfect chance to cast out their troublesome heir once and for all. and she's serious, sabo realizes, as he's hauled to his feet, the trio not giving him even an inch to counter. its a sick realization, one that leaves him unwilling to argue against her decision (father won't allow it, he still needs me-but then, how long would it be this time, until he returned home? and how long was he really willing to deal w sabo? he would give up eventually. right?)

(everyone always gave up eventually.) 10- first big change. sabo has his accident that (among other things) damages his ear to the point of near-total uselessness. ace has his chance encounter with shanks and co. 12- sabo is taken away by the (empire) 14- sabo stormtrooper montage (st?? or training, after he's been recruited, snapshots into the intenseness of the dark side)/ ace red hair montage/reflection 16- ace leaves on his own / sabo is named inquisitor 16+/bonus- ace taking up escort piloting / sabo getting blood on his hands, intentionally, for the first time sabo works as an inquisitor, called on to investigate any claims of force sensitivity, and entirely independent. when roger took his last stand, the Jedi had already been in hiding for many years. over a decade later, when sabo is deemed trained enough to enter the field on his own, the Jedi are (almost unheard of/) a threat of the past -all that remain are those who are predisposed to force-sensitivity, and while some prove more challenging to deal with, none of them are trained in the way of the force like jedi were. "and what should i call you?" "mark." "mark?" he snorts. "how utterly ordinary." (later) but that wasn't his real name. hints to dragon having body holo when meeting w sabo that only clicks after the fact. sabo puts two and two together that 'mark' had been the leader of the revolution. (or!!! sabo meets dragon out of disguise first w the fake name and figures he's jus another no-name rebel w that bad an alias. its not until much later when dragons face is revealed to the world that sabo realizes he had met him, once.) "the force doesn't work that way. its not magic." "magic? what nonsense is that?" "wha..? you've never heard of magic?"/ "something that makes the impossible possible. like in fairy tales and stuff." "that sounds ridiculous." but it sounds like hope, too, to believe in the impossible, and suddenly sabo feels very lonely. he's had such a dull, lifeless, lonely upbringing, one absent of fairy tales and magic and trivial things that leave such a lasting impression of hope its almost painful to imagine. sabos idea of 'cluing ace in' is to send him crashing into planets he knows the rebellion had been set up in more recently (not currently, because they never share that w him, so by the time he learns its already become abandoned). he's really expecting ace to be smarter than he is, but sabo doesn't know, so he keeps doing it, hoping ace will get the hint that there's a rebel faction he needs to be able to locate, take refuge in.

all ace knows is his ship keeps getting wrecked, and he's not the best handyman, so he has to find people to patch it up on every planet sabo sends him careening down into. (and seriously. ace knows he's a hell of a pilot, so how does sabo keep one-upping him? or, at the very least, tripping him up??)

the answer is, of course, sabo forcing openings in aces defense. his control in the force is so great that he pulls off little stunts without anyone catching on. aces ship will halt for a moment or two, just enough for sabo to get a good shot in. objects like asteroids or other space debris move into aces flight path, little things like this that give sabo the extra second he needs to be in perfect position.

(when ace grows more familiar with sabo, these extraordinary acts of precision no longer go unnoticed, but they're also no longer a problem for ace anymore ie not directed at him with ill intent.) (during final conflict) "and where the hell is sabo?" "he's off-world, sir." "went to chase after that ace guy. said he would/(he intends to) finish him off once and for all." "and its taking this long??" "he is roger's son, and he's been training for some time now. it won't be an easy victory." loyal to the very end, sabo is isolated from all his brethren during the final stand. when the dust settles, he's the only one left to mar his own name. he ends up on a desolate planet, the dark side of the force attached to his mind like the plague, and he lashes out, him and ace clashing blades with (on sabos end) the intent to kill. it takes so long for him to regain control (neither come out unscathed -sabo is comparatively worse) that when all is said and done, the rebellion has already secured their victory against the (empire).