Reposted: Four ficlets
Jan. 26th, 2010 08:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainsometimesOne of those irregular "repost for the sake of nothing better to do completion" sake. ;) First two pieces from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
naye's wonderful chaos thread from back in November (still very much recommended for any who might have missed it or had no time back then and might have time now: lots of neat ficcy stuff on it!). The second chaos-piece is rather wangsty, but I'm posting two more ficlets, these from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
onepieceyaoi100 and onepiece_300, hoping they will make up for it. (?)
Concrit and other feedback much appreciated, as always. These are all gen and rated G.
Title: Entrusted
Word Count: 274
Spoilers: Up through Brook's back story
Prompt: Mine
Warning: For 2nd person
Characters: Franky, Nami, Zoro, Brook, Luffy.
Sometimes the objects that matter the most are not the ones that truly belong to us. For example, maybe you've always dreamed of building a great ship capable of travelling all around the world, but when the chance finally comes you can only allow yourself to go through with it by building it for somebody else. The ship belongs to all the crew and to the captain the most, not to its builder.
Or you need a log pose to do your job, and having a treasure around is always a good idea - but those things belong to the whole crew as well, not really to you. You are only the caretaker.
Or you carry a sword that belonged to someone else and you still think of as only half your own. You can wield it but only on the condition you will never forget what it means. There are two other swords that truly do belong to you, earned through your own merits, but they don't matter even half as much.
Or there's a song that was sung by men long dead that you keep stored in an amazing device, hidden in your skull. It will be taken out and listened to again on the day your promise is finally fulfilled. You carry it in their name. It isn't yours.
And the battered strawhat resting on your captain's head will be returned one day to the man who gave it to him for safekeeping. It's the sign of a very important promise; it's what the world names him and his crew for: but it doesn't fully belong to him. You do, though.
Title: Even So
Word Count: 241
Spoilers/setting: From chapter 438, will make zero sense otherwise
Prompt: Apology
Warning for: Wangst
Character: Usopp (natch)
When he finally gives way and starts screaming his apology over the water there's both terror and relief in it. He's afraid, even mortified, because if they'll still leave him here he'll have nothing left at all – he'll have gone back on his word and broken his pride with nothing to show for it. But at the same time he's relived because even if that happens at least he will have done what he could to stop it. There's something cleansing about it.
The cold, hard negative voice inside him is against this, though it rarely allies with his pride. Even right as he opens his mouth wide it still tries to stop him, pointing out that since they're all just fine going off without him, why should he inflict himself on them? It's not as if he's needed or anything.
But he pushes it away because he knows the negative voice is wrong, and the deep-seated feeling that he just plain belongs on that ship is stronger than pride – stronger even than need. Yet part of his apology isn't for mutiny and desertion but for going back on it now, for this very desperate honesty; for not being someone who's worth not abandoning – and maybe it's not just to them but to his own pride as well. It may be silly and childish and wrong-headed but it seems to him it does deserve regret when it's being ignored, even so.
Title: Inner Hearth
Spoilers/setting: Set any time after Chopper joins the crew but before Water 7.
Word Count: 377
Prompt: Warmth
Character: Chopper
The night is clear and crisp, stars glittering with sharp brightness over Going Merry. Chopper's smiling as he takes over guard duty from the shivering Sanji, whose teeth are chattering as he slowly climbs down, hands in mittens. There's frost on the main mast, and on the railing.
He really likes seeing all the wildly different climates of the Grand Line, how they shift on the open sea, and the more stable systems on each island. Hot summer island weather tires him out, but on the whole he loves feeling and the variety, seeing the sky turns shades of colour he never knew, smelling other kinds of air.
Yet these cold snaps are nice, too. Not just because they're comfortable and familiar - but also because they make him feel more useful and needed to the rest of the crew. For instance when it comes to being watch on a night like this - unlike the others, he has no trouble with it, and so volunteers for a longer shift than usual.
He remembers how, in very cold weather, the herd used to huddle together, sharing their body heat. But he was always left on the outside, wondering what it might be like, all surrounded by others' warmth like that.
Luckily it rarely turned that cold. Reindeer are built to handle wintry weather. He did, and survived.
The houses of the humans huddled together as well, the long coils of smoke from their chimneys mingling in the pale blue winter sky. He didn't need the heat from those fires, yet he was still drawn to them, fascinated. But those houses, like the herd, didn't admit outsiders, forming a wall against them.
He didn't fully understand until he found a welcoming fire of his own, the one in the small fireplace in Doctor's cave.
Chopper doesn't really need the blanket in the crow's nest, either. Nor the pot of hot tea and the handful of cookies that Sanji brings him, climbing up just once more before going to bed. But they make his heart feel warm.
Title: Stepping In
Spoilers/setting: Set years before the series starts.
Word Count: 292
Prompt: Parent
Character: Bellemere
The village women told childbirth stories, now and then, when no men were present. To teenage girls, it sounded painful, gruesome, terrifying... but also, sometimes, like the best thing in the world. Like nothing could equal the feeling of having a newborn babe at your breast, flesh of your flesh, after you’d struggled so hard to bring it into the world.
She listened and remembered. But unlike the others, it felt faraway to her. Children might come some day, but first she’d go out in the world and have adventures, fighting for justice.
Being a Marine was tougher and less clear-cut than she’d thought. There were corrupt, power-mad officers; strange orders from the top. It was sickening, at times. Still, she persevered.
Until the battle when so many died and she was badly wounded. She lay there unable to move, seeing nothing but darkness. Enough, then. Let it end now.
Then, there were two children there. Not even sisters. The older one had found the younger, picked her up. Their parents – all dead. They’d die soon, too, if nobody did something.
She looked up, looked at the smaller one’s laughing face, at the older one struggling to smile. Saw something more than darkness.
Stumbling to her feet, she looked around for water, food, shelter. Practical thoughts came back. The long trek home began.
She went through fire and blood, hunger and cold to get them all home. Two unknown mothers had once fought hard to bring Nami and Nojiko into the world. Now, Bellemère had to take over.
It wasn’t a sacrifice. It was the only way back to life.
Perhaps she was an unnatural, artificial mother. But she figured all she could do was try her best – same as everyone else.
naye's wonderful chaos thread from back in November (still very much recommended for any who might have missed it or had no time back then and might have time now: lots of neat ficcy stuff on it!). The second chaos-piece is rather wangsty, but I'm posting two more ficlets, these from onepieceyaoi100 and onepiece_300, hoping they will make up for it. (?)Concrit and other feedback much appreciated, as always. These are all gen and rated G.
Title: Entrusted
Word Count: 274
Spoilers: Up through Brook's back story
Prompt: Mine
Warning: For 2nd person
Characters: Franky, Nami, Zoro, Brook, Luffy.
Sometimes the objects that matter the most are not the ones that truly belong to us. For example, maybe you've always dreamed of building a great ship capable of travelling all around the world, but when the chance finally comes you can only allow yourself to go through with it by building it for somebody else. The ship belongs to all the crew and to the captain the most, not to its builder.
Or you need a log pose to do your job, and having a treasure around is always a good idea - but those things belong to the whole crew as well, not really to you. You are only the caretaker.
Or you carry a sword that belonged to someone else and you still think of as only half your own. You can wield it but only on the condition you will never forget what it means. There are two other swords that truly do belong to you, earned through your own merits, but they don't matter even half as much.
Or there's a song that was sung by men long dead that you keep stored in an amazing device, hidden in your skull. It will be taken out and listened to again on the day your promise is finally fulfilled. You carry it in their name. It isn't yours.
And the battered strawhat resting on your captain's head will be returned one day to the man who gave it to him for safekeeping. It's the sign of a very important promise; it's what the world names him and his crew for: but it doesn't fully belong to him. You do, though.
Title: Even So
Word Count: 241
Spoilers/setting: From chapter 438, will make zero sense otherwise
Prompt: Apology
Warning for: Wangst
Character: Usopp (natch)
When he finally gives way and starts screaming his apology over the water there's both terror and relief in it. He's afraid, even mortified, because if they'll still leave him here he'll have nothing left at all – he'll have gone back on his word and broken his pride with nothing to show for it. But at the same time he's relived because even if that happens at least he will have done what he could to stop it. There's something cleansing about it.
The cold, hard negative voice inside him is against this, though it rarely allies with his pride. Even right as he opens his mouth wide it still tries to stop him, pointing out that since they're all just fine going off without him, why should he inflict himself on them? It's not as if he's needed or anything.
But he pushes it away because he knows the negative voice is wrong, and the deep-seated feeling that he just plain belongs on that ship is stronger than pride – stronger even than need. Yet part of his apology isn't for mutiny and desertion but for going back on it now, for this very desperate honesty; for not being someone who's worth not abandoning – and maybe it's not just to them but to his own pride as well. It may be silly and childish and wrong-headed but it seems to him it does deserve regret when it's being ignored, even so.
Title: Inner Hearth
Spoilers/setting: Set any time after Chopper joins the crew but before Water 7.
Word Count: 377
Prompt: Warmth
Character: Chopper
The night is clear and crisp, stars glittering with sharp brightness over Going Merry. Chopper's smiling as he takes over guard duty from the shivering Sanji, whose teeth are chattering as he slowly climbs down, hands in mittens. There's frost on the main mast, and on the railing.
He really likes seeing all the wildly different climates of the Grand Line, how they shift on the open sea, and the more stable systems on each island. Hot summer island weather tires him out, but on the whole he loves feeling and the variety, seeing the sky turns shades of colour he never knew, smelling other kinds of air.
Yet these cold snaps are nice, too. Not just because they're comfortable and familiar - but also because they make him feel more useful and needed to the rest of the crew. For instance when it comes to being watch on a night like this - unlike the others, he has no trouble with it, and so volunteers for a longer shift than usual.
He remembers how, in very cold weather, the herd used to huddle together, sharing their body heat. But he was always left on the outside, wondering what it might be like, all surrounded by others' warmth like that.
Luckily it rarely turned that cold. Reindeer are built to handle wintry weather. He did, and survived.
The houses of the humans huddled together as well, the long coils of smoke from their chimneys mingling in the pale blue winter sky. He didn't need the heat from those fires, yet he was still drawn to them, fascinated. But those houses, like the herd, didn't admit outsiders, forming a wall against them.
He didn't fully understand until he found a welcoming fire of his own, the one in the small fireplace in Doctor's cave.
Chopper doesn't really need the blanket in the crow's nest, either. Nor the pot of hot tea and the handful of cookies that Sanji brings him, climbing up just once more before going to bed. But they make his heart feel warm.
Title: Stepping In
Spoilers/setting: Set years before the series starts.
Word Count: 292
Prompt: Parent
Character: Bellemere
The village women told childbirth stories, now and then, when no men were present. To teenage girls, it sounded painful, gruesome, terrifying... but also, sometimes, like the best thing in the world. Like nothing could equal the feeling of having a newborn babe at your breast, flesh of your flesh, after you’d struggled so hard to bring it into the world.
She listened and remembered. But unlike the others, it felt faraway to her. Children might come some day, but first she’d go out in the world and have adventures, fighting for justice.
Being a Marine was tougher and less clear-cut than she’d thought. There were corrupt, power-mad officers; strange orders from the top. It was sickening, at times. Still, she persevered.
Until the battle when so many died and she was badly wounded. She lay there unable to move, seeing nothing but darkness. Enough, then. Let it end now.
Then, there were two children there. Not even sisters. The older one had found the younger, picked her up. Their parents – all dead. They’d die soon, too, if nobody did something.
She looked up, looked at the smaller one’s laughing face, at the older one struggling to smile. Saw something more than darkness.
Stumbling to her feet, she looked around for water, food, shelter. Practical thoughts came back. The long trek home began.
She went through fire and blood, hunger and cold to get them all home. Two unknown mothers had once fought hard to bring Nami and Nojiko into the world. Now, Bellemère had to take over.
It wasn’t a sacrifice. It was the only way back to life.
Perhaps she was an unnatural, artificial mother. But she figured all she could do was try her best – same as everyone else.
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 08:37 pm (UTC)Loved 'em all - but nr. 1 most; how do you come up with such insights?!
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 08:47 pm (UTC)But thank you for the kind words! As for #1... I dunno if that's such a great insight. I just looked at the prompt and wondered if I could fill it in a way that wasn't too typical, and then those parallels occurred to me. It's probably something I've been thinking about in the back of my head when during discussions of characters' treasures.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-26 11:46 pm (UTC)Quick typo in the second drabble:
he'll have bone back on his word
I imagine the bone is supposed to be gone.
no subject
Date: 2010-01-27 05:52 am (UTC)...what a silly typo. Thanks!