For this one I'm not so much trying to keep the wordage down as a goal in itself - I'd just stop calling it a shortfic if it got too long for that. (Though I think anything under 1000 words coould be seen as short.) No, it's more that beyond what I'm written I'm honestly not sure what Luffy would think to himself (everything in the fic except the physical descriptions are things I figure would be in Luffy's internal monologue, pretty much). Or I feel I'm just making things too montonous or making Luffy sound too whiny or, heaven forbid, too self-aware.

True, but he's not braggy about other things, usually...but oh well. Long as it works.