Chopper ficlet
Mar. 24th, 2008 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainsometimesI finally managed to write something else for Chopper that was more IC and upbeat (despite the title ;) than my earlier drabble. I have no idea why I seem to need a lot more words to write ‘happy’ than ‘sad’, especially for a scene that’s all there in the manga already. I don’t know why I write so much about Skypiea, either.
I guess this would be the companion piece to “Up”.
Title: Getting Down
Word Count: 457
Spoilers/setting: Manga chapter 302, “Finale” (end of Skypiea arc).
Character: Chopper
Rating: G
Summary:
The great octopus ballooned above them, having just miraculously turned Merry’s heart-stopping free-fall into a stately downward saunter. And in the very next moment, chimes rang out in the air from above: the unique, indescribably beautiful sound of Shandria’s great bell. Perhaps the Skypieans weren’t that upset about the loss of all that gold after all.
Chopper craned his neck to gaze back up at Cloud’s End and the White-White Sea. He felt so full with memories and emotions, all jumbled up inside him: the enticing dream of getting to a sky island; the thrill of the Knock-Up Stream; the wonder of arriving and exploring; the creeping fears of Upper Yard; the explosions of helpless, paralyzing terror; and then, that moment when he’d faced one of Ener’s priests all by himself, had decided to fight for real and had won. The next opponent had proved too strong for him, but he had still survived, and so had all of his crewmates. Then, waking up just as the great battle ended, he had treated more people and worked harder than ever before – better, too, he thought. If Doctorine could have seen him then, she would probably have offered lot of critical comments on his work, but on the whole he still thought she would have been proud of him.
And Doctor – if Doctor could have seen him now, as he stood here beside his brave, strong, laughing, lawless crewmates, as their ship floated down from their skybound adventure as gently as if carried by the power of dreams – yes, he was sure Doctor would have been proud of him.
They were getting down safely but they weren’t getting down to safety. Down there, they would doubtless find new adventures waiting for them, and that would mean fun explorations and wondrous new sights and happy campfire dances. But it would also mean new terrors, new moments of looking death in the eye; new battles they could not afford to lose. Because they were pirates. They had to risk everything. Chopper had known that a long time, but perhaps he hadn’t truly understood it until now.
But whatever happens from now on, he thought, looking around him once again, I will remember this forever. The song of the great bell; the gentle creaking of the ship; the calls of the southbirds, telling them ‘good-bye and see you later’; the patches of dark blue visible between the white clouds underneath them; the shine in his crewmates’ eyes, even brighter than the gleam of their beautiful treasure. And though the bell chimes still filled the air, you could just about make out the faint murmur of the waves far below, slowly growing in strength as the Blue Sea pulled them all closer.
*
I must say, I'm rather pissed at fanfiction.net right now for their latest formatting change. It's already hard enough to make something look nice over there, with their weirdly strict demands on what formatting can be used in story titles, chapter titles, summaries, and in the text itself. Now they've removed hyphens as paragraph separators as well for some mysterious reason.
I guess it's at times like this I should be grateful that I'm not very prolific, but I still find it exceedingly irksome. >:(
I guess this would be the companion piece to “Up”.
Title: Getting Down
Word Count: 457
Spoilers/setting: Manga chapter 302, “Finale” (end of Skypiea arc).
Character: Chopper
Rating: G
Summary:
The great octopus ballooned above them, having just miraculously turned Merry’s heart-stopping free-fall into a stately downward saunter. And in the very next moment, chimes rang out in the air from above: the unique, indescribably beautiful sound of Shandria’s great bell. Perhaps the Skypieans weren’t that upset about the loss of all that gold after all.
Chopper craned his neck to gaze back up at Cloud’s End and the White-White Sea. He felt so full with memories and emotions, all jumbled up inside him: the enticing dream of getting to a sky island; the thrill of the Knock-Up Stream; the wonder of arriving and exploring; the creeping fears of Upper Yard; the explosions of helpless, paralyzing terror; and then, that moment when he’d faced one of Ener’s priests all by himself, had decided to fight for real and had won. The next opponent had proved too strong for him, but he had still survived, and so had all of his crewmates. Then, waking up just as the great battle ended, he had treated more people and worked harder than ever before – better, too, he thought. If Doctorine could have seen him then, she would probably have offered lot of critical comments on his work, but on the whole he still thought she would have been proud of him.
And Doctor – if Doctor could have seen him now, as he stood here beside his brave, strong, laughing, lawless crewmates, as their ship floated down from their skybound adventure as gently as if carried by the power of dreams – yes, he was sure Doctor would have been proud of him.
They were getting down safely but they weren’t getting down to safety. Down there, they would doubtless find new adventures waiting for them, and that would mean fun explorations and wondrous new sights and happy campfire dances. But it would also mean new terrors, new moments of looking death in the eye; new battles they could not afford to lose. Because they were pirates. They had to risk everything. Chopper had known that a long time, but perhaps he hadn’t truly understood it until now.
But whatever happens from now on, he thought, looking around him once again, I will remember this forever. The song of the great bell; the gentle creaking of the ship; the calls of the southbirds, telling them ‘good-bye and see you later’; the patches of dark blue visible between the white clouds underneath them; the shine in his crewmates’ eyes, even brighter than the gleam of their beautiful treasure. And though the bell chimes still filled the air, you could just about make out the faint murmur of the waves far below, slowly growing in strength as the Blue Sea pulled them all closer.
*
I must say, I'm rather pissed at fanfiction.net right now for their latest formatting change. It's already hard enough to make something look nice over there, with their weirdly strict demands on what formatting can be used in story titles, chapter titles, summaries, and in the text itself. Now they've removed hyphens as paragraph separators as well for some mysterious reason.
I guess it's at times like this I should be grateful that I'm not very prolific, but I still find it exceedingly irksome. >:(
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Date: 2008-03-23 03:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-23 04:29 pm (UTC)Oh, and happy anniversary! (just read your latest entry!;)
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Date: 2008-03-23 05:24 pm (UTC)