light as the breeze
Apr. 5th, 2008 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainsometimesJust finished a two-part fic centered on Brook though not from his POV. It basically boils down to "me trying to figure out Brook and enlisting Robin and Usopp to help me out". Don't know how well it worked. The parts are actually pretty stand-alone and kinda say the same thing twice, in part. They probably don’t have to be read in order, either, since there’s nothing that says part one is chronologically before part two. But I didn’t want to leave either of them out.
These turned out rather long and rambling. This first one in particular is, I think, a tad too reductive, tending towards “this is what Brook is like”. Of course constructive criticism and other comments would be much appreciated, as always.
Title: Bagatelles
Word Count: 1575 in this part
Rating: G (or maybe PG for mentions of death)
Characters: Robin, Brook
Setting/spoilers: Set right after the ending of Thriller Bark, during the several days’ worth of sea-journey alluded to in chapter 490
Genre: No clue
Disclaimer: The characters of One Piece were and are owned by Eiichiro Oda: they are used here without permission. This fanfic is for entertainment only and may not be used for profit.
Summary: Brook considered from Robin’s POV
Part one: B Minor
(Bagatelle: Among other things, a term in classical music for a short composition, usually for the piano and light-hearted in character.)
Having thought the matter over for about twenty seconds, Robin decided that no, she did not feel bad about keeping a discreet eye now and then on their newest crewmate.
It wasn’t mere idle curiosity, she told herself (though she certainly felt idle enough at present, sitting in a deck-chair on the lawn with a book in her lap). It was actually for the greater good of the crew’s well-being – not that Brook’s loyalty was in question, as hers had been in Zoro’s eyes back when she had first joined them. But it simply stood to reason that the more she could figure out about how he worked, the better they would be able to co-operate as crewmates. That was the theory, in any case.
It would, she thought judiciously, stretching out in the morning sun with a fruit drink in her hand, be wrong to claim something so absurd that Brook couldn’t handle being alone. He was not that weak. In fact, he had already filled in as look-out once, during one of the gaps when Zoro reluctantly left the post to rest for a few hours somewhere where Chopper could keep an eye on him. And Brook seemed to handle that just fine, bringing his violin up with him and letting down sweet and rousing music from above. (Though it was true that Luffy had bounced up there several times just to hear better, now that she thought about it.)
And down below, the musician could often be seen sitting with a book or two in his lap. Besides a clear preference for anything that featured pictures of pretty young ladies, he seemed to like both old and new titles, from what she could tell. Perhaps he liked the old ones to remind him of the world he came from, and the new for learning about what the world was now, Robin speculated.
Brook had even started to vie with Nami at being the first to grab the paper when the newspaper-seagull turned up. Although since he never carried any money and optimistically persisted in feeding the seagull a biscuit instead, the mercantile bird had already started to first hand over the paper to him and then proceed to fly over to Nami for payment, to Nami’s mounting annoyance. So Brook could not infrequently be seen somewhere on board, sipping tea and reading the paper or a book with a placid air. At other times, he might sit on the railings and just stare out at the waves. Sometimes he would pick up his violin, sometimes not.
But every so often he would look over his shoulder and if he happened to not see anyone right then, he’d immediately abandon his quiet pose and saunter away, jauntily swinging his sword-cane until he’d found some crewmate to chat with or perform for. Of course, as a newcomer aboard the Thousand Sunny with all its unique features, he usually had a ready pretext in some nook and cranny of the ship he hadn’t yet asked or commented on. Not that he always seemed to pay close attention to the answers.
She had seen this pattern repeat itself quite a few times now. From what she could tell, it didn’t seem to be enough for the skeleton to hear the laughs and shouts, insults and exclamations that might come from his crewmates just around the corner. He wasn’t satisfied with just hearing the sounds of cooking, sleeping, squabbling, carpentry, goofing around and so on: he needed to see them and talk to them. He’d told them himself about how he’d used to listen to his crewmates’ precious singing on his sound dial. But now she also wondered if there might have been many times during the years when he’d only imagined hearing the voices and noise from his old crew.
For her part, Robin had rarely found it difficult to relax when she was by herself. If anything, she was probably too self-contained, she reflected. True, she had never been able to get by wholly by herself – who could, after all? When the World Government had been after you from an early age, you needed the shelter of a pirate crew, a gang, or another type of (probably criminal) organisation to hide under. But while it was impossible from a practical viewpoint to live completely on your own, it was – it had been – just as necessary for survival to be able to keep your own counsel, and to be most at home with only your own company. Or so it had seemed to her.
She supposed that for her, other people had always been the enemy. As she grew older, stronger and smarter, it had frequently been an enemy she could master, being able to either out-think or out-fight the majority of the people she came across. But that didn’t mean she changed her general way of thinking. Solitude had meant privacy, and as such had been fine and good as long as the basic needs for survival were met. Company could be stimulating in some ways, true, but there had always been that lurking threat of betrayal.
And now, after finding the comrades she had never really dared to hope would exist, she was still quite able to handle what brief moments of accidental solitude that might sometimes occur on this ship. She knew everyone was here, after all. Often enough, she knew or could guess pretty much exactly where everyone was right at the moment. Besides, she could always count on anyone of them turning up pretty quickly (whether it was Sanji with a snack, Nami asking for advice about something, Chopper showing her some exciting new discovery, or any of the others).
It was Brook who was ambling towards her now, though, with a book she’d loaned him the other day under his arm. He waved with his sword-cane as he came closer.
“Ahoy there! Good morning, Miss Robin! You look in fine fetters today, I must say!”
“Thank you, Mr. Brook,” she replied calmly.
Brooke turned his head upwards, watching the main sail billow above them in the morning breeze.
“Look!” he exclaimed. “A seagull! We must be getting close to land!”
Robin shadowed her eyes and peered up at the silhouette high above them, circling the mast.
“Not necessarily,” she said. “It looks like it might be an albatross.” From what Nami had told her they should still be a fair distance from the Red Line, although it was hard to know for sure given the unpredictable currents and the rather sketchy map and vague instructions they had obtained.
She looked back at her tall crewmate. “Did you enjoy the book, Mr. Brook?”
“Why, yes!!” he asserted melodiously. “An excellent tome, Miss Robin! Although, being a gentleman I could not in any case denigrate what I have borrowed from a lady. - However, I must say it’s frightfully dull in spots!!”
“I’m sorry about that,” she murmured, sipping from her tasty fruit drink.
“Oh, do not worry unduly! It’s still fairly interesting in other parts!” he granted generously. “And I must say I adore the pictures! What delightful creatures the queens and princesses of ancient Alabasta were!”
“Still are,” she remarked placidly, as she turned a page of the book she herself was reading (a well-thumbed copy of Funeral Practices in Ancient South Blue Civilizations, Volume II).
“An albatross, eh?” Brook turned his gaze upwards again, sounding pensive as he looked at the bird. “Then, I suppose we ought to feed it breadcrumbs for luck… No, I will do better than that!” he suddenly decided, hauling out a harmonica from somewhere inside his clothes, or possibly his ribcage. “I will play it a morning salutation!”
He began to play the harmonica, starting softly but soon sending clear, strong notes up towards the main mast where the bird was circling; right up towards the morning sun. Robin’s hand stopped halfway towards her glass of drink. She put her head to one side as she listened.
For fifty years, he had been all alone on that vast ship carrying the corpses of his friends. Even drifting rudderless in the Floridian triangle and facing all the nameless dangers there; even after coming upon Thriller Bark where he’d had his shadow stolen by Moria, after fighting zombies and training for five years in order to try and regain his shadow; he had still somehow kept his essential grasp of reality and clung on to sanity. He had grown a little strange and ragged around the edges, certainly; but he had kept hoping for the right kind of people to come along and help him, and keep him company; had kept holding his mind open and his hand reaching out for them.
Despite all the dangers and setbacks he’d faced, still for Brook other people had meant the hope of salvation and a way to fulfil his promise one day.
They did not mean the enemy.
And that, she thought privately while finishing her fruit drink, was worth honouring. Add to that music, courage, loyalty and fighting skills; and you had what was worth putting up with any amount of abrupt exclamations, sudden mood swings and repetitive skull jokes.
Even so, the next time he said anything about her panties she would probably slap him.
The second part will probably be posted tomorrow.
Edit: Link to Part Two
These turned out rather long and rambling. This first one in particular is, I think, a tad too reductive, tending towards “this is what Brook is like”. Of course constructive criticism and other comments would be much appreciated, as always.
Title: Bagatelles
Word Count: 1575 in this part
Rating: G (or maybe PG for mentions of death)
Characters: Robin, Brook
Setting/spoilers: Set right after the ending of Thriller Bark, during the several days’ worth of sea-journey alluded to in chapter 490
Genre: No clue
Disclaimer: The characters of One Piece were and are owned by Eiichiro Oda: they are used here without permission. This fanfic is for entertainment only and may not be used for profit.
Summary: Brook considered from Robin’s POV
Part one: B Minor
(Bagatelle: Among other things, a term in classical music for a short composition, usually for the piano and light-hearted in character.)
Having thought the matter over for about twenty seconds, Robin decided that no, she did not feel bad about keeping a discreet eye now and then on their newest crewmate.
It wasn’t mere idle curiosity, she told herself (though she certainly felt idle enough at present, sitting in a deck-chair on the lawn with a book in her lap). It was actually for the greater good of the crew’s well-being – not that Brook’s loyalty was in question, as hers had been in Zoro’s eyes back when she had first joined them. But it simply stood to reason that the more she could figure out about how he worked, the better they would be able to co-operate as crewmates. That was the theory, in any case.
It would, she thought judiciously, stretching out in the morning sun with a fruit drink in her hand, be wrong to claim something so absurd that Brook couldn’t handle being alone. He was not that weak. In fact, he had already filled in as look-out once, during one of the gaps when Zoro reluctantly left the post to rest for a few hours somewhere where Chopper could keep an eye on him. And Brook seemed to handle that just fine, bringing his violin up with him and letting down sweet and rousing music from above. (Though it was true that Luffy had bounced up there several times just to hear better, now that she thought about it.)
And down below, the musician could often be seen sitting with a book or two in his lap. Besides a clear preference for anything that featured pictures of pretty young ladies, he seemed to like both old and new titles, from what she could tell. Perhaps he liked the old ones to remind him of the world he came from, and the new for learning about what the world was now, Robin speculated.
Brook had even started to vie with Nami at being the first to grab the paper when the newspaper-seagull turned up. Although since he never carried any money and optimistically persisted in feeding the seagull a biscuit instead, the mercantile bird had already started to first hand over the paper to him and then proceed to fly over to Nami for payment, to Nami’s mounting annoyance. So Brook could not infrequently be seen somewhere on board, sipping tea and reading the paper or a book with a placid air. At other times, he might sit on the railings and just stare out at the waves. Sometimes he would pick up his violin, sometimes not.
But every so often he would look over his shoulder and if he happened to not see anyone right then, he’d immediately abandon his quiet pose and saunter away, jauntily swinging his sword-cane until he’d found some crewmate to chat with or perform for. Of course, as a newcomer aboard the Thousand Sunny with all its unique features, he usually had a ready pretext in some nook and cranny of the ship he hadn’t yet asked or commented on. Not that he always seemed to pay close attention to the answers.
She had seen this pattern repeat itself quite a few times now. From what she could tell, it didn’t seem to be enough for the skeleton to hear the laughs and shouts, insults and exclamations that might come from his crewmates just around the corner. He wasn’t satisfied with just hearing the sounds of cooking, sleeping, squabbling, carpentry, goofing around and so on: he needed to see them and talk to them. He’d told them himself about how he’d used to listen to his crewmates’ precious singing on his sound dial. But now she also wondered if there might have been many times during the years when he’d only imagined hearing the voices and noise from his old crew.
For her part, Robin had rarely found it difficult to relax when she was by herself. If anything, she was probably too self-contained, she reflected. True, she had never been able to get by wholly by herself – who could, after all? When the World Government had been after you from an early age, you needed the shelter of a pirate crew, a gang, or another type of (probably criminal) organisation to hide under. But while it was impossible from a practical viewpoint to live completely on your own, it was – it had been – just as necessary for survival to be able to keep your own counsel, and to be most at home with only your own company. Or so it had seemed to her.
She supposed that for her, other people had always been the enemy. As she grew older, stronger and smarter, it had frequently been an enemy she could master, being able to either out-think or out-fight the majority of the people she came across. But that didn’t mean she changed her general way of thinking. Solitude had meant privacy, and as such had been fine and good as long as the basic needs for survival were met. Company could be stimulating in some ways, true, but there had always been that lurking threat of betrayal.
And now, after finding the comrades she had never really dared to hope would exist, she was still quite able to handle what brief moments of accidental solitude that might sometimes occur on this ship. She knew everyone was here, after all. Often enough, she knew or could guess pretty much exactly where everyone was right at the moment. Besides, she could always count on anyone of them turning up pretty quickly (whether it was Sanji with a snack, Nami asking for advice about something, Chopper showing her some exciting new discovery, or any of the others).
It was Brook who was ambling towards her now, though, with a book she’d loaned him the other day under his arm. He waved with his sword-cane as he came closer.
“Ahoy there! Good morning, Miss Robin! You look in fine fetters today, I must say!”
“Thank you, Mr. Brook,” she replied calmly.
Brooke turned his head upwards, watching the main sail billow above them in the morning breeze.
“Look!” he exclaimed. “A seagull! We must be getting close to land!”
Robin shadowed her eyes and peered up at the silhouette high above them, circling the mast.
“Not necessarily,” she said. “It looks like it might be an albatross.” From what Nami had told her they should still be a fair distance from the Red Line, although it was hard to know for sure given the unpredictable currents and the rather sketchy map and vague instructions they had obtained.
She looked back at her tall crewmate. “Did you enjoy the book, Mr. Brook?”
“Why, yes!!” he asserted melodiously. “An excellent tome, Miss Robin! Although, being a gentleman I could not in any case denigrate what I have borrowed from a lady. - However, I must say it’s frightfully dull in spots!!”
“I’m sorry about that,” she murmured, sipping from her tasty fruit drink.
“Oh, do not worry unduly! It’s still fairly interesting in other parts!” he granted generously. “And I must say I adore the pictures! What delightful creatures the queens and princesses of ancient Alabasta were!”
“Still are,” she remarked placidly, as she turned a page of the book she herself was reading (a well-thumbed copy of Funeral Practices in Ancient South Blue Civilizations, Volume II).
“An albatross, eh?” Brook turned his gaze upwards again, sounding pensive as he looked at the bird. “Then, I suppose we ought to feed it breadcrumbs for luck… No, I will do better than that!” he suddenly decided, hauling out a harmonica from somewhere inside his clothes, or possibly his ribcage. “I will play it a morning salutation!”
He began to play the harmonica, starting softly but soon sending clear, strong notes up towards the main mast where the bird was circling; right up towards the morning sun. Robin’s hand stopped halfway towards her glass of drink. She put her head to one side as she listened.
For fifty years, he had been all alone on that vast ship carrying the corpses of his friends. Even drifting rudderless in the Floridian triangle and facing all the nameless dangers there; even after coming upon Thriller Bark where he’d had his shadow stolen by Moria, after fighting zombies and training for five years in order to try and regain his shadow; he had still somehow kept his essential grasp of reality and clung on to sanity. He had grown a little strange and ragged around the edges, certainly; but he had kept hoping for the right kind of people to come along and help him, and keep him company; had kept holding his mind open and his hand reaching out for them.
Despite all the dangers and setbacks he’d faced, still for Brook other people had meant the hope of salvation and a way to fulfil his promise one day.
They did not mean the enemy.
And that, she thought privately while finishing her fruit drink, was worth honouring. Add to that music, courage, loyalty and fighting skills; and you had what was worth putting up with any amount of abrupt exclamations, sudden mood swings and repetitive skull jokes.
Even so, the next time he said anything about her panties she would probably slap him.
The second part will probably be posted tomorrow.
Edit: Link to Part Two
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-04-05 06:16 pm (UTC)Just wanted to say, sheepishly, that this line gave me a crackfic idea about Zoro and the crow's nest. Do you mind if I go ahead and write it?
I really enjoyed this fic! Robin was so nicely characterized, and I loved the style you used for Brook's speech. It recaptured a lot of the original Japanese, which tends to get lost in the scanslations >_< Can't wait for the second part :)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 09:38 am (UTC)NOOOOOO. Of course not! Go on, write it! *shoves you*
I really enjoyed this fic! Robin was so nicely characterized, and I loved the style you used for Brook's speech. It recaptured a lot of the original Japanese, which tends to get lost in the scanslations
Very pleased you liked it! (I was a bit worried Robin might come across as too much of the all-knowing observer - I mean, it's not really OOC, but you can get tired of it even so.)
and I loved the style you used for Brook's speech. It recaptured a lot of the original Japanese, which tends to get lost in the scanslations
Oh, really? That's great to hear! I'm depending on Stephen's (http://www.mangascreener.com/stephen/onepiece/onepiece.html) translations a lot when it comes to (guessing) Brook's style of talking.
I didn't know you know Japanese! (is jealous)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 06:49 am (UTC)The last line made me cackle.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 09:46 am (UTC)Glad I made you cackle, too. XD
(coughs, gets shifty look) I take it you didn't care for my April 1 (http://serrende.livejournal.com/6120.html) pics? Ideas or execution lacking, do you think? (I'm fine with criticism, really...)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 05:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-07 08:49 am (UTC)Anyway, 's' cool. What right do I have to complain anyway, it's not like I always comment on stuff myself...
no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 03:52 pm (UTC)I love your Robin. She came off exactly as I picture her. Though I do find her to be slightly childish while still being mature. I could see her joining in with Usopp, Luffy and Chopper though maybe not for a while longer in the series.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 03:59 pm (UTC)I was a bit worried that Robin might come across as too know-it-all here, so I'm relieved if that is not the case.
I would too like to see a more childish Robin too but I'm not sure if it would be easy to write. Hey, have you read this fic (http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=xparrot&keyword=dribble&filter=all)? By
no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 04:35 pm (UTC)I love xparrot. Her stuff is very good and I hope she's still working on her unfinished work. On the fic you linked it actually just sent me to a list of her works, not a particular fic.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-07 08:35 am (UTC)This (http://community.livejournal.com/onepieceyaoi100/87826.html) was the one I meant. Though you may well have read it already, of course.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-07 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-06 09:41 pm (UTC)Are you planning on writing any others for the rest of the crew?
no subject
Date: 2008-04-07 08:39 am (UTC)You mean, other perspectives on Brook from the rest of the Strawhats? Not at present, no. These ones were the only ones I had specific ideas for. Of course if I do get ideas for other POVs I wouldn't mind writing that too...