follow me into the rain

I'll repost this Tumblr post I just made in response to an ask I got (I was over a week late in replying, go me.) It turned so long I wanted to put it somewhere else too. Comments as always would be awesome.

Anonymous said:
I seem to recall you saying things to the effect of Usopp being the emotional core of the crew or being a big part of meeting the emotional needs of the crew (the precise wording escapes me). Do you have any meta on that/have you posted meta on that before? I'd love to have a link to read it!

Sorry for the lateness of my reply, Anon! I wonder if I've ever said that Usopp was the emotional core of the crew - it sounds a bit too definite and exclusive to my ears - but the second wording does sound like something I could have said, yeah. I can't think of any specific meta post I've made to that effect, though. I'll put down some rambling thoughts here instead, but that's all they'll be - obviously terribly subjective, and I'm not going to include any manga pics or the like from canon to make any kind of coherent case.

Many thanks to tresdem and silverwolfcc for listening to me on Plurk about this, helping me sort out my thoughts and contributing! (Everyone should read tresdem's ongoing One Piece meta blog we-are!.)
( more behind the cut )

Title: Absence, chapter 9. Part two.
Continued from Chapter 9, part 1. For disclaimer, warning and more info, see that part.

( 9.2 - the wall crumbles )
- To be continued in Chapter 10: The Truth

I wrote a fic to naye, who thought I should re-post it on my journal, so here it is!

Title: Autumn Rain, With Noodles
Characters: Strawhats
Word Count: 1, 036
Spoilers/Setting: Set post-timeskip somewhere in the New World, very liable to be Jossed by canon. (Note particularly that the bit about Nami's weather abilities is complete speculation at this point.)
Rating: G

Music: Isn't It A Lovely Day

( a study in orange and gray  )

One of those irregular "repost for the sake of nothing better to do completion" sake. ;) First two pieces from 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.

( to have and have not )

Title: Even So
Word Count: 241
Spoilers/setting: From chapter 438, will make zero sense otherwise
Prompt: Apology
Warning for: Wangst
Character: Usopp (natch)

( and in the end )

Title: Inner Hearth
Spoilers/setting: Set any time after Chopper joins the crew but before Water 7.
Word Count: 377
Prompt: Warmth
Character: Chopper

( i'm here )


Title: Stepping In
Spoilers/setting: Set years before the series starts.
Word Count: 292
Prompt: Parent
Character: Bellemere

( doing your best )

I haven't done that much on the still-going-strong op_fanforall thread: only made five prompts/requests and filled out four requests. Wrong kind of imbalance, I know (hangs head). But most requests seem to ask for smut, which I can't write, and/or interpretations of a character that I don't favour. Or just seem way too hard! ;)

I've already owned up to the Paulie het fic when re-posting it here, and also in a comment to this Usopp/Smoker fic (second part here), sequel beginning here, which may be the crackiest thing I've ever written, unless that honour goes to my Coby-as-Sailor-Chibi-Moon fic.

I've also written a short PG-13 thing with Nervous Usopp/Stoic Zoro. This is less cracky (in my eyes, at least) but fairly humourous -it's also probably the most suggestive thing I've ever posted, but that frankly isn't saying very much. ;)

And then finally I also wrote a four-part fic in answer to the request "Oldest fic plot EVER, I know but... some member(s) of the Mugiwara get de-aged, and the remainder are left to cope. Actually kinda hoping for seriousness along with probably-inevitable wackiness." However, every single installment of that fic was so riddled with typoes, word omissions and other embarrassing errors that I refure to link to it here. Instead I'm going to post a revised version here on LJ. I've taken care (I think) of the most glaring errors, but it's always easy to miss some, so constructive criticism would be extra much appreciated on this one!!

Title: Now We Are Six (Part I)
Rating: Part I and IV are probably PG, for swearing; Part III is PG-13 for more and coarser swearing. Part II is probably G. But except for language, the whole thing is entirely worksafe.
Setting: Vaguely post-TB.
Summary: Strawhats as kids, as requested in the prompt cited above. Initially I’d looked at the prompt and was interested, but felt stomped at trying to figure out the whys of the transformation. Until I came up with the brilliant (?) idea of simply stealing shamelessly from another manga. ^_^
Flavour: This came out as rather plodding, everyday slice-of-life-ish, no great drama or huge insights or awesome comedy. Meat-and-potatoes, style of thing!

( Plagiarism ahoy! )
To Be Continued

There's a One Piece matter I've been thinking of for awhile now, and that is: who painted the flags and the main sail of the Thousand Sunny?
It can't have been Usopp, 'cause he hadn't rejoined back when Sunny was finished, including flags. And Merry's flag and sail was burned along with her. So, did Franky do it, I wonder? Or one of the Galley-La guys? This puzzles me.

OK, now for some art.
( Somewhat OOC: Robin, Zoro, Nami and Chopper play an adventure game )