thisisallthehattersfault

[thisisallthehattersfault]

I need a way to say this character makes me feel insane amounts of lust but not in a sexual or romantic way

[thisisallthehattersfault]

idk. i think fandom could use a lot less of “every person’s interpretation of a text is valid and true!” and more of “reading a text means taking all parts of it into account, including the bits you don’t like or the pairings you don’t ship, to consider what the full picture is and what the larger themes are.”

projecting your fantasies onto a text, hyperfocusing on the characters you think are hot/shippable and building entire theories based on micro interactions that don’t take other competing dynamics and plotlines into account isn’t “analysis” it’s projection and fantasy. which is fine, but take responsibility for your desires and your fantasies instead of making fandom inhospitable for everyone. some readings of a text are plain wrong, others miss or willfully erase vital context just to rationalize romantic pairings. these are not accurate readings of the text. doesn’t mean they should be attacked or shamed, but neither can you expect people to validate every single headcanon and shipper fantasy as a legitimate “reading” of the text either.

[thisisallthehattersfault]

What if I took this guy out of a situation and put them in a different situation somewhere else

thinking about aus for ocs is so funny. like i already put this guy in a situation but what if i put them in another totally different one

[thisisallthehattersfault]

Alright, to ao3's soon to be arriving Wattpad Refugees, a basic guide to general user culture:

1.) Unlike Wattpads vote system that let's you like each chapter, the ao3 equivalent kudos only allows one per work. Everyone is generally quietly annoyed about this. To engage with each chapter, you're heavily encouraged to comment. Trust me, it makes people's day.

2.) Ao3 has no algorithm. By default it's latest updated work first. You can find things to your taste through searches, filters and tags.

3.) 'No archive warnings apply' and 'user has chosen not to use archive warnings' mean two very different things. No archives warnings means the work is free from any content that could require a warning tag (character death, graphic depictions of violence, non-con, etc). User has chosen not to use archive warnings means it could contain any of the warning content, be it hasn't been explicitly tagged. Treat it like an allergen. No archive warnings apply is allergen free. User has chosen not to use archive warnings, may contain traces or whole chunks of the allergen. If you're likely to have a bad reaction, maybe don't take the risk.

4.) Speaking of warnings, ao3 has very few restrictions on the type of work that's allowed. Whatever your personal thoughts or feelings on that are, thats how the site is. You're likely to run across some dark subject matters and a lot of people are uncomfortable with reading that. You're well within your rights not like these works and have your opinion on whether they should be allowed, but harassing the authors of such works (or any works) is more likely to come back on you than them. Ao3 operates on a strong policy of 'don't like, don't read'. Use the tagging system to your full advantage to only engage with the kind of works you want to see.

We look forward to welcoming you all and seeing the fantastic works you create. Happy writing!

[thisisallthehattersfault]

I’m still thinking about omega Whitebeard. My man is so goddamn hugelarge that one of his kids could just faceplant into the scent gland on his wrist and hide there when they’re having a bad day, completely smothered in the scent of pack-family-matriarch

The World Government absolutely censors the fact that he’s omega because it goes too strongly against their preferred gender roles, but it is absolutely not something he has ever kept a secret. In his early days there were many a dumbass who thought his gender made him weak and tried some foolishness. Nobody ever tried twice.

I imagine by the time the series starts Whitebeard is well into whatever the omegaverse version of menopause is, and as a result his scent has deepened, the fruits and nectars that once perfumed the Moby going rich and a little earthy like sun-dried fruit. Ace doesn’t let Whitebeard scent him until after he tells him who his father is. In the aftermath of that conversation, Ace curls his whole body up into the man’s neck and just rolls around in the scent there while his Pops just laughs and purrs at him.

Just. Omega Whitebeard. Strongest Man In The World. Emperor of the Sea. Ten thousand children, no alpha. Out here proving that any guy can be your baby girl but it takes a man to be a single mother.

Let Omega Whitebeard into your hearts.

#one piece #Whitebeard #edward newgate #whitebeard pirates #portgas d ace #omegaverse

[thisisallthehattersfault]

One Piece Omegaverse with Omega Ace would be so, so good if only for the distress all the Whitebeards would be in when he first starts attacking their captain.

This little (comparatively to all these huge ass pirates) omega who reeks like anger and anxiety and stress and -- worst of all -- like loneliness. It isn't that he's unmated, it's that he's unmarked. He doesn't have a pack-scent. There is a faint whiff of some other smell on him, something like sea salt and sunflowers sunk deep enough into his skin to know that at least he's connected with someone, but the bitter, cloying stench of unbonded, unmarked, unclaimed, lone omega has two thirds of the Whitebeard crew damn near climbing the walls with the urge to get this kid to a safe place and pile him with food and nesting supplies and make soothing noises at him until his scent goes pleased-safe-happy and the tension bleeds from his shoulders.

Instead, Whitebeard accepts the kid's challenge and then FLINGS HIM OFF THE SHIP.

The crew is all like god Pops please at least stop yeeting him into the abyss think of our blood pressure we can't take this and Whitebeard, also an Omega, is like "Skill issue" and backhands Ace overboard again.

By pure coincidence most of the omegas onboard happen to be mostly older and veteran pirates, they're pop's nurses, they can tell this kid is not ready to join the pack and god knows none of them would ever let some overbearing alphas and betas convince them to stay somewhere they didn't want to, so while everybody else is tearing their hair out because POPS PLEASE LOOK AT HIM HE'S JUST A BABY HE'S SO SAD AND LONELY AND SOPPING WET Whitebeard and the other omegas on board are like lol. Lmao, even. Get good or get dunked.

plz picture all of the non-omega crew members going crazy with all kinds of instincts and damn near staging a mutiny because pops keeps hurting the sad damp kitten. Ace, of course, sees all of this happening and just gets even more murderous.

#One Piece #portgas d ace #Portgas d. Ace #Fire First Ace #Whitebeard #edward newgate #Whitebeard Pirates #Omegaverse #a/b/o #a/b/o verse #omegaverse au #a/b/o au

[thisisallthehattersfault]

Does that mean Nika kills Arlong? Or just damages him enough to put him in his place?

Divinity shines through Luffy’s skin. It turns his body gold, casting long shadows on the floor. Arlong’s face goes still with shock, and then, slowly, with fear. It’s almost gratifying to see that, even after all this time, people still recognize the face of God.

When Joyboy next speaks it is not through the mouth he has borrowed from Luffy, but from his own throat, echoing and trembling through the broken room they’re in.

“You are ashes now, but there was fire in you once. You chose to let that fire turn to despair, and in your despair you lashed out. You have caused grave harm to the undeserving, Arlong. But this is not all you are. It is not all you can be. You know you are more than this.”

Arlong trembles in every limb. He drags himself backwards, away from Joyboy on his shaking arms. “You’re not him,” he says, and he is begging. “You’re not him!”

“I am.”

“No! Fuck you, you’re not him!”

“Look at me, Arlong. Look at the face of your God.”

“No!”

“It's not too late to fix this. You can be forgiven.”

“I can’t forgive you!” The words are a scream that might have been a sob if Arlong were clinging less tightly to his rage. “How — how dare you. You’re not him! Fuck you, where were you? Where have you been? Where the fuck have you been?! Do you know what they’ve been doing to us?!”

Guilt, that old, worn coat, settles heavy on Joyboy’s shoulders. He says “I’m here now,” because that will have to be enough. “The dawn will rise, and you should be there to see it.” Arlong has backed himself against the wall by now, slumped with nowhere else to go. Joyboy has followed him, and now stands at Arlong’s feet. He lowers himself to one knee, and reaches out his hand. Says “You know you can build something better than this. It’s why you’re so damn frustrated, you know what you’re capable of. You turned that frustration on the wrong target but it’s not too late to change your aim.”

Slowly, Arlong drags his gaze away from Joyboy’s (Luffy’s) face to instead glare at his outstretched hand. He stares like he’s never seen fingers before. “You want me to repent?”

Joyboy says “Take my hand.”

“You — you — do you expect me to kneel? Should I pray to you?”

“No. Just take my hand.”

“I won’t!”

“Do not let your pride keep you from the one thing you truly want. Take my hand.”

“Stop it!”

“Take my hand!”

“Never!” Arlong, weakened and beaten as he is, lunges with his teeth bared.

Joyboy swallows disappointment, and accepts his answer.

—————

“Why did you ask him?” Luffy mutters petulantly. “You knew he was gonna say no.” He nudges Arlong’s corpse with his foot and ignores the sharp disapproval Joyboy sends him, because of course he does. Brat.

Joyboy thinks of justice, and rage, and wasted potential. “Sometimes,” he says, “It is the asking that matters, more than the answer.”

Luffy scowls darkly and kicks the corpse again. Kick, kick, kick. Joyboy longs for his own limbs, if only to scruff the misbehaving pup. (His sons—) “He hurt Nami. She was crying. I wouldn't forgive him even if he said he was sorry.”

Luffy’s anger is not yet the wrath of a God, but the seeds of it are there. Someday soon those seeds will grow into a rage that bleaches the sky and calls forth a red and bloody dawn. For now he is a child, disrespecting an enemy’s corpse. (Joyboy longs for his own limbs, if only to embrace the boy.)

“The forgiveness doesn’t really matter either, in the end.”

Kick, kick. Luffy glares sullenly at Arlong's body as though there are answers to be found in his ruined flesh. "That's stupid," he says.

"Yes," Joyboy agrees, softly. "It is."

#One Piece #monkey d luffy #monkey d. luffy #Joyboy #Joy Boy #Sun God Nika #Arlong The Saw #God AU #Deity AU #Reincarnated AU #I really need to come up with an actual name for this fic #buuuuuut that can wait until I'm done writing it #fic excerpt #teasers an excerpts #go ask alice #Anonymous

[thisisallthehattersfault]

not to be controversial bc I know this is like…not in line with shifting opinions on fanfic comment culture but if there’s a glaring typo in my work I will NOT be offended by pointing it out. if ao3 fucks up the formatting…I will also not be offended by having this pointed out…

‘looking forward to the next update’ and ‘I hope you update soon!’ are different vibes than a demand, and should be read in good faith because a reader is finding their way to tell you how much they love it. I will not be mad at this.

‘I don’t usually like this ship but this fic made me feel something’ is also incredibly high praise. I’m not going to get mad at this.

even ‘I love this fic but I’m curious about why you made [x] choice’ is just another way a reader is engaging in and putting thought into your work.

I just feel like a lot of authors take any comment that’s not perfectly articulated glowing praise in the exact manner they’re hoping to receive it in bad faith.

fic engagement has been dropping across the board over the last several years, and yes it’s frustrating but it isn’t as though I can’t see how it happens. comment anxiety can be a real thing. the last thing anyone wants to do is offend an author they love, and that means sometimes people default to silence.

idk where I’m going with this I guess aside from saying unless a comment is outright attacking me I’m never going to get mad at it, and I think a lot of authors should feel the same way. ESPECIALLY TYPOS PLZ GOD POINT OUT MY TYPOS.

[thisisallthehattersfault]

I'm so intrigued by ritual behavior in animals. Many animals practice what we can only describe as funerary rights and veneration of the dead, while certain species of ape and elephant have displayed behaviors not unlike sun-worship, being aware of and showing some kind of reverence for celestial bodies.

I like to think, if the Straw Hats were ever to worship Luffy, Chopper would be the first to do it. It would be an instinctive thing, and maybe worship wouldn't be the right word for it. Reverence doesn't fit -- he has been elbow-deep in his captain's chest, he has seen Luffy (seen all his crew-mates) reduced to sweat and blood and vomit. He has washed the filth of survival from their faces and tipped water to their lips and held death at bay with sutures and splints and antidotes. The flesh is not a holy thing; the body is not be sanctified (except of course that it is, it is, and no one knows that better than a doctor.)

Chopper is less animal now than he was before he ate his fruit, but he is nature’s creature still. He can feel the seasonal climate of a new island in his bones as they approach. His fur prickles when danger is near. When his crew forage for supplies in strange new places, Chopper follows the scent of clean water and green, growing things until it leads him to resources he can bring back to the herd.

And when the sun rises, he tips his face into its light and feels the warmth seep into him.

There is a profound gratitude winter creatures feel towards the sun. Nights on Drum were always so very long, and the snow so thick. In deep winter even the evergreens had a hard time catching enough of the gray, watery light to keep themselves alive. It wasn’t uncommon for Chopper’s original herd to spend hours or days foraging and only find barely enough to eat. When the sun emerged enough to melt the snow and pull tender, edible shoots up from the earth, coax sweet green leaves to bud on the tips of barren branches, it always felt like a gift to be cherished.

After he ate the fruit and became something that is neither reindeer nor human and not quite a proper mix of the two, something that is maybe not only difficult to classify but downright incorrect — when he became whatever he now is, and gained the ability to perceive a world so much greater than himself, he felt that was exactly what the sun was: something greater than himself. Something greater than his herd, or the human settlements, or either of the good Doctors that raised him. Something greater than the evergreen forests or the snowy fields. Greater even than the long, dark winter. Doctor Hiriluk taught him, of course, what the sun is made of, but that didn’t make it seem any less like magic to Chopper. This huge, burning thing, so far away and unimaginably powerful and yet it reaches its fingers down and down and down into the snow and tugs up plants for the reindeer to eat. Ancient and unreachable and unapproachable, but still it warms his fur. Still it melts the snow caps into streams of clean, clear water that teem with life in the summertime.

Right from the beginning, Luffy does for Chopper what the sun does for the snow fields. He gives warmth and persistent, blinding light until the icy top-layer has gone to slush and everything beneath sprouts anew, growing strong and reaching up towards the sun. Chopper boards the Going Merry for the first time and his bones ache like spring has come, and under Luffy Chopper does as all green things do in the sunlight: he grows. He learns and trains and overcomes, until he feels less like those tender spring shoots and more like the evergreens, standing tall, unbowed by the winter.

It makes sense to me for Chopper to be the first of the crew to look at Luffy and understand that he is something else. Something more. Something greater than himself. Maybe not consciously, but instinctively, not in mind but in gut and marrow. If Luffy is to Chopper what sunlight is to the snowfields then it’s only right the rest of the world, too, should get to tilt their faces to the light of the sun and feel it’s warmth seep into them. The crew learns about Nika and Joyboy and ancient prophecies and Sun Gods given form, that Luffy is something that is neither human nor god and not quite a proper mix of the two, and Chopper tucks his nose into Luffy’s hip and digs his horns into Luffy's belly until Luffy reaches down to pat him, and thinks, I could have told you that.

#One Piece #monkey d. luffy #tony tony chopper #sun god nika #joyboy

[thisisallthehattersfault]

Me, working on the Reincarnated God AU: Ooh what if Joyboy pov and Arlong looks like someone he knew in his life, as an excuse to drop some lore

My fingers: Arlong has a nearly uncanny resemblance to his ancestor who was Joyboy’s friend and comrade in arms and occasional casual lover and now he’s staring at this stranger wearing that man’s face and knowing that man has been dead so long that not even his grave exists anymore. Do historians keep record of his name? Do his people revere him as a legendary folk-hero, the way he always wanted? Have they twisted your message into something ugly, or have your words entirely been lost to time? My friend, is my memory all that remains of you? Can you forgive me, knowing even that memory will be destroyed before this all ends?

Me: Well. Okay. Sure.

#One Piece #Joyboy #Joy Boy #Sun God Nika #Arlong The Saw #God AU #Deity AU

[thisisallthehattersfault]

“Bless me,” Usopp begs. All of him is shaking. His voice, his hands, his shoulders and all down his spine. He is a wretched thing, curled and contorted like a sun-starved plant, made weak and small. “Bless me with courage, bless me with bravery — please, I can’t, I can’t —“

“Usopp—“

“Take my fear!” It’s a wild cry, all airless desperation. It’s the wailing of a worshiper with nothing to cling to but their faith. “Make me brave, fix me, I can’t keep being useless like this please, Luffy, please!”

“Usopp!” Luffy wrestles himself out of Usopp’s grip and drops to his knees and bundles his friend into his arms, the whole miserable package of him. Usopp doesn’t want to uncurl, but Luffy is stronger, and forces him upright enough to tuck his wet face into Luffy’s chest. Usopp burrows there, still crying, still begging. Luffy smooshes Usopp against him tighter until he starts to quiet down, rocks him back and forth a little like Makino used to do for him when he was still young.

“Usopp is dumb,” Luffy says into his hair. “I can’t give him something he already has.”

Usopp jolts, tries to wrench himself out of Luffy’s grip. It doesn’t really work, because Luffy just stretches with him, but Usopp still pulls back enough to look at him with his face all wet and flushed and awful-looking. “Don’t laugh at me!” It might have been a shout if his voice hadn’t cracked halfway through. Instead it just sounds like a sob. “Not you, I can’t — not you, Luffy. Don’t you brush me off, not you — you picked me. You chose me and I can do it, I can, I can get stronger, I can be better I just need help, please help me please…”

Luffy pulls him close again, because he doesn’t want to look at Usopps crying face and listen to him saying dumb things about himself that don’t even make any sense. “I picked you,” he echoes, because that’s true even if everything else was wrong. “I picked you.”

And then, like it’s being torn out of him, like it’s got barbs ripping him to ribbons on the way out, Usopp chokes “You picked wrong.”

#One Piece #Monkey D Luffy #Monkey d. Luffy #Usopp #God AU #deity au #reincarnated au #Angst

[thisisallthehattersfault]

The Four Sacred Artistic Motives:

-what if this bad thing was good instead

-how about Make-Believe Land can have whatever I want

-would that be fucked up or what

-I think that shit's hot

[thisisallthehattersfault]

"Sexual fantasies are morally neutral" gets said a lot but like, so are violent fantasies. So are revenge fantasies. So are those incredibly authoritarian "if I ran the world" pipe dreams that we all have even if they actively conflict with our rationally held political beliefs. I don't actually believe drivers who cut pedestrians off at crosswalks should get the firing squad but when I've just been cut off at the crosswalk it sure feels good to say it

#acab includes the thought police

[thisisallthehattersfault]

Characters haunting their own narrative. A protagonist we don’t actually meet until four or five episodes in but who we hear of from damn near every mouth in the series. Their allies look out at the horizon and grit their teeth at their own troubles and reassure themselves like a prayer that they are coming, they’re coming, they’ll be here soon just hold out a little longer—

Their enemies look out at the destruction they have wrought and hold meetings to discuss the loss of men and territory and resources to this one person

People gather in bars and taverns and town halls and fountains to discuss the stranger who saved their lives or destroyed their businesses or liberated their people

We finally meet them when they arrive to help their friends, and the plot proper kicks off with everyone all together, we get to meet them and learn of them and see their personality, and eventually maybe we forget that they were introduced not as a person at all but as a ghost, a myth, a formless thing lurking around the edges of everything

(Sometimes they look so lost, fingers pressing to their pulse like they need the reminder their heart is beating. They confess to their closest friend that sometimes I’m not sure I’m real and their friend says sometimes I’m not sure either)

And in the end that character vanishes again, maybe dead or maybe something else, but they end the series the way they began: spoken of with a mix of love and terror, the ripples of their existence felt everywhere but they themselves nowhere to be seen, their ideals carried onward without them

Once someone they saved told them “you’re a hero! We’ll remember this forever!” And they smiled a small, sad, exhausted little smile and said it would be kinder to forget me.

#writing #writeblr #character writing #haunting the narrative #something something parasocial relationships #and the nature of doing for others #and people who value your actions more than you #even when they don’t mean to or don’t realize they’re doing it #and the weight of responsibility and largely thankless heroism #and being unable to stop because people are counting on you #even though you never wanted this #never asked for it never sought it out #and you know after your death they’ll rewrite your words #and twist your story into something it never was to suit them #and there’s nothing you can do about it anymore #men die but you can’t kill ideas only make it existential horror

[thisisallthehattersfault]

The wind picks up without warning, whipping through Arlong Park hard enough to toss the rubble around. It shoves clouds unceremoniously out of the way, unveils the sun so it’s full heat is pounding down on Luffy’s head and shoulders. The light sears into Arlong’s eyes, blinds and burns him. He snarls.

Luffy snarls back.

“Nami doesn’t belong to anyone!” He says, and when Arlong lunges for him Luffy dodges fast, so fast, so fast with his blood pounding through him hot and buzzing. His pulse is heavy in his throat. His whole body feels warmed and primed and battle-ready, heated to boiling by the light of the sun. His next punch sends Arlong crashing right back into the rubble. This time he only lays there, wheezing.

“Nami will be free!” Luffy declares. He says it with his whole chest, says it loud so it will be heard even over Arlong’s choking, stands tall in the sunlight and announces it for all the world to know. It rises in him bright and bubbling and spills forth in a great big belly-laugh. “She — shishishi! N-Nami will — she — sh-she will…”

Oh. Oh! Something is happening!

“Nami will sail to the farthest corners of the world and discover the hidden places. She will tame the wind and tether the waves and leash the storm to fill her sails and never fear the devouring sea. She will chase the horizon until it circles back around again, and she will always find her way home. Nami will be free. And you, Arlong — you will be a childhood nightmare, and nothing more.”

#One Piece #monkey d luffy #monkey d. luffy #Arlong The Saw #one piece nami #not present but important #God AU #Deity AU #Joyboy #Sun God Nika #I just feel like if Luffy WAS a god he'd be the last person to know about it #Later somebody mentions the literal blessings he keeps giving his crew #and he's just like yeah it's a mystery but I think probably all captains can do that #and someone has to be like no luffy. No they can't.

[thisisallthehattersfault]

oh PLEASE link me if and when this gets written

It's really hard to find good Usopp-centric fics and even harder to find fics where Usopp is allowed to be genuinely skilled and capable (Take The World By Storm has spoiled me) and none of that is mentioning my love of the Strawhats being a little less morally good and a little more willing to really lean in on the whole Terrifying Yonko Pirate Crew thing when the situation calls for it

But I remembered today that I can be the change I want to see in the world so now my whole brain is consumed by an idea for a fic where Syrup village gets raided by slavers, the little Usopp pirates get taken, and Usopp goes fucking ballistic.

Like, think about it: The East Blue, widely considered the weakest of the seas, would be easy pickings for slave traders looking to make a quick top-up before auction day. Especially since it seems most islands are fairly autonomous, with little local governmental presence. Places like the Gecko islands would be prime targets -- we don't know how many other towns or cities might be nearby, but we know Syrup, at least, is a small and mostly isolated hamlet. It's practically a free market.

So I'm imagining like, the Strawhats have circled back to the East Blue for whatever reason -- maybe it's a post-Raftel victory lap, or maybe they had some other reason to swing back. Either way, they're all taking the opportunity to visit old friends and family, and introduce the crew they met later to all the people they grew up with, and then they reach Syrup and the whole village is in an uproar; just a couple days ago a bunch of kids from the village went missing, Usopp's little pirate crew among them. Nobody knows for sure what happened. An unmarked ship did dock for a few days for repairs, but the sailors on-board were polite and didn't cause any trouble that anyone could see. However, the day the kids vanished, the ship was also gone.

I figure the boys probably were suspicious of the sailors for whatever reason, and they likely did some investigating and left a message or even just their evidence behind when they got grabbed by the slavers, because if we know anything about these kids it's that they are very brave and very bad at knowing when to go ask an adult for help. So the boys manage to (mostly accidentally) leave a trail of breadcrumbs for the Strawhats to follow.

They catch the slave ship just before it can cross the reverse mountain and Usopp proceeds to unleash absolute hell on the men who tried to take his boys (and other kids he likely also helped babysit or at least knew and watched grow up)

And that's their first real look at their Captain in years: Usopp appearing out of practically nowhere, bloody and blazing and standing tall over the crumpled bodies of his enemies, reaching down to lift Ninjin, Piiman and Tamenegi into his arms after the scariest few weeks the boys have ever lived through. He has all three tuck their faces into his chest so they don't see the carnage, but they've already seen enough, and everything was so loud but now it's so quiet and the air smells like iron. He carries them off the ship and onto the Sunny to take them home.

(In and among all of this I imagine the Klahadore thing comes out as well, because there's no point in keeping it a secret anymore if Syrup village isn't safe after all.)

Syrup Village flies the Strawhat flag, after that. It won't win them any favors with the Navy if it's found out, but it'll keep them safer than the military ever has.

#I might actually end up doing my own fic of this concept #but nobody will complain about having two cakes #and also there's no guarantee I'll actually write it #so by all means go wild #take it and run you have my blessing

[thisisallthehattersfault]

It's really hard to find good Usopp-centric fics and even harder to find fics where Usopp is allowed to be genuinely skilled and capable (Take The World By Storm has spoiled me) and none of that is mentioning my love of the Strawhats being a little less morally good and a little more willing to really lean in on the whole Terrifying Yonko Pirate Crew thing when the situation calls for it

But I remembered today that I can be the change I want to see in the world so now my whole brain is consumed by an idea for a fic where Syrup village gets raided by slavers, the little Usopp pirates get taken, and Usopp goes fucking ballistic.

Like, think about it: The East Blue, widely considered the weakest of the seas, would be easy pickings for slave traders looking to make a quick top-up before auction day. Especially since it seems most islands are fairly autonomous, with little local governmental presence. Places like the Gecko islands would be prime targets -- we don't know how many other towns or cities might be nearby, but we know Syrup, at least, is a small and mostly isolated hamlet. It's practically a free market.

So I'm imagining like, the Strawhats have circled back to the East Blue for whatever reason -- maybe it's a post-Raftel victory lap, or maybe they had some other reason to swing back. Either way, they're all taking the opportunity to visit old friends and family, and introduce the crew they met later to all the people they grew up with, and then they reach Syrup and the whole village is in an uproar; just a couple days ago a bunch of kids from the village went missing, Usopp's little pirate crew among them. Nobody knows for sure what happened. An unmarked ship did dock for a few days for repairs, but the sailors on-board were polite and didn't cause any trouble that anyone could see. However, the day the kids vanished, the ship was also gone.

I figure the boys probably were suspicious of the sailors for whatever reason, and they likely did some investigating and left a message or even just their evidence behind when they got grabbed by the slavers, because if we know anything about these kids it's that they are very brave and very bad at knowing when to go ask an adult for help. So the boys manage to (mostly accidentally) leave a trail of breadcrumbs for the Strawhats to follow.

They catch the slave ship just before it can cross the reverse mountain and Usopp proceeds to unleash absolute hell on the men who tried to take his boys (and other kids he likely also helped babysit or at least knew and watched grow up)

And that's their first real look at their Captain in years: Usopp appearing out of practically nowhere, bloody and blazing and standing tall over the crumpled bodies of his enemies, reaching down to lift Ninjin, Piiman and Tamenegi into his arms after the scariest few weeks the boys have ever lived through. He has all three tuck their faces into his chest so they don't see the carnage, but they've already seen enough, and everything was so loud but now it's so quiet and the air smells like iron. He carries them off the ship and onto the Sunny to take them home.

(In and among all of this I imagine the Klahadore thing comes out as well, because there's no point in keeping it a secret anymore if Syrup village isn't safe after all.)

Syrup Village flies the Strawhat flag, after that. It won't win them any favors with the Navy if it's found out, but it'll keep them safer than the military ever has.

#One Piece #Usopp #straw hat pirates #usopp pirates #Is there even any point in tagging the boys #One Piece ninjin #One Piece Piiman #One Piece Tamanegi #I know they're probably better known as onion pepper and carrot #but there's the mink carrot too #and that will cause confusion #so we're just gonna go with their non-english-ized names