tibuki

[tibuki]

i love writing poems but this is my first true attempt at twin poetry for one of my fic wips

analysis below if you want to read even more about how i rattle these two around in my brain without cease oh my god

thanks for your interest :)

let's start with king. thematically, this is centered around luffy and his appetite. appetite that is, for adventure, love (family), and of course, food.

the second line compares his stomach to earthquakes, and in all honesty, i just looked at the fact that he's a taurus, an earth sign, and this line goes hard

next, taurus is ruled by the throat in some aspects, and luffy uses his voice a lot (yelling, cheering, laughing, calling zoro), and sunrises represent new beginnings or horizons, which draws back to luffy having many connections with the fool. he's always finding a new adventure to embark on with his friends, and creating new beginnings for those he frees from oppression.

okay, these next lines are my favorite of all in this whole thing. cake! cake represents the joy and sweetness of life, slices represent sharing that joy and good fortune with others!

grinning and snarling are two sides of the same coin. he's so quick to smile, but luffy won't hesitate to punch somebody. his impulsiveness is central to his character, but that's how a lot of things escalate for the rest of the crew to figure out how to deal with, especially zoro as the first mate. plus, sometimes luffy grins even when he's fighting (not to mention nika gleefully whooping lucci's ass), and it's probably from the adrenaline of it, and he's chaotic enough to enjoy violence, just not killing.

'ribs' can be taken at face value: he loves meat. true. that line is just a fancy way of saying lambs/cows/pigs to slaughter for food. but consider this: zoro is the animal martyred for luffy's greed. luffy hears zoro's name as "demon of the east blue" and immediately wants him. i love saying that zoro died that day, that luffy gave him a second chance, that joining his non-existent crew was zoro's second birth. it's so beautiful.

next, i put emphasis on luffy's hands because that's his preferred weapon of choice. he punches, he grabs, he's greedy, but i have to clarify that he is not selfish. luffy loves to share, just not his food. he extends his hands out of love, as well as a closed fist. he has duality and i love that. but he's definitely greedy, and understandably so. his abandonment trauma has left him sinking his teeth into everything that's his so he can keep it at his side. :(

next we might be wondering who "they" are in the following line. that can be any of the strawhat's opponents, marines, other pirates, the world government-- anyone who opposes luffy's vision. we know how stubborn the captain is and he always finds a way out, victory is non negotiable. also nika = nike = victory

this is clearly about nika, sun god and bringer of liberation. the sun is associated with fire, heat, passion, energy, everything luffy embodies. regarding his heart, nika manifests as an irregular drum-like heartbeat, bestowing upon luffy monstrous and ridiculous amounts of strength and abilities, at the cost of his lifespan.

lastly for luffy, i wanted to leave the reader's thoughts on how he hates, hates, hates, being alone. he can't stand it. every time a strawhat tries to leave, luffy fights for them back (nami, usopp, sanji, robin). we have yet to see zoro try to leave, though he has said "he'll be the next one to go" to prove a point to the captain that indecisiveness has no place in a leader's mind. it breaks my heart every time i think about it that nearly everyone luffy loved abandoned him in some way, no matter how much he loved them. i have two siblings and i am incredibly close with them-- i couldn't imaging both of them leaving. the bond he shares with ace and sabo resonates with me so deeply and i love them so so much, but it's so sad at the same time.

next we have zoro's part yay

thematically, his sword is about zoro's relationship with vulnerability. i tried not to project on either of them but it probably came out a little bit since it's in the first person and also from my brain haha

the first line is already full of symbolism because we can't escape patterns and parallels haha

historically, a thief's knot informed a sailor if their things had been messed with because this knot is very similar to a regular square not, which the unknowing thief would likely make the mistake of tying. this is just a fancy way of using the expression 'stomach in knots', we all know roronoa tummyache zoro hates talking about his feelings (connecting with the first line of king). also i headcanon that both his haramaki and his bandana are means of comforting pressure, especially the bandana. but going into the second line, it talks about his heart, which he doesn't allow anyone to trifle with. yet luffy has managed to anyway.

i also emphasize zoro's hands like i did for luffy. as a swordsman, zoro uses his hands often, and he has to take care of them so that his craft is as close to perfection as possible. his efficiency absolutely cannot waver or he risks the lives of the crew. zoro is the strawhat's sword, that's what he sees himself as, and that's how he shows that he loves them, by protecting them and risking his life for them. by 'bending his knees', he assumes a ready stance, prepared to fight. but this could also allude to prayer, which he refuses to do because he does not believe in any gods.

being lower to the ground or lowering your head is also indicative of shame or guilt, which i think he would feels his fair share of, either for failing to protect (someone gets harmed badly) or he used wrong judgement, or when he becomes unable to avoid his love for his captain. one more facet of this is that scorpio is a fixed sign, like leo, taurus, and aquarius, which means the core is important. lowering his center of gravity to his core makes zoro more balanced and in tune with the world around him (breath of all things).

'steady as she goes' refers to a ship staying its course, which is ironic because the swordsman is always getting lost. nothing too nuanced here but it could also hint at how zoro (alongside robin especially) is often luffy's voice of reason when there is tension among crewmates or during battles

next, let's consider that zoro probably didn't want to be found. or maybe he did, deep down, but like hell he was going to admit that in the state he was in. but he was backed into a corner when he got strung up in the prison yard, just so luffy could find him easily. and now that they're a crew, he gets lost and he wonders when they're going to find him (or when he's going to find them, because obviously they're the ones who got lost)

this next line brings to light zoro's tendency to drink. it's not always to escape, but there are certainly times when he wants to forget, act like nothing happened (i expand on this in my fic). as much as zoro seems like a logical, straightforward guy, i think his heart talks to him a lot. i think he gets those little pangs of fear when he hears one of the strawhats got hurt when he wasn't there. i think he got flutters when luffy smiled at him for the first time. i think he's very intuitive, just like his captain.

'a fissure in the ice' is a parallel to the earthquake mentioned in luffy's part, there is a divide of some kind in his heart, whether it be logic vs emotion or otherwise. ice also makes me think of winter and death, which connects to ashura. i also just wanted some contrast with ice and it being 'hot in this room'

bottling up your emotions is not good for your health. here's where it was hard not to start projecting like crazy. when you're frustrated or angry, and you don't express that, you can get feverish. but maybe zoro wouldn't complain because it 'makes him stronger to endure'. when do you allow yourself the luxury of vulnerability? could he ever?

finally, the last two lines are similar to luffy's. zoro does not want to be left alone. he values his space and his alone time of course, but his loneliness is apparent before he met luffy-- johnny and yosaku weren't there. his lone wolf façade was a tactic to avoid forming close relationships, lest he lose them and suffer like he did with kuina. his insistence on individualism aligns perfectly with his stoicism and his stubbornness, ensuring that his armor is notoriously difficult to crack.

and luffy did it almost effortlessly, like?? my man you're gonna scare him away

anyways these are most of my thoughts on how i think luffy and zoro handle loss and grief and how they are actually so endlessly interwoven with each other. my love for them will never die. i hope you read my fic when i finish it, i'll post it here soon :)

[tibuki]

👒 『CONTRIBUTOR INTRO』 ⚔️

Our next contributor is Muppet, who will be joining us as a page and merch artist!

[tibuki]

Sabo Week Day 6:

Reunion/Smile

[tibuki]

👒 『CONTRIBUTOR INTRO』 ⚔️

Starting off the week by introducing one of our page artists, Do!

[tibuki]

i love the concept in one piece of log poses and vivre cards and eternal poses and all of the tools people on the grand line have created to navigate by pointing themselves directly toward a person, a place, or their next destination some unknown distance away, the idea that as long as you're alive and you go where it points you, you'll find what you're looking for

AND these navigational methods reflect the baseline of, if you're a person who's decided to enter and sail the grand line, you have the conviction to point yourself at an unknown, unknowable future and throw yourself at it with everything you have, and someday you'll reach it or die trying

oda's grasp and execution of theme at every single level is unmatched, and OP is a romantic absurdist fantasy/sci-fi action-adventure epic like nothing else in the world, i'll never get tired of this series, and i never want it to end 😭

[tibuki]

[tibuki]

Au where everything is the same except the baratie is a mcdonalds

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platonically or romantically luffy n zoro ARE soulmates and just the first arc is enough for me bc you’re telling me luffy (who goes w the flow and finds his crewmates through his journeys) heard roronoa zoro’s name and decided “I want him on my crew” and actively sought him out? that they fought immediately in sync as if muscle memory of lifetimes together came back in an instant? that the demon of the east blue, a man so feared the entire town shakes at his name, sprawled out across from luffy at a restaurant took one look at the tiny dinghy in the harbor and laughed and hasn’t stopped laughing w luffy since? that in zoro’s highly romanticized memory of their first meeting luffy brings COLOR into his life? enough! enough!!

[tibuki]

zoro and luffy who sit incredibly close to each other naturally: legs intertwined, backs awkwardly bent, shoulders jammed together.

if you asked either of them about it, luffy would just smile wide and inch closer again, and zoro would grunt in wordless protest to being interrupted. but the real answer is on that tiny dinghy boat, on that flimsy raft they began their journey on, sitting that close was required.

if they sat with their heads leaned together, they could stretch their arms and legs. if they laid shoulder to shoulder, their whole bodies could fit without squishing to the sides of the boat, allowing them to get a good sleep. their relationship started with sitting close and it never stopped.

maybe it’s nostalgic, maybe being so close reminds them of where it all began, where they began. or maybe they just it love it so dearly, it’s so ingrained in them that they refuse to stop. feeling most comfortable with the smell of the sea in the air and skin on skin, never getting enough of each other.

sometimes luffy stretches towards zoro, a leg interlinked with his under the dining table despite sitting two seats away, because they’ve got such a big ship now and sometimes that’s a bit much. sometimes you’ll find them in the sunny's smallest storage cupboard, notably the size of that old dinghy, to the point franky renovated it full of blankets & gentle lights, and found a new home for his scrap metal. the strawhats all wonder why on earth they’d want to sleep there but it’s the best rest either of them get so they've only ever tried to make it even more comfortable for them.

as they fling one another about, manhandle each other to safety in a battle, face back to back as they fight a hoard of marines- the warmth in their contact brings them indescribable peace, brings them back to the east blue. the feeling of home found in each other.

[tibuki]

Ngl, I needed this in my life rn. So much! Finland Swedish representation in the Swedish outtakes to Eurovision... in the form of the campiest earworm ever written about saunas! Suddenly my brain isn't playing Ich Komme on repeat anymore... now it's Bara bada bastu!

And they advanced to the finals, so there is some slight hope that they might go to Basel. Very slight, but still!

Anyway. Have a sauna! Steam it up. Let go of all your stress.

[tibuki]

been having an ace phase lately. a phace, if you will

[tibuki]

some whole cake girls posting

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Elbaf (imagine I put a viking emoji here)

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it's them i fear

[tibuki]

gratitude, or something - tibuki - One Piece (Anime & Manga) [Archive of Our Own]

[tibuki]

Chewing and gnawing on the irony One Piece continually shows with the main characters where they're doing objectively kind and helpful things and that's what gets them in trouble with the law. It's the selective application of criminal justice. The bias and room for corruption built into the system itself. It's delicious. It's horribly relevant. I'm obsessed.