#Tales from the Heart

[tsarisfanfiction]

Mischief (Tales From the Heart)

Fandom: One Piece Rating: Gen Genre: Friendship Characters: Bepo, Penguin, Shachi, Heart Pirates Been a while since I last wrote for this series, I know... saw a prompt about Penguin and Shachi swapping hats and had to write it! Regarding Penguin's hair colour, we have exactly one manga panel (in chapter 922) that shows that it's light, so that's what I'm rolling with!

It did not take Bepo long to realise that today was a Mischief Day.  His nakama did that, sometimes.  All of them had been known to do it, but Penguin and Shachi were the worst-offenders – or at least the longest-running offenders, especially because Bepo had known them since they were cubs and they’d always been a bit mischievous, from the second day he knew them (he didn’t count the first day, because they’d been scared of him, and it had hurt, but at least they had sorted that out years ago).

Penguin and Shachi had many reasons for Mischief Days, Bepo had figured out over the years.  Boredom was one.  Unease was another, causing mischief to distract from it.  Breaking tension in the crew, especially when it was Captain that was tense, because no-one else in the crew had the decade-long bond of knowing exactly when and how to distract Law for maximum effectiveness.

Given that Law had been on edge for the past week – planning to be a Shichibukai was not easy, Bepo had quickly surmised – and the rest of the crew had been feeling it, too (even Bepo’s mink was slightly raised, unable to fully relax), Bepo wasn’t actually surprised when he saw Shachi but smelt Penguin, then saw Penguin but smelt Shachi.

There were other clues, too, but it was the scent that gave them away – and Bepo knew he was the only one in the crew that trusted scent over sight.

He wasn’t going to interrupt their mischief.  He felt bad when he did that, even though they were never mad at him when he did – but sometimes a little frustrated, if he did it too soon (and then they got frustrated when he said sorry; there was no winning with his nakama, sometimes).  It was easiest to say nothing now and then apologise to Captain later, when Law looked at him for knowing and saying nothing.

Law wouldn’t complain when he apologised, just sigh and tell him it wasn’t his fault, sending a disapproving look at Penguin and Shachi, who would shrug it off.

Breakfast was a chaotic affair, as always.  They didn’t do food fights, not after their much-appreciated cook had told them all off loudly, and Law had proven he would always win through abusing the Ope Ope no Mi that one time, but that didn’t stop food being snatched from plates and coffees being stolen, and the general rough-and-tumble of nakama having a good time.

It was so chaotic that no-one except Bepo even noticed when Penguin and Shachi swapped the food they’d been given each other’s, because their cook had been so rushed off his feet that he hadn’t noticed he’d given them each other’s trays.

Clione was their first victim, or at least the first one Bepo saw.  His hood was half falling off his head, leaving his mussed-up hair half exposed, but given he’d been on the night watch that was a normal sight.  Bepo and Penguin were the ones rota’d to relieve him, and Penguin had taken several long strides to keep up with Bepo as they made their way to the control room.

“Morning, Bepo,” he grinned, and Bepo returned the greeting.

At the sound of his name, Penguin grinned, and looked even more like Shachi.  Bepo wondered if he’d practiced that in the mirror, but didn’t ask.

“Knew you’d catch on,” Penguin said, but he held up a finger to his lips.  “Let us have our fun.”

“Okay,” Bepo agreed easily, because he already knew he would.

Clione blinked blearily at them as they walked in, clearly ready for bed.  He wasn’t as tired as he looked, Bepo knew, because if he was that tired he’d have woken someone to take over for him earlier – falling asleep on night watch was one of the few things Law had punishments for, because that endangered everyone, and everyone had had it drummed into them that they were to wake someone if they got tired.

“Shachi?” he asked.  “I thought it was Penguin’s shift after mine?”

“We swapped,” Penguin shrugged.

“Well that’s on your head when Captain finds out,” Clione yawned, because they were all nakama but there was still a hierarchy, and when Penguin or Shachi said something like that, Law was the only one that wasn’t expected to listen (Bepo wasn’t, either, but he did anyway, because it was less confusing that way).

Handover went as usual – no overnight problems, the Tang was swimming as smoothly as ever – and it was only when Clione stood up and took a second look at Penguin that he did a double take.

“What happened to your hair?” he squawked, poking at Shachi’s hat, and Shachi’s shades, and the cropped, blond hair that only one of the Swallow Island natives had.

“What do you think?” Penguin grinned, his sharp, Shachi-like grin, and Clione frowned at him before enlightenment struck.

“You- you swapped,” he parroted, throwing his hands in the hair.  Bepo made sure he was out of range of the flailing limbs – he didn’t deserve to be hit for their nakama’s mischief.  “Swapped clothes, you bastard.  What the hell, Penguin?”

“Felt like it,” Penguin shrugged, and Clione groaned.

“I’m going to bed,” he said firmly.  “It’s too early for this nonsense.”

“Sleep well!” Penguin called after him, and laughed as he got a middle finger raised in response.

The rest of the morning went the same way.  Bepo wasn’t always with one or both of them, but whenever he was, someone always fell for it.

Their voices weren’t that similar, but their accent was distinctive, the only members of the crew from that pocket of North Blue, and Bepo and the mischief makers had quickly realised that speaking wasn’t giving them away for the most part.

It did give them away to Law, though, who called Penguin over, had Shachi answer, and freeze, scrutinising him for a moment before sighing and putting a hand over his face.  “I said Penguin,” he said, and Shachi had pouted, but they’d obeyed.

By lunchtime, the sounds of “Pen- Shachi!” and Sha-Penguin!” and various iterations thereof, in increasingly frustrated voices, seemed to be a constant sound throughout the Tang.

They hadn’t actually done much – they were wearing each others’ hats, and both of them were wearing a pair of Shachi’s shades – but it was enough.  Penguin’s hat covered most of Shachi’s slightly wild red shock of hair, although it poked out around his face a little bit like a lion’s mane, while Shachi’s hat mostly covered Penguin’s rather shorter, cropped blond hair, but left it visible behind his ears and at the base of his skull.

It was enough to trick at a glance, but it wasn’t hard to tell who was who – or at least, Bepo didn’t think so, but when he pointed that out, after all their nakama knew about the switch, he’d been told that not everyone had a powerful enough sense of smell to tell them apart immediately.

His immediate apology was waved away.

Of course, Penguin and Shachi weren’t done with their mischief.  By mid-afternoon, their nakama had adjusted to it, so naturally they swapped back when no-one was looking (Bepo was looking, because Shachi had dragged him to stand guard – “we’re not fooling you anyway, so you can make sure no-one else catches us” – while they’d given each other their hat back.

The rest of the day was met with more frustrated “Pen-Shachi” and “Sha-Penguin” as their nakama slowly realised what they’d done.

The simmering tension about Captain’s shichibukai plotting had all but disappeared, though, and when Penguin and Shachi drew Bepo into a high-five just before lights’ out that night, their smaller hands slapping firmly into his pads and avoiding his claws with years of experience, Bepo knew they considered their mischief a success on all fronts.

He agreed.

[tsarinatorment]

Chaos (Tales From The Heart)

Fandom: One Piece Rating: Gen Warnings: None Characters: Hakugan, Law, Jean Bart

I got another itch to write some Tales for the first time in quite a while!  I’ve not done anything with it since we got Hakugan’s name confirmed, which now means I have another canon character to play with - which first meant headcanon time!  I’m still solidifying a load of things with them, but this little chapter showcases what I’ve got so far.  Yes, I’ve gone with he/they pronouns for them.

Hakugan is a monster. In the Grand Line – in the New World – that isn’t a distinction worth much of note; any pirate who’s anybody was a monster, and some of the ones that have managed to fly under the radar of the Marines are monsters in their own right, too.  Hakugan is – was – both.

They don’t look it, not that that matters when the mask that covers his face is a permanent feature, taken off very rarely even in the safest depths of the ocean, but they’re one of the oldest members of the Heart Pirates – at least, in terms of age.  In terms of time proudly bearing the grinning virus that is Trafalgar Law’s jolly roger, they’re one of the more recent additions, picked up during the captain’s time playing at being a Shichibukai.

He still isn’t entirely sure how Law found him, or why the Surgeon of Death went through the trouble of tracking him down – both are as ludicrous propositions as the other; Hakugan simply wasn’t someone to be found, and not even the most unhinged pirates wanted them, either.

Or perhaps it was that Hakugan didn’t want them.  They’d put their past behind them, slammed the door shut on who they were, the billion plus beris the World Government had put on their head, and disappeared – convincingly, too, enough that not even the most persistent sniffer-dogs had found them.

Law had guts, and connections that had Hakugan’s eyebrows up to their hairline, a knack for getting information from the most unlikely sources, and…

Jean Bart.

He had never been friends with the captain, but they’d once moved in similar circles, swarming around and around like sharks measuring up their prey and determining if the kill was worth it. Hakugan had heard about the destruction of the crew, although they couldn’t say they mourned.

Mourning was for nakama. They hadn’t even been allies in the loosest sense of the term.

Seeing Jean Bart at Trafalgar Law’s back, as the young man tracked him down to his quiet little retirement in the middle of nowhere even by Grand Line standards – and a mink, young but full of potential, to say nothing of the rest of the crew, whose names and faces had never passed Hakugan’s awareness despite the tabs they’d kept on the bounties (survival and hiding only worked if they knew who to avoid… and which troublemakers they could use as cover when their itch for chaos surfaced) – had piqued their curiosity.

Hakugan still doesn’t know how Law found him, but they know that Law wanted them, and that the Heart Pirates might not be a complete waste of time.  Jean Bart’s presence was a convincing factor; the giant of a man (perhaps a giant of some sort, although Hakugan had never pried into that, Davy Jones knew they didn’t share the details of their heritage with anyone) had never given the impression that he would bow to anyone, yet he bore the Heart Pirates flag with pride and shifted his weight in a way that screamed pain and death to anyone who disrespected his captain.

Another compelling factor was the Shichibukai status.  Hakugan had had no intentions of revealing their ongoing existence to the World Government, but there was something tempting about knowing that even if it slipped out, their hands were tied on the matter.

Adding them to the crew was a risk to Law; they’re wanted.  Over a billion beris aren’t offered for run of the mill pirates, or even renowned ones. They’re offered for threats, and Hakugan is a threat.  They’re a threat who knows things, and for the World Government, that’s a crime punishable by obliteration.

Law knows this.  Law also wants to know things, is making it a mission to know everything the World Government doesn’t want him to know, and there was something about the spark in golden eyes that had Hakugan’s itch for chaos screaming for release once more.

It was that little itch for chaos that had him agreeing, taking the hand of the younger man – his captain, now, and wasn’t that a term they’d never expected to apply to another – and Hakugan is glad he did, because being a Heart Pirate?

It’s chaos.

Law runs a decent ship – not a tight ship that has his crew chafing at restrictions, but a fair one, where his word is final but he listens, respects, and learns.  It’s a good thing he does, because Hakugan is a free spirit of chaos, and they won’t listen to anyone they don’t want to.

They listen to Law, because Law wants to drive everything to its knees, starting with one of his fellow Shichibukai, but Hakugan saw the spark for more when he accepted the captain’s proposal.  Taking down one pirate wouldn’t appease the urge for chaos that simmers beneath his skin, but taking down the world?

That is a beautiful piece of chaos that Hakugan wants in on – craves to be in on – and there’s something unhinged enough about the Surgeon of Death that he’s certain their captain can do it.

They can’t wait to be a part of it.

[eclecticpjf]

Got a new shipment of bound comics.

“Midnight, Mass” is a couple of Vertigo min-series about a pair of supernatural investigators.

“Tales from the Heart” is semi-autobiographical stories of a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa.

The third is a collection of Batman & Gotham City related stories written by one of my favorite comics writers, John Ostrander (minus a 5-issue run of “Catwoman” I couldn’t find for a reasonable price).

[luchicm04]

Studio Ghibli - All Animated Movies ⋆⁺₊⋆ ☆⋆⁺₊⋆

What's your fav movie?

[hakuwaii]

ghibli lockscreens pt. 2

• please don’t repost

• like or reblog if you save

[shummthechumm]

OPALINE IS FLURRY HEART TRUTHERS!!!! THIS IS HOW WE CAN STILL WIN!!!! (<--in denial)

[kdramasforever97]

Me, when becoming too invested in a kdrama:

[linka-from-captain-planet]

Better times with Briala and Celene

[fictionadventurer]

The essay about the fairy tale influences on the Little House series goes into great detail about all the fairy tale elements of Little House in the Big Woods, and mentions how the series ends with Laura marrying her "Prince Charming", but I'm disappointed that it completely failed to mention:

Mr. Edwards is portrayed as almost a magical helper. His "wildcat from Tennessee" characterization draws from tall tale traditions like Davy Crockett--a distinctly American legendary figure come to help the frontier family. The fact that he's portrayed as literally meeting and collaborating with Santa Claus. The way he shows up several books later as a deus ex machina to help Pa get his homestead--almost like the fairy tale trope of the magical creature getting help from the hero early on and then coming back to help the hero.

The moment with the wolves on Silver Lake that's portrayed like a mystical encounter with some grand and tragic fairy king.

The moment in the fairy ring at the end of Silver Lake, and how these two moments create a fairy tale theme about the tension between the magical and the mundane as the prairie is settled.

Cap Garland having an almost magical sense of direction that helps him to reach the town and get help when the schoolteacher is leading the rest of the students the wrong way.

Almanzo and Cap going on a fairy tale quest to find the potentially-mythical supplies that could save the whole town.

[shheep]

Splinter (and April) vs Goldfin fight my beloved

[tsarisfanfiction]

Destroyed (Tales From The Heart)

Fandom: One Piece Rating: Teen Warnings: Spoilers for chapter 1081 Characters: Polar Tang, Ikkaku, Hakugan, Heart Pirates My Tales muses woke up again briefly; I've been somewhat dodging them since chapter 1081 because quite frankly, how dare Oda, but while I'm aware I am being supremely hopeful here, I now have a theory... no-one burst my little bubble of denial, okay.

Over the past thirteen years, the Polar Tang had experienced a lot.  From her early beginnings, stolen from the marines by three young teenage boys and an equally young mink to instead be a pirate home, through the years of constant hiding from Doflamingo, to the Grand Line, she had been beaten, battered and bruised by the world.

But she had not broken.

The trembles that passed through her weren’t natural.  She could feel the Sea herself, roiling in anger, but the source had not passed into her reach even as the quakes passed through the waves, honing in on the Polar Tang as she tried to pull her crew safely through.  A creation of Vegapunk she might be, complete with the kairoseki hull that fended away sea kings, but she was not indestructible.

Her crew helped her patch up even as they surfaced, as her captain left her for land and her crew scattered to the waves, and by the time she felt Hakugan’s steady hands at her helm she was watertight again; for a thirteen-year-old ship so beloved by her crew, plugging leaks was child’s play.

She had been repaired from far, far worse than a few leaks.

But the quakes came back, kept coming faster and faster and stronger, and her crew could hold their breaths well, but not indefinitely.  Outside, Penguin and Shachi were running out of air, needing to surface despite the fact the other ship hadn’t sunk yet, and the Polar Tang Knew.

Ikkaku was the first one she showed herself to – not the eldest of her nakama, not her boys who had grown up inside her for the last thirteen years, but nakama nonetheless, her beloved engineer who had always worked tirelessly to make sure her engines were in top condition.

“Go,” she said, her voice the echoes of straining engines, and Ikkaku stared at her, eyes filling with tears much like the Tang could feel the water pouring back in at her stern, as far away from the crew still inside her as possible.  The weak point she left on purpose, so she could buy them more time at the front.

“No,” the woman, the Tang’s only female nakama, sobbed.  Not quite a shipwright, but the next closest thing and one who knew what it meant, to be able to see her ship’s spirit, clad in yellow and proud to match her hull as the black words of her captain ran down her spine.

D E A T H

“No,” Ikkaku protested again.  “Polar Tang, you can’t.”

The Polar Tang smiled at her, all teeth.  Law’s grin, worn when things were going wrong but he wouldn’t let it stay that way, because her Captain was a D and that meant something.

“None of us are dying today,” she promised, because they weren’t.  Not Ikkaku, not Hakugan at her helm, or Penguin and Shachi in the water.  Not Bepo, not Law, not anyone.

Not the Polar Tang.

“Go,” she repeated, a strain of her hull echoing the sound behind her.  “This will not kill me, and I will not let it kill you.”

It was a good thing that her boys weren’t on board.  They would never have gone, no matter how much the Tang pushed them, and it would have killed them all.

Ikkaku gave her engines one last caress, and straightened her back.  “Promise,” she said, addressing the physical body of the Tang and not the spirit standing behind her.  “Promise this won’t kill you.”

It was an easy promise to make.  “I swear,” the Polar Tang said.  “On the flag we fly, by the Seas we’ve sailed and have yet to sail, that this won’t kill me.”

Hakugan was the last one, one of her newest nakama but one of the oldest and wisest, for all they kept it locked down beyond the lure of causing havoc wherever he went.  The Polar Tang put her hands on her own helm – not the first time, but the first time her nakama could see her do it – and nudged them to step aside.

They moved easily, their mask hiding their thoughts but his motions natural.  “Nice hat,” he said, and she grinned, because her hat was nice, fluffy and soft and splodged, just like their captain’s, but where his was white, hers was black, and where his was black, hers was the colour of blood.  “The captain told me to take care of you,” they continued after a moment.

“My job is to take care of you,” the Tang countered, and gave them a nudge on his shoulder.  They were corporeal enough that Hakugan was pushed back a touch, away from the controls.  “This will not kill me,” she assured them, the same way she had assured everyone else currently waiting by the airlock.  “And I won’t let it kill you.”

“It will hurt you,” Hakugan pointed out, and she shrugged.

“Not as much as the death of my nakama,” because Hakugan was right; her hull was straining and while it wasn’t yet as painful as the time Mugiwara tore her apart from the inside out yet, it was clear that the monster at the heart of the quakes had his heart set on nothing less than annihilation, and that would hurt.  “Go.”

“I’ll see you later,” Hakugan replied, and left.  It was the least fuss any of the nakama she had spoken to had made, but Hakugan had always been a little different.  The Polar Tang didn’t know all of his secrets, not yet, but she looked forwards to learning them.

That was one reason why they had to live.

She opened the airlock the moment she felt them reach it, ejecting her crew out to the mercy of the Sea.  Law was the only one that couldn’t swim, and he was on land; the others were all as home in the water as they were out.  They would be fine.

And the Polar Tang could break.

She could hear their despair, her nakama crying out as she surrendered to the forces ripping her to shreds.  Even those she’d been able to speak to, sworn oaths of survival for, shrieked, their pain far sharper than the feeling of her hull tearing apart, the feeling of being in more pieces than any ship had any right to be.

She let herself fade back into her body, shattered and broken and sinking, but not without one last, defiant grin crossing her face.

It would take time, and her crew would have to be strong without her for a while, but the monster with his stolen powers had underestimated her, as she’d known he would.  He might have torn her apart and left her to sink, but she was a submarine.  Sinking was what she did, and as she’d been certain would happen, the moment her hull fractured he stopped, naïve in the way of ships even after all his years at sea.

The Polar Tang was broken, but she was not destroyed.  Thirteen years of nakama that called her home and poured love into her constantly were more than a match for something like this.

She would be whole again, and populated by her crew once more.

And when she was, the fool wouldn’t stand a chance.

[frootlooppoptarts]

Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies!— Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again. Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips, And all is dross that is not Helena.

[ofqueensandwitches]

The thing about watching K-dramas, C-dramas, or J-dramas is that when I want more about my favourite ships from fanfictions, 90% of the time that means I have to write the stories myself.

[ofbardsandmen]

blessed be alice for the yearly kaejean content.

[maybe-boys-do-love]

A Tale of a Thousand Stars answers the age-old question: What if Hallmark movies were good?