alliteration | (no subject)

the wip meme

( aka the 'i'm cleaning up this comm and need a place to post my current wips so everything isn't so messy' post ) post excerpts of every unpublished wip you have on your harddrive, gdrive, or wherever it is you keep your writing. as you finish them, come back and put a strikethrough when you're done, and a link if/when you publish it.

fathers, brothers, sons ; one piece ; rating tbd ; sequel to comatose

It's a fairly well-known fact that people who like to keep tabs on other people tend to attract persons with similar interests. Like gossipy old ladies. Though Marco will never, ever admit to coming up with that analogy. As such, someone like the commander of the first division of the Whitebeard Pirates, someone who liked to know what was going on with his crew and their potential rivals, was bound to seek out and find people who could keep him informed. There are few people in the pirate world more informed than Shakky.

This is simultaneously a very good thing and a very, very bad thing. Shakky's older than most of the people sailing on the seas these days, and Marco's known her since he was a rookie way back when. He respects her strength, her ability to gather information, and the tit for tat philosophy she sometimes has when it comes to news. (It's not gossip. It's not.) On the other hand, dealing with her is... interesting. Marco's not very fond of her teasing, though he's grown used to it. And she's been close to Rayleigh for a while which is problematic. Roger's crew were good people, most of them were respectable, but they were still enemies. Some people find it easy to be friends with someone they have to fight against. Marco isn't one of those people.

So it's with a small bit of trepidation that he sends off a message to her, saying that he wants to meet in Sabaody in a week. Luckily, there's plenty of other things he has to worry about that keep him from focussing on that too much. Figuring out which islands in their territory are the best ones to fight for right off the bat is difficult. Luckily, figuring out which divisions to send out isn't too hard. Reordering the crew takes some hard thought and time, though. Fourth division isn't ready for a new commander, and there's no one currently stable enough to handle the position. The ones that work well together need to stay together as they're temporarily reassigned to other divisions. If that weren't hard enough, the second division needs temporary reassignment too.

It's not just because Ace is dead to most of the world, though that's part of it. Once he can stay awake for more than a few minutes at a time, it becomes readily apparent that the guilt and the grief are impairing his judgement more than a little. The grief is expected. Marco finds ways to deal with Ace crying when the realization that Whitebeard is dead sinks in. He can adjust to sleeping on a cot in the same room as him because he needs someone there when he wakes from nightmares of chains and seastone. (In fact, some small part of him he doesn't want to admit is grateful. It helps him keep his mind off his own bad dreams.)

The guilt is the hard thing to deal with. They've all got at least a little bit of survivor's guilt. Marco doesn't have enough fingers and toes to count how many times he's thought Maybe if I had done this things would be different. Ace's guilt is on a whole different level, and he has no idea how to get it through his head that he's not responsible for anything that happened.

Which is why he's incredibly grateful for Jozu. Jozu who, when he noticed Ace unable to stop staring at the space where his arm used to be, flicked Ace on the forehead so hard it left a mark. "Stop it. This was my choice. Don't think that you have such a great impact on the decisions I make, brat," he says, all gruff and fierce. Marco has to smother a laugh behind his hand when Ace actually flushes in embarrassment and shame. After that, it's a little bit easier, but he can tell that the guilt still gnaws at Ace's insides.

It might be less noticeable if it weren't for the fact that he was practically glued to Marco's side as they made preparations to leave for Sabaody. The times he wasn't hanging around like a particularly clingy puppy, he was usually on deck, enjoying the wind and the ocean spray. Everyone noticed the haunted expression he would sometimes get on his face, but no one mentioned it. Impel Down was its own special kind of hell. No one was surprised that it was taking Ace some time to get back to normal.

Marco feels a little strange thinking that it's lucky Vista is going after someone that really needs two divisions to take care of the job. He'd feel much more guilty for skiving off with Ace like this if it weren't for the fact that the rest of the crew has other things they're going to be doing.

debts ; one piece ; pg-13ish

» I. «
Everything hurts. His insides burn in a way he hasn't been burned in years—since long before eating his fruit. And he feels weak. It's a struggle to get even a single word out, but he does. He has to. Apologizing to Luffy, letting everyone know what he's thinking, it's important. It's the most important thing he's ever said.

"Thank you for loving someone like—"

He's in a bathroom. A toothbrush hangs out of his mouth, and a glob of toothpaste foam drips from his mouth onto the floor. Ace feels more awake than he's felt in months. His fire is a happy buzz beneath his skin, like it's never been locked away, never raged once it was released. There's not a mark on him, save for a small bruise on his knee. As he looks around the room, his heart races and his breath comes in short gasps. He knows this place. It's the inn he was staying in two weeks before Banaro. But how can he be here now? Just a second ago he was dy—

He barely makes it to the toilet before he retches.

The day passes in a fog. Ace meets with the man with the information on Blackbeard and the conversation is almost exactly how he remembers it. The little girl at the inn smiles at him. Like last time, it's his father's mark that makes her mother pull her away, not his heritage. It's not until he falls asleep in his dinner (chicken and mushroom alfredo, it's a pain to get out of his hair) and wakes up in the same place that he hesitantly begins to accept the fact that he's alive. He must have dreamed up Impel Down and Marineford.

But, some part of his mind reasons, he's never had that long or vivid a dream during a narcoleptic fit. It made too much sense to be a dream. It felt too real to be a dream. If he closes his eyes, he can still recall with perfect detail the weight of the shackles around his wrists. It's not hard to remember ache in his shoulders when he was tied to the wall in Impel Down. It couldn't have been a dream. But who spontaneously time travels when they're about to die? Is that even possible?

Even though he knows it will wreck him the next day, Ace stays up all night thinking. And when he stops thinking, he starts planning. Strategy has never really been his strong suit—he's too reckless, too much of a hot head, too D to really bother with it much—but being a commander has drilled some into his head whether he likes it or not. So he uses his head for once and he thinks.

He can't let Marineford happen again. (Again? Again.) He can't let Pops die. And, if he's honest with himself, he really, really doesn't want to die. Whether or not it's a good thing he was born, he wants to cling to the life and the family he has. Which means Banaro has to happen differently. It is going to happen. Even knowing what going after Teach brought the first time, Ace's pride won't let him slink home to the Moby Dick. When he thinks about it, he gets that heady feeling and he knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that if he backed away from this fight, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

The way Ace sees it, he's got two options. He wins, or he makes sure he dies before Teach can sell him to the World Government. The second option is one he would really, really like to avoid. The memory of Luffy's cracking voice ("You promised!") is enough to steel his determination. He has to beat Teach. Which means he needs to figure out how to fight without touching him and preferably find some seastone. He's shit with Haki, so that's right out the window. There's a Marine base between the island he's on and Banaro. He should be able to... acquire some seastone if he's incredibly careful. The thought of travelling with it sends shivers down his spine, but he's made up his mind.

As dawn breaks, he hastily scribbles something down, sends it off, then heads for where his skiff is docked. His Log Pose is set. It's time to move on.

Oyaji —
Found Teach. Heading to Banaro Island, will be there XX/XX/XXXX. May need pickup if I have to fight his nakama too. Teach can cancel out Devil Fruit powers like seastone, so non-users and Haki-users might be good.

Sorry I'm such a stubborn ass.

» II. «

Sneaking into a Marine base is somehow harder the second time around. Maybe it's because every little thing reminds him of Marineford. The feel of being surrounded by so many things and people his opposite makes his skin crawl. He expects explosions and screams to start up any minute. Every time he closes his eyes for more than a second, he can see his brothers dying behind his eyelids. It's more than a little distracting.

Which is why he almost burns through his stolen uniform when a quiet voice comes from behind him. "Are you the new guy?"

Ace whirls around and stares at a blonde girl in a uniform like his who is looking at him with sympathy. She looks like she's Luffy's age, maybe a little younger, and his heart aches a little. How many people like this were caught up in Marineford?

"Ah, yeah," he says to her as he rubs the back of his head. "I'm a little lost. I'm looking for the storage room? I'm supposed to grab something..."

Blondie laughs quietly and grabs his hand. "Come on, I'll show you." They take off down a hall and Ace quickly gets lost for real. "You know, most Marine bases have really similar layouts. I'm surprised you got lost."

Oh, god, I'm found out. He swallows down panic and laughs nervously. "I've got an awful sense of direction," he lies through his teeth. "I could probably get lost in an empty room with only one door."

It's probably a good thing that it makes Blondie laugh. He's not sure if that means she believes him or not, but he'll take what he can get. They stop in front of a large door with "STORAGE" on it in big, bold letters. "Here you go. And if you go down that hallway—" she points "You'll get back to where you came from. Good luck!" She waves and leaves.

Ace waits until she turns the corner to open the door and slip inside. Shelves are stacked with office supplies, cleaning supplies, and all the other mundane things that are needed to keep a small Marine base running. In a dark corner, there's a large metal and glass case. Ace makes a beeline towards it. Melting the glass isn't hard, but plucking up the courage to reach inside and grab a pair of seastone cuffs is.

The nausea and weakness hits him like a brick wall. He clenches his teeth and grabs the chain. Which doesn't, actually, help. The damn chains have seastone flecks embedded in them. The fall to the floor with a clatter as Ace lets go of them. He leans heavily against a wall and tries to catch his breath. A dry heave shakes him, but he stays on his feet. Something in the corner of his eye catches his attention and a plan starts forming in his head.

When he leaves with his two new acquisitions, he takes the route that Blondie told him to. He ends up exiting the back of the Marine base, right on the path to his skiff. He's not sure if that's worrying or comforting.

» III. «

He doesn't bother with politeness this time. He just yells Teach's name from the rooftop and watches him whip around. Before the bastard can say anything else, Ace hits him with Hotarubi, Hidaruma. The one with the gun tries to shoot him again. It doesn't work, same as the last time this happened. Apparently no one ever learns that shooting a Logia user doesn't do anything but tick them off.

Once Teach puts out the fire on him, he yells for his crew to get away. They're smart and run. Ace almost smiles. If Pops got his message and had people to spare, they might be even worse off running away. If they were anyone else's nakama, Ace might feel sorry for them. But they're not, so he lets himself delight in the thought of them getting caught by the rest of his crew.

He reaches behind him and grabs the pipe resting on the roof, careful of the chains wrapped around one end of it. It's been years since he's fought with a weapon like this, but it's ingrained into him the same way everything else about his childhood is. "Let's get this over with, Teach. You know why I'm here, I don't care about what you want or what you do."

He doesn't let Teach respond, he just leaps off the roof and towards him. The hit sends him flying back through the front of the building he was standing by. Ace burns the walls of it so he can see the shock on Teach's face when he realizes he's just been hit with seastone. A cold, cruel smile crosses Ace's face, hard and jagged around the edges. He hasn't felt rage like this since the Gray Terminal burned. Since the Tenryuubito and Sabo. Maybe it's childish of him, but he revels in it.

While he knows, intellectually, that he can just wrap the chain around Teach, light him on fire and be done with it, he doesn't. The sound of blood rushing in his ears and the ever rising swell of rage makes him hit Teach with the pipe again. He goes for it a third time and gets the weapon wrenched out of his hands for his trouble. He scrambles backwards and positions his hands so he can let Juujika rip.

As Teach writhes on the ground, Ace makes a dash for where the pipe lays hundreds of meters away. Before he gets there, he feels Teach's darkness grab him and a fist smashes into his gut, followed quickly by a knee to the face. His nose and right cheekbone fracture with a loud noise. He screams out Enjoumou as he moves back. It's not long before Teach is after him.

And so the fight continues. It's a closer fight than it was the first time around, but Ace still takes hit after hit as he slowly moves back towards the seastone chain around his pipe. When his vision blurs after his head hits a metal post, part of him wonders if it would've been a better idea to run back to his crew before fighting this fight. Then he sees Teach, face and hands covered in blood, throw his head back and laugh. The rage swells up within him again.

It's a well-timed Hiken that finally lets him make the last of the mad dash to what he needs to end this. He grabs the metal and unwinds the chain as he feels himself being pulled back towards Teach. As quick as he can, he takes the seastone-imbedded chain off and wraps the ends around his hands. The weakness almost makes him black out and the hollow where his fire should be makes him feel like panicking. But then he's right next to Teach and he can reach out and— Blackbeard makes an odd gurgling noise as Ace chokes the life out of him. He holds on for an extra minute after his body goes limp, just to make sure it took.

Then he lets go of the chain as if it was acid burning through his palms. He stumbles back a few steps and the black spots in his vision grow. There's a dull thud as his body hits the ground. The last thing he sees before he loses consciousness is a bird with feathers an odd shade of blue flying towards him.

» i.

Elsewhere, a young man wakes with a gasp and a small, strangled noise. None of his nakama wake, and he's grateful for that. He's not sure how he would explain cold sweats, shaking hands, and an uneasy feeling in his gut. He slips out of the large room the crew has taken to crashing in, and heads for the sea. He nestles himself within an outcropping of rocks, a place where no one can easily find him, and watches the waves.

It's only after he's been there a while that he lets himself shake. The heels of his hands get pressed against his eyes as he tries to hold back tears. No matter how hard he tries, he can't quite erase the images in his head of his only older brother on the ground in front of him. Dead. Some part of him knows what led up to that happening, the same way he knows he's going to the pirate king one day. He couldn't explain it if he wanted to, and he's not sure he would. But he makes a decision then, as he breathes in a shuddering breath.

If he gets separated from his crew again (for the first time) they're going to wait. They're going to get stronger before they take the world by storm. He's not sure he could handle what would happen if they didn't go that.

» IV. «

The gentle sound of waves lapping at the hull of a ship is what slowly pulls him from consciousness. Tiredly, he opens his eyes. For a moment, he can't do anything other than stare at the ceiling confusedly. He knows that scorch mark. He knows it like he knows the freckles on his knuckles. He's the one that put it there. Which means he's in the infirmary aboard the Moby Dick. Pops got his message.

He rolls over onto his side and groans. He hasn't been this sore since before he ate his fruit all those years ago. (No, he's felt like that much more recently, his mind whispers.) A small chuckle makes him crane his neck to look over at the door. Marco leans against the doorjamb and smiles at him, fondly exasperated. "You're awake."

Ace smiles, ignores the fact that most of his face is hidden and squished into his pillow. "Unfortunately, yes," he replies. The scratchiness of his throat makes him wince. Carefully, he pushes himself up into a sitting position and he's unable to keep the grimace off his face completely. Marco grabs him a glass of water and perches on the edge of the bed. "Is Teach—is it over?"

"He's dead. It's over," Marco says. He smiles. "You did good, kid."

A small laugh bubbles up out of Ace. It's over. It's done. He can come home now, Thatch can rest— Thatch. He swallows hard, squeezing his eyes shut. Behind his lids, images of Thatch's limp, blood-covered body sprawled out across the deck stare back at him. A sound, not quite a whimper, claws at the back of his throat. The anger that's been driving him these past few months is gone. All that's left is tiredness, grief, and a small amount of relief.

Warm arms encircle him and he lets himself sag into Marco's embrace. "It's okay, it's over," he murmurs as he strokes Ace's hair. "You're okay." Tears come even though he doesn't really want them too. He spends the next few minutes crying into his brother's shoulder, coming down from the tension high of the past god-knows-how long. Marco doesn't seem to mind the growing damp spot on his jacket. He just holds Ace for as long as he needs it.

When the trembling stops more or less, and Ace is reduced to a mess of post-crying jag headache and sniffles, Marco starts talking. "Iago and Hepzibah are cooking up a storm. Everyone's thrilled to have you back, Oyaji especially. The ships have been in an uproar since we got that letter. You've really been missed."

Ace smiles as he finally pulls back from Marco's embrace. "I'm really, really glad to be back." He scrubs at his face and laughs quietly. "Aaah, you have no idea how good it is to be back on this ship."

A snort and a hair ruffle is his reply. Marco stands and moves to leave. "Doc should be here in a few to check up on you. You took quite a beating." He pauses by the door and smiles over his shoulder. "Welcome home, Ace."

He flops back into the pillows as a grin spreads across his face. "I'm home."

some far-off star ; one piece ; r

He's lived in the motel for as long as he can remember. Garp is technically his legal guardian, but he sees him maybe five times a year if he's (un)lucky. When he asks Dadan about it, she shrugs, tells him to ask his Gramps. Garp tells him that Army bases are no place for a kid. Ace wonders if living in a run-down room by himself is that much better than wherever General Gramps goes. Especially since he thinks he saw Dadan and her guys buying or selling some stuff to some guys a few Mondays back. But he has food, even if its kind of bad, and they're out on the edge of town so he's got lots of fields and forest preserve to run around in. If he's really lucky and the rabbit ears word, he can even get PBS on Saturday mornings.

When he's six, he starts school. His very first day of first grade he meets a quiet kid named Sabo. The blondie doesn't seem like much, but when some bigger kids shove Ace into the wood chips, Sabo yells at them and kicks their shins. They shove Sabo too, so Ace breaks a boy's nose like Gramps taught him how. In the principal's office later he catches snatches of conversation. They say it's to be expected that he's so violent, given who his father was. No child of that man could be anything good. Anger and desperation begin to fester in his heart, then.

The summer before fifth grade, he's ten and hitting a growth spurt. Gramps visits three times that summer, which is weird. The third time he comes he brings with him a snot-nosed brat who talks to much, laughs too loud, and has a grin that's three times too big for his face. His name's Luffy, and he's going to be living with Ace from now on. In his motel room. That only has one bed, one bathroom, a mini-fridge, and a TV that doesn't work half the time. Idly, Ace wonders if he was cursed at birth.

Sabo bikes over almost every day that summer and they play out in the forest. Luffy tags along and he slowly becomes a little less annoying. Keeping track of his stupid hat becomes more annoying than the kid himself. But apparently it was a hand-me-down from his hero, a guy named Shanks who saves his life not too long before Gramps relocated his actual grandson to Dadan's. Luffy wants to be just like Shanks when he grows up. Ace thinks a guy named Shanks can really only have one occupation, and it's not on Gramps would approve of. He always knew he wasn't going into the Army like Gramps wanted him too, but there's something... freeing about the sudden idea of doing something criminal like Dadan, like Shanks, like his father.

On the morning of Luffy's first day of second grade, there's a knock on the motel room door. Dadan never checks up on them in the mornings, and Gramps never knocks, so Ace is worried. Luffy opens the door like an idiot and— "Shanks! Benn!" He screeches and laughs as a red-haired man picks him up and whirls him around. The other man leans in the doorway and lights up, looking amused all the while. Once Luffy's feet are on the floor, he points. "That's Ace. He's my big brother." When did that happen?

marching on (aka oh god what is this writing style what am i even doing) ; chronicles of narnia/silmarillion crossover ; rating tbd

It was maybe a little strange that Susan found her calling in writing children's stories filled with things she herself rejected. But, then again, her life had never been anything but strange if she was honest with herself. (She tries to be, but she does not always succeed at it.) There was enough money made off of her books for her to move away from the city to a small cottage on the seashore. A place to write in peace is how she explained it to her acquaintances who asked. It was certainly a place to write, but she was unsure she would ever find peace again.

A habit quickly formed once her kitchen was unpacked. In the mornings, she would make herself a cup of strong, hot tea, and walk out on the beach to watch the sun rise over the sea. Some part of her always wanted to fling herself into the waves in the mornings. She felt drawn to it in a way that she had never felt drawn to it before. Not even in Narnia. She remembered river spirits and merpeople. Perhaps, she thought fleetingly, the myths of the sirens were true and she heard some kind of strange call. Except, she reasoned, such things did not exist even in Narnia. And besides, there was no song.

Not until four weeks after she moved, at least. She was surprised by the song that came with the dawn. It was sung without accompaniment by the most beautiful voice she had ever heard. The song itself was mournful and seemed to rise and fall with the waves. Susan got to her feet, tea forgotten, and searched for the voice. It wasn't too hard to find. He—for he was a he, even though he was fairer than any woman Susan had ever seen—was sitting on a rock a little ways from the edge of her property. He also didn't seem to notice her at all.

So she sat in the sand, and she listened. He sang until the sun was high in the sky and Susan's stomach was beginning to ache with hunger. When he stopped, he sat still for a moment, head bent. Then he spoke and his voice was rough with emotion. "Why do you weep, child?"

Susan touched her face and was surprised when her fingertips come away wet. She hadn't realized she was crying. Instead of answering his question, (she wasn't sure she could, in truth) she asked one of her own. "What is it about? The song, I mean. It was beautiful." A beat, and then she added idly and quietly: "And terrible."

"That is an apt description," he said with a small, bitter laugh. "It is about mistakes and bereavement." He paused and turned to look at her then. There was a strange light in his eyes that was captivating, though the weight of his stare was unnerving. "Do you know of it, child?"

"Susan," she said, "And yes. I believe I do." She looked down at her hands resting in her lap and the bitter taste of regret rose in the back of her throat. "Yes, I do know of it."

There was a long stretch of silence. She felt tear tracks drying on her face and lost herself to her thoughts for a time. It was his voice that broke through the fog around her. "Makalaurë," he said.

"I beg your pardon?"

He smiled slightly. "My name is Makalaurë, Susan. I am sorry for disturbing your morning ritual."

'that one rule 63!jim fic' ; star trek xi ; rating tbd

An equipment malfunction was responsible for her name. They had thought she was going to be a boy. Her parents had talked, as her father went to his death, about what to name their son who was on his way. Let's name him after your dad, her father had said. Let's call him Jim.

(Nobody called Grandpa Jim anything but Jim even though his name was really James. She was supposed to be the same way.)

Her mother was surprised and grieving when she was told she had a daughter. She was tired in more ways than one when she looked through a file of Terran baby names. So really, she can be excused for not realizing the J in her daughter's name was actually supposed to be pronounced like an H until it was too late. Jimena Tracy Kirk was on her daughter's birth certificate. And Winona refused to pronounce her name any way other than Jim-eena.

Not that she used the first name much in those first years. Sam had nicknamed his sister "Mena" fairly quickly and, despite Winona's desire for her second child to be named what her father wanted her to be named, it stuck. Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it. It certainly made the full-name treatment have more of an impact.