#; keepsake

[blxdc-a]

LOOK AT WHAT @cagcd BLESSED ME WITH--

[blxdc]

New icon and mobile header thanks to @cagcd cuz Iris is the BEST

[silentcigarette]

LAW’S BIRTHDAY

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Traveling as they were, the scale of celebration was limited for any occasion.

If they happened upon a local holiday or event it was by chance, and the pirate’s stay was often cut short by persecution. Yet as the leaves begin to warm in hue, Rocinante knew that the date was steadily approaching for an important date for his charge. It was an embittering day, a sour note and ticking clock in Law’s mind, a scale for how long he’d outlived his Family and Country: a ticking clock counting down how much longer he had left before he too joined them in the earth.

The years that the survivor of genocide lived among the Donquixote Family had taught all of them this. In them, Corazon had decidedly done nothing to celebrate Law’s birthday, nor that of the other children. That is to say, he did not bully them.

Now, as the search for a cure dragged on, Rocinante had all but dropped the cold persona of Corazon. There was no reason for it, when he had no intention of allowing Law to return to his brother.  That is how he came to be the only person who could celebrate the occasion with Law. He debates how to do so; to make a big boisterous deal of it, dragging the boy around to do activities that may be exceptionally fun? No, no, that would be too much. Knowing how sensitive a day this is, it was more appropriate to start off slow, almost casual.

So rather than draw direct attention to the time of year, Cora-san did everything he could to distract Law from it. Splurging at a restaurant, teaching him how to make a grenade, how to throw it- and how to duck and cover when you make a fumble. Crisp air, the scent of burning wood and leaves, and crack of falling nuts hail in the harvest for the town they’re in, and while not the day of festivities, there was already an abundance of seasonal foods in the market. With Law purchasing dry goods not far away, Cora-san scanned the stalls for something to treat the boy with, and realizes dumbly that he doesn’t know what type of sweets Law likes. He doesn’t know if Law even likes sweet things!

Blundering over himself, Cora-san buys his produce. As the farmer counts out change, the blond chews his cigarette and grasps for ideas, praying for something to hit him. Time was running up before he’d have to meet up with Law, and like hell was he going to come back empty handed!

A wad of bills and coins falls into his palm, and without thought he puts it in his shirt pocket.

In the end Cora-san does not find something he knows Law would like, but he does find a seasonal treat that he himself enjoyed, and hoped the boy would as well. So although he’s disappointed in his lack of a dedicated gift, his face is bright and spirits high for the chance to share one of his own favorites. Law describes Cora’s behavior as suspicious. Laughing it off, the blond digs through his yield and triumphantly shoves a sweetpotato at the boy’s face.

Only Cora-san could get so excited over a root vegetable.

Much to the Donquixote’s pleasure, the day had no major hiccups. Their identities were not revealed, nor did they cause a riot, and nor earn unwanted attention. He got to spoil Law a bit more than was typical, cook a warm meal, and show him the technique for roasting potatoes in the coals of a fire. With the sun setting and the dinner some time passed, Rocinante then demonstrates to Law how to safely retrieve the hot treats.

Cora-san’s strange love affair with fire was, by this point, more than common knowledge for Law, but it’s no less a surprise when, as the blonde fishes the pair of potatoes out with a stick, his well loved sweater combusts, the explosive powder used earlier in the day dusting the fibers and flashing with flame.

Several seconds of screams, panic, and disorder later, Cora was peeling the drenched and burned clothes off his skin, chagrined and separating his buttonup from the singed wool. In the motions, the change from earlier falls out of his pocket. Setting aside the salvaged sweetpotatoes, the glimmering coins reflecting the fire manage to glean Law’s attention again. He collects them from the dirt while Cora redresses, confident that the idiot wasn’t paying attention while he scans each for certain qualities.

Life fills his lungs in a strong breath.

He found one.

Cora-san doesn’t know what it is that causes Law’s pleasant shift in mood. (”you really like it when I get hurt don’t you?” “Idiot, maybe if you did it less I wouldn’t get a laugh from it.”). However he is glad to know that Law is at this moment happy, that he is enjoying the day of his birth, and that there was nothing bittersweet about that.

Sitting down, warmed by the cracking fire, they slowly eat the steaming potatoes, semi-sweet, golden and creamy. The skies are clear, the air clean, insects soft in their singing.

“Happy Birthday, Law. ”

Mouth hidden behind his treat, the boy can’t help a smile.

[silentcigarette-archive]

When your character first meets or interacts with Rocinante in a plotted RP thread, please don’t be offended when he doesn’t ‘speak’ with his voice to them. He doesn’t (always) do it intentionally, and his voice turns off even with people he loves and is very close to.

An important part of how I play Rocinante is his nonverbal communication. It may not be strictly canon for him to be selectively mute, but as my muse I can ‘feel’ when his voice gets stuck in his throat or stomach, refusing to cooperate. Often he will be quiet around strangers. He’s conditioned and trained himself to be a bit more verbal with Marines, but even with them he goes silent.

I’m doing my best to respectfully and accurately depict this, and be consistent- but its not always a consistent thing for him. I really don’t know when he will go silent, be it out of anxiety, overwhelmed emotion, reserving his physical voice for later use, or simply because he feels more comfortable being non-verbal at that very moment.

[grapesandgold-archived]

Lattice in Full Color! Oh look she’s actually smiling

Thanks to @seequret for their stellar work! It was a pleasurable experience commissioning them.

[silentcigarette]

Them: Why don’t we make Donquixote a figure for recruitment? He’s popular isn’t he? Blond and attractive? He’s a great foil for Doflamingo.

Me:

The man can’t smile for the camera.

The millisecond he see’s a camera he’s smacked with blunted or flat affact

[advocateofheaven]

Tumblr ate the ask.

Anonymous Asked: (something along the lines of)  Doesn’t the Reverie occur every 4 years? Doffy was ruling Dressrosa longer than that, right?

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By god

You’re right.

He took the throne at 31, so (could) would have attended 2 (TWO) reveries. Would he risk that though?

Most certainly. With an audience like that, just a few short words from his lips and the Gorosei would have no choice but to execute all the world leaders and their escorts.  

It wouldn’t be worth it for them to try something to permanently shut him up or keephim form entering Mary Geoise- not when Doflamingo was already happy to keep their secret safe on condition of their non-interference and support.  

He also has gone to Marineford plenty of times to meet with the Gorosei and other meetings, which is only a skip away from that place.

Man, he must’ve had a blast rubbing it in, but also a headache keeping his temper in check. Far better to undermine and destroy what the Celestial Dragons hold dear, than stake a single, fruitless mad rush.

Then again, Doflamingo could just stand them all up and decide not to show. That’d be entertaining.

But he’d rather sit in, gather Intel and scope potential clients. Got a business to run, after all, to kingdoms, their disenchanted subjects, and the oppressed.

[advocateofheaven]

As an adult, Doflamingo never truly cares about becoming ‘Pirate King’. That is a destiny that Trebol sells and uses as a rallying flag to inspire the rest of the Donquixote Family. For a time as a child, Doffy does go along with it and begins to feed upon it becoming utterly dependent on Trebol and the other executives and what they promise. The sense of security they bring him, the distant, familiar submission and devotion and worship which is what he deserves.

As he grows, Doflamingo wises up to much of Trebol’s plots and ambitions- is able to understand that the gangster had done a picture perfect job of manipulating his younger self, pushing him into a corner and testing him- giving him the power to brutally kill the cause of his pain and cutting him off from his former family. He wonders if Roci had indeed vanished, or if he’d become another casualty in cutting Doflamingo off from all other sources of support.

Perhaps that is why, when Rocinante does show up again, Doflamingo is so quick and clear in declaring to all his executives a new, uncrossable rule. That anyone who so much as harms a hair on his little brother’s head will die.

Yes, Doflamingo knows he is owned by Trebol and the other executives, that despite knowing this he still needs them, feels greatly attached to them. That he was their shot at getting out of the shit pile of North Blue and making it big.

And he doesn’t care. Because they gave him what he absolutely needed when he needed it, they have always been there for him since then, and they have proven themselves a better Family than much of his own. He’ll be their King so long as they give him the power and means to destroy the world that the Celestial Dragons adore.

Besides. Playing King isn’t such a bad gig.

If any of that changes, and they cross him, he’ll be the one that kills them first.

He’ll forgive mistakes.

He won’t forgive betrayal.