It was a good day in theory; the sun was sitting lazily on the horizon, the breeze was just enough to offset the warmth of early autumn. In practice though the young woman’s day had been anything but good. Her coffee order had been made incorrectly, she spilled said bitter coffee all over her notes and to top it all off her head-phones had died mid writing session. Motivation for the project now lost, Elyse decided to indulge in some whimsy seeing she was at the local park. Hoping a change in task would help her regain the momentum needed to meet her deadline.
Packing her journal and earbuds into her messenger bag the young woman would vacate the bench she had been sitting on to make her way towards the empty swing set. Not one to typically care if people looked at her funny, the blonde took a cursory glance to see if there may be anyone about that would protest her being on the playground. Just to be safe. The last thing she wanted was some disgruntled parent accusing her of nefarious things when she just wanted to swing. Who decided that something like swinging was something one aged out of anyway?
Settling onto the rubber seat Elyse would grip the chain that tethered her to the self-propelled pendulum. Stepping back she would allow herself the momentum to start her off, kicking her legs to further propel her into the air until she had achieved the speed and height that she wanted to obtain. As she soared she allowed her mind to wander. Mundane things like items she needed to pick up from the market, an appointment that she had forgotten to reschedule were among other random things that filtered through. Making way for what she hoped was the idea that would help her write the article her editor wanted.
Some strange things had been happening around town that had peaked not only Elyse’s interest, but that of the local townspeople. Animal attacks were on the rise, something that hadn’t been a problem in the last fifty or so years due to the research she had started. Animal attacks were easily explainable though, campers were notorious for not properly securing their campsites, and it wasn’t the first time the neighborhood crazy had tried to domestic a raccoon. The uptick could have been due to a sudden change in weather, or a kink in the predators food supply. The longer she thought on it the more reasons Elyse could justify that everything was fine and there was nothing more behind the attacks. Intuitively, she couldn’t help but feel that there was more to it than that. She was sure of it; she just had to prove it..
As she mulled through this information the swing steadily began to slow. No longer working to stay in motion the young woman’s feet would come into contact with the sand below her causing her a moment of panic as she gripped tighter to the chain to stop herself from lurching forward. Once her balance was regained, she would glance about in hopes that her near face plant hadn’t been observed. How embarrassing that would be if it had been.
Bit about Lorcan's backstory and how he got to meet the straw hats. Lorcan is my one piece OC who I made for self insert purposes, though he's not very much a self insert considering I'm much different from him irl
As a child, Lorcan grew up in a rural, peaceful village on an island in north blue. His life was as ordinary as they come, until pirates ransacked the village. However, they didn't just rob the place but took pleasure in killing every person there as well. He was told to hide but he still saw a the people he had grown up with and loved getting killed before his eyes.
Despaired and angry, Lorcan took a knife that had fallen near his hiding spot and charged at the captain of the pirates. Of course, he had no chance against him and the man lifted Lorcan by his hair with a laugh. The pain made the boy cry out and let go of the knife to scratch at the hand holding him up instead.
"Aren't you a funny little urchin?" - The pirate captain snarled and threw Lorcan to the floor. - "Take that thing with us. I think we could use some entertainment on the ship."
He was made to clean most everything, only eating the scraps that would otherwise have been thrown away overboard by the crew. They pushed and hit him when they felt like it, laughing at his pain. Lorcan wanted to try and leave somehow but he didn't know how. He was never let off the ship, tied to a pole below deck whenever the pirates found another place to dock on and with how little they let him eat and the wounds he got every day, he was much too weak to try and become stronger.
That was, until one of the crew was sloppy enough to forget a knife relatively close to where Lorcan was bound up. He sawed and sawed at the thick rope, nervous to the point he felt nauseous. If he didn't manage to escape and they found out what he had been trying to do, who knows what they would do to him? The screams and sounds of fighting he could hear muffled by the wooden walls of the ship told Lorcan that they were at a smaller island with a little village again. They only ever took on innocent, weak people to kill and take advantage of.
The short elation he felt when he finally managed to cut the rope died when he noticed how eerily quiet it had gotten. Did they already finish them all off? Was he too late and they would come back any minute now? Lorcan had planned to escape by using the chaos as a distraction but now it seemed that he was doomed.
A thud made him flinch before more of the same sound followed in even intervals, coming closer and making the wood above him creak. Footsteps. He was almost too scared to notice that the were unfamiliar.
The hatch opened and an adult made their way below deck but it wasn't any of the crew that held him captive. No, it was a stranger.
A woman with a dark brown skintone that made Lorcan think she looked warm. Especially with the gold ornaments in her braided hair and earrings reflecting the sun from behind her. Despite her cold, expressionless eyes, Lorcan felt way less on edge than he thought he should and it confused him to no end.
She was a bounty hunter, he would later find out. After a brief exchange, she had decided to take Lorcan with her - under her wing. It was needed now more than ever, since the pirates had taken him with them to the grand line and it was no secret that danger lurked around every corner there.
"If you don't learn, you die", she told him when he complained about being too tired to continue training, "or you will be trampled on for other's enjoyment. It's your choice."
No matter his first thoughts on her, she was anything but warm. The kindest thing she did was show him how to survive and that was all their relationship amounted to as well. When Lorcan asked her what he should call her, he thought he imagined her face twitch for once. In displeasure.
"I have no name for you."
While he was sure she did have a name, she would never tell him and likewise never called him by his even after he told her multiple times. It was her way to keep him at arms length he felt like.
Within two years, he had learned how to move about so not even the flighty birds could notice him. Lorcan was nimble and fast, climbing and jumping and running with such speed all while being ready to swing his blades at any point. Though he never managed to defeat his nameless teacher, Lorcan could subdue most anyone else he came across if need be. When she brought him along for a hunt, she told him to try and get the job done without her interference and once he successfully defeated the target, she merely nodded at him.
That was the last day he saw her. The feeling of loss that Lorcan thought he should have felt trapped under water. She had come into his life, given him knowledge and skills and left as soon as she thought that Lorcan could fend for himself well enough. It didn't really surprise him all that much if he was honest with himself and while his life would surely be different now, he didn't really care.
Somewhere along those two years, emotions had become too exhausting to keep up with. Losing himself in the training, the physical exertion and pain, the ambition and the effort to survive was more than enough. They had never talked much and Lorcan didn't get to talk to strangers either, since he was so focused on becoming better, becoming stronger, faster, more skilled. At some point, he didn't really know anymore how to talk to other people. His sentences were short and to the point and it made him uncomfortable when anyone demanded he hold a real conversation with them.
What was real anyway, he would question himself. Perhaps those talks people had over the weather, about other people who did this and that or something about what they felt. But what did Lorcan even feel that he could talk about? It was just bothersome and uncomfortable, as he didn't feel the need or want to explain who he was to strangers.
Sometimes, when he felt alone, Lorcan would sit on the rooftops of a village to listen to the people inside talk to each other. He could also go into the bar and listen to people there - even watch them - but it was often so loud and rowdy in there and then there were people who tried to talk to him and Lorcan wanted nothing more than to disappear into dust.
It was more than enough to fight, bring in bounties and survive on that. He didn't need anything else, he would tell himself.
People were strange creatures. Full of lies, greed and violence. Not that Lorcan could say much about the latter since he was a fighter himself, yet he could confidently say that he had no need to lie and there wasn't much he wanted either. He couldn't understand why some wanted to take advantage of those weaker than them, like the pirates who destroyed his village in his youth and took him with them, or hurt others for pleasure.
Seeing those without power get hurt made an emotion rise within him that for once, made him unable to think clearly. It was rage.
Even if his expression didn't change much, his jaw clenched and his eyes hardened. There was no way he would let those who abused their strength and power go unscathed and after some time going around from island to island, people began to talk about him. They recognized Lorcan but he didn't much care for it either way. Nobody really knew him and speculations and rumors would always circulate no matter what you did.
He didn't have anyone whose opinion he cared about anyway. There was nobody he truly needed.
That was, until he met a pirate crew with a captain who wore a straw hat and had a smile so big that it made Lorcan stare wide eyed the first time he saw it. It was so genuine and pure. Unfiltered. Unlike most people he had seen throughout his life, Monkey D. Luffy was a man who wasted no energy on complicated conversations, plans or emotions. If he was happy, he laughed. If he was angry, he fought and if he was sad, he cried. It felt like looking into a mirror, except that it showed you not yourself but the opposite of what you are.
Lorcan was intruiged but that was it. He didn't search the captain or his crew out - he wouldn't know what to say anyway - and he didn't stalk them either. While they were on the same island, he saw them here and there, until the strawhat pirates got into a fight that escalated.
Lorcan found himself helping the citizens so they wouldn't be crushed by destroyed buildings or get hurt in the crossfire of the fight. Somehow, despite the fact they were fighting, some of the Strawhats noticed this, including Luffy. In the end, Lorcan ended up fighting side by side with the captain to defeat a corrupt Marine admiral who didn't care for the safety of the regular people if it meant he could get a trip from being rich and powerful. Something he had seen enough times by then and hated just as much as he did the first time he came across such a person.
After the fight, Luffy asked Lorcan to join the crew. He had already been calling him a friend out of nowhere and Lorcan didn't correct him. For a while, he had stared at the ship and Luffy and his crew and then, without a word, he left.
He ran so quickly that it took the crew a moment to realise that he had disappeared and the confused yelling could be heard deep into the forest that Lorcan had hid himself into.
It wasn't that he didn't want to join them, it was just that he didn't know what he wanted. The gazes of everyone had gotten to much and the pressure made his whole body itch to get out of there as soon as possible. So he did.
Now, he watched them on deck, wondering what he should do. For some reason, he felt like he would regret it if he were to let them leave without him. No matter how anxious the idea made him, Lorcan couldn't fight the feeling that he should be on that ship with that pirate crew.
Those pirates that helped the weak ones as well. Who cared when there was someone who hurt others for no reason. Who fought by his side and showed interest in him, without urging him to act differently just to please them.
What if he ended up disliking them or the other way around? Or worse, what if he liked them?
No matter what, Lorcan got onto the ship early the next morning despite his fears and conflicting thoughts. Luffy yelled out in joy when he saw him and flung himself over to hug Lorcan with all his might.
At least until the next island, he told himself and if he didn't feel anymore sure than he did now by then, then Lorcan would leave again. This time, he wasn't chained anywhere. He could be where he wanted. With whom he wanted.
