#sircrocodillian

[kaizoku-dan]

DRACULE MIHAWK && SIR CROCODILE

independent. priv. selective.

@drculeeyed && @sircrocodillian

penned by The Reverend, or Rev. 35+. 25+ engagement only. please read rules in pinned.

[lovecreature]

She had felt the crown break, she was there even before the pieces had fallen onto the ground, and for a moment she still knew: she knew she had been destroying the city and its inhabitants, she knew the man with the scar had just stopped her from attacking more, she knew the soldiers with the Empire's colors were willing partecipant in the Esper experiment, and that Kefka was waiting for her to come home to tell her who else to kill. She knew, and so, instead of powering machines, she turned to the soldiers, lifted her hands, and felt the other power, the scary one, rise: a blinding light and deafening noise, and suddenly the soldiers were falling to pieces, screaming as they died, and with them the ground, the trees, even the air felt dead. But it ended there: the buildings and the remaining citizens were spared, as was her savior, and Terra's last thought was that she should have warned them not to step on the now poisoned ground, before darkness engulfed her and she passed out, her memories locked behind a door.

She opened her eyes to see an unfamiliar ceiling and sat up, startled, vaguely aware her wrists were supposed to be cuffed; looking down to see them free, she turned to the presence she felt, a big scary-looking man. Not Kefka.

"Where... where am I? Who are you?"

@sircrocodillian

[onepiecc]

@sircrocodillian

Impel Down was a prison with men like the ones buried beneath the sea in this place belonged in chains, and the Rear Admiral had long ago accepted that there were monsters in the world that could not be reasoned with. Pirates, murderers were simply men who laughed while cities burned. The place smelled of saltwater, rust, old blood and mildew as it clung to every inch of the great underwater fortress. The prison sweated from the walls and even the guards carried the scent home with them after their shifts, and Leigh could always tell when one of his subordinates had spent too long down in the lower levels. His zoan fruit made him extra sensitive to sound and smell sometimes, but tonight was worse as he was going deeper into the levels. The moment the elevator cage reached the fourth level, the copper stink of fresh blood hit him hard enough to stop him in his tracks.

The guards around him stiffened as one started to speak, “Rear Admiral Ashworth,” but the man lifted a hand, silencing him. The corridor ahead was too quiet and Impel Down was never silent. Somewhere there was always screaming, laughter, metal clanging against metal, the distant groan of the sea pressing against the walls, but this stretch of corridor had gone dead. The only sound was the slow drip and his crimson eyes noticed the blood pattering from the ceiling to the stone floor below. Leigh stepped forward as his boots left wet prints, but the first body lay only a few yards down the corridor. A young guard easily in his early twenties and the man had been thrown so hard into the wall that his body had folded around the cracked stone. One arm bent at an angle no arm should and his hat had fallen halfway down the hall, soaked in blood. Another guard sat slumped beside the bars farther down, staring blankly upward with glassy eyes. There was a deep slash across his chest, wide enough that Leigh could see the blood staining through the black uniform. The third was still alive for now as they were on their knees in the center of the corridor, both hands pressed desperately against their throat. Blood spilled through the guard’s fingers in thick, pulsing streams as each breath came out as a bubbling choke.

The other guards recoiled when they saw the one with his throat ripped out as somebody gagged. Leigh crossed the distance in a few quick strides and crouched in front of the wounded man. The guard’s eyes snapped to his face, “R-Rear…” the man tried to speak, but his voice dissolved into blood. The Rear Admiral placed one hand against the side of the guard’s face as his gloved palm was large enough to nearly cover it entirely.m “You fought, you did your duty. Now rest easy as I will take care of the rest.” Leigh said quietly. The guard trembled as the panic left the man’s eyes before finally the light went out of them.

The tall man remained still beside the body for a few seconds as the corridor behind him had gone utterly silent and even the guards who had accompanied him no longer spoke. Standing up Leigh rolled his shoulders once as the muscles in his back tightened. The admiral’s body expanded with a sickening crack of bone and the guards behind him staggered backward as his spine lengthened and his shoulders broadened, muscles tearing through the sleeves of his coat. Black fur spread over his arms and upper chest in dark patches and his fingers stretched into long, hooked talons sharp enough to split stone. A pair of vast wings erupted from his arms as the membrane scraped against the walls and ceiling, leaving deep gouges in the stone as they unfurled. His face lengthened slightly, fangs pushing down past his lower lip. Pointed ears rose through his dark hair, the red streak falling across one narrowed eye. The younger guards stared at him in mute horror as a couple of them had fallen to the ground in terror, shaking as the hybrid creature suddenly took off down the corridor. 

Leigh was chasing down the former warlord, known as Crocodile as it was reported that he started slaughtering the guards and they needed backup quickly. Rear Admiral Ashworth crossed the distance in an instant and the floor of the corridor exploded beneath his feet. Using his heightened senses it did not take long for him to be able to locate the fugitive and the marine’s clawed hand closed around his throat. He slammed the pirate into the ground and the impact shattered the stone. Cracks spiderwebbed across the corridor as the pirate was driven halfway into the wall itself while dust and chunks of rock rained down around them. The marine was towering over him in his hybrid zoan form while Crocodile was pinned by the throat.

Talons buried themselves in prison uniform as Leigh lifted the other male from the ground and his face remained expressionless. “You ripped a man’s throat out,” he said. The admiral slammed the prisoner face-first into the floor as the stone exploded beneath the impact leaving behind a crater opened in the center of the corridor. The marine crouched slowly, his wings folding around him as in the dim light, with the shadows cast over his face and the blood drying across his claws, he looked less like a man and more like a beast. “You are alive, because killing you here would make too much paperwork,” Leigh said quietly.

[smcker]

@sircrocodillian

He spat blood to the ground at his side. He was bruised and beaten, seastone cuffs around his wrists, while Crocodile's lackey shepherded him forward.

This mission was given to him because of his supposed heroic act of taking down the then-Warlord the first time. No matter the fact it was absolute bullshit and nowhere near did that credit belong to him, he had jumped on the opportunity to do it himself this time. With the man as an escaped convict and the whole warlord system dismantled, there would be no bureaucracy getting in his way.

It hadn't quite been his plan to end up in front of him this soon, nor in this condition, but— he did know where he was now. "Crocodile," his voice was full of venom, his contempt of the man clear as day.

[waxgentleman]

" ʸᶦᵖᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉᵉ "

[heavenlyhenchmanx]

continue'd🩷 with @sircrocodillian!

"Silly question don't you think?" was Doflamingo's response to that particular question.

Crocodile should know as a former inmate of the Eternal Hell of Impel Down himself that information didn't simply stop just because he had been imprisoned to "quiet time in the dark". It would be rather silly if it had, and so, he moved on.

"Very interesting of you to reach out a hand to Hawk Eyes as well, but you've always been a man with a plan, haven't you, Crocodile? And then another and another, always thinking head, always making sure you can bounce back from things. Perhaps I'll stop by--have a chat with your precious Yonko. I'd like to say hi to Hawk Eyes as well."

What a farce of a situation that was, but Buggy was a lucky clown, certainly, to get so far.

On that final note, a small laugh resulted, but none of this was outright lies. There was an opportunity there.

[thedyingbusiness]

A brick crashes through his window! Wrapped around it is a thick sheet of parchment. Unrolled, it reads:

GET YOUR OWN MAN

("Man" has been hastily edited to read "MAIN BOSS")

GET YOUR OWN MAIN BOSS

& @sircrocodillian

"Boss, this came through your window last night," he looks up from his paper and his fresh smoothie when Iggy places a brick on his table.

Just seeing it with the parchment wrapped around it made him burst out in laughter, almost tipping back off his chair from the strength of it, ""Huehuehuehue! Oh man! I haven't gotten one of these in a while! I wonder who it's from," giggling now, giddy as a schoolgirl receiving a love letter from a crush, he unwrapped the note.

"Awh," he said as he read the parchment, "Now I wonder who this could be from, huehuehue," he folded the paper back up, and went back to his smoothie, "Don't worry Tessie, I don't want your boss. I want your man."

[strawhatking]

"Hey, kid." came a familiar voice behind Luffy as Crocodile appeared from the dock. Seemingly just coming in from a ship that just docked that morning, he appeared in Foosha just as quickly as he would leave, but he knew today was a special day. "Heard today might be special for ya."

"Try not to eat these all in one bite, eh?" He tutted as he set a considerably large bag down on the ground, opening it just enough that he could reach inside. The Warlord rummaged around inside of it, just for a bit, before he pulled out several boxes of different treats and snacks from a variety of different countries.

He ruffled around a bit more inside of the bag before he gave a slight grunt, finding an addition gift. Out of the bag slipped a pocket knife. Small in his giant palm, but probably too large for a kid. It didn't matter. Covered in green leather, probably of the bananawani variety, and ornamented in gold furnishings, it probably was worth quite a pretty set of berri.

"Don't let anyone know you have this, alright? Use it however you want. Fight. Defend yourself. Use it to cut meat. Whatever. If you ever find yourself needing to get out of here? Sell it. It's worth quite a bit and it'll help get you out of a jam."

He flicked the knife by the handle and gestured it out towards Luffy.

"Happy birthday."

"Eh?" The young boy tips his head to the side as he hears the voice, face lighting up with a smile at the sight of Crocodile. It's lonely in Foosha Village without him, without Shanks and the Red Hair Pirates, Makino's lovely but can't entertain him at all hours and though he does his best to remain in good spirits the loneliness does creep in when its quiet. He fills the space of course with his noise, laughter and shouting, bolshy words and cheeky giggles, but that doesn't mean he's always successful. Still, it's hardly something to dwell on because Crocodile's here!

"You remembered!!" he cheers as he dives closer, half his body already in the bag once the man's finished with it as he searches within it for the treasure, finding the variety of snacks from different nations. They all make his mouth water with the appetizing flavours, the uniqueness of each item. He can't wait to try them all! There are already two boxes in hand when the warning about eating comes and he emerges from the bag with an unrepentant grin, tearing packaging open with his teeth.

"I'll try not to but you bring the best snacks!!" He punctuates his sentence by emptying the open packet into his gullet, cheeks puffing up like a hamster as his mouth is filled with snacks, a citrus-y flavour filling his mouth until he winces from the sharpness of it and swallows them all down. He's considering the second one, when his attention is called to again, and Crocodile brandishes another present. His brow furrows, wondering why he shouldn't tell anyone, head tipping to the side, only to find his eyes going as wide as saucers when he's offered a knife. A real knife. A proper weapon for a proper pirate.

"Not even Makino? She might find it..." he thinks about the times she's emptied his pockets when collecting his clothes for washing and chided him gently for sweets in the pockets or bits of food he's hidden for snacks later. He doesn't think she'd take it if he said it was a present from Crocodile, and he'd certainly find it if she tried. He had a way of getting into places he shouldn't.

Careful fingers curl around the hilt reverantly and he feels the coolness of the leather against his palm. He marvels at it for a time before leaping closer to Crocodile with no sense of self-preservation or danger to other's as he throws arms around a leg, still brandishing the knife and hugs tightly. It's a narrow miss him skewering Crocodile's trousers in the process.

"You're the best ever! Promise you'll stay for dinner? We have cake!" As he pulls away there's already the stretch of a young hand upwards to curl around the hook and guide towards Party Bar where birthday celebrations are underway.

The knife is kept quiet, a secret between father and son, until some time later a den den mushi rings and a "You gave him a KNIFE? He stabbed HIMSELF with it!" leaves the speaker from a certain red-haired captain after leaving Luffy with Hongo to get stitched up. There had been no mistaking the bananawani leather and gold furnishing Shanks had seen when he pried it from the boy's fingers, receiving a bite for the trouble from an irate Luffy who wanted his knife back.