justicereigns | Appointment Post / Voicemail / All That Jazz

Congratulations.

You piss me off by breathing. You hardly need to up the ante, moron.

It's all about upping the ante. [Ace pisses a lot of people off just by breathing. Just by existing. If he let that be all there was, what was the point of living?]

But I think you'd rather protect her. Do you think I'll break her, Taisa?

No. I think you'll do something stupid to upset her, because that's what you do. That's what you do with Adela, that's what you do with your crew, that's what you do with me, and so you're purposely trying to push it past a line you shouldn't, because what?

To prove you're a bad guy? To prove you're not because we wind up liking you anyway? And what does THAT prove?

[He is THIS [ ] close to trying to choke Ace and throw him out the window, but what the fuck good would it do?]

[And it seems that's exactly the reaction Ace is looking for and he doesn't want to give him the satisfaction.]

That you guys are too goodhearted. But don't worry. I'll make sure she has no reason to like me.

[even if ultimately he doesn't do anything to her, he'll make sure she doesn't see anything that she might fall for]

[Breaks a mug from the force of his grip which is the only warning Ace gets before he's rather forcibly grabbed by the throat and shoulders, thrown hard against the fridge, and held there.]

You can't control that!

If you could prevent things like that, you wouldn't keep coming around me and your brother would hate me like a real pirate should! If you could do that, your brother would be dead, and so would I. Stop talking bullshit!

[Slaps.]

[takes the slap because why not]

That doesn't make any goddamn sense. Why would Luffy hate you? Luffy doesn't really hate anyone even if he should.

[he looks away]

But I can't stop coming around you that's for sure. I keep wanting to see you. Even if it's just to piss you off.

[he hates that about himself. That he can't just leave things be]

[His eyes go into a low simmering heat.]

Because I want him to hate me.

And I'm pretty sure he doesn't just to spite me.

[Clenches his jaw and fumes!] If we're going to fight, we better take this outside. The only reason it hasn't woken the puppies is because they're probably with Adela I expect.

[SLOWLY LETS GO.]

[Eyes still on low simmer.]

Tashigi doesn't hate you. She already likes you. And she'll never hate you unless you do something that makes you hate yourself. So don't.

[smirks]

I hope you become best friends [ha! He hopes they like each other so much that Smoker can't even stand it. That would be the ultimate revenge.

When Smoker lets go though, he slumps, not really in the mood for fighting and shrugs]

And bullshit she doesn't even know me.

[THEY ALREADY ARE CLOSER THAN HE EVER WANTED TO BE AND LUFFY CALLED HIM A PIRATE BUDDY AND IT WAS TRAUMATIC AND SMOKER GAVE HIM S'MORES AND WAS FISHING SIDE BY SIDE WITH HIM. TRAUMATIC.]

[In any case Smoker goes down the stairs and outside, deep breath, fresh pair of cigars, gets on his motorcycle. Want to hop on the back? There's no bitch seat, but Ace will survive.]

She knows more than you'd be comfortable with.

....

[slumps to the floor, drawing his legs up to his chin and rests his arms on them]

Her and everyone else.

[it's like he can't even really decide how people will take him anymore. They all already know. How he lived. How he died. He can't become something new. He can't even play at it because they know the truth. And what stung the most is they knew more than he did and there was a part of that he could never find out for himself unless...

unless he went back and saw for himself

He rests his head on folded arms]

Who cares. I'm still going to take her on.

[Picks him up and takes Ace with him.]

You're an idiot. You want to take her on? Make her like you. She's not as hard a sell as I am, and her justice is less unwavering, but it's twice as strong. She told me off for upsetting you. Not because I was too nice. She wants you to have a chance here, and hates your killer maybe even more than I do.

[Holds him on his shoulders, to the motorbike.]

[And drives it out to Fayren.]

You can't make her hate you. You'd have to become blacker and bleaker than you'd ever be happy with. So don't try. You want to prove something? I told you how from the start. Make it so that every marine who winds up here finds an entirely corrupted marine corps who would all defend your right to live in peace and refuse their idea to hurt you.

Your brother is doing that. It drives me insane. My whole G-5 have to act like imbeciles because they like his crew too much. And Tashigi is still fond of the doctor and navigator. And the chef completely converted my men, as if they weren't annoying enough already.

Edited 2016-08-04 07:29 (UTC)

[he doesn't have it in him to move away. Though he does feel more comfortable away from the house. He lays limp on Smoker's shoulder and watches his butt idly and the ground whirring past. This is kind of nostalgic]

I don't want to make her like me. That's not honest.

[and it would require him to be not himself]

I want to fight her. I want to see-- It... [okay he will be honest] if she dislikes me fine but I want to see how much she can take. I want to see what she does. She's interesting. I don't like her anyway but... I don't dislike her either.

[reaches down and grabs Smoker's butt, just to feel it squish]

And I still want to find new ways to annoy you and see how far you'll go.

[he doesn't know. He wants to see their breaking points. But then he really would be like the assholes on the sea. It's not befitting a Whitebeard or the brother of Luffy.]

I don't care about corrupting the Marines. If they can be corrupted their weak. Luffy doesn't count because everyone loves an idiot.

[squish squish]

[Annoyed, and as soon as he gets some place less crowded, he takes Ace down, even though it puts him pretty much in between Smoker's lap and the handlebars. Fuck it, he doesn't care.]

That's not how it works.

You want to see if she's strong enough to withstand your worst? Is that what your crew went through? How much fire do you want everyone to jump through before they're worth being strong enough to love you, huh?

Boo. [leans forward to rest his chin on the dash, resting his fist on it]

My crew are already too strong to get burned. [which is why he belonged there] And Luffy is too stupid. [and Sabo ... well.. that's something else again]

No one else gets that... Or, well I guess maybe Jiijii.

....

[he rests his cheek on his arms, hat shadowing his face]

He was there too ...

[:< Stupid brat.]

[He hates when you're sad.]

Dummy...

[HUGS HARD.]

[Because he's thinking of Whitebeard, and what Whitebeard would do and Tashigi, and her sense of justice and --]

You can't save everyone pain by making them hate you so that they'll be glad you're dead. The only thing you can do is embrace what you have and live it to it's fullest.

[SHOVES BACK HARD AND PRESSES THE COWBOY HAT DOWN ON ACE'S HEAD.] Why do you think I'm doing motorcycles, here?

You're not dead.

[he sounded more bitter than he meant to but fuck it]

You can go back. I don't want to make a life here. There's no life here. There's nothing in this place. Not even a decent ocean. There's hardly anyone I know and no one I care to see and I can't even do anything. I can't see Pops or the rest--

Tch...

I want to go home, Smoker. Who cares about here?

[and he hates that's his only option]

[Takes Ace's hat off, and gently hangs it around his back so he can run a hand through Ace's hair, gently ruffling it back.]

I don't know why you're here, Portgas. I don't know why you came at such a confusing time for you.

But I do know you weren't meant to be here so you could convince people to hate you. And your life wasn't, or shouldn't have ever been about that either.

Other than protecting Luffy, [Probably the first and only time Ace will ever hear Smoker call him that] and seeing him become King, what do you want? To be happy? To be miserable and take it out on anyone close enough to you that you're jealous and can hurt them and can feed that self-loathing more?

[Gently pushes black hair back.]

The man I knew, who died that day smiling because he knew his brother was going to change the whole shape of the world's history, he didn't seem to want anything. He hated himself for his family being in danger, and he hated them for loving him enough to risk anything to be by his side, and he loved them for it, and hated himself because he didn't think he deserved it. But he died happy, or at least satisfied, because he knew he did something no one else could do. Are you going to shrink away from that now? Do something petty and small-time that anyone could do, or are you going to do something here so important, so vital, so big that no one but you could dare to try it?

[Sighs and gets off his bike, swinging his leg over like dismounting from a horse and walks out into the wilds, flicking ash off the end of the cigars.] I grew up in Loguetown, I don't know if anyone ever told you. I was really taken with the stories of Roger. I hated other pirates, because they all claimed they were going to be as big as him, but they only ever did petty bullying shit that he would have kicked their asses for. [Turns back to shoot Ace a sharp look.] Your Pops was livid when you died. He swore up and down that One Piece was real. And it was going to be found. Probably by your brother. He did that for you.

[Reaches out and points with the hand holding his cigars.] If he was here now, what do you think he'd tell you to do? Sit around making an ass of yourself because things didn't turn out well, or stand up and shake up the universe, Portgas?

[don't ruffle his hair. Don't sound like Adela. Don't talk about Luffy or Pops that way. Don't talk about his death being some being important thing that he'd been happy about even if he couldn't remember any of it because he'd never had it]

Fuck you I don't even know that guy.

[it seemed alien to him. Well except the parts at everyone coming for him.]

And Pops wouldn't care. He wouldn't care if I shook up the universe or spent all my time strolling so long as... [Ace looks away, gets off the bike and walks a short distance just to get away from Smoker a little...

As long as he was happy.

But he didn't know how to be happy here. Especially since he didn't want to be here. He could manage it sometimes but all the other times he was angry or jealous or confused or or anything but...]

Pops will find the one piece... [huffs. and Luffy will be Pirate King. It will work out because things for Lu tended to.]

I... I don't know what to do.... [about anything]

Edited 2016-08-04 08:50 (UTC)

[...]

[No, he won't.]

[Whitebeard never wanted to or he could have gone after it twenty years ago.]

[Whitebeard died that day.]

[Whitebeard's vaccuum was still somehow less than Ace's, because Ace was young. Because Ace should have been given more chance. Because that's justice, and what happened, wasn't. It was what Doflamingo described as strength. But it wasn't. It was an abuse of power. It was weakness.]

[And it pisses Smoker off.]

[But it's not worth the fight.]

[Not even a little.]

[So he just grabs Ace with a lasso of smoke around the foot, to try to whip him up and hang him upside down eye level with Smoker.]

Start small.

If you don't know what would make you happy, start with not doing things that make you miserable.

Believe it or not brat? I've been there. And I'll do my best to help you through it.

[damn him...

though Ace weirdly kind of likes it. It's interesting and he's never really seen Smoker from this angle before... and maybe because partly he's relieved. That's something he can do. It's easier than the rest of it. Maybe he can't figure out happy but not miserable...

but still...

He sighs]

I still want to mess with Tashigi though. It's a problem. I want to figure her out and I don't want her to think of me as just some poor stupid dead pirate. But I don't want to freak you out either. Because it's too hard to be mad at you for long and you were right. I can't stay away from your stupid face.

[Grabs Smoker's face in both hands and kisses his chin]

[His heart jumps up into his throat, and he blushes furiously, and tries even harder to ignore or at least PRETEND to ignore the whole thing, even as the blush spreads out to his ears. It's fine. It's Portgas being Portgas. And it probably doesn't mean anything, he just wants to annoy him, so the simple thing is to not be annoyed, right?]

[Right.]

You hurt her and I'll break you.

And I mean it, Portgas.

I haven't gone easy on you out of pity, but because...

[...]

[His tongue shrivels up and refuses to finish that...]

Well...

You know.

[Because he told him once before. Even if Ace didn't believe him.]

[He swings Ace once, just because he thinks the kid might enjoy it, and then carefully swings him back into a soft landing on the ground.]

She doesn't pity you either. She's just...

[He sits down near Ace on the ground, with his knees bunched up, and arms around them and offers Portgas a cigar.]

We knew what your grandfather did for you. [Quiet voice.] All of it. [Moves just enough to let Ace choke or beat him senseless, whichever he preferred.] I don't think the others do as much. And we... don't agree with the government on it. [Wary, and haki coating his balls, but otherwise still willing to let Ace lose his cool.]

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