Burning Bee Illustration

Sometimes you gotta draw your OC in a bunny outfit.

Rating: E

Word Count: 6,770 words (60k total)

Franky settled in next to her, leaning on his elbows like she was, touching shoulder to shoulder.

“So,” he broke the silence. “We’re dating now, huh?” There was a note of teasing to the question that made her squirm.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have announced that before you’d even given me your answer. I-”

“Whoa, babe. No worries. I was and am super okay with you doing that.” One of his fingers caught her hand and brought it up to his mouth. “More than okay.”

Rating: M (Eventually E)

Word Count: 3,469 words (53.5 k total)

“Squall’s coming! Bring in the sails! Now, now, now, NOW!”

Nami's voice rang out loud as Franky and Chopper perked up in attention. Zoro was dead asleep.

Chopper rushed out first, giving Franky an absent warning about staying put, which he promptly ignored. Rising stiffly out of bed, he grabbed his crutch; he would need it if he was going to move as fast as possible.  

When he got out on deck, the rain started sheeting down, plastering his hair across his face and making everything hard to see. He couldn’t pick up any noise but the rush and roar of the storm and waves. Sunny was a solid even-keeled brigantine but the waters of the Grand Line were fierce and in no time at all the sway of the ship would get too dangerous for anyone without a safety line. Just standing his ground on the deck was causing his hip to flare up with pain. 

But he wanted to help, he had to help, he needed to do his part! 

He heard someone shout, though the words were lost, and he turned to his left to see Robin glaring at him like a vicious jungle cat. As soon as their eyes met she barreled towards him and before he knew it, a dozen hands were grabbing him from behind, pulling him back inside the galley. 

Process video under the cut.

Rating: M (Eventually E)

Word count: 3,568 words (50k total)

When Robin was worried, her body would go spring tight. Worry meant danger, which meant her eyes and ears would sprout around every corner and her go bag would be within her reach. More often than not, if Robin was worried she would be running for the hills a short time later. 

Worrying over Franky made her want to crawl up walls. 

There was nowhere for her to go, no reason for her to run anywhere, and yet her body was so used to doing just that, signals were misfiring. Her jaw ached from grinding her teeth. 

So I've been stewing about this for a while. I was really disappointed with certain aspects of Egghead, mostly with how Vegapunk as a character was treated.

I feel like Oda really fumbled the ball in terms of making a parallel between Franky and Vegapunk. Since all the way back to the beginning of the time skip, Vegapunk was set up as this mysterious genius. Was he bad? Good?The narrative kind of pulled back and forth between the two poles. And it was like that for years, we knew so little about him.

Now obviously Franky has mad respect for Vegapunk, but I wish wish wish we had gotten the rose colored glasses to come off a bit during Egghead.

Vegapunk is the epitome of doing science for science's sake. It is innovation without thought, care, or responsibility. He picks up projects like candy and puts them down just as fast. He leaves a trail of consequences in his wake where ever he goes.

Franky's entire back story hinges on him learning consequences. He built battle frankys indiscriminately, left them unintended and Tom died. He blamed himself for it for years, it was his whole character arc.

So why oh why does Franky not see the Pacifistas, a weapon Vegapunk built for the government, and not get a little mad. He was resentful of Iceburg for years because of Galley-La's government contracts. How is he uncritically looking at Vegapunk and saying 'my hero!' IT BUGS ME

Vegapunk as a whole gets treated like a kooky silly little man most of the time. I dont like how he never really reckons with what he has done. Even his death is completely undercut. Like yeah he is a fugitive and no longer has WG cash, but he doesnt seem haunted by his own actions at all. (Edit: okay so he does feel guilt about Kuma, but the pacifistas as a whole? All the shit hes been complicit in? The mother flame? He seems clueless about what the WG does with his tech and thats what bugs me) Lilith is just happy to be on Elbaf and ready to set up shop. Did he cut out his guilt and put it somewhere else? Honestly I would love that if there was a secret fucked up Vegapunk clone thats n o t o k a y.

For me the events of Egghead do comment heavily on why innovation without thought is harmful. What happened to Kuma and Vegapunk's role in that is heartbreaking, but Im so used to Oda really driving the screw in with his metaphors and parallels to real life that Egghead felt lacking. Vegapunk comes off like a victim, not like someone complicit in state violence.

It makes me worry about Franky's future. He's already kind of forgotten by the narrative and if Oda just makes him into a war machine, I'm gonna cry. So many OP fans already see him as a toy that makes things go boom.

Rating: M (Eventually E)

Chapter word count: 3,393 words (46.5 k total)

Summary:

Leaving Enies Lobby and Water 7 in the distant, Nico Robin can finally start living. The only small hiccup is that she has no idea how to. She knows she should be happy, that she's free now. But after thinking she wouldn't even make it past her twenty-eighth birthday, all of this new found freedom and possibility is starting to feel more suffocating than liberating.

Franky feels amazing! He's got a new lease on life, a chance to fulfill his dreams and nothing but adventure and good times ahead. And he's totally made peace with his past, he had his big emotional catharsis and everything, he's all good now. Super good. His crushing guilt is no more. Now if he could just figure out how to focus on anything for two seconds, he'd be perfect.