#apocryphis

If you follow @apocryphis otherwise known as Ventium, please dni with me. Clearly she thinks I'm a liar because I wanted her to sign an exclusive writing contract without having her read the Terms & Conditions (literally no one reads this in the first place so idk what her problem is). She has also compared me to Sparkle, which is downright insulting because she's a compulsive liar that no one likes. Not to forget how she mocked me and predicted that I would make this callout post as if I'm gonna fall for reverse psychology.

Somewhere by the sea. It might be cliché to pull the two warriors away from the bloody battlefield and put them into a quaint peaceful little hideout, but I feel like that's what they'd deserve and enjoy.

When I'm thinking small, I'm thinking a nice cottage or repurposed/fixed-up ruin by the water, so they have a real home but also the opportunity to be in the ocean whenever they want to be (especially Hysilens). They could be one with nature and each other and just live every day as it comes. Well, they probably would try that and then end up becoming protectors of the surrounding areas and creatures anyway, or be dragged into some new conflict.

When I'm thinking a little bigger, years in the future, and logistics aside.. imagine they could have something like a house that is half outside and half inside the water, so you don't have to leave it to get into the ocean. The half on land ist most parts library, created and maintained by Dan Heng, who remains an archivist at heart, and both the land part and the water part are built in a way that carry music & Hysilens' song beautifully. When she sings, you can hear it all over the place, echoing, and often all kinds of animals come through the water or the windows to listen.

gee i wonder who guthred's type is -

had someone said this to luffy before losing ace, he would've laughed it off. even now, it feels a little surreal. but the thing is, he knew what he had with ace. that was his big brother, one of them, who he had bickered with for years until they parted way. a guy who had been amazing even when he was younger. and perhaps it was naive to think they would continue to see each other throughout the seas. so now he was not going to have that going forward. he would never again hear his brother's voice, only from memories.

❝ ━ ne, pineapple-san, but i do. ace was my big brother before we said we'd be pirates. he was strong and funny, and we declared ourselves as family. loss doesn't get rid of that. ❞ does it put it into perspective? of course it does. a lot of people knew his brother and everywhere he went, he would be reminded that ace had been loved, had people who cared for him. it makes his chest ache, hands flexing remembering the way ace's body had been so heavy against him.

a smile curls across his features, hand rising to scratch at the back of his head, ❝ ━ he thanked me for loving him. like it was something difficult to do. i wasn't strong enough to save him then, but i'm strong enough now to continue living with the memories of him, and to not lose anyone else.❞

"It's about time you showed up !"

@apocryphis sent: the shock of bright red hair catches his attention as he exits the pankration ring - the enthusiastic echoes of applause and shouts following him down the corridors where only he and diluc stand. a smile flashes on his lips, a little pleased. "well then. watching from backstage, are we? you're right, it's probably the best view for the show." with the towel in his hand, he wipes the sweat from his forehead before throwing it around his neck. "not bad, huh? that ring is the great equaliser of the fortress of meropide. everyone hungry enough to fight stands a chance to win. one of these guys could even claim my title, if i'm not careful enough." and instead, wriothesley reminds everyone the reason why he is the one running the show in those metal bowels they call a home. the duke looks at his accomplice, gives him a lookover - a facetious glimmer shining in silver blue eyes. "you should give it a try, sometime. fight hard enough, you might even get a chance to face off against me. not to get out of here, of course, because i'd beat you, but it would be fun ~ "

He'd be lying if he said he wasn't impressed. Wriothesley is a force of nature and in the boxing ring he's clearly in his element. He moves with a precision and strength that would be lethal if this was a real fight and even though there are some formidable candidates among those brave enough to face off against their warden, not one man here comes close to dethroning the Duke - regardless of what he says. Maybe it's part of the equalizing process that he remains humble and doesn't deny the possibility of someone beating him, no matter how unlikely it seems. After all, without hope what do men have left to fight for?

"Or so you let them believe." Diluc lets out an amused little huff. "It's interesting to see fighters pitched against each other who all come from clearly different backgrounds," he observes. Some of them seem to have undergone some kind of military training, but more of them use classic street fighting techniques. Less precision and control, more raw survival. The sparring matches Diluc is used to happened in the context of knight training - young men and women who all had the same instructors, the same tactics and techniques. That makes for unity in the group and a solid set of skills, but to some extent it fails to prepare them for more unusual approaches.

The once-over Wriothesley gives him doesn't go unnoticed and together with the bold challenge he lays out for him, it manages to tug a small smile from Diluc. Smiling and joking around comes easier to him now than it did when he first got here, although he's probably still muted by most people's standards. Somehow being stuck in the Meropide brought with it a kind of calm that he lacked before. He has nowhere to go, nowhere to be but here, his area of investigation is drastically smaller than it was before.. and amidst all of this, he can't deny that Wriothesley's company is having an effect on him too.