#brr

What's if: dragon couldn't save his son(luffy) when he escaped with shanks.

How do you think Luffy's life will change? We knew before he met shanks he was very lonely and even after eat the devil fruit he admit after he feels more happier than before.

How imu gonna manipulate his son, to bring back his beloved.

First of all, any world where Imu raises Luffy from the start is going to make a Luffy that looks very different from canon Luffy and that makes me sad. :( So sad. Super duper sad.

Second, Dragon is more likely to throw himself off of a cliff than get separated from a baby Luffy in that personal hell, seeing how he outright says that Luffy is his greatest weakness in canon.

But let's do a thought experiment. Shift things around a bit.

Let's say, Dragon gets away with Luffy. Luffy goes to Garp, goes to Dawn Island, becomes no longer baby. Dragon goes on to do Revolutionary stuff, staring wistfully off at the East here and there.

Then somehow, somewhen, the secret of Luffy gets up to Imu level. Time to grab the bait baby!

But hm. No Beloved. Also, very difficult to get a hold of said Beloved, when he keeps running from the God Knights and other Imu messengers. Grr. Alright, just the offspring, until Imu can finally pin Beloved down properly. The offspring that stays in the palace, because no way Imu is risking losing that.

A young Luffy is Lonely. He's also highly empathetic. Like canon Luffy is definitely selfish, and I think that Luffy as a Celestial Dragon would be more so, but in this case, it's limited by the empathetic qualities of "seeing other people get hurt makes me feel bad." Like baby Luffy was an angry little kid, so I see him end up hurting people as a result of that, but hurting people doesn't make the loneliness go away.

Also he can pick up that most people are afraid to be around him. That also feels Bad. And telling Imu/Parent/whatever Imu demands to be used doesn't fix that problem, it only makes it worse. So, lonely. Luffy is Lonely.

He also likes stories. This is something Imu actively encourages, Imu likes stories too! Stories of the outside world wouldn't be banned or anything, it's merely telling Imu's child about the world Imu rules over, and is the child's too.

But Luffy is Luffy. Luffy hears these stories and thinks, "I want that." Or wants the chance to meet the people in those stories. More selfish, he's going to act. More aware that telling Imu doesn't get him what he most want, he keeps it secret in his Luffy way of proclaiming he's going to see the world and Imu patting him on the head, saying "when you're older."

Luffy gets into something. Luffy gets into the world below. Oh boy.

Two paths that would be fun to take:

Ends up on Dawn Island. Ends up around Ace and Sabo, whoops. Luffy comes off of clueless but also young enough that Ace just rolls his eyes and goes, "how stupid are you" but Sabo is more familiar with some of the holes that he personally had to deal with as a former noble and thinks "wait, did some noble kid get lost out here? Well he doesn't want to go back, so whatever."

SHANKS. He ends up among Shanks and his crew and the very fun situation of them having to fight off the God Knights like Roger and his crew did for Shanks is a possibility.

Either way Luffy has fun exploring the world as a small but strangely durable child while Imu is losing mu's mind AGAIN. But moreso because Imu is actually attached to the child this time as more than just Beloved bait.

and so does the rain.

Compare this to yesterday’s evening post to notice how mush has melted today. The temperature is 48F degrees (9C) but they will drop way down below freezing in a couple of hours. All these puddles will freeze solid. Good luck driving tomorrow. 🙁

I’m retired, I don’t have to go anywhere. 🤣

It was off and framed in 2 days, then roofed the next. They killed it. Now we have insulation, all the skylights are in, it’s being framed up, all coming along!

We also went to Fall Creek Falls for a long weekend. It was 20 degrees, so hiking was limited, we hung at the cabin playing games and eating popcorn. C found mythbusters, we had fancy desserts at the lodge (which is breathtaking, it’s a must go), night strolled and cuddled.

Oh! The bald cypress are also here - though we are predicted to get the tail end of a snow-ice combo with below 10 weather for several days and they are lovingly tucked into the garage until defrost, I cannot wait. They are SO BEAUTIFUL.