#sparkandsmile

Sometimes, Luffy has weird dreams.

He didn't know the dreams were weird, until he and Ace and Sabo were talking about dreams and he brought up his and Ace went "What the fuck" and Sabo went "Why are your dreams like that?!" Because they've never ever had any dreams like Luffy's.

The dreams are full of dark, night dark. Sometimes there's almost words, sometimes there isn't. Sometimes there's snake hissing, sometimes there's bird chirping instead.

What's always the same is the pressure. Like when he's punching his way out of an alligator that's swallowed him, or that one time when some trash fell on top of him at Gray Terminal. Pushing down on his chest, making it hard to breath.

Until he wakes up, swallowing up gulps of air until he burps loud and hard from it.

He's had the dreams forever and they're probably gonna stay forever. That's just how it is. Ace and Sabo had asked him before, what caused them, hands on their pipes, eyes all serious. All he could do was shrug and say "I don't know." Because he doesn't.

But he has the dreams and they don't go away and he wakes up sucking in air. Ace and Sabo are there, so he doesn't wake up alone anymore and that's good.

I've seen I think all three of the OG X-Men live action films but it's so long ago I only remember 3 very well (and it was... very not good). I saw X-Men First Class and I think a few of the other reboot X-Mens that were also... not good.

But honestly? Based on those I feel like I just don't have enough to get a grasp of Professor X and Magneto. It doesn't help that this is one of those domains where the comics are very old and people are really into them, so if I just do "well, based on the film" I'm told "ACTUALLY THEY'RE SUPER DIFFERENT IN THE COMICS AND HOW DARE YOU".

But I'll take my best guess.

Professor X and Edward

Charles deals with overemotional and overly powerful teens who cause problems all the fucking time. He's dealt with ones who have caused a lot of damage, sometimes intentionally and sometimes not, so I feel like to Charles Edward is another kid in need of help. Does he need help? Absolutely, this boy is clearly traumatized by being turned into a vampire/the nature of his existence and his temptation for blood among other things. However, he's not unique and certainly not more terrifying than dealing with a preteen Jean Gray.

I actually think Edward would really like Charles. Yes, it's annoying he's more powerful than Edward (being basically able to do what Aro does, but from a distance, and able to control people's thoughts) but he's the kind of guy Edward would really like. He has all the power in the world but rarely if ever chooses to use it and when he does it's with a lot of justification to himself of why he has to erase these memories or make someone do this thing, usually with the safety of others in mind. He's well-spoken, earnest, has dedicated his life to helping gifted children the world has shunned and is able to offer Edward advice.

For all Edward would argue he's older than Charles, I do think Charles could glide into that mentor-like position (especially since he has, canonically, for older characters such as Logan).

Charles in turn I imagine would be a good mentor for Edward who would both a) actually understand what he's thinking and going through because of the telepathy and b) being a voice of sanity Edward can choose to confide in.

Professor X and Carlisle

I imagine Charles... understands why Carlisle has turned these people, that Carlisle meant well, and that Carlisle was driven by a profound loneliness when he did so. He doesn't approve and Carlisle should absolutely stop, these people did not consent to become vampires and not all of them are happy being so, but he gets that Carlisle is ultimately human (humanoid) and can be expected to make mistakes/be driven by emotion.

Beyond that, I imagine the pair would get on great as, again, Charles is a person that actually reads your mind at the bone deep level and so you actually have to confront shit. And we know Carlisle was cool enough with Aro to stay in Volterra for twenty years, so he's fine with the general mind reading and I think would get on fairly well.

Unless Charles is in his bitchy heroin addicted phase he was in for that one movie.

Edward and Magneto

Nope.

See, the trouble is Edward gets Magneto's philosophy a little too much.

It's not the same at all, but Carlisle's philosophy is very in Professor X's line of thought: yes, even though there are bad humans who do bad, that does not justify our eating them or make us 'good' by doing so.

This is not entirely dissimilar to Charles's: yes, the humans often treat mutants and anyone with the label 'other', like complete dogshit, not limited to horrific murder, but that does not mean that we can target the general population of humans out of self-defense or kill them all and leave only 'pure' mutants.

Edward would see far too much of himself in Magneto's: we are absolutely justified in kicking the humans out of power/dismantling their entire system because they've done a shit job of everything for thousands of years and are always treating mutants and 'other' as shit.

Magneto's not eating humans, and Magneto often pumps the breaks when things get too spicy in X-Men land (from what I've seen he's never full "KILL THEM ALL" and usually ends up having to side with the X-Men with a pouty face when the other villain goes too far), and it's not really equivalent to Edward's self-justification for giving into desire but it'd be close enough that Edward would hate it because he hates what he himself did.

As for Magneto, he sees Edward as another overpowered self-righteous and seriously misled teen. Boy, he's seen a lot of those.

Magneto and Carlisle

It's like Charles the vampire but worse because he's turning these stupid kids into crystal death machines and then telling them not to give into natural instinct, starve themselves like monks, when they were by design made to feed off human blood.

"JUST EAT, YOU DUMB PEOPLE" I imagine Magneto screams at them in despair. The humans can handle it. Nobody's winning an award for these people nobly starving themselves and in Erik's humble opinion there's a lot of people who should kick the bucket.

It'd be stupid if Carlisle was doing it only to himself, but it's downright horrible that he's bringing these kids into it, and especially that none of them had any say in it.

Whelp, she's dead.

Can't be having those slaves realize there's a way out of their fates.

Unless Imu is in a PARTICUARLY merciful and good mood, then she might get tortured and then "allowed to serve under her Master once more" as a personal slave to Luffy.

Always a bad thing.

Because Luffy's Fruit, Joyboy's Fruit, is the embodiment of a philosophy that Imu has spent generations trying to prove wrong.

That everyone deserves to be free. That everyone wants to be free.

When Imu's argument is that everyone wants power, to rule, in opposition to that.

Like it's one thing if the Fruit is bouncing around in its unawakened state, that's just how it goes.

For it to be Awakened, for Nika to walk the world once...

… imagine baby seal pup Luffy. Imagine them fleeing the Holy Land and leaving Luffy/Dragon’s coat behind…

Op, that be mine fic!

Yes, there would be SO MANY horrible things that could happen with Dragon as an actual selkie! Or many other 'animal wife' shapeshifters for that matter. Like swan wives, crane wives, and the like.

In all senses, Luffy really does serve as a metaphorical sealskin because Dragon refuses to leave without him and cannot leave without him, if he wants to remain himself.

Look, I read a Murderbot selkie fic where SecUnit ate its own sealskin so it could get away and I see Dragon up to doing the same thing.

The type to gnaw off his own leg to get out of a trap, not that I blame him, considering the trap he's in...

Why Edward loves Bella (or there are prerequisites here).

Interesting question.

Honestly? In terms of "semi-successful and/or stable long-term romantic relationship"? He's doomed. It ain't never going to happen, and that's because Edward wants contradictory things.

What a Boy Wants

The way I see it there are a few major requirements here:

They have to catch his attention

They have to be human

They have to either have a personality he likes or a personality that he can project upon them

They have to like him but not like him

In the first case, Edward is very dismissive of everyone around him. Either they're a family member, and off limits for a variety of reasons, or they're everybody else.

He's generally contemptuous of humans and was so of Bella until he smelled a smell. He's very contemptuous of fellow vampires, even friends, due to the diet. The best bet we see is the Denali except he's somewhat contemptuous of them for their life choices.

Mostly, the Denali gets into point number two. Edward would never pursue a vampire. He finds vampires to be grotesque looking, too angular, sharp, and carved so that they resemble more gargoyles to him than people. In Midnight Sun, he sees Bella's potential transformation into a vampire as something that will make her uglier, hideous, where she'll lose all he likes about her. To him, Esme is beautiful in spite of being a vampire, not because of it.

Not to mention all the baggage Edward has with vampirism in general. Even if the Cullens in some other universe ended up with a sister-bride figure that Edward actually liked personality wise, he would never go for it, as she'd be a vampire.

But let's get to the personality.

The key with Bella is that he's able to project a personality entirely at odds with who she is and, because of her silent mind, he can justify whatever he sees as matching this hidden personality.

The Bella he likes is selfless, kind, willing to sacrifice herself for anything, able to fall in love with monsters, hated by the gods, intelligent, quiet, so on and so forth. Basically, what he describes that he likes about Bella (versus what about her frustrates and annoys him when he lingers on it) is kind of a daintier, more feminine, version of how he perceives Carlisle's personality.

He wants someone desperately in need of his protection, so as to justify his presence in her life, as well as willing to overlook what he is without quite knowing what he is because if she did she'd surely leave him.

Which brings us to the last point. Edward wants them to like him but not really. Edward presents himself in the best possible way he can to those around him, he wants people to like him, and is terrified they wouldn't if they knew what he was really like.

We see this in canon, with Bella he's constantly pushing forward and also pulling back. He'll try to terrify Bella deliberately then immediately take it back in terror that she'll actually leave him. He wants Bella to be unattracted to him, because of course she should be, but also wants her to be attracted to him because he wants to be loved.

The ideal Bella for him is one that's entirely uninterested in vampirism at all, finds them as hideous as he does... except he also wants her to love him and find him appealing.

Like in Total Recall where Douglas Quaid wants a woman who is at once both "wanton" and "demure" Edward wants a woman that both hates him and loves him.

Also has to be a woman as that would be the only person that Edward could see himself romantically entangled with or allow himself to recognize as being attracted to.

What if Edward Gets What He Wants?

The thing is, he gets as close as he can in Bella and it's still not good enough because she ultimately wants to become a vampire to say with him. If she didn't want to stay with him then she'd end up leaving him.

Edward can't have what he wants because it's mutually exclusive. As a result, at the end of the day, any relationship he has, especially if it's with someone whose personality is what he's after, is going to fall apart as they're just not compatible.

Can Edward Change His Mind?

Edward would have to have a real introspective come-to-jesus moment and learn to accept himself and truly understand what he's looking for in another person.

An entire week of literal 24 hr labor. Behind a desk, behind a cubicle, behind a screen. Alaina felt her mind leaping about to the unknown; something...anything to break the trance of work...

Would she even be able to sleep again? Any other humans at the office, were beginning to suffer the same. A few of the vampires were somewhat sympathetic. They didn’t require sleep. At least Jerry from accounting hadn’t been bothering anyone. Not for the entire week. Had he been fired? The hope refused to die. Alaina wasn’t the only one to cling to it. About 99% of staff was anxious for the good news. 

A buzzer on her desk shook her from her drift. Time to go home. Just for one night. The test of a full on week of non stop work had been a success. Not to any being enjoyed sleep, but that didn’t matter. The additives to the food and water had kept people from literally keeling over dead. Alaina stumbled from the Headquarter offices, eyes full of invisible grit, and body ready to fall to pieces. The bus was almost empty, save for two slumped over passengers, and a grinning driver. 

Alaina collapsed into a seat, and the door was shut tight. The driver was whistling now, and the bus began to move. Alaina heaved a deep sigh. Eight hours of bliss. She had eight full hours to sleep. The other two passengers did not move, or even acknowledge anything. She peered at them more closely. They weren’t breathing, and there were wounds on their necks. Alaina’s sleep deprived brain snapped into survival mode.

The driver cast a far more sinister smile over his shoulder. It was Jerry. He was wearing a hat, and had hiked up his collar.

“Don’t know if they told ya the news, Alaina! I was FIRED! My job, my lively hood, all gone! POOF!” His rage was burning through his smug smile; matching the crimson of his eyes..

Alaina grabbed her bag, and started to run down the aisle to the emergency exit. 

“Guess your former job and I have something in common!” Alaina barked back at Jerry, yanking on the door handle with all of her might. It was locked. God, the universe had to be kidding. The bus was now pulling into a parking lot on the outskirts of town. 

“If you think killing me will bring you your job back, you have even less of a brain than I thought!”

(Part 1, to be continued)