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turtle-paced · 4 years

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A:tLA Re-Watch: Fine-Toothed Comb Edition

Another long recap. Seriously, I doubt they’ll all be this long, especially when we hit some of the season one standalone episodes.

Book 1, Chapter 2 - The Avatar Returns

(0:33) Picking up with the new material in the intro to every episode in the series from this point forward. Aang’s status as the Avatar was shown to the viewer, but not internally revealed (to anyone but Zuko). Now the intro’s just going “yeah Aang’s the Avatar.”

(0:43) Again we’ve got that super-efficient outline of the series’ premise. Fire Nation attacking, Avatar needed, Aang not yet up to the job.

(0:46) But where the first episode panned over that empty spire while Katara said she had hope that the Avatar would return, now we pan up over Aang on top of that spire whille Katara says that she believes in Aang.

(2:34) Aang and Katara return under the still-visible signal flare to a decidedly mixed reaction from the village. While the kids are thrilled Aang’s back, the adults are much less keen.

(3:02) The discussion about intentional signalling of the Fire Navy vs. unintentional signalling of the Fire Navy boils down to the cold hard fact that Aang and Katara did something risky, and now the whole village is in danger.

(3:06) Aang, sweetheart that he is, steps in to deflect blame from Katara.

(3:20) The conflict between Katara and Sokka from the first episode reappears, since they never actually resolved it. Sokka thinks that Aang’s deliberately drawing the Fire Nation to them, and that the village is better off if Aang leaves. Katara thinks that Aang is not a spy, and objects to the hostility shown to a stranger. And neither of them are still wholly right or wholly wrong.

More broadly speaking, however, we’ve got two major protagonists in a serious conflict. Avatar lets its major characters disagree and argue according to their priorities. Here, doing right by others is a priority for Katara in a way it isn’t for Sokka. Likewise, her desire to find a waterbending teacher is completely alien to her brother. Sokka’s priority is Katara, and his words show how he’s gone about living up to the duty placed on him by their father.

Speaking of, that’s a heavy thing to lay on a kid. Sokka had to pick up adult duties too. Sokka himself might not see it at this point, but this is one of the most serious ways the Water Tribe patriarchy’s screwed him. Rather than the adult women taking charge and letting Sokka learn and grow, it became Sokka’s responsibility to do the man stuff. (Worth mentioning that the problems with the gendered division of labour hit Katara even earlier, but that’s a discussion for season three. It’s messed up whichever way you slice it.)

(3:29) Katara’s arguments (that Aang has brought fun to the South Pole) build naturally on the events of the previous episode, because we’ve seen Aang interacting with the kids in the village and making everyone smile.

(3:47) Gran-Gran, who despite the patriarchy is still clearly an authority figure, does not side with Katara. Thus far, the show’s done a lot from Katara’s PoV. Her PoV is the central PoV to this point, giving us the background, following the disruption to her routine with her brother as she brings her guest to the village. But being passionate and sympathetic doesn’t automatically get people with their own interests to change their minds. And though we’re being put in Katara’s shoes, to sympathise with her over Sokka right now, it’s real hard to totally condemn Sokka and Gran-Gran for wanting the village and Katara herself to stay as safe as possible. At the very least, they’re not arbitrarily throwing Aang out into what they know to be a hostile environment. They’ve got established reasons.

(3:52) Learning to waterbend matters so much to Katara that she’s willing to drop everything and leave home on a sour note and in a moment of temper. It’s worth noting here that she’s the one driving this, literally leading Aang over to Appa.

(4:10) Sokka asks if Katara would really choose Aang over her own tribe and family, and Katara stops, conflicted. One of the sweetest things over the course of season one (and something I’ll discuss more next episode) is how this ceases to be a conflict.

(4:14) And Aang, who is such a sweetheart, doesn’t want to force Katara to make this sort of choice. This is the starting point: no matter how immediate their connection, a friendship of a few days is not worth cutting off family and community for, not in Aang’s mind.

(4:30) “Guess I’ll go back home and look for the airbenders.” Try not to think of the hypothetical where Aang was alone when he arrived at the Southern Air Temple.

(4:45) Appa continues to refuse to fly, and continues to build up to the punchline.

(5:21) Katara’s angry rejection of her grandmother’s attempts to comfort her show in miniature something that’s very important for the storytelling in this series: emotional inertia and continuity. The action of this scene resolved with Aang’s departure, but Katara’s own feelings about what this represented for her desire to learn did not. They carry over to her interactions with other characters and inform her actions until she finally gets the resolution she was after (at the end of the season).

The writers account for their characters’ experiences and longstanding motivations. These things might take a backseat to whatever’s immediately demanding their attention, but it’s there, and it influences how they act and react from scene to scene. This is harder than it sounds with the episodic structure and multiple writers. The writing in this series was a team effort.

(5:50) Aang and Appa take a break in a random ice formation. “Yeah, I liked her too,” says Aang. Sad on first watch, but in context of ‘The Storm’ and indeed the series finale, Aang was feeling alienated from his peers since the reveal he’s the Avatar, and he still walked away from that sort of peer relationship and a high chance of wacky adventures. Because he knew that the course of action Katara was proposing would hurt her.

When Yangchen tells Aang that selfless duty calls for him to sacrifice his own spiritual needs, we know he’s capable of doing so, because right from the start we’ve seen him sacrifice his needs for others. (Though I’ll save discussion of what sacrificing his own spiritual needs actually means for much, much later.)

(6:00) The action in these episodes leading up to this conflict is so simple, but it’s the result of such nice, neat plotting, all informed by what these characters want and what these characters know. To recap:

Zuko was looking for the Avatar. The beam of light from the iceberg caught his attention, but he didn’t have an exact location, so he started looking around more carefully, a thing that takes time. In that time, Aang (who was avoiding information about the war) and Katara (who’s nowhere near as paranoid about Fire Nation attacks as her brother) did something important to them - had fun. In the process they took an inadvisable risk and attracted attention. This gave Zuko the information he needed and resulted in him heading towards the village. Meanwhile, the characters who are more worried about Fire Nation attacks took an action that made sense for them in asking Aang to leave. But since that happened out of Zuko’s sight, he doesn’t know that, and keeps heading for the village.

Not hideously complicated. But everyone’s actions make sense from their own perspective.

Also, shout out to Aang here, who just learned the Fire Nation are the aggressors in a hundred-year war, who just got kicked out of the village, and who, upon seeing the Fire Nation advancing on the village, goes right back to help without a second thought.

(6:07) Brief montage of Sokka and Zuko each preparing for a fight. Aside from the fact that it’s pretty grotesque for these teenage boys to be gearing up for war, the contrast between Zuko receiving assistance in putting on armour and Sokka kneeling alone in a tiny tent to prepare himself is striking. One of these parties has more resources than the other.

(6:44) Sokka stands alone on the wall of the village. Thus far he’s been suspicious and sexist, and arguably takes himself and his duties too seriously, but at crunch time he gives his duties the appropriate weight.

(7:20) Zuko’s ship emerges from the mist, towering over Sokka. The shot and his repeated “Oh, man,” does quite a bit to convey just how futile fighting back is here.

(7:39) She might not be fighting, but Katara’s not sitting around doing nothing. Aside from rescuing this kid from a tumble into breaking ice, she’s also been trying to get the elders in the village out of the way.

(8:29) Zuko and henchmen appear at the top of the gangplank, fully armoured. Very pointy. Most of Zuko’s soldiers throughout this scene have their faceplates down. From the Water Tribe’s perspective, these people are terrifying and mostly faceless.

(8:42) Having faced down a ship a hell of a lot bigger than he is, knowing that this is probably going to be useless, Sokka tries to physically defend his village anyway. He’s quickly and rather comically kicked away into a snowbank.

(8:59) And after that scary introduction, crashing into the village, neatly dispatching Sokka, we get, “Where are you hiding him?”

It’s easily missable, precisely because Zuko’s crashed into the village and is legitimately, intentionally terrifying our protagonists, but. Think about how Azula would have opened her speech here. Zuko’s a scary antagonist here, but he’s still socially awkward, forgetting to mention who he’s looking for, or why, or even who he himself is. He’s gone straight to the point. Social niceties? Never heard of ‘em! (Pro tip: ‘breaking the ice’ is supposed to be a metaphor.) Sometimes Zuko communicates beautifully. Other times…

(9:08) Zuko roughly grabs Gran-Gran and reveals one of his mistaken assumptions. He’s looking for an old Avatar. Not that he’s outright said ‘I am looking for the Avatar.’

(9:24) Sokka makes another attempt at defending his village from the guy who’s crashed into it, assaulted Sokka’s grandmother, and brandished fire in their general direction. Once again Zuko deals with him easily enough, but -

(9:31) As Sokka rolls to his feet and throws his boomerang, it stops being quite so comical. The viewers know what a boomerang does. So does Sokka, we can see that from his expression. Zuko, however, dismisses it.

(9:55) Then, even after Sokka’s been knocked over for the third time in two minutes, the boomerang comes back and clocks Zuko in the back of the head. Giving Sokka a boomerang as his weapon of choice was a great idea. An unconventional weapon for an unconventional thinker.

(10:06) The undignified boomerang thing is followed up by Aang’s dynamic entrance on a penguin, bowling Zuko right off his feet with his helmet flying into the air and landing comically on his butt.

When we get other villains, we’ll see how unusual this treatment is. Avatar has plenty of humour in it, but the threat that its villains pose is a serious matter. The show certainly doesn’t pretend that Zuko did nothing wrong - explicitly points out that he did plenty wrong, multiple times, in fact - but it does use humour to distinguish several of Zuko’s villainous efforts from those typical of other longstanding antagonists.

(10:28) Sokka’s utterly deadpan “Hi, Aang. Thanks for coming” is just delightful to me.

(10:44) Aang makes a show of airbending snow onto the soldiers and asks, “Looking for me?” This is either a remarkably insightful guess from Aang or another minor inconsistency. How does Aang know who or what Zuko is looking for? Has he been in earshot since the nine-minute mark? If so, what’s he been doing? Looking for a penguin?

I tend to run on the ‘remarkably insightful guess’ assumption, which reconciles the potential inconsistency. Aang knows he’s the Avatar, after all. Yet again I’m going to reference what he knows from ‘The Storm’, where he absolutely knew that the monks were getting worried about a war.

(10:49) Zuko finally says the word “Avatar” and connects the two parts of the series’ title for us. The Avatar is the last airbender. And vice versa. It is, however, a reveal to Katara and Sokka. Cut to commercial break.

(10:57) Aang and Zuko start circling each other, Zuko helpfully informing the viewers that he’s been on the Avatar hunt for literal years.

(11:04) When Zuko calls Aang a child, Aang does not take offence. (Like I said last episode, Aang knows he’s a kid.) He does, however, point out that Zuko’s a teenager. So. By this point, the viewer knows that Zuko has been looking for the Avatar for years. The viewer knows how long the Avatar’s been missing. The viewer knows that Zuko expected the Avatar to be an extremely powerful master of all elements. The viewer knows that Zuko needs to capture the Avatar, that his honour depends on it.

Halfway through episode two, the viewer’s got the bare bones of what they need to start asking some pointed questions about Zuko’s backstory.

(11:13) At this point of the show, Aang is clearly uncomfortable fighting in earnest. He doesn’t strike back and simply defends.

(11:17) The potential of fire to hurt people nearby through accidents is clear as Aang hears the villagers behind him scream at his deflection. So Aang finishes dissipating the fireball and then offers to go with Zuko, on condition that Zuko leaves the village alone.

(11:28) Zuko nods. He stops attacking and leaves without another word to the villagers or another threatening gesture, Aang in custody. This is very initial setup for Zuko’s eventual heel face turn. He’s scary and destructive, his goals are not friendly to the people trying to fight invaders in their homeland, and he doesn’t seem to see the issue with roughing people up a bit and breaking their stuff in pursuit of his goals, but he is, at least, true to his word. He isn’t actively malicious.

The setup’s also more for the viewer than for Aang, Katara, and Sokka right now. Together with the PoV of Zuko that we’ve already had, we’re starting to get the picture of an awkward, angry, teenager crashing into things both literally and metaphorically, hurting others and himself, in the unhealthy pursuit of something that may or may not be just the Avatar.

(11:45) I love that Aang asks Katara to look after Appa for him. He thinks of Appa’s wellbeing and trusts Katara with it.

(11:48) Zuko’s order to set a course to the Fire Nation, with the accompanying line “I’m going home,” is yet another thing that hurts more on the rewatch.

(11:58) Aang’s brave face visibly fails as the gangway draws back up after him. Commercial break #2!

(12:10) Establishing shot of the damage done to the Water Tribe village. There’s the hole in the ice shelf. Hole in their one actual building. Knocked-over tents. We cut to the villagers doing a bit of manual labour to get their homes and structures back in working order.

(12:31) Katara looks out to sea and says that they have to go after the ship and free Aang. The ship that just crashed into their village. To fight the guy who just kicked Sokka’s ass. Because it’s the right thing to do.

Meanwhile, in the background, Sokka’s walking back and forth with stuff in his arms.

(12:45) Katara continues to argue that they owe Aang for his help, and that she and Sokka should both go. Which is when the punchline kicks in - Sokka’s been loading a canoe so they could. While he and Katara are on the same page as far as saving Aang goes, this is probably the first instance of Sokka’s developing “plan guy” tendencies. Practical stuff.

(12:53) Episode two and already there are “he is not my boyfriend!” jokes. It’s also something that makes Katara and Sokka’s relationship feel like an actual sibling relationship, with the genuine and open affection transitioning into giving each other a hard time in seconds.

(12:59) Gran-Gran comes up behind Katara and Sokka and pulls exactly the same joke as Sokka did seconds ago. Surprise, she doesn’t disapprove! She wants to help her grandchildren rescue Aang! Looks like everyone was convinced that Aang wasn’t a spy, and that everyone broadly accepts Katara’s argument that the tribe owes Aang.

(13:26) Then there’s the whole Avatar thing. As Gran-Gran says, the Avatar is the world’s only chance. This is now an issue bigger than their village. “You both found him for a reason. Now your destinies are intertwined with his,” she says.

Narratively, the same principle applies to Zuko as well. He could have been sailing anywhere, but he’s right there in the South Pole, looking in the right direction at the right time.

(13:37) Katara points out that there’s no way they’re going to catch a warship with a canoe. For the vast majority of the series, transport is a consistent concern as the characters travel from place to place. The advantages and disadvantages of flying show up. The difficult of walking places shows up. Right here we start with the fact that the canoe’s just not going to cut it. Which is when Appa shows up from after his nap.

(13:53) “This staff will make an excellent gift for my father,” Zuko says. Which is our first indirect reference to Ozai. It also shows that Zuko is thinking of pleasing his father.

Note also that Zuko calls it a staff and Aang does not correct him.

(14:07) Zuko rather rudely shoves Aang’s glider at Iroh with a brusque order to take it to his quarters; Iroh rather more politely asks the nearest soldier to do it instead. Again, Iroh doesn’t go along with Zuko’s poor treatment of him - Iroh’s not there to fetch and carry for Zuko.

(14:25) “I guess you’ve never fought an airbender before.” Aang can get his head around the fact that there aren’t many airbenders around any more. He was planning to go look for more airbenders earlier. He used his airbending to prove his identity to Zuko. But what he hasn’t grasped just yet is why there are no airbenders left.

(14:31) Aang bets he could take both Fire Nation guards out with both hands tied behind his back. He can! But what we see in the next minute or so is Aang’s real forte - evasion. He knocks both guards over with an airbending-charged sneeze and runs for it.

(14:53) As we see, the guard Aang knocks over is back on his feet in seconds, none the worse for wear. This is a kids’ show, you can’t be having the protagonists killing people right and left, but this is integrated into Aang’s fighting style and character to the benefit of the story as a whole. Right now it’s making for a tense fight scene, one Aang versus a shipful of Fire Nation soldiers.

(15:09) Katara is very much the positive reinforcement sort of person. Rather than Sokka’s cynicism, she tries to encourage Appa into flying, both because Aang needs them and because she believes in Appa.

(15:29) Meanwhile, Sokka recalls the one prompt Aang gave Appa to fly, more than a day ago. Good listening, Sokka.

(15:38) Appa flies!

(15:42) And cynical Sokka shouts with excitement. Sokka does have that sense of wonder Katara does, but a bit more deeply buried.

(15:46) Katara gives him an excellent told-you-so look (siblings!). Even though Sokka tries to play it cool for her after his loss of composure, he still gives another little smile and eager look down for the viewer afterwards. Commercial break!

(16:08) Aang’s response to armed men facing him down with swords in a narrow corridor is to ask them if they’ve seen his staff (he’s still calling it a staff, no hinting at the glider function), and then to avoid fighting them even as he pursues his objective. Ditto the firebender who tries to blast him. The most Aang does is knock people over.

(16:34) Aang bursts in on Iroh’s quarters, where Iroh is asleep. Sure is convenient that the best fighter on the ship by a large margin is taking a nap right through this alarm and all this shouting in echoey metal corridors, isn’t it.

I mean, I don’t know that Iroh is faking. It’s just awfully coincidental, that’s all.

(16:39) Check the angle on the door here. Look at how little space there is behind it.

(16:47) It turns out that Zuko was in that tiny, tiny space the viewer couldn’t see. He also shuts the door to limit Aang’s ability to evade.

(16:58) We get a decent shot of Zuko’s quarters here. He has a nice table for meditation. He’s got some hangings, a reed mat on the floor, and some hangings. And right on the edge of the shot, he’s got a pair of swords.

(17:09) Aang still hasn’t thrown a punch or made any sort of attempt to strike back. Again, he knocked over those first two guards with a sneeze, not an actual blow.

(17:33) Ah, the counteroffensive from Aang. Wrapping an opponent in a wall hanging. Zuko burns through it - the first thing in his room that he’s actually set on fire, by the way, despite throwing a lot of fireballs around over wall hangings and flammable floor coverings.

(17:41) Aang finally actually counterattacks, launching a mattress at Zuko to knock him into a wall. Twice. And then he runs again while Zuko’s stunned and prone. It looks to me like Aang is not at all comfortable with hitting people directly.

(18:03) Hope spot as Aang launches his glider to escape.

(18:05) Literally brought down by Zuko leaping out into the air, well above the metal deck of his ship. If Zuko hadn’t caught Aang, he was going splat. Complete disregard for his own safety. And somehow not the most ridiculously unsafe thing he does in the process of chasing Aang this season.

It’s one thing to tell us that Zuko’s been hunting the Avatar for years. It’s another to show us Zuko jumping out of what, the third storey? in order to get a single hand on Aang’s heel as he flies away.

(18:26) Socially awkward Zuko rears his head again as he actually gets distracted for a second by Appa’s appearance.

(18:49) Repeated fireballs from Zuko succeed in knocking Aang into polar waters.

(19:00) Mysterious glowing kicks in, as well as the theme music, and Aang comes to the surface waterbending.

(19:20) And in the Avatar state, Aang simply knocks all the soldiers off the deck. Doesn’t look like the kid whose most aggressive moves in the past three minutes were sneezing and throwing a mattress, does it?

(19:45) The mysterious glowing taps Aang right out of energy, leaving Katara, Sokka and Appa to finish the rescue here.

(19:58) Sokka goes to pick up Aang’s staff and runs into Zuko, who wasted no time getting out of the cold water and climbing up the side of the ship. This time, however, Sokka’s got the advantage. He pokes Zuko in the face with the end of the staff and knocks him back again.

(20:17) Katara tries waterbending in combat for the first time. It doesn’t go so well, accidentally freezing Sokka to the deck. She turns to try the move she just worked out on the Fire Nation soldiers rushing her with spears, because she’s got some real strong nerves.

(20:44) Now that everyone’s on the bison and there are no soldiers on deck, Iroh wanders out. First thing he does is go help Zuko back onto the deck.

(20:56) Iroh matches Zuko’s fireball in an attempt to shoot Appa down.

(21:05) And who could have foreseen it, but Aang deflects it! Right into the side of a glacier.

(21:25) If Iroh was trying to impress on Zuko that Aang’s just a child, he missed the mark. (Given Zuko’s relationship with Azula…) Zuko points out that kid or not, Aang just buried their ship. We leave our antagonists as Zuko orders the ship dug out and the Avatar followed.

(21:43) Meanwhile, somewhere in the sky, Katara has questions for Aang. Her first relate to waterbending, how? Aang, however, has no conscious knowledge of waterbending. So even though he’s the Avatar, he’s on similar footing to Katara when it comes to that particular skill.

(21:55) More seriously, Katara wants to know why Aang didn’t tell them he was the Avatar, and Aang’s answer “because I never wanted to be” is an important one. We’ve seen his courage and his selflessness. We can reason out that it’s not the actual saving of the day that he minds.

Aang doesn’t want the responsibility. He wants to be free.

(22:17) Katara gently points out that the entire world needs the Avatar to end the war. Aang doesn’t know how he’s going to do it. He’s got no idea how to tackle this problem (nor much emotional preparednesss to do so).

(22:23) In response to Aang’s despondence, Katara sets out the general outline of what Aang needs to do, and therefore the plan for the rest of the series. Aang has to master water, then earth, then fire. The plan for the rest of the season is to learn waterbending.

(22:31) “We could learn [waterbending] together!” Aang says. Again, the full context of this is that Aang (very much an extrovert) was abruptly excluded from airbending games by his same-age friends when they found out he was the Avatar. That’s the other thing Aang doesn’t want about being the Avatar - being set apart from others. We can start to see that in his eagerness to learn with Katara.

(22:33) As for Sokka, what he gets out of the trip is basically some fighting. Unlike Aang and Katara, he doesn’t have a clearly defined end goal here. Nor a clearly defined role in the group as yet.

(22:50) Aang insists that they stop a few places before going to learn waterbending. Mostly these places involve riding large animals. Again we’ve got the good and the bad here - Aang needs to make time for himself and it’s good that he makes time for himself, but he also can’t duck his responsibilities forever. Whether or not he wanted those responsibilities in the first place.

#a:tla #fine toothed comb edition

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g00d1uckch4rm · 3 years

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Chasing The Sun

Chapter 1: Story Time

Summary/Info Rated M

____________________________________________________

The Importance of Understanding Type Dynamics Version two: for coming-of-age young adults, patients and caregivers. By Doctor C. T. Tony

Section One

Introduction to Type Dynamics

These Types only influence the Human* reproductive system, also known as secondary-sex and holds no restriction over one's gender. There are four different Types Dynamics and; in most cases, are undetermined until one reaches sexual maturity. However, much like blood types, the parents Type Dynamic can influence what their children will have.

Listed here is a summary of information to do with sex and most common; but not limited to, behavioural patterns or traits. Further details well be addressed in Section Three and Four.

[*Other races such as Giants, Fishfolk, Minks, Sky People, Dwarves; including hybrids of previous races do not have Type Dynamics. While tribes/subraces of Humans have Types, it is even more rare for one to be Type A or O]

~~~~~~ ҉ ~~~~~~

It's a moment much like that of Fishman Island; the battle had been hard, the people almost lost hope, but they prevailed in the end. Sure, things hadn't gone according to plan, but everyone fought hard and like always, the Straw-Hat's pulled off miracle somehow. It felt like it was the same-old-same-old, and yet, oh so refreshing and new.

So here everyone was; wounded, sore, and still having the energy to throw the biggest party Wano has probably ever seen. Music and merriment flooded the air. Bonfires and free spirits lit up the night. Food and drink seemed to be endless. Which was probably a good thing, considering who the heroes were.

Jinbei chuckled as he sipped his drink, Luffy may still deny it and give whatever reasons against it, but the facts remain. The truth remains. That people saved by the Straw-Hat Pirates will always believe that they are heroes. That Luffy is their hero. Not to undermine the others in any way, Luffy just has this aura, this energy that pulls people in. And the rest of the crew, they seemed fine with Luffy in limelight. Perhaps some even a little proud.

"Amused by Luffy's impressions?" Robin smiled up at him. For the most part they had sat in peaceful silence, or rather whatever they could get with all the celebrating going on.

At first his response was simply a hum, but it only took a second to survey the crowd for Luffy. It appeared that the captain was making a show of his powers and making a fool of himself. Arms and chest inflated comically, with the ends of his kimono tucked into his sash, all the while jumping from pose to pose. While a number of onlookers were getting a good laugh and others simply smiled in amusement, Usopp and Chopper at front row appeared to be dying.

Jinbei was just confused as to whom Luffy was trying to impersonate. Till Luffy brought his fists together above his head and stood with a slant to one side. "Franky?"

"Mm-hm. Though, it took you awhile." She teased. "Did it really take his signature pose for you to figure it out?"

"I haven't exactly gotten familiar with everyone. The most I've interacted with any of the crew was back on Fishman Island and even those moments were brief." Totto Land had just been one mission to another, with even less personal interaction. It's not easy to get to know someone when you're constantly running for your life or fighting for it.

"Aside from our captain, that is?"

Our captain. My captain. It was still new, but it left him feeling light, reassured. Jinbei smiled a little. "Yes. Aside from our captain."

"Well, it won't take you long get to know the crew. A few in particular may become your shadow. For the first month or so at least."

"Oh, and why would that be?"

"Because you're new and someone important."

Important? "I don't follow."

But Robin didn't clarify and Jinbei didn't press the subject. It seemed like she wasn't going to completely open with him, not yet anyway. Which was fair, they didn't know him that well either.

"You know, with more practice, Luffy could become very skilled with disguises." Jinbei mused as he watched the young man shape himself like an hourglass and spun around with a stick in hand. Nami..? The ginger woman then came bolting straight for Luffy with beat-red cheeks and then proceeded to chase him around. Nami.

"It would be handy with infiltration. To be any shape, any size." Robin agreed and then they shared a moment of soft laughter. "But his acting would never hold up."

"Indeed. There are better odds in a plan actually being followed."

She giggled a little more before they returned to comfortable silence between them. Enjoying their drinks while they watched Luffy and the others. It wasn't long before one of the samurai joined in on the antics, offering paint and the boys were quick to take up the idea. Messy work and Luffy's roaring laughter drew in Franky's interest. Before long; Usopp having taken charge of the painting, the four goofballs are dramatically dancing around with serious looking faces of red and white.

~~~~~~ ҉ ~~~~~~

"Oi, helms' bro!" Franky greeted, now taking a cola break and held out his free hand to Jinbei as he approached. His face paint was a bit smeared after horsing around for a few hours. "Lookn' forward to workn' with ya!"

"Likewise." While they were close in size, the cyborg's main hands were still massive, leaving the handshake a bit awkward. But Franky appreciated the effort and firmness, the fishman's strength had his struts giving some resistance. It even gave Franky the momentary thought of challenging him to an arm-wrestling match sometime.

Releasing the hold and taking a seat next to Jinbei, Franky took a huge drink before continuing. "Heard from the nav' what you and Sunny were able to pull off back in Big Mom's territory. Pretty super stuff!"

"You share in some of that praise. Your craftsmanship is like nothing I've ever seen."

"Thanks! Oh, hey, by the way. I got a question for ya, but just don't take it the wrong way. Kay?"

"What might that be?"

"Do ya want me to adjust one of the hatches to the tank for ya?" They were definitely not big enough for the man to comfortably access as they were now.

"Tank?" Jinbei blinked, it had certainly not been along the lines of what he was expecting and was left puzzled.

"Ya, the aquarium around the bar? I'm sorta' in charge of accommodations an' stuff. But bein' a fishman, I don't know if you would feel more comfortable sleepin' the water or not."

"I was not aware that there was one on the ship. But it won't be necessary, just proceed as you normally would."

"Cool, sure thing-wait... Have you not seen the whole ship?"

"Afraid not, my brief times aboard has been spent getting everyone to safety."

Franky then clapped Jinbei on the back. "Well, can't have that, now can we! I'll show you all the gloriousness that is the Thousand Sunny!"

"I look forward to it. The more I know the ship, the better I'll be able to handle it."

"I would sure hope so, Sunny's full potential can't be reached by just anyone! I may have brought the lion to life, but I sure as hell can't tame that beast!" Franky howled with laughter.

"Hey, guys. Mind if I join?" Usopp asked as he came up to the group with a platter of food.

"Of course." Jinbei gestured for him to take a seat. Robin; having been simply enjoying the company, couldn't help but laugh a little. When the fishman looked her way, he was met with a knowing smile.

Usopp quirked a brow at her. "What's so funny, Robin?"

"What is the paint for?" She deflected.

"One of the samurai bros suggested it. Kubuki, I think is what he called it?" Franky offered before reaching to take some of Usopp's food. But he was not as swift as Luffy and Usopp moved his plate out of reach. "Come on, don't be stingy bro."

"Then ask, don't try to steal it. I was going to share, but now I don't think you deserve the courtesy."

Franky was quick to provide an exchange. "I'll share my cola with ya?"

"Sure." He grumbled and now offered the food to his crewmates. "Robin, Jinbei? Would you like some as well?" Each gave their thanks and took something from the plate to snack on. Not a moment after, Usopp was grinning. "So, Jinbei."

"Yes?"

"With you now officially a part of the crew, it makes sense that I; the Great Warrior Usopp, bring you up to speed of my grand adventures and heroic deeds." He said with great pride and fists posed on his hips. While Franky made the comment that; this was the real reason he brought food to share, Usopp either ignored him or didn't hear. Jinbei gave a mild expression of interest, but mostly wasn't sure what to expect.

Usopp began with a tale about befriending a pair of rival giants and helping to save their honour. Which was fascinating and Jinbei found the young man quite talented in storytelling. However, he ended up unintentionally raining on the sniper's parade when he began the next part. "-on a winter island, were a cruel King forces his people to support him by restricting access to doctors-"

Jinbei cuts him off when he recognizes the tale. "Oh, Drum Island. Not a huge fight, but it was Luffy's first notable appearance since Logue Town and the first kingdom he saved."

"Oh, so you know where we met Chopper." Undeterred, Usopp began anew. "Well, this next one is one of the Straw Hat's greatest moments! And one of our greatest secrets." Motivated to impress the helmsman with one of their adventures kept more under wraps. He sets the stage, does his buildups and is about to deliver the shocker. "-turns out she is none other than the Princess of Ala-"

When Jinbei speaks up and becomes a bit enthusiastic. "Alabasta. That was when Luffy fought his first Warlord, Crocodile. Quite the tough fight too, he had to figure out a way to defeat the Logia user before even knowing what Haki was."

"In much fewer and underwhelming words, but ya. Robin also joined the crew afterwards. I'm surprised you even know of this, the navy even covered it up and took credit for all our hard work."

Franky decided to chime in a little and tease Usopp. "You also messed up a little on the order there, Sanji said that you all knew who she was before Little Garden."

"Shh, you!" He scowled for a moment before going back into story mode. "So, the next adventure and this one you may have a hard time believing! It takes place on the mysterious White Sea-"

"Ah, the one about Skypiea. I would have certainly had trouble believing it, if not seeing some sky people myself."

At this point, Usopp deflated and lost most of his zeal. "... I probably should have started with asking what you've heard."

Jinbei felt bad for ruining Usopp's storytelling and apologised. "It was not my intention, but that was all rather rude of me wasn't it? I'm sorry. Though, I believe that I have heard most of Luffy's feats up to the point where we met."

"Where did you end up hearing all of this?" Robin asked, both amused and curious.

"On Fishman Island mainly, over the two years that the crew was separated, I-" Then Jinbei paused, coming to a realization and bringing a hand over his mouth. Oh... Oh, that's what they meant. Gods, he could hear them all laughing at him again and Aladdin was the worst of the lot. Why couldn't they have called him out on it sooner?

"You?" Usopp echoed.

Jinbei just hoped that his embarrassment didn't show on his face. Which it did, in an ever so slight flush. If anyone noticed, they didn't comment. Dropping his hand; to not bring further attention to his face, he continued. "I had many opportunities to speak to all sorts of travellers and some stories I even overheard."

"That would explain the focus on Luffy in the stories and why you didn't mention the points of new crew-members. You're hearing about it through the people that witnessed bits and pieces." Usopp was bitter that his spotlight had been taken from him. But he supposed that he still could fill in all the blanks. Along with the events of Punk Hazard, Dressrosa, and Zou. "I'll have to tell you the full stories."

"I'd like that." Jinbei then added. "It would good to get the whole truth of the events."

"Pft! Ya right!" Franky burst into a huge fit of laughter, to the point that he was on the verge of tears. "You'd best ask Robin, if that's the case!"

"Hey!" Usopp clearly offended does a karate-cop like gesture towards the cyborg. He likely had more to say on the matter, but his attention, along with everyone else was drawn to a rather loud, passing argument.

It was between the bear mink, Bepo and Law. "Captain, we understand-"

"Don't you dare-!" Law hissed in anger and pain; aside from Luffy, his injuries were some of the worse. It hurt to stand, let alone go for a walk. "None of you do- none of you can!"

"But Captain, you need to at least try to rest! You shouldn't-"

"Shut-up! It's my bloody body!" Law snapped, his harsh glare anchoring his first-mate on the spot. "Leave me alone." Then proceeded to the outskirts, with Kikoku held in his white-knuckle grip and a slight limp in his step.

Having witnessed that, Usopp felt bad for the mink. Whispering as he glanced from Bepo to Franky. "Yesh, that was harsh. Even for him. Do ya think maybe...?"

Franky knew what he left unsaid and while he didn't like it, he didn't think it was the place to interfere. "Ya." Tapping his nose as he replied, a cue to let Usopp know he was on point. "He's definitely off, but asking about it now might just make things worse."

"I get that, but what if Luffy," Usopp does a few uncertain gestures before holding his hands out towards Law's general direction. "...ya know?"

Though, Jinbei didn't want to wait on a group decision and as their conversation carried on, Jinbei took it upon himself to go talk to Luffy. He didn't want to be the one to jump to conclusions, but being aware that Law had gone through a great ordeal in the past couple months. It didn't help matters. However, he knew that there was nothing he could personally do for Law. Nothing that would likely be meaningful anyways.

It didn't take long to find Luffy. Giving the young man a wave, Jinbei made his way towards him.

Their captain waved in return and met the man halfway. A light bounce in his step despite his own terrible injuries. "Hey, Jinbei! You having a good time?"

Jinbei gave a small nod as his answer, but glanced over his shoulder, at the direction the other captain had gone. "Luffy, you're close with Law, are you not?"

"Ya, we are! He's a really good friend." But then his grin became more of a smile. Still cheerful, but figuring something was up. "Why? Something happen with Torao?"

"I just saw him and he said some rather worrisome things to Bepo."

"A fight?"

"No, no... Not exactly. I only overheard bits and pieces. His crew is worried about him; while Law is obviously gravely injured from the fight, he appears to be refusing to rest. As a doctor, Law knows very well what he should be doing... Yet he doesn't seem to be in the right mind. He doesn't seem to be himself." Jinbei's voice was quiet. This situation was stirring too many unpleasant memories and it wouldn't be right to speak so freely of someone else's internal conflict where so many people could overhear. He didn't want to cause more trouble for Law, especially if Jinbei had the wrong idea. I hope I'm wrong.

Luffy was silent, waiting to hear the rest. An odd moment of him being completely focused. Well, perhaps not entirely odd, the wellbeing of his friends and crew were of the utmost importance to the young captain.

"I can't deny that I am worried for his safety and of those around him. But I think it would be best if you make sure he is alright."

"Hmm." Luffy tilted his head as he mulled it over, for a second. "I can do that. Where's Torao at?"

"He was headed that direction, but I'm not certain where he's at as of this moment."

"Kay, just need to do one last–" He then looked around quickly, till he spotted his doctor. "Chopper! You got a sec?" He took off and left Jinbei to return to the festivities.

~~~~~~ ҉ ~~~~~~

It was the first hour after dawn, most were still asleep and honestly, Jinbei would be too if not for old habits. Still groggy, having only got a couple hours of sleep, he decided he would go down to the water for a soak. Geta in hand, he did his best to remain as quiet as possible for the others still passed out in the room. On his way out of the building, he couldn't help but look into the other room as he passed. The door was left open so it wasn't his fault and he hadn't expected anyone to be in it.

He froze as his eyes met with Luffy's and then they smiled. The young captain was clearly awake, however the same couldn't be said for the other captain curled up behind him. Law was still peacefully sleeping, yet keeping a hold on Luffy. They were sharing a blanket and looking dishevelled as some of their bandages had come lose. Jinbei opened his mouth to apologize, to say something, but Luffy quickly brought a finger to his lips. Shh!

While Jinbei snapped his jaw shut, Luffy's sudden movements had irritated Law. He wasn't sure if it was a grumble or a growl that came from the man, but it was in a threatening manner. Pulling Luffy into a tight embrace and placing his nose to Luffy's exposed shoulder. Though Luffy appeared to be slightly unhappy about something, Law did not wake, returning to a relaxed state and Luffy did nothing.

Jinbei hadn't realized that he had been staring till the soft sliding of the front door startled him out of it. Looking to the entrance, he saw Sanji quietly slipping off his footwear with a plate of food in hand. When the blond looked up, he paused and gave the fishman a questioning look. As if he wasn't expecting him to be awake yet. Jinbei on the other hand, glanced back toward their captain and the... state he was in.

Carefully he reached for the door, for reasons he wasn't sure of, but stopped before he could lay a hand on it. Sanji gave him the same hushing gesture and slowly made his way towards the room. As the cook peeked into the room; as much as Jinbei felt the need to keep him from doing so, Luffy lit up at the sight of him. Even giving him a little wave, which was briefly returned.

A hidden tension faded away, but the whole situation was becoming too much and full of unexpected chain reactions. With someone else on the scene and to deal with the matter, Jinbei was swift in making his escape.

Jinbei had expected a fight, even if it had been a small one. But this... he hadn't expected that. Whatever that was meant to be. His mind was spinning around in confused, hazy laps of the few brief seconds of what he witnessed.

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#JinLu #One Piece Jinbei #One Piece Luffy #A/B/O verse #Chasing The Sun FF #Mpreg #Written Work #Fanfic #Rated M #Rated R

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