[Koby has a list of things he wants to try, but they've been more or less on hold since the summertime. The holidays are the quietest things have been in months, so...]
Never? I would've thought Well. If you ever wanted practice, I was thinking maybe I mean
They used to tie me in the brig. Before. So I might freak out. At first. And I don't want to be naked if that happens, you know? Plus you've seen me freak out before, you know what to do. And I trust you. I know you'd make it safe. But if that's too much that's okay too. That's fine. So Yeah.
( a weird thing to stumble on — intersecting points between nami and koby, the places where the pirates who owned them overlap. she offers it up because it's over text, because it's easy, because it's koby. )
arlong used to chain me in bed
( she would literally rather die than admit that to anyone else, though. )
so i get it i'll take care of you. promise. i'd like the practice too, anyway. i'm always super under prepared when it comes up.
[It's not surprising -- Koby knows what it means for a pirate captain to own you, how everything you are, everything you can give them is utilized, how protective pirates are of their things. But it is, because it's Nami, because everything about her is ferociously independent and determined towards freedom. Maybe this is why. Maybe this is why it needs to be her.
She knows. She says bed and Koby wonders, wonders a little too close to the darkest, deepest aches in his heart, and has to reel his mind back before it goes there. Not there.]
He did? [An invitation, for more, if she wants to give it, if she feels like lancing the wound, like letting it bleed clean. He won't tell a soul, won't write a single note about this. Not this.]
Okay. Thank you. I've heard it's good, too. I mean The people I've talked to who've done it have liked it. Zoro certainly seems to. And you make it look pretty, on him at least.
Marine. [That'll kill any sort of mood immediately.]
( taking what they want, abusing their possessions, always wanting more. it's not like nami ever had the word no in her vocabulary when it applied to arlong, because a no would've seen more suffering inflicted on coco village, on nojiko. higher taxes, another raid, more dead mothers. something worse than whatever he was threatening to do to her. besides, she was just a kid — she had willingly gone to arlong, and figured the worst he could do was already done. nojiko had to scrub their mom's blood and brains out of her hair, because the red blended in too much for nami to spot. their very last interaction as sisters, until recent times.
she also wouldn't have changed anything. not now, or ever. the price of coco village was everything she had: now, in hindsight, a whole lot of nothing. why she ever believed arlong would keep his word is beyond her now — willful childish ignorance, the last glimmering drop of hope in an otherwise empty pot, or the belief arlong actually cared about her, the way she believed he did, sometimes. pirates very famously don't love to give up their things. )
i'll make it pretty on you, too. i have a whole book with pictures when i practice i can only do it on my legs though. this'll be a big help wanna meet up at mine? roommate's gone
[He does know -- he knows and he doesn't, because Arlong was different, because Nami was clever and cunning and brave, and she was half the age Koby was when he left the island he knew, when he stumbled (stupidly, stupidly) into becoming a pirate's cabin boy. Because Alvida had been a nuisance, an annoyance on the seas, whose power mainly exerted itself in control, in you can eat when the deck's spotless, in you can sleep when I can see my reflection in those boots and sometimes, sometimes in if you're too tired or hungry or in pain to work, I'm sure the crew could find some other way for you to contribute, I'm sure if I lock you in the hold with them for an hour, they'll figure out a way you can be useful, Koby.
Arlong's brutality was written all over the burned-out hulls of Coco Village, all through the East Blue, in the bounty that was quadruple what Alvida's had been at it's peak. Still: they had both been children, they had both found a way to survive, they were both left with the ghosts of those years and now, now Koby wants to exorcise a few of them, wants to see if a year of freedom balances out two of captivity.
And that's why it has to be Nami.
So:] Yeah. I do. [And he leaves it, sleeping for now.]
Sure, yeah. I'm done wrapping everything, I think. A whole BOOK? [Oh, she's speaking his language now.]
( she's glad to let it lie — more than that, she's relieved. it's not something that comes up often, and most people wouldn't know what to ask to get it out of her. what arlong did to her was bad enough — she doesn't need to make anyone suffer for the nitty gritty details. it was bad. that's usually enough said. )
with PICTURES the pictures are important, so i know what it's supposed to look like you can even pick out some designs you wanna try if they look good to you. i can do stuff that won't bind your arms at first, so we can see if you panic
[It’s carefully tucked away, like everything Koby knows about her, little bits and pieces of a life Nami keeps locked up, unspoken about. He knows the urge, the need to keep it contained. He knows.]
Pictures, really? There are DESIGNS? Like an artform then, for real, not just for function. Does the kind of rope matter? Should I wear anything specific? What are the rules?
[A beat. Then:] You choose. I want you to choose. It’s Important that you choose. [That it isn’t his choice, that the control is gone, that’s the whole point. Surrender, like in Otherworld, like on the banks of the snowy river when she’d warm her hands on his pelt and nothing else in the world existed. That’s what he wants back.]
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sometime pre-butler bcause I got brainworms
You can say no.
no subject
when do i ever say no to you?
spill
no subject
You like tying Zoro up.
Right?
Is it because it's him or because you just like tying people up?
no subject
thoughtfully, after a little wait, )
yeah i like it
not just him, i don't think. though it's never been anyone else
why? curious?
no subject
Never? I would've thought
Well.
If you ever wanted practice, I was thinking maybe
I mean
They used to tie me in the brig. Before.
So I might freak out. At first.
And I don't want to be naked if that happens, you know?
Plus you've seen me freak out before, you know what to do.
And I trust you. I know you'd make it safe.
But if that's too much that's okay too. That's fine.
So
Yeah.
no subject
arlong used to chain me in bed
( she would literally rather die than admit that to anyone else, though. )
so i get it
i'll take care of you. promise.
i'd like the practice too, anyway. i'm always super under prepared when it comes up.
safeword?
no subject
She knows. She says bed and Koby wonders, wonders a little too close to the darkest, deepest aches in his heart, and has to reel his mind back before it goes there. Not there.]
He did? [An invitation, for more, if she wants to give it, if she feels like lancing the wound, like letting it bleed clean. He won't tell a soul, won't write a single note about this. Not this.]
Okay. Thank you. I've heard it's good, too. I mean
The people I've talked to who've done it have liked it. Zoro certainly seems to.
And you make it look pretty, on him at least.
Marine. [That'll kill any sort of mood immediately.]
cw: implied csa
( taking what they want, abusing their possessions, always wanting more. it's not like nami ever had the word no in her vocabulary when it applied to arlong, because a no would've seen more suffering inflicted on coco village, on nojiko. higher taxes, another raid, more dead mothers. something worse than whatever he was threatening to do to her. besides, she was just a kid — she had willingly gone to arlong, and figured the worst he could do was already done. nojiko had to scrub their mom's blood and brains out of her hair, because the red blended in too much for nami to spot. their very last interaction as sisters, until recent times.
she also wouldn't have changed anything. not now, or ever. the price of coco village was everything she had: now, in hindsight, a whole lot of nothing. why she ever believed arlong would keep his word is beyond her now — willful childish ignorance, the last glimmering drop of hope in an otherwise empty pot, or the belief arlong actually cared about her, the way she believed he did, sometimes. pirates very famously don't love to give up their things. )
i'll make it pretty on you, too. i have a whole book with pictures
when i practice i can only do it on my legs though. this'll be a big help
wanna meet up at mine? roommate's gone
cw: sa, just all the way down
Arlong's brutality was written all over the burned-out hulls of Coco Village, all through the East Blue, in the bounty that was quadruple what Alvida's had been at it's peak. Still: they had both been children, they had both found a way to survive, they were both left with the ghosts of those years and now, now Koby wants to exorcise a few of them, wants to see if a year of freedom balances out two of captivity.
And that's why it has to be Nami.
So:] Yeah. I do. [And he leaves it, sleeping for now.]
Sure, yeah. I'm done wrapping everything, I think.
A whole BOOK? [Oh, she's speaking his language now.]
no subject
with PICTURES
the pictures are important, so i know what it's supposed to look like
you can even pick out some designs you wanna try if they look good to you. i can do stuff that won't bind your arms at first, so we can see if you panic
no subject
Pictures, really? There are DESIGNS?
Like an artform then, for real, not just for function. Does the kind of rope matter? Should I wear anything specific? What are the rules?
[A beat. Then:] You choose. I want you to choose. It’s
Important that you choose. [That it isn’t his choice, that the control is gone, that’s the whole point. Surrender, like in Otherworld, like on the banks of the snowy river when she’d warm her hands on his pelt and nothing else in the world existed. That’s what he wants back.]
I trust you.