Author's Note: Another oneshot in the Sweet Disposition-verse. This time, it's about Isabella's crew set to the album I named their crew after, High Violet by The National.
Also, let's play a game of "Spot the lyrics". In each section, I have hidden a line from each of the songs from High Violet, so try and find them.
Warnings: Sexual slavery, depression, rape, death, and self-harm are all mentioned or alluded to. There are also some spoilers to Sweet Disposition.
Disclaimer: One Piece is the property of Eichiiro Oda. Please support the official release.
Terrible Love
When she returns to Yukijima after over a year at sea, Delta isn't given the welcome she hoped for.
After the situation with Nathan Vu Jr. calms down and the Libras are able to kill off the remaining clones he made of them, Delta heads straight to her parent's manor. She's not surprised when her father's hoity-toity assistant tries to turn her away. She's not surprised when her mother and her politician father shut the door on her. And she's also not surprised that they threatened to call the police on her.
She tells her crew that it's okay and that she doesn't care, but on the inside, Delta is heartbroken that her parents would cast her aside like that. It takes an ocean not to break, especially for someone as tough and headstrong as her.
Sorrow
The small blade she's been using to make shallow incisions along her arms sit before her. Charity doesn't want to hurt herself anymore. The sadness is in her honey, her milk, and her life. She just can't understand why a well-liked girl with good parents, a stable home life, and a promising future is also prone to tears, self-mutilation, and days spent shut in her room with no energy to do anything.
Charity doesn't want to die. She just uses the knife to try and make the pain go away.
Thankfully, she puts the knife away and doesn't use it for a long time. The scars heal. This too did pass.
Anyone's Ghost
Miss Maggie is the perfect step-mother that anybody could ask for, but Cornell misses his birth mother.
He still blames himself for the events that caused his mother's death. If he just brought some food to his parents when he paid that visit, then his mother wouldn't have stolen a whole roast chicken. His mother wouldn't get caught and suffered through rape, torture, and murder all over a chicken. If he just made one change to his day and brought his starving parents even a tub of ice cream to eat, Cornell would still have his biological mother. He wouldn't be suffering on the inside.
He didn't want to be anybody's ghost, and neither did his mother.
Little Faith
These days, Molly has no faith in any higher being. When she was a little girl, her parents would take her to church sometimes, where she would learn about higher beings in the universe and what happens in the afterlife and good, wholesome morals.
As an adult, there is none of that. There's no higher being helping her out. No promise of a peaceful afterlife. No morals, especially after her stint with the Capricorns.
"Little faith, follow me," the voice in the back of her head says on her hardest days. "Little Faith, follow me and end all of the danger. Make the Capricorns and the Dragon Lady go away so I can live in peace again."
Afraid of Everyone
Being an ex-prostitute to the Dragon Lady has left Lennon wary of the people he surrounds himself with.
"I'm afraid of everyone," Lennon tells Jeffrey one night after nightmares of the Dragon Lady disturbed his sleep.
Jeffrey can only put his hand on Lennon's shoulder and make more hot chocolate with the whipped cream and tiny pink marshmallows. It's always a good distraction from the nightmares and the mistrust.
Bloodbuzz, Ohio
Caleb wonders what would've happened if the High Violets never took him in as a shipwright. Would he stay in his small town, or move to a big, cosmopolitan city? Would he keep working as a shipwright? More importantly, would he find somebody to love?
"I never thought about love when I thought about home," Caleb thinks to himself one day. "Does anybody on this crew love me?"
That's the only time Caleb ever thinks about love and marriage for a long time.
Lemonworld
"Give me a reason to get out of the city."
Isabella never says this. Her crew members wanted reasons to leave home. The Libras needed reasons to leave home. Hell, even her fellow Shichibukai had their reasons to leave their homes.
Instead, Isabella is looking for reasons to settle down and lay low for a while. Maybe in a small village off the grid or a large city like Lougetown or Yukijima where nobody can find her.
Runaway
There was no saving anything when Colin left home. Vida was dead due to a botched abortion and his parents' conservative grip on the island was just getting tighter and more restrictive. Ergo, their policies led to the island's only abortion clinic closing, leading Vida to get a back-alley abortion that caused her to die.
Colin may have lost his sister, but he can still save his crew.
Conversation 16
Talking to Ty is like talking to a brick wall.
"I think the kid's in trouble," Cornell observes one day after a fruitless meeting with Ty and his other Revolutionary Army buddies.
"No shit, Sherlock. He is in trouble," Berryessa points out. "It's his own fault that he's in this situation, and it's his fault he drinks, does drugs, and fucks every girl in existence. At this point, my brother is gone beyond repair."
England
Jeffrey has always wanted to visit New Bristol City in the West Blue. He had lived there for the first five years of his life, until he and his mother sailed to the Goa Kingdom, promising to sent for Jeffrey's dad when they got settled in.
Twenty years later, Jeffrey is finally back in New Bristol City. The first thing he does is visit his father in the Flatiron Heights neighborhood, the same neighborhood Jeffrey spent his toddler years before leaving town.
"Jeffrey, why did you put an ocean and a river between me?" Is the first thing Jeffrey's father asks when Jeffrey steps into the small apartment.
"I didn't want to, dad. All I wanted to do when I was growing up was to see you again," Jeffrey answers.
Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks
She left her home. She had her name changed. She lived alone. She had her cake and ate it too.
Empress Tanaka left home at age thirteen to settle her parents' debt to the Dragon Lady. She had her name changed from Kyouko to "Empress" when she turned sixteen when she started to dance, flirt, and dine with the strange men the Dragon Lady wanted to pimp her out to when she became an adult. She lived alone, not knowing a single soul in the brothels, bacchanals, and parties.
When she turned eighteen, Mac "The Chain" Amarcord rescued her only days before she was to lose her virginity. They had cake to celebrate. It didn't last long.
Empress died several weeks later, all because of a miscommunication. She did nothing, and Melba - Mac's wife - went and stabbed the knife right through her chest. All because Melba thought that Empress was one of the girls who was sleeping with her husband.
Now her body is burning on a funeral pyre. Only the High Violets and Troy, the nice boy who was Mac's son, came to her funeral.
At that moment, Delta Bradbury, Charity Saltdale, Cornell Riviera, Molly O'Flannigan, Lennon Brockman, Caleb Avril, Isabella Sarutobi, Colin Thyssen-Krupp, Berryessa Betteravia, and Jeffrey Legrey all swore to get revenge on the man who had one of their own murdered. Even Troy Adelphia, the nice boy from the Libra Pirates, vowed to get his revenge on his own family.
Why else did the High Violets leave home?
