Maldea: Sweet baby Ace, lovable and precious. The baby of the ship (for now). Pops will always love you.
sairakanzaki: The black will be very important hmm...
Wishfull-star: Thanks! Thatch and Ace are the best pranking buddies. The more people to join, the more they become a dark force on the Moby Dick lol.
He heard Marco laughing at him from the counter, eating some goodies baked the day before. Ace walked to him and hugged him tightly, smearing the red paint all over him and his clothes. "You jerk!" he shouted, and chased after Ace, who was laughing and screaming until he slipped from the paint on his boots and fell on his back.
"That's what you get."
"That's what you get! Laughing at me!" Ace replied, standing back up. Marco crossed his arms and pointed out it was funny because he was a victim to his own prank. "If I knew it was there, I wouldn't have gone through that door, you know? Thatch is a traitor, he set up a prank without telling me!" Ace raged and then pouted. Marco still laughed, but said they should get cleaned up before dinner.
Ace sighed and went to the bedrooms and then bathhouse, avoiding looking at the mirror. But he finally did look up and saw the black on his skin stretching to Marco's arm. He pursed his lips and eyes widened. "Ace, what's wrong?" Marco asked. He couldn't feel the black just like Ace couldn't. But Pops had seen this before and didn't think it was dangerous.
"Nothing," Ace said, and got into the shower. They wouldn't go in the tub and get red paint in the water to ruin it and have to drain the whole tub, which was a pain in the ass. After they showered off, they got dressed in the clothes they'd gotten from their rooms on the way there. They were nice and clean again, and made sure that all of the paint was rinsed down the drain.
When they went back to the galley, Marco continued on his dessert that had plastic wrap over it, as they didn't know how long Marco would be away. Ace sat at the counter, and the 36 crew members came in and sat down. This ship really was designed for many more people. He sat at the table with the other teens and Pops and Oden.
"Hey, Oden? How do you get your hair like that?" Ace asked while eating his mashed potatoes.
"I know! There's actually a frisbee in there. Or a plate, and you just wrap it around it!" Thatch hypothesized. Oden shot that down, and said the real reason was actually an accident. But then he didn't elaborate, which annoyed Ace, Thatch and Marco. But he just laughed and refused to talk about it.
Pops laughed at it. "Hey, Pops?" Thatch asked. "What are we planning on doing? Just sailing and collecting people?" Ace had asked the question of Marco, who hadn't really known other than growing the family and growing stronger.
"I was thinking of expanding our crew and becoming a big force in the world. But I think we need to get stronger before then. All of you do," Pops said. "But above all, we're still adventuring," he assured them when Oden showed a disgusted face at any responsibility. "We'll just see how our time turns out. I'm sure it will be enjoyable."
Ace smiled, wondering what the future of the crew would be. He looked at his hands, and would keep practicing ryou, along with getting smarter about navigating. When dinner was over, Ace went outside to train with his ryou against Marco. He would know it worked if Ace could harm him. Haki hurt devil fruit users, apparently.
But Marco beat his ass, throwing him around the deck roughly. Ace got angry and tried his best, but he wasn't good at hand to hand now, even after training with Jozu. His way of training didn't work with Ace, he thought. It was boring. Jozu was a boring guy, even though he was plenty nice.
He left the deck with bruises, feeling very grumpy. He went to his room to go to bed, looking in the mirror in the bathroom. He just couldn't avoid it, couldn't ignore it. He wished he could, but he just couldn't. When he looked at it, he touched his face, seeing the black was on the corner of his mouth.
The boy whined, remembering when it was shoved down his throat. He curled in on himself in a ball on the floor and started to rock back and forth, breathing heavily. But he managed to calm himself down after about ten minutes, and went to his closet and pulled out a shirt, putting it over the mirror. He then went to bed, the porthole uncovered to let in moonlight, not only the bright night light across from his bed.
He should be fine, really. As long as he had his family, then he'd be okay.
-x-
"This is boring," Ace complained, sitting on the roof of the cabin as the ship sailed slowly to the next island. Oden said he needed to be patient.
"Close your eyes again." Ace huffed and did so. He was trying to unlock observation haki, but the training was super boring. All he did was sit with his eyes closed and try to use his other senses to tell what was going on around him. With no progress with his armament haki, he took a break on that to try with observation haki.
Marco knew it, as did much of the crew. Some were better than others. Vista's was better than anyone else who was underage. There were so many that were in their teens. Ace couldn't wait to grow up more, look tougher and stronger. Not so forgettable.
He ended up zoning out, only to get bonked on the head by Oden. "Pay attention!" he ordered. Ace stuck his tongue out at him, and went back to practicing. But he jumped at the chance when Thatch asked for his help. He said, "Bye! I might be back later!" and dropped down from the cabin roof.
"Are you cooking something?" Ace asked. Thatch grinned and shook his head.
"You didn't look like you were having fun, so I rescued you," Thatch said with a snicker. Ace smiled and thanked him. They walked past the sewing room, where Izo was working. Since he couldn't buy fancy kimonos at Wano anymore, he was working on making his own, and found that he really enjoyed the process, so he decided he'd be a seamstress.
The two went to the library, and sat on the carpet spot. They hadn't bought the chairs and couches yet because on the last island, they were crap quality. They wanted comfortable chairs. Stefan was in there, sleeping on the first step of the staircase that lead to the second level of the library. Ace couldn't wait to see it fill up with books. All sorts of books!
"So, are you okay, Ace?" Thatch asked quietly, even though nobody else was in there. Ace frowned, wondering why he'd ask. "You seem tense. I saw your mirror was covered up when I went to get you for breakfast after you participated in watch duty." He sounded genuinely concerned.
Ace looked away. "I don't think you'd like it."
"If it's something bothering you, please tell me," Thatch insisted. Ace looked up, seeing a genuine expression on his face, one of worry and concern. Ace knew that he would trust Pops' decision on the matter, probably wouldn't be afraid of Ace. So he told him. All about the darkness he sw clinging to his skin, and how both Pops and Oden knew about it before he did. "Oh, I'm so sorry. That must be super scary."
Ace smiled a small smile and nodded, thankful Thatch didn't think he was a monster. "I always got your back. You're my brother and best friend!" he said with a bright smile. "Besides, we don't know if that stuff is actually bad, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it's not harming anyone or you. You can't even feel it. Maybe it could help you be stronger some day. Though I don't think you would play around with it. You're already gonna be strong when you master some haki. But still, maybe it's not so bad," Thatch said positively. Ace wasn't so sure.
After all, it had taken him in there, trapped him for 70 years, all alone in the dark. He was just glad he was unconscious the whole time. Thatch kept talking. "Also, I honestly didn't really think you'd come away from that completely normal. I mean, what happened definitely wasn't normal. I thought that maybe sometime you'd be possessed or something. But I know now that Pops would be able to handle anything."
Ace nodded, agreeing. "I think I fooled myself into thinking I may be normal, off scot free. I still don't know why I was kept there, though," he said, sounding frustrated. "What did they want with me? I mean, I'm alive, right?"
"Hmmm, well, you had all those cuts, right? Maybe you were like, their energy. Or maybe you were food. But unharmed food, which is weird, but good of course!" Thatch hurried to add. Ace didn't want to talk about it anymore, and Thatch caught on. "Let's talk about something else, huh?" Ace was more than happy to do that.
But all day, the thought of the black actually being helpful was in his head. But then he wondered if the black was actually alive, or just lingering darkness from the forest. He didn't know how many living creatures had been in there, consumed and overcome almost immediately all those decades ago.
Marco and Thatch said the darkness was kind of alive, all the plants moving as if they had minds of their own, and the chittery demons as well as the loud, bellowing on that was after them until they made it out into the sunlight.
At dinner, Ace was quiet, but nobody asked if he was okay, which he was glad of. He was just lost in his thoughts, though not all of them were negative. He was excited about the next island, which was a winter island. Ace had never been to the snow. Where he lived, it never snowed. So he was excited about that. Oden knew what it was like to be in the snow, though, but he was plenty excited regardless.
So, when he went to his bathroom, locking his bedroom door, he took the shirt off of the mirror so he could see himself. The black had moved, so it was no longer at his mouth, and at different places on his body. Having moved along his arms and legs into positions they hadn't been before.
"What are you?" he asked. "Are you alive? Move if you can hear me." The black didn't move. It stayed stationary, even if it seemed to flicker a bit, as if they were small flames. But they didn't reply at all. He lifted his hand, and tried to gather the darkness in it. It didn't work. The flames were just more like sticky stuff. They seemed useless.
He dimmed the bathroom light, and the black increased its movement. Not by much, but it did increase, even just a tiny bit. He swallowed and turned the lights off fully, shutting the door and leaving himself in pitch darkness.
When the light was all gone, his head felt blank, and he had no control as he started to laugh manically. He was able to move his hands, and felt his face, unable to close his mouth so trying to cover it. But he felt jagged teeth when he tried to cover his mouth to silence himself. A tongue licked at his hands as he covered his mouth and used his leg to turn the light on.
He looked in the mirror, but he looked completely normal. And he felt normal, too. Why was he laughing like that? He had been completely unable to control it. He could control his body, but not his voice. He swallowed deeply, glad he couldn't see how he looked. He opened the bedroom door and turned the bathroom light off.
It seemed only pitch darkness made him react, and he sure as hell wasn't going to try again. He turned the bathroom light on again, keeping it open a crack so more light was in the room. But, he knew he wouldn't be able to relax at all. He still attempted to sleep, but it never came.
So, he left his room and went to Pops', glad he was inside his bedroom. He knocked on the door, and was called in. He closed the door behind him. "Something happened," he said, voice quiet, clearly not good news. He was gestured to the big chair, and brought his knees to his chest. "I tried turning off all the light in the bathroom. Well, I did. I want to see if the black is alive, but I don't think it is until it got dark.
"I just… I started to laugh like a crazy person, and I couldn't stop it. I could still use my body, but that didn't work. And… when I tried to cover my mouth, there was jagged teeth and a really long tongue. But when I turned on the light, everything was gone! And it only happened in the pitch black."
Whitebeard frowned deeply at this, and Ace was worried. "Then there's a simple remedy for that: don't be in the pitch dark. I'm so sorry you went through that, it must have been very scary," he said in a sympathetic voice. Ace nodded and started to cry quietly. "It is completely okay to be afraid of this, Ace. You're not weak for that."
Ace didn't think he was weak for being upset, but it was nice to hear it from Pops. Ace looked down, and said he was going to try and rest. "Okay, if you want you can come in here later and stay on the chair. I'll leave the bathroom light on and curtains open," he offered. Ace smiled and thanked him before leaving the room to go to his own, finding Stefan curled up on the bed. Not to sleep, but to rest.
He truly wished he could sleep. But he couldn't.
He ended up going outside to practice his ryou haki. He wanted to master it as soon as possible. He wanted to master so many things as soon as possible, but some would definitely take patience. And he wasn't a very patient person, honestly. The breeze was nice and calming, though.
He stood up and tried to do the ryou and got it the first try! He covered his whole body, grinning madly. He ran inside to show Oden, to bang on his bedroom door, but the moment he went inside, it all disappeared. When he tried again inside, it didn't work. So, it only worked outside at night?! How annoying!
But he went into a storage room nearby, which had a nightlight, and tried in there. The ryou came out just fine. It wasn't all that surprising. He was stronger in the dark. It didn't mean he liked it at all, but he had used haki in the day, so it was possible. It wasn't only at night. It was just exponentially easier at night.