What Do You Think Cora Would Think Of Law Memorializing Him All Over His Body, Ship, Crew? Would He Find

What do you think Cora would think of Law memorializing him all over his body, ship, crew? Would he find that obsessive or weird?

(apologies for the ramble; i get to your question eventually, i promiseーthis topic is actually really personal to me and makes me a bit upset).

　is this a popular take? because I’ve seen it several times now, and i just don’t understand what people are getting at. it genuinely kind of makes me upset because i feel like it’s coming from the perspective of people who have (fortunately) never experienced the unique kind of grief the death brings and are therefore judging how “messy” it can sometimes look.

sure, I suppose it’s “weird” in the sense that holding onto that kind of rage & guilt for literal years is unhealthy for your mental state (especially if that’s the last thing rosinante would have wanted for himーhe wanted to free him from doflamingo, not bind him to him via his rage)—but i’ve read multiple fics before where authors paint it as this… creepy, stalkerish thing? like it's helga's shrine to arnold in 'hey arnold!' or something? it’s not. It’s really not.  

(cw: death of a loved one).

when i was 22, a friend i knew since i was 2 (he was 2 years younger than me, so i literally knew him his entire life) passed away falling off a balcony. really traumatizing, really horrific—i genuinely have a fear of standing too close to balcony/banister railings now. i’ve had nightmares about it.

i keep his ‘in memory’ card and the funeral program his mother gave out at the service on a shelf in my closet so I see it every day when i get dressed or hang up laundry. i took several copies to ensure that i never lost them, and plan on putting them into a nicer shadowbox at some point (but have been too afraid to touch them because I don’t want to ‘ruin’ them). i still post birthday messages to his socials every year. i have old choral performances of his saved to my computer. i have a memorial tattoo.

if someone told me my way of remembering him was ‘creepy’ and ‘obsessive’ just because i think about him a lot or hold on to a lot of momentos, i think I genuinely might have a panic attack & burst into tears? this is all i’ve got left. he’s not here anymore; he was cremated so i don’t even have an actual grave i can go visit and have that connection. and i’m just… not allowed to have any of this because people on the outside think the way i express my grief is ‘too much’? i'd straight up just never speak to that person again.

ー.

so, no, i really don't think rosinante would be that off-put by the tattoos, or the jacket, or the jolly roger at all. if anything, he'd be honored that he made such an impression in this kid's life that he wanted to keep his memory alive like that.

he'd recognize they were separated in an extremely traumatizing wayーand adults have a hard time dealing with difficult emotions like grief, much less children & teenagers dealing with it. there was no way law wasn't going to be impacted by that, so he decided to redirect those things into something physical. tattoos. a custom jacket. a jolly roger. a special attack with his devil fruit. he turned that grief into something that guided him, and arguably gave him strength to keep going.

but also, not to mention, he's a doctor.

barring his jacket that literally has rosinante's codename on it, all of the heart motifs can just as easily hold a double meaning for law. he's literally called dr. heart stealer with a special move where he can detach your heart from your body and put it in a little cube. rosinante may have been a big part of the name & motif choices, but law clearly has other things in his life he connects the meaning of 'heart' to. it means a lot to him.

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so, no, i don't really find law's behavior that odd or 'obsessive' (except for his blind hatred of doflamingoーthat was clearly obsessive) and i doubt rosinante would, either. the grieving process is wholly unique to an individual, and some people just like to attach their grief to physical momentos that they can latch onto when they miss that person, or feel like they're losing focus.

i find it endearing. beautiful, even.

　❝ law didn't tell me anything, actually, ❞ the man clarified, trying his best to recover from the unplanned shift in his demeanor by smoothing out the tightness in his voice and loosening his posture again. ❝ i didn't even know you were alive.❞ that alone was a logical enough reason for him to have looked so caught off-guard & uncomfortable just then, right? that saved him from looking guilty & suspicious, right? he prayed it did, anyway.

rosinante took the clothes offered to him without inspecting what they even looked like. whether they were his style, or size, or what it didn't matter. the ex-spy in him was eager to blend in to the new, alien environment as quickly as possible (especially if his safety hinged on it), and the newly burgeoning guilty conscience in him was eager to just do whatever ace asked. he would be compliant. he would be agreeable. law wanted him here for a reason and he'd be damned if he was going to screw things up for law just because of a few uncomfortable elephants in the room.

　❝ i guess that explains the secrecy. i thought the kid was just being difficult for the sake of being difficult again. but, i'm still not sure why law wants me here, meeting a patient of his. i'm not a doctor, i'm just... ❞ an-ex crew member? an old friend? a caretaker? an estranged hermit that spent thirteen years looking for law having only recently reconnected? the man who viewed him as a son years before he could even bring himself to say it aloud, or that law would even be okay with it? there were so many different ways to phrase it, but only one felt right. all-encompassing. ❝ family. ❞

A  MERE  HUM  vibrated  within  the  thick  throat.  as  if  ace  was  weighing  his  choices  with  a  name  to  call  the  blonde  by.  he  didn't  mind  either  way,  but  since  given  the  chance  to  freely  make  a  pick,  the  fire  fist  after  all  nodded.  ❝  cora  sounds  way  cooler.  ❞  the  words  carefree  slipped  past  chapped  lips  as  they  formed  a  welcoming,  small  smile.  maybe  a  little  bit  crooked,  as  he  felt  the  tension  coming  from  this  man's  suddenly  stressed  posture.  

as  soon  as  ace  revealed  his  own  name,  everything  seemed  to  take  a  direction  to  the  unknown.  air  filled  with  odd  weighting  emotions  that  the  fire  fist  had  no  trouble  sniffing  out.  he  was  used  to  reading  people  by  their  sight  alone,  body  language  and  trembling  lips  often  told  him  more  than  words  would.  ❝  since  law  sent  y'here  then  you  probably  know  the  deal,  right  ?  ❞  it  was  brave  to  assume,  as  ace  felt  like  the  surgeon  of  death  would  spent  some  time  to  explain  this  man  why  arriving  at  this  particular  island  was  off  limits  information. 

❝  there's  some  ...  inner  things  y'gotta  know,  pardner.  ❞  the  ravenette  swiftly  placed  his  leather  bag  down,  fishing  out  clothing  that  the  heart  pirate's  crew  prepared  before  ace  left.  he  got  up,  having  the  fabrics  resting  in  his  palms  and  offering  them  up  towards  rosinante.  ❝  you  gotta  change  to  these  clothes.  this  island  ...  it  ain't  likin'  outsiders.  it's  better  to  dress  like  the  locals  here.  ❞  he  could  only  hope  the  blonde  wouldn't  put  up  a  fight  over  fashion,  or  complain  at  all.  everything  weighted  over  the  team  work  and  mutual  understanding  that  he  hoped  to  receive. 

Would Rosi love Law if he were a worm though?

of course he would love law if he were a worm!

later I’m gonna have him remove all the asbestos too

@kaizokugaris ❤️'d for a thing.

　　　❝ do you... think your crew moved the ship? ❞

　rosinante would hesitate to call his decision to tag along with zoro a 'mistake'; any opportunity to get to know law's comrades & crewmatesーthe people that were there for him all these years when he couldn't beーwould always be worth the effort to him. they were important to law, so they were important to rosinante in return.

but he would be lying if he didn't admit this excursionーthis seemingly easy route, from the sunny, to the blacksmith's, back to the sunnyーwas taking far longer than he ever thought it would. did they pass this street already? that sign? wait, he doesn't recognize this alleywayーhonestly, they seemed to be getting further & further from the port, but he wasn't at a high even vantage point to be able to tell.

　　❝ maybe that's why you're having trouble finding it? should i ask someone for a transponder so we can call strawhat or law? ❞

i love ya kid!✌🏼❤️‍🔥