Fandom One Piece - Boy With a Scar Roleplay [Based on the Fanfic by Syluk]

[HowlingWoods]

Hi there! My name is Howl, and to be completely honest this normally isn't my jig - the whole fandom thing. That said, one of my favorite fanfics in existence (which could also probably win a record for slowest updates ever) released a new chapter 2 months ago and I ended up re-reading the entire fanfic earlier this month, and as I tend to do whenever I read this particular fanfic, I ended up craving a roleplay based on it.

It's a One Piece fanfic called Boy With a Scar (Link HERE or HERE), and it's based on the idea that if Luffy had been enslaved by the celestial dragons as a child and made to fight in arena death matches before escaping and setting out on his journey to become pirate king, how would his character and the story have changed? I'm absolutely infatuated with this darker version of Luffy where he's not only so much stronger, but much more ruthless and jaded, and yet somehow manages to maintain his silly, childish side. I also think his dream of becoming Pirate King has a much more solidified reason from the very start - after all, it makes sense that a former slave would dream of becoming the freest person in the world!

If the idea of the fanfic excited you, then hopefully you'll give it a read even if you're not interested in the roleplay. Syluk is clearly a brilliant writer and they've got me hooked for the next chapter for sure, so give them all the love! That said, I don't exactly have a clear plot in mind for the roleplay, or any real idea of what characters we'd be playing. I would like to play Luffy (the version of Luffy from the fanfic, of course), but I'm also not confident in my ability to play him accurately, especially as well as Syluk writes this version of him, so if my partner could convince me they can play him better than I can (which likely wouldn't be hard) then I'd be okay with taking up an OC or another crewmember/character from One Piece. Probably Zoro. Definitely Zoro.

That said, I'm pretty flexible on the plot, I'd like to talk about it and find out who your favorite characters are or if you want to involve a One Piece OC, etc. We can come up with a more fleshed out plot from there. That said, just to get your inspiration flowing, here are some vague plot ideas. Don't feel shoehorned into one of these though, if you have another idea I'd be happy to hear them! My only requirement is that Luffy is a main character and that he appears the way he does in the fanfic, slight alterations from the fanfic are fine but he should at his core still be the same as in the fanfic.

• Divergent from the fanfic, instead of being rescued by Dragon from the celestial dragon's ship, he's rescued by Zoro. We'd have to do some timeline fiddling here probably as I'm pretty sure Luffy was rescued before Zoro went to sea, but we can work out the details. This is honestly just because I adore Luffy and Zoro's relationship in the canon series, I'm not sure if I could imagine them as a romantic couple but I could see it under certain circumstances and I'm all for it.
• Same as above but rescued by an OC.
• A continuation of the story picking up where the fanfic left off, following canon storyline as the fanfic does but of course with it's own twists and turns.

As far as the fanfic goes, I'd consider at least the first 5 chapters to be required reading before we start, and preferably the whole currently released 29 chapters should be read as we're roleplaying. As for One Piece itself, you'd probably need to be at least to the Punk Hazard arc to understand all the nuances of the fanfic, since while the fanfic follows the canon storyline only up to just after entering the grand line and meeting Laboon thus far, there are references to characters and events and places that are not fully revealed until Punk Hazard IIRC. That said you could probably get by fine as long as you know about Luffy's backstory, Grey Terminal/Dawn Island, and the Celestial Dragons. I myself have only watched up to episode 858 of the anime (middle of Big Mom arc) so I ask that no one spoiler anything more recent than that, as I do plan to watch it eventually but with as slow as the pacing of the story is now it's hard to get back into the series after a long hiatus tbh.

So! I think that's about it for the plot and the fanfic, moving on to my expectations:

• Contribution! Don't expect me to do all the heavy lifting, please contribute your own ideas and thoughts. If you just sit there like a lifeless bump on a log and nod at me I'm going to walk right past you.
• At least 2 decently sized paragraphs per post minimum. Preferably, 4-8 paragraphs per post, but I understand that dialogue-heavy scenes might have shorter posts and what not. If we end up each playing multiple characters, I'll expect your length to be scaled up with each additional character.
• Be willing to engage in OOC chatter! I want to be your friend.
• This is not a requirement by any means, but I do prefer to keep most OOC chatter on Discord. The roleplay itself should still be hosted on RPN (although I can be convinced to do it on Discord instead, if you prefer that) but OOC chatter is just easier for me on Discord. That said my Discord ID is Karmatose#8234. If you'd prefer to keep OOC chat on RPN, however, I can definitely be accommodating to that.
• Read at least 5 chapters of the Boy With a Scar fanfic before we start writing (Link HERE or HERE in case you missed it earlier), and be willing to read the rest as we roleplay. That said feel free to message me even if you haven't started the fanfic, as long as you're confident from my description of it that you'll like it.
• Read or watched at least up to end of the Fishman Island arc. I'd recommend doing this before you even read the fanfic or else you'll be confused and spoil the series for yourself. I'm fairly sure that the Celestial Dragons were explained in the Fishman Island arc, and that Grey Terminal and the relevant info of Luffy's backstory was explained a while before that, so if you've finished Fishman Island you're probably fine, although meeting Law in the Punk Hazard arc would be beneficial but not necessarily required for comprehension of the fanfic!

Here's what you can expect from me:

• I'll do my best to contribute an equal amount to you - if you contribute nothing, I will contribute nothing too. If you contribute a lot, I will be much more forthcoming and willing to contribute more as well. I'm generally good at the "getting the ball rolling" part of things, but I'm not so good at keeping it rolling so you gotta help me out here.
• 2-15 decently sized paragraphs per post, depending on inspiration, scene content (dialogue vs. action vs. emotional tension), time constraints, and how much I'm given from you. I realize that's a rather wide range and I've done roleplays before where each post is only 2-3 paragraphs and enjoyed them just fine, but I do typically prefer partners who are capable of writing more, even if they don't necessarily demonstrate that capability every post.
• If we're on Discord, expect lots of OOC chatter. I'm talkative. That said I can be pretty quiet when OOC chatter is held on RPN unless you initiate the conversation since chatting on RPN for me is a bit of a pain compared to Discord heh...
• As previously mentioned, I've watched up to midway through the Big Mom arc of One Piece and I've read all 29 currently released chapters of Boy with a Scar.
• I'm more experienced in writing OCs in original settings, but I am willing and eager to experiment with playing some of the Straw Hat cast or OCs designed for the One Piece world.

And lastly, here's a bit about me as a person:

• I have 3 cats (although 2 of them are technically my mother's) and they all have cute nicknames. Our oldest, Starla, is nicknamed Princess. For obvious reasons, she's a spoiled brat. Lux is called Luxy Tuxedo or sometimes my dad calls him the GQ cat because his fur looks like it's an expensive suit from the Gentleman's Quarterly magazine. And Nina, our resident escape artist and the one cat that is mine, is nicknamed Nina Houdini. Because old-school references. Full stop.
• I'm a 19-year-old cisgender female (she/her) who suffers from a variety of mental health concerns. Cats are my only consolation.
• I really, really like cats, okay?!
• Ironically I'm actually a dog person but nothing I said about cats is untrue. They are adorable fluffy little munchkins and I love them.