Cute. And, probably a lot nicer than anything anybody from home would call me.
[ Satisfied with how he's posed, Nami gets to her feet, stopping on her way back to her things to shift the angle of a nearby lampshade, fixing the way the light hits Hua Cheng to her liking before she settles. ]
You had a good shadow on your jaw the night we played cards. [ Something she'd forgotten to really focus on amidst everything else going on at that table. ] I wanted to see if I could get it down right.
[ Nami shoots him a little grin before she takes up her sketchbook and a pencil, looking between Hua Cheng and the blank page in front of her before she starts drawing. ]
[ the noise hua cheng makes in response is one of vague surprise. on the one hand, nami has enough of a rough-and-tumble air about her that it wouldn't surprise hua cheng to know she ran with a rougher crowd back home; on the other hand, she's been affable enough with him that he has a hard time imagining her not being well-liked. ]
I'm surprised you noticed anything about the shadows that night. [ considering that he spent most of that game with several fingers knuckle-deep inside her. it's impressive that she had a mind to pay attention to anything besides her racket and his touch.
as she instructs, hua cheng lifts his gaze to focus on her. it's no hardship to keep looking, especially because her drawing him gives him an excuse to really study her in turn. she's pretty—not the way a gem is pretty, but the way a forest fire is pretty, all fire and heat. wild, unrefined, all the more lovely for it. ]
What would they have called you back home?
[ she told him to look at her; she didn't tell him not to talk. ]
Your hand started out on my thigh, I had time to check things out.
[ Her grin fades as her focus shifts to the sketch in front of her, her pencil light on the page as the line of his jaw starts to take shape, meticulously nailing it down to her satisfaction before moving on to let the drawing grow from there. ]
You mean, other than thief? [ Usually shouted as she's making tracks in the other direction. ]
Up until not too long ago, you might hear heartless witch, if you were asking around my hometown.
[ Even though she and most of her crew were dragged here shortly after Coco Village was liberated and all that put to rest, she can still relish quietly in her relief about that. ]
Cat burglar's one I kind of liked. What about you? Got a favorite title? [ He's got a mouthful of them, she knows, and she's partial to Ghost King. It's to the point and cool-sounding. ]
[ hua cheng is in no hurry, and he doesn't mind the way nami's focus comes and goes as she alternates between looking at him and looking at her art. if anything, the way her responses come a bit delayed is a little bit charming. ]
Then it's no wonder we get along. [ thief, heartless witch, cat burglar. hua cheng doesn't need to ask if they're true, he knows enough of nami to assume that it's likely 75% truth and 25% exaggeration that she leans into because it makes things easier.
the returned question makes him grin, although he doesn't move his head from where she'd placed it. ]
I have many names. As for a favorite... for its poeticism I like "Crimson Rain Sought Flower," which is what I'm called as one of the four great calamities. But my favorite thing I'm called is "San Lang," meaning third son, which is the name I gave to my husband to hide my true identity on our first proper meeting. He calls me that, still.
[ The heartless part's the biggest lie, but life made it so the best way she could show how much she cared was by acting heartless for too many years. The thieving bit's all true, and she wouldn't apologize for it even if she was pressed to, not that she'd ever expect any judgement from Hua Cheng.
Smiling to herself as she listens and draws, her pencil slowing as the sketch she's been working on nears completion, the anecdote he has to share about his favorite moniker making titling the drawing “San Lang” the obvious choice. ]
How is your husband doing, anyway? This place isn't getting to him too bad?
[ Though she can't relate to what it feels like to be bonded to someone quite that fixedly, she's pretty sure she's stuck with her crew for life, and that's got to be similar in some ways. Having them with her is a double-edged sword, she likes to keep an eye on them and know they're safe, while at the same time wishing they were all anywhere but within the casino's hold. Something tells her it's probably not a feeling Hua Cheng is unfamiliar with, especially given the extra attention she remembers his husband received upon arrival.
Nodding, satisfied with what she's come up with, Nami turns the notebook around so he can see the drawing she's made of him, his face partially concealed by his hand as he rests his chin on it, his hair cascading silkily, framing the elegant lines of his face and the subtly amused expression he wears – details it's clear she paid special attention to and enjoyed drawing immensely. ]
[ the question earns a blink-and-you-miss-it flash of emotion in hua cheng's face. so often he embodies the persona of cruel, aloof ghost king without flaw, but xie lian has always been and will always be a crack in his armor. ]
We're doing the best we can. [ and to be fair, xie lian has been much less reckless in recent weeks. ] We fought for the first time, recently. In a way, I think it was a good thing—better to get it out than keep it in.
[ their marriage is, of course, far too strong to be destabilized by something like a fight, but it was a unique experience considering how rarely the two of them have ever disagreed. as it turns out, the combination of ghost magic and deep fear over xie lian's personal safety will do it for hua cheng.
when nami turns her sketchbook to face him, hua cheng looks down at the art, then grins as he leans forward to examine it. it's a good rendition—unpolished and all the more charming for it, capturing the details of hua cheng's posture and expression. the things that she's chosen to focus on speak to the details she notices about him, which is... strange, but a pleasant realization overall. ]
I think you've drawn me far too handsomely. [ he laughs, satisfied, and sits back in his chair. ] Does this make it my turn?
I guess when you're in love with somebody, you probably know what to say to cut right to the heart of the matter, because you know how to talk to them.
[ Nami doesn't miss the slight change in his expression. Even if she weren't studying him closely for the purpose of getting him drawn to her liking, she's perceptive. Considering she wouldn't want to be asked about a look like that, she doesn't pry, merely listening to him talk while adding the final touches of shading to the sketch before its big reveal.
His fingers, his jaw, the slight shadows cast in the lamplight by the gentle curve of an almost-smile. It's clear despite the lack of practice, drawing subjects that aren't landmasses, or bodies of water, she's been paying attention to quite a bit of him.
Hua Cheng's assessment of her drawing earns him a skeptical squint of her eyes, before Nami shakes her head in mild disagreement. ]
I think you need to check out a mirror.
[ Sir, you're gorgeous, please.
Shutting her notebook after he asks if it's his turn, she frees up her hands, meeting his eye with a small smirk. ] Sounds fair. So, how do you want me?
[ a mirror? hua cheng lifts an eyebrow, skeptical, and then shakes his head slightly. this is the form he wears when he terrorizes the mortal realm—he doesn't think of himself as attractive like this in the least. in comparison, his various and sundry other forms, including san lang's, seem much more to people's tastes. maybe he'll have to let nami see those, too, one day.
the phrasing of the question makes hua cheng laugh (he is, technically, an eighteen year old guy... he's just been eighteen for eight centuries!), but he is mostly focused on the actual art, so he doesn't let it immediately devolve into innuendo. instead, he gives her a quick once-over, then says, ]
It doesn't matter—sit however you're comfortable.
[ he knows that being told to sit in a way that feels true to you is one of the fastest ways to get people to second guess what feels natural, so instead he's relying on nami to just find a way to sit that she can hold for a bit. no matter now she poses, that isn't the important part—even before she's fully settled, hua cheng has picked up his pencil to start sketching out the rough shapes of her face. ]
So you draw some, but not people. What do you draw instead? Maps and?
[ After pulling her reading glasses off her nose, Nami settles in her seat with her elbow resting on the edge of the small table beside her, keeping them folded in her hand as she tilts her head and looks off to the side, striking what she's decided is a fairly cute, and comfortably sustainable pose. ]
Maps and the things that go on them, wave patterns, mountains, and sea charts laying out where the current is. [ She speaks carefully, mindful not to move too much while answering him, even if her remarks bring their predicament to mind and Nami has to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the casino. ]
I started drawing people again after coming here. [ Nami continues, going into more detail answering than she would, were she not aware that there's nothing to do right now but stay still and talk, were he not easy and comfortable enough to be around. ] Or, I guess, I started with parts of other people's rooms, and then just moved onto the people in them.
[ She's good at keeping her expression level, and Nami flexes that talent now as she lets herself drift into more familiar territory than she would with someone not on her crew. It's a quick deviance from the norm, and she turns the question around on him a second later, going back to safety. ]
How did you start? You draw your husband a lot, is that why you picked it up?
[ it really doesn't matter if she moves a little, but hua cheng can tell she's trying not to and he appreciates the effort. it makes him grin a little as his gaze darts between her and the paper, watching the sketch begin to take shape. ]
Your maps, I remember. That's what you were doing when we met.
[ nami with her nap of the casino, hua cheng with his knowledge of rookery. most people probably wouldn't jump to mapmaking immediately, and it doesn't surprise him to know that maps are an interest of hers. sea maps, though, it sounds. hua cheng remarks, idly, ] I've never seen the ocean. Only a sea, or parts of it, although—with respect to Black Water—I wouldn't recommend the view.
[ he grew up inland, and died well before he would have had the chance. there's no regret in his voice, though, as hua cheng doesn't know what he's missing. ]
In a sense. [ how to explain... ] After I died, I had eight hundred years of time. Ten of them I spent in a volcano honing my power, and during that time I occupied myself by sculpting. Once I was free, I decided to take up drawing and painting as well.
Edited (tfw you forget a whole arc of your character's source material) 2024-05-13 17:59 (UTC)
[ Never seen a real sea before? Nami's eyes widen a touch, just at the corners, revealing her surprise as she tries to imagine what sort of world he must come from that he's so cut off from the water. ]
How big is your land? I've never been far enough from the sea not to see it if I looked for it.
[ Much as she might privately wish it weren't so, there's no way to show him the ocean, and as quickly as the thought strikes her that she wishes she could, Nami dismisses it, forgetting it all a moment later as she sits with the casual mention of his death instead.
It makes sense. He's the Ghost King, isn't he? Still, hearing that he died is enough to break her concentration, her lips downturn in a slight frown, temporarily betraying her dismay before Nami recovers herself and resumes the pose she's adopted for him to draw. ]
Drawing and painting, and becoming the Ghost King?
[ An interesting amalgamation of undertakings, if so. ]
Do all the ghosts where you're from feel as alive as you?
[ that's a good question, and one hua cheng has to think about for a second. he taps the end of his pencil against the paper, considering. ]
Large, [ he finally says. ] I don't know how better to describe it. For a human to cross it on foot would take two or three years, I think, even if they walked all day.
[ which is why hua cheng is so glad that ghosts and gods both know teleportation magic. imagine having to actually walk anywhere in a country this size. ]
I know there is an ocean to the east, but I've never traveled far enough to lay eyes on it myself. And to the far west is the desert, which is expansive and full of sand and the skeletons of things.
[ he flicks his gaze up just in time to catch that little downturn of nami's mouth, which makes him smile, perhaps paradoxically. although hua cheng came to terms with his death long before it even happened, it is still sort of nice that other people are disappointed on his behalf. ]
Not all of them. Ghosts exist in a hierarchy of power, and ghost fires are the lowest. Little flames, all light and no heat, made of the soul of someone deceased. [ hua cheng lifts a hand, palm up, so he can demonstrate using his own qi what a ghost fire would look like. it's not large, maybe the size of a fist, and glowing with a whitish-blue light. ] They can't be touched, and are often caught by merchants to light lanterns.
[ imagine holding a lantern powered by a dead man's soul? hua cheng scoffs and closes his fist, smothering the ghost fire. ]
But malicious ghosts have more of a form to them, although they're not as strong as I am. Tangible at least, which makes them both more frightening and easier to kill. And I am a supreme and a calamity, of which there are only three, now, in my world.
[ Between the thought of such a massive landmass – the type she's seen in books up until now, but never in person – and the unexpected show of his power, the sight of the ghost fire brief, but no less striking for someone whose experience with spirits began here at the resort, Nami ends up looking much more thoughtful than she had when she first struck this pose for him. ]
Catching the spirits of the dead to light lanterns…
[ The words are soft, spoken under her breath while she turns the thought over in her mind. What details he's given her about his world, and his part to play in it, always sound like something out of a storybook, though the easy way he flexes his ability to bring the illusion of a ghost fire to her makes it clear it's far from fictional. Weird choice of lighting, though.
As piqued as her curiosity already is, the – what she assumes are – titles he gives himself make her eyes narrow slightly at the corners. A supreme and a calamity. ]
Is that– [ What can you say to a supreme and a calamity? ] Good? Are you happy?
It's especially lucrative to work near a battlefield. Plenty of souls to choose from.
[ ask hua cheng how he knows that. it is indeed a weird choice of lighting for him too, not least of all because he spent many years trapped that way, being used by travelers to illuminate paths ahead of them, out of control of his own fate as long as he was trapped inside that iron cage.
the question gives hua cheng pause, once again, and he considers it as he slowly resumes his sketch. his pencil moves over paper with rhythmic scratching sounds, but the gestures are slower now that he has something on his mind. ]
Yes, [ is what he finally says. ] I knew from childhood that I would die before eighteen. Even then, I had resolved that if I were to die, it would be in service to His Highness, my husband. Once I had achieved that goal, I thought that if I was to be a ghost, I would be a ghost strong enough to—
[ a memory, more sense than image: the hot tang of blood in the air, the sound of xie lian screaming. hua cheng as a ghost fire and his senseless, impotent rage. ]
To protect him. So I became a supreme, and then I became a calamity, because I could never dream of standing at his side if I couldn't protect him from those who would hurt him. And now, no one can stand against me.
[ Nami hadn't anticipated the sheer, unabashed devotion Hua Cheng speaks of, and while she keeps perfectly still, she's moved by the things he says. Devotion is what guided most of her youth, the belief that if she could just get enough money together, she'd be able to free her village and make the years of solitary pain worth it.
Because I could never dream of standing at his side if I couldn't protect him– the words weigh on her heart, resonating with her, pushing awkward ideas she does her best not to think about up from the back of her brain. She'd do anything for her crew, but there's only one person who makes her want to be better in the way she imagines Hua Cheng must have before becoming the powerful force she imagines he is now. It makes her thoughtful in a way she wasn't prepared to be. ]
Sounds like you know how to be a good husband.
[ Without moving her head, her eyes fall to the sketchbook he's been working in, distracting herself by trying to picture the drawing on the other side. ]
I would've brought my flask if I knew we were gonna talk about stuff like this. [ She laughs quietly, but not dismissively, her gaze lifting back to his face, trying to wrap her head around what it must be like, knowing you were going to die and somehow using that to some advantage. ] Okay, your turn. What can I tell you about me? [ Nami wouldn't offer if she didn't trust him, wouldn't be so keen on keeping things even as far as openness went, if she didn't respect him. ]
[ if it's his devotion that moves her, she should prepare to be moved, because the comment makes hua cheng smile in a way that it's likely nami has never seen before—soft, tender, utterly adoring. directed at his paper, but clearly spurred by thoughts of xie lian. ]
I hope I am. He makes me want to be the husband that he deserves, and he deserves nothing less than the best. [ xie lian has been treated so badly by the world, by the people around him. if hua cheng can be a shield between him and those who would do him wrong, then he will gladly let himself be used. ] I love him—desperately. Wholly. I am his in body and spirit, his most devoted follower for all eternity.
[ after a moment, he puts a finishing touch on the portrait and then sits up straight again, turning the sketchbook around so nami can see the drawing he's done of her. in it, she's leaning against the table, her head tilted and gaze cast somewhere off in the distance—but there's a smirk playing about the corners of her lips, an expression like she knows a good secret she won't be telling. ]
How did you come to be known as a heartless witch to your village?
[ Hua Cheng moves beyond the concepts she could let herself relate too if she tried, to a level of adoration and devotion Nami isn't sure she would ever be comfortable expressing – even if it still strikes a chord. Not that she doesn't appreciate it. For all he styles himself as the Ghost King, and a Calamity, Hua Cheng is a softie, and secretly she enjoys knowing someone she counts as a friend has such a good heart under all that elegant mystique.
He's talented, too, and how impressed she is with the portrait is evident in the slight way her eyes round after he turns the sketchbook around to reveal the fruits of his labor. Her pleasant look of surprise hardens into something more genuinely startled as he takes her up on her offer in spectacular fashion. Not that she can blame him for asking, exactly. ]
You don't mess around, do you? [ Nami pulls her notebook closer, pausing to tip her chin up at Hua Cheng. ] Sit how you're comfortable for this one.
[ Because there's no way she can get all, or part of this story out without something to do with her hands, and an excuse not to make eye contact, two things she waits to have before she begins to talk. ]
After my islands got taken over by the Arlong Pirates, after they almost flattened my village, and– [ Her pencil stills, but she makes it move across the page again. ] My mother died, I joined their crew, so – heartless witch.
I am not particularly known for my manners. [ which, hua cheng suspects, is part of why he and nami get along so well. but he is aware that the question is abrupt, even if she did invite him to ask about her in turn, and as a concession to that awareness he simply listens in silence to the way she answers.
much of it, hua cheng has no context for. he has no idea who the arlong pirates are, nor what islands nami comes from. but he can piece together the image of it: her village being taken over by an invading force, likely killing her mother (if the pause in her pencil strokes is anything to judge by), and then nami... joining them.
well, to a people who just saw their homeland razed hua cheng supposes that would seem like a betrayal. ]
I assume you didn't join their crew for the enjoyment of it. [ because she has a particular taste for pillaging and warfare, or something like that. that's the kind of thing that a creature of evil might do, or at least the creatures of evil hua cheng knows. nami is smart, canny, wickedly funny—but not evil. ]
[ A hushed chuckle escapes her at the assumption, but there's no mirth in the sound. ]
No, but I let my village think so. That I did it for money. Because making maps for Arlong was going to make me rich. [ The tip of her pencil is soft against the paper, lending an almost surreal contrast to the things Nami says – every word weighty like a stone. ] If they thought otherwise, they'd try to save me and end up dead.
[ It's not a story she's used to telling, and it shows in the tension knitting her shoulders together tightly, but she gets out what she can, a word at a time. ]
I made a deal with Arlong, for eight years I drew maps and charts that him and his crew used to run wild across the East Blue, and, in exchange, he agreed to let me buy back my village. I was a kid. [ She says, at the ripe old age of nineteen. ] But it was my only chance to do something.
[ hey, nineteen is plenty adult to hua cheng, who died on a battlefield at seventeen fully thinking himself grown.
it takes, he thinks, a certain type of person to be willing to accept so much derision and ire simply for the sake of saving another's life. hua cheng could never—his temper flares too hot, and he's selfish besides. not nami, though. to let her entire village hate her for years because the alternative was to let them care and let them die... there's strength in that.
he hums under his breath, taking it all in. ]
And did you? Buy it back. [ the truth must have come out somehow, he guesses, if only because of how nami had referred to it in the past tense—that her village used to call her all those things. ] Did you kill Arlong in the process?
Almost. [ The memory of Arlong's inevitable betrayal is still fresh enough to make her stomach clench and her jaw tighten, the sharpened end of her pencil pressing a little harder on the paper as she works to detail Hua Cheng's hair. ] I had the money, and I was stupid for letting him know it. The night I was going to bring it to him, he sent one of the marines he was paying off to confiscate it.
[ Nami stops talking, pencil lifting away from paper as she draws a deep breath, gathering her resolve to lift her head and look up at him. ]
Luffy– my crew kicked his ass. Turned the whole place into rubble. [ Her lips tremble, curving in a hesitant smirk. Vulnerability feels awful, and it might always, but she's trying. ] Freed the village, freed the islands, and, I guess, me too.
[ it isn't often that hua cheng lets the full extent of his ghost kingliness be known, but it's there in the way he smiles, his too-sharp incisors on display and his visible eye flashing briefly crimson. ]
Good. [ good, that arlong got his ass kicked. good that the village is free, that nami is free. hua cheng doesn't often involve himself in the affairs of mortals, but once he's decided someone matters to him, there's very little that will prevent the gruesome end of anyone who fucks with them.
not that arlong is here, and anyway hua cheng might not even have any power in nami's world, but still. he's satisfied knowing that nami won in the end. ]
You really are something fierce, aren't you, xiao jie.
[ Despite the air of fierceness hanging in the smile he gives her, Nami feels herself relaxing at his response, exhaling a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding as she nods along with that assessment, right up until he calls her fierce and leaves her chuckling quietly. ]
I don't know about fierce. The maps and charts I drew for Arlong helped him hurt a lot of people. [ Something she'll make peace with in time, but for now– ]
[ hua cheng shrugs. he understands her, at least intellectually: for someone gentle, it can't feel good to know that in the pursuit of your own goals, you've inadvertently allowed others to become collateral damage. but hua cheng is not gentle, and he's also allowed others to become collateral damage as he chases after his own ends, so he can't hold it against nami for a second.
she changes the subject, though, and quickly enough that hua cheng takes it to mean that the previous topic has drawn to a close. just as well—far be it from him to pull open old wounds still healing. ]
Gongzi, if you wanted to be formal. It means "young master." [ and the idea of being called gongzi seriously makes hua cheng laugh. ] I'm also called chengzu by the denizens of Ghost City—it means "city master." And by those who live near gege's shrine, I'm called xiao hua, "little flower."
[ Not for the first time, she's grateful for him. This time for the easy way he indulges her, switching topics and allowing her to steer them back into safer territory and grant herself a reprieve after telling a story she rarely, if ever shares. Pet names are easier, simple, and sweet, and while Nami's usually too practical to appreciate things like that regularly, some part of her appreciates a gentler continuation of the familiarity she's been left with after telling him the truth about herself. ]
Chengzu. [ It's the second one he offers that really sticks out to Nami, who still privately marvels over the concept of ghost kings and ghost cities in the first place. ]
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[ Satisfied with how he's posed, Nami gets to her feet, stopping on her way back to her things to shift the angle of a nearby lampshade, fixing the way the light hits Hua Cheng to her liking before she settles. ]
You had a good shadow on your jaw the night we played cards. [ Something she'd forgotten to really focus on amidst everything else going on at that table. ] I wanted to see if I could get it down right.
[ Nami shoots him a little grin before she takes up her sketchbook and a pencil, looking between Hua Cheng and the blank page in front of her before she starts drawing. ]
Keep looking at me, alright?
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I'm surprised you noticed anything about the shadows that night. [ considering that he spent most of that game with several fingers knuckle-deep inside her. it's impressive that she had a mind to pay attention to anything besides her racket and his touch.
as she instructs, hua cheng lifts his gaze to focus on her. it's no hardship to keep looking, especially because her drawing him gives him an excuse to really study her in turn. she's pretty—not the way a gem is pretty, but the way a forest fire is pretty, all fire and heat. wild, unrefined, all the more lovely for it. ]
What would they have called you back home?
[ she told him to look at her; she didn't tell him not to talk. ]
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[ Her grin fades as her focus shifts to the sketch in front of her, her pencil light on the page as the line of his jaw starts to take shape, meticulously nailing it down to her satisfaction before moving on to let the drawing grow from there. ]
You mean, other than thief? [ Usually shouted as she's making tracks in the other direction. ]
Up until not too long ago, you might hear heartless witch, if you were asking around my hometown.
[ Even though she and most of her crew were dragged here shortly after Coco Village was liberated and all that put to rest, she can still relish quietly in her relief about that. ]
Cat burglar's one I kind of liked. What about you? Got a favorite title? [ He's got a mouthful of them, she knows, and she's partial to Ghost King. It's to the point and cool-sounding. ]
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Then it's no wonder we get along. [ thief, heartless witch, cat burglar. hua cheng doesn't need to ask if they're true, he knows enough of nami to assume that it's likely 75% truth and 25% exaggeration that she leans into because it makes things easier.
the returned question makes him grin, although he doesn't move his head from where she'd placed it. ]
I have many names. As for a favorite... for its poeticism I like "Crimson Rain Sought Flower," which is what I'm called as one of the four great calamities. But my favorite thing I'm called is "San Lang," meaning third son, which is the name I gave to my husband to hide my true identity on our first proper meeting. He calls me that, still.
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Smiling to herself as she listens and draws, her pencil slowing as the sketch she's been working on nears completion, the anecdote he has to share about his favorite moniker making titling the drawing “San Lang” the obvious choice. ]
How is your husband doing, anyway? This place isn't getting to him too bad?
[ Though she can't relate to what it feels like to be bonded to someone quite that fixedly, she's pretty sure she's stuck with her crew for life, and that's got to be similar in some ways. Having them with her is a double-edged sword, she likes to keep an eye on them and know they're safe, while at the same time wishing they were all anywhere but within the casino's hold. Something tells her it's probably not a feeling Hua Cheng is unfamiliar with, especially given the extra attention she remembers his husband received upon arrival.
Nodding, satisfied with what she's come up with, Nami turns the notebook around so he can see the drawing she's made of him, his face partially concealed by his hand as he rests his chin on it, his hair cascading silkily, framing the elegant lines of his face and the subtly amused expression he wears – details it's clear she paid special attention to and enjoyed drawing immensely. ]
You're fun to draw.
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We're doing the best we can. [ and to be fair, xie lian has been much less reckless in recent weeks. ] We fought for the first time, recently. In a way, I think it was a good thing—better to get it out than keep it in.
[ their marriage is, of course, far too strong to be destabilized by something like a fight, but it was a unique experience considering how rarely the two of them have ever disagreed. as it turns out, the combination of ghost magic and deep fear over xie lian's personal safety will do it for hua cheng.
when nami turns her sketchbook to face him, hua cheng looks down at the art, then grins as he leans forward to examine it. it's a good rendition—unpolished and all the more charming for it, capturing the details of hua cheng's posture and expression. the things that she's chosen to focus on speak to the details she notices about him, which is... strange, but a pleasant realization overall. ]
I think you've drawn me far too handsomely. [ he laughs, satisfied, and sits back in his chair. ] Does this make it my turn?
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[ Nami doesn't miss the slight change in his expression. Even if she weren't studying him closely for the purpose of getting him drawn to her liking, she's perceptive. Considering she wouldn't want to be asked about a look like that, she doesn't pry, merely listening to him talk while adding the final touches of shading to the sketch before its big reveal.
His fingers, his jaw, the slight shadows cast in the lamplight by the gentle curve of an almost-smile. It's clear despite the lack of practice, drawing subjects that aren't landmasses, or bodies of water, she's been paying attention to quite a bit of him.
Hua Cheng's assessment of her drawing earns him a skeptical squint of her eyes, before Nami shakes her head in mild disagreement. ]
I think you need to check out a mirror.
[ Sir, you're gorgeous, please.
Shutting her notebook after he asks if it's his turn, she frees up her hands, meeting his eye with a small smirk. ] Sounds fair. So, how do you want me?
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the phrasing of the question makes hua cheng laugh (he is, technically, an eighteen year old guy... he's just been eighteen for eight centuries!), but he is mostly focused on the actual art, so he doesn't let it immediately devolve into innuendo. instead, he gives her a quick once-over, then says, ]
It doesn't matter—sit however you're comfortable.
[ he knows that being told to sit in a way that feels true to you is one of the fastest ways to get people to second guess what feels natural, so instead he's relying on nami to just find a way to sit that she can hold for a bit. no matter now she poses, that isn't the important part—even before she's fully settled, hua cheng has picked up his pencil to start sketching out the rough shapes of her face. ]
So you draw some, but not people. What do you draw instead? Maps and?
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Maps and the things that go on them, wave patterns, mountains, and sea charts laying out where the current is. [ She speaks carefully, mindful not to move too much while answering him, even if her remarks bring their predicament to mind and Nami has to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the casino. ]
I started drawing people again after coming here. [ Nami continues, going into more detail answering than she would, were she not aware that there's nothing to do right now but stay still and talk, were he not easy and comfortable enough to be around. ] Or, I guess, I started with parts of other people's rooms, and then just moved onto the people in them.
[ She's good at keeping her expression level, and Nami flexes that talent now as she lets herself drift into more familiar territory than she would with someone not on her crew. It's a quick deviance from the norm, and she turns the question around on him a second later, going back to safety. ]
How did you start? You draw your husband a lot, is that why you picked it up?
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Your maps, I remember. That's what you were doing when we met.
[ nami with her nap of the casino, hua cheng with his knowledge of rookery. most people probably wouldn't jump to mapmaking immediately, and it doesn't surprise him to know that maps are an interest of hers. sea maps, though, it sounds. hua cheng remarks, idly, ] I've never seen the ocean. Only a sea, or parts of it, although—with respect to Black Water—I wouldn't recommend the view.
[ he grew up inland, and died well before he would have had the chance. there's no regret in his voice, though, as hua cheng doesn't know what he's missing. ]
In a sense. [ how to explain... ] After I died, I had eight hundred years of time. Ten of them I spent in a volcano honing my power, and during that time I occupied myself by sculpting. Once I was free, I decided to take up drawing and painting as well.
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How big is your land? I've never been far enough from the sea not to see it if I looked for it.
[ Much as she might privately wish it weren't so, there's no way to show him the ocean, and as quickly as the thought strikes her that she wishes she could, Nami dismisses it, forgetting it all a moment later as she sits with the casual mention of his death instead.
It makes sense. He's the Ghost King, isn't he? Still, hearing that he died is enough to break her concentration, her lips downturn in a slight frown, temporarily betraying her dismay before Nami recovers herself and resumes the pose she's adopted for him to draw. ]
Drawing and painting, and becoming the Ghost King?
[ An interesting amalgamation of undertakings, if so. ]
Do all the ghosts where you're from feel as alive as you?
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Large, [ he finally says. ] I don't know how better to describe it. For a human to cross it on foot would take two or three years, I think, even if they walked all day.
[ which is why hua cheng is so glad that ghosts and gods both know teleportation magic. imagine having to actually walk anywhere in a country this size. ]
I know there is an ocean to the east, but I've never traveled far enough to lay eyes on it myself. And to the far west is the desert, which is expansive and full of sand and the skeletons of things.
[ he flicks his gaze up just in time to catch that little downturn of nami's mouth, which makes him smile, perhaps paradoxically. although hua cheng came to terms with his death long before it even happened, it is still sort of nice that other people are disappointed on his behalf. ]
Not all of them. Ghosts exist in a hierarchy of power, and ghost fires are the lowest. Little flames, all light and no heat, made of the soul of someone deceased. [ hua cheng lifts a hand, palm up, so he can demonstrate using his own qi what a ghost fire would look like. it's not large, maybe the size of a fist, and glowing with a whitish-blue light. ] They can't be touched, and are often caught by merchants to light lanterns.
[ imagine holding a lantern powered by a dead man's soul? hua cheng scoffs and closes his fist, smothering the ghost fire. ]
But malicious ghosts have more of a form to them, although they're not as strong as I am. Tangible at least, which makes them both more frightening and easier to kill. And I am a supreme and a calamity, of which there are only three, now, in my world.
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Catching the spirits of the dead to light lanterns…
[ The words are soft, spoken under her breath while she turns the thought over in her mind. What details he's given her about his world, and his part to play in it, always sound like something out of a storybook, though the easy way he flexes his ability to bring the illusion of a ghost fire to her makes it clear it's far from fictional. Weird choice of lighting, though.
As piqued as her curiosity already is, the – what she assumes are – titles he gives himself make her eyes narrow slightly at the corners. A supreme and a calamity. ]
Is that– [ What can you say to a supreme and a calamity? ] Good? Are you happy?
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[ ask hua cheng how he knows that. it is indeed a weird choice of lighting for him too, not least of all because he spent many years trapped that way, being used by travelers to illuminate paths ahead of them, out of control of his own fate as long as he was trapped inside that iron cage.
the question gives hua cheng pause, once again, and he considers it as he slowly resumes his sketch. his pencil moves over paper with rhythmic scratching sounds, but the gestures are slower now that he has something on his mind. ]
Yes, [ is what he finally says. ] I knew from childhood that I would die before eighteen. Even then, I had resolved that if I were to die, it would be in service to His Highness, my husband. Once I had achieved that goal, I thought that if I was to be a ghost, I would be a ghost strong enough to—
[ a memory, more sense than image: the hot tang of blood in the air, the sound of xie lian screaming. hua cheng as a ghost fire and his senseless, impotent rage. ]
To protect him. So I became a supreme, and then I became a calamity, because I could never dream of standing at his side if I couldn't protect him from those who would hurt him. And now, no one can stand against me.
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Because I could never dream of standing at his side if I couldn't protect him– the words weigh on her heart, resonating with her, pushing awkward ideas she does her best not to think about up from the back of her brain. She'd do anything for her crew, but there's only one person who makes her want to be better in the way she imagines Hua Cheng must have before becoming the powerful force she imagines he is now. It makes her thoughtful in a way she wasn't prepared to be. ]
Sounds like you know how to be a good husband.
[ Without moving her head, her eyes fall to the sketchbook he's been working in, distracting herself by trying to picture the drawing on the other side. ]
I would've brought my flask if I knew we were gonna talk about stuff like this. [ She laughs quietly, but not dismissively, her gaze lifting back to his face, trying to wrap her head around what it must be like, knowing you were going to die and somehow using that to some advantage. ] Okay, your turn. What can I tell you about me? [ Nami wouldn't offer if she didn't trust him, wouldn't be so keen on keeping things even as far as openness went, if she didn't respect him. ]
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I hope I am. He makes me want to be the husband that he deserves, and he deserves nothing less than the best. [ xie lian has been treated so badly by the world, by the people around him. if hua cheng can be a shield between him and those who would do him wrong, then he will gladly let himself be used. ] I love him—desperately. Wholly. I am his in body and spirit, his most devoted follower for all eternity.
[ after a moment, he puts a finishing touch on the portrait and then sits up straight again, turning the sketchbook around so nami can see the drawing he's done of her. in it, she's leaning against the table, her head tilted and gaze cast somewhere off in the distance—but there's a smirk playing about the corners of her lips, an expression like she knows a good secret she won't be telling. ]
How did you come to be known as a heartless witch to your village?
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He's talented, too, and how impressed she is with the portrait is evident in the slight way her eyes round after he turns the sketchbook around to reveal the fruits of his labor. Her pleasant look of surprise hardens into something more genuinely startled as he takes her up on her offer in spectacular fashion. Not that she can blame him for asking, exactly. ]
You don't mess around, do you? [ Nami pulls her notebook closer, pausing to tip her chin up at Hua Cheng. ] Sit how you're comfortable for this one.
[ Because there's no way she can get all, or part of this story out without something to do with her hands, and an excuse not to make eye contact, two things she waits to have before she begins to talk. ]
After my islands got taken over by the Arlong Pirates, after they almost flattened my village, and– [ Her pencil stills, but she makes it move across the page again. ] My mother died, I joined their crew, so – heartless witch.
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much of it, hua cheng has no context for. he has no idea who the arlong pirates are, nor what islands nami comes from. but he can piece together the image of it: her village being taken over by an invading force, likely killing her mother (if the pause in her pencil strokes is anything to judge by), and then nami... joining them.
well, to a people who just saw their homeland razed hua cheng supposes that would seem like a betrayal. ]
I assume you didn't join their crew for the enjoyment of it. [ because she has a particular taste for pillaging and warfare, or something like that. that's the kind of thing that a creature of evil might do, or at least the creatures of evil hua cheng knows. nami is smart, canny, wickedly funny—but not evil. ]
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No, but I let my village think so. That I did it for money. Because making maps for Arlong was going to make me rich. [ The tip of her pencil is soft against the paper, lending an almost surreal contrast to the things Nami says – every word weighty like a stone. ] If they thought otherwise, they'd try to save me and end up dead.
[ It's not a story she's used to telling, and it shows in the tension knitting her shoulders together tightly, but she gets out what she can, a word at a time. ]
I made a deal with Arlong, for eight years I drew maps and charts that him and his crew used to run wild across the East Blue, and, in exchange, he agreed to let me buy back my village. I was a kid. [ She says, at the ripe old age of nineteen. ] But it was my only chance to do something.
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it takes, he thinks, a certain type of person to be willing to accept so much derision and ire simply for the sake of saving another's life. hua cheng could never—his temper flares too hot, and he's selfish besides. not nami, though. to let her entire village hate her for years because the alternative was to let them care and let them die... there's strength in that.
he hums under his breath, taking it all in. ]
And did you? Buy it back. [ the truth must have come out somehow, he guesses, if only because of how nami had referred to it in the past tense—that her village used to call her all those things. ] Did you kill Arlong in the process?
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[ Nami stops talking, pencil lifting away from paper as she draws a deep breath, gathering her resolve to lift her head and look up at him. ]
Luffy– my crew kicked his ass. Turned the whole place into rubble. [ Her lips tremble, curving in a hesitant smirk. Vulnerability feels awful, and it might always, but she's trying. ] Freed the village, freed the islands, and, I guess, me too.
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Good. [ good, that arlong got his ass kicked. good that the village is free, that nami is free. hua cheng doesn't often involve himself in the affairs of mortals, but once he's decided someone matters to him, there's very little that will prevent the gruesome end of anyone who fucks with them.
not that arlong is here, and anyway hua cheng might not even have any power in nami's world, but still. he's satisfied knowing that nami won in the end. ]
You really are something fierce, aren't you, xiao jie.
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I don't know about fierce. The maps and charts I drew for Arlong helped him hurt a lot of people. [ Something she'll make peace with in time, but for now– ]
If I'm xiao jie, what do I call you?
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she changes the subject, though, and quickly enough that hua cheng takes it to mean that the previous topic has drawn to a close. just as well—far be it from him to pull open old wounds still healing. ]
Gongzi, if you wanted to be formal. It means "young master." [ and the idea of being called gongzi seriously makes hua cheng laugh. ] I'm also called chengzu by the denizens of Ghost City—it means "city master." And by those who live near gege's shrine, I'm called xiao hua, "little flower."
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Chengzu. [ It's the second one he offers that really sticks out to Nami, who still privately marvels over the concept of ghost kings and ghost cities in the first place. ]
What about your friends? What do they call you?
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