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. ]
[ well, isn't that a funny question. hua cheng considers it, then shakes his head slightly; his expression remains fairly placid, but if she looks closely there's a hint of something more solemn at the corner of his eye. ]
Friends... [ he doesn't really have those. not back home, anyway—when he was a ghost fire he lacked the corporeality for it, and then when he became a malicious ghost his time was dedicated to keeping xie lian from self-destructing utterly into his own madness. it was only when he became a supreme that he had the capacity at all, but then he became the ruler of ghost city, became a calamity with a reputation for terrible violence, and who wants to befriend a creature like that? ] Black Water calls me Crimson Rain. From my title, Crimson Rain Sought Flower.
[ he shrugs again. ]
I didn't have friends, at home. And those friends I've made here call me Hua Cheng.
[ Didn't have friends at home – for reasons Hua Cheng is already privy to, Nami gets it. Maybe that's why there's an easiness to getting along with him, her reputation wasn't for terrible violence, but it was still pretty terrible, and her world's hard enough that she doesn't doubt what he's capable of, or the things he'd do for his other half. ]
Gongzi or Chengzu? I like the second one, and I can't call you Crimson Rain Sought Flower, you're already a mouthful, remember?
[ She'd said a lot of rambling, heated things while his fingers fucked her beneath one of the casino's card tables during their night of derailed gambling, but she can recall poking fun at him back then, all while coming undone without their fellow players catching on.
Glancing back down at her sketchbook, she realizes she's abandoned her drawing and sighs at herself as the thought of all she revealed today rolls back around in her mind. There are a few strokes of her pencil that follow the thought, finishing up the drawing in an effort to tamp down those thoughts before she turns the book around for him to see. ]
I'm going to add more detail to this one later, I think.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[ 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.
no subject
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. ]
no subject
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?
no subject
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.
no subject
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. ]
no subject
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.
no subject
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?
no subject
[ 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.
no subject
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.
no subject
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?
no subject
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."
no subject
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?
no subject
Friends... [ he doesn't really have those. not back home, anyway—when he was a ghost fire he lacked the corporeality for it, and then when he became a malicious ghost his time was dedicated to keeping xie lian from self-destructing utterly into his own madness. it was only when he became a supreme that he had the capacity at all, but then he became the ruler of ghost city, became a calamity with a reputation for terrible violence, and who wants to befriend a creature like that? ] Black Water calls me Crimson Rain. From my title, Crimson Rain Sought Flower.
[ he shrugs again. ]
I didn't have friends, at home. And those friends I've made here call me Hua Cheng.
no subject
Gongzi or Chengzu? I like the second one, and I can't call you Crimson Rain Sought Flower, you're already a mouthful, remember?
[ She'd said a lot of rambling, heated things while his fingers fucked her beneath one of the casino's card tables during their night of derailed gambling, but she can recall poking fun at him back then, all while coming undone without their fellow players catching on.
Glancing back down at her sketchbook, she realizes she's abandoned her drawing and sighs at herself as the thought of all she revealed today rolls back around in her mind. There are a few strokes of her pencil that follow the thought, finishing up the drawing in an effort to tamp down those thoughts before she turns the book around for him to see. ]
I'm going to add more detail to this one later, I think.