Unfinished Luceti App
Mun
Name: CC (aka Wolf)
Livejournal Username: Silverwolfcc
E-mail: Silverwolfcc@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: LittleTigerCC12
Current Characters at Luceti: justicereigns, unmarryable & doubleppk
Character
Name: Marco
Fandom: One Piece
Gender: Male.
Age: Unclear. At least over 36 though he acts much older. This is thrown into question due to the phoenix devil fruit on whether he could be extremely older or just around 40.
Time Period: Chapter 590 in the manga. Before the timeskip, after thanking Shanks for his help making the graves and getting the crew out of Marineford alive.
Wing Color: Electric/sky Blue (matching his phoenix wings & sash)
History: http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Marco
Personality:
Marco is extremely strong: physically, fighting and also mentally, as he has a lot of willpower and was able to resist falling asleep from Shanks' haki. He's ridiculously protective of his crew and anyone he cares about as an ally or trusted friend. He loves Whitebeard as a father, calling him Pops like the rest of the crew does, and was the first person to explain to Ace why the pirates trust and love Whitebeard as a father. He gets very distraught when someone hurts his crewmates, and tends to be the worrier of the crew, sometimes referred to as the "Mother Hen" in fanon. He's intimately well-informed of crew matters being one of Whitebeard's most trusted commander and is seen as very responsible, even duty-bound at times. As the first division commander he's "the big brother" of the family that is the Whitebeard crew and he looks after all his little brothers, calling them "young ones" and treating them like idiots until they get stronger and learn more about how the world works. He has a deadpan sense of humor, claiming in the middle of battle to be severely hurt by Kizaru even when he was completely unharmed, and is shown to be quite sarcastic while maintaining an emotionless face. He doesn't like to show weakness to enemies or outsiders and because a lot of people (such as Crocodile) want to kill Whitebeard to take his place or in an attempt to become the next pirate king, he's usually wary of them. However, he does take a quick liking to Luffy, partly because he knew how important he was to Ace and also because Luffy stopped Crocodile from attacking Whitebeard in the fight.
Marco has an intense loyalty to Whitebeard. So much so that he generally dislikes Red-Hair Shanks for frequently asking Marco to switch sides and join his crew instead. He also got annoyed with Shanks for using haki on his crew, which Marco is very protective of. His love for Whitebeard (and worry thereof) is so great that despite the composure Marco shows through the rest of the battle at Marineford, when Whitebeard got hurt and started to fall, Marco turned his back on his enemy to try to rush to Whitebeard's side and this got him into handcuffs draining him of his phoenix powers. He openly cried at both Ace and Whitebeard's deaths even though it was in the middle of a battlefield, but he still maintained the presence of mind to try to get the rest of his crew to safety -- showing exactly why he was one of Whitebeard's strongest commanders, mentally as well as physically. Likewise, Marco is extremely intelligent, and knowledgeable about aspects of the world, that few, if anyone, knows much about.
He was extraordinarily worried about Ace when Fire-Fist took off to avenge Thatch against Blackbeard and even tried to stop Ace, because while he trusts his fellow commanders to have the strength to take care of themselves, and knew Ace's capabilities, Whitebeard told Ace to stand down, he trusted Whitebeard's judgement intimately and likewise trusted that Thatch was strong enough to survive where he couldn't, which meant Blackbeard far exceeded anyone's expectations of strength (as Shanks tried to inform the Whitebeard crew, though they already knew.) In spite of this however, in order to save face for Ace and his pride, Marco backed up Whitebeard every step of the way in the claim that they ordered Ace to hunt Blackbeard down even to Shanks and the world at Marineford.
Even without being Teach's division commander, Marco kept a close enough eye on Blackbeard to know things about him no one else appears to. This is most likely due to his care for all of his crew, not just his own division, and his attention to fine details that was necessary to help his captain keep the crew running smoothly. However, in spite of the friendship and closeness to his crewmates, Marco still managed to keep a managerial distance, calling the newer crew members "young ones" and making it very clear that they took orders from him. He can be warm and gentle with them (like making sure to bring Ace food), but for all his affection for his supposed little brothers, Marco doesn't hesitate to take lone action himself, like surging ahead in a battle.
The Whitebeard pirates in general have the reputation of swift and terrible vengeance, and Marco is by no means exempt for this. His fury for Blackbeard for killing Thatch was only compounded by turning Ace into the marines to be executed and worse yet for killing their captain. He was also furious with Akainu (who delivered Ace's killing blow), but in spite of that and all the other times the crew made sure to exterminate anyone who hurt their family; Marco knew his first responsibility was to keeping the rest of the crew safe and alive. If he rushed back in the way he surely wanted to, his crew would have tried to back him up and gotten hurt. Thus Marco put the priority of making sure as many got back out alive as possible above their reputed priority of vengeance.
He can come across as very flippant and dismissive, part of his cocky arrogance and also part of his sense of humor. When Rockstar was trying to brag about his fame and asking if anyone had ever heard of him, Marco quickly retorted, "No," steamrolling anymore attempts on the pirate messenger's part to puff up his name and own ego. He can be extremely deadpan and sarcastic even in the middle of a battle, and usually jokes lies with a completely straight face. He lights up and he's at his best and happiest when he's talking about his Pops and how much they love him and why. There's a glimmer of this reflection when he's explaining things to his crew around him, or straight-away agreeing with his Pops (like minds), or when he's proudly determined thinking that even if victory isn't immediately at hand, it'll be fun to try.
Despite easily having one of the highest bounties in the world, being the second-hand-man to the strongest man in the world, and having one of the rarest and strongest devil fruits in the world, Marco doesn't talk much about himself or brag at all. Instead, he seems to share some of Whitebeard's dream of a desire for family in that Marco wants to keep them safe. He's smart and at least a little ambitious to reach the rank he did, but he has no desire to be the next Pirate King, and even having been around during Gold Roger's rise to fame (as well as Golden Leo Shiki's), Marco's loyalty was always to Whitebeard because he respected his captain so much for wanting family and love instead of jewels or power. Following in his captain's footsteps, Marco's strength and power isn't used to make him famous, but instead to protect the beloved crew he has. While Whitebeard was supposedly taking a gamble on Ace's "Will of the D" carrying the new generation of pirates into the future and setting Ace up to become the next Pirate King, Marco supported this stance and never sought it himself.
Marco was able to use the stolen marine technology without any difficulties and used to this to direct someone to listen in on marine lines of communications and to pass messages to the other divisions during the battle. While he followed and carried out Whitebeard's orders through the start of the battle, when his captain told them leave Whitebeard behind, Marco took over, with the crew looking up to him as their current battle leader. Whitebeard had clearly informed Marco in advance of his Pop's intentions to stay and die at Marineford, giving Marco the orders to get the crew out of there the minute they had Ace and could run; but even with that, Marco kept his composure during Whitebeard's proclamation, carrying out his job. Though Marco had never gotten along with Shanks, when Shanks showed up to end the battle of Marineford (after both Ace and Whitebeard died), Marco grudgingly accepted the much needed help, for the sake of the crew, even though this also meant he wouldn't be able to avenge either Ace, Whitebeard, nor Thatch at that time. This shows he can put aside grudges and deep resentments for the better good when necessary.
Whitebeard himself was most famous for not allowing slavery and even taking islands under his protection to stop other pirates from trying to engage in it. He adopted any son of the sea who needed a home as one of his own and didn't hold any discriminations based on race, species, abilities, personality, and was a very firm believer that a son should never be held to pay for the sins of a father. Marco backed up all of these beliefs every step of the way, worked with cross-dressers, fishmen, monsters, giants, and other seeming outcasts without question or pause. The only thing Marco seemed to have troubles with was forgiving someone who hurt his crew; same thing Whitebeard himself said he could never forgive. And when Squado was beating himself up for getting tricked by the marines into attacking Whitebeard, Marco was furious with him, but got straight to the heart of the matter and told Squado that agonizing over the mistake wasn't going to fix it or help them. If Squado wanted to be sorry, he could prove it by backing Pops up and helping him against the marines to rescue Ace.
In the Japanese version Marco had a verbal tic adding "Yoi" to his sentences. Many of the English translators interpreted this as "Eh" and it's become a common fandom thing to add either. I use "eh" as it requires no explanation to English speakers and gives him a Canadian aura to match/counterbalance some of the other nationalities characters in One Piece have supposed affiliations with.
Strengths:
As a phoenix, Marco is able to procure blue flames with limited regeneration powers. The flames do not burn however; but Marco is so adept at using his devil fruit that unlike most zoans who can only switch between 3 modes (hybrid, original/human, and full form of the alternate species) he can procure the flames at whim. Likewise, he's shown himself able to transform any part of his body he wants into a phoenix form without completely switching into hybrid or full phoenix. His phoenix form is large enough to carry a normal-sized human, well capable of flying, (which Marco can also do just by switching his arms into wings) and very fast. He's a very strong martial artist and prefers to kick; partly as a reference to phoenix lore, and also because with his arms in wings, he likes to hang suspended and have the option of backing up with them. Due to the wings and devil fruit, he's a little bit of an acrobat, known for flips and kicking while upside down.
Able to hold his own against all three marine admirals, who are all logia (elemental devil fruit specifically: magma, ice, light) and highly trained in the use of "haki," Marco is also very strong with his own haki. Haki is the One Piece world's condensed spiritual pressure which can be used to pierce the elemental logia types; put weak-willed foes to sleep or stop them in their tracks, and resist blows like an armor. When one of the pirate emperors was visiting Whitebeard using all their haki and making Marco's crew pass out, Marco was easily able to resist -- something expected of one of the strongest men in the world, and first division commander in the crew of the strongest man in the world.
One of Marco's biggest strengths is his usual ability to keep a level head in bad situations. He's deadpan and nearly unflappable; the only thing that gets to him is seeing his family/crew hurt. He can rationally analyze most situations and he's excellent at getting straight to the heart of the matter or cutting through unimportant details along the way. As one of the older crewmembers and first division commander, he's earned the respect and loyalty of his men and even most of the entire 1600 man crew, and yet he cares about all of them, even if they're new and younger and he sometimes calls them idiots. He would even take time out of his day to bring Ace soup and talk with him; well understanding the importance of simple gestures and because he really looks out for the crew that much.
Marco is so rational and even tempered, that he's able to put his desire for vengeance against Teach second to keeping his family safe -- particularly knowing that this is what Thatch, Whitebeard, and even Ace would want. When Ace died, for all of Marco's fury and outrage, he made it his priority for the crew to protect Luffy at any cost, even though this meant letting Akainu go rather than killing him (despite again, the crew's reputation the world over for vengeance). Marco has a lot of experience in fighting, the New World, and piracy at large since they lived in the most dangerous part of the world, had a captain who had frequent assassination attempts on his head, and Marco's been part of the crew since before Shiki's visit to Whitebeard (20 years prior to Strong World/canon before the timeskip.) This means he knows a lot about the ocean's hazards, and enough to keep his family safe through all of that.
Weaknesses:
Being a devil fruit user, Marco is weak to ocean and seastone and cursed to never able to swim again. As shown by Garp and Onigumo, when taken off guard, Marco can get hit very hard and thrown off course or even locked up in seastone. He values his family (Whitebeard and crew) first and foremost and seeing one of them stumble or hurt severely hits his morale because he instantly tries to rush to their aid despite the enemies he's facing himself -- which led to huge problems for him in the fight against the marines in Marineford. He's a little too cocky and flippant sometimes, and even life or death battles he doesn't seem to take seriously unless he's absolutely forced to; which can lead to him making some careless mistakes.
He can be a bit aloof and standoffish with people who aren't part of his crew/family, which would be much more of a detriment in Luceti as he's actually quite dependent on the crew and would be a little lost without them. His lack of ambition is a small weakness as, much as George McClellan had trouble in the American Civil War; Marco would rather keep every single one of his crew members as safe as possible. He will not risk them for anything and when it comes to protecting them, he'll attempt to sacrifice himself even when it wouldn't help as much (such as running back to try to save them, oblivious to his own fight).
Marco is used to being able to use the fear and intimidation from his connections to Whitebeard and his bounty poster infamy to get his own way. Recently in canon, facing the loss of his father & captain, as well as two of his best friends and having the responsibility of taking care of the surviving crew has shook up his otherwise unflappable calm. Moreover, with their crew's infamy came several islands under Whitebeard's protection which is no more, and the man Marco lost his three "family" members to: Blackbeard, is only rising in power daily. Still more pressing on him is the Whitebeard crew's reputation for revenge stopped being upheld when Thatch died and they weren't able to save nor avenge Ace or even Whitebeard. Instead they had to get rescued by Shanks, whom Marco originally held some resentment and general dislike for.
Samples (ALL samples must be set in Luceti-verse.)
First Person:
Requesting the Q&A please!
Third Person:
Marco ambled about town at a leisurely pace. No one was going anywhere, so there was no hurry. It was a fine spring day. Lightly breezy, big white puffy clouds drifting lazily by, and flowers everywhere. Had this been a spring island the Whitebeard pirates docked the Moby Dick at back home, the first division commander would have gone flying to drink it all in. He still thought of them that way; Whitebeard pirates, first division commander, not captain. Maybe he'd need to get over it soon, but he was still comfortable with being identified in that way. It wasn't wholly denial about the events that had transpired, but it was definitely an unwillingness to let go. Teach would mock him mercilessly, but Blackbeard could go to hell, sooner rather than later.
The grave was absent from this place, which was understandable, people didn't die here. And Marco had already met some people who were dead and brought back. Still, without his father here, he needed something to hold onto. Some sort of physical reminder that he could sit near and try to feel the calm safety he'd always gotten from the strongest man in the world. If he couldn't rely on getting that from the halberd and jacket hanging in the wind, then Marco would just have to make something. Just how much he needed to thank Shanks sunk in as Marco stared at various flower shops, baskets of overflowing flowers and was at a complete loss on how to do this. In his grief, he'd been unable to put one together for Ace and Whitebeard; Shanks had helped, and it meant everything to him. Here, Marco was floundering again. What kind of flower represented the manliest person he'd ever known?
He gave up on flowers for and decided to check out the bar. The sounds of people drinking and laughing were familiar. Almost as much as sailing and flying to the phoenix pirate. And more importantly, they reminded Marco of his father. The only times he could remember Whitebeard setting down the sake or rum were when Marco's Pops was busy fighting someone. Even with IVs in him and nurses telling him to drink less, Whitebeard never stopped. Marco leaned against the doorway, his head tilted to one side to listen better, which made him look even more bird-like than usual. There wasn't anyone he recognized in there, and he wasn't in the mood for talking anyway. Still, it gave him an idea though and he went around back to see if he could borrow any empty bottles. And if not, then he'd just try to steal them.
A good stack collected, Marco moved on to find a secluded rooftop to put it all. It didn't have the same effect as the jacket and halberd combination, but the bottles instead of flowers were a nice touch that Marco was quite proud of. It was a small thing, having a grave there to talk to. Marco didn't even intend to talk to it. And with the dead still living in Luceti, he held out a small hope he'd see his father again in person. Still, the memorial gave him a small measure of comfort. He sat down cross-legged next to it and leaned his back against the upraised ledge. What would Whitebeard say he should do? It was a troubling question, but with the memorial there, it seemed easier to think on.
Old one below:
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Marco woke up in the snow, his sash and belt missing and his pants were replaced with annoying non-piratical ones. Oh wait, there were his clothes folded up neatly beside him. Odd. Must be some stupid prank his crew was playing on him. Maybe they'd drugged his drinks last night, it would explain why he couldn't remember going to a winter island. He got dressed and noticed right away his shoulder blades actually ached. Well that was a first in... he couldn't even remember how long ago it had been. Must have been one hell of a party. The minute he found the others he'd have to have them fill him in, especially with how little they'd had to celebrate recently. He put on his jacket last and right away noticed the cramped almost painful feeling. Which was odd on several accounts. Firstly, Marco was not a man to notice, or often actually be able to feel pain. Secondly, his wings were not even close to that tiny and they were normally in place of his arms, not in addition to.
"It's like I've suddenly become a sky islander," Marco remarked aloud, craning his neck and turning around to try to get a better look. They looked like his wings, fire blue in color and certainly feathery. Although they weren't actually on fire, and much too small to be of any use. And they were growing out of his shoulder blades. This was just bizarre. Clearly his brothers had done a good job with this prank. They must have gotten the nurses to stitch it on or something elaborate. He sighed looking around for them. No good prank should go unpunished after all. "Okay, get your asses out here, eh? Joke's over," he didn't look all that amused by it. Nor disturbed, all things considered, but that wasn't Marco's way. Someone had to be a level head in a pirate crew in the most dangerous ocean in the world. The way the others were free to be ridiculous apparently.
No answer. Marco tilted his head listening for any birds he could use to spy out where they were -- the idiots actually thought he'd be displaced in a forest? Hah, they should know better. There was a reason Marco was better at getting them than the other way around. He went to take the added wings off, refusing to look ridiculous just for their amusement if they weren't going to be around to see it -- and instantly got hit with a dizzying wave of pain. Okay, that was probably not a good idea. And still utterly confusing. Was his devil fruit working at all? He frowned and conjured up soft blue flames to his fingertips. Hm, they were there at least, so couldn't have seastone in him, and yet, they seemed distant. Almost weaker than usual. As though calling to him from far away. He let the blue flames lick over the fake wings to heal the pain, letting it gradually ebb away, though not nearly as quickly as it should have; not there there should have been any pain at all. Frowning at this disturbing decrease in power, Marco transformed into his full phoenix form just to check.
Everything was where it ought to be. Tattoo on chest, arms were huge wings instead, beak, talons, and using the long swan-like neck Marco saw that the fake wings were still there. They could almost blend in, aside from not being on fire, and yet they shouldn't be there at all. Oh, he was so going to kick every single one of those jokers into next Tuesday for this. And steal all their rum for a month.