Air pirate AU - TTGL fanfic
A silent evening, like all the rest of them.
A redheaded anarchist, sitting alone in a cell on death row.
A wanted airpirate, dead or alive.
The stage was set.
The final rays of the sun were finding their way through the metal bars of the window, high up and out of her reach. They illuminated her face--a bored expression, completely unmoved by the desperate attempts of the sun to light her fire. As she was concerned, it had already been put out.
It wasn't your normal type of prison. This was the only prison whose patrons' days were numbered--every single one of them. They were imprisoned for a variety of reasons, stripped of any kind of rights that their humanity entitled them to. They were fed only two meals of tasteless slop, disallowed from access to simple cleaning supplies or even the laundry, and never given any time outside their cells. On top of that, the security had been modified appropriately so the state's citizens could come around and mock the prisoners. There were no rules regarding what this mocking involved. Needless to say, the majority of them were practically begging for the chair by the end.
The sun set completely, the light on her face being put out like a candle snuff. This was when the worst of them came out. She brought her knees up, the ball dragging against the stone floor, and huddled up for a long night.
To her surprise, it was actually quite a few hours before the first one showed up, and she'd almost fallen asleep completely. She heard him before she saw him. The jangle of chains started off quietly, getting progressively louder, until the sound of footfalls joined them. The crescendo of noise stopped as his feet neared the window, ending with a clatter as he leaned down to look through the window. They could only see the faint outline of each other.
"Hey there, pretty lady."
Her immediate response was on his face in a split second. With an amused smirk and a chuckle, he wipes the spit off of his cheek, feeling not offended but rather gifted to confirm that her aim was just as deadly as they said it was.
"That's no way to greet someone that wants to offer you freedom!"
She rolls her eyes. "Fuck off."
"Nah, I'm serious. Hate t'see talent like yers vanish in smoke, y'know?"
There was no response.
"Whaddya say, huh? Y'belong in the clouds, babe. Not in some stupid cage."
She scoffs. "Yeah. Right. What the fuck makes you think you can get me out of this shithole?"
He simply chuckles and stands up, turning heel. "Just who the hell do you think I am?"
Her eyes widen and she suddenly looks up at the window, wanting to say something but realizing he was already gone.
...
A few hours later, as the dawn approached, the anarchist was woken up by shuffling outside her window. Through her freshly-awakened confusion, she would have to admit to being a bit startled when a large figure with wide, glowing eyes peered inside her cell occasionally as it did...something...to the bars. It steps back a few feet as a sound, not much unlike boiling oil, started. With the light from the figure's eyes she could see the metal bars simply melt away like ice under hot water. As the bars melted away, the figure chipped away the stone around the window to make the then-window-now-hole wide enough to fit its shape.
It hops down into the cell--by now she could tell that the figure was male--and he wastes no time in breaking the chains that held her down.
"You're not the one who was here earlier," she whispers, mildly shocked at this sudden development.
"Shhh..." he prompts, then goes back to work. He undoes the chain connected to her ball, but leaves the ones on her cuffs untouched. Once that is done, he crawls back out the hole again and holds out his hands for her to take. She stares at them incredulously for a moment, then takes them. He pulls her out into the greydawn light, all of her bruised, unwashed body and unkempt hair exposed to the world.
"Quickly, before they notice!" He takes the chain of her cuffs and takes off running, dragging the still shocked anarchist behind him. She's far too tired to argue--after all, she's out of that damned cell now, and even if she gets shot down now she will have died in the sunlight. She follows the stranger's directions as he slips through the security measures as if it'd been a practiced maneuver.
Once the two of them are a safe distance from the prison, he slows down to a more manageable pace. After some time, he glances toward the anarchist's sad form, clicking his tongue as his suspicions of the prisons had all been confirmed just by the sight of her.
They had walked in in silence until she saw it. The pirate ship. Not any pirate ship, but the pirate ship. The one that the entire planet feared. It was docked meticulously cliffside as the sun rose behind it, its fearsome image silhouetted by the bright light, almost blinding the anarchist. She stops walking, forcing her captor to stop as well. She stares at it in silence.
Its face glared out at the world in front of it, literally. It seemed to silently roar, a kind of expression that anyone would be hard-pressed not to be moved some way by it. This was the kind of ship that created myths, the kind that mothers would use to frighten troublesome children, the kind that government figureheads had nightmares of. Yet, it was sitting there, complacently, waiting presumably for the anarchist's arrival.
The captor chuckles. "Yeah. It's something, isn't it?"
The anarchist silently nods her awed expression.
"Come on, then. Her entire crew is waiting for you."
They continued on, the ship only becoming larger and fiercer with every step. Her disbelief washes over her as she places her first foot onto the docking ramp, but she wasn't allowed to stop now. The reach the top of the ramp, and she is met with the beaming faces of the ship's crew, only furthering her confusion since...this isn't what pirates look like, right?
The captain steps forward, accompanied familiar sound of jangling chains. He waves his hand out to the anarchist, to introduce her to the crew with a booming voice:
"Everyone! This is Yoko."
He glances at her, then shoves his hands into his pockets and addresses the crew again.
"She'll be the newest member of our crew."
A grand cheer.
A redheaded anarchist, sitting alone in a cell on death row.
A wanted airpirate, dead or alive.
The stage was set.
The final rays of the sun were finding their way through the metal bars of the window, high up and out of her reach. They illuminated her face--a bored expression, completely unmoved by the desperate attempts of the sun to light her fire. As she was concerned, it had already been put out.
It wasn't your normal type of prison. This was the only prison whose patrons' days were numbered--every single one of them. They were imprisoned for a variety of reasons, stripped of any kind of rights that their humanity entitled them to. They were fed only two meals of tasteless slop, disallowed from access to simple cleaning supplies or even the laundry, and never given any time outside their cells. On top of that, the security had been modified appropriately so the state's citizens could come around and mock the prisoners. There were no rules regarding what this mocking involved. Needless to say, the majority of them were practically begging for the chair by the end.
The sun set completely, the light on her face being put out like a candle snuff. This was when the worst of them came out. She brought her knees up, the ball dragging against the stone floor, and huddled up for a long night.
To her surprise, it was actually quite a few hours before the first one showed up, and she'd almost fallen asleep completely. She heard him before she saw him. The jangle of chains started off quietly, getting progressively louder, until the sound of footfalls joined them. The crescendo of noise stopped as his feet neared the window, ending with a clatter as he leaned down to look through the window. They could only see the faint outline of each other.
"Hey there, pretty lady."
Her immediate response was on his face in a split second. With an amused smirk and a chuckle, he wipes the spit off of his cheek, feeling not offended but rather gifted to confirm that her aim was just as deadly as they said it was.
"That's no way to greet someone that wants to offer you freedom!"
She rolls her eyes. "Fuck off."
"Nah, I'm serious. Hate t'see talent like yers vanish in smoke, y'know?"
There was no response.
"Whaddya say, huh? Y'belong in the clouds, babe. Not in some stupid cage."
She scoffs. "Yeah. Right. What the fuck makes you think you can get me out of this shithole?"
He simply chuckles and stands up, turning heel. "Just who the hell do you think I am?"
Her eyes widen and she suddenly looks up at the window, wanting to say something but realizing he was already gone.
...
A few hours later, as the dawn approached, the anarchist was woken up by shuffling outside her window. Through her freshly-awakened confusion, she would have to admit to being a bit startled when a large figure with wide, glowing eyes peered inside her cell occasionally as it did...something...to the bars. It steps back a few feet as a sound, not much unlike boiling oil, started. With the light from the figure's eyes she could see the metal bars simply melt away like ice under hot water. As the bars melted away, the figure chipped away the stone around the window to make the then-window-now-hole wide enough to fit its shape.
It hops down into the cell--by now she could tell that the figure was male--and he wastes no time in breaking the chains that held her down.
"You're not the one who was here earlier," she whispers, mildly shocked at this sudden development.
"Shhh..." he prompts, then goes back to work. He undoes the chain connected to her ball, but leaves the ones on her cuffs untouched. Once that is done, he crawls back out the hole again and holds out his hands for her to take. She stares at them incredulously for a moment, then takes them. He pulls her out into the greydawn light, all of her bruised, unwashed body and unkempt hair exposed to the world.
"Quickly, before they notice!" He takes the chain of her cuffs and takes off running, dragging the still shocked anarchist behind him. She's far too tired to argue--after all, she's out of that damned cell now, and even if she gets shot down now she will have died in the sunlight. She follows the stranger's directions as he slips through the security measures as if it'd been a practiced maneuver.
Once the two of them are a safe distance from the prison, he slows down to a more manageable pace. After some time, he glances toward the anarchist's sad form, clicking his tongue as his suspicions of the prisons had all been confirmed just by the sight of her.
They had walked in in silence until she saw it. The pirate ship. Not any pirate ship, but the pirate ship. The one that the entire planet feared. It was docked meticulously cliffside as the sun rose behind it, its fearsome image silhouetted by the bright light, almost blinding the anarchist. She stops walking, forcing her captor to stop as well. She stares at it in silence.
Its face glared out at the world in front of it, literally. It seemed to silently roar, a kind of expression that anyone would be hard-pressed not to be moved some way by it. This was the kind of ship that created myths, the kind that mothers would use to frighten troublesome children, the kind that government figureheads had nightmares of. Yet, it was sitting there, complacently, waiting presumably for the anarchist's arrival.
The captor chuckles. "Yeah. It's something, isn't it?"
The anarchist silently nods her awed expression.
"Come on, then. Her entire crew is waiting for you."
They continued on, the ship only becoming larger and fiercer with every step. Her disbelief washes over her as she places her first foot onto the docking ramp, but she wasn't allowed to stop now. The reach the top of the ramp, and she is met with the beaming faces of the ship's crew, only furthering her confusion since...this isn't what pirates look like, right?
The captain steps forward, accompanied familiar sound of jangling chains. He waves his hand out to the anarchist, to introduce her to the crew with a booming voice:
"Everyone! This is Yoko."
He glances at her, then shoves his hands into his pockets and addresses the crew again.
"She'll be the newest member of our crew."
A grand cheer.