APP @ GARGLEBLASTED
OOC:
Name: Scarlet
Are you over 16?: oh yes.
Personal LJ: thescarlet
Email: eisRequiem(at)gmail(dot)com
Timezone: GMT -8:00 (PST)
Other contact: plurk meeee "theScarlet"
Characters already in the game: none
How did you find us?: I WAS ENABLED indirectly by Tess and then AJ encouraged the rest of it.
IC:
Character name: Ace D. Portgas (though in the series it's Portgas D. Ace, silly Japanese), alias Fire Fist Ace
Fandom: One Piece
Timeline: mid-Blackbeard battle!
Age: ~20 dammnit luffy is catching up
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths: He's made of fire. And shoots fire from his hands and things.
In all seriousness, Ace has consumed a Devil Fruit, a special fruit that's said to grant the consumer a special ability in return for the inability to ever swim again. The one that Ace ate is known as the Mera Mera fruit, or the Flame-Flame fruit, giving him the ability to control and, as a Logia-type, become fire itself. He's able to avoid just about any kind of physical damage by turning his body into flames for weapons to pass through. He can shoot flames from his hands (which is what gave him his nickname, Fire Fist), as well as from his fingers like bullets, to something as colossal as a giant fireball. His presence also appears to be able to temporarily stop snowfall, as shown briefly during the Drum Kingdom arc.
He's also narcoleptic and prone to falling asleep in the middle of conversations. And meals.
Additionally, because of his lineage, Ace has the inherent ability to use 'Haki', which can generally be described as an 'aura' that can do anything from fortifying a weapon/attack to make it stronger, to sense your surroundings, or to cause the weaker-willed to foam at the mouth and pass out. He's shown able to use it as a child accidentally, but it's unknown if he knows how to control it later on in life.
Most Devil Fruit users, especially Logia class, become careless in thinking that since they can't get hurt, there's no point in training themselves to be physically battle-worthy. Ace, however, is shown to be exceptionally strong even at 10 years old, able to beat up a wild bull with nothing but fists and a section of pipe used as a staff. And later, when his power has been temporarily nullified by Blackbeard, he can take a chop to the neck and a punch to the gut that makes him spit blood and still be able to keep fighting.
How would they use their abilities?: To burn stuff. To help his captain Whitebeard (yeah, whitebeard) become the king of pirates. On the space ship, he'd help Luffy out!! And his friends, probably, but mostly to help himself and Luffy and those he cares about (which probably won't be a lot).
Appearance: Hat, shorts, and boots. No shirts 80% of the time. He wears large-beaded necklace, a similar one circling his hat, and a few choice bracelets on his left wrist along with a log pose for navigating. He carries a dagger with the hilt shaped like a pistol handle, but is never really shown using it. Physically, he's 185cm/6'1" and, while he isn't given a canon weight, is both muscled and lean. Freckle-faced and wearing Whitebeard's tattoo on his back, Ace gives off the air of someone pretty easy going. Even if he has something like an 8-pack. He also carries a green-striped knapsack around, likely laden with meager supplies and things.
Background: WELL to start with, Ace's childhood was kind of a bitch. See, his dad is (was) the King of Pirates, the only pirate to have ever sailed around the world on the Grand Line, Gol D. Roger (everyone calls him Gold Roger though, even if the proper westernization of his name is Roger D. Gol, so the Gold pun doesn't even show up). As such, Ace's birth name is really Gol D. Ace. Being the son of the King of Pirates shouldn't be all that bad, but people are dumb and decided that any kid of Roger's should be strung up and executed to stop his evil bloodline.
Luckily Ace's mom, Portgas D. Rouge, knew this might happen, so she kept Ace in her womb for 20 months through sheer willpower, and promptly died a bit after giving birth to him. The child is entrusted to a Marine who, like Rouge and Roger, believed a child should not bear the sins of his parents, and hid Ace from the World Government.
So Ace grows up on an island raised by bandits (who were blackmailed by the Marine, Garp, into taking care of him). In the flashbacks he's shown to have already befriended a kid named Sabo (SOMEHOW, considering Ace was kind of a crude, rude, mean brat back then), the two of them going on excursions to collect money that would be stashed away for when they set out to sea to become pirates. Garp brings back another kid-- Luffy, Garp's grandson --for the bandits to take care of. At first, Ace finds Luffy extremely annoying to the point of letting the seven-year-old kid fall off a bridge and not go rescue him. In fact, when Luffy makes it back and still continued trailing Ace, Ace keeps on going into dangerous parts in order to lose Luffy.
Eventually after 3 months of daily trailing, Luffy manages to find out where Ace has beeh going all the time, and finds out about the treasure that he and Sabo have stored up in the past 5 years. Of course Luffy, being Luffy, gets himself captured by a gang of pirates who want to steal Ace's and Sabo's treasure, but Luffy would not say anything about it. Ace and Sabo decide to help break Luffy out by beating up the underline who was trying to beat the location of the treasure out of Luffy. Ace finds out that the reason Luffy wouldn't say anything about the treasure was because if he did, Ace would get mad and definitely not want to be Luffy's friend anymore, and being alone was a lot worse than getting beat up.
And thus, after years of wondering whether he had the right to even be alive as the son of a worldclass criminal, Ace finds someone besides Sabo who wanted him to stay alive, and a reason to stop doubting his right to exist.
One very important day, after jumping out of the fourth floor of a restaurant and, while escaping, the trio run into a noble who recognizes Sabo. Turns out Sabo is the son of a noble!!! Not that Luffy or Ace really cared. Ace, however, does wonder why the son of a Noble would decided to leave beyond the trash heap around the city rather than with his parents. Ace agrees with Sabo that one day, they'll get off this island, and says that he's going to become a great pirate regardless if the world accepts him or not (since he's, y'know, the son of the dead Pirate King).
The three of them eventually dub themselves 'brothers', despite none of them being related by blood, by sharing drinks (stolen from the bandits, naturally). More flashbacks show Ace to be very protective of Luffy, going as far as to beat up adults when Luffy was puched in the face. Occasionally, Garp (that old Marine grandpa who brought Ace here in the first place) would come around to show some tough love by fighting the trio (and whupping all their asses).
THINGS HAPPEN! ADVENTURE! KILLING TIGERS! MORE STEALING! MOVING OUT OF THE BANDITS' PLACE AND INTO A TREE HOUSE! Merry adventures in brotherhood.
And then the pirates from before, now hired by Sabo's father, kidnap Sabo. To keep the pirates from hurting Luffy and Ace any more, Sabo agrees to go quietly with his father. The pirate leader, Bluejam, decides to forgive Ace and Luffy for beating up the other underling (who Bluejam kinda shot dead anyway), and gives them a job of placing some mysterious crates around selected places in the giant trash heap known as the Gray Terminal.
Of course, the part about forgiving them is a lie, because once Ace and Luffy (and Sabo) find out that the boxes are meant to explode and burn up everything (and everyone) in the Gray Terminal, Bluejam tries once more to find out where their treasure was hidden. But of course they wouldn't say anything so they're tied up and left alone while the trash heap burns up around them. Ace manages to cut them both free and they go about looking for a way out.
Unfortunately, Bluejam and his gang find Ace and Luffy first. Ace decides to give up the location of their treasure so that Bluejam wouldn't keep trying to stop them from leaving, but Bluejam has other ideas. Luffy fights back and in doing so is attacked by some of the crew members. Enraged, Ace screams at them to stop hurting Luffy, and with the strength of his 'Haki' (that oppressive aura thing), just about all the crew members collapse and lose consciousness. Bluejam isn't one of them.
Luckily the bandits who'd been taking care of them show up to stop Bluejam from killing Ace, but then decide to RUN AWAY BECAUSE PIRATES ARE SCARY. Ace, however, refuses to run. Dadan, the bandit leader, stays back with him to fight Bluejam while the rest of the bandits take Luffy to safety.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the major players, Luffy's dad helps the residents of Gray Terminal escape to the sea.
Before Ace returns to the bandit's hideout, Sabo takes the initiative and begins to sail out to sea. Unfortunately, he nearly bumps into (read, passes by) the ship of the World Nobles who are gathering at the island. World Nobles being dickbags and ignorant jerks, one of them fires a rocket at Sabo's ship despite knowing there's only a kid on board, and sinks the ship and Sabo along with it.
When Ace and Dadan finally show up back at the hideout, Ace tells Dadan that the reason he refused to run from Bluejam was because Luffy was right behind him (another flashback shows Garp telling Dadan that Roger, Ace's dad, would do the same time) and that if he ran, he felt like he'd lose something important to him. And then one of the bandits returns from town and tells them about what happened to Sabo. Ace flips out and wants to find out who killed Sabo so can take revenge, even knowing that the World Nobles (equivalent to royalty, no physical strength, but a shitton of 'political power') should never be harmed if you don't want to make an enemy of the World Government.
Though Luffy starts crying right away, it's not until Ace reads Sabo's letter the next morning (in a secluded area, of course), that he sheds his own tears. Later, both he and Luffy swear to set out to sea once they reach 17.
When Ace makes the mistake of not helping Luffy fight a bear, he ends in Luffy being badly injured and Ace feeling horrible about it. He decides to learn how to be polite from one of the women in the village so that he can thank the man who saved Luffy's life one day. (He and Luffy also use this tactic to thank restaurants for food after they've eaten and run away.)
MORE ADVENTURES, ASS KICKING, BEAR BLUDGEONING, GIANT CENTIPEDE STABBING, BEATEN UP BY GRAMPS, GROWING UP!!
Ace is finally 17 and sets sail on a little sailboat to become a pirate, despite Garp having always wanted him and Luffy to become marines. At the same time, it seems he's dropped his 'Gol' surname and taken up that of his late mother, Portgas. Within the year, Ace makes the papers, having found himself a real pirate ship and crew, the Spade Pirates (kind of a pun on 'ace of spades'). Somewhere along the way, he also consumes the Flame Flame fruit and acquires a tattoo of his name on his left arm (ASCE, with the 'S' crossed out as a tribute to Sabo, who had a similar symbol for his pirate flag). Quite possibly during this same year, the World Government, in an acknowledgement of Ace's strength, invite him to join them as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea (Shichibukai), basically a title that says the Gov't won't hunt him down as long as he works for them. He declines, of course.
Ace also goes on to meet Red Haired Shanks, the man who sacrificed an arm to save Luffy's life, to thank him for all he'd done for Luffy. Some time later (it'd be nice if we got some solid timelines here, Oda), Ace battles one of the Shichibukai, Jimbei, for the right to face Whitebeard. After fighting for 5 days, they both finally collapse and Whitebeard himself shows up at the most opportune moment. To keep his crew from being injured any more, Ace forms a wall of fire to separate the crew from him and Whitebeard.
As expected, he's defeated. But Whitebard offers Ace a place on his ship. Although he refuses, he can't really do anything after passing out. After waking up, he's told that his crew came back to retrieve him, but have been throttled and supposedly incorporated into Whitebeard's own crew.
Despite being part of Whitebeard's crew, it's reported that Ace has tried to kill Whitebeard over 100 times, most of the time sending him flying right into the sea. Eventually, he asks one of the commanders, Marco, why they call Whitebeard 'pops', to which Marco says it's because Whitebeard calls them 'sons'. Being criminals and hated around the world, it's nice to have someone who'll call you his son. After this, Ace finally gives in and gets a tattoo of Whitebeard's mark on his back. Not longer after, he's promoted to commander of the 2nd division of Whitebeard's crew.
When Ace finally tells Whitebeard about his origins (it's hinted later that Whitebeard already knew of this before Ace told him), Whitebead is 'surprised' but doesn't see why Ace thinks this is something important, since everyone is a child of the sea. When one of the members in Ace's division kills a comrade to steal a Devil Fruit, Ace insists on going after him even though Whitebeard says to let it go and everyone trying to stop him.
Thus, we fastforward to a short stint of the Drum Kingdom arc where one of the villagers recounts being told by a man in a black cloak (Ace) to pass a message onto Strawhat Luffy to meet him at Alabasta. Luffy never gets the message, but ends up going there anyway for other reasons. Ace's second appearance here is shown supposedly dead in a diner, face first in a dish of food (with a shitton more plates of food nearby). Of course, Ace isn't really dead. His narcolepsy just acted up and he'd fallen asleep. So when he waks up, all the townspeople nearby are UTTERLY SHOCKED (wouldn't you be?) while Ace wips his face with the nearest woman's dress. Not minutes later, yet again in the middle of a meal and a conversation, he falls faceforward once more. Asleep.
When he wakes up, a Marine captain, Smoker, has decided to check out the commotion and arrest Ace, even though Ace isn't the one Smoker was looking for. They're interrupted by Luffy FLYING IN AND CRASHING INTO SMOKER WHO in turn crashes into Ace and they all tumble through the wall and then through maybe three or four more buildings. Ace apologizes to each family as he makes his way back to the restaurant. Smoker gets there first and chases Luffy out so Ace follows them and neither Ace nor Luffy pay for their meals...
Once Ace manges to stop Smoker from going after Luffy for the moment, he meets up with them again on Luffy's ship and thanks Luffy's crewmates for taking care of his silly little brother. He then asks Luffy and his crew to join Whitebeard's, though he already knows Luffy will decline. He gives Luffy a vivre card, a piece of paper with some of Ace's DNA (read: fingernail powder) in it that will let Luffy know where he is no matter how far apart they are. Then, when a bounty-hunting organization tries to go after him and Luffy, Ace defeats the 5 fleets with a single flame fist.
And then we don't see him again for another 100 chapters, when he shows up on the coverpages of the chapters in a short story fashion, on a mission to find Blackbeard, the pirate who killed a crew mate while in Ace's division. He mistakes a Dr. Blackbeard for the pirate Blackbeard (not that I blame him, they look the same) and gets shunted into the river, saved by a young girl who owns a cow farm, and is asked to deliver a message to a marine ship. Since he's headed for the base anyway to find information on Blackbeard, he agrees! And manages to break into the base, disguise himself as a Marine, WOE OVER DISGUSTING BLACK COFFEE, burn down a ship, save the captain on there and the important documents, deliver the letter, and steal documents at the same time. Although he gets found out because of saving the captain and being on fire and everything, it all ends smoothly and everybody profits and the ship gets milk for their disgusting black coffee (no longer disgustingly black).
The next we see of Ace is him catching up to Blackbeard finally, and finds out about Blackbeard's weird Devil Fruit power that temporarily nullifies his own abilities. MID BATTLE, WORLD ENDS.
Hello, S. S. Thor. Can you handle a man on fire (literally)?
Personality: When first introduced, Ace is reckless, cocky, and confident (with good reason). With Luffy and his friends, he's polite and thanks them for taking care of his relatively less intelligent little brother. In flashbacks, he even thanks Shanks for saving Luffy. He's often seen smiling or grinning in some easy-going, laid back manner. Yet another of the 'good guy' pirates, always ready to party.
But when we go back to his childhood years, he's shown to have been a very rude kid who wants nothing to do with the world. Constantly wondering about his existence and asking people about it, constantly being told that any child of Gold Roger should be executed for his father's sins, he could give less than two cents about those around him. As strong as he was, he hated weaklings and would go as far as to indirectly wish death on those who spoke ill of Gold Roger, despite that he hated the man as well (and still does).
However, he did make a conscious attempt to learn manners to make a good example of himself as Luffy's big brother. 7 years after he and Luffy first meet, Ace is noticeably more pleasant, having grown out of his childish RAWR I HATE THINGS behavior. He smiles more, perhaps because he's learned that smiling is more polite than scowling. His ruthlessness seems to have subsided somewhat. (During the three months Luffy ran after Ace in the forests, Ace would kick trees over into Luffy's path [and onto Luffy himself], knock boulders down, whack Luffy with a length of pipe over a bridge and down a ravine, make beehives fall on Luffy, knock Luffy into the river teeming with crocodiles, among other things.)
One thing evident in the past as well as the present, however, is Ace's refusal to back down from a fight and his loyalty to those he's deemed worthy. He's protective of Sabo, eventually warms up to and is just as protective of Luffy, is capable of feeling shame and regret. He helps his crew escape while he stays back to fight Whitebeard in order to not let them get hurt. Loyalty, pride, and love all drove him to pursue the traitor Blackbeard when he killed a crewmate, despite Whitebeard telling him to let it go. He is the type who will die for those he loves, and kill for them as well. He's sworn his loyalty to Whitebeard to make him the Pirate King, and tells Luffy as much that if he has to fight his little brother, he will. Kill, no, but he'd gladly whup Luffy's ass if he had to.
After escaping from the scaffold where he was supposed to be executed, Ace turns back to face down one of the Admirals who was badmouthing Whitebeard, even though he knows that he can't win. Once again, loyalty and pride in being one of Whitebeard's, not willing to step down and let someone walk all over his captain's name. And although Ace won't be from this point, he also throws himself in front of Luffy to protect him from an attack, even knowing it wouldn't end in his favor..
Because he's come to terms with himself and his life, see. From childhood, going from not knowing if his life has meaning to finding a reason in a rubbery little brother, then in his crew, and then with Whitebeard. As long as there's someone who wants him to stay alive, he will do so to the best of his abilities. But he also knows when to give up, even if it's only in the sense of accepting his fate to be executed not simply as Portgas D. Ace, but as Gol D. Ace. Unlike Luffy, Ace isn't the type to throw that part of him away and disregard it despite not flaunting it, nor can he accept it for all the grief it's brought him. Perhaps it's who he is, or perhaps it's just the weight of it all that prevents from saying "what does it matter if I'm Roger's son?" He is careless, and he does want to live and will take the hand of whomever reaches out to him, but he takes responsibility for what he believes to be his fault..
Even if it's nothing that could be avoided and will result in his death.
Have you read up on how the game works?: ferrets on fire. Missions! Work! Being a pirate! Er, stealing.
1st person sample:
..Well that was hardly a fun experience-- [suddenly, video! have a surprised, freckled face, slightly disheveled black hair, bare shoulders.]
Woah! Hey, it's working. [thoughtful, rubbing at his chin.] Suppose I should say I'm new here, yeah? Name's Ace! S'nice to be on this Thor thing, I guess.
[though he'd rather be kicking Blackbeard's ass from one end of the Grand Line to the other and back again. hrk.]
Alright. If anyone sees a big guy with black hair, missing a few teeth, and a stupidly weird laugh, could you let me know? I'd appreciate it. [the most terse grin.]
..And, uh. [uhm. unsure face.] ..Does anyone happen to know how fireproof things are around here?
3rd person sample:
There's always been the saying You don't know what you have until it's gone. Sure is the case here right now.
Ever since that day they found Thatch's blood on the ground and Blackbeard suspiciously missing from the ship, everything he had, has had, and ever will have has been entrusted to the result of this goose chase.
Unknown.
Ideally he'd like to catch Blackbeard, make the damned man pay for killing his own crewmate. Burn him down to his bones, torch those too, and shove his ashes down the throat of some ancient Sea King. (That would entail being able to find or summon one first, but he'll think about that after he's got Blackbeard's dust in a jar.) Then after that... well.
Maybe he'd like to go back to Whitebeard. Report in successful, rid the world of that two-faced power-hungry rat. Maybe Whitebeard'll be proud of him, but it's fine if he isn't. Not like Ace is doing this to get approval, hell, he even went against his captain's orders. But it'd be a nice cherry to put on top of an otherwise almost melted sundae. (Melted by his own hands, no less.)
Okay, so maybe he's never really thought about what to do after he's caught Blackbeard. Could hope for things to go back to normal, maybe. Somehow, someway.
Normal, though, certainly isn't spending the rest of his life on this so-scalled spaceship. Swears if he didn't know better, he'd have tried to burn the place down, getting yanked away just when he was about to send Blackbeard flying.
Getting mad a ship is pretty pointless though, so Ace just pushes his hat firmly down on his head, takes a deep breath, and--
--Promptly falls asleep against the wall.
Questions?: Will Ace be labelled a 'fire hazard'? :c WILL HE BE FORCED TO WEAR SHIRTS?
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: oh yeah.
Name: Scarlet
Are you over 16?: oh yes.
Personal LJ: thescarlet
Email: eisRequiem(at)gmail(dot)com
Timezone: GMT -8:00 (PST)
Other contact: plurk meeee "theScarlet"
Characters already in the game: none
How did you find us?: I WAS ENABLED indirectly by Tess and then AJ encouraged the rest of it.
IC:
Character name: Ace D. Portgas (though in the series it's Portgas D. Ace, silly Japanese), alias Fire Fist Ace
Fandom: One Piece
Timeline: mid-Blackbeard battle!
Age: ~20 dammnit luffy is catching up
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths: He's made of fire. And shoots fire from his hands and things.
In all seriousness, Ace has consumed a Devil Fruit, a special fruit that's said to grant the consumer a special ability in return for the inability to ever swim again. The one that Ace ate is known as the Mera Mera fruit, or the Flame-Flame fruit, giving him the ability to control and, as a Logia-type, become fire itself. He's able to avoid just about any kind of physical damage by turning his body into flames for weapons to pass through. He can shoot flames from his hands (which is what gave him his nickname, Fire Fist), as well as from his fingers like bullets, to something as colossal as a giant fireball. His presence also appears to be able to temporarily stop snowfall, as shown briefly during the Drum Kingdom arc.
He's also narcoleptic and prone to falling asleep in the middle of conversations. And meals.
Additionally, because of his lineage, Ace has the inherent ability to use 'Haki', which can generally be described as an 'aura' that can do anything from fortifying a weapon/attack to make it stronger, to sense your surroundings, or to cause the weaker-willed to foam at the mouth and pass out. He's shown able to use it as a child accidentally, but it's unknown if he knows how to control it later on in life.
Most Devil Fruit users, especially Logia class, become careless in thinking that since they can't get hurt, there's no point in training themselves to be physically battle-worthy. Ace, however, is shown to be exceptionally strong even at 10 years old, able to beat up a wild bull with nothing but fists and a section of pipe used as a staff. And later, when his power has been temporarily nullified by Blackbeard, he can take a chop to the neck and a punch to the gut that makes him spit blood and still be able to keep fighting.
How would they use their abilities?: To burn stuff. To help his captain Whitebeard (yeah, whitebeard) become the king of pirates. On the space ship, he'd help Luffy out!! And his friends, probably, but mostly to help himself and Luffy and those he cares about (which probably won't be a lot).
Appearance: Hat, shorts, and boots. No shirts 80% of the time. He wears large-beaded necklace, a similar one circling his hat, and a few choice bracelets on his left wrist along with a log pose for navigating. He carries a dagger with the hilt shaped like a pistol handle, but is never really shown using it. Physically, he's 185cm/6'1" and, while he isn't given a canon weight, is both muscled and lean. Freckle-faced and wearing Whitebeard's tattoo on his back, Ace gives off the air of someone pretty easy going. Even if he has something like an 8-pack. He also carries a green-striped knapsack around, likely laden with meager supplies and things.
Background: WELL to start with, Ace's childhood was kind of a bitch. See, his dad is (was) the King of Pirates, the only pirate to have ever sailed around the world on the Grand Line, Gol D. Roger (everyone calls him Gold Roger though, even if the proper westernization of his name is Roger D. Gol, so the Gold pun doesn't even show up). As such, Ace's birth name is really Gol D. Ace. Being the son of the King of Pirates shouldn't be all that bad, but people are dumb and decided that any kid of Roger's should be strung up and executed to stop his evil bloodline.
Luckily Ace's mom, Portgas D. Rouge, knew this might happen, so she kept Ace in her womb for 20 months through sheer willpower, and promptly died a bit after giving birth to him. The child is entrusted to a Marine who, like Rouge and Roger, believed a child should not bear the sins of his parents, and hid Ace from the World Government.
So Ace grows up on an island raised by bandits (who were blackmailed by the Marine, Garp, into taking care of him). In the flashbacks he's shown to have already befriended a kid named Sabo (SOMEHOW, considering Ace was kind of a crude, rude, mean brat back then), the two of them going on excursions to collect money that would be stashed away for when they set out to sea to become pirates. Garp brings back another kid-- Luffy, Garp's grandson --for the bandits to take care of. At first, Ace finds Luffy extremely annoying to the point of letting the seven-year-old kid fall off a bridge and not go rescue him. In fact, when Luffy makes it back and still continued trailing Ace, Ace keeps on going into dangerous parts in order to lose Luffy.
Eventually after 3 months of daily trailing, Luffy manages to find out where Ace has beeh going all the time, and finds out about the treasure that he and Sabo have stored up in the past 5 years. Of course Luffy, being Luffy, gets himself captured by a gang of pirates who want to steal Ace's and Sabo's treasure, but Luffy would not say anything about it. Ace and Sabo decide to help break Luffy out by beating up the underline who was trying to beat the location of the treasure out of Luffy. Ace finds out that the reason Luffy wouldn't say anything about the treasure was because if he did, Ace would get mad and definitely not want to be Luffy's friend anymore, and being alone was a lot worse than getting beat up.
And thus, after years of wondering whether he had the right to even be alive as the son of a worldclass criminal, Ace finds someone besides Sabo who wanted him to stay alive, and a reason to stop doubting his right to exist.
One very important day, after jumping out of the fourth floor of a restaurant and, while escaping, the trio run into a noble who recognizes Sabo. Turns out Sabo is the son of a noble!!! Not that Luffy or Ace really cared. Ace, however, does wonder why the son of a Noble would decided to leave beyond the trash heap around the city rather than with his parents. Ace agrees with Sabo that one day, they'll get off this island, and says that he's going to become a great pirate regardless if the world accepts him or not (since he's, y'know, the son of the dead Pirate King).
The three of them eventually dub themselves 'brothers', despite none of them being related by blood, by sharing drinks (stolen from the bandits, naturally). More flashbacks show Ace to be very protective of Luffy, going as far as to beat up adults when Luffy was puched in the face. Occasionally, Garp (that old Marine grandpa who brought Ace here in the first place) would come around to show some tough love by fighting the trio (and whupping all their asses).
THINGS HAPPEN! ADVENTURE! KILLING TIGERS! MORE STEALING! MOVING OUT OF THE BANDITS' PLACE AND INTO A TREE HOUSE! Merry adventures in brotherhood.
And then the pirates from before, now hired by Sabo's father, kidnap Sabo. To keep the pirates from hurting Luffy and Ace any more, Sabo agrees to go quietly with his father. The pirate leader, Bluejam, decides to forgive Ace and Luffy for beating up the other underling (who Bluejam kinda shot dead anyway), and gives them a job of placing some mysterious crates around selected places in the giant trash heap known as the Gray Terminal.
Of course, the part about forgiving them is a lie, because once Ace and Luffy (and Sabo) find out that the boxes are meant to explode and burn up everything (and everyone) in the Gray Terminal, Bluejam tries once more to find out where their treasure was hidden. But of course they wouldn't say anything so they're tied up and left alone while the trash heap burns up around them. Ace manages to cut them both free and they go about looking for a way out.
Unfortunately, Bluejam and his gang find Ace and Luffy first. Ace decides to give up the location of their treasure so that Bluejam wouldn't keep trying to stop them from leaving, but Bluejam has other ideas. Luffy fights back and in doing so is attacked by some of the crew members. Enraged, Ace screams at them to stop hurting Luffy, and with the strength of his 'Haki' (that oppressive aura thing), just about all the crew members collapse and lose consciousness. Bluejam isn't one of them.
Luckily the bandits who'd been taking care of them show up to stop Bluejam from killing Ace, but then decide to RUN AWAY BECAUSE PIRATES ARE SCARY. Ace, however, refuses to run. Dadan, the bandit leader, stays back with him to fight Bluejam while the rest of the bandits take Luffy to safety.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the major players, Luffy's dad helps the residents of Gray Terminal escape to the sea.
Before Ace returns to the bandit's hideout, Sabo takes the initiative and begins to sail out to sea. Unfortunately, he nearly bumps into (read, passes by) the ship of the World Nobles who are gathering at the island. World Nobles being dickbags and ignorant jerks, one of them fires a rocket at Sabo's ship despite knowing there's only a kid on board, and sinks the ship and Sabo along with it.
When Ace and Dadan finally show up back at the hideout, Ace tells Dadan that the reason he refused to run from Bluejam was because Luffy was right behind him (another flashback shows Garp telling Dadan that Roger, Ace's dad, would do the same time) and that if he ran, he felt like he'd lose something important to him. And then one of the bandits returns from town and tells them about what happened to Sabo. Ace flips out and wants to find out who killed Sabo so can take revenge, even knowing that the World Nobles (equivalent to royalty, no physical strength, but a shitton of 'political power') should never be harmed if you don't want to make an enemy of the World Government.
Though Luffy starts crying right away, it's not until Ace reads Sabo's letter the next morning (in a secluded area, of course), that he sheds his own tears. Later, both he and Luffy swear to set out to sea once they reach 17.
When Ace makes the mistake of not helping Luffy fight a bear, he ends in Luffy being badly injured and Ace feeling horrible about it. He decides to learn how to be polite from one of the women in the village so that he can thank the man who saved Luffy's life one day. (He and Luffy also use this tactic to thank restaurants for food after they've eaten and run away.)
MORE ADVENTURES, ASS KICKING, BEAR BLUDGEONING, GIANT CENTIPEDE STABBING, BEATEN UP BY GRAMPS, GROWING UP!!
Ace is finally 17 and sets sail on a little sailboat to become a pirate, despite Garp having always wanted him and Luffy to become marines. At the same time, it seems he's dropped his 'Gol' surname and taken up that of his late mother, Portgas. Within the year, Ace makes the papers, having found himself a real pirate ship and crew, the Spade Pirates (kind of a pun on 'ace of spades'). Somewhere along the way, he also consumes the Flame Flame fruit and acquires a tattoo of his name on his left arm (ASCE, with the 'S' crossed out as a tribute to Sabo, who had a similar symbol for his pirate flag). Quite possibly during this same year, the World Government, in an acknowledgement of Ace's strength, invite him to join them as one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea (Shichibukai), basically a title that says the Gov't won't hunt him down as long as he works for them. He declines, of course.
Ace also goes on to meet Red Haired Shanks, the man who sacrificed an arm to save Luffy's life, to thank him for all he'd done for Luffy. Some time later (it'd be nice if we got some solid timelines here, Oda), Ace battles one of the Shichibukai, Jimbei, for the right to face Whitebeard. After fighting for 5 days, they both finally collapse and Whitebeard himself shows up at the most opportune moment. To keep his crew from being injured any more, Ace forms a wall of fire to separate the crew from him and Whitebeard.
As expected, he's defeated. But Whitebard offers Ace a place on his ship. Although he refuses, he can't really do anything after passing out. After waking up, he's told that his crew came back to retrieve him, but have been throttled and supposedly incorporated into Whitebeard's own crew.
Despite being part of Whitebeard's crew, it's reported that Ace has tried to kill Whitebeard over 100 times, most of the time sending him flying right into the sea. Eventually, he asks one of the commanders, Marco, why they call Whitebeard 'pops', to which Marco says it's because Whitebeard calls them 'sons'. Being criminals and hated around the world, it's nice to have someone who'll call you his son. After this, Ace finally gives in and gets a tattoo of Whitebeard's mark on his back. Not longer after, he's promoted to commander of the 2nd division of Whitebeard's crew.
When Ace finally tells Whitebeard about his origins (it's hinted later that Whitebeard already knew of this before Ace told him), Whitebead is 'surprised' but doesn't see why Ace thinks this is something important, since everyone is a child of the sea. When one of the members in Ace's division kills a comrade to steal a Devil Fruit, Ace insists on going after him even though Whitebeard says to let it go and everyone trying to stop him.
Thus, we fastforward to a short stint of the Drum Kingdom arc where one of the villagers recounts being told by a man in a black cloak (Ace) to pass a message onto Strawhat Luffy to meet him at Alabasta. Luffy never gets the message, but ends up going there anyway for other reasons. Ace's second appearance here is shown supposedly dead in a diner, face first in a dish of food (with a shitton more plates of food nearby). Of course, Ace isn't really dead. His narcolepsy just acted up and he'd fallen asleep. So when he waks up, all the townspeople nearby are UTTERLY SHOCKED (wouldn't you be?) while Ace wips his face with the nearest woman's dress. Not minutes later, yet again in the middle of a meal and a conversation, he falls faceforward once more. Asleep.
When he wakes up, a Marine captain, Smoker, has decided to check out the commotion and arrest Ace, even though Ace isn't the one Smoker was looking for. They're interrupted by Luffy FLYING IN AND CRASHING INTO SMOKER WHO in turn crashes into Ace and they all tumble through the wall and then through maybe three or four more buildings. Ace apologizes to each family as he makes his way back to the restaurant. Smoker gets there first and chases Luffy out so Ace follows them and neither Ace nor Luffy pay for their meals...
Once Ace manges to stop Smoker from going after Luffy for the moment, he meets up with them again on Luffy's ship and thanks Luffy's crewmates for taking care of his silly little brother. He then asks Luffy and his crew to join Whitebeard's, though he already knows Luffy will decline. He gives Luffy a vivre card, a piece of paper with some of Ace's DNA (read: fingernail powder) in it that will let Luffy know where he is no matter how far apart they are. Then, when a bounty-hunting organization tries to go after him and Luffy, Ace defeats the 5 fleets with a single flame fist.
And then we don't see him again for another 100 chapters, when he shows up on the coverpages of the chapters in a short story fashion, on a mission to find Blackbeard, the pirate who killed a crew mate while in Ace's division. He mistakes a Dr. Blackbeard for the pirate Blackbeard (not that I blame him, they look the same) and gets shunted into the river, saved by a young girl who owns a cow farm, and is asked to deliver a message to a marine ship. Since he's headed for the base anyway to find information on Blackbeard, he agrees! And manages to break into the base, disguise himself as a Marine, WOE OVER DISGUSTING BLACK COFFEE, burn down a ship, save the captain on there and the important documents, deliver the letter, and steal documents at the same time. Although he gets found out because of saving the captain and being on fire and everything, it all ends smoothly and everybody profits and the ship gets milk for their disgusting black coffee (no longer disgustingly black).
The next we see of Ace is him catching up to Blackbeard finally, and finds out about Blackbeard's weird Devil Fruit power that temporarily nullifies his own abilities. MID BATTLE, WORLD ENDS.
Hello, S. S. Thor. Can you handle a man on fire (literally)?
Personality: When first introduced, Ace is reckless, cocky, and confident (with good reason). With Luffy and his friends, he's polite and thanks them for taking care of his relatively less intelligent little brother. In flashbacks, he even thanks Shanks for saving Luffy. He's often seen smiling or grinning in some easy-going, laid back manner. Yet another of the 'good guy' pirates, always ready to party.
But when we go back to his childhood years, he's shown to have been a very rude kid who wants nothing to do with the world. Constantly wondering about his existence and asking people about it, constantly being told that any child of Gold Roger should be executed for his father's sins, he could give less than two cents about those around him. As strong as he was, he hated weaklings and would go as far as to indirectly wish death on those who spoke ill of Gold Roger, despite that he hated the man as well (and still does).
However, he did make a conscious attempt to learn manners to make a good example of himself as Luffy's big brother. 7 years after he and Luffy first meet, Ace is noticeably more pleasant, having grown out of his childish RAWR I HATE THINGS behavior. He smiles more, perhaps because he's learned that smiling is more polite than scowling. His ruthlessness seems to have subsided somewhat. (During the three months Luffy ran after Ace in the forests, Ace would kick trees over into Luffy's path [and onto Luffy himself], knock boulders down, whack Luffy with a length of pipe over a bridge and down a ravine, make beehives fall on Luffy, knock Luffy into the river teeming with crocodiles, among other things.)
One thing evident in the past as well as the present, however, is Ace's refusal to back down from a fight and his loyalty to those he's deemed worthy. He's protective of Sabo, eventually warms up to and is just as protective of Luffy, is capable of feeling shame and regret. He helps his crew escape while he stays back to fight Whitebeard in order to not let them get hurt. Loyalty, pride, and love all drove him to pursue the traitor Blackbeard when he killed a crewmate, despite Whitebeard telling him to let it go. He is the type who will die for those he loves, and kill for them as well. He's sworn his loyalty to Whitebeard to make him the Pirate King, and tells Luffy as much that if he has to fight his little brother, he will. Kill, no, but he'd gladly whup Luffy's ass if he had to.
After escaping from the scaffold where he was supposed to be executed, Ace turns back to face down one of the Admirals who was badmouthing Whitebeard, even though he knows that he can't win. Once again, loyalty and pride in being one of Whitebeard's, not willing to step down and let someone walk all over his captain's name. And although Ace won't be from this point, he also throws himself in front of Luffy to protect him from an attack, even knowing it wouldn't end in his favor..
Because he's come to terms with himself and his life, see. From childhood, going from not knowing if his life has meaning to finding a reason in a rubbery little brother, then in his crew, and then with Whitebeard. As long as there's someone who wants him to stay alive, he will do so to the best of his abilities. But he also knows when to give up, even if it's only in the sense of accepting his fate to be executed not simply as Portgas D. Ace, but as Gol D. Ace. Unlike Luffy, Ace isn't the type to throw that part of him away and disregard it despite not flaunting it, nor can he accept it for all the grief it's brought him. Perhaps it's who he is, or perhaps it's just the weight of it all that prevents from saying "what does it matter if I'm Roger's son?" He is careless, and he does want to live and will take the hand of whomever reaches out to him, but he takes responsibility for what he believes to be his fault..
Even if it's nothing that could be avoided and will result in his death.
Have you read up on how the game works?: ferrets on fire. Missions! Work! Being a pirate! Er, stealing.
1st person sample:
..Well that was hardly a fun experience-- [suddenly, video! have a surprised, freckled face, slightly disheveled black hair, bare shoulders.]
Woah! Hey, it's working. [thoughtful, rubbing at his chin.] Suppose I should say I'm new here, yeah? Name's Ace! S'nice to be on this Thor thing, I guess.
[though he'd rather be kicking Blackbeard's ass from one end of the Grand Line to the other and back again. hrk.]
Alright. If anyone sees a big guy with black hair, missing a few teeth, and a stupidly weird laugh, could you let me know? I'd appreciate it. [the most terse grin.]
..And, uh. [uhm. unsure face.] ..Does anyone happen to know how fireproof things are around here?
3rd person sample:
There's always been the saying You don't know what you have until it's gone. Sure is the case here right now.
Ever since that day they found Thatch's blood on the ground and Blackbeard suspiciously missing from the ship, everything he had, has had, and ever will have has been entrusted to the result of this goose chase.
Unknown.
Ideally he'd like to catch Blackbeard, make the damned man pay for killing his own crewmate. Burn him down to his bones, torch those too, and shove his ashes down the throat of some ancient Sea King. (That would entail being able to find or summon one first, but he'll think about that after he's got Blackbeard's dust in a jar.) Then after that... well.
Maybe he'd like to go back to Whitebeard. Report in successful, rid the world of that two-faced power-hungry rat. Maybe Whitebeard'll be proud of him, but it's fine if he isn't. Not like Ace is doing this to get approval, hell, he even went against his captain's orders. But it'd be a nice cherry to put on top of an otherwise almost melted sundae. (Melted by his own hands, no less.)
Okay, so maybe he's never really thought about what to do after he's caught Blackbeard. Could hope for things to go back to normal, maybe. Somehow, someway.
Normal, though, certainly isn't spending the rest of his life on this so-scalled spaceship. Swears if he didn't know better, he'd have tried to burn the place down, getting yanked away just when he was about to send Blackbeard flying.
Getting mad a ship is pretty pointless though, so Ace just pushes his hat firmly down on his head, takes a deep breath, and--
--Promptly falls asleep against the wall.
Questions?: Will Ace be labelled a 'fire hazard'? :c WILL HE BE FORCED TO WEAR SHIRTS?
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: oh yeah.