Thursday Rec: Braids Verse by Islenthatur

Title: Braid Verse
Fandom: One Piece (Anime & Manga)
Pairing: Akagami no Shanks | Red-Haired Shanks/Benn Beckman; Shank's Crew & Monkey D Luffy as family; Monkey D Luffy and his Brothers
Length: 12.5k
Warnings: No Warnings Apply

Author's Website: Islenthatur A03

Summary: Large black eyes blinked up at him, “Can you teach me?”

Shanks’ heart hammered in his chest, fingers spasming around the comb as he flickered his gaze to his husband and back. “What do you want me to teach you, Anchor?”

“To braid?” Luffy mumbles

OR

I combined Dwarrow Culture in OP and have Braids as a thing of Deeds that Shanks teaches his son

Review: I'm a sucker for the Dwarrow Braid fics in Hobbit. The exploration of a cultural and sometimes religious and familial cultural difference through a very physical representation. Particularly one that is as tied up in both personal choice and care taking intimacy.

Islenthatur does a great job transferring that culture into the Once Piece universe without getting too bogged down in the fusion aspects, by keeping very in the moment and including some of One Piece's own unique fandom culture, such as the relationship between captains and crew.

The use of time stamps also helps keep the story moving at a good pace, leading to a broad feel for how this culture spreads out between characters that we'd meet years apart in canon.

Braids Verse Series

Snowflake Challenge: Day 2

Challenge #2

In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story.

So I've always been a sci-fi and animation nut. Got to see a few episode of Outlaw Star as bitty, but mostly snuck up early to watch episodes of Beyblade (my favorite) and other parts of the 4kids era.

I mostly ended up with live action shows like SG1, Xena, and Charmed on reruns after that until I fell headfirst into the Toonami afternoon slot. And G Gundam obsession. I also watched some of the bigger stuff luke Dragon Ball and Naruto but they didn't scratch the same itch.

Then I got hurt and started having cripling migraines that messed with my sleep schedule and found the late night anime hours. And notably Trigun. But sadly never got to see the ending. Trying to find series recaps in the early 00s wasn't really a thing. But my attempts lead me to a long Trigun Season 2 fanfic. And as a bookish kid who had newly moved to an area with a barely functional library, I fell quickly to the siren song of so much free reading material.

I've dabbled in various parts of fandom since then, from fanscans, to Deviant art fanart making, to helping run rec communities, to various periods of writing fanfic. Mostly small fandoms and some years where I don't write for anything but Yuletide.

But have kept reading or listening to fanfics thoroughout.