Fanfic / ASL In Red

ASL in Red is a One Piece fanfic series written by Keerea set in an AU where the Marines get too close to finding Ace and Luffy, so Garp calls up Shanks and gives his permission for the Emperor to steal his grandsons. Shanks agrees, and Ace, Sabo and Luffy grow up under the somewhat dubious care of the Red Hair Pirates.

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Tropes contained in ASL In Red:

• Adaptational Jerkass: Due to the story overtaking the manga during the Whole Cake Island arc, this version of Reiju lacks her canon self's Pet the Dog moments and is very much The Sociopath like her genetically altered brothers.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Luffy to Ace and Sabo on occasion, especially when he keeps interrupting Sabo and Koala.
  • Rocinante absolutely delights in being this, since he and Doflamingo hate each other.
  • Subverted with Sanji - Nami urges him to be one in order to interrogate his captured sister, but he reminds her that his family was so dysfunctional he has no idea how to do that.
• Affectionate Nickname: Since even Luffy seems to find the Irony of a pirate called Law too much, he instead calls him Traffy.
  • Sandersonia likewise refers to Law as "Doc"
• Arbitrary Skepticism: All sorts of weirdness is accepted easily, but everyone is confused about how Marco can talk in bird form.
• Autocannibalism: Vinsmoke Reiju is fed her own kidney by Law.
• The Baby Trap: Sanji explains that this is basically how his birth family operates. Sabo deduces it contributes a lot to why he tries to protect women so much.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: When the ASL brothers first met Pudding as children, they comforted her since she was crying, complimented her third eye as cool and gave her an expensive diadem to hide it as per her wishes. Adult Pudding plans on stabbing her mother and hateful siblings in the back to help them.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Sanji and Zoro, oh so much.
  • When they get together in 'Wanted Man', it is no different:
  Sanji: You know I just said my family is going to kill the people I care about, right, grass brain?
  Zoro: You think I’m scared? I’m Roronoa Zoro, son of Dracule Mihawk and soon to be the greatest swordsman in the world! Some bratty assassins trying to get you back and make you join them or whatever else don’t scare me! And I’ll date you to prove it!
  (Beat)
  Usopp: ...Zoro...Zoro, I don't think that's how it works...
  Sanji: Oh, really?
  Zoro: Yeah, really!
  Sanji: Well fine then! Date me!
  Zoro: Fine! Whose room?
  Sanji: My room!
  Zoro: Why yours?
  Sanji: Closer to the kitchen, I still have to cook for you lunatics every morning!
  Zoro: Fine, I'll move my stuff!
  Sanji: Might as well help you, you'll get lost if I don't!
  (They storm off together)
  Usopp: ...Well, that happened.
• Berserk Button: Rocinante is essentially a walking Berserk Button for Doflamingo due to their...complicated relationship. Rocinante takes advantage of it in 'Settling The Score', which is particularly impressive due to being turned into a toy at the time and Doflamingo not remembering him.
  • Reiju makes the mistake of taunting Law about Flevance and poisoning him with a modified strain of Amber Lead Syndrome, made from the corpses of people carted out of the city and studied on. Law does not take it well.
• Big Brother Instinct: Ace and Sabo toward Luffy full stop. But also Luffy toward them, as the Paramount War demonstrates.
• Buffy Speak: Shanks is very panicked in the first few stories about not knowing how to 'dad'.
• Butt-Monkey: Reiju She pisses off Hancock, who holds her prisoner until the Straw-Hearts come. Then she is fed her own kidney by Law after stomping on his Berserk Button, then she is kept a hostage in Punk Hazard by Whitebeard pirates, who make sure to rub her family's failures and defeat in her face. Finally, she is dismissed by the world at large once her father is imprisoned.
• Cast Full of Gay: The only heterosexual pairing is Sabo and Koala (and Sabo offhandedly mentions he's bi).
• Cool and Unusual Punishment: In 'The Tigers And The Judge', Smoker, Tashigi, Nami, Vivi, and Marco break a captured enemy entirely on accident, by making him listen to them argue with each other for several hours.
  Jim the Germa 66 agent really just wished they’d pick something. Between the Phoenix and Fire Fist working out their relationship drama, Smoker being passive aggressive with the pirates, and Cat Burglar constantly poking him with her stick he was pretty sure things would get embarrassing when he cracked over them trying to decide how to make him crack!
• Creepy Monotone: Law's default tone. Leads to some hilarious scenes.
• Creepy Uncle: Rocinante is legally Law's father. He is horrified and disgusted to find out that his brother Doffy, Law's legal uncle has a Villainous Crush on him.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Zoro in 'Wanted Man', when he inadvertently admits he likes Sanji.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: Eustass Kid's reaction when he encounters a hungover Shanks in 'Just Kidding Around'. His crew seems to regard Benn's relationship with Shanks in a Did You Just Romance Cthulhu? light, as well. Benn is mildly annoyed.
• Disappeared Dad: Ace and Sabo take extreme offense to Yasopp being one in 'Yasopp Go Home!'. Eventually, Yasopp is persuaded to visit Usopp on occassion.
  • Luffy was unaware he even had a biological father until informed.
• Epic Fail: Ace and Luffy's attempts at mopping in 'Pirates vs. Preteens'. It is lampshaded in a later story:
  Izo: How does one...fail at mopping? I just...how?
  Marco: Never underestimate a D. At anything. Even failure.
• Even Evil Has Standards: A few of Dofflamingo's subordinates are rather unsettled by his lusting after his own nephew.
• Eye Scream: Sanji loses an eye fighting Vinsmoke Judge. He considers it Worth It.
• Faked Kidnapping: Vivi masterminds her own kidnapping in 'The Tigers And The Judge' to prevent Vinsmoke Judge from using his diplomat disguise to assassinate her. Since her father, her guards, and the Straw Hats are all in on it, things go relatively smoothly.
• Fastball Special: Robin does this for an entire group of Zou's defenders, including Franky and Bentham, with multiple giant arms.
• Flipping the Bird: Law's signature, naturally. It even ends up being the picture on his bounty poster. Rocinante's reaction is priceless.
• Forgot I Could Fly: While in a fight and competing to see 'who can defeat the most marines while seriously injuring the fewest?' in 'The Tigers and The Judge', Ace is sulking due to his fire not being very suited for winning. Marco reminds him that he has Conqueror's Haki, and Ace sheepishly uses it.
• Gilded Cage: When still under Rocinante's custody, Law lived in an isolated Marine base in North Blue. He could run around and had any medical textbook he could wished for, but was constantly watched by Kuzan - a Vice-Admiral at the time - and couldn't leave, officially because his fruit made him prime material for kidnapping. Oh, and the Government expected he would nicely play along with their plans after killing his entire city.
• Happily Adopted: Ace, Sabo and Luffy by Shanks and Benn, naturally.
  • Law by Rocinante.
  • Zoro by Mihawk.
• I Just Want to Be Free: After three years spent cloisetered away for his potential, Law really, really has issues about being locked up. When confronted to the possibility of being captured and brought back under Marine custody, he outright prepares himself to cut his own head off.
• Incest Subtext: Doflamingo towards Law. Granted, Law is adopted, but it kinda falls apart when you remember Doflamingo 1) knew Law when the latter was ten and 2) is evil incarnate.
• Irony: Rocinante snarks relentlessly after being captured by his brother. As he's been turned into a toy, Doffy responds with:
  “Do you ever shut up? Ugh, you must have been so annoying as a brother, talking all the time."
  • Sabo asks Law whether Rocinante is secretly a D, because he certainly plans like one. Law replies that he's basically the farthest thing from it.
  • When pondering on Judge's Small Name, Big Ego attitude Charlotte Linlin states that the only Vinsmoke with credibility in the New World is Sanji and she does not understand why Judge and the rest of his spawn are so intent on antagonizing him when they should be courting his favor.
• Living MacGuffin: The Government treated Law more as a valuable commodity than a human being. Even now, they are reluctant to kill him, aiming to capture and keep him secluded until his eventual breakdown to exploit his powers.
• Logical Weakness: Being blind, Fujitora filters his Observation Haki mostly through sound. This lets Brook temporarily disorient him with badly-played music, and Rocinante realizes that his Devil Fruit would be particularly effective against him in a fight.
  • On the other hand, Fujitora is a bad match for Kizaru, since strong enough gravity can bend light.
• Moment Killer: Luffy, repeatedly.
  • Bartolomeo in 'The Usefulness Of Fans', when Law and Luffy are trying to have a discussion about their relationship.
• No Social Skills: Law is not very skilled with people, and Luffy can be dense enough to miss things unless pointed out. It has fairly bad consequences in 'Wanted Man', as Luffy doesn't realize looking into Sanji's family would make him upset, and Law just doesn't understand why.
• Our Sirens Are Different: Upon Luffy and Momonosuke insisting they hear a voice calling out when no one else can in 'The Unmentioned Elephant', Ace theorizes it could be a siren.
  Law: ...A siren targeting only a prepubescent child and a sex-repulsed teenager?
  Ace: (defensively) Maybe it's an asexual siren. We're in the New World, would it surprise you?
• Papa Wolf: Where to begin...
  • Shanks takes to parenting with remarkable aplomb, especially the 'protective' part. When Ace is taken for execution, he threatens to raze Mariejois to the ground if Ace dies. Sengoku and the Marines later correctly interpret that Ace survived Akainu's attack, because Mariejois is still standing.
  • Benn is usually more restrained, but he can certainly match Shanks in this department.
  • As per canon, Whitebeard.
  • Rocinante is a genarally nice, klutzy guy, but threaten Law and he will demonstrate that his Devil Fruit is very, very useful for assassinations.
  • Kuzan has done far more morally ambiguous things than kill a neutralized prisoner because his boyfriend asked him, and when that prisoner has hurt Law he's willing to admit it loudly enough that Rocinante gets the hint. Learning about Doflamingo's heavily implied Villainous Crush on Law makes him immediately request that the former be given to Sadi-chan upon arrival to Impel Down.
  • Mihawk apparently took great offense to Don Kreig trying to shoot Zoro. It is not mentioned whether Kreig survived, but he certainly doesn't have his armada anymore.
  • Ace insists he has not adopted Momonosuke. That doesn't stop him from firebombing the hell out of Jack when he attacks the kid in 'Dibs On The Dinosaur'.
  • Even Roger got in on it, as shown in a flashback to when Shanks was injured by a newbie Whitebeard recruit. The ensuing death-match between the two captains lasted for over an hour until it was determined Shanks would live. Everyone knows that that was the only reason the battle ended at all.
• Pride Before a Fall: All of the official Vinsmokes are too full of themselves and when they suffer for it it is cathartic.
• Primal Scene: Inverted, Shanks catches Sabo and Koala naked in his bed. He makes them change the sheets after embarasing them.
• Privacy by Distraction: While Yasopp and Usopp reunite after years in 'Yasopp Go Home!', Benn pulls the brothers into shopping to give them privacy. Later:
  Yasopp: How did it take you that long to buy one crate of syrup?
  Benn: Sheer ingenuity.
• Punny Name: The irony of a pirate named Law is pointed out.
• Running Gag:
  • Shanks using 'dad' as a verb.
  • Sabo and Koala getting interrupted.
  • People questioning how Marco can talk in bird form.
  • Shanks calling Marco random bird species.
  • Law being creepy.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: As in canon, Fujitora.
  • Smoker does the same in 'The Tigers And The Judge'. He saves the day, but unlike Fujitora, is not powerful enough to get away with it without consequences.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: Sabo and Koala can dip into this, especially on Sabo's part.
• Sleep Cute: 'Pirates vs. Preteens' opens with one between the ASL brothers and Benn, who is not entirely sure how it happened.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Kuro in 'The Tragicomedy of Captain Kuro'. Upon seeing the Red Hair Pirates visiting Usopp, he assumes it's only a matter of time before his cover is blown, and interprets the ASL brothers' curiosity as proof he needs to move up his plans because they're becoming suspicious of him. In reality, his sixteen-million bounty is so far below the RHP's radar it's likely none of them had even heard of him, and the ASL brothers think he's just a stuffy butler.
  • Also the Vinsmoke clan and the Germa 66. True, they might be a force to be reckoned in the Blues and perhaps Paradise. But to any New World established power they are just upstart weaklings that just happen to have some useful specializations. Judge in particular seems to view himself as an equal partner to Charlotte Linlin but she considers him just a very dim and arrogant pawn and is happy to sick the Straw Hearts and New Whitebeards on him.
• So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Hancock briefly complains in 'Poison All It Touches' about this. While she shamelessly uses her beauty to manipulate people, it can get wearying when every single person you meet blatantly ogles you (and in some cases propositions you right then and there).
  Hancock: Some people. Can’t seem to even help themselves. Have to tell you all these foolish things no sane person wants to hear. And in public!
• Spared by the Adaptation: Rocinante survives in this 'verse, making Law's backstory substantially different.
  • Ace survives as well.
• Spit Take: Sengoku does this when Law casually mentions Dofamingo's creepy attentions towards him in 'Settling The Score'.
• Stating the Simple Solution: It is suggested that Usopp just slingshot a brick at Sugar's face to knock her out. The story ends up following canon on that point anyways.
• Take a Third Option: When the Marine Corps learn about Ace and Luffy's parentage, Garp realizes he will have to give them for execution or run away in a bid for protecting the kids. He instead chooses to entrust his grandsons to Shanks.
  • Law fully knew he would be locked up forever by the Government if he refused to join the Marine, so he escaped from the base he was living in.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Ace and Smoker are forced to work together in 'The Tigers And The Judge'. Then they must cross the Alabastan desert together, a journey that takes five days. Everyone else in the group afterwards refers to it as 'The Road Trip From Hell'.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: This version of Reiju is just as evil as the rest of her family.
• Training from Hell: Rayleigh trains most of the Straw Hats and Heart Pirates over the timeskip instead of just Luffy. They all quickly learn to hate him.
  • His final exam for Ace and Luffy is to use their Conqueror's Haki to cross the Calm Belt...five times in a row, both ways.
  • Zoro, however, states that after Mihawk, Rayleigh's methods aren't so bad.
• Too Dumb to Live: Reiju purposefully antagonizes someone known as the Surgeon of Death. Luckily for her they have more use of her alive so Law restrains himself to merely forcing her kidney down her own throat.
• Un-person: Sugar's ability, of course. Doflamingo applying it to Rocinante is a major plot point in 'Punking Doflamingo' and 'Settling The Score', and screws the heroes up enormously.
  • Ace is also briefly affected by it, which causes his dads and Marco to freak the hell out when they recover and can't get ahold of him for fifteen hours.
• Villainous Crush: It is strongly implied that Doflamingo is attracted to Law. Even creepier, he knew Law when he was ten. Needless to say, the rest of Law's (adoptive) family do not take it well.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Boa Hancock feels this way towards Luffy and Law, to replace her canon feelings.
• Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: Rocinante blackmails his brother at the end of 'Settling The Score'. Doflamingo delightedly tells him "You can be diabolical! Oh, big brother is so proud of you!", to which Roci thinks he's going to need two showers minimum to feel clean again.