It is finally time to announce the winners of The Monthly PAW: January 2021!
Sorry for the small delay, but now that all the votes are sorted out I can finally post this
The Winners:
Photography - Landscapes
Winner: sweetjacky (18 paws)
2nd Place: storm chaser and Robin (16 paws)
3rd Place Mr. Mxy (7 paws)
Art - Pokemon
Winner: sweetjacky (23 paws)
2nd Place: Galkie (19 paws)
3rd Place: MegaHobbit (7 paws)
Writing - Ace Fanfiction
Winner: negatibuhige (22 paws)
The sound of ice cracking made Ace lose concentration and his hands burst into flames. He spun around and screamed, "Luffy!" only to see his little brother hanging from a tree, his arms coiled around a branch, while a crack spread across the surface of the frozen lake. Luffy grinned at him and flashed a thumbs up.
Ace sighed. "I told you the ice is thin. Who'll save you if you fall into the water?"
"Who'll save you from Sabo?" Luffy jumped over to Ace in one stretch and started picking his nose.
"Shit." Ace turned and saw a half-melted snow sculpture staring up at him with half a smile. He had gotten too worried about Luffy falling into the frozen lake and his flames had melted the snow.
"-found the perfect rope for the beard!" Came Sabo's voice from the direction of the house behind them. Ace jumped to salvage the sculpture but it took only a few seconds for Sabo to come over. He stared agape at the sculpture they had both spent hours building. A likeness of Edward Newgate, Ace's favorite adventurer. Sabo had been the one putting in more effort and now Ace had ruined it. The week was just not going well. One way or another, fights kept breaking out between the two of them. He had also broken Sabo's favorite mug somehow the day before and Sabo had eaten his pudding in retribution. Today when Sabo seemed overenthusiastic to make the snow sculpture, Ace thought it was Sabo's attempt at making some special last memories with him. But now Ace had ruined that as well.
"Ah, gomen, Sabo," Luffy said. "I startled Ace."
"And the oh-so-great Ace went ka-boom?" Sabo screamed, his face red with rage.
Ace frowned. "Oi. It was an accident." Why was Sabo getting so mad about everything these days? "C'mon, we can fix this." Ace reached for the remains of the sculpture.
Sabo threw the rope at Ace. Instinctively, Ace swiped his arm and deflected it.
"Why don't you come out and say it? You just don't care anymore." Sabo screamed louder.
"HUH?" Ace screamed back. "What's got into that head of yours? Why you being such a drama queen?"
"OH NOW I'M A DRAMA QUEEN HAH?" Sabo yelled and threw his arms around. "WHY DON'T YOU GO TO MARCO AND NEVER COME BACK?"
"OK I WON'T." Ace stomped his foot, catching fire, and the rest of the sculpture melted. Then Ace turned around and walked away.
"Oi. Ace." Luffy was calling after him but he didn't care.
Things had started getting sour ever since the results came out. Ace had made it into a top university in the capital, the only person to be the top scorer from the boonies. Before him, for 5 years, only another person held the perfect record, so Ace had stirred up some news. Of course, Ace felt good about it. Why wouldn't he? But did Sabo really think that it had gotten to his head? Sabo had been making passing remarks about it, more and more aggressively for the last couple of days. As the new year came close, Ace's departure also drew closer. Heck. Ace was also sad about having to leave everyone so soon. But that jab about Marco cut sharp. So what if Ace was already talking to his new roommate? Marco was a fellow Whitebeard otaku and it was fun talking to him. Was Sabo jealous? But it wasn't like Ace was leaving forever. In fact, the three of them had made their pact about going out on their own journeys long ago, so why the tantrum now?
Something cracked. Ace stopped. A huge bear stared down at him from a few feet away. Ace stood perfectly still. The bear had a scar. He remembered it all too well. Luffy, Sabo and he had their skirmishes with this brute from time to time every time they went into the forest.
Wait. The forest?
Ace suddenly realized that he had ended up in the forest. He was so lost in the storm of his thoughts that he totally didn't know where he was going.
The bear didn't care about teenage emotional conflict. It lunged. Ace turned and ran like hell. Big Bear was too brutal when it was hungry, and now it looked hungry. But running through dead trees was not easy. Ace was considering making a stand and fight when suddenly he ran into a clearing. There sat an old man on a log, frying fish on twigs over a fire. He looked up at Ace, then stared straight behind him. The bear fumbled to a halt. Stared back. Then slowly, it turned and left.
Ace sat down, panting.
"If it isn't Gol- good old Ace," Naguri flashed a toothy smile. "Care for some fish?"
---
Naguri burst into laughter after hearing Ace's story. "That Sabo. Jealous, is he? Bwahahahahaa so unlike him innit BWAHAHAHAHAHA."
"Shut up, old man," grumbled Ace, chewing a mouthful of fish. He was hungrier than he had thought.
"Don't let it hold'ja down, boy," Naguri wiped tears from the corners of his eyes. "I hear long distance relationships are common these days."
Ace choked. "Oi jiisan, what the hell?"
"You know, there was a time when I was young and..." Naguri launched into an anecdote about having to part with a friend when he began his adventure. A story that is probably half made up. But Ace didn't mind. Luffy, Sabo and him had been seeing him around and listening to his old stories for ages. Funnily enough, their first meeting had also been when the three of them were running away from the big bear.
It was around dusk when Naguri's reminiscing ended. Ace had fallen asleep in the middle and the old man had smacked him awake. Now he smacked him on his merry way home.
"Go and make up with them well. You wanna make good memories. Take it from an old man."
"Yeah yeah," Ace grumbled. Sabo had probably cooled down by now. They fought all the time but now it felt a bit different. Agh. He didn't care anymore.
Walking up to the front door of the house, Ace heard some heated voices coming from inside. The voice sounded like Sabo's. Was he still mad? That wasn't natural. Did something happen?
"-went too far but he wasn't taking a hint." Sabo was saying.
Luffy said, "I told you I should have just distracted him with a reindeer hunt."
"Luffy," Sabo sounded frustrated, "he's not that stupid."
"EH? I told you, there is a blue nosed reindeer on top of the mountain! I saw it!"
"The point is," another voice said, "he's not back yet and the food is getting cold and Luffy is trying to eat it all."
"I'll go look." Sabo's voice was closer now. Before Ace could move back, the door opened and hit him square on the face. He fell back with an indignant "gaahh".
"Ace?!" Sabo was staring down at him, paused mid-sprint.
Dadan poked her head out of the door and yelled, "ACE IS HERE!"
A bunch of party poppers went off and covered Ace in sparkles and streamers. Sabo hauled him up by his arm and pulled him into the house. Dadan, Makino, Luffy and Marco - wait, who? - stood around a table heaped with food. But the most notable thing was a huge cake in the middle, with "HBD Ace" scrawled on it. Even the room was decorated with Whitebeard flags (did they steal them from his room?) and their pictures. Everyone yelled "Happy birthday, Ace!" except Luffy, who was busy chewing a chicken roast.
Ace stared agape. Then he looked at Sabo.
"Ah, sorry for all the drama," Sabo said uncomfortably, "but we kinda needed you away for a while so that we could set up the room and also get Marco from the dock."
"Heya, buddy," Marco walked over, "happy birthday." He paused for a while, and then added, "surprise!"
Ace muttered. "What...in the world?"
"This is the last birthday we can celebrate together, so we kinda wanted to do something special," Sabo said. "Now come blow out the candles before Luffy gobbles up the cake."
Cutting the cake, eating the food, everything felt like a blur to Ace after that. Sabo had gotten him a cool orange hat with weird smileys. Luffy got him coupons for new year discounts at the town restaurant. Dadan had gotten him a jumper that was a size too big. Makino gave him gloves to go with the jumper. And Marco had brought him a leather jacket with the Whitebeard emblem on the back. "Don't burn through it, bro," he laughed. Clearly, he had heard the morning's story. How embarrassing...
For years, Ace had wondered if it was okay for someone like him to be born, someone with bad blood like him. Now, he felt like it didn't matter.
Kyou made, ore wo aishitekurete, arigatou...
Author's note: Sorry for making your eyes bleed, minna. Yours truly has truly crappy writing skills. We got this topic thanks to Ace's birthday and I just wanted to throw him a birthday party :'D
2nd Place: MegaHobbit (19 paws)
3rd Place: storm chaser (16 paws)
Congratulations to all the winners! For the people who didn't win anything, I'm still happy you participated and wish you better luck next time :
It is time to hand out the flairs and I will also transfer the VCCash directly to your vaults so it won't get stolen. The names of the participants have been added to all the submissions in the voting thread for those who are interested.
I'll see you in the February PAW! :
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