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Loving ace

THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY
For this project, we will be using the 8 Greek divisions of love as inspiration, and/or the 5 love languages as starting points. The focus of all work should be Ace being loved, expressing love towards himself and others, or being denied/witheld from love in some form or another. This can range from humor, fluff and hurt/comfort, to darkfic and explicit content.
(Keep in mind all creations of an adult nature will be kept to the adult portion of this project)

5 Expressions of Love
Touch • Gifts • Acts of Service • Words of Affirmation • Quality Time

8 Types of Love
Many of these overlap to create complex relationships and dynamics, but here are the main categories to focus on for now:

Ludus: Playful, Flirtatious
Ludus is infatuation, toying, flirtation. It describes the situation of having a gentle crush or case of adoration. It’s rooted in having fun and living fast, worrying only about the now. One-sided or returned, just enjoying the rush of adoring another.
Examples: Falling fast and hard for Sanji in Alabasta despite their limited time, developing a tentative first crush, bonding and adventuring with Yamato in a new land.

Philia: Intimate, Authentic
Philia is characterized by intimacy, knowing, and soul-to-soul bonds. It’s encouraging, kind, and authentic; the stuff from which great friendship is made, regardless of whether it’s with a platonic best friend or a romantic partner. This love is also based in goodwill, or wanting what’s best for the other person. Philia is a connection akin to that of soul mates; it’s one part destiny, another part choice.
Examples: Sabo being Ace's first true friend and bonding through choice and will, Deuce devoting himself as Ace's first mate through thick and thin.

Storge: Unconditional, Familial
Storge is the protective, kinship-based love you likely experience with family members. You might love your sister, even if you don’t like her, and you might love your dad, despite the mistakes he made in raising you. Storge is driven by familiarity and need, and is sometimes thought of as a one-way love. For instance, consider a mother loving her baby before the baby is aware enough to love her back. Storge can also describe a sense of patriotism toward a country or allegiance to the same team.
Examples: Ace and Dadan's complex relationship as unwilling guardian and untethered child, or Ace's thoughts towards Rouge despite having never met her, his complicated resentment in the shadow of Roger vs what could have been if he'd lived.

Agápe: Empathetic, Universal
Agápe is love for others that’s inclusive of a love for nature, strangers, or the less fortunate. It’s generally an empathetic love toward humanity itself. It's connected to altruism since it involves caring for and loving others without expecting anything in return. This sort of people helping others selflessly is the foundation of great societies and communities.
Examples: Ace going out of his way to help Moda get a letter to her parents, joining the WBP and accepting them as new family worth dying for and willing to die for him, his tendency to stare up at the stars.

Philautia: Self-love
Philautia encompasses two concepts: The first is that healthy, feelin’-myself, care-based love that reinforces self-esteem, like buying a new book as a gift for completing a big project or getting a big dinner after a long day. The other concept is one of selfishness that can be pleasure- and fame-seeking and highly concerned with status. (It can even be the foundation of narcissism and pride that borders sin.)
Examples: (Something Ace severely lacks) Anywhere from pride in teaching Luffy how to hunt, to taking joy in a physical skill like weaving and carving, to something surface level as recognizing that he is very attractive, or his belief in his abilities to take down Yonkos soon as he set to sea.

Pragma: Committed, Companionate
Pragma is love built on commitment, understanding and long-term best interests, like building a family. Over time, it grows to honor, respect, and cherish each other, accepting of differences and learning to compromise. It is everlasting love rooted in dedicated companionship.
Examples: Thoughts on lifespan and goals, the contemplation of settling down and forming a household with someone like Marco, etc. Working through difficulties and insecurities and coming out stronger for it. The possibility of domesticity and starting his own family, how he struggles with his bloodline or the idea of a legacy, parental feelings towards Tama.
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More R18/Adult Leaning Themes Below
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Eros: Romantic, Passionate
Eros is passion, lust, taking and giving pleasure. It’s an appreciation for one’s physical being or beauty, and is driven by attraction and sexual longing. It describes burning desire and is most similar to what we think of as passionate love between life partners in their honeymoon, one night stands, or hard and fast flings.
Examples: Ace's straight up daddy issues lol-- A lingering fling with Smoker in Alabasta building despite the risk, to a reckless attraction to the Surgeon of Death. Or something sweeter like a marriage night, or getting together after crushing and pining for years.

Mania: Obsessive, Corruptive
Love that spawns out of primal need and desire without limits or failsafes. Raw yearning, without consideration for what it takes to get it or who will be hurt along the way, including the one experiencing the obsession. The most dangerous expression of love, chasing perfection or to fill a void. Mania can also factor into non-mature content, but putting it down here just in case due to its more complex nature.
Examples: Flying too close to the sun. Getting into bad situations and bad relationships for the chance of being cherished, numbness to painful sexual encounters for the high of being desired, rejection sensitivity and lashing out at and sign of being unwanted to protect himself from more heartbreak. These can be adult in not only the sexual manner, but character studies of lifelong trauma and depression. Maybe a bit of both.

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Even though I carry the blood of a demon... "Thank you for loving me"