#Fallen Monk Pirates

[cuntyglam]

reblog for a higher sample size !!

personally i think fallen monk pirates sounds the coolest

[roseaesynstylae]

I want to put down all the references in the Worst Generation (excluding the Straw Hats and Blackbeard) and the named members of their crews. I'm getting my information from the wiki and adding my own theories/comments where necessary. Ever since I read JoJo, I love finding references in manga.

Fire Tank Pirates

Capone Bege: His surname is obviously taken from Al Capone (whom he also shares his birthday with) and his given name is based on the English privateer William le Sauvage. Him being stated to cut animals' heads off is a nod to the horse head scene from The Godfather.

Vito: His name seems to be taken from Vito "Don Vito" Genovese, a mobster/crime boss from Al Capone's era, and the first name of Don Corleone from The Godfather.

Gotti: He seems to be named after John Gotti, a mobster who ran the Gambino crime family in the 80s (He was nicknamed 'the Telfon Don' due to him facing three trials and being acquitted every time -- the results were caused by jury tampering and witness intimidation-- before being finally sent to prison in 1992).

Chiffon: She's named after chiffon cake, which she also specializes in making.

Pez: His name is the Spanish word for fish, as well as a nod to the candy brand, keeping with the Charlotte Family naming theme.

Bonney Pirates

Jewelry Bonney: Her name is taken from the 18th-century Anne Bonney, who, like Bonney herself, was a noble turned pirate.

Hawkins Pirates

Basil Hawkins: His surname is taken from 17th-century English pirate Basil Ringosel and his given name from 16th-century pirate/privateer John Hawkins. Hawkins is also the name of the protagonist of the 1883 adventure novel Treasure Island (which had a massive impact on the depiction of pirates in popular culture) by Robert Louis Stevenson, who also wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Visually, his design is based off of Joey Jordison of Slipknot.

Faust: He's named after the legendary character Faust, who sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and worldly pleasures. The story was most famously told by 15th-century playwright Christopher Marlowe in The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus and by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Faust.

On Air Pirates

Scratchman Apoo: His surname seems to be based on the practice of "scratching" records when DJing, tying into his association with music. His first name is taken from the Qing dynasty pirate Chui A-poo.

Kid Pirates

Eustass Kid: He's named after the 13th-century pirate and mercenary Eustace the Monk and the 17th-century Scottish (which Kid would be if he existed in the real world) pirate William Kidd, who was also called "Captain."

Kid's Attacks: I decided this needed its own entry. Punk Gibson (Kid's giant arm) -- Named after the US guitar manufacturer Gibson. Punk Rotten (the giant scrap metal head and arms) -- Named after Johnny Rotten, the name John Lyndon used when he was the frontman of the influential punk band Sex Pistols. Punk Vise (Crushing a target with Punk Rotten's hands) -- As "vice" and "vise" are spelled the same way in katakana, this attack might be named after the British punk rock band Vice Squad. Punk Pistols (a harpoon gun made out of metal pieces that acts like a Gatling gun) -- Named after Sex Pistols. Punk Corna Dio (the giant bull he used to attack Big Mom) -- Corna is Italian for horns, alluding to the sign of the horns in heavy metal, while Dio references Ronnie James Dio, who was very big in that genre; no, I'm not making the obvious joke. Damned Punk (the giant railgun he used to blast Big Mom off Onigashima) -- Probably named after the British punk rock band The Damned. Punk Clash (after magnetizing someone with his Awakened Devil Fruit, they attract very large and pointy metal pieces) -- Named after the British punk band The Clash.

Killer: His laugh alludes to the song 'Psycho Killer' by the New Wave band the Talking Heads, as the chorus is the same ("fa fa fa fa fa"). The song might be the source of his name. His helmet strongly resembles that of Daft Punk member Guy-Manual de Homem-Christo.

Heat: He's likely named after the experimental rock band This Heat.

Wire: He might be named after the English rock band Wire.

Gig: In keeping with the Kid Pirates' music-related theme naming, a gig is slang for a live show.

Dive: She's likely named after stage-diving, a common practice among musicians and their fans.

UK: His name may come from the UK, where many classic punk bands originated from (ie, the Clash, Sex Pistols). Alternately, he might be named after the Sex Pistols' song 'Anarchy in the UK.'

Pomp: He's likely named after pomp rock, more commonly known as arena rock (examples of bands known for arena rock: Styx, Toto, Journey, REO Speedwagon, Boston).

Bubblegum: His name seems to be a reference to bubblegum music (rock and pop in a catchy and upbeat style marketed toward children), which influenced punk rock, new wave, and melodic metal.

Reck: He's named after the bassist of the Japanese punk rock band Friction.

House: She's named after the electronic music subgenre house music.

Boogie: He's probably named after the electronic club music subgenre called boogie.

Mosh: He's likely named after moshing, a rather violent form of dancing. Appropriate for a member of a crew known for their violence.

Hip: She's named after hip-hop.

Papas: He's named after the folk rock group The Mamas & the Papas, the indie rock band Papas Fritas, or both.

Jaguar: He's likely named after the Fender Jaguar electric guitar. Alternately, his name could come from Mick Jagger's last name, as "Jagger" and "Jaguar" are spelled the same way in katakana.

Quincy: Her name likely comes from the producer and musician Quincy Jones, who produced Michael Jackson's albums Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad, and has 80 Grammy Award nominations and 28 Grammys.

Hop: She's named after hip-hop.

Compo: He might be named after an abbreviation of 'musical composition.'

Disc J: His name pretty clearly comes from disc jockey, more commonly known as DJ.

Fallen Monk Pirates

Urouge: He's named after the 16th-century Ottoman Pirate Oruc Reis. He seems to be based off of Grigori Rasputin, who needs no introduction, and/or Ji Gong, a Chinese monk known for having supernatural abilities, behaving bizarrely, and not following Buddhist monastic rules. Interestingly, both these figures have movies (Rasputin the Mad Monk, a 1966 Hammer horror film starring Christopher Lee as the titular character, and the 1993 Hong Kong film The Mad Monk) that might have inspired his epithet.

Drake Pirates

X Drake: Drake is sometimes synonymous with dragon, especially in Middle English; appropriate, given that dinosaur bones likely inspired legends of dragons. His name is also taken from 16th-century pirate and adventurer Francis Drake. Random (but likely not a deliberate reference) fact: He shares his birthday with the singer/rapper Drake.

Heart Pirates

Trafalgar D. Water Law: His surname is taken from Cape Trafalgar in the south of Spain, which was the site of a battle between the British and French/Spanish fleets which famously killed Lord Nelson. His name is taken from 18th-century pirate Edward Low, who was notorious for violently torturing his victims before killing them, which may have inspired Law's own reputation for cruelty.

Bepo: He might be named after Lord Byron's poem 'Beppo.' He's also likely named after bear, polar.

Shachi: His name is the Japanese word for killer whale, which makes his friendship with Penguin (who's named after killer whales' preferred food) kind of funny.

Jean Bart: His name comes from the 16th-century French privateer Jean Bart.

Ikkaku: Her name means 'narwhal' in Japanese.

Uni: His name comes from the Japanese word for sea urchin.

Clione: 'Clione' is the Latin name for sea angels.

Hakugan: His name means 'snow goose' in Japanese.

[lelalyo]

After One Piece is finished... if it's decided it should continue in some way, I hope that instead of a sequel/a new era, we would get the story again but following the adventures of other crews.

Maybe it's just me but I think it would be so cool to see what other crews were up to (in depth) while we were following the Straw Hats.

[opsidecrewsclash]

One Piece Side Crews Clash - BONUS

Members and Propaganda under cut

Alvida Pirates

Members:

Alvida

Propaganda:

The first crew we ever met in one piece!! They are literally the og, the blueprints for it all.

Cook Pirates

Members:

Zeff

Propaganda:

Unlike most pirates in this series we do see them committing an act of piracy

On Air Pirates

Members:

Scratchman Apoo

Propaganda:

Apoo is such a little shit, going around and betraying every crew he’s ever come in contact with, im half convinced he walked out on his own crew the second Kaido came calling. Anyway I love him

Drake Pirates

Members:

X Drake

Propaganda:

I find Drake’s triple agent quadruple cross schtik endlessly fascinating and am a little bit obsessed with him and his crew

Fallen Monk Pirates

Members:

Urouge

Propaganda:

Have they done much? No. Have we actually seen any of them apart from Urouge? Not really. Will they be back before the final battle? Depends. Am I still obsessed with them regardless? Yes.

[birthday-hell]

Urouge

Happy Birthday

August 1

[mugiwara-shuenobi]

[yourplayersaidwhat]

Turns out the Cleric is quite serious about religion

Context: I'm playing a deep gnome monk/cleric, who worships Umberlee. The Umberlee part never really came up, until last session. 

Me: So we're chartering a boat across the ocean? 

Fighter: Yup. 

Me: We're getting on now?

DM: Yes. 

Me: Great. I walk over to the side of the dock and upturn my entire gold purse into the ocean. 

Rogue: WHAT THE FUCK!

Me: I must pay tribute to the great queen of the sea. 

Wizard: Oh dear lord you worship Umberlee. This explains so much. 

*Later*

DM: You see one sailer is attempting to cut his hair with a knife. 

Me: Can I stare at him in a way to intimidate him to stop? 

DM: You do so, and he sees you. He is throughly creeped out by this. 

Me: You dare offer tributes to Sune while in the Stormgoddess's domain. 

Fighter: You know we never saw this side of [my character] before and I don't like it. 

*Later*

DM: So after this pirate skirmish you find the captain has fallen overboard. 

Wizard: Oh shit. Hey [My character] your a strong swimmer right? Can you rescure him? 

Me: And disobey the Wavemother's will?! 

Wizard: Ok, I'll figure something out. 

Me: Do not harm her sharks. 

Wizard: Of course there are sharks. 

*Later*

Rogue: Damn waves that high we are bound to capsize and drown. 

Me: And thus you've sealed our fate. As the Sea Queen demands.

Rogue: YOUR NOT SUPPOSE TO BE THE CREEPY ONE! AND HOW DO YOU HAVE ALL THESE TITLES MEMORIZED!?

Me: *Laughing* *Holds up the pages of wiki pages I've printed out about Umberlee* I've come prepared! 

[spacebarbarianweird]

Astarion Headcanons

Masterlist

Inbox is open for requests.

General Headcanons

Settling Down together after the game events

Bigger Tav x Astarion

Nightmares

Astarion makes a wedding dress for Tav

Astarion having sensitive ears

Dancing Headcanon

Ressurected Astarion Part 1

Ressurected Astarion Part 2

Astarion's twin brother

Widower Astarion

Tav is a cat owner

Astarion Can Purr Headcanons

Astarion x Big-Breasted Tav

Astarion and you are going to the Lliira's Night Festival

Astarion Pre-vampirism HCs

Astariox x Big\Soft tummied Tav

Taking care of their sick partner

Unromanced Astarion

SA victim Tav

M!Tav CSA victim

Dadstarion Headcanons

Boy Dad Astarion

Pregnant Tav

Astarion has a kid with Gnome!Tav

Astarion's half-elf daughter

Batstarion Headcanons

Batstarion

Batstarion is learning how to fly

Giving bath to Batstarion

NSFW Headcanons

Astarion x Big-Breasted Tav NSFW

Astarion x Small-Breasted Tav NSFW

Bigger Tav x Astarion NSFW

Batstarion Naughty Headcanons

Astarion x Tiefling!Tav (NSFW)

Astarion x Wizard!Tav NSFW

Astarion x Rogue!Tav NSFW

Astarion x Drow!Tav NSFW

Astarion x Changeling!Tav NSFW

Astarion x f!Gnome!Tav NSFW

Astarion x Tav With Health Related Conditions

Astarion x Autistic!Tav

Astarion x Blind!Tav

Astarion x Chronic Pain!Tav

Astarion x Mute Tav

Astarion x Tav Who Has to Cover Her Face

Astarion x Depressed!Tav

Astarion x Anxiety Disorder!Tav

Astarion x Chronically ill !Tav

Astarion x Deaf!Tav

Tiefling Tav with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome Astarion x Tav with Raunaud Syndrome

Astarion x Tav with Auditory Processing Disorder

Astarion x Custom Race!Tav Headcanons

Astarion x Tiefling!Tav

Astarion x Mephistopheles!Tiefling!Tav

Astarion x Dragonborn!Tav

Astarion x High Elf! Tav

Astarion x Gnome!Tav

Astarion x Dhampir!Tav

Astarion x f!Drow!Tav

Astarion x m!Drow!Tav

Astarion x Drider!Tav

Astarion x Half-Orc!Tav

Astarion x Wood Elf!Tav

Astarion x Curvy F!Human Tav

Astarion x Werewolf!Tav

Astarion x Changeling!Tav p.1

Astarion x Changeling!Tav p.2

Astarion x Changeling!Tav p.3

Astarion x Protector Aasimar!Tav

Astarion x Scourge Aasiamar!Tav

Astarion x Fallen Aasimar!Tav

Astarion x Eladrin!Tav

Astarion x Gur!Tav

Astarion x Fire Genasi Tav

Astarion x Custom Class!Tav Headcanons

Astarion x Barbarian!Tav

Astarion x Wizard!Tav

Astarion x Bard!Tav

Astarion x Druid!Tav

Astarion x Spore Circle Druid!Tav

Astarion x Ranger!Tav

Astarion x Drakewarden!Tav (Ranger subclass)

Astarion x Cleric of Selûne! Tav

Astarion x Cleric of Latander!Tav

Astarion x Cleric of Bahamuth!Tav

Astarion x Rogue!Tav

Astarion x Monk!Tav

Astarion x Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer!Tav

Astarion x Shadow Sorcerer!Tav

Astarion x Blood Hunter!Tav

Astarion x Archfey Warlock!Tav (Patron Niitra Siotta)

Astarion x The Great Old One Warlock!Tav (Patron Zargon)

Astarion x Fighter!Tav

Astarion x Paladin of Ilmater!Tav

Astarion x Artificer!Tav

Astarion x Custom Background!Tav Headcanons

Astarion x Noble!Tav

Astarion x Noble Elf!Tav

Astarion x Pirate!Tav

Astarion x Feylost!Tav

Astarion x Durge

Astarion x Redeemed Durge

Astarion x Evil Durge

[frank1estien]

Quiz Night

Me and my brother had the idea that the Strawhats would go through three pencils during the quiz. The first would be lost because Luffy pressed down too hard when writing the team name, the second would be taken by Sanji who ends up stabbing Zoro with it and the third pencil would be inder Usopp's protection.

[eyedelater]

some recurring words and callbacks in golden kamuy that didn't necessarily get translated consistently

sugimoto says 出た! deta! ("there it is!") or similar whenever citatap comes up (deta, demashita, de~ta~). also, it seems that even though asirpa says "citatap" properly with the katakana "pu" made small so you know it's acting as a final "p" sound, like チタタㇷ゚, sugimoto and other sisam tend to say "citatapu," with the katakana "pu" at full size, like チタタプ, showing their mispronunciation. (after i noticed this, i saw that noda-sensei had confirmed it in an interview, but i forget which one.)

my favorite recurring bit: when sugimoto does something nice for someone (e.g. offering his blanket to henmi kazuo) and they think something like, "he's so nice!" the line they're thinking is 優しい "yasashii" (kind, gentle). sugimoto gets called yasashii a few more times as well. in a small addition to volume 24, chapter 234, boutarou calls sugimoto yasashii, referring to him throwing people off the boat to save them from being shot by boutarou. and sugimoto's father calls him yasashii on his deathbed. i love the sugimoto who everyone agrees is so nice.

the word 戦友 senyuu ("war buddy, fellow soldier, comrade in arms") is omnipresent. i think it gets used in the sentimental "war buddy" sense just as often as it gets used in the drier "fellow soldier" sense, so it has been translated variously depending on the context. tsurumi uses it frequently to refer to fallen comrades as well as living "war buddies" like tsukishima. (he uses it with great emotional weight in this moment in chapter 150... EH scans' translated version here.) tsukishima uses it when yelling at ogata for killing maeyama in chapter 78, and ogata scoffs at it. but ogata himself uses senyuu, maybe in an ironic sense, to refer to the 3 men he thinks tanigaki killed (chapter 111) and also wryly to tanigaki himself (chapter 113). and the narrative refers to ilya as vasily's senyuu.

opposite of a recurrence: several distinct but similar words meaning "soldier" are translated as "soldier" because english doesn't have enough other options. (兵士 heishi, 兵隊 heitai, 軍人 gunjin all appear; there is also the more specific 屯田兵 tondenhei, meaning colonizer or agricultural soldier)

shiraishi gets called タコ坊主 takobouzu (literally tako "octopus" + bouzu "monk, guy with a shaved head," but if you yell it at someone, it means roughly "you bald idiot") by ienaga when she was about to get blown up by his grenade and by kiroranke when he told shiraishi not to run from the bear and he ran anyway. i kept waiting for a third instance to round out the list, but there is none.

when shiraishi introduces himself to pretty women (ienaga then inkarmat), he says 独身で彼女はいません!! dokushin de kanojo ha imasen!! meaning "i'm single and don't have a girlfriend!!" EH scans didn't include that redundancy in their translation, but i think the redundancy is funny. this is another entry where it happened twice and a third never cropped up.

shiraishi often gets called 役立たず yakutatazu (役に立つ yaku ni tatsu means "to be of use," so yakutatazu means "being of no use" or "useless") by sugimoto and asirpa. also, sugimoto calls himself yakutatazu when fighting gansoku on the ice and again after boutarou takes asirpa from him in the brewery.

shiraishi calls pretty much everyone he meets -chan. even ogata-chan and koito-chan (including at their first meeting when koito was clearly an enemy). i get the sense that he does it as part of his overly friendly and teasing nature. he's the one who named vasily "zukin-chan" (hood guy). i think the only one who ever calls him "shiraishi-chan" in return is ishikawa takuboku. but shiraishi won't call people -chan if he doesn't feel like it. (i'm pretty sure he never calls sugimoto sugimoto-chan; and he calls boutarou kaizoku-chan [pirate-chan] once or twice but mostly just calls him boutarou.)

[casp1an-sea]

FANDOMS

if anyone actually reads all this, I’ll be impressed

Tv show themes through the years playlist

I colored the ones I cared most about in each section if none are colored it means I care about the things in that section equally.

Star Wars:

Original Trilogy 

Prequels 

I dont consider myself a sequels fan but I am obsessed with HUX and Kylux and basically anything first order

Rouge One

Star Wars Legends

Star wars Infinites

Star Wars as written by William Shakespeare 

Star Wars Clone Wars

The Bad Batch

Star Wars Rebels

Andor 

Mandolorian 

Obi-Wan Kenobi Series 

Star Wars Visions 

Tales of the Jedi 

Tales of the Empire

Anything Lego Star Wars 

THE ACOLYTE (may it rest in piece)

—————————————————————————

Marvel:

the movies (I’m not caught up yet) 

Falcon and the winter soldier 

Loki (not caught up) 

Wanda Vision

Avengers Assemble (literally so weird and silly) (not finished with season 5)

spider verse

Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies

Andrew Garfield, Spider-Man movies

—————————————————————————

Musicals/Plays:

Newsies

Bye Bye Biride

Christmas Carol

Wonka

Little mermaid

Shrek

Wizard of OZ

Anything goes

Sponge Bob

Beauty and the Beast

Guys and Dolls

Hamilton

Six

The guy who didn’t like musicals

twisted

ride the cyclone

Les Mis

The lighting thief (not finished)

into the woods

Kinda bat boy (HOLD ME BAT BOY TOUCH ME BAT BOY)

Gatsby

Romeo and Juliet

Macbeth

—————————————————————————

Games:

Zac McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders!!!! (Literally the best game)

Twisted Wonderland (read through book 6)

Ultimate Shark Simulator

Hogwarts Mystery (not caught up)

KOTOR (not caught up)

Star Wars Asault Team

Minecraft

Jedi Fallen Order (not finished)

—————————————————————————

Anime:

MHA (stopped watching mid season 4 only really care about Iida)

OHSHC

BSD

Angels of death 

Darling in the franxx (only really care about Goro)

Saki k (haven’t seen season 2)

—————————————————————————

Minecraft SMPs:

EVO

Dream SMP (not caught up)

Empires SMP

X Life 

After Life 

New Life 

Rats 

Pirates (not caught up) 

Trafic Light/Life Series (I only watch Jimmy, Joel, and Martin’s POVs)

—————————————————————————

2000s Kids shows:

MLP G3 and Friendship is Magic

Wild Kratts 

Octonauts 

TMNT 2012

Odd Squad 

imagination movers

Dinosaur Train

Lego Friends (The og version)

Monster High

Ever After High

Avatar the Last Air Bender 

Sofia the first

Elena of Avalore

dinosaur train

—————————————————————————

Weird Sci-fi and Fantasy Shows:

Doctor Who (only on the 4th Doctor) 

Read All About it 

H2O Just Add Water 

Wolf Blood 

Fragle Rock

Mako Mermaids (only watched season 1)

Alien Surfer Girls/Lightning Point

Thunder Stone 

Girl From Tomorrow 

Ocean Girl 

Sparticle Mystery 

Elephant Princess (featuring Liam Hemsworth) 

Eerie Indiana 

Girl’s World

House of Anubis 

A girl named Jo (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

Blue Water High (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

The Prisoner 

Spell Binder 

Just Add Magic 

Maddigan’s Quest 

The Next Step (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

Return to Jupiter 

Rocket’s Island 

Parallels

Silver Sun (not caught up) 

—————————————————————————

Disney Plus Telenovelas: 

Violeta 

Soy Luna 

Bia 

Intertwined 

O11CE

L-Pop

—————————————————————————

Misc fandoms and shows:

Harry Potter (not caught up, I do not support J.K. Rowling or read the books) 

The Tick (og cartoon version) 

Monk

The Outsiders (movie, book, and 90s Tv series) 

Alex Rider (the show not the books) 

Wild at Heart (never finished) 

White Collar 

National Treasure Edge of History 

The Lodge

Descendants 

Z-O-M-B-I-E-S

Gilligan’s Island

NCIS New Orleans

Hell of a Boss

Hazbin Hotel

Heart Stopper

OFMD (not caught up)

Julie and the Phantoms 

Disney in general 

Tinker bell

—————————————————————————

Book series: 

Percy Jackson (currently only read the lightning thief)

The Final Six 

Horizon 

Thea Sisters (when I was little) 

Chronicles of Narnia

Wizard of Oz

The black stallion

Series of unfortunate events

The Outsiders

The Waterfire Saga

[onepiece-birthdays]

It's August 1st

Happy birthday to Captain "Mad Monk" Urouge, Captain of the Fallen Monk Pirates! He is 47.

We tried to get a quote from Urouge, but, well... No one's seen him! (The WENP is willing to pay handsomely for information on missing Worst Generation members.)

[roseaesynstylae]

Here's a list of the Worst Generation's known crew members, with the exception of the Straw Hats and the Blackbeard Pirates.

Firetank Pirates: Capone Bege (captain; Devil Fruit user; male), Vito (advisor; male), Gotti (male), Charlotte Chiffon (female; Bege's wife), Capone Pez (male; Bege's son).

Bonney Pirates: Jewelry Bonney (female; captain; possible Devil Fruit user, we don't know for sure).

Hawkins Pirates: Basil Hawkins (male; captain; Devil Fruit user; status unknown), Faust (male; magician, apparently).

On Air Pirates: Scratchman Apoo (male; captain; Devil Fruit user).

Kid Pirates (status collectively unknown): Eustass Kid (male; captain; Devil Fruit user), Killer (male; combatant), Heat (male), Wire (male), Gig (male), Dive (female), UK (male), Pomp (male), Bubblegum (male), Reck (male), House (female), Boogie (male), Mosh (male), Hip (female), Papas (male), Jaguar (male), Quincy (female), Moai (male), Hop (female), Emma (female), Compo (male), Disc J (male).

Fallen Monk Pirates: Urouge (male; captain, Devil Fruit user).

Drake Pirates: X Drake (male; captain; devil Fruit user; status unknown).

Heart Pirates (status collectively unknown except for Law and Bepo): Trafalgar D. Water Law (male; captain; Devil Fruit user), Bepo (male; navigator), Penguin (male), Shachi (male), Jean Bart (male), Ikkaku (female), Uni (male), Clione (male), Hakugan (male).

I might do a follow-up where I list off the various references in their names.

[blood-orange-juice]

Pushing my "Childe is inspired by Uther Doul" agenda.

I wrote about how everything that he does contains a contradiction and we discussed with Cricket how Canotila's quest implies that the Abyss might not be just a place with monsters and dead forgotten gods, but rather a place where things randomly flicker in and out of existence or change to random other things.

And a huge part of my fascination with Childe is how three years after the start of the story I still can't figure him out. Human psyche doesn't bend at this angles, his combination of traits is not supposed to exist in one person (nor it can be imitated).

Yet, somehow it doesn't feel like ooc or bad writing, I have a very clear sense of what would be childelike and unchildelike, it just doesn't feel like anything that can exist inside a human brain, unless I resort to a very weird theory.

*

The theory.

China Mieville's "The Scar" has a concept called "possibility mining", certain places and certain magic/technology being able to conjure all the possible versions of a person or an object at once. It can be navigated to some extent.

There's a character called Uther Doul, a warrior-scholar, the pirate city rulers' bodyguard and overall a charming fellow. He's consistently described as someone changing the direction of his actions too quickly and unpredictably or having traits that shouldn't coexist in one person.

(he also wears grey, is proficient in most kinds of weapons and is generally polite and soft spoken. do you see my vision?)

First meeting:

  “Surrender,” he said quietly to the man before him, who looked up in terror and sobbed, fumbled idiotically for his knife.    The grey-clad man spun instantly in the air, his arms and legs bent. He twirled as if he were dancing and stamped out quickly, the bottom of his foot slamming into the fallen man’s face and smashing him back. The sailor sprawled, bleeding, unconscious or dead. As the man in grey landed he was instantly still. It was as if he had not moved.

A fight at a city arena (mostly quoting this for the reaction of other people to him):

It was only when the frenzy spread to her own boat that she realized it was a word. “Doul.” It came from all around her. “Doul, Doul, Doul.” A name. “What are they saying?” she hissed to Silas. “They’re calling for someone,” he said, his eyes scanning the surrounds. “They want a display. They’re demanding a fight from Uther Doul.” He gave her a quick, cold smile. “You’ll recognize him,” he said. “You’ll know him when you see him.” [...] Uther Doul did not seem to live in the same time as anyone else. He seemed like some visitor to a world much more gross and sluggish than his own. Despite the bulk of his body, he moved with such speed that even gravity seemed to operate more quickly for him.

The heroine contemplating after (I don't think need to comment):

They left and walked the winding nightlit pathways of Thee-And-Thine toward Shaddler, and Garwater and the Chromolith. Neither spoke. At the end of Doul’s fight, Bellis had seen something that had brought her up short and made her afraid. As he had turned, his hands clawed, his chest taut and heaving, she had seen his face. It was stretched tight, every muscle straining, into a glare of feral savagery unlike anything she had ever seen on a human being. Then a second later, with his bout won, he had turned to acknowledge the crowd and had looked once more like a contemplative priest. Bellis could imagine some fatuous warrior code, some mysticism that abstracted the violence of combat and allowed one to fight like a holy man. And equally she could imagine tapping into savagery, letting atavistic viciousness take over in a berserker fugue. But Doul’s combination stunned her. She thought of it later, as she lay in her bed, listening to light rain. He had readied and recovered himself like a monk, fought like a machine, and seemed to feel it like a predatory beast. That tension frightened her, much more than the combat skills he had shown. Those could be learned.

Uther explaining lore:

   Uther quoted something like a singer. “ ‘We have scarred this mild world with prospects, wounded it massively, broken it, made our mark on its most remote land and stretching for thousands of leagues across its sea. And what we break we may reshape, and that which fails might still succeed. We have found rich deposits of chance, and we will dig them out.’    “They meant all that literally,” he said. “It wasn’t an abstract crow of triumph. They had scarred, they had broken the world. And, in doing so, they set free forces that they were able to tap. Forces that allowed them to reshape things, to fail and succeed simultaneously-because they mined for possibilities. A cataclysm like that, shattering a world, the rupture left behind: it opens up a rich seam of potentialities.    “And they knew how to pick at the might-have-beens and pull out the best of them, use them to shape the world. For every action, there’s an infinity of outcomes. Countless trillions are possible, many milliards are likely, millions might be considered probable, several occur as possibilities to us as observers-and one comes true.    “But the Ghosthead knew how to tap some of those that might have been. To give them a kind of life. To use them, to push them into the reality that in its very existence denied theirs, which is defined by what happened and by the denial of what did not. Tapped by possibility machines, outcomes that didn’t quite make it to actuality were boosted, and made real.

Fun detail: he also wields what's called a "possible sword", it takes the shape currently preferred by the owner.

If I recall that correctly, it's never actually stated explicitly or explained why does Uther have such a weird combination of traits and fans argue a lot about which side was real.

I think all of them were. He just switched constantly between all the different versions of himself. And I think so does Childe. Not just in "he compartmentalizes" way (although that probably too) but in reality-shifting way.

I also think that's the real reason why Childe wasn't in Sumeru. His thought process itself is probably a massive spoiler. Also Nahida would have probably speedrun a corruption arc with a pace inconceivable both to King Deshret and Rukkhadevata if she tried to peek into his head.

*

It gets weirder and even more fun when you see the drops from the 4.2 boss, but I'll wait for the patch to drop to draw parallels. For now I'll just say that it involves a whale and a music instrument.

[queen-beefcake-sqx]

he xuan: treat or treat

I was SO excited to see you in my inbox your treat is a ficlet:

“I don’t do Halloween,” He Xuan grumbled around the fake vampire teeth in his mouth. They’d fallen out no less than three times over the course of the party, giving him good excuse to sit in a corner and glare menacingly rather than do any socializing. 

“Sure dress like you do,” Hua Cheng replied, sipping a blood red punch. He’d decided to go as a pirate, drawing a little jolly roger on one of his spare eyepatches. He cranes his neck to look over the crowd, frowning. “See him yet?” 

He Xuan barely resists rolling his eyes. “No, for the tenth time, I haven’t —“

“There you two are!”

He Xuan and Hua Cheng looked up as Xie Lian and Shi Qingxuan made their way through the crowd to them. Xie Lian was dressed as a monk, hilariously austere in an outfit he’d certainly obtained from the local thrift store. Next to him, Shi Qingxuan looked like she’d stepped off the runway at Paris Fashion Week. The beads of her dress sparkled under the party lights in a multitude of colors, and a pair of fairy wings adorned her back. She smeared a glitter cross her cheeks, and when she met He Xuan’s eyes she smiled so wide her eyes squinted cutely. 

He Xuan didn’t realize his mouth was open until he felt one of his fangs fall again, bouncing across the floor, lost among the feet of partiers. 

He could hear Hua Cheng’s grin. “Still don’t ‘do’ Halloween?”

“Shut up.”

[birthday-hell]

Urouge

Happy Birthday

August 1