#i intend to get the english manga eventually too because that's probably one of the better ways to show english-language interest

[xoteajays]

yessss, please tell me all about rikaine, i love her already !! ( and as i’ve said i think she and my girls lark and star would be besties <3 )

hope you’re doing well, love !! <3

yayyy it's the attention i wanted agsghfsjfjkl so rikaine is her surname, koi is her first name. it's another surname first situation with op. (let lark and koi duet jolly sailor bold so sanji and zoro can collectively lose their minds about it. star and koi 🤝 being hot redhead zoro ships) i'm doing well, thank you! ♡♡

to get the smaller details out of the way: she's a zoro ship, is a half-mermaid, she doesn't have a devil fruit power but does have merfolk abilities, like being a very fast swimmer, breathing underwater, and talking to fish.

okay, so, let's start with her parents. her father is pirate captain rikaine colt. he began his piracy career as a pre-teen, years before gold roger's death. he started out as a powder monkey and eventually worked his way up to captain after he and his crew mutinied against their original captain. to say the least, colt was very charismatic. later, as captain, he met koi's mother, esmarie, a mermaid with a fascination for humans. (esmarie is way more little mermaid coded than koi).

esmarie and colt were never married or anything, but they did have an affection for each other. after koi was born, esmarie was a very hands-off parent, she loved her daughter but loved her freedom more. that didn't bother koi too much since she had her father. colt loved his daughter more than anything. koi probably had the best childhood of all the straw hats tbh. she grew up on - and in the ocean around - her father's ship. just imagine this big pirate dude carrying around a tiny merchild. the crew also adored koi. they rigged up a machine on the side of the ship to lift koi from the water easier; they made a game of throwing her back into the ocean and cheering when she did a flip or a perfect dive. the crew was as much family to koi as they were to colt. they do all try to keep koi out of the pirate stuff though.

all was fine and dandy until koi was about 15. colt's ship was overtaken by the legendarily cruel pirate captain blacktide (real name, lyne tydell). blacktide's own ship was on the way to being totally destroyed after a battle and he intended to take someone else's ship. there was little colt could do when blacktide came aboard and demanded he cede his captaincy; this is because of blacktide's devil fruit, the ubau ubau no mi (or yoink yoink fruit in english), which allows him to take aspects from people and keep them in a physical bottle. when colt initially faltered, one of his crewmates tried to stand up for him and blacktide took his eyes, leaving him completely blind. to protect the rest of his crew, colt handed over his captaincy and ship to blacktide.

of course, there was no time to tell koi any of this and when she came aboard, she was swiftly captured by blacktide. he wanted to keep her as a prize and trophy, as a faux show of wealth to play like the rich people who would spent millions on mermaids. it quickly became obvious how important koi is to the crew though and blacktide decided he could use her as a tool to keep them in line. years later, when koi is closer to 17/18 (maybe older? idk if the la ages are the same as the manga/anime), blacktide discovered rumors of a mutiny amongst the original crew and chose to punish koi to punish the crew; he took her tail. the ubau ubau power is a painful process and koi lists it as one of the worst agonies she's ever experienced. it breaks her father's heart.

colt begs one of his original crewmates, luz, to take koi and free her somewhere far from blacktide's reaches. though initially hesitant, luz eventually agrees and takes koi in the night when everyone else is asleep.

this is where it gets a lil hazy for me. i'm not fully committed to how koi meets the straw hats, but what i have going so far is: luz leaves her on the shores of orange town, it's dark so they don't know that the city is in ruins. by daybreak, koi is discovered and captured by buggy's crew. she plays at being a part of his crew, but he doesn't really have a part for her in his 'show', so she's mainly kept in the back. she was supposed to be keeping an eye on zoro and nami to make sure they don't escape while buggy deals with luffy. she stays hidden from them until she hears cabaji coming and rushes to stop nami from getting caught picking her lock. when zoro, nami and luffy are fighting buggy, she tries to free the orange town citizens but they're too scared to run.

when the straw hats are leaving, she begs asks to come with them. nami and zoro are originally going to say no, but luffy being luffy is of course like 'more the merrier' and lets her come along. as they set off, she explains to them all about her past and luffy is all the more insistent to help her get her tail back.

bonus: blacktide and luz! i cannot find a usable colt fc to save my life.