#me yapping about my interpretation of simon blackquill for 30 minutes

[mittenlady]

Fun tip for early Blackquill I think

He would most likely not use the term Cykes-dono until Athena grew up, since it’s basically like the word Mister/Miss

Metis would be Cykes-Sensei as she was his teacher and also a doctor. Every other person refers to her as doctor so he would use sensei as respect both ways

Athena, young Athena, would most likely be Cykes-Chan, meaning basically child Cykes. Since he was affiliated with both, it would be important to specify WHICH Cykes he was taking about (as in if he said “Cykes-dono is in the hospital” you wouldn’t know if Athena or Metis is the one sick. But if he said “Cykes-Sensei is in the hospital” you would go, ah it’s Metis.”)

thank u for sending this in!! unfortunately i’ve already written all the young simon chapters in CAYA 😭😭 and i do actually have a different stance on some of these

yapping below the cut

“-dono” has an archaic connotation of co-workers, and because of its archaic nature i believe that he uses it for his samurai persona. like, only for his samurai persona. when he’s outside the courthouse, i don’t think he refers to athena as “cykes-dono” — unless, naturally, he wants to get on her nerves by bringing back the honorific in a way of distancing himself from her/addressing her more formally and less personally despite their history. (i do write him calling klavier “gavin-dono” before he has the need to build that persona in CAYA but that’s just to get on his nerves, and he had to start somewhere.)

on the “cykes-sensei” and “cykes-chan” aspect, i would tend to disagree. however, this is roughly up to one’s interpretation of his character. he refers to metis as “dr. cykes” in game, rather than using any honorifics, and he does the same with athena. if he wanted to maintain his persona on the witness stand, he could’ve chosen to pursue further honorifics (rather than just “-dono”), but he doesn’t, which leads me to think he really only uses the single one to maintain his persona.

however, this is where differing interpretations of the text come into play. i’m of the opinion that he’s japanese-british due to his appearance, his selection of a samurai persona, and his speech (in the localization), and that for whatever reason, he and aura moved from britain to… japanifornia or whatever 😭 standing out and being perceived as something “other” would help to create this sense of fear and unease around him, make him be perceived as more of a threat, and due to disproportionate racial demographics in prison (particularly in the U.S.), him being japanese and british — a double colonizer if you will — would make him very significantly an “other.” and this is something he could weaponize.

this aspect doesn’t work entirely outside of the U.S. localization, though i suspect a disproportionate level of less-educated prisoners would exist globally in prison populations? i do not know particularly the workings and flaws of japan’s prison system but because the game employs some strange hybrid in the localization i tend to be vague about specifics and follow the generalities of what the game says, taking bits and pieces from each system that seem to align with the narrative. cali doesn’t even really fw the death penalty anymore so the threat in itself is made hollow in the localization lol.

but as i tend to interpret him as someone not entirely connected with japanese culture (he is from britain unfortunately), kind of clinging to it with this adoption of a persona from the country’s history and adapting it to suit his needs, weaponizing his heritage in a sense, it wouldn’t make sense for the way i write him to use more than “-dono.” he doesn’t have much need to, and he’s living in a place where nobody else seems to use honorifics — and though simon post-incarceration clearly doesn’t care about adhering to societal norms, one can assume that pre-incarceration he would have had more adherence. however, the game doesn’t bother to show more of how he used to be before his incarceration so there’s not a definitive answer. one could say that he’s more connected with his japanese heritage and speaks like a brit because that was how english was taught in school, and he learned more of the language through period pieces or something (he would fw those heavy cmon bro tryna act like a samurai 😭😭), but that isn’t how i personally interpret the text. as i think metis is also japanese (and athena is wasian), maybe he could’ve referred to them as such in private since they share that culture, but when i write, i scour the transcripts to see how characters refer to one another and tend to stick to that unless i have a pressing reason to do otherwise

if any of this sounds curt that wasn’t my intent LFMAOO i’m just writing very bluntly 😭 u were cooking i just don’t rly interpret him in that way and ivr already written like every chapter of CAYA where he’s young so i’m kind of set on that interpretation. tbh the period piece one could be so funny tho