#zouin / lore.

[svartr]

zouin views intimacy as a way to connect with someone. although he prefers to be that way with a lover, he is not against being intimate with a friend who he holds close to his heart. friends with benefits or something more, something deeper, the connection is what matters to him.

compared to zouin, ei is a lot more open to who he has intimacy with. he can easily separate emotions and pleasure. this is not to say he goes out of his way to seek out that sort of intimacy, but if it comes up, then he won't stray from it. he likes to have fun, and yes, bedding someone is a great distraction from all the sorrow that is unavoidable during war times.

[svartr-moved]

thinking about how zouin stands out quite a bit in bohemia and usually gets weird looks so he's rarely seen in villages unless supplies are needed but then he ends up teaming up with a band of misfits trying to liberate the true king

[svartr]

was brainstorming what i want to happen to zouin in terms of his own "questline".

i like the idea of involving some of those from his past, those from his village who blame zouin for what happened to the village. the group would be led by his brother because those who are left realize that only his brother would have an idea on how to find zouin. ei's motives are unclear up until the very point where an exact location turns up. the group going straight to the devil's den, being met with hostility, a fight would break out because at this point, zouin has more than earned his place in the pack.

ei and in fight with each other for a while, but when another shinobi tries to attack in from behind, ei kills him before he has the chance. this obviously earns a bunch of side eyes from everyone because weren't you just trying to kill him yourself. if there is one thing to know about ei, it is that he really, really likes to perform. he is acting 95% of the time and that is why he is so frustrating as a person (and incredibly interesting for me to write). zouin is straight forward, even when he really shouldn't be. zouei will lead you around a bush on a leash over and over again, and convince you that you haven't been wasting your time. that there's purpose behind your actions, when there really isn't, outside of his own entertainment. the fight would end with injuries on both sides, but most of the damage had been done to ei's group.

on ei's side, he is the only one that comes out of the fight alive, albeit heavily injured. zouin holds a dagger against his throat, and ei should be at the very least a little disturbed, freaked out, something, yet all he does is laugh. there's tension !!!! and it really seems like zouin will kill his brother. and then suddenly, it's this reunion that's been literally building up since they parted in japan. the last time that they saw each other was during the attack on his village. he truly believed that zouei had died because he watched him fall. he watched as flames consumed them both, and everything around them. and he tried to help him, of course he did, but there really was just too many soldiers to do anything other than get himself, and ei, if by chance he did survive, killed.

[svartr]

my canon is that zouin shadowed henry at maleshov when he went to get hans at john's orders. he was not supposed to get involved, unless it was absolutely necessary. they did not want to raise the alarm and having too many moving parts could do just that. but, i do have it as my canon that zouin is part of the reason why there wasn't so many people parading around, likely took care of one or two soldiers and hid them away in parts of the fortress one would not think to look. oh and he def climbed over a wall with his fancy little devices. he would have gone much earlier to scout out weak points in their defense, too. looking for possible exits, just in case. one can never be too safe, too cautious.

now, when zouin shadows henry and samuel at suchdol, it is of his own choice. any other times before then when he was told to shadow someone, it was an order given. by john, sam, zizka, whatever. but, at suchdol, zouin made the decision for himself because he truly did not want to lose sam and henry. zouin does not care for the silver, not one bit, because this is not his war, this is not his home, but he cares for the people that he has gotten to know, cares for them so deeply that he does not think for a moment before risking his own safety to keep them safe. if anywhere is home, it is with them.

you can imagine the amount of pain that zouin felt when he found sam in such a terrible state. if henry chooses to leave sam behind in favor of moving faster, zouin is the one who saves sam. no matter what, sam is not staying behind, and if zouin has to fight off the entire camp on his own, he'll figure out a way, or die trying. if it is not clear, if there is even a slight hesitation from henry in terms of killing brabant, zouin is the one who stabs him straight in the neck from behind. he'd already planned on doing so when he smelled the rat, heard of him prowling about somewhere in the camp, but after what he did to samuel, there was no chance in hell he'd allow him to open his mouth and spew his bullshit any longer.

if henry chooses to leave samuel behind, their bond is immediately broken. henry becomes a very important person to zouin over the course of the story, but he will never forgive him if he chooses the silver over sam. again, zouin is a people kind of person, he cares for people, sometimes so blindly, that he cannot see the whole picture. he'd never choose to sacrifice the life of one of his own in favor of a potentially better outcome for all. it can be seen as selfish but zouin is not the type of person who's there to save the masses. he's there to keep his loved ones safe. if they can help other people, that's great. if not, then he'll live with that.

[svartr]

the way zouin struggles to touch people unless there's a bond built prior. the way he wishes he could reach out and help those who need it. trying to provide assistance when you literally exit reality when touch is involved is troubling, indeed. his gloves help, it limits skin on skin contact, which is the primary trigger. but, there's still that uncomfortable feeling when he gets too close to someone he hardly knows, even with the majority of his body concealed beneath clothes and armor.

[svartr]

thinking about how zouin gives off the untrustworthy vibes from looks alone - he looks scary, unapproachable. his battle outfit is enough to make most people stay away from him. yet somehow, he always ends up being the person that people confide in quickly. personally, i think this is because he is straightforward and honest. people know that he will respond with honesty, even if it is not something they wish to hear. he doesn't sugarcoat anything. he is also really good at keeping secrets and is non-judgmental where it counts. his own past is something that he could easily be condemned for, like hell will he pass judgement upon anyone else's secrets or history.

[svartr]

noa on how he can make zouin's life even worse

what if he unknowingly helped those who ended up attacking his village. like his help is what made it possible for the attack to be successful. and he only finds that out afterwards during his revenge path. and then, some people from his village that managed to survive come after him. and that is the real reason he flees from japan. it was never something that he wanted to do. but if he stayed, there's a higher chance he'd be killed out of revenge. full circle kinda vibe.

also love the whole double spy plot for him. where he was pretending to be a spy for the other side whilst feeding the information back to his clan. that can quickly get messy and people could easily blame him when things went wrong because who else would have spilled ??? but in the end he was actually innocent and always danced around what he said about his clan.

my plot for zouin being in bohemia is bc he initially intended to find his mom. but what if he. blocked out. her dying because of him. if he goes to norway, or someone does research on his mom for him ( john, maybe ??? ) and they find out that she never came back from japan.

what if his mom died when he was young because it was a task given to him by the elders. again, blocking out her death was much easier for his brain than admitting she is dead because of his own hands. he was manipulated, a mere child, but it was still his hands that did it.

and when he saw sara dying in sam's arms ???? immediately triggered back to that night as a child.

god, i think he had a choice between killing his mother or his brother. the whole lesson is that you have to be able to kill whoever the contract states to kill. you can't have attachments to people because attachments make you soft. and there is no effective assassin that is softhearted.

as a child, zouin has had that fact drilled into his head. whenever he'd show his soft heart, he'd be punished. and when the punishments did not work on him anymore, they'd hurt his brother. or his other family members. or his friends.

some punishments included being locked away in crawl spaces, going without food, forcing him to find his way back from deep within the forests, leading him to the top of the mountain and then seeing if he manages to make his way back or not.

zouin is part norwegian and i don't think his clan liked that he or his brother were mixed. and his mother is the one that "tainted" their blood. so both options "make sense" in terms of who he'd have to kill.

[svartr]

thinking about how brabant and zouin argue literally every single time that they're in the same room. there are no exceptions. in the middle of battle ? they're calling each other names. winding down after a long day ? zouin specifically learned how to insult brabant in french.

zouin starts learning french to understand what brabant is saying, reading, writing, because he does not trust him nor will he ever trust him. his sus radar has gone off more times than he can count. he has told samuel about all of them. and a time or two, he's likely told zizka, henry or hynek.

zouin was on brabant's list; he knew that having zouin around would eventually spell his end. his true self would be revealed, perhaps earlier than intended.

brabant tried to create distance between himself and zouin on multiple occasions, always offering to do whatever zouin was not doing. the relief this french man felt whenever zouin would be off scouting, spying, whatever ??? immense.

[svartr]

zouin understands far more czech than what most people realize. this is used to his advantage. you'd be surprised by what people will chatter about in front of someone who they believe does not understand a single word that's being said.

zouin doesn't hide where he comes from unless the mission he's sent on requires him to. he is nearly always wearing japanese styled clothes and frequently speaks in his native language.

when looking at zouin, most people don't realize that he is part norwegian. a part from a few physical traits given to him by his mother (his blue eye, his albinism), he looks nearly identical to how his father looked in his youth.

zouin knows norwegian from his mother, who taught him how to speak and write in the language.

[svartr]

thinking about how homosexuality wasn't actually a crime or sin or really seen as anything bad in historical japan and was often even encouraged. zouin being exposed to how different bohemia is in terms of what is expected with love and sex. what's seen as okay and what's believed to be sinful, the complete opposite from what he is used to.

[svartr]

when zouin's emotions are involved in any way, he will start playing with his mask, scarf, whatever, to try and conceal more of himself. call it a comfort of sorts, he's always felt safer when others cannot see him.

[svartr]

zouin hides his shadow magic as best as he can, inei views magic as a tool that's necessary at times, and zouei loves using his magic.

[svartr]

zouei knows what actually happened to their mother, he remembers it vividly, how zouin had been forced to kill her with his own hands, under the elder's orders. it was between his mother and his brother, one had to die to complete his training.

it had been a choice that was nearly impossible to make, yet not one that was unique to them. killing a loved one is a part of the training, though it had been rare to end one's own mother's life. friends, siblings, sure. but, rarely ever, a parent.

zouin does not remember this act of violence, because it is inei that guided his hand during it. he does not have any recollection of this moment; it is one of the traumatic experiences that he has gone through.

what neither of them know, however, is that their mother is the one who forced her child's hand, pushing the dagger into her chest, piercing her heart, because she knew that if he did not do what was ordered of him, then it would be his death in the near future.