Pecha (Orihara Izaya) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
best_ended) wrote2012-10-08 01:45 am
best_ended) wrote2012-10-08 01:45 am
(no subject)
Okok. so I was going to essay on all three of my thusia characters but then my brain shut down like... sometimes while writing this large-ass essay. SO INSTEAD, YOU ALL GET IN-DEPTH OPINIONS OF CHARACTERIZATION OF THE TROLL FROM YOURS TRULY.
So the first thing I want to make clear is the most important thing about Izaya's characterization: HE IS HUMAN. Yes, this is the most important thing to remember when talking about one Orihara Izaya, because of all intents and purposes, he will make himself anything and everything and have people believe that he is more or less than what he is. But the fact of the matter remains that he's simply. Human. Kind of pitifully so. The thing with Izaya is that while he may have had antisocial behavioral patterns when he was younger, he was perfectly content with simply watching events happen around him rather than taking part himself. This of course all drastically changed when LOLOL STABBING INCIDENT IN JUNIOR HIGH happened.
And it's from that point that we actually see the Izaya that we all know and love today, a manipulative bastard that likes to see people in desperate situations to see what they will do. Instead of simply sitting back and watching the events around him, he very much has a hand in orchestrating the events that people find themselves in, actively nudging people in one direction rather than another to see what they will do (will they continue forward, will the circle back, will they go in an entirely unforeseeable direction?). All of this shows Izaya as leaning pretty heavily toward the sociopathic edge of the scale, acting like he thinks he's some god that can rule over humans.
The funny thing? IZAYA KNOWS HE ISN'T. And it's that fact that can drive him the most stir-crazy. If anything, the incident in Junior High essentially points Izaya to the truth that he is lamentably human. He cannot separate himself from that role, no matter what he builds himself into. He will never really be at the level of distance from world-events like someone, say, like Shinra? And this is something that Izaya has largely come to terms with in canon, though he is constantly dabbling in the super- and preternatural worlds. Going over theories and thinking about what happens after death--he is actually pretty mindful of his own limitations, though since he's human he can have the occasion where he miscalculates and-or is unable to predict what will happen next.
If anything, Izaya over the years perfected the art of coming in at the right or wrong time, saying the right or wrong thing, and then leaving at the right or wrong time in a way that makes him appear in control and having a hand in everything. Complete illusion to everyone but himself, except not really because people know that's what he's doing but then they have trouble knowing when he is doing that and when he is actually legit talking shit he knows and is factual. Kind of like those eerily accurate horoscopes people read on the occasion, he will say just enough correct information to make the vague parts of his statements fitting to the situation at hand. So while he may know a lot about the situations and threads of intrigue being woven around the humans he adores so much, he largely bullshits his way into manipulating the situation to go in the direction he can see it going.
But when something doesn't go the way he's thought it would? It goes one of two ways. 1) HE IS ECSTATIC. THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER. OMG YOU HUMANS ARE SO BRILLIANT AND I JUST CAN'T CONTAIN MY LOVE FOR YOU. YOU'RE SO PRECIOUS. ♥ or 2) he is annoyed and unhappy and scraps everything and starts over. He is a VERY methodical creature when it comes to these plots and intrigues, so woe to people who make him happy or displeased (see also: how he makes things worse for the protagonist-cast in the novels just because he was snubbed for hotpot). He never completely lets onto his schemes and he has so many names and identities and personalities that he displays for others that sometimes, it's hard to keep track of which is the real Orihara Izaya and which is something he's cultivated for show. Most people? Don't give a shit. He's the worst of the worst of people, why even bother with trying to figure out what's going on in that head of his. He really should just die.
And this is the sort of person that accepted the conditions of becoming an Ophiuchus, an enforcer for the Judges, in Sabra La Tau.
In Sabra, Izaya gets pretty much a fresh start. He's this excitable, talkative blank who is named Pecha and he generally pretty friendly and mostly exhibits kind of the childlike behavior of someone who pokes things to see what they will do. Headcanon for me says that Izaya was likely more like this with his siblings and family than he was with his classmates and peers when he was younger. Poking sister A gets X reaction, poking sister B gets Y reaction, etc etc. Which is pretty much why Izaya accepts responsibility for why his sisters turned out so weird. (The comment about how they are twins and therefore must be only half a person each also didn't help.) And it was very much a learning What Not To Do or What To Do with the blanks.
And, at first, the blanks were generally very forgiving! Because he's a new blank and he doesn't know better. So he got chided and scolded more often than not. Though there were exceptions with some teams when he would push too far. (Looking at Hydracula here.) After a while, most people were wary about but generally good-natured toward Pecha, if only because it was in their best interest to be so. The position of power and authority that being an Ophiuchus lent to that view that Pecha was at once together yet separated from the colored blanks of Sabra La Tau.
Hoooowever... Pecha was the first Ophiuchus to awaken in the coils of the Guardian. And this left a HUGE impression on him, throughout his time in Sabra and even now in Thusia. It was a very big, very real reminder that he is still very insignificant in stature and power and capability. He is a Servant of gods, he is a Tool for them to use, he is a powerless, mortal human who depends on the Judges for strength and power. And if he should go against them or their word, then his life could end and there would be nothing he could do to prevent that. THIS WAS SOMETHING THAT WAS ALWAYS RUNNING AT THE BACK OF PECHA'S MIND. It's not even really a FEAR, but more this constant thought of "I am a warm body, a slab of meat that is replaceable and possibly very tasty to the giant snake downstairs. So no fucking it up."
While Pecha is very much Izaya and Izaya is very much something of a high-functioning sociopath, these are still ideas that can effect him and his mood, temperament, mannerisms, behaviors, and beliefs. So, naturally, Pecha adapts to the situation he is in. He is not strong, but he is intelligent. Most of Ophiuchus decided not to rely on the information they are given from the start choosing to meet with the blanks themselves in order to gain and understanding for them; Pecha dives right in to the information, he asks people opinions on the teams, on the games, and anything and everything. He takes extensive notes and makes sure to mark down any sort of visible pattern or construct. He builds relationships with the blanks less from friendliness but from benevolence and trade. The blanks are naturally suspicious of most Ophiuchus so Pecha always ensured that they would have that fall back of "This is purely trade/business." It was all very subtle but noticeable manipulation of the system already in place.
And because of this, Pecha often traded more with the blanks than had them do missions. As this was the case, he didn't win back very many memories at all, because he figured "I'm likely the same person I always was and my memories won't change that much at all". (This proved to be untrue, but we're not there yet.) So he focused more on information. More on networking. More on getting to know and understanding the situation of Sabra La Tau and using it to his advantage when he could. This was how he ended up being the first Ophiuchus to take on a patron. He'd heard of colored blank teams having patrons, so when there was a Judge-thing that seemed entirely like the kind of thing he would like, Pecha asked if it were possible. And so it went.
THIS OPENED PECHA UP TO A WEALTH OF INFORMATION AT THE DROP OF A HAT. So much so that Pecha then ended up being more and more like Izaya's younger self of simply sitting back and watching how things played out. King sends Ophiuchus out to stop the blanks from running to the Pillar? Pecha gets "lost in the caves". King sends Ophiuchus out to find out more about that cave? Pecha subtly warns the blanks for being too obvious. Queen orders Ophiuchus to find something for her? Pecha and Tack fuck off and wander around aimlessly, claiming to "look around". So it went, UNTIL Pecha became very very aware of the movement behind the scenes and the power play Queen was making--largely in part thanks to Tack being very informative.
Here is where Pecha really stops being idle. And really, as much as he says it was for the blanks, that is really the most secondary thing. The primary issue that he had and acted on--was simply that he LOATHED Queen. He hated her, he hated what she represented. He despised everything she would and could do if she had gotten her hands on Messenger's keystone. The only problem was that throwback to knowing his limits and knowing that if anything should go wrong, he would be dead. Completely. And there would be nothing he could do to stop that. So, of course, he sought out allies and made some schemes and threw it all away at the drop of a hat and somehow IT ALL WORKED.
It's primarily thanks to all the information he had gathered from the beginning, the whole thing with Surgeon and the memories of the past, Tack's intel, Messenger sealing his name and thus King's influence upon him, and what limited cooperation he had from the blanks who basically did a DO NOT WANT the whole time that Pecha was even able to pull off the scheme. And it was thanks to all the work of Listening and Recording and Interacting that Pecha then aside Delphinus the tasks that would later be instrumental in ensuring things would go well (that Delphinus was the one that Queen showed her wrath too, that Hydracula would be the ones to guard the keystone until it was the right time, that the idea of where he would be hiding was completely up in the air...). Not just that but his movements and loud rebellion woke the rest of Ophiuchus up to the on-goings on Sabra La Tau and thus began the great exodus where-in Ophiuchus was steadily untangled from their vows and hid away with the blanks (really, it all started thanks to Pecha sending Parrot off as a messenger to Hydra because Hydracula had already been working covertly with Caduceus to release them from King's vow but eh...).
So Pecha bided his time until Queen's influence was removed from him and then he bailed. AND SURVIVED. SOMEHOW. ESCAPED SABRA LA TAU. WITH ONLY FIVE MEMORIES TO HIM.
This was... monumental in how Pecha perceives himself. The biggest difference between Izaya and Pecha is that Izaya was NEVER the type to get THAT involved in a plot of scheme. Izaya does involve himself more than once, but normally it is without too conspicuous an action. He stands out from a crowd, as he is warned later on in the novels, so when he does act as part of a plot, it's noticeable. PECHA, on the other hand, was largely someone who slipped under the radar of a lot of eyes and ears. He was pretty much someone with ease of movement in a crowd and was able to not only heavily involve himself in a plot but, after the statement from Red to "get his hands dirty"--Pecha does this! And he would do so again! But hopefully not, because being Queen-crazy sucked a lot.
He wasn't able to know how much good his actions and set-up would be and he would not be able to see the end result, but ah well... even an insignificant mere mortal tool of a human was able to piss off a very powerful god and make them fear the power the blanks could have over her. Made the gods start to fear the blanks--most of whom were simple mortals and humans and could do little else against the gods. And fear is a very strong power. BEST. THING. EVER. So, of course, Pecha could only think that things would either could completely right or horrifically wrong. He left it all in the hands of Fate at that point.
And then, traversing the multiverse to get to the Enterprise, Pecha was largely looking just to get home and start again. He figured he stashed information about himself somewhere, just on the off-chance that something would happen to him. (I mean, really? Who wouldn't?) Except then his "accident" happened and Pecha died in the vacuum of space. How terrible.
Now, this isn't a completely terrible thing. Because 1) while he was living under the thread of dying via giant snake noms, Pecha never really thought about what would happened when he died. It was just one of those things where you live in a murdercave full of gods and if they wanted you dead, you would die and stay dead and thus there would be no more "you" and so 2) HE ENDED UP ARRIVING IN THUSIA. :'D
Pecha is... completely elated to discover this sort of afterlife. Not only is he able to find out what happened in Sabra La Tau since he escaped, but he can watch people struggle to rebuild, survive, and prosper. Something completely the opposite in nature from Sabra La Tau which was all about trying to get the world to end as it should have so long ago. Pecha doesn't even think about how he dies again after the first few days and he quickly adapts into Thusia's way of things, digging around for information and whatnot.
The problem here... is that Pecha was so caught up in the Sabra people. He completely was fascinated by them and got sidetracked from the broader picture. Again: HUMAN FAILINGS. Pecha was a product of Sabra La Tau and therefore his focus was shifted onto them. Even though he was heavily interested in how Thusia would turn out and the new arrivals, Pecha's primary focus was on them. And that is something that is also very different from Izaya. For Izaya, pretty much all humans are the same to him--he loves them all. For Pecha, the blanks of Sabra La Tau have a special little area all of there own, just above Everyone Else. And this will prove to be something that effects his mannerisms later.
Primarily, when he gets his name back.
Since Ptou the Messenger still had the power of King from the Sabra Good End timeline, when Ptou gave back Pecha his name of Orihara Izaya, all of Izaya's memories came back to Pecha. Not only did this mean a massive migraine for a while, but it also meant a different perspective on... well, pretty much everything. But it wasn't something he sorted out for himself, at first. Instead, it would take getting taken by spiders and being nommed on for a month and being rescued from that that would enable Izaya to slow down enough to have the time to reevaluate everything. So it's really here that Izaya acknowledges that he's actually quite different from how he used to be and he DOES have a bias for the people of Sabra.
It's also here that Pecha comes out of his Watch Only state and begins to have more of a hand in things around him. So far, pretty small, things like taking in Robin and giving her the name Roku, despite Allen's protests that that is a horrible thing, why would you do that? Subtle things like telling one person one thing and then turning around and saying the opposite to another--i.e. claiming to still have only five memories vs revealing that he has regained them all. And more importantly, he does this with his names--giving the name Orihara Izaya to some, simply Pecha to others. It's not even really anything precise or thought out. It's most like Izaya is throwing spaghetti at a wall and see if the noodles stick or just leave messy, gooey substances on the paint.
In other words, while Izaya has come out of the Watch Only state of Thusia, he is still very much feeling out the state of affairs and is actively keeping an eye on the people around him. This shows also in his mannerisms with various people--with the Sabra people, he very much purposefully defaults to his familiar role as That Ophiuchus, friendly in his completely terrible way and very childish. He accepts the former-blanks' ire and all the knowledge and experience that comes with having been a fellow Sabran. With people outside of that circle, however, he does the same thing as with information--randomly goes with whatever feels proper at the time. Sometimes subdued and quiet, sometimes purposefully revealing himself (as in the case of Robin), sometimes simply letting other people draw their own conclusions from what they've heard and witnessed and following along with that.
In short: Izaya is very much doing as he has canonly done and is burying the truth of himself under the roles he assigns himself. That's not to say he's not at all honest with the people he speaks to, but he IS often lying through his teeth and-or purposefully giving out falsehoods about how he views things. In actuality, the people who see Izaya as most "himself" would be Red and Allen. And sometimes, this annoys Izaya. Because, as we stated way up at the top of this long essay, the one thing that Izaya hates the most is the fact that he is mired by his own humanity. It's something he will never really break away from no matter what role he assigns himself, and it is something he is re-accepting in a way. So while he plays the Dubious Terrible Friend or the Terrible Villain Responsible For Queen Rampage or the Ophiuchus Who Set Queen Up To Die And Fucking Walked the Fuck Out of Sabra La Tau, very simply, Izaya is a human with very little power and very little stance in the arena he's in. It's not something he's afraid of, but it's something that he can and will use to his advantage.
Though, after all of this, Izaya very much someone who knows he is not someone to underestimate or cross. He acknowledges his own temperamentalness and his own deeds and plots. So when people threaten him, when people who clearly are stronger than him, more powerful than him, has more pull than he does, has a larger network than he does--when these people get in his face and tell him they will kill him. He just. Laughs. Because. Wooooow. Haven't I heard these words before? Wouldn't it be nice if things were always so cut and dry? Come and try, I like to see how messy things can get. And, with a dash of Pecha, "why not see how dirty these hands can get"?
So really, where he goes from here is pretty much in the air, but to him, things are already taking a VERY interesting direction. :')
And now that that's done--QUESTION MEME.
Applies for Izaya, Prussia, and Kiritsugu @ Thusia and Cheshire/Kyou @ Decollage
So the first thing I want to make clear is the most important thing about Izaya's characterization: HE IS HUMAN. Yes, this is the most important thing to remember when talking about one Orihara Izaya, because of all intents and purposes, he will make himself anything and everything and have people believe that he is more or less than what he is. But the fact of the matter remains that he's simply. Human. Kind of pitifully so. The thing with Izaya is that while he may have had antisocial behavioral patterns when he was younger, he was perfectly content with simply watching events happen around him rather than taking part himself. This of course all drastically changed when LOLOL STABBING INCIDENT IN JUNIOR HIGH happened.
And it's from that point that we actually see the Izaya that we all know and love today, a manipulative bastard that likes to see people in desperate situations to see what they will do. Instead of simply sitting back and watching the events around him, he very much has a hand in orchestrating the events that people find themselves in, actively nudging people in one direction rather than another to see what they will do (will they continue forward, will the circle back, will they go in an entirely unforeseeable direction?). All of this shows Izaya as leaning pretty heavily toward the sociopathic edge of the scale, acting like he thinks he's some god that can rule over humans.
The funny thing? IZAYA KNOWS HE ISN'T. And it's that fact that can drive him the most stir-crazy. If anything, the incident in Junior High essentially points Izaya to the truth that he is lamentably human. He cannot separate himself from that role, no matter what he builds himself into. He will never really be at the level of distance from world-events like someone, say, like Shinra? And this is something that Izaya has largely come to terms with in canon, though he is constantly dabbling in the super- and preternatural worlds. Going over theories and thinking about what happens after death--he is actually pretty mindful of his own limitations, though since he's human he can have the occasion where he miscalculates and-or is unable to predict what will happen next.
If anything, Izaya over the years perfected the art of coming in at the right or wrong time, saying the right or wrong thing, and then leaving at the right or wrong time in a way that makes him appear in control and having a hand in everything. Complete illusion to everyone but himself, except not really because people know that's what he's doing but then they have trouble knowing when he is doing that and when he is actually legit talking shit he knows and is factual. Kind of like those eerily accurate horoscopes people read on the occasion, he will say just enough correct information to make the vague parts of his statements fitting to the situation at hand. So while he may know a lot about the situations and threads of intrigue being woven around the humans he adores so much, he largely bullshits his way into manipulating the situation to go in the direction he can see it going.
But when something doesn't go the way he's thought it would? It goes one of two ways. 1) HE IS ECSTATIC. THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER. OMG YOU HUMANS ARE SO BRILLIANT AND I JUST CAN'T CONTAIN MY LOVE FOR YOU. YOU'RE SO PRECIOUS. ♥ or 2) he is annoyed and unhappy and scraps everything and starts over. He is a VERY methodical creature when it comes to these plots and intrigues, so woe to people who make him happy or displeased (see also: how he makes things worse for the protagonist-cast in the novels just because he was snubbed for hotpot). He never completely lets onto his schemes and he has so many names and identities and personalities that he displays for others that sometimes, it's hard to keep track of which is the real Orihara Izaya and which is something he's cultivated for show. Most people? Don't give a shit. He's the worst of the worst of people, why even bother with trying to figure out what's going on in that head of his. He really should just die.
And this is the sort of person that accepted the conditions of becoming an Ophiuchus, an enforcer for the Judges, in Sabra La Tau.
In Sabra, Izaya gets pretty much a fresh start. He's this excitable, talkative blank who is named Pecha and he generally pretty friendly and mostly exhibits kind of the childlike behavior of someone who pokes things to see what they will do. Headcanon for me says that Izaya was likely more like this with his siblings and family than he was with his classmates and peers when he was younger. Poking sister A gets X reaction, poking sister B gets Y reaction, etc etc. Which is pretty much why Izaya accepts responsibility for why his sisters turned out so weird. (The comment about how they are twins and therefore must be only half a person each also didn't help.) And it was very much a learning What Not To Do or What To Do with the blanks.
And, at first, the blanks were generally very forgiving! Because he's a new blank and he doesn't know better. So he got chided and scolded more often than not. Though there were exceptions with some teams when he would push too far. (Looking at Hydracula here.) After a while, most people were wary about but generally good-natured toward Pecha, if only because it was in their best interest to be so. The position of power and authority that being an Ophiuchus lent to that view that Pecha was at once together yet separated from the colored blanks of Sabra La Tau.
Hoooowever... Pecha was the first Ophiuchus to awaken in the coils of the Guardian. And this left a HUGE impression on him, throughout his time in Sabra and even now in Thusia. It was a very big, very real reminder that he is still very insignificant in stature and power and capability. He is a Servant of gods, he is a Tool for them to use, he is a powerless, mortal human who depends on the Judges for strength and power. And if he should go against them or their word, then his life could end and there would be nothing he could do to prevent that. THIS WAS SOMETHING THAT WAS ALWAYS RUNNING AT THE BACK OF PECHA'S MIND. It's not even really a FEAR, but more this constant thought of "I am a warm body, a slab of meat that is replaceable and possibly very tasty to the giant snake downstairs. So no fucking it up."
While Pecha is very much Izaya and Izaya is very much something of a high-functioning sociopath, these are still ideas that can effect him and his mood, temperament, mannerisms, behaviors, and beliefs. So, naturally, Pecha adapts to the situation he is in. He is not strong, but he is intelligent. Most of Ophiuchus decided not to rely on the information they are given from the start choosing to meet with the blanks themselves in order to gain and understanding for them; Pecha dives right in to the information, he asks people opinions on the teams, on the games, and anything and everything. He takes extensive notes and makes sure to mark down any sort of visible pattern or construct. He builds relationships with the blanks less from friendliness but from benevolence and trade. The blanks are naturally suspicious of most Ophiuchus so Pecha always ensured that they would have that fall back of "This is purely trade/business." It was all very subtle but noticeable manipulation of the system already in place.
And because of this, Pecha often traded more with the blanks than had them do missions. As this was the case, he didn't win back very many memories at all, because he figured "I'm likely the same person I always was and my memories won't change that much at all". (This proved to be untrue, but we're not there yet.) So he focused more on information. More on networking. More on getting to know and understanding the situation of Sabra La Tau and using it to his advantage when he could. This was how he ended up being the first Ophiuchus to take on a patron. He'd heard of colored blank teams having patrons, so when there was a Judge-thing that seemed entirely like the kind of thing he would like, Pecha asked if it were possible. And so it went.
THIS OPENED PECHA UP TO A WEALTH OF INFORMATION AT THE DROP OF A HAT. So much so that Pecha then ended up being more and more like Izaya's younger self of simply sitting back and watching how things played out. King sends Ophiuchus out to stop the blanks from running to the Pillar? Pecha gets "lost in the caves". King sends Ophiuchus out to find out more about that cave? Pecha subtly warns the blanks for being too obvious. Queen orders Ophiuchus to find something for her? Pecha and Tack fuck off and wander around aimlessly, claiming to "look around". So it went, UNTIL Pecha became very very aware of the movement behind the scenes and the power play Queen was making--largely in part thanks to Tack being very informative.
Here is where Pecha really stops being idle. And really, as much as he says it was for the blanks, that is really the most secondary thing. The primary issue that he had and acted on--was simply that he LOATHED Queen. He hated her, he hated what she represented. He despised everything she would and could do if she had gotten her hands on Messenger's keystone. The only problem was that throwback to knowing his limits and knowing that if anything should go wrong, he would be dead. Completely. And there would be nothing he could do to stop that. So, of course, he sought out allies and made some schemes and threw it all away at the drop of a hat and somehow IT ALL WORKED.
It's primarily thanks to all the information he had gathered from the beginning, the whole thing with Surgeon and the memories of the past, Tack's intel, Messenger sealing his name and thus King's influence upon him, and what limited cooperation he had from the blanks who basically did a DO NOT WANT the whole time that Pecha was even able to pull off the scheme. And it was thanks to all the work of Listening and Recording and Interacting that Pecha then aside Delphinus the tasks that would later be instrumental in ensuring things would go well (that Delphinus was the one that Queen showed her wrath too, that Hydracula would be the ones to guard the keystone until it was the right time, that the idea of where he would be hiding was completely up in the air...). Not just that but his movements and loud rebellion woke the rest of Ophiuchus up to the on-goings on Sabra La Tau and thus began the great exodus where-in Ophiuchus was steadily untangled from their vows and hid away with the blanks (really, it all started thanks to Pecha sending Parrot off as a messenger to Hydra because Hydracula had already been working covertly with Caduceus to release them from King's vow but eh...).
So Pecha bided his time until Queen's influence was removed from him and then he bailed. AND SURVIVED. SOMEHOW. ESCAPED SABRA LA TAU. WITH ONLY FIVE MEMORIES TO HIM.
This was... monumental in how Pecha perceives himself. The biggest difference between Izaya and Pecha is that Izaya was NEVER the type to get THAT involved in a plot of scheme. Izaya does involve himself more than once, but normally it is without too conspicuous an action. He stands out from a crowd, as he is warned later on in the novels, so when he does act as part of a plot, it's noticeable. PECHA, on the other hand, was largely someone who slipped under the radar of a lot of eyes and ears. He was pretty much someone with ease of movement in a crowd and was able to not only heavily involve himself in a plot but, after the statement from Red to "get his hands dirty"--Pecha does this! And he would do so again! But hopefully not, because being Queen-crazy sucked a lot.
He wasn't able to know how much good his actions and set-up would be and he would not be able to see the end result, but ah well... even an insignificant mere mortal tool of a human was able to piss off a very powerful god and make them fear the power the blanks could have over her. Made the gods start to fear the blanks--most of whom were simple mortals and humans and could do little else against the gods. And fear is a very strong power. BEST. THING. EVER. So, of course, Pecha could only think that things would either could completely right or horrifically wrong. He left it all in the hands of Fate at that point.
And then, traversing the multiverse to get to the Enterprise, Pecha was largely looking just to get home and start again. He figured he stashed information about himself somewhere, just on the off-chance that something would happen to him. (I mean, really? Who wouldn't?) Except then his "accident" happened and Pecha died in the vacuum of space. How terrible.
Now, this isn't a completely terrible thing. Because 1) while he was living under the thread of dying via giant snake noms, Pecha never really thought about what would happened when he died. It was just one of those things where you live in a murdercave full of gods and if they wanted you dead, you would die and stay dead and thus there would be no more "you" and so 2) HE ENDED UP ARRIVING IN THUSIA. :'D
Pecha is... completely elated to discover this sort of afterlife. Not only is he able to find out what happened in Sabra La Tau since he escaped, but he can watch people struggle to rebuild, survive, and prosper. Something completely the opposite in nature from Sabra La Tau which was all about trying to get the world to end as it should have so long ago. Pecha doesn't even think about how he dies again after the first few days and he quickly adapts into Thusia's way of things, digging around for information and whatnot.
The problem here... is that Pecha was so caught up in the Sabra people. He completely was fascinated by them and got sidetracked from the broader picture. Again: HUMAN FAILINGS. Pecha was a product of Sabra La Tau and therefore his focus was shifted onto them. Even though he was heavily interested in how Thusia would turn out and the new arrivals, Pecha's primary focus was on them. And that is something that is also very different from Izaya. For Izaya, pretty much all humans are the same to him--he loves them all. For Pecha, the blanks of Sabra La Tau have a special little area all of there own, just above Everyone Else. And this will prove to be something that effects his mannerisms later.
Primarily, when he gets his name back.
Since Ptou the Messenger still had the power of King from the Sabra Good End timeline, when Ptou gave back Pecha his name of Orihara Izaya, all of Izaya's memories came back to Pecha. Not only did this mean a massive migraine for a while, but it also meant a different perspective on... well, pretty much everything. But it wasn't something he sorted out for himself, at first. Instead, it would take getting taken by spiders and being nommed on for a month and being rescued from that that would enable Izaya to slow down enough to have the time to reevaluate everything. So it's really here that Izaya acknowledges that he's actually quite different from how he used to be and he DOES have a bias for the people of Sabra.
It's also here that Pecha comes out of his Watch Only state and begins to have more of a hand in things around him. So far, pretty small, things like taking in Robin and giving her the name Roku, despite Allen's protests that that is a horrible thing, why would you do that? Subtle things like telling one person one thing and then turning around and saying the opposite to another--i.e. claiming to still have only five memories vs revealing that he has regained them all. And more importantly, he does this with his names--giving the name Orihara Izaya to some, simply Pecha to others. It's not even really anything precise or thought out. It's most like Izaya is throwing spaghetti at a wall and see if the noodles stick or just leave messy, gooey substances on the paint.
In other words, while Izaya has come out of the Watch Only state of Thusia, he is still very much feeling out the state of affairs and is actively keeping an eye on the people around him. This shows also in his mannerisms with various people--with the Sabra people, he very much purposefully defaults to his familiar role as That Ophiuchus, friendly in his completely terrible way and very childish. He accepts the former-blanks' ire and all the knowledge and experience that comes with having been a fellow Sabran. With people outside of that circle, however, he does the same thing as with information--randomly goes with whatever feels proper at the time. Sometimes subdued and quiet, sometimes purposefully revealing himself (as in the case of Robin), sometimes simply letting other people draw their own conclusions from what they've heard and witnessed and following along with that.
In short: Izaya is very much doing as he has canonly done and is burying the truth of himself under the roles he assigns himself. That's not to say he's not at all honest with the people he speaks to, but he IS often lying through his teeth and-or purposefully giving out falsehoods about how he views things. In actuality, the people who see Izaya as most "himself" would be Red and Allen. And sometimes, this annoys Izaya. Because, as we stated way up at the top of this long essay, the one thing that Izaya hates the most is the fact that he is mired by his own humanity. It's something he will never really break away from no matter what role he assigns himself, and it is something he is re-accepting in a way. So while he plays the Dubious Terrible Friend or the Terrible Villain Responsible For Queen Rampage or the Ophiuchus Who Set Queen Up To Die And Fucking Walked the Fuck Out of Sabra La Tau, very simply, Izaya is a human with very little power and very little stance in the arena he's in. It's not something he's afraid of, but it's something that he can and will use to his advantage.
Though, after all of this, Izaya very much someone who knows he is not someone to underestimate or cross. He acknowledges his own temperamentalness and his own deeds and plots. So when people threaten him, when people who clearly are stronger than him, more powerful than him, has more pull than he does, has a larger network than he does--when these people get in his face and tell him they will kill him. He just. Laughs. Because. Wooooow. Haven't I heard these words before? Wouldn't it be nice if things were always so cut and dry? Come and try, I like to see how messy things can get. And, with a dash of Pecha, "why not see how dirty these hands can get"?
So really, where he goes from here is pretty much in the air, but to him, things are already taking a VERY interesting direction. :')
And now that that's done--QUESTION MEME.
Applies for Izaya, Prussia, and Kiritsugu @ Thusia and Cheshire/Kyou @ Decollage
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He definitely likes all of Canary and is more than a bit fond of them. But like... Queen is someone he would feel bad about disappointing and would pretty much do whatever she asks him to (within reason). King, he kind of has a thing about because he basically sees King as someone who's putting themselves at a higher level than him and that makes him bristly on principle (even when this... could possibly not be the case at all). Alice is kind of sketchy and hangs on him a lot which he is very UNSURE about but Alice is also the first one to give him and name and take time to comfort him a bit when they first were in a room together. Rabbit is pretty much a bro and while he complains a lot, he mostly complains about sensible or reasonable things that Cheshire can agree with (but it's sort of Cheshire's job to tell him to stop whining and think of a solution or something). Gryphon is like little sis-bro who keeps Cheshire on his toes and active.
So yeah. Generally, he likes them all. He's just not sure what he contributes to the team and things like his being mute and walking out of the team meeting with King going "Leave the murder-talk to the adults" at him as he goes kiiiind of emphasizes that feel. '-' Mostly he just goes with whatever, as long as it keeps his team functioning.
Bella's feels on Lilac?
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Tell me about how different amnesia Kyou and canon Kyou are so faaaar.
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He's also not as closed-off in some ways as Kyou is. In canon, Kyou was constantly isolated, harassed, slandered, and just told over and over again that the Cat was terrible, the Cat should be locked away, it's the Cat's fault, it's all the Cat's fault, he shouldn't be seen, he shouldn't be around people, he's not even human. This made Kyou, as a child, very lonely and thus very skittish around people. Incidents like when Kagura decided to play with him were rare and even that was marred by the whole... Kagura removing his juzu beads. So Kyou never really has allowed himself to get close to anyone save for Shishou and even then he tried to keep Shishou at a distance because he didn't want Shishou's association with the Cat and with a bad kid to effect Shishou. Now, eventually Tohru comes along and things start to change BUT AKITO. THE "I WILL NEVER LOVE..." SCENE. Kyou purposefully keeps himself at a distance because he doesn't want to hurt anyone. It's the last thing he ever wants, but most of all, it's because he's resigned to the fact that he will never beat Yuki and he'll be locked away like the Cats before him. And that would be for the best wouldn't it?
CHESHIRE HAS NONE OF THIS. While he's skittish and thus a bit reminiscent of when he was a kid, he's actually far more open and willing to be friendly and make friends. This is not an issue for him! He still gets annoyed at people, but that's mostly the tsundere and not really anything negative with the people he comes to like. He's far more willing to care about people and let people care about him. It just takes that initial getting to know them and knowing they're not immediately out to hurt him step. '-'aaa
Psychologically speaking, he's far more healthier than Kyou. But obviously that may or may not change as time goes on.
Reverse! Differences between Trucy Wright and Cowbella?
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But anyway, Bella is a lot more cheerful and a lot less bogged down by the emotional baggage Trucy suffers from in canon. Trucy is another one of those kinds of people who don't like to be outwardly sad when something is really bothering her, because she feels like it's unfair to burden the people around her with her sadness. So despite her father disappearing at an early age, her helping him with that disappearance, him promising to come back to her, him FAILING to keep that promise and then his eventual murder really shooting holes into her emotionally, she always smiles and is always cheerful! It's not that Trucy is emotionally dishonest (in fact, she's pretty honest about what she's feeling, when she's feeling it), it's just that she honestly doesn't see a reason to push the burden of her sadness when there is nothing to be done about it onto others. So she doesn't :|a Naturally, without these memories Bella is overall a lot happier. It also means that she isn't quite as bad about keeping her sadness to herself (though I imagine first hardcore trauma game will change that).
Bella is also muuuuch more naive than Trucy, especially since she doesn't have memories of home to reference her experiences against. She's much more trusting, not quite as manipulative (Trucy in canon can be pretty shady morally thanks to Papa Phoenix's influence), 10000x weirder and... generally a lot more vulnerable. But she's also more difficult to take off guard because she's taking so many things in stride (the only thing to really shake her so far was Mary's game). So basically without memories all of Trucy's cheery happiness come to the surface because they aren't tapered by life experiences or anything like that. THUS WHY SHE FEELS SHE CAN TAKE ON THE NAME COWBELLA I am so sorry for her I apologize to the world for her sob sob.
So how do you think Cheshire will react when he undergoes his first cat transformation?
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Kyou's thoughts on SUDDENLY CAT 8D