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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It all started around the KIRITSUGU FED ME ;;;;; episode, as you may remember, which more or less overlapped with the flowers and Archer more or less topping her with feelings, telling her that what she was doing was dumb and Kiritsugu was being dumb too and they should get along. And on some level Saber could acknowledge that yes, this was stupid, but she still had no real wish to reach out because Kiritsugu obviously just wanted to stay as far away from her as humanly possible and she didn't see any reason to not... respect this.
And then unconscious happened which was just :') :') SHE DID THINK IT WAS SOME KIND OF NIGHTMARE, which is why she just kept quiet about it for so long, but also why she was quietly more willing to be at peace with him. Asking how he was and if he needed anything, etc. And she was kind of really quietsad with Kerry because WOW KIRITSUGU YOU WERE SUCH A CUTE KID, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU—wait no, I know, don't answer that.
But the final blow was basically learning that the unconscious thing was actually... yes, Kiritsugu's mind and its monsters. It's not so much that she didn't expect to see those things, but the levels at which Kiritsugu blames himself for everything—that last room with the corpses and the utter resignation.
Those are things Saber can relate to, completely, and when she said she needed to see that she means it in a sense that she has now stood on the other side of things. She now understands how the rest of the world (or at least Shirou and other people who know about her past) feel about her. It's somewhat hypocritical because she still blames herself for all her failures, but at the same time she doesn't want Kiritsugu to blame himself like that. It made her look at herself, look at her choices, and start wondering if it isn't time to try and move on, to forgive herself, or at least accept that she did the best she could have at the time and there is no point in dwelling on it forever.
And... she wants Kiritsugu to do the same. Becaus even if he was a huge ass during the 4th War, she has started being able to understand him. She knows he is not a bad person and she knows how much his family loves him (and viceversa), she thinks he should get a second chance at happinesss in Thusia and she will quietly do anything she can to help make this possible. For Shirou, for Iri, for herself... and for Kiritsugu himself.
DOES KIRITSUGU HAVE ANY FEELINGS ON SHIROU BEING SABER'S MASTER AFTER HIM?
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But at the same time, it's kind of a relief? It was surprising to hear that that was the case--or not surprising so much as something he just didn't think about, largely because he hadn't been expecting the war to kickstart that soon. He had really wanted Shirou to not be involved in that sort of thing, but on the other hand, he probably had the feeling the Shirou was likely to get caught up in something if only because he took on the name Emiya and Kiritsugu took him in and clearly whatever Kiritsugu cares about ends up in terrible situations.
The relief of it would be that... well. Shirou himself is not a magus. He is not someone trained in battle tactics, nor is he someone who understands the world of magi and how things work in the Grail War. That someone like Saber was his Servant was reassuring because Saber is one of the more powerful Servants and not only is she familiar with battle but she is very much familiar with the Grail War. Saber is also fiercely loyal to those she chooses to serve, so that is just extra protection for Shirou all around. Except Shirou is also not that bright and gets into troublesome situations (E-Emiya family trait...), so someone like Saber would also temper Shirou's impulsiveness. Hopefully...
Overall, when Kiritsugu heard that Saber was Shirou's Servant... there was just this quiet relief, especially since Saber spoke well of Shirou. He does wonder how she felt about the whole thing and how she took to being the Servant to the boy that Kiritsugu had taken in after the war, but mostly, thinks it better not to ask.
Basically, Kiritsugu knows that Shirou was probably a better fit with Saber than he ever was as a Master.
Saber's feels about Zexion as her Master?
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When Saber first contracted with Zexion she had very little idea of what to expect from him beyond prana provider and someone who a) would respect her ideals and b) wouldn't use the Command Seals against her. She had no reason to distrust him because this was all discussed while truth effected and she made sure to cover the important bases—anything she could have forgotten or omitted to ask about was simply not a large concern to her.
And he had her meet Prussia which Saber could understand but was also sort of ??? because apparently he'd already decided they'd pact anyway so ??? okay.
Sooo the Contract happens and during the ritual Zexion is just really... I guess a mix between protective-respectful-solemn about it. Saber is used to solemnity, respect to a certain extent, but protectiveness nnnot so much. Saber is from UBW, which means while Shirou was a decent Master to her he also never bothered connecting on a ~deep emotional level~ with her! He never had recurring traumatic flashbacks about Saber getting Berserker'd so he never grew overprotective of her. And Kiritsugu was always Kiritsugu . . .
So the fact that Saber now had someone who wanted to be her caretaker was and still is a psyduck-inducing thing to her. I've talked about this elsewhere before, but Saber takes Servanting very seriously and above it all she is a knight, she is The One Who Protects, not the other way around. And Zexion constantly challenges this mentality and she just has no idea what to do, fishhands fishhands.
They've mutually admitted that they want to remain partners and Saber has slowly become more accustomed to Zexion being a stoic ball of fluff. She has developed ridiculous amounts of dere for him very fast and would shank every single bitch for his sake. For all of the "cultural" clash she faces when dealing with him, she also really appreciates everything he does. The fact that he'll make her a cute PJs and give her her own room, then encourage her to go and kick ass is just so wonderful to her and she feels incredibly lucky to have him as her Master. And while she's still very private about most things (out of habit, mostly, not because she doesn't want him to know about her past) I think on a certain unconscious level she already sees Zexion as much more than just her Master (though what exactly I just... have no idea).
And right now they're just making serious :T faces at each other because of the dragonsplosion and waifuings. ZEXION WANTS SABER TO KNOW THAT HE'S VERY HAPPY THAT SHE'S WELL AND SABER JUST WANTS TO HIDE UNDER THE BED FOREVER BECAUSE WHAT DID I DO I'M SORRY ABOUT YOUR PRANA I'M SORRY ABOUT THE DARKNESS I'M SORRY ABOUT EVERYTHING WHY WON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!!!
(Also this is after Zexion saw Saber's memory of the final moments of the 4th War so. :') )
NONE OF THAT MADE ANY SENSE super sorry!!!
What would Pecha do if a canon Shinra showed up in Thusia?
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. . .
Yes, that's the short answer.
He would just. Be sort of beside himself and laugh and generally be kind of unpleasant at Shinra, but also helpful at the same time. If Shinra arrived alone, he would figure it would only be a matter of time before he goes off finding ways to get back to Celty.
Beeeeyooond that, not sure how Pecha would react! Since Shinra is a Complicated Things for Izaya and Pecha already had the whole WHY YOU GO IN PILLAR FOR STUPID DULLAHAN, YOU MAKE NO SENSE kind of thing.
So yeah, lot of laughing, a lot of Unsure, but mostly just doing a mental countdown for how long it would take Shinra to implode or something, idk.
TALK TO ME ABOUT HYPOTHETICAL SHINRA SHOWING UP. Or, Saber on the whole dragon fight thing if you cant think of anything. :x