Writing prompt
So I had a conversation with a classmate about tigers and he said “What if tigers were born without stripes and every time they actually kill something they get one stripe.”
I loved the idea and it inspired all kind of plot bunnies. Like not with tigers but with humans instead. I know the concept that some killers mark themselves with something every time they kill but what if it’s not something you do out of your own will but something that just happens. You kill someone and a mark appears randomly on your body.
But not just any mark - no that would be boring. What if you get a scar that looks the same as the one that decides the death of the person. Like you stab somebody in the heart you get a scar where the knife hit. You cut off the head you have a scar ring around your neck.
Of course that means you can’t just kill people willy nilly anymore because if you are a murder suspect the police can just demand to check your body for the scar and BAM prison time for you.
So people get more careful with killing stuff. I mean there are plenty of ways to end someones life without leaving a trace on the body. Poison for example. I just imagine an assassin who only uses poison to kill and therefore never gets caught but someday he accidently killed somebody by stabbing them because - I dunno they caught him in the act and he didn’t have any poison left and ‘I can’t just leave a witness alive this would be totally unprofessional dammit!’. So he has a scar and gets kind of desperate because ‘what if the police catches me, what if somebody stalks me and sees me without a shirt AHHHH my cover is blown!!!’
Another character who is just… extremely clumsy. Like can’t walk without tripping over their feet every few seconds clumsy. So naturally they get a lot of scars because they fall down stairs, cut themself with a kitchen knife and other ridiculous stuff. So… this person is covered in scars from head to toe but not because they are a serial killer but because they just have really shitty luck. Problem is that person is extremely introvert, shy and doesn’t really talking all that much because being around humans gives them anxiety. So others just assume this tiny slip of a person who is just such a adorable cinnamon roll actually killed dozens of people. This means that others treat this awkward sweetheart like they are a mafia boss because ‘did you see how small they are?? And fluffy and nice?? But all those scars man… they probably are the type to rip you to shreds when they are angry. just don’t piss them off steve I don’t want to scratch off your remains from the floor.’ So this clumsy persons has a lot of minions who admire their guts and they just don’t know what to do about this. They just want to be left alone but are constantly doted on by tough gangster dudes because they realize that their ‘boss’ is an actual hopeless human being who can’t take care of themselves.
Of course there are others who see the scars on them and just go ‘oh my god!! they killed so many people better call the police’. So Clumsy needs to go to the police station on a nearly daily basis and is just so tired of it. Like they know every police officer by name, the secretary has a biscuit tin just for them and the police officers don’t even bother to interrogate them after the 15th time so they just talk about cats most of the time. It gets to the point where they don’t need to go the station anymore because everyone there knows they are innocent and simply clumsy as hell. But it’s kinda nice, they made some friends and the biscuits are reallllly good.
Idea recycle
Now, it’s been like nearly 4 years since I’ve posted this but I randomly remembered this idea on my train ride and came to the conclusion that this concept could actually work pretty well in the KHR world.
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Let’s just blame the cause of the Scars appearing on weird Flame shenanigans, like every living thing capable of manifesting Dying Will Flames is connected via a Flame Network *imagine some technical babble about soul frequnecy and energy output here please*. It’s not a deep connection like the bond between an Element and their Sky. It’s more superficial, less severe. This universal connection could form the basis of a Sky/Element bond, but if you leave it alone it’s just running unnoticable in the background. I kind of want the Network to be connected to the Tri-ni-Sette, like it helps with keeping the balance of the world and stuff, but honestly it’s quite a difficult concept to work my head around so I’m just going to leave it at taht for now.
The gist is: People are subconsciously connected via their Flames (active or inactive doesn’t matter, you just have a lower energy output when you’re inactive but you still provide something to the Network). If you have a normal civilian lifestyle this connection doesn’t really matter much. However each time you kill someone you get hit by blacklash, because you permenantly remove someone form the Network, so it marks you in return. You could imagine the connection as a rubberband that is streched between two people. If you remove the other person from the equation by killing them the tension on the rubberband causes the blacklash aka the band will be smacked into your face (hope this helps visualize what I mean).
Now, civilians don’t know about Flames, therefore they have no clue what the real origin of the Scars are but the Mafia World has an completely different starting point for their research, which means they figured out the reason behind the Scars quite early on. One of the main reasons why they discovered the source of the Scars is the bonds a Sky can establish. If you’re an Element bonded to a Sky and you hurt your Sky or vice versa then you get a Scar signifying the harm even if the other person is still alive. As already mentioned above, the connection between an Element and their Sky is deeper than the superficial connection of the Network, meaning that the backlash is also easier to trigger. If we look at the rubberband example it would probably mean that the tension on the band is higher which means the band is easier to break (still hoping you can follow me on this). We could spice it up some more and make Scars caused by Bound Backlash will be the colour of your flame type. Naturally this would have an impact on Mafia Society since possessing a Coloured Scar would imply you hurt someone your Sky/Element, therefore ostracising these scarred people. I mean, who would trust someone who hurt the person closest to their soul, right?
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I think this is a good point to cut it off. I’ll need to have a bit of a think for some other ideas like possible Mafia traditions based on the scars and some character stuff (Clumsy = Tsuna, might be fun to play around with).
Feel free to bombard me with questions for this plot bunny btw, it’s always fun to discuss worldbuilding and lore with people 🥰
In this AU the arcobaleno start off w a grudging respect for Skull because despite his.. Skull-ness he has some insane scars, and he can't possibly be a civilian after having decapitated someone (spoiler: it's himself. He's a dumb immortal thrill seeker)














