I believe i am among the few to characterize mikio in a more positive way so I am hesitant to share but I have my reasons! let me cook!
this was a half baked chef mini au where mizu tries to open himself a fancy ass restaurant because he has a vision. but allow me to explain myself
in bes canon, I think mikio was for the most part, good guy that said and did some regrettable things. I hated him too I swear. he could have saved everything if he didnt kill mama. they could have talked things out. like, I believe mikio did have those more sexist beliefs of women being weaker and all that and underestimating mizu. but girl, she should have stopped fighting him when he asked instead of taunting him, she did not read those cues right ToT
I think he really did care abt mizu and would have been accepting of her prowess as well if everything happened differently. and we don't know for sure who sold mizu out. bc we aren't meant to know, because mizu doesnt know. I just think of when mizu is telling her story to mikio and he says "so you wanted to be a man?" and hes just so accepting of that ToT I think he really did love her, she just pushed him too far and he was, well, and asshole about it and hurt her in the worst way. but this show is full of assholes, mizu's one of the biggest.
that was my condensed mikio rant, I will not absolve him of his crimes because I still am mad at him and hes very flawed but if people can forgive taigen for shit.. ya know 🫤 mikio didnt have the time for redemption lol (mizu killed him)
but anyway, in regards to my tiny little au art, mikio and mizu did marry (when she was very young) and mikio, being a basic man, was weak to the allure of a hot young wife and probably did marry on the promise of eventually having kids. and mizu presents herself as a well put together, demure, little lady. mizu was pushed to marry by mama, who is always a bad influence on her. but mikio and mizu starts to bond slowly and mikio defends mizu against her own mom (shes always so judgy) so they naturally grow some genuine feelings because mizu is opening up more and not being whats shes "suposed" to be.
because mizu is so unused to like, someone genuinely caring about her, she does believe shes in love with him. because she does love him. and because of that she is willing to do more wifey things if it makes him happy (why would she put her needs first ya know). but since mikio actually does also love mizu, he doesnt push for anything. eventually it does become clear to mikio.. mizu might not actually be attracted to him lol she might just uh, cling to the one person in her life right now that makes her happy and doesn't have any other romantic experiences. but you can't just tell someone they're a lesbian, they gotta figure that out on their own.
which is where dawn comes in, just a "very" close girl friend to mizu. mizu will talk abt her all the time. just really likes her for some reason.
also background lore, eiji also used to be a famous restaurateur, taught mizu everything he knows, mikio basically supported mizu's entire cooking endeavors, mizu goes to open her restaurant when eiji dies, dawn is a home cook that will not tolerate any critiques from mizu about it. and then theres a ton of other background characters in the kitchen as well that I wont name bc I dont even have art of it lol but thats my basic story, ty for reading if you made it this far.
and final close up of mizus smiling face as a gift, this is one of my favorite faces ive ever made of mizu, swoon.
Be a healthy carrier of your own life - Meris' story part 3 of ?
word count: 2.331
nb. English isn't my first language, so please be patient with me 😅 Also, I'll probably edit this, since I'm still building up Meris lore and making it frame with the various narrative arcs and situations, but for now, I hope you enjoy this thirdpart!
After that bone-crushing hug and a good dose of crying, what the Strawhats can see from the Sunny is that Nico Robin looks so surprised and so happy now. And it's because the last time she saw Meris, the little siren couldn't even form an entire sentence without making some pronunciation mistakes. Now she's a young woman, that knows very well how to speak, maybe not entirely how to express her emotions, but... she's also the last thing the black haired woman has in this world that reminds her of the childhood that was taken away from her. And Meris feels just the same about her.
The meeting with the entire Strawhats crew is... peculiar, to say the least. Nico Robin presents Meris as her precious friend, nearly a younger sister that she grew up with in Ohara, and every member of the Strawhat pirates reacts to her in its own way.
Monkey D. Rufy, the captain, a young man full of life and enthusiasm, says she looks like a fish man, but if Robin says that she's a siren, good for her! (😅)
Chopper, Usopp, Brook and Franky all look curious about her. Meris doesn't really know what to do with all the attention those people are giving to her, but since Robin trusts them... she feels more at ease in talking with them, also scrutinizing all of them with particular attention.
Sanji and Zoro, the cook and the swordsman, the left and right arms of their captain, observe her from afar and the siren understands that they're carefully studying her too. Well, okay, she's doing it too, since they seem to have a rather... powerful presence and haki surrounding them. Fair enough.
Nami, a young woman with ginger hair, asks her about how good sirens are at stealing goodies from people, at sea and on the ground. Meris has a rather vast experience in being a rogue, agile fighter and... she also stole "goodies" in the past.
From Marines.
For herself and... for the people who decided to be kind to her, instead of having her arrested for... whatever reason. Or because of what she is.
Funnily enough, that seems to give her a free pass to be one of the ginger lady's favorite person in the entire world!
During the time the Strawhats remain in Fish-Man island and celebrate the victory against Hody Jones, Meris shares her vision with them, while getting to know them more.
And while doing that, she understands something strange about herself: she's always been a rogue, and by growing up as a siren she knows how to be very convincing or how to take down an enemy when she perceives danger from him, mostly because she knows how to use her haki in order to analyze other people's next move, but strangely so... she doesn't show that trait too much now. Not like it happened with Kid's pirates. It was very easy being what she should be: a siren, a deadly creature, but by hanging out for so little time with this rather particular crew... she notices how she's just... not doing all of that.
She doesn't bring something to the table in order to be considered, or to let them see that she isn't actually dangerous. She just... exists. She answers all of strange Luffy's questions, she accepts to drink so much sake as Zoro tries to challenge her (and watches him lose his bet, badly, because the damned siren has an amazing alcohol tolerance) to best him, shares her knowledge about some abyss types of plants and organisms that can be used as medicines with Chopper and most importantly shares her adventures and what happened to her, how her mother vanished after the events of Ohara, with Robin.
And as the night seems to be near its conclusion, she also receives a visit from the prince Fukaboshi, who basically decided to help his father with the new introduction of sirens in Fish Man island territory. And that brings a soft smile to her face, because the merman seems to consider sirens as a strong and agile, warrior category of fish men... and not as something entirely different from them. She hears collaboration in his tone, and her heart flutters at the thought that maybe... maybe something is moving. Something that will make her dream come true.
From that moment on, she doesn't hide her true features anymore in public, showing her tail and her green-blue skin to everyone again as the Strawhats are departing.
Meris stays at Fish-Man island for a while, helping Jinbe restore the lives of the fish men that lived outside the island and learning so much while doing so. She even learns the fish men fighting style and understands that, like some other mermans and fish men that use the same style, her skin produces a poisonous substance. If said substance touches someone else's skin, it reacts by making the surface feel numb. Meris realizes that such an ability could be useful, if she manages to control it with the fish men fighting style, because she could shot it agains an enemy and, if her aim is good enough, even paralize it.
Still... she now feels lost. She misses Robin. Misses Dawn. She misses traveling with... more people, living adventures, feeling the thrill down her spine as a crew successfully obtains something. Victory. Mostly against Marines, due to her history with them. But she can't return to the Kid pirates, oh no. Especially not after hearing the news: Eustass Kid and his crew lost against Red Shanks' crew after all. Maybe the legend about sirens bringing misfortune to a man who sends them away from their ship had something true in it.
And while she's pondering about what to do next, Morgana, the oldest siren still alive, asks her to talk. The wise siren knew her mother very well and how she was so highly considered because, thanks to her, a lot of sirens could live in peace throughout the years. Thanks to her amazing strength, thanks to the fact that she had a daughter to protect, and make sure the world she would grow up into wasn't as terrible as the one she found.
And it may seem stupid, but... technically Thalassa, her mother, lived as if Meris was a simple siren. Not the daughter of another siren.
Which is something that... never occurred before her birth. No one, not even Morgana knows why, but Thalassa was and is the only siren who gave birth to another siren. To Meris. And it all happened with her father being one of the last Lunarian nonetheless!
And this revelation plays badly with the little siren's mind. The pressure she feels on her shoulders is... too much. And suddenly she understands why her mother has been considered in a different way since her birth. She shouldn't even exits.
And the worst thing is: that Meris doesn't even feel like there's something special within her, in being the direct daughter of a siren, instead that being one of a mermaid, as it should be. Because sirens shouldn't love, they never look out for a long term partner. They don't need it. Not when they are considered a menace by the World Government. Not when they've been treated for eons like monsters, abominations.
And for what? Because they can survive under the sea and also maybe fly through the skies? Because they may put humans in difficulty and that's something humans can't possibly tolerate?
Maybe.
As these thoughts crush her during the next days, Jinbe notices and tries to distract her with practice, while also ordering her to not think about what she is. Because at the moment, it doesn't change her dream, it doesn't make it less worth it, hell, her origins don't make HER less worth it. Or in need to take her mother's steps, whatever they are, and whoever she is, is she's still alive, that is.
"You are a healthy carrier of your own life. Your siren's skills are majestic, you can use them if you want, or you can try and act more human with your disguise, if that makes you feel better! You're too young to feel the weight of this world crushing on your shoulders, kiddo. You have a dream, pursue it, with your ways... let them go to hell if sirens, fish men, humans try to change that, or you and how you want to be."
Oh how that makes her heart clench and her eyes glassy.
Without adding a thing, she just nods and hugs the three meters tall fish man. Sinking her face into his voluminous belly, so that can stifle her crying.
As the Strawhats are having a situation at Punk Hazard, Meris is still at Fish-Man island, training and basically staying at Jinbe's side, until he receives a proposal from Big Mom, after... all the mess that Luffy caused when her crew members visited the Island Sweets Factory and... there were none remaining for the Empress of the Sea.
He and Meris come to an agreement about keeping contacts, and the "Knight of the Sea" Jinbe asks her to keep track of the Strawhats movements, since he accepted to be part of Luffy's crew, when the young captain asked.
And man, does Meris still miss being on a ship. Being able to see the world, the entire ocean and not only the depths of it, with ruins that cover the entirety of the abyss. She also reunited with Robin and met Jinbe, and now she considers them family. But she also wants to meet again the good people that made her feel welcome along the way, before and after passing the Grand Line.
So, after informing King Neptune, hearing so many complaints from Morgana about how she just started this whole thing about sirens and shouldn't go away, and saying goodbye to the princes and princess of Fish-Man island, Meris starts her journey again.
With a ride offered by a Sea King, a kind idea of princess Shiraoshi.
The journey isn't so long and is rather calm, Meris arrives at Rajin Island, where she intercepts a naval transmission through her sea snail phone, where a member of the Warlords, Donquixote Doflamingo, informs the Navy about the Strawhat Crew's new destination: Dressrosa.
The first thought that passes through her mind is that they provoked the man who talked to the snail, and caused a ruckus to the closer island, Punk Hazard. So the Kid pirates aren't the only one aiming high with their ambitions. Well... interesting.
Meris manages to be transported by the Sea King again, and in no time, she arrives to Dressrosa's coast. After waving goodbye to the enormous creature, the siren decides to not wear a disguise, as she enters the city. It'll only slow her down, since her picture on the wanted posters represents her with the human appearance she used in the past as a disguise.
Sometimes the best way to walk around safely is to show your true self, apparently.
The city has... something strange. It seems very... alive and full of positive vibes. People smile and dance in the streets, but... the living toys that are around the citizens have something truly strange within them.
But before she can analyze the situation further, a familiar voice calls her name: it's Dawn.
And with the knowledge about how the Kid pirates have been defeated by Shanks the Red's crew, the siren really doesn't know what to say, or how to greet her. Especially after the things she said to the red haired captain. What if Dawn wants to punish her for not having enough trust in him? For abandoning the crew?
Luckily, nothing like that happens. The young girl greets her with a smile and a hug and Meris does the same. It's so good to see her and know that she's fine! And they take a moment to tell each others how did they end up there, meeting in Dressrosa.
Meris also informs her about the Strawhats, the chaos they created at Punk Hazard and how that made one of the Warlords so damn angry at them. And how she's waiting for them, just... not officially. Jinbe asked her to keep an eye on them, not to intervene. It's also not her job to do so: she's not part of their crew, after all.
And while in the past she's been helping citizens and even pirates passing by the islands she was visiting by chance, now it was different for her, because she wanted to be a part of something, of a team, of a crew. But still, Meris needed her freedom. She was a siren, it's not like she could stay put on a ship and listen to orders all day, she could explore the deepest parts of the ocean, she could be useful, she had her own ideas and... maybe she wanted to live with some sort of anarchy rules between her and said crew.
She wanted to be free enough to trust the people around her and to have them do the same too. Without feeling at fault when their opinions would be different.
Or when she didn't trust the judgement of her captain.
So... the events at Dressrosa unfold and apart from keeping Dawn safe, using her knowledge of the fish men fighting combat style, mixed with the toxin her body naturally produced, to secretly help the Strawhat win against Donquixote Doflamingo and his family, freeing the city and then getting away from there to reach their next destination... she just informs Jinbe about everything.
And after saying goodbye to Dawn, giving her a few vials with her toxin in it to, let's say, "have a bonus protection" until she'll meet the Kid pirates again, Meris follows the numerous allies captain Monkey D. Luffy made on Dressrosa territory.
Still very unsure about what the future has in store for her.
I bring some more Meris lore to you! Since I just started my vacation days, although I'm going on a little trip only next week and now I'm at home, I'm definitely more relaxed and I have more time to do the things I love! Editing and writing Meris lor is one of them, I hope you enjoy it (since I'll probably drop another big chunk during the week and who knows where I'll stop with it... 👀)
I know it's something a bit more personal, but still, if you'd like to read, also comment with ANYTHING since some of you are into the writing world and able to create very stunning projects -> tag list: @pandora-writes-one-piece @armiliadawn @fanaticsnail @lxshoxk @jintaka-hane @thetempleofthemasaigoddess @benzy16-6 @mapachito
I wanted to make an actual scene of them doing stuff displaying their personalities before just posting ref sheets or something.
more complex character descriptions below
from left to right we have Dawn, Nova, and Zed.
Dawn is the youngest of the three. Nova and Zed rescued him after he first fell to earth during a red shard eruption, and got some of the shards stuck in his chest too close to his core to be safely removed. this has two effects: he's weaker than most Skykids due to not being able to store as much light, and he experiences frequent shard memories of the ancient King, and even considers himself to be the same person, but keeps this secret.
Nova tries to be the most mature. she didn't have anyone to take care of her when she fell to earth, and first journeyed to Eden with no one to help or explain its importance. it's there she lost her eye, which never healed because she ran away instead of reaching the end and being reborn. but after meeting Zed, his knowledge of the world helped her find her place in it. she now makes it her mission to help as many other Skykids as she can, especially through their journey to Eden, and believes it's the life purpose of all Skykids to do the same.
Zed is the oldest. he grew up in the Valley of Triumph, and strongly embodies it's spirit. once he got a bit older he moved into the Golden Wasteland to study it, and is sadly banned from some parts of the Vault of Knowledge for "disruptive behavior". while Skykids and Ancestor Spirits alike find his constant snooping and pestering for information very annoying, he is determined to unravel the mysteries of his world and figure out for himself all the things the spirits won't tell him.
Our favorite grumpy captain’s birthday deserves to be celebrated! The drawing I had planned for him isn’t finished yet, but I still wanted to post something for his birthday, so I invited Dawn to join in this little quick sketch ^^ 🎂
