More specifically doodles for the Donswap!AU I've been rotating in my brain for a while! Essentially the AU diverges once around the point Doffy comes back from Mariejois and finds his brother gone; without going into to much detail Doffy ends up seperated from Trebol and friends and get thrown into the CP9 child soldier program, while Rosi gets picked up by Trebol (and friends) and becomes the head of the Donquixote Pirates/Joker...
I'm still fleshing the designs and the AU out so expect more posts about this two! I already know I want to take Rosi's design in a slightly different direction from what I've got here and I have a lot of ideas for Corazon!Doffy ^_^
One of the most fun parts of DonSwap!AU is working out Corazon Doflamingo, because he's such a funny guy
For example - Doffy is not a loyal Marine or spying on his brother for the government (they would quite literally never trust him with that job). He's managing to instead be deeply suspicious and possibly working against the Family through his own independent choices and the power of undersocialized child soldier vibes. And the lying. Can't forget the insane amount of lying. Which means Rosinante and crew do not have the extremely obvious disappearance of Tsuru to raise their hackles during his six months away with Law
It's ok, though - Doffy's got this 😎
Rosinante's brother runs off midday with zero notice and leaves a note saying he took a child that everyone knows he dislikes on a wildly out of character journey to find a cure for his terminal illness. He does pick up the snail when called (promising), the kid is confirmed alive and traveling with Corazon relatively soon after by a third party (everyone relaxes a bit), and they do actually go to a hospital per the newspaper coverage (cautious optimism). What it quickly becomes clear he's not doing, however, is letting Rosi talk to or overhear Law a second longer than required for proof of life
Trebol, 4+ months into Corazon's disappearance: "Ne ne, the kid must know something, right? Rosi? Rosi, your brother is not even being subtle. If we don't make him bring Law back then Corazon is just gonna wait until the sickness takes him so Law can't snitch to you. Ne, Rosi, it's been months. Rosi, what could he possibly be trying to hide this badly except betraying you???"
Rosinante, despairingly trying to avoid the exact same conclusion: "...we can't call him back until we have a reason. Which we'll come up with before Law runs out of time. If Corazon is loyal then he'll bring him back, and Law will tell me everything. Law is loyal. Law has no reason to lie to me."
(Doffy across the ocean - who we should note did spend the first 3 weeks thinking that either he'd cure Law to get enough gratitude and benefit of the doubt that it would keep the kid's mouth shut forever OR if the sick brat died, he died, and it would be unfortunate but problem solved - would absolutely flip his shit at the idea anyone would suggest he's just killing time until Law dies, because Law is not going to die and that's final!)
I know in canon all of the CP9 Agents came from a special child soldier training island, but that's boring and doesn't even make sense for a good chunk of them??? (Kaku's too normal, Kumadori is too weird, etc, etc)
So here's a brief overview of my headcanons for their origins and specialties:
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Rob Lucci - The Premiere Child Soldier, acquired age 9 after an act of extreme violence! He's a one-man-army who's meant to Send A Message (aka the assassinations that are very obviously on the WG's orders)
Jabra - An Ex-Bounty Hunter! A very disorganized one though, he did it mostly because he just likes killing people. He's good at short-term infiltration that ends in mass executions.
Kaku - Transferred from Marine Intelligence! Honestly Kaku is just a normal guy who is also very, very good at killing people! He's good at infiltration especially in urban environments and, unlike a lot of these guys, he can be trusted not to triple the death count on a whim!
Blueno - Also an Ex-Bounty Hunter! However, unlike Jabra, Blueno was a goddamn professional. He was probably a big name in his home sea before he dropped off the map. He, unsurprising, specializes in infiltration and acquisitions (His fruit is very helpful!)
Kalifa - Another child soldier! However, she got picked up at age 12, which means she has been socialized a little more. Similarly to Kaku she specializes in urban infiltration and, frankly, her relative weirdness is typically overlooked because she's a hot woman.
Kumadori - They just Found him, and frankly leaving him to his own devices seemed...unwise. Backstory sparknotes is that he was banished from Wano as a child with his assassin mother (she killed his father lol, he was an important lord and they had a domestic and well...) who taught him how to be Very Good at Murder. He specializes in no survivors OR in cases where the WG doesn't even want theories about their involvement, because he really doesn't act like a typical Cipher Pol Agent
Fukurou - Unsurprising another Child Soldier, acquired at age 8. Initially picked up for his power sensing ability, but then excelled in the CP9 training program. He CANNOT be trusted with infiltration missions and instead is usually sent on missions with the goal of no survivors. (This is why Fukurou is Jabra's favorite mission partner! He likes it when his targets know he's coming)
Special Mentions!
Nero - A child soldier, picked up at age 14! He had potential, but... Well let's just say Spandam was getting desperate to pad CP9's ranks after sending away 4 of his best guys for 5 whole years.
Donquixote Doflamingo - In my DonSwap!AU he ends up being dropped into the child soldier program at age 10 or 11. He, like Jabra, specializes in short-term infiltration that ends in mass executions! However, their methods are different enough that they hate working together
Baby child soldier Lucci (age 10) is being introduced the first alumni of the CP9-Child-Soldier-Program™. He assumed they'd be respectable. Instead, he's the worst fucking guy Lucci has ever met, aka, his 16y/o future coworker whose outfit makes him violently homicidal.
(Not pictured, the training staff who are really hoping Doffy doesn't kill this one)
Check out my other doodles for this au :D
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Tbh, I intended to post this as part of a set, but my drawing tablet stopped working before I finished the second one so enjoy this teaser until my replacement arrives lol
Here's a bare bones explainer for the One Piece DonSwap!AU that me and @carrioncreations have been kicking around as we watch together, because I want something to point to if I start talking about it in posts:
So... Donquixote Swap AU:
Doflamingo and Rosinante's childhood happens the same as in canon up to the point that Doffy leaves for Marie Geoise (though technically it happens a few years later in the world timeline because we pushed some birth years around for certain age gaps). Rosi is left behind very upset, and Marines soon arrive to sweep the island. However in this AU instead of finding Rosi, Sengoku's squad thoroughly spooks him while searching for "the Celestial Dragons". Insert domino effects leading to Doffy sitting in a cell at a CP9 base while Trebol & co. are accepting they have to make it work with the 8-year-old crybaby. Both assume the other is dead.
11 years later, Rosinante is a notorious up and coming pirate in the North Blue when his dead brother miraculously reappears. He folds him into the crew as Corazon, and starts carefully ignoring that Doflamingo is possibly the most suspicious man he's ever met, won't give a single solid detail about his life before now, loves to disappear for weeks with vague explanations, and is crystal clear on the fact Corazon needs to be a fucking ghost - no government eyes, ever. Because Rosi loves his brother. And if he has to confront him, then he's a little concerned that what comes out is going to irreparably blow up their relationship. Surely this will be fine and no dying Trafalgar Laws will be traumatized.
Highlights of this AU include:
The CP9 Child Soldier Program
This Rosi meme:
Rob Lucci and other dubiously brother-shaped figures
Doffy being king of cognitive dissonance and plans that are great and will work forever so long as nothing ever goes wrong
Crime boss Rosinante being exactly as terrifying as canon Doflamingo with extra arson and immolation for spice
Rosi's grown adult brother wanting to murder his new dying 10-year-old because he's absolutely seething with jealousy and Rosi is the only one who realizes this 🤣
Law's beloved "dead" savior being a gleeful psychopath in pink feathers who has done coke in front of him and was absolutely not hiding a heart of gold, but also spent six months and nearly had a manic breakdown saving him and seemed possibly more panicked about the thought of Law dying than Law was and extra panicked that he cared in the first place, so Rosinante definitely needs to die for killing him
Doflamingo sort of faking his death to put off definitely killing his brother for as long as possible
One man's determination to protect his career slowly sprawling out into a giant cover up at the highest levels of Marine command, entirely because everyone is trying to make someone else be the guy that triggers the lose-lose timebomb of getting caught by / informing the World Government
Law rationalizing to himself: "Doffy says I'm not allowed to make the call on killing his brother, but Doffy is an idiot about Rosinante AND I'm not killing him if I destroy the factory, so..." #PlanStillOn
Dressrosa Family Screaming Match + Collateral Damage, feat. Strawhats / Revolutionaries / an Admiral / etc.
Sabo: "You've killed over 25,000 Revolutionary Army soldiers and associates that we've been able to confirm" / Doffy (fondly): "I did do that"
Can I ask abt Cora and Law’s relationship in the Donquixote-swap au? It’s rlly interesting hearing abt it! :)
Sure! For reference: me and @carrioncreations have been kicking this DonSwap!AU around with the base premise of "how do we keep the same major plot beats up through Punk Hazard / Dressrosa while role swapping two brothers with very different starting personalities" so Law's backstory intentionally stays pretty similar (since he didn't actually know much about the hidden Donquixote family drama motivations). Though his understanding of the brothers as people gets some shuffling - I'll hit both Rosi and Doffy because frankly it's easier:
(Also this got really long as I used it to put thoughts in order, so enjoy?)
Rosinante is a little slower to start escalating his mob boss / piracy reign of terror, but he's definitely going strong in the North Blue at 20 when Law shows up. He also simply likes kids - especially of the outcast from society / wronged by the world variety that he can neatly slot into his "me and mine deserve the best life can offer and we're going to take and secure it by force" mentality. You'd call him fatherly if he wasn't literally 20. This means he's immediately fond of Law, and also he's seeing the baby!Doffy parallels as a huge plus (something makes a zero baggage Doffy-like kid really sound great vs the real Doffy who has been complicated since he got back). The whole "stick around for a week or so while we test your mettle and convictions" is basically a formality... except for Corazon.
Corazon!Doffy sees the kids in the Family as Rosi's dolls on a good day and fun things to make squeal on a mean one. They aren't really people most of the time. He also has... "odd" approaches to interacting with them when he chooses to - high levels of random violence, and blatant disapproval when they aren't quick / sturdy enough for his (insane) expectations. Like a cat that occasionally hits like a cannonball and tsks when you crumple. Corazon is openly against Rosi's "soft heart" keeping more of the little fuckers if they aren't even useful, and delights in proving the new ones are "washouts" before his brother can get attached.
Corazon hears about the sickly little shrimp that showed up covered in grenades who Rosi liked so much it's noteworthy, and he's pissed when he too sees the baby!Doffy echo in those eyes.
Law's first impression of Corazon is a giant mass of pink feathers sneering down at him "Oh, you have got to be kidding me" before he is violently kicked across the scrap heap.
(Good News: Doffy immediately sees Law as a person / Bad News: that person is his brother's replacement brother figure and he's going to KILL the brat before he lets that happen. Nobody except Rosi realizes this 😆 and Rosi only puts in "dear brother I will be VERY upset if he actually dies" levels of energy toward addressing it.)
Donquixote Pirate Era continues like canon for Law from here. Law does make the insane decision to try and stab Corazon which Doffy genuinely respects (and covers up) because he's insane. Rosi dotes on Law and his education (though the words "Third Corazon" will not be uttered without heavily prefacing due to not wanting Law killed on the spot). The kids don't like Corazon. Corazon bullies Law with extra glee. Law thinks Rosinante is the best Captain he could possibly work under + his brother is a sadistic freak who sucks sooo bad.
Rosi as Joker is very similar to canon!Doffy at face value, especially from outside perspectives, so Law is not really positioned to pick up on the nuances the Executives can. He's a little more unambiguously fond and protective of the kids, but also thinks being able to kill a man is a vital life skill so he's not holding them back. 12+ years of Trebol and co working with what they had on the intimidation front means his default vibe is stonefaced with private jokes and brief emoting. He really likes setting people on fire and having luxurious things, but he smokes garbage cigarettes, eats just about anything, and drinks terrible booze that tastes like paint thinner. Almost never gets mad, just disappointed, but that can cut. Family is everything, and he will see them taken care of (...so they should never have a reason to resent him / leave). Does not rein in his brother 95% of the time.
Skip ahead 2.5 years.
Doffy does get more fond of Law (you can fit two brother surrogates in this bad boy - just watch!), but Law doesn't really notice this because Doffy is a dick... basically Corazon is having more fun bullying him. Overhearing the D. secret is a wild (distracting) coincidence, and when Corazon drags him into an alley to explain it he's also pausing for hysterical laughter breaks, so. Law does think the man has lost it and he's about to die.
We're a little looser on the 6 months of bonding right now, but the current shape of it is... While in the alley with Law, Doffy gets a call on his secret additional "for absolute fucking emergencies only unless you want to die horribly" snail, and makes the snap decision to answer and see if he can play it off. Doffy is also a bit frazzled right now (tight schedule / lying problems) and an emergency is an emergency. Unfortunately, this particular emergency involves the words "passage to the East Blue". Which raises the extremely fair question of what the fuck Corazon needs to go to the East Blue for.
Law is pinned against a wall and Corazon has gone quiet and frowny in a scary way, which means the only course of action for a suicidally reckless 12-13 year old is to start saying dangerous things. Like assuming that call was not Family business. Or that Rosi doesn't know about this and would not like hearing it. Or asking straight up "Are you betraying the Family?" to which Doffy - in a truly impressive and probably sleep deprived fuck up - instinctively responds "Not technically."
Law manages to get away for the three seconds necessary to use Baby 5 and Buffalo as cover (embarrassing). Rosi gets back early. Law reveals he hasn't told on him because they're even now. Corazon promptly abducts Law and gives him a lecture while he's captive on that being stupid - "Leverage you can't back up with power is just a way to get killed... no, of course I'm not going to kill you. I just need to do something before we can figure this out. You're not going anywhere. Stop screaming, no one can hear you."
***This is where we have to go on a tangent about Doffy's secret side job. The one that Rosi pretends not to be suspicious about the existence of. Corazon regularly disappears on short notice trips with vague explanations, and all his work with the Family is done in the shadows because he's super paranoid about being identified by "the wrong people". This is because Doffy has been an active CP9 agent for the last decade, and Enies Lobby is under the carefully crafted impression he's fucking around in the East Blue between reporting in to go kill (mostly) revolutionaries. And that he's unaware his brother is alive. And that they've managed to sneakily ban him from the North Blue. If this sounds like a madman's extremely dangerous double life built on a house of cards that it is amazing he's held up for 3.5 years, that would be because it is 🙃 right now, though, everything is fine except the terminally ill kid who doesn't actually know shit and Doffy's scramble to not raise suspicions after a poorly timed "actually we have a second assignment for you, report back to the base you just left"***
Corazon decides his best plan not to kill Law (or start that fight with his brother) is actually to try and save the kid, per his hasty note excuse, while also getting Law on his side and impressing on him how much Rosi does not need to know about any side business because it's fine. No betrayal here. (Also if the kid is not dying then maybe he can be threatened...? Grasping at straws.) So they start finding doctors destroying hospitals.
Highlights of Law's next six months: The full force of Corazon's insane "I like you kid" sharp affection undeterred by Law's hostile attitude. A medically concerning amount of casual substance abuse. Cutting back on the substance abuse to start very unhappily chainsmoking (???). Corazon is so fucking weird. A lot of deeply shady non-Family calls and errands. Possibly lying to the people calling him? Corazon lies a lot. Corazon can practically become a different person when he wants to and it's creepy. Corazon getting increasingly mad on Law's behalf. Corazon actually being interested in him, like, as a person, enough to ask about his medical dreams and motivations. The vague sense of unease between the brothers that Corazon plays down like crazy.
And eventually overhearing Corazon in the midst of his increasingly common, highly manic bouts of insomnia muttering about how fuck fuck Law you can't die I'm not going to let you die you are going to live and do whatever the fuck you want even if it's something stupid like medical school and I'm going to fucking KILL anyone who tries to stop you fuck fuck you have to live Law I need you to live fuck in the tone of a man on the verge of breakdown. Which is like. Damn this crazy man for real cares about Law's survival.
(Doffy is panicking and much worse at hiding it than canon!Corazon.)
Minion Island is a clusterfuck in all universes. Rosi has some plan for the Ope Ope Fruit, but Corazon has slept for about 6 hours in the last 3 days and Law is dying and why the fuck should he wait and allow unacceptable risk. He just needs to beat him there, and they can fix things after Law is saved. So he lies. Pulls out the suspicious second snail he's been dodging calls on. Makes his own call, rattles off a very official sounding code, and says he needs three ships at a set of coordinates yesterday. "Don't worry about it, Law, I'm just stalling him a bit." Island reached. Fruit attained. Fruit eaten. Some motherfucker named Vergo has a gun and haki and is saying things about government traitors. Rosi might be madder than expected. It's ok though because if Doffy just hides Law from the backlash until things cool down... I'm his brother, he promises, Rosi would never actually kill me.
Rosi blows him the fuck up. (Hi, repressed argument powderkeg they've been ignoring for 4 years)
Law, distraught, escapes Minion one devil fruit richer and without the man who did all that to save him. Because Rosinante killed him. This prompts some rapid reevaluation.
The Facts: Corazon dodged talking about his brother all the time. When he did talk about him, he was (upon reflection) concerningly light. Anything negative was a passing mention - "Maybe don't tell Rosi about the D. thing, just in case" or "There's really no reason for Rosi to get all worked up about my network but he will" - and Law believed he wasn't actually worried because Corazon never got told "no" anyway. Corazon had literally described his terrifying Captain as "soft" before. He obviously had a blind spot, but Corazon wasn't worried. Corazon... Corazon's go-to method of dealing with things he didn't like was lying and saying it was fine.
The Conclusion: Corazon was an idiot who probably knew on some level they were in trouble, and he brushed it off and pretended it was fine and Rosinante killed him over it. So what if he was shady or calling the government or whatever - he cared about Law and he saved Law's life and the last thing he did was tell Law he was free to do whatever he wanted and Corazon would take care of anything that tried to stop him. Except Corazon is dead. Law is never going to trust Rosinante again. And Rosinante is never going to let him be free because free means leaving the Family and not being his possession anymore.
This brings us back neatly to Trafalgar Law spending the next 13 years ruminating and planning how to take down Rosinante while honoring the memory of Corazon. Also putting any positive Rosi thoughts into a box he'll never open. After all, Corazon wanted him to be free (not possible while Rosinante can drag him back), and honestly Corazon would be pro-revenge quest. Man loved responding to violence with more violence. (And if the fact his target is Corazon's brother would change anything, well, Corazon is dead. And one of the advantages of sanctifying the dead to hang most of your self concept on is they only have opinions on things you want them to 🙃)
(Could get really complicated if they came back, though - just ask Rosinante)
