I thought I posted this but it's been sitting in my drafts for like a week or something? Janx is giving me the silent treatment after accusing me of being a neglectful writer. At least Lyon's being pleasant about it.
I've provided the resident OC dumbasses that live rent-free in my head with a bit of color. No intention of further rendering on them any time soon, but they've been on my brain since I've spent the past couple days outlining ahead in Hearing Problems and I finally know what they've been up to ever since their crew vanished from the Grand Line around a decade ago.
Lyon D. "Hurricane" Rollo, Captain of the Hurricane Pirates
I'm not one hundred percent satisfied with Lyon's hair here (it's dark-blonde to very light brown, was perfect on my laptop but almost looks strawberry blonde on my phone), but good enough stand-in for now. Skin tone is perfect. We'll just, uh...pretend I didn't forget his freckles?
I didn't add his locket the last couple times I drew him, but I finally worked out a design I like for it.
While he's otherwise a total dum-dum sweetheart whom I love most dearly, you do not touch the locket, ever, under any circumstances.
I mean it. You can and will lose a hand.
Also please don't call him by his given name. Lyon only. His canon-character older brother got a cool name and he got stuck with Rollo. He's a lil sensitive about it.
This mfer, on the other hand...
"Quickshot" Janx, First Mate of the Hurricane Pirates
I WANT to fully render this one, but it was a rough sketch and I'd have to completely redo the line art, soooo........gonna be a while. I have other projects to focus on first.
My last art of Janx pictured him with shorter hair—both are accurate. He grows it out occasionally, then lops half of it off when he gets annoyed over it getting in his face.
My last art of him also didn't really capture just how much of a chaotic wreck this idiot is. But here, he can be seen pictured in his most natural state—sprawled out the middle of the deck, probably quite drunk, definitely attempting to flirt with anyone who walks by. I mean anyone (not minors, he does draw that line, we don't do that shit here). He's pansexual and he's also a complete manwhore. Don't attempt to move him to a safer location, he's quite happy and swears it's more comfortable than it looks (he's too drunk to walk and will probably pass out there).
As a reminder, yes, he is supposed to have six fingers on each hand, the medical term is polydactyly, it can occur in one hand or both as well as in toes, partial digits or full (I have a relative with partial polydactly in one hand, which is where one finger joint splits off into two fingers; full means an entire extra finger with separate joints from the regular five). No, he's not self-conscious about it at all. He quite enjoys being able to flip off four people at once, and thinks it's hilarious when others find it off-putting.
The liquor bottle here is a direct reflection of the fact that his name was inspired by a specific liquor mentioned in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I'll probably tuck these away in their character profiles at some point because even in their rough state, I like these significantly better than I do the previous ones.
Line art almost done. Few touch-ups needed. And I gotta draw like a metric fuck-ton of palm trees now because I've lowkey always wanted a Hawaiian shirt OC and it just works for this dummy.
Also I swear I got to the tool belt(s) and my brain went "hey there!!! you have never ever even once seen a tool or a toolbelt or possibly even a belt in your entire life did you realize that¿" and, welp. Idgaf if it looks awkward it's done.
Anyway that's where Galliano/Dave is at right now.
Never knew making a character with an alter ego would be so entertaining. Or split personality? I'm honestly not sure which it is at this point.
More information available beneath the frightened Nu and the line-thingy
So officially, the guy below is the one who was recruited as the shipwright of the Hurricane Pirates. For anyone new here, yes, I have an entire OC crew of pirates, I have been developing them for the better part of two decades, and now we're moving on.
Galliano. Goblin-Shark Fish-Man. Grizzled old sailor type. Tough as nails, possibly eats them for breakfast. Actually hates the ocean. Weird, but the crew has come to accept his skewed reasoning. "Goblin sharks are actually deep-sea creatures," "Very strong sense of smell and the surface water smells disgusting," so on and so on. He doesn't talk much about his past, everyone assumes there's probably trauma. None of the Hurricane Pirates are strangers to trauma. At all. I have put these guys through so much shit honestly it's awful someone should really stop me before I—
Don't ask about his name please. Just know it's related to a dumb song that keeps getting stuck in my head. Also he can do the weird jaw-extension thing that real-life goblin sharks can do.
BUT!!!!! h3's not a Fishman. He's really just a guy, with a Same Same (shark) no Mi, Zoan-type devil fruit, model: Goblin Shark.......
I really didn't intend for him to be such a lil cutie-pie but here we are
Also this is gonna be a long-ass back story, which I did NOT realize when I started writing it, jfc where did all of this come from WHY—
.....and his name is Dave.
Early to mid-20s as pictured above. Decidedly not a grizzled sailor. Or a fish-man, incidentally.
His father was a well-known shipwright for the Marines, and he learned a great deal from the man, but he was kind of a scrawny kid with a weak constitution. Not great at physical labor. He spent most of his time shadowing his father at the docks, reading, watching the workers, studying fish and and other sea creatures.
He was in his preteens when a Celestial Dragon commissioned his father to build a ship, and the nobleman in question provided labor in the form of his own slaves, primarily Fish-Men. His father seemed to have a (not great) history with the Celestial Dragon in question, but his position as a Marine left him with even less grounds to refuse than even a normal citizen—Marines serve at the pleasure of the World Government, after all. He forbade Dave from any interaction at all with the nobleman or the slaves, confining his young son to remain on the base in their living quarters.
But Dave, curious and sneaky child that he was, snuck aboard the nobleman's ship a few times. He didn't find much of anything of interest at first, definitely nothing that gave any hint as to his father's history with the man...but he did find something else.
Something that could possibly be the key to beating his own shortcomings.
A devil fruit, locked in a glass case in the noble's private cabin, sitting there on a desk like a trophy.
Devil fruit users were supposed to be strong, a lot stronger than normal people. He always wanted to be strong enough to work alongside his father, to make him proud. He didn't really understand why the Celestial Dragons were such a big deal—his father had never really talked much about it.
The lock was a relatively simple thing, easily dismantled. He swiped the devil fruit and escaped unnoticed, and spent the entire night in his room on the Marine base, staring at it, weighing the pros and cons of actually eating the thing.
But, well-read though he was on certain things (devil fruits among them), he was also a twelve year old boy with a magical fruit in his hands. The pros won out.
Imagine his father's surprise when he checks in on his child in the morning to find what appears to be a very large, very imposing fish-man pacing around his son's bedroom.
Only for said large, imposing fish-man to excitedly announce, in his twelve year old son's voice, that he can help on the docks now, too! and demonstrate how strong his new devil fruit form is by lifting his own bed with one hand.
Dave misinterprets his father's tearful smile for pride. He is, unfortunately, terribly wrong.
Less than an hour later, he's following his father to the docks, and the Celestial Dragon is already raising hell. He's already killed several of his own slaves, and is threatening to slaughter every last one of them in turn if they don't reveal who stole it.
Who stole the devil fruit.
Several things become painfully clear to Dave when his father drops to his hands and knees in front of the nobleman and begs forgiveness.
The first, and probably the hardest to fathom, are his father's words— "Please don't hurt him, he's your grandson."
Dave was told that his mother died when he was too young to remember her. The truth of the matter is that she fell in love with a commoner (his father) and attempted to run away from her tyrannical father who only ever intended to marry her off for profit, only to be dragged back to Mary Geoise and executed for going against his wishes, less than a year after Dave was born.
The second thing that becomes clear is just how cruel and and untouchable the Celestial Dragons truly are.
His grandfather agrees to spare his traitorous daughter's spawn, but only if Dave's father agrees to resign from his position as a Marine and become his personal shipwright—a truly generous offer, coming from a Celestial Dragon, who could just kill him and be done with it. He agrees without question.
The ship is built. Dave works alongside his father, day and night, to assure it's finished ahead of schedule. To attempt to attone for his own stupid mistake. The Celestial Dragon, his grandfather, seems to approve of the construction.
Says it's a beautiful ship. Truly beautiful. Some of the best craftsmanship he's ever seen.
But his next words erase any relief Dave or his father might have found.
"A beautiful ship, yes. But I've changed my mind."
That's all he says before he draws his pistol, shoves the barrel against Dave's father's head, and pulls the trigger.
He brands his own grandson as a slave after forcing him to witness his father's murder. He tells Dave that he is to take up his father's agreement to be his personal shipwright, that he is always to remain in his Devil Fruit form, to make himself appear as a Fish-Man—and he is to never attempt to claim Celestial Dragon heritage. To violate any of these terms will result in his death.
The vast majority of the Fish-Men slaves under his grandfather's control already despise Dave from the start—he's of Celestial Dragon blood after all, and their master has been taking his rage out on them for weeks because of Dave's mistake. The only one who really takes pity is an older Thresher Shark Fish-Man.
Whose name just so happens to be Galliano.
Galliano is older than most of the other slaves, and the majority of them look to him for guidance. Where they see a stupid human kid who made their lives harder, Galliano sees a child who didn't understand the consequences of his actions, a child who just wanted to make his father proud—a child who has had to learn, far too quickly and too harshly, just how cruel a place the world can be.
Galliano has a child of his own, who he hasn't seen in years. A daughter, who was just a little girl when he was captured and sold in the slave markets. He confides in Dave that his only wish is to see her again one day. That wish becomes Dave's own personal goal.
The Celestial Dragon's order that Dave never reveal his true identity would ultimately lead to his downfall. Through Galliano's influence, the other Fish-Men come to accept him, to treat him like family. He's able to train, to become stronger, to learn to utilize every possible benefit of his Devil Fruit.
And, six years later, to lead a rebellion aboard the very ship he helped his father build.
Several Fish-Men are killed in the attempted mutiny. Dave is forced to bear witness to his grandfather shooting Galliano with the same pistol that ended his father's life, before he kills his grandfather himself by drowning him in his own wash-basin.
The shot, unfortunately, is fatal. Galliano has just enough time to tell Dave that while he regrets not being able to see his daughter again, he's happy to have gained a son.
Dave is left with a soul-deep hatred for the World Government and the Celestial Dragons as a whole, and a legacy to carry.
He takes up the mantle of his mentor—not only his name, but his entire identity. He takes control of the ship and delivers his Fish-Man brothers to safety, where they stand a chance to reunite with their people and their families.
But Dave is still left alone. He's not a Fish-Man. He can't live among them, considering he's a Devil Fruit user and can't so much as touch the ocean. He has no ties to his old human life—his father is dead, his grandfather never told anyone of his existence. His new identity as Galliano has left him running from a bounty of more than half a billion berries. Left in limbo, he finds work in shipyards around the first half of the Grand Line, eventually ending up in Jaya, building and repairing ships for pirates.
Where he is, ultimately, recruited by the Hurricane Pirates. Not as Dave the Awkward Guy, but as Galliano the Tough-As-Nails Fish-Man.
He's in his early 20s by this point, and has spent almost half his life pretending to be someone else. So he just...rolls with it. Uses his own studies in Marine biology to make excuses for why a Fish-Man would be so disgusted by the idea of so much as touching the surface of the ocean. Masks it as pride and practicality. Between his own being convincing and the Hurricane Pirates being a lot more chill about eccentricities among the crew than he could have ever expected, it just.........works. He never has to reveal the truth.
Until my dearest Janx (first-mate of the Hurricane Pirates, resident chaos gremlin) screws it all up with a bucket of sea water intended for a drunken prank on Captain Lyon several months or longer down the road—and suddenly Galliano, grizzled old Fish-Man sailor, is, for the first time in years, just........Dave.
Dave was already kinda awkward to begin with, but he's spent literal YEARS of perfecting a completely different identity at this point.
At his core, Dave is just a guy.
He's knowledgeable about shipbuilding.
He's had a passion for marine biology since he was a child and can identify almost any sea creature on sight.
He loves the sea, he detests the World Government......
And he's painfully shy around girls.
Like, literally cannot speak in their presence. Brain just goes 🤯 and he's left hopelessly stumbling over words.
Janx TOTALLY doesn't use ANY of this newfound information to his advantage. Perfect angel about it, of course.
(Sorry, no, actually once Janx finishes laughing his ass off about it and lets Dave go back to his far more confident Fish-Man alter-ego, Janx takes immense pleasure in constantly dropping hints and being a complete shithead about it, because what could POSSIBLY be more fun?)
(He's REALLY mostly just trying to get Dave to come clean about it himself, though.)
Been working on this on and off for a while and made some decent progress on it this evening. Might try to finish the line art tonight, might not.
Lyon was the first of my OCs I drew, and I wanted to take a stab at him again since I've learned a lot since I started doing digital art.
I'll probably eventually do a redraw of the first one, but I'm much happier with this anyway. And I didn't forget his locket this time.
His associated fic is Hearing Problems, which can be found in the Mihawk sub-category on my master list, along with his character profile. So far he's only mentioned in the fic as his entire crew has been missing for over a decade. For anyone actually interested, I'm planning to start working on it again soon.
