Out of all the characters you see as regressors, who do you think would be most delighted by getting temporarily deaged (Hi Bonney?) and who would just… stress out 24/7 because that’s NOT what they want from regression?
Ooooh that's a really good question.
So the ones I hc as regressors are mostly ones with.... hella trauma. It's not a requisite for regressing but it's smth I'm more familiar with si I err there. On that front, I think most if not all of them would be really stressed by it.
Overall I think Buggy and Luffy would be the most stressed by physically regressing to child sizes.
- for Buggy, it's jarring and that was the time he was most vulnerable. Add on some of the other psychological issues I usually depict him with, and I think actually being child sized while regressed would be a HOT MESS and it would take a WHILE before he could calm down enough to do anything other than dissociate or cry
- Luffy is vaguely similar, but his panic and stress is more external based, if that makes sense? He's the captain and needs to protect and guard his crew, needs to Be There And Be Strong for them - it's smth that already makes regressing in general harder on him. If he DOES manage to slip and Bonney beloved makes him child sized, he's going to lose his marbles - that was the age when he lost so much, when he wasn't strong enough to keep people, when he was weak and vulnerable and unable to protect himself let alone others and he's a captain now and- it's not fun. It's Very Not Fun.
Those in a tentative middle ground would be Shanks, Robin, and Sanji
- Shanks' regression is more muddled than most, but he'd still be REALLY stressed if he was suddenly child sized ((and I'm leaving the arm thing to interpretation, tho I am personally leaning to Still No Arm)). Like Luffy, he's a captain. He's got a crew to protect, and on top of that, he never wants his crew to end up like like the Roger crew either. He's a lil ball of jitters atp. I do however think he has enough trust in his crew to calm down a bit easier than Luffy or Buggy - they're powerful and he doesn't internalize the same way either of them do. All in all, he's still just kinda Blurry and Quiet and more apt to gnaw on things.
- Robin has been in survival mode for the majority of her life. Her parameters for childhood are heavily skewed and she's unfamiliar with the idea of unconditional love and protection. She's learning, and she's growing, and she's trusting. But when she regresses and Bonney makes her a matching size, her brain sort of blue screens for a moment. Logic wars with her emotions and panic. She's new to understanding safety and love and support, but she has wanted it for her entire life. So when her hands are suddenly the hands of a far-too-small-survivor, she reverts to old habits, the instinct to hide and flee and scurry. But then the new habits, the ones she's cultivating, take root and she dares to reach out, to ask, to desire. And they meet her halfway with warmth and love and comfort and snacks and games. It eases up from there.
-Sanji's regression is.... difficult to explain. It's born from a lack but the youngest he goes is around early teenage years. He still cooks and laughs and tries to smoke and puts on a fuss when the other's tell him no but secretly is happyhappyhappy about it. He's just a bit shorter, a bit thinner, less stubble with Bonney's intervention, but he still stresses over the lessened muscle mass, worries and worries and worries - but the crew just slips into normal behaviors, other's stepping up and sending him to play or goof off or relax because they're crew - nakama - family - and he'll always be a priority with them. It's a bit easier with Sanji, ironically enough.
Those least bothered are Perona, and, ironically enough, Ace
- Perona does get the initial surprise and uncanny Valley but she recovers pretty quickly bc she's kind of excited. When she regressed ANYWAY, she trusts her safety with her cg implicitly, or even with her ghosts, so she's not exactly SCARED so much as "whoa what happened??? Oh. Wow, I'm so cute!!!!" She's very excited and is absolutely getting into all manner of mischief. Happy spooky girl hours!!!!!
- Ace has.... a lot of Issues going on around regression. He struggles against it a Lot, but finding his crew and later joining the Whitebeards, he finds that it's a little easier when he can trust others. As a result, being a whitebeard pirate helps him a lot. So when Bonney accidentally-or-on-purpose makes him tiny sized, he's Angry and Annoyed and Mildly Stressed but the rest are just so excited about a Tiny Ace that the stress turns from "Oh no danger" to "Izou please I am begging you I don't wanna wear the cat eared footied pajamas".((spoiler alert, he loses. ((Extra spoiler, Izou then makes a point of making multiple pajama sets with different animals)))).
Also sliding in and out to ask if you have any other op characters you could see as regressors other than Buggy? Personal fav for me is Robin, partly I can’t find anything for her as the regressor, partly cuz she deserves it, partly because imagining Franky as her primary SUUUUUUPER caretaker is healing to the heart. (One of Little Robins favorite games is to climb on his back while he pretends to be flabbergasted and goes „Oh noooo where did Robin gooooo? Has anyone seen Robin?“ while she just giggles as he pretends to shield his eyes to look towards the horizon)
YES ACTUALLY!!!! I focus mostly on Buggy because he's my absolute favorite but I do in fact hc others as regressors
I'll divide them out under the cut with some headcanons as well bc this may.... get long honestly.
Robin
• starting here because she is the one in the ask and you're RIGHT AND SHOULD SAY IT LOUDLY!!!!!!!!!
• she's a playful person and that only gets x100 when she feels safe to regress
• she spent so long hypervigilant that it was honestly only with the Strawhats that she finally relaxed a little and wound up feeling that fuzzy blurry aspect in her head which took away some inhibitions. Nobody made a big deal out of it the first few times it happened. they were just happy she was happy. It's only after she reads a book on psychology on a whim that she begins piecing some things together.
• everyone is really excited when she finally feels comfortable to talk to them about it. And, in doing so, a few others on the crew also realize they may either benefit from it or already do it themselves.
• Robin really loves games and playing when she's regressed, and she laughs more openly when she's little.
• Franky is her primary caregiver, but everyone else on the crew also chips in constantly. (Zoro specifically always keeps an extra close eye when she's running around anywhere near the railing or somewhere potentially dangerous. He's the king of gentle redirection)
• Sanji will make her extra fun little snacks, cut fruit or little finger foods. He melts every time she beams at him or giggles or thanks him. He just wants to squish her cheeks~
• not an Aeathetic Regressor, honestly. She does what makes her happy, and her clothes aren't necessary for that, she's not obsessed with pastels or anything, she still finds morbid things amusing. She will, however, become the BIGGEST clothes thief ever and toddle after Franky in one of his button ups, spouting random facts about decomposition and the science of decay.
• spooky baby!!!!!!! Not on purpose, but she IS!!!!!!
• Luffy and her get on like a house on fire. He's one of her favorite people when regressed because he's just that perfect mix of On Her Level and Protective. He also has Mega Siblihg Energy. While Luffy himself is a complicated topic I'll get into later, he does take being her playmate and protector VERY seriously. He's also a polyglot bc I love the idea of him not being dumb at all, just operating on a different wavelength. They bond over Weird Facts and Special Interests, and they speak different languages a lot together, accidentally even making their own on occasion. ((Luffy also calls her mi pequeña luna even before the whole Gear 5 Thing, which becomes a bit of an inside joke))
• chewy stims chewy stims chewy stims if it can go in her mouth while she's distracted, it WILL.
• no particular age range, but she has determined she's likely an older kid - perhaps around the ballpark of nine? Maybe. Maybe not. Doesn't matter.
• can, will, and has justbwordless gone to Usopp, plopped down on her tummy, kicking her feet and Stared. He pauses slightly. "Story?" She nods. "Okay..... yeah, I got one-!!"
Moving on~
Luffy
• I will die on this hill bc I have so many thoughts on it and nobody does it??? Justice?????????????
• he is SO resistant to it, honestly. This may come as a huge shock to many, but this boy is a Captain and had to grow and survive FAST. He may be a little weird or perceived as 'dumb', but he is most certainly NOT. I love Dadan, Makino and even Shanks, but his most stable adult relationships were a barmaid, a flighty pirate, and a largely hands-off bandit woman. He canonically faced potentially lethal ordeals as "training" from a man he loved, yes, but also FEARED. It's overlooked so often bc of how optimistic and bright and semi-competent he is, but that boy has So Much Trauma.
• he's the captain and so he puts a LOT of pressure on himself, though it's rarely seen point blank.
• I think he involuntarily regresses pretty often and hides it exceptionally well by either Faking It or hiding away as quickly as possible.
• personal hc here that Robin was the first to address regression with the crew, everyone gave it a try bc Nobody There Had A Good Childhood, and nobody noticed that Luffy.... didn't. Or rather, nobody brought it up. At first.
• it's baby steps. They let him be. They never push, but they do encourage the times when his lock on his Haki gets a little fuzzier, bubbly, and his laughter is bright and clear and innocent.
• Luffy has a lot to unpack, and it only really comes to ahead when he's teetering just a little during dinner one night, wriggling happily, someone reaches past a little too quickly, a little too close to his head, and he flinches. Everyone freezes. The mood drops like an anchor. Luffy apologizes. He's subsequently smothered.
• getting Luffy to really regress is difficult. One would think it would be easy with his normal demeanor. One would be very very wrong. The Luffy he is now is the one cobbled together by his experiences, under layers and layers of protective shielding and self applied armor of love. Luffy acts most like a child when he's big. Luffy acts far different when he's little.
• he also looks different when he's little. Current theory is the weirdness of his Devil Fruit, the way his body shifts and morphs according to whims and wants and stimuli. He used to shrink down after Gear 3, so sometimes just.... physically being tiny isn't TOO unusual. And having the little white curls peppered into raven hair is odd, but it is Luffy, they've seen, done and experienced weirder....
• Lil Lu, as dubbed by the Great and Powerful Big Bro Usopp, is quiet. He's firm stares beneath messy curls, red-brown eyes peeling layers of a person back and studying them bc that is how he can tell who is Safe and who is Not. He is not diluted by the cloak of sunshine, though stars still glow in his veins. He's quiet, he's slightly calmer, but he's also... more open than they're used to. Luffy doesn't cry easy. Lil Lu seems to make up for that in excess. He happy cries, angry cries, sad cries - they all learn to navigate the different tones of tears.
• Lil Lu also picks his people. It's usually not the exact same, but he'll choose a person and be their duckling for the day or evening. Sometimes it's Sanji, and Lu wants to help and hold his pants leg and just Be There. Sometimes it's Nami, and he helps count out the berri or draws her pictures while she works on a map, beaming under ink smudges and parchment smells. Sometimes it's Zoro, with the naps and occasional playtime, or Usopp and Chopper with games and stories. Sometimes it's Robin and Franky, the former big or little, the latter delighting in the trust given to him. Sometimes it's Brook or Jinbei, the oldest on the crew who understand better than most when the weight of the world crushes a too-small chest and grief stains his every cell. Sometimes it's one, sometimes it's many, and sometimes he wants to be alone. It's all progress.
Shanks
• ironically, not a whole lot on him. His regression is blurry at best, and it's diluted in part due to his alcoholism. It mostly manifests in going semi or nonverbal, wanting more hugs and cuddles, being a little more emotional than usual - something often times attributed to drinking as opposed to smth psychological.
• his crew eventually puts it together that Drunk Shanks and Needy Shanks are very different, and they simply adjust accordingly. Nobody ever really.... brings it up?? But they know. And Shanks knows. And they know that Shanks knows. That's enough for them.
• honestly Shanks' regression is on the older end, but it's from around the time he was selectively mute.
• traumatized teenage captain hours.
• really likes texture stims btw. Lucky Roux made him slime once and he was mesmerized for hours.
Law
• not a regressor but I wanted to include him anyway bc he went the full opposite of everyone else. He vibes as a caregiver no I do not make the rules but I do enforce them.
• Law, upon meeting little Robin and Lil Lu: you activated my Loving Side, now SUFFER- ((He spoils them but has safety rules and they thrive with the structure honestly, 100/10, he and Franky become The Best At Wrangling The Tinies))
Uta
• I don't know quite yet how she vibes but the vibe is THERE okay, it simply IS and I will die on that hill. She either regresses or she's a caregiver, but regardless she is very Big Sister Coded, especially to Luffy.
Perona
• pastel goth baby. On the younger end, and Mihawk and Zoro were the ones who clocked her habits at Kuraigana. She herself never really clocked it but they both started.... slowly accommodating it, and she was blindsided by it.
• eventually came to terms with it, and while they never put a name to the behaviors, Zoro knew damn well what was going on after sailing with Robin. Big Brother Energy honestly.
• it's only after the time skip, after some time away, and when she reunites with Mihawk that the greatest swordsman knows now what it was, thanks in part to Buggy.
• on that note, she and Buggy get on like a house on fire and it's adorable and mildly terrifying bc smth may, in fact, literally catch fire.
Okay that's all I have rn ily thanks for the ask, y'all have no idea how happy it makes me to see stuff in my inbox ♡♡♡♡♡♡
