synopsis: rohan had never been able to shake the way a rough sea haunted him, but he never thought his fear of drowning would hurt to people he loves the most
warnings: drowning!! and kind of glorious rivals spoilers but not really??
a/n: guys I love writing savrohan!! thanks so much for reading!! 💖💖
taglist: @lovethornes @whatsamongus @wish-i-were-heather @inmyheaddd @never-enough-novels @billiebrina @swagvie @sweetreveriee @emelia07 @f4iry-bell @zaraaaabear @thoughtdaughter3 @benny1989fredd @elysianwayy77 @maybxlle @liketheriver @anintellectualintellectual @aleatorio1234 @adalia-jaycee @off-to-the-r4ces @lunarandlace @reminiscentreader @lyrakanefanatic @the-bo1ter @elizaa31 @loveinalocket @lanterns-and-daydreams @hermesenthusiast @eternal--dream @mads-xincai @book-nerd-emi @peppapigsposts @foreverwinter22 @diamondrattherevenge @alwaysthefangirl @angelnextdooor (lmk if you want to be added or taken off of the tag list!!)
Clouds plagued the sky and the waves thrashed mercilessly but she had begged him to come down to the beach and he couldn’t say no to those eyes.
“Come on Daddy!” she tugged his arm, “hurry up!”
“The sea isn’t going anywhere baby,” he laughed, the feeling of her little fingers wrapped so tightly around him warmed him through despite the bitterness of the day.
She stopped walking, folding her little arms across her chest, huffing loudly. She gave him a stern look that made her look sixteen rather six. There was a flicker of her mum in that look which made the corners of Rohan’s lips curl upwards.
“Okay,” he said, raising his hand above his head in defence, “I’m sorry.”
She let her folded arms fall but kept her pointed expression as she clung back onto his hand. She was Savannah’s, there was no doubt about it, she had that same unwavering determination that meant once she set her mind to something it would happen.
“It’s okay, I guess,” she grumbled, guiding him further into the sand.
The beach was empty. There was a storm due in and this was just the beginning, small tremors of thunder rumbled in the distance but there was no rain. Yet.
The waves rolled in, making Rohan’s stomach roll with them, they were violent today. It made him uneasy. Their manic nature made his mind feel out of control, as memories he’d suppressed for too long began seeping through the cracks. He just begged his walls would hold off a flood. But his daughter knew the rules. She never went in the water without her mum nearby.
Rohan’s jaw was tight and clenched so hard it was aching and it didn’t loosen until he looked at his child again.
She gave him a funny look, it was soft but judgemental with a hint of confusion, “are you scared of the thunder?”
He smiled gently and lifted her up into his arms, “never baby, are you scared of the thunder?” he asked, poking her belly to make her giggle.
She shook her head vigorously through laughs, “no, I love it. And the lightning, it’s pretty.”
“Is that why you wanted to come down to the beach today?” he asked her, curious himself.
“Sort of,” she shrugged, “I like being here when no one else is and I like to watch the sea.”
Rohan fell silent as they both gazed out onto the torrent of darkness ahead. His knuckles went white as he clutched his daughter closer to him, the warmth of her small body pressing tightly against his. She didn’t seem to notice, she was captivated, her little eyes wide as saucers and sparkling as if the waves had locked her in some sort of hypnotic adoration.
Fear coiled in the pit of his stomach, wishing she wasn’t so drawn to the very thing that kept him up at night. It was like some twisted trick of fate.
“Can we build a sand castle?” she whispered in his ear.
He grinned and kissed her on the cheek, “of course.”
As he put her down, the little girl smiled, rosy cheeks glowing and suddenly Rohan’s heart warmed in a way he didn’t know it could. It was something so sweet it was almost sickly, so full it almost overflowed, so soft it almost didn’t exist. He knew in that moment that he would live and die for that girl, she was engraved into the messy heap that he managed to call a heart, meticulously woven back together by the woman that had mothered this sweet child.
The girl was already at it, collecting heaps of sand and moulding it to her desired shape. Rohan helped her gently, holding back when she waved him away for independence but stepping in when she needed but refused to ask.
Stubborn, like her mother. He couldn’t help but smirk at that.
He liked to watch her, all her little mannerisms and quirks, the way she bit the inside of her cheek when she was concentrating and narrowed her eyes for precision. She was adamant for perfection, any little bit of sand slightly out of place and she’d make sure it wasn’t. Unusual for her age, she was patient and committed to the task, occasionally chatting to her dad but more often than not forgetting he was there entirely so immersed in what she was doing.
Once she was finished, she stood back, analysing it, almost triumphant but not quite. Her dark hair whipped in the wind, piercing blue eyes finding his. He knew in his heart if those eyes were to ever cry, he’d lose himself entirely. Who knew someone so small could put him so on edge?
“It needs decoration,” she decided, chewing her bottom lip.
“I couldn’t agree more,” he nodded in reply.
“You go and get the rocks,” she directed, pointing to them, “and I’ll get the shells.”
“Okay baby,” Rohan agreed, “just not too close to the water, remember?”
“I know daddy!” she groaned with a dramatic eye roll.
He couldn’t blame her, he did tell her every time and he didn’t doubt Savannah had drilled it into her too.
“Okay,” he chuckled, shaking his head in amusement as he went to collect some stones.
He glanced over his shoulder to see his daughter scavenging for little shells near the shores edge but maintaining her distance from the water. He let out a little breath of relief, watching her pick up a few and put the ones that weren’t deemed good enough back down. He crouched back down near the stones, smoothing his fingers over a few choosing the prettier ones with wavy white waterlines or unusual patterns that he thought she’d like.
His back had only been turned for a second when he heard it. The unmistakable, blood curdling scream of his daughter. His heart stopped beating and he paralysed for a moment. Every muscle frozen. He wanted to move but his body wouldn’t let him, as if he’d been cemented to the floor. His mind went to only one place, the worst case scenario, his one and only nightmare.
There was a thousand things that scream could’ve meant, she could’ve fallen over, seen a bolt of lightning, found a crab. So he forced himself to snap out of the shock and turn around. This wasn’t about his fear, this was about his daughter, that’s all that mattered.
But when he turned she was nowhere to be seen. He looked around to spot her turquoise rain jacket and yellow welly-boots but was met with an empty beach. Panic seized his neck and stole his breath. His eyes rapidly darted every which way as he shouted her name over and over until his voice was raw. He heard her scream again and then he saw her. She was in the water.
Her little arms were flailing around desperately trying to keep her head about water level. She’d had swimming lessons but she was just a child and against the current and freezing cold, it was a wonder if an Olympian could survive. She bobbed over and under letting our strangled sounds when she could.
He felt sick, positively ill. His knees went weak but he ran, he sprinted faster than he ever thought he could to the water and dived into his murky hell. There wasn’t a thought in it, only the primitive instinct to make sure this choppy sea didn’t steal his daughter.
He slapped the water, trying to swim as quickly as he could, only breathing when his lungs felt close to imploding. Then it hit Rohan in the midst of the adrenaline, the water, the darkness, his phobia. The cold ocean licked his neck in torment, rising up and up until he was submerged.
The water was dark, thick, strong, it wrapped hefty fingers around his throat and choked him like some sort of noose. He tried to kick up but his muscles were fatigued, his clothes heavy and his panicked state of mind completely taking over.
He could hear a faint humming in the distance, a sickly sweet melody he knew all too well. He sunk deeper, the weight of invisible stone suddenly prominent around his ankles. He thrashed in the dark water, clawing at his feet to release himself. A familiar scent of his mother floated over him, taking over the salty tang in his nose and mouth and lulling him into a hypnotic state where he let himself fall into the depths of the deep blue sea.
He was sure he was going to die until he caught a glimpse of a little yellow welly-boot. Something in him ignited and he surged upwards, using every ounce of his fear and channelling it into energy he didn’t have. Once he’d broken to the surface, he furiously searched for his little girl. The little girl he’d held for the first time at the hospital when she was not bigger than a button, the little girl who’d make him daisy chain crowns and make him wear them, the little girl who his heart beat for day in and day out.
He saw a turquoise flicker in the corner of his eyes and lunged in that direction. The girl tried to scream for her dad but her voice was lost in the wind, body pulled under by the waves.
Drowning. They were both drowning.
Rohan was struggling to keep afloat, the water was an untamed beast, half starved and hungry, out for the kill.
Images flashes through his head. He was so young when it happened before, no child that small should’ve been able to remember. That ebony water moving like some sort of otherworldly creature ready to swallow him up, the thunderous sky grinning down as he went under, his mother’s kind touch as she let him go…
Salty water poured down their throats, choking them. His daughter gurgled his name, he spluttered hers, both voices achingly too far from one another’s. She bobbed closer, her limbs limp but still gasping for breath.
He reached out, their fingers grazing one another’s but not quite interlocking. Then the waves carried her away with a sick smile.
He couldn’t save her. He couldn’t get to her. No matter how hard he was trying he just couldn’t. He uttered a thousand silent prayers still attempting to get that bit closer and reel her into him but she just got further and further away.
Rohan’s eyes fell back onto the beach. A woman stood there, white blonde hair tumbling down to her mid back. Draped in a gothic, almost transparent silk that danced around her in the harsh winds, she stood there staring with those piecing blue eyes.
Relief hit him square in the chest, they’d still have a chance. His eyes met hers and desperation bled from him, dying the water an invisible scarlet. She approached the water’s edge, and hope coursed through his veins. But she didn’t dive in as expected instead just stared through him, shook her head and began to walk away.
“Savannah!” he screamed, his throat burning, “Savannah! Please!”
Her ghostly body retreated, humming his mother’s song, so softly it made his dead limbs ache. She walked heart wrenchingly slowly until she was out of sight competent. Rohan yelled for her with each defiant step but she didn’t turn, didn’t waver, didn’t watch. She just left. He turned back to the water, panicked and shouted for his daughter again but there was no response. Nothing.
The Proprietors’s voice echoed thick through his head. ‘Your fear will kill you if you let it, it’ll drown you boy in a sea of your own nightmares.’
The weight of the words rested heavy of his chest and he began to sink, watching at the turquoise rain jacket floated to the top of the water to bob on the surface.
***
Rohan woke up, panting and sweating. He sat up immediately, throwing the weight of his head into his hands, legs bent. His chest heaved uncontrollably, up and down with each rapid breath. Hands shaking, he managed to grab the glass of water by his bedside and chug it.
His heart was racing, too fast. He placed his palm on it to soothe himself but it didn’t work, he needed something cold. A wave of nausea came over him. Dizzy, he laid back down and closed his head, sweat sticking the his shirt to his body.
When he next opened his eyes, he wasn’t alone. Looming over him was the woman he had dreamed to be his wife and he immediately sobered. Savannah stood there an expression between disgust and disappointment tugging at her features, one sharp blonde brow raised as her piercing stare bore into Rohan’s forehead. He didn’t even know how she’d suddenly appeared above him but he didn’t have time to ponder it.
“Get up British,” she snapped, “you’re sweating all over the bedsheets.”
He almost jumped up, seeing her stood there, long legged and gorgeous, just as she had been on that beach. He shivered, not knowing whether it was the memory of the dream or the sweating.
She was dressed in the purest of whites, taking Rohan back to the dream sequence yet again, where she was draped in a veil like dress. Only her outfit now was less free. She had a ribbed white tank top on that hugged her waist, with dove trousers that almost looked like leather, smooth and slick over her thighs. Over the top she wore an outer jacket the same frosty snow colour with thick heeled boots that somehow made her look even more intimidating. Rohan nearly let himself feel something for her.
Her hair was sleek and glossy, still falling just above her shoulders in a choppy rebellious manor that made her look dangerous. The white blonde colour of it enhanced her sharp bone structure and icy eyes, the ones that’d belonged to their daughter. The one he’d let slip away. He subtly gripped the bedsheets, trying to ground himself, stabling his mind. He needed to stop thinking about this dream.
Pushing it away, Rohan propped himself up, slapping on a laissez-faire mask, one he was all too familiar with, “what are you doing in here, love? Can’t get enough of me, you know you didn’t have to resort to sleep stalking. You only had to ask and I would’ve-”
“What do you think I’m doing in here,” she deadpanned, cutting him off, “phase two is nearly starting and you haven’t even showered.”
“Right,” he murmured, a little dazed.
He could hear her. The screams of his little girl echoed around his head, torturing him.
What did any of it mean? Why was he dreaming about having a child with Savannah? How could he have let her drown? Why did this fear keep coming back to haunt him? Why did Savannah walk away, was she disappointed, angry, mental? If he wasn’t so weak would he have been able to save his little girl?
What little girl. She didn’t exist. He needed to snap out of this.
“What’s distracting you?” Savannah asked bluntly, clearly Rohan wasn’t as good at hiding it as he’d hoped, “because I’ll make myself clear,” she leaned in, the sweet scent of jasmine almost intoxicating him, “I don’t have time for distracted people. They lose. And I don’t lose.”
Her tone was so clipped, it almost stung.
“Oh really?” he plastered a grin on his face, “let’s make this game a personal first for you then.”
“Dream on,” she quipped, rolling her eyes.
Rohan smiled wolfish, “you know I could easily beat you Savvy, actually it’s exactly what I intend to do.”
“I wouldn’t get so cocky,” she pursed her lips and turned to walk out, turning when she got to the door, “are you coming?”
He nodded quickly, taking a sharp intake of breath as the last of the child’s screams in his head drowned out. It was just a dream.
Just a dream.
“By the way British,” her lips curved into a rare smile, “you talk in your sleep.”
Plant kaiju are kind of a rarity in the genre. Hell, I’m pretty sure there’s more animate object kaiju than there are plant ones. I suppose that’s cause the average viewer/reader of kaiju media would probably be more engaged with a more active animal-like kaiju than an immobile plant one (plants can actually move btw… just very slowly and they usually aren’t mobile). So I was quite surprised when Passion Republic Games revealed that a character in Gigabash’s roster was a plant monster! PRG got around this classic conundrum by simply… making her a mobile plant. She also covers the “nature’s vengeance” archetype popular in kaiju fiction… sorta. We’ll get to that.
Rohanna is, of course, also the only confirmed female kaiju in the original roster.
Rohanna is an agile, slight stunlock heavy, character with fast attacks, some of the slightly slower ones of which hit hard and/or are ranged. She even has a “teleportation” attack that is a little tricky to aim. She also has three quirky moves too. One has her summon a big thorny branch that knocks an opponent upwards, but she can also use it as a club like some of the infrastructure in some of the stages. Her other two moves each summon a minion for a short duration, one of which is actually her ultimate. These minions are respectively called Piki the Pear and the Royal Warden.
I normally play Pipijuras and another character, but if things get serious and I wanna win I bust Rohanna out.
Design
Rohanna, despite being in a game heavily inspired by Ultraman, wasn’t actually inspired by their handful of plant monsters or even the most famous plant kaiju, Biollante. Instead, Passion Republic Games wanted to make something that represents their home country of Malaysia, and so based her off a Malaysian cryptid called the Sang Kelembai. This is a little ironic considering the creature is described as pretty hideous in legend and Rohanna is a beautiful flower monster, but her left arm (which grew back this way after being burnt away by a certain “dragon king” we’ll cover next) is purposely designed to be monstrous to reference the creature that inspired her. Further inspiration was taken from the Bunga Raya flower and the Malaysian tiger, the patterning of the latter was used for Rohanna’s S-class form. Rohanna has some concept art.
Interestingly, Rohanna’s eyes are actually the green glowing slits on her chest, which is shared with the Royal Wardens. Her flower head merely has eye-like markings, although considering that she turns it to “look” at opponents it’s probably safe to say that it has some photosensing abilities too. The devs also said she can absorb the genome of any plant she comes across and can replicate it.
Lore
Rohanna is another one of the kaiju of Tarabak Island and one of the big three fighting for dominance. Her terf is specifically west of the dam that the fallen civilization of Tarabak built, and is defended by giant thorny vines and patrolled by Royal Wardens.
In the in universe book The Lost World of Tarabak by Petyr Faust, the same one that told us about Skorak, we learn a bit more about the civil war situation going on. I neglected to mention but one of Petyr’s party members, Doug, actually knew the language of the natives and so acted as a translator, and he also wanted to become a member of the Eyes of Skorak. In fact it was the sole reason he came on the expedition, and he ultimately stayed on the island and was enslaved by the followers of the “infamous dragon king”.
We learn from Rohanna’s followers that another reason people rebelled against the dragon was that aristocrats actually leveraged their guardian monster against anyone they didn’t like, which very quickly led to an authoritarian government.
When Skorak ate the dragon from the inside out, some people fled the city and eventually wondered into Rohanna’s territory. Luckily for them, Rohanna actually provided them with food and shelter, and still does to this day. Out of the three kaiju and their factions fighting for control over Tarabak, I’ve got to admit the followers of Rohanna do have it the best of the three. In comparison to the indifference of Skorak and the cruelty of the dragon king, Rohanna actually cares about her worshipers somewhat. However there is a catch; her followers must be unflinchingly loyal to her and support of another kaiju is met with death. This fate almost befell Petyr’s crew when Rohanna saw Doug’s Skorak mask, but they were saved by the Eyes of Skorak throwing stink bombs at her army, which also tells us that Rohanna’s kind have a keen sense of smell. Unusual for a plant.
It’s Rohanna’s intolerance of people not worshipping her and a few other things that make me think she’s not actually a selfless being or even an embodiment of nature’s wrath, and in fact I think the only reason Rohanna was kind to the people fleeing from the collapsing civilization of Tarabak all those years ago was just so she could have worshippers of her own. Rohanna only ever leaves her territory unless another kaiju slights her or other humans take something from her, like her Pikis. There was one time Rohanna attacked Japan at the beginning of Thundatross’s story mode for reasons we don’t know, but since OtamaTEC researches kaiju and Giga Energy they might have actually taken something from her. It seems like Rohanna only ever plays the role of “natures wrath” when it directly benefits her, which I honestly think adds a cool extra layer of pathos to her character.
Passion Republic Games made some art of her and a Piki for Mother’s Day.
It’s really cute and sweet, but it also leads into something I’ve been wondering. Are the Pikis actually her children? Or do they simply see Rohanna as a mother figure? If they are her children, then are the Royal Wardens males? Or maybe a warrior caste like ants? Is Rohanna the queen caste of an eusocial species of plant kaiju?!
Also I don’t really know where to put this tidbit but one of Rohanna’s taunts is a reference to Filthy Frank. Do what that information what you will.
