Heya!! So I was rereading Villians Never retire (for like the 5th time), and I'm still stumbling over one of the lines at the end. "You can tell from Alexandria's 'woah' that she thinks it's cool as hell. You can tell by Minerva's sharp inhalation that she knows what it means." Maybe I'm just not thinking clearly but... what does it mean, beyond just proving Syn's heritage?
Heya! I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed them enough to reread <3
That line is vague, no worries about missing it! The exact ramifications haven’t been expanded on (yet) but it’s based roughly on the romanticized idea of the role of tattoos in organized crime - essentially, the larger and more detailed the mark, the higher you are in an organization. For Synovus to have one that covers so much of their back, it means a few things:
1. Sunhallow made sure they were marked as his, extensively.
2. Synovus would’ve received this tattoo at 16 at the latest, meaning they did enough active work to merit it before reaching that age and killing Sunhallow.
3. Given Sunhallow’s activities, Synovus’s abilities, and the history, Minerva can put together that Synovus was most likely used as an assassin.
(It’s also conveniently shaped to put a target on their back, depending on how much you want to read into it)