#in all my art Word and zulay have never been white

[paynnincorporated]

More on that de-aged Word AU. more rambly thoughts:

I’m more than aware of how canon Word is nigh impossible to redeem satisfactorily. That brief flashback from Connor, paints a pretty damning picture of Word (It is from Connor’s POV though, but Alchemist sort of affirms it). So canon Word’s defection is personally motivated, yadda yadda.

In my tweaks I enjoy the idea of Word and Connor being pressured a whole lot in the Priesthood to study and train (as child soldiers lbh). Given the seclusion and indoctrination... guess what preoccupies their minds? The DHW and being strong enough to survive/fight it. So it’s not farfetched to rewrite Word’s dabbling into foreign, potentially unethical gear experiments, as an attempt to revive the craft to arm the Priests against the coming war.

This motive + his banishment, leads to a bitter Word who struggles on the streets. Word meets Zulay Paynn (yasss he took her last name because doing this also gives the family name more history/depth seeing that Zulay’s the Dragon Eye’s leader), long-time Down City citizen and leader of a notorious crew of crooks, with dubious morals and greed and ambition for Sun City, her influence on him results in Word going “Fuck it, I’m going to use this knowledge for myself.” Basically, I envision Word to have lived a life of asceticism and probs has less reason to envy life above (The DHW is most important of all), until he becomes disillusioned with his banishment (Because rationally, if I’m training like hell for a war already, why the hell are we not making weapons??) and with Zulay’s less than positive influence... that results in the Word we see in present day. Zulay’s death likely cements his obsession even further, IF Zulay doesn’t chicken out at motherhood like in canon lol (this show’s track record with women I swear). Because she died for this war, this goal of theirs, what kind of partner would he be if he didn’t follow through it to the very end?

And then of course, we come to the neglect of Moordryd, and just ouch. There’s so much potential there, for this narrative of Word finally, finally, letting go of the past, and living for a future with his son by the end of the series. IF we had gotten a more complex Word and Moordryd whose redemption is hinted from the very beginning (imagine.. a Moordryd who sympathises Lance losing his father in the very beginning, who feels bad after being an ass in the races because of that? IMAGINE). Give me a Word that actually tries to parent, whom I don’t question after the BBEG is defeated. In canon, after Armeggadon is defeated, what happens to Word?? How on earth do we resolve the series satisfactorily??? Attempting to redeem canon Word in his current state leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I’m not saying he needs to do it out of the good of his heart lol, but that he’d do it for his son? Oogh, that’s the good stuff, putting down things with Zulay after almost 20 years of doing it alone?? Yeah.

Gosh, the emotions that we could’ve milked from the extremely fraught Paynn family.