tookuni

[tookuni]

Subtext everywhere

In Inherited Love, I used a ton of symbolism and subtext, allowing more room for interpretation, but I think it would be interesting to explain some of my choices.

Souris's core is her own

Souris is compared a lot to her fathers, but her own personality is more Luffy-like. It is very present at first (big smile, adventure, finds Zoro and Sanji funny for bickering, chose them both). Then it fades in surface because of the influence Zoro and Sanji have on her. Her core, however, is still the same: the way she wonders at the world, and her smile. Which is the last word of the fic so Sanji can remind Souris that, despite her being so much like her fathers, she is her own person.

Show don't tell - Stubbornness and Self-confidence

I exposed a lot of common traits between Souris and her fathers, but focused more on her reactions than her personality. Zoro and Sanji being men of action, I though it fit better.

Two things I displayed that they have in common but didn't name were her stubbornness and self-confidence.

Souris never agrees with Sanji's view of his appearance, despite all his efforts. My favorite moment is when she straight up nods about the fact that she doesn't need to look like him, but a second later she asks Usopp to draw a mustache and goatee on her face.

She also radiates self-confidence, that she had before, but it skyrocketed thanks to her parents. It makes her a little blunt, especially when she's sure she's right :p

References, nods and patterns

Sanji asking Souris about adoptive family while Zoro asks about friends her own age is a reference to Zeff and Kuina

“I want to go on an adventure! Take me to the sea with you. I’ll do anything!” Quotes from Luffy, Robin, Sanji

Souris's name : Sanji's relationship to mouses, all the symbolism around the name came after that!

At the end, Zoro hits Sanji's chest with his fist after the million times Sanji and Souris kick his shins

The less Sanji is hurt about the eyebrows, the more Souris insists on them (or is it the other way round?)

There are only two occurrences of the word "precious". One qualifies Zoro's loud laugh, the other his hidden tears.

There's "three" patterns everywhere, with Zoro even renouncing how much it connects with him for Sanji's and Souris' sake, but it all comes back in the end :3

[tookuni]

If I have to suffer from sunburn, then so does he >:3

[tookuni]

Inherited Love

https://archiveofourown.org/works/66563098

This idea came up in the middle of another WIP and wouldn't leave me alone, so it's out first.

I kept picturing that adopted little girl, whom everyone thinks she looks like Zoro, trying to show that she got as much from Sanji.

[tookuni]

I'm back from the dead because shut up they're so cute together.

[tookuni]

what is your flavour?

(🫦🤌)

[tookuni]

Strawhat Portraits!

[tookuni]

Crackpot theory:

Zoro keeps getting lost because he's instinctively walking towards the One Piece without realizing it.

Put him in a bubble, place him under an illusion of some place, and set him loose while the bubble is contained and you'll eventually find the One Piece.

sorry i’ve been thinking about this ask for months. not directionally challenged he’s just always chasing the bag

[tookuni]

KIKU & YAMATO

[tookuni]

Part one of my 18-page Kuina comic that I've been sitting on for several months! I hope you look forward to updates!

1/9

[tookuni]

It’s a Zosan world and Usopp (unfortunately) lives in it

[tookuni]

Reciprosexuality, aroace spectrum and trauma - Sanji's case

https://archiveofourown.org/works/65252653

Aroace and trauma

Some of us aroace are on this spectrum naturally. Others are because of past experiences. Sometimes, we're not even sure which is which, and it's okay.

In Sanji's case for this fic, I didn't want to analyze the subject too much. There was already a lot going on, and I felt like it was truer to the character to leave it to interpretation, just like it is for a lot of his other traits in the canon.

Sanji is scared of being rejected by men, so him being able to feel attraction towards them only when he's sure he won't be rejected could be interpreted as a trauma response.

But it doesn't have to. Sanji is (unwillingly) queer coded anyway, and we can have fun with it without linking all of his behaviors and feelings to his history. It could just be his nature. Even better: it could be this specific nature that added up to all the other reasons he treats men and women so differently. It would be like a reversed bi panic: he can't panic over other genders, so he panics over women only. (I might explore this in other works, I think it's really fun to have Sanji have non-bi-bi-panics)

Or… It could be both. Anything you feel suits him best.

The fear of not being enough

That fear being ingrained in Sanji's brain, I felt compelled to make him feel it when it comes to his attractions as well. Of course Sanji is terrified of not being enough towards a man, even more if this man is Zoro.

It is, unfortunately, a fear that has proven true for a lot of us, our partners wanting more from us than we could ever provide without forcing ourselves. Love and sex are never owed, but even if we are nowadays more conscious of this fact, it doesn't shield all of us from the guilt we can feel towards partners (who can, even unwittingly, make us feel like what we're giving is not enough). Especially for people who have self-worth issues, like Sanji.

I also intertwined this with Sanji's tendencies to like to please people. It's his nature, but considering his background, one could wonder which part is genuine and which part is overcompensation. It's something that maybe they will work out together, or maybe Zoro will let Sanji go with the flow and sort out things through experience, like what they usually do anyway :D (If I write a sequel, I will probably come back to this empathy thing, because I think it's really hot)

I will be back!

[tookuni]

i would kill for you - i would die for you

inspired by @/problemnyatic 's post (dont want to bother them w a mention)

[tookuni]

Sorry for the wait! The Bonney video is up and ready! I love her lots so I hope this is an interesting watch for everyone :]

[tookuni]

Something silly I drew because I think Reiju would be a little bothered with the fact that Zoro and Sanji fight and insult each other constantly when she first sees their interactions.

Like, Zoro constantly insults and starts fights with Sanji and the thing is, she knows that Sanji can now hold his own (and that he also starts shit)! But this doesn't change the fact that she saw him being taunted and beaten up all his childhood, so she still feels a little irritated by Zoro's behavior and she worries about whether that could negatively affect her brother! (she simply doesn't know about their lore, you have to forgive her)

[tookuni]

happy pride

[tookuni]

Queer spectrums overlaping: a bi poly homoreciprosexual Sanji analysis

The fanfiction I worked on this: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65252653

Being queer is a lot.

Some bi people already have to analyze how their attractions to different genders work or not. As far as I'm concerned, it took me a long time. Girls are so pretty it's hard to find a type, genderqueer people also trigger gender envy so I'm never sure if I'm into them or if I want to be them, and don't get me started on fictional characters… It's a mess.

Being aroace is even more complicated. You don't just have attraction to think and learn about. There's the difference between romantic and sexual feelings, added to aesthetic and other types of attraction, added to libido levels, added to the relationship you have with sex: sex favorable, sex indifferent, sex repulsed… It's all over the place.

Throw polyamory in the mix, and panic. This is what I worked with Sanji. (Sanji and panic are almost synonymous in a lot of fics and it's hilarious, thank you fellow fanfic writers, I love you.)

Poly - Sanji is very much into women, and very much into several at the same time (at least in a non exclusive way, canonically). No matter where it came from, it is one of his core characteristics, so of course I kept it. That was the easy part. Bi - In this fic, he has noticed he can be attracted to men, but so rarely and on such complicated conditions that he doesn't talk about it. My idea is that he though these were just exceptions he didn't need to explain, so he still though of himself as straight. Especially considering how strong he feels about women. I didn't put the details in the fic, but to me he was comfortable with it at least until Iva-chan respected his claim of being a cis-het man (thanks Iva). And I don't see him linking this specificity of him with the word bi until he reconnects with parts of his identity and feelings, so Onigashima.

Aroace - What Zoro's experience teaches him is that only being attracted to some people on certain conditions puts him on the aroace spectrum.

The conditions don't have to be the same for every gender for Sanji to be on the aroace spectrum. On the contrary, him being on the spectrum is what makes him a bi man instead of a straight man, and not the other way around.

For example, some women feel regular attraction towards enby people, romantic-attraction towards women they have a special connection with, and only sexual attraction towards men. Which makes them bi/pan, lesbo-demi-romantic and… hetero-sexual, in the most literal way, since they're not hetero-romantic. This is a mouthful. No one is explaining this in a regular conversation.

Which is why I did not literally put "bi poly homo-recipro-romantico-sexual sex and romantic favorable with a high libido" in the fic. But I still made Sanji explain how his reciprosexuality works, with examples and the fact that if the feeling is romantic, he's gonna respond with romantic feelings as well, but nothing sexual, and the other way round.

It also explained why, in his case, being into women is so easy (for obvious reasons). I feel like it connects with a lot of our aroace experiences, where finding all the conditions for a spark to happen is hard at best, annoying at worse, so we keep to our mainstream, more accessible conditions if any and just forget about the rest (until it happens by mistake, which is why I have an insufferably cis-het Zoro-like husband instead of a golden retriever, don't ask)

This post is long and messy, but I tried to make it sound as natural as I could in the fiction, thanks to the power of dialogue, show, humor and introspection.

I hope it brings something to whatever conversation this is 😊

[tookuni]

happy june everyone