Writing an AU where the Vinsmoke Siblings were not raised by Judge- he still experimented on them, but after doing so to the quadruplets against Sora's will, while his elder sister, Queen Kya, was attending Reverie, she banishes him and helps Sora to raise the children. She still took a derivative of the poison, which still weakens her but affects the quadruplets in different ways:
Ichiji (least affected) has eyebrows that form 66, and hair that is more red than blond. Niji and Yonji are somewhat equally affected with their eyebrows swooping outwards and their hair being more blonde. Sanji remains the most/entirely affected. 124ji still have their exoskeletons and exceptional strength, speed, durability, etc., but have not developed their special abilities (though Yonji remains the strongest). All four have emotions and the ability to have a conscience and feel empathy intact (which is reinforced in their upbringing). The four grew up to be very close, as is their relationship with Reiju.
Due to Judge attempting to stage a coup (around the age of twelve) after Sora's death- the children are sent to a safe place in the East Blue by their aunt, who ends up sacrificing herself to stop their father from pursuing them.
They all end up in the storm where they meet, connect with and remain with Zeff since they have lost every other adult figure they knew and have no way of reconnecting with the lost kingdom of Germa. Reiju is the pastry chef, Ichiji the matre' d, Niji waiter/pianist (evening shows), Sanji the sous chef and Yonji waiter/bouncer before Luffy comes into their lives. The four end up joining his crew. Reiju remains on the Baratie for a time before setting off to find what remains of Germa (which will set into motion the new WCI arc).
Been working on this AU for months but finally decided to try visualizing what the siblings would look like even though drawing isn't my strong suit and my tablet is damaged. Initially, I traced images of the manga and then fiddled around with them for a ridiculous amount of time. In the end, I like how it turned out.
Reiju's hair ended up pink-blonde since the effects caused by Judge experimenting on her after she was born are muted (her hair is pink instead of red as Ichiji's). During periods of intense stress, it grows out completely pink, otherwise, it's pink-blond. Her eyebrows also swoop outwards (like Niji and Yonji). The only reason why a derivative of the poison was around for Sora to drink in the first place was that Kya and other scientists were looking into diluting the negative effects of the toxin to eventually give to Reiju to reverse her father's experiments (which unfortunately never ends up happening).
Next is to work on each sibling's redesigned raid suit since I already finished some drafts for Reiju's.
The raid suits were designed by their aunt and mother as a form of protection (Sora also worked on them as a way to cope with the grief of not being able to fully reverse the effects of Judge's experimentation). Sadly, the raid suits weren't finished before either of their deaths, but Niji kept them and eventually finished them during the time skip. Since Reiju was raised to become the eventual Queen of Germa (her aunt's son died as a teenager, so she was raising Reiju as her successor), I wanted her to have the white cape. Ichiji's suit will be redesigned to match his brothers' (the four having black capes).
