I Am Handy With Fire

And I thought it'd be a fun date... HIsokuro SO CANON it hurts.

I am a blond Hisoka truther and firmly believe that's his natural color. (To be more specific, that kind of sandy/dirty blond that most people who have it find it boring and thus are spurred to try different colors all the time. Dirty blond hair is luckily probably the easiest shade to dye/change!)

The funny thing is, Hisoka really was itching for a *physical* fight with Chrollo and did his level best to try and get his mitts on the boss. Meanwhile, Chrollo was basically hands-off the whole time. (Have I mentioned I love Hisokuro lately?)

Chrollo looks a little too tall in both of these, for my thoughts. I firmly have him in my head as 5'9" and probably around 160 lbs., so neither big nor small. I think the primary charm of Chrollo lies in him being a very ordinary/medium-sized person, but with some indefinable quality about him that makes him seem much more imposing. (i personally know a man IRL who is 5'9" but EVERYONE all his life has thought he is quite a bit taller, just because of his presence and the way he carries himself.)

This artwork was a huge influence on me when I was writing "Fortunate Son." In that fic, I delved into the class division between Illumi and Chrollo, which strained their chemistry. I also had Illumi led unwittingly by pure chemistry, orchestrated by Chrollo. The scenes between them are deliberately uncomfortable and Chrollo is very much in charge of directing things . Their uneven dynamic ultimately is a huge factor in Illumi's final decision at the end of the fic. I feel this artwork expresses it all very well.

I was reading some threads on Chrollo and I realized something: Dumb as it sounds, Chrollo's "trademark" look (shirtless under his coat) is actually not something he canonically goes around in a lot. It's just dramatic and fans love it, so it sticks as a focal point. However, almost every time he's shown in "The Coat," he either has it primly buttoned up, or he is obviously wearing a shirt under it. (And of course, as seen above, there is the whole subset of "Chrollo's conservative suit and tie" look, trademarking a whole series of iconic moments including his most famous requiem scene.) I'd have to go through all of his panels to check, but it seems he pretty much only does the shirtless thing when he's at the Troupe hideout. Which makes sense, if you think about it. I can imagine him tossing off his shirt (serial criminals get sweaty and bloody) and just exhaustedly shrugging on his coat to ward off chill, like a comfy robe. He's around friends, right? But, as long as there are figures and noodle stoppers and fan arts, we'll be treated to a shameless, shirtless Chrollo. Who's complaining? Just saying he doesn't actually do it all that often, and tends to cover up most of the time.

Chrollo's smirk!!!

This reminds me somehow a little of my last chapters of "House of Hisokuro."