Across the Sea, Under the Flag

Orphaned at a young age Coba has little memory of his parents. The only thing he knows for certain is his own name.

This does not get him down, in fact he seems to look at the world with more interest for it. As a child wandering the trash piles of Alue Island he finds an amnesiac woman whom he names Elena.

Three years later, having explored and made shelter to their satisfaction, at the age of eight Coba has dreams of seeing the world.

Elena worries, but meeting with an old fishman named Mifune bestowed Coba’s caretaker and protector with better means to take care of him.

As soon as Elena has her newfound powers under control the two set off of the island into the wide open world. Into the wide open dangerous world.

Coba’s excitement does not visibly penetrate Elena’s stone-faced counterance, but he is experienced in reading her body language and knows that she too can almost feel the taste of adventures to come.

Centis Rouge grows up in poverty.

It is this very situation that lands him World Government hands. At least they feed him there.He is quiet, unobtrusive and precise.

CP-0 is quick to notice his aptitudes. His precision and preference for firearms makes him a master of one-hit-kill shots in short order. Centis is mostly left to his own devices as he climbs up the ranks; once he can choose his own missions somewhat, he always chooses to do protection detail.

His preference gets noted and gets him chosen as a chaperone and guard to a group of scientists. Primarily the head scientist, Marius Wheller; and while Centis is familiar with his type and his manner, CP-0 training did not prepare him of Luce Oriano.

It is soon after Wheller notices Centis’s own discomfort with Luce’s manner that the scientist assigns him to her permanently. Supposedly for the good laugh he provides.

Unfortunately for Wheller, it is his own move that costs him Centis’s loyalty.As the project progresses, Centis, under influence of Luce’s company, begins to find more and more things to object to.

He does not do this out loud. He goes to Luce.information Centis tells her about nearly gets her killed, fortunately Centis is not entirely incapable of medical aid.

They regroup and, with newly awakened sense of rage and vengeance, Centis helps Luce bring down the entire operation.This becomes known as the Wake Incident.After all is said and done, he decides to follow her lead.

Luce displayed a talent for sciences ever since she was a young girl. On her Island, this was not that extraordinary, but she worked hard at it with limited resources. Always very proud of her achievements.

It was her trip to another island that got her noticed by the World Government.

Her aunt and uncle were overjoyed that she got World Government sponsoring and urged her to take all the opportunities she could get.

Things are alright at first, but the longer she works for them the more horrors she sees. It is one particular genetic experiment that gets her to do something about it.

Unfortunately for Luce, World Government does not cease experiments simply because one scientist proclaims them dangerous, down-right inconceivable or a crime against nature.

Her efforts result in an altercation that gets her burnt, half-blind and on the way to the morgue. It is only due to Centis’s intervention that she doesn’t die.

It is then that his conditioning shows fault lines where her affection crept in and it is with his help that she brings the entire operation down. This becomes known as The Wake Incident.

In this incident Luce receives a chemical burns on the left side of her face, her hands and some of her torso, is blinded in her left eye and loses a part of her left ring finger.

Rasul’s world is destroyed with the Massacre. Seeing their mother brutally murdered, hiding beneath the floorboards and wasting three days waiting for their father to show up breaks something in him.

This moment unleashes a rage that no nine year-old should feel, but feel it he does. This hatred only burns stronger when Samina decides to become a Marine.

Her explanation tempers him with patience, same patience she is taking on the road of their revenge. They need names, locations, identities. They also need food, water and shelter, all the things Marine employ will get.

Might as well make use of the vermin.

As Samina begins her training and sends the proceeds back to him, he begins to experiment with his Record in secret. He’s seen the techniques, but is unsure how to access or use them.

With great determination, spite and copious amounts of meditation - plus a good number of accidents - Rasul learns to Delegate. This allows him and Samina to communicate much more easily, official channels being monitored.

This also opens his world up to other people’s secrets. Marines’ secrets, Pirates’ secrets, Nobles’ secrets. Rasul is quick to see potential there.

At first he sends Delegates to listen, to see and bring the information back to him; the better he gets the bigger of a name he makes for himself. Samina is worried, but also strangely proud - she cannot expect him to do nothing while she’s out making waves.

The more he sees, the angrier he gets and soon begins to use his Delegates in order to communicate with people who might want to get in on his game, to gather his own informants. He picks the downtrodden, the vengeful, the ostracized, he pretends to be a Devil Fruit user to hide his Record use.

He asks for only a spot of their skin as surface for a Starling tattoo in return for their vengeance on who ever has wronged them. The older he gets the more his net grows - slaves, prostitutes, servants - and the more he’s able to offer - safety, comfort, food, shelter, money, protection - the more infamous he becomes.

None know his face, for most only ever see a Delegate Starling.

Majority of his informants are women in unfortunate circumstances, great number of whom consider him a ‘sweet boy’.

His Sky Islander ancestry shows in a row of feathers sprouting wrist to elbow in a single smooth line.

He holds a hatred for men due to his mother’s murderers being a bunch of sexist pigs, but also because his father never showed up; and both he and Samina knew he could.

Isra is rarely the life of the party. She is quiet and often settles for looks of admonishment as opposed to words. This makes her a good partner to the more explosive Sylvie. Being childhood friends is just the cream on top.

Stern and serious she tends to only smile in the presence of her closest friends. Sylvie’s jokes gain notoriety for being the only think to make her laugh.

If delivering a reprimand or a message, having to speak, Isra is curt, precise and to the point; no more, no less, she does not appreciate tangents.

Her speed and relentless drive make her an excellent messenger that spares little time on actual rest, using her Haki to endure longer distances and thus being one of their main messengers for confidential information.

Her first encounter with Dracule Mihawk ends in a request for a duel, this spirals into a friendship and later a more intimate relationship.

People find it surprising that Isra turns out the be a doting mother, but most cannot see beyond her cold exterior. When the Massacre starts she wastes little time in following the order to Scatter and gathers her children to run.

They last for a few months, but harsh travel takes it’s toll on Rasul and they have to stop. This costs Isra her life, but not her children’s. She dies protecting them and her Record knows better than to lead any to the children’s location and disappears into the sea, only later attaching to Samina.

Orphaned at a young age, Hila joins the troupe soon after witnessing one of their plays. They take her in and she learns the ropes quickly and starts developing hoop acrobatic routines that leave her minders smiling at her excitement.

Hila becomes a spirited acrobat, and with hard work a fighter as well as a Recorder. She climbs the ranks all the way to becoming a member of Troupe Ten.

This broadens her spectrum of work and soon enough she’s the one in charge of managing people’s complaints; Hila becomes known as someone who will listen to all you troubles and soothe away your pains. Her calm and soothing presence earns her the nickname of ‘Big-sister’ and more tellingly ‘therapy-aunt’

She knows what to say, but most importantly, she knows how to listen.

Hila has a thing for silver hoops. Including the one she uses as acrobatic prop as well as a weapon, she also has an ankle hoop as well as a pair of silver hoop earrings.

Her sky islander ancestry shows in having two feathers at each of her hips.

Hila lasts a full year on the run with her daughter, but is finally cornered and leaves her daughter at an influential orphanage; with brand new - stolen - clothing so as to appeal to the wealthy. Her ploy works. That orphanage is never checked and her daughter secures her future within three months of being there.

...

Sylvie grows up a child of Fantazma Troupe, her mother being one of the Council of Three makes her especially busy, but Sylvie makes many friends in her age group and together they make trouble.

Claudia being constantly busy means that Sylvie learns most of her life’s lessons from her friends, and their parents when present, which makes for a child with somewhat explosive temper.

This their of hers mellows out the older she gets and the more her friends begin to rely on her. She even earns a position within the Troupe Ten. Twenty Recorders divided into Two Hands, each representing a finger. They are the ones putting decisions of their superiors into practice.

Being under her mother’s direct control does not change their relationship much - unfortunately - Sylvie still sees her mother as more of a teacher and guide than a parent.

In her observational role Sylvie mans the bar as a barmaid and keeps an eye on her part of the Fanal Court. At this time the Troupe plays both sides and provides a neutral ground so both Marine and Pirate customers are not amiss. This is how she meets Bogard, the Marine who fathers her precious daughter Adrianne.

Sylvie did not know she could love like that; having not experienced having a proper parent herself she is in disarray. Her friends all band together to help, some (Isra, Hila) have toddlers of their own and know all the paces.

At the time of the Massacre Adrianne is eight years old. She is about to become the first victim of this tragedy.

Sylvie is talking to her daughter, denying ice-cream before lunch, when the girl is hit and crumples to the floor. Sylvie is in shock and leaning over her child’s corpse, she doesn’t notice that people are dying around her until the click of a gun at her temple.

Instantly her shock turns into churning rage and madness, her Record overflows and she goes into Infection. Deflecting the gun she begins her own massacre, a massacre of Marines.

Her Record forms an Armour, she blacks out and does not stop killing for three days and three nights. After coming back to herself with a missing arm and a leg, her Record providing replacements. She sits atop a pile of corpses and breaks down weeping.

This is how her mother finds her, having swam back as fast as she could without killing herself, but at the distance it was the quickest possible time. Claudia is exhausted and panicking - she learns that her granddaughter was killed at the exact same time as Horse herself. Which makes for a grand conspiracy.

Sylvie is largely catatonic, it is only talk of revenge that manages to rouse her. It was very suspicious how such large forces managed to get in without a single notice, during Horse’s talks with the Gorosei,was it not?

Sylvie waits just long enough to get a list of traitors and possible traitors before she’s off. Thus starts Sylvie’s continued rampage of revenge.

On the way she encounters Iguana, who is also tracking traitors who notifies her of other survivors, and the two of them continue as a team. Hunting, raiding, killing.

They uncover more and more names for their list and gather more and more like-minded individuals. Soon enough there is a hunting pack of Recorders.

The Hunting Pack gets bigger and bigger as news start pouring in and traitors start running away; friends and contacts sometimes trapping them ahead of time, some whose families help them.

This becomes known as The Hunt and it lasts for nearly a year, until every last traitor has been eliminated. Then, the pack disperses into hiding.

Sylvie, as the most notable ring leader is the only one confirmed as still living and at large according to Marine records.

Sylvie still suffers from survivor’s guilt, having been the only one of her friends who survived. Thought, unlike her, they were survived by their children. She later makes effort to find them and reach out, offer stories of their parents at the very least.

When Monica meets Sylvie for the first time, she is treated to a bitter and angry woman who has all but given up. Revenge emptied her out.

This does not mean that she pulls her punches when teaching Monica, it just means that she's  a harsh taskmaster to a student who has potential, but also needs to learn all she can within two years.

Sylvie doesn’t quite believe Monica can do it, but there’s still hope isn’t there?

As an amnesiac Elena keeps finding out new things about herself. She possesses intuition that borders on precognition, and has an amazing ability to read people despite spending a good number of years living on a trash heap.

Although, just because she can observe social norms and understand them, does not mean she’ll use them. Her priority is Coba, the boy who gave her life meaning by providing her with a name.

His safety and well-being are the main motivator for her agreement to take on the Jackal Record from the old and dying fishman named Mifune.

She believes the power was worth the price.

Alma Lamia was born blind. Her parents did not see this as a particular obstacle and so she grew up hearing the words ‘that’s just the way things are’. Unfortunately for everybody else, she took this to mean that some things are predestined, her mother’s actual clairvoyant abilities only reinforced that thought.

At the age of eight she has the fortune (in her opinion) to meet Shiryu, a young Marine Ensign. She comes out of this meeting with firm belief in justice and a great desire to join the Marines herself.

She works hard to develop her own clairvoyant abilities and Observation Haki in order to be able to ‘see’ as effectively as a sighed person. Her hard work pays off in dividends and she displays prodigious skill in use of her Record; this allows her to further expand her horizons - physically and metaphorically.

When she’s 11 years old her father dies from misuse of his own Record. She is told that he abstained from taking the Blood Price for too long and that it simply caught up with him. She buries his bones with her mother and grows ever more silent.

This very incident cements in her a belief, that Records should no longer be given away so freely; that things should return to the way they were in the distant past.

Alma Lamia redoubles her training and soon enough, she’s an Ensign. Her mastery of Observation Haki, her speed and swordsmanship help her sail through the ranks.

Her meteoric rise makes her one of the youngest Marine Admirals, code named Kurobara (Black Rose). She does not stay an Admiral for long. Her promotion is barely months old before it happens; the Massacre.

Alma Lamia calmly reads her card spread, apologizes to her mother and joins in with the Marines to massacre her own people. She views this as a perfect way to work towards her ultimate goal.

To become the Master Record. There are no entirely safe ways to remove a Record from another person. The only way to be entirely certain is to kill the holder.

Alma Lamia takes it as destiny. This will be the way for her to collect all of them.

Unfortunately for her, once the initial ‘cleansing’ is done, she it tried, stripped of her rank and thrown into Impel Down. As a traitor, because they want to get rid of her, but also because they want to have a Record holder in reserve.

When Blackbeard shows up, she’ll all for getting out along with her ‘old friend’ Shiryu.

Alma Lamia loves to fight other swordsmen, always looking to test her strength; not only of the sword, but also of luck and fate.

Iskra began her pirate career as a petty thief in order to provide for her younger sister after their parents died from giving tribute to Big Mom.

This got her involved in the underbelly of society and soon enough her particular talents were noticed.

She had a talent for knives and, due to the then aging torturer, she was inducted as his apprentice. He was pleased with her brand of careless violence and trained her up into a proper torture technician.

She grew into someone capable of torturing people without care, without second thought which was something her younger sister grew to hate.

Iskra almost didn’t notice when her sister ran away from home, but luckily she notice din time to not lose the trail. She followed her sister to piracy under Big Mom and made a name for herself there as well.

She was given her Devil Fruit by Big Mom in order to improve her usefulness as a torture technician.

Unfortunately this lead to Tsvetelina acting out even more, while in confines of the pirate crew, It is this that got her eaten in one of Big Mom’s rampages. Tsvetelina lost her life and Iskra lost her reason to be there.

It was the first time Iskra felt the burn of revenge and it consumed her. She did not let it muddle the thoughts and decided to secretly gather information on Big Mom in order to sell it to all the other parties.

Sold accumulated information to Marines, Revolutionaries and Pirates - this bought her a new live from the World Government and she settled as journalist and informant. It also brought her insurance from all sides other than Big Mom Pirates (given that it was them she sold out) and left her in a nearly unassailable position.

Her mark of being a sky islander is apparent in the white feathers that sprout from the back of her head instead of hair.

Iskra is addicted to hazelnut ice-cream and has a thing for blondes.

Paola was only six when the Massacre happened. Surviving the initial attack, she and her mother spent months on the run before Marines caught up with them.

Her mother, knowing she would die, unwrapped her scarf and put it around Paola’s shoulders. Telling her young daughter all the while how much she loved her. She did not stop reassuring her even as she pulled and and snapped off the wings of her Record. Even as she passed them to Paola who nearly fainted from the pain of it.

Her mother hid her away with whatever food they were able to find and told her to wait for two days before moving. With that, her mother told her she loved her one last time and went to delay their pursuers.

Later, Paola learned that her mother had been tortured to death, refusing to give up locations of other Recorders.

Paola made ends meet by stealing and begging, hiding her Records, until she met an older woman in need of help around the house. Her shy nature endeared her to the older woman and she got a place to stay.

Paola slowly, but surely, healed under the gentle guidance.

She learned to cook and discovered a passion that would stay with her for the rest of her life. Her singing, however, never got anywhere; she could never quite hold a tune, certainly not sing like her late mother, but she kept it up in her memory.

Her Sky Islander roots show in the long yellow feathers sprouting from her back, unfortunately she did not quite luck out with wings akin to her mothers. These feathers perk up with her emotions, but are otherwise useless.

For all that she wanted wings before, her situation made her glad that her mark of ancestry could be easily hidden.

She did not get the towering height from her long-leg tribe ancestry, in fact, when compared to Cleo she is quite short.

Her cooking proficiency nets her an apprenticeship in a small restaurant by the time she’s fourteen.

Adopted into a Noble family due to having the ‘look’ they were looking for and acceptable manners, Theodora lives a charmed life. Life in hiding, life filled with facades, but still better than a life on the streets - is her opinion.

While her time and training as a Noble’s daughter has left her with a silver tongue, charm and ability to improvise; it did nothing to help her two left feet. NO matter how many galas she attends, Theodora remains a terrible dancer.

While her Sky islander ancestry is not immediately obvious she is not allowed to wear  revealing gowns before first concealing the two downward pointing feathers at each hip. They’re barely three inches long and thus easily concealable.

All she has left of her mother is a silver hoop earring she wears as a bracelet, traces it with her fingers when she’s making a big decision.