#x. ... anon.

1.  Death is an inevitable part of life. What is your character’s experience with death? Have they had someone close to them die? Have they ever killed someone? How did these events affect them? Have they been able to move on? What do they believe happens to people when they die? And why? How does your character feel about death? Do they feel at ease, or uncomfortable with the idea of dying?

     Most of Lyra’s family is still alive, thank goodness. Her grandparents all passed away in peace during her childhood due to natural causes, and her parents and her siblings are all still alive. She has, however, removed quite a few people from this world. Due to her extremely cold upbringing, she was taught to regard criminals very harshly, and so if she was unable to capture a pirate or criminal and was forced to neutralize them instead, she did so without hesitation or questioning. It’s part of her job; every soldier in any branch of any military cannot question their actions with the enemy, or else they’d never step foot on the battlefield. Frankly, she doesn’t think about it too much. It’s just a part of her life.

     Lyra thinks there is an afterlife, though she isn’t sure what it’s like. She imagines clouds and light and reunions and happiness. Lyra isn’t afraid of dying, but she is afraid of leaving her life behind. She has a daughter and does not want to leave her alone in the world; she’s also afraid of what parts of history that have not yet come to pass that she will miss out on.

3.   Religiousness is the ritual act of spirituality, it refers to devoutness and piety. Is your character religious? Are they part of a large, organized religion, or a smaller, more personal one? How do they express piety and devotion? is this important to them? Or do they do it out of obligation. When did they begin their habits and why? Is it something they were raised in or something they learned as they grew older?

     Lyra is not religious. Her home island has a minority of residents who believed in the ‘old gods’, which are highly reminiscent of what we know in our world as the Hellenic deities, and Lyra is very familiar with them and celebrates the islands’ festivals with them, but she doesn’t take it very seriously. She doesn’t mind recounting stories and talking about it, but this religion has not been widely practiced on her home island in many hundreds of years. She thinks most people just do it to keep up with tradition.

20.  Not all relationships are healthy, or are even good for us. Has your character ever had any unhealthy, toxic, or abusive relationships? How did your character know the other person in the relationship? If and when did your character realize that this relationship was unhealthy? Was the toxicity mutual, or one-sided? What sort of behaviors, from one, or both parties, defined this unhealthy relationship? Has your character been able to move on from this relationship, or are they still ‘stuck’ in it? If they are past the relationship —or writing from a perspective where they are past it— talk about how your character reflects on it. Is there regret? A sense of satisfaction? Or have they not allowed it to affect them? Could they or would they make amends, if possible?

     Violence, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse under the cut. 

     A wiser person would refuse to reveal their primary strategies to a stranger, but Twentyone was clever, not wise, and she was far too arrogant for her own good. She would love to brag to this person about all that Queen-sama had taught her to do.

     “If it’s an easy kill, like most kills, I cut them open from the base of their throat and down to their lower abdomen with my sickle claws, spilling their insides. I move too fast for most people to stop me, and once I leap and tackle them, the force is too much to resist. They’re being eaten alive before they even realize I was hunting them.

     “If they’re bigger or stronger than I am, I break them down little by little. I’ll slash at their eyes to blind them first, then at their Achilles’ tendons and at the backs of their knees to drop them to the ground to my level so I can reach them, and then I’ll cut their throat. 

     If I’m just capturing someone, then I am most likely doing it to bring them to Wano --- at which case, I don’t want to bring back a gravely maimed person because then what use are they? I’ll tackle and slash them up enough to scare them, to let them know they can’t win or run, but I won’t try to kill them. If they piss me off in the process, then I might kill them. I can’t be held responsible for my own actions.

      Lyra was unprepared to answer a question as broad as this, especially one that provoked a near sentimentalism in Lyra. Initially, her brows rose thoughtfully and she remained silent, contemplating where to start about her home island in West Blue before she decided to begin... from the ground up.

     “Heraklion Island is... mountainous, dry, and rocky. It has a healthful arid climate, producing hardy flora and fauna on the island. The earth itself is a lively burnt orange color, and even from a great distance, you can see the vibrant paths weaving in between the olive trees, planted in haphazard uneven little rows wherever they can fit. There is a northwesterly wind that blows across the island from mid June to late September, which churns that red-orange dust around, covering all the rocks that just out of the ground. After it rains, though, and that dirt washes away, you notice that all the rocks on the island are white, just... beautiful pure white limestone, suddenly shining in the sun. 

     The mountains are anywhere from 6,000-8,000 feet; a range runs from west to east along the northern coast. They’re called the White Mountains because the summits are topped with the limestone I mentioned. The rest of the island is all valleys or plains at or below sea level, so the mountains appear to be much larger than they actually are. When standing on an overlook, a mountain will sharply rise up, so close you think you could reach out across the valley and touch it, and then a larger one rises behind it, and then another behind that one, and you think that they’re massive until you notice that you can still count the olive trees on all of them, and that you can see a goat walking around on the closest one, sneaking from ledge to ledge on the impossibly steep incline. Animals on the island are mostly goats, some other herding animals, and birds. There aren’t any predators on the island outside of hawks and eagles.

     The towns are nestled in the valleys. White, cream, and pastel yellow colored homes made of concrete with blue roofs and doors, per Heraklion tradition to invite the strength of the sea into the home and family. Heraklion City, or Irakleio as we call it, is the biggest city, and the major port town of the island. A few other sizable towns are Kalvyres, Stavros, and Mouzouriana in the far east; the rest of Heraklion is very rural. I was born and raised in Kalvyres, at the foot of the mountains on the water in the extreme west of the island, near Irakleio.

     There was an ancient civilization on the island a long long time ago, believed to have been wiped out by an earthquake. Their ruins are everywhere you turn; columns, frescoes, and decorated flooring. After that civilization was destroyed, the island was then populated by people who immigrated to it, and over a few hundred years, it has developed its own culture. Historically, the island produces a high number of Marines in comparison to other islands of its size. A respectable minority of the population is made of retired Marines and their families, who retire to Heraklion after hearing about it from natives in the Navy. The Calimeras family has been living on Heraklion for at least six hundred years, based on our family tree. 

     Lyra’s childhood bogeyman was the Pirate King. Her older brothers used to tease her A LOT that the Pirate King would use her as a toothpick. They used to tell her that if she ever became a Marine, the Pirate King would take one look at a little girl like her and snap her in half with just his mean gaze. They had her convinced he was a big vicious monster who ate mouthy little girls like her for breakfast. She was terrified of the Pirate King until about age ten, and then he was executed at age thirteen, so he wasn’t around anymore to terrify her. Looking back, she realizes it was a little ridiculous, but hey, they were kids.

     Another person close to a bogeyman for Lyra, but during her early Marine years, was Donquixote Doflamingo. Lyra got her start in the Marines under Vice Admiral Tsuru, and Vice Admiral Tsuru made sure that her Marines were well aware of how very capable the Heavenly Demon was at killing and manipulating people every time they pursued him. They heard many stories about him and his crew. The thought of being captured in strings and either cut in half or used as a marionette was horrifying. As a swordsman, finding out that she wouldn’t be able to cut his strings really stunned her. What else is she supposed to do, then? Whenever the Marines landed and chased the Donquixote pirates, she always worried she’d end up facing their captain --- she never did. 

     One raptor foot came up to forcefully grab onto the anon’s face, her giant sickle claw likely killing them instantly as it punched through their skull through their forehead. She slammed them down onto the ground, crushing their head entirely beneath her force. “Do not ever talk bad about Queen in front of me.”