OOC: timeskip Sanji
After more than two years in the City, Sanji is finally being sent home for a canon update. Coincidentally, he will be spending two years back home as well! He will return from a point at the end of the Fishman Island arc, as the reunited Straw Hats leave the paradise of mermaids but just before they return to the surface in the New World, the first lull since the timeskip from which it's safe to bring him.
It hasn't been clear enough yet whether Sanji underwent any radical personality changes or alterations to his ethic (his code of chivalry, or kishido) during those two years. If any become revealed later I'll have to roll with it, but for now he seems pretty much the same in personality. However, he did get incredibly stronger physically, and changed his appearance a little. He will be twenty-one for real, upon his return, wearing his hair slightly longer and shaggier and his goatee much thicker. He parts his hair on the opposite side now, hiding his right eye and revealing the inner spiral of his left eyebrow. He put on a lot of muscle and is broader in the chest, but he's not as muscle-bound as Zoro.
What is important to know OOCly is that he has been continually referring to his ordeal during those two years as Hell, and no matter how many times the others ask him what happened, he refuses to tell them anything. Yet, he has had lengthy flashbacks about it to explain his mindset as well as his new techniques. This means that no matter how many characters ask him to tell them what happened to him, he won't - he'll change the subject or get distracted. This entry is to let the players (and anyone else curious) know what actually did happen to him, in case it might help explain some of his reactions to things or any future changes in personality that Oda has planned but hasn't revealed yet.
Sanji had been ported in from Pinky Island, also known as Kamabakka Kingdom, a land of transvestites. Male to female crossdressers, more specifically, and a few trans people among them, led by Emporio Ivankov, the Queen Okama who Luffy broke out of prison when he went to save Ace. Ivankov is designed after Rocky Horror's Frank, and has the power to alter hormones (to literally change people's gender, among other things) When Luffy sent his crew the message that they were to stay where they were for 2 years and train to become stronger, Sanji went to Ivankov and made a deal. Ivankov happened to also be master of 99 kenpo experts (of the "Newkama Kenpo" style), and specialized in a recipe that helps maximize the nutrition and power of ingredients to create food that heals, strengthens, and empowers. Clearly, aside from the whole okama thing, this is the perfect place for Sanji to train. Anyway. Knowing this, about the Attack Cuisine recipe and the kenpo masters, Sanji made the deal with Ivankov that he would spend those two years fighting the kenpo experts and defeating every single one in order to earn(steal) the recipe from him. In exchange, should he be defeated by any of them, Ivankov threatened to turn him into a woman. Literally. The other non-fighter okama on the island had already been harassing him up to this point, they even caught him, stripped him, and forced him into a dress and panties once, but he got away from them and regained his suit and tie and a shred of his dignity. So, in addition to simply fighting kenpo masters in order to win an ultimate recipe, Sanji was forced to flee from the rank-and-file crossdressers who thought they knew better than him what he wanted - they believed that everyone who landed on the island, accidentally or not, really deep down wanted to be a woman and Sanji was just repressing that so clearly the answer was to force him to accept it...by force.
So, from that day he saw the newspaper, Sanji spent every single day for two years straight, morning to night, in all weather (including snow), RUNNING THE FUCK AWAY. He ran from the okama rather than fight them because they weren't the masters, and he really didn't know how to handle them - plus they were dedicated to interfering in his fights so he would lose and become one of them. The okama must have treated it like a game, since he was so easy to fluster, and chased him day in and day out for two years. The flashbacks have not yet shown any of the masters he defeated nor anything about the recipe he has collected, yet, but seeing as he returned to Sabaody in his double-breasted suit and tie and a nice sexy goatee, he succeeded in his goal and was not defeated by any of the 99 masters, nor was he ever caught by any of the lower-rank okama ever again. No forced sex-changes for this guy, he's still a biological male.
Now, at the beginning of the Fishman Island adventure, Sanji had developed an unfortunate side effect of being trapped on an island with nothing but men dressed as women for two years. He was unable to look at beautiful women without nosebleeding. It first manifested the moment he saw Nami in a bikini top and worsened until, after swimming with mermaids who really liked him a lot, one of them held his head to her breasts in order to hide him from the authorities. That was a little too much and he lost so much blood he nearly died. Fortunately, coming face to face with the gorgeous (and gigantic) mermaid princess Shirahoshi acted as some kind of cure, and Sanji is now back to normal. He might still have a few shaky moments when being faced with actual women in the flesh, but he won't nosebleed anymore and is good to go. Thank god, because if he didn't get over that character flaw, I would never update him. It's a little too weird even for Oda.
More importantly, those two years of training really did make Sanji stronger. Before they were all sent away from Sabaody to their separate locations, the entire crew had to team up in order to destroy just one of the Pacifista cyborgs that came hunting them - and there were two more waiting for them. And that was with Chopper in full monster mode. Post-timeskip, Luffy was able to smash one by himself, and Sanji and Zoro together took down a second one with a single blow each - Sanji snapped its neck with one kick, and Zoro cut it open with one slash. So, Sanji's increase in strength is ridiculous. He went from using the Diable Jambe method as a final finishing move to using it now as a basic, every-time-I-kick move. This means he'll have to be able to do it in the City, now - a burst of friction sets his own foot on fire, and he kicks with flame added without damaging himself. He already has stamina and healing factor in his power set to make this possible. Secondly, he has also taught himself the geppou technique used by CP9, though he gave it a name of his own. He calls it Sky Walk. It is not a power but a technique - his legs are so strong that he is able to kick the air enough times/with enough strength to briefly be able to walk on air. In one of his flashbacks, he explained it by saying that he ran away from those okama until he ran out of land to run on, so all he could do was run on air. He can't do it for long distances, and can't stand on air or anything like that, but he can briefly climb up high enough to do aerial attacks before dropping down, and can cross short gaps that are just a bit too far to jump across. In canon he can also use this technique to run underwater, but I agreed with the mods that we'll draw the line there and hopefully he'll never have the occasion to find out that he can't do it in the City. I have no idea if he's hiding any other techniques beyond those in his repertoire; if he is, I'll have to wrestle with them later. He only demonstrated prolific use of Diable Jambe and introduced Sky Walk during the battle on Fishman Island, and hasn't yet cooked for the crew.
He's also more or less scarred for life and prejudiced against crossdressers, particularly flamboyant ones. Note that I don't personally have those prejudices, but to play him in character, he will refuse to speak to anyone who comes across very obviously as a crossdresser. And he might run away from them. He won't hurt them, though. I feel bad that he has such an obvious flaw, but flaws make our characters interesting and I'm open to exploring the fallout from this traumatization.
I will still be using a mix of his old and new icons because he hasn't appeared in enough chapters (or at least hasn't made a wide enough range of facial expressions) to be able to replace and fill all of his old ones.
It hasn't been clear enough yet whether Sanji underwent any radical personality changes or alterations to his ethic (his code of chivalry, or kishido) during those two years. If any become revealed later I'll have to roll with it, but for now he seems pretty much the same in personality. However, he did get incredibly stronger physically, and changed his appearance a little. He will be twenty-one for real, upon his return, wearing his hair slightly longer and shaggier and his goatee much thicker. He parts his hair on the opposite side now, hiding his right eye and revealing the inner spiral of his left eyebrow. He put on a lot of muscle and is broader in the chest, but he's not as muscle-bound as Zoro.
What is important to know OOCly is that he has been continually referring to his ordeal during those two years as Hell, and no matter how many times the others ask him what happened, he refuses to tell them anything. Yet, he has had lengthy flashbacks about it to explain his mindset as well as his new techniques. This means that no matter how many characters ask him to tell them what happened to him, he won't - he'll change the subject or get distracted. This entry is to let the players (and anyone else curious) know what actually did happen to him, in case it might help explain some of his reactions to things or any future changes in personality that Oda has planned but hasn't revealed yet.
Sanji had been ported in from Pinky Island, also known as Kamabakka Kingdom, a land of transvestites. Male to female crossdressers, more specifically, and a few trans people among them, led by Emporio Ivankov, the Queen Okama who Luffy broke out of prison when he went to save Ace. Ivankov is designed after Rocky Horror's Frank, and has the power to alter hormones (to literally change people's gender, among other things) When Luffy sent his crew the message that they were to stay where they were for 2 years and train to become stronger, Sanji went to Ivankov and made a deal. Ivankov happened to also be master of 99 kenpo experts (of the "Newkama Kenpo" style), and specialized in a recipe that helps maximize the nutrition and power of ingredients to create food that heals, strengthens, and empowers. Clearly, aside from the whole okama thing, this is the perfect place for Sanji to train. Anyway. Knowing this, about the Attack Cuisine recipe and the kenpo masters, Sanji made the deal with Ivankov that he would spend those two years fighting the kenpo experts and defeating every single one in order to earn(steal) the recipe from him. In exchange, should he be defeated by any of them, Ivankov threatened to turn him into a woman. Literally. The other non-fighter okama on the island had already been harassing him up to this point, they even caught him, stripped him, and forced him into a dress and panties once, but he got away from them and regained his suit and tie and a shred of his dignity. So, in addition to simply fighting kenpo masters in order to win an ultimate recipe, Sanji was forced to flee from the rank-and-file crossdressers who thought they knew better than him what he wanted - they believed that everyone who landed on the island, accidentally or not, really deep down wanted to be a woman and Sanji was just repressing that so clearly the answer was to force him to accept it...by force.
So, from that day he saw the newspaper, Sanji spent every single day for two years straight, morning to night, in all weather (including snow), RUNNING THE FUCK AWAY. He ran from the okama rather than fight them because they weren't the masters, and he really didn't know how to handle them - plus they were dedicated to interfering in his fights so he would lose and become one of them. The okama must have treated it like a game, since he was so easy to fluster, and chased him day in and day out for two years. The flashbacks have not yet shown any of the masters he defeated nor anything about the recipe he has collected, yet, but seeing as he returned to Sabaody in his double-breasted suit and tie and a nice sexy goatee, he succeeded in his goal and was not defeated by any of the 99 masters, nor was he ever caught by any of the lower-rank okama ever again. No forced sex-changes for this guy, he's still a biological male.
Now, at the beginning of the Fishman Island adventure, Sanji had developed an unfortunate side effect of being trapped on an island with nothing but men dressed as women for two years. He was unable to look at beautiful women without nosebleeding. It first manifested the moment he saw Nami in a bikini top and worsened until, after swimming with mermaids who really liked him a lot, one of them held his head to her breasts in order to hide him from the authorities. That was a little too much and he lost so much blood he nearly died. Fortunately, coming face to face with the gorgeous (and gigantic) mermaid princess Shirahoshi acted as some kind of cure, and Sanji is now back to normal. He might still have a few shaky moments when being faced with actual women in the flesh, but he won't nosebleed anymore and is good to go. Thank god, because if he didn't get over that character flaw, I would never update him. It's a little too weird even for Oda.
More importantly, those two years of training really did make Sanji stronger. Before they were all sent away from Sabaody to their separate locations, the entire crew had to team up in order to destroy just one of the Pacifista cyborgs that came hunting them - and there were two more waiting for them. And that was with Chopper in full monster mode. Post-timeskip, Luffy was able to smash one by himself, and Sanji and Zoro together took down a second one with a single blow each - Sanji snapped its neck with one kick, and Zoro cut it open with one slash. So, Sanji's increase in strength is ridiculous. He went from using the Diable Jambe method as a final finishing move to using it now as a basic, every-time-I-kick move. This means he'll have to be able to do it in the City, now - a burst of friction sets his own foot on fire, and he kicks with flame added without damaging himself. He already has stamina and healing factor in his power set to make this possible. Secondly, he has also taught himself the geppou technique used by CP9, though he gave it a name of his own. He calls it Sky Walk. It is not a power but a technique - his legs are so strong that he is able to kick the air enough times/with enough strength to briefly be able to walk on air. In one of his flashbacks, he explained it by saying that he ran away from those okama until he ran out of land to run on, so all he could do was run on air. He can't do it for long distances, and can't stand on air or anything like that, but he can briefly climb up high enough to do aerial attacks before dropping down, and can cross short gaps that are just a bit too far to jump across. In canon he can also use this technique to run underwater, but I agreed with the mods that we'll draw the line there and hopefully he'll never have the occasion to find out that he can't do it in the City. I have no idea if he's hiding any other techniques beyond those in his repertoire; if he is, I'll have to wrestle with them later. He only demonstrated prolific use of Diable Jambe and introduced Sky Walk during the battle on Fishman Island, and hasn't yet cooked for the crew.
He's also more or less scarred for life and prejudiced against crossdressers, particularly flamboyant ones. Note that I don't personally have those prejudices, but to play him in character, he will refuse to speak to anyone who comes across very obviously as a crossdresser. And he might run away from them. He won't hurt them, though. I feel bad that he has such an obvious flaw, but flaws make our characters interesting and I'm open to exploring the fallout from this traumatization.
I will still be using a mix of his old and new icons because he hasn't appeared in enough chapters (or at least hasn't made a wide enough range of facial expressions) to be able to replace and fill all of his old ones.