Application w/ Revisions for queenofheartsrp
Player Information
Name: Fru
Contact Info: frudence [AIM & PLURK]
Other Characters: n/a
Character Information
Name: Nico Robin
Source Canon: One Piece [ANIME CANON]
Age: 28
Role In Canon: Antagonist -> Stowaway -> Member of the Main Pirate Crew (Archaeologist with the Strawhats)
History: [One Piece Wiki Link - warning for spoilers]
Personality:
[ACADEMIC]
Robin's most basic personality trait is that of an intelligent scholar; she knows a lot, and what she doesn't she researches. She was born on the island-city of Ohara in the ocean known as West Blue, a place renowned for its experts in the field of archaeology. When she was only 2 years old, her mother left on a research expedition. Robin spent the next few years until the age of 8 studying to pass an exam so that she would be officially recognized as an archaeologist. Her goals were two-fold: she wanted to be recognized by the scholars on Ohara as a colleague so they would help her learn how to read Poneglyphs*, and ultimately - as an archaeologist who could read Poneglyphs - Robin thought she'd be able to join her wayward mother.
*Poneglyphs are black cubes with writing on them that resembles Egyptian and Mezzo-American characters; the writing is like Latin in that the characters comprise a dead language. Finding out what the Poneglyphs say - or "The True History of the Lost Century" - and why it is forbidden to study them is an ultimate goal of Robin's that she inherited from the Oharan archaeologists, including her mother.
As a result of her dedication from an early age, Robin is a highly educated woman with a passing knowledge of many different fields, but a deeper knowledge of the ones closely related to archaeology. She has shown an extensive knowledge of history, folklore, the military structure of the Marines (principle army force to be reckoned with in One Piece), and she readily absorbs information from others. She has a strong bond with Franky (the Strawhats' shipwright), a great deal of respect for Tony Tony Chopper (the Strawhats' doctor), and is also close to the only other female on the ship, Nami (the Strawhats' navigator). As a result, she has a bit more knowledge of those areas - shipbuilding / general mechanical tinkering, medicine / herbology, and weather-forecasting / cartography - than might be expected of her.
Robin can read very quickly, retain what she's read, has no qualms about asking for clarification on unfamiliar things, and takes extensive notes. Her idea of a pleasant afternoon would be sitting outside alone on a nice day and just reading for hours. She seems to be more fond of non-fiction than fiction, but has an appreciation for the fact that what some people may call fiction is not always that.
[CASUALLY STOIC]
The second facet to Robin's personality developed along with her Devil Fruit Powers. The extent of these powers will be detailed in the abilities section, but the basic premise is that Robin can duplicate parts of her body. Her power comes from the "Hana-Hana" fruit, with 'hana' meaning flower, so her power treats her body like the main tree/root to a plant and allows Robin to make 'blossoms' appear on or near her body. Most often, Robin manifests additional hands/arms, feet/legs, eyes, or ears. Robin gained this power before the time she was 8 years old, and it's never explicitly stated how, but given her maturity at such a young age, it probably wasn't an accident. Many people with Devil Fruit powers only use them during battle, or only discover the most powerful aspects of their fruit powers when their lives are threatened.
Since Robin has had this power almost her entire life, she has had the opportunity to fully explore her abilities outside of combat as well. She regularly manifests additional limbs to aid with daily tasks, or sometimes simply to play a small prank on someone / watch them freak out at her dismembered-yet-moving limbs. She has a morbid sense of humor in that regard and, combined with a generally pessimistic/realistic view of situations, she often flusters others by pointing out gross or ominously factual details. An example is when Nami wonders aloud if Zoro (another Strawhat crew member) was eaten by a monster; Robin's response is that the area would be red had he truly been eaten. In conjunction with her fast reflexes and quick wit, Robin's powers also allow her to react to situations with a calm demeanor. For example, if someone drops a plate, Robin would simply create a hand out of the floor to catch it without budging an inch or appearing distressed. This power also requires Robin to be an accomplished multi-tasker, as every conjured body part must be moved independently. She can make large clusters of body parts work together like a swarm of nanomachines, but the more she creates the more intensely she must focus. In her day-to-day activities, when she would only ever summon a few extra body parts at a time, she is able to use her powers without any visible effort. The other extreme is when she summons 100 extra body parts at once - in that instance, she usually closes her eyes, keeps her arms close to her chest, and the mental strain is reflected in her facial expression and body language.
In most places throughout the world of One Piece, Devil Fruit users are regarded as powerful beings to be wary of. However, in Robin's case, she was regarded as a monster, a demon, etc. This may have been in part due to the local culture and in part due to instigation by one of Robin's caretakers; her mother's brother and his wife were saddled with Robin when her mother left, and the wife had a decidedly unfavorable opinion of Robin. Think Cinderella/Harry Potter. So even before Robin could remember, she was ostracized by her hometown. She sought solace with the scholars of Ohara, whose headquarters was a library inside of a gigantic tree, and they called this HQ the Tree of Knowledge. They were very encouraging of her natural curiosity and love of learning. She was able to deal with the poor treatment by her aunt at home and the nasty things that the villagers said to her because she looked forward to her time with the archaeologists, particularly their lead researcher Prof. Clover.
[BITTER FUGITIVE]
Robin was once a precocious young girl until her homeland was razed by an attack from the World Government's "army" (Marines), using a battle plan known as the "Buster Call." A brief reunion with her mother was heartwrenching, Prof. Clover tried and failed to protect Robin from the Government, her new friend - a giant named Jaguar D. Saul - died trying to protect her, and the Marines ransacked the Tree of Knowledge. The few things she'd loved in Ohara were destroyed, and so began her 20 years on the run. Normal civilians only heard that Ohara had been obliterated by the Marines, and so assumed that it must have been with good reason. The formerly well-renowned scholars were dubbed "Demons of Ohara," and Robin was known to be one of them. Coupled with her identity as a Devil Fruit user, she was soon known as "The Last Demon of Ohara." The public also heard that the Buster Call - the ultimate Marine attack force of 5 vice admirals and ten ships - wasn't enough to kill Robin. The Marines started rumors that she had sunk 6 ships in order to justify her bounty and get the public to help track her down.
Her 20 years on the run made her an extremely distrusting person and very solitary. Before Ohara's destruction, Saul had taught her that laughing even in bad situations was a way to cheer up, but she stopped mimicking his way of laughing within her first few years as a fugitive. For years she was told that the whole world would be better off if she was dead. Soon Robin's only goal in life was to learn as much about the Poneglyphs as she could, to carry on the legacy of her mother, Prof. Clover, and the rest of the Oharan scholars. Her drive to accomplish that goal ran deep, but it was also all she had to look forward to in life.
She started to loathe the government's policy of "absolute justice" and developed her powers not just as defensive tools, but in ways that were ruthlessly painful or horrifying to her opponents. Shock value became just another combat tactic. By the time Robin joined the Warlord Crocodile's Baroque Works at age 24, she'd become a specialist in assassination. Her moral alignment had completely shifted; she had no qualms lying, stealing, killing, or doing any of a number other unsavory deeds to accomplish her missions. She never felt any loyalty to Crocodile or Baroque Works or any of her other past associations; she didn't trust anyone by that point.
[LEARNING TO LIVE AGAIN]
For 20 years Robin had sought information on the Poneglyphs, her only lead ending in failure. She resolved to die there, her spirit broken; she was exhausted from her life as a fugitive and felt like she'd never accomplish her dream while running. Against her wishes, Luffy saved Robin from being buried alive.
Without nothing to go back to, Robin chose to stow away on Luffy's ship. It wasn't for any feelings of loyalty towards her savior; she actually felt Luffy owed her a debt for ignoring her death wish, and demanded he let her stay on the ship. To her surprise, Luffy agreed, declaring to the crew that she was "not a bad person." Luffy intrigued Robin on an academic level, since she'd been so many years without positive relationships. She observed the crew without aiding them for a long time, and called all of them by their ship roles, not their names. She watched how they interacted with each other, how they reacted to Luffy's whims, and started to appreciate how different they were. Still, she treated them like a sociologist watching a live experiment. She didn't reveal personal information or recount stories of her past, and scarcely participated in some of the Strawhats more festive activities. Basically, she kept her distance emotionally in many ways.
That changed with the Skypiea arc. Robin found a lead on the Poneglyphs and renewed reason to live. Feeling she owed a great debt to the Strawhats, she started to think of them more as companions than accidental acquaintances. Her loyalty to the Strawhats was tempered, but her desire to live and place in the crew were still fragile. The World Government decided to exploit that.
Robin was confronted by secret agents of the World Government in the island-city of Water 7, and given an ultimatum: help the agents (group name CP9) and turn herself in afterwards, or they would use the Buster Call to wipe out the Strawhats and Water 7 too. No matter what she chose, she felt her bright future with the Strawhats was over - that they had no chance of standing up to the World Government. Thinking she had no other choice that would keep her first real companions in 20 years safe, she agreed to CP9's terms, seemingly betraying the Strawhats.
Upon reaching Enies Lobby, the leader of CP9 named Spandam started to physically and mentally abuse Robin. He told her repeatedly how she didn't deserve to live and that he was justified in treating her like trash because she was a criminal. Remember that her 'criminal' status came from academic pursuits, then fleeing her own destruction as a child. Spandam's cruel treatment only strengthened Robin's resolve to be a martyr for the Strawhats.
For the second time, Luffy denied Robin her death wish. He told her, while she was still Spandam's captive: "Do me a favor, Robin! Whether you wanna die or not, I don't care what you say! Say that kind of thing while you're by our side!" She finally admitted to Strawhats that her greatest fear of all was being abandoned by them at some point down the road; she wanted to die as their friend by helping them, rather than dying alone. The Strawhats countered her fear by setting a World Government flag on fire. They were effectively promising to take on anyone and everyone who stood against them - so long as Robin would return to them. That action brought her to tears and was the final straw in convincing her that they were indeed her friends. It was hard for her to comprehend - because she hadn't met one person in 20 years who wanted to her to enjoy life. Finally, her friend Saul's words from 20 years ago were being fulfilled: "The sea is vast. Someday, without a doubt, friends willing to protect you will appear!" She hadn't ever believed Saul until that very instant. At last she trusted in the Strawhats, believed in their strength and the bonds they'd forged with her. At Luffy's insistence to speak her true feelings, she cried out to them: "I WANT TO LIVE!! TAKE ME OUT TO SEA WITH YOU!!"
[BONDED]
With that, Robin's friendship with the Strawhats was sealed. She'd gone from thinking there was no place in the world for her to belong - and essentially suicidal thoughts - to wanting them in her life more than anything. Whether romantically or platonically, Robin's bond with the character Franky is unique and strong due to the events of the Water 7 / Enies Lobby arc, because Franky wasn't even a member of the Strawhats at the time he put his life on the line for her sake. Franky was also the first recipient of genuine goodwill on Robin's part in the vein of "one good turn deserves another." He went through a lot of effort to ignore her death wishes and make her happier than she knew she could be, so Robin used her powers to 'force' Franky to join them. To Franky's friends, it looked like she hurt him so much that he was crying in pain and that Robin wouldn't let up until he boarded the ship. In reality, Robin only hurt him a little and then stopped, but Franky continued acting like she was hurting him - it was a cover to let out all of his tears, then do something he wouldn't have been able to bring himself to do without crying: leave Water 7 and pursue his personal dreams.
Of note is the fact that Robin is one of the few people to know what happened between Zoro and the Warlord Bartholomew Kuma at the end of the Thriller Bark arc. Robin found out the story by eavesdropping - using her power to create an ear on someone's back - and never let on she knew. Brook's efforts to make himself "useful" and "worthy" of being part of the crew also struck a cord with Robin. All in all, the Thriller Bark events served to bond her tighter not only to the Strawhats as a whole, but especially the older members: Franky and Brook for the most part, but Zoro to a lesser extent as well.
It wasn't until the Strawhats had a chance to speak to Gol D. Roger's first mate - Silvers Rayleigh - that Robin had a new lead on any new Poneglyph-related information since Skypiea. Rayleigh told her that the Roger and he had indeed learned the True History of the Poneglyphs, but telling her straight out may ruin the impact of what the True History contained. He said he'd tell her if she still wanted to know - but she agreed with him, and willing left his presence without learning a single new bit of Poneglyph information herself. The contrast with her reactions in Arabasta is striking, but that's how much the Strawhats had come to mean to her. She was willing to spend more time learning about the Poneglyphs herself because she had the Strawhats to support her.
[THE SEPARATION]
The Warlord Bartholomew Kuma appeared before the Strawhats again and used his Paw-Paw Devil Fruit power to start "repelling" the Strawhats one by one. It didn't kill them - which is what they all thought it did at first - but rather sent each of them flying across the OP world. Robin saw all seven of the other Strawhat members - everyone but her and Luffy - get stripped away from the group. It was an extremely emotional parting for everyone. For her part, Robin reached out to Luffy as her last action on the Sabaody peninsula before she was repelled.
Being apart from the Strawhats is depressing for Robin, given their significance as the only friends she'd had since she was 8 years old. She wants more than anything else to reunite with them, but she is also an intelligent enough woman to acknowledge it may take a great deal of planning and effort to make that happen. In canon, it's a 2-year gap before she reunites with them, but I'm pulling Robin from before then. She definitely knows how to get by on her own after all her years as a fugitive, and she has a reunion with the Strawhats to look forward to this time, but it's still not something she'll enjoy dealing with in an RP setting. She just has past experience to guide her better than some of the other Strawhats when it comes to a solitary lifestyle.
[SHIFTING ALIGNMENTS]
In terms of how her pre-Strawhats life reflects in her current personality, she is still pretty ruthless in battle and uses her powers to force her enemies into painful submissive poses. This is okay with the Strawhats because they are pirates and the people who confront them are often Marines. By Captain Luffy's personal honor code, Robin does not involve normal citizens in combat by choice - however, she'd be quick to retaliate if they attacked her. She is still distrusting of non-Strawhats and deceives them when necessary. She also does not willingly volunteer personal information, feelings, or anecdotes except in very rare moments. For example, she admitted to Brook (the most recent addition to the crew as of her canon point) that she too had felt "unworthy" to be part of the crew and tried to find her place within it - he hadn't been around for the Water 7 / Enies Lobby arc, and no one told him about it, but what she volunteered also paled in comparison to what actually happened and how she'd felt at the time.
Basically, she's still a very private person, but she smiles and laughs more around the Strawhats, and would only do so in a situation without them where she felt safe and secure. Her morbid humor, dry wit, and pessimistic/logical outlook on situations remain. She still doesn't emote nearly as emphatically as her canon-mates and is often the "straight-man" in comic situations. For the most part only her bitterness went away, replaced with a grudging reminder to let herself have fun every once in awhile. She actually participated in some of the Strawhats ridiculous party antics after they returned to Water 7 from Enies Lobby, and hummed along when Brook first performed the song "Bink's Sake" during the post-Thriller Bark celebrations. To the casual observer, Robin may still look like a "party-pooper" type, but she's come a long way from being "Miss All-Sunday" of the Baroque Works to "Nico Robin, Archaeologist for the Strawhat Crew."
To non-Strawhats, and people who haven't proven their friendship, Robin will generally be neutral-polite with a side of curt curiosity. She's much more interested in gaining knowledge from others than revealing information about herself. She'll come off as aloof, cold-hearted, and possibly even paranoid when it comes to her risking her own life for others. Having gripped with borderline suicide tendencies multiple times in her life, her resolve to survive and reunite with the Strawhats runs deep. She has the potential to be a dedicated ally, but only to people willing to consistently prove they care about her.
Abilities:
Like all Devil Fruit powers in One Piece, Robin's power comes in the form of a simple concept, but one which has many varied applications. A Devil Fruit is simply a kind of magical, edible object that grants one new trait to a person's body. In Robin's case, her "Hana Hana" power is the ability to reproduce parts of her body, like many flowers sprouting from the main body of a single plant. Since Robin can use this power in so many different ways, I'm going to try to break down the constraints of the power first, then list her most common specific applications for the power. I'm going to use "blossom" as the generic term for a body part that Robin has manifested using her power, rather than the part of her real body.
How many extra 'blossoms' can she manifest? The most Robin has used in canon is 100, and she denotes such skills with the vocal component: "Cien Fleurs." The limit seems to be "as many as Robin can concentrate on using at once." As I stated in her Personality section, Robin has apparently adapted incredible multi-tasking skills for this expressed purpose, thus being able to use 100 separate blossoms at once. As she approaches the 100 mark, the more inclined she is to make the blossoms act as one unit rather than going off in 100 different directions. As I also stated in the Personality section, if Robin is only using a few extra blossoms, then she can get away with manifesting and directing the blossoms without any visible effort.
Where can she make these blossoms appear? On her own body, on other people's bodies, on physical objects, and on any matter packed tight enough to act as a solid - such as sand in a desert, not sand blowing in the air. I plan to post a Permissions entry in her journal for these situations, but still ask for permission in each instance of use. The actual distance from her body that she can manifest these blossoms is not stated in canon, but the starting point appears to be roughly 40 feet away from her - about 4 stories high. She absolutely must have some visual gauge for where to manifest her blossoms - she once summoned an ear on someone's back, but she could only see the front side of that person's body. A specific loophole in her power is that she can manifest blossoms on top of other blossoms, creating things like ropes and nets out of her blossom-arms strung together, as well as more complex creations detailed in the list below.
What body parts can she use for these blossoms? Theoretically, any part of her. My understanding is any named body part that has a fairly simple function for duplication purposes. For example, she most often manifests hands/arms, feet/legs, ears, and eyes. This does include regenerating body parts that have been severed. It's theoretically possible that she could regenerate her whole body, but I think that would require her head/brain/heart to be intact. I'm willing to discuss it with moderation if such a situation were to arise.
What are the physical limitations of the blossoms? The same as Robin's normal body parts; they are proportioned to exactly the same size and cannot stretch bigger or smaller. Similarly, blossomed hands/arms and feet/legs have the same weight-bearing capability as Robin's natural limbs. Each blossom is rooted to where Robin first manifested it, but she can freely dismiss them and create new ones. One extreme drawback to Robin's power is that she can feel any pain or ailment directed at one of her blossoms. This isn't a big deal for little cuts and bruises, but if someone were to break a blossom-arm, for example, she'd definitely recoil in pain and probably create an opening for her opponent to exploit. If the damage is severe enough - especially multiplied through many extra blossoms - Robin would pass out from the perceived pain, even though her natural body remains intact.
What are the verbal/somatic requirements for Robin to use her powers? It depends on how many blossoms Robin is manifesting along with the amount of stress she's under - both of these compounded is the amount of concentration required. If she needs very little concentration, then she doesn't have to say or do anything to use her powers. Specifically, Robin rarely says a command phrase for anything less than six manifested blossoms. However, if she requires medium to great concentration - either because she's in a battle or because she's just using that many blossoms - then she says and does things that bolster her concentration. She doesn't have to say or do anything - she chooses to do it because it helps her focus. When she speaks, she usually says the number of how many blossoms she's creating (in Spanish) combined with the world "Fleur" (Hana/flower in French). Her physical actions include crossing her two normal arms over chest in an X shape with her hands following that same line, palms up. She also usually keeps her legs togethers when standing, basically trying to pull her natural body in as tightly as she can.
Do her powers leave any lingering effects? When Robin first manifests her blossoms and when she dismisses them, a short trail of flower petals follows plus the scent of lavender.
Below is the incomplete list of "techniques" Robin has developed using her powers. She often does not preface her spoken command with the name of the body part if using arms, since they are her most common blossomed body part. The other Spanish terms she has used are Ojos (eyes), Oreja (ears), Pierna (Feet), and Manos (hands).
- Grab: The 'technique' that Robin used to 'force' Franky to join the Strawhat crew - it speaks to her personality more than her battle prowess. She manifested two blossom-arms on each of Franky's upper thighs near his hips, then quite literally grabbed him by his balls. [YT link because the scene is so freaking funny]
- Twist: Robin uses 6 arms blossomed on her foe to sharply rotate the foe's upper body, severely injuring their back but not killing them outright.
- Flip: Robin uses 8 blossomed arms to force a foe to tumble backwards - two arms push them back, two arms grab their legs to make them stumbled backwards, and four more arms hold the foe down.
- Clutch: Robin uses hands blossomed near the opponent's chin and as many other arms as necessary to restrain her foe, then pulls the head back to snap the foe's neck. In more intense cases - such as Robin's revenge on Spandam - she can use the restraining arms to also break the foe's back.
- Linked arms: Robin can use as many blossomed arms as necessary to act like a rope or a net. She has used this both of her own sake and to reach out to others to catch them.
- Ladder limbs: Robin can manifest single blossoms or pairs in a line up a cliff or other sheer wall, but she has also used this - in both horizontal and vertical applications - to pass objects along like a bucket brigade.
- Marching feet: Robin can manifest blossom-feet or -legs below a person or object in order to move them.
- Calendula: Robin manifests 20 blossom-arms at her own elbows - 10 on each arm - and rotates them in a circle. While meant to be used as a kind of shield, because Robin can still feel pain from her blossoms, it isn't the most effective technique.
- Hang: Robin anchors the first of 30 blossom-arms at a high point and then links them together to form a rope. Not only does she try lift an opponent off the ground, she also tries to strangle them in a Clutch-like maneuver.
- Delphinium: Robin uses 100 blossom-arms in pairs manifested in a horizontal line to roll a person or object down the line. For opponents, this may be over a cliff or into a wall with great velocity.
- Big Tree: Robin uses 100 blossom-arms to act as one gigantic arm -- not fused together, simply a swarm of little arms. She follows this up with one of her more "normal" attacks that wouldn't work on larger opponents.
- Wings: Robin uses 100 blossom-arms to make two wings grow from her back - 50 for each wing. She can hover, glide downwards, or slowly ascend, but her time limit is only about 5 seconds long.
Sample:
Dear_Mun entry: [link]
Testrun_box thread: [link]
[Sample written as if from Robin's personal diary / notebook / logbook that she keeps in canon]
I've managed to start a rough map of this area. It's still unclear if the snow tundra I remember was simply a dream and this is where Kuma's Paw-paw power sent me, or if perhaps I've somehow traveled from the snow tundra to this more temperate environment. The central location appears to be something like a knot garden. By the weather, I suspect a Spring Island or Summer Island, but that assumes this place is somewhere in the Grand Line.
I've located some ruins, but have yet to see any signs of a culture I recognize or any Poneglyphs. I'll map out this area more extensively while searching for clues as to where exactly 'here' is now. I doubt I'll make it back to the rendezvous location in 3 days. For now, I think it best to lie low until I get my bearings.
Name: Fru
Contact Info: frudence [AIM & PLURK]
Other Characters: n/a
Character Information
Name: Nico Robin
Source Canon: One Piece [ANIME CANON]
Age: 28
Role In Canon: Antagonist -> Stowaway -> Member of the Main Pirate Crew (Archaeologist with the Strawhats)
History: [One Piece Wiki Link - warning for spoilers]
Personality:
[ACADEMIC]
Robin's most basic personality trait is that of an intelligent scholar; she knows a lot, and what she doesn't she researches. She was born on the island-city of Ohara in the ocean known as West Blue, a place renowned for its experts in the field of archaeology. When she was only 2 years old, her mother left on a research expedition. Robin spent the next few years until the age of 8 studying to pass an exam so that she would be officially recognized as an archaeologist. Her goals were two-fold: she wanted to be recognized by the scholars on Ohara as a colleague so they would help her learn how to read Poneglyphs*, and ultimately - as an archaeologist who could read Poneglyphs - Robin thought she'd be able to join her wayward mother.
*Poneglyphs are black cubes with writing on them that resembles Egyptian and Mezzo-American characters; the writing is like Latin in that the characters comprise a dead language. Finding out what the Poneglyphs say - or "The True History of the Lost Century" - and why it is forbidden to study them is an ultimate goal of Robin's that she inherited from the Oharan archaeologists, including her mother.
As a result of her dedication from an early age, Robin is a highly educated woman with a passing knowledge of many different fields, but a deeper knowledge of the ones closely related to archaeology. She has shown an extensive knowledge of history, folklore, the military structure of the Marines (principle army force to be reckoned with in One Piece), and she readily absorbs information from others. She has a strong bond with Franky (the Strawhats' shipwright), a great deal of respect for Tony Tony Chopper (the Strawhats' doctor), and is also close to the only other female on the ship, Nami (the Strawhats' navigator). As a result, she has a bit more knowledge of those areas - shipbuilding / general mechanical tinkering, medicine / herbology, and weather-forecasting / cartography - than might be expected of her.
Robin can read very quickly, retain what she's read, has no qualms about asking for clarification on unfamiliar things, and takes extensive notes. Her idea of a pleasant afternoon would be sitting outside alone on a nice day and just reading for hours. She seems to be more fond of non-fiction than fiction, but has an appreciation for the fact that what some people may call fiction is not always that.
[CASUALLY STOIC]
The second facet to Robin's personality developed along with her Devil Fruit Powers. The extent of these powers will be detailed in the abilities section, but the basic premise is that Robin can duplicate parts of her body. Her power comes from the "Hana-Hana" fruit, with 'hana' meaning flower, so her power treats her body like the main tree/root to a plant and allows Robin to make 'blossoms' appear on or near her body. Most often, Robin manifests additional hands/arms, feet/legs, eyes, or ears. Robin gained this power before the time she was 8 years old, and it's never explicitly stated how, but given her maturity at such a young age, it probably wasn't an accident. Many people with Devil Fruit powers only use them during battle, or only discover the most powerful aspects of their fruit powers when their lives are threatened.
Since Robin has had this power almost her entire life, she has had the opportunity to fully explore her abilities outside of combat as well. She regularly manifests additional limbs to aid with daily tasks, or sometimes simply to play a small prank on someone / watch them freak out at her dismembered-yet-moving limbs. She has a morbid sense of humor in that regard and, combined with a generally pessimistic/realistic view of situations, she often flusters others by pointing out gross or ominously factual details. An example is when Nami wonders aloud if Zoro (another Strawhat crew member) was eaten by a monster; Robin's response is that the area would be red had he truly been eaten. In conjunction with her fast reflexes and quick wit, Robin's powers also allow her to react to situations with a calm demeanor. For example, if someone drops a plate, Robin would simply create a hand out of the floor to catch it without budging an inch or appearing distressed. This power also requires Robin to be an accomplished multi-tasker, as every conjured body part must be moved independently. She can make large clusters of body parts work together like a swarm of nanomachines, but the more she creates the more intensely she must focus. In her day-to-day activities, when she would only ever summon a few extra body parts at a time, she is able to use her powers without any visible effort. The other extreme is when she summons 100 extra body parts at once - in that instance, she usually closes her eyes, keeps her arms close to her chest, and the mental strain is reflected in her facial expression and body language.
In most places throughout the world of One Piece, Devil Fruit users are regarded as powerful beings to be wary of. However, in Robin's case, she was regarded as a monster, a demon, etc. This may have been in part due to the local culture and in part due to instigation by one of Robin's caretakers; her mother's brother and his wife were saddled with Robin when her mother left, and the wife had a decidedly unfavorable opinion of Robin. Think Cinderella/Harry Potter. So even before Robin could remember, she was ostracized by her hometown. She sought solace with the scholars of Ohara, whose headquarters was a library inside of a gigantic tree, and they called this HQ the Tree of Knowledge. They were very encouraging of her natural curiosity and love of learning. She was able to deal with the poor treatment by her aunt at home and the nasty things that the villagers said to her because she looked forward to her time with the archaeologists, particularly their lead researcher Prof. Clover.
[BITTER FUGITIVE]
Robin was once a precocious young girl until her homeland was razed by an attack from the World Government's "army" (Marines), using a battle plan known as the "Buster Call." A brief reunion with her mother was heartwrenching, Prof. Clover tried and failed to protect Robin from the Government, her new friend - a giant named Jaguar D. Saul - died trying to protect her, and the Marines ransacked the Tree of Knowledge. The few things she'd loved in Ohara were destroyed, and so began her 20 years on the run. Normal civilians only heard that Ohara had been obliterated by the Marines, and so assumed that it must have been with good reason. The formerly well-renowned scholars were dubbed "Demons of Ohara," and Robin was known to be one of them. Coupled with her identity as a Devil Fruit user, she was soon known as "The Last Demon of Ohara." The public also heard that the Buster Call - the ultimate Marine attack force of 5 vice admirals and ten ships - wasn't enough to kill Robin. The Marines started rumors that she had sunk 6 ships in order to justify her bounty and get the public to help track her down.
Her 20 years on the run made her an extremely distrusting person and very solitary. Before Ohara's destruction, Saul had taught her that laughing even in bad situations was a way to cheer up, but she stopped mimicking his way of laughing within her first few years as a fugitive. For years she was told that the whole world would be better off if she was dead. Soon Robin's only goal in life was to learn as much about the Poneglyphs as she could, to carry on the legacy of her mother, Prof. Clover, and the rest of the Oharan scholars. Her drive to accomplish that goal ran deep, but it was also all she had to look forward to in life.
She started to loathe the government's policy of "absolute justice" and developed her powers not just as defensive tools, but in ways that were ruthlessly painful or horrifying to her opponents. Shock value became just another combat tactic. By the time Robin joined the Warlord Crocodile's Baroque Works at age 24, she'd become a specialist in assassination. Her moral alignment had completely shifted; she had no qualms lying, stealing, killing, or doing any of a number other unsavory deeds to accomplish her missions. She never felt any loyalty to Crocodile or Baroque Works or any of her other past associations; she didn't trust anyone by that point.
[LEARNING TO LIVE AGAIN]
For 20 years Robin had sought information on the Poneglyphs, her only lead ending in failure. She resolved to die there, her spirit broken; she was exhausted from her life as a fugitive and felt like she'd never accomplish her dream while running. Against her wishes, Luffy saved Robin from being buried alive.
Without nothing to go back to, Robin chose to stow away on Luffy's ship. It wasn't for any feelings of loyalty towards her savior; she actually felt Luffy owed her a debt for ignoring her death wish, and demanded he let her stay on the ship. To her surprise, Luffy agreed, declaring to the crew that she was "not a bad person." Luffy intrigued Robin on an academic level, since she'd been so many years without positive relationships. She observed the crew without aiding them for a long time, and called all of them by their ship roles, not their names. She watched how they interacted with each other, how they reacted to Luffy's whims, and started to appreciate how different they were. Still, she treated them like a sociologist watching a live experiment. She didn't reveal personal information or recount stories of her past, and scarcely participated in some of the Strawhats more festive activities. Basically, she kept her distance emotionally in many ways.
That changed with the Skypiea arc. Robin found a lead on the Poneglyphs and renewed reason to live. Feeling she owed a great debt to the Strawhats, she started to think of them more as companions than accidental acquaintances. Her loyalty to the Strawhats was tempered, but her desire to live and place in the crew were still fragile. The World Government decided to exploit that.
Robin was confronted by secret agents of the World Government in the island-city of Water 7, and given an ultimatum: help the agents (group name CP9) and turn herself in afterwards, or they would use the Buster Call to wipe out the Strawhats and Water 7 too. No matter what she chose, she felt her bright future with the Strawhats was over - that they had no chance of standing up to the World Government. Thinking she had no other choice that would keep her first real companions in 20 years safe, she agreed to CP9's terms, seemingly betraying the Strawhats.
Upon reaching Enies Lobby, the leader of CP9 named Spandam started to physically and mentally abuse Robin. He told her repeatedly how she didn't deserve to live and that he was justified in treating her like trash because she was a criminal. Remember that her 'criminal' status came from academic pursuits, then fleeing her own destruction as a child. Spandam's cruel treatment only strengthened Robin's resolve to be a martyr for the Strawhats.
For the second time, Luffy denied Robin her death wish. He told her, while she was still Spandam's captive: "Do me a favor, Robin! Whether you wanna die or not, I don't care what you say! Say that kind of thing while you're by our side!" She finally admitted to Strawhats that her greatest fear of all was being abandoned by them at some point down the road; she wanted to die as their friend by helping them, rather than dying alone. The Strawhats countered her fear by setting a World Government flag on fire. They were effectively promising to take on anyone and everyone who stood against them - so long as Robin would return to them. That action brought her to tears and was the final straw in convincing her that they were indeed her friends. It was hard for her to comprehend - because she hadn't met one person in 20 years who wanted to her to enjoy life. Finally, her friend Saul's words from 20 years ago were being fulfilled: "The sea is vast. Someday, without a doubt, friends willing to protect you will appear!" She hadn't ever believed Saul until that very instant. At last she trusted in the Strawhats, believed in their strength and the bonds they'd forged with her. At Luffy's insistence to speak her true feelings, she cried out to them: "I WANT TO LIVE!! TAKE ME OUT TO SEA WITH YOU!!"
[BONDED]
With that, Robin's friendship with the Strawhats was sealed. She'd gone from thinking there was no place in the world for her to belong - and essentially suicidal thoughts - to wanting them in her life more than anything. Whether romantically or platonically, Robin's bond with the character Franky is unique and strong due to the events of the Water 7 / Enies Lobby arc, because Franky wasn't even a member of the Strawhats at the time he put his life on the line for her sake. Franky was also the first recipient of genuine goodwill on Robin's part in the vein of "one good turn deserves another." He went through a lot of effort to ignore her death wishes and make her happier than she knew she could be, so Robin used her powers to 'force' Franky to join them. To Franky's friends, it looked like she hurt him so much that he was crying in pain and that Robin wouldn't let up until he boarded the ship. In reality, Robin only hurt him a little and then stopped, but Franky continued acting like she was hurting him - it was a cover to let out all of his tears, then do something he wouldn't have been able to bring himself to do without crying: leave Water 7 and pursue his personal dreams.
Of note is the fact that Robin is one of the few people to know what happened between Zoro and the Warlord Bartholomew Kuma at the end of the Thriller Bark arc. Robin found out the story by eavesdropping - using her power to create an ear on someone's back - and never let on she knew. Brook's efforts to make himself "useful" and "worthy" of being part of the crew also struck a cord with Robin. All in all, the Thriller Bark events served to bond her tighter not only to the Strawhats as a whole, but especially the older members: Franky and Brook for the most part, but Zoro to a lesser extent as well.
It wasn't until the Strawhats had a chance to speak to Gol D. Roger's first mate - Silvers Rayleigh - that Robin had a new lead on any new Poneglyph-related information since Skypiea. Rayleigh told her that the Roger and he had indeed learned the True History of the Poneglyphs, but telling her straight out may ruin the impact of what the True History contained. He said he'd tell her if she still wanted to know - but she agreed with him, and willing left his presence without learning a single new bit of Poneglyph information herself. The contrast with her reactions in Arabasta is striking, but that's how much the Strawhats had come to mean to her. She was willing to spend more time learning about the Poneglyphs herself because she had the Strawhats to support her.
[THE SEPARATION]
The Warlord Bartholomew Kuma appeared before the Strawhats again and used his Paw-Paw Devil Fruit power to start "repelling" the Strawhats one by one. It didn't kill them - which is what they all thought it did at first - but rather sent each of them flying across the OP world. Robin saw all seven of the other Strawhat members - everyone but her and Luffy - get stripped away from the group. It was an extremely emotional parting for everyone. For her part, Robin reached out to Luffy as her last action on the Sabaody peninsula before she was repelled.
Being apart from the Strawhats is depressing for Robin, given their significance as the only friends she'd had since she was 8 years old. She wants more than anything else to reunite with them, but she is also an intelligent enough woman to acknowledge it may take a great deal of planning and effort to make that happen. In canon, it's a 2-year gap before she reunites with them, but I'm pulling Robin from before then. She definitely knows how to get by on her own after all her years as a fugitive, and she has a reunion with the Strawhats to look forward to this time, but it's still not something she'll enjoy dealing with in an RP setting. She just has past experience to guide her better than some of the other Strawhats when it comes to a solitary lifestyle.
[SHIFTING ALIGNMENTS]
In terms of how her pre-Strawhats life reflects in her current personality, she is still pretty ruthless in battle and uses her powers to force her enemies into painful submissive poses. This is okay with the Strawhats because they are pirates and the people who confront them are often Marines. By Captain Luffy's personal honor code, Robin does not involve normal citizens in combat by choice - however, she'd be quick to retaliate if they attacked her. She is still distrusting of non-Strawhats and deceives them when necessary. She also does not willingly volunteer personal information, feelings, or anecdotes except in very rare moments. For example, she admitted to Brook (the most recent addition to the crew as of her canon point) that she too had felt "unworthy" to be part of the crew and tried to find her place within it - he hadn't been around for the Water 7 / Enies Lobby arc, and no one told him about it, but what she volunteered also paled in comparison to what actually happened and how she'd felt at the time.
Basically, she's still a very private person, but she smiles and laughs more around the Strawhats, and would only do so in a situation without them where she felt safe and secure. Her morbid humor, dry wit, and pessimistic/logical outlook on situations remain. She still doesn't emote nearly as emphatically as her canon-mates and is often the "straight-man" in comic situations. For the most part only her bitterness went away, replaced with a grudging reminder to let herself have fun every once in awhile. She actually participated in some of the Strawhats ridiculous party antics after they returned to Water 7 from Enies Lobby, and hummed along when Brook first performed the song "Bink's Sake" during the post-Thriller Bark celebrations. To the casual observer, Robin may still look like a "party-pooper" type, but she's come a long way from being "Miss All-Sunday" of the Baroque Works to "Nico Robin, Archaeologist for the Strawhat Crew."
To non-Strawhats, and people who haven't proven their friendship, Robin will generally be neutral-polite with a side of curt curiosity. She's much more interested in gaining knowledge from others than revealing information about herself. She'll come off as aloof, cold-hearted, and possibly even paranoid when it comes to her risking her own life for others. Having gripped with borderline suicide tendencies multiple times in her life, her resolve to survive and reunite with the Strawhats runs deep. She has the potential to be a dedicated ally, but only to people willing to consistently prove they care about her.
Abilities:
Like all Devil Fruit powers in One Piece, Robin's power comes in the form of a simple concept, but one which has many varied applications. A Devil Fruit is simply a kind of magical, edible object that grants one new trait to a person's body. In Robin's case, her "Hana Hana" power is the ability to reproduce parts of her body, like many flowers sprouting from the main body of a single plant. Since Robin can use this power in so many different ways, I'm going to try to break down the constraints of the power first, then list her most common specific applications for the power. I'm going to use "blossom" as the generic term for a body part that Robin has manifested using her power, rather than the part of her real body.
How many extra 'blossoms' can she manifest? The most Robin has used in canon is 100, and she denotes such skills with the vocal component: "Cien Fleurs." The limit seems to be "as many as Robin can concentrate on using at once." As I stated in her Personality section, Robin has apparently adapted incredible multi-tasking skills for this expressed purpose, thus being able to use 100 separate blossoms at once. As she approaches the 100 mark, the more inclined she is to make the blossoms act as one unit rather than going off in 100 different directions. As I also stated in the Personality section, if Robin is only using a few extra blossoms, then she can get away with manifesting and directing the blossoms without any visible effort.
Where can she make these blossoms appear? On her own body, on other people's bodies, on physical objects, and on any matter packed tight enough to act as a solid - such as sand in a desert, not sand blowing in the air. I plan to post a Permissions entry in her journal for these situations, but still ask for permission in each instance of use. The actual distance from her body that she can manifest these blossoms is not stated in canon, but the starting point appears to be roughly 40 feet away from her - about 4 stories high. She absolutely must have some visual gauge for where to manifest her blossoms - she once summoned an ear on someone's back, but she could only see the front side of that person's body. A specific loophole in her power is that she can manifest blossoms on top of other blossoms, creating things like ropes and nets out of her blossom-arms strung together, as well as more complex creations detailed in the list below.
What body parts can she use for these blossoms? Theoretically, any part of her. My understanding is any named body part that has a fairly simple function for duplication purposes. For example, she most often manifests hands/arms, feet/legs, ears, and eyes. This does include regenerating body parts that have been severed. It's theoretically possible that she could regenerate her whole body, but I think that would require her head/brain/heart to be intact. I'm willing to discuss it with moderation if such a situation were to arise.
What are the physical limitations of the blossoms? The same as Robin's normal body parts; they are proportioned to exactly the same size and cannot stretch bigger or smaller. Similarly, blossomed hands/arms and feet/legs have the same weight-bearing capability as Robin's natural limbs. Each blossom is rooted to where Robin first manifested it, but she can freely dismiss them and create new ones. One extreme drawback to Robin's power is that she can feel any pain or ailment directed at one of her blossoms. This isn't a big deal for little cuts and bruises, but if someone were to break a blossom-arm, for example, she'd definitely recoil in pain and probably create an opening for her opponent to exploit. If the damage is severe enough - especially multiplied through many extra blossoms - Robin would pass out from the perceived pain, even though her natural body remains intact.
What are the verbal/somatic requirements for Robin to use her powers? It depends on how many blossoms Robin is manifesting along with the amount of stress she's under - both of these compounded is the amount of concentration required. If she needs very little concentration, then she doesn't have to say or do anything to use her powers. Specifically, Robin rarely says a command phrase for anything less than six manifested blossoms. However, if she requires medium to great concentration - either because she's in a battle or because she's just using that many blossoms - then she says and does things that bolster her concentration. She doesn't have to say or do anything - she chooses to do it because it helps her focus. When she speaks, she usually says the number of how many blossoms she's creating (in Spanish) combined with the world "Fleur" (Hana/flower in French). Her physical actions include crossing her two normal arms over chest in an X shape with her hands following that same line, palms up. She also usually keeps her legs togethers when standing, basically trying to pull her natural body in as tightly as she can.
Do her powers leave any lingering effects? When Robin first manifests her blossoms and when she dismisses them, a short trail of flower petals follows plus the scent of lavender.
Below is the incomplete list of "techniques" Robin has developed using her powers. She often does not preface her spoken command with the name of the body part if using arms, since they are her most common blossomed body part. The other Spanish terms she has used are Ojos (eyes), Oreja (ears), Pierna (Feet), and Manos (hands).
- Grab: The 'technique' that Robin used to 'force' Franky to join the Strawhat crew - it speaks to her personality more than her battle prowess. She manifested two blossom-arms on each of Franky's upper thighs near his hips, then quite literally grabbed him by his balls. [YT link because the scene is so freaking funny]
- Twist: Robin uses 6 arms blossomed on her foe to sharply rotate the foe's upper body, severely injuring their back but not killing them outright.
- Flip: Robin uses 8 blossomed arms to force a foe to tumble backwards - two arms push them back, two arms grab their legs to make them stumbled backwards, and four more arms hold the foe down.
- Clutch: Robin uses hands blossomed near the opponent's chin and as many other arms as necessary to restrain her foe, then pulls the head back to snap the foe's neck. In more intense cases - such as Robin's revenge on Spandam - she can use the restraining arms to also break the foe's back.
- Linked arms: Robin can use as many blossomed arms as necessary to act like a rope or a net. She has used this both of her own sake and to reach out to others to catch them.
- Ladder limbs: Robin can manifest single blossoms or pairs in a line up a cliff or other sheer wall, but she has also used this - in both horizontal and vertical applications - to pass objects along like a bucket brigade.
- Marching feet: Robin can manifest blossom-feet or -legs below a person or object in order to move them.
- Calendula: Robin manifests 20 blossom-arms at her own elbows - 10 on each arm - and rotates them in a circle. While meant to be used as a kind of shield, because Robin can still feel pain from her blossoms, it isn't the most effective technique.
- Hang: Robin anchors the first of 30 blossom-arms at a high point and then links them together to form a rope. Not only does she try lift an opponent off the ground, she also tries to strangle them in a Clutch-like maneuver.
- Delphinium: Robin uses 100 blossom-arms in pairs manifested in a horizontal line to roll a person or object down the line. For opponents, this may be over a cliff or into a wall with great velocity.
- Big Tree: Robin uses 100 blossom-arms to act as one gigantic arm -- not fused together, simply a swarm of little arms. She follows this up with one of her more "normal" attacks that wouldn't work on larger opponents.
- Wings: Robin uses 100 blossom-arms to make two wings grow from her back - 50 for each wing. She can hover, glide downwards, or slowly ascend, but her time limit is only about 5 seconds long.
Sample:
Dear_Mun entry: [link]
Testrun_box thread: [link]
[Sample written as if from Robin's personal diary / notebook / logbook that she keeps in canon]
I've managed to start a rough map of this area. It's still unclear if the snow tundra I remember was simply a dream and this is where Kuma's Paw-paw power sent me, or if perhaps I've somehow traveled from the snow tundra to this more temperate environment. The central location appears to be something like a knot garden. By the weather, I suspect a Spring Island or Summer Island, but that assumes this place is somewhere in the Grand Line.
I've located some ruins, but have yet to see any signs of a culture I recognize or any Poneglyphs. I'll map out this area more extensively while searching for clues as to where exactly 'here' is now. I doubt I'll make it back to the rendezvous location in 3 days. For now, I think it best to lie low until I get my bearings.