| "Bonito Flakes." |
Slight of frame and quiet by necessity, Bonito is easy to overlook—especially when he's among his louder, taller classmates. They are rowdy and rambunctious; a noisy, talkative bunch. They are all...different, in a way. Special. They are cursed, but unlike him, his classmates' curses do not require much of them. They need not change anything about themselves in order to ensure the safety of dragons.
Not in the way he must.
A pale SeaWing with dark eyes, descended from a cursed lineage; a curse which manifests itself in the inky black markings which adorn his snout. A circle on each cheek, with another, smaller circle in their centers. The smaller circles are filled in, coloured dark like the pupil of an eye. From these eyes two squiggly black lines extend inwards, stopping only once they've reached the corners of his mouth.
The Snake and Fangs Sigil, is what his family calls it.
His family traces the curse back to thousands of years ago, to an age when animus dragons and their curses ran wild. Curses that killed, and that made others kill. A curse on a family, for instance, that made their speech deadly.
Yelling a frustrated "Be quiet!" caused others to halt in the middle of a conversation. Calling out "Stop!" stilled the wings of a dragon who had launched themself into the air. A joking "Then perish" told to a friend would be met with their very sudden and unhumorous death. Unsuspecting dragons would find themselves saying words they did not mean, and feeling emotions that were alien to them. Their limbs moved of their own accord, and perplexing ideas sprung into their minds. They were unable to control what they said, felt, did, and thought; and what made it all worse was that the ones who took control of them often did so unintentionally.
"I am so, so sorry," The Cursed Speech user apologized; stricken at what they had done. "You can speak again."
"Wait, no—! Start flying!" The Cursed Speech user yelped out, realizing their error not a moment too soon.
"No," The Cursed Speech user gasped, staring down at the lifeless corpse that had once been their friend; their friend whom they had been laughing and talking with, just a moment ago. Tears formed in their eyes and blurred their vision—small, trembling droplets that pooled together until they were on the verge of overflowing—as the gravity of what they had done took ahold of them, bearing down in all of it's crushing weight. "No," The Cursed Speech user whispered.
Unintentional. An accident.
The knowledge that they were accidents, however, did nothing to quell the growing notoriety of the clan. Others were afraid, and understandably so. A dragon who could force someone to sleep, to run, to die simply by commanding them to would always be feared. A dragon like that possessed immense power, and little in the way to impede them.
They were not invincible, of course. No one is; not even the strongest among cursed dragons. Cursed Speech users were just as susceptible to their own curse as anyone else. If they met with an opponent who had a curse stronger than their own, then they would experience a recoil of sorts—an affect that left them with a sore throat at best, or at worst, no longer breathing.
So, others began hunting the Cursed Speech users. Other dragons with curses, strong ones. They viewed the Cursed Speech clan as a threat, and thus sought out their members to kill them. Fight after fight, battle after battle, conflict after conflict—and the Cursed Speech users were always on the losing side. They were scared, overwhelmed, exhausted. Many no longer believed that they deserved to lived. Members of the family fell left and right; their numbers dwindled until they nearly ceased to exist.
At long last, an end was put to the carnage...but the damage had already been done, and it was irrevocable. Those who survived it learned to keep silent. They learned to comply with the wills of the other clans, to accommodate others through mute demonstration.
This is the legacy that Bonito has inherited.
A curse that turns his words into weapons.
It makes communicating a difficult feat, which makes him easily misunderstood. Bonito comes off as an aloof and intimidating individual to dragons who are unfamiliar with him. Once they become better acquainted, though, they learn that he is far from being like that. He is compassionate, and selfless. He cares for his friends and strives to protect them, in spite of the very real dangers that they must face.
Dragons with curses do not live uneventful, normal lives, and they likewise do not die natural deaths. Those are luxuries that they cannot afford. Danger is always present, and this Bonito knows all too well. Danger is intrinsic to the profession he and his classmates have chosen.
Kind by nature, Bonito does
so lethal is his speech, that he has resigned himself to speaking in riceball ingredients.
i know this sounds like a joke but its really not. he could very well just drop all the dangerous words from his vocabulary, but instead he's just standing there, vibing, being like "tuna. kelp!"
considering that he gets caught up in shenanigans i feel like he's doing that just to troll ppl
- yes, he is based off of Jujutsu Kaisen's Toge Inumaki
- bonito is a type of tuna
- it's also a way of saying beautiful in spanish, and in the fanbook, gege akutami actually called inumaki pretty so imo it all works out