Teardrop

**Teardrop**, formerly Rooster of the Zodiacs, was an infamous pirate in the Jade Sea, specifically residing in the Death's Head Belt. He prevented the passing of, what he viewed as, amateur pirates from the Belt into the Dread Sea, guarding the entrance at his base on the island of Gehenna.

After multiple encounters with the Three Thumbs Pirates, he was eventually killed by Benley at the top of the Tower of Karma.

Due to his actions, he was the main antagonist of Season 1 - A Drop in the Ocean.

## Appearance

As his moniker of 'The Mad Clown' implies, Teardrop had a very eclectic fashion taste. At all times, even in private, Teardrop would dress in his usual clown attire - face painted white, frilled shirt with patterns of diamonds, and ripped green pants with heart designs. His fingernails were grown long and painted, usually between shades of dark black to purple and bright reds. Along with his painted face, Teardrop had painted teardrops underneath his eyes.

Teardrop's hair was long, a light brown with streaks of light silver running throughout. However, when activating The World tarot, Teardrop's hair would become a bright shimmering white as the power of the card ran through his entire body. Similarly, after having the World devoured by The Hunger, Teardrop's long hair began to shed from him, becoming very short, and turning a dark brown.

## Personality

Teardrop, much like his appearance, had a rather unusual personality. Depending on his mood and surroundings, Teardrop would flit between one of two distinct personalities:

The first, that of a showman. Teardrop viewed the Jade Sea, and much the entire world, as a stage for him to perform upon. Flashy lights, raucous applause, and a winning smile would often follow the ringmaster as he danced around attempting to entertain no audience other than himself. Everything for Teardrop was a source of amusement or comedy during this time, even his most vicious enemies were nothing more than poorly dressed theatre attendees to be shut outside before the show began.

The second was that of a dangerous sociopath. Despite his gleaming demeanour, there was a deep dissatisfaction held within Teardrop towards his position within the seas. He viewed himself as a much more powerful individual than he was, thus moved from the Dread Sea to the Death's Head Belt in order properly align himself at the top of the food chain. Other pirates were merely foolish losers who were unworthy of heading into the Dread Sea, especially as he himself had failed at his expedition of it. Therefore, he took out his anger and frustration on just about anyone who stood in his way, or dared to get too close. Teardrop was not quick to anger, choosing instead to take trophies from his targets as warnings for them to stay away, but once drawn into a fight Teardrop would not hold back from slaughtering his target.

## Relationships

### Teardrop Pirates

All members of Teardrop's crew were to style themselves accordingly to the clown's theme - that of a circus. Therefore, Teardrop recruited members such as a lion tamer, gymnast, and fortune teller to his company. Many were drawn to him due to his natural charisma as a ringleader, and chose to follow willingly, changing their style accordingly to fit with the circus theme. Others were recruited through more business endeavours - his recruitment of Akira came at the behest of a large investment into the Arena, whilst the recruiting of the Deathspeaker was as a means of collecting all the information about the up-and-coming pirates in the area.

Teardrop was the captain of his crew, and used to care about their wellbeing dearly. Following the unsuccessful campaign of the Teardrop Pirates into the Dread Sea, Teardrop became bitter and resentful to all other pirates who were more promising than himself. As a result, members of his own crew became fearful of his fractured personality as he would change by the day from friendly showman, to vicious killer. Teardrop himself viewed many of his crew as expendable, even killing Mr Light for his attempt to flee the Carnival after being cornered by the Three Thumbs. By the end, those that remained simply worked to sate Teardrop's need for performance and power, in order to avoid his wrath.

### The Three Thumbs Crew

Teardrop was initially non-hostile towards the Three Thumbs, simpling warning them to steer clear of the Dread Sea entirely and to retire themselves as pirates, but soon became directly antagonistic towards them after they did not heed his words. On the island of Yogen-Sha, he took Hangwit's gun and Death Bullet, and blinded Marlowe as a final warning to give up their ambitions as pirates.

After they continued on the Belt, Teardrop would later give them formal invitation to the Tower of Karma as a way of dealing with all of his many enemies at once - in a bout of games, shows, and violence. The Three Thumbs would prove victorious in these games, eventually reaching Teardrop on Floor 100 where they would request a final battle with him. Teardrop accepted, and finally met his end to the Three Thumbs after Benley snapped his neck.

### The Zodiacs

Though a member of the Zodiacs as Rooster, Teardrop mostly ignored his duties as a Zodiac, preferring to instead focus on his own goals. As a result, many of the Zodiacs were unbothered by his demise at the hands of the Three Thumbs, and his position was swiftly replaced by Arminius.

It is currently unknown as to why, or how, Teardrop was able to achieve this position in the Zodiacs, or as to why Rat allowed him to stay on.

### Mira Wyrmwood

Teardrop grew up on Numachi, alongside Mira Wyrmwood. Though Teardrop was slightly older, he still interacted with Mira often as a child - being one of the prime bullies who tormented her. He found her oddities (wings, and weak body) to be somewhat amusing, though he would later adopt other strange aspects to his own persona. During the catastrophe that took place on Numachi, when Mira would decimate the village with her new-found rot abilities, Teardrop would have a fateful encounter with her. Whilst she destroyed the bodies of the other children who had bullied her, Mira merely looked at Teardrop with scorn and pity in her eyes, leaving him as one of the only unhurt people on the island.

The decision by Mira to leave him alone would torment Teardrop throughout his adolescence, becoming a formative moment for him. After coming of age, he would set out into the Dread Sea in order to find Mira again and ask her why she had left him. Years later, he would finally catch up to her - being now 19 - though she would not recognise his face, nor care to learn who he was. Mira had become greatly powerful at this point, leaving Teardrop behind in the dust. This incident again broke Teardrop, driving him somewhat mad and sending him back to the Jade Sea in order to conquer the Death's Head Belt as a way of reclaiming his power.

He would become obsessed with Mira, preventing other pirates from entering the Dread Sea as if he was not worthy of that sea, then they would not be able to compare to Mira either and thus would not be worthy of her gaze. Part of the reason he became so antagonistic towards the Three Thumbs was after learning of their encounter with Mira, desperately trying and failing to understand why she would look at them, but not at him.

#### The Yonkishi of Death

After Teardrop's demise, his body was reduced to a fluttering of playing cards. Death then came and picked up The Fool, noting that, "In the end, it was the Fool who was devoured by his Hunger.".

It is currently unknown what relationship Teardrop and Death had, though certainly Death played a part in giving Teardrop his powers of Tarot.

## Abilities and Powers

### Overview

Teardrop was a powerful combatant in his own right, easily conquering the Death's Head Belt without any difficulty. Similarly, he was able to dispatch of many aspiring pirates attempting to venture into the Dread Sea. His position at the head of the Jade Sea was that of significant notoriety, meaning he was known to many across the Sea itself and feared by most. However, in comparison to the dangers and powers of the Dread Sea, Teardrop was nothing more than a drop in the ocean.

### The Tarot

Teardrop's main source of power came from his mastery of the Tarot, both of the cards themselves and the powers laden within them. Each card, when drawn, gave Teardrop a unique and dangerous ability that he could use at his will. Some of these abilities included the creation of a sword forged of magic, binding and paralyzing a person to the ground, and creation of blinding lights. Although Teardrop could not directly control which card he would pull from the deck, his mastery over it allowed him to fully utilise each of them no matter in the order they were drawn.

There were two exceptions to his mastery of the deck: The Fool card, and The World card. The Fool, once drawn, would remove any current effects upon Teardrop, forcing him to restart his draw from the beginning. In direct opposite, The World card would allow Teardrop total control over the next card drawn - he could effectively draw and discard any effect as, and when, he desired, making him an incredibly dangerous opponent during this time.

### The Hunger

Due to his mastery of the Tarot, Teardrop was able to draw upon a final ability when pushed into a corner - The Hunger. This was a tarot card lost to the annals of time itself no longer included in the deck due to the dark desires that it thrust upon the user. When activated, The Hunger allowed Teardrop to devour any of his active cards. This would greatly amplify the effect of the card - usually doubling, or triping the effect - before permanently removing it from the active deck. However, if all of the active cards are devoured by The Hunger, then Teardrop would lose all power over the Tarot for the rest of the day.

This, along with The World, made Teardrop almost unstoppable to any pirate, or Marine, in the Jade Sea allowing him total control over the sea itself.

## History

### Season 1 - A Drop in the Ocean

#### Early Jade Sea Arc

The first mentions of a 'clown' were made during this season, as found in the diaries of Delight Pirate Captain Kendall Bradford, who mentioned that a mysterious egg was sold to him in Gehenna by a man dressed as a clown. The egg would later hatch into a Remorhaz, devouring all members of the Delight Pirates, and driving Bradford to madness.

#### Carnival Arc

Teardrop disguised himself as a bumbling stagehand, Thaco, within the Witchlight Carnival to keep a close eye on Mr. Witch and Mr. Light, who he suspected of trying to take control over the carnival for themselves. Though never proven correct, he would later murder Mr. Light for attempting to flee from the carnival after being cornered by the Three Thumbs. He would then make himself known to the Three Thumbs for the first time, telling them to abandon their ambitions of going to the Dread Sea as they were not worthy.

#### House of Death Arc

Teardrop would appear again during this arc to confront the Three Thumbs about their ambitions after being summoned by Big Hitter (the baseball-dressed member of his crew). He would again murder his crewmate for a simple annoyance, before turning his attention to the Three Thumbs. He once again ordered them to leave the Death's Head Belt, this time taking Hangwit's gun and Death Bullet, and Marlowe's eyesight, as a way of making his words stick.

#### Tower of Karma Arc

The Three Thumbs would be invited to the Tower of Karma on Gehenna as part of Teardrop's scheme to remove all his enemies at once. Within the Tower of Karma, he proposed a multitude of games and challenges for all members to attempt (around a hundred people all wanting something from him), with the one winning person, or team, being able to request anything they wanted of him in return. This led to a mass outbreak of violence amongst the competitors who threw themselves at each other trying to get to the top first, eliminating many of Teardrop's problems.

The Three Thumbs were the first to make it to the top of the Tower - requesting a battle with Teardrop to settle things once and for all. Teardrop would accept, and the Three Thumbs faced him the next morning. During the gruelling battle, Teardrop was able to swing the advantage using his Tarot deck, eventually taking down both Marlowe and Hangwit, before shooting Hangwit in the head with the Death Bullet, killing him. To his surprise, Hangwit was revived, and the Three Thumbs were able to swing the fight back in their favour using the power of the Arclight - their deceased friend Perona briefly coming back to heal them all fully, and imbue them all with new power (levelling up to level 5). With this new power, they were able to finally take out the mad clown, with Benley snapping his neck, leading to the ultimate downfall of the Fool.

### Season 2 - Sign of the Zodiac

Teardrop's position in the Zodiac as Rooster has now been filled by Arminius, though his weight in the story lingers. Benley suffered from a strange vision when very close to death in which he saw Teardrop again, taunting him for being able to take down the clown but still die alone to the rot of a mummy in a tomb.

## Trivia

* Teardrop, both his design and general motive, were heavily inspired by Hisoka from HunterxHunter. Initially, Teardrop was going to have more card-based abilities but this was changed to create a distinction from Hisoka.
* Teardrop was also going to initially have more magician-based powers, such as making traditional magican acts into malicious attacks, but this was again changed to become more of a versatile fighter.
* The idea of the Tarot, and the Hunger, was inspired by Persona, though each specific ability tied to the Tarot card itself was inspired by the actual meaning of each tarot card.
* Teardrop was also going to be a more long-running villain, with hints of him being dropped throughout Season 1, but ended up being the main antagonist after the party entered the Death's Head Belt.
* The fight with Teardrop is Luke's favourite fight in the entire campaign thus far, with the second being the fight with Akira.