Tea and Madness

Lol uhhh he probably found out about it from one of his Shinigami friends mentioning it in passing, nobody goes out of their way to tell him because they all thought someone else had already told him 😂

It's not like he could bring any of it back in time though, or rather the Soul King wouldn't think of 💸 petty mortal things like money 💸

And honestly Ichigo didn't need it in the previous timeline where room and board was all provided for him, and even if he wanted to buy something in particular, someone Kisuke was always on hand to buy it for him. And then in this new timeline he has the Shiba Clan and a proper job, but occasionally he likes to bring it up with Starrk as something of an inside joke, like "damn I'm not even paid for dealing with this shit anymore".

(Of course the other inside joke they like to crack between them is how Starrk's never had to worry about money because Shunsui gave his wife Starrk free access to all his bank accounts basically right from the get-go, so between that and the fact that he'd spent his entire life before that in a place where money would've been worth less than the sand, the concept of money has always been a bit skewed for Starrk lmaooo.)

Ok so I've actually gotten several asks about what Starrk's relationship with Unohana/the Fourth is/was like, but I don't have time atm to get into it, but I also want to toss out some of my headcanons about it because I've thought about it a lot, so I'll just list out a few headcanons in no particular order and get back to those asks later.

I do kind of want to sometimes, it's just that a lot of them are sort of half fic, half stream of consciousness. I think AO3 is okay with that but it's still a bit weird to me and idk if readers would like that anyway. Plus some pieces are really short because they're more succinct replies to asks, but it's still part of the AU, but it's not a full part, so I don't even list those on my masterlist, I only tag them as part of the same AU, but I also sometimes refer to them when I write more parts, so... it would just be difficult to put that on ao3 too lol.

Idk I'll think about it, maybe I'll put the main parts of at least a few AUs and link the corresponding tumblr tag in the notes or something in case some ppl want to read absolutely everything.

Starrk is just a really tragic character with a really tragic arc, canonically he was never meant to be saved or have a chance at something better.

I don't know if I'd call him particularly honourable, if only because that doesn't seem like the sort of thing he'd really think about and adhere to as a Hollow who'd spent his whole life in a place like Hueco Mundo, not in the same way a Shinigami would. I think it was more that he just didn't want to kill anyone when he'd already killed so many without ever having a choice in the matter, and now that he did, he didn't want to keep doing that if he didn't absolutely have to. He was definitely a bit naive about it because it was war, and he was up against one of the most powerful and ruthless Shinigami in existence. The moment he decided to hold back, he was destined to lose.

For Shunsui, I agree, he believes that to win a war, people have to get their hands dirty, and you can't do that and still remain "good". I also think he thinks that it's disrespectful to not do everything in his power to win, because even if that means throwing away his honour, to do anything less means risking the lives of those he's fighting that war for.

Which ties into why I personally think Starrk doesn't really blame Shunsui for Lilynette's death. I think Starrk is smart enough and similar enough to Shunsui to understand him. And why blame Shunsui when he can blame himself? He's the one who held back from the start, he didn't fight as hard as he could, he even had the chance to kill Shunsui if he'd just gone down to finish the job after shooting him instead of just backing off after disabling him, or he could've even shot him somewhere more leathal like the back of the head instead of the shoulder/chest, because at their level, which Shinigami or Hollow wouldn't survive a simple injury like that? He would've also been able to sense full well that Shunsui's reiatsu signature hadn't disappeared. So that choice is on him, and he paid for it with Lilynette's life.

I also think Starrk didn't have much conviction or resolve, I mean I don't think most of the Espada really believed in Aizen's cause, they just followed him for more power or because Aizen tricked them or forced them, and prob with a side of hypnosis to pave the way. So Starrk didn't even have anything concrete to believe in and fight for aside from a debt he felt he had to repay, and that was quickly wearing away when he saw how Aizen didn't give a shit about them.

So overall, he went into battle against Shunsui without any desire to fight or kill because he thought he didn't really have anything he wanted enough to fight for, right up until he lost Lilynette and realized that yeah he did have something precious to lose after all. In contrast, Shunsui was fighting for Soul Society and to protect his fellow Shinigami, and at the time, he definitely understood that far better than Starrk did.

If Starrk had survived, I think he would've understood that too, plus he just doesn't have the kind of temper that lashes out and casts blame on others due to excess emotion; rather, he has the sort of analytical mind to comprehend the cause and effect of things pretty instantly. That would all play a big part in why he wouldn't blame Shunsui for doing what he had to do to take Starrk out. He and Lilynette were one, Shunsui would've had to kill both of them sooner or later, otherwise he might as well lie down and give up, Starrk wasn't exactly an opponent he could take it easy with.

In the time travel verse here, Idk if I'd make it a particularly huge thing, because for Starrk it's been like 10+ years, I imagine he's laid that ghost to rest a long time ago even if the loss still hurts sometimes, plus it's not TBTP!Shunsui who killed her, and i think he would've hashed out the issue with TYBW!Shunsui already at the beginning. Of course, TBTP!Shunsui is bound to find out about it eventually, which could be interesting to poke at.

But in Take What's Broken (Make It Whole), it'll definitely come up sooner or later. Even if Starrk doesn't bring it up first, Shunsui will, and even if there's no blame, I imagine they would at least have to talk about it going forward.

Lol thank you I'm glad you like her! She practically wrote herself, and her personality came out really strong and straightforward. I was a little worried at the beginning because she ended up also being a Kidou-focused character like Koyonagi, but then she started talking and I was like okay never mind they'd prob kill each other for a corn chip 😂😂

Honestly there were probably a lot of snide comments in the early days about Starrk, who wasn't even "brought in" by Ichigo so he'd be viewed with more suspicion. Except then there's Shunsui inexplicably getting into figurative fistfights with anybody stupid enough to spout off within his hearing range (shadows are so efficient at scaring the crap out of ppl, they're everywhere; meanwhile Starrk's like "maybe don't be so heavy-handed Soutaichou, I don't care anyway and aren't you supposed to be a thousand years old, act your age" while Shunsui's just "this is my age, I'm a spry thousand-year-old" 😂 he can probably tell Starrk's equal parts confused and pleased about it even if he's also sensible, and that only encourages him lol). Let's just say ppl learned pretty quickly to shut up, and honestly there were bigger problems to worry about than Shunsui's love life. The few who pushed just a bit too far - like Aizen - only pushed that far once. Shunsui made sure of that.

Starrk would totally go for it, 10/10 sounds super peaceful 😂

Shunsui on the other hand prob wouldn't be too chill about that lmao. Starrk's Hierro should still work though. But Shunsui doesn't know about that.

No.

Not... exactly. Lilynette as she was in canon is gone. Sorry not bringing her back. I personally think her death would be a major part of Starrk's growth (not just in terms of power lol) if he were to survive the Winter War, something like "not being strong might mean being able to gain people you can grow close to and love, but being weak might mean you can't even protect the loved ones you already had".

I've implied that Shunsui's taught Starrk a lot, not even on purpose most of the time, just from their interactions and from Starrk watching him. Not all of those lessons were during the Quincy War. And Starrk certainly learned very well what happens when you half-ass a battle just because you don't like to fight. And some of the points from his "essay" definitely stemmed from that.

Anyway, I haven't actually hammered out all the details of his Zanpakutou yet, I have general ideas for parts of it, and more specific stuff for his Bankai in particular, but it's a work in progress so I won't expound on it here, and it might be a while yet before I really get into it (@the other anons too who sent in asks about his Zanpakutou lol, sorry you'll have to wait for that reveal).

LMAO. I have nothing to add, this is exactly right. I actually already had the thought that Shunsui would totally think "well there's more than one way to be a part of my family, Lovely, how 'bout it?" 😂😂

Thank you, I'm glad you've enjoyed my writing! My cheshiresense blog is my writing side blog on Tumblr, but the bulk of my writing is posted on AO3 under cywscross, so you can check them out over there. I've locked them for registered users only though so you'd have to be logged in to see them.