Zheng, full name presumably Liu Zheng, is a male peculiar with the peculiarity of irreversibly turning into a living island called Cocobolo.
Tales of the Peculiar[]
Cocobolo[]
Zheng lived during the reign of Kublai Khan in Tianjin, ancient China. When he was ten, his father, Liu Zhi, who he held in high esteem, disappeared on a voyage. Zheng afterwards began hearing of how strange his father had become, which shifted his opinions of him, and in adulthood Zheng tries to disassociate himself from Liu Zhi as much as possible and becomes a successful man.
At the age of thirty, Zheng begins having strange dreams and his peculiarity, which he later learns he shares with his father, begins manifesting through grass on his feet, seaweed under his armpits, and sand oozing from his pores. He is unable to stop it happening and decides to mount a voyage to find his father and the island Liu Zhi had gone to find when he disappeared, Cocobolo, in the hopes it would lead to a cure. To his horror, Zheng discovers that Liu Zhi had turned into a Cocobolo, a fate he will eventually share as well. Zheng returns home despite his father's pleas for him to stay and tells all his relatives and associates that Liu Zhi is dead.
To stop his transformation, he has his feet amputated, skin covered in glue, and armpits filled with sticky tar. As seeing or touching water causes his peculiarity to threaten to burst out, he starts living inland and avoids water, only sucking on a wet cloth when absolutely needed. He lives like this for many years. However, one day he finds a ruby that he had taken from Cocobolo and thinks of his father, which causes a tear to fall down his face and trigger his final transformation into an island.
Zheng runs outside as it happens, getting attacked by a mob and then the emperor's warships as he splashes into the sea. His father, who had been keeping watch for years, rescues him. Liu Zhi takes his son far out to sea, and as the days pass, Zheng finds that he finally feels like himself.
Description[]
Appearance[]
Zheng was a Chinese man. He sacrifices his appearance while attempting to stop his transformation into an island by having his pores stopped up by glue and tar, and his feet amputated and replaced with wooden ones. He also refuses to touch water, resulting in him becoming "old and dry as dust... [coming] to resemble a very large raisin." His current form is a large island, which includes a coral reef around him along with the earth, sand, and vegetation.
Personality[]
Zheng is a practical, careful man who takes no risks.
Peculiarity[]
Zheng is destined to turn into an island called Cocobolo. The peculiarity does not completely surface until his adulthood, starting out with grass under his feet, seaweed under his armpits, and sand oozing from his pores. Although Zheng attempts to fight the changes, he is unable to avoid his fate and eventually, a tear down his face triggers the transformation.
As a Cocobolo, Zheng is a sentient island that can move and feel pain. Like his father, he bleeds gold, and rubies that fall from trees are his tears. Earth is his skin, grass is his hair, and caves are his nose and mouth.
Relationships[]
Liu Zhi[]
| “ | As a boy, Zheng worshipped his father. | ” |
When he was young, Zheng held Liu Zhi in high regard, believing that the ocean would never be able to best him. However, after Liu Zhi did not return from his expedition to discover Cocobolo, the pedestal Zheng had placed his father on began to crumble as he started to hear stranger things about Liu Zhi that he had been too young to understand before. Zheng vowed not to repeat the mistakes of his father that had led to downfall, and tried to disassociate himself entirely from Liu Zhi. However, when their shared peculiarity began affecting Zheng, he realized that Liu Zhi had actually went on his final expedition to find a cure for it. He finally decided to fulfill the promise he had made when he was a boy, to go and find his father.
While Liu Zhi, who had accepted and come to terms with becoming Cocobolo, was very happy to see his son when he arrived, Zheng was not, and stayed fixated on becoming normal again. Zheng found himself sad whenever thinking of his father, and once again resolved to disassociate from him. He bitterly left, and Liu Zhi wept. However, Liu Zhi still loved his son, always keeping watch over him, and rescued Zheng from the emperor's warships after Zheng could no longer escape turning into an island. Zheng was deeply ashamed of himself for being cruel to Liu Zhi, but Liu Zhi does not hold it against him, simply saying that Zheng is his son.