If Ayin did distort, what kind of abilities would he have?

Dear Anonymous,

Good question! I've thought about it a lot, and I think that Ayin's Distortion would be mostly influenced by the traumas he endured, just as the Ensemble's members were all influenced by their most traumatic events;

Jae-Heon was influenced by how his son was run over by a road-roller and how his puppet was then destroyed by Roland, thus turning into a puppet-master and, subsequently, into an amalgamation of various different creatures, just like his puppets he made for Argalia.

Greta was influenced by how her fellow Eight-Chefs ate themselves and pushed themselves to the limit in the search for new tastes and flavours; her hunger and desire manifested in the form of a famished shark with many, many mouths in order to eat as much as she wanted.

And so on and so forth. If we were to follow the same formula for Ayin, I'd think that the events that marked/traumatised him the most had to be the Old Lab's raid by Garion, the Smoke War, and the loss of Carmen, so I believe his Distortion would have some form of connection to all three of these events.

Not to mention that, personally, I think Ayin was just a few wrong/right turns away in life from being the perfect Arbiter, and seeing how X manifested into a sick parody of an Arbiter himself, I'd think Ayin's Distortion would be quite similar, although with a few twists here and there.

For starters, I believe that his Arbiter gear would be more white-and-red instead of the standard and iconic gold-and-black issued to most Arbiters, mostly for the sake of artistic choices on my end, but also because I believe a Distortion would attempt to be different from the main enforcers of the City's order, as Carmen explicitly stated that, after she herself became the Voice of the Distortion, she was attempting to free the people from the City's cycle in her own, twisted way. As such, I believe she would help draw out a form that is at least visually distinct from Arbiters for her beloved Yinnie, of all people, seeing how he deserves that little pleasure the most, which is my explanation for how I'd explain this stylistic choice for Ayin while X's Distortion is a regular Arbiter outfit.

As for abilities, I'd personally assume they would be similar to what X possesses, to some degree, with typical Arbiter powers being the 'norm' for Ayin's Distortion, but I'd also assume that seeing how his trauma extends far beyond that of most of the PM characters we got to see so far, he'd also be able to tap into powers specifically from his time in the Smoke War. For example, I assume that he would be able to concentrate his powers to summon inter-dimensional portals like those used in the War, or perhaps even utilise the Smoke itself as one of his abilities to weaken opponents at the cost of it also adversely affecting him.

But I think what would also make him even more of a force to be reckoned with would be his relation to Abnormalities. I'm sure that he would resonate with quite a few Abnormality powers which Carmen would happily draw from him to make him into a bit of a indestructible force, although I'm not exactly sure on what Abnormality powers he would have access to, but one thing I am certain of is that he would without a doubt be able to manipulate blood to some extent or perhaps even mess with one's central nervous system, as an homage to his trauma with regards to Carmen. Perhaps he causes hallucinations or causes one's own mind to start attacking itself?

I think his biggest weakness would be his willingness to fight against his Distortion, it's just that he will need a lot of outside help to even have a chance at managing to ward off the Distortion, seeing how he's so full of repressed sentiments and emotions, and all of them bursting out as he Distorts would have quite the catastrophic consequences.

This was a really fun ask, and so I thank you, Anon, for providing me with it! I don't know if I can apply them somewhere soon, but this was quite fun to think of! As always, take care, stay safe, and see ya'!