actingfool

[actingfool]

@stillgrows

It's a very human thing to grow attached to objects. But there's a couple of trinkets, here and there, that Kubo has held onto for more than a few decades. Not that he's about to wax poetic about it, though.

"It's been a long time, then!" Kubo notes, shifting to holding his cigarette so his jaw can drop in mock surprise. "No wonder nothin' fazes you—you're no spring chicken!"

Jokes aside, he'd guessed Kariya was an old hand at the Reaper business. His vibes said as much, no matter how cagey the guy himself was.

"What's real crazy is how you've stuck around this dump." A carefully placed barb, albeit not a particularly subtle one.

He takes a drag of his own, letting the statement hang in the air.

An exhale, and his eyes still hang on Kariya's face, scrutinizing.

"Even after all those years...ya never wanted a change?"

it's interesting what little items people hold onto, kariya half - thinks as he observes the lighter.

it's one of the things he likes about people watching, the little pieces of sentimental anachronism they incorporate into their daily lives. it's not like he has a better place to look than the lighter as kubo lights his cigarette, clearly unbothered by the proximity, so he lets his thoughts dwell on it.

it's only when kubo draws back that kariya does, leaning back into the bench, an arm resting across the back of it as his other hand brings the cigarette to his lips to take a drag. "i quit back in the eighties," he admits on the exhale like it's nothing — like it's not an admission of just how long he's been at this. "figure one t' be social nowadays won't do too much damage."

his lips pull up into a little grin, his eyes on kubo a sideways glance. "don't go thinkin' you're dragging me back into anything." another draw, this one lighter. another exhale. "'m just too nice an' all to turn down your generosity."

[actingfool]

thinking about twewy god. like capital g god. i can only surmise they're not really...communicating. highly possible they just made everything and then went off to take a nap somewhere, imo.

but my broad strokes concept is they're kinda like...the IDEA of a god rather than one specific to any religion/group of religions in particular. humans probably just latched onto different ideas and ran with it. regardless, they're outside the higher plane (an EVEN HIGHER PLANE, pOSSIBLY??) and don't really talk directly w/ the angels. there's kinda just Rules and How Things Work and everyone is keeping things running as they've always been without any input or critique. oops.

[actingfool]

ok ok i'm back hiii. mainly just lurkin around tonight (i want to be back to work on some things tomorrow lol). happy belated new year to all you people!

really the only changes here to mention for the new year is you're prob going to see me start using capitalization (gasp) in writing posts. i'm trying to get in the habit of writing things...properly...for reasons outside rp haha. so, a change is in order! but nothing major, it's just a formatting thing.

[actingfool]

[actingfool]

guess what? i've decided it's finally time to talk about the wonderful world of hanafuda, how that connects to the shinjuku reapers, and how from this information we can deduce what kubo's noise form is!

now that neo has been out for a while, this might be more common information, but i'll give a primer real quick. much like how the shibuya reapers in twewy have a theme for their noise forms (the zodiac), the shinjuku reapers have their own theme. and that theme is hanafuda! (and i can't give myself credit for this concept. i originally came across this idea here, iirc).

essentially, hanafuda are a type of playing cards. they have a long history of different forms and being used for a variety of games (including gambling). highly recommend looking that up if you're interested. in the modern day, hanafuda decks generally have 48 cards split into twelve suits (think like how western playing cards have suits). each suit corresponds to a month and has a variety of symbolism in the art connected to that. generally speaking, every suit is represented by a plant/flower. sometimes they have an animal on one of their cards too. that's why we're interested.

getting back to neo twewy, the shinjuku reapers don't necessarily have the hanafuda link hidden in their names, but instead in their birthdays.

for example, tsugumi's birthday is in january. the january hanafuda suit has a crane as its animal. shiba's birthday is in june. the june suit has a card with butterflies, etc. wondering where ayano got an iris noise from? her name means iris and every card in the may suit has irises on it. even characters who don't get a noise form in-game have some kind of connection (e.g., kaie and hishima both have name references to things on their birthday month cards).

so. that was a VERY elaborate prelude to present my hypothesis: kubo's noise form is a goose.

his (supposed) birthday is in august, and the hanafuda suit for august is quite fun for a number of reasons. most importantly: THERE'S GEESE ON IT.

in fact, i'd like to say there's some interesting symbolism going on, at least for the most colorful cards (a full moon, and flying geese). august is the card suit associated with the changing of seasons to fall, so naturally there's a harvest moon. we are going to choose to ignore the fact it makes the sky an ominous red color in this depiction. or the linguistic implications of a harvest moon. and how haz has the kanji for 'moon' hidden in his name.... the rolling hills depicted are supposed to be fields of susuki grass (one of the seven flowers of autumn. the more you know! but we don't care about that here). the geese are geese. but more specifically, they are indeed migrating!

i've seen at least one site suggest the birds in question are meant to be swan geese, which used to fly to japan for the winter. and i am inclined to think that's an accurate choice.

speaking of birds. does the color scheme look familiar by any chance?

SO. whether on accident or not, kubo matches the geese. also i think it's a really cute coincidence (if it is one) to pick a migratory bird to go with a guy who showed up, ingratiated himself into a team, and would've just picked up and left if all had gone according to plan.

conclusion: i'm gonna let kubo have one thing in common with his fake buddies and get assigned Goose by the hanafuda noise form sorter.

it's a beautiful day in shibuya, and you are a horrible goose.

[actingfool]

toast, why are you shipping kariya and kubo? because it's funny.

—also let's be honest, isn't trying to kill a dude a relationship rite of passage?

[actingfool]

KDNL — █████████████████████████████ Kardinal units are known for their familiar faces and unforgettable personalities. You've never met her before, have you?

ft. an original interpretation of Nyarlathotep, The Crawling Chaos & God of a Thousand Forms, as well as muses from fandoms such as The Magnus Archives, Red Valley, The Evil Within, and more, all as understood and written by Syd.

[actingfool]

Shiba is standing next to Kubo, looking over the city of Shibuya with an obviously irritated glint in his eyes. It isn't hard to guess what's bothering him. It's always the same thing these days, those friends of his aren't behaving as they rightfully should.

He takes a long drag of the cigarette in his mouth, holds it, and then lets the wind carry the smoke from his lungs.

"Tell me, Kubo," he starts, brown eyes flickering towards him, "what brings you joy?"

kubo laughs—the raucous noise filling the space between them.

he knows full well shiba is asking seriously. but despite that (because of that), he just can't help the immediate reaction.

"...whew. tough question, boss," he says, watching his own cigarette as he twists it between his fingers. the light of the embers catches in his eyes, bringing out a hint of gold hidden beneath the inconspicuous bronze.

"do ya want me to give you some kinda sappy answer? 'gee, shiba, your success is all it takes for me!' something schmaltzy like that would probably do th' trick, right?"

kubo glances sideways at shiba with a smile. sure, it's smug, but with the implication of this being a joke between friends.

"but instead 'a givin' you a proper answer, how's about i play therapist for a minute here?"

he points at shiba with the cigarette.

"why are you asking?"

[actingfool]

sooo unfortunately another one of kubo's traits is just. refusing to give up on things and quit. unless you literally forbid him from doing something (like how he's not allowed to destroy the city anymore) he's just going to keep at it, i'm afraid.

toxic work environment? go join a secondary toxic work environment to lower morale even further and make people suffer. because you think it's funny. fail to erase a guy? TRY TO DO IT A FEW MORE TIMES JUST TO MAKE SURE. get obliterated from reality? god didn't make a quitter, he WILL be back

[actingfool]

@powerunknown said: yeah. you. 🙄

"hey, now. i ain't the quitter here. i'd keep my mouth shut if i was you."

[actingfool]

(shoka vc) ew

"yuuuck. look at what the cat dragged in."

[actingfool]

FINALLY the twewy invasion is happening. at least it didn't take another 14 years

[actingfool]

fuck this time loop im leaving (walks into a different, worse time loop)

[actingfool]

hiiii [waves] i need to refresh on some stuff from neo before writing here again but i AM . AROUND. sort of.

[actingfool]

simply, i think nomura should subject kh-only gamers to his most beloved new oc (kubo) because it would be funny

[actingfool]

angels are on earth acting like weirdos and if u question them they're just like be nice to me its my first time being alive :( shut up you have been here 37 times in the last 100 years you are just making excuses