#[[ someday Kubo may give Kisuke an actual backstory

[uraharashouten]

Pohjola, spirit dimension near Finland, late 1500s

“A letter of transfer?” Kielo eyed the document in her husband’s hand suspiciously.

“Our Queen is requesting our presence in the Eastern Branch of Soul Society,” replied Ilmarinen. “And by our presence, I mean our permanent relocation, and by requesting, I mean ordering.”

Kielo was speechless for a long moment. “We’re… being sent away?”

“So it would seem.”

“That’s – tantamount to banishment. Exile.” Shock was now giving way to angry frustration. “Why?”

“It’s -- really not... we’re meant to be ambassadors, in a sense. And you know why. Most of the folk to the south have become followers of that Hebrew fellow. When they die, their souls seem to be stuck with him. They don’t believe in the cycle, and they don’t come here. Even in the North, most no longer fear Queen Louhi, and Tuonela’s been all but forgotten. I blame the Swedes...” he trailed off, disgruntled, before recalling he was trying to make a point. “In any case, that’s not so in the East! ---Only there, they call it the Soul Society. And lately, the Living Folk are increasingly taking to ships and making their way to Eastern Seas. And dying there. Tuoni must’ve petitioned her for some representation.”

Kielo’s eyes narrowed. “That sounds like the official party line.”

“What do you mean?”

“I bet she’s still bearing a grudge over the rake. She never forgave your grandfather, your namesake, for making that thing to dredge up the scattered bits of Lemminkäinen from the river. He shouldn’t have pursued the Queen’s daughter. She gave him an impossible task for a reason, and I’m sure she would have preferred him to rest in pieces.”

“The rake was the least of the things for which she never forgave Grandfather. It was he who shouldn’t have gotten mixed up with any of her daughters. He was a decent husband to the first, but he failed to keep her from being eaten by wolves – and then he stole the second and turned her into a seagull when she refused him. Not to mention the embarrassing interlude in between where he tried to re-create his first wife from gold and clockworks. ---He had a spotty record with women. It’s a miracle he ever managed progeny.”

“I never believed that seagull story, and neither should you. She just couldn’t stand his singing, so she left. I refuse to include it in the official records.” Kielo sighed, already beginning to resign herself to their new fate. “Well… what’s done is done, and at least I have you. A good and decent man.” She threw her arms around her husband and kissed him. “And you may not be the great seppo he was, but you’ve certainly learned the arcane art of making magical rakes.”

“Indeed, ours is a harrowing tale,” Ilmarinen returned dryly, with a sigh, embracing her and pressing his lips to the crown her head. “But it seems to be our row to hoe, as it were. Our plot to plow...” Making mystical farm implements for the Queen of Pohjola was, after all, their family trade. At least… it had been. And now, it seemed they were being summarily dismissed from service.

“I’m sure there will be a place for both of us with the Shihouin Vault,” she replied encouragingly, sensing her husband’s despondence, and now trying to find the silver lining.  She thought the reminder that Soul Society, too, had its guardians of heavenly artifacts and godly gears might be helpful.

He brightened at her words. “You think so? I’ve always wanted to try my hand at making… anything other than farm implements. And perhaps, our son – should we be blessed to have one—will rival Grandfather’s skill, and invent a heavenly artifact greater than the Sampo.”

“We’ll have to learn Japanese.”

“It can’t be that hard,” he grinned. “Certainly easier than convincing all of them to learn Suomi.”

“The writing, though,” she fretted.

“You’ll manage it. You always do. You’re a brilliant archivist, far more brilliant than you give yourself credit for,” he reassured his wife.

“And we’ll have to take a Japanese family name,” she added, not quite flattered enough to be mollified. “You know how bureaucratic they are.”

“That’s simple. My family are career makers of cultivating tools, aren’t we? It’d be nice if we can take a bit of our home with us, and pick something that describes ourselves in our old tongue, yet which also plays well with the new. Let’s just call ourselves… well, you know ‘Ura’ can mean either career or furrow, and ‘Hara’ means cultivator.”

“’Urahara”, she drawled, letting the cobbled-together, freshly-coined Suomi name roll off her tongue. “But what does it mean in Japanese?”

“Ah…” His face became sheepish. To answer the question would mean he’d already looked it up – which would mean he might have kept this letter of transfer from his wife longer than he’d care to admit. “As far as I can work out, it means ‘Field by the Bay.’”

“Well…” Her smile darkened into an accusatory smirk as it dawned on her what his guilty look meant. “With any luck, maybe we’ll find one on which to build our new home. Do you think they have beaches there?”

“I suppose we’ll find out.”

Kielo drew in a long breath through her nostrils and let it out slowly, eyes sweeping the beams of their oak-hewn home. Change, she supposed, was inevitable. “Without me around to keep the record straight,” she muttered, “Someone’s going to put that ridiculous seagull story in an epic poem someday.”

[[ see under the cut for notes on what the heck this is and why I wrote it ]]

For years, Kisuke’s parents have eluded me. Having had this blog for... five years now, I’ve revisited the question periodically. First, I imagined him as coming from some kind of agrarian background, some poor farm-boy from a vassal family to the Shihouin. That later evolved to them being members of the Onmitsukidou. At some early point in his life, he lost them. But beyond that, they’ve remained a mystery to me. Who are they? Where are they from? How did they come into the service of the Shihouin, and what were they doing during that time? And why does Kisuke have blond hair and blue eyes? 

Enter Kubo’s Burn the Witch, and the Western Branch of Soul Society. Which... frankly failed to live up to my expectations. All the soul-balancing still seems to be handled by the Eastern Branch; this feels like a Hollow-harvesting field office. But at least this new material from the author allows for the possibility of other spirit-dimensions around the world, other regionalized death-management administrations. I’d long-wondered if Soul Society was meant to be a universal afterlife; I’ll just take that as a no. (I’m also going to assume that the Quincy are a cult offshoot of Judaism and Christianity, which don’t subscribe to reincarnation and hence problematically remove souls from the cycle, but that’s the topic of another meta.)

I was inspired by an epic of Finnish folk tales encapsulated in the Kalevala. They speak of a mythical land to the far North ruled by a cruel Queen named Louhi. Under her auspices also lay a land of the dead, Tuonela, which seemed about as a bleak an afterlife as Soul Society is to me. It felt like a good fit to Bleach’s whole holding-cell-for-souls-awaiting-reincarnation take on life after death.

This epic is long, and I’m scarcely familiar with all of it, but OG Ilmarinen was the smith of the gods. For a bride-payment for Louhi’s eldest daughter, he was compelled to create the Sampo. It was a sort of cornucopia of bountiful, endless harvest; a magical artifact of indeterminate type that brought riches and good fortune to its holder. 

Smith and inventor of the gods, who created a magical wish-granting artifact? This was... beginning to sound a little familiar. Ilmarinen’s tales are many and tragic, and a bit too legendary to claim a direct connection to, so I imagined him a grandson. Someone with a pedigree, with the gene for gadgetry genius, but relegated to a life of relative obscurity.

As for the name... a few years ago I was playing around with phonemes, and just for fun went digging to see if I could find a cognate of ‘Urahara’ in any European languages. Thank you, Finnish!

tl;dr: Seretei: The Living World’s shores are crawling with Dutch! Western Branch send help! Some backwater of Northern Europe: sends their third-tier mechanic and his wife.

Sources: On the rake in question On Finnish spirit-realms On Tuonela On the Sampo On the Kalevala On Finnish speakers learning Japanese

[uraharashouten]

Do you have any recommendations for the Women of Bleach blogs? Unohana, Rukia, Sui Feng, Rangiku, Isane? Basically any female muses from Bleach can you direct me to and why you recommend would be good as well!

OK, well first of all, thank you for the question, and I appreciate that you value my opinion!

So: Women of Bleach! There used to be a great masterlist blog but alas, it is no more. So let me specifically list recommendations for the characters you mentioned, and then expand on your list.

Retsu Unohana: I’ve only ever played with two. I’d love to recommend @gracebeforeviolence due to her meme-loving dry humor, but I don’t think she’s active any longer! I can also recommend @rctsu, who writes a faithful portrayal, though that blog doesn’t seem very active, either. @shaketsuu is a new Unohana you may want to check out, but I haven’t actually played with them.

Sui Feng/Soi Fon: I think everyone in the fandom must know @kiraahachi, probably because she’s such a fantastic writer, and she brings an intensity and immediacy to her portrayal that frankly it scares me. Basically Kisuke just wants to stay out of her way. (So maybe that’s why I haven’t really written a real thread with her, ha ha!) I have written a thread with @twicestung, who just remade that blog. I think they have a solid grasp on the character of Soi Fon and capture her stoic spirit. They’re relatively newer here and you should check them out!

Rukia Kuchiki:  I have a soft spot for Rukia as a character, but I haven’t written with many. There are two that I can highly recommend. @lucxns has been around awhile and writes a solid canon Rukia, a very faithful portrayal. @sncwwhitequeen recently also remade that blog and is a fantastic writer who writes a delightfully off-canon, rebellious, mischievous Rukia and I now I ship her with every other female Bleach muse, especially Rangiku ( @tigrismortis ), because there’s just some great chemistry there.  And speaking of Rangiku…

Rangiku Matsumoto: You know, this one’s tough because I don’t usually write with Rangikus. But I can recommend @rangikusan because she’s a fun, easygoing Rangiku with a big heart (I guess that just describes the character, doesn’t it!) and when she’s on, she’s good with short interactions, though I’ve also seen (and read!) longer threads. I also have to give a nod to @rxngikumxtsumoto, who’s an excellent writer and writes a beautiful, complicated ship with @gin-ichimaru.

Isane Kotetsu: I think the only blog writing Isane that I know of is @bevorzug-t. Thank goodness for multimuse blogs to cover the bases, amirite? I haven’t threaded with them, but from what I’ve seen they handle the character well.

And now some other Bleach women blogs I can recommend!

Yoruichi Shihoin: SERIOUSLY, could you expect me not to recommend a Yoruichi blog? I am aware of several good writers, but don’t follow them since I’m exclusive to @flashkitty, and I’m just going to have to recommend MY Yoruichi. (Can you blame me?) She captures Yoruichi’s in-charge, matter-of-fact pragmatism, as well as her snappy humor and mercurial temper, but also writes her with a hidden depth of heart: the introspective, emotive Yoruichi that Kubo hardly shows us but we know is there somewhere.

Nelliel tu Odelschwanck: Ok there are several excellent Nel blogs that I’m aware of, including @lanzadxr and @elvaliiente, but I’ve only really written with @nyota-sungura (formerly @harinabisesa), so I don’t know much about the former two. What I love about the latter is that Leo writes such a lively adult Nel and imbues her with the same joie de vivre embodied in her young form (and yet emphasizes her total earth-mother side).

Hiyori Sarugaki: I love Hiyori, and sadly one I had absolutely adored and did so much development with (@cxrbstomp) has left the fandom.  I’m only aware of two right now, @sarugakisan and @viciousvizard. I’ve only started interacting with them but I am hoping for more. Also, @hiyoorins… Tenka, please come back??? ;3;

Karin Kurosaki: Follow @zetsumei-shuuto. She’s actually Karin, I’m sure of it. You can’t tell me otherwise.

I also have to make the following recommendations because I love the Everything But the Rain arc (of course I do; Kisuke played a large role in it!)

Masaki Kurosaki: Shoutout to @sweetccht because Yay! Aaron brought her back, and does her much justice.

Kanae Katagiri: Please follow @sanftmut, this is such a rare muse and her romantic ship with @xyuuken and maternal ship with @ite–oji are precious and beautiful. I love the Ishidas, OK?

And finally, because these don’t get enough attention, here are some female Bleach OC’s!

Hokori Vi: @ktinos is an amazing writer with deep canon knowledge, and maybe someday we’ll have a thread… but yeah, well-developed OC (and a slew of other OC’s as well). Anyway, they’re totally worth a follow.

Saki Mizushima: @kxchisake is another Bleach OC I haven’t played with but seems like a pretty cute muse.  And I give bonus points for being in Twelfth Division.

Amanda Yomihime: @howlsblackcircusact is a well-developed Bleach OC with a great backstory who I am really looking forward to writing with! (Also associated with Twelfth Division, ha!)

Skylar Stell: @hello-hellhound is a mutli-fandom boisterous teenage muse with a Bleach verse. She’s a creative, active, and a super-fun RP partner!

And I can recommend other/multifandom female OC’s if anyone wants but I’m limiting it to specifically Bleach muses here.

I hope this helps. I realize there are many more female Bleach muses, so if there are more specific characters you’re looking for, please let me know and I’ll try to recommend some blogs!