#And if you squint

[magpiesketchins]

As a little Terry Pratchett tribute today I wanted to draw the two fictional men that have inspired me to create more than anything has in a long time.

And also a little tribute to the community surrounding these books that makes me want to share my creations instead of hiding them away. It's meant more than you know.

[doctorwank]

*shows up in my cunty little outfit* im here to solve the murder

[lancelotslair]

YOU ALREADY KNOWWW

[harukapologist]

It was a little rushed, but

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIRIUS 💜

[hehekubus]

I SAW THIS ON TWT BUT q!étoiles I think said to q!phil when he returned from the birdcage (this is roughly btw) that without him (q!phil) he was nothing and he would instantly die. And the day q!étoiles went to fight the codes, q!phil wasn't awake and guess what happened, HE DIED.

I am very much coping n a bit delusional but codebreakers crumbs- *dies*

[demonslayedher]

If Shinobu was affected by a demonic blood art where he was forced to say what he thinks for days, (even if the demon is already dead), even in writing, that so much time it took to realize this effect and be buried in a room until Will you pass? Will it be forced to continue with its work? How much will avoid Tomioka to avoid saying things like "I think you're nice" "I consider you my best friend", etc?

“Aoi, sit down for once and let Kanao make dinner. She’ll follow instructions.”

“Uhh—err… yes, Shinobu-sama…”

Shinobu gave her a sweet smile and then continued down the hall, with no awareness of what words had spilled out her mouth. The Demon’s Blood Technique had a odd way of altering one’s self-perception, and with the demon thoroughly dead, Shinobu had no reason to suspect anything amiss. She went about her day as usual, using the morning to check on her patients before wrapping up her notes and feeding her fish and settling down for a midday nap. “Let’s see. Zenitsu-kun, still in bed, I see?”

“Hello, Shinobu-san! You’re as pretty a sight as ever!”

“You’re not flattering anyone. Is this leftover medicine? You really make me wonder if I should be bothering to concoct all of this for you. Make sure you get lots of sunshine!”

When she left room, she did not notice the whimper behind her that said, “Pillars are scary.”

The others were busy in Functional Recovery Training, which Shinobu observed momentarily. They were playing tag, or at least some half-way version. “You’re looking pathetic!” she cheered, then went to her office to write some notes for the day. She wanted to make a record of the battle against the demon with an unusual knack for striking discord among the Corp members present.

I found it odd when I came across the lot of them arguing, she wrote, some of them were in tears. But there were also those two who were laughing and embracing each other. I always thought they’d make a good couple, but the battle was an inappropriate place for public displays of affection. They both looked like bad kissers anyway. Finding none of them helpful in the moment, I faced the demon on my own, and was hit with a cloud of pink smoke. It made me cough, but I didn’t notice anything off. I was my usual self as I asked it how many humans it has killed, but it was all a taunt because I meant to kill it mercilessly in the first place. Making friends with demons is stupid and got Neesan killed—

Her hand flinched as she felt herself referring to Kanae, who had nothing to do with the previous night’s battle. Was she so tired, to have found herself drifting to senselessness in her writing? She didn’t feel unwell, so it was strange to catch herself being so—

“Bad kissers? Did I write this?” held her diary to her face and exclaimed. Furrowing her brow, she reread the passage. The writing sounded like her, but it also distinctly did not sound like her. As she reflected on the battle, however, the truth of her situation dawned on her, and she felt herself go pale.

Neesan… this is big trouble.

--

“Kanao. I need to stay in my office. Don’t let anyone bother me.”

“Yes, Shihan.”

“It’s a good thing you follow directions so well without prying.”

“Yes, Shihan.”

“I wish you wouldn’t need directions all the time, though.”

“…?”

“Glad to know I can depend on you! Only bother me if it’s an emergency.”

“…”

Although this gave Shinobu space to test her blood samples for some clue of how to break the demon’s spell, Kanao was later asked to help with dinner, and a flip of a coin later, she left her guard post. The fact that the door had been guarded in the first place made Kiyo, Naho, and Sumi terribly upset, and they bravely decided to knock on Shinobu’s door.

When the knocking didn’t subside, Shinobu took a Breath to compose herself and answered it, and she was startled to find three teary-eyed little girls with a tray of tea and cookies. “We thought you might not be feeling well… it’s herbal tea… we hope it helps… we used our allowance to buy cookies… we hope you like them…”

Shinobu accepted the tray, all the while staring into the three teary-eyed faces. “You’re all the sweetest, most angelic creatures I’ve ever been blessed with encountering, and if anything ever happens to you, I will set fire to all my poisons before I inject that wretched thing with every last ounce of my wrath.”

“Ah… okay… enjoy the cookies.”

Shinobu very carefully and truthfully explained to her crow that she was not in proper condition for demon slaying that night, and that she required the night off. En, her crow, seemed insulted that Shinobu was talking in such short, simple statements as if to suggest the crow couldn’t understand otherwise, but a grouchy bird was a small price to pay. One night went by with no sign or whether or not Shinobu was cured, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to get a second night off in a row. As a Pillar, she had to get a grip and face whatever was ahead. It wasn’t as if being truthful was ever going to hurt anyone.

“CAAAW! TONIGHT YOU HAVE A MISSION WITH THE WATER PILLAR!! CAAAAAAW!”

“En!! You planned this! I knew you were a vindictive bird!”

“CAAAW!” En flapped and replied, though in truth, the crow was too embarrassed to admit she did not understand the word ‘vindictive.’

It would be fine. Tomioka didn’t like to talk anyway. They hadn’t seen each other since the Pillar Meeting, and hadn’t exchanged any words since Mt. Natagumo. Maybe a mission spent in silence would make repairing their relationship futile, but what relationship did they have in the first place? Despite all the missions they happened to go on together, Tomioka never made any effort to be friendly. Why should she keep bothering to be friendly back?

She meant to only say hello, but the words out her mouth were, “It makes me sad that you never talk to me.”

Giyuu froze in place. Shinobu still could not hear her own words, so his face was her only indication that she had said what she truly thought of him. What hurtful thing might she had said, she wondered?

He replied, “I’m sorry. If I had explained myself better, I wouldn’t had gotten Tanjiro into that mess.”

“Not to mention the mess you got us in, I could had plucked your eye out like a lollipop.”

He squeezed his eyes shut and turned red, bowing his head. “My apologies.”

“I wouldn’t had wanted to see you get hurt, Tomioka-san. Besides being someone who this Corp relies on, you’re among the Pillars who I want to get along with most.”

Oh, now what had she said?

She had never seen such a hurt and sad look on his eyes, his eyes so big and wet like he might cry. Though she knew she’d only make it worse by opening her mouth again, she kept going.

“I think you’re very nice. I consider you my friend.”

“T…Thank you.”

“Hm?” she paused.

“I like it when you talk to me. I consider you my friend, too.”

“…Hmmm?”

He walked past her and continued forward in his usual manner of ending their short dialogues. “The demon’s this way.”

Shinobu was left to wonder if that was the demon’s plan all along. Did that demon want episodes like this to happen, like those two Corp members among the ones arguing? It was too bad Shinobu had to get to work, for she wondered what she’d wind up writing if she could sit down with her diary at that moment. Before she caught that chance, the effects of the Blood Technique wore off, and a part of her wondered if she and that demon might ever had been friends. Friendship came in surprising places, after all.

[rexonalapis]

i swear this fic has turned into neve challenging herself on how much pain can she give baby wrio in a single chapter

[trashy-greyjoy]

really love dynamics that are like 'it honestly doesn't matter if you view them as romantic or platonic, the point is that they love each other. the type of love is inconsequential, all that matters is that it's there'. gotta be one of my favorite genders.

[atissi]

i don't really like when people say dungeon meshi is accidentally good autistic representation, because while i understand not wanting to make conclusions without explicit confirmation from the author, there's always the weird assumption that non-western authors somehow don't know about things like neurodivergency/queerness/etc. (on top of the assumptions that east asian authors are somehow more naive or oblivious to "western" social issues).

given that dungeon meshi started being published in 2014, it's not really a "work belonging to its times"—it's as contemporary as any other media we discuss on this site, which means it should be fair to assume it engages with contemporary topics (and at the very least, you shouldn't say that the representation is accidental with so much confidence)

but anyways, the chapter "perfect communication" in ryoko kui's "terrarium in a drawer" is some of the most straightforward autistic representation I've seen, and from now on I'm going to assume that laios's character writing is absolutely intentional in that regard:

[qiqilasblog]

The eye opened and I wasnt prepared.

[slightlyartist]

Tate deserves to punch Ford so I drew it, felt really therapeutic <3

[narusasuart]

It's ok babe, you'll get there in your own time

[thatonedudeinthecorner]

Okay but Stan is ALSO trans and has yet to tell either of them so it’s fine (as soon as you put he/him in your bio you become horrible at communicating I fear)

[robosuta]

What if.....

[blorbosinmyheadcentral]

Supervised Machine Learning

[void-dude]

I serve you: What if therapy worked a little tiny bit on BILL?

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

I said a little