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magicalmyths · 5 months ago

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i decided why not share with you what i have so far for my fic Haunted Thunder where Polites as a spirit watches the events of the thunder saga for Scylla i used my EPIC OCs for the dead men so if you want to know more about them just ask and i will send link

Time didn't work as it used to and Polites was left to float around aimlessly in the bleak underworld.He faintly remembers seeing Odysseus but already it was fading from his mind, how long has he been here? Minutes? Months? Years? He has no idea. He is jolted out of his endless wandering and finds himself on a boat with…Odysseus?! Polites shakes himself out of his shock before rushing to hug his friend only to find himself unable to touch him only passing through him. He tries again to grab Odysseus’s arm and again he passes through his friend. “Odysseus!” Nobody hears him though and as Polites sinks to the deck he hears singing coming from the ocean. Odysseus starts responding to a voice..wait it can't be possible. Penelope has no way of being out at sea like this so what? The answer hits him hard ...no please don't be sirens! All Polites can focus on is stopping Odysseus from answering the siren's call. Any attempt is ignored until Odysseus raises his bow and…shoots at the siren? Polites breathes a sigh of relief as Odysseus reveals he had known all along about the sirens. The sirens had been caught and Polites couldn't help but smile. His friend always has a plan and this time was no exception. The sirens call for mercy and Polites waits for Odysseus to convince the sirens to leave and not bother them only to freeze at the order shouted to the wind. “Cut off their tails and throw them back in the water. Let them all drown.” Polites just stands there in shock before flinching as the crew obeys the order. Blood and screams fill the air. He slumps to the deck and sees Odysseus, cold and uncaring as he watches the sirens be thrown back into the sea before sailing on leaving behind a sea of blood and bodies.Polites feels sick to his stomach.

Everything fades away revealing another scene. They seem to be sailing through a dark cave and a haunting tune fills the air leaving the entire crew on edge.Odysseus orders for 6 torches to be lit and passed out to crewmembers. Polites tenses as six monstrous heads centering around a terrifying body emerge from the inky depths of the cave. He rushes towards someone holding a torch unaware of the monster behind him wishing desperately to save them. It was a meaningless effort as he passed through them only able to watch as blood splatters the deck and soon Polites screams mix in with the screams of the crew being picked off and eaten. One of the feathers from Julien’s ankle wings, a broken claw necklace from Nox, a scrap of Charis’s scarf. Everything is soaked in blood as Polites sobs and screams at all the death. He knows the names of everyone that was eaten.Julien who always put up an unbothered and mischievous front to hide his fear of hurting people he cared about. Nox who often used his silent footsteps and cat eyes to scare the crew. Charis who loves to sew as a way to be close to his dead mom. Lykos who only wanted to explore the world outside of the forest they grew up in. Almi the quarter water nymph who gifts any scales he sheds to people he trusts and loved swimming with dolphins. Therme who welcomes hugs and cuddles using his above average temperature to keep everyone warm with a smile. Huedo with his calming aura letting crew members sleep in his room to keep nightmares away. They are all dead now, life ended brutally and abruptly. Polites throws up as he sobs and grieves.

Polites is pulled out of his grief by Eurylochus’s voice. “Please tell me you didn't know that would happen. Look me in the eyes Captain and tell me you didn't just sacrifice 6 men!” Polites stared at Eurylochus in shock. How could he ever think that about Odysseus he would NEVER. But the silence drags on “SAY SOMETHING!” Eurylochus was breathing hard and Odysseus sharply turns to face him “I CANT.” Polites stares at Odysseus in disbelief. Now that he thinks about it Odysseus had not reacted at all to the men being eaten almost like….like he had expected it… Polites covers his mouth as his eyes tear up, feeling sick again. Odysseus didn't actually sacrifice 6 of the crew right? He watches Eurylochus face harden “then you leave me no choice.” Eurylochus draws out the giant sword from his back and faces Odysseus. “Please brother don't make me fight you!” Odysseus is panicking but as Eurylochus charges he pulls out his own sword to block with gritted teeth. Polites feels himself start shaking as he watches the fight. What could have happened after he had died?! How could this happen?! Eurylochus is knocked down and Odysseus raises his sword for the final strike “I won't let you get in my way!” Before he can deal the final blow he starts coughing up blood and he turns and sees that another crew member had stabbed him in the back with tearful eyes. Odysseus’s eyes fill with pain both emotional and physical “My brothers…why..” He falls forward landing on the deck with a thud. Polites cries out and stumbles over to his fallen friend. Once again his hands phase through Odysseus and he sobs, unable to do anything to help. Polites watches them patch up Odysseus before tying him to the mast. Polites stares blankly into the distance wondering how everything could have gone so wrong.

After everything that he has seen so far, Polites' heart aches for his friend. He does not know what had happened but the rest of the fleet being missing promises a heartbreaking answer. Whatever it was that happened changed Odysseus so much that he can hardly recognize his friend. The Odysseus he knows always has a spark of mischief in his warm eyes. He always tries his best to avoid unnecessary fighting and bloodshed. He always puts his all into keeping everyone alive and safe, never asking them to do anything he himself would not do. The Odysseus he knew is nowhere to be seen anymore. The spark of life in his eyes has all but faded, becoming cold and calculated. This Odysseus shows no mercy, only cruelty. He is willing to sacrifice his men to a monster. This new Odysseus is a monster himself willing to do anything to survive. If Polites had survived would things have been different? If he had not died to the cyclops would his friend have been able to laugh and smile still? Polites leans against the mast next to his friend and grieves the broken person Odysseus had become.

You're evil omg why would you do this to me holy crap

I love angst though so thanks for this 😭

This definitely hurt to read

#would say more #But I'm tired #epic the musical #Polites

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hopefull-mindset · 9 months ago

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Lately I've been thinking about the current progression of the story, obviously we are nowhere near the ending, however, what are your thoughts towards how the main story is going to end?

Based on what we know so far how do you think what do you think the climax and the resolution the story is going to be? Because so far it seems like it's going to be something related to the book, but there's so many plot points and characters that we haven't even really touched on yet and I'm wondering if we ever will (for example the order of the clock tower was this just a one and done thing or are we getting more on that Asagiri????)

I am SO sorry. I got sick on the weekend I was thinking of answering this. Then I got completely stuck on what I wanted to say because honestly I have no idea where this series is going besides a few things I know Kafka Asagiri wouldn't leave behind. I have faith in him and I feel like him pulling along Nathaniel Hawthorn for this long into the story and knowing when Fitzgerald would have involvement proves he doesn't forget about his previous storylines.

I see complaints sometimes about how Steinback’s side plot with the Guild is never touched on again and it's like?? Because there's already so much going on already?? I'm personally impressed with how Asagiri handles this bunch of characters and that's why I'm not impressed with complaints about the female characters getting “no” screentime. I think some of you really need to reread the manga because, of course, it would feel that way if you needed to split it between all these characters and have a smaller amount of female characters compared to guys.

It's an ongoing story so treat it like an ongoing story. Some criticisms I see of BSD really feel like they're in bad faith and don't give it any grace. To me, that's really depressing. I don't know what some of you even want from him. I'll move on now to your actual question.

This is a character-driven story with hmm, well I shouldn't say it doesn’t have a clear plotline because the antagonists have a clear goal for The Book, but it's not a story where the protagonist is driven to do anything besides overcome himself. I have ideas on what future plotlines would look like, but not all of them.

There are things that are absolutely going to be followed up on. Like how 55 Minutes’s story was left on a mystery to be explored in a future arc. 55 Minutes was very involved in the Great War and Europe, so I’m guessing some of that will be explored in due time. I’m not very good at guessing so I’m not the best to be asked on theorizing that far into the future.

How about I just speak on the present arc? I think that will be easier and it's good to work with the pieces we have. The ending is much too far into the future for me to come up with anything, really. This series is much too technical with its reference and motivations to say anything other than, “We should expect this stuff in the light novels to play into the story later.”

Since I gave myself some time to think this over, there are some things I am completely sure of having a critical role in the present and future of this story—besides the obvious lasting effects of the Great War and the storm Verlaine mentioned waiting for very much having to do with the Clock Tower’s eventual involvement.

I’ve been thinking about them a lot and I hadn’t realized this was my chance until now! So exciting! I mean these two tend to cross over for me.

55 Minutes is the 4th light novel in this series. Anyone who has read it loves it because of the focus on world building and getting to follow Atsushi for once in novel form. I went into it thinking that it was going to be a quick, self-contained story that happens a bit after the guild arc, but I was shocked to see that there were so many questions unanswered! On purpose obviously to set up a plot line for the future, but man.

While I am excited for many things from the light novels to be answered in the main story, I want to bring attention to the main antagonist. The living ability of Jules Gabriel Verne AKA Gab. Verne was a part of The Seven Traitors, a group that committed itself to stopping the war by any means necessary. They were what the Armed Detective Agency is to Atsushi for him. His ability (The Mysterious Island) absorbed other users’ abilities, so long as they were on an island he claimed as his domain.

By the time the war had ended, he was alone again and the rest of the members were either dead and disappeared. Verne decided to stay and maintain the Standard Island so his friends had a place to come back to. Fourteen years pass and a deadly weapon called Annihilation and it's maker, H.G. Wells, came onto the island. Annihilation had been stolen from her and Verne agreed to help her get it back from the terrorists under the name “Gab”. The terrorist in question being the colonel, not to be confused with the character of the same title who was an executive to the Port Mafia.

This colonel had actually been the former leader of the group who had called themselves Mimic after being abandoned by their country and had heard his men drifted to Yokohama, only to die there in vain. I wonder if that connects to anything that happened in another light novel, wink wink.

It wasn’t hard for Verne to find where it was hidden, but next he had to come up with a way to get it back without using his ability. He decided to join the thieves that had snuck onto the island by turning himself into a teenager and asking to be the pupil of the boss so he could borrow his ability to go through walls. It had worked as planned, until Wells was hit by a stray bullet and died. He was devastated that he couldn't save this one woman.

His solution to save her was to absorb her ability (Time Machine) to go back 55 minutes in time to reverse what had happened. That worked, but then he thought of another thing: if he absorbed her ability again, couldn't he go further back in time to get a better result? Wells’s ability has the condition that it could only send a person back in time once, but by absorbing it again, he can ignore it as if he were using it for the first time. He regretted how many of the colonel's soldiers had died and he never learned his motivations in the end.

He was right, but creating the perfect future is almost impossible because of how someone always gets hurt in the process. Every time he succeeded, there was only the “what if?” hanging over him that this wasn't enough. The more he used the ability, the further he could go into the past. Even larger ideas had come into his head. What if he could reunite with his friends? What if he could prevent the entire war from happening? He hadn't realized just as Wells's ability evolved, something else would too: Gab, the island and the boy he posed as.

It overtook him and left to reside inside his own flesh as an echo of his own self, at the very corner of his mind. He died and Gab had been birthed from it. Gab is an unstable creation and even so, his humanity still urges him to keep living no matter what. So instead of being motivated to repeat time to save others, he keeps living to save himself so he doesn't fall back into the darkness of an unknown waiting for him.

I could keep going and talk about how he's pretty much the embodiment of the themes present in BSD, his resemblance to Atsushi that the narrative points out so graciously, and the nature of what he is supposed to be in the grand scheme of BSD, but this isn't why I brought him up.

55 Minutes has aspects that have appeared in the main story ever since the Decay of Angels have taken their place in the manga as antagonists. Dazai’s ability to control his heartbeat, time travel, Akutagawa calling Atsushi his “trial” and fighting out at sea, and the Great War being the source of the conflict. Now what if I propose my idea of what had happened to Fukuchi to be similar to what had happened to Verne when he had used Wells’s ability?

This is Fukuchi’s corpse reanimated, I think we all know it. While it’s possible Fyodor must've put a safeguard to put the condition for this to have happened or that this is a Fukuchi from another universe, I think what had happened altogether, in the end, was the consequence of using Amenogozen so freely to the point he was messing with the state of the timeline and creating paradoxes. The backlash of this divine blade had either created a divine being or let one reside in him.

It's not only 55 Minutes that has parallels/foreshadows what's to come, but Untold Origins as well. I do like noticing how Kafka Asagiri adds things so they fit more snuggly into what's to come later in the season or make the connection more obvious, like Fukuchi having a feature when Fukuzawa is visiting Oda behind bars and Fyodor appearing on the roof when Fukuzawa monologues about “V”.

I think I've been seeing some people notice this too, but I think the play featured is incredibly important. Like really, really important. I mean beyond any resemblance people saw in the visuals used in the anime background that looked like Fyodor being crucified. I feel unprepared to talk about it, so I hope I make some sort of sense.

“The Living World Is a Dream. The Nocturnal Dream is Reality” is a real quote from Ranpo Edogawa and is used as the name for this play. Twelve fallen angels gather in an old theater to earn god’s forgiveness. They had disobeyed god in the past by wanting to coexist with human beings and were shunned after the fact. During this, they are killed off one by one without the killer ever being seen. The killer, as the script follows, is a supposed angel of judgment, but it's hard to tell for the others if it really was an angel imparting their judgment or a serial killer because of how common the methods seemed to be. That is their mystery to be solved.

One of the fallen angels claims that an angel would use a divine blade to purge them and not methods like these, while another begs the question of why a fellow sinner would go after them and that an angel would have a real motive to have them killed. Their reason to going to this old theater is because they were searching for an ability user. In this fictionalized story, ability users are angels who had fallen but were able to atone and given a portion of their power back. Their hope is that when they encounter the ability user, they will gain atonement as well.

Suddenly, Murakami (the lead performer) is stabbed by a blade that came from nowhere. Completing the promised threat of an organization named “V”:

“An angel shall bring death, in the truest sense of the word, to the performer.”

So, what happened?

As he takes his newfound identity as an “ability user” in pride on stage and claims himself to be the savior of all, Ranpo explains that the angel that the play refers to is the audience watching it. A metaphor to how the audience is invisible to the characters on stage and knew almost every that had happened, but Ranpo also says that because the audience couldn't have laid a finger on the them, it means the angel couldn't have been the killer.

The “angel” was more the victim than anything and the so-called judgment imposed was the show of what was originally regarded as another victim. The switching of roles. The same thing has also applied to this murder. While Murakami was regarded the victim, the accused killer the police suspected was a man under a fake name who has randomly disappeared. Tied up behind the currents, the man had been here all along. The true victim of this case.

Which makes Murakami the real culprit of his own “murder”, but he's only a piece of the picture. After getting arrested, he speaks about how he had planned with the playwright about this but has no clue what capturing the older man was for. Not even after saying this, a detective rushes in saying that the playwright had been impaled with no weapon to be found.

Again, after an officer who had worked for the mysterious group “V” and tried to kill Ranpo after refusing to join them had been arrested, he was also killed the same way as the playwright. I feel like I don't even need to say that this “V” group is obviously the Decay of Angels after laying that out. The same motivations as Fyodor (”rid all evil of this world”) and the sword business is Fukuchi silencing people.

What was the purpose of the play though?

Besides capturing Natsume Soseki (if you haven't read it), it was foreshadowing for what was to come. Let's abandon the idea that skill users are redeemed angels for a second. Just a second, I promise. Have you ever looked up what Kaumi (神威) even means?

While one of the first results you get will refer you to gods themselves, you should be focusing on a more literal translation. That being “God’s Authority” or greater divine power, making Fukuchi function basically as Fyodor’s own angel of judgment. Let's say that ability users are the sinners and Fukuchi (or Fyodor) is the one imposing their judgment, even if they should've been in the same boat.

Just like the play, they swap the victim (Armed Detective Agency) and the killer (The Decay of Angels) for the public‘s unknowing view. This play is filled with Fyodor’s personal bias and I think the irony of their searching for the “ability user” in the play is that to Fyodor, there's no such thing as a redeemed ability user. There is only salvation of death for this great evil and that is exactly what happens to the characters from the play.

Ranpo filps this narrative on its head and forcefully changes the ending of the fallen angel. He wasn't a part of the story, he forcefully shoved through its bullcrap to create something much more ideal. Something much less miserable. It's a little fun that two people he goes out of his way to help out (Yosano & Mushitaro) both have the title of “angel of death/murder” as that's how the angel of the play is also referred to. Save the killer that was actually a victim…

With that, I really shouldn't abandon how ability users get referred to with titles like angel and demon right? Chuuya had an angelic allusion in Storm Bringer when he activated corruption for the first time, and hell, look at my buddy Gab and his mechanical wings. The further they transcend themselves of their humanity, the more angelic or demonic they become. There really is no true difference between them though.

This should've been about the trajectory of bsd…. Then it became me wanting to talk about DOA crap….

Well, I really don't know much. I connected dots that were there for me, but nothing to say for the future of BSD. I understand what is happening, but not enough to be psychic haha. I mostly went on about that because I didn't want our conversation about what is currently happening to be pushed aside because there's always more to say. Maybe if I read more of the authors involved, maybe I'd know.

If this is disappointing, oh well! It has taken me so long to think of something to say that the new chapter has already come out. Kafka Assgiri always leaves me with more questions than answers.

What even are abilities anyway?

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd meta #bsd analysis #fukuchi ouchi #bsd fukuchi #bsd 55 minutes #bsd untold origins #ranpo edogawa #bsd fyodor #the decay of angels #i should stop narrating the stories of the novels #i was going to say more #but I'm tired #the best I can say is to think of the questions bsd offers you and reread the series at any chance #you'll get more information each time and come up with more ideas for the future of BSD

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