#I love Kaneko's notes

[pixbeld3carabia]

I have seen these very interesting facts about the atma avatars for a while and I wanted to bring them here

Agni

• The two holes in the space between the two heads are the nose

• His moves are beast-like

• The upper part is pretty heavy

• His hands have eight fingers that can move freely

• His blades come out from the webs on/between his fingers

• The back of his feet and the membrane between his blades have a paw-like texture

• The blades resemble bones

• The orange scales look like hardened skin, but since they’re skin, they’re elastic and soft

Ardha

• The reddish parts resemble human skin, while the grey parts are protectors, therefore rather hard

• When the wrists are used, they open from the protector parts on the forearms

• There are mouths on both forearms

• The wrists have one more joint in order for the mouth to open even more

• When the tongue straightens it turns into a sword (the wavy pattern disappears)

• The yellow eye-like parts are a sense organ and resemble Beelzebub’s eyes (oily?)

• The fin on Ardha's head resembles a mast

• The actual head is the part between the yellow "eyes" and the mast and is also a sense organ

Black Varuna

• A little bigger than normal Varuna

Brahman

• Has five faces and five aspects

• His types of attack change depending on each "aspect"

• Brahman belongs to a superior world, so he can be considered a computer CPU in this world

• The part above the face turns into an altar stage featuring a prayer wheel for some reason

• If possible, please add writing and have it spin

• Applicable to all heads ("aspects")

• The "E aspect" should be bigger than the rest (maybe); anyway, it needs to be big

• The lower half of the "body" extends indefinitely

• That direction emits a nimbus

• It should look godly, i.e. green or pale blue

• The colour is silver, not sparkly, but dazzling

• It looks like it’s warping, or more correctly, it’s moving at an extremely high speed

• The meeting point of each face body/elongation is the center of the universe

Dyaus

• His image resembles that of a chicken, so the part on his head is the crest

• The arms (wings?) don't bend

• His wings are covered in scales, but the dark blue parts have scales that don’t present resistance to the wind

• He may look tall, but he’s actually the smallest; from tallest to shortest: Vayu → Agni → Varuna (with the help of the "crown") → Prithivi → Varunani (approximately the same height as the former) → Dyaus

• The feet have a big toe and are able to grab things

• The crest opens a bit to the left and right

• The weapon comes out of the crest; the blade resembles a jackknife and he attacks by moving his neck as much as possible

• His attack form resembles that of a plane; he doesn’t flap his wings

• His skin has really small scales

• The white parts circling his head have a skin-like texture

• The crest has a bone-like feel

Guardian

• The gauntlet holes release vibration waves which turn into sonic blades

• Portray them by blurring the arm

• Able to release sonic blast from close quarters

• All joints seem to move mechanically during battle

Hari Hara

• The entire body is covered by protector-like things

• In Vishnu mode, the lower part resembles hakama

• The face changes the same way as drum slots do

• The elbows extend downwards and resemble whips

• The wrists fold on the inside and the tips turn into weapons the shape of semicircles

• In Shiva mode, the attack claws extend from the palms; the arms don’t extend, the claws move rather freely; the semicircular parts on the wrists are their scabbard

• Only has ears on the Shiva side

Hari Hara 2

• The inside face has a nose and opens similarly to a Buddhist altar

Hayagriva

• His chest protectors are also shoulder protectors

• He doesn't really use his arms which appear clumsy

• His protectors and nails feel like bones/ivory

Indra

• His protectors resemble a tough carapace

• Has a "face open" mode

• His Vajra also has a solid feel

• The things he holds between his fingers resemble chakra discs

• They're used for normal attacks (chakra kick or chakra punch…)

• He can freely move them back and forth between his fingers

Camazotz

• The feet resemble hands and are very skillful

• The extendable nail-like weapons between what would be his thumb and index finger pass through his wings and give off the impression of elbow joints

Cerberus

• Skin has a rough feeling (like shark skin)

• The scales on his head and front legs are tough

• When he uses his fire attack, his shape resembles that of a dragon

• The blades situated above his paws used during attacks resemble nails or swords

• Their attack power is rather low

Prithivi

• Now I’ve done it… mouth breasts

• Her chin is actually the nose

• Seen from the front, her face looks like a VF1-J

• The overall image is that of a centipede *If you can't see it, look at the spikes on her sides and imagine her standing straight with her legs and arms together*

• Her weapons resemble bones, are similar to Agni’s and are as thin as blades

• They don't move too much

• Her nails are also weapons and can extend

• The tip of the whip is sharp

• Her skin resembles clothes but is rather hard

• It looks like the body (shell?) of a caterpillar

• Her thorns aren’t that rigid

• The red and dark grey parts of her body feel rigid

Ravana

• Feels like vinyl

• The round dots on his chest are actually indentations

• The daggers that spring from his fingertips aren’t too powerful

Seraph

• The nucleus is the female form but the body has a manly image; androgynous

• Fundamentally manly body so the feet and hands are big

• Also has feminine attributes

• Skin colour same as Serph

Ushas

• Besides her protectors everything else feels like skin

• The shell-like whip around her face has a rigid feel

• Her heels are the equivalent of thumbs

• The same structure as the ones on the hands

Varuna

• The shape of his head resembles Serph's Atma mark

• The insides of his hands and feet feel have a paw-like texture

• The yellow, grey and light grey parts of his body resemble scales

• The whitish parts feel like hardened scales/bones; they're also protectors

Varunani

• Her basic form resembles Varuna's, but since she's a girl, she's a bit lither

• Her weapons strongly resemble bones

• The inside of her hands and feet have a paw-like texture

• Her skin resembles scales

• She has lipstick, but it shouldn't stand out

• The green parts on her legs have the same texture as her skin and are fluorescent

• The white-ish parts feel like hardened scales/bones; they're also protectors

• The black parts on her body resemble her skin

Vayu

• The two holes in the middle of the neck are his nose

• The holes on his body are like tennis balls, but not too deep

• His blades resemble bones a great deal

• The inside of his hands, fingertips and feet have a paw-like texture

• His wings are supposed to resemble propellers

Vritra

• An organic mecha

• His image is supposed to resemble that of a dragon carrying an egg

• His upper jaw and teeth give off a bone-like feeling

• The rest is blunt metal

• Has four mouths and the tongues are made of amalgamations of cables

• The cables underneath him have combined and turned into tentacles

• The tips turn into Agni

• Seen from the upper right it resembles a space ship

• The head unit isn’t actually Heat but resembles his form

• One-eyed demon

White Varuna

• The white protector parts are supposed to be clear/transparent

• He's about the same height as normal Varuna

[kanekoii]

Hey, hope you are having a good day, Lyra!

What if the Iluna and XSoleil guys dated a person who is from the other school? Like opposites attract kinda thing…

lyra’s notes -> HI HELLO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG BUT THIS IS SUCH A CUTE PROMPT???! just since i wanted to write the girls too i only did iluna but feel free to request for xsoliel

pairings -> (i added the girls sorry i love girls) iluna x gn! rival! reader

genre -> scenario, a little fluff, tiny bit of crack

song -> sorry, i love you - stray kids

warnings -> school rivalry shit, HI IM SORRY THIS TOOK LITERALLY FOREVER I AM SO BURNT OUT

SCARLE YONAGUNI ->

she knows you're technically rivals due to your schools' rivalry but she couldn't help but fall for you. it's a cute contrast when your uniform is generally darker along with the color schemes of your fellow school counsel members and her school's pallet is much lighter. surely her friends won't mind if she takes you along sometimes despite the rivalry, right? scarle loves you to death and even if you don't always get to see each other, her love won't fade.

AIA AMARE ->

due to an intense school rivalry, she might want to keep your relationship a secret at first. eventually, she'll take you to meet the rest of her friends and they don't mind a bit when you tag along on their adventures! aia is a loud and somewhat chaotic person, so she would fit well into xsoliel too if you take her to meet the rest of the student counsel. they all love her so much too cuz she fits in so well!

REN ZOTTO ->

he generally wears a much darker color scheme so his uniform matches yours. of course, no one aside from you knows that. but either way, he absolutely loves spending time with you on the days you don't have school. if anyone were to see the alien prince with someone from the rival school, he'd just brush it off because he loves you regardless.

KYO KANEKO ->

okay so i got a whole scenario for this. imagine at a sports game and you and kyo are kissing under the bleachers and maririn catches you while looking for kyo. she's just flabbergasted and doesn't know what to say and kyo gets all defensive and tsundere about it. especially since you're wearing his jacket hehe. i wanna write a whole fic about thsi plz

ASTER ARCADIA ->

everyone knows right away, he spends no effort keeping it a secret. it's not like it matters much to him, cuz he never cared much about school rivalry or things of the like. the only problem is that your schedules conflict more often than not, so you only get to hang out some weekends or if you skip school to spend time with him. omg thats another idea skipping school with aster

MARIA MARIONETTE ->

she's like aster in that she doesn't care if it's a secret or not, she's just happy to be with you. as long as you're happy, she'll be happy. much like the rest, it makes her a little sad if you can't spend a lot of time together, so please take her with you to your student counsel meetings! she's so adorable you just have to say yes.

[hannahlovesluca]

T.S.

| In which you release an original song, Enchanted (t.s.), for Shu.

| WARNINGS: mild cursing, angst to fluff, mentions of sex, Shu being both a dick and an absolute sweetheart

“There I was again tonight, forcing laughter

faking smiles; same and tired lonely place..”

Shu’s heart pounded, he knew you were releasing your very first song; and he also knew the possibility that it may be about him.

You and Shu had a complicated relationship. One day, you’ll be cuddling in bed together, kissing, making love, even. The next, Shu refuses to talk to you. Ignoring you.

The truth was - he was so, so fucking scared.

Scared about his feelings towards you. He had never experienced this before. He was also scared that in the long run, he would lose you. The one person who made him feel safe, secure, happy.

“Walls of insincerity, shifting eyes and

vacancy vanished when I saw your face…”

Your voice rang through his headset, he was so, so infatuated.

He thought back to the night you first got intimate.

His hand running down your hips to your thighs, your hands tangled in his hair. Soft grunts and groans being shared now and then… God, he craved for that to happen again.

”All I can say is,

it was enchanting to meet you.

Your eyes whispered, ‘Have we met?’

'Cross the room your silhouette

Starts to make its way to me.”

The night you had very first met, was not when he debuted as a member of Luxiem, but was a year or so beforehand.

Shu does not like parties, he does not go to them. He got dragged to one by a friend. But, god, was he happy that he had gone.

When his eyes landed on your figure, he knew he had to talk to you. He knew there was something there.

He knew.

He knew.

He knew.

And god, was he right.

”The playful conversation starts

Counter all your quick remarks

Like passing notes in secrecy.”

The live chat to the premier of this song is going nuts. Superchats, members, akasupa’s even. The occasional NIJI member sending a message

Vox Akuma [NIJISANJI EN] 🔧: OH MY GOD

Kyo Kaneko [NIJISANJI EN] 🔧: OKAY I SEE YOU

Even people from other companies were going feral into chat. He wanted to say something - he really, really did. But he knew the song was for him, he knew you were in pain; and he knew he was the cause. His hands remain on his letter-less keyboard, trying to think of a message to send but nothing coming to mind.

“And it was, enchanting to meet you…

All I can say is I was enchanted to meet you…”

Shu decided against joining the VC that was listening to your song live, afraid they’ll connect the dots.

Since when did he care what others thought?

Since when did Shu fucking Yamino even have romantic feelings for anyone?

He wants so badly to console you through the screen - tell you why he hasn’t been there for you… embrace you… give you his words of affirmation..

“This night is sparkling, don't you let it go

I'm wonderstruck, blushing all the way home

I'll spend forever wondering if you knew

I was enchanted to meet you

The lingering question kept me up

2 AM, who do you love?

I wonder 'til I'm wide awake

And now I'm pacing back and forth

Wishing you were at my door

I'd open up and you would say, ‘Hey’”

Shu never wanted to admit this fact to anyone else, but he knew that you knew.

Shu had slight feelings for Petra.

I know, crazy right?

Petra did not return those feelings, she saw him as a brother and wanted to keep it that way. The feelings he had for Petra were nowhere near as big as the ones he had for you, of course.

Especially now, hearing the desperation in your voice.. The longing… The way his heart is pounding.

He knew.

He knew how much he loved you, and he knew he had to make things right.

”This is me praying that,

This was the very first page,

Not where the story line ends..

My thoughts will echo your name, until I see

you again.

These are the words I held back,

as I was leaving too soon..

I was enchanted to meet you.”

At this point, Shu was tearing up. God, he hated this. He hated this so much. He hated this stupid song, he hated his feelings, and most of all he hated you.

He hated you for making him feel this way.

He hated you for writing this beautiful song, he hated you for kissing him, he hated you for being so goddamn pretty.

He hated you.

Hated you so fucking much.

But fuck, he loves you.

He loves your smile, he loves the way your eyes crinkle when your laughing, he loves your voice, he loves the chokehold you have him in.

He knows.

He knows he loves you.

“Please don't be in love with someone else

Please don't have somebody waiting on you

Please don't be in love with someone else

Please don't have somebody waiting on you..”

As the song neared an end, Shu found himself sobbing into his hands, not daring to look up at the beautiful art displayed across his screen. He longed to hear your voice in a more appropriate manner, in a way that could reaffirm him.

He wanted you.

Scratch that, he needs you.

And he has to show you just how badly he does.

He tries to subside his crying, his vision blurry whilst he pulls up Discord on his center monitor.

He goes to your profile, staring at your beautiful, beautiful, profile picture.

It was a picture of you laying in his lap giving a peace sign, although no one besides him could tell whos lap you were in.

His fingers type away onto his keyboard, as soon as he sends his message, one from you comes in.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

[shuchu]

im not even a kyo stan but like 😳 imagining the trope where childhood friends get seperated for a while and when they reuinte again, person a is shocked at how much person b has changed and now person a is confused and flustered around person b 🥺

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅ different but familiar ₊˚ෆ

character(s): kyo kaneko

note: gn!reader ; fluff ; not proof read!

a/n: oh gosh i haven't written a proper fic in ages... i apologise if this is sloppy ;w; but hey, my first kyo fic o_o despite being a kyomie for a while now lol oops. i actually really enjoyed writing this, it made me feel all soft and warm on the inside hehe. this kinda ended on a cliffhanger, let me know if you guys want a part two!! thank you anon for the idea!! enjoy lovelies ♡

art credit

you were on your way to the coffee shop nearby to get your coffee before heading to work. you take a deep breath of the crisp autumn air as you walk through a carpet of leaves, hearing them crunch beneath your feet. you swing open the door and hear the little jingle of the bell before the delicious smell of freshly baked pastries mixed with the fragrant scent of coffee wafts towards your nose. a faint smile graces your features as you walk towards the counter to order.

"hi what can i get for you today?" the cheerful cashier asks.

"i'll have an oat milk cappuccino with 2 shots of espresso as well as a croissant please." you respond, giving the cashier a friendly smile.

"will that be all?"

"yep! thank you!"

just as you were about to pull out your card to pay, you see someone reach forward to tap their card on the machine. you turn to your left to see who it was. a guy with light blue hair smiles at you and says, "my treat."

as you walked over to the collection counter with him, you were trying to figure out why this guy looked so familiar. did you know him?

and then it hit you...your eyes widened as you looked at him

"kyo?"

he turned towards you with a soft chuckle, "took you long enough."

"oh my gosh...i haven't seen you in..." your voice falters as you try to recall the number of years

"thirteen years." he says as he looks at you with a small smile

"oh wow...it's been that long huh? how've you been? i hope mr. and mrs. kaneko have been well."

"oh yeah i've been busy, got a job that literally takes up all of my time. my parents are doing good though, thank you for asking about them."

"so...what brings you back to our quaint little town?"

"well...my mom and dad wanted to meet some old friends and catch up with them. i've been working tirelessly for months without a break so i decided..."

kyo's voice drifts off, melting together with the background ambiance of the coffee shop as you stare shamelessly at him, noticing the changes in his appearance since you last saw him.

oh wow, when did he get his ear pierced? his face changed a lot...it's a lot more defined now. also, he shot up so much what the heck?! i was taller than him when we were kids...that's so unfair, why do guys get so much taller after puberty...wait, was he always this handsome...?

"hey...hey y/n...are you done checking me out?" kyo's voice gets clearer again as you snap out of your thoughts. you feel your cheeks heat up after getting caught staring at him and because of the close proximity between the both of you. he leaned in to get your attention and now both of your faces were just a few inches apart.

you avert your gaze to compose yourself and mumble, "i wasn't checking you out..."

he leans back and chuckles, "uh huh...so tell me what i said then." he teases, a smirk evident on his face.

you stay silent because obviously you didn't hear what he said, he chuckles and flicks your forehead gently, "you haven't changed a bit, always spacing out."

you move your hand to rub the spot he flicked with a pout, "quit it, you're still as annoying as you were back then." you giggle after and he laughs too. it felt nice to joke around with him again. your heart swells with happiness, you've missed him — more than you thought you did.

the barista calls out your name and you go to grab your order.

"i'm assuming you're headed off to work now, where do you work by the way?"

"oh it's just 3 blocks down, that massive office building?"

"oh yeah, i know which one you're talking about. what time do you get off work?"

"6pm."

"oh perfect, i'll see you then. we need to have a proper catchup. dinner's on me too." he says with a boyish grin.

"no that's okay, i can-"

"nuh uh uh, no can do. um...i'm sure you have to start walking, it's almost 9am. you don't wanna be late to work do you?" he says as he places his hands on your shoulders and swivels you around to face the direction of your office.

you click your tongue and start walking, turning your head back to respond to him, "we'll see mr kaneko. i'll have my card ready this time."

"byeee! good luck at work! i'll see you at 6!" he calls out as he waves at you

you wave too and turn back around with a sappy smile on your face, your cheeks flushed. well that's something to motivate me to get through work today

[eirikrjs]

Have you seen this alchemical engraving of a chimera from Cabala, Mirror of Art and Nature? I'm convinced it served as an inspiration for Master Therion, but I fail to see the connection between the two other than both belonging to Western esotericism.

Yes, I think so, too; it's actually the second entry of Kaneko's Crib Notes:

I think the image itself is more pertinent than the "Cabala" subject or the context around it. Because the truth is with a lot of Japanese books (and those from elsewhere) is that images can be used without being properly sourced or credited--if at all.

A couple examples:

This is an entry on Stonka from "World Yokai Picture Book" by Jaguar books, a series of books Kaneko loved. Note of course that this is not artwork of Stonka itself but rather the work of Marc Saint-Saens arbitrarily recontextualized to illustrate the entry.

I first saw the Cabala beast on the cover of this book (not recommended, quite rudimentary); I don't think it is otherwise mentioned or detailed in the book itself.

So I can't say we know exactly where Kaneko saw the Cabala beast, just that I feel confident in saying he did see it before designing Master Therion for SMT2. It could have literally been anywhere--and such a serendipitous glimpse is sometimes all that's required to provide the spark of needed creativity.

[kokoch4n3l]

DEAD GIRL’S BEACH ࿐ྂ KUROKAWA IZANA x f!oc x SANO MANJIRO

THREE — iv bags and daffodils

"he looks at me like I'm below him. he doesn't say it nor does he act that way but his eyes say it all. patient likes loves power. he craves it" — MAYA'S ROUGH NOTES ON K.I

chapter summary: Maya faces a moral dilemma, trying to pick between her livelihood and ethics all while under the watchful eye of the hospital director and her patient, Kurokawa Izana.

chapter warnings: inaccurate depictions of psychiatric hospitals, mentions of alcohol, mentions of depression, drug use, allusions to sex, abuse of authority, power imbalance, unethical use of drugs, mentions of alcohol, mentions of rape, mentions of murder

word count: 4213

moodboard | masterlist | previous | chapter 4

Pretty is what Kurokawa Izana would use to describe Kaneko Maya. She was so pretty. Kaneko Maya was cute, funny, pretty and just Manjiro's type. Had his younger brother not been a depressed little shit right now, Izana would have gotten Ran to gift her to Manjiro. Even if he did now, Izana doubts Manjiro would even do anything. He heard that depression affects the libido. Even before he was admitted into this shitty psychiatric hospital, no matter how many hostess bars he took Manjiro to, how many hookers he called over, how many strip clubs— Manjiro was just bored. For a while, he thought the guy was probably a nervous virgin who only knew how to fight but after a drunken conversation with Sanzu Haruchiyo, Manjiro's childhood friend, he finds out that was in fact not the case. Manjiro was pretty popular with the girls when they were in middle school(due to his shoulder-length blonde hair and girls having a huge thing for pretty boys with the deep voices). Manjiro was 100%, not a virgin and just depressed as hell. "Kakucho" Izana says holding the flip phone against his ear "How's everything going?"

Friday came by pretty quickly as usual. "It's fine as usual. You'll be out on Monday. Are you excited?" Kakucho, his childhood and right-hand man asks

Izana leans back in his shitty bed and stares out the window. It's about 10:30 am, the sun is still rising. "Yeah, about time. If it wasn't for the cute little doctor that gives me company during her night shift, would've gone fuckin' crazy for real"

"That sounds unprofessional" Kakucho mutters in disappointment

Izana laughs. "It's actually not like that. Cute kid, fresh outta uni"

Kakucho laughs. It's rare to hear Kakucho laugh. "I don't believe that one-bit Izana"

"Well, you better. Kaneko Maya, real eye candy" Izana hums and stares up at the white ceiling and starts to ramble about her "talks a lot and y’know I usually hate girls that yap but she's a real cutie. Thinkin' she can fix me and shit. It’s so fuckin’ cute. She's got this little notebook she takes notes on when she talks to me. Nosey as fuck but real cute. Got these blowjob eyes—"

"She's a psychiatrist, she's supposed to be nosey," Kakucho cuts him off before he can get vulgar, simultaneously ignoring the number of times Izana used the word cute to describe his psychiatrist "What did you say her name was again?"

Izana scoffs. "You gonna do a background check on my little doctor Kakucho? This late in too? 'M leavin' Monday"

"It's my job"

Of course, it was. Kakucho was protective. Overprotective at times. It was one of the reasons Izana kept him around. To feel wanted(and because he cared about him but Izana won't say that out loud). "Kaneko Maya. How 'bout ya’ tell me what cha' find when you're done"

"Of course"

And they end the phone call not long after. Izana sits in silence for a while and sighs tiredly. He stares down his left arm with the iv in it. Apparently whatever medication was being given to him was essential to his recovery but he really fuckin' hated it. He felt like actual shit. Tired all the time, sleepy as shit. He hated it. Oh well, he was getting out this Monday anyway. He had been here for 2 months and Maya had only been working here for a month. Perhaps had she been here the whole time the first month would have been more bearable as well. He was leaving Monday anyway. Maybe if Maya was that kind of girl she'd take up the offer of coming to his beach house and maybe she'd even put Manjiro in a good mood with those cute puppy eyes she has. After all, Manjiro has always had a fixation on cute and pretty things and Izana knew him long enough to know that. Izana hears his door click and inwardly sighs in annoyance at whoever was going to enter his room. He glares at the door but his harsh gaze immediately turns into one of surprise when seeing his night shift doctor. "what are you doing here?" He asks, narrowing his eyes at Maya

Maya is wearing her blue scrubs, her white doctor's coat sleeves folded to her elbows. She's got the pager clipped to her belt, the key bracelet thing around her wrist and her ID card securely clipped to the breast pocket on her coat. "wow no hi or good morning or how are you?" Maya asks sarcastically, the door shutting with a click behind her

Her eyes are slightly red and she looks exhausted. Her hair is tied back in a bun with a few curly strands framing her face. "Hi, good morning, how are you?" Izana says sarcastically then changes immediately to a more serious and authoritative tone "You ended your shift 6 hours ago. Go home"

Maya's shift starts from 9 pm to 4 am, she brings the patients dinner because the nurses pushed the job onto her, brings the trays back and down to the kitchen, then comes back up and sticks around as there wasn't much to do unless one of the patients/criminals, needed something which wasn't often. "Yeah... But I fell asleep in the breakroom after my shift and the old man in charge of the morning told me to take his shift and went home before I could say anything" she complained and plopped down on the chair and bolted down on the floor by his bed "I complained to the director but he told me that since I was here anyway I should just take the shift and he'd paid me extra"

Izana can't help but roll his eyes. She really wanted to pay off those loans huh? "I think that's called exploitation" He says

Which is huge coming from Izana considering what he does for a living. "Yeah but... Money" she shrugs "I get to leave at lunchtime though and don't have to come back for the night shift"

"Oh gee! How great!" Izana says sarcastically once again

Izana feels a bit odd being annoyed about the fact that his doctor is being taken advantage of. He's known her for a month and he knows she's kind and these other shitty old people employed here liked to take advantage of her kindness. To make it worse she rarely complained about it. Oh well, at least he gets to see her longer and talk to her for longer. "Haven't seen those before" Izana says looking at the two necklaces she was wearing

One was a gold oval pendant with a delicate border and the outline of a flower in the center of it. The second necklace, also gold, was a small butterfly pendant. Cute. "What's the thing in the center of the coin?" He asks "A rose?"

Maya looks down at her necklace and realizes they are untucked. It was a huge safety hazard considering she could be choked. But Sunshine Grove was a shitty psychiatric hospital and none of the employees really took safety seriously(Maya neither) so they rarely removed jewelry and just kept things like necklaces tucked under their clothes. "Ah~ it's a daffodil," Maya tells him, touching the pendant "my birth flower. My birthday's in March"

Izana chuckles. How cute. "Your birth flower, hm..."

One thing Izana liked about Maya was that she tended to ramble about random things that interested her. "Oh oh have you heard that greek myth story about daffodils?" She asks

Izana would usually be annoyed at this kind of rambling but perhaps Maya had the privilege to just talk. Pretty privilege is what Ran calls it. Izana forgot what he meant since he usually tunes whatever Ran says, out but he figures maybe this is what it is. "So basically there was this guy Narcissus. He was supposedly really good-looking. But he never found anyone that could attract him. He left a long trail of distressed and broken-hearted maidens, and one or two young men fell as well" she giggles a bit then continues the story "Then, one day, he happened to see his own reflection in a pool of water and, thus, discovered the ultimate in unrequited love and fell in love with himself. Obviously, this one-way relationship went nowhere, and Narcissus, unable to draw himself away from the pool, pined away in despair until he finally died of thirst and starvation"

Izana raises a brow. "What?"

"Yeah, and he turned into a daffodil. So another name for daffodils is Narcissus" 

Izana can't help but laugh. What a stupid story. "I'm guessing this shitty story has a moral like all Greek myths"

Maya nods. "I think it was a warning not a moral. Something like ‘love and obsession lie closer together than we think’ or something" 

Oh. Time passes by when Maya rambles. She was honestly the highlight of his day or well, night. But right now it was the day so she was the highlight of his day. He figures that since she's here right now she won't be here tonight and since it was Friday he won't see her till Monday. He’ll stay a while before he leaves on Monday to say goodbye. Time passes by fast and soon comes lunch. "You know doctor, if there's one thing I'll miss about this shitty place it'll be you talking my ear off" Izana says playfully

Maya laughs. "really well—" she pauses taking in his word "what do you mean? I'm still gonna be working here y'know"

"I'm leaving Monday. Getting discharged and will be back to my normal life" He tells her with a grin "what are you gonna miss me?"

He's being playful but the expression on Maya's face makes him confused. Why is she looking at him like that. He watches her pull out the little notebook of her's and flip through the pages. Izana watches as she mutters something to herself and all he hears are little curse. "Hey, doctor... What's wrong?" He asks in confusion

Why was this her reaction? Maya gets up and walks over to where his IV bag was hung up. She looks long and hard at the bag then turns to him. She's standing right next to him. She rarely gets this close. "You're leaving on Monday?" she repeats with a frown “like discharged and going home?”

Izana is starting to get worried and a bit aggravated, not understanding why she's looking at him like that. As far as he knew she knew nothing about him or what he did. So why was she giving him that look? "Doctor. I'd like to know why you're looking at me like that" Izana says slowly

He isn't nervous. Not at all. A man like him isn't nervous. He's concerned. There's a huge difference between the two emotions. He watches Maya take a breath. "Um... Mr. Kurokawa..." She pauses and looks at him nervously "What... What are you here for? What are you admitted here for?"

That question confuses him. Why was she asking him that? Shouldn't she know? "You should know what I'm here for" He tells her lowly, narrowing her eyes at him "You're my—"

"Mr. Kurokawa" Maya says, her voice a bit breathy 

She looks scared almost and it's starting to annoy the hell out of Izana. "Cocaine addiction. Now tell me why you're making that face"

Maya looks nervous, scared and confused. So many different emotions swirl around in her eyes. "So... You're not a convicted criminal?"

He was 100% a criminal but not a convicted one. No one has caught him yet but Maya didn't need to know that. "No and why does that relate to this?"

Maya looks like she might throw up. "You're here for addiction but you're on the fourth floor and not second" She says

"Why should I be on the second floor?" He asks, his voice demanding and angry

Maya sucks in a breath. "second floor is where patients admitted for addiction stay... You're on the fourth floor where the convicted criminals who got off by claiming insanity"

Oh. Oh… Maya chews nervously at her bottom lip. She looks like she might throw up and Izana is pissed. He's fucking pissed. He watches Maya pat her pockets and she pulls out a piece of gauze and then takes his hand. He's about to ask what she's doing but then she puts the gauze pad over the insertion site as gently as she can. She starts to pull it out, increasing pressure as she smoothly withdraws the catheter. Izana stays silent and watches her stick a bandaid to the area. "keep pressure on it for a few minutes" she mumbles and grabs the IV bag

Izana puts his thumb over his wrist where the IV was inserted and watches her. She looked like she was going to be sick and it was pissing him off. What the hell? Maya is about to leave but he stops her. "Doctor... If this is what I think it is..." Izana says slowly

Maya just shakes her head and leaves his room. Izana narrows his eyes, staring at the door. He looks down at his wrist where the IV was just taken out of and was now replaced with a bandage. He stares for a moment longer then pulls out the flip-phone again and calls Kisaki. 

"What's this?" Maya threw the half-empty IV bag onto the hospital director's desk

The hospital director, Doctor Nakamura, narrows his eyes at her. "I don't appreciate you coming in without knocking Doctor Kaneko" He says lowly

Maya wasn't going to back down today. She needed answers. She may be new, she may have just graduated a few months ago but what was wrong was wrong. "Why is Mr Kurokawa on the fourth floor and not the second? He's here for cocaine addiction not for a court order" Maya was going to get her answers today "Why is he being given a sedative and that too, that high of a dose?"

She didn't care about superiority or anything. It didn't matter. Not now when a patient was clearly not being treated for what he came for. This was against the ethics of a doctor. "Doctor Kaneko..." Doctor Nakamura says, grabbing the half-empty IV bag with a dark almost crazed look in his eyes "That man... That man is evil incarnate—"

Maya rubs her temples. "Cocaine addiction does not make a man evil incarnate. You run a psychiatric hospital you can’t say things like that. Whatever it is you did, whatever it is you're doing is wrong" Maya says sternly

This was making her sick. She couldn't believe this. She knew Sunshine Grove was shitty with how they'd push all the work onto her but she didn't think it was so shitty that they'd give a patient a drug they didn't even need. This was disgusting.  "Doctor Kaneko. You don't know what he did. this is much deeper than cocaine addiction"

"He's getting out on Monday! Mr. Kurokawa has been here for 2 months" Maya argues "If he did something so bad, he wouldn't be leaving. He'd be in jail"

Doctor Nakamura doesn't look like he has the patience for this. But Maya doesn't either. What was wrong, was wrong. "Listen Miss Kaneko..." He says slowly, now looking very aggravated, no longer using her proper title "We'll have this conversation on Monday when your shift starts. How about you go home? You must be exhausted"

It wasn't a suggestion but an order. "Unless you want to start looking for another hospital that will hire you, Miss Kaneko"

Maya feels a lump rise in her throat. No. Nonononono. No. She can't lose her job. She can't. She stares at Doctor Nakamura with wide eyes. This wasn't fair. She was trying to do the right thing and— shit. She opens her mouth to say something, to try and argue, to at least give him a threat of reporting him for mistreating Kurokawa Izana but nothing comes out. Maya feels powerless. It was between her livelihood and her morals. Was this what her mother meant? Was this what she meant when she said it was hard to be a doctor? Maya thought psychiatrists were different. She thought... She thought... This wasn't fair. She clenches his fists and lowers her head. "Yes sir" she says in defeat and promptly leaves the office

Maya walks back to the lockrooms with her head down. She feels like shit. She can't believe she gave in that easily. She hates herself. She can't even get herself to go back up to Izana's room and give him an explanation. She's horrible. She's a shit person and she knows that the guilt is gonna make her sick till she throws up. Maya pulls her hair out of the bun and runs her fingers through it angrily as she walks into the locker room without paying attention to her surroundings. stupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupidstupid— "shit!"

Maya looks up at realizes she just had her book main character moment where she bumps into the really hot guy's rock-hard chest. The guy no doubt was very hot. He's a security guard by the looks of the uniform but doesn't look like anyone she's seen on duty before. He has black hair parted in the center, olive-toned skin and heterochromatic eyes, one red and the other silver. But what really caught Maya's eye was the scar on his face. Starting from his left ear, going over the corner of his left(silver) eye then up across his forehead and disappearing into his hairline. Maya stops staring and lowers her gaze. "S-sorry" she stutters out "I wasn't watching where I was going. My bad"

He's tall and oh... Wow, he's well-built. Maya has to will herself to tear her gaze away from his chest. This guy 100% had a fricken six-pack underneath that uniform. "It's fine..." He pauses and looks at her up and down "You look tired Doctor"

Maya laughs nervously. Oh man, this guy was hot. It's almost making her forget about the guilt. Oh wait, nope she remembered it again. "Well, I'm new and you know, these oldies like pushing their work onto the newbies," She says with a shrug "I'm going home right now though... I haven't seen you around though"

The man is staring at her ID card pinned to her coat. "Hm.. Yeah, I am... I'll be taking the night shift from now on. 4th floor. They're just gonna be showing me around today"

Maya's eyes light up. New eye candy for the 4th floor now that Izana was leaving? Okay, maybe that makes her feel a little better. "Oh I work night shifts on the fourth floor too" she gives the man a friendly smile "I'm Doctor Kaneko Maya"

The man nods. Professional but also somewhat friendly. "Hitto Kakucho. I prefer just Kakucho"

Hitto? That was an odd last name. She doesn't think she's ever heard it before. But his odd last name slipped her mind pretty quickly due to the guilt she was feeling and the unholy thoughts about Kakucho that were going through her head. Oh man, he's hot and these contrasting feelings are making her head hurt. "I'll be seeing you on Monday then Doctor" Kakucho says "Get home safe"

Maya nods and Kakucho brushes past her. The locker room is once again engulfed in silence and now all that's left is Maya's guilt. She sighs and texts Chifuyu to ask him to pick her up. 

Maya sits outside in the reception area waiting for Chifuyu to come get her. She usually drives herself but last night Chifuyu insisted on driving her last night. Maya stares at the white tiled floor, sighing for the nth time. She felt like actual shit. The guilt is making her sick. Izana had been given that damn sedative for 2 months. Sometimes she'd administer it to him too. For what? For some messed up reason, she's still yet to find out. Maya feels guilty and gross and just horrible. She wants to cry. She hates this. None of this was fair. Why did it have to be her patient? Had she really just got herself caught up in something stupid all for the sake of money? Shit shit shit Maya really hated herself right now. "fuck~" she whines to herself and leans forward till her forehead touches her knees while she sits in the chair 

She feels like a stupid idiot. She should have just asked Izana what he was here for on the first day instead of trying to be nice and let him open up on his own. Now look where being nice got her. Maya flinches as her phone vibrates. She gets up and grabs her bag off the floor. It was probably Chifuyu. She bids goodbye to the man at the reception and leaves the building at the sight of a black car outside. Except it's not Chifuyu leaning against the car, it's Naoto. Her cheeks flush. Of-fucking-course Chifuyu was trying to play matchmaker. Right now wasn't a good time with how sick she felt. "hey" Naoto says with a small smile

He looks shy and had it not been for her guilt, Maya knows she'd probably be feeling the same way. "H-Hey, did Chifuyu send you?" Maya asks nervously "I'm so sorry"

Naoto shakes his head and opens the passenger seat of his car. "Oh no don't worry. Was on a break anyway. Chifuyu said he was busy and told me to come" 

Maya slides into the passenger seat and after making sure she's sitting comfortably he closes the door. Maya puts her bag on the floor of the car and puts on her seat belt. Naoto gets into the driver's side and starts the car. "I thought you had the night shift, what are you doing here so late?" He asks putting on his seatbelt

"They had a shortage... I'll be getting paid for overtime though so it's fine" Maya says trying to ignore the shitty feeling of guilt that just isn't going away

Oh man, she needed a drink. "You look exhausted. Should get some sleep when I drop you home" Naoto tells her as he pulls out of the parking lot and then out of the front gate of the hospital

"Yeah, I will.... gonna shower and just sleep and..." She pauses and thinks for a moment as they make it onto the main road "Can I ask you something?"

"You just did" Naoto points out with a small laugh and Maya can't help but laugh as well. "I'm kidding, ask away"

She thinks for a moment and tries her best to word her question. Perhaps getting an outside opinion would make her feel better. "You're a police officer, right? H-Has there ever been a time where you had to choose between your job or..." she pauses "Livelihood is a better word... Um... Has there ever been a time when you had to choose between your livelihood and your morals?"

Naoto looks surprised by her question. He keeps his eyes on the road as he answers. "W-well yeah... Have to all the time. Just last month I got called out on duty to arrest a woman for murder..." Naoto recalls then frowns "I asked her why she did it during interrogation she told me it was because the man raped her"

"Oh" Maya mumbles quietly

"You don't understand how badly I wanted to let her go. Murder is wrong but those cases... In those rare cases, even wrong can be right"

Maya takes in the information. She tries to apply it to her situation, to find just where the director was coming from but she couldn't. Kurokawa Izana didn't deserve that treatment. "But I have to say, Maya, if this is about work our situations are different... In other departments, things can be covered up by saying it was a fraud scam or corruption... In the medical department, however," He lowers his tone to "It's negligence of life... murder"

Maya's heart pounds. He was right. She didn't think of that. "Yeah... you're right" she mumbles

A silence washes over the car for a moment till Naoto speaks up again. "If there is something wrong at work, I can help you out" 

It was a nice offer but what was she supposed to say? Where was she supposed to start? Maya feels stupid because she knows she can just tell Naoto but she can't get herself to. She feels stupid and guilty and the feeling doesn't cease even as Naoto drops her off at her place. Maya's shoulder slouch as she unlocks her door. She hates this so much. A shudder passes through her suddenly at the feeling of being watched. Maya looks around for a moment and sees no one. She shakes her head and brushes it off as stress and goes into her home, locking the door behind her.

From the other side of the street, Kisaki Tetta blows out a cloud of smoke and scoffs.

notes: I do NOT condone any of the acts committed in this fic. Next chapter is gonna be my first time ever writing smut so plz, if it's bad I'm sorry 😭

I would also like to point out that I am a criminology major and don’t know much about the medical field, especially psychiatry. Everything written in this fic is not supposed to be accurate but just for the plot.

This is a double update so next chapter is already up. I have also added chapter summaries to the masterlist so go take a look!

I hope you enjoyed reading so far :)

updates are every monday

taglist: @kokonoiscoconut @mysouleaten @yaya4thawin @piroporopo @reiners-milkbiddies

[goldenkamuyhunting]

While anon's ask about the GK women isn't wrong about love being a central part of their character arc/plot, I personally think it's very surface level to say love is the only big part of the female character's arcs in Golden Kamuy. Personally when I think of the most important characteristics of charas like Asirpa, Inkarmat, Sophia, etc etc I don't think of how they show/depict love right away (though no doubt it's a big part of their character and arguably what distinguishes them from the men/male charas), but more their own personality and strengths/abilities, which help support how they give and receive love. It's a lot more indepth than most female characters would give in most shounen stories so I appreciate Oda writing female characters with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Hum...

credits when it's due, anon said and I quote ""love" be a part (or central) to their character plot", not just that 'love is central to their plot'.

Note how central not only is the second option but it's also between brakets. I might be wrong but I think not even anon meant to imply love is all there is to those girls (anon is free to correct me though).

As I've linked in that same reply my rather long and detailed view on female characters, I didn't feel necessary to rewrite all their respective strenghts. As I said in the past, I think that for being a Seinen GK does well enough in regard to characterizing female characters.

It's also worth to note that shonen are aimed to a younger audience compared to seinen, so characters aren't necessarily expected to have the same depth (mind you, I'm not saying they can't be deep and well characterized, just that there's often less request for it... but in the end it depends on the author).

Now, just to put things into perspective on why people has disappointed by the way females seems not to exist independently by males, there are 30 female characters (sort of) in GK which, as I've said in the past are many, diverse and well characterized but yes they're almost all tied to 1 or more male characters and, if they weren't, they wouldn't be in the story.

Let's see how they're split.

They've no name and are just some male character's mother/wife/daughter/grandmother

1 Nihei's female populated family

2 Kiroranke's wife

3 Hidoro's wife

4 Edogai's mother

5 Tanigaki's mother

6 Ogata's grandmother

7 Youichirou's wife

8 Tanigaki's daughter

9 Makanakkuru's wife

They've a name but they're in the story because they're some male character's mother/wife/daughter/grandmother/love interest/sister

1 Kenmochi Umeko (Sugimoto's initial love interest, Toraji's wife)

2 Chiyoko (Hidoro Tamotsu's lover and love interest of Hidoro Shinpei)

3 Inkarmat (feels one sided love for Wilk, will become Tanigaki's wife)

4 Tanigaki Fumi (Tanigaki's sister, Aoyama Kenkichi's wife)

5 O-gin (Sakamoto's lover/wife)

6 Ogata Tome (Ogata's mother, Hanazawa's ex-lover)

7 Harumi Chiyo (Tsukishima's love interest)

8 Hasegawa Fina (Tsurumi's wife)

9 Hasegawa Olga (Tsurumi's daughter)

10 Koito Yuki (Koito Otonoshin's mother, Koito Heiji's wife)

11 Noriko (Heita's brother's wife)

12 Hanazawa Hiro (Hanazawa's wife and Yuusaku's mother)

13 Kaneko Kaeko (Yuusaku's arranged fiance, she gets a crush on Sugimoto)

They are strongly connected to a male and won't be in the story without said male but they've also a goal/role that's independant from male characters

1 Asirpa (Wilk's daughter... she's dragged into the gold quest because first she wants to avenge her father and then discover his role in the Ainu slaughtering, she's also Sugimoto's partner... but through the story she manages to develop a goal that's independant from males, aka protect the Ainu culture)

2 Riratte (Wilk's wife... though yes, she's also Asirpa's mom which is more important.. though Asirpa doesn't know her if not for what her father told her)

3 Sofia (one sided love for Wilk which lead Kiro to think she's the best to give them info about Wilk that might help them solve the code, Kiroranke's love interest... but she's also a revolutionary who wants improve Russia... too bad she sacrifices her goal to fulfill the one of Wilk and Kiro)

4 Svetlana (leaves her family to follow a male but wants to see Saint Petersburg)

5 Sister Miyazawa (Shiraishi's idealized love interest, she doesn't even know of his existance and wants just to do her role as a nun)

6 Monoa and the other Ainu women of her village (they were the mothers/wives of the Ainu of their village, who were held captive by escaped Kabato convicts and would want to marry Ushiyama... actually I'm placing them here solely because in the end they carry on living on their own without men but without the Kobato convicts they wouldn't likely be in the story)

7 Osoma (she got a totally unncesssary crush on Tanigaki... that she overcomes thanks to a crush for a boy her age... but she's also Asirpa's cousin and that's more relevant)

8 Enonoka (while she was doing good at being a female character on her own, ultimately the story implies she'll marry Cikapasi once she grows up... and yeah, technically she's in the story to help her grandfather with his job and to carry Sugimoto's group through Karafuto)

They aren't in the story due to a male!

1 Susupo (she's Asirpa's grandmother and while it can be argued she became as such by marrying a male... well, said male is deceased and never seen in flashbacks and it's only worth is it's established early on Susupo is an important figure in the village because her husband was)

2 Kaneko's maid (not only she's not in the story due to a male but encourage Kaneko to not think her worth is tied to how handsome her husband will be)

It's... basically almost the totality of the female cast who's dragged into the story due to male characters who're mostly the focus of the story so that even well rounded characters like Asirpa or Inkarmat or Sofia just feel too tied to the male characters... and the fact the story feels the need to give them unnedessary crushes for male characters (did Asirpa really need to have to crush on Sugimoto? Couldn't she just see him as a brother figure? Especially since Asirpa is rather young? Did Sofia really need to have to crush on Wilk? Couldn't they just be companions? Did Inkarmat really have to crush on Wilk also? Same as Asirpa couldn't she just see him as a brother/father figure?)

So while I think that GK is doing remarkably well in regard to female representation for being a Seinen... well, this is very far for equal opportunities representation and I'm not surprised if someone is annoyed and feel like females are ALWAYS sidelined compared to male characters in manga... especially because in many countries shonen and seinen are the predominant manga which get translated, so if you aren't aware of what's a shonen, shoujo, seinen, josei but collect each story under the umbrella term of manga, the disparity gets even more marked.

That's why my stance is to aknowledge GK for how he's doing better, but also aknowledge that female representation in it is far from perfect.

Also... I think it's just a typo but Oda is "One piece" creator... "Golden Kamuy" was made by Noda... ^_-

Sorry for the long reply you probably didn't ask for.

The whole 'females in GK' would probably deserve a full meta which, at this point, I'm not going to write but, in honor of all those who complain, I wanted to write I also understand why they've problems with them, because indeed there are problems with them, even though I tend to see GK as a work that, for a seinen, deserves more praises than criticisms in that aspects.

Again sorry for the long reply.

[rotnow]

✨ Articles of Phantom Theives : The mermaid and the ship of fakes! ✨

NOTE : watching the actual episode of the anime is highly recommended Hello everyone! Huhu here! It's been a while huh? Well as I promised I have finished the chapter for this story! You are in a treat this time my friend, I have decided to write an actually full fledged story this time instead of writing bullet points. I’m going to be honest..this wasn’t easy. I had to constantly keep motivating myself and the amount of times I have went back and forth to looking at the episode is insane 💀 That being said, THIS IS A WARNING‼️ the end of this story might be lacking and I apologize for that. I’ll try to be better in the future! Hm..what else? Oh yes, Emily's outfit! Yes yes she is dressed up in knight armor (will be explained in the story) here I even drew it!!

Now without further adieu.. Let the story begin! Thank you for reading!!

———————————————————

Don’t get me wrong, Emily Oak loves parties. She enjoys socializing with different people and most importantly the food.

So why is she wearing a fully covered knight costume in the middle of a party?

Well dear reader, let me explain. So it started when Emily and DJ peacock were discussing their latest report on Kaitou Joker when a little birdie told them that Joker has sent an advance notice to steal Mr Kaneri’s Mermaid Crystal during his luxury liner party! Obviously both of them were stoked about this news but before things can get even more better it was also hinted that the mysterious phantom thief Spade (who has yet to reveal his identity) was also going to be appearing!

DJ peacock was too busy jumping around in excitement already having ideas on covering the underground news and to notice Emily's shoulder’s slow slump when she realized who Joker and this spade is stealing from.

“Hm? Emily what’s wrong?” “Oh um.. well good news! I can go to the party without being accompanied by inspector oniyama and the others!” “That's wonderful! How did you manage to do that at a short notice?” “Ok so here's the surprising news..”

Emily had to shut her friend’s gaping mouth before any flies would fly into it when she revealed that Mr Kaneri is her uncle. In her defense, the rich man is her FAR FAR FARR UNCLE. She hardly sees him that much anyway but she has a great opportunity in her hands and she could get a peek of what kaitou spade looks like as well! All it took was one greeting (and a bit of persuasion) and Emily had the invitation in her hands, ready to go!

And that's how she got into this situation, a fully covered knight armor costume in her uncle’s cruise attending his costume party. It's not like she doesn’t want her uncle to find her (ok she does) but she only really came here to see what Joker has up his sleeve this time and see kaitou spade, not be forced to write an article about how wealthy her uncle is.

‘Now that I think about it..this armor is making me sweat..’ the brown hair girl thought to herself while looking at the multiple paintings of her uncle on the wall. It was amazing how Emily managed to get such armor like this on rent, truly it was a snatch ... .except it was hot and heavy to move in!

‘Maybe I need water..yeah water might do the trick!’ She made her way to the buffet table that had the most drool worthy food on it. It looked so good she almost bumped into a waiter that suspiciously looked familiar to her. Is it just her or has she seen those blue eyes and strange hairstyles before? Eh it's hard to see through the helmet anyway.

A few minutes pass, and the mermaid crystal is now revealed to the guests by Mr Kaneri’s assistant, kaneko. The beauty of the treasure shown on television could not compete with the real deal! It looks stunning and amazing, and- is that Joker?! Emily paused in the middle of feasting on the delicious custards to see LITERALLY KAITOU JOKER OUT IN THE OPEN COMING DOWN FROM THE CEILING?! She couldn’t believe it! Has Joker already planned to take the mermaid crystal this early? Or has he already done it? How?!

As if she heaviness of the armor Emily is wearing didn’t bother her anymore, she instantly brought out her pen and notepad (guests who were beside her was looking at her weirdly like ‘did this knight just pull out a pen and paper out of thin air?’) preparing to make a beeline towards the fight breaking out in stage between iInspector Oniyama and “Joker”. Until that beeline was cut short, now Emily stood a good feet away from the mess of her uncle who was actually wearing a joker costume, shouting at Inspector Oniyama and her crew of attacking him. To the Oniyama’s defense, the costume looked TOO much like Joker.

Emily sighed at this and turned around to go back to her previous spot at the food buffet. She could hear bits of conversation of Mr Kaneri and oniyama’s conversation but she isn’t one to eavesdrop so-

“By the way, have you seen my lovely niece Emily? She said that she’ll be here at my party tonight!” Mr Kaneri boasted about making Oniyama tilt his head. “Your niece? Emily?” “Yes! Emily Oak! The famous journalist that wrote articles about the rotten Joker! You see I’m planning on convincing her to write articles about ME instead, because I’m so rich and famous it would definitely indeed turn heads!”.

‘You know what I think it's a great idea to hide in the kitchen for a while’ her legs guided her quickly into the kitchen. Big mistake, she was faced with four heads turned towards her. Emily blinked at two out of the four familiar heads, grinning behind her helmet at the sight of them. She pointed at them.

“Hachi! Joker!”

….

“WHO ARE YOU?!”

///

“I didn’t realize it was you, Miss Emily!” Hachi exclaimed as Emily took off her helmet and smiled at the ninja boy “Sorry for making you panic back there in the kitchen, it's nice to see you again!”. She didn’t get to spend that much time with hachi the last time they met (that being he was literally helping Joker steal something) but she can just tell from his adorable face he is just sweet. Hachi looked at Joker who was staring at the other two with bis hands on his hips

“Hey so what's up with Joker-“

“I’ev heard lots of rumors..so you’re the big up and comer, Spade”

Emily’s eyes instantly darted to the two, the time has finally come! She is now in the presence of the one and only phantom thief Spade!

“King, you must be this Spade’s apprentice”

Wait what?

Emily slowly puts down the pen she didn’t even realize she was holding (must be muscle memory) confused. Joker just continued to talk, “Unlike you, I’m already on my own. And I have my own apprentice! This is Hachi, my number #1 apprentice”. “A pleasure to meet you!” said the apprentice.

The journalist couldn’t help but smile softly at the way Joker is proudly introducing Hachi. To think this was the same Joker she met in the past when he was still new to being a phantom thief is astonishing! Oh how the times have changed. He was even defending Hachi when this apparent “King'' made a remark of how small the ninja is. Oh how it warms her heart to see this.

“By the way, this is Emily Oak! My journalist friend”

Aw he’s introducing Emily as well?

“She writes articles about ME, very good ones in fact. That just adds weight to how much I have grown” Joker smirks as he crosses his arms together looking like an athlete showing off his medals.

‘I should have expected that..’ Emily waves her hands in front of her when King and his friend turned to look at her as she tries to explain more about herself “I don’t only write about Joker of course”The brown hair female failed to notice Joker’s side eye beside her “I am also interested in writing about other phantom thieves. That's actually one of the main reasons why I’m here, to interview phantom thief spade”

King and partner glanced at each other for a moment before looking back at the journalist. “That’s very nice of you, emily. We would love to be in your articles, it might even be more popular than Joker over here” King said with the last few words a bit louder , irking the tophat phantom thief. “Hey!” “J-just who are you to Mr Joker anyway?”

The next sentence that came out of the king's mouth was like a golden buzzer for our girl. It's not everyday she gets information about Joker’s childhood heck even his life when he’s not doing his phantom thief stuff even! She has always wondered what Joker’s childhood was like. To grow up, training to become a phantom thief must be tough right? Who was his mentor? Did he live in a secret isolated place like in those spy movies? Or a hideaway buried deep in nature where the only access to get food was hunting?

Well at least now she knows that he and King were training partners under the same master. Just wait till her article fans hear about this!

Emily was too busy thinking about what she’ll write in the upcoming article, she didn’t mind the current argument happening with king and joker. Er..something about ‘that summer’? Eh, the girl was too far in her thoughts to even listen unlike hachi who was dying of curiosity.

“Hey, what happened that summer?’ Please tell me!”

“Shut up! I’m not like I was back then! No matter what you people do, that crystal will be mine!”

In response to Joker’s claim, King just confidently crossed his arms ``We'll see about that, you don’t want to underestimate the skill of phantom thief spade. Let’s compete to see who can recover the Mermaid’s crystal first!”. The monologue was accompanied with his partner’s chuckle in the background (very nice add on might I say).

Emily’s brain was busy functioning this situation at the moment. ‘Two phantom thieves’ + ‘compete’ = SCORE STORY!!! For a moment she squealed, making everyone look at her for a second. Joker smiled to himself when he noticed Emily’s expression, it's one that he has seen many times before and assumed she was already loving the idea of this.

Not wanting to let her upcoming article be a disaster (and his pride won’t allow it), Joker returns King’s confidence with a smirk “I have no intention of losing to you two”. Hachi shared the same confidence, ready to be alongside Joker to win this challenge.

…

“Wah, I’m so full..”

!

The five of them looked to see inspector oniyama nearby with his partners. ‘Oh crap!’ Emily thought to herself, quickly putting on her armor helmet. She didn’t want to be caught by none other than the police with phantom thieves, especially inspector oniyama! He doesn’t even know she’s here to begin with! Besides if he does then Mr Kaneri will know..and then- She shivers at the thought of being in an endless bound conversation with her distant uncle where most of the time it's just him talking about himself.

“You’re so under arrest, Joker!!” Inspector Oniyama yelled out, dashing towards the phantom thief. Joker and Hachi both stand in their place, barely having any time to make a run for it until the king's partner swiftly moves in front of them facing the police. ‘Eh?’ Emily thinks, now that she is thinking about it she has never been introduced to King’s partner yet..

Luckily inspector oniyama also wanted to know who was the person standing in between him and Joker as well, “W-who are you?!”. King wasted no time in introducing that, his partner is Phantom thief spade. Emily gasped at the introduction, ‘This is perfect!’ She thought, ‘I can’t believe I’m going to see the phantom thief spade in action right in front of me!’

“Evil glance!” A bright light shines from Spade’s single eye (the one thing that stood out from his bandaged head (weird choice design but…still cool)) blinding inspector oniyama, momo and ginko. Just like that, three officers were down on the floor asleep once the light faded away. Emily looked at the three unconscious figures in wonder at what just happened beside Joker “Woah..” “T-that was so cool!”. Spade looked back at Joker, “Now you owe me one”. The spiky haired phantom thief gritted his teeth “I didn’t ask for you to do that!”.

The journalist on the other hand, hummed behind her helmet, “Thank you for that, Spade and King!”. Joker whipped his head to look at her “Don’t compliment the competition!!”. Spade smirked and winked, “No problem, Emily. Well, we’ll be taking that treasure. See you then”. He and spade ran off ignoring Joker’s constant yells of not letting his childhood friend steal the treasure he’s targeting. Hachi looks on in determination and notices emily walking away to where the part was. “Hm? Emily, you’re going too?” Asked the phantom thief apprentice. The girl smiled sheepishly, admitting that she’ll be heading inside to where king and spade are “I don’t want to miss spade and king steal the mermaid crystal..” “How do you know they’ll steal the mermaid, we’ll do it first!” Joker huffed as he crossed his arms, hachi mirrored his movements. Emily chuckled, “You better do it fast then, goodluck you too!” She gave a thumbs up which was returned with smirks and smiles before running to the party leaving the other two behind.

//

Once Emily entered the party room, she tried her best to find Spade and King. No really, she did! Like literally looking up and down, the kitchen, the toilet, everywhere! Seriously what kind of training did he and joker do in the past that involved both of them being able to hide so perfectly well?!

She sighed to herself, the journalist was hoping to meet them for a quick second along for a little mini interview but it seemed like that wasn't going to happen. She glances at the bag behind her, there was another reason why she wanted to see them again..

She found a tranquilizer gun.

In fact she found it on her way to the party on the floor. ‘Is it theirs?’ She wonders, ‘or is it..someone else's?!’ The thought of someone in the party with a tranquilizer gone got her sweating…it even makes her sweat bullets because now she has the gun in her bag.

‘If anyone were to see me with this..’ Emily internally panicked at the thought of someone catching her with the tranquilizer gun. She didn’t want to go to jail yet!!

Fortunately the thoughts slowly go away as Kaneko and Mr Kaneri go up on stage to announce the winners of the- eh? There was a costume contest? Emily surely didn’t know that, but the prize must be amazing then if it came from a rich man like Mr Kaneri!

“The winner indeed will receive a year’s supply of Mr. Cookie!” Mr Kaneri announces as the projector behind him projects an image of his cookie brand. Emily sweatdropped ‘why did I even bother..?’, for once she assumed her distant uncle would give out an expensive prize, she wonders who the winner of the competition is.

Before the winner is revealed though, the doors to the entrance of the room opens and Spade stands there chuckling “kukukuku”.

Emily gasps, holding her hands in front of her helmet at the sight (the guests who beside her looked at her weirdly yet again). It's the big moment of the show! Spade is now going to steal the mermaid treasure. ‘But wait..where’s King?’

“Evil glance!” Light yet again appears from Spade’s glowing eye blinding everyone, including Emily this time. However instead of sleeping like what happened with inspector Oniyama and his partners, the girl didn’t feel herself growing unconscious. Once the light faded, Emily along with multiple other guests blinked in confusion. Obviously the guests are wondering what just happened but Emily was the most confused out of them. ‘Huh?? Why aren't I unconcious? Isn’t that supposed to happen?’ Emily thought to herself, as she takes a look at Spade who is unmoving from his spot. Looking more closely, Spade was indeed not looking too good. In fact he seemed like he was panicking.

‘WHAT IS HE DOING?! IS THIS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN???’ She looked in worry feeling bad for the phantom thief. This was supposed to be the moment where he and King (again where is he) steal the mermaid crystal..and it went totally wrong! How is she supposed to make this sound amazing but also truthful in her article? ‘Phantom thief Spade fails to steal the Mermaid Crystal’? Oh dear..

As if anything else could get worse, Inspector Oniyama along with Ginko and Momo bursted in immediately capturing Spade by dog piling! Great now Emily might as well write ‘Phantom thief Spade fails to steal the Mermaid Crystal AND gets dog piled by police’ as the title of her article!

There could only be one thing to do now.

That's right.

Visit the caged Spade alone.

You would think security would be tight but for some reason, Emily has no problems sneaking in to check up on the caged phantom thief behind bars. She still had to take precautions though so she kept her helmet on. There wasn’t even anybody else in the room, just her and Spade. The journalist made her way in front of Spade with the only thing separating the two was the bars holding the phantom thief in. “Spade,” Spade looked up to see a knight in front of him. For a second he thought it was just some random party guest that wandered into the room but soon realized it was the girl he met on the ship’s dock once Emily lifted up her helmet to reveal her face

“M-miss Emily? What are you doing here?” Spade said out loud, curious on why she decided to come visit a literal criminal. The girl replied with a hum “Since you’re basically arrested now and most likely to be going to jail as soon as this ship gets onto land, I want to spend these last moments of interviewing” she frowned at the last words. Emily felt disappointed a bit to see such a phantom thief like spade get caught like this but..it's not she could do anything about that. Spade’s body paused at the brown haired girl’s words, ‘This girl..wants to interview me? Even though I’m-‘

“Ok first things first I need to ask you about something” Emily reached to take something out of her bag. Spade titled his head wondering what it might be.

He expected many things but no once did the thought of a tranquilizer gun being an option.

Emily may not see it, but Spade was shocked to see the gun in her hands. I mean how did the journalist get her hands on it?! Did it fell off when-

“I just want to make sure this is yours and King’s…because I really hope it is since the idea of someone else on the ship with a gun like this wouldn’t ease my worries” Emily nervously chuckled and turned the tranquilizer gun to fidget with it. “Actually now that I think about it, this is my first time holding a gun” “Miss Emily please be careful on holding that” Spade warned the person on the other side of the bars, the last thing he wants at the moment is something to go wrong. She assures the phantom thief, while holding on to the gun loosely “Its fine I got this-“

“So this is the so-called phantom thief Spade!” A third familiar voice in the room called out behind her.

“AAAH!!”

Bam! Out of panic, Emily accidently shot a nearby crate with the tranquilizer gun and quickly put the knight helmet on her head. ‘Oh shoot! It's..’, she turned around to see a shocked Mr Kaneri clutching his Mr Teddy in his hands as if his life depended on it. ‘Oh no!!’ the journalist mentally cried out, quickly putting the tranquilizer gun in her backpack. She didn’t mean too, really! You all saw that! She doesn’t quite like her distant uncle but not so much to shoot him! Her eyes shifted towards the guard behind Mr Kaneri staring at her through his glasses.

‘Its over.’ Emily has accepted her fate, freezing on her spot. This is the end. She was caught talking to a literal criminal, almost shot someone and a guard was there to witness all of it. “Y-you-! You tried to shoot me! Guard! Arrest him! He indeed needs to be locked up with that thief as well!” Mr Kaneri pointed straight at Emily, who was only accepting her fate more when she realized her uncle doesn’t even recognize her. Great so she’ll be going to jail by her own distant uncle.

This is the end of Emily Oak’s life..

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

The guard made no move to arrest Emily however instead he knocked Mr Kaneri out. No seriously, the journalist was now looking down at her unconscious uncle as the guard was tying him up. “What..” Emily gaped, not understanding what is happening right now. What was she feeling? Shocked? Confused? The poor girl could feel herself shaking a bit. After successfully tying up the rich man, the guard stood up to face Emily with a smile. She gasped when she recognized who the guard was.

“You're an interesting one, Emily. I didn’t even realize my tranquilizer gun was missing until the last minute” King let out a chuckle while making his way to let Spade out of the cage. He patted his partner’s arm as an act of comfort before looking back at her with a curious look, “Are you sure you’re not secretly a phantom thief?” Emily quickly shook her head at the question, “Me? No way, I just happened to find the gun on the floor as I was walking to the party. You guys must have dropped it” Besides, I don't think I can handle the intense life of being a phantom thief again, she mentally added. .

“So what are you going to do now?” “Continue our mission to steal the mermaid crystal of course! Don’t tell me you thought we’ll just let Joker and his apprentice take it from us.” “Ahaha of course not, I wish you luck for you two!”

King and Spade leave the room after bidding their goodbyes to Emily. Now it was just her and Mr Kaneri’s slumped, tied up unconscious body on the floor. He was even snoring- is he dreaming of something?! Emily shakes her head and smiles, ‘I've seen what Spade and King had done..perhaps it's now Joker and Hachi’s turn!’ She grins and makes her way to the party room.

The phrase ‘The show must go on’ fitted perfectly for what was going to happen next in my opinion. Despite just capturing a phantom thief, someone must have thought it was a good idea for the party to still continue, not that Emily minded she was interested in how things will turn out. Especially since she hasn't seen Joker make any moves to get the treasure yet. Speaking of the devil, as soon as the girl was wondering where her friend was, the lights turned off and there Joker was, standing on the stage with a confident stance.

‘There he is! Oh and since everyone knows that Mr Kaneri is dressing up as Joker no one is batting an eye’ Emily mentally noted how smart this trick was, it was just as easy as taking a candy from a baby. Joker seemed to not even hide his victory smirk as he approached where Kaneko and the mermaid crystal is. However he didn’t get to even touch the treasure. Somebody stopped him and that someone is none other then..Inspector Oniyama.

“So under arrest!”, he and a few other officers cornered Joker on the stage. The phantom thief was surrounded the only thing left to do was the inspector making sure this was the real deal or just Mr Kaneri (He secretly hoped it was the later).

“You’re a fool, indeed!”

It was the latter.

Emily was starting to get a headache, so that wasn’t Joker but her distant uncle? Wait but that doesn’t make any sense, she saw the old rich man asleep a few minutes ago… and what do you mean he won the costume contest?! She stared in confusion as Mr Kaneri cackled on stage, embracing the fact that he became the winner of his OWN contest.

But what’s that..?

Another Mr Kaneri appears on stage?! Commotion arrupts from everyone, this has turned into a mess!. ‘What..is happening??!!’ Emily looks back and forth at the two Mr Kaneris from her position in the crowd. Instantly, being the one and only japanese police inspector that is determined to catch his target criminal, inspector oniyama and his subordinates jump on stage to set the record straight on who is who.

In the end though, the mystery was solved when one Mr Kaneri realized the other Mr Kaneri was King. This caused both of them to take off their disguise and can you guess what happened next? Yeah, you’re right, they both got captured and taken to the cage Spade once was.

Ok let's be honest here, this whole story Emily Oak has witnessed so many twists and turns. She wasn’t even surprised to be asked to help distribute curry laced with whatever was in the tranquilizer by Hachi and Spade. You can say she was already tired and wanted to get over this. The journalist began pushing the trolley from the kitchen to the party room when she heard the little ninja beside her sigh.

“What’s wrong Hachi?” She asks wondering why Hachi was sighing. “Its just..I really want to know why Mr Joker seems to have a bad history with dipping sauce! But he won’t tell me one bit of it.” he crossed his arms, seemingly annoyed he can’t know. Emily chuckles and assures him, “Its ok, Hachi. It must be an embarressing past if he doesn’t want to tell you what it is. Everyone has their secrets after all.” The asisstant hummed, taking her words before realizing something, “Hey Miss Emily, why aren’t you with them?” “Them?” “Yeah Inspector Oniyama and the others, normally when there is a event where me and Mister Joker attend you always stick with the police force.” The brown hair girl titled her head as she continued to push the trolley with the curry pot at his question. Emily was considering on telling him the reason why she got invited to the party…but then the thought of the ninja telling his master that Mr Kaneri is her distant unlce. It would open so much opperunities, oppertunites that will lead to trouble.

“Everyone has their secrets, Hachi”

“What?”

Emily continued to push forwards, quickening her pace.

“MISS EMILY??”

//

“I am the true phantom thief spade!”

“What?!”

After putting everyone to sleep with the curry, the trio managed to save the two phantom thieves and are now standing at the dock of the ship just like what happened last time. For some explanation, Joker managed to snag the mermaid cyrstal before Spade and King could. Now this is the part where emily would write down what happened, and smile with a “I guess joker won again, I can’t wait to tell my readers!” UNTIL..

It was revealed that King was actually Spade the entire time?! And the “spade” was actually King’s assistant, Dark Eye?! This is the last plot twist the journalist could handle, she is going to lose it if it weren't for Spade giving a dramatic departure as he steals the treasure away from Joker in his airship….do all phantom thieves have airships?

The journalist continued to look at the distant blip flying away. So she has a story, she just expected it to go like this. Emily chuckles as she thinks to herself ‘This was a fun night..’

Joker and Hachi stop their current bickering (yet again it was Hachi asking about the summer dipping sauce and Joker refusing to tell anything about it) to stare at the girl. The spiky hair thief decided to speak first, “What are you laughing about?” “I was just thinking how fun this whole night was..I can’t believe I got to meet Phantom thief Spade. He sure is an interesting fellow”.

Joker huffed and crossed his arms “Don’t compliment the competition!”. “Yeah! And don’t worry we’ll win next time!” Hachi added with a determined smile shared with his master.

“I can’t wait-“

“JOKER!!!” “Give me back my treasure, indeed!!”

Uh oh

The three of them turn to see a very awake Mr Kaneri and Inspector Oniyama running towards them at full speed. Emily quickly puts on her knight helmet to shield her identity as Joker and Hachi…jump off the ship into the ocean?! She quickly looks down by the railing as she sees the two of them in the ocean. ‘What an exit..’

“Ah! Inspector! That was the knight that almost shot me earlier, indeed!”

Emily did a sharp turn to face her distant uncle, “WHAT?!” No way..is her uncle really going to make the police arrest her?!

.

.

.

.

Well I guess she has to exit as well

SPLASH!

[The end]

————————————————————

WOWEEE so there we have it folks! You have reached the end of the story! Damm that took long! So this is the chapter where Emily meets Spade for the first time, I quite think they will have a nice friendship with one another. Maybe he’ll spill embaressing secrets about Joker to her a bit and Joker will be like “I DID NOT DO THAT” but like yk he did. What’s that? The ending seems to be lacking? Well I warned you! I’m like running a race, I start strong, end tired and begging my friend to give me my water bottle. I tried my best either way though, I guess this is about 4000 words? This will be a rare case..I don’t think I’ll ever be doing something like this again..

Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it and have a nice day or night‼️ ✨

-Huhu

[cadybear420]

MC Mini-Intro: Ride or Die: Adelaide "Addi" Zhou

Book Playthrough Status: Completed, but I might do a replay or two

Birthday: Pending, but it's sometime in the year 2001, somewhere between March and May I think (she's 18 during the story's timeline but it's unclear over how much time the story takes place)

Gender: GNC Cis Woman (she/her)

Ethnicity: Is at least half-Chinese (haven't figured out her mom's heritage yet)

Sexuality: Bi-curious wlm

In-Game LI Pursued: Colt Kaneko

Endgame LI Headcanon: Her relationship with Colt is only a brief fling. What becomes of her love life after that is still pending.

Additional Notes: She became salutatorian in my playthrough. But I might try to see if I can get any different outcomes for her. Also because her dad and Aiden's dad are the same sprite, I headcanon their dads are twins and thus they are cousins.

All MC profiles are subject to updates

MC Masterlist (coming soon)

[madeinjapan-thailand-blbambeyond]

MADE IN JAPAN

KANEKO SHUNYA

NOMURA KOTA

Side Note: MDL does not (as of this post) reveal the child actors name. But I love them. So effing adorable.

[missameliep]

Hii 🥰

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💖

Thanks for the ask, sweetie! ☺️

A top 5? This is incredibly hard for me, like it must be for a mother to pick a favorite child! I write what I love, and even if they are not perfect, every fic can be so very different and challenging and special and I love them all in different ways.

I'll be cheating because Desire & Decorum, which is my favorite book to write and of my favorite pairing Elizabeth and Hamid that has my heart, so I'm making a top 5 for all the fics and another one for D&D, which could be easily a Top 10 because I love so many chapters of TPoH and Second Chances ❤️

Top 5

1. Like Poetry (Blades of Light and Shadow)

2. Safe (Wake the Dead)

3. Heart in a Cage (Blades of Light and Shadow)

4. Rainy Days - Part 1

5. Bad Liar

Top 5 Desire & Decorum

1. Netflix and Cafuné (Modern AU)

2. Is this love?

3. The Pursuit of Happiness - Epilogue

4. Desire&Decorum&Zombies

5. Somewhere in time (AU of an AU - if you know it, you know it)

I'm tagging @princess-geek @lorirwritesfanfic @noesapphic @storyofmychoices @lilyoffandoms @jerzwriter @aallotarenunelma @inlocusmads (feel free to ignore)

[kanekoii]

HAIHAI!! Decided to write the req before eeping rq sooo :3

Could you pretty please try to write some hcs about making out with Kyo(notice how this silly mf is always in my reqs), Doppio and Sonny? (+maybe Vox and Ike but i don't want to pressure u or anything>~<)

Also omagad I'll probs make a req including Kotoka tomorrow (⁠☆⁠▽⁠☆⁠)

lyra's notes -> ALRIGHT BET (im half awake rn)

pairings -> kyo kaneko, sonny brisko, doppio dropscythe, vox akuma, ike eveland x gn! reader (separate)

genre -> headcanons, fluff but like if you put season salt on it (lmao what did this even mean when i wrote it

song -> wave - ateez

warnings -> slightly suggestive content, strong language

KYO KANEKO •

sweet boy. he’s also a little bitch. absolutely loves having you on his lap while he passes the time with his passionate and warm kisses. that doesn’t mean he won’t tease you though because he absolutely will. he will make fun of you for the rest of forever if you get flustered, sorry.

SONNY BRISKO •

the softest of boy. he’ll have his arms around you, holding you so tight it’s almost as if he’d die if he let go. considering the danger of his job, this is like a nightly thing.

DOPPIO DROPSCYTHE •

hot man the hottest of man. just the perfect amount of soft and teasing, cute and hot. with his multicolor hair tangled between your fingers as you kiss him once more, ignoring the marks and bruises on your neck and shoulders that his sharp, fang-like teeth had left on you.

VOX AKUMA •

motherfucker. absolute menace. he will tease you to hell and back (haha get it cuz he’s a demon i’m very funny). the menace will have the time of his life seeing the reactions he can get out of you with his touch and kisses, even with just saying certain things to you.

IKE EVELAND •

another sweet boy. a softie who just wants to make you happy by kissing everywhere he can and telling you just how much he loves you with both his actions and his words. softest boy won’t wear his glasses during times like this, so kiss around his eyes and boy will be a MESS

[siren-tale]

a brief guide to cora's ocs

just a heads up, this is not all of them- just my most developed and beloved ones. there will be a lot of one piece ocs, because that's by far the most expansive universe, so i always found so much inspiration for original characters and ideas!

yes, these are all incredibly self indulgent, and yes, they all have relations to canon characters. i think we should leave the whole "canon x oc is cringe" thing in the past, cause what's the fun of creating a character to fit in your favourite fictional worlds if they don't actually interact with any parts of the world!?

also, i am always happy to talk about my ocs, so if you're curious about them, feel free to send me an ask!

PRINCESS CORALIE... *ೃ༄

The siren of the Strawhat Pirates, and long-lost princess of the Ryugu Kingdom

Luffy's childhood friend- they met after she was freed from imprisonment by the Red Hair Pirates

If Luffy is the sun, she's definitely the stars... a guiding constellation to lead you home

Incredibly skilled at reading people, and has excellent perception and a keen sense of danger

Has the typical abilities of a siren, but refuses to use her voice after some incidents in the past

MORANA... *ೃ༄

Otherwise known as Miss Halloween, one of the founding members of Baroque Works

User of the Vamp-Vamp Fruit, which gave her the appearance and characteristics of a vampire

If someone questions why Crocodile has a bat on his shoulder, imagine their shock when it transforms into a woman- (very important to note that she still sits on his shoulder after transforming)

Briefly sailed with the Strawhats after escaping Alabasta, but left them to reunite with her boss and (eventually) form the Cross Guild

I just think the Cross Guild deserves a sexy vampire secretary

DONQUIXOTE AMORETTA... *ೃ༄

Doflamingo and Rosinante's younger cousin, who has way too much backstory to fit into a few dot points

She and Law share similar traumas, but they handle it very differently; she prefers to hide it behind her smile and warmth

You know the heart tattoos Law has on his shoulders? She has a smaller version tattooed above her own heart :')

She's attached to Law, so naturally, she is doomed by the narrative- I don't know if she's making it to the end...

Forget everything else about the Dressrosa Arc, it's all about HER NOW (/hj)

KIT... *ೃ༄

A raccoon mink who was raised as a human, by humans- she didn't even know what she was until she came across minks in a book

The musician of the Heart Pirates, and Bepo's partner (Law won't admit it, but he had her join the crew to set her up with Bepo)

I don't like that female minks are just the same female body model with an animal head, so Kit is short and chubby <3

Much like actual raccoons, she's a bit feral, especially in fights: she will use her claws and she might bite

Sorry Law, you're gonna have to fight Kit for prime Bepo cuddling spots now

DONQUIXOTE HARMONIA... *ೃ༄

Rosinante's wife (widow...), Sengoku's niece, a maternal figure for Law, and the botanist/tailor of the Heart Pirates

User of the Plant-Plant Fruit, which gives her the ability to grow any kind of plant, either from the ground or just the palm of her hand

Proficient in medicinal herbs, which is mostly what she uses her ability for- any sort of medical ointment or cough syrup on the Polar Tang is made either by her or by following her instructions

She has so much maternal love to give, even outside of her own crew- a lot of the younger Strawhats seek out her presence during their alliance

Definitely a Mama Bear type- very sweet and warm, but if you hurt her kids she will destroy you

HINA KANEKO... *ೃ༄

Aoba Johsai's manager, and the school's golden girl (she has a fan club that could rival Oikawa's-)

Under a lot of pressure from her family to be the perfect daughter- they expect perfect grades, a presentable appearance, and utter success in everything

It's just very important to me to give Oikawa a friend who has the same issue of pushing themself too far all the time, so when they call each other out for their unhealthy behaviour they realise their own issues and start working through them <3

Definitely the kind of person who is very mature and professional in public, but with her friends in private, she does a total 180

As is typical with all the VB teams in Haikyuu, every tournament they go to, the team is constantly showing off their pretty manager

KAIDA MONOMA... *ೃ༄

I won't even try to hide that this OC was inspired by Monoma from BNHA- I just like characters who can copy other people's powers

A Port Mafia executive, and a former member of the Sheep, where she was essentially Chuuya's right-hand man

The big sister of the Port Mafia, who will take care of any of the younger members with no hesitation (Kyuusaku is especially attached)

Very, very confident and sure of herself, and strangely positive and upbeat for someone in the mafia

Hobbies include: copying Chuuya's power so she can stand on the ceiling and scare him

WREN GRICE... *ೃ༄

The eldest Grice sibling, and a warrior candidate from Marley who was experimented on, resulting in her becoming physically unbreakable

The first to betray Marley and align herself with Paradis, telling her friends and superiors that she came from beyond the walls after the Female Titan incident

She surprisingly gains the trust of her superior officers over time- Erwin appreciates the bits of information she offers about the outside world, and Hange enjoys experimenting with Wren's invincibility

Overly mature for her age, mostly due to being forced to grow up way too soon, and never really experienced a normal childhood

As Colt and Falco's sister and Porco's best friend... that part was absolutely devastating for her

[cutepresea]

Isn't it odd Symphogear didn't get any normal length OAV or movie made, or even on the merch side more nendo or nendo petit made considering how popular it was in Japan? I know the fear was real with prods and manus during the first two seasons because they thought it was a fail project and didn't want to invest but after five seasons and five concerts? I don't know I feel like I'm missing data on why we were given the short stick compared to other popular animes...

Ah, I never really felt like that when it comes to the series (except for figures, but I get to that later in the post. I went on a bit of a tangent and it ended up longer than intended. Oops)

Five whole seasons

Four series of shorts

Enough character songs to have a box of 9 CDs released (doesn't include XDU songs)

Concerts that get released on blu-ray since G's (this one just feels like a bigger deal to me because season 1's in 2012 never got recorded or released)

A mobile game that's been running for 6 years and gets its own albums separate from the aforementioned box (there was another mobile game a decade ago that died pretty fast but nobody remembers that one, shhh...)

And a monthly spinoff manga that has enough content for four volumes so far

...All feels like a miracle to me, especially for an anime not based on an existing manga, game, or light novel

Seriously, I love this series but I have no idea how G was greenlit

I'm still waiting to see what the new project is because there's still a possibility that it could be a movie or something. I just don't expect it anytime soon, whether it be a movie or an OVA, because Kaneko (co-creator and scenario writer for the series) is busy both designing and writing a RPG which he stated was something he wanted to do while not working on Symphogear since he was too busy to work on games while he was doing that (link is Japanese, but it's the interview where he said that)

Which, again, is probably why the new project is dated 20XX

Now if I were to talk about stuff I personally would want?

If it's a movie I'd like it to be completely new content but if they make some lengthier OVAs, I've been asking for an adaptation of 3.5 from XDU for a while since the Alexandria Incident gets mentioned in AXZ.

XDU's service isn't going to last forever and I'd hate to lose a canon side story like that when it does eventually end.

They could also do 4.5 but it isn't as high a priority for me because it serves more as an introduction to Noble Red than anything and outside of the short part between Fine and Enki, it felt weird coming out after XV ended

On a bit of a side note, I've said it before, but I wouldn't be too surprised if any new anime content is by Studio KAI instead of Satelight. A LOT of Symphogear's staff moved over there after XV ended which is why XDU's second OP was done by them.

Now merchandise, oh boy, yeah that subject has stung a bit over the years. The fact the only Nendos are from S1 really is sad

They want their friends to join them

Heck, Chris didn't even get a Figma back then like Hibiki and Tsubasa did

I can't believe it took as long as it did for Kirika, Shirabe, and Maria to get figures. Especially Maria, who didn't have one released until 2022.

And it is an actual crime that Miku still doesn't have one despite being around since season 1. That is Hibiki's Wife Sunshine y'all are ignoring. (Season 1 Miku with green hair when? 🤣)

Hobby Stock's set of scale figures they've been releasing and Good Smile's ACT MODEs are a step in the right direction though. There's also been more plushes in recent years which I personally really love.

One of my wishes is someone going back to G and making figures for that so we can get Black Gungnir Maria or Shenshoujing Gear Miku

The parallel world versions of everyone from XDU would be fun too but I'm not pushing my luck there. The other Hibiki technically already has one but it used an existing Hibiki figure as a base

And yes, I am begging for a game that isn't gacha. I'm a lover of action games and RPGs so I would love something along those lines. I'm not horribly picky about the specific type

[headbeachincharge]

question for the mun: what do you enjoy the most about hatter?

IN THIS ESSAY I WILL—

(tw: suicide, mental illness mentions below the cut)

I don’t mean to be pretentious, but since the first time I watched the show, I was just enamored with what he represents. I could throw a lot of sayings at you— “Do the ends justify the means?” and “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” are the two which most readily come to mind—but I think that’s just being needlessly vague.

To me, I think he was a very honest look at what a suicidal person looks like. I won’t bore you with the details, but I’ve seen them. Both in my life, and staring back at me in the mirror. One of the things people love to say about people who do attempt suicide (which he did, “successfully,” in season one) is that “we had no idea it was that bad.” And most times, it’s true. Suicidal people generally mask their pain. To the people around them, yes, but also to themselves. It’s a survival mechanism.

He builds an entire world to combat his own hopelessness while also trying to help those around him. Although it got twisted along the way due to his intensifying mental illness, I do believe that he was truly trying to help others while helping himself. I don’t think he believed the actual strategy was going to work, but I do think that he believed it would be enough to sustain him. The drinking? Coping mechanism. Indulging in sex, food, partying? Distractions, a way to get relief from the unbearable reality of his mental illness and the horrors he had witnessed. All of the things he did, from making those grand speeches to killing “traitors” for playing cards, were desperate attempts to keep his reality alive. And, by keeping his reality alive, he was able to keep himself alive.

A detail that I’m quite fond of is how he mentions the death of his partner at the original Beach. He had committed suicide, and Hatter is clearly deeply affected by it. I think that Hatter recognized those feelings his partner had been having inside of himself, and he was terrified of ending up like him. The Borderlands Beach would be his second chance, not only to relive the “glory days” of his host club career, but perhaps even as a way to get the “right” ending where everything is okay. Or, okay enough, at least for a time. He knew it wouldn’t last forever, but maybe it could last long enough to save the people he loves, Aguni in particular. This is purely speculation on my part, but I think it aligns with his handling of grief.

I have to commend the writers on creating such depth and nuance in a character who didn’t have much screen time in the scheme of the show. I have to commend the directors on knowing how they framed him and told us things about his character even when he wasn’t talking. The editors did an incredible job of putting together a cohesive and well-paced story.

And, of course, I can’t forget Kaneko Nobuaki for his performance. Not only did he play the silly guy and the serious guy so well that they were able to bleed into each other, but he made me believe it. Hatter is a truly outrageous and ridiculous character on paper, and to bring that to life in a way that felt at least somewhat realistic (given the circumstances of the show universe, of course) is no small feat. Side note: “Smoking” on Netflix is a (very dark) show which I believe really highlights just how weirdly good he is at balancing silly and serious, sometimes swinging between them multiple times throughout a scene.

Now if you don’t want to read all of the above because my GOD that’s a lot, here’s the TL;DR

Hatter is a complicated character who provides an honest and raw look at a person who is suicidal while also being entertaining to watch and expertly crafted by the people who brought him to life.

[idolsummons]

Earning Adoration

Did I mention I hate Alice? By hate, I mean love. She's the worst. But what's a few friends compared to her material needs?

'Another package arrived for you today, Alice. I put it in your room.' Although she heard the words her step-mother spoke, Alice opted to continue eating rather than respond. 'Another one?' exclaimed her father. 'I don't know how you afford all these things.' 'She can't,' said Misaka. Alice shot her half-sister a glance. 'I bet it was another one of her boyfriends.' Their father choked on his food. 'Do you have a boyfriend, Alice?' 'No -' she swallowed her food - 'Papa, but I have many admirers.' Her father sighed a sigh of relief. 'Then why do you get those letters? I love you, Alice, I think about you all day and night and when I'm alone I -' 'Misaka,' Alice growled. She spoke through gritted teeth, lest she lose her temper. 'That is just how admirers act, and I think you would find it best not to read the mail of others.' 'My friends have had admirers. They leave them notes on their desk and say cute things, not tell them that they want to...' Misaka blushed. 'Well.' 'And I am a grown lady.' Alice pushed her chair out and stood. 'And you will find out that grown people act much different than little children.' Without so much as a word of thanks, Alice left the table and returned to her room.

Delecroix-chan,

It has been so long since I've seen you last, and not a moment goes by that I don't think about you. Even when I'm working, I find myself distracted thinking about you.

I saw this dress online and couldn't help but think of how cute it would look on you! I hope you adore it as much as I adored the thought of you in it and hope it makes an appearance in your regular rotation, or maybe I'll get to see you wearing it online!

Even getting through that much of the handwritten letter had made her want to bring up what she'd just eaten and so, after having found out who exactly had sent her the most recent gift, she'd trashed the letter - torn it up, too, so that Misaka couldn't get her grubby little hands all over it. Despite her disinterest in the note, however, Alice was delighted to wear her new dress the very next day, and how beautiful it was! The chest and sleeves (which flared out around the forearm) were a deep crimson, the waist and down the ruffled skirt black, with a ribbon around the neck to match, and it had been easy enough to match with black tights, crimson platform shoes and a lacy black parasol - all gifts from her admirers, of course. And yet, as she wore this brand new outfit, she found herself down the alleyway which boasted all her favourite brands, looking in the windows at the mannequins with their latest displays, desiring more than anything the beautiful outfits and accessories they boasted. 'Alice-chan!' Alice's hand clenched at the parasol's umbrella and a scowl tugged at her lips. She turned to the man jogging up to her with a gentle smile on her face. 'I asked you not to call me that, Monsieur Amano.' 'Ah, sorry, Delecroix-chan. I was just walking by and wanted to tell you how beautiful you looked in this dress. Is it new?' You're a liar. I know you come by whenever I make my usual rounds of the stores. You can't wait to see me, can you? It's one of the few things that brings happiness to your otherwise sad, sad life. 'Do you think so, Monsieur Amano?' Alice blushed a gentle pink, though one would barely know it beneath her layers of makeup. 'Kaneko-kun bought it for me.' Amano's smile faded. 'He did?' 'Yes, and he wrote me such a beautiful letter to go with it. You know, I think I am starting to run out of space for all these nice things you boys write for me. It might be time I start clearing them out. 'Oh, but you know, Monsieur Amano, Ikeda-kun was telling me just last night how he was looking at the new season's fashions. He told me he was going to buy me my favourite of the lot.' The colour started fading from Amano's face. Alice did her best to hold her expression steady. 'Well, which one did you choose?' 'Actually.' Alice turned around to the store behind her. 'This one right here had caught my eye.' The dress on the mannequin was a cocoa brown with a matching ribbon around the neck and a white shirt beneath. Around the skirt was a scene of a coffee shop, with various machines pouring out coffee beans towards the white, ruffled hem. 'It is a shame that I will not have it for a few weeks yet.' 'Why's that?' 'He said that he would not be able to afford it until the end of the month, and fashion is always changing. It is important to always be on top of these things, yes?' 'Well, what if I bought it for you right now?' Alice brought her fingers to her lips. 'You would do that for me, Monsieur Amano? Are you certain?' 'It wouldn't be right to make you wait, would it? Come on.' Amano outstretched his arm to take Alice's hand and instead, Alice looped her arm through his, and so they walked into the store together arm in arm.

'Good morning,' greeted the store clerk with a smile and tone that was too obviously fake. 'Good morning,' said the ever cheery Amano. Alice knew he wasn't clever enough to catch such things. 'How can I help you two today?' 'My boyfriend wished to buy me a dress.' Without even looking over, Alice could feel the heat newly radiating off Amano. 'The one in the window.' 'No problem,' said the clerk. 'Let me just grab that for you.' 'Alice - ah, Delecroix-san, do you think of me like your boyfriend?' 'Hm? Well, you are my friend who happens to be a boy, yes? Did I misspeak?' 'Well, you know, it's just that people usually use it for someone they're...' Amano cleared his throat. 'Romantically involved with.' 'Oh, I'm sorry. I should have merely called you my friend, yes? You know that Japanese is not my first language.' 'Yeah,' he responded, dejected. 'I know.' Idiot. 'Unless...' Alice giggled. 'You would rather I call you my boyfriend?' And just like that, Amano perked up. 'Really?' 'Here you are, ma'am.' The clerk reappeared from the back of the store. 'You just got the last one.' Alice took her arm from Amano's person and approached the clerk with a smile and took the bag. 'Thank you so much.'

'I cannot believe this,' said an overly cheery Alice once the two finally left the store. 'You are truly wonderful, Monsieur Amano.' 'So, what you were talking about inside,' Amano said, cheeks red. 'Did you really mean what you said, y'know, about calling me your boyfriend?' 'Hm?' Alice blinked. 'Oh, yes. Well, I am not certain that I am ready to make my decision yet, but...' It was thanks to the platform shoes Alice wore that she was tall enough to press her lips to Amano's cheek without getting on her toes, leaving a black lipstick mark behind. 'I hope that will be adequate payment for your kindness? Just make sure you do not tell the others about this - it would not do for them to get jealous, would it?' 'No,' muttered Amano, who looked so happy he was ready to die a peaceful death. 'I guess not.' 'But time is moving forward, and I will be expected at home sooner rather than later.' Alice turned and waved back at Amano. 'Farewell, Monsieur! Until next time.' Amano waved back, but not without looking stunned at the exchange only moments ago. Alice, meanwhile, was already rifling through her handbag the moment she was out of the alleyway, looking for her lipstick as she barged through the crowd and everyone parted for her. Ugh, that idiot made me ruin my makeup and now I'm going to need to use mouthwash for days. At least I got my dress.