#SpyXFamily

[sparrow-and-seed-scrawls]

In all his ten years of espionage, Agent Twilight had never once made a mistake this dire.

He prided himself on that unbroken streak. It was why he was W.I.S.E's most decorated agent. Why he never failed a mission.

It was why he was here, now, preparing to board a plane headed for Ostania and one of W.I.S.E's more complicated operations.

Alone.

It made sense; infiltrating the country's largest data center would be difficult with more than one person. Infiltrating the country's largest data center and erasing W.I.S.E's classified information from its mainframe would be impossible with more than one person.

Unfortunately, the only other agent that had even come near to Twilight's level of skill (and the one who would've been sent on this mission, considering how Twilight had been in the middle of another operation when Handler called) was the one who'd ceded that classified information in the first place.

That agent was dead now. Killed by an Ostanian agent only hours after his plot had gone into effect.

Supposedly there had been some sort of double-cross aside from the initial betrayal. An Ostanian agent that hadn't been told of the agent's loyalty and plot. It was a mess, but it took care of the issue of W.I.S.E's rat.

Even so, Twilight had only a small window of time to get to the Ostanian data center and scrub the classified information before Ostanian leaders found it buried in code and letters.

Which made the issue he was currently staring at all the more worse.

His passport was the one of an elderly man, seventy-six, with a thin combover and short, bent frame. A rumpled plaid shirt came to a button at his neck, and thin glasses perched on his tan nose.

The disguise Twilight applied to his person so carefully, however, could not have been more different.

He was in his late-twenties, pale skin, brown eyes. His long hair was pulled back in a tail at the back of his neck. A too-tight tank top showed off toned abs, and a leather jacket gave a hint of modesty atop it. He wore khaki slacks, too, and a pair of white sneakers.

Plain, unsuspecting. And exactly the opposite of what his passport showed.

He stared at himself in the mirror and back at the passport. Mirror. Passport. Mirror--

He slapped the passport closed with a clap.

He would make this work. He would have to make this work.

He arrived at the airport several hours early with a suitcase full of basic amenities in tow. When security checked it, they would see a laptop, a photo of a family, clothes, dress shoes, a bag of toiletries, and a schedule for a work conference placed slightly askew on top.

A family man who traveled for work.

Not a retired man vacationing with his wife.

Twilight joined the line of other travelers with their passports clutched in hand. The line snaked around a corner and ended somewhere he couldn't see.

A long wait, then.

Twilight wasn't unused to waiting. He was a spy. It came with the territory. This was simply another mission.

So, as he waited, he attempted to come up with a story for why his passport looked so different from his in-real-life persona.

The line moved slowly, and by the time he was only a handful of steps away from his turn, he'd come up with exactly two decent covers. 'Decent' being a loose term, as neither were up to his standards.

He straightened his shoulders. Tightened his eyebrows so they sat closer to his eyes. Held the passport with two fingers, almost like a cigarette, as if he had no care in the world. And he stepped forward, to the officer behind the glass.

"Passport and identification," the man said, tapping his fingers on the table with all the attention of a goldfish.

Twilight slid the passport and card across to him.

The man opened it. Skimmed through the pages and stamps and--

paused at the identification photo. Frowned. Glanced between Twilight and the elderly man's photo. Frowned more deeply.

"This is you?" he asked.

Twilight nodded and laughed. Easily. "Hard to believe, huh, what they can do these days."

"Cosmetic surgery made you look fifty years younger?" the officer asked suspiciously.

"And other things. Why I'm comin' back. I still have to get my wrinkles touched up. The wife's waitin' for me."

Ostania was known for their surgery capabilities. It's what helped W.I.S.E make so many of its disguises, using technology from Ostania's surgical professionals. People used it all the time to smooth their faces and remove blemishes. Even cosmetically change their age. It wasn't something Twilight was exactly a supporter of, but it was helping his case now.

The officer hummed. "You were quite... decrepit here."

"Nearly a decade ago. They got me lookin' good now, though, huh? With all their new technology?"

"Sir, do you have any other proof that you have permission to travel to Ostania?"

Crud. Twilight thought he'd been doing fairly well, all things considered. Not well enough, though. Was he losing his touch?

"That's all I got, sir." He offered an apologetic look. "I don't mean to be a bother. I should've brought better pictures. Makin' your shift harder and all."

The man's mask slipped just a touch. "No, no. It's protocol, you understand."

"Wasn't like this when I was younger. We could go and see each other by just walking by. Didn't have the wars, or the bombs. We had ten cent candies and bicycles..." Twilight let his face go soft, his eyes wander. "Weren't so afraid of what would happen to us."

It was a risky thing to say in front of a member of the Secret Police. Twilight, however, had noticed the watch the man wore on his right wrist. It was often hidden under the cuff of his uniform, but when he'd reached for the passport and card, the silver gleam of a 1930s Xollex wristwatch caught Twilight's attention.

The man had also replaced the standard-issued buttons on his uniform with silver buttons circled with raised edging. Buttons only found on vintage uniforms, specifically manufactured in 1931 for Ostanian leadership.

Rare and antique.

The man knew his history. And he responded exactly how Twilight had figured.

His eyes softened even further, and his hold on Twilight's documents loosened. "Ah. Yes. My grandfather was an Ostanian official in the 1930s. An ambassador in Westalis."

"Ah! During the Revolution, then!"

The man grinned. "Yes, exactly!"

"A great time. All kinds of inventions."

The officer slid the documents under the glass, back to Twilight's hand. "It was wonderful speaking with you, sir. Have a good day."

"And you." Twilight said, waving a hand and passing through the checkpoint.

As soon as he was away from he officer, he slipped the identification into his luggage. He wasn't going to risk someone seeing the mismatched passport. He doubted he would get as good a chance to convince the next person that he had simply had 'extensive cosmetic surgery'.

Agent Twilight couldn't afford to make mistakes. He didn't make mistakes.

And no one had to know otherwise.

A spy found out they took the wrong fake identities with a completely different looking photo, gender, and height. When questioned, they decided to double down as a last ditch effort. "How dare you, that was me a decade ago, a lot has changed since then"!

[yumeka-sxf]

Japanese Linguistic Observations in Spy x Family - part 6

Part 6 – Supporting character musings – Eden kids

In the first three parts of this post series, I talked in detail about how each of the Forgers' specific ways of speaking in the Japanese version helps shape their character. Now I want to analyze the supporting SxF characters in terms of their speech and see what traits we can infer. I'll discuss the Eden kids first, and then the supporting adult characters like Yuri, Fiona, etc, in the next post.

I'm going to start with Damian since I feel he has the most complexity in terms of what can be analyzed from his speech. While there's nothing about his speech that really stands out to me, at least compared to the Forgers, there's still little telling nuances based on his choice of words and honorifics. He uses casual speech for fellow kids his age, and polite speech for (most) adults, which is normal…I say "most" adults though because, while he uses keigo (the standard polite form of Japanese speech) for Eden teachers and the adults in his family, he doesn't use it at all during his first encounter with Loid. He even calls Loid おっさん("ossan"), which is basically "mister" but for middle-aged or older men, instead of 兄さん("niisan"), which is the same, but for a younger man akin to Loid's age.

Later, as Loid's goody-goody act gets on his nerves, his speech becomes a bit vulgar. He adamantly shouts that he "won't hang out with that peasant girl," using the "crude" conjugation of "won't be friends with/hang out with", 相手にしねー! ("aitei ni shine!") instead of the casual 相手にしない ("aitei ni shinai"). He even says うるせー ("urusee") which means "shut up" and is even more rude than うるさい ("urusai"). I'm actually surprised he let himself talk like that in front of Donovan. I suppose it shows how passionate he is about his "aversion" to Anya.

Speaking of Anya, he's never addressed her by name in the Japanese version, opting instead to call her, at best, the casual form of "you," "omae" ("お前") and at worst, some rude name like "temee" ("手前"), the derogatory form of "you."

When it comes to his family, he addresses Donovan and Melinda as 父上 ("chichi-ue") and 母上("haha-ue") respectively. These are more formal terms for the standard polite ones typically used to address your father and mother, "o-tou-san" (お父さん) and "o-kaa-san" (お母さん). For Demetris though, he's more casual. Not only does he use plain speech, but he also calls Demetris 兄貴 ("aniki"), which is a term of endearment, like "Big Bro."

He uses casual speech with Jeeves as well, which makes sense since Jeeves is a butler and thus "lower" than anyone in the Desmond household.

To me, all of this implies that Damian is a fairly normal kid in terms of how he addresses those around him, with the exception being his extreme formality with his parents. Terms like "chichi-ue" and "haha-ue" are mostly used in uptight, flatulent families, and obviously families like the Desmonds match that description. But it also shows how this is forcing Damian to rarely get the affection and bonding he craves from his parents.

As a side note, I don't have much to say about Bill and George, since they're such minor characters and nothing about their speech stood out to me in the few chapters they appeared in. But I found it interesting that they both call Damian "Damian-kun," with "-kun" in this case being an honorific to show endearment for a male equal, similar to "-chan" for females. However, Damian doesn't use "-kun" with any of the other male students, which is another indication of his comparatively standoffish personality.

Ewen and Emile speak similarly to Damian, using casual speech for fellow kids and keigo for adults. The exception with them, however, is that they address Damian with keigo as well. Not only that, but they call him "Damian-sama," which is unusual among friends their age. The honorific "-sama" is more humbling than "-san" and is often translated as "Lord" or "Master." I wonder what Damian has done to make them think so highly of him.

Moving onto Becky, she uses feminine speech in most situations. This speech is defined by adding softening interjections at the end of sentences, like "ne" (ね), "no" (の), and especially "wa" (わ). She also uses a variety of honorifics for the other characters. She calls Anya "Anya-chan," with "-chan" being a term that shows affection between female friends. She uses the feminine "I/me" pronoun "atashi" as well.

Because of her infatuation with Loid, she calls him "Loid-sama," with "-sama," as I just discussed, being a very polite honorific used for someone you're subservient to, or at least someone you look up to immensely.   

She's actually never called Yor by her name – at first she calls Yor 奥さま ("oku-sama"), which is a polite way of addressing someone else's wife, typically translated as something like "honorable wife." But after she sees how strong Yor is and "officially" decides to be her mentee (in her mind anyway), she calls Yor 師匠 ("shishou") which means "master" or "teacher" in a trainee to trainer sense.

But despite her high social status as a Blackbell, Becky uses the most childish terms for her mother and father, "papa" (パパ) and "mama" (ママ) respectively.

It's not uncommon for very young kids to address their parents in such a way, but it is ironic that everything else about Becky makes her seem like she wants to be more "grown-up" than she actually is, but she's still just a kid deep down, at least when it comes to her relationship with her parents.

<- Return to Part 5

[unhappy-sometimes]

we back

[foxxiatto]

Art Study Yor Forger

[shiro-s2e2-erukinzu]

One of the greatest speeches ever written for a manga/anime ever, PERIOD...!!! 👏👏👏

Spy x family is very very good because there's a bit where a far right terrorist group says that they want to start a war and a main character responds by saying to them "have any of you ever killed anyone before? Have you ever been killed before? Have you ever had a limb torn off by an artillery shell? Have you ever heard the sound of bones shattering? Have you ever smelled the reek of rotting flesh? Have you ever found the crushed bodies of your parents and siblings in a pile of rubble that used to be your home? Have you ever discovered a blown-off piece of your lover stuck to a wall? Have you ever been so hungry that you tried to eat tree bark? Or stewed a pot of human flesh? Have you ever convinced yourself that your enemy was subhuman so you could...slaughter them like animals? Have you ever been so haunted by shame and regret afterwards that you cried until you vomited? Have you ever had friends who did the same, and then took their own lives? Did you learn nothing about war at your university?!"

and that's the same volume where they adopt a dog that can see into the future

[gijipaw]

Loid Loid LOID and MORE LOID!

[brynnsasha191]

THOSE ARE YOR AND MELINDA'S PRECIOUS LITTLE BABIES. I'M SOBBING.

[unhappy-sometimes]

joint mission

it would be so funny if this was how the identity reveal happens

[polylocks-blog]

spy x family is like one of my most conforting shows

(but the slow burn between loid and yor is going to kill me oneday )

[moonminho]

I’m guessing the job was pretty rough for her. And yet, she did her best to go along with Anya’s requests. You did a great job.

[ideksams]

i love this moment- i just had to 😭

[kitcatanizz]

So so precious 😍

When Loid and Yor discover each other's identities 🥺

[shiruba-tsuki]

Loid Forger + His Sleepy Family (- o – ) zzZ

[miyabau]

say cheese 📸 my pieces for @spyxvacation!

[gijipaw]

If I'm not mistaken, all of Yor's personal resolutions so far have been triggered by a comment regarding her family or normal life.

1- Olka pointing out that her family is just a cover, but causing Yor to later reaffirm her need to fight for the Forger family.

2- Melinda and the other mothers of the association commenting that it's normal not to know certain things. In addition to Loid's comment, they cause Yor to decide to open up a bit more from that point on (this can still be debated, but I think Yor has been more open since then).

And all of this leads me to wonder if Melinda is going to meet up with Yor, and thank her for her idea of ​​going to therapy, adding something related to Loid and causing Yor to reexamine her feelings regarding her husband.

It's just an idea from someone who should be sleeping, but here I am.

[shiro-s2e2-erukinzu]

SO BEAUTIFUL!! 💗👏😭💗👏😭💗👏😭💗

The big day

I'm not going to lie, I teared up a bit when drawing Loid crying 🥺

This idea came from a beautiful insta reel where a papa is listening to her daughters audio before his bride (mummy) walks down the aisle. When I saw it I just couldn't help but imagine Anya and Loid. Of course I had to add his beautiful bride (beautiful like Anya ❤️)

I didn't forget my good boy Bond! 😭 I just didn't know how to add him at the time. But don't worry, he will appear more.

My family deserves real happiness, that's what I wanted to convey here. 🥺❤️ I'm hoping they get it in the end!