#ahh the urge to yap is strong. might talk about the cunning hares next i love them

[meadow-sea]

welcome to the third thrilling instalment of me yapping about harumasa asaba and ether aptitude regression syndrome (im sticking with the EARS acronym) beware of possibly unclear wording and half assed explanations. this isn’t a thesis.

- this twink has body dysmorphia. it’s kind of a given with all my other hcs. he either feels too much like an ethereal or too much like a human. a human in an ethereal body or an ethereal in a human body. not fun either way but i imagine he prefers feeling too ethereal over feeling too human. the latter makes him feel like he’s already a monster. a wolf in sheep’s clothing. jk he’s an unbothered king (he is not). if you hc him as not cis then double the fun (for you maybe)

- every now and then he like hallucinates himself as having an ethereal body. different to the phantom limbs sensation or the ethereal senses. this is just plain old tripping balls courtesy of EARS. def not a fun time. like he looks down and instead of a human hand it’s an ethereal claw. he looks in a mirror and thanatos is staring back. this mostly happens after a long time in a hollow or exposure to high levels of ether.

- on the other hand, he also has physical ether manifestations. yippeeeee. after a prolonged or high exposure to ether corruption crystals will grow on his body. like spores. mostly harmless and will break of or just turn into dust but very inconvenient. they rip through shirts (miyabi always pays for more) and make harumasa feel numb where they grow. for even more fun, harumasa’s veins, skin, hair and eyes can end up glowing or discoloured. his finger tips may become black like charcoal, glowing markings like crack appear on his face, you can see his veins shine beneath his skin. we know his eyes can change colours as well. it’s lowkey pretty. not to harumasa though (it’s his reason 253 to avoid work). when he’s alone he might spend hours scrubbing at his hands and face trying to wash the corruption off.

- adding on, his teeth and nails also become sharper because why not. they’re already slightly sharper than normal (we see his fangs in cutscenes) but it becomes much more noticeable after some time spent in a hollow. when this happens harumasa repeats to himself im not a monster im not a monster im not a monster and hopes that it’s true. what a silly little goober :))))

- i think his voice would also be altered by spending time around ether. his voice is distorted and warped, changing randomly in frequency and tone like he’s speaking through a glitchy radio while underwater. pretty much what we see in his demo. now for a funny thought: imagine the noises he makes while you’re giving him devious backshots

- in hollows, if harumasa has been exposed to enough ether and at a high enough level an image of an ethereal (thanatos) will be overlapped over his own body if you look from the right angle or closely enough. as you talk with him you see a pitch black sphere cover half his face in a flash. as he fires his bow, you see a glimpse of thanatos in his place. (this would be reason 379 to avoid work). again think of the scene in harumasa’s demo where he saves the kid. i imagine that dream sequence was based on real life. that must’ve been fun for harumasa

okk i believe i have emptied out the harumasa EARS hcs bucket in my head. for now. pls hope with me that i get miyabis w engine soon.