#aku discord yall got the preview 🩷

[merriclo]

something something, the fact that Dazai despises dogs and yet is so insistent on Chuuya being one.

he isn’t wrong: of all the animals out there, Chuuya has the traits so stereotypical of a mutt. he was always one, i think, from the moment he was experimented on. and if he wasn’t under Dr. N’s rancid hands, then he surely was once the Sheep got a hold of him. sure, he was called the King of the Sheep, but what is that other than their herding dog? a shepherd so loyal to his flock, that even when a blade got buried in his abdomen he still cared for them. in the manga, it’s implied that his choker is the Sheep’s signature bracelet repurposed. he moved it from one pulse point to another, changed it from the sign of belonging to a crowd to the sign of defending one with a bloody maw. it’s a collar now, strung tight.

it’s explicitly stated that Chuuya will forever care about others, no matter how much they have hurt him. in his heart, there will always be a place for those who have done nothing but mutilate his life. a kicked dog whose tail still wags.

and. Dazai hates dogs.

genuinely, he’s disgusted by them. he takes every chance to mock or insult them. yet, he immediately became so fixated on calling Chuuya his dog, framing him as this portrait of unending loyalty, littered with wounds and stained with viscera. Chuuya becomes the one Dazai trusts the most in his current world, so much so that four years apart doesn’t change a thing. they’re back at each other’s side, lives immediately in the other’s hands; one soul, two bodies. the ends of a dichotomy that hides an endless spectrum within.

within hours of meeting, Dazai had decided that Chuuya was a dog, a mutt. he has yet to be proven wrong, and he has yet to truly hate him. something something