#already have another in mind with one of my demon sabito aus in particular

[nerosdayinanime]

sleepyhead (passion pit)

[glassworkspiderlilies]

oh traveler, take heed (additional notes)

some extra notes for my giyushinoweek day 8 fic, oh traveler, take heed! i wrote that one in one shot last night, so it’s like, extra-hastily written haha. somehow i still ended up thinking of a bunch of background info though??

the general idea for the roles were as follows:

-Shinobu as the Butterfly Witch. She turned out to be a little bit like Rui (the spider demon) ability-wise, re: combat ability with threads/spidersilk in what i wrote. But!! she’s more of an “insect-witch” and draws her ability from various bugs and insects, so i suppose her array of physical combat would stem to like, poisoned needles/darts/knives, or some kind of created piercing weapon via magic. she wouldn’t have a sword in this au, but the combat portion of her magic would still draw from her Breath style. she’s a master at general healing and poisons, but also an expert on curses and hexes and suchlike. originally i kind of wanted her to have this exaggerated, not-so-good reputation, more befitting of a scary witch kind of thing, but in the end it’s more mixed. some will find her kind, some will find her cruel. again, i wanted to draw from CLAMP’s xxxholic, or necromancer by soga shina, where requesting help from shinobu is sort of like...”be careful what you wish for, as the results will not always be what you expect.” sometimes, curses are in place for a reason, or sometimes, what one person sees as a curse another sees as a blessing. the price that shinobu extracts is because she uses that “value” or “energy” to combat the curse/hex/illness/whatever. it is not often that she keeps the price, itself. ailments that she can cure with herbs and whatnot she’ll dispense for free--she has no need for money, since she’s still a princess. but magic of her particular kind has a price, and cannot/should not be used so easily. 

-Giyu as the “Grim Reaper”. He was supposed to be more scary!! He’s Sabito’s loyal knight, and also has the ability to lay souls to rest. He’s more in line with a canon demon slayer--that is, in this au he’d be of the few that can kill demons via cutting off their head. (witches can also kill demons!) he’s also of the few that can combat shades, remnants, the undead, and suchlike. to be honest, he takes it upon himself to do the dirty work that sabito would never ask him to do; it’s never anything terribly immoral, as he shares everything with sabito and makomo, but it pains sabito nonetheless that such a thing is necessary. some call giyu the reaper in fear, and some in hope. theoretically, he also has some necromancy abilities, but he’s not actually aware of it yet, and it’s something of a forbidden art. spirits who will willingly do his bidding are one thing, forcing them into a vessel is another. because his ability revolves around death, the common people find him very difficult to be around. it doesn’t help that he’s normally quite taciturn. sabito, giyu, and makomo are childhood friends, but before he met them, giyu was raised more by the dead than the living. (tsutako’s ghost, perhaps?) 

-Sabito as the Fox Prince. sorry, that’s it, i didn’t think any further than that LOL. he has some latent abilities too, but i didn’t think on that long enough to flesh them out. he’s a very good swordsman himself, and is often away from the castle amongst his people. he’s very well liked and has a very strong sense of justice and protecting the weak, and is constantly looking for ways to improve the kingdom. he’s a bit of a workaholic, and relies deeply on makomo and giyu. he kiiinda usurped the throne, but to the relief and benefit of everyone, since before him, it was the hand demon that was sitting on it, who had killed and eaten the previous king and all his family and heirs. he sleeps poorly, hence why makomo says that she hopes he’s at least dreaming well in the fic. (he’s not, unfortunately. the poor boy.)

-Makomo as the Fox Witch. Lady Makomo is the Prince’s companion and assistant in running the kingdom! she also acts as the ambassador to the surrounding kingdoms. she’s also kind of like a shadow operative within the kingdom--like a spy, i guess? her magic is a little unclear, but ranges more on the defensive/communication side. i imagine it extends to foxes also, like she can communicate with them and possibly transform into one. she’s the last line of defense.

-Kanae as the eldest Kochou Princess. Kanae is not quite a witch, more of a seeress or oracle. she tells fairly accurate common fortunes, and has a very good sense of incoming danger. this is also why their small kingdom has remained at peace for so long. she can be a little careless with this ability--shinobu thinks they should have kept it much more hidden. it’s not exactly widespread, but kanae would be safer had she not been so selfless. a more extended fortune-telling would need a more formal ceremony, and so the kochou kingdom will receive requests from high-ranking people on occasion, which the kochou sisters decide together whether or not to take. as such an in-depth telling would drain kanae, taking her days to recover, and so they do not take these requests very often, no matter what they’re offered. kanae’s combat ability affects the mind--she can scramble and distort thoughts if she concentrates, though this can also affect her negatively. she has very strong mental fortitude as a result of her magic. i’d like for her to also have a physical means of defense, so she can probably also swing a sword, haha.

-Kanao as the youngest Kochou Princess. Kanao has some seeress ability, and so is training under kanae, mostly, to hone/develop these. when she was young, she was able to hear voices which were other people’s thoughts. but because she grew up in the slums and no one was really around to explain her abilities to her, she and others believed she was cursed, and she broke under the stress of others’ emotions until she was picked up by kanae and shinobu. kanao was trained by shinobu in combat, and so she’s also kanae’s bodyguard while shinobu is away from the castle, especially when kanae is performing rituals which leaves her defenseless. 

-Doma, as the second prince of demons. There are twelve princes corresponding with the twelve demon moons. i guess there should also be twelve minor princes or nobles, to coincide with the lower moons? anyway. his followers attacked the kochou kingdom once and were repelled, largely by shinobu’s tactics. he’s been in love(?) with her ever since, but has marked her elder sister, because he knows that’s more motivation. 

misc other things:

- the village that shinobu told giyu not to go to--she was, in fact there, releasing the village from a “curse”, but it was one of those things where the releasing the spell was actually more detrimental to the village, but it’s the village’s problem of their own making because they’ve clung to traditions due to malice. the villagers end up being their own undoing, and the “curse” was actually to keep worse things from happening. it’s super vague since i didn’t think that deeply into the actual details of what happened--again, i just wanted that feeling of “be careful of what you wish for” type of thing. 

-i actually wanted shinobu to travel with giyu for a bit before they go to sabito! i wanted something like, giyu takes a small retinue of knights/people from a local village or something while on the search for the butterfly witch, and shinobu slips in and pretends to be one of them (though i was worried her height might give her away lmao). after a side mission is all said and done with, maybe that’s when they all go to the kochou castle, and giyu’s like, “i’m looking for the butterfly witch” and kanae laughs and says “but haven’t you already found her?” and giyu’s like “what?” and kanae’s like “she’s next to you, isn’t she? welcome home, sister.” and shinobu reveals herself and is like “hello. :) thank you kanae, i’m home.” and everyone loses their mind. i love dramatic reveals!! i wanted there to be a dramatic reveal!!!

-the “fox kingdom” (lmao kingdom names are hard and i didn’t actually come up with any proper ones, so i just. vaguely referred around it) and the kochou kingdom are officially allied. sabito saved kanae’s life once, and he and makomo are friends with kanae and shinobu. kanao and giyu were for some reason not present during when this happened LOL. but this is also why makomo tells giyu to search for the butterfly witch. the butterfly witch’s status is not actually public knowledge, hence why makomo tells giyu to go to the kochou kingdom. she would’ve explained more/the fact that the witch is also a princess, but giyu left before she could, lol. 

-originally i was gonna have giyu end up being shinobu’s familiar but then i was like......that’s too much too complicated so he’s just her traveling companion and partner to kill doma lol

hmmmm i guess that’s it for now!! thanks for reading!!