#i apologize that this makes no sense actually

[aardcinder-dragons]

Curious About the New Effects

In Order of Poll:

[fandomluver-101]

Poorly executed and made worse by how half-assed the apology is - in that it is NOT an apology. Vander does not acknowledge directly what he did nor why it was WRONG. Vander puts them both at fault for the situation, which also makes his non-apology, brittle twig of an olive branch worse. How is the person YOU tried to MURDER at fault too!? Oh, because you wrongly blame him for the death of your bestie.

The introduction of Felicia genuinely fucks so much of their dynamic and paints the opening scene of S1 horribly. Vander adopts his friend's kids, goes to the Pilt with Silco, tries to kill Silco, and then gives up violence? What's the order of events because none of it makes sense.

I genuinely hate the idea of "this would've changed everything" because the only thing it would've caused was pure rage from S1 Silco. Someone who was horribly betrayed by someone they trusted and subjected to a murder attempt that is genuinely horrifying when you understand how painful and slow drowning actually feels would NOT seek out that person, let alone go to what is not their attempted murderer's territory.

y'all. y'all know the letter wasn't the apology right. it was the olive branch. "you know where to find me" was an invitation. he couldn't apologize in a letter. he wanted silco to meet him. yeah it was a shit apology. because it wasn't one. my word.

[sapphiresaphics]

If your “criticism” of Arcane includes phrases/descriptors such as:

“Copaganda”

“Caitlyn gasses all of Zaun”

“Caitlyn is a domestic abuser”

“The characters don’t have any arcs”

“The character motivations make no sense”

“The writers suck”

“They ignored the political messages”

“Jinx is magically healed”

“Nothing made sense”

“There were too many music videos”

“X character had no purpose”

“Marvel humor”

“It had a Marvel style ending”

“The story was too centrist”

“They didn’t explain X”

“X character didn’t apologize”

“Dirt under your nails is Vi degrading herself”

“Caitlyn gets away without reproductions for her actions”

“Caitlyn is a dictator”

“Caitlyn is hitler”

“The sex scene is gross”

“Caitlyn is a sexual assaulter for sleeping with Maddie”

“They forgot about the sisters”

“Multiverse was added cuz it’s popular”

“Jinx did nothing wrong”

Or basically any combination of any of those listed… then I know for a fact you do not actually have a leg to stand on and that your “criticisms” are garbage. You’re just parroting bad faith arguments in a broken attempt to appear smart and morally superior. You have no understanding of basic narrative structure or character motivation, and you value moral purity above telling a compelling story.

[parker-artio]

The Batfamilys ages don’t make sense.

Or me dissecting the timeline of when the bats first met and why their ages are fucked up!

This is a lot of math that I did mentally while washing the dishes, I apologize if some of it is inaccurate, but I did the best I could.

(And yes, well all know their ages are fucked up, but I realized they’re a lot more fucked up then anyone first notices)

-I am ONLY doing the main family btw-

SO-

The very first Batfamily members to meet were Bruce and Alfred, it was kinda straightforward, Bruce was a baby Alfred was around the same age as his parents at early to mid 20’s.

List of the ages so far:

(I will be doing this every time)

Alfred Pennyworth: 24 ish

Bruce Wayne: 8



The second was Bruce and Dick (obviously), but this is kinda a odd one, but it’s still straightforward, Bryce went to The Flying Grayson’s show, he saw his parents die, and Y’know he decided right then and there he was going to be a foster parent. Good for him. But Dick is mentioned to be about like from 8 to 9 here. It’s more implied that he’s 8, because it’s supposed to be a parallel thing, to Bruce, with both of his parents dying in front of him at 8- so that the age I’m going to use for the beginning of this.

Bruce was supposed to be Batman for about 2-3 years before he took in Dick, so that’s what I’m going by to assume his age. (DC admit this man is mid fourths to early fifty’s , stop saying he’s early 40’s- he’s clearly not.) So he dropped out of college pretty early on, so I’d say like 19? Then he went on his trip around the world for a year or so and ended up at the League of Assassins to where he stayed for like- 2 to 4 years before he came back to Gotham. So I’m going to use the median of 2 and 4 and get that it was 3 years. (Same with the years before he took dick in, rounding out to 2.5) therefore Bruce was about- 23.5 ish when he took in Dick. And if you do some subtraction he’s only 17 years older than Dick, which works in a basic timeline of there being a couple references to Bruce being a ‘teen dad’.

Ages so far:

Alfred Pennyworth: 39 ish

Bruce Wayne: 23.5 ish

Richard Grayson: 8

Say what you want, but Barbara is apart of the batfam- I know some people like to say she’s a bit like Huntress and isn’t- but to me she is. She is the original Batgirl, and is very much apart of the Batfamily to me.

So she’s older than Dick, I’m not sure how much older, but I’m her first appearance (when she wasn’t being shipped with Bruce) she was about 2 years older than him (?- I think I can’t find anything on google with any confirmation and I don’t have old comics on hand rn).

But her first appearance was when Robin (dick) was about 12-13, I’m just gonna put 12.5 for the sake of putting 12.5.

Meaning her first appearance was when she was about 14 ish. And was about- 6 years later.

Ages so far:

Alfred Pennyworth: 45 ish

Bruce Wayne: 29.5 ish

Richard Grayson: 12.5

Barbara Gordon: 14

The next is Bruce meeting Jason. To figure out the ages here we first need to figure out the amount of time between him meeting Dick and meeting Jason. So let’s talk about the age gap between Jason and Dick.

It’s believed that their age gap is from 5-8 years, so let’s just go to the middle and say it’s 6.5 years. Jason is supposed to be 12 when Bruce first meets him, when he trying to tirejack the Batmobile. So if we add 6.5 to 12, Dick is about 18, meaning it’s been around 10 or so years. Which actually lines up believe it or not. (The old writers could actually stick to a timeline unlike the newer ones.)

But I can’t find any older comics to figure out if Bruce took Jason in right then and there, or he saw him again about a year later and took him in then. So let’s just say Jason is 12.5 when Bruce takes him in.

Ages so Far:

Alfred Pennyworth: 49 ish

Bruce Wayne: 33 ish

Richard Grayson: 18

Barbara Gordon: 20 (This also would be post paralysis as she was 19 when it happened)

Jason Todd: 12.5

When Tim comes into the family is when it gets confusing. We’re not even starting with the first time he met the family, we’re starting back with Flying Grayson’s Show.

So, Dick as we’ve established is 8. Jason is about 6.5 years younger than him. Making Jason about 1.5 when the show happens, but a very often mentioned age gap in all of the batkids- is between Tim and Jason. As Tim was 13 when Jason died. Jason was 16. Tim was 16 when Jason came back. And Jason was 19.

It’s a three year gap, therefore, Tim couldn’t have attended that show. But I don’t think anyone did the math there, meaning that’s where the first timeline inconsistency starts to occur. But it’s okay, because in a few versions Dick was said to be about 11, meaning Jason would’ve been 4ish and Tim about a year old. Most babies don’t remember stuff that happens in this time, but it is possible, so I’ll just scratch it up to multiple different world and the writers forgetting.

But when Tim does finally meet the family he is 13, as it is right after Jason’s death when he is 16, he becomes Robin because Dick basically hands him the suit, when Tim tells him Batman needs a new Robin, and yeah.

So a three year gap. Timeline a bit messed up, but it can’t get that much worse, right? (Wrong.)

Ages so far:

Alfred Pennyworth: 52 ish

Bruce Wayne: 36ish

Richard Grayson: 21

Barbara Gordon: 23

Jason Todd (assumed dead): 16

Tim Drake: 13

So the next person is always a bit confusing, some think it’s Steph, others think it’s Cass, but Cass was batgirl first, however Steph was Spoiler first- They kinda started at about the same time- so I’ll just smush em in together.

So Cass is said to be older than Jason by only months. And they both come in at about a year of Tim being Robin, putting Cass at 17, which also doesn’t line up with the timeline, as Bruce says she is 16 (I can’t find the panel but it’s in one of he 2000’s runs I believe I can’t confirm exactly) but it’s close in age, so I’ll let it go.

Steph is said to be both the same age as Tim, but other times older, so I’m going to place her at 15 here. A year older than Tim since it’s only been a year since Tim started as Robin.

Ages so far:

Alfred Pennyworth: 53 ish

Bruce Wayne: 37 ish

Richard Grayson: 22

Barbara Gordon: 24

Jason Todd (assumed dead at 16): 17

Tim Drake: 14

Cassandra Cain: 17

Stephanie Brown: 15

So the next is Damian- obviously.

So Damian is 10 when he comes, it’s mentioned multiple times. Yay an easy to confirm age, we love it!

Jason also comes back.

However Tim is mentioned to be 16 here, so we can easily just get everyone’s ages from doing the math from their ages previously. Most people when calculating their ages skip Steph and Cass and say it’s a six year gap between him and Tim, which does line up, but without Steph an Cass there it still fucks with the timeline a bit.

Ages so far:

Alfred Pennyworth: 56 ish

Bruce Wayne: 40 ish

Richard Grayson: 25

Barbara Gordon: 27

Jason Todd (now alive again): 19

Tim Drake: 16

Cassandra Cain: 19

Stephanie Brown: 17

Damian Wayne: 10

Now we’re on Duke. Which is where it gets all fucked up.

So Google says Duke is four years older than Damian, and his first appearance is when Damian is 11 or 12iah, making Duke about 15 or 16, in his first appearance. But also in this time, DC stopped aging Tim all together, they supposedly aged Cass down, and Steph closer to Jason’s age. Which fucks the whole timeline up, but let’s not get into that.

We can just go from Damian’s age to get the rest, meaning it was a two or so year gap from Damian arriving to when Duke first started in the ‘I Am Robin’ movement and soon after became Signal

Ages so far:

Alfred Pennyworth: 58 ish

Bruce Wayne: 42 ish

Richard Grayson: 27

Barbara Gordon: 29

Jason Todd: 21

Tim Drake: 18

Cassandra Cain: 21

Stephanie Brown: 19

Damian Wayne: 12

Duke Thomas: 16

This is what their ages would’ve been if they didn’t continue to age Damian up and no one else, so here’s what ages they SHOULD be. (This is for you Tim.)

Since Damian is 14-15 in comics currently- everyone should be a bit older too- but DC refuses to age them up. (I’m going to use 15 just because, making it a THREE year difference.)

Ages they should be:

Alfred Pennyworth: 61 ish (I don’t care if he’s dead)

Bruce Wayne: 45 ish

Richard Grayson: 30

Barbara Gordon: 32

Jason Todd: 24

Tim Drake: 21

Cassandra Cain: 24

Stephanie Brown: 22

Damian Wayne: 15

Duke Thomas: 19

Someone needs to ask Duke how college is going, or ask Tim how it feels to drink. Maybe someone should ask Dick how a mid-life crisis feels, when you’re actually close to the mid-life age. (He’s had them before, but now he’s actually closer to the midlife age.) Have someone ask Bruce how it feels to be in his 40’s and still get called hot, to get called ‘beekeeper age’ by people- and still get voted hottest man of the year, yearly.

There’s so many untapped humor opportunities that come with their chronologically accurate ages. But DC is full of pussies.

#DCpleaseletTimage

[fumifooms]

Marcille and Chilchuck’s interwoven character arcs: the fantasy of prince charming, idealization vs pessimism and loss

I’ve alluded to Marcille and Chilchuck being central to each other’s arcs so many times but the proper full analysis has been long overdue. I’ve made a post going into their differences and similarities and the many ways they’re foils for each other, but this is going to give more focus to a narrative rather than character angle this time around. We talk a lot about the importance of Marcille in Chilchuck’s arc, it's more obvious overall, but less so about Chilchuck’s importance in her own, so this is going to emphase on the latter. They have a lot of ridiculously unique conflict specific to their situation and world, and an intriguing dynamic. Relationships can be layered and subtext can imply quite a lot, the reality of things can be more complex than we'd like or hard to reconcile, and that's exactly what we're talking about today and how that is a lesson Marcille needed to learn. Give this a shot and look at the manga pages alongside my reading and decide for yourself wether I’ve got a point or I’m going overboard~!

So, Marcille and Chilchuck are character foils in many many ways, and I think a particularly brilliant part of their arc is how they balanced each other out on idealization. On one hand, idealizing things means only seeing what you want to see through rose-colored glasses, on the other, being completely opposed to it usually means denouncing any optimism at all, refusing to hold any good faith or hope. These stances reflect both their backgrounds, as Chilchuck has lived through being discriminated against and taken advantage of consistently, betrayed by employers and eventually the person supposed to be closest to him, his wife, meanwhile Marcille grew up more sheltered and lonely, and books were a big way through which she experienced social situations & the ways of the world in her rural home before going to the magic academy as a researcher and getting more actual life experience herself.

I think it’s especially interesting to analyze the trope of— the idealization of— the perfect chivalrous prince on a white horse who is pure hearted and will make you swoon, in the context of their relationship and their arcs! It’s a recurring motif- you’ll just have to trust me and read further~ Obviously this contains spoilers for the whole manga, so beware! It's very long because I'm trying to cover the topic fully from the ground up, my apologies.

Table of contents:

How they start out

The Daltian Clan and its importance

Prince Charming vs Chilchuck Tims

Ideals vs desires vs wants

Deconstructing realistic romance & compromising between romanticism and reality

Princess imagery in Marcille

Conclusion

Let’s start with the beginning:

How the characters start off:

Their relationship is both familiar and strained (extra reading: analysis of their relationship pre-canon and early canon), they bounce off each other with the ease of coworkers who’ve been working together for two years and who share similar common sense. Because yes they’re both generally grounded and rational, and generally they respect each other’s input and perspective, but, they both have blind spots…

The biggest hurdle is the way Chilchuck refuses to open up. Marcille has made efforts to befriend him, and though he was open to developing a better workplace dynamic and, say, helping her out with shopping for a pouch outside of work, even if it ended up being counterproductive he’d refuse to even just say his age, let alone share anything about his family situation. Knowing he had kids and a wife would have pretty efficiently fully shut down that he was a kid, and yet he valued being closed off more. Chilchuck is often shown being pessimistic, assuming the worst intentions out of people and being wary of anything good happening, being the last person to trust something or someone, etc. (Quick summary analysis of him I made if you want here, beyond the character foil analysis I linked at the beginning.) He prefers assuming that opening up will only bring him problems to assuming that it'd bring about positive things.

Meanwhile Marcille is very… Honestly she’s hard to classify strongly. Because I could say she’s very open to people, but honestly it’s conditional? She emotes intensely but she’s not quite a befriending machine either, especially when we recall the magic academy days as well, she’s not unused to keeping people at some level of distance, herself keeping a lot of secrets too. She was very wary of Laios at first because she had misconceptions, she holds grudges and isn’t personable with everyone like Namari or Toshiro, when she’s introduced to the party she seems serious and doesn’t smile. While I don’t fully agree, there’s a good analysis not by me here showcasing what I’m talking about. Marcille’s more serious academic side often gets undermined and I think it’s an important part of her, but then the difference between her and Chilchuck comes down to theory vs practice: knowledge vs experience. I think something more fitting to say would be that she’s idealistic and easily swayed, for example the way she lights up whenever she can put a story-like twist on things, her mood can go from dread to hype and reverse in one second, like with riding a kelpie or with the conflict between Chilchuck and his wife, or again with Namari, where it becomes a sort of hero vs antagonist dynamic for her where justice and righteous thoughts should override everything else like needing money to live. She's very stubborn, like he is, but it's easier for her to come around in dramatic ways, on things big and small, mentioning for another example thinking better of orcs suddenly because they can cook well.

So sure on first meeting she isn’t exactly eager, but then we do see her enthusiastically trying to befriend everyone! Becoming very friendly once she’s done assessing them. She is social, and fittingly she’s very curious about people. And that said, aesthetics do matter a lot to her, and I mean this beyond just enjoying vibes, for example- and follow along the lingo I'm setting up here- if something ‘breaks’ an aesthetic like Chilchuck or Falin not being a child she’ll willfully dismiss and ignore it, if she can spin something into a story like Chilchuck’s breakup she’ll get carried away, she can get the wrong impression, be gullible for the sake of believing a narrative, such and such. I’d say she’s guarded around people at first, but then with time becomes an open book emotions wise, how she’s always loudly and unapologetically talking about her feelings and emoting. She’s not reckless, rather she’s bold and often has to make decisions quickly, like when the plan unexpectedly changed during the red dragon fight, but things like using dark magic can feel like thoughtless decisions looking from the outside, like to Chilchuck, who as per his pessimism dictates he sees all of this in a negative light, assumes the worst: that she’s just ignorant, naive and reckless. She’s easily worried and discouraged but still always perseveres.

He's biased against mages and elves because of past experiences and he projects that onto Marcille. And it makes sense because good faith is dangerous to Chilchuck- for his feelings in relationships yes, but more concretely and important for his life at work, the way an old party of his was going to sacrifice him to succubi for easy money. Like the way he constantly puts his non-work values down to the group so they don’t have high expectations of him, having high expectations for someone else is vulnerability he doesn’t want to or cannot afford. The result however is that he, too, put people into boxes to avoid having his preconceived notions challenged. He's very judgemental, which we see with Laios as well, and even with Izutsumi in the ice golem chapter, but by then he's learned to self-reflect more and be honest with his feelings due to Leed, meaning his social conflicts get resolved more often and more quickly, again like with Izutsumi in the ice golem chapter.

So in the end, there are things that stand in the way of them having true, equal respect for one another. She sees him as a kid despite everything else (being capable and mature, etc etc), and he sees her as a ticking bomb of a naive elf mage who’s gonna get herself into legal trouble if she doesn’t get them killed first.

And it takes an arc spanning the whole manga for them to get there, to truly see each other on equal footing, culminating with the bicorn chapter.

I'm going to be mentioning them a lot so in my mind, the most important Marcille & Chilchuck arc defining scenes happen in: mandrake chapter, mimic chapter, shapeshifter chapter, hypogriff soup chapter, changelings, bicorn, succubus, and Marcille dungeon lord. We're talking mostly about Marcille's discrimination and their narrative about loss here, but on the end of Chilchuck's discrimination the dark magic plot is very central so honorable mention to the red dragon chapters, the harpies chapter and the cockatrice chapter, the latter where Chilchuck airs out his beef particularly directly.

Interestingly enough, the mandrake chapter which is in VERY early manga, where characters and dynamics are still being set up, Marcille gets Chilchuck to say that she isn't a burden and that he's glad they have her and her skillset with them, so the question of "does he respect her at all" was answered before the audience could even think to ask it, and Marcille also makes statements shortly after showing she respects him in turn- more on that later. This has for a result that we do know there's a foundation of respect here, even when as said it's not complete... yet.

So let’s get into it! Early on we already get a lot instances hinting at their opposed core values of optimism vs pessimism. It’s perfectly summarized in the two panel excerpts opening this post: "Sounds romantic!" "Sounds fishy.", hope vs wariness. "Meeting you was fate!" "… Which means it’s fate for you to eat these monsters, too!", if good things happening to you is fate then you must accept that all the bad things that happen to you are fate as well. It’s "Things will work out!" vs "Things will not work out".

The issue here seems rather evident, it’s a balancing game. Compromising, adapting your judgement to the situation. Yes Marcille romanticizes things too much and it can cause her trouble, and yes Chilchuck being so closed off on himself gets him into trouble as well.

(Not telling there was a mimic nearby being maybe the most straightforward example.)

His refusal to hope for anything good happening to him ever is at the core of him not having even tried reconciling with his wife (more on that later with the bicorn chapter). Through the manga, Chilchuck influences her to be more savvy and to respect boundaries more (with himself and Namari for example), while she influences him to become more open and give things a go. It’s no coincidence that it’s Marcille that pushes him to try reconciling with his wife and gives him hope that it just might work out- that that chance even on its own means it's worth giving it a shot.

The Daltian Clan & its importance

The importance of fiction in some people's lives and their specific psychological relationship to it is a very complex human brain topic with many many studies and an infinite amount of subtleties, I can't possibly do justice to this section at its full potential but I'll go over my major points. But the complex and layered nature of this relationship is why, for example, the interpretation that Marcille is a lesbian despite her likely attraction/love for male fictional characters (if not even just simping or stanning separate from those), has legs to stand on and is a compelling angle!

The Daltian Clan, often shortened as Dalclan, is Marcille's favorite book series and is very very personally important to her. In an extra we learn that part of it is that seeing a half-elf character personally reached out to her and meant a lot. She feels seen through it. Even if it's notable that the half-elf haracter isn't her favorite, general Hagreus, but the one with black hair. It's a Cinderella type of romance & convoluted political intrigue series full with a lot of drama, reminiscent of stuff like Romeo & Juliette or Richard III.

I believe that books were developmentally very important for her, similarly as to how cartoons are important to the education and development of toddlers and kids nowadays, or how oral stories like fairytales have always been important to teach lessons. Fiction engages readers and provides emotional stimulation, which can often be a flawed substitute for actual human contact- but nonetheless a big factor in socialization. For Marcille who lived in a rather rural region surrounded by books and chickens, who couldn't fit in with kids of any age around, books were a major part of teaching her how to socialize, how people and social groups worked. This is also part of why the autistic Marcille angle can be very compelling and plausible, though personally I don't see it that way.

So yes I think that sort of upbringing shaped her a lot, and I think it's part of why Marcille has trouble not putting people into boxes... Why even though Falin assured her it wasn't like that, Marcille had made this whole narrative in her mind painting Laios as a villain that stole Falin away against her will/for nefarious purposes. Why she has trouble not thinking of/treating Falin as a kid, unwilling to process how she has grown up. Why Chilchuck has to be very young in her mind, and it was very very hard for her to reconcile the fact that he wasn't. (It's actually interesting to note that Marcille treats Falin and Chilchuck similarly in a lot of ways, overstepping boundaries, being dimissive and touchy- There's a lot to say about how the party dynamic changed a lot with during canon it becoming just Laios, Marcille and Chilchuck at first and Laios' monster interest reveal, notably that in Falin's absence that she may have latched onto Chilchuck and treats him similarly to Falin may be her finding it omforting to fall into habits or filling a hole.) I think complexity in fictional characters gets her gears turning, but there's always a film of impersonality to it right, where it's not real, there's a safe distance, if you want to form romantic narratives about how things went down and a character's angst, you can, but someone who’s real… Things are often uglier or harder to grapple with. And she doesn’t want Falin to have grown up, for her to so quickly have aged. I think applying this sort of storybook veneer onto her real life connections, pushing people into boxes, is a way for her to make social relationships more digestible. And she's a big gossip enjoyer too! Engaging in shallow retellings of people's interpersonal drama, eating it up with enthusiasm and curiosity. Part of it, like with novels, is vicariously living through others I think, experiencing making connections where she hasn't or couldn't, the way her relationship with the other girls at the academy besides Falin stayed distant and shallow despite being friendly. Gossip, like stories, are safe, distant from your own life, they're easy to judge, not unlike the irl popular interest in following others’ online drama. You’re not involved yourself, so you don’t have as much chance of getting hurt. So yes, easier to digest. Less complex, less unpleasant things and less contradictions that are hard to process. Sort of like a defense mechanism to not have your worldview challenged, dodging having to recognize these things by assigning them tropes. And I think part of it too like I implied is: she can’t experience actual loss through books and gossip. They give her emotional social stimulation she doesn’t fully allow herself to have with actual humans for fear of getting invested in a way that’s very raw and personal. Again, like how she pushes Falin away to ignore the more nuanced facets to their relationship! The intensity of what I’m speculating on here in her character is debatable but I do think it’s present at least in some amount.

In a similar way to dogs being important to Laios’ social life (I made something of an analysis on that if you're interested, but this one's not relevant to what I'm talking about in this post) books are her comfort zone. If she can compare a real situation to a story it brightens everything and, well, it does make her assume things wrongly often but it also makes her able to analyze people deeply, like the roleplay-theory-speculation about Chilchuck's wife and the way she hit bullseye on how Chilchuck felt in the aftermath. But like how Marcille only agreed to wear the frog suit when the party told her it'd look cute on her, or how thinking about riding on kelpies made her excited for what previously she saw as a tedious and dreadful journey. Special interest power blast.

And this is where comes in her coworker, a disillusioned embittered man.

A guy who knows all about how messed up the world & people can be and isn't afraid to say it how it is, who in every sphere of life has field experience rather than fictional one- with romance, work, and having dreams & ambitions. Someone flawed and real, someone who won't let her interpret him however she wants without confronting her about it & challenging her to change her perspective.

It took a looot for Marcille to fully stop seeing him as a kid, and in a way I think it was necessary for the dissonance to be both this hard to reconcile and this impossible to ignore: that he truly is a middle-aged man down to his demeanor and family background but that he looks like a teen at most to her. That she literally has to look beyond aesthetics to be able to first fathom then accept and internalize that he's an adult despite his looks. That it was so ingrained and took so long, so much that even while she recognized and said "He's usually the most mature one of us", so much that even as it's implied that she knew logically he's an adult before the changelings, as pictured earlier she still couldn't conceive it. It's like with her calling Laios and Falin's parents kids in a post-canon extra, it's not that she doesn't know it's that it's hard to wrap her head around. Necessary and important because, if Chilchuck was any less loud about being a man she could have gone on unchallenged in her assumptions. If it was an easier to dismantle misconception, something easier to digest, then her arc of coming to see him as he is would have had less impact on her character, afterwards she could continue to run with her own interpretations of people like Falin and Namari without her confidence in being able to pin down people into simple roles being so fundamentally shaken. And it's notable too, that Namari's choice to leave the party to look out for herself situation was decidedly unheroic, but it was Chilchuck who spoke to Marcille about why her decision was both reasonable and had a lot of thought behind it, making her accept that it doesn't make Namari a bad person or even a bad coworker or friend.

Chilchuck is someone who knows that sometimes, bad things happen for no reason, and it's not meaningful or part of a grand narrative, it just sucks and you have to deal with it.

As the foil to her very emotional black and white interpretations of things, Chilchuck represents nuance, and he's impossible for her to ignore.

Prince Charming vs Chilchuck Tims

Chilchuck is so obviously not a prince charming. He doesn't have the looks, the attitude nor the lifestyle. Does he have the virtues for it? Well, no... But also, yes. More on that in a bit. It's also interesting to think of the status aspect to it, because being from an impoverished oppressed class/community is so central to Chilchuck's character, something usually far removed from prince charmings and white knights, and not only status wise but on the topic of virtues... It’s an interesting thread to explore, the way one may have the means to remain chivalrous rather than becoming distrustful and embittered: sometimes optimism is a sign of privilege, being able to be or remain optimistic through life. I'm sure Marcille would be the first to jump onto the aesthetic and narrative allure of a pauper in love with a princess, of a hero of the people à la Robin Hood, but it's still interesting to think of that as another facet of the contrast Chilchuck makes. Alright, tangent done.

But obviously, despite this all they have a great work dynamic and respect for each other's capabilities. It's not like Marcille is mean to people who don't fit these fairytale high standards, no that’s only when she feels wronged or if there's injustice, rather she becomes dismissive of people’s complexity, wether they become an angel like Falin or Marcille’s shapeshifter of Chilchuck or a villain like Namari and Toshiro or Laios when they met. But my point, my point: she actually thinks very highly of him!

"He’s usually the most mature one of us" "He’s dependable, we’re counting on him" "No, chilchuck is definitely virtuous."

And I think the ways in which that shows are very interesting.

^ Ok so this happens, in the Namari chapter I keep talking about. Look at his expression in this last panel. He's always teasing her, but doesn't this here feels a bit... Suggestive? Like he's implying things, not just talking about it in a work setting but also giving her general life advice. Maybe even making an innuendo for womanizers, gentlemen who flirt without meaning a thing and have some hidden agenda. Warning her about smooth talkers that seem too good to be true. It’s honestly a very easy to overlook but defining interaction for them. It’s a quote that’s on his Adventurer’s Bible plus his anime quote keychain merch!

I love his implication that "I say what I’m about straight up, money, so you can trust me"- and isn’t that just the exact thing… Because that is what this is, he’s pitting himself against these people who help without asking for anything and he's saying he’s more trustworthy and reliable than them, driving a wedge between him and those people to prop himself up by comparison. His words tie a lot here into his general worldview too, of course here he's ✨Imparting His Wisdom✨, but it also ties into his self-image issues I'd say, where he’s hard on himself and calls himself a coward etc: if no one has positive expectations for you on an interpersonal level, then you can’t disappoint them. It only goes up from here if you start at rock bottom, can't have unpleasant surprises.

But the meaningfulness of this moment doesn't start and end there: That moment happened in chapter 20, but then this happens in chapters 36-37...

I was always puzzled by the split second interaction between Marcille and Kabru. Marcille blushing is the point, it’s in the anime too and it’s the focus of the panel. That moment of hesitation before she goes back into business mode where she looks at him back, and blushes. And idk I always felt like it was weird timing, like it was a weird beat Kui chose to put emphasis on, why the story even had them make eye contact in the first place, what point it could be making besides "Kabru is handsome and charismatic" which was already made with Hien and Benichidori below, otherwise it's not even like Marcille and Kabru ever interact. Like, maybe it's for it to be a callback when she glances at him while the canaries interrogate her at Thistle's house? Regardless, she blushes, but her expression is more akin to a "Uuhh he smiled at me why’d he smile at me like that. Oh he’s kinda pretty. Well anyways-" rather than swooning or truly checking him out. She’s frowning, even. And like I said, being very naturally charming was a point already made previously.

But then… This repeated reminder that Kabru is a lady killer IS the point, Marcille reacting to him in that way IS the point. Kabru is the epitome of ‘will say they help you but has hidden motives and might betray your trust if it serves their interest’ (not a diss on him tbf he has understandable goals), he is the epitome of looking noble, welcoming and chivalrous but actually being dishonest and manipulative, and what’s important here is… Marcille turns away and sticks by Chilchuck. Of course this is logical, no one would expect her to go running to Kabru lol, but I implore you to think of the thematics of it all, a princely guy, the closest character of the cast in the flesh embodying the prince charming persona, is giving her some positive attention, and it does affect her a bit but nonetheless she turns away, and strategizes with Chilchuck instead of trusting or giving good faith or getting carried away. She chooses Chilchuck. Unlike so often, she doesn’t let aesthetics sway her here, get in the way of her better judgement, distract her from the point. She chooses not to give good faith, even if he seems charming and friendly and smiles. Marcille is serious when the situation requires it that's now new, but this is in line with the lesson he instilled earlier above. And if nothing else, Marcille has a good memory, exhibit B to come later. Here we see part of why Chilchuck was afraid of Laios or Senshi but not Marcille blurting out the wrong things with Toshiro and is party, when push comes to shove they're often on the same wavelength. Marcille and Chikchuck do strategize with specifically each other regularly, they do tend to pair up a lot after all, so this isn’t especially new, but it’s the first time there’s this sense of us vs them imo. Like how earlier Chilchuck was saying that he’s better than the smooth talker type, here we see Marcille implicitly agree.

She just has a passing glance & thought for Kabru but she knows her true allies and true values, and she wants to strategize with Chilchuck. What I am saying is that if she was given the choice to think through going with a guy that seems perfect and chivalrous like her succubus, if she was logical about it she’d pick Chilchuck over that guy actually, yeah. At the end of the day, no matter the pretty smiles, she knows who her actual friends are. Whiiich on that topic, next section!

Ideals vs desires vs wants

It's succubus analysis time

Her succubus is quite direcly a prince figure, a knight on a white horse who's come to whisk her away. He calls her princess, even! She's taken the role of Daltian Clan's protagonist, essentially. He kisses her hand, nothing short of the most classic courtly romance tropes. He's even drawn in a noticeably more shoujo style, not unlike the characters' faces in the aftermath of getting their energy sucked by succubi.

I made a whole analysis on specifically Laios’ succubus but it covers some stuff that could be interesting for this analysis as well, I’ll repeat the essential stuff tho: Their succubus all show what type of social connection they desire. Izutsumi’s is familial, Marcille wants someone she can emotionally connect with, seemingly romantic, Chilchuck wants something physical and sexual so he doesn’t have to think and worry about anything deeper (betrayal, insecurities, etc, the difficulting that come with a committed romantic relationship- also likely related to his senses & stress), and Laios wants people and friends who’ll accept him and his monster interest- platonic.

But more interesting for this analysis is how succubi work. The goal isn’t to beckon, but to incapacitate. The succubus doesn't work on the basis of rationality, it’s not a factor they go for and it’s not one they need to appeal to either, as we see. (Laios is a special case -gestures to the linked analysis- but the succubus doesn’t appeal to his rationality as much as it soothes his worries, his friends judging him etc etc, and the reason Izutsumi could remain unaffected is that there is always a half of her not enthralled by the succubus because she essentially has two souls.) Neither Marcille, Chilchuck or Izutsumi could realistically expect any of the people they saw to be real and not fake succubis. They KNOW that, they were actively preparing for the succubi to jump on them and fight back, rationally they know they're monsters! But how this monster works is that it targets deep desires within you that when face to face with it'll make you hesitate, make something in you unable to fight or flight and instead do the third instinctive option: freeze. Or especially in Laios’ case, the form gives the victim just enough confliction on the matter for them to want to believe it’s real. All they have to do is just not move, stay passive and accept the attention, so it’s not an issue of wether they reciprocate an action or run away. It's so that it shortcircuits you and leaves you open to pick like a fruit.

If this wasn’t the "reads your heart so deeply that it freezes you to the spot" monster, Chilchuck WOULDN’T be doing anything with these women. He’s been devoted to his wife even 4 years after separation on bad terms, you think he’d ever cheat on her? If this was a decision he were to make, instead of just freezing, he would reject it. In that similar way, Marcille’s succubus might not be what she’d rationally go for. You think if this was what Marcille had to choose, the person she wants most to see and at her side, her most alluring form wouldn't be Falin, alive and well? You think that wouldn't be the thing Laios truly wants most as well? And before people say that canon proved that the latter wasn't with the curse the winged lion put on him, THAT'S THE POINT!!!! You can irrationally desire things, you can desire things to degrees so deep you can’t change it even if you wish you could, but if it was truly a choice up to you, you'd choose otherwise. Laios decided to become king, even if that's a lifestyle so far from what he truly wanted, even if it is duty more than fun for him. Like how Chilchuck would choose faithfulness despite for sure having come into contact with many beauties through his four years of separation.

Ideals vs reality are a big Dunmeshi theme in general, same as wants vs needs, and you can see Marcille’s daydreams and novel themes make it an especially relevant throughline and theme for her. Not unlike how in my opinion General Hareus and Mithrun intentionally look very alike to contrast reality vs fantasy!

Marcille never reacts any particular way to Mithrun’s appearance despite the blatant resemblance, so that makes me think the point/joke is meta rather than character focused. The romanticization of elves and their societal drama in their fiction contrasting heavily with a very real and imperfect product of their military system. The canaries certainly aren’t glamorous next to whatever military Hareus is the general of. There’s even the fun little details like Hagreus’ lips being drawn with extra details because they’re full and pretty while Mithrun’s lips are drawn with extra details because they’re chapped and dehydrated.

So yes, themes of what you actually want vs irrational cravings. Base desires vs actual wants. Needs are also separate, but not relevant for this discussion. To get to the specific definitions I’m using for the words in this section’s header, ideals vs wants vs desires: ideals are your ideal of something, the best degree to which a thing could be tailored to you, and it can be derived from both wants and desires, usually a mix of the two, but for example: I’d say the succubus is a type of ideal (the platonic ideal of allure to the victim) derived solely from desires, because a want is active rather than passive, acted upon rather than suffered, because a want unlike a desire involves thinking things through. So a want: something you want, you take actions towards getting or achieving it, it can be a very strong feeling but it’s something you pursue or wish to pursue. Finding a cure to death is a want, not wanting to be alone is a desire, see, I’m assigning desire this more primal or unchanging subconscious nature to it. On the flipside with Chilchuck, sex without ties, easy pleasure, is a desire, but the want is not having to think about his marriage situation because it’s painful, not wanting an emorional connection because it’s all the easier to be hurt with, just wanting to take his mind off of everything for a while.

Thus the succubus targets Marcille’s wish for a perfect knight who could cherish her forevermore, someone safe and known and fantastical, just hers in a way, free to see and construct however she wants because he’s a character to interpret, and it targets Chilchuck’s wish for pleasure that’ll whisk him away from the stress and pressure and reality of his life, something that’ll make him feel both good and desirable and emotionally uncompromised, not unlike what alcohol does, as he says he likes having his fine senses dulled in the changeling chapter. Idealization is twisting the image of something in your mind to be closer to what you want, but usually mostly desire on a more subconscious level, to be true, almost a wish, sometimes but not always hand in hand with idolization which is to put something on a pedestral. Idealizing things that are easier to reconcile with mostly, in Marcille’s case: it’s easier to believe that Chilchuck is very young and it’s easier to stomach that Falin hasn’t aged much, it's easier to believe Falin is an angel who can do no wrong and if she left with Laios it's not that she chose to leave Marcille, and it's easier to believe Chilchuck is just a moody closed off youngster than an embittered old man. It can be done to people as much as concepts, like the idea/plan to give everyone a 1000 years lifespan, surely that'd do really well and everyone would love it. Wants and desires are both very often about changing reality after all, wether it be your situation or an event in your past or a law of the world like death, but wants are mostly through actions and since desires are more subconscious it can lead to self-delusion easily. Like with succubi, wants engage with your rationality so they target desires instead. The demon's strategy isn't too ar off, either, feeding into both and using underlying desires to manipulate its victims. Dungeon Meshi is in part yes about resisting desires, the irrational cravings, mostly through the character of the demon. I mentioned needs earlier, and to ideals vs wants we also add vs needs, both emotional and physical, and needs alongside wants are what Dungeon Meshi wishes to promote for a healthier person, Dungeon Meshi which illustrates very well with the dungeon lords that you can be a slave to your desires.

The parallel between succubi and demons is intentional. The demon is in fact the origin of the succubus myth in-world. No wonder they operate similarly in many ways- the succubi are in a way a more simple straightforward version of the demon, with less convoluted strategies and less intricate manipulation.

Of course the succubus each character sees does say something about their characters, but what I’m saying is we shouldn’t assign choice or morality to it as if it wasn’t an ethereal monster whose whole biology is focused on being able to freeze people through appealing to desires, much like how we can’t fault people for falling for demons’ manipulations. Like that’s their WHOLE thing and they use mind control through enticement shenanigans. I know people sometimes fault Chil for his succubi and if you want here’s my stance.

Point of this whole thing is, people can rationally choose things that are different from their deeper desires, like in truth Falin’s safety being more important to Laios than becoming a monster. Like how Marcille stayed with Chilchuck to strategize instead of wanting to give good faith to Kabru. Yes, this is the main point I'm coming at with this section lol. Marcille idealizes and idolizes the figure of a perfect prince charming, undoubtedly! But when it comes to what she actually wants, not in some ideal fantay world but in reality, she knows Chilchuck and her imperfect friends are some of the best she could ask for. She's content with them as they are. She would choose a flawed reality over a perfect fantasy.

That's a big part of what her dungeon lord arc is about too, all her tendencies to ignore what others want for what she thinks is best for them or thinks is a perfect course of action: accepting that people are complex with different wants, and that something that's a no-brainer to her like wanting to live for a long long time is a solid no for many. And Laios and the party confront her about it, and Marcille, even under the influence of a demon, chooses to accept reality. Chooses to accept that there are some things that, even were she to be able to, she shouldn’t change after all (even for stuff that’s not forcing everyone to live for a millenium, like bringing Falin back from the dead is something that the party and Marcille had to come to terms with maybe not working and the way they went about it was self-centered). She chooses to come back to herself and the party, to accept the world as it is even if flawed and sometimes hurtful.

And hm, I wonder if Chilchuck had any role in the lead up to that particular decision... I wonder if Chilchuck was a major influence in teaching Marcille that the world isn't perfect and her internalizing things that were outside of her bubble!! I wonder if Chilchuck was directly what made Macille turn towards her party and thus start thinking of giving up on being dungeon lord!! Joking, joking, of course it does. To be continued, see you in the princess imagery section at the end of this essay.

Essentially, this section is to show that: 1) despite what her succubus may suggest, she has indeed grown by that point in the manga compared to pre-canon and her overly idealistic simple black and white vision of things, and it doesn't prove the ‘choosing her friends over a prince thing’ wrong, and 2) despite how deeply ingrained romanticism is in her and how it calls out to her, she still has chosen and continues to choose reality and her friends over it. How fantasy is important to her and how much she loves it, and her having the will not to mindlessly succumb to it coexist and it's that resistance against fantastical ideals that speaks of her as a character so much.

And what does that mean, for Chilchuck? For him and Marcille?

Deconstructing realistic romance AKA compromising between romanticism and reality AKA Chilchuck Tims vs Prince Charming part 2

So what we’ve covered so far is that 1: idealization is something that Marcille does a lot, including concerning Chilchuck, 2: the prince/knight figure is meaningful & important to her, 3: Marcille isn’t a lost cause on it, and for instance, much like how she stops harping on Namari after Chilchuck explains to her how professional reputations and networking work, he can change her mind on things.

Let’s get back to their prejudices of each other for a bit. You might have to zoom in for this one.

Her shapeshifters of both Chil and Laios are influenced a lot by looks and impressions. She’s very adamant about Laios and Falin not looking alike at all, for one. Marcille’s view of Chilchuck’s lockpicks are surprisingly accurate. Meanwhile, despite their first big relationship moment during canon being about how he’s glad to have her and her skills for the dungeon dive, he still ridiculizes her magic somewhat with the crude spellbook. She’s still silly and tease-worthy to him, even while he praises her like in the good medicine chapter with Leed he says it himself in the same breath. Silly, or "ridiculous" depending on the translation, is somewhat ambiguous, but I assign it the meaning of 'thoughtlessly reckless', like how again in the good medicine chapter when he's saying this he's referring to Marcille's future job prospects, because law and career are important to conform to for him. Despite this, their shapeshifters’ behaviors are accurate, although Marcille’s Chilchuck is nicer and less bitterly reclusive. Note how it's Marcille's chilchuck that makes it furthest and how why she thinks hers is the true one is that her Chilchuck "looks less mean"- this is what I mean when I say she idealizes him and sees him as a little angel, along with his fluffier hair it gives us the perspective of why she'd find him so hair-ruffable and why she likes sticking to him so much, I suppose.

Marcille's arc of not seeing Chilchuck for what he is has steps, it's not like Senshi who does an 180 seeing his changeling. There are a couple of important moments for it that tell us her progress and changes her perspective: Him telling his age -> the shapeshifters (our best look into an objective assessment of her perspective) -> reveal that he has a wife and kid(s) (fully shattering her denial) -> seeing him as a changeling (true reckoning. Putting the nail in the coffin of what reality is) -> bicorn chapter (acceptance. Internalization)

You might notice that the explanation for Marcille’s Chilchuck is "Even though she’s been told he’s an adult, deep in her heart she still doesn’t get it", and a fantranslation translates it as "Understands he’s supposed to be an adult, but hasn’t quite come to grips with the fact internally". This definitely implies her arc of growing to see him as an adult had already started by then. Especially if we compare it to Senshi’s more intense babyfied Chilchuck. This goes back to what I was saying about Marcille watering down people for the sake of aesthetics, some rational part of her knows he’s an adult, but it’s emotionally that she struggles to reconcile the fact with her perspective. It’s actually pretty ambiguous when she first starts considering he might be an adult. If by this point she was already digesting it, then I think it must’ve been when he told the party his age. It’s not unsimilar to rationally knowing Falin is an adult at 23 even if it doesn’t feel like it to her, or post-canon calling the Touden parents kids even though obviously she’d know they aren’t actually, it’s classic longlived race patronization. He’s older than Falin, by 6 whole years, and even Marcille isn’t that blind to what that'd mean. Wouldn't marcille also have a problem with child labor otherwise? There's also how Marcille pre-canon shortly speculated Chilchuck was in love with Namari in her Adventurer's Bible extra. She for sure has witnessed a lot of half-foots walking around, probably even drinking at taverns. She knows, on some level. Chilchuck even does a whole rant after they react going on "this is why long lived races are condescending assholes". So that’s my bet, "Is he an adult?" "Well yes but actually no" (Chilchuck), "I’m an adult now I’ve grown" "Awww you’ll always be like a kid to me!" (Falin) Depending on the dub and interpretation, I know for example that when I made my family watch the anime they thought Marcille "See? You're just a kid!" after he said he was 29 they saw it as teasing and playful, unserious, or even disappointed, implying she'd have thought he was older than 29. It's actually ironic how someone as developmentally atypical as Marcille, whose physical and mental growth was unpredictable, unsynchronized and messy, would judge others by appearance and age so much. But well imo appearances are important to her so in that way, she especially judges those because she had to live through being judged by those standards as well. She puts elven standards on everyone the same way she does with beauty standards, so age is included in that.

Marcille here is struggling with dissonance, it's why she "hasn't come to grips with the fact internally". And this all makes sense for the arc that sharing things about himself is what opened the gates of being understood better. Point is, her vision is influenced by her own feelings of how things should be like, veiling herself to the reality of things.

And notice the point that the problem her lack of rationale when it comes people- Chilchuck regularly makes her prioritize rationality over feelings, and well that’s somewhat his whole schtick when it comes to debating philosophy. With Namari and how her leaving the party and not returning is reasonable even if it feels wrong, just like the "don’t trust someone just because they seem well-meaning and generous, strategize instead of swooning", and ironically also the "it's important to take in mind how things like touch when healing can affect parties and create love triangles" lol, "don't be emotional, and also remember people being emotional will stirr up shit". Since she’s someone pretty swayed by feelings, it balances her out. Ultimately, if we consider the Dungeon Lord arc her culmination, it’s Chilchuck who ends her arc by meeting her halfway through appealing out to her feelings, but that’s the flipside of the coin of their arc, and it’s her willpower to face reality that saves them so I don’t think that contradicts that Marcille had to do her half of the journey & comprise.

I would argue there are many hints of Marcille knowing on some level he's an adult throughout early canon. Not just seriously calling him the most mature of the group, but her behavior at the Golden Kingdom's too for example. Would you act all shy asking a kid to sleep in his bed, especially one she's always felt so comfortable trampling the boundaries of and touching casually? Idk that's weird. She's asking to sleep in his bed because by her own admition it'd make her feel more comfortable. Chilchuck is safe to her and she feels shy implying it and asking for a favor like that. Shy that he'd find her silly for it, and/or shy that this might be inappropriate according to etiquette and in other contexts. To me this feels much closer to two peers, like how in the mandrake chapter she wanted validation from him too, and yes she still infantilizes him and emasculates him into someone who's harmless in her mind- not just someone who wouldn't hurt or take advantage of her, because she knows that, because Chilchuck does protect her (more on that later!!).

He's not heroic, but he's brave, when it matters. He's mean and rude, but also caring. He's responsible, even when it means going the unpleasant route. The aesthetic doesn’t fit the role, but the actions do.

He keeps claiming he’s a selfish coward who’ll be the first to dip in a fight, and yet he’s always, consistently pulling her out of danger, or specifically calling out to Marcille when danger strikes. And I think it’s because of the nugget of info we get in the adventurer’s bible that her stamina and athletics are bad, in canon he does call her clumsyhead like once but it never felt enough for me to deduce that on its own personally. So then the reason why he’s always targeting her, beyond the reasoning that she’s the healer thus the most important to keep alive (which he brings up in the rabbits chapter), he takes it upon himself to help her, save her and pull her away from danger because she’s clumsy. She’s not defenseless, she’s known to use explosions, and still he feels the need to save her and through the manga he’s even died trying to pull her to safety one and a half times: dungeon rabbits + the drowning- they didn’t die in the latter though it’d have gone that way if it weren’t for the water bursting out just after, and that situation was especially hopeless regarding Chikchuck being able to do anything to save her at all, yet he still tried.

A little knight in shining armor, a little noble hero, a little prince charming innit?

Chilchuck IS all show and no talk- and she knows the value of that!!! It's why despite all his sour demeanor she respects him both professionally and as a smart guy she can trust, why she feels safe with him and wants him by her side when strategizing or even sleeping. The aesthetic doesn’t fit the role, but the actions do. Fantasy vs reality!!! He teaches her how to face reality both with his words and actions, through the contradictions of him, his caring behavior and bitter words, his old manners and young looks!

And actually let's TALK about that drowning scene hello. There, in the collage above, in the bottom left. The context of that is: This is after the demon leaves when the dungeon collapses, the dungeon gets flooded by water and they go under, with no sense of where or how there could be an exit to this. 1: Since the dungeon is collapsing and reviving someone only works in dungeons, there is no guarantee that Marcille or anyone would be able to revive someone during or after this, NONE. 2: He is risking his life for her, he is STRAIGHT UP playing his life on this choice, action hits and shit gets more serious than it ever has, and he yet does it anyways. Perhaps it's the gravity of it that pushes him to make this choice, that this time if someone dies it's for real and he can't accept that, but either way his choice is made in a split second, he prefers dying trying to save her than living without saving her. He is fighting for scraps of hope, seconds more of holding onto life. Which, 3: This situation is HOPELESS. In the end yes they end up being spat out by some exit out the dungeon with the strenght of the flood, but there was no way to know this would happen, and like we see in the third panel Chilchuck and the others actually lose consciousness. That's for "a way out of this", but even moreso, what is he hoping to accomplish? He's small and weak like he always reminded the party in fights, he CANNOT PULL HER UP TO SAFETY, HE CANNOT PULL HER AT ALL, WE SEE HIM STRUGGLE TO AND FAIL. HE CAN'T DO ANYTHING BUT HE STILL TRIES DESPITE THE RISK. You might also say- haha!! You might also say that this is a show of optimism from him!! You could say that after Marcille changed him, pushed him to have more hope in him, he now has the strenght and will to hope that this might do anything, that this might save her! A little similar to the situation with his wife actually, the point is that the chance is worth taking even if it might not turn out like hoped for- the point is that it's always worth trying and keeping hope to fight on, there is risk in being vulnerable and reaching out to his wife yes, there is risk, as with jobs, as with finances, as with anything- It's not that you'll never fail, but you have to not give up when you do- there's a risk but you can't just shut yourself off to the world and to relationships, you can't suddenly care about nothing! That's Chilchuck's arc! And maybe it's because his arc of becoming more hopeful and open yourself to caring centers her that it's her he latches onto here and not Senshi and Izutsumi who are equally in trouble here, maybe it's because he knew her longest or because he still feels this sense he has to look out for her like always, or because he trusts her to breathe underwater least, I don't know, but it's what happens! And listen, by all intent and purposes it was a hopeless situation, they were on the verge of drowning but he still fights to save her, and everything looks lost for a sec, but then the water current miracurously spits them out of the crumbling dungeon. He gets up and he runs to marcille fearing she's hurt but no, they're saved, she's fine, they're all alive and out of danger. It worked out. Having hope was right.

They make me ill I tell you. Like what the HELL, am I supposed to NOT go crazy when this happens??! What if they were the meaning of life what if their arc was about cracking the balance of living and loving healthily and cracking the code of life. Okay. Okay okay okay so anyways so

He can be quite self-sacrificial and noble! Always looking out for others, and giving Marcille particular attention in that regard, likely in part due to her being clumsy in his eyes and her being the healer aka their token of safety.

Sit your ass back DOWN you are in no state sir. Despite her biases Marcille is still observant, she still loves dissecting people like in that pre-canon party relationships chart in her extra, she's still the one to say "Chilchuck is the most mature here". Marcille still notices things! She has an interest in people and Chilchuck is someone she especially likes to "study". She read him like a book in the bicorn chapter, and if she was able to it’s that she looked, she remembered, she saw. The way he doesn’t like waiting on people, that he’s very reserved with feelings, the way he often doesn't pick up on others' and even his own- It all comes through in her quote unquote analysis of him, what married life with him would be like and how he reacted to his wife leaving.

Point is, Chilchuck is very harsh on himself, but there are gems inside of him, there is gold hidden away if you dig at his heart. And besides, isn’t humility a mark of heroes?

Okay. Sooo there's not that much to say about the changeling scene actually, for both Senshi and Marcille, the chapter just previous where Chilchuck reveals he has a wife and kid is what fully reckons them with how Chilchuck is a fully fledged adult, and for both of them seeing Chilchuck as a tallman is the final nail in the coffin. With Senshi it's a rather fast 180, and he mourns the sweet kid image he had of him where he poked his cheek and ruffled his hair, but for Marcille it's just an extra "he's really really REALLY really not a kid. Really". It has a bit of a reversal of Marcille and Chilchuck's dynamic, since now he can manhandle her instead of her manhandling him. This is a rather pleasant experience for him from what we can tell, whereas Marcille is struggling to keep the party's walking pace and complains about the heat implying half-foots are more sensitive to temperatures, Chilchuck finds having his senses dulled relaxing, has no problem of the sort Marcille is having AND! And! He can pull her around. The fight with gargoyles happen and he's pulling her arms, picking her up, he even throws her both before it and during the fight, he has the physical power to push her away if he wants to and also to pull her out of danger- the way he later tries to in the rabbit chapters and with drowning, but also when the Faligon reveal happens. He still doesn't look like a knight in shining armor, and he still doesn't have the demeanor of one, but he has the most power to protect her than he ever has. Anyways so yes, further "oh Chilchuck is an adult. And he's kinda knightly and can protect me wow. And also ugly not at all like elven beauty ewwwwww. I won't be able to unsee it now if I try to ruffle his hair after this".

It’s always a question of seeing more facets to someone and slowly digesting them and internalizing them, like Kui puts it herself in the shapeshifter explanation for Marcille's Chilchuck. And this illustrates a bit what I was saying in the section about Dalclan and tropes and people being "digestible" to her. She has to get used to the idea first and it's a slow process.

And during the succubus chapter as well, right after the bicorn chapter where she fully accepted Chilchuck as an adult, Marcille doesn’t falter when she’s confronted with seeing Chilchuck as, for a lack of a better term, a sexual being. She even cracks a (albeit sfw) playful quip about it, about them being all blondes. I suppose with the crass jokes he made like during the frog comic that might have prepped her for it lol.

And on that topic... We're here guys. The holy grail of Marcille and Chilchuck.

🔥The bicorn chapter🔥

The chapter finishes both Marcille and Chilchuck's arcs about harmful idealization vs not being a doomer, so to speak. It's the culmination, the ultimate balance found, the moment where the lesson gets fully internalized on both sides at the same time. It is a MASTERCLASS in how to do relationships arcs and character studies.

Chilchuck starts the chapter being dismissive of Marcille and her interests again, it opens with a narrated bit about his bad experiences with romance in past parties and he admits he has contempt for people who find the topic of love fun. He sees her still a bit as both a fly circling around him and a venus fly trap waiting for the opportunity to pounce on him and not let go until he spills everything. He ends it though, willingly giving up information on him in conversation with her, opening up, and appreciating her perspective on his romantic troubles.

Marcille starts the chapter having mostly processed that he's an adult, asking him about his wife, but she's still Weird about him and his personal life- and okay, that doesn't quite change, but something does change- everything changes for a moment, in fact.

And what's the catalyst? The cataclysm, even? Chilchuck lies and says he cheated on his wife.

[Okay guys I am officially out of pic space, sorry but I'll have to start recurringly linking to images instead: page]

We get to see live Marcille's esteem for Chilchuck plummet and freefall to the ground. And Chilchuck often acts like hassling and teasing between them is onesided, that she's always the one harassing him, but since early manga Chilchuck has always liked to tease her every opportunity he gets, often initiating interaction just for it... During half of this chapter Marcille is giving him the cold shoulder and we get to see that he misses her, we get to see her fully shut down the (racist) joke he throws at her and see him be SHAKEN over it. He wasn't expecting his lie to tank his reputation and relationship with the party members this much, maybe because before whenever he called himself selfish and cowardly no one seemed to think less of him for it, and he's at a loss for what to do like we see here. He misses their friendship. He's always said he didn't care for having a friendship with them all and whatnot, but here we see him grapple of the aftermath, of knowing what it would be like without them as friends, without them at all.

[page 1, page 2.]

And like with his wife, he has a choice to make. Be passive and spiteful and do nothing, or be vulnerable and communicate to win them back over. And this time, after a manga's length of learning little by little to be more open (and literal coercive torture) he chooses to do it, to try and clear up the misunderstanding.

And listen, on Marcille's end this was NEEDED. He DROPS in her eyes to deserving no respect- but even in these times we see her be jealous of Chilchuck opening up to Senshi, implicitly still caring about what he thinks of her, and most importantly that she does still care about him himself when the bicorn breaks his arm and she runs to his side to heal him, worried. Why was this needed? Because Marcille was forced to have her full, complete vision of Chilchuck shattered. Not only is Chilchuck not little in her eyes anymore, but he's also no angel. He can MASSIVELY- borderline unforgivably- mess up. He is an adult who can royally fuck up, even be immoral. She calls him a depraved adult man.

It sounds negative, but what this does is actually strip him from any idealization and infantilization in her eyes. Is there something more adult than adultery? Is there something less honorable, less wholesome? In this chapter Marcille is forced to reconcile the Chilchuck she knows with this man who did something vile to his wife, even the mother of his child.

And then Chilchuck clears things up, he takes the risk of an argument and actual rejection and sacrifices the secrecy around his family situation to make up with her. And it works. Instantly.

And so he goes "Okay so one day she left me and I have no idea why, probably for no reason. The end. What a petty thing to do am I right. We'll probably never talk again." and she's like "Bet? Actually I have several ideas as to what could have happened and you WILL listen."

(For a Chil & Chilwife analysis go over here instead btw.)

She was always perceptive, but she always had a bias that made her vision of others flawed. Her lens of novel worlds and narratives. Remove, or at least shift that bias in a productive direction, and you get a strength rather than an hindrance. The skill of self-inserting (literally. The half-foot depicted as his wife is even literally Marcille a a half-foot, and his child looks just like him, to show just how good her imagination is lmaoo) Marcille is such the "If I wanna hit the ball… I must become the ball" type. As proven by how she controlled her familiars in the hypogriff chapter. "If I were your wife I’d be overjoyed to go out with you and would get myself prettied up while you complain about me taking a long time, your friends would tell me that I’m cute and nice and that’d make me happy, but I’d also be sad because you wouldn’t tell me that you love me enough. Then I'd leave to test your love, and you're failing that test rn but if you came back to me even after a long time I'd take you back for sure." And see these! See Chilchuck frowning there in how she thinks of him, how he gets peeved when she takes time to get ready.

No because, this means everything. Marcille started out the manga thinking he was just a kid with a party pooper attitude and even in the shapeshifter chapter where she’s more coming to terms with her having been wrong about him, her shapeshifter of him is sweet and cute and nicer like "No the REAL Chilchuck is much less nasty! ☺️". But in the bicorn chapter it all comes to a head!! Learning that "Chilchuck cheated on his wife" made her esteem of him tank to rock bottom almost, finally acknowledging that Chilchuck can both make adult mistakes and be significantly flawed. But then! The chapter ends by him opening up which in turn make her esteem of him comes back up, but things have changed, still. What she does with her "virtuous husband" bit might seem like idealization again, and she is being optimistic about the wife'smotives, but she’s not making him into something he’s not! She recognizes his flaws (embraces them even.) Like how as the wife she thinks of an angry/frowning chilchuck, how he complains about waiting on her, which he's also done to Marcille before...

Even the way she says "he wouldn't say that he loves me enough" IS DIRECTLY SOMETHING FROM HER OWN EXPERIENCE FROM THE MANDRAKE CHAPTER. Because then she wanted to hear from his mouth with his words that he does value her, that he does appreciate her, that she's not a burden to them! She knows how it can feel like he doesn't appreciate you even when he does, and how insecure it can make someone! Now when she flavors things, she takes the embellishments from her own experiences instead of from novels! Reality, too, can be romanticized without becoming pure fantasy. Fantasy doesn't have to be dry and bitter, it can be beautiful and fun, too. Her "if I was your wife, life would be something like this and I'd feel like this" is truly based on her own perspective and feelings- her empathy and interest in others is not a weakness like Chilchuck thought, it's borderline a superpower.

She doesn't just keep his flaws in mind, she also hypes up his qualities!! He is virtuous, bicorn approved, devoted even after separation!! And that hyping up, and optimism that things wouldn’t necessarily go bad if he tried to mend things with his wife, really gave him hope, and also finished up his arc about optimism not always being bad, sometimes even being necessary.

She inspires him to think that things can work out, that he can still be pleasantly surprised even with all his bitterness. After all, he opened up to Marcille and they talked just now, and she forgave him and they made up, didn't they?

And he must have never quite let go of all hope, must stil lhave some left in him hidden somewhere, because in all those four years of separation never has he stopped calling her his wife in present tense, because even after all of them he has stayed faithful and never moved on.

And all of this with the chapter ending with Chilchuck eating a sweet and savory sandwich, which he thought would be bad and inspired disgust in him at first, and being like "Huh, the sweetness actually complements the bitterness pretty well."

THE SANDWICH IS THEM. "Syrup in a sandwich? Sweetness has nothing to do in a meal." IT'S OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM COEXISTING. IT'S SWEETNESS AND BITTERNESS BOTH HAVING THEIR PLACE IN A DISH. IT'S MARCILLE AND CHILCHUCK COMING TOGETHER TO HAVE THE RIGHT BALANCE FOR HIM TO BE ABLE TO SAY "It might not go well like in stories, but I'll still try".

Remember what i said about compromises earlier, balance of optimism and pessimism? He tries it, and it works out despite having no faith that it’ll be good, and he’s pleasantly surprised. SURPRISES CAN BE PLEASANT! They're not just life-shattering, not just dangerous, it is possible to be pleasantly surprised! And this is why Kui is a goddess of telling stories through food.

He’s opening up to her, as he takes that last bite of the sandwich, he willingly and easily gives up an information about his family for the first time <3

Notice how she defends his virtues directly taking from Daltian Clan for her reasoning!

She’s such a wingwoman. Such a cheerleader. Couple therapist. Emotional support friend. 10/10.

Marcille: "he has a shitty personality sometimes but if he was my husband I’d still cherish him" Chilchuck: "damn I needed that" /hj

So this neatly ties the last bits of Chilchuck's reluctance to care about others and being cared about in turn, yes yes Marcille reads him like a book so well that he's left shaking, and this is it, really, their arc is about the balance in loving too much and loving too little, in stifling others with that love and care and interest the way Marcille does vs showing it so little that others don't even know if he cares at all, à la “if we want the rewards of being loved, we have to submit to the mortifying ordeal of being known.”

Marcille has a whole theme with the prince charming trope, with her idealization and storybook motif and this is sort of the "Well someone perfect like that isn’t very realistic and romance is usually more complex- and that’s ok and good, and flawed people can still be ✨virtuous✨" conclusion. Again, fantasy doesn't have to be perfect to be worth it, to be valuable and lovable and great and precious.

He’s the devoted virtuous man that she wants not the storybook prince that’s unrealistic and could crumble like a script at any time. He’s the perfect example of a flawed realistic but virtuous and devoted and loving family man. Far, far from a prince charming, but not fully detached from it either. Something worth fighting for despite the flawed cracks.

Marcille has this grand fantasy, this ideal of prince charming, a chivalrous gentleman knight, but through canon especially with Chilchuck she learns to not idealize people so much. That acts are more important than aesthetics. The bicorn chapter is all about Chilchuck’s romance being realistic: flawed. And it’s no coincidence that this is what ties their interwoven arc closed, because they learn to compromise, his pessimism and her optimism. Marcille sees and recognizes a romance that is both flawed and beautiful and is able to balance the two decently, meanwhile she convinces Chilchuck that yes it is worth fighting for and having hope for. Repeating myself but it’s easy to think she’s still idealizing Chilchuck during the bicorn chapter, BUT it’s important to notice the differences with the shapeshifter chapter, where her shapeshifter of him was "cute/sweet" "not nasty", an angel who could do no wrong. In the bicorn chapter, not only does he fall from her esteem a lot because she believes he cheated for a good part of it, thus acknowledging that he can be flawed and adult enough to commit adultery, but also! When she roleplays as his wife, she doesn’t erase his flaws!! She knows he has a short fuse and isn’t always pleasant, but believes that he’s worth loving anyways… 

And see this is the point!! She romanticizes his life, not idealizes it. The difference may be subtle, but it's there. In romanticization there's how Ghibli depicts mundane scenes of daily life, portrays doing chores like cleaning clothes as something that feels good, something worth doing that doesn't have to be miserable. In Chilchuck's life, in his flawed relationship with his wife, she sees the beauty and light and love to highlight so even if the lifestyle is humble and even if the relationship is tense it seems nice, it seems worth fighting for. She's using aesthetics again, but to inspire instead of stifle, the way she uses them to hype herself up sometimes too.

This is it this is the thing! Her worshipping and idealizing the image of perfect prince charming that will whisk you away on an ethereal romance becomes her romanticizing a realistic flawed middle aged dad with personality issues and a failing marriage, that he still is worthy of love and having his cute grand romance story and his happy ending!!

Marcille has a very hard time conceptualizing a point where love can’t conquer all, right. She’s optimistic and if there’s a will there’s a way etc etc etc. Notably when Marcille speculated about Chil’s wife, she centered around the theory that his wife wanted to "test" him by leaving, that she didn’t feel loved and left to see if he’d chase after her. She believes that his wife would be ecstatic to see him again and reaching out would make them reconcile and happily get back together, no problem. Chilchuck and his wife have been separated for 4 years. When Falin left the academy she and Marcille were separated for 4 years. Marcille has to believe Chil’s wife is waiting for him, that she hasn’t moved on, that she wants to be found. There's a different perspective on time, but there's also... Just parallels. Parallels everywhere. Miss coping, meet coping in an opposite way! And so she teaches Chilchuck to not assume everything is lost before havign even tried, and so he teaches Marcille to let go when it's needed.

She specifically loves characters who think they can’t be loved and pessimistic and dramatic… And story-fying him is literally what she does when she engages with the story of his breakup with his wife like it’s a story to decode, reinforcing the whole narrative about tropes and princes and how he comes to shape her view on them.

Even if the context here is explicitly that she relates! Which, she finds being able to relate to them comforting and a positive point so it being a "type" thing isn’t fully off- but this is what I mean when I say she always keeps a film of emotional distance from people, she wants to love and be loved and know people on the deepest level possible so bad but it’s something that scares her too so she prefers to chase after the safe: the unreachable- the fictional. Like Chilchuck. Bit of tangential speculation, but she wants to crack his shell and make him open up- but it’s also easier because he pulls away instead of pulling in/closer so the relationship is fully in her control in that way, if it weren’t for the teasing… Making her into someone silly in his mind is how he keeps himself from putting weight into her words, how he gets himself to automatically dismiss the wise lessons she tries to instill to him, nope sir he doesn't have anything left to learn, he's an old crouton who understands everything there is to know about this cruel cruel life yes sir. Because trying and being rejected hurts! Because if it wasn't fated to turn out wrong, then it means there was luck or choice, and that makes failures almost more painful! But people leave!! People leave and people come back and new meetings happen and choices are good, choices shouldn't be taken away! Not like how Marcille tries to forcefeed immortality to humanity, as a dungeon lord...

The chapter ends with a panel of Marcille and Chilchuck bantering again, with everyone else going about their business seeming nonplussed while the two are being very loud as if to say, ah, classic them. Return to normalcy, return to their usual closeness and shenanigans. All is well.

The Princess imagery

And now we’re falling into the rabbithole. Imagery doesn’t have to be anything more than imagery, but I discuss romantic connotations in this section (amongst the platonic reality of things ofc), you can skip to the conclusion if you’d rather but you will miss important analysis of the dungeon lord balcony scene, a big piece of the puzzle in wrapping it all up. I found the meaning of life & the world in marchil but it’s ok I get it if you wouldn’t... We're all built different ig. The character with princely chilvalrous knight parallels in the manga is moreso Laios, but Laios too breaks the trope a lot. Chilchuck gets prince and knight parallels but by contrast instead, in subtext more than any explicitly drawn. There's a lot to Marcille's princess imagery and though I've never fully covered it I try to somewhat tackle it here.

For as much as the bicorn chapter is what ends their arc about balancing pessimism and optimism and finding healthy compromises, the arc of their RELATIONSHIP is in the dungeon lord chapter where he fully opens up to her, inviting her to meet his family and all. AND MY GOD, the princess imagery!!

Listen I am trying so hard to keep this unromantic, and to be clear subtext is subtext for a reason, it doesn’t have to be concreticized or "acted upon" perse, but… I think it’s there in this scene, at least a bit. I’ve spent a long time trying to pin down what was so charged in it, besides both of them blushing, despite him offering for her to meet his family, despite it calling out to a genuine deep instilled desire in her heart enough for it to work- for it to make her turn towards them, despite the first thing she does after is shower him in romantic gifts, and it eventually struck me… It’s the parallels with other media, with tropes!! This is HIGHKEY Romeo and Juliet type shit!!! The stuff you see in every couple new kinda trashy romance kids movies! A lady, stashed away in a high tower by her lonesome, waiting for someone to call out to her from below… Romeo courting type shit with a heartfelt spiel implicit confession from underneath her balcony, offering him flowers because he succeeded in calling out to her heart…….. And they have to CLIMB to her.

Remember her succubus' words? "Oh, princess... I can't believe you slipped away from the castle yet again... Honestly, what in the world shall we do with you...? Come, let us return." Again like with her succubus, she’s living through a storybook trope but with Chilchuck’s twist, more nuanced and realistic yet just as meaningful, even if it isn’t strictly OR at all romantic and if it’s more complicated and less glamorous. She’d have to peel the layers to get to the vulnerable truth of it, like anything else. I'm just gonna drop this here...

Doesn’t it sound like a proposal. One that’s both so storybook-like, and contrasted with such real yet unromantic and grounded words, all about the implications rather than in your face grand gestures "Don’t you want to meet my family?". They literally have an arc about the topic of romance and this is the climax/pinnacle of it like god?? I’m not saying this was all intentionally crafted to be romantic but it nonetheless exists in the subtext, ripe for analysis. Of course they talk about planning together his reconciliation wit hhis wife, but the same thing happens regardless, he fully lets her into his life.

And again there’s something to be said about how that is what makes her finally turn around! This is extremely meaningful not only to Chil but to Marcille, the enticing thing that finally hooks her, gets her to finally look down at them. An offer to meet a flawed man’s flawed family, to help him mend it and its issues. It isn’t through the filter of a book, or mere gossip to her, she knows this man and she wants to be involved in his life, to know him and his family herself, ready to meet them and form connections. The clumsy, imperfect reality of a friend telling her he’ll let her into the other spheres of his life even if that means she witnesses the embarrassing and the ugly. It’s vulnerability on both their ends, offered and received, a gambit that was worth taking, both in the moment to talk Marcille out of being dunlord and long term of letting her in to see the deeper sides of him, there are take backsies once someone knows something about you after all. SHE STOPS BEING A DUNGEON LORD IN GOOD PART BECAUSE HE TOLD HER HE'D LET HER INTO HIS LIFE. SAY IT WITH ME, A FLAWED REALITY IS WORTH IT MORE THAN STAYING IN FANTASY!!!! In denial of reality, both that Falin hasn't grown older, that everything can turn out perfectly, and that everything is lost and there's nothing Chilchuck can do to make his wife love him again or even make his party listen to him.

Chilchuck says this after he sees her materialize her parents as doppelgangers. And so he goes on to say- hey your family will never go back to how it was when you were young, my family will never be what it once was either, but we can both move on and make the best of what we have anyways, isn’t that what you taught me, there are more out there! I’m opening up myself to new relationships and friendships because of your pushes, and now I want you to do the same! Life goes on and there’s always more joy and connections to be had! Stop isolating yourself, dammit!

And the thing too with Marcille’s arc is that she can’t get what she wants. She can’t. She can’t get everyone to live forever if she doesn’t take others’ free will away, if she doesn’t make the world stop for her as she plays god with the laws of nature and the cycle of life. And everyone’s important to that arc obviously, Falin during the story is the main object of that fear, and it’s moreso her death that pushes her arc along but it’s still extremely influential, Laios is the main one who sees her insecurities and talks her down, Senshi’s always harping on ecosystems and laws of nature and how resurrections aren’t natural and is there to offer comfort and support, Izutsumi’s someone new Marcille gets to take care of and her farewell talk with her reveals a lot about how she’s grown, but seeing this it’s easy to see why Chilchuck is paired off so much with her on their respective arcs, right? The one who tells it harshly how it is even when the reality is unpleasant, who gives up quickly when it's about things turning good for him but who always pushes and fights on when it matters with the party, who challenges a rose tinted glasses perspective head on.

He looks nothing like a knight but he still acts like one. He’s nothing like a prince or a dashing romantic courting lover but still he gives her a novel worthy balcony heart to heart scene. He’s painfully real and raw but she does bring that twinkle of hope and romantization that makes the world feel more wonderful to him, but like she tells him, he’s virtuous and he should give things a shot because people see good in him too and not only the bad he always shittalks himself for, she’s not making it up, he always had that sparkle of knight and prince in him.

Like, giving someone a handkerchief is literally a romance trope associated with nobles and princes. And Chilchuck has offered Marcille his handkerchief at least twice! The second time in the cockatrice chapter as a bandage. He keeps it in his pouch, with his tools, like the most must-have to offer it Marcille at any moment, ha /j. Prince behavior <3 The cowl like a knight’s favour, a token from a loved one he cherishes above all and keeps on himself at all times. Story tropes shit.

He IS a prince figure instead that now it’s not about idealizing the grand and overt it’s about romanticizing the small things in real life!! About finding joy and beauty in things that seem normal or mundane and uplifting them to make the world feel kinder!!!!

And man this whole angle makes the "Don’t you want to meet my family?" "-gasp- I really do want to! -turns away from eldritch power and living in her demon-made dreamscape that can allow her to live in fantasy to instead go back to flawed reality with her friends-" all that more meaningful and striking. A fitting end to her arc, a fitting hook to get her to turn back towards her and tempt her to give up on being dungeon lord. It’s always been just asking things and anecdotes about him and his family, never talking about meeting them, but by having someone so "fated with doomed love" open up and reach out to her "fated to never love", she opens up too, is willing to take the risk that any relationship entails, the same one that he took by offering it, the same risk they’re both averse to and scared of, loss and rejection. By actually meeting his family she involves herself in the stories she creates. It makes them real. She’s finally involving herself intimately with others, despite the real threat of loss that she will have to experience, wether through time and death or rejection.

Marcille and Chil’s arc, man…….. See, this is why I’ve been tilling the fields of that analysis for months this is why I’m insane about them, not only is there so much to say but her relationship with Chil straight up deconstructs her perspective on the world as idealized and influenced by fiction and fantasy and optimism. Like, he’s at the core of that part of her arc and man!! Man.

And the way that this is the culmination of their arc together… Like the ‘Chil calling out to dunlord Marcille on the balcony has Romeo and Juliette romance novels imagery’ take is one thing but the ‘their arc is about growing to see beauty even in the non-idealized, in the flawed and in the real’... It makes it so so perfect if she were to lower her ideal from a perfect elven prince to a virtuous halfling man (which she does romanticize).

So she doesn’t want a prince, she doesn’t want a general, she just wants this guy she knows, this friend she trusts as reliable, who has good intentions even if wrapped in unpleasant demeanor, that’s all she needs to be content and well and feel safe. By the end, he might even have become something of a prince charming to her, won over with heroic acts and virtues.

After all- Remember when I said she wouldn't be able to be as touchy so lightheartedly as before with him? Well wrong, apparently! This parallel from chapter 23 just before the red dragon fight vs chapter 96 at the final feast confirms that her like of him and behavior with him was unconditional of him being a kid or an adult. Marcille is just Like That and that she just likes him. A good part of what reads as infantilization truly is just how she cares for people in general.

Conclusion

She’s afraid of change, so it's only fair that he would be perfect to teach her a thing or two. She had fantasies but he had experiences, both had bias.

Their arc says that love is a beautiful thing regardless of loss. Something both of them needed to remember. Life isn't like a novel. Sometimes an ending ISN'T satisfying, you don't get closure and it might not even be happy, but that doesn't mean nothing can end well, doesn't mean every farewell is bitter. Peace is worth both fighting for and making for yourself. You can't shut yourself off from the world because things sometimes hurt, there's more of life to live- won't you come meet my family? Won't you meet new people, won't I try to mend relationships that are dear to me? My family is flawed, but it's still worth meeting, still worth loving, still worth fighting for and keeping even with all its flaws, no? Elven storybooks don't feature half-foots, but they're worth spinning grand poetic and romantic tales for all the same. Life is bittersweet, and that's an acquired taste to have, but one good to be able to stomach as a whole.

There’s a lot of reasons why someone would love fictional characters but be afraid of love in reality, not unlike with Laios' and Chilchuck's own experiences love has a layer of danger and fear because it can hurt to love and it can hurt to be loved. People can leave you, and in Marcille that fear's mainly through death but for Chilchuck that’s through just… Leaving. Through giving Chilchuck optimism and hope, drive to keep going despite these realities, she’s also growing to be more comfortable with the thought of relationships ending and moving forward regardless. And I do think that was part of her arc of growing to accept that Falin might be dead dead, I think Chilchuck was a big part in that. Falin is the passive object of the arc but Chilchuck is the active actor pushing it along, in a way.

Because people can always leave, Falin will leave to travel the world, but she might come back- and that's okay. And that’s exactly the thing that the story wants Marcille to make peace with! Falin wants and needs to leave and Marcille needs to be content just taking what she can get, wether it be time with people or the boundaries they set with her. THE BOUNDARIES! THE BALANCING OF OPTIMISM AND PESSIMISM! IT'S CHILCHUCK'S DOING!! "The world isn’t all good, but you should be able to see the bright side of what you do get" is what she and Chilchuck learn. To learn that she can still enjoy when she is there, and still reach out to her and keep in touch through letters- to do what you can and to get what you can and to accept that as enough, for it to bring you the joy and peace it can. Don't push your expectations onto others, wether that's being overly intimate or overly judgemental, don't be too pushy but also don't be too afraid and not do anything at all.

In many ways even before, even on the regular Marcille was his gateway into being more lighthearted, always exchanging playful jabs, laughing at her. Teasing her because she teases him, lowering himself to her level until he looks back and realizes he’s having fun with it instead of just throwing jabs bc he’s the master of sarcasm TM.

Chilchuck smiling casually and softly, genuinely, when saying that things don’t work out sometimes, is just so powerful. From the man who always assumed the worst of everything, who always spoke of life and the world bitterly... By the end, while saying these things he’s smiling openly rather than smirking smugly. Carrying on with his go getter attitude with a touch more optimism in his heart. Now he's made his peace with life and sees the good in it, still.

It's all about... How flawed relationships with flawed people can still be made into somehing good and healthy that make the world brighter… How flawed relationships are still worth remembering and cherishing. Except the winged lion, there to represent abusive relationships you need to fucking DITCH.

Marcille and Chilchuck’s arc is about how in life sometimes books do close and end, but other ones can open and start, and to never give up on that. People’s lives, relationships, these things are temporary and inevitably end, but there’s meaning and joy in having been there for them, and focusing on the end and the pain and being pessimistic in it doesn’t keep anyone safe, not meaningfully. "It’s not all nice like in the stories. Sometimes, a book just ends." "And another opens."

Dungeon meshi promotes the important of balance for both a healthy body and a healthy mind, and optimism vs pessimism is one such case <3

MAYBE IT'S ALL COMPROMISES MAYBE IT'S ALL SWEET INBETWEENS. Maybe we'll take our vision of what we thought we could be and make something new together! DRINK IN MODERATION!!!!!! SEE LIFE LIKE FAIRYTALES IN MODERATION!!!!!!! THE RIGHT ATTITUDE LIES BETWEEN IDEALIZATION AND PESSIMISM

Disclaimer:

This was pretty messy but thank you so much for reading!!

To be clear! Does this arc exist in the text, the whole tropes and idealism vs pessimism thing, do they have tangible impact on each other as both characters and narrative devices? Yes. Is Marcille and Chilchuck the central piece of the story? No. Is Dungeon Meshi about this and how it all culminated into a cool Romeo and Juliette scene? Lol no. Chilchuck isn't the most important person to Marcille and her story nor is Marcille the one most important to Chilchuck. Just like the other major characters in the story, their dynamic and progressing relationship is a plotline/subplot amongst others, and the level of layers and subtext it possibly has doesn't erase any other part or subtext of the story. Arcs can coexist. Multi-layered relationships can coexist. Just a reminder that this is my own analysis and interpretation of canon.

Dungeon Meshi is about food and how it ties us to a life that’s worth living, about unity and trying to understand that which you do not, to not demonize that which is different or unknown, to connect with others even if it’s hard, even if it’s in unusual or undescribable unlabelable ways, and Marcille and Chilchuck’s relationship is certainly a pawn in these themes like every other relationship.

I’m having fun, but I don’t want anyone getting lost in the sauce. It's unfortunate that to many, acknowledging there's any merit to analyzing this subtext is equal to supporting a ship they dislike, but this isn't ship propaganda, this is analysis of canon text where I happen to see a more niche angle. You can disagree with an interpretation without saying that it's nonsensical.

Like I don’t wanna say I’m a marchil truther but if you define it as believing canon does have genuine and credible basis for it then yeah I guess I am. I feel insane everyone acts like they have no chemistry and no material and??? We exist on different planets I think Like I know I implied some romantic undertone but in canon it totally can start and end at two coworkers bonding and getting to know each other better and see each other’s perspective and it influencing them both for the better. No buts, you can totally do that. Although this plus the crumbs it drives me up a wall when people say they have no chemistry or ‘how come people see anything in this pairing?’ They’re literally a comedic duo? A comedic duo that interacts so so much that gets paired off in scenes, a thematic duo which is even acknowledged and reflected in the anime’s opening. He teases her 24/7 canonically because he finds her reactions fun/cute, the only person he teases on the regular, and she’s obsessed with knowing more about him and loves being touchy on top of it, plus reads him like a book because she files away every little thing about him in her memory, like if that isn’t a strong basis for a ship I think the bar has gone too high. I’m derailing but yeah just. Do you see all of this? They drive me insane, I feel like I’m reading the necronomicon when analyzing them, picking up on subliminal messages, I keep always seeing new threads. And it’s been my otp for like 2 years now, idk when they’ll stop having a grip on me but????? There’s just so much to dig into with them. There will never be another pair like them. Do you hear me there’ll never be another duo that hits all of these like this, do you see this insanity? They are my lifeblood and if i’m eating up anything them-related it’s because they’ve earned it so hard tbh. So yeah if I’m ever dramatic about marchil it’s because I have this 100k words novel narrative in my head and marchil is the meaning of life to me hope this clears it up

Which on that note idk what or when my next Marcille & Chilchuck analysis will be. I might very well make a bite sized, summarized version of this analysis because asking people to read all of this is kind of insane of me... And full disclosure I’m also very likely to edit points in or tweak bits every so often in this analysis because idk if I’ll ever stop thinking about it, and phrasing can improved. This has been in my drafts and outlined more than a year and I’m literally still adding extra points save me. I might also do a different angle on their arc because here yeah I mostly just dug at the prince trope angle, at ONE of many angles... Like one interesting thread in the manga is Marcille emotionally maturing and becoming more like her mother, on top of her regularly being a mom type friend the way she looks after Izutsumi and Falin, which could be interesting to pair with the fatherhood of Chil. Hmm. Anyways

And obviously do whatever you want, but this analysis and all is why I personally can’t stand the fanon that Chilchuck and Marcille have a father-daughter undertone. It goes against their arc together, which is explicitly, literally about her acknowledging him as a man, an adult, about coming to see each other truly as peers and her coming to validate him as an adult, then a father and husband from an outside perspective and a friend, and inversely him coming to not belittle her profession and philosophy. Their whole arc is about learning to see each other as an equal and equally value each other’s perspective and opinion. You could argue it’s also the arc that happens with Izutsumi, but honestly with her it’s a lot about Izutsumi learning to compromise and others instilling lessons to her onesidedly while learning to respect her perspective and boundaries, it’s not nearly as much of a reciprocal thing. Izutsumi needs to be heard, but she also needs people teaching her and guiding her. Imo it cheapens the arc, the whole point is that they’re just two people who grow to see each other as equals, that the Laios party is coworkers turned friends. Marcille doesn't need a new parental figure, she needs friends who'll keep her in check the same way she does them.

I do love the way that the manga avoids romance. For every romantic undertone there’s a platonic explanation that is just as compelling and especially to this degree it’s both rare and wonderful. I think that a lot of people need to learn that sometimes ambiguity is the point instead of something that needs to have a specific objective answer. Sometimes the intent is for something to be able to be read in different ways in itself, or that the complexity of the relationship is canonically something that cannot be put into a neat box. Which! Next analysis I'm very intent on making is gonna be about unlabeled relationships in Dunmeshi and queerness, see you there!

Fast and dirty TLDR

Marcille’s personality is very serious and direct. Due to this, she frequently gets into arguments with the master of sarcasm, Chilchuck. Chilchuck views Marcille as “the friend who cannot shut up”. He is often the practical foil to her more imaginative or idealistic views.

She actually thinks very highly of him! "He’s usually the most mature one of us" "he’s dependable, we’re counting on him" "No chilchuck is definitely virtuous", and at first it’s also through this twisted lense that he’s a kid, like she has to put people into boxes so they’re more digestible, tropes, in line with aesthetic, and at this stage it’s hard for her to see Chilchuck as being even able of wrongdoing really. And gradually that gets challenged when she sees that yeah, he’s an adult, and then BAM bicorn chapter- Because by then ok fine he’s an adult, but it hasn’t quite fully settled yet as we see in the shapeshifter chapter and she still has a warped view of him a bit, she has an accurate grasp on his behavior yet still sees him as a little angel. And then she "learns" he committed adultery. Her esteem for him hits rock bottom and she spends the chapter cold to him, she still cares and comes running when he’s hurt, but she’s set on mean mugging him, until it’s revealed that- He didn’t actually. Oh, actually he just has family angst. And she starts roleplaying and having her novel vision again BUT THIS TIME HER MIND VISION OF CHILCHUCK IS OVERTLY FLAWED. He’s angry and his wife left him, he’s *flawed*, but he’s still worth hyping up, still worth having his own romance story, still has a shot of winning back his beloved. She sees him for what he is, human and real and not a carefully scripted character that fits an aesthetic, and she thinks it’s still worthy of love and admiration, worth fighting for.

The prince charming figure has importance in Marcille and Chilchuck’s arc, where she romanticizes things to a sometimes worrying degree or idealize people into something more poetic, easy and digestible (like Chil being a kid, and then him being a virtuous ✨✨✨husband), and where she needs to learn to value aesthetics less and actual acts and facts more, be more grounded (like seeing people for what they are flaws and all, but seeing their virtues too, like accepting that people need money and not pulling through on principles of honor or unity shouldn’t get Namari shamed) and a part of that is accepting that Chilchuck is BOTH flawed and virtuous, a loving husband that still has shitty moods and fumbled his marriage so bad etc etc. So it’s like, her image of perfect prince charming that will whisk you away on an ethereal romance -> realistic flawed middle aged dad with personality issues and a failing marriage but who still is worthy of love and having his cute grand romance story and his happy ending.

Their arc together is literally learning to 1) see each other for how they are and not undermining their qualities and capacities etc etc while still not leaving flaws unchecked either and 2) opening up to people. Marcille LITERALLY makes Chil open his heart up to hope like idk man. What do you want from me. He’s literally the guy helping her through deconstructing novels and fantasy and rose tinted glasses and like. Deconstructing the prince charming figure into something more real but still a virtuous husband like KUI KUI STOOOOP STOP I’M ALREADY HOOKED I’M ALREADY-

[dindjarindiaries]

Pulling Punches

character: Din Djarin (The Mandalorian)

prompt: "Look, I know I probably should have backed off and I apologize." "No, honestly it was kind of hot." "What?"

main masterlist • prompt masterlist

You sighed and set your hands on your hips, leaning close enough so that your muttered words could only be shared between the two of you. “Din, honestly. I’ll be fine in there.” You gestured with your head to the cantina’s threshold. “Just stay out here and watch my back. Okay?”

Din shifted his weight between his feet and flexed one of his gloved hands. The other rose to adjust his vambrace. With a heavy exhale of defeat and a swing of his helmet, he relented. “Fine.” His visor found you again. “Just—.”

“Be careful.” You huffed and gave his armored shoulder a playful punch. “I know. I can handle myself.” You turned towards the door and spoke to him over your shoulder. “I’ll be back in a few.”

With that, you strode forward. The door slid open for you, and you felt Din’s gaze lingering on your back until the closing door made it impossible for him to see you any longer.

You rolled your eyes. Honestly, for a man who had yet to even mention the idea of being with you romantically, he was so unnecessarily protective.

The cantina on this world was crowded that night, practically shoulder-to-shoulder as you wove your way towards the actual bar. You were soon close enough to spot the familiar blue skin of the Twi’lek bartender, and after raising your hand and keeping your eye on them, you caught their attention. The Twi’lek woman smiled and waved you forward.

“Sorry.” You smiled sheepishly as you stepped up to greet the bartender. “I know I’m a bit late.”

The Twi’lek raised an unimpressed brow, despite the glint of fondness in her gaze. “‘A bit’? It was two full rotations.”

You shrugged. “Kark happens.” You subtly scanned your surroundings and lowered your voice. “Do you still have it?”

The Twi’lek hummed a positive note as she finished pouring a drink. “It’s in the back.” She picked up the glass in her hand and nodded. “I’ll go grab it.”

Your face softened in gratitude, even as your fists tightened on top of the bar. You wouldn’t feel much better until the datacard was in your hands.

Just as you watched the blue Twi’lek disappear into a back room, the man on your left started to speak to you. “Never seen you here before.”

You huffed and cut your gaze at him. “Moved off world a few cycles ago.”

“Makes sense.” He shuffled closer to you. “I’d remember a face like yours.”

You let out a low chuckle and glanced over at him, amused. “Oh, yeah?”

The man hummed his agreement and gave you an obvious once-over. “What brings you back here?”

You offered him a shrug. “Just visiting an old friend.” You gestured with your head to where the bartender had gone.

“Well…” The man’s hand slid closer to yours on the bar top. “I’m glad you did.”

Your eyes narrowed as you looked him straight in the eye. “I’m not staying long.”

His brow rose slowly. “I won’t need long.”

You frowned and pulled your hand closer to yourself. “Okay, then let me make myself clear: I don’t want whatever you’re trying to offer me.”

The man chuckled. “Playing hard to get? Really?”

You crossed your arms, but kept your hands pulled tight into fists, ready to punch if you had to. “I’m not ‘playing’ at all.”

The man lifted his hand as if he was about to set it on your shoulder. “Then let me help you—.”

Whatever else he was saying was lost in the shuffle of someone stepping in between the two of you so quickly that you nearly jumped into the person on your right. The flash of silver was all you needed to see to identify who it was that had grabbed the man’s wrist so hard that you audibly heard it crack.

The man gasped in both pain and surprise, but Din didn’t release his wrist, not even as he spoke. “Lay a single hand on them, and I’ll cut it off.”

The man sputtered before he tried to snatch his wrist away from Din. “Alright, alright! Relax.”

“This is me relaxed.” Din still didn’t relinquish his grip. “You don’t want to see me when I’m not. Do I make myself clear?”

The man huffed indignantly. “Yeah, yeah! Whatever. Just let me go!”

You observed the attention you were suddenly getting and sighed. You pinched the bridge of your nose and closed your eyes. “Let him go, Din.”

Din hesitated, but you soon heard movement as he dropped the man’s hand. You reopened your eyes to see the man cradling his bruising wrist and glaring between both you and Din. His words were directed towards you when he spoke again. “You could at least fight your own battles.”

You were ready to do exactly that, but Din beat you to it. He slammed his elbow into the back of the man’s head, forcing his front half to fold over the bar top, and then punched the man’s gut to make him fall back a few steps. Din’s final hit was an uppercut that had the man knocked out in seconds.

The man hit the floor, and the cantina froze for a single moment in time as Din flexed both his hands and spoke to the limp body underneath him. “They don’t have to.”

You should’ve been mortified by his actions, and part of you was, but mostly… you were hit with a rush of warmth that brought a fond smile to your lips. Din was always protective, sure, but this was something different. This was a fight to protect your honor.

Like he had said, a battle you could have fought on your own, but you didn’t have to, because he wanted to do it for you.

Din then shook his helmet as if pulling himself out of a trance and turned around to face you. He took a step closer, as if he was about to start speaking, but your attention was pulled away by the bartender returning.

“Here.” The Twi’lek woman handed you the datacard, and you thanked her quietly. Her gaze fell to the man on the floor, and her brow raised as she let out a relived exhale. “Oh, finally. Someone took care of that guy.”

You frowned in confusion. “What?”

The bartender nodded at the body. “Guy’s been harassing our patrons for weeks.”

“Oh.” You looked down at the man and kicked his limp foot with your boot. “Good riddance.”

The Twi’lek huffed in agreement and only briefly looked between you and Din. She smiled and nodded towards the door. “Be safe out there.”

“And you be safe in here.”

With those words and a small smile of your own, you turned towards the door and started making your way out. It was admittedly easier, though, with Din at your side, as he had no trouble pushing people out of the way for both of you.

As soon as you were making your way back to the ship, Din began to speak. “Look.”

He let out a soft breath as his visor glanced over at you.

“I know I probably should have backed off.” He looked down at the fist he’d punched with and flexed it. “I apologize.”

You hummed, pretending to consider his apology. “No. Honestly…” You shrugged. “It was kind of hot.”

Din’s helmet whipped towards you so fast that you’re surprised he didn’t actually trip a step. “What?”

You laughed, shaking your head as you bumped your side against his. “I’m being serious!”

Din’s helmet tilted at you. “But you’re laughing.”

“Because it’s funny.”

Din sighed. “What’s funny?”

You nodded at him. “You being so shocked that I find you attractive.”

Din stiffened in clear embarrassment as he focused on the way ahead. “Are we really doing this here?”

You pretended to be disappointed. “So, you’re saying you didn’t do what you did because you find me attractive?”

Din’s helmet turned towards you again. “I never said that.”

Your teasing smile was impossible to fight. “Then you do think I’m attractive?”

Din suddenly stopped in his tracks, letting out an exhale heavy enough to make you hold back a laugh. He took you by the arm and pulled you aside to keep you out of the way as he responded.

“Clearly. How many more people do I have to punch to make that obvious?”

You blinked at him before you burst out laughing again. "Din, there has to be a better way for you to tell me how you feel."

Din shrugged. "I was raised a fighter."

You raised an eyebrow at him. "Not a lover?"

"Jury's still out."

You snorted in amusement. Din, however, was quick to shift gears, his hand lowering from your arm to your back as his visor gave your surroundings a cautious glance.

"Now, can I please get you back to the ship safely, and then we can discuss this more properly?" He tilted his helmet at you. "Or, in your case, laugh about it."

You gave your eyes a playful roll, though the smile on your lips told a different story. "Fine." You nodded towards the way ahead. "Just try not to punch anyone else."

Din huffed and gave your back a gentle tap. "No promises."

Given what additional insight you had now regarding Din's motivations, you found your smile widening as you stayed close to his side, at last fully grateful to be within his protective reach.

[allastoredeer]

Okay so I completely agree with you on the whole nobody focuses on Charlie’s feelings in the equation. Cause I don’t really hear about it from the fandom I suppose but to be brutally honest? Seeing how dismissive Lucifer was the entire time was just hat made me dislike him as a person if that makes sense.

I still like him as a character but at the same time the way he seems to love Charlie so much but is still so dismissive and neglectful in a way that speaks more of his own pride and not wanting to admit his own mistakes, well it just makes me want to strangle the guy. Cause as you said it has messed Charlie up. Look at how she reacted when Vaggie first suggested it. That was not the reaction of someone who was happy to even hear about it.

She didn’t even want to hear about it! She tried to get Vaggie to stop several times before her girlfriend said it out loud. Not to mention just how much she outright pleaded with her Dad to try to get him to listen. Especially during the balcony scene where she makes it clear that despite the fact Alastor isn’t a family member, and not to mention is just here to see her fail, is more supportive than her own father.

I think that in that moment is why Alastor part in the song makes so much more sense as well. Cause he is here to be entertained by failure, at least in Charlie’s eyes, yet he still does the shit he is asked to do. Alastor is a manipulative and observant fucker, as you said he clocked what issues Charlie had within a week. He gained her trust, and I would say even her loyalty in some way since she sees him as a trusted advisor of sorts.

And yeah I hadn’t realized it before but you’re right about Lucifer going there being entirely selfish. I think it makes the whole situation all the more painful for Charlie honestly. Cause it is clear she cares so deeply about this, even with a shortened time for extermination she tries to get everyone shape for what she thinks would be right for heaven. I also find it kind of ironic in a way.

Lucifer was cast out for his own dreams that went wrong and I think it’s pretty clear that even before the garden that they were put down. Yet in trying to protect his daughter from the same fate, he is crushing her the same way they did to him. Charlie seems to be quite resilient to be able to handle that sort of thing, especially from her own parents.

Sorry for the rant I just have a lot of thoughts about everything that happens.

Don't apologize. I loved reading this! I actually don't really have anything to add cuz, yeah, I agree with everything you said XD

[thisonehere]

Please make a second part of the fic "Sleeping Beauty" I want to please my boy Smoke 👀

Finish Him

A/n: Me too, I need him in ways that haven't been scientifically discovered yet.

Tags: Request, Mk1 fanfic, Mk smut, NSFW

C/w: Blue Balls, more teasing, sexually frustrated, masturbation, oral sex (blow job), mention of bodily fluids

Last part

The rest of the day wasn't a good one for Tomas, not at all. Not after you left him to deal with that beast.

He started the morning late. Many thoughts that he just slept in late, but in actually trying his best to pleasure himself. There he was at the side of the bed stroking and rubbing himself as best he could. The room echoed with his moaning and whimpering as he chased the high of a climax.

After nearly an hour of agonizing work, he managed to reach it...but it just wasn't the same.

With a defeated sigh, he cleaned himself up and got ready to meet Honzo at the Dojo. The young man had been waiting there for a while, he had arrived an hour early to the great hall in hopes of practicing his technique before training with Tomas.

By the time Tomas arrived the boy was busy practicing his backside kick. Honzo stopped as he turned to face his mentor as he entered. "Apologies about my lateness. I was...I was busy and fell behind." He cleared his throat. "Let us begin."

---

"Correct your stance." Tomas nearly barked, Honzo had attempted a crescent kick against the punching dummy. He could deny that his poor stance caused him to balance, but it was getting harder to train with the way Tomas looked him. A harsh scowl on his face, as if he was upset about something.

"Again, harder!" These were the words Tomas would usually say to Honzo during Training, but he couldn't help but notice...venom in his words. Tomas seemed more irate than usual, not as bad as Bi-Han, he was still fairly kind to Honzo. But he seemed annoyed by something, it's like he literally woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. He wondered what could've happened this morning to agitate him so.

"That was perfect, Honzo, you've improved greatly." Tomas said after 3 hours of training. He gave Honzo a warm smile as he wiped the sweat from his brow. He seemed to have calmed down now, perhaps the training blew off some steam, calming him down a great deal. "Take a break," he huffed. "We'll meet again in 2."

He walked over to the bench to take a swing of water, until he catches something at the corner of his eye. He sees a very familiar figure pass the doorway to the training ground. You. Immediately follows after you, not giving Honzo a single look, not taking a single sip of water.

"Y/n!" He calls to you as he quickly trails behind you. A tinge of desperation can be sensed in his voice. You stop and turn to face him. Your smile is innocent, your eyes are demure, this morning didn't happen. "Um, hey." He shifts his pose, trying to look more chill and nonchalant as if he wasn't basically chasing after you a few moments ago. "Hey." You smile back at him. "So...what are you up to?"

"I'm heading to the storage room, Kuai needs a shin guards and hand wraps for a new initiate." Tomas's eyes perked up at the sound of this, as if he had an idea. "What a coincidence, I'm on my way there too." Your arch you brow in surprise, "Really?" You could've sworn you just saw him training Honzo. "Really." he assured you. With a sigh, you flash Tomas knowing smile and lead him to the storage room.

The storage room was the largest room in the entire complex. It was filled to the brim with supplies and uniforms for new recruits, it also worked as a place to hold weapons until they found an armory to put it all in. Boxes lined to 6 feet towers in rows creating entire walls. You quickly get to work finding the shin guards and wraps. Meanwhile Tomas awkwardly leans against doorframe, trying to be sexy. "Um, so, Y/n about this morning."

Your ears immediately purk up at this, you know where this is heading. Yet you play dumb. "Oh, yeah. You were telling me about how you had to train Honzo. How's that going?"

"Wonderful!" Tomas quickly jumps off the doorframe excitedly. "He's improved so much! Just a few more months and he'll be a full fledged Shirai Ryu. Actually, he'll even be the youngest-" he suddenly remembers what he was trying to do, clears his throat, and gets back to leaning against the doorframe, hoping to be sexy. "Fine. He's doing fine." He series to make his voice deeper, softer. "But I was talking about the other thing."

"Oh, is that so?" You finally find the Shin guard and wraps. You also get softer, turn to him, a sultry look finds its way onto your face. This took Tomas by surprise that he once again drops his attempts at trying to be sexy and just stand there awkwardly as you slowly advance up to him, your hips swaying here and there.

"Y-Yes, I couldn't stop thinking about it." He felt his heart skip a beat as you lay a hand to his chest. "I see. You want me to finish?" He frantically nods, his face becomes red with blush. "Yes, I would."

Your hands go from his chest, trails down his torso, and it begins to undo his pants. Tomas began to breathe more heavily as he watched.

His pants drop to the floor, and his eager member recoils upward, bouncing up and down excited at being free. You admire it for a moment, it's more than 8.5 inches long and 3.6 inches in width. You nearly lost your composure at the sight of it, he looks bigger and harder than he's ever been. His top is dripping with pre-cum. Maybe your teasing was more effective than you thought.

"I'm guessing you want me to give it a kiss?" You slowly get on your knees, licking your lips to moisten them. Tomas frankly nods, "Yes! Yes, please!" He begs, he's so desperate, it's kinda cute. "Alright." You grab his pen, both hands are required to grip. You wait and stare at it for a second, you have torture him for a little longer.

Finally, you plant a tender kiss at the tip. You even lick, the sweat from training mixed with cum gives it a nice and salty taste. Tomas's head falls back as he moans as relief is felt all over his body.

You then quickly get back up to your feet. "I better go, I have to get this to Kuai." Tomas eyes stretch open as he becomes horrified. "W-What!?! No, you can't, you have to-"

"I said I'd give it a kiss. I even went a step further with that licked." You say as you race out the door. "Y/n, please. Do you want me to beg? I'll beg! Please, just come back."

He looks down at the new problem you left him with. "Please come back." He whines to himself. Looks like he's going to be in the Storage room longer than he thought.

A/n: Aren't I just a tease? *Laughs maniacally*

Anyway, do y'all think I should do a part 3 where Y/n actually does it?

[fliexx]

Thangyu :D

——————————————————————

MLM

werewolf au

Squid game never happened 

Se-mi best girly 

Se-mi smokes cigarettes 

Jealous Thanos of Min su

Min su being dragged into drama

Suggestive / smut later 😏

Friends to lovers 

Roommates but they sleep in the same bed ( totally makes sense :)

Namgyu knows about wearwolf Thanos

Thanos can retract his ears and tail 

——————————————————————

“ ah—OH! and then Min-su started talking about some bullsh*t like I’m ‘too clingy,’ like—WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?? I hate his guts man..but then he gave me some cookies so I kinda forgave him. I mean, what else do you do when you get food as an apology gift? After that, me and Min-su. . .” 

Thanos never thought he’d feel so possessive of his ‘best friend’ until now.

Namgyu’s rambling went on to deaf ears as Thanos drifted into thought. For someone Namgyu supposedly “hates”, he talks about him a whole lot. It was pissing him off at this point. Every other topic, Min-su this, Min-su that—but Thanos tried to ignore it. instead, he focused on what Nam-Gyu’s hand was currently doing; scratching behind Thanos’s ear. 

Nam-Gyu’s body tangled with his, Thanos arms wrapped around his waist as he subconsciously pulled the other closer. He noticed that Nam-Gyu managed to keep his sweater sleeves up closer to his knuckles even while giving Thanos’ affection. His constant sweater paws itched a scratch right in his brain.

Nam-Gyu’s warm breath hitting Thanos’s sensitive furry ear while he absentmindedly rambles off, it all made it even harder to pay much attention to what he was saying, the other man’s hands occasionally pitching Thanos’s neck when he notices the unfocused expression on his face.

With how close the two of them are, Thanos mind drifts to certain moment Nam-Gyu talked about earlier.

-

Sh*t, what time is it? It’s probably midnight…no doubt a full moon. A horrible time for a werewolf to be out and about.

And yet, here Thanos was, carried away partying and getting high with Nam-Gyu all night—which was partly interrupted a few times due to Thanos growling at anyone he saw as a threat or someone getting too close to his best friend. It wasn’t like it was a problem to the best friend in question, Nam-Gyu egging him on to go fight or kill someone. He was too high to actually understand what he was saying in the moment.

While walking (stumbling) back to their apartment, they spotted Min-su and Se-mi walking in their direction. Thanos wasn’t surprised. he smelled them before they came into view. He was too hammered to alert Nam-Gyu, so as soon as the shorter male saw them, he ran and gave Min-su and Se-mi (mostly Min-Su) a bear hug.

“OMG—MIN-SU, SE-MI! I HAVEN’T SEEN YOU GUY IN FOREVER! OH MY GOD, YOU WONT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED AT THE CLUB TONIGHT—SO . . .” Nam-Gyu began to loudly ramble, retelling what had transpired beforehand. he didn’t notice Se-mi as she moved to stand by Thanos.

The way Nam-Gyu clinged to Min-su, tangling their arms together, casually closing off distance between their faces, acting like Thanos wasn’t there…it was starting to irk him. Thanos glared at Min-su the same way he glared at the men who had tried hitting on Nam-Gyu in the club. They were either dead or close enough to it.

Thanos struggled to keep his ears and tail from revealing themselves in public. He didn’t care about it that much, having already done so in a club crowd, but Nam-Gyu was worried about a bystander seeing him, so he kept it under wraps.

“WHAT’S TOO CLINGY? WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN BI- wait is that a cookie? is it laced? Thanks Mi-suuu~” 

Se-mi watched as Mi-su tried to bribe Nam-Gyu off of him with snacks (which worked,) she noticed Thanos glaring daggers at the two of them—mostly Min-Su—with his hands balled into unconscious fists. Se-Mi smoked her cigarette before calling out to Nam-Gyu.

“ HEY Nam-Gyu! Looks like your dog’s got a problem with you being so touchy , shouldn’t you take him home to cheer him up?” Se-mi chuckled at the thought of calling Thanos a ‘dog,’ but it seemed Thanos didn’t find the humor in it, turning his deadly gaze towards the woman instead.

Se-Mi held her hands up in defense, just in time for Nam-Gyu to come over and save the day (night?). 

“ Aww…is my puppy jealous of little old Min-Su? you don’t have to be..C’mon, we can go home!” He cooed. While he dragged his werewolf boy away, Thanos was to flushed to notice Nam-Gyu sneaking a pill or two from Thanos’s cross necklace. 

-

That whole ordeal led to Nam-Gyu coddling Thanos the whole way home, making out in the doorway of their apartment, exchanging a plethora of kisses and hickeys on the couch, grinding against each other on the kitchen counter, and finally cuddling in Thanos’ bed.

Well—their bed, as Namgyu has been sleeping there for months, only going into his room for clothes and time to cool down after an argument with his ‘best friend’, which hardly happens.

Thanos had started to focus on the scent emitting from Nam-Gyu rather than the situation with Min-Su and Se-Mi. He smelt like a cross of roses and underlying weed. Not overwhelmingly, but just enough to calm Thanos’ senses.

Namgyu gently held Thanos’ chin in between his fingers, turning his face up and using his thumb to part his lips. He pressed a pill on Thanos’ tongue, much to the other man’s contentment.

“Does my puppy feel better?” Nam-Gyu asked, his tone almost belittling. And yet, it brought butterflies to Thanos’ stomach, the way he spoke without a care in the world about what that nickname does to him. 

How his smile always looked so sheepish. How his eyes were lidded, how he pulled his sleeves down until only his fingers showed. how he shivered a bit because of the cold temperature of their apartment.

Thanos eyes scanned every detail, everything itching into his brain until he couldn’t take it anymore. Thanos pinned Nam-Gyu to the bed, cutting off the man’s surprised gasp with a rough kiss. He couldn’t help but growl whenever he heard whimpers leave the other.

Nam-Gyu wasn’t sure where the sudden aggression had come from, but he was doing anything but complaining. 

“Ngh .. Su-Bong—“ He whined out. Hearing Nam-Gyu call him by his name flipped a switch that he wasn’t aware existed. Thanos’ growled before biting into Nam-Gyu’s neck, earning a shameless moan in return. He was being really loud, but neither of them cared enough to stop.

While he continued his assault on the smaller man’s neck, his tail thumped against the bedsheets. He couldn’t help the animalistic sounds that left his own mouth every time he felt the vibrations of Nam-Gyu’s whimpers. 

——————————————————————

Got Lazy :0

BETA EDITED !!!! -@jarijarii

[cheriecelestial]

Ocean Eyes Pt.II

disclaimer *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ canon typical violence, not proofread.

pairing *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ Percy Jackson x Gojo fem!reader

a/n *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ I actually wrote this the same day as pt.I (hyperfixation goes brrrRRH). This seires is a tribute to my first book boyfriend and honestly the realest one out there. Percy Jackson you will forever be iconic. Comment, Like and Reblog (☆≧▽^)

Also happy Valentine’s Day to y’all ♡

Pt.I

The moment I stepped past the barrier, the air shifted—heavy with ancient power, thick with the scent of strawberries and something unmistakably divine.

The camp stretched out before me—rolling hills, rustic cabins arranged in a semi-circle, a glistening lake in the distance. The scent of strawberries was everywhere, carried on the breeze like a ghost of childhood memories I wasn't sure I wanted to remember.

But what truly caught my attention were the people.

Everywhere I looked, the camp buzzed with activity—some campers sparred with celestial bronze weapons, others chatted casually as satyrs trotted past, and a few even soared through the air on actual pegasi. It felt like I had stepped straight into a mythological fever dream. Instinctively, my jujutsu training kicked in, scanning for potential threats. I caught a few curious glances in my direction—some fleeting, others lingering with narrowed eyes, a mix of curiosity and wariness. I was used to being stared at. With hair as white as snow and oversized dark sunglasses, I stood out.

I exhaled slowly. Great. Just what I needed—more people looking at me like I didn’t belong.

The satyr guiding me nudged my arm gently, making me flinch. “Chiron’s waiting in the Big House,” he reminded me, his voice tinged with apology, as if he hadn’t expected my reaction.

I adjusted my bag strap and forced my feet to move forward, even as part of me wanted to turn around and leave. This place was supposed to be a home for people like me.

So why did I already feel like a stranger ?

The moment I stepped inside, I felt it—a shift in the air, something ancient stirring beneath my skin. It wasn’t just the scent of old books and herbal salves or the quiet hum of magic woven into the walls. My senses flared, and a dull throb pulsed behind my eyes. The Six Eyes had always been a mystery to me, an ability I had yet to master. My control was mediocre at best, but the technique itself was among the most powerful. That was why I was here.

To learn. To refine my power. To gain control.

Because people like me didn’t get the luxury of being average—we either became the best, or we didn’t survive.

And at the center of it all stood Chiron. My key to becoming better. 

He was exactly as the stories described—wise eyes, a well-groomed beard, and an air of authority that didn’t need to be announced. As a centaur, he towered over me by several inches,  looking every bit the kind old mentor, but I knew better. Beneath that polite smile was a warrior who had trained heroes for centuries.

“Sensei, it’s been a while.” I offered him a small, customary bow. Chiron’s expression softened, his voice warm yet measured. “Ah… You’ve grown well, Kanao.”

I straightened from my bow, my grip tightening slightly around my bag strap. Hearing him say my name after so long stirred something in me—a mix of familiarity and unease. “Not well enough apparently,” I admitted, shifting my weight from one foot to the other. “That’s why I’m here.”

Chiron studied me for a moment, his gaze knowing, as if he could see straight through the carefully composed mask I wore. “Power without control is a burden, not a gift,” he said finally. “You’ve come to the right place.” The satyr who had guided me cleared his throat. “I’ll leave you two to talk,” he said before stepping out, the door clicking shut behind him.

Silence settled between us, broken only by the faint creak of the wooden floor beneath Chiron’s hooves.

“You’re still struggling with your Six Eyes,” he observed. It wasn’t a question.

I let out a sharp breath. “Trouble is putting it lightly. It activates on its own terms, overwhelms me when it shouldn’t, and the headaches...” I shook my head. “I can barely tap into a fraction of its full potential. And it’s not just struggling—it’s stagnation. I was improving, but at some point, I hit a wall. No matter how much I trained, I couldn’t break past it.”

Chiron nodded thoughtfully. “I spoke with your uncle,” he said. “Eccentric as he may be, he gave me some insight on how to help you. From what I gather, your power needs stronger situational and physical stimuli. The training here—the quests—will provide that. Mastery takes time, Kanao. Even for someone like you.”

Someone like me.

A prodigy, yet powerless in my own eyes.

Chiron offered me a gentle smile, clearly noticing the weight of my thoughts. “Camp Half-Blood will support you to the best of its ability, child, but progress takes time. We must begin slowly—one step at a time.”

“Attention, everyone,” Chiron's voice boomed across the dining hall, cutting through the lively hum of conversation. The space, which could easily have passed for a luxurious outdoor restaurant with its elegantly carved wooden tables and twinkling lanterns hanging from trees, instantly fell into a heavy silence.

Everyone’s eyes shifted toward him, and I could practically feel the collective attention settle on me like a spotlight.

“Today, we welcome a new demigod to Camp Half-Blood.”

The moment those words left Chiron’s mouth, the stares came pouring in. I could hear the subtle rustle of whispers spreading through the crowd like wildfire. The eyes of every camper in the dining hall locked onto me, some full of curiosity, others tinged with suspicion or uncertainty. A few faces seemed vaguely familiar—others were completely new, their expressions unreadable, but all of them were focused on me.

“Who’s that?”

“New kid, huh? Looks intense.”

“What’s with the sunglasses?”

I focused on keeping my gaze straight ahead, fighting the urge to shrink away from the attention. It wasn’t the first time I’d been under scrutiny, but something about this place felt different. Maybe it was because the camp had its own rhythm, its own set of unspoken rules, and I had no idea where I fit into any of it. And most of all it was the fact that this was the first time I was surrounded by so many... children. The only ones I really interacted with were my adoptive siblings, a handful of kids from other clans I saw every couple of years, and a certain arrogant jerk whom Satoru nii-san liked to call my “childhood friend”—if you could even consider him that. 

“Good Evening. My name is Kanao Gojo and I am from Japan. That is all you need to know about me. Stay out of what doesn’t concern you and I’ll gladly oblige in doing the same.”I paused, letting the words hang in the air, my voice as steady and cold as I could manage. No embellishments. No fanfare. No one needed to know anything more about me—now or ever. Friends? That was the last thing I was looking for here. I needed strength, not relationships. Once I was stronger, I could go back to Japan. Non-sorcerers had no place in my world.

“That’s all,” I finished, my gaze briefly scanning the room.

A ripple of whispers surged like an undercurrent. “Damn, what’s up with her? I thought Japanese people were... I dunno, polite?”

The voices were barely hushed, but I heard them clearly—one from a nearby table. A young satyr sitting with a tan boy who had disheveled dark hair, a blonde girl, and another with spiky black hair. None of them responded, but their eyes lingered.

Chiron nodded, clearly taken aback by the sudden shift in my demeanor. Kindness was often taken as a sign of weakness in the jujutsu world and as Satoru nii-san had taught me kindess was to be in one's heart and actions not necessarily their words - especially with the vultures looming over my head, waiting to strike the second they saw an opening. “Thank you, Kanao. Now, let’s get to dinner. No need to keep her standing here longer than necessary. You’ll be staying in the Hermes cabin until your parent claims you,” he announced, his voice carrying a sense of finality. 

With a stiff nod, I started to walk toward the Hermes table. I felt the heat of glares coming from one table in particular. There were a group of kids seated there, all wearing a similar vicious sneer. In the center of them was a girl with short, ragged brown hair and an unmistakably muscular build. A child of Ares, I assumed. In my downtime, I’d researched Greek gods to understand more about the western half of my heritage. Based on what I knew, I was certain that if Ares had children, they would look exactly like her. But kids like them? They were the least of my concerns.

Soon enough, dryads—tree spirits with elf-like features—began serving food at each table. One passed right by me, and the moment we made eye contact, she flinched and quickly averted her gaze. It wasn’t an unusual reaction. My Six Eyes had a way of unsettling people. The vivid blue of my eyes often scared others, setting off their natural survival instincts. It was the kind of look that made people feel like I wasn’t to be messed with. A similar effect to the eyes of a predator, which was also why animals never seemed to warm up to me. The rabbits I had owned as a child had perished simply because they couldn’t survive the horror of gazing into my eyes. 

I pulled out my chopsticks from my bag as the food was set down in front of me. “Silver chopsticks? That’s fancy,” a boy commented from across the table. His laugh was quickly joined by another, the two of them clearly sharing a joke. They looked like twins—both with messy brown curls and crooked grins. I ignored them, focusing on my meal.

“Name’s Connor, and this is my brother,Travis. Nice to meet you, pretty lady—” Connor said, extending his hand toward me. I simply stared at it with a look of indifference before wordlessly returning to my food.

“O-kay. No handshakes. Got it,” he muttered, unfazed. “So, like, uh—” He trailed off, struggling to come up with a question in the middle of asking it. He shifted in his seat, his hand still lingering awkwardly in the air for a moment before he dropped it. “— what brings you to Camp Half-Blood, Kanao?” he asked, finally finding a question but realizing too late how dumb the question sounded.

I paused, chopsticks halfway to my mouth but didn’t respond immediately.

“I see no point in gracing that question with an answer,” I said flatly, not offering any further explanation. “Damn, you're straight to the point,” he said, grinning as if he found it amusing rather than intimidating. Travis leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms. “Fair enough, no pressure,” he said casually, clearly not expecting much more from me. “But hey, if you ever need a tour guide or someone to show you the ropes around here, just let us know. We know this place like the back of our hands.”

“Looks like we've got ourselves an ice princess. Also, cool bracelet,” another camper from the table laughed. None of them seemed fazed by my cold demeanor, brushing it off as just a joke. However, I was surprised he noticed the bracelet. It was shaped like a snake coiling around my forearm. That was one piece of jewelry I rarely took off, unless it served its specific purpose. How, you might wonder? Well, that answer would reveal itself soon enough.

One benefit of having Six Eyes, despite the pain it caused, was the heightened spatial awareness it gave me. And that was exactly why I noticed the Ares kid approaching me from behind with a net in his hand the moment he got up from his table. I didn’t move right away, just watching as he closed the distance. When he was close enough, I shifted in an instant, rising from my seat with a speed that left him no time to react. He crashed onto the table, the impact loud enough to draw a few surprised looks from nearby campers. Quickly regaining his footing, the Ares kid scrambled up and tried to throw his net over me. I couldn’t help but scoff inwardly. Did they honestly think they could catch me with these childish tricks?

I didn’t have time for their games.

“Kaizen.”

The moment those words left my mouth, my bracelet came to life. It slithered off my wrist and shot toward the Ares kid and it coiled tightly around his neck, cutting off his air. “What do you think you're doing?” I crouched down to his level, watching as he gasped and writhed. “Is that any way to treat someone new here? But then there isn’t much you can expect from an Ares brat, now is there?” A mocking smile spread across my face as he struggled to respond. His pale skin flushed a deep crimson, making him look like a bright red tomato. It was almost comical. “How dare you!” Another kid from the Ares table lunged at me. Had they learned nothing?  

Unfortunately, he didn’t put up much of a fight either. Six Eyes offered more than just a keen sense of my surroundings. With a small surge of cursed energy, I was able to propel myself to speeds that made me faster than humans and now apparently faster than demigods. In less than a second, I had the new challenger slammed against the Hermes table by his throat, a silver chopstick hovering dangerously close to his eye.

“That’s enough!” Chiron’s voice thundered through the pavilion. Reluctantly, I released the boy with a rough shove toward his table. Kaizen, too, loosened his grip, causing the first boy to collapse into a fit of violent coughing and wheezing. The bracelet slithered back across the floor, up the Hermes' table—eliciting startled yelps from the campers—before returning to my wrist and freezing back into place.

Chiron’s stern gaze swept across the pavilion, his hooves clicking against the stone floor as he approached us. The tension in the air was palpable and the campers from both the Ares and Hermes tables were frozen in place, their eyes darting between me, the two boys, and the centaur.

“This is not how we welcome newcomers,” Chiron said, his voice calm but firm. “Nor is it how we resolve conflicts at Camp Half-Blood. Violence is not the answer, no matter whose blood runs through your veins.” His eyes lingered on me for a moment, and I could feel the weight of his disappointment. It wasn’t the first time I’d been on the receiving end of that look, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. 

I nodded, but didn’t say anything. This wasn’t about making friends or impressing anyone. The force might've been excessive by some standard, but those little runts had to learn their place. The two Ares campers, still coughing and glaring, seemed to deflate under his gaze, their defiance evaporating. They muttered apologies and returned to their table, clearly humiliated, but that was the way of things here—tough, but fair. Kaizen, still coiled around my wrist, gave a faint pulse, as if reminding me to stay calm.

I returned to my seat, the brief confrontation already forgotten in my mind. The food in front of me was still warm, but I had lost my appetite. “Well, that was a bit more exciting than dinner usually is around here,” Connor said, his grin lopsided but genuine. “You sure know how to make an entrance, ice princess. It was about time someone knocked those assholes down a peg or two.” I didn’t reply, but the corner of my mouth twitched—just barely. I didn't ask for their approval though I didn't mind it receiving it either.

When I reached the Hermes cabin, I pushed the door open and stepped inside, letting out a long breath. The chaos of the pavilion faded behind me, replaced by the cozy, if slightly chaotic, atmosphere of the cabin. Campers lounged on bunks, playing cards or chatting, and a few glanced up as I entered.

“You really stirred things up today. Bold move. I liked it,” a voice called from right above my bed. My ears perked up instantly at the sound of familiar language. I glanced up to see a girl’s head hanging upside down from the top bunk. She had short, straight hair and distinct Asian features. “You’re Japanese?” I asked.

She laughed, her voice light and teasing. “Well, I did just speak in Japanese, didn’t I? Also, asking someone if they’re Japanese in Japanese is kind of silly, don’t you think?”

I cracked a small smile and shrugged. “I was just surprised, that’s all. So, where in Japan are you from?”

“Me? Oh no, I wasn’t born there. My mom’s from Osaka though,” she said, waving her hands dismissively, still hanging upside down as if gravity didn’t apply to her.

“That explains the accent,” I noted.

“And I’m guessing you’re from Tokyo. You’ve got that posh city-girl accent,” she shot back, her tone playful.

“You’d be right,” I admitted. “My family’s ancestral home is on the outskirts of Tokyo, and my uncle owns a place in Shirokane, so I’m always bouncing between the two.”

“Shirokane? Damn,” she whistled, flipping herself over and landing on the floor with ease. “You’ve got money, huh? Not that it’s hard to tell just by looking at you.”

She flopped onto my bed uninvited though not unwelcome, her gaze flickering to my wrist. “And tell me, where’d you get that bracelet? Did your godly parent give it to you? Could be Hephaestus’, ooh or maybe even Hecate’s. Though, the way you fight? Total Ares vibes.”

“Unless my father somehow managed to get Hephaestus or Ares pregnant, I sincerely doubt it’s either of them,” I said dryly. The girl burst out laughing at my words. “He’s the one who gave this to me, anyway,” I continued, my tone growing more serious.

“Really? I didn’t think something like this could exist outside of, y’know, the realm of the gods,” she replied, her curiosity piqued.

“My father was—” I hesitated. Calling him a sorcerer would only complicate things, so I opted for, “an occultist, of sorts.”

“Wow, so you’re stacked from both sides, huh? Fun,” she said with a grin, her eyes sparkling with amusement. “Yeah, you could say that,” I replied, leaning back on my bunk with a half-smile.

“Being a demigod isn’t exactly a picnic either. But hey, at least you’ve got that fancy bracelet and whatever else your dad left you. That’s gotta count for something, right?”

I glanced down at Kaizen, the silver coils glinting faintly in the dim light of the cabin. “Yeah, I guess it does,” I said quietly. “But sometimes it feels like more of a reminder than a gift.”

She tilted her head, studying me with a curious expression. “A reminder of what?”

“Of everything I’ve lost,” I admitted, my voice softer even though I didn’t know why I was telling her all this. “And everything I still have to live up to.”

For a moment, she didn’t say anything, her usual playful demeanor giving way to something more thoughtful. Then she shrugged, breaking the tension with a grin. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, you’re already way more interesting than most of the people here. I mean, you’ve got a killer bracelet, you fight like a total badass, and you’re from Shirokane. You're bascially on your way to becoming demigod royalty.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Thanks… I think.”

“No problem,” she said, standing up and stretching. “Anyway, I’m Alice Miyazawa. If you ever need someone to talk shit with or pull a prank on someone, I’m your gal.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Arisu-san,” I replied with a small smile. Even though I was fluent in English, I still struggled with certain pronunciations. Alice caught the slight mispronunciation and grinned but didn’t correct me.

She climbed back onto her bunk, settling in as the other campers started turning off their lights. Just as the room was sinking into quiet, Alice dangled her head off the side of her bed again and declared, “Oh, and tomorrow, I’m taking you around camp. Also, ‘san’ is too formal. Just use ‘chan’ okay, Kanao-chan?”

I blinked up at her, momentarily thrown off by the sudden familiarity. I debated correcting her, but Alice had already pulled herself back onto her bed, completely unfazed. The room around us settled into a hushed stillness, the only sounds being the occasional rustling of blankets and the soft breathing of the other campers.

I lay back on my bed, staring at the ceiling. Today had been exhausting—not physically, but mentally. The stares, the whispers, the ridiculous attempt at ambushing me. It was all just noise.

But Alice… she was different. She didn’t pry, didn’t ask unnecessary questions. Just barged into my space and decided we were friends.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that yet.

Just as I was finally drifting off, Alice’s voice floated down again, barely above a whisper.

“Goodnight, Kanao-chan.”

I hesitated before responding. “...Goodnight, Arisu-chan.”

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of someone humming tunelessly above me. Before I could even fully open my eyes, Alice’s face popped from the side of the bed, her hair dangling like a curtain. “Rise and shine, city girl ! Camp Half-Blood waits for no one,” she declared, her voice far too cheerful for the early hour.

I groaned, pulling the blanket over my head. “What time is it?”

“Time for you to stop being a hermit,” she said, hopping down from her bunk with a thud. “Come on, up you go! Breakfast is the best part of the day, and if we’re late, the Ares kids will have already hogged all the bacon.”

“I assure you, i'm not a bacon glutton. plus my training hasn't begin yet so let this be one of the rare days i get to sleep in”

"Nope," she said, shaking her head firmly. "Get your fancy ass out of bed, because I’m giving you a—" She paused, wiggling her fingers dramatically in the air like she was building up to something huge. "Camp tour! Woooo!"For a split second, she reminded me of Satoru-nii—that same over-the-top, boundless energy that could either be infectious or exhausting, depending on the day.

I let out a sigh, running a hand through my hair as I sat up. "Alright, alright, I’m up."

I reluctantly dragged myself out of bed and headed to the showers. They weren’t nearly half as nice as the bath back home in Japan, but I figured I’d have to get used to it. Getting ready took just as long as it always did—you can’t rush perfection, after all. By the time I was done, Alice was already waiting by the door, tapping her foot impatiently. “You’re slower than a satyr on a Monday morning,” she joked, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the cabin.

The morning air was crisp, and the camp was already buzzing with activity. Campers were heading toward the dining pavilion, their laughter and chatter filling the space. Alice kept up a steady stream of commentary as we walked, pointing out various landmarks and cabins.

“That’s the Big House,” she said, gesturing to a large blue building with a wraparound porch. “Chiron and Mr. D hang out there. Try not to get on Mr. D’s bad side—he’s the god of wine, and he’s really cranky before his morning Diet Coke.”

I nodded, filing the information away. “Noted.”

“And over there’s the climbing wall,” she continued, pointing to a massive structure that seemed to be spewing lava. “It’s a fun time if you’re into near-death experiences. Oh, and that’s the arts and crafts cabin. If you ever want to make a friendship bracelet or, I don’t know, a clay vase for your godly parent, that’s the place to go.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Do people actually do that?”

Alice shrugged. “Hey, don’t knock it till you try it. You might have a hidden talent for pottery.”

Next she led me inside a cabin. Unlike the sturdy, battle-worn Ares cabin or the regal marble structure of Zeus’, this one had a softer, almost dreamlike quality.

The exterior shimmered subtly, as if the wood itself had been kissed by sunlight, shifting between pastel hues of gold, pink, and lavender depending on how the light hit it. Delicate rainbows arched over the entrance, faint but ever-present, as if drawn from the mist in the air. The door was carved with intricate swirling patterns, resembling flowing water or shifting clouds, giving it an almost weightless appearance.

Inside, the cabin was airy and open, filled with the scent of fresh flowers and morning dew. The walls seemed to glow softly, reflecting the iridescent light filtering through stained-glass windows, which cast delicate rainbow patterns across the floor. The bunks were neatly arranged, each with gossamer-like curtains.

"What cabin is this?" I asked, unable to hide my fascination. My Six Eyes allowed me to take in every intricate detail, making everything appear even more ethereal. The way the light refracted through the dangling crystal prisms, scattering tiny rainbows across the walls, made the entire space feel almost unreal. A constant, gentle breeze flowed through the room, despite the lack of any open windows, as if the air itself carried whispers of unseen forces.

"This is Iris' cabin," Alice replied, grinning. "Lemme show you how we demigods make phone calls."

That caught my attention immediately. I had been strictly advised not to bring a mobile phone with me, no matter how much I had wanted to. Satoru nii-san was probably losing his mind not receiving so much as a single text from me. A corner of the cabin was dedicated entirely to Iris’s domain—shelves filled with old scrolls, modern letters, and finally, a few glowing bowls lined up neatly, their surfaces shimmering with a golden mist.

"What do I do?" I asked, turning to Alice. She gestured toward the bowl. "Take a golden drachma, toss it in, and say, ‘Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering.’ Then just picture whoever you wanna talk to."

"Drachmas? You mean these?" I asked, pulling out an oversized coin purse from my bag and opening it.

Alice took one look inside and practically choked. "That’s way too much drachma! Are you, like, a millionaire or something?"

I hesitated, not really sure how to answer that. Satoru nii-san had always raised me in the lap of luxury, so the concept of what was considered “a lot” of money had never really stuck with me.

"My family... we’re comfortable," I said after a pause.

"Yeah, that’s exactly what super rich people say," Alice muttered, shaking her head.

I merely shrugged, pulled out a few drachmas, and tossed them into the bowl before reciting the incantation. The moment the drachmas hit the golden mist, the surface of the bowl rippled like water, shifting from a hazy shimmer into something clearer. Light bent and refracted, forming a swirling rainbow at its center before stretching outward.

Alice stepped back with a satisfied nod. "Now just focus on who you wanna talk to. Picture them in your mind, as clearly as possible."

I closed my eyes briefly, thinking of a certain someone —the way his hair always looked slightly windswept no matter what, his face, and, most importantly, the broody look that never quite faded.

When I opened my eyes, the mist began to settle, and there he was.

"Onee-san."Megumi said in surprise. 

"Heya, 'Gumi. Miss me?" I asked with a gentle smile, my gaze fixed on the shimmering surface. I was probably the closest to Megumi in the world after Nii-san. Nii-san had taken in Megumi and Tsumiki after an accident that claimed Megumi's father's life. From the start, Megumi had been distant and hard to reach, but over time, he gradually warmed up to me. I couldn’t think of anyone I cherished and pampered more than him—so much so that Nii-san would sometimes get a little jealous of the attention I showered on Megumi.

But before he could answer, I heard a loud voice echo behind him. And before either me or Megumi could do anything, he was yeeted out of view and Satoru Gojo’s face flickered into view, larger than life as always. He looked annoyed—no, pissed—arms crossed, his usual sunglasses pushed up into his hair.

"Gojo Kanao," he said, his tone sharp but unmistakably relieved. "Do you have any idea how long I’ve been waiting for you to call? I was this close—this close—to storming the camp myself." He pinched his fingers together dramatically. "What, they don’t have Wi-Fi in that camp of yours?"

I sighed. "Nii-san, I told you, phones aren’t allowed. This was the only way I could contact you."

He huffed, clearly not satisfied. "Tch. Typical gods and their outdated rules. You could’ve at least sent a message through some divine loophole or something. Do I need to teach you creative rule-breaking now?"

Alice snorted beside me. "Wow. That’s your brother?"

"Uncle actually."

Satoru’s head snapped toward the unfamiliar voice, his brows raising in interest. "Oho? And who’s this? Kanao, you made a friend? I’m touched." He wiped an invisible tear from his eye. "My baby bird, out in the world, socializing. Proud mother moment."

Alice grinned, clearly enjoying his theatrics. "Alice Miyazawa. Resident prankster and your baby bird’s new bestie—whether she likes it or not."

I shot her a look, but Satoru just smirked. "I like her." Then, his expression turned serious again as he focused back on me. "Alright, spill. How’s camp treating you? Anyone giving you trouble? Do I need to show up and remind some demigods why I’m the strongest?"

I sighed, already bracing myself for whatever over-the-top reaction he was about to have. "It’s fine, Nii-san. Just… different."

His sharp eyes studied me through the mist, as if he could see beyond the image. "Different how?" I hesitated for a moment before saying, "I don’t know yet. But I’ll figure it out."

For once, he didn’t joke. He simply nodded. "You better. And Kanao?"

"Hm?"

His usual smirk returned. "If anyone tries to mess with you—well, you know what to do." A small smile tugged at my lips. "Yeah. I know." The mist in the bowl started to waver, the connection fading.

"Take care, Kanao," Satoru said, his voice softer now. "And call me sooner next time, got it?"

I nodded. "I will."

With that, the image dissolved, leaving only the faint glow of golden mist in its wake. Alice let out a low whistle. "Wow. That guy’s got big main character energy."

I huffed a small laugh. "You have no idea."

She nudged my shoulder. "Well, that was fun. Now, c’mon, you’ve got a whole camp to see."

As we approached the dining pavilion, the smell of food hit me, and my stomach growled loudly. Alice laughed. “Told you breakfast was worth it. Come on, let’s grab some food before the Hermes table gets too crowded.”

We loaded our plates with pancakes, bacon, and fruit, then made our way to the Hermes table. Alice introduced me to a few of the other campers, who greeted me with varying levels of enthusiasm. One kid even asked if I could show him how my bracelet worked, but Alice shut that down quickly.

“Give her a break, will you? She just got here,” she said, waving him off. I appreciated her standing up for me, it wasn't everyday when someone did that.

As we ate, Alice kept me entertained with camp gossip—who was dating whom, which cabins were currently feuding, and which activities were actually worth signing up for. “Oh, and you have to join Capture the Flag. The Ares kids are long overdue for a reality check. Plus, someone actually got claimed during a game once, so hey, maybe you’ll get lucky.”

“What kid?” I asked, taking a sip of my orange juice.

“Oh! Right! I totally forgot to mention—" Alice suddenly leaned back and waved someone over. “Julia, over here!”

I turned to see a girl about my age approaching. She had dark hair, tanned skin, and an easy confidence in her stride. I recognized her from the Hermes cabin yesterday, as well as from dinner last night—she had been sitting next to Alice at their table.

“Julia Kanao. Kanao Julia,” Alice introduced us.

“Hi! You must be the ice princess everyone’s talking about,” Julia said with a laugh, and I offered an awkward smile in return. She seemed nice, and since she was a friend of Alice’s, I didn’t feel as guarded as I usually would. Still, that didn’t mean I was going to warm up to her right away.

“Word travels fast, I suppose,” I muttered as she slid into the seat beside Alice.

Julia grinned, clearly unfazed by my reserved response. “Yeah, well, camp doesn’t have much else to talk about except new arrivals and drama. You're kind of both right now,” she said, her tone light and teasing.

Alice chuckled, nudging Julia with her elbow. “Be nice. She’s still adjusting. Not everyone’s as loud and obnoxious as you are, Jules.”

“Hey!” Julia shot back, pretending to be offended. “I prefer the term energetic, thank you very much.”

I couldn’t help but smile a little at their banter. It was clear they were close, and their easygoing dynamic made the atmosphere feel less intimidating. Still, I wasn’t ready to jump into the conversation just yet. I picked at my food, listening as they continued to chat about camp life and the upcoming Capture the Flag game.

Alice nudged Julia. “Kanao was just asking about the kid who got claimed during Capture the Flag. Figured you’d explain it better than me.”

“Oh, Percy?” Julia’s expression lit up with recognition. “Yeah, that was wild. One moment, he was just some unclaimed newbie, and the next—boom—water starts flying everywhere, and Poseidon himself basically slaps a ‘property of the sea god’ sticker on him.”

I tapped my fingers against the table, thinking. Power without control—that was dangerous. And yet, it seemed to work for him.

“Does this kid fight well?” I asked, cutting straight to the point.

Alice smirked, twirling her fork between her fingers. “Oh, he fights alright.” She leaned in slightly, as if about to share some grand secret. “Dude went from ‘new camper’ to ‘literal prophecy child’ in, like, a matter of weeks. Fought a minotaur before he even knew what he was, took down Clarisse in a game of Capture the Flag, and went on some crazy quest to retrieve Zeus’s master bolt.”

“Sounds like he’s got a lot to live up to.” I mused

“Yeah, but he handles it pretty well,” Alice said, shrugging. “Mostly by being ridiculously good at everything. Swords, water stuff—obviously—and even dealing with gods and monsters. Honestly, it’s kind of annoying how naturally talented he is.”

I smirked. “You sound like you’re a little jealous.”

“Me? Jealous? Pfft, no way,” she said, waving a hand dismissively. “I’m just saying, it’s not fair that one guy gets to be good at everything. Meanwhile, the rest of us are over here trying not to trip over our own feet during training.”

“You sell yourself short.” I hummed thoughtfully.

Julia, who had been listening with an amused look, chimed in, “Yeah, but he’s also got that classic dumb, reckless hero streak. You know the type—dives into danger without thinking, somehow survives, and then people call it destiny instead of sheer dumb luck.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Honestly, this Jackson guy sounds like an idiot.”

Julia snorted. “Oh, absolutely. But, like, an idiot who gets things done.”

I glanced around the dining pavilion, my eyes scanning the faces at the various tables. “Where is he?” I asked. Alice tilted her head toward the Poseidon table. “Over there. The one with the messy black hair, sea-green eyes, and that permanent ‘why is my life like this’ look on his face.”

I followed her gaze and spotted him immediately. He was the same guy I’d noticed the night before, sitting with the blonde girl, the spiky-haired boy, and the satyr. He had this air about him, like someone who’d been through way too much in way too little time.

I studied him for a moment before turning back to Alice. “He doesn’t look all that special.”

Alice grinned. “That’s exactly what makes him dangerous. He’s unpredictable.”

I laughed, shaking my head. “Well, maybe I’ll get to see this Percy Jackson in action during Capture the Flag. If he’s as good as you say, it might be worth watching.”

“Oh, you’ll see him, alright,” Alice said, her eyes glinting with mischief. “He’s usually on the opposite team, so if you’re lucky, you might even get to fight him. Just don’t expect to win. Nobody beats Percy Jackson in the water.” I thought about that as I took another bite of my food. “I guess we’ll see.”

Alice grinned, clearly liking my response. “That’s the spirit! Now come on, let’s get moving. I’ve got more of camp to show you, and I want to make sure you’re fully prepared for the chaos that is Capture the Flag.”

As we left the dining pavilion, I couldn’t help but feel a flicker of excitement. Percy Jackson sounded like someone worth meeting—or maybe even challenging. If I was going to make a name for myself at Camp Half-Blood and become the strongest, I might as well start by taking on the best.

a/n - Comment to be added to the taglist :3

taglist - @hana-no-seiiki @cxcilla @imsoslay2386 @meilvn @ilovebattinson

[ribbonsfallaway]

I keep making post after post venting about how this show, especially this last part of the show was handled, and I want to make one from maybe a more rationally explained side.

Look I get the argument, "the show started with Johnny and Miguel, so it should end with them." As much as it makes me roll my eyes into the back of my head I do understand. However that doesn't mean Robby isn't important. Despite what some fans and the writers want us to believe.

I'd get if they had Miguel win at the end cause he's this gen's "Karate Kid", that's fine. My issue lies in the fact that Robby isn't allowed one win. Not just in a tournament sense, but in a personal sense. The show starts off with Johnny being a deadbeat loser father and Robby being the victim of him being a drunken deadbeat loser father. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's the truth. And the thing is to me Johnny didn't really try with Robby to be a better father. Sure you can spin he "tried", and Robby was "stubborn" but every time he did try and Robby fought him on it, Johnny fought back, and didn't actually allow his son to be angry. At least not to him. Sure he'd cry to Carmen, Miguel, etc., about how much of a screw up he was. Still somehow painting himself as a victim in all of this. But he never stated how much he messed up really with the one person who deserved it the most, and needed it the most. Robby. His son. Because I feel as much as Robby gave Johnny shit, the moments he had the door open for him… He just fucked up. Like I do feel like there was a doorway after the s1 tournament in early-s2. Robby very much expressed how you know he is trying, but it's going to take time. Instead of respecting this and instead of Johnny saying he'd try and gets it, he fights back that "he gets he screwed up" but he doesn't have to hang with Daniel. Daniel by the way being the one at this time to actually try and be there for Robby, and be a father figure to him. So Robby snaps back. That for some reason is the only thing people can focus on, and "poor Johnny!" for how "Robby speaks to him." Which… Whatever.

In season 3, there are a couple doors open for Johnny. That once more he messes up. When he's supposed to visit Robby at juvie after the school fight, and once more chooses Miguel over him. Just as he had been the first 2 seasons. Even after that when Johnny does go visit him Robby once more actually has some leeway with him here, he's upset at first but when he sees a somewhat efford on Johnny's end he relents and is accepting. It isn't until Robby finds out Johnny once more ditched him for Miguel that things blow up. And Johnny doesn't try to apologize on this end, he just pretty much places all blame on Robby for that, and yeah Robby fucked up badly during the school fight but really isn't rewarded the nuance of it I feel? And all the elements that went into that day, and fight. Except from Kreese really, and that's a whole other thing. That will just make this post longer.

And Johnny sure as shit didn't try in season 4 after Robby joined Cobra Kai. The scene at his apartment does not count at all because it was Robby who went there, and Johnny just tried to lecture him instead of inviting him in to talk things out. But whatever, and somehow at the end of the season somehow Johnny is miraculously forgiven despite doing not a thing to earn it. And see this is what bugged me here that it was Robby the child who had to let go of the anger, and not Johnny the 50-something year old adult man who had to earn it. And after that their relationship is all healed and after this Robby is never allowed to complain again because when he was justifiably angry the show punished him for it, and made it his problem. Not Johnny's.

So we have this aspect of it all of Robby not being chosen first ever by Johnny or anyone in his life frankly, because yeah Shannon went to rehab for him, and got better but we're not allowed to really see that. Hell maybe that would have made things a bit better. That we saw Robby had Shannon on his side, and would start choosing him.

We didn't get his relationship with Daniel really repaired. Yes they're on good terms but God I would have really loved to see them make up. The show loves to harp on how important Johnny and Miguel are, but frankly IMHO I feel Johnny and Daniel are just as important, and while I never truly was able to be on board with Johnny and Miguel I loved Daniel and Robby because Daniel for a time gave Robby what he needed until that blew to hell and the writers just brushed over them as if they weren't important.

We have this personal part of Robby's life to where he's never chosen once by anyone, and some I get, but others I can not accept. But it's Miguel who Johnny always picks over him. And in part 2 of this season a scene that also should have happened with Johnny and Robby only was reserved for Johnny and Miguel. Hell what I find worse is we never once see Johnny apologize to Robby and explain it was never him that was the problem, it was Johnny and he regrets how much he hurt him. What we do get is somehow Robby in this part of the season happy karate came into his life cause it gave him Johnny. Despite you know Johnny not doing a thing to earn it. Sorry I will die on this hill.

And I think this is what makes Robby fans upset about him losing at the end. Because maybe if in the past he was allowed one win, or if the writers spent half as much time on Johnny and Robby as they did Johnny and Miguel and validated Robby's feelings it would be OK. If the show showed us how important Robby was to the people in his iife and valued for that it would be OK. But we don't even get that. Not really.

And sure Robby gets a "good ending" but it felt shoehorned in to appease fans so Cobra Kai could come out on top.

And listen I get the show is called "Cobra Kai" but I could get into another rant about why just because the show is called Cobra Kai doesn't mean they always need to be the winners.

So really it's not in just a physical sense Robby never gets to win, it's in a personal sense, and on all that he's never allowed to be upset about it without the narrative framing him as in the wrong, or punishing him for it. Robby is truly never validated in any sense in this series, and as a fan it's frustrating to watch.

[midnight--sadness]

you are so right about everything!!! thanks so much for replying to that and sharing your opinions. i love that you are very levelheaded about the show but also like to enjoy fanon. :)

I get so mad when people say Jun-ho ruined everything/ was a bad person for not telling Gi-hun about In-ho being the frontman. Thats his brother! That is his big brother who he doesn’t know what will happen to if Gi-hun finds him. He doesn’t know what Gi-huns reaction to that information would be or how the other people in charge of the games will react if someone were to expose his brother’s identity.

And god the theories, accusations, and comparisons of Gi-hun being a new frontman/becoming evil really disappoint me. Maybe I am just in denial about my favorite character, but i just dont see that happening. He is supposed to be the character the audience roots for and his actions are meant to be seen as how they would want to react in a situation like this. (for the most part) I just think the approach of making Hi-hun just like In-ho is lousy and not satisfying at all. I think squid game might give us a more satisfying ending for gi-hun even if that means his death.

Gi-hun certainly is not perfect. no character is and i will always admit that, but the way some people react about these two? crazy

and i don’t want to be more of a d-rider than i already am when it comes to gi hun, but the way people act about him not getting on the plane is ridiculous. how do people expect him to lead a normal life after all that had happened plus him figuring out it will all continue and happen to more people?? also lets not mention how he probably doesn’t feel like he will be an adequate enough father with all his trauma and flaws. AND!!! would you go to see your daughter after knowing these psychos have been tracking you? that would risk her life if they ever wanted someone to use against you? (which they very much would do. ive seen theories that jung bae was placed in the games not just by coincidence)

These two characters are good men and we can’t forget what causes them to make these decisions or the fact that they are meant to have flaws!!! It’s infuriating how they are treated compared to actual villains.

also i would like to see in ho not be forgiven as well. if there is some kind of redemption for him, i hope we still see people he’s hurt so badly be angry (which i dont think will be depicted as a real redemption, just him making a good decision) i agree that jun ho may be more forgiving, but gi hun deserves to be infuriated with what happened to him. seriously in ho didnt have to go as far as he did with gi hun. luckily i dont see him ever doing that because he has no reason to. he was never close to in ho, only young il. he can come back with a lot of heat and vengeance if someone does what in ho has done. (re: gi hun trying to attack sang woo after he killed sae byeok)

this is way too long, im sorry. im just passionate about these characters and their dynamics with in ho. i hope you dont mind my ramblings and i dont feel like looking over it so hopefully they make sense. i really appreciate you talking about this with me!

i so glad u liked what i had to say!! i'm very protective of gihun so my instinct is always to say that he's innocent and does no wrong but in real life people make mistakes. also pls never apologize abt rambling in my inbox i love it so much!! 💖💖 i'm really liking talking to you too!!!

about junho not telling gihun, i once made a post wondering what junho's endgame was. if gihun and his team was successful, then that entire ordeal at the club was to kidnap inho. eventually, gihun was going to remove inho's mask and junho would have to tell him that inho was his brother. gihun finding out was inevitable, so i think junho didn't do it because, like u say, he didn't know what gihun's game plan for inho was. he probably assumed gihun was going to kill him since gihun pointed a gun at junho just bc junho said he was at the island during the games.

yeah, him being front man would be disappointing. in general i have no faith in the writers of shows, but director hwang seems to have a good head on his shoulders and in s1 the fact that gihun "won" that battle with ilnam i think is a good indicator that director hwang is trying to say that gihun is in the right in this situation and he won't abandon his ideals even if he has suffered for them.

the plane thing 😑 it is so irritating!!! why would gihun get on that plane? to see his daughter who is safe with her mother in another continent? so that gayeong can forgive him? gihun is too selfless to let 400+ die for his own safety and comfort.

and omg, that theory abt jungbae is so good! i'd never thought abt it but them placing jungbae would ensure inho has someone close to gihun that he can kill if gihun steps out of line (which he did). it's like how he combed his hair to look like sangwoo's so he could appeal to gihun's love for him.

i completely agree with you that inho isn't going to be fully redeemed. he'll make a good decision - maybe he'll sacrifice himself to save junho or gihun, or he'll decide to abandon the games so the players can escape, or he'll stay behind to blow up the island while every leaves (the last theory is kinda valid but i have to rewatch s1 to see what they say exactly abt the explosives).

i think junho is actually getting closer to not necessarily forgiving junho but accepting his fate? i was remembering his talk with his mother, about how inho made his own choices regarding taking money from a criminal to pay his wife's treatment. and he tells his mom that it wasn't her fault for not giving inho attention or for not trying to help him. he knew they were there and he never went to them. i think junho is, subtextually, saying that they aren't to able for inho becoming the front man, that he made his own choices on the matter and that nothing junho did would change his mind.

this is something that gihun will also have to learn. he can't help those who don't want to help themselves. i can see gihun at first trying to redeem inho, to get him help by appealing to his humanity and this failing. this would confirm to gihun that inho is without "salvation". he's not the devil but he's made so many mistakes, so many bad decisions, that gihun can't help him even he wants to.

[slenbee]

From what I remember you ( @ai-art-theives ) and others saying, he claims to have made this "pixel art", on a tablet, and in a hospital.

He never mentioned using any filters of the sort.

But... again... I say with a very exasperated exhale with a motion to the image:

There is just way too much blurriness and likeness to an AI image for this to be "pixel art".

There are way too many blobs and rounded edges for it to be made of "pixels" which are meant to be blocks...

The plant pot itself goes above the leaves, a "design choice" that a human would not willingly do to their art, as it makes zero sense.

"Max compression in jpg format" of a supposed pixel image, then upscaling it, would not ✨ magically ✨ add detail to the leaves resting on the soil. Yet as that song goes: whoop, there it is.

Jpg compression would not cause the red color burning of the leaves on the left side. Nor would it cause the blob/smear of green near the middle. (Hint: thats likely becausevthe ai couldn't differentiate between background and leaf color.)

There are... literally tiny gaps between these supposed "pixels", and they aren't even or lined up or straight in most places. And again, they blob and round.

Actual Pixel blocks.. do not.. do that.

I just wish he'd accept he got called out and apologize.

He's generated and posted AI images in the past and used them as his icon and banner over time. I don't know why he's so vehemently defending this one when its... quite literally very obvious.

Hey everyone! I saw this on @crippled-peeper ‘s account and thought I would address it.

I knew I would receive backlash for doing what I do eventually, I’m surprised it took this long. It saddens me to see accusations thrown my way.

I did not “demand” he prove it.

I was atleast a bit sympathetic to his situation and politely told him if he could provide evidence I would change what I said. I offered a chance to change it.

here is the message I had sent him:

I did not demand nor harass him.

As for proving it is ai, that has been shown time and time again by me and my friend @ai-art-thieves.

I also have not been “non-stop posting about [him] ever since.” I am also not ableist. His disability was not brought up at any point nor had it crossed my mind.

This is the last time I will bring this up. Thank you everyone, stay skeptical ❤️❤️

[florallylly]

something along the lines of princess protection program of 2010s dcom fame. steve harrington prince of a small italian-adjacent principality forced to flee the country when a military coup takes place.

blah blah he's placed with the buckley family in hawkins, indiana. what i Think would be funny is if all of this is going on and the upside down is still happening.

like steve is obviously not disclosing his identity to anyone except for robin and the buckleys. and like this would cause a lot of shifts in the canon timeline but in my Head . just off the cuff no draft no braincell just gut instinct.

thinking of a steve harrington who relies on tropey examples of what he thinks american "commoner" school is like. he comes off kind of ditzy and a bit out of touch, but he's also hot and charming so he's pretty much a hit.

maybe steve and robin having a really bad first meeting and in retaliation robin comes up with some convoluted story about steve being her out of control drug addicted cousin who got kicked out of private school and sent to hawkins as punishment. or like some type of story along those lines but unfortunately it just makes steve more compelling.

eventually eventually they become the platonic soulmates that they were always destined to be and robin moves to the little italian principality and is finally able to regularly flex her italian skills

ALSO buckley family characterization something found family and the buckley adoption of steve harrington like... well yes....

BUT back to the upside down happening.

like i kind of want steve to arrive earlier, but i think narratively it would make most sense for steve to be the new kid in 1983. he lives with robin, but they're not really on the best terms because steve just so naturally fit in with the jocks and popular kids from the get go. and like. he's a spoiled kid who honestly robin is projecting onto because her dad is away fixing STEVE'S country like... it's a little his fault.

the timeline goes on as usual except like? idk how the barb and nancy party would work out while living with the buckleys, but perhaps it would have been held at tommy or carol's in this world.

i think it would be Hilarious if robin didn't find out about the upside down until season 3 like she did canonically, but in my heart i know that if steve came home all fucked up like he was after literally Any of the Seasons (???), she would not have been able to sit still. like regardless of the level of dislike that's someone she's been living with and Kind of Enjoys being around (reluctantly). so robin would be in the know sooner or perpetually pissed bc steve is remarkably persistent in keeping his mouth shut

maybe could cause more conflict in s3 with the russians and possibly knowing his identity but ALSO possibility for some type of robin buckley slayage a la her father like.... if that sentence made sense to anyone then it made sense to someone

but i think i think the funny thing is nobody else knowing steve's backstory or situation, just kind of assuming that robin's initial bitter story about steve being a reformed drug addict was the truth. Lol and weird dynamics with eddie munson bc uh oh... is this gonna affect sobriety or like his comfort or smth .... moment...

but mr buckley coming home and finding steve and being like :P hey you can go home now :P and steve breaking down crying like he never thought he'd be able to see the halls he grew up running down again. or see the ocean from his childhood bedroom again. or talk to the same neighbors he's talked to since he was five years old.

and everyone sans robin being like wow didn't know like. fuckin chicago was that meaningful to u ... damn... were u a fugitive or smth bc u had a car and a license.

the prince reveal would have me clawing at the walls gnawing my leg off i think ... eyes rolling to the back of my head i have no way to truly verbalize this

[schemelin]

non-verbal "I Hate It In Here" Lone Wanderer just wants her dad back.

[vaguely-concerned]

nothing makes me roll my eyes quite like people making a big deal out of lucanis being 'the magekiller' while mostly being perfectly chill with mages in his personal life as if that's some huge objective flaw in the writing. like yeah it's his professional specialization not his personality or strongly held ideological conviction or anything. mages are tricky to kill and he's real good at it. that's why they pay him the big bucks. it's like saying a pest exterminator can only do his job if he's motivated by a deep personal vendetta waged against the entirety of rodentkind. the fact that he genuinely treats assassination like his 9-5 is, y'know. half of the whole guy, and this tracks with that wonderfully.

(honestly it's so perfect that the reason he specialized in that is, literally and canonically, that caterina looked over the books and went 'huh. we should diversify our murder portfolio, there's an untapped market here' and assigned it to him. he didn't even get to choose his own murder major, his grandmother decided that for him largely for straightforward economic reasons. dunno what to tell you, crows gonna crow. they're just merchant princes with extra knives at the end of the day, that is exactly why they'd make a choice like that, they're providing a service not going on crusades, even though lucanis manages to carve out some personal satisfaction in taking down especially shitty targets within that. I'm sorry you guys didn't get your angsty enemies to lovers arc or whatever but please understand that that only existed in your head to begin with and also that what we actually get here is infinitely funnier and MUCH more interesting, once you actually engage with the text earnestly. ssssh I didn't say that)