#i never fucking imagined i'd have a C plot but there it fucking is LMAO

[sichore]

Picklejam: tender, loving, epic slowburn about how love is a choice even in the face of an eldritch destiny and a looming apocolaypse

Charlonyx: chaotic, slapstick, decade+ of bad puns and freaky sex while arguing over budgets and surveillance

[decadentrot]

Spy X Family but its Bittersweet

I kinda just had a small idea on the lyrics "Woke up to Horrible. Pitiful. Fictional." But then it spiraled out of control. Okay get ready for this long plot au thingy:

Anya knows her family is a little more than dysfunctional, but nevertheless, they make it work, especially since Anya knows deep down, they do have real feelings for each other. In fact, as she lays with her parents, she thinks about her past and how those 'real' families that adopted her never felt as real as Loid and Yor. And then we get the montage of the Forger family getting together and having heartfelt moments until (and this is where i stray a bit from canon lmao) Anya is staring at the fireworks with Loid and reality comes back reminding her of the mission that is miraculously holding this family together. And I'd imagine its kinda daunting for a child to have that much pressure 'to save the world' despite Anya's happy go lucky view on it. However, Anya keeps on going to school and tries complete her part of the mission. But then she sees how much Damian's father does not care about him and it makes operation strix even harder on her, but she has to do it for world peace. Eventually Loid does meet up with Donovon and the mission is completed and he has to make he has to leave/fake his death. (I tried to imply this but basically Yor tries to be a single mother to Anya but having her well liked and successful husband leave her makes the neighbors sus and they end up accusing Yor of being a traitor causing her to leave Anya to once again be orphaned. Also side note, I love Yor, I think she's the glue to the Forger Family :D)

Best girl Becky basically forces her family to adopt Anya so now they're sisters and Anya can keep attending Eden. Anya eventually grows up and becomes imperial scholars with Becky, even becoming actual friends with Damian, Emile, and Ewen. Cue montage of them hanging out and bullying Damian with love. While out studying though, they steal some of Damian's hw and as they are making their great escape, she sees Eden is having a family picture thingy and hears the thoughts of a very familiar man. and Dun Dun Dun, its Loid in disguise with a new fake family for another mission.

Obviously Anya's heartbroken but then Damian comes to the rescue! In his mind, he sees the family picture day and thinks Anya is sad b/c of her lack of a family, but then he reminds her (that he also got a fucked up family lmao) and that they can create their own found family from their friend group. Nevertheless, Anya is cheered up and is finally coming to terms that she spent so long clinging to her vision of a perfect family and instead, she should appreciate the bonds that she makes as they come and go. No family is perfect afterall. And even though the Forger family is disbanded, she can still look back on those memories with fondness. As she sees Loid recognize Anya too, she tries to subtly give him closure so he knows his little girl is doing good and he can keep going making sure other little girls are saved and living the good life too.

And who knows, maybe in another life, Loid, Yor and Anya can actually spend the good life with each other.

Edit: I decided to make a sequel comic:

Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3, Pt 4, Pt 5 ( Index)

[vaguely-concerned]

I just watched green vs red, and I'm just going to assume that that was all a real fucked up fever dream slash identity crisis lupin went through after hitting his head so hard he saw metatextuality for a hot second b/c frankly that's how it makes most sense for me haha (which would make jigen towards the end telling him he's got no earthly idea what he's on about but he'll still stay to watch it all rather sweet). it certainly has the feel and structure of a nightmare more than anything and it explains the... alleged plot lol. like that weird weapons contractor dude who brainuploaded himself into his tiny son and who is then blown up and never mentioned again? ssssshh this is like... symbolic and shit for lupin's ambivalence about taking on the family legacy. the disorientation of disguised selves and the rest of the crew going 'lmao we don't care which one is the real one, whatever'? ooof some identity issues getting aired there rather than commenting on how those relationships actually work in real life. (even outside of that I specifically find the idea that lupin thinks jigen only sticks around because he's fun -- because no one else comes up with these wild ideas but if they did or if lupin wasn't fun for a while, jigen would leave -- quite fascinating)

(this reading would also say some very sweet things about how lupin thinks about zenigata, because the dear inspector is ON IT in this one! it would also say some way less nice things about how he sees fujiko tho because wow. she sure was there for all of two minutes and did nothing all that time wasn't she)

if I don't do this reading I suspect I would so fundamentally disagree with so much of the philosophical core of what they're trying to say that I'd have to gnaw my own leg off in frustration. some real neat experimental animation to watch while I was bleeding out from the stump, though, I guess.

(btw when you think it can't get any weirder the credits are like 'did you enjoy all the lupins running about? because here are two jigens too for good measure. is this more or less canon than the rest of this thing? ahaha. enjoy your mindscrew'

I forgive this movie everything just because of the excellent jigen floof honestly it was the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen -- full on murder 'give me back our samurai or god have mercy on your soul' mode, but then his hair is so fluffy fhasdfk)

another way I could try to explain it: this one very neatly showed off all the ways you can do lupin as a character that I *don't* like or respond to, which was admittedly quite interesting and useful! (I'm not sure I liked, agreed with or even enjoyed this OVA (I was honestly bored in several places), but it also doesn't feel like it was a waste to experience, if you see what I mean). TL;DR I like to imagine goemon and jigen worriedly hovering over lupin when he finally groans and blinks awake like 'hey bro are you ok???? damn they rung your bell like that fella in notre dame back there u good????' and he murmurs 'have you ever had the terrible feeling of looking at your past selves and realizing it was just... you. that whole time, it was just you.' before he snaps out of it properly like 'wow boys that was a weird one even for me let's go' as they help him up

[mevekagvain]

Chapter 121 - I hope none of the birds affected by the sleeping gas died from falling from a height, especially if they fell on concrete. I don't think the gas itself would affect the birds but it also very well might since they can't handle as much due to being much smaller animals or from not being able to handle the chemicals used.

Chapter 122 - Shark's expressions are so hideous 🤢

- At least Raizel knows how to be nice by sharing food lmao. Frankenstein beaming like a proud father of a 2-year-old who's doing that is definitely not praxis though.

Chapter 124 - Shark being astounded that nobles care about innocents is amusing. I suppose that aside from the Elders, the Union members think nobles consider other species to be inferior or like cockroaches or toys.

- Although I do find Frankenstein plotting to teach Seira cooking so she can cook for Raizel when he can't extremely funny, I do also find it somewhat disturbing. He's essentially making a teen girl do child labour. Yes she and Regis are imposing on him and I do think they should be doing some manner of chores, but making her cook lavish meals? I also know she's doing it willingly but it still makes me cringe since something being one's choice doesn't negate it being bad. And yes technically she's 'of age' since she's 217, whatever that means since she's still obviously a teen compared to Raizel who actually is an adult going to school with children (which is a whole other can of worms), but aside from her position as clan leader she's very obviously not viewed as an adult by most.

Chapter 125 - On one hand I'd love to get a front row seat to the internal drama within the DA-5 lile M-21 but otoh I don't want to die a painful death or get beaten up.

- So like obviously Seira knows that Raizel and Frankenstein aren't ordinary humans unlike Regis but it is hilarious to think she just told the truth to two men she thinks are frail innocent humans.

Chapter 127 - You'd really think that the Union would be investing more into memory altering drugs but nah. The only ones they have will also fuck your brain up. Really not a good idea when most of your agents/experiments obviously have been administered aforementioned drugs. If it was only used sparingly on civilians I'd get it but it's quite widespread so...

Chapter 128 - As much as Frankenstein complains about the mess the kids make, he enjoys having them over as much as Raizel does. Soft hearted bastard.

Chapter 130 - The girls bandaging M-21 up even as Regis fights has them being smarter than like 90% of other characters in media. They're the real reason he didn't hit the dust immediately smh.

Chapter 132 - I still think the coming of age ceremony has a 50% chance of actually being them ingesting drugs that are the equivalent of stat boosting items in games but also ya know, real world drugs that fuck you up. The other 50% is just them getting much stronger after they turn 200 because their bodies are just like that and it truly is purely ceremonial and a fun tradition like children's day or girl's day or birthdays rather than something that actually affects them.

- Lol Kranz, Regis won't be leaving a corpse if he dies. Purebloods are just special like that. Can you imagine if they did see a pureblood dying? They'd regret killing them so bad.

Chapter 133 - Raizel commanding Frankenstein to stop his experiments is definitely something, like bro maybe he was figuring out electrolysis, not like you know what he was doing. Plus it's not like Frankenstein listened completely. Man has a lab under his house and it wasn't built after Raizel woke. I guess he only stopped modification experiements on others and only did checkups on himself but didn't stop experimenting for other stuff like idk, better fertiliser.

- Kinda amazing Takeo didn't get stabbed in the heart.

Chapter 137 - I know it's just because Gejutel likely explained the lord's powers to him but the idea that Regis knows what a blood field is because Raskreia does demonstrations to entertain little kids is making me giggle.

Chapter 140 - So the Union only came upon Frankenstein's research 540 years ago... that's only 40 years before Raskreia became lord. Interesting.

- Ah yes... the classic joke of Tao not teaching Takeo korean properly. It's also very amusing envisioning Tao teaching the DA-5 members korean.

- ARIS ARIS ARIS. God she looks adorbs. Also I love her referring to DA-5 as 'my children' and 'my babies'. Aris >>> all other scientists. Amd hi Yuri :)

Chapter 141 - Yuri listening to Aris insulting Crombel repeatedly,,, he probably enjoys every aspect of it from knowing she's not aware he's his underling to being able to hear someone insult Crombel.

- Once again union members don't know jack shit. They think werewolves are extinct while Maduke and Lunark are literally Elders 😭🤡😭

- Werewolves having a small population never made sense to me even with the whole thing about them not having mind control and thus keeping away from humans secretly since even civilians are stronger than humans on average but like why tf would wolves have such a low reproduction rate? And that's why I hc that 90% of them are just homosexual.

Chapter 142 - D doesn't consume your lifeforce bro. That's just the drugs causing heavy strain on the body, etc etc. The rest of your explanation was fine but talking about lifeforce or vitality makes no sense.

- We all know Yuri's smart but the fact that he tries to get Frankenstein as a subject by scouting him first is very clever. It's believable too since Frankenstein is supposed to be quite handsome.

Chapter 144 - Well we don't know of Crombel microchips his Assassination Squad but Aris canonically microchips her experiments 🤣

Chapter 147 - Okay but this panel... she's hot. I'd let her dissect me <3

- If this was some other media I'd talk about the symbolism of the attack looking like a rapier and go on for a paragraph but this is Noblesse so it's obviously just a coincidence lmao.

- "A living robot" so like... a cyborg.

Chapter 148 - Yuri getting pissed at being attacked and retaliating but pretending it was him being loyal to Aris... Love it. Also he must be really confused as to who tf Frankenstein is since as one of Crombel's most important lackeys he'd definitely know about such a powerful experiment under him if they existed and thus unlike Aris knows that he's not been sent by Crombel.

Chapter 149 - Yup def confused, especially when he realises Frankenstein's power is like Crombel's.

Chapter 150 - Girlboss,,, also it's been years and I'm still wondering... why is her outfit like that? Neon genesis evangelion girlboss does have a ring to it though.

- Ah yes, Taivra time.

Chapter 151 - Okay yeah I feel so bad for Takeo but also Aris is so good at manipulating him and and and iwi. The fact that she can cry on command though... impressive.

- "From the beginning you were an only child. That's why I got you to experiment on." Okay cool time to ignore that again for my own amusement of having all of noblesse's named modified human women be related to Takeo.

- Okay I'm obsessed with strawberry milk myself but strawberries do not taste anywhere near that good. Not even the sweet ones.

Chapter 153 - Yeah no I don't agree that Takeo losing his will to live is an insult to your comrades M-21. You could have said all that in a gentler way. Just because Takeo was luckier than you experiment wise doesn't mean you get to be so rude.

Chapter 154 - M-21 misleading Tao and Takeo to thinking he's being experimented on and then turning around to laugh at them when they find out it's just ramyeon... mood.

- I really do wonder what 12th Elder's military medals are for.

Sidenotes - Hammer being smart <3 I honestly didn't remember that part of him and I'm glad he's not given purely negative traits. He's the only reason Shark lived past 2 chapters tbh.

- Truly, D is one of the worst letters of the alphabet to have named the drugs DA-5 uses. The other bad choice would be P. On the opposite end of the spectrum, T would have been a great choice for the irony. Not that it matters since the inspiration for the drug from name to physical transformation is obviously 🍆

- Nobles being so nonchalant about murder is kinda fucked up like yeah they suck but you can't just kill them??? Lukedonia my beloved your justice system sucks. I do hc they can't just do this in Lukedonia though or to other nobles even if outside of Lukedonia, it's just that the jurisdiction of nobles doesn't apply outside of Lukedonia and they do on some level think of themselves as a superior species so they're fine with just... killing people.

- Aris obsessing over handsome men as experiments and treating them like toys but ignoring women altogether? Not experimenting on women? Gaslight gatekeep girlboss,,, a feministe of our own,,, perhaps even a... lesbienne. But yeah I just love how she acts and I love her and how she interacts with Yuri. And yeah he's cool too.

- Tbh aside from how short the skirts are and the white blazers, the Ye Ran uniform really reminds me of my own school's uniform. The colours are exactly the same. We just didn't have blazers since it was a forever summer tropical country, only jumpers for if it got too cold in the air conditioned rooms. And for some people who grow up in tropical countries... 25°C can be too cold.