#i simply think. that if they HAD to have kira and lessing go into a cave and then have kira leave alone but for a ghost that she can pretend

[weidli]

EURYDICE: You're early. ORPHEUS: I missed you.

[idonotbitemythumbatyou]

By the will of the prophets, by the end of the series Sisko (and thus Bajor) has formed strong personal bonds of friendship with figures of political influence in nearly every major power that could be a threat to Bajor, or could simply be a help to Bajor’s growth.

The Federation: it would have been enough for him just to be there, but Sisko’s war hero status makes their investment in Bajor more personal.

The Klingon Empire: Worf - (as outlined in this post) is almost comedically well connected, and practically handpicked the Chancellor himself.

The Founders, (and thus the Dominion) : Odo is sent back to temper his people with a love for a Bajoran woman that will live with him the great link forever.

Ferenginar - Sisko performed the Grand Nagus’ wedding ceremony (to a Bajoran, no less. Leeta is part of this too), and personally mentored his son.

Cardassia - Garak will likely have some influence in the new government given his skills and role in the war. Of course, no matter how much he owes Sisko, he’s too capricious on his own to be trusted with Bajor’s safety, so they granted him the tempering influence of a profound relationship with a federation doctor. Whether you think they get married post canon or not (they do), wild horses couldn’t keep Julian frontier-medicine Bashir from going to help rebuild Cardassia.

I 100% think this was all planned by the prophets. It had to be that exact moment with those exact people. (We’re just missing the Romulans, really. Bit of an oversight.)

And then they left Kira there to oversee it all, and maintain those relationships, Kassidy to build his temple according to his specifications, and Jake to tell the story.

[vamphorica]

♰ Religion in Death Note ♰

One of the most fascinating things about Death Note as a franchise is its exploration of faith and religion in the context of the world building, and how it compliments this using Christian motifs and imagery. The latter is often portrayed superficially, which I think is a shame given that there are many occasions throughout the series where relationships that some characters have with faith could be examined in accordance with the world Ohba has created.

For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to consider two main religious influences in the world of Death Note:

The Canon Explanation (The Shinigami Realm, Rules of the Death Note, Mu as the Afterlife, etc.)

Christianity (specifically, the use of Catholic imagery in Ohba’s official art.)

Let's begin with Canon.

i. The Canon Explanation

Ohba is clearly partial to weaving a complex web of rules as a means to support the supernatural premises of his stories (see Platinum End). This makes The Canon Explanation so effective not only because it limits the behaviour of the characters throughout the text, but it is also very pertinent to religion conceptually. By listing out the apparent commandments of the Death Note, a set of religious principles have been established that the users of the Death Note must follow. While you are not technically committing a sin by, let's say, trying to kill someone over the age of 124 with the Death Note (x), it sets out a guide which is indicative of rules one might follow in a religious text. You could say that Light, Misa, Mikami, and Takada each had to have a level of faith in the Death Note in order to use it. They all followed the rules, even if they did so under Light's direction as their self-proclaimed God. Light’s familiarity with these rules and his confidence with manipulating them is what ultimately makes his reign as Kira so effective. I think the act of writing a name down in the notebook itself is a form of commitment to belief – as a concept, the Death Note seems too absurd to a sceptic.

When the Shinigami begin arriving in the human world, it is obvious that they are not divine beings in the perfect, omnipotent manner that humans may expect. If anything, they are curiously quite human themselves – forgetting rules and acting as a result of emotional impulses. It is indeed Ryuk's boredom that sets the story into motion – everyone who died as a result of the Death Note did so because of him. The Shinigami pose no actual threat to the humans they follow, often noting how humans appear more competent at being Death Gods than they themselves are. While this is subjective, depending on interpretations of faith, the typical Grim Reaper figure is seen as a serious, all-knowing figure that is to be feared, while the Shinigami of Death Note are far less intimidating. I think this delivers a decent proposal that religion in Canon is not a matter of worshipping the supernatural, or suggesting that they are better than us. By having the Shinigami presented as being similar to ourselves, human characters have the ability to use their power without the fear of divine retribution. Light’s extensive knowledge of the Death Note rules and how to work around them, along with his strict work ethic, only further demonstrates his commitment to carving out his position as God when compared to the Shinigami.

Mu is explained quite simply – there is no heaven or hell. There is a notable lack of elaboration here for a reason, but I do wonder if Light might have been more reluctant in his pursuits had traditional heaven and hell been at stake. Would he have become Kira if his act of justice would damn him to hell? Would he be concerned that his victims might end up going to heaven? Mu is the Canon version for what happens when one dies in this universe, so, beyond proposing speculative questions, there is little to analyse here.

Now, there is one character who I want to delve deeper in relation to The Canon Explanation: Mikami.

Mikami -> Mikami is deeply devout. Of all the named characters in the series, Mikami is the only one who is expressly religious, particularly regarding the Canon Explanation. While I think it is interesting to consider Light Yagami's relationship to Godhood, it is only through Mikami that we understand Kira’s societal impact. Mikami is also the only character in Death Note to be granted a rather comprehensive backstory, so we are given an insight into what led him to become such an ardent Kira supporter. Light chose Mikami not just for these strongly held opinions but also because of his devotion to him specifically. Mikami is ritualistic in the way he worships the idea of Kira through his dedication to writing one page of names in the Death Note daily, following Light’s commands without question. The only other occasion where we see a similar act of religiosity towards Kira is at the very end of the manga when a group of Kira supporters take a pilgrimage to pay their respects. Yet even this does not quite encapsulate Mikami's religious fanaticism. His strong conviction that Kira is God demonstrates the societal inclination to view Kira as a religious figure to be worshipped.

I think because Death Note relies so strongly on Light's internal psychology as he encounters various forms of opposition, the external impact of Kira on the world is only provided to us through passing mentions of political support. It is absolutely crucial to interpret Kira in a political context, but again, this is not really explored in too much detail. What we do know is that Kira supporters, including Misa, Mikami and Takada, may politically be in favour of Light's moral judgement, but because he poses himself as a God rather than a political leader, we must assume that he wants to play into a deific persona because it affords him far more unconditional power than he would have as a mere mortal.

From the beginning, Light is able to present his power as originating from a divine source, and it is only until Lind L. Tailor’s death that it becomes apparent what limitations Light is working within. Before then, criminals dying of heart attacks across the world could not be considered to be within human capability, let alone performed by a singular perpetrator, so Light maintained the illusion of omnipotence. Distancing himself from his humanity not only gave Light the benefit of being undetectable for some time, but also encouraged people to support Kira through the belief that he was inherently above them. It was only L who managed to shatter this façade early on in the Kira investigation.

I will now move onto something slightly more tangible, as it reflects our world within the text – Death Note's use of Catholic imagery.

ii. Christianity

As if to make up for the lack of exploration into Kira's religious influence, Death Note heavily relies upon Christian imagery to highlight its desire for religion to be seen as a core component of the franchise. Realistically, I am aware that a lot of manga and Japanese culture from the 2000s was heavily inspired by Catholic imagery and that there was certainly an aesthetic trend being taken advantage of here. However, I am still going to consider it specifically in relation to Death Note. It gives me an excuse to move on from Ohba to Obata anyhow, which I am more than willing to do.

Let's have a look at some official art.

There's a lot to be discussed about these specific pieces of art, and there are plenty more examples that I am sure can be found and analysed over, but we can recognise what their general theme is – kitschy Catholicism. This is not intended as criticism, I love Obata's art and as unsubtle as these official pieces may be, they reinforce Death Note's desire to incorporate religion into its series as a strong motif, if not an effectively developed theme. It also somewhat exposes its superficiality. The imagery is explicit, bold and bright, without doing much work in considering what the actual religious belief might be able to bring to the series beyond the visual components (according to this post -> x the Latin on the last image isn't rendered properly, which proves my point further). There are instances in the anime where there are Biblical references, such as frames that foreshadow L’s death, but the manga does not engage in these same parallels.

This leads me nicely onto talking about Misa.

Misa -> Misa is shown throughout the series to lean heavily into fashion and interior design that reflects a very Gothic Christian aesthetic, which is undeniably iconic and an important visual aspect to her character.  Mirroring the series more generally, it does appear that this is the extent to her relationship with the Christian faith. Misa’s allegiance to Kira could suggest that the trauma of her parents’ death came to some kind of resolution when their murderer was himself killed. Again, we have no idea if she actually was a religious character to begin with and I need to stress, it does not matter, but it is still worth considering given how a lot of the Christian imagery in the series is associated with her character specifically. I don't think this feeds into any flat character analysis that might suggest she doesn't know the potential significance of the crosses she wears or decorates her home with. We could just say she has an aesthetic that is very well composed but doesn't carry much weight beyond its stylistic merit.

Derailing slightly, but I do wish they had maintained this style throughout the entire series. Alas, as soon as she met Light, she lost this cool Goth look pretty quickly. Rem would never have let this happen. 💔

One more character analysis before we wrap this up. The quite honest reason as to why I decided to write up this essay was so that I could discuss Mello in relation to religion in Death Note.

Mello → Much of what I discussed about Misa's style could be applied to Mello, the only other character who visually demonstrates any religious tendency. However, I think there are some differences here that could suggest Mello is actually religious, which then allows us to consider his character in the context of the Canon Explanation. Firstly, one of the main signifiers Mello wears is his rosary, and while it is unlikely you will experience any adverse effects from wearing one as a non believer, I think those who wear a rosary are aware of the deeper connection to Catholicism than someone who wears a simple cross necklace (see Misa above, right). Secondly, narratively, I think there is more opportunity for Mello to be religious. Wammy's House, from their gates, actually appears to be a Christian organisation, and while I do not actually believe that they were, I find it interesting nonetheless. I also would be surprised if they were denominationally Catholic, if we are following this line of logic, presumably they would be CofE, but who knows. Regardless, even if Mello was not religious as a child, I think his arrival into the Mafia would certainly have introduced him to Catholicism. Of course it seems antithetical, but I would not be all that surprised if a teenage boy who is expected to do some horrendous things to rise to the top of a criminal organisation might turn to God in the process.

Following on from the prior point, Mello is a completely contradictory character, so I do not think it is all that necessary to consider his moral code from an entirely rational perspective. I think the fact his Beretta has a small cross charm on it in itself is very symbolic of the kind of character we are dealing with here (see below). Interestingly, it looks to be a Celtic cross, rather than a traditional crucifix.

What does this actually mean? Mello represents a good integration of the two religious influences I've discussed – he appears to have faith in a religion that we as readers contextually understand, and yet he interacts easily with Shinigami and the Death Note. While the two do not contradict one another exactly, I think The Canon Explanation certainly does not lend much credence to Catholic interpretations within the text. Like the others who have encountered a Death Note, Mello is initially shocked by the arrival of the Shinigami attached to his notebook, but quickly recovers. He interrogates Sidoh with such evident effectiveness that he ends up frightening him.

I think this is where I begin to get a little frustrated with the depiction of religion in Death Note because we have such a fascinating premise here. Does Mello's faith waver as his beliefs are evidently challenged by Sidoh? Does he consider Kira as a force of evil from a moral perspective informed by Wammy's, or his understanding of God? Does he believe in heaven and hell? None of these questions are answered, and I do appreciate I am being fussy because I am very fond of Mello, but I think there was a rather unique opportunity present in the series that was completely neglected. I have already explained how Death Note relies so heavily on Catholic imagery and clearly wishes to present itself as a series that deals with religious themes, so I think there is a failure here to consider the nuances that have already been set up.

How interesting do you suppose it would be to see how Kira's influence begins to impact the other established religions, as people see criminals dying en masse? Remember that ordinary people would be likely predisposed to consider this as an act of God. Society would certainly be more scared, especially as it would simply be inevitable that Kira killed innocent people who had been deemed criminals by their legal systems. There is a lot to go analyse about that topic alone, but another time!

I suppose with a lot of the questions I have posed, they could be answered through fanfiction or headcanons. I could decide that Misa believed in God until she met Light, or that Mello chose to ignore the implications of Mu given that he follows a religion that sets itself up on the premise of eternal reward or damnation. I just want to facilitate further conversation, because I do think this topic is fascinating.

Thank you @saturniiids, @vengeflies and @stylooooo for giving this a read for me! ♡

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What do you think L thinks of the successor program?

Previous Thoughts on Wammy's and How the Concept is both Bonkers and Toxic

Well, what we see is pretty damning.

L... Doesn't Talk About it Much and Other Bad Signs

L brings up the successor program once in the manga (this line is removed from the anime adaptation). It's a very one-off line in which he tells Light (while still in the college arc) that "you know, even if you were to kill me, L is legion and I'd just be replaced by the next L" and Light sort of stares at him.

Neither touch on this ever again.

Worse, when the torch is passed, it's only because Watari happened to be in the room where he could push The Big Red Button (TM) that sent information to Wammy's. And yes, while there was clearly a protocol in place to let the successors take on L's legacy, it uh... sure wasn't L pushing that button and the fact that it's a secret button in the security room where Watari hangs out (and certainly not L) leads me to think this is a Watari idea (the orphanage where people compete for the title of L, being in fact, Watari's weird fucking idea).

Most tellingly, L doesn't even bring it up when he knows he's going to die. He doesn't even think to himself "ah yes, those bratty twelve-year-olds in England will get vengeance for me and then Light will be put to justice". L doesn't think about the Wammy program at all in his last day, in fact, he knew for several hours he was going to die and he didn't seek out any means to bring his successors in or even think "oh woe that Light is right there or I could inform my secret successors of everything we need to know".

We learn later that Near and Mello never actually met L, in fact, and if they ever did speak to him it was... brief and impersonal. This leaves them both with weird complexes about the man and their relationship with the role of successor.

In fact, L blatantly says "Light is my successor" and seems to mean it. True, L knew Light was Kira and was perhaps doing this for the mind fuckery, but on the other hand he had no reason to do this and again, had time to take it back once he realized Light was Kira again (which he did very quickly after Light got his memories back). Had L not done this, he could have either a) directly had a Wammy's person take over and explain the whole successor thing (he does not) or b) left it such that Soichiro was in charge. He has nothing to gain by even hinting that Light could take control over his title after he left. And the fact is... Light does do it. He's the power behind L for six years while Near and Mello do... well, Mello joins the mafia and has a time in Nevada, Near does who fucking knows what.

Basically, L couldn't be less supportive of the Wammy's orphanage unless he actively shut it down and fired Watari (but then who would bring him snacks?)

But Why?

L's in it for personal victory. L wants to beat Kira himself, he wants to do it on his own terms, with his own ingenuity. It's not so much about beating Kira but the fact that he will be the one to beat Kira. His 'successors' doing so would be less than meaningless to L.

Leaving it to some twelve-year-old to solve, hand-picked by Watari because they solved puzzles good and read good too, would be worse for L than fucking Matsuda or Misa making a major break in the case (and canonically, both those things happen, and canonically L handles it fucking poorly).

Worse, Watari is not even implying, but outright saying, that L is not so special a super genius snowflake and that Watari can cultivate another one simply through hard work and careful selection. "Congratulations, L, you are irrelevant and superfluous!" And worse, those replacements are little kids and I imagine L finds their quirks... annoying. (I'm not convinced L's not just s troll).

And if we take LABB into account, all L sees them do is kill themselves or make trouble for everyone (through murder). L does not want to deal with these people (and so he doesn't and makes Naomi do it for an entire hilarious novel).

TL;DR

L hates those fuckers.

[bookwormbynight]

bookworm-san, dear mutual. do you happen to have any more fem! light headcanons/thoughts? for healing, for the soul……… 😌

Darling. Gimme just a second to reread my posts on the AU and get my brain juices going again 🙏

(Also, fun fact: I do actually have my name in my lil bio bit lol! I don't think most people notice.)

Fem!Light during the Yotsuba Arc may have been more aggressive than canon Light about separating herself from a relationship with Misa, simply because it isn't assumed that "well, I'm the one who must have asked... I just can't figure out why" because that's not how her relationship dynamics work. She doesn't remember saying yes, she can't imagine why she would have said yes, Misa is clearly delusional and can fuck right off. Her aggression might be the only reason why Misa wouldn't white-knight his way into stopping the mutual lawlight murder attempt on their first "date" lmao. I can clearly imagine him trying to heroically interject and protect his girlfriend only for Light to shriek "fuck OFF Misa" so 'unfemininely' that it takes Misa a full fifteen minutes to reboot lmao.

This is me projecting because I'm a 100 pound girl with a-cups but I want Light to have small boobs (also canon Light has a flat ass anyway). Let me sexualize my body type for once, gimme that. Tiny lace bralettes, zero cleavage through a shirt neckline, barely a handful of titty and you can probably fit most of the boob in your mouth, but anybody who's interested in her either doesn't notice or actively likes it.

On a related note, average-ish height, like canon, so like 5'4 or 5'5, but small person. If that makes sense. I want people to be able to just pick her up with minimal effort because that means it would happen more often (I have friends who literally just throw me over their shoulders and walk away without asking me first) and she would fucking hate it and I think that's hilarious.

Flats-only girlie. Coward. Until L bullies her into heels for fetish purposes ONCE and Light has trouble walking and it makes her red-faced angry embarrassed which does NOT deter L in the slightest.

I think she'd wear her hair half-up half-down in a neat little clip in the back with bangs, it's very Professional and Pretty and intentionally chosen. She pigtail braids her hair at night Cinderella-style to keep it nice and L finds it annoying. The only time we would see it down in the canon timeline would be in solitary confinement, and the rain + foot scene and proceeding death scene (because that was immediately after).

For her death scene in particular, I think her hair would start up, as it usually is, but it would definitely have gone really askew and fallen out of the clip by the time she dies.

I really can't decide how exactly her relationship with Ryuk would change based on her perception of gender dynamics but I'm absolutely sure it would, whether or not we genderbend Ryuk as well. Idk, someone else help me flesh this one out bc it's all just a nebulous feeling in my head.

The daddy issues. Dude. The daddy issues would be so bad. Like, we already had "I desperately want my dad to think I live up to his expectations of me + dad is too busy with his job all the time to feel like a legit regular part of the family". Now imagine that combined with the fact that Soichiro just assumes Light has Woman Brain. "It's wonderful that you're top of your class and you're getting a degree, all capable women should go to college, but don't you think you should pick a less demanding career path so you won't have such a hard time having a family one day?? It's really sweet that you want to follow in my career path honey but I don't know if this job is good for girls like you". That scene with Namikawa would happen and L would praise her like canon and Soichiro's jaw would fucking drop. Ugh.

On a similar note I absolutely do not think Light would be able to stomach playing up the "I'm JUST a GIRL I CANT be KIRA 🥺🥺🥺" schtick even to draw some of the suspicion off of herself because canon Light already had such a hard time literally just not showing off and now add in fem! Light's inferiority complex. She would get so salty every single time people suggested it's not possible for her to be Kira ""even though I'm not"". The ONLY times she would be willing to play up the canon ditz act is when it makes her look a little careless, NEVER stupid.

[delucadarlingwriting]

upside down spiderman kiss for barbie and mason, please 🥰 (~agentnatesewell)

Ask for a Kiss!

I forgot about these. OTL

I'd already written most of this one before heading out on vacation. The last two are next on the list! And thank you again for sending in a prompt, I've been enjoying writing them ;v;

***

There’s nothing about the day she’s been having so far that would lead Barbie to believing she would be here, trapped and hanging upside down, with no way of getting down. This is exactly why she doesn’t do field work. Not the kind that Unit Bravo does, at least. 

Somehow despite the situation, Barbie doesn’t find herself in any sort of state of panic. Sure, she’s dangling with her head about six feet above the ground. The magical rope tangled around her hips and legs isn’t the most comfortable. A point in her favor though is that she can hear the gentle, distant sound of Unit Bravo, Kira, and perhaps the group of fae they’ve been looking for making their way along the forest path. 

She could call out to them. Considering the trap hasn’t harmed her, she can only assume it’s meant to keep trespassers away from the fae village until patrols can send them on their way. Having to face her team (especially Adam, who had told her not to wander off, which she had agreed to until the moment everyone else was distracted) would be far more humiliating than simply waiting for one of those patrols to find her. 

In the meantime, Barbie reaches for her spiral top notepad and pen, concealed in the inside pocket of her blazer. The trek into fae territory was not entirely what she’d expected. It seems as those inhabiting this village aren’t like the other fae she’s met before, but some sort of…off shoot. Though that could also be due to the fact that they’re a rather insular bunch, having last been noted in Agency records some years before even Nat was human. Barbie very much looks forward to taking notes of her own to add to the records, along with her name attached to them. Her excitement to do so ends up leaving her distracted, and she fumbles as she tries to flip to a new page and hold the others down at the same time. Her pen slips from her grip and Barbie jolts into action, trying to catch it, but only managing to lose her hold on the notebook as well. 

“No!” she cries, snatching at thin air as it tumbles down and falls well out of reach. 

The distant voices go quiet after her exclamation. She goes as still and silent as she can while swaying back and forth in her magical rope cocoon. There’s some short discussion, then she distantly hears the sounds of a group walking away. 

Barbie chews her lower lip; perhaps not calling out for help is a bad idea. Sure, she’d fairly certain someone will find her, but what if they don’t? 

Just as she’s contemplating yelling out for them, a dark figure emerges from the shadows and brush quickly enough to startle a yelp out of her. 

“Mason!” she yells. “Don’t scare me like that!”

Mason slows his pace, eyebrows knitting together as he takes in the sight of her. He strolls over with far less hurried steps until they’re somewhat eye to eye. 

“What the hell are you doing, sweetheart?” he asks.

Barbie rolls her eyes. “Oh yes, because I’ve obviously done this on purpose.”

“Hard to tell with you sometimes,” Mason says, not able to hide the amusement glinting in his eyes. Barbie tries to grab at him, but he grabs her first, his hands cupping either side of her ribcage to bring her to a stop. 

“Are you going to let me down?” she asks. He chuckles.

“Yeah, of course.” He moves closer, a molten look in his eye. “I think I deserve a reward though.”

“You’ve done nothing to earn one yet,” Barbie points out. He grins, sharp and handsome even when viewed upside down.

“Then call it a bribe.”

“I don’t think I can fellate you from this high up, Mason,” Barbie replies dryly. Mason snorts, his hair shimmering as he tosses his head back with a laugh. It makes her heart skip several beats and she suddenly deeply wishes she could fellate him from here. 

“A kiss will be fine,” he says as he bites back laughter.

Oh. Yes, of course that’s what he meant. She tries not to flush up about it, but that’s a moot point when the blood has already rushed to her face thanks to being held upside down for so long. 

Mason sidles closer, grey eyes taking her in, calculating her responses before making every move. She relates to how he approaches these situations, though she finds her own senses don’t give her nearly as much information to work on as his do. He can read her so well without her giving him much to go on at all. Like now, despite not moving an inch, he senses how receptive she is to his idea. He comes in close, one hand reaching up to unclip her hair and tuck the clip into his pocket while the other moves to bury itself into her hair, his thick, strong fingers forming against the back of her skull with an abundance of care. Barbie’s lips part on their own and she leans in.

His mouth forms over hers, soft and open, his tongue teasing at her upper lip. Barbie groans, grasping the air until she finds his face, cupping it and tilting her head for a good angle. It’s odd, being upside down, but it hardly distracts from how her spine tingles at his hungry advances. 

They part when she gets dizzy, though whether from being upside down or kissing him she’s not sure. Mason’s breath has gone a touch ragged. He pushes his hands through his shaggy dark hair then flicks his gaze up.

“Enjoying yourself?” Barbie asks, squirming against the bonds which have suddenly become restrictive. 

Mason chuckles. “Oh yeah.” When Barbie pouts, he adds, “And I’m trying to find the best way to get you down.”

Barbie strains to try and see where the rope’s source is, but quickly finds the same problem Mason has. There doesn’t appear to be one. So any attempt to cut her down will simply drop her. 

 “Don’t call the others,” Barbie pleads. Mason already has his phone out. He doesn’t even look at her before hitting something on the screen and lifting it to his ear. 

Only four minutes later the rest of the team—and several deeply amused fae—arrive and she is promptly put on her feet. Her very wobbly feet that barely hold her up. Mason slides an arm around her waist, leaving it there even once she’s steady. 

“Now that this…” Adam pauses, giving Barbie a longsuffering look, “...situation is resolved, shall we move forward with the meeting?”

“Oh yes,” one of the fae says, covering their acid green lips with a hand as they grin. “Our queen will be more than pleased with your arrival. Come this way!”

Cheeks burning, Barbie plants her feet and waits for everyone else to go ahead first. The last thing she wants is to feel everyone staring at the back of her head. Once they’ve passed she inches ahead, wishing more than anything to simply retreat back to the SUV.

Mason chuckles, leaning in to whisper in her ear, “Are you ready to be chastised about that later?”

Snorting, Barbie rolls her eyes. “I’m used to Agent du Mortain’s appraisal of my performance.”

“Mhm.” Mason’s smile isn’t as teasing as it was before. “I’m sure he’ll go easy on you this time.”

“Oh, will my embarrassment have been lesson enough for him?” Barbie asks, unable to resist the urge to rub at her face, even if it smears her foundation. She’s certain to look a mess as it is, there’s no point in trying to preserve her appearance.

“Probably.” Mason’s hand slides down her hip, just above her rear. “And I meant chastised by me.”

“You?” Barbie sputters. “Where do you get off chastising me about anything?”

Mason arches a dark brow. “You wandered off and didn’t tell anyone where you were.”

“You could’ve found me,” Barbie says with a huff. Mason’s hand drops and grabs a handful of her rear, which draws a surprised yelp from her. Several of the fae ahead peer back at the two of them, but Mason has already moved his hand back up to her hip. Still far more familiar than is appropriate for work, but better than anyone seeing him feel her up.

“Just make sure to take me with you next time,” Mason says, smirking. Bastard. 

When she’s sure no one else is looking, she pauses, leans in to kiss just behind his ear, and says, “Behave better, and I might.”

“Mason,” Adam’s voice booms from ahead. No privacy with vampires around. Mason grins, teeth sharp and elongated. 

“Absolutely not,” he replies in a whisper before urging her on to catch up with the group. The fae village is within sight now, and they both shift their focus to their immediate tasks.

She’ll argue with him more later, perhaps during that ‘chastisement’ he’s promised.

[befuddled-calico-whump]

Hand in Hand (part seven)

@whumptober Alt. 11: Panic

cw: aftermath of whump, migraine, adult language, death mention

prev ///// au masterlist ///// next

~ ~ ~

It's been three days since the punishment.

Three days since he hurt Wes and abandoned him in the cell. Nowhere near enough time for the memories, the screams, to fade. The screams he'd caused.

Dan has spent most of the time lying down. It isn't by choice. After his escape attempt, Swift saw fit to increase security measures. If he isn't being escorted by armed guards, he's chained to the bed, arms splayed out in such a way that he couldn't pick the locks if he tried. Not that he has.

He has a headache that started the moment the cell door closed behind him, and it's only gotten stronger with every passing hour. He could tell himself it's just an effect of lying down for so long, of the beating, of dehydration, of insomnia. Maybe any one of those is true. But it feels like his body is punishing him.

His skull throbs, his eye sockets pulse with a fresh pain any time he even twitches, and he deserves it.

Even though, logically, he knows he had no choice.

You could've paid attention when you were trying to escape. You could've gotten him out.

It was bad luck, he argues back. It couldn't be helped.

You could've fought them. You would've stood a chance.

That would only make things worse. Wes might be dead now if I had.

You should've let him die day one.

Even though the thought is his own, it's like having a bucket of ice water dumped on him. Dan physically tenses, trying to push it away, whimpering at the spike of pain in his head that comes with the effort.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, what can he do? Can he do anything? Even if he's a model prisoner from now on, does anything Swift asks and more, earns back the simple freedom of being able to fucking move, what will that do? He'll be no better off than he was before, when he tried and failed. And even if he could get lucky the second time around, Wes is running out of time. If Swift doesn't kill him, his injuries will. Fuck!

His breathing is getting faster and faster as the true hopelessness of the situation sets in. Every time, it feels like he's drawing in less air. He can't do anything, he can't do anything. It's the most helpless he's ever felt.

Betrayed by his men. Locked up and starved and hurt and hurt and hurt. Unable to do anything but watch as the one person in the universe he still has is slowly tortured to death. And anything he does to try and fix things only makes everything worse. He has no control here. He has nothing but whatever misery Swift graces him with.

The thoughts only stop barraging him when the pain in his head makes it impossible to think. Dan lays as still as he can on the bed then, tries to swallow his sobs, tries to blink away the tears and simply breathe deeply.

In, one-two.

Out, one-two.

He repeats the simple counts until he can almost think clearly again.

Hope isn't lost, not yet. He'll think of something, he always thinks of something. Maybe...

Maybe he can get a weapon. Maybe, as bad a shape as he's in, he can take the guards by surprise the next time they come knocking. Get a gun. Make it to Wes, make it to a ship.

It's a desperate bid, and the chances of it working are slim to none, but it's all he has.

Despite everything, Dan tries to make his body relax. It's tedious work. Unclench his jaw, let his face go slack, try to soften the muscles in his shoulders, in his torso, in his legs.

If this is his last chance, he can't let anything he still has some kind of control over get in the way. He keeps breathing, slow and steady, closes his eyes, and waits.

~ ~ ~

@kira-the-whump-enthusiast @kixngiggles @shywhumpauthor

[raw-law]

Anything you'd change in the law, of you had the chance to?

Light:

My answer is, dear Anon: nothing. I'd change absolutely nothing about the law. Let me explain.

The laws---if you're talking about international ones, that is---they're generally well thought-out. Well formulated by a group of intelligent people over hundreds of years. All we, the general public, have to do is simply: follow the law.

But there are people in the world who aren't part of this 'general public'. Politicians, world leaders, presidents, ministers, who hold a lot of power in their hands.

Anon, the sad truth is this. No matter how many changes you make to the law, no matter how fair you try and make it, how hard you try for justice to be served, there will still be people escaping the long arm of the law.

For people with power, that's the problem. No one can stop them, even if every single law says that they're wrong. Much less if the person is a world power, a powerhouse country with others backing them up.

That's why my views align so much with Kira's own. If the law can't get them, then it's time to go beyond the law to delegate out punishment to those criminals. We can't let them get away scot-free, can we?

Thanks for your question, Anon.

L:

i don't think i'd change anything with the law either, but i share a slightly different mindset.

in my eyes, there's not much you can change to suddenly cure the world of all its evil. no matter what laws you add, there will always be people who wish to wreak havoc on others. if anything, adding more laws might tempt people to break them even more... what would really need to be changed is how we go about keeping people like this contained.. how do we effectively weed out the sick and prevent them infecting anyone else?

well, we have trials. lawyers. prosecutors... but, let's be honest. i think everybody knows it's not a perfect system. nothing can be. there's no point in changing law if you can't change the government itself. and even if you are to change the government itself, nothing is ever going to be ideal. humanity is inherently flawed. anything humanity tries to create, especially when based around their society, will be flawed as well. if anything, the current law is probably the best we'll be able to construct.

i still can't excuse kira's murder sprees but... in a question like this..? i'm afraid i can't entirely oppose his thought process either...

[thegeminisage]

star trek update time!! last night we watched tng's "rightful heir" and ds9's "the forsaken."

rightful heir (tng):

they were high when they wrote this one. like worf on whatever he was on to try and make him hallucinate

what's really funny about this one is that we were both just complaining that, even though we both like worf, we found the klingon episodes a little rough/dry. and then what do they do. they have worf hallucinate clone jesus

actually, i was really surprised picard laid into him so hard for being late to work. i know it was a tough-love kind of deal bc toughness "speaks" to worf or whatever and it was supposed to seem "nice" because he let worf go on a little field trip afterward but also like. who yells.

i did like that they referenced the klingon prison camp episode. girl i'd still be feeling that one too

clone jesus as a plot is really insane. like, it's already insane that everybody bought into it and GOWRAN of all people was the one to be like "you chumps are getting snowed." but then he's just a CLONE? they grew jesus in a vat somewhere? in a little test tube? and then they crowned him emperor??

no, scratch that, worf threatened to KILL people if they DIDN'T crown him emperor even though he was just going to be a figurehead because this is somehow supposed to fix the amoral klingons who have fallen into decadence. horrific.

side note. s6 has had a LOT of single-character episodes. we had some picard centric eps some worf centric eps a deanna centric ep and a beverly centric ep...when do we get the fucking gang back together? i feel like i never see them all at once anymore. like don't get me wrong i loved beverly's little romp and i feel like this way allows slightly more of the character work i have been craving but the format change is so weird. can we not have a little character work without singling out one character at a time? pretty please?

the forsaken (ds9):

i am sighing the deepest longest sigh i have ever sighed. my mixed feelings...

ok, to start with, i hate when tng characters show up in ds9. it's like they bring the bad vibes with them. BUT this is the least i've ever hated lwaxana.

i think the version of lwaxana as presented IN THIS EPISODE ONLY is very nearly a likable character. unfortunately, i have context for her

the flirting has actually grown on me. like, when she's doing it harmlessly. y'all know isabela from da2? like that. what i have a problem with is her being so touchy-feely - leaning into peoples space or trying to snuggle up with them or take them by the arm. the flirting IN AND OF ITSELF is actually kind of cute/sweet if you divorce it from the context of a horrifically overbearing mother and a woman who is narcissistic and can't take no for an answer. "i can swim" like ok girl i admit you have game. i just wish she would do less TOUCHING.

ok, on to odo, the real star of this episode. odo my new best friend odo

i actually think trapping him in an elevator to force him to turn into goop in front of someone else is a VERY clever premise. and at first i really wished it hadn't been with lwaxana but the more i thought about it the more i realized no one else on ds9 would do. in order for it to work it would have to be both someone who is a little pushy/loud/not totally respectful of his private nature AND someone who could offer a similar vulnerability ie taking off the wig. anyone who's too tactful/respectful of odo/a grownup in general like sisko, kira, dax, obrien, etc would simply turn around and leave him be. anyone who's NOT respectful or a grownup in general (i'm thinking specifically of quark, but julian could probably also work for this) doesn't have a metaphorical wig to take off. like, it would have been great ship material for him to be in there with quark or kira (i know about odo/kira bc i got spoiled, i am a little skeptical but VERY intrigued), but neither of them would have had the same vibe. so i am forced to conclude against my will that lwaxana was the right choice after all.

unfortunately a stranger is also easier to tell crazy shit to...and i looooooved learning crazy shit about odo's past, by which i mean i gasped aloud and covered my mouth with both hands in horror. HE SPENT HIS CHILDHOOD IN A LAB EXCEPT HE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CHILDHOOD!!! he doesn't EAT. his mouth is an approximation of one, it doesn't actually work!!! lwaxana, do you know then what else must be a nonfunctional approximation? actually, maybe he doesn't even have any of that going on. maybe he's smooth like a ken doll and that's why he keeps expressing disinterest in sex/romance, or because he has disinterest in sex/romance he never bothered to figure out how to replicate a working set of equipment. anyway the point is i know my king is somewhere on the aro and/or ace spectrum i just have to get to know him better to figure out where

in conclusion, yes it had to be lwaxana, NO i'm not happy about it, but i could have been if she was just less touchy. also, side bar, i don't like that she brought up the ferengi rape episode like it was haha funny. girl it wasn't funny to you at the time and it was definitely not funny to ME

TONGIHT: tng's "second chances" (this one looks good...i'm so hopeful) and ds9's "dramatis personae" (i haven't seen a summary or thumbs for this one but i trust ds9)

[invisible-storyteller]

Home is a person

For @kirayukimuraappreciation. Day 1: You Came Back. Pairing: Malia Tate/Kira Yukimura Rating: General Words: 1628 Tags: Post-Canon, Post-Teen Wolf: The Movie (2023), Kira-centric, Kira Yukimura Returns, Derek Hale & Kira Yukimura Friendship, Angst with a Happy Ending Summary:  Kira returns to Beacon Hills just in time to save Derek. With everyone alive and the Nogitsune gone, happy end is due, right? Well, Kira needs a bit more convincing to realize why she's come back at all. (Read it on AO3).

It doesn’t take long to understand the situation. It takes even less time to tackle Derek off the Nemeton.

She makes sure to stand guard around the tree stump with another, younger kitsune as Parrish’s arms wrap around the mutant evil spirit and they both go up in flames. The only thing left in the Nogitsune’s wake is silence and bad memories.

Then the illusion is gone and Kira can breathe again. They are all standing on a stadium field, safe, shaken and once again victorious, surrounded by friends she hasn’t seen in over a decade. It just figures that another life-and-death scenario would bring them back together.

“Dad!”

A werewolf boy barely in his teens rushes towards Derek and buries himself into his arms, and as Kira does a 360-degree turn, she notices that everyone's celebrating in varying forms of an embrace while she’s standing on the side. Alone.

A lean body sags onto hers suddenly and she startles by the unexpectedly tight hug. “You saved my dad,” The boy says against her shoulder, relief heavy in his voice. “Thank you.”

From a short distance, Derek smiles at her and walks closer to the pair. “Amazing timing,” He compliments.

Kira smiles but can’t help looking around and thinking: “Actually, I might be too late.”

Derek invites her to dinner as an expression of his gratitude and then follows up with a dozen ‘thanks yous’ throughout the evening. His son, Eli, has a million questions about the Skinwalkers and her powers and he breaks down crying halfway through. It’s a lot, but Kira still feels better on the drive home.

It’s definitely nicer than the nothing that follows.

For every single thing that hasn’t changed in Beacon Hills, there are at least three more that have. Derek, apparently, doesn’t know much about the others since most of them haven’t kept in touch after an allegedly glorious defeat against an army of hunters. Kira hasn’t been there for the war, but she supposes that the pack would have sought her out if she was truly needed.

Reuniting with Scott is awkward, seeing him hold hands with Allison is even more so. It’s not like Kira had much hope for her and Scott, but it still hurts. It doesn’t sting like a heartache but more like another proof that life went on without her.

She talks with Hikari and Liam before they leave for Japan because that’s their home now, not Beacon Hills. Kira has no idea where her home is anymore.

Half of her life has been dedicated to fighting for control with the Skinwalkers, so readjusting to the changes and modern life should be easy, and yet, Kira finds herself debating on a daily basis the idea of simply going back. What is keeping me here? - it’s a question that echoes too often in her head.

Derek is attentive, but more than that, he understands. He invites her over for more dinners and movie marathons (to help her “catch up on what she’s missed”, and he cringes right after saying it), and talks about his travels proceeding the events in Mexico. She realizes by the second-hour mark that the similarities of their experiences are overshadowed by their unbridgeable differences.

Because Derek returned when his friends were in need, but Kira didn’t.

He shows her the garage, the preserve and the school. Coach doesn’t recognize her but asks whether she’s good at lacrosse and if she would like to join, anyway. This leads to Kira practising with Eli on Mondays, since Derek claims he’s always been more gifted in basketball.

Kira knows what Derek’s doing, really, and she appreciates it. She just doesn’t know how to tell him that the issue isn’t with the place. It’s with her.

It’s 12:14 pm on a Friday when Kira walks into the auto shop. It’s been five weeks since her return and as she enters the shop (instead of waiting outside like usual), the realization hits her of how weird it is that she hasn’t talked to Malia in all that time.

“Hey,” Malia greets, like they've just spoken yesterday (they didn't, not in 14 years), kicking her feet off the counter and plucking the earbuds out of her ear.

Kira is ashamed that she can’t come up with a better reply than “Hi”, accompanied by a not-quite smile to make up for the lack of contact. Not that Malia couldn’t have reached out, Kira reminds herself, and feels a dull pang in her heart. It’s an everyday occurrence.

“What are you doing here?” Malia asks as she stands up, soft sweater bunching up at one of her sides. Derek’s been either rubbing off on her or pestering the woman into warmer clothes as the season turned chilly. It’s an adorable sight, nevertheless.

Kira looks behind herself, wondering for a moment if she should wait outside after all. Then she remembers Malia has always been confrontational and feels her nerves settle at the small glimpse of familiarity.

“Derek promised to buy me lunch,” Kira finally says, glancing around for good measure. Derek’s most likely in the back, though, immersed in grease and work.

Malia nods, looks away, pats down her jeans.

“What if I buy you lunch?”

The question catches Kira off guard and her wide eyes are probably telling since Malia immediately shoves her hands into her jeans and plunges into an explanation.

“Derek’s busy with a demanding asshole’s car and sitting here is getting seriously boring. So please? Put me out of my misery?”

Oh. Well. Kira can roll with that.

“Yeah, sure, if Derek doesn’t mind.”

“Wait here,” Malia instructs before disappearing through the backdoor. Three minutes later, Malia is back with car keys dangling from her fingers and a familiar-looking credit card in her hand. “He doesn’t mind. Now, let’s go. I’m fucking starving.”

The lunch is better than Kira expects. Malia's questions are straightforward but her answers to Kira’s inquires are equally frank. It’s refreshing to finally pour out all the feelings Kira's had bottled up for over a month now. It's also the first time she laughs honestly.

“We should meet up again,” Malia suggests while they're pulling up to Kira's home. Or, well, to her parents’ house.

“Yeah,” Kira agrees readily.

Then, she promptly forgets about wanting to leave for a full week.

“Don’t you want to have your own apartment?” Malia asks with her bare feet trudging in the shallow part of the lake.

Kira pulls her knees up to hug them closer as well as to support her chin as she shrugs noncommittally. “I haven’t thought about it yet.”

“Seriously?" Malia looks flummoxed. "Didn’t you make a comment about the absurdity of sleeping in your old bedroom? Right below your One Direction poster?"

Yeah, Kira spent an entire day mourning over that particular change.

“I know, I just never thought I would need a permanent place here.”

Malia freezes in the water at once and aimes her eyes at her submerged feet. Kira can't parse the emotion on her friend's face, and it makes the anxiety that she hasn't felt around Malia yet emerge with frightening intensity.

“You want to leave.”

There's no accusation behind the words but they aren't exactly warm in nature. Kira doesn't want to lie, not to Malia, so she settles on a shrug.

“But you just got back." And now the hurt is audible in Malia's voice.

“Why should I stay here?" Kira asks, pleading for her friend to understand. "Our friends aren’t here anymore, the pack isn’t here anymore, my life isn’t here-“

Kira bites her tongue. When she got back two months ago, she was filled with exhilaration to reunite with her family. Her mother made occasional visits to the Skinwalkers, but it was nothing compared to the almost forgotten scent of his father's cooking or the sound of her mother's singing as it floated through the house. There was no happier moment in Kira's life than when her mother had called about the Nogitsune's return and the Skinwalkers bid her farewell for good. Her training was over.

But Kira didn't live in Beacon Hills for long and she didn't have childhood memories to anchor her to the town. The only thing that was ever valuable in Beacon Hills were her friends and even they had left a long time ago. Kira has no reason to stay.

“I’m here,” Malia's words break through her thoughts, and Kira meets her eyes curiously.

“Why? What holds you back?”

Malia doesn't answer. She simply walks out of the lake and sits beside her in the grass. It's an unusually sunny day.

“Parrish?” Kira chances, and her heart soars when Malia shakes her head lightly.

“I guess... I was waiting for everyone to come back.”

Kira hasn't considered it yet - what it must have felt like to be left behind by all their friends. The worst is, though, that she doesn't remember if she ever said goodbye to Malia.

They listen to the forest while soaking in the pale light of the Sun, and at one point, Malia decides to lie down on her back and just watch the vagrant clouds as they swim past the treetops. Kira hasn't known this kind of peace in... 14 years.

“I guess..." Malia suddenly speaks, quieter but somehow braver, "I was waiting for you to come back.”

Kira looks at the other woman, at the challenge and hope in her eyes. At the evident fear that she bares open for only Kira to see.

She leans onto her side until she hovers above Malia, and slowly, tentatively, takes hold of her hand.

“Will you help me look for an apartment?”

Malia beams, and just like that, Kira no longer regrets coming back.

[jjsstars]

tw rarepair week 23: day 7, post-canon kira/derek

|| for @teenwolfrarepairevents event

|| tags: marriage proposal, professor!kira (it’s just background)

It’s whispered at first, in Kira’s ear before she walks out the door to go to her early morning class at the college she’s filling in at. At least for the summer, it means Kira and Derek have less time to see each other and maybe that’s why he uses the extra lovey nickname.

Kira purposefully ignores the “sweetheart” Derek said that morning, knowing how hard pda can be for her partner. But then it keeps happening, going from a whisper to said with a smile, to almost used as much as her name. She loves it, drinks it in every time Derek’s smooth voice lets the word come out.

“I’ll see you tonight sweetheart, wear something classy.” Hale smiles with a kiss to Kira’s cheek as he dashes out of the auditorium she’s speaking at, they have plans tonight and are both giddy about it.

Kira bought a tight little black dress in advance and she knows Derek’s going to be in a suit since he left the card for the dry cleaners out on the coffee table. She swears sometimes he forgets that they live together. Not that Kira minds all the much, she gives her speech to her students, happily telling them to have a good weekend before she’s rushing home.

It doesn’t take Yukimura long to get ready and she even has time to talk to Lydia on the phone about her and Jordan’s plans, they’re staying in, Lydia teasing that whatever Derek has planned for Kira must be good if he’s actually wearing a suit. She laughs along the jokes Martin throws out, with Parrish’s input once he crashes their phone call; until Derek sends a text that he’s downstairs, having gotten ready at Peters so they each had their own time to prepare for the night out.

The dinner they have is nice and fancier than Kira was expecting, she knows Derek has the money and the connections to get them into luxury places, she just wasn’t thinking it’d be tonight. She does her best to look and act the part of someone who’s been here before, someone who’s totally not staring and blown away by each dish that gets brought out. She’s not sure she does it well, Derek doesn’t mention it, only takes her hand and watches her through hooded eyes.

“What’s the special occasion? Not that I’m complaining it’s just- why here? Why tonight?” Their food has been finished for at least fifteen minutes but Derek hasn’t ordered desert, instead he’s got an odd nervous look on his face. Kira hopes she didn’t mess anything up.

“I wanted to talk to you about something.” His tone falls serious, Kira straightens her back and nods. They already live together and have had the kid talk, both deciding that if it happens then it happens but they won’t force it, so Kira isn’t sure what Derek could be getting at.

“What is it?” She asks and prays he doesn’t hear how her heartbeat has sped up just a notch, it’s wishful thinking really, she knows he hears it, Derek doesn’t say anything.

“I want to ask you to marry me.” He says simply and gently places an opened box with a gold ring in it. It’s modest, a thin band with a small K+D engraved into it, Kira’s heart skips a beat. It’s what type of ring she’s wanted since she was a kid and dreamed of marrying a prince, a dream that she knows she’s told Derek at least once, and that he’s heard her describe what type of ring she wanted. She can’t believe he remembered it. She looks up to meet Hales eyes, double checking that she isn’t dreaming, he smiles back in reassurance as though he can read her mind.

“This is the part where you say yes or no.” Kira’s shoulders drop with a laugh, all the tension in her slipping away with Derek’s grin.

“Yes, yes, of course I’ll marry you!” She rushes to assure and in seconds Derek has the ring slipped onto Kira’s left hand. Her heart feels full when she stares down at it, the light hung above their table making the ring gleam, it’s a shine Kira hopes she never has to go a day without seeing.

“I can’t wait to marry you sweetheart.” The grin across Derek’s cheeks is wider than Kira’s ever seen, his eyes glowing a flash of red that makes her own flick orange. She can’t wait to marry him either.

[sylviegunpla]

Gunpla: Completed Collection of Minis: Part 4: Gundam SEED

Next is the SEED Figures. These guys will have a lot of cockpit shots because i already finished off most of their models (though a couple of them were back before i was doing water slides, and just using the decal-stickers and dry-rubs that came with most non-ver-ka MGs)

PG Astray Red Frame: Lowe Gule

This was done before i had access to my magnifying binoculars. The panel lining was actually done with gundam panel line marker, over Mr. Super Clear Gloss. This kinda turned out well. However, his "brother" (the pilot figurine) wasn't so lucky: (under the cut)

This one i started panel lining, then messed up and erased, and it wound up not coming off right. So i just didn't bother and went ahead and finished it with a flat coat, no nuln oil for detailing or anything. BTW, the way i captured that backshot gives me an idea for what i could do with suit-less pilots.... but i'll leave that for another day. Anyway, i actually already water slide decaled his suit, so i could take pictures of him in the cockpit!

Oops, got a little carried away there.

moving on...

MG Strike Rouge + Ootori: Cagalli Yula Athha

This was THE first figure i tried nuln oil on. However, it turned out kinda messy, because it was a tutorial my friend was showing me. HOWEVER HOWEVER, i managed to recover it without too much work! I think she looks decent overall.

The pilot figurine was also finished with Nuln Oil, but after i knew what i was doing. I think she turned out a bit better.

Next, we're gonna go behind the scenes and see some of the movie magic i use to make it seem like these guys are in fully constructed models (I already tricked you with the post about the Hi-nu!)

Some basic shots showing the cockpit hatch structure.

And now you can't tell again that it's not complete!

The hatch is now closed. We move onto another pink gundam:

MG Infinite Justice: Athrun Zala

I finished him with only a little bit of panel liner, down the middle of his chest, and nuln oil on the face. A little blobby/messy but still achieves a decent effect from afar.

Here's the pilot figurine. No backshot because i pretty much left his back unfinished. You have to constantly change the thing holding the figure in order to paint certain sections and i was getting tired of trying to do the back.

His cockpit operates very simply, so i only have a few shots:

Yup, there he is. He's actually mostly fully built because i had to detach him from the sick ass plane he normally hangs from. Yes, the mecha suit i mean hangs from a plane. It's so sick, i'll have pictures in another post dedicates to this kit.

BONUS: So, for a while, i had this figurine that i THOUGHT was the pilot figurine for this kit. But then one day i opened up the cockpit hatch and saw the figurine. So who is this guy? what kit does he come from? I'm not even sure if it comes from a PG (1/60) or an MG (1/100), it seems closer in size to the PGs though. You can see i attempted to start painting it in Athrun Zala colors. I actually finished it but it looked so weird trying to force the sculpt to match the image. My friend thinks the sculpt looks like it could be a specific pilot outfit that Kira Yamato wears. It's equally likely it might be a Mu from a PG Sky Grasper. Can anyone positively identify the kit this figurine comes from? The few possibilities we think it might be are kits my friend used to have, but lost due to Moving Shenanigans. so we cannot confirm that those kits are missing pilots. ANyway, moving on, to the final figures:

2x RG Strike Freedom: Kira Yamato

Why do i have two of these guys? Because i have two of the kits! The Strike Freedom was the first RG I assembled, in 2020. In 2021, i got P-Bandai's "Titanium Finish" release of the exact same kit. Thus, i had two Kira Yamatos to paint. These both were painted in my first run of minis in Fall 2023, and they are the last of such minis to be shown off here! I did not panel line them, hell you can tell that getting the stripes on their tiny pilot suits was hard enough. They're very messy and have bad color separation. Honestly, i might try redoing one of them now that i have magnifying goggles. It would be worth it. And as a reminder, since these came with an RG, they are 1/144 scale, so a bit tinier than most of the others i've shown off (which are 1/60 or 1/100).

I believe that does it for Part 4. I just barely had enough image slots for all these pictures, but sadly not enough for some "gags" i wanted to do. there would have been 3 more images in the set of 6 pictures of Lowe Gule boarding the Astray Red Frame, but i had to cut them for extra space. To read part 5, Click This Link!

[starry-blue-echoes]

so fresh off DMQ and my brain is already rotating with The Rot so let's talk about the Act 4 AU shall we :)

since DMQ doesn't give an exact date for when Kira starts doing his whole Ghost Hitman Thing, I'm just going to say this takes place a bit over a year after DiU and a few weeks/months before Part 5

so Kira's vibing right? Going around Morioh, doing his Hitman things, and vaguely aware of the presence of Stand Users. He knows they exist and he thinks their powers are kinda cool, but they can't see him so there's really no point in paying them much attention when he could use that time looking for a place to stay

so one day, he ends up passing by Koichi who was simply floating around by himself and at first he doesn't think much of it. He'd seen the little Stand around more than a few times, enough that he was used to his presence, but never tried approaching him because...... well, why would he? As far as he knew, "Echoes" wasn't that much different from any other Stand. Sure it was little weird he never saw the Stand's User, but eh Stands were weird in general

but then Koichi's gaze flickers to him as he hovers by and it hits Kira with all the subtly of a lightning strike that he can see him

unfortunately for Kira, Koichi also recognises him and he

flips

out

he uses every ability, every attack, every single offensive thing he'd learned how to use and does so immediately because Oh God Oh No Kira That's Kira How Is Kira Here He's Dead And Gone And I Saw It I Saw Him Die-

and he actually ends up forcing Kira to retreat. As trained as the guy is, he's used to his targets being more or less completely helpless against him. He's never had anyone fight back before, not to mention he's completely unequipped to go against a Stand. While Koichi isn't able to do anything permanent or "life treating" to him, Kira can't do anything back and could be left at the mercy of something that can kill him later on

so he runs and Koichi chases

at this point Kira's managed to put together that this "Echoes" seems to know who he is, or at the very least who he was. The fact he keeps shouting things like "I won't let you get away again!" and "you think you can run from what you've done?!?" and seems to be on the verge of an emotional breakdown really just adds more to that line of thought

unfortunately for him, Koichi knows Morioh better than he does and manages to catch up thanks to the fact he doesn't have to worry about bumping into people or going around obstacles. They fight again, and this time Kira actually gets a bit fucked up. A couple of his limbs are detached and he's barely standing, his Ghost Gun is out of bullets and he's debating the merits of using it as a bludgeoning weapon-

and suddenly Koichi just stops. Him running on this many emotions already wasn't going to be good, but because of how long it was going on for? Yeah it was completely overwhelming. Koichi's terror finally wins out over the rage and it finally hits him that Kira hasn't sustained any permanent damage. How he simply reattached all the limbs he lost, how there hasn't been so much as a single drop of blood, how Kira's pose and gaze right now is so similarly That Day

In that moment Koichi doesn't see Kira as a helpless opponent on the ropes. He sees a terrifying monster biding his next move to kill him all over again

so he runs. He flies as fast and far as he's willing to dare to get away from Kira

this ends up starting a sort of back and forth between the two for a few weeks. Koichi and Kira will spot each other in public, one will pursue the other, but just before anything gets done one of them will flee in a way the other can't follow until their next encounter. Koichi does end up telling the others, of course he does, but because of the whole Ghost thing only Koichi's able to actually see him

and as time goes by, with every fight both sides slowly put more pieces together. Koichi learns Kira is in fact dead. Kira learns Echoes's User was murdered. Koichi learns Kira doesn't remember him. Kira learns Echoes is his own User. Back and forth, fight after fight they slowly get a better look at the picture they're looking at

On Koichi's side of things it's....... it's going. Learning Kira didn't remember him pissed him off beyond belief and added more emotional conflict with the angry vs terrified thing going on in his head. Ironically though, fighting Kira so regularly ends up serving as a weird kind of Exposure Therapy. The fact he actually wins most of their fights does loads for his confidence, however it is slightly undercut by the fact Kira keeps escaping

and on Kira's side, he's Not Having The Best Time. With every piece of his past identity he slowly gleams from Echoes, the more he starts to fear who he used to be. Kira knows he's no saint, he literally kills people with little remorse as his job, but...... but he still has some morals. He kills people a monk tells him to, so my vibe about his victims was he was a killer of other killers and has some kind of ethical decency he lacked when alive. And Echoes..... based on what he's learned about the Stand from some eavesdropping on friends and some spying, the Stand seems like genuinely a good guy. During said eavesdropping he even ends up hearing his own name dropped a few times, and with the anger poison disgust hate they say his name with..... Kira gathers he must've done something awful to him

they only manage to get any proper headway when one of Koichi's friends ends up accidentally popping in during the middle of one of their fights and calls Koichi by his human name. The fight ends the same as it always does, but this time Kira actually has something to work with now. He ends up trying to learn whatever he can about any "Koichi's" of note in the last few years. And eventually, after a lot of different dead ends, he ends up investigating one Koichi Hirose who reportedly died in a gas explosion a few years back

this then leads to the pair's final fight. Kira goes to the graveyard to Koichi's tomb and finds him sitting there

the fight wasn't even that physical this time. Aside from a thrown attack or two from Koichi (which were very carefully aimed as to not hit any of the other headstones), it was mostly the pair shouting back and forth as Koichi hovered protectively in front of his tomb and Kira tried getting answers

And eventually Koichi gives him the final piece

"What, it wasn't enough to kill me?" he spits. "You have to disrespect my resting place too?!?"

and Kira stops

at this point he knew Echoes, Koichi, was young. Far younger than he was, and after learning his name and seeing the date on the tomb he realises Koichi would've been a teenager

and suddenly Koichi's loathing and terror and offence at being forgotten makes so much sense

He'd killed him. When he was alive, he'd killed a teenager, and by the looks of things, it had been an innocent one at that. Every word Koichi had spoken, every action he'd taken, how he'd been so desperate to kill Kira but so hesitant to get close suddenly made a painful amount of sense

it's at this point he finally explains he doesn't remember anything about his life. Aside from his name, every memory he has was created only after he woke up as a ghost

and this....... makes things a bit awkward. Neither know what to say or do in the face of all the new information that's suddenly been brought to the table or how to feel about it

maybe Koichi tells Kira what he'd done in life. Maybe he ends up having one of his friends do it

they don't become friends after everything is said and done. With all their history that would be impossible so soon after both their deaths. But they say hi when they pass each other in the road. Koichi shows him the Bad Alley for whenever he'd like to sleep in a house without being bothered. Kira teaches him a bunch of tricks he picked up for how to experience a world not made for people like them. They share information when Kira has a job

they stay distant, but slowly they become more comfortable with the other's presence. And who knows. Maybe a few decades in the future they could get closer

not now though. not yet

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

If Light hadn't fucked up with the Lind L. Taylor thing, do you think L would still have been able to figure out where Light was? I've always considered that moment to be the most damning fuck up on Light's end.

That's the thing, L already knew Kira was almost certainly in Japan.

Light's first victim was only broadcast on Japanese media in the Japanese language. More, as Light went on his initial murder spree, while he did have many international victims, he likely had several victims who were only broadcast in Japanese media or else much less well-known outside Japan. This is in part why the Japanese are the first to really notice Kira and give him a name on Death Note 4-chan.

Now, it's possible Light might not have been Japanese. He could have been simply staying in Japan during that time to be able to look up these criminals as well as fluent enough in Japanese to get by but it's more likely that he does live in Japan and speaks Japanese because he is Japanese.

L canonically states that this was why he broadcast in Japan in the Kanto region first: he was almost entirely certain Kira was in Japan and Kanto having the largest population was as good a place to start as any.

L didn't really need the Lind L. Taylor stunt to narrow Light down to Japan. In fact, the stunt could have gone very wrong for him very easily. Light might not have spoken English fluently enough to understand the broadcast (what it was broadcast in to give the illusion of being an international broadcast), Light might not have been watching TV at the moment of the broadcast, or Light could have simply decided not to kill Lind L. Taylor.

That said, if it didn't work out, L doesn't really lose anything. He can save face by claiming it was to rattle Kira and goad him into doing something stupid later on, it also sows doubt of Kira with the public and assures them that someone is on the case. L would just wave his hand and say, "Anyway, uh, let's start our investigation in Japan" and then continue with where he left off in canon.

(As a reminder, from there, Light started fucking with the police and tipped his hand so as to eliminate L as a rival: making it clear that Kira had access to police records that are not available to the public. That's how L was able to narrow it down to family members of Japanese police which is where he brought in the American FBI (who he can somehow send out internationally, when that's a domestic agency, but whatever L).)

The reason L does it though is not just to prove Kira's in Japan and likely in Kanto (which is nice but that's still millions of people to sift through). It's to prove to the public that Kira is a human driven by emotions and malice, it's to rattle Kira wherever he is, and it's to prove to Interpol that this weird guy who refuses to show his face anywhere is in fact the man for the job (as Interpol was generally dubious about involving L as he's... not popular for understandable reasons).

Now, typical L, he sets up a man's public execution on live television in what feels like a Black Mirror episode with the justification "he was going to die anyway" to just prove a point he already could have proven otherwise but that's just what L does.

I do agree it's Light's biggest fuck up, however, it's also very telling that it actually changes absolutely nothing had he not fucked up. He just felt like a really angry idiot for a moment there and L got put on the top of his death list.

[ari-the-arotistic]

26 Xenk and Edgin please!

Title: For the dancing and the dreaming

Author: Xenk Yendar(Ari_the_Arotistic)

Rating: General Audiences

Pairings: Edgin Darvis/Xenk Yendar

Summary:

Watching his husband work in the garden, Edgin takes a moment to appreciate this second chance.

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Prompt 26: Tears

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Edgin hummed a soft tune to himself as he sat on the bench in his back yard, knitting a scarf he planned to give Kira for her birthday when she came home to visit from her school in Neverwinter. As he knitted, he would occasionally take breaks to look up and watch his husband work, as Xenk toiled away in the garden. It was a rather domestic sight, and it took his breath away nearly every time he saw it. Sometimes he couldn't believe just how lucky he had been to get a second chance at love like this. He thought about more often then he would like to admit. He knew that what he has with Xenk will never be anything like what he had with Zia, but that didn't make it any less special. There were times, however, when he couldn't help but wonder if Zia would approve of his new relationship. It was a silly thing to think about, but he couldn’t help but worry himself sick over the thought some nights. Trying to pull himself together, Edgin went back to knitting Kira's scarf, shaking his head slightly to clear it of unwanted thoughts, when suddenly a blue dragon fly appeared out of nowhere and landed feather soft on his now stilled hands. He blinked owlishly at the insect, barely having the time to recognize it as Zia's dragon fly, before it was off in the air again, leaving his thoughts in more of a mess then before it had arrived. It seemed that Zia did approve. That thought was like a slap to the face, and he couldn't help it. He began to cry - small, silent tears at first, but it steadily grew harsher, until his body was wracked with sobs, little hiccups the only noise that escaped his mouth. With his ever impressive hearing, Xenk was by his side within in seconds, kneeling down in front of him and grabbing his writs to steady him, a look of concern written on his features.

"Are you alright, my love? Did you hurt yourself during your knitting?" Xenk asked softly, quickly looking down to inspect his hands, and Edgin couldn't help but laugh softly between sobs, shaking his head in response.

"No no, I'm alright. Just emotional today." He replied in as soothing of a voice as he could muster, trying to calm himself down. Xenk simply hummed in reply, and planted feather soft kisses on his hands, whispering soft nothings to help his husband calm down.

"A silver for your thoughts?" He murmured quietly once Edgin had finally stopped crying, curious to know what had caused the outburst in the first place. Edgin sighed softly, letting go of the scarf he had been working on in favor of taking Xenk's hands in his own, and giving them a light squeeze.

"Just thinking about how lucky I am to have you." He replied once he was able to collect his thoughts, giving Xenk a tentative smile. "After Zia, I never thought I'd ever have something like this again, and... well, sometimes it can be overwhelming." He continued, trying to explain it as best as he could. Xenk nodded softly, and stood up, before joining Edgin on the bench.

"Would you like me to stay with you for a few minutes?" He asked softly, lifting a hand to brush a loose strand of Edgin's hair behind his ear.

"You should probably get back to work." Edgin protested weakly, though he made no effort to resist when Xenk placed a gentle kiss on his cheek, and pulled him closer.

"The garden can wait." Xenk replied, before planting another kiss atop Edgin's forehead. Edgin just sighed softly, and laid his head down on Xenk's shoulder, nuzzling into the crook of his neck.

"Thank you." He mumbled softly, a small smile on his face as he listened to Xenk's steady breathing, allowing himself to just enjoy the moment

[chacusha]

Odo’s morality

I was talking with @weaver0fwords about why it is that Odo never acknowledges Quark's more good deeds, like the food/supply smuggling he did for Bajorans during Terok Nor, or why Odo, someone who is concerned more with justice than law, strongly disapproves when (for example) Quark arms the Maquis and similar groups. It's very likely (given Odo's close monitoring of Quark) that Odo knew about Quark’s smuggling during the occupation and yet he never mentions or acknowledges it at any point in the show, and when you do have Odo finding out about Quark’s illegal activities that seem to be for a good cause, he’s usually annoyed/disapproving in a way that indicates that he still very much has a low opinion of Quark. This got me thinking about how I think Quark’s morality has been very influential on Odo and that Odo and Quark have a kind of symbiotic relationship when it comes to moral action. There's less evidence of it in canon, but I also think Kira had a similar influence on Odo's morality. Both Quark and Kira through their contrast with Odo's values help define for Odo what he is willing and not willing to do.

This is one of my favorite topics so I decided to expound a bit more on what I think Odo's morality is as depicted in the show, and how I think Quark and Kira shaped that morality.

Just a note before going into my thoughts about Odo's moral compass: One of the things that is difficult about putting together a coherent picture of Odo's morality is that (1) the show is inconsistent and contradictory in its depiction of Odo's morality, and (2) the show also, I think, makes missteps in its depiction of Odo's morality. Both of these things result in, at best, unexplained puzzles that the viewer must solve by filling in details or, at worst, plot holes that require the viewer to throw away or mentally rewrite bits of canon in order to come up with a better/more realistic/more consistent depiction of Odo.

What I mean by (1) is that Quark and Odo's relationship is kind of infamously incoherent and open to multiple reads about what is going on between them. Because Quark's morality departs so far from Odo's stated morality, Odo's relationship and attitude toward Quark (which can range in interpretation from plain and simple hatred/contempt to having a crush on or being in a relationship with Quark the whole time) does have ramifications on what Odo's morality (in practice) is. Without being able to piece together a consistent read of Odo and Quark's relationship, it is hard to decide on what Odo's morality is in fact meant to be.

What I mean by (2) is that I think the writers intended Odo to be overall a "good"-aligned character and a character you can recognize as being morally upright and a good/moralistic person, although one that has shades of grey and less savory aspects to his character and one that (like MANY ST:DS9 characters) is thoroughly morally compromised. However, I think the writers miscalibrated their moral scale slightly when it comes to Odo. I think ST:DS9 puts a bit too much weight on Odo's moral virtue stemming from the fact that he is a "neutral" "impartial" outsider observing humanoid conflict and legal systems and stringently applying that neutrality in a way to improve them. To modern audiences, though, even someone who actually IS perfectly neutral and impartial and unbiased (and not simply claiming to be such) in a system as skewed as the Cardassian occupation of Bajor is prrrobably doing much more to prop up that system and launder its obvious injustices into a misleading veneer of respectability than they are making anything better. As such, I think Odo comes out of the occupation looking much worse than what was the writers' intent. For example, I think 5x08 "Things Past" is an interesting episode but is badly calibrated. From everything we know about Odo, he probably has plenty to feel bad about even if he carried out justice (as he felt it) perfectly aboard Terok Nor. You can complicate his character quite a lot just by showing him to be a good and competent cop/chief of security aboard Terok Nor; instead the writers choose to depict Odo's "failings" aboard Terok Nor as stemming from sloppy detective work where he fails to find the real culprits of a crime and instead condemns innocent people to execution. In my mind, this is my mental model of what I think the writers intended with that episode and why I think it failed to accomplish its goals:

I think the writers thought they were writing a character who, through his strong sense of justice but position within Dukat's colonial government was complicated but generally seen as a good/friendly presence on Terok Nor by Bajorans. Adding nuance to his character would therefore mean depicting him falling short of people's image of him. However, to a more modern audience, even when doing his job perfectly, Odo is already quite a morally-compromised character. In order to make it believable that Bajorans respect and trust him, he must have been doing something else outside the chief of security role that they felt was helpful and beneficial. But we barely see evidence of this in the show aside from Odo withholding information once in order to protect Kira (implicitly “picking a side," as she puts it, in the Cardassian-Bajoran conflict). In order to add nuance to his character and also make his character comprehensible, the show actually needs to go the opposite direction -- show us more of Odo doing things that would have gotten him in Bajorans' good books, show us that what he did for Kira was part of a larger consistent pattern he engaged in during his time at Terok Nor, not a one-off thing, and certainly not reveal things that make his character during the occupation look even worse than it already is. While the show does plenty to indicate it understands that Odo's position at Terok Nor was not morally clear-cut -- the show clearly depicts Odo as Not a Good Person and shows that many people actually do view him as a collaborator -- it is ultimately very hard to square facts like (a) Odo being chief of security on Terok Nor and coming out of the occupation still able to occupy that position on DS9, and (b) Kira having such a close and trusting friendship with him from the very start of the series, with Odo's personality and his actions on Terok Nor. So this is what I mean when I say that the writers made some missteps in Odo's depiction. I think how Odo is actually depicted in terms of his morality comes apart significantly from what the writers thought they were depicting, and so I have to kind of choose between interpreting Odo's character based on what is actually there in the show vs. interpreting it based on what I think was the underlying intention re: his character.

Okay, with those preliminary caveats out of the way, let's get into the main argument I want to make, which is that, despite all the issues mentioned above, the way that I read Odo is that Odo relies heavily on Quark's moral compass to do two things for Odo: (1) to calibrate Odo's own moral code (Quark as a moral teacher for Odo), and (2) to allow Odo to indirectly express parts of his morality that he is too squeamish to engage in himself (Quark as a proxy/symbiotic moral agent that complements Odo's stated morality). While Odo never verbally acknowledges that Quark is (in some ways) a good person or that Odo morally approves of some of his sketchier actions, I think it is somewhat implied by the fact that Quark is still at Terok Nor/DS9 that, all-in-all, Quark remains in Odo's "good books" despite how much Odo attests that he's going to arrest Quark (you know... any day now...) and how hostile he is toward Quark. I also think Odo's relationship with Kira is much the same, where Kira, like Quark, challenges Odo's morality and causes him to have to rethink his moral positions, and also that Kira too is a proxy/symbiotic moral agent that allows Odo to indirectly "act" in ways he normally could not.

Some basics about Odo's morality

First off, let me just collect some things from canon that I think establish the basic contours of Odo's morality:

Odo has a strong sense of justice / is a moralistic person / believes himself to be a force of justice in the world. Whether or not he actually has this effect at any time is highly debatable, but I think we can assume that Odo at least believes himself to have a strong grasp of the good and to be consciously and constantly striving to take action in service of that notion of The Good. From 2x08 "Necessary Evil": Odo: Nobody ever had to teach me the justice trick. That's something I've always known. A racial memory from my species, I guess. It's really the only clue I have to what kind of people they are. From 2x18 "Profit and Loss": Odo: All right. I'll do it. Quark: You will? Odo: But not for you. Turning Hogue and Rekelen over to the Cardassians would mean their deaths. I've read their files and nothing they've done warrants that kind of punishment. I'll free them, Quark, but only in the name of justice. Some examples of Odo viewing justice to be core to his motivation/personality. From 3x02 "The Search, part II": Odo: I've devoted my life to the pursuit of justice, but justice means nothing to you, does it? Female Changeling: It's not justice you desire, Odo, but order. The same as we do. Justice vs. order is a frequent recurring theme/dilemma in Odo's storylines and is where he comes apart from his Changeling brethren. Odo frequently rejects the project of the Founders as being immoral and separates himself from them (morally and physically) and even works to undermine their efforts. From 3x07 "Civil Defense": Quark: It's because they knew you were an honorable man. The kind of person who would do the right thing regardless of the circumstances. And now your integrity is going to get us both killed. I hope you're happy. This is Quark's evaluation of Odo and is treated as something kind and reassuring to say, something that Odo would be pleased to have someone say about him (of course, Quark tempers the praise with insults at the end). Honor and integrity are clearly important to Odo. In addition, we frequently see Odo contemptuous of other people's moral failings. Quark is one frequent target of Odo's contempt but he also shows contempt for other individuals throughout the series. He's just generally a very judgy/moralistic person and I think this helps establish him as someone primarily motivated by justice.

Odo has a complicated relationship to law and regulations. On one hand, it's clear that Odo has a general preference for things to be orderly -- people complying with the rules and regulations he's set up on the station, people not breaking the law, people not disturbing the peace/ordinary day-to-day operations. However, on the other hand, he will frequently disregard laws and regulations he views to be irritating or illegitimate. Yet at the same time, he will often appeal to legal systems and laws in order to discipline bad actors and constrain the ability of people to act badly. From 2x22 "The Wire": Odo: I routinely monitor all of Quark's subspace communications. Bashir: Is that legal? Odo: It's in the best interests of station security. An example of Odo blatantly and intentionally disregarding local laws to maintain station security. See also the above actions regarding the Cardassian dissidents in 2x18 "Profit and Loss," where Odo cooperates with Quark to use an illegal cloaking device to smuggle Natima and co. off the station in direct violation of an agreement between the Bajoran AND Cardassian governments, upheld by the Federation, to hand Natima over to Cardassia. From 2x20 "The Maquis, part I": Odo: If you will let me be in charge of Security I will give you a safe station. You people tell me to do my job then give me a Federation rulebook listing all the things I can't do. Untie my hands before you start to blame me, Mister O'Brien. Dax: I'm sure no one meant to blame you, Odo. Odo: Give me the right to set a curfew, let me do more searches of arriving passengers, give me fifty more deputies. Kira: And this station will be just the way it was during the occupation. By contrast, this is an example of Odo complaining about how his actions are limited by local regulations. It's also an indication that, if Odo were in charge of setting policy and laws, his natural inclination/morality leans quite authoritarian, moreso than the Federation, and probably also Ferengi and Bajoran culture too (certainly more than Kira). Of course, the measures he lists here are indeed things he needs some amount of institutional support/buy-in/resources in order to accomplish. This maybe gives an important hint at Odo's morality which is that illegal actions, especially ones that can be executed on his own, surreptitiously and privately, he is perfectly willing to do. From 4x16 "Bar Association": Quark: I need you to get those traitors [his striking workers] away from my front door. They're blocking access to my place of business, causing a disturbance on the Promenade, and they're probably a fire hazard. They belong in a holding cell, every last one of them. Odo: Well, I hate to admit this, but I agree with you. From what Chief O'Brien tells me about strikes, they sound like trouble. I don't like mobs. In my opinion, if you need one to get what you want, it's not worth getting. Quark: Good. Then you'll haul them away. Odo: I'll do nothing of the sort. Quark: But you said-- Odo: I know what I said. But I have strict orders from Captain Sisko not to impinge on your employees' freedom of expression. As long as they stay peaceful and allow your customers access through the second level entrance, I'm not allowed to interfere. Another example of Odo refusing to break local laws and orders even though it conflicts with his own personal preferences/moral system. Perhaps a bit complicated by the fact that thwarting Quark might be part of Odo's motivation here... From 5x19 "In the Pale Moonlight": Sisko: I can't have any record of him being on the station. Odo: I see. I am certainly aware of the need for special security measures during wartime, but as a matter of law, if Quark chooses to press charges against Tolar, I have no choice but to make an arrest. Here, Odo appeals to the law as a way of thwarting Sisko, despite the fact that Odo can and does disregard the law when it suits him. Possibly the difference here is that this is a security incident, which Odo views as his intrinsic duty to investigate and pursue. It’s also possible that Odo’s recalcitrance comes from a suspicion of authority figures bending the rules to suit them, behavior that Odo might find it his duty to curtail and obstruct wherever possible. (On a shippy read, it’s also possible Odo’s stubbornness is related to the fact that Quark was hurt in the incident.) It's kind of hard to piece together a coherent picture of Odo because of all this. The best I can do is to say that Odo has a somewhat bifurcated approach to moral and legal systems. If the moral/legal system is one that coheres with Odo’s own morality (including systems he himself has designed), any amount of authoritarianism is justified in carrying out and enforcing that moral system. If the moral/legal system is one he disagrees with, though, it loses all form of legitimacy and Odo no longer feels like such rules apply to him. He is willing to take any action he views as just, if it can be carried out by himself in a fairly invisible manner.

Odo is at least somewhat critical of the Cardassian occupation. As far as I can tell, Odo doesn’t frequently state what he thinks about the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. However, we do know that he was Terok Nor’s final chief of security (1x04 “A Man Alone”) -- as in, he stuck around the administration for several years and held a fairly significant position therein -- and that during 2x08 “Necessary Evil,” he was quite blunt to Dukat about his low opinion of the Cardassian occupation: Dukat: Have you ever seen a dead man before? Odo: Yes. In your mines.  Dukat: I'm talking about order here. Justice. Odo: There's very little justice in the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. It’s a bit unclear whether Odo’s opinion is that any sort of colonial situation is intrinsically unjust and illegitimate or whether he just disapproved of specific abuses present in the current regime. However, we can certainly say that, though Cardassian-aligned in his position and at times easily manipulated by Dukat into accomplishing Dukat’s goals (2x08 “Necessary Evil”; 5x08 “Things Past”), Odo was clear-eyed about the cruel way in which Bajorans were treated during the occupation.

Odo is personally a pacifist who eschews deadly violence in his role as a security officer, but he has taken life indirectly by submitting suspected criminals to the death penalty. It’s established from the very beginning that Odo never uses phasers/weapons, nor does he allow such things on the Promenade (1x01 “Emissary”). This suggests a preference toward using non-lethal ways of dealing with security threats. This is reiterated in 3x26 “The Adversary” in foreshadowing before the first time Odo (unintentionally) takes a life: Eddington: [to Odo] You sure I can't interest you in one of these [a phaser]? Odo: I don't use them. Besides, in the history of my people, no changeling has ever harmed another. I'd hate to be the first. Eddington: Apparently that changeling doesn't feel the same way. If we don't stop him, no one on board will escape unharmed. Including you. Odo: You may be right. But I've been a security officer most of my humanoid existence and in all that time, I've never found it necessary to fire a weapon or take a life. I don't intend to start now. However, people that Odo suspected were terrorists did get executed on Terok Nor and Odo mainly seems more upset about the fact that they were possibly innocent and less so about the fact that the punishment was death (5x08 “Things Past”), and a Cardassian points out in 7x21 “When It Rains...” that Odo, in his role as chief of security, handed Bajorans over to the Cardassian legal system, which we know at this point features elements like torture, show trials, and death penalties. From 7x21 “When It Rains...”: Seskal: Odo. When you were the Head of Security on Terok Nor, what did you think was going to happen to the Bajoran prisoners you arrested? Kira: You don't have to answer that. [...] Odo: I expected that my prisoners would be dealt with justly, but I soon came to realize that Cardassians have little interest in justice. Seskal: Ah. Well, then, why didn't you resign in protest? Kira gets annoyed before Odo can answer, but anyway, it’s clear that it’s part of Odo’s code that he doesn’t kill, although this is a bit hard to square with the fact that he has taken actions that led to people being executed.

Some basics about Quark's illegal activities on Terok Nor

Here, I just want to review some facts about how Quark behaved when he was on Terok Nor, some of which comes fairly late in the series.

From 2x08 "Necessary Evil": Odo: She paid you for an alibi? I wonder how Gul Dukat will react when I tell him about that. Quark: I'm sure it'll cost me a case of Cardassian ale. Dukat: Two cases at the very least. A broken alibi. That sounds like progress.

Here, it's clear that Quark regularly lied/gave cover stories for people in exchange for money. Also, this brief exchange between Quark and Dukat suggests that they had a very similar relationship that Quark and Sisko have during the show. Namely, Quark is repeatedly caught engaging in crimes, but Dukat, clearly believing that Quark's presence on the station is overall a positive/worth it, frequently looks the other way and protects Quark from the full consequences of his actions. One way you could read this exchange is that it is indicative of widespread Cardassian petty corruption, where you can get away with something illegal as long as you give the right people an appropriate bribe. Or you could read it similar to Sisko and Quark's relationship where Quark is allowed to get away with some illegal activity that interferes with station operations but he is usually given a minor slap-on-the-wrist punishment to indicate the administration Disapproves but then is allowed to continue with his business nonetheless. In any case, this indicates that some of Quark's antisocial/subversive activity on Terok Nor was done out in the open, basically, with permission from the administration.

From 2x18 "Profit and Loss": Quark: I owe you. You saved my life. If you'd turned me over to the authorities, I would have been executed. Natima: I admired your courage. It was a brave thing you were doing, selling food to the Bajorans. I thought you were a man of honor. Quark: I'm a Ferengi. You should've known better.

Quark: I didn't betray you. Natima: Don't lie to me, Quark. I know better. You used my personal access codes to authorize payments for goods you never provided. Quark: So I took a little money from the Cardassian Communication Service. They could afford it. Natima: You stole that money. Quark: I saw a chance for profit and I took it. Maybe that was wrong. I don't know. But what I really regret is betraying your trust. That was the worst mistake of my life. Natima: And you'd do it again in a second. I believed in you, Quark. But you were using me like you use everyone. For profit.

This dialogue between Quark and Natima indicates that Quark smuggled food to Bajorans (something that could have resulted in the death penalty) and also used Natima's credentials to embezzle money from her employer. It also indicates that Natima originally thought that Quark's actions were done for noble reasons and was disappointed to find out that it was out of self-interested profit, which Quark does not deny.

From 4x25 "Body Parts": Brunt: You give your customers credit at the bar. You only take a thirty percent kickback from your employees' tips, and you sold food and medicine to Bajoran refugees at cost! Quark: That's not true. It was just above cost. Brunt: Close enough. It was still a generous, hu-mon-itarian gesture.

Here, Brunt corroborates Quark's food (and medicine) smuggling and also approaches this from the opposite direction from Natima, accusing Quark of generosity because he had the opportunity to price gouge but he did not. This additional detail comes quite late in the series but does complicate the depiction of Quark's morality here. While Quark proudly admitted to Natima that he was being merely profit-seeking and mercenary in his interactions with Bajorans (in accordance with Ferengi moral norms), this exchange with Brunt casts doubt on the story that Quark was entirely motivated by profit... However, because it comes so late in the series, it's possible to read this as a retcon intended to soften/complicate Quark's character for the purposes of this episode's plot/conflict with Brunt, rather than a read that was intended for Quark's character the whole time.

Finally, there is a possibility that Quark smuggled weapons to the Bajoran resistance during the Terok Nor era. We never get confirmation of this; in fact, it’s possible to read it as being disconfirmed. However, we do know several things: that Hagath sold weapons to the Bajoran resistance; one of his business associates at the time was Gaila, Quark’s cousin; Quark has told Gaila sometime before 5x18 “Business as Usual” that he is unable to smuggle weapons through DS9 because of Odo’s presence there (this does not preclude, however, Quark helping make alternative arrangements); and that Quark in general is willing to help sell weapons to terrorist groups (as in 2x20 “The Maquis”) by connecting buyers with weapon suppliers.

Odo uses Quark's morality as a baseline/floor when judging other people's morality

Okay, given all these things, it's interesting then to note when Odo seems to compare other people's morality to Quark's and uses that almost like a measuring stick in order to determine when someone's morality is beyond the pale.

In 1x04 "A Man Alone," Odo notices a guest at Quark's who enrages him. Odo tells the man he wants him off the station; they get in a fight that Sisko has to break up; and then Odo says that the man has one day to leave the station. What did that man do that caused Odo to despise him so much?

From 1x04 "A Man Alone": Odo: His name is Ibudan. He used to run black market goods through here to the surface during the Cardassian occupation, gouging his fellow man who needed medical supplies and so forth. Some Bajorans actually considered him a hero, but I saw him let a child die when the parents couldn't afford the drug that would've saved her life. A few years back, he killed a Cardassian officer who wanted a payoff to look the other way. He went to prison for murder. I sent him there.

This is quite interesting given what we (much later) find out about Quark. There's a lot of parallels here between Quark and Ibudan: we know Quark also smuggled medical supplies and also that he frequently bribed Cardassian officers to get them to look the other way. However, Quark does come out of this direct comparison looking pretty good because he didn't price gouge desperate Bajorans and he never killed anyone either. Given that, right before confronting Ibudan, Odo was having a semi-friendly, semi-antagonistic chat with Quark, this scene implicitly draws a strong contrast between Odo's moral evaluation of Ibudan vs. his tolerance for Quark who is in some ways quite a similar character to Ibudan.

Then later, in 2x08 "Necessary Evil," Odo finds out that the thing a list of Bajorans share in common is having collaborated with the Cardassian government:

From 2x08 "Necessary Evil": Sisko: Blackmail? Odo: Blackmail. Sisko: What did they have to hide? Odo: For one thing, that they'd come out of the occupation with that kind of money. Dax: You think they were working with the Cardassians. Odo: Selling out their own world for a profit. (contemptuously) Collaborators. Not even a Ferengi would do that.

Interesting that Odo chooses Ferengi as the comparison class here. Once again, Quark's -- and also Rom's -- morality provides an interesting contrast to the people whom Odo is morally judging. Ferengi are not particularly scrupulous -- in this episode, even, there is much attention paid to the fact that Rom has motive to murder Quark to inherit his bar; it is not above Ferengi to murder/backstab their own brothers to make profit, and this is something Rom has actually done in the past (1x11 "The Nagus"). Quark has even been accused (by Kira in 2x18 "Shadowplay") of being a Cardassian collaborator, and it's established in this episode that Quark was smuggling luxury contraband (ginger tea) to people who could afford it (the aforementioned collaborators). But neither Quark nor Rom are collaborators in the sense that Odo means here -- people who side against their own people in favor of a colonial government and enjoy the power/financial benefits of doing so.

In both of these cases, Odo seems to be comparing the behavior of other criminals or disreputable people to Quark, and he has very little patience for people who come out of that comparison unfavorably, suggesting Quark’s morality forms a kind of “floor” that Odo is willing to tolerate. The fact that Odo's behavior to Quark (while undeniably antagonistic and hostile) still has an air of cordiality to it seems to suggest that in comparison, Quark is actually in Odo's good books (although maybe just manages to squeak by).

Quark and Odo as moral foils

Another plausible read that extrapolates from canon here is that Quark, despite purporting to be amoral, greedy, self-interested, etc., seems to actually engage in quite dangerous behavior to help relatively powerless people who can't pay him much. You can interpret this in many ways, but the simplest is probably that Quark, despite his outer demeanor, is often moved to risk his life if he feels intense enough moral pressure/guilt from not doing so (this, for example, is the core dilemma for Quark in 5x18 "Business as Usual"; see also the stress Quark experiences when responsible for people’s lives in 1x10 “Move Along Home”). Unlike Ibudan who is unmoved by the death of a child because the parents didn't have enough money, Quark is not this way.

So in short, Quark often takes dangerous, illegal action out of a sense of guilt, despite moral, social, and legal pressure to pretend to be entirely self-interested. In this way, Quark's morality forms a direct challenge to Odo's morality: Quark in a lot of ways is a terrible person, one that Odo has contempt for, but Quark is often willing to commit crimes more dangerous and transgressive than Odo is willing or able to do, out of moral guilt. In this way, I think Quark has the capacity to morally shame Odo, because even Quark, a terrible person, is sometimes willing to take actions that Odo wouldn't dream of doing, simply because Quark couldn't morally live with himself if he didn't. Again, Quark functions as a moral compass or floor that Odo is not willing to fall beneath.

Another point of contrast between Quark and Odo’s morality is that Quark tends to be interpersonally immoral and impersonally moral while Odo tends to be interpersonally trustworthy and impersonally immoral. Ferengi morality tends to lead to annoying interpersonal interactions: Ferengi frequently lie to, cheat, exploit, and sexually harass the people around them. In other words, many people find Quark’s style of immorality irritating just because interacting with him is so unpleasant. By contrast, Odo is someone you could trust would not mistreat or disrespect you in a one-on-one interaction. However, in terms of their macro-level politics, Quark probably did more for Bajoran independence than Odo did. In general, his large-scale political instincts are probably better than Odo’s.

Quark allows Odo to externalize some of his morality he is too squeamish to engage in himself directly

This brings me to my second point regarding the way Odo uses Quark's morality. Quark reveals the limits of Odo's strongly-held moral code.

Take, for instance, the act of selling weapons to terrorist groups. Odo is quite pacifist. Quark is too, but selling weapons to terrorist groups apparently isn’t something he balks at (although selling to dictators who plan to mass murder their own citizens is). Odo on the other hand doesn't wear a weapon and (I assume) finds it morally unacceptable to sell weapons that are ultimately just tools for killing people. Whether it kills Cardassians or Bajorans matters a lot to the people embroiled in a conflict, but to Odo who holds himself apart from all races, it's just people killing other people, something that is always wrong and tragic. So selling weapons to a terrorist group is a clear violation of his own moral compass (add to that that it's obviously against the law). But if you take into account the whole situation, especially in the case of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor where you have two very unequal sides, with one side fighting for their lives and their freedom, it becomes less clear. Some of Quark’s illegal activity is undeniably moral... and yet Odo would never do it himself, which I think is a complicated situation for Odo to find himself in.

I think Quark and Odo's relationship is very symbiotic in this way: Quark is capable of doing work that Odo would like to do but he is unable to do. By “unable to do,” partly, I mean this is an external limitation: Odo is unable to visibly break the law from his position as an enforcer of the law. But partly I mean that it’s an internal limitation too, which is that Odo can't bring himself to do it because it goes against his strongly-held and clear-cut personal rules and code (his personal pacifism). But in some sense, Quark allows him to externalize or outsource some of the more complicated and ambivalent parts of Odo's morality that Odo cannot indulge in himself.

We see plenty of examples when Odo makes use of Quark's skills, connections, resources, etc. -- for example, he makes use of Quark's ability to gather info in 2x02 "The Circle" and of Quark's illegal backdoors in 2x24 "The Collaborator" -- presumably the reason why the station keeps Quark around. Odo also acts to free Natima in 2x18 "Profit and Loss" but only at Quark's request. In this way, Quark allows Odo to get around parts of the law he finds unjust while still occupying the role of the enforcer (not breaker) of laws and maintaining trust and the appearance of being “by the book” and principled, by having this separation of morality systems: "Quark does illegal thing [x]. I just chose to look the other way/forgive him when he did that." By enabling Quark to act in the way that he is naturally inclined to act, Odo can avoid the moral failing of refusing to act in a situation that demanded action.

Explorations of this form of morality-by-proxy are very common on ST:DS9. Take, for example, the memorable dynamic between Sisko and Garak in 5x19 "In the Pale Moonlight": Garak is the one actually carrying out the scheming, lying/fabrication, and assassination, but it is all done with Sisko's approval and complicity.

Kira’s morality functions as a ceiling for Odo’s morality

Kira’s morality also seems to have a very similar function as Quark’s, except inverted in a lot of ways. Whereas Quark is an ostensibly amoral character (he’s not actually amoral but he subscribes to a kind of self-interested morality that comes off as callous amorality or moral indifference to most people), Kira is an openly morally-fervent character, very similar to Odo, actually. In other words, Quark is self-interested (a clear vice), while Kira devotes herself to a larger cause to the point of self-sacrifice. Quark’s tendency is toward inaction in terms of risking his life to help those in need, but he is capable of being guilted into moral action. Meanwhile, Kira’s “the ends justify the means” morality means that she has calculated that proactive immoral action (killing the innocent) is morally required of her even if she is wracked by guilt afterward and has to harden her morality into an overly-simplistic good vs. evil, with-us-or-against-us dichotomy in order to keep doing what she does:

From 1x12 “Battle Lines”: Opaka: Just what impression do you think I have? Kira: That... that I enjoy any of this. I... I don't enjoy fighting. Yes, I’ve... I’ve fought my entire life, but for a good cause. For our freedom, our independence. And it was brutal and ugly, and... I.... But that’s over for me now. That’s... that’s not who I am. I don’t want you to think that I am this... violent person without a soul, without a conscience. That-that is not who I am.

From 5x11 “The Darkness and the Light”: Kira: So you were wounded during an attack I carried out when I was part of the resistance, and I'm supposed to feel guilty? We were at war, Silaran. Fifteen million Bajorans died during the occupation and you want me to feel sorry for you?

From 7x21 “When It Rains...”: Kira: Believe me, I understand how you feel. During the occupation, I didn't want to attack any facility that had a Bajoran working in it. But I did it. Because they were collaborators. They were working with the enemy. 

Like Quark, Kira’s morality presents a direct challenge to Odo’s: she is someone who is driven by morality to fight and kill, even self-sacrificially make herself a worse person and damage her own psyche in pursuit of a better world and to defend others who cannot defend themselves. However, in the reverse of Quark’s, her morality forms an upper bound on Odo’s morality, a threshold that he is not willing to cross in the name of justice / goodness / morality. Both Odo and Kira live their life in the service of the greater good, but in her violence, Kira crosses a line that is too central to Odo’s moral code for him to cross himself. Therefore, she reveals the limits of what sorts of action Odo is willing to take in the name of justice.

Odo and Kira’s moral and personal similarity

In another contrast between Kira and Quark, despite Kira’s history of violence, as a person, Kira is much easier to respect and have as a friend than Quark, which probably explains the big difference in Odo’s attitude toward them, despite the fact that he has known both of them for a long time. Whereas Quark tends to be interpersonally quite irritating, both Odo and Kira are people who you could trust would treat you with respect and integrity in a one-on-one sort of interaction, even though they are morally compromised in other ways.

As this thread points out, in terms of personality and values, Kira is actually quite similar to Odo: they are both passionate about justice, competent and professional, blunt/outspoken, strong-willed/stubborn, tough, quite rigid in their morality, and they work together in the same organization. This makes it easier for Kira and Odo to be friends (while Odo and Quark are “enemies”). And because of these large amounts of similarity in their personalities, Kira also forms a kind of natural mirror or foil for Odo, because she presents a path that in some other world he might have walked, but which he has consciously rejected. The main difference between them is that Kira subscribes to a kind of utilitarianism where the ends justify the means while Odo subscribes to a kind of deontological moral system where adherence to moral rules is what is important, and this ultimately leads to different notions of justice, despite a lot of similarity.

Kira allows Odo to externalize some of his morality he is too squeamish to engage in himself directly

Very similar to Quark, Kira as a Resistance member has predictable behavioral tendencies that fall outside Odo’s strict rules. Whereas Quark sometimes feels morally compelled to take illegal (locally) non-violent actions, Kira also sometimes feels morally compelled to take illegal (locally) violent action, both of which Odo disapproves of and would not engage in himself. But by legally protecting Quark and Kira from the consequences of their actions, Odo is able to act by proxy in situations where to refuse to act is itself a morally-fraught choice, while strictly adhering to his principles.

As a result, Odo cannot directly acknowledge his approval of Quark and Kira’s actions, as this would defeat the separation he has set up between himself and them. However, his friendship with both of them implicitly indicates there is some amount of (ambivalent) moral approval of their very different moral systems.

In summary

I think Odo’s morality has been shaped during his time on Terok Nor by both Quark and Kira, who both provide alternative forms of (im)morality to Odo’s own system. In particular, Quark is a lower bound that indicates what level of self-interested lawlessness Odo is willing to tolerate while Kira is an upper bound that indicates what actions taken in the name of justice Odo is unwilling to engage in. It is easy to read Odo as having learned about the limitations of his moral code through their examples, and that he expresses some of his morality through both of them by permitting them to act predictably in ways that go against his own strongly-held personal code. To summarize this post, I made this chart comparing the different approaches Quark, Odo, and Kira have toward morality and the people/systems around them: