#the tiger and the dragon chapter 5

[thebrookesnook]

Here's the discussion for Umemiya's deity representation as seen in the latest chapter. If you haven't seen my thoughts on Takiishi's yet then I've provided a link to that post as well.

(I hope you appreciate the better quality & organization of the post from my well-rested brain cells)

Part 1: Takiishi Chika and the Karura

Spoilers for Chapter 150!

In my last post, I discussed my theory that the bird-like deity depicted for Takiishi was a karura. With Umemiya, I believe the deity to be Fudō Myō-ō (不動明王, ふどうみょうおう) who is also known as the Immovable Wisdom King (Skt. Ācalanātha).

[Fudō Mask was sourced from the Japanese Buddhist Statuary: A to Z Phot Dictionary; (Wooden) Seated Fudō Myō-ō Statue by Kaikei created in 1203 sourced from Isumu (360° view available)]

Fudō Myō-ō is THE central deity among all of the Myō-ō (warlike or wrathful gods) groupings, but is most prominently featured among the Godai Myō-ō (五大明王, Five Great Kings) who are manifestations of the Five Transcendental Buddha. He was given the title as the Immovable One due to his unwaivering commitment to the protection of Buddhist teachings.

Orginating as a pagan deity from India, Fudō's conversion to Buddhism began with humble beginnings. He was assigned as a servant and messenger of Buddha himself and later achieving higher positions—becoming a manifestation of the power and virtues of Dainichi Buddha, one of the 5 Transcendental Buddha I mentioned previously. (Source: MetMuseum)

In regards to their appearances, Fudō shares a remarkable resemblance to the deity depicted in Chapter 150. From his adornments, eyebrows, hair style, the prominent scowl etched into their faces and the long side braid (?) to the left of the face.

Aside from looks, let's talk about the prominent parallels between Umemiya and Fudō Myō-ō:

Origins. Both Ume and Fudō had to start over with their lives, with Ume losing his family due to a car accident and Fudō being stripped of his former godhood after converting to Buddhism. Despite these, they were able to work their way up so they'll be strong enough to protect what they valued the most.

Their roles. According to Schumacher in his page about Fudō,

"Fudō converts anger into salvation..."

- Schumacher, M., "Fudō Myō-ō"

"converts anger into salvation", that seems familiar- Oh wait.

Fudō and Ume are guides to enlightenment AND protectors. They themselves are symbols of safety in the eyes of those under their care.

Connections. While the Godai Myō-ō (Five Great Kings) aren't closely related to the Shitennō (Four Heavenly Kings) as the former rank far above the latter, there are similarities to be found. One is that both groups are in charge of the five directions, and yes five. The Shitennō is commanded by Taishakuten (帝釈天) who is the Lord of the Center. Relating this back to Ume and his Four Kings, it's interesting to note that the mangaka choose a higher ranking god to represent Ume rather than use Taishakuten. Perhaps to differentiate the power gap between Umemiya and his Four Kings?

Conclusion: I'm confident that Fudō Myō-ō is definitely the god representing Umemiya with the evidence I have gathered as well as several others have come to similar conclusions to the fact. It was really fun deep diving into this research for both Takiishi and Umemiya and with a clear head than the previous post, perhaps I'd like to make another one but of Tomiyama and Togame (The Hare & The Tortoise) or Sakura and Sugshita (The Tiger & The Dragon). No promises though.

(P.S. I am not Japanese but I have been deeply interested in the culture and history. I do my best to use credible sources (both ENG and JPN) and give credit accordingly. However, I'm prone to slip ups so if there is anything that requires correction, notify me throught the post via reply/reblog.)

(P.S.S. I have a blog specifically made for wbk content for further post like this so feel free to visit me there @transient-winds )

[yoga-onion]

Legends of the humanoids

Reptilian humanoids (5)

Wuxing – the connections between the Five Dragon Kings (Ref) and the Five Elements philosophy 

To better understand the origins of the Five Dragon Kings and the ancient Chinese legend, it is worth mentioning the wuxing of natural philosophy, which states that all things are composed of five elements: fire, water, wood, metal and earth.

The underlying idea is that the five elements 'influence each other, and that through their birth and death, heaven and earth change and circulate'.  

The five elements are described as followed:

Wood/Spring: a period of growth, which generates abundant vitality, movement and wind.

Fire/Summer: a period of swelling, flowering, expanding with heat.

Earth is associated with ripening of grains in the yellow fields of late summer.

Metal/Autumn: a period of harvesting, collecting and dryness.

Water/Winter: a period of retreat, stillness, contracting and coolness.

The wuxing system, in use since the Han dynasty (2nd century BCE), appears in many seemingly disparate fields of early Chinese thought, including music, feng shui, alchemy, astrology, martial arts, military strategy, I Ching divination, and traditional medicine, serving as a metaphysics based on cosmic analogy.

The wuxing originally referred to the five major planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Mars and Venus), which were thought of as the five forces that create life on earth. Wu Xing litterally means moving star and describes the five types of Qi (all the vital substances) cycles through various stages of transformation. As yin and yang continuously adjust to one another and transform into one another in a never-ending dance of harmony, they tend to do so in a predictable pattern.

The lists of correlations for the five elements are diverse, but there are two cycles explaining the major interaction. The yin-yang interaction, which by increasing or decreasing the qualities and functions associated with a particular phase, it may either nourish a phase that is in deficiency or drain a phase that is in excess or restrain a phase that is exerting too much influence (see below):

The Creation Cycle (Yang)

Wood feeds Fire

Fire creates Earth (ash)

Earth bears Metal

Metal collects Water

Water nourishes Wood

The Destruction Cycle (Yin)

Wood parts Earth 

Earth dams (or absorbs) Water

Water extinguishes Fire

Fire melts Metal

Metal chops Wood

The Huainanzi (2nd BCE) describes the five colored dragons (azure/green, red, white, black, yellow) and their associations (Chapter 4: Terrestrial Forms), as well as the placement of sacred beasts in the five directions (the Four Symbols beasts, dragon, tiger, bird, tortoise in the four cardinal directions and the yellow dragon.

伝説のヒューマノイドたち

ヒト型爬虫類 (5)

五方龍王（参照）と五行思想の関連性 

ここで、五方龍王の起源、そして古代中国の伝説をよく理解するために、万物は火・水・木・金・土の5種類の元素からなる、という自然哲学の五行思想について触れておきましょう。 5種類の元素は「互いに影響を与え合い、その生滅盛衰によって天地万物が変化し、循環する」という考えが根底に存在する。 

五行は次のように説明されている：

木は、春の豊かな生命力、動き、風を生み出す成長期。

火は、夏の太陽の暖かさの下で行われる成熟の過程、熱で膨張する時期。

土は、晩夏の黄色い野原での穀物の成熟に関連している。

金は、秋の収穫、収集、乾燥の時期。

水は、冬の雪に覆われた暗い大地の中に潜む新しい生命の可能性と静寂の時期。 漢の時代 (紀元前2世紀頃) から使用されてきた五行説は、音楽、風水、錬金術、占星術、武術、軍事戦略、易経、伝統医学など、中国初期の思想の一見バラバラに見える多くの分野に登��し、宇宙の類推に基づく形而上学として機能している。 

五行とは文字通り「動く星」を意味し、五種類の気（生命維持に必要なすべての物質）が様々な変容の段階を経て循環することを表している。陰と陽は絶え間なく互いに調整し合い、調和の終わりのないダンスで互いに変化していくため、予測可能なパターンで変化する傾向がある。

五行の相関関係は多様だが、主要な相互作用を説明する2つのサイクルがある。陰陽の相互作用は、特定の相に関連する資質や機能を増減させることで、不足している相に栄養を与えたり、過剰な相を排出したり、影響力を及ぼしすぎている相を抑制したりする (以下参照):

相生（陽）のサイクル

木は燃えて火を生む

火が土 (灰) をつくる

土は金属を産出する

金属は表面に水を集める

水は木を育てる

相克（陰）のサイクル

木は大地を構成する

土は水を堰き止める

水は火を消す

火は金属を溶かす

金属が木を切る

『淮南子』（紀元前2世紀）には、五色の龍（紺碧・緑、赤、白、黒、黄）とその関連性 (第4章: 地の形)、五方位への聖獣の配置（四枢の四象徴獣、龍、虎、鳥、亀、黄龍）が記述されている。

[freezerbnuuy]

✨️🐰hello!!!! would you help spread some cuteness and silliness around our timeline? Share some pics of your Sims' pets!!🐰✨️ Share the ask around if you also wanna see more pets friends around! 🥰✨️

Thank you for the ask bb < 3

Nia is a familiar so not quite a pet, but she's Kat's beloved owl. She found Nia dehydrated and on the ground outside of her home back in her home country. She must have flown far from somewhere else. Kat nursed her back to health and tried to release her, but Nia didn't go. In my lore, based on the games, witches can bind willing animals as familiars magically, giving them a psychic link and allowing telepathy (though the level of communication isn't perfect, given animals don't think like humans do).

Kat chose to never bind her as her familiar, so that she had the freedom to fly back home if she wanted... but she didn't and now she's Kat's pampered owl.

Kat also has a horse in Act 5 named Sethunya, who gets her from A to B.

Eli's beloved horse Griselda, who was a deco horse for 4 and a half acts until my colleague gave me an EA gift card for Christmas. I didn't want anything on the EA store but of course can't refund a gift card, so I got Horse Ranch with it. So now she is an actual horse! She was originally Eli's father's horse. < 3

This cat is Whisper, and she's the mouser cat of the Peteran monastery. She's not that good at being a mouser because prior and eventual abbot Reynold spoils her.

And now for quite possibly the biggest, coolest pet in the story...

Valravn, the Annorin's gryphon familiar. (I know these chapters are tagged as spoiler in the story, but she's too cool not to show). She has a psychic link with Owen as she's bound to him as a familiar as opposed to it just being a social thing. They can speak telepathically and they can sense each other's feelings, but can't read each other's minds in a 'words' kind of way. They can only hear each other's 'inner' voice when they use it to talk to one another. Her colours are based on ospreys, harpy eagles, and a tiger.

Valravn is quite young for a gryphon - she's biologically about 300, which would put her at sort of early 20's comparatively to a human. She sometimes can act a bit like a spoiled cat, and she has tried to learn human concepts like humour and kindness to some extent. She's of a fish-eating species which used to live in Henford and Glimmerbrook along the River Glimmer (eventually called the River Bagley). She's very protective of her family.

Gryphons have some magic, not as much as other typically magical creatures like dragons. Similar to in-game familiars and their 'magical energy reserves', Valravn uses her magic to help supplement Owen's own to help offset a condition he has which essentially causes him to become overcharged quicker by his own 'biological' magic.

[monkejustwantsart]

Posting this animal AU thing I was brainstorming like an idiot. It's super long wah

{Rules I had before this began}

no animal can repeat unless they are canonically familial relatives.

top tiers get to be mythical creatures.

All things may be subject to change with chapter updates

I am to try my best to capture each character as accurately as possible in either appearance, fighting style, behaviour, personality or all.

this is unfinished, it's also lowkey my kinda spectrum. idk if anyone else likes zoology but ye. please feel free to debate me or lend me suggestions!

(please, this took a ridiculous amount of time)

{TOP TIERS}

Jonggun Park (Japanese Oni) 

Junggoo Kim (Gumiho)

DG/James Lee (Red Phoenix)

Jake’s Brother (Chupacabra)

UI Big Daniel (unknown)

{KINGS}

Taesoo Ma (Tibetan mastiff)

Jichang Kwak(Leucistic Black mamba)

Gongseop Ji (Alligator snapping turtle)

Jaegyeon Na (Axis deer)

Seongji Yuk (Wolf spider)

Seodku Wang (Rhino) 

Doksu Heo (Bull)

Jinyong Goh (Black heron) 

Jinrang (Timber wolf)

Baek Sang (Great white shark)

Do Jaegwang #5 (

Song Hashik #6 (

{ALLIED}

• ⁠Zack (peregrine falcon)

• ⁠Vasco (Kodiak bear)

• ⁠Jay (Cheetah)

• ⁠Vin Jin (Tiger centipede)

• ⁠Hudson (African Lion)

{BIG DEAL}

Jake Kim (Tibetan Wolf)

Jason Yoon (chestnut horses)

Jerry Kwon (Hippopotamus)

Brad Lee (Sheep)

Lua Im (Cliff Swallow)

Lineman (African honey badger)

{EX-MEMBERS}

Samuel Seo (Spectral bat)

Johan Seong (Kangal dog)

XiaoLung (Dragon fish)

Sinu Han (Secretarybird)

Changyong Ji (Muskoxen)

{HOSTEL}

Eli Jang (Golden jackal)

Warren Chae (Giant water bug)

Sally Park (elephant hawk-moths)

Max Kang (Coyote)

Derrick Jo (American badger)

{WORKERS}

Eugene/Yuseong (Least weasel)

Mandeok Bang (Gorilla)

Shigeaki Kojima (Shoebill stork)

Hiroaki Kojima (Shoebill stork)

[first affiliate]

Gyeol Baek(Indian Peafowl)

Taejin Cheon (Spotted hyena)

Isu Jo (Striped hyena)

Logan Lee (Wild boar)

Hangyeol Baek (leustistic Indian Peafowl). ~ [{THAT} (mutated and transfigured beyond repair, seems to have some sort of extinct DNA spliced in)]

[second affiliate]

Mitsuki Soma (House cat)

Ryuhei Kuroda (Dingo dog)

Kenta Magami (Tasmanian devil)

Sato Kazuma (Japanese rhinoceros beetle)

[third affiliate]

ViVi. (Albino bottlenose dolphin)

Taegon Wi (Chinese mantis)

Hwang Ho (Asiatic golden cat) 

Huseong Ha (Western lowland gorilla) 

Sowol Jin (Pekingese dog) 

[fourth affiliate] 

Alexander Hwang (Standard rat) 

Ms. Raccoon (Ringtail cat)

{WHITE TIGER JOB CENTRE} 

Tom Lee (African elephant) 

Manager Kim (Manogea porracea. Its a spider)

Sanghui Han (Bald-headed bulbul)

Beolgu Lee (Spider tailed horned-viper)

Robert Choi (American black bear)

Sera Shin (Emerald jewel wasp)

{J-HIGH}

Zoe Park (Black footed cat) 

Mira Kim (Turtledove)

Mary Kim (Golden orbweaver)

Leonn Lee (Spotted hyena)

Crystal Choi (Beom) 

Yui Kim (Bowerbird) 

Duke Pyeon (Donkey) 

Joy Hong (Cheetah)

Kouji (Black-billed magpie) 

Jace Park (Dumbo rat)

Cho Ma (Shortfin mako)

{OTHER NOTABLE PTJ-VERSE CHARACTERS}

Taehoon Seong (Red kangaroo) 

Hansu Seong (Red kangaroo)

Samdak (Emu)

Jincheol Park (Giant river otter)

Seongjun Baek (Oceanic white tip reef shark) 

Jinho Lee (Palm cockatoo)

Yunseong Lee (Red-bellied piranha)

Haru Seong (Eastern cottontail)

Suhyeon Kim (Japanese weasel)

Ancheol Jang (Grizzly bear)

Jinwoo Jang “Ancheol” (Honey badger)

Valentina Alexander (Orchid mantis) 

Manager Nam (Fisher cat)

{Dead characters}

Gapyrong Kim

Charles Choi? 

Jiho Park (German cockroach)

Olly wang (Sea wasp)

Au!Goo Kim?

[kafkaoftherubble]

神祗的庐山真面目

//Forms and Names

I have always wanted to write three After God essays!

The first one came at the tail end of Chapter 58 discussing Ahu’az and Yako.

The second one was something I’ve always wanted to do—an interesting mental framework to analyze Tokinaga Sachiyuki.

Now comes the third essay, ironically, the first After God ramble formulated in our Discord conversation. Hahaha. The last essay in this series is the actual first one that started it all, @orange-peel-candy!

This essay concerns my speculations and hypotheses regarding the gods’ forms... and The Man Stronger Than the Gods.

Be warned: spoilers abound up till at least Chapter 58 (a.k.a. the last chapter I read!). It's also a very, very long read.

What Do We Know So Far?

I am a two-bit detective-scientist wannabe. Before we start to speculate, we should lay out some of the facts that we already know. I hope I didn’t get any facts wrong because I’m mostly going off from memory, which is pretty corrupted from things like work, daily life, Buddhist Philosophy (yes), science, Neon Genesis Evangelion (I’m disappointed in myself for this), the likes:

Chapter 1

Out of the four, we know three gods’ animal forms.

Vollof is a rabbit,

Ahu’az is a rooster (yes, calling it Chicken God was me being an ass),

Orokapi is a snake.

Did ya notice something?

----

Chinese Twelve Zodiac – the Calendar

Wikipedia

The zodiacs are used by the Chinese as a calendar system, which assigns an animal to a respective year following a twelve-year cycle [1]. The sequence  goes like this:

鼠、牛、虎、兔、龙、蛇、马、羊、猴、鸡、狗、猪

Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Boar

Vollof, Orokapi, and Ahu’az are part of this group.

So, my bold first hypothesis is that—

All of the IPOs introduced to us will be animals from the Twelve Zodiac.

I assign a modest 78% confidence level toward this hypothesis since all three we have known have come from this group.

From here, let's go through these queries:

Are the other gods also animals from the Chinese Zodiac?

Where does Allula fit in this, if the Chinese Zodiac theory is true?

Is there anything about the Chinese Zodiac, such as myths and philosophy, that may serve as story hints for certain characters in the story?

Particularly, is there some basis to make a hypothesis regarding The Man Stronger Than the Gods?

----

Query #1: Are the other gods also animals from the Chinese Zodiac?

Well, we don’t actually have that many IPOs teased other than our 4 known gods. The only one we have, here, is the furry paw. Let’s look at it again:

Chapter 1.

Hypothesis 1: This is a tiger. [50% confident;  0.85 x 0.78 = 0.663; 39% overall confidence]

Hypothesis 2: This is a dog. [50%; 39% overall]

Hypothesis 3: This is an animal not part of the Zodiacs [22% overall]

Both a cat and a dog have 5 toes in their front legs (and 4 in their hind legs). But a cat’s dew claw is much closer to its other claws. A dog’s paw, meanwhile, has the dew claw being much farther away [2].

From Hepper.com.

This mystery IPO’s claws are certainly close to each other—including its dew claw. That makes it resemble a tiger’s claw more (Hypothesis 1, or H1). Another piece of circumstantial evidence is that this IPO was walking past a street filled with stray cats. If the IPO was a dog, I don’t think these cats could be this chill.

Nonetheless, H2 has good grounds, too. For what little we see here, the paw doesn’t show a tiger’s typical strip, and the tail is a little too bushy for a tiger. There’s also the fact that these claws aren’t protracted despite not being required during a stroll. A dog’s claw doesn’t protract [2]!

We can even explain away the cats’ relative calmness by positing the IPO as invisible to their eyes, kinda like how they can’t be captured by cameras.

Nonetheless, H1 and H2 have strong enough standing. Whether a tiger or a dog, neither conclusion will counter our zodiac hypothesis.

----

There is, of course, a 22% confident hypothesis where the IPOs do not actually follow the Zodiac convention.

This opens up a lot more options for our mysterious IPO—a wolf, a lion, a cat, etc.

There is also this little panel you’ve helpfully pointed out:

Chapter 44.

There appears to be a fish IPO in this panel, which is not part of the Twelve Zodiacs. The only true aquatic animal among them is the dragon, or龍 (long)。

If the fact that a Long is actually an aquatic animal is new information to you, I’ve once written quite a bit about it in (yes, I know. Why does this bro yap so much?) an essay for a good friend explaining the origin of the dragon’s orb. Long story short: dragons are seen as the kings of the ocean and storm.

There isn’t much hard evidence to refute this “fish” IPO. One suggestion (thanks to you) is that maybe the “fish” IPO is just an NPC and that all major IPOs will be of the zodiacs. Another suggestion I can think of is that, similar to how Vollof turned from a “bear” to a “rabbit” in execution [3], the “fish” IPO might be revised to another animal among the zodiac gang in the future.

One last thing to add to the Zodiac theory in general: apparently, there’s already another IPO planned with horns [3].

Three Zodiac animals with horns have yet to be featured: the Ox, the Goat, and the Dragon. It’s another piece of circumstantial evidence, but all of it together still builds a pretty good case for the Zodiac animal hypothesis.

The way to falsify this hypothesis is to wait for more IPOs to be revealed. Mr. Furry Paw, Mr. Horn, and, potentially, Mr. Fish—all three can prove or disprove this hypothesis.

For the rest of this essay, let’s consider the Zodiac Theory true.

--------

Query #2: What Could Have Been Allula’s Animal Form?

Allula’s floral form is actually a pretty interesting symbolic choice, which you noticed. She’s a poppy flower, right? The source of opium—one of the royalties of addictive narcotics.  A really apt form for the god who introduced drugs to everyone else.

Nonetheless, this did not mean Allula had always been a talking one-eyed flower. She could very well have been an animal just like her other brethren.

According to Orokapi, Allula’s current form is a grotesque chimera of fleshes borne from the gods she had eaten. This tells us that she didn’t originally look like hair that’s been stuck in a pipe leading out from a bathroom hole.

Chapter 50

What are the animals among the twelve zodiacs that could possibly be Allula’s original bestial form?

H1- Predators: Tiger and Dog. These were the two possible candidates for Mr. Furry Paw as discussed in Query #1. Could Mr. Furry Paw be Allula?

I don’t think so. Allula has been banished into reincarnating as Waka for quite some years, and when that happened, she’d already been losing her original form and gaining her chimeric look. Hence, it’s likelier that Mr. Furry Paw was another IPO!

Then what about omnivores, like Rat, Boar and Monkey (H2)? This, to me, seems more possible. Rats are certainly seen as repulsive and disgusting eaters. Monkeys are a bit harder to square since their “stereotypical” trait(s) in the common interpretation of the 12 Zodiacs don’t really fit Allula all that much, barring intelligence (more on that later).

---

My highest confidence level (about 50%) is on the Boar.

Boars are commonly seen as animals representing gluttony in East Asian culture. They technically eat anything edible and non-poisonous.

Here’s the thing: boars can develop a taste for raw meat [4]. And they have no problem eating human flesh or pig flesh! The most common incident of cannibalism in pigs is when the sows and gilts eat piglets, called “savaging.”[5].

Now, Allula is no mother, but she’s the only known god who eats other gods. An opportunistic eater with no repulsion toward the flesh of its kind. A cannibal.

A piece of circumstantial evidence: The Boar is seen as the intelligent animal among the Twelve Zodiacs, often similarly to how one envisions the Monkey. Allula has, in a lot of interactions, demonstrated frightening analytical capacity and intellect. She often uses it as a means of manipulation:

towards the other gods, she used drugs—something they had no idea about and became addicted to.

toward Shion, she managed to charm the girl with the combination of her eyes… and more importantly, her words.

She best displayed her intellect in Chapters 54 and 55. There, she worked out what she believed Tokinagawas up to accurately enough that he was reduced to near nervous breakdown. That’s the sort of skill in choosing conversation responses I wish I have, so I can make the NPCs in my game cry like a bitch.

Conclusion? I think Allula being the Boar seems far more likely if the Zodiac hypothesis is true. 

-----

Query #3: Is There Anything About the Zodiac Hypothesis That Could Be Used to Understand After God’s Worldbuilding + Gods etc.?

The Twelve Zodiac was used as a calendar system with a twelve-year cycle. In other words, the zodiacs are associated with time [1]. Besides that, it’s cyclic. The Year of the Rat (first among the zodiac) follows the Year of the Boar (last among the zodiac) [1].

Both of these are already related to a character who isn’t said to be an IPO but is nonetheless completely intertwined with them—our boy Tokinaga Sachiyuki. Creating time loops to bring himself to his desired development is a known ability of his, isn’t it?

Keep that in mind.

Now, I’m gonna introduce to you Taoist/folk Chinese deities associated with the Twelve Zodiac:

Tai Sui, 太岁 (literally “great year” or “great age”).

Like plenty of Taoist gods, these deities originated as stars observed by Chinese astrologers—in this case, they’re the stars opposite Jupiter and are also in a 12-year orbital cycle [6].

Tai Sui are considered generals taking orders from the Jade Emperor (the lord of the heaven in Chinese mythology). They are the zodiac animals’ masters. Throughout dynasties, the Tai Suis’ numbers have multiplied into sixty of them, each mastering one animal while corresponding to one of the Five Chinese Elements (五行: fire, earth, metal, water, wood). There is, however, one Tai Sui General who is the boss of all Tai Sui; this one has no governing year [6].

That’s, of course, the Chinese’s side of things. In Japan, Tai Sui is consolidated into a single deity [6], in the form of Tai Sui’s full title, 太歳星君 (“Lord of the Tai Sui Star”)。

Tai Sui is so important and revered in folk divination that people whose zodiac animal sign is the same as the deity are said to be “clashing with Tai Sui” (犯太岁). Take the Year 2024 as an example: this is the Year of the Wood Dragon, so it is governed by the Wooden Dragon Tai Sui. Everyone whose animal sign is the dragon (no matter the elements) is therefore “clashing” with him, and superstitions dictate they appease the god because their overall luck has already tanked by the virtue of this clash.

What does this tell us?

It tells us that a Tai Sui is “stronger than these zodiac animals.”

Tai Sui, the god of time. Not linear time either—cyclic time. Who does this remind you?

More circumstantial evidence for your consideration:

The word associated with “time” is in Tokinaga’s name, 時永。 This is similar to how the word related to “time” is also found in Tai Sui, 太岁。 The difference, however, is that 時 technically means “hour,” while 岁 means “year.”

The pronunciation for 太歳星君 is Taisai Seikun ( たいさいせいくん) in Japanese [7]. The initials are T.S., which matches Tokinaga Sachiyuki. You can almost wonder if Tokinaga’s name is chosen to mirror the name of this calendric time lord.

You might think this is the end of Query #3, but there’s a speculation I want to put forward based on the Tai Sui Hypothesis.

“We Have Seen the Man Stronger than the Gods”

Chapter 49

Allula claimed that she and the other gods had seen The Man Stronger Than the Gods/God Killer before—a long, long time ago. 700 million years ago, to be exact.

Here’s the thing: Tokinaga is only 28 years old.

The big upheaval of the IPOs from the North Pole happened 30 years ago. Hell, modern Homo sapiens evolved from merely 300,000 years ago. My math ain’t no Olympiad level but methinks this math doesn’t check out.

That’s not all. Tokinaga’s power comes at the cost of body degeneration. How did this blud—whose body started to look like lichens-ate-it just by rewinding time a little to his last save point—manage to survive this long?

Another odd thing: Allula somehow does not recognize the God Killer when she sees one. Why? Why doesn’t she recognize what could possibly be the only Homo Sapien on the planet at the time? If that man was Tokinaga, wouldn’t she recognize him right now?

Tokinaga’s response to Allula’s assertion is also grounds for intrigue. He was there for a negotiation; the odds of him feigning ignorance were not too high. So why was his response “What are you talking about?” instead of knowing silence?

Why did he react as though he was stunned to hear Allula’s revelation? Was the God Killer she mentioned somehow… not him?

Granted, there are many plausible reasons to explain these odd points. We don’t know the full scope of Tokinaga’s powers. Maybe he could erase someone’s memories if he wanna (sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. Doubt. Doubt. Doubt. Doubt. Doubt). We don’t yet know what parts of the power system, such as reincarnation, are like in this story.

---

God Killer (singular?)

If Tokinaga’s aspect as the time-bending God Killer is inspired by Tai Sui, then the speculation I want to offer is that there is more than one God Killer across history.

Japan etc. and even common Chinese folks might think that there’s only ever one Tai Sui Lao Jun/Taisei Seikun, but there has always been more than one Tai Sui in the canonical myth. Tokinaga could very well just be one God Killer who exists at this time. The one Allula and fam saw back then was another God Killer.

I originally wanted to make a joke that this God Killer was from the Australopithecus genus—the hominids before our Homo genus. The problem is… the earliest Australopithecus hominin existed 4.2 million years ago. That’s not even close to Allula’s “700 million years ago.” Bro, who the fuck did these gods see? Fucking Xenu?

The nature of God Killer(s) is largely shrouded in mystery by this point in the manga, so again, any reasonable guess is as good as another. I’m not even particularly confident in this speculation, but it does lend nicely to our last query…

----

Query #4: What speculations regarding “The Man Stronger Than The Gods” can we make from this?

Although this is the last query and hypothesis in this essay, it is actually the first I’ve ever made since reading After God months ago.

The thing that kickstarted this was in his name.

As someone who’s immersed in Thai and Buddhist-Hindu myths, his name was eye-catching for featuring the word “naga.”

Britannica. This is an artistic depiction of Nāga in Thai style.

Nagas are, briefly, divine or semi-divine beings—sometimes half-human and half-serpents, sometimes basically sea serpents [8]. In common translations as well as general understanding, however, nagas are understood as dragons.

They are often associated with bodies of water.

The origin of the nagas is closely related to snakes. In Sanskrit, nāga is one of the many terms for “snake,” and the earliest concept of nagas is cobra-like [8].

These three key points are bolded because these traits are shared with the East Asian concept of the Long (龙) as well. According to Yuan Jing, a Chinese archaeologist researcher, the origin of Chinese dragons (which other East Asian long are derivative from) likely evolved from a snake or a crocodile [9]. For example, artifacts recovered from the Taosi Archeological Site (陶寺) in Shanxi showed Long that pretty much just looked like snakes [9]. This connection is also speculated to be why “dragon” is positioned next to “snake” in the Twelve Zodiac. The dragon and the snake are kin.

And who, my dudes, is Tokinaga’s dearest friend?

Even an East Asian dragon’s “connection to the body of water” can be seen in Tokinaga’s character traits—chiefly, his avoidance of bathtubs and his strange discomfort with showers. You might correctly point out that it’s odd for him to be written as repulsed by a “body of water” if he’s indeed related to East Asian dragons, but a big theme of Tokinaga’s personality intrigue is the fact that he’s in discordance to himself. His self-hatred originates from his inability to resolve what he detests and what his “nature” desires. He’s like an Asian dragon who hates water.

Oh, but there’s more to this hypothesis. Much, much more.

-----

Fake Ancient Scripts That Repel Evil

Chapter 31

Well, the characters on his loincloth-ass mask seem pretty likely to be 日本, “Japan,” to me. You're not even trying, Orokapi.

We know that the eyepatch hides Tokinaga’s empty left eye socket where some of the deterioration is found. So what’s the character on his eyepatch?

The eyepatch, interestingly, was framed nicely within the last panel as Tokinaga dropped one of the earliest hints about the God Killer.

I’m gonna go and guess it’s based on “竜”, or “dragon.”

It’s that, or 龟, “tortoise/turtle”.

How do we decide which of these is likelier? Well, show us the hand!

----

It's not a hand, you dumbass. It's a claw.

Chapter 42

This chapter is the first time when we get to see the claw that haunts Tokinaga. It features really sharp nails and scaly skin. Below are a tortoise’s nails.

Animals.net

The nails in a tortoise appeared to be closer to each other that our mysterious claw up there. The claw is also far leaner in the panel, compared to the more bulging (thicc?) look of a tortoise’s foot.

Based on this, I think the odds that the claw belongs to a tortoise are lower than our alternative: the East Asian Long/dragon. But do we have more proof?

---

How many nails does a Long have?

Five claws may seem ubiquitous in more modern drawings of the dragon, but it’s actually a relatively new invention during the Qing Dynasty [10]. In truth, for the longest time, the dragon has had three claws—and the dragon types that were most likely introduced to Japan are the three-clawed and four-clawed Golden Dragon (金龙), both popular during the Tang Dynasty.

Baidu. Tang Dynasty dragon-adorned mirror. Try to locate its claws.

Now, we can combine both knowledge.

Tokinaga claimed that these fake scripts are used to repel evil.

One of them is found in his eyepatch. A writing that may very well be 竜.

What is this eyepatch guarding against?

The thing that is frequently drawn to be close to his left eye is the mysterious claw. A claw that can be reasonably suspected to belong to a dragon.

Does that eyepatch repel... or seal a dragon?

Chapter 55

No matter what it could be, it still points to one general direction:

Tokinaga has a lot of connections to a dragon.

-----

Verdict

This is a combination of all of our hypotheses to form a pretty damn bold speculation about The Man Stronger than The Gods.

Tokinaga may be a God Killer, not the God Killer. He has aspects influenced by Tai Sui and dragons—a mythical beast that is also one of the Twelve Zodiac.

We already learned that there are actually a lot of Tai Sui deities, with 5 governing a single animal of different elements. So, if the hypothesis is that the God Killer is not one person but many people...

Is Tokinaga a dragon-related God Killer? Similar to a Dragon Tai Sui?

-----

Last words

This has been an insanely long read, but it covers a lot of the speculations and theories I have had about After God thus far. There’s a lot we don’t know yet, and it’s always likely that I get a lot of stuff wrong. I have a specific image for that occasion:

Ajin.

Nonetheless, it’s been really fun trying to Allula out the story with what we have so far, and I’ll be really stoked if even a small part of all of this comes true!

Let me know what you think in the comments or tags! I love responses and add-ons; I read ‘em all! They make my day.

Thank You For Reading My Ramble! I hope this has been an eye-opening thrill for you!

P.S. To people who recently followed me for After God content: welcome to my garden! I do have to tell ya—I’m not very prolific an essayist due to my general lack of time. I also write essays for a lot of other things too—this is the last of my After God Three Part essays, and I haven’t had any planned after this. So, yea! Please enjoy what I've cooked for now! Ahahaha.

------

Citations:

Chinese zodiac. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_zodiac

Cat Paw vs. Dog Paw: Vet-Verified Differences (With Pictures). Hepper. https://www.hepper.com/cat-paw-vs-dog-paw/

Inspiration for Vollof (summarized). On Tumblr (Thanks, Ko!). https://www.tumblr.com/kossanctuary/756356794456113153/inspiration-for-vollof-summarized?source=share

What Pigs Can (And Can’t) Eat: Ultimate Guide. Savvy Farm Life. https://savvyfarmlife.com/what-pigs-can-and-cant-eat/

Normal and Abnormal Behaviors of Swine Under Production Conditions. Pork Information Gateway. https://porkgateway.org/resource/normal-and-abnormal-behaviors-of-swine-under-productions-conditions/

Tai Sui. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_Sui

太歳星君. In Wikipedia. [In Japanese] https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A4%AA%E6%AD%B3%E6%98%9F%E5%90%9B

Nāga. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C4%81ga

世间动物千千万，为何是它们被选入十二生肖？《澎湃》。[In Chinese] https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_24694111

中国古代的龙，到底有几个爪趾？《百度·文艺时光》。[In Chinese] 中国古代的龙，到底有几个爪趾？ (baidu.com)

[tinytalkingtina]

WIP Weekend

Thanks to @vthx for tagging me this week!

Rules: Send me an emoji in an ask, and I'll write 3-5 sentences and/or paragraphs from that WIP! No limits to the amount of emojis you can request, they all will be answered eventually

🏃 The Running with the Devil (steddie role reversal) jock!Eddie POV 4+1 just hit 10k words. Oops. But now, middle school, 10th grade, and 11th grade are complete! Working on 9th grade this week. Been fun plotting out relationships then going backwards in time to see the beginnings (and also write descriptions of fledgling metalhead Steve still figuring himself out)

🐲 Soaring Symphony (Witch and Dragon AU)'s final chapter is 2/3's finished huzzah! Since this is the last chapter, if you send in a dragon emoji, I'll write some sentences for this WIP then share a snippet from another one :)

🐶 B.A.D. D.O.G. (sequel to the college AU puppy play Stomeddie/Stommie fic) has been put on the back burner while I finish the other two WIPs, but still writing! Gonna have to start connecting the smut with the aftercare/day after scenes pretty soon.

Tagging a few folks to join in without pressure :) @runninriot @writing-kiki @helpimstuckposting @fuctacles @griefabyss69

Enjoy Jock Eddie's version of a cafeteria table rant from 🏃under the cut! (G-rated material)

A couple guys decked out in black and red band tees walked past arguing with each other: “You’re delusional dude, the school worships athleticism. Slap on the wrist at most, meanwhile we get kicked outta our space every time Steve gets a new tattoo.” Eddie vaguely recognized him and his braces from Spanish. Jesse, maybe? Something with a J. “I’m just saying it’d be nice for once,” his friend replied. “Seriously, it’s just high school sports, not like this is the NBA. What’s so great about it anyway?” “What’s so great?” The shorter and scruffier of the two metalheads jumped when Eddie spoke up. He scurried away to the safety of his own table. Eddie let his voice get louder and jumped up onto his seat as J-name rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. “Of course sports are great. They’re the ultimate battle of wills!” “Society needs a way to tell the winners from the losers, but we don’t need to kill each other on a battle field.” He mimed getting shot up by a machine gun and fell to the floor. Eddie grinned at the scattered laughs it got him. A particularly loud snort stood out. Popping up, he was surprised to see Steve Harrington as the source, covering his mouth as he laughed. It was actually kinda nice to see the guy smile. Eddie’s own grin grew a little wider and spread his arms out to gesture broadly as he continue. “No, we fight our monsters on the court, like the basketball team will when they pound Christian Academy into the dust next week!” He pointed towards the basketball players at their table. Billy Hargrove rolled his eyes, but lifted his soda at him in a mock salute as the cafeteria responded. “I’ll tell you what’s gonna happen, we’re—oh pardon me, after you!” He bowed and moved to not block the aisle for a couple girls. Oh, they were the duo who had stirred up enough shit in the school newspaper to start a safety investigation of the lab outside of town. Maybe one of them was his long-lost lady from Tina’s party. He certainly wouldn’t mind a woman who could take charge. Subtly, he sniffed the air as they walked past, hoping for a hint of honey. Or tried to. Barb Holland gave him one hell of a look and pointedly steered Nancy Wheeler away. Well, whatever. Neither of them wore a scent that matched the one in his memory. He turned back to the cafeteria at large, hopping up onto the table this time. “The Tigers are gonna keep winning and taking home those championship trophies, as is our right. Like our lovely cheer squad likes to say—” Eddie cupped his hands around his mouth to really shout his last words. “Let’s hear it for Hawkins!” Amid the whoops and cheers, Eddie noticed the school’s resident drug dealer still looking his way. If he didn’t know better, he’d say Harrington had a dopey grin on his face. Another of the guy’s group of freaks leaned in and muttered something that had the whole table snickering. Harrington jumped. He crossed his arms as a faint uncharacteristic blush overtook his cheeks. It made him look sorta cute. The thought popped into Eddie’s head uninvited. Before he could figure out where the hell something like that came from, the bell rang.

[izscha]

Current scoreboard on who has what Shen Gong Wu in Metallic Figment (as of Chapter 5)

Will be making scoreboard updates as the story progresses for your own reference (as well as my own lol)

[Spoilers beneath the cut]

Xiaolin monks:

Ants in the Pants

Arrow Sparrow

Big Bang Meteorang

Black Beetle

Blade of the Nebula

Cannon Blaster

Cat's Eye Draco*

Changing Chopsticks

Crest of the Condor*

Crouching Cougar

Crystal Glasses

Denshi Bunny

Eagle Scope

Emperor Scorpion

Eye of Dashi

Falcon's Eye

Fancy Feet

Fist of Tebigong

Fountain of Hui

Gills of Hamachi

Glove of Jisaku

Golden Finger

Golden Tiger Claws

Helmet of Jong

Jetbootsu

Ju-Ju Flytrap

Kaijin Charm*

Lasso Boa Boa

Longhorn Taurus*

Longi Kite

Lotus Twister

Lunar Locket

Manchurian Musca

Mantis Flip Coin

Mikado Arm

Monarch Wings

Monsoon Sandals

Moonstone Locust

Mosaic Scale

Orb of Tornami

Rio Reverso

Sapphire Dragon

Serpent's Tail

Shadow Slicer

Shadow of Fear

Shard of Lightning

Shen-Ga-Roo

Shimo Staff

Shroud of Shadows

Silk Spitter

Star Hanabi

Sun Chi Lantern

Sweet Baby Among Us

Sword of the Storm

Tangle Web Comb

Thorn of Thunderbolt

Third-Arm Sash

Tongue of Saiping

Tunnel Armadillo

Two-Ton Tunic

Woozy Shooter

WuShan Geyser

Wushu Helmet

Ying Yo-Yo

Zing Zom-Bone

Hannibal:

Moby Morpher

Mind Reader Conch

Heart of Jong

Ring of the Nine Dragons

Ruby of Ramses

Jack (and Wuya):

Monkey Staff

Kuzusu Atom

Reversing Mirror

Silver Manta Ray

Sphere of Yun

Yang Yo-Yo

[roxannarambles]

Title: Wings of a Butterfly, Eye of the Tiger (Part 5)

Ship: Nemona x Juliana (Julinemo/Terajules)

Summary: Nemona and Juliana just can’t resist returning to Area Zero once more. They find new places to explore, new pokemon to discover, and a new things to learn … about pokemon battling, but also about each other. (Sequel to Picnic in Paradise)

Chapters: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Tags: Slowburn, Romance, Friendship, Crushes, Action/Adventure, Pokemon Battles, Fakemon

You fell backwards into the chilling lake, disoriented and floundering. When you managed to kick back to the surface of the water, gasping for breath, you could noticed frantic splashing, Scarlet caught in a fierce struggle with some kind of water pokemon– from the looks of it, a massive shark, Terastallized in a rainbow of colors. The beast had chomped down on one of Koraidon’s legs and Koraidon was desperately scratching at the shark’s face with his claws, trying to escape so he could use a proper battle move. A bit further away, Nemona was treading water, mercifully in one piece.

“Juliana, are you okay?!”

“Ye-” Your head dipped below water and you popped back up, coughing and sputtering– “Y-yeah!” You weren’t as good at treading water as Nemona was. 

“Can you swim? We need to head to that island!”

“I-I think so! I’m not really–”

You stopped and turned when Scarlet cried out, and you saw he had managed to get the shark to release his foot and was now swimming away at full speed. This made sense: while Koraidon was a good swimmer, he just didn’t work well in the water for combat. He couldn’t even get into battle form while he was swimming. He’d need to reach the same island as you did.

Thinking he could pick you up along the way, you called,

“Scarlet, this way!”

Scarlet cried out again and adjusted his course, starting to swim in your direction. Her voice laden with fear, Nemona shouted,

“Juliana, careful, he could lead that thing right to you!”

You thought it would be fine, Scarlet seemed to have a head-start, he could just pick you up and whisk you away, but then you realized the problem.

While Koraidon was a good swimmer, the shark was a better one. 

You watched as the glittering dorsal fin closed the distance far too quickly. And as the shark approached Koraidon, its head lifted out of the water. The broad, flattened shape of the head that included a pair of torpedo-like horns reminded you of Garchomp right away, but the massive pair of scythe-like blades on the side of its face– which rested horizontally like a pair of insect mandibles– were certainly a terrifying addition. When the shark had drawn close enough, it swung that mighty pair of blades closed, latching onto Koraidon’s tough dragon hide. Scarlet gave a startled cry. 

“Scarlet!”

The shark’s eyes began to glow blood-red, the glow rapidly reaching the rest of its body, and it went into a death roll, spinning in the water and dragging Scarlet along with it. It roared and thrashed, its savage fury whipping up waves in the lake. You coughed and choked on water, struggling to keep your head afloat.

“Oh my god, Juliana– hang in there, I’m coming!”

The truth was, you had swimming lessons when you were younger, but it had been a long time since you’d really needed to put them to the test–  Koraidon had always been there for your water excursions in Paldea. This also wasn’t the ideal set of circumstances to try and remember how it went, but you gave it a shot anyway, kicking your legs and swinging your arms in a very poor backstroke. The trouble was you couldn’t remember how to get a proper breath while moving, and you kept choking and knew you weren’t getting very far. The sounds of Scarlet and the shark thrashing about violently nearby wasn’t helping matters, and you were starting to panic.

Luckily, it seemed Nemona was a very strong swimmer. She reached you shockingly fast, coming up from behind you and wrapping her arms under yours.

“Easy, I’m here, I’ll help you out, okay?”

You stopped struggling, letting your body go into a neutral position in the water and trusting Nemona’s hold. 

“Great job, just keep calm, I’ll do the work. I’m gonna–”

You saw a little flash of blue light, the telltale pulse of energy that indicated a pokemon returning to its pokeball, which skittered through the water and returned to the ball in your pocket. You both looked to see a dorsal fin rising up from the water. 

It was far too close.

“Shit, okay, uh, one sec,” Nemona said, fumbling around her pokeball belt. You reached for your pokeballs too, but you knew the only ones in your pockets were Paradox Pokemon that were either exhausted or would be virtually useless in the water– nothing seemed a good pick. What’s worse, you knew Nemona’s belt only had her Paradox team at the moment, too. 

Nemona flung a pokeball, and a bright-green tiger went tumbling into the water with a shocked scream.

“I’m so sorry to do this Hellcat but we need you and we need you now. Play Rough, right there, now!”

Nemona started to swim backwards towards shore, pulling you along with her, so you happened to have a perfect view of the unfolding drama. Hellcat didn’t instantly sink like a stone, to your relief– in fact, it immediately started swimming, moving very gracefully and effectively in the water, honing in on the giant fish without a single hint of fear. The shark breached from the water again, lifting its head into the air, its huge scythes glowing an intense bright blue. When it reached Hellcat, the blades swung together with an incredible clashing sound that echoed enormously in the cavern and rang painfully in your ears.

You could hear Nemona gasp from behind you, but it wasn’t from exhaustion from swimming. She whispered,

“That was Guillotine.”

Oh. You’d never seen the move used before, but you sure as heck remembered talking about it in class. There were many, many pokemon you did not want to be in the same water with, but something carrying Guillotine was at the top of the list.

The blades had missed Hellcat, thankfully– the tiger had barely even flinched in the face of it. It dove into the water and launched itself at the shark. You couldn’t see the battle for a while, since it was under water, but when the two re-surfaced, the shark had its teeth sunk into Hellcat’s haunches.

“Hellcat, keep using Play Rough!” Nemona yelled. You turned your head to look and see how close you were to the little island– not far now. It had taken a while since Nemona had to help you, but at least you were almost out of danger.

Hellcat did its best to twist around and attack the shark again, slashing at its eyes, forcing it to release its crushing bite. The pair of blades came crashing together again and missed again as Hellcat dove under. Whatever went on under water must have been good, because you could see a spray of rainbow fragments, indicating Hellcat must have broken the shark’s Terastallization. 

“Yesss! Great job, Hellcat!” Nemona called, even though the pokemon were still under water. 

However, it seemed it was premature to celebrate. A few seconds later, a blue flash returned to Nemona’s pokeball. 

Then a ragged dorsal fin surfaced on the water once more. 

“U-uh, Nemona–”

The fin went careening through the water, heading straight towards the both of you, and you started to flail, trying to see how close you were to shore.

“We’re almost there, don’t panic, Jules–”

It was true, you were almost there, hardly more than a few yards, but it wasn’t fast enough; you felt Nemona yanking you as fast as she could, gasping for breath, but it just wasn’t enough. The shark’s head surfaced from the water, jaws and blades opened wide, and you pulled a ball from your pocket and chucked it, screaming.

The poor Brute Bonnet you sent out floated and bobbed in the water, wriggling its stubby legs and crying, looking very confused. The shark took the bait, its curved, red blades slamming together into the spongy body of the Bonnet.

The pokemon fainted instantly, at the same time that you and Nemona reached the island. You both scrambled ashore, out of reach of the beast’s behemoth blades.

“That thing sure has a lot of fight left in it!” Nemona yelled, sounding equal parts exasperated and impressed.

“Y-yeah, might need to weaken it a bit more for catching. At least we’re safe here?”

The shark stopped at the water’s edge, snapping its jaws and snarling, frustrated. Now that its tera was broken, you could see its coloration better and realized it really did resemble Garchomp in a lot of ways, the same slate-blue color with a red underbelly, and the same yellow star-shape on its snout. Nemona dropped to the ground and panted out,

“Right, maybe you can send something out, Jules, I think I need a minute.”

You obligingly pulled your soggy backpack off and zipped it open, accessing the pokeballs for your regular team. 

“Let’s see, not sure which one I should use . . .”

You glanced up when the shark turned tail and swam off a ways. At first you thought it was retreating, but you could see it was swimming in a large circle, gradually picking up speed. The water around it began to glow a bright blue. 

“What’s it doing?”

Nemona stared, her confused expression soon shifting to one of alarm.

“Weeee might not be safe here after all, Juliana . . .”

The swirling water was soon seething with power, and the shark turned. It began to charge directly towards the island you were sitting on. It finally occurred to you what the move looked like.

“That– that’s Wave Crash, isn’t it? Um, um, hold on!”

You tossed a pokeball, releasing your Aqua Breed Tauros. You pointed and quickly ordered,

“Tauros, I want you to use Wave Crash, okay?!”

Tauros looked around in confusion and then spotted the rapidly approaching shark. It lowered its head and water began to gather around its body like a glowing cloak.

Nemona stood and grabbed your hand, backing you both away several paces and asking nervously,

“Are you sure that’s going to work?”

“Nope!”

There wasn’t really time to consider an alternative; the shark was barreling down on the island with all the rage of an out-of-control freight train, a towering wave of water at its back. Tauros had just enough time to fully power his move and back up as far as he could on the island before the shark was virtually upon you, and then the bull charged forward and leapt into the air, at the same moment the shark launched itself from the water.

The two pokemon collided mid-air, their bodies slamming together hard. In their wake, the two opposing waves of water crashed together as well, a terrific roar that shook the entire cavern, white foam spraying absolutely everywhere. You had hoped that the two waves would completely cancel each other out, but it seemed they had only softened the blow– the opposing waves continued to pass through one another, and a few seconds later, the shark’s wave came crashing down on the island, sweeping you and Nemona off your feet and sending you right back out into the water. Fortunately, it didn’t carry you too far out, and once you’d popped back up on the surface, you battled your way back to shore, sputtering and heart pounding. You found the shark still out for blood, although it was clearly growing exhausted, its scythes crashing together again and again as it pursued Tauros, missing each time. 

“Tauros! Retreat!” you shouted, although he already seemed to be doing exactly that. A few moments later, the bull made it to shore, stamping onto the soggy ground and snorting, turning about to shield you protectively. The shark breached from the water, its toothy maw wide, letting out a draconic roar.

“Take that!” Nemona yelled, flinging one of your Dusk Balls. The shark caught the ball in its mouth, teeth chomping down on it, then dissolved into light as the ball sucked it inside. The pokeball bobbed in the water briefly before clicking. The remaining waves in the water carried it to shore, where it gently came to rest. 

The two of you stared for a few moments, as if needing confirmation that the thing was finally safely contained. Then you reached out your ball and mumbled,

“Good work, Tauros. Return.”

Nemona dropped to her knees, panting. You proceeded to have a minor coughing fit, trying to expel the water that’d gotten into your lungs, then dropped to the ground too. Nemona crawled her way over to sit under the crystal tree, so you followed her, splaying out on the ground beside her, still shaking with the occasional cough and feeling completely exhausted. For a long time, the pair of you just laid there, and the only sounds were your gasps for breath and the drips of water that fell from the glistening branches of the tree. 

Eventually, Nemona started laughing, a breathless, wobbly laugh, her voice cutting in and out. You turned your head to see the mirth sparkling in her amber eyes. She said,

“Man . . . that was pretty nuts. What a rush, huh?”

You gazed at her for a few beats, then answered,

“Of course you loved that. You know, you’re a little crazy, Nemona.”

She turned her head to the side to look at you too.

“And you’re smiling.”

You turned away, trying to smother your smile, saying,

“No I’m not . . .”

She giggled, nudging her head closer to yours, her voice full of glee.

“Yeah you are, you goober, you can’t fool me. You loved it just as much as I did.”

Losing your battle with keeping the smile off your face, you turned your head to look at her again.

“I–”

Your foreheads were practically touching now. You felt your heart climb to your throat, choking out whatever words you’d planned to say. You were helplessly lost in her eyes, as vibrant and fiery as the sunrise. 

You knew that you were staring, that you were blushing. That your face was an open book. It had to be. She had to see it, didn’t she?

Nemona gazed back at you, silent at first. Her tongue briefly wetted her top lip and she asked quietly,

“You what?”

Her voice was soft but carried some sort of undertone you weren’t confident in identifying. You swallowed, desperately trying to remember your previous train of thought.

“Uhh, I . . . I . . . forget.”

You were pretty sure you didn’t even remember your own name in the moment. Nemona’s chest bubbled with a short, silent giggle.

“You forget?”

“Mmm,” you mumbled. You would have felt embarrassed, but Nemona was looking at you with such overpowering affection that there was literally no space in your head for anything more. 

Nemona’s gaze shifted, dropping just a little below your eyes, before quickly shifting back up again. There was something suddenly very nervous in her energy. Her voice soft and vulnerable, she began,

“Jules, could I . . .”

You waited, but she trailed off and seemed to freeze. 

You asked,

“What?”

She suddenly pushed herself up to a sitting position, letting out a nervous giggle.

“U-uh, I-I– forget. Hey, um, we’re both pretty wet, huh?”

You sat up as well.

“Soaked. But really, what did you wanna ask me?”

“Nothing, it was nothing! W-we should probably figure out how to dry off though, any ideas? I was thinking maybe some kind of Flying pokemon move to give us a quick blow-dry, but I don’t think any of my pokemon have moves that would work.”

You looked at her for a few moments, processing the fact she wasn’t going to fess up to you. 

Sighing, you answered quietly,

“I dunno, lemme think a minute.”

You went to your backpack and considered your monster collection. Your main team was stacked with high-power moves that wouldn’t work as a gentle blow-dry; Corviknight’s Brave Bird certainly wouldn’t fit the bill. None of the Paradox Pokemon you captured would probably work, either, since they also seemed stacked with powerful moves. While you mulled it over, Nemona busied herself with letting out Hellcat and Scarlet to revive and treat with potions and pets. Eventually, you had an ‘a-ha’ moment, pulling a ball from an inner pocket in your bag. The pokeball belonged to the very first pokemon you had caught back in Cabo Poco, all those months back. While you hadn’t kept him on your main team for very long, you still loved him dearly and were sentimental enough to always keep him with you.

You returned to where Nemona sat under the crystal tree, two pokeballs in your hand.

“Okay, I think I have a solution.”

“Oh, great!”

You tossed the first ball, releasing your Volcarona. Nemona looked a little wary.

“Um . . . Flamethrower might be a bit much . . .”

“Not Flamethrower. Volcarona isn’t going to use any moves. But she has Flame Body, remember?”

Your friend brightened.

“Of course! That’s so smart, Jules. It might be a little slow, but we should dry out way faster than if we just sat here.”

You smiled and said,

“Well, we can do even better.”

You released your second pokemon, a Vivillon. Then you sat down beside Nemona.

“Volcarona, head over there. Yeah, that’s good. Florian, I want you to go behind her, facing us. Okay, great. Now just keep using Gust. Nice and gentle, all right? Slow and steady.”

Your Vivillon flapped his wings, the air moving across Volcarona’s body, sending a warm breeze rolling over you and Nemona. It felt really good, your skin rippling in goosebumps at the warmth, making you realize just how chilly you’d become in your soggy clothes.

“Okay, you really are a genius, Julinana,” Nemona said, sounding thoroughly impressed. You glanced away shyly, chuckling,

“I dunno about that, but thanks.”

Nemona gave a luxurious stretch and leaned against the trunk of the crystal tree, crossing her legs and reveling in the warm breeze. 

“Mmm, not gonna lie, I’m glad we get to rest a bit, I’m beat. Promise to wake me up if I nod off, okay?”

Nemona’s eyes fluttered closed, her head nodding forward slightly. At some point she had pulled her hairtie out and let her hair down so it could dry off better, the long, dark strands gathered in damp bunches at her shoulders. Her wet clothes were all rumpled and wrinkled and her red tie was loosened to the point of nearly falling off. Your fingers itched to reach out and remove it for her.

“Jules?”

You jolted a little when she said your name, but she hadn’t even opened her eyes again.

“Y-yeah?”

Sleepily, she repeated,

“Promise, okay?”

You smiled faintly. God she was cute.

“Mmmm,” you answered. You didn’t actually want to promise, you wanted to let her sleep. Fortunately, Nemona didn’t seem to notice your lack of promise, or she was already too far gone. You resumed shamelessly admiring her as you were warmed by the beating of a butterfly’s wings. Water droplets in the branches of the crystal tree above caught the light and reflected a soft rainbow across your friend’s face. The vision was positively arresting. You couldn’t look away. 

However, the exhaustion from your recent terrifying encounter started to catch up to you, and coupled with the growing warmth, you felt your body grow heavier and heavier. And before you even realized it, you’d also drifted off asleep. 

Your head slumped onto Nemona’s shoulder, the soft rainbows cast across both of your faces.

You dreamed of Nemona kissing you under the crystal tree. It felt so vivid, so real, and as you gradually woke, you could swear that you could still feel her lips on yours. They were hot and wet and a little bit rough, and . . .

“Pffft! Ptyyuck! Gackkk!”

You realized there was something big lapping at your face that was decidedly not Nemona, and you squirmed and sputtered, trying to get it off you. You pushed a giant lizard’s muzzle out of your face.

“Sc-scarlet, geez, get off!”

Scarlet trilled happily, wagging his tail. You wiped lizard spit from your face and grumbled. From beside you, Nemona stirred awake. She sleepily mumbled,

“Jules?”

You looked to her, unable to help savoring the way her long lashes slowly blinked awake, the adorable, brief moment of confusion in her eyes. She stared at you for a few beats as her senses returned.

“Nnngh, Jules, you said you’d wake me if I fell asleep!” she complained, looking slightly embarrassed over having fallen asleep. 

“I didn’t actually say that! Also, um, I couldn’t really do that anyway, since I fell asleep too.”

“Hmmph. Well, okay, I guess I can’t fault you for that . . .”

She yawned, then climbed to her feet, stretching wide.

“Ow, ow, ow.” She rubbed her neck, wincing.

“I gotta stop falling asleep under trees, that is not good neck support.”

You stood as well, feeling a wave of empathy for her. Your neck didn’t hurt, but you were pretty sure you’d been using Nemona as a pillow.

“At least we’re all dried out now,” you said, running a hand through your messy, tangled curls. Your Vivillon and Volcarona had landed in the branches of the crystal tree, apparently resting up there. They looked very picturesque. Hellcat was curled in a ball, sleeping soundly.

“Yeah, that blow dry really did the trick.We’ll have to keep it in mind for future adventures,” Nemona said. She pulled her hairband from her pocket and worked on gathering her hair up and putting her ponytail back into place. Her tie had come entirely loose by now, and it slipped off from her neck while she was busy. You picked it up off the ground.

“Whoops. Thanks, Jules.”

Her hands were still busy with fixing her hair, so your brain had the genius idea to just reach out and loop the tie back around Nemona’s neck for her, which you started to do before you had the chance to question whether that would be a good idea. Nemona’s eyes widened just a little and she let out a giggle.

“Oh, thanks! You wanna help tie it for me? I was never any good at that part, honestly.”

She was looking at you intently and there was a playful little quirk to her smile that was doing dangerous things to your heart, but you couldn’t very well stop now. You leaned in closer to her, gently running your fingers along her collar so you could turn it up– accidentally brushing against her neck for a few seconds, which you thought you might die from– before carefully adjusting the length of the tie around her neck. It somehow felt terribly, terribly intimate and you could feel her eyes on you as if they were boring holes, but you tried very hard to focus on tying the knot without turning into a blushing mess. It took you longer than it should have, but you were proud you’d managed to produce something halfway decent.

“How’s that?” you asked, your eyes finally flicking back up to hers. Her easygoing smile was strangely absent, her jaw hanging slightly slack. Her mouth swung shut again and she seemed to force a smile back in place, answering quickly in a thin voice,

“G-great, that’s– that’s great! Thanks!”

You let go of the tie and backed off a pace, and Nemona added on awkwardly,

“Although, uhm, it’s not like I can really see it, so, uh . . .”

You laughed nervously, feeling very silly.

“Yeah, that’s true . . . well um, it, it looks good.”

“Great!” Nemona repeated, a little louder than was strictly necessary. She cleared her throat, glancing around. Sounding a bit antsy, she said,

“Anyway, um, guess we should get going, huh? We can’t spend the rest of our time here napping, not when there’s so much to do!”

You nodded, looking out across the still waters of the underground lake. You felt slightly nervous about going back out there, despite how peaceful it looked. It had looked just as peaceful last time, after all.

“Okay. Maybe keep your eyes peeled, though. I don’t really feel like dealing with another ambush.”

You both got your bags and prepared for the ride. You didn’t like how vulnerable you’d been last time, without any strong pokemon choices in your pockets during the heat of the moment. You made sure to take a few pokeballs from your main team to keep in your pockets, just in case of any more nasty surprises. Nemona returned Hellcat to its ball, and you returned your Volcarona. You decided to keep Florian out of his ball, though, so he could fly along above you and keep an eye on the waters around you. You felt a lot safer with those safety measures in place. You and Nemona hopped aboard Scarlet once more and paddled your way out of the lake. As you drifted back through the tunnel-of-love, Nemona said that you both should definitely return again sometime soon and have a picnic under the crystal tree. You agreed that it sounded like a lovely idea.

Once you were back safely on land, Nemona was very eager to return to the chamber that was full of overgrown crystals.

“That shark was Terastallized, so maybe it was the right one we needed to clear the road block!” 

You and Scarlet followed after her down the passageway. You answered reluctantly,

“Yeah, but . . . I dunno, Nemona . . .”

She turned to you.

“What’s wrong?”

You hesitated.

“Well it’s just . . . these encounters we’ve been having have only been getting more and more dangerous. And it’s starting to get pretty late in the day, and um, you still wanna have at least one pokemon battle with our Paradox pokemon, right?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely!” she answered immediately, then seemed to think about what you said.

“Hm . . . I guess I see your point. We want enough time to battle . . .”

Your steps sloshed through the shallow water as she thought about it. She soon suggested,

“Okay, how about this– if the roadblock is gone, we just take a quick peek at what’s past it. Just real quick. Then we’ll get ready to battle. How’s that sound?”

You nodded. You had to admit, you were just as curious what lay beyond the roadblock. 

“Deal. Only a few minutes, though–”

“Yeah, yeah, of course! We’ll just take a peek.”

Once you’d reached the portion of cave where the walls were thick with layers of crystal like piled snow, Nemona let out an excited squeal, the roadblock now mysteriously gone just as you’d hoped.

“I knew it!!”

She rushed up to the unblocked tunnel entrance and gazed into it. You joined her and looked in as well, your eyes going wide at the sight. The cave tunnel was completely coated in dense layers of glittering tera crystal on every conceivable surface– to such an extreme that the passageway itself was restricted down to a relatively narrow hole. Looking into it felt like gazing into a dizzying spiral. You breathed,

“Geez, I’ve never seen so much tera crystal in my life.”

Nemona turned to you and said,

“It feels important, doesn’t it? Like there’s something important in there.”

You nodded. It really did. You didn’t have any rational reason to assume it, since it could just be a portion of cave where the tera crystals had run amok, but somehow looking into the tunnel really did make you feel like you were standing on the threshold of something magical and significant. 

You smiled at her and asked softly,

“Shall we see what’s inside?”

She grinned and nodded, then took your hand. You stepped together through the opening, Scarlet following behind.

The crystal-coated floor was slippery, so you had to move slowly and carefully. There was also a slight swirling optical illusion as you moved, due to the twisting way the crystals had grown, combined with the fact that so much light was shining and re-reflecting in the confined chamber. It made you feel dizzy, which was another good reason to move slowly and keep hold of Nemona’s hand. The tunnel narrowed the more you progressed, until it was so narrow that even Scarlet couldn’t fit through the gap. You returned him to his ball and walked the remainder of the passageway with Nemona. When you exited the tunnel into the darkened chamber beyond, you both stood still, gazing about in awe. 

This place was strange. So many of the Area Zero caves were well-lit, because the tera crystals glowed brightly and there were plenty of them around. The chamber you stood in now should have been the same, and yet, it was much, much darker. The problem wasn’t the number of crystals, because there were plenty of crystals growing here along the walls and ceiling– in fact, they grew in towering, thick pillars, larger than you’d seen anywhere else. But the majority of them simply did not glow with the same intensity, for whatever reason, and only threw out an incredibly dim light. You could tell the chamber you were in was large, but it was hard to say how large; you couldn’t even see all the way to the ceiling, only spotting fleeting glimpses of the reflections of crystals. 

However, not all of the crystals were dim. In the center of the chamber stood a collection of crystals that glowed with an intense rainbow aura. They were enormous. A central one grew like the trunk of a massive, elderly tree, with several other thick pillars that had grown around it in a circle, only for them to topple over in their weight and come to rest against each other, like the poles of a teepee. Your eyes were naturally drawn to the sight, which seemed especially dazzling to look at in the relative darkness of the cave.

“Whoa. Talk about the mother of all tera crystals,” Nemona whispered. You murmured,

“Yeah . . . I wonder why they’re so big down here? And why it’s so dark here?”

You both began to slowly approach the collection of massive crystals, which seemed almost overwhelming in their splendor. As you got closer you saw there was a flat platform at the base of the collection of pillars, low off the ground, around the height of a stage. It gave the impression of a royal throne, the pillars behind acting as its grand ornamentation. Sitting upon the platform was a small hexagonal gem. It actually looked rather plain when compared to the other huge tera crystals in the room, but was noteworthy in how uniformly it was shaped and how neatly it sat there, almost as if intentionally placed.

The gem had caught Nemona’s eye as well. She reached out curiously and touched it, saying,

“This one’s kinda cute.”

As her hand made contact with the gem, a silvery little swirl of sparkles flowed down her arm and into her body, and she gasped. You grabbed her, alarmed. 

“Are you okay??”

She let go of the gem, staring at her hand, looking more confused than concerned.

“Yeah, it didn’t hurt, just felt a little tingly. Kinda like static electricity? Honestly, my hair’s felt like it’s been standing on end since we came into this room. . .”

You noticed the silvery sparkles were still swirling around her a bit, but they were concentrated especially around her backpack. 

“Hold on, Nemo, hold still for a sec.”

You zipped open her bag, reaching in. You located the source of the energy and pulled out her Tera Orb. Normally the orbs glimmered very softly with power, but hers now was shining as bright as a star, almost painful to look at.

“What the heck? My Tera Orb’s going nuts!” Nemona said, taking it from you.

“Yeah . . . I think what you felt was tera energy running through you.”

She gave the orb a gentle shake and laughed,

“That makes sense! I mean, look at this place, the amount of energy here must be off the scales! You should see if yours is like this too.”

You took the Tera Orb from your own backpack, but it wasn’t shining as brightly as hers was. Nemona said eagerly,

“Touch the gem here, that did the trick for me!”

You weren’t exactly sure if it was a good idea to overclock your Tera Orb in the first place, but the temptation was too great. You reached out and touched the gem, feeling the power flowing through your body and into your Tera Orb. The hairs on your arms prickled and your skin tingled.

“Heehee, it kinda tickles,” you said, admiring how brightly your Tera Orb shone. Nemona looked pumped.

“I wonder if our pokemon’s Terastallization will be stronger now with these?? Ooh, I can’t wait to test it out! Maybe we should take this gem back with us?” 

She pocketed her orb and reached for the gem again, trying to pick it up. However, it seemed to be stuck to the crystal platform it was sitting on.

“Hmm, maybe we could break it off?” she mused, tugging a little harder on the gem. 

You suddenly felt uneasy, as if somebody was watching you. You glanced around, saying,

“Maybe we shouldn’t mess with it, Nemona. We don’t even know how tera energy works, not like Sada did . . .”

Nemona grunted, 

“Yeah, but we could give it to a researcher to figure it out, right?”

She had a point, but you couldn’t shake your feeling of anxiety as you watched her. 

“I think I almost got it . . .”

You thought you saw something in the corner of your eye, and you jerked, glancing to the side. There wasn’t anything there, though, other than the gigantic tera crystals towering all around you. You peered into the darkness.

“Nemona, stop.”

“Hm? Why?”

“Just stop.”

Your friend let go of the gem and backed away a step, looking at you. You were staring intensely at the crystals around you, and she followed your gaze. After a tense silence, she whispered,

“What is it?”

You shook your head and whispered back,

“I don’t . . . know, something isn’t right.”

You pulled your phone from your pocket and switched its little flashlight on. You aimed the beam around you, scanning the area very carefully, slowly lifting the light higher and higher in your search, eyeing all the towering crystals. Nothing looked out of place so far, but you continued to scan, the sense of unease still sitting heavy on your chest. You cast the flashlight on the ceiling, all the gems glinting and gleaming in the light. You kept going until your head was tilted all the way back, gazing directly overhead. The pattern of crystals growing up there looked kind of strange to you, a number of them jutting outwards to the sides before growing in a new direction and curving around, as if the tera crystal columns were jointed in several places; it almost gave the impression of gangly legs, a strange tangle of columns that all reached for the same point, crowned in a white, fluffy mass of material you didn’t immediately recognize. You squinted at the ceiling, trying to identify it. You were so distracted trying to figure out what the white stuff was that it took you a while to bother following the crystal columns with your eye the other direction, away from the white material, to see if you could locate where exactly in the ceiling they sprung from.

The columns did not lead back to the ceiling. They led to a center crystal mass that contained the largest pair of eyes you’d seen in your life. 

You gasped. 

They were perfectly round dark voids, as black as the pitchest of black, and would have been imperceptible in the darkness if not for the way the flashlight glinted off them. The shape of the thing suddenly came together in your head: the crystal columns didn’t simply look like a tangle of gangly legs, they were legs, holding a taut stretch of spiderweb between them like a fishing-net. The colossal spider hovered on the ceiling directly overhead in perfect silence, as still as stone, its eyes as empty as a pair of black holes. 

You froze to the spot as the full picture dawned on you, an icy chill sweeping down your back and through your limbs. The spider’s fangs were about the length of your forearms. Its eyes were almost comically oversized in comparison to the rest of its body, each one large enough to swallow you whole and then some, if they were indeed the black holes they seemed to be. You were not particularly squeamish about Bug types– in fact, you normally loved them– but this sight was enough to strike terror in the hearts of even the most hardcore Bug maniacs.

You let out a tiny squeak.  

Nearby, Nemona breathed in a small voice,

“J-jules?”

It sounded as though she’d definitely seen it, then. You were too afraid to actually turn your head and check.

“Don’t. Move,” you whispered. 

“Then what do we do,” she whispered back. You tried to think. The silent monster stared back blankly as you struggled to formulate a plan. You ran what you knew about Bug types through your mind, about Spidops in particular, since this seemed to be a horrifying version of one. Spidops hung from a web in silence while holding its net, using its massive, hypersensitive eyes to spot prey on the ground below, even in the darkest of places . . . 

You had a sudden flash of inspiration.

“I’m gonna throw my Tera Orb directly at it,” you whispered carefully.

“. . . how is that going to help?”

“They’re supercharged now, I think the light might blind it for a bit. The moment I throw it, we gotta both run for our lives, though. Okay?”

After a beat, Nemona answered quietly,

“Okay.”

You set your Rotom phone to auto-flashlight so it would hover above your head and remain pointed automatically. Then you started to reach your hand towards your pocket, moving your arm slowly, just a few inches at a time. Once you’d gotten into your pocket, you carefully grasped the orb, pulling it out just as slowly and holding it low– your eyes never straying from the menacing sight overhead the entire time.

You swallowed, pulling your arm back and doing your best to aim. 

Then you flung the Tera Orb with an underhand throw directly upwards, as hard as you could. 

You opened your mouth to shout “Run,” but the spider reacted way faster than you expected, the enormous creature dropping down so rapidly that it was all you could do to gasp. You heard Nemona cry out,

“Jules!”

You tried to run, desperate to dodge out of the way of the net. By some miracle, it seemed you were able to evade it, your shoes slapping noisily against stone ground as you ran, carrying you away from that nightmare.

But Nemona wasn’t so lucky. 

You screeched to a halt when you heard Nemona’s scream pierce the darkness and echo in the cavern.

Turning, you were met with a sight that made your stomach drop to your feet: Nemona caught in the spider’s snare, the spider rapidly climbing its line like a cable back to the ceiling. It was using its legs to wrap Nemona over and over in its net, producing a tightly-wrapped package, Nemona’s screams quickly muffled into silence.

“NEMONA!”

You ran back, but the spider had withdrawn back to the ceiling far too quickly, out of range of most pokemon attacks. You ran your hands over the pokeballs in your pockets, heart pounding, trying to choose something that would work, but it was a little hard to concentrate when it felt like an icy hand was squeezing all the air from your lungs. 

“F-fly, we need to fly,” you muttered, your panicked thoughts finally producing something useful. You yanked a specific ball from your pockets, throwing it with a shaky hand. Your Corviknight appeared and you climbed aboard, yelling,

“Up there! Quick!”

Corviknight took off immediately, carrying you up towards the vicious creature that held Nemona captive. It was still winding silk around her immobile body, but you knew once it was satisfied with the job, the next step for a spider was always the bite– to inject venom to paralyze and, eventually, digest its prey from the inside.

You weren’t going to let it get that far.

“Corviknight, I need you to aim right there, okay? I need you to– ugh, this is too complicated to just explain, h-hold on, um. . .”

You struggled for a bit to think of a quick solution and ended up yanking off the tie from your neck and unknotting it, then pulled the fabric through your pokemon’s beak so you could grip it like reins. 

“Okay, follow my lead, Corviknight! USE U-TURN!”

Corviknight glowed yellow and surged forward, diving straight for the oversized arachnid. You guided your pokemon to fly right into the spider’s dangling legs, striking them as hard and quickly as possible, each in turn. The sudden, jolting impact caused the creature to lose grip on its prize, the package of wrapped silk slipping and starting to fall.

You yanked hard on the reins, bringing the curving U-turn around so that you flew under the falling silk package, in time for it to land on Corvinkight’s head. Releasing the reins, you reached out and grabbed hold of the bundle, dragging it back with you and holding onto it for dear life. You shouted,

“Take us out of here, Corviknight, now!”

Once you had the silk package secured with you on Corviknight’s back, holding it steady with your legs, you tore into the silk with your hands, digging until you found Nemona’s buried head within. She gasped for breath once you’d cleared enough silk out of her face.

“Nemona,” you whimpered, thanking every single one of your lucky stars that you’d gotten to her in time. 

“Juliana,” she coughed, sounding very shaky but very much still alive. You pulled thick strands of silk away from her head, enough to be sure she could breathe fine, then switched your focus to holding onto her while Corviknight carried the two of you out of the dark cave. Your pokemon had to land once it reached the crystal-lined tunnel, however, as it was much too large to fit through. 

Spidops was mostly a slow pokemon– it was an ambush predator, which meant it lay in wait for prey to wander along and then it would suddenly spring with a quick burst of energy. It was not built to chase its prey down, though. There was good reason to believe the ancient form of Spidops was the same, since it seemed to behave in a similar way. So, you were probably already safe at this distance.

However, you still were not terribly eager to hang around and put that theory to the test.

You started to dig the rest of Nemona out from her silken cocoon as quickly as you could, grabbing handfuls of the sticky, fibrous material and ripping. 

“Juliana, you saved me . . .” Nemona said, her eyes wide, still looking very dazed. Quite frankly, you didn’t blame her, but you needed her to recover fast. You answered tersely,

“Not yet I haven’t. Help me get this stuff off you, I don’t wanna give that thing a chance to come back for seconds.”

She seemed to respond to your tone and wriggled in her silken bonds, but she couldn’t help much until you’d helped her get an arm free– once she did it went a lot faster, the both of you ripping the thick strands apart as fast as you could. A lot of the strands kept re-sticking and sticking to you and slowing things down, but you did your best under the circumstances. Once you’d snapped all the major strands around Nemona’s legs, you leaned back up and grunted,

“Okay, we should be g– ughh, damnit–”

The accumulation of broken silk strands had become a problem, which you now found an annoying percentage had reattached to both you and Nemona. 

“Get off, you crummy– get off!” you yelled, yanking at the strings. Nemona tried to help, leaning forward and grabbing handfuls to pull off you, but all this accomplished was sticking the strands still attached to her to the ones stuck to you. The opposing strands gripped to one another tightly, and when you tried to pull away, it only seemed to cinch tighter. You grumbled,

“Are you kidding me?”

“I’m sorry Jules, I think I made it worse.”

You shook your head,

“It’s not your fault, I shouldn’t have rushed it. Here, don’t move too much, just see if you can sorta . . . jimmy it, you know?”

“Yeah, okay, like this?” “Yeah–”

It was so ridiculous you probably would have laughed, or at least, you would have if the spectre of death wasn’t lurking so closely nearby. Nemona ended up wriggling and writhing against you to get the silk loosened up enough, and it rapidly went from laughable to something . . . else, something that made your face flush scarlet and the thoughts short-circuit in your brain. Thankfully it was over quickly, because you were pretty sure you would have literally died if that part had lasted long.

Finally, though, you both were able to pull free of the cursed silk, clambering off Corviknight and into the iridescent tunnel of freedom, withdrawing Corviknight back into its ball along the way.

It was only when you’d reached the other side of the tunnel that the pair of you stopped running. You sat down on the floor just to catch your breath, Nemona flinging herself onto one of the crystals to pant there like a racehorse. You gazed up at the ceiling as you gulped in air, your vision spotting over for a while.

You heard Nemona pant out,

“I think– that’s, that’s enough exploring for one day.”

You nodded, leaning your back against the coolness of the cave wall. You answered heavily,

“Yeah.”

You both continued to rest for a while in silence. You picked strands of spider web off yourself as you tried to process what had just happened. Mostly your thoughts were just glazed over in exhaustion, though. 

Eventually, when Nemona had caught her breath enough, you heard her voice echo in the cave, sounding uncertain but hopeful.

“. . . we’re still on for that pokemon battle, though, right?”

[aheckinmess]

Fierce Little One

(Part 5 of Cursed, Not Cute.)

Read on AO3.

Tags: Dad Sukuna, Ryomen Sukuna, OC Child, Child Satoru Gojo, Child Suguru Geto, Lazy Day Stroll, Overall Fun Friendship Times, Protective Sukuna, Toji Fushiguro, And Yes - He's an Asshole, Satoru Gojo is an Idiot, Angst, Sukuna's Daughter Has to Fight Toji, That Tells You Everything You Need to Know, Also There's A Tiger Spirit, She Spits Wisdom Daily, We Love Her

Word Count: 2,224 words

Summary: Now a teenager, Besu has another friend added to her arsenal. Suguru Geto. After a day of chatter and teasing each other, Gojo and Besu head home before curfew. They're not expecting a life-threatening roadblock on the way home.

Chapter 5: Fierce Little One

Besu giggled at Geto as he seemed completely unbothered by Gojo’s usual antics. While Gojo and Besu often fed from each others’ chaotic energy, Geto acted as their emotional stabilizer. When Gojo first introduced Geto, Besu couldn’t deny her concerns. As daughter of the Curse King, she’d grown accustomed to being used as an advantageous pawn to get to her father.

Which meant she expected to be shouldered aside in favor of someone better than her.

Now? The three of them hung out all the time. Her father didn’t seem fond of the idea that she was best friends with two boys, but even she noticed the small smile he had every time she rambled to him about their misadventures.

“Satoru, you’re too confident for your own good.” Geto sighed, shaking his head with some amusement.

“C’mooonn, Suguru! You know the three of us could take on anyone!” Gojo smirked and nudged Besu for backup. “What do you think, Besu?”

“I can’t make a comment on this.” She chuckled. “I’m sure we could hold our own, but I’d rather not tempt fate at the ripe age of thirteen.”

“You’re no fun!” Gojo poked her cheek and she smacked his hand.

“While you may be pure chaos, Satoru, Besu actually has a logical head on her shoulders to balance out her chaotic behavior.” Geto said evenly.

“Yeah, but if I had asked her without you around she would have agreed!” Gojo leaned his head on Besu’s shoulder with a dazzling simper on his lips. “Wouldn’t you, Besu?”

“Satoru, I am not fighting the world to satisfy your appetite for destruction.” Besu snorted, ruffling his hair to make him get off of her. “If I was going to do that, I’d have joined my father’s crusades across the country long before now.”

“We can invite him, too!” Gojo taunted.

“I’m sure you’d have his blessing.” Geto added with a playful nudge.

“But you surely wouldn’t have mine.” Baekho rumbled, swirling into existence by Besu’s feet. “Just because you are capable of great destruction doesn’t mean you should cause it.”

“Party pooper!” Gojo stage-whispered to Geto.

“Aren’t you supposed to be yin to the dragon’s yang? The most fearsome auspicious beast meant to cause wanton destruction?” Geto quirked a brow.

“Just because I am capable of great destruction does not mean I should cause it.” Baekho reiterated. “I am known to be a harbinger of death and destruction, but that does not mean it is all that I am. At my core, I am not unlike Besu here.” Besu felt peace in the coolness of her tiger’s cursed energy as Baekho rubbed her misty head against her hand.

“Are you saying we should fear Besu as we fear you?”

“Baekho isn’t scary!” Besu frowned at Geto. “She’s my friend!”

“I believe he’s talking of a different type of fear, Cub.” Baekho chuffed. “He speaks of a fear that strikes awe into mens’ hearts. And to answer your question, young Suguru, yes. Though I am perhaps biased a bit in favor of my own cub. She has a ways to go, though, before she earns her stripes.”

“Why do you call Besu your cub? Did you and her dad have a little too much fun in the spirit realm?” Gojo snickered. 

“No. I call Besu my cub just as I would call any of you my cubs. Though I am known for destruction at times, most of it has only ever been created in the thralls of my own protective nature for humanity. I’m sure you’ve also heard tales of my dedication to justice and morality.”

“Suguru!” A faint, female voice called as the group closed in on Geto’s house. “It’s almost past your curfew! Come on!” 

“Thank you, Baekho, for your time and insight.” Geto gave her a little bow before giving his goodbyes and jogging the rest of the way home.

“Ugh. Don’t you ever get tired of defending the weak, though, Baekho?” Gojo pouted.

“It is all a matter of perspective, young Satoru.” Baekho rumbled. “If you only see people as a measure of weakness or strength, then you’ve missed out on the most beautiful part of humanity. You’ve reduced everyone to nothing more than common beasts based on your own subjective ideals.”

“Subjective? Everyone knows what strength or weakness looks like!”

“You know what it looks like to you, perhaps. And there is a communal view of strength and weakness for the majority, surely. But look at Besu. Do you think she’s weak?” 

“Of course not! She was taught by the King of Curses and you’ve attached your spirit to her.” Gojo scoffed. “Who would be dumb enough to call that weak?”

Besu shrunk a little and tilted her head down as they rounded another corner, making her miss a flash of black hair moving into the shadows as they walked.

“And yet Besu believes herself to be weak and unfit to be your friend. Mere physical strength is not the only measure of strength as a whole.” Baekho’s ears twitched and she halted, eyes trained on the empty streets ahead. Her head tilted back to the alley behind them. “Sometimes strength lies in being the weakest and still enduring every hit landed. Sometimes strength lies in being weak and knowing you need help. And sometimes,” Baekho bared her teeth as her eyes locked on the dark alley across from them. “Strength lies down an abandoned alleyway.”

Besu only had time to turn her head when a man flew from the alley, honed in on Gojo. Of course, he never made it past Baekho.

Instinctively, Besu shoved Gojo behind her, eyes locked on this strange man. Black hair. Scar on his lip. Oh no. Just like she’d known Satoru Gojo upon her first glance, Besu’s father had warned her about Toji Fushiguro. While the Curse King might have no issue fighting such a man, Besu still had training and growing to do.

“What business do you have here?” Baekho snarled, teeth poised at Toji’s throat.

“What do you mean? You have any idea how much money I could get for Satoru Gojo’s head alone? But to find out he’s hanging with the princess of curses, well…” He chuckled. “That sounds like a two for one sale if I ever heard one.”

Besu witnessed Toji’s strength first hand as he shoved Baekho away from him and went for Gojo first, who was running headlong into the fight with a grin.

“Satoru, don’t!” Besu screamed, but her plea fell on deaf ears.

“I can take on this coward!” Gojo laughed, before time seemed to slow as Toji’s fist connected with the infinity of his stomach and sent him flying back. “Try and fight me when you can’t hit me!”

What are you doing, Cub? Get up! Fight! Baekho shouted in her mind, rallying on Toji as he moved with such speed he seemed to teleport.

Besu shook her head and her training took over. Fighting a foe as fast and strong as Toji was second-nature, but even so, she had yet to beat her father in a sparring match. The only advantage she seemed to have in this fight was a second pair of arms. There’s no way we get out of this alive. I need to warn my father. Rally your cursed energy while I hold him off! And Besu did. She focused on the pit of her stomach like her father taught her and moved it up, up, up to the top of her head.

WHACK! The wind was knocked out of her as Toji slammed his fist into her gut. It was nothing compared to her father’s dismantle or cleave, but it still dazed her.

“You should know better than to walk unguarded, Princess.” Toji sneered.

Besu found her mind frozen even as she fought with Baekho in a seamless dance fitting a princess of curses. But everything stopped when Gojo leapt at Toji and she watched him pull out the Inverted Spear of Heaven. Where the hell did he get that?!

“You might be fast and strong, but you still can’t hit me!” Gojo laughed.

“Stop, Gojo!” Besu leapt toward them with a scream.

Her heart stopped when the blade pierced Gojo’s chest and her friend’s eyes widened. When Gojo flopped to the ground in a bloody puddle, anger pooled in her gut as she flipped over Toji, ripping out a chunk of his hair and then grabbing Gojo before darting down the street.

I can hold him off for a little while, Cub, but you won’t be able to run the whole way! I have to get as close to Father as I can or Satoru will die! Terror and venom seeped through her bones with every breath. Her father would be able to heal Gojo. She might die getting him there, but she’d be damned if she let her best friend die.

“Hang on, Satoru. Don’t die yet.” She whispered to her friend. “Dad will save you. He has to.”

A block stood between Besu and her castle when she flew forward, using one pair of arms to catch herself and the other to shelter Gojo. Besu only had time to hide him behind a car before Toji zeroed in on her, pummeling her with blows not unlike her father during training. An innate, feral need to rip the man in front of her limb from limb caused her to grab him with a pair of hands and slam him into the nearest wall with the others.

And suddenly Besu couldn’t move. She defended herself half-heartedly as doubts fluttered through her mind. How could she claim to be any different from her father if those dark urges for destruction eventually won over? Self-defense was one thing, but the desire for Toji’s blood? Though her father subscribed to no such niceties like compassion or love, Besu broke the mold and couldn’t fathom a world without it. 

Baekho roared in Besu’s mind, leaping in to hold off Toji again, the color of her spirit now a crimson red in her rage. Baekho, I have to save Satoru, but I can’t be like my father! I don’t want to be fueled by his appetite for destruction! I can’t fight Toji! Then you have condemned young Satoru to death! Besu’s lip quivered as she looked at Satoru’s body behind the car, tears mingling with her own sweat and blood at the thought of him dying. Meanwhile, Baekho fought for her relentlessly in a way she felt she didn’t deserve. If you stand there and do nothing, he will die. If you stand there and forsake your training, you will both die! But how can I say I’m devoted to peace when I have to stoop to such lows to reach it? What you speak of is not peace. You speak of being harmless! A true pacifist is capable of great destruction and chooses peace. Toji struggled under Baekho and a pained roar came from her as he freed his right side. Still she persevered. But if you do not fight right now you are not promoting harmony or helpfulness…you are promoting harmlessness. And you, Little One, are far from harmless.

One final look at Satoru, and Besu noticed his head was tilted up. Glistening blue eyes pleaded with her. Help. His mouth didn’t move, but she could swear she heard the plea uttered from his very soul.

When the angry fire rekindled in Besu’s veins, Baekho turned a different shade: purple. And suddenly Besu felt unstoppable as she turned offensive with her tiger companion. Her speed doubled and, while Toji still matched her enough to block every hit, she could tell he hadn’t been expecting the barrage of assaults between the two of them.

We have to end this quickly for Satoru. I don’t know how much longer he’ll live! Then let’s finish him. Use the technique your father taught you. And though Besu had never executed a dismantle or cleave successfully, she let instincts take over as she dodged a swing of Toji’s sword and swiped two of her fingers in front of her, aiming for Toji’s throat.

When she felt the technique hit but Toji still landed with a grin, Besu stopped breathing. Real fear clawed into her throat as she wondered what her death might mean for the already doomed fate of Japan.

But her shoulders slumped with relief when Toji’s smiling head fell off his shoulders with a thud, and the rest of his mangled body plopped forward. She dashed over to Satoru and cradled him in her arms again, ignoring the burning pain saturating her every limb. Gojo remained her only concern.

“FATHER!” She yelled through the mansion as soon as she stepped in, only able to make it through the threshold before her body gave out on her.

Blood soaked the entry rug when her father’s face came into view. 

“What are you–Besu?” Annoyance gave way to alarm as Sukuna flashed to her side. “What the hell happened?!” 

“Toji.” It was the only explanation she needed to give for now, especially as exhaustion claimed her. After she set Gojo’s limp body in front of him, a sob tore from her chest. “Dad…please don’t let Satoru die.”

 Her body didn’t wait for his answer as the world turned black.

Continue Reading -> Ch. 6

[offbeat-manga-ships]

TORA WA RYUU WO MADA TABENAI. / 虎は龍をまだ喰べない。 / THE TIGER WON'T EAT THE DRAGON YET by Inaba Hachi / 一七八ハチ • chapter 5

[zweetpea]

Chapter 5 The prospective (TBRAHE)

(That mean the future^) 

cw: infidelity, swearing, gore?

“How am I going to tell him, Riko?” You asked your little dragon as you laid on your bed. “I have to. I should be the bigger person and tell him. Besides, or marriage was never one of love. He is in love with little miss Pissa. Ugh! This sucks.” You rolled onto your stomach.

“(Y/n)? May I come in?” Addison asked.

“Sure.” You responded. She gently creaked the door open and peered in. “Hi.” You waved not really moving from your position.

“Your husband was wondering where you had gone. There was a bit of a fight in the garden.”

“What?! Is everyone okay?”

“That new guard of yours had challenged the Duke and the King to a duel for your honor. The three of them are currently being treated by Shoko in the hospital.”

“Ugh, great! Another thing I have to worry about.”

“It was quite amusing actually. I’d never seen your husband so wound up about you before.”

“What do you mean?” You were slightly apprehensive to ask.

“Well…”

——

“I think these are the documents.” I’d told this new guy who was with (Y/n). We headed back to the boys.

“I never actually caught your name, I’m Chisa.”

“You can call me Addie. So, and I mean this respectfully, why are you here?”

“Her majesty’s father has hired me to protect her after news of the Kings affair got out.”

“That’s probably a good idea. I’m worried about what Parliament will do if the Royals split. I believe a majority actually favor our queen but the minority that supports the king is powerful, and influential. We may not make it if a war breaks out and our government is split.”

“You’re quite knowledgeable for a maid. Quite skilled too.”

“Thank you. (Y/n)- my lady has funded my education from her own pocket money.”

“She’s terrifying.”

“Only if you piss her off.”

“Speaking of pissing people off, we’re back with these jerks.”

I hadn’t even noticed that we’d returned. “Your majesty, Duke Geto, we have the paperwork.” I set down the papers and the king signed, however Geto insisted on reading the stupid thing first.

“Just sign.” Chisa growled.

“Excuse me?” It was less of a question and more of a ‘how dare you speak to me like that’.

“…please just do ask the queen request of you and sign. The stupid. Paper!” Geto begrudgingly signed. I took the paper back afterward and Chisa glared at the two men. 

“What?” The King asked. Chisa took my hand and removed my riding glove; then he proceeded to smack Geto and tried to hit the king but it went around him due to his cursed technique. He then threw down my glove.

“I challenge you both to a duel for my lady’s honor!”

“ Your lady?” The king snarled.

“Yes! Her father picked me out for her!”

“Fine. If you want to be obliterated that badly Suguru and I’d be happy to do so for you.”

The three men stood to face each other. Chisa gripped the hilt of his sword. Blue light emitted from the Kings fingers as Chisa was sucked towards him.

Once he was five feet away from the king he unsheathed his sword and uttered a phrase. “Cursed technique, dream stasis.” As Chisa said those words a red circle appeared on the ground beneath him. Gojo stood inside it bewildered before he passed out and dropped Chisa.

“SATORU!” The Duke cried as he sent out a chimerical mess of curses with a crows body and wings, an eagles gold talons, and a small goat head, with a second head of a cat.

Chisa quickly sliced through them. Then he turned his attention back to the king. “Domaine expansion, sleep paralysis. This allows my prey to be conscious but unable to move or use cursed techniques. I want you to suffer.” He said as he kicked gojo in the head and stabbed him in the shoulder.

“STOP!!” Geto called. The domain was clear enough so everyone could see what was happening. “Baku go!” Another chimera was summoned. One with an elephant head, tiger body and an ox tail. That thing sucked up the domain as Gojo still laid on the ground. Chisa then ran towards Geto and cut apart the Baku.

Chisa swung at Geto but he dodged. Chisa kept swinging and even managed to cut him a bit. “Dream stasis!” He called out and Geto passed out. Chisa fell backwards and coughed up blood. “I think… I’m dying.”

——

“And that’s when Shoko came running out with her subordinates and brought the three back to the infirmary.” Addison had informed you on your way down to med bay.

“Ugh, those idiots.”

“You don’t want to meet Shoko’s new assistant. His name is Landon and he’s a total pervert!“

You sternly stopped and looked over at Addison. “What. Did. He. Do. I command the truth!”

“He asked me if he could watch you “rail me” then when I told him that I don’t see you in that way he asked if I’d rather have him rail me, because he thinks I have a “thing” for sorcerers.”

“I’m gonna kill him!”

“No! If you do, Shoko will be mad at you. Then your relationship with your husband will be ruined!”

“You let me worry about Satoru.” You sigh. “If you don’t want me to go to med bay then please just get Chisa and bring him back to my suite. I’m going to the park to think.”

“Be careful. Teleporting drains your cursed energy.”

“I’ll be fine.” You grab her hand and squeeze it reassuringly.

You teleport down to the middle of the park and walk through the trees. As you walk closer to a bench you see a little bird fall out of a tree and you rush to save it. You catch it and put it back up there.

“Poor Aya. She’s always been a bit… slow.” A man on the bench shook his head. He was bald and rounder in size. “Thanks for saving her.”

“You’ve named her?”

“I’ve named all the birds in that family. Naka is the small one that likes to puff out his chest. Howie is the one who the white spots. No matter how far they fly they’ll come back to find me. Just like their father Alucard, and their mom Koyo. Very similar to my own son.”

“What’s he like?”

“Passionate about work. Not the strongest or the brightest, always getting beat in the fights he’d pick, but loyal to a tee. And always so very good to me. He became a knight for a rich family and ever since he’s been stuffing me with delicious meals. Enough about me. Why are you here, for something on your mind?”

“Got it in one sir. My husband and I are going through a bit of a rough patch.” He doesn’t seem to know that I’m the queen, I’ll just leave him be without that knowledge then. “We’re in a bit of an open relationship. Married for our parents best interests. I recently found out that his girlfriend is cheating on him. He’s so happy with her, so… should I tell him? Would he believe me? We’ve never been happy together but he surely doesn’t deserve this. But he’d be crushed.”

“Tell him. Even if he’s upset, you shouldn’t lie to him. You don’t want to hurt him right?”

“No, even if he deserves it.”

“Then tell him.”

“Okay. Thanks sir, may I come back to talk to you again?”

“Anytime.” He smiled at you. Once you teleported back home the old man muttered. “Your highness.”

Back at home you decided to tell him over breakfast tomorrow.

You got bathed and dressed in a pink dress and walked down to the dining hall. You took your seat across from miss Pissa (dressed in magenta) and looked right to see Satoru.

“How was the park yesterday?” He asked.

“Stalking me?”

“Addison told us. Is there a particular reason why you’re eating with us today?”

“Gojo.” You said in a serious tone. You looked into his visible eyes, then looked away.

“Yes Gojo?” He responded back teasingly.

“There’s a cheating whore to your right.” Marissa dropped her fork and it clanked on the ground.

“That’s outrageous! Ruru tell her!”

“Is that why that bastards cursed energy was on you? Landon was it?” He doesn’t look up to meet her eyes. That’s right, the six eyes can see cursed energy more in depth.

“Huh?” She peeped as he rose from his chair and grabbed her by her blond hair.

“DO YOU THINK THAT IM STUPID?! I CAN SEE IT! HOW THAT BASTARDS KISSED YOU JUST THIS MORNING!!” He throws her on the ground. “Guards! Take her, that Bastard and her maid away!” He commanded as tears weld in his eyes and rolled down his cheeks.

“Wait! Ruru! No! I’m sorry!”

His face lit up for a second. “Halt!” He walked over to her. She smiled at him like she knew that he’d forgiven her. Until he ripped your ring off her finger and her face fell in horror.

He then walked over to you grabbed your hand and slid the ring back on you. “Right we’re it belongs.” He voice was shaking as he sobbed.

“Don’t cry. It’s unbecoming of a king.” You snatch your hand away. “A weak king means a weak country.” You start to walk away. “Go to the guest suite and take a nap. I’ll auction off anything that whore’s touched.”

“I want it burned.”

“Suck it up. We need money to go to war. If you want to survive and be king, then you need to trust me.” You grab him by his chin. “You will play the role of the bloodthirsty king. I will play the role of the gentle queen. You scare off our enemies. I keep relationships between our allies and our citizens. Got it?” He nods.

“Good. As of today I’m taking executive control of the treasury.”

“I’m so sorry!” He sobbed.

“I may forgive you in time, if you play your role well.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes!” He promised, tears gushing from his eyes.

[ryin-silverfish]

Chapter 19: Pearls before Swine

-Pigsy started off the chapter with a long poem about his backstory, full of internal alchemy jargons that were mostly explained in the footnotes. So, instead of going into details, I'm just gonna talk about the general idea of "Reversal" in internal alchemy, namely, the reversal from Houtian("Post-Heaven") to Xiantian("Pre-Heaven").

-The trigram on the left of this picture is the Xiantian Trigram, aka Fuxi's Trigram, while the one on the right, the Houtian Trigram, aka King Wen's Trigram. Notice how in the former, the north and south position is occupied by Qian and Kun (Heaven and Earth), while in the latter, it's Li and Kan (Fire and Water)?

-Well, according to internal alchemy theory, the "Qian" of the Xiantian Trigram represents the primodial state of human existence, where the Spiritual Mind(元神) and Vital Energy(元气, or Qi) are one. Separated after birth, they morph into the "Li" and "Kan" of the Houtian Trigram, after the middle "⚊" in "☰", representing Vital Energy, switches place with the middle "⚋" in "☷" and causes the Spiritual Mind to become Yin-aligned.

-Cultivation is supposed to reverse the Li-Kan of Houtian back to the Qian-Kun of Xiantian through the fusing of the Spiritual Mind and Vital Energy, granting practitioners immortality in the process. Thus, the allusion to the "Li-dragon" and "Kan-tiger" in the poem.

-On a tangentially related note, according to the Book of Changes(周易), the Kan trigram is represented by the pig, which is but another example of the long-lasting tradition of associating pigs with the Water element in ancient Chinese culture.

-Fast forward to Pigsy officially joining the group: his religious name, Zhu Eight Rules, could be a reference to the 8 Buddhist prohibitions against killing, lying, stealing, sexual debauchery, indulgence in luxury, drinking, dancing and music, and eating out of regular hours.

-However, if we look at the sentence before that, Tripitaka states that Pigsy had "not eaten the five forbidden viands and the three undesirable foods"(五荤三厌). The first 5 refers to the Buddhist dietry restriction against five sorts of pungent vegetables, while the 3 undesirable foods are Daoist prohibitions against the consumption of wild geese, dogs, and fish/turtle.

-Personal story—I first read the full JTTW novel while hospitalized, and still vividly remembered how the book I borrowed from the nurse happened to be missing several pages in the Crow's Nest Master section. Anyways, who is this guy that popped out of nowhere just to give Tripitaka the Heart Sutra and make digs at his disciples?

-He appeared to be an amalgation of two figures:

1) The "Bird's Nest Master" recorded in the Buddhist history compendium 五灯会元, who lived atop a pine tree in Hang Zhou and was visited by the famous poet Bai Juyi. After Bai voiced some rather reasonable safety concerns about the whole "living on a tree" thing, he retorted that the poet was in an even more dangerous situation, sth sth being an official of the court is like amidst flames sth.

2) The filthy, sickly man who appeared in Xuanzang's biography, 大慈恩寺三藏法师传, and taught him the Heart Sutra in return for the monk's kindness, which would later ward him from demons and ghosts during the crossing of the desert.

-It's kinda fun to imagine him as an actual cultivated crow, working to attain Buddhahood, tho.

@journeythroughjourneytothewest

[cchickki]

My Fanfic Masterlist

Update 2025: all fics on ao3 are locked from the public, ao3 account user access only available because of ai data scrapes. so sorry!

My fanfics through the years from both ao3 and fanfiction.net

thinking about opening requests for some one shots soon! i also have more ideas for some shorter fics, but i want to try and catch up on what i'm already working on first

complete - story is finished

in progress - story is among my wips/currently being worked on

incomplete - not sure if i'll ever finish this story

Image credits for headers: (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

Thank you all for the support <3

Spiderverse / Marvel

Tomorrow Never Came - Miguel O'Hara x fem reader ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 15/? | rating: M | status: in progress Say Yes to Heaven, Say Yes To Me - Miguel O'Hara x fem reader ao3 | tumblr | chapters: 1/1 | rating: M | status: complete Surprise! - Miguel O'Hara x fem reader ao3 | tumblr | chapters: 2/2 | rating: G | status: complete

HBO War / Band of Brothers

A Woman At War - Donald Malarkey x OC / Floyd Talbert x OC ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 65/65 | rating: T/M | status: complete A Woman At War (Rewritten) - Donald Malarkey x OC / Floyd Talbert x OC ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 13/? | rating: T | status: in progress A Miracle In Bastogne - Eugene Roe / Renee LeMaire ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 6/6 | rating: T | status: complete Embedded - Nate Fick x OC (Generation Kill) ao3 |ff.net | chapters: 3/? | rating: M | status: incomplete

Uncharted (video game series)

Crossing Paths - Sam Drake x OC ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 21/21 | rating: T/M | status: complete Crossing Paths Part II - Sam Drake x OC / Nadine Ross x Chloe Frazer ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 2/? | rating: T/M | status: in progress Crossing Paths AU Libertalia - Sam Drake x OC / Rafe Adler x OC ao3 | chapters: 1/? | rating: T | status: in progress

Mass Effect

Beyond the Deep - Kaidan Alenko x (Custom) Fem Shep ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 11/? | rating: M | status: in progress

More Stories (misc)

Movies

Serenity - Shu Lien x Mu Bai (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 1/1 | rating: G/K | status: complete Ameliorate - Furiosa x Praetorian Jack (Mad Max) series ao3 | parts: 3/3(?) | rating: T/M | status: in progress

Video Games

Rage Against the Dying of the Light - Astarion x Tav (BG3) ao3 | chapters: 3/7 | rating: M | status: in progress it would feel like this - Gale x Tav (BG3) ao3 | chapters: 1/1 | rating: E | status: complete All Roads Lead to the Swamplands - Bigby x Snow (TWAU) ao3 | chapters: 5/? | rating: T | status: in progress The Ugly Truth - Ellie Williams (The Last of Us) ff.net | chapters: 1/1 | rating: M | status: complete A Grim Prognosis - Genji Shimada x Angela "Mercy" Ziegler (Overwatch) ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 3/? | rating: T | status: incomplete

Television Shows

Hallelujah - Charlotte "Charly" Weiss x Wilhelm Winter (Generation War/ Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter) ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 4/? | rating: T | status: incomplete Run, Girl, Run - Roman Godfrey x OC (Hemlock Grove) ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 3/? | rating: T | status: incomplete Joanne - John Shelby x OC (Peaky Blinders) ao3 | ff.net | chapters: 8/? | rating: T | status: in progress?

[nexusofdomains]

To whom it may concern:

Effective September third, two thousand twenty-four at four fifteen (4:15) am mountain time, I will begin participation in a personal Tumblr hiatus to focus on academic, literary, and artistic pursuits. I intend that I will not make original posts, reblog others' posts, lurk, or interact with polls, until June ninth, two thousand twenty-five at ten thirty-five (10:35) am mountain time. Mutuals and followers, If you see me posting, etc. after 3/09/2024, 4:15 am,* I would appreciate it if y'all'd send me an ask reminding me of my hiatus. It might not happen, but I can be forgetful at times, and ten months is a long time. I want to ace this semester. Spending over an hour or more a day scrolling through Tumblr is not very conducive to that endeavor in my case.

*The sole exception to my silence is that I might periodically reblog this post with updates at the beginning of breaks, to detail brief returnings. During those times, I may cross off things I've completed from the lists in this post. Other than that, I plan to stay away.

By the time I return from this self-imposed exile, I plan to have:

Completed my courses with at least an average score of 80%

Written two or more short stories

Drafted a few WiP introduction posts

Rewritten CWiP 026: "Epilog for a Nomad" so that I can use it as part of the conclusion to WiP 031: [Doppelganger's Refrain]

Drafted review/opinion posts for at least 5 chapters of "The Forgotten Legends of Chima"

Drafted an updated/revised version of my writeblr introduction post, and a few possible addenda thereof

Further developed a few stories, including my Blood Gulch Chronicles AU Chima fic, and my fantasy novel, WiP 019: [The Sentinel]

Drafted a few posts about the Worldbuilding for the sci-fantasy setting I'm developing, which is called Nexus

Carved a wooden sheath for my bunka-style kitchen knife

Whittled, sanded, and finished six (6) little wooden birds for my side hustle

I might try to sketch one or more of the following characters:

Aira, fierce and calculating Nexan arctic wolf phoenix

Leviathan, cautious and formidable Nexan crocodile (who I plan to draw in full halo-esque magitech armor)

Miles Laukkanen, stoic and cheerful werewolf

Dima, honest and reserved shapeshifting dragon (many options here. Dima has three main forms she shifts between: four-winged dragon, tall, white-haired androgynous human, and four-winged Nexan harpy eagle)

Edwin, shapeshifting jovial Nexan grackle/dragon hybrid

Davaa, cheerful and steadfast Nexan tiger phoenix

Until next time/Auf widerzehn,

Lucian (nexusofdomains)

[something-bout-lmk]

Somewhat related to the

Why the fuck are we roommates Au

Spoiler below

So theoretically specking what were the gang doing during season 5

Most of us all know what Mei Mk Redson Nezha were doing

Bai-He was with her parents

(how is she roommates with the gang while having living parents? I’ll explain in the next chapter)

And Spindrax was at the White Tiger and Teal Dragon festival doing a tea stand

Her the brothers and the queen back at it at Krispy kreme

Also here’s a paper version

[thenixkat]

ive got 23 chapters left and i'll be caught up on what's out of Kaiju no. 8

kaiju no 10: stop fronting and admit you like fighing just as much as me so we can kill my younger sibling

using swords is more fun than shooting things heh

imagine finding yer platonic soulmate and its a big bloodknight dragon that just wants to fight fuckers and maybe eat you too

of course yall tied a sword to yer tail. 3 swords

that;s what happens when yer fighting two fuckers and dont pay enough attention to teh support

the vice captain and no10 sacrifice their tail to win the fight kaiju no 10, after everything: Cool we beat my younger sibling. That was fun. We should fight your teammates too

the vice captain apparently shut his older brother out of his life years ago for trying to demotivate him and not supporting him

so teleportation is a thing that kaiju can do

…Mina's going to ride her pet tiger into battle against the teleporting monolith and just carry her bfg

the tiger still isnt cool. The exotic pet ownership and animal endangerment is just distracting. AT least put some armor on yer cat also yikes the legs on that tiger are janky

so kafka failed the exams for 5 years b4 Mina was able to take them. Which given he's 5 yrs older than her makes sense

but also sir you failed a test 5 years in a row and then kept trying for another 7 yrs b4 presumably aging out of being able to try until they raised the max enlistment age at the beginning of the story

and then Mina decided to be mad at Kafka for just not being able to pass and leaving her to fight monsters alone breaking his promise to always be there but like he tried for over a decade. some people arent built to join the military

and because she turned out to be talented for taking out big targets she got pushed to having to be perfect by the one the only shitty rich dad who gives everyone issues who he decides to train to be the future of the nation's defense

we just keep finding out that this asshole just traumatizing so many people for teh greater good

oh you have some talent? lets throw you onto the front lines and inform you that if you fail yer risking the lives of yer comrades and civilians

ma'am I doubt Kafka being there would have changed shit other than you'd talk to him more often. Like he would have been at the bottom teir of shit if he was an officer, they'd have his ass on support and evacuation at best if he hadn't have become a kaiju that was deemed useful local high stress career was not good for her mental health

pls dont put everything on one person's shoulders. That's a great way to break them or have them burn out young ma'am Kafka being in the Defence Force would not mean he'd be allowed to be at yer side in situations like this. Yer mad at him when you should be mad at yer superiors for putting all this pressure on you

its easier to blame Kafka than her superiors apparently

good fucking lords that tiger's anatomy is bad damn brah practice drawing animals pls

damn my guy Kafka really busting his ass to achieve his dream, rekindle his friendship with his childhood bestie, and uphold his promise to her when she just decided to use him as a scapegoat for all the pressure she's under that her superiors put on her and decided to freeze him out for not being able to meet the military's standards for enlistment even tho he tried for over a decade both of them just need to find other friends hot damn

like sometimes yer childhood bestie isnt a major badass like you and can't accomplish the thing you both want him too. Getting mad about it is kinda fucked