#uploading for tumblr revival something something

[psychicwavementality]

🚨 🚨 ‼️ 🇨🇳🇭🇰 HK/CHINESE SUOPOST V2 PART 1 HAS LANDED!!

I never thought it would see the light of day because this draft got deleted like, 2 times and running. But it's here. It's finally here.

Below the cut is another long and lengthy Suopost V2 about his inherent Chineseness and, may I now congratulate, even further Hong Kongness! Not only that, but now we have Endo Yamato also starting to show signs of diagnosable Chineseness, and because my CN friend and I are ridiculously tweaky when it comes to overanalyzing characters who show even a smidge of Chinese in their eyes—this post was born! Sadly, because I am slow as hell when it comes to writing, this post only contains 11,000 words discussing Suo Hayato. You'll need to wait for Part 2 if you want to see me Hallelujahpost and Chinkpost Endo Yamato... blame my stupid baka life.

Now feast your eyes upon me having to correct my own errors in analysis that turns out to reveal even more Chinese connotations 😭😭😭💪!! This is VERY VERY long and has genuine deep analysis regarding a lot of China/HK culture/like 8 seconds of politics and 15 minutes of history + the weight behind some symbolism in Suo's name + theories regarding Suo's arc + Suo's absolutely yappable connection to 儒家思想/Confucianism.

Later in Part 2, we'll talk about Endo Yamato's biblical symbolism + alchemical influence + his connections to Suo, and how I can jokingly chinkpost him lol. I'll also be uploading a Reddit version of this post onto r/WindBreakerManga either tomorrow or the day after because I have to re-format a lot of things.

So strap in for a long and potentially mind-exploding ride because this is what happened to me while researching/writing all this. BTW, feel free to spam live commentary at me using Tumblr's comment function or something because I'd love to hear your thoughts while reading this whole gigantanorstus assfuck of a post... I'm not okay. I think I went insane. Niisato needs to pay me USD 1,664,800 for a new heart because I think mine stopped beating multiple times during research.

Before we begin, I'd like to tell everyone who has read my previous Suo chinkpost (v1) to DISREGARD EVERYTHING I SAID ABOUT SUO'S FLOWER BEING PLUM BLOSSOMS. You'd think I'd be devastated to find out I have to retcon an entire analysis because I picked out the wrong flower. You'd be expecting Suo to lose Chinese aurapoints. I shit you not: he auramaxxed HARDER. It's like opening a Pandora's Box; you learn about the real flower and then 5 trillion more connotations are thrown at you at Mach 20. It is more over than I thought possible when I wrote the traditionally symbolic Chinese boypreggers marriage room part. And one connection caused me to spiral into another, thus stretching this post's wordcount into unholy numbers 😭

Anyway.

In Suopost v1, I thought these fuckass flowers [IMG 1] next to Suo were plum blossoms [IMG 2] and, ngl! They look plenty like them. But after I read this mind-blowing char analysis + theory document made by u/Snowy-kitten, my jaw fell as:

Oops, Suo's name means Chinese redbud [IMG 3], and if Sakura's flowers are sakura, then Suo's flowers should be redbuds. Damn, I got it wrong, time to rewrite my Suopost. Sorry for spreading misinformation gu—

...What are these flowers called in Chinese anyway?

why do i hear boss musicHOLY SHIT OH MY GOD THEY'RE CALLED 紫荊花. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH M

Taken directly from the wonderful and super informative document which I highly advise you to read to fully understand this post, especially if you have time:

Su (蘇) – sappanwood, a wood that can be made into medicine used to improve blood circulation, treat wounds, and alleviate pain. It also symbolizes revival, resurrection

O (枋) – sappanwood or a tough wooden plank that can be used for crafting, maybe symbolizing the bridge of communication between other characters?

Suo (蘇枋) – Sappanwood, a deciduous shrub of the legume family (ie a small shrub that loses all its leaves in winter), or Chinese redbud, symbolizing family harmony, can be used as treatment for fever (No wonder why Sakura recovered after Suo visited him)

Haya (隼) – Falcon, a symbol of nobility (high status + wealth) in Japan, also symbolizes bravery, power and vision, is an icon of pursuit and movement, heading toward success (Falcon in other cultures also symbolizes freedom, which might have something to do with Suo’s dream – the liberation of slaves)

To (飛) – Fly or Flight

Hayato (隼飛) – Flying Falcon

Analysis: Most likely the key to the success of Sakura or Bofurin’s rebirth, if Sakura became the leader of Bofurin, Suo would most likely be his right-hand, just like Hiiragi and Umemiya

- Although Chinese redbud symbolizes family harmony in Chinese culture, it also symbolizes betrayal/death due to betrayal in the Bible

- Unlike other characters, Suo’s name contains more than one species of tree, would this be a hint of him having more than one identity, hence the traitor theory?*

*I'll elaborate with my own understanding on the traitor theory expanded from the information I've gotten from u/Snowy-kitten's document. Please please pleaser read their theories and their analyses!! It's super super good and deserves so much credit and a lot of this post is built from it.

-

1. Suo and the 'Chinese Redbud'

Suo's name is extremely fucking insane if viewed from a cultural lens — specifically the symbolism of the 'Chinese redbud' as well as some themes of the 'sappanwood'.

If you're from HK you might already be freaking out with me when you saw those three Chinese characters: 紫荊花, AKA the Chinese name of Suo's second plant after the sappanwood. You might be thinking, User Psychiwavementality, is it truly joever as it is? Is there no coming barack from the HK suoposting? Have we found salvation? Is Suo from Hong Kong, better yet, the Wind Breaker version of Sun Yee On or 14K???

Unfortunately, I have to inform you: no. 🥲 Suo's flower is NOT the bauhinia, known as the '洋紫荊' yang zijing/bauhinia x blakeana/羊蹄甲屬 (yang ti jia shu) which happens to be the official flower of Hong Kong.

Suo's flower is the '紫荊花', or the zijing hua/cercis chinensis, which, in China, can be found in southwest Guangdong, southern Guangxi, and southeastern Yunnan the most. <- These could be places Suo hails from!

However, the Chinese redbud/ZJH and the Bauhinia/YZJ are often used interchangeably (and also incorrectly), causing confusion and mix-ups between both flowers, as HK's 'yang zijing' is sometimes shortened directly to 'zijing'.

Outside of WBK, this shortening is a topic of political discussion. For reference, there is debate around the could-be or could-not-be intentional omission of the 洋 (yang) character in Mainland China when referring to the yang zijing (making it simply zijing (hua) and not the YZJ) as well as how it affects HK.

There was discussion when the HK's Gov. omitted the 'yang' and referred to the YZJ as the 'zijing hua' in our Basic Law. If you want to get a gist of the discussion it feel free to Google Translate this image because mobile Tumblr only lets me embed 10 images and I need to use it sparingly lol.

From Wikipedia:

洋紫荊作為香港法定代表花卉，在《香港特別行政區基本法》第一章第十條提述香港區旗及區徽時被稱作「紫荊花」，英文版則使用泛指羊蹄甲屬的「bauhinia」。然而「紫荊花」一名除在中國南方多泛指羊蹄甲屬外，也可以泛指紫荊亞科的其他花卉，甚至特指紫荊屬物種紫荊（Cercis chinensis）的花。紫荊與洋紫荊兩個物種的花朵外觀有顯著分別，但因中國大陸媒體多依照「紫荊花」一名來宣傳香港市花[註 3]，引致部分中國大陸民眾誤以為香港市花為紫荊的花。

(Edited MTL):

As the legal representative flower of Hong Kong, Bauhinia is called "紫荊花 (ZJH)" when referring to the Hong Kong regional flag and regional emblem in Article 10 of Chapter 1 of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The English version uses "bauhinia" which generally refers to the genus Bauhinia. However, the name "紫荊花 (ZJH)", in addition to generally referring to the genus Cercis chinensis in southern China, can also generally refer to other flowers of the subfamily Bauhinia, and even specifically refers to the flowers of the genus Cercis chinensis.

There are significant differences in the appearance of the flowers of the two species, Cercis chinensis and Bauhinia x blakeana. However, because the mainland Chinese media mostly uses the name "紫荊花 (ZJH)" to promote the municipal flower of Hong Kong, some people in mainland China mistakenly believe that the municipal flower of Hong Kong is the 紫荊花 (ZJH).

(I'm not shitting you when I tell you even Google Translate didn't pick up on the nuances between yang zijing and zijing hua 😭😭 also the scientific names have me tripping so the MTL might be wrong yet I'm too blurry to correct it properly... if any native Chinese speaker wants to write a proper TL in the comments I allow you to help me!!)

2. What does this mean for Suo?

The Lack of '洋 (yang)':

(This part touches a little on HK/China/UK history and politics.)

Now that you know the difference between the 'yang zijing' and the 'zijing hua', let me explain some possible symbolism that Suo might carry by having the ZJH as his other plant and not the YZJ.

In Chinese, '洋' means 'foreign'. And yes, Suo likes foreign tea and cakes. Anyway, some people think that the omission of '洋’ is a way to be politically accurate as it may carry connotations of HK being colonized by the UK, and the Mainland Gov. is known to be against the colonization of Hong Kong, often being reluctant to admit that HK belonged to the UK in a brief period of history after signing an unequal treaty. The Mainland Gov. commonly asserts that HK has always been a part of China even during the colonial period, claiming that HK was rightfully returned to its roots on the 1st of July, 1997.

Hence, there is the omittance of 'yang/foreign' from 'yang zijing', whether unintentional or not, when referring to HK's flower, resulting in many current-gen Mainlanders referring to it as the ZJH, which if intentional, could be used as a way to linguistically minimize the alienation between HK and China.

Theories/Speculation as to why it was omitted:

There are multitudes of reasons why Nii Satoru could have chosen to use the ZJH instead of the YZJ in Suo's name.

On a practical level, one reason may be because Suo's name is intended to have double meanings—sappanwood and the Chinese redbud—to show that he has two sides to him, most likely being connections to Chinese culture. Nii Satoru might have been unable to use this two-sided symbolism if he used the YZJ instead, hence why he used the ZJH instead of the YZJ; furthermore, there is a cultural story that comes with the ZJH that could very well coincide and foreshadow Suo's arc which I will explain soon. I personally think this is the most likely reason.

Another practical reason is that Nii Satoru genuinely had no idea there was a difference between the YZJ and the ZJH and, if he ends up revealing that Suo is a born-and-raised in HK lad, he made an honest mistake while trying to hint at Suo being from Hong Kong.

Nii Satoru could also not want to be too 'on-the-nose' when hinting at Suo having correlations to HK, OR he wanted to imply that Suo was originally from China and immigrated to HK at a young age — or it could be hinting at his ancestors moving from China to HK, which was common back in the 'golden era of HK' spurred forward by its advancement in the film industry as well as budding business opportunities for being an international trading hub. Either way, it could have meant to be a nod towards Suo being from China and not Japan/HK etc.

On a theory/canon level, Suo could have intentionally chose this Japanese name for himself and intentionally omitted the '洋 (yang)'/'foreign' character. He could've done it because he dislikes its implications, that he's a stranger in a foreign land (Japan). Or he could be touchy about his identity as a 'foreigner' — what differentiates him from the Japanese? Hence why he dresses and expresses himself so Chinese-ly — or he could've done it to show that he's freeing himself of his roots — people who leave their OG culture behind often become walking time capsules of That Particular Period, and the loss of '洋 (yang)' could also imply he's losing his connections to Hong Kong/the triad. The latter ties in with my tiny theory that Suo's hair is short because he cut it as a way to symbolize him breaking away from his shixiong/shidi, yet his past still haunts him in the way his tassel earrings resemble long hair at times. (The flower meaning of ZJH is also very very in line with this latter theory. I will elaborate more in my next part about the meaning of the Chinese redbud/ZJH.)

Suo could also be omitting this character on purpose to reconnect with his Chinese side after immigrating to HK and then Japan, I suppose? This might be EXTREMELY controversial to show in HK/China if he shows bias towards one side's culture by stepping away from the other, and I don't see a way this can be written without stomping on one side's good graces + provoking political disgruntlement amongst HK/CN readers, so this is probably not going to be an option up for consideration (hopefully).

Furthermore, if Suo also shows favor of JP culture/claiming that he's JP over being HK/CN as his arc and that he's abandoning his past identity as a Chinese/HK person, I promise you that some CN readers might become unhappy as there are long-standing grudges between the Chinese and the Japanese from WW2 that are too long to elaborate here. If you're curious to learn about it, search up 'Nanjing Massacre' and 'Unit 731' to see for yourself — please heed a TW for extreme brutality and inhumane torture.

OK, this is the last of all things political, but I promise the historical part will still continue. Let's move on.

3. The Meaning and Stories Behind the Zijing Hua/Chinese Redbud and The Yang Zijing/Bauhinia x blakeana

In Chinese culture, the Chinese redbud/zijing hua has a well-known cultural story behind it. It is deeply tied to the flower meaning of the Chinese redbud -- which has core symbolisms of familial reunion/love (親情) and brotherly harmony (兄弟和睦). And to any SuoSaku enjoyer's delight, they also symbolize steadfast love, passion, and affection; it is known to be a well-received gift for husbands and wives; it can even symbolize a strong and loyal friendship (if you're into that). The growth structure of a Chinese redbud, as said by a user in an online Chinese forum to whom I will graciously quote:

3、倔强坚强

紫荆花的花语为倔强坚强，紫荆花的花朵生长的十分紧凑，就算在阴雨天气，叶片被大风��吹动，不断摇慎态摆，也不会掉落，好似一位倔强的人，永远不会向困难低头，努力拼搏，最终收获成功。

(Edited MTL):

3. Stubborn and strong

The flower language of the zijing hua is stubbornness and strength. The flowers of the zijing hua grow very compactly. Even in rainy weather, the leaves are blown by strong winds and keep swaying cautiously, but they will not fall off. Just like a stubborn person, they will never bow their head to difficulties, work hard and exert oneself to the utmost, and ultimately achieve success.

It can also symbolize new beginnings, just like Sakura's sakura:

紫荊花的象徵意義 紫荊花象徵著愛情、美麗和純潔。 在中國傳統文化中，紫荊花還被視為春天的使者，寓意著新生命和新的希望。

(Edited MTL)

The symbolic meaning of zijing hua symbolises love, beauty and purity. In traditional Chinese culture, the zijing hua is also regarded as the messenger of spring, implying new life and new hope.

Moving on to English sources, I've basically learned that the Chinese redbud:

Is not resistant to winter frost, but is generally able to survive the cold. Suo's favorite season may be winter, but both the sappanwood and the Chinese redbud are not resistant to either the cold or frost, with the first losing all its leaves in winter and the second potentially dying to snow/frost (like most plants lol.) Despite being resistant to the rain and heat of spring and summer and being able to tolerate degrees under 38°C (remember Suo not breaking a sweat when training in the summer with Furin?), Chinese redbuds fall short when it comes to braving brutal winters, thriving best when the temperature is above 10°C.

They bloom during spring, around March-April. Could this be a parallel as to why Suo idolizes Ume, the 'plum blossom' that can bloom in the cold of winter? For being able to stay resilient and stand proudly/beautifully even amidst harsh and stressful conditions?

Has many parts can be utilized for traditional Chinese medicine, cooking, and decoration. The wood and the bark have been used to treat abscesses, bladder ailments, and head troubles. Treats bladder diseases, post-partum discharges, bleeding piles, and internal parasites; its flowers are used for relieving rheumatic muscles and joint pain. Even the flowers can be eaten raw or pickled, containing vitamin C with a fresh and acidic taste. The bark of young shoots can be used to weave baskets, as the wood of Cercis species is generally of good quality. -> Suo's plants can both weave baskets and act as good wood...

Is also known for its ornamental purposes, and has a neighboring family tree—the Cercis siliquastrum, known as the 'Judas Tree', which is a symbol of betrayal. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus and committed suicide by hanging himself from a redbud tree. Additionally, I was told by my friend that u/Snowy-kitten realized the kanji for Suo's name is is 蘇枋（すおう), but the tree he represents is Chinese redbud (花蘇芳/ハナズオウ/hanazuou in Japanese). 蘇枋 and 蘇芳 are pronounced the same and one of the hanakotoba (flower language) of 花蘇芳 is apparently death by betrayal.

While the Chinese redbud/ZJH is known for these traits, the YZJ is a little bit different; it was difficult to find meanings and symbolism for the Bauhinia x blakeana due to it being a lesser-known flower + a sterile hybrid flower.

Locally, the leaves of the YZJ are considered "clever leaves" and a symbol of wisdom; sometimes harvested to be dried into bookmarks to bring good luck in studies.

The Bauhinia x blakeana is a hybrid between the Bauhinia purpurea and then Bauhinia variegata. But I could not find anything about the symbolism of the Bauhinia purpurea... I looked at some other ones in the Bauhinia genus, though.

From what I found, the genus has flowers that typically represent new beginnings (is he twinning Sakura?), feminine beauty (he's still ♂ fertile ♂ like that), grace, elegance, and nobility.

Bauhinia kappleri:

Historically, it has been seen as a symbol of unity due to its bilobed leaves resembling joined hands. This symbolism was especially prominent in cultures that valued harmony and cohesiveness. [...] Pink Bauhinia represents grace, unity, and resilience. Its delicate yet sturdy appearance communicates a balance of beauty and strength. [...] In Chinese culture, for instance, it symbolizes renewal and new beginnings [...] Meanwhile, in Western contexts, it often represents appreciation and noble elegance.

Bauhinia acuminata:

The Bauhinia acuminata's striking appearance symbolizes beauty, elegance, and grace. It is often associated with the ideals of feminine beauty and charm. In some cultures, these blossoms are seen as symbols of new beginnings and growth, making them popular choices for weddings and other celebrations.

Bauhinia variegata:

1. [...] the white orchid has held reverence throughout Chinese culture and stands as a symbol of nobility, beauty, and innocence.

2. The Orchid Tree holds symbolic meaning in several cultures. In India, it is associated with love, fertility, and prosperity, often featured in weddings and religious ceremonies. In Chinese culture, Bauhinia variegata is a symbol of beauty, grace, and the fleeting nature of life.

Bauhinia x blakeana in Chinese Sources:

在中國文化中，紫色常代表高貴與權力，而洋紫荊則代表了優雅和力量。 此外，洋紫荊還象徵著團結和繁榮，這也使它成為許多盛大活動的首選花卉。

(Edited MTL)

In Chinese culture, the color purple often represents nobility and power, while the yang zijing represents elegance and strength. In addition, the yang zijing symbolizes unity and prosperity, which makes it the flower of choice for many grand events.

I have a headache. 🤕 Am I just yapping or was this all preordained by Nii Satoru?

Do you still remember that Suo's earrings are made of coral? The very coral that symbolizes a lofty status, auspiciousness, nobility, power, and eternity? 🤕

It's all coming together...

The Story of Three Brothers and the Zijing Hua Tree/田真兄弟：

This story could very well be a direct hint towards Suo's future martial siblings + how his arc will end. I vaguely remember(?) studying this passage for DSE unseen 文言文s so I managed to find it again. I'll cross-reference and do a direct word-to-word translation. If you understand Chinese I recommend just reading the 文言文 because it has more of the OG meaning 💪

原文/Original:

京兆田真兄弟三人，共议分财。生资皆平均，唯堂前一株紫荆树，共议欲破三片。翌日就截之，其树即枯死，状如火然。真往见之，大愕，谓诸弟曰：“树本同株，闻将分斫，固憔悴，是人不如木也。” 因悲不自胜，不复解树。树应声荣茂，兄弟相感，遂和睦如初。

註釋/Glossary

（1）京兆：京城地區。

（2）生資：生活資料。

（3）皆：都。

（4）唯：只有。

（5）破：使之破為。

（6）就：開始。

（7）即：立即；立刻。

（8）狀：形狀；狀態。

（9）然：通假字，同“燃”，燃燒。

（10）翌日：第二天

（11）愕：驚訝。

（12）諸：眾；

（13）斫（zhuó）：砍。

（14）勝：承受；控制。

（15）憔悴：枯死。

（16）故：所以。

（17）解：分解。

（18）其：他家的。

（19） 堂：門。

（20）株：棵。

（21）遂：於是。

句子翻譯/Sentence TLs:

1、翌日就截之：第二天就準備截斷它。

2、狀如火然：形狀像被火燃燒過一樣。

3、樹木同株，聞將分斫，故憔悴，是人不如木也：樹本來是同根的，聽到要砍斷分開，所以枯死了，我們人都不如樹木。

4、樹應聲榮茂：紫荊樹聽到（田真的）話後（立刻）枝葉繁茂（了起來）。

My attempt at an English TL:

In the capital city [Beijing], the three Tianzhen brothers divided their property. All other assets [means of living] had already been evenly divided; all except the Chinese redbud tree/zijing tree in front of the door. They discussed and agreed to split the tree into three pieces each. The next day, they prepared to cut the tree down, but the tree immediately withered to death, as if it had been torched by a flame. The oldest brother looked at the sight and was extremely stunned, saying to his younger brothers: "This tree is originally from the same root. It heard it was going to be separated after it was felled, and thus, it withered. We, as humans, were no match for/couldn't live up to even a tree."

Because they were unable to bear with/contain their remorse, the brothers decided not to cut the tree. When the Chinese redbud/zijing tree heard the eldest brother's words, it immediately sprouted flowers once more. The Tianzhen brothers were astonished and emotional and thus returned to their harmonious relationship from the beginning.

From this, I'm heavily inclined to believe that:

Suo is one of three brothers/martial siblings.

Suo left/they left Suo due to family issues or family inheritance trials.

Suo's arc will end well, with all brothers reaching an understanding and becoming friendly again.

OR, Suo is the Chinese redbuds/zijing tree in this scenario.

Suo might end up facing Endo because the passage mentions 'as if it had been torched by a flame [状如火然]'. Endo's name is '棪堂' -> this also means something else which u/Snowy-kitten mentioned, it being 'a tree that bears edible red fruit' in Chinese, which contributes to Endo's biblestuff. But let's analyze it later in Endo's part.

Chinese can somewhat be considered playing Pictionary—if you separate the words from 「棪堂」 into three: 「木」、「炎」、「堂」， you could literally interpret this as, in 文言文/Classical Chinese, 「Tree/Wood」、「Flames Rising」、「Courtyard/Doorfront」

This coincides with the "Chinese redbud tree/ZJH" looking as if it "had been torched aflame" in front of the house/the courtyard/the door.

In conclusion, this might allude to Suo having to fight Endo, or Endo having to fight Suo to get him back due to a family feud—and Suo might get heavily injured. His martial brothers might realize the impact of their actions and finally retreat and make up.

Suo and Sappanwood:

Sappanwood can make a type of valuable red dye named brazilin.

The character of 'Su' (蘇) in JP also means resurrection, reviving, resuscitation, and rehabilitation.

The red pigment found in the sappanwood tree (brazilin) has also been used to treat wounds and ward off infections, encouraging faster healing.

Sappanwood isn’t as favoured for extracting dyes as brazilwood, though—the discovery of brazilwood led to a boom in red pigments due to its greater concentration, whereas sappanwood was much less saturated in comparison.

This is pure yappanese but maybe Suo sees himself as inferior compared to his brothers...

That's the color of the dye sappanwood creates and that is the color of Suo's eye and his coral earring. I don't need to say anything more, right?

4. FALCON KICK 𓅃𓅃 FALCON PUNCH 𓅃𓅃

Rejoice!! We have made it to the next section of Suo's name at last!! I never thought I'd get here!!!! LET'S MAKE THIS QUICK (it's not quick).

Again, from the document that u/Snowy-kitten wrote, "隼" means 'falcon' and "飛" means 'fly/flight', spelling out "隼飛" lit. 'flying falcon'.

Reviewing the Symbolism Blargh Off This Page: (OG text has been slightly edited)

"The falcon represents vision, freedom, and victory. Hence, it also connotes salvation to those who are in bondage whether moral, emotional, or spiritual." <- I find it very interesting that many of Suo's symbolisms tie back to things relating to a new beginning/healing: salvation, revitalization, resurrection, a new hope, etc., which falls in line with his dream: the liberation of slaves. And look, I know this possibly means Suo breaking free of whatever chains down his heart, but ACTUALLY Suo will be stuck in 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂 bondage and then be saved by EndoSaku. Trust me y'all I'm Nii Satoru's right-hand man

"In Christian symbolism, the wild falcon represents the unconverted, materialistic soul and its sinful thoughts and deeds. The tamed bird symbolizes the Christian convert pursuing his lofty thoughts, hopes, and aspirations with courage." <- I don't think Suo is wild or tame or Christian in particular, but you could take it as current-Suo suppressing and masking his true identity/emotions. And that actually makes sense when you remember how Suo nearly went Insanity.PNG during KEEL Arc and Sakura had to stop him from continuing to pummel a guy when he was down; when Sakura admitted he was pissed at himself and turned away Suo thought 'I really am no match for you'. On one hand, this could be explained extremely well if we view it from a Confucian + Suo's theory of adulthood lens which will be talked about later in Part 6. However, this could also symbolize Suo being bound in emotional chains and having... wtf, 'sinful thoughts'? That he's suppressing?? Maybe that's why he doesn't use his phone around people coz there's a bunch of 料 (blackmail) in there 🤣. And when Suo gets his arc I suppose he gets 'tamed' and is finally free to pursue his aspirations with courage (being with Furin and supporting Sakura), which will effectively act as another new beginning/his healing—further tying into his whole shtick surrounding resurrection revitalization healing salvation blah blah blah. (POV: the 'Suo has no Christian allusions' part comes to bite me back in the ass via. Taiping Rebellion parallels where an ethnically Han Chinese mf in Suo's triad or Noroshi proclaims to be "Endo's brother-in-christ" slash the brother of the WBK Jesus Christ. And then I kill myself)

"In Egyptian hieroglyphs, the falcon glyph was used in words and phrases such as 'god', 'pharaoh', 'greatness', 'year', 'sovereign', 'star', 'hour', 'prayer', 'land', and 'world'. It was associated with the deity of the sky, of kingship, and of the sun, Horus [...] In early dynasties, the king’s ascension was known as the “Flight of the Falcon”." <- Aha! AHA! YEAH MORE NOBILITY HOURS AND A DIRECT REFERENCE TO THE DEFINITION OF HAYATO. Okay. So. This is highly unlikely to happen but imagine Suo becomes the head of his triad branch. Or maybe this means that Suo is the heir to something lofty... deadass the fated ascension to big bad boss which he skedaddled from or was denied from, who knows?

"The Eye of Horus, the Egyptian symbol for the Sun, depicts a stylized falcon's eye and face markings. It signified royal power and protection from danger, evil, and ill health." <- More nobility/higher status allusions and illness-warding shit, typical Suo Hayato behavior.

"A human-headed falcon served as a symbol of the human soul on its flight from this world to the afterlife. Similarly, the crossed arms of Egyptian mummies were intended to symbolize the folded wings of a falcon at rest." <- And here we have more Suoshit related to afterlife-isms resurrection-isms and new beginnings-isms. Chat can I stop talking about Suo Hayato ... he's just a never-ending Pandora's 24-hour unboxing video...

"The sport of hunting with falcons was associated with nobility in Europe, Japan, and China, where falcons symbolized keen vision, boldness, and power." <- 'Takagari (鷹狩) is Japanese falconry, a sport of the noble class, and a symbol of their nobility, their status, and their warrior spirit.' - Wikipedia.

To continue with Wikipedia: In the 13th century, hawking became popular among the rising samurai class as well as among court nobles (kuge). At that time, the practice of hawking was a means of resolving struggles over land ownership among lords. <- This feels a little similar to the splitting of property mentioned in the Tianzhen brothers!

What's more interesting about falconry is that falcons typically wear 'falcon hoods' that blind them, which forces them to be calm.

The bird wears a hood, which is used in the manning process (acclimatizing to humans and the human world) and to keep the raptor in a calm state, both in the early part of its training and throughout its falconry career. Out of all the falconer's aids, the hood is the most important piece of equipment. There are various styles and types of hoods for raptors within falconry. The hood is handmade, often from kip leather or suitable kangaroo leather. —Wikipedia

Suo's eyepatch is made from leather as mentioned in his character sheet even though nowadays, a lot of eyepatches and most medical eyepatches are made with cloth and/or other adhesive materials.

What's more, a majority of traditional falconry gloves/gauntlets have tassels extremely close if not similar designs to the earrings Suo wears:

Remember when Suo once mentioned that he had an 'ancient Chinese dragon spirit sealed away in his eye', hence the eyepatch? Maybe there's weight behind that joke because he might lose his composure if the eyepatch is taken away.

If Suo is a trained falcon belonging to his family—although he's 'flying' right now, either for a hunt or free roam—he's been educated in a way that eventually, he will always turn back and roost on the gloves of his master.

"The falcon was seen as the bird of Princes, the gyrfalcon the bird of Kings, and the��eagle the bird of Emperors. [...] A falcon [would be released] at the funerals of Pharaohs. This illustrates the ancient view of raptors as intermediaries between the divine and eternal heavens and the mortal earth." <- The 'bird of Princes' part really makes me want to believe Suo is truly in a high-ranking and potentially triad-inheriting position of power; he could really be a 'prince' of sorts for his gang... The O (枋) in Suo can stand for a 'sturdy plank', and even 'raft/boat', which might symbolize him being a bridge of connection between the 'divine and eternal heavens' (his triad/family/whatever dude) and the 'mortal earth' (Furin).

"Furthermore, falcons are represented by the constellation Aquila [lit meaning eagle], as are all raptors. This constellation is said to confer the qualities of boldness, ambition, courage, liberty, generosity, penetrating vision, and a noble spirit, along with a gift for martial arts and the fabrication of weapons.

"This contrasts with a vulnerability to and enmity toward reptiles and their symbolic qualities of deceitfulness, underhandedness (venom), vindictiveness, and baseness of spirit.

[OP's Quick Interjection: from the source some mf added a little 'that aint falco' after the following part and I gotta agree. But also, falcons and eagles are both under raptors as birds of prey, and from what I've seen, Suo is the only known person in WBK so far to have a bird of prey in his name, so I'll still keep this here as food for thought—as well as a theory I have for later.]

"Reflecting this opposition, the battling eagle and serpent has been a motif from ancient times, common to Western, Eastern and New World civilizations. See classical Roman statuary, the ancient coat of arms of Mexico and the Garuda emblems of Indonesia, Thailand and Ulan Bator. The dichotomy can also be seen in the eagle and the rattlesnake competing to be symbols of the Revolutionary United States in the 18th century."

Right. So. I have a lot to say about this chunk. The first is the numerous stories of raptors, mainly eagles, and serpents/snakes, as well as my theory that the family Suo has been sworn into will feature new characters with birds of prey as their joining kanji.

I'll elaborate on the latter first because it's shorter: so far, out of all of the named and introduced people in WBK up till Rooftop Fight, not a single person except Suo contains the character of an animal capable of flight, much less a bird of prey.

The only person who comes remotely close to having birds as a symbol is Chika Takiishi and the full-page spread ft. his fight with Umemiya which u/Just_EveB theorized to be the karura, which originates from the Garuda in Hinduism (will also elaborate later). But even Chika doesn't have any bird radical in his name. Shishitoren isn't exempt from this; the gang known for people with animal radicals only contains land mammals and reptilians:

Tomoyama Choji (兎耳山 丁子) = rabbit

Togame Jo (十亀 条) = tortoise

Sako Kouta (佐狐 浩太) = fox

Arima Yukinari (有馬 雪成) = horse

Kanuma Minoru (鹿沼 稔) = ♫ Shikanokonokonokokoshitantan ♫

(There's also Inugami Teruomi who is a dog for "inu" but I CAN'T FIND HIS KANJI AND HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A WIKI PAGE??? FREE MY MAN!!!)

Even other characters who happen to have an animal in their name e.g. Hiiragi Toma (柊 登馬) (馬 -> horse) don't have an animal capable of flight, much less a bird of prey, and no one has the radical for bird (鳥).

Hence, I'm genuinely going to go out on a limb and say that the family Suo has sworn into—or his biological brothers or martial brothers or whatever fucked-up triad business he's in—will have characters containing '鳥' (bird) or one of the following in their names: 鷹、鵰、鳶、鵟、鷂、鴞、鵂鶹、魚鷹、鷲, which are respectively eagle, eagle but different*, kite, buteo, the birds that are under here, owl, collared owlet, osprey, and vulture. OR, if these family members have Chinese names instead of JP, it's plausible they have the same pinyin pronunciation as some of these.

*Btw, this is the difference between a 鷹 and a 鵰. Don't even ask me tbh

Next up, let's talk about the correlations between birds of prey and serpents. I did some scouring through the internet and dug up quite a lot of stuff.

Let's first establish that the only person so far who has been shown with serpent/snake imagery is none other than Endo Yamato himself.

(And yes, I switched to desktop just to embed more images, I'm crying. Anyway, these panels are all taken from Chapters 144 and 145.)

The tattoo on Endo's neck, an infinity symbol, is derived from the ouroboros, a snake/serpent/dragon biting its own tail.

It symbolizes 'eternal cyclic renewal' or 'a cycle of life, death and rebirth'. Wow, so Suocore.

(BTW, in some religions... the ouroboros is also a fertility symbol. This just in: Suo, Sakura, and Endo are all ♂fertile♂)

I have so much more to say about Endo's tattoos but that's reserved for when I'm done with Suo Hayato... so let's go back to the topic of serpents and eagles and their tales.

Here's some prominent stuff I found:

Aesop's fable: This is the first example I managed to find. It's a story about how kindness will always be repaid. I honestly can't seem to think of a way this coincides with Suo/Suo's family/Endo etc. You can click on it to read the story yourself. Like, I think Endo's on a path to pseudo-redemption or at least 'potential future allies', and I can't see a reason why? He'd want to poison? Somebody?? Even 'figuratively'. Like, let's pretend my theory of Suo's family having birds of prey in their names is correct. Why would one of Suo's martial bros, or better yet the head honcho or something, swoop in to save this Countryman from Endoshittalk? But well, if anyone can think of anything, feel free to comment on it!!

Thus Spoke Zarathustra:

An eagle soared through the sky in wide circles, and on him there hung a serpent, not like prey but like a friend: for she kept herself wound around his neck. “These are my animals,” said Zarathustra and was happy in his heart. “The proudest animal under the sun and the wisest animal under the sun” […]

“That I might be wiser! That I might be wise through and through like my serpent! But there I ask the impossible: so I ask my pride that it always go along with my wisdom. And when my wisdom leaves me one day—alas, it loves to fly away—let my pride then fly with my folly.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, “Zarathustra's Prologue,” translated by Walter Kaufmann.

This is something that also came up, yet this is a more different example compared to the beginning—instead of feuding, the eagle and snake are in harmony, representing the mind and body becoming one, as well as taken from u/__Can__ from the linked Reddit post detailing what they symbolize:

It represents the highest strivings/capacities in man (eagle) and the lowest and more earthly/instinctive faculties (serpent). They are not opposed to one another but are rather one. Just like the other metaphor Nietzsche used, the tree (thought as the self-actualizing man) that if it wants to grow towards heaven (the highest in man) has to have its roots deep beneath the earth in the dark and evil layers of the psyche so to speak. You have to integrate your obscure and evil side in order to become whole.

There's a lot of tree imagery that I'm not really familiar with but know exists in WBK... such as that time Sakura's branch was nearly snapped off by Endo. To me this feels more like a general 'concept' that can be written into the story rather than an important foreshadowing towards future arcs ... plus I haven't read the book so I can't commentate on the philosophies of Nietzsche, so far the only thing I know about him is that he is one of the philosophers outspoken on overcoming Nihilism... taken from a deleted Reddit user:

People who haven’t read or understood Nietzsche think he is a nihilist, which is a bit understandable as his thought is complex, and he was a devastating critic of both dominant and trendy movements/institutions and their values. I believe he once described himself as a maggot that goes into a wound to eat away at the decaying flesh to clean it out. He also described himself as philosophizing with a hammer. In many ways, he is one of the intellectual fathers of postmodern deconstructionism. Which can often border on the nihilistic, but Nietzsche wasn’t simply trying to tear everything we believed in down for its own sake, his intention was to make things better.

From a site (really good read about Nietzsche and Buddhism):

Nietzsche aimed to overcome nihilism by affirming the unconditional embrace of existence. For him, life was not to be denied but rather created by one’s own value system, and built on the foundation of understanding that there is no inherent meaning in the universe. Nishianti describes this process as “dying the great death in the abyss of nihility and coming back to life again” (1983, 233). In doing so, active nihilism becomes a transitional stage rather than an end in itself. It is the abyss into which we must descend, “the darkest night before the dawn” (Nietzsche, 1968, 12). It is through the experiential stages of active nihilism that an individual strives for the heights of the ideal being, the übersmench. He asserted that living by one’s own ‘noble morality’ is characterized as a vigorous, free, and joyful existence, ruled by an innate “will to overpower, and will to rule” (1968, 16). From his works, it is evident that Nietzsche detested the weak and humble man who sought to escape the realities of life.

I can somewhat link Nietzsche's theories on nihilism with the process of creating the Philosopher's Stone (nigredo, albedo, citrinitas, rubedo), which is suuuuper interesting because Endo has vaguely alchemic symbols tattooed onto him. But again I'm digressing.

Norse Mythology [1] and [2]: According to ancient Norse mythology, the World Tree Yggdrasil has an unnamed eagle at the top and a serpent/dragon named Nidhogg at the bottom, and beneath the eagle there is a hawk named Vedrfolnir, standing for '"storm pale", "wind bleached", or "wind-witherer". Between them, there is also a squirrel named Ratatoskr who carries messages between the eagle and Nidhogg.

From Wikipedia: In historical Viking society, 'níð'(nid) was a term for a social stigma, implying the loss of honor and the status of a villain. Thus, its name might refer to its role as a horrific monster in its action of chewing the corpses of the inhabitants of Náströnd: those guilty of murder, adultery, and oath-breaking.

It's faster to just attach images of me and my friend tweaking:

I might one day do a separate post about Norsestuff and Furin because this is really interesting.

This entire Reddit comment section: Talks about the historical significance of the eagle and the snake in tales, depictions, etc. From u/Wayrin:

This symbol goes way way way back. There are depictions of eagles with snakes going back to Babylon and Elam around 3000 BCE. Of course the image was borrowed by everyone and the Egyptians saw it as Horus defeating Seth. Similarly Ahura Mazda was depicted as an eagle and Ahriman as a dragon. The Greeks borrowed the idea of the eagle as a symbol of resurrection from later Egyptian tradition and then it starts popping up everywhere. India, Indonesia, Rome and all over the Mediterranean. Most of these traditions use the Eagle to represent some great good. Usually a god related to the sun combating the forces of evil the snake. We believe the symbol to be borrowed and expanded (except for Mesoamerica) since they have so many commonalities. A lot of the stories have the Serpent winning over the Eagle before the Eagle triumphs. If you can access it, this is my source "Eagle and Serpent. A study in the Migration of Symbols." It was written in 1939 though so take it with a grain of salt.

And from u/tonycmyk, about ancient Mesopotamia:

[...] The snake/serpent has always represented the giving of knowledge to humans and the connection to earth. The eagle has always represented power over the earth and war. And this symbolism can be traced back through every ancient culture we know of and probably the ones we don’t. Powerful stuff.

Something not related to Suo: So about the Karura... the theorized demon JoJo stand that Chika has in the spread originated under 'Garuda' in Hinduism. You can read more about Garudas VS. Nagas here and the common point between Karuras and Garudas is that they're both depicted as people who feud constantly with dragons/serpents/snakes. In Hinduism, though, Nagas aren't depicted as evil like in Christianity. (And they're also a symbol of fertility... Endo's more ♂fertile♂ than Suo confirmed...)

5. Final Closing Notes on Suo

So, in summary, what do I think about Suo?

... What do I think about Suo... (crushing the chopsticks in my hand) I have multiple proposals as to what Suo is doing in Furin and what's going on with his family. And other Suostuff in general.

Falcon flying away: - To me, I see this as Suo leaving the family for a brief period, similar to how falconers can train their falcons to hunt but inevitably return to their owner. - If Suo's arc involves him cutting ties with his family, then this part could also symbolize Suo's desire to leave his original background behind in favor of Furin. - If the falcon symbolizes Suo's family as a whole, then this could represent the downfall of Suo's triad/noble family too, or that they're conducting some of their business elsewhere from their place of origin (*suspiciously Chinese ringtone starts to echo from my phone holder*)

u/Snowy-kitten's traitor Suo theory: Suo could be a spy in Furin. He could be scoping out the area for his own triad/gang/whatever. But what's most curious is the already-existing relevance between Endo and Suo that u/Snowy-kitten pointed out: Suo’s given name and Endo’s given name, Hayato and Yamato respectively are the names of two ancient Japanese tribes. [...] The Hayato is a tribe of ancient Japanese people that existed during the Nara period. The Yamato is another tribe of ancient Japanese people that existed alongside the Hayato. The Hayato frequently resisted the Yamato rule until the year 720 when the Hayato rebellion broke out. It was a rebellion of the Hayato against the Yamato. The rebellion ended in the year 721 with the Yamato being victorious. The interesting thing about the name 'Yamato' as u/Snowy-kitten also mentions is that its kanji (哉真斗) holds almost no meaning in JP. In Chinese, though, this can more or less translate to an expression, 'Ah, a real fight!' as '哉' in classical Chinese can be translated into an exclamation of sorts (「哉」可表示感嘆、疑問及反問語氣，相等於「啊」、「呢」、「嗎」), the '真' translates to 'real/true', and the '斗' (or 鬥 in trad) translates to 'fight'. So in the end, the Serpent VS. Eagle thing might happen in the form of Endo fighting Suo himself or Endo fighting one of Suo's family members.

Tsuge-chan and Suo: Remember this part?

Yeah, so, wtf was that? Fun facts on Tsuge's name from u/Snowy-kitten again (thank you bro you're saving my life):

I feel like Tsuge is going to be interlinked with Suo's backstory, that maybe he knows something more about Suo's 'family' than anyone in Furin should. Whether or not the XL river in Tsuge's name can be crossed with a bridge from another character's name or not... IDK we'll see if said bridge can be crossed when we get to it or burnt in favor of Suo lol... because Suo mentions bridge building in his character song gg

My final hard read on Suo's arc (take this with 2 mouthfuls of salt): - Suo will be called away briefly and leaves Furin either without notice or on short notice. He might leave behind enough clues to let Furin know why or where he's going. Or he might leave none at all, and Tsuge has to guess and explain what's most likely going on. - Endo might have to fight Suo in some way. Or he ends up fighting Suo's older martial siblings (the 'eagle') and triumphs over them. - If the oldest is truly the 'eagle', then there will be a younger one, the second-in-command, the 'hawk', like in Norse mythology. - I might come up with more stuff and I'll edit this into here as time comes.

6. I Lied

Suo isn't over. We still have to talk about how well he fulfills the shit we learnt in the HKDSE about our goat Johnny Hung's virtues/morals/principles.

So anyway, this is Johnny Hung our fucking GOAT!!!!!:

AKA Confucius lmao. Sorry it's an inside joke

This man is the reason I had to memorize so much classical Chinese sayings and literature that eventually culminated into Knowledge for the Suopost. It was all built towards this moment :( Let's start with an explanation of 論仁、論孝、論君子 as well as 五倫/四端！

...User Pyschicwavementality, wtf is this?

(Stares at you with the most depressed, sick, and haunted eyes) Chinese lore.

I will sadly not be sane if I explained every single one of these sayings to you guys. (Mutters) I mean I did have to memorize all of them back in the day but I'd kms elaborating on all of them so. I'm just going to take the relevant ones that could tie into Suo's character.

Let me first establish: the core of Confucianism revolves around "仁、義、禮、智、信、恕、忠、孝、悌". The arguably quote unquote """""important""""" ones (to today's discussion and in What I Learnt in general anyway) would be 仁義禮智信 and also 孝, of which I will now try? My best? To explain?? Please forgive me I learned everything in Chinese and it's really hard to do an accurate translation/analysis without going deep into culture and history 😭

CLASSICAL CHINESE 101

仁：This is read as rén. It is like... altruism, betterment, and love, I guess? Rén is how you interact with people, it is the innate connection and bond and interaction between human beings. (人與人之間互相關懷，尤其以關愛自己的親人最為重要。) It is respect and love and doing good deeds and Kind deeds out of our inner Goodness in our hearts. It is born from our inner individual and it affects our actions and what we do. We aim to always be a 'jūnzǐ' （君子）in Confucianism, someone who embodies all of Confucianism as the "self-improving and good-hearted" individual. To be empathetic and the kindest/most altruistic and loving person to one and all; to treat everyone equally from our innate Goodness—that is more or less rén. In the ideal society of Confucianism, everyone practices rén. This would mean society would always be harmonious.

義：this is read is yì. It is morality, justice, and helping others when in need. It is doing what is right and according to rén.

禮：this is lǐ. It is respect, treating people with manners, following social rules under rén, showing filial piety to your parents and elders, etc.

智：this is zhì. It is the pursuit of knowledge, creation, innovation, and improvement. It is having the intelligence to separate right/wrong and good/evil.

信：this is read as xìn. It is to have faith and belief in our beliefs and pursuits and our governing body. It is also integrity, honesty, and truthfulness. Whether it be a person, an organization, a business, or a government, they must have integrity as their core value.

(Additional) 孝：this is read as xiào and is essentially filial piety. Confucius believed that respect and love towards our parents should not be seen as an 'obligation', but rather something inner from the heart. There are four 'levels' of xiào: 孝順、孝敬、孝養、孝承 (xiàoshùn, xiàojìng, xiàoyǎng, xiàochéng). This is super complicated to go through so if you're bored and have tons of free time on your hands, feel free to run this PDF through a translator to get a better idea on what xiào is.

To get an idea on xiào, Confucius said that, if our parents became old and we only send them food and money, this is no different from raising a dog or a horse (孝養). He says, "Without respect (敬), where is there a difference?". When his disciples asked what we must do to respect (敬) our parents, he answered "We must not turn our backs on them [or more specifically, do not turn our backs on lǐ (etiquette)]. We serve them according to etiquette while alive; bury and commemorate according to etiquette after death."

But anyway, in turn, parents must also treat their children with all the above-mentioned virtues and said parents need to respect their parents with the same attitude as well. In theory, this goes both ways.

There's also Mencius' beliefs branched from Confucius' teachings (still part of Confucianism):

惻隱之心：read as 'cèyǐn zhī xīn'. This is your innate ability to feel compassion and empathy. Some people always see the "evil" around them and fail to see the goodness inside people and thus choose to be "evil" in turn. Mencius, one of Confucius' disciples, believed everyone was born kind and carried compassion. For those who are unfortunate, people will sympathize with them out of their own kindness; for those who are weak, people will have compassion for them and reach out to help them. He believed that people should never abandon their inner kindness, as kind people will always be rewarded by the kindness of others.

是非之心：read as 'shìfēi zhī xīn'. This is the innate ability to differentiate right and wrong actions as well as morally incorrect/correct decisions others make and reflect on them to judge why it is wrong and what not to do.

羞惡之心：read as 'xiūwù zhī xīn'. This is the innate ability to feel shame and guilt for making mistakes or doing things that are not following lǐyí (禮儀). It is also feeling scorn/disgust for others who do not follow lǐyí (禮儀).

辭讓之心：read as 'círàng zhī xīn'. This is the innate ability to feel thankful when others do something kind towards you, and you will feel like you need to pay it forward. It is giving others opportunities in exchange of your own and taking a step back to put others in mind first.

There's also the concept of inter-relationship hierarchy from the foundations of filial piety, which stipulates the order of respect should go from 君臣、父子、夫婦、兄弟、朋友 -> Lord/Emperor & Gov., Father-Son, Husband-Wife, Brothers, and Friends

Additional aid via. translations of my super helpful diagrams I made ages and ages ago about how to differentiate 仁義禮智:

(2) Analogy: POV you are in Ancient China and you see an elderly man killing a random guy

(3) Because you have 惻隱之心 (cèyǐn), you feel pitiful for the guy being killed. Because you have 是非之心 (shìfēi), you can judge and realize why the elderly man killing the guy is wrong. Because you have 羞惡之心 (xiūwù), you feel angry that the elderly man is killing the guy.

(4) Because in Ancient China, the lǐ [social rules] is to respect your elders [filial piety], but because the elderly man is doing something not in accordance with lǐ and yì (禮儀) [social rules and justice], you will do what is right (the lǐ action) and stop the elderly man from getting killed.

(5) Think: your choice to act and do correctly and the correct act itself is yì; your heart's inner compassion is rén; your ability to tell if the situation is in accordance with lǐyí (禮儀) or not is zhì; and the environmental/social rules = lǐ, e.g. respecting your elders. When you do actions that are not fulfilling yì, you feel guilty because you have 羞惡之心 (xiūwù). Rén is inner moral/virtue requirements [to be a 君子 jūnzǐ)，whereas yì is your outward action.

(6) Oh, and don't forget: 羞惡之心 (xiūwù) is feeling disgusted/hateful when you see others do something not in accordance with 禮儀 (lǐyì). If you do non-lǐyì things yourself, you will feel ashamed.

(7) Adding on to the last sentence in (5), 'rén' is not a requirement; it is inner 'love' exuded from the heart. If you are forced or required to do so, that is not 'rén', that is 'duty'.

So how does this all tie into Suo Hayato?

(Shakes my fist full of documents) so this is where I start CRAZYMAXXING.

If you also lovehate this man you might have already made some connections between Suo and the above few values I've described. Otherwise let me elaborate: when dear old Niisato made Suo to be the most stereotypically Chinese lad ever, he also managed to include a shitton upstanding moral traits that a jūnzǐ (君子) would have, essentially making Suo an amazing representation of core Confucian beliefs (so far as of writing this post in my theory state of mind).

When Suo talks about 'growing up' or taking the steps to adulthood, he mentions one of the most important core values being able to make your imagination reality as well as empathy.

You could actually simplify rén into putting yourself in another person's shoes to see/think/feel from their perspective, and one famous saying from Confucius is to wish no harm to come upon others that you do not wish to come upon you, which ties in with Kanuma mocking the fallen Shishitoren member and only starting to feel panicked once he realizes the same harm was going to happen to him. ("己所不欲,勿施於人。")

Suo also insinuates the ability to chase your goals and turn them from dreams into reality is another part of 'attaining adulthood'. You can boil this down to being able to fulfill what you say/living up to your claims/fulfilling your beliefs. Honesty and integrity also play a major role in Confucian beliefs. There are a few sayings under xìn '信‘ that Confucius said about this:

5.1 A jūnzǐ (君子) must be mindful of what they say and do things swiftly/efficiently/quickly. 5.2 A jūnzǐ (君子) does not endorse a person just because he speaks favorably, nor does he reduce a man's worth just because he has a bad impression of him. 5.3 A jūnzǐ (君子) will feel shameful if he cannot go through with what he said he will do. 5.4 [Text Before Image] If one's name/renown is not righteous, his speech will not be reasonable; if one's speech is not reasonable, he will not be able to accomplish anything. If things are not accomplished, the law will not be able to reach into one's heart; if the law cannot reach people, the punishment will not be fair; if the punishment is unfair, the common people will be at a loss. [Text In Image] Therefore, leaders must be steadfast and reasonable in both what they do and what they say. When leaders speak, they must not be careless (read: 'whatever' energy) or rash.

^^ When you translate this, doesn't this essentially reflect Umemiya as a leader? Which also falls in line with Suo seeing Ume as his ideal 'picture' for adulthood and further aligning w/Suo's statement of 'making your imagination reality'?

It doesn't end here though...!!!

KEEL ARC! When Suo got PISSED as hell seeing his friends around him hurt, Sakura had to step in to stop Suo from losing composure in Chapter 50 | Extreme Emotions. Remember when I talked about explaining how this could be understood SO WELL from a Confucian lens in Part 4?

What Sakura said: 'I'm pissed as all hell at myself. I was talking big [I can 'em all on my own], and look what's happened. But getting pissed off isn't gonna help. We need to focus on what we have to do.'

(Pokes my finger at statement 5.3 and 5.4)

This ABSOLUTELY makes Suo's reaction called for ("I really am no match for you") because right now Sakura is embodying the core values of Confucianism better than Suo was moments prior. In that moment, Sakura was the one closer to being a jūnzǐ (君子). At that moment, Suo was the one who should've been learning and modeling after him.

Remember 羞惡之心 (xiūwù)? It is feeling disgusted/hateful when you see others do something not in accordance with 禮儀 (lǐyì). If you do non-lǐyì things yourself, you will feel ashamed.

Suo was disgusted/hateful at the KEEL member for hurting his friends. He may have reflected and felt shame when Sakura came up to stop him.

It's still not over though!

Suo has consistently shown contempt for those who are older than him yet do not practice the same values of 仁義禮智信! Another one of the major Suo moments:

"Goodness... How self-centered. Even to the very end. To teach others, you need to engage with their feelings and support them to stand on their own two feet for the first time." — Suo Hayato on the most Confucian thing he could say at the moment

How self-centered:

顏淵問仁。子曰：「克己復禮為仁。一日克己復禮，天下歸仁焉。為仁由己，而由人乎哉？」 [1] 顏淵曰：「請問其目。」子曰：「非禮勿視，非禮勿聽，非禮勿言，非禮勿動。」 [2] 顏淵曰：「回雖不敏，請事斯語矣。」（《顏淵》第十二）

(HIGHLIGHTED = TRANSLATED BELOW; EDITED MTL)

[1] "Rén is to restrain one's selfish desires and to conduct oneself in an honorable manner. Once you have done this, all the people of the world will submit to your benevolence and virtue. The fulfillment of rén depends entirely on oneself. How could it depend on others?"

[2] "How do you practice rén?" "Do not look; listen; speak; or do things not in accordance with lǐ."

Already, gymnast-guy has violated the above.

To teach others [...]:

"與人交,推其長者,讳其短者,故能久也。"

"When interacting with people, you should pay attention to discovering and promoting others' strengths, rather than always pointing out other people's shortcomings." [MTL]

Confucius was known to be a very open and benevolent teacher. He did not require students to pay fees; he simply wanted your desire to learn. Suo's really open with teaching Nirei and he matches the teaching style of Johnny Hung really well <3 He's very positive and uplifting when it comes to Nirei. Personally, I also like to believe Suo also sees a younger or past version of himself in Nirei which adds more layers to his intrigue...

Scroll back up to the part where I had three Instagram stories explaining how 仁義禮智 linked with Mencius' additions if you forgot about it. You can re-read what I said regarding the example of seeing an old man killing someone.

Then the gymnast guy talks about 'discipline', and Suo has a vision of his master, which he adds with: "'Discipline', 'training and passing down your teachings'... Okay! I've got a question, sensei! How are you supposed to act when you go barging into another person's home?"

(He's pissed.)

Rewording [2] from my Instagram Story Explanation: Because you have 惻隱之心 (cèyǐn), you feel pitiful for Furin getting invaded and fighters/friends getting hurt. Because you have 是非之心 (shìfēi), you can judge and realize why the Noroshi invading Furin is wrong. Because you have 羞惡之心 (xiūwù), you feel angry that Noroshi is invading Furin.

And once again, just like from KEEL: 羞惡之心 (xiūwù) is feeling disgusted/hateful when you see others do something not in accordance with 禮儀 (lǐyì).

For someone older to be breaking 禮儀 (lǐyì) and speaking on how Suo's 'similar to him' and how he's having 'fun', this was The singularly most awful thing gymnast-guy could've done at the moment as someone Suo is meant to respect according to the age/skill hierarchy in Chinese culture. Not to mention the gymnast guy establishes himself indirectly as a 'teacher' in this scenario by using the phrase 'discipline'. It's even crazier when you realize that Confucianism explicitly believes that anyone can be a teacher to you because you do not know everything. There's literally a story about Confucius speaking with a 7-year-old who spoke so much facts that Confucius himself recognized the kid as a teacher. Suo taunting the guy asking what he could learn from the gymnast is NUTS.

Some other quotes that I think really match Suo's character:

子曰：「君子病無能焉，不病人之不己知也。」（《衞靈公》第十五）

“A jūnzǐ (君子) worries that he himself is incapable, and not that others do not understand him.”

子曰：「君子不重則不威；學則不固。主忠信。無友不如己者。過則勿憚改 。」（《學而》第一）

"If a jūnzǐ (君子) is not steadfast/solemn/decisive, he will not be dignified; and what he learns will not be stable. Maintain loyalty and integrity as your main principles. Do not make friends with people who have lower moral standing than you/who are not as good as you are, and do not be afraid to correct your mistakes."

Final Theory Pitch: "Death By Betrayal"

"Death By Betrayal" in Suo Hayato's name based on the symbolism of the Chinese redbud might make one immediately think of his master and his family. Perhaps Suo's teacher passed and Suo's embodying his master's teachings, or his family has backstabbed/been backstabbed. If we go down the route of Suo still being an active triad member, then this may talk about his triad being betrayed and Suo having to briefly live/train with his master under a new identity. If Suo's former martial siblings (whom he respects, by the way, literally so xiào) want to reform the group, Suo might force them to align with his current set of values (which are extremely similar to Furin too—to protect the common people) and avoid harming innocents.

From another point of view this can also symbolize the "death" of Suo Hayato's former character, where instead he was the one who turned his backs on his clan/family first. Either to learn from his master who may or may not be dead, or to escape his supposed triad ties.

There is another piece of classical literature that I can yap about: 《魚我所欲也》. Here's a quickest translation of it possible:

“魚，我所欲也，熊掌，亦我所欲也;二者不可得兼， 舍魚而取熊掌者也。生亦我所欲也，義亦我所欲也;二者不可得兼， 舍生而取義者也。

"Fish, I desire it; bear paw [rare and believed to have medicinal properties], I also desire it. If I cannot obtain both at once, then I will sacrifice the fish for the bear paw. Life, I desire it; yì [to do morally correct/upstanding/good things], I also desire it; if I cannot obtain two at once, then I will sacrifice my life for yì.

生亦我所欲，所欲有甚於生者，故不為苟得也; 死亦我所惡，所惡有甚於死者， 故患有所不辟也。 如使人之所欲莫甚於生，則凡可以得生者，何不用也 ? 使人之所惡莫甚於死者，則凡可以辟患者，何不為也 ?由是則生而有不用也，由是則可以辟患而有不為 也，是故所欲有甚於生者，所惡有甚於死者。非獨賢者有是心也，人皆有之，賢者能勿喪耳。

Life is something that I want, but there is something I want more than life [yì]! so I will not be greedy for immediate survival. Death is something I hate, but there is something I hate more than death [not fulfilling yì], so I will not avoid the evil that comes my way. If there is nothing that men love more than life, why do they not use whatever means they have to live? If there is nothing that men hate more than death, why do they not use any means of avoiding evil? By these means may we live, but some do not use them; and by these means may we avoid evil, but some are unwilling to do so.

Thus (it can be proved) that there are things that people want more than life, and there are things that people hate more than death. It is not only the 賢者 (virtuous man) that has this nature—all men have this innate nature, but the virtuous man can preserve and maintain it.

一簞食，一豆羹，得之則生，弗得則死 。

A serving of food, a bowl of soup; if you obtain it, you will live. If you do not obtain it, you will die.

嘑爾而與之，行道之人 弗受;蹴爾而與之，乞人不屑也;萬鍾則不辯禮義而受之。

Giving this to someone while mocking and hollering at them, normal people (people on the road) will not accept it because they feel disrespected; stepping on it before giving it to someone, a beggar would not accept it because it is unclean. The temptation (t/n: 萬鐘 is similar to 'bad temptations' or 'great benefits') for benefits: one will not differentiate whether or not it is aligned according to yì [etiquette/moral ethics] before obtaining it.

萬鍾於我何加焉?為宮室之美、妻妾之奉、所識窮乏者得我與?鄉為身死而不 受，今為宮室之美為之;鄉為身死而不受，今為妻妾之奉為之;鄉為 身死而不受，今為所識窮乏者得我而為之，是亦不可以已乎?此之謂 失其本心。"

What do these benefits have that can help me? For a beautiful house, many wives, and for the recognition and thanks from poor people? In the past, one would sacrifice their life before accepting these benefits; but now, for a beautiful house, many wives, and the recognition and thanks from poor people, they will accept temptation. Can we not stop this? This is the act of losing one’s trait [of sacrificing your life for the greater good]."

A summary of this thinking would be to "捨生取義", lit. 'sacrifice your life to obtain yì/the greater good'.

It is completely possible that Suo, when raised or sworn into the triad, was taught by his master (either in secret or after he briefly leaves) about the importance of 'upholding the ultimate good', which may have caused him to realize his triad—which may or may not prey on the weak—does not align with his moral worldviews any more.

To escape, Suo could've decided to fake his death or leave behind his old self and turn his back as betrayal, which ties into his 'noble' symbolism and 'flying falcon' name in Hayato.

But tbh, I'm inclined to believe Suo's master was on okay terms with the triad because he/she had long hair. Suo's hair, as I've stated elsewhere, could be short due to hair being used as a major symbolism device in WBK as a way to say he's tried to leave his past.

Yet some things may be unable to be broken away from so easily, and Suo, a trained falcon, might be unable to leave behind everything. He was likely loyal since a young age and unconsciously finds himself lingering on old sentiments. Maybe his earrings are gifts from his master. Maybe his eyepatch is from his triad/family.

Still, Suo being from a criminal family and having distaste for Noroshi/KEEL is really interesting because we can see that he doesn't enjoy it when people lack empathy or cause pain to others. You’d expect him to react more to Choji’s gang because of their “violence for violence’s sake” going against his whole empathy tangent, but Suo seems to hate it more when someone finds interest in violence for meaning’s sake or violence for profit’s sake. I think Suo understands Shishitoren is built off violence to become stronger (<- literally the WBK OST), and everyone in SSTR seems to mutually be okay with this in-fighting. There's also a big difference between Suo clashing with SSTR and the other: he hasn't forged as deep of a bond with Furin compared to vs. KEEL and vs. Noroshi, and the latter two have made active attempts at hurting Furin through morally corrupt means (beating Nagato up and taking over Furin for personal gain).

Suo could've developed this sort of morality to distance himself from his family, who may have gotten infamous/profited off similar methods. (<- and this is really funny because Confucius has ALSO said that a jūnzǐ (君子) should not accept wealth or escape poverty if it wasn't achieved through morally correct means. A jūnzǐ (君子) cannot turn his back on rén in the span of a meal, and this remains true even during hasty and urgent times + when one is poor/wandering/living in tough conditions.)

A possible timeline:

-Suo is born to a rich family, possibly wealthy through a criminal empire.

-Suo dislikes his family because of his morals (may not have happened), and his family may dislike him back because he is considered “weak” (could explain why he’s the one who offers to help Nirei or why empathy as an adult is so important to him). Or, he's a super loyal lapdog and hella admires his brothers. Maybe they're the only good guys in the triad. Maybe they're really bad and Suo's also really bad. Suo might have two wolves inside him... the Confucian morals vs. Organized crime persona

-Suo studies Chinese fighting techniques and philosophy with someone (possibly a figure outside his family)

-Suo's family and/or mentor is betrayed/Suo betrays them

-Suo has to escape and create a new identity fully based off of his Confucian learnings.

...

And with that, I've said almost everything I need to say on the topic of Suo Hayato.

It totally didn't take 10,000 words or anything.

What's up next in Part 2?

I'll be writing Endo's version of this post and include some Suo-Endo joint theories and/or notes. Things to look forward to include Endo, Christianity, and alchemy... And maybe I'll even start yapping about the 0.2472983% potential Daoist/Taoist influence Sakura has.

I'll be back in 1 business century!

(Bonus) out of context convos and quotes my friend and I have said during the process of writing this that may foreshadow Part 2 or something:

Me: Picture Endo being Chinese too but it's Mainlander vs HK [Suo] beef

Me: WHO'S THE TAIWANESE 😭😭😭 IS IT UME??? HE HAS PLUM BLOSSOMS

Nakama: Okay so (crackposting) it's choji because of TW's association with the sun

Me: What if it's Chiitan [Chika Takiishi] and we get the Mainland x TWnese "forbidden" romance...

Me: But anyway I find it devastating choji would say cao ni ma wo che ne and its not even ooc

Me: ...Shit now I can imagine endo with a strong beijinger accent

Nakama: ...yamato儿(er) endo儿(er)

Nakama: ....chiika儿(er) takiishi儿(er)

Nakama: ...sakuraur harukaur

Me: endo going BEJINGRR WELCOMES YOU

"You not only ate, you devourered that like you were unaccountably peckish." —Nakama-kun 2024

Nakama: Waiting very politely for ur suopost to show up

Me: It might tonight, I'm typing like a keyboard warrior rn

Me: When u wake up it might be posted 😎

—A lie quoted from the 17th Aug 2024 at 3：57 PM GMT+8, a whopping one month and seven days ago.

"Y'know maybe suo's from oklahoma" —Me, delirious, 2024

The Suo Post's TLDR:

"WE NEED TO KILL HIM FOR BEING TOO CHINESE"

—User psychicwavementality after 1 month of crying in voice messages about Suo Hayato.

(Total word count: 11,781 words. Part One, scene!)

[niminanrii]

miyakawa collection

[haru-dipthong]

How long will the japanese wikipedia article for goncharov last?

And how big is the internet, really?

I was in a wikipedia hole recently and I happened to notice that the Japanese article for Goncharov is the only language variant that is completely in-character.

Every other language specifies it as “Goncharov (meme)”. Japanese lists it as “Goncharov (1973 film)”, and formats the introduction as if it were a real movie:

Goncharov is a 1973 mafia film set in Naples, Italy. Produced by Martin Scorsese, the main cast includes Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, John Cazale, Gene Hackman, Cybill Shepherd, and Harvey Keitel.

— Wikipedia (my translation)

The rest of the article does go on to acknowledge Tumblr’s influence in Goncharov’s popularity, but every mention of this influence frames it as reviving the popularity of the supposedly real film. On two occasions the word 再燃 is used (the first kanji means “again” and the second kanji means “burn” - it means “rekindle” and can be similarly used in the metaphorical and literal sense, just like the english word “rekindle”).

Goncharov became particularly popularity on social media as a result of a reblog of a Tumblr post in August 2020. The post depicted shows the title of the film (Goncharov) in place of a brand logo on a shoe, which were described as “knockoff boots”. The image post and the comment attached to the reblog, mocking the fact that the original poster had not seen the film, became an internet meme. In November 2022, a poster made by a fan of Goncharov was uploaded to the internet, and the film’s popularity resurged. Various fan-made content about the story and production began to spread on Tumblr and other platforms. Goncharov has been widely covered in the media as an example of how fandom is born on the internet, with many prominent figures, including Scorsese himself, leaving comments.

— Wikipedia (my translation)

It’s clear the article is trying to adapt the real history of the meme and incorporate it as much as possible into the fictional history of the film. The rest follows quite similarly, and includes more analysis of how Tumblr culture created the “reignited” popularity, how Elon’s acquisition of Twitter resulted in an exodus of users to Tumblr which may have contributed to the increased awareness of the “movie”, etc. Though most of it is directly translated from the english, enough of it is original (such as the attempts to reconcile both real and fictional histories) that I suspect the article’s current state is intentional.

To get back to my initial question, how long will this article last like this?

Remember the whole Scots Wikipedia debacle? An american teenager had basically used simple word replacement to translate over 23,000 articles into Scots. Some people noticed this, but not many, and not loudly enough. It was only after a well researched reddit post pointed out the scale of the damage that people really took notice and action was taken. The wikipedia editor had apparently been doing this for 7 years before the reddit post was made.

If 20,000 articles could go largely unnoticed for 7 years, I imagine a single article could easily evade similar detection. Realistically, how many Japanese speakers are going to even hear about Goncharov and make it to the wikipedia article? Then, how many of them are going to do more googling and find out it’s all a hoax (or know already)? THEN, how many of them are going to tell a wikipedia admin that the article is a lie, or publicise it somehow in a way that forces the editors to update the article?

I think the reality is that although the internet may appear to be a massive open town square (or several), it also has side streets, and side streets of side streets. I feel like the number of active members in each online hobby or interest group are really quite small, and then they get divided between platforms, and even further divided into subgroups. I think if one decided it was something one wanted to do, it would be quite easy to become one of the most prevalent members of any online community you chose just by devoting the time and energy to it.

It’s also kind of shocking how much internet content is inaccessible on account of it being in a different language. English reigns supreme in terms of sheer volume, but there is original research and journalism and entertainment and art in every language, that hasn’t and might never be translated into english. For example, I found it very difficult to find any english sources or research for my post about the evolving conjugation of 違う, but I easily found several japanese papers and websites. In fact, if you google “違くない adjective or verb”, the first english result that doesn’t just handwave it as “informal” or “slang” is a tumblr blog with my post on it!

It’s a small internet indeed where my little hobby language blog is, according to google, the prevailing english source on what is quite a remarkable change in Japanese grammar that’s been happening since the 80s.

I think the Japanese unreality version of the Goncharov wikipedia article will stand for many years to come.

(below link shows the article at time of writing)

[solradguy]

COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO UNOFFICIAL GUILTY GEAR TRANSLATIONS + SOME OTHER STUFF

THIS POST HAS BECOME A PAIN IN THE ASS TO UPDATE AND I WILL ONLY BE UPDATING THE NEOCITIES PAGE FROM HERE ON OUT. SORRY.... GUILTY GEAR FAN MEDIA TOO POWERFUL https://solradguy.neocities.org/ggmasterpost

----

Please contact me if there are translations in other languages (or I missed something) and I will add them to this post. If you find this post through a reblog with an old "last updated" date, check the original post on my blog for more recent information. There is a mirror of this post on my Neocities page. The Neocities page also has better navigation, organization, and will now be updated before this post.

Wanna help out but have never scanned a book before? Here's a guide I wrote on book scanning: Tumblr Link

I have done my best to link all of the works here back to their original scanlator/translator's uploads and hosting websites:

🔥 Volcanic Fighter (aka Nincopyjasb) - If there's a surviving archive for something Guilty Gear, Volcanic probably has it. Works in English and Spanish.

Twitter - Youtube

🔥 Justice Revival Project (aka Longshotte) - Formed solely to translate the GG Xtra manga.

Mangadex - Twitter

🔥 Ed Chang - One of the first, and most prolific, JP>EN translators in the GG community, as well as a popular Gamefaqs author for the old GG games. Used to have a personal website that hosted his works but it is lost to time. He is a name you will see often in old archived works.

🔥 Sol Radguy :) In case my Tumblr gets nuked

Email: junkyarddogmkii [at] gmail [dot] com Archive.org - Neocities - Mangadex

🔥 Tillman - Scans and archives manga and Encyclopedia/guide book volumes, as well as rips animations and other information from Vastedge and the old games.

Neocities - Tumblr - Archive.org

🔥 LesbianGiratina - Has scanned a very substantial chunk of the Guilty Gear trading cards. Also scans some of the rarer side media or special release editions of games.

Tumblr

🔥THIS IS A LONG LIST🔥

NOVELS/TEXT-BASED STORIES //

🔥Guilty Gear Begin - Light novel focused on Frederick (pre-Gear Sol Badguy). The current earliest point in the lore.

English (Sol Radguy): Tumblr - Archive.org Español (Volcanic): Dropbox

🔥 Lightning The Argent - Light novel focused on Ky. Currently does not have a full translation but Volcanic has made what he's translated into Spanish so far public. Sol Radguy is currently working on an English translation. All current translations listed here are by Volcanic.

English, Chapter 1: Dropbox Español - Dropbox (complete) Español Resumen - Dropbox (story summary in Spanish)

🔥The Butterfly & Her Gale - Light novel focused on Chipp. Translations here are by Volcanic, who is also working on a full translation.

Español Resumen - Dropbox (story summary in Spanish) English, Chapter 1 - Dropbox

🔥Guilty Gear 2 -Overture- Material Collection - Art book for Overture. There are 8 short stories in it.

English, Volcanic (Izuna, Paradigm, & Valentine) - Dropbox -- Español - Dropbox English, Sol Radguy (complete) - Tumblr - Neocities -- Archive.org (.PDF + uncompressed scans)

🔥GG Xrd: The Unseen Sign - Intro? story to Guilty Gear Xrd included in the Arc System Works 25th Anniversary Official Character Collection art book. Translations by Volcanic.

English - Dropbox Español - Dropbox

🔥DRAMA CDS - The English files for these are also hosted on Sol Radguy's Neocities site if the .ru domain is blocked for you. That site also hosts a .PDF of all the following English translated files so that they are more portable/easier to read than the raw .TXT format some of these are currently in.

Neocities

🔥 Night of Knives - GGXX drama CD mainly focused on Zato and Millia with some Venom and Slayer. Translations by Blade (vol. 1-3), Mei (ES side stories), and Volcanic (EN side stories). NOTE: The volume 1-3 translations done by Blade (aka Blade Galewind, Mimeblade, gear-project), who is known for purposely misinterpreting lore and inserting headcanons into translations. Unfortunately, these are the only translations out there of these drama CDs. The Spanish translations of these 3 volumes worked off Blade's English ones. Read at your own risk. A new translation is currently in progress by Vaporbabe.

English: guiltygear.ru: Vol.1, Vol.2, Vol.3 Español: Dropbox +Robo-Ky side story: English: Dropbox Español: Dropbox + A.B.A. side story: English: Dropbox Español: Dropbox Axl side story: English: Neocities Español: Dropbox

🔥 GGX Drama CD - A bunch of the cast have a big fight over some Old War Technology (black tech). English translations by Ed Chang, Spanish translations by Aegis High and Volcanic. NOTE: There are significant errors in Ed Chang's translation (& possibly in Aegis High's & Volcanic's, which worked off of Chang's text), the biggest of which is the infamous "Johnny Sfondi" last name mistranslation. Cross-reference information presented in these texts with more recent confirmed canon before using it as a source or citation. Ed Chang's statement on these translations can be read here: screenshot. Tl;dr: Chang was new to Japanese translation and the mistakes were honest accidents. These translations are nearly 20 years old. Vaporbabe may very well do a new translation for this CD too.

--Disc 01: English: guiltygear.ru Español: Dropbox --Disc 02: English: guiltygear.ru Español: Dropbox +Dizzy & Testament side story (from when they first meet): English: Included at the end of Chang's Disc 02 translation. Español: Dropbox

🔥GGXX Drama CD Sides Red & Black - This is an alternate timeline where Ky is killed during the Crusades. English translations by Ed Chang, Spanish translations by Volcanic.

English: guiltygear.ru (red) - guiltygear.ru (black) Español: Dropbox +Night of the Living Dolls extra story (feat. Zappa): English: At the end of Chang's Side Red translation. Español: Dropbox +Letter extra story (a letter from Dizzy to Testament): English: At the end of Chang's Side Black translation ("A Message from Dizzy to You") Español: Dropbox

🔥GG Petit 2 - Fanny & Faust arcade modes dialog. Translation by Volcanic.

English - Dropbox

== Fanny win/lose quotes. Translation by @kaialone.

English - Tumblr

MANGA/PICTORAL STORIES //

🔥Guilty Gear (1998) Comic Anthology - The first anthology manga published for GG. This is a collection of isolated stories, both original to the volume and recaps of parts of the lore. Sol Radguy is currently working on this. Fábrica de Lutadores and Maxima-Dub are also working on a Brazilian Portuguese translation. Chapters 1 - 8 are in English, while the first two are in Portuguese.

Full volume raws (Japanese): Archive.org English & Portuguese translations: Mangadex

🔥 Guilty Gear Xtra - Manga that introduces two new characters that promptly get forgotten by the lore at large. Scanlation by Justice Revival Project.

English: MangaDex - Archive.org (incomplete) Español: Dropbox

ART BOOKS //

🔥Artworks of Guilty Gear X 2000-2004 - Art book collecting a decent chunk of Daisuke' art from GGX through to early GGXX. Contains more rough sketches than the 2007 sequel as well as an interview with Daisuke in the back. The available scans are very low quality. The original interview translation was by fairymisao with additional translation and editing by Sol Radguy.

Raws: Archive.org Interview, English: Archive.org

🔥Artworks of Guilty Gear X 2000-2007 - Art book collecting (most) of Daisuke’s work going from GGX through to Isuka. Does not have anything from Overture, despite it being in production around the time this book was published. Translation by Sol Radguy.

English: Tumblr tag - Archive.org

🔥Guilty Gear X: Drafting Artworks - Collects a bunch of concept sketches for character designs but most of it is roughs for their moves. Has some lore stuff and map design stuff.

Japanese: Archive.org

🔥Guilty Gear 2 Overture Material Collection - This is a loose folder of all the artwork from this art book but a bit out of order and with additional illustrations from the Overture era of Guilty Gear.

Japanese: Dropbox

🔥Guilty Gear Xrd (Revelator) Visual Book - Small art book included in the special edition release of XrdRev in Europe and Japan. This is a scan of the European book, which is in English (mostly). These scans were done by@birthdaytrain and were compiled it into a .PDF for Archive by Sol Radguy.

English: Archive.org

🔥Guilty Gear 10th Memorial Book - Book celebrating the 10th anniversary of Guilty Gear. Clear images of some rare illustrations in it that weren't reprinted elsewhere, such as the Isuka arcade ending art.

Japanese: Neocities

🔥ASW 25th Anniversary Official Character Collection - Celebrates Arc System Works surviving for 25 years. Sol's on the cover but has stuff for Blazblue and some other ASW properties. Originally scanned by tokimekicn. - This could use a rescan.

Japanese: Archive.org

MAGAZINES, ETC. //

🔥Channel 3 Records Guilty Gear: Missing Link Vinyl Art and Interview Book - A 2LP that came with a short booklet containing some ML era GG art and a brief interview with Daisuke himself. Sol Radguy did not rip the music from the records for this archive. In-house translation.

English (some Japanese): Archive.org

🔥Dengeki PlayStation F, Volume 10 (October 13, 1995) - Volume 19 of the Japanese gaming magazine, Dengeki PlayStation. Has an article on what appears to be the first printed appearance of any sort of Guilty Gear 1 material. Very early prototype stuff in this. Translation by Sol Radguy.

Japanese, English: Archive.org

🔥Dengeki PlayStation F2, April Special Issue, Volume 19 (April 10, 1996) - Volume 19 of the Japanese gaming magazine, Dengeki PlayStation. Has an article on an early build of GG Missing Link. This issue also has articles for Final Fantasy 7, Tekken 2, Street Fighter Zero, Darkstalkers, and a lot more. Translation by Sol Radguy.

Full magazine raws: Archive.org English translation of the Guilty Gear article: Archive.org

🔥Asura System Guilty Gear Trading Cards - Scans of some of the Guilty Gear cards made for the Asura System TCG. Scanned by @lesbiangiratina . The cards are in Japanese.

Japanese: Google Drive

MISC. //

🔥Guilty Gear Vastedge XT - The canon pachinko machine. This upload contains all the ripped assets (meshes, sound FX, animated assets such as cutscenes, UI assets, etc), the .APK and two .OBB files from the Android port rip, all the concept art, the JP dialog script (+Volcanic's partial EN translation), Shmuel's restored/remastered opening animation video, and some videos of the gameplay and of the physical machine all into one place. Full credits for this pack are long, please see Archive link for them.

Archive.org

🔥A.B.A. Design Documents - Original analog sketches used for A.B.A.'s design and for the design of her moveset. Courtesy of famiccha on Twitter.

Google Drive

GUIDE BOOKS/ENCYCLOPEDIAS //

No one has translated any of these and a lot of them are uploaded together. Most of the guide books have not been scanned. See the MISSING STUFF section below for what's not here.

🔥Guilty Gear Complete Bible, GGXX The Midnight Carnival Starter Encyclopedia, GG Isuka Complete Guide, GGXX Accent Core +R A Gainful Material, + 1st Gig Artbook. - 1st Gig scans by Lux/Xaeldritch.

Japanese: Archive.org

🔥Guilty Gear X SLASH Encyclopedia - Scans by Sol Radguy. Special thanks to @dizzyrobo for lending a copy to be scanned.

Japanese: Archive.org

🔥GGXX The Midnight Carnival Burst Encyclopedia - Scans by Tillman

Japanese: Archive.org

🔥GGXX Slash Beat Encyclopedia - A.B.A. and Order Sol were introduced in XX Slash, so this guidebook has a lot of stuff featuring them. Intro/win dialog transcriptions + Slayer haiku table, too.

Japanese: Archive.org

🔥Guilty Gear Petit 1 & 2 Official Fan Book - Guide book for the Wonderswan games. Scans by Tillman.

Japanese: Archive.org

🔥Vastedge Official Guide Book - I don't know how you make a guide book for a pachislot machine but, well, someone found a way. Scans by Tillman.

Japanese: Archive.org

MANGA RAWS, NO TRANSLATIONS //

GGX Plus Anthology Comics vol.1 (Bros. Anthology Comics):

=== Archive raws

=== Google Drive - Chapter 1 translation by Renexuz. This project has been dropped by Renexuz and no further work on it will be done by her. Please let me know if someone else picks this up.

GGX Anthology Comics (Bros. Anthology Comics) - Archive raws

GGX Plus Anth. Comics vol.2 (Bros. Anthology Comics) - Archive raws

GGXX Anthology Comics vol.1 (Bros. Anthology Comics) manga - Archive raws

GGXX Anthology Comics vol.2 (Bros. Anthology Comics) manga - Archive raws

GGXX Comic Anthology (DNA Media Comics), Volume 1 - Archive raws

GGXX Comic Anthology (DNA Media Comics), Volume 1 - Archive raws

Guilty Gear XX ♯Reload Comic Anthology (DNA Media Comics) - Archive raws

Guilty Gear Isuka (Ohzora Comics) manga, scans by Lux/Xaeldritch - Archive raws

Guilty Gear XX 4koma Kings (DNA Media) vol.1 - Raws on Archive

Guilty Gear XX 4koma Kings (DNA Media) vol.2 - Raws on Archive

Guilty Gear XX 4koma Kings (DNA Media) vol.3 - Raws on Archive

Guilty Gear X 4koma Kings (DNA Media) vol.1 - Raws on Archive

Guilty Gear X Plus 4koma Kings (DNA Media) - Raws on Archive

MISSING STUFF //

Character Designer Issue 1. 2003 (キャラクタデザイナー ISSUE.1 2003年秋) - Has SUPER early concept art for a lot of characters in it, including concept art for Baiken when she was initially planned to be male. - lesbiangiratina is currently scanning this; Sol Radguy translation of the GG pages is in progress.

The EU special edition release of GG Accent Core Plus. Came with what's likely to be an official English translation of the 10th Memorial Book OR a book called The Lost Archive, which seems to include artwork for Overture but additional information is unknown. Which book it came with depended on which version of the SE was bought. These were limited to 200 copies (100 each) and are very expensive (>us$450). (thanks to Renexuz & Tillman for this info)

Arc System Works 25th Anniversary Memorial Booklet - A Japan-exclusive limited-edition artbook that was available at the Arc System Works Festival 2013 to commemorate the company's twenty-fifth anniversary.

Guilty Gear 2 Overture Secret Gig & Secret Gig Neo - Two different booklets given out at Tokyo Game Show (2006?) that have some Overture art in them that wasn't included in the GG2Overture Material Collection art book, mostly of Valentine and Chimaki. Neo has art by guest artists, including a Valentine body pillow... Neo also seems to be the rarer of the two, but both are pretty hard to find.

Manga:

Username by the book title denotes that someone owns it and will scan it eventually. For @tillman, double check with its pinned post to make sure the listings here are up to date.

Guilty Gear Isuka Comic Anthology (DNA Media Comics) - Tillman

Guilty Gear Isuka Yonkoma Kings - 4koma - Tillman

Guilty Gear X Comic Anthology (DNA Media Comics) - Tillman

Guilty Gear X Plus Comic Anthology (DNA Media Comics) - Tillman

Guilty Gear XX (Ohzora Comics) - Tillman

Guilty Gear XX Slash Comic Anthology (DNA Media Comics) - Tillman (both volumes)

Guilty Gear XX Slash Yonkoma Kings - Tillman

Guilty Gear XX ♯Reload Yonkoma Kings - Tillman

Guide Books/Encyclopedias:

It's difficult finding information about the guides/encyclopedias. Drop me a message if you find one that's not listed.

Guilty Gear X Official Guide - Dreamcast-specific guide

Guilty Gear X Plus Official Guide

Guilty Gear XX Complete Guide - Sol Radguy

Guilty Gear XX ♯Reload Complete Guide - Radguy

Guilty Gear XX Slash Complete Guide

Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Break Encyclopedia

Guilty Gear XX Λ Core Complete Guide

Guilty Gear Isuka Outlive Encyclopedia - Tillman

Guilty Gear Isuka Technical Guide

Guilty Gear 2 -Overture- Complete Guide

Magazines:

Names are left in Japanese to make them easier to copy-paste into web searches. Here is how to read them:

電撃プレイステーション = Dengeki PlayStation

Vol. = Volume number

1995年10月13日 = 1995 [year], 10 [month], 13 [day], so October 13, 1995. All dates are yyyy/mm/dd format.

There may be additional Dengeki PS articles from 1995 and 1996. DPS April Special Issue Vol.19 1996/04/10 has been scanned/translated (see above).

電撃プレイステーション F Vol.10 1995/10/13 The ML beta character bios scans. - We have scans of the GG article from this but they are very poor quality.

電撃プレイステーション vol.14 April 1996 Beta GG article, page 22

電撃プレイステーション vol.59 1997/11/14 Beta GG article on page 28

電撃プレイステーション vol.32 1996/11/22 Beta GG article on page 14. - There exists in the current GG archives a poor photo of a double-page spread with a blue background from this issue. It's illegible but shows a different UI than the final release of GG1.

電撃プレイステーション vol.72 GoGoRPG Special Issue 1998/4/24 GG article page 34 - This issue was published about 3 weeks before the official release of Missing Link. Very likely shows final-release stuff.

電撃プレイステーション vol.73 CD-Rom Special Issue 1998/5/22 Came with a physical disc. GG article on page 12

[2af-afterdark]

I have a little idea that during God!MC period of learning how to God, whenever they use their power, it makes them hungrier and hungrier each time. And that could be like a gateway to inviting different devils to eat with them, it'd be a fun bonding experience. Since MC have some Godly power, they should be able to create something of value to pay for the food consumed.

MC inviting Amon to eat with them every other day to make sure he's at least eating more often than before. Or treating Bael to a fancy lil dinner before sending him to his bed to sleep, telling him not to worry about the paperwork and that they'll take care of it(*cough cough* MC hunting down Bell and bound him to his office til he finishes them)☺️ inviting Satan to go eat to have some alone time with him (〃ω〃)

MC could try bonding the angels and devils through meals, first invite both Gabby and Satan because they've been beefing with each other since the beginning of the game, I doubt it'd work since Gabby can't get along with his own peers, let alone bonding with an individual from a species he've been hating on for so long.

I also thought of MC needing lots of sleep after using their power, but then it would cut down the time they get to spend with everyone so I chose the former idea over this one.

This fandom, along with a few others, is making me consider reviving my Tumblr acc and upload things...

-🐰

But, like, this is actually so cute? I love it. No notes. I just need domestic fluff.

If you do, then please let me know! Your creations are so pretty and I want to see them all! I literally have no other social media

[dreadnotau]

Its been a decent couple of months of productive work, so it's sadly time for a schedule change. I'll be posting pages two weeks apart again. Details provided below if you're curious as to why.

In all honesty there's no big dramatic reason this time around. I've just slowly lost drive to work on Dread Not as often and as thoroughly as I used to be able to. As I said in one of my previous posts (that sounded suspiciously like this one), I want to focus on other projects as well. One of those is my personal art blog, which I've neglected even though I've had art on the backburner that I've been meaning to post for AGES. Kingdomrune is another one of those, where I have shit I could post that I just... never did. Dread Not takes a lot of time and I miss being able to dedicate that time to consuming media instead of just grinding and trying to produce my own. One of the most important things to do as an artist is to broaden your horizons and take in as much art as you can, to diversify and expand what you know and what you can make. But, when all day every day I'm just sitting and drawing my own thing, it's like I have tunnel vision and my creative resources run dry. It's starting to feel weirdly soulless on my end, because I don't feel nearly half the inspiration to make the pages as I did when the big hiatus ended. It's all dependent on time and exposure, and I can only crunch for so long before it starts to feel damaging to me instead of fun and creatively fulfilling.

So what does this mean, practically speaking? Well, for one, I'm spacing out the page upload for the rest of Act 1, as previously mentioned. I'm well aware this will kill the pacing and it'll drag out longer than it theoretically needs to, but I'd even rather that than trying to rush out a page in the Two Days I have free this week (yeah, ONLY two days free out of the ENTIRE week. Don't ask me why it's not even my fuckin' fault this time). If pages become even more scarce than 1 page per 2 weeks, blame it on college. I'm getting new subjects and I don't even know the class schedule yet. Concerning Act 2 though, I'll be changing the structure of the pages from their core. I'll be switching to a different drawing software (probably Krita, suck my dick Photoshop) so it'll take some getting used to. I can't even promise bonus content or anything during the necessary break between acts because of that shift in software happening, I've never done a massive technical move like this. However, it'll allow me to, not only work on Dread Not better, but expand my art overall, so it's definitely worth it. I've wanted to get into animation for YEARS and Krita seems like an okay place to start (the gif on this post WAS made with Photoshop, but shitty gifs are about all I can make as animations in Photoshop). Act 2's style will, predictably, differ heavily from Act 1 and (with how long writing the dialogue alone for it is taking), it might end up being Longer than Act 1, too. Visually, it'll probably be something like cleaned up and coloured sketches, with simpler colour palettes and simpler (big airquotes) visuals overall, and it'll speed up the process and possibly allow me to post more than one page at a time. Possibly. That's not a promise.

I'm sorry if that's disappointing to anyone, but I physically can't make myself continue the current artstyle across all acts. It's just not feasible.

For those curious about the FARTHER future of Dread Not, I have plans to turn Act 3 into a series of fics rather than full comic pages, and something maybe a bit more insane for Act 4. I don't have everything figured out yet, and I don't want to make any false promises or give any grand ideas I won't be able to commit to, since only time will tell how my creativity will flow years from now. If you all want more content from me specifically, again I'm planning on reviving my art tumblr like a half buried zombie, and you'll probably see more there than you bargained for once I actually get into the habit of posting things. If you're mayhaps interested in my original stuff, keep your eyes peeled for a guy called Duro, I might start posting about him some time soon.

As always, thank you for your patience, and apologies again if this news was disappointing to anyone. I'm just one guy and this comic is a titan of biblical proportions. I'll keep you all posted on any further developments and plans for the future! Stay tuned!

[worldismyne]

was there any drama behind warrior u ending in the middle of an isuee?

Drama? Not really, more like, a series of unfortunate events.

The creator's computer crashed, destroying around 10-15 finished pages that had yet to be uploaded.

She was writing as she went, on an issue that was the origin story of the fan favorite villain, Hevvin. I think there was a lot of pressure to make it perfect, and when she went to go back and redo the pages, did what a lot of creators in her position would do. She second guessed the direction the issue was going and thought what she had made was 'terrible'.

She was very open about how she felt she wrote herself in a corner. She enlisted the help of fans to post one page fan comics while she decided what to do, and in the end, decided to end the series.

We were all sad, but from my POV, most people were understanding. It was a for free webcomic she had started in college and made 100s of pages for us. A lot of us had been in a position where we couldn't finish a fic or lost something we'd been working on to computer issues. It was just sad to see it happen to something on such grand of a scale.

A few years later, there was a problem with the webhost, and the official website for the comic died. She was also applying for animation jobs, which at the time the industry was very anti-fandom. So her DA and other galleries that had WU stuff incidently on it was deleted. Her WU blogs got caught in the shuffle, so we lost the original ask blog and concept art blogs. She made a new WU blog that has what she was able to save, but was very clear by 2020 she was ready to move onto a different project.

I can't stress enough how intensely parasocial the fans were by the series end with both her and the characters who'd been accessible through ask blog format since before tumblr (we have an archive of the old formspring for the blog, it's 30 webpages long, and that was just a fraction of it). She read and promoted any fan work that was made on the blog. Even posted the thumbnails for unfinished issues, and had been writing issues out of order.

There was a lot of pressure from the fanbase to make certain ships canon and Hevvin fans were half the fanbase (tumblr sexyman level obession). She was very clear what she would and wouldn't write, that she was pantsing the comic the entire run (no outline, just vibes) and by the series end there was so much pressure to appease the fans, I think the pages getting lost was the straw that broke the camel's back.

((For context, when all this was going down superwholock was on fire with fans harrassing people at cons over ship takes, homestuck was in full swing and fans of that would reach for other webcomics like WU during hiatuses. It was not a great time to 'let down' an audience on tumblr))

I wasn't on her end of the inbox, but I saw her get exhausted from demands to incoporate ships, headcanons, and update faster. It's one thing to get writers block after loosing a good chunk of work, it's another to have that happen in front of 10k+ fans who treat you like any old mutual.

She is aware of our efforts to revive the comic, but has been clear she's ready to move on to different projects. We did get a nice lil promo on the official blog.

Now she has a new comic series, where she works on one issue at a time. When the issues are done she posts them, when they aren't she talks in vague updates. Lately she's been focused on helping raise money to get people out of Gaza.

The orginal WU fandom is mostly gone, though we had a few pop in, nostalgic over the comic as we finished the unfinished issue. Atm we got about 99 peeps following on tumblr and consistent traffic on comic fury.

[dear-alex-chill]

An update

Lately I haven't been active and it's spanned much longer than I intended. I originally thought it was the Team Science Zine sucking up all my energy (that zine was awesome but a beast to make) but I now realize that may have been me trying to convince myself of an untrue reality. I've been exhausted all the time with no time for me. I'm also dealing with more personal issues and being in a period of transition uses a lot of spoons. Hopefully I'll resolve some issues through therapy or other means but it's a lot to balance and I don't necessarily have the resources to take on everything. Unfortunately, art and writing has taken a backseat for the time due to everything going on. It is what it is, I hope to create again one day. However, the end of DAC as an account may be nearing.

I know I've been silent/quiet for months. I know I've not finished anything. I have few WIPs but they're limited in development and not something I want to post. Overall the Dear-Alex-Chill account is fading on all fronts and I'm not sure I want it to revive. I know my stuff rarely shows up in places, in part because of the niche I drew myself into, but also a lack of relevancy in what I produce. I honestly haven't touched digital art in a while, I do miss it. However, I'm exhausted constantly or I'm under the perception I'm too busy to do it, carving time is hard right now. I am considering leaving everything up and just sorta orphaning my account, I would never delete my writing and I don't like the prospect of deleting my art, but actively maintaining a social media like that is taxing and not something I can do right now. DAC might turn into an archive of sorts and when I'm ready I'll start anew entirely with a new name and page. Or maybe I'll come back in a while ready to get going again, I'm not sure.

Some of the lack of desire to revive was a slightly toxic culture. When things blew up around me (not really at me though but like Tumblr? Yk) I felt the need to step back and a part of me just never wanted to return. Moots, I love you guys, you're the reason I stayed so long. But sometimes it's hard to want to engage in a community of people that dislike you and that you generally dislike, it's tiresome. Wacky and Sikyu especially, you guys were awesome to talk to (I'm just mentioning you two specifically because I feel really bad for leaving you guys with no context after months of hyper-dumping hcs and ideas. Anyone I've repeatedly dmed or shared my hcs with and talked to, I do miss you all. Everyone is owed an apology but that's a lot of names to write.) It's hard to stay in a place you don't want to be, especially when you feel you're leaving those close to you, but I think it's of my best interest to step away from DT and TtS/RTA.

To my followers, I'm sorry you haven't gotten what you followed for.

To the anons and haters, cool. Have fun with your lives, I believe in karma but don't act on it, it's not my job to enforce karma, that's the universe's job.

To my mutuals/friends, I haven't forgotten you all and I do think about you. It's just hard to reply or I feel bad reaching out after so much silence. Hopefully I'll be chatty again or return to some normalcy later and I'm sorry I didn't tell any of you earlier.

Overall this just serves as a message/wellness check. I'm still here, I still lurk, but I don't really know if I want to stay active. When I decide to either orphan or revive, I'll let you all know in a new post, but for now here's what's been happening. I love y'all.

See ya later.

(yes this was on insta in slides form, Tumblr hates me uploading more than 3 photos at a time)

[dragonagefanevents]

What are Kink Memes?

In the most basic sense, a kink meme is a fandom event or community in which fans post prompts, which other fans then fill with fanfiction or art.

Despite what the name implies, kink memes may feature anything from explicit works to gen fic.

Participating in (or starting a new) Kink Memes can seem very intimidating, especially for newer fans. But some of the best fic and art ideas in our fandom have come from the ancient kink memes, and there is no reason why they can't be revived today.

If you are looking for inspiration and want to make a fellow fan's day by writing or making art for their prompts, read on to learn more about Kink Memes!

Where are they hosted?

Kink memes are traditionally based on a blogging platform with threaded comments, such as LiveJournal or Dreamwidth, and both prompting AND filling take place in comment threads on a single open post.

Creators may choose to upload their works elsewhere, after the fact.

Active kink memes are often archived on a bookmarking site such as pinboard, to make it easier to search for prompts and fills by characters and other tags.

What does participation look like?

Most kink memes will have a pinned post with rules and formatting guidelines.

Locate the current/open post. This may be linked as "Active" or "Open" or "Current Post" somewhere on the page.

▸ Posting Prompts

Reply with your idea to the official, most currently active part of the kink meme post.

⤷ Anonymously post your request by making sure you are posting on anonymous in the options settings of your reply.

▸Filling Requests

Find a prompt that inspires you and create something that meets the prompt. You can make fills to prompts that have already been filled - two cakes!

Reply to the specific prompter's post with your fic or art directly in the body of the post. If you run out of room, continue with a nested comment.

* Both prompts and fills are usually posted anonymously, though creators may choose to claim their works by posting links to AO3 or other sites and fill lists in namespace.

While Kink Memes may be intimidating due to the platform they are on or your own shyness about posting or filling prompts, the default assumption that posters will be anonymous means you can go hog wild with what may be the best fic or art idea you - or perhaps the entire fandom - have never thought of before now.

Examples of Existing Kink Memes

Dragon Age main page

Origins

DA2

Inquisition

nota bene: the Kink Memes for the DA fandom are rather stagnant, but they ARE NOT DEAD entirely. Make sure to go to the highest-numbered page of comments on every prompt post, such as page 28/28. This is where the most recent prompts and fills can be found.

If you want to learn more about kink memes, see this tumblr post (archived version).

Special thanks to @anneapocalypse for the information in this post.

[ayamari-no-goshi]

Chasing Shadows (9)

AO3 -> first, last, next

Fandoms: Danny Phantom (DP) / DC universe

Summary:  THIS IS A CROSSOVER.  As Bruce Wayne begins to slowly recover from the loss of his son, two   separate mysteries open up old wounds. Who is the unknown leaving clues   hinting at a return to Gotham, and who is the phantom pretending to be   his lost son? Is it just a coincidence they’re active in Gotham at the   same time? Or are they connected?  

Warnings: rated T for violence, mentions of death, and questionable mental health

Parings: none

Notes: originally uploaded to AO3. Cross-posted to tumblr

“Daniel Fenton (14) has been declared dead after being rushed to nearby Amity Memorial Hospital after receiving severe injuries from an accident involving one of his parents’ dubious inventions. His parents, doctors Madeline and Jack Fenton, infamous parapsychologists and inventors were working on what they stated would be a portal to the land of the dead. This so-called portal was being built in basement which had been converted into a laboratory which violates several local and state ordinances. An official investigation has been launched by Child Protective Services to determine if a case of criminal neglect led to the accident. Their surviving daughter has been placed in protective custody…”

Bruce could feel the migraine starting. Even with Constantine being able to give him a general area where he believed Phantom might have originated, he still had to pour over thousands of missing persons cases and death records. But, he believed he finally found the identity of the meta.

According to the publicly available records, he was dead. However, the information from the hospital provided a different picture. He’d been brought in unresponsive with severe electrical burns, but he had been resuscitated and stabilized. Although his vitals did not appear to be conducive to living, but his charts suggested he was alert and recovering in the following days.

The various specialists heavily documented Daniel’s information, most likely believing his recovery would require study. Most of it fell within what would normally be found in a patient’s charts, but there were a few strange mentions of the IV ports falling out and abnormally quick healing. Possible early documentation of the abilities he would end up developing.

But what was strange was how the charts ended. There was just a mention that the boy was found dead in his room and attempts at reviving him failed, but there was evidence of editing and possible tampering several hours later. Though it took much longer than he hoped due to the lack of Oracle’s equipment, he found the source, something called the Ghost Investigation Ward which was under the control of the Department of Extranormal Operations.

They must have been monitoring his parents’ research and swept in to grab him when they caught wind of what happened. A month after Daniel’s “death”, the charges against his parents were suddenly dropped, but their research and equipment had been seized. From what Bruce had seen of their various blueprints, Fenton tech could have multiple applications for military use. The government’s interest in them made a lot more sense after accessing them.

Frustratingly, their data had little information about Daniel. They had a few documents outlining the theories they had regarding what happened to him and whether or not he was to be classified as living or dead. If he ended up classified as dead, the list of experiments they wanted to run were enough to make him sick, but he couldn’t find any records of Daniel ever being at any of their facilities.

Was it possible someone else got to him first? Metahuman trafficking was a known issue, and traffickers preferred to grab them as soon as their powers manifested as it was harder for the metas to defend themselves. Or had he escaped in his own and somehow fled? He hoped it was the latter.

Frustrated that the boy’s trail went cold, Bruce turned his attention to his parents. It was difficult from him to determine whether or not they may have tried handing over their own son. The handful of photos he could find of the family together suggested the parents cared about their children, but with their profession, there was a chance they could have rejected him. Perhaps he should reach out to the daughter, Jasmine, first. She might be able to help him determine whether or not Daniel should be reunited with his family.

“Is this him?” Dick approached the computer on his right.

“I have a strong reason to believe that’s the case.”

His son chuckled. “Unreal. Jason managed to find another kid with the family traits.” Before his accident, Daniel Fenton did bare a superficial resemblance to Dick, Jason, Tim, and even himself due to sharing the same hair and eye colors before his accident. “Do we have any idea where they might have met?”

“I’ve lost Phantom’s trail after his reported death. He may have gotten picked up by traffickers. I’m in the process of starting to piece together possible reports on that end. As for Jason, I’ve tried to contact Talia. I have reason to believe she might be funding him.” The timing of her appearance in Gotham during the Hush plot bothered him. If she was assisting him, it helped explain how his coffin had been replaced and where he might be getting his funds and equipment. But the question became why? What did she gain out of turning his son against him?

“Let me guess, she’s being less than cooperative.”

“Correct.”

“As weird as it sounds, I’m thankful to Phantom.” Dick glanced up at the computer screen. “However they met, he seems to be helping prevent Jason from completely losing himself to the whatever the Pit and the League did to him.” There was something left unsaid.

“But?”

“I just can’t shake this feeling we’re going to end up losing him again when this is all over. Maybe it’s all this talk about ghosts, but I keep remembering all the legends I heard about as a kid about the undead.”

“Dick, we’ll bring him home.”

“I’m not sure he wants to come home.”

…

“Pick any place you’d like. It’s my treat!”

Tim shared a quick look with Stephanie. In the wake of Gotham’s gang war and the realization the Red Hood was Jason, Dick had been a little clingy. They all knew he felt a great deal of guilt over what happened to Jason, and in the wake of both Stephanie and Babs getting into situations where they could have been killed, Tim couldn’t blame him for wanting to spend time with them and make sure they were okay.

Right now, he wanted to treat them to dinner. Cass had been invited too, but she declined in order to help Babs set up some of her surviving equipment in the Batcave. To be honest, Tim didn’t really want to go either, but maybe the distraction would help him think better.

The confirmation Jason was back brought a great deal of confusion. Before the hints and the reveal, he used to think that having Jason back would fix everything. His death was the reason for Bruce’s downward spiral and the pain that nearly tore the Wayne family apart. Tim was just a bandage, a placeholder, while they healed. But Bruce and Dick hadn’t chased him away once they got used to the idea of him being around. Instead, they seemed to care about him and want him as a part of their family, and Tim loved being Robin.

But, Jason had returned as someone barely recognized by those who knew him. Though he initially thought maybe Jason would want the position of Robin back, that didn’t seem likely, especially with how he said Bruce had brainwashed them. It was so strange to hear that from someone who had the same training he did. Jason had been such a shining light as Robin. Did he regret ever having donned the cape? Was he upset to see someone else wear the colors he died in? Or maybe he didn’t think teens should be heroes?

Then there was trying to reconcile the fact his childhood hero nearly killed him. If Jason had pressed that knife against his throat a little harder or had placed it in a different spot, Tim would have bled out in minutes. But he hadn’t. In fact, he had even mentioned he just wanted Bruce’s attention as opposed to doing harm. He also didn’t make any move to fight Phantom or try to get him back once he’d been freed. There was also the admission Dick recorded. Jason seemed troubled by his actions towards him, at least that’s what Tim hoped.

“Earth to Tim!” Dick waved a hand in front of his face. “Where do you want to eat?”

Steph snickered. “Have you been spacing out this entire time?”

“I honestly don’t care…” Catching sight of Dick’s slight frown, he decided it would be best to humor him. Glancing around, he was going to pick whatever jumped out of him when he caught sight of a tall man with dark hair and an unusual white streak on the opposite side of the street. Beside him appeared to be a teenager with the same dark hair. “Dick, look!”

“Jason…”

“Who’s that with him?” Even on her crutches, she wasn’t going to let anything get in her way of getting a good look.

“I think it’s Phantom. Come on!”

They followed on the opposite side of the street for a couple blocks. It seemed strange that Jason would be so willing to walk around in broad daylight, but, legally, he was dead. No one would think to connect the man currently walking down the street in slacks and what appeared to be a blazer with the teen who died years ago. If it hadn’t been for his hair, Tim didn’t think he would have recognized him either.

While they moved, Dick quietly explained that Bruce believed he had ID’ed who Phantom really was. If this new teen was Phantom, it helped explain why they had such a hard time finding him.

The two came to a stop at a small Chinese restaurant at the edge of the Diamond District. Where they seriously just going to go to dinner?

Dick must have been thinking the same thing because he apologized to Steph for a moment before scooping her in his arms and running across the street. Tim followed, trying to ignore the honking vehicles they dodged.

“Table for two, please,” they heard Jason tell the older waitress as they entered.

After gently putting Steph down, Dick walked up behind his brother and patted him on the back, making Jason stiffen. “Make that five.”

For a moment, Tim was convinced Jason was going to punch Dick. The way he glowered at him combined with an unnatural green flash in his eyes quickly reminded all of them he was just as dangerous, if not more so, than the other rogues of Gotham. Yet, as quickly as that look came, it vanished, replaced with a more neutral and guarded expression.

“It has been a while that you’ve both been here.”  The waitress gave them a knowing smile. “Follow me. Just make sure you don’t break anything during your talk.”

“Same as always,” they said at the same time catching them both by surprise. Dick’s smile brightened while Jason’s expression turned stormy. Nothing else was said as they followed the waitress to a back room that only held one table.

“What’s the deal with the waitress?” Phantom asked after everyone was seated with menus, and she left the room. His voice didn’t have the odd distortion to it. There was another difference. His skin didn’t have the greenish tinge to it either. Instead, he looked a healthier shade of pale.

“We’ve been here a time or two in the past. Usually after fights at the Manor,” Jason explained as he glanced back at the doorway and frowned. “I’m surprised she recognized me.” He almost sounded troubled.

“I recognized you.” Dick’s voice was surprisingly soft, though his eyes narrowed in offense when Jason snorted. “What?”

“Not until I took off the helmet. If I hadn’t done that, you’d still be convinced I was just an imposter and that the real me was still a pile of bones. Or whatever other bullshit alternative Bruce came up with.” He flipped the menu over. “I honestly thought you figured it out that day in the warehouse, but I gave you too much credit.”

Tim watched the interaction with a growing awe. While Jason’s posture remained guarded, there was no hostility aimed at his brother. Instead, they both spoke with an ease he hadn’t expected. While it was too soon to tell, whatever animosity Jason held towards Bruce didn’t seem apply to Dick.

“Don’t let him fool you,” Phantom interrupted as a mischievous grin crossed his face, and if Tim wasn’t wrong, his eyes literally seemed to light up with amusement. “Jay was disappointed it took you that long.”

“Do you really want to start this?” A pink tinge appeared on Jason’s cheeks even if he kept his expression neutral. “I have a very distinctive memory of how…” He didn’t have a chance to finish.

“No. No. No! That’s okay!”

“So not fair! Don’t you know the hero community thrives on blackmail?” Steph complained. “Anyways, it’s nice to officially meet you two. I’m Stephanie. Thanks for saving my life.”

Jason’s eyebrows shot up. He he not expected her to thank him? Or was it her friendly attitude? But he recovered quickly and gave her his name. Dick then introduced himself for Phantom, and Tim followed suit but squirmed as Jason stared at him. There was something unsaid and turbulent in his eyes, but he didn’t seem angry. But that didn’t mean much from someone trained by Bruce.

When it came time for Phantom’s turn, he glanced at Jason, who in turn nodded once and gave a slight motion of his right hand. Was that some code for ‘don’t give away too much’? “I’m Danny.”

Dick tilted his head. “Your parents wouldn’t happen to be inventors, would they?” Phantom, Danny, flickered so violently that Tim thought he’d vanish for a moment. He stopped when Jason put a hand on his shoulder, but the teen continued to look panicked.

“How much do you know?” Jason’s eyes flashed green as the air around them seemed to drop several degrees. The information they received from Constantine suggested Jason might now have abilities, but none of them knew with certainty what they might or might not be which made all of them uneasy at the display.

Dick held his hands up in a placating manner. “Just the basics. A bit about his family, that an accident happened, and how there was a coverup.”

“Do you… do you know what happened to my parents?” Danny’s voice was quiet, and he was glancing down as he fiddled with his shirt. The temperature started to go back to normal.

“From what we can tell, they’re doing fine. I bet they’re missing you though.”

A small smile crept onto Danny’s face as he looked up. “I’m glad. They threatened to hurt them if I didn’t do what they said.”

Before anyone had a chance to respond, the waitress announced herself as she came back into the room. “Dumplings on the house! No, no arguing. When was the last time you ate a good meal?” She shook her finger at Jason before pointing at Danny. “This one is all skin and bones. Eat and grow big and strong like these two, okay?” She nodded at the brothers. “Can you believe this one was this tall last time I saw him?” She gestured to show Jason wasn’t quite five foot tall before his death. “Anyways, time to order.” A few minutes later, the waitress was on her way.

“I was not that short.”

Dick gave his brother a knowing smile. “Jay, you were tiny.”

Before Jason could say anything, Steph decided to speak up. “So Danny, who’s idea was it for you to pretend to be Jason?” She took a bite of dumpling. “Oh! These are good!”

“It was my idea!” Danny’s eyes seemed to glow in delight as he also grabbed a dumpling.

They all looked at Jason for confirmation. He didn’t reply immediately, but instead pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. It was something Bruce did all the time, and the familiarity of it made Tim do a double take. “It was his idea. Started off as a joke, but it ended up giving Bruce enough pause to not immediately chase Danny out of Gotham.”

The meta nodded in agreement. “Gotham’s probably the safest place for me right now. There are so many other ghosts around making me hard to detect.”

“Gotham’s haunted?” Tim had heard the stories but never really believed them.

“Yep.” Danny popped the p but didn’t elaborate.

“You’re still going to need to stay low for a while between that stunt at the Clocktower and Bruce sticking his nose in places it doesn’t belong.” Jason mentioned as he moved his hands in a slight but unfamiliar movement. When Danny made a similar one, Tim realized they had some form of unspoken either code or language. It didn’t look familiar to him, but Dick’s eyes had narrowed slightly suggesting he might.

“If you let us, we can help,” Dick offered.

“Thanks, but I’m not interested.” All of them, except Jason, stared at how matter of fact Danny said it.

“I know we might not be your first choice, but we have a lot of resources, especially Bruce.”

The air around them seemed to drop several degrees again as Jason leaned forward. His eyes took on an unsettlingly green tint. “If you ever gave a shit about us being family, then promise me you’ll never take Danny into that house.”

“Jay…”

“You know better than anyone what he’s like.” There was something unsaid in that statement, something Dick seemed to understand as his expression turned grim.

The waitress announced her presence again. She seemed to have a knack for knowing when things were getting tense. Was it just a coincidence? Or had she been listening?

After setting the food down, she wagged her finger at Dick. “Don’t argue with little Jay. Spend the time catching up.” She then smiled at Jason. “Good to see you back. We missed your visits. You finally grew up, but your hair makes you look like a punk.” Laughing at how he started sputtering, she gave him a fond pat on the shoulder. “Can’t wait to tell my grandchildren how the good food here helped you grow so tall.” She then vanished back through the door.

Tim quickly took a few bites as Jason sulked. He actually sulked as he tugged on the tuft of white hair. “It’s not like I can do anything about it.” That meant it wasn’t likely it was dyed. Tim had heard stories people who went through trauma sometimes went prematurely grey, so maybe that’s why he had it. Jason noticed his stare and raised a questioning eyebrow. “You used to follow us,” he stated after taking a bite.

“You saw me? Bruce didn’t even know. Wait…” Every once in a while, when he was taking photos, it seemed as if Robin was posing. He figured it was just coincidental, but if Jason knew, then he had specifically done that for Tim.

“I think he sometimes overlooks kids, wants to believe they’re innocent and all that,” he explained after taking a bite of his own dish. “It was too dangerous for me not to do that growing up. Kids were sometimes used as lures for more nefarious things. OW!” Danny had elbowed him in the rib before making a ‘get on with it’ gesture. “Alright, alright. Tim, are you okay?”

That question caught him off guard. Jason must have sensed his question as he gestured to his own neck. Oh! “Yeah, Selena helped patch me up.”

“Good.” It wasn’t an apology, but Tim could sense Jason’s unease. Maybe he really hadn’t intended to hurt him.

An uneasy silence fell between them as they focused on their dinner. Eventually, Dick decided to speak up. “Jay, what are you planning? You’ve been killing people. Unless you were framed. Have you been framed?”

“Nope.” Jason just smiled at the donning horror on his brother’s face. “It’s not like I don’t have morals. There’s a reason I didn’t kill Scarecrow.”

Dick’s phone rang, but he ignored it as he leveled a look at the younger man. “Jason!”

He rolled his eyes. “Do you really think His way is working? The so-called treatment at Arkham is a joke, and don’t get me started on the security there. Blackgate’s not much better.” Contempt briefly crossed his face. “Fix the revolving door. Then maybe, just maybe, I’ll consider stopping.” His chair scraped across the floor as he stood, “Are you ready Danny?”

“Yep! It was nice meeting you. Thanks for the meal!”

“Wait!” Dick tried to follow them when his phone rang again. It had to be Bruce, otherwise, he wouldn’t have answered it. Strangely, Jason stopped in the doorway to watch. “Can this wait a minute? I’m kind of busy here…” He listened for a moment before staring at Jason. “What did you do?”

“What? Can’t a guy leave flowers on his mother’s grave?” The grin Jason gave him made Tim’s hair stand on end. “Oh, you’re talking about Shelia’s grave. Maybe ask Bruce what really happened that day. ‘Loving mother’, my ass.” He gave a slight salute before shooing Danny through the door. “See ya later, Dickie-bird.”

==================================

Notes:

Department of Extranormal Operations (DEO) - Originally introduced in Action Comics (Superman) #775, but recently popularized in the Supergirl TV show. The role of the DEO is to monitor those with extranormal superpowers and to prevent any threat to the general public. To me, it makes sense that the Guys in White would be under their jurisdiction.

I accidentally decided I loved this waitress while I was writing her. I hope she comes across as motherly and a bit pushy as she sounds in my head

There are 3 different and official heights for Jason regarding when he died. 4’6, 5’0. 5’4”…. I’m going with just under 5’0”. Jay just looks so tiny all the time as Robin.

I know this gets murky in both the later comics (especially during the batshit crazy days) and in the fandom, but Jason does have a very specific moral code in the comics regarding who he will and won't kill. You see this in the Red Hood: the Lost Days and even in Under the Red Hood.

[ren12art]

Just one of my quite old unpublished works to revive my tumblr.

Jon Snow - or more like something inbetween the cinematic and book (as I imagined him when reading) versions.

[ Please don’t use, edit, re-upload or re-post my art anywhere without my permission! Thank you in advance! ]

[cometblogging]

Reviving this old blog to let y'all know I've got something sk8 related coming 👀

It's basically fanfic but in song form BUT this is not me plugging my music to make $$ I will be uploading the song to soundcloud so even if you don't wanna buy it and refuse to use streaming services that give artists money (like spotify or youtube) you can still listen to it

The song is called Infinity and I wrote it wayyyy back when I first watched sk8, then recorded it last year, wasn't happy with the first mix and didn't touch it until almost a year later... it's been finished for weeks now but I had to get the cover for the single and the pic for fhe youtube video in order first which took some time (especially with my very sporadic but explosive motivation)

It's gonna be released August 4th 2023 under the name Infinity (DEMO) by Comet in loads of stores, on most streaming platforms and on SoundCloud

Again I don't want ur money I just want the right people to hear the song that I wrote specifically for Renga 🥲

Also just in case this breaches containment: WE DO NOT TELL ANYONE OUTSIDE OF TUMBLR WHO THE SONG IS ABOUT 👀

[rosietrace]

Melodic Misconceptions 🎹

Track 29: Impossible potential

Synopsis: Victoria Shard was a former member of the popular idol group [ Poisoner ] from NRC corporations. After discourse with her group leader, Victoria decided it was best for her to leave and pursue her solo career in a record label run by her parents.

It had been half a year since her separation from her old group, and Victoria had never been more successful. But now she has a new problem. She must return to NRC corporations in order to mentor the seven idol groups.

Ellis Clawthorne is a member of [ (Co)-connect ] the most recent group under NRC'S belt. With no experience as an idol, Ellis must persevere in order to succeed and pursue her dreams.

Will both girls be able to adapt to their current situations?

♝•°•══════ஓ๑♡๑ஓ══════•°•♝

Author's note: It's been 84 years I know /j

This may seem a bit underwhelming for a return of MM, but given that Tumblr is not so subtly screwing me over, I needed a long-term break

But anyway, thank you so much to everyone who's been patient enough to wait for all these tracks ^^ I know my upload schedule is a nightmare at this point, so I'm really happy to know that you guys are willing to wait for a while for another installment of my Magnum Opus (okay maybe I shouldn't exaggerate, but still)

Hope you enjoy!

──ㅇ─────↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺───ㅇ────

“Huh. So you're Circe.”

Raising an eyebrow at you, Circe slowly approached. You could tell by his body language that he was most definitely hesitant to even talk to you.

Then again, you just happened to run into him, so it wasn't like you expected to talk to him, to begin with. You just let it slide for a little while.

“And you're very obviously Aguri Harper. Do you legitimately don't remember seeing me after your encounter with Vil and Koral?”

You let that question float around before letting out an awkwardly placed whistle. “Possibly…” you drawled.

Circe frowned but shrugged that off relatively quickly. “Well, forget that I guess,” he said. “Why are you back at NRC Corporations?”

Before you could answer that, Circe answered his own question. “Oh, wait, I'm sure you're here for Victoria.”

You practically begged your body to not betray you at that moment, but alas, you felt your cheeks heat up at the mention of the well-known idol that you occasionally take on a date or two.

Not that she'd consider them dates.

──ㅇ─────↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺───ㅇ────

That was a lie. Victoria did consider them dates.

She paced around the room, with Zen sitting on the couch in front of her, staring at her with utter bewilderment. Naturally, of course, given that Victoria showed little to no stress unless the situation truly called for it.

So he's guessing that whatever she's stressed about, he's more than sure that the situation called for it.

“Err…. Tori? You feeling okay??” That was probably the dumbest question Zen could ask, but he asked it regardless.

Victoria let out an exasperated sigh, but she wasn't necessarily annoyed at Zen. “It's…. Complicated, Zen.”

His eyebrows raised, lips pursed for only a moment. “Oh yeah? Wanna talk about it?” he gently pats the empty spot on the couch next to him. And in response, Victoria tiredly sat down.

“So, did anything happen?”

“Er…”

“It isn't about the NXDE revival, right? As far as I know, it was a success-”

“It… It isn't about the NXDE revival, Zen.”

Zen's eyebrows furrowed. Not only in bewilderment but also in silent irritation because Victoria didn't get straight to the point like she usually did.

But he'd never get mad at her for something as small as that. So he waited patiently for her to get to the point.

“.... It's about Y/N.”

──ㅇ─────↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺───ㅇ────

“So, you're telling me that you're just- What, denying that you're in love with Victoria?”

You clicked your tongue in annoyance, “I'm not in love with her.”

Circe looked at you like you just told him the biggest piece of bullshit he's ever heard. And frankly, you had reason to believe that what you just said was the biggest bullshit he's ever heard.

“For an actor, you're surprisingly obvious when it comes to your own feelings,” Circe didn't fight the quiet snort he let out, “No wonder there haven't been any reports about any potential relationships.”

You crossed your arms, folding them over your chest. “How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not in love with your former group member?”

Circe smirked, if only for a moment. “As many times as you want, Harper,” he told you, before walking ever so slightly closer than he needed to be.

Circe already had a busy schedule at the moment, especially with how Koral was managing Poisoner at the moment, so he needed to say what he wanted to tell you in the quickest way he could.

And he needed to do that and leave an impact.

“I think you failed to remind yourself that it's impossible to be in a relationship with an idol like her. I can tell you thought you had a chance, Harper.”

And boy…. He most definitely left an impact.

──ㅇ─────↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺───ㅇ────

Taglist

🥥: @starry-night-rose @nem0-nee @windbornearchon @fumikomiyasaki @sakuramidnight15 @authoruio

Fellow goobers: @geminiiviolets @oseathepebble @vaporvipermedia @twsted-princess @knights-escort @crazyyanderefangirlfan @celiica @terrovaniadorm (If I forgot to add anyone, pls notify me!)

──ㅇ─────↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺───ㅇ────

[sylusheart]

hi there <3 welcome to my blog! :3 i write for shits and giggles and i post all of my works on ao3, you can find the link to my acc here.

but i also post some of my one-shots here on tumblr too (i only post the ones that are 'one part' long directly on tumblr - sometimes i tend to write one-shots that end up getting split into two/three parts because it becomes too long or i just do it for easier access to specific bits of the story) ♡

in my masterlist below you can find the direct links to my fics; if the fic is uploaded on tumblr (meaning if it's a one-shot) the link will take you to the tumblr post for it first but the ao3 link will still be accessible and shown on that page if you'd like to read it on there instead!┊ ˚➶ ｡˚ ☁️

this is my one and only blog because i'm not too used to the idea of having multiple blogs idk that sorta overwhelms me atm lmao (i'm not so familliar with tumblr but hopefully overtime i'll get more comfier on here and how things work...) but usually all my posts are just devil may cry :D though i tend to write/shitpost abt other stuff too such as call of duty, final fantasy vii/xv, resident evil, k-pop, love and deepspace + more! but yeah that's basically me summed up :p

here's a masterlist of my current works and wips for ao3! i've included a key at the bottom of this section with a detailed explanation on the labels i attach to my titles :3

-------˖⁺. ༶ ❤︎ ⋆˙⊹ 𐦍 ˖⁺. ༶ ❤︎ ⋆˙⊹-------

devil may cry

╰┈➤ ❝ serenity (on-going) vergil x fem!reader ❞

╰┈➤ ❝ cowboy like me (2 part one-shot) dante x fem!reader ❞ WIP

╰┈➤ ❝ made for me (one-shot) nico x fem!reader ❞ WIP

╰┈➤ ❝ heavy chain (one-shot) vergil x fem!reader ❞ WIP

╰┈➤ ❝ awakened (on-going) vergil x fem!reader ❞ WIP

love and deepspace

╰┈➤ ❝ candles for caleb (one-shot) caleb x fem!reader ❞ WIP

╰┈➤ ❝ mile high club (one-shot) xavier x fem!reader ❞ WIP

call of duty

╰┈➤ ❝ king of it all (one-shot) könig x fem!reader ❞

╰┈➤ ❝ barracks bunny (2 part one-shot) ghost x fem!reader ❞ WIP

k-pop

╰┈➤ ❝ a little jealousy (one-shot) shownu x fem!reader ❞

╰┈➤ ❝ heartstopper (one-shot) nayeon x fem!reader ❞ WIP

resident evil

╰┈➤ ❝ revival (one-shot) wesker x fem!reader ❞ WIP

╰┈➤ ❝ cabin fever (one-shot) leon kennedy x ashley graham ❞ WIP

vicious/villains duology

╰┈➤ ❝ elevating desires (one-shot) victor vale x eli ever ❞

star wars

╰┈➤ ❝ restless nights (discontinued) anakin x fem!reader ❞

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ key:

(on-going): this means it’s a fic that has depth to it, in other words: a long fic! it's something i'm continously writing and it has a thick enough plot to divide into multiple chapters. i try to update as regularly as i can. you can subscribe to the fic on ao3 so you'll get email updates whenever i post!

(discontinued): this means it's a long fic that i've abandonned and won't ever be going back to. this can be due to multiple reasons but i don't tend to drop my fics if i have a good story lying underneath them, so if you do see a discontinued fic on my page it probably wasn't something i was willing to remaster/extend on in the first place.

(completed): this means it's a long fic that has multiple chapters and has been edited a couple of times but probabably not edited to perfection. you won't have to wait for me to update as the entire story is available.

(one-shot): a quick fic that is only one chapter long, these are usually unedited and raw - they're just undeveloped quick bursts of ideas i try to write down asap, but i don't usually stretch them out into full-blown fics.

(2/3 part one-shot): i aim to make my one-shot fics just one chapter long but sometimes they get a little lengthy; it just feels wiser to just seperate the whole thing into a few parts. i never go over 3 parts, because if i do i would classify that as one of my 'long fics'.

(editing): if one of my fics has 'editing' beside the title that probably means i'm primarily focusing on updating that particular fic and i won't be working on other fics for the time being until i have completed editing, i usually go into an editing phase after every 10 chapters i upload on that specific fic, meaning i don't re-edit my one-shots no matter how many parts they are - my one-shots are always going to be raw first drafts and will most likely have mistakes.

i'm open for requests, if you'd like me to drop some headcannons or if you want to ask me if i could write up any possible fic ideas i will be more than happy to consider your suggestions! just drop me a dm or ask me anonymously <3

anyway thanks for reading this far, i'm super excited to make more works and share them with everyone :3 kudos and comments are so very appreciated (they motivate me fr) and in general i just love interacting with others so please don't hesitate to!

[venerabela]

{PSNL} The Western Lunar Dragon, Venerabela

An alternate universe of Vene. For those who don't know, a few years ago, I turned Vene into an Eastern dragon. The general idea behind this version of Vene is simple. The realization I have come to understand about myself after drawing this is FAR more complex. The general idea is... What if I had kept Vene a Western dragon instead of making them an Eastern dragon, and continued to evolve them as I have since 2015? We might have had something like this. A towering, 8 foot (2.4m) wall of draconic muscle, intense stamina, attunement with the celestial wonders of the night sky, and magic, both stellar and natural. This druidic version of Vene holds much power within themselves. Most of it courses through their body, giving their wings an Aurora Borealis appearance. In offense, this Venerabela conjures up spheres of stellar energy. Pure, superheated hydrogen gas whose properties would only be possible within the outer photosphere of stars. This offensive ability is also utilized within his breath ability. On the other side of the coin, their command over nature also allows for healing and regrowth. A wildfire, deforestation, any natural or unnatural event which would destroy the nature he is sworn to protect, a wave of his hand would allow for the soil to become fertile once more, the lands to be cleansed, and foliage to begin regrowth and healing. This magic also heals the wounds of others. In defense, the armor on Vene's chest, muzzle, forehead, shoulders, hands, forearms, underbelly, tail, shins, and feet allow for protection, but also close-combat defense. The blades on his arms are able to stave off and absorb sword attacks for a time, but they are not impenetrable. Once these natural blades are chopped off, they take time to regrow. This version of Vene is kind of a testament to how I have grown over the years. A lot of the looks on this form are influenced by important people in my life. It's strange to think that I went from a gray, unremarkable dragon to where I am now, with my look vibrant and pleasing to the eye. At least to my eye. There is a lot more to this that is difficult to go in depth with, but I still wanted to share this while I could.  Vene and art (c) to myself Just as a heads up, these accounts are going to be revived. You will start seeing a flood from them here on June 1st with all my art from the past few months, just to have a little bit of my history to go off. If you would like to see more of my work, check out my FurAffinity page, linked below in my Carrd. There will be more coming, and each site I have linked to my Postybirb will get theme-appropriate art and content in the coming months! -FA, Weasyl, and FN will get all my commission work, personal art, and whatnot. This will include all my more extreme uploads. -DeviantArt and Tumblr will get the majority of my SFW and/or tastefully mature works, to abide by Tumblr and DA's upload policies. -Pixiv will get my humanoid art, scenery, and other portfolio-building art. -SoFurry will get any stories I choose to write, as well as art associated with them. I will try and post story work to SoFurry with any art I post here. Wanna see these images early? Have HD downloads? PSD access? Consider becoming a patron on Patreon! >>> https://www.patreon.com/Venerabela <<< Join my Telegram and Discord to interact with me! Want a commission? See other sites I'm on? Interact with me and my community? >>> https://venerabela.carrd.co/ <<<  

Posted using PostyBirb

[optberries]

hello again! (✿ ´ ꒳ `)ﾉ

I'm reviving this tumblr (since twitter is maybe dying)

I'll slowly be posting my old drawings (2018-2021, in no particular order) while also uploading new art.

Check the tags if you want to see something specific. The fandoms listed below are the ones I'm currently hyper fixated on (will edit from time to time!)

MY ART TAGS:

all art

hannibal

the sandman