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youkaigakkou-tl · 2 months ago

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(sorry in advance for the long ask) i feel silly for not noticing earlier but i realized that "Sano Mikoto" follows the same "__ no mikoto" name pattern that several japanese gods have. but that also made me wonder: if the 佐 from sano's name means "help" then his whole name sounds like "the god of help/assistance". but based on how that doesn't align with his yakubyougami nature and how ebisu reacts to hearing the name in ch 53 (his reaction is a bit more clear in the jpn raws) (1/2)

佐 doesn't really mean "help" on its own, it only somewhat means that when it's part of the word 補佐 "hosa" , which means "assistant" (in an organizational structure to a chief or leader) rather than like "helping people". Most of the time 佐 is just used as a kanji to represent the sound "sa", which is somewhat frequently the case for the on-readings (similar to chinese pronunciation) of kanji.

This is particularly prevalent when it comes to ancient literature like the creation myths and stories around gods, where the stories originally only existed in verbal form, and when japan adopted the chinese writing system some 1500 years ago, they applied certain chinese characters to the sounds that existed in japanese (the 50 or so hiragana that exist now) in order to put the stories into writing.

(and then over time 50 or so kanji got simplified into hiragana for normal use but thats neither here nor there. but names got to keep their kanji, which is why creation myth gods often have stupid long names that are 1 kanji per syllable, and the kanji used dont mean much of anything by themselves)

(theres also that often the kanji chosen will have been positive words, stuff like "fast" or "wise" or "powerful", in addition to the chinese word sounding like the japanese syllable (which was the more important part). Its unclear whether all these attributes were all applicable to the god named, its just as possible people afterwards applied those attributes to them in future retellings of the stories because the kanji was in the name. sort of a chicken and egg problem. and anyway, does it really matter what the one "true" interpretation of a story is, if one exists at all? it's a very modern sensibility to demand one, when for much of history stories only existed in the air between a storyteller and a listener. im getting off track here)

this is a lot of words to say, what is significant about the 佐 in "sano", is that it's the same one as in susanoo-no-mikoto. susanoo, notable for being associated with storms and disaster, for being exiled from heaven after causing some sort of destruction, and for being a child of izanagi and izanami and born after their first child hiruko (or rather, ebisu).

the thing about the yakubyougami thing, as with every other youkai and everything about folklore, is that at the end of the day, it's a story. youkai are just a set of attributes and circumstances that are wrapped up as a story, and in turn given a name and a face. a kamaitachi is just the occurrence of "wind whipping up suddenly and dust and leaves cutting someone" wrapped up as a story of "what if an imperceptibly fast weasel with knives did it?!"

it's why there can be so many different versions of stories for the same youkai, with behaviors and appearance differing from place to place, or the same "story" being given a different "name" in different places

(relevant to the latest chapter, i sort of suspect this is why theres like 10 different monkey youkai whose lore is just "this monkey is a FREAK")

what im getting at is, this isnt really like scientific taxonomy classifications, where theres genes you can sequence or criteria you can check to see if something is the right species. (and even then, there's birds stranded on isolated islands, fish sealed in caves, microorganisms in general, etc etc) there's not like a "youkai auditor" that goes around auditing if you're Really the youkai you say you are.

nor is it like you intrinsically know what youkai you are and all the lore about it and what behaviors youre supposed to have and what powers you have etc. you're told that by your parents, and in cases where that isnt possible, you figure it out somehow. like with beniko (popped out of a house and raised by humans), they looked it up and people have come up with a name for the phenomenon, which was called "zashiki warashi". or in cases like odawara where you really do just come to life alone, i imagine you either make a name for yourself, or humans who come across you will make a name for you.

which is a lot of words to say, sano can call himself whatever the hell he wants to make his life easier and not have to explain his backstory or have classmates make guesses at his backstory, as long as his traits somewhat fit. especially since recently he's often in the same scenes as kurahashi, who is now confirmed to straight up not be who or what he says he is.

#asks #this has been linguistics and sociology 101 #rambles #i am always looking for excuses to ramble abt linguistics and the nature of stories and folklore #anyway this is also why im so persistent on the surname-given name name order #because 2 of the most important names in the series are abe haruaki/abe no seimei and sano mikoto #YOU CANT JUST GO ABE NO SEIMEI AND THEN TURN AROUND AND DO HARUAKI ABE???? ARE U OUT OF UR GOURD?????#AND ALSO THE MIKOTO BEING A SUFFIX AND COMING AT THE END OF THE NAME IS IMPORTANT!!!! ILL EAT DRYWALL!!#and this goes for basically every name bc every name has some sort of cultural reference #beniko is one im particularly fond of bc its a pun only when read in chinese #zashiki warashi is zuo ao tong zi and zashiki beniko is zuo ao hong zi

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oakdll · 8 months ago

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i finished persona 4 golden !!!

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR PERSONA 4 GOLDEN AHEAD

It’s lowkey insane that they made the final villain a gas station employee, but it was super cool. I really love the story, almost as much as P5R, although the gameplay was definitely worse for me.

Obviously there are differences because of the release dates, but there were a lot of quality of life issues and inconsistencies. The last 5 dungeons or so felt comically easy, none of them took me more than 2 hours, especially with Marie and Izanami’s dungeons which took me less than an hour each, even with exploring every floor to the max.

The lack of Safe Rooms really hurts the level design here. You basically have to do every palace in one session (at least I did because I don’t like Goho-M’s). Being able to have save points before different sections in each P5 Palace was a stroke of genius, and returning to P4 where every floor is basically identical is just boring. I like how each floor is randomly generated, but it also really takes away from the individuality of each dungeon. Pretty much every dungeon has the same random layout, the only differences are the visuals and occasional conditions like with Adachi not allowing you to fight shadows in one of his floors. Compared to P5, the lack of puzzles and insight into the characters really hurts. In P5, the design of each palace gave you insight into its rulers psyche. In P4, you really only get the occasional confrontation with the character and some dialogue at the start of each floor.

There were also WAY too many chances to mess up your ending. There isn’t anything really wrong with having a lot of endings, but having so many points where you can accidentally get a bad ending because you picked an option that wasn’t obviously wrong was ridiculous. I had heard there were a lot of chances to get a bad ending if you aren’t careful, so I used a spoiler free guide. Having to pick like 7 of the right answers in a row to get a good ending is insane.

If I wasn’t spoiled on Adachi before playing, I never would have guessed it. That is good for the story, but having to deduce it yourself is a bit too much to ask of the player. I think P5 did good with prompting you to save your game before game changing events happen. A mix of that and confirming with the player when they are going off-course from the true ending makes the game relatively simple to play through with no guide. with P4, you basically have to look up a guide for the true ending. Having to say “no” when prompted to leave Inaba to get the true ending is insane, if I didn’t know beforehand I would have messed up my entire playthrough. It makes no sense unless you know the story beforehand, especially when no other Persona game asks you to do something like that.

The game is also shockingly bigoted, which goes entirely against the themes of the Persona series and the game itself. Ironically, in a game about pursuing the truth, the made Naoto deny his truth of being trans. They wrote such good queer characters and then came to entirely the wrong conclusion and ruined it all. I still think if you can look past the homophobia and transphobia, the game has phenomenal writing, but it gets really uncomfortable at times.

The nostalgic feeling Inaba gives off and the PS2 graphics really help the vibe of this game. It feels so much warmer than P5, and I am ALWAYS a sucker for a murder mystery. The fog is such a good visual element to the game, and I have a strange obsession with electrical poles, so having those be a frequent set piece is awesome.

The characters are so wonderful, I really wish I had more time to max out all of the social links here, but I think I would have had to skip out on helping Nanako with her homework and I would never do that to her. Nanako and Kanji are both some of my all time favorite Persona characters, they are both so sweet and I would do anything for them. Marie is also one of my favorites, I have no idea why anybody could hate her. Yukiko is amazing, Chie is a lot of fun, and Yosuke is hilarious. Teddie is a freak but I love him but I HATE his blue eyes, Rise is super nice, and Naoto is so cool. The Investigation Team is debatably better than the Phantom Thieves as a main cast, but they are so close for me. The main characters are all just great.

As for social links, I think P5 still has it beat here. The social link cast in P4 is still good, but there aren’t any benefits like in P5 and some of the characters here I REALLY don’t like. Sayoko is an outright pedophile. With Kawakami at least if you don’t choose to romance her in-game she isn’t as much of a creep, while Sayoko actively sexually harasses a high schooler. I also did not like Eri, I didn’t get to spend much time with her but she really could have treated her kid better. I know she’s struggling but she would lash out leave her kid at daycare because he was having more fun there than at home. Naoki was cool, I barely got to spend any time with him but from what I did see he was nice and seeing the grieving process of one of Adachi’s victims was super interesting. For the club social links, I chose Kou and Ayane. Kou was great, one of my favorites but I ended up prioritizing party members and couldn’t max him out. Ayane was nice, I like her arc but her voice acting really ruined a lot of the social link for me. Ai was also nice, but I couldn’t spend too much time with her and I didn’t like her romance subplot. I actually liked Shu a surprising amount, he was one of the few I maxed out because I had extra time in the evenings and I really liked how his arc ended. Hisano was one I really missed out on, I only got to rank 3 with her and from what I saw she was one of the most interesting in the game. Dojima is one of the best social links in all of Persona. He is very similar to Sojiro, but he’s a lot darker. There’s a lot more drama with him than with Sojiro, both of them are amazing, and Dojima’s relationship with Nanako is so sweet. Nanako as well might be my favorite Persona character. She is the sweetest thing ever, and I would do anything for her. Marie’s social link was also great, but I really didn’t like Margaret’s. I don’t like any Persona social link that requires you to go on quests. I didn’t like the Strength confidant in P5, and I don’t like Margaret or the Fox in P4. The fox is better by default because he’s a fox, but neither are super interesting to me.

The music is phenomenal because it’s a Persona game, but the P4 OST might be my single favorite Persona soundtrack. Pursuing My True Self, Signs of Love, Heartbeat Heartbreak, Heaven, Alone, Your Affection, Like a Dream Come True, Youthful Lunch, Reach Out to the Truth, Time to Make History, and Omen are some of my favorites. The only Persona game soundtrack to compare with P4 is P5, Whims of Fate, Beneath the Mask, Alleycat, Our Light, When Mother Was There, Price, and Butterfly Kiss are also up there. P4 is more nostalgic for me, so I think it might take the edge for me.

The story of P4 is also much more complex and interesting than P5. If it weren’t for Maruki’s palace being so good, I would say that P4 definitively has the better story. Adachi being the antagonist was such a phenomenal twist, and I loved him so much up to that point that it hurt even more. His social link is a phenomenal addition, I can’t imagine the game without it. Having so many endings is partially a result of flawed game design, but also the depth in the story. It really feels like an investigation team solving a mystery. Pushing further and further towards the truth throughout every suspect, from Kubo to Namatame to Adachi, and even Izanami if that counts, the game really accomplishes its goal. I haven’t done the accomplice ending, but I might do another playthrough to get it after I finish P3R.

P4G is a really great game, I think it’s a bit more flawed than P5R, but it’s still phenomenal and it’s not like P5 has no flaws either. P4 really excels with the story and I think the primary issues with it are just a byproduct of being over 10 years old at this point.

#persona #persona4 golden #persona 4 spoilers #persona5 #persona4 #persona 5 royal #persona 4 golden #persona 4 #persona 5 #persona5 royal #persona 4 golden spoilers #persona4 golden spoilers

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tenebriskukris · 1 month ago

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An Exhumation Of Hikaru Kamiki's Character Intermission II: An Eclectic Assortment Of Thoughts And Ruminations

Spoilers for the entirety of Oshi No Ko below.

These are some various thoughts about Hikaru that don’t quite fit with the pacing of this essay but I found important enough to include here for various reasons.

I’ve often seen hints of people using the songs from the anime as a foundation to interpret Hikaru’s character—which might as well be putting the horse before the cart. It’s the same reasoning to why I heavily dislike 45510 being used to justify Nino’s character being used to misdirect the readers during that interval where she was the red herring antagonist of the series.

If this material was so necessary to understand important facets of the character, then why wasn’t it included in the manga itself rather than in a side story or in an adaptation? Why didn’t the narrative take the time to organically flesh out a character of some importance if they were going to make said character an important piece in the manga? If one has to rely on side material to fully flesh out a character and tell a coherent story then more often than not said story will fall flat in certain aspects simply because not all the fans of said story are going to go out of their way to read the side material.

On that note, the songs might be good materials to use as supporting evidence to interpret his character, but using them as the lens and main focus to interpret a character which the narrative has already painted so clearly as little more than an antagonistic force responsible for so much of the series’ conflict simply reeks of bad reading comprehension and a willful disbelief of the events of canon. One simply can’t interpret a character without accepting all the facts about him and the sheer fact is that Hikaru was a murderer—one can rage against how his character ended up but to deny that he did commit those atrocities goes against the entire point of his character in the first place!

One of the other things I’d like to touch on is an interpretation that I’ve seen floating around online a couple of times that I find laughable but found the time to talk about here. It’s one that places Hikaru as some sort of godlike figure or possessed by some supernatural entity throughout the series. Funnily enough, it is one that I put some stock in as a joke when I used to believe that the series could conjure up some good writing and give some payoff to the little mythological references it posed.

It is also an interpretation that is completely divorced from most aspects of logical reasoning and fundamentally misunderstands Hikaru’s character.

The interpretation, from what I remember of it, goes something like this. Due to the fact that Ruby calls herself the embodiment of Amaterasu in Chapter 3 and the fact that Crow Girl describes those who reincarnate as gods—ergo Aqua and Ruby—that would mythologically place Aqua as X. After that, it’s a hop skip and a jump away from getting to the interpretation that Ai is actually an embodiment of Izanami and Hikaru as an embodiment of Izanagi since from actual Japanese mythology, Amaterasu is a child of Izanami and Izanagi. If I’m wrong about any part of how the interpretation goes, then that’s on me for not wanting my braincells to commit seppuku reading a bunch of slop that’s somehow of an even lower quality than the last few chapters of the series. In any case, I’m relatively certain that’s how the story goes. Maybe they’re calling Hikaru another god now, I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter because the foundation behind it is just as rotten as the last few chapters of the series.

I don’t think I need to enumerate all the reasons behind it for those without sufficient reading comprehension but I’ll do so anyway. While Ruby did claim to be the incarnation of Amaterasu in Chapter 3, similar associations simply aren’t seen in Aqua, let alone for Ai or Hikaru in a clear manner throughout the manga. There is no real hint that Ai or Hikaru were divinely blessed or cursed within the bounds of canon a way that would indicate that it was due to any supernatural creature nor that their existence is even relevant to them beyond their own relationship with Aqua and Ruby, two characters that we know that Crow Girl has been watching over. It’s little more than using the series’ small mythological references and stringing them together to create some sort of warped narrative without acknowledging any of the logical facts presented by the series.

Now let’s talk about some more topics that don’t require me to bemoan about reading comprehension for the nth time. I was posed this question by some of the people that have heard me bemoan about this bitch of a series and I think it’d be pertinent to answer here. Do I think Hikaru was supposed to have been defused after their first confrontation and that the manga was pushing Nino as the final antagonist of the series? I dislike engaging in this sort of speculation but that’s the entire point of this entire section so I’ll indulge in said speculation.

The truth is I simply don’t care about either scenario. Whether Hikaru or Nino was going to be the final antagonist after Hikaru’s confrontation with Aqua doesn’t matter because in both cases it would simply be a badly executed mess. We already know where Hikaru went with the antagonist title. A very shoddily written confrontation between the protagonist and our antagonist. Nino would be worse, even, because so much of her character is locked behind a fucking SIDE STORY that the narrative didn’t even have the decency to show us on screen. Not to mention if Aqua was already aware of Nino’s instability that would’ve been an easy capture and turn in and then we’d simply have no conflict if Hikaru was to turn himself into the police. Of course, these are all hypotheticals. I’m under no delusions that the alternative scenario would be better written than the slop we got for the final chapters of the series.

What does Hikaru even do as an antagonist? He is mysterious for 2/3rds of the series before unveiling his sad and tragic backstory and then confronts Aqua twice before Aqua pushes him off a cliff in a double suicide. Sure, he’s affected things in the series but all of those are so indirect and happen before the protagonists are even born that it feels like he isn’t even focused as an antagonist in the series. He certainly doesn’t get the kind of screentime and character depth that other characters has. Kana Arima, the second most useless human being in this cast of characters within the story, has more screentime than the series’ main antagonist! You simply can’t get good payoff to a story when your main antagonist has less depth and screentime than a useless side character!

There is a question that I’ve seen some talk about and that I think I want to give my two cents on now that the story is pretty much finished with Hikaru. Was Ai wrong in asking Aqua to and save Hikaru? From what we’ve just seen during his final confrontation with Aqua—absolutely—but this isn’t a flaw on Ai’s part. Ai made that plea to Aqua under the assumption that Hikaru wasn’t, y’know, the reason that Ai died in the first place? Or that he manipulated Nino in order to get Ruby killed? Or, a murderer in general, really! I can’t fault Aqua for going against Ai’s wishes to save Hikaru here after he tried to kill Ruby like that. At a certain point you can only help someone who wishes to be helped, and from what we see from Hikaru’s current last words that man is definitely not someone who wants to repent for his sins.

Another question that’s been on my mind is the following: Does Hikaru engender sympathy as an antagonist? This is a question that is highly dependent on the reader and their viewpoint, but I’ll first bring up certain beats of his backstory again. Hikaru was a victim of the darkness of the industry that was trying to find solace with the one person he could connect to wholeheartedly before he was rejected by said person on a note that ripped up all of his trauma to the surface. Does that justify in any way any of the horrible things he did afterward? That much is up to the reader and how you interpret him.

My two cents on it: Absolutely not. It isn’t just that Hikaru murders people that makes any sympathy towards him plummet out the window much like the manga’s writing quality in its final few arcs—but the method of which he murders people. He doesn’t kill people like Ryouske or Nino, where they just went up to their victim and stabbed the shit out of them. No, he kills people indirectly, more often than not using proxies so he couldn’t be held accountable, as we’ve seen with Ryousuke and Nino in order to keep his hands clean. It’s a more unsettling form of murder compounded by a whole heap of manipulation that he performs so that Hikaru doesn’t have to stick his neck out. He has to consciously choose which actions will push a person who is unstable—since this is a trait that Hikaru can use to manipulate people easier—to murder another living person over a vast period of time. Ryosuke and Nino’s crimes were ones of passion and obsession. Hikaru’s crimes were a result of a calculated effort meant to push those who were unfortunate to murder. There’s no contest that I think the latter is much more insidious and deplorable.

To top it all off, his last words as he sinks to the ocean floor were that he wished he could kill his own daughter to feel closer to Ai! Hikaru may have had a sad backstory and motives for his crimes, but at the end of the day the man is still a murderer. No matter what kind of “noble” soul he might’ve had that the manga might have us believe—which is funny because there’s nothing about Hikaru as he is now nor before that would make me put the word “noble” to him—at the moment he’s nothing more than a deluded murderer that needs to be put down to save the people who can still be saved. Ai may have loved him as he was when he was younger, but the man who insidiously manipulated others to serve as tools of his demented needs is no longer that troubled boy that held onto Hoshino Ai like a lifeline. I doubt that Ai would look on him with any sympathy after everything he’d done—not to mention his actions to try and kill Ruby, one of his last links to Ai—and honestly, neither do I. There are other CSA victims that don’t go out and murder people in an attempt to deal with their trauma and suffering. There are other people who have been completely destroyed after a bad breakup and don’t go out killing people in order to cope. There are people who’ve had their entire world evaporate into smoke after a single bad day after an uncountable number of bad days and never took other people’s lives into their own hands. Judging Hikaru based off who he was and what happened to him rather than who he is now and the choices he's made reduces him to his trauma and deprives him of his agency in the fact that he did make bad choices. There can be sympathy for the person he used to be—sympathy for the child swept away by the darkness of the industry and forced to suffer because of it—but also condemnation for the lives of the people that he has ruined in his attempts at reaching out to the only person who he’d ever truly loved after he’d callously pulled the strings in order to orchestrate her death.

>ACT III ACT II ==> >EPILOGUE ==>

#oshi no ko #onk #onk analysis #oshi no ko analysis #onk meta #oshi no ko meta #onk spoilers #oshi no ko spoilers #hikaru kamiki #long post

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narrators-journal · 1 month ago

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Chapter 2

Tada! We are another chapter down! I dunno how long this one will be, but I’m having fun writing it so far! Hope it continues to be a fun read for you all as well.

Previous part: Here

Next part: Here

Masterlist: Here

Ryoji Mochizuki was not his name. By birth, he didn’t have a real name. His mother didn’t bother to name him herself. She let the humans do that. Thanatos, The Morrigan, Anubis, Izanami, he had been given many names. Many identities. Yet, as he listened to the ebb and flow of blissfully casual chaos from the boys he shared a dormitory with, he knew that Ryoji Mochizuki wasn’t his name.

So, what do I do now? I can’t go to school, can I? But I can’t continue to claim to be sick forever. I might get hospitalized after a while. The brunette sighed and reluctantly rolled out of bed despite the creak of the bed frame beneath him, or the creak of his bones. Though the tall brunette had grown used to the dull pain that haunted his body.

Two weeks into his semester at Gekkoukan, his muscles had taken to random bouts of aches and soreness. He’d had days where he’d wake up and be paralyzed by white-hot flames as if someone had sliced into his muscle tissue with a heated blade. Then, his bones began to ache like Ryoji’s body was prepared for a new growth spurt, his teeth sometimes felt like someone had a hold of them with pliers. So, he’d gotten somewhat used to the bouts of pain in those days, and while they weren’t easy to live with, he pushed himself out of bed, regardless.

What time is it, though? Surely it’s some time in the morning, but how many days have passed? He asked himself as he got to his feet like an eighty-year-old man. Jesus, how could I lose track of the time that badly? I guess that might be a consequence of staying up days in a row. He sighed at the thought, and one glance at the thick blackout curtains that hid his bedroom window confirmed just how off he’d been on his estimation of the day. Or when you don’t see much of the sunlight…

Exhaustion seemed to press down on his pained bones under the weight behind that fact as he sat on the edge of his bed. Of course, Ryoji hadn’t seen much of the sun. He was a child of the moon, one of her eldest sons.

His stomach churned while the warm purples and oranges of the sunset faded behind his curtains. Tears burned his eyes for the umpteenth time since his confrontation with Aigis however long ago, but, for the umpteenth time, Ryoji had nothing left in him to blame. It was as if the longer the truth sat in his chest, the less... human. The brunette became. Like some sort of plug had been yanked out of him, and now the delusion he’d lived in began to fade.

Ryoji shook the feeling out of his skull, blinked the moisture from his eyes, and pushed himself up to his feet to leave. And, thankfully, the luxurious halls of the large dormitory sat just about silent for the moment despite classes having been let out. The soft sounds of video games, television shows, or music were the only signs that at least some of the boys he shared the space with were at home. Blissfully unaware of who made his way downstairs while they were so vulnerable. Which, was one of the few things Ryoji shared with them, to some extent. He too was blithely ignorant of the truth that sat in his ribcage, even if it was short-lived and likely dumb of him to do. “You cannot deny it forever, my child. You have a job to do.” The woman confirmed in his head, a sugared needle in the back of his skull as he stepped out into the cold darkness of the dormitory’s stoop. Yet, the brunette refused to acknowledge her words as he walked away from the boys’ dormitory to make his way down the chilled streets of Tatsumi Port once more. Though, that did nothing to quiet her, “I truly am sorry, Thana,” She offered, the needle in his brain dulled when the woman seemed to realize his internal conflict, “I know how attached you’ve gotten to the humans. I wish I had another source of food, my dear, but it has been too long.” The brunette could feel the cool brush of hands on his shoulders as she spoke. As if his mother had formed out of the shadows and cold air behind him with her cheek on the top of his wind-swept hair. “I need your help, my child. I must eat.”

Ryoji’s mother bore down on him painfully despite how light and quiet she was. Nyx was barely a ghost of a presence in his head, but each syllable that she hissed into his mind turned every fiber of his muscles into jello until he was forced to lean against a fence to keep from a total collapse. “Stop…” He croaked helplessly to the voice, though the single word scraped over his vocal cords like a fork when it tore through tender roast beef. His bones felt as if they had begun to splinter within his pale skin. As if his mother pressed down on him more the further the moon rose into the beautiful blue of the night sky. Ryoji couldn’t die, of course, but the way his body seemed to pulse with horrible pain almost made him wish he could.

Until, like a cold breeze in the stiff heat of the summer, “Ryoji Mochizuki!” Minato? Ryoji’s eyes lifted from the sidewalk to try and focus on the figure that approached.

Dressed in a white button-up shirt, black vest, and black slacks that smelled of rich coffee and delicious foods, Minato had come from work. The brunette might have seen three of the man in that moment, but he could tell that much by the scent that drifted to him while he sat on the cold sidewalk against a trash bin, not even a fence. “Where the hell have you been Mochizuki?!” The beautiful man asked, his flat voice almost as cold as the voice of his mother. “H-huh?…” “Where the fuck have you been?” He snapped, “First Aigis vanishes, then you fuck off for days with no explanation. What the hell is going on?” He glared down at Ryoji while he waited for an explanation, his arms crossed like a disappointed parent with a bad report card.

If Ryoji hadn’t felt like he was a human-shaped soup dumpling with too thin of skin, he would’ve thrown his arms around Minato’s leg and squished himself to him like a desperate whore. Because god Minato was beautiful in the winter’s silver moonlight. With dark, midnight-colored hair that fell over beautifully stormy eyes that flashed with angry lightning. Even without the desperate whore act, he could tell that Minato was a bit of a sleeper build. Lean and effeminate, but unmistakably able to pick Ryoji up like he was no heavier than a jug of milk. Which, the brunette could’ve used in that moment, but, as he lay in a crumpled heap against the trash bin he’d thought was a fence, he settled for a small smile for the man. “O-oh, um, sorry about that. I caught a bug after a date a few days ago. Had to take a few days to recover. As you can see...still not my best.” He said, his voice too easy to work into a convincingly chipper note. Lies came too easily to Ryoji… “Why didn’t you even text me back?” Minato asked, his anger a bit dulled, but his arms weren’t uncrossed. “Oh yeah, sorry about that. I meant to respond! I just, I feel like shit, funeral lily…”

At least that wasn’t a lie. Ryoji’s head felt like it was coming apart at the seams, his eyes felt as if they vibrated in their sockets, and Minato was little more than a dark blob against the moonlit street. “Why are you crying?” The midnight-haired man asked, his too-warm, calloused hand suddenly at the brunette’s cheek, which he quickly pressed into his palm, even if it did earn a painful shiver. “Am I?” He asked weakly. As if the tenderness of the wildcard’s touch had instantly sapped the deception from him. Nothing but the honest misery left behind. “You are, and you feel cold.” As he spoke, the man put the back of his other hand against the brunette’s forehead to check for fever, “God, are you sure you didn’t catch something worse than a simple ‘bug’? You’re cold, and you’re collapsed in the street. Did you get stabbed?”

Minato’s anger was still there on a low simmer, Ryoji could hear it, but he seemed more concerned about the Shadow. It made the brunette want to kiss him, or just curl up on Minato’s belly like a cat to maybe stave off his mother’s demands for a bit longer. But, he stayed put on the pavement and just let Minato fuss over him for a moment. “I...might not be as recovered as I thought.” He chuckled with a half-hearted attempt to lift his hand to press against Minato’s hand to keep it against his face. “Could you maybe take me home and nurse me back to health?~” “No,” Minato said with a snort, “I will walk you back to your dorm though, and get you to your room.” And, before Ryoji could whine or argue, the midnight-haired emo scooped him up like a limp, pained princess and carried him back to the boy’s dorm. Which, Ryoji hadn’t managed to get more than a five-minute walk away from. Jesus, how shitty am I doing? Ryoji didn’t verbalize that, though, he just let his head flop against Minato’s shoulder to let the strong man carry him back inside. “I’m sorry…” He managed once Minato got the door open. “Don’t worry about it, you’re sick. I can’t be pissed if you’re barely able to make it out of the dorms.” Minato monotoned. Completely unaware of why the tears fell down the brunette’s numb face. “You can’t lie to him forever, my child.” His mother whispered in a sickly attempt at a salve, and, of course, she was right. As Ryoji lay against Minato, close enough to finally make out some of the details of his face, he could read the dark-haired man like a book.

If I told you what I am, who I am. You’d choose to fight me, wouldn’t you, Funeral lily. You wouldn’t simply die in blissful ignorance… He thought at Minato, his internal voice bittersweet. Of course, you would. You’re too kind to let your friends die, aren’t you? And, the risk to your own life means nothing to you, even now that you have a purpose, huh? And, on one hand, that fact warmed Ryoji’s bones against the chill of his pain. On the other, though, it fed the misery that poured tears down his round cheeks as Minato gently put him back on his bed and did his best to pull the comforter over him. “I wish I could make you feel better, Ryoji.” Minato sighed as his hand lingered on Ryoji’s ribs while he cried. The empathy buried beneath his flat voice was like a cold slap from his mother herself. And while the brunette wanted to say something else, something to keep the dark-haired man’s hand on him, the sobs that racked through him hurt too much for words. So, he was forced to lay in bed, unable to even bawl properly as Minato left for home.

#The new moon rises #Ryomina #Ryoji Mochizuki x Minato arisato #persona 3 #persona #Ryoji Mochizuki x Makoto Yuki #fanfiction #Ryoji Mochizuki #Ryoji Mochizuki x male persona 3 protagonist #Makoto Yuki #Male persona 3 protagonist #minato arisato

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extinct-fish · 1 month ago

Text

More Reaper's Bride Drabble

Feat. Makoto's bi panic over Thanatos.

“I’ve gotta say, I didn’t expect you to invite me for tea, funeral lily,” Ryoji remarked as he held his mint tea, “well, tea and a show.”

Makoto had invited Ryoji for tea in Arsene’s Showroom, which was like a parlor but with a stage. This was mostly as a means to get to know him better. It wasn’t like he hadn't gotten to know Ryoji well based on the journal, but he felt it was better to hear from the horse’s mouth.

“It’s nothing much,” Makoto dismissed, “just thought to talk to you more.”

“Oh, Makoto- EERRRr- Yuki-chan! Sorry, wrong thing!”

“... I don’t mind.”

“Huh?”

“You called me Makoto, I said I don’t mind.”

“You don’t?”

“I don’t care.”

“I’ll still call you Yuki-chan just to make sure.”

“Up to you.”

“Anyways, what did you want to talk about?”

“Well… I’ve been wondering this entire time…”

“Yes?”

“How did you get the title of the Nyx Avatar?”

“Ah. I’ve never been asked that before…”

Makoto tilted his head, waiting for Ryoji to answer.

“Well… I came here during a warring period, and I carefully stopped it. However, when I introduced myself as the Son of Nyx, I must’ve misspoke, since they heard Avatar of Nyx.”

“So… a mistranslation?”

“I guess you can say that. If you can’t tell, Japanese isn’t my first language.”

“Like I couldn’t tell. You have a bit of an accent.”

“Yeah… I’ve been meaning to clear up that mistake since I learned how to speak Japanese a little better thanks to Izanami and Izanagi.”

“Speaking of the two, what’s their relationship? I know they’re exes.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say it’s bitter, but it’s not really friendly.”

“Just somebody they used to know?”

“I guess you could say that.”

“Huh.”

“Do you usually drink Mint tea?” Ryoji asked.

“It’s my favorite tea. I only use mint for aromas every once in a while. However, I do brew mint tea for myself a lot.”

“So, you also smell like mint because of the tea?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll have to note that down.”

“You’re gonna add that to the journal, huh?”

“Yep!”

“Goemon’s pretty good at drawing.”

“Oh yes. He’s a great artist, it’s a favorite pastime of his.”

“What’s your favorite drawing?”

“Definitely the one of you,” Ryoji admitted, “I love how he just captured your eyes, and your personality. Your drawing captures your personality beautifully, the way your indifference just shines.”

Ryoji then let out a dreamy sigh.

“Jeez- I kinda went into a ramble there- sorry about that.”

“Keep talking.”

“Huh?”

“I like hearing you talk. It’s… soothing.”

“Oh, Funeral Lily,” Ryoji sighed with a smile.

The two exchanged some stories about each others’ siblings, with some mild gossip about personas in between. After a while, Makoto had a curious thought.

“Ryoji.”

“Hm?”

“The other personas can change into human form, and you can change into both a persona form and your true form…”

“You… wanna see it?”

“Yeah. I mean- I’ve seen your coffins.”

“And you’ve seen my form via statue.”

“Yeah. I just haven’t seen it in person.”

“I gotcha.”

Ryoji stood up before blue flames slowly engulfed him, changing him into the form seen in the statue: Thanatos. Makoto stared in awe… and interest. Mostly interest, actually.

“Makoto?” Thanatos asked with concern.

Makoto’s eyes went to Thanatos’ hands, the teacup and saucer vastly dwarfed in his hands.

“Okay, I might be into that,” Makoto said impulsively before realizing what he said, “WAIT- NO- FUCK!”

Thanatos was surprised before he laughed, completely caught off guard by the response to his form. Makoto hid his face behind his hands, face red from embarrassment.

“MAKOTO-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” Thanatos laughed as he wiped a tear away, the helm rusting a bit from where the tear was. It took a while for Thanatos to calm down from his fit of laughter.

“Oh, Yuki-chan, that was the funniest response to seeing my persona form.”

“H-hey! I see huge hands and my brain goes haywire!”

“Sure…,” Thanatos breathed a sigh of relief, “Well, at least you’re okay with this form… even if you’re the hornier one between the two of us.”

“Nuh-uh! I saw those chains in your room!”

“Yeah, but half the time, Arsene steals them for his own pleasure!”

“Huhh?!”

“Oh yeah, Arsene steals my chains, and my only rule is that he cleans them after use. Other than that, they’re just decor.”

“I will make them more than just decor…” Makoto muttered under his breath.

“What?”

“NOTHING!”

“And what was that about my hands earlier?” Ryoji teased.

“Ryoo!” Makoto whined, clearly embarrassed.

“Alright, I’ll drop it, I’m sorry, Funeral Lily. Wanna cuddle?”

“Can we even cuddle?”

“You’ll be tiny compared to me, but sure. The show’ll begin in a bit anyway.”

“Alright.”

Thanatos took his seat on the loveseat and Makoto climbed into Thanatos’ lap. He laid his head on the persona’s chest, noticing the lack of heartbeat. Then it suddenly appeared.

Oh… that’s what he meant by his heart began beating again.

The scent of almonds was more prominent in Ryoji’s persona form, and he was quite comfortable. Thanatos wrapped his hands gently around Makoto, making his mind swim with dirty thoughts.

Get your goddamned mind out of the gutter! It’s JUST a cuddle! Makoto scolded himself mentally.

“I dunno what’s going on with you, but you’re a little warmer than usual,” Thanatos chuckled.

“Shuddup.”

“Okay.”

Thanatos’ hand gently massaged Makoto's scalp with his thumb, which, in Makoto’s defense, is rather massive. If he were to compare the size, the tip itself was the size of his fist, maybe bigger. That did not help his haywire brain.

And so, as the show began, Makoto struggled with his brain being a dick while he was being cuddled by Thanatos. After the show, Makoto and Thanatos retreated to their own rooms, with Thanatos being happy from cuddling his bride, whilst Makoto was slightly-embarrassed.

“I am not going to see him the same way ever again…” Makoto sighed in his own bed.

#persona 3 #writing #creative writing #ryoji mochizuki #makoto yuki #ryomina #thanatos #persona 3 thanatos

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adachimoe · 1 month ago

Note

do you have any posts about adachi's arcana and how it relates to him? i would love to hear your thoughts about it! ❤

sry i think i will finally be caught up on my asks now lol

I did post before about what Atlus said about both his arcana in the P4G lore book. My personal thoughts... ook tbh I think I haven't talked much about this over the past ~1.5 yrs because I am super duper not interested in tarot or the meanings behind it lol. The 0 card, Jester / Fool, feels pretty straightforward enough, but the 11 card, Hunger / Lust, is probably where this gets more interesting?

Like Marie and Aigis's Aeon, Lust is also taken from Crowley's Thoth tarot deck, and the design of the card is clearly inspired by it too. Instead of talking about the actual tarot meanings and the Book of Thoth, I will totally yap about what seems to be depicted in the art here and how it might correlate to the game.

From left to right, there's the Rider Waite Strength, Crowley's Lust, and the game's Lust / Hunger.

As Crowley's Thoth card is his version of Strength, both the Rider-Waite Strength and Crowley's Lust depict a woman and a beast with the woman seemingly taming the beast or holding it back in some manner. Strength shows the woman with her hand on the beast. The beast in Crowley's Lust appears to have seven heads, likely making it the seven headed beast from the Bible. Additionally, the art seems to imply that the woman is not actually in control - she holds the beast's leash, but she carelessly lays on its back. I get the impression that, rather than the woman having actually tamed the beast, it's more like the beast is allowing itself to be tamed; she believes she is in control.

The artwork of Adachi's Lust seems to have the opposite meaning to Crowley's. The beast is, I guess you could say, no longer allowing itself to be tamed. It's going to do something A Little Crazy!, it's gonna go postal!, and the woman is now in danger as she is about to be devoured by the beast. Her pose somewhat resembles the same pose she as on Crowley's Lust, where she carelessly lays on the back of the 7 headed biblical beast. Like the game's Lust doesn't depict her as in any sort of panic - perhaps she is oblivious to her demise?

Within the context of the story, Adachi seems to go from being "the beast allowing itself to be tamed" on Crowley's Lust to being "the beast who is gonna do something silly" on the game's Lust. His arcana even changes after he's exposed as the murderer, as if to show that he's no longer being held down.

Why Adachi would be associated with Lust to begin with... Might seem straightforward in that he's a single dude complaining about not having a girlfriend. But also of note is that in the existing Japanese translations of information about the Thoth deck, the card is actually called 欲望, which means "Desire" and not necessarily "Sexual Desire" as Lust would imply. And indeed, Adachi didn't just Lust for a hot wife who cooks for him, he Desired a whole life that he didn't have as a Cool Respected Hotshot Detective in a big city.

But while Adachi appears to be doin' the devouring, at the same time, the depiction of the woman being devoured by the beast also seems to correlate with Adachi's story.

His arc has a bit of "Fuck around and find out" to it - He uses the TV to murder people, jumps in the TV out of desperation, and assumes it's giving him everything he wanted; really granting his wishes and whatnot. But ultimately, Izanami seems to have been using him for her own ends. Thus, in some way, he can also be correlated to the woman holding down the beast in Crowley's Lust, only to have it backfire on her in the game's Lust.

When I read Atlus's thoughts about his arcana, I get the impression they only meant it to have the "Adachi is the beast" reading because they talk about it having a "do whatever the heck you want" meaning, so perhaps being able to see Adachi as the woman is unintended!

They have something interesting where they mention that the Lust arcana is also supposed to represent the protagonist... Aaand this is where the whole "Atlus thought they were naming it 'Desire'" thing comes into play lol. In addition to Adachi's bullshit, it's also supposed to represent the protagonist's "desire" to break apart from Adachi after seeing the truth about him. (So like, phrasing this as "the protag's LUST or the protag's HUNGER to break apart from Adachi" is weird as hell lol.) The arcana doesn't transform until after the protagonist tries to appeal to Adachi and get him to turn himself in, so it seems that, until that moment, their bond was still the Fool / Jester.

I feel like this is totally not what you asked me but I am reallllly not interested in Crowley/Tarot/etc sry

#asks #persona 4 #persona 4 golden #tohru adachi #yu narukami #i labelled this mature because the thoth version of lust has Tiddies

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luverofralts · 3 months ago

Text

Arkhelios Adventures

"So how many friends are coming over? Do you need snacks? Humans need snacks, right? Your mother's busy with work, but I could probably make you guys something."

Destiny Lane shuddered at the thought of what her father considered to be food. To be fair, as Death incarnate, Izanami didn't need to eat food to sustain himself. As a result, whenever he made dinner for the family, Lukas would politely put the meal in the fridge for "later" and immediately order takeout. Destiny was a popular teenager, with several famous or well-connected friends. If she let them anywhere near her father's cooking, her reputation would be ruined.

"Dad, I have the snacks covered, don't worry about it. Thanks, though. All we need is to practice our routine for dance class before the Harvest Moon Ball is announced. My professor has met with Princess Theodosia and he thinks they're going to announce it soon."

Izanami made a face at the reminder.

"Yes, the same ball that has happened in the same season, every year since the founding of Crystal Cove," Izanami sighed. "It’s such a mystery when it will take place."

Destiny rolled her eyes. Her father could be so oblivious sometimes.

"Of course it's important! We need to know how long we have to practice our routine and when our dresses need to be ordered by," she explained. "I have to think about who I want to ask to the dance and how. It's important. Has Mom ordered theirs yet, or are they ordering a suit this year?"

Izanami mentally searched for an answer, smiling to stall for time. Lukas had rambled on about several options to wear to the ball, but Izanami truthfully hadn't been paying attention. Fashion was something his spouse talked about with their half-brother, Reese, while Izanami read a book quietly far away from them. It's not like he had much of a say in what he wore on any formal occasion. Lukas always dressed him when they went out, as apparently his fashion sense "died out a millenia ago" and reminded them of "a cheap outfit you'd get cremated in". Izanami didn't think what he wore was anywhere near that bad, but what did he know about fashion? Lukas had the mortals' obsession with it, while Izanami could easily spend another millenia in a comfortable dark robe.

"Ask your mother," he replied at last. There was no way that he had retained any information about their outfits, and even if he had, Lukas had probably already changed their mind and ordered something else. "But wait until they're done work. No bothering them in their office."

When the twins were born, Lukas had installed a home office on the ground floor of their house so that they could be nearby if the children needed them. They still had a formal office in the afterlife that connected to Gee's, but they tried to limit their time there so that Gee wouldn't pester them with questions. Plus, it was generally more acceptable to wear their pajamas to work at home where their stepson wasn't hanging around.

They had strongly encouraged Vrai to speak with his brother, King Charley of Strangetown, about the names of dead reapers circulating amongst the mortals. Vrai hadn't seemed interested in the slightest but had still sent them a brief email detailing their conversation. Apparently, Charley would talk to Edana about the names she was still researching and redirect her from discovering who the names were to why dead reapers were being mentioned among the living at all. It was a start in the right direction, at least. Lukas couldn't get that horrible voice they'd heard while trying to summon Riley's spirit out of their head. What did it want and why had it mentioned their children? Both Lukas and Izanami would burn the universe to the ground before anyone hurt their children.

"Mom? Dad? I'm home for lunch! My friend Mordred is here with me, so don't embarrass me!"

Arterius Lane stepped into his parents' house, scanning the living room for anything he'd need to shield Mordred from. Sometimes his father left skulls littered around the house, while his mother abandoned their stolen jewels just as lazily. If stolen tiaras and skeletal body parts weren't bad enough, last time Arterius had brought a girl home to meet his parents, they had walked in on an amorous scene that neither of his parents stopped once they realized their son was home. No one else living could understand the drama of being adopted by two deities who followed their own rules. Still, Arterius loved both of them intensely.

"Mom? You'd better be wearing clothes after our talk last time!"

"Welcome to our home, Mordred. I'm Arterius' father, Izanami. Please let me make you something to eat while you are with us."

Arterius paled at the thought of eating his father's cooking.

"No! I mean, Mom left us sandwiches in the fridge, so we're fine. No need to make us anything."

"Destiny and her friends ate them yesterday," Davis informed his brother while making his way to the fridge. "I'm going to make some mac and cheese if you want some."

"What? Those sandwiches had my name on them," Arterius whined. "Can't she read?"

"Oh, she can read, she just doesn't care," Davis replied, filling a pot with noodles to boil. "I say sabotage your food next time so she learns to stop stealing it."

"Davis! No one is poisoning your sister's food! It must have been an honest mistake. Destiny is very absent-minded and doesn't always read labels."

The two brothers shared a look between them. Their father let Destiny get away with everything.

"We'll just share some of your macaroni then," Arterius decided, shooting Davis a grateful smile. "If that's okay with you."

"So Mordred, what is your occupation? How did you meet my son? What's your blood type?"

"Dad!" Arterius hissed with embarrassment. "That question's not on the approved list of questions to ask humans. It's weird, remember?"

Izanami nodded, but had no idea which of his questions had been inappropriate. Probably asking about his job. Mortals were so caught up with money and how to earn it. Their egos were so easy to bruise. His son was nearly thirty years old now, wasn't parental embarrassment something that ended when mortals finished puberty? But Lukas was the same way about their parents on occasion, so maybe it was simply a behavior for those with parents. Having no parents of his own, Izanami would just have to study the behavior further to understand it.

"I work with his friend Miruna," Mordred answered before Arterius died of embarrassment. "She works at the Princess Zarah Academy and the Pleasantview Academy of Magic when she doesn't have royal duties to complete. I work at Princess Zarah Academy teaching third grade magic and helping out with the coven now and then. Miruna introduced me to your son."

"Ah, so you're a warlock." Izanami didn't have a pre-approved follow up question for the young man. The question he wanted to ask about the nature of this boy's relationship with his son would only make Arterius more embarrassed. He had learned that the hard way. "That must be a fulfilling career. Come, we'll sit down on the couch and continue our conversation while Davis prepares the food. Your mother should be done with work soon and might want to join us."

Arterius smiled. His dad was trying to understand the mortal mindset and that all he could ask of him.

"Sure. That sounds great." Arterius leaned over to stage whisper to his friend. "But if you hear Mom mention the name Reese, you should probably start running for safety."

Izanami opened his mouth to dispute this warning, but after thinking about it, he couldn't disagree.

"Your Uncle Reese is occupied for the time being. He won't be bothering us any time soon. Now tell me, Mordred, are your parents still alive?"

"Dad!"

Lukas sat in their office, chuckling at the commotion in the hall. Izanami had grown so much over the centuries and it was cute hearing him try his best to be kind to the mortals. Centuries ago, Izanami had seen the living world as a waste of time. Now, he was trying to insert himself in the lives of their children and act enough like a mortal to pass as one. It was as hilarious as it was heartwarming.

"So how are the witches in the Pleasantview coven?" Izanami asked politely. "My spouse has taken an interest in one apprentice, but there are surely more witches of interest."

"We have a wide variety of magic users," Mordred replied warily. It was unnerving to speak to Death about his friends. He didn't want to slip up and accidentally get someone killed. "Theo is the brightest new star on the horizon, yes, but he's just one member in the coven. Miruna is also exceptionally powerful, and our queen can hold her own with magic. Master Thorne comes from a different universe, so he's always a good person to go to for perspective on an issue. Our coven leader, Master Maricourt, can solve almost anything it seems with both his knowledge and power. There's a reason why we're the strongest coven globally and it's not solely because of Theo."

"It sounds very similar to the reaper teams," Izanami replied. "Certain countries are led by stronger and more innovative individuals who elevate the team's performance."

"Yeah, that's it exactly," Mordred replied, feeling more confident that Death wasn't about to kill anyone he knew. Mordred almost wished that Arterius hadn't warned him about the true nature of his parents, as it would be less stressful, but Arterius had pointed that every time he didn't warn people about them, his friends would all eventually abandon him once they figured it out for themselves.

"Oh, well, a few centuries ago, I-"

Izanami stopped mid sentence and suddenly pressed his hand to his mouth. It was bizarre, but he could feel a sensation he'd never experienced before. There was a violent urging for him to expel something from his mouth that felt alien to him. To his knowledge, there was nothing for him to expel.

Lukas had "studied" him intensely when they were trying to conceive the twins, and they had struggled to find much of anything in the way of organs or blood in his body. Life was a biological being with DNA and genetic family members, while Death seemed to be a manifestation of mist, darkness, and a random assortment of bones. He never needed to eat, though whenever he did, the food vanished into his internal shadows and never reappeared. One of his first memories with Lukas was when the new deity had forced him to eat a cheeseburger at the burger stand downtown Pleasantview. The feeling of meat and grease and bread were so overwhelming, he'd almost expelled them simply by instinct.

Whenever he was cut, an impossibly dark fluid leaked from under his skin that mimicked blood. He wasn't sure what would happen if he lost too much of that fluid since, much like Life, Death was also impossible to kill.

He had to have some kind of DNA in order to make his children, though no one knew how to test what fluid came from his body. They had gone to multiple doctors in the afterlife to try to map out a genome or even perform a paternity test on Gee, but no scientific investigation had succeeded in revealing Death’s mysteries. It was a running joke that Gee looked nothing like his father, which some "experts" took to mean that no DNA had passed to Gee from his father. This theory had been disproven when Gee produced his daughter, Venisha, who had inherited Izanami's gold eyes. Destiny and Davis had also inherited traits from Death, so clearly, some part of Izanami functioned like the mortals. There was no way that he could carry children though. Lukas had naively considered this when they tried for the twins, but no embryo could grow within his shadows. No life could grow inside death incarnate. It had taken every scrap of power Lukas had just to suppress the pieces of death their twins had inherited while growing inside them. In the end, Destiny and Davis had been born normal, mortal children. They had inherited their mother's attitude and the ability to display horns at will from their father, but were otherwise powerless. The twins couldn't protect themselves from danger, which was part of why their parents held on to them so tightly.

"I've been thinking too much like the mortals," Lukas declared. After spending entirely too long thinking of ways to gain more information about the list of dead reaper names circulating amongst the mortals, Lukas suddenly had an obvious idea. "They can't talk to the dead, but I can. All these ghosts that keep popping up exist in the afterlife. Ugh, this should have been my first plan of attack. I'm spending far too much time with the mortals to not have even thought of this!"

They leaned back in their chair, crackling their knuckles as they did. Well, that was enough work for today. The king of Strangetown was going to handle their Edana problem and tomorrow, Lukas would track down the souls of Adam Darktide and those Siew ghosts Vrai had reported seeing. They had other things to take care of in the mean time. Poor Arterius needed to be rescued from his father, especially if he and this boy had feelings for each other outside of friendship. The poor boy struggled with romance, even with his mother's advice. There had been a real spark between him and Miruna ever since they were teens, but he'd been too shy, too nervous to make a move, and now she was the future queen consort of Pleasantview. Lukas was determined not to see history repeat itself. Their son deserved to be happy, even if it took a little nudging on his parents' part.

Izanami stood frozen in horror with his hand clamped on his mouth, trying not to worry his son. The unpleasant feeling wasn't going away and even more mist seemed to be leaking out of him.

"Mom! Dad! My friends are here! We're going to practice our dance in the kitchen where there's space."

Destiny and a group of laughing teens ran past Izanami, oblivious to his panic. Beside him, Arterius wasn't so oblivious.

"Dad? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Izanami quickly replied. "I'm going to check on your sister and her friends. They should be properly greeted and their names compiled so that I can call the correct parents in case of an emergency."

With his father suddenly bolting away, Arterius gave Mordred an irritated look.

"Sorry, I'm sure he'll be back. He's not always so flighty. You're probably lucky, actually. The last person I brought here, Dad asked weird questions about their favourite colour and exact height and then wrote the answers down in a creepy notebook. Mom yelled at him for hours when they found out. He means well, though. They're both just protective."

"Yeah, he seems a bit intense," Mordred noted. He hadn't run toward an exit like Arterius expected. In fact, he almost looked amused. "Maybe I could come over again for lunch this week and find out what other weird questions he has for me. If you want me to, that is."

Arterius smiled.

"I'd like that."

"Mom! Destiny won't leave the kitchen, and I'm trying to eat my lunch. She can dance outside if she needs space; I'm eating there!"

Lukas hugged their son reassuringly. They had never really been raised with a family or with siblings, so their own experiences weren't usually relevant for parenting. They were much older than most of their parents' children, and the few who were older than them weren't worth talking to. Izanami had his own obvious parenting difficulties, but they both tried their best.

Destiny was the dominant sibling, that much was certain. Davis just needed to learn to stand up to her and things would be fine. In a way, Destiny often reminded Lukas of Riley and how she had commanded attention away from her shy twin brother, Leander. There was little Lukas could do to intervene, the kids had to resolve their problems for themselves.

"Why don't you join your sister and her friends?" Lukas suggested. "I'm sure they wouldn't mind an extra dancer to practice with. Or, maybe you could eat outside on the patio. It's a nice day."

"There's no way that I'm dancing with anyone," Davis exclaimed. "I'd rather eat outside than put up with Destiny's friends. The whole Harvest Moon Ball is stupid. I can't believe that you and Dad go every year. Anything would be better than dressing up and listening to speeches from the stupid king."

Lukas paused. Growing up in Crystal Cove in their latest reincarnation, they had dreamed of going to the annual ball every year. They had gone every year since they recovered some of their lost memories, and the royal family had grudgingly welcomed them every single year for that one day. The ball was now a highlight of the year for the deity. They dressed up in impossibly expensive clothes from dead designers they commissioned and made over Izanami to match. All eyes were always glued to the deities and Lukas loved every minute of it. There was no way they would pass that attention up.

"That's your decision to make, but you might regret it if you don't come. Lots of your friends will be there and you could have a lot of fun. Maybe I should practice my dance moves too. Your father sometimes steps on my toes, so he should practice too. Izanami! I need a practice dance partner!"

Izanami walked towards the kitchen, stumbling a little as he moved. The strange mist seemed to be slowing to a crawl and hopefully wouldn't be noticeable.

"Of course, Dearest. I wouldn't want to dance with anyone else."

He pulled Lukas toward him, placing their arms in a rigid dancing form. Lukas smiled, and if Izanami truly had a heart organ, it suddenly beat faster when he saw the contentment on his spouse's face. With all the fear and worry he'd seen Lukas carry with them lately, he would dance for hours if that would make Lukas smile.

Destiny had a small group with her, far less than Davis had made it sound with his whining. The crown princess of Pleasantview was among them, which Lukas noted. A friendship between his daughter and the future queen could be quite advantageous. Though Lukas knew not to turn a blind eye to the princess while she was on their turf. Claudia was training her daughter well, and no doubt, she had allowed this visit in order to collect more information on the deities or to make a statement.

Well, two could play that game. Lukas had been sneaking around and spying for their entire existence. Some thirty something queen couldn't even realize her disadvantage.

"So how's Arterius' date so far?" they asked, pulling Izanami's hips closer to theirs and letting their hand wander.

"Lukas, not in front of the children," Izanami replied, placing his spouse's hand to an appropriate location. "You're as bad as your brother sometimes. And it's not a date, apparently. They're friends."

"It's a date," Lukas insisted, letting their hand slip once more to an inappropriate spot. Izanami moved their hand again, but not as quickly as before. "Trust me, it's definitely a date. You only take the ones you're serious about to meet your parents."

"Oh. I'll have to reread the approved questions for one of the children's potential romantic partners. It's been so long since Arterius has brought a partner to us. Have you picked our outfits for the ball yet? Destiny implied that it was an important, time sensitive matter."

Lukas nodded and spun themselves around Izanami happily.

"Yep. They're ordered and will be ready in a month or so. Reese ordered something similar for himself, since Gee won't approve Anakin to travel with him. Maybe you can talk to Gee and change his mind. It's so petty and unnecessary. Anakin's come before to the living world and it's only one night."

"Dearest, with everything we've been seeing lately, there is no circumstance where your dead brother in law will be allowed to cross into the living world with his reaper husband for a dance. Ghosts are appearing, and dragging the dead from their realm would only make it worse. Your brother can go dateless or stay at home."

Izanami really hoped that Reese chose the second option. Whenever the two siblings went anywhere with alcohol, bad decisions were made.

He leaned over, pulling Lukas into a passionate kiss that would surely embarrass their children.

"I'll talk to him," Lukas sighed once their senses returned to them. Izanami was being romantic and brushing their bodies together in a way that was flooding their mind with dirty thoughts. It wasn't fair. "He'll probably listen to me. Gee should have still approved something small as a consolation. I'll talk to him too."

"I'll leave it in your capable hands."

Lukas turned their attention quickly to the teens before their dance got any spicier. As much as they wanted to sneak up to their bedroom and lock the door, there was a crown princess and other children of wealthy, important people in their kitchen and Arterius to keep an eye on. If they left this crowd unsupervised, who knew what would happen?

Izanami broke away suddenly, clutching his stomach and shivering. This was no longer something he could keep hidden.

"Izanami? Are you okay? What's happening? You're scaring me." Lukas watched their husband shiver and shake, wrapping a supportive arm around him. "You're all cold and clammy. Sit down, let me see what's wrong."

"It's nothing," Izanami insisted, pulling away from his spouse. "I shouldn't have shared your breakfast this morning. I must have food poisoning or something. Perhaps I shouldn't have indulged in food at all. This will pass, don't worry about me."

"Of course I'm going to worry about you, don't be ridiculous. How on earth could you get food poisoning? You can't be poisoned in the first place! Sit down, I'm going to call...." Lukas trailed off, unsure of who they'd actually call. There were tons of dead doctors in the afterlife, experts in their fields, that they could call, but Izanami didn't have a human anatomy. They could call Gee, but Izanami's son knew next to nothing about his father or the finer details of the job his father had given him. Anku, a fierce woman who had once held the office of the Grim Reaper, was equally clueless about the actual biology of Death, and Lukas would eat glass before they ever called Hailee, their ex-coworker and ex-mistress, for anything.

Their stepmother, Destiny, had a doctorate in world theology and knew just about everything about anything. She had helped them write their own master's thesis about their own powers and abilities and was probably their best chance at fixing this.

"Destiny will know what to do," Lukas declared. "Right? She has to. Unless I could ask an angel? They might talk to me if I apologized for nearly burning their wings off when I burned down our office. They can't stay mad at me when it's an emergency, and I'm pretty sure they like you."

"Lukas, I'm fine," Izanami lied, still watching mist evaporate off his skin. "There's no need to bother anyone about this. I'm simply unwell. You and the children are occasionally unwell too. This will pass."

"Evalla, maybe? We did have a civil conversation at our wedding, and she might know if this is a demonic plot." They paused, considering a desperate option. "I know it's risky, but the Ocean-"

"We're not involving the Ocean!" Izanami snapped, uncharacteristically irritably. "You know he's dangerous and unpredictable. For all we know, he's behind this. He's made two demonic sovereigns disappear so far; I'd die before I'd let him take you. The risk isn't worth it, considering that I'm fine."

As soon as Izanami had said those words, twinkling lights engulfed him just to prove him wrong. He ran to the bathroom as quickly as he could, just as he saw the mortals do after overindulging at the bar. The urging to expel something from his mouth overtook him even if he had no idea of what he had to expel.

"Is Dad going to be okay?" Davis asked worriedly. He looked to his mother for an answer, but they looked equally worried. Davis' parents always had the answer to everything it seemed. To see them completely baffled by something this big was unimaginable.

"Of course so," Lukas lied. "Everything is going to be fine."

Izanami stood up shakily after releasing thick, dark clumps of what looked like mud into their toilet. He wasn't sure what it was or where it had come from, but it at least flushed without clogging the drain.

"Izanami? Can I come in? Do you need help?"

Izanami leaned against the wall, gathering his strength. Expelling the mysterious matter had given him some relief. He was already feeling more like himself, ready to completely ignore this strange incident and never mention it again.

A wailing from the kitchen jolted him from his thoughts and into protective dad mode.

"They've canceled the Harvest Moon Ball? They can't! They can't do that to me!"

Izanami relaxed his stance. No one was in danger. His daughter was just grieving a ball of all things.

"'Because of the tragic attack on Her Majesty Queen Maura, His Majesty King Liam has decided that it would be too high of a risk to gather his guests from the international stage at this time for the ball. Crown Princess Theodosia will hold a luncheon for the ladies of court in its place.' This may be the worst thing Liam's done since he's taken the throne," Lukas seethed, reading from their phone.

This news was Izanami's salvation. With something new to focus on, Lukas would still be concerned for their husband, but their attention would be on Destiny as they both ranted about the unfairness of life. He cracked the bathroom door slightly and saw that Lukas was already texting on their phone and no longer guarding the bathroom door. He stepped out, trying to look as normal as possible.

"That's terrible. What will we ever do with the dresses we ordered?"

#sims 2 #arkhelios #arkhelios adventures #izanami lane #lukas lane #Arterius lane #destiny lane #davis lane #Victoriana Goldman #Mordred Maricourt

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hypnomicimagines · 1 year ago

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hihihi can i pls get red rose, fennel and hydrangea for hifumi izanami? feel free to ignore this if you wanna btw

Izanami Hifumi:

🌻fennel: what are their kisses like? where do they like to be kissed the most?

Hifumi’s kisses always felt like they were leading the way, setting the mood for the type of night you were going to have. While kissing his clients was not something he did, he was a masterful kisser because he knew how to listen to body language and your voice. There were times where your kisses were slow and steady, Hifumi holding your chin and smiling against your lips as he urged you to continue. And there were heated kisses, full of passion, his hands on either side of your face as he kept you close until you were both gasping for air. He knew how to read the room and respond appropriately, though he did like when you took the lead from him, willing to follow you into the abyss if you so wished it.

Hifumi liked when you kissed his hands, kissing along his fingers to the very tips and then back down to his knuckles before giving another right on the back of his hand. You would jokingly greet him like that when he came home from work or just before he left, saying his suit always made you think of treating him like royalty. It was a move he pulled on his clients many times but now he was even more aware of the appeal when you did it to him.

🌻hydrangea: how often do they get into fights with their s/o? who usually apologizes first?

It’s pretty rare to get into a fight with Hifumi. It’s hard to argue with a man who’s mastered the ultimate ‘puppy dog eyes’ look, but there are things you disagree on. It hardly ever extends into a full-blown fight because Hifumi always respected your opinions even if he didn’t get it, and he hoped you’d offer him the same kindness; being two different people didn’t mean you’d have to fight all the time just to prove a point. His patience and understanding go a long way to help keep the peace in the relationship, but there are some things even Hifumi couldn’t easily forgive and it would hurt him to know you took advantage of his good nature.

🌻red rose: what turns them on the most?

Hifumi enjoyed being pampered. It wasn’t something he’d bring up or actively seek, but he noticed he felt friskier after you took over a chore that was meant for him. He liked when you helped with his skincare, or when you offered to wash his hair or his back, anything that showed you were thinking of him. His way of thanking you varied but always ended with your pleasure, even when you insisted these weren’t actions he had to repay. It only turned him on more to know you did these things for him purely from love.

#Hypnosis Mic #Hypnosis Microphone #Hypmic #Hypnomic #Hypnosis Mic Imagines #Hypnosis Microphone Imagines #Hypmic Imagines #Hypmic x Reader #Hypnosis Mic x Reader #Hypnosis Microphone x Reader #Izanami Hifumi #Hifumi Izanami #Hifumi Izanami x Reader #Izanami Hifumi x Reader #Plant Meme

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coffeeisneededformylife · 2 months ago

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Things to know about coffee (he's a persona, were not all that different though)

Oh and coffee got (forcibly) transported to phighting(he doesn’t know he can go to the other games by using a certain door), oh and the things with these things “” is information that no one knows not even the guy doing this!)

Log 01:information about UB #001

#001 appears to be a very wealthy person, however, he rarely uses his money(where'd you think he got the money to pay for the groceries?)

“Coffee is 21 years old, also Coffee doesn’t age anymore”(Coffee is not me)

“He's from the "real world"(not the REAL real world, just the real world)”

“He got here due to some random god who just decided, oh look a mortal lets send him and his house to another dimension.”

#001 seems to constantly drinks coffee. (did you expect anything else?)

Due to the constant drinking of coffee, it appears that #001 is now very short, standing at the small height of 4"7"he's a shortie lol.)

#001 is incredibly smart however, #001 doesn’t know how to use most forms of technology.

#001 will always treat everyone like a friend, regardless of status, appearance, or personality.

#001 is incredibly gullible due to his trusting nature, however, he is apparently not gullible enough to let his wallet get stolen.

“Ever wondered who Coffee’s parents were? Well let me tell you! His father was just some guy from Russia(who has now passed away, but is happily living with his wife in Yomi) while his mother was Izanami, yeah didn’t expect that didn’t you?”.

“His house is connected to Yomi(the underworld)which is why Izanami can visit him even though he’s in a completely different world.”

“His sexuality was not of much concern to me but since he was raised in Yomi and was usually around spirits and stuff, I decided to just make him pansexual, oh yeah forgot to say that he was raised in the afterlife sry.”

“He knows how to play the biwa, he usually plays it to his mother and father, he can also use it as a weapon(it’s surprisingly very durable)”

#001 house is incredibly large, it also looks looks somewhat similar to the designs of the homes of Thieves Den, however the way to even get to #001’s home is currently being investigated, as whenever #001 heads back to his home, he always goes to the mountains, where he then disappears into a cave that seemingly leads to no where. “If you’re wondering what his house looks he has a very traditional and large house, the reason why? He just wanted to impress his parents(they would’ve cared about him either way)”

#001 is able to cook, but only sweet things, as he once attempted to cook other foods but ended up almost starting a fire.

#001 is currently residing in Thieves Den,however no one knows where he lives, in fact almost nobody knows him.

#001 has a lot of clothes in his closet, like a lot.

#001 can see spirits, and speak to them, and bend them to his will, however, he rarely does this.(He can also bend certain Yokai to his will as well, if they’re weaker than him of course!)

“Isn’t able to speak his dad’s language even though he lived with his father from the ground up(cuz he was dead for most of his life, no not coffee his dad) he can also not speak his mother language”

“He barely looks like his father, he looks mostly like his mother, he also has his mother’s accent,however he looks enough like his father to make people unable to pinpoint where he came from.”

“His names not actually Coffee it’s 再生 (Saisei), he just likes the nickname Coffee.”

#001’s clothes appear to have a lot of cherry blossom motifs, however he usually wears his more plain clothing whenever he goes out.

“He used to visit his half siblings(research it yourself I’m not putting the names of every single one of them)however, he can’t, for obvious reasons.”

“He also knows many spirits and yokai who he calls his aunts/uncles/sister/brother, for example Yuki-Onna, Tomamo no Mae, The Tengu, Shuten dōji, The Kitsunes, The Tanuki, Sutoku Tennō, Kuchisake-Onna and Teke Teke.”

“Due to his house being connected to Yomi, Coffees mother(Izanami) was finally able to go out into the world and see the sights, oh and Coffees dad as well, however Coffee isn’t risking any of the gods in this universe finding his mother, or Yomi altogether.”

“Due to him being the son of the goddess of creation and death, he’s pretty powerful, however he’s still weaker than many other gods(unless something happens),which is why he has the blessing of rebirth, which allows him to come back to life(if he wants to), however this ability has a very long recharge (5000000 years) so he hasn’t used it yet.”

#001 has a multitude of photos of him and what we presume to be his family on little outings which appears to be a tall woman with long black hair and fair skin and an average sized man with black hair and rough and scarred skin.

“Since I wanna traumatize whoever reads this one way or another I’m gonna make it so that Coffee got cursed by the one of the gods of childbirth, so now he can get pregna-“

“Did you know that coffee has 4 forms, well yeah one them is meant to help him in combat and the other one is meant to protect him, so this guys going to explain them to you”

(Please take note that this information was taken from #001’s diary)

Ningen form:This is the form that he’s almost always in, since he never really has had to fight anyone, this is his base form.

Ryoko form:This form is the form #001 uses when he needs to get around or if he wants to help someone out, this form allows him to move faster, move through walls and become invisible. It also allows him to grant the desires of any specific person, this form can be shifted to at will, this form seems to makes #001 taller, growing him to about 5”6.

Ikari form:This is one of #001’s most powerful and dangerous form, if any of the people he is fighting is near him when he is in this form, all forms of reason will disappear until your not near him, only those with a strong and powerful mentality are not effected by this, this form also makes Coffee taller(again) making him 6”2, this form can currently only be activated if #001 emotions become unstable as #001 doesn’t have full control over it yet.

Kodoku form:This form is just as powerful as the previous one, however this one works much more differently. This form is activated if #001 enters a state of pure grief,panic or if he just enters a state of solitude, once activated #001 will collapse onto the ground, then a dark dome will form around him before expanding, pushing all creatures away, except plants, they don’t really do much so they’re left alone most of the time, once it reaches its max size, it will shatter into pieces, the shards left from this are of high value since they are incredibly durable and can be melted, however it must be done through intense heat, any normal types of fire won’t melt it, you need to make sure the fire looks blue in order for it to melt. After you make it back to where #001 was, you won’t find him, all that will be left is a black and white door that seemingly leads to nowhere(please take note that if #001 enters a state of solitude he will simply be transported to his dimension) if, you however decide to open the door you will be greeted with a black and white staircase, looking left and right will greet you with a dark and endless void, once you make it to the top you’ll find a white door with ice and snow, “once you enter, you will enter what appears to be the world #001 once inhabited”, the environment of this place seems to be a snowy mountain, however it seems to inhabited by someone named “Yuki-Onna. Since we have been unable to pinpoint the exact species of this creature, we have decided to refer to it as UB #002, #002 appears to be a female with long and black hair and pale skin, #002 also appears to wear clothes from Thieves Den, however like #001, #002 seem to lack any form of horns or gear, however #002 seems to be to manipulate ice, snow, and the weather, contact with #002 is unadvised. Upon making it out of #002’s domain, you will find yourself in a field of wilted flowers, in the distance you will see a door lit by street lamps and it will also have a mirror, under it you will see the words, Am I beautiful? Upon entering the room you will find yourself in what appears to be a city of some sorts, however, the streets are empty and desolate and there are no sources of light other than the street lamps, this place seems to be inhabited by and creature named Kuchisake-Onna, for the same reason as #002, we will be refer to it as UB #003, #003 appears to be an extremely tall woman with long black hair and pale skin, she appears to always wear a mask, when encountering #003 you will be asked if #003 is beautiful, however saying no will result in your quick death, saying yes will result in #003 taking off her mask, revealing her scarred face, both answers will now lead to your death, however, saying a neutral answer will confuse her long enough for you to get away. Once you leave #003’s domain, you will find yourself in a room full of tv’s, however most of them are broken, upon reaching the end of the of this room, you will a door that appears to have come from a train, however the door is stained with blood. Once you enter the door, you will will enter a dark and desolate high school, if you’re unlucky, you’ll meet a female high schooler (who we shall call #004)who seems to go by the name of Teke Teke, the difference being that she’s missing her bottom half, when encountering #004, there is a chance #004 will ask for your legs, if you(politely) say that you need them, #004 will leave you alone, well, atleast for a little while. Once you escape #004’s domain, you will enter an empty void, where you will find #001 sitting in a chair, upon approaching #001, #001 will initiate a fight with you, if you fail to defeat #001, you will be thrown out of #001’s domain and out of the first door, the door will then lock itself, preventing anyone who failed from entering, however, defeating #001 will result with you being transported back to your place of residence with a little note that says, sorry for the trouble! The note also comes with a gift basket full of money, food, and flowers.

Signed: Blackrock

#I can’t tell if this is cringy or normal #but yuh #Izanagi sucks #Izanami deserved better #oc lore

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thedeliverygod · 1 year ago

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Thoughts on recent chapters

I feel like it's been a while since I've made a longer post and I've just sort of shouted about a few random things here and there and I slept most of this afternoon so I have energy to spare lol

Firstly we start with... that. Hiyori. Where do we go from here?

A lot of people have looked into this and I pretty much agree with most takes.

Yato makes her his shinki. But it comes with a bag of questions now that we know a gods greatest secret is survivable per Nana and Kazuma (Yukine & Nora I consider outliers because they have names given by the koto no ha which sort of seals off their ayakashi devolving process--though I do think at this point even if the name Hagusa were removed Yukine would be fine. Nora it's a bit harder to speculate because this has always been her situation). Hiyori is known to multiple gods and shinki throughout heaven. Her very existence makes the gods greatest secret a giant problem unless Yato keeps her away from, well, pretty much everyone except gods and the shinki listed above. Because there's no standard way to know for sure if a shinki will be able to handle to knowledge; because it *is* survivable doesn't mean they will survive it.

Deification. If Tenjin can be deified because he has anger issues then Hiyori can be deified too for better reasons. Honestly. I don't know what it would take to make this happen but @pentamerous brought up the fact about her and Yato's emas being tied and blessed by Okuninushi so idk if that could be factored into this equation maybe?

The "bad" ending-- Hiyori is just dead and no far shore methods are used to 'revive' her. In this scenario I see Grandma Iki being fucking pisseddddd that Hiyori died literally a few days after her and being like wtf are you doing here??? lol. But that's just me and my comedic relief speaking.

Hiyori isn't actually dead because everything in Father's "new world" is an illusion.

The 4th option is tricky but I believe it holds validity. I made a post a while back I think Father's new world sort of strips everyone down to how they view them selves/their deepest insecurities/their most basic form if that makes sense. At least that's theory 1.

This is why Yato is a child (he often views himself as a child in his most insecure moments, relating back to the awful crimes he committed as a kid, but also for emotionally insecure moments such as realizing other humans would be the ones to 'truly' save Hiyori after the hospital incident.) This is why Nora is in her sort of 'snake' form that she hates.

Yukine is an outlier though which I've brought up before. Clearly he's an ayakashi wolf but why is he suddenly a wolf? In his 2 ablutions and and before he was named by Father, he was transforming into a sort of bat/bird type of ayakashi. While he was battling with Yato under his name of Hagusa, however, he did sort of start a wolf transformation and we all made cat boy jokes until his wolf form appeared more recently.

Theory 2 is that literally everything in this "new world" of Father's is under his control and all the visuals are to match. Which sort of matches to what he says despite the fact he says he can't totally make it "bend to his will". He sees Yato as the child he can manipulate. He sees Nora as the ayakashi girl he 'saved' but has outgrown his use for. Yukine he also saw as another one of his tools, much like the wolf ayakashi Father seems to favor, so maybe that's where the wolf form came from? Though that doesn't quite explain the partial transformation before but -shrug-. Of course he wants to see Kaya and he *does* but she's a mangled yomi version of herself, aka not what he wants. But she's long dead.

As Yato is talking with Father about Kaya and sort of trying to understand/reason with him, Father transitions into hinting towards talking about Hiyori. "Who do you see Izanami as?" and then mentions that she's somehow there and that he should be "happy to get to see her. However, as this is happening, Father is sort of manipulating a wave of water which is what reveals Hiyori and the Sakura tree she's under.

The question is, is she really there? Is he able to use her image accurately because she's still alive if it is an illusion? If it's not an illusion, is there some sort of rules that can be broken/amended in terms of bringing Hiyori back to life without pissing off Amaterasu/Heaven? After all, Father's "new world" is not exactly yomi, heaven, or Earth. And we know Father has basically broken all of heaven's rules to begin with.

Lastly, we have the topic of Yato's reaction. We were teased with his aramitama when Yukine was in the box. Now Hiyori is "dead" and Yukine is half dissolved into the ground. I think it's only fair father has the 'monster' he created turned back on him tbh but I also don't want Yukine to see Yato acting like a demon for lack of better words since they just made up and the poor kid is traumatized enough.

bonus question: where the fuck is Bishamon because her twin pistol shinki (Kazuha and Karuha) are fighting the weird ayakashi in the most recent chapter with the god squad and their shinki???

and she specifically only had Kuraha and Kinuha when she was calling out for Kazuma and reunited with him. And it's weird for her youngest shinki to just be by themselves????? the only reasoning I can think of is Amaterasu literally summoned all the damn shinki from heaven when it was raining shinki in the earlier chapter but maybe Bishamon will literally be on the next page or so in the 2nd part of the chapter and it will make sense given that context.

#noragami #noragami spoilers

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faelune-home · 4 months ago

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FFXIVWrite 2024 #12: Quarry

(A/n: More role quest rewrite, though rather than a direct adapation of the quest start, I did a bit more in media res just cos now I'm establishing enough that these are happening with Scions. This one at least also shows all the role quests kinda happening concurrently and Fhara having to juggle them and relying on the Scions to keep in touch should anything happen.

This one is the ranged questline featuring G'raha, cos even though my wol is actually a dancer/bard main and can handle this herself, it'd still be good to have the extra hands and get him more involved in a new location he may be unfamiliar with.

There's a bonus scene included at the end, cos i really wanted to write it for this particular duo/questline, but I could't figure out how to integrate it into the writing I had, so its kinda just tacked on, if separate. Maybe if I edit for ao3 at a later date I'll make it work better.

Word count: 2112)

For yet another day, the skies over Namai were clear, not a cloud nor a blasphemy in sight. The villagers whispered her name in a mix of both reverence and fear, but it did nothing to bring her forth.

Fhara sighed, which morphed into a yawn and a stretch as she noted the sunset painting the sky in shades of orange and purple. It’d been a long day. She may have to meet with G’raha to return to the Enclave and call it there.

She hadn’t really intended for G’raha to join her on this mission. Unlike the other missions for the various delegates, she was perfectly suited to it. In fact when she set out to tell Y’shtola and G’raha she was headed off, expecting them to handle the situation in Radz-at-Han without her, he’d leapt to his feet, offering to be an extra hand. After all, he’d been an archer long before his dabblings in the arcane, surely he could offer an extra pair of eyes on the skies.

His words, and not hers, and as much as she’d tried to gently suggest otherwise, she’d still ended up in the Doman Enclave reporting into Hien and Yugiri with him by her side. She couldn’t deny he’d been helpful though, after their first foray into finding Izanami…

Who was unfortunately now highly elusive, and despite spending so long searching, they hadn’t found a single trace of her in Doma, or any hint of her impressions on the villagers. As it was, Fhara was beginning to think of shifting her focus on another one of the blasphemy hunting missions she was attached to.

She’d received a call from her linkshell that morning as she’d woken, a report from Alisaie back in Ishgard over the progress searching for their not-dragon there before the girl went to bed herself - ah the way of the time difference between them. Fhara had said that she would consider this her last day in Doma and should nothing else happen, then she’d return to Eorzean shores to check in on matters there. But then according to all the other reports she’d gotten, everything was rather slow no matter where in the world she was…

“Ah, I was just about to call for you. We’re returning then?” Fhara stopped in her tracks, unaware that as her mind had wandered alongside her feet, G’raha himself had appeared.

“Oh, yeah. I was actually about to call you too for that.”

“Seems we both have good timing then,” he said, trying to keep a light tone about the coincidence. Fhara breaking into another yawn made him frown though.

“Let’s get back to Lord Hien and report in. Then you can return to Eorzea and get some rest, you’ve been on your feet all day without stop.”

“Aye,” Fhara mumbled, too tired to vocalise properly. She shambled behind him, using him as a guide to reach the boat that would ferry them back to the Enclave. The walk itself was mostly silent, other than a brief query to ask where she was planning to go.

“‘M not sure yet. Alphi hasn’t checked in yet, so maybe Ala Mhigo?” she said, speaking slowly as her exhausted brain thought carefully, “Hmmm, bu’ Estinien said there was a lead he was checking on, I feel like I should see what’s happening in Limsa.”

“I see. Well, you may also need to consider where you teleport to for an inn check in first. I’m sure Lord Hien would be happy to offer you a room here, but I assume you’ll want to be in Eorzea if you wish to get to work as soon as possible.”

“Hmm…”

Hien was understandably disappointed to hear there was another day of no sightings of Izanami. But he tried to keep up an optimistic expression.

“Tis a shame to have had you both waste your time with nothing to show. But in turn, there have been no other reports of people turning and tormenting the people. That is something to be thankful for at least.” The others couldn’t quite match the optimism even as they nodded in agreement. Hien’s grin fell.

“Even if she isn’t acting, the longer she is out there, the more risk she poses. But for now, we can only wait and hope for a response soon. In the meantime, you will be departing for Eorzea, yes?” he asked Fhara, who could only nod in response, almost half asleep on her feet.

“I really would be willing to offer you a bed here to rest,” he offered, but he knew it was futile in his bemused grin, “But if you insist on moving on, then I shan’t keep you. And I hope we can call you back sooner rather than later.”

“You needn’t worry about being without aid though my lord,” G’raha piped up, punching his hand into his fist, determined, “I will continue the patrols myself, and checking in on the villages.”

“As much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, my friend, especially while you opt to remain here in Fhara’s stead, I must insist that you take the morrow to rest yourself. Yugiri and her shinobi can take up your role. Just for one day,” Hien said, quickly adding the final statement when G’raha looked ready to insist otherwise. His tail lashed, but he nodded.

“I’ll remain here, but I would still like something to do that pertains to our search. Maybe some records related to the Domans forcibly enlisted or imprisoned to double check against those that have returned.”

That was the last Fhara heard herself before she finally opted to leave, her aether reaching into the stream and pulling herself west. Drifting along, not even really certain where she was going, where she had decided to return to, her sense of self almost being rocked to sleep by the gentle flow of the aether currents–

The rustling leaves overhead told her it was Gridania before she opened her eyes, definitely at risk of falling asleep on her feet right there by the aetheryte. In contrast to the late evening she’d departed in, it was becoming morning in the shroud, the sky a hazy grey that wasn’t quite a proper dawn yet. Early enough that some of the most essential workers were milling about, preparing their stock and shops, but the main town plaza was deserted all the same.

Typical, when she was aimlessly flowing without a destination in mind, of course she would find her way home. Either here or to the Rising Stones she often found, the two places she would consider the most familiar to her. She probably came here more so because the inn was much closer. Maybe. She didn’t know anymore, she just needed a couple of hours to sleep and feel more like herself and ready to tackle the day afresh.

A quick check in with the innkeep, and she stumbled into her assigned room and collapsed onto the bed, not even bothering to change into proper sleep clothes or even remove some layers. She instantly fell into darkness.

(a/n: im taking advantage of ffxivwrite not being about perfection to just dump a passage here that i wanted to write, but didnt know how to include pacing wise)

She’d found someone! A young boy cowering beneath a howling, twitching beast. Fhara darted ahead, the grass parting in her pink aether swirled wake, and threw a chakrum with all her might.

It hit the blasphemy with such force the thud echoed off the rock wall, and after a dazed moment the beast turned to catch her in its sight. It howled, a grotesque cry that seemed underlaid with wails and screaming, and then started pounding toward her, great claws tearing up dirt in its path.

It was all she could do to dodge in time, circling around and flinging her rings at its again, both hits wrenching another yelp out of it.

“Wait, stop!” the boy yelled, staggering back to his feet and beginning to run toward her. Fhara turned, eyes wide at his approach.

“Please, don’t come any closer, it’s not safe!” She had to keep an eye on the fight at hand, turning back around in time to see the blasphemy raising an awful clawed hand into the air, ready to bring it down upon her. She was prepared to jump, legs tensing to leap back, and maybe grab the boy to take him to safety too if she could.

An arrow suddenly whizzed through the air, piercing into the beast’s side and wrenching another howl from its throat. It staggered, but almost seemed unaffected, ready to raise its hand again, when another arrow embedded itself deep into its skull. An eye went slack as it stumbled, then collapsed. There was barely any time to register its death before it burst into black smoke, instantly dissipating and taking any hint of the creature’s existence with it.

Fhara panted, the adrenaline still rushing through her. It was over so quickly. The blood pounded in her ears, almost missing the way the boy next to her seemed to break down into tears. That was understandable - either a mix of fear catching up to him, or maybe it was someone he knew…

Fhara turned, scanning higher up the grass slope to see where the attack could’ve come from. She didn’t have to search long, as G’raha stood on a piece of land that jut out into a small ridge, lowering his bow. The look upon his face was almost unreadable.

“Why?” Fhara’s ear perked up to hear the wet sob next to her, then flattened again at the growing guilt. It had to be done, but that didn’t make it any better.

“I’m sorry,” she started, reaching out to offer some comfort, maybe a hand upon his shoulder, but he immediately jumped fully to his feet and rounded on G’raha, already approaching them both.

“You killed him! That was my brother and you– Murderer!” The boy shoved into G’raha, clearly not strong enough to actually do any harm, but all he needed was the opening to run away. Fhara reached after him, wanting to shout and stop him, but finding the words trapped in her throat. It was bound to happen…

“We’ll need to inform the villagers of this. Hopefully he has someone else that can care for him after all of this,” G’raha said plainly. Fhara could only nod in response. Neither of them moved.

“Thank you,” she finally said. His ear flicked in acknowledgement, eyes still trained in the direction the boy ran off in.

“I’m sure you could’ve handled it, even with the boy potentially being underfoot. But I wanted to help in whatever way I could. I’m glad I could be here for this then.”

“Even if he yelled at you for it?” His gaze seemed to shift, never moving from that distant horizon, but suddenly looking as though they were seeing malms and malms away.

“It had to be done. I’ve known my fair share of similar cases on the First, people that saw their loved ones turn into Sin Eaters before their very eyes, and then lashing out at the freelancers and guardsmen that had to cut them down. In order to protect them and all the others. It’s never easy, but it has to be done. Our only hope is to provide support so that they may move on and grieve properly.” Fhara frowned, knowing his words to be true.

“Right…” The grass rustled from the wind, and in the distance they could hear voices, people shouting to and fro. Perhaps she could even hear the voice of Hien trying to calm the panic. Fhara knew he would most likely come this way and find them, and then they can report what happened, but she wondered if maybe she should go to him first…

“If I may also admit,” G’raha then said, getting her attention once more, “I know you are more than capable. And even before now, you’ve long since had to make difficult decisions for the benefit of others. But this time, so that you may have one less death on your hands, I would be happy to take on this burden.”

Fhara was stunned at the gesture. It was so very like him, but it still made her freeze. She wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Lord Hien, we’re down here!” She jumped as G’raha called out, turning to see Hien and Yugiri emerge from the bamboo thicket. She was spared from responding at this time, as they gathered round and began reporting their findings, and the encounter with the young boy.

#ffxivwrite #ffxivwrite2024 #g'raha tia #hien rijin #endwalker #role quests #fhara laali #my wol #keeper of the moon miqo'te #fufu's writing

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