#Balam/Kalego

[slashmommy]

So this weekend at DC-Slash Con, I'll be moderating a panel about fan cons and I'd love to have some input from people. It isn't a long form, I'm not collecting names or emails. This isn't being published, I just want to have some data to reference. I am specifically doing this to find out why people go or don't go to fan cons at the level that they did in the past. Please answer and reblog. Thanks!

[kotaka-kun]

ABOctober day 5:

prompt - protect

Shichirou had been acting differently as of late.  Not necessarily in a bad way, but just... different.  He lingered when he would usually have pulled away, stood taller when there really was no reason to bristle, followed Kalego with his eyes when he thought Kalego wouldn’t notice. 

[peerless-cucumber]

I appreciate the casual gender fuckery in mairuma, no one bats an eye at kalego, one of the strongest guys in the manga wearing a skirt!!! and opera being canonically nonbinary while the PROTAGONIST iruma and his friend lied get so comfortable crossdressing they do it more than once and just hang out a whole day as cute girls and none of it is played offensively

edit: AND beems gnc use of the uniform as well TRUE @thechaoticduelist it seems they can wear their uniform however they want and that makes me so happy

IN CONCLUSION:

[crunchkind]

My sillies

[cyellolemon]

sillies.....

[bimirmir]

Opera and their two kouhais

[hometownrockstar]

[luxthestrange]

WTDSIK Incorrect Quotes#59 Puppers

Y/n*Sitting in the Principal chair*LISTEN WELL!

Kalego & Opera*On their knees with backs straight and hands on their knees*...

Y/n: The only one!...THE ONLY ONE!-WHO I WILL BEG IN THIS LIFE! TO FOREVER STAY WITH ME! WILL BE MY PUPPERS!...And Balam*Points at Cerberus*

Cerb*Wags tail faster as he lifts their heads high proudly*!!!

Y/n*Hugging Hellhound while glaring at the demons*NO ONE ELSE!

Kalego"...YOU TRAITOR-I DIDNT TRAIN YOU TO BETRAY ME LIKE THIS-"

[bones-voyage]

tea for three :-)

im still trying to figure out rendering tbh, but i like how this turned out!! i hope we get more interactions w these three in the new chapters :3

[artxii]

Kalego's evil cycle routine just dropped!

[lesbivan]

i adore azz if you can’t tell

[nonbinarypirat]

physical affection and how it relates to iruma: part 1, parental touch

iruma reads as someone who is touch starved and doesn't like/understand touch until he now has affectionate people in his life. His parents have probably never touched him besides the required amount when he was a baby and maybe a headpat or quick hug (which would more than likely just be a manipulation tactic to get him to do their crazy schemes). They left him alone for days on end, there's no way they even could have been affectionate with him. And it's not like he ever went to school, his "friends" at school couldn't even remember him because of how many days he missed.

Overall, Iruma reads as touch starved but doesn't know he's missing it since he never had it to begin with. Here comes the love trio, the misfit class, Balam and more. Suddenly he has a lot of people in his life who are comfortable with touching him, even want to as a sign of how close they are. And we can see iruma very much becomes happy with it in turn.

That's why Balam and iruma's relationship is important, a parental type person he trusts is actively choosing to be affectionate with him, not to manipulate him but just because he cares about iruma. He even told him the reason is just to bond and get to know iruma, not some sort of underhanded method. This is just Balam's way of connecting. And they are close to each other enough to be comfortable in each other's spaces. Whether Iruma reads balam as a parent or not, balam is very much like a momma bird, keeping him close and safe in his arms. And Iruma becomes more open to it as time goes on with them knowing more about the other.

This is also a great dynamic because balam gives him the affection that he doesn't recieve from kalego, someone he clearly holds in high regard. Almost every time iruma reflects on the people that matter the most to him, kalego is there. which i find fascinating because what is kalego to iruma? on a subconscious level, i think he views kalego as a parental figure to him as well, one of the first to give him clear and concise rules to follow. his parents were just a fucking mess, they barely parented. never really taught him life lessons besides "just say yes" and "run." Kalego clearly cares a lot while also helping iruma navigate the netherworld making it easy for him to project a father role onto kalego

But kalego isn't an affectionate man from what we have seen. And even if he was, he is his instructor first and foremost so he may not feel comfortable being so with iruma (and also imagine the fucking annoying comments about favoritism from the other misfits LOL). Any touching has been fairly limited to him picking up Iruma like during the teacher dorm visits and Kalego's final hours as a familiar. Which honestly make these few scenes even more precious. Because he is actively choosing to be like this with Iruma. Affection does not come easy to Kalego like it does Balam. More than likely because of his upbringing and family beliefs (always needing to remain vigilant, dignified) and him as a person. So while he doesn't touch Iruma often, his one on one moments with him are extremely personal and parental in nature. And when he does interact with Iruma physically, the rarity adds to the specialness.

And then there's Opera. Opera has been especially more affectionate in the latest volumes with hand holding and hugs and all sort of touching. Which is very wholesome to see because Opera wasn't a character that had much of a strong relationship with Iruma at the beginning besides guarding him. I always got the impression that Opera didn't know how to feel about him, not to say they wouldn't protect him with everything they have. But the feelings and affection started up after the battler/batra Party when Iruma grabbed both Sullivan and Opera (though the care for him had been growing steadily before that). I have seen two main headcannons for their relationship, some see it more as a big sibling relationship while others see it as a parental one as well. For the sake of this post, I will be using it as a parent and child one.

Opera has been right there with Sullivan watching Iruma grow more and more confident as time goes on. And through Iruma growing up, we see how proud of him Opera is. From a scared child to a more bold child, Opera has helped cultivate this in him. I also love that whenever Sullivan isn't around, Opera takes over for taking care of him, allowing the two to have solo family time. Obviously their relationship is more of a weird dynamic seeing as how Opera is a security devil, but that doesn't stop the story from developing their relationship. The physical affection for the two is started from both sides, Iruma hugging Opera or Opera holding out their hand to hold as they walk home. In this case, their relationship is the most parent like as the story progresses.

And finally, we have Sullivan who is the most affectionate of the four. Come on, you can't beat grandpa when it comes to love and devotion to Iruma. He is the first one to introduce Iruma to physical affection in the first place. Now granted, in a slightly overbearing way at first because Iruma is not used to this and Sullivan is too happy to have a grandson. But now, we can see the genuineness behind each of his interactions with Iruma. He very much acts like a doting grandfather, and he really does love him too. Touching clearly comes more naturally to him so it's his way of showing Iruma love which opened the doors for more people in Iruma's life to show this too. When Iruma first started touching Sullivan back at the battler/batra party, it highlighted that Iruma is now more comfortable with Sullivan to do so back. He has been taught by Sullivan this way of caring and cares about him in the same way too. There's a lot of mutual love.

They have come a long way as a family unit. Sure, grandpa has always been Iruma's number one supporter, but at the beginning of the story it felt way too over the top? As the audience we were right there besides Iruma in feeling overwhelmed by Sullivan. This far into the story though, the emotional trust they have in each other is beautiful. They are no longer just two individuals thrown together by fate, they are two people who care about the other and their weird little family. And its even more wonderous when we think about Sullivan's past, having lost someone deeply close to him and has no way of knowing if he'll ever return (aka Delkira). From what we know, it seemed that Sullivan truly loved him like a son/grandson/family member and loosing him is still something he's grappling over. And yet, he was still able to create this, push through his pain to make a family with Iruma. He's not a replacement for what he lost, but somone he allows himself to care about in a similar way in the past. By pushing through the trauma, he has been able to give Iruma what he never had in his past life.

I see both Balam, Kalego, and Opera as parents who provide him with different styles of parenting (with grandpa also providing that but also being a "ill give you anything you want" guardian hehe). Through this, he can learn varied viewpoints and, more importantly to this post, the affection he never had as a child. Does it make up for never having grown up with it? No, it never could. But it's not about making up for what it lost, rather its about making new connections and love with what you have now. And displaying that love in small and bigger ways with touch.

[sup-its-cat]

Here, have a compilation of colored manga panels that I did (yes all of them have Balam)

[mandatorybear]

I'm so glad Opera is a teacher now, so many opportunities to tease an old kouhai ><

[crunchkind]

I wonder who’s neon baby that is

[cyellolemon]

Mairuma fanarts again, had to draw Kalego's fluffy familiar form because he's everything to me <333 + trying to figure out how to draw this trio