#<<for tw

[grassbreads]

I've been rereading more slowly through SGRS since I binged through the whole thing in one day the first time, and god.

In Kikuhiko's first rakugo performance after he and Sukeroku do their play, he does a story about a woman searching for someone to commit double suicide with her. Specifically, the only bits of his longer performance that are transcribed into the manga are snippets of this central character picking out and beginning to seduce the man she wants to target.

Kiku finds himself when he does the play with Sukeroku. He finds something fundamental in both the female role he puts on and the way he's able to command the audience's attention to him. And that's what becomes his connection to rakugo—it's a place where he can find belonging and adoration showing off that aspect of himself. So as the first performance after that, Kiku's performance of Shinagawa Shinjuu is a beginning of sorts. It's the start of his true love affair with rakugo.

And in that moment, we're shown Kiku performing a scene of a woman choosing the man with whom she'll commit lovers' suicide. Kiku—the man who decades later muses constantly about taking rakugo as an art form to death with him—starts his career in earnest performing as a woman who's just decided who she wants to take to death with her.

Then the scene goes on, and we get a little snippet of Kiku as the woman beginning to seduce her lover to death. In the same way as Kiku is seducing his audience into his story, and just as rakugo is truly seducing him. Kiku is the seductress in the story and in his performance, but by nature of the art form, he's also the naive man seduced to death. He's playing all roles. If Kiku wants his love affair with rakugo to end in death, then equally, rakugo leads him to his own demise.

As an old man, Kiku sets fire to the theater and just about makes that double suicide a reality. The building is eventually rebuilt, however, and Kiku's family and friends carry on the torch of rakugo. It's only Kiku himself who dies not too long after. He's saved in the moment by his chosen family and connections, yes. He says that he was ultimately denied his lovers' suicide. And yet, his final performance to the dead seems to mark the beginning of the end for him.

Kiku's first performance after the play is, in every way, a brilliant moment of intertextuality. Kikuhiko is Osome deciding she wants to die, implicitly tying his discovery of what rakugo means to him to suicide. He's Osome choosing who to die with as he truly chooses his art form. He's Osome entrancing the audience like they're the foolish Kinzo. He's Osome seducing rakugo itself to die with him—taking the first true steps down the path that will lead to him becoming the be all end all of the art (emphasis on the potential for him to end all). He's Kinzo being seduced by the offer of suicide with rakugo. He's Kinzo being entranced by the adoration of the audience like Osome's so-called love.

For this moment of Kiku coming into his own and entering his doomed love affair with rakugo, there's no narrative that could have suited him better.

[sailing-ever-west]

graph of what being hungry is like with adhd

[sanjismuskyarmpits]

> “mannish features”

> look inside

> literally just common physical traits among women of colour

[blimbo-buddy]

got my hands on a field guide of californian bugs and i found that there's this one bee species in southern california that looks like this

(Actual bugs under the cut, CW for insects)

[thecollectibles]

Lich by John Patrick Gañas

[durisicle]

yeah they were flirting in that honda odyssey

based on this text post that made me audibly laugh

[saturni-idae]

Down in the dungeon, where hunger resides 🩸

I wanted to make a dungeon meshi fanart for a while, and man, I love Falin, so here we go

I hope you like it :)

[keithbutgay]

hi!

um

yeah

notes goal post

because i really need motivation

(i stole some of these but shhhhh)

if this post gets 50 notes i'll drink water right now

100 i'll go to bed at midnight for the rest of the week

200 i'll actually do my laundry

500 i'll take a shower every day for the rest of the week

1,000 i'll brush my teeth every night for a full week

2,000 i'll stop binding for an unhealthy amount of time for a full week

3,000 i'll start actually wearing my ankle braces consistently

4,000 i'll eat breakfast every day for the rest of the week

5,000 i'll stop binding while sleeping

6,000 i'll stop wearing earrings i'm allergic to for a full week

7,000 i'll start doing makeup again

8,000 i'll stop eating chocolate for the rest of the week

9,000 i'll make my autodale masks

10,000 i'll touch grass every day for the rest of the month

11,000 i'll water my plants twice a week for the rest of the month

12,000 i'll put on my lotion when i need to for a full week

13,000 i'll eat at least two meals every day for the rest of the week

14,000 i'll finish my water bottle every day for a full week

15,000 i'll write more for forest files

18,000 i'll clean out my backpack

19,000 i'll take my vitamins every day for the rest of the week

20,000 i'll finish my stained glass project

21,000 i'll go to bed before midnight for the rest of the week

22,000 i'll do my summer reading

23,000 i'll move the knife out of my room

24,000 i'll eat three meals every day for three days

25,000 i'll stop purposefully triggering myself for a full week

50,000 i'll try my best to stay clean for two full weeks

i'll probably add more goals if this somehow get past 5k, but there it is for now :)

spam allowed

tagging allowed

ummm the deadline is halloween

*thumbs up*

go for it

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I was giving CPR to a friend whose head me and my friends could not find.

Like, she was a body without a head, but it looked like the head was never there to begin with.

Still, we knew it was supposed to be there so we kept on searching for it so we could reattach it, with no luck.

We looked for it everywhere in the sand.

It took me like 30 minutes to realize my mouth-to-mouth was not working since there was no mouth on the other side.

We never did find the head, but I did manage to restart my friend's heart.

I was weirdly blasé about it all.

It was not gorey at all, just unsettling.

[rainbowcrowley]

today a fascist won an election for the first time since 1933. here, in germany.

i don't care if it's just one (out of 16) states. björn höcke is a fascist. a court decided not long ago that it's allowed to call him a nazi. bc he is one. not "far right" or "conservative" - he is a nazi.

here. in germany. and he just won an election.

it hasn't even been 100 years.

i am scared.

[sailing-ever-west]

the trolley problem vs. systemic oppression: a comic.

[fandaniel]

this is the best video ive seen in my goddamn life

[creulsummer]

it really took a whole ass lawsuit for her to shut her fucking mouth

[existennialmemes]

Apparently Rowling hasn't tweeted since her cyber bullying meltdown, and I'm thinking that might be related to Imane Khelif's lawsuit, and now I'm wondering if we can give her an additional gold medal for being the first person to ever get JK to finally shut the fuck up.

[menlove]

interesting how transmascs & transfems alike think losing weight is the answer to pass as our chosen gender.... almost as if fat people are never Truly afforded a passing gender regardless of trans status. as fat people we are never Truly seen as Men or Women. anyway fuck that notion & if u think u need to lose weight to pass that's the devil talking

[everlastingrandom]

got blood work done today and i just remembered a time i got blood work done as a teen. after the nurse drew like 6 vials of the stuff, i asked him “is all that mine?” and he said “not anymore” and walked off