#HE JUST WANTS TO BE EATEN

[shadowtraveled]

"mithrun is the only real monsterfucker in dungeon meshi" is objectively the funniest bit you can get out of his everything, but in all seriousness i think his attraction to his love interest is deliberately overstated—and that makes sense, because romantic jealousy is a classic and digestible motive, which is explicitly what kabru was aiming for in condensing mithrun's backstory, and also because until chapter 94, mithrun wasn't willing to admit to the true nature of his desires.

but because romantic envy is both classic and digestible, it probably isn’t a unique enough or complicated enough desire to tempt a demon’s appetite. mithrun’s wish, as far as we can figure from kabru’s reduced retelling, was to have a life in which he had never become one of the canaries, and that carries like 3857 implications and desires within it. that’s delicious. his love interest acts as sort of a red herring to his motivation for making it, though. (side note: i'm saying "love interest" here because, keeping in mind that i barely speak japanese on a good day anymore, "想い人" is something i'd usually take as just kind of an old-fashioned and romantic way to refer to a lover, but in context i wonder if both the connotation of yearning and the vagueness are intentional, and i think this phrasing gets those aspects of it more effectively. anyway.)

mithrun considered his love interest to be untrustworthy. there was a minute where i thought that comment might be about a similar-looking elf (yugin, one of his squad members), but comparing the two…

the "sketchy" arrow is definitely referring to the elf we know as his love interest—the bangs go toward her right, she only has the one forehead ornament, and, most notably, her ears aren't notched.

every time she’s given a full-body depiction in his dungeon, she’s drawn as a chimera, with the body of a snake from the waist down. (side note: the “what if a dungeon has chimeras before reaching level 4?”/“then the dungeon lord is unstable” exchange just being mithrun grilling his past self alive is so funny. he’s so. but anyway) there are a couple things about this.

first, the snake part of the chimera appears to be modeled after some species of coral snake mimic

which, in the biology-for-fun manga, i… doubt is a coincidence, especially with the added context of the “untrustworthy” comment. the dungeon’s conjured illusion of mithrun’s love interest was a harmless copycat of a venomous original. for whatever reason, he felt this person was a threat and made up a "safe" version of her to be in a relationship with, and while it’s definitely possible to be attracted to or even love someone you find to be toxic and/or intimidating, when you take that into consideration alongside the configuration of her body, you get some interesting implications.

which brings us to our second point: if we assume that mithrun was not in fact fucking a snake, then sexual attraction, at least, was so far removed from his idea of a relationship with this person that he did not even bother to keep her dungeon copy human enough to maintain the illusion of the option of a sexual relationship. this is somewhat echoed in the depictions of their interactions, which also imply a frankly unexpected romantic distance. she kisses his cheek and he doesn't seem to react; she's at the edge of a narrow bed with only one set of pillows, on top of his blankets while he's underneath them.

the kiss is particularly interesting because it seems to contrast the text. kabru's narration tells us this was everything mithrun could have asked for, but mithrun is there looking unreadable to pensive, likely because this is right before the panel that makes it clear things in the dungeon are beginning to go wrong.

walking through this backwards for a minute, we have the physical barrier of his bedding and the spatial separation inherent in a bed made for one person, the emotional barrier of his mounting anxiety getting in the way of his ability to enjoy the affection he sought, and... the snake, which historically carries the connotation of temptation, yes, but also mistrust, barring physical intimacy. okay. ok. if a dungeon reflects the mentality of its lord, all of this might suggest that mithrun was not able to have any real desire for a relationship with this person. his unwillingness to be vulnerable or let another person in was insurmountable. but in that case, why was she such a focal point that she remained to the end, after his dungeon had stopped creating iterations of his friends to come and visit him? why would he get so upset over her meeting with his brother that he became lord of a dungeon about it?

well. mithrun's brother was also interested in her, probably genuinely. and mithrun had to win.

you have an older brother who your parents completely ignore, probably in part because he is chronically ill/disabled and almost definitely in part because he received a ton of recessive traits that resulted in rumors that he was an illegitimate child. you are aware, most likely because those same parents fucking told you, that you actually are an illegitimate child. but they keep you around because you had the good fortune of looking just like your mother. what can that possibly teach you but that you, like your brother, are disposable?

it's utterly unsurprising that mithrun, under these circumstances, developed a pathological need to be better than everyone around him. people don't keep you otherwise. i'd argue this is also why he says he looked down on everyone he knew while milsiril claims his dungeon reeked of feelings of inferiority—he sought out people's worst traits and prioritized them in his mind to protect his already extremely fragile sense of self-worth, and all the while he tried to be as likable and high-performing as he possibly could be. his parents disposed of him anyway, but even then he tried to keep up the performance. he was kind to everyone. he never once lost to a dungeon.

when he saw his "love interest" meeting up with his brother, what he saw was himself being replaced by a person his parents had always treated as worthless, and if that was what they thought of the child they'd kept, what value could anyone possibly see in the bastard they'd given away to die? mithrun and kabru tell the story like he wanted to win this unnamed elf's heart, but it was never about being with her. it was about cementing his worth, proving that he didn't deserve to be thrown away.

and so it's particularly cruel that his demon discarded him, too. but maybe it's also particularly gentle that, in the end, there was someone who refused to even consider giving up on him.

kui laid it out in three panels better than i could hope to.

yeah. it's love. you wanted to be loved, even when the only way you were able to understand it was through the desire to be wanted, and you wanted that so badly that the idea of being consumed felt like the promise of finally mattering to someone.

[lazylittledragon]

Does Kit like the family pets?? Are him and bastard cat partners in crime?? WAS DORIAN'S BEAR NICE AND GENTLE WITH HIM WHEN HE WAS A BABY I NEED TO KNOW

the bear is gentle, the cat is. patient

[theonewhowails]

silly stuff i drew while reading Feel No Evil by @payasita , in which the Lamb does not know how to propose, Narinder does not know how to be alive, and neither of them knows what an obligate carnivore is

bonus? lmao

[arunneronthird]

damian was just a kid back then, but he never had the luxury of knowing a better life, so dick had to let him fight besides him

i can only imagine how hard it was for him

[all-lee24]

Radahn designs + Headcanons

Lands between's biggest horse girl

[aha-chuu]

Thinking about fresh faced little 20 year old Neuvillette five hundred or something years ago. All the other dragons are missing or dead so the Hydro Archon (previous) sends him to Zhongli for summer camp on being a dragon. He drinks a lot of osmanthus wine and "summer" lasts for six years. Zhongli gives him one piece of actual advice on scale care then goes on a tirade about how the last Hydro serpent he knew (Osial) was a bitch who stabbed him in the back. Neuvillette gets a complex over it.

Nothing about geo dragons translates over to hydro ones. Zhongli won't let Neuvillette go swimming because "dragons sink in water". A complete lie.

[tornado1992]

A babyfied Tails would absolutely have a Sonic plushie, he never calms down till Sonic holds him so Amy made him his own personal Sonic to hug whenever she or Vanilla babysit him.

[s-aprua]

[doodleodds]

Happy Valentines, Akira. Happy Valentines, Asshole.

If you can’t read what Akechi’s secondary inner-dialogue says cause I obscured it too much behind his regular dialogue, here’s a transcription in panel order: Hello, you fucking- Ah- Hello, Akira! Fuck off, why should I tell you- Just a soda- there’s a new flavor.

I don’t want your shitty gift. Oh- haha! You’re so sweet.

I hope I choke. They’re lovely, thank you.

Like hell. Likewise. There’s no way it’s just a coincidence. Still though, it’s a funny coincidence.

[moonchild-in-blue]

You know what? I really wanna eat a sandwich with Vessel. We don't even have to talk or anything like.

I just want to sit at a table across him, get a few Capri Suns, a bag of crisps torn open between us, a nice sandwich each, and just eat in silence.

🧃😐🥪 🍟 🧃😐🥪 <- like this

[callumbabe]

when callum said “I would do anything for you” …..

AND HE REALLY MEANT IT LIKE ???? this season changed me as a person and as a rayllum shipper bec this, this is the type of content I wanna cry my eyes out

[cairafea]

"How would we go about defeating a demon?"

"Any flesh that has been eaten and digested by other living things loses any of its individual identity. In this dungeon, where the line between life and death has been blurred... that seems to me to be the only clear and obvious rule."

[vivitalks]

more adhd jason grace or die by my sword

[im-secretly-a-frog]

Thinking about what hobbits think of shoes.

They don't wear them, they've never needed them. Hobbits rarely venture outside their hometowns, and their hometowns are populated exclusively by Hobbits in most cases (correct me if I'm wrong) so most of them never see shoes in their lives.

So, therefore, would they be freaked out by shoes? Would they simply accept this as a weird thing that outsiders do? Like I feel like Merry and Pippin would have bothered their traveling companions with questions about them. "What are you wearing on your feet?" "Why are you wearing those?" "Are your feet weak?"

And then Sam would just assume that those ARE their feet. He would be so freaked out as soon as someone took off their shoes, but he wouldn't mention it to anyone but Frodo. Frodo, being the way he is would have figured out exactly what shoes are and what they're for, though he would still be perplexed as to why anyone would need them, and he would try to explain to Sam. Sam of course would still be freaked out, but would believe him.

I've spent far too long thinking about this.

[yayforocs]

I Have Once Again Been Consumed By A Fic (Redstone and Skulk by @silverskye13

[quipxotic]

I know I've said the only people the Ruby Vanguard keep around are people they can use and the only members of Bell's Hells they can use are Imogen and Fearne - and that's true, but I also think it would be a VERY bad idea to let them capture Ashton. They might just kill them, but Ludinus was eyeballing Ashton when Bell's Hells got the second shard and he is clearly aware of who and what they are.

Maybe he would try to recruit them, but it'd be so much easier to mind-control Ashton instead so why would he bother?

Maybe he'd try to take them apart to figure out how all the various magics keeping them alive and a person are accomplishing that?

Maybe he'd do both things and then after he's done sucking Fearne up using whatever his new funnel/harness is, he'd turn the same device on Ashton? Ludinus is an elf and Ashton is at least a half elf if not an elf, so they are probably compatible?

What would Ludinus be like if he were able to take into himself the power of Predathos and two shards of dead Titans, on top of whatever power Fearne and Ashton themselves bring to the table? Speaking of which, wasn't Ashton also an Aasimar before the Hishari ceremony? If you were trying to eat some gods that might be an interesting thing to add into the mix (and by "interesting" I mean horrible).

Or do the shards change Ashton and Fearne's natures to the point of making them no longer compatible to Ludinus for funnel consumption?