#I am not safe

[invvuu]

im going to cry if sunoo actually starts tweaking right after sunghoon because WHGAT

[katnovalikesturtles]

ɪᴛ ᴀᴘᴘᴇᴀʀs ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪ ᴀᴍ ɴᴏᴛ sᴀғᴇ.

[demonslayedher]

Hello Buriburi senpai! I hope you're doing well! <3 I had this totally random thought some time ago that I immediately wrote it down and saved it so I could send it to you and hear what you thought about it 😅

Okay so, we know that demons mainly eat and prefer eating human flesh/organs/blood, but that in some cases they might also eat animal flesh (like how Tamayo did in the past) and even other demons (stated to happen at the Final Selection).

While this was an anime-only moment (so we can't be 100% sure if it's really canon to the series) in the first episode of the Mugen Train Arc the Slasher expresses disgust towards a beef bento, and since it's canon that demons can't eat human food, we could assume that they only like eating raw flesh, be it animal or human. They might not like flesh if it's cooked or seasoned with other human spices/seasonings/sauces.

So: demons love human flesh; they can also eat animal flesh and other demons' flesh; but they can't eat human food and maybe cooked flesh as well.

But here come my doubts. What counts as human food? Are fruits and vegetables also considered human foods? Could demons drink water? Does fish fall under the animal-flesh criteria? Would demons be able to eat raw fish or sushi?

Anon, this is a series of questions after my own meta heart analysis heart, and I have wondered many of the same things about what does and does not count. As, to my knowledge, there isn't any statement where lines may be drawn. At some level, it may depend on each demon.

To start, and you may have already seen it, but this is my extensive analysis of how eating humans seems to work, at least based on varied canon evidence. As there is a lack of consistency and dietary preferences, I think there's a lot of variation for each demon, and their level of tolerance for "human food" and "not-human flesh" probably varies as well, whatever those categories mean. I'm going to start making a couple of assumptions with no explicit basis in canon: 1. "Human food" is in a category of anything non-edible to a demon. Dirt, for example, may be non-edible. Whether they would have a violent reaction as they do with "human food" or if they would simply throw it up or expel it through their skin (or out the other end, if they work like that, though I assume they don't have to because demons aren't even limited to using mouths to consume victims), that may depend on the substance. The main problematic substance that comes to mind is clothing. (Mostly, I'm wondering what Douma did about this.) 2. Humans are edible due to demons having formerly been humans, hence, why their close genetic relations are especially nutritious to them. This may also be why they are able to consume other demons, even if they are not as satiating. It has never been stated what Chachamaru consumes, but by this logic, I assume cat blood.

It took Tamayo a very, very, considerable amount of willpower to be able to survive on corpses and animals, and I'm willing to bet those animals had to be mammals--as close as she could get to something more familiar like human flesh. If anything, I think fish, produce, rice, anything not-meat would be even less edible. When anime-only Speedy was disgusted by the scent of the bentou (which had more in it than just umai!meat), it's worth nothing that only was it not-human meat with outside flavorings, but it had undergone transformations via heat. The structural changes of cooking meat, as well as the structural changes it undergoes after death, may be what render it inedible to demons. I'm guessing Tamayo was only able to eat freshly killed, totally raw animals, and that the human corpses she ate from were as fresh as possible. Notably, she's stopped doing this once had a method of safely acquiring fresh human blood, as that's probably still much, much easier on her digestive system. It's one thing to survive so she can one day have revenge on Muzan, it's another thing to be functional enough to accomplish that. If she could function well enough on fresh animal blood, she probably would. If we still use "fresh blood of the same type of organism the demon formerly was" as the basis of analysis, then no, I don't think they could consume water either. Demons just don't get thirsty in the first place, and Douma isn't even able to consume sake, which he used to enjoy as a human. Coming back to Tamayo, and this is probably due to all the self-imposed dietary training, it is an accomplishment that she has managed to be able to enjoy koucha specifically. That's "black tea" to English speakers, and "red tea" to tea snobs. While this would be mostly water, it is also an infusion of oxidized tea leaves. While most are not fully fermented like "black" teas, having undergone this breakdown process might be part of what makes this plant material more edible to her than, say, green tea, which is not allowed to undergo oxidation. That would make it nutritionally closer to a fresh vegetable, which would probably induce the vomiting reflex.

But again, how recognizable does something need to be as "human food" for a demon's stomach to violently reject it? Maybe the bar is really low for some demons and higher for others, like the merely smell of it will be enough to make their stomach turn (like Speedy, but nobody feels bad for Speedy).

That all having been said, I'm really sad I don't know how to find this Japanese fan comic again, but I saw one once that had the Upper Moons throwing a hotpot welcome party for Kaigaku. Their pastime? A game seeing who can stomach it the best/longest. Fresh new Kaigaku doesn't even last a second with it in his mouth, Douma does pretty bad to. I don't remember for Akaza or Gyokko and Hantengu, but Daki & Gyutaro were the masters of this game because Daki often has to consume food in front of people in order to be convincing, so the artist drew a tiny Gyutaro inside her mouth rolling a containing ball of flesh around it, and then expelling it from her body later when it's convenient. Toward the ends of the game, Kokushibo was the absolute worst at keeping anything down. I have accepted the headcanons of that comic, especially Daki & Gyutaro, and assume Muzan employs similar methods of containment & disposal, which might also be what Douma does with leftover pieces of clothing after he's absorbed the flesh. Maybe whatever Shinobu's headpiece was made off tipped him off not to swallow it, like, "oh, now that would have me in for a tummyache."

[katiesdailystruggle]

Y’all if these random lives don’t send me over the EDGE

Also jk has been very sick in quite a few lives recently and I am simply not capable of processing all this content in one sitting so enjoy me losing my mind progressively the next few days. 🥲

[camerica]

[ukiyo101]

Pukicho is that you?

[izzystinyhands]

Me at the start of the pandemic: its fine a few months of wearing a mask and i can take it off again

Me now, after 2 years of masking and seeing a literal death counter on the news every day: each day I am asked why im still wearing a mask and i have to tell ppl "personal choice" to avoid an argument about the fact covid is not in fact ""gone"" and im not ""safe now"" just bc the government decided to tell ppl that to apease the masses

[stromblessed]

Mizu, femininity, and fallen sparrows

In my last post about Mizu and Akemi, I feel like I came across as overly critical of Mizu given that Mizu is a woman who - in her own words - has to live as a man in order to go down the path of revenge.

If she is ever discovered to be female by the wrong person, she will not only be unable to complete her quest, but there's a good chance that she'll be arrested or killed.

So it makes complete sense for Mizu to distance herself as much as possible from any behavior that she feels like would make someone question her sex.

I felt so indignant toward Mizu on my first couple watchthroughs for this moment. Why couldn't Mizu bribe the woman and her child's way into the city too? If Mizu is presenting as a man, couldn't she claim to be the woman's escort?

However, this moment makes things pretty clear. Mizu knows all too well the plight of women in her society. She knows it so well that she cannot risk ever finding herself back in their position again. She helps in what little way she can - without drawing attention to herself.

Mizu is not a hero and she is not one to make of herself a martyr - she will not set herself on fire to keep others warm. There's room to argue that Mizu shouldn't prioritize her quest over people's lives, but given the collateral damage Mizu can live with in almost every episode of season 1, Mizu is simply not operating under that kind of morality at this point. ("You don't know what I've done to reach you," Mizu tells Fowler.)

And while I still feel like Mizu has an obvious and established blind spot when it comes to Akemi because of their differences in station, such that Mizu's judgment of Akemi and actions in episode 5 are the result of prejudice rather than the result of Mizu's caution, I also want to establish that Mizu is just as caged as Akemi is, despite her technically having more freedom while living as a man.

Mizu can hide her mixed race identity some of the time, and she can hide her sex almost all of the time, but being able to operate outside of her society's strict rules for women does not mean she cannot see their plight.

It does not mean she doesn't hurt for them.

Back to Mizu and collateral damage, remember that sparrow?

While Mizu is breaking into Boss Hamata's manse, she gets startled by a bird and kills it on reflex. She then cradles it in her hands - much more tenderly than we've seen Mizu treat almost anything up to this point in the season:

She then puts it in its nest, with its unhatched eggs. Almost like she's trying to make the death look natural. Or like an accident.

You see where I'm going with this.

When Mizu kills Kinuyo, Mizu lingers in the moment, holding the body tenderly:

And btw a lot of stuff about this show hit me hard, but this remains the biggest gut punch of them all for me, Mizu holding that poor girl's body close, GOD

When Mizu arranges the "scene of the crime," Kinuyo's body is delicate, birdlike. And Mizu is so shaken afterward that she gets sloppy. She's horrified at this kill to the point that she can't bring herself to take another innocent life - the boy who rats her out.

MIZU'S ONE MOMENT OF SOFTNESS AND MERCY, COMING ON THE HEELS OF HER NEEDING TO KILL A GIRL TO SPARE HER THE WORST FATE THAT THIS RIGID SOCIETY HAS TO OFFER WOMEN, AND TO SPARE A BROTHEL FULL OF INNOCENT WOMEN WHO ARE THE CASTOFFS OF SOCIETY, NEARLY RESULTS IN ALL OF THEIR DEATHS

No wonder Mizu is as stoic and cold as she is.

And no wonder Mizu has no patience for Akemi whatsoever right before the terrible reveal and the fight breaks out:

Speaking of Akemi - guess who else is compared to a bird!

The plumage is more colorful, a bit flashier. But a bird is a bird.

And, uh

Yeah.

I like to think that Mizu killing the sparrow is not only foreshadowing for what she must do to Kinuyo, but is also a representation of the choice she makes on Akemi's behalf. She decides to cage the bird because she believes the bird is "better off." Better off caged than... dead.

But because Mizu doesn't know Akemi or her situation, she of course doesn't realize that the bird is fated to die if it is caged and sent back home.

Mizu is clearly not happy, or pleased, or satisfied by allowing Akemi to be dragged back to her father:

But softness and mercy haven't gotten Mizu anywhere good, recently.

There is so much tragedy layered into Mizu's character, and it includes the things she has to witness and the choices she makes - or believes she has to make - involving women, when she herself can skirt around a lot of what her society throws at women. Although, I do believe that it comes at the cost of a part of Mizu's soul.

After all, I'm gonna be haunted for the rest of this show by Mizu's very first prayer in episode 1:

"LET" her die. Because as Ringo points out, she doesn't "know how" to die.

Kind of like another bird in this show:

[uncanny-tranny]

The leftism/anticapitalism leaving people's bodies the zeptosecond you imply that disabled people who aren't "productive" still matter in society and need to be treated like intrinsic equals who have a place in this world:

[spiderversegf]

i hope if nothing else i am remembered for being kind

[bluismie]

the category is hurt/comfort

[anotherpapercut]

just had an absolutely sickening conversation with a 20 year old I work with wherein I had to impress upon her that her and her friends need to be extremely cautious going to the gay clubs right now with increasing attacks happening. make sure any very young, very newly adult queer people in your life know that we're a family and community and part of that is being willing to fight for your siblings lives if they're under attack. even if it's a person you despise, you stick up for your family and they will stick up for you. we are all we have. the cops refuse to help, and so do most people outside the community. we cannot survive without each other

[kdlanguishing]

I just have this deep feeling that everything is going to fall apart. If I don't smile, if I don't please, everything is going to fall apart. And she preyed on that fear. It is easy to take advantage of. She made it come true. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[f0x-gl0ves]

On that cowboy shit again (pls click for better resolution probably ♡)

[jetsi]

Most fucked up chocolate i have ever seen

[iiflywithmeii]

i just wanna cut everyone off and rot away in my bed