#Undead Murder Farce Imagine

[spinningwebsandtales]

Imagine Becoming Friends With Tsugaru And Taking Care Of Him After He Protects You From A Group Of Monsters

Tsugaru Shinuchi X FemReader

Rating: T+

Warnings: Scary images, blood, Tsugaru teases reader, drunk Tsugaru, steamy, angst

Word Count: 1.4k

(A/N:) I just started watching Undead Murder Farce on Crunchyroll (trying to break up a little bit of my One Piece catch up) and I immediately fell in love with this series. While I'm still in the process of watching all the episodes I had to write something for Tsugaru as he is my absolute favorite character! I love him and I'm in shock at the lack of fanfics of him. I decided to remedy that as I got this idea and had to write it! I hope this helps my fellow fangirls out with this unhinged psycho we adore! Also started watching this at a perfect time as well! Happy spooky season may your season be creepy and full of sweet horrors. 😉 Until next time happy reading! ~Countess

The blackened streets swallowed you whole, enough where even the moonlight couldn't penetrate the shadows. Your feet hit against the ground as growls followed right behind you. Your fingertips bleeding as you tried to feel your way through the obstacles before you. Snarls and howls made your hair stand up, but your escape seemed futile. No matter how far you ran or how fast you went, you couldn't leave the creatures behind. You knew death was nipping at your heels and you felt the clawed grasp. Whirling around to see the gaping maw filled with blood drenched fangs.

You screamed, your blankets going flying across the room as you sat in your futon drenched with sweat. A knock came from the front door again before it slammed open. Tsugaru raced into your room, dark eyes looking for any signs of danger. When he saw everything clear and that you sat there trembling, he relaxed.

"Sorry," you muttered fixing your clothing, "just another bad dream."

He nodded in understanding. "About that night?"

Your silence was all the answer the oni slayer needed. That fateful horrific night was the night you met Tsugaru Shinuchi. He had been out trying to find somewhere still open to buy booze when he heard your screams. As a proclaimed oni slayer he had made quick work of the monsters before he gracefully laughed in your terrified face. First it had made you mad before you realized just how unhinged the man was. Though you were grateful, you offered him a meal and before you knew it he was a regular at your house. Despite that first encounter you both became fast friends. But even if you wanted to, Tsugaru was one you couldn't get rid of, if he found a reliable source of food (that didn't cost him anything) he stuck around. And you couldn't say no to the man who saved you that night. You found yourself fond of him and the more you got to know him, the more you started to like him.

"I guess you're here because you're hungry Tsugaru," you asked waltzing right past the tall and lanky man.

"Why else would I be here," he grinned wildly; following behind you with his normal hunched over walk, hands in his sleeves.

"Well it's not for my charming personality and you aren't the most pleasant company when you come around."

He chuckled slamming his hand on the sliding door, keeping you from opening it. He wasn't allowed in the kitchen and he wasn't going to let you leave until he made you blush.

"You weren't saying that the other night when I kissed you," Tsugaru teased, rejoicing in the red marring your ears. He knew about your feelings and he couldn't deny that deep down somewhere he cared for you as well. The night he was referring to was, he had earned enough money and found a seller willing to part with more booze than the normal vendors. So Tsugaru did what any insane man would do, drunk himself stupid and passed out in front of your door. The only reason you knew he was out there was he was snoring so loud that he would wake himself up and then sing some obnoxious songs before falling into a giggling fit when he would hiccup and ruin the chorus. You wound up dragging him inside, with a lot of difficulty. You had been in the process of giving him a pillow and a light blanket when he grabbed your wrist and pulled you down giving you a sloppy drunken kiss. Despite his glazed eyes they held a sort of mirth that had you reeling back and slapping him hard on the cheek. He woke up the next morning with a horrible hangover and a throbbing red cheek. When he asked (like he didn't remember) you would blush deeply and snarl at him to shut up.

"Do you want to eat or not," you spoke calmly though you could swear your heart was about to beat from your chest.

"Of course. Whether it's food or you I have no preference," he whispered. Hot breath stirring the hair that had slipped from your braid last night. "As a half oni I prefer the flesh of beautiful young women."

You elbowed him in the gut, hard. Tsugaru hunched over his aching stomach, wheezing out a laugh while you hurriedly opened the sliding door then slammed it in his face. You leaned against the wall trying to catch your breath and stop the burning in your cheeks. He's an idiot and you couldn't come up with an excuse of why you couldn't adore him. After he recovered from your blow he took a seat close to where you worked. He couldn't see you but just knowing you were close by, eased him. He rubbed at the blue lining his arm before taking a deep breath.

"I'm leaving," he spoke bluntly.

You sucked in a breath, your knife cutting up vegetables freezing. Tears suddenly pricked at your eyes.

"I've been hired by a woman to assist her," Tsugaru continued, picking at a splinter in the floor. "I won't have to fight in the freak show anymore. But I'm leaving and I may never see you again."

The door to the kitchen slammed open with a violent thud. You stood in the doorway but refused to move as tears streamed down your cheeks. Yes he's embarrassing and crazy to boot, but you couldn't imagine life without Tsugaru Shinuchi.

"Why," you croaked staring at him with barely contained emotions.

"I won't live long," he sighed before standing up. Rubbing at his neck at the awkwardness he felt as he watched you cry. "My oni side is consuming my humanity and while I thought I had made peace with that, apparently I haven't. She's promising me a longer life and I'm taking it."

"Idiot," you hiccupped. But you understood. You really truly could understand. If it hadn't been for him you wouldn't be alive and that night you had prayed desperately to live. You couldn't stand in the way of him living a much longer life, to spit in the face of his creator.

"You're the idiot becoming friends with me," Tsugaru retorted.

"That's your fault. I fed you once and you keep coming right back," you laughed bitterly. "Like a stray dog."

You teasing him was a good sign so he stepped forward taking you in his strong arms.

"I'm your stray dog," Tsugaru replied before licking up the side of your face causing you to screech at his wet tongue against your skin. You rubbed at the warm sticky saliva on your face, when Tsugaru captured your wrist. He backed you up, pressing you against the wall of the room. His eyes blazing brightly before kissing you deeply. You struggled at first before melting into his warmth. Gripping his thick blue locks in your fingers.

Breaking the kiss he kept his nose pressed to your cheek breathing against your ear, "Woof."

You shivered, finally shoving him away.

"When do you leave?"

"Tonight," he replied taking back his seat like he hadn't just given you an Earth shattering kiss.

"Guess I better make you a meal to remember," you said. "Maybe my stray dog will make his way back to me one of these days if I feed him well enough one more time."

Tsugaru laughed, barking loudly as you closed the door to him. You never realized how much you needed Tsugaru in your life, until he was being taken from you. While you didn't need his protection like you had, just his presence alone was enough to show you that you weren't alone. While you knew that one day you wouldn't have him, you didn't think it would happen this soon. But you couldn't keep him from doing the things that he needed to do, to make his life better. Taking a deep breath, steeling yourself, you got to work. You wouldn't leave him with bad memories of you. And one day when he came back the reunion would be sweet and maybe he could take you away from this place. Until then you would hold onto the memories you made with him and remember Tsugaru Shinuchi how he wanted to be remembered.

[crehador]

actually kinda obsessed with the hc that lupin is trying to impress erik because i’m imagining him hearing erik come up to the office door and scrambling to get his shirt off and climb the chandelier like

[ibrokeeverything]

I actually made an AMV for something that isn't Ninjago, believe it or not 😂 this show was too beautifully animated to not make an AMV!

[ladyloveandjustice]

Favorite Sapphic Anime of 2023 (Text and Subtext, real and imagined)?

It's a new year and time to do this poll again!

(Yes, Scott Pilgrim counts, it was animated by a Japanese studio and the director has worked in anime for years and it's got sapphic content)

[mariacallous]

Griffin Dunne has just written a book. He had been meaning to do so for ages. It was one of the items on his bucket list: learn a musical instrument, master Spanish and write his damn memoir. “One down, two to go,” he says, beaming in via video link from his home in upstate New York. The actor and film-maker turns 69 this weekend. He reckons that still leaves him time for the music and Spanish.

Dunne imagined his memoir as a family portrait in the style of David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day. He pictured something light on its toes, witty and poignant, a weave of essays and anecdotes. But then the book changed direction, as though it had a will of its own. It went where it wanted and needed to go. He says: “On some level, I knew there was this big subject ahead. And so, as I’m writing the book, I’m thinking: oh, OK, I know where this is going now.” The story leads to the scene of a 40-year-old crime. It revisits the death of Dunne’s younger sister, Dominique, and the grisly murder trial that followed.

I tell Dunne I really like the book, which sounds crass in the circumstances, but is true. While The Friday Afternoon Club is about the death of a loved one, it’s full of light, life and colour. It’s a startling tale of precarious American privilege, spotlighting a family that is blessed and cursed.

Dunne casts himself as the Hollywood prince at its centre, surrounded by famous faces, clamouring to be noticed. He tells how Sean Connery rescued him from the family swimming pool, how Billy Wilder critiqued his childhood pranks and how he roomed with Carrie Fisher before she went off to make Star Wars (“This movie is going to be a fucking disaster,” she said). Dunne was raised among storytellers (his dad and uncle were authors; Joan Didion was his aunt) and he writes with a loose, easy swagger. His memoir is tart, buoyant and playful right up to the moment it’s not.

In the early 1980s, when he was in his 20s, Dunne was hitting his stride as an actor. He had secured his breakout role in 1981’s An American Werewolf in London, playing the undead grad student Jack Goodman, doomed to haunt the adult cinemas of Soho. His 22-year-old sister was also faring well, having co-starred in 1982’s Poltergeist. But, on 30 October 1982, Dominique was strangled by her ex-boyfriend, John Sweeney, and died in hospital five days later. The trial, says Dunne, was outrageous, a farce. Implicitly, it seemed to put the Dunnes in the dock, framing the bereaved family members as frivolous dandies. Sweeney was convicted of manslaughter, but acquitted of murder. He served just three and a half years in prison.

Four decades on, Dunne’s account of events burns with rage. He is furious with the judge who intervened to block crucial evidence. He is furious with the killer’s employers (the Los Angeles restaurant Ma Maison), who stepped in to pay his legal fees. He is furious with Dominique’s then co-star, David Packer, who remained inside the house while Dominique was being attacked outside. “All the old anger got re-stoked,” he says. “I tapped right back into my vengeful side.”

During the trial, Dunne was approached by a mobster who offered to have Sweeney killed. He discussed the idea with his brother, Alex. “At that time, we would have been diagnosed as crazy people,” he says. “I told my brother that we had an opportunity to have the killer dealt with in the county jail. We decided not to kill him, but to mess him up, to have his hands smashed, like we were ordering pizza and choosing different toppings from the menu. And that was just the beginning of our madness; it carried right through. Even writing it down, I thought: I’ve got to let this go, because you can’t live in hate.”

In the end, they did nothing. Dominique’s killer changed his name after being released from prison and is likely still alive today. “I will neither forgive nor forget,” Dunne says. “But I’m not going to let that be the A-story of my sister’s life.”

Dominique was a victim, but that doesn’t make her life tragic. What is clear from the book is that people adored her. She comes across as whip-smart and droll, grounded and private. “She was a serious, substantial person,” he says. “Serious about her acting, her animals, her family. And, actually, rather intimidating, even though she was the youngest of the family.”

Dominique cared for their mother, Ellen, who had multiple sclerosis. She also cared for their father, Dominick, who was bisexual and closeted and yet confided in her. “So she was somebody we were all a bit in awe of. She was always wise beyond her years.”

She sounds like the family’s moral compass. “Yeah,” he says. “But also a bit bossy. She always knew what she wanted. My brother and I were a little fearful of her. It was like she’d been born already built.”

Dunne, by contrast, was a work in progress. In his memoir, he says that his first word was “taxi” and that he was always in a hurry – always running before he could walk. He was expelled from school for smoking pot. He was “coked to the gills” on the night Dominique was attacked. He was bumptious and entitled. His sister’s death changed him, he says, because how on earth could it not?

“For one thing, I never thought about domestic violence, the abuse of women. I grew up in Los Angeles and when I was in high school, pre-Roman Polanski, it was incredibly common for 13- or 14-year-old girls to be dating guys in their 30s. They’d go to these decadent parties in the hills and then come back and tell us all about it. And that was the culture; it felt exciting. I was unaware of what it meant. But then you have my sister, a 22-year-old girl, who finds herself in a domestic violence relationship with someone who’s twice her weight. So everything looked different to me afterwards.”

Perhaps it affected his career as well. In the mid-1980s, Dunne was on the threshold of stardom. He combined the charm and grace of a leading man with the prickly intelligence of a great character actor. The door kept swinging open, but he seemed to keep shutting it. He turned down The Fly and Sex, Lies, and Videotape in favour of making Who’s That Girl, with Madonna, and a reviled comedy, Me and Him, in which he played a yuppie architect who quarrels with his talking penis.

Dunne’s agent accused him of making “self-destructive choices”. He had always craved fame, only to find that it spooked him. “Too much attention at that time was a little fearsome for me,” he says. “I found it very stressful.” He hesitates. “And also my father,” he adds. “That had a lot to do with it, too.”

Dominick is the third main player in The Friday Afternoon Club, a high-flying producer who came to earth with a crash. He would eventually find his voice as a writer. He became Vanity Fair’s star reporter, first covering the Sweeney case, then the OJ Simpson and Claus von Bülow trials. But the in-between years were hard and humiliating. He suffered a reversal of fortune that took the whole family aback.

“I saw my father fail,” Dunne says. “I watched real failure in action in real time. He was a man who had a big house and a beautiful car and a great job and entertained the most famous actors and directors in the world. And everything was taken away from him, partly through his own actions, but nonetheless. People came out of the woodwork, kicked him when he was down.

“They were like: ‘I always hated you, I always knew you were closeted, you’ll never work again, pack your bags.’ And the effect it had on me, just entering the business as he was being destroyed in that business …” He draws a breath. “Well, it had a lot to do with the choices I made.”

In hindsight, the 1985 black comedy After Hours was his fork in the road. It’s also the picture with which he is most identified. Dunne developed the film as a co-producer and convinced Martin Scorsese to direct. He also took the lead role of repressed Paul Hackett, who embarks on a long, dark night of the soul through the streets of Lower Manhattan.

On set, Scorsese made one big stipulation. He ordered Dunne not to have sex for the duration of the shoot. I am gobsmacked by this, but the actor was unfazed. “It made perfect sense to me,” he says. “I knew what he meant. The character had to be boiling over with this unfulfilled anxiety. You had to see …” He pauses. “Not to be crude, but you had to see the semen build up to where it’s practically coming out of his eyes.”

One Saturday night, though, Dunne cracked and broke the rule. The next day of filming, Scorsese spotted the change and went berserk. “You’ve fucked up the whole picture,” he shouted. “I don’t think I can finish it now.”

Dunne says that he was probably being directed here, too. “Because now I’m afraid. I’m terrified. And it turns out that a certain level of fear is the same as not having sex. So [Scorsese’s] second piece of direction is telling me that I’ve ruined his movie. That’s excellent direction. It brought all the old anxiety back.”

It should have been a tough prospect, sitting down to write his book. Emotionally, because it meant revisiting the worst time of his life. Practically, because the Dunne family had already set the bar high. They are all dead now: his dad in 2009; his journalist-screenwriter uncle, John Gregory Dunne, in 2003; Joan Didion in 2021. But their reputations are daunting. It must have felt as though he were writing in the shadow of Mount Rushmore.

Dunne says it wasn’t that way at all. He had always assumed that writing a book would be a lonely endeavour. In fact, it felt warm, intimate and weirdly convivial. “I didn’t feel daunted, trying to write and being related to all these prominent figures. Quite the opposite. I felt their presence. When I described them, it was like I was seeing them again, living with them again. It was like I was back meeting Joan for the first time. It was as though I was spending time with her and John, my father and my sister,” he says. “They were alive to me. When I finished the book, that was the sad part. It felt like I missed them all over again.”

[nijigasakilove]

Can’t believe I watched an episode entirely dedicated to solving how Kengo made hot cocoa and enjoyed every second of it. Bro is a psycho for microwaving an entire box of milk. Only the studio that made Undead Girl Murder Farce could make a dialogue episode like this enjoyable, 😂.

Kengo’s sister was awesome and I love how she bounced off Yuki and Kobato. Who would’ve ever imagined there could be so many possible ways to make hot chocolate, the combinations are almost endless lol.

Kobato doing the absolute cinema pose is definitely going to be a meme and the studio knew what they were going for there! Pretty cool how there’s no intricate backstory or reason for him wanting to be ordinary, dude just wants a chill life.

I still don’t get why they’d try and blame Yuki for getting her bike stolen because it was at the scene of a crime.. victim blaming is insane there. At least she got some cake in the end though!

Nice chill episode, can’t wait for the next one. Kobato says he’s done being a detective but I doubt it.

[the-one-who-have-no-idea]

Let me sell you something

Imagine, Arsene Lupin kidnaps cahoots with the Phantom of the Opera to still a jewel from Phileas Fogg and to outsmart Sherlock Holmes who was hired to protect it

AND IT'S NOT EVEN THE MAIN PLOT OR THE PROTAGONISTS OF THE STORY!!

The real protags are a guy who looks like he had no sleep in decades and his master who is a beautiful lady head in a cage

They are traveling together doing detective work for funzies (and to find a guy who stole her body and made the guy half oni, so, common enemy, yipee) and also making unfunny jokes and puns, especially about her being a severed head but also many others, they are hilarious, while the head's fighting maid stands there with a cold face

Oh, and supernatural creatures are the common thing

This greatness of a work is an anime called Undead Girl Murder Farce and I highly recommend watching it

[senshi-9]

Tag Game

Thank you for tagging me, @touchoffleece! This was a pleasant surprise!

Three Ships:

-Sulemio (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury) - Gosh, this was one of those that took me by surprise. I was already interested about the 'new mainline Gundam series with its first female protagonist!'. The whole 'Witch from Mercury' title also sounded so cool. And after watching the prologue which left me in tears, I was already sold. Come first episode, I was absolutely not expecting the Utena inspirations, and my jaw dropped at that end with Miorine calling Suletta her groom. Seeing how their relationship changed from beginning to end was wonderful, and I love how much they complement each other. -Kumirei (Sound! Euphonium) - This one I know is a bit prickly nowadays, but I was keeping up with the anime as it aired, and it was something I wasn't expecting at all out of Eupho. The trailers and promo images had me going, "Okay, so KyoAni's doing K-On but with concert band. This'll be a cute slice of life to keep up with!" Wrong. I found Kumiko to be such a relatable protagonist with the whole being kind of scarred from pursuing something she enjoyed and growing to come off as nonchalant about it (playing the euphonium and then with what happened in middle school, wanting to distance herself from it), and then when given that spark (in the form of Reina), she grows to find the drive to genuinely want to stick with her craft and improve. That scene where Kumiko runs to the bridge repeating "umaku naritai" was so powerful, I felt. I loved the dynamic between her and Reina, and while I understand a lot of frustrations people felt with season 2, I do enjoy re-watching the series seeing how they grow and influence one another. Special shout-out to the other Eupho ships, AsuKao and NozoMizo (have you SEEN Liz to Aoi Tori??? One of my all-time favorite movies) -Widowtracer (Overwatch) - This gets a mention because while I was always a fan of things, I never really participated in fandom until getting into this niche part of the Overwatch fandom. While my excitement for OW2 died after all that had happened, I'm happy to have made some close friends during what I felt was the height of all the OW excitement, and it was through there that I got a similar drive to Kumiko (mentioned in the above ship) in that I got back into drawing and wanted to seriously improve.

First Ship Ever: oh gosh, I think it was back in high school? Haruhi and Mori from Ouran High School Host Club.

Last Song: Black Classical Music ft. Venna & Charlie Stacey by Yussef Dayes. From Yussef's latest album. If you're into jazz, definitely give this album a listen.

Last Movie: Joyland.

Currently Reading: Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places. It's a collection of talks, essays, and more from my favorite author, Ursula K. LeGuin. I always enjoy her talks and essays, and while not my favorite collection, it's still a good read (highly recommend The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination - that would be my favorite collection of her talks and essays)

Currently Playing: Baldur's Gate 3

Currently Watching: For the currently-airing season of anime, Sousou no Frieren (been reading the manga, so this was my most-hyped for the fall season of anime!) and Overtake!. Also waiting on Apothecary Diaries to start airing. Had recently wrapped up Undead Girl Murder Farce from last season, and that was such a fun series.

Currently Consuming: trying out this mango mead from B. Nektar

Currently Craving: a burger from my hometown

People I want to know better but don't have to participate: I'm a bit shy to tag some people, so I will refrain

[oldmanmuffins]

Undead Girl Murder Farce

Medium recommend. It's not a must-watch, but if you're going to be watching at least 5 animes from this year then I'd strongly consider adding this in. Bonus points if you get saturated with the more standard show formulas.

What it is

Summer 2023 anime. It's twelve episodes covering three story arcs, with an ongoing story beyond that. Demographic-wise it's probably most appropriate to call it shonen (young male). To me though, it felt like it straddled a weird line between that and josei (adult female).

The show is part detective story and part action with a blend of japanese and european folk mythology and pop literature. Its hard to explain succinctly, but imagine a half-oni rakugo storyteller competing with Arsene Lupin and a sword-wielding insurance agent for control of a diamond that reveals the location of potentially the last werewolves. That's the vibe throughout.

What it is trying to do

I want to post the definition of "farce" and point at it grunting enthusiastically. It's extravagant, comedic, and improbable. The comedy is not constant, which letts the mystery and dramatic elements have room. Anime is already a pulpy medium, so that tames the absurdity a little, but even with that its an extravagant story.

The mystery elements are definitely there and given a lot of space. I'll admit that mystery isn't a genre I've ever really understood, but this matches up the formula as I understand it. We get almost all the clues needed to make a conclusion, then we get a bunch of fun misdirection, and then the detective orates their conclusions at the end.

How well does it succeed?

It's good but not great. It's my favorite of the season, but this was a weak season for me.

The production is solid while not calling attention to iself. The art is detailed, but a lot of the scenes are dark and use a muted color palette. The music really contributes to the mood but is mixed well into each scene. Few of the performances are very demanding, but it also sounds like a lot of the actors are having fun with their lines.

My big issues with the show are with tonal shifts and pacing of the third act. Around midway through the season we're shown our big antagonists and the tonal shift is jarring. We move really quickly from a jaunty caper about stealing a diamond to some folks showing up and just doing all the murder. This issue continues throughout the rest of the show. We go from having fun with our eccentric cast to brutal murders and the transition between the two never feels right.

The pacing of the third arc also felt rough. It almost feels like they started the arc, then realized they had one less episode than expected, and had to condense things down. The first episode of the third arc is paced pretty normally for the show. Then it speeds up pretty rapidly, with some events in the final episodes just feeling handwaved.

Unsorted likes and dislikes.

Likes:

* Equal opportunity sexiness. The character designs are part of what contributes to me thinking of this as a little josei.

* The Trent-Reznor-y "Tsugaru is about to kick ass" music theme.

* Aya and Tsugaru making bad jokes back and forth at one another and never ceasing to be amused by it.

* All the unexplained details. There's a lot of things that pop up that you can mentally explore to build up the story of these characters and the lore of the world.

Dislikes:

* The Royce (insurance) agents feel unexplored. They feel like a dice roll of a character trait + a weapon. Their character designs are interesting, but they feel like set pieces.

* More werewolves. I wanted more to the third arc in general, but definitely more of them.

[spinningwebsandtales]

Imagine Tsugaru Making You Feel Accepted

Tsugaru Shinuchi X Kitsune FemReader

Rating: None

Warnings: Reader is self-conscious, mentions of death

Word Count: 663

Requested by @kawaistrawberry21

(A/N:) Thank you for your patience as I have been working on this! I hope you enjoy the fruits of your request as I enjoyed writing it! I love writing for Tsugaru as there's not much when it comes to him and it's a shame! I hope this is everything you wanted and more! Thank you for your request as I like to write things that my readers want to see! Until next time happy reading! ~Countess

The day was beautiful in the meadow you and Tsugaru found yourselves in. You hadn't seen him in so long and you wanted to enjoy every moment when he was around. His head was nestled in your lap as the sunshine played across his features. A gentle breeze tussling his hair, tickling his nose. He grunted itching at the tip of his nose when you began to thread your fingers through his dark locks. He moaned as you itched his scalp and lulling him back into peaceful slumber. While he was known as the Oni Killer he had never mistreated you for a moment. As a Kitsune and one of the last of your kind, you had taken to hiding your features from everyone.

You remember the moment vividly as Tsugaru had came across you in a weakened state when you first met. Your ears and tails on show for everyone to see. Normally monsters such as yourself were either hunted down or used to make money in a side show. You trembled to know that you were facing the man who was notorious for destroying beings like you. But instead of a killing blow he had offered you a hand. He had hid you, long enough for you to regain your strength to glamour yourself.

Your relationship had begun there and you had no regrets on finding such a man as Tsugaru. He gripped your wrist, pulling you from your thoughts as a butterfly flitted by.

"You're thinking about something again, instead of paying attention to me," Tsugaru pouted.

"Can a girl daydream about other things than the man she loves," you retorted kissing his forehead.

"Not when he's around," he winked. "He might get jealous."

"Like anyone besides you would want a Kitsune."

Tsugaru knew well how much it bothered you being different. He knew you feared humans and what they would do to you if they found out you were Kitsune. While he hunted creatures of your kind, it grew old and being part Oni made him realize that everything was more complicated than the populace lead on. Your sadness bothered him and he didn't want you to feel this way. Especially when he was around, though he understood that you needed comfort from him. He set up from your lap, turning around so he could face you. The grass swaying around you both, he plucked a flower and placed it in your hair.

"You don't have to glamour yourself when I'm around," he cooed.

You looked down releasing the spell, your fox ears and tails coming back into existence. One tail twitched in nervousness while your eyes darted around for anyone close by. Tsugaru cupped your chin, making you look at him. He stroked at your soft ear admiring the colors.

"You never have to glamour yourself when I'm around."

"I know," you mumbled. "I'm just used to it."

"I know," he nodded. "I hope one day it'll be where you don't have to worry about others seeing you. But until then you're always safe with me. You are perfect the way you are and don't believe any less."

You nodded, tears pricking your eyes. Tsugaru leaned in kissing you gently causing your breath to hitch. He pulled away, licking his lips before plopping his head back down in your lap. He closed his eyes grinning widely before placing your hand back on top of his head.

"You can pet me some more now," he purred.

"I'm beginning to wonder which of us is the true Kitsune," you snorted but went back to petting his head. This time you sat there in your true form letting the sunshine warm you. You would have no fear when Tsugaru was here accepting you. It made you feel safe and seen. He was everything you could ever dream and more as he made you feel like no other man could. As long as you had him, you felt like you had everything.

[crehador]

penultimate night arc is like arsène lupin threw a house party to impress his crush (the phantom of the opera) and provided sick music, ample booze, quality weed, and maybe some e or something but then some postgrads crashed the party and started passing out crystal meth like candy and lupin, despite it being his party, just turned to his crush (the PHANTOM of the OPERA) and was like "hey should we maybe just leave"

[jokertrap-ran]

[Drama CD]   7′Scarlet Limited Edition Bonus CD: According to the candy in the skull Translations

*Commissioned by @melynir, Thank you! *Spoiler free: Translations under cut

Commissions are still open!

Who is it…? Hurry and name yourself!

I can’t believe it...There’s a murderer among us?

Don’t do this, please! It’s not good to be suspecting each other like this...I can’t...I can’t stand doing this!

You can’t be joking, right? Are you serious? And in the first place…

Yeah. I’m dead serious. There’s certainly someone here among us who’s a murderer, wearing the facade of a human; an undead who has returned to the living.

7’Scarlet limited edition drama CD: According to the candy in the skull.

Undead…? I do know that there’s been a story being passed down around this place that dates back to a long time ago. But...are you...are you seriously saying that it’s true?

That’s right, Kushinada-san. Look. Look closely at the eyes of the owner. He doesn’t seem like he’s joking in the least bit now, does he? And he’s the one who brought it up…

Do you think I’d joke about something like this!? If you’re going to continue fussing about this and being in denial, Isora, I’m going to write you off as the undead himself!

Wha- Why!?

Calm down, both of you! How about you look at Kagatsuchi instead? It seems like he has somehow come to a conclusion about this matter.

R-Really!? Hino-kun!

...Well, I guess.

There’s no longer any need to withhold any information back. Now, Kagatsuchi. Will you tell us exactly what it is that you’ve figured out?

Ngh!

Very well. I’ve actually felt that something was off for quite some time now, but I simply shrugged it off, thinking that it was just my imagination. However, after watching his actions and behaviours for some time...that feeling only got stronger.

Enough of the long-winded talk, Kagetsuchi. Just point the guy out already. Who’s the undead? The murderer not of this world!

I’ll leave the explanations for later then. I’ll tell you who this murderer who’s been making the death toll increase here in Okuzaneto! The worst murderer of this generation! Are you all prepared?

Y-Yes, I am.

Yeah…!

Of course.

The undead...is you!!

What!?

Isora, you say!?

Heh. Hahahaha!! There’s nothing I can do now that I’ve been found out. I’m the undead that has just been introduced by yours truly…

Argh!! Wait a minute--! I really don’t want to act as the undead anymore! I don’t wanna!!

Hey! Isora! That line wasn’t written in the script!

It doesn’t have anything to do with the lines! I can’t help not wanting to do what I don’t want to! I don’t like it! Why do I have to be the undead!?

It’s a role that has to be filled!

You lost at rock-paper-scissors!

Just accept it already.

It’s not like I can, either! I’ve never died before, so I don’t understand how the undead’s supposed to be feeling!

Isora-kun...If your words are true, then you won’t be able to act. Acting, you see, is to express and show something that can never happen; to bring something that you;ve never experienced into reality. Actors who cannot act without having prior experience before will never make it far in this world and they’ll never be able to score a big job either!

You know...It’s not like I want to be an actor in the future or anything.

What? Neko-megane! You seem awfully knowledgeable about these things?

Ah! Could you, perhaps-!?

Urk! O-Oh no…

Could it be that-!?

Please, Hino-kun. Don’t go on any further…!

You’re an only child!?

Ah...That’s all?

Kagutsuchi...You should stop that habit of yours of immediately assuming any and everything. Plus I’ve never heard you assuming anything else about him, other than him being an only child.

I can guess his blood type too!

K-Kagetsuchi! If I may please hear more about that?

I don’t care about his status as the only child or his blood type! Can someone else please take the role of the undead!? It’s not for me. It’s not like I’ve ever acted before. I’m not really good at it and I don’t aspire to be an actor in the future either!

Isora! There’s no need for all that! The only question here is, will you do it or not?

He totally took Isora’s words as if he was just talking to himself…

It’s one thing to make Isora feel that strongly about something, but in all honesty, I’m not one to be putting up with this farce either. Besides, why do I, of all people, have to act in something like this? I am THE Yuzuki, you know?

It’s not like we have a choice either. We’re lacking in manpower. Plus, we only roped you in under the Owner’s orders via Yuki.

Honestly, for crying out loud...Right, someone go fetch Yuki here. I bet he’s the one who came up with the casting and the scenarios. I’m going to make him amend everything before my very eyes!

Yuki says that he’ll only be back late because he has some stuff to wrap up in a meeting regarding a live tomorrow.

A meeting, you say? So he’s off having tea with some idol while I’m stuck here being an embarrassment on his whim?

Well...But he said that Eito-san won’t be participating, despite being the lead. So everyone brought up the question of whether a meeting can really be held without the star. 

But, she said that “I cleared my schedule the day before the show so I can give it my all when the live comes!”

Oh? Really? Wait, Neko-megane!? You’re awfully knowledgeable about Eito-sama…

Ahh!! Now, could you perhaps-!?

O-Oh no!!

Enough of this turn of events; we’ve heard it plenty.

This act of ours is supposed to come before that live, right? Why is this even required?

Seems like everything was set up according to Eito’s wishes! And Yuki whipped up a script real quick after having received the job.

Yuki seems really taken with Eito. I’m sure he went all “Leave it to me! I’ll pour all of my heart and soul into coming up with the script!”

I’m kind of indebted to him…

Even still, why did you have to drag all the people staying in this inn right now? Can’t you just leave this to the high-schoolers or something?

That was also because of Eito’s request. Am I right, Neko-megane?

“Yes. Hanamaki-san would be happier about it if that were the case. And I wanted to join too…”

“I wanted to join too?”

“No, I wanted to play the role of an adult once!” So, Yuki-kun said.

He was the one who wrote this script...but who would’ve thought that it would be centered around the undead. Isn’t this going too far? 

Well, I think he also wanted to do something Okunezato-esque.

But it’s not all that unusual to do a play based on old myths and legends either, right?

Even after all that, this is still a piece that has quite a bit of suspense in it so we need actors with an adequate amount of acting ability.

How ridiculous. We’re not actors, therefore we’ve got no responsibility nor obligation to be acting in this.

Well, I don’t disagree with acting itself. It’s pretty fun, actually. Oh! Or is it that the Owner’s embarrassed to appear up the stage alone while acting?

Don’t be stupid. I’ve already gotten used to appearing alone a long time ago. Speaking off...I dare say that my acting skill is the best out of all of us here. I may look like this, but I’ve received the best pity acting award during my time in school when I had a part to play in the school’s play!

The best pity...acting...award? Isn’t that bad?

In any case! I’m taking my leave from here! I’m not signing to act like a bunch of monkeys under the farce of a play.

Wait. Don’t be so quick to come to a decision, Owner. Yuki-kun went through all the effort of writing the script! Are you sure you want to put all his hard work to waste? He, who managed to pen all of this down during his free-time even though he was all so busy? The script is one thing, but it must have been hard for him to set everything up like this. Adding all of the time he might have spent on this, just how much effort do you think he put into this?

...You’re actually counting them all?

It is said that the average pay is 50,000Yen. Which means that he should have netted about a hundred or so Yen per shift.

Has Sousuke-san gone stir-crazy…? 

But he hasn’t sought payment as if he were working a shift. He was simply doing what he needed to be. Therefore, I think that he has to be repaid in some way, even if it’s to bring what he was working on into reality. Don’t you think so?

Ah...Someone should stop him.

Besides, if we’re so ready to blindside how much work a girl’s putting in, then perhaps we should make the men drop the amount of shifts they’re taking and-

Err, in other words, he’s trying to say that we should do it since Yuki had put so much effort into it. He’d be sad if we don’t so won’t you help us out here?

Amari! That’s just it! That was exactly what I wanted to say!

Seriously? All I just did just now was to wing it-

For Yuki’s sake…? It’s kind of unfair for you to be throwing such a lowball, but...I’ll do it.

Ehhhh? He accepted pretty readily!?

Only this time. And I have a condition.

What is it?

Change the script. It’s not good to be fooling around like that with a script revolving around the undead. It goes against the very will of Okunezato. No matter how much effort Yuki has placed into this, I won’t allow something like that.

After acting along with us this far? I wonder why you’re saying this only now, all of a sudden?

Owner...he must have remembered all the lines by heart. I mean, he’s the only one who didn’t bring a script with him…

Right!? I’m sure he prepared before coming here!

You all...Are you pretending not to have heard what I just said?

No...I understand where you’re coming from. But in all honesty, it’s also pretty hard for me to call this scenario that Yuki has written up to be a job well done.

Really? I think it’s pretty interesting, though.

And just which part exactly are you referring too?

Which part? Well…

The part where the undead opened his mouth and spewed fire, burning everything into ashes! That was impactful!

I don’t really know about that, myself. I mean, destroying the stage? That’s a recipe for disaster.

That’s why we need it to be re-written! So no accidents and woes happen!

It’s fine, isn’t it? It’s just fiction! It’s just a corpse, anyway. And the ending was great too! Everyone breaks out into a dance after the undead being is defeated!

Were you already prepared to break out in dance…? REWRITE!

I suppose rewrite it is...But what will we do about the script? The act’s slated for tomorrow and there’s no way we can write up a new one now.

Simple! We just have to have an original story to base it off. If we are to use an old legend and myth like we’re doing right now, there are tons of it out there!

Ahh...I see. Then...How about Momotaro?

It’s lame but It’s been turning up in commercials lately so it wouldn’t be that odd of a story to be replacing it with. The era, though…

Okaay! It’s decided then. Who wants to be Momotaro? Whoa, wait a minute! 5 people can’t be playing Momotaro!

So you say, but you’ve got your hand raised too.

I’m glad to see that everyone’s enthusiastic about this.

Way too enthusiastic, don’t you think!? Even the Owner has his hand up!

Okay, okay! 5 people acting as Momotaro’s just plain impossible!

Really? I heard that some other place had everyone acting as Momotaro though.

There’s no need to compare to them now, is there? Plus, if everyone’s playing Momotaro, then where’s the bird, the monkey and the dog!? And even if we did make it to the island, there wouldn’t be any Oni.

It’s certainly interesting, but don’t you think this would be hard to act out? If we add the old man and the old woman...5 people wouldn’t even be close to enough.

What if we ask Tsukiyomi-san and Karasuma-san?

The declined.

They...declined…? There was an option of declining!?

He turned it down immediately, thinking of it as simply being a gag prank.

Ugh! I totally thought that I absolutely had to participate in this no matter what…How could I have foreseen this…!?

You know, I’ve always wondered about this ever since I was a kid, but Momotaro must really be one lucky guy to not have died after the Old woman opened the peach as she did. I mean, she sliced it cleanly into half...Oh! How about we have a suspense scene for that? A Momotaro murder! The catchphrase...right! Who killed Momotaro!?

The perpetrator’s the old woman, isn’t it?

To hide the evidence of the act she committed, she closed up the peach and sealed it back up.

And the Old man came back from the mountains, only to be roped into her own conspiracy…

I really can’t see the old granny doing that though...but...I’m kind of interested to hear what comes next!

...Enough. Anyway, we should really think about an act that includes all 5 of us, each in different roles.

Then...How about Urashima Taro? You can be Otohime-sama, Owner.

Rejected! Next.

Then Kintaro! No girls appear in there so it’s settled, isn’t it?

Okaaay! Who wants to be Kintaro? Wha- NOBODY!?

Kintaro...he ends up naked after all.

I...Being naked’s NG for me.

Like hell I’m going to bare my chest for all to see just because of this! REJECTED. Next!

Then, Chikarataro! 

No, no, it should be Monogusataro. 

Sannetaro!!

Enough of the Taro series! Move away from it! Taro, taro, taro..Enough of it!! Isn’t there anything else!? Something simple! Something that everyone knows!

How about you suggest something then? You were the one who wanted a change of the script, so shouldn’t you suggest something!?

It’s not like I can help it now, can I? Let’s go about this logically. There’s not enough time right not to make an entirely new script. Therefore, it’s only plausible if we go for a story that all of us know; all five of us. In other words, there’s only THAT story.

What’s “that”?

Shakespeare!

Shake...-!?

There’s no way we can go wrong with this. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the entire world knows of his works. It may be embarrassing to act his works out, but there is no easier play to enact in this world than shakespeare. All of his stories are famous beyond famous. So even if we’re only capable of doing a patchy job...Hm? What’s wrong? You’re all being so silent!

Ah!? My…!

Ah...Shakespeare, you say?

Indeed. Which of his stories would you prefer? I’ll let you have the option of at least that much.

Ahh, anything’s fine! Right?

Y-Yeah…! That one’s fine and that one too! Right, Kushinada-san!?

Ah...Yes! The tearful one might be good! They say that nothing’s better than a sob-story, right?

Hm…? Kushinada? Which story are you talking about…?

Ah…That one. You know, the one where someone dies…?

Hm...That’s hard. Most of Shakespeare's works end in tragedy. It’s hard to pin-point which one you’re talking about unless you’re more detailed about it. Isora, which work is he referring to?

Ehh!? W-Which!? The emotional one! You know where the main character dies...or not...or so!

And, you know…! Where the main character falls into despair...or not...or so!?

I...see?

A UFO...UFO!!!

You guys...are you saying that none of you know of Shakespere? Is this how it is, Kagutsuchi?

Urk...I don’t know! Goddamnit! I do know of at least Romeo and Juliet though! But something famous beyond famous!?

S-Sorry...it didn’t really feel like I could deny it...There’s nothing but Shakespere, yeah...actually, Shakespeare, who?

It’s finally out now! I don’t know and it’s hard lying about it like that! Having everything out in the open like this feels much better, right? Right!?

No, all of you were pretty interesting. I never thought that he’d take all of you so seriously when you were all just pretending to have understood whatever he had been going on about. I suppose this is truly what ad-lib acting is!

Sousuke-san, you know about it?

Of course! It would do you good to remember the 4 great tragedies at least! Macbeth, Othello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet. They’re all also famous beyond their time!

Huh? Amadeus? Learlo? Riaju?

It’s all muddled up, you know.

But! I know at least Romeo and Juliet!

Ahem! “Oh Romeo! Where art thou Roemo!”

Enough! Anyway, Owner. Anything Shakesperaren is out of the cards! It��s simply an impossible undertaking!

Isn’t there anything easier? Something with simple enough lines that all of us know about!?

Kushinada, suggest something.

M-Me!? Then...how about Cinderella or-

Blergh! Don’t you think it’s a little disgusting for all the actors to be men for that?

I don’t particularly mind.

Y-You don’t!?

Ahem! “Cinderella! Please finish cleaning the house up before we return home!”

Hey, Kagutsuchi! Don’t go off starting it all on your own like that! And why in the world are you voicing all the female roles!?

“Oh no! The seams on my dress have come off. Fix it for me!”

Did something like that even happen!?

Well then. “I’m going to the ball! I’ll be leaving the night shift to you then~!”

Aren’t there way too many of her mean sisters here?

“Allow me to magic up this pumpkin…!”

Kushinada…! The fairy godmother has appeared even though Cinderella hasn’t made a debut. Isn’t this bad!?

Hurry, Owner! Cinderella! You’re Cinderella!!

You mean...you’re making…me. Me! You’re making me participate in this...farce?

So, say something?

“Ah...I want to go to the ball too…”

CUUUUUUUT!! Owner! You’re way too despondent about this! Are you even putting your heart in this!?

Don’t turn the tables on me! You had other choices, didn’t you!?

Ehh? But it was proceeding on pretty smoothly!

Kushinada...You haven’t really read Cinderella before, have you? Your fairy godmother seems like it came right out of ‘The man who made flowers bloom’!

Seems like we went a full circle from Momotaro and back again to these old tales.

Did not!!

Argh!! We can’t seem to be able to decide anything at all! And look at the time! Can we really settle this and come up with something new before tomorrow!?

And we said that we’d think of something to base if off since it’s impossible to re-write a script now...but our Cinderella’s practically the original one.

Talk and talk, we did. But we still didn’t decide anything in the end…

Enough. Let’s just stick to the undead story…

That’s right! All we can do now is to do our best with the lines that we’ve already memorised!

Humph. In other words, we were all thrown for a loop...only to come back to the original story about the undead. I suppose there’s nothing we can do about it. It was a mistake to attempt changing out act on such short notice. So let’s go with the undead story. However, let’s change at least the ending.

The ending? Oh! You mean the dance part?

Yes! There’s that too, but this entire story’s ending is way too big for my taste. I’d rather it end off properly, you know?

Then, can’t we just end it off when the undead disappears into the forest? Everything else along with the dance should only come after that.

Right! That’s precisely it! We can’t change too much, else it’ll become a flop.

Let’s do that then! We’ve all already memorized our lines anyway so we’ll only be writing off the big celebration and dance.

What a pity~ The dance was pretty interesting too!

I don’t mind the dance...not really, anyway…

Really!?

Hmmmmmmm? You seem to have all your lines down to pat. Now, now, Yuzuki-sama…?

Did he perfect his dance too!?

I...It was only my responsibility, having taken up this job.

That’s amazing, Owner! I admire actors like that with the hardworking trait! They don’t only remember their own lines, but they also go out of their way to remember everybody’s!

I don’t have to?

Amazing! Owner, you’re a blessing from the gods! A natural-born actor!

No, he’s just a veteran.

The celebration’s a no-go but the dance gets a pass! Alright, once more from the top!

I’ll follow after you, Owner!

Scene 18: Flurin Cafe, start!

Who is it? Hurry and name yourself!

I can’t believe it...There’s a murderer among us?

Don’t do this, please! It’s not good to be suspecting each other like this...I can’t...I can’t stand doing this!

You can’t be joking, right? Are you serious? And in the first place…

Yeah. I’m dead serious. There’s certainly someone here among us who’s a murderer, wearing the facade of a human; an undead who has returned to the living.

Wait, hold up!

What is it now, Isora!? Why are you stopping us again!?

Thinking it through, nothing’s been settled at all! I don’t want to act as the undead! I don’t want to!

You were the one who lost at rock-paper-scissors!

What a sore loser…

Um...we’re repeating the same pattern again..

You have it good, Hino-kun. You have a line that goes “YOU are the undead!!”. I have it pretty hard on the other hand...I mean, what is this line!? “Hehehehe. There’s nothing I can do now that I’ve been found out. I’m the undead that has just been introduced by yours truly, Isora!” This isn’t a vow in a marriage or anything like that!

No good...This doesn’t seem like it’ll get itself settled anytime soon...

[churchyardgrim]

#2 from the d&d ask meme? it is a fantastic question

before they met their party, what was their main goal?

oooo excellent opportunity to plug my boy’s four page backstory that i just realized i never posted here!

tldr Silas wants to study a perfect immortal in order to defeat death, bc death insulted him once and he never got over it hghdfg

Silas Edelhart has a problem. That problem is death.

He was born to minor nobility, old money making use of their hereditary ambition to generate new money on the merchant routes, and he was lucky enough to not be his father’s preferred heir; he was allowed to take to academia, or else join some priesthood and curry favor with the lesser sons of other noble houses. He chose academia.

He was enamored with it. The libraries! The minds to learn from. The men. The women! The men. The only disappointment was that apprentice physicians did not get invited to many parties, something Silas was hard at work remedying when he was presented with an unwittingly significant patient.

A farm hand from outside the city had been delayed in reaching them for medical care, and his injuries - an accident with a plow, they were told - had gone gangrenous. He was insensible with fever, and would have lost the leg even if his people hadn't taken so long in getting him to the medics; as it was, despite amputation and efficient treatment for blood poisoning, he expired overnight, in Silas's care.

Silas was crushed. He had done everything right, double and triple checked his protocols, and still the man had died. “No one blames you, of course,” one of the senior physicians said to him, “these things simply happen.”

Maybe they ‘simply happened’ to other people, Silas thought bitterly, but he was better than that. He had decided the man would live, and his performance had been flawless! The terminity of a mere natural law to stand in the way of his will was intolerable. Incensed, Silas threw himself at his studies, dead set that it should never happen again.

Resurrection magic wasn't what he was after initially; he only wanted to keep the living where they were. But he found quickly that the popular consensus was that healing magic could only do so much, and most simply accepted its failures as they did any other misfortune. So he hunted out spells to wrench the dead back, hidden and fragmented in books his instructors only grudgingly let him read. Time would tell if they would be enough, however; none of the accounts of their use he had read gave any indication of the effects being permanent. It would be so embarrassing, to put so much work into defying death only to have his prize killed in a careless accident! He would not settle for anything less than complete immunity from death.

His practice only pushed him deeper into this conviction; plenty of his patients lived, much improved from treatment, but a few still died despite his efforts, reigniting his rage at death every time. He began to get a reputation for it, and some of his peers started tactfully funneling away those patients that seemed likely to die with or without medical care, to spare themselves his rants. Many of them thought his anger came from an insult to his skills, but this was all wrong; he knew his skills were exceptional, the failure was not his.

It is the gods’ fault, Silas decided. The gods had set this wretched law in place, to kettle and humble mortal creatures. But... no, the gods themselves are yet subject to death, have died in scores. So, death is a greater power than even them.

But in one book, ill-used and forgotten, Silas found mention of a god returning from death. A resurrection on a divine scale. And once that possibility had revealed itself, the hints between the lines of other books made themselves apparent; someone had performed that resurrection, exercised mastery over death in such a way that it left Silas’s mouth watering. How? How had it been done?

The next few months of frantic research and evasion - the concern from his tutors was enough to warn him that no one wanted him to go looking for this - led him eventually into the university’s vaults. To a broken-legged construct, dormant, containing a withered, desiccated hand. Not the hand of the godly resurrectionist, no, but the hand of someone who, certain books implied, might have been a devotee of that individual. A relic of a necromantic saint.

Silas stole it, of course he did. Made use of a debt owed by an engineer of the local guilds to repair the construct housing, and treated it as a treasured prize. Such mysteries, opening to him now with the artifact’s communion; he graduated quickly from books to practice, retreating into his own rooms to make frogs twitch and test ancient ideas on the animation of flesh. He took on fewer and fewer patients, withdrew from the society of his peers… for the most part.

Sera Mournleaf was brilliant. Sera Mournleaf was intense. And some days, Sera Mournleaf was the only thing that could distract him from his work. An elf with connections, she did him many favors in getting him subjects to work on, meat with which to test his theories, and had an insightful and sparkling mind with which to discuss the less publicly acceptable aspects of spitting in the face of death. So what if she stayed up later than him some nights, reading and rereading his notes. So what if every time she visited her aging human father she came back slumping with worry. He cannot expect things to be about him all the time!

Besides, he had little focus to spare for things not his research, now. He had been forced to take up the shovel himself, more than once, to find fresh bodies that would be more difficult to trace back to him - they keep a close eye on the university morgue, he learned better than to try that more than once. And he had had no small success, stripping corpses of their unnecessaries and stitching the most promising parts to one another, speaking to his prized relic with equal parts demand and prayer.

The results infuriated him at first. Lurching, wretched things, no better than flesh constructs, most of them had to be destroyed; that shriveled hand granted Silas holy fire as easily as it had clues to the resurrectionist arts. But he persisted, and grew to view them as necessary stepping stones towards a greater perfection. He grew more bold, more reckless, and felt himself forever on the verge of a cataclysmic revelation.

It was not to be. He was found out. The right word in the right ear brought the law crashing down on his shoulders, and he watched them burn his experiments with a guardsman kneeling on his back. It was broken, all of it, his research carted away in boxes (fewer boxes, maybe, then he thought there should have been), and Silas himself thrown in prison to scream his rage at the uncaring stone.

The trial was a farce. Somehow, Silas's family managed to find reason enough to pull half the lawyers in the city to his defense, while at the same time making it very clear that under no circumstances was he to darken their doorstep ever again. In the same two hour span his prospects went from life imprisonment to a mere slap on the wrist of exile, and then summarily informed that he had been neatly removed from the last will and testament of his every living family member. It was a very trying day.

At the end of it he was stripped of his qualifications, most of his wealth confiscated, and ejected from the city with his mouth sewn shut with wire; an archaic punishment for heresy, invoked here merely as sorry consolation on the part of the law that they couldn’t execute him outright. In the proper spirit of the thing, he should have left the stitches in place and let himself starve, and in deference to the bare truth of his crimes Silas endured it for three days before getting sick of the whole thing and cutting himself loose.

He had managed to keep his precious relic in its construct housing, the only thing worth bribing a minor official to sneak out of evidence lockup, and he quickly put distance between himself and wretched Misthaven, thinking nothing but bitter thoughts towards his betrayer. Selfish, horrible Sera; she had gotten cold feet, most likely. Come over all moral about what he had been doing, let slip to the magistrate that perhaps she knew who had been plundering the city's burial grounds at night. Well! She will just have to wait and see, won't she. Wait until he can begin his work again, reach as yet unseen heights of resurrection. Then he would return to Misthaven and enact some fitting revenge, on her and all those who had a hand in ruining him.

(Miss Mournleaf could have argued, the better part of a year later, that his unwitting parting gift was revenge enough. Babies scream like they’re being murdered, and the damn thing looks just like him. She left it with the nuns and got on with the business of saving her father.)

And so he wandered, working as a physician in small towns and middling cities, trying his damndest to reestablish his research in some capacity. But his funds never stretched that far, and neither did the patience of his neighbors; more than once he had to flee under cover of night, for misdeeds real or imagined. Most of these were unmemorable affairs, and only irritated him. Once, the mercenary paid to kill him proved a delightful match, in combat and energy, and the man made an affair of running away with Silas, and Silas ended up growing remarkably fond of Cassian Hellier, for all his unrefined brutishness. They still keep in touch, whenever either of them is in civilization long enough to hire a messenger to carry letters.

A decade passed in this fashion before Silas began to hear rumors. Travelers between worlds, fading in and out of unearthly mist, serving a genuine immortal. He seized upon these threads, passion alight again; a near perfect undead, far superior to the wretched things he had managed to raise back in Misthaven, yes. He would follow the travelers, seek out their master, see what, if anything, of the rumors were true. If they are... he would study, and learn, and replicate the results. And if not? Well, the corpse of even a lesser undead would be a beautiful thing.

[recentanimenews]

Manga the Week of 8/18/21

SEAN: Mid-August, and I cannot confirm this, but I imagine it’s hot. At least here in North America. Australia might be saying something different.

Airship, in print, gives us Adachi and Shimamura 6 and Mushoku Tensei 12.

Digitally, the early debut is The Haunted Bookstore – Gateway to a Parallel Universe (Wagaya wa Kakuriyo no Kashi Honya-san), a fantasy about a girl who lives in a bookstore that caters to spirit people. Then one day she rescues a boy from an exorcist family! Can she convince him all spirits aren’t evil?

ASH: This appeals to me on multiple levels.

MELINDA: Okay, same.

SEAN: There’s also The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter 5.

Cross Infinite World has a 2nd volume of the enjoyable but exhausting to say title Since I Was Abandoned After Reincarnating, I Will Cook With My Fluffy Friends: The Figurehead Queen Is Strongest At Her Own Pace.

Dark Horse has the 2nd and final What’s Michael: Fatcat Collection, rounding up the rest of what Dark Horse published from this classic 80s manga.

MICHELLE: Oh, hey! I was wondering what had happened with this.

ASH: Glad to see it finally coming out! I love the series and am happy to see it back in print.

MELINDA: Oh!!

SEAN: Ghost Ship debuts Shiori’s Diary (Shiori no Nikki), from Nihon Bungeisha’s Manga Goraku Special. A wife finds a diary showing evidence of her husband’s many affairs, so decides to start a diary of her own… and start having sex with others as well. From what I hear, this is more ‘high tone’ than Ghost Ship’s usual fare.

ASH: Huh!

SEAN: They’ve also got Destiny Lovers 7 and the final volume of Yokai Girls.

J-Novel Club has some nice print stuff for us this week. We get the debut in print of The Unwanted Undead Adventurer, which is a skeleton isekai, but this one is a kinder, gentler skeleton.

MICHELLE: I was not prepared for the existence of the skeleton isekai genre.

ANNA: Nor was I.

MELINDA: Well, huh.

SEAN: Also debuting in print is the manga omnibus of The Faraway Paladin (which is also getting an anime soon). If you ever wondered what Superman would be like in a high fantasy world, this is not far off. This has Vol. 1-2.

ASH: I’m still waiting for the original novels to be released in print (supposedly coming next year!), but I’ll take the manga in the meantime.

Also out in print: Ascendance of a Bookworm 9 (aka Part 3, Vol. 2); By the Grace of the Gods 5; In Another World with My Smartphone 17; and Otherside Picnic Omnibus 2, with Vol. 3-4.

Digitally, J-Novel Club has Can Someone Please Explain What’s Going On?! 6, Mapping: The Trash-Tier Skill That Got Me Into a Top-Tier Party 6, Otherside Picnic 5, Reincarnated as the Piggy Duke: This Time I’m Gonna Tell Her How I Feel! 2, and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen: The Wayward Journey 13.

In print, Kodansha brings us the latest Kaoru Yuki title, Beauty and the Beast of Paradise Lost (Rakuen no Bijo to Yajuu). This runs in Kodansha’s Palcy, and is probably in the artist’s usual genre of “is this romance, horror, or both?”.

MICHELLE: That cover is great.

ANNA: Good to see more Kaoru Yuki coming out.

ASH: Ooooh! Kaoru Yuki!

MELINDA: Oh, I’m so excited!

SEAN: They’ve also got That Wolf-Boy Is Mine! Omnibus 1, containing the first two volumes.

Also in print: Blue Period 4, the 16th and final volume of Boarding School Juliet, and Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest 5.

The digital debut may be more familiar to mystery fans: The Decagon House Murders (Jukkakukan no Satsujin), a manga based on the classic mystery novel. A mystery club travels to a remote island to solve an unsolved murder… but is this really all it seems? Umineko fans will find a lot of this rings a bell.

MICHELLE: I’m looking forward to this one!

ASH: Oh, nice! I enjoyed the novel, so will want to check the adaptation out, too.

SEAN: Also out: Cells NOT at Work 4, Nina the Starry Bride 4, Undead Girl Murder Farce 3, and Will It Be the World or Her? 8.

One Peace debuts a new title: I Belong to the Baddest Girl at School (Pashiri na Boku to Koi suru Banchou-san), a Kadokawa series from Young Ace Up. A boy is being used as an errand boy and bully victim by the girl gang leader of the school… or so he thinks. She’s actually trying (badly) to confess. I am always down for banchou girls.

ASH: Same!

SEAN: Also from One Peace, the 5th manga volume of The Reprise of the Spear Hero.

Seven Seas debuts Level 1 Demon Lord and One Room Hero (Lv1 Maou to One Room Yuusha), a title from Houbunsha’s Comic Fux that seems to be part of the popular ‘demon lord in modern Japan’ genre.

They also have Slow Life In Another World (I Wish!) (Isekai de Slow Life o (Ganbou)), an Overlap series from Comic Gardo. A reincarnated guy does his best to avoid conflict in his new world… but he’s getting attacked, he’s getting slaves, and he’s getting more problems.

There’s also Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor 12, The Ancient Magus’ Bride: Wizard’s Blue 3, Arifureta: from Commonplace to World’s Strongest 7th manga volume, Magical Angel Creamy Mami and the Spoiled Princess 2, School Zone Girls 2, Superwomen in Love! Honey Trap and Rapid Rabbit 2, and Thigh High: Reiwa Hanamaru Academy 2.

ASH: I’ll have to admit, despite greatly enjoying the original series, I have yet to actually try any of the spinoffs of The Ancient Magus’ Bride.

Viz has a new Junji Ito manga, Sensor. Is anyone else reminded of the days when an Arina Tanemura manga would come out from Viz every month? It seems like we’re at that point with Ito.

ANNA: I would like to read more Arina Tanemura manga!

ASH: As would I! And more Junji Ito for that matter.

SEAN: Also from Viz: Asadora! 3, Assassin’s Creed: Blade of Shao Jun 2, Golden Kamuy 23, Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt 16, Urusei Yatsura Omnibus 11, and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead 3.

Yen On debuts the print version of Megumi Hayashibara’s The Characters Taught Me Everything: Living Life One Episode at a Time, which had a digital version out a while back. This memoir is part talking about roles she’s had over the years and part self-help book.

ASH: I’m looking forward to this one.

SEAN: Yen On also has Baccano! 17, which wraps up the 1700s arc (and might seem familiar to anime fans), and Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki 6.5, which, as you may have guessed from the number, is a short story volume.

What manga will you read no matter which continent you’re on?

By: Sean Gaffney

[crehador]

idk what christine is up to in undead girl murder farce canon but i just got this mental image of college!au where lupin is trying to give erik a lap dance at a house party while erik keeps checking his phone to see if christine has texted him back (she has not)

[crehador]

undead girl murder farce is off to a strong start, to me it has probably the most compelling first ep of the season so far

we start in meiji era tokyo where shinuchi tsugaru, a man who was turned into an oni hybrid against his will, meets the immortal rindou aya, a woman who was turned into a living decapitated head against her will, and her loyal maid shizuku

seeing as tsugaru and aya were both dicked over by the same old european man with a cane with an ‘m’ on it (moriarty, i presume), they team up and head off to europe to get his ass

the first episode is entirely devoted to set-up, and imo it was done very well. it didn’t feel too rushed or too exposition-heavy, but told us everything we need to know. the series synopsis says our curious trio will be solving supernatural mysteries all around europe, so i hope to see the series take on a more episodic nature from ep2 onwards

the cast is absolutely stacked, with not only highly recognizable seiyuu names but character names as well. you’ve got sherlock and watson, aleister crowley, arsene lupin, and even jack (you know... the ripper)

so it’s not that difficult to imagine what kind of supernatural shenanigans our new detectives will be getting up to

although undead girl murder farce feels very, very solid so far, from its visuals to its pacing, something about it doesn’t quite strike me as an anime of the season candidate... that said, it is such a dry season that it’s not up against much competition (since i only consider new series and not sequels/continuations for aots)

bears repeating that some of the visuals are really freaking cool though, especially in the op, i think that’s one of the strongest things it’s got going for it right now