#do i think Akutagawa was making a conscious choice to change? Not at first. he just didn't want to falter in front of Atsushi

[hesperidia]

You know how in atla when Zuko starts questioning his objective and actions he feels physically sick and has a fever? In bsd when Akutagawa stops killing people his stress levels skyrocket and i think, when it comes to stubborn characters that's a cool way to portray making a choice to challenge one's beliefs and change as a person

[cainmachado]

Playing with Clay

When it comes to BSD, manipulation is a presence we learned to accept. This is a story where some of the main characters go out of their way to obtain something they desire, normally by getting others to do it or by convincing others to give them an information so that they may act upon it. Mind games is something that could be used to describe what is going on in the story, with the two biggest examples of this being Osamu Dazai and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, both are compared to each other very frequently and both have obtained a form of success in manipulating others.

However, we see examples of a much deeper form of manipulation taking place in the shape of manipulating people’s entire personalities and desires. If you consider that a desire is a fundamental part of a person’s life, you could very well say that this is the manipulation of life itself. If you don’t consider that, then this is still a form of major manipulation made by the characters in the story. Ryuunosuke Akutagawa is Dazai’s example of this and Ivan Goncharov is Dostoyevsky’s example of this. We will talk about the latter first, as I feel like I talk about Akutagawa and his manipulation in every single post I make and it is also the shortest given the lack of information.

Ivan mentions that, through a surgery, Fyodor “removed his unhappiness”. How this was done it is never shown and I personally think it won’t ever be shown, but given the actual state of Ivan we can make a few assumptions. It could have been torture, plain and simple. He was in a state of physical pain and mental stress for so long that he broke in a specific way, in which he was no longer unhappy and he became extremely loyal to Fyodor. Could have been the use of an ability, maybe even Fyodor’s own ability harkening back to the torture idea, if Fyodor could have control of his ability to the point where it doesn’t kill instantly, he could have used it to inflict major pain on Ivan. But let’s say it was a mind-altering ability instead and that Fyodor was simply the gateway to it, seems simpler. I believe that not showing this, even as a one panel flashback, was a conscious choice.

Fyodor is a parallel to Dazai, it could have shown the difference between them. In one hand Dazai seems to manipulate even good people, but never fully altering their behavior. Rather it’s by natural human interaction that they change. Fyodor, however, manipulates anyone through a much harsher method. He talked a kid into blowing themself up only to break Kunikida. I don’t think it was willingly that Ivan did this operation, seems really weird for Fyodor to manipulate even the air around him but open one exception to this man in particular. Let me word this better. It was willingly that Ivan walked into this operation, but the freedom that he had on that choice was nothing more than an illusion. Fyodor needed a disposable pawn, he happened to be one with a really powerful ability, so he slowly shaped that man into what he wanted.

So, by showing this surgery or giving more detail to it we could see that Fyodor uses a brutal method of manipulation, one that goes beyond what Dazai did when he was in the Port Mafia. Or well, at least goes beyond what we know of him. Ivan is the what happens when you take manipulation too far, a shell of a person remains shaped to be something completely different than what existed before. By “removing the unhappiness” Fyodor killed an essential part to being a human, and that is where he differs from Dazai. Dazai may be no longer human in his own eyes, but through his relationships he learned to be a human being, he learned what makes a person and he learned to value that. In the past he may have seen no value in living, but now with the ADA he keeps on fighting, he has found his reason to live. I am saying all of this to bring us to the next topic.

Akutagawa. As much as I love him, he is my favorite character, and even with the abuse that he has gone through he is not forgiven from all the crimes he has committed. I feel like I say that every time, but it’s to make sure the point is hammered in. What was Akutagawa like before he met Dazai? Through Beast we can see a bit of that, he grew up in the slums, it is mentioned he used his ability to play around with his friends, but was caught up in the darkness of that world so he was willing to kill without remorse. After his friends were killed, he was taken in by Dazai, we can assume this happened at around the age of fourteen given that he was sixteen during the Dark Era and seemed to be used to being in the mafia, making Dazai sixteen when he took him in.

Why are ages important? Because they give us the means to look into just how much time Dazai spent with Akutagawa, which (and I preface this by stating that I am completely inept at any form of mathematics) would be around two to three years give or take. In two years Dazai managed to make Akutagawa so dependent on his approval that the man regrets dying and not getting acknowledgement from Dazai instead of regretting any other event in his life.

From dialogue we can assume that Dazai was preparing Akutagawa to be the Mafia’s greatest weapon or one of the greatest. The method that he chose was manipulation through training and education, in which praise from him was the ultimate reward, just that feeling of making Dazai proud was more than enough to drive Akutagawa on. Akutagawa is not, as it is often painted, Dazai’s little dog that will do anything for him in offer of praise. He is capable of harming Dazai if he is frustrated enough and while he will listen to what Dazai has to say, more often than not he will do things his own way instead of collaborating completely with the plan. He has a rebellious will that shows up when Dazai belittles him too much, like when he said that Atsushi was a better subordinate than Akutagawa, which threw him in a spiral of wanting to defeat Atsushi no matter the cost to prove his superiority.

By making him believe that he is inferior to Atsushi he also presses down on a major point left by Dark Era Dazai on him: his failures are the fault of his weakness, one that he would be able to surpass if only he adhered to Dazai’s orders more perfectly. We see this in the scene where Dazai shoots Akutagawa, forcing him to use Rashomon to block, he gives praise immediately and reminds him that in the future he would not be so forgiving. A compliment with the threat of a backhand soon afterwards. This keeps Akutagawa on his toes, he has to improve in order to keep Dazai pleased as his initial admiration of Dazai followed by his indoctrination on why he needed to be the so loyal and obedient are what led Akutagawa to believe that he absolutely needs Dazai’s approval and acknowledgement to live. (Quick side note, I find it interesting that Akutagawa is so full of potential and could be one of the Port Mafia’s greatest assets and that Dazai’s first reaction was to make sure that he was completely dependent of his approval. If Dazai stayed in the PM, Akutagawa might have made it to executive, but never he would have been more than Dazai’s subordinate.)

This dependence is something we see often in various types of relationships, from work relationships, to friendships and romantic ones. If a person is fully dependent on you, they will never leave you. On Akutagawa’s case not only does it keep him under Dazai’s control it also ensures that Akutagawa will never grow beyond him. I find it hard to give Dazai praise for changing when he played to this exact card several times when dealing with Akutagawa. And no, giving him praise at one point does not free him. It’s like a drug, Akutagawa just got his fix and he will need more from now on, if all it took was Dazai saying “you’ve grown stronger” for Akutagawa to move past that, it would have been some major bullshit.

After all of that I am here to say that manipulation is something really common on relationships and you have probably fallen to someone else’s manipulation or have manipulated someone yourself. Unlike with Bungou, it where minor things and will not have changed someone’s life completely. I mean… I hope that’s the case. But really, it happens more often than you think, so if you were reading this and at one point thought “man, I think I did something horrible” just remember that you can always fix this, it’s easier than it seems. Just talk to the person in question and you can work something out.

Manipulation also comes in more subtle forms to the point that you will never know if something that is now a core part of your personality came from you or from the influence of someone else. Could have been a friend, your parents, a fictional character, a song that listened so many times, that one time you were shown kindness when you needed it the most. It technically counts as manipulation, despite the weight that this word carries.

When it is done consciously and with the intention on making someone completely dependent on you, just like how Ivan is attached to Fyodor or how Akutagawa is attached to Dazai, it is something to be called out. It has ruined the minds of people and while we can see the difference now between Dazai and Fyodor with the introduction of Atsushi, it is still a crime far too great in my opinion.

Dazai seems to have partially noticed that, like I said before he still touches on buttons that are hardwired onto Akutagawa knowing what kind of reaction, he is going to get from them and, from what we have seen so far, he has shown no remorse to doing such. But, with Atsushi he has learned to used all that knowledge of the human psyche to make a good impact on someone, which is why Atsushi looks at him with such good expectations even knowing of all the evil things he did in the past. Akutagawa is part of Dazai’s past, but is one that is far too convenient for him to let go.

The ends don’t justify the means, people who say that are normally the ones being benefitted from said ends. I think that Dazai has the potential to show both the positives and the negatives of being manipulative towards someone or something. He is the human side of it, while Fyodor is the inhuman.

[astxlphe-fics]

Akutagawa’s (somewhat conflicted) feelings about Mori dressing him up // Moriaku 

Word count: ~1700

Content Warnings : boss/subordinate relationship, large age gap (20 years), unbalanced relationship, controlling behaviour 

“So—” Mori holds both dress shirts in from of him, pensive. “Red? Or blue?” 

“Black,” Akutagawa answers evenly, making the man pout. 

“Black is too classic,” he protests, soon cut off by the small girl by his side. 

“It’s boring.” Elise scowls, crossing her arms, blue eyes flashing Akutagawa a glare. “You’re both boring . And you—” She points an accusing finger at him. “Just choose already, he’ll be happy and we’ll get cake.” 

Akutagawa rolls his eyes at the frustrated girl, before focusing back on Mori. “Do I really need this? I already have clothes.” 

“Work clothes maybe,” Mori easily counters. He holds the marine blue shirt in front of Akutagawa’s chest and hums. “Too dark,” he decides, putting it away. 

“I still think this is ridiculous.” 

Reflexively, he almost apologies for his snippy tone when Mori turns back to him, an eyebrow raised in disbelief, but before he does, he catches himself. A year into a relationship that mainly happens behind locked doors at the office and he’s still not quite used how little...etiquette the man requires outside of work. 

At headquarters, there is no way to forget Mori is still his boss, but outside of it, in the man’s own home, there is almost nothing to remind him of this fact.  

“Don’t be like that, dearest, a little variety can’t hurt. You simply must let me take care of it. We are going to try those on—” Mori puts a new dress shirt of a much lighter blue, along with the red one, under his nose, “— and this outfit after.” 

Akutagawa glances at the outfit in question, then the pile of clothes he’s already tried on, and he wonders just how much clothes has the man bought — they’ve been at it for about two hours now.  

Mori, ever since the beginning of their relationship, loves dressing him up. He thought, at first, that it was only Elise — his ability, an extension of himself that he dresses up to suit his tastes. He was, of course, wrong, and Mori takes some special kind of joy in helping him dress. 

Looking down at the two shirts, identical save for the color, he winces at the cheerful blue of the first. “Not this one,” he decides, and Mori sighs, closes his eyes, and whines:  

“You and Elise are always so difficult ,” and really, Akutagawa doesn’t want to be difficult with Mori, he knows he’s lucky the man even looks at him, but still. Light blue.  

“Fine,” he relents, and Mori beams and waves his hand in Akutagawa’s direction. 

“Wonderful! Now, off with this.” 

Resigned, Akutagawa opens the shirt he’s currently wearing and slips out of it — there is no changing room, and besides he’s learned a while ago that there is no point in being any degree of self-conscious about his body around Mori. 

The scars are reminder of his much he’s survived and of all the way he still has to go to be better. It’s something private, something he doesn't particularly like anyone seeing. But it seems to Akutagawa that Mori enjoys looking at them, which is kind of weird and puts him under a scrutiny he would, with anyone else, avoid. More generally, he spends a lot of time watching him undress, and Akutagawa can’t genuinely say he dislikes it. 

Those eyes on him register every detail, remember every flaw with the same calm they take in everything else, and yet at no point does he say anything about it, about the scars and the bones clearly visible under his skinny frame. 

No one ever looked at him the way Mori Ougai does. It became, if he dares say it, nice.

The man extends one of the sleeves for Akutagawa to slide his arm in, then the other, and moves back to his front to close the buttons. The fabric is crisp and cool on his skin, sign that it’s either new or just out of the dry cleaner service he uses. 

“Good!” His boss looks through the dressing cabinet and comes out with a waistcoat. “For this one, I think black will do nicely.” He laughs lightly, to himself. “See? There is still black.” 

Mori hums appreciatively when he buttons the waistcoat up as well, and turns Akutagawa to the mirror so he can get a look — the blue pops out nicely, it’s true, but he can’t help but grimace again because, well. He doesn't think it’s really his color, and he doesn’t think he likes it, but then again Mori always knows better about those things. 

Being moved around like this makes Akutagawa somehow more aware of his own body than ever before.  

“You don’t like it.” Mori crosses his arm, frowning, dejected. “But you look so handsome— ” Akutagawa’s cheeks flush at the compliment, but he still shakes his head. 

“I think red might work better,” he tells him, attempting to not disappoint too much. Some time ago, he disliked the color red, but Mori loves it, so he made an effort and found it not so bad. 

(Just a bit more time and he might find himself fond of blue, too.) 

At those words, Mori perks up while Elise groans obnoxiously. She sends him a tired look, which he interprets as “hurry up ”, so he quickly undresses again and swaps the blue dress shirt for the red one, Mori still hovering around. When it’s done and Akutagawa turns to face him, he smiles kindly, smoothing out the lapel and tugging at the bottom of it to make sure it falls right. 

Then, he tilts Akutagawa’s chin up with the tip of his finger and raises the dress shirt’s collar, looping a white tie around his neck and tucking it into his waistcoat. 

“Red always suits you well.” He takes a step back, looking him up and down. “You should wear this tonight.” 

It sounds like a suggestion. Akutagawa knows it’s not — even if he says no, the man will badger him until he agrees.  

All of this — Mori’s hands on his wrist or his hips or his shoulders, covering him with another heap of fabric and deciding what he wears and how he styles his hair and what scent of shampoo or perfume he uses — used to be... overwhelming, but not anymore, he has gotten used to it.

Now, it distantly reminds him of the way Gin used to play with the doll he bought her for her twelfth birthday. The first new toy she ever had. Carefully dressed and cared for, proudly displayed, forgotten when it became worn and used and she grew too busy and too old to play with it. 

A small, rational part of him whispers he shouldn’t be so comfortable with it, with being someone's doll, that he should put a stop to it before every aspect of his life is subject to the man’s whims. 

Akutagawa doesn’t care. Shushes it. Gives in and lets himself be what makes Mori the happiest. He does have to be careful though, or he’ll soon see the day Mori discards him like Gin’s old doll.  

Besides, the clothes look better than anything Akutagawa could have come up with himself; he's not very good at choosing them. Better trust the man's tastes, Akutagawa’s own obviously being somewhat lacking.  

So, he nods. “I will.” 

Tonight is a formal affair, and if their little fitting session was originally to find Akutagawa new clothes he liked, as the day wore on it became more of a way to find him something to wear. Tonight, Mori speaks business with a foreign organization; and whether Akutagawa is supposed to be the arm candy or the bodyguard, he isn’t sure.  

Perhaps it’s both. It’s usually both. 

“Now, you’re just missing one little thing—” 

While he disappears again, Elise raises her head from where she’s slumped on the couch and gets to her feet, watching Mori’s chosen outfit. She blinks up at him and narrows her eyes, contemplating in silence for a few seconds. “Not half bad,” she decides, before she turns away, looking for her dress, which probably means Mori is satisfied with his choice. 

Not minding his presence, she pulls her own dress over her head. Akutagawa turns away to let her change into the new one on, until she tugs on his arm to show him. 

“Not half bad,” he says back to her, making her grin. 

It’s brand-new dress, red and black, matching with Akutagawa’s outfit, which he is sure is done on purpose, somehow. Mori gets a particular joy out of making them match, for reasons that escape him.

Walking around the room, he checks that the pants aren’t too tight and that the movements of his arms aren’t too limited. 

By the time he reaches the conclusion that everything is as comfortable as it should be, Mori comes back. Without missing a beat, he grabs his wrist, holding it up, deft fingers fixing glinting cufflinks to the end of his right sleeve, then his left.  

“There,” Mori tells him softly. “Perfect.” 

Before letting go, he presses a kiss on his knuckles and spins him around, and Akutagawa’s heart does a little jump, blood rushing to his face, his ears burning. 

He glances to the mirror again. “I look…fine,” he says quietly, and Mori offers a sharp, closed eyed, knowing smile and sneaks another a kiss under his ear, at the junction of his jaw.  

“Of course, you do.” 

With the way his eyes linger here and there, Akutagawa knows he’ll have wandering hands for the rest of the night. He doesn’t really mind it anymore— it feels strangely good to have someone willing to touch him this way, to kiss him, whispering praises and flattering words in his ear like he deserves them. 

 “Thank you.” Then: “Should I expect a fight?” Those clothes don’t offer much material to fight with, though he can still hide a weapon somewhere (a small gun at his ankle, hidden in the folds of his pants, or a knife strapped to his forearm, or whatever Mori decides.) 

“No,” he finally answers. “No, I don’t believe so.” And he adds, because he is, as always, aware of what Akutagawa truly is asking: “Besides, the weather is way too nice for you to wear a coat.”