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For a moment Charlie hesitated before she walked over to Bruce and cleared her throat to get his attention. Her hands were hidden behind her back seemingly holding something. She didn't said anything yet, and instead waited for Bruce to turn his attention to her.
@charlietidwell
Bruce was working on his computer, as far as he was concerned, it was just a normal day. He heard Charlie clearing her throat, then adjusted his glasses as he looked up at the teenage girl.
"Charlie, what's up?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at what she was hiding behind her back.
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this is a little niche and probably incredibly difficult to try to animate but a cool idea for the nostalgia set specifically in the kitchen is one of those pull out trash cans from the cabinets. We had one in an old house my family lived in, cousins & I would always play in it and hide in it but I was just thinking about older trash can themes while i was using the kitchen set for my current build.
added it to the download folder :)
it uses the tuning for the nano-can, so you'll receive simoleons for your trash
note: sims are able to throw garbage away, and the cabinet will animate, but they won't actually route *to* the trash can first; they just sort of chuck it into the abyss. whenever i try to add constraints to the interaction, the sim can no longer throw away trash, so i've left it as-is for now. trash cans do not like to be edited apparently, and changing any little bit of tuning can make it stop functioning altogether. (if anyone knows how to force sims to route with the trash, please let me know!)
also you'll notice the cupboard is slightly darker than the others. it's using a different shader, because the counter shader prevents the animation from playing. another annoying little thing i'm not sure how to fix
it's far from perfect, but i hope you get some use out of it!
#replies#asks#ts4cc#it took me so long to manually copy and paste the texture instances of all 62 swatches my Ctrl+V fingers are actually sore#but at least the file isn't huge#texture referencing is so unnecessarily difficult in S4S
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Osomatsu-san × Karaoke Manekineko ( 2024 )
#finally got off my ass and finished cleaning these transparents up!!#now they can be enjoyed in their full glory#i'm also gonna put a link to the full clear file scan i did in the replies in case anyone wants it!#2024 manekineko osmt collab i love you so much...#osomatsu-san#osmt#osomatsu#osomatsu matsuno#karamatsu#karamatsu matsuno#choromatsu#choromatsu matsuno#ichimatsu#ichimatsu matsuno#jyushimatsu#jyushimatsu matsuno#todomatsu#todomatsu matsuno#official#transparents
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watched my friend kass play pressure on stream today n doodled sebastian n then she colored him :) super nostalgic shit. add this one to my collection of butch women on t btw
#sebastian pressure#sebastian solace#pressure roblox#making his third hand a mantis shrimp claw cuz why not. curled up. love the voice acting in this game!!!!#also it all looks like masseffect1 why does it all look like that. the font. akira brain blast gif#i was such a huge scp nerd as a kid. the files make me giggle w the way theyre written. rly feels like a passion project#im so interested in the random map generation in this one i did not know the roblox engine was capable of that#if anyone knows how it works pls leave a reply!#curds
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Bruce didn't mind she was crying, he didn't mind that their hug lasted a lot longer than normal. He just warmly smiled at Charlie, hoping to communicate that it was okay to feel, it was okay to care.
"Any time. Are you feeling better?"
Hi, Charlie.
@doctor-brucebanner
Charlie was busy reading a book. Or more like starring at the page pretending to read it. It was one of Bruce's science books and Charlie didn't understand even the slightest of it. So at one point she stopped really reading it and in reality was thinking about other stuff when she heard a familiar voice.
She looked up from her book and over to Bruce. "Hey." She gave a short answer back before turning er attention back to the book.
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#this was a 2 page comic once upon a time ago!#but the other page is one of the many that was lost when my files got deleted last fall#was able to clean this one up enough to post it though#my art#gtav#trevor philips#michael de santa#gta v#trikey#gta 5#gta5#grand theft auto 5#tum/blr dont get me on this. nothing is shown only implied so it should be fine#also sorry will reply to asks 😬 eventually#got some recent work stress on my plate and it makes me more avoidant than usual#i promise im not ignoring u guys on purpose i just cant make myself not freak out these days
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Your art is so gorgeous and edible, and X files and Hannibal oooooooooooo!!!!!
thank you so much, I really appreciate it! here’s a little mulder for you <3

#sorry it took a minute to reply- I was going to wait until I had a WIP to share but alas the doodle is all I’ve got atm#ty again anon! your ask made my day :)#my art#the x files#x files#fox mulder#txf art#txf
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Continued from here.
Bruce smiled as he saw Peter come in, but raised his eyebrow at the question, looking over at the bench for a moment, then back at the teenager.
“Which one, and may I ask why you need it first?” he asked, wanted to make sure his lab equipment wasn’t going to be used irresponsibly. It wasn’t out of mistrust, but Bruce always worked on the side of caution.
@spideymn
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"That's good, this hospital's too nice," he responded, a little glad to see some of her personality now that she was recovering. Bruce looked up at the ceiling and then back to her.
"It was nice seeing you again. Take it easy, rest, okay?"
Closed Roleplay: @doctor-brucebanner
MJ headed to her interview with as much confidence as she could muster. Of course she always appeared confident but that didn’t mean that she actually was. Once arriving at the building in which the interview would take place, she made her way to the elevator and headed up to the 69 floor.
After the interview was over and she had excited the room, she let out a breath of air that she didn’t know that she had been holding in. Walking back to the elevators, she heard a loud explosion which was followed by the entire building shaking. She stood her ground and looked around but MJ couldn’t tell what was going on from where she was. The emergency alarm went off and MJ took off in a dead sprint for the stairs. She made her way down several levels before she saw a sign on the wall the showed that their was a child daycare on the floor she was currently on.
MJ was terrified to stay in the building but if she could save any of those kids, she had to at least try. Making her way through the door that lead to the children, she found them trapped on the other side of a huge hole in the floor. She called out to the daycare worker and told them she was gonna find them a way out. MJ ran back out of the room and found something that she could use as a bridge for them to walk across.
After she put it in place, all the children and the workers made their way out and headed down the stairs but right as MJ went to take off she heard another kid screaming for help. MJ ran back into the room and grabbed the kid but on her way out that’s when the floor gave out of her. She grabbed the child’s head trying to shield it from the debris falling and the floor that she landed on. The child in her arms was screaming at this point, but MJ was just trying to stay awake. She hit her head when she hit the floor and it felt like some of her bones were possibly broken, but she was too out of it to determine which ones.
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From late November
#the walten files#twf#the walten files fanart#twf fanart#susan woodings#doodle#fanart#procreate#digital art#art#portrait#guess who’s Finally updating#also I fixed the pic on the right just now#fixed the nose and added a tad more contour#the original drove me insane with how the nose looked#it just didn’t look accurate at all#I’m sick rn bare with me I’ll reply to inbox messages soon EEEGH#tysm for the love lately tho guys#but ya these r from the end of the month in November
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Do we know why Aylin is/was known as the Nightsong? Shar is the Nightsinger, of course, but Aylin is Selune’s kid, not hers. Is it just a middle finger to Selune or is there some other reason?
Out-of-universe answer: originally, way, way back at the start of early access, the Nightsong was a Sharran, unwillingly participating in Ketheric's ritual, apparently also occasionally going through some sort of possession by Shar, and insisting to you, the player, that she wanted "to sing her own song, not Shar's, not Ketheric's".
Eventually, through a bunch of iterations of the story, this character became the Aylin we know today, but the Nightsong moniker remained - I assume since the whole Nightsong questline and mystery were well-known and established - even as its context and implications changed.
In-universe answer: the name is absolutely a cruel and derogatory thing, one that I think both Shar and Aylin's more mundane would-be captors get a kick out of. Shar stealing something as dear to her sister as her very daughter, and staking a claim on her like that, to the extent of doing away with her very name? What bigger middle finger could there possibly be?
Then, Ketheric, Balthazar, all of them - Lorroakan as well - do it very deliberately, effacing Aylin's identity and using this as another part of the dehumanisation and objectification, calling Aylin everything from a relic to a masterpiece to claiming her as their "creation" (this also serves to very conveniently and effectively obfuscate the truth of their whole operation). Ketheric, in one of his rooftop dialogues, makes it fairy clear, too:
Player: What of the Nightsong? Ketheric Thorm: I’ll keep her close. Aylin was her name - an angel of Selûne’s own brood, sent to guide and guard my line. Until she failed me. Ketheric Thorm: Now she is Nightsong. Balthazar’s greatest creation, and the source of my greatest strength. Ketheric Thorm: How often our burdens can be made into boons, with the right encouragement.
Lorroakan, when you get him flustered, keeps angrily but deliberately correcting himself to referring to "the Nightsong" as "it" whenever a "she" slips through. It's revolting! I simply adore Aylin's delivery of this taunting line related to all of that:

Dame Aylin: What are you so scared of, magus? Not the Nightsong, surely - why, she's nothing but a relic to be purchased and pursued.
And after all, it is not for nothing that Aylin refers to herself as "the so-called Nightsong" in her much lauded iconic chain-breaking release scene and exclaims that "the Nightsong is no more".

She even includes it as part of her long signature in her epilogue letter:
So yeah, "don't call her that" sounds like excellent advice.
#oathkeeper replies to things#bg3#baldur's gate 3#dame aylin#nightsong#yeah she's still called that in all the game files because practicality and logistics but... you get it#catching up with the inbox
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unhinged stinky critter for @lazydayslivin
dont forget ur daily clicks!!
#I FINALLY FINISHED A SORREL DRAWING AND NOT LOST THE FILE YIPPEEE#ive made like 3 whole fucking drawings of him before. i lost them in the void i call my computorr#also i couldnt figure out how to draw their logo on their cape bc of the folds so i made anotherlogo#hope u like it payton ^^ also sorry that i havent replied i got too anxious and i dont kbow if ill ever reply but ur so nice but i cant rn#(im in a shitty mental state too. please dont take me not responding personal im just Not Competent Texting and Not Okay)#sth#sonic fanart#sonic#sorrel the hedgehog#sonic oc#nov.aart
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any uke america fanfics you want to share with us? 🫶🏽 open to any ship
Sorry for the late reply! I really wanted to give this my best shot and I've had A Time Of It lately. I've tried to rec fics that I don't think have been rec'd as often or have under 500 kudos, just to increase the likelihood people haven't read a certain fic. All fics are complete.
A BOTTOM AMERICA FIC REC FOR THIRSTY, DESPERATE INDIVIDUALS (UKUS and RusAme ver.), a rec list.
If you're a patient soul and know how to read fic on the LJ kink meme, I highly recommend CROATOAN, a 53k story wherein Arthur has to rescue Alfred from the fae - at the end, the only way to protect Alfred is to take his virginity. This story is quite light on the sex in general, but it's a story I've remembered all the way from 2010, when I was first in fandom, and I don't see it recommended as much nowadays. Part 1 / Part 2; UKUS, minor Greece/Japan.
Infinity to One by jedishampoo | UKUS, E, 16k | England and America up the antes on their Halloween contest, and then another situation reaches a critical point as well. Present-day fic.
Precious Thing by alifeasvivid | UKUS, E, 11k, dub-con | The ship on which Alfred F Jones has served as lieutenant for the past two years has just been sunk by pirates. He is the only survivor and now prisoner of Captain Arthur Kirkland, a ruthless pirate who loves only one thing: gold. While Alfred is sure that there hadn't been any amount worth stealing on the ship, Arthur begs to differ.
Norikov's Self-Consistency Principle by Fandoms_Are_Life37 | UKUS, E, 17k | America has found himself in the year 1600 and face to face with England on his privateering vessel. Now what?
All You Can Eat by gummycola | UKUS, E, 2.6k | Arthur's jealous rage at Francis for taking a nibble out of Alfred is dissipating after their fight. Alfred has a problem with that. Third in the Vampire Arthur series.
Coupling, Parting by gummycola | UKUS, E, 3.4k | Prince Alfred is unhappy with his fiance, but not enough to resist a picnic and a chance to be alone with him.
Always. Somehow. by kujocujoh | UKUS, E, 9.1k | A storm forces America and England to share a hotel room. But America has planned this for years.
Weighing Pride Between Scales by DemonicPiano | UKUS, E, 26k | King Alfred's new Queen is a monster in both the streets and the sheets.
The Shape of Seconds by anon | UKUS, E | Kink meme fill, morning sex between England and America.
It's Called 'Special' by Myathewolfeh | UKUS, E, 4.3k | A jealous France decides to find out what makes England and America's relationship so special and gets a pleasant surprise.
Walking Distance by Orestiad | UKUS, E, 11k | Demon Arthur and soulmates and sex.
To Get Something Done, First You Need The Urge by anon | UKUS, E | “Okay… what’s this gonna do to me?” “Permanently? Nothing. In the short term? You may feel somewhat tired.” He smirked slightly. “But I would hope that is normally how you feel after I’ve had my way with you.”
Under the cut is Russia/America.
Ricochet by Spinyfruit | Russia/America/China, E, 9.8k | “You’re going to do this with a guy?” Matthew hisses. “Are you even attracted to men?”
if i die tonight, they'd make me a martyr by membersmark (johnllauren) | Russia/America, E, 7.6k | “You know what I’m here for,” Alfred forces himself to maintain eye contact with Ivan, to act like he has even a semblance of higher ground in this situation.
Hunger by vanceypants | Russia/America, E, 6.4k | After his sister is chosen as the annual sacrifice to the God of Winter and Death, Alfred decides he knows better than the High Priestess, their society at large, and the gods themselves.
Winter Wonderland by Vixenfur | Russia/America, E, 10k | Breaking my rule for this story, which has 760 kudos - Alfred crash lands near a remote cabin in Russia and meets the man of his dreams.
Quicksilver by TheGoliathBeetle | Russia/America, M, 22k | Alfred whimpered, desperate. Ivan had him pinned, holding his hands up and out of the way. But he was also not touching Alfred in any way that mattered. “Don’t be a goddamn tease,” he whined. “C’mon, man.”
Keeping Warm by anon | Russia/America, E | Hetalia kink meme prompt. Alfred reached up when Ivan passed over him, throwing his arms around him and pulling him down so that he could inhale him. “Mmmm,” he hummed, “you smell so good.”
Totally God's Will and Shit by anon | Russia/America, E | Conference shenanigans - crack fic.
desperate measures by membersmark (johnllauren) | Russia/America, E, 10k | America misses a meeting he was supposed to be hosting. Russia investigates. Omegaverse.
#hws america#aph america#ukus#usuk#rusame#hws russia#aph russia#aph england#hws england#-#reply.#file: fic talk#.txt
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I'll be real I just saw this outfit on a stuffed animal and wanted to draw him in something similar
#ralsei#deltarune#i started this like... three months ago? and worked on it for ~3 hours#and then forgot about it until I was searching for a file for class the other day#so finished it up real quick#hi :> hello :> I'm gonna try and get back into my normal routine#it's been... a month and a half? since I've posted a proper drawing?#i'm still not handling um... previous events... very well#but i'm not gonna get to feeling any better about anything if i continue being a hermit#gonna start posting again for about a week; after that I'll give a go at talking to some people i've not been able to reply to for a while#**or... i'll try my best#we'll see how it goes :) one step at a time
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Do you think Kui retconned Kabru and Rin as a couple? It seems so strange how Kabru treats her if he views her as a sister
Rin & Kabru relationship analysis
Skip to the keep reading cut if you only want my Kabru & Rin thoughts. Tldr of the preamble is that I don't think Kui retconned anything but I don't think Kabru and Rin were ever meant to end up as a couple, but that doesn't mean that there's no way anything deeper or more complex is happening here. Under the keep reading is my pretty full analysis of Rin & Kabru, which I'll still cover in my full Kabru party analysis eventually.
1) People do debate about whether or not Kui changed her approach to a lot of her characters halfway through the story, Kabru, Thistle and Chilchuck to name some of the biggest ones. I've heard it be an explanation for the shapeshifters even, that it's a meta joke on how characters' old behavior and appearances have now become out of character. I personally believe nothing has been retconned, that all the characters are coherent and, perhaps more importantly, that regardless of later intent the early writing makes the characters more interesting and layered. Not that the idea of there being or needing retcons has no merit at all, for example forest goblins are in-world common knowledge to be found on the second floor, but we also learn later that "goblin" is a slur against half-foots, and knowing Dunmeshi's philosophy about humanoid monsters it's odd that they never ever come up again if they exist. The anime -and iirc adventurer's bible- kept there being goblins on the second floor of the dungeon, so much like Thistle's early appearance I have to believe it's a part of canon that's not meant to be retconned, ie that's canon and accepted as such, with some degree of intent. We do know that the climax of the manga was going to happen differently with what Kui was planning in the earlier manga days, with demon king dunlord Laios, too. Regardless of all this, for better or worse we have what we have now, and we must take it all into account as the whole picture of the work's story, setting and cast– starting to pick and choose what's actually canon from the canon story is just giving up and letting the world burn lol.
2) Kui is fearless when it comes to presenting us with complex layered relationships without feeling the need for them to explain themselves or offering full closure. Marcille canonically sees Falin as a friend. Laios' succubus was undebatably Marcille. Mickbell sees Kuro as family. Were the Touden parents bad parents? Is Maizuru? Is Milsiril? Ambiguity in Dunmeshi's case is a feature and not a bug, and perhaps this short story of Kui's shows why she prefers not to cast moral judgement as a narrator on various acts and characters. There's this very neutral approach to her writing where the cast does its own thing and she just tells us what happens, and as I said closure isn't a given. I've talked about the matter of whether or not Chilchuck's wife accepts him back before, something that bothers and lingers for a lot of readers, but an example that haunts me is Mickbell and Kuro. It's explicitly stated that Mickbell continues to "still being worked hard by Mickbell" after canon, and though we have one hint of how it might get better with Kuro learning common slowly but surely, there's no 1) conclusions as to what their relationship is exactly and 2) discouraging or encouraging framing for it, there's chiding but ultimately whether the relationship is more healthy than it is unhealthy and more salvageable than unsalvageable and "worth it" isn't answered. What happens will happen, and we just have to come to an answer that satisfies us on our own :') Or hey, how Falin only starts finding herself in post-canon! It offers a nice end to her arc in canon of having a very malleable unpresent identity, but it starts another of self-exploration growth that is left open-ended. So, it's not because a relationship feels wrong or unfinished that it wasn't well-written or intended.
3) Kui doesn't lie but characters can. Characters can be unaware of things or even wrong, even with their own feelings, like Chilchuck saying he doesn't care about the party etc etc, or more widely Marcille thinking orcs are scum, or people at large in Dunmeshi believing in a modified truth of history, a version of it without the demon. These can be wrong objectively, but furthermore they can be disproved by the text, the way that Dunmeshi shows us orcs can be communicated with and peaceful etc etc and every character's racism ends up narratively or implicitly discouraged and disproven, kobolds included. The story is told by us through the characters and their actions, so it's their flawed perspective and incomplete information that we have.
So, okay. Relationships are very complex but Kui doesn't tell lies, there's no info or moments that really have been retconned. The reader is left to make their own interpretation of canon.
... OKAY LAST TANGENT but we have to acknowledge something about canon quick too: This is gonna sound ironic considering what I said earlier but while all extras are made to be in-character they're not all canon to the storyline, so to speak. There are sort of three types of extra comics context I can think of, there are comics set in pre or post canon, like the one about the way Marcille was welcomed into Laios' party, or Falin's answer to Toshiro's proposal, which we have no reason to not believe happened in the canon timeline. Daydream Hours extras are exceptions because they're usually looser than Adventurer's bible extras, for example the comic about Milsiril visiting Kabru has a "what if" phrasing to the blurb, implying it didn't happen. Then there are extras set vaguely in time that if during canon could simply happen off-screen, like Chilchuck's extra about hearing the party members going to the bathroom, a lot of monster tidbits also fit into this, which again I have no reason to assume haven't happened. But now we get to the last type, the one set at a precise moment in canon that is impossible. My go-to example is the tidbit about werewolves, it's set during the Laios vs Lycion fight with Kabru present, and those chapters in the story had quite tight plotting, it makes no sense to consider that extra within the reality of that moment, it breaks the tone and story continuity and timespan of the scene, it can't be canon to the canon storyline. This is to say that again, although in every extra the lore is correct and characters are in-character, some extras are not "canon" to the story's timeline and can't have actually happened. And since it happened with one extra that didn't have any disclaimer of being different than any other, it does put other extras' canonity into question a bit too. Ultimately, what we get in the actual manga is above everything else in both relevance and credibility. This is about extra comics, but I don't call into question all the extra info through text we get in character blurbs and about the Dunmeshi world within the Adventurer's Bible at all, especially since it was specifically made to inform us more about canon. This is all just something to keep in mind, when talking about Dunmeshi canon.
Okay, now. In terms of rin & Kabru's relationship, as for what we see of it...
The quickest summary of how they see each other:

Rin's line reflects how she follows him out of worry, thinking that his ambitious manipulating ways will fail him and get him in trouble eventually, and how that worry is out of care and love. Kabru's line... Is more ambiguous, but we'll get into it.
We don't see Kabru and Rin interact a ton, but we do see him bring her up/think of her unprompted this time, which reveals a bit of how he sees her/feels about her and what his priorities are.

He "wants to help her get away somehow", and this out of what? Duty? Charity? Care? The companionship they once shared? Sympathy, knowing how it feels like to be under inadequate care by elves? Kabru is empathetic and wants good for people, cares about people and community, is rather concerned by the greater good instead of individualistic gain etc etc, so this attention isn't necessarily uncharacteristic on its own.
What makes their bond unique is the history between them.


It's implied they spent a lot of time together growing up, which led to Rin wanting to stick with him. Perhaps as some trauma-fueled-bond hero, but in her own words mostly because she's worried he'll get into trouble if he's left alone. She expicitly loves him romantically, started presumably before canon and presumably hasn't stopped by the end of it either.
We see his priorities here. It's notable that besides Rin being the sort of by default second most important kabru party character, she's also the one he thinks of first, understandably since he knows her best. Like above, he speaks very matter-of-factly and coldly about it though, and he seems surprisingly apathetic. It's not the thought of hostages that drives him to eat those monsters and keep strong, it's the thought of learning the mystery of dungeons and how to prevent Utaya tragedies



This moment below may seem like nothing, but it's also pretty telling of their dynamic:

Rin in the moment negatively assumes he's only frivolously interested in Namari, and although Kabru doesn't shut it down instantly with a "this isn't about personal interest" he does imply clearly with "friends" that his intent isn't to woo her (the fantranslation uses the word lovers instead iirc, so the original japanese word might be more revealing. Considering how Kabru sometimes teases Rin and provokes her jealousy on purpose like with the mermaids, it's not impossible the word was an euphemism). Rin ambiguously disbelieves this and/or disapproves. It does feel like Kabru keeps this sort of persona air when answering her, so it's not entirely hard to understand- it's true he was keeping his real reasons and intent secret: only later on does he give his party the "Laios party" spiel and mention Namari was part of it.
This can also be seen as an example of the chaperone "big sister" effect of her nagging, and of her recurring bad faith towards him. Rin chastises Kabru for behavior and stances that are understandable, like telling him he shouldn't just smile and gloss things over when being belittled, but she does have the habit of being easily jealous and lashing out because of it. But again, if you see it from her stance, your childhood friend always thinks he an handle everything alone and acts like he has the fate of the world resting solely on his shoulders, and he keeps shutting you out and leaving you to guess for his intentions, and being someone under his leadership on top of a friend makes this more alarming and frustrating. Loving him as you do, knowing him for as long as you have, you'd wish Kabru was open with you and that'd create frustration.

Yet despite everything there's trust here. There's familiarity and a degree of comfort, even when Kabru always refuses to fully open up. A promise from Kabru means something to her, it's worth something, she does trust his word and morals even when she knows he can be dishonest. She's used to Kabru, and through thick and thin she wants to be there to support him in his goals and look after him.




But below, his priorities are reaffirmed. He literally pushes her out of his way in that first page, to get to laios who represents his goals, and then figuratively by brushing her off. I think it's very interesting that the look her gives her feels alike to the look he gives Laios shortly before, those sort of empty eyes. They make me think it's his mask-on "business mode" look, and when it's a matter of business things have gotten serious and he will not entertain irrelevant matters. Like Rin's feelings. My first instinct's always been that his look at her meant a resounding "shut up", but it's true it could also easily be a "come on, catch up", especially since he goes on to explain that they mustn't have meant harm in the first place.



It's not only the look that's cold though, because you'll remember, "catching the culprits" was the promise Kabru made to her, the one she trusted that made her agree to their party's plan at all in the first place. Even though the phrasing wasn't precise on that front, by giving up on confronting or punishing Laios' party at all he's breaking his promise, and doing so very dismissively.
It's the distance of it, in how cold he is to her, how distant from him and pushed away by him she feels. It seems to say that yes, the teases he does are meaningless bones he throws at her, the moments they share are below him and below his goals, this is what's important to him and this is how Kabru wants to treat her when push comes to shove. With harsh chiding of his own and then calm explanations, as if while she's heartfelt with him he's indifferent with her.
Although, like how in the end he doesn't want to kill Laios despite it being the safe choice, there's much to say on wether or not he would actually throw her under the bus in the end even if cornered. He always steels himself for the worst, but he's also more talk than bite when it comes to truly being effortlessly ruthless and he prefers to find peaceful and humane solutions. In the end though, the hostage situation more or less tips the scale both ways, even if it'd be easy to say he was simply hiding his concern.
Okay and now to quicken things up this is where I start dividing interpretations as "good faith" as in believing Kabru's explanation that he has a strictly sisterly attachment to her, vs "bad faith" where there is potential for considering romantic interest on his end.
To start with the least questionable:

"We're talking about how cute your smile is, Rin." Good faith: He's complimenting his friend, wants her to not feel insecure, wants her to feel more confident and likeable desirable, because he's nice or because he cares about her. It does make her happy in the end, after all. Knowing it would, he might even have said it just to demonstrate his point to Mickbell with her reaction. Bad faith: You know she likes you, isn't this weird to go out of your way to say? He's not lying exactly, but they were moreso talking about her attitude around smiling, and he could just as easily have deflected or said "Oh, nothing much". Bringing up her appearance or how cute she is could also have made her self-conscious, she's not really the kind that likes public attention- but he knows her the best and it shows, after all. In the end, it doesn't sound like something you'd just tell someone you know pines after you that you want to turn down or discourage from pursuing you.
"When she furrows her brows, I assume she's smiling inside" is also weird to me. Sure she does have this weird situation with emoting going on, but claiming Rin is never angry is factually wrong and always dismissing that anger feels belittling. But this approach to reading Rin and interacting with her would explain why he always teases her, I suppose.
But this is kinda what I mean when I say they are close, in a way, the way he knows how she is with smiling, the way he's comfortable saying things like this to her despite not being someone you just have to interact with occasionally. There IS familiarity there IS intimacy, it's just odd and inconsistently applied.



Kissing her: Good faith: This is an urgent dangerous situation and kissing her is the quickest and most direct way to shut her up, which in his situation he does not have the luxury of time or ressources to think through solutions better. We don't fully know the details of incantation magic's workings, had he slapped his hand over her mouth maybe her lips could have continued moving and chanting so she could have still finished her spell, compared to kissing where it stop both lip movement and sounds from coming out. Plus, kissing her has the added effect of heavily shocking her. In a 'what if' bluray bonus comic Kabru's party faces shapeshifters and he suggests everyone get naked as a quick solution, so it is implied there too that physical intimacy and privacy aren't something he puts above practicality. Bad faith: Gag her. Hell, shove your finger down her throat. 'Master of human anatomy and psychology' here decided he had no other choice than kissing her. In that 'what if' extra I mentioned, Kabru did find another much less practical way to deal with the shapeshifters and went through with that instead, knowing no one would be happy getting naked. Also "It's too bad she looks like a monster", hello what? Neutral: Perhaps he chose, because either way in any case he did choose to, to kiss her precisely because he's mr. master of psychology, because knowing it was Rin he decided kissing was the best approach specifically because it's her, knowing it'd shock her etc etc, regardless of it being tactful or not or if it'd hurt her or even encourage her love for him.
"It's too bad she looks like a monster." Good faith: It's a neutral enough statement that he could mean a couple of different things with it, including wishing he could see her reaction better or speak with her more easily. If we go with the "I wish I wasn't kissing her as a fishman" angle, well, he really hates monsters to a traumatized degree so pseudoincest may be preferrable over monsterfucking. Fair enough. Bad faith: The fantranslation translates it as "it's a shame" instead of "it's too bad", which does lend itself to a less neutral reading, but wether that's reliable and telling or not would depend on the original japanese sentence of course. He could have meant "I wish she looked like anything else but a monster", but "I wish she (at least?) looked like herself when I kissed her" is the most direct interpretation, and then, well. That's pretty damning. To me it sort of feels odd that'd have been the phrasing if that was the case, especially since Kabru especially has noticeable reactions to monsters like shaking, horrified faces and dramatic thoughts. This is his internal thoughts and "Too bad she looks like a monster" feels very casual- the same type of casual that he has when deflecting not being interested in Namari to Rin, aka him being more playful. "I wish she looked like herself when I had to kiss her", like man. Okay. There's a lot of leeway you can give him but it's still odd.

Good faith: ??? I do struggle with this one. A friend of mine has the interpretation that this is an epic own of sorts, that by "always like this" Kabru meant "unable for me to hear you" so he likes not hearing what she says. Reardless, wether his assumption is accurate or not, Kabru is taunting/teasing when he says "look at me, not the mermaids", to what could have very well been just Rin noticing his staring and telling him to focus, and "You'd be cute if you were always like this", and like always he's very casual as he does it, says it like it's nothing, so it could mean nothing deeper. Bad faith: Why do you have to say any of this, what do you think it accomplishes, this counts as flirting in most books. It doesn't make her mood better, it doesn't shut her up, so I can only imagine Kabru simply enjoys doing this, it entertains him for one reason or another. Why do you keep calling her cute why is this a pattern that is forming. Neutral: Presumably, Rin is also unable to hear him since they all wear the earplugs. This would mean that beyond his gesturing, his words aren't meant for her to actually hear.
So.
My honest reaction:

Kabru what is this............. Huh. Kabru. What do you mean
The issue
It's less intimidating when analyzing each piece of interaction one by one to slowly form a wider picture, but it's still quite the puzzle. Because ultimately, what he feels for her aside, he is both pushing her away and encouraging her crush on him. He is both keeping her out and leading her on. He is both trying to keep a distance and throwing her bones to latch onto. And huh. Why though.
He's too socially savvy not to know Rin likes him right? Right? He even teases her about being jealous. He has to. He hassss to. And then obviously he has no intent of reciprocating. Especially since he's a huge flirt with anyone and Rin makes it clear she feels jealous.
Then, it feels kinda cruel...? You don't have to flirt, or taunt her because you know she likes you, and blow her off like that without ever having a serious talk. And like I said, shove your finger in there instead of kissing her. Did he do it because he prefers her being kissed over her puking? Was it out of pity? Throwing her crumbs of attention? Is him wanting her out of the elves' grasp just pity? Is it soooo easy for Kabru to tease her and kiss her despite having no feelings of his own, borderline mocking how deeply she loes him and what it means to her? Is doing all this "for her sake" too, like bringing her along was? Just. Free Rin. Free Rin of this.
In the end, what side of "does Kabru like Rin or not" you fall on pretty much depends on wether you favor a consistent "good faith" reading or a consistent "bad faith" reading, which impression you got while reading. But I hope I was able to show that both sides have reasons to think it and both are coherent interpretations of canon, neither are just being dense or difficult for the sake of it. A Kabru interpretation differs almost person to person. Personally I think the ambiguity itself is telling, which is why I usually land with a weird ambiguous situationship characterisation with them, they're a third secret thing and Kabru's feelings for her are complicated imo. He doesn't love her but he doesn't not love her etc. Dungeon Meshi largely lets the reader come up with their own interpretations of details, Kui herself said interpreting characters however is readers' freedom, and the story also avoids romance in general.
Although, there's debate as to wether he even leads her on at all, and personally I think it's pretty undeniable regardless of his intent, if anything even just going by effect.
All I can safely say is that this is not the behavior of someone smartly turning someone down.
Potential 'why's
BUT you could almost say he's purposefully trying to hurt her by being jokingly flirty and casual about it all, which could be to push her away and discourage her from pursuing him, wether it be for her sake or his own. It is a ship post, but I explore this stance a bit in my previous kabrin post if you're interested and unafraid of shippy brainstorming.
Or, inversely, maybe to him leading her on is a way to spare her feelings. Maybe he feels guilty about her liking him, or maybe he feels like he has to repay her somehow. Where his behavior when teasing her in early canon is rather provoking, most often I'd call his demeanor towards her placating if anything. We do see that Kabru prefers letting people down easy, except when shit is serious in the dungeon I guess, and he tries not to rattle people.

Personally, my favorite niche reading is I think it's his way of avoiding confrontation. He doesn't want to lose her, so he gives her just enough hope to hold onto so she'll keep following him, unknowing that Rin follows him out of a sense of duty of her own rather than romantic hope, because he always underestimates people's like of him like Laios does, assumes that people like him less than they seem because even when they do it's a version of him that's tailored to be likable. So he does this to keep the status quo going and keep her interested without having to reciprocate or commit.
I do think he also takes her for granted a bit. "Whenever she frowns I imagine it's a smile instead" what are you talking about. Like I said earlier, it feels weirdly dismissive and belittling to treat her anger as if it was something else, even assuming it to be joy- and there's merit to calling the anger Rin often shows a misdirected feeling, because yes, it's out of worry and care and love and she has a hard time emoting outside of a harsh-seeming scope etc, but is this what's going on here? His words leave me equally intrigued and concerned.
And like, her caring anger coupled by her nagging and scolding and looking after him unconditionally, I'm sure she does frustrate him sometimes and makes him feel stifled especially with his background at Milsiril's, making the big sister comparison very understandable... ... BUT THEN WHY LEAD HER ON.
What he could feel
Okay so first of. "She sort of feels like how it'd be like to have a big sister" and "I see her as a sister, I strictly see her as if we shared family ties and she was the blood of my blood" are different. Kabru being like "Man, I wished she looked like herself when I had to kiss her" does not feel like a brother-sister thing to me, personally.
But hey, going with the opposite angle too- "She's like a sister to me" can be an easy shorthand to say "I care about you but I don't see you romantically or sexually at all" and it can be "you are deeply important to me and our bond would remain no matter the distance or time we are apart" and even "I can't imagine my life without you (no romo)". In many languages like french, the word soulmate instead literally translates as 'sister soul', as in a twin soul etc etc-. A husband and a wife, too, are family. This is to say that both familial love and romantic love can run very deep, with a similar intensity just in a different nature, platonic or romantic. Kabru doesn't necessarily feel very strongly towards Rin even with the sister angle, but what I'm saying is that if it isn't just a catchphrase to let Rin down easy, whether something he would tell Rin or just something he tells himself, then it's not entirely out of the question Kabru would mix up the nature of that affection he feels for her. Maybe being childhood friends, he thinks it makes sense for it to be what he feels for her. I don't think this is necessarily farfetched because we see that Kabru neglects his own needs heavily for the sake of his goals, he doesn't recognize or acknowledge his needs for social connections or things like sleeping, cooking and keeping his living quarters orderly. I think it's in character for him to dismiss outright that he could be in love with someone, and even for him to suppress it, because he can't let anything be more important to him than preventing more Utaya tragedies. If you subscribe to the idea that Kabru wanted to be Laios' friend at the back of his mind, this is in line with that.
Regardless of the "truth"/intent, I agree Kabru treating 'his sister' Rin the way he did in canon is really mega major weirdo of him though.
He sees her as a sister, or he believes he does. With a romantic angle, it could mean: Denial, repression, having a bond that feels as deep and immutable. Leading her on because: wanting her near but still pushing her away, being interested and scared to admit it, thinking he shouldn't let himself have this, not interested but still wanting the safety net of her.
Again with my own interpretation, I think he loves her the way one loves a safety net. What I and others may mean when we say that we think Kabru doesn't love her but he also doesn't not love her. I think this is why he's both taking her for granted and caring, dismissive and considerate, her "brother figure" but also the guy who will flirt with her without a second thought. A safety net the way one is comforted by a big sister mayhaps, who's disapproving yet always unconditionally there to help. But family and comfort are so closely tied together, it's unsurprising they get entangled sometimes, a lot of behaviors can be seen as both romantic and familial and it's just a matter of the facts and perspective, because in the end what they are both is loving- and canonically, Rin loves Kabru romantically and Kabru cares for Rin like a sister.

Conclusion
I've said before that I think you can call them each other's best friend and that that's sad, and I stand by it. I think it's easy to argue that Rin is the one who knows Kabru best currently in his life, and the reverse is true for Kabru knowing Rin best. It's lonely, for both of them I think, Rin's kind of tough love is not working for him and Kabru is not filling Rin's emotional needs.
The reason why Kabru might feel like he has to get Rin out of the elves' grasp is because she has no one else, at least no one else that was deemed important enough to have been referred to or implied at all. And Rin calls him out for his shallow behavior and his unhealthy habits. They're close enough and weirding others around them enough that people like Mickbell notice when they heatedly do their song and dance and argue but hey, this is just another monday, and how Mickbell asumes she cleans his place up for him because that's what intuitively makes the most sense- it's the first thought, the most intuitive. Rin would do anything for Kabru and devotes herself to helping him, after all.
Reminder that this is the guy we're talking about:

I think her concern is worried tbh, he doesn't know what a DUST CLOTH is and he's pretty unhealthy, forgetting to eat and drinking to go to sleep, overworking himself. He'd easily work himself into an early grave. He neglects himself. I've said before in my Kuro x Kabru post that I think Kabru focuses so much on the bigger picture and saving the world that he forgets that he himself is important too, that he's truly special to some people, that he's even some people's hero, not just the world's, and I think to a degree it's good that Kabru has someone there to ground him and scold him when he's being thoughtless or overthinking, to try to show him that he's loved and valued, in her own way which he claims to understand so well like he does her smiles.
Kabru's a character where fan interpretations especially differ, he's hard to read when it comes to the details, so his relationship with Rin is very much a grey zone, especially when trying to precisely pin it down. I think though that it is a mistake to say that Rin isn't special to him in some shape or form.
I talk about human connections as a big theme of Dunmeshi sometimes, as this thing everyone needs but may deny themselves or deny that they do need and want, and Kabru and Rin are part of that theme, to me.
Post-canon, Rin and Kabru continue to see each other, presumably semi-regularly, which is an implication from an extra that we don't get with the other Kabru party members. They stay in touch, because what tied them together was never work but a personal tie.
This ask took long af to write up but it's gonna make my Kabru party analysis easier later yay. Little preview of the chart i made.

I'll remind that Mickbell and Kuro's relationship is also stated to be of a familial nature. Contradictions aren't always mistakes, people are made of them! Just like how ambiguity can be a narrative tool, complexity and dissonance can be a feature and not a bug.
#Ask#Spoilers#Dungeon meshi manga spoilers#Dungeon meshi#Kabru of utaya#Rinsha fana#Kabrin#Meta#Analysis#feel free to argue in my notes this is a very layered and subjective topic and i guess not everyone sees his behavior as flip flopping#just don't expect me to reply i feel like i was pretty extensive here#hm wait i should have swapped the red or green with the blue in my chart for colorblind folk i'm stupid#well i did again lose all my files with my ipad breaking so this is what we got ig...!#i need a smoke after this kabrin kabrin you are so wtf. (I do not smoke)#ask asked on the 14th#btw in my head after all is said and done here I do see them as just staying friends forever and mellowing out with time becoming normaler#the preamble is very much Fumi Rambles but not the second half so i won't tag ig. why do i take this so seriously#Kui did go out of her way to make Kabru weird about Rin. Narratively and behavioraly these did not need to happen
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Continued from here.
Bruce smiled at his friend’s reaction to the gift, and shrugged at his question. “That’s a very long story, but basically the Grandmaster’s ship chased after me and I took it for myself.”
He only raised an eyebrow at the illegal pieces of tech, it wasn’t really above a tyrant to own them. “Yeah, I heard. I don’t need a galactic criminal record, I just got rid of my one on Earth,” he chuckled.
“They’re all yours. It was just some stuff to get rid of to make the Atari my own.”
@guardian-rocket
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