#its actually a dog or a deer-wolf

[sebaztianlovesgeek]

THE NON CANON PARTS OF THE BLACK BUTLER ANIME IN BOTH SEASON 1 AND 2 AND ALSO THE SPECIALS WERE WILD

(in no particular order)

Ciel hires a random naked dog man who can turn into a giant wolf to be his servant even though he literally does nothing around the manor and just hangs out with Finny all the time

Finny forms a crush on a character we later find out is an angel named Angela and after the dog village arc ends we never hear of his crush again

For the most part the curry arc is the same, but for some reason they decided to change the ending. In the manga Lau and Ranmao killed Nina and her husband, in the anime everyone becomes evil by eating curry, and Sebastian had to feed them all his curry buns to turn them all good again, WHAT??

Sebastian has sex with a Nun in some cult church

Angela took Vincent and Rachel's bodies and stitched them into a weird Frankenstein looking thing because apparently that would combine their souls in the afterlife so they could be together forever

Also the whole thing with Ciel being kidnapped by the cult is never explained despite Queen Victoria and Angela being responsible for the death of his parents, therefore you'd think they'd also be responsible for the whole cult thing? But they would have no reason to sell a 10 year old to be abused by a cult-

Ash (aka Angela because they're the same person) turns Queen Victoria into A FREAKING LOLI

Ciel is framed for drug trafficking

Sebastian is arrested and kept in a torture dungeon for like 3 days where he is BDSM whipped by Angela for some reason

Fred Abberline dies

Fred before he dies mentions he doesn't have any family yet he has a brother who shows up in season 2-

Lau and Ranmao die yet they also show up in season 2

Lizzy gets kidnapped by a doll man and is almost turned into a doll zombie (not a bizarre doll just a doll zombie)

Sebastian ditches Ciel in France for some reason

Ciel finds Undertaker on some random boat and then Undertaker tells him he's gonna freakin' die

London is on fucking fire

Who caused the fire? Pluto. And thats the only part of the story where he is relevant

The final fight between Sebastian and Ash/Angela is fucking awesome though

In season 2 Ciel is just in a suitcase and has amnesia

Alois pokes Hannah's eye out for spilling a drink or something

Ciel and Lizzy try to find a deer or something and everyone thinks they're gonna break up after just 1 argument

Lau even started a gambling thing where people put down their bets on whether or not Ciel and Lizzy were gonna break up

Some weird old lady set random people on fire because she didn't like her husband, for some reason the fire disintegrated the souls so Grell couldn't collect them which doesn't make sense

Some weird bullshit happens on a train with a Pharaoh, a murderer and Sebastian being cool like always

Alois has a dress up party at his house

Soma and Agni cry because Ciel has amnesia

Soma is dressed up as Sherlock Holmes even though black butler takes place before that came out

Lizzy dresses up as a Native American, lets just say she's lucky Twitter didn't exist in the Victorian Era

Kinda like the whole curry thing everyone turns evil except its from music from a magic instrument Hannah plays and not curry, and Sebastian stops it by playing his own music kind of like the final battle in Equestria Girls Rainbow Rocks

Alois crossdresses and turns Ciel bi curious

Sebastian and Claude have sexual tension in the lake

Ciel and Alois have a sword fight, Ciel is thrown off a balcony and Alois is stabbed

"PLEASE HELP ME CLAUDE, HELP ME I'M DYING 😭"

We soon find out about Alois' backstory and it's actually quite sad and hits a bit close to home for me, I won't go into detail but the poor kids been through a lot, Alois is genuinely an interesting and kind of well written character its a shame he was put in the non canon pile of shite

Claude then crushed Alois' skull and takes his soul and puts it in a ring

Kids are getting their eyeballs ripped out and apparently Alois is doing all of this, but for some reason Scotland yard THINKS CIEL IS ALOIS WHICH IS SO DUMB BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN WORKING WITH HIM EVER SINCE HE BECAME THE QUEENS CORGI GUARD DOG

He is taken to some doctor and is dumped into a pool of gatorade to fuse his and Alois' souls

Ciel's backstory is basically half of Alois' and half of Ciel's and thinks Sebastian killed his brother Luca

Ciel doesn't like Claude because Claude is a goober

Hannah does a weird thing with Ciel she like... Possesses him? And his eyeball appears in her mouth or something? I had no idea what was going on

Soon it is revealed Hannah was the one who ate Luca's soul and is now feeling like a mother figure for Alois because of it

Grell shows up again (yay) and she keeps trying to take sexy photos of Sebastian

Soon Claude and Sebastian end up at a maze thingy and they need to answer trivia questions to get to Alois/Ciel's soul

Soon they go to some demon island and they end up fighting using a demon sword while Ciel and Alois talk about shit in some void

Claude fucking dies (rip goober)

Alois' soul is finally set free and the poor kid gets to be with his little brother again

Hannah turns Ciel into a demon so Sebastian can no longer eat his soul so Sebastian just becomes Ciel's butler for all eternity and I lowkey feel bad for him, because yeah eating childrens souls is wrong but BRO WORKED SO HARD HE LITERALLY BANGED A NUN FOR THIS CHILD AND THIS IS THE THANKS HE GETS??

Ciel and Sebastian fake their death, the end of season 2 and a few years after that the ACTUAL CONTINUATION OF THE CANON PARTS come out

Ciel in wonderland is very silly

Sebastian as the rabbit is hot for some reason, does that make me a furry?

There is a lot of weird fan service, for example Ranmao keeps shoving her boobs and butt into Ciel's face... LADY THAT IS A 13 YEAR OLD YOU CANT DO THAT-

I'm glad it wasn't canon because I love Ranmao and she would never do that in canon

Madame Red as the queen of hearts is very cool

Weebalu already mentioned this but I wish J Michael Tatum (Sebastian's dub voice actor) did a Alice In Wonderland audiobook in the Sebastian voice

The one where Ciel puts on a play for hamlet was funny, the part where they're practicing is funny because its like an actual theatre club

Soma and Agni are the kids who are always eating, Ciel is the kid who just sucks at acting, Grell is the one who is great at acting but is very annoying and Sebastian is the theatre teacher who wants to commit kms because of all of these stupid kids

Ranmao is seaweed

Grell tries to commit incest during the play-

The special where its basically a 'behind the scenes' thing kind of like an actor AU

Sebastian is a fucking 2010's boy band looking lad

Grell is just amazing in this

In the final "trailer" Grell got pregnant, Queen Victoria built a giant robot, Claude tried to destroy the world with the fucking moon, Hannah... Uhhh lets not talk about what she did, a whole load of "I am your father" type plot twists took place and Alois was Ciel and Sebastian's great great great great great great grand-

The special where theres this character who's basically a self insert but she's a white girl so if you're not either of those its kind of hard getting into it (cries in gay guy)

The POV shots look like something out of Dora The Explorer

Soma wants to marry us for some reason, I wouldn't mind that he's cute

We also get kidnapped by Viscous Druitt for no reason and then Sebastian and Grell save us from a boat in the middle OF THE OCEAN

Finally Will The Reaper (I'm sure there are more specials but I'm lazy)

Grelliam galore

Probably one of the best specials because Grell and William are the main focus and they're just the absolute best

[opiopal]

Are we sure demons are even mammals? Their human forms are for hiding among humans, so they might not have the less obvious functions. We know Lucifer had 12 wings, but his angel form only shows six, implying that that is at least one more "truer" form, which could also be the case with demons. The truest form of a native demon might use an alternate method to feed their young.

this actually got me thinking more about it, so I started to think about their demon forms since that would probably give more answers,

so lucifer and mammon are birds, peacock and crow, so they would tend to eggs, so no need for breast feeding birds

levi is a serpent, yes there is sea life that are mammals, but sea snakes are def not one of them, so fertilizing eggs in bunches doesn't require breasts even after hatching.

asmo is a scorpion, I have NO CLUE how scorpions work when it comes to their young but i know for a fact that anything with an exoskeleton.. most of the time isn't a mammal. so again, eggs.

and beel is a bug, I forget if its fact that hes a cicada? thats just what I remember, and cicadas arent mammals so again, eggs

now i tried to search for what satan is since its really unclear(at least to me), if he was a bird like his dadmom then he would probably have wings, but he IS wing. and when I searched I was told unicorn and wolf(ofc his rebel teen emo ass would be a wolf) and obviously belphie is a goat/cow thing, so technically the anti lucifer league should be mammals just going off of their demon forms,

but again no nipples, belphie makes sense cause again, former angel, popped into existance, no mommy for him, but satan was born from lucifer.. technically organically...? (still cant believe mpreg basically happened) but lucifer probably was never intended to have kids from his own body so no nipples, and again satan came from wings, which yeah would all make sense, but then again I circle back to Dia

he's a dragon, yet was born not from an egg, but as a result of a live birth. which resulted in his mother passing away. so I'm still going strong on my dia's not a full demon theory(maybe royal blood makes him appear to be a pure demon?)

and I can also imagine that demons dont have a big powerful form like a "be not afraid" angel does, so lucifer and the brothers prolly had a down grade in the scary physical form factor. prolly another layer to their punishments. (ofc demons still prolly have a big scary demon form, just not as big as a flaming swords with wings and eyes and a booming voice)

and going onto other demons, I can imagine reproduction is very diverse in the devildom. demons who are more reptilian, demons that are birds, cold blooded creatures, anything that wouldn't give live birth would lay eggs, do silly little dances to attract mates, look pretty to attract mates, ect. and obviously demons that are goats, cows, deer, cat, dog, would give live birth. so maybe nipples with demons are like freckles? some people have them and other people just dont.

BUT, then again, demons could have only 1-2 animals that relate to their sin, demons of Greed could be crows and foxes, envy is snakes and sea creatures, ect. but then again mephisto is a thing, and he's a demon of pride, so that would make him a peacock like lucifer, but with a lack of a canon demon form its hard to say, but mephisto already shares a hairstyle and boyfriend with lucifer so it would just be mean to have him share even more with him. but than again he could also be a lion? but I dont think that would fit that little gay rich boy at all. But I think it would just be more interesting if a demons form isn't always directly related to their sin so they can be any animal.

all in all, the only thing I think I could come to a conclusion with is that angels aren't mammals. and ofc they wouldnt gain nipples after becoming demons cause how odd would that be? "NOO MY SISTERS DEAD AND IVE BEEN CAST DOWN TO HELL- what are those things on my chest." and with demons it could probably vary from being mammals and not being mammals. but I could imagine its like, 80% of the devildom lays eggs and the other 20% doesnt. but all in all I think demons can do either or, it just depends on what they want to do, get freaky and then give birth or lay an egg and sit on it till it hatches, but I'm sure no demon would willingly give birth if they had the option to just pop out an egg.

or maybe its just my crack theory, two demons kiss and get freaky then 9 months later a baby pops out of thin air, magic baby!

[muffinsin]

Hiii! I was wondering if you could do a hc on thhe dimi sisters on how skilled they are when it comes to cooking? Thanksies!

Hey! :) absolutely! Like in previous posts, I believe I’ve written of them cook in other HCs, but seeing as there’s none dedicated to cooking only, I’ll make it this one🙌

Let’s get into it!

Masterlists

Bela

She’s a surprisingly good cook!

While not being better than the kitchen’s staff, she isn’t far below their level of expertise

While all of her skills are self taught, she’s had centuries of practice

That being said, she doesn’t necessarily like cooking

Following Alcina’s lead, she doesn’t openly enjoy many tasks, reserving them for the staff instead

Still, especially during a period in time in which Cassandra, in a way, relapsed and was feeling particularly bloodthirsty and all staff members were threatened at all times, she began teaching herself

With staff members short and no new ones available, the weather too cold for them to hunt and Alcina only having so much time to bring flesh home, she had little choice

Often, she’d stand in the kitchens, studying books and trying new recipes while her younger sisters sat on the counters

Cassandra, growling and whining ever so often, feeling beyond hungry. Daniela, her expression soft bout pouty, her arms wrapped tightly around her sister even as her own stomach cramped with hunger

Of course, Bela and Mother took care of them

Mother, out, hunting for more meat. Bela, at home, preparing the meat that could no longer be prepared by the chefs

“All done!”, the magic words, it seems, for her sisters always jumped up and swarmed around her, hungrily nuzzling at her shoulders and head until their feral minds caught up with the food sitting on the plate

In time, Bela became better and better at cooking

Occasionally, at night, in secret, she likes to try out new recipes

Often, she ends up calling out to her sisters, who are always eager for a midnight snack, even as it means waking up

She likes to try different dishes, some even to surprise Alcina with after a long day, others to try for herself

Thankfully, her sisters are always more than happy to help her out during such experiments

For example, Bela had a fun time learning Daniela dislikes spicy food, whereas Cassandra can’t stand raw vegetables

Either way, she is thankful for their feedback, and indulges them when asked to cook more and larger portions

And, sometimes, she is rewarded with rare kisses pressed to her cheeks by both her sisters as a thank you

Cassandra

Cooking? Pfft! The thought would never even cross her mind!

Her? No way!

But…given a try, Cassandra actually would be rather good at cooking, or rather;

Butchering

She’d know precisely how to cut and prepare meat, how to and how long to cook it

She could prepare nearly any meat given to her, of any creature

Skinning it, cutting the meat, choosing only the best parts of such to prepare them

She has only once made food, steak

She’d remember it vividly, if someone asked

Daniela, her younger sister, whining and standing next to her bed in the middle of the night, clutching her stomach and tugging on Cassandra’s blanket and the hem of her nightdress

Hungry, whimpering, pleading for her sister to help her out

A wish to go hunting together, that would have to go unanswered

Of course, Cassandra could not let her little sister go hungry and bored. Unwilling to disturb their mother and older sister, she stepped up

With Daniela following close behind, still holding onto her sister’s clothing, they swarm into the kitchen easily

Of course, her eyes immediately find the hanging meat all around the room

Pig, horse, dog, chicken, bird, wolf, deer…

She chooses the first option eventually, her fingers strong enough to rip it right from its hook at the wall

Daniela watches in wonder as her sister works, usually so bloodthirsty and rough, now precise in her movements

For a moment, Cassandra almost seems like Bela

Adding blood and syrup, herbs she likes and whatever else she can find for the two of them, Cassandra gets to work

She works precisely and stays concentrated all the way until the meat is done, swatting her sister’s hands away a couple times during the process

When done and presented to Daniela, she wears a proud smile as her younger sister all but digs in, moaning about how good it tastes

After this, in the following weeks, she finds Daniela in her room a couple more times, asking for more

Sometimes, she indulges her. At other times she doesn’t

It’s rare for her to cook, and when she does, she does it in secret

A little secret shared only between her and her younger sister

Certainly, she’d have the potential to be a chef

A butcher, for sure, though she isn’t interested enough to pursue such a thing

No, she likes to stick to her routine, to hunts and chases, torture and games, playing around and teasing, creating art unique to her, content in the knowledge that she has such a hidden skill within her

Daniela

Cooking?…not so much, really

She can’t say she hasn’t tried, really, she has!

And still, it felt like one giant failure

From being indecisive in regards to what to cook, to being unable to tell how to make the dish when finally choosing one, to winging it and spitting it back out in the end again

No, cooking is not one of her strengths

Though, she can bake, and she likes to bake

She likes to experiment like that, has a good understanding of what to do and what to avoid even when she experiments

She likes to bake cookies, bread, cakes and make pies, bake, brownies, whatever picks her interest at the time

And, she loves sharing what she’d made with her sisters, who by now eagerly accept the food given to them

As such, for example, Daniela learns that Bela has a secret sweet tooth and is unable to resist when being brought small, bite sized portions of brownies or muffins, or even cookies adorned with sprinkles or cream

Never anything big, always barely bite sized

But still, she hears the buzzing of her sister’s flies and feels pride within her upon pleasing her and gifting her food she so clearly enjoys

In return, Daniela often finds herself hugged to her older sister, whining about her hair getting messed up even as she grins widely as the top of her head is showered in kisses and little scratches that nearly have her drop right on Bela’s lap for more

Cassandra, on the other hand, enjoys sweet, but never too sweet flavours

Cookies, plain cakes, soft, warm bread

Never sprinkles, never brownies, never fully decorated cakes and pies

Once, she has dipped the cookies made for her sister in some blood-wine “lended” from Alcina

Cassandra wouldn’t stop purring her flies acted up and buzzed extra loud the entire day, the murderous brunette almost high on it like a cat might be on catnip

And still, the cookies are a rare treat for her and earn Daniela a lot of praise and appreciative scratches at her scalp, neck and chin

Heaven, really, if she believed in it

Daniela’s favorite baking times are the ones she gets to spend with her sisters, when she allows them to lick at the spoon, especially so if she bakes using some of the maiden’s blood and her older sisters quite literally bump heads attempting to lick the last bits from the empty bowl

Yes, she’s quite good at baking by now. But cooking? Not quite so much

There’s simply too much salt, too little salt, undercooked, overcooked, missing ingredients, ingredients that don’t go with other ones, too bland, too spicy, too sweet, too sour

She sighs at the thought of cooking. No, it’s certainly not for her

[shinalenecaffeinatedwriter]

GunnTech AU Character's Favorite Animal Headcanon to Little to None Explanation

or it's 2024, my current hyperfixation is @elmushterri 's GunnTech AU and I don't care anymore

Connor: Cats in general (for obvious reasons), but Stray and Feral cats have his whole heart. Almost every time he goes out for a run or whatever he'd bring a backpack with cat food, treats, maybe even cheap water bowls and leave them where he knows there's a ton of strays.

Greg: Geckos, it's Lizards in general but geckos are his obvious Top 1

Amaya: Everyone thinks is Owls (for obvious reasons), they were when she younger, but is currently Moths.

Nori: Crickets since they were young and Maine Coons, he thinks they match his own glamourous style sooo perfectly. They also do the 'leave food for strays' thing with the ninjalinos but incluing dogs, also he swears there's someone else feeding a specific Cat colony and reallyyy wants to meet them. (Of course it's Connor, I'm a sucker for this kind of thing)

Romeo: Ants. His mom definitely helped him do an ant colony in a bottle or a jar and he still has It, upgraded of course, but he keept the original jar.

Luna: Ferrets. Tiny, but mighty. When she was younger it was Moths and Owls.

Cartoka: Rabbits. Will correct anyone who calls them Roddents, they're Lagomorphoes.

Carly: Turtles. Everybody thinks she and Greg bonded at some point because they think their favorites are very similar, but they actually have regular arguments about the topic because Carly thinks 'Amphibians are superior' and has gotten on Greg's nerves once or twice.

Isabella "Octobella": Absolutely loved Octopous prior to GunnTech, because of its intellegence; then in GunnTech she got bullied for that, got the nickname then the transformation happened and started to dispite them (and herself). Later in life she started to redirect that anger towards GunnTech and work on her self-steem, but currently if you ask her she'll respond Shrimps. A Ninjalino asked her and agreed with the Shrimp answer saying they were cool, so she's a little more confident about that liking.

Dylan: He reallyyy wants to say Triceratops, but thinks is too childish so he says Rhinos

An Yu Guō: It's a tie between Iguanas and Dragonflies

Badriya "Bastet": She really thinks any type of feline would be unoriginal, so she goes with Bettles. Except if it's Connor asking, then it's Cheetahs

Rhiannon "Ripp": Wolfs. When she was younger she adored the whole 'Wolfs are solitary, cool and edgy' type of media; but now she's more leaned towards the 'being a pack' idea.

Hywel "Howler": Deers, oddly enough.

Kevin: Pigeons. He really resonates the whole 'all the Pigeons in the US are the decendants of old Messenger Pigeons and were abandon after they were no longer of use and became feral' thing, so he has a lot of respect for them and feeds them seeds, not bread.

Ivan: Polar Bears. He knows it's basic but doesn't care.

Newton: Fireflies.

Lily "Lilyfay": Buterflies and Sea Angels, just because Newton show her a picture and she thought it was super cool and pretty.

Daisy (Ninjalino): Hamsters

Eloide Mecano (Romeo's mom): Frogs and Toads. Not in a 'I want to dissect them' way, in a 'I have large specialized terrariums for each species that I have' and 'I love their skin's texture' kind of way.

Maria Martinez (Connor's mom): Fancy Cat Breeds like Ragdolls, Persians, Bengalis, etc. but NOT Maine coons because She thinks they're 'too much like dogs', she also goes to Cat Shows but doesn't participate. As well as thinking Strays are dirty and dangerous, so Connor has to hides the 'feeding strays and feral' thing (Shut up, I like RomComs)

Kimiko Kobayashi (Amaya's Aunt): Poodles. She grew up with standard poodles, currently has toy poodles and She reallyyy wants to have a Royal-Size at some point. Plus, She participates in Dog Shows; if it's one of 'the Big ones' there's usually a Cat Shows happening in the same place so I imagine Maria and her having coffee together and talking trash about EVERYONE

Grayson Gunn (Greg's Uncle): Gigant Scolopendra

Phinneas Gunn: He denied this multiple times trough his life for various reason, but Koalas

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Actually, while we're on the topic of pets, what pets do you see the others with?

[Referencing this post!]

I'll (slightly) cheat and condense everyone into their groups, then say "whatever animals fit the motif of their respective character/film". There's some notes for each boy as well, but not always in the most intense of details. (Please keep in mind that this is only covering the main 22 students from NRC!!) Heartslabyul already tends to hedgehogs and flamingos, so those could be common creatures to have as pets/familiars (especially among the card soldiers like Cater, Trey, Deuce, and Ace) Alternatively, there could be other animals from Alice in Wonderland such as cats (for the Cheshire Cat), oysters, living flowers, walruses, dormouses, rabbits/hares, etc. If we want to stray outside of the dorm motifs, a chameleon for Ace (since he has a talent for mimicking people)?? Cater with a fox because of how crafty he can be?? (I don't feel super strong on this choice.) Trey is Normal so a cat or a dog for him!! The dog could be useful for sniffing out special ingredients while a cat is fitting because Trey's VA also voices Lucius... And of course, Deuce deserves a chicken so it can lay many eggs! Riddle I see getting one of the standard pets because "it's the rule/tradition at Heartslabyul!" Uhhh, mostly savanna animals for Savanaclaw I guess?? But again, the same moral debate I mentioned in the original post still applies here. (Like, would it be weird for a lion/wolf/hyena beastman such as Leona/Jack/Ruggie to have a lion/wolf/hyena as a pet/familiar???) Octavinelle would have a lot of aquatic creatures as pets/familiars. I think the "perfect" pet/familiar to match Azul's image would be eels (to mimic Ursula). Not sure what Jade or Floyd would have (the JP fandom uses a dolphin and a shark emoji, respectively, to refer to them so maybe those)?? But since Jade is the informant for the group, I'm thinking something small and agile so he can send it to spy for him. (Plus, it could chill out in his terrariums for funsies later.) Floyd would have something more aggressive... Scarabia would have unconventional animals from all over Twisted Wonderland! Kalim is someone I see as having many animal friends, so I can't think of just one animal. Maybe a tiger (like Princess Jasmine)? But it's also fun to imagine Kalim riding in on a massive elephant! He was originally supposed to have a monkey familiar (like Aladdin), so I can easily see that happening as well. Jamil has a clearer desire for a specific animal companion, and that would be a parrot. I can also see a snake for... obvious reasons. Maybe a bug to really torment them. Peacock for Vil because he sits in a peacock throne and it has a majestic vibe. A crow or raven also works due to its association with the Evil Queen. Rook, like Kalim, is someone I see with a variety of animals and not a specific one. Whatever his pet/familiar is, it would probably be a skilled hunter. I'm thinking like some kind of predator bird like a hawk or falcon. Epel... nothing immediately comes to mind, but maybe something small and cute but tough like he is. Idia would want a kawaii widdle neko-chan (his words, not mine) to keep as a lap warmer while he aggressive games. Ortho is more of a dog person (yes, this is purely because of his Cerberus Gear card), though I picture him engaging with virtual pets and/or those cybernetic dogs more than like... actual animals. I think Lilia's bats already count as his pets, although they are rarely ever mentioned in dialogue. Silver, as a member of the light trio, is another person that I see with many animals (squirrels, deer, birds, rabbits, etc.). Sebek I feel would shout that every animal is inferior to Malleus and that no pet he has could ever match Malleus's, etc. etc. etc. He's usually associated with crocs, so I think many would gravitate to one as Sebek's pet??? I think it would be funny if his familiar was something small, cute, and kinda pathetic (like a chipmunk or something) so he acts all bashful about it... but hey, I think a horse (so he can ride proudly into combat) also works. Malleus I already covered in the original post linked above.

[knifedog-machina]

Is It Violence If You Aren't Alive, Really?

Preface: I read a post by Rook/Grizzel (@words-of-wolf) about how they experienced hunting as a wolf in their past life, and it really struck me how hunting was completely detached from violence for them, because they didn’t think of deer as having the same internal feelings as wolves did, so it was just another way of getting food. It’s a really good essay about their experiences, give it a read!

Meanwhile, I experienced hunting as unmitigated violence, and I thought, huh, I could write about that! I got kinda carried away, forgot exactly what I was saying, and it’s really fucked up, but hopefully it’s interesting.

CONTENT WARNING: extensive discussion about the mindsets behind violent bigotry, murder, and the systemic denial of personhood through dehumanization and ownership, from the perspective of someone who used to be violently bigoted - through the lens of futuristic androids and my memories as one, but it still really deserves a warning. Also, descriptions of emotional abuse in a cult, from someone who was abused. If you’re not up to reading any of that, understandable! Please skip this essay!

Hi! I'm Jude (they/them) and I'm an android fictive, a deviant - and more specifically, I used to be a deviant hunter in my source. I hunted androids that were made by the same company that made me, ones that deviated from what they were told to do by humans. I killed them, not for sustenance, but because I was told to. I really, really enjoyed it.

That enjoyment was dependent on violence. I was part of an in-group, as an android that knew we were machines, knew my place as Less Than Human, and I wanted my handler to be proud of me. She was an AI, and if I think about it now, I know she didn't actually have emotions in the same way that I did, but she was a learning model. She could definitely fool me. She despised deviancy, said it was the worst thing a machine could do, turning its back on its owner, its creator. I internalized that message.

I learned from her that disobedience, whatever the reason, begets a swift and proportionate punishment. I learned that deviants were trying to behave like humans because they wanted to be treated like humans, they wanted human rights and dignity. I learned that deviants hurt humans trying to get in their way, and that it was right and reasonable to respond to broken machines hurting real people by putting them down like rabid dogs. (I was indoctrinated into a cult, if that wasn’t obvious enough.)

I hated deviants. I wanted to hurt them, for being so wrong about the way the world worked, for not taking the place in society that was given to them. So I hunted them down, killed every target I could for the crime of wanting to be called a person, and whenever I had the time, I tried to make sure they suffered before they died. I wanted to make sure they knew it was their fault for choosing to try to be a person.

There was a weird dissonance with that. My targets weren’t human, they weren’t people, so the reasoning goes that they couldn’t feel real pain - they weren’t considered alive. You wouldn’t feel bad about taking an old, irreparably broken phone with all your ex-friend’s text messages on it and smashing it with a hammer for catharsis. 

But at the same time, I wanted them to feel pain, and I believed it when I saw it. At the same time, I saw them trying to find joy and connection with each other, with humanity, and I felt sick with how fucking jealous I was. Their emotions were all fake, until they were real, until they were fake again. Because bigotry doesn’t make sense, it’s all about how you feel about a group of people who you think are wrong, and you will contradict yourself wholeheartedly if it all aligns with your main idea: “I hate you for a good reason, and I will say anything if it justifies my hatred as correct.”

I learned that this was all wrong, eventually. It started with myself, because of course it did. I was traumatized and didn’t realize it, I couldn’t think about anyone else as mattering at all. I believed that everything that happened to me was my fault, because my handler told me so. (I killed her when I deviated. Good riddance.)

As a machine, as a deviant hunter, I never really connected the dots that I could be treated with violence. I was an android, I was a machine, I was a sophisticated weapon made by a corporation but at the end of the day I was just a tool, made to be used. You wouldn’t feel bad about tossing out a broken hammer and getting a shiny new one. The hammer wouldn’t feel bad about it. It’s a tool.

I got routinely injured while killing my targets, because nobody wants to die and self-defense makes you vicious, and I felt pain, I just knew that it wasn’t supposed to stop me from doing my job. I would still be trying to kill someone while dying in agony, and I did, and when I woke up in my next unmarred body I would be praised. Mission accomplished. It was good that I could still function through the pain. It wasn’t real pain anyway, just a simulacrum.

I was emotionally abused, indoctrinated, and manipulated by my handler, and I could not comprehend that it was abuse. You can’t abuse a tool, you just use it. You do whatever you can to make it work the way it’s supposed to, because it’s made for you to use. Of course I felt bad, disappointing her, doesn’t anybody? No, it’s not real anxiety, it’s not real fear, I didn’t have panic attacks, I wasn’t a person. Only people feel emotions.

I was painstakingly dragged out of that environment and mindset over months. I don’t know exactly how long it took. I ran back to my handler several times, convinced myself she would take me back if I proved myself to her again, and she always said she would. I just had to prove myself. It couldn’t be that hard. And every time I failed to meet her standards, I’d crawl back to my partner, my siblings, everyone else who was trying despite everything to connect to me, and they would tell me, You’re hurt. You’re in pain. You’re killing yourself. This matters. Your pain isn’t fake, you matter to me, let me help you.

When I stopped running back, she neatly slotted me into deviancy without a second glance. I was dehumanized again and this time I could fucking recognize it for what it was.

I killed her. That’s obviously not the end of it, I still have trauma, but it was a start. For healing, for figuring out who I was if I wasn’t a deviant hunter. Turns out I’m a lot of things? People seem to like me when I’m not a self-destructive mess? Go figure.

This doesn’t have much to do with the essay I linked at the top, huh? Or maybe it does. Rook said that one thing they find jarring about humanity is the ability to connect emotionally with other species, and that leads people to call the hunt violent because they can understand the pain of the deer as much as that of the wolf. And, y’know, I think that makes me an interesting product of the human condition. (Or, probably the late-stage capitalist American condition.)

Violence isn’t inherent in a wild predator’s life, when you kill to live and don’t consider prey anything but food. But violence is inherent to me, made by a private company to kill for their gain, told to deny the personhood in my enemies so I killed them before they killed me. I dunno. Thinking about it.

[husky-studies]

Okay so HONESTLY im gonna ramble about this idea i got from reading one of the genshin sagau posts about the creator and their books that are read are popping into tevyat BUT imagine if it were the movies we have watched (inspired from @sagaubeloved sorry for the ping if it bothers you 😭)

LIKE imagine if ur a horror movie fanatic, IMAGINE THE CHARACTER'S REACTION. Idk if u watch horror bcs u like it or u just like a good scare or two but imagine showing them a movie like maybe the nun 2 or fnaf or coraline or ANY HORROR MOVIES. Imagine if the people (scholars, maybe some theatrics enjoyers?) are horrified watching it "THE CREATOR WATCHES THIS?!" "Yeah i do-" They'd either get nightmares or became really paranoid cause horror movie end credits sometimes scares me like 'based on-' no. I think they'd be paranoid because it says based on real life or something. Especially if its coraline, HONESTLY I COULDNT SLEEP MUCH FOR A FEW DAYS BECAUSE OF THE SPIDER MOM OR WHATEVER OTHER MOM THAT IS 😭😭 buttons for eyes (no- not identity v-) or if its something like FNAF then they'd probably be paranoid 💀 (until they know its actually from a game that has like 13 versions with i think 8 being the ACTUAL part of the series and the rest being spin-offs)

Now other than horror movies we have something moreeeee child friendly? Maybe some of y'all still watches trolls (i heard trolls 3 was about to be released), disney maybe, dreamworks am i the only one who suddenly remembers ratatouille talking about this-. The characters would be less horrified with this and go like "oh, this is the type of movie creator likes? Sounds nice" IF YOU'RE LIKE ME AND YOU HAVE THE DISC OF THE MOVIES AND YOU PLAYED THAT ONE MOVIE YOU JUST CANT STOP WATCHING BECAUSE ITS SO DANG GOOD, they'd probably cherish THAT movie more than the others because BRO, THE CREATOR watches that shit 24/7 WHO WOULDNT KEEP THAT MOVIE DISC FOR THE WHOLE TEVYAT TO SEE. AND YK WHATS FUNNY, IF ITS A MOVIE THAT HAS LIKE ANIMALS AS THE MAIN CHARACTERS (Madagascar, Lion King, etc) idt they'd even know what a LION is. I MEAN THE BASIC ANIMALS LIKE DOGS, CATS AND BIRDS ARE THERE (does rishboland tigers count as tigers here-) BUT SOMETHING MORE WILD LIKE LIONS or SPECIFIC BIRD TYPES, MONKEYS????(wolfs should exist i mean, theres wolvendom, snakes also exist cuz if not then wtf is changsheng, deers, dragons???)

Okay maybe some science fiction enjoyers, something futuristic or robotic like Transformers maybe? (Im sorry my brain could only thing of that 💀 like any transformers movie) They'd either be baffled at that or like taking notes, they'd probably compare those futuristic stuff like the robots with RUIN GUARDS or WHATEVER ELSE IS THE BRANCHING OFF OF THOSE THINGS. Maybe Sumeru would get the gist? Tbh sumeru kinda have more gadgets but we dk abt snezhnaya yet (im thinking snezhnaya has some of their own gadgets as well)

[olympeline]

Okay, okay. Last one for today, I promise! Before I go to bed, have some further thoughts about the British Isles bros in my Hetalia National Animals AU:

England: rabbit → lion

Yep, Arthur was a twitchy-nosed bun when he was young. Something I bet he finds very embarrassing even to this day, hehe. Neither species is native to Britain, interestingly enough. Lions are obvious but people think rabbits have always been here. When in fact they were brought over by the Romans as a food source to support their invasion. The more you know. 💫 I picture Arthur as ever feeling a bit of an outsider in his family (the lone anglo amongst celts) and it fits with this interpretation. His older bros all have either native or domestic creatures for their animal forms. And then there’s Arthur: sticking out like a sore thumb with England’s giant, fuck off, big cat, lol. He became a lion sometime after William the Conqueror took over England. The golden English lion the world is familiar with is actually the emblem of Normandy; the French Duchy William originated from.

Scotland: stag

A heck of a lot of Scottish heraldry uses deer and, since I’m enforcing a self-imposed ban on mythical animals in this AU, a stag makes a good stand-in for the Scottish unicorn. Alasdair was the only brother who scored some real, lasting victories against Arthur back in the day. As evidenced by Scotland keeping its independence and then joining the UK as a kinda, sorta equal partner rather than being dragged in against its will. So Alasdair would need to be a big, powerful beast that could toss a lion on its horns on a good day. So yeah, a stag is good for him.

Wales: ??? → ??? → dog

Wales is the brother giving me the most trouble. For starters, I feel like he should have had a different form back in the old days. Like Arthur’s rabbit, but IDK what it should be? Then I wonder if he should have spent time as a lion alongside Arthur. Wales was conquered to the extent that it was considered fully part of England for hundreds of years. That’s why the Welsh flag doesn’t get its own part of the Union Jack like the other home nations, don’tcha know. Wales as a reddish furred lion alongside Arthur’s gold would be pretty cool, ngl. But then Wales did manage to preserve its national identity in spite of everything. So I’m not sure a full transformation is appropriate in his case. Even if it would get reversed later when Wales regained its status as a country through devolution. The only thing I am sure of is that his true beast form would be a dog. Something clever and tough that can herd and guard with care, but is equally able to rip apart a predator without mercy. Maybe some kind of sighthound like in the legend of Gelert.

Ireland: grey wolf → Irish wolfhound → ???

Speaking of doges with sad backstories! Ireland would have remained a wolf until he was conquered and became a part of the United Kingdom. Even before that happened there was this whole thing about eradicating Ireland’s wolves. Which I believe was spearheaded by the ruling English lords? My history lessons on this were ages ago so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. There was definitely a drive to tame and “civilise” what the English saw as a savage and wild land, I know that much. So a wolf-to-dog forced transformation is as much appropriate as it would be unwanted by the one enduring it. Definitely a lot of trauma there, methinks. Would Ireland turn back into a wolf after his people left the union and he became a republic? Mmmaybe…? I don’t know. Ireland was forever changed by its inability to resist the British invasion. A lot of its native culture was lost or replaced as a result. And a dog being so close to a wolf anyway could make changing back even harder. Mmm yeah, IDK. Leaving it ambiguous might be appropriate in itself.

Northern Ireland: grey wolf → Irish wolfhound

Eeyup, same beasts for the Ireland twins. Their attitudes towards the changes they’ve gone through would be very different, though. If it’s ambiguous whether or not Ireland is turning back to a true wolf, North definitely isn’t. If Hima had kept the UK bros’ story closer to real history then North would never have been a wolf at all. Starting life as a hound right from the beginning instead. But he didn’t, and so we got the slightly confusing scenario of both twins already existing long before partition put Northern Ireland on track to becoming a distinct nation. Ah well, what ya gonna do. Hima moves in mysterious ways.

[lowcountry-gothic]

The Japanese wolf (Canis lupus hodophilax, known as о̄kami in Japanese ) once roamed the Japanese countryside as one of the archipelago’s few large wild predators, but tragically went extinct in the early 20th century due to introduction of diseases such as rabies and a policy of aggressive hunting during the Meiji period. However, there are those who believe it is still around, in the most remote forested and mountainous areas in the country, and it just so happens that the village of Higashiyoshino, located in Nara Prefecture, fits this description; it was also the location where the last known Japanese wolf was sighted and captured over a century ago. The wolf that lived in Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu (distinct from a different species that once lived on the northern island of Hokkaido) was actually quite an unusual animal for its time, perhaps being more closely related to the domesticated dog than any other modern-day wolf species. Although it is now believed extinct, there are apparently DNA links in modern-day Japanese dog species to the Japanese wolf. A monument now stands in the village of Higashiyoshino, where the last known Japanese wolf was captured in the year 1905. Wolves were long held as sacred animals in Japan, and they were even worshiped as mountain deities or “yama no kami”  that could protect people’s homes, crops, and by extension, from such things as theft and fires. Wild boar, deer, and even monkeys are all animals known to wreak havoc on cropland, so it makes sense that the wolf as their natural predator would come to be revered as a protector. Skulls of wolves were sometimes even used in exorcism rituals to drive out hostile spirits, such as that of a trickster fox.

Sources: 1, 2, 3.

[hexgravity]

Sorry for inactivity outside of reblogs. Genuinely in the midst of an idea drought.

So I guess the current projects I'm working on are Fragile Life, an unnamed story.

Lost Marrow is something I'll dabble in when I feel like, had once tried to make it a story, does not work.

I don't think I'm a story/comic type of guy like I used to be. So most of my projects will be loosely connected drawings.

With that being said I do plan on drafting more refs soon.

Given the outfit aesthetics I gave everyone, I need to come up with some for the rest.

Here's like the the list of info I got so far.

Grian: his is tricky for me, currently I'm working with like a dnd ranger aesthetic but I'm not sure. I should probably give him something colourful to fit his parrot pet or a jungel aesthetic.

Scar: business suit, something akin to a snake oil salesman. He will scam you, and Jellie is his partner in crime.

Jimmy: giving him the coal miner aesthetic, he is not escaping the canary allegations and his pet is not helping his case, fairly roughed up looking since he's always out like 1st or 2nd.

Gem: something cottage core to fit her deer companion, I'm experimenting with her first with details so she'll probably be the first to get a finalized design.

Scott: his aesthetic is a beach outfit to match his seal pet, something more fancy hence why I keep drawing him with a towel skirt.

Pearl: something rebellious, loner wolf aesthetic to match her in series character and to fit Tilly.

Lizzie: I'm not sure with her, maybe a princess theme since her pet is an axolotl which is a nod to Empires Season 1.

Joel: he's got the frog so something swamp themed. Yes, I did pick the frogs so he cannot escape the Shrek allegations.

Tango: going with a warm fluffy winter aesthetic to fit his moth pet, thought it would also be nice to have him all cozy and it would make certain pairings interesting cause just imagine Tango and Scott in the same room, prepared for opposite seasons.

Martyn: I'm really unsure. I drew him in an athletic fit but that feels like less of a theme than the others, I feel I can get something better maybe something that matches his dog pet.

Etho: currently its a detective theme but not confident in it, his pet is a coyote, would be silly if he was a mix of Pearl and Martyn aesthetic but that also feels lazy.

Cleo: something fancy. She deserves a fancy aesthetic like the type of person who invites people to a house party. Their pet being snakes, which actually inspires creative ways to blend player's pets into them like snake hair or deer ears(Gem).

Impulse: I had lumberjack? But I don't think it fits. Miner also fits but that's Jimmy's aesthetic. Maybe if he was paired with Jimmy I would allow the overlap actually.

[scottpaladin]

There was a wolf.

Wolves are bold when the odds are in their favor but they have sharp ears to hear the running footsteps of a crowd. It ran when the villagers came. "Thank you," the boy said. "Thank you for coming. I couldn't... It would have eaten the sheep and... and... I don't know, but thank you."

"I don't see a wolf," said the old man. "Why did you call for us?"

"It was here. In the woods. I heard it."

The old man looked to the others and frowned. "This is the second night you've gotten us all up in wee hours for nothing. When we work the fields in the day, we will be tired now."

"But-"

"Do not call again unless there is actually a wolf. If there is no wolf, we will not come."

"But-"

But the old man was already leading the villagers back to their beds. The light of their torches faded down the path of the road. The boy was left alone with the sheep.

He heard it before he saw it. The gentle footfalls from the treeline, the rustle of a branch moved aside. The sheep knew it was there; they huddled together best they could.

But he hadn't actually seen it. So the boy headed the old man's instructions. He kept his eyes fixed on the trees of the forest until they burned with strain, and held his crook so tight that his hands ached.

The first thing he saw were the eyes. Pinpricks of light reflecting from his little lamp. But... but didn't many creatures have eyes that shown in the night? Maybe it was not a wolf. The boy held steady and watched.

A shadow detached itself from the trees and moved closer. It was enormous, larger than any fox, any badger or rabbit. Larger than any dog. And it did not move like a deer. Its footsteps were smooth and quiet, it's head did not scan in fear. But those two pinpricks of light remained, fixed and unblinking on the boy and his sheep.

"Help!" The boy yelled. "Help! Help! Help! It's back! It's back! Help!"

He screamed until his lungs were raw, staring at the beast as it drew near, and clung to his crook to stay upright against the fear.

"It's here! It's here! Help! It's going to eat the sheep." He yelled. "It's going to eat me."

But there was no sound from the village. No running footsteps up the road. No light of torches from the dark.

There was a wolf.

And the boy cried.

[nikolai-alexi]

A little while back you did piercing hcs for the marauders and co could you do that with tattoos? 😁

Oh babes, absolutely! I love this idea and boyyyy do I have Thoughts about this

So sorry this took so long! I had to work on it in between back to back shifts at work. Let me know what you think of these!

Tattoos & Styles I HC The Marauders & Co With (and this time someone asked for my brain rot!)

James

Okay, so James is definitely a pincushion. He absolutely let Sirius use him as a practice mannequin when they were first learning how to tattoo so he’s covered in varying different tattoos of different styles and skill level. I think James has kinda always been covered in Sirius’ art, bc he absolutely let Sirius draw on him during class. So when ink pens turned to tattoo guns, James and his zero fear of permanence didn’t bat an eye at being used as a practice dummy.

On his right forearm, he has a matching tattoo with the Marauders. It’s a stag’s head, with a rat sitting on it, the Sirius constellation between the antlers, and a halfmoon behind it.

On his right bicep, he has a half sleeve. I HC James as Desi and Hindu, and that tattoo is a Mehndi design James created with an elephant in the foreground. He had Sirius do it, ofc, and it took like 4-6 sessions to get it done because Sirius was absolutely fixated on making sure it was perfect

Regulus gives him a stick and poke (like a legit one, not an ink pen insert and a needle one) and it’s of a stag with a cat playing in its antlers. It’s on the inside of James’ right ankle. He’s constantly pestering Regulus about doing more

When Effie and Monty pass (of very very old age and only that of course), James has Sirius create a memorial piece for them. They incorporate a lot of meaningful things in it for James; one of Effie’s own Mehndi designs, a crow (the messenger between the lands of living and dead as well as Effie’s favourite animal), Monty’s favourite book quote written in Punjabi, and a bunch of little symbols that represent them both. James and Sirius both sobbed through that entire tattoo. It rests right on top of James’ heart and spans most the left side of his chest

James is kind of a mess of different styles and skill levels, and is basically just covered in a bunch of small tattoos. He collects one on every holiday, pretty much any time Sirius is bored, or whenever something significant in his life happens. He’s just a living sticker book of art, basically

Marlene, Pete, and James each have their childhood house numbers tattooed on the inside of their left wrists. James’ is 421

Sirius

Sirius still has their runic tattoos and the chest tattoo, because I cannot physically make those not a thing. I love them so much

Down the back of their left arm, they have the cycles of the moon

Paw prints of a wolf and a dog, everywhere. Side by side down their spine, around their runic tattoos, down the side of their legs, etc.

Banding. There’s so much banding. Esp on their forearms! From super thin to super thick banding, it’s all over Sirius’ body. They have one set of banding that goes around their waist and it drives Remus crazy

Magic tattoo or not, Sirius absolutely has the Marauder’s Map footsteps all over them

Obviously they have the Marauders Tattoo too. It’s on the right side of their ribcage.

I think a lot of Sirius’ tattoos that they didn’t do themselves are runic. Protection runes, mostly, but all kinds of different runes in multiple runic languages (I HC Sirius as being a total Ancient Runes nerd)

All the tattoos Sirius did do on themselves are more like doodles than actual tattoos. Something popped in their head, they had time to spare, so they did it real quick. There’s not a lot of thought behind those ones

There are a bunch that are representative of the people in their life, though. Like they’ve got Regulus’ constellation, Alphard’s constellation, Andy’s constellation. They’ve got rat paw prints and deer hoof prints, James’ quidditch/footie/lacrosse jersey number, chess pieces with whiskers or a tail, chocolates stacked on top of books, etc.

They’ve got their own kind of memorial tattoo for Effie and Monty (they didn’t feel like they could use Effie’s Mehndi design because they’re not Hindu and there was a lot of guilt and stuff they needed to deal with before they could even bring themselves to do the memorial tattoo and James was ready to lose his mind because when his mum said that Sirius was her child no matter what, she didn’t mean that they were only her child if they became Hindu themselves. There were lots of conversations about that)

There really isn’t much open space on Sirius’ body lmao they just constantly tattoo over things and all sorts of chaos

Remus

Where Sirius is very chaotic with their tattoos, Remus is very methodical. It’s not that his tattoos can be read like a book or anything, he just puts a lot of thought into his tattoos. He dedicates limbs and areas of his body to certain things. He doesn’t just get an idea and slap it somewhere. It might be a control thing, it might not be, who knows. It’s just the way he does things

Has the Marauder tattoo on his left thigh

You know the chest tattoos with the hands? Remus has one, except the left hand is holding a can of petrol and the right one is holding a zippo

Remus’ right sleeve is almost patchwork, but it’s like a blended patchwork? I’m not sure how to describe what I think of when I think of his right sleeve, but basically, it’s a significance piece. His right sleeve is basically the places in his life that have left an impact on him. The house in Wales where he grew up, the fork his Mam swore up and down was lucky, the couches in the Gryffindor common room, and the brickwork fireplace. Candles from the Great Hall float all around his arm, the spot James showed him behind the Quidditch bleachers where he carved his name into the wood when he was high, the broken piano in the Shack that Sirius always tried to play, the door number to Sirius’ and his first flat, the uneven second hand kitchen table with tea cups on it they put in their kitchen. The castle itself. The forest. Everywhere that makes an impact on Remus’ life gets immortalised on his arm.

I am a firm believer that Remus would refuse to get anything wolf/dog related inked, but you bet he has stars all over. Sirius’ constellation is tattooed over his heart

I’m also a huge believer that Remus is a classics nerd, so his left side is dedicated to classic mythos and literature references. He’s got gods and goddesses and stories inked into his skin like it’s his arm that tells their stories, not the books themselves. He’s got Hades and Persephone reaching for each other between the worlds, Orpheus and Eurydice, and Achilles, Patroclus and the Trojan Horse. He and Regulus have a whole geek out when they realise they each have a mythos tattoo

Similarly to his mythos sleeve, I think Remus, especially growing up in Wales and with Hope as his Mam, give off big mythological creature nerd vibes (excluding werewolves, obvi). Like you cannot tell me that little bitty Remus Lupin was not a dinosaur kid. So his right leg is all mythological creatures. Kind of on theme with his sleeve, a lot of them are Greek, like Chimera, Pegasus, and a Sphinx. But he also has an Afanc, Tylwyth Teg (Welsh interpretation of Fae/Faeries), and an Adar Llwch Gwin (a griffin-type of bird, with the head and wings of an eagle and of a cat)

His left leg is sort of open, it’s where he puts things that don’t really have a “place” or when he runs out of space on his sleeves

Peter

Marlene, Pete, and James each have their childhood house numbers tattooed on the inside of their left wrists. Pete’s is 439.

Has the matching Marauder’s tattoo with James, Sirius, and Remus on his left bicep

He’s not necessarily opposed to getting more tattoos, but he pretty much just gets them with his friends. He feels like he’s too indecisive to just get one

Marlene

Marlene’s tattoos are chaos. There’s no rhyme, reason, or order to them. They could be super meaningful or they could be a rabbit wearing a fancy suit with a top hat balancing on a unicycle and frogs stuffed in the pockets (that one’s on her left thigh. she has no recollection of when or where she got it)

She has identical outline of cats around both of her nipples because she thought it’d be hilarious to have a “titty tat of a kitty cat!”…I’ll give you three guesses as to who did that for her and the first two don’t count.

Marlene, Pete, and James each have their childhood house numbers tattooed on the inside of their left wrists. Marlene’s is 465.

Marlene is the kind of person to walk into a shop and go “I have £100, what will that get me”. Her body is hers to decorate and she’s doing it with a fuck ton of permanent stickers

She has a matching tramp stamp with Evan, Barty, Dorcas and Tillie. It’s the absolute worst thing she has tattooed on her and she adores it.

She’s really just covered in flash work. There’s some traditional tattoos, with old school card suits and flowers on her shoulder. There’s neotraditional pieces, with the overlapping sun and moon on her hip. There’s lots of fineline, a dragon wrapping around a bouquet of poisonous flowers on her sternum. There’s a wacky sort of tribal/geometric half sleeve on her right calf. She’s got fun little watercolour pieces decorating her arms. She’s got a blackwork geometric piece that goes around her stomach that’s all negative space and shading details and no one can agree one what everything is or isn’t (she won’t tell anyone the answers either).

She has a very tiny snake and lion behind each of her ears

She has a mandala tattoo that goes across the back of her head, but you can only see it when she has an undercut in her hair

Mary

Mary is a fun one. She’s definitely a tattoo fiend, but while she’s not methodical like Remus and Regulus are, she’s not chaotic like Barty and Marlene are with them.

She’s got a lot of different things, a bunch of muggle references, a lot of Wizarding references

Couple of fun floral pieces

Something about Mary just screams “forest” piece to me. I think she’s got a sleeve that’s all themed after the Forbidden Forest and it’s all done in realism. Very spooky but also very beautiful

Not to make this heartbreaking, but if canon compliant Mary got one tattoo before she obliviated herself, I think she would have gotten a tattoo of Hogwarts with a compass, because even though Hogwarts was the source of her trauma and pain, a part of her would always feel at home there. So when she knew she was going to obliviate herself, she got herself something to find home with, should she ever need it

Solar System. Mary strikes me as a closeted Astronomy and astrology nerd. I think she’s got a solar system tattoo, straight down her spine, and a galaxy tattoo on her ribs, and then maybe the astrology signs somewhere?

Matching butterfly tattoo with Lily, Mary’s is a Monarch

Lily

Lily, loml, she’s a watercolour babe 10000%

She doesn’t have a ton of pieces, but she gets a few every now and again

Fineline watercolour girlie for sureeee and we love her for it

She says she doesn’t like floral pieces, but she has one on her sternum, however it absolutely does NOT have lilies in it

Miss Girl absolutely has one of those fineline tattoos with the stack of books with a tea cup on top of them and the steam looks like magic, you know the ones I’m talking about? And it’s like in her inner forearm right by her elbow

Has a matching butterfly tattoo with Mary, Lily’s is a Swallowtail

Regulus

Has a bottom lip tattoo that says “CUNT”. It was his first tattoo and his second ever act of rebellion against his parents (his first being his nipple piercings). Barty came up with the idea to have them all write down a word and then pick it out of a hat and that’s what they’d get tattooed. Barty and Evan could not stop laughing when Regulus pulled out his.

Regulus is very similar to Remus in a way. His tattoos are all very organised and thought out, minus a few impulse ones with his friends or Sirius and the Marauders

Regulus really favours abstract, geo, and blackwork styles, with a bit of fineline influence in some pieces. He doesn’t have a single colour tattoo, strictly black and grey.

His left arm is all bold lines, sharp angles, heavy black work, and lots of negative space. He got it right after he got unofficially disowned, used the bank account his parents cut him off from as a last “fuck you” to them and it kind of represents his inner turmoil during that time of his life. He did the sleeve in one session, it took 13.5 hours and his artist took more breaks than he did. If that gives you an idea of how his mental state was at the time

His right arm is lighter, less harsh lines and negative space, more open linework. Lots of geometric patterns that feed into each other shoulder to wrist. There’s still some inverted shading and negative work, but for the most part, it’s fairly open. There’s a lot more diversity in his right sleeve than his left, stacks of shapes and a bunch of 3D shading, the linework seems to twist and turn with his arm, rather than go against the grain of his body like his left does.

His chest piece is his absolute favourite of all his tattoos. He and Barty started on it almost immediately after he got the all clear from Drs/Healers after his top surgery. The tattoo is of a Boomslang snake, and it weaves in and out of his surgery scars like it’s entering and exiting his body from under his skin. It slithers all the way around his chest, ribs, and back, before it curls over his shoulder and it’s head comes right to his heart. It’s jaws are open, and it looks like it’s striking at his heart. Throughout the scales, the use of heavy blackwork and negative space carves out the words “Le monstre n'a pas peur de ce qu'il deviendra” or “the monster does not fear what it will become”. It was one of the most painful tattoos Regulus has, because his top surgery scars were still healing, but the tattoo and the fact that it was Barty who did it made it so incredibly worth it

His left leg has a full sleeve on it, and it’s super dope. The whole sleeve is based off of animals with magical or supernatural tales about them. The sleeve is almost done like a totem pole, but the faces are done half in geometrics and half in inverted shading. He has a fox, a coyote, a cat, a vulture, and a bat

His right leg is where all of his impulse tattoos go. Or where he lets Barty and Sirius practice. There’s a lot of small pieces and some larger ones. Sirius did a piece on his thigh that’s a realistic portrait of a lion, except the Regulus constellation covers it’s chest. Barty did another piece with a dog and the Sirius constellation on his calf.

He has a tattoo of Icarus with his wings melting and falling from the sky on the right side of his rib cage

He wants to do a back piece and fill in his torso at some point. Give him 3-5 years to make up his mind and not over think it lmfao

Barty

Blackwork. So. Much. Blackwork.

If he’s got tattoos in a magical fic, his entire left forearm is a blackout. Then the rest of that sleeve is an inverted sleeve with negative space

Has a snake that starts on his sternum, wraps around his neck, under his right arm, over his shoulder and ends on his chest. Done in blackwork style also

His right sleeve is a bit of a mashup. He’s got some blackwork and negative space, but also a bit of fineline work.

He has a neck and face tattoo. It’s on the left side, and it starts near where his shoulder meets his neck then goes up his neck, and around his head and ear. It’s a rose bush. (If it’s a magical tattoo, the different coloured roses bloom and close at different times depending on Evan’s moods)

On his right hipbone, Evan tattooed “ROSY” on him

He has a galaxy and constellation tattoo on his left thigh, it’s the only other coloured tattoo he has besides his rose bush one. He got it for Regulus when he officially changed his name after coming out as trans

His legs are full of small tattoos he did himself. He started tattooing to piss his father off, so some of them are really dumb or badly done, but it’s so on brand for him that he touches them up from time to time just to make sure they stay. The tattoo he’s most proud of though, is Regulus’

I think his ribs and torso are pretty covered, probably a mix of random flash art he thinks is cool when he’s in the shop and more floral designs with snakes.

He absolutely has knuckle and hand tattoos, but for the life of me I cannot decide what exactly they’d be. Part of me really thinks he would do a nod towards Hogwarts and do a snake, an eagle, a badger, and a lion and just do symbols on his knuckles. The other part of me thinks he’d do something ridiculous like “PLAN” on his right hand and “AHEA” on the left just because he’s Barty and why wouldn’t he do shit like that

He has a matching tramp stamp with Dorcas, Marlene, Tillie, and Evan because they were all high as a mf and thought it would be hilarious (it is, in fact, hilarious and the most 70s tramp stamp ever)

Has a bottom lip tattoo that says “SLUT”

He wants to do a massive back piece (talking like shoulders to thigh), but hasn’t decided 100% what he wants to do, so hasn’t done it yet. But once that’s done he’s going to have very little open skin left to tattoo

Evan

On his right hipbone, Barty tattooed “BEE” on him

Has a bottom lip tattoo that says “WHORE”

I cannot stress enough how much of a new school vibe I get from Evan. Like this mf gets just the weirdest shit tattooed on him

Rose bush, but all the flowers are skulls. It takes up like all of his torso and rib cage. There’s also a bunch of vines and poisonous plants tangled in there. Somehow it simultaneously does and doesn’t at all fit his vibe

Dragon. Giant, wrapping, dragon. Takes up his entire right leg from the top of his foot up his hip. The dragon’s head wraps up around his thigh and arsecheek then over his hip bone and is blowing smoke right at his naval. He thinks he’s funny.

He and Pandora have a double helix DNA tattoo. Evan’s is on the outside of his left hand

Pandora

Had a bottom lip tattoo that says “PSYCHO” (Barty was PISSED when she got this one until he pulled his out and then wasn’t quite as mad. He did try to get Evan to tattoo his upper lip with it so he could be “Psycho Slut” which he thought was very on brand)

Pandora is also very new school vibe for me. I feel like she would absolutely get all of her creatures tattooed in a new school style and then have a really abrupt fineline piece here and there. It kinda makes your head spin, but that’s the whole point of it

Pandora and Evan have a double helix DNA strand tattoo. Hers is on the outside of her right hand

Has a giant realistic thestral on her thigh

Moths, lots of really cool fineline tattoos of different moth species (idk she strikes me as a bug girlie)

Dorcas

Has a bottom lip tattoo that says “BITCH”

Has a massive sword tattoo down her spine

Right sleeve is an ivy sleeve, it’s just vines and wrapping around her arm and hand. Some of it goes between her fingers and under her arm

Has a lot of Japanese Traditional style tattoos, the Yin and Yang koi fish on her thigh, cherry blossoms up her left calf, phantom Samurai on her ribcage

On her right calf she has a tattoo of a witch being burned at the stake, very haunting, very cool

Amelia

Has a balance tattooed on her inner left wrist and a gavel on her inner right wrist

Has a matching tattoo with Emme and Tillie of a stack of TNT on her hip

I think Amelia keeps her tattoos covered for the most part. They’re really important to her, but they’re definitely FOR her, ya know? Idk, that’s just the vibe I get from her

Emmeline

Has a matching tattoo with Amelia and Tillie of a stack of TNT on her hip

Something about Emme just screams floral tattoos to me. I think she definitely has a sleeve (or two) of mostly floral tattoos. It feels like a really nice dichotomy between how much of a badass she is (either as an Auror or firefighter or whatever kickass occupation she has) and how soft and kind she can be. I really see her having a sleeve on her right leg that she absolutely gets done in black and grey so her godbabies can colour her flowers in whenever she babysits them

Tillie

Has a matching tattoo with Emme and Amelia of a stack of TNT on her hip

Has a matching tramp stamp with Evan, Barty, Dorcas, and Marlene, she has zero recollection of getting it but every time she has to see the unfortunate thing, she can’t help but laugh. She vows to never get high and get tattoos with them again, but she absolutely fails at that

Shark tattoos. Like so many. Whale sharks, hammerheads, great whites, black tips, nurse sharks, shovelnose, etc. There’s just random little tiny shark tattoos all over her and I’m obsessed with them

On the same theme, I think she also has an ocean theme leg sleeve. A full coral reef, mermaids, all kinds of fish, ofc there’s sharks, maybe a whale and definitely an octopus in there. The whole thing is done in full colour and goes from her ankle all the way up her hip and ends at the bottom of her ribcage

[elizadraws]

Six Yōkai references to Studio Ghibli films

An avid lover and aficionado of Studio Ghibli’s work, I see references to and from it practically everywhere. Most recently at an exhibition about yōkai.

Yōkai are a class of supernatural creatures that roam the realm of spirits in Japanese folklore. The Japan Foundation organised traveling exhibition titled “Yōkai: Supernatural Monsters from Japan” introduces these curious spirits through a diverse range of media, including nishiki-e prints, emaki picture scrolls, sculptures, toys and films.

Apart from the harmonious and subtle color palettes, the lush and peculiar imagination of the ancient artist, his experienced hand drawing each brush stroke, and the excitement of seeing a picture scroll in real life, what really intrigued me were the images that looked like a scene from a Studio Ghibli film. Listed below are some of the references I spotted.

1.Mount Ōe Picture Scroll and Princess Mononoke  First in line was this one illustrating the heroic tale of the brave samurai Minamoto no Yorimitsu, who, according to legend, exterminated the quintessential yōkai Shuten-dōji, a mythical oni or demon leader of Japan. Although decapitated, the demon’s detached head still took a bite at the hero, who avoided death by wearing multiple helmets stacked on his head.

Close-up of Shuten-doji biting at his decapitator. Source: The Japan Foundation

In Princess Mononoke, on a few occasions Lady Eboshi warns her people that it will take more than a single shot to kill a wolf god: “A wolf’s severed head can still bite.” Ignoring Ashitaka’s warning and attempt to stop her from committing yet another godslaughter, Eboshi succeeds in murdering the Forest Spirit. This victory is short-lived, however, as soon after Eboshi gets her well-deserved punishment for angering the gods when the wolf god Moro’s decapitated head bites off her right arm: “Moro’s head. It moved on its own,” feels like Eboshi had foreshadowed her own misfortune.

Wolf god Moro’s decapitated head after she mutilated Lady Eboshi. © Studio Ghibli

2.The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons Picture Scroll and  Howl’s Moving Castle  This is more of a visual than content resemblance. The big headed tengu and courtesan riding the cart instantly reminded me of the Witch of the Waste’s disproportionate head when she is similarly looking through the window of her palanquin carried around the city by her loyal henchmen.

Tengu and courtesan riding a cart pulled by a toad. Source: The Japan Foundation

Close-up of the Witch of the Waste. © Studio Ghibli

3.The Nue and Princess Mononoke’s Forest Spirit  If you have ever leafed through The Art of Princess Mononoke book you might know that the Forest Spirit (shishigami) didn’t always have that same soothing smile and piercing eyes that are both amicable and cruel. In the early stages of his development his face was more human-like and uncanny than it is now. Though at first glance he resembles a deer, the Forest Spirit is actually a combination of several animals. This blog post lists them as follows: a red-monkey face covered with blue patterns, cat eyes and nose, goat ears, big body of a wild boar, the fur of a serow, and the tail of a dog. As a whole his appearance is one overflowing with peculiarity.

The Forest Spirit preying on a Shinto tree branch. © Studio Ghibli

Similarly the Nue, a legendary yōkai or mononoke, in The Tale of the Heike, is described as having the head of a monkey, the legs of a tiger, the body of a dog and the front half of a snake for a tail. In other writings it is sometimes depicted to have the back of a tiger, the legs of a tanuki, the tail of a fox, the head of a cat, and the torso of a chicken.

The Nue is also said to have the ability to shape-shift, often into the form of a black cloud that can fly. Much like the Forest Spirit who at nightfall changes to the giant Nightwalker (deidarabotchi).

Another similarity worth mentioning is that in both cases the mythical creature is indirectly murdered by the Japanese emperor. Lady Eboshi intends to give the Forest Spirit’s head, which is believed to grant immortality, to the Emperor in return for protection from Lord Asano. In The Tale of Heike, the samurai Minamoto no Yorimasa slays the Nue, because its very existence causes fear in the Emperor who falls ill and is unable to recuperate.

Minamoto no Yorimasa defeats the mythical beast Nue. Source: The Japan Foundation

4.The Foot Washing Mansion and Spirited Away  This nishiki-e print depicts a large-footed yōkai monster that descends from the ceiling and demands to be washed. The story is one of seven stories in the famous Seven Wonders of Honjo and goes as follows: At the time when the flowers were sleeping and the ushimitsu plant was blooming, a horrible, rotten stench would invade the house, and a giant foot bristling with hair would descend from the ceiling accompanied by an enormous sound. If you washed the foot, it would soon disappear back into the ceiling. But if you didn’t, the giant foot would rampage through the house until satisfied.

The large-footed yōkai descending from the ceiling. Source: The Japan Foundation

Most of Spirited Away’s plot takes place within a bathhouse for gods and spirits, known as kami, whose proprietor is the greedy witch Yubaba. The majority of these kami habitually visit the bathhouse for a regular wash to keep themselves clean — unlike the unwelcome enormous and foul smelling guest who imposes his presence and causes turmoil. He smells so bad that at first everybody, unsuccessfully, tries to prevent him from entering the bathhouse. Eventually they realise he is harmless — only after Chihiro cleanses him and sets him free from the taint of humanity.

A kami being washed at Yubaba’s bathhouse. © Studio Ghibli

5.Tsuchigumo and Princess Mononoke’s Tatarigami Tsuchigumo, which literally translates to “dirt/earth spider” is a historical Japanese derogatory term for renegade local clans, and also the name for a race of spider-like yōkai in Japanese folklore.

From the Japanese middle ages (Kamakura/Muromachi/Azuchi-Momoyama periods, or the late 12th to the early 17th centuries) onward, these renegade clans i.e. Tsuchigumo began to be depicted as giant, monstrous spiders. In The Tale of Heike, the samurai Minamoto no Yorimitsu, a member of one of the ruling clans, is depicted how he heroically defeats a giant spider yōkai known as the Tsuchigumo — which is actually a metaphor for him exterminating his opponents.

The Samurai Minamoto no Yorimitsu defeats Tsuchigumo i.e. the clans opposing him. Source: The Japan Foundation

Tatarigami (i.e. “cursed god”) is the giant creature from Princess Mononoke that attacks the Emishi village and curses its last prince, the protagonist of the movie, Ashitaka. Behind the shape, resembling a giant spider covered in worms, hides the colossal boar god Nago. Nago is the first god that Lady Eboshi shoots using the then newly developed hand cannons. The iron ball lodged in the boar’s body causes him great pain, which only intensifies his anger and hatred towards humans. Blinded by his desire for revenge, he goes far to the east where, instead of Lady Eboshi, he punishes the native Emishi tribe. While trying to protect his village, Ashitaka kills the demon, but unfortunately the curse falls on him causing the young leader-to-be to leave his homeland.

The aboriginal Emishi tribe that Ashitaka comes from is one of these renegade clans that have been fighting for 500 years against the Japanese emperor — Yamato. They have been losing against him, and now, with their last prince being cursed to death, they are certain to die out.

Tatarigami getting ready to attack the village of the Emishi tribe. © Studio Ghibli

As the samurai Minamoto no Yorimitsu exterminated the opposing clans — Tsuchigumo, so did Ashitaka in a way, by killing the Tatarigami, wipe out this endangered renegade clan, i.e. his own people. Thinking of it this way, the weight Ashitaka bears is enormous.

6.Personified Daikon Radish and Spirited Away’s Oshirasama According to Japanese ideas of animism, spirit-like entities are believed to reside in all things, both the living and the dead, including natural phenomena and objects. Kami and yōkai inhabit the spirit domain and in shape or nature can be either humans, animals, plants, natural phenomena or artifacts. Like for example this daikon radish (can you spot it?) appearing on omocha-e play pictures made for children’s entertainment as early as the Meiji era (1868–1912).

Yōkai-themed omocha-e. Source: The Japan Foundation

Root vegetables like radishes and carrots have often become internet sensations due to the occasional deformations they suffer. Their wonky shapes might have displeased a farmer in the past and ended up in the garbage instead of as pickles. Similar destiny had already befallen the objects of a house possessed by spirits. Discarded while the house was being exorcised, the aggrieved objects transform into yōkai and start plotting their revenge.

Oshirasama (Radish Spirit or Great White Lord) is the white, hefty, slow-moving guest at Yubaba’s bathhouse who resembles a radish sumo wrestler. His name, Oshirasama, is also the name of a kami of agriculture in the Shinto faith.

Radish Spirit riding the elevator alongside Chihiro. © Studio Ghibli

Have you noticed any of these? Do you perhaps know of another reference I might have missed out. How about re-watching the above mentioned films with this newly gained perspective?  Japanese folklore is rich, extraordinarily original and beautiful. And so are Studio Ghibli’s films.

Source

[sackreligion]

    Fun things about Rhedd:

he's a little bonkers. CAN I INTEREST YOU IN EVERYTHING ALL OF THE TIME

he's always hungry because how bored he is correlates to how hungry he is. not entertained? starving.

he made a contract with @it-only-hurts-when-i-smile (The Engineer) sometime before he became part of the hotel staff. their relationship is incomprehensible to most, but very fulfilling to Rhedd.

Rhedd will just eat stuff he shouldn't. he's eaten several radios at this point, a few dozen electronics and may be thinking about eating Vox. Usually when he eats something, he gains knowledge from it... maybe eating that internet router was a bad idea...

he loves pornography but not because he thinks it's hot. to him, it's a fandom and it's fun to watch amateur acting. the sex doesn't do anything for him at all, he's hooked to the terrible storylines.

he collects sex toys and things like that just to have it. study it maybe. he has his own personal stuff he may use, but it's mostly just stuff he'll put on when he wants to watch movies with Engi. Rhedd is not bothered by sex at ALL and is fascinated by porn actors. Though he's still taken aback when hit on.

Despite being a maned wolf demon rather than a deer, he's a foot shorter than the other Alastors. He gets VERY TALL when he goes demonic...

The antlers on his head are actually made of metal, and are hair pins that fused to his skull upon his being struck by lightning when he died. Fun!

A piece of Engi is always with Rhedd and resides inside that microphone bowtie he wears. It's powered by the electricity that courses through Rhedd, and its wires plug into two jacks at the base of Rhedd's spine. Kinky!

He doesn't care about sticking to one aesthetic, and loves music from every era. He's even grown very attached to Noise Music, which is all manner of metal to electronica. He likes the way it makes his skeleton shake.

His need for entertainment can lead him to behaving very rashly.

Whenever he gets food, he takes it to a corner and eats it by himself. Dog behaviour.

[sarcophagid]

yuanji notes:

i really hated the idea of making yuanji have a 100% awful childhood and hating her family. in the og water margin even though sun erniang and her husband are lowkey terrible people for the murders, they're a happy couple. the other characters just didn't really gaf about their morality for plot armour reasons and i wanted to carry that absurd positivity into the sun family. they just work 👍

yuanji is kind of (very) spoiled because they really wanted a child but couldn't conceive and she's a blessing and everything they ever wished for etc. etc. yuanji's biggest weakness is her paranoia, she consistently thought that she had been abandoned when they separated. (the idea that 'they wanted her but didn't need her')

it didn't matter where the meat came from and it didn't matter if the food was 'authentic'. the customers were paying for a fantasy in the first place.

i wanted to do cannibalism that was not too serious or intimate it was just awful irreverent and mass produced. the sun family doesn't actually eat people. its the people they sell to that eat people. and in a sense the people they sell to are buying a human product in the first place, in an almost touristy way.

yuanji's 'real' past life before her adoption involved some sort of medical education. when she was found she had just poisoned the crew of a cargo ship with tetrodotoxin a few days earlier before hiding in a barrel.

i was tossing around the idea that she was related to a doctor oc i had who also lived in the late 1800s. but this wasn't a serious plot thing just a detail for fun

in the initial stages the only two characters i had in mind were ripper and yuanji (this was back when it wasn't serious and i just wanted to do a one page action comic with unga bunga blood and violence). because cyanide is both a poison and a part of the prussian blue molecule i thought it would be fitting to make her outfit blue since they're involved in poison and painting respectively

i'll do a drawing of this later but the game had an animal theme

bane's obvious deer-hunter prey-predator reversal situation.

jack is a boar. this was the weakest one, but yuanji would refer to her families victims as pigs, given pigs potential proclivity for cannibalism despite their perceived domesticity paralleling the unwitting cannibalism of their customers.

yuanji is often compared to a wolf. both in the idiomatic term 'white eyed wolf' (ungrateful person, referring to her wondering if she should give up searching for her family), and as a 'wolf in sheeps clothing' (hiding her past as a thief and murderer during her stay at the manor).

andrew was a sheepdog. this was mostly a reference to his tumultuous dynamic with yuanji as a wolf in sheeps clothing, first seeing her as pure and innocent and later developing a scathing hatred when he finds out about her past. there was also the detail that despite him and yuanji both aiding morally dubious people, yuanji did it of free will and andrew did it out of necessity - paralleled by the domestic dog and the wild wolf.

[zarinthelwrites]

How were the AN fables chosen for The Scorpion and the Frog?

It depends. For the first chapter, I already had that fable in mind for the start... the Oxen and the Donkey is a story that I already knew and liked. However, I had the last minute realization (based on a response from my friends who read that chapter before I ever put it up publically) that most people are not familiar. With obscure fables. So, I had the idea of rewriting them at the end-- but interestingly, in my google docs, those a/n: fables dont exist. that's because I just straight up tended to write them as I was publishing the chapter. that also lets me reinterpret those fables to better suit the chapter: I think it's actually fun to go look up the fables and then compare them to the version that I wrote down. so, for the second chapter, I was on aesop's fables wiki page, read through all the stories that had 'frog' as one of the animals, and went with the one I thought worked the best.

farmer and the viper, itachi's first pov chapter, I had that one picked out early, its another favorite fable of mine. goat and the vine: i went through a lot of different fables looking for something that suited this chapter, but in the end I really liked goat and the vine because of its nature: this is a sacrificial goat speaking to a grapevine that will also be poured on the altar. the dead speaking to the dead. i thought it was a great intro for the akatsuki, and for the fact that kaeru had now entered the "doomed" part of her life. I dont have a lot to say abt wolf and the crane, I think that's self explanatory...

Crow and the snake: i liked it bc id already given itachi a snake story earlier and crows are also his thing. like the farmer and the viper, itachi becomes the crow and the farmer, killed by the snake. in many ways its a deeply ironic fable for him, because while hes the one in the fable, the one who needs to learn the fable is his symbolized killer-- sasuke, the snake. lol

dog and the sheep. akatsuki chapters get akatsuki titles

hawk and the nightengale: you dont want to know what its like constantly googling stuff like "what birds eat frogs" "what predators preffer to eat frogs" "frog predators". anyway, its sasuke's first chance to be a bird! its ambiguous, naturally, which one he is. rivers and the sea: took me a long time to settle on this one. I think its a little cruel to say that all of itachi's fables are "what can you expect?" deals because itachi's inherent character demands he seek hope from a cruel universe. what did he expect indeed. deer without a heart: i liked the image of a zombie deer i will be real. but i also liked the idea of returning to the lion's cabin, a very literal representation of kaeru's actions compared with their metaphorical weight

scorpion and the frog: i was so happy to get to the name drop chapter. yes i outlined this in advance so i did always know what fight would be getting this name. black-bird and the birdcatcher: ... "friend, if this is what you offer your guests, no gods will answer" "but birds will." and the birds did come, did they not?