#labru: bad ending

[confusedmothboy]

GUYSSS I DIDNT ABANDON YALL I WAS JUST WORKING ON THIS 🙏🙏

also i finished the manga a while ago what do i do with my life now

[tofixtheshadows]

Hot take: Laios wouldn't actually mind an arranged marriage. Obviously "reluctant royal being pressured into marriage" is very fun for shipping purposes. But I have harlequin blood, so bear with me. Join me on this journey of character theorizing/shipping nonsense that makes it abundantly clear I have a Scrivener document I'm neglecting.

Laios was promised to someone from a young age. He and Falin both were; it's probably how their parents ended up together. They both broke it off by leaving their village, but it didn't seem to be a factor in Laios's own decision. And when Marcille, presumably, asks about his hypothetical love life (bicorn chapter), he not only brings it up readily, but actually seems kind of flattered? lmao

I love when smug Laios comes out. Underrated factor of Laios's personality for me is how much he enjoys being seen as cool. I think you'd expect Laios to be embarrassed or uneasy over this line of questioning, and the fact that he isn't is fun to me.

So when Yaad and his other old advisors bring up his need for a wife, Laios is ready to go along with it. Not necessarily thrilled by the prospect, but he was raised to think of marriage as a business arrangement you do because it's beneficial for your household/bloodline (as was often the case historically). He's already made the big step to claim a throne, and the idea of becoming village chief after his father seemed to have been vaguely in the back of his head all his life. Besides, if he has to do it anyway, I think he'd take comfort that there was a formalized process for an otherwise socially messy undertaking.

This dovetails neatly with my personal headcanon that Laios is gay but unaware of it. He comes from kind of a repressed culture- or at least I can imagine he does based on context clues- and has spent most of his life being ostracized in one way or another, feeling like he's on the outside of humanity. So he doesn't realize that his lack of attraction to women is unusual- he assumes that nobody really enjoys romance that much. It's not like his own parents married for love. It's just something people play up for stories, right?

It's all tangled up with his fraught desire for human connection and platonic companionship anyway. Meanwhile he's blithely unaware that the things he says about Toshiro are not normal bro things. Oh you'd totally marry Toshiro, Laios? Tell me more.

I see this in Marcille too. Firstly due to her unstable development, which has only recently allowed her to reach maturity (I headcanon her as somewhere between 20-22) and secondly due to her being a half-elf (infertile+a too-long lifespan), I think she has the expectation that she's simply not destined for love. The half-elf character she relates to in her favorite books says as much. So she, too, confuses a genuine lack of heterosexual attraction with the belief that this is just because of her half-elf status distancing her from it. Plus, she spent over a decade as a student/researcher in a nice little sheltered academic bubble, at an all-girls academy populated by adolescents. She's the most sheltered of all the characters: she's only spent the past year in the "real world", and she still focuses all her romantic attention on living vicariously through her favorite characters or her friends (except for Falin, conveniently!).

And Marcille would absolutely want to live vicariously through Laios and his future wife. She would not want him to go through a dispassionate formalized process: she wants her bestie to have a fairytale romance! What is the point of being a heroic king in a mythic castle if you can't even get a love story for the ages out of it?

This would result in a lot of Laios meeting with eligible bachelorettes at Marcille's urging, looking to Kabru for help the entire time and being grilled by Marcille afterwards about what he liked best about each girl. "She had nice, um, teeth?" They're both so close to getting it.

Kabru, meanwhile, is agitating for Yaad and the other advisors not lock the country into a hereditary monarchy, they have the chance to do something radical here, to break away from the systems that the elves and dwarves uphold. At the very least, let Laios marry for love, or formally adopt an heir and name them his successor if he wants, he's already sacrificed enough for the sake of Melini. Don't make him jump through these circus hoops for the chance of some trade agreements, we can get those without a royal marriage. And even if Laios was willing to go along with it, he does look at Kabru like he's his hero for sticking up for him.

The vague unhappiness Kabru feels at the idea of Laios being married off is easy for him to ignore. Kabru didn't actually get better at honoring or even recognizing his own wants just because he's moved past the dungeon. And Laios hasn't gotten the hint about his crush on Toshiro and is still 50/50 on saying casually shocking things, so when he remarks that he doesn't need a wife anyway when he has Kabru, he has no idea why that gets him the looks it does. After all, where he's from, men marry women to run their households, but Laios has castle staff for that, and Kabru is handling the rest?

That comment alone ticks one month off their collective gay awakening countdown.

Anyway. How many repressed gays in their twenties does it take to run a country?

Answer: Yaad can tell you.

[alchemyne]

oh they’re a little fucked up actually

[imsosleepyofyourbull]

I firmly believe that Kabru is autistic but masks so hard that he’s convinced himself and (almost) everyone around him that he’s neurotypical.

That man’s special interest is people and how they work, but he just thinks it’s him Being So Good At Socializing — like he doesn’t spend 95% of his time people watching and adjusting his personality in response to the traits he witnesses and obsessing over the intricacies of human interaction while mapping an ever growing relationship chart in his head. For fun. He even admits it in the manga!

Like, look at him!!!

It’s such a shame that — because he’s the narrative foil to Laios and his interest is generally considered more “socially acceptable” in both their world and our own — more people don’t realize this about him. He’s constantly misinterpreted as a horribly manipulative person who only acts the way he does to use the people around him, when that’s explicitly shown to not be the case at all. Kabru is naturally empathetic and is almost always thinking about other people, regardless of whether or not they’re right there with him or a thousand miles away.

I mean, his most defining motivation is his desire to do everything he can to avoid another tragedy like the one at Utaya. Someone who doesn’t care wouldn’t have a goal like that, and they most certainly wouldn’t go about it the way he does. He’s constantly working to help people who can help everyone else and tries so hard to make sure that anyone who seems like a threat is actually someone he needs to worry about before doing anything about it. His supposed aversion to Laios is only because of the ridiculous trolley problem he’s set up in his own head.

Outside of that, he (rather justifiably) hates monsters but is desperate to understand Laios’ love for them and his apparently most selfish goal in getting close to the guy was literally just to become friends with him.

When he’s interacting with the canaries and they imply that they’re going to take him and all of his friends to the West, his first thought is of Rin and how much she’d hate to be stuck in the place that gave her so many bad memories.

He helps Kuro learn Common when Mickbell is asleep and firmly looks forward to the day that the half-foot and Kuro can communicate properly so that their relationship can get properly started without any miscommunication.

And he understands Mithrun with only a handful of weeks AT BEST interacting with him, getting enraged when the elf seems to give up and immediately trying to help him find a new motivation for life.

I’m excited just thinking about the day that Kabru starts unmasking more and more around his friends — both new and old — because if being with my current friend group has taught me anything, it’s that hanging out with anyone so unabashedly themselves is bound to make you more comfortable with yourself too. It’s part of the reason why I like Labru so much! There’s something nice about imagining them hanging out in the throne room or laying in the grass outside and talking for hours on end about their special interests. They might not strictly understand what the other finds so fascinating about monsters or people, but they can grasp that shared feeling of love.

They probably influence each other in really good ways too, with Kabru helping Laios figure out what people are thinking even when it doesn’t make sense or Laios helping Kabru understand that not everyone and everything needs to be analyzed a thousand times over. They both get to learn that there are people like them and people who will love them without them ever having to change a thing about themselves. They deserve to know that they’re fine the way they are.

[w1shb0n3z]

Alright, so hear me out

(this is another long one. Like. Seriously. It has 2.6k words.)

*yes, I edited this like 5 mins after I posted it just to add some more, oops

Post cannon Labru where Laios tries to help Kabru regain weight

TW: ED, Body Dysmorphia, Fat-phobia, Gender Dysphoria

It turns out to he a huge body image thing. Like Kabru develops a bit of an ED after he gains his weight back and tries to stay "the perfect weight" and major body dysmorphia. But! It's very sweet because hand feeding, of course, and self-acceptance.

I imagine Kabru's blue eyes get brought up when Laios is like "oh, you don't like that about yourself? :( you're so wonderful! What else could you possibly not like! Surely not those eyes ^^" or something

Plus! I'm 98% sure that Laios gains some weight post cannon, so his wrestler build gets softer, which, yay! We love that here! But this comes with its positives and negatives. (Dont he scared by how big the negative paragraph is)

Positive: Kabru has an example of having a healthy relationship with yourself and your body

Negatives (and hold on) TW btw: at a certain point of Kabru's weight gain/ body acceptance journey, where he gets obsessed with keeping "the perfect body" and does everything in his power not to gain anymore, his own twisted view of himself spills over to Laios. He starts to view Laios as a sort of slob or careless person because he gained weight after the dungeon and gained an extra 5-ish pounds while helping Kabru gain. Because Laios can and will encourage Kabru to eat by eating with him with a smile on his face.

What if someone finds out about Kabru's purging?

Yes, Kabru has purged a few times while he was at his lowest. And no, Laios doesn't catch him in the act. He doesn't know until someone tells him about it. Kabru just keeps it to himself with a tinge of guilt. Someone else finds out. I can't decide who yet, but if it were:

Chilchuck - he'd be familiar with his topic because one of his daughters went through the same thing. He keeps secret as per Kabru's request but gives to Kabru straight. He tells him vomiting hat much rots your teeth and only has negative impacts in the future. With Chil being big and tall for his race's standards and him canonically watching his own weight, he talks Kabru through this whole body image thing. Maybe not in the exact way Kabru wants, but in the way he needs

Senshi - he's SO against this. He tries to father Kabru, but his own lack of understanding for why Labru feels this way gets in the way of progress. He urges Kabru to eat and tells Laios what's goin on in hopes of figuring out what all of this is about, accidentally spilling the beans and leading to conflict between Laios and Kabru

Marcille - she doesn't really get the ED thing, but she gets not liking your body (since she never fit in with her "age group" while growing up and wished she physically presented like them). She also tells Kabru that throwing up rots his teeth and says it's bad for your mana and junk. Shes very offput by this whole thing, but she tries. She doesn't tell Laios...on purpose. (Falin also finds out becuase the guilt Marcille has from telling that secret ears her alive)

Falin - my girl does NOT understand. But she's here to empathize. She ends up being huge in Kabru's healing journey. She tries to check in on bim every now and then and uses her own transformation to promote body acceptance

Izutsumi - she doesn't know what to do. She's 17 goddamn it. So when she hears Kabru throwing up she just assumes he's sick, but when she keeps hearing it she gets a little stressed about him. She goes "he's just weird" and mentions it in conversation to someone else, most likely Marcille (which probably led to Marcille finding out in the earlier paragraph)

Mickbell...somehow - is like "dude wtf" and tells Rin about it since he knows there close. He's worried, yeah, but he doesn't think its really his problem. Especially since the two fo them aren't close like that.

Kuro - he finds out and tells Rin as well, he also tells Kabru that he looks fine. He mentions it to Mickbell, yeah, but in a "Will he be okay? :(" way

Rin - devastated. She initially gives Kabru a hard talk...which makes him worse, but hey! She tried. Rin then thinks its becuase of the shame of dying many times and tries to comfort Kabru again. Doesn't work. She tries to get him to eat the things he likes. He eats them, but she can sense the guilt from Kabru. They then have a heart to heart becuase Rin can't stand to see her best friend suffer like this and assures him that he looks fine as often as he needs

Holm - he takes a simular approach as Falin but gets a little more involved. He understands it on paper, but can't image what actually having these issues is like. Yes, he also informs Rin and is the one that told her to try to speak to Kabru in a less...prickly manner about this touchy subject

Daya - She doesnt realise what Kabru was trying to achieve by puking. So she just advises him not to do so and tells Rin about the strange behavior.

How does this affect non-platonic Labru?

Easy!

Well for starters! If they were boning before, they aren't now LMAO

Partly because of Kabru's own body image being trash and his attraction to Laios (temporarily) going to shit after Laios gained some weight to encourage Kabru. Damn that internalized fat-phobia. Neither one of them seems to have a clue what's going on. Let word, seems.

Kabru knows his view of Laios just isn't the same, but he doesn't let it be known that he's aware of this.

Does he feel bad? Yeah. But he only feels bad because he doesn't feel bad. He feels as though he's a shitty boyfriend for harboring such disgust for his partner's figure

Laios catches Kabru stealing glances at himself in the mirror. Staring just a little too long. Laios deduces that Kabru's feeling a little self-conscious after some hard thought.

So, of course, he makes sure to be extra careful about his words. He'd totally be like that one meme (which I can't find) that goes: "damn girl, that ass is wide" "what??" "I didn't want to say fat and trigger your eating disorders :/"

Plus, on the not boning thing, they're busy. You got a king and his advisor, they're not gonna be cranking it up every night! They simply sleep together, in a literal sense most nights anyways, so more sleep isn't anything bad

Additionally, I don't believe Laios has a high sex drive at all. (I personally think he's on the asexual spectrum, maybe because I'm ace, but still)

Kabru won't initiate a thing at the moment, it's up to Laio's sporadic desires to get things going. (It never gets going)

What if Laios discovers Kabru's feelings towards him and the purging?

He's hurt, simply put. He can't understand why Kabru dislikes his body, Laios can't understand why his own body would be such a turn off now.

In the non-platonic vers Laios tries to become "sexy" again. ....He fails horribly and ends up making a fool out if himself. At first he's like, "well monsters do this to attract mates" right after he feels as though he needs to inprove upon himself. Then he goes "no... Kabru isnt a monster, and im not either (unfortunately)"

He pushes that silly thought aside and tries to find out *why* Kabru is turned off by his looks now. His face? No.. His hair? Just got it cut. His figure? ...but why?

Laios goes right up to Kabru and confronts him about it. Kabru being the slippery bitch that he is denies it and goes "lol wtf haha! I luv u bae and there's nothing wrong with u!! ur so sexy and hot haha..."

This, inevitably, confused the shit out of Laios and he asks for honesty. Kabrus actions aren't exactly aligning with his words, and something needs to he done.

[Okay, let's be real here. If Kabru didn't want Laios to know how he felt, Laios' ass would NOT know lmao. This is just for the bit]

Now the purging? Laios is like "dude what? :(" he doesn't understand it. Nope. Not at all. He tires to he supportive, but he really doesn't know what to do with this. It's not like there's a bulimia monster, so he has no real frame of reference.

He's all "but you look fine how you are :(" and "I like the weight on you!" or even "did you know that [this species of monster] finds fat attractive? ,:D"

He means so so well, and Karbu knows it. Laios really is just a dog of a man.

Laios also tries to get Kabru to promise to stop. We know how that went. Karbu agreeing just to do it behind Laios' back because he knows Laios won't find out. He'll cut back on it, yeah, but he has his weak moments.

Eventually, Laios makes sure to only have Kabru serve his favorite meals. That should keep him from puking it up! And Karbu stops after a while. But only because his health is on the decline.

What else?

Two words: hand. feeding.

Kabru throws up? He gets his favorite meals so he won't. Kabru keeps checking his figure? Less mirrors in the caslte and more compliments. Kabru not eating enough or skipping meals? Simple. Laios makes sure he eats.

And how? A little less of Laios sensually slipping a fork full of decedent chocolate cake past Kabru's lips and a little more than a simple "here comes the airplane"

It starts off as Laios seeing Kabru taking smaller bites and being like "oh! Let me show you how to fill your fork! ^^" and then him taking Kabru's fork, impaling a bunch of assorted foods onto said fork, then handing it back to Kabru.

Then it sort of devolved (...evolved?) Into Kabru begrudgingly letting Laios feed him like a toddler while no one else ot looking. My boy Kabru does NOT know how to say no to this autistic man properly.

Laios was like "would it help if I just fed you?" And karbu replied something like "haha! It just might!" And of course Laios did not pick up on that God level sarcasm and went "cool, Let's try it then" and Kabru, wanting to appease Laios said "cool!". Bro was punching air.

(Yes, Laios said stuff like "good job buddy!" "You're doing so well!" "Its tasty, right?" Almost every bite)

In the non-platonic world, Laios would have Karbu sit ever so close to him as he was fed, maybe even in his lap. And of course Karbu would get a peck on the cheek after every bite. And the whole process may or may not turn Laios on. Especially when they're dining on monster. Whoops.

....anything else?

This all ties in with the absurd standards that was set for Karbu and the insecurities he hides within himself.

The whole blue-eye-spawn-of-a-demon thing was already enough for him. But being raised by that moody ass elf was a whole nother thing.

Milsiril, his adoptive elf mom, raises children like she has a monopoly in daycares. She's a serial foster fr. All them damn kids. Raising them like pets becuase you want something to love and depend on you. (I love Milsiril btw)

Anyways.

Kabru was his mom's favorite since his features were unique. Im talkin big bright blue eyes contrasting with rich dark skin, in particular. Plus, he was so sociable! All of his siblings looked up to him in one way or another. He was the star child.

And, you know that thing about elves being twinks, right? When ever Milsiril would check up on Karbu's health, she would use this old elven chart depicting the "average/desirable/suggested" height, weight, and muscle tone for diffrent short-lived races at diffrent ages/stages of life.

Safe to say these charts and texts were based off of elven standards, so everyone was thought to be slimmer, lighter, and more toned than normal. Plus, they're old lol. Instead of updating her charts and buying some from the diffrent cultures and races, she keeps her old one becuase she legit just forgets to replace it and hasn't had any "major problems" while raising her kids with that information so she doesn't think to change it.

What in trying to say is!

Kabru was raised with unrealistic body goals, and when he used to deviate from those arbitrary statistics during childhood he'd be put on diets and stuff.

Also, What if Kabru was transmasc?

Especially when he was a teen, even gaining a little wait made him go nuts. He couldn't get the words "unhealthy" out of his head and started associating it with the word "fat". His mind likes to play tricks on him when he's in the mirror. Exaggerating his figure and making him panic.

So! When he was sick and tired after that weird ass dungeon trip that changed his whole world and he came back to find himself thin as a pin, he tweaked.

He logically hated it because it was unhealthy, but a part of him was satisfied. With the added stress of becoming a Kings advisor, he started to crack under the pressure, manifesting in an obsession with himself. When he started to gain weight back he was brought right back to those check ups he had with Milsiril and those 2, maybe 3 times he was put onto diets in his youth. He really feared he was getting fat and he would just stare into the mirror and feel his flesh beneath his fingertips, searching for some sort of confirmation. All he felt was a bit of a squish, a bit of a give, and that's all he needed.

It was too much for him. His body was wrecked in his eyes. He's supposed to he fit and lean and thin and perfect. How could that be perfect? He looks in the mirror in his private study, wasting the time he could've been spending planning new city infrastructure or working out the kinks in trade. But no. He's here, in his dimly lit room, looking at how imperfect he's become in his eyes. How unhealthy he is his mom's eyes. How disgusting he is in his birth mothers eyes.

He had to fix it. The wound rubs deep, dar past the dermis. And, I guess, much like other wounds that cut a chasm into the skin, you don't really feel it once it severs your nerves. You don't really notice until you see the big, gaping, bleeding, notch where you used to be.

Lol anyways

Whoo boy. He is in hell. He feels like gaining weight makes him look "softer" and more feminine. He hates it, yes. But he tries his best not to let it effect his wardrobe. This whole weight journey really rehydrated his gender dysphoria.

He's used to looking a little androgynous, but with his new weight going to his stomach, hips, and thighs, he just feels as though his silhouette is becoming more girly.

Kabru is found training and working out more. Anything to get his body more boxy again.

He spends more time making sure he looks presentable. Even waking up a little earlier to ensure he vouge cover ready. (Well, I mean, as vouge ready as perpetual business casual can be)

And how does it end?

It takes some time, but Kabru heals. He's 10 pounds heavier than when we were first introduced to him, but he doesn't mind anymore.

It was a long journey full of all sorts of denail and shame, but he got there.

He's still the Light Yagami coded perfect chivalrous boy. He always has been. And Laios loves him all the same. Platonically or not.

Laios was essential in Karbu learning to let go of those impossible ideal and unreachable standards. Laios does not give a fuck afterall, he thinks all human bodies are unintresting beautiful! That dude does not judge. Rember him talking about the orc women in one of the monster tidbit sections? He's about body acceptance and neutrality.

Kabru grew to love his body, not just tolderate it or like it because someone else does. And if it tickles you, he liked the extra pounds Laios gained in the end, too. And if you're here for non-platonic Labru, then Laios may have became a bit of a feeder and has a tiiiiny food kink. Plus, Laios is a huge fan of the squish and Kabru likes how warm Laios is.

I just want to add this in here, also hecuase ive seen it before and i agree, but Laios seems like the type to give dutch ovens. He shows love like a big brother and its horrible (affectionate). This passes Karbu off SO BAD and it's hilarious. He has to sit down and have a very direct and serious talk about "getting too comfortable". And Laios would sit there the entire time like a sad dog and nod along.

Kabru and Laios also wrestle. No debate. They do it to spar, Laios does it for fun, Kabru does it to make Laios shut up. It's great!

Sorry this took so long lmao,, I legit just kept forgetting to write this

This was just word vomit. I've lost the plot somewhere along the way, I fear

[gothiethefairy]

i have a modern t4t labru idea, that's mostly about kabru taking laios to a fancy gala bc he was invited and wanted laios to be his plus one

laios however is just an average convenience store worker, high school drop-out and just starting her transition. so she's very over her head about this, but wants to make kabru happy. so she agrees to go.

she's nervous throughout the whole thing, feels inadequate about her outfit (everyone else is wearing something so fancy and meanwhile she's wearing a dress she found real cheap at a thrift store) and is worried about making a social blunder and embarrassing kabru.

kabru meanwhile is having the time of his life bc he loves these type of social gatherings. and he gets to show off his beautiful girlfriend.

but in the end, kabru notices laios is not having a good time. he feels bad for forcing laios to attend, and laios feels bad for making kabru feel bad. they decided to leave early and end up grabbing a burger at their favorite fast food place. (the food at the gala wasn't all that great anyway)

[bafvkun]

Labru is just, so perfect in my eyes.

On one side you got a basic blond white man who’s only spark is his premium autism and that constantly gets into awkward social situations because of it.

On the other you got the pretty boy and smooth talker who’s overly aware of his social interactions and always tends to overthink and over analyze everything in his environment in order not to make things awkward at any given point.

In the end Kabru can absolutely not escape the awkwardness with Laios no matter how much he thinks things over, he always has to take the weirdest paths to talk with him, saying things he never thought he would and willingly putting himself in awkward situations in order to bound with Laios.

But its also good in a way because it inevitably pushes Kabru to be true with Laios and himself, he never gains anything from lying to him. Honesty is the best route with autism, communication is so important with autistic people. Kabru is so good at talking but sucks at being honest with his words and actually communicate his intentions while Laios is the complete opposite, being so so bad with words and interpretation but the most honest a man could be.

Just them really, they live rent free in my mind

[rixxxen]

labru good end / bad end ♡

charm preorder on my shop

[cryptiicism]

labru, the winged lion, and ✨ trauma ✨

picking back up from last week's episode of me being cryptic, lets go!!

so, why do i find labru interesting and why does the winged lion matter?

first, let's go WAY back, back to the beginning when kabru was a kid. growing up he was ostracized because of his eye color, and he specifically notes that he must've been a monster.

jumping forward, who loves monsters? who breathes, eats, and thrives off of the knowledge of monsters because it is his second nature? laios touden, a man who would tell you everything there is to know on monsters because he finds them interesting. he loves them.

that, is why labru works so well, because for kabru to love laios... he has to love himself.

but first, he has to go off the deep end because he's kabru and that's what he does. why though? because growing up and being hated for standing out, only to find someone who loves the very thing you see yourself as. something that you have deemed unlovable is revolting, and like the situation you grew up in you choose fear over any attempt to understand.

but that's why kabru is different, because unlike monsters he has the ability to change his nature. so he does, just... not before the winged lion gets his hands on laios.

however before we delve deeper into the dungeon's clutches , let's look at how labru views themselves.

kabru -> " i'm a monster dressed in a persons clothes. "

laios -> " i'm a person dressed in monster clothes. "

obviously, they are both outsiders, just as their fellow party members are so why does it matter?

think back, just as laios loves monsters there is a man who knows people inside and out literally. that is kabru of utaya, who analyzes people like it's a sport going out of style.

that, is why labru again, works so well because like how kabru views himself as a monster to a degree. laios craves to be shed of his skin because his monster clothes fit all alright, but they itch... it's not quite right, because they were given to him just so people could have a reason to say " look it's a monster!! "

but it's just autism , and leading into that ... laios obviously has depression as shown when he gets grabbed by the spirits , having suicidal ideation because he thinks it'd been better if he had died in falin's place . so for kabru to be so fascinated by people , it's like rubbing ointment on laios' itching skin because he feels seen .

he feels like a person when kabru expresses that he finds laios interesting and engages with him , and it helps ease those out of place feelings when they make each other feel seen .

too bad something else sees laios too , and laios stares back into that void because while his itch is temporarily soothed , it comes back .

that's how trauma works , it can be eased but it's still there . like an insatiable hunger , and that's why laios is the subject of the winged lion's interest . Laios' desire is to be that of monstrous nature , as long as his nest is protected and he is full , all is fine .

The lion says as much, however that's just it turning laios' mental health problems into a reality. the desire to be a monster stims from being a outsider as a kid, and plus they're just cool- but it comes from never having a place in society, and detaching hence why laios doesn't care for anyone besides those he dubs as close.

but after the demon is defeated, that's when we really see kabru and laios grow close, because at that point they both realize. They understand and see each other, " I felt like like something I wasn't and I wanted to be loved. " so..

they love monsters, they love humans, and they finally have a home where they are loved back.

@sicklyworm hope you enjoy !!

[doumekiss]

I can't believe this but I'm actually considering writing a labru mpreg fic. I blame @mossmittens that send me a prompt about Milsiril and Kabru + Grandkids, originally I thought about writing something with him and Laios adopting some kids, but then suddenly this morning an idea came to my head.

I've seen some fics and some lovely fanart with Kabru being a trans man and getting pregnant, but I'm actually thinking of doing something a bit different. So you guys probably seen that post canon comic where Izutsumi figures out that Laios still had for a while the thing about his poop turning into forrests, what made me think about what other unusual traits he might have that he isn't aware. The image that came to my head is of Laios gaining some weight and at first everyone thinks it's only because of his increased appetite, but then they discover is because there is a baby growing inside of him despite him looking like a typical cis man from the outside. Then comes confusion and hilarity of people dealing with this miracle of nature, and Kabru's mental anguish at having accidentally impregnated the king, the unwed king on top of all (I think Marcille would give him the shovel talk about doing the right thing before her poor niece or nephew is born a bastard, and Chilchuck might tell him that getting a shotgun wedding is not always that bad).

And in the end Milsiril will have a lovely grandchild to spoil :)

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Edit : I'm officially writing this fic now, and the first three chapters can already be read here :

[fallloverfic]

Me: I read/watch Delicious in Dungeon for The Plot The Plot (spoilers for S01E17: Harpy/Chimera; CW blood and injury):

And this episode we have the absolute best problem: THERE'S SO MUCH OF IT alkdjaljda

I always loved this bit in the manga, with Kabru using logic to point out that Toshiro's frustration, while valid from a legal standpoint (and debatably from an ethical one), doesn't make any sense because he'd have done the same thing in Laios' shoes. Kabru defending Laios :3

Kabru being supportive of Laios more T-T The soft looks. Love them so much.

There's just something very compelling about how Toshiro is holding his hips in this shot alkjdlajda

I know Toshiro was miserable during this but they are really cute together T-T Poor Laios wanting to be friends and being very bad at it, which is a total mood.

Kabru protecc :3333 I just love seeing so much of Kabru's strategic mind at work this episode. He's always thinking and planning something and I love it.

This shot was just really fucking good. In the manga, Kabru's slightly cropped out of the panel, but the way Trigger like fully defines his musculature is nice. Poor Falin :( Is okay, she gets her revenge and kills him back roflmao

Blessed Plot TM.

Just Them TM. Themmmm. So good.

Couples counseling goes swimmingly alkdjaldja Also I know that Toshiro is holding Laios' leg so that Laios stops kicking his hip/ass but also that leg grab alkdjaldjalj

MEANWHILE THE BABIESSS. Just love them T-T Kabru just being like -very modest about his own abilities-, learning for future combat situations, and also, "This man is insane and dangerous." aalkdjaldj

I want it noted that this is Kabru looking at Laios, and while obviously the idea is to focus on Laios' obsession with monsters and the danger that poses were he to become lord of the dungeon, I keep think about that slo-mo pan-up shot and how beautifully Laios is posed here. Just Labru thoughts.

So soft for each other, these two. Frustration, aggravation, annoyance, pain, but also envy and softness. Toshiro's little, "That's the part of you that I envy." just kills me. Lots of Toshiro softness this episode. His Japanese VA did an excellent job showing his softness for Falin. Also Laios' constant YOU NEED TO EAT SOMETHING kept getting to me alkdjaldja

THEMMMMMMM They end meeeee T-T "I'm glad we got to chat" just ahhhhhh

I don't think Laios is going to forget you any time soon Kabru aldkjaldjalj Bless the animation of Kabru he is so beautiful and just ahhh

This episode was so fucking good. Looking forward to next week :3

Other delicious Plot:

The Plot in Episode 3

The Plot in Episode 7

The Plot in Episode 9

The Plot in Episode 11

The Plot in Episode 13

The Plot in Episode 14

The Plot in Episode 15

The Plot in Episode 16

The Plot in Episode 17 (you are here)

The Plot in Episode 18

The Plot in Episode 20

The Plot in Episode 21

The Plot in Episode 24

[nychthemeron-rants]

So a post made by @deszczowedni of Fem! Labru where they mention Fem! Laios being a single mom dungeoning and the canon genderbent Chilchuck from the magic mirror extra leaving the party for her family is giving me massive brain rot so have a quick summary of the resulting Single Moms AU that is rotting my brain.

Laios and Chilchuck are both dungeoning to support their families after their respective divorces.

Laios was put into an arranged marriage pretty much as soon as she was of marrying age thanks to her shitty father. While she and her husband were never in love, things were fine for a while and they were both at least mostly content… except Laios is still Laios. She still yearns for life outside the village, still nerds out over monsters, and still has the same social issues even if fem! Laios can mask just a teensy bit better. So, after several years (and the birth of their daughter) her husband’s resentment towards her comes to a head and he divorces Laios and abandons their young daughter looking for a fresh start. And despite knowing she should be more upset, Laios feels more relieved than anything. She saw this divorce as her chance to finally leave her village so despite her family’s wishes and advice she flees with her daughter. She rents a room in a town near the school she encouraged Falin to attend and tries to make things work as a single mother. However, money is tight. Very tight. And the odd jobs she picks up aren’t making ends meet anymore. So with Falin’s help she turns to dungeoning to make some more money for her and her daughter while a few helpful staff at the academy watch her daughter. Fast forward to current day and her daughter is finally old enough to actually attend the academy full time (between 8 and 10 years old since Marcille met Falin when she was 10) but that means money is even tighter as she has to scrounge up tuition but it also means she can spend more time in the dungeon at a time without worrying about her daughter’s safety.

For Chil, not that much changes. Chil is still a middle-aged, union-leading parent of 3 adult daughters. However, in this AU when Chil’s wife left, she didn’t go live with one of their daughters, she disappeared off the face of the earth. This causes their children to begin to worry like mad about her and about Chil as none of them know where the hell she went. As much as a part of Chil wants to go looking for her wife, another part of her is too emotionally constipated to face all of her feelings about her wife’s disappearance and chooses to instead focus on financially supporting her daughters who ARE busy looking for their mother. She feels a bit bad about disappearing into the dungeon when her kids are so emotionally distraught over one mother’s disappearance already so she makes a point to write all three whenever she’s on the surface with updates on where she is and where she will be. Chil still doesn’t tell her party shit except vague mentions of having to stay on top of family matters with no other context.

Laios is the only one that knows Chil has kids but assumes they are about the same age/ maturity as her daughter.

Senshi’s role doesn’t really change, she’s a kindly middle aged dwarven woman who lives in the dungeon eating monsters.

Falin and Marcille basically have the same general backstory too but are just men in this AU. Falin has been dungeoning to support his sister and niece and Marcille started tagging along for both research and Falin.

Izutsumi remains completely unchanged because I find that to be funnier. She’s not even genderbent. She’s just Izutsumi.

Pt. 2 (Name Guide)

Pt. 3 (Laios' timeline)

Pt. 4 (Chilchuck's timeline)

[candy8448]

Nearing the end of the dungeon meshi manga!

(Previous post)

I really like how chilchuck has a crisis and then starts to take charge lol. I love him. Dadchuck really shining through

Dadchuck! Dadchuck! Dadchuck!

Also i love the little tidbit about the cultural differences with even what to do with a babytooth. The tiny details are so cool

I like how the really powerful monster marcille makes is the EXACT SAME as the familiar she made to rescue senshi from the griffin. Same amount of wings and everything, i like that

I really dont like the labru ship but i can deffo see where people are comming from. The energy in this page is just overflowing

Also i really like the composition of the pannel with laios and kensuke being completely black. Shows the manipulation and evilness of the winged lion, its cool

I mentioned in this post how that when i saw it, i thought that it was chilchuck and his wife and what i thought about that. People however said it wasnt him due to the size of his ears and such (see the post for details on both parts) so idk, what do u think.

Oh no the hourglass eyes D:

Also the next pannel after that looks really cool, i love it

XD chilchuck knowing exactly what to get marcille to listen while everyone else's doesnt work as well, lol

These pages are amazing. Chilchuck's and izutsumi's expressions are everything. I love all of them so so much ^v^

Dang, her and laios both being like "i think the demon's powers are evil" "i think that being the dugeon lord is bad" XDXDXD

JAJSGDSJAHSB I FORGOT BUT I JUST REMEMBERED THAT "eating is a privilege of the living" :000!!

Falin's so me core...

The canaries applying sunscreen to mithrun otherwise he would forget and shiro picking up shells for falin are so cute!

I find it so funny how laios and crew just gets eaten lol

We are getting near the end and its crazy, i really dont want it to be over :( (but im deffo glad that kui decided to end it at a good point rather than drawing it out for too long. I despise series that draw it out for even a tiny bit too long)

(Couldn't marcille have asked the winged lion to change falin back to how she was before? Instead of just freezing her?)

Actually no, cuz if they tried to get her out of the dungeon the effect would dissapear and she would turn back to a chimera but outside and thats not good seeing how easily she murdered shiro's and the other parties

And to think that from neat the start, if they revived Falin with the black magic and then very soon after asked falin to teleport them back to the surface, then none of this would have happened lol, though i guess like laios said to marcille, without all of this they wouldn't have had all this fun and tried all that food and grown close together. I guess the real meshi was the friends we made along the way.

(Next post)

[bonni]

I do believe that kabru is down bad for laios by the end of the series (not sure if I believe he felt that way before the "I want to be your friend" scene, to me kabru is the kind of person whose feelings only become real when he says them out loud bc he's just that repressed) but I wouldn't call myself a labru shipper because I do not believe that laios feels the same way about him, lmao

[jamesfalt]

the kabru post and then also that farcille post has me thinking about how people do take these gay ships and just completely mischaracterize them for the sake of having ship content. and i could make a whole long ass post or even video essay on this all but i'm gonna try and keep it short here

i feel like ship culture has gotten like....extremely tropey lately? like you have your ships and they HAVE to behave in certain ways or else you can't enjoy content of them. this is like super vague but i've noticed this in like ao3 fics of a lot of ships i'm into where they'll take the ship and just completely mischaracterize one or both of the characters for the sake of the ship

and in some cases i'm like it's bc the fandom is a bit younger, for example naegami is a ship i can't really read fics for bc all the fics are out of character and tropey. they erase how each character actually feels without giving any explanation as to why they would be like that. but i know that the fandom is by default young teenagers bc i was a young teenager when i was really into it.

and a common thread that i see in these types of ships characterizations is taking characters who aren't "soft" characters and making them soft. with naegami it's taking togami, a cynical bougie asshole who although does soften a bit by the end of the first game and is clearly friends and cares for his friends by dr3, and turning him into a guy who's only care in the world is naegi and he loves naegi soooo much and it makes him weak when we know how he interacts with naegi and it's not that.

kabru gets this exact treatment. where the haphazard feelings he has towards laios throughout THE WHOLE series get quickly thrown away to be the guy who is totally on laios's side all the time bc he loves him sooo much

laios isn't much different in this regard in the handful of fics i've read either where a lot of his tenacity and straightforwardness have been whittled down bc "oh he doesn't understand social cues he doesn't know what to do :(" which is so baffling i literally will close the fic the minute i see him portrayed like this.

i'm gonna go through the farcille ao3 tag next it's just taking me a bit to get through the labru one but from what i've seen on just tumblr and twitter alone it's clear to me that they're taking marcille and making her super soft and one track minded when she has other traits that kind of overwrite that? they forget that she joined laios not just bc she wanted to save falin, but bc she knew he wouldn't make it far without someone who could heal him. she's sharp and quick to jump to conclusions

where was i going with this. it's been a hot minute since i interacted with a fandom that's not gacha based (last time was beastars but that fandom wasn't too bad honestly) and so i just see the way a lot of people take characters and i'm just so baffled bc i'm like we have all the content we need why are you insisting they're not that, this isn't a gacha game where we're waiting several months for their story to progress to get a little more info on how they act. we KNOW how they act. you don't need to make up personality traits for these characters if you just read them.

[loriache]

i hope new followers are also ok! B and H for the ask meme

ask game

Yes absolutely : ) doesnt matter how new you are! Welcome! Let’s chat!

B - A pairing–platonic, romantic or sexual–that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.

Right now, that’s gotta be Rin/Marcille! I love Farcille, of course, and came out of the comic shipping that hard. But I also love poly, multi-shipping, drama… and I think it was this post by @malewifesband that got me thinking about the possibility of Rincille. Good girl honour student x self-taught bitter traumatised mage yuri. Rin needs someone else than kabru to care about! I love rin/kabru (i even made a comic about it) but it’s a bad bad bad idea. Rin/Marcille might be very messy but I think it’d do them both some good!

If that intrigues you then what cemented it for me is this fic. transfem laios, labru, but the rin subplot made me feral and it’s rincille with background open relationship farcille.

H- What is your favorite source text for fandom stuff (e.g., TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?

This is a tricky question. I guess anime and manga? Western comics too. I love books and I have been in plenty of book fandoms, but I’m more likely to come out of a film or book feeling satisfied with what I got, without that fannish urge. But then again I was big into Star Wars for a while. the most important thing is to feel that sort of dangling urge where things weren’t tied up, which longer, less polished things will give me more often. Dungeon Meshi is rare because stuff that leaves me with a “wow, what a work of art” feeling rarely also prompt me to engage fannishly. It’s the way it paints a broad and consistent picture of the world and the characters without filling every part in, and the great potential of the post-canon setting that gets me, I think.

Mostly I don’t watch as much TV (of any sort, live action even less than animation) because I struggle to focus on it if I’m not watching with somebody. Oh, though I am watching Interview with the Vampire with my sibling at the moment and I can tell once I’m far enough to not be avoiding spoilers I’ll want to check out the fandom.

So yeah. Not really films, I guess, except very occasionally. Anything else is fair game if it has interesting loose ends, themes, and characters (or the potential for those things).

Thank you for the ask! ☺️☀️

ask game