#maybe Shibisu related? I love Shibisu

[meliohy]

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[beneaththetangles]

Leah for Rachel: On Tower of God

What do you desire the most? Honor and pride? Authority and power? Money, and all sorts of shining riches? Revenge? Helping, or saving, or mattering to someone other than you (even when you’re not piloting a giant robot)? Or perhaps… something even more significant, more transcendent?

No matter. Reach the top of the tower, and it will be yours. Whatever you may be looking for, you will find it there. That’s what its Guardian, Hadon, says. That’s what every character in this show believes.

Tower of God (Kami no Tou) tells the story of Rachel, the girl with golden eyes who left everything to climb, desiring to shine like the stars. And of Bam, the boy who went after her without a desire of his own. So starts a quite atypical shonen, based on a beloved webtoon, with cartoonish, colorful, quite original designs, powerful music (“TOP” by Stray Kids is an opening for the ages), references to the book of Genesis, and a deep, unflinching depiction of sin, by which I mean evil of the darkest kind, the only true evil, chosen by the human free will, in a way that can poison the universe and kill that soul forever.

The human heart and its darkness are certainly at full display at Kami no Tou. Its colorful tower of broken dreams and people who are constantly left behind has a constant aura of threat and dread, even in the more innocent scenes. Despite the swords, powers, characters who combine medieval, fantastic, contemporary and futuristic styles, and the clever ways of overcoming difficult challenges, this is not the Heaven’s Arena of Hunter x Hunter, and it certainly doesn’t have that show’s leniency with the murderous organizers of these challenges for super-talented individuals.

As Bam goes up, level after level, we come nearer to the ultimate temptation, the fall, the consequences like concentric waves, and the dark mystery of evil, a mystery that defies understanding and rational explanation. One that is linked with all the pain and suffering in the world, with the reason why reality (Kami no Tou’s and ours) constantly breaks into painful fragments and goes into cycles of horrifying self-destruction.

A nameless boy awakes without memories in a system of caves where he cannot see the stars. He is taken care of by a kind, joyful girl with golden eyes. She heals him, and patiently teaches him, and soon becomes his entire world. She has a dream, too—to see the stars, to shine like them. She will ultimately depart, leaving him behind to enter the Tower.

But he doesn’t want that. He wants to be with her. Not romantically, I think, or not exactly. “I belong to her,” he says. Rachel is, especifically, someone Bam adores, his point of reference for everything, and he just wants to have her around, even if it’s not as an equal.

At the beginning, I compared this show with The Divine Comedy, Dante’s medieval poem about following the light of the loved one who has departed to Heaven. But this is a show about Babel, about a world in which humans fight to reach the skies and become like God, masters of good and evil. In our world, the limits of human power, coordination and communication (miraculously brought upon humanity for the first time at Babel), avoid a sustainable deification. And the tower, thank God, is forever left unfinished.

Not so in Kami no Tou. The desires of the heart have been completely instrumentalized to serve the present ruler. The Tower stands, every floor as great as an entire continent, and the tower itself is an empire, ruled by King Jahad, a Darwinian monarch who was the last to reach the magical top.

The characters surrounding are dangerous people, who soon reveal that they are just broken, very human individuals with a desire so strong as to risk everything. Khun is a banished prince from a well-known, powerful family. Rak the dinosaur and Haru the samurai just want to be the strongest. Anaak seeks revenge. Shibisu would like to be rich. Endorsi is a Princess of Jahad, and needs to keep her status. These are all lovable people, fun and relatable, but something is clearly wrong with them all. And something is wrong with us, too. Bam is going to learn that in ourselves, just beneath our daily reality, there is unspeakable evil, irrational, horrifying, linked to the worst evils we know, only awaiting the opportunity to manifest itself. Indifference and hate for the people we are supposed to love. A thirst that could devour others if they get in the way. Monstrous vanity, lies, violence, dreadful, intimate idols. The deep betrayal of everything that is good and true, of God and of love. And the realization that all that has been there from the beginning.

Though I liked this anime from the first episode, I think it reaches his peak with a certain twist that everyone remembers. So, spoilers for Tower of God. And I strongly advise you to experience it firsthand.

Bam becomes popular in his circle of self-centered friends because of his selfless, innocent personality that reminds them of what they have lost, or just encouraged them to help him. He wants to be with Rachel, to help Rachel. And he works hard.

In The Pilgrim’s Regress, C. S. Lewis’ version of the classical allegory, every so often a chapter is titled “Leah for Rachel.” This is a reference to the story of patriarch Jacob, who worked seven years to marry Rachel, the youngest daughter of Jethro and his loved one, who tricked him into taking his eldest daughter, Leah, instead, so he would have to restart the process to reach Rachel. In Lewis, this expression refers instead to the pain of the human heart which falls into the trap of egoistic, self-centered sexual acts when its desire for the bright, the eternal and infinite, symbolized (Utena-like) as a castle in the sky, attracts it from the distance. But, as Kami no Tou tells us, it can be just about anything. A person or a relationship, a position or a treasure, a story we tell to ourselves, a moment of pleasure or a momentary relief, an urge, can seem to us like the shining gate to a greater, more god-like world, as stars are for Rachel.

It is only afterwards that the heart recognizes, with bitterness, that over the top of the tower, there is only a darkness that engulfs you, that becomes you, that is akin to voluntarily sacrifice love and meaning, bonds and identity. And that is what happens to Bam’s Rachel.

I always trusted Rachel to have a good reason for having abandoned Bam. As Khun, I saw the warning signs. Bam was not being objective. It is wrong to idealize a person so much, to adore her, to put the entire weight of your own existence on her. First, you will never know her this way. Second, you may be more easily tempted by evil, as she betrays your hopes. But Rachel’s smile was kind and humble, and she was somehow radiant. Her character design showed that someone had thought of her with care and admiration. She had taken care of Bam, a perfect stranger, as a kind, patient, loving sister would. And I think any of us, looking the sky at night, have been filled of this longing, this thirst that Lewis calls the “Joy” and the Spanish translation, el Dulce Deseo, the Sweet Desire. I certainly never expected the chosen one, for whom all those sacrifices had been made, to willingly push Bam into the abyss to go up. It is a perfect moment of treason, sound off, seeing her go up in slow motion while Bam falls.

And then, there is the flashback. Where we only had watched her sadness, her darkness, her bitterness, her vulgarity, her spite, her greed, were all revealed. A character who was full of light, able to inspire, freely scarred herself in such a way that the thought of her achieving her goal, watching the stars at the top, is just unthinkable. Hadon himself tells her that, when he sees her cowardice. It will never happen. She’s just not capable of that sort of pure happiness. And her inner evil does not cease to grow.

And, if you were wondering, Rachel is the character in which I see myself the most.

I am a sinner. By which I mean that I habitually do things that I judge to be monstrous, world-shattering, dark and loveless beyond all rationality. Not the sort of things that may end up with me in prison, perhaps, or not often. But maybe they should. There is a seed of destruction in them, sometimes so manifest to me that I hold no doubt that the distance between it and the more showy and horrifying forms of evil is only a matter of opportunity and means.

While I’m still young, I’m convinced that there are deeper sins in me I cannot yet fully grasp, like frozen icebergs beyond the surface of my mind and soul. Also, I feel loved by God, with a love even more devoted, sacrificial and deep than Bam’s love for Rachel, a love that would, and does, travel any distance and fight any enemy just to see me happy. Whenever I sin gravely, I freely and consciously choose to hurt and betray a real person who has hope in me, and who has bought an opportunity for happiness for me, my only opportunity for happiness, at the price of His blood.

My whole being and personality, created for the good, become a carcass, a walking lie. I’m totally conscious that, for any of them, it would be just and appropriate that I should never taste happiness of any sort in all eternity. And why would I do thing of that sort, again and again? I don’t really know. It is a whim, or something that shines, or a perverse hope that this time, I will reach some happiness that way.

So, as you can see, I am every bit a son of Eve, and every bit a brother of Rachel.

If what the presumptuously named Tower of God offered was real happiness, there’s no way King Jahad would be such an egoist, murderous jerk, or that his followers would be as petty, perverse, and traitorous as they are. Neither Rachel or I will become happy or God-like by ascending the tower of human power and human pride. If we aren’t deformed and destroyed during the ascent, we are sure to meet just pain and betrayal at the top.

The one who tempted Eve and Adam to sin was an angel already in Hell. In the case of Adam, there was also the person who had already fallen, and was not happier or wiser for it. In the case of Rachel, the people of the Tower play that role, because it will be interesting to see how low she falls. And she falls really low. I know this. To some extent, so does she.

But we both forget, because we see sometime pleasing to the eye, and we infer that it would feed our hungry souls, and that we would be wiser, more powerful, and happier, even if we have to deform and destroy ourselves and the people around us and betray the purest love to achieve it. Aided by the original tempter and other human beings, we convince ourselves that we will be like loveless gods, masters of good and evil.

And we are increasingly desperate to get it at any costs, whatever may happen. I don’t think the scene in which Rachel eats the red apple is unintentional.

Of course, this is only one form of temptation. After the Fall, we can ignore the fact that there are some things that are worse than pain, and even than death, and corrupt ourselves hoping to avoid something that we feel would destroy us. Rachel won’t face the terrible creature Bam, guided as he is by love, goes against. She lets Hoh’s life be destroyed. Sin destroys our own courage, our ability to be signs of God for one another, as we were created for. And the salary of sin is pain, confusion and death. And scandal, the strike against love and hope in the hearts of those around us, that may tempt them to sin, too.

Scandal is a sin Our Lord condemns in the strongest terms. “But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Because, as we see with Bam and Rachel, what is done to the scandalized is just like that. To believe in true love, in God, in life, after such a betrayal is very difficult.

A scarred, somber, changed Bam emerges from the abyss, pursuing Rachel. This time, he wants an explanation. In future seasons, I think, we will see the extent of the wound she has inflicted him, and to what extent his innocent heart that inspired so many of the other characters and gave them a path has been hardened, and inclined to lovelessness and sin.

What will Bam do? I don’t know. What I know is what the One who has his place in my equation did, again and again. Which was, and is, starting again and again the path into the loveless and dangerous world of fallen Humanity to reach me again, and bring me such a love that I can be moved, and cry, and change.

Jacob worked for seven more years. Betrayed by a Leah, the Lord will still fight so that her inner Rachel arises, and ultimately triumphs, whatever it takes. So that the Tower is broken, and the bridge is built, one in which we can follow Christ in His Cross, in His Ascension, to the loving embrace of a Father who awaits every day His prodigal son, His prodigal daughter, to celebrate their rescue and restore their happiness. So that the present promise doesn’t become a lie, but a hopeful, humble truth so that we are able to bring hope, and not despair, to each other, On the only condition that we acknowledge our sins and confess them, putting them in His hands, Christ will return them to us as something that He willingly suffered for us, for love.

Our evil, Rachel’s evil, will be countered by a powerful, rich, sacrificial love which will become our own, for a beating heart of flesh, that of a hero, that of a heroine. One that is able to reach the true light our hearts thirst for, and display the true power and potential of the human heart and the human will, when they accept God, as shining vitrals, each with their own colors. If we cling to His hand and walk this path to the end, we will be saved.

What do you desire the most? Are you sure? Perhaps there is something even greater. A love that burns endlessly without consuming the loved one. A light brighter than the stars.

God’s way is not the way of Babel, the way of the world. He gradually purifies our wishes, enlarges our hearts, and shows us the true nature of those signs as signs of hope that bring us true joy when we are loyal to their true meaning, even when that entails going beyond them or rejecting them here and now.

When I thought Rachel may have had a good reason to left Bam behind, it was because these reasons exist in the path of true love. God pointed the stars to Abraham the nomad, old and sterile, promising to grant him the wish of his heart, to be the father of a great family, a great people. But when the time came, he had to renounce to everything, even to the son God had granted him, and hope against all hope, believing that God could even raise the dead. God gave Abraham what He had promised, and more that he could have ever hoped for, because that’s God’s own way of doing things, and that’s how He overcomes evil.

While they may not be not as corrupted as her, the characters of Kami no Tou generally reason like Rachel, not Bam. It was Hoh who was tempted and destroyed, but it could have been anyone. But sacrificial, generous, life-affirming, pure love like that of Bam, even if it entails suffering, has a great power of attraction, and its strength makes those who embrace it truly powerful. It creates communion. Its logic trumps the logic of this world, the logic of Babel, which rises against it, which tries to hurt it by temptation and scandal.

I hope Kami no Tou continues being the kind of show which illustrates this beautiful paradox. How those who cling to their own lives are lost, and see increasing despair, despite their efforts, but those who lose them for the sake of Christ, of the purer love there is, achieve true happiness. As Chesterton puts it in his Ballad of the White Horse:

“Our monks go robed in rain and snow, But the heart of flame therein, But you go clothed in feasts and flames, When all is ice within;

“Nor shall all iron dooms make dumb Men wondering ceaselessly, If it be not better to fast for joy Than feast for misery“.

Let’s fight, not the fight of Babel, chasing after idols and illusions, but the good fight against evil and sin. And may Leah/Rachel, full of light and hope, come to cry and find salvation, and receive as a gift the shine of the stars, with a heart that can accept it, and a thousand other stars in her firmament.

=====

Tower of God can be streamed at Crunchyroll.

[biblically-accurate-soup]

Let’s Talk About Endorsi

Endorsi Jahad: a simultaneously loved, yet mildly divisive character. I personally believe she’s a fascinating character with a well-defined personality, and also an incredible example of likable female characters who don’t have to be 100% pure in their motivations. In this post, I hope to take a closer look at Endorsi, her motivations, and her personal character arc.

The Backstory

Endorsi’s backstory is indicative of how she interacts with the members of the cast as a character. It is not a happy one, and it relates to her overarching character arc that develops throughout the story.

Endorsi starts with the murder of her parents and adoption into one of the Ten Great Families. However, this “adoption” was not out of generosity. They pitted young girls against each other at hopes of producing a Princess. This is where Endorsi spends who knows how many years, being told to fight against her sisters, or starve. Walk on the backs of others, kill your competition if necessary, or eat stale bread on the floor for the rest of your life and potentially be killed by one of your sisters. 

So she conformed to what was expected of her. She was brutal. She was cruel. But she survived, and she was chosen to be a Princess. One would think this could be a turning point in her life, but the Royal Family only continues to perpetuate the ideas forced upon her.

The Royal Family

The Princesses are a unique story element. It could be viewed as empowering at a first glance, talented young women being granted incredible power, but the Royal Family is oppressive, and not that dissimilar to what Endorsi went through to become a Princess in the first place. 

The Princesses are set up to fight against each other and antagonize one another. Princesses have killed each other in the past, yet no one batted an eye. It’s considered normal, this brutal competition between them all. While dialogue from Garam seems to indicate that the true nature of the Princesses, to potentially be a wife for Jahad, is not as commonly known in the present day, let the implications of that sink in. The original purpose of this system was to have talented young women potentially kill each other and the one left standing would have the “privilege” of marrying the king. Even worse is that this original agreement was never going to be upheld by Jahad in the first place, in the end literally making this a system of having powerful women fight each other. 

While not every Princess is openly hostile towards each other, they are used to uphold the contract each agrees to upon entering the Royal Family. As seen with Anaak Sr., the crime of marrying a man and having a child is punishable by death. Break the rules, and your “sisters” will hunt you down and execute you. 

As Endorsi says, she is “One of the many Princesses in Zahard's cabinet of display shoes.” She is a commodity of the King, free in-so-far as she doesn’t deviate too far from his will. Granted power in exchange for brutal, eternal rivalries. 

The Present

This brings us the Endorsi of the manhwa. Since her parents’ death, all she’s known is a life of brutal competition for survival. While things certainly got easier after becoming a Princess, they only did so marginally. Keeping in mind the backstabbing nature of the Tower in general, her actions make much more sense. For example, in the Name Hunt Station, she was in a horrible spot that she needed to get out of. Her actions are not excusable by any means, but are absolutely understandable given the past three-hundred years of her life. She did underhanded things to survive, to make it to the next day. 

However, Endorsi is slowly changing, which brings us to the next point.

Bam

I’m not an Endorsi/Bam shipper by any means, but the impact of their friendship on Endorsi as a person is incredibly important. I’d like to call back an old line said in the first season of the manhwa.

“I don’t believe in friendship between men and women.”

When I was reading, I groaned at this line. This line of reasoning makes no sense to me at all. Yet as the story continued, it became clear that this was not SIU’s belief, as there are many, many instances of friendships between men and women in the story. Endorsi herself, although she’d never admit it, is friends with Shibisu and Hatsu. So where does this line come from?

It’s quite obvious, when you put it into the greater context of the narrative. Endorsi and Anaak are around the same age, putting Anaak Sr.’s death into recent memory for the Princesses of Jahad. When Endorsi was selected to be a Princess, it’s not a stretch to think about the warnings she was told. “Don’t get too close to men. You saw what happened to someone who broke that rule.” Once again, for self-preservation, she wanted to keep men at a distance. Better to not get involved with men in any meaningful capacity in the first place. 

Which brings us back to Bam. You have Endorsi, forced into a narrative of survival of the fittest from a young age, and Bam, a sweet, kind of dorky kid who also happens to be really cute. And who won’t take “no” for an answer in regards to friendship. She lets him know about her bloody past, most likely in an attempt to scare him off, but it doesn’t work. That’s just who Bam is. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine she’d develop feelings for him.

As for Bam, he barely knew what the Princesses were when he met Endorsi. There was no special treatment from him; she was just his friend, not a commodity or public figure. 

There within this lies the start of Endorsi’s character arc: to reclaim her agency. 

During season 2, Bam becomes firmly sided against Jahad. In season 3, this escalates into full on war. Endorsi is caught between two sides: her role as a Princess and her friendship with Bam. 

There’s no proof that Endorsi has any kind of respect for Jahad. Instead, the source of the conflict is fear. Going rouge is a death sentence for a Princess - she’d had as much hammered into her head after Anaak’s death. The Endorsi at the beginning of the story would have no conflict: ally with Jahad, keep her head down, and make it to the next day, her own thoughts and wishes be damned. However, she’s spent enough time in an environment where she was able to make choices for herself, to have a say in what she did with her life and who she allied with, that she puts up some resistance. 

Slowly, ever so slowly, she is breaking free from the influence of Jahad and her upbringing as she makes a choice that goes against everything she has been taught. To ally with Bam of her own volition, despite the danger it would bring to herself, is a huge step in taking control of her own destiny. 

So where will she go from here?

At this point, it’s hard to say how her character arc will flesh out, although I do have some predictions. I predict this will come to a head with Endorsi publicly turning her back on the Royal Family. Maybe not fully siding with FUG in the war, but refusing to be Jahad’s pawn in the war against her friend. However her and Bam’s relationship plays out, I believe his continued influence and respect for her as a person will help her be more proactive in making her own choices.

One of the themes of Tower of God is deciding your own fate. As has been said to Bam numerous times, destiny is something he chooses for himself. He does not have to “be a vessel for Arlene’s revenge” if he doesn’t want to. Endorsi finally taking back her agency she was stripped of and turning her back on what her family groomed her into would be a prime example of this theme. 

In conclusion: stan Endorsi x Therapy and a Supportive Environment

[1-800-i-ship-it]

For the Tower of god asks

Take as much time as you need getting to these as needed !! ^^

12, 14, and 21!!

hi estrey! 

12. Favorite outfits?

owo okay i definitely love all of khun’s outfits minus the grandma sweater one in s3, i also like yuri’s a lot, and garam’s hmm AND ABSOLUTE FAVE R THE MATCHING S3 OUTFITS, rak’s hidden floor outfit was also p lit xD oh and yura’s outfit

14. Favorite group? (Team bam, team shibisu,ect)

hmm favorite group would probably be the og team in s1, is that team shibisu? im not sure lmao haha but yeah oo but i also  really like wolhaiksong 

21. Theories?

oooh theories interesting hmm oh yea i was thinking about this the other day:

note: keep in mind these r just some thoughts that occurred to me, some might not have any evidence at all xD 

what if at the top of the tower, there wasn’t actually something? what if it was just something like the dragon scroll in kung fu panda?

classic “the tower is underground” theory + how the positions are all named in relation to water, shinsu itself has similar properties to water  

miseng is secretly actually related to the 10 great families

its all really an experiment conducted by ??? 

“outside” the tower there are a lot of different places and maybe something like countries 

rachel has a lot of unresolved trauma...but from where?? and she def knows more about bam’s past...arlene must have chosen rachel for a reason, but did her loyalties change? why did they change? 

what if everyone in the tower was just a data version of an even bigger entity outside 

cant think of anything else atm so yeah xD 

[evergreen-dryad]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: 신의 탑 | Tower of God Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Khun Aguero Agnis/Twenty-Fifth Baam | Jyu Viole Grace Characters: Khun Aguero Agnis, Twenty-Fifth Baam | Jyu Viole Grace, Rachel (Tower of God), Headon (Tower of God), David Hockney (Tower of God), Ship Leesoo, Androssi Zahard, Hatsu (Tower of God), Anak Zahard Jr., Hwa Ryun, Mata (Tower of God) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Sirens, Deals with the Fae, Mutual Pining, Fluff and Angst, Body Possession, almost turns into a daemon au, Animal Transformation, Fairy Tale Elements, Witches, Deception, because it's rachel, Happy Ending, Misunderstandings, POV Multiple, Injury, Magic Summary:

The tales have warned before not to make deals with the fae. Especially those that are beautiful, and dangerous, and related to the sea-witch.

Viole finds he doesn't care, as he stares into the deep blue eyes of the Khun siren. He's going to risk it for their happily-ever-afters.

(In which there's a voyage over the sea, and falling in love. Khun Aguero Agnis somehow, inevitably, becomes the lighthouse for Viole Grace, and there are deals involved with legs. And a happily-ever-after.)

//here’s the thing I’ve been working on in August! Hence the silence. Enjoy~

Outwards, it is lonely dark water. The crunch of ice echoes around him as his craft moves through them slowly. In the distance, whalesong shudders.

Viole keeps an eye out. They've all been warned of the dangers.

Tales tell of fantastic creatures rising up from the sea, singing of your heart's desire. They sing in such a way to pluck out your heart, that you no longer know yourself or your right mind.

They always end with the poor soul drowning.

Though, Viole has doubts that entire shiploads can go missing, going from some of these embellished tales.

He had been following the voice over many leagues now. The voice that now winds into his ears, as sure as a shining thread of light.

Viole had stopped counting after the last fortnight had gone by in a blur. Bleak open water all around — it was easy enough to feel life was all a dream. The horizon always far away, destination unknown.

He sighs, burying his nose into his furs.

"Not too long now, Rachel," he murmurs out loud. "I'll see you again soon." Viole had found that talking out loud actually made him feel less like he was losing his mind, like uncorking a bottle the sea had deposited deep within him.

Birds swoop overhead, cawing furiously as they divebomb the water. It is that time of the day where the sun is almost directly overhead. Hunting time for the animals, but for Viole it is time to sleep. He retreats back into his cabin gratefully. Even here, the sunlight can be searing. He had found that out the hard way, back when he'd been starting out.

Back when he'd begun this journey to find a witch, for Rachel's legs.

Rachel, who might never run and laugh again, and walk on her own two legs to find her fortune. It had hit her especially hard because she was the only child.

Only children rarely fare well in the stories, so she had told Viole. Especially if one of their parents die and remarry and give them a stepsibling. They fare even worse if they're the oldest, she said, in that gloomy tone of voice that said she was ready to go off for a long sulk. And Viole didn't like that.

"I'll go," he said quickly before it looked like she'd start crying. "I'll go and be your legs. And - I'll look for your fortune, Rachel."

She'd brightened.

There were hedge witches, but they apparently did not know the magics needed for deep healing. So he'd travelled the other direction of the crossroads instead, to the coast.

(He was afraid to go too far from Rachel. Somewhere too far from all he'd known. )

But here he was anyway, set adrift in an unfriendly sea. Viole had never really had the chance to visit the ocean much before, but he found with a few rough starts he was actually a pretty good hand at sailing. He knew ropes well. The rest were adjusting the various parts of the ship he’d rented on the fly.

If he could just find a sea witch, he returns to his thoughts drowsily, perhaps even the fabled sea witch, of which the info broker said the sirens are abundant—

(“A Khun siren could probably do the trick,” Shibisu said pensively over folded hands. A critical glance went over him. “But are you sure? They’re known to be vicious and exacting.”)

—then they could swap Rachel’s bad legs for good ones.

They had to.

Making deals with any of the fae was bad enough, let alone with a witch, but Viole is nothing but determined to pay the price.

(If like repels like, then surely like can cancel out like?)

Sleep drags him down into its depths. The voice spirals along with him, and Viole dreams of sky-blue expanses.

.

At night, the voice echoes even clearer over the waves. It reverberates, bouncing off the icebergs almost eeriely, till Viole can feel the notes of the siren song hooking into his chest. Four clear notes, always the same. He didn’t understand why, but it was his only clue.

It seemed he was the only person who could hear it too. When he asked Hockney, the guy who rented him the craft, he’d shaken his head and looked at him oddly. And Hockney had eagle eyes who could see storms coming from far-off.

Maybe Viole’s special talents lay in hearing the unseen.

He gazes upwards at the sky, holding out his hands to measure the space between stars. He’s only approximating where he thinks he needs to go, after all. But he does have to make sure he doesn’t just sail right back where he came from, or fall off the edge of the earth.

How far will he need to go?

He had reached ice. He had never known there was even ice beyond the sea that bordered them. What would be beyond all this? His teeth were chattering.

.

Only the desperate can hear them. This was what the singing of the Khuns was renowned for — the lure they maintained, for their desolate icy kingdom.

Aguero Agnis knew this. He had watched the dark shape of the boat come over the waves, steering by night.

Hunger simmered deep within his bones, his tail shifting impatiently. He knows a chance when he sees it. Perhaps it’s not his, but he will take it. He had borrowed power for the occasion, after all.

He will be nothing more than his father's lackey if he stays under here.

There is not a single thing that truly belongs to him. All undersea belonged to his father, where the ice breathed and shone.

There's nothing more he hates than drowning alive. They know all about killing people, things slowly.

They are Khuns. They do not do things otherwise. They hunt with the killer whales, beating in the prey in a shell of bubbles.

This Khun, however, has no intention of following the same rules.

Softly, he unspooled the lure, note after note. The moon above, magnifying his every ulululation.

 Yes, come, little fish.

It was coming to the ice shelf, the boat scraping through, slowing down.

It was easy enough for Aguero to hide under the sheet ice, their colouring naturally lending them camouflage in this world of blues and greys.

He flicked his tail in agitation. He couldn't get a clear visual without giving himself away, but he could hear the whistling breath of the human overhead, as it strained. The rhythm by which it rowed, its oars scraping and carving against the broken-up bits of ice.

Here it comes now, the prey over the waters. Aguero peers upwards through a small disc of air—

—and sees a young man, dark hair tied up in a little tail.

Why, if he isn't a lean one. The shape of his fate had a body like a fisherman. This was the hook he had fashioned for himself, and now all he had to do was throw himself upon it, and up the line and sinker he would go.

I will bend fate to my will. Moonbeams travelled down the runes he’d casted, etched into the grooves of his skin.

Now then, how could he make a grand entrance?

[that-spider-witch]

Tower of God Episode 3: Live Thoughts

- KHUN’S PAST FLASHBACK! WE GET A FLASHBACK FROM KHUN’S PAST... AND IT’S BOTH OMINOUS AND CONFUSING AS FUCK! Yay?

- Who is this Maria? Also, from what I managed to understand: This “Choosing a girl as a princess for who knows what and those girls that aren’t chosen are exiled along with their families” or something sounds really shady and dystopic. What the fuck happened to my boy?

- ...Or was Khun’s family royalty and this Maria, whoever might be, betrayed him and got the whole family exiled to become the new princess, hence the people saying “They lost the battle”? JUST WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU, MY BOY?

- What happened to Khun’s sister? Is she dead? Is she inside his case somehow, Nezuko’s style? Is she dead and inside the case?

- “The moment we show weakness, we die” “You can only trust yourself” That’s some really shitty advice to give to a child, lady.

- Khun’s mom sounds and looks like she’s either just a poor woman who has gone through the worse shit imaginable or a new participant for the title of Worst Anime Parent Ever™. Heck, she might even be both, complex character writing and what not.

- The sky and the stars are just legends to nearly everyone now, and the sky the characters are seeing is a replica... Oof. Was this world always like this or something horrible happened to make it that way? So many questions!

- “I doubt the real sky actually exists” That line right there sounds really heartbreaking, or maybe that’s just me. 

- Creepy weird rubber man is creepy and I don’t like him. 

- “You don’t need to thank a fluorescent plastic bag” I LOVE THIS BOY SO MUCH!

- “Abandoned son of the Khun family” HUH? So he was abandoned? How and why? What was this betrayal all about and who did it to him? WHO HURT YOU, KHUN? 

- ...Wait, does this means Khun is his family name and not his first name? His sister was calling him Aguero in the flashback, too. 

- Wonder if both Rachel and Maria (Both girls that have only appeared and/or just been mentioned in flashbacks so far) having biblical names is meant to be meaningful or symbolic of something... Or if it’s irrelevant to the story and the author just chose those names because they were pretty. Still, it is a coincidence I wanted to point out.

- Also, I love how Rak was all about throwing hands along with Khun and was disappointed that it didn’t ended in a fight after all. I love you, you dumb alligator.

- It’s probably nothing, but the Director’s design, as well as the other workers of the Tower look like Rachel, as if they were related. Blonde hair and golden eyes... I wonder if it means something.

- Getting vibes from “The Pit and The Pendulum” in how we are not shown exactly what’s inside that golden pit or what exactly happened to the participants that were thrown inside it after falling the test... But we know by the characters’ reactions that it’s absolutely horrible. Not sure if that really makes it scarier than if they had shown us corpses burning in lava or something, but it truly entices the imagination, doesn’t it?

- WAIT, THAT’S MARIA? WASN’T THE WHITE-HAIRED GIRL HIS SISTER? IS MARIA HIS SISTER? WHAT THE FUCK?!

- Maria was his sister and his lover... I need to sit down for a moment. That’s some big oof right there. What the fuck.

-...well, his half-sister, but does that really makes it better? AND HOW OLD WERE THEY WHEN THEY STARTED DOING THAT AND ALL THAT OTHER SHIT HAPPENED, HELLO???

- Khun, Aguero, whatever your first name is I don’t care... You really need some therapy, my poor boy. 

- “Don’t trust anyone” PLEASE SOMEONE GIVE THIS POOR BOY A HUG!

- RAK, YOU STUPID SMART CROCODILE MAN, I LOVE YOU!

- Khun’s reaction is hilarious and makes me want to hug him even more.

- “Don’t you want to protect those eyes, which don’t know doubt?” Even this dude ships them, lol. 

- WHAT’S INSIDE THAT BAG?

- Shibisu, aka the tracksuit guy, is actually smarter than he looks. Can’t say I’m surprised.

- “I hope you get to see the real stars with Rachel” THE FEELS MAN, THE FEELS!

- We get to see Rachel... And she’s busy killing people in a deathmatch like the one on the first episode! Not sure if that’s supposed to be scary or badass, but yeah: This girl a damsel in distress she’s not.

-That one dude who made a group of people fight to the death until only three people remained despite it going against the test rules looks pretty happy and remorseless for what he did, acting like what he did was just like cheating at an exam and just acting worried when he learns that he and his co-workers could end up executed for his actions. I hope he dies.

- I like you, Shibisu. Welcome to the main cast!  Please don’t die.

- What is that banana drink and why does it look like beer? lol

- The chibi Baam wearing the crown while the chibi Khun and Rak defend him has to be the most adorable thing I’ve seen in this anime so far.

- RACHEL, WHY ARE YOU HIDING? This side of the plot is going to be frustrating to watch, huh...

- Anaak is both smol and badass, I stan. She and her partner really should stop dismissing poor Shibisu, tho.

That’s all for this episode. I’m going to need some time to digest everything I just saw...

[meliohy]

Khunbam week day 1: Hair/Sunrise-Sunset

Khunbam week day 2: Reunion/Firsts

Very short fic about Bam and haircuts below

_

The first time Bam had gotten a haircut, it was because Rachel said he needed one. She had told him to sit still and took some silver scissors to cut his hair. She looked focused, frowning while trying to make sure the length was the same on each side of Bam’s head. Bam hadn’t thought much about getting his hair cut. It was weird to feel his head being this light, but if Rachel said that Bam needed short hair, it must have been true.

Rachel also gave him new clothes. She helped him to tie his scarf and took a step back to look at him, nodding approvingly. She said he looked like a proper young man now. Bam smiled at her, happy to please her.

When she had finished, she looked at him proudly and gave him a small mirror to check the result. Bam quickly glanced at it and told her he loved it. He didn’t care about how he looked but Rachel seemed to like it, so of course he did too.

It was just before she told him that she was leaving.

 Bam didn’t get another real haircut in years. He didn’t stay at the second floor long enough to need one back then, and after joining FUG he was asked to grow his hair. He didn’t mind. Bam never cared much about his appearance. He would cut his bangs himself when they were too long to stay properly in front of his face. At least his hair helped him hide; put a veil between him and the rest of the world. It helped him to pretend he was someone else. Maybe that’s the reason why he would never let anyone cut his hair for him. Or maybe it was because Rachel was the only one who ever did that for him, and he didn’t want to break that.

 After the workshop battle, while he was resting with his friends in Wolhaiksong’s resort, Bam looked at himself in a mirror and for the first time he felt the need to change how he looked. That long hair belonged to the slayer nominee Jue Viole Grace, not the 25th Bam.

After Shibisu’s team left, Bam went to see Khun. He asked him if he could do him a favor. “Of course” Khun had answered immediatly.

“Could you cut my hair? I want it short again.”

“Okay” Khun’s voice was very soft and he led Bam to a bathroom, dragging a chair with him.

It was the first time Bam asked for a haircut, and he felt a little nervous. Not that he doubted Khun, he trusted him completely – especially for anything related to hair – and it was the reason he chose to ask him. No, Bam was just scared of what he would look like with short hair. Would he look exactly like he was 7 years ago? Would he go back to who he was back then?

He stared at the mirror as Khun started to cut the long strands of hair. His movements were slow but precise and his touches were soft. Bam closed his eyes. He finally understood why some people said that getting a haircut was relaxing.

They didn’t say a word. The only sounds were the clicks of the scissors cutting seven years worth of pain and loneliness. When Khun finished, he took a step back and looked at Bam, waiting for his reaction.

“I like it” Bam said, and this time he really did.