im so obsessed with The Apothecary Diaries rn for so many reasons, but my favorite plot development so far is how they managed to place so much mystery and dread behind who Rakan was, including his dubious reasons behind his interest in Mao Mao. similar to Mao Mao it sent chills down my spine every time his name was even mentioned, so it’s insane how he went from THAT to later being like one of my favorite/most sympathetic characters?? he was a terrifying villain now im sobbing over the mistakes he made, the happy life that he and Fonshen were robbed of. the writing is insane! it never ceases to amaze me. i haven’t taken an interest in manga in so long, but I’m so happy I chose this one to start up with again.
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Sometimes (not often and not referring to the proxy versions bc that’s its own thing), I’ll see someone call Masky and/or Hoody a killer and I sit there like. But they aren’t though. They tried to kill one (1) guy and technically Tim did later but that was purely self defense.
Their actual crimes ARE attempted murder, breaking and entering, theft(?), assault, and stalking, with maybe a few more, but 80% of the murders were caused by Alex. You can lump Tim’s kill count with Masky if you want (which brings him dubiously up to 2 if you count Hoody falling) but Hoody has a kill count of exactly zero.
They ARE very intimidating figures and highly important to the story but I definitely wouldn’t label them as killers!
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The brotherless/what was taken au
Reader is an asshole. Snarky. Smartass. Rude for no reason. Just basically a prick. But there is something sincere abt them that Sun thinks is good. Moon likes the challenge, likes how stubborn and abrasive they are, but can tell that something has made them that way, the same way the virus made him into something different. Either way, both are curious about the reader, who seems equally as interested in them.
Takes place a few years (15? Maybe?) after Plex catches fire and closes permanently. Some unnamed company has dug out what was left behind and is messing around with the animatronics to see how damaged they are. Reader is hired for the Sun/Moon tasks. The company’s goal is to trace back what happened to the Plex, why it happened, and who was involved. When the project is done, the suitable animatronics (the ones cleared of the virus) will be given a chance to return to the world and carry on with whatever sort of life they wish, with close supervision for six months to a year to be sure they’re hospitable enough to live with the public.
Sun/Moon are kept in a square, bland as hell room with a big window on one side. This leads to an observation room where a staff member (reader) can talk to, interact with the animatronics without being close to them, and manage controls for the room. Sun/Moon are hooked up to a system by a series of chords that stretch from their back. These control them: turn them on and off, which parts of their body they can move, give short correctional shocks, basically can keep them easily under control and helpless. If they remove the chords, they power down immediately. There’s no way to get rid of the chords or ignore what they do.
Reader gives them simple tasks. “Pretend this teddy bear” a teddy bear is dropped into the room “is a distressed child. What do you do?” They ask them basic questions. “What were you built to do?” “What is 13 multiplied by 24?” “Why is the sky blue?” “Who created you?” Just testing their knowledge. What they know. About themselves, about the world. Sometimes they’re rude and play tricks on the animatronic for no reason. They don’t hurt them- just kind of push them around. Sun gets attached, with how Reader is, at heart, a jokester, and, when fixing any broken parts Sun/Moon are discovered to have, diligent and careful, making sure everything is as it should be, asking how they are feeling every step of the way.
Moon is still partially warped by the virus and rarely comes out. When he does, reader turns intense, borderline vicious, needles him and antagonizes him. They’ve got a fight to pick with him, it’s obvious, but neither Sun nor Moon can remember much from before the fire.
But reader went to the Plex as a child, often. And they remember everything.
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Aka, reader is the older sibling of one of the kids Moon lured away, and even if it’s been years, that’s years they’ve spent seething and hurting, and they still want answers- and for Sun and Moon to regret what they did, and regret it properly
Also could be considered an unlikely enemies-to-tolerance-to-friends-to-confused-but-might-be-crushing relationship! Reader has always thought they knew what they’d do if they ever got the chance to make Moon pay for it all, but suddenly they’re here and he’s there and they’re both stupid and hurting and shells of themselves and neither is sure what they want anymore
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Genuinely Zhou Ying from Tai Sui is one of the most insanity-inducing characters ever written, like
He's a prince. He's chronically ill. He eats almost nothing that isn't bland and medicinal. He hates his dad so much he wants to start a revolution to destroy him. He's born vaguely psychic and eventually becomes the closest thing his world has to omniscient. He starts his revolution by having two local politicians chopped into mincemeat, blended together, and poured out in the street. His favorite person in the world is his annoying little cousin that hides out at his house with him when he gets in trouble with his parents. He's probably a sociopath. He's murderous enough that all his servants and subordinates are scared of him. He has the same clothes made for himself every year. He founds and runs his universe's version of the CIA. He had his bones magically removed as a baby. He's a commentary on the way that psychotic and neurodivergent children are often villainized and mistreated by their caretakers. He has his bones un-removed over 20 years later. He's faking his chronic illness to cover up other, weirder chronic illness related to the bone removal and psychic thing. He loves his grandma. He purposely engineered his mother's miscarriage as a young child. He can turn himself into mist and break off chunks of his body while in mist form. He grew up with his consciousness halfway bound to a hell bubble full of demons. He has a personal assassin/assistant/general-purpose henchman that can turn into paper and ride around in his sleeve. He sometimes calls the henchman a cutesy nickname. He was partially raised by the living embodiment of emotional manipulation. He sometimes calls his annoying little cousin an even cutesier nickname. He tries to destroy the whole world in a fit of grief when he thinks his cousin's dead. He basically kills himself in order to plonk his soul into a magic mirror and see beyond the bounds of reality. He treats his own life and body as expendable assets because he was bred and raised to be a human sacrifice. He didn't speak for years as a child because the way he spoke scared his mother. His experience of the world is so alien and incomprehensible to others that a man with the power to play souls as music cannot understand his tune. He's a case study of the fact that sometimes you simply cannot save someone who doesn't want saving. He's thin and sickly from his illness but canonically beautiful. He has his father's eyes. He spoils his pet cat.
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