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fyodcrs · 17 days

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OMG FYOSANO there's only like 1 fic for them on the whole ao3 and I've been dying for more for ages, if you'd like to share anything about your idea for them then I am all ears 👀

There's a fic for them???? I am definitely looking that up, I know I've talked about this ship with other people on here but I had no idea there were any fics 👀👀

SO the premise of my fic is that Ranpo is called onto a case, and he brings Yosano along - they get to the crime scene, and guess who's already there! One Fyodor Dostoevsky! Cue belligerent tension between Fyodor and Ranpo and a whole lotta sexual tension between Fyodor and Yosano.

Several months ago, after the dust had settled from the Decay of Angels incident, Mori demanded (well, politely requested) that Yosano join the Mafia, just as she knew he would. Fukuzawa refused. The uneasy alliance of the Mafia and the ADA had already been unsettled by the fact that Fyodor Dostoevsky is still around, and appears to be allied with the Agency now, somehow. Things escalated. With war between the Mafia and the Agency potentially imminent, Dazai asked Fyodor to hide Yosano outside the city. One thing led to another...then one thing led to another again...

This is the first time Yosano has seen Fyodor since things returned to normal.

The fic is a lot of Fyodor and Yosano with a little of Ranpo having an existential crisis in the background sdfghfgh. It's also one of two fics I'm working on that have Fyodor helping the ADA solve a case, the other one being fyosig. I just really like the idea, haha.

A couple excerpts under the cut :3

“Not quite,” Fyodor said. He turned to Ranpo. His smile was pleasant, but there was a distinctly unpleasant gleam in his eyes. “But perhaps the World’s Greatest Detective would care to reveal the truth to us all?”

Ranpo stared back sullenly. “You’ve already figured it out,” he grumbled. “Why should I waste my time?”

“Ah, but surely my intellect is nothing compared to your Ability,” Fyodor replied with a humility that felt about as genuine as the knock-off handbag Yosano had noticed hanging in the hall. “Surely there are details I have missed that you will not, great detective.”

Ranpo pressed his lips together and said nothing.

Yosano huffed out an exasperated sigh. “Ranpo,” she said, trying to match the stern tones the President was able to wield like a weapon. Alas, she had neither his deep, gruff voice nor his intimidating presence, and the effect was somewhat lost. “Remember what you’re here for.”

“And you,” she dropped her voice to a hiss, sidling to Fyodor’s side, “stop instigating.”

“Me?” he returned, all wide-eyed innocence. She shot him a warning glare.

Ranpo watched them, silent. Beneath his messy bangs, his visage was dark, watchful. Presently, he stirred, and when he pulled his glasses out of his pocket his more characteristic arrogant smirk had returned.

“Fine, then. Stand back and watch.”

He looked up as she approached, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly in the beginnings of a smile. Shades of sunset burned with the dull glow of banked embers across his face. His eyes were shadows.

“Babochka,” he said.

“You still haven’t told me what that means, you know.” She folded her arms and leaned against the railing, looking down at him from the top of the stairs.

Fyodor tilted his head to the side a little. A familiar gesture by now, like the way his fingers sometimes moved as if playing an instrument when he was deep in thought. “Haven��t you figured it out yet? You are supposed to be a detective, you know.”

“I’m a doctor, actually, you know.” Yosano gave him a glare that would have cowed any member of the Agency—including Dazai, and especially Ranpo—but Fyodor just smirked back at her, unmoved. Yosano was unaccustomed to being the one who had to back down first, but she had learned by now that Fyodor Dostoevsky was not nearly as much like Dazai and Ranpo as she had assumed, and she was simply no match for him.

She had never been one to accept defeat that easily, though.

She walked down the steps, stopping on the first step, just above where he stood on the sidewalk. Dark violet eyes regarded her. She looked up at him, one hand braced on the rail. She tried for her usual aloofness, but it was like trying to hide behind a glass door. She knew he was could sense the way her heartbeat had picked up and the way her blood thrummed with the sheer awareness of him, his presence.

Sometimes, she found him frightening; sometimes she could see in his pale face and dark, dark eyes the demon that had haunted them all. But when she was this close the shadows fell away and she could see him clearer, a man who was sickly but was starting to look a little healthier these days, a man who was tall and graceful and had an aura of mystery and ethereality about him, with a secretive smile full of furtive promises. A man who fascinated her in every way that he should frighten her.

#asks #sorry for the very late reply I've been busy ;.;#I definitely need to look this up I did NOT know they had a tag!!#fyosano #Fyodor #Yosano #BSD #*fics

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fishylife · 4 months

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Fishy's books read in 2023

Since I like talking so much, I thought I might as well talk about the books I read this year.

I'll go through each of the books I finished reading this year and what I thought of them. All of the books I've listed below were read in their English versions.

John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) (2004)

I'd found out about this book because I'd heard about the movie that was based on this book. This book was about a little boy who befriended a girl, who was revealed to be a vampire. The book was creepy because it leaned towards the more gruesome and violent parts of being a vampire. There was also another character who I felt very creeped out by (if you've read the book, you probably know who I'm talking about). While I think the book was interesting in how it approached the relationship between the boy and girl, I didn't find any of the characters particularly interesting. That being said, I think this book might be of interest to people who want to read a vampire/crime novel with a darker take but be warned of the dark themes.

Elena Ferrante - The Neapolitan Novels (2012-2015)

This was a book about the lifelong friendship between two women in Naples. I will admit that several parts of this novel had my blood boiling. I sometimes hesitated to call the two women friends, but instead two women whose lives were intertwined. Why this novel made me so angry was that there were characters who treated others so poorly and yet our characters still gravitated towards them. As the outsider I was like "No!! Don't believe their lies!" but of course that had no effect. Despite the anger and the precarious nature of many of the relationships in this book, I felt that the author portrayed very unique relationships. I struggle even to describe what kind of relationships the characters in this book have because they are so unique. Just calling characters 'friends' or 'lovers' hardly captures the kinds of feelings that they have for each other. I struggle to say I liked the book because of the parts that made me angry but it definitely was good and rich.

An Oresteia (Translated by Anne Carson) (2009)

This was a collection of Ancient Greek plays surrounding the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, and the subsequent murder of Clytemnestra by her children Elektra and Orestes. I hadn't read any Greek plays prior to this and I found this work very interesting. It was not very long, there wasn't a lot of dialogue, but I could feel that within the space between the words, held the thoughts and feelings of the characters. That makes sense because these are plays, which would have acting to accompany the dialogue. While reading this work, I did some research on the Trojan War to try to understand the experience of the intended audience (an audience who was likely quite familiar with the Trojan War). This was an interesting read for my first Greek play.

Edmondo De Amicis - Heart (Cuore) (1886)

This was a children's novel, written from the point of view of a young boy over the course of a year of school before moving away. Since it was a children's book, I found that it was wholesome. I kept expecting some situations that were too good to be true to turn out to be a trick or trap, but those instances never happened. Instead, it was a journey of a boy learning to be kind, learning the meaning of friendship and such. Read this if you want something happy.

Edogawa Ranpo - Strange Tales of Mystery & Imagination (2000)

This was a compilation of some of Edogawa Ranpo's short stories. Edogawa Ranpo was a pioneer of Japanese literature, particularly in the genres of mystery. I'd classify the stories in this compilation as either being akin to detective mystery, or more peculiar tales bordering into horror. I have read some more contemporary Japanese mystery and thriller novels (translated into English). I could definitely recognize the influences that Edogawa Ranpo had on those modern writers, in the way the stories were paced, in the way the writers would look to the dark side of human minds, and in the ways that information was revealed. I was actually really impressed by the variety in this compilation. The short stories varied in content, in form, in style. I would highly recommend this short story series to fans of mysteries and thrillers and especially if you enjoy Japanese crime novels.

W. Somerset Maugham - The Painted Veil (1925)

Of Maugham's novels, I'd only read Of Human Bondage and I didn't like it too much. On the other hand, I found the Painted Veil a great deal more compelling. This book followed a woman who had married a biologist who was stationed in Hong Kong. Her husband found out about her infidelity and after a sequence of events, they travelled to a town that was hit with a cholera outbreak. I think this was an interesting novel about a woman finding her place in life, though it took a lot of loss to get there. I liked it and would recommend it for people who want a serious but short book.

Carlos Ruiz Zafón - The Shadow of the Wind (La sombra del viento) (2001)

For years, I had seen exceedingly positive reviews for this book, and as a result, I think this book was overhyped for me. This book was about a young man who tried to uncover the mystery behind an author of a book he owned. The mystery itself was decent as our main character uncovered the truth of the past which was resolved in the present. Why I didn't love this novel was because I felt that it was tropey. I understand why people would love this movie, because it has so many moving parts that are all connected. However, I didn't feel any close connections with any of the characters as they all felt like character archetypes. I think I would have enjoyed this if I had read it when I was younger, but I think I have outgrown this kind of writing now.

Keigo Higashino - A Midsummer's Equation (2011)

I've read a few of Keigo Higashino's novels and I have no intention of stopping. This was the third book that was translated to English in the Detective Galileo series focusing on Professor Yukawa. What's interesting about Detective Galileo mysteries is that Professor Yukawa is never the main character of these novels, and yet he is the main character of the series. In this novel, Professor Yukawa was attending a panel discussion in Hari Cove, where a death occurred. While the police conducted their investigation, Professor Yukawa would conduct his own parallel investigation, often more casually.

What set this book apart from the previous two translated novels in the Detective Galileo series was the human aspect. While the previous two novels did contain human dilemmas, I felt that it was more prominent in this novel. I don't want to get into spoiler territory but I felt that this book forced me to confront the facts that the characters were humans who were affected by crime, rather than just hand-waving the human aspect and focusing on the gimmick of the crime. This novel also emphasized that while Professor Yukawa was a very competent investigator, he was not an officer of the law, which I thought was an interesting stance to take. I definitely recommend the Detective Galileo series for people who like crime novels. All of the novels in this series are compact but very cool.

Closing Remarks

I'm actually surprised by the number of books I read this year. I just assumed that other than the Neopolitan Novels (the longest book I read this year), I hadn't read very much. But I fit quite a few short books in this year.

Unfortunately because I am a slow reader, it takes me a long time to get around to reading different kinds of books. But I am always on the lookout for interesting books and I do have a to-read book list. It's just that it might be 10 years before I finally get to a certain book lol.

Anyway, did you read any of the books on this list? What did you think? Also let me know what books y'all read this year :)

#thinking out loud #thoughts #books

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trolloled · 2 years

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Promo(tional) Post

I’m Overlard/Lard/OL and I bring the word today, and the word is that this is a promotional post in an attempt to increase the amount of active blogs following me because I’m pretty sure a solid 1/3rd are completely dead.

I once roleplayed on MSPAF, if you’ve ever heard of “the Café” you can safely blame me for its steady decline. Sometime during that I started RPing on tumblr and I’ve been on again off again roleplaying here ever since (especially after the forum got nuked).

I live on the east coast of America and I have a full time job, so I can’t really do much during the day beyond occasionally shitpost on my phone. That said, I’m usually available via tumblr DM anyway since my job is chill enough not to care about being on the phone so long as the work gets done.

Anyway, uh, my main trolls right now are the following assholes:

I don’t really have much artistic skill since I’ve only done sprite and meme edits, but i compensate for this by writing constantly! Like, really constantly! My writing tag is littered with whatever I put out! Here’s some fun selections!

Platar commits war crimes, but it’s for a good cause.

The bartender reached under the bar for an appropriately disgusting mug, glass filled with unidentifiable bits of material and heavily marked and scratched, then shoved it under the tap. He pulled the tap, and a sickly looking yellow beer poured out from the spigot into the mug, which he slid over to Platar. The anonymous troll caught it, reluctantly, with one fortunately gloved hand.

Gerrel wants to be a good moirail, and good moirails know how to work around their palerom’s horrific diets (Ft. Callan Ranpoe, who belongs to raitrolling, CW for emetophobia)

The primary issue at hand was that Callan loved all those flavors which were absolutely terrible for you, namely sweetness in particular. He also particularly enjoyed dishes made with excess butter or cheese products. Gerrel had so far managed to get by through serving dishes that made partial use out of them, but none of it felt right. It was like trying to swim upstream, he was making headway, but there was resistance at each step. Unlike fighting a river, he was just trying to help someone he loved, and it would just be... better, if he wasn't trying to force it.

Xrumon really needs to visit a therapist

"It's always you. You're only talking to yourself, that's all you ever do... No one else to listen... But now the act is wearing thin, and soon you'll need to leave the stage..."

And so much more! I’ve only recently started crossposting to toyhou.se so god knows how many other fics are still lurking on my evernote where I’ve either forgotten or intentionally neglected to repost them.

I don’t have testimonials because this post is long enough but you can choose to believe the following very real statement:

Best writing 10/10

- Greg

Interesting facts:

I graduated with HIGHEST academic honors in my degree which means MENSA will definitely be sending a letter any day now

Kormut was my first fantroll and has survived every purge of trolls I’ve lost interest for all the way from 2012.

I play tabletop games, like D&D, Pathfinder, Mutants & Masterminds, etc.

For anything more in depth, please see the following posts. Looking forward to interacting with more people!

Pinned post

Rules | About | Select | Plots/Starters | Toyhou.se

Also please be aware this is a sideblog! I follow from my main blog here

#ooc as lard #promo post #characters in order are:#kormut ridgar #gaveyo deyloc #xrumon arigah #gerrel mitius #portec hegira #corelo resuli #my avatar is Platar Hacalo who is also a Main(tm) but putting 7 characters in an image felt really uneven

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along-came-atsushi · 3 years

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The search for yourself – An analysis about Tachihara

Several characters in BSD express a wish for home and family. Most of them have either lost their families or were abandoned by them. Especially for those characters, the word ‘family’ expands the definition of being related by blood.

In BSD ‘family’ doesn’t mean people who are related to you, but people who accept you for who you really are and who truly care about you. Some examples would be the relationship between Fukuzawa and Ranpo, or Sigma and how he sees his customers.

Tachihara’s arc deals with the same theme and his search for who he really is.

[Beware: Spoilers for the whole Hunting Dogs Arc!]

His Past:

It’s been shown that Tachihara and his older brother are granted with a similar ability: The ability to create and/or manipulate metal. But Tachihara seemed to be less talented or able to control his ability than his brother, at least in the eyes of his family. When his brother died in the war they were outraged and sad about his death. At the same time, they openly told Tachihara to be the one that should have died in his stead, showing complete disregard for his existence:

Tachihara’s brother thinks positively about his family, given how he talks about them. He knows that they miss him and he himself wishes to return back home. Due to this it’s possible that he doesn’t even notice the difference in his family’s treatment between him and Tachihara, since he never addresses that problem anywhere. Tachihara on the other hand has to feel that no matter who he is and what he does, even ultimately if he’d die, they wouldn’t care for him.

He has been compared to his older brother his whole life and was never accepted as his own person, which leads to him in not understanding who he is and what he should do.

[Side note: I’m not a psychologist, but I read that parents that treat one child as the golden egg (Tachihara’s brother), while treating the other as the black sheep (Tachihara) is a trait found in narcissists. With this they try to have one person who admires them (Tachihara’s brother) and the other who fears them (Tachihara). Considering this and the way Tachihara has been treated by his family, it is highly possible that he is the victim of a narcissistic upbringing. It might be that one family member was a narcissist and with their treatment of Tachihara influenced the other family members to do the same. They joined the narcissist in their behaviour out of fear (acting as enablers), so that they themselves wouldn’t get viewed and treated by the narcissist and others the same way.]

Joining the Hunting Dogs:

After his brother’s death Tachihara ran away from his family and decided to live a life on the streets, trying to survive by stealing and doing other criminal activities, where he then was found by the Hunting Dogs and invited to join them:

The Hunting Dogs highest priority is to protect their country and its citizens, no matter what it takes. They have been shown to let people join them when they realize that those people have an intention to protect others, or are willing to self-sacrifice in order to protect something. (e.g. Jouno offering Kunikida to join after he saw that Kunikida wanted to protect the ADA, Fukuchi offering to train Akutagawa after he realized he was fighting for something.)

But the problem of the Hunting Dogs’ mentality is that they have a black and white view regarding “justice” and “crime”, or people they perceive as “good” and “evil”. They immediately hunt down the ADA without further investigation on their assertions (that they’re innocent and all was a set-up), even expressing joy about torture and killing, when a person is a “criminal” and therefore “evil” in their eyes.

The only way to get rid of your crime is to join them and in this way being useful to them. This results in people involuntarily joining them, because they have no other way, which has been the case with Tachihara. He was found being guilty, because he stole something from them, and then offered of being freed from his crime, but only if he joins them. Which means that he doesn’t join them on his own accord and is then pressured into their black and white morale.

[Side note: Tecchou seems to be the only one able to look on a more greyish view regarding “good” and “evil” people, as seen when he talks with the café owner and promises to not kill Lucy and the ADA. Fukuchi feels guilty for at least having to kill children in the past.]

The Hunting Dogs seem to stick together because they have to, less because they want to. Jouno is annoyed with Tecchou’s behaviour and Tecchou is annoyed by Jouno’s actions. Teruko dares Jouno not to read her heartbeat and with that tries to keep him from getting to know how she truly feels. She also seems to be afraid of Fukuchi for some reason, hence why she butters him up in an extreme and exaggerated way:

Ultimately, Fukuchi their own captain, is the one who plays them all and lies to them the most. They are bound together by their duty and have no real trust in each other.

Tachihara has been shown to feel somewhat uncomfortable when being with the Hunting Dogs and is sometimes weirded out by their behaviours. Even though he is the only one who has no quarrels with his colleagues and gets along with them pretty well, openly expressing concern when Teruko is wounded. But at the same time, he keeps his distance to them and addresses them formally or by their ranks.

While Tachirara talks with Yosano it can be understood that he didn’t join the Hunting Dogs out of his own conviction, but because that way they wouldn’t kill him for his crime. By joining and fighting for them he had a purpose in life and people who needed him because of his ability. He claims to have turned into someone who was “neither my older brother nor his opposite” and that “orders make me who I am.”

Infiltrating Port Mafia:

When Tachihara joins the Port Mafia as a spy and works for the Black Lizard, he is met with a different mentality regarding loyalty and justice. As explained above the Hunting Dogs have a black and white view regarding justice and crime, and people they consider to be good or evil. They express joy about killing and torturing, even though they are considered to be “the good guys”. While the Port Mafia is also known to be extremely cruel, they are not considered as “the good guys”. In other words, the Port Mafia are represented as the “villains”, and the Hunting Dogs are represented as the “heroes” in the eyes of the government.

Although it’s been mentioned that you shouldn’t get too close with anyone in the Port Mafia, forming a close bond with others is still possible. Something that differs the Black Lizard from the Hunting Dogs is that they stick together, e.g. when Higuchi saved Akutagawa, despite the fact that she could’ve died doing so alone, which is something that Tachihara was concerned about:

In the end, the Black Lizard stood behind Higuchi’s decision and followed her, saving Akutagawa in the process. They did so not solely because she was their superior, but because they have trust in her and respect her.

Tachihara playing the Double Agent is similar to Ango’s role during Dark Era. They both joined the “evil” side as a spy, but found people they got close with and care about. Both of them aren’t able to shake off their feelings regarding these people who became dear to them, despite their original orders and mission.

Characters in the BSD universe make friends with people who are on the opposite side or who are their enemies. They also tend to ally with their actual or former enemies, if it means to achieve the same goal.

Tachihara acts way more casual with his Black Lizard colleagues. He calls Hirotsu “gramps”, Higuchi “big sis” and Akutagawa “big bro”, suggesting that he sees them as his family, even though he may do so unconsciously. The Black Lizard have shown to truly care about Tachihara as a person as well, even without knowing about his ability.

They are relieved to know that he isn’t hurt or dead. Furthermore, Hirotsu highly compliments Tachihara and admires him for his mindset and actions. In return, Tachihara feels guilty for having to hurt Hirotsu and Gin, back then already not able to fully betray them.

Playing the Double Agent:

Later on, Tachihara’s true intentions for joining Port Mafia get revealed. He realizes that he used his brother as an excuse, and understands that in reality he was just trying to find his true self. Before that, he told himself that he joined only to get close to Yosano for revenge. During his whole childhood he had been compared to his brother, which left him with major self-doubts and a lack of self-identity. If he wasn’t as good, as useful, as heroic like his brother, he would be nothing. He would have no value:

Tachihara states several times that he “wanted to become someone”. Too insecure and afraid to identify with who he is, he simply decided to take the opposite way his brother took, and identified with the role he was given. First, he was a delinquent and simply “bad”. As a Hunting Dog he was then given the role of a military officer, whose job was to catch terrorists. When he got his order to infiltrate Port Mafia as a spy, he probably tried to identify with just that. But this given mission helped him to get away from his role as a Hunting Dog, and he found a place where he feels he truly belongs to.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that throughout this arc he gets portrayed in a mirror-like way:

It’s supposed to point out his search for himself, and which side he will choose in the end, now that he is learning to trust his own instincts. He slowly steps out of the shadow of his brother and accepts the person he is.

This is possible for him to do, because he has the support of the Black Lizard. During his time with the Hunting Dogs he simply followed orders and had no opinion of his own, but a purpose in life. He did this to please them and being accepted as someone worthy by them. When he rejoins the Hunting Dogs, but secretly still works as a spy in the Port Mafia, he realizes that his mindset already follows that of a Port Mafia member:

Since the Port Mafia has a more greyish view on crime and justice and have clashed with the ADA several times in the past, they turn out to be the ones to truly believe that the ADA were set-up by someone and are not terrorists.

Hirotsu and Gin both encourage and support Tachihara to form an opinion of his own, when he asks them about the ADA’s case, and not to simply believe the false facts:

This is furthermore emphasized by Mori as the Port Mafia’s boss discussing the ADA’s case with the Black Lizard and with this, stating his trust in them:

Due to the circumstance that Tachihara is treated as an equal among his Black Lizard peers and treated with trust, he’s starting to be able to question the accusations against the ADA and comes to the logical conclusion that something is wrong. This later leads him to take the search for the real mastermind into his own hands, instead of simply following orders.

It’s his own opinion and own choice what leads to the tearing of the page and its power, and with it the Decay of Angel’s plan:

This in itself is a very nice twist, because it was something neither Fyodor nor Dazai could know about or orchestrate. They both could only make people go so far and act in a certain way, but not tear through bonds people share with each other. Which gets confirmed when Dazai said that it’s the people on the battlefield making the world turn, and not those planning schemes.

In the end, it’s Mori as the Port Mafia’s boss to decide whether he keeps or kills Tachihara for his betrayal. It’s a rule to kill those who have betrayed the Port Mafia. But Mori already knew which side Tachihara will choose and which side he feels he belongs to, even before Tachihara himself did.

- - - - -

Last but not least, I want to thank the person who requested this meta from me. I hope you enjoyed reading this and that it was worth the wait. I had immense fun writing about characters who usually aren’t on my radar that much. Thank you very much!

[Edit: “he simply followed orders and had no opinion of his own, or a purpose in life” was changed to “he simply followed orders and had no opinion of his own, but a purpose in life“. Which was phrased wrong by me in the original post!]

#Michizou Tachihara #michizou tachihara bsd #Hunting Dogs #Port Mafia #hunting dogs bsd #bsd meta #Bungou Stray Dogs #BSD #my metas #Ougai Mori #Ryuro Hirotsu #Ouchi Fukuchi #Saigiku Jouno #Tecchou Suehiro #Teruko Okura #Ichiyo Higuchi

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bayern-moni · 5 years

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So, given that Fyodor and the Hunting Dogs are more-or-less being the closest, most imminent threat in BSD, does that leave Agatha as the Final Boss? So far, Fyodor's plans have only exempt her organization, wherein every other group is manipulated to some level.

Hello! Sorry for the late reply, I'm very happy for your ask 😁 I warn you, though, I'm not capable of writing a short reply to save my life ahahah. But, as they say in my country "Warned person half saved person"

So, ready to go.

Well, it is a complex situation. Now, the agency's problems seem to be Dostoevskij (and so, the group DotA) and the Government's military of the Hunting Dogs (whose utility I've still many doubts about). But the latter's actions almost certainly are manipulated by Dostoevskij, even if they probably don't know it. They did create problems in Sigma's casino to capture Atsushi and the others, after all, although Sigma is a member of the Decay of the Angels like Fyodor and Gogol. Gogol who recently infiltrated as a spy in the Government's ministry of justice for six months before he revealed himself and did... well, whatever it was the sense of what he did. And absolutely a coincidence, what is the military organization working for the ministry of justice?

Correct, the Hunting Dogs.

So, they are really convinced that capture our protagonists is a just service to the state, but they're playing Fyodor's game. But only his game?

What's the situation? Well, the players on the chessboard are the Agency & the Port Mafia vs the Decay of the Angels. In the middle, there is the ex Guild and Oguri allied with the first party and the Hunting Dogs maneuvered by the latter. And, aside, there is Agatha,who in chapter 12 is seen to be allied with Fitzgerald and Dostoevskij (although their idea of "alliance" is veeery singular, if Fitzgerald's defeat is to say something).

Fitzgerald is betrayed, defeated and definitely out of the alliance, so there remain only Fyodor and Agatha. She seems to not even be present, though. There is really not even a single mention of her in the manga since then, excluding her short appearance in Dead Apple movie, differently from the almost omnipresent Fyodor. Thanks to the movie, we learn that she is in contact with Ango (so Japanese government) who asks for her aid, that of a foreign government association of ability users, to terminate Shibusawa, former ability user protected by Ango himself and then, coincidence, manipulated by Dostoevskij. Situation she was surely well informed about when she accepted (I bet my head) and disappointed when her slightly extreme solution wasn't needed anymore. A solution that could have burned the entire Yokohama to the ground (and maybe even Fyodor himself who was there, too). They were already allied at that point? Yes.

Anyway, wonders of friendship aside, this disappearance is like if Agatha didn't want anyone to know her involvement in the war, maybe in order to have both the alliance with Japanese government and with Fyodor's group to exploit as she sees better fit in the moment. But both Fitzgerald, Mori and Dazai, we absolutely know it, they are aware of her. Anyone else? Idk, sorry, probably not. So...

Will she return? Absolutely

Will she be the final boss? Not sure, probably, but it doesn't convince me.

Not like she's not credible enough to be one, nay, she would be a wonderful final boss to face, but I think it would be too simple this way, too linear for my taste, at least. Why?

As you said, the only organization Fyodor, the current villain, didn't mess with is hers, The Knights of the Clock Tower. And technically, they are still allied, at least for what we know. Both are in search of the Book, "a single novel where everything written becomes the truth". Dostoevskij to exterminate the ability users from earth's face and Agatha ... Boh, nobody knows. By the way, until now, the enemies are come in a linear order: Port Mafia -> Guild -> Dostoevskij (+ Oguri, then Decay of the Angels and Hunting Dogs). Defeated one, another comes (and the defeated one becomes an ally for the protagonists). This scheme has almost no exception until now. And it's boring. We are currently blocked in the last stage of the sequence. So, the problem is still them: Fyodor and Agatha. And this damned book.

To obtain it, we know that are needed: the death of every ability users in Yokohama, Dazai in a way or another, Atsushi's ability. Dazai and Natsume sensei are the ones that know the Book most than the anyone else, probably even its location. Fyodor has done many attempts to obtain it (Shibusawa, the fall of the Guild's aircraft, Pushkin's poisonous ability and the assassin Hawthorne, Oguri's crimes-proof masking ability, Gogol in the Government and finally the Hunting Dogs). To say that he's obsessed with it would be an understatement. But for a so mind-set man, he seems not to care when his attempts are inevitably neutralized. He seems to be even fine with it, as long as he finds it entertaining. He even indirectly gave Dazai the key to his own "failure" in some occasions. And then, he was always like "beh, it was amusing, now we can get to the next step". It is an incoherent behavior for a man regarded as the epitome of logic by both Dazai and Ranpo (and it is surely to say something). We could understand it if we ask if they can really be called failures. And if he's really working for himself.

He's presented to us as a really unbeatable enemy since the beginning. Always. Even Dazai and Ranpo, even Natsume, even Fitzgerald admit that his strategies cannot possibly be defeated or avoided. And indeed he is a step ahead of the others. But for all his capacity, he's behaving like he has all the time in the world to fulfill his goal, not really caring about 1 or 100 failed plans; he knows Dazai and Atsushi are necessary for the Book? Intentionally not kills the former (his nemesis and the main threatening enemy he has) and never makes a serious effort to obtain Atsushi's ability (Shibusawa failed and Gogol only played with him, maybe the Hunting Dogs alone are seriously trying). Then, there is the Decay group. We know that it consists of 5 members (Dostoevskij, Gogol and Sigma, plus the others unfortunately still unknown, that damn lazy mangaka) and one of them has recently obtained a page of the Book. A page which works well as the entire novel, according to the half dead Taneda. So, how and when the fuck do they intend to use it? If my memory doesn't fail me, the use of the page has something to do with the (quite horrible) death of Gogol, but I'm not sure. And who is this mysterious page possessor? It's not Fyodor, that's sure, for he was already put in chains in Meursault prison by then and later he never even mentioned it; Gogol is dead, so he can't be, can he?; Sigma is not very known yet, but he seems too kind and with an air of "wtf is happening now?" for having taken it (but obviously for all we know, it could perfectly have been him). One of the remaining members? Probably. Agatha herself? It would be too soon, I think.

And we're forgetting that Fyodor is a member of the Decay, not the leader. In fact, when in prison, before getting excited like a kid for having descovered his new cell partner, Dostoevskij makes this comment:

They requested him to form a plan, not he planned something and ordered them to execute it. He doesn't seem to be the boss there. He received an order, and he executed it, while probably creating a fault in the plan just to make things more interesting to him. A fault that he surely expects some people to notice. A not perfect plan is still a challenge, isn't it? It'd explain why he can fulfill his goal but seems to having more fun when losing. He knows he can win (the modest bastard), but purposely lets his goal be delayed. And although he has had many occasions to do so (damn, his same touch can kill) he repeatedly avoided to kill his enemies, maybe because doing so would mean to eliminate the only players who can hope to beat him. Him, or a third party. He openly went to the battlefield, attracted everyone's attention to himself for 30 chapters, seems to be the cause of many events in the series, but this behavior could also be a way to lead the protagonists to beat someone else, trough him. A bait. He is quite devilish, after all. And certainly not new to all the ally-exploit-betray strategy, quite the same as Agatha, I bet.

So, he works with the Decay, but the Decay group works alone or for someone? And who are the ones that requested this plan of his, which, I suppose, consists of every manga panel since chapter 42?

Can they work with Agatha, too? Or for her? Both Dostoevskij and Agatha have every interest to get in the way of each other. Could he work with Agatha and, at the same time, lead Dazai (or whoever else) to foul Agatha's plan? A similar way of thinking could be being unraveled now in Agatha's favor: she probably worked with Fyodor on the plan of his own capture, and the prison of Meursault is indeed described as a top secret prison in Europe, whose existence is known only to the highest members of European government. To Fyodor, a way of hiding himself like a proper puppeteer, to Agatha a way of constantly putting a very unstable ally under her most total supervision. So, given that for both the idea of loyalty is fried air, could his plan be a sort of second "mutual destruction" to make his enemies neutralize each other and then, calmly get what he wants? Dazai himself said that he has not the material means to bring his plan to completion. Means that the guild and Agatha do have (so, the alliance).

Sadly, we have still too little information about Agatha and the Decay to be remotely sure of anything. However, I think the reason why her organization is the only exception in the trouble he caused is because they are still formally allied.

When I said that I don't see Agatha as the final boss is because it would be a really too linear sequence of enemies, it would be fun if there were some surprise in the end. But, if she were really the final boss (and there are some probabilities of it happening), I would like it the same. She would be a serious badass boss and her organization members ... Wow! I'm counting the chapters until they join the battlefield since ch. 12! Still, I'm sure it's only a matter of (veeery long) time for their arrival, but I'm not sure if they will be the final boss. Even if they could. Anyway, we still don't know anything about her, her plans or moves. Not theirs. Nothing can be said for sure. Sorry anon 😅

And then, there is also the matter of that strange group of ability users presented in the novels (that I did not read, so I could say idiocies). Rimbaud, Verlaine, perhaps even Hugo, Goethe etc... For what we know, it can also be theirs the role of final boss. Or someone else's entirely. The final boss could be a known character, or someone not appeared yet. Or Agatha. Or whoever you please. Unfortunately, we are all in the reign of imagination, yet. Even possible for Agatha and Fyodor to be part of that group of ability users, given that they are European like the others. Who knows (I'm surely not, too lazy to read the novels ahahah).

I hope to not have bored you, anon 😅😂 I really got myself carried away, but I hopefully answered your questions? I really hope so. I would like to know your thoughts on these characters, now 😉 and feel free to ask something else, if you want. Only then I will try to make it shorter ahahah. Thanks for the ask, anyway!

#It's really tooo long #😱😱#ask #manga anime #anonymous #bungou stray dogs #bsd #fyodor dostoyevsky bsd #agatha christie bsd #dazai osamu bsd #atsushi nakajima #bsd atsushi #and shibusawa too #Ango #decay of the angels #gogol #Theory #rambling thoughts

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