wiseandwary

[wiseandwary]

Crack theory relating to shogi and the main plot. Spoilers for 1034.

Kohji was trying to hint to Wakasa to go to Mary for help, if she was not Organization at the time. If she was Organization at the time, it could’ve been a warning.

We already know for sure that Shukichi mentioned Kohji being his brother, using a term the translators consider ambiguous. It could mean an adopted brother, brother-in-law, or a step-brother of some kind, unless Shukichi was being poetic. Kohji would have likely known about, if not directly known, both Mary and Tsutomu. Both of whom would be very useful to have around at a time like that.

He speaks of the watchtower bishop, a highly defensive move in shogi where you play the bishop on your side of the board. It is used as a method of area denial and the move can only be done if you have a bishop in reserve.

Every shogi piece that can be promoted when you move it far enough to your opponent’s side of the board has its promoted form on its other side. The promoted bishop is ryuma or ryume. You can used the letters in either spelling when writing to form the name Mary. In the English spelling using romaji, it’d be formed from ryuma if you take out the u. In the equivalent katakana it’s Meri, with ryu being formed of both ri and yu, so you take out yu. U and yu in English are both pronounced the same as “you.”

[wiseandwary]

“With a watchtower bishop, there must be a brilliant move.”

[wiseandwary]

caseclosededogawa‌:

“Ma’am with all due respect that is not a good decision. Granted, I know it’s the pot calling the kettle black with all my poor decisions, but if there’s one thing I know it’s that Ran would not take watching a transformation well at all and I would hate for her to use her karate on you in fear.”

“Bad idea or not, I wasn’t planning on that, exactly...

“I already told you, my transformations are random. I can’t turn into a wolf at will and I haven’t figured out any patterns. I was offering, if I transform soon, to speak with her while I’m in the other form. Hopefully we can get her acclimated, if only slightly, to how the supernatural exists and that it isn’t necessarily out to get her...”

(It seems she was unaware that Shuichi had offered similar help another time, though he was a vampire.)

[wiseandwary]

caseclosededogawa‌:

“Ah. I see,” Shinichi said with a sad smile. The look on Mary’s face said it all- Sera had been changed first and then had changed Mary. “I’m sorry for prying.”

The detective didn’t apologize often, but it felt right in this situation. “As far as Ran goes… I love her. I am terrified of losing her because I know she fears what I am. But you are right, with-holding that information while she waits for me rather than letting her decide if she’d keep waiting or leave me once she’s fully informed is not fair to her. I will… figure out a way to tell her by the end of the month.”

“She feels guilty, but I knew the risks going in and I don’t regret it.” Mary trailed off. She didn’t like the look he gave her.

“But... I could help, if I transform in that timeframe. I don’t care what the girl thinks of me, unlike you or Masumi.” She was doing this more because of the problems that would happen if a situation cropped up at an inopportune time involving any of their lycanthropy. 

“Getting her used to another werewolf might help in the long run.”

[wiseandwary]

caseclosededogawa‌:

“Point taken. I just still am left with how to break this to Ran. There’s no easy way to do this… All I can do is pray she won’t shun me,” Shinichi stated, “If I may ask, was it you or Sera-san that was turned first?”

“Both you and Masumi care about Ran’s opinion of yourselves.” She frowned slightly, not sure of she should get involved. If she did, the boy would owe her for it, but that would require some explanation for who she was to the girl...

“Masumi did.” It didn’t seem like she wanted to tell him the story about how she’d gotten turned, though. She didn’t regret what happened- making sure Masumi didn’t get hunted down or hit by a car was more important and she knew the risks going in- but she didn’t need his reaction.

[wiseandwary]

caseclosededogawa‌:

“Shit… And as far as the magical being kept hidden, I thought it was a survival thing due to hunters? I am unsure about you, but I’ve had a couple run ins with a couple of them. Not fun. Although one set tried to capture me and not kill me.”

“Not just individual hunters, though I’ve managed to avoid them.” She made a note of it, though. As if she didn’t have enough to worry about with Masumi’s deteriorated mental state when she was transformed...

“In times and places where belief in the magical is widespread among non-magical humans, it leads to a lot of death and despair. The witch trials in Europe are a good example, and, even if they’re spared execution like families who were considered ‘kitsune-mochi’ in Japan, they’re still shunned.”

[wiseandwary]

“Not for anything stupid, I hope. Though you’re already dead, so I guess you’re free of the consequences...”

“Hmm. These powers of mine… I wonder how I can get them to develop?”

[wiseandwary]

caseclosededogawa‌:

“That’s it! Muggles! Harry Potter! I can start with that and ask how she’d feel if that was real and slowly work from there! Thank you, Mary! I’d high five you but I feel like that will result in me getting my ass kicked. Just know that I’m grateful.”

“My point was that something similar is going on, where the magical is being kept hidden.”

She frowned, thinking of how to put it.

“Harry Potter isn’t the best example to use for werewolves. Werewolves in that series are shunned by society, most join the villain, and the one good werewolf, Remus, hates himself for being a werewolf. And those werewolves are actually monstrous, attacking anything and everything when they’re transformed.”

[wiseandwary]

caseclosededogawa‌:

“Ugh I know,” Shinichi admitted, “But I don’t even know how to broach the subject to her? I’ve tried thinking of ways but there’s no gentle way to break it to her… I suppose I could use it to explain my absence and see how she handles it.

And I don’t feel bad for what happened to the man. He was going to hurt my family. I just… It was shocking to come to my senses and find myself drenched in blood. It made me afraid of myself in a way.”

“You could find other ways to show her the supernatural first as a gradual introduction. But I doubt most of the stuff in the city would be okay with that in the first place. The ones that agree to it might be feeling like playing a trick. And that’s not getting into that vampire who’s been trying to keep things hushed up...”

And Masumi wouldn’t volunteer for that. Same problem, really. She cared too much for Ran to possibly endanger their friendship with the (rather fuzzy) surprise.

“The muggle and the magical are being kept separate.”

[wiseandwary]

send me “D20: -insert action-” and i’ll roll a d20 without modifiers. Depending on the result my character can either succeed, fail, or mess up very bad depending on the roll.

Roller found here [x]

[wiseandwary]

caseclosededogawa‌:

“Someone aimed a gun at the professor and I saw red… Everything went black and… I woke up and the man was missing an arm, it was in my hands… And my father had put a dart in me to sedate me. I’d gone completely feral and rushed the man to try and protect Professor Agasa. I’d torn his arm clean off… And I’m certain. Ran is so afraid of the supernatural she can’t even be in a location where a zombie movie was filmed in the past without nearly panicking,” Shinichi explained.

Mary’s words of ‘just let go and move on’ stung, but he was in no position to rage at her. He knew he should prepare himself, but he was afraid of letting go.

“I’ve killed people before as part of my work, so you’ll pardon my lack of reaction. The man was going to shoot someone otherwise, so I don’t have much sympathy for him or his sudden need for a prosthetic...

“Avoiding something like that just reinforces the fear for her and you can’t keep this secret in perpetuity. Things like this have a habit of coming out at the worst possible time if you put it off. Better she finds out and gets used to it in a controlled situation, or else she really will fear you.” Like finding out during another mauling.

“But I’m speaking generally. There’s a difference between having her accept the supernatural and her being able to handle it as part of a relationship.”

She was indifferent to the boy’s love life. She just knew that Ran was friends with Masumi (and Masumi had a crush on her) and she didn’t want to hurt some innocent third party in all of this.

[wiseandwary]

caseclosededogawa‌:

“I would wish the same if… I’ve hurt someone, Mary. And beyond that, if my condition is made known to the one person I treasure most- she’ll leave me. I know her. She’ll be too terrified of me to even be near me. And I can’t reassure her I am not dangerous after… an incident… I saw my own father look at me with fear and concern. How can I expect her to stay with me if she knew what I am and what I’ve done? And that’s not even on top of the other problem we both have.”

"Boy, what exactly happened? Because you and another person I know have a similar trait, that you agonize and feel guilty over things you shouldn’t.”

Mary was having none of it today.

She also didn’t respect his father in the slightest and, thus, didn’t trust how the man might be afraid of his son, even if his son turned into a werewolf. The boy had a begrudging respect, because he was still a good detective despite his mistakes in other areas. But it seemed apparent to her that Yusaku didn’t set limits for his son, to keep him out of this dangerous game. 

And she hadn’t forgotten about The Scarlet Agent.

“And, frankly, if she can’t accept that you are the way you are, you need to learn to let go and move on, hard as that can be. Though... I suppose she doesn’t know and it’s in that uncertainty that you’re afraid.”

[wiseandwary]

“What’s in your mouth.”

The werewolf makes a guilty face and chews faster.

[wiseandwary]

caseclosededogawa‌:

“And our similarities end. I can control when I change unless it’s the full moon, but I can take Wolfsbane to suppress the change those nights- though it is not exactly comfortable. I have my own mind for the most part, unless there’s multiple lunar phenomenon going on or…” The detective trailed off, remembering when someone had pointed a gun at Agasa and everything going blank- only waking up to find himself covered in blood and his victim screaming in agony, the man’s arm in his hand and a bullet wound in his shoulder with his father showing grave concern.

“I… wish I could change back.”

“...I keep my mind as well. I’ve only blacked out once because of odd lunar phenomena.” Waking up next to a half eaten deer carcass was a bit odd, most would say. (Though it could have been not eating much on that day, instead of the moon being in perigee. Hard to say.)

“I don’t know if we can go back or not, but throwing a pity party over it isn’t going to help anyone.And there are things that are useful about it.” She liked feeling stronger again and the heightened senses were useful.

[wiseandwary]

caseclosededogawa‌:

“I’m familiar enough… I just wish I knew more about what I am? Will this affect my aging? What are my immunities and weaknesses? So far everything’s been trial and error and that is a horrible way to learn this. It was not fun learning I can only eat so much chocolate after Ran-nechan gave me a giant home-made chocolate heart. There’s a reason I get away with the ‘I need the toilet’ thing I say when I run off.”

“I don’t think it affects aging...” She certainly had a growth spurt for both her forms. Also could mean that the poison didn’t halt aging, either.

“As for weaknesses, silver is an issue. And too much wolfsbane. Chocolate makes some sense, since most species can’t digest it, and nutmeg is similar.” How she found out that last one was anyone’s guess. Though it was common in some European recipes...

“What I find more of an issue would be the changes in diet, in instinct, and when the transformations appen. I don’t know about you, but I can’t control when I change from one form to another. We have to blend in with humans or, at least, avoid undue attention and that could easily cause much undue attention...”

[wiseandwary]

Me consuming media dealing with werewolves: “okay but if you’re gonna lock yourself in that basement during your transformation have you thought of including some enrichment?? How about a treat ball or a frozen Kong?? What are your thoughts on sniffing out treats”

[wiseandwary]

caseclosededogawa‌:

“Eurgh… My apologies then,” the detective groaned, “I’d… hoped I’d met someone who had been a life-long werewolf who might have a lot of in-depth knowledge… I’ve learned a few things as well but it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s not.”

Mary supposed werewolves weren’t native to Japan, which would leave him very lost. Though some of the folklore was obviously wrong, so it seemed to her to be a wash...

“From what I’ve seen, parts of being a werewolf make a lot more sense if you’re familiar with how wolves act in the wild.” She’d noticed the changes, in both herself and her daughter.