Thinking about the way dungeon meshi does queer horror. Using horror to tell queer stories is already subversive, but dungeon meshi subverts it even more
Normal queer horror is like. A monsterous desire and immortal love of something isolated/hated and the uncontrollable but suppressed need to consume someone to live and they only die if you break/pierce their heart. its great.
In dungeon meshi, the group is STARVING. they do things the way they're expected to and they're so deprived that eventually, one of them is consumed by that monsterous desire.
Then when Falin becomes a monster, she doesn't eat Marcille because she doesn't NEED to, Marcille already offered herself up as part of Falin by mixing her own blood with the dragon's for the resurrection.
Also Marcille is a monster too!! She doesn't need to be turned by Falin. She's a 'witch' doing black magic for one but she's also very vampiric
Her name is super vampirey especially given one of the translation spellings was Marcilla, an annogram of Carmilla*. And Marcille is very similar to Marceline from Adventure Time so it's a name with heavy connotations to me. Also her staff is Ambrosia which means immortal.
*ps Carmilla is the original modern vampire that inspired Dracula and also a lesbian. she used annagrams of her name to disguise herself across hundreds of years.
Marcille is like. a vampire in that death is a big part of her theme. She can breathe that immortality into someone else using her resurrection black magic and death is a huge part of her character. She wants them to live as long as she does. To make them immortal. Like. Like a vampire.
But once again this is subverted!! she doesn't 'turn' Falin, she makes her undead by giving her own blood instead of taking Falin's. Falin becomes a monster not because she's attacked or turned, but because her DNA, something INHERENT about her is now intertwined with the monster. so a god-like figure merges them. Then the only way to free her from that frenzy and grant her autonomy again is to finally consume her. something inherently lesbian about all that i think idk about you
Made a script to generate half-foot style names for original characters, fic extras, or just for fun! Many thanks for the people who provided content and feedback on this generator! Please feel free to send any feedback to my ask box.
Because of their size, bats are notoriously difficult to find deceased from natural causes, and by the time they are found, the bodies have often already decomposed beyond value.
As sad as it is, it's true — As holidays approach, I know many people with an interest in these critters have the potential to receive gifts that are very unethical for the creatures they care about. Bats are killed for the sole purpose of displays like this as a soulless cash grab. Already, there are dozens of bat species that are threatened or endangered. It is not fair to them to support an industry that is actively trying to extinguish their life for decoration.
You can read more about this crisis here and here.
Photo provided by Denley Photography on Unsplash.
Adventurer's Bible Character Extras - Maizuru and Inutade
I REMEMBERED HOW TO DRAW DRAGONS AAAAAAAAAAA
Look at this handsome boy :]
i have not watched or read any dunmeshi and will not do so but i really really really really really love izutsumi. so shes minnesotan now sorry
Thinking about how the two children in dunmeshi were both sold into slavery and how their enslavement differed. 
Thistle was given to the Royal Family as a trophy, a sign of status because he was an elf. Although he was doted upon and “treated as a second son,” Thistle was clearly a different race, of different stature and ultimately a companion for Delgal.
Despite being a child for the entirety of their relationship, Delgal used Thistle to vent his anxieties and worries to him. Here is an uncomfortable and tragic scene where Delgal is absolutely distraught about the death of his father, with the kingdom being taken over. And it is Thistle, the child, who was supposedly seen as a son to the king too, is comforting Delgal.
This ultimately culminates in Delgal placing the responsibility of the Kingdom’s health on Thistle (who, again, was his elf child slave.)
Kui places obvious signs the mental toll it’s taking on him, and his anxieties and worries drive him to self harm and endless stress.
(We see how Falingan recognises him as a burdened baby and hugs him 😣 so cute…)
(EDIT: This is an edited panel of Thistle! Sorry, I should have mentioned that… I think it’s cute. The original says “His Majesty will return soon, when he does, let’s have a grand celebration.” Thank you to the commenter for pointing this out.)
Thus, Thistle was shaped into a child desperate for approval from his owners, to the point that his deepest wish was to ensure the safety of the Golden Kingdom, forever freezing himself and the citizens in time. It is only towards the end of the story where Delgal realises this all happened because of the mental burden he placed on Thistle.
I believe the The Lion keeping its hold on Thistle for so many years compared to the comparitively instantaneous period it kepts Marcille/Laios is partly because of Thistle’s youth. The other Dungeon Masters became mad, yes, but Thistle was unable to ever be convinced to relinquish the book, as he was too dogmatic, too vindictive, just like the child he is.
On the flip-side, Let’s compare Izutsumi. Like Thistle, she has no idea where she came from as she was sold into sorcery and slavery. While Thistle’s trauma came from the emotional abuse suffered by his owners, Izutsumi’s was very physical. She is part cat, part human, thus a beast man.
Izutsumi is even sold to Toshiro’s family as part of his all-female guard, and as a result of her escape attempts she is also cursed to never be able to escape them. Unlike Thistle, Izutsumi absolutely abhors the violation of her body, as well as her lack of freedom. She not only wants to escape slavery, but wants to lift her Beast-man curse and go back to being a human.
It makes it sadder when Izutsumi eventually discovers that it is impossible for her to life the curse. This is because she is a cat who had a child’s soul imbued into her, and removing the curse would remove her personality and revert her into an animal. This implies that the person who trafficked her murdered her human-child self to do so.
Despite this, Izutsumi is the complete opposite of Thistle. She is rebellious, unshakeable, and extremely self centred. All of this is a result of a life where she’s had to fend for herself. However, just like Thistle, she is still childish in her wants and needs and thoughts. While Thistle took on the responsibility the entire fate of the kingdom, Izutsumi wants nothing more than to do whatever she likes.
Whereas Thistle was a status trophy for the royal human family, Izutsumi was a sick science experiment for a trafficker.
Izutsumi is never able to remove the physical effects of what her traffickers did to her, and spent her life fending for her freedom, so she struggles to understand why anyone would take on unpleasant tasks or selfless responsibilities.
She’s also very inept at doing things like emotionally comforting her big sister figure (compare this scene to how Thistle comforts Derghal.) She hates emotional physicality, doesn’t crave approval, but like a cat, and like a child, she craves warmth of another when she sleeps (so cute!)
Meanwhile, Thistle is never able to shake off the emotional effects of what his traffickers did to him, and spent a millennia desperately clawing his way towards their demands to appease them, and struggles to ever stop for a moment and think, “I’m a child, why is this my responsibility?”
There is one thing that they have in common though — it’s that they entirely refuse to depend on others. That’s so tragic for two children to think. ☹️ This concludes my analysis of the two most prominent children in Dunmeshi.
(Sorry I didn’t put more Izutsumi panels, theres a ten photo limit..)
It's always
"When will fanfic writers update their stories?"
And never
"Does this fanfic writer have adequate enrichment to engage in writing behaviours?"
Fanfiction writers (Scriptor fictus) are intelligent animals who need plenty of enrichment as well as encouragement! If they're stuck in poor conditions (e.g. have studies, work, have to actually write to have something written) then they require the proper enrichment to engage in more healthy behaviours, like writing. Remember, due to poor breeding and socialisation, over half of all fanfic writers suffer from low self confidence and executive dysfunction so take care of them!
Maybe its because I'm bitter or because I just left a fandom that reduced one of the main characters to a one off joke when the POINT is that they're complex but I hate how this fandom treats Izutsumi.
I hate how some people who interacted with the fandom before watching the anime thought that she didn't even speak because EVERYONE just draws her as a cute stupid cat whose personality is just being a cat
Again, maybe I'm just bitter, but I hate how the most common joke is the "Izutsumi: izutsumi" cause apparently no one can be bothered to actually consider her thoughts and feelings and personality.
Like yeah I'm not saying it can't be funny but it quickly becomes tiring when she's reduced to just that
Especially when her entire arc is about finding her identity as a person and as part of a community, finding a balance between her human and cat souls because she's both but also neither. Especially when canonically she's ashamed of the one time she behaved like just a silly little cat (golden kingdom)
20 | he/they/it | just thinking about a certain cat... could be transgender but who knows...
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