Dungeon Meshi // Abbey - Mitski

all goofing aside I genuinely don't understand the urge to reimagine Taylor Allison Swift as a secretly queer icon when the pop music scene(TM) is like. literally overflowing with women who actually like women. Gaga and Kesha and Miley and Halsey are right there. Rina Sawayama and Hayley Kiyoko and Rebecca Black and Kehlani and Victoria Monét and Miya Folick if you're willing to get slightly less top 100. Janelle and Demi for them nonbinary takes on liking girls. like what are we doing here. like I'm not even saying you can't enjoy Taylor but why would you hang all your little gay hopes on her.

(This was originally an ask received through Twitter)

"Back in GloMas (on JP), I think I remember there being a lot of madness surrounding Idia being close to Yuu. I think it’s because he referred to them as ‘Yuu’ rather than ‘Yuu-shi’, but I still don’t quite get it??"

Yes! Honorifics as a whole have already discussed more in-depth here, but Idia does drop his honorific for the prefect once in Glorious Masquerade.

Quick overview for those who may not know: when you don’t use an honorific with someone (-chan / -kun / -sama / etc), this is called yobisute (呼び捨て), written with the kanji for “to call” and “to throw away,” and the word might just not exist in English. It means “to refer to someone without an honorific."

Twst uses honorifics (and yobisute) to track the evolving relationships between the characters.

Deuce, for example, has a line about how he used to yobisute his teachers (i.e. he refused to add “-sensei” to their names) in middle school. To compensate for his past rudeness, Deuce now refers to every single upperclassman by “lastname-senpai.”

There is even a cute scene during New Year’s where Deuce greets Jamil by calling him Viper-senpai, but after Jamil feeds him an egg salad sandwich he changes—just once—to Jamil-senpai.

Epel is another character whose use of honorifics is significant: Epel is under order from Vil to always use honorifics with everyone. During Book 5 we see him using “-kun” with Deuce, up until Deuce refuses to let Epel fight the bullies trying to steal their blastcycle.

Deuce says that he is the one who took Epel out of the school and so he will be taking responsibility for his actions, and we get Epel’s first “Deuce” yobisute.

Cater might be the character who weaponizes honorifics the most.

He seems to be using honorifics as an over-familiarity-buffer-zone, as he is actively trying to avoid becoming too close to those around him (re: “Cay-Cay doesn’t really do long-term friends or found family").

There is one exception to Cater’s rule of honorifics: Trey.

During Book 1 Cater refers to him as “Trey-kun” for the majority of the story, until Riddle’s overblot makes things serious enough for him to drop it and call him “Trey” (even during these scenes, however, he keeps his honorifics for others).

The novel even comments on this directly, saying, "Usually, Cater does not ever yobisute anyone. When he calls to Trey, he always adds ‘kun’ to his name. This is probably one of his skills as a good-natured person. When Cater uses Trey’s name like this, it is only when he is really serious. Only when it is important."

This is all to say that, depending upon the character, yobisute can be a huge deal. It isn’t a black-and-white rule, of course—it varies by each character and their personality.

Kalim, for example, refers to everyone with yobisute, possibly because his status back home meant that he was simply never taught to defer to anyone, and/or because he legitimately considers himself to be close, personal friends with everyone he meets.

Idia is one of those characters like Cater and Deuce for whom yobisute is a big deal. There is exactly one person he refers to without any form of honorific, and that person is Ortho. Much like how he uses his tablet to avoid talking to people face-to-face, he is possibly, intentionally keeping up an over-familiarity-wall like Cater. 

The English-language adaptation has translated his honorific of “-shi” as “Mr.,” but it’s actually gender-neutral, which may be why the English-language game’s continuity is so inconsistent, and why the moment of Idia referring to the prefect without an honorific did not make it to EN: while the honorific disappears and reappears in English, he actually uses it to refer to the prefect in Book 6, and it is otherwise in 100% of all of Idia’s dialogue in the original game.

With one exception: Glorious Masquerade.

This is why JP lost its collective mind when it happened (the fan-art is delightful, like this short comic of the characters pointing at Idia and chanting "yobisute"), because it is something Idia had never done before and has never done again, and it was with the prefect.

Yobisute is usually very significant in the game, like during Book 6 where Azul, who uses the “-san” honorific with literally everyone except Jade and Floyd, uses yobisute with Riddle when he is in danger, and when Riddle uses it with Leona just before his overblot in Book 2.

Which means it will be interesting to see if Idia is going to continue with this yobisute-ing of the prefect outside of Glorious Masquerade! (which would be great for confirmation that it wasn't just a proof-reading error ww)

this panel from the world guide of falin being surrounded by other girls while laios is all alone kills me because. that's it. that's the key difference in their journeys.

as laios states himself, he left the village in order to create a home for him and falin elsewhere. a home that won't collapse due to others' hatred and fears like their old home did, a home where they are loved and accepted unconditionally. but as he soon found out, even before earning money, or having walls surrounding him and a roof above his head- what he so earnestly desired was to meet other people who will accept him for who he is as well. instead, he kept being tormented by those around him, shunned and sneered at. his loneliness quickly became all-consuming until he truly had nothing left except for the monsters in the pages of his book, but even that became a target of mockery and destroyed. that's why ever since the day he left the village, he never felt that he truly made the right choice. so he kept running away: unable to resist and unable to accpet.

and an ocean away from him there was his sister, who never managed to fully fit in herself. but unlike him, she met a person who became a home to her and learned what a true friendship was for the first time in her life. and laios clearly realizes that too when he finally sees falin and marcille together, he can tell his sister obtained the greatest treasure there is on her own- the exact thing he never managed to find anywhere himself, thus coming back empty-handed to the sister he left the village for.

but when you read this part of the manga, laios's focus is on falin's loneliness, not his own. he talks about how it hurts thinking about all those moments she had to spend alone because he wasn't there for her, so it almost sounds like he's the one who couldn't bear her suffering and therefore decided to not let her go again. but we do get a glimpse of their first meeting after that almost-decade long separation in the manga, and then we see more of that in the world guide and daydream hour- and it becomes abundantly clear that it was falin who was trying to protect and save him from this pit of loneliness and depression he was in.

so instead of just doing his best to atone for leaving her behind in the village and making sure she is never lonely again, it might also be that laios was desperately clinging to the one person in the world he felt that accepted and loved him unconditionally. those words he used to describe his motivation to stay by falin's side are the exact words she would've used as well; she couldn't bear leaving him behind in this state. in a sense, they were each other's shackles.

but then she did. she died for him and their friends, and ironically enough, it was by leaving him alone like this that he was finally able to stand on his own and put his full trust in others. to have the courage to reveal who he is and give others the opportunity to accept him after such a long time of hiding. it was a long journey, but his hiding finally came to an end when he faced the others after shedding his monster form. and i love that the person who was falin's "home" all those years away from laios, marcille, became just as meaningful to him during their time separated from falin- the first one to find him and show him that he isn't alone anymore. just as he did for her.

so at the end of the story when falin talks about all the places she would like to go, it's not just that she wants to pursue her own dreams- but that she actually feels free to do so and go anywhere she desires. and one of the main reasons for that is that her brother finally found new people he wants to be with; his own home.

JUST A FRIENDSHIP GIFT (g/n reader x floyd leech) ★ you buy floyd a friendship gift. fortunately, he likes it! unfortunately, the gift could be misinterpreted for a love confession in the coral sea... where floyd leech was born.... uh oh! ★ fluff! tbh can be read as platonic or romantic ★ 2k words, mild cursing, not proofread, reader is called 'shrimpy', open ending :)

floyd leech is your friend. 

or at least, you think he is. he clings to you like you’re his life support, always leaning on you like you’re his personal armrest. you’ve grown accustomed to the loud call of “shrimpy!” whenever he sees you, always mentally preparing yourself for when he starts dragging you away to be part of whatever new hobby he’s picked up. you’re also no stranger to his bone-crushing hugs, the ones that lift you slightly off the ground and quite literally take your breath away.  

you thought that eventually he’d get bored of your presence and find someone else to pick on. he’s pretty open about the fact that he’d drop azul if he got boring. but it’s been a while now, and he still won’t leave you alone. in fact, you’re pretty sure he’s gotten clingier, if that’s even possible. 

you used to try and run, but you quickly found out that you cannot escape from floyd leech. a terrifying concept, but, well, he doesn’t seem to mean harm. most of the time, that is.  

nonetheless, floyd leech is still your friend. ignoring his occasional sadistic nature, he’s nice enough. he cheers you up whenever you’re sad, even if his methods are a little unorthodox. he’ll drag you away from classes, proclaiming that he can always go through the material with you later, and make you help him practice his basketball skills or recount the time he squeezed someone so hard their eyes were almost bulging out of their skull. and he’ll back you up in an argument, glaring down the person slighting you and telling them off with only a few words.  

(but he’ll make fun of you all he wants. you’ll excitedly tell him something new you learned and then he’ll laugh at you for not knowing basic twisted wonderland history even though you are from a completely different dimension.) 

you’re pretty sure you and floyd leech are friends. so, it was really no surprise when you did what any good friend does, and you gave him a gift that reminded you of him. 

it was this cheap matching set of phone charms that you picked up while buying your groceries at sam’s. his charm consisted of small, glimmering beads mimicking gold and ivory pearls leading to a shiny off-white seashell that dangled at the end of the charm. your charm was similar in design, but the gold beads were replaced with baby blue ones, and the beads led up to a seastar.  

you thought it was cute. you thought floyd might find it cute. so why... why is he just staring at it? 

“do you, like, not like it?” you laugh nervously, watching as floyd, for the first time ever, remains completely and utterly still. you don’t get it. did you offend him in some way with the charm? do eels not like phone charms? does he not like the seashell? does he not like the color gold??? 

suddenly, he breaks out into a fit of laughter. it does nothing to ease your anxiousness, or your confusion. 

“oh, man. you’re so funny shrimpy!” he grins, revealing his horrifyingly sharp teeth, “you have no idea what this means, right? man, i forget how dense you are sometimes!” 

okay. ouch. you take time and money out of your day to give him a gift and he calls you dense. 

“well, what’s wrong with it?” you ask, offended, “did i accidentally curse out your entire bloodline in eel language or something?” 

“nah,” he says brightly, picking up the charm to examine it closer. the beads gleam in the sunlight, making their pearl act look much more convincing. you still don’t get it.  

“look at it shrimpy,” he continues, “it’s shiny, pretty, and it’s part of a matching set!... still don’t get it? i’ll spell it out for you, ‘kay? listen closely... it would check all the boxes... for a love confession in the coral sea!” 

oh. 

oh. 

“so i’m asking you out,” you say dumbly. 

“so you’re asking me out!” he affirms happily, “awhh, you’re so cute shrimpy, asking me out in such a traditional way! i accept!” 

“wait-” you sputter out, “wait! it’s not a love confession- why did you say yes so easily?! it’s a friendship gift! because we’re friends! it’s not part of a courting ritual!” 

floyd laughs in your face again. you suddenly have the urge to either punch floyd leech or take away the phone charm and burn it. but you don’t. thank the sevens for your great impulse control. 

“it’s okay, shrimpy! no need to be embarrassed!” he teases between giggles, swinging the charm in front of your face, “c’mere! i’m gonna give you the biggest squeeze of your life!” 

“wait-” 

but floyd leech does not wait. he immediately tackles you with the force of a truck. you feel your feet lift off the floor as floyd hugs you so tight you feel your bones struggle to stay intact.  

“ow! owowow!” you squeak out, writhing hopelessly in his grasp. you try to form coherent words, but all you can make out are gasps of pain. 

just as suddenly as he grabbed you, he drops you on the ground and makes a bolt for the door. 

“wha- where are you going?!” you yell out. he grins at you from over his shoulder, swinging the door open and prancing through. 

“what does it look like? i’m gonna show off to everyone!” he yells back, turning the corner. you hear his cackling gradually getting quieter as he runs off. 

“wait- floyd! floyd!” 

you scramble to your feet, wincing at the ache in your ribs. you try to rush out the door after him, but it’s too late. floyd leech is gone with the wind. 

sevens save you. your reputation is going to take a nosedive straight into the mud. 

you’re so done for. 

you’ve been on edge the whole day. 

you’ve gotten wind that yes, floyd did attach the charm to his phone, and yes, he did flaunt it to everyone. and while he didn’t outright say it was from you, he did say it was from “shrimpy” and everyone put two and two together pretty quickly. of course, nobody thought anything of it at first, you gave him a charm, so what? while it is unusual giving a gift to someone like floyd, it’s not really a big deal in the end. 

that is, until floyd had apparently offhandedly said that such a charm, shiny, beautiful, part of a matching set... would totally be considered a love confession in the coral sea. 

and then everything went to hell. 

every few minutes some student runs up to you and starts yelling at you, telling you that you’re insane for asking floyd out. and then you must correct them, telling them you meant it as a friendship gift. of course, nobody believes you.  

to put it simply, it’s been a rough few hours. 

“you!”  

you jolt, thoughts suddenly interrupted as you see ace sprinting towards you, and you have half a mind to start sprinting yourself back where you came from. 

he skids to a stop in front of you, hands on his knees as he breathes in and out heavily. 

“you asked out floyd leech?!” he yells between heaves. you wince.  

“no, i didn’t,” you insist, crossing your arms, “it was a friendship gift. a friendship gift! great sevens, how many times do i have to say it?!” 

“that’s not what floyd said.” 

“you’d believe floyd over me?!” 

“listen,” ace takes in a huge breath of air, straightening himself, “i didn’t think it was possible, i mean floyd? getting a partner before me? no way. so i asked him who it was from, and he was like, ‘shrimpy gave it to me!’ i didn’t even register it at first, like, who the hell was shrimpy? but then i realized, great sevens, it’s you.” 

you groan in embarrassment. you’ve gone through this scenario multiple times today, but it’s even more humiliating going through it with someone you’re close with.  

“look, it was a friendship gift,” you try explaining, “how was i supposed to know it meant a love confession where he was from? i didn’t even know what beanfest was!” 

“yeah, yeah,” ace waves off, “i’m surprised i even found you. thought you’d hole yourself up in your room or something.” 

“you were looking for me?” 

“duh! bet some other people are too. i wouldn’t put it past some of the octavinelle students to try and get the scoop,” ace sighs in exasperation, “sevens, i keep telling you to leave him alone and you just don’t listen, do you?” 

“to be fair, he’s the one that’s been following me.” 

“well, why do you encourage him to keep following you?!” 

you don’t really have an answer to that so you clamp your mouth shut. why do you keep encouraging him? 

“you’re such an idiot,” ace groans, “forget it. i’m leaving. i don’t want to get caught up in whatever mess you’re dealing with.” 

“weren’t you the one looking for me first?” 

too late again. ace walks away, and you still want to curl up in a hole and die.  

no! you can’t think like this! you’re mentally stronger than this, you’ve gotten past multiple overblots and lived and you’re not going to let one scandal ruin you! let’s see, your next class is... 

oh. it’s the one with floyd. 

so much for being mentally strong.

you walk into the classroom, and immediately all eyes turn towards you. you scan the free spaces, and... 

...great sevens. the only free one is near floyd. 

“shrimpy!” floyd says loudly, gaining the attention of the entire room. you see a scarabia student share knowing looks with the heartslabyul student next to him. great. floyd beckons you over, and you groan internally. 

the sevens hate you. it’s the only logical explanation. you slowly slide into the seat next to him, and he quickly takes out his phone. the charm is attached, just as you had feared.  

“i still have the charm you got me!” he exclaims, showing you that seven-forsaken charm. it glimmers in the sunlight. you really wish it didn’t. 

“yeah,” you respond back awkwardly, not sure where to look, “uhm. just by the way...” 

“hm?” 

“...you know it wasn’t meant to be a love confession, right? it really is just a friendship gift.” 

“huh?” he says, “yeah. i know.” 

...? 

“wait,” you sputter out, “but you’ve been telling everyone-” 

“yeah! that you got me something totally snazzy!” his gaze shifts to the phone charm, and he plays with the seashell at the end, sporting a goofy grin. “it’s like, totally cool! i’m gonna treasure it for life!”  

“no- why did you tell everyone it was a love confession?!” 

“wha?” he looks at you, clearly shocked. you gape at him. why is he the one who’s shocked?! you should be the one who’s more surprised! in fact, he should be groveling for your forgiveness right now! 

 “i never said that,” he denies, pouting, “you makin’ up lies about me, shrimpy?” 

“you-” you bury your head in your hands, groaning, “didn’t you tell them it was a love confession?” 

“i didn’t,” he insists, “all i said that it was funny how you didn’t know this charm could be considered a love confession! never said it was one. not my fault people assume, shrimpy!” 

you can feel everyone staring at you and floyd. you look up and make eye contact with the heartslabyul student who you saw before, and he hurriedly looks away. 

“dammit...” you whine, “this is all your fault!” 

“huh?!” floyd cries out, “how is it mine?!” 

“silence!” professor trein interrupts loudly. he must’ve come in while you were busy dealing with floyd. the class’s attention is diverted towards the front of the board, and you have never been gladder for professor trein’s presence. 

you open your textbook, breathing out a much-needed sigh of relief. thank the sevens that you’ll have a few moments of peace! 

...that is, until floyd waves his phone in front of your face, the charm swinging back and forth. the nerve! he’s making fun of you! you shoot a glare at him, and he meets your gaze with a smirk. 

“leech. phone away,” professor trein demands.  

“awhh. okay.” 

note: in honor of me getting my second floyd leech ssr. was gunning for his basketball card but got his dorm uniform instead... ITS OK. ITS A FLOYD CARD ALL THE SAME. (i wanted ace) also the open ending isn't because of like some master writing idea it's actually just because i didn't know how to finish it.

WAHWOSHHHAHUAIAHAJS THE TWEELS!!!! THEY’RE SO 🙏😩😩😩😩😩😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳😳 JADEEEEEEE AAIAYAHHAHSIIDJSDHDHSJSSS OHHMMYGNGGGODODODFJFJDJ

godddddd this is genuinely one of my favorite scenes so seeing this in manga form is making me go 🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

THANK GOD YUU AND GRIM WENT FOR THE OTHER TABLE CAUSE THE GAME LOWKEY PORTRAYED IT AS ALL OF THEM BEING UNDER THE SAME DESK AHHAHHAHAHA

GOD. GOOD GOD. GOOD FUCKING LLLLLLLORD

THAT’S HIM THAT’S MY WIFE THE LOVE OF MY LIFE THE MOMENT THE ICON THE LEGEND IN HIS ELEMENT AS WE SPEAK UWUEUEEUUEUEUEUUUEUUEUEUEUEUUEUUEUUEUEUEUEUUEUEUE THE WAY I SQUEALED I LOVE YOU WHEN I SAW THIS PANEL

oh.

oh.

oh.

haha. hah. hahaha. hahahahahaha.

oh laugh at me like that azul, make me feel pathetic and stupid for you please. 😳 oh. oh…

THIS ONE IS CRAZYYYYYY

DUDE THE OCTA TRIO BEING ALL LIKE “you need to be disciplined you should be punished” LIKE. AUAAHHHSISIAOOAAHSHSJSJJDJJSJJS THAT PANEL IS SO HOT????

BUT ALSO IM WHEEZING AT EVERYONE RUNNING AND THEN AZUL USING MAGIC ON THEM LMFAOOOO THEY LOOK SO SAD

IT’S JUST FUNNY ALSO CAUSE IN GAME THEY FIGHT THEM BUT HERE THEY FLED

i love them sm never change tweels

THIS PANEL IS EVERYTHINGGGGGGGGG TO ME

FLOYD’S BLEP AND AZUL SQUEEZING FLOYD’S CHEEKS AS HE GETS INCREDIBLY PISSED OFF AT HIM IS SENDING ME TO HEAVEN

I LOVEEEEE THE WAY THEY PORTRAYED AZUL LOSING IT IN THE MANGA 😭😭😭😭😭 HE WENT CRAZY HE GRABBED FLOYD

This too is everything to me 😭 i love them, i love octavinelle, god i love this update sm

Azul Ashengrotto

Can you sign my contract baby, contract baby-

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So…

kabru collection in anticipation of him being animated

Twisted-Wonderland