rp quick notes(shortlist of rps & solos that best reflect muri as a character / showcase his arcs)
sure to lure someone bad (reiki/muri, elsa, & soyala: in which reiki awakens as murikabushi & makes poor elsa Suffer from crushy emotions.) the living but dead (muri & fang: weird s**t occurs, and muri accidentally finds out what his magic does to people, is unhappy.) january dry, hard, glittering, cold (muri & faustite: muri finds a certain tsundere half-dead on a motel roof.) i wouldn’t like me if i met me (muri & arsenolite: trying to help someone he dislikes out of a sense of queer obligation.) always rooting for the anti-hero (reiki & levi: this conversation about their internal conflicts could have gone better.) when everything’s made to be broken (reiki, kerberos, & ida: reiki wants to meet kerberos as himself, not as muri, before purifying.) on the stage in my heels (solo: this is a lot of emotions for filming internet content set to chappell roan, kiyoshi.) the anchor in the storm (10-person ORP set in the calamitous hollow’s prison. muri’s posts: **, **, **, **, **, **, **, **, **, **.) grim tidings (muri, remarque, & hybris: muri comes to warn the dmc about the calamitous hollow.) STORMBREAKER: at world’s end (big meta ORP about fighting a nightmarish world-eater. muri’s posts: **, **, **, **, **, **, **, **, **, **, **.)
“And I heard that there's a special place Where boys and girls can all be queens every single day.… I’m up and jaws are on the floor. Lovers in the bathroom and a line outside the door. Black lights, and a mirror disco ball. Every night’s another reason why I left it all.… On the stage in my heels, it’s where I belong.” —Chappell Roan, “Pink Pony Club.”
“Eating meat…is a communion, an inherently intimate act. Hunger and lust feel very similar. They come from the same primal areas of our psychology, and they both have the power to completely overwhelm us.” —Andrew Rakich (Atun-Shei Films), Overanalyzing Ravenous.
“What a thing, to be both starving and empty. To ache for love—to take the scraps from its table, and yet, run sickly from the feast.… Some of us have gone so long hungry, the idea of being full feels worse than the affliction.” —Ashe Vernon, “Love Disorders and Other Old Heartaches.”
Name:Reiki Rokugin. Kiyoshi Sakurazawa (聖志 桜沢).
聖:kiyo, “holy, sacred.” 志:shi, “purpose, will, determination, aspiration, ambition.” 桜:sakura, “cherry tree (esp. Prunus serrulata, Japanese cherry); cherry blossom.” 沢:zawa, “marsh, wetland; blessed, highly favored; having in abundance; mountain stream.”
Nickname: Kiki. Magdalene Yotsuya Wilde on all the socials for his drag. ******** (but only Yuki is allowed to use that one). Call him “Yoshi” and you can meet the business end of his cute pumps.
Gender/Pronoun: Exhausted. Needs/Nap. (Cis man, any pronouns except “it.” Usually goes with he/him, but is comfortable with she/her or they/them. If using a personal pronoun in Japanese, prefers atashi あたし.)
Age:27. 28.
Birthday:February 29th, 1996. October 31st, 1996.
Sign:Pisces. Scorpio. Fire Mouse/Rat.
Gemstone: As of his purification, opal and tourmaline (but he still remembers that the original answer was amethyst and doesn’t plan to stop liking them).
Blood Type: B+
Height: 6’4”
Fav. Food: He really doesn’t want to discuss this right now. (The answer hasn’t changed—strawberries, his godfather’s mac and cheese, his grandfather’s shiitake udon, and chicken nuggets—he just doesn’t want to talk about it.)
Hated Food: Nor this, either. (This answer hasn’t changed either: blueberries, limes, avocado, mayonnaise, and Taco Bell.)
School: None, at the moment. He may start back at DCU again eventually, but he needs some time to settle before he can handle that, emotionally. Also, he needs space to think about his goals and dreams and all of that.
Occupation: ……Why can’t “Sailor Murikabushi” be his occupation, exactly? That used to be a thing a thousand years ago, right? Frankly, given how complicated and exhausting the senshi life is, this sounds like the most sensible and reasonable idea. Honestly, asking Kiyoshi to pick another job is senshi-phobic against him personally. ……Also, Blossom loves him very much and gave him a job at Puppy Paws doing pretty much anything BUT baking.
“I don’t want a world without pain, or loss. / I just want them to mean something.” —Emily Horne & Joey Comeau, A Softer World.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Eyes: Gray. Monolidded, and while not small, they aren’t naturally very big, either. However, even out of his queen drag, Kiyoshi never leaves the house without applying some of the tricks he knows with eyeliner, shadow, foundation, and mascara to make them look bigger.
Hair: Black with cool undertones. Long, thick, straight, and a pain in the a** to fit under a wig—but if the choice is “do some extra work while getting ready” or “cut off his waist-length ponytail,” then Kiyoshi will choose the extra work and you can pry his ponytail from his cold, dead hands. In drag, her hair can be literally any color, literally any style, though Kiyoshi does tend to prefer either black or blatantly unnatural colors (pink, purple, aquamarine, etc.).
Face: Heart-shaped overall, with a jawline and cheekbones that could cut diamonds. The thing Kiyoshi hates most about his face is his nose, which is longer and bigger than he’d like, and while he’s found ways of contouring it that he doesn’t hate, he has yet to find a nose contour that he truly likes, or that makes him feel any better about his nose itself. (Has he considered rhinoplasty? Yes, but he refuses to go for a nose-job because giving up the pursuit of his perfect nose contour would mean admitting defeat, which would mean losing, and that’s unacceptable to him, thank you very much.)
Skin Tone: Light-medium, mixed golden and peachy tones. He gains and loses color in his skin very easily, getting darker or lighter depending on how much time he spends outside. Leans more toward a more tawny color when he’s been getting a lot of sun, but ends up a lighter, more neutral tan when he hasn’t (usually seen in winter).
Base — #D9B58C Shadows — #C79C76 Highlights — #EFDBBD More Sunkissed Base — #D7AA7C Winter Skin Base — #DDBC90
Foundation Colors: Buff Beige + Sand Beige (L’Oreal True Match Super Blendable); Pro Filt’r #210 or #230 and Eaze Drop #7 or #8 (Fenty Beauty; “light to medium skin with warm neutral undertones” + “medium skin with warm undertones”); 23Y [“light-medium skin with yellow undertones”] + 24N [“light-medium skin with neutral undertones”] (Sephora Best Skin Ever Liquid Foundation)
Body Type: Tall (6’4”), broad-shouldered, muscular and fit with a narrow waist and long legs. In drag, the vibe he usually tries to go for is “statuesque” and padding out a more hourglass figure.
Tattoos: 1. Left shoulder-blade, black script font with a quote of Cersei Lannister’s from A Dance With Dragons: “I am a lioness. I will not cringe for them.”
Clothes: a smoothie blended out of several specific flavors of Lolita fashion, every gender-ambiguous goth-adjacent babe from your favorite shoujo or josei manga, and Kiyoshi’s lifelong dream of being a princess in the “fantasy novels and Disney movies” sense of the term. Owns a distressingly high number of shirts featuring fanart of Cersei Lannister, Sansa Stark, Elim Garak and Dr. Julian Bashir, Beckett Mariner, and various magical girls. Also owns a shirt where a cartoon fanart version of Captain James T. Kirk proclaims that he is “all about that space, ’bout that space, NO TRIBBLES.”
“Let me give you some counsel, b*****d. Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.” —Tyrion Lannister (George RR Martin), A Game of Thrones.
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2022 6:35 pm
“I wanted to explain myself to myself in an understandable way. I gave shape to my fears and made excuses.… Something’s not right about what I’m doing but I’m still doing it— living in the worst parts, ruining myself.… The enormity of my desire disgusts me.” —Richard Siken, “Birds Hover the Trampled Field.”
HOBBIES: Drag: A simple word for an artistic calling that combines, among other things, acting, dance, comedy and sass, makeup, wig-styling, costuming, and editing a performance mix (though Kiyoshi usually gets Yuki’s help with the last one). While Magdalen Yotsuya Wilde’s social media presence still exists, Kiyoshi has begun moving back into performances at bars, and he’s so. happy. He hasn’t built up enough cred to produce shows yet, but he’s working to rebuild old friendships and working relationships from before he purified. He’s also down to help mentor younger drag artists, and he takes commissions to design outfits for people.
Textile Arts: Even outside of his drag, Kiyoshi loves making things with fabric and yarn. He’s most skilled at sewing as in garment construction or mending, having made most of his own clothes since he was fifteen (gothic lolita fits like he wants to wear aren’t generally sized for someone so tall or with his proportions). However, he’s also familiar with knitting, crochet, and embroidery. He especially enjoys making things for other people, whether that means taking commissions to make someone a custom dress, knitting scarves for friends in winter, or making crochet-body plush creatures as gifts for people he loves.
Gossip: Kiyoshi likes to talk, which generally becomes obvious within twenty seconds of meeting him. While he’s perfectly content to talk about random things—especially ones where he knows a lot—one of his favorite subjects is everybody else’s business. Also, his own business. Petty interpersonal dramas, the latest tea on the romantic contretemps going on among any given group (usually the Destiny City magical community but not always), whose tragic backstory is making them set things on fire this week—while Kiyoshi understands that some things aren’t his to share, he considers few avenues of gossip off limits.
Space History: As he puts it, Kiyoshi was raised in the untamed wilds of an academic library by a pack of feral historians. He’s not sure yet if he wants to start over on a PhD, but his love of studying history remains. Of late, his focus has been pretty much everywhere but Earth. Naturally, this entails rifling around his home-world, trying to learn as much as he can about its people, their lives and cultures, etc.—but he wants to learn ALL the space history. Please take him to your world or Wonder? Yes, even if you’re a space senshi and haven’t cleared the Chaos infection yet. Tell him about your people and their culture? There are so many stories out there to learn from! ………Please? 🥺
“I can give you my loneliness, my darkness, the hunger of my heart, I am trying to bribe you with uncertainty, with danger, with defeat.” —Jorge Luis Borges, “Two English Poems.”
VIRTUES: Earnest: Kiyoshi always wants to live as his most authentic self. To that end, he lets people know upfront what they’re in for with him and doesn’t waste time trying to please people who aren’t going to like him. He will exercise self-censorship (e.g., immediate bitchy responses don’t always reflect his true feelings) and he can tone things down (he wants to be in community with others, which is easier if he respects that people have limits). He takes extra steps like that not to hide, but because he knows who he is and who he wants to be. Yes, he is a loud, dramatic, stubborn diva, and he absolutely does too much. He gave you his content warnings; you can take him or leave him.
Determined: When Kiyoshi cares about what he’s doing, he goes in full-throttle and won’t stop until he’s either accomplished what he set out to do or been forced to stop. While he expects a lot from himself, he’s trying to get better at forgiving himself for not hitting every high bar that he sets for himself. But even so, Kiyoshi always needs to know that he tried. If he doesn’t give a task or project the best efforts that he can under the circumstances, he simply will not be satisfied.
Compassionate: At his core, Kiyoshi wants to be the sort of person who would’ve helped his younger self. He cares very deeply about other people, their pain, and their problems. Too many problems in this universe, he thinks, come from people hardening their hearts to each other instead of trying to help. Whether they need a shoulder to cry on, leeway and patience while they’re struggling, or someone to break things down for them while coming from a place of love, Kiyoshi wants to do whatever he can to make the bad times more bearable, or to understand someone on their own terms as much as possible.
Idealistic: Kiyoshi sees hope as a central part of being a magical girl and refuses to let go of it. Things can always get better if people are willing to check their egos and put in the work. If things are unfair and shitty right now, they don’t need to stay that way. People might have a lot of work to do, but they can always make better choices and choose to be their best selves. Somebody may make themself so dangerous that killing them is better for the collective good, but you will never convince Kiyoshi that there wasn’t some way to help them. Nothing in this life is hopeless, and ******** you if you want Kiyoshi to stop believing that.
“Why does the mind do such things? Turn on us, rend us, dig the claws in. If you get hungry enough, they say, you start eating your own heart. Maybe it’s much the same.” —Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin.
FLAWS: Dramatic: Unfortunately, Kiyoshi’s most authentic self is an emotional maximalist: he has a surplus of Big Feelings and very little chill. Despite trying to restrain this so he doesn’t overwhelm people, he still Does The Most, expressing himself hyperbolically, his emotional volume turned up to 11, sometimes without knowing how serious he is. His reactions to stress and perceived slights quickly become disproportionate and spiral into tangled, messy consequences. Unpacking his Big Feelings is A Whole Production, so he puts it off, which in turn makes both his snap reactions and the eventual unpacking worse.
Basically, he’s A Lot To Deal With, and his self-awareness about it only helps so much.
Stubborn: Kiyoshi tries very hard to consider multiple different perspectives and weigh potential outcomes before making most decisions……but once he’s decided something, good luck getting him to stop. He’s sticking to what he decided until he cannot justify keeping it up anymore, and it usually takes a long time and a lot of consequences for him to reach that point. He can admit to being wrong, but it often takes his bullshit hurting other people for him to do so. If the negative effects only hit him, he’ll carry on, undaunted.
Martyr Complex: He’d call it “oldest child syndrome,” but the semantics don’t change how Kiyoshi chronically deprioritizes his own needs. Yes, he cares about others and empathizes with them—but he does so with very few boundaries, allowing their troubles to overwhelm him. He treats other people’s problems as bigger and more important than his own because he’s pretty sure that’s just true [citation needed]? Specific self-deprecating justifications vary, but all dance around the fact that Kiyoshi doesn’t value himself very much as a person. What he can do—what he can sacrifice—for others is more important because of reasons.
Willfully Self-Deluded: Although Kiyoshi likes to project an image of being a reasonable adult person, he regularly undermines that by revealing beliefs and basic assumptions that simply are not how anything works. On stage at a drag show, Kiyoshi living in his little french vanilla fantasy is fine—the fantasy feeds the spectacle—but out in reality, he gets in trouble by refusing to meet reality halfway. People will hand him evidence that they won’t stop doing harmful things, and he’ll tell himself he needs to overlook that because they haven’t had enough kindness in their lives. Okay, yes, this situation looks bad, but like, what if it wasn’t?
“We have not touched the stars, nor are we forgiven, which brings us back to the hero’s shoulders and a gentleness that comes, not from the absence of violence, but despite the abundance of it.… I’ll give you my heart to make a place for it to happen, evidence of a love that transcends hunger.” —Richard Siken, “Snow and Dirty Rain.”
“When I went about dreaming of satisfying people’s dreams, satisfying their hunger for illusion, didn’t I know that this was the most painful and the most insatiable hunger? What impels me to offer now, truth in place of illusion?” —Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934.
Senshi:Dark Mirror Eternal Sailor Murikabushi, Senshi of Hunger
Basic Challenge: “Don’t you wanna eat this cake?” Super Challenge: “What are you hungry for?” // “What hungers lurk within your soul?” Eternal Challenge: “Hunger also comes from the soul.” // “The cake is a lie.”
Uniform Colors:
Main Color:Regal Violet — #5F4D78 ████████
Secondary Color:Bloody, Visceral Red — #A01432 ████████
“Sometimes I’m terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants. The way it stops & starts.” —Poe, “Terrified Heart.”
Attacks: Sailor Scout Attack: Gnawing Hunger.
Extending an arm, Murikabushi bends his wrist back; as he calls the name of his attack, he curls his fingers into a fist, then jerks his hand down as if tugging a cord. Enemies within 10 feet of him begin to feel a powerful hunger or sense of craving, one they feel cannot be sated, and yet, they are compelled to try. This craving can be for anything—food, drink, affection/intimacy, alcohol or narcotics, the answers to the math homework, etc.—but it is quite distracting. This spell lasts for 25 seconds, and Murikabushi can use it three times per battle.
Super Sailor Scout Attack: Ravenous Hunger.
Extending an arm, Murikabushi bends his wrist back; as he calls the name of his attack, he curls his fingers into a fist, then jerks his hand down as if tugging a cord. Enemies within 15 feet of him are wracked with an intense hunger—the sort of hunger that gnaws at your insides, like you haven’t eaten all day. The craving can be for anything—food, drink, affection/intimacy, alcohol or narcotics, the answers to the math homework, etc.—and enemies are compelled to satiate it, but find it even more difficult to do so than they would expect. In addition to the intensity, this hunger makes them feel somewhat sluggish, making it harder for them to think, decide what to do, and see any actions through to completion, even those that they believe will satiate their hunger. Affected targets are still capable of acting and fighting back—though people may react to hungers roused by Murikabushi’s magic differently—but until the hunger abates, they will struggle.
This spell lasts for 35 seconds, and Murikabushi can use it twice per battle. Additionally, this magic can be varying degrees of thrown off or ignored with focus, determination, practiced self-neglect that makes one feel like this hunger isn’t so bad, being accustomed to deprivation and therefore more capable of powering through the effects, magical protection, or some other, similar means of resistance.
“That’s what comes of hungering for something; you forget to check if it’s rotten before you gobble it down.” —Holly Black, The Cruel Prince.
BONUS SENSHI MAGIC: Enormity of Hunger.
Murikabushi extends a hand and snaps a finger to summon this magic. Up to three targets within 15 feet of him experience hunger pangs and body aches similar to going hungry for a day or two. Accompanying the pain, any hunger they might conceivably have at the moment demands their attention all at once. These hungers may be for anything: food, drink, affection/intimacy, alcohol or narcotics, the answers to the math homework, etc. While targets’ hungers do not feel insatiable, they are very powerful and the multiple concurrent desires may overwhelm affected targets. This magic lasts for 35 seconds. Murikabushi may use it twice per battle.
Eternal Sailor Attack: Hunger’s Hollow.
Murikabushi extends an arm and snaps a finger to call up this magic. Enemies within 20 feet become wracked by the feeling of extreme hunger and deprivation, the sort where you feel drained and empty, like simply existing is too much effort. Physically, they will feel an empty stomach, body aches, and hunger pangs (however those feel for them) that refuse to be tuned out. These pains are accompanied by desperation to satiate a hunger within them (which can be for anything: food, drink, affection/intimacy, alcohol or narcotics, the answers to the math homework, etc.), but a sense that they will never be satisfied. Targets may also experience any combination of: dizziness, disorientation, emotional hypersensitivity, inability to focus, increased anger, decreased impulse control, decreased emotional control/regulation, and/or feelings similar to depression.
The magic ends after 45 seconds, but characters may experience lingering side-effects at player discretion. Murikabushi may use this attack once per battle.
PASSIVE POWERED ENHANCEMENT: Where the Wild Roses Grow.
During the Silver Millennium, Murikabushian true-black roses were a sacred symbol associated with the senshi, and now, they bloom around the Murikabushi of the 21st century. Rose blossoms spring up as he walks, following his footsteps; unlike the very dark reds or purples of most “black” flowers, these are pure black. If Murikabushi remains in one place, they can bloom around him for up to a ten-foot radius. Their stems have no thorns and nothing about them can harm or damage anyone. On Earth, these blossoms only linger for ten minutes after Murikabushi leaves a location. On his homeworld, the flowers are permanent.
DEAN: “So this is your big trick? Huh? Making people cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs?”
FAMINE: “Doesn't take much—hardly a push. Oh, America: all-you-can-eat, all the time. Consume, consume. A swarm of locusts in stretch pants. And yet, you’re all still starving because hunger doesn't just come from the body, it also comes from the SOUL.” —Supernatural, “My Bloody Valentine” (5.14).
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2022 6:38 pm
SPACE LITERACY TRACKER. Aylmarais (“Murikabushian Basic”): Space French, the dominant language spoken and written in the Murikabushian capital. The world-building parallel here is specifically Modern French,
Common Ariake-zuki: Also called “Vulgar Ariake-zuki.” Basically, it’s Space Katakana. Often found in books that people wanted to be more widely read, like popular novels or political pamphlets with insulting caricatures of the senshi in them.
Gwæloch: Derived from aforementioned ancient precursor to Aylmarais, kept alive by the Gwæloch people of northwestern Aylmarais despite attempts by the dominant social group at forcing them to linguistically assimilate.
High Gwæloch: An ancient precursor to both Aylmarais and Moravælishk, found primarily in ruins, old texts, and, to a lesser extent, surviving in narrative poetry that really wants you to know how deep and highbrow intellectual it is.
Moravælishk: The language of an ethnic minority who primarily lived in a piece of hinterland that regularly changed hands between the Northern Aylmarais and Sylvani Kebutovans.
Nakakuni: An ancient precursor of the Ariake-zuki language, which shares many of the same characters but has different grammar and syntax rules, and often uses the characters in different ways, to refer to different things.
Shoukyuan: Arguably a dialect of High Ariake-zuki, but there are enough unique characters—and enough shared characters that have evolved significantly different meanings—that it is also arguably its own language. Spoken and written by the Shoukyu people of northeastern Murikabushi, a strongly matriarchal culture colonized by the Ariake-zuki people. Despite the concentrated efforts of both the Aylmarais and Ariake-zuki to force them to assimilate, the Shoukyuan people did their best to resist and to maintain their own language and culture.
“I swear, I end up feeling empty, like you’ve taken something out of me and I have to search my body for the scars, thinking Did he find that one last tender place to sink his teeth in?…but I think I’d rather keep the bullet.…and with this bullet lodged in my chest, covered with your name, I will turn myself into a gun, because it’s all I have, because I’m hungry and hollow and just want something to call my own.” —Richard Siken, “Wishbone.”
Kuroi Sakurazawa / Super Grieve, DSS of the Collapse: Mostly addressed as “Grieve,” even when she isn’t powered up (unless people are around who aren’t known to be with Order, whether literally or in spirit/as support team members like Yuki).
Robin Archer / Super Monoceros of Porcupines: The first powered friend who Murikabushi made, back when both of them were still with Chaos (the Negaverse for Ceros and the DMC for Muri).
Cersei Sakurazawa: Shelter rescue pit bull-terrier mix, whom Reiki impulsively adopted back in undergrad, about six weeks after he and his brother got their first off-campus place. Reiki only intended to window-shop, when he went to the local ASPCA shelter, but then he saw this little baby, with her big eyes and her floppy ears, and he fell in love. Despite being named for the grand high b***h of Westeros herself, Cersei is one of the sweetest dogs you will ever meet in your life. She can be shy when someone puts her on edge, but with most people, she has just met you and she loves you. All she wants in life is long walks, copious snuggles, food and water, and a couch by a window, where she can climb up on the back and sun herself.
Oh, and your food. Your food looks like it is very much For Dogs, and she wants some, please.
Dr. Hikaru Rokugin (光 鹿銀): Dad. Professor in DCU’s mechanical engineering department.
Dr. Noshiko Rokugin, née Sakurazawa (能子子 鹿銀 / 桜沢): Mom. Professor in DCU’s Political Science department.
Junsei Rokugin (純正 鹿銀): Twin brother, younger than Reiki by eight minutes. Working on a PhD in robotics engineering at DCU.
Hinami Rokugin (日美 鹿銀): Younger sister (23) and friendly neighborhood disaster lesbian. She’d be on her way to steal your girl if she could get there without tripping over her own feet because your girl dazzled her so much that she forgot how to be a person.
Nariko Rokugin (雷子 鹿銀): Younger sister (17). Wishes that it were socially acceptable to cosplay Daenerys Targaryen pretty much every day, and in lieu of that, just tries to live her life like she’s a Khaleesi, Mother of Dragons, Breaker of Chains, Slayer of Lies, Bride of Fire, Daughter of Death, Rightful Queen of Westeros, Prince That Was Promised, etc. etc. Has emotionally manipulated both of her brothers into being her Jon Snow for Halloween (though she admittedly has more success with Junsei because he never has the convenient excuse of “Can’t do it, I have a show that night”).
Dr. Kiyoshi Rokugin (聖志 鹿銀): Grandfather. Professor in DCU’s history department.
Dr. Murasaki Rokugin, née Tatsuhana (紫 鹿銀 / 龍花): Grandmother. Professor in DCU’s queer/gender/feminist/etc. studies department—and Reiki’s most direct “boss”-adjacent person, since no one else meets the standards of what she wants in a TA and she claimed him as soon as he applied to be one.
Dr. Mitchell Isaac Jameson: Godfather. Professor of physics at Destiny City University.
Sidney Phillips: Uncle Mitch’s husband. Journalist known for asking the exact right questions to make any given political figure squirm and refusing to give up on a story until he gets the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth of it.
Dr. Satomi Rokugin (慧深 鹿銀): Aunt.
Hanako Ayanami (花子 文儺身): Aunt, by virtue of being Satomi’s wife.
Erika Ayanami (恵利華 文儺身): Cousin, Satomi and Hanako’s daughter. Only slightly younger than Reiki and Junsei. Trans lesbian, she/her. Local working artist. Commission her! She will draw your fursona and doesn’t judge if you want her to draw something nasty, smutty, kinky, or otherwise NSFW!
Tatsuya Rokugin (竜也 鹿銀): Cousin, Satomi and Hanako’s son, around the same age as Nariko. Trans guy, pansexual, he/him. A little dotty and off on his own cloud, most of the time. He’s never been officially diagnosed with anything, but thinks that he might be on the spectrum, but also doesn’t know if he really needs/wants to get a diagnosis because he, personally, doesn’t feel particularly distressed or impeded by his style of engaging with the world, nor by the fact that a lot of people don’t get him. He doesn’t need to be your cup of tea; he might be someone else’s chocolate milkshake or cup of coffee, so it’s fine if he’s not for everyone.
Haruhi Tatsuhana (春日 龍花): Cousin and, since Reiki broke up with/walked out on Greg, his roommate. Technically, they’re somewhat more distant than first-cousins, but that doesn’t matter, with this family. Haruhi has “cousin” in nis “official” family designation, therefore ne is Reiki, Junsei, Hinami, Nariko, Erika, and Tatsuya’s cousin.
Gregory James Cybulgnion: Reiki would protest Greg’s inclusion on this list, since……it’s true, they were engaged to be married? But that state of affairs has recently ended. Greg went to DCU for his pre-law, then commuted to Georgetown for law school. In the past year, he failed the bar exam, but rationalized that really, it was completely fine, because he’s going to be a senator someday anyway and he doesn’t need to have worked as an attorney to do that. Currently working as an assistant to the US Representative responsible for Destiny City—not a particularly notable assistant, but a valued enough member of their entourage that he got invited to several Very Important holiday parties, for which his fiancé was expected to be present.
If all Greg had only asked for Reiki to come to some parties, or give him some extra help studying for the bar, or other fairly reasonable things, they might not have broken up. Unfortunately, the past eighteen months (give or take) made some inconvenient truths about their relationship increasingly difficult to deny. The biggest one at the heart of everything was that, once upon a time, Greg was drawn in and enraptured by all the things about Reiki and his way of being that were like nothing else he’d ever dealt with: Reiki’s gender nonconformity and drag artistry, his willingness to argue with people whether you want him to or not, his commitment to causes that Greg doesn’t think appeal to the white liberal-moderate donors, his constant search for something that his life is lacking that prevents him from feeling fulfilled, etc.
On some level, though, Greg had sort of hoped that, someday, he would be the certain, missing Something in Reiki’s life, that being with him would give Reiki everything he needed so he wouldn’t need to keep searching, and then he would calm down and be a perfectly respectable political spouse, not an argumentative, loudmouth, doggedly stubborn drag queen whose grasp of impulse control is often tenuous at best.
“I waited, and so can he. I waited half my life. She had played the dutiful daughter, the blushing bride, the pliant wife. She had suffered Robert’s drunken groping, Jaime’s jealousy, Renly’s mockery, Varys with his titters, Stannis endlessly grinding his teeth. She had contended with Jon Arryn, Ned Stark, and her vile, treacherous, murderous dwarf brother, all the while promising herself that one day it would be her turn. If Margaery Tyrell thinks to cheat me of my hour in the sun, she had bloody well think again.” —Cersei Lannister (George RR Martin), A Feast For Crows.
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2022 6:39 pm
“That’s the difference between love and hunger.… Hunger is a story you get stuck in. Love’s the story that takes you somewhere new.” ― Kai Cheng Thom, Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars.
Cats hate Reiki, or at least all the cats he’s ever met hate him. He has no idea what he’s doing wrong, or what it is about him that fills cats with the impulse to attack him on-sight, but until he met Soyala and she liked him immediately, he had never in his life met a cat who didn’t regard him with at best wariness and mistrust, at worst outright hostility. (Up to any other players whether this applies to IC Mauvians or not!)
Has known that he’s gay since he was five years old, and probably could’ve figured it out sooner? It’s just that he, twin brother Junsei, and their cousin Erika all happened to be five when they learned the word “gay” from their Obaasan.
They learned the word “gay” because Reiki and Junsei got into a rather spirited debate about whether or not boys could be princesses. Junsei’s argument, like most people’s, was that “prince” and “princess” were obviously gendered titles, because in all the Disney movies, the princes were boys and the princesses were girls. Reiki, on the other hand, held that the titles “prince” and “princess” were obviously based on whom you wanted to kiss because princes always kissed princesses and vice versa; therefore, a boy who wanted to kiss princes would be a princess.
As soon as they got Obaasan involved, this turned into a whole discussion about whether Reiki felt like he was a girl like Erika, or did he just want to kiss boys, hence her ensuing explanation of what “gay” meant. She did, however, agree that Reiki could be a boy princess if he wanted, just like she has since held that middle sister Hinami can be a girl prince if she feels like it (which she does; Tenjou Utena is, for Hinami, some absolute Life Goals)—and, well, Obaasan says that Reiki can be a boy princess, so everyone else needs to just get on her level and stop assuming that being a guy means he is a prince.
Mama’s boy? Obaasan’s boy? Yes, Reiki is absolutely both of these things and he doesn’t understand why you expect him to take them as insults. Do you think it’s demeaning for him to love, respect, and admire his mother and grandmother? That sounds like a horrible way for you to live. Sad.
Likewise, he refuses to understand the use of “pretty boy” as a derogatory term. Like, yes, please, call him “pretty.” Tell him he’s the prettiest boy you’ve ever seen.
He has mixed feelings about his maternal grandmother—i.e., mostly negative ones, largely due to Sakurazawa Hotaru being an emotionally abusive, manipulative, two-faced, passive-aggressive, ethnosupremacist control freak who’s super into fascism and acts like advocating for Mishima Yukio’s Confessions Of A Mask to be added to Japan’s national high school literature curriculum makes her a champion for gay rights (when actually, she only approves of Mishima-san because she is, as mentioned, super into fascism and thinks he had the right idea about that whole “overthrow the democratically elected civilian government and transfer supreme power back to the Imperial family” thing).
None of this is at all helped by the fact that, as long as people outside the family aren’t around, she has spent Reiki’s entire life openly hating him and making it abundantly clear to him that, of all her grandchildren, he is her single Number One Least Favorite. But because it’s not proper for him to just outright say how he feels about Hotaru—not least because it violates several taboos about filial piety—Reiki has resigned himself to describing his feelings about her as “mixed.”
He does, however, also refer to her as “Onibaba-sama” behind her back, and if pressed, would only agree that this nickname is insulting to the oni. As far as he’s concerned, she’s been derogatorily misgendering him for his entire life (and encouraging his mom’s eldest two brothers in doing the same, though Uncle Mako at least seems to think it’s an affectionate joke, rather than a deliberate, demeaning insult), calling him “Rokugin-kun” and “my daughter’s son” (but not “my grandson”) in public as often as she can get away with, and referring to him as both “okama” (in a tone that makes it clear: she means it as a homophobic slur) and “that one (derogatory)” more often than his name behind closed doors. So, honestly, he thinks she can deal with the fact that her least favorite grandchild calls her “Onibaba-sama” behind her back.
Reiki’s not a fan of her husband either, and regularly refers to Sakurazawa Ryou as “Onibaba-sama’s vibrator with the missing batteries” (or some variation thereof). Ryou-ojiisama is a career civil servant from a very old, very wealthy family, who honestly wishes he could get away with letting his wife do his job for him, since she actually cares about governmental administration and he’d rather sit in his home-office and build scale models of famous battles from Japanese history. Like his wife, tends to refer to Reiki as “Rokugin-kun” and “my daughter’s son” or “my daughter’s child” rather than “my grandson,” but also goes one step further and generally refers to Hikaru-papa as “my daughter’s idiot.”
His response to Reiki, aged five, teaching one of his Sakurazawa cousins (Kasumi, about the same age as Reiki and Junsei) the interesting new word that “the mother of Ryou’s daughter’s idiot” had taught him—“gay”—was getting himself in a bit of a PR snafu on purpose……by taking Reiki, who still desperately wanted his maternal grandparents to love him and approve of him, to Yasukuni Jinja, a perfectly normal Shinto shrine with an attached history museum, which just so happens to semi-deify and house the remains of multiple Class-A war criminals, and teach a version of Japan’s involvement in World War II that acts like the Nanjing Massacre/Rape of Nanjing and Dr. Ishii Shirō’sexperimentation on and medical torture of innocent people never happened, that Japan only invaded China, Korea, and the Philippines to “liberate them from Western tyranny,” and that any claims about Japanese atrocities are stories made up by American propagandists and Chinese Communist brainwashing.
So, yeah.…… If it ever seems like Reiki doesn’t talk about his mom’s family very much for someone who loves family, that’s because he doesn’t. He prefers to avoid talking about them as much as possible because several of his maternal family members are horrible people and they make him ******** miserable.
Despite getting treatment for his ED since he was ~16 and more actively cooperating with it since he was ~19/20, one of the hardest things he has to do every week is actually make a concentrated effort to just let himself eat one of his “bad, unsafe foods” that he likes just because he likes it and wants the thing, rather than making himself jump through all kinds of arbitrary hoops to “earn” it (not least since he is very good at moving goalposts for himself in this way).
His favorite kinds of treats are good dark chocolate, or anything with “cookies and cream” somewhere in the flavor. One of the easiest treats to let himself have is cookies and cream Pejoy sticks—but this can sometimes be a double-edged sword, such as when he lets himself think “Oh, I had some of my Pejoy sticks, therefore I don’t need to be as vigilant about these feelings I’m having like things are about to start getting bad again.” He tries to watch out for that, having made that mistake A LOT before, but……it’s hard, sometimes.
Another good sign that he’s probably Not Okay is that his “most recently played” on all his various music apps will start featuring a lot of songs that either explicitly deal with EDs (“Ana’s Song (Open Fire)”—Silverchair, “4st 7lb”—Manic Street Preachers, “Paper Bag”—Fiona Apple), are more subtle but still about them (“Shatter Me”—Lindsey Stirling, “Tied Together With A Smile”—Taylor Swift, “Skyscraper”—Demi Lovato), or aren’t actually about EDs but deal with similar feelings and/or self-destructive impulses (“Chandelier”—Sia, “Tymps (The Sick In The Head Song)”—Fiona Apple [she shows up a lot when Reiki isn’t doing well, like more so than usual, which says a lot because he loves him some Fiona Apple], “Doll Parts”—Hole [the entire Live Through This album, really], “Pretty Hurts”—Beyoncé).
On one hand, he’s smart enough to require a face recognition or a passcode to actually get into his phone. On the other hand, most of the people who love him know his passcode—042338 (it’s his beloved grandmother’s birthday; he’s not that smart at passwords)—and they can swipe down to pull his “most recently played” for Spotify into view without the passcode.
Reiki may not be smart about a lot of his passwords, but he does amuse himself with them. Several of them feature different variations about asking “NSA Agent-senpai” to do very risqué things with him, because this is the kind of thing that he finds completely hysterical.
A running tally of youma and assorted monsters Reiki has nicknamed:
Centi-Tina (because Miss Thing was perfect, and beautiful, she looked like Linda Evangelista, she was a model, and her bottom half was a massive centipede).
Niji Kidna (“niji” from the Japanese for “rainbow” and “Kidna” from “Echidna” as in the Greek mythological mother of monsters, because Miss Diva was a snake-woman with rainbow butterfly wings).
Vanessa (because Miss Girl was a reverse cecaelia—same concept as a reverse mermaid [lady legs, fish head], but with tentacles and an octopus head—and “Vanessa” is the official Disney canon name of the alias Ursula uses in The Little Mermaid, when she poses as a human girl to try and keep Eric and Ariel from kissing before sunset).
Effie (because Miss Lady had a very decked out humanoid torso on top of her extravagantly flashy firefly butt, and Reiki thought Effie Trinket out of The Hunger Games was appropriate. May the odds be ever in your favor, b***h—oh wait, they weren’t).
“Sometimes, I feel like everybody is a sexy baby And I’m a monster on the hill Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city Pierced through the heart, but never killed.… It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me. At tea time, everybody agrees. I’ll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror It must be exhausting, always rooting for the anti-hero.…” —Taylor Swift, “Anti-Hero”
And a running tally of humans, humanoid extraterrestrials, and half-youma who Reiki has nicknamed:
Acubens: Sailor Onee-san.
Albite: Hot Lips, Wagahai, Eien no Suji-kin Arubaito-sama.
Amsvartnir: Mr. Cosmos Centerfold Boy, Mr. Pastel Rainbow Centerfold, Space Dandy, Duckling.
Angelica: Bisexual Christmas Elf, Exchange Student From the North Pole, Sailor You sit on a throne of lies.
Anser: Sailor Gosling, Sailor Untitled Goose Game, Little Miss Sunshine.
Arsenolite: ******** Hawkeye, Dollar Store Hawkeye, Wannabe Robin Hood, This ******** Guy.
Daphne: Sailor Catgirl.
Encke: Sailor Golden Corral (Senshi of Centerfold Models).
Fang: Sailor Bargain Bin Derek Hale, Sailor Alexa, Play “Howl” By Florence And The Machine.
Fafnir: Fire and Blue’d.
Faustite:CaptainGeneralGeneral-King Phoenix Force (but by this point [June 30th, 2023], Muri mostly just calls him by his actual name).
Heliodor: Sailor Outer Space Slut-Ninja.
Ida: The Sweetheart With The Orchids, Hime-sama.
Jadarite: Sharp-Dressed Ma’am, Miss Jada.
Kerberos: Interloper, Blue Steel, The Goddamn Harem Girl Batman, Eternal Sparkly Kerberos-chan (Kono, Eien no Bishounen Kerberos-chan), Blossom, Pocket-Sized Thot, The Patron Saint Of Cute Sluts, Senpai.
Kom El Shoqafa: Ser Purple Rain.
Logos: Little Miss Can’t-Be-Wrong.
Lysithea: Sailor Twilight Sparkle, My Little Lysithea, Destiny City’s Resident Cutie Mark Crusader.
Mirzam: Sailor Whatsit of Who-Cares, Sailor Hugetits of Who-Cares, Sailor Breasts Boobily, The One In The Boobs.
Morpheus: Sailor Poutyface.
Pax: Abbey Roadkill.
Pendour: The Transcendent Mermaid Knight of Chill Vibes.
Polyhymnia: Feisty Redhead.
Remarque: Prince Discount David Bowie, Prince “You Forgot To Dry-Clean Jareth,” Sailor British Romantics Twink.
Sappho: The Eleventh Muse (because, you see, Plato hailed the original Sappho as “the Tenth Muse,” and Blair isn’t that Sappho, but she is A Sappho, and listen, it makes sense in Reiki’s gay little head, okay, leave him alone).
Valjean: Blondie, several variations on “the off-putting, ill-tempered, tragically attractive blond in the very tiny shorts.”
And a running tally of Mauvians he’s nicknamed because it might as well happen:
Soyala: (Miss) Neko-hime, Soya-hime.
Tama no Hoshi: Neko-sama, Tama-sensei.
“That night, I slept over at his house, holding him, showing him that it didn’t matter to me. I wanted him to know that even if there was no cure, there was hope. The kind of hope that is powerful, because it comes from such need. That was the night he told me loved me. That he was in love with me.
“But hearing him say it made me feel like he was saying it only because he was afraid. Afraid he’d never get anything better.… And I was angry with him. Furious that I had spent so much energy falling out of love with him, only to have him fall in love with me after he became diagnosed with a fatal disease. Part of me felt deep compassion. And another part felt like, You ******** Burroughs, Dry.
“My love, we have found each other thirsty and we have drunk up all the water and the blood, we found each other hungry and we bit each other as fire bites, leaving wounds in us.” —Pablo Neruda, “Absence.”
updated: June 20th, 2023.
🌈🌈🌈🌈🦄: the most favorite and beloved people, would die for you. 🌈🌈🌈🌈⚫️: “Besties. If you call me at four AM and give me the names of everyone who’s gotten in your way this week, I’ll wake up just to tell you all the ways you’re better than they are.” 🌈🌈🌈⚫️⚫️: “Good friends. Will gladly come over with comfort food, movies, and a soft dog when you’re sad.” 🌈🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️: “Why don’t we hang out more often? It’s fun when we do.” 🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️: most people who meet him will get either this or the single onion. ⚫️: “Oh, that’s nice. Or I’m sorry that happened. Unsure of/uninterested in you.” 🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️: minor annoyances, inconveniences, nuisances, etc. 🧅🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️: “I haven’t forgotten that time you had a bad opinion about something I like.” 🧅🧅🧅⚫️⚫️: “Well, now you’re really starting to get on my nerves.” 🧅🧅🧅🧅⚫️: “Reading you to filth might not be worth it, but if I get a chance, I’m going to enjoy it anyway.” 🧅🧅🧅🧅☠️: LOATHE ENTIRELY.
CIVILIANS
Haruhi Tatsuhana (🌈🌈🌈🌈🦄): “If I call you my heart, you’re going to call me a nerd.… It’s also not entirely true, because you’re more like the better impulses that I don’t always listen to even though I know I should, but my issues with impulse control don’t mean that I don’t love you.”
Levi Burningham (🌈🌈🌈🌈🦄): “I’m losing count of how many people have heard me describe you as ‘a beautiful boy who’s way too good for me,’ but like……the fact that I started having Feelings about you when I was still with Greg probably only confirms that, y’know, you are way too good for me, right? So, anyway…… [muffled ‘This Love (Will Be Your Downfall)’ by Ellie Goulding playing in the distance]”
Aimee Lacroix (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “I know we weren’t super-close in school or anything, but I did always think you were fierce, and……I don’t know. I’ve been in my feelings about how many people from our graduating class have just up and gone missing? So, whenever I show up to look for my Yuki’s birthday present at your shop, please know that I’m going to attempt to reconnect with you. I don’t care how awkward it could be; it’s important to me to know that you’re doing okay.”
Alex Masters (🌈🌈🌈⚫️⚫️): “I miss you. I’m sorry that I didn’t do more to help you, and that realistically, there wasn’t a lot that I could’ve done, especially not since……I didn’t really get to opt out of being involved in my family trying to fall apart over alcohol all over again. Wherever you are, and whatever happened to you, I hope you found peace.”
Asher Voldaren (🌈🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️): “I hope everything works out for them with their aunt? Who got back in contact? …Please, don’t let this turn into yet another situation where a friend disappears and I never hear from them again. Please.”
Ayame Tatsuhana (🌈🌈🌈🌈🦄): “You, cousin, are the only nineteen-year-old who is allowed to speak to me and allowed to be nineteen instead of ‘basically twelve.’ Teenagers are why I can’t have nice things—except for you.”
Jaime Alexander (🌈🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Kinda more work-friends than anyone I’ve met not-at-Scandals? But you couldn’t ask for a sweeter work-friend, you really couldn’t.”
Julian Zhivago (🌈🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️): (placeheld)
Leandro Esparza (🌈🌈🌈⚫️⚫️): “Look, I know he can be A Bit Much, but as someone else who is also A Bit Much, I honestly appreciate that about him. Give him a chance and he’ll grow on you. He’s a really sweet guy.”
Livie Lune (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Lovely girl. Knowledgeable, helpful, cute as a very fabulous, sparkly button.”
Luka Johanson (⚫️): “Losing you broke Alex, and I know that it’s not your fault? It’s not like anybody ever wants to mysteriously disappear in Destiny City. But emotions aren’t rational, and on some level, I do hold it against you that you disappeared when Alex needed you.”
Michelle Alexander (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Jaime’s big sister! Absolutely gorgeous in the face department. I’d love to paint her sometime; she has an amazing canvas to work with.”
Toráin Rafferteigh (🌈🌈🌈🌈⚫️): “……Is it weird if I want to sing the ‘FUN Song’? Because in addition to being adorable and a high-key catch, you do make me want to sing the ‘FUN Song.’ 🎶 F is for ‘friends who do stuff together.’ U is for ‘you and me.’ N is for ‘no surviiiiiiiivors…’ 🎶”
“When will I stop belonging to this hungry thing inside me? What no one ever talks about is how dangerous hope can be. Call it forgiveness with teeth.” —Clementine von Radics, “The Summer Everything Grew Wild and the Rain Came Down Like Punishment”
DARK MIRROR
Eternal Sailor Acubens (🌈🌈🌈⚫️⚫️): “Onee-san! …Please tell me if my looking up to you ever gets awkward or anything, because I really don’t want to make you feel bad? I just……know that I know nothing about being a senshi or being with the Dark Mirror Court, and since you’re both powerful and elegant, I’m trying to learn from your example.”
Sailor Bélénos (🌈🌈🌈⚫️⚫️): “Girl, you and I both need to work on our magic. Do you like projects? We should make a project out of it. Also, have you ever played a Final Fantasy game? Because I don’t know if this is still, like, a Thing in the newer ones? But my QPP says that in the older ones, there’s a potion, or a spell, or something called a Phoenix Down, and you mostly use it to revive your teammate characters when they die? But then there are some enemies, and even big bad bosses, who die when you use the Phoenix Down on them. So, like…maybe we need to get creative about finding ways to weaponize healing magic, so you don’t end up fighting a youma with your shoes or something.”
Eternal Sailor Chione (🌈🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️): “I haven’t actually met you yet? But you’re Levi’s sister and Onee-san’s amazing wife, so you must be wonderful.”
Eternal Sailor Elsa (🌈🌈🌈🌈🦄): “……please don’t be upset about this big number I have in the works for Pride Season. I’ve been working on it since before I knew you were a senshi or that your senshi name is Elsa. But it’s a Frozen mega-mix with ‘Let It Go’—part of it Idina’s version from the movie, part of it from the musical, and part of it from the Japanese dub—‘Monster’ from the stage show, ‘Show Yourself,’ and four onstage costume changes because a b***h has to show up every other drag queen who’s performed a ******** Elsa number. Yeah, so, anyway…… [muffled ‘Cowboys and Angels’ by George Michael playing in the distance]”
Super Sailor Logos (🧅🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Okay, honey, let me break this down for you: you need to please take several seats and stop acting like, one, you’re the smartest b***h in the room—I don’t know, maybe you are, but you’re not the only b***h in the room and if you can’t work together with people, that’s a problem—and two, someone is an idiot because they disagree with you or came to different conclusions than you did. Also, being a super senshi doesn’t make you inherently better than me or anybody else. Excuuuuuuse me, princess, for not having an age-appropriate magical girl awakening.”
Sailor Morpheus (🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Well, I guess somebody had to be the bitchy cousin. At least you’re not really too intense about it.”
Sailor Quetzalcoatl (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “*stage whispers* Why is everybody so okay with the fact that we have child-soldiers running around. Literally how are we any better than the Negaverse if we’re stealing literal children out of their ******** math exams and making them fight in a magical girl gang war.”
Sailor Rana (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): [placeheld]
Prince Remarque (⚫️): [placeheld]
Sailor Sappho (🌈🌈🌈⚫️⚫️): “Miss Thing, I cannot judge your dubious romantic choices lately; I know all too well how badly cute people can ******** up the brain cells. But I do think that you need to talk to both your girlfriend and Miss Angelica of Spruce, and apologize to them—especially Angelica—and let both of them be in their feelings about that talk, whatever those feelings are. It’s going to be difficult, and it’s going to suck, but I know you can do it. heart”
Eternal Sailor Tantalus (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Haven’t met you yet either, but you being The Eleventh Muse’s big brother makes me predisposed to think well of you.”
Sailor Volterra (🌈🌈🌈🌈🦄): “I’m sorry that your fuku makes you feel dysphoric. So, let’s go work on finding you ways to train up and get stronger, so you can get a new one quickly. heart”
“This entire court is one of my families now, this is not up for debate. Yes, even you, Poutyface.…… Fine, I guess Logos can come, too. It’s not like we can really rely on the other team of Chaos rats to look out for us.”
“There’s an art / to everything. Even / turning away. How eventually even hunger / can become a space / to live in.” —Carl Phillips, “Civilization.”
WHITE MOON
Amsvartnir of Cosmos (🌈🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️): “I still don’t understand what I did to make you decide that I am any kind of aspirational, inspirational, or otherwise positive figure in your life, but the fact that you have so few other queer friends and a sad backstory has endeared you to me indefinitely, I guess, so……ugh, what’s your drink order? I’ll go get us coffee, power up in an alley for secret identity reasons, and be right back.”
prev: 🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️—“Why in God’s name have I apparently acquired a Cosmos Knight who has imprinted on me like a lost, gay duckling. What is this, what’s going on, someone help me, I need an adultier adult.”
prev: 🧅🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️—“Ugh. Tiresome. You might as well be twelve. Don’t talk to me until you can drink legally.”
Sailor Angelica (🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Gurl. I’m trying my damn best to be kind to you, because I know that Sappho hurt you, even though she didn’t mean to, and I think your hurt is valid—but you need better ******** coping mechanisms than attacking people you DON’T KNOW just because we wear Dark Mirror fukus!”
Sailor Anser (🧅🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️): “In the words of decorated contemporary philosopher, Taylor Swift: you need to CALM. DOWN. Also, go back to middle school, where you belong.”
Sailor Daedalus (): [placeheld]
Sailor Dagon (): [placeheld]
Sailor Daphne (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “I was going to say something mean about you, honestly, but……I get that being in a new place, and not having anything you know even exist anymore, is. probably really stressful for you. Just please don’t kick me again?”
Eternal Sailor Encke (🌈🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Very sorry for imposing on you and making you worry about someone you’d just met. Somewhat sorry for crying on you. Not even remotely sorry for hitting on you and being a thirsty b***h in your general direction; I will absolutely do it again, if given an opportunity.”
Erytheia of Cosmos (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Don’t admittedly know much about him? But Cosmos Knights seem to have a good track record for being decent sorts and this one seems fine.”
Sailor Fang (🌈🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Cautiously optimistic about the chance to be friends with you? Also, seriously, if you like boys at all, let me introduce you to some. Because I know a LOT of boys who really want a werewolf boyfriend, and I think plenty of them would find a chrysocyon boyfriend equally appealing.”
Princess Ida (🌈🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Hime-sama!! Gay gasp, that was AMAZING!! Ugh, she’s everything a magical girl princess is supposed to be and I am LIVING for it, yes, hi, thank you!!”
prev: “Seems nice. She didn’t just immediately hate me for being Chaos and was willing to hear me out about the dead spot that Fang and I found. Willing to let me help with whatever’s going on with the weird dead spots in town. Cautiously optimistic about her?”
Eternal Sailor Kerberos (🌈🌈🌈🌈⚫️): “What’s up, slut. I brought boba today. It’s cool to think of you as my senpai as long as I don’t ruin everything by saying it out loud, right? Okay, cool, because I’m gonna do it.”
(ERROR: RATING NOT FOUND): “It’s not like I look up to you or anything, Blossom!!! ……Well, it’s not like I like you or anything!!! …………Well, it’s not like I look at you, even knowing that you used to be Negaverse, and think ‘Wow, this is everything a magical girl is supposed to be’ or anything!!! ………………Well, it’s not like I wanna kiss you or anything! Because I want to kiss Elsa. HA. Found one that isn’t a lie. ……………………Also, if you insist on continuing to CARE at me, then I’m going to do it back to you, and you can ******** deal with it because you are NOT allowed to be the only person in this relationship who shows active concern for the other one.”
Kom El Shoqafa of Saturn (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “The debt’s been paid, but please steer clear of Arsenolite. You seem like a decent guy, and he’s a ******** a*****e.”
prev: “You saved my life from Centi-Tina, and someday, I’m going to do the same for you. A Lannister always pays her debts.”
Kurma (🧅🧅🧅🧅⚫️): “Ugh, get <********>, Knock-Off Ian Malcolm.”
Læraðr of Neptune (🧅🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️): “”
Mont Saint-Michel of Saturn (🧅🧅🧅🧅☠️): “When you inevitably get yourself killed for thinking you’re better than Faustite and getting put in your place, the only tragedy will be that Fang has to suffer because you’re a self-righteous ******** idiot.”
Super Sailor Lysithea (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “She seems sweet, very friendly and considerate, and anybody trying to help Monoceros get out of the Negaverse is immediately in my good books.”
Pendour of Neptune (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “She seems like a lovely person and I really hope she can be saved from the rift that took her. Also, that she can regrow her cucumbers, after the dead spots showing up all over town get figured out and fixed.”
Sailor Polyhymnia (🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “In retrospect, I acknowledge that you had a point or several about needing to secure the scene before getting that guy out of Valjean’s attack radius, but the petty b***h in me is still mad that you treated me like some idiot child for caring about getting said man to a hospital.”
Sailor Roka ():
Sailor Terebellum (): [placeheld]
“I am fragile and unholy. Open. Ravage. Eat.” —Tanaka Mhisi, in Literary Sexts, vol. 2.
NEGAVERSE
Corrupt Eternal Albite (🧅🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️): “‘No’ means <******** NO’ regardless of how sexy you are, Hot Lips. You seem generally decent for the most part, but I cannot stress enough that ‘No’ does NOT mean ‘Yes’ and ‘Get lost’ DOES *NOT* mean ‘Take me, I’m yours.’”
Corrupt Sailor Alkmene (🧅🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Eugh.”
Captain Arsenolite (🧅🧅🧅🧅⚫️): “God, has anybody told you lately that you’re the WORST?? Because if not, then please, allow me to do the honors.……… That said, I’m glad you didn’t die in crystalspace against the gargoyle things. Seeing you there was something familiar in the midst of all that, and frankly, I do wish that you sucked less. Toráin deserves better from you.…… Dāku Kingudamu no baka.”
Captain Briartite (): [placeheld]
General Faustite (ERROR: RATING NOT FOUND): “You come on like Joffrey Baratheon, progressively reveal yourself to be more like Sandor Clegane, and seem like you mean to steal The Rogue Prince’s title of ‘The Wonder And The Terror of His Age.’ Also, did you take it personally that I interpreted your behavior as you not liking me or what? I have no idea where we stand or what the ******** is going on with us. All I know is that at least it isn’t boring, and I’d rather deal with you than with ******** Mirrorspace. Unlike Mirrorspace, you have the benefit of being real.”
prev: “Ugh, it speaks so terribly of me that I’d still probably let you hit it, even though your personality is s**t and you seem to openly hate me. But, like the song says: 🎶 If there’s a prize for rotten judgment, I guess I’ve already won that… 🎶”
prev: “I’m sorry. Whatever vengeance you want, it’s fine. I deserve it. Just……please don’t edge me about it. Make it quick.”
prev: “Okay, you’ve made your point already: you don’t like me. Wow, you’re so ******** special. If you don’t want to collect penance, then just leave me the ******** alone and I’ll do the same to you. Take care of yourself.”
prev: “Why did we not just listen to Miss Jada. She had the hands-down best idea about how the ******** to handle whatever this garbage is between us.”
Corrupt Sailor Fafnir (🧅🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Don’t trust you as far as I can throw you, Fire and Blue’d.”
Corrupt Sailor Heliodor (⚫️): “Consider me deeply uncertain of how I feel in your general direction”
prev: 🧅🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️—“Love your slutty outer space ninja outfit, hate your personality. Smarmy b***h.”
Captain Jadarite (🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Uh huh. Yeah. Sure, Miss Sharp-Dressed Ma’am. I’ve met tons of girls like you before, sweetheart. Come on like you really want to be friends, while actually, you’re hoarding intel and getting ready to use it against me and everyone else. It was tedious, tired ******** bullshit back in high school, and it’s tired, tedious ******** bullshit now. Still, you have good taste in TV and were about the only person on your team who actually listened when Faustite said not to torture me, so I guess you’re not all bad.”
Corrupt Sailor Lilith (⚫️): “Dunno what to make of that one, yet.”
Corrupt Sailor Mirzam (🧅🧅🧅🧅⚫️): “Taking advantage of other queer people to feed the Negaverse, like: A. you don’t know better, and B. we don’t have it hard enough? Ugh. Jesus. Gross.”
Corrupt Sailor Mizuki (): [placeheld]
Corrupt Eternal Monoceros (🌈🌈🌈🌈⚫️): “Now that we’ve been acquainted in both forms of ourselves, I really think we should talk about how I don’t think it was okay that you were forcibly corrupted, and I don’t see how it could possibly have been a quote-unquote ‘necessary evil’ for whoever did it to force that on you. As much as I like you, I’d rather miss out on you and your friendship than only have met you because someone else in your life tried to erase everything that you are for their own benefit.”
Corrupt Sailor Pax (⚫️): “Terse, but you seemed uncomfortable in general. No idea what sort of read I get on you yet, so I have no real quarrel with you yet, either. Please choose better friends.”
Corrupt Sailor Valjean (🧅🧅⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Y’know, I have to give you some credit, because it DO take NERVE to be so completely up yourself that you only deign to show a girl something resembling <******** manners AFTER he walks through the Dark Mirror and gets shiny magical femboy powers. Also, it’s rude of you to be so attractive despite having what seems like a garbage personality. I cordially invite you to stop that. It is FURTHER rude of you to make me feel terrible for you by acting like your forced corruption doesn’t matter. You’re just shockingly rude all around, really.”
“my hungry is different than their hungry / I envy their discipline but not enough to do anything about it.” —Kaveh Akbar, “Unburnable the Cold is Flooding Our Lives”
VELENCIANS
Lysvi (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “They seem so nice! Really refreshing to deal with someone who’s actually open to working with other people, especially after someone from my own alleged team had such a tantrum over me looking for allies besides the two of us.”
Vaylin (🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️): “Fought alongside me, Fang, Quetzalcoatl, and Kerberos when Ida went Princess. Seems like a good egg.”
“This poverty was not just hunger in the stomach. It was hunger as attitude to life. Hunger for sentences and gestures, for speaking. Hunger for laughter. Hunger for noise that life makes.” —Herta Müller, “Hunger and Silk”
MAUVIANS
Hoshi-no-Tama (🌈🌈🌈⚫️⚫️): “Your habit of picking on Faustite unnecessarily is kind of irritating, but overall, you’re really a sweet, intelligent, delightful little guy. His team is lucky to have you and I’m lucky to have had you helping me.”
prev: 🌈⚫️⚫️⚫️⚫️—“Because you are a cat who was inexplicably kind to me instead of hating me on-sight, I am inclined toward liking you at least somewhat, but I do not want ******** help from anyone affiliated with General Phoenix Force.”
Soyala (🌈🌈🌈🌈🦄): “I’ve only had Soya in my life for a few hours, and if anything ever happened to her, I would go on a ridiculous JRPG quest to find God and punch Them square in the face.”
“I thought so many things & never said a single one aloud. I choked on such longing I couldn’t spit out. Yes, desire is so different when God bore you hungry. I could have devoured anything and still have been starving.” —Yves Olade, “Belovéd.”
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2022 11:27 am
NON-COUNTING CIVILIAN RPs
greg is honestly the worst (solo feat. NPC Greg): ……what it says on the tin, tbh. Reiki’s ex is honestly the worst.
caffeinated academia (Asher & Reiki): hot, brewed beverages and feelings about their respective romantic contretemps. (1,432 words.)
murder’s (sadly) not an option (Haruhi & Reiki): cousins actually behaving like cousins rather than girlfriends. Also, Haruhi wants to kill Reiki’s ex and Cersei Rokugin would like all of the skritches and love, please. (1,971 words.)
greg is honestly the worst, pt. ii (solo feat. NPCs Armand/Brandy, Jude/Sybil, & Greg): in which Reiki debates some things about his (lack of) self-care with one of his drag sisters and one of his drag moms. Also, his ex continues to be the wooooorst.
go back to party city! (Reiki & Monoceros-Toráin): Toráin had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day and takes it out on some trash cans. Reiki mistakes the noise for something that could be a queer-bashing and stomps in to interrupt. Somehow, this leads to chicken fingers. (3,735 words.)
protest song (Polyhymnia, Valjean, & Reiki): Valjean intends to do his Negaverse patrols, as one does. Polyhymnia intends to stop him, as one does. And Reiki intends to stick his nose into this nonsense like he thinks his cute homemade dupe of the St. Magdalena’s uniform makes him Nancy Drew or Captain America or something. (1,137 words.)
don’t start caring about me now (Levi & Reiki): Reiki’s drag moms are making him take a night off under threat of getting his mom mom and possibly his grandmother involved in making him take actual care of himself. So, since he can’t be in the drag show tonight, he invites Levi to Piano Bar Wednesdays at Scandals. Then, Reiki’s ex shows up…… (2,172 words.)(IN PROGRESS.)
jeepers & jinkies! (Reiki & Shoqafa): Strictly speaking if one runs into a giant centipede-woman youma on a walk home from campus, it would behoove one NOT to nickname her “Centi-Tina” and sarcastically tell her that she’s perfect, she’s beautiful, she looks like a model, etc.… Whoops. (1,802 words.)
it’s the music, not the story (solo): the drag performance that ends with Reiki leaving Scandals Bar, having a meltdown in the alley, and getting it crashed in on by his awakening as DMS Murikabushi.
~: ORP participation. ^: +500 words, for solos (beyond the base 500).
“Start by pulling him out of the fire and hoping that he will forget the smell. He was supposed to be an angel but they took him from that light and turned him into something hungry, something that forgets what his hands are for when they aren’t shaking. He will lose so much, and you will watch it all happen because you had him first, and you would let the world break its own neck if it means keeping him. Start by wiping the blood off of his chin and pretending to understand.… When is a monster not a monster? Oh, when you love it.” —Caitlyn Siehl, “Start Here.”
greg is honestly the worst (reiki solo): ……what it says on the tin, tbh. Reiki’s ex is honestly the worst. caffeinated academia (asher v. & reiki): hot, brewed beverages and feelings about their respective romantic contretemps. murder’s (sadly) not an option (haruhi & reiki): cousins behaving like cousins, not girlfriends. Cersei Rokugin would like all the skritches, please. greg is honestly the worst, pt. ii (reiki solo): in which Reiki debates his (lack of) self-care with one of his drag sisters and one of his drag moms. go back to party city! (reiki & monoceros-toráin): Toráin had a bad day and beats up some trash cans. Reiki interrupts. Somehow, this leads to chicken fingers. protest song (polyhymnia, valjean, & reiki): Polyhymnia tries to interrupt Valjean’s patrol, and Reiki wants to save the guy Valjean drained. don’t start caring about me now (levi & reiki): Reiki invites Levi to Piano Bar Wednesdays at Scandals. Then, Reiki’s ex shows up…… jeepers & jinkies! (reiki & shoqafa): Reiki runs into a centipede-woman youma on his way home; Shoqafa jumps in with the save.
“SIS PUELLA MAGICA”: EARLY MAGICAL GIRL ADVENTURES
“You don’t know true freedom until you don’t want what they want you to want.… Outside the respectable domain, the vantage of an unjust world is always clearest.” —CA Conrad, “Going From Zero to Sexy On High-Caloric Queer Overdrive.”
Posted: Tue May 03, 2022 5:49 am
THE LEGENDARY HOUSE OF DISOBEDIENCE-AND-POPPINS:
Miss Sybil Disobedience (Jude Baldwin): DMAB genderfluid, Black; she/her in drag, he/she/they out.
Miss Cherry Martini Poppins (Yelisey Melorevitch Lebedev; “Lesya” or “Seya” if you’re nasty): Cis man, white [Russian]; she/her in drag, he/him out. Says you can use the classic Russian diminutive if you’re nasty, but that is exclusively a Janet Jackson reference and should not be taken as an actual offer. Unless you’re his husband (Theo Stone), who DOES have “Lesya”/“Seya” privileges, he prefers to go by “Eli,” though members of his Haus can and do call him “Cherry” regardless of whether or not he’s in drag at any particular moment.
Yukiharu Tsukiyama (Yuki, Yuki Disobedience): Reiki’s queerplatonic partner, no romo soulmate, emotional rock, and most frequent emergency contact. Video game journalist, but if he’s honest, he makes more money off his blog, his youtube channel, and his Patreon. Doesn’t really sew, or dance, or perform, or do any of the things typically associated with the work of drag and burlesque artistry, but he’s been functionally adopted into the house by virtue of being around for Reiki’s sake and helping out because it felt rude to take up space and not help Brenda fix her wig, or help Maddie safety pin a dress back together, or whatever.
Brandy Sazerac (Armand Delacroix): Cis man, Black; she/her in drag, any pronouns out. Reiki’s partner for performing Cardi B. and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP,” with Brandy doing Cardi B.’s part and Reiki doing Megan’s. The only way Brandy would agree to this number was if Reiki would agree to make it super gay, with them flirting at each other through the whole song until finally making out during as it fades out.
Brenda Snap! (Alexandre Levesque): Cis man, white (Quebeçois French), she/her in drag, he/they out.
Charlotte CorDAAAYUM! (Sébastien Lefebvre): Cis man, white (French, born in Marseilles and everything), she/her in drag, he/him out.
Dorian Gay (Elijah Suzuki): Trans man, biracial (Japanese-American and Eastern European Jewish), variable pronouns in drag, he/him out. Dorian’s pronouns in drag vary because he utterly rejects your king/queen binary. That might work for some of his fellow artists and he respects that, but it doesn’t work for him.
If you buy Noxeema Jackson’s theory (from To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar) that “When a gay man has too much fashion sense for one gender, he is a drag queen,” then Dorian needs something more than that, because he has far too much fashion sense for even two genders. Some shows will have him in queen drag, other shows will have him in king drag, still more shows will have him doing some kind of gender-transcendent burlesque where you don’t know what sort of gender it’s meant to invoke but you’re pretty sure that liking it makes you gay, and yet more other shows will have him in full-on monster drag where gender doesn’t matter nearly as much as the shock, drama, and even beauty you can find in the grotesque.
Basically, he’s the snarky, fashionable, boundary-shattering, goth trash gay trans man drag artist nightmare whom your mother warned you about.
Jacqueline Hyde (Jackie Wright): Trans woman, Black, she/her both in and out of drag.
Justine Kase Disobedience (Justin Kandor): Cis man, white, she/her in drag, he/him out. Some people? Adopt their garbage ex’s new boyfriend? As drag daughters? To cope? ……Anyway, it was for the best because, through said adoption, Reiki and Justin have learned that Greg was two-timing them both. Justine’s planning to do a Carrie Underwood number as her proper introduction to the stage at Scandals, very much inspired by this (featuring “Before He Cheats,” “Cowboy Casanova,” and “Two Black Cadillacs”).
Maddie Lynn Hatter (Hoang [黃] Văn Linh): Cis man, Vietnamese, she/her in drag, he/they out.
Mint Julieep (Kimiko Bell): Trans woman, biracial [Black and Japanese-American], she/her both in and out of drag. Just call her “Julie.”
Pinot Keyhole (Aiden Kavanagh): DMAB genderfluid, white (predominantly Irish), any pronouns as long as they’re said in good faith, but prefers she/her in drag.
Tequila Sunrise Mockingbird (Javier “Javi” Todoroki): DMAB genderfluid, mixed ethnicity Latinx (Black/mestiza Mexican mother and Japanese/mixed Afrolatino Puerto Rican father), he/they out of drag, she/they in drag.
Royal Velour (Tiffany “Tiff” Laurent): DFAB genderfluid, Black, he/him in drag, she/he/they out. Sometimes says that her life has been a living Hell ever since season nine of Rupaul’s Drag Race introduced the world to Brooklyn’s arthouse queen, Sasha Velour, and Tiff is only half-joking. Hard enough being a drag king when so much of the world is only interested in the queens—and at that, only interested if they make it onto one specific television franchise, or maybe the semi-related show, The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula—but despite having performed as Royal Velour since 2014 and never having performed anywhere in New York, she’s had to deal with people coming to Scandals and asking if she’s somehow related to Sasha Velour. Because, y’know, velour is a completely esoteric word that nobody else would ever think to use in a drag name ever.
To wit, languages you will hear getting mish-moshed together if you deal with the Haus of Disobedience-and-Poppins for any extended period of time: English, Spanish (specifically Mexican/Chicanx Spanish and Puerto Rican Spanish), Japanese, Louisiana Creole French, Quebeçois French, French French, Hebrew, Yiddish, Russian, and Vietnamese. Have fun following the conversation when they really get going with each other.
“Hasn’t anybody ever wanted to devour you?” —Jaxx, Under The Greenlight.
“At seventeen, I started to starve myself I thought that love was a kind of emptiness And at least I understood then, the hunger I felt And I didn't have to call it loneliness We all have a hunger.” —Florence & The Machine, “Hunger.”
