Yourlocal-luckycat - Your Local Luckycat

Me when my sister tries to eat my fries

All those years of fights... All the spilled blood (or dust)... just because dream ate some fries?? HECK YEAH!!!! THAT'S THE HEADCANONS WE LOVE!! The fact that if Dream didn't forget about what they did and apologized none of those worlds would've suffered is hilarious

Instead of the apple incident Dream and Nm have been fighting over the fact that Dream ate his last batch of fries and never admitted to it. After hundreds of years later he’ll admit it, maybe.

Dream pleads and yells away, ducking under a flying knife. Killer shrugs to Nightmare from across the field, where Swap distracts him.

"Why, brother, must we fight like this? Years, perhaps decades even, of time wasted when we could be together!"

All the same spiel. Nightmare tires of it.

Dream dashes about the debris-littered battleground in his ridiculous yellow attire, ribbons fluttering behind him. All this while his legs, clad in those tight black spandex, send him scrambling for cover from a hail of bone shards from Dust. Alas, none of the attacks rip his leggings and show the sweating body underneath.

Nightmare watches him without change in his expression. His eye is slitted with a keen focus. Unlike his usual character, he does not monologue to Dream about the hopelessness of his toil. This causes the guardian to wear himself out faster than usual.

Nightmare tastes Dream's growing anxiety on his tongue, and it is delicious when it spikes with pain as his brother lands onto his side. Crashing down, like a shooting star. And just like that, the fight is over-his underlings know better than to get between the two, now. Nightmare needs to investigate that sad noise that Dream made.

A pointy-toed, black, heeled boot pushes Dream off his injured side with a grunt. Dream swats his ankle with a yellow glove-and when Nightmare tries to stomp it, he gets flipped off. Rude. Frankly, Nightmare's a bit insulted that Dream let him get this close. He didn't even at least try to roll away and off the cliff he's on.

So close, Nightmare eyes the steep drop, and yet…

"The answer to our feud may be revealed to you in decades more, Dream."

Dream is breathing harshly, every pant emphasizing the rise and fall of his rib cage. It is just like his modest brother to cover his throat, to defend it from attack. From whom, Nightmare wonders. He finds the black agreeable on Dream's creamy-white neck, where his scarf falls away and pools into sunshine under Dream's sweating head and his open, hot mouth.

Gravel crunches underfoot.

The wide, dizzying rays of hope that irritate his very existence flinch away from his looming shadow as he steps closer. Dream, on the other hand, continues to lay still on the ground. He's splayed like a pinned butterfly. Nightmare thinks that it matches the way he flits about. It matches his stupid ribbons, trailing around like a kite, calling out to Nightmare in a simpering voice-"Look, I'm here! Follow me, follow me, I'm here! Catch me!"

"Can't you just tell me already?" His brother whines. That pouty, high-pitched voice is the same he used to wheedle the baker's daughter into giving Nightmare an added pastry-not that she knew it was for him, of course.

He wants to pull on those ribbons, watch his brother's head tilt back and his spine bend under him. To see his rib cage shivering with the same exertion he sees in Dream now. Would he whine then? Would he use that same, pouty, high-pitched voice?

"If you cannot remember now, then maybe another century should pass," Nightmare sneers. "and you may remember then."

With the same longing that Dream is horrible at hiding from him. That Nightmare fails to hide, as well. Dream's single plea does not make him weak.

"Please." and Nightmare does not swallow. He does not feel the word lance through him, scalding, like a brand. It does not scorch him from inside out, rake him new and raw, and does not make him leave him wanting for anything.

Dream stares at him anyway, he always did, and those burning stars that nestled bright in his skull burn through him. How can he plea so openly while maintaining that intense eye contact? Nightmare fights to keep his scowl.

How used to coaxing, his brother. "Just tell me." His voice is softer now, gentler, so much different from the simple boys they once were. He has a pleasing tenor to it, and it reaches a new high when he screams.

How used to rejection, is Nightmare. "You should know, already."

Nightmare knows he's being stubborn. Between the two, he had always thought Dream had the more stubborn streak-but…

But he doesn't want to answer. It's embarrassing now, humiliating at the very least. After all of this strife, the answer had always just been…

His mouth still feels so dry when he remembers. He wants, hungers so badly.

"Nightmare…"

A hand slides, slowly, hesitantly, along his thigh where he kneels beside Dream. The glove trembles. It hurts-their auras reject each other so badly, but the pain conflates with the same breathtaking emotion he feels when he sees Dream. He tries to shift away, but the fingers wrap around his pant leg and tighten.

"I do, know."

And his blackened, twisted soul, it freezes. Nightmare can feel the way Dream quails, that he becomes fearful of Nightmare's reaction, and then pushes on anyway.

In an exhale, his words are tight. His face has warmed, and he tries to lean away, but Dream draws closer-despite the wince it draws from him. Quiet, vulnerable, Nightmare has not been such since one tall tree and two smiles. He forces the steel into his voice, but it melts in the face of Dream, and drips down hot on his back.

"You do?"

Dream's exhales are shuddering, and his face is golden even in Nightmare's casted shadow. He glows as he nods, those bright eyes never leaving his own. If only to guiltily flit down at his mouth.

The next words are a slight husk. "And what, pray tell, do you know?"

His brother's pale throat is hidden by black spandex, and Nightmare wishes to tear it away.

"You…"

And Dream, that coward, fails to voice the rest. He belated registers that he leaned in at Dream's voice. His arm and leg cage the other man in, a wide, clawed hand digging into the rubble. Trapping him in.

The flick of yellow is Dream's tongue. He remembers it well. It reminds him of something stolen away in the gentle night, tucked between teeth and secreted down. He wants it badly, again. Nightmare does not swallow. He pretends to ignore the flare of want that scorches them both, again, staring at one another on this broken platform while the world shrinks away to muffled violence and laughter.

And suddenly, Nightmare's long, long patience is worn thin. He tires of their dance, of the teasing, of the edge between a cliff and a heavy, panting body. He is greedy, he is selfish, and he takes what he wants now. No more waiting. He is tired of waiting, and of little yellow tongues and of fluttering ribbons and blinding stars.

Nightmare does not need to wait in the dark any longer. He catches falling stars, and he makes his wishes come true.

"You stole from me, brother."

Dream blinks wide. Innocent, naïve fool. Ridiculous how endearing he makes it look. Cheater.

He stutters a bit. "A-Ah, wait, stole your...?"

Nightmare leans close, their faces close enough to brush if Dream jolted. He can sense the latter considering it, flustered as he is.

"My fries."

His voice is dark, and the deep richness of it rolls through Dream before his brother can register the words. He senses the pleased blur of his eyes, and a vengeful spite rises in him again. Dream, ever reactive to his tumultuous moods, stops and thinks. Nightmare watches Dream turn the memory of his words over and over in his head, and the ensuing grief and disappointment makes every injury worth it.

"… your FRIES?" Dream shrieks.

K??

KSKSJSLSKSKLASIIS OKAY GENOS-

I’D NEVER SAY NO TO U 🤚

Tagging: @kingkyoujurou @presidentmonica @laudthingcat @kampfkuchen85 @cherrykamado @bxbycake @happygoluckyalexis @tonaken + anyone who wants to <3

Every time you reblog Sleepy Mars, a transphobe chokes and dies

Ok so here's the fairy tale meta thing based off a lie that I was talking about.

In Dead Apple, there's a flashback scene at Bar Lupin where Dazai explains the concept of apple suicide to Oda, while a track called "Dear Prince" plays in the background. There's a brief mix-up where Oda confuses the story of Snow White for Cinderella - but when I first came up with this, I misremembered what he said (I mixed up... his mix-up...) and thought the line was about Sleeping Beauty.

And I'm so unreasonably annoyed by this because that would've made so much more contextual sense. Why? Because they both involve an awakening. Moreover, there's a few interesting details in the environment of the older tales (I will not be using the Disney versions as the Dead Apple motifs actually connect better with the originals and also because I have never actually seen them... embarrassingly enough) that translate quite nicely to aspects of Dazai's life and bonds.

Specifically, there are some loose parallels to be found with Odasaku and the story of Sleeping Beauty, and Chuuya and the story of Snow White. (Note that this is not intended to be shipping fuel or anything; interpret it however you like, I'm just drawing connections.)

And yeah, I know this is an entire half-baked meta formed around a line that doesn't even exist but please just give it a chance or at least humour me please please please please please

Alright let's get the Cinderella thing out of the way first since I want to at least address it.

Cinderella has its origins in the old Greek story of Rhodopis, which sets up the main aspects of the story we know now: a servant girl from a poor background ascends to royalty through marrying a prince, who searches for her after finding her missing shoe. This doesn't really bear any resemblance to the rest of the movie or any other ongoing themes... unless you want to suggest that maybe Dazai's jumping from one side to the other was something akin to a "shoe-test"; that he was looking for a perfect fit. I think that's quite a stretch though and it's likely this really was just a throwaway line meant to show us Oda's occasional uh... airheadedness. If anyone has any further thoughts on this, I'd love to hear them.

It's a shame, really, because the slip up could've been given more significance and also because as an analyst of sorts it is my sworn duty to pull meaning out of absolutely nothing so I guess I took another step further here and made up my own line to analyze in stupidly excessive detail.

The entire point of this was meant to show how both the stories of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White have a theme of awakening, and so do Dazai's bonds with both Odasaku and Chuuya - they both have a function of "waking him up" in a sense. However, the means of doing so manifest very differently.

So, let's talk about Sleeping Beauty.

Sleeping Beauty has its origins in an old Italian story called Sun, Moon and Talia, which has many of the elements we know today but was uh. A lot darker. And way more non-consensual. The version the more modern story takes its roots from is Perrault's version. Here are the important bits to this analysis: the princess pricks her finger on a spindle out of curiosity, the good fairy puts everyone in the castle to sleep along with her for 100 years so that she will not be alone when she wakes, the prince does not wake her with a kiss but instead she wakes just by his presence and they sit and talk for a long, long time.

So, on to my delusional parallels. Part one: the princess pricks her finger out of curiosity. See, for Dead Apple, we have to rethink this a bit because Dazai brings up the concept of apple suicide, not murder. Of course, this is a parallel to himself and his disregard for his own life, so here we can take it that he did not "prick his finger" out of mere curiosity, but also, likely out of a desire to "sleep".

It's hard for me not to draw a connection between the curiosity aspect of the finger prick and Dazai's curiosity to join the mafia, especially with the next part - where everyone falls asleep as well for the time the princess is asleep. Essentially, no one will age or die. For as long as the princess remains unconscious, the world will not change. And if the princess perhaps, wanted this, then we can infer what is likely a fear of being left. Maybe even a fear of living. Dazai joined the mafia because he was curious if it would have what he sought. Instead, he spent his days trapped in an "oxidizing dream" as he detached further and further both from his humanity and from others. The mafia is already a place where people don't talk to each other openly and we know Dazai was even more unknowable than that - if he doesn't care about himself or others, the dream goes on. He stays asleep, and if he doesn't care, then he doesn't lose anyone - no one truly "dies".

As for the last part, there isn't much to say. Dazai warms up to Odasaku because the man just talks to him. And likes talking to him. And doesn't tell him to stop when he's being really freaking weird. But notably, Odasaku doesn't do much at first to help Dazai "awaken". It's only when he's about to die in his fight against Gide that he realizes he regrets not saying something sooner. Odasaku only has one chance to wake Dazai before he dies and he does it by shattering that dream that he will find what he's looking for. Paradoxically, that hope Dazai held onto was what trapped him in that singular mindset. Oda dies shortly after and the illusion is broken. Dazai wakes up, his world kickstarts where it had previously been stagnant and Dazai greets the sun and tries to live.

See why I'm slightly annoyed this wasn't the line now?

But hey, while we're at it, let's also talk about Snow White because the Dead Apple movie was actually a lot more firm with its connections than I think people realize.

Firstly, I would love people to know that in the original Grimms' fairy tale, Snow White doesn't clean the dwarves' house but in fact burgles it, eating their food, drinking their wine and falling asleep in one of their beds after testing each one, and generally leaving the house in complete disarray. Yeah. Not related to my point at all, but this sounds an awful lot like something Dazai would do (but more out of mischief than naivete of course).

Here's the important part though: Did you know that the Queen attempted to have Snow White killed not just once, but three times? The first two times, the dwarves were the ones to save her and quite quickly - they made a deal after she broke into their house that she would fix it up for them and maintain it in exchange for her staying with them in safety. It's an agreement of sorts, but as they became fond of her, they try and save her life in earnest. The poisoned apple is actually the third attempt to kill her, where the Queen bites into the white, non-poisoned part of the apple and Snow White, thinking it safe, eats the red half and falls asleep.

Hey. Remember the colour of the pill Dazai took in Dead Apple?

Yeah, someone on that team knows the original fairy tale.

Interestingly (and this is where I got really excited), there are three different attempts to kill Snow White (or, if Dazai is to be believed, three different attempts at her own self-destruction) - and there are three different instances where Chuuya "wakes" Dazai, twice while they're partnered (when they have an "agreement", terms in a sense as partners), and once in Dead Apple.

The first is in Fifteen, the infamous scene where Dazai shoots the body and Chuuya snaps him out of it by wrenching the gun out of his hands. I'm honestly a bit too tired to go super into that scene right now but I'm doing a little bit on it later - all that needs to be acknowledged here is that Dazai was out of it and Chuuya forced him back to earth. The second occurs during the Dragon's Head Conflict when Dazai is completely insensitive to the death of a mafia executive and Chuuya decks him for it. The now-infamous line "no one would believe that" is often misinterpreted I think. Chuuya says this in response to Dazai's "I'm human, too, you know." He's not saying "you're not human", he's saying "you are human but no one would believe that with the kind of shit you're saying and doing". It's the same kind of sentiment in the first scene where Chuuya intervenes, I believe. And it is a form of waking, in that Chuuya snaps Dazai out of his more inhumane moments - he basically calls him out and forces him to reevaluate; the epitome of a rude awakening.

Now for the Dead Apple scene proper.

Firstly, let's establish something. They are no longer partners in the mafia. They are even on separate sides. The framing of this changes Chuuya's actions from working with Dazai with occasional call-outs to bring him back to earth, to saving him in what is quite literally a rescue.

In the original myth, again, there is no waking kiss. Instead, in this third time, everyone assumes Snow White is really dead, that she will not be coming back. The prince, who happens across her, insists she at least receive a proper burial. But when carrying her coffin, one of them trips and they stumble, which jostles the princess enough that the piece of apple stuck in her throat is dislodged and she coughs it up, reviving. Uh...

Yeah.

Anyways this got kind of messy at the end and idk if it even made sense this is really just unhinged rambling so...

Tldr, Odasaku and Chuuya both help "wake" Dazai even if their methods and personalities are very different, which is part of the reason why both bonds are very important. Neither are particularly gentle with him, but waking, especially if all you want to do is sleep, is not a gentle thing.

stolas practice sketches 💙

Octopus like Mare

Actually I had another poll idea so never mind THIS is the last one for the day

Sorry for the weird choices, I wanted to be a bit more creative with this one and I’m also pretty tired. Have fun! Also, reblog with the option you choice and why if you want, it’s fun to see people’s reasons and choices (and of course it gives the poll a larger sample size).