I got about 30 cents in my bank account at the moment, and bills due in a few days. I've got some voice work I've not been paid for yet, which is heccin frustrating.
If you can safely do so-- a contribution of like five bucks would help immensely. I've got graphic comm.issions open for folks lookin for aesthetics/themes for blogs. For streamers, I can make sound alerts, improvise raid songs exclusive to you, and even provide silly song covers/parodies to use in content.
I've been unable to work steadily due to health issues, but I've got skills I'm more than happy to barter in exchange for contributions!
So with the latest chapter of ddn out I've been thinking about the consequences Dark's return might have on everyone- not only Daisuke and the Niwas, but Satoshi, and Risa.
From the drips of exposition we've gotten so far about the relationship between Risa and Satoshi, they seem to be... tense. Honestly, it makes sense; emotionally they've never been the most compatible, with Satoshi's stoic pragmatism poised to be forever at odds with Risa's more impulsive, adventurous nature. They're also both, of course, deeply traumatized people unable to find conscious solace in each other, since Risa's memory of Dark and Krad is gone. I'll be honest, I've never really seen the chemistry between these two as anything even remotely romantic; they are, to me, the saddest part of the fallout of Kokuyoku's completion and sealing. Satoshi has never seemed to feel any of the attraction or connection with Risa that he felt towards Daisuke (understandably, since they are two halves of a whole in the same sense that Dark and Krad are, bound to the completion of their story for good or ill.) What he feels for Risa, by comparison, seems to be closer to pity, and compassion- a desire to protect her from as much harm as he can when she's been determined from the start to throw herself into the thick of things; to make sure that she isn’t left behind with nothing, when Dark is gone and Riku and Daisuke have found their way to happiness with each other.
I want to be clear- I do believe that Satoshi loves Risa, in his own way. But he has not learned how to love healthily or well, and their relationship carries an inherently unbalanced dynamic- because he has knowledge that she lacks, about the source of a pain she lives with but can't name, and cannot share that knowledge with her without reopening wounds he has worked for years to bandage and stitch. He loves her knowing that his presence in her life is inherently deceptive, that the peace he gives her comes at the cost of essentially carrying on the secrets and lies that hurt her in the first place. With all this in mind, it makes perfect sense that he would cave to the ingrained habits of distance, of putting his work before his personal connections- even those of his wife, and his children. (It also occurs to me that the twins' friendship with Daiya implies that they know the secret of what happened to Dark, and have presumably been told not to share that information with their mother. The layers of mess in this family are already incredible.)
But even if it's not the healthiest it could be, a status quo has been reached. Satoshi and Risa are, if not quite happy, seemingly comfortable. The open wounds left by Dark will never heal, but Satoshi has given everything he can to give Risa a life where the pain of the stitches holding everything together is jarred to life as little as possible.
And then the fire nation attacked Dark finds his way back. Through Daisuke's son. What does this mean for the amnesia that's given Risa her peace for all these years? I can imagine the weight of the brick that Satoshi is gonna shit once he realizes what has happened. Apart from the other looming issue of the other world and everything else in it that holds truly infinite wells of potential suffering for Satoshi, I can't stop thinking about how he's going to feel about Dark returning to threaten the one precious, semi-whole and mostly-pure thing he's managed to build out of the wreckage that was left when Kokuyoku was sealed. Even if Dark himself wouldn't go near Risa for exactly the same reasons- because he loves her, in his own way, much more powerfully than Satoshi ever has or will- I feel like Satoshi's antagonism towards him is gonna reach new heights when he re-enters the story. (Bearing in mind, also, the ever present fact that this returning face may not be exactly Dark; even if his was the half of the artwork that took ascendancy at its completion there's no evidence that Krad is gone, and Satoshi bears far too many scars from the source of that white wing to ever remotely trust the sight of it again.)
Some brush- some strange, intangible flutter against his senses, faint as the beating of moth's wings against a window, ever seeking a way to reach the light, the heat- the flame-
Artless:: My partner found out that FFIX is getting an anime and we've been waxing nostalgic and looking at the new art and goddamnit now I wanna dig Two out of his shallow grave. Just reanimate all the muses from 2015
Artless:: My partner found out that FFIX is getting an anime and we've been waxing nostalgic and looking at the new art and goddamnit now I wanna dig Two out of his shallow grave. Just reanimate all the muses from 2015
Ahhhhh, that felt good. Is this the warmth of holiday cheer he's heard so much about? Is it just the savor of claiming any win, no matter how small, against his inherited foe?
Whatever it is, it's got him positively humming a little tune as he strolls away, towards the city's museum district.
Maybe he can invite Niwa along, with this second ticket. It seems like something he'd enjoy.
you too f*cker. put the trauma into the sandark bag so he can hurry up and give you your present. he's not asking nicely,
Trauma-? Well, if that's what he wants...
Pale fingers reach out slowly to drop an annotated original copy of Ice and Dark into the waiting sack, the pages yellowed with time and cover damaged almost past recognition, though the author's name- Kyle Endoyle- remains legible. Blue eyes remain unblinkingly focused on the thief as the volume falls wordlessly from his grip, only the thinnest sliver of a smile visible at the corners of thin lips.
Let it never be said he refuses to play all the thief's games.
When the dead return, do they really represent a second chance?
In any other family, this would be a heartwarming Christmas story: mysteriously brought back from the dead, the most important woman in a father and son’s lives brings them together, reminding them of the importance of staying strong together; meanwhile, snow gently falls and covers the town in pure promises of a new tomorrow.
But this is the Hiwatari family, too busy dealing with blood curses and withholding secrets to remember to be role models. After all, for two men who cannot afford to be emotional, what can Rio mean, except the ultimate threat?
#crack premise treated seriously #stuck in a house together #emotional hurt-comfort...ish
A new chapter each day until Christmas, exclusively on AO3.
When the dead return, do they really represent a second chance?
In any other family, this would be a heartwarming Christmas story: mysteriously brought back from the dead, the most important woman in a father and son’s lives brings them together, reminding them of the importance of staying strong together; meanwhile, snow gently falls and covers the town in pure promises of a new tomorrow.
But this is the Hiwatari family, too busy dealing with blood curses and withholding secrets to remember to be role models. After all, for two men who cannot afford to be emotional, what can Rio mean, except the ultimate threat?
#crack premise treated seriously #stuck in a house together #emotional hurt-comfort...ish
A new chapter each day until Christmas, exclusively on AO3.
Artless:: when you haven't seriously thought of a particular ship in... literally ever
But suddenly your brain is feeding you scenarios and fleshing out motivations and suddenly the word vomit draft you've been dumping into to get this mess out of your head is free-associating into a fucking fic
I did not have coming around to a version of SatoRisa on my 2025 bingo list how did we GET HERE
came on here to try and write an open or two
ended up vomiting far too many words into a draft about how Satoshi's gonna deal (or not) with Dark's return and what that could mean for the fragile peace he's managed to build with Risa
gracieabrams
theartofmadeline
romaincrisis
amandla
kianamaiart
izzy806
andulkaphoto
titsay
stormborns
