almost like a side effect

not actually active on tumblr

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was recently in tokyo and caught this pop-up shop + felt compelled to share pictures of the adorable nui population, giant or otherwise

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[image description: mid-conversation at an exorcist gathering, natori and matoba are distracted by osada genji (from kitarou tanjou: gegege no nazo), a tall ponytailed exorcist who is also voiced by ishida akira]

heading back into seclusion now, but thanks everyone for another fun hexfest :'))

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[image description: younger nanase wears a frock coat with black lace cravat, cuffs and other embellishments; the matoba siblings (as schoolkids) look on, shinobu particularly starry-eyed]

thanks again to @reittu, this time for the idea of young goth nanase..! went with elegant gothic aristocrat(-ish??) style instead of EGL since nanase is often in suits or neutral wafuku during canon

i do have thoughts on nanase and shinobu and gender presentation/conformity but i'm putting them under a cut (not sure if they align with yours, sorry)

i enjoy nanase's suit-wearing and how she's known to dislike men so youkai take on female forms in hope of becoming her shiki… i also find it interesting how shinobu seems to fall in the dansou 'prince' tradition, in a clear break from the feminine gothic style in that portrait

which is to say: in my take on this idea, i'd imagine shinobu being inspired first by EGA/EGL fashion as non-conformity, and later (when leaving the clan and adopting dansou) by nanase's relative lack of gender conformity

(the specificity of "shinobu" as a unisex name is also interesting to me)

[reittu]

omg... thank you so much again, she looks AMAZING and i love that her face is actually recognizable so you can tell it's her even in this non-canon outfit! and said outfit is gorgeous and suits her so much ♡

i kinda didn't expect you'd do this one since it's just a headcanon and not even really about the hexorcists, so I'm really happy to see this!

thank you for sharing your thoughts on this as well, and in fact i agree that shinobu seems to have embraced the goth style as her first introduction to nonconformity in general, and then embraced gender-nonconformity specifically after leaving the clan. (hope i got your point right.) it even aligns with the canon, as younger shinobu's goth style wasn't GNC (dresses, long hair).

in my head nanase actually influenced both of these phases of shinobu's, since the whole "masc suit look" is nanase's thing. it's also always felt corporate goth to me because she always wears black. and then midorikawa gave us goth shinobu (and seiji) and i connected the dots.

speaking of seiji, i imagine he was first influenced by his big sis dressing goth. i feel like he was too small atm to be influenced directly by nanase at that age, but he looked up to his sister so he copied her. then, as he got older, he started doing that more consciously, and both shinobu and nanase became his examples for being GNC and generally unapologetically yourself.

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ahh i'm so glad you liked this! and also phew i'm glad that my ideas did align with your headcanon after all... i wasn't entirely sure when i read the ask.

but yep i basically agree with everything you've said here! (interesting re: corporate goth, one wonders if that applies to the whole matoba clan haha)

i have no idea how the timeline works when it comes to nanase's age and that of the matoba siblings, but i like your ideas re: their respective influences on seiji..!

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[image description: younger nanase wears a frock coat with black lace cravat, cuffs and other embellishments; the matoba siblings (as schoolkids) look on, shinobu particularly starry-eyed]

thanks again to @reittu, this time for the idea of young goth nanase..! went with elegant gothic aristocrat(-ish??) style instead of EGL since nanase is often in suits or neutral wafuku during canon

i do have thoughts on nanase and shinobu and gender presentation/conformity but i'm putting them under a cut (not sure if they align with yours, sorry)

i enjoy nanase's suit-wearing and how she's known to dislike men so youkai take on female forms in hope of becoming her shiki… i also find it interesting how shinobu seems to fall in the dansou 'prince' tradition, in a clear break from the feminine gothic style in that portrait

which is to say: in my take on this idea, i'd imagine shinobu being inspired first by EGA/EGL fashion as non-conformity, and later (when leaving the clan and adopting dansou) by nanase's relative lack of gender conformity

(the specificity of "shinobu" as a unisex name is also interesting to me)

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hey! if you're still accepting prompts, how about Natsume being exposed to teen!hexorcists for any reason (from deaging to time travel)?

anon, i just want to say that this idea is super compelling and i kind of want to write serious fic about it after hexfest..!! i think teen-natori's prickly vulnerability might surprise natsume, and seeing matoba as a teen could humanise him further in natsume's eyes

but in the meantime please accept this:

[image series description: in the background, bewildered natsume looks on as 1) teen natori and matoba emerge from under a table, 2) teen matoba slaps a talisman on teen natori's forehead, 3) teen matoba calls teen natori "shuuichi-san~♥"]

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[image description: taki and matoba have tea and cake at a cafe, surrounded by natori merch. matoba expounds at length on natori's current career trajectory]

many thanks to @reittu for the idea of taki and matoba natori-fan solidarity! (i decided to spare poor natsume this time)

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[image description: matoba holds a small cat against his shoulder; he and the cat both regard the viewer with not particularly friendly one-eyed stares]

follow-up from yesterday's post! thanks again to @defeateddetectives

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#(yes he gets a little kitty-sized black veil and they hang out together undercover bc they're inseparable!

thanks for that adorable mental image ahhh please accept this attempt at depicting it

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jannnnn <3 <3 <3 heheheh, horrible exorcists prompt for indirect kiss if you like!! or anything with ppl badmouthing natori and matoba seiji suddenly looming and smiling threateningly behind natori's back at them

how about both?

(a bit different from your prompt, sorry, though the idea of matoba hovering menacingly behind natori is A++ too)

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[image description: matoba holds a small cat against his shoulder; he and the cat both regard the viewer with not particularly friendly one-eyed stares]

follow-up from yesterday's post! thanks again to @defeateddetectives

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[image description: photo of a matoba acrylic stand in front of a plate of fruit-topped pancakes]

on the first day of my trip, i bought a single blind mini acrylic stand, got matoba... then forgot to bring him out for photos when the youkai stretch of my trip began orz

anyway i'm 1) back, 2) grateful for the hexfest ideas received (i'm working on them!!), 3) looking for even more ideas ;_; please feel free to send asks, anon or otherwise!

(some photos from the youkai stretch under the cut... i missed such great opportunities)

[image description: night photo of a row of eyeball-shaped streetlights (with red irises) at sakaiminato station, with gegege no kitarou art in the background]

[image descriptions: three photos from the toei kyoto studio park's youkai festival. 1) karakasa-obake (umbrella youkai with one eye and a foot where a handle should be) in midair; 2) hitotsume-kozo in front of a traditional japanese house; 3) a seated karasu-tengu with the skeleton of a baku in the background]

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i did buy medama-oyaji merch so please have this very random post-trip photo

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[image description: matoba, crouching, extends a hand to a hostile cat which has a scar over its right eye. the cat gradually grows less tense, and eventually nudges up against matoba's hand instead]

thanks to @defeateddetectives for the idea!! proper picture of matoba and cat tomorrow

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[image description: photo of a matoba acrylic stand in front of a plate of fruit-topped pancakes]

on the first day of my trip, i bought a single blind mini acrylic stand, got matoba... then forgot to bring him out for photos when the youkai stretch of my trip began orz

anyway i'm 1) back, 2) grateful for the hexfest ideas received (i'm working on them!!), 3) looking for even more ideas ;_; please feel free to send asks, anon or otherwise!

(some photos from the youkai stretch under the cut... i missed such great opportunities)

[image description: night photo of a row of eyeball-shaped streetlights (with red irises) at sakaiminato station, with gegege no kitarou art in the background]

[image descriptions: three photos from the toei kyoto studio park's youkai festival. 1) karakasa-obake (umbrella youkai with one eye and a foot where a handle should be) in midair; 2) hitotsume-kozo in front of a traditional japanese house; 3) a seated karasu-tengu with the skeleton of a baku in the background]

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[image description: at a fansign event, shuuichi turns to the next person in line and says: "thanks for coming! to whom should i address this autograph--"

seiji, smiling in some black-and-lace getup with veil, says: "kuromine misa, please"]

many thanks to @izumisays and @defeateddetectives for prompting me to finally attempt drawing kuromisa seiji... sorry for having zero fashion knowledge

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*passive-aggressive sparkling intensifies*

[image description: shuuichi and shinobu, in similar suits, sparkle at each other in a not particularly friendly way. in the background, seiji pretends he's not there]

thanks to @izumisays for the prompt!!

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for the horrible exorcists prompt how about urihime watching natori and matoba awkwardly flirting with each other when they were teens?have a nice trip!

[image description: teenage matoba holds one end of a paper shiki chain to his lips, smiling; teenage natori is unimpressed; urihime sideeyes them both]

thanks anon!! urihime has the best character design for sideeyeing these horrible exorcists, honestly

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[image description: matoba sceptically eyes the flustered eyeball youkai (medama-oyaji from gegege no kitarou) that he's holding]

it's @hexfest!! and i'm once again hoping for people to send me asks (anon or otherwise) with prompts for these horrible exorcists

(this is a queued post, i'm away until nov3 or thereabouts, but please send ideas anyway, if you don't mind doodle-y art...)

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suddenly remembered that hexfest is nearing but i'm away (on a youkai-themed trip!!) from mid-oct to early nov...

feel free to drop horrible exorcist prompts in my askbox. zero promises that i'll actually appear in nov though

(unless there's any demand for silly youkai-featuring travel photos with these guys?? wasn't planning to bring them, but i could...)