please no minors. fucksakes, i write almost exclusively Dead Dove.
write death note stuff. sometimes i have co-writers. not big on AI:
LawLight: A B C D E F G
Terraito (Ryuk/Light): A B C D E F G H I J K L M O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Yagamane, LawLightMane, MoonRiver, Near/Minoru, Light/Mello, Ryuk/Near, Ryuk/L
slow fandom zone. If you are my moot, I in no way expect you to share my exact interests, look at my fanworks, agree with my thoughts about fictional characters, or even reblog anything from me. however, if you follow me and i can't for the life of me figure out why, i may assume you are a bot in error. sorry if that happens i don't enjoy being a jerk. (i do enjoy writing about being an unrepentant asshole)
Okay so because I feel like it and maybe as a warm-up for @talonsinhismouthtues I am here to talk about THIS fucking situation. Ryuk and his personal Death Note - and specifically, how he carries it and what he's implying with that. Because having examined the data, honestly the most logical conclusion I can draw is that there is some shinigami hanky code bullshit going on here and Ryuk is absolutely blatantly flagging.
[Cut below for long post and discussion of kink.]
So. This is Ryuk's own Death Note, worn in a strap holster that's secured by chains to his belt. Consider first that we do not see any other shinigami full-on open-carrying like this. Rem's notebook is kept somewhere entirely unexplained, given that she's not wearing enough clothes to hide her lipstick in let alone a full-size Death Note, and we don't find out where Shidoh puts his after getting it back but there's no obvious slot for it anywhere visible on him. We don't get to see any other shinigami with their Death Notes in hand, but there's also no sign of anyone else wearing anything similar to Ryuk's rig so it seems that "discreetly hidden in wherever you usually keep things" is the customary place for Death Note storage. Incidentally, we know that Ryuk does have alternative stash space of his own - he pulls the shinigami-realm apple that he lets Misa try a bite from, out of somewhere in his feathers. So first of all, it seems the holster is a deliberate choice on his part, not a no-alternative necessity.
And, as accoutrements go, that thing is flash. Black leather, studs, chains, fancy crown-cross and skull emblem on the front. It matches the rest of his gear, meaning it has to have been custom-made or at least extremely carefully selected to match, and it's stylish - by Ryuk's own aesthetic measures - but far from discreet. Also, his Death Note itself has been customised too, in the same way as the one he dropped for Light - it's got "Death Note" conspicuously written on it, in what we know is Ryuk's handwriting because it matches the script used for the various rules that we know he wrote down.
So much for the data. Now for the analysis. Death Notes are used by shinigami to kill and feed; ie, to take human lives. They are hunting weapons, and they have no other known function. So on the shallowest level of what's going on here, by wearing his Death Note so openly (and clearly labelled as such into the bargain), Ryuk is advertising his status as a predator. If you're a human looking at him, he's showing off the tool he could use at any moment to end you; if you're another shinigami, you're notified that you're facing one of your kind who shamelessly embraces their own nature as a hunter and killer. Superficially, it looks like a threat display or macho boast of sorts.
However. That said: despite the above, Ryuk's Death Note is actually less ready to his hand for functional purposes than if it was just stuffed in his feathers, because it's strapped into the holster. While we can't see how the closure on it works, it's going to take him an extra couple of seconds or even longer to draw when he's got to pause to unfasten whatever clasp secures it. So what does that add up to?
A weapon - a frankly vulgar display of power, to a degree that may even be actively violating a cultural norm - placed ostentatiously on show; but in a manner that, at least symbolically, restricts its actual use. Fangs behind a muzzle... or, to move the metaphor closer to the domain of experience I think we're actually occupying here, crotchless pants and a chastity cage. Ryuk's flaunting what he's got, in a very eye-catching fashion, but he's also hinting that he might not be too quick to use it. (And, indeed, over the entire course of the canon we see him draw his Death Note once and it's to euthanise Light at the very end. We never see him write any names on his own behalf at any point beforehand.)
So why might Ryuk be giving this particular mix of signals? Let's start with what we know of his attitude to the use of the Death Notes. Now, this is a bit blink-and-you'll-miss-it in the manga, but it's very much there (previous discussion post here): we get strong and consistent evidence, given right at the start of the manga in chapter 1, that Ryuk likes killing, and he prefers to do it from a front row seat. He says that killing humans while he's in the shinigami realm isn't enough fun for him. He comments that if other shinigami see you writing overmuch in your Death Note they'll laugh at you for working too hard (speaking from experience, we can only suppose). He even adds, perfectly casually, that "if I write the names of shinigami into the book, they don't die" - meaning Ryuk is so bloodthirsty that he's openly down to kill his own kind, let alone his natural prey (humans). He reacts with lit-up glee on seeing how many names Light has written in the Death Note over the first five days of owning it. All indications here, provided upfront as part of the very first reading we get on his character, are that Ryuk is fucking horny for mass murder and not even shy about it. Given which - you'd think that Death Note on his belt, all things being equal, ought to be getting used until it's red hot while he's in the human realm and free to have fun.
And yet it apparently isn't. Pin that thought for the moment though, because next we need to take a quick look at the opinions of those "other shinigami" whom Ryuk claims will laugh at you if you work too hard. We get a couple of scenes in part 1 where Ryuk's adventures are being discussed by his fellow shinigami, but the one that I'm mainly looking at here is in chapter 3, where a few shinigami discuss the rumour that Ryuk has dropped his Death Note. Now, two things get said here that I think are important. First of all, someone comments that if Ryuk has dropped his Death Note and a human picked it up, Ryuk will be stuck with the human until they die or the Death Note is finished (whatever that entails, since we never find out). Then comes the very telling exchange "Not even Ryuk would want to do something like that... you never know with Ryuk, though."
So first of all, apparently Ryuk's reputation in the shinigami realm is as the benchmark for the bottom of the barrel when it comes to behaviour that other shinigami look down on. "Even he wouldn't do that... idk, would he though?" is pretty damning as verdicts go. Nobody is apparently going to be surprised if they learn that Ryuk is doing something they view as distasteful or degrading. And then someone comments "I heard he had two Death Notes," to which someone else replies "why would he want two?"
Why, indeed? The obvious answer: because that second Death Note, the one that never leaves his side, is his safety line. That's his escape if he finds his dropped note has been picked up by someone he doesn't care to play with, or if the finder of it tries to do anything with him that he isn't into - he can always pull out his own notebook and write their name. In other words, Ryuk has planned for his little adventure. The common shinigami understanding is that if a human gets your Death Note, you're captured - effectively made a pet, as it's explicitly described in a later scene in chapter 20. Ryuk has to know this. Ryuk has still gone ahead and dropped a note on purpose, volunteering for this particular form of highly stigmatised subjugation, but he's made damn sure that if he isn't enjoying it, he won't be stuck there. He is, effectively, subbing (to a randomly selected human!) with a lethally-enforceable safeword.
So just by doing any of this at all, Ryuk is already playing on ground that apparently makes most shinigami uncomfortable and a bit squicked to contemplate. But he's pushing even further out into red-line risk territory beyond that, because where is he keeping his all-important safeword Death Note? Not tucked away quietly in his feathers, where his human host wouldn't even know it existed until Ryuk was already killing them - which you'd think would be the safe and sane option.
Oh no. It's on his fucking belt, strapped up in a fucking bondage harness in front of god and everybody. Symbolically restrained from his own hand - but dangerously in reach for someone else's. He frequently stands so close over Light that Light could easily make a grab for the holster if he wanted to. And yes, Ryuk does say in the finale that nobody in the human world can touch his notebook... but is that always true? Is it true even if he's fully phased into material solidity, and maybe a bit distracted one way or another? Is Ryuk really hazarding his freedom on nobody, not even Light, figuring out a way to catch him by that Death Note?
And even if he is that sure it's safe, still what the hell is with the invitation it's implying, the suggestiveness of putting it right there in plain sight and reach? Is he getting off on the added danger here? Does he get turned on by the thought that it could happen and he might be caught and enslaved for real? - because gods damn, that explanation certainly fits the observable facts. He's dangling a leash from around his own neck and inviting catch-me-if-you-can to Light or anyone else who can see him and is brave enough to try. The total of what he's saying with that Death Note worn where and how it is, once you add up all the above-mentioned layers including the fact that he's rather noticeably not using it himself when you'd think he would be, could arguably be summed up as something like: "I can be very dangerous, and I like to be dangerous - but I'm able to control it. I'm willing to control it. I might play nice for you, if you can catch me. Maybe I want you to try and catch me..."
Of course, as I mentioned in my other previous post about Ryuk's submissive tendencies, the tragedy from his point of view is that Light is a comphet-addled vanilla disaster and picks up absolutely none of Ryuk's assorted signals, hints, flags and invitations. When Light does occasionally grab Ryuk and strongarm him into being useful (which always goes suspiciously well btw - look at Ryuk's faultless execution of his role in the part-2 plan when Light has him helping the taskforce with the mafia raid!) it's mostly born of annoyance and a lack of alternative options, not any recognition that Ryuk might be actively craving that kind of treatment.
And unfortunately, of course, Ryuk is badly stuck in the shinigami rules. He's not supposed to help Light at all, and openly confessing that he wants Light to scruff and subjugate him would likely be a bigger hint than he could get away with dropping. If he wants to be able to excuse himself to the shinigami king later by claiming a human made him do whatever mayhem he gets up to, he can't very well be caught on record asking said human to make him do it. (Not to mention of course that having to ask for it might take the shine off the kink element a bit, too. Wrong kind of humiliation entirely...)
So yeah, just some thoughts. Like, sure, I concede there might be an innocent explanation for all of this. The curtains are just blue, Obata drew Ryuk like that because it looked cool, none of this means anything, etc. But quite frankly, I feel like that's a lot less fun. XD
[Shoutout btw to @koilungfish for initially spotting/commenting on this phenomenon and prompting me to write all this!]
At last the warehouse is silent except for Light Yagami's wheezing breaths.
Teru stands. His nice shoes are stained with viscera. He has just killed seven people.
He has never particularly cared about victory.
"Mikami," Light gasps out. "Mikami. You did it."
There is the blood of an eighteen-year-old boy splashed on Teru's dress shoes. He's never fired a gun before. He's handled plenty as a prosecutor, of course, typically while cursing the murderers whose fingerprints littered the handles.
"You're not God," Teru says.
"What are—you talking about?" Light manages a smile. It twitches oddly on his face, like a dying butterfly. "We won."
Teru just looks at him. Looks and looks and looks.
He used to wonder what God looked like. It was an idle thought, one only entertained in the depths of night when the sleep medication hadn't quite kicked in yet. He told himself it didn't matter; God was an entity that surpassed shallow things like appearance, and Teru's job was to follow him no matter what. Teru was not like the rest of Demegawa's little cult, who followed God only for the sake of personal safety and money. Teru was righteous. But he had wondered, regardless.
He had never settled on an answer. But Light Yagami, bleeding from the shoulder, brown eyes and manic grin—
Pathetic, Teru thinks. You're pathetic.
"Listen, Mikami," and Light tries to sit up, but hisses through his teeth and props himself awkwardly with one elbow instead. "You've done well. I'll reward you. Anything you want."
"Your watch," Teru says.
"My—what?"
"Your watch."
The boy, before he had been gunned down by Teru's own hand, had thrown a match. Teru has never been the type for schemes, but he knows for certain that whether real or fake, all of the notebooks are now ash.
"No," Light says, clamping his free hand around his wrist instantly. "You can't—it's from my father."
Teru could almost laugh. How nice having a father must have been. How inconsequential.
"I don't care," he says.
It's a fitting choice for a sacred compartment. Something paternal, something time-keeping, something small. It must fit right over Light's pulse point.
"It's not enough," Light tries. "It's—it's a tiny scrap of paper. It could fit ten names at most."
Teru feels his face fall. He can write very, very small, but the idea of the paper running out is terrifying.
Still. It's better than nothing. Perhaps he'll never even write in it. Perhaps he'll keep it on a necklace or frame it on his desk. Teru can do good work without the Death Note, but he cannot go on without God.
"I don't care," he repeats, and strides towards him.
Light flinches. He tries to get up again; his arm fails him, and he starts dragging himself backwards instead. Like a worm, Teru thinks. That's all he is. A worm and a murderer.
"Don't get closer, Mikami," he says, voice cracking with the beginnings of nervous laughter. "I still have—"
Teru punches him in the nose.
Light collapses. Teru very easily slips the watch off his wrist.
The shinigami is cackling.
"You don't know how to unlock it!" Light reaches for him. Teru yanks the watch away from his grasp. The idea of being touched right now is more repulsive than the blood. "I never told anyone!"
"I saw you do it," Teru points out. Just before he'd broken out of his restraints he'd seen Light twisting at the crown of the watch to kill Nate River. Four times. A holy number? Or just habit?
"Ryuk!" Light shrieks. "Stop him!"
Oh, there it is. The appeal to a higher power. But Teru's God loves him, and Light Yagami's false idol does not.
It's almost sympathetic. Teru is not a heartless man. He knows how it feels to be screaming for help that never comes.
"I'm not going to kill you," Teru says, folding the watch carefully and slipping it into his breast pocket. Light stares at him, eyes wild. "You're just misguided."
"How dare you—"
If Teru was more inclined to humor, he might have said One day you'll see the light. As it is, he closes his eyes. A sense of beautiful, serene inner peace descends on him. It was foolish of him to put so much faith in a human voice over the phone, to be honest. Teru knows better now.
This time, he'll get it right. This time he will please the real God.
In the meantime, he might as well spread His word.
Teru rolls his sleeve down. He grabs Light's bare wrist through the fabric and, before Light can pull back: kisses his palm.
A day ago, this would have been reverence. Now it reveals itself as pity.
Light sucks in a breath, sharp, pained. Teru lets go.
"Good luck," he says, and means it.
"Mikami! Where are you g—Mikami!"
Teru does not look back. The shinigami's cackles fade into the distance.
(Teru Mikami dies of unclear multiple system failure ten days later.)
I love how Light thinks “I’m so disappointed in you” at Near after he thinks he’s won, as if he’s some disapproving father figure (he's a 23-year-old mass murderer losing his mind in a warehouse). With all that being said, I need this dynamic taken to its worst possible conclusion. I want Light to provoke Near's severe daddy issues.
Been writing my few initial drafts for what I hope will xfer over to @talonsinhismouthtues event and without particularly attaching them to any prompt yet I’ve got
Not all of these drafts will make it to a final stage but they might get shoved into flash fiction if they don’t
1. Ryuk as an imaginary friend/long term audio visual hallucination. No death note AU. Horror.
2. Misa realizes she doesn’t actually like Light like that. And tries to set him up with Ryuk. Comedy.
3. Ryuk does write L’s name, expects to die, doesn’t, but Light is angry at him for the intervention. Hatesex smut
4. As wholesome a pairing as I can possibly make them. To the creeping horror of all other characters in the plot. Comedy.
5. Another shinigami envious of Ryuk’s adventures tries to offer Light another death note. Light rejects the offer. Ryuk doesn’t understand why. Romance.
the fact that musical misa asks rem if she is kira makes me think that she was fully prepared to fall completely in love with rem no questions asked if she answered yes
you see a man hunched over a sink, splashing water on his face and in the mirror he just keeps chanting “c’mon babygirl you got this, c’mon babygirl, c’mon-” to hype himself up because he’s clearly going through it
quick and dirty poll for interest in loosely moderated Ryuk + Light fan event for Death Note
Four weeks of prompt a week. Two choices of prompts. Currently planning on September to accept and post submissions. Pairing or friendship or enmity content all acceptable.
(Manga Art cap credited to Obata/Shueisha you know the drill)
I've been sitting on this post for a while, partly because it's taken me forever to type this up and dig all the receipts out of the manga, but I'm done now so okay, here goes.
So. Death Note Light/Ryuk is a niche ship to begin with, but of what content there is for them, I've seen (comparatively) plenty of stories where Ryuk is the dominant one and Light is his plaything and/or victim either willingly or not. Which is fine, but, hear me out: what about the other way around?
What? Well, stay with me here. [LONG headcanon/meta post and manga canon receipts under cut, image heavy, includes references to BDSM.]
Based on the scenes in the shinigami realm where various people are talking about Ryuk's shenanigans in the human world, it seems like most shinigami automatically presume the human to be the dominant partner in a Death Note bond. There's derisive comments about Ryuk having no pride, a degree of shock and disgust at his perceived misfortune, joking remarks about whether he'd make a cute pet, etc. None of the other shinigami even suggest that he's going to be the one with the upper hand; and in fact we know that this is a pretty accurate assessment of how it can work out if a shinigami loses their Death Note to a human and doesn't have a backup of their own, because we see what happens to Sidoh when Mero and the mafia have his notebook. He's well and truly stuck, and ends up pressed into service by them because they can literally hold his life and death over his head. He can't do anything to take the notebook back by force because the rules don't give him enough leeway, and he isn't smart enough to realise he has other options (until Ryuk points it out). That's clearly not a great place to be, certainly if you're unlucky enough to get caught by a human who's brave enough to try and exploit you; so, sure, I can understand why the other shinigami view the "dropped your Death Note" scenario as a risky and humiliating turn of events for the shinigami in question.
Now hold in mind, if you will, that a significant category of BDSM and kink scenarios can be summarised as "choosing for fun and pleasure to get into controllable versions of situations you really wouldn't want to be in without a safety net"; consider the implications of a backup Death Note in a shinigami's hands as the functional equivalent of a very forceful safeword... aaaand now suppose we entertain the possibility that what's really driving Ryuk is not just a desire for entertainment but hidden underneath it, a raging submission/subjugation kink. He dropped the notebook hoping to get that itch scratched, and he sticks around as eagerly as he does because Light's brilliance, arrogance, fearlessness, and casual use and smack-talking of him are doing it for him like crazy.
Like, consider: a Ryuk who on the night following the busjacking incident had to hide under his wings and process his feelings once Light was asleep because it Did Things to him to learn that Light had flat-out used him in that plan without even asking or warning him first. A Ryuk who's letting his apple addiction kick his ass completely on purpose because it gives him a nice low-key excuse to put himself at Light's mercy and have something to beg for. A Ryuk who absolutely would get embarrassingly turned on at being called Light's pet to his face and would flat-out give way at the knees if Light ran with it and threatened to put a collar on him even in jest. Etc.
The real tragedy of this scenario is honestly that Light's comphet-riddled and vanilla little brain would never actually clock what was going on, and consequently he'd never get half the use out of Ryuk that Ryuk would gladly allow if Light knew to lean on him harder. Nonetheless, Ryuk is having the time of his life anyway because he got absurdly lucky: of all the humans in the world, he managed to pick up soft-shinigami-dom Light Yagami, who indulges him with regular treats and playtime and attention (videogame hangout time is canon, remember), allows him on the metaphorical (and literal) furniture without even telling him to take his boots off, rarely if ever asks him to pull his weight but clearly likes having him around regardless, is doing so many fun and clever and horrible things that at times Ryuk can barely keep up with all the entertainment he's getting, and - most delicious of all - has no fear of him whatsoever. Light, by pretty much pure luck, is right in the sweet spot of being instinctively dominant enough to sate Ryuk's kink needs at least somewhat, but tolerant enough of Ryuk's everything to spoil him and let him get away with all sorts of shit; which is a whole additional kind of fun in its own right.
So, that's the constructed narrative for this version of their ship dynamic; but, for real, I think you can pretty much stand this interpretation straight on the manga canon if you're willing to squint even a little. A selection of receipts below:
Initial context. Apparently at least one other shinigami thinks that being stuck with a human holding your Death Note is such bad news that "not even Ryuk" would want that - which is interesting in that it implies he's got a reputation for doing ill-advised, risky or maybe just depraved things already, but the others think that dropping a Death Note on purpose should be beyond the pale for even him.
And literally while that's being said about him, in the very next panel, where is Ryuk? Eating an apple, flopping on Light's bed, and gazing at Light. So smitten, poor shinigami, just look at him. Third chapter of the manga and he's already toast (but he's also, importantly, comfy and well fed...)
Aaaand you don't exactly look like you mind.
Just got manoeuvred into being shot at, having deliberately chosen not to check what the plan was beforehand, and apparently not even mad because he's too busy being thrilled by how clever Light was to put that together.
Ryuk don't just agree with him when he says things like that, people will think you've got a humiliation kink or something.
Openly admitting that Light's companionship is even more of a priority for him than his literal drug of choice... and surprisingly excited about being given a task to do.
Worn out from assiduously following orders while Light wasn't even supervising him, and, as with the busjacking scene, seeming remarkably chill about having been made use of.
Good grief does this even need annotation? Practically on his knees in public and literally eating out of Light's hand. Let it be remembered that Ryuk didn't have to embrace his addiction to human-world apples; he was presumably clean at the start of the series and could've just stayed off them, given that he clearly knows what can happen to him if he doesn't. He 100% brought this one on himself.
More shinigami-realm commentary on the situation, to confirm how this all looks to those who should know. Apparently the assessment upstairs is definitely that Ryuk is the one who should be embarrassed here, though Light's judgement is being called into question as well. (I dunno though honestly, personally I think Ryuk has managed to be really quite cute at several points so far...)
"I just think you should tell me what you'll let me do. Even when there isn't a rule about it." (Okay, this one's so blatant even Light was visibly surprised. Ryuk were you horny that day or something?)
And then a couple more data points from after the timeskip:
A rare moment when Light goes full dominance mode on Ryuk and is flat-out giving him an order rather than appealing to Ryuk's desires for fun and apples, as he more usually does when he wants Ryuk's cooperation. Importantly, recall that at this point in the plot they don't even have a direct bond. Misa is the owner of the only notebook Ryuk is currently bound to, while Light is using Rem's old one which has no attached shinigami. Light has no possible grounds of authority to tell Ryuk to do anything - and yet, zero pushback from Ryuk, who instead goes all-in on the entire sequence of plans that follows this scene even though he's straying well outside his declared neutral status by doing so.
Light questioning Ryuk in front of the rest of the taskforce. Given the actual dynamic between them, and the fact that Light put Ryuk up in the first place to pretending they're enemies(ish) for this plan? This is verging on "playing at interrogation kink in front of an unwitting audience" levels of shenanigans. And yup, Ryuk's still gleefully on board.
A moment that's relevant for showing us the negative space, so to speak. Evidence that Ryuk can and will push back against humans who overstep his boundaries, certainly if he isn't bonded to them - but it seems that Light is allowed to get away with far more than Matsuda. (And also, when provoked, Ryuk apparently looks a bit more like he's on Light's side than he might mean to...)
And finally, this is such a perfectly unfortunate moment of clarity. I love this panel so much. Yes, Ryuk, you are indeed getting used, and if you really didn't like it you could've bailed out years ago. I see you. <3
(I'm sure there's more, I probably missed a few moments, but. You get the idea.)
