Fire likes to write

She/Her, I respond to Fire, FDG, Firedemongaming and Sky. Owner of a slowly growing collection of AUs that my brain keeps giving me at 5am I allow swearing and swear myself but please don't send any graphic NSFW stuff. (vaugly NSFW stuff is fine) profile pic by Komaeda anon (aka @pup-themlin/@dice-nagito-ace)

[firedemongaming]

...

I just finished episode 1206

I'm caught up with the anime

I'm actually caught up with the anime

I have been watching this show for over a decade and I'm finally caught up

...what do I do now?

[firedemongaming]

So it's been like I say and 2/3 since then

And I am already rewatching older episodes

Specifically I am rewatching the new dub from the start

I can never escape this show, can I?

[firedemongaming]

...

I just finished episode 1206

I'm caught up with the anime

I'm actually caught up with the anime

I have been watching this show for over a decade and I'm finally caught up

...what do I do now?

[firedemongaming]

Vampire Division au, what are everyone's opinion on vampire movies, specifically the more supernatural one.

The vampires all collectively cringe whenever there is a "getting turned to be immortal with your love" sub plot or whenever the act of being turned is romanticised or made to seem in any way glamorous. There was nothing romantic or glamorous about when they were turned.

I don't think any of them really actively seek out vampire movies, but I don't think any of them outright avoid them either. (Takagi would probably avoid them immediately after he got turned due to how traumatic his was, but in the long run he would eventually stop avoiding them as well. Once he's had time to heal that is)

I imagine Megure doesn't watch TV or movies that much, mostly sticking to a select few shows when he does watch them, so I don't think he's watched enough vampire movies to have an opinion XD

[firedemongaming]

I've been doing to much non dmck stuff and you have been quiet for too long.

Takagi is Matsuda au, what is Takagi/Matsuda's personality now that he has his memories back.

Which name does he use, his current name or his original name.

What is his relationship with everyone else now.

Sorry, most of my thoughts recently have been about the yokai AU so I haven't really been able to share them since the introduction post isn't done yet (in my defense, there's a lot of yokai XD. Megure in particular is giving me more trouble there than expected. There aren't really any Yokai with tired dad energy XD)

After he regains his memories in the Matsuda AU, his personality is kinda a mix between Takagi's and Matsuda's. He has more confidence than he did as just Takagi, but he isn't quite as confident as he was before the amnesia. He can be a bit more blunt at times, and he speaks his mind a bit more than he did as Takagi, (for example, his "and what generation is he from" comment about Conan would have been said out loud rather than just staying in his head like in canon. That episode is long before he regains his memories, It was just the best example I could think of) but he isn't as abrasive as pre-amnesia. And the traits Matsuda and Takagi both share remain as strong as ever.

I have mentioned this before, but how he acts can change depending on who he's with. When he's with Zero more of Matsuda comes out but when he's with Chiba more of Takagi comes out. Sato and Shiratori can both bring out more of either side depending on the situation.

His legal name stays as Wataru Takagi. It is really hard to change your name in Japan. You cannot change it simply because of personal preference, you need to prove that there would be negative consequences if you were to continue using your current name. When they changed it to Takagi they were able to argue that using the name Matsuda Jinpei would cause unnecessary pressure and distress for himself and others. (And even then the higher ups probably had to throw some weight around to get it approved.). However there wouldn't be any provable consequences to continuing to use the name Wataru Takagi after his memories return, so he wouldn't really have the option to change his name back to Matsuda.

As for what name people use for him, he mostly just tells people to use whichever name they're more comfortable with. Zero exclusively uses Matsuda. Most of the officers use Takagi. Shiratori, and a few of the other officers who knew Matsuda during that 1 week between his transfer and the explosion, tries to use Matsuda but often slips up and, as a result, ends up switching between using both names.

As for which name he personally prefers, he doesn't really have a preference for the family names, but with the given names he prefers Wataru because of the connection it has to date. It feels like he's got a piece of his friend with him. (Though it doesn't take a lot of soul searching before he realises either of these)

As for his relationships with everyone else, I think, beyond a brief period of awkwardness where everyone is still processing the information and unsure how to refer to him (something which is not helped by the fact that he is probably also having an identity crisis during this time), most of the relationships remain fairly the same.

I have talked about how Sato feels about the situation before and, at first, there is a bit of strain on their relationship as a result. Partially due to her tendency to try and bottle up her emotions, partially because this is something that's considerably harder to bring herself to share with Takagi. But things do get better when Takagi convinces her to talk to Yumi if she's struggling to talk with him, and he and Sato work through things as a team.

[firedemongaming]

For you up coming Supernatural AU, can I distract you with an ask of what supernatural creatures you have decided for the characters that are supernatural?

Gonna be honest, most of the cast are yokai or other Supernatural creatures.

In this AU, instead of being in division 1, most of the characters are in a separate division that specialises in crimes related to yokai and other supernatural beings. Under normal circumstances only yokai and other supernatural beings are assigned to this division, however sometimes humans do get assigned to it due to clerical errors (cough Matsuda cough) or due to extenuating circumstances that prevent them from working in a normal division (cough Takagi cough)

Most of the characters from division 1 are supernatural, same for all the WPS gang, a few officers from other prefectures and some non-officers.

I won't go into all the yokai and supernatural creatures I've decided on because that's spoilers for the giant post I'm working on but I will share a few.

Now, some of you may have noticed a contradiction between the contents of paragraphs 2 and 3. Matsuda was a human mistakenly assigned to the Supernatural Investigations Division due to a clerical error, yet I said all of the WPS gang are Yokai. This is not a mistake. Both of these statements are correct. Matsuda is a yokai like the rest of the WPS gang, but unlike the others, he wasn't born that way. He died and came back as a yokai, specifically an Enenra, a humanoid figure made of smoke that form in fires. (So technically this is a "WPS gang lives" au with an Astrix.)

The next one I'm gonna share is Kaito kid. I was originally going to make him a Tanuki, however upon further research I discovered another shape shifting yokai that I think works better, a Mujina. I made this decision because of a particular trait of theirs that I discovered during my research: Mujina are extremely difficult to anger, and will never act viciously without a reason, but when they are angered, they are a force to be reckoned with. And I think that is a perfect match for Kaito Kid. It takes a lot to make him get serious, but when he does he makes everyone regret it.

The last sneak peak you're getting are the Morofushi brothers. The Morofushi brothers are both cat-based yokai. Hiromitsu is a Nekomata and Taka'aki is a Bakeneko. Of the two cat yokai, Nekomatas tend to be more malicious than Bakenekos, which is a reference to Hiro's former status as scotch. Nekomatas and Bakenekos both start out life as normal house cats and turn into yokai if they live long enough, and this is what happened with both brothers.

[firedemongaming]

My Brian has decided it's going to dedicate thought to the mechanics behind how Takagi's ability to see ghosts works:

When someone dies, the ghost doesn't immediately appear once the person's heart stops, it usually takes a few minutes to fully form (usually about 3-5 minutes).

Most new ghosts don't awaken until they're fully formed, however, a few new ghosts gain consciousness while still forming, but feel like they're floating in a dream until they're finished forming. Most new ghosts in the latter category tend to first wake up about a minute after their heart stops beating, and unlike normal ghosts, they remember how they died. (As previously mentioned, Hiro remembers how he died, so he falls into this second category.)

Under normal circumstances, if the person is resuscitated, the soul is dragged back to their body without issue, shedding any ghostly traits in the process. If they're resuscitated after their ghost has fully formed they may remember their out of body experience, but beyond that there's no ghostly consequences.

However, this isn't always the case if their ghost awakens while forming. If someone's ghost awakens early, but they're resuscitated before their ghost fully forms, their soul doesn't always know how to shed these ghostly traits, instead retaining some of them, leaving them with side effects to deal with when they're back amongst the living.

Takagi's heart was stopped for 1 minute and 27 seconds and, for a brief few moments, awoke as a partially-formed ghost staring down at himself. (Though since he felt like he was in a dream at the time, he did initially dismiss it as one when he later woke up alive)

However this brief awakening is what led to him retaining the ability to see ghosts.

[firedemongaming]

Takagi nearly dying a third time would probably raise a lot of concern around everyone because this is the third time this is happen.

And with the new ghost touch thing, Takagi would definitely not be able to tell ghosts apart from the living sometimes since he can touch them.

Actually I think they'd have already started getting worried by the second time it happens if I'm being honest.

However, Takagi has canonically already nearly died more than any other officer we see in the show, so I think every version of Takagi at some point just gets sat down and asked to be less reckless. It doesn't work, his self sacrificial ass would still risk his life to protect anyone in a heartbeat.

The ghosts definitely help him try to think of ideas that ensure that everyone alive stays that way by the end of the day, but if it came down to it, he would still absolutely put himself in harms way if it'll protect whoever he's with.

And yeah, even before this Takagi struggles with telling ghosts apart from living people, because to him they look the exact same. The biggest tell he has is that ghosts can float and can't interact with the rest of the world, but sometimes ghosts still choose to walk anyway (or at least imitate walking, usually out of habit).

After he gains the ability to touch ghosts, it does get even harder for him to tell the difference, and he ends up having to ask sato or Chiba if they can see someone as well or if it's just him more often.

It's usually easier to differentiate new ghosts from people. They're often covered in blood (which fades about 2 hours after death) so if no one else brings up the person covered in blood, it's usually relatively safe to assume it's a ghost.

[firedemongaming]

Would Takagi start to neglect his need for sleep after realising he doesn't need sleep as much as he did before.

Even without this fact I feel like Takagi has eye bags form the lack of sleep he's been getting due to the ghosts keeping him up

He tries to maintain a normal sleep schedule, keywords: tries

Between still being disturbed by ghosts somewhat regularly and his body just naturally waking him up earlier even on days ghosts don't wake him first, it doesn't take long for his sleep schedule to start slipping.

And then he has to pull a series all nighters for whatever reason, and at the end of it he's noticeably tired for the first time in weeks, and someone asks how long it's been since he last slept.

He has to pause for a minute to do the maths, before sheepishly responding "94 hours?"

And that's how they discover he can comfortably go about 4 days without sleep (that's also how he got in trouble for going about 4 days with no sleep)

And yes, before this Takagi would have some serious eye bags. And I know from experience if eye bags are bad enough they never truly disappear even when you start getting enough sleep again, so they probably still stick around to some extent even after his sleep needs change

[firedemongaming]

So tell us about this new idea and why you're not sure whether to include it

So my brain has been toying with the thought of Takagi briefly dying again for whatever reason some time later on, and him slowly becoming more ghost adjacent every time it happens (e.g. after he wakes up in hospital then second time, he discovers he can touch ghost now (my brain is specifically suggesting he finds this out because he woke up to date's face and pretended to bat him away joking that he's rather wake up to Sato's face, only for both of their brains to start buffering when his hand actually makes contact with Date's face))

And the reason I am on the fence on whether to add it is because my brain is considering a similar feature for the yokai AU I'm currently 4 days into research for. (It isn't ghost related in the yokai AU thing, but it's relatively similar,)

[firedemongaming]

I reckon Taka'aki would try to figure out the approximate area where Hiro's ghost is and look at that area when asking questions in the Death Touched AU.

And he's eerily good at it too, and keeps looking directly at Hiro's ghost without realising. It's consistent enough that Hiro and Takagi are both starting to question it.

Takagi: walking to the train station after the brotherly reunion "Be honest with me, Hiro-san. How certain are we that your brother can't see you? Because he was looking directly at you for most of that conversation."

Hiro: "not as certain as we were before"

[clover1500]

I feel like if you ask someone who doesn't watch Conan if these are the same people they would tell you no, like man how much Takagi's appearances have changed over the years

I think they changed it so that he would look more like matsuda or to make him more comedic like

But I think he already looked exactly like him back then, so why the change? Anyways where did they get a wig so identical

[firedemongaming]

The reason the anime made the change was to better match the manga and, unfortunately, current anime Takagi is pretty much how he has always looked in the manga

Takagi started out as an anime only officer and he ended up getting added to the manga at a later date. This also means the early design we see was made long before his first canon appearance, presumably without gosho's input.

The earliest version of our boi appeared all the way back in episode 26, however his first canon appearance wasn't until way later in episode 102-103, these episodes adapted chapters 170-172.

And this, folk, is how Takagi looked in these chapters in the manga:

Now a perfect match for the current anime Takagi, his chin is a bit sharper, his hair has a bit more volume, however it's not unusual for characters to change slightly from their first few appearances in the manga, so let's flash forward a bit, shall we?

this is how he looks in the 12 million hostage's case in the manga:

He looks pretty much the same as he does currently in the anime, and any differences can easily be attributed to slight differences in art style between the manga and the anime (and also from the fact that the animation quality has been lower recently than it used to be so proportions are definitely a bit off sometimes)

I do sincerely miss the early anime design and wish gosho used it instead, but in the end he didn't, so eventually the anime had to change it to match.

[firedemongaming]

Wait! I was thinking about the Death Touched Takagi AU, wasn't the culprit listening in the elevator bomb scene? Won't he know about Conan is Shinichi too? Or did he decide to tune out when the convo started going nonsense with talk about seeing ghosts and such?

in the episode Conan noticed the speaker pretty quickly and warned Takagi to speak quietly when they discussed what the clues meant. Since the culprit was completely oblivious to the fact that the police had figured out the clues, it's safe to assume that the culprit can't hear them if they're talking quietly.

Like in canon, the discussion about secrets happens after the listening device has been noticed, so they'd both be talking quietly and the culprit likely wouldn't hear them as a result.

Fun little bonus thought I had while writing this:

Hagiwara and Matsuda figure out the hint on the bomb as Conan is cutting the wires and just scream "TEITAN HIGH" at Takagi (who nearly drops his phone because he was not prepared for the shouting ghost duo)

Then, right after he texts "Teitan High" to Sato, he closes his eyes and braces for the explosion. But the explosion doesn't come, and Conan jumps down with his "it's too scary to die after all" act (which is entirely for the culprit listening)

And that's when Takagi remembers something the ghost duo mentioned earlier during their live commentary of the bomb defusal, before the conversation about secrets where they learnt Takagi could hear them: "he's probably planning to cut the wires the second he's figured out the hint" and he just stares at the ghost duo for about a minute as he realises they'd both known for a while that he and conan would be fine.

Then Conan gets Takagi's attention to whisper the plan, and sato just receives a text saying "play along, the culprit might be watching" before Takagi calls her.

[firedemongaming]

My brain has had an idea for a supernatural AU/ WPS gang lives AU

But I don't know nearly enough about yokai for it

Wish me luck with the suffering

[firedemongaming]

I am just imagining all my various Takagi's stuck in a room with canon Takagi.

Canon!Takagi: "let me just make sure I'm getting this right. So you're me from a universe where Matsuda-san and I are the same person?"

Matsuda!Takagi: "pretty much, yes."

Canon!Takagi: "and you're me from a universe where I'm a vampire?"

Vampire!Takagi: "technically closer to a Dhampir but yes"

Canon!Takagi: "right, and you're me from a universe where I can see ghosts?"

DeathTouched!Takagi: "it's not as useful of an ability as it sounds."

Canon!Takagi: "ok, and you're just me when I was 7?"

Shrunken!Takagi: "sure, let's go with that"

Canon!Takagi: "????"

[firedemongaming]

I just watched the tie in episode for movie 28 for the first time

And because of the episode I learnt apparently Japanese police who die in the line of duty are given a posthumous promotion of 2 ranks.

But if that's the case, why is Matsuda still a Sargent? Surely he should be an inspector due to the posthumous promotion, right?

His death was definitely in the line of duty, but for some reason he's still keiji instead of keibu. Why didn't he get promoted?

[firedemongaming]

Just a silly miscellaneous thought about the Death Touched Detective Takagi AU

Takagi can't watch horror movies on his own anymore

Not because they're unrealistic to how real ghosts act or anything.

No it's because every time he tries to watch one, a certain group of ghosts he knows will silently sneak up on him and wait until he is fully absorbed by the movie. Then they'll loudly ask "what you watching?"

It scares him every time

[firedemongaming]

I'm pretty sure that the hospital would probably prescribe Takagi pills to help with his 'hallucinations'.

Since it was seen as a side effect of Takagi being resurrected.

Most likely, but it would be apparent pretty quickly that they're not working. He'd likely switch types a few times before eventually discussing stopping with his doctor since they're not doing anything.

Since it was seen as a side effect of trauma he likely would have been prescribed therapy as well (he probably did have trauma to some extent after being stabbed, so this probably would have still been a bit helpful, but ultimately would have done nothing to stop him seeing ghosts.)