#ayasig

[cakefloof]

always returning

[neapeie]

Ayasig

[aretaix]

5. pressed petals

Aya takes up caring for the school garden. Prompt: Flower language For the year of the OTP event.

Read on Ao3

Topics: Aya/Sig, one shot, flower language

Word count: 930

     She'd taken up gardening in recent months. Klug suggested it, really. They said it'd be a good way to familiarize herself with her new vessel, get herself moving, and get outside more.

     He made a sound argument, but she was reluctant to be outside where the sun would be beating down on her for hours at a time. Reading about plants and how to care for them was one thing, but actually *caring* for plants was something else entirely. She couldn't think of a good counterargument though, so she started by volunteering for the gardening duties at school just to get them off her back. It was a simple job and all she had to do was work in the school garden, and everyone was more than happy to help the "new" student with caring for the luneflowers and other flowers planted in the garden. Contrary to everyone's expectations, she ended up being the one to teach them about the flowers rather than the other way around.

     Luneflowers really were lovely flowers, perhaps her favorite after her beloved hydrangeas, and they invoked such fond memories in her heart... Well, maybe "memories" is too strong of a word. More accurately, they filled her with a sense of longing and nostalgia--a bittersweet sadness. She could never assign a face to those feelings, so her mind just conjured a blurry mess of colors and faint voices that had faded over time. She tried not to dwell on those feelings, at least not anymore. Thinking about it for too long would just give her another splitting headache and force her back into the cramped pages of that dusty book...

     She returned from her brief daydream and looked down at the old metal watering can she was gripping. She wondered how long she'd been standing there holding that. Embarrassed, she looked around like a nervous animal to see if anyone saw her do something so embarrassing. Her shoulders relaxed once she determined that there was no one in the immediate vicinity... She always came a bit earlier than the others after school since she tended to space out like this *and* she wanted the chance to do something without others watching...

     With a delicate hand, she plucked a petal from one of the luneflowers and a small blooming anemone. She sat on a wooden bench fashioned from a log, fished a small book out of her pocket, and tucked the blossom and the petal lovingly between the pages. Other dried specimens crunched as she turned the pages to the newest blank ones. She penned the date and type of flower on the pages and then closed the book, inserting it back into her pocket with a swift motion.

     "Are you allowed to do that?"

     Aya stood at the sudden voice and turned around. It was just Sig... oh, right, Sig was her duty partner today, weren't they? He stood behind the bench with a net in his hands, meaning that he was probably catching bugs before the assigned duty time after school as usual...

     "It's fine as long as I'm not caught, isn't it?" She retorted while averting her gaze from him back to the flowers.

     "Just asking. Never thought about doing that, is all," he stepped over the bench as he spoke, then laid the bug net on the flat surface. "Are you saving them for something?"

     Aya looked back at him, then to the flowers, then back to him. ...She didn't expect him to understand, but she withdrew the book again and flipped to the first few pages. Dried flowers and petals were were pressed to the pages, their colors bleeding onto the off-white paper of the notebook.      "Nothing in particular," she muttered. "I lack most of our--my memories-- so I thought keeping physical reminders would be...good... for me," she shut the book again and thrust it back into her pocket, eager to get this awkward interaction out of the way so they could both go home. "Even if they're bound to rot eventually, I want something to show that I was here." She gazed at the flowers again, that same bittersweet feeling creeping its way into her heart once more.

     "...Kinda like the luneflowers, huh," Sig replied, though she couldn't tell if it was a question or a statement. He picked up a trowel and began to work in the garden, plucking weeds and removing other foreign objects in the soil.

     "What do you mean?" Aya asked, quickly following suit with a pair of gardening scissors as she pruned and cut dying blossoms form the flowers.

     "You mentioned it yesterday," he continued, "That luneflowers have been in Primp as long as you can remember. Even before Primp existed, you said." They looked inquisitively into the large discs of the flower and continued their work, "They're sort of like a reminder from the people before Primp that they were here before, even if no one's around to tell us anymore."

Aya stopped her work and looked at the flowers. 

     "I suppose it's similar," She snipped a bud that had been burnt by the sun. "...I suppose that is what they mean to us now, but I wonder what they meant before..." she gently lifted a drooping flower head and thought of her lost memories once more.

     "Maybe they don't really need to *mean* anything," Sig stood and dusted the dirt off his hands. "Maybe it's okay for them to just be a reminder."

Aya looked up at him, then once more to the flowers, and smiled bitterly. 

     "I suppose so."

[unfilterthepassion]

did you guys know that ayasig and ayaklug shippers should delete their accounts and never interact with me ever because aya is an adult and sig and klug are children (and for sig’s case him and aya are related)?

[klug]

i dont mean to be rude but isnt ayasig inc*st? if so, isn't it kinda..... gross to ship them?

you aren’t being rude, it’s fine. i’ve gotten this question a lot on twitter and also on tumblr but i don’t remember the last time i answered it.

I’d like to preface this with the fact that i am strongly against the glorification of incest in fiction and i find glorifying it in any capacity to be morally reprehensible. however, you’re free to judge my response in whatever way you want.

Sig (or his soul) and Strange Klug are halves of a whole, the whole being the original demon that Strange Klug is one half of as documented in the Record of Sealing. Sig is the neutral part, or a descendant of the neutral part that was left behind… that part is unclear as most things are in Puyo lore. I go with “Sig is actually the neutral part OR contains the neutral part inside of him” there IS a translation of the record of sealing on tumblr, but i’m uncomfortable sharing it publicly due to my history with the translator. You’re free to DM me or send an ask off-anon for the translation, but you’ll probably be able to find it.

Anyway, given that, I don’t interpret one half of a soul being shipped with its other half as incest. Some people like to see them as family, and that’s fine, it’s not really the interpretation i like, though. Sources incoming for why I think a lot of things surrounding them are open to interpretation.

also I’m not really the authority on this but i don’t believe Strange Klug definitively says “descendant” in japanese, here’s her text for reference:あの身体は間違いなく我が血を受け継く者.  which was translated to “That body is undoubtedly that of my descendant!” (src: Puyo Puyo Fever 2 Sig’s HaraHara course)

The Japanese is, literally, a lot more like, “that body is surely that of one who has inherited my blood” which probably got translated into “one of my bloodline” and then “descendant” etc. which is how you arrive at the final translation. It’s really the only time she uses that phrasing (”one who inherited my blood” 血を受け継く者 chi o uketsu) to describe him, all the other instances are like, one who shares my body (体 karada), or “other half” or “soul”.

other instances where they’re referred to as halves:

    「聞こえる…この島にいる… 我が半身…」  "I can hear it… On this island…my other half…“ (src: Puyo Puyo Quest, Strange Klug 5*) What’s interesting to note is that "半身 (han shin)” is literally “half the body”, though the translator told me she used “other half” since “half the body” doesn’t sound very good in English.

…おまえ自分を半分どこかにおいてきたようだな？"As for me…It seems that you’ve abandoned half of you somewhere.“ - Satan (src: 15th anniversary fan translation, Satan’s route vs. Sig, i can also confirm that’s pretty much what it says)

Other things that are interesting is that while most Japanese fanwikis seem to cite that Sig is the descendant of the demon’s neutral/unsealed half, there are some that cite Sig as being the actual "body” of the original demon, translation by a friend of mine.

なお、封印された時に自身の魂の一部が封印され、本来の身体と残った魂を追っている。Furthermore, a part of their self was sealed at the time of the sealing, and they are chasing their original body as well the part of the soul that was left behind. src: https://dic.nicovideo.jp/a/%E3%81%82%E3%82%84%E3%81%97%E3%81%84%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF

Here’s a site that talks about Sig being the neutral half’s descendant, my friend didn’t translate any of it though, she just told me that’s what it says:https://w.atwiki.jp/aniwotawiki/sp/pages/16431.html

I wouldn’t take these as word of god since they’re wikis that are open to the public to edit, but I do trust the judgment of Japanese fans that have more direct access to the source material than I do?

Sorry this got long, I’m pretty much done. I don’t really see this as a definitive answer though, even if I feel like there’s more evidence that suggests Sig BEING the neutral half directly and not Strange Klug being his actual ancestor but I am also…biased, and a LOT of people have asked me about this and are still confused about why I ship it despite my other Moral Positions or what have you.

I guess I’d just say to look at the evidence I’ve presented along with your perception and decide what you think.

[s-h-0]

happy birthday to the both of you 💕

[moved-to-antonyator]

ayasigs for @marxsoul ! 

[towahime-blog]

Happy Hydrangea Day!