#kingham and litty

[unicorngunter]

7. Hand lens

[unicorngunter]

2. Backpack

[unicorngunter]

DBDA anniversary clip screens Part 2

[asidian]

Happy Max Jenkins Appreciation Day to everyone who celebrates!

The absolute commitment to the bit and spot-on comedic timing he brought to his role in Dead Boy Detectives was iconic. Loved the sprites SO damn much! ~(￣▽￣)~*

[asidian]

For the final day of the @savethedeadboys Valentine Extravaganza!

💖❤️💜💗🩷💙❤️💖❤️💜💗🩷💙❤️💖❤️💜💗🩷💙❤️💖

[distracted-and-diffused]

DBDA Rewatch Fridge Horror Moments: The Disruption of the Dandelion Sprites

(This moment brought to you by Rewatch Round 3, during which I briefly tried to construct a detailed timeline for fic purposes)

"When I was little, my dad used to say that if you needed a little extra courage, a dandelion in your pocket would do the trick. And when you leave Osaka to go live on the opposite end of the globe, you need courage." -- Niko Sasaki

In Episode 02, Niko recounts when she first encountered/contracted the Dandelion Sprites, who feed on attention. While she's infected with the sprites, they appear to take over her body for periods of time and create colorful hallucinations to draw other people's attention. Typically, the people seem to become spellbound for a few moments, only to forget why they were so interested later. Niko, meanwhile, generally can't remember exactly what happens during the moments that the sprites take over, but she's very uncomfortable with people staring at her.

It's ironic and cruel that the very thing that Niko sought out to help her as she starts out at her new school in Washington ends up making her situation so much worse. It's heavily implied that the sprites are a major factor in Niko becoming a shut-in, why she had to leave the dorm and drop out of school. It's not hard to imagine why, either: if everyone remembers only that Niko drew other people's attention at times when she wasn't supposed to, it's likely that she would be labeled a disruptive student and an "attention-seeker," which would be particularly difficult for a teenage girl far from home who's just trying to fit in, in a small town where all of the other kids have probably known each other all of their lives.

Given Niko's quote above, it seems like she would have set out to find the dandelions pretty soon after she got to the boarding school. And if that's the case, it means that she would have likely been already infected by the time her dad died. And that makes it so much worse.

Niko talks about her mom sending her back to boarding school the day after the funeral, to get away from the sadness. But what if it wasn't just a misguided attempt to spare Niko pain (she's still very sad, and very lonely) but because Niko was inappropriately drawing attention at a very painful time?

If so, then that move probably saved Niko's life. (The book Paranormal Parasitics lists confrontations with both "loved ones" and "groups of strangers" as risk factors for "imminent explosion" caused by the sprites.)

But it also isolates her further, cutting her off from her home and her family. Niko won't even open her mom's letters anymore, and she won't write back. ("She just wants to hear that I'm not sad anymore. But I can't lie to her.")

(This is also its own source of fridge horror from a parental standpoint -- how worried must Niko's mother be, when she not only knows that Niko is overseas and grieving, but that Niko dropped out of boarding school, left the school, is apparently on her own someplace else, and won't communicate with her?)

And I can only imagine how much more horrible it would be to feel as though everyone is looking at Niko, at a time when Niko is grieving, and doesn't want to be looked at.

Every time that Niko talks about how she's been a coward, or a shut-in, I think about all of the stuff that she was dealing with because of the sprites. And yet she still talks to them, and lets them live in a jar in her room.

[fianch]

love how kingham and litty have a len and rin situation happening with them.

"are they married?" maybe

"are they siblings?" maybe

"are they the same person?" maybe

[mellxncollie]

Dead Boy Detectives (2024) — Season 01