#playback lore

[aldritch-ao3]

art refs + lore extras from intermission ii - spoilers abound ! for those who wanted a better look at the curse, or the location .

[ the curse - full res view advised ]

design-wise, jian has a lot of elements at play. he's occupying the same sort of mostly-humanoid area as the disaster curses, but notably less human than even those four in appearance, more akin to an animal dressing up as a human. he's very tall and lanky, build more like an arboreal monkey than a man, with very long limbs and an even longer tail. subconsciously, the change in size/proportion and loss of an extra limb for balance is hard to adjust to - that's why he's an awkward fighter in a human body. his tendency to slouch is because he's often too big to stand upright in normally sized buildings! with the memory loss, he's having to readjust to a different body plan all over again.

[ the internal domain - full res advised ]

the hand sign isn't based off of a real one like the canon signs are - i wanted something circular, but not like gojo's, so a two-handed sign was a must. i just messed with my hands until something felt right. in regards to the domain itself, i think the photobashing concept and impossible geometry came a bit from pmmm - though it could have just been me being too lazy to draw interiors. who's to say.

[aldritch-ao3]

I don't remember if this was mentioned in the fic but did Jian regrow the tooth he made into the talisman for higuruma or did he just lose one of his canines permanently??

he has it again! 'grew back' isn't quite the right terminology, since as a spirit jian is made of energy and it's more like the next time he took form he just had it back. the talisman binding stabilized the fang outside of his physical form, the same w/ other tools we've seen made from his true form's body. he's still got all of those parts, there's just other bits of himself in those same parts elsewhere. the only time he keeps an injury is if it becomes sort of ingrained into his image of himself.

[aldritch-ao3]

as promised, the playback family tree. spoilers abound!

horizontal dotted lines indicate multi-generational gaps! colour-coding the body-hoppers was necessary to keep this thing even remotely legible.

EDIT : imagine the worm is under geto's name. once again my readers are funnier than i'll ever be

[aldritch-ao3]

Question about jianyas medieval C-section scars, can we see how they present on naoyas possessed body and jians cursed body? Like is the scar visible through jians fur or do you have to feel it to know it's there, and does naoyas body even have the scar yet or is it just a phantom sensation? Happy new year I loved the new chapter and they make me so disgustingly sick I need to eat them whole

VERY good question!!! diagram under the cut, but !!! jian's scars align to extremely traumatic or distressing injuries, and are very easy to feel - the one on his belly is all the more apparent because his fur is much thinner on his lower stomach. he has another around his throat that not even naoya has noticed because he doesn't like that area being touched much and he's much fluffier there. his outfits vary a lot but he's always got both covered.

naoya doesn't have the throat scar yet, because he doesn't really have the traumatic impression of that injury, but the stronger connection with the c-section scar means he ended up with an impression of it Very early on. it's just a flat marking, though, like his 'eyeliner', not actual scar tissue.

[aldritch-ao3]

I need a new family dynamic chart with all the new children and siblings. Also how do you think jian and naoya handle pregnancy jokes, like if someone says he acts like he birthed his students himself do you think he'll cry or start spiraling

they aren't REALLY his kids, but here's a quick jian-POV on his not-children

as for pregnancy jokes - jian is most likely to do this big solemn sigh and go 'ah, if only i were so blessed by the gods' or something self-depreciating and no one really knows how to parse that but he seems REALLY bummed about it. more like in a very resigned sort of sad. he sometimes unprompted cries over the idea. it is not a joke that would land.

naoya's response is very dependent on his mood. he could be anywhere from playing along ('i didn't carry you for nine months for you to treat me like this, asshole') to a nonresponsive thousand yard stare and a really unsettling period of quiet. he IS spiralling and he cant visibly show any weakness so he just kind of freezes up. it is DEFINITELY not a joke that would land, but if he makes it first it's okay to play along with him.

[aldritch-ao3]

okay so since Jian dosent need to breath when hes going #curse mode, could he, potentially, split from Naoya (not relationship wise obviously you cant seperate these gayboys) and freeze time, then hibernate until hes all charged up or whatever, or would freezeframe drop with the unconsciousness?

nope! jian isn't ever truly separate from his host until they die - the physical form he conjures is more akin to a shikigami! he's got a lot in common with rika, in that sense, and being summoned tangibly outside of his host body is a constant energy drain on them both. there's no offsetting that, even with freeze frame active.

i'm also not sure his cursed spirit form is capable of sleep. do spirits sleep? or do they just mimic it?

[aldritch-ao3]

Is gojo part of the polycule

so its like this. you tell me.

[aldritch-ao3]

does SIya give his vessels his cunty makeup the same way sukuna gives his vessels his tattoos?

he does! sort of. it's a much more gradual change - like wearing jewelry that stains your skin over the course of several months. parts of him just sort of slowly seep into a vessel the longer he's in control.

hypothetical jian-possessed yuji, for example, since we're so familiar with his design - even right off the bat, the red glint to the eyes and the permanently scruffy appearance is pretty apparent, but over time his markings and expressions kind of become etched into the body :

(though some of it is also how jian likes to style himself and dress.)

i think every incarnation and curse has something of this manner, both immediate effects and long-term effects on the vessel! if sukuna was in control long-term, for example, his vessel may end up growing extra fingers or even arms, or developing his stomach mouth or just getting much taller. it's just most obvious on the jian-naoya pairing because jian is in control 99% of the time.