#renkari

[autisticcatnip]

A beautiful renkari sketch by the wonderful @riotbreaker

[junhecas]

Do you think she feels it?

The first time Renko ate the flesh of her own, of course, was gentle. Yukari seemed to know how to make it seem like something other than it was, perhaps an extent of her power or perhaps a skill learned the hard way, during all the miserable time spent away from each other. But over time, she felt something shift in her mind. Not only had she become okay with it, that had happened long ago, but now...she started to want it. A carnivorous desire that had never gripped her before, wanting to sink her teeth into something real. All she had known for her whole life was fake, compared to this even the best meal she had before Yukari found her feels like cardboard in her memory.

Do you think she feels it, when her body begins to betray its origin? When her bones ache and warp, eyes and teeth just underneath her skin, aching to break free, to feel the light of the moon? Because, certainly, there was no room under the sun for her anymore. She is pale, and thin, eyes wider than they had ever held themselves, but she is alive!

Her mind no longer has room to care if she's found. When she's told another unfortunate soul had wandered past the boundary of artifice and organic, her feet hit the ground as soon as she leaves the conversation. She's running through the trees, laughing and out of breath all at once, almost on all fours as she propels herself faster and faster by grabbing the trunks of trees and pushing herself forward. As soon as her handclaws grace warm flesh, it's over.

Do you think she feels it? When her hands are betwixt the ribs of a man she does not even register the face of? When she hears a soft crunch of detritus and snaps her head back up, blood flying from the corners of her mouth, only to be met with the saccharine smile of her beloved? The woman she had chased to the end of the known world, into that which is truly unknown. Do the new eyes protruding from her skin see different wavelengths; ultraviolet, gamma, infrared? Do her sharper teeth form a different smile, after a short exhale of relief, of happiness?

I hope she does. Feeling is the act of living, after all. This is what she wanted.

[junhecas]

Thesis: if Renko were to inevitably become a youkai (I don't think any universe where she reconvenes with yukari could end with anything but her death or transgression of humanity) she would be a doumeki because the always-watching eyes go great with a Laplace's Demon aesthetic

Antithesis: if Renko became a youkai she would become a crow bird of some description because merry/yukari are obviously some sort of cat, symbolism with toxic love in the form of cat saliva being toxic to birds so one small bite would be all it takes

Synthesis: bird girl with the wings being mottled black on white, spots looking eerily like eyes. And, of course, eyes in abnormal places too, she just also has fake eyes on her wings. She can cover the real extra eyes with clothes. It's fine. Being able to see more than the human mind was meant to comprehend all the time is fine actually she's not having any problems

[junhecas]

"I don't like the idea of renko/yukari because of the insane power imbalance" you don't understand it even a little. not even a little bit

[winged-void]

Renkari lasts all of a few hours because yukari romanticized the shit out of it for the past few thousand years and then had to experience the real life hell of actually talking to renko usami for ten straight minutes.

They still fuck though

[dizzyhslightlyvoided]

Still thinking about how great a ship Renko/Yukari is, if you assume Merry = Yukari. I mean it's great in and of itself, of course, but just think of how it looks to other characters who didn't already know Yukari's backstory.

Yukari just got hugged by this physicist who isn't even as powerful as her ancestor who tried to break the barrier. Yukari is a psych major. Yukari is a time-traveler who accidentally time-traveled and met Mokou once. Yukari was originally a human named "Merry Hearn" (or "Merry Usami", depending on whether they were already Renmarried by the time Merry went back to become Yukari, in which case this means she's also related by marriage to Sumireko).

Everyone having some combination of "Wait, WHAT!?", "This explains so much", "I have no idea what to do with this information", and "this is SO WEIRD"/"this is the wrong kind of weird compared to what we've come to expect from Yukari"

[dizzyhslightlyvoided]

Yukari, Renko, and Yuyuko are all dating, call that Polyamerry.

[dizzyhslightlyvoided]

Some unconnected Renkari ideas, some of which I've mentioned before:

Yukari shitposting like "You're three thousand years late, Renko~"

Yukari acts more Merry-like so as not to scare Renko away, Renko independently decides to act more Yukari-like in order to meet Yukari halfway, they end up accidentally shooting right past each other so that for at least one scene, Renko is acting more Yukari-like than Yukari

Like, that one MMD video with the suplex, really.

Polyamory where Renko enters into a relationship with Merry and Yukari (Yukari and Merry probably aren't dating each other, just Renko). Light novel title: "My Metamour Is My Demonic Future-Self!"

Yukari shows up immediately after Merry is gone, tries to resume her old life, is comically bad at it because she remembers nothing except "married to Renko"

Old Sumireko, who may have to be Youkai Sumireko.

Just everyone's reaction to The Youkai Of Motherfuckin' Boundaries getting hugged by this undergrad whose psychic abilities aren't even as powerful as her great-etc.-aunt when she first busted through the Hakurei Barrier.

"Yukari is a psych major!? ... I genuinely have no idea what to do with that information."

Bonus Yuyuko polyamory:

Renko is having a panicked freakout about Merry turning into an ancient youkai, Yuyuko kisses her to try to shut her up, Renko is now having completely different (but admittedly less-panicked) freakout.

Renko dates some of Yukari's girlfriends + their girlfriends who are't directly dating Yukari (i.e. Yuyuko/Satori and Yuyuko/Yukari are a thing; Renko/Yuyuko, Renko/Yukari, and Renko/Satori all become a thing; but Satori/Yukari specifically doesn't happen)

"Now, Renko, I feel like it's important to let you know: I am dating Yukari, so keep in mind that she might pop up in Hakugyokurou from time to time~" "... Yuyuko, in the Outside World, she and I are literally married."