Excerpt from a dusty journal, early entry.
I fear it is that this journal paints me a dour woman, for I have the writ of a formal life but only the words of an old pirate. The modern tongue is not so easy a thing to twist to the page. It is true I fall to somber thoughts on occasion, though it is not a habit of mine.
As it be, I spend much of my time in the pursuit of simple pleasures. Trudging through snow, visiting with folk from the valley below, and of course plying my trade. As luck would have it, I happened to have done all three yesterday.
A fellow from the valley came to me in secret in the afternoon, with the idea to replace his knife and to gift a matching one in turn to his young beau. Now I being no stranger to young love asked in return only a story. He tells me a rather tall tale of another pirate who once happened upon this valley. Either he's quite the clever sort or I'm rather bad at keeping secrets.
The boy watched me work through the evening. He's a quiet traveling type and a fellow pipe smoker. Said he was on his way out of the valley for the winter. We talked a bit, but I get the feeling he's also quite comfortable saying fairly little.
It was pleasant. Winter.
Signed, Puukko.
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This is one of my favorite minor details in Dungeon Meshi, firstly because what in the femme fatale, but also because it's one of those little things that raises so many questions about worldbuilding.
The Occam's Razor defense attorney in me says that Ryoko Kui gave Kabru a boot knife because she wanted him to escape from his bonds here. And Kabru is a very competent swordsman, why wouldn't he have a boot knife, sure. He's already got a dagger, he can have this too.
And yet: the implications. Kabru, why do you have that? That is not remotely something that could be easily accessed or used in combat. Nobody is pulling out a pen knife from the heel of their boot during a fight with a monster. It's useless in the dungeon ... unless you're the type of person who isn't just worried about monsters.
I've mentioned this before, but I consider one of Kabru's functions in the narrative as being the character who fully brings the idea of human ecosystems into the story. There's a reason why he's always connected to large groups of people (Toshiro's party, the Canaries). He (along with Mr. Tansu, briefly) introduces the reader to the social and political forces working on the dungeon, showing us that none of this is happening in a monster-filled vacuum. His confrontation with the corpse retrievers, who very nearly kill Kabru's party permanently with their reckless murder-for-money scheme, reminds us that monsters are not the only things that prey on humans. Kabru understands the ways the dungeon causes people to put profit over human lives.
We only get hints of it in the story, but like any gold-rush-style economic boom, it's implied that there is a lot of crime and corruption surrounding the dungeon.
So yeah, it really makes me wonder why Kabru keeps a tiny knife in his boot, meant to be carried on him even in situations where he would otherwise be unarmed. Stored exactly in the place where it's easy to reach, even if, for some reason, your hands are tied behind your back.
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Imagine working in Engineering on the Enterprise-D and you're hovering by the door of the Chief Engineer's office, waiting to ask him a question bc the Operations Officer is down here AGAIN and has been talking about a dream he had for the past 20 minutes.
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Part One
Co-(god)parenting a teenager with your (maybe?) ex can be quite the adventure
(O.W.L.s might be easier if you'd had the examiners as tutors since you were old enough to talk, Sirius)
So, for the mirror pattern, I'd been goofing around with attempting marbling with India ink and water, I made an awful mess but I had fun and the swirly pattern looks interesting
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something something zedaph isn't part of demise 2 because he's already a reaper (zedeath) who hasn't been doing his job for years and isn't going to start now
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