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dailydemonspotlight · 7 days

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Mizuchi - Day 22

Race: Snake

Alignment: Neutral

April 19th, 2024

Serpentine monsters are a common sight in mythology; whether it be the great Dragons of yore, the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, the aboriginal Rainbow Serpent Yurlungur, or even the classical Ouroboros. However, Japan loves snakes in mythology. We've already covered one in Yamata-No-Orochi, but there are so many more, whether it be the adorable and hilarious Yokai Tsuchinoko, or, in the case of the demon we're covering today, the legendary water serpent, Mizuchi.

Mizuchi is rarely seen throughout the tremendous amounts of tales that make up Japanese mythology, only mentioned in the Nihon Shoki (the oldest still-remaining text of Japan's history, dating all the way back to the Yōrō era) as well as appearing in a single Man'yōshū poem. In spite of this, Mizuchi has been the topic of many scholarly debates, eventually being bastardized through history into everyone's favorite root-chakra destroying turtle, the Kappa.

Mizuchi, however, is not originally from Japan- its name is actually a transliteration from several Chinese glyphs, particularly several glyphs describing different dragons, serpents, and monsters of Chinese mythology. Admittedly, I don't know much about Japanese, but one of the kanji used to spell the name Mizuchi implies that it's a snake, but it first-and-foremost means "Water spirit." The word, in English, can be broken down into "Spirit-of-Water," as Mi- means water, -tsu- (the way that it is pronounced) effectively means 'of,' and -chi is a suffix that describes a spirit. Due to this, Mizuchi's origin as a Chinese myth makes it very, very hard to track down much of a solid origin for it, given that it originates from what was effectively a way to match how it sounds to how it's spelled.

Now, in terms of mythology, Mizuchi was first referenced in the Nihon Shoki- as the story goes, under the reign of Emperor Nintoku, there was a fork at a river that contained a great water serpent that would be a very deadly nuisance- it attacked random passersby, spat venom at anybody who came near, broke apart caravans, and was generally just a prick. Eventually, fed up with this, a man named Agatamori approached the spirit with a challenge- he tossed three Calabashes into the water and challenged the spirit to see if it could sink them. If not? Mizuchi would face a swift death. The dragon, perturbed, obliged, yet was unsuccessful, meeting a demise by the hands of the man.

Later on, Agatamori found his way to the fellows of the mischievous snake, and in a move as genocidal as it was unwarranted, slaughtered the entire clan of Mizuchi. The lake below was filled with their blood, later becoming the noted "Pool of Agatamori." However, in spite of how apocalyptic this may seem, it turns out that there are more recollections of Mizuchi in the mix, and this tale was but one of many.

The god of the river recorded in Nintoku 11 is also commonly seen as a Mizuchi. A dam being built along Yodo River was subject to an attack from an unknown force, completely breached. Confused, the Emperor commanded a rebuild of it, only for it to be breached yet again. This happened time and time again, and eventually, the Emperor saw a solution to his problem through a prophetic dream. Bringing two men to the riverfront, he offered them up to the River God, but one refused. Likely recognizing the circumstances, the man demanded to see the divinity of the snake by trying the age-old calabash trick, tossing a set into the river and daring the god to sink them. Unsurprisingly, the Mizuchi failed, and likely grew to resent calabashes for the rest of its life.

The last example of a Mizuchi in classical Japanese mythology comes from the Man'yōshū, a collection of ancient poems that have been passed down from generation to generation. In one of them, a poem composed by Prince Sakaibe, he describes a short and intriguing tale regarding a Mizuchi. In quote, "I could ride a tiger to leap over the Old Shack, to the green pool, to take down the mizuchi dragon there, if only I had a sword capable of doing just that." The story regards a mizuchi dragon as being almost common knowledge, bringing up as many questions as it does answers- however, the way it regards it in such a casual manner may play into why Mizuchi are so scarcely mentioned.

If everyone knew about mizuchi, then they wouldn't feel the need to record it, right? The casual cadence of the poem seems to give light to the idea that mizuchi were a common sight or concept in ancient Japan, and it may have to do with their later bastardization into Kappa. In some areas, kappa are given a name incredibly similar to a mizuchi, such as "Mizushi," "Medochi," or "Mintsuchi." Past this, a common trait in Kappa stories lies in their hatred of calabashes, something which is similar to the distaste Mizuchi have for calabashes in both stories they appear in. Some historians speculate that mizuchi and kappa were in the same general 'clique' of water dwelling monsters.

God, that was a lot. Mizuchi are confusing. However, in terms of the SMT series, there's a lot less to comment on; their appearance as a water spirit in the form of a snake is faithful, and their design is as simple as it is elegant. They appear to be made of clear water, almost like a rushing river in the form of a snake. Throughout the series, Mizuchi are a common sight in the early-mid game, even appearing as a boss in Nocturne. Their specialty in ice skills, the closest thing SMT has to water skills, is almost obvious. However, overall, there's elegance in simplicity, and Mizuchi is just that.

#shin megami tensei #smt #megaten #persona #daily #mizuchi #this thing was a HEADACHE.#probably the hardest demon so far to research #a lot of my stuff was taken directly from wikipedia #albeit reworded #and i feel a bit bad about it #but i can't read japanese!!#and almost all the primary and secondary sources are #lo and behold #in japanese.#however i do appreciate the challenge and i love looking into weird and obscure folklore!!#its just that this guy was way too much of a doozy.#never again. jesus h jimminy cricket.

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fandomfaeofveryfewf4cks · 8 months

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"He wants blood!"

"Blood?"

Something about the way the squire asks that tells me EXACTLY what kind of Ballister x reader fics he has and has not been reading.

#Like he's clearly more of a Protective!Ballister and fluff kind of reader #he did not sign up for blood play #Nimona #nimona movie #the squire #ballister boldheart #the secret Boldheart fandom in the Realm #I bet half of his fans are absolutely feral over his “dark and scary brooding” persona that the institute probably promoted #and the other half are like “he's misunderstood” but then list all the things he's been accused of as though they are forgivable #they're false accusations but the fans don't know that #what if Ambrosius found out about Bal's fandom?#who am I kidding #he would be the one to START and LEAD the fandom #Loins_of_Gold is number one Ballister Boldheart stan #headcanon #i need to sleep #meeting your celebrity crush #turns out he hangs out with a feral demon baby

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phoenixcatch7 · 8 months

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I'm making a persona 5 au of svsss (au in that it was the modern world that was the au, and sy brought something along with him), and I'm having a lot of fun with it!

Sy dies the same way as in canon, but this time as the leader/a member of the Chinese branch of phantom thieves (when and how a Chinese branch was made can be handwaved). He's a fellow wild card, a fool arcana, he's got third eye and a fully realised but unawakened persona.

When he awakes in sqq's body, he starts on as canon, but starts to notice strange fluctuations on qj that indicate the presence of the meta verse - and not only that, but a palace. The system notices the mysterious appearance of a new program it can't delete - the meta nav.

Without the key words, however, Sqq can't get in. He can't find who it belongs to, nor what it might be. One thing is for certain though: lbh cannot find out. The blackened protagonist with free reign of the meta verse? An undoubtedly powerful persona of his own?? It'd be the breakdown incidents all over again! He wouldn't stand a chance!

It takes a lot of arguing with the system about narrative directions and plot holes for it to not direct him to the nearest ripple in reality. In dreams, igor agrees (he has a lot to say about his new situation, but Sqq kinda ignores it).

Then, one day, he finds a fluctuation strong enough to fit a human, and slips right through, his scifi fantasy ninja outfit appears in flames, and he is faced with the distortion of qing jing peak - roiling dark clouds, bamboo towering impossibly far over his head, brown leaves thick on the ground and a thunderous gong ringing from somewhere down the path.

A coliseum.

Screams ring out, metal clashes, beasts roar.

And standing in front of the metal grill gate, tall and bedazzled in riches and more unmarked than shen yuan has ever seen him, is shen qingqiu.

What is persona if not themes of the inner self and fighting literal inner demons and learning to love, both yourself and others, and overcoming tragedy?

There are some things I'm still unsure of, but I really want to explore the idea of the ghost of sj lingering on, still haunting the narrative and how that affects everyone. Normally, when a palace ruler is killed, their palace crumbles as well, but with Sqq still walking around and the systems intervention with his soul (having not died then in canon) the original goods wouldn't be fully gone.

The soul is! It's not sjs ghost, but rather his shadow. Real souls cannot live in the meta verse. But with the real deal gone, sy would be unable to affect him in order to make his way through the palace to the treasure the way a normal heist would go. Instead, he'd have to learn about sj himself, uncovering secrets and dispelling rumours. As the new Sqq, he would have to change his perspective and uncover the story behind the scum villain in order to progress. Remove the distorted perspective from himself.

Mini bosses would be a bad faith interpretation of yqy from sjs perspective, qiu haitang as she was at the manor. Enemies would be the coliseum guards and jailers, the shadow populace qj disciples in general misery, often forced to fight each other or monsters as sj watches on from the top seat. Nyy would sit with him. Poor shadow lbh would be a prime gladiator slave, suffering constant defeat. Sin: envy. I really want to focus on the fact he is both abuser and survivor, and his 'I suffered, thus so should you' thing. A bit like p5 strikers in that.

The plot would be basically Sqq handling both the canon events of svsss and also his investigation into sj, tracing paper trails of slave documents, hunting for potential secrets in the bamboo house, learning about the ghost backstab incident from lqg (which leads him to airplane), building up the courage to go down and talk to the brothel ladies, carefully teasing bits of history out of yqy. Also beating up shadows with a jojo stand and a .7 calibre sniper rifle he can fire like an automatic in his spare time. (if you don't know, persona lets you hold shadows at gunpoint for cash and items, but also flirt, threaten and bribe. Also you can ambush them and sometimes collect them like pokemon it's fun.)

The final battle would have the palace ruler sj transform into his final form (I'm thinking something with chains) but there absolutely has to be a human duel for the first phase, xiu ya to xiu ya. The surrendering of the crown would end in a hug, and sj performing a sincere but bastardised version of the peak lord crowning ceremony before he dissipates, and the coliseum starting to crumble and burn. As for the treasure... In the distorted world, an elaborate peak lord ceremonial crown, in the real world, an old, worn hair ribbon.

If I wrote it, I'd probably keep it shorter. Just the one palace, maybe sqh awakens his persona by virtue of being squirrelly and getting on his last nerve™. I'm thinking of the 'what don't I dare when it comes to you?!' because if that isn't a persona awakening scene I don't know what is. Conquering the bamboo palace would free qj from some 'unnamable' dark cloud and just in time to push lbh in the abyss (the palace time limit bring that sjs spirit would cruelly push lbh into the abyss rather than sy doing it (and being kinder about it)).

If it was longer, more persona users would awaken, despite sqq's best attempts. Liu qingge, ning yingying, shang qinghua obviously, gongyi xiao, zhuzhi lang maybe (they'd both live). A real motley crew. There'd be more palaces along the journey, each with it's own deadline - old palace master, lbh (though his palace would have the gimmick of being actually xin mo's), tianlang Jun, qiu haitang. Sj would still be the overarching palace, this time being the only one without a deadline maybe, and the story would end with a 'not sj' reveal for the new phantom thieves (with a side order of 'we already know and care for you anyway').

A sequel would be shorter: sy visits qiong ding for the first time since its all calmed down and realises that the distortions of a palace are still there, that they weren't a product of the bamboo palace. Yqy has a palace (because you can't tell me that man is mentally well). For a side of angst maybe the sy reveal was more open secret for the need to knows rather than strictly 'whoever witnessed two identical versions of Sqq trying to kill each other' and Yqy develops the palace as a result of not taking that well.

In comparison to the others, Yqy is the strongest cultivator alive, has been sitting on a soul deep distortion and trauma for decades since childhood, recently went through a heartbreaking reveal pointed directly at every single one of those issues, and oh yeah, has his soul directly bound to xuan su.

His palace's difficulty level is nightmarish. The corrupt version of the lingxi caves is a terrifying subterranean crawl through blood soaked caverns and bottomless pits. The gimmick is that near everything wants to suck your soul out. The only saving grace is that distortions are not inherently malicious, and they manage to lever that to their advantage. Unlike the others, yqys palace does not focus on him abusing his power over others - quite the opposite, in fact.

Through murals, echoing voices, and what sy and sqh remember, they piece together his own heart demons. It's scary - outwardly, the sect leader is fine, clear headed, going about his days just fine. The bloodied caverns he sees the world through tell a different story. To gain access it's a long process of easing out stories, working through his deeply ingrained self reliance, helping him work up to confessing the truth of xuan su. Not only to xiao jius shrine, but to his closest martial siblings as well, allowing him to be vulnerable and protected as he never has been.

But Yqy follows them into the palace, curious as to why they visit his peak every day. It's unstable, very dangerous for a person to meet their shadow, but it's too late. Yqy meets his shadow self, small and furious and stuck through with a thousand swords he uses to his advantage, and does the impossible.

A palace ruler awakens a persona.

Even as a trained group, the life force powered xuan su boosted shadow is too strong - they've already failed to defeat it once. Yue qingyuan, breathing grief like air but finally ready to heal, stands for himself. Rips off the smiling mask he's been hiding behind since he was five years old and freshly a big brother. His persona is magnificent.

And just in time, too, because, uh, turns out the meta verse is the systems doing, this time. And it's evil. I'm thinking a giant brainwashing vr-esque super computer. And they defeat it with the power of friendship and also lucifer.

#But if I made it as big as I wanted it'd be 100s k easy #Idk idk it's been swimming in my mind for ages #LONG POST #I've already got some personas and designs thought out but that'll have to be a separate post LMAO #I want to write it so bad ToT #Feel the prequel/sequel is unbalanced but it'd be during/post canon. They don't have to be the same length.#I mean maybe I could make it a palace per fic and have a proper series?#Themes: acceptance/false assumptions/self discovery/love and trust. All those good things.#See this always happens I go to write a funny haha self indulgence thing and it SPIRALS #I don't want 400k of plot I want to see Sqq in a scifi fantasy ninja outfit with a giant sniper gun mowing through 4d demons #While svsss characters watch on in shock and awe #Is that too much to ask??#svsss #shen qingqiu #scum villain's self saving system #scum villain #the scum villain's self saving system #persona series #persona 5 #persona au #persona 5 au #fic ideas #fanfiction #fanfic #crossover #crossover fic #Bamboo palace au

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jettorii · 11 months

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demon guy sketches

#i fell deeper into the spiderverse hyperfixarion today.#and contemplated all of my life decisions pn that comic goodbye #anyways demon man i love them #will be!!! definitely posting mpre of my persona because i had some great ideas for certain things >:]#like i genuinely have some great funky ideas for them #im so excited muahshahaha #take this as a replacement for the comic. no idea when il finish it LFMAO #jettdoodles #jettocs #i also am literally about to pass out goodbye mimimimi

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angelsdean · 2 years

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no but really azazel possessing john was just a convenient little metaphor, just another way for dean to reconcile with the conflicting image of his father-god who can do no wrong and the cruel man who has hurt dean, used dean, mocks him for his devotion and loyalty to his family, for his role as caretaker, despite benefiting from dean’s labor. anyways. looking at the scene and imagining there is no azazel....imagining the demon as metaphor is just. oh my god. like so heartbreaking and so compelling. the demon is alcohol, the demon is grief. john lashes out at dean, pins him to the wall, hurts him in his haze. and dean’s crying, begging him, not to let the demon inside him get the upper hand, fight this dad! please please don’t kill me. and then sam gets free, and he gets the gun. and he has a chance to end it. he has a chance to kill the monster that’s been haunting them for 22 years. but dean. dean still loves his dad. despite everything. he doesn’t know how not to love him. so he begs again, please please don’t kill him. and he thinks things might be different now. he always thinks things will be different after one of these fights. but dad doesn’t apologize for hurting dean. he sobers up, the metaphoric demon gone dormant for now, but everything is the same. they get in the car and drive and john is pissed and he tells them nothing matters but the job. dean bleeds out in the backseat of the only real home he’s even known and he hears his dad say “this demon comes before everything.” hears him say, this demon comes before YOU, dean. their lives are still ruled by the demon. the demon has always been there, will always be there. his dad is beyond saving but dean can’t kill him.

#like actually. the metaphoric demon as the manifestation of john's grief and increased substance abuse and the angry man he becomes #is sooo compelling to me #and the demon as a figurative persona that dean places on his dad to distance him when he's like this from the good dad in his mind #makes me insaaane like super unwell emotions #re-imagining the first few seasons as there not actually being a yellow eyed demon it was just john the whole time is. i want to eat that #want to gobble that up #like there's still other demons and the supernatural and everything but JOHN. john is the one who broke his family #john is the one who killed them #i think again framing it as a consequence of his drinking..of that internal demon is wow so good #like imagine he got drunk the night of the fire and maybe idk left a cig lit when he passed out downstairs or something #and his carelessness his altered state led to mary's death #and the whole blood thing with sam...metaphor for addiction being passed down #sam IS an addict the whole blood storyline was framed as an addiction so it makes sense #azazel corrupting sam with his blood is litcherally just. john passing down his demons to his son #(yes i know dean is also an addict. literally an alcoholic but it's 8 AM i'm not thinking thru every detail of the metaphor rn)#dean's always been mary's mirror anyway and sam is johns so for now i'm satisfied w the metaphor #i'll think more abt how dean fits in later #maybe it's like. yeah he has that part in him too but it's never been allowed to take over and consume him really #not the way sam lets his addiction take over #bc dean's always always had to put everything before himself always had to carry the family be the caretaker AND the soldier #so when the hell does he have time to go full addict and let it run his life like john and sam do? he doesn't.#yes it's there and it's a bad coping mechanism and a crutch but he rarely rarely lets it consume him #except for when. when cas dies. but y'know. that's a whole other thing i could write abt forever #dean studies #vic.txt #WAIT WAIT #JOHN MAKING THE DEAL W AZAZEL BASICALLY LETTING THE DEMON 'WIN' BASICALLY KILLING HIMSELF BC HE THINKS IT WILL PROTECT HIS SONS #thinks they will be better off without the alcoholic angry man but he doesn't think abt how his death will really affect them #and he still tells dean. hey. if sam's addiction takes over if that demon inside him like the one in me wins....you wont be able to save him #you'll have to kill him

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yfere · 7 months

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wild way to overcome writer's block:

write, "here's a summary of a story my bard oc in pathfinder would write." realize, after the summary - hey that's actually kinda a full ass story. the plot is solid. hey. you can work with this. hey. what if you the real life person actually wrote this story fully. hey.

hey.

#apparently I need three degrees of separation from my art to actually accomplish anything #it's not ME doing the creating it's the character of the character of the persona--#personal #the only thing is #I feel like it's so basic??#but #basic isn't all that bad. basic is marketable #I don't need to do my Fancy Literary Shenanigans #I can literally just write a weird little romance between a demon and a changeling aight

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cacturne · 1 month

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honestly like as a kid i always was like cool edgy evil devil demon stuff but now? now im a gigantic fan of divinity and angels. theres literally nothing cooler than getting absolutely eviscerated by the cold uncaring light of judgement and shit. so much cooler than evil demon blade.

#ghosts howling #im suuuch an angel and a devil guy at the same time its a little funny. but i think ill always choose angel over devil #even if my persona is a demon but sshhh #godly things are just so farking cool

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twilightknight17 · 1 year

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I wasn't gonna post anything about P5X, because from everything I'm seeing, it looks like a huge disappointment. But I do just want to make a joke about one thing.

"How do we make the people understand that our new OC -- I mean, MC -- isn't just Joker 2.0?"

"I've got it! Joker had a bad living situation. He didn't even have a proper bed. Well, our MC has no bed. Only shadows!"

#seriously every new thing I learn is just more wtf #the gatcha isn't even for demons #SOJIRO IS GONE #like what are you people even doing #Persona #Persona 5

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sometipsygnostalgic · 1 year

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orchid!!

orchid ⇢ what’s a song you consider to be perfect?

Holy shit this is a HARD one because there is so much videogame music that I adore. I'm not big on NON-videogame music though.

So I'll just give a few recommendations:

The Changing Game is one of the best Homestuck tracks, it's so dark and intimidating and the fact they associate it with the Scratch, sort of captures the scale of that event. There are other great homestuck songs, I just am thinking of this one for some reason.

Collision Course (Davepeta's Movement) is probably the most PERFECT homestuck (fan) track though. B33 Undertale, Nepeta, and Dave all in one go. When this premiered it was like 4 hours into the stream and the most hype thing ever! It inspired me to work with LOFAM as an artist for a while.

Battle Frontier (Platinum) is a Pokemon track I think about a lot. It's so high energy. The reason I think about it is probably because of Entrapta though. I said she'd have this theme. Listen, doesn't it fit? The energy, the mechanical rhythm... It's perfect (for that specific purpose).

Volo's Battle Theme, aka Cynthia encounter theme remix, is the coolest music to come out of Pokemon in a while. And I was a BIG fan of some of the music in the past 3 gens, especially 7.

Fly me to the Moon and Let's Dance, Boys! from Bayonetta 1 are some of the most hype tracks ever. You feel so happy fighting angels while they're playing or watching the credits or watching Bayonetta's silly sexy dance video at the end of the game.

Devil Trigger from DMC5 is a really high energy song to beat up your opponents to. It fits Nero and his explosive rage like a glove.

Bury the Light, Vergil's heavily memed theme from Special Edition, is not only the perfect successor to Devil Trigger, it's also the perfect Vergil song. Also I like to scream the chorus to this sometimes. I AM THE STORM THAT IS APPROOOAAAACHING, PROVOOOOOOKING----

#BORN IN FLAMES #I HAVE BEEN BLESSED #MY FAMILY CREST IS A DEMON OF DEATH #yes i did listen and BELT OUT THE LYRICS to that song while listening to it while typing this post #dmc5 #devil may cry #bayonetta #homestuck #pokemon #the four horsemen #doom wouldve been an honorable mention but ive never enjoyed doom music when im not playing the game #persona music is all amazing but like its also all the same #if i had a persona track here itd be the boss themes from p4 of all things #the one that plays on most bosses and then the one that plays against adachi #its harder to get people to remember a song with no lyrics #listening to A New World Fool while walking home the other day and was fucking SHOCKEd at how good it was and how i forgot it

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