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mythvoiced · 2 years

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@jeoseungsaja | Here to leave another excerpt of the piece ‘Yeo is a simp’™: Yeo walks beside Shin, a low hum reverberating as he tries to pretend that he hasn’t been looking at his companion all this time by moving his glance elsewhere; toward some flowering shrubs nearby. “Shin,” the fox finally speaks, trying to remain casual, “your hand looks heavy,” and he stretches his arm, putting palm up, offering it at Dokkaebi, “let me hold it for you.”

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The biggest problem, perhaps, with being creatures as unique and ancient as the two of them are, is, that the will always inevitably stumble upon situations they’ve heard of, witness from afar, understood to be part of someone’s given, granted universe, that they had never come close to engaging in.

At least in Shin’s case, for there is only so much of his understanding of Wang Yeo he can actually apply to the fox at his side with the shameless arrogance of a lover who thinks nothing new is to be find within the crevices of what is certainly not someone loved, not if so easily discarded along with the thousands of mysteries and blessings they still hide between their fingers.

Shin has seen all sorts of things, he watches TV with the same casual semi-regularity many other of the South Korean population would be able to reference the most iconic of scenes, an inside joke to Come Back Mister, a nod to the surprising and barely satisfying queer representation in Secret Garden.

He’s seen things, he’s heard of songs and listened to some as well. Read of moments like these and butterflies.

But other than coming to the unsurprising conclusion that no amount of casual flirting while extending a polite arm to a shop-owner, no amount of shared smiles with an army official obvious enough to make him wonder for his safety, no amount of whispers into spaces where even a yangban maiden might have heard him, could truly be a match, or even come close to enter the same category of thought, as flirting today, at the side of a powerful, nine-tailed fox.

One who comes equipped with the brazenness of a character rumoured as typical to his species, yet one Shin always wants to apply to him and him only.

There’s no comparison nor contrast, he doesn’t like engaging in the many similarities Wang Yeo too will inevitably share with some soul on this earth or the next. The extending of his arm, the halting of Shin’s already slow steps in response, these are unique to him, and anyone who would have read this pick-up line on a forum and decided to add it to their repertoire, well, they might never find out somewhere out here, Shin is seeing them and thinking of him.

He likes these idle walks.

They seem just perfect to set them up for moments like these.

Other than that, though, or mainly, he enjoys them for the tranquillity they settle his fox’s heart into. The ease to perform as he is and sputter his nonsense, the kind he’d only call that to smooth the wrinkles of being flustered it had pressed into his heart, the kind he’d only call nonsense because he likes teasing and smiling.

Because of that tranquillity, the permission to be just them and maybe nothing more if not everything they were ever meant to be. Settling into the universe’s crevices, finding that silhouette that had been carved out for him to come to rest in, and find that he’d rather sit down next to the freshly dug up soil and wait, wait for that moment, look out to the sky, and consider just a bit more life, if only it would mean getting more of this, more of him.

More of those side-glances and the bad attempts to hide them.

More of the brightness of sun rays as they get tangled in his bright red hairs, coming to rest snug between the soft strands.

That damned smirk of his when he thinks himself on top of the moment, and all the times he’s been right, leaving Shin stunned to the side, wondering if standing there and staring on is what deities envy humans so much for.

He doesn’t consider himself much of a god.

But when Wang Yeo holds his palm up and seems so convinced of his thing, when Wang Yeo breathes out and breaks into a smile, when Wang Yeo stops and exists just a moment a longer where he can dare think they exist together and to be together, then, then he’d take it.

The mantle, the moniker, the title of a god, vengeful in all he’d do for him, and belonging to the Heaven for where else to go after he’d been cleansed by love he doesn’t deserve but will so shamelessly devote himself to anyway.

The envy of a deity, before the beauty of the non-divine.

Luckily, he is not enough god for this to last.

Because there’s no envy in the poet’s admirer of what the word divine was created for.

A chuckle, half an incredulous smile, a minute shake of his head.

There’s half a moment where he looks as if he’s about to turn away. His chin lifts, he stares ahead of himself, is he picking up mannerisms or why does his smile resembles his so much?

Up until it breaks into that flustered nonsense no creature of his might that isn’t him would be caught wearing.

He smacks his palm onto Yeo’s awaiting one and pulls both their hands into the pocket of his coat.

“Seriously, what am I going to do with you.”

#jeoseungsaja #the goblin;kim shin #long post tw #a drop of red is it the wounds in your soul or the bright fox heritage on your head;verse 4 wang yeo #the length of my life becomes apparent when i realise how much of it we spent apart;verse 4 wang yeo & kim shin #WHY WHY DID-- THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS IF I KEEP HIM UNDER LOCK & KEY FOR TOO LOGN #*LONG -- I GIVE HIM A BIT OF FREEDOM TO SIMP OVER YEO AGAIN AND HE GOES ABSOLUTELY.-------#ALEX MOST ADORED OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS THANK YOU SO FRICKING MUCH FOR THE GREATNESS OF WANG YEO I--!!!!!!!!!!#THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YEOSHIN OH GOD the way I am collapsing on the floor I can't write anything for Shin without it turning #into some--- it's like he--- he returns worshipping to the corruption-less idea it once was and i need to go lay down #SORRY I DON'T??? KNOW??? I HOPE THIS IS OKAY AND SORRY THAT IT GOT SO LONG EVEN THOUGH IT WASN'T #A SERIOUS ASK HE JUST??? YEO THE POWER YOU HOLD I SWEAR---#thank you so much i hope you're having SUCH A FRICKING awesome day i'm!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#hope it makes sense and yesh i ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; I LUV U #god i could go on about this for hours I DIDN'T EVEN SET UP?? THE ENVIRONMENT DANG IT SHIN YOU AND YOUR SIMPING #DOESN'T EVEN LEAVE ANY ROOM TO... WELL... YKNOW.... CREATE A ROOM-- A ROAD-- LISTEN--!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#;queue

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andro-dino · 2 years

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I don’t know how or where else to publish this but I wanted to share it because I did in fact just spend a large portion of time writing about about a fucking beyblade character so like, here ya go I guess. 2.1k words of Damian Hart in a very overly formal format. this is not proofread because I am too tired for that rn so apologies for any errors

The Damian Hart essay

An incomprehensible rant by Axel

Damian Hart is a character introduced in the latter half of Beyblade Metal Masters and is, in my opinion, one of the most tragic characters presented in the series.

Damian is a member and the leader of Team Starbreaker and is extremely powerful alongside his bey, Hades Kerbecs. He’s immediately set up to be a terrifyingly strong blader when he challenges Yu and Tsubasa, which hospitalizes them, putting both them and their beys in severe condition. This streak of massive destruction only continues with Damian when he battles Julien Konzern, not only defeating him, but Sophie and Wales as well, who jumped in to defend him. He effectively humiliates Julian and completely crushes his spirit, relishing in his despair at his admission that he is weak.

All of this sets Damian up to be a terrifying and dislikable character, however, further looks into his character show that this is merely scratching the surface of his character and that there is so much more to see.

For one, it’s important to establish exactly what goes on in Team Starbreaker. Team Starbreaker is managed by Dr. Ziggurat, a scientist who runs Hades Inc. and HD Academy. Each member of Starbreaker is also a member of HD Academy, a school for bladers that uses rather unconventional means of training. Rather than working to improve their skills, members of the academy undergo “arrangements,” a system which immediately draws out a blader’s hidden strength without them having to put in any work. However, this system is only compatible with a select few bladers, meaning that members of the academy are specifically sought after if they are compatible with the arrangement system. If they are not, it’s shown to cause severe damage to bladers. This system of course does not come without its drawbacks, and each member of Starbreaker shows a different way the arrangements affect people who undergo them.

Jack is somewhat of the “standard” for people who undergo arrangements, which is certainly saying a lot considering Jack is… well… Jack. HD Academy members were all completely unremarkable before joining the school, but saw extreme improvement almost immediately, and Jack is no exception to this. However, Jack does show one extreme side effect, which is that arrangements completely change a person’s personality. Jack is wild and chaotic, extremely all over the place and has a very over the top, flamboyant personality. He’s also incredibly obsessed with art, considering beyblade to be a perfect medium for him to express himself, and he credits his arrangements for his appreciation of art, and presumably also his general attitude. Jack is completely willing and happy to undergo arrangements and welcomes the changes they’ve brought him, very content with the person he’s become as a result of them.

Zeo, however, is on the complete opposite side of this spectrum. Zeo didn’t have much of a choice in joining HD Academy or not. In his time of grief and hopelessness over Toby’s illness that was quickly getting worse, Dr. Ziggurat sought him out, preying upon his desperation by promising that he would give Toby the best treatment he could get if Zeo took arrangements and showed results. While Zeo repeatedly shows that he really wants nothing to do with the academy or arrangements, he still does it because he cares for Toby more than anything else, willing to give up everything for him, even if he does suffer from it. While Jack and Damian both calmly and smoothly take their arrangements, Zeo’s are always presented as painful and uncomfortable, never fully completing one and trying to get out of taking them in any way he can. He only fully completes an arrangement when Dr. Ziggurat presents him with an ultimatum: defeat Masamune with the help of an arrangement or Toby’s treatment is terminated. Understanding that Toby will die without Ziggurat’s treatment, Zeo finally completes an arrangement, passing out immediately after the battle. Zeo, while not to the same degree, also shows a change in personality, seemingly from the arrangements and his experience at the academy. When Dr. Ziggurat found Zeo, he was already angry at Masamune for leaving and desperate because of Toby’s condition, and because of his time at the academy, these feelings only festered and bubbled over more and more, making him more resentful and chaotic in each confrontation he had with Masamune.

Now, Jack and Zeo show two different perspectives of people who joined the academy, but how does this all play into Damian? Well, Damian is a third perspective of how arrangements affect people, as he didn’t join HD Academy; he was raised in it. Immediately, Damian shows signs of what is essentially a god complex, constantly talking about how he is “the chosen one” and praises himself for being compatible with arrangements, considering them to be a great honor to undergo. This is drastically off the walls, even with what we’ve seen from how Jack treats arrangements, and it’s no coincidence. In a flashback, we see a young, bright-eyed Damian being given his first bey by Dr. Ziggurat in the academy, showing that he’s been a part of it for his entire life. Not only this, but the fact that his entire worldview has been shaped around the arrangement system and how he is shown to be genuinely confused when trying to understand other bladers and why they value actual training, it becomes very apparent that not only has he been under Dr. Ziggurat’s control his whole life, but has also undergone arrangements for the entirety of it as well. He doesn’t understand training or the value of it because he’s never had to do it before. He only knows arrangements and the system that Dr. Ziggurat brought him into.

Now, this alone presents how Damian has been manipulated his whole life, but there’s also further implications that can be read into. Now, to be fair, this is mostly my own theorizing and is never stated in canon, but I strongly believe the evidence points to the claim I’m about to make. Taking a look at both Dr. Ziggurat and Damian, the similarities between their designs— specifically their hair— are clear. Their hairstyles are very unique, being round on the top but having spikes that swoop upwards on the sides, both also being colored the same way with the highlights being on the tips of these spikes. Their hair color is also similar. While present-day Damian has light blue hair, in the flashback, his hair is much darker, and Dr. Ziggurat also happens to have dark hair. Plus, consider: Dr. Ziggurat has had Damian since he was a young child, and I could not imagine that someone else would willingly give him their child for what he does, which all together leads me to strongly believe that Damian is Dr. Ziggurat’s son. This only creates even more horrific implications with Damian’s character, especially when you look into his and Dr. Ziggurat’s interactions. Their relationship is very formal, neither seeming particularly close to the other. It’s also not a very strong relationship. While at first, Dr. Ziggurat holds Damian as his star student and the poster child for HD Academy, he is quick to toss him aside after he is defeated by both Gingka and Kyoya, saying that he’s failed and disappointed, and then Damian is never seen again. The stiffness of their relationship alongside how unsympathetic and manipulative Dr. Ziggurat has been shown to be leads me to believe that under the idea that he is Damian’s father, he only had Damian solely to see what it would be like to raise someone on arrangements, essentially making Damian nothing more than an experiment to him. Dr. Ziggurat absolutely is not above using someone for the sole purpose of his experiments, as shown with Faust, so I don’t believe that this would be an unlikely story.

Under this premise, Damian is one of the most heartbreaking characters in my eyes. A child who has been experimented on and used for the entirety of his life, made to believe he was an incredible chosen one who was so high above everyone else, with his entire worldview warped and distorted, only to realize he was nothing more than a pawn in everything; a tool that was thrown away once it stopped serving its purpose. It’s a tragic story, and that is acknowledged in the story itself too. It is specifically pointed out and said that he is a victim in all of it, and yet, despite that, he never gets an epilogue or clarity. While in the manga, Gingka saves him and he’s grateful to be freed, in the anime, he’s never seen again, leading viewers to wonder what happened to him afterwards. How exactly he went about unlearning everything he’d been taught and trying to find his place back in the real world. It’s the open endedness of his story that ultimately ties his character off on a bittersweet note. You can theorize and headcanon what might’ve happened to him afterwards, but in the end, he really doesn’t get any clarity from the narrative alone.

Here I will now dissect his character design itself, because I appreciate the amount of symbolism there is to be found in it.

Damian, just from first glance alone, has a very strong, put-together aura to him. His design exudes confidence and strength that’s shown off very well. One aspect of this design that I appreciate is the use of colors to subvert expectations. The main colors of his palette are white, gold, and light blue, all colors that traditionally are associated with good and purity, giving him an almost ethereal look which very strongly matches his whole “chosen one” outlook, however that is very strongly subverted by… well… literally everything else about his character. He’s twisted and sadistic, hurting people several times just for the hell of it. It’s ironic that his color palette gives him an angelic look (maybe even wings too with the shape of his hair) while his entire motif is literally Hell. His bey is Hades/Hell Kerbecs and his special move literally opens the gates of Hell and drags his opponents down into it, with the bey itself being represented by Cerberus, guard dog of Hell. There’s even a variant of Hades Kerbecs that is red and black, a color palette much more commonly associated with Hell, but he specifically has the gold version, again serving to subvert expectations and preconceived notions about him.

Another aspect of his design I quite like is the silhouette his cape gives him. Damian himself is very petite, being extremely short compared to the rest of the cast and generally having a more childlike physique, however it’s hidden by his cape, which is large and bulky, making him appear much bigger than he actually is. I like how that parallels how his character is itself, him being just a manipulated child who believes he’s much bigger and stronger than he really is. Going back to his colors, his cape also plays into showing his character in a different way as well. While most of his clothing is gold and white, his bodysuit has black accents on it, a color traditionally used to represent darkness and evil, though again, this is harder to notice because of his large white cape. At first glance, he doesn’t seem all that bad, but under his exterior, there is noticeably something much more sinister and twisted going on with Damian, and I really like how his design plays into that.

Finally, what is probably my favorite part of his design is the incorporation of chains. Hades Kerbecs has chain designs on its energy ring, as well as using chains in battle in the show, as chains are used to visualize Damian’s opponents being dragged into the gates of Hades. He also has a chain that latches his cape together going across his chest. While I’m a sucker for bladers who look like their beys, this is not what is most interesting about the use of chains in his design to me. What really gets me is the chain loops on his collar, wrists, and boots. At first glance, Damian appears to just be wearing a black choker, though it quickly looks more like a collar once you realize that the metal piece in the center is a hook for a chain, and this is repeated again on his wrist guards and boots. This is interesting to me as it ties back into the idea that while Damian appears to be free, it’s clearly presented that he is very much not in control, instead being used by Dr. Ziggurat. While he believes himself to be strong and special, in the end, he’s just as much chained down as the opponents he battles are.

#i think I’m only just now processing that this is a thing I have done #I just spent way too long reading way too much into a character because why not #oh my god.#welp #yk I don’t think I’m gonna add any actual tags because I am slightly embarrassed about this lmao

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