Fumiku

Part 1 of the Crown Shyness series

Angel devil was a pawn. A tool. Useful and impersonal. All these words were synonymous with his very name, and so there is no need for her to repeat herself as she narrates this. [Makima pov, ficlet]

Makima was a very busy woman. A busy worker. He and just about anyone knew that her schedule was packed down to every hour. So why was she setting time aside to meet with him?

Makima understood the importance of rewards in training, of easing up the pull on the leash just long enough to remind them that at your call you can give them breathing.

Makima calls angel to her office to address his diminished results due to his laziness. She thinks he’s touch starved. She takes his face into her hands gently, Angel doesn’t react. He finds his apathy gets more pronounced when he’s with her, even as the touch makes spiders crawl under his skin. Backs him into a couch he falls-sits on, and she straddles him, touches his chest, lets her hands run for a moment where he does not move. "Do you like this, Angel-kun? Is it not enough as a reward for future hard work?" Goes straight into kissing him, pressing her body to his. This time he does gasp, at the stifling suffocating warmth of it all, even when her skin is slightly cold and firing off all the nerves on his skin. The kiss feels… Good, somehow. He wonders if this thought too was her design, planted into his mind somehow. Angel continued to be lazy on work duty, and Makima continued to touch him when they found themselves alone together.

Angel Devil was special. He’d always been the most complacent of her pawns, how fortunate he was also one of her most powerful.

Her tool. Her touch.

Her tool, her weapon, her messenger. She meticulously made him integrate the Hayakawa circle. Relationships are chain-like bonds, and the more chains one has… Angel Devil is obedient, but as it is, only by complacency.

Touch me Midas / Make me part of your design [My Ordinary Life, The Living Tombstone]

Angel wakes up from a nightmare and he wants to die. He wants to shed a tear at all but he stays dry and empty and hollow. A shell of an imitation of an imitation. He wants to die screaming and crying, his guts embowelled to the floor, everything out of him before he leaves this devilforsaken place for ever. Maybe by his sword. Makima comes visit him. Makima takes him to a movie, he ends up crying uncontrollably.

He claimed to like humans dying. Makima sees the sympathetic glint in his eye that he tries as best he can to make hollow. Her smile doesn’t shift a millimeter. "Oh, Angel… You truly are so kind." In a cute pitying demeaning ways of oh wow u do fulfill your gimmick

This is how Makima chooses to spend her last moments of peace on the beach, while Gun Devil goes to Denji. She hasn’t felt peace since forever, order does not rest, but here the waves bend around her ankles, mold themselves against her, and there is the body of an angel devil ungracefully lying in the sand, wet hair whipping at his face and sticking to false skin as he eats seafoam and bites back words. He asks her if she ever thinks about the people who die instead of her, from her contract. Makima smiles, but there’s an uncharacteristic softness to it, melancholy.

So won't you tell me / What do you know of devotion? / Be grateful for the freedom of lacking emotion [Like a Dog, Ferry]

Makima with Angel like aren’t we so glad to be devils. "If I a devil don’t feel what they call emotions, I can only imagine how awful and pitiful living as a human must be like." And yet they yearn.

Their hairs were both the color of hearts, despite neither having one.

Angel and reading the bible. What was the point, when he was an insulting imitation of an angel, and a devil who couldn’t follow these words of god? He doesn’t like reading, doesn’t undeestand this, feels guilt at every little fact of himself that overwhelms him so much it loops back around to numbness. [I am alas not knowledgeable enough to pull this concept off but it’d be interesting I think. Not very shippy though I suppose, but hey Makima god imagery…]

Connection control. Bond and chain.

Angel Devil has remembered what Makima is many, many times before. He just didn’t remember any of them. The only therapist Makima would have is one that forgets, that she can keep under her thumb fully… An employee with no rights she has full supervision over who happens to be a devil who’s a good listener out of apathy. "Movies are easier" she says. Devils will literally watch movies instead of going to therapy. He’s all singeing of course but gives up on killing her every time until they have a chat. Here it’s a hard reset where every time they do this it’s news to him, but alternatively it could be like the flip of a switch where he remembers every time before immediately at the snap of her finger.

Frankly, he never understood what was so great about Makima. Until…. What there’s to love about makima: she can touch him. Inexorably, ineffably, miracurously.

[Generally, I like when he knows she’s a devil but of course in most cases that can’t be the case, so my go-to explanation is that being a devil cancels out Angel’s lifesucking touch power but that when asked she tells him that she has a devil contract that protects her from his power and he doesn’t push. But alternatively… : ]

She tells him that as part of her contracts others’ lifespans dwindle in her stead when she touches him, and he bears all this guilt as well.

He thought himself above being fooled or charmed by her, but ultimately he fell into the warm comforting duvet of emotionlessness, lethargy and boredom. Denial, just another kind.

They kiss, and it feels unnatural and unfamiliar to both of them. He’s still starved for physical intimacy tho, and he wasn’t difficult. Makima seeing him as the perfect practice dummy He couldn’t hear her breathing, going to sleep against her.

His hair was always like a bush of brambles. She so disliked disorder. Makima personal grooming time, the dog fur with a comb kind.

"You’re very uncaring, you follow orders toughtlessly. Well, you follow orders most times. It’s not exactly respectable, but, I like that about you."

"Why me?" "Devils have no protected rights."

Any love she ever got was coerced. Sacrificial lambs on a false altar.

A Coraline AU starring Chilchuck is already fun without being marchil, the demon can be only fake Chilwife and similarly offer him the perfect family life, but I think adding a third separate distinct factor/character makes the plot & themes a lot more rich and interesting. You can have something that works with, well, the demon from Dunmeshi as the demon from Coraline, but shifting the demon into a more ambiguously antagonistic figure, with more of an identity…

A lot of Dunmeshi is about accepting reality over your ideal fantasies and coping mechanisms. And Chilchuck’s arc (paralleled by Marcille’s and their relationship together) to me is more about accepting loss and it still being worth experiencing for the risk of love & connection, rather than building upon the wrong you’ve done and regaining what you’ve lost, so Coraline feels very thematic for the two of them. It’s not about going back to how things were and never experiencing the setbacks of relationships but how to overcome loss and keep going and form new bonds, to accept reality even if flawed, like both their arcs in canon~ 👀 

A sad ending where Chilchuck stays in the other world is him failing at that lesson, and if the Demon dies it’s because Marcille refused to learn that same one and gripped too tightly onto her ways despite her second chances, and if they both have a good ending... Well. That’s hard to have that in the true sense because of the whole -gestures- situation, but not impossible… Learning to move on from relationships Chil vs learning to connect with people healthily demon Marcille……. Dual arcs my beloved.

This is also fun to do with them because out of everyone (besides Milsiril and Kabru), Marcille and Chilchuck have some plush imagery. With Chilchuck who regularly sews and fixes his clothes, the plushes at his home representing his history with his daughters, the past when they were young & when he still had a family life. With Marcille, plushes bring comfort, and even represent others like Falin in her nightmare. … Plus her habit of thinking she knows better than others and wanting to decide things for them, or thoughtlessly cutifying Chilchuck and infantilizing Falin etc etc- the whole dunlord thing where she wants to dictate the length of their lives and imprison them in her treehouse, Laios’ forcefeeding speech etc. Chilchuck mends plushes and Marcille treats people like them, changes people into them. Comfort teddies or dolls to manage that she still feels distanced from bc of her half-elfness and secrets. Does this not fit the themes!! Does this not fit a Coraline demon imagery!!! The whole Coraline opening oughhh.

Okok enough yapping!! Gimme actual deets actual plot!!

Marcille, the demon

So. What if the demon had more selfless goals than in Coraline, in a twisted way?

A lonely eldritch being in a cage-world of her own making, who gives people she takes an interest in everything they want, everyone they want at their most perfect pliant self, but doesn’t involve herself in that fantasy, only positions herself as a giver… Because she doesn’t think anyone would take an interest in her back, because that’s too unstable and risky, because that’s too new, because she prefers being a voyeur into others’ happiness……

This is what Ajo’s Coraline AU art, what sparked this whole marchil community horror and coraline AU craze all those months back haha, made me think of first. An Other Marcille, like herself as a dungeon lord, terrifying in its powers and in thinking it knows what’s best for you more than you do, yet innocently well-meaning though selfishly motivated by loneliness. Not unlike the demon in Dunmeshi, Other Marcille genuinely believes her relationship with her humans are a win-win, a mutually parasitic relationship. She’s making everyone happy after all, isn’t she? And if she’s slowly eating his soul, well, it’s the best death he could possibly have had, in the best world made specially for him, after she’s centered all her attention and life and fixation on him. And if she’s slowly eating his soul well, maybe she’ll feel like her pocket dimension’s a little less empty, if someone’s become part of her, someone that can never leave her behind not even through death.

She thinks she’s content with that, but… This is where the story can diverge. Is this only a tragedy? Is Chilchuck seduced by the life he’s shown and seduced to stay, or does it turn thriller because Other Marcille gets attached and he needs to get out and flee? Is Chilchuck only using her & it to cope, or does he catch genuine feelings? Does she only use him to cope or does she catch feelings?

I’m a monster x human romance enjoyer listen I’m all for any of these options— They could have a weird toxic-ish slow burn that gradually turns more and more healthy and genuine slowly over dinner table conversations and bugs in the matrix of the roleplay. Marcille would lose herself in the wife roleplay, playing the role of a wife and mother that she could never get to have any other way as a demon, something that was never meant to be hers but that he’s giving her in a warped way….. Get attached to the guy even if she sees him as "awww a human… Aww my food" in that classic holier-than-thou but still affectionate way that then may or may not turn into genuine respect. Very… Isolated romance you are literally 2 alone in the world in the same setting, the same made-up house for however many days as time blurs together and there’s only you and you and more of it for more of time. Other Marcille falling in love with Chilchuck, or thinking she does in that classic sort of twisted Marcille way, because she wants to romanticize any emotion and attachment she gets even if it’s born from desperation and misunderstood unhealthy attachment… And going "Why not me? Do mi ti" is so heartbreaking to me, bc yeah I’ve been obsessed with this Washing Machine Heart Coraline amv…

Cynical Chilchuck’s will to resist against the messed up supernatural situation crumbling like Laios with his succubus… It’d be fun seeing Chilchuck the straightman gradually rationalizing the situation more and more, because he wants it even if it’s obvious it’s an unwise decision to stay any second more. Yet seconds turn into minutes into hours into days into weeks. How long will they last? The Other World is neverending bliss and peace, joy and contentedness and pleasure, how could he give up on that? It’s Chilchuck Tims I bet he could do it but. He can be a weak man of earthly desires sometimes so! Flip a coin & gamble. Think depressed divorcee who moved into an isolated house, found a hidden tunnel and met this creepy but cute blonde witch, who created his children for him. Chil really could choose to stay on the other side. He’d go back to his life, his work, his alcohol, empty mailbox, no calls from his family and feel like he really has nothing left for him and stay on the other side. 

To take on a cuter role, he knows it’s not his real wife, of course he does, so he ends up saying let me see the real you, and she thinks he’ll run away but he’s like holy shit she’s hot. Lmao. Chilchuck: I love my 16th century creepy witch gf. Marcille is astounded that someone actually likes her for herself and doesn’t have to impersonate anyone when that’s all she knew how to love… Marcille sees his ex wife and thinks taking on her appearance is the best way to get to him… But for once what Chil craves isn’t an illusionary shell of the best but true actual companionship so he starts talking with other marcille and trying to push her to be more authentic and vulnerable. Since it’s literally another world, dreamlike, he feels like he can be vulnerable himself more easily too.

Another take could be that Chilchuck takes the role of Coraline’s father (just more dead eyed, drunk, and miserable rip) and Marcille sees how good he is with his ex-wife and kids and wants him for herself. Starts making a fake family for him and replaces his other wife with her. Dunno how that’d fit into the timeline ehhh 🤔 Definitely a more thriller horror take where you have this eldritch entity obsessed with you trying to veer your life the way they want to so you fall into their hands. Good god

Lore wise, I like the thought of being the demon is like being a dungeon lord, where these pocket dimensions are like dungeons that you get trapped in once you make a contract by the demon. Like maybe it’s a relay race thing where you can get the limitless powers you’re seeking but for it you have to take its place trapped in the dimension. Then becoming demons themselves… Gradually forgetting who they are and just succumbing to instincts and cravings as they lure in and hunt their prey each in their own way.

There are so many ways to handle her appppearance too. Did she always just loook like Marcille, or was it his wife (blonde or not), mayybe even an inbetween with herself as a half-foot like her bicorn theorizing. I like to think it’s a slow transformation, from his older black—haired wife to a younger blonde half-foot woman to a talllady with pointy ears dressed in black... Spider other mother transformation style pretty much.

It’s a premise that’s fun to think of as deeply or as shallowly as you want for daydreams… Like if nothingggg else the imagery is cool. 

Marcille, the neighbor

Coraline AU where Marcille is both the demon and Chilchuck’s perky overly nosy and friendly neighbor. Together they will defeat the Other Marcille! Her parents, whom she lost in a mysterious freak accident, were the original owner of the house, and she’ll be damned if she just let this mystery rest. She lives in the knowledge anyone who lives there might disappear at any moment, worried. She wants to save anyone who moves into it and that’s why she moved to the very next house, befriending every new neighbor, eventually trying to convince them to move away, but Chilchuck isn’t only a stubborn ass, he spits in the face of superstitions.

Her parents being the previous owners of the house who mysteriously disappeared, and then Marcille moved out of the house but could never really move on, and watches the new people going to live in that house to see if it’ll happen again…. Marcille trying to prevent tragedy from happening again, obsessing. Good reason tp obsess over someone all in all.

So then, Chilchuck does get targeted by the demon and sucked in, and when he comes back the investigations truly begin and he can’t brush her off anymore. She breaks into his house when he’s away in the other world at one point I feel. Interrogating him after like "There wasn’t one peep or move coming from your house for days, what were you up to?" "Umm I was hungover mind your business." Maybe he tries to hide it from her at first to keep living his blissful parttime demonic forbidden fruit fantasy or maybe he asks for her help straight away because he’s wayyy out of his depths.

People might ask: "why Other *Marcille* why does the demon take her form?" and I think, the parents being the previous victims of the demon... Other Marcille has that look (and name?) because her parents were the last people she got to, so she stuck with that appearance, the last appearance she took on from her victims’ memories, her parents baited by visions of her daughter forever happy, never experiencing pain or hardship or loss or loneliness.  That and/or down bad lonely Chil took one look at his cute neighbor and the Other demon said yep I can tempt him with this, lmao. Chilchuck, seeing Other Marcille for the first time: (am I really that sex deprived?) OTL

Alternatively, a happy ending (or at least one that doesn’t question if you can achieve happiness in an isolated world of makebelieve with 2 people one being eldritchly powerful and immortal 😰 I guess souls exist so maybe he could be too hm) would be he defeats the Other Marcille with the help of Marcille, his cute blonde neighbor. Maybe right as he’s about to give up and go to the other side, she starts visiting him. Notices he’s lonely and become obsessed with him and his personal life haha like how she behaves in canon. She inserts herself into his life and makes him hesitate on his decision to stay in the other side. Then maybe after enough visits she can learn about the tunnel or the other marcille and second half of the plot kicks up…

And this is where we thought of the next step: Her parents being the previous owners of the house who mysteriously disappeared, and then Marcille moved out of the house but could never really move on, and now watches the new people going to live in that house to see if it’ll happen again…. Marcille trying to prevent tragedy from happening again, obsessing. Good reason to obsess over someone all in all.

The unhelpful cat is Izutsumi lol. Enough said.  Chilchuck and izutsumi fighting each other: Other marcille:  Chilchuck: what the fuckkkkk is going on help meee (　ﾟдﾟ) Izutsumi: Izutsumi (walks away) Coraline Izutsumi being the one link between reality and the Other World bc she’s the cat, kinda fitting since she has a connection to both Chil and Marcille if that makes sense… Between humans and monsters too. In Coraline the cat is more of an antagonist to the demon so it’s interesting the different ways that can play out in an AU

Closing thoughts

Chilchuck moving into an isolated house in an isolated town after the divorce™️ expecting things to be boring, perfect for his currrent mood, but instead he gets thrown into a v scary yet enthralling magic world with a v scary yet v pretty witch-woman-thing and a digestive hallway and oh god. Also an unhelpful talking cat Izutsumi (Izutsumi).

I like to think about a Chilchuck Peter Pan motif sometimes and it feels topical for this a little bit… Guy who doesn’t want to grow up and acknowledge relationships take effort. Ok I need to pull myself together

But you know. If eyes are the windows to the soul then, it can be that they need to sew buttons on their eyes as in ‘closing their eyes’ on something and living in denial because ignorance is bliss, no need to self-reflect or see yourself in others’ eyes like they’re mirrors. Her black buttons are matte, without shine, there is no stray reflection of light that could ever give him a distraught glance of himself…

So yes yes that’s it that’s it. For now. We really do need fics of this au badly omg

Would Chilchuck willingly sew the button eyes on himself?