It's like you never had wings

Shikiaki main. 20+. Mostly rambles and occasionally meta. Icon by @calsnc

This isnt an ask for an unblock though, i dont mind if you dont want me interacting, but i do seriously love your fics and ive read them all at least thrice the last few months. Sorry if it comes of as desperate, youre a seriously good writer<3

Maybe its just the artist in me that cant put my thoughts into words that make me respect you so much more :D

Hello,

I'm going to assume you're the same person who sent me that message on strawpage a while back asking me what my DNI is. Also, I'm aware you didn't want to share your username because you wanted to preserve your privacy (which I respect), but I do have an inkling of who you are because there was only one user I had blocked around the time I received that strawpage ask.

I do appreciate that you enjoy reading my fics and that you like my interpretation of the Shikiaki dynamic. I originally blocked you because I heavily disagreed with something you said about Shiki's ED1 that just rubbed me the wrong way. I respect the fact that everyone has different shipping tastes, but I don't appreciate it when people make claims that Shiki's ED1 isn't actually about Shiki and Akira, but about Shiki's relationship with another character. Sorry, but that just doesn't sit right with me. Regardless of who you ship Shiki with, saying that Shiki's good ending isn't actually about Shiki and Akira's relationship and their ambiguous yet present feelings for each other, just comes across as acting in bad faith.

You've said that Shiki's ED1 has grown on you and that you adore it now though, so maybe your thoughts have changed since then. When I block people on Twitter, it's not really personal; it's just that I don't want to see your tweets when I look at the FYP or Shikiaki tag. It used to be on Twitter that the mute button didn't actually work in hiding tweets because it'd still show RTs and QRTs from muted accounts, so I started blocking people instead. I don't know if they changed how it works on Twitter, but that's what I've been doing since I entered the fandom tbh. I block people who I'm not mutuals with, and save the mute button for mutuals.

Hello!!!

It's been confirmed that Shiki is in his early 20s, although I can't personally verify if the source is true or not. This is an image that someone sent me; apparently it's from a magazine based on the Togainu no Chi anime.

Personally I think Shiki is 23 or 24 years old for this reason; I can't imagine him being 20-21 in terms of "early 20s" lol.

I think Rin is 18 years old. I know there's a lot of discourse about Rin's age and how people think he's under 18 and actually around 16 years old, but I just wonder if people have never actually seen or met a short, scrawny 18 year old in their entire life lol. The high school I went to had a large Asian demographic and there were a few dudes who were short and tiny as hell, even in senior year. So it's not too farfetched for me to believe that Rin is 18 years old. I know Rin isn't Asian because he's probably Caucasian on both sides or whatever, but again, the whole "shota character being 18 years old" is not that hard for me to believe. It's very possible he just had delayed puberty, especially because we see in the 5 year timeskip that he develops a height and build that looks very similar to Shiki lol.

And looking at this childhood photo of Shiki and Rin together, it's VERY hard for me to believe they have an 8 year age difference here (assuming Rin is 16 and Shiki is 24 during the visual novel). A 4-5 year age difference is much more believable.

In the manga, when the flashback with Nano is shown, Shiki is depicted as a teenager, and he kind of looks like he's in his late teens. (But then of course he later grows up to be a hot sexy 188cm dude so like.... it runs in the family I guess LMAOOO).

What do you think Shiki was before the war? Like, what kind of family did he come from and what was his life like before everything happened?

Personally, I have a theory that he might have come from a fairly wealthy family. I’m not completely sure, but I think the story mentioned that during the war he worked for the government, like eliminating people who were considered unwanted or dangerous. I feel like they wouldn’t choose just an ordinary person for a job like that, so maybe even before the war he already had some connections with the government, which could suggest that he had a higher social status.

Also, Shiki uses a katana, and a weapon like that is not something you would just randomly find lying around. And even if we assume that he somehow found it somewhere, you still need skill and training to use a katana properly — you can’t just pick one up and suddenly know how to fight with it without any practice.

So my guess is that Shiki came from a higher social class and practiced using a katana as a hobby before he went to war and met Nano.

(I really love your theories and thoughts!!!! Thank you❤️❤️❤️❤️)

Hello again!

No, the question hasn't been asked before, so thank you for asking!

I don't have the exact details so what I say is probably 50% canon and 50% headcanon. Basically, Shiki (and Rin) came from a "special family" and it's pretty much implied in the manga and their childhood photos that they came from an elite or privileged background.

We can kinda guess, based on Shiki and Rin's outfits here, that they probably came from an upper-class, sophisticated family. They probably went to private school or something, hence the school uniforms.

In volume 3 of the Chayamachi TNC manga, Rin also mentions that his family had a kind of special situation and is "special class," and was exempt from military duty. Also, he reveals that the mother who raised him is his biological mother, which is a pretty big deal considering how most children were separated from their biological parents/families when the government was trying to reform the nation. (Keisuke making a point of asking Rin if his mother is his 'real mother' implies that it's not a typical situation in their society).

Now here's the part where my answer delves into 50% headcanon lol:

Rin himself says that his mother forbade him from training, but we know Shiki went on to work for the military and even get involved in the underworld. And since they're only half-brothers, most people think that Shiki and Rin have the same father and different mothers. Rin says that his friends taught him a lot of stuff, which is pretty vague, but I'm gonna assume that he mainly learned how to fight when he was in a team in Bl@ster, whereas Shiki probably undertook actual training regimes to get stronger.

As for the katana, I think the writer and artist wanted to lean into a regal Japanese character archetype for Shiki... you know, the kind of character that is elegant, refined, and sophisticated... kind of like Byakuya from Bleach if you know him lol. In the TNC school AU, Shiki is also depicted to be the type of person who drinks green tea. And he apparently lives in a big mansion in the drama CD AUs.

Personally I don't wonder a lot about Shiki's backstory... I'm kinda satisfied with what we already learn about his character from canon. But what you theorized about his backstory is mostly correct and backed up by canon!

hello hello!! I love your username...

It's not a stupid question at all! I was a bit confused the first time I read it as well lol. I can share my interpretation of it with you, but since I'm not the creator, I don't know if this is exactly what they intended to convey. Also, I haven't read that doujinshi in a while, so my impressions are probably not going to come off as intense as they would have if I were reading it for the first time.

Thank you for enjoying my posts and fics!

"I keep thinking about scenarios where Shiki would get jealous and possessive of Akira"

okay so basically their everyday lives 😭✋

I've seen some cute modern AU fanart where Shiki gets jealous over the prospect of Akira hanging out with the other characters in the main cast lol. Not in a "you can't talk to any other guys except me" sort of way, but in a very possessive, clingy, and sulking Shikitty way lol. I can imagine the main cast being annoyed/exasperated that Shiki always hogs Akira's time and whisks him away, and Shiki just kinda ignores their complaints... he's the type of guy to just do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and we love him for that. ❤️

(feel free to share those scenarios in your head though...)

Thank you!!!

I don't know if I have any headcanons that I haven't already mentioned before in some of my posts. But if it's of any interest, I do have an ED3 prompt I'd like to write in the future about Akira being jealous of Shiki for once, instead of it being the other way around like always. I think that Akira is just as fully capable of being obsessive and murderous as Shiki in ED3. If Shiki suddenly started giving someone else attention (like a guard), Akira would act extremely petty and spiteful toward that guard lol. He doesn't like the idea of anyone else capturing Shiki's attention (in the light novel he was jealous over his past self because he thought Shiki liked his past self more... 😭).

How do you think - if we imagine a situation where one of them had to die, would Shiki sacrifice himself for Akira?

I feel like it might depend on the ending. For example, in the 3 ending their bond seems weaker to me, so in that version Shiki might not sacrifice himself.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!❤️❤️❤️

Hi!!! Sorry I took so long to respond to this ask. (your icon is so cute btw...!! ❤️)

Thank you for saying that you enjoy my Shikiaki content and my headcanons omg 😭. I feel like my headcanons are a bit silly sometimes lol, but yeah I do try to apply elements from canon to my headcanons whenever possible.

Okay but onto your ask, this is a really interesting question and I had to sit around and think about it for a while lol. If it were any of my other OTPs, it would be easy to answer this question, but because it's Shikiaki, the answer isn't so clear cut. I don't want to be biased and say that yes, Shiki would sacrifice himself for Akira simply because it's what I hope would happen, rather than thinking about it objectively. Shikiaki's dynamic is so tricky to explore precisely because they wouldn't do typical notions of romantic gestures (like professing their undying love for each other, for example).

But as you suggested, I also think it would depend on the ending.