I NEED Grian To Go Full Psychological Horror On The Hermits With The Permit Office. I Need Multiple Layers

I can’t think about pre-Agency Atsushi without bawling my eyes out.

In every single flashback we see Atsushi scared, berated and abused.

There was not a point in his life where he has ever felt safe or loved and cared about. No one cared if Atsushi lived or died.

No one has shown him a shred of kindness for 18 years.

Atsushi wasn’t allowed to own anything. Nothing has ever belonged to him and the one thing that did they tried to take from him anyway.

And he’s so small…he’s so small and frail and sure all the other kids do but he’s so much smaller than them.

He’s the runt of the litter. The one who gets starved on a regular basis and everyone may hate each other but they all hate him together.

You just see him and he’s practically shaking with fear. He’s yelled at for simply existing. Beaten and told well it doesn’t matter because you’ve had worse.

And he knows he’s had worse.

And it’s all Atsushi’s ever known and by some fucking miracle he still clings to life with both hands.

He’s the living embodiment of resilience, of grit and determination because he grew up full of light in a place of darkness.

Atsushi was raised in hell and it cultivated a strong will but it doesn’t change that he was raised in hell.

Atsushi and Piano man related headcannon

(@jisforj55 asked for more, had a fun idea so an attempt was made. This is just my take on it)

"Oh! You guys are gonna wanna hear this!" Called Albatross, walking over with Atsushi on his shoulders. "Oh? Are you going to admit to cheating at billiards earlier?" Asked Lippmann with a smirk.

"I have no idea what you’re talking about" said Albatross feigning confusion. He picked up Atsushi and gently set him on his feet before him.

"Our little goose has made a wonderful discovery and he’d like to share it with you all" he explained. Atsushi ducked his head shyly now everyone’s attention was on him.

Albatross ruffled his hair and gave him double thumbs up "you’ve got this!" He cheered.

Atsushi, with renewed confidence looked up at his uncle, who like everyone else had stopped what they were doing to listen. "You’re a superhero" said Atsushi, smiling brightly.

The flags were stunned (cept Albatross) and none more so than Piano man. He’d been called many things in his life but that was certainly a new one.

"Why do you think that, Atsushi?" He asked, curiously. "Chuuya was showing me a comic yesterday. It was about a superhero but I didn’t what that was so he told me. He said they save people who are scared and hurt and have cool powers.

And you saved me when the bad people got me. You help me when I’m scared and you have cool powers." Explained Atsushi, in that earnest way only children seemed to manage.

And not a second later was he pulled into Piano man’s arms into a warm hug. "Oh Atsushi" how could one so kind exist in a world so cruel and cold. "I am honoured to be your superhero" he was something far far more sinister to the rest of the world.

But here in Old World he was a colleague, a friend and an uncle. He would do anything for them. And if his little adorable nephew thought his uncle was a superhero. Than Piano man would be his superhero.

It was as simple as that.

Atsushi smiled, beckoning his uncle closer so he could whisper something to him.

Which he did, in a slightly quieter voice than usual so suffice to say everyone heard it. "It’s also because you get called Piano Man. Like superman but with piano’s."

Piano man chuckled, as did the others. "A keen observation, I’d expect nothing less of my little forger in the making."

"Hey, would that make a superhero too, little star?" Asked Lippman, smiling delightfully when Atsushi nodded.

(Chuuya walks in, hears Lippman call himself the amazing super Lippmann, while wearing a mask and cape and promptly walks back out.)

i have maybe the worst type of cuteness aggression about fiction characters that im attracted to

facts abt my post canon bsd au (mostly atsushi and ada centric)

◇ takes place 4 years after everything with the DoA and Hunting Dogs is settled

◇ atsushi grows his hair back out so it's a little past his shoulders

◇ sigma joins the ADA

◇ fukuzawa retires but still comes around to check on his kids former employees and is on standby in case of any future disaster

◇ kunikida and ranpo agree to co-lead the agency. kunikida takes care of most of the paperwork and employee affairs (pour one out for kida) while ranpo keeps an eye out for cases that could be DoA level threat

◇ everybody gets therapy 🥳🎉!! that government hush money compensation check for being attacked by the Hunting Dogs was partially spent on a getting therapists who could actually help them with their issues (pour another one out for the therapists bc the shit they have to deal with...)

◇ genderfluid atsushi (he/she/they), agender dazai (he/him or it/its), nonbinary sigma (they/he)

◇ kunichuuzai canon. dazai and kunikida got together first, then kunikida and chuuya and finally after many schemes dazai and chuuya talked abt their feelings for each other and got together shortly after

◇ atsushi joins a local community college because she realized she can do stuff for herself outside of working. he's studying literature

◇ kyoka and kenji tried to go regular school for a short while before they realized that that they hated it, so kunikida toutered them helped them get a GED (public school couldn't handle them anyway)

(Idt its that bad but just in case) tw: implied w33d usage, implied paranoia, implied hallucinations.

◇ reason why atsushi was finally sent to therapy was bc they were convinced to get high to help their anxiety (one guess who convinced them) and had a bad trip. they got extremely paranoid, mentioned times he would hallucinate and had several concerning statements about himself. when he sobered up the agency said they were going and she only agreed to go if dazai went and surprisingly dazai agreed to go.(dazai planned to go one session and was somehow conned by his therapist to continue going)

◇ found family dazai, atsushi, Kyoka

◇ but also blood family bc wow dazai and atsushi are half siblings!! (Their dad was a hoe, I'll get into in a separate post)

◇ atsushi's orphanage gets shut down (ada birthday gift for atsushi) and gets a documentary made due to the horrific treatment of the children there

◇ sparring buddies chuuya and atsushi

◇ kyoka, kenji, aya and q friendship

◇ after being turned into a vampire akutagawa has sharper canines than the average human and while his lungs are slightly better he carries any inhaler with him just in case

◇ atsushi has more control over his ability in the future and can now shift into his full tiger form on command and communicate with byakko

◇ dazai is also working to control his ability more and can now shut it off for a few minutes before it kicks back on

◇ byakko is a sentient ability similar to arahbaki. she has been around for centuries and has had many different hosts, one who was the author of The Book.

◇ how did they defeat fyodor? Uhhhh he got eaten by rats, turned into one, the tiger ate him and bc of ability bs he stayed dead next question

◇ dazai also has slightly long hair and now uses a cane

◇ tanazaki sibs finally work on their codependency issues

◇ yosano and tachihara go to lunch every few weeks to talk abt shunzen and bond

◇ akuatsulucy canon

◇ sigma and ranpo bet on random shit together and ranpo is surprised at how talented sigma is at betting

◇ ranpoe are long distance relationship atm but poe is making arrangements to move to yokohama

◇ mori steps down as head of mafia for...reasons and kouyou swifty takes charge of the pm (it was supposed to be chuuya but he threatened to leave the whole city and dazai agreed to help sooo kouyou)

◇ atsushi and lucy take edibles

◇ atsushi and yosano both hate being called angel. If you do it it's the fastest way to lose an arm

☆

ive got nothing else to add to this atm so I might make second part one day. this was made before the recent chapters and wildly ignores canon and is built off of most of my headcanons. Bye 👋🏽 👋🏽

What if instead of fighting over shin soukoku and atsulucy we found a third secret option?

atsushi nakajima eye study

Random bsd thought: what if Dazai overall actually has the most basic music taste of the cast

Dazai hates big group events where everyone needs to go somewhere because if he’s riding in a car with Chuuya and Kunikida they’re playing queercore and folk punk and shit,

and if he’s riding with Akutagawa and Atsushi they’re playing depressing nu metal and emo classics

and Yosano and Ranpo only play like, bad bitch music,

and the black lizard listen to the most horrendous mixture of classical music, dad rock, and EDM because they just shoved all their songs onto one playlist and called it a day,

the Tanizaki’s and Kenji are a huge toss up but it usually ends up being musical theater…

and Dazai just wants to listen to like. The Barbie soundtrack, but no one trusts him with the aux cord no matter how much he promises he’s gonna play something normal

Like he’ll be in the back of a car texting Chuuya like “can I pleeeaasseee ride with you guys on the way back, Atsushi and Akutagawa have been playing EAT on repeat for forty five minutes and I’m gonna hear Poppy in my fucking nightmares for weeks”

And then he’ll get in the car after whatever and Kinikida grabs the aux and Dazai’s like “oh thank god, surely Kunikida of all people will have a normal playlist”

And then he sees Kunikida pull up a song called “vagina police” and crank the fucking volume and he realizes very quickly that his headache will not be going away any time soon.

People thinking Atsushi is just a cute lil soft boy are so WRONG.

Atsushi is one of the best executed C-PTSD protagonists who are not just "kind" because they are the MC.

Atsushi is sassy, he is mean and says things like they are, even to his own mentor Dazai, he is not afraid of saying bad things. He doesn't hold back on his words. And he can be quite quick when it comes to using sass ("are you a landmower?" "Why are you dressed like a half-finished mummy, Dazai-san" "Akutagawa, fancy a cup of tea?" "That's why Dazai-san left you")

He's not just nice. He thinks he should be nice and kind because that's what someone like him should be like. Atsushi has such a low self esteem that he NEEDS to show kindness to everyone because he thinks just like he got a second chance at life, everyone else deserves it too.

That's why he saved Kyouka and Lucy, he recognised that want for bettering themselves in them. He wanted them to get a second chance like he did. Because to him, people are not good or bad, but they have the ability to change no matter how far they have gone.

This is why Atsushi is the only one who can recognise and understand Dazai's true personality. Whenever Dazai says something self depreciating Atsushi ALWAYS corrects him. In Dead Apple when Dazai is visiting Oda's grave, Atsushi understands whoever this person was, they were very dear to Dazai. At the end of Dead Apple when Dazai says he thinks he's not a good person, Atsushi tells him he has never thought of Dazai not being a good person. Atsushi knows Dazai was in the Port Mafia, but he STILL confirms he sees Dazai as a good person regardless of his past. Because Atsushi believes in second chances, and HE gave the second chance to Dazai that Oda must have wanted Dazai to get, even if the ADA accepted Dazai, no one has ever reassured him being a good person before. (Also in BSD wan, when Dazai says "I want to go out beautifully" during the fireworks scene, in the end-credits Atsushi sits near the river the entire day because he was sad that Dazai was suicidal. And in BSD mayoi, Dazai makes a snowman of Atsushi along with Oda, Ango and Chuuya, showing how much he adored Atsushi)

It's the same with Akutagawa; Atsushi doesn't understand why Akutagawa hates him and he's mean to Akutagawa at times but it never crossed a line. Akutagawa had done so many bad things to Atsushi but at the end they still worked together. Because Dazai understood the only person who will make Akutagawa use his powers to "protect" instead of "attack" is Atsushi. During the ending fight in S3, Akutagawa makes an armour for Atsushi as they combine their powers. And in the end credit scene of S5, we see Akutagawa protecting Atsushi AGAIN. This time Akutagawa isn't wearing the same coat Dazai gave him and for the first time shows true loyalty to Atsushi. ("Just the two of us?" "Do we need more?" *SCREAMS*)

Atsushi's relationship with the headmaster of the orphanage shows how much the trauma affected him as a child. When he can't forgive the headmaster at his death, he hates himself for not being able to give a second chance. And that's when Dazai steps in and tells him, "we cry when our father dies" something Atsushi really needs to hear and he finally cries.

Atsushi reassures Dazai all the time and Dazai snaps Atsushi out of his self depreciation all the time. Their solidarity throughout the story, shows why that day when Dazai chose Atsushi for the ADA; he recognised not Atsushi's powerful ability but his true ability in choosing to believe in people when no one else can.

is this even funny i dont think its funny im not putting it in the tags

all those images of atsushi with glasses leads me to pitch imagine atsushi was visually impaired and was subconsciously relying on the tiger's sight to see normally and didn't realize he needed glasses until dazai stopped him from jumping kouyou and he went damn why is she so blurry now

I LOVE THIS IDEA.

Any excuse to put Atsushi in glasses is a good excuse!

I can totally imagine Atsushi squinting whenever Dazai activates his ability on him. Everything gets blurry, and he’s just confused as to why that is. He probably doesn’t realize at first that it’s all thanks to his ability, which has been compensating for him all this time. It’s like a slow realization as he starts to piece things together. Cue a flustered Atsushi realizing it.

Once it does settle in, however, he would be teased a bit by Dazai for sure, but in the end, he might even tag along with Atsushi to get his eyesight checked and get him his glasses, even if Atsushi’s never going to use them much.

Additionally, a little headcanon I have that this reminded me of: Atsushi’s eyes are actually purely purple, so every time Dazai’s ability is activated on him, his normally purple-gold eyes are just solid purple. The yellow is a physical cue of his own ability, and also the reason why his eyes turn fully yellow when it is in use.