Laios Touden

     Dungeon Meshi

Content warning: Non-explicit references to: consensual near-cannibalism (eating of humanoid monsters); weird monster biology; sexual themes

Backstory

Oh my God. I have to be honest, I have absolutely no idea where this came from. I've been tangentially aware of Dunmeshi for a while, insofar as I made the decision to watch the anime when it came out and planned to read the manga afterwards. I watched the first two episodes of the anime and had a great time! I really enjoyed the characters and felt excited to have a few solid months of Meshi Thursday to look forward to. Then I watched episode three and something horrible happened inside my brain that I was woefully unprepared for.

I had absolutely no idea whatsoever that I would be into any character in Dunmeshi. It came as a shock and I was severely embarrassed for a few days, but his immeasurable and inexplicable allure was stronger than any embarrassment and I became insane and crazy at a breakneck pace. There is something about him that makes my brain stop working. Like a dark and ancient magic possessing me and destroying any integrity I had left

About Laios

Laios is a human adventurer with a fascination for monsters, specifically cooking and eating them!! He is a good-natured man who often unintentionally upsets others due to his blunt and easily excitable nature. He can wax poetic about dangerous, unseemly, or unpleasant subjects and enjoy every second of it even when others around him ask (beg) him to stop.

About My S/I

My S/I is a monster that lives in the upper-to-mid floors of the dungeon. She is from a species of humanoid fungus hybrids (mushroom girls!) that imitate the shape of human women in order to lure men and feed off of their life energy. This species is usually somewhat aggressive and will hunt down adventurers of their own volition to seduce and feed off of them; however, my S/I sprouted off in a corner of the dungeon that hardly received any visitors, and her hunting instincts never kicked in.

On rare occasions when a party did come into her territory, she would try to get close to them, unsure of why she had an urge to interact with travelling adventurers. Every encounter ended with her getting chased off before any words could be exchanged. She ended up with a sort of obsession with humans and other surface dwellers.

Lore

(Stupid lore that is for my own benefit only and doesn't necessarily fit into canon, fair warning.)

At some point, Laios' party stumbles upon my S/I, and enough time goes by without her getting sliced up that they realize she isn't trying to attack them. The situation is tense and dicey, but they leave her alone for the time being. She's immediately drawn to them for being the only party to ever give her the benefit of the doubt and sort of stalks them for a bit, unable to help herself.

She's particularly interested in Laios, who is aware of her watching him from the shadows, and being the kind of guy he is he's kind of interested in her as well. He lets her get closer to him, maybe sharing some food with her in the process. At the same time as she starts getting overwhelmingly attracted to him, he starts wondering if she's edible like the other walking mushrooms in the dungeon.

If either of them were normal, those weird feeling would probably be the end of things. However, they Sure As Hell Are Not Normal, and Laios is all to happy to pitch her the idea of eating just a tiny little piece of her to try it. The urge to be near him and get attention from him is so wired into her that this seems like a perfectly reasonable transaction, and she agrees.

Thus begins an ill-advised 'relationship' (?) where Laios excitedly lets her tag along as a source of fresh protein and entertainment, and she follows along desperate to spend time with him for reasons she is still not entirely clear about. He does end up explaining the biological reasons as to why she might be so manic about being close to him (to her extreme shame and embarrassment), and that also seems like a win-win scenario to him.

In terms of a relationship between two humans, this would be a horrible and unhealthy situation, but both of them are very happy and excited about it. Most of her initial feelings towards Laios are based in an instinctual predator/prey lens, but they're very positive and excitable feelings. Laios, meanwhile, sees her as more of a pet or a walking science specimen-slash-snack than an equal, but he has a lot of fondness for her all the same.

What I Love About Him

♡ Everything
♡ Everything x2

Art



Commissions/Gift Art

- commission by triptrippy!
- artfight attack from DVNO!
- artfight attack from sephi! also check out the extra sparkly version here!
- artfight attack from renlup!