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raayllum · 6 months ago

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I’m sorry how is arc 2 not about aaravos? Everything about the show leads back to aaravos. The whole lore of the show is centered around aaravos. And it is absolutely titled the mystery of aaravos because it does plan on dealing with the mystery of aaravos in every possible way, and that has infact been confirmed by the showrunners on multiple instances. Aaravos is just as, if not more of a main character than rayllum in the ways that count because everything going on revolves around him.

And since he’s an EXTREMELY important character, how is it not justified for fans of him to want more screen time of him?

I’m sorry but not everything about the show revolves around rayllum and you shouldn’t call people out just for wanting to see more of their favorite character.

God forbid something about aaravos is actually about aaravos and not rayllum for once 💀💀

Actually I can and do call people out for wanting to see more of their favourite character when it causes them to be entitled / unfair to the broader story they want to tell. If you haven't been doing those things, then that post wasn't about you, but given the way you put your best foot forward here, I might go out on a limb and guess this might be behaviour you display sometimes, and it may be worth reconsidering.

As a bit of background:

My favourite character in a TV show was once a side character who was in 1/4 seasons, and one episode in the final season, and then he never showed up again. which was Okay, because he was a Side Character and it would've been pretty silly for the show to bend over backwards to include him more. Granted, there were opportunities (him and another character were travelling together, then she showed up at a Plot Relevant location without him and it was never addressed) but the show wasn't bad or wrong for not including more. I wasn't owed more screen time just because he was my favourite character, and while any character can Technically be Levelled Up for more screen time and plot relevance, sometimes characters are just there to serve more minor specific purposes, and that's Okay. It's all about adjusting your own expectations and not being an asshole.

Furthermore, given that I posted my personal opinion on my personal blog and only used my personal tags for it, you had two options for finding this post:

It got sent to you, presumably meaning you had someone else to be salty with in a private manner that would've been far more appropriate

You follow(ed) me, in which case you are more than encouraged to unfollow or block me if I have a post/opinion you find annoying or uncouth. Please do so rather than doing whatever This Is in my inbox in the future, it'll likely save you not only time but also embarrassment

The fact you thought going into the inbox of a Virtual Stranger and getting upset about me not thinking your favourite character is the Most Important Character in TDP Ever — because he isn't — in one (1) post is truly baffling to me in terms of 1) curating your internet experience and 2) interacting appropriately with strangers directly online. I've seen a lot of shit opinions in my day, and I vent in private to my fandom friends about it 99.9% of the time, thank you very much, or post about it in my personal tags on my own blog rather than making it someone else's problem.

In the nature of analysis / debate, though, let me clear what I meant considering 4+ people got their trousers in a twist about the idea that Aaravos isn't a main character.

That said, a few quick disclaimers: Aaravos is a very interesting character to me, and I like him a lot. I've written a fair bit about him in regards to how he's a thematic opposite to Harrow, his view of children, what I think happened to his chest piece, speculation on his banishment, his parallels to Finnegrin, his mythic connections to aspects of the Fae + Egyptian and Greek mythology, his foil relationship to Rayla, his characterization and motifs/symbols. So it's not as though I don't enjoy him or don't think he's important to the story. He is, he's just not a main character nor the most important. Moving on:

Secondly: it seems maybe my meaning of macguffin is getting misconstrued. A story Macguffin is a plot device that drives the story forward. Sometimes it's a character (R2D2 in star wars has to be transported from one dangerous location to safety because he has blue print plans), sometimes it's an object (the one ring, fetch quests, etc). Either way, the story is centralized around 1) characters competing for ownership or safe guarding of said person/thing and 2) through that competition or competing needs, the characterization of the main cast is revealed.

In Arc 1, Zym is the plot Macguffin. He overall has very little personality even once hatched beyond being sweet, occasionally helpful, and scared. He is the titular character, and his existence matters, but mostly because he serves as a motivational point for the characters. Claudia, Soren, and Viren want to stop Zym from getting back to Xadia; Rayla, Callum, and Ezran, want to help him get back.

Zym himself does not drive episodes forward. He rarely makes decisions that impact the main group. His existence or fears cause them to make decisions (they go looking for help because they dropped his egg; Rayla and Callum have to go after Nyx because she stole him) but he is not likewise making decisions for the group. S4 definitely levelled Zym up into him making 1) more independent decisions and 2) having more of his own interior feelings, particularly about his father, but Callum is the one who decides to send him up into the trees; Ezran is the one calling the meeting for Zym to come to Katolis. A couple of exceptions (he has a mini arc about his mom for 2 eps, he has an arc in s2 with Ezran) do not suddenly make Zym a "I'm making decisions that heavily push the plot forward every episode" kind of character.

You'll also note, if you actually read said post you're referencing, that I specified "'the mystery of aaravos' (esp these past two seasons)" and that I never mentioned lore, either, even if I have likewise written about lore extensively (one of my more recent metas on it was about 4.8k words on lore alone, for example).

Aaravos' plot impact was a lot heavier in S2 and particularly S3 than it is in S4 or S5, as he influenced Viren's decisions more heavily and eventually came into more direct conflict with the core protagonists. This is likewise reflected in Aaravos in S2 and S3 being in multiple episodes (half the season in s2, and almost every episode at least a little in s3).

Meanwhile in Arc 2, Aaravos could effectively, unknown to his pawns drop dead after giving Claudia her final instructions pre-S4, and nothing would be affected plot wise, because Arc 2 thus far has mostly been characters fearing his impending release (the main cast) or dealing with the fallout of his actions from S3 (the Sunfire elf plot line). The only thing we'd lose on that level from a "Claudia believes Aaravos is alive and is trying to free him, but he's not actually" is Callum and Rayla's possession plot line, ironically enough given your apparent dislike of them, until the very very end of 5x09 in which he tries to goad Viren into killing SS.

I'm excited for and expecting that to change in S6 and S7, but that doesn't change what S4 and S5 currently are, either. Same thing for Amaya and Janai more so being main characters, Janai in particular, in S4 and S5, but they were not main characters in the first three seasons. That doesn't mean they're not good, meaningful, and important characters for the story, but I'd be a very poor meta writer / have very poor media literacy if I tried to claim that Janai is a main character in arc 1 over say, Callum.

For another example: everything in Avatar: The Last Airbender revolves around Team Avatar wanting to stop Ozai, but Ozai is not a main character in the show. He's there to be a minor character, an endgame big bad, and to affect his children / embody the conflict the characters are up against. The fact that TDP has so many antagonists that are also Main Characters throughout the whole show (Viren, Claudia) is actually pretty rare in media, particularly for children.

The Legend of Zelda games usually revolve around Link wanting to save or free Zelda, and while certain games flesh her out and make her more developed into a main character, the central character of the narrative is Link, because he's the character we follow the most.

Additionally, the Importance of a character in a narrative has no bearing on whether they're your favourite, or even necessarily whether they're a 'good' / 'well written' character. Rayla, for example, is my personal #1 favourite character in TDP. She is a main character; she is not The main character. That's not an insult to Rayla; she's there to be a foil, one hell of a narrative lancer, and our main elven character. But I can't (nor do I want to) magically change her role in the story to claim that it's something it isn't.

The central main character of TDP is Callum. It always has been, it always will be.

He is the character who shows up in every single episode, he's our central mage character in a show all about magic, he has the most developed relationships out of everyone, he is the POV character we follow the most. That doesn't mean he's your favourite, that doesn't mean he has to be your preference, you don't even have to like him. But he is The Main Character. The majority of the story revolves around him and the people in his life. No amount of liking another character more is going to change that, whether you're clamouring for Rayla, Aaravos, Sol Regem or anyone else.

While there are shows where I think the side lining of characters feels off (Gus and Willow in The Owl House come to mind) that's mostly because 1) that sort of side lining usually happens to characters of colour, as it did there and 2) there's no real reason for the story to sideline them considering everyone lives in close proximity and there's a s1 emphasis that the main character has never had friends before and that she desperately wants some. Therefore, she should be thrilled to have best friends for the first time, but we barely see them. See the disconnect?

Aaravos is a minor character and big bad who is well utilized in the overall minimal screentime he has, especially thus far in S4 and S5. That doesn't mean he's not important to the story, and that doesn't mean he can't or shouldn't be your favourite, but your assertion doesn't miraculously make him our main core protagonist of the entire show, because 1) he's not our central pov character and 2) that's about the only requirement a main protagonist has to have, and 3) that's just not how stories work.

I also have no clue why you brought up Rayllum as a ship, given that I didn't mention them in my OG post at all, but given that you seem to think "this character isn't a main character" is a moral or value statement, I'll assume you said it to ruffle my feathers — that doesn't really work, given that I agree with you that not everything in the show is about Callum or Rayla individually or as a relationship, because it Isn't. Even if I hated them as characters or as a dynamic, however, that wouldn't change the fact that they're two of the core 3 characters (alongside Ezran) and that their relationship has the most screentime out of anyone in the show.

And if the show decided to tone down their screen time to give other characters more time, I'd be okay with that — because I don't need my Personal Favourite to be the most important character in the source material / screen time ever in order to feel secure in liking them, thanks.

#fandom nonsense #aaravos-brainrot #thanks for asking #or not

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ok-pop-1 · 1 year ago

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i've recently been working on a linkverse au! the research i've been doing has been... extensive, but here are some character doodles i've got so far :) will probably be posting some more character doodles in the coming days as i finalize different designs. and thanks @tashacee for permission to yoink blind sky :D

rambles under the cut for anyone interested!

edit-- tags are now updated :) you can check out the comic here!

the idea behind this au is essentially, what would it look like if all nine links were alive at the same time? i won't be giving that much plot info for spoiler reasons, but the general idea is that nine heroes were born to fight ganon, instead of just one

this au began before i was really aware of linkverse as a thing and only knew about lu, and by the time i learned about how other folks have been dividing up the timelines and the links, the number nine got a bit too entrenched into the story to change lol

with that being said, i'm not really using lu as a guide for these guys character-wise. they'll be similar, but i've been putting my own spin on them based both on their backgrounds in au and what i want their personalities to be

info about the pictures--

lost and saria bugging mido! (i redesigned the kokiri because i could-- also saria's got shorts on under that tabard, not a miniskirt lol) lost is this au's equivalent of time, but he's more of a mask equivalent than anything else. his backstory is more or less the same-- he was brought to the lost woods as a baby and grew up as one of the kokiri. the events of majora's mask mostly happened, but due to the nature of this au, the events of ocarina of time are technically concurrent with the au's plot

knight! the name is... tentative. i'll admit that much lol, i just don't really have any better ideas. he's this au's sky equivalent. instead of a loftwing, he's got aria, his seeing-eye pigeon. he's training with the skyward sword academy cast to be a knight of hylia, and like with lost, the events of skyward sword will be more or less concurrent with the plot

#legend of zelda #loz #linkverse #fractured courage #fcau lost #fcau knight

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purplehairedwonder · 2 years ago

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Chapter 1079: The Kids Are(n’t) All Right

It’s been a little while since I’ve done a chapter write-up for a variety of reasons (vacation, illness, lack of interest in the who dunnit story), but this chapter got me back on the bandwagon. Wow.

So, we get the background of how York set up the who dunnit. My main interest here is what contingency she’s talking about, especially when we see this...

This has to be Kuzan, right? Blackbeard should still be fighting Law -- but even if that fight is over, I doubt he’d have time to get to Egghead afterward. Plus, with all the references to Ohara, it really shouldn’t be anyone else.

Then we switch to the main event.

Interesting that Shanks’ fleet is actually quite weak. It seems like he takes on quirky people, much like Luffy. They are incredibly loyal to him while he has the strength to protect them.

Shanks is giving the Worst Gen respect. Him asking about Kid’s injuries reminds me of these panels from his appearance in Wano:

Shanks clearly sees fighting against weakened opponents to be dishonorable, so he steps in between Greenbull and the victors in Wano who are still recovering. But by the time the Kid Pirates run into the Red Hairs, they’ve healed so are fair game.

Also super interested in this moment. Shanks is keeping an eye on Blackbeard, but he doesn’t have the most up-to-date info about what’s happening at Winner Island.

Interestingly, though, this does seem to explain why Shanks showed up at the end of Wano (other than to promote Film Red); he must have expected Blackbeard to show up like Greenbull did to steal Poneglyphs. And he wasn’t wrong about the plot, just the location of the ambush.

This moment is also telling to me. If Shanks is the type of person who takes the weak under his banner to protect them, he’s going to find someone like Kid, who got his bounty pre-Sabaody from killing indiscriminately, detestable.

And then he uses Future Sight to see Kid doing some serious damage to his fleet:

This would actually have been hella impressive of Kid if he’d managed to do it. Not only did he build and fire the ray gun, but he was also pulling the ships into range as he did it.

But, we’ve known Shanks’ ethos since chapter 1:

So, if Shanks’ fleet is in danger, he’s going to take care of it himself. It’s definitely a testament to the danger Kid now poses that Shanks is the one to act, rather than leave it to others as we’ve seen him do previously, and he uses this move:

EXCUSE ME, SIR. This is the same move Roger used on Oden.

So, in a twisted way, Kid’s being given his due. (I’ll also look forward to this being animated because the double page is... hard to make out in places. Oda’s action sequences are often hard for me to follow.)

Random: I still can’t help but see a comparison between Future Sight and Minority Report. Kid technically hasn’t done anything yet, but Shanks is wrecking him like he’s avenging his friends.

Anyway, Kid and Killer are in a bad way.

And neither of them can swim because of their Devil Fruit/SMILE. Which is bad because Dory and Broggy completely wreck the Victoria Punk.

And everyone goes tumbling into the sea.

This chapter has been one callback after another, and these final panels are yet another callback:

And we all know what happened after that, so the paralleled language could indicate that the Kid Pirates will come back stronger in the future, but I’m not sure how much time there is left in the narrative for that.

As for what this might mean for Law, well, I’m less worried than a lot of people seem to be. For one thing, Law got a new goal in Wano (to learn about the Will of D.), so he needs to achieve that goal before he dies. It’s important to note that Law’s goal does not conflict with Luffy’s whereas Kid’s did, so Kid not achieving his dream was inevitable. Law, on the other hand, has become the audience’s way into the Will of D. mystery by being the only D. we’ve met who is interested in his name.

Second, we’ve still got the mystery surrounding Rocky Port and all the key players are in the same orbit at the moment. It would narratively make the most sense for Law to survive so he, Blackbeard, and Coby end up in one place so we learn what happened there.

Third, Law wasn’t the aggressor in his fight -- he was ambushed -- while Kid was. Narratively, Kid is being punished for his arrogance while Law has no such narrative dictate.

Fourth, I just keep thinking about how Cora died for Law to live. It would sure feel unfulfilling for Law to finally be free of the chains that kept him chained down for thirteen years only to die unceremoniously.

Anyway, I still think it’s most likely that Law gets taken captive by Blackbeard, leading to some interesting dynamics with Coby, Pudding, and Garp. There would be so much gold to mine there.

#One Piece #One Piece 1079 #One Piece chapter 1079 #One Piece 1079 spoilers #One Piece spoilers #Eustass Kid #Killer #Shanks #Trafalgar Law #Blackbeard #Chapter write-up

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suzuran777 · 8 months ago

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Review: Lamento stageplay

I've been waiting for a Lamento stageplay since the DRAMAtical Murder stageplay in 2019, so I'm really happy that it's finally real and that I got to watch this one! Since I also wrote a blog post about the sweet pool stageplay, I wanted to write one about the Lamento one too. I really enjoyed it! As usual the pictures I used in this blog are pictures posted by the staff and the official Twitter account! Please check it out if you want to see more.

First of all, this stageplay is pretty long! It's almost three hours long, an hour longer than Nitro+Chiral's previous stageplays. As usual, the first 45 minutes were a bit of a common route in which all the characters appeared. This was mostly the same in every route, but it did change a bit near the ending. After a short 10 minute break, it split into three different routes, so I had to watch three different shows to see all of the endings. It's technically a "musical drama (音楽劇)" which means it combines elements of a stageplay and a musical. I was kind of expecting only the Sanga to sing, but the main characters (Rai, Asato and Bardo) also sing together with Konoe sometimes! My favorite song was probably the opening song, when all of them sung a new version of Itou Kanako's "Lamento" with different lyrics! They also sang a slightly different version at the end of the stageplay. The common route also has two duet songs sung by Rai and Konoe, as Konoe learns about his power as a Sanga.

The new music was really nice, especially the background music. I love how they brought back the composers who made the game's OST to create new songs! I lowkey wish the devils had more songs because whenever they did sing during the opening and ending song of the stageplay, they sounded amazing together! I think it would also be great if they released studio recordings of the songs, as they are always a bit better than the live versions. So far they did already release an album of the instrumental songs which you can buy here, Ototoy shouldn't be region locked, so I think anyone can buy it!

The stage This time the venue was the same as the DRAMAtical Murder stageplay (Shinagawa Stellar Ball), which I've actually been to before, however it looked completely different this time! I liked how they turned the stage into one big forest. Whenever Leaks used his power on Konoe, they used this effect which made the stage look strange and trippy, it was really cool! I also really liked the green light effects they used whenever Konoe would use his Sanga abilities. The screenwriter Uchida Hiroki posted this picture on his Twitter account which kind of gives you an idea what it looked like!

Plot I was curious how they would turn a rather long game into a stageplay, but I think it worked surprisingly well. They kind of skipped over some of the stuff that happens early in the game when Konoe is still in Karou, but they do explain the general story, like the problems caused by the Void and the Sickness. Shui's character also kind of functions as a narrator in the stageplay, similar to Kamiya in the sweet pool stageplay and Virus and Trip in the DRAMAtical Murder stageplay, which is always a nice addition. It's not unusual for fans of the actors to watch stageplays without knowing the original source material, so I think this makes it possible for everyone to enjoy the show, no matter if they're familiar with the game or not.

Now for the different routes, I think all of them were great and the actors definitely put a lot of effort into their roles. Bardo's actor was really funny, especially in the scenes in which he teased Konoe (when he wanted a kiss lol), but I think he also did a great job during the serious scenes! I think Bardo's and Rai's actors had a lot of fun messing around with each other, like jokingly pushing each other, or fighting each other with their tails, which happened during one of the curtain calls people were allowed to record. Asato's actor definitely was a lot more calm compared to these two, but he did a great job at showing Asato's gentle personality! His actor mentioned listening to the drama CDs too including Lamento Love Love Gakuen, doing some extra research! (And for some reason he suddenly got into Togainu no Chi if I look at his Twitter account now...). They ended the stageplay performances on Sunday with Rai's route. Rai's actor, Katou Shou, did an incredible job as Rai during the more emotional scenes, like when Rai insists Konoe finds another Touga because he's afraid he will hurt Konoe. That scene in which Konoe realizes Karou (his hometown) had been completely consumed by the Void was also incredible.

I should probably mention that they showed the good ends only, so no devil endings in this one sadly. Razel's actor agreed that Razel should have his own route because every devil gets quite some scenes depending on the route, but Razel is always kind of left out! Also, can I just say that I absolutely love Froud's stageplay actor, he did such a great job at making the character look intimidating (he's also very tall...) even his voice sounds similar to Froud in the game. I also really liked Leaks' actor, he has a nice deep voice, and Shui's actor liked teasing him sometimes!!

I'm just happy that Lamento has been getting new content again lately, first the webtoon and now the stageplay. You can find lots of pictures and recordings that were taken with permission if you look for the ラメステ hashtag on Twitter! I saw that both Froud's and Konoe's original voice actors (Sasanuma Akira and Hatano Kazutoshi) actually went to watch the stageplay in person. Slow Damage's artist Yamada Uiro, who's also in charge of lots of other official Nitro+Chiral illustrations, also watched the stageplay and drew some new art of it! Always happy to see new Lamento art in the year 2024, I've been enjoying all of the new fanart posted on Twitter as well.

I wonder what stageplay they're planning on doing next, only Slow Damage and Togainu no Chi remain (unless they're planning on bringing Itsuwari no Alkanet or World End's Nightmare back). Next year is Togainu no Chi's 20th anniversary, so I am curious if they are going to release anything new! The director of Nitroplus (Digitaro) also mentioned that N+C is currently working on a new project, though it's currently unknown if it's a new game, Slow Damage fandisc or something else. I guess I will be patient!

#lamento #lamento beyond the void #nitro chiral #review #visualnovel

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renae-the-turtle · 17 days ago

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I saw your trolls au where Branch raises Coooer and I wanted to know.......could you please info dump on it??? I'm all ears! :3

OK first of all I'm sorry it took me so long to get to this, it's been literal months lol

I'd be happy to infodump about it, and I finally have time!!!

Putting it under the cut just in case this gets really long lol

So I got the idea for this AU because of a fanart I saw on pinterest. It seemed to be concept art for a Broppy au with the pairing trope of kindergarten teacher × single parent, with Poppy as the teacher, obviously, since that's canon, and Branch as the single parent. I couldn't tell who the kid under Branch's arm was, and assumed it was an OC (I later figured out it was probably Keith from the TV show).

But this made me think about how I would do such an AU, because I like to try and avoid using OCs in fanfiction, especially for any major role in the story. It's just more fun to think about which canon characters, no matter how minor, could fill the roles I need.

Anyway, somehow I came to the conclusion that I would take one of the main cast from the first movie and de-age them. At first I considered Biggie for some reason, but then I realized that Cooper already has a very childlike personality, so he's easier to imagine as a child... and then I recalled his backstory that was revealed in the second movie...

See, Cooper's egg fell from the sky and landed amongst the pop trolls, and I get the distinct impression that this was after the escape from the Troll Tree, both because of the forest-looking background in the flashback, and just sorta from the way Cooper tells the story. And since the first movie takes place on the twentieth anniversary of their escape from the Bergens, this means that Cooper is less than 20 years old, and is therefore a teenager in the first movie. Which honestly makes so much sense for how he acts.

I also headcanon that he as ADHD, though. With the way he frequently seems to space out and miss parts of conversations, or just doesn't follow along with what someone said, the way he makes weird connections between what's going on and something random... and he's pretty easily distracted... as someone who actually has ADHD, it seems pretty obvious once I thought to look for it! And I will be writing this headcanon into my comic.

I might as well get into the little bit of plot I've got for the movies, though it's just vague ideas, really.

For the first movie, I'm actually not certain what I'm gonna do... should Cooper be one of the ones taken or not? It would make Branch way more fired up to go get them back, and just generally more emotional and snappy throughout the whole thing, but on the other hand I've still gotta get through how actually raising Cooper changes Branch... like, technically the point of this is to force him to interact with Poppy more prior to canon events because she's Cooper's teacher lol. So idk about the first movie.

But the second one! Branch is either more or less paranoid and I'm not sure which is better lol, but he'll be a lot more prepared before leaving with Poppy on her impulsive quest, because he's gotta make sure his son is taken care of while he's gone. Cooper is only 5 and obviously isn't gonna come with them, that'd be stupid!!! ...unfortunately for Branch, Cooper listened in on the meeting, and snuck out of bed to follow his dad, heard him talking to Poppy, and since he both doesn't want his dad to leave him (trauma from the first movie????) and wants to find out where he came from... Cooper sneaks onto the balloon lol. Biggie might not even come with them, idk. Or maybe I'd have DJ Suki come with just cuz I like her and it's a shame she wasn't in the second and third movies. Idk.

Anyway this means I get to draw baby Prince D as well!!! Cooper doesn't get to the funk trolls before Branch and Poppy because he's traveling with them! The King and Queen haven't been searching for as long as in canon, and oooo boy there's gonna be drama lol. Because technically the funk trolls have a right to keep Cooper??? And Cooper isn't an adult or mostly-adult who can make his own decisions about where to live??? I mean, at the time, Cooper and D are just excited to meet each other. And there's a rock apocalypse to stop. And Cooper wasn't supposed to be along in the first place because this quest is no place for a small child.

Anyway yeah, the second movie is gonna be so fun to write with an adhd five year old along for the ride lol.

Third movie, Cooper might not even be in it, or he might take the place of Tiny, idk yet. I think I'm leaning more towards Cooper staying with the funk trolls for the duration of the movie events as some sort of split custody thing so Cooper can get to know his twin and bio parents??? But. This means that Bruce is not the only Brozone member to have become a dad during the split. ;3

And I think it'd be so funny if Branch and Poppy don't mention Cooper, or at least don't refer to him as Branch's son, until they get to Vacay Island, and Bruce mentions how becoming a father really changed him, and Branch can say something like, yeah, I know what you mean. And John Dory gets a double shock because what???? Spru– Bruce is a father??? And SO IS BRANCH???? WHAT??? Hahahahahaha!!!! It's gonna be hilarious >:3

Anyway, cue Branch and Bruce gushing over their kids, Branch showing photos of Cooper, someone asking if/implying that Cooper is Branch and Poppy's kid, the silly flustered denials because they may be dating but they are NOT ready to have that talk yet lol (it's an understandable assumption tho bc Poppy and Cooper are a similar shade of pink and Cooper does have that bright blue hair and at this point Branch and Poppy are obviously together so???)

OK so that was in fact a long rant as I expected, hope you enjoyed, and thanks for the ask!! I won't be working on the comic until after Christmas because it's gift-making time and I have. Two months. To make at least 6 presents. Aaahhh.

#little family of weirdos #dw trolls #dw trolls au #asks #answered asks #rant #info dump #little family of weirdos spoilers #sorta #none of this is concrete #trolls cooper #trolls branch #trolls world tour #trolls band together

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totaltrauma · 2 years ago

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Hi! My name is Wyatt Sheppard, and I'm the writer & illustrator of Total Trauma Comic. (However, I do get lots of help with backgrounds and other assets from my wonderful fiance, @apple-scrumper!)

I'm a part of a system. I'm exceptionally close with my fellow alter Judith (Jude), who I often refer to as my sister. We sometimes work together on projects, like SHINE which we have collaborated on, and a novel we're currently writing together.

I am 27, and I use neopronouns (pri/prin/prinself — pronounced pree/prihn/prihnself). They/them pronouns are also okay to use. I went to college for Creative Writing, and while I love making comics, my real dream is to write novels.

I have currently finished Total Trauma Volume 1, and am working on Volume 2. I have also finished "Heather, Rewritten," a prequel novella. I am currently working on SHINE alongside Jude, as well as WTF4 (World Tour Final Four), another prequel novella. I also completed the Total Trauma Tarot Deck, which can be bought here. A couple of years ago, I made a comic called Triplings, a diary webcomic about me and my siblings.

I've been making content in the Total Drama fandom since I was 17, and I was just a baby alter. As a baby alter, I was desperate for some sense of identity, and I found that in the fictionkin community. (If you don't know what fictionkin is, do me a favor and don't look it up.) All that is to say, I latched on hard to Heather from T/otal D/rama. I started writing about her, and wrote "Heather's Lament," a lengthy fanfic that would (many years) later be polished into "Heather Rewritten." I started to come up with my own personal "canon" for the series, and I spent 5 years bursting at the seams with information about it, until finally, one fateful day I decided to start a comic.

I had actually kind of grown away from T/otal D/rama at that point in my life. I had latched onto a new obsession to spend all of my time thinking and writing about. But I got this idea in my head that I wanted to make comics. I was watching an artist, Jacob Andrews, draw a comic on youtube, and I thought to myself "Man, I would love to make comics." Then I realized that nothing was stopping me.

T/otal D/rama is what I knew how to draw, so, T/otal D/rama it was. (Well, technically what I do is edit the pages together... More about that below.) I blew the dust off my old established "canon," and made the first page. I had had the story of Volume 1, especially the plot surrounding Duncan, living in my head for the past 5 years. It was a lot of fun to revisit that story, and to rediscover my love for this franchise.

I use a program called Paint.NET — I do not recommend it. You could easily do the same thing I do in photoshop, procreate, or whatever you might have access too. Paint.NET is simply free and familiar to me.

I go about making the art for Total Trauma by first editing together screenshots from the show, then tracing over it. Example given below.

It's super easy to do using nothing but the line tool. The only real trick to it is learning how and where to vary your lineweight.

#about me #long post

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frownyalfred · 1 year ago

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Omg I love your writing so much I’m just dying to how Bruce got the batkids in bloodletting? I know Damian and Cass were covered a little bit with death watch being the league of assassins in this case, but what about dick? Was the circus like… an intergalactic traveling circus? Maybe Tim’s parents instead of being socialites were some other station of power, generals or something who were killed in battle? Does Duke still have a metahuman bio dad? And Steph… is there like a mando version of CPS?

Ah thank you for asking about this anon! I've had some side stories/shorts in mind for bloodletting, but haven't gotten around to them since the main plot is heating up a lot (and writing the chapters is a lot of work).

The bare outline I usually work with in my mind is:

Damian was part of Death Watch/Kyr'tsad under Talia. He's not Bruce's son, despite Talia's desire to have a child with him. Talia beat him horribly when he questioned her orders and Bruce found him on a raid or mission and adopted him. Damian never renounced Talia so she's still technically his buir, which is difficult since she tortured and somewhat disfigured him (semi-permanent limp).

Cass was raised as a child soldier by Death Watch/Kyr'tsad. Like many of the unfortunate children in this scenario, she was set across from Mand'alor Wayne on the battlefield. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but she defected and Bruce adopted her on the spot.

Dick was the child of spacers Bruce encountered while on a mission. His parents died in a ship crash and Bruce -- newly Mand'alor I think -- took Dick with him as he finished his mission, as they were in a remote area. Once he completed the mission, he took Dick back to Mandalore and gave him the option to find his family or return to another planet. Dick wanted to stay with Bruce, and they said the gai bal manda a few moments later. Probably in front of a tearful Alfred or something.

Jason grew up on Concord Dawn, like the character I sometimes model him after (Jango). Bruce encountered him on a mission like he did with Dick. I'm debating him having the same background as Jango (Bruce helps him avenge the deaths of his buire who were killed for sheltering the Mand'alor from Kyr'tsad) but haven't firmly decided yet. Regardless of his backstory, Bruce knew the instant he saw him -- in the Manda and in real life -- that he would be the next Mand'alor.

Tim, I have sometimes considered, was the child of Mandalorian socialites/etc who joined the New Mandalorians and eschewed the Haat'ade ways of the new Mand'alor. They were close with Bruce's father, the former Mand'alor, but didn't agree with the new empire. Tim jumped a ship as soon as he knew how, demanded to be let into the Haat'ade stronghold, and for an audience with the Mand'alor. I like to think Bruce adored him instantly but didn't adopt him for fear of stepping on his former buire's toes. Tim thought that was ridiculous, renounced them despite Bruce's protests, and basically strongarmed Bruce into saying the gai bal Manda. Otherwise he was going to get like, one of the guards to do it (they all loved this crazy mando kid from the passive New Mandalorians and were fighting each other for second chance at adoption)

Duke I like to think has non-baseline human ancestry that isn't quite apparent visually. I haven't decided what that is yet. He came to serve his Mand'alor as a young orphan when he heard about Bruce's rise to the throne. Dick immediately grabbed him, shook him in front of Bruce, and was like are you seriously employing kids? To which Bruce said [puppy eyes] and started training him as a guard, if only to protect himself. The adoption happened a few months later.

Steph, I'm not sure yet. But I like your idea, anon! Mandalorians feel very fiercely about the treatment of children. I imagine, however Bruce came into contact with her, it was intense. And she was secretly relieved and happy to be adopted and wanted that badly.

#thank you for asking me!#sorry if this rambly #I didn't cross check with everything I wrote but #these are the broad strokes #bruce wayne #batman #dc #myfic #theresurrectionist #batfamily #bloodletting #bloodletting my beloved #mandalorian batfamily au

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demonir · 5 months ago

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I spent all day yesterday with my mom talking abt a lot of stuff but amongst all those things she let me intensely infodump about tf2 for hours and I got to show her a lot of things, here are the highlights of me showing tf2 to a white uruguayan 53 year old woman who’s only game experience is bejeweled

I first gave her a very surface level rundown of the game plot which she found nonsensical the more questions she asked, I showed her the meet the merc vids first and at the end of each I gave her extra info about them

She thinks heavy is interesting and she’d probably like him more if he was put in a normal situation where he’s just a civilian living life, she never made a fat joke abt him so lets fucking gooooooo 👍👍👍👍👍👍

Her feelings on scout are mixed and didn’t like when I said he was one of my favorites, she said I need to like smarter people (this will be her downfall later) she did like him a lot more after we watched Expiration Date and found him and Miss Pauling endearing (she was great at picking up the subtext which surprised me) also asked her what age she thought scout had and she said 19 or 20 😭 then made a joke abt his baby face when I told her his actual age

Engineer scares her a small bit and does NOT understand how he’s my number 1 favorite (it was so hard to pretend I am normal about him in front of her) thinks him playing the guitar with a glove is stupid. I explained to her a bit of the conagher family story and she said that dell basically got the short end of the stick (because he’s tasked with fighting in the war AND maintaining the australium immortality devices when australium ran out) 😭

Thinks sniper is okay, I asked her what age she thought he had and she said 50 LMAOOOOO when I told her his actual presumed age she went “oh damn then I’m doing GREAT for my age”. I went on a huge tangent about the comic’s timeline and plot just to explain to her how he’s not ACTUALLY australian and she got sad abt him :( I did not tell her abt the jarate until a lot later bc I knew it would irredeemably ruin her image of sniper, I explained to her the game mechanic and as I was going to say “it gives the enemy a negative effect” she cuts me off and goes “yeah it makes them die from embarrassment” she also made a jarate pun in Spanish that I can’t remember at all rn I’m so sorry

Did not understand a single thing demoman said in the entire video and I don’t really blame her, her English is not good or that advanced it’s quite strange because she can understand some random complex words but had to ask me what “screw you” means so yeah she didn’t understand demomans accent she did however notice it was the same voice actor as heavy. I told her about demomans background and story and she found it so incredibly strange but wished for him to recover from alcoholism because it’s not good for him 💜 I told her abt demomans charms but she wasn’t quite charmed herself sadly (she did enjoy him in emesis blue)

Like mother like child, the Meet The Spy video was her favorite out of the bunch and she very quickly clocked in on the fact spy is scouts father without me saying anything, she said that from a technical standpoint spy is the most valuable mercenary on the team (goddamn not even the medic got considered) she also enjoyed him a lot in Expiration Date and Emesis Blue, I think hes still her favorite as of right now. Also we watched lil pootis and she laughed SO hard when I told her blu spy divorced blu ma and got with blu engie. She also frowned when red spy left lil pootis in the hallway alone and made jokes about mistreating his grandson

She did NOT like meet the medic or medic himself, absolutely creeped out by him and when I told her medic is one of my favorites she looked at me and went “your concept of what’s “comedic” and “fun” is very wrong and I hope you never get a boyfriend because I’m afraid of what you’ll bring home”….. I don’t know if she was serious or not 😭 I also never mentioned liking medic that way but I guess she fucking clocked me for it anyways. I tried to give her some medic propaganda and she found him tricking the devil to be very funny, I haven’t asked her if her opinion on medic has changed after watching emesis blue tho (I’m very curious to know since it’s a very different interpretation of him) I haven’t told her a single thing about heavymedic because I am afraid of what she’s gonna do with the knowledge of tf2 ships and I’m probably gonna keep it that way. She did seem charmed by the way medic genuinely loves his doves since she’s an animal lover herself

Soldier scared her a bit but mostly confused her, her initial reaction was rejection because of his ultra patriotism, nonsensical lines and violent tendencies however he grew onto her rather quickly to even make it to like second or third place on her list of favorites mainly because I told her about his raccoon sanctuary and the fact he is a great boyfriend (I didn’t tell her abt the naked honey fighting… I’ll show her later) and a great friend to demoman as well (she finds their cross faction friendship adorable)

Pyro absolutely TERRIFIES her she was utterly horrified by the meet the pyro video and doesn’t know what scares her more, the idea that pyro doesn’t know what they’re doing or that they do and do it anyway. I didn’t get to tell her abt pyro becoming a CEO in the comics but I’ll mention it eventually, the interpretation of them in emesis blue probably did not help her be less scared of pyro lmao. Also she thought the baby mercs in the meet the pyro video were oddly adorable and wants one….whatever that means

Overall she said the age of the game shows itself in the videos with their quality and what not and I also told her they were animated using SFM and briefly explained how it’s a free software fans have used for years to make fan content. Also she thinks the blu spy head in the freezer is the FUNNIEST shit ever

Her thoughts about Expiration Date:

She noted how this was obviously more recent because the quality was better

When she saw scout asleep in the van she went “that’s how I sleep”

She picked on a lot of details that I didn’t think she would and actually hearing her thoughts about the video after was rather fun, she did note how scout had used what he learned from spy later on the fight against the bread monster with miss Pauling for example

Nearly screamed when the bread monster ate the dove and let out a sigh of relief when she saw it was ok

Found scout very endearing when he explained he knew girls like Pauling don’t like him

The bit with the bucket made her laugh out loud I had to pause the video because she was curled into a ball laughing

I had failed to explain that they have teleportation technology in tf2 so when she saw the teleporters she loudly went “what the FUCK is that”

Loved miss Pauling a lot in fact before watching this video she asked me if we were gonna see her at some point since I had already spent a while talking abt her earlier

She didn’t have a lot of comments about other stuff I showed her that are worth mentioning but she loved emesis blue! She’s like me about liking weird confusing movies so that part she loved a lot but could do with a bit less violence, at one point whenever the characters were in danger she’d cover her face and go “they don’t die do they?” Over and over again lmao

I plan on showing her more stuff although it’s slightly difficult bc of the language barrier, if y’all have any videos or stuff you’d like for me to show her plz share but be aware of that

#demos ramblings #tf2 #team fortress 2 #I love subjecting my mom to shit #I’m abt to go do it again like in 5 minutes #there’s some other stuff she said that I either don’t remember or it would get lost in translation #thinking of asking her to draw a merc just to see what happens #she doesn’t draw often but she’s v talented and her style is realism

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grifff17 · 3 months ago

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Audiodrama Sunday 8/25/2024

Happy audiodrama Sunday! Lets get right into it.

NEW SHOW ALERT Case Study: IREC-A59 is a new sci-fi audiodrama about first contact with aliens - from the perspective of the aliens. I really enjoyed the pilot episode, it has a cool framing device. The basic premise of the story is a really cool unique idea. Also, the captain really sounds like Zach Valenti of Wolf 359, I genuinely thought he was until the credits.

I listened to part 2 of @midstpodcast's Moonward. The line “I think I have a crush on my leg” really got me, but also like it’s a really interesting character arc. David is so likeable!

In @wanderersjournalpod the plot thickens. Is the journal making them swap places by subconsciously walking toward where the other is? Will this cause them to meet eventually?

I continues listening to @cryptonature. The background worldbuilding in this show is so interesting. Are cryptids widely known? Does that make them no longer cryptids, technically speaking? Also the guests are crazy, a McElroy in episode 6?

I finally got around to starting season 5 of @victoriocity. I forgot how good the narration in this show is. It really reminds me of Discworld/The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Excited to see where the plot goes with the beast in this season.

I'm continuing to (slowly) catch up on Rude tales of magic. This week I started Bears! The Blessing of the Obelisk. It was really funny, when the cast break on this show I always do too.

On Spout Lore this week there was the finale of the Critshow crossover. It was fun, I hope they do more crossovers. Then later this week the new season started. I swear Billy is such a good character, such a great and well done example of the the “immortal child” trope. Jessica understands playing kid characters so well. This was almost a serious episode, between the funeral and the horror.

In Skyjacks: Courier's Call this week Cici is back! God I wish I was one quarter as outgoing and unafraid of what people think about me as Cici is. The entity at the end was so intimidating, I wonder if Cici is going to end up getting her curse from it. I like the idea that when the kids reunite, they all have something new to show the others.

With the @electromancypodcast update, and someone asking me for magic school story recommendations recently, Electromancy has really been on my mind lately, so I've decided to start a relisten of it. I'll probably start that next week.

#audiodrama sunday #audiodrama #audio fiction #case study irec-a59 #midst podcast #wanderers journal #the cryptonaturalist #victoriocity #rude tales of magic #spout lore podcast #skyjacks couriers call

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bfiaflbox · 11 months ago

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So this is how it starts - Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Pairing: Matty x original female character

Warnings: drinking, smoking, swearing; mentions of: misoginy, cancer (in the past), infertility

Disclaimer: some of what the ofc is experiencing is rooted in my lived reality, however I lie for plot purposes a lot. I draw inspiration from things that I read somewhere or that actually happened to me or my friends. It's not proof read and English is my second languageso there's either too many commas or not enough commas.

Further disclaimer: yes I know it's not *that* hard to wrap a pan, it's very hard however to make it look nice...

"So you and Matty hit it off last night" it's not a question.

I'm on the phone with Carly after a "call me when you get this" message she sent me at 7am the following Saturday.

"Why would you think that??"

"Adam literally showed me the group chat where Matty called you "fit"" she laughs.

"Fucking hell, that sounds like we're back in year 9" I roll my eyes although she can't see it.

"Don't avoid the subject. What happened after you guys left for the tube station" she makes it sound like a conspiracy.

"We did just that. We went to the tube station and then home"

"I feel like you're leaving out *a lot* of details and one to three major plot points"

"fiiiine" i groan but have to laugh as well "it's ridiculous. Halfway down the road we decided to get another drink. We sat in a bar and talked until we were thrown out and then we went home"

"Liar"

"Not a lie" technically.

"Come oooon, I haven't been on a date in *ages*! I live vicariously through you" I hear Adam saying something in the background that I can't quite make out and they both giggle at something.

"I have to insist that this definitely wasn't a date and it really wasn't that exciting. Anyway, like I said, halfway down the road to the tube station Matty asked if I really wanted to go home or if I was up to get a drink with him. I said yes and so we went to a pub that was kind of crowded but we managed to get a seat at the bar. We talked about ... anything really. He thought it was kind of unfair that I had a pretty much clear Idea of what he does for a living and asked about being a tattoo artist and running a shop and all that. He told me about BJJ, I told him about growing up with five siblings. We got a bit drunk and I think at some point I kind of insulted him as "the queen of juxtaposition" or something, it was good fun...I think. Did I mention that we both were quite drunk? Fuck, I swear I made a proper fool out of myself."

"Yeah, you do that when you're drunk" Carly laughs.

"Thanks, I'm mortified... Well at some point he had to go to the toilet and some bloke thought he could take Matty's seat and chat me up. Next thing I know Matty's having a row with that guy and the bartender threw us out to prevent a pub fight."

"And there I was thinking you were thrown out because they were closing and you stayed that long because the conversation was just sooooo good" Carly interjects in a slightly mocking tone.

"Yeah, well, no. We had a laugh about it and went on to the tube station. Turned out he wasn't planning on taking the tube and just wanted to bring me. But yeah, that was it."

"Have you talked since?

"It's literally been nine hours and nope. I don't even have his number" fucking idiot not getting his number.

"Well that can be arranged, wait a sec"

My phone chimes with a message from Carly who just sent me Matty's contact info.

"Excuse you? You can't just give out personal information like that?!" I'm kind of glad she did though.

"Make it a good story at your guys' wedding and we're even"

////

Do I text or call? Text or call, text or call? I kind of want to hear his voice but I don't want to disturb hin in case he's in the middle of something. But calling is more personal, however, he doesn't even know I have his number and that's super creepy. Fuck, why is this so agonizing. Fuck it, I'll text him.

Me: Hey Matty, this is Hannah from last night. You know, the tall and pretty one :P Carly gave me your number in an act of rebellion against data security, hope you don't mind. Did you get home safe?

His answer comes in a matter of minutes.

Matty: Hello! Tall and pretty indeed. I did get home safe, although I feel like I should be the one asking you this.

Me: We're both alive and well it seems.

Matty: Good. Will you go on another date with me?

Me: What do you mean "another"?

Matty: Avoiding the question!

Me: Not avoiding, clarifying! but yes, I will go on a date with you.

Matty: Another! :)

Me: Seriously, is drunk shit talking and almost getting punched by some bloke your Idea of a date? That wasn't a proper date, my friend.

Matty: Who made you the Master of Proper Dates?

Me: Not you apparently

Matty: Also I would like to clarify that I do martial arts for self defense not to get into fights with random strangers.

Me: yeah keep telling yourself that

Matty: You're sassy, you know that?

Me: yeah, I do sometimes hang out with myself.

Matty: About that date... You free Friday?

Almost one whole week? My heart sinks a tiny little bit.

Me: yes, I'm free Friday.

Matty: Then it's a date. The second one.

Me: Serisously, that's such a weird hill to die on

///

On Sunday he sends me a picture of him in a park with Adam and Baby Hann and captions it: "Is it possible we have a favorite person in common?". I know he's referring to the child but I can't help but reply "I don't like Adam *that* much??" which earns me a bunch of laughing emojis.

///

On Monday I send him a photo of my super messy kitchen after trying to cook a halfway decent meal and caption it with "if one of your future date ideas involves cooking, I'm out" to which he replies: "A woman who doesn't love to cook? you will never make a man happy :P"

///

He calls me on Tuesday evening just as I'm in the middle of wrapping Christmas presents. "What are you up to at the moment?" he asks innocently enough.

"I'm trying to not lose my mind while gift wrapping?"

"For Christmas?? It's only the beginning of December!"

"And I hate Christmas shopping so each year I make one day at the beginning of December designated Christmas-present-day where I get all the gifts I need to get so I can relax for a whole year after that. Except for the part where I need to figure out how to wrap a pan"

"A pan?"

"Yeah you know the cooking thing. It's almost like a pot but..."

"I know what a pan is, woman" he laughs.

"It sounded like you wanted an explanation. I'm not judging, there are a lot of complicated words."

"you're such a menace. I meant why are you giving away pans for Christmas? that's a bit of a... weird gift?" he's still laughing.

„Hey, it's a nice pan and my sister-in-law asked for one, I’m not weird, I promise“

"I can't believe I'm asking this but do you want help wrapping gifts?"

"You mean now?"

"Yeah, I'm still at the studio but that's not too far from where you said you lived"

"Honestly, Matty, that would save my sanity and my evening"

"Cool, then I'm coming over"

"The place is a mess and tiny so don't expect much"

"Seriously, Hannah, you don't cook, you don't clean, what ever are you doing with your time??" his tone is obviously mocking.

"Be nice, I have a pan to hit you with if you get too cheeky"

"Uuuh, maybe I'm into that??"

"Please, don't be?"

We both laugh, I give him my address and we hang up.

An hour later I open the door to an overly excited Matty holding a bottle of red wine and grinning from ear to ear.

He hands me the bottle and adds "It sounded like you could use the moral support"

"Matty, I have to confess something to you" I say in a serious tone.

His expression changes and he furrows his brow. "What is it? Is everything ok?"

"I'm afraid I'm more of a white wine girly" I say with a mocking sad expression and a pout

"Pffffff, I thought you liked that Malbec the other day just fine"

"And I felt like a proper French philosopher drinking it"

"Fucking French philosopher" he laughs.

I lead him into the living room where the epitome of the gift wrapping mess is located and get two glasses from the kitchen. He pours the wine, takes a glass and looks around.

"Cosy" he nods

"Messy" I sigh

"Did you manage to wrap the pan?"

"Not yet"

"Why don't you just put it in a box and wrap that?"

"Thought of that, but I don't have a box that fits the fucking thing"

"Ok teamwork then" He takes a sip of the wine, puts his glass down on the coffee table, claps his hands and goes "what do you need me to hold?"

And that is how Matty and I end up on my living room floor, me giving instructions and cutting tape, him holding the paper in place, until it is finally done and the fucking pan is wrapped in paper.

"You could turn it upside down, draw a face on it and sell it as a duck"

"No more experiments, I'm just happy the fucking thing is wrapped in something"

We drink some more wine and wrap some more gifts although none of them prove to be as challenging as the pan.

"Hey will you help me wrap my gifts... later in December... when I actually manage to get something?" he asks and for a second he seems kind of shy

"Only if there's wine again"

"Just tell me which wine you like"

"Pinot Grigio"

"Whatever that is"

"You're the wine nerd??"

"I never said that!" he laughs.

His phone he had placed on the coffee table, before making himself comfortable on the floor, rings. I instinctively look and see the caller ID says "Denise".

"Oh sorry, I have to get that" he takes the phone and goes to my tiny kitchen.

I try not to follow the conversation which is kind of impossible in my rather small flat. He doesn't say much but I can make out a "looking forward to seeing you tomorrow" and that he ends the call with "love you".

My heart sinks. He has a girlfriend? Of course he has. That was to be expected when I think about it. He's handsome, successful, fills arenas with girls who love him... and on top of that he's funny and lovely. What a fool am I to believe he could ever be interested in me...

Matty comes back in the living room and just says "Sorry 'bout that"

"'s alright" I mumble. Yeah good job hiding your disappointment.

"Actually I probably should get going, it's getting late and you most likely have work tomorrow?"

"I do, yeah... Thanks so much for your help and the wine" I try my best at a fake smile.

"See you Friday?" he asks and I almost answer that no we won't see each other on Friday and that the date is off since he's obviously not single and I don't date men who aren't single, but I also don't want to explain to him that I kind of listened to a private conversation of his so I just choke out a "hmm yeah, see you Friday" before closing the door behind him.

Chapter 3

#matty fic #matty healy #matty healy fanfic #matty healy fanfiction #the1975fanfic #matty healy x oc #Matty x oc #this is how it starts

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rfaromance · 2 years ago

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Rika.

Love her or hate her, no Mystic Messenger player can deny that she is central to the overarching plot of the game.

Depending on your view of her, her major role in Ray (Saeran) After Ending is either intriguing, exciting, frustrating, or infuriating.

Personally, I loved the portrayal, insight, and development in Rika during the RAE. Read below the cut for my Rika thoughts. Spoilers abound for Ray's route, RAE, Rika Behind, and even the Secret Ending. Also, uh, it's a long post. Longcat long.

(If you're interested in opinions on the RAE from a Saeran-loving POV, I'd suggest you consult @marshmallowprotection who pours her heart and soul into her analyses, especially regarding Saeran.)

If you're reading now, I'm assuming you have enough background in the game's lore where I don't need to explain the basics, so I'm going to dive right in.

At the start of Another Story, our well-intentioned but common-sense-challenged MC ends up being personally escorted to Mint Eye. And MC chooses to fixate on Ray and his mysteries and allure, ultimately trusting the not-so-honest rose boy instead of the highly mysterious V, who apparently is not an AI but also should not be anywhere near this cult.

In MC's defense, sometimes it's easier to choose the evil you know versus the evil you don't.

Rika doesn't have a problem with this, initially. She knows that she needs to throw Ray a bone. Allowing him to have a little doll like MC to dress up and pose and control and adore will appease him, and he has a plan to make MC useful for her goals, anyway. It's a win in her book, to keep Ray indebted to his Savior and also the possibility of luring the RFA members to her faster.

But a major distinction exists between Rika in Another Story (AS) and Rika in the original timeline (OS). Much like Saeran's mental state deteriorated further over the extra year and 6 months (give or take) between AS and OS, giving us Unknown, so did Rika's. In the SE, she explicitly tells Unknown that he was a failure and she wanted Saeyoung instead. She no longer valued Saeran's prior contributions to Mint Eye or her mental state--she wanted results now, and she would sacrifice anyone and anything to achieve them.

(Well, almost anyone. Turns out sacrificing V was not what she wanted, after all.)

But her goals are different in Another Story. She's still pursuing her dreams of making people happy by "saving" them from a tainted world of pain, but she's still itching for the personal happiness she has wanted all her life: love.

She wants a loving family. She has never known what it feels like to have a family that loves her, as her earliest memories are in the orphanage, and she was adopted by a vile, hateful woman who cursed her and subjected her to physical and emotional pain, verbal abuse, neglect, humiliation, warped "religious" cult ideas of sin and salvation, and the list goes on.

When she learned of two twin children who needed loving, protective parental figures... she became obsessed. She could save them. Nobody ever saved her, but she could save them.

That delusion of forming a happy family with V and the twins only became worse after Mother Choi's death. (I hesitate to call it a murder, because it was an act of imperfect self-defense, and thus I'd argue it was voluntary manslaughter under USA law. But if we're being technical, under Korean law it's murder under extenuating circumstances. Legal jargon differs across countries.) Having taken Saeran's mother away from him, Rika got the idea that she needed to be his mother now. They would both have a good family now--that's a win-win, right?

This is the Rika we still see in Another Story. That's why she gives him the name Ray, to eliminate his past and all traces of V and Saeyoung, molding him into her obedient, doting son. That's why she dresses him up in layers upon layers and forces him to study hacking, so she can control every aspect of her sweet child. That's why she swipes Ray after she catches wind of his kiss with MC in the garden. She doesn't know or care who instigated the kiss; all she needs to know is that MC poses a risk to her fantasy, her game of house.

So she tortures Ray until he can become her puppet-son again. Except she ends up with Suit Saeran, and for the time being she'll allow that because at least he isn't tripping head over heels for MC.

That backfires too, and when Saeran frees himself of that stuffy suit and allows his body to breathe, once Saeran makes his own decision to abandon those shackles, follow his heart, apologize and atone for his wrongdoing, and break out of his gilded cage with MC... Rika loses it.

She's lost everything. Mint Eye be damned, she's lost her illusion that she will reach a "happily ever after."

So when V blames himself and crawls back to her, not wanting to see her crumble alone, she locks a collar and leash onto him. Honestly, it's the worst possible ending for V. He can't shake his self-hatred and guilt complex, and he feels the need to stand by Rika even as she sends them both on a path of destruction, because he refuses to abandon her like his father abandoned his mother. He didn't even love her anymore, but he wanted to give her the peace that he never could when they were together. This was how he felt he needed to pay for hurting her, even if it meant destroying himself.

Okay, screenshot is a good place to wrap up the backstory and dive into the RAE itself.

I've seen complaints that Rika's character was inconsistent in the RAE, but candidly I think the fluctuations in her goals, emotions, and actions represent her fragile mental state in a phenomenal way. She was highly sensitive and susceptible to emotional influence, whether positive or negative. The seemingly smallest, most trivial events could send her reeling. She clearly has a lot of mental health issues and trauma that have never properly been addressed. Instead she turned to the worst possible coping mechanisms: comphet, making a cult, and brainwashing folks into being your make-believe family.

She didn't team up with Saejoong because she likes the guy. She sees him as a means to an end: getting the twins to live with her in her game of house.

The "he" that Rika refers to in this chat is Saejoong. He's a horrendous parent, but he managed to capture Saeyoung, and therefore Rika sees him as a tool. She also is adamant that the younger twin is "Ray", not Saeran, because the boy she needs for her happy ending is the submissive one with pruned wings, not the independent one who flies away on his wings of love.

If MC tries to inquire into Rika's motivations, she simply says she chooses happiness and to focus on the small joys in life. She's no longer as guarded and high-strung, because she has much less to lose. She doesn't feel the need to be perfect, to be a Savior. She's at peace with herself, instead of constantly seeking approval. Part of that cab be attributed to V's (reluctant) acceptance of Rika for who she is, instead of trying to fix her.

She's trying to be more open and honest, and with that attempt we get a Rika who is less guarded and poised, and rather a Rika whose mask is off and is trying to navigate what it means to simply "exist." She just wants her family of 4 to live "happily" together, and a lot less scheming is required. She almost has the energy of "I'm going to be the fun, cool mom. :)"

I bet she's awful at stacking chairs, though.

Now, many characters AND players have wondered, "Why in the WORLD would Saejoong team up with Rika?" He thinks she's nuts. We know that Rika is using him, and I'd venture that he's doing the same. He knows he's caught between a rock and a hard place, but he also knows that this woman is desperate to take his troublesome bastard sons and disappear with them. She can't exist in public, after all, or she'd risk her secret of being a cult leader getting exposed. It's a weird solution, but he was in no place to refuse her offer. Coerce Saeyoung into making false broadcasts to bolster Saejoong's public image, and then let Rika, V, and the twins run off into the sunset.

A special insight that you only get during the Normal Ending is that Saejoong thought he and Rika were similar, which is likely another reason he was willing to collude with her. And the Normal Ending is the reason that I felt inspired to write this post at all.

On day 3, Rika accuses Saeran of hating her. She's furious that she doesn't have Ray anymore, because Ray needed her and gave her a purpose. Saeran doesn't need her, and that sends her into a panic. But he chooses to be compassionate and to try to sympathize with her.

On day 4, we get this exchange between MC and Rika:

Rika breaks down in MC's arms. She didn't know what love was, and she didn't know how to reach it herself. Her solution was to control, to manipulate, to clutch desperately onto people who showed her even a shred of warmth... but always staying just distant enough where she could withdraw or flee if she felt threatened, or worse, sabotage the connection herself.

She didn't know what love was because she'd never experienced it. Her mother was a malicious, cruel woman. Mika sacrificed and manipulated her. Her priest assaulted her. V did his best, but he kept pushing his ideals and methods onto her instead of listening to her. She kept Saeran through control. She brainwashed and gaslit believers, smooth-talking her way into their minds and pockets. She even kept V bound to her by blinding him; we can only assume he got treatment after his trial.

MC and Saeran showed her what love is. It's about kindness for the sake of kindness, not to curry favor. It's a willingness to step out of your comfort zone to help those you care about. It's being brave when you're terrified. It's communicating in more ways than one, always listening and considering the other's thoughts, feelings, actions, and reactions.

For the first time in her life, she saw love. She saw love in Saeran, who'd lured her and V away so that his lover and brother could be free. She saw love in MC, who'd always been gentle but firm with Rika, expressing genuine intrigue and concern for her. She saw people who didn't immediately demonize her for her worst mistake: the death of Mother Choi.

She's being honest with herself, too, acknowledging and understanding that her actions were wrong. And she starts bawling, because she's been repressing herself, her fears, and her needs for so long. She laments that she yearned for love like a child, but her body was too big now... and that made the void feel larger and emptier.

She finally got the answers she'd been trying to find for her entire life: What is love? And is she worthy?

So when the opportunity comes for her to set Saejoong straight, she tears into him. Now, she only does this in the normal ending. In the good ending, Saeran is the one who talks to Saejoong, says his piece, and gets his peace. Clearly that's the best possible ending for Saeran, because it allows him to put his last demon to rest. Now he can focus on healing and finding happiness on his own accord.

But in the normal ending, Rika shows that she's not just a sob story for MC and Saeran to pity. She's taking their lessons and her new convictions to heart and putting them into action.

And Saejoong truly loses his cool when he hears that the investigation team is coming. He knows he's toast, and so he tries to appeal to Rika one last time: "You know that you'll be going down, too."

To which Rika says: "Yes. It's long overdue."

Rika has a long, difficult road ahead of her, but it'll be a surprisingly peaceful one. She wants to heal. She wants to live a better life. She wants to be honest and true, and that means atoning for her crimes.

But then, she's going to devote her life to love.

The RAE Normal Ending is, in a bizarre way, the best outcome for Rika that Mysme canon gives us. (Because seriously, shipping her off to Alaska to GTFO was the laziest and most unsatisfying ending for her that I can imagine.)

#mystic messenger #Mysmes #Mysme #Mm #Rika Kim #rika mystic messenger #Rika mysme #Analysis #Rika essay 2 #saeran after ending #ray after ending

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polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup · 11 months ago

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Hey there! As always, I have Sea Glass Gardens on the brain, and I was wondering if there are any moments or details you've written that you really like, but people haven't noticed/pointed out yet? Or that they have, but you still have a lot of thoughts on. (this is free license to ramble about anything you want!)

I think I probably would have to say the Maki/Tsumiki confrontation in chapter 5.

Writing that was really fun because it was like an iceberg to me. There was so much buried in both of them that just sort of lingered outside where Yuuta could see.

I have a sort of love hate relationship with limited povs. On one hand, I love making up lore for shit. I love having a bunch of silly little details that don’t exactly feed into the story but build the world.

(As a total aside, I wrote pez dispenser debris while in a burnout fueled feverish haze while studying for the bar exam and 90% of what enthralled me with it was giving myself permission to just fucking. Let loose on cramming in all the little backstories. It was my fun silly story I was allowed to make technical mistakes on just to make something that made me happy. It was like splatter paint art to me. Probably half of that fic is scenes that are completely irrelevant to the plot or but that was the fun of it).

On the other hand, I love having to sort of climb around inside a story that has the inherently skewed view that comes from having a limited POV. It feels like stained glass in my head. I don’t know how to explain it better. The entire story is just colored by the glass of the character perspective. It makes for a very pretty and fractured story, even if it comes at the cost of a lot of the background.

Whenever I’m working with limited POV, I just sort of bury details that I feel like it would make me go nuts if I saw it.

A lot of my fic writing is just sort of playing connect the dots with stuff canon leaves behind? A lot of the conflict in sea glass gardens comes from one line in the second Toji v Gojo throw down. Gojo has some throw away line about how the good thing about inheriting a technique was that you got a playbook, but the bad thing was that so did everyone else. Toji was Zenin, so he knew Gojo’s technique, but the gojo clan had kept hollow purple as a carefully guarded secret.

That led to:

The initial conflict, with Megumi having partial custody with the Zenin. If clans have secrets they keep with their techniques, then it’s a tactical disadvantage to not have access to that information. It’s a huge selling point for letting the Zenin have partial custody. It’s an actual advantage the Zenin could give him.

The primary conflict, which is that the Zenin are keeping secrets around megumis technique which means 1) that they don’t know what the Zenin did to megumi 2) why they did it or 3) how to fix it.

The fact that gojos teaching megumi from the gojo playbook on his technique, which is incomplete, which lends to his own lack of understanding of the capacity of his own technique.

Some of Maki’s uncertainty around her own clan’s technique. When talking with gojo, she seemed uncertain of whether some of the details were legend or fact. She’s mentioned before that she only knows the basics, and everything else is kept in a guarded book that only the ten shadows and the clan head can access. She didn’t know what Megumi’s domain expansion would manifest as, if he was able to use it at all, and seemed surprised to know gojo knew the details. The clans are keeping secrets from their own members about these techniques to maintain tactical advantages the way the gojo did with hollow purple.

A lot of the underlying atmospheric tension around Megumi’s adoption and the motive that everyone else has read into it. Taking Megumi in childhood allows Gojo to 1) cut off the user of the Zenin clan’s most powerful technique from his knowledge base and 2) observe his technique as it develops and get a chance to uncover its secrets. He’s seemingly crippling megumis knowledge around his own abilities while cementing the gojo’s understanding of it. Of course no one thinks it was a genuine adoption. It has all the makings of a tactical move.

The future difficulty in resolving the conflict. It’s not as simple as “well at the end of the day no one wants megumi dead, just tell Shoko how to fix this.” The clans gain a discernible tactical advantage from keeping secrets from each other. They aren’t going to give up secrets if they think it’s going to go straight into the Gojo clan archives. Especially considering he’s already got unprecedented access to information on the ten shadows simply by watching megumi grow up.

A few other plot points we haven’t gotten to yet so I won’t discuss them.

It’s stuff like that. A lot of my fanfic is just kicking around what canon already gives and having fun with it. So I like just implanting the details that I know I’d have fun playing with, and tsumiki and maki’s conversation was loaded with that.

A lot of the conflict in Tsumiki and Maki's conversation is sourced in the fact that they start it off playing an unknowing game of verbal whackamole. They keep stumbling straight into each other's biggest insecurities and touchy points and not realizing it.

To start off, they both have pretty ample reason to be off kilter and high on emotion. Maki was picked up out of a pool of her own blood a couple days ago. Out of all of them, it was only her and Yuuta that Geto was actually going to kill. Geto himself said that Gojo knew he wouldn't have killed Inumaki and Panda, and that Gojo sent them to set off Yuuta. But maki was the monkey. She was wounded the worst. And she was the only one who fought Geto alone. She's still shaken and doesn't want to admit it.

Tsumiki, meanwhile, has been on the brink for days. The last time she saw her family, she was being told by gojo that a genocial maniac that wants her specific demographic dead had just declared war. Then, her fourteen year old brother disappeared. She then immediately lost contact with every single person in her life and social network.

Is Megumi dead? Did he do exactly what she thought he was going to do and camp outside her school to watch for genocidal cultists? Did he get himself killed because she wouldn't skip school? What about everyone else? Are they okay? Why has she lost contact with her entire family?

She didn't have any working phone numbers. She didn't have any way of finding them. It's directly stated in canon that Tengen's barriers are directed to deterring and concealing it from non-sorcerers, so she's not even sure if she'll be able to get into the school without Megumi or Gojo. And then all of her worst fears were confirmed, and Megumi was actively bleeding out and visibly terrified when she finally got him back. He just died in front of her. She had to personally pump his heart to try and get him back.

As a result, they've both got a shorter fuse and are a little bit more reactive than they'd normally be going into the conversation.

So of course the absolute first thing they do is ram straight into sensitive points.

Maki is the first one to do it. She calls Megumi the "Ten Shadows" instead of his name. And that sets off Tsumiki, who is willing to rip out throats over this at the best of times, and who is sitting there with her brother's blood still on her.

The thing is, Maki genuinely meant no wrong by it. It's just what they always call him in the clan. She didn't know he hated it. She barely remembered him, and the clan leadership wasn't exactly advertising how much megumi hated everything they did. And it had never had a negative connotation for her growing up--fuck, it was the biggest term of respect you could get from her shithole family.

Except Tsumiki didn't have the context of "it's basically a title and also a bigger honor than Clan Head." All she knew was 1) that they refused to call Megumi anything else 2) no one else was called by their technique instead of their name and 3) (to her knowledge) there's nothing special about being the Ten Shadows that would cast this in a more positive light. I've discussed this in another post, but Megumi thinks of being called the Ten Shadows like being called "Excel spreadsheet" by a boss who hired you for being microsoft proficient. To his knowledge, the Zenin bought him because he was a sorcerer who inherited a technique, and there's nothing deeper to it. They're just calling him that to constantly throw in his face that he's just a technique to them.

And Tsumiki knows her brother well enough to be able to say when something legitimately got under his skin. This was dehumanizing. It was another way the Zenin abused him. Without the context of "it's an ancient honor in my clan to be called that," she thought that a member of the family that abused her little brother didn't even have the decency to lay off now, when he's still struggling to keep his heart beating in his chest.

Of course, she didn't realize the mere fact that pointing out that Maki was Zenin and looked Zenin was a sore spot, because she had always sort of worried she'd never escape being the Zenin clan reject when everyone can see the Zenin in her appearance.

What Tsumiki doesn't know is a huge driving source of the continued misunderstandings in the dialogue--namely, the fact that she doesn't know the true importance of the Ten Shadows technique to the Zenin clan. But I tried to imply throughout that she had really, really good reason to think that she did.

I feel like it's a trope to sort of have the non-magic/superpowered member of the family to be sort of clueless about the inner workings of the magic world or whatever, but I didn't want that for Tsumiki. It didn't fit with the version living in my head. This a world her brother's hurtling towards joining fully. It's her family's world. She doesn't want to be locked out of it.

And the thing is? She exhibits a pretty good command over knowledge of the jujutsu world--and, specifically, the Zenin clan. She had glasses imbued with cursed energy like Maki's. She knew enough about cursed energy to come up with a theory about why Megumi seized--and Shoko later confirmed that she was probably right.

I also tried to have her display understanding of Zenin custom and action that an outsider wouldn't have.

She knows enough about them to know that they're a tradition-obsessed, ancestor-obsessed group of weirdos obsessed with maintaining lineage. She knows they prefer inherited techniques. She knows they've got a pretty large population size. She even knows that they practice incest, because she takes a crack at Maki with it and calls them inbred.

And that's one of the details that I think can be really fun to play with, as a reader-- why does she know that? Yuuta's been living fully in the jujutsu world for months, and he doesn't know that. That's a really random, specific detail to know about a family she doesn't spend any personal time with. How did Tsumiki learn about it?

Did someone bitch about it one day and she found out about it in passing? Or was there a deeper story behind why she learned that? It was meant to sort of dovetail with something Maki said later in the same conversation--Gojo had kept the Zenin from marrying Megumi off. Not "Your brother's a literal child and too young to be married, no one would have even considered it"--no, she was relying solely on the fact that Gojo was protecting Megumi, which implies that the Zenin would have at least considered it.

And it's one of those things where there's no single "correct" meaning to it. It's open to a lot of reader interpretation and it makes it fun to play with. Maybe she did only learn about it in passing, and the two comments were unrelated. Or maybe the Zenin already broached the topic of when Megumi would be procreating and with which of his cousins, and Tsumiki found out from that.

The Zenin are bloodline obsessed, and I personally headcanon that all major sorcerer clans are because their techniques are basically trade secrets to them. They're specific to each clan and they are practically the currency their world runs on. If a member of the Gojo clan runs off and marries someone from the Kamo clan and joins the Kamo in the process, and their child is born with the six eyes and limitless, they've basically lost their most valuable asset to their rival. If someone leaves the clan and that child is born with, say, the most powerful technique in their bloodline--well, then you've basically set your most valuable asset off into the crapshoot that is the wider world's genetic lottery.

Say Megumi stays outside the clan, has a kid with someone not affiliated with any clan, and keeps that kid outside the clan. That kid has a kid. That kid has three kids. Those three kids have eleven kids total. So on and so forth, until a few centuries have passed and the ten shadows is being inherited again and there's some random nobody out there from a family who doesn't even remember having jujutsu sorcery in their bloodline but who is, technically, of Zenin blood, and descended from the last ten shadows. What happens if they get it?

Megumi's proof of concept--call it fate, call it destiny, call it random chance, but his existence suggests that whatever designates who's going to inherit the shadows next doesn't care about actual clan membership. Megumi has Zenin blood, but he had no contact whatsoever with his family before this. The Ten shadows technique is something that can be lost.

Yuuta, too, is oddly a proof of concept as well, now that the jujutsu world knows he exists. He's a random descendant from a major sorcerer line, connected distantly to the Gojo clan no less, so far attenuated that there's no one in his family that even remembers their connection. But he's one of the most powerful people on the planet. The Ten Shadows could be inherited by a distant, attenuated member of the Zenin line.

I included those lines as a detail that really could be stretched as far as the reader wanted to take it. Maybe it doesn't mean anything of importance. Maybe it means that the Zenin tried to negotiate some kind of advance rights to any kids that Megumi had. Maybe it means they took it farther, and tried to negotiate for an arranged marriage and a schedule for when he'd be expected to reproduce. his bloodlines important to maintain, after all. Maybe it was something else entirely.

Tsumiki also has a laundry list of examples that suggests she's had a front row seat to them disrespecting Megumi's boundaries over the years. They kept trying to take custody. They tried to force him to change his name. They did something so terrible to him when they had visitation that he wanted to go no contact. She's got a body of experiences eating at her that make her view the Zenin as a threat that megumi needs to be protected from, and he needs protection now more than ever, which is a lot of what feeds the tension behind the discussion with Maki.

With all of that knowledge in mind, Tsumiki has great reason to think she knows what she's talking about when it comes to Megumi and the Zenin clan. Like, this isn't her talking out her ass or condescending to people who know better--she has more reason to think she knows what's going on with the Zenin than Maki. Maki actually grew up with the clan, but Tsumiki grew up with Megumi. She knows this world. she knows what the zenin are like. And unlike Maki, she actually knows what the Zenin did to him all those years ago. The only thing she doesn't know is what Gojo purposefully hid from her, which is the truth of what the Ten Shadows really is.

And it's pretty reasonable to think that your guardian would have mentioned "by the way megumi is like magic jesus reborn to his psychotic relatives" at least once in ten years, right? Like Tsumiki isn't a character who knows nothing and just talks down to someone actually in the loop--she's a character who's spent the past decade of her life in the loop, who exhibits independent knowledge of the facts, and who has every reason to think she knows all the relevant information, being blindsided by a very important detail that gojo didn't even tell Megumi. Even Maki initially assumed that Tsumiki had the information and was blindsided by the fact that she didn't. And it's that gap in knowledge that sows the seeds of their initial conflict--and eventually brought them together.

For the first part of the conversation, I really wanted a lot of the conflict to be actually "they're having two different conversations and neither are technically wrong."

Maki's conversation was centered around what the Zenin would do. She was talking about how they're absolutely obsessed with Megumi and will never give up. And that fits within her world of experience, that's what she knows--she's not wrong about anything she says.

But Tsumiki's talking about Megumi, who's in her realm of experience, and she's saying that Megumi's never gonna want to be in their family Christmas card. Neither are wrong. Maki is totally correct in saying that the Zenin aren't just going to give up and wait for another Ten Shadows to be born. But Tsumiki wasn't saying that they would--she was saying that Megumi was never going to love them or want to be with them. The misunderstanding isn't in what either are saying, it's what the actual conversation is about.

The next time they accidentally ram into each other's sore points is when Maki says Tsumiki's the reason why he refused to join the clan.

Tsumiki's the unwanted kid in the world's most aggressive custody battle. She remembers the Zenin and Gojo were at each other's throats over custody, but nobody was fighting over her. It was her brother who the Zenin wanted. And we know from her later conversations with Yuuta that the Zenin have gone so far as offered to have her boarded at a school on the other side of the planet to get her away from Megumi.

"You're the reason why Megumi won't be with his family" was an accusation that was constantly lobbed at her as a kid. The Zenin fully blamed her for Megumi not coming near them (when they weren't blaming gojo), and I imagine Tsumiki was always very defensive about it. Because the thing is, at her core, she could have been completely uninvolved and megumi would want nothing to do with them. They were fucking insane. why would he ever want to be near them?

Tsumiki was a very little girl who was all alone in the world, and then she had her megumi, and she finally had a real family. And he was all alone too. They got to save each other. They got to give each other someone in the world to hold onto. They were each other's safe harbors and lighthouses and there was no one in the world who took care of her brother before she did.

It was incredibly hard for her to learn that there was this clan of people who had money and power and actual blood tying them to him, and they wanted to take him and leave her behind. Giving him a family was something she counted as almost a source of pride, and suddenly she was turned on her head and the selfish brat keeping him from having a family.

She didn't want to be alone again. She didn't want to let him go. And she spent a long time thinking she was selfish and just keeping him from having more family, until they found out just how bad the zenin were.

It's also an unfair accusation to say that Tsumiki's trying to keep Megumi from his family. The second she finds out that Maki left the Zenin clan, she tries to get her to form a familial relationship with Megumi. She wants megumi to have other family than her--and then Maki immediately hit back with "oh so you're the reason he's not with his family." It was like a slap in the face.

Except Maki didn't mean it like "so you're the one who took him from the clan the way the rest of the Zenin did, she meant it like "so you're the one who saved him from the clan."

Maki didn't even know Tsumiki existed. The clan leadership wasn't advertising that the ten shadows picked his non-sorcerer step sister over them. The entire jujutsu world thinks that Gojo snatched him away as a child, borderline brainwashed him to keep him from joining his clan and realizing his true power, and did it all as a power play against his enemies.

Except Maki's spent the last year with Gojo. And she's been wondering what the fuck actually happened, because what everyone says about him didn't match up at all with the man who welcomed her with open arms and who had done nothing but support her and the other students. He was fucking annoying, but he wasn't someone who seemed like he would do what people said he did all those years ago.

Every single time she thought about truly trusting Gojo for this past year, she thought about Megumi. She thought about the little boy who never had any time to play but still found the time to protect her sister. She thought about how they played together and how Megumi said they could be friends when Mai begged him and how they all got beat like hell for it, but it still made Mai happier than she had been in a long time.

Megumi was safer wherever the zenin weren't, but Gojo wasn't supposed to be doing it to protect Megumi. He supposedly had been manipulating Megumi for the past decade, keeping him weak and under his thumb so he could be a pet on a leash that Gojo could parade around.

She didn't want to believe that Gojo would do that to megumi. But she also didn't want to fall for someone who was just manipulating her. If he had really done that to Megumi, she wasn't ever going to trust or forgive him.

Tsumiki's existence made it all click for her.

Tsumiki would have never, ever been safe in the Zenin clan. Maki knows what it means to not be safe there, to have a sibling who isn't safe there, to watch them suffer underneath her family's thumb. If megumi had a sister he didn't want to be separated from, a sister who couldn't ever be near her family safely, then what Gojo did wasn't a powerplay--it was a rescue. He was keeping the ten shadows with a sister he could never stay with otherwise. Tsumiki is the reason why Megumi refused to join the clan, and the reason why Gojo helped him do it. It actually was Megumi's genuine refusal all this time. Maki wasn't blaming her--she was just struck by the fact that she really, genuinely could trust Gojo all this time. that it hadn't been a power play--Gojo was just saving Megumi and Tsumiki the way no one saved her and Mai.

Of course, Tsumiki didn't know any of that. She only knew the Zenin clan that had blamed her for years. So she didn't understand that Maki was saying it out of relief, not anger.

To shift a bit farther in the conversation, in my mind, the reason why Tsumiki got in a blow out fight with Megumi about going to school is because she wants him to have a life outside of the jujutsu world.

The jujutsu world purposefully tries to take away options from you as a manner of control. That was a big part of Yuuta's conversation with the higher ups--they didn't want him doing anything that could give him options outside of jujutsu sorcery. The terms of his binding vow were ludicrously strict about how he spent his time and education. And Tsumiki has actually seen this first hand, because she watched how the higher ups went after the teen parenting squad during their adoption.

She cares if Megumi goes to school because she desperately wants him to have the option to one day leave the jujutsu world. The higher ups and the Zenin don't even want him to have a modern middle school education--if they had their way, he'd be in full time jujutsu training, and she knows that because she and megumi were both in the loop when Gojo was fighting them over it.

Megumi's going to be going to high school soon. That means he's going to lose his main connection to a world outside of jujutsu sorcery. She wants him to have friends. She wants him to go to school and have favorite subjects and hobbies and passions. She wants him to have ties other than a profession that eats its workers alive. Megumi leaving middle school is a ticking time bomb in her mind--she didn't want him to lose a single day of normal life, especially not for her sake. The fact that he's in this stupid deal to work off his debt to the school as a sorcerer for her sake has been eating her alive for years. She just wanted him to go to school and have another day of being a normal kid.

She regrets it, later. If he has to be in this world, she wants to be in it with him. She wishes she was with him when the Zenin came.

For the most part, I'm not going to discuss the undertones of the conversation about the phone, because we actually will get into that in the fic. But the last part in the story she tells about her and megumi as kids, about how she had to hold on tight to his hand as a child because he would always try to wiggle free and she would lose him if he did? That's supposed to be their entire relationship dynamic in this: Megumi keeps trying to wiggle free, and she keeps trying to hang on to him as tightly as she can.

There's a lot of little "iceberg" details after that in quick succession.

(And, to be clear, I don't consider these details explicit or "canon" within the fic itself. It's a bit like method acting, I guess?

Yuuta finding out every single detail isn't realistic. It would drown the fic in way too much detail and be a little off if he found out that much. But having this sort of hidden base in what the character's experiences and desires and motives are helps me write them more consistently throughout, and it enhances my own understanding of the story. Yuuta will never find out that Tsumiki got in the fight with Megumi because she wanted him to have a life outside of jujutsu sorcery, but it can feed into her actions throughout the story if I understand that. Only the tip of the iceberg is visible, but the rest is still beneath the surface and affecting the flow of the story's currents. But, since it isn't explicit, members of the audience are free to have their own interpretations and experiences with the art and it makes the art much more changeable? I like the idea that no story is the same for any two people. What I read as their motives doesn't necessarily have to be everyone's reading. It's a different story through the lens of every person. I dunno. It's just cool to me.)

Some of the iceberg details that follow in the conversation, in short form:

Megumi kept trying to take off the kimono when Tsumiki found him because he was convinced he was dying and didn't want to die in the clothes the Zenin dressed him in

I talked about this in another post so I won't break it down in detail here, but when Maki's talking about how her father used to always take her to see the ten shadows kimono, it's because he wanted her to inherit the technique, once upon a time. The clan had been waiting for the Ten Shadows technique to return to the bloodline since Gojo was born. Her father was important in the clan, close to the clan head, from a powerful bloodline, and she was only a year older than Megumi. In my mind, the Ten shadows is the antithesis of the Six eyes and Limitless, so while you can clock the six eyes from birth, the Ten Shadows is notoriously hard to spot until they summon the dogs. Maki went from the clan's biggest hope to its biggest shame, and the Ten Shadows is a source of a lot of bitter memories. It wasn't until she saw the state of Megumi that night that she fully appreciated how lucky she was to not get the technique.

Then, the conversation takes a total tonal shift, and it's the definitive shift in Maki and Tsumiki's relationship. Because it's when Maki overrides Nanami to tell Tsumiki the full truth of her brother's technique.

Tsumiki has rapidly become a slightly painful person for Maki in the span of this conversation, because she's maki's foil, and Maki is realizing that. Maki had to let go of Mai to become who she is today. that was one of the hardest choices of her life, but she had to do it. The Zenin would have killed her if she stayed. She knew how big she could grow if she just had the space to do it.

Tsumiki is someone who's braving her family to not let go of her sibling. She made the opposite decision as maki, and Maki knows that, and she respects the shit out of Tsumiki for it. Telling Tsumiki the truth of the ten shadows is both a sign of respect for her and an acknowledgement of her as her brother's protector. Tsumiki can't help her brother fully if she doesn't know what the hell is going on. Maki's trying to arm her so she can keep making the decision that Maki didn't, because she knows just how painful her family is going to make this for them all. They didn't even care about Maki, but they still destroyed mai when she left. Megumi? He's the most valuable person in the world to them. They'll make everyone bleed. And she thinks Tsumiki deserves to know that if she's going to stay by megumi's side.

The last little iceberg moment is Tsumiki tearing the robe. And that was meant to be a reflection of tsumiki's entire outlook on life.

At the end of the day, Tsumiki is someone I've decided is selective about what she cares about. I've talked about it more in other posts, but I don't see Tsumiki's entire "I'd rather think about the people I love than curse people" schtick as a sign she's a perfect good person who doesn't succumb to bad thoughts--I read it more as she's someone who knows she only has so much she can devote her time and energy to. Tsumiki has very specific priorities that she will actually devote labor towards, and Megumi is her biggest. She doesn't get tangled up in things like appearances, or blood, or tradition, or politics, or revenge--she has the people she won't let go of, and she will let go of absolutely everything else.

The kimono is symbolic of centuries of tradition and a borderline religious obsession for the Zenin. Megumi himself is secondary to what the Ten Shadows represents, and the Zenin show that by disregarding his desires and safety again and again for the sake of their traditions around his technique. Tsumiki figuratively (and literally) tears through that because Megumi himself is paramount to her. It's an irreplaceable, priceless, centuries-old heirloom to the zenin. Most people would be wary of damaging it even if they didn't have any personal attachment to it, but Tsumiki just fucking rips it, because it legitimately means nothing to her.

She doesn't care if Megumi's borderline a figure of legend to them. He's her little brother. So they can wait another five hundred years for the next ten shadows. And they can get a new fucking robe.

#sea glass gardens #this was such a fun ask thank you for sending it #i love tsumiki soooo much #there was just so much /story/ beneath that scene for me and it was so fun to write #also maki and tsumiki went from enemies to the the most attractive people possible for the other in record time #maki because she was completely honest with tsumiki and tsumiki finds that hot #tsumiki because she fucked up the zenin's priceless heirloom and that is the most attractive thing maki has seen in her entire life #she stopped breathing a little when it happened #how long is a respectful time to wait after someone's brother dies in their arms to shoot your shot #does the fact that he got better change the time requirement

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