#'they're leaders. we should all respect the shit out of them.'

[moretheta]

ok i know i'm the 101st person to compare the phantom troupe and the heil-ly family, but with each new chapter we get more and more to work with & i'm chewing on it 24/7 like drywall. let's talk fatalism:

so first of all shoutout to the number one champion of this theory, my main man nobunaga:

literally idk if the guy is in a nostalgic mood or what, but he will not stop yapping about the similarities and for that i commend him & his service

for the record, phinks & feitan don't seem tooooo convinced. phinks specifically points out that hey, actually, we aren't amateurs like these guys and we don't have some crazy genocide murderscheme going on. this much is obvious in the way the PT reacts to luini's insane murderfanboying with "huh????????" *stab*

the phantom troupe do not want to destroy the world, nor were they designed to- they were designed for a very specific purpose and that was to create an environment (a web, hah) that could lure in the big criminals they wanted revenge against, while being dangerous enough to keep the petty criminals out.

these are two very different vision boards!!!

....that nevertheless share some strikingly similar imagery

and we find even more parallels in their respective leaders: aside from the obvious biblical resemblances, morena and chrollo share a similar outlook on life-- more specifically, a similar outlook on death.

more seem uncaring about their respective prospects of survival. self-preservation is such an inherently human trait- hell, a trait inherent to the living- that the lack of any such instinct whatsover is pretty damn terrifying. it leads to a certain kind of alienation from humanity that we know at least chrollo has felt (when he says shit like "humans are so interesting" like damn get your head outta your ass you are one of them). it makes them striking and scary and unpredictable. fucking brocco li points this out:

he's talking about the troupe here, but he could just as easily be talking about the heil-ly. because once again, the mafia is the establishment and the heil-ly and phantom troupe are decidedly not. the regular kakin mafia looks out for their own self-interests, which can lead to unchecked greed but is also what causes them to not go around murdering civilians just because they feel like it.

think of the loss in profits!!

now, nobunaga seems to think of the heil-ly as a sort of prototype- unrefined spider. when they're first investigating the heil-ly hideout, he says "maybe a switch was flipped when one of their own was killed," [see figure 1 above] which is a reasonable assumption to make considering his own experience. but when we check back in with the heil-ly...

their reaction to losing luini is "bummer," before immediately talking about what abilities they should develop to replace him. and in the second panel, when hinrigh kills padaille, the guys who are supposed to be his comrades just.. run away. later morena mentions that those same members are now leveling up to get revenge on hinrigh, but it seems like that stems more from hurt pride and morbid curiosity to see what they can accomplish with their shiny new powers.

these mfs are singing a "let's go hunt the mafia" jingle

big contrast to the way the xi-yu react to the death of lynch^

now both the troupe and the heil-ly are known to have fairly blasé reactions towards death and violence and general in the past. and that extends to their comrades' fights:

shalnark and co play cards while uvogin get leeches injected into his veins, or phinks & co stand by and watch feitan almost get his ass handed to him by zazan in meteor city- before he starts taking things seriously, that is. but i think that comes from a genuine respect in their comrades' strength. like everyone knew uvo could handle the shadow beasts just like they knew feitan could handle zazan. the heil-ly also seem to enjoy each others company and have a great rapport while chopping up dead bodies... but i think they don't expect much from their comrades in the way the troupe does. i mean, it's like phink's says: the troupe doesn't take on amateurs. everyone in the heil-ly is an amateur (except morena) so i don't think their laissez-faire attitude comes from confidence in their own abilities- i think they actually just do not care.

this whole exchange felt sooooo spiders-coded. which makes sense: i mean plenty of them are fans of the spiders! i think yokotani (the lawyer) was deadass trying to get an autograph lol

one thing to note is that when nobunaga attacks terebellum, he assumes the reason the gang hadn't shown signs of confrontation thus far was because they were convinced they were safe- that nobunaga and hinrigh couldn't get to them. i think that's only half the truth: when hinrigh throws a knife at this guy (the heil-ly's "organ" whatever that could mean) he just thinks "huh i wonder how long this would take to heal," before being saved by an issue of shonen jump. then he gets chastised for being reckless and going against morena's orders to keep his head down, but it's all very unserious. then everyone just kind of wanders off to do their own thing.

can i also just say i was getting from real uvogin vibes from terebellum over here

again, i can't really make any blanket statements with information we have available. but my current outlook is that the biggest difference between the spiders and the heil-ly right now is that the heil-ly is what chrollo had initially envisioned for the troupe: remember the "i am the head but i don't matter and you shouldn't make choices with my life in mind" speech? i think this is what that would look like. we know that (up until yorknew), chrollo truly believed that everyone saw the spiders as he did. that he would have no value as a hostage. that they would all be able to accept his death and move on:

and this turned out to be a fatal flaw.

the levels of cognitive dissonance going on during this whole exchange...

he was soooo in hhis head about being above humanity in his own little conceptual space where life and death don't matter that he forgot to look around and realize not everyone was there with him.

there were some, like phinks, who were in line with chrollo's philiosophy. kudos to them ig. but there were enough people who wanted to keep their friend alive- and are still working their asses off to do so today!- that his plan failed. pakunoda chief among them god rest her soul. this moment was one of the first dominos that sent into into the downward spiral he's on today. because after all he invested in the spider, all he gave up for it, it's web is slowly but surely falling apart. he is losing one lifelong member after another in events he is either powerless to stop or has a direct hand in. the ethos that kept him in this purgatory where he could temporarily transcend pain and guilt and humanity is unravelling, and the people he loves (not all of them, at least) don't share in it, and if that's the case then they've been suffering all this time. and if that's the case then what the hell has he been doing, and what the hell is the point.

so now he's stuck on a ship with a group of people that are like his own but worse (and younger and stupider g'bless) lead by someone who's like him but at peace. (and also probably worse lol). having a breakdown because people might love him. also he's trying to steal a national treasure because this is a nic cage movie apparently hey how many words is this post again

TLDR; chrollo is loosing the idgaf war

[musiclovingmoth]

after barely a day of my poll being up it seems like so many people know about and really love natural history collections which makes my heart sing!! i would love for my fellow natural history nerds to rise up and sign this petition to protect one!!

duke university is CLOSING its herbarium which holds over 800,000 plant/fungus/algae specimens including 2,000 types spanning 180 years of collection effort all across the planet. it is the second largest private university herbarium in the entire united states. this is really bad!! i will explain in short terms:

every natural history collection's purpose is to collect and maintain specimens, which are collectively supposed to be a thorough representation of biodiversity across time and space. when sampled at regular intervals at the same places, specimens can tell endless stories about changes in shape, abundance, range, genetics, and SO much more. basically, they are a big sample size to use in all manner of studies, including those that concern climate change and biodiversity loss! new species and evolutionary relationships are constantly discovered at collections even when specimens are like 100 years old. duke has recently championed itself as a global leader in biodiversity research which is honestly in jawdropping conflict with its move to close its herbarium. this herbarium not only supplies duke researchers with material but researchers all over the world. specimens have been cited in over 46,000 publications and over 13,000 since 2019 alone. we have old shit in our cabinets but the science is anything but history!

faculty and staff have 2-3 years to move the specimens elsewhere which is NOT enough time for 800,000 old dried plant/fungus specimens. this is an issue in even the BEST natural history collections at the biggest institutions but collections are pretty much always understaffed and underpaid. a university collection usually relies a lot on student labor and you know they do not have the time to be contributing to this move. to find collections that would take these specimens AND allocate the manpower and time needed to send them off is not feasible. types, especially holotypes should really NEVER be transported because they serve as the exemplar for the characteristics of the species it represents. i do not feel good about hurrying 800,000 old, fragile specimens including 2,000 types getting moved in a short amount of time by a few people. i do not want to know what will happen to the remaining specimens that don't make it out in time.

this sets a really dangerous precedent for other university collections across the world. this is not a random state school, this is duke university, which is practically an ivy league. if they close such a prominent and respected collection just because they're not 260% maximizing their profits, it may let other greedy university admins know they can get away with the same. i've only been in the professional collections world for a short time but shutting down a collection let alone one as big as duke's is almost UNHEARD of. i haven't seen scientists band together so strongly and quickly over an issue (i'm in an ENTOMOLOGY collections listserv and someone advocated for emailing duke admin against this decision), probably because they can all agree on how strongly this could impact climate and biodiversity research and policymaking down the road.

tl;dr if duke herbarium really closes, we would be losing a vital hub for ongoing and future research that helps us understand how our world is changing through the dynamics of our plants and their allies. other institutions might see this and follow suit with their own collections.

[rickktish]

Some unsolicited Harry Potter Thoughts and Headcanons

Ron Weasley is one of my favorite characters. Ron Weasley should have died from the poison in Slughorn's office when he was 16 so that y'all would treat him with the respect he deserves instead of shitting on him and replacing him with Draco in Leather Pants.

The entire reason Dumbledore is so fucked up actually has nothing to do with his sordid past; it comes from the (Doylist) fact that he was a plot device in a children's book until the main characters (and thus the audience) got old enough that it needed to become a YA series, and then had to find ways to justify is plot device-ness after being magically transformed into a character. The justification did not succeed.

Harry and Ginny were fine as a ship. Not spectacular, but fine. But if the series had come out 10-20 years later than it did I would be frothing at the mouth that Harry ended up with Ron's sister instead of Ron.

Draco Malfoy was a victim of circumstance in that he was raised by racists to be a racist. Draco Malfoy did not change his mind about his racism by the end of the series, but he did change his mind about the cult leader his parents had raised him to worship, and he deserves credit for that. Do not give him credit for what we do not have evidence of him doing, namely becoming not racist. No one in his family did that. Don't pretend that they did just to make them look shinier.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all bad friends at different points in the series, but as far as I can recall only Harry and Hermione exhibited actively toxic behavior. Ron had his disagreement with Hermione in book 3 and with Harry in book 4, but he had valid points in PoA (owner of a pet is responsible for that pet's actions) and was operating under false assumptions which he clearly communicated in GoF ("I thought you might've told me if it was the Cloak... because it wouldn't covered both of us, wouldn't it? But you found another way, did you?") before getting his head out of his ass ("Harry," he said, very seriously, "whoever put your name in that goblet -- I -- I reckon they're trying to do you in!") Followed by a sincere apology, interrupted though it was ("Ron opened his mouth uncertainly. Harry knew Ron was about to apologize and suddenly found he didn't need to hear it. "It's okay," he said, before Ron could get the words out. "Forget it." |"No," said Ron, "I shouldn't've--"| "Forget it," Harry said. Ron grinned nervously at him, and Harry grinned back.) Ron also apologized after leaving in DH. If anyone can remember a single instance of either Harry or Hermione apologizing to Ron for something they did that was wrong or for direct harm rather than accidental harm they've done, would you please add it to this post? I'm hoping it's just been too long since I did an in-depth read of the series and I've forgotten something, because I genuinely can't remember a time and I haven't been successful in locating one by my cursory searches through my ebook editions. I would genuinely like to be wrong about this, please and thank you.

I believe with my whole soul that the reason Dumbledore didn't get Sirius out of prison was because he was having Grindelwald flashbacks. Person I trusted with my whole soul turned out to be pro-enslavement/genocide? Person my students trusted with their magically concealed location appears to have turned out to be pro-Voldemort (and everything he uses to justify his pursuit of power)? He literally did not believe any doubts he might have held about Sirius' guilt, because he hasn't trusted his own judgement since he was 18 and his little sister died. also he 1) canonically did not know that Sirius wasn't the secret keeper and 2) probably did not know that Sirius never had a trial, so there's also that.

Harry and Ron 100% should have gone to the Yule Ball together. I would forgive their not ending up together so long as they had gone and had a fantastic time. Unfortunately, GoF was written in 2000, and we missed out for it.

Hermione would be an emotionally (and potentially physically) abusive spouse to Ron, not because I feel any need to put her down or bash her in any way, but because she wasn't willing to tell him that she was into him and instead conjured birds to attack him when she caught him kissing another girl. I think with time, effort, and a decent dose of humility, they could work it out, but at some point their kids are going to be chatting with friends and reveal the most casually fucked up shit about their parents' relationship to someone who's going to look utterly horrified and poor Rose and Hugo will have no idea why because to them it will be completely normal.

Childhood is thinking Dumbledore is the good guy and Snape is the bad guy. Angsty teenhood is thinking Snape is the good guy and Dumbledore "raised Harry like a pig for slaughter." Maturity is realizing that Snape did good things for really fucked up reasons like "I'm obsessed with the woman whose husband and child I would have seen killed so I could have another chance to get in her pants but unfortunately she's dead so I guess I have to keep her child who I hate alive" while also actively causing (directed) severe harm to the children under his care, and that Dumbledore did fucked up things for some good reasons like "I can't let this person who tortured animals as a child and committed murder in his teens destroy the world" and for some bad reasons like "I would literally die right now but unfortunately I have shit to do" (I honestly think everyone somehow missed the fact that Dumbledore was suicidal?? in spite of the fact that he committed assisted suicide?? I'm not quite sure how, but I suspect it has something to do with the woobification of Snape, so. there's that) while also causing (mostly indirect) moderate to severe harm to all who were in his care including, but not limited to, the government officials who asked him for advice, the staff and children at the school he ran, and his own family. The essential difference comes because Snape acted as he did toward others because he hated the world and everything in it, especially children, whereas Dumbledore acted as he did toward others because he couldn't make up his mind whether or not the ends justified the means and his life was entirely defined by the practice of both intentional and unintentional self-sabotage.

This absolutely might be giving Rowling too much credit, but I grew up with fairy tales of goblins who stole and guarded gold and didn't learn that goblins were a racist caricature based in antisemitism until I was in my late teens or early twenties by reading a post about how writing goblins as bankers meant that Rowling is antisemitic. I also genuinely didn't believe it at first, because I grew up in a culture that reveres Judaism and the Jewish people as God's chosen and the source for the foundation of mankind's relationship with God, and I had to seriously work to believe that the slightly goofy, slightly gross fairy tale creature I was familiar with could have such a disgusting connotation. I strongly suspect that Rowling herself had no idea until she started being accused of racism, at which point she pulled her classic schtick and doubled down, radicalizing rather than being open to being told she might be wrong. Sometimes you grow up with something being so normal and part of the regular zeitgeist that it never occurs to you that it could have its origins in racism. (I experienced this myself recently from a post about the origin of the popularity of private pools in the US, which I always thought were just a rich people status symbol. Even though I've known about the issue of pool discrimination since my mom, who attended a formerly black-only middle school in Alabama as a child, read me picture books about it when I was in elementary school, I didn't put it together until I read the post.) The quality of your character is determined then by how you respond to the criticism rather than whether or not you knew before the accusations began. The end result is the same, but I feel like holding her responsible for knowledge we have no way of telling if she knew before she started being accused of having it is bad-faith criticism, and I'd much rather hold her accountable for wrongs I know she's committed rather than ones I can only speculate about.

Dudley Dursley deserved his redemption. He grew up with the rule "Don't be like Harry" and figured out by the end of the series that Harry was a person, which is better than either of his parents managed. I honestly think a good dose of the real world-- maybe university or something-- would give him the foundation he would need to separate himself from his parents' beliefs and become a halfway decent human being. I wish the best for Dudley Dursley.

Neville Longbottom deserved better. In every possible way.

[pinkgy]

Niflheim Character Charts just dropped and they are the most interesting kingdom, here's why.

There are a lot of things to talk about I don't even know where to begin.

I've seen a lot of blogs here giving their opinion about them, and i wanted to do the same :D

First of all, the only kink that we maybe would've been able to assume was Beleth's, and honestly, that tobacco kink never crossed my mind.

Where do they even get these kinks?

They just get more creative every time.

I'm going to begin with probably my favorite Niflheim demon since today morning.

You have no idea how BAD I wanna know how he ended up surrendering his role as a king even tho he still wants to be the king, just how powerful Bephegor is?

Now a question I've always had that has nothing to do with this post, Who is actually the strongest king? Because every noble says their king is the strongest (except Andrealphus, if I'm not mistaken he said Beelzebub was the one)

But if we put some head into this question, Lucifer should be the strongest, but when they bring up the strongest king in the game either in the story, cards, or events, no one mentions him.

I don't know.

Something that seems interesting to me about his description is that:

They describe Niflheim as a lawless city, which is quite the opposite of what all of us thought since it's a military land and shit.

Did Niflheim become a "Lawless city" because of him and that's why Belphegor dethroned him, or did it become like that because of Belphegor?

And the fact that Agaros is described as the most insane guy in hell is ... crazy.

And gets even crazier when we remember Glasyalabolas, Abaddon itself, and Andrealphus are out there.

Also, it's said that he doesn't recognize Belphegor as his king, and unlike a certain jealous king that we know could never tolerate that, Belphegor probably doesn't give a fuck or is too lazy to bother, so he let him be.

Now, Vassago

Listen, I don't want to judge him this quick, but if there's something I don't like about some characters of the game, is when they are overly and extremely loyal and obedient to their kings, and it's something really common in whb, I like when the characters don't make that their whole personality and even when they're a bit rebellious, some examples are Glasyalabolas, Barbatos, Paimon, Leraye and more.

The thing is that Vassago seems to be the greatest of these types of characters, but again, I'm not going to judge him so soon, I'll wait until we get more information about him to give a more objective opinion.

Then we have Beleth.

I love his eyes omg, they look really simple but there's something about them.

I know the game doesn't respect much the fact that the nobles have ranks in the Ars Goetia, but Beleth is a king, and Agaros is a duke, and it would've been great if they switched their names, I don't know, I don't pay much attention to this since it's a game at the end of the day, there's no need to follow the canon.

Either way, Beleth is like a king in Niflheim, specifically a De Facto King, which according to my mom, is a leader who leads without being authorized to, and yes, this a very resumed definition, we still don't know why this happened, I had my theory that Beleth does as he pleases with Niflheim and Belphegor lets him because he's too lazy to bother, but it's said in his description that he let's people know that the one in charge is Belphegor so my theory doesn't make much sense.

I hope they clarify this in the event because this Niflheim lore seems reaaaaaally interesting.

Also, I think we all noticed, but now we know why he has so many bite marks, the dude gets laid every day and he probably hides a monster down there.

And Belphie and Him have matching horns AGhhh how cute (I have my theory that that's not a horn, but okay)

And now the main guy of the day.

I still have no idea what his kink is, as much as people explain it, I don't get it.

At this point, I think PB is inventing kinks because there's no way.

Him having Narcolepsy is expected, my bets for his mental illness were that and insomnia, maybe one of the reasons he doesn't appear (aside from him being literally the demon king of sloth) is because he has a very serious case of narcolepsy, but I don't know, we'll have to wait until we meet him.

I said this in a post I did before, but I love that he's 1cm taller than Satan and his dick being 0.1 cm bigger, PB did this on purpose obviously and I can't wait to see interactions between them.

Since we don't have an actual description of him, I can't say much, i just know I love him.

So far I think this is the most interesting kingdom, there seems to be a lot of lore behind them and I absolutely love that, I hope we get a lot of information in the event because of my calculations are right, there’s going to be a looooooong while until we can finally meet them in the main story (and since PB is taking so long with the chapters, I don’t expect them to come to the main story until next year)

[project-sekai-facts]

Is it me or are the new outfits simpler? Like old ones had a lot of tiny useless details all around, the new ones look "cleaner" in comparison. It's not bad I kinda like it but it definitely feels weird

Before we start I just wanna say that I kinda critically analysed the costume designs instead of you know. just talking about the details. cool here we go

Yeah aside from VBS they all feel so. Plain, I guess? MMJ’s outfits probably the worst instance, imo they felt more same-y than before and I get they’re an idol unit so they were gonna be uniform but there’s something off. It’s the blue, I get that it’s probably a nod to the blue penlights, but using green or their respective image colors would’ve been better I think. You can barely even see Haruka or Shizuku's image colors on the skirts. Honestly I don’t think the accessories are that bad, they’re pretty cute and fit the group, though the costume being so plain outside of them just makes it look like there should be more. the thing is the outfits aren't the same, they have different skirts and shirts like the original it's just the fact that they all have the same color scheme and similar-enough accessories that it makes the differences less noticable. their image colors should've been the primary or secondary color not the tertiary color.

Leo/need I can get being more uniform, it goes with their whole thing, and I liked how there’s still a lot of details to differentiate them and give them personality. Honestly their original color scheme was pretty basic but making their image colors the secondary colors instead of of the primary colors of their outfit? it just wasn't it. honestly it wouldn't be too bad if the grey wasn't such an ugly color it looks really bad. if they'd gone with black or a much darker grey for the blazers it would've looked so much better and made the accents stand out more. also, the lack of accessories... i get they're more "professional and mature" but their outfits are quite boring, especially next to Miku's. If all of them had a big star armband like Honami or even had a bigger star buckle anywhere (like on a belt) it would look a bit nicer.

WxS was an improvement from Leo/need maybe? The outfits are definitely the most detailed so far, and they had a lot of personality. I like that they kept the original theme of character types (Rui being a villain, Nene being a fairy, etc), and it's not hard to tell what role each of them are meant to be (except emu but it wasn't obvious what hers was in the first place). I think Tsukasa's fits his personality quite well; he plays hero roles so he has a prince sort of outfit, he's the leader so he's got the sash, and he usually dresses very smart. it's very plain though, definitely could've done with brighter colors on the accessories, and maybe keeping the belt charm. also the jacket and trousers being the same color without much to separate them and balance it out doesn't look great. emu and nene's are both better, the color palettes are really nice and their outfits aren't plain holy shit. Emu's fits her personality really well - just by looking you can tell she's a fun and positive person. Rui's is probably the one i'd say is best out of the bunch. I know we can't see the front but the asymmetry and use of black in the color palette makes it stand out a lot and really adds something that the others were lacking. it's a very good villain outfit as well.

N25's were simple, but managed to actually pull it off. they didn't feel really plain compared to some of the other units despite actually being pretty plain. their outfits were always dark, and that hasn't changed, but making the colors more murky adds an extra layer to it. the addition of the flower patterns really adds something to take away the plainess of the original outfits, as well as adding relevant symbolism. Mafuyu's especially stands out being the lightest color and being the most ragged. It tells you she's different, she appears bright and perfect at first, but when you look further down, she's damaged. The image colors could've done with being a bit brighter maybe but other than that these are pretty good.

VBS outfits are actually really good. There I said it. They're able to feel cohesive as a group while still managing to reflect the individuality of each members and not be plain. The outfits fit their personal styles really well, Kohane's more girly, An's more cool and mature, Akito's sporty and active and Toya's more smart but still has the street look. Despite their outfits looking totally different, you can tell they're a unit because of the reddish-pink accents on all their outfits and also using white as a unifying color. i know i complained about the white making the other outfits plain but it's far more balanced out here and isn't as in-your-face. it isn't like MMJ and WxS that have white as their main outfit color. With VBS it's just one white item of clothing: Kohane's sweater, An's cargos, Akito's hoodie and Toya's tshirt. it's incorporated in a very natural way and isn't overly prominent. their image colors and other colors are used just as much in the outfits to balance it out. they have the best balance undoubtedly. even the accessories, they aren't big and there's not a whole lot of them, but the outfits already have a lot going on so they don't need to be complex, they're just there to add something extra.

There’s too much white.

[mono-dot-jpeg]

protection - k. leona

summary; you don't need protection but leona likes to insist on it when the rest of his dorm are trying to be assholes.

genre/extra tags; fluff, comedy if you squint, jaguar! reader, cat behaviors but with humans, quiet-ish(?)! reader, reader has vitiligo, reader is mc but not really???, reader is referred to as mc and prefect, reader has no mentioned skin tone, reader is implied to be shorter but not by much (sorry, jaguars are just shorter than lions), slightly badly written hurt/comfort, ooc leona?????

[warnings; assholes being assholes, making fun of appearances (specifically vitiligo) but like this all only happens at the start and 1-2 times]

[gender neutral! reader]

word count; 907

a/n; yippee!!! thank you for the request! i hope you enjoy! i had a good time writing this! something abt jaguars just makes me so happy like when i watch owls. they're just silly little guys yk

also im bad at writing mean shit sometimes so uih,,,, dink donk sorry. also the spots that reader have are the rosette spots that jaguars have!! i only say the ones on the arms but it's implied that there's a pattern on them on their body :)))

you haven't really had much time in the savanaclaw dorm because despite how it contains people like you, they were not very nice. but it didn't really matter to you as you didn't need a pack to live happily. you have a pack, yeah, but it wasn't really a necessity for your kind of beastmen. you've learned very quickly that jaguar beastmen aren't really social people. so you've been accustomed to being alone in peaceful silence.

"you're brave for coming here looking like that. spots and all."

and you're more than used to a few verbal jabs about your looks.

you attempt to walk past the three beastmen but they're blocking your way. you huffed in annoyance.

"are you here to see dorm leader? because i'm sure he doesn't want to see you." one of them (the assumed leader) pokes at a particularly different part of your skin. it just happens to be one of the several spots you sport on your arm, the biggest rosette spot. you don't say anything as you push past them.

the collar of your shirt is tugged on, forcing you to stop. "we didn't say you could leave, short ass."

"no, you didn't, but i did." leona's voice rings out in the common room of the dorm. the air felt colder than ice despite the beaming sun outside. "you got a lot of nerve trying to make fun of my partner, you know?" he rolls his eyes at the trio as he pulls you to his side. "you okay, mc? they didn't hurt you right?"

you're faced away from the three as you look at leona, "i'm good." you mutter. you're not really shaken up, maybe feeling a little odd. somehow it felt different from the other times that you've been made fun of. was it because of leona coming to help?

"good. if there's any scratch of you, i don't think i would be so easy on you lot. tch." leona glared tiredly at the three beastmen. the trio pathetically blabbers their apologies as they leave. "why don't you fight back?"

you shrug as you both walk to leona's room, "i'm used to it. it's not the first time people picked on me." your ears flicker at the sound of beastmen in their respective dorm rooms. you can distinctly hear jack working out, it makes you huff in amusement. "i'm not social like you, leona, i don't express my anger as easily as you. also they just wanted to get a rise out of me to make me look bad in front of you."

"well, you should say when you're mad. or at least fight back?" he muttered. "you're... just as strong as i am."

"heh, takes a lot to call me strong, my lion." you snickered for a second but you stop, frowning slightly as you remember the odd feeling from earlier.

"shut up." he knocks a knuckle against your head. he opens to the door to his room, he gently grabs your hand and takes you into his room. closing the door and locking it, he faces you. "are you sure you're okay?" he asks. his eyes are stern but soft as he stares at you.

you take a moment to answer. in that moment, he rubs his head against your neck as if to comfort. "i don't know? felt weird when you stood up for me." he moves his head to look at you and wait for you to continue. your hands grip his clothes at the waist. "it didn't feel bad. they made fun of my... spots. i'm usually used to it but it felt different today. is that weird?" your ears flatten as you look up at him.

"nothing weird about feeling bad. being insulted sucks." he pauses, "was it at least a good thing that you felt when i came around?" his free hand reaches to brush his fingers through the layer of fur on your ears.

you lean into the touch, "i think so. but the insults kind of sunk in after that too..." you muttered as you rest your body against his. he's quick to lead you onto the bed, both of you laying down and finally getting comfy. "didn't like it. just wish they just made fun of my personality and not.. something i can't control." you try your best to explain. you pick at the stray hairs on his face, staring at your jaguar spots on your arms. "heard comments like it all the time and yet... something felt off." you sigh, "maybe it was because they mentioned you." his ears twitch at the comment.

"what did they say?"

"that you wouldn't wanna see me. poked at my spot after that." your finger rubs over the biggest rosette on your forearm.

"i'll make sure they get their heads straight." his hand grabs at your wrist and moves your arm as his lips kiss the spots. "until then, i won't ever say i don't want to see you. i love you a lot... and i hope you know that." his voice is stern but you can see the love pouring from his eyes as he stares at you.

you can feel your face go warm as he continues to stare at you, "s-stop looking at me like that, would you?!"

"but it's cute watching you be all embarrassed over me saying i love you." he snickers.

"back- back off, leona! not all of us are whipped for their partners!"

"don't lie to yourself, you love me too."

[silent-raven13]

Hobie never cries but... 2

(Part 1)

It's been three weeks since Miles die from the heroic battle. Hobie couldn't let go of his lover's lifeless body, it had to take three grown Spiderman to pull him away. One of the Spiderman was Miguel, who tries to calm him down. The memory still on replay for the twenty year old...

Hobie shouted: No! No! He's still alive! Why the fuck are you dumbasses putting a white blanket over him! Miles! Miles, wake up, luv! You're still alive! -Miguel holding him back as the other two Spidermen wrapping Miles' body with a white blanket to prepare for the autopsy report. They still need to tell his parents' that they lost their son.- NO, stop! Are you fuckers not listening! Gwen! PAV! Tell them to stop. -the two were crying already know their friend is gone. They couldn't look in Hobie's eyes-

Miguel grab Hobie's shoulder: Hobie, listen to-

Hobie slaps the grown man's hands: Don't fucking touch me, man! -tears running down his face- Miles is still alive! He's just sleeping! If you jus-

Miguel grabs Hobie arms, he snaps: MILES IS GONE, HOBIE! He's gone. I'm sor-

Hobie laughs in disbelief: Your sorry? I bet you're fucking happy! You're fucking happy that Miles is gone. -his eyes glare at the leader of the Spider Society- You planned this, didn't you! I bet you wanted him dead.

Gwen went over to calm him down: Hobie, Miguel will never do that! Look, we-

Miguel: Hobie, I didn't hate Miles. He proven to be one of the best Spidermen out there.

Hobie shouted at him: I know you wanted him dead! I know! You're a fucking liar, a snake- the fucking worst! You don't deserve to be called a Spiderman!-

Gwen: HOBIE!

Peter shouted: Whoa! Whoa, Hobie! Don't do this, kid. Not right here, where Miles was -he stopped himself having his own tears coming down his cheek.-

Pav went over to hug Hobie: We're all upset, Hobie.

Hobie broke down crying into his friends arms: It should've been me! It would've been easier!

Mayday slowly went to hug Miguel's leg being sad, she's only seven years old: Miles is dead because of me. -she cries.

Miguel picks her up to comfort her: No, he saved your life.

Mayday crying out loud too.

Present day

Hobie lazily woke up in his bed holding a bottle of vodka, or whatever alcoholic beverage to get his fucked. His puffy eyes sore, stinging from his tear, he couldn't stop crying after that day. Everything feels so painful, he quit being Spiderman. There was no point to it anymore. His mouth dry, sticky from being dehydrated, the pounding headache didn't help. He took another chug of his vodka, making three loud gulps: Fuck! -He lies back down on his bed cuddling against his deceased partner's pillow and leftover clothes- I miss you, luv.

A few minutes later he saw a figure appeared into his room: God, it reeks of alcohol in here! -Hearing Gwen voice, Hobie lift his hand up- There you are!

Hobie: What is it, Gwendy?

Gwen appeared in front of him: Dude, today is Miles' Funeral. Aren't you gonna come? Pay respects to his family? They're going to bury his body next to his Uncle Aaron!

Hobie groans: Don't feel like it.

Gwen pouts: Hobie, you should go and say your goodbyes...

Hobie: It won't matter, he's not here anymore.

Gwen: What about Rio? Jeff? Little Billie? They want you to be there. Your not the only one who lost someone they loved!

Hobie grunts: It doesn't fucking matter Gwendy! Fuck!

Gwen: Peter been asking for you. You quit as Spiderman, huh?

Hobie: Pointless shit job! I rather stay here and get drunk!

Gwen looks at a table with cocaine strips, weeds, and used condoms: And other stuffs, huh? You rather waste your life here?

Hobie: if I can be with Miles, fuck yes!

Gwen: Miles would hate for you to do this to yourself. I thought you want to be like him! Be the best Spiderman! You can't just give up!

Hobie: Oh yeah, watch me! -he turns away letting his tears on his former boyfriend's clothes- It doesn't matter, Gwen. He's no longer here to prove it.

Gwen scoffs with her own watery eyes: I love Miles, Hobie. We all did. Miguel even help-

Hobie scowls: Miguel? He's gonna be there. That fucking sadis-

Gwen: Miguel didn't know that was gonna happen. The anomaly was unpredictable! You know, Miles saved Mayday! Mayday would've died if he didn't. Even Miguel wouldn't have done that.

Hobie: Figures. All you Spiderpeople are all talk while MY SPIDERMAN sacrifice himself! Pfft, of course that fucking arse would try to kiss ass at Miles' family.

Gwen: Hobie, you're grieving. You're mad, you have the right to be. But being mad at just Miguel isn't good for you. We all failed, we all have blood on our-

Hobie snaps: YOU DIDN'T HOLD HIM! YOU DIDN'T TOUCH HIM OR HOLD HIS WEAK BODY WHILE HE SLOWLY SLIPS FROM YOUR GRASP! -his voice soften- his beautiful radiant smile, his sun glow cheeks all gone just like that. Him telling you how much he loves you... -his eyes filled with tears finally looking at tearful Gwen- and you're just there trying to hold whatever blood is left. Did you did that, huh Gwendy? Huh?

Gwen wipes her tears, with a soft: No... but we did fail. If we all paid attention, he would've been here. Why you think all the Spiderpeople are going to stop by his funeral?

Hobie scoffs: Bunch of fakes. They never knew him like i did.

Gwen shook her head: I tried. Here, you can come or not. Mrs. Morales is hoping you show up! -she handed his the funeral card to him- This is personally from Jeff. He also hope you can come. Anyway, I have to go get ready.

Hobie sniffs hearing Gwen leave through a portal to her home. He holds the card seeing Miles' dad sent this to him. His fingers tremble as he opens the card. Maybe it's Jeff blaming him...

The card: I know we never see eye to eye, but I know you did your best protecting Miles. Me and his mom hope you can come to the funeral, it's at three pm. I heard what happen, and I- we don't blame you. You did the best you could, Hobie. I know you love him, and would've done anything you can for him. Please, come to the funeral. Not for me but for him. From Jeff Morales.

Tear drops hit the card, Hobie whimpers having to fall back into his lover's side of the bed being so broken. He hugs Miles' pillow: I miss you, luv! Why did you leave me?

(Part 3)

[mixelation]

wait okay notes to self on the Political Situation in reborn au ->

for plasticity/reborn au (and i sort of just like this headcanon in general), oto as a village is 100% an orochimaru project, BUT there are native ninja families to the country (which is where the Oto team we see in the chunin exams come from). none of those families took "sides" in the third ninja war but they still had to deal with a lot of spillover fighting on their land-- ninja cutting off routes through the country, burning down villages at strategic locations, shit like that. a lot of scuffles with oto clans trying to push foreign ninja out of their territory because that's THEIR LAND and then it not going super well because they'e individual families vs whole villages that can just send more ninja if they think occupying that land is a good idea

so towards the end of the war orochimaru swoops in with a bunch desperately needed supplies and is like: aren't you TIRED of being tiny and weak? you know what would really help you-- and he unites the clans in his own village. he's been REAL good at buttering up clan leaderships and also investing in improved training and playing at being respectful of old traditions so everyone's on board with him being leader.

once he has his village, orochimaru immediately starts pushing out older ninja-- they go missing or weird shit happens to discredit them, etc. he also starts bringing in interesting wayward youth (and the occasional disenfranchised adult) from across the continent, which is why oto morphs from something that looks like a cohesive "new" village with themed sound-based attacks in part 1 to a series of hideouts filled with teenagers with weird powers in part 2.

so tori is around for the unification and it actually benefits her a lot because she's able to leverage it to get actual ninja training. it's a delicate game of getting enough attention from orochimaru to get what she wants but not SO much attention that he decides to poke at her, but she has the significant advantage of being mentally an adult. she's not actually a doe-eyed eight year old orphan who's desperate or love-- she's a fully actualized adult who doesn't need his approval or attention the way he tries to twist all his followers.

anyway, the fun of reborn au is that this is late-game plasticity tori who's fully come into herself as "not a ninja, still a monster" so i want her to have a lot more agency than she does at the start of plasticity. so she plays the ninja training game but at some point she's like: well, i should just nip this whole oto thing in the bud. and so she flees but in a way that really cuts the whole thing off at the knees and makes it dissolve early [DETAILS DEPENDING]. early reborn au tori isn't used to thinking like a ninja so she avoid combat-oriented solutions, but she's very effective at causing chaos in new and unexpected ways

(orochimaru is deeply annoyed but after he mellows out i think he'd be like: you know what. respect)

ANYWAY, I generally use the narutopedia map for geography (although sometimes i ALSO use made-up small countries not on there so don't treat it like a bible), so. grass borders sound to the west (and rain borders grass to the west). in plasticity, i said that grass did better in the war than rain because they were able to ally with larger nations early on. so. ~5 year post-war, grass isn't totally wrecked but their neighbor sound definitely IS and grass's take-away is that they're also basically at the mercy of bigger nations, and so they're interested in making themselves stronger, and fast. and their neighbor just? imploded? and now there's all these new science experiments running around and up for grabs? grass is like: YOINK OURS NOW

(konoha is like: hey what the fuck is happening? which is why kakashi's team was sneaking round)

unfortunately for grass they've gotten kind of cocky in their invasion of their neighbor and have underestimated the weird ass shit show going on in rain. i need to rotate the timeline of the ame trio/third war stuff some to know what nagato-konan were up to (i think i'm going to make them very focused on just rain so major events in other countries are still mostly the same, bc otherwise it's a nightmare to plan), but basically i think the winning nagato-konan strategy is that they would just unilateral make themselves leaders of the ninja village AND the country. so the outcome is yahiko has been put in charge of the country to distract him so nagato-konan can do unhinged ninja stuff. also yahiko might be the one non-reincarnated person who knows bc i think that would be Funny

(everyone: you just? TOLD someone? immediately?? nagato-konan: um, yes?)

anyway, long story short, grass has been kidnapping wayward ninja for Experiments and fucked up by grabbing a handful of ame citizens. so shortly after the tori-kakashi-deidara escape, konan show up and is like: hi. :) what the fuck. :)

i haven't decided how extreme ame's movement against kusa would be yet, but i DID decide karin & her mom end up in rain as a result. is this fix-it fic enough for u

[the-final-sif]

(Screenshot anon)

ok so that might've been a classic move for an alpha in like 2003 but times have changed and literally no alpha acts like that nowadays. even if he WAS trying to court Dream he wouldn't have done in a video like that - his reputation is entirely at stake.

taking care of someone when they're sick literally isn't posessive though???? Like ok Jimmy's head alpha of the pack and has to kind of fight to assert dominance because al of them (except Nolan) are also alphas but that has nothing to do with Dream??? if anything he was being a good friend and taking care of someone who was sick. they shared a tent so he could keep an eye on him. that's literally just normal friend behavior - he probably discussed it with SNF earlier and had Karl hang with them so they could enjoy antarctica without having to constantly take care of Dream.

He's literally just doing regular pack leader behavior - and he appears to be really good at it - taking care of a sick member, making sure everyone's not freaking out because a member of the pack is sick, keeping an eye on everything. Dude sucks sometimes but at least he's a good alpha.

As SC Anon (sorry, are we good to use nicknames ?) said, the video was HEAVILY edited. Like, we see Dream and Mr Beast going in for a hug when they get back from the moutain but it cuts ; Nolan sleeping in between the two so that the proper space and third party rule is respected (and like. SC anon said it themselves, Nolan is the only non alpha aka the only one not "threatening" ?? I don't think that is a coincidence) ; at the start of the video they're always next to each others ; that comment Dream makes about knowing MrBeast is pantless ?? Like how ?. We could even see in Dream's longer version (bless its soul) how close the two were originaly. There were definitely some moves made. And I'm pretty sure it's intentionnal Karl was so much with Sapnap and George, to distract them from their newly reunited pack mate. Also I disagree with the "terrible public move" bc nothing untoward happened, Mr Beast was a gentleman on all regards. But 1) he made it clear to Dream in survival conditions he was reliable and a good option 2) he showed it to the world ? Like call that neon flash of "Omega gets sick in Antartica, I manage to keep them perfectly healthy", that was a good boost for his reputation as a carer (not that should matter for alphas, and it pushes bad stereotypes, but that's how traditionnal - and they represent à good part of Mr Beast's audience - saw it). So it was a win for him on every point

And it appears a third anon has entered the fray,

(I'm third completely unrelated anon in the MrBeast saga) FUCK THE BEAST, OKAY. Look we all cringed and laughed about that freak over here who posted the Dream clone switcharoo bullshit in the main tags but now I'm seeing that shit from another angle! How the fuck else would you explain him switching secondary genders that fast?! That shit takes time, no meds or surgery is that good already. Beast did something I'm 100% sure of it, he already dabled in curing the blind, what if he asked Dream to test out a new drug or procedure? I wouldn't put it past him to use guilt tripping tactics, he just went oh please please do it for the poor people that can't have the way more complicated and way more expensive procedures done and Dream agreed. The beast having drolo moments, him staying close to Dream during Antarctica, him talking to George during the football charity match???? That shit confirms it. Motherfucker was keeping tabs on the process and how Dream was reacting to the change, if there were any side effects or complications. He wasn't seducing a sick omega or being a leading alpha or trying to find a partner, he was looking out for his bottom line! And some of you might try to refute it because its been a century since the omega testing facilities have been abolished but guess what, Omegan Healthcare Regulations, Section 14 Subsection 8 clearly states that its LEGAL to use omegas for testing specific substances and or procedures if the omega gives informed consent before any substances or procedures are administered. Even if the Beast got caught, and he will because Dream's immune system is weak as shit and will reject whatever the fuck was done to him pretty soon, he would still get no legal backlash because Dream the idiot would for sure back him up in saying it was fully consensual and that he was informed on all sides and still took the risk. This is a lose-lose situation and I fucking hate it so much!

[becauseplot]

thinking about archivists again. below the cut: obscene amounts of brainrot in the form of a long-winded relationship study and oddly specific references to canon that may or may not be accurate

im trying to come up with some sort of au for them (writer's block and creative burnout is a BITCH it's okay though we stay silly) and there's just something about how qphil and qcellbit don't (or didn't) really wind up in each other's circles often. sure they were friendly with each other in passing, and they definitely had some nice little interactions earlier on: cellbit briefly interviewing phil on one of his first days on the island over a cup of coffee and solidifying phil's view of cellbit as the Dedicated Investigator; phil asking cellbit to babysit chayanne and tallulah while he's away on a trip and cellbit being more than happy to; phil briefly checking in with cellbit --- who was in the process of tumbling into his regret arc, cutting off ties with loved ones and making himself a martyr --- and asking if he was okay when phil spotted him hanging alone in the back of the group; chatting about the upcoming wedding and phil advising cellbit that he and roier should probably introduce some sort of dress code (lmao); cellbit watching phil and missa meet up for the first time in months on the way to the federation's people-freezers and all of the pieces rapidly falling into place (the name of phil's waystone, phil's skull backpack, phil's elusive "husband," ohhhhhhh...). they've always been in each other's peripheral, but never directly involved in each other's personal lives.

until the happy pills.

see the thing about archivists is that they're not drawn together by a pre-existing friendship; they're more friendly acquaintances at this point, perhaps almost-friends, though they're certainly not close. but then forever's life is under threat, and god, they both love forever immensely. with direct help from bad and indirect help from others (qpac you LEGEND), they're eventually able to formulate a plan that successfully drag forever out from under the haze of drugs, pull him to the surface. they sit next to each other as they sit at the bedside of their mutual friend, watch him breathing, and try to breathe themselves.

and from that moment on it's solidified: they know they can depend on each other, when shit hits the fan. they have their respective strengths, and they balance out each other nicely. i wish i had gotten more of a chance to watch their dynamic during purgatory 1 (unfortunately i have a life sadge) but from what i saw, they turned out to be some pretty good co-leaders, and an interesting dynamic at that: phil acting more as a support role (moral support, resource support, combat support, ALL the support) and stepping up into a leader-like role when needed, but ultimately letting cellbit take the helm a lot of the time since he's a strategist with more practice managing large groups of people (i wont get into it here, and i want to watch more vods so i can more properly analyze them but HOUGHH i have THOUGHTS!! SO MANY!!!)

what im trying to get at is that they were initially in the peripheral in each others lives but were eventually drawn together out of necessity, due to circumstances. the mutual respect followed, which was then followed by trust, and then collaboration, and then friendship. i've also made this post talking about their dynamic, how they both understand each other's need to focus on the here and now and understand that they don't need to know every little thing about each other to still trust each other. and this is so integral to their relationship. it's what makes archivists archivists.

so now all that's left for me to do is try to come up with some sort of au i can chuck them in, incorporating this idea of "friendship of necessity" as a core feature of the plot. i have scattered ideas but none are particularly appealing or solid enough. i will try though!! if u have any suggestions/thoughts/ideas feel free to leave a comment or say in tags (pspsppsps come brainrot with meeee)

[sequestered-song-skirmish]

Round 3 Poll 13

Use My Fkn Pronouns：　「I first met Allegra on the bus in 8th grade. I thought they were cool, but I didn't approach them for a couple months because I couldn't figure out if they were a boy or a girl. When I finally did talk to them, they told me they were nonbinary and explained what that meant. They asked me why knowing their gender was so important to me that I was afraid to talk to them, and that question spurred a series of epiphanies that lead me to who I am today.

The conversation moved on. We giggled about how mad their mom was that an *allergy medication* of all things used the same name just a couple years after she had her baby. They told me that they were a guitarist and that someday they were gonna be a rockstar. I said that when it happens, people will finally think of the musician first and not the medication, and we cheered.

Being openly gay and trans in a red state is fucking daunting now, but it was even moreso a decade ago. Allegra was *the* out queer kid in our class. Having the grit to withstand that kind of social abuse while remaining a goofy and deeply kind person speaks to their character. They used their music to carve out a precedent for the classes below us: showing them a queer person can be out and well-liked and successful while still having personal boundaries. Even here.

Next month they'll be onstage performing at the biggest music festival in the state. The song I submitted is the flagship single from their second album. It's about how tiring it gets to have to ask for simple respect all day every day. It's at about 3,600 some streams on spotify now, which puts it above the stream limit. (I submitted Windmill, a personal favorite of mine off the same album, as a backup.)

I think Use My Fkn Pronouns should be included in this bracket because it represents my friend standing on a stage and singing out to thousands of people, in the face of a government that is actively trying to erase them, that their life and experiences have value. They're gonna stand up there and BE the role model we needed when we were kids, and they're gonna fucking rock while they do it.

Even if it doesn't win, I want everyone to know that I am so, so proud to be their friend.」

Fang into Vein：　「okay listen.

Not only is this a chilling and beautiful song about vampires (the way he sings "it means nothing to me" the first time?! HOLY SHIT) it also is by someone so fantastic I don't have words for it.

So he is a Trans Elder TM, he is iconic for many reasons but most of all because he transitioned publicly in his mid 40s after having an established career and EXPLAINED THAT HE IS A CHANGELING, that a faerie had lived his life for him under a glamour while he the real boy had been kept in faerieland! It's the best metaphor of all time and he has stuck to it for 15 years no matter how much it baffles cis people. Also he is kind and thoughtful and if he were a spiritual leader I would follow him. Might be too popular for this bracket but this song only has 1.7k plays on youtube (I can't check spotify because I don't have a computer)... so, thank you for your consideration!」

[casualaruanienjoyer]

Aruani, Jeanmarco, Reibert triple date

Oh anon, you're spoiling me! This is so cute 😭 This was SO FUN to write, I hope you'll love it as much as I do!

Triple Date

Armin checks his notes, making sure they are heading the right way. He really can't screw this up!

He somehow managed to convince Annie to spend the day together outside the camp. Not that Annie didn't want to spend time with Armin, but she was always reluctant when it came to being affectionate in public. They have grown closer recently, spending more and more time together around camp, but things are still a bit awkward between them.

Thankfully, they are headed towards a small fun fair Connie told Armin about. He was always good at keeping up with whatever events were on. Cadets were not supposed to go, but they're both out of uniform and Armin frankly does not care at the moment. He's holding Annie's hand and that's the only thought he can process for now.

They can hear the music getting louder and louder and when they take a last turn they find the street Connie told them about.

'Whoa!' Armin gasps, taking in the many colourful stands, ribbons and flowers decorating the street. Even Annie looks surprised.

'Come! Let's check it o-' Armin says excitedly, but without realizing he runs into someone. 'O-oh, my bad!'

'Well, well, well. What do we have here?'

Oh no

'Hi, Jean'. Armin starts sweating, face turning red while Jean crosses his arms.

'Sneaking out together? How cute.' he says with a shit eating grin on his face.

Armin goes stiff, unable to reply.

But Annie smirks.

Jean lifts an eyebrow. "What are you smirking at-" but just as he's about to finish his question someone else appears from behind him, holding what looks like two long sticks wrapped in fluffy candy floss.

'Pookie, I'm back!' Marco says gleefully.

At that Jean's face reddens. 'Oh hi guys.' Marco says, a bit embarrassed. "Didn't know you'd be here too!"

'Connie told us about the festival and we wanted to check it out' Armin replies, trying not to laugh.

'I see -Pookie- over here had the same idea' Annie sneers. There's pure evil in her eyes. Jean would never be able to live this down. 'You two also on a date?' she asks, arm resting on her hip.

'D-date??' Armin and Jean jump, and Annie rolls her eyes. Men.

Armin looks lost in thoughts (A date?? She called it a date?? Are we dating now?? Is it official??) and Jean grows more and more annoyed with Annie (How dare she mock me?? A date?? With my bro?? Don't be ridiculous!).

Marco clears his throat to break the awkwardness. "Well anyway, we should be goi-"

'Hey! You there!!'

Oh shit.

Reiner.

This is the LAST person they want to meet in this situation. Reiner, despite being the headstrong leader they respected, was also a massive sap. A hopeless romantic, for sure. Leave it to him to make things even more awkward than they already are.

They don't act fast enough and Reiner approaches them, waving. Behind him a massive bear shaped plushie follows.

'What the hell is that?' Annie mutters. 'A... bear?'.

'I think that's Bertholdt' Jean replies, a hand covering his mouth to conceal his snickering. Everyone knew that the two were an item.

Reiner and Beartholdt stop in front of the rest.

'I didn't know you guys would also come!' Reiner laughs, hands on his hips. 'Connie told us about this place, and we had to check it out!'.

But then it all clicks: Annie and Armin holding hands, Jean and Marco sharing candy floss, the blush across everyone's faces and the sneaky glances being exchanged.

Reiner instantly tears up. 'YOU GUYS!! I DIDN'T KNOW!! HOW COULD I BE SO BLIND!?' he shouts, reaching for a delicate napkin in his pocket to wipe away his tears. Bertholdt pats him on the back. 'There, there'.

'YOU HAVE MY BLESSING' he continues, and everyone wants to disappear.

'Reiner, i-it's nothing like that!' Armin responds. 'Yeah man, we're just hanging out as bros, right Marco?' Jean continues, but both Annie and Marco look unimpressed.

There's an awkward pause.

'What's with the bear?' Annie asks, intrigued.

Bertholdt smiles. 'Reiner won it for me at one of the stands! If you hit all the targets you can win a prize.' he hugs the bear tightly. 'Of course, if you do well you get a plushie like this, but even if you do terribly you get some sweets.' Reiner opens his coat, revealing lots of candy that had been stuffed into his inner pockets.

Annie's eyes narrow and she turns to Armin, determined. 'Let's go there!' She commands, squeezing his hand. This was a win, win situation.

'I want a plushie too!' Marco glances at Jean with big puppy eyes.

Reiner laughs.

'Guess we're heading back there then!'

💜This fic is now also on AO3 !

[cringefaecompilation]

I know it wasn't the focus of your misogyny post so if I'm overstepping please ignore me, but it also really makes me mad when people "conveniently forget" that Ashton is nonbinary, especially when it justifies their shitty opinions (ie he's One Of The Boys™ so he's always correct and can do no wrong thanks to his male-based intellect unlike the awful evil women or he's an Evil Manipulative Man™ who's going out of his way to use his male-ness to harm these poor innocent helpless women because he said/did anything negative towards them). Like please y'all, they're not a man PLEASE they said their pronouns IN THE FIRST EPISODE PLEASE. Feel free to like/dislike Ashton all you want cause that's perfectly fair, but for the love of god don't be transphobic (especially to be sexist) when you do it??? Is that too much to ask??? Idk if I'm making sense/getting upset at nothing because I've seen a lot of people dismiss this as being silly or getting mad at nothing, but idk as a masc enby a lot of discussions around Ashton feel so gross? Idk though, once again ignore if I'm overstepping or anything

you are not being silly and you are not getting mad at nothing or overstepping. it's a huge problem.

i've seen way more of the former where he is misgendered as a cis male as a positive trait, so i'll be talking more about that. will be reposting my tags about this trend in fandom because i've already said my piece on it.

ashton is "schrodinger's man" to these people when they're bored with ignoring/erasing orym's respect and care towards the women in his life. they're nonbinary and trans when they're being directly defended against fans who only like the women, and they're a cis male who is a victim of violent misandry when complaining about previous drama or shipping laudmo/ore (willing to give the benefit of the doubt that maybe some of that blending is them including cis male actor taliesin jaffe but then again). the idea that shardgate was Feminism Going Too Far is an actual statement that i've seen going around the fandom, and it's gotten worse now with swordgate.

didja know there are people insisting laudna should have been abandoned by the hells or fearne should have gotten "harsher punishment" when her dad nearly killed her because both women did something selfish/impulsive and ashton was yelled at and punished for doing something selfish/impulsive? the They Only Were Upset With Ashton Because He Is A Man argument is so fucking dumb. bro almost nuked himself without telling anybody else and was the only one not forcing the shard down fearne's throat, of course they'd come to blows. and you wanna know why they didn't scream at fearne or laudna? BECAUSE THEY LEARNED TO NOT DO THAT. THEY HAD A THERAPY SESSION SPECIFICALLY TO AVOID DOING THAT SHIT AGAIN

and it really does make it obnoxious because i like him and orym's dynamic but it's so fucking frustrating seeing people make them into bell's hells leaders and Voices Of Reason just so they can say "orym is always correct because dead husband and imogen is a salty selfish bitch" or "ashton is always correct because tough love & street smarts and imogen is just a salty selfish bitch" that it immediately sets off red flags for me if someone says those guys are their favorite bh characters. and it sucks because i love orym and ashton too!

obligatory "both sides though" mention: yes. there are im/odna shippers that fantasize about "punishing" or murdering ashton. they do that to dorian and orym too. i am aware of them and i have seen them. i have 90% of them blocked lmao

and i have also talked about this before but the amount of people i've seen insisting callowm/oore is a bad homophobic cishet ship that erases fearne's pansexuality is BIZARRE. this argument was used to prop up fearn/iture which makes no fucking sense to me since chetney is, as far as we know, cisgender. we might not know ashton's sexuality proper but it's safe to assume they aren't heterosexual as they've flirted with people of many genders. also there was this genuine debate if as/hrym was a homophobic ship because orym only dates men... and. well. i don't think it'd be the same as shipping keyleth with orym, let's put it that way lol

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

giant vent about how people are talking about dt you've been warned

"i don't like the focus on wuk lamat" good for you! she's a leader and will likely be shelved before the end of 7.x! i still cannot escape the scions after they fucking disbanded despite being on a new continent, so you don't get to whine abt this if you're also going to crawl up my ass every time i say the scions never fucking off made ew worse and impaired my ability to give a fuck about shb! ew had two non-twins characters i deeply cared about at all going in, and it killed off both!

i am so. fucking. tired. of most of the scions. the one scion i did not think needed a break due to overexposure got a proper break (it was a funny break so i didn't mind at all and it keeps him from getting overexposed too, but it's notable that he was the only one besides the twins I wasn't ready to see the back of by the end of 6.55), and the one i most needed to not fucking see for at least one major patch got a fully voiced cutscene focusing entirely on him and the wol. the scions are part of the weakest part of this expac, which is the fear to let new shit stand on its own.

like, even the twins have been around long enough that they could stand a long-term break, which would even give an excuse for them to elongthen them.

maybe if they actually give them proper arcs or ever let the writing acknowledge that g'raha is a fucking asshole (and still is in dt bc jesus fucking christ that is not a question you ask the fucking wol and he should fucking know that, he had to have at least read about the bloody banquet, the waking sands attack by livia, the entry of azys lla, or the raid on the vault at minimum, even my uncanonical levels of cold bastard main had people he cared about die at those events it is ABSURD what the writing lets the cat get away with saying without even a "dude what the fuck" option) i might accept them having major screentime again, but until then they can piss off and we can have more newbies or heavily underserved oldbies

like. to go back to the first point. think about how often characters show up after they become leaders. Lyse and Aymeric both almost completely vanish after their respective x.3 (hell, lyse vanishes before then). wuk lamat has been chained to tural, even with the doubleking situation she's going to be wanted at home--aymeric isn't sole leader either, remember, and lyse isn't even the one in charge of the entire nation and she's still heavily restricted. dealing with her for not even a full patch cycle is not going to kill you any more than me having to see g'raha and emet constantly trotted out as my wol's narrator-enforced besties killed me. she showed up in the second half for the same reason aymeric, raubahn, and lyse show up after they are removed from focus: because there's a FUCKING WAR involving HER COUNTRY.

they aren't even setting her up as the major focus for the patches! they set her up for a fucking GOODBYE. erenville has gotten more teasing hints at having long-term focus! you weirdos!

i would be less annoyed about this if some of these same people hadn't crawled up my ass over not liking the scions focus of shb and ew. yeah, trial of a silent protag is we need people to talk for us! sometimes that means we get stuck with people we don't like! but at least yours WILL GO AWAY. the characters i actively dislike are hanging around like a pre-antibiotics tuberculosis infection and it only makes me like them less because i'm not allowed to ever express dislike of them even when they're being shitty or i should generally be allowed to express distaste, while at the same time characters i liked don't even get neutral options, it's all two mostly-identical ways of saying "boo i hate your pussy".

idk. i feel like people are only noticing flaws that have been there since the beginning bc we have fun spunky girl and her tragic foil who is also a girl in front instead of the scions and a moody guy, assuming they're making their case in good faith at all (which many are very obviously not, since they're somehow unable to perceive character development that is incredibly obvious).

insert meme about the illusion of choice leading to two more years of stb discourse for some reason

(it is. incredibly frustrating. to have actual complaints. like the return of world-ending threat stakes, the hamhanded way callbacks were done, and the reluctance to actually grapple with the implications of [finalzone]. and then see absolutely nobody else having them bc anyone willing to talk just wants to bash wuk lamat and sphene.)

just. god. if you don't see your wol as an auron, fine, but don't pretend they were less vital to how this expac played out than any other expac, or that they were sidelined compared to elsewhen. the wol is a vital pillar for how wuk lamat turns out over the expac and wuk lamat taking the spotlight in a few scenes doesn't negate that the wol is still at worst the second-most important person in the room. and given the cultural context of the new zones? the writing would have been WAY WORSE if they were the one doing everything.

or like. just the general expectation i've seen repeatedly that something doing setup will pay the same emotional dividends as something using that setup as a launch point. which, you can crit it as-is just fine god knows i'm willing to bitch about stuff that's probably getting more focus in the future, but if you're going into something where the constant refrain from devs and ads and even the game itself going in was "beach vacation (gone wrong)" and "please temper expectations" and expecting it to blow your mind uhhhhh i don't think it's the writer's fault? they were upfront that this was not going to be huge in terms of like... massive recontextualization and targeted emotional blows like shb was.

i really do think a lot of the hate of dt (rather than dislike) is just. bigotry. there is nothing major done poorly here that the rest of the game hasn't handled poorly and usually worse before (if you try to tell me the ff9 stuff was done worse than the nonsense ff4 shit in ew i will slap you, as someone who has gone in with about the same level of familiarity with both and zero nostalgia for either). the one exception i can think of is, like, Erenville's name and the aforementioned turning a blind eye to the deeper implications of [finalzone], and nobody bitching about dt as a whole mentions those as reasons to hate the entire expac. it's all wuk lamat and the wol not being in the spotlight!

[caliburn-the-sword]

winter thoughts chapter 14-25

still not enough scarlet. miss marissa meyer why would you do this to me

"she’d also noticed how Thorne stood a little straighter in Kai’s presence, like he wanted the emperor to be impressed by him" back on spreading my bisexual thorne agenda again LMAO

now why do i suspect that cress will end up back with the shells at some point??? it would be interesting to see her since they're like kin to her, especially since she was spared/worse off than them. i'd LOVE to see her perspective

cress' development from pretending to be brave to BEING brave <3 fake it til you make it queen (she's just like me fr)

damn thorne is like actually self conscious

kai is such a dumb bitch WHY WOULD HE LEAVE ALL HIS ANDROIDS BEHIND??? he should have brought a reprogrammed escort droid as a bodyguard for when levana inevitably does something horrible. in fact ALL of the earthen leaders should have escort droid bodyguards

omg does anyone other than scarlet know wolf's name or do they all straight up think that fresh out the womb his parents just named him wolf LOL (given the names of the girls that might just be a regular name. but then that begs the question: is wolf choosing wolf as a wrestling name or whatever the equivalent of a wrestling champion going in as "kyle" and nothing like going in being called skullcrusher???)

excited for winter to meet kai. these royal kids are interesting

okay after the bleeding walls winter/jacin scene i understand why one would be a fan of the hurt/comfort trope. that was very tender and sweet

DING DING DING DING DING ALARM BELLS GOING OFF IN MY HEAD WHY IS AIMERY CLOSING THE DOOR JAIL JAIL JAIL

EWWWWWW someone play sixteen by ayesha erotica. YIKES. DUDE SHE IS 17. I'M 17 AND CAN'T IMAGINE GETTING MARRIED. ESPECIALLY TO A HOWEVER OLD AIMERY IS. EWWWWW

got it, marissa meyer!! huge age gaps are only bad when it's a character we don't like. seriously i'm trying to figure out the range where meyer goes okay this is creepy af. because 4 years between cresswell is fine by her standard, but 10 years between levana and evret is not. i'm not too sure about the gap between winter and aimery but i'm assuming that aimery's gotta be more than 4 years older than her as according to these arbitrary rules. yikes (this isn't anti marissa meyer because she CLEARLY decides to be better judging by renegades which didn't have any weird age gaps from what i can remember)

it's okay kai we're all captivated by winter

WINTER WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT. SO completely icky that levana is marrying someone her own stepdaughter's age. but now i think it would be hilarious for kai and levana to get married, just so that i can call him a dilf

i hope that it takes them a while to clear up that jacin is actually on the rampion's side. just because i like drama. would like to see someone punch him in the face ~as a treat~ (this makes it sound bad but i SWEAR i don't hate him, it's just like i said for kai i like a man that's battered and bruised)

thank GOODNESS levana is searching the ship. i would not have had respect for her as an antagonist if she would be this easily fooled by a group of teenagers. i can't wait to see how they get out of this pickle

i love to see cinder as confident in her identity as a cyborg <3

damn thorne took all that "be the man cress wants you to be" shit seriously. self sacrificing bastard. hopefully he gets thrown in with scarlet

nevermind thorne is back lol

I KNEW IT. SEPARATED FROM CRESS. CRESS IS GONNA END UP EITHER WITH SCARLET OR WITH THE SHELLS

i LOVE how winter uses the fact that people underestimate her to her advantage. i honestly thought she was gonna have cress turned into another pet. this was nice as well. she must have quickly realised that cress was a shell and that was the only form of protection that she could afford her

because wolf's home has flowers planted outside it, one or both of his parents are gonna die to be all symbolic of how he can't reclaim his past and needs to move on with his future

was gonna make a "marissa meyer stop holding scarlet hostage i need another appearance of her immediately" and realised oh wait scarlet essentially IS being held hostage LMAO. if i don't get a scarlet pov chapter soon i'm gonna make like thorne when the soap got replaced and RIOT

@eddisfargo @francforever @winterrhayle @winterpinetrees @shellyseashell

[laurasbailey]

if i may add re: one of the women pulling something like that, i always find that such a funny argument in any fandom because, you know. we do #Live In A Society. so them being women Is actually a pretty crucial difference lmao and yes i might very well have liked it if it had been one of them because of it?

(prefacing the rest of this by asking everyone to bear with me and read this in good faith, i’m talking about a character and not trying to say or imply anything about any players)

which kind of tangentially ties into my biggest beef with ashton (and i understand that this is probably harsh and unfair), but between the acting like they always know better than everyone else, the arrogance and massive ego, the martyr/hero complex combo, the dismissiveness of others' feelings, the anger issues and propensity to violent outbursts etc, this is a character that acts and speaks in ways that are virtually indistinguishable from your average misogynist. i don’t think that this is intentional or even conscious (and definitely not malicious) on tal’s part, I think it’s more likely an unfortunate confluence of circumstances with this particular story (ie the campaign being heavily focused on women, so they’re in a position within the story where they're the natural point one would turn to with disagreements and stuff); but it’s like, no amount of dissecting motivations changes the objective fact of how they behave. and to me that makes for a character who’s about as interesting as idk, an asshole coworker. obviously this is all very subjective, and i know a lot of people find him compelling and write very good analysis, and love and light to them, but i personally cannot get past this and bring myself to give a shit you know.

absolutely get where you're coming from, and it's super interesting because as someone who doesn't see a lot of fandom opinion anymore, i wonder how many people also see this? or do most people just adore ashton and this is the minority opinion?

i usually find taliesin to be very self aware about the flaws of his characters, but i think you're right, without context it could very well come across as misogynistic due to the circumstances of the campaign being very female-centric. personally i think he's just being an asshole and by process of elimination, the women end up in the firing line because they're in the spotlight story-wise and are, let's be real, the leaders of the group. fcg is typically agreeable, nobody butts heads with orym, and chetney generally sits back during any verbal conflict. ashton just seems to have a general lack of respect for everyone and just uses the 'i don't know how to show it' excuse.

i think ashton wants to be a leader (whether they know it or not) but right now they just don't have the qualities to be one. in many situations they're like 'i don't like this', 'we shouldn't do this', but offers no alternatives. and sometimes he'll try to take charge in situations where he should really be taking a backseat (i.e. when they were trying to resurrect laudna) and he'll speak way out of turn on things he knows nothing about (again, that time he said he knows loneliness in a way laudna doesn't ??? lmao). it's like he has a compulsive need to always share his opinion and somehow prove he's suffering more than you, and nobody likes that guy at the party.

it's obvious taliesin is playing a lot of these flaws as a character who was raised by, well, no one, which makes sense! but there's been so little character development for 70+ episodes and very little effort made on ashton's part (up until now where he's supposedly going to change) that i just don't have an interest in it. it just bothers me now because characters i do really love will be caught up in the consequences.