#(something similar happened to me as well; but it was a summer camp where we were 12yo kids so it's different)

[tired-and-unjellied]

it would be nice if Yuno was aro. It could be a story about feeling lonely as an aro person cuz of that lack of proximity, but she still wants to indulge in her sexual drive, and casual dating gives a level of intimacy you can't quite find in hookups, without the whole romance and love thing of romantic relationships.

[tavina-writes]

MDZS Society! aka: there's a lot less killing than you'd expect

This follows from this post and also the recent translations of MXTX’s most recent interview (which I can now no longer bother to find bc this has been sitting in drafts for like, siiiix months? More? Oh god anyway.) which reminded me about my feelings regarding MDZS society and how different it is from the martial societies we see depicted in typical modern wuxia. (Small disclaimer, I am a wuxia genre fiend and I love like, thinking about fictional societies so this is like, “AHA! You’ve unlocked my trap card!”) 

For the purposes of this, I’m going to be looking at MDZS/CQL’s depiction of the jianghu (which I think is fairly similar! I don’t actually think the show writers made CQL’s jianghu/martial society more genre typical than it was in the book) and comparing that with modern classic wuxia (mostly Jin Yong and Gu Long works.) For this comparison, I’ll be looking at a Jin Yong book — Legend of the Condor Heroes (which is widely considered the starting point of modern wuxia as a genre) — and one Gu Long book — Dagger Li/Sentimental Swordsman, Ruthless Sword (widely considered his most popular work) — and seeing how their societies differ from MDZS society. 

This will likely come in two parts because this one was already getting long, and I don’t think we can fit “how often does nobility exist in a typical jianghu and what do bloodline sects look like normally versus what they look like in MDZS” in this post along with the main topic of “is MDZS society a particularly physically violent place?” 

This post discusses how often cultivators are socially expected to kill people. Like, actual living human beings instead of, say, monsters or ghosts which have been categorized differently than like, human beings. 

EDIT: I forgot to talk about Dagger Li but this was already much too long sorry. Feel free to hmu for more thoughts though.

Now, it might be easy to think that cultivators killing actual people is a really common thing in MDZS/CQL universe! After all, they do have martial arts training and one of the prominent things about the first life is just how many people die both in the Sunshot Campaign and the fallout afterwards. However, I would argue that a lot of the traumas and related issues and reactions that happen in MDZS happen because cultivators are, by training and education, not actually prepared for killing actual living breathing human beings! (And also that the morality of this world prevents it for the most part) 

Now, we do actually get a pretty good window into what the typical training is like for young cultivators in MDZS, because we get a fairly well defined schoolhouse scene where LQR is asking them questions about "how do you tell the difference between various different problems we have to solve?" and "how do you go about fixing this problem?" and none of those include the moral quandary of "if I, a young cultivator out in the Jianghu, see a guy who is doing something I morally disagree with, under what circumstances do I beat him up and/or kill him." This does not appear to enter the curriculum at any point, leading me to believe that the morally correct number of people not like, ghosts or ghouls or fierce corpses, a regular average MDZS cultivator is supposed to have killed is approximately 0.

Which. Is a thing you get in a normal martial arts wuxia jianghu. There is generally the threat of "oh yeah this that or the other faction will be doing shitty things and thereby try to murder you." Instead, in MDZS/CQL most of the heirs of sects are...attending school together. Doing teenage things like partying and gossiping and attending classes.

And sure yes, there was a case of WWX and JZX trying to beat each other up. But the sects did sure let their kids stay at Lan summer camp for months on end (sometimes repeatedly, see NHS) without fearing for their lives or that anyone would steal another sect's techniques or otherwise causing real havoc or intersect warfare etc.

Which is infeasible in any other sort of Jianghu situation. For example, contrast this scenario with this scene from LOCH where Guo Jing's shifus are giving him advice since he is newly 17 and about to set out by himself into the great big world:

Guo Jing therefore bid farewell to his teachers. They had witnessed his battle against the Four Demons of the Yellow River, and were not too greatly worried. The young man had proved that he knew how to use the skills that they taught him. Therefore they let him leave alone. On one hand, the meeting of outlaws in Yanjing worried them greatly, so that they could not ignore it; and on the other hand, a youngster always had to travel the jianghu alone, in order to learn lessons that no teacher could pass on. At the moment of parting, each made their last recommendations. As usual when the Six spoke after one another, Nan Xiren was the last one to express himself. "If you cannot defeat the enemy," he said. "Flee!" He knew that given Guo Jing's dogged character, he would prefer to die rather than to surrender, if he met a master, he would certainly fight to the bitter end, even at the risk of death. That was the reason Nan Xiren gave him this common sense warning. " Martial arts have no limits," added Zhu Cong. " As the proverb says, 'For every peak there is one yet higher', so for every man there is one stronger. Whatever your power, you will always one day meet a foe stronger than you. A true man knows to retreat when necessary, when facing grave danger, it is necessary to contain one's impatience and anger. This what is meant by the adage, « If one preserves the earth and its forests, one does not fear to lack firewood ». It is not therefore not cowardly to take good advice! When the enemy is too numerous and that you cannot face them there, it is especially necessary to avoid being too reckless. Keep in mind Fourth Shifu's advice!"

Does this seem like the sort of advice that any Young MDZS Cultivator would get? "You're a good kid, but when you go out into the world, there will be people who straight up want you dead even though they met you 15 minutes ago, you cannot persist in fighting with these people because they will want you dead and you are a baby cultivator who needs to learn to run away when shit gets rough or you will be dead."

And again I come back to how MDZS cultivators are more like occupational ghostbusters because this really does inform how their society functions and runs and how everyone reacts so badly to the Sunshot Campaign beginning and its aftermaths and possibly explains how JGS could get his way after Sunshot.

Because what happens when you get a society that does train heavily in martial arts and have Able To Kill Real People Weapons who spends most of their time solving very black and white situations of "okay is this ghost whose eating people's livers good or bad? y/n?" and a clear hierarchy of "how do we get rid of the ghost eating people's livers in town x" instead of say "is it morally correct to kill this group of bandits who's been threatening the town" or "is it morally correct to kill this shitty businessman who's been holding people hostage and threatening to hack off their limbs" you have a reduced level of philosophical musing on like, "what is the purpose of martial arts, which is designed to kill people and what do I use martial arts for?" and "under what circumstances and situations would I personally find it morally correct to kill a man?" Which are all questions that Wuxia coming of age stories typically have, and I think MDZS does have, but expressed differently.

Again, it appears that the number of Real Live Human Beings that it is morally acceptable to have stabbed in your life is approximately 0 in this universe, and the expectation that you, personally, might have to fend off people trying to stab you over brunch is also approximately 0.

This also leads to a situation where like, questions of vengeance have very difficult escape hatches! If your parents are murdered on the job by an evil rampaging ghost, this is very sad and tragic and now you're an orphan and of course that's not good, but this is a occupational job hazard, not like, "Yeah Joe Bob from the sect down the street murdered my dad because #Reasons~, and now it's my legacy to grow up to murder Job Bob from the sect down the street to avenge my dad."

(I have a whole essay about how this pertains to both of the Nie Brothers, and how it pertains to JGY and also Jin Ling, and how this seems to routinely fuck people up in MDZS in a very specific way we don't typically see in other wuxias, but this is getting SO long as it is).

But yeah "the socially acceptable number of real living people (instead of ghosts or demons or fierce corpses or whatever) to have killed in your lifetime as a cultivator is approximately 0" means that the Sunshot Generation gets really really fucked up by all of this "killing real people" they did.

Which! might be why JFM was so slow to move on "yeah the Wen are threatening to kill your heirs." <- socially inconceivable behavior. Why society in general is so shocked by Xue Yang and the murder of the Chang <- which would be bad normally but not quite like this. And why no one did anything specific about JGS even if they felt he wasn't entirely correct. What are they going to threaten him with? Death???? A trial of his peers? Social Shunning??? Public shame???

"But Tav how does this relate to CQL!Su She's morality?" I hear you ask. Well you see, the question of "he should've been ready to die for his sect!" is utterly baffling in a society where nobody is expected to be ready to die for their sect on a regular basis because the idea that you should be ready for someone trying to stab you before brunch is utterly nonsensical in a world where most people expect that the baseline number of murders a cultivator does in their lifetimes is 0. That's the world he lives in.

On this regard CQL!Su She is utterly blameless. Nobody handed him a rulebook or expectations sheet for "the sect down the street will try to kill you" nor SHOULD they expect he'd be ready to die at a drop of a hat when no part of the education or social expectations include "ready to die for your sect because it's routine for people to try to kill you."

If you don't even expect to be stabbed and possibly die at a discussion conference where there are lots of cultivators from many sects why on EARTH would you expect to be facing down death in your own home when there's. cultivators here to kill you, this situation is so out of left field?

[wrongbodies]

The Punishment

Kurt thought of himself highly. Being one of the better players on the school’s baseball team, he was well regarded on and off the diamond. Having always been athletically gifted, and with little done to mitigate his ego, he had grown into quite a jerk. It was common for him to outright ignore students and peers who he deemed below his social circle. And with all the adoration he was used to, he was mostly able to surround himself with the people he wanted.

However, there was a side to Kurt not many knew. In fact, the only ones who knew were boys at summer camps or other such short term happenings. Kurt was gay, and loved getting with guys when he was certain there was little chance they could expose him to his precious social scene at home. When he was with these faraway trysts, he was pleasant and tender, but only because he never would face them again.

But all inflated egos pop one day, and usually at one’s own doing. As Kurt was a senior now, 18 years old and already scouted for college, he wasn’t so careful anymore. He figured he was bound for another state at a great school… Why worry about some nerd who was going to a school across the country (opposite where he was going)? 

Enter Ian. The boy was as doomed as far as poor gay boys in unwelcoming states can get. He was the kind of gay who couldn’t shuck the mannerisms or quash his hormones when flights of fancy caught him. Still, he was a good student and tried his best to do right to others as his single mother taught him. And despite the hard times he was bound for a decent enough school, below where his aptitude could get him, but well within their price range.

Kurt found Ian one day checking him out, a not so surreptitious stare giving him away. Normally, Kurt would ignore someone like that. But something about Ian’s lustful eyes and Kurt’s unchecked libido had him look back. He walked by Ian and whispered to meet in the dugout at the school baseball field afterschool. They would begin a secret affair, where Kurt would put Ian through his paces.

Ian, unfortunate romantic that he was, caught feelings. How could he not? Kurt, with his perfect body, unblemished save for the occasional bruises and scrapes from baseball, he was beautiful. And sometimes he handled Ian in their secret hookups so tenderly one could think it was love. But Kurt loved only himself and how he felt when he released inside Ian, and when the stupid nerd begged to be more than secret fuckbuddies… Well, Kurt roared with laughter. They had just finished screwing that fateful day, when he pushed Ian off his dick, who would fall into the reddish-brown dirt. 

Kurt pulled on his clothes, snickering as he turned away and reminded Ian that he was a nobody to him. That he was basically the human equivalent of a cumrag. Ian, outraged, felt his thin fingers claw into the dirty floor. Something inside him broke, a power he didn’t know he had or perhaps an entity beyond our ken took pity. He had little thought other than what he admonished Kurt with as he spoke: “I wish you knew, you jerk. I wish you knew what it was like to be me, and I wish I could be you.”

Kurt chuckled at that, and said, “sure, Ian. When I’m you tomorrow, are we still on to meet up and fuck here? I guess you’d get to top then, huh?”

It was as he was turning away he felt the air change. It wasn’t breezy before, but now it was like molasses. He came to a rest, as a shudder ran all across his body. From his position on the ground, Ian saw Kurt stop moving, just as a similar sensation ran across his form. Kurt turned to look back at Ian again, this time fear in his eyes. Someone always in control, always domineering and powerful, now was in the grip of something he couldn’t comprehend. 

As the shuddering feeling came again, this time the two felt something like a wave start from the top of their heads, sweeping all the way down to their feet. Ian looked at Kurt, and noticed he was shrinking, turning paler by the moment. Kurt saw the opposite, Ian naked on the ground seemed to expand and gain tanner skin by the moment. It became apparent as their faces rippled and changed, the two were switching bodies. Kurt was horrified to see his body before him, his muscles rippling now without clothing to hide under. And Ian became strangely giddy to see Kurt swimming in the clothes he once filled out so perfectly.

“What, why is this happening?” Kurt cried.

“I think this is… your punishment.” Ian smirked. Kurt looked mortified, and started tearing up. Ian started grabbing at the clothes Kurt was wearing. “I need these, you're much too small for them anyways.”

“B-but-” Kurt whimpered. Ian tossed his old clothing at Kurt, garments Kurt would never wear but now were the only hope of hiding his tiny new body.

“Hey Kurt, or Ian I should say…” Ian grinned from his new body, his clothes now in place. “I think I WILL top tomorrow. But also, I think we should go public, don’t you think?”

Kurt felt his stomach drop… this truly was a punishment.

[chevelleneech]

to me Jimin seems more apprehensive of the two, which is understandable with ms upcoming etc, but jk seems so carefree and happy, idk where people are seeing this disinterested-ness, bc he seems constantly happy and even trying to make sweet moments (like the snowfall comment ahah)

I agree JK seems carefree, but I have to be honest, I don’t see either of them as being any more or less apprehensive than the other. During AYS nor outside of the series. I think they have different personalities, thus a lot of the time what we’re seeing is them just being themselves.

To me, Jimin has gotten older and has found comfort in both being exactly who he is as well as being mindful of his surroundings. Personally, I think Jimin it’s cutesy and affectionate, but I do think he plays it up for the camera as well. It’s a thing almost all idols do, but for people who enjoy it like Jimin, it slips easily into their personalities.

That said, Jungkook is also naturally cutesy and affectionate, but we only really see him be that way with Jimin or Hobi. Those are the two members we’ve seen him gravitate toward as his comfort zones over the years, with the main difference seemingly being Jimin is also his emotional landing pad.

To get back to the point, I think both of them seem chill. They’re laughing and drinking and eating and doing a small bit of adventurous things, which must have been all they wanted to do anyway. I mean, Connecticut and Sapporo in particular are trips we know were planned by the two of them, without any change of plans, meaning they intentionally chose nothing to do. Yes, they went canoeing and snowboarding, but that’s not the same as planning their trips around specific events. They didn’t go to a summer or winter festival. They didn’t go camping with other friends. They didn’t do anything big, is basically what I’m saying. They chose what appear from the outside, couple-like activities. I mean, starting with a cozy, single bed cabin in the woods, is a crazy thing to do for just friends, lol.

The last day in Connecticut was in what I assume as an air b&b house, for whatever reason. And I don’t say that to dismiss them sleeping in different beds, but the second episode wasn’t really about anything. They woke up, cuddled in bed, went grocery shopping, then went out to dinner and the episode ended. What made the episode worthwhile, was getting to see Jimin and Jungkook existing alongside each other in what according to them, was their first hangout in a bit. The first two episodes were really the one time we saw them rekindle a thing, after whatever they’d been through, and the result was, “Let’s keep doing this.”

So I do understand that with all we know about the members, and with all we’ve seen from other travel specials over the years, AYS is different. We’re seeing a dynamic between JM and JK that we’ve only really heard about in passing.

Yes, we knew they were attached at the hip. We knew they had similar senses of humor. We knew they cuddle and smacked ass here and there. We knew JK was a Jimin-pedia. What we didn’t know, was how deeply that ran off camera. And yes, AYS is obviously being filmed, but the part I think people are either refusing to or having a hard time grasping, is that it truly is unscripted. I don’t think the other specials were scripted down to the bone either, but there was always something they were expected to be doing. The closest thing to AYS was ITS, and we saw how chopped up that was to paint the picture that the members were always doing something. They edited stuff out of order just to keep the episodes moving.

AYS does not appear to have that. There are time jumps, but it doesn’t appear to be any: “This happened at 10am, but it’s going to be edited into having happened after JM said it’s 5pm.” It honestly just seems like they told BH where they wanted to go; restaurants and resorts wise, got some cameras and a crew, and started filming. So it was planned as far as the company had to make reservations and ensure their safety, then the crew likely went ahead to set up cameras and ensure their reservations were ready. But we didn’t see any of that. We only saw JM and JK’s pov, which was happening at the same time the crews were doing their jobs.

I’m getting long winded again, lol, but yeah I think a lot of what we’re seeing in AYS is just them being them. Jungkook isn’t “going through the motions” more so than he’s just not an overly outward expressive person when he doesn’t have to be on. And Jimin isn’t being apprehensive more so than he’s probably much more calm and laid back when he isn’t on.

And I think maybe that comes across as them seeming different in some ways, because we’re seeing just how often they really are on, even during past vacation specials. So I think the reality of Jimin and Jungkook’s bond and dynamic is that they are just soft for one another. When they don’t have to put on a performance in too big of a capacity to be entertaining, they simply meld together. They breeze about, going wherever they want, and even if they don’t have a destination in mind, something as simple as shopping or hiking is enough. Hell, they even like brushing their teeth together and sitting around playing card games.

So again, I don’t think it’s apprehension, I think that’s just Jimin. He is a ball of energy, yes, but he also seems to enjoy sitting back and watching JK live and explore life. Boyfriends or not, he likes seeing Jungkook happy, and Jungkook likes Jimin to feel taken care of.

[whywoulditho]

the zionist lie: "muslims hate jews"

let's talk about it.

it's always baffling to talk to zionists because they are so confident when they tell you that muslims hate jews, that they've always hated jews, they teach their kids the same kind of hate they have and they want all the jews in the world dead. and when i, a muslim who was also born in a conservative muslim household and have gone to religious schools all throughout my teenage years, tell them that that's not true, they look at me like i'm insane.

the first time i heard about israel was in third grade, we were doing presentations on various world news and when i asked my mom about what the news about gaza were all about she explained to me that the israeli government was bombing them. i remember being so surprised because i had thought that bombs and wars were something of the past, that it was history. i felt sick, i was probably too young to learn about it. but i remember distinctly that the narrative was "israel is bombing palestine", not "jews are bombing muslims" i didn't even know that israelis were mostly jews and palestinians were mostly muslims. because either the news nor my mom painted "jews" as the villain. it was israel, a country, a state.

fast forward to middle school, sixth grade, last week of school before summer break. the teachers mostly leave us be because there's not much to learn anymore especially since our exams are already over. we asked this one math teacher to let us watch a movie and he said he had one in his usb driver, he put it on the board and we watched the boy with the striped pyjamas. that was the first time i ever learned about the holocaust, (for a little context, in turkey we learn WWI in much more detail than WWII since we only fought in the first one. especially in middle school level history, we don't get into the second one yet. that's why i hadn't heard of it before) and me and my friends bawled our eyes out to that movie. it was heartbreaking. we didn't understand how anyone could do such a thing.

i went back home and told my mom all about the movie and asked if she knew that jews had gone through such a thing. she explained the nazis and their concentration camps to me. i was shocked, i asked her how could that have ever happened. she pressed her lips together and told me it wasn't the only time it happened, and there are similar things happening in the world even today. we talked about africa, and the uyghurs and finally, palestine. i've never felt more speechless than at that moment when she told me the same people that went through the holocaust were responsible for the mass murder of palestinians. she quickly explained to me that not all jews are israelis, and certainly not all of them are zionists. that zionism is an ideology that makes people believe they have the right to kill others if it means they get the land they want.

we only ever talked about this genocide in context of the nature of human, greed, colonialism. it was never about religion. it was never "jews are the worst", it was never "jews are killers". it was always about a colonialist state, a colonialist system, the west supporting israel for their own gain from war and chaos. once again, no one painted "jews" as the bad guys.

as i said, i went to religious state schools, but the point of the school course we were taking wasn't to make everyone muslim, rather it was to teach us what Islam was. we all knew that we were free to choose whether to believe it or not after we learned it. i know some of my formerly muslim friends left Islam after high school. but while we were in school, we did all these extracurriculars where we researched about world issues and started campaigns to help those in need. some of you may not know this but the BDS movement existed back then as well, so senior students in my school would print lists of brands to boycott and hang them on the bulletin boards. the title would say "israeli products", not "jewish products". we understood that a whole market could not logically belong to the believers of a religion, it belonged to a certain state and we didn't want to endorse it because we knew it was killing innocent people. i started boycotting in seventh grade.

in high school, i had a world's religions and history class. we had to learn the basics of every common religion in the world. their beliefs system, their rules, their culture. it was all done from an objective point of view too. it wasn't like "these are the beliefs of the kafeer who will go to hell!!". our teachers would tell us if we want to be educated muslims we had to learn the basics of other religions so that we could compare and contrast, and be able to connect and debate with the believers of other religions. we had to learn so many things about judaism i don't even remember some of it. our finals test was on christianity, judaism and hinduism. they literally wouldn't let us graduate until we learned the basics of those religions.

i've seen my mom reading books like anne frank's diary, my dad would talk about his visits to churches and synagogues, he would encourage me to go visit different religions' worship places too. he would say it's important to understand them. to not be alienated from their world views just because we're muslims. growing up we always had holy scriptures of them at home too. a couple of different variations of the bible and torah. both in original script and translations. we had so many books about different religions, and my parents always encouraged me to read them. i haven't always been a muslim, there was a time when i had a lot of questions and skepticism about Islam as well. even then my parents would research with me, we would compare the holy books of different religions and see what they said about the same topics. in the end i decided to be a muslim, but not because i was conditioned, oppressed or forced into it. i was always taught to be respectful to other religions, and those who didn't believe in anything at all. i don't remember anyone telling me all jews needed to die or that they were all going to hell.

i explained all of this because i want any zionists who might be reading this to ask themselves, how many muslims have they known? have they ever read the Qur'an? have they ever studied Islam? have they ever been to a mosque? had their parents have books about Islam in their house? or our holy book? have they ever watched movies about us? have they ever learned out culture?

i want them to ask these to themselves not because i think they are obligated to do any of these, but because i need them to understand they don't know anything about the people they think hate them. they're so confident in their ignorance, they hear all these rumors about how intolerant and hateful muslims are but they never ask a real muslim, "hey, do you hate us? do you hate us because we're jewish?"

because as a muslim, i can answer from the bottom of my heart i don't hate jewish people. my stance against the state of israel does not equal hate for jews. i wish i could make you see this. because i do believe that there are some zionists who completely fall victim to this propaganda. so i hope someday you can see that the world doesn't hate you for your religion, or where you come from. they hate you for killing innocent people. it's really as simple as that.

[seijorhi]

I absolutely love how well you characterize Oikawa because before I read your fics, I saw Oikawa as an ambitious playboy who wouldn’t want to settle down or would have commitment issues outside of volleyball. Could you expand on your inspiration for how you drew those different qualities so well out of his canon character?

(You’re so fucking talented and phenomenal, I hope you know that💗💗💗💗💗💗💗)

so my philosophy towards writing any of my oikawa's is simple: hit it til it breaks.

oikawa, once he sets his mind on something, is relentless. he's gonna give everything to get what he wants, and in a yandere setting, that just so happens to be the reader.

now if we're talking commitment issues, as far as yandere fics go it's sort of a moot point. the character is obsessed with the reader, therefore the idea of settling down/commitment because sort of null. of course they're going to want the reader around at all times, away from everyone else, tucked away safe and sound <33

having said that, i know that that's sometimes how oikawa is portrayed in fanon, because he is charming and yes he does have lots of fangirls (and fanboys i'm sure) but... where is the canon evidence??

there is exactly one mention of oikawa having a love life in haikyuu – takeru tells kageyama that oikawa got all sad because his girlfriend dumped him, which to me doesn't give playboy vibes. it gives obsessed with volleyball to the point you forget you have a gf vibes (but you're still bummed out about it).

yes he does have fangirls, but he's not trying to hit on them like we see with say terushima, or even yahaba with yachi or the summer camp guys with kiyoko. he's charming and nice to them, maybe a little flirty but it's pretty harmless.

now in high school, i'd say yeah, volleyball is number one, the only thing on oikawa's mind. however similar to hinata, oikawa's got his own path to figuring out that pushing things to the absolute limit all the time can be hugely detrimental. plus, outside of a dark fic setting, i happen to like the idea of oikawa realising the benefits of having a support system via a partner, coming home and having that comfort/whatever. that same determination still applies, but it's a much healthier, more balanced approach.

as for a yandere oikawa (assuming we're going with a canon setting of him as a pro volleyball player) you dial back the healthy balance and push more of that, 'i want both and i'm going to have both, no matter what stands in the way' mentality. he can dominate at volleyball and work his way to be the very best, and he can and will have the reader to himself as well.

now if we're talking settling down to have a family, it's not something i blindly paint across every single one of my oikawa fics. certain iterations, like say in scion, the usual suspects or even heedless heartless, while not necessarily averse to the idea, aren't racing to knock the reader up any time soon. wife her up, sure, in a heartbeat, but that's more to tie her legally to them, because it strokes their pride and their ego, solidifies that bond.

pregnancies, and subsequently children, do also have that affect, but i think there's a lot to be said for the selfishness too, and wanting to have the reader alllll to themselves before they have to share her with a kid. as was the case with the drabble i wrote, that oikawa wasn't above using said children to manipulate the reader either. it ain't always a wholesome thing haha.

we know oikawa has a big sister, and that he's involved in taking care of takeru – or at the very least involved with babysitting/occasionally minding him. clearly oikawa cares about takeru, to me it's not so much of a leap to think that a) family matters to him and b) he'd one day see himself having kids.

my approach to writing dark takes on canonically good guys – in haikyuu's case at least, is always to take what we're given in canon and twist it to the extreme. oikawa's determined, talented, charming, a little obsessive, he's got a bit of a vindictive mean streak and he's got a bit of a complex. when i write him, i take all of those traits, dial them to eleven and then make the decision exactly how fucked up and cruel i wanna make him this time hgjfkdlknvjfkd

[caralara]

has something happened, Cara? did i miss something? sofia stunt as in sofia the scandinavian girl everybody forgot about? is she back? what has asia to do with that stunt? totally agree that louis' career would only benefit if there were some women in his team but i'm really confused about what exactly you're talking about now. have a lovely weekend!

Hi!

Oh my comment was set off by the AFHF announcement, and the subsequent detective rabbithole everyone went down trying to figure out where it will be this year, and loads of people saying Mexico bc of the cacti in the picture plus that Mexican promoter account tweeting and deleting AFHF recently. I got riled up about how badly they failed last year for AFHF, how we could tell right from when they announced it (quite late) to then being there and seeing how they only sold 2/3 of tickets and not even everyone showed up. They had to cut back massively on staff (one of the reasons why entry was handled so badly and why they didn’t have enough staff to hand out the wristbands), and how they absolutely need to have a (financial) success with this year‘s AFHF in order to not have the whole festival get jeopardised and maybe cancelled. And that led to me talking about the root problem of the team being just men, and then listing examples of their recent fuck ups that very likely wouldn’t have happened that way if they had a woman on their team they‘d listen to once in a while, like for example the Sofia stunt. I guarantee you that no man on that team even thought about the fact that in 2023, with a majorly queer, feminist female fanbase that huge age gap could be problematic for Louis‘ image with his fans, because men in general don’t think about much younger women being with older men as problematic at all. They dropped her like hot iron *after* the backlash from all sides. Then they didn’t handle communication well when they cancelled Asia at all. Like. At all.

For AFHF, I understand that Mexican fans are super passionate but I already gotten many messages by latam fans saying even though living in Mexico City they wouldn’t be able to afford it. I don’t think it’ll be in Mexico, they really need to be in the black numbers for this year‘s AFHF, so they need it to be accessible to fans with strong financial powers. Europe has the majority of louis‘ fandom with strong financial power, and logistically it would be crazy to fly back and forth about 16-18 hours between European festivals for AFHF, if he could do it in Europe again.

If he keeps it in a similar time frame (august) as the past (although he’s already had the first announcement two months earlier than usually), there’s only the last July or last August weekend (going into September) available.

A friend actually sent me the Ponte de Segura bridge that looks a lot like the viaduct used in the picture, and it’s right at the border of Portugal to Spain. End of July he’s got two festivals in Portugal and Spain, and he could easily oversee the set up during the week between those two.

There’s also huge festival grounds 20 minutes from that bridge, that usually hosts the BOOM festival, but only every other year - meaning that July weekend is free for 2024 and the infrastructure for the festival has been well established (since 1997) with shuttles, vendors, camp sites, stage infrastructures… it looks really great.

The thing that still got me entertaining Mexico as a possibility is the cacti that have been edited in, that mostly only grow in South America, and the Mexican promoter.

Anyways, tell me louis wouldn’t go for this?? The shore, the lake, the rocks, the surroundings, the heat??

Anyways the real clowning begins if you imagine louis launches AFHF to be TWO days by having Niall headline the first day… that would certainly draw the necessary crowds and they’re already doing a bit of the festival run together this summer 🤡🤪

[onewomancitadel]

There's very real evidence of V9 being compromised through external interference - that is, we categorically know the volume was shorter than usual (this is not speculation) - and I think it is on those grounds not unwise to cast a similar assumption about what they decided to include versus what they decided to exclude versus past assumptions you can made about narrative intentions earlier in the show. It's undeniable RWBY evolved after its creator passed - I don't think anybody is disputing that - but my thesis is generally that the really big things generally contended by certain segments of the audience being spontaneous invention are not so (and besides you can't really say what the show would or wouldn't have become).

I think you can equally say romantic ship baiting with Blake-Sun was both a product of trying to hedge interest (audiences love partisan shipping) as well as toying with expectations (for good or ill). This is the same thought I applied to the Jaune-Weiss interactions in V9 (particularly coupled with the retread of Jaune getting what he wanted in early Beacon era and it not being what he wants) but there is the very real thought that the out-of-nowhereness of Jaune/Weiss in V9 - whether you think WK is a canon ship or not means absolutely nothing to me, I am judging by material content in which there had been literally nothing for years, and what little there had been was never acknowledged - was specifically included to draw back a Beacon era audience. I don't know whether this means the narrative intentions of the show are fundamentally compromised in some way, that is, whatever they were setting up before has been exchanged for whatever seems like might draw audiences in.

I really did think a Blake/Yang kiss would be a turning point in the story, that is it's going to be the first True Love's Kiss, but I think it's telling that a chief complaint about the show through V8 was that they had not kissed yet. If it were both going to potentially be the last volume made and they were trying to please a captive audience, that's pretty much how you do it. That's not to say I thought the kiss was out of place but if I am casting a critical eye of what they did or didn't include I am thinking about, say, the first four meandering episodes of hijinks which weren't relief from V8 but instead a complete tonal sharp left to the point it felt like they were embarrassed about where they had left off. All tension had completely been gutted from the story. If you're trying to attract an audience who enjoy friendship and hijinks, then, well, viewer retention is strongest at the beginning and end of a volume, then you pepper in elements at the midpoint to make people talk (twist, shipbait, kiss).

I have remarked on this recently but it felt like there were two Volume 9s happening at the same time. It felt chimaeric and probably suggestive of intensive rewrites and compromises. One is the thread of Ruby-Jaune disillusionment/Summer Rose/Raven/Meeting with the Goddess story and then the other is team RWBY camp. These didn't feel like blended elements - which I think the show can successfully do. The question is whether you can then leap to assume that this was cynically intentioned. I think the very likely possibility is that it was, because you can still write an enjoyable team narrative without tapping into something twee. The stakes in the story were compromised and it didn't make up for the fact it was divorced from the material plot in Remnant (even if it did reprise the cosmic Ozlem plot later) because up until Jaune joins the narrative again, Ruby's slow meltdown in the background is almost entirely shrouded and the conflict with her team is essentially absent until EP6. Had the writing been stronger with her team, the issue of her isolation wouldn't be as much of a problem, because I imagine that was very intentionally meant to play off of the Cinder-Salem empathetic experience.

Point being is that I cast scrutiny on V9 much more than I did before (when I had begun to assume I was just plain wrong about the show) and if the show gets renewed then I am still going to be doubtful. The decisions they made with V9 didn't work. The shorter volumes and compromised denouement didn't work (why are streaming services so dumb? If you cut funding for the ending of course people aren't going to give a fucking shit). Nobody cares enough about Jaune-Weiss shipbaiting to support the show - in fact I'd say I don't think there is any ship fanbase whom you ever ought to cater to, or is significant enough to compromise your story over. Anybody who says otherwise is delusional. The casual audience who cares about romance is significant but it's not enough to make them support new shows, and more importantly us fanatics are in the minority, and of us fanatics, we're divided as it is. If they get to make V10, are we going to see RWBY-RWBY or are we going to see 'please watch our show' RWBY? The issue is that the landscape of funding shows is so different now and so is RT's general funding offset for the show, so we're not talking about the same thing anymore that we were around V3-V4 era.

I personally do not want to watch 'please watch our show' RWBY. I want to watch RWBY-RWBY, and yes, I realise this is the plea of the aggrieved RWBY fan. I know, when V3 came out, the fighting scenes were different. But the writing was not compromised because it was the same writers working on the show with Monty and his ideas were embedded into the show. Maybe he understood Jung better than some of them, I don't know and I can't say. But I have generally contended that the implicit tone of the show and flagged ending is heavily dependent on its conscious draw from the monomyth. Maybe, yes, these issues apparent with V9 go back. V6 had lampshading about 'staying in the house'. There are in-jokes in the show of mentioning ship names fans came up with. But I don't think at any point I would say that they have specifically compromised major narrative beats or overall character dynamics to poach an audience. I roll my eyes at these points, but because I am a tolerant and judicious dictator, I mostly forgive it.

Further, I personally did not enjoy a lot of V9. There were moments of greatness (Ruby, Jaune, Summer, Raven) which was the show I recognised. I genuinely, ecstatically love V8 and will often find myself going back to watch an episode and then have to sit down for the whole volume again. I don't mean 'wow I love this character or that or this particular moment', I mean I think V8 is genuinely very, very good, and I love it as a complete narrative product. So then what am I do to about V10? Because at this point, if the show even gets renewed, do I sit down for another V9? Is all my previous speculation mostly for naught?

It depends whether you take what was shown at RTX last year as canon (I would personally) if it opens V10, because in that case #raven anabasis theory, at least the fundamental point - Raven returns, redeems herself, with the children - then that is a major narrative beat I was correct about. I was correct that Raven was the last person who saw Summer before her disappearance and the general tenor of their relationship was exactly how I had envisioned it in my head. I was correct that the brother gods were not the ultimate authority, and, it is a reasonable interpretation that it was a benevolent Goddess who made them (the metalworker), especially if that fits the Meeting with the Goddess Heroine's Journey step.

My point being I am genuinely conflicted at this point, and my conflict will not resolve until there is the promise of renewal and the show is made and I can reasonably interpret it. I would like it to be good - I would like it to demonstrate V8 excellence, actually. My only hope is that they can see decisions made in V9, if they were made for the reasons that I think they were, simply did not work - CR has not yet renewed the show.

[cerenemuxse]

So i finally watched the movie from the trailers that repeatedly played in Disney DVDs, Lady and the Tramp

Including its 2001 sequel, Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure, and its 2019 remake of the original 1955 film.

My very useless review of all three Lady and the Tramp movies because I said so

This one isn't going to be thorough because I suck at that. If you've read my BWBA Season 24 review, then expect that here-

Please make your own opinions. Don't be like me (way before this) and base yours off of everyone's else. That's why I put useless, because it is if you hadn't made your own.

I don't use streaming services. Never have, never will. Physical media is better anyways so hopefully I can get my hands on these someday.

Disclaimer: I love dogs. A lot. Probably some bias but that's how it goes lmao

Also sorry to anyone who's here for TTTE. There's steam engines in all three movies, being more prominent in the 2019 remake so I hope that helps. /j

I initially thought that the movie was about Lady being abandoned, with the Lady and Tramp plot line, based on the trailers I saw growing up as a kid. Well, I wasn't too far off.

Lady and the Tramp (1955)

Jim-dear and Darling spoiling Lady at the start is so sweet. The introduction is just *mwa* chef's kiss! But it also provides context as to why Lady was in such a poor mood.

There's two layers of how the story is being handled when it comes to scene where Tramp and Lady get into an argument after Lady is brought home from the dog pound. And this has to do with how one is able to understand it and the time the story takes place.

Lady and the Tramp takes place in the near end of the Victorian era, in the 1900s (1900 - 1909). An unwed woman being with a man who is not of the same class and is involved in an inappropiate manner was looked down upon. People were not easy on these women, especially if they fall pregnant.

It's implied that Lady could've fallen pregnant with the way the scene Jock and Trusty offer marriage is written. They could very well have wanted to protect her reputation, something rare at the time, because of her circumstances, and her because of her possible condition. (A dog's gestation period is 3 months, which is enough time for the pups to be where they're at by the end of the movie.)

There's a mature view and a "safer" view to this scene, which I adore. Children understand differently than adults do. It's "family friendly."

Also, there's room for what happened between Lady and Tramp from rescuing Tramp to Christmas (of that same year, presumably), which I kinda wanna explore- oops. <3

Again, I really love this movie. Lady is so sweet and feisty. Tramp is lovely. GOD, i love dogs. <333

But GOD, did I hate that scene with the Siamese cats. Music was extremely out of place, and the way the cats are portrayed is insulting. It was stereotypical, and it doesn't help that the movie was produced AFTER WWII, when the US had camps where they locked away any Japanese person after taking everything away from them.

Also, Disney, i don't think that's how genetics work with pups- Where each one is a carbon copy of one of the parents.

Overall: I absolutely adore this movie.

Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2001)

Mediocre- It was part of the "direct-to-video" era of Disney.

Scamp and Angel's love-story plot was not that interesting. It was just a gender reverse of Lady and Tramp's relationship in the first movie, but the wants are the opposite. Scamp wants to be a street dog and Angel wants to be a house dog. Would've been more interesting if Lady and Tramp had been more involved and noticed the similarities of his son's relationship with Angel to their own. Maybe. I don't have much to add.

Speaking of Lady, I really wish she had as big of a role as Tramp did, being that she's Scamp's mother and knows what its like to be a house dog. By this point, we can assume Tramp has been a house dog for a year (probably moved in during the summer). Her presence is so small that when Jim-dear addresses Tramp directly, he doesn't address her when she's right there.

The musical aspect didn't go as hard as the first movie did. Also, The Man with the Yellow Hat, is that you?

"It's not a phase, dad!" - Scamp

Speaking of the VAs, I have to give this movie credit where its due for hitting the bullseye with them. On point with the original VAs for Tramp and Lady. Just know that "Ted, The Man with the Yellow Hat" Tramp will live rent free in my head for days. Oh, and Patrick Star is there, too, i guess.

Buster being mad that Tramp ditched him for Lady has me howling. Like damn, ok.

Overall: It's not bad, but its not good either.

Lady and the Tramp (2019)

I love this one. And I usually don't take interest in live-action content (the live-action aspect makes it boring-) but hey, I adore this movie.

The structure is the same but the changes do affect the storyline. Its a what-if version of the 1955 original and its so well done.

mostly-

If you've seen the trailers or the movie AND know when the story takes place, you might've noticed this issue.

The interracial couples.

1900s was not a great time for them. At all. This is the Jim Crow era this happened in. I get that Disney wants (for the money and reputation) to show more diversity in gender, race, and ethnicity, but you got to do it properly with the period being worked with.

The classism between Lady and Tramp is portrayed differently. The scene that implies what they did that evening is different since the dogcatcher finds them. And its the dogcatcher who is the gossip train about their relationship and point of the classism. When he meets with Jim-dear and Darling, he calls out Lady for being involved with Tramp. Again, this can be taken in both ways. Getting romantically involved or being involved with Tramp, a troublemaker, at all.

Scandalous! they would've said if Disney wasn't try-harding their PG movies and not getting canceled.

The gender swapping? I originally didn't like Jock being a girl because of the voice but I warmed up to it as I watched the movie. I don't care much for it lol. It's not being shoved into your face (T&F: BWBA), which is a good thing.

They added more to Lady and Tramp's personalities. They're the same characters but they offer a little more. Know-it-all but actually naive Lady? Yes, please. <3 Tramp being more cautious about the pound but still his cocky self all around? Yes please!

I actually like the change in Lady's owners once the baby arrives. This is the what-if I was talking about. They start to push her away, a natural reaction when a baby arrives. All the attention is put on a small, helpless being, and Lady feels abandoned.

When she's rescued from the pound by her owners in this version, they rekindle with her. They become aware of her behavior and involve her. They would reasonably have been worried that Lady might hurt the baby, intentionally or not, hence why they didn't involve her from the start. Having a baby messes with your thoughts and perceptions about things and people. It happens, and I'm glad we got to see how it played out with Lady.

Also, this movie has one thing the 1955 film didn't achieve. There's more going on between Lady and Tramp. More time to access things. Between Lady being rescued from the pound to Tramp finally visiting her, its been days. Lady is busy rekindling her relationship with her owners and the baby but misses Tramp. Tramp is guilt tripped for not rescuing or even trying to go after Lady once the dogcatcher caught her.

He could've gone after her but keep in mind that this Tramp is aware that if her gets caught, Lady could possible not be free. In this version, Lady's collar was removed at the pet store when they tried fitting on muzzle so there was no guarantee of what would happen to her. He was there when they picked her up. He realized that yes, things turned out okay, so maybe he shouldn't feel guilty.

So if he shouldn't, why does he?

And the conversation? It KILLED me. Tramp states his worth. He's exposing himself and Lady immediately protests, saying that's not true and that he has value to her. She ends the conversation with the line "you deserve love. Im just sorry that it can't be with me." You know, the same energy as "But who's going to watch the baby?" from the original 1955 film. It killed me.

o7 to the nickname Pidge/Pigeon and Tramp's "iconic" scratch. Pidge is such a cute nickname. Why did they leave it out?

Note that Lady almost got Tramp killed by accident when she tried to rescue him and succeeded. They made it more tragic between these two. My cup of tea /hj

Disney live-action remakes have a reputation of automatically being shitty and staying shitty. But Lady and the Tramp did not disappoint. Yes, there was a major historical inaccuracy that is disrespectful to the people who had to suffer during the time period, yet I love the movie the same. If that hadn't happened, I would love the movie more than I do.

Overall: I love it. Would love it more without the historical inaccuracy.

And that's my review! Very illegible, I bet.

I should've seen me being obsessed with a movie about dogs from a mile away. and here we are.

Also, i just rewatched the sequel for the third as I wrote this. Girl, help-

[fictionkinfessions]

To the Izuru Kamukura from post/710799369697411072 who used the 🌐🌸 emojis: I've wanted to reply to you since your kinfession was posted, but couldn't figure out what to say, I've figured it out now though.

Hi, it's Hajime. Not your Hajime, because I didn't inherit very many of your talents after waking up. But other than that I think our canons might've been similar. It didn't occur to me that you might have chosen to disappear, I always thought that, when I asserted my determination to wake up, I kind of killed you. And I didn't want that. I didn't want to BE you, or to lose myself, but I don't have anything against you as a person, either. People sometimes act like Kamukura is some kind of Evil Dark Mode Hinata, but just because you're not me doesn't mean you're any worse of a person than any of the rest of the remnants, and they're all my best friends in the world who I love so dearly and am so proud of. You deserved to be given the chance to learn and grow and recover just like everyone else, and I wish it had been possible for you without it jeopardizing my own life. Sometimes I see fics etc where we take turns fronting like alters in a system, and it makes me happy. But at the same time, even though I wish you could have gotten a chance, the idea still scares me, I'm not going to lie. Because if you were still around, how could I ever compare? There was so much shit to take care of, after we woke up, so much research we needed to do and upkeep and medical care. If we were sharing one body, I couldn't practically justify being around most of the time, because you would have been so much more helpful and useful to our ongoing survival and the goals of helping the rest wake up, and I'm scared I would've just been useless by comparison. But that doesn't mean I wanted you dead, ever. Ideally I would have been able to just like, clone myself and one of us could move to that body, or something, so we could both do our own thing :)

I think you could have lived and learned and made friends, I think it could've happened. Even after the researchers 'ruined' you, I think you could have recovered, I don't think a person can ever be really ruined, even if it takes years or decades for things to change, there's still hope for all of us. Obviously it's not something that really happened, but have you seen some of your interactions with people in DRS summer camp? There's some really sweet ones with Kuzuryuu, I think he (and Peko, when she eventually woke up) would especially want to be part of your life and understand and not judge you for your (our) past. And Sonia too, she understands what it's like to be defined by the expectation of perfection and not allowed to be a person, even if it was totally different from how you were tortured. She's really nice and has such a big heart, I think even if she didn't have that understanding she would want to be your friend still.

This is kinda disjointed but what I keep coming back to is this: I never considered that you might have actively chosen to disappear and let me live. I thought it was my own determination, and the hard work of the NWP developers, and the love of my friends (especially Chiaki), but it never occurred to me that you might have given me that second chance. I sincerely apologize for that. You were denied agency by so many people for so long, and here I was erasing it too. Obviously I don't know whether that happened with "my" Kamukura, but it could have, and I still want to thank you for it now, okay? Thank you for caring, and thank you for the well-wishes, but most of all thank you, thank you for letting me live. I wouldn't trade my memories of post-canon Jabberwock for anything, so thank you so, so much. I hope you're doing better now, in this life, and you can be happy.

=

[storiesbuilt]

" there's nothing bad inside you . nothing . " for Emma

A gentle shrug of her shoulders. He could be right but there was so much pointing to him being wrong. The way she acted in front of EVERYONE else, the way she played to an audience. The fact she felt that it was ok to leave for a summer during the hardest year of their lives. To once again be late or leave early so that she could be selfish.

Emma Mountebank, the walking definition of selfishness, of self serving.

A shake of her head as she looked down, she had gone to the Quarry as a kid and after everything maybe connecting with nature and summer again it would be good to work through everything there. She met with the others two weeks ago at orientation. Dylan, her and Ryan were already texting. Well, her and also Jacob too but she would feel too much guilt to tell Josh about that.

Instead she moves her head, rests it on his shoulder. They were all supposed to grow up and do all the cool shit they could together and now, it was just her and Josh. No twins, her parents were constantly trying to help Bob and Melinda so she was basically on her own now.

 ❝Maybe, but maybe I am secretly possessed by a horrible monster that's making me think leaving for this stupid camp, where I can't even be on my phone is a good idea. It's totally transforming me into a different monster. ❞

A tone of joking in her voice, she is pandering again. He should, or rather she hopes, he knows her well enough to see its just a facade. She wasn't sure why she was suddenly so emotional over going to the Quarry but maybe it was just because she KNEW him. She knew how he was and was worried the moment she left something bad would happen and she wouldn't be there because her phone was going to be with Mr. Hackett.

After a moment she moved away and stood up. Her hand grabbed her phone quickly shoot off three texts to the boys she had so suddenly become close with and looked up. Hopefully these sudden new friends wouldn't hurt him too much. He might even like Dylan, they were so similar from what she could tell at orientation.

 ❝Ok, I can hide my phone from Mr. Hackett and if he asks everyone agrees to help cover for me about it. So if you need anything when I am gone you call or text me ok?❞

Ryan seemed hesitant but, everyone else seemed onboard. Probably because of her charm and the emoji's but either way this already made her feel better. The strangers on her side not knowing anything other than her having a crisis was nice. Not to mention she knew Jacob was kissing her ass because he liked her. At least that could benefit her here.

 ❝With that out of the way. We should talk more about the plans for when I get back we will only have like what a few more months for planning. Plus going up early to set things up.❞

[justsoohi]

suntan SUMMER

Colorful good job/Episode 2

Sora: (Both Shisho~ and Senpai are doing their best. That's why Sora must do his best too)

(...But I feel like Sora and Senpai have different difficulties~?)

(Sora must work hard to get closer to his seniors)

....WWAH!?

Niki: Oops, sorry for bumping into you!.... erm Harukawa-kun, isn't it?

Kuro: I was so engrossed in the conversation that I didn't notice you. You have to be careful around corners. Are you hurt?

Sora: HaHa~♪ sora is fine because he's strong~. Thank you for worrying about me!

Hmm? both of you have exciting "colors." Were you having a good time talking?

Kuro: Ou, I was talking to Shiina about the next "outdoor activities"

We were talking about where we were going, but before we knew it, we started talking about camping food.

This shiina guy is very knowledgeable about that sort of thing, and he taught me a lot of delicious dishes.

Niki: Nahaha, I'm glad you're interested, Kiryu-kun!

Camping food are surprisingly easy to make, as they are prepared with less ingredients and are prepared with a little more effort than instant food.

On top of that, the taste is absolutely delicious, so I highly recommend it♪

Kuro: In the end, we were more excited about what kind of camp food we were going to make next than about where to go.

Niki: Kiryu-kun you mentioned that earlier.

Isn't it a great idea to have a circle activity for the purpose of eating various kinds of camp foods?

Sora: HiHi~♪ It looks like a lot of fun~. It makes sora want to go to "Asobi club" right now!

Niki: "Asobi club'' is a circle that includes Rinne-kun, isn't it? Isn't that person messing around?

Sora: No! Playing with Gambler-onii-san is so much fun!

Niki: Gambler-onii-san.... Harukawa-kun, you can't learn bad games!

Kuro: regardless, you never know when you'll be busy again. So let's have fun when we can!

Niki: eh? Now that [MDM] is over, you can take it easy for a while, can't you?

Kuro: Well that depends on the person, doesn't it?

Because of the [MDM], some are busy with new jobs, some are losing them, and some are running around to deal with the aftermath.

Actually, Danna seems to be as busy as ever

Isn't NewDi similar? I heard from Danna that they have less staff than other agencies

Sora: Yes. It seems that they're too busy and there's not enough hands~. Sora is worried that they might collapse if they push too hard.

Kuro: That aoba guy can at least take care of himself. I don't think you need to worry that much...

But it's not good to work too hard. We should let them take a breather when they see an opportunity.

Niki: Yes Yes. Sometimes once in a while, I just need to get away from work, eat something delicious, and rest my body!

Sora: ...Do you think so too?

Kuro: Well, I guess. However, even if I help my Danna with his office work, it won't be useful, so I can only keep him company for a change.

Niki: Harukawa-kun? You look gloomy what's wrong?

Sora: Actually....

Kuro: I see, you'd like to hold an appreciation party for the staff, but Aoba is too busy to start the project.

Niki: I think it's a good idea. Eating good food is a great way to refresh yourself.

Sora: Sora thinks so too. But it seem difficult to set up an appreciation party? It seems that there are many things to think about, such as manpower and funds~?

Kuro: and neither is enough for NewDi. That's why it would be right to have Aoba, who knows the internal situation, come up with the planning...

Sora: ... sora understand that it is hard to organize a party. He also understands that it is better for senpai himself, who is thinking of everyone to hold a party.

But if that happens, sora feel like senpai is the only one who's working too hard.

Sora knows that Senpai and the staff are working hard. That's why Sora want everyone to be happy~?

But Sora doesn't really know what to do for that.

Niki: Ah, Harukawa-kun is worried because he wants to organize his own appreciation party, right?

Sora: hm..?

Niki: huh? Am I wrong? I thought that was the case no?

Sora: No, sora doesn't think ...... it's wrong.

Sora wants to say "thank you" to the staff and senpai who are always working hard for idols.

But... Don't you think it's strange that sora planned it?

Niki: What's strange about it? If Harukawa-kun has that feeling, it'll be fine!

Sora: But sora is very anxious about preparing for the event by himself. He doesn't want to borrow a helping hand because Senpai and the others are busy. Sora doesn't want to burden anyone anymore

Kuro: If you're going to hold an appreciation party, you'll need to secure the venue and prepare food, so it must be hard to do it all by yourself.

I'm not very good at putting together proposals..... Well, if I ask my Danna for some tips, I'll be able to look at it a little better.

Sora: ....hm?

Niki: Ha~i! I want you to leave the menu to me. I'll show you how to prepare delicious food according to your budget!

Kuro: I'm not heartless to say, "Well, good luck with that" and leave

Sora: Thank you very much! It's reassuring to have you both here!

Niki: since that's decided, let's discuss the details of the plan!

Kuro: Calm down. First of all, we have to go check with Aoba to see if it's okay to host the party.

Sora: HuHu~ sora hopes we can have a party that will make my seniors happy!

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[samiraxiyer]

“Ah don’t be,” Samira said quickly enough, a perfect false smile aimed his way. She was used to this. She was used to taking on things on her own and seeing them through. She was used to life through the worst curveballs her way all too often. She was used to all of this but this time she’d been stupid enough to believe maybe it wouldn’t be so hard to make this move to Wilmington. Funny how that had worked out. “No my god,” she let out an awkward laugh before shaking her head. “It’s not like that. It’s been…gosh it’s been over seven years, he’s not looking to ‘make a move’. I think he was more shocked than anything,” she mused softly before giving him a quick shrug. “After all, t’s not every day you run into your ex-financée with your kid, now is it?” 

She didn’t miss the way Zian looked at her as if he was finding it hard to believe that the father and daughter had met and honestly she’d felt the same way too but clearly she’d seen them interacting. in front of her own eyes which solidified the fact that Maya had actually met her father without either of them knowing how they were related to one another. “Yeah it was really random. Maya had been at day camp and they took them to the local library to pick out some books to read and bring back for the afternoon session. I guess he was there and they got to talking? Maya mentioned it that day of course, but just because she’d mentioned meeting someone having a similar eye color to her own—didn’t mean I was going to put it together.” Samira murmured before sighing, “especially since I had no idea he had ties to this place. Just my luck huh—out of all 50 states in this country, and of all the cities in this particular state…this is where he ends up.” She glanced up at him with a smile when he tried to comfort her before shrugging and looking back at Zian when he spoke in that way about Shane. 

It didn’t sit well with her. And it probably never would. No matter what had happened between them, with him walking out on her…she would never think of him as some horrible man. He’d been the love of her life at one point after all. “Nah—he’s not doing anything wrong. He approached me because it has been years and he knew I was uncomfortable so he didn’t ask anything from me. I was the one who handed him my contact information if he wanted to talk.” But when Zian mentioned how this was probably making her anxious she sighed and nodded, “I honestly don’t know what I need at this point. It’s tempting to just take a weekend trip with Maya, take her somewhere we haven’t been before but it feels like a cop out if I do that.” And Samira Iyer was too strong and too resilient to do something like that. 

Asking him how things were with him felt natural and she listened intently as he told her how stressed he was in the last few weeks and nodded before giving him a small smile, “I get that…hopefully the summer break arrives sooner rather than later, but hey—you tell me if you need anything okay? I appreciate you letting me vent and want you to know that I’m here if you need to do that too. Even if I know nothing about your classes or anything,” she said with a small smile, hoping it would make him laugh a little.

His fingers tapped gently on the to-go cup Zian's been holding onto and it was still hot enough to burn his fingertips, but if he focused on it, then maybe other things would hurt less. Maybe then, his brain would focus on Samira and her issues instead of his constant battle with his cravings. "I'm sorry, Sam." While he had no children of his own that he knew of, Zian could only assume just how hard it was being for Samira after having gone through what she had with her ex-husband. "Has he tried to make a move or anything?"

Zian was halfway up to taking a sip from the all-too-hot cup of coffee when his friend shared the information on Maya having already met her father, which, kind of made everything all that much worse, didn't it? "What... she has?" The young professor blinked a few times as it actually hard to believe that this had all happened while he was cooped up in his apartment feeling sorry for himself and finding a way to stay away from daily temptations. "How did that happen? I mean, Wilmington is no San Francisco, but it's not super small either?"

He did reach over and gently squeezed her knee as an attempt to comfort her somehow, although, Zian knew for a fact that was little to almost nothing he could possibly do to truly comfort her in that case.

"You know it's not a sob story, Sam." It was sad, sure, but it wasn't Samira's fault that her ex seemed to be one hell of an asshole walking this Earth. "There's no actual excuse for what he seems to be doing," That being no reaching out. "I can't imagine how anxiety-driven this must be to you. Can I help in any way?" He offered. Maybe Sam could tell him what to do, since Zian was coming off short of ideas to help her.

When the question was turned to him, the young professor finally took a sip from his coffee, hoping that caffeine would help answering that question. "Honestly? I've been looking forward to summer break. It's been... kind of packed last couple of weeks. It feels like there's too much going on at the same time." Besides, his step-father was now in town, which made things slightly less comfortable to him, especially since he could no longer resort to his previous type of recreational drug usage. "I'm managing, though." He lied. "In the best way I can." / @samiraxiyer

[sunfish-studies]

VS Umbrella

✄・・・ Feathery Ink [Karasuno Manager Series]

➜ Pairing: Karasuno x Manager! Reader

➜ Warning: none

➜ Notes: This is a separate series from Crisp Leaves. Similar to Crisp Leaves, manager in this story will be portrayed as a girl. She will be tall. This is just my appreciation towards tall girls, you guys are amazing.

Previous:  ‹ Illusionary Hero › | Next:  ‹ Cogs ›

↷ SUMMARY ↶

A new special move!

The third day of summer training camp and the temperature was still rising. Under the cool shade of the tree upon the hill, you, Shimizu, and Yachi were preparing cool electrolyte drinks for the team. Usually, you three done it in the gym but experiencing how hot the weather was, you three decided brought the bottles uphill so the team could drink immediately in order to avoid dehydration.

“That’s a different type of brand you use, [Name]-chan.” Shimizu commented, seeing a different colored package of electrolyte drink in your hand.

“Oh, Kageyama-kun usually used this particular brand,” you replied, pouring the powder into the bottle and turn the lid close, then you shook the bottle so it would mix thoroughly. Your upperclassman hummed in understanding from your answer.

While it was the third day of training, it’s also marked the three weeks of Kageyama and Hinata not talking to each other even though it didn’t hinder their practice. It worried you a bit, but you knew the two of them would talk eventually.

“Great work,” you said, offering the bottle to Kageyama when he and the rest of the boys arrived uphill. He rasped out a thank you before immediately downing the drink.

“Hinata-kun, this is yours!”

“Thank you!”

You purposely be the one to delivered the bottle straight to the person–Hinata was keeping a quite distance from Kageyama and you didn’t want to force the orange-haired boy to get closer with the raven-haired setter.

“Wuaah, it’s nice and cool,” Hinata sighed in content, placing the bottle upon his cheek–enjoying the coolness radiating from it. After satisfied in cooling down his face, he soon downed the drink. Now that you think, you rarely talk to Hinata these days with him busy with his practice.

“[Name]-san, is your arm okay?” ah, he must be referring to the long cut on your arm.

“It’s already a month, Hinata-kun, it’s healed but it does leave a scar,” you lifted your arm, showing a faint lighter line present on your skin where your wound previously at.

“Oh, sorry,” frowns don’t suit Hinata at all–he’s a bright ball of beaming energy, a warm figure who could lit your day in an instant. It’s his nature, and seeing him becoming dejected from the start of the day was worrying.

“It’s fine, Hinata-kun, it’s not your fault anyway. It was an accident,” you dismissed his apology. “And if you need anything, just call out for me, okay? I’ll do my best to help you.”

You didn’t know what force that made you say those words, but you know you couldn’t take it back–you didn’t intend too anyway. Hinata always worked hard by himself, so you want to support him as much as possible. The orange haired boy looked taken a back before a giving you that infamous wide, sunny grin.

“Okay! And call me Shoyo, then! I call you by your first name so it’s fair if you call me like that too!”

“Alright, then, Shoyo-kun.”

.

.

The temperature was still rising–the burning hot atmosphere exhausted your boys even further than before. It would get rough, both for their body and mind eventually. You could feel your skin prickling–the tension was rising faster than before, tiredness building up, and sooner or later it would get to them.

“Damn it!” you gripped on your hand a little tighter after hearing Hinata’s scream of frustration. He failed to get the ball over the net because he lost in terms of strength with Lev. For the past three days, he couldn’t hit any ball comfortably, and with the battle of height always looming over him he had nothing to fight it with.

The match continued–Nishinoya tossed the ball perfectly, and then Kageyama went up to made a toss. Hinata, noticing there was a chance for a quick immediately jumped. Even though the ball barely being hit, it still got over the net and fell on the opposite court.

“You held back, didn’t you!?” his upperclassmen’s praises went over his head as Hinata yelled in anger at Kageyama.

“Held back?” the raven-haired setter also didn’t like the approach, glaring back menacingly. “Me? With volleyball?”

Thankfully before a fight could break, Takeda-sensei already asked for a time-out–with that, at least the two could cool down for a bit and not causing ruckus on the court in the middle of a match.

“That wasn’t the falling toss!” Hinata’s next words, caught you off guard. He noticed something’s different with the toss? It looked the same to you.

“It wasn’t?” Takeda-sensei questioned.

“I mean, looking back, it technically may not have been.” Coach Ukai answered, a thumb under his chin. “I think what just happened is that the toss right now wasn’t like the falling tosses he’s been getting, but more of a parabola.”

It clicked in your mind–the abrupt change suddenly made sense. “Does that mean Kageyama-kun is trying to get Shoyo-kun to hit the ball no matter what?”

“It’s on purpose?” Yachi turned to look at you.

“But what for?” Shimizu’s brows furrowed in confusion.

“Hinata hasn’t hit a spike comfortably for a while now,” Coach Ukai was the one who answered to their question. “That’s pretty stressful for a spiker. Kageyama might have subconsciously been worried that Hinata’s might not play as well because of that.”

You frowned in worry, seeing how Hinata still rooted on his spot despite Tanaka’s attempt to dragged him off the court. And it also worried you that Kageyama was looking utterly dejected–maybe he realized for a moment that he pulled his punches. Thankfully it was only a moment–everything was resolved rather quickly and practice resumed.

.

.

After practice at night, you found yourself helping Bokuto, Kuroo, and Akaashi in the third gym. The owl captain immediately dragged you away as soon as the last practice was over (you swore you could hear Tanaka and Nishinoya’s screams of fury), so here you were, throwing balls to Akaashi so he could toss it to Bokuto. Surprisingly, Tsukishima was present as well–now, he’s learning to block with Kuroo’s guidance.

“Oh? Tsukki, [Name]-chan, did you bring a friend today?” Bokuto suddenly asked, which confused the two of you.

“Pardon?” Tsukishima questioned.

When you threw a look over your shoulder, you immediately took a notice of an extremely familiar figure with orange hair by the door. Calling out, you gave him a smile. “Shoyo-kun!”

“[N-Name]-san!”

“What happened to your partner?” Tsukishima asked.

“Kageyama’s practicing on his own again,” Hinata answered. “I was trying to get Kenma to throw me tosses, but he ran away after the fifth one.”

“It’s amazing that you got Kenma to even give you five during practice,” Kuroo remarked.

“So, please let me practice with you!” another surprised for you because Lev showed up and asking the same thing.

“Lev!”

“Oh, Hinata,” the silver-haired boy then noticed you and immediately waved his hands enthusiastically. “Otohaku-chan!! You’re here too!!”

“Lev, quit flirting with the manager and I thought you were practicing receives with Yaku.” Kuroo said and of course, the mention of Nekoma’s libero, Lev stiffened.

“He said I was doing well today, so he let me go!”

From the looks of it, it was no doubt he ran away while Yaku was having a bathroom break or something else that required him for leaving the gym. But Kuroo, being the lenient and laid-back captain he is, dismissed it.

“Well, whatever,” he sighed. “Then, we have the right number of people, so let’s play three-on-three. [Name], you’re in charge of the score.”

Nodding in understanding, you pushed the score board closer and changed the names above–cats and owl, it reminded you of the two captain’s characteristics. You were fine in looking over the match, but this match was quite ridiculous. Thankfully, you’re not the only to think so.

“Um, isn’t this just a bit unbalanced?” Akaashi questioned. He was in the same team with Bokuto and Hinata, whereas the opposite team was clearly having more advantage in height–Kuroo, Lev, and Tsukishima are all above 185cm. Still with the disadvantage he got, Hinata was excited for sure.

The match was interesting to watch–even with the lack of extra height for Hinata’s team, they were still on par with Tsukishima’s team. But soon it was stopped by Yukie and Kaori’s appearance.

“If you don’t wrap soon, the cafeteria will close and you won’t get any dinner.” Yukie informed. “Oh? [Name]-chan, you’re here too? That explains why you don’t show up for dinner.”

Frustration was clear to Hinata because he clearly enjoyed the match and he didn’t want it to end, however, with Kuroo’s reassurance that they would continue this tomorrow, he was back bouncing on his feet. You couldn’t help but smile at the captain’s attentiveness.

“Thank you for cheering Shoyo-kun up,” you said, as the seven of you walked towards the cafeteria. Yukie and Kaori said they had to handle other things first so they couldn’t accompany you (it was hard for them to let you go with the boys). “Today’s not a good day for him so this match definitely cheers him up.”

“It’s nothing, and we probably have to apologize to you too,” Kuroo remarked. “Bokuto’s dragging you here, you stuck with us, and missed dinner. Bokuto, you have an apology to make!”

“That’s right, Bokuto-san, you made Otohaku-san missed dinner.” Akaashi piped up. “Tomorrow she has to wake up early to prepare breakfast, too.”

As if struck by lightning, Bokuto froze and turned stiffly to look at you before he went on a full apology-mode–as far as dropping on his knees, taking your hands in his, and begging for apology. You laughed nervously, but you knew he was sincere with it.

“I’m sorry, [Name]-chan!! I’ll make it up to you!! Do I need to replace you handling breakfast tomorrow!?”

“N-no, it’s alright, I will be fine and you don’t have to apologize, Bokuto-san. I don’t mind helping you practice.”

“Bokuto-san, you’re making Otohaku-san uncomfortable.”

“Have my back for once, Akaashi!!”

.

.

Now that you think of it, your after-practice time was automatically reserved for the third gym. Bokuto would bound towards you, asking for your help as soon as you’re done with your managerial duties. With your nod, he then reached out for your hand and pulled you to ran towards the third gym.

Akaashi already informed you to just dismissed his captain, but you found yourself couldn’t possibly rejected Bokuto’s invitation–especially when his eyes practically shining, you didn’t have a heart to ruin it. That goes for Daichi also, he even offered to talk to Bokuto about it if it bothers you. You were grateful for the two’s offer, still if you could help, you want to be helpful as possible.

It’s probably the third time you helped them practice by throwing balls and keeping an eye on the score board. Well you did your usual managerial duties as well–refilling the water bottles, giving them towels, sometimes wiping the floor when it became too slippery. Kuroo mentioned that you didn’t have to do it since your work hour was over and him, Bokuto, Akaashi, and Lev weren’t from your team.

Again, you dismissed it–it’s not a heavy duty, anyway. In between water break, Tsukishima asked about why on earth Kuroo wanted to help them when they would end up being rival in the end.

The captain cleared his throat. “I want to make the Battle at the Garbage Dump a reality. It’s what our coach wants more than anything. But who knows how much longer our coach is going to continue coaching? So, because of that, we need you guys to keep winning too.”

Overall, you understood Kuroo’s reason, but there was something that piqued your curiosity.

“Uhm, I know this question might sound strange, but, what is Battle at the Garbage Dump?” you asked.

“Oh, that’s right, we haven’t explained anything to Yachi-san and [Name]-san!” Hinata said.

“To put it simple, it’s like destined match between Karasuno and Nekoma.” Tsukishima explained. “It’s been going since the previous Coach Ukai’s time.”

“Karasuno and Nekoma will climb up until they could go to nationals and then will meet up on the orange court.” Kuroo grinned, reaching up to ruffle your hair lightly.

“That’s… so cool,” you muttered. You couldn’t find the exact words to express the awe you’re feeling. A match in the orange court between destined rivals, it’s almost like straight up from a manga or a movie. Other teams could research but playing against a team that knows you really well is going to be an absolute thrill–probably the best match Karasuno could get.

“Right, right!?” Hinata went up to you and asked excitedly.

“Come on. Let’s get back to practice!” Kuroo informed and all of you immediately went to your assigned place.

Practice went on–still between the Owl and Cat group. When Bokuto had to score against someone tall like Lev and Tsukishima, he didn’t kill the ball instead he hit it purposely against the block–returning it to the team for a more proper toss. Knowing how Hinata was hungry for development, surely he wouldn’t miss this.

After Bokuto managed to kill the ball with an intense straight towards the back line, he instantly approached him to ask about it. Soon, the game continued. This time, it was Lev who went for the score but managed to be soft-blocked by Akaashi. The last ball went to Hinata and you witnessed an absolutely underhanded way of blocking.

“Ah! Hey!” Bokuto screeched, also feeling the unfairness. “You guys are playing dirty!”

Hinata had to face three blockers above 185 cm with not a good toss.

“Nowhere to aim,” you muttered, narrowing your eyes in slight annoyance.

However, Hinata intended to face them–he hit the ball to Lev’s fingertips and it flew over before dropping to the inner-side of the opposite court. He jumped high enough and landed on his back instead.

“Shoyo-kun, you’re amazing!” running and kneeling beside him, you praised. Technically, you’re supposed to check on him but it flew over your mind for a second. “It’s an amazing block-out!”

“Did…you actually aim for that?” Kuroo questioned in disbelief. “That was an amazing wipe!”

“Well, I did aim for Lev’s fingertips.”

“What!?” Lev took a full offense in this.

Still, Bokuto was impressed by the lack of fear the younger had. The owl captain was showering him with praises as the rest of you watched from the sidelines. It went well until Bokuto proposed a ‘special move’–which made almost everyone dropped their beliefs, Hinata seemed to be excited by it though.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What would happen if you were sent back and ended up in the orphanage with Tom Riddle—and say you also had magic?

Oh boy.

Well, there's a lot to question here. Judging by the... spirit of this ask, I presume I'm... pretty much reincarnated. I'm in the orphanage, I'm much younger than I am now and a child, I'm pre-Hogwarts age, and I retain my current knowledge.

For the purpose of this ask I suppose I also retain my current mental faculties. Despite being in the body of an eight-year-old, I'm not The Carnivorous Muffin at eight.

Welp, there's a lot to consider here.

First, I probably don't realize I'm in Harry Potter for quite some time and instead assume I've been reincarnated to some parallel universe. It's the 1930's, I'm in England in the depression, WWI has occurred and the vast majority of major historical events I know about seem to have happened in the right order, and this Earth is eerily similar to the Earth I left behind.

Strange that I appear to remember everything of my past life with my adult mental abilities, but alright universe, I guess that's how we're going to play this.

What I do know is that I'm dirt poor, presumably still a woman which does not bode well for my career prospects, and if I want any prospects in life period I'm going to have to fight tooth and nail for it. It'd be great if I got adopted to help with this, and might be nice to have people in my life who love me, but there's a lot of orphans in the world and a lot of orphans who are much less weird than I am.

The orphanage is the orphanage and not great, Mrs. Cole is overworked, the orphanage is chronically understaffed, and the kids are running wild beating the shit out of each other.

Being a girl, I probably don't have to worry about getting the shit kicked out of me quite as much, but I still probably try to keep my head down and don't aggravate the particularly beefy looking orphans.

Yes, there's some very angry gremlin named Tom Riddle around who will shove you down the stairs in retribution, but that's just a weird coincidence. And then supernatural shit starts happening. Billy's rabbit hangs itself, people get injuries when Tom is nowhere near them, and I start wondering if this is really the Tom Riddle.

I'm in Wool's Orphanage, my matron is Mrs. Cole, Tom Riddle is running around lighting things on fire. It's possible, though it could all be a strange coincidence.

Now, how things go from here depends on how controlled my own magic is. Since accidental magic typically does manifest at least once or twice, it probably does manifest for me for.. something. If Tom Riddle's there to witness it then...

Well, I imagine he's very offended. Here he was, special, different, better than everyone else, and then some girl in the orphanage (who dares to get very good grades on her assignments in school) has it too.

And I just stand there, smiling, going "Tee hee".

He probably confronts me to prove that he's better at it than I am, and he probably is unless the universe hates both him and me, but having someone else with the Shining around probably prompts him to take me as his protégé (in part so he can show off and in part because he's genuinely excited to be able to share this super cool talent).

I am now apprentice to eight-year-old Tom Riddle. Whoop de doo.

Well, I don't remember this part of Harry Potter, so now I'm probably confused as to where I am again. Regardless, I try to advise Tom on how to tone it down and not, say, traumatize Amy and Dennis for life and antagonize all the other orphans forever. He probably doesn't take me seriously. What do I know, I can't even light that patch of grass on fire?

Hanging around Tom Riddle gets me a reputation to, given the difference in genders, probably a fairly nasty one at that. When Dumbledore arrives he's undoubtedly told hot gossip about how eleven-year-old Tom and I have had sex in a ritual to summon Satan. Dumbledore takes this seriously.

Dumbledore probably meets us both at the same time and it's a disaster. I tried my best to prep Tom without revealing I'm a prophet, Tom first doesn't believe there might not be others, then doesn't believe they would be antagonist/anything but amazed by how awesome he is.

Well, Dumbledore lights his wardrobe on fire while I sit there. Dying inside. Dumbledore probably also does something to me too, to teach me some kind of lesson about something.

I imagine he temporarily disfigures me/makes me appear very ugly, then sticks a mirror to the wall, that way I realize that looks aren’t everything/being a whore is wrong. Tom, still traumatized over the wardrobe, is no help and my magic’s probably not controlled enough to do a thing about it.

I spend a day looking like a pig, Tom and I are given just enough money to buy new wands and second hand/barely functioning everything else and given the world’s worst directions to Diagon Alley. Thanks, Albus.

Well, months pass, we get our wands, Tom gets excited for Hogwarts and I... start seriously considering the future. WWII is coming, the Blitz is coming, Tom and I live in east London and must be able to evacuate during the bombing of London (which went on well past the Blitz to the end of the war). I also start considering my future in the wizarding world. Do I now actually have career prospects?

Probably not because I’m muggle born and a woman. My best bet is doing very well in useful subjects and finding employment with the goblins, I can’t imagine they have the same hang ups as the wizarding world.

Tom wants to go to Slytherin, of course, I tell him this is a bad idea. “Gee Tom,” I say, “Not sure how I know this but I have this feeling that Slytherin is filled with people who loathe our very existence and will shank us. Why don’t we pick Ravenclaw or Gryffindor instead?”

No one shanks Tom Riddle! Tom says. Tom is still eleven and while he admits that sometimes I may, in retrospect, have been right about certain things that doesn’t mean he wants to go to the house known for hard work. That’s code word for everyone there being a moron and having no other redeeming features than tenacity. As for the other two, Ravenclaws sound like smug, elitist, nerds and Gryffindors like dumb jocks.

Better to be known for ambition, cunning, and actually being competent.

Well, there’s no talking him out of this one, and goddamn it we’re all each other has.

I’m the closest thing Tom Riddle has ever had to a friend in all these years and in the orphanage the only one who could hold a decent conversation with him. And while it’s not my moral obligation to keep Tom from becoming a domestic terrorist, and there’s no guarantee I even can, dumping him for one of the other houses and drifting apart won’t help.

Not to mention that, after all these years, I’m undoubtedly lonely, I’m in this foreign land, and he’s now the closest thing to a friend I have.

Looks like I’m going to Slytherin, YOOOOOLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOO! I shout as a battle cry as tears run down my face. I may have to convince the hat to put me in Slytherin, but like all human beings I am a mixture of many qualities. I’m not cunning in the least, mind games exhaust me unutterably, but I’m full of ambition. 

This confirms every bad opinion Dumbledore had regarding me and Tom.

For the next several months, Tom probably beats the shit out of dormmates who steal his things/harass him. He beats up mine too because feminism (TM) means that he should treat all people equally when guilty of the same crime. I... am not sure I can win that fight so I just resign myself to having to adopt some of Tom’s tactics to make sure I’m not shoved in lockers, have tampons thrown at me, or pig’s blood dumped on me at the prom.

Once again, everyone thinks Tom Riddle and I are dating. I don’t even know if they’re wrong at this point.

Well, being in class with eleven year olds who seem to have had little to no prior education, Tom and I are undoubtedly blazing through class. I imagine I’m bored out of my mind (the Hogwarts curriculum sounds unbelievably boring) and Tom is... well, probably devouring the library but probably also bored. I decide to try and see if I can find some real history texts on this world (there are probably none, the wizarding world seems to only have two historians and both... have a different approach to history than current modern thought as I know it) and discover what magic even is. That shit is fascinating: wingardium leviosa is not.

Dumbledore likely gives neither me nor Tom points in class, I think the house cup is stupid, so I really don’t care. I have no interest in playing quidditch, neither does Tom, so that doesn’t happen.

The second world war starts up, Tom, me, and the muggle borns are the only ones who give a flying fuck. I work harder on figuring out how to get lodging during the Blitz/the bombing of London. Unfortunately, Mrs. Cole hates me too for being the Bride of Satan, so that’s a no go. Third year, 1939, I probably write her in earnest anyway telling her to PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, send Tom and I instructions for the summer/where the orphans are staying/how they’ve been dispersed to the countryside. As a back up plan, I try desperately to shmooze shopkeepers in Hogsmeade during every Hogsmeade weekend to get myself and Tom part time jobs and lodging over the summer. As a back up back up plan, I spend my time badgering Tom to become very good at survivalist wandless magic and if the Lord has pity on me gain some ability in it myself.

Hopefully, either Mrs. Cole or one of the Hogsmeade shop owners take pity on us. If not, then Tom and I are going extreme camping. Given Mrs. Cole (and the brain damage brought on by Dumbledore erasing memories left and right) and the likelihood of Hogsmeade shop owners just not getting it, Tom and I probably go extreme camping.

(Tom, meanwhile, asks Dippet and Dumbledore if we can stay in Hogwarts over the summer. He’s told no exceptions. London’s being bombed, you say? No exceptions. Toodles. Tom is never the same.)

Me, Tom Riddle, a tent we made ourselves, several rabbits we had to catch and skin ourselves, and the pitiful fire that we can keep going through pure will alone because if we try to use real people spells then we’ll get arrested. It has the benefit of making Tom feel very manly and impressive, catching his own food, but both of us are well aware that this sucks.

But hey, we aren’t dead.

Well, I’m sure Tom doesn’t appreciate that and this is where I imagine he seriously starts talking about violent revolution. I imagine much of my time is spent discussing the merits of not violently overthrowing our ant overlords. I imagine a thirteen-year-old Tom isn’t impressed by my pacifism, but he’s not married to Voldemort yet (probably).

Then I imagine the horcrux thing comes up and... Well, I will argue hard against it. Humans die, it is a truth of the universe, and simply something we have to accept. Horcruxes are not a measure against that, they can be destroyed, given infinite time they will be, and the sacrifice they require is too high: human life as well as the very essence of who you are.

What is a soul? I’m not sure, we never really learn in HP canon, but whatever it is, it is in some way the essence of yourself. If you take half of it and throw it somewhere else, you will cease to be you, someone or something else is walking around in your body while the other half of you exists in endless agony.

If you must chase immortality, create a philosopher’s stone (as I darkly wonder why it was that couldn’t be replicated and what Flamel had to do to make it in the first place). On second thought, maybe we should search for the Holy Grail.

Whether I can talk Tom out of this or not is... unclear. I’m going to say that I can, in part because I imagine he’ll want to show the chamber off to me, tell me when he realizes he’s Heir of Slytherin, and in doing so I can prevent the basilisk incident from occurring. Without that, there’s no dead Myrtle, which means no first victim. That summer, when he goes to the Gaunts, I’ll go with him and convince him that it’s not worth it. He can just turn around and leave these people alone, I hopefully can talk him down. Which means no second victim.

I start writing Flamel to see if Tom or I can get an apprenticeship (Dumbledore probably beats us to the chase and poisons him against us, but it’s worth a shot).

Then, should all go well, I can convince Tom to find employment with the goblins rather than shady antique dealers on the bad side of town. Hopefully, I can convince him to never become Voldemort, and instead we travel the world together looking for the origins of magic or something.

Dumbledore goes around taking people’s memories of us in preparation for when Tom becomes a dark lord and I his lady of the night darkness.

TL;DR Apparently my life would become an SI/Tom Riddle fic. So, thanks anon.