#6 Short Love Stories

[candy-crackpot]

One of my favourite things about how Hoshino writes Allen is the ways different characters will admit to, admire or in the Earl's case be unsettled by his strenght.

Allen doesn't have as much destructive force as Cross, Sokalo or Klaud but everyone acknoledges his crackhead determination and resolution, but the characters are so dead certain in him as if he was an unstoppable force of nature.

From the time the Earl and Allen meet on screen for the first time

How Kanda is stunned by his Anti-Akuma weapon's evolution

How Bookman trusts that Allen is still alive even as they got some very vague information on Allen's condition

Komui doesn't even try talking Allen out of boarding the Ark because of course Allen would and Komui knows there's no stopping Allen once he decided to do something

How the Earl pursued eliminating Lenalee even with Cross and Tiedoll lurking nearby, but Allen shows up and he grabs his kids in a blink of an eye and disappears as if the IRS was after him

When fighting Jasdevi Lavi turns to Allen to discuss the plan, as if he was the leader of the group

Lenalee outright calls his willpower superhuman and how Krory backhand deems him strong enough to carry while Krory back him up

How Tyki and Lenalee are shocked by him fixing his weapon on his own

Or be very unsettled when Allen surpasses the Critical Point

How both Komui and Reever almost instantly figure it out that Allen was the one who broke the Critical Point

Road guessing that she probably couldn't kill Allen with direct physical attacks

How Cross knows and trusts Allen's spirit and abilities

How Kanda likewise covertly acknowledges Allen to be strong by demanding he pays attention so together they can destroy the Level 4

Apocryphos commends his fighting spirit, that Allen could withstand what Crows and even Kanda got folded by, on three tries, AND retained his memories

Kanda once again trusts Allen to deal with the fusion Akuma going after him.

Everyone who even remotely knows Allen consider him a force to be reckoned with and I really enjoy how it's shown within the story.

[ancenth]

I used to pray like god was listening, I used to make my parents proud

[off-traveling-in-the-stars]

hey doctor who fandom (starts fucking screaming)

[sugarfortia]

Listening to The Megas' megaman albums and just. Not only did these guys come up with lyrics that fit the game's music. Not only did they tap into the larger storyline, expand upon the personalities of the characters, and sound great while doing it. They also wrote some of the most killer quote/lyrics I've ever heard from a video-game inspired song.

[sshcomic]

You have given me a great joy in life with your Renkaza au

May I ask, what happened to the rest of the Kamado family? Did they get their canon ending or are they with Nezuko as they try to deal with her new demonification?

oh yay im glad you're enjoying it so far! 🥰

nezuko's actually with her brother in the box, like in canon lol. i just havent drawn her--or inosuke or zenitsu--in the panels we've seen, but they're there!

as for the rest of the kamados... i actually havent decided LOL. my instinct is to save everyone, since this is a light-hearted comic strip, but also i'm not sure i'd be able to reliably write that since it involves more plot than the "stupid jokes loosely following canon" i mostly have written down aha. so i suppose it's a surprise for now, even for myself.

i guess we'll see!

[animatedshortoftheday]

내 남자친구는 곰돌이! (My Boyfriend is a Teddy Bear!) (2024) [6 min] by Gahyeon Kim | Korea

[coconut530]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY FAVORITE GAME EVER :DDDDD

[colection-of-chaos]

Whumptober 2024 Day 6: Unhealthy coping mechanism; „It‘s not my blood.“

TW: toxic relationship, survivors guilt, self harm, ptsd, Abusive relationship

Long Lost Love

She had known it was a stupid idea. A great risk to take when she had started. When it had been nothing more than meeting up with her buddies and fighting like they were still training for something, as if the only thing they were still fighting wasn't their own minds. It was something to do. It was the only time Sasha actually felt like she was inhabiting her own body, instead of just watching herself going through the motions. 

She had known that it was a bad idea when Walt had mentioned he knew a place, where they could get in a real fight and make some money on top of it. The bastard had had the nerves tell them, it was all legal and as safe as fighting could be, despised  all of them knowing what a lie that was. 

It had been stupid, to go there anyway. Fighting people whose names she didn't know and didn't care to lean, to a pulp or get a beating herself. 

It was screaming and pain and adrenaline. It felt right. When she was fighting was the only time, she felt like forgetting and remembering. 

Sasha had been a fighter for a lot longer than anybody should be. She had been fighting to survive since she had been a child. She had killed to survive since she had been a teenager. 

Sasha hated herself for it. While it still  felt like her essence. The Fightes. Especially the dirty ones. The one in which she went all out, the ones that felt like it was all in, life or death. That felt not right, but the most like doing what she was meant to do. No matter the fact that she didn't actually like it. That she hated all the deaths she has caused.  Hated herself that, sometimes, that was just something that happened, not something that she felt guilty of.

So she fought anyway because that's what she was good at. The thing that was more a series of reflexes than conscious delicious. 

It also forced her to feel like she could breathe. It may be because of the Adrenalin. A way to make the fight to live an actual thing, rather than the grueling battle against the pressure that just living put on her. 

Sasha was covered in bruises and gashes at the end of the fighting  nights.  That was on the better one when she didn't break something, or worse.  

Today was one of those better days. She had just cleaned up when the last person she last person she had expected to, entered the changing room, while she was cleaning some of to day's gashes. 

“You're back in the business, Darling” Sasha knew that voice. She hadn't heard that it since she and the owner, both, had been in their teens. Since that day, she had run away and joined the army. She hadn't changed much, Sasha noticed. Still the same curly Bob, still the dangerously perceptive eyes in that beautiful face. 

“I should have searched in places like this earlier. It seems quite fitting for you.” Sasha suddenly felt sick. This person sounded a lot more like the man, that had raised them, than the girl she had loved. The voice was so similar and so different from the one that had dreamed about the world with her once. There was a cruel undertone to her words now, so unlike the softness that it once carried. 

Of course, Alea wasn't the same, it had been years. Years that couldn't have been kind to Alea. It must have been hard for her to leave, too. Especially after Sasha left her behind with him. If she left at all. 

Sasha couldn’t stand to look up at her, so she continued to concentrate on treating her injuries. She couldn’t dare to look in the eyes of the woman that had once been the girl she had loved, and, nevertheless, left behind. Something Sasha still felt guilty about, sometimes even more than about the blood on her hands, that had accumulated there since she had been far too young to understand the weight of her actions. 

Sasha felt shame, a lot of it, always. Had even before she had ever seen a comrade die, or lose libs.

 She had felt guild, ven before, she had left behind others, to die in favor of doing her job. Most of the time before, it was because she left Alea behind. There had been bloody noses and broken bones before, but back then and even now, it was hard to actually feel guilt about her actions before leaving. No, what Sasha had always deeply regretted her, even before all the losses, the blood and deadly violence, was Alea. Not Alea herself, not that she had fallen in love with the other girl or what she had done, would have done for her. It was what she hadn’t done. Sasha hadn’t done enough to get Alea to leave, to get her to go with her, or at the very least stay by her side to protect her. Sasha had left. Had run away from the awful place, she had been raised and trained in. Leaving Alea to become dangerously sharp and numb to others suffering all on her own. Without someone showing her the way out, without someone to protect her, The beautiful soft parts of that lethally intelligent girl, Alea had once been lost over the years.  

Sasha wasn’t ready to look at the consequences of her decisions, her fear, in the face. Sasha felt the urge to fight again. She needed to get all that self loathing, all that frustration and pain out, despised the aching of her body that still reminded her of the fight she had just been in.  

She could really use the focus, the pain and the adrenalin brought her. The melting away of self-hate in favor of tactical decision-making was something Saha really craved, at that moment. And the pain. The feeling that she got what she deserved. 

Instead, Sasha pressed the piece of fabric she was using to clean her injuries down just hard enough to feel a cutting pain, before pull her self together and looking up at Alea.

Not only Alea’s voice and demeanor, but also her appearance had chanced. The freckles that had one painted Alea’s face, arms and shoulders had been reduced to a cluster on the tip of her nose. Jar, cheeks and nose had sharpened. There was a cruelty to the smile on Aleas lips, that hadn’t been there when she was younger. 

The most notable thing about Alea’s looks though was the blood smeared on her face and decorated her clothes. It seemed fresh, rather similar to the blood splatters on the clothes Sasha wore for her fight. 

She swallowed hard. “You’re ok?” that was probably not the best thing to say to the woman she had been in love with and had left behind in circumstances Sasha her self hadn’t been able to stand, a decision she had regretted for all the years she hadn’t seen her. 

But that was the question she had had stuck in her had for a long time. She had wanted to hold, her save her from the things, Sasha herself had run from. 

Finally, she could, even if it was a curler much harder version of her first love, of the girl that had been the most important thing to her since she could think, that she asked. A version that looked down on her like she wanted to make Sasha suffer.

It still felt like coming home. She felt like just holding Alea close, even if she was a construction of sharp animosity and carving for revenge. Sasha was ready to give in, and let Alea cut her to pieces. Sasha deserved all the pain. She could give the chance for retaliation to Alea that she deserved from Sasha, like so may others. 

„That is so like you. To ask me how I am when you are the one in danger.“ the small smile grew slightly wider. Only now, Sasha noticed the two brought figures standing behinds Alea ready to attack on her command. 

Alea stepped closer and reached for Sasha's jaw, placing her fingers on the spot that Sasha’s opponent had got a hit in on. 

“Don’t worry, Darling, it isn’t my blood.”

[raycatz]

WeeoO

[tiddlywinksdestroyer]

I go to an old lady to get my fortune read. Inexplicably, there's a plain piece of folded notebook paper shuffled into the deck. Dutifully she deals the cards with the first one being the piece of paper. She assures me that this is not normal, we both know she's lying, she's seen this before and it never ends well. She starts flipping the cards saving the paper for last. Finally she flips it, hesitant to unfold it. She looks at me with pity, and looks down at the paper "I THREW UP" it says simply. She's shocked and confused, she looks up to tell me, but I've disappeared from my seat, she stands up in a panic then sees me in the corner of her very nicely carpeted room. I'm on all fours retching like a cat, I drank too much coffee. She screams "NOT THE CARPET!" but it's too late the stream of Hot Carmel Mocha flavored slime bursts forth from my gullet and onto the patterned rug. She picks me up in an attempt to stop the eruption, but that only makes it worse. I am forcibly removed from the fortune teller shop. I'm so tired. Maybe some more coffee would help?

[if-i-was-a-cucumber]

my love for mew | only friends

to be absolutely frank, i was super hesitant to make this post because i’m a bit shy to make only friends (2023) content.

this is mostly because of its explicit nature? everyone on the planet has known that this is the Sexy Show™ (at least everyone in the bl community) and i’m very squeamish with that sort of thing. i’ve only been tentatively watching the show because i know it’s definitely going to be a mark on the community, just because of how popular it already is, but as a somewhat sex-repulsed asexual i sort of only started watching it because i knew it was making some sort of history, even if as just a small blip.

but omg i was wrong. on so many levels. and maybe i’ll make a post about the other levels someday, but for this one i want to talk about how wrong i was about specifically MEW.

1. mew as a character - my first impressions

six main characters in only friends, right? top, mew, sand, ray, boston, nick. basically everyone in this show has a “thing” about their except for mew. top is a sort-of asshole who sleeps around; boston is an even bigger asshole (like HUGE) who sleeps around even more, except he’s less rich; nick is kinda cute in personality but is actually a bit deranged; ray is needy and spoiled but everyone lets him get away with it; sand is responsible and tired of everyone’s bullshit, even his love interest to an extent.

but mew? since the beginning, all we ever got was “virgin.” he’s innocent, sexually pure. that really didn’t do it for me — meaning it didn’t intrigue me. i was fully prepared to go in and come out of this show with mew as my least favorite character, not because he was bad or evil or anything, but because he was boring. the worst crime you can commit in media is to be boring.

even his relationship with top, as the episodes progressed, was very bland. yes top was a cheater, but that didn’t quite affect mew’s characterization, other than that it reiterated that he was a little naïve in this field. great, more virgin mew. i just really wasn’t into this little perfect smart boy who’s never had sex before and is so sweet and innocent and kind to everyone that even his friend ray is in love with him.

there was a small beam of hope, though, in the episode 2 date with top. i liked his agency, i liked how he wasn’t so drawn in by top. and i especially liked the following line:

as quick as that hope came, though, it faded. that’s not what this post is about though, and i’ll get to it in a sec. for now:

2. book kasidet as an actor - my previous biases

before anyone says anything, this is not meant to be slander against book. the whole next section is talking about book specifically in the context of the characters he’s acted as before, not about him as a person. he is a great actor who portrays all of his characters exactly as they are. this is not really about him — the only real reason i’m bringing him into this is because he’s mew’s actor.

book’s only other main roles in a series have been as théo in enchanté (2022) and cher/laem in a boss and a babe (2023). which is amazing, considering how recently he debuted, but i digress. the point is, at least in the thai bl industry where i can probably recognize 80% of the actors in any given bl, who the actor is and especially who they have played in the past is really important to me when i watch a series.

forcebook has never quite been my cup of tea, in the least offensive way possible. i dropped enchanté on its first episode (because the plot annoyed me) and a boss and a babe on its second (i couldn’t get over the workplace unprofessionalism). i’ve never been super involved in the forcebook fandom, either. not to mention a part of force’s appeal is his physical sexiness and as an ace person, that really doesn’t appeal to me. what i’m trying to say is that i had no initiative nor care for either force or book as actors and had no previous attachment to them that would draw me to love their characters.

an example of this actor-bias working positively are a couple who are in this series: first and khaotung. the eclipse (2022) was one of my first ever bls and i absolutely adored it from start to finish. i rewatched it twice and have since gone through reoccurring phases of firstkhaotung obsession. and in only friends, sand and ray (played by firstkhaotung) are my favorite couple.

i won’t say this is strictly because first and khaotung portray them, because that’s not at all fair to how sand and ray are as their own individual characters and how much i love them as well. but i can’t say it doesn’t contribute.

an example of this actor-bias working extremely negatively was pond naravit from fish upon the sky (2021). i don’t know if i’ve mentioned it on this blog before or not but i have a very hate-love relationship with that series. for one, the approval of disgusting fan behavior icks me to no end and i can’t help but scream at mork in every scene of the later episodes; for two, mork’s disavowal of every one of pi’s rejections sends me to non-con city, without my consent. (and yes the above picture was taken out of context but mork deserves it.)

but on the other hand, for some god damned reason, i’ve rewatched the entire series not twice, but three times. but i’m digressing again. the point is that for a very long time, i refused to watch never let me go (2022) just because pond naravit was in it, and at the time, i thought i despised him because of how mork acted in fish upon the sky. of course i gave it a try and watched a pondphuwin interview or two and now i love him just as much as the next fan, but the actor-bias theory is real.

so, back to the original topic, a part of my initial dislike for mew was not only that his character was boring, but that i didn’t care enough for book kasidet as an actor or forcebook as a couple to carry me through that dislike. i really wanted mew to have personality, to have something special that differentiated him from a slab of cardboard, even if it was a negative trait.

3. the moment it all changed - only friends episode 6

the real meat of this post. the reason i’m posting any of this in the first place. it’s because i wanted to share the moment everything about my perceptions of mew as a character changed.

for a while i’d been thinking of mew as maybe a little more than the cardboard he appeared to be. he had some sense of agency, he wasn’t completely dependent on top, even if he did fall in love so soon. even if their romance had zero chemistry, at least mew was taking things on his own terms. i even supported him punching ray, at least in the context of creating character for mew, because that was something interesting that surprised me.

what really surprised me was THE SCENE. you all know what i’m talking about.

after mew’s birthday, after ray made a mess out of the whole thing and turned mew’s special day into a shitshow, after mew decided it’s okay and let’s spend sweet sexy time with my boyfriend, he pulls THIS:

AND WITH THAT SMIRK, HE PLAYS BOSTON AND TOP’S SEX TAPE RIGHT THEN AND THERE. I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW HARD I GASPED.

and then there was more.

their ENTIRE RELATIONSHIP DYNAMIC has changed. they’ve been building up the whole past 6 episodes of mew trying to be in charge but top always getting what he wants in the end, like with mew trying to take things slow but eventually he does sleep with top. mew having his own reservations about LASIK but top eventually convincing him to get it, making him physically vulnerable to top for an entire evening.

no matter how much agency mew is trying to garner himself, top always, ironically enough, ends up on top.

but here? right here? there’s no question about it. this whole evening, mew achieves the control he’s been trying to find throughout this entire relationship, and it comes in the form of his boyfriend fucking his best friend. you KNOW top has lost control because we’ve never seen him look so blank and powerless, have we?

but it gets better.

because mew wasn’t only in charge once he started playing the sex tape. he’s been affecting the mood of the scene since the beginning.

he hugs top when he enters the room and gives him a false sense of security. he even brings up ray. he lit that candle in the back just a moment ago. he’s literally and figuratively setting the tone for everything.

“when we fuck someone like boston, it’s hard to stop fucking them. don’t you think?”

top tries to isolate mew from ray again. he takes every chance he can get to insult him. and mew lets him believe that it’s working. (of course top’s insults also make sense in the context that ray was being an asshole that morning but we’re talking about mew’s characterization right now.)

and most linguistically of all to contribute to the change of atmosphere: mew is on top of top.

fangirls, fanboys, and fanneithers of the jury, i believe mew is moving up the ranks.

[saintbuffy]

got some new books at the library today 😈 hehehe

[britcision]

Listen. Could Dead and Loving It be a fraction of the length and maybe finished by now if I only focused on Danny and Jason?

Possibly

Would it be a better story?

Probably, from several perspectives

But it absolutely would not be the same story, and nor would it be the story I want to tell

Because I am hopelessly addicted to ensemble casts, and I don’t want the boys to exist in a vacuum. I want Jason to run off with his siblings and with Danny’s friends, and I want Danny to fuck with the bats

I want them to touch all the parts of each others lives that existed before they met, and will still continue to exist after even if things change forever between them

I want all the background characters to interact with each other, have their own inner worlds and their own motivations, and yeah, this absolutely means this is not an efficient telling of a slow burn romance

Because the story isn’t the slow burn romance

The story is these two people, and the world they live in, the story is the way Duke and Cass both see Jason differently than Dick and Tim ever could and that matters, and that none of them are wrong

The story is Danny finally telling people who will listen about the Anti-Ecto Acts, and all the fucked up things the GIW do, and being able to ask for help and have that be okay

The story is messy and complicated and will have so many rises and falls, so many pivotal moments that are drama and combat and so many that are just two people talking to each other and finally seeing eye to eye

The story is the way that Jason’s relationships with his family can finally mend, now that he has someone who can get him the help he’s needed

The story is the way that Danny can come to terms with the responsibilities of being a king, the constant question of agency and power and what he’s worth if he’s only Danny and not the Ghost King

The story is Clockwork fucking with the pair of them because he specifically thinks it’s funny (he’s right)

And yeah, there’s a slow burn romance in there. There’s also a coming of age tale, and a story about healing and reconciling and moving forward knowing you cannot change the past, but you can do better

Unless fucking Clockwork decides you can change the past because yeah then it’s fine to just go do that I guess

I was kinda considering breaking the story out into multiple chunks because holy fuck is 100k an intimidating chunk of words, but I’m not gonna

It’s all one story, and you will be my hapless victims as we get to fucking 300k or wherever this beast ends because we are not here for efficient story telling and motion of the plot

We’re here for the connections, the characters, the meaningless bullshit that would absolutely be cut in anything anyone ever wanted to sell, cuz I am not selling this

Imma write every fucking scene I wish I got from books, TV, movies, podcasts, actual plays, every fucking time I scream at the characters to just fucking talk to each other because messy is good too

Messy is okay

Stories don’t need to be marketable to be worth telling, and this one’s gonna be too long and intimidating for some people and that’s okay

But I fuckin’ rolled in from Critical Role which averages around 500 hours of content per campaign and a cast of 7 plus Matt’s NPCs

And I STILL want more goddamn character moments from all of them so I haven’t found a size yet that I can’t manage

I love reading focused stories that I can get through fast, and fuck, look at the rest of my AO3; I will fucking never diss a one shot, or a short story, or a piece that really focuses in on one or two characters

Delicious, I love them, my bread and butter

It’s just not what this mess is gonna be, and that’s okay too

Gods be fucking willing we will not have another six chapters that take place over the course of three hours, but we’ll just have to see how that shakes out cuz I’m being possessed by a seemingly infinite number of plot bunnies and my own tendency for “hey it’d be funny if”

And oh boy has it been funny every time

[vaugarde]

sketched out a comic page just to see if i Could. always been too intimidated but i'd like to finish and make this minicomic...

[arisu-alisa-alice]

𝓒𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓮 𝓪.𝓴.𝓪 𝓒𝓪𝓽𝓱𝔂, 𝓒𝓪𝓲𝓽, 𝓑𝓵𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓮 𝓒𝓪𝓽