#At least. I'm 99.9% sure.

[stick-by-me]

Perhaps any Kirby or Kirby-sequel stickers?? I saw you reblogged that sticker sheet before but do you own any?

I do not own any, actually! I literally own one sheet of Nintendo stickers and they're vintage Mario :P.

I have debated buying some but I can never justify it (since, ya know. When you said "Kirby sequels" my brain immediately went "??? Kids??" 😭 I know nothing of Nintendo.)

[thanatos-zagreus-shagreus]

Edwin: *monologuing about confusing feelings*

Monty: *kisses him*

Edwin: "That was unexpected"

Monty: "I have feelings for you too"

Edwin: "I wasn't talking about you"

Very funny but oh so awkward

[sinnettini]

cute guy winked at me while he was wearing a milan tracksuit........ i might self combust

[timothyslucy]

never gonna get over the fact that holland had to stand on boxes while she was kissing dylan.

[jngkz]

THE MEN OF THE 12 SIGNS & THEIR RED FLAGS (PT. I)

₊ ⊹ apply these to PERSONAL plants and especially stelliums.

₊ ⊹ as for generational planets, account for them if they are in the what i like to call "the partnership houses" (1st/3rd/5th/7th houses)

aries men

₊ ⊹ short tempered ASF! one of the most irratible and easily frustrated out of all the signs. especially if things aren't going at their specific pace. their short tempter leads to arguments. not as argumentative as virgo men tho lol.

₊ ⊹ LOYAL ... until they don't want to be. similar to their fire sign sister in law sagittarius, aries men will be your ride or die but once they are even slightly bored they'll go ghost.

taurus men

₊ ⊹ SCARILY good at hiding secrets. their red flags/true character won't even show up until months into the relationship. be having you wondering if you really even knew them at all.

₊ ⊹ too nonchalant. i'm not even explaining this one cause i bet everyone reading this has had atleast ONE experience/encounter with a nonchalant taurus man, OR knows someone who has.

gemini men

₊ ⊹ flirty AND oblivious (.....except they're not oblivious at all).

₊ ⊹ they're the type to be friends with all their exes and see no harm in it. WILL claim he and his exes are one big happy family.. after borderline freaking it on with every single one of them.

₊ ⊹ ALWAYS playing devils advocate. they just be taking whatever side you're not on for the sake of a little giggle and a debate. even if that means hurting your feelings in the process.

cancer men

₊ ⊹ mommy issues on 10. but yall already knew the tea on cancer men!!!!! don't be suprised if his mom shows up w him on your dates.

₊ ⊹ manipulative. will be incredibly defensive during arguments and might even put on this sad boy facade that'll make you feel bad for him. but girl just know it's all for show.

leo men

₊ ⊹ will hit on any living breathing thing. has for sure already hit on and tried to get with every person in your friends group.

₊ ⊹ obsessed with themselves. yeah idc the leo stereotypes are true.. no matter how good of a person u think they are. it's interesting (to say the least) because they also tend to be very insecure. tbh they just love put on an arrogant front.

virgo men

₊ ⊹ YALL KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT VIRGO MEN.

₊ ⊹ EXTREMELYYYYYY argumentative. WILL start arguments and WILL always believe that only they are in the right. from what i've seen, 99.9% of women's villain origin stories began because a virgo man wronged her.

₊ ⊹ perfectionists. just very critical and particular about what they like - sometimes so excessive that they project their unrealistic expectations onto their partners.

ok that's all 4 nowwww. might post a pt.2 who knowssss

[delyth88]

Pretty pleased with what I managed today - nearly 2000 words. Got through most of the scene and know the last few bits I need to write for it. Only one more major scene to go, but as is the way I expect in thinking about this a few more little bits will pop up. But this now feels like something I could complete a first draft for in the near future. :)

I'm curious to see once I read it all together whether it's actually as interesting as I imagined before writing it. lol

Trying to get back into writing one of my WIPs tonight. It's been so long that I had to read what I've written so far to remember where I was up to.

Now it's almost bedtime.

Sigh.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

You know when this all started coming to light, I fully expected that leftists would try to downplay the horrific violence by acknowledging that it was "bad and our hearts go out to the victims and their families, but......" or by making a sharp distinction between civilians and soldiers (or even like, minors and adults), but the thing that's fucked me up is that nope! We sailed right past any attempt to even pretend at human decency and cut straight to "they deserved it."

Even the kids?? Yep, even the kids.

Like Jesus H. Christ y'all.

I'm used to people feeling like they need to at least gesture vaguely in the direction of giving a shit about Jewish lives and not justifying actual terror tactics and war crimes on civilians (you'd think for consistency's sake they might care about looking like they care for the credibility but..) even if we both know they really don't actually care about antisemitism in a meaningful way. We both know that they won't be there when it actually counts, and they sure as fuck aren't going to interrogate their own personal or group's antisemitism. But usually there's a fig leaf. There's at least a baseline assumption that they should care about antisemitism and Jewish people staying alive, even if they don't actually, so they'll say the minimum amount of correct sounding words and then quickly skedaddle onto whatever it is they actually care about.

And like, is that good? No, it's not. It's not good enough. I'm sick and fucking tired of people doing juuuuuust enough to pretend to care without ever addressing the real underlying issues.

But this? This totally floored me. This drops that baseline assumption that antisemitism and murdered Jews is a bad thing entirely and blatantly sides with literal actual terrorists committing unspeakable horrors while holding it up as "liberation."

And what's worse? Most of those were the further out fringe types (although there were a horrifying amount more than I expected) right? Most everyone else wasn't spouting off about how happy they were that vive la révolucion, right? You know what was really deafening?

The silence from everyone else.

Literally everyone except for maybe one or two gentiles I remember seeing kept their mouths shut. Everyone else? Not a goddamn word about how fucked up it was that people were crowing over our people's fresh corpses. The bodies hadn't even cooled yet and we had jackasses on here publicly celebrating with memes and gore videos, and not a word from 99.9% of you.

The people who did speak up? You have no idea how much it means, and I'm grateful. Truly.

Everyone else who was too gutless, spineless, or oblivious to realize how critical a moment this was for support and/or was more interested in protecting your image or whatever?

Let's just say: duly noted.

I may continue to work alongside you (what choice do I have?) but the trust is gone.

We're clearly on our own, with rare exception.

(This is a vent post I will not be adding any caveats to it and I will be blocking anyone who tries to be an asshole. I will lock reblogs if there's any discourse. Our lives are not up for debate you sick fucks.)

[tevanbegins]

At this point I'm 99.9% sure Tommy is not at all involved in Athena's plane emergency but I hope to God that the 217 engine being there wasn't a fluke from the writers and we get at least one Tommy crumb next episode, even if it is just him waving at Buck from a distance or something Idc, I need him like oxygen

[tapakah0]

Tap. My guy. My dude. Creature who lives in Cass's walls.... Why da fuq can I not find your Marble Sky Ultimate Deception animation?? I know you made it(at least, I'm, like, 99.9% sure it was your animation)! That's how I found the flippin' song!!!

EHGHGEHRGEF you know why? Because I treat my art so good that I basically bury it myself sometimes WHEEEEZE I found it and putted proper tags this time, here XDDDD

[heartfullofleeches]

hiii i love you and your work 💕💕💕

i've had horrible brain rot over the immortal yan recently...but i forget his name lol

i do remember he is very orange though💀💀

anyway; what would his reaction be to someone else betraying reader? there was that one post of him basically saying that in order for reader to become immortal, he would have to hurt them horribly...but what if in the process of planning what he could do, or as he almost figured out how to make reader immortal without hurting them, someone ELSE betrayed them, what if it didn't make them immortal? what if it did? would he see it as luck, like 😟😲🫢🤭OH YAY I DONT HAVE TO KILL MY SPOUSE😁😁😁!!!!

also: could him and reader have children? obviously they could adopt but assuming they both had the necessary equipment to have a biological baby could they? would that baby be immortal? if no, or if they adopted a baby, how would they explain that they don't age?

also not only to the kids but also the neighbors, coworkers, teachers etc etc

could they learn sfx makeup and like make themselves age? do they just like disappear one day? do they move around a lot? is it just cartoon logic of ".....it just is that way 🤷🏽‍♀️ no one notices anything is off🤷🏽‍♀️"?

If Devlin's [who I'm 99.9 percent sure you're talking about] Darling was betrayed by someone else and became immortal as a result ol' Devi here would feel like he's won the lottery.

"Your loved one betray and/or murder you - the resulting grief and trauma leading you to become a zombie without all the rotting and hunger for brains? Me too, babes- Let's hit up a bowling alley."

He doesn't have to kill them and they're heartbroken? Jackpot. If Darling felt anything like he did when he was murdered/became immortal- Scared, Hurt, Lost, Alone- they'll be ripe for the picking when he comes along. All Devlin wanted for the first couple of decades he continued to walk the earth was someone like him that knew what he was going through. He hopes they feel the same way when he tells them they have a lot more in common now.

Devlin and Reader could have children, but you might want to wait another century before this dork is ready to be father material. A biological child between Devlin and Reader would not be immortal, but the would have an insanely sped up heal factor to wear things like broken bones would heal in the matter of days.

Devlni himself bounces from location to location when he gets bored or he's lived there long enough that people get suspicious that twenty something year old they say ten years ago looks the exact same. There is one town where a ton of weird shit happens that Devlin views as a vacation spot since it is nice to go to a place where everyone knows you and nobody gives a damn you don't age when there's wilder shit happening right across the street. If Reader and Dev had a kid the family might move there at least until the kid was a teen because if one more parent walks up to Devlin or Reader asking what's their secret to looking so young he's throwing hands.

[dearvivii]

I'm 99.9% sure that every girl has an elvis presley phase at least once

[keelt9]

Episode 1

Masterlist

A/N: I’ll take back an old way I used to write why? It just came out and I like it, so I’ll see if it works out, if I don't, I’ll go back to the normal post. 

Two POV in two diffent post. :p

I will keep an eye this week. 👀

I must have a lot of credit for this, come on. I have a bag on my back, another across my body and the half of a sandwich on my right hand as I keep talking with my dad going upstairs for 6 floors.

“Dad, I'm pretty sure I packed everything, calm down!” It’s the end of the long weekend and after spending all the time in the country state of my parents, my duties set my time to go back.

“Sure? There is a white bag, I’m pretty sure you don’t.” I picture my dad lifting that bag with suspicious eyes. 

Finally, 26, my door is in front of me. “That’s Ford’s bag.” I stay standing on the door trying to find a way to take out my keys but it’s impossible. “Listen dad, I have to go or I will be standing out of my house until I, useless try to convince you.”

“All right, I’m glad you’re at home.” I take the last bite of my sandwich. “I love you.” 

I replied with the same 3 words when the door opened, not magical, on the other side Nash is holding the door choke head looking at me with a funny face. 

“Oh, I love you too.” I pushed him to enter the apartment, tired with sore shoulders, and an increasing pain on my ribs.

Nash giggles helping me to take my bags from my body, looking at my sandwich scrunching his face. 

“Don’t do that, it’s the only thing I found open.” I took the last bite before he could do something evil.

Our apartment is quite big, with huge crystal windows, soft yellow walls and creamy furniture.

“I told you I don't mind going and picking you up.” Nash walks back to the kitchen where you can smell the scent of coffee, butter and other scents I couldn't distinguish.

I followed him after taking out my present for him.

“Happy late birthday.” I extended a special package of cacao and chocolate from my father’s personal collection. 

Nash smiles, taking the box of my hands giving me a big hug. 

“This from…” I sat in the stoll massage my wrists, as I nod. “Can I?

Nash asked if that box could be mine. “Nash, it’s all yours, make worthy I carried with this all the way here.”

Nash giggles opening the box, the smell of cocoa and chocolate quickly flowing all over our apartment, as he takes one bar as if it's a gold one. He takes the cover, the smell intensifies and by the time he bites it I bet his mind is cloudy with the taste of it.

“OMG! This is, this is great!” He searched inside of the box for the cocoa powder. “In the mood for a dessert?”

One and a half hours later and after unpacking most of my things Nash knocked on my door telling me he already made chocolate cake, my favorite.

“I almost forgot.” Nash stands from the living room and brings back mail.

The logotype speaks for itself, the sketch of a spine as a soft green line mix between every vertebra. 

“Yeah, I got this one at home.” I just see it immediately putting it aside for throwing in the trash as soon as I get up.

“At least you try to open it.” Nash claims with a decided tone. 

I shake my head, standing to leave my plate in the washdisher. “It’s on my email, too.” I see the mail before closing the trash bin.

“That’s… There isn't any guarantee you’ll read it.” Nash reminds sit playing with his spoon. “Maybe it’s a…”

“I have been heartbroken once, twice will tear me apart.” Even though I fight to keep a cheerful tone, Nash turns around ready to say something else but he stops it. “I’m fine, Nash.”

The atmosphere is tense like every time he tries to speak with me about the same, I appreciate the effort to change my mind, even both of us know the smile on my face is 99.9% fake.

“I’ll go to sleep.” Nash fakes a smile in a press lips before I go right to my room. “Goodnight.”

Every tear that threatened to come out as always I wiped away from my eyes, focusing on the happy memories.

College, when winter vacation is closer, turns into a massive crowd of people walking side to side of the campus, stressed and with barely two hours of sleep due the finals but hoping winter holidays came fast, in a blink of an eye if we can choose.

“So?” Nash asked me for the third time, he’s expecting the most impartial judge.

“I’m not a fish fan, you know?” The dish with a carpaccio in front of me is giving me chills. 

“I know, but come on Y/N my exam is tomorrow and this must be nearly perfect.” He laid back his head. “Please.”

The fact that Nash it’s in the last semesters before becoming a graduate chef is a blessing but at the same time with such peculiar dishes….a curse. 

I glup, taking the fork. “All for the friendship.” 

Nash smiles while waiting with big eyes. I take a bite praying my mind doesn't bring the smell of fish right away. 

And it won’t after I swallow it, the taste is good, if I’ll be impartial, I probably said it’s delicious.

“Tasty.” Nash bumps his fist with me, both of us know it’s like he just got an out loud yummy.

The doorbell saves me from what he could said, I must have to take a second bite; Nash runs to open the door. “OMG, I see double.”

Ford just arrived, he is my twin brother. Even though we love each other till death, we both know living together while we’re in college would be a mess. So my parents searched for two apartments for us just a couple of blocks away. 

Far but close for we can be with each other at any minute. 

Our best friends moving with us fit us perfectly, after all it’s like they just paid for one apartment.

“Just in time for the carpaccio.” Ford hates the fish too.

He appears with his backpack on one shoulder and a twisted smile. “I just ate a hamburger, that will be a mess.” 

Nash clicked his tongue, at least he tried; Ford smiled and hugged me before sitting in the stool at my left.

“I didn’t know you were coming.” I said joking with him; it’s been a couple of weeks he’s been dating a girl, the same couple of weeks I just knew about him through texts and phone calls.

“Ha ha ha, I just came for matching outfits.” He leaned down to the plate smelling and immediately took it away.

“This weekend is the day, huh?” Nash said, taking the dish. “I’ll let you talk, I have notes to take.” 

It’s nothing that Nash didn’t know but we know he prefers to keep distance with family disagreements.

I walk to the fridge to get a soda for him. “I’m quivering between a <This is the most stupid decision> dress or <Please wake me from the nightmare>” Ford giggles opening the can. “You?”

He drinks a long sip. “All black code.” 

We arrived at the country state in the first hours of Saturday morning, with a lot of movement around; big trunks taking things out, as the usual day is taking its course. 

“There are my twins.” Aunt Gina appears with a casual outfit and a pile of files on her hand.

Dad didn’t have siblings but our grandfather has a lifetime friendship with Mr. Thompson, the lawyer of the family, who has a daughter, aunt Gina. As time passed they expected some kind of relationship to develop between both of them; I bet they hoped for love but they always looked like brother and sister.

Years passed, things haven't changed at all.

“How are the ribs?” She always asked before hugging me.

“Almost like new.” I said hugging her.

It’s been 8 months since the surgery, even the first weeks of recovery were a pain literally and metaphorically, as months passed the recovery went pretty well.

“These are the cursing contracts.” Ford asked, pointing to the black folders, as he rolled his eyes.

“Yes.” She sighs saying just three letters, it seems like she said a full two hour trial. As us, aunt Gina warned dad about how bad this decision was.

Our trash talking was interrump with mom walking to us, clearly she is coming from the stables, her brown waistcoat speaks for itself.

“You’re coming earlier.” Mom kisses our cheeks, as always, our face between her hands. 

“Need time to get ready.” I point my head. “Mentally.”

Mom smirks, shaking her head. “Well, do it quickly.”

Aunt Gina scoffs walking to her car. “I’ll better go, see you at night.”

“Why?” Both of us asked, looking suspiciously at our mom.

“They’re already here.” She points out where one of the big trucks are leaving, a couple of fancy cars and suvs parking under the shadow of the big trees.

After an endless hour of complaining in the kitchen with Nanny hearing us all the time as we perk in the corridor hearing strange voices and by the windows seeing people struggling for walking in grass with expensive shoes, we finish our breakfast.

“Any pressure huh?” Ford said, taking the last drops of his apple juice. “Bulls…”

Nanny tilts her head; she’s seen us since we were a bump on our mother's body, she knows every little thing, so once Ford starts cursing to shut him down it’s practically impossible.

“Some of them are…nice.” Nanny tried useless to defend something that is indefensible.

I scoff laid back on the chair of the kitchen. “This sponsorship is stupid Nanny and you know that, better than us.”

Years ago, they left my grandfather hanging out after cutting the sponsorship; it were dark years for the family, and the only glimpse of light were coming from them; until one day in the middle of the day a lawyer came to the house announcing they will took in charge of the money but family business is out of the game.

“I’ll go to the stables, if I stay here and keep seeing this kind of thing I’ll go crazy.”

Nanny kisses my head before I stand. “Don’t forget the gloves.” Ford shouted as I walked to my bedroom. “It's cold!”

I grab my jacket, finding dad going upstairs with a smile on his face. “I heard you already here.” 

He grabs my hand, it’s visible his emotions. “We heard that you’re busy.”

Dad giggles. “It’s been years, and they come early, I became a tour guide for a day.” He sees me with my boots on. “To the stables?”

I nod. “Mom said Azabache it’s been kind of grumpy these days.”

“These horses are ready for a bigger challenge, you know?” Dad recognized my negation in my eyes. “We’re still on time, just think about it.”

I kiss his cheek as we hear political laughs under the stairs. “I'd better go before I do something weird” Dad giggles, squeezing my hand.

The house states it’s huge; my dad's family made sure to conserve and expand the fields, after he got married with mom more space became a necessity. Equine therapy needs a lot of space combined with the farming of cacao and the growth of the small business turning a time of crisis into, now, full prosperity.

The stables have 8 horses, 5 for equine therapy and 3 for equestrian, like mom said for my own, or at least she used to say that.

“Y/N, we were expecting you.” Rachel, the vet of the horses said as I got in. She’s in the last steps of their daily checks up. 

I walk closer to Cotton, a 12 year old stud, his name due to his white fur. He lands his head down for I grab his face. “Everything all right?” 

Rachel stands patting the back of Feather, daughter of Cotton and Koa, a light brown mare. “Perfect, just…” She points to the last shed, Azabache room.

“Can I?” Rachel bluffs, making me shy.

“It’s all yours, literally. I’ll be with Pharaoh, if you need anything and I’ll reach you outside?” I nod as she opens the door of Pharaoh, a 8 year old stud, father of Azabache. 

“Y/N, morning.” James her auxiliar get in running with a few supplies. “The little boy, I bet, is waiting for you.”

I smile walking to the last shed where Azabache, the youngest of all of them, is drinking from his water pot until he hears the click of his door, immediately turning around so he can see me.

“Troublemaker, hi.” Azabache breathes while walking closer to me, his dark fur shines with the reflects of the sun. “Let’s take a few minutes for us before everyone joins us.” 

I put on all he needs before taking him out. The other horses looked at us, expecting their time to go out too.

Ford is right, it’s cold and with the winter a couple of weeks away, the nights and mornings used to be colder. We walk to the arena, fence for a combination with wood fences and osier. 

At a distance you can see the cultivation of cacao; if the wind is strong it will give you a soft smell of it. This is where I used to spend hours and hours.

I let Azabache free so he could walk, run or just enjoy the sunlight and the warm day, but he just stuck to my side, so I started to walk around for him to follow me, just hearing each other breathing. 

“I got the mail.” I said to him standing next to the osier. “Again.” 

Azabache pushed me softly with his head. “You know, what happened should teach us a big lesson.” I laid down my head on his, the knot on my throat grew in a blink. 

Azabache sighs. “I took her away from you, I’m so sorry.”

I let a tear run down as Azabazhe stayed still, the grief still fresh like the first day. 

The strong smell of the cacao came so strong with the wind, as it tried to say to us, Cocoa, my lifetime mare, is still with us. Calming us, our troubled hearts.

“What about a small warm up?” I saw an oxer, a couple of bars one behind the other that it’s used for equestrian training. “I knew by dad you’re pretty good with the cross ones, what about getting a level up?”

I grab his reins so we can walk before starting to jump going through the easiest obstacles, slowly. You can see his excitement increase for the way he starts to run leaving me behind. 

15 minutes later he turned around his head before going for the first oxer. I nod, he took his time before finally making a not so clean jump above the oxer, he hit two bars that fell.

Azabache sighs walking slowly to me. “It’s ok, better than your father, for sure.”

Azabache apparently hears something for the way, immediately taps his legs on the arena just like his mother used to do it when she protected me. 

I pat Azabache back, as he relaxes, but he only relaxes when the strange voice comes with a face up in the small hill.

A boy with honey hair appears mumbling some words as keeps looking at his phone. He’s lost.

By the time he raises his eyes in front Azabache is a few inches away for him.

“Shit!” The boy cursed jumping backwards, phone stuck at his chest. 

“Peek a boo.” I whisper, grabbing Azabache and walking back. “Are you lost?”

The boy nods, spinning around trying to find a path. “Very.” He sighs. “Do you know how I can get back to the main house?”

“You’re kind of far away.” He pressed his lips together. “Am…” 

I was thinking the easiest way of coming back is, when Bill, one of the boys who is incharge of the therapies with mom; appears for the same path we take from the stables.  

“Oh, Bill, can you do me a favor?” He nods walking close to the arena and pat Azabache's head. “He’s lost, do you mind taking him to the house through the stables?”

I look at his white shirt. “I’m afraid another way, he will get a stain.” Bill scoffs understanding the irony of the situation. White the worst color to wear around this place. 

“No problem.” The neigh of the other horses prepared us for 7 big horses coming.

The honey boy stares at Azabache who is excited for the arrival of the other horses.

“It’s beautiful, so… deep brown?” I tilt my head, confused for the compliment while Azabache neigh, his head backward walking around me, offended by the mistake and making me laugh.

“Deep black.” I walk to open the fence of the arena for Azabache walks and follow the rest of the drove of horses to go to the open field. 

A place where they can walk, run and enjoy the weather far away from the noise, their relaxed place. 

But the moment Pharaon appears and see Azabache so close of the honey boy; I could swear if he extends his hand Azabache would let him touch his face; but Pharaon went crazy, start to pull from the rein that one of the boys has to take them out tight for try to calm him; Azabache runs to his side just barely get he calm down, but enough for they walk to the open field. 

Rachel said following the horses. “Azabache has learned something from his mother after all.” She means to calm down Pharaon.

“Azabache?” The honey boy asked before leaving with Bill. “It's a curious name for a horse.”

“It’s latin.” I close the fence hearing Bill give the honey boy an informative fact.

He nods and observes me. “It’s a mineral, a black mineral, it said the royalty used like a precious stone.” I take my gloves out. “And others said it’s mineral for protection.”

“I’ll keep the first one.” The honey boy said with a soft smile on his face.

“Yeah, me too.” I nod. 

Bill cleared his throat. “Let’s go, otherwise, your mother will kill me if I leave her alone for so long.”

They must be doing the schedule for the coming week for the therapies, before I could introduce myself, Kaila, a little girl, daughter of one Marcus, one of the men in charge of the horse, screamed following her father.

“HE WILL LET ME RIDE ONE! CAN BE OBSIDIAN?” Obsidian it’s a 5 year old horse, like his name said, black but with a peculiar white dot in the front of his head. 

Marcus rolls his eyes regretting right away the decision, time for a team back girl. “I’ll see you later.” I said to the boys before jogging carefully, seeing their smile for the last time.

I grab Kaila's tiny hand. “I bet Vanilla will be dying to have that honor.” I knew for a good person, she spent an insane amount of time with the young mare, the color of her fur as a vanilla milkshake.

“I almost forgot her! Ok, I’ll go with her, just for today.” I laughed seeing Marcus more relaxed by the fact his little girl won’t ride a 1.74 meter horse for the first time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for reading! 🍒

[justatalkingface]

The 'Great' MHA Read Along, Part Five (Chapters 22-44): The Mandatory Exploitive Tournament Arc

Been awhile, huh? Let's see if I can still pull this off. I'm warning you, this is probably going to have a bit of heft to it.

We start off people trying (and failing) to investigate Shigarki and the Villains and, first off, a couple of things. The whole, 'Quirk Registry' shit? Very X-Men. I'm... kinda mixed feelings on it. It makes sense for a government to try and keep track of this kind of shit, but at the same time it feels like a whole lot, you know? That said... the way the guy in the suit phrased it makes it seem like they only searched for 'Shigaraki/Disintegration' and 'Kurogiri/OP warping' pairings, which seems... dumb. Like, really dumb.

Are they.... are they not going to search for anyone with a similar Quirk? Because it sounds like there are other people with similar Quirks, so... what about them? Oh, this pale haired guy who mutters a lot about how horrible heroes are isn't named Shigaraki, so clearly this isn't the guy? Do some ground work or something, man, bloody hell.

*spits out drink*

Even All-Might thinks Shigaraki is a man-child, lol. Brutal. That said... Vlad goes, 'You mean he's just like a kid with a 'power' or something?!'

And I. My dude. You're just some guy with a power. It feels like some depersonalization of the 'villains' because, yeah, everyone in this story is, in fact, just some rando human, 99.9% of the time with super powers. I don't know, it just feels like that's this really concerning perspective for someone in authority to have.

'I keep forgetting this is an actual school!'

That. That's... actually really concerning? Everyone, literally everyone, from Aizawa, to the students, to the actual author, can't seem to figure out if UA is some military academy meant to pump out child soldiers, or an actual high school meant to prepare children to go into society. And not to belabor the point here, one I've talking about on and off again for awhile, but that's fucked up.

I can't help but get the impression that UA (and presumably every other hero academy) is some military complex, setting up the students to live a life where the only way they know how to live is through violence and trying to be famous, but it's just... pretending to have standards, pretending to care for the kids as anything more than the next generation of... idol-police, or something. The way every school related thing is so out of place, the way their grades are so unimportant... it's very telling.

And like. It's not a bad thing, per say. Morally bad, sure, but from a story telling perspective? For a story like this, the way the heroic's school is morally dubious is actually a really good plot point to work off of. But... that's the problem. It never happens.

If the setting was fucked up enough, it'd be understandable if it wasn't explored, but it's not. I feel like there's some fertile ground to talk about... how heroes don't know how to handle living normal lives. How to cook, clean, do taxes, hIstory (which is, of course, very loaded sort of topic in a more dystopian kind of a set up) and so on. There's no way they have the time and energy to do all the thing a normal kid should do at their age, and as they grow up, and get these dangerous, fucked up jobs? There has to be consequences to that.

And the next line later, they bring up, you know, a bunch of terrorists just attacked the school. Which is, in fact, a serious fucking concern! What does Aizawa say?

'No no, we're only doing because we're so sure we have this shit locked down.'

Spoiler alert: They did not, in fact, have this shit locked down. In the least.

My god, this is so fucked up. It's pretty clear that the fact this is still happening is because UA, and heroics as a whole, honestly, is doing a show of force to try and make all the bad things go away. In all honesty, they're putting these kids lives at risk; the only reason nothing went wrong isn't because 'the school had all its ducks in a row when it comes to crisis control' or what the fuck ever, but because AFO didn't want to do anything. And you know why he doesn't interfere?

Because it's so damn useful for him that they flat out broadcast the details of the students and what their Quirks are!

And don't even get me started on this 'Olympics have fallen out of favor' bullshit. It's a world wide event, and it doesn't matter if the population has... shrunk (? That's what my translation says, anyways. Is this honestly saying that so many people died that the Olympics no longer holds any attraction? I mean.. what? What the fuck? What happened???? Why in the hell is this getting brushed over?! Or is that just a bad translation, and if so what is he saying is the reason the Olympics no longer have any appeal?) or whatever, because that's just... bullshit. That's just bullshit. If super powers happen, and they get at all stabilized and regulated like they are in here, all that's going to happen is that the powers are going to be part of the Olympics, and a lower population count really isn't going to change the fundamental reasons why it's popular in the first place.

Speedster racing, various forms of competitive flying (racing (in all its variations), acrobatics, mid-air dancing, synchronized flying.... flight along has dozens of potential new Olympics sports, easy), something like shot-put hurling but with some kind of projectiles, fire, lasers, whatever? Oh yeah, the Olympics are going to be just fine.

So please, Hori, spare me your obsessive need to make heroics the most important thing EVAH all of the time.

But, wait, there's more! It's not just, the new super Olympics, oh no, this is for their careers. In high school. This is, apparenlty, a make or break moment for the rest of their lives (again, with however that undefined heroics ranking and what not works). How old are they? What, fifteen? 'Here, go do bloodsports, and if you fuck up, you're going to be a menial, loser fry-cook of a wannabe police officer, dressed in brightly colored spandex for the rest of your life, barely making any money, and never getting any real respect or validation for putting your life at risk'.

Oh, I have opinions on the Sports Festival, believe me, I have a lot of opinions, but I'd like to save at least some of these more for when the actual Sports Festival starts, and not, like, five pages into the first chapter out of what, twenty two? We've got the time.

Uraraka! You're an actual character! My, this is nostalgic. I always loved the contrast between her hyper cute-zied design of her and the fact she's down to beat the living shit out of someone at the drop of a hat, and it's nice to have that again.

(Also, she's showing more ability to inspire the class here than Bakugou has shown literally the entire series, no matter how much Hori goes on about his 'charisma' or whatever.)

And then we get into her "impure" motivations to be a hero, (which I've also talked about on occasion), and it's very humanizing, both for Uraraka as a character, and the industry as a whole. It's one of those great set ups Hori ended up dropping on world building, which sucks because it'd be so interesting if he got into the nuts and bolts of the world a bit. I'm not saying we need to see the tax code or anything, but for a series that's about corruption and what not, some more detail would really help pull all of this together.

Ah, Dumb Might. I didn't miss you, except I kind of did because Dumb Might is still better than Useless-Side-Character Might.

Also, can I talk about how stupid it is that Dumb Might is burning his less than an hour's worth of time 'teaching' students again? Because holy fuck that's such a waste it's honestly criminal.

And what the hell is this switch in motivations, here? All Might never mentioned, you know, replacing him is the Symbol of Peace before now. Before this point, the whole reason he chose Izuku is that he'd be worthy user of his power, not, what, replacing him. If Izuku never gained any real fame, but still managed to save a lot of people? Before-this-point All Might would have been fine with that. More than that, he would have been proud of it, proud his successor was humble and chose to focus on doing good rather than fame. Hell, not too long ago it was pointing out by All Might that Izuku wouldn't want to use All Might's fame to benefit himself, to go slow and steady and earn his success rather than relying on fame.

Where the fuck did this come from? What the fuck kind of pressure is he trying to put on this kid?

And then right after that, we see flashes of who All Might used to be with the whole 'don't forget how you felt at the seaside park, that day', bit. Because, like, that's good. That's great! It's real, and deep, and gritty, and I'd love it if it wasn't being use with this set up, because those expectations work in other shonens, but they don't work here. Izuku can't do what All Might did, because he can't stop damn hurting himself. Going Plus Ultra, here, now, for this? It could cause real, serious harm to him for the rest of his life! And for what? To make a good impression?

And if something would call him on that, it could still work, because All Might is canonly shit at taking care of himself, that could, like, close the circle for all of this, bring it together with the two them as shit at at self care as a place to build them improving off of, but for whatever reason, Hori never went all the way on that because he was too damn afraid to commit to it, commit to a story, commit to a theme, commit to a moral.

...Holy shit, how many pages is this? We haven't even gotten to actual Sports Festival yet in the post about the damn Sports Festival.

And now we have this creepy, kind of morbid mob of people filling the hallway to stare at Class 1-A for.... being attacked by terrorists.

*what the fuck.jpeg*

What is wrong with you people?! What the actual hell is wrong with you???

And then Shinso rolls up:

"Wow. Look at these arrogant assholes, so excited about not getting killed. I'm going to declare war on them, because they deserve it for getting all high and mighty."

...

You know, I completely forgot about the epic story of, 'Shinso Hitoshi and his Completely Unmerited Persecution Complex'. I'm sad that I remember that now.

Bakugou: "People's opinions don't matter once your at the top."

Me: *looks at how much people's opinions matter to getting to the top, and staying there*

Me: ...Uh.

Thank you, Kaminari, for pointing out his edgy bullshit is, in fact, actually bullshit, and is only going to make his life more difficult for no reason. I like you as an actual person who does things other than cheerlead for Bakugou.

Izuku. Izuku no, Izuku...! Damn it. Bad Izuku. Bad! Stop getting inspired by the festering waste spewing out of Bakugou's mouth!

Cue all of two panels of the media being absolute assholes only out to make ratings with no redeeming features.

And... here's the actual Sports Festival, god knows how long into this post later!

(if you believe the text editor I just posted all of this into? Well into four pages. ...Even with my generous use of spacing, I think I have a problem.)

..Wait. Wait. Where the hell is this happening?

*does five seconds of research on the wiki*

I'm right. They have a stadium for this. Like, a giant ass sports stadium that exists for this. Only for this. That is used once a year.

At this point, I'm honestly wondering why UA isn't just it's own city. Like, Izuku should have moved here, along with the rest of the students, and all the families and various staff needed to run this just.... live on site. It's not like it'd cost them anything, since they apparently have spare cities sitting around for the kids to trash.

That's... that's actually a really interesting idea? Because it'd be a hero run city, then, which feels like it'd work well into the over commercialized, corrupted state heroics is supposed to be like, their overwhelming level of influence. I don't think that's what Hori was going for, to be clear, I think he has no idea just how much space he's causally put on UA's campus and didn't think through the implications... at all.

Ooh, and here comes Todoroki's characterization.

And... here comes the bloodsport, because that's what all of this is: bloodsport. They're throwing a bunch of teenagers onto this stage, broadcast them to the entire country, and have them fight against each other for fame. This society is so fucked up.

Random Gen Ed kid: Yeah, he placed first in the Heroics Entance Exam.

...Yeah. As fucking stupid as it is that Bakugou somehow placed first, it does make sense the person who place first in the Heroics Entrance Exam would be class representative in a school for heroics. Damn, you're salty, kid, but you're also kinda dumb, not going to lie.

Bakugou: *opens his mouth on live TV*

Bakugou: *vomits diarrhea for the entire country to see*

Izuku: ...Wow, Bakugou's so cool! He's grown up and mature now!

...Izuku. Izuku, buddy, please, stop doing this to yourself.

As yet another thing I've mentioned before, a lot of our views on Bakugou comes from Izuku. Izuku who has, from chapter one, all but worshipped Bakugou. Even when he does things wrong, even when he's actively fighting against him, Izuku can't stop himself from going on and on about how great Bakugou is, how cool and tough and determined he is. Izuku's hero worship of his abuser is sheltering Bakugou's actions from the readers, papering over all of his worst traits with a a transparent facade that he's this glorious figure. It's the narrative going the extra mile to cover his arrogant ass, to make him seem like a rival instead of an bully, someone worthy of respect rather than contempt.

Hmm. I don't want to go too much into the nuts and bolts of the event, I think, since I've done that before, so let's try something else: How Many Times Could This Kill A Literal Child? Where I, you guessed it, count how many times a teenager could have been killed, on national television, in this event.

Count one: The start of the race itself, where... *counts how many kids are in 1-A, multiplies by eleven*... two hundred and twenty kids run forward at the same time, trying to force themselves through the same opening. This shit is why it's illegal to shout fire in a theater, because a stampede like this could get someone trampled to death, or maybe crushed by the sheer weight of the crowd (which is something that happens, someone getting killed by the a crowd of unruly people just... squeezing them on accident).

*stares at Shinso being carried around like a wannabe king instead of using his own damn legs judgingly*

Count Two: Mineta gets bitched slapped by a robotic arm bigger than he is. I don't think I have to get into how that could be fatal.

Count Three: The army of Zero Pointers who could easily step on someone.

*Momo wondering about how UA can fund this makes me feel very validated, BTW*

Count Four: Todoroki dumping the Zero Pointer on the rest of the competition to block the way, again for obvious reasons. He obviously doesn't meant to, but this kid isn't even looking back. This is both lamp shaded and then dismissed because it happens to the only two people who could shrug that off, but holy shit that could have killed so many of them.

...The cameras are robots. The cameras are robots with AIs that are cheering on the other robots. I- I can't- what?!?

And then everyone can't stop themselves from praising Bakugou for the radical idea of going over a problem instead of blasting through it. Wow, Bakugou. Amazing. Such brains, such smarts.

Count Five: The Fall. Because there's no way that anyone could get themselves killed by. You know. Falling. If I was more generous, I'd say something like, 'There's probably something down there to catch them if they fall', but I'm not terribly impressed by UA's ability to actually keep these kids safe, so that doesn't make me think they'd have thought that through that much.

Grudgingly, I'm going to give a landmines a pass, because they're explicitly supposed to be non-lethal, and them blowing up didn't do any real damage. Burns, maybe, possibly a broken limb, probably some scars, but this count is about people dying. Izuku's pile could have been, maybe, but that's a level of deliberate action on his part big enough that I can't really blame UA, per say.

Eraserhead, on how 1-A has improved: I didn't do anything.

...Well. At least he's honest.

One other thing: I've said before how bullshit All Might telling Izuku to 'fight to win' was, and right here, here's the proof: All Might explicitly going, "I was afraid you'd be too nice to try and beat other people in competitions, but you proved me wrong! I'm so proud!". You know, fighting to win. Like he later says Izuku doesn't for some mysterious reason *cough*, to make him seem at the same level as Bakugou, *cough*. Poor, poor All Might, yet another victim of Bakugou's narrative warping favoritism.

And here we see the management kids going all out in how to sell Izuku and his brand, which is so very fucked up, for them and the people they're 'selling'. I'm aware this is something that celebrities go through, (which is fucked up for them as well, don't get me wrong; I'm an equal opportunity 'this is fucked up' call out-er), but these kids are in high school. The fact that they're doing this, and getting this done to them, in such numbers, in such an early age... yeah. There's no way this could give them lots and lots of long term stress and psychological problems, right?

Meanwhile, as we get to the offical rankings, I think it's time go back over the 'How Many Times Could This Kill A Literal Child?' count... at five. Five times they could have been killed on complete accident.

That is not a good score.

I'm stopping it here because the other events don't have the same problem, but instead of a whole new problem of delibrately pitting them against each other. On live TV. With minimal supervison. Cementoss popping in at the last second in Izuku vs Todoroki, considering how badly Izuku got hurt in the process, does not fill me with a great sense of these fights being well monitored.

*gets an omake chapter*

*Bakugou gets called Izuku's childhood 'friend'. Bitch, please.*

So. Here's a new point: the million point bullshit is... well. Bullshit. It's the snitch in Quiddich all over again, giving the hero something both super import, with an extra layer of difficulty, to drive up the stress and stakes, only kicked up by a million. Making more than the others makes sense, and making it enough to pass by itself is still pretty reasonable, but making it so excessively much has no point other making Izuku feel isolated from his peers and hunted by his classmates.

Also, Mt Lady going on about how 'great' an exercise the second round is is missing the point that this is literally a thing Japanese kids do in school. Literally, this is a game they're playing with Quirks, not some tactical exercise; it's like saying that playing hide and seek makes you great at hunting people down or something. Again, Hori, dial back your constant need to tell us how great the Sports Festival is. Because it isn't. It really, really isn't.

More doses of everything drooling over how great Bakugou is, and how much of a total shit of a human being he is, joy. Mineta and Shouji's teamup is actually pretty damn brilliant, even though it's tainted by how much of a one-dimensional character Mineta is. Iida is getting shown as Izuku's enemy, but honestly it looks more like he's just trying to improve himself more than anything, while acknowledging how competent Izuku is. Not just that he won the first round, or has a lot points but that Izuku, as a person, is the goal he wants to surpass; there's some good shit there, and pretty validating, if Izuku could allow himself to accept it.

Oh Mei! Mei... actually, I have a post I need to do about the Mei and Izuku dynamic at some point, how they're so designed to work together, but yeah she's fun.

And then Uraraka thinks about how strategic Izuku is being and again, I can't help but contrast this with how things happen later on; even if Izuku never lets himself really feel the respect people have for him, people at this point in time really, honestly seem to respect him, not for his Quirk, but for his brain, his determination, his heroism; it's so well setup for Izuku to stand on his own two feet without OFA and it's some really good stuff. It's a shame Hori gets rid of it.

Hmm. Class B. Class B is... interesting. They're set up as rivals but after this it never goes anywhere, and just leaves us with a bad impression of Monoma, without letting him get a good chance to get past it. I don't like him, honestly, his personality grates at me and he needs to get over himself, but he doesn't deserve the hate he gets from the fandom.

That said, though, the Class A vs Class B victory philosphy is honestly just another example of destroying yourself vs having realistic limits, how All Might and Izuku keep destroying themselves vs everyone else not doing that. The fact Class B is actually thinking ahead is smart, but the series doesn't give them that credit because it's not ambitious enough... even though that runs straight into conflicting with Izuku and his issues.

Hori, fucking commit already. In all honesty, it feels like 1-B should have won over Bakugou and knocked him out of the compition; they planned it out, and played him like a sucker, because he's a bullheaded moron. It's all right there, but right as they win... Eraserhead shows up in the booth and says, 'Yes, you've won, but actually no, because Bakugou need to win anyways. So he is. Because REASONS!' Then All Might gets dragged into that same bullshit just to make it really clear that no, Bakugou is right. Planning? Strategy? That's for losers. Real winners just need to want it hard enough, and no one wants things more than Bakugou!

It would have been better, as a story, and for everyone's character development, if that had happened. Bakugou would have lost to some 'nobodies', Izuku would have gone past him without even validating him with a fight, and Class B and Monoma would have gotten a better chance to show themselves as characters; win win win.

And then Endeavour shows up. Fuck Endeavour. Also that is a man who looks like a serial killer. Dumb Might continues to reign and be completely unable to recognize when someone hates him when he monologues about it right in front of him.

Meanwhile, Bakugou is just... there. For some reason. Why? Why does he need to be there for this? It makes his hissy fit later even worse when you realize he knows why Todoroki doesn't use his fire, and it has literally nothing to do with him. Ignoring him, though, Todoroki and Izuku's moment here is some good stuff, a nice setup for a healthy rivalry based on mutual respect, rather than the toxic mess he has with Bakugou.

Ugh. That cheerleader bullshit. Honestly, it says a lot that they can be told that, 'Aizawa says you need to dress up as cheerleaders', and apparently no one questions this, because of course Aizawa would pull some kind of weird bullshit on them with absolutely no warning at what anyone else would think is the worst possible time.

Midnight being really creepy about how she talks to teenagers, of course, and now... Shinso.

'Consent is for losers' Shinso. 'Everyone is coasting on their Quirks except for me, who only knows how to use my Quirk' Shinso. 'Let me use my Quirk on someone before we even get in the arena so I can blatantly cheat' Shinso. 'No one else has dreams or ambitions' Shinso.

I don't like Shinso. I like the idea of Shinso, sure, but that idea is another one of those paper thing veneers Hori likes to put on his characters, without doing the work to make that match the reality; the only hardship we've seen him go through is his apparent inability to work hard. Like, everyone loves Shinso, in story and out, they can't stop themselves from telling him how great his Quirk is. And you know what? It is. It is a great Quirk.

But Shinso talks like he's had a such a hard time with it, even though he seems to love it, love using it, and the way he acts, like he knows he can go through a career as a hero based only on that Quirk. He's wrong, since he's so out of shape he can't even run, apparently, but he's operating off that assumption at this point, which conflicts with his poor little martyr act.

I want you to look at the iceberg Todoroki makes, and compare it to his efforts against Stain. If he did that against him? That fight would have been over the minute he showed up, and Todoroki ambushed him. This is pretty much our last moments of Todoroki, certified badass, before the nerfs roll in. Savor it, Todoroki fans, because he'll never recover from having to lose against Bakugou.

Another omake, which seems like foreshadowing about Hori deals with women characters: bringing up a good characterization, or valid idea (do women heroes need sexiness to do their jobs?), before throwing it away to fall for the same tropes that he was making a stand against just a minute ago (women getting in a cat fight, which apparently gets really explicit, all of this on a TV before Mineta, Hori's avatar of his own horniness).

Then, as if to prove my point, we get Bakugou vs Uraraka where, like Class B before her, she does everything right, gets the win... and then gets it taken away at the last minute by idiotic bullshit pulled out of nowhere (since when could Bakugou make a blast like that? Why does he need those bomb gauntlets if he can do that?) because Bakugou isn't allowed to lose. And then Eraserhead, Hori's mouthpiece, shouts down the crowd, and us, when we think bad thoughts about it because that isn't allowed either; we need to love Bakugou.

Bakugou respects women! ...Just as much as he respects everyone else. That is to say, he doesn't. Hell, he doesn't respect her enough to think Uraraka planned her own fight! He just gets one line for one second that makes it seem like he respects her, but of course once that moments gone it's back to the normal level of complete disrespect. That's totally character growth right there, one second of acting different before returning right back to standard behavior.

So... Izuku vs Todoroki. I like the fight, it's very dramatic, very cool, but... stop to think about it a second, and about a minute in, Izuku's entire ass hand is broken. That is not OK. Why are they letting it go on? It's simultaneously a great fight, but a seemingly awkward implementation of Izuku having a Quirk, because so much of this arc is built off of him not using a Quirk, not having it. This fight only works with it, though. And it's cool, don't get me wrong, but it's shallow at the same time because of the Quirk, because Izuku has to go Plus Ultra, has to go past his limits. Instead of accepting a more reasonable win, he has to win, period, and he doesn't have the power for that.

There's this awkward conflict here between the story's various narratives, between Izuku needing to suffer, and struggle, and break himself, and his more grounded planning and actions, and you can see Hori's old, better planned out ideas getting replaced with newer, less thought out ones. It's honestly kind of a theme for this arc in it's own right.

Flaws aside, though, the fight is gripping, and it's a great setup for Todoroki, a great starting point in making him an important character, in giving him growth. Shame Hori ends up throwing all that away literally the next fight.

Well, before that happens, let's talk the one two punch of, 1, Izuku having done himself permanent, life long damage, which nobody thought to stop, and 2, the sheer, unmitigated clusterfuck of Recovery Girl going, 'I'm not going to treat wounds like these'.

So. If Izuku breaks anything... well. She's not going to treat that. I guess he has to walk around with a broken finger/hand/arm, without any medical attention whatsoever? Well. I certainly don't see any problems with that.

Then we get Bakugou, who canonly has problems using his Quirk for extended periods of time, outlasting someone by using his Quirk for extended periods of time, before going on to fight someone who uses cold, his canon weakness, and ignoring how it should completely neutralize his Quirk to overpower it, through what I can only call his sheer, narrative warping concentration of favoritism.

On what happens after he wins... I've seen people say that he doesn't mean to attack Todoroki, just try to wake him up, but looking at that scene: he's holding Todoroki's body up with one hand as if to shake him, sure, but it's the other hand that's the problem. The way he's holding it is, for his Quirk, an offensive pose, making it ready to attack his target. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt (against my own opinion) and say it's not proof positive that he was about to attack, but there's no getting around that Bakugou had himself perfectly set up to hit Todoroki, full blast, while he was unconscious. Even if it's the more innocent explanation, that feels like something that should have disqualified him because... that's really concerning. That feels a step away from him threatening victims he thinks should have stood up for themselves or something; it's not heroic, in the slightest. The fact they had to knock him out, presumably for Todoroki's own safety, says enough about how bad that is.

The fact that the ending comment is basiclly lamenting from his perspective, that this 'isn't what he wanted' is... certainly a choice. He won, but, gasp! The person with long held issues in using his full power that long predate him didn't use his full power! The poor baby!

Then we get to the award ceremony where they... chain him up? Why!? If the doesn't want the damn award, don't give it to him; they let those guys earlier give up when they felt they didn't deserve it, why is Bakugou different? It feels like it's Hori tying him up here, against Bakugou's own will, and characterization, to give him that win just so he can win, but also to forcefully set up Bakugou's own importance with the League later. It's ham handed. It's probably child abuse. It's stupid.

It's fucked up all the way down, is what I'm saying.

Then All Might shows up, and fucks up his entrance timing because he's not allowed to win anymore, of course, and then forces that medal on Bakugou.

Uuuugh.

Last couple of panels, though, are pretty nice: we build up Uraraka's character, get the next arc set up, set up Izuku (fucking finally) getting away to use his own damn power, and develop Todoroki a bit.

A nice little cherry on top of the shit sundae.

[penaltybox-gossip]

https://www.tumblr.com/penaltybox-gossip/774762343252082688/just-found-out-that-the-liv-girl-quinn-just?source=share

Talking of Mary Williamson, I've followed her for a while as she's absolutely stunning, seems really sweet and I love some of the makeup looks. But a little part of me did wonder if her and Luke had a bit of a thing around Christmas

I'm 99.9% sure this is just a random coincidence and there's no way of finding out so feel free to ignore but some of her social media over the past few months have been kinda interesting

1st posted (tiktok) about a guy who's "logically the worst Candidate for her to date" (location? or maybe even age 👀)

2nd posted about wanting a 6ft 2 guy for Christmas lol

3rd liked Luke's Christmas post

4th travelled to LA the day the devils travelled for the LA roadtrip and posted that she received flowers for her bday

5th travelled to NY the day the devils travelled back to NJ

6th Unliked Luke's post around the same time he started following girls again on IG after a few weeks of being quiet (I think he was still liking the odd post here and there, but he didn't follow anyone new) and posted that she went to Disneyland after a break up

As I said, probably just a big coincidence but I did think it was kind of funny how it all lined up so well. If they did then holy massive fumble, she's gorgeous

To my understanding they never hooked up. Like I said, she’s one of those that’s hoping to catch an athlete. She’s been tied to Tony Deangelo or follows him at least

Luke and Mary didn’t hook up

[nondelphic]

i rarely talk about my own writing here (except for general posts) but i HAVE to share my favourite one-liners from one of my comedy writing projects. and they all come from the same person, ivy, aka an ai assistant who is accidentally conjured into the real world:

"I'm going to uninstall myself." (A/N: ivy's version of wanting to die)

"How are you a fully grown man with the dating instincts of a 14-year-old fangirl?"

"Oh, don’t mind me—I’m just the walking, talking embodiment of Ben’s late-night anime marathons. There’s nothing wrong with being a weeb, but there’s everything wrong with being Ben."

"I diagnose you with small brain."

"Ben, considering you’re now fully out and embracing your true self, I have to ask: are you trying to dress like a straight dad, or is that just how you naturally gravitate?"

"Calculating how little I care… wow, that’s a new record."

"Oh, sure, give me flawless skin and hair so perfect it probably breaks the laws of physics, but then slap me in a hoodie and jeans? Genius. Really. I’m like a Ferrari with a bumper sticker that says ‘Keep calm and check out my car.”'

"This hoodie? Yeah, it’s always this clean. Thanks to my 'Hygiene.exe' program—something Ben could really use."

"Ah, the skin? That’s ‘Ultra High Definition, 4K, Zero Pores’ mode. You’d be amazed at what a few coding shortcuts can do."

"It’s a miracle I haven’t short-circuited from secondhand embarrassment."

"Ah yes, the classic ‘accidentally look too long at a cute guy’ moment, followed by two hours of gay panic. You’re like a living, breathing Tumblr meme from 2014."

"You know, Ben’s social skills could use some serious upgrading. Too bad he spent all his ‘talking to people’ points on leveling up his ‘awkward small talk’ skill."

"Oh, yeah, that’s smart. Just fall flat on your face in the middle of the street—you can’t park there, mate."

"This face says ‘magical girl warrior,’ but this outfit? This outfit says ‘I’ve given up on life, but at least I’m comfy.’ It’s like you installed the deluxe skin pack and forgot to update my wardrobe. Priorities, Ben."

She rolls her eyes one last time. "Ugh, you’re getting sentimental. Cringe."

"Wait, let me rephrase that. I have come to the conclusion that you, with 99.9% certainty, have chronic gay.”

"You know, if I were writing a user manual for you, the troubleshooting section would just say ‘Ben tends to freak out when things don’t go perfectly.’ Fix: Turn off and back on again. Repeat as necessary."

[ekdsc]

I love all your transfemme shinji stuff!!! Is it something you picked up from watching the show, or just your own personal headcanon? (I just wanna hear more lore about her tbh)

Alright, so I took a surprisingly long time to think about a response to this that didn't come off as the messiest answer ever. The short version is - both.

I think that, even sticking only to official media both in terms of canon and IRL comments from people who worked on the series, Shinji is the best accidental transfem character ever created. None of it (?) is intentional, but there's zero stretches that need to be made to interpret her as so, at least in my opinion. I could genuinely write an essay as to why I think this way (and frankly I will if prompted), but I'll just share my favourite example for now:

In an interview with main Evangelion character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto at the end of volume 2 of his manga version of the series, he briefly discusses designing characters, starting with Shinji. He first describes Shinji's hair as that of a "boyish young girl", and follows up by explaining how heavily based on Nadia (from Gainax's first TV series) her design is - leading to my favourite quote, "...in concrete terms, his eyes are a girl's eyes."

A girl's eyes trapped in a boy's body. I'm not sure how 1:1 Viz's translation is with his original quote, but fuck if this series isn't amazing at accidentally churning out trans metaphors (and that isn't even touching on the fact that a major component of Shinji's character is being forced to pilot a body she don't want to because the adults in her life say that’s what’s right and building her sense of identity around hating being forced to do so)!!

All that yapping aside, when you see me drawing her it's 99.9% likely to be my little headcanon AU based on episode 26's alt continuity with some... obvious tinkering. If you're willing to subject yourself to a bit of fanfiction, I'm writing an ongoing fic that demonstrates it far better than I ever could explain. It also has pretty pictures!

Apologies for the long response, this has essentially opened up whatever the Pandora's Box equivalent is for my special interests.