#But I'd a lot to say

[suchine-toki]

Thoughts about Shinpachi

Many times I’ve seen how he’s called out for being a boring character or that he’s annoying for yelling a lot, and although he never seemed like an annoying character to me, I’ve to agree that he’s dull compared to his companions.

Shinpachi is the ordinary character of the main group, the straight man who balances Gintoki and Kagura within the Yorozuya. He starts out as someone who lacks strength and courage, but gradually improves over the course of the series. His initial goal is to save his family's dojo, though that’s more of something Tae wanted to do for their father, not a personal aspiration of his.

At first he was given the trait of being the leader of Otsuu's imperial troop, which was an interesting contrast to his usually submissive personality, showing he has leadership skills, but he never made much of it. Although it does help characterize him as someone with a very good heart, supporting Otsuu when she was just a street artist.

I think that's the strong point of Shinpachi's character. He’s compassionate and always remains optimistic despite difficulties. He’s kind and genuinely good. But he also suffers from an inferiority complex, he feels he has no control over his life in a society in which he lost the only thing that made him special, being a samurai.

In the case of Gintoki and Kagura, their stories were relatively planned from the beginning (at least Sorachi had an idea), which wasn’t the case with Shinpachi. We could say that Beam Saber arc is the arc of his past. Here, like his companions, he must face someone from his past who has become a villain. While it's a very emotional moment for both him and Tae, this whole situation has the problem that it was never brought up before and never brought up again.

Part of the arc's conclusion is how the two siblings go on vacation after the fact, a joke that takes some weight off the situation in my opinion. The true conclusion of the arc shows Shinpachi reviving the dojo by teaching the homeless, but later we see that this doesn't hold up over time either, so the whole arc ends up feeling kind of pointless in regards to his character development.

Something similar happens in the Correspondence arc, in which Kirara is introduced. Here they both pretend to be someone else when they meet, however, in the end they show themselves as they are, realizing that they’ve many things in common. It always seemed like a very nice thing to me, so I regretted the fact that Kirara didn’t appear again.

This wasn’t only because it was an important lesson for him to learn, but also because it would’ve been interesting to add another layer as Shinpachi's love interest. I don't mean including Kirara in the main cast, but keeping her present through the letters she would write to Shinpachi and bringing her back from time to time would’ve been enough.

Nevertheless, I consider the biggest problem occurred at the end of the series. Shinpachi was slowly but surely becoming an independent character. However, in the ending he’s shown to be unable to move on if he’s not with Gintoki by his side. And don’t get me wrong, I'm not trying to say that it's wrong that Shinpachi is very fond of Gintoki.

Nor it’s bad per se that he wants to be with the Yorozuya. It's about how it was shown. It appears that Shinpachi never followed his own dream. Restoring the dojo was something his sister wanted to do, not him. In the time skip he’s already an adult of 18 years. Staying in the Yorozuya seemed more like the need to remain in a shelter to avoid going out and having to face the world.

I would’ve liked to see that at the end of the series, someone who feels they’ve no control over his life would decide his own path. For someone with an inferiority complex to feel self-confident. Since the first prototype of the character was Nagakura Shinpachi, the captain of the second Shinsengumi squad, I would’ve loved Shinpachi to join the Shinsengumi, taking advantage of his leadership skills.

[stil-lindigo]

lead balloon (the tumblr post that saved me)

if this comic resonated with you, it would mean the world to me if you donated to this palestinian family's escape fund.

--

no creative notes because this isn't that kind of comic.

I know I don’t owe any of you anything but I still felt compelled to write about my long term absence. And I feel far enough away from the dangerous spot I was in to be able to make this comic. I have a therapist now, and she agreed that making this could be a very cathartic gesture, and the start of properly leaving these thoughts behind me. I am still, at seemingly random times, blindsided by fleeting desires to kill myself. They’re always passing urges, but it’s disarming, and uncomfortable. I worry sometimes that my brain’s spent so long thinking only about suicide that it’s forgotten how to think about anything else. Like, now that I've opened that door for myself, I'll never be able to fully shut it again. But I’m trying my best to encourage my mind in other directions. We'll see how that goes.

I am still donating all proceeds from my store to Palestinian causes. So far, I've donated over $15K, not including donations coming from my own pocket or the fundraising streams which jointly raised around $10K. In the time since I made my initial post about where this money would be going, the focus has shifted from aid organisations to directly donating to escape funds.

If you'd like to do the same, you can look at Operation Olive Branch, which hosts hundreds of Palestinian escape funds or donate to Safebow, which has helped facilitate the safe crossing and securing of important medical procedures for over 150 at-risk palestinians since the beginning of the genocide.

[djkinski]

the prophecy gang again

[fazedlight]

“You didn’t jump,” Kara said.

Lena glanced up from her lo mein container, chopsticks in hand. “Jump?” Lena asked curiously.

Kara nibbled her lip thoughtfully, staring down at her potstickers. The evening had been a quiet one - a welcomed change of pace, after a wonderful and chaotic afternoon at Alex and Kelly’s wedding. When all was said and done - after the couple had left for their honeymoon and the party had quieted, after Eliza had taken Esme home for a fun week making chocolate chip cookies with her grandmother - Kara and Lena had found themselves in Kara’s apartment, settling down in their pajamas with a dinner of Chinese takeout.

“For Kelly’s bouquet,” Kara said. “You didn’t jump.”

Lena shrugged, digging into her food with her chopsticks again. “It wasn’t heading towards me.”

“You could’ve used magic,” Kara suggested, thinking of how a certain other super had used her powers to yank the flowers midair.

“And start a duel with Nia?” Lena grinned. “Seemed unwise. Besides, she has a likely candidate.”

Kara smiled. 

“At least I was there,” Lena teased softly. “I didn’t see you in the crowd.”

Kara shrugged. “It’s a human tradition.” 

Lena tilted her head. “What did Krypton have?”

Kara grimaced. “Genetic testing. AI matching. Rules about guild marriages,” she said, “My uncle destroyed the AI, at least. But romance was secondary on Krypton.”

“What about now? On Argo?”

“Romantic love is… still an alien concept, on Argo,” Kara said thoughtfully, popping another potsticker in her mouth. “It existed in some of our stories. But our upbringing, our culture- we had to squash a lot of that down.”

“And now?”

“Now it’s like…” Kara’s voice had lowered to a murmur, and Lena noticed a pink tint rising in her cheeks. Kara cleared her throat, staring into her food. “Now it’s like they’re marrying a close friend,” she continued. “I wouldn’t say they have romance like Earth does.”

“Like marrying a friend,” Lena mulled.

Kara quietly picked at her food.

“And what about you?” Lena said, partially curious, partially… well. She knew Kara could hear how her heart had started pounding, as much as she wished she could hide it.

“Me?”

“You grew up there. But you’ve been here for so long. Where do you fall?”

Kara’s brow crinkled. “I think I…like all the little things,” she murmured. “Giving flowers and chocolate. Kissing. Holding hands.”

“But?”

“Not a but,” Kara said as she glanced up - still avoiding Lena’s eyes, but looking thoughtfully ahead. “It feels so alien to me, but in this wonderful way. Exhilarating. Strange. I feel like I have this chimeric type of romance in my head - not Earthian, not Kryptonian. Like romance is…”

Kara grew quiet, turning her head to her food again, staring silently as the blush on her cheeks seemed to deepen. 

Lena watched for a moment, taking in the unmoving kryptonian - the hint of tightness in her posture, the unusual muteness and stillness. “What is romance for you, Kara?” Lena whispered.

Kara slowly tilted her gaze up to meet Lena’s. “My perfect partner at a game night,” she confessed quietly. “Knowing someone so well that it feels like magic when we’re together.”

Lena let out the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding.

Kara nibbled nervously at her lip. “You- you don’t have to see it that way,” Kara said, her voice cracking. “It’s not- it doesn’t have to change anything. But I’ll understand if it’s too much…”

“I feel it too,” Lena whispered. “When I’m with you. It always feels like magic.”

“Really?” Kara said. “You could want- you-”

“I didn’t want to catch the bouquet unless it was for you,” Lena confessed. “I just- all I want is to be with you.”

Kara smiled wide, and Lena watched on as the tension seemed to melt away from the still-blushing kryptonian’s frame. “I love you, Lena.”

Lena smiled back. “I love you too.”

[herbarimoon]

Day 22 - Candy

+ alt version

[gracefuldisasters]

Having the time of my life with this lineless style >u<

More of these! Even more of these! a teeny bit more of these

Who should be next?

[wvyld]

redraw

[cheekinpermission]

Did I draw this just to have an excuse to draw Jamil with his hair down? Yes. Yes, I did.

[demaparbat-hp]

Oh, Lala...

[butchfaith]

ok we've been discussing this in our archaeology groupchat and i'm curious

there's no right or wrong answer and obviously this is a very culturally sensitive question- the history (and present state) of displaying human remains is closely tied up with colonialism and (dis)respect for religious and cultural practices, which is why i'm really curious about how many people WOULD be ok with their body being displayed- and why/why not- so if u wanna expand on your answer in the tags please do!!

[bitegore]

Zionists want you to conflate Judaism and Zionism. Zionists want you to believe that Judaism cannot exist without Zionism and that all Jews are Zionists. Zionism would have Jews believe that a Jewish state is the only way that they can be safe from antisemitism and will point to any instance of antisemitism as proof that Zionism is the solution- so Zionism wants gentiles to be antisemitic in their support of Palestine. They want you to conflate all Jews with Zionism and the state of Israel, and they want you to treat all Jews regardless of political affiliation as the face of Israel. Antizionist Jews exist, and incidences of antisemitism ostensibly acting against Zionism will not help dismantle the forces propping Zionism up.

Don't do their work for them.

[bixels]

Be honest, what are your thoughts on appledash? Do you hate it or its more of not a big deal

Not a big deal to me. I like it, I see all the appeals, I just personally like Rarijack more.

[cfserkgk]

Child Actors Aqua and Kana on the occasion of season 2.

I imagine that if everything didn't go downhill with Ai, Aqua and Kana would have been able to act in more films together and maybe be paired together in more projects. And an actual childhood friend relationship would be real nice.

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

if you struggle with mental health, one piece of advice i would genuinely give you is learn to knit.

or crochet: something repetitive to do with your hands, assuming you're capable of it. if you're like me and learnt to knit as a kid but let it lie fallow for a long time, it may be that starting a large, simple project (for me it was a cloak, but a blanket could work too) gets you back into it. or maybe doing something smaller, idk. i personally found socks really hard for a while because they felt smaller than my cloak but weren't getting Done quick enough for me. as i've sped up i find it more interesting to knit socks.

regardless, a repetitive task is great for emotional regulation (also see: autistic stimming), and something that you can look at and go hey i've done something, unlike simply using a fidget toy, can also help to pick your mood up when the brain is being cruel.

it's also useful as a conversation starter or distracter if you don't know what to talk about. if you're wanting to talk to older people also you're more likely to reel them in with knitting (i work better with older people, and 99% of people who ask what i'm knitting are older than me). it also gives you the opportunity to not make eye contact because you're busy knitting, even if you're still carrying on a conversation. if you're absolutely stuck for conversation you can count your stitches and people might stop bothering you.

if you have trouble focusing without doing something with your hands, you can knit! i knit a lot in church, and it helps me to focus on what's being said.

i probably have more reasons you should pick up knitting, but i can't recall them right now, so yeah.

[im-just-as-sane-as-you]

From this:

To this:

[thelonelyshore-if]

2k Followers Gift

LINK

I am a little nervous to post this, but I'm really pleased with what I've got here. Jay's point of view of finding and saving the MC. It ended up at just under 4.5k words. I hope that you all enjoy!

Just a heads-up: since this is in Jay's point of view, there are some things revealed that haven't been revealed yet in-story. Basically all of it in regards to Ravi's Deal. Nothing is explained fully, but they talk frankly about some of it.

Sharing just in case there's anyone who wants to completely avoid that sort of thing.

TWs beneath the cut.

Minor injuries to a dog, death, drowning, vomiting.