#But i also really want to talk about her and her relationships with othe other ancients(especially rome and ancient greece and also thrace)

[estbela]

its not really important but I do have a hetalia oc for Dacia. And i think about her a lot tbh but I just havent been able to draw her. Im just in a weird place with my art i guess idk. Anyway she's awesome and i swear I'll try to talk about her one day and draw her.

[deramin2]

Essek constantly gushing about his partner but pointedly not giving his name hits me so hard in the feels.

Two formative childhood experiences for me:

ONE

I was severely, mercilessly bullied as a child at every school I went to even if they're was no overlap of kids, and authority figures either ignored me or directly told me it was my fault. I was socially toxic. Any other kid who publicly associated with me was also targeted for harassment. I was best friends with a girl around the corner but because I was a couple years younger (in itself an invitation for bullying) and a parish, we could never let anyone know we were friends.

I've been told I should be upset at her for this, but it wasn't her fault. It was the other children who made it a fact that she would be harmed by publicly being my friend. She didn't make those rules, we were both just honest that it existed and there was nothing we could do to change that. The best we could do to survive was at least protect her. And that benefited me by actually having a friend.

So if we talked about each other it was"my friend." No names. No acknowledging we knew each other in public. No introductions to other friends. Keeping that divide up was necessary to survival. I had a couple friends on the same freak level as we and we were in fact targeted with additional harassment to get to the other person. It was a legitimate threat to live with. At some point I just stopped thinking it was ever necessary to reveal who my friends or family are unless it's both explicitly relevant and necessary.

TWO

I learned to use the internet in the late 1990s when anonymity was considered a best practice. Don't give out your age, sex, location, or other identifying information. You don't know who is on the other side of that screen or what they will do to you if they know. Sperate your online and offline worlds to protect yourself.

This helped reinforce experience one because clearly adults also acted like those kids and this just normal human behavior no one will ever put a stop to that you need to be on guard for at all times. Build in air gaps so if one of you is compromised it's harder for the perpetrator to get to other people you care about. Defending them through anonymity is a way of showing you love them.

Also since some family are searchable through have state government jobs that right-wing nut jobs chips target them for, I wanted to make sure they couldn't be connected to me as a queer trans disabled person active online. In case something I said led to them being targeted.

(This is correct advice, even though it flies in the face of modern online conventions. There are tons of malicious people on three internet who will target you and anyone you love if they decide to hurt you.)

RESULT

By default, I refer to people by their relationship to me, not their name. My friend, my partner, my parent, my family, someone I know, etc. Often I avoid gendering them to make it even harder to identify them. I have to consciously consider if the person I'm talking to has any reason to know my associate's name. Blacklist everyone, then whitelist exceptions.

I do this even if both people know each other because the specific association feels dangerous. Better to be viewed as acquaintances than a meaningful relationship that changes how either of us could be viewed. It's not even really a judgement on thinking the person is untrustworthy, I just don't want to spend any extra energy thinking about it. It doesn't even feel relevant because my relationship to this person fellas like it conveys more information that actually matters.

ESSEK

Essek knows both he and Caleb are being targeted by powerful people who have shown they will target loved ones to get to them. Additionally, tensions between the Empire and Dynasty are still high and it could very easily compromise how their own sides view them if it's known that they're romantically entangled with someone from the other side. It could also blow each other's cover and make their meeting places more vulnerable to attack. Especially if their enemies know they could hit both of them at once.

It's genuinely dangerous for their connection to be known, so they don't name names. It's not even a matter of whether Bell's Hells would intentionally misuse that information, but what they also could just let slip to the wrong person. It's not really worth the risk when "my partner" is all the information they actually need to understand him.

My guess is that Essek said "Bren" is hiss partner because they already know a Bren sent them to Astrid. And since Caleb no longer uses the name Bren it would be much harder to connect them. It would have caused more questions, more prying, and more risk to give no name for his partner when directly pressed. So he gives a truthful but less dangerous answer. The anonymity is an act of love.

[mysicklove-main]

Mitsuri was at a loss when you told her that she may need to cut down on the PDA. She didn’t even know what “PDA” stood for. Of course, ironically, she asked this while rubbing her forehead against the back of your head while the two of you were having breakfast with Rengoku.

She doesn’t understand that it makes people slightly uncomfortable when she rubs her hands up your chest while in public. Or when she randomly sits in your lap and coos at you while talking to somebody. Or how making out in public is considered taboo, which she has tried and tried again.

She also seems to have little shame about boasting the sexual life between the two of you. Blushing bashfully about it while going into the specifics to a totally stranger. Only stopping when you physically have to cover her mouth.

So, no matter who you meet, in matter of seconds they know that the two of you are together.

It’s almost like she can’t help but show everyone about how in love with you she is. How everything you do seems to light up the world for her.

You love her, you do, but when she starts kissing your neck while you mid mission, you realized that maybe she might need to tone it back a little.

So, one day you sat her down and told her. It went way better than you thought. You reassured her that she is welcome to touch you whenever she likes when the two of you were alone, and she agreed.

For the first two days, everything was fine. Sure, you felt strangely cold without her warmth constantly around you, but other than that, completely fine.

By day four she was twitchy. You caught her staring at your hands more times than you can count. You could feel her gaze burning into you whenever you talked to someone and the way she seemed to slowly sit closer and closer to you.

Day six, she was giving you tight praise that would make you raise your eyebrows. “Nice work!” and “So cool!”. Not unheard of, but six days ago it would have been “Oh my! My lover is so cool and strong! Eeeee, i’m blushing! How am I so lucky!” while peppering your face with kisses.

And finally, a week later you realized that maybe showing PDA was not negotiable in your relationship.

You were talking to Tengens wives who, before you met Mitsuri, had tried to get you to marry Tengen and join them. Of course that lifestyle was not for you, and now they only see you platonically.

Mitsuri knows this. She has even talked to the three about it and is completely fine with you being friends with the three of them.

Of course you only have talked to them when she is conveniently placed in your lap. Or when she just happens to mention what the two of you did the night before.

But that can’t happen anymore. The two of of you were trying something new, and she was fine with it.

But why is Suma clinging onto your arm like that? And why are you standing so close to Makio and Hinatsuru. Is what they are saying so funny?

She wasn’t going to do anything. Jealously is a hideous emotion and she didn’t want you to see her in a different light.

Tengen walks up to the four of you and she narrows her eyes. Her fists clench when she watches him pat your head in greeting. Are you blushing?

She can’t stand it anymore. So, she takes a deep breathe and skips over to you. She throws her body onto yours and wraps her arms around your neck with a squeal. “My love! I missed you!”

You try to crane your head to look at her, confused on the sudden burst of affection. “Mitsuri—”

“What we’re you guys talking about? Oh tell them about the other night, tell them!” She cheers, blushing and closing her eyes. The four others glance awkwardly at each other, obviously not wanting to hear the tale.

“Actually, my wives and I have got got be going now. I’ll see you around!” The four wave goodbye and you return it with a sigh, knowing exactly what happened.

She giggles into your neck and you can’t help but chuckle with her. "Really?" You tease, reaching back to play with her hair.

"I wasn't lying! I really do miss you!"

"We saw each other twenty minutes ago."

She blushes and pouts. "I don't like this new P-D-A rule. I want to touch you all the time!"

You take a deep breathe. You kinda had to agree with her, it was unnatural to have her not by your side all the time. Her touch always brought comfort. "Hmm. I think you're right."

She visibly brightens, eyes widening and legs kicking up. "So you'll let me touch you!"

"But can we try to tone it down on missions and when I'm trying to focus."

She flips you around with ease. Her strength is still something you still have to get used to. "Are you saying I'm distracting?"

You grin lazily. "Im saying that whenever you are in the room, I can't stop imagining you naked."

She turns pink, and lets out a girlish squeal, before leaning forward and connecting her lips with yours.

And so the two of you never learnt to deal with the PDA. But she's the hashira of love, can you expect her to be any different?

[itsmaferart]

Twiyor parallelism • Romantic approach

One great thing about Spy x Family is the way Endo tries to frame his own idea of what "a romance" is. I'm not sure if this is a deliberate decision, as he prefers to focus on denser and more influential themes, such as war, consequences and the search for peace in each character…. Or if simply, Endo is not so comfortable and sees the typical romantic moments as a forced construction of a relationship between two characters….

And it's in the way it draws a linea between idealized fantasy and the genuine feelings (of love) of a family. This is not only a difference you can notice within the SxF universe, but also as a viewer.

If we analyze Nightfall and Becky's perspective a bit we can clearly see that their idea of love/romance for Twilight/Loid are actually projections of their own desires on a person who fits perfectly

According to Nightfall logic, she will prove that she is perfect, to the extent of being the only woman worthy to be at Twilight's side. She has been his student and comrade on missions, so she has been by his side, has examined multiple roles, memorizing his exemplary 'fake smile'. Nightfall loves Twilight, the perfect spy, the man of a thousand faces, a professional in the art of espionage who foresees a thousand scenarios in his head long before they happen.

Then, Twilight would suddenly discover how perfect she is, having an epiphany of feelings that make him fall madly in love with her (?)

Which makes Nightfall unaware that the man she's in love with (or at least, his spy side) is totally removed from that illusion.

That is a FANTASY

The initial Twilight (her teacher) is a cold, distant man who is not interested in having a relationship because he has discarded that kind of personal happiness, much less would he do so with a WISE colleague.

Twilight is someone with many emotional conflicts, due to the barriers he has created for himself because of his own past. Nightfall wants to awaken those buried feelings while pushing the distant Twilight fr to love, and who has always told him to isolate himself from his own personal desires and feelings.

So… Nightfall's love for her master may be genuine and born out of her genuine admiration for Twilight's motivation to create a better world. But it is unsustainable when it comes to building that love into a marriage, because the Twilight that Nightfall dreams of doesn't really exist, rendering her efforts to impress him futile.

After all, this is not what Twilight is really looking for (at least, his true self).

In itself, Nightfall loves the perfection of Twilight, the perfection of the spy. Because that's what she longs for the most, a love story where she is perfect in someone's eyes perfect.

.

And well…. Is it necessary to talk about Becky? I think it's much more obvious how everything Becky dreams of is a much more exaggerated fantasy, a love story where she fights with her rival to get the heart of her prince charming (for starters, Twilight could literally be her dad xD).

It is here that Endo's joke about romance becomes more blatant and obvious. The perfect romance is a childish fantasy straight out of a soap opera.

We know that Becky does not love Loid. She loves the fantasy she has created around him. For her, romance is synonymous with maturity, and Becky projects herself as a more mature child than the rest of her age group. At the same time, she wishes for a love story full of drama and happiness.

.

In contrast, the relationship Loid (Twilight) and Yor build is perhaps the most mundane. (in a good way).

Yes, they are an assassin and a spy, who got married each other to the sound of a grenade. But at the end of the day, it's the two of them sitting comfortably in a living room, on an armchair, drinking a cup of hot tea/coffee.

Endo shows us that many times, that real and genuine love is made of those small moments of intimacy, where nothing big is happening. Just two people talking from the sincerity of their feelings, two people supporting each other, remembering that "you don't always have to be perfect", "being yourself is what matters".

.

It's wrong for romance to be fantasy?

No, of course not!!

It is natural that the first desire you have with a partner is to have an approximation, especially if it is physical. Like the idea of him holding your hands while he professes his desires of you (As Fiona and Becky would say, "make a move.")

The problem with idealized romance, is that it creates a sweep that prevents us from genuinely getting closer to the real person we love. There is so much focus on personal wants and desires that we are blind to the true needs of the other person.

Nightfall's biggest drawback is that she is so focused on what she wants and what she thinks Twilight needs that she is not able to see the emotional needs that her master has (although, being fair… He doesn't know either, right?). The funny thing about Becky and Nightfall's love is the huge contrast to Loid (Twilight) and Yor's real relationship. Both are constantly looking for perfection in Loid /Twilight's actions, forgotten that there is only a tired man with stomach aches from his ulcers.

The difference for Yor, is that she is not expecting greatness in Loid, or if she really dreams that he is an idea man she is looking for. He is perfect, just the way he is. Twilight and Yor may not be very intimate for many, because of the lack of physical closeness between them, and because every time something seems to happen, someone gets hurt (sometimes Yuri, sometimes Twilight)…. or because we don't see them caught up in these fantasies for each other.

But …. is it really like that?

The amazing thing about the fake marriage between Loid (Twilight) and Yor is that the kind of intimacy they have is perhaps the most difficult to achieve but the most valuable in the long run. And that is being at peace with each other, talking about those things you would never talk about with anyone else, enjoying each other's company only, speaking from the sincerity of your feelings and affirming a thousand times that you would never change anything about each other and would choose them as your partner again and again (for life).

This is the true romance within a marriage.

.

So… we haven't seen progress in their relationship?

Sure we have, lots of times. But these are much more subtle and simple than we expect. We know that they both cook dinner together (as a couple), and have selected the stores to buy what they need for the house (as a couple), they buy the ingredients for dinner or cleaning products the other asks for (as a couple), Yor takes her husband's clothes to the dry cleaners, Loid makes delicious food for his wife,They say goodbye at the door (as a couple).... both look at each other as if they were the most wonderful people they have ever met in their lives.

(If these two have not kissed it is because they are basically two idiots).

Every time a romance is forced between them, something bad always happens, simply because it is not the right way it should happen. Unlike when the two approach each other being authentic.

I don't think that in the future, these two will have problems with physical intimacy. We're talking about a man who took a second to REALLY ask his fake wife to marry him (I'm sure if Yor didn't kick him to the curb he would have asked her for a wild honeymoon that very night)...Or that Yor in a fit of confidence pushed her fake husband, cornered him, and climbed on top of him.

I'm serious, these two are craving for physical love, what they want to admit!!

In the end, the engine of a true couple is not in the touch of their hands but in the touch of their hearts.

[tcubunny]

🎀INTRODUCTION🎀

this is a blog dedicated to what i like to call the “twice cinematic universe” for the funnies. here’s the rundown: in this twice AU, the reader is the tenth member of twice. at some point in your careers, you decided to all engage in a sort of ten-way relationship. you’re not all dating, (unless you want it to mean that, i don’t really mind), you’re simply all involved with each other sexually. there’s a sort of “caste” system, to put it in simple terms. three members are the doms (nayeon, jihyo, jeongyeon) and they basically make all the rules and such; everyone has to do what they say. then there’s momo, sana, mina, and dahyun; they are what you could call the switches. they all have power over the younger members—or “subs”, but they still have to listen to nayeon, jeongyeon, and jihyo. finally, there’s chaeyoung, tzuyu, and the reader who is the maknae. all three of you have essentially no power whatsoever, you have to obey everything everyone else tells you. with all of that out of the way, below are the in-universe rules that the members follow.

🎀RULES:

everyone has to answer to jihyo, jeongyeon, and nayeon. they hold all the power [it’s really jihyo, but that’s a dynamic i’ll play with in the actual fics ;)]

the switches are allowed to do whatever they want with each other at any time, but they have to tell a dom before they do anything with a sub. it’s not asking for permission, they simply have to inform them.

the subs aren’t allowed to do anything with each other—or touch themselves—unless they ask for permission and there’s a switch or dom present.

if anyone does anything they’re not allowed to do, they get punished

jihyo, jeongyeon, and nayeon administer punishments, but sometimes they ask for switchs’ help

🎀MEMBER PROFILES:

nayeon- she is definitely the most insane dom. she is the most sadistic and loves to make the others cry. she also loves degrading them and humiliating them, but she makes sure not to hurt any TOO badly.

jeongyeon- she's the sweetest out of all the doms. everyone knows they can go to her when they want to do something and she's the most likely to say yes. she loves pampering everyone and praising them. she doesn't like giving out punishments, but if she has to, she's very stern (but still makes sure not be the meanest).

momo- she is a switch and is always in trouble. she blatantly loves making the doms angry. she's always talking back and being really mean just to get on their nerves. her and sana are are always in cahoots together to cause issues. she's also the biggest tease when it comes to sex; an all around troublemaker.

sana- she's a switch and the absolute whiniest member. she's always complaining and pouting about how "nobody will play with her." she loves getting in trouble with momo, but acting like the victim when she gets caught. she also loves trying to corrupt the subs.

jihyo- jihyo is the scariest dom. she can be the best person ever when she's happy with someone's behavior and goes out of her way to meet everyone needs and take care of them, but she's an absolute nightmare when someone makes her angry. the other doms and switches use jihyo as a threat for the subs.

mina- mina is the switch that tries her best to please everyone. she rarely gets in trouble, and when she does, is it due to her desire to help everyone. she's the first one to volunteer when someone says they want to do anything. everyone knows that if they need a little help in the middle of the night, mina will help.

dahyun- although she presents very “normal,” she's actually the kinkiest switch. she is the one most open to experimenting and loves making subs try things out with her. when the doms want help administering a punishment, they are most likely to pick dahyun.

chaeyoung- she is the rebel of the subs. she thinks she can get away with things, but truly, she can't. she is always being punished and trying to get the other subs to disobey the rules with her. she's always trying to get others to let her be the dom, but she has no luck.

tzuyu- she's the most well behaved sub, and the most well behaved member in general. she has never gotten in trouble. she never outright asks for anything, but everyone can tell when she needs something, so they make sure to help her.

[ghostlynighty]

Pairings : Raiden Shogun/Raiden Ei x Female Reader

Warning(s) : inazuma archon quest spoilers, treating a god as a friend

A/N : I hope this is okay huhu

SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT!

When the shogun abolished both of the decrees, the people of Inazuma saw a change not only in the nation, but also with the shogun herself. She started to appear in public, started to talk to the common folks and she seems to finally have emotions? Though, it is random. Sometimes she would be full of emotions, even when just walking and sometimes she would be still as a rock.

All of Teyvat, specially Inazuma, knows how intimidating the shogun is, specially when the decrees were still in place. At that time, people saw how ruthless the shogun was, she didn't even have any emotions and don't usually show herself to the public.

Even with all these sudden changes to the shogun's emotions, she is still the same intimidating and powerful archon. People still don't dare to disrespect her, even with what she had done to the nation before.

But...there is this one individual, a women, a mortal who somehow forgets that the shogun is an archon, a god.

Even before, this mortal seems to always forget that the shogun can kill her with literally one slash.

People were really curious and concern about you, they still are. How can you be so careless and treat the shogun like she was just a friends of yours, a mortal being? Do you not value your life that much? Did you want the shogun to end you? Those are just some of the questions they asked and you just smile and shrug your shoulders in return.

When you first met the shogun, it was during a festival. She made a public appearance for a short while. At that time, you didn't know that the archon who was present isn't really the true archon, it was the vessel she created to rule over Inazuma. You were intimidated by her at first and you respect her fully, yes but unlike others, you have a different way of showing it.

You were helping your family manage the food stall they set up during that festival, when the shogun past through your stall, you did something that not all merchants can do. Sell your products to the shogun herself, you're parents and the people around you were understandably shocked. The shogun herself too, but she indulged you.

You told her everything your family's stall had to offer. The shogun just stared at you, listening while her guards were glaring at you, their hand wrapped tightly around their polearms.

The shogun just nodded at you, told her guards to buy some from your stall then walked away.

You've learned so many things about the shogun- or for you, Ei and what really happened after the decrees were abolished. You first got closer with the puppet, not really minding her way with words back then like some other people and now that you've found out the truth, it made sense to you. Meeting Ei for the first time after the puppet told you things about her was really nerve wracking and it was awkward at first. Since she looked liked the shogun that you know, but is actually a completely different person.

You and her got closer after that.

----------

When Ei found out about the puppet hanging out with a mortal, she got annoyed at the puppet and herself, thinking that she may have missed some mistakes with the puppet. She programed the puppet to only interact with mortals when it was needed, not befriend them. That all change when she met you though, she understands now why the puppet hangs out with you.

The Shogun was okay with you, she does find you annoying at times but she cares about you. Ei however, was more than okay with you. With you, Ei doesn't feel like an archon, she feels like she's just Ei. You respect her, you still respect her as your archon but at the same time, she feels like the two of you are equal with the way you're treating her. She only gets that with Miko and even though you can't treat her the same as Miko does, she appreciates it. Ei hopes that your relationship with each other would help the way the people of Inazuma treats her. She feels upset that her people are very scared and intimidated when she's around, she understands why, but she hopes to atleast talk to them without their body trembling in fear.

[idolbound]

I think people likely do suspect Meredith might be a little 💅 you know?

Obviously some followers of the Chantry take up vows of chastity, though from what I've been reading, while templars aren't required to take said vows, they do require special permission to marry as they may be required to move to other Circles or to do the Chantry's bidding elsewhere. As it were, if a spouse can provide their own support (e.g., owning land, having a role in another organization like the City Guard [I think of Aveline and Wesley, as he was apparently a former templar]), then permission is granted. This process likely deters most templars from formally marrying, or even maintaining long-term relationships.

That said, it's evident that templars in Kirkwall frequent the Blooming Rose often enough that Meredith eventually orders a raid of the place to find out which of her knights have been paying for sex and 'ruining' the reputation of the Order and its Knight-Commander. Obviously this demonstrates that templars seek and pay for sex without commitment nor worry about an actual relationship.

But, I am also certain that templars do have relationships beyond the Order - and perhaps, also, within it, though this is obviously discouraged and likely to earn reprimand for engaging in activities that could be seen as distracting from their duties (and creating a conflict of interest / tension among the ranks).

Now, with that context in mind, let's get back to Meredith.

Of course, already in Act 1 people are terrified of Meredith, and those who serve her do not want to break rules or cross her. She too wouldn't have any interest in being involved with someone serving under her, though I'm sure there are speculations about her interests. After all, we know from World of Thedas vol 2 that, when she stormed the brothel, she came across a very naked, very erect Jethann and politely and quietly excused herself. I'm sure Jethann has talked about this incident and rumours have spread; either the Knight-Commander is indeed, just a paragon of her faith and upholding a strict vow of chastity, or she isn't interested in men. While not a common assertion, someone, somewhere has probably drunkenly theorized about it. Like all the other rumours about Meredith, I think this one would certainly be among them.

Additionally, and this is in the game itself, but if Hawke is male and 'flirtatiously' compliments Meredith, she shuts him down by saying "I do not wear this armour for how it looks" and all but rolls her eyes at him. If Hawke is female, she simply says nothing (again, likely that they forgot to record a line / chose not to), but sometimes actions speak louder than words!

Now, in my own personal headcanon, I believe that as a Knight-Templar, Meredith had to deal with her templar brothers finding her attractive and desiring her in that way, which in response, she had to assert over and over, her utter disinterest in them. Most of these boys and young men thought they were rejected because Meredith was so focused on her studies, but others really found it hard to believe she would reject them. Obviously, this started the rumour mill about Meredith, both among her own cohort and beyond; after all, she was already a contentious initiate, since she already had an 'in' to doing well in the Order ahead of her peers because she was Knight-Captain Kell's unofficial adoptive daughter. Her blatant rejections towards her fellow knights' advances only added to that, with speculations ranging from the fact she already had a secret lover outside of the Gallows, to the fact she simply preferred the company of the fairer sex.

While it was true that Meredith was intensely focused on her duties and becoming the best Templar she could be, she was well aware of her romantic interest and sexual attraction toward other women early on (likely around age 16-17). I think as a ward of the Chantry that Meredith likely developed some close, possibly homoerotic friendships with other girls who grew up alongside one another, but obviously as Meredith became a templar initiate and stayed in the barracks of the Gallows, some connections may have been lost over time.

As an adult and new Knight-Templar, I believe Meredith - young, tall, and handsome - did have numerous illicit affairs with Chantry Sisters over the years, including when she became Knight-Captain, but stopping when she became Knight-Commander. As I've discussed, Meredith is hypersexual and this affects her relationships, but during this time, because of her duties, she is never able to form a long-term romantic relationship, preferring short-lived and secretive sexual relations, hidden by the cover of nightfall and the shadows in the darkest corners of the Chantry. While she has always been hypervigilant about, well, just about everything (due to her PTSD), there have always been wandering eyes and listening ears that notice such things.

In the timeline of Kirkwall, as mentioned above, I don't think such a rumour would become known by Meredith as most people are frightened of her and wouldn't dare mention it, but I do think the templars who have known her since the beginning, and those who have perhaps seen or heard a little too much, might know about where her preferences lie. In Thedas, for the most part, it would seem that having same-sex attraction is not seen as inherently bad or evil, though according to Brother Gentivi, in some places it is considered a quirk of character or sometimes scandal if done indiscreetly , or it can be accepted provided a noble still contribute to procreation and reproducing heirs for bloodlines.

In this case, given Meredith's position as Knight-Commander, and the other actions (or inaction) she takes regarding the templar-mage conflict and ruling the city, people knowing her sexuality is truly just another piece of gossip shared over ale in Lowtown, though one that may invoke further judgement by some.

[pocketramblr]

For the five ask game, if that's still going on, how about an iideku au where OFA ships them?

Torn between thinking this means the vestiges ship them, or that it means the quirk itself is a very excitable puppy dog that wants Tenya around as much as possible...

1- Tenya did not make a great first impression on 5/7.5 vestiges. Kudo and Bruce were like 'let 👏 him 👏 speak 👏' because they do, you know, kinda think Izuku's annoying but they sorta all did a 180° turn about him after the exam when Tenya apologized and praised Izuku's choice. Most of them like him. Bruce and Kudo are wondering how this kid keeps getting people to decide to like him after all.

2- OfA reacts differently under Izuku's hands, but he never realizes it because he assumes it's his own emotions and projecting. Yeah, his quirk feels jumpy and volatile around Kacchan like he could set it off and blow up his arm too easily, and fun and bubbly around Uraraka who's sure he'll figure out how to use it soon, and ok Izuku isn't sure why OfA races up to his skin faster around Iida, pushy, but maybe it's because he feels competitive with his friend.

3- The vestiges are actually in agreement for once when Izuku looks at Tenya at the train station. That Kid Is Going To Try To Commit Murder (and probably die in the attempt). "Is that what I looked like the last time you saw me alive?" Kudo asks Bruce. "No. But it's what I looked like to Shinomori." They want to help him. They want Izuku to help him. Izuku wants to help him. But they can't do anything except try to bend the power into something Izuku can actually use, and hope it's enough when the kid jumps off the train to find Tenya.

4- Nana, romantic she is, keeps getting excited when it seems they might lean in closer, might take each other's hands. Kudo asks if she and her husband were high school sweethearts to have such optimistic expectation of such a relationship, but Banjo says that dang it, Izuku at least deserves boyfriend even if they split after school, and Yoichi who has little concept of school and had a max relationship length of two months just wants them to confess already. Tenya's admiration is clear to everyone in Izuku's head except Izuku, and they can feel the boy's heartbeat in return. But sadly, they can't do anything while Izuku can't hear them... But, once he can...

5- "Good job training today, you'll master Float as soon as it comes to you at this rate!" Nana cheers Izuku in his dreams. He blushes, still unable to talk in the fog, but they figured out how to have him write in a notebook while he's there. "Hey, you know, White Day is coming up. Any plans? I can help you make something." Izuku raises his eyebrows because he's been warned Nana is a bit of a lethal chef, and also he's already made plans to make chocolate in return for his classmates, and more than triple the chocolate covered apple slices Eri was so excited to present him with a month ago. "I mean, other than Eri and the courtesy chocolate. Any confession plans?" Izuku starts waving his hands because he didn't get any confession chocolate and haha, why would he need to give any now, and En just sighs and breaks in with a "they need a third day for gay chocolate, bet Iida-kun would have made something for you then."

Izuku is eventually cajoled into making some orange chocolate treats for Tenya, only because he'd have plausible deniability that he just wanted to gift to his friends, but then Tenya presents him with All Might shaped chocolates and admits that maybe they are not purely platonic but that he still highly values Midoriya's friendship and would never mention the feelings again if he didn't want them and completely understands rejection and truly he- wait he didn't get rejected? Wait, it's the same for Midoriya? Both of them are very red, but happy. They don't really change much, neither is one for pda and calling each other their boyfriend feels like A Lot, but they do share food more often and move to calling each other by their given name in a manner that is adorably both shy and excited. But ah, we're halfway through March, and at the end of the month...

A couple weeks later, Izuku tapes letters to the doors of his classmates, then packs a bag to go, not planning on returning to the dorms again. He picks up the little bag of All Might chocolates that he'd slowly been going through. There's only two left. He slips them into the side pocket of his bag, then slips himself out of his window and down the building to leave campus, the vestiges silent around him and his quirk burning to go back when he can't.

[emmatgc]

Wonderful World FanFic

Seon Yul x Soo Hyun sequel (Part 1)

(Dedicated to a good friend. A short novel for one of my favorite no labels but rich in chemistry duo, relationship and what if couple in Kdrama. If you are not a “shipper”, better not read this one. New characters are added and will be added. Please take note this is all in my interpretation of the story and the aftermath of the finale. Enjoy! PS. I will try to update this every week if schedule permits)

Part 1: We meet again

A cup of tea in his hand, staring at his window after a long day, exhausted from 2 surgeries he assisted on thr day, Seon Yul can’t stop thinking about Soo Hyun after seeing her in that book signing last week after 6 years. She was radiant as ever. Seeing her smile brought warmth to his heart. It was the 1st time they saw each othe. Though they keep in touch through texts and a simple hi and hello conversation over the years, it was just enough to say they have moved on but still kept a part of each other. He saw her on TV once in those years but that walk in the lane was the perfect time in his mind to see her, even if from afar. He was ready, from afar.

This is their way of healing, as both agreed upon. Away from each other and moving on with their own lives.

Smiling and about to finish his tea, he was a bit surprised, she still has the same number. 

Those 6 years, Seon Yul became a doctor, for now a general practitioner but in another 2 years, a surgeon, to be precise, a heart surgeon. He always has a big heart and it is very fitting for him to be one. He kept his friends but as usual, he is alone, not exactly lonely but still on his own. In those years, healing came so rocky that the guilt gave him nightmares for almost a year or 2 , and he accepted it as punishment, too, for his twisted revenge against Soo Hyun. He was blinded but he was also a child. That is why Soo Hyun never blamed him one bit. 

Soo Hyun is living with her mom far away from the city,  who sadly has aggressive dementia. She said it's a blessing in disguise for she can only remember the good things. Her ex-husband continues to be a famous and prominent figure in the broadcasting industry and is now the Vice President of operations of the company. He still does special investigative reports from time to time. They are still friends and put up brave, united front act before her Mom as still husband and wife, so as not to upset her.

She now works in an orphanage and spent her time mostly there aside from writing her books. She managed to take care of those 10 children under her name, helping also the victims of accidents with the proceeds from her published books. She owns the orphanage and has a capable management team, a small one. She wants to devote all of her time with kids and that is the only way she can heal. She, too, is healing but the tears never stop but at least now, it is not every time she sees a child and a mother. 

After the book signing, she too, can't help but wonder, was that really Seon Yul? She smiled and had a sense of relief that he was doing ok just like what she told him to say and do, if the time is right. She regrets a little they weren't able to talk more but she hoped they would still see each other again in the future.

Seon Yul now smiles and goes out more often. He enjoys being a doctor and saving lives. Yoo-ra, his pretty, outgoing laboratory partner in his 1st few years as an intern, became one of his closest friends along with his new best friend, Shi Joon who specializes in plastic surgery. 

Summer time came, “Wonderful Smiles Orphanage” encountered a problem. There were 3 out of the 10 kids who got sick. It was very common for summer time to bring diarrhea, and other respiratory diseases, and each one had to be hospitalized for almost 2 weeks. A very worried Soo Hyun and her little orphanage team decided to look for help. The next day, she was told, a team of young doctors and nurses will volunteer for a month to stay at her orphanage for a quick case study and do everyday check ups for the children. They just came from hospital ships as well. 

Seon Yul? Soo Hyun uttered. A look of disbelief

Seon Yul was shocked. He didn’t know she was working in an orphanage now, let alone own one. He stared at her , like he did during her book signing but this time, he has to move closer. 

With the eyes of his colleagues on him, slightly confused, Soo Hyun walked towards them and welcomed them with a big smile. She reached for a hand shake at Seon Yul’s, and said “It’s been awhile”... he accepted it and he replied, “Yes, a long time” with a smile. 

Summer Time sadness for 6 years but maybe this time, it won’t be. 

So, they meet again. 

[paceypeternathanslawyer]

I seriously saw someone on Twitter say that Nathan and Haley only "got married to have sex"

Fuck off bitch I think you need to rewatch OTH and actually pay attention next time!!!

1. Haley was about to have sex with Nathan before he proposed to her. Haley even asks after he proposes if it's because in the past she hasn't been ready to have sex and Nathan says "No, I can see you caving on that anyways"

2. There's a flashback to after they get married and Haley is about to jump his bones and he says that they don't have to do anything if she doesn't want to because... quote un quote that's not why he married her.

3. Additionally there is a deleted scene on Youtube and the DVDs that shows Nathan getting Haley's dad's blessing and Nathan says "your relationship with Haley means as much to me as mine does. I love your daughter and I wanna marry but her if you tell me I have to wait till the end of time then I will." Does that sound like a guy who thinking with his dick instead of his heart. It most certainly does not.

Like I don't need everyone to approve of their young marriage. At the end of the day it's just a TV show and I promise you that there are no teenagers out there watching OTH thinking "oh, Nathan and Haley got married at 16 so I should as well." One Tree Hill also did not depict teen marriage as something that was easy or completely idyllic. It was tough and Nathan and Haley loved each other enough to work on it and make it through the adversity. I think there's a lot that young people can learn from Naley. Like talk through your issues, be open with each other, and go to therapy if you have issues that can't be easily dealt with. Naley's marriage always worked best when they followed those principles and they followed them most of the time. So I don't get why some people get their undies in such a bundle. OTH really did something unique with Naley and I appreciate that. Again not everyone needs to approve but I also don't want people out there making up lies about Naley where people who haven't seen OTH will see those posts and not only be spoiled about the big plot twist but also get the wrong idea about one of the greatest TV couples ever... the greatest in my opinion!

I really need some bitch asses on Twitter to keep Naley out of their damn mouths!

[barrybbenson101]

PERCY JACKSON AND JASON GRACE SHOULD’VE BEEN RIVALS! THEIR PARALELLS!

They should’ve been rivals and here’s why. Like, actual rivals. Not the bromance they had going on.

Main thing being, they are narrative foils in every way. Backstory wise and personality wise.

Jason was abandoned by his mother at two years old because she decided to listen to Juno and abandon him. Percy’s mother did everything to keep him close. Jason’s mother ultimately destroyed herself by becoming obsessed with Jupiter/Zeus, despite him backing away from her. Sally, on the other hand, refused Poseidon’s offer for a palace and was determined to raise Percy on her own.

Then, their childhoods. Percy grew up in poverty in New York City with a physically and emotionally abusive stepfather. He never tried to break the rules, but he messed up anyway without even trying due to his disabilities and was expelled time after time after time. He was unpopular and everyone thought he was a bad kid except for his mother. Who did everything to protect him. Marrying an abusive man, sending him to schools, writing faithfully, even if they couldn’t be together.

Meanwhile, Jason grew up as essentially royalty at Camp Jupiter, inducted into the legion at a young age but not having to do much for a while because of that. Everyone adored him. And he was a good kid, good at following the rules, good at having a life. But he didn’t want to follow the rules, he wanted to be a kid and he chafed under them. That’s what people get wrong about Percy. He really isn’t a rule breaker and he wanted to be a good kid. But he is seen as one when Jason isn’t.

And then, his mother. Oh gods, his mother. He never knew her and she died when he didn’t even know. She didn’t do anything to protect her son, she just gave up after two years because of Juno.

Their demigod experiences are also drastically different. Like I said earlier, Jason was accepted immediately at Camp Jupiter. He was extremely popular without actually earning it. He was pretty much the demigod celebrity/rich kid.

Meanwhile, Percy was hated when he arrived at Camp Half-Blood. Not many people talk about that. Though he was hailed as a hero years down the line, he was unpopular and ostracized when he first arrived. No one trusted him. And then he was ostracized for years by the Ares cabin, and then again after Tyson was proven to be his brother. He had to earn everything. He had to go on a deadly quest to solve a problem he never even caused.

And thats the first reason Percy would be pissed at Jason. While he actively earned everything, Jason was born into a place of privilege and everything was handed to him on a silver platter. Percy would kill to get that if he was that age. And even more telling, Jason rejected that and voluntarily chose the fifth cohort. Percy would’ve thought that was stupid. Because he fought tooth and nail just to be seen as a person.

Basically, Jason was jealous that Percy wasn’t raised as a child soldier and Percy would be jealous that Jason had prestige.

And then, their parentage. Which isn’t talked about much.

Percy has a good relationship with Poseidon. He offered his mom a palace. He gave Percy Medusa’s head to give to Sally, saving them from an abusive home. He then sent Tyson a whole brother to protect him. He met Percy on multiple occasions, even giving him a birthday gift. And Percy gets to go on vacations to his palace and has a good relationship with his brother and stepmom.

Jason is a son of Jupiter. Who never really showed up to say hello because… he sucks. And he barely gets to see his sister because Zeus dissociated and Thalia is Greek. But even then, he still never sees her because she’s running around with the Hunters. And she missed out on years of his life to the point that she probably knows Percy and Annabeth WAY better.

Their childhoods and life experiences actively parallel each other. So of course they won’t be able to understand each other’s. They’d both be jealous of the other for getting things the other never had. Simply, the grass is always greener on the other side. But they both had it hard.

This doesn’t even include their jealousy at the other for the memory erasure by Hera. On the one hand, Percy has reason to be jealous of Jason. He woke up on a cushy bus with Piper and Leo and had six months to relax and create a home. Percy had to spend two months alone, homeless in California (which is definitely traumatizing) all while knowing he had a girlfriend he left behind.

However, Jason definitely had it bad as well. While Percy was trusted by Camp Jupiter after six days, Jason still wasn’t trusted by Annabeth and even Piper after six months. And Percy got his memory back after one quest, but for Jason, Juno refused to give it back and he had to spend months in agony.

Then, personality wise, they’re foils.

I already mentioned how Jason is seen as perfect and straight laced while Percy is a rule breaker. But their personalities are opposites in not the way you think.

The scene everyone talks about is when they were debating leaving Nico to die. Most hate the way the scene is written, but its generally agreed upon that Jason would leave him behind and Percy would rescue him. And that is in part the way they were raised and their fatal flaws. If you’ve ever watched The Good Place, you probably know about the trolley problem. The Nico in the jar problem is basically the kid friendly way of explaining individualism versus utilitarianism. Greek vs Roman.

Jason is a Roman. Romans see each other as one cog in the militaristic machine. The individual doesn’t matter, hence why the entire fifth cohort was put to shame after Michael Varus lost the eagle. In a battle, if one life was at stake, that wouldn’t matter if the world was also at stake. And Jason had reason to not trust Nico after he lied about the camps. Questioning where his loyalties lie, Romans are supposed to respect tradition and authority. Loyalty is unquestioning. Though Jason chafed under the rules, he was still raised under them and aligns himself Greek AND Roman. Nico could’ve doomed his camp, his home. But even if he didn’t, Jason had trust issues even before that and without a confirmation of Nico’s loyalties, it opens up a whole can of worms for Jason.

Jason was a leader and saw himself as such because he was given no other identity. As a leader he is not responsible for the individual, but he’s responsible for the group as a whole. It would be stupid in his head to doom the group and humanity all for one life, especially when he feared betrayal after his own mother betrayed him, and spending years with enemies in the legion like Octavian who were jealous of his power.

Then we have Percy. We all know that loyalty is his fatal flaw. Now, I will say that at this point of the books, he has a complicated relationship with Nico. He withheld his past from him knowingly and also sold him out to his dad in The Last Olympian, which actually made Percy homicidal towards him. But that’s a post for another day. However, Nico was on his side and was someone he felt responsibility for. He ran into the maze to save Nico out of loyalty before. If he cares about someone, even a little, he’s loyal. And he wouldn’t hesitate to save Nico.

And despite his anger issues, he is outrageously loyal. Unlike Jason who sees the army as cogs in a machine or a potential tactic, Percy sees them for the individual. He doesn’t kill enemy demigods in the first series, tells Pollux to stop fighting due to his injury, and spares Ethan Nakamura’s life. He expresses guilt for the demigods that died during the Princess Andromeda. Jason was trained to see deaths as an unfortunate part of life while Percy went to the Underworld to save his mom.

I already mentioned how the way they present themselves or the way people perceive them is different than their actual personalities. And I think this is an interesting part of the text because the way they are characterized by the fandom is different than the books.

They’re both outrageously loyal, just in different ways. Percy is loyal to the individual whereas Jason is loyal to the group. However, that doesn’t make Jason less understanding than Percy. In fact, as he grows into himself, Jason becomes one of the most caring and understanding characters. And while Percy would sacrifice the world to save a friend, Jason desperately tries to understand them despite dislike, being fair to all.

Percy in canon is not and has never been the nicest guy. Though he is portrayed like a himbo most of the time, in reality, he has much more of an edge to him. Though he is loyal and saves people who he doesn’t necessarily like, such as Nico or Ethan, he will be downright cruel to people if they harm or get in the way of the people he loves, like Annabeth. Some examples of this are:

He left Nico behind in the Underworld with Hades after he jeopardized the plan to get Percy home safe, possibly harming Annabeth and his friends.

He killed Arachne in one swoop, before saying she deserved a more painful death. And then killed all the arai, bearing every curse.

AKHLYS. He almost killed a PRIMORDIAL GODDESS just to save Annabeth. And the only reason he stopped WAS BECAUSE OF ANNABETH.

Bob and Damasen. Though he definitely wasn’t heartless and was crushed about leaving them behind, it was his idea and he knew they wouldn’t make it out. All to save Annabeth.

Though he isn’t mean, his ultimate motivation is to save the people he loves, or at the very least, help people on his side, or if he believed they had the potential to help. And he is willing to do that without necessarily being nice. And he’s had his mean moments, especially in Heroes of Olympus. He doesn’t really try to understand Nico or give him a second thought, and never bothered to check on Calypso. This is called out in the House of Hades.

And this started even before that series. If he isn’t emotionally invested in a person or conflict, or if it won’t benefit the people he loves, then he will destroy without a second thought. Especially in the Sea of Monsters when he let Blackbeard loose and indirectly caused Hylla and Reyna’s trauma. And all of this comes back to haunt him with the arai. He’s stubborn and caring and loyal, but in some ways he is much colder than Jason.

Meanwhile, though Jason is distrusted a lot more than Percy, he is one of the nicest characters in the series. He parallels Percy in that while Percy became colder over the course of the series, Jason became warmer. He started out rude to Leo and masking his true personality. He’s seen as cold and distant by his friends. But as his true personality comes in, he really is a lot nicer than Percy. He isn’t snarky or sarcastic in the later parts of the series out of rudeness.

While in the beginning, Jason’s efforts of being nice were more for the good of the group, he grows in this. He is nice to Hazel and Annabeth despite the fact they don’t like him. He defends Apollo from his father. And of course, he was the one to get through to Nico. But that is a long post in its own. Unlike Percy, the things he learned never made him cold, tired, and bitter. They just opened his heart.

anyway im tired of typing. But yeah. Their rivalry should’ve been bigger considering they parallel each other.

[jaywritesrps]

I saw this post on L Chat and I wanted to share here cause it was very accurate. I am going to cut some parts too invasive, but the rest is a good point:

"Okay, can you all chill a little about Sophia and Ashlyn? We know nothing more than what we know already, and there's too much here that is just stuff people create in their heads and others believe for nothing. Many of the info you are spreading we will never know if it's true or not cause it's not our damn business.

About Sophia's lovelife, herself and her friends talked a couple of times about this subject. She said herself that she had two major flaws: she is too gullible (as in she can see the other person flaws, but she ignores it and chooses to focus on the person's positive traits rather in the negatives) and she is/was a people's pleaser, which makes her doing whatever it takes to fit in on the expectations on her (you can get these infos on her both podcasts and in her interviews. But if you don't feel like looking cause they are a lot, watch the interview she gave to Michael Rosembaum in 2021, which is one of the a few times she talks about CMM, and the one she gave to Jameela Jamil two months ago) Hilarie confirmed this in one of the early episodes of Drama queens when she told that one of the problems her and Sophia had in the first seasons of OTH was cause Hilarie said straight on her face what was going to happen in her relationship with Chad Michael Murray and Sophia got pissed at Hilarie for trying to warn her. Many fans pointed that pattern too at each new relationship she made public.

Now focusing only in her marriage with Grant, this happened with him too. Many fans pointed out that she seemed a lot more into him than he was into her. You could see she was putting too much effort and not getting the same in return. In Grant's defense, I think he was relief when she asked for the divorce, cause he was very quick to erase any sign of her existence or their marriage in his IG. Prior the rumors of her being with Ashlyn started, and even prior to Cannes, many of her likes from IG were about stopping letting people making you feel small and unwanted, or to stop letting other's define you or tell you how you should feel or invalidate your feelings. So the marriage was faded to die, Ashlyn was just the last drop.

With that being said, this relationship between them is far too new to anyone say anything yet or to determinate how their dynamics are or even if Sophia or Ashlyn are repeating their patterns.

So far, the solid things we have are:

1) they are a couple

2) they went to Rapinoe's retirement party as a couple

3) they went to Big Sur together

4) they did tattoos together

5) they are balancing schedules to spend time

6) Sophia looked happy in the events she went and in recent podcasts while Ashlyn is avoiding the drama from fans, that are fed by cryptic messages from Kyle Krieger, focusing on attacking solely Ashlyn (If you think about it, we didn't heard Ali's side of the story directly from her, cause the only thing she did was posting a vague message and let the internet helldogs create stuff. But she didn’t really said anything, which per se is weird overall)

7) it looks like it's a serious deal for them

Anything outside of these is pure speculation. We didn't even have one picture of them as a couple to try a guess of how they are, the only thing out is just posts on social media that is being taken out of context to stir more drama and people online are falling very quick in this non-sense, already claiming that Ashlyn is broken and Sophia is paying her bills, or that Ash is going to live in California with Sophia or that Ashlyn was fired from Gotham.... None of these are true and it's also none of our business. I know this is a forum and a place for conjectures, but conjecutures are just guesses, nothing more nothing less, they are not true and we can't know if they are because none of us have the big picture, and probably not even Sophia and Ashlyn have that figured out just yet. So chill out, okay"

[zahri-melitor]

Okay so I'm now 4 volumes into Gail Simone's Batgirl, and hmmmm, I really want to talk about issues #17-26.

Now look this is still quite depressing Barbara. I'm still frustrated at some of the changes, but I think Simone finally managed to pull the strings together more coherently here?

Like, I do not care about James Gordon Jr. Wow do I not find him a compelling villain. I also, just quietly, think he loses something in the potential depths of his character by the "everyone is one biological family" Gordon retcon for New 52, because I think there's a compelling additional layer available in the baby sociopath being the biological child of Jim and Barbara Eileen, while Barbara is the adopted daughter/niece, and the levels of awareness of different family members over how James Jr reacted to Barbara's arrival and his jealousy of her, that I think actually did get teased out somewhat in The Black Mirror and are now are no longer here.

Barbara Eileen here also continues to have almost no personality or motivations, but that's par for course for Barbara Eileen. Always a cipher.

I do find the contrasts set up by this third version of Ventriloquist and her brother with Barbara and James Jnr to be interesting, with the mirroring of which sibling is jealous of the other, and in their sociopath way has turned their sibling into a puppet of their desires. I actually find it more interesting in terms of the fact Ventriloquist is used for this, because the second Ventriloquist, Peyton Riley, sort of achieves the same reflection on the surrounding narrative in Dini's 'Tec run, only in that one Peyton is reflected in Dini's exploration of the upper echelons of Gotham society and its mob connections. It's just interesting to see a character type used twice in fairly close succession simply as a mirror like this.

The story however, and particularly certain elements of it, made me smile quite a bit, as Simone was reaching back into both the classic Bat storytelling set ups and themes she's used before, so I was enjoying the narrative echoes to preboot she had sprinkled through this.

I actually ended up enjoying the Barbara/Ricky Gutierrez storyline, even if it was set up for pathos. It felt like a rerun of Helena/Josh from Birds of Prey, in that Barbara started the dates because she felt sorry for Ricky, but it was interesting in that Babs did indeed reflect on both of their disabilities through the relationship, and I thought they were cute together. Completely set Jim up for the angst moments though.

Then there's the cowl revelations. I'm still very unsure if I like Barbara just outright telling Barbara Eileen about being Batgirl, while having such a harder time telling Jim. Jim's totally repressing and lying to himself over the whole situation (which is classic Jim Gordon re costumes) but it's weird having the two of them back in 'absolutely don't know' land rather than it being an unspoken secret that Jim's fully aware of. I did like that Simone pulled the "Barbara removes her cowl as Jim turns his back" move though. Babs is the primary character after Bruce who should be allowed that motif (plus maybe Dick), because it's about the layers of trust and belief.

Bruce reaching out to Jim about losing a son was also..huuurgh. Amazingly timed as Jim was newly aware of the loss, and it was interesting to see this framed via Damian's death for once, rather than Jason's. The Requiem issue was really well tied into actual plot around James fucking Jr, and Jim calling Barbara to tell her, and the way that blurs the lines, and then Babs calling Dick and Dick not wanting to talk, followed by Dick calling Babs after James Jr falls and Babs not wanting to talk... it reminded me very much of their simultaneous "I'm sorry for the breakup" phonecalls from preboot.

Also Jim taking Babs down to the gun range at GCPD and making sure she could still shoot, and Babs' trauma around that, and the way it's couched so neither of them are quite sure what the other knows, and exactly why Jim feels he needs to know Barbara can defend herself...

Anyway. It's all still very dark and angsty, but in a chewy way, the villains were less groanworthy than Knightfall was, and I finally feel like Simone's hit her stride in this new universe, and in how to layer in storytelling that's referential back to older comics while those references not being needed to understand what's going on.

[othramblings]

Can we talk about how drastically different Nathan's and Haley's respective parental and financial situations are during seasons 2-4? Nathan chose to get emancipated. He chose to be on his own. Yet, he always has the option to move back in with his parents. I don't fault Nathan for wanting to live independently from his parents. It was an incredibly toxic environment and wasn't doing him any good. But at the same time, Nathan always has a fallback. Whereas Haley's parents are just gone after (c)

-->she marries Nathan. Haley is forced to figure everything out because Jimmy and Lydia left her 100% on her own. A newly married sixteen year old girl in her first ever relationship. It's just interesting. Even when she comes back from the tour, there's no backup for Haley. Nathan doesn't want to reconcile and their apartment is gone, so she has to figure out other living options and returns to working at the cafe. And also, Nathan doesn't have any sort of job during seasons 3 and 4.Haley is the sole breadwinner as a married, pregnant teenager. And later, Nathan manages to get them into financial trouble yet never tries to look for a job or rectify this is in any way beyond asking his parents for help. Even as they're nearly out of high school and soon to be parents, Nathan still gets to be the kid while Haley is essentially an adult. It just seems so unfair. Even in the adult years, it's only until maybe season 7 where Nathan realizes he has to grow up. Sorry for the rant!

Wow, thank you for your incredible response!! (as always <3) I really just love how you put everything into words. I couldn't agree more! The show lightly touched on the class difference between Haley and Nathan in the earlier seasons, but it played a big role in their characterizations in many ways and should have been explored more. This type of stuff would have been explored on most other shows around that time; however, OTH's showrunner had no interest in exploring Haley's hardships. For example, in season 4, when Whitey tells Haley that Camila made all the sacrifices in their marriage around the same time that Haley was going to have to give up a good school because of Nathan. The show showed us enough to make us wonder if the same was happening to Haley, but it was never explored. Also this will just get me more hate but Joy is at least 5x the actor James is, so for her to get less emotional storytelling compared to him is nuts lol!

[maya-matlin]

Hi Ashton! I've loved talking about OTH with you. I was wondering what you would pick as five unpopular opinions about the show? No judgment here - I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours :)

Hi!! I've loved talking about the show with you, too. You have great opinions 💙 LOL I'll try. I definitely have some, but I don't want to repeat myself from other times I've been asked about unpopular opinions.

1.) Even though One Tree Hill is well known for their iconic love stories and being very good at hitting the emotional beats, sometimes I think the writing was lacking. The biggest example of this is the Brucas/LP mess. To be fair, it's been speculated that behind the scenes shenanigans is the reason Lucas flip flopped multiple times. But as a result, the writers often intentionally misdirected the audience to surprise them with the opposite of what they were expecting. Even though I LOVE Brucas's season 2 arc and enjoyed seeing Lucas pining, I have to admit they needed more on screen time together as friends for Lucas's revelation to be believable. Brooke and Lucas were friends again during episodes 202-209, but it wasn't until the beginning of 210 that they seemed to decide to become 'real friends'. So in that way, I can understand why some LP shippers believe Lucas's revelation should have been about Peyton instead. Season 1 was much more pro LP. However, I don't think the first half of season 2 sufficiently set up Lucas realizing his deep feelings for either girl. What sells me on Lucas being in love with Brooke is his behavior during episodes 211-223, when he continuously shows up for Brooke and acts as a true friend, always valuing her happiness over his own while keeping his feelings to himself. Lucas allowed Brooke to be with Felix while also sticking around for her. In contrast, Lucas helped bring Jake back for Peyton, but didn't really stick around for her. On to seasons 3 and 4. The writers spent so much time setting up Lucas's love for Brooke and the rebuilding phase of their relationship alongside Peyton's love for Jake. In season 3, it was kind of like, "never mind." Even though Peyton spent the entirety of season 2 wanting Jake and not showing any signs of loving Lucas, season 3 gave us multiple, ambiguous moments where Peyton is talking about a former boyfriend. Peyton realizing she's still in love with Lucas implies those moments were in reference to him rather than Jake, the guy she was actually in a happy, healthy, monogamous relationship with the previous season. It doesn't track at all. Lucas's feelings for Peyton simply aren't there at all. At best, you could say Lucas still felt some attraction towards Peyton because he flirted with her from time to time, but emotionally he was 100% with Brooke. In season 4, Lucas is repeatedly told he should be with Peyton or that Peyton is the one he wants. Lucas seems to arrive at the revelation Peyton is the one kicking and screaming. When the Ravens win the state championship, Brooke and Lucas hug first, presumably to show us that even though Lucas previously said it was Brooke he wanted next to him when his dreams came true, it doesn't feel right or as satisfying? Yet again, someone (Brooke) has to tell Lucas to go to Peyton. Even at this moment, Lucas looks baffled and is very much like, "Okay..." But then Peyton says the magic words, "I'll be seeing ya," and suddenly that line unlocks Lucas's repressed feelings buried deep within. Lucas claims Peyton is the one. It's not Riverdale bad, but it's pretty pathetic writing. Season 5 is slightly less bad because by the time we reach the time jump, we've unfortunately become accustomed to Lucas's fuckboy ways. Still, Lucas dicks around for 18 episodes until finally realizing he does want to marry Peyton after all. All this after spending the majority of the season behaving as if he'd rather get a root canal than reunite with Peyton. Someone on Reddit hilariously described Lucas's dream sequence as him choosing his future wife in a raffle, so I'll steal that. So to sum up Lucas's romantic life during seasons 1-5, he is perpetually confused about who he wants to date. The sole time Lucas makes a real decision about his love life that he came to on his own, that he wants Brooke, he's basically told that was wrong and he should be with her best friend instead.

Also, Naley's relationship progression in season 1 was ridiculous. The first season mainly felt realistic in terms of their growth as a couple up until the finale. It was literally like, "I know we've only been saying I love you for two weeks, but wanna get married?"

2.) 316, the school shooting episode, is overrated. I still love it for what it is and consider it probably the most emotional episode of the series, but I have a lot of problems with it. To start with, it's another example of portraying a school shooter as someone sympathetic who was driven to violence by bullies. This was a misconception that started with Columbine and is only now starting to be rectified. I'm of two minds about the LP stuff. I can appreciate that life continues regardless of bigger things happening. Lucas and Peyton were in a highly charged situation, so in some ways it makes sense for that moment to happen. But I also kind of feel like it's tasteless for it to happen during this particular episode. Then afterwards, it's kind of portrayed like Peyton in particular can't be blamed because it was the school shooting. And of course, the whole thing ends with Jimmy not even killing anyone. The entire point of the episode was to perfectly orchestrate a scenario where Dan could conceivably fatally shoot Keith in an unpremeditated way. In my opinion, the decision to have Dan kill Keith took the show in a direction I never fully loved.

3.) Season 4 was the worst season of the high school years. I enjoy certain things about season 4. 409, 413, 417, 420 and 421 are some of the strongest episodes of the series. But when it comes to individual episodes, the majority of them are either less memorable than the majority of seasons 1-3 episodes or outright bad due to the story lines. This is not a good season for female characters. Haley was shoved into the background during her own pregnancy in service of Nathan's story and struggles of being a teen dad to be. Brooke was intentionally trashed and made out to be a hypocrite to manipulate the audience into rooting for Peyton and Lucas. Peyton objectively gets the best stuff, but she's also highly reliant on Lucas during this season. Independent Peyton is completely gone at this point. She sort of vaguely has dreams that set up her role in the time jump, but mostly she just cares about Lucas. The energy is also off. I can't explain it, but the move from The WB to The CW is very noticeable. OTH was always a soapy show, but now we had stalkers and point shaving and offensively written "Clean Teens".

4.) Brooke isn't and wasn't, not even a little bit, to blame or in any way deserving of being cheated on by Lucas and Peyton. Whatever "scheming" Brooke supposedly did, Brooke didn't force Lucas and Peyton to keep their feelings quiet. They made that choice on their own.

5.) I've talked about this before, but I can't come up with a fifth and it always needs to be said. HALEY WAS NOT THE VILLAIN IN SEASON 2. Haley was a teenage girl, newly married, in over her head with the responsibilities of being a new wife and tasting freedom for the first time. During a time in her life when she should have been spreading her wings and seeing what else was out there, she had a husband. A devoted husband who supported her dreams, but a husband nonetheless. Haley rushed into marriage because she loved Nathan and got caught up in the romanticism of committing herself to him. The fact this was so out of character and so wild for Haley was literally the point. But in spite of the fact Nathan had Haley's heart and she was legally bound to him, Haley was still a teenager and was going to sometimes behave in ways that were sort of selfish and immature. God forbid she do what every single character on the show did LOL. While she didn't handle things 100% correctly, Nathan also made mistakes in his marriage to Haley. Even Nathan acknowledged the ultimatum was wrong. These mistakes just aren't discussed as often because (1) misogyny (2) Haley was ultimately the one to walk out of their marriage (3) Nathan and Haley had different needs during season 2. Haley needed the space and freedom to pursue her music and figure out who she was. Nathan needed the closeness and the stability Haley could provide, viewing the marriage itself as his "escape" and freedom. These needs were at odds, leaving them in an impossible situation where the possibility of remaining physically separated came up. And worse, Nathan found out about Haley kissing Chris at the same time. This isn't to say I'm excusing that. It was all just terrible timing, bad communication, and kids trying to pretend they were adults.

[cyaniiiide]

[Genshin] Thoughts on 3.3's Archon Quest, Inversion of Genesis

This man took 140 pulls to come home fml

// 3.3 ARCHON QUEST SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED //

.

.

.

.

.

.

Overall thoughts, I liked it a lot!! I went into this expecting the Therapy Arc (tm) and while we did get that, I did not expect things to play out the way they did. I really enjoyed it though, and I think there's a lot to be said in the execution about how trauma affects people (but more on that later).

Starting off, it seems like Scaramouche has chilled tf out considerably from the end of the 3.2 quest, probably a side effect from dropping 50 feet headfirst into concrete and then waking up to find out he's been fired. Nahida once again proves she's best girl in the first five minutes of the quest -- she's kind yet pragmatic, harboring Scaramouche while also putting him to use, and giving him a huge piece of a puzzle he's been missing.

I do wish we could have seen more of Niwa and Nagamasa's relationship with Scaramouche, though. It would've made the subsequent scenes hit so much harder.

Dottore putting Niwa's actual heart into the device was really surprising. I guess it served to further convince Scaramouche of Niwa's betrayal?

Scaramouche's info about our sibling is also very interesting. 👀 We know beforehand that after crash landing on Teyvat, the abyss twin woke up and saw Khaenri'ah being destroyed. This tracks with what Scaramouche tells us, that Khaenri'ah was our twin's "first destination after arriving to this world." I thought that that meant our twin just saw the destruction and chaos raining down immediately and left, but I guess they must have stayed in Khaenri'ah for a while if Pierro remembers them. (Gee, thanks for leaving us at the crash zone for days?? Weeks? 💀)

I'm not sure what is meant by "Plus, [the Abyss Twin] only came to this world because the heavens responded to the summoning." The twins "crash landed" on Teyvat twice -- is Scaramouche talking about the first time, or the second? I guess the second would make more sense, since the "heavens responding" could be the Unknown God trapping us, but in that case, what about the first time we crash landed? Also, what summoning are they talking about? Nahida mentioned that if she destroyed a Gnosis, the Heavenly Principles might respond... was the Cataclysm the result of something similar happening?

Anyways, after that lore drop, Scaramouche tries to undo his existence to give his old friends a second chance at life. ;-; All of his anger at the world was a result of the "betrayals" he lived through, so to find out that Niwa never betrayed him at all... I wonder how much of his decision was him wanting to do right by Niwa and the others, and how much of it was him wanting to just disappear from the world. D:

It's a little strange that Nahida tells us to wait things out in a random hotel after all that, but I guess she wants to make sure we're set up with accommodations...? xD

I really am starting to like the traveler and Paimon's interactions more and more. Honestly, I don't remember much of them prior to the 3.0 archon quest, but I appreciate how much the traveler thinks of Paimon's well being ("the truth might be very distressing for Paimon...") and how much Paimon tries to cheer us up, or change the topic when she senses the traveler is feeling down. :D

(It's also pretty cute, and classic Paimon how she lists off her favorite foods to try and take her mind off things LOL)

The next couple of scenes take place in Inazuma -- I can't remember if we've traveled to different nations during archon quests before, but it's a nice change of pace, and makes complete sense with what's going on. I appreciate the knowledge that the "new Kazuha" is the same one we've known ;u;

I was really excited when I saw that the prerequisite for this archon quest was Kazuha's story quest, because I thought that he might appear here. Oh well. 😔

Nahida's way of storing information in an abstract fairytale was very clever. I wonder if she does this with other things as well?

The fairytale itself is very cute, but I did find myself laughing at the last scene with Scara's angry kitten eyes lol.

The most interesting thing about the fairy tale, however, is the monster that represents "Dottore." Since Dottore was "Zandik" before, I guess the "monster" part is Dottore seeing himself as different/worse than other people? Anyways, if we take the fairytale at face value it means that he tried to live amongst other people for a while, but still hated himself for being a monster, and hated others for not being able to see it.

In the fairytale's version of events, Dottore sees Scaramouche getting along with the foxes, and gets pissed off. In reality, Dottore had already joined the Fatui at that point. Did something similar happen to Dottore in the past, though? The Feather of the Pale Flame set mentions that he was chased away from his hometown, which doesn't really give enough detail.

I doubt we'll get these answers for a long time, probably not until Dottore becomes playable.

In the next couple of scenes, we see Wanderer! Throughout this archon quest so far, I'm thinking that we'll undo the damage Scaramouche caused and give him proper therapy (tm) or something that kickstarts the costume change. It was after our conversation with Nahida, seeing that she wasn't aware of Scaramouche before we told her that I realized that this change would be permanent. I have mixed feelings about this, although most of them are positive (but more on this later!!)

Wanderer is... really good-natured. He works without pay, just because the shopkeeper let him shelter from the rain once. At some point though, when we're trying to convince him to come with us, it seems like he has a flash of insight? It wasn't brought up again, but after that, it seemed like his personality changed a bit... I'm still confused about what that was, lol.

After that, we journey through memory lane. I really like the change in direction when it comes to trial combat in stories. Before, it felt a bit contrived, like the story was just finding reasons for us to enter a dungeon with that story character. (Don't even get me started on Eula's dumbass story quest.)

This felt really natural, though, and IIRC Nilou's story quest didn't even have a real dungeon (just a small scene where she beat off some enemies). I prefer this vastly to having a mediocre or poor story + a proper dungeon.

Back to the fight, Paimon's "Hey! Are you done yet!?" to Wanderer as he was having a mental breakdown had me in tears 💀💀

I loved the scene of him grabbing his past self's hand, as well as his past self holding onto his hand. He speedran Fischl's whole Persona 4 sequence and did it in the nick of time 🥇

He wasn't able to reach that distant light he saw, but in the end, by accepting his past self -- Scaramouche's anger and grief and wrongdoings, he created his own light, and in turn, received an Anemo vision. (Does that mean, then, that Anemo visions are given out when people are able to accept their circumstances? Or is it still something else? Vision discourse has been a thing since the start of this game and all of the explanations I've seen or come up with have felt "sort of right, but missing something still." I can't wait til we get the answers to these questions, if ever)

And after all that, at journey's end... our gremlin (tm) has returned. 🎉

...He even lets us choose his new name! I like how for certain names, he rejects them outright lol. (His reaction was kind of muted though lol, I was expecting a little more than "You can't be serious 😑")

After I spent 140 pulls on him to bring him home, I was all for calling him Scaradouche, but in the end I settled on... Tsutsuji.

I have a lot (tm) of feelings about Wanderer's story. I'm sad that Kazuha no longer has as strong of a reason to show up where Scaramouche does (more best boi content is always welcome thank u), I'm happy that Wanderer and Nahida are now canon buddies/coworkers, and I'm apprehensive and curious because WHAT WAS THAT ENDING WHO WAS THAT???

One of the more prominent feelings I have about Scara's story is a deep sense of sadness. Scaramouche could not accept who he was, and erased himself as a result. However, Wanderer, a completely different person at that point, was able to accept Scaramouche.

While it's definitely not a 1:1 comparison, I'm reminded of a story I read years ago, "Star Lover."

For such a short story, a lot of things happen in it -- but the part I'm most concerned with here is the idea that to truly recover from past trauma, it had to have never happened at all.

Tsutsuji, one of the main characters in "Star Lover," embodies this idea, which is where the name comes from.

Would things have been better for Scaramouche he sat down and worked through his issues, instead of "running away" to become a completely different person? It's hard to say. After all, it was only through Wanderer that he's eventually able to come to terms with his past.

In real life, people try to find meaning in their trials, purpose in their trauma. Weighed down by emotions, they push their way through creeping ivy and waist-high water. There's an ingrained philosophy that "trauma is an opportunity to come out stronger."

To be clear, this is not a bad philosophy. In fact, it's the only way many people have to move forward.

But... what if you never had to experience that past trauma at all? What if you could just undo it?

Neither Scaramouche nor Tsutsuji waded through a bog of their past trauma. In Scaramouche's case, Wanderer was able to do it for him. In Tsutsuji's case, it was like it had never happened at all.

If only we could do the same in real life.

Other Random Thoughts:

The "Inner Irminsul" area was beautiful. I remember thinking before that Sumeru was going to be very nature-focused, seeing as it was the land of dendro, but I am really really digging the added high-tech aspect as well, from the story to the landscapes.

After seeing Niwa's death, Scaramouche mockingly asks if we're actually worried about him. He says something similar in the previous archon quest ("hmph, those words make you sound like a friend who actually cares.") little shit

I counted three Lumine "wtf !!!" faces this quest

"The wisest leaders are fated to end up with the best helpers" ASDFGHJKL; INJECT THE SCARA NAHIDA FRIENDS/SIBLINGS CANON STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS

I really loved this quote as well: "The past is set in stone, but you can keep moving on. And the longer your future lasts, the shorter your past will become, until one day it is but a tiny fraction of your life." ;-; Nahida best girl

While the quote is uplifting, it's also quite bittersweet... what if you want to hold onto your past self? Plus something something passage of time becomes faster the longer you've lived. Someone like Zhongli would probably be pained when reminded of this quote/truth.

The last part of this story reminded me of No Way Home, a little bit. But while I hated No Way Home, I loved this. I think for NWH I was too sad about Peter losing literally everyone who knew and loved him?? For Scaramouche lmao it's not like anyone loved the Balladeer (except for Niwa and the others hrngggg). Poor Niwa, it's not like things really matter anyways because he's dead but there's something so sad about Wanderer feeling so guilty and sad about his friend's death, whereas Niwa in this new reality doesn't even know who he is.

Ik I mentioned this before but who ???? is the voice at the end? I'm so excited and curious to find out more about them, and about what it means for the story as a whole.

"Fate is called as such, for it cannot be changed, nor can it be reversed. It can only but be accepted." <- This quest really ended up being a textbook example of what Mona says, huh. I guess this is also related to what the mysterious voice said at the end? That things can't really be changed in Teyvat.

I wonder if that gives the Teyvat simulation theory more credit... aaaaa it's all so interesting

Also, what if information was rewritten in Irminsul before? Nothing enormous events-wise could have been changed (unless the people who make the "rules" that nothing big can be changed ARE the ones who rewrote something) but it's still interesting and kind of frightening to think about!

What if Irminsul was rewritten more than twice and we weren't around to witness it, meaning that what's done is done. It's not like it really matters, because it's a video game, but... well. If it ever comes up, it'll be an important story reason, but we likely won't get the whole story about what happened in the "past"/alternate world. Even though it's just a game, it's exciting and scary, to think of the interesting stories we could have seen, but wouldn't be able to.