#HAHAHAHA the story started out as a comedy slice of life

[kurim-chis]

Just read a Yingxing/Blade x Reader fic in the CN platform 晋江 where the main plot centers around the comedy and a ambiguously happy ending for Ying Xing, who in the main plot manages to have a family and is very, very content with his lot in life despite the war against Abundance.

Author rn is writing a “what-if” branch of where Ying Xing became Blade, its an AU and some things are different from HSR because “you” existed, and Author makes it clear that we can see it as an AU and consider the Ying Xing main plot as a HE or as a story that snowballed into a tragedy for Ying Xing’s life. It’s, of course, an AU since there’s not much known yet about the past of the High Cloud Quintet.

And I’m wkdkksnJDKFKKDKDJE BECAUSE the first half with Ying Xing is so fluffy, so light, it’s very comedic too because Ying Xing is such a ROCK and so rude and obsessed with smithing, there’s a lot of people who had chased after him even tho he’s a short lived species but he’s so obsessed with weapons and so RUDE that they eventually back off lmao. It’s so bad that the “reader” gets over their initial miffed feelings pretty quickly and feels a bit sorry for their “rival”.

AND THEN AND THEN!!! Blade in the branch/AU/second part of the story is written so nicely, he’s passive and cold and ruthless, but in a more numb way and the tragedy of his family with “you” (which is still unknown since Author just began to write the Blade branch) seems to have shattered his mental state even further than canon. He gave me the feeling he was like a machine or an animal.

The Author describes Blade in a way that just hits all my Moe Points! The guy who will violently murder someone with an emotionless expression (no hard feelings, literally) but in the story, even with a muddled consciousness and a shattered sense of self and half amnesia - it’s very clear his personality was warped and shattered when compared to the Ying Xing in the first half - he still recognizes “you”, and has a vague recognition that you are an existence precious to him.

You are like a fragile dream of a past long gone. If he blinks even once, you will disappear like the foams in the ocean, and he feels like he will go even more mad if that happens.

He is clearly very obsessed but in a muddled, not quite there way. In the latest chapter instead of being overtaken by Mara and needing to get his memories erased by Kafka, he pinpoints you and basically kidnaps you while the Nameless fight against Phantilya and you wake up as they watch the fight. Phantilya’s petals fly all over the place and some of them shoot towards you and Blade, and though Blade grabs you and retreats, he wordlessly picks up an abandoned lance on the ground and throws it towards Phantilya. Very petty and vengeful, even tho Kafka mentions Elio never said they’d join the fight. ETC ETC ETC.

He speaks even less than canon, and ever since he saw “you”, he’s been wordlessly sticking to you like sticky rice, with the only time having been at the beginning where you arrived with Dan Heng and Blade went on to beat the living shit out of Dan Heng. He abandons his vendetta with Dan Heng and shoots towards you when he noticed one of those resuscitating mobs trying to grab your leg.

It’s just. My heart. One of the latest scene he’s written as just raising his arm and hovering it over the small of your back, staring at you with an unblinking, blank and hazy gaze, his actions treating you like glass, as if you were a very precious, very fragile dream that will disappear if he so much as touches you.

I LOVE THIS KIND OF CHARACTERIZATION FOR BLADE!!! Cold and tragic and ruthless, but has this very special soft spot for certain people.

[bogkeep]

Some Webtoons From Webtoon App That I Like Enough To Recommend - Heir’s Game (by the same creator as shootaround, which is VERY excellent and also completed. heir’s game is a historical inspired gay romance with a fairly high stakes plot and has depictions of gore/violence so heads up for that) - Castle Swimmer (gay mermaids with a really intruiging plot) - Boyfriends. (four boys that are boyfriends. no plot just boys) - Suitor Armor (faeries!! fantasy!! magic!! this one started out very recently but i am enjoying it Very Much) - Acception (high school drama about a gender non-conforming boy in the netherlands, i read this one YESTERDAY and it’s like it reached into my personal past and slathered me in validation?? sure i was never a rich boy who had four peacocks named after the horsemen of the apocalypse BUT i always loved dressing in my own weird way and experimenting with fashion that makes no sense and as a gender non-conforming transmasc who has been trying to figure out men’s fashion with more and more frustration this felt GOOD okay) - Space Boy (sci-fi comic. the beginning chapters made me tear up several times. i’m just squinting at how there’s not a single gay character in this setting)

- Springtime of Yuuth (spin-off AU comic of The Boy Who Fell, just slice of life gay kids. i read it before i realized it was a spin-off hahahaha) - Forgotten (this one has cats and my friend is making it!!)

- Always Human (completed, wlw sci-fi romance) - Immortal Nerd (completed, sci-fi slice of life comedy) - Shootaround (completed, zombie apocalypse with queer cast) - The Touch of Sunlight (completed fantasy short story)

[manhwa-reader]

First post !

Hello ^^

My name is Diana and I'm a college student. This is my second week of holidays and I suddenly remembered a manga that I read last week: 「 Hana-san wa Minorasetai! 」 or Hana Wants This Flower to Bloom!

It is a cute romance with some comedy and some slice of life. Hana is an office worker who after a series of unfortunate events meets Takaya, a man who doesn't seem to like her. She still tries to pursue him. The thing is that Hana has had a daily blog about gardening for quite some time where she shares the updates about her daily life and her attempts in cultivating plants. And in this blog there is a person that always comments on her posts encouraging her. Hana finds out that this person may be Takaya and so she keeps trying to get to know him.

Actually even though I liked it, I didn't realize it had already finished until I went to click the next chapter button and it said return to manga page. I even had to reread the end because I kind of had rushed through it 😅 hahahaha. It was still fun to read !

Going back to what I was trying to say, since I remembered this manga I thought I could maybe start a blog, which I had always wanted to do. As my parents have a lot of plants, my first idea was to make a blog about me trying to take care of a plant, but honestly it could have been pretty boring. So after thinking about my hobbies I realized I could start a blog about manhwas and mangas, which I really enjoy 😊.

This summer it will be a year since I started reading comics. It was such a wonderful new world for me: I could read a lot of different stories with an amazing art! For me it really changed how I spend my free time, it's very weird that a day goes by without me having read some comics. It's kind of like my guilty pleasure of the day.

I'll keep posting about many recommendations and I hope that you end up enjoying the comics as much as I do ^^

Bye bye ❤

[livingwithashipname-blog]

Ermanda’s Inner Sanctum: Scorpion 3.19 “Monkey See, Monkey Poo”

Thank you Scorpion for addressing the environmental issues facing the Amazon in terms of logging, missed pharmaceutical opportunities, and the impact of smaller niches for an area that houses the largest number of species, named and unnamed, on Earth!  Thank you Don Tardino for directing this episode!  Love him!  Overall, this episode is so hilarious!  I mean, we could have guessed this from the episode’s title alone, but it delivers so much more comedy than I anticipated.  Give me all the puns!  The Quintis “bicker clicker”, Sly’s tomato conundrum and psychosomatic breakdown, Ralph as the king of shade, and Toby’s twerking are just a few of many great comedic moments!  We also meet a new animal friend (Simian Freud) that could easily become a part of Team Scorpion like Ferret Bueller!  Cool fact: In the same way Happy gains a friend in Ada, Toby establishes a camaraderie with the monkey!  It pays off because the monkey saves Toby’s life!  Aww!  And is it just me or have we seen the cyclone handle a lot of animals this season?!  And a scorpion isn’t even one of them (😉 @aspiestvmusings)!  Ha!  Anyways, this review will expand on topics I have addressed in previous reviews as various story arcs unfold this season.  Let’s get started with a song to commemorate the episode!

     Milkshake by Kelis

Sly’s Genius Breakdown

Since this season’s focus is more on the personal sides of Team Scorpion, various scenarios explore how the geniuses and normals react to a loss or disappointment.  The geniuses retreat to their brains while the normals create emotional distance.  These coping mechanisms affect team dynamics and the biggest changes occur amongst those whose disappointments/losses have great impact to the plot.  The most prominent example is Walter’s reaction to Taige.  Other obvious ones include Happy/Quintis and the false pregnancy and Ralph’s questions and comments about Waige.  Now, Sly’s mannerisms after the election loss are another drop in this emotional bucket.

How is Sly coping after his election loss?  Looks like he caught the silly experiment bug from Walter!  Hahahaha!  And it’s no surprise that Walter is supportive in Sly’s endeavor to grow the perfect tomato slice for sandwich bread.  Even the way Walter places his hand is hand on Sly’s shoulder in a supportive manner is a testament of his EQ growth and Sly’s openness to contact even if he brushes his shoulder afterwards.  The quest to find a new passion leads to some hilarious brainiac moments!  At least this gardening project is more useful than Walter’s u-dog.  Lol!  However, a caterpillar that lands on his hand induces a psychosomatic reaction that leads to skin irritation from an itching sensation at the point of contact and transitions to anxiety-induced hand paralysis.  When Ralph conducts an experiment to test his hypothesis (it’s all in Sly’s head), Sly sees that his reactions are a manifestation of guilt for electing to stay in the garage for the mission because of his phobias.  Sly tries to remain supportive by pushing himself past his fears, but he has his limits.  The support from Ralph and Walter in this episode again convinces Sly to do things he would have never done 3 years ago.  He’s not doing anything major soon, but as Sly says… baby steps!  Yay Sly!  Yay for character development!  

Ralph Dineen: Scorpion’s Budding Little Genius

Ralph is growing up guys!  He is seeking more autonomy with his decision on a new haircut!  In addition, he is a steady voice of reason to everyone this season.  This is a great juxtaposition because he is the genius who is growing up with a lot of EQ exposure as opposed to the others.  Therefore, he relates to everyone in many ways and provides the team with perspectives they usually wouldn’t see without prompt.  Given that the cyclone is curious about EVERYTHING, Ralph knows what’s happening in the garage.  He’s the first to point out Cabe’s need for emotional support after his breakup.  This juxtaposition is also present whenever Ralph mentions his school curriculum.  Paige always reminds him about the importance of his secondary level schooling as much as his part-time student status in university.  This schedule fosters his psychological development in addition to his intelligence.  Gotta love this kid and the mother/son dynamic!  And I love that his haircut has a practical purpose!  It is an efficient means to get his lab goggles to form a proper face seal!  Love it… and so does Paige!  Once again, this show addresses conformity and uniqueness through Ralph, sending the message that individual uniqueness is lost when one conforms to societal standards.  Gain the EQ, but don’t sacrifice the IQ for it!  

Toby, You Good? Pt. 7 (via Quintis)

Happy presents some really great reasons to choose Dr. Rizzuto as a marriage counselor.  He helped Toby and Walter stop bickering 😉 last year and discovered that she and Toby were secretly dating.  Plus, it is also better to have a third party.  Happy also claims that they probably wouldn’t even be getting married if Dr. Rizzuto hadn’t pulled that news out of him.  Happy’s focus is primarily on herself based on her emotional faults.  Yet, Toby insists on ignoring Dr. Rizzuto’s successes in his life because his degree is not from a world-renowned university as his (and because he’s not a genius like him).  This is another explicit exploration of a Quintis dynamic shift where the focus pulls away from Happy’s emotional failures to Toby’s image of perfection that he projects onto his fiancé!  We are seeing more of Toby’s pathology at work.  First major clues were seen in 3.11 Wreck the Halls.  In all his loveliness, he has one that works to his detriment like the other geniuses.

Let’s break this down once again.  Notice Toby has a similar approach to every psychologists’ visit (reference 1.06 True Colors, 2.16 Fractured, & 2.17 Adaptation).  He also has the same fashion styling in each of those scenarios (wardrobe foreshadowing 😉).  Toby, like the other geniuses, are the best in their field, so they carry a sense of intellectual confidence that comes off as arrogance.  He expresses this through sarcasm.  Also, Toby’s childhood fostered feelings of inadequacy when he failed to fix his parents and picked up his father’s gambling habit.  The latter is one of several devices Toby uses to self-sabotage when things seem perfect.  Furthermore, he makes love declarations all the time, but he still struggles to make his needs known from the beginning (x).  And the image of perfection Toby projects on Happy doesn’t always create a platform for her to express her innermost thoughts since there is uncertainty that she will get a honest assessment as Dr. Rizzuto so perfectly states to him.  So I ask once again: who comes for Toby when he can’t help himself?  Notice how he has moments of truth at the end of each psych sessions and when Paige, Happy, or Ralph helps him.  In this episode, the answer is Dr. Cecil Rizzuto!  All of this continues to suggest that Toby has a secret he’s not sharing with the class or something happens where Toby learns to more consistently give Happy space to come to him.  You know, the scent of that Quintis shift is getting stronger! 😉😉😉    

The Waige Flip (via Walter O’Brien)

HOLY CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!!  The end scene adds a new and exciting chapter to this ongoing saga!  This moment is important for several reasons.  First, Walter reaches a new level of EQ on his own.  He doesn’t get a hint from the others.  In fact, he’s the first between him and Paige to suggest a way to meet Cabe’s needs because he relates to the emotion.  Second, it’s an enlightening moment for Paige.  One of her concerns is Walter’s emotional availability for a romantic relationship.  This is not surprising considering that Walter claimed more than once that the notion of romantic love is fantasy.  It’s also not easy to deduce that Walter’s jealousy and pettiness was more a projection of deep, emotional pain when he already has difficulties relating to emotions period.  After Tahoe, Paige was not convinced that Walter truly related to the feeling of love and heartbreak.  And Veronica didn’t help the cause through her example.  So Walter’s change has her wondering about the possibilities.  And I think that Toby and Paige's linkup in this episode is done because they both experience enlightenment when it comes to their relationships.  Third, it links to the “sink or swim” philosophy.  Walter is getting like Dory and swimming well!  Go Walter!  🎤 Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming! 🎤

Overall, this moment makes everything Walter said to imaginary Paige in 3.03 It Isn’t the Fall That Kills You 10x more profound.  In fact, it is necessary to Waige developments.  Remember Cabe’s “half-baked” advice from 3.02 More Civil War?  Walter is cooking quite nicely I must say!  And now Walter goes to Cabe in a time of need when it comes to the women in their lives.  Hello parallels!  Now Paige is in the position to address her hesitations and ask herself again if a relationship with Walter is worth the risk given that he has reached a level of EQ on his own, without her help by drawing from his own experiences.  And another thing… What happens between them when some of Walter’s memories return in pieces that make him curious about what happened during the space mission?  Let’s see… this is episode 19, right?  It’s only a matter of time.  This relationship flip is unfolding quite nicely!  Btw, I am still looking for a ship catchphrase guys.  Quintis is to “The Mighty Love Oak” as Waige is to… [fill in the blank].

Drabbles…

Toby: My Spicy Asian Noodle… 😍😍😍😍😂😂😂😂😂😂

Happy: I think you’re being overly critical.  T: I’m not being critical.  I just think that Dr. Rizzuto should live on a pond and we should throw bread at him ‘cause he’s a quack. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Quintis is already starting to get into that married couple flow, even in the midst of a conflict.  Happy has the “don’t even try it” wifey stare on lock! 💚👌🏾

Timothy Armstrong Commemorative Greenhouse… 😂😂😂😂😂😂 It’s really sweet how Sly continues to admire Tim even in his absence.  (Still waiting on the Megan O’Brien pediatric wing though… 👀 *ahem writers*)

Sly’s face when Paige reveals that she uses the blue bowl (the one currently holding his chips) to cut Ralph’s hair… 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

H: Well, nobody looks good in that hat.  T: (taps bicker clicker)  H: (confused) For insulting the hat?  T: The hat and I are one. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Did you catch that Waige glance when Ralph clicked on Walter’s haircut?!  (parallel by Nicole aka. @webuiltthepyramids)

Poor Cabe!  He misses Allie.  He’s suffering in silence because of his choice to protect his children.  

Happy and Sly’s sibling-like banter when Sly talks about his phobias… 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Did Toby just “bicker clicker” Happy’s “not good”??!! 😱😱😱 Umm, Toby, we need to talk.  She says that for EVERY CASE at the least! 😂😂😂😂😂😂

The coloration and richness of the greenery in this episode is so breathtaking! 😍😍😍😍💛💛💛💛

Sly: I could’ve ingested a toxin!  Ralph: Well I don’t. You ingest an iced tea and calm down. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

T: My milkshake brings all the monkeys to the yard.  Me at that entire scene: 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💀 And did you see Happy checking him out (even though she was more amused by it all)?! 😍😍😍😂😂😂

R: What’s Toby talking about?  S: A pile of crap.  R: Isn’t he always? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Walter: Time for exercise. Cabe, studies have found it’s good for depression. 😂😂😂😂 Walter looking out for Papa Cabe!

Cabe moving the machete around like he’s a samurai… 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Happy electrocuting Toby to remove the spider… 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

The actual name of the bon bon fruit that saves the day and beats the virus… dragonfruit!  And it’s actually very delicious!  

I guess the choice to have Happy snip off the needle from the syringe is to have Happy use a tool and create a bonding moment between Toby and Happy amidst the bickering.  Funny thing is that the needle actually screws off quite easily to expose the blunt opening in reality.  I do it everyday depending on the medication I have to administer!  Haha!

Toby’s jean shirt is back!!!  Thank you wardrobe! 😍😍😍😍🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾💚💚💚

Dr. Cecil Rizzuto confirms what we’ve known all along… Happy Quinn and Toby Curtis are perfect for one another!  He also thinks the hat is stupid. 😂😂😂 Man, Happy is getting a lot of wins in this episode with Dr. Rizzuto’s help!  And Toby turns over a new leaf once again, praising Dr. Rizzuto for his work.  Ah parallels!

P: No more using the blue bowl.  S: Good! ‘Cause I destroyed it! Couldn’t have it in the kitchen contaminating the other bowls. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂