#I could improve upon him tbh. like there's definitely a form of this that could be edible

[secondbeatsongs]

Food Crime: Frosty the Slawman

so a while ago, I saw this photo going around on tumblr:

at first, I thought this was photoshopped. I mean, "welcome new man in your life"? that feels like a translation error, or someone being silly on purpose.

but guess what! turns out, Frosty Slaw Man is real!

and soon...he will be mine. let's get cooking

(full disclosure: I crafted this snowman and took notes about it over a year ago. and then, like with many things in my life, I forgot about him, and let him drift into the ADHD void of Things I'm Not Currently Staring At, where object permanence is tentative and largely unrealized.

but here we are! and here he is: the slaw man. it's time to share him with you, so that you can suffer as I have suffered, and/or rejoice in my gelatin creation!)

so this recipe photo originally came from Mid-Century Menu (archive link), a blog that seems like one after my own heart, and which once tried to make the Slaw Man (with not much success; but we'll get back to that)! but it's not just that blog that has copies of this ad. I also found it on reddit, and in a few different places on ebay!

lookit that guy! he's a real guy!

both the reddit post and some of the ebay listings say that this is from 1963 (though I haven't been able to figure out which magazines it was printed in, to confirm this for myself). but in looking this up, I discovered something else fun! there's another version of this ad!

Best Foods is what Hellmann's stuff is called on the west coast, and the "this is no place for second best" thing makes a lot more sense when you consider that the ad was probably made for Best Foods first, and then just reused and rebranded for the east coast

the more you know!

anyway the benefit of finding this alternate ad is that the scan on this image is a lot clearer, and so the recipe is more readable! and in looking at it, I've realized something important:

when Mid-Century Menu tried this recipe, they got an ingredient amount wrong.

when they made their beloved Slaw Man, they had the water amount written down as 1/4 cup, but looking at this scan up close, it is actually 3/4 cup of water! something that might make a significant difference, considering we're working with gelatin!

(there's also another change I want to make compared to what they did, when I do this recipe. but we'll get into that in a sec.)

for now: we begin

so. there's no way I'm making a Slaw Man this large. I am just one person, and considering the ingredients of this, I don't think I'm going to be able to consume that much Slaw.

two entire heads of cabbage? three pounds of cottage cheese, a thing that I don't even like to eat? no. that's a bad idea.

so I'm starting small here and making this 1/3 the size of the original:

2 packets of unflavored gelatin 1/4 cup cold water 1 cup mayo 1 tsp salt 1lb cottage cheese 4 cups shredded cabbage

surely this will result in a reasonable amount of Man

...okay, I started chopping the cabbage thinking it would be easier, but I've given up and pulled out a grater. this is much better! and somehow more violent (affectionate)

the recipe says to soften the gelatin in cold water, and then stir over hot water until it's dissolved. I'm going to assume "stir over hot water" means a double boiler, so let's do that

hmmm, the gelatin is very foamy? it’s melted, but the bottom of the pot feels really....sticky

okay. after a couple minutes more and no change, I’m calling this good enough.

so one thing that others who have attempted this recipe have not taken into consideration is the cottage cheese. you see, the others used normal cottage cheese, but the recipe says to use "cottage cheese, cream style"

I’ll be real, I’m not 100% what that means, since we don’t have that here. but I can take an educated guess! so let’s blend the cottage cheese!

(with an immersion blender. I am not willing to wash an actual blender because of this)

mmm, yes. very smooth

...actually. why isn't all cottage cheese like this? the thing I hate about cottage cheese is the texture, so why isn't it all smooth and creamy like this?? I could eat this!!

a new discovery is made every day in this house.

okay, time to start mixing things together.

ah, frosty. I opened a whole new thing of mayo for you! do you feel special?

(I'd make a "pre-dinner snack?" joke, but sometimes I think I'm the only one that remembers Regular Ordinary Swedish Meal Time)

okay, the mayo, cottage cheese, and salt have been added to the gelatin. but as this cools, the texture is getting...hmm. less than appealing.

lastly: the cabbage

oh. oh this is not very nice

next it says to pack the "salad" into a one pound container, and two six-cup bowls, but since I made this recipe so much smaller, I'm going to uhhhh. uh. find some bowls that seem like they'd be correct...snowman? proportions?

ah. this bowl is too big.

hey, these'll work!

now I just have to let them chill for a while, and continue another day.

(edit from current!me: ahhh oh my god I forgot this was pretty soon after we adopted Jackie! look at these cat pics that I took while I was food crime-ing!

look at them having their little interactions! Knuckles was trying so hard to be friends with her! I love them)

hello! two days later and we are ready to assemble the slawman. and my sibling has started referring to him as "frosty: attorney at slaw", so that's fun.

I've done a thing where, as these set, I flipped them around in the bowl so that hopefully they'd be more round. we'll see if they actually stay like this.

I have also made some decorations for him out of peppers, olives, and carrots!

let's build our boy

oh he's so heavy. and wobbly

no no no he almost fell over!!

okay. he's fine. but more skewers were needed.

and...okay. he is complete.

behold!

gaze upon my beautiful man!

(he is not structurally sound! he wobbles unsteadily as I rotate him! there are already cracks forming in the gelatin around where his arms are! don't worry about it!)

 now it's time to stab him

and...to devour him

this tastes like...a bland coleslaw? and not even that. it's just sort of a salty, cottage cheese-y cabbage. the ingredients don't combine to become something greater, they simply...sit there. like this.

and the texture is...mmm. it's not a jello kind of texture, but it is a bit squashy in a way that's mildly strange.

it's very creamy once it softens in your mouth.

...I don't like this!

and look! taking just that one chunk from him was enough to destabilize him entirely :(

RIP frosty. now I just have to see if I can eat all of you before you go bad.

(note from current!me: I could not.

 I ate maybe half of him over the course of many days, often adding other stuff to him to try to add some flavor: bacon, frozen peas, cheese, etc. but even with that, I just couldn't stomach him.

after a while I stuck what was left of him in the freezer, hoping that maybe I'd find the will to consume the rest of him some other day.

do you know what a frozen-and-then-thawed mixture of cabbage, cottage cheese, mayo, and gelatin looks and tastes like?

bad. the answer is: bad.

I threw him out pretty quickly after thawing him.

do not try this recipe at home)

[baya-ni]

The Queer Appeal of Sk8

Recently @mulberrymelancholy reblogged a post of mine with a truly galaxy brain take about how Sk8 “is a show made for queer fans” and generally how sports anime often depicts love and relationships in a way that’s more accessible and relatable to ace/arospec people than other mainstream media does.

Just, *chef’s kiss* fucking brilliant. I urge you to read their post here (note I’m referring to the reblog not the actual post).

And basically, it got me thinking about this concept of Sk8 as a Queer Show, and the kinds of stories and dynamics that tend to attract queer audiences in droves, regardless of whether its queerness is made explicit or hell, whether that queerness was intended.

And that’s what I’ve been pondering: What are the cues, markers, or coding, in Sk8 that set off the community’s collective gaydar?

I obviously can’t speak for the community. So here’s what aspects of the show intrigued me and what, for me, marks Sk8 as a Queer Show beyond the subtextual queer romances: a punk/alternative aesthetic, Found Family, Shadow as a drag persona, and The Hands.

1.) The Punk Aesthetic

All three of the above screenshots are taken from Ep 1, and every single one of them depicts background characters. They’re nameless and ultimately unimportant characters, yet each of them designed so distinctly and so unique from one another, one could mistake each of them for the main character(s) of another story.

Of what little I know about Punk subculture, I do know this: that the ethos of Punk is heavily built around a celebration of individuality and non-conformity. Sk8 seems to have incorporated this ethos into the very fabric its worldbuilding, and the aesthetics and culture upon which it takes inspiration appeals specifically to a queer audience.

I don’t really need to explain why Punk has such deep ties with the queer community. For decades, queer people have found community and acceptance within punk spaces, and punk ideology is something that I think is just ingrained in the queer consciousness as both lived experience and a survival tactic.

Therefore, a show that adopts punk aesthetics is, by association, already paying homage to Queer culture, intentional or not.

Queer fans notice this- like recognizes like.

2.) Found Family

This also needs little explanation.

Too often, queer individuals cannot rely on their “born into” families for support and acceptance. Too often, we are abused, neglected, and abandoned by those who we were taught would “always be there for us.”

And so, a universal experience for queer people has been redefining the meaning of Family, having to build our families from scratch, finding brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers in people with whom we have no blood relation, and forming communities tied together by shared lived experience rather than shared genetics.

And this idea of Found Family is also built into Sk8′s narrative.

Like, for example, the way that Reki promises MIYA that he and Langa will “never disappear from [his] sight,” filling the void that MIYA felt after his friends abandoned him.

And in the way that JOE becomes a paternal figure for Reki, teaching him ways to improve in skateboarding, and ensuring that Reki doesn’t self isolate when he’s feeling insecure.

And in the whole Ep 6 business with Hiromi acting as babysitter to the Gang.

Hell, even ADAM (derogatory) is associated with this trope. Abused as a child, he finds solace in an underground skateboarding community and culture he helped create- his own found family (or some powertrippy version of it anyway).

Again, queer fans see themselves depicted in the show, but this time in the way that the show gives importance to Found Family relationships between its characters.

3.) Shadow and Drag

This is one that’s more of an association that I personally made. But I was intrigued by the way that Hiromi adopts his SHADOW persona. He wears SHADOW like a mask, and adopts a personality seemingly so opposite to his day-to-day behavior.

Further, the theatricality and general “gender fuckery” of his SHADOW persona, to me, just seemed so similar to a the characteristics of a drag persona (I don’t know a whole lot about drag but enough that I’m drawing superficial similarities).

There’s also this aspect of a “double life” that he, and actually all the other adult characters of the show, have to adopt, which is a way of living that I’m sure a lot of queer viewers see themselves reflected in.

4.) The Hands

Ohhhh the Hands.

One of the things I noticed very early on is the way the show constantly draws our attention to Reki’s hands, which I thought was a little strange for an anime about skating. After all, skating doesn’t really involve the hands, or at least the show doesn’t really draw attention to hands within the context of skating.

I count 3 times so far between Eps 1-9 in which hands are the focus of the frame.

First, when Reki teaches Langa how to fist pump after Langa lands his first ollie, second, when Reki and Langa make their Promise, and finally, when Langa saves Reki from falling off his board.

And you know what they say, twice is a coincidence but thrice is a motif (no one else actually says this I think I’m the only one who says this lol).

I’m not really certain why hands seem to be such a shared fixation among queer people (at least among those I interact with). All I know is that gay people are just fucking obsessed with them.

I have a Theory as to why, and at this point I’d love for other people to chime in and “compare notes” if you will, but I think it basically has to do with repression. And in the same way that queer people have had to redefine the meaning of family, we’ve also had to redefine intimacy.

Being overtly physically affectionate with someone of the same sex, even if they’re your significant other, or often specifically BECAUSE they’re your significant other, can still be dangerous, even now despite the “progression” of society. Queer people know this, this vigilant surveillance of our environment and ourselves, always asking ourselves, “Am I safe enough to be myself?”

Already, Western culture is pretty touch-averse. That is, it’s considered taboo to touch someone unless they’re a family member or a romantic partner. And to touch a person of the same sex in any way that could be misconstrued as romantic (which is most things tbh) is a big no no.

There’s just A Lot to unpack there.

But basically I think that queer people, by necessity, have had to learn to romanticize mundane or unconventional ways of being physically intimate so that we can continue to be romantic with one another without “being caught” so to speak.

Kissing and hugging is too obvious. But a handshake that lingers for just a second too long is much more likely to go unnoticed, braiding someone’s hair can easily be explained away as just lending a helping hand, touching palms to “compare hand sizes” is just good fun.

But for queer people, these brief and seemingly insignificant touches hold greater meaning, because it’s all we are allowed, and all we allow ourselves, to exchange with others.

God, I’ve gone off and rambled again. What’s my point? Basically that the way the show draws attention to Reki’s hands, and specifically how they’re so often framed with Langa’s hands, is one of the major reasons why I clocked Sk8 as a Queer. It’s just something that resonated with me and my own experience of queerness, and I know that I’m not the only one who noticed either.

~

So in conclusion, uhhhh yeah Sk8 the Infinity is just a super gay show, and it’s not even because of the homo-romantic subtext (that at this point is really just Text).

Because what’s important to understand is that Queerness isn’t just about same-sex romance.

Queer Love isn’t just shared between wives/girlfriends, husbands/boyfriends, and all their in-betweens. Queer Love can be two best friends who come out together, queer siblings who rely and support one another, a gay teacher who helps guide one of their questioning students, a queer community pitching in to help a struggling member.

And that all ties with another important thing to consider, that what we refer to as the “queer experience” or “queer culture” isn’t universal. In fact, it wrongly lumps together the unique experiences and struggles of queer BIPOC all under one umbrella that’s primary White and middle class.

So I think what drives a lot of my frustration about labeling a show like Sk8 as Queerbait is this very issue of considering queerness and queer representation within such narrow standards, and mandating that a show must pass a certain threshold of explicit queerness to be considered good representation.

I get that someone might only feel represented by an indisputable canonization of a same-sex couple. That’s fine. But labeling Sk8 as Queerbait for that reason alone ignores the vast array of other queer experiences.

The aspects of Sk8 that resonate most deeply with my own experiences of queerness is in the way that Reki and Langa share intimacy through skating (intricate rituals heyo). For me, them officially getting together ultimately doesn’t matter- I’ll consider Sk8 a Queer show regardless.

Similarly, @mulberrymelancholy​ finds ace/arospec representation in that very absence of an on-screen kiss. A bisexual man might find representation in Reki, not because he enters a canon relationship, but in the depiction of Reki’s coming of age, growing up and navigating adolescent relationships. A non-binary person might feel represented through CHERRY’s androgyny.

That’s the thing, I don’t know how this show will resonate with other members of the queer community, and it’d be wrong to make a judgement on Sk8′s queer representation based on my experiences alone.

That being said, Straight people definitely don’t get to judge Sk8 as Queerbait. Y’all can watch and enjoy the show, we WANT you to enjoy these kinds of shows, and we want you to share these shows and contribute to the normalization and celebration of these kinds of narratives.

But understand that you don’t have a right to tell us whether or not Sk8 has good or bad queer representation.

And even members of the queer community are on thin ice. Your experience of queerness is not universal. Listen to the other members of your community, and respect that what you might find lacking in this show may be the exact representation that someone else needs.

[ashxketchum]

Hello!

I have been hearing people tell that Tyson defeated Kai due to plot armor, is it true?

Hello! Thank you for your ask!

I know which discussion you're referring to, I was strictly planning to stay out of it due to the absolutely one-sided and highly opinionated some of the statements in the original post were but I will try my best to address it as politely as I can!

And sorry in advance, if this turns out to be lengthy.

To begin, statements like these can never be "true", wherein true is being used to refer to something that is considered canon in the course of the story. Why, one might ask, because when manga authors or screenwriters write a chapter/episode, they don't go "Oh well, this win will be attributed to the Plot Armour", they need to explain to the readers/watchers what was the reason behind the win with a scene or dialogues and in case of the episode and match in question here, @rainbow-pearls and @where-them-kinomiya-at already mentioned a lot of these in the original post, which clearly gives us a valid explanation for Tyson's win from the viewer's point of view.

Viewers are free to disregard these (as they often do) and come up with their own theories or reasonings behind the win, but the canon facts will remain to be true regardless.

Some things which weren't mentioned in the original post, is what I'd like to touch upon next. Tyson's win in G-revolution, was not in fact, his first win against Kai nor was it Kai's first ever loss in the series (he loses to Johnny of all people for f-k's sake in S1), so it's not something unexpected or a decision that was made out of the blue to make sure the protagonist comes out on top (the definition of plot armour) , it completely fits the narrative route the story has been taking so far.

Of course, Tyson is the protagonist, so his growth and development is what carries the show forward, him winning a match is not a last ditch effort by the creators to save the show's plot in S3. He wins and loses consistently throughout the three seasons, something Chief praises him for because he believes that to be Tyson's strength as losing gives him the infinite potential to improve on his skills and constantly challenge himself to become better.

Other things pointed out in the original post were his strong bond with Dragoon, or his stamina since Hiro states that the win could be attributed to mere seconds or Tyson's luck, and to that I would like to add that his form was also in top condition during the final match. In the first half of the tournament he's under a lot of pressure and stress, and also dealing with his teammates abandoning him or trying to gel with Daichi, which reflects in his form and he ends up losing. But after Egypt, when he deals with these issues and recovers his mental health, he comes back into form and is able to unleash his strength and skill as a Blader in the second half.

However, personally, I do think that Tyson is stronger than Kai, in fact I believe that Kai thinks the same too otherwise he honestly would not go up against Tyson as often as he does, since his goal is to always be the strongest. Kai sees something in Tyson that pushes him to not just challenge him again and again, but also guide him during battles, battle alongside him and believe in something bigger than just strength or skill (aka the power for friendship lol). This, I believe, takes root in Kai's mind when Tyson is able to use Dranzer to defeat Kai and Black Dranzer (the biggest testimony to Tyson's strength in all 3 seasons tbh) and Kai understands that the Beyblade and Bitbeast is only as strong as their Blader.

In my personal opinion, Kai is as interested in Tyson's journey as the rest of us. Kai has been taught that top notch skills and strength is what makes a good Blader but after meeting Tyson and the others he realises that, belief in yourself and your teammates/partners/friends and the willpower to keep pushing forward is important to win a match as well. What Kai seeks is absolute strength and that is what he finds in Tyson, not just as a Blader, but as a teammate, a rival and ultimately, a friend.

And it was also pointed out, that if Kai should've won against Tyson, then for the exact same reason, Rei could've won or so could've Max, but they didn't because there is something about Tyson and Kai that put them above those two, and similarly there is something about Tyson that puts him on the top.

And finally what I'd like to say is that, the S3 tournament final is in no way the end of Kai's Beyblading career, he and Tyson will continue to challenge each other during the course of their lives and sometimes Tyson will win and sometimes Kai will win, (as he does in the beginning of Rising manga I believe) and the outcome of their battles will always depend on not just their individual strength but external factors as well, so I don't see a point in denoting these wins to terms like "plot armour", because literally anything in the plot can be denoted to this, depending on the likes/dislikes of the person reading/watching the series.

At the end of the day, Tyson and Kai will continue to win and lose against each other and still neither would ever think less of their rival, so why should we?

[nejihoe]

you ask them to teach you volleyball

feat. morisuke y. daishou s. bokuto k.

a/n : well i played volleyball in gym and after realising how much i suck at volleyball i got inspired<3

━━ YAKU MORISUKE

volleyball is so important to him so when you approach him his heart goes 💓

lmao he'd definitely call you out for not paying attention 😶

like he'd just transform into a completely different person when playing volleyball and you'd go 😍

if he catches you tho he'd prolly throw a ball @ ur head, let's be real there's a reason he's called demon senpai 👹✋

lev would crash your lessons to practice his recieves bc kuroo would be like you gonna get benched son if u don't improve 🤡

yaku would be so mad @ this, and like lev's little comments he wouldn't hesitate to drop kick a bitch 😤👊

" yakkun ! this is so boooring " a voice complains, your boyfriend's composure twitching in irritation. " without the fundamentals your natural talent is useless " he comments, long exasperated sigh let out from his parted lips " no more excuses get back to practice or i swear inuoka will replace you ". lev's amused glance doing nothing to smooth the situation. " wow, you're almost tall enough to be taken seriously ", embers lighting in yaku's eyes. foot connecting with the others leg, tall boy wincing in pain. " was that necessary ? " you question, concern etching your features. " yes "

okay don't tell yaku but u couldn't help giggle @ his first year antics 😳 👉👈

yaku would prolly be like if u learn how to do this properly ill give u a kith 😙😙

lolz lev would completely cockblock u and ask for a kith as well when his recieves don't 💯% suck

lmao cue the poor bb on the floor in pain )):

u loved the first year so u definitely helped him behind your boyfies back

he'd definitely show off to lev how you're much better receiver than he could ever be 💀

all lies- 🐸 mostly 🐸 you never noticed so 🐸

f in the chat for the russian lionychovka beanpole 😔

━━ DAISHOU SUGURU

chest would be puffed out in pride

babies just a big volleynerd pls 🥺

but on the outside he's like : 😏

" you've come to the right guy, ur coming to the guy who whipped nekomas ass " 😌

" didn't you loose " 😶

" ... " 🤡

" ... " 🤡

" fuck technicalities " ‼️‼️

him tryin to show off likes 💪 but like boi fails terribly bc as soon as he stops talking his eyes go like 🤩

his cool bad boy demeanor goes 📉

he goes over all these strategies to shake off blockers and the other positions and ur lowkey just ❓❓❓

" see these are where the middle blockers are at their prime, one wrong move and ... " daishou explains, board with diagrams layed out in front of you. hues filled with dreamy sparkles, passion pouring out of sentences. choosing to ramble on, voice swaying you into a trance. surroundings fading away, words blurring into a disarray in your mind. " hmm, y/n ? " warm breath dancing upon your ear. smirk spreading across his features " you paying attention ? ". small gap left between you and the chair, startling noise causing you to jump up in surprise.

" what did i just explain "

" how much u love me ? " 🥰🙏

" ... the importance of pinch servers "

okay after that you actually tried to pay attention 😹

jsgshdjdkdjdr tbh you actually understood all the theory pretty well 🧠💡

snake 🐍 boi was proud of his teachings

um the executing of it definitely needed some work 😀

jsgdhsjjdjdjdj the nohebi team offered to help but he was like no they are my student, the love of my life, go away ♥️

ne wayz it went pretty well all things considered- i mean after he went on a one hour rant about how kuroo was an untalented asshole and how nekoma somehow cheated and nohebi deserved to win ‼️‼️✋‼️‼️

yeah uhm let's just say you both agreed never to bring up that topic again and went to get onigiri✨😃✨

━━ BOKUTO KOTAROU

first thing he does it call akaashi no 🧢

" akaashi ! yn asked me to help her volleyball ! how do i teach volleyball ! how do you volleyball !? please help ! " 😭🙏

" bokuto san please calm down, yn wouldn't have asked you to teach them if they didn't believe you had the ability " 😐

" that's right ! yn trusted me ! because i am amazing and the best teacher ever ! " 😌💪

trust akaashi to always get him out of a stump 🥰

so uhm yes let's be honest he's better @ controlling bokuto than you could ever be 💀

he'd like set to bokuto first and he would do one of his killer spikes while u failed @ blocking 🤐

yeah when it was your turn you actually did pretty well for a beginner 😌✋

see and then a sort of problem arises where bokuto decided to show off a bit too much and im- ✨ y e a h ✨

akaashi positions himself, postures elegantly to set the ball. arcing throughout mid air, bokuto plunging upwards. muscles rippling, palm bracing to make contact with the rough texture of the ball. tremendous buildup, only to be deflated as the palm misses due to an early jump. bokutos frown growing deeper, knowing orbs drooping as a knowing look glazes over his hues. " bokuto san ... ? " akaashis cautious voice breaking the silence, confused look emitted from your expression. japan's number 5 ace moping in the corner of the room. " shouldn't we- ? " you ask, body posture leaning towards the figure in the corner. " he'll be fine, bokuto san tends to get a bit moody when things do not go the way he has planned- ". " i can hear you ! " pouty voice bouncing around the gym walls.

really took a big hit to babie bo's confidence 🤧

u hit a turning point when konoha entered

" guess he's in his emo mode again, ig i have to join you now " 🙂‼️

" okay ! " 🥰

bokuto wouldn't stand for it

would literally run in && push konoha away 🤡

akaashi : relieved, konoha : pissed, you : confused 😬

" hey ! hey ! hey ! let's go ! ill beat konoha and akaashi easy " 😤

so a two on two was formed ✨✨

yall actually surprisingly tied ❓❓❓

yes he ran into ur arms for a kiss and u almost collapsed but u thought it was adorable 🥺🥺🥺

akaashi definitely scolded him for it after and checked u had no injuries 🚶‍♀️

[in-tua-deep]

what happened isn’t he fifth year of the hogwarts au?

asdfASDF have i not mentioned it??? in their fifth year, Ben almost dies and Luther becomes a werewolf

needless to say... it’s a very eventful year for everyone

I figured a good way to mirror the show and Luther’s issues slash ape body would be to make him a werewolf

It definitely brings the siblings closer together in a way because here’s what they know about the wizarding world and werewolves: a) the wizarding world is like, super awful to werewolves and have a bajillion laws regarding them, b) an old DADA teacher was lowkey fired for being outed as a werewolf even though he was on wolfsbane potion and taking care of himself, and c) the only werewolf who attended hogwarts (according to Fred) was said professor who kept it a secret due to worrying he would be kicked out of Hogwarts

the family have no proof that Luther wouldn’t be kicked out of Hogwarts for his werewolf-ness so obviously they have to keep it a secret

on the bright side, they have access to a secret basement thanks to Five poking around that has been mainly cleared of booby traps and other unsafe things, that is also impossible for Luther to escape from considering his wolf form can’t exactly speak parseltongue

(because portrait!Dolores probably teaches the squad how to at the very least say “open” and “close” in parseltongue considering i’m pretty sure canon hp has non parseltongues being able to vaguely mimic enough to get in)

further bright side - Ben and Five are very good at potions and are capable of very very difficult potions, such as the Wolfsbane potion

(downside: Five is a very experimental potions maker and likes to try and improve upon current formulas. Ben complains but is secretly the same. The other siblings don’t think they should be experimenting with Luther’s anti-werewolf potion guys, come on what the fuck)

“This would be so much easier if you didn’t have a reputation for being such a goody two-shoes.” Five informs Luther crossly, because getting a mannequin to transfigure into a sleeping ‘Luther’ was harder than it should have been smh, if Luther had cultivated a reputation for never being where he should be like Five everything would be fine but no, Luther’s dorm mates would be suspicious if he was gone on every full moon night

(Diego, as the team resident bonus Gryffindor, gets to stay behind and make sure no one ‘wakes up’ Luther in the morning before everyone can smuggle the real Luther back into bed)

Ben blames himself honestly, because it’s theoretically his fault that they were in the Forbidden Forest on the full moon that night

(Ben has excelled in potions and herbology, he gets along with Neville like a house on fire, and he spends lots of time in the greenhouse. He wanted to gather some various plants and potions ingredients that you can only get on the full moon and - well - let’s just say the trip didn’t go as planned)

Five ends up doing a lot of the... I guess caretaking work?? He’s the one best equipped to go down into the Chamber of Secrets when Luther is wolfed out since he can just teleport if Luther tried to bite him or something (which he doesn’t because he’s docile on the wolfsbane potion

“I dropped care of magical creatures, this shouldn’t even be my responsibility.” Five complains, loudly

“Well Luther has the best grade in that class out of any of us.” Klaus points out, gesturing between him and Diego, who looks sour at the reminder that Luther does better at him in any class at all (though that rivalry died down a lot when Diego made the quidditch team tbh)

“Luther can’t take care of himself.” Allison says crossly.

“Hey.” Luther protests, “I mean, I know, but hey.”

“Well Fred says that the marauders - that’s the dudes who hung out with Lupin when he was a baby werewolf - became animagi so they could hang out with him on full moons and stuff.” Klaus interjects excitedly, “There’s this potion which should be totally easy for Five and Ben and - ”

“Absolutely not.” Ben cuts Klaus off, “We need to be focusing on getting ingredients for the Wolfsbane potion, and they’re not easy to come by. Plus the ones we can’t get are expensive.”

“We’re orphans, it’s not like we have our own money.” Diego points out grumpily, ignoring the weird look on Luther’s face that pops up every time Reginald is even vaguely referenced. 

“The money isn’t a problem.” Five says dismissively, because he’s been squirreling money away in weird places for years and has a solid ring of tutoring, essay writing, and homework providing in place to get them at least some funds, “The issue is disguising our orders so that people won’t look at our lovely list of ingredients and be like ‘who the fuck is making this quantity of wolfsbane at hogwarts, where there aren’t supposed to be any werewolves’.”

“We could buy other potions ingredients as well and hide the wolfsbane ones among them?” Luther suggests tentatively.

Ben grimaces, “The expense...”

“I already told you it’s not an issue.” Five snaps, “Besides, I can always just steal some of the super expensive ones from the potions cupboards.”

“Why do you always jump to stealing.” An aggrieved Vanya complains, even though all of them know it’s because Five’s ability to ‘apparate’ within Hogwarts grounds makes him the best person they have for moving unseen around Hogwarts

“Ha, jump.”

“It’s not like we have the resources though.” Allison muses, because she’s a slytherin and resourcefulness is important to her, “I mean, what are they going to do if they find out? Throw us in Azkaban?”

Diego shrugs, “This is Hogwarts, probably the worst that will happen is detention.” 

“We can handle detentions.” Ben says firmly, “We do what we have to do, to keep Luther safe.”

“Thanks guys,” Luther may actually sound a little choked up at the loyalty shown by his siblings.

Luther gets,,, very good at watching the moon ;3c

you could say... it’s very important to him in this au ;3c ;3c

“Wait guys. Guys.” Klaus slams his hands on the table during a study session, “We can finally figure out the answers to one of the age old questions!!”

“What?” Allison sounds more exhausted than Five feels.

“What happens if you put a werewolf on the moon.”

“I don’t think Luther will be able to be an astronaut.” Ben points out delicately, “You need like, really good science grades and stuff and... I mean, potions is sort of a science but not exactly one you can put on your muggle applications.”

“One more dream crushed.” Vanya mutters.

“Hear hear.”

[stray-tori]

TPN S02E02 - initial thoughts (anime-only)

^^^ viewing with my friends

__________________________

. More thoughts:

I loved how ep2 used a similar sequence of shots to immediately bring our minds to conny's shipment and further connect us to Emma's association / state of mind.

+ waterdrop of death continues, glad to have it back 

.

. “Humans outside”

I also talked about this in the video, but I find it interesting that we’ve heard two different insights from Krone and Sonju. “Humans on equal footing outside” vs. “there are no humans outside of the farms”. I really emphasized the “equal footing” thing in video, which also still does seems weird to me, and I can come to the following conclusions:

Krone just thinks they’re equals because they’re higher up the hierarchy than she is, but in reality even the top of the farms are oppressed by the demons as well.

for some reason, even after being heavily outnumbered by demons, humans found a way to be close to equal footing --- I mentioned breeding the humans for them in the video, and I still think that could be part of it but I also had a different thought: it’s interesting that it’s 1000 years - sad, my 2000 years theory didn’t hold up - because that implies 1000 years of technological advancement (phones, the camera, electronics are clearly a thing) still happened in the demon “world” (and we’ve never seen demons use them, they seem to be a human thing). The highest up the hierarchy we’ve seen happen to be the scientists. That’s why I think it’s plausible that humans are smarter than demons (cue the fascination and desert of smart people) and they provide technological advancement and food, and in exchange the top of that chain in the humans can “co-exist”. But we haven’t seen a lot of demon society so it’s hard to say if they’re just not as inventive as humans. And even if that WERE the case, I don’t think that’s enough to call it “equal”, it’s still a massive power difference. Though apparantly, SOMEHOW, the struggle used to be equal 1000 years ago, so- like I think “We’ll kill you” is still something that’s likely to be the winning argument even if there was the chance to be on equal grounding again.

But now that I’m thinking about it, even taking the “equal” thing away, it’s still contradicting. Krone specifically talked about the humans delivering goods, which are technically “outside” and still “in the farm (system)” - but they are definitely not on equal standing. So I don’t think she means the other working parts of the forms.

So I just wonder if there are humans who are benefitting from this system in some way for damning others. Hello ominous guy from the OP.

He doesn’t seem too oppressed, going to be honest. 

It’s possible I guess that the demons wanted to make sure that there wouldn’t be an uprising by having humans “on their side” and the higher ups, not concerned for the humans further down the food chain, agreed, thus making it a deal and “equal”. Since they can’t kill every human because they’re their precious food, so it’s a good idea to keep them in check and not have them hate them actively, but I think demons could still stop a human uprising??? It might be unnecessary drama though.

But even then, you can’t really say they keep up a good relationship with the higher up humans to make people further down cooperate, since they are driven by existential angst (become a mom or die). They know humans will cooperate them if you threaten them with death.

So I’m just really confused what makes the higher ups so different.

inb4 it was just Krone’s subjective knowledge and I make a fool of myself but again, ominous guy from the OP seems like he’s really enjoying this (assumingly high) standing he has.

I’M JUST CONFUSED.

I don’t understand politics, clearly.

.

. The Promised Exposition

[someone talking about how it was portrayed boringly]

yeah, I imagined some sort of visual to go along with the exposition bc the music sounded so fairytale / telling ish but then again, the anime never really showed things that were explained; and let the viewer imagine it.

So now I really have no idea if it's like... actual geographical separation (#more walls time) or like,, parallel worlds?? I feel like taking away the visuals kind of leaves more room for interpretations, and imagination but I still agree that it's sad they don't really play with imaginary things. it's kinda grounded in LA techniques in that aspect I feel.

About the reveal itself: I didn’t expect the potential solution to be revealed so soon, and it was different to what I expected. I’m still a little confused on how the demon vs human fighting was so balanced?? did demons use to be more like Sonju and Mujika, because then I can kind of get it I guess? Like humans have a chance then.

Or where they all just dumb dog demons bumping against trees because then I get it too pff-

Either way, as touched upon higher up: The demon world seems to have some classical human inventions. Does that mean that

a) the demon world just happens to have the people in it that made those inventions?

b) someone else invented them and there’s a similar technical progress in the “human world”? 

c) there’s no crossing between the worlds (according to Sonju), so it can’t be that the inventions are from the human world, I think. I wonder if we’ll see it and how different it’ll be from the demon world’s humans inventions.

.

The more I think about it, the more interesting I find this potential solution. It still seems a little too magical, but the setup is already magical and as my friends pointed out, it’s not just a matter of “go over there and be safe”.

Breaking the promise could start the demons being enraged at it and breaking it too, and the hunting could re-start.

Maybe it could be missed or just not noticed if just our group left, but Emma has learned nothing from her compromise in S1 and now plans to take EVERY CHILD, apparantly, probably soon to be replaced with every human. And that’s definitely not going to go down well with the demons.

I wonder if the eventual conclusion will be to save a small group of people, paralleling S1′s conflict. Save everyone vs. saving those you can right now and coming to terms with the sacrifices you made (which technically, hasn’t happened yet. For Emma it’s not like she gave them up, she’s going back for them. But as this story is being setup now, I think it’s highly impossible to take every human/every child). Which has pretty dark implications! You might get out, but the cycle will just start again as long as any humans exist in the demons’ world; the suffering will continue. Escaping already likely endangered the humans in charge of the farms, who likely won’t (or can’t in case of the implants in the moms) escape even if there’s a big scale rescue operation (plus good luck with getting everyone while having all demon forces on your back).

But I feel like that’s a more likely resolution than fighting a rebellion against the demons, which would likely have no end and no satisfying resolution. Obviously I’m not really sure where this story will lead and what will have to be done in order to cross over.

If it breaks the “promise” and figurative “wall” between the worlds, it could be damning all of humanity. So I guess the alternative resolution would be that they stay in the demon world, to not risk that, and do their best living a good life there, and also.... probably coming to terms with not being able to save everyone.

It’s also definitely not as satisfying from a storytelling perspective, but there’s a lot of interesting conflicts and dangers being setup.

.

. Sonju

Yeah it was sweet how he was like careful being like "i can't leave this around the kids", and being like "it's hard to say this" when he had to tell them about the rule to the promise or later when he asked Emma if they should not do the gupna thing this time. Like he's honest and direct but still caring and that's sweeto

.

. Mom Gilda

The scene with Emma and Gilda was amazing, it was so funny, but even then the art actually did look intimidating, which I felt they struggled with in S1 sometimes (Emma holding Ray’s hand telling him to never do it again was just like “pff-”) but this was really well done.

It just heavily parallels Isabella trying to tell Emma to become a Mom so that’s??? an interesting thing, that kind of threw me off for a bit.

But maybe that’s just confirming that Gilda is indeed the mom.

i feel like the art in general improved a bit tbh. Obviously with nature and fantastical elements there’s a lot more to MAKE look pretty but idk, it’s just nice! 

.

All the stuff surrounding this was so sweet too, Jemima is too precious and panicky Ray as she’s crying is just adorable udshdjs. Also Lani and Thoma being like “can’t leave him alone for 2 seconds, keeps trying to die” is a big mood but also RIP Ray.

.

. RIP Ray

Speaking of RIP Ray......

:>

[raphycraft]

The Bridge in the Birch

Notes: Hi! this is my first fic in a long time tbh, I haven't written in a while and this was just kind of for fun, as most fics are, but I am not looking for any critique on this fic, I'm not looking to improve just sing my mlm heart out lol. Anyway!! this is my little fic about Steve and Alex meeting for the first time in mc, I headcanon Alex as a dude mostly so Alex is a dude in this fic as well as Steve, just wanted to write that outside the tags as well because I don't want people to get confused when they’re expecting a woman presenting or lady Alex! likes and reblogs are greatly appreciated! This is a one-shot but I plan to write more little one-shots with the same Steve and Alex : )

Wordcount:  5860

Tags: mlm, gay romance, men loving men, he him Alex, he him Steve, minecraft fanfiction, slowburn, romance , vanilla mc fic

The Bridge in the Birch

He strode across the plains, following the stream downhill,  it was a dim day with not much to do. Finding himself humming the beat of that one disc, what was it called? The label had 'Mall' written lazily and smeared across the vinyl disc, he remembered. Reminiscing the confused excitement of finding something entirely new while also having no idea what it was. He spent days building something to play it, something he had seen in a village once, a jukebox, it was called. The day he got it working, he tumbled around his room. Stepping easily and shaking his head with pace, back and forth to the soothing beat of the melody. It was something entirely new, something he had never even seen before. And it was really great.

Running his tawny and worn fingers through his dust, brown hair, he sighed back to reality. Weight of the world falling upon his laboured shoulders again, it must have only been 20 or 30 times before that tune became monotonous and drab? yes? Just another thing in the world to become boring, the thrill of the world around him was slowly and ever so slightly becoming less and less every day. Even now, taking an evening walk with a diamond sword concealed in the sheath was ludicrous, but normal for him. But despite the nagging drab of the world, it kept going, and soon enough Steve would have to head back home soon, as dusk approached and the sun melted away into the horizon. But he continued, it wasn't like too much harm could be done to the entirely armoured individual. 

The stream now began to widen out, following the dirt and grass through to the birch woodland and growth not too far ahead. Steves heavy boots began to sink slightly into the muddy frays of the upcoming river. He strayed away slightly to avoid having to clean that mess when he returned later. As the moon began to rise above the hills and mounds of the beyond, the shimmer of the diamond armour was more apparent, traces of light swirling the seams and bolts of Steves armour, the plum shimmering form of the character heading into the heavy shrub and thicket. Birch trunks surrounded him, he lit a torch, fiercely grinding the coal ore against the frayed wooden stick. Burning brightly, the flame burst into life and swallowed the emerging darkness around Steve, whipping and lashing at the trees and shrub around it, Steve always managed to sway and manoeuvre it well enough to avoid any little forest fires. A mistake sorely made too many times when he first woke up in this abyss, empty world.

The sun was still swirling and melding against the rust and rouge sky still, barely visible as the transition formed between the two lights in the sky, watching the two supposedly shift and the sky reform never got old, it was one of the only things that never became annoying, or drab, or like a nagging feeling of time passing for Steve, he craned his head upwards steadily, as he followed the light he held out in front of him into the forest. He decided he would follow the river around the birch thicket, he knew this area well but hadn't usually ventured past the broad and sunk river, all the way from the small stream in the plains, the body of water travelled down the lands and formed larger and greater till the birch thicket approached, it formed deep here and had never occurred to Steve go beyond the water.

It was then Steve let his head fall to the area in front of him again, fanning the smouldering flame in his hands to reignite the fiesty flame, his eyes squinting desperately at a moving form in the approaching shrub, the glow of a lantern was sparkling against the light of steves torch, he almost dropped the stick at his own feet, bewildered at the sight, a light source? There was no village, he knew that for sure, no lanterns or lights he had left himself, he had walked this route a thousand times when he needed to clear his thoughts, only his thoughts were racing faster than ever before. 

Did a villager leave this lantern here or something? he thought as he approached, gently reaching up to touch the lantern hanging from its rusted chain, attached to the birch branch above him, just to check it was real. The smouldering heat of the flame hitting the glass was real, and he could feel it, he almost rang back his dishevelled hand out of absolute confusion and bewilderment. No? villagers are not known to wander away from their towns, they can barely hold up themselves without a golem. He couldn't imagine a villager wandering out here to place a lantern in the trees. Then what? he turned rapidly, looking for an answer, something to follow this mysterious amber light. There he spotted it, another lamp, and what looked like to be a structure over the river past the dark and bundling trees and shrub. He jogged hurriedly, confused and hoping for answers, but also excited, it wasn't like a structure he had ever seen before, it was something entirely new. 

Approaching the structure he slowed, apprehensively standing behind the protection of a birch tree, he gasped to himself as he gazed upon the small bridge crossing the river, it had been about a week or so from which he last walked this way, it must have been created in that time, it was nothing like the other structures, that had always existed before his time, this one was absolutely new. 

The wood posts were oak and held strong and clearly new, stripped and held up by fences, nothing was damaged or weak, it was definitely recent, Steve knew that new intoxicating smell of cut wood. There were large stone brick posts forced into the shingle and clay in the riverbed, they held well and the flow of water dashed around the structure intruding its body continuing around the lowland and around to the plains again. There were planks and trapdoors placed and nailed above the wooden posts as a shelter to the bridge, with lanterns hanging down from the roof of the structure. He approached wearily from behind the birch trunk, noticing there had been fresh daisies, oxies and tulips planted, the soil around them fresh and bumpy in the grass. He began to slow as he stepped toward the fresh hold of the bridge, the stone steps late and unfamiliar to him, someone had built this he thought, stepping onto the first ledge of the step.

The sounds of logs falling and colliding as they hid the floor echoed out the forest, Steve whipped his head up instantly, no longer heavy and weighed by his thoughts (and his helmet) fixed in place by shock and disorientation, torpidly lifting his arms to lift the helmet from his crown as his eyes laid upon the figure in front of him.

Their face was pale with awe, their face basking in the light of the bustling lanterns. Squash fray hair pulled to the side in a messy and rushed ponytail, tousled with the wind gently pulling their hair from side to side, their iron boots shining in the emerging moonlight above, they had a ruffled sage shirt, tucked into their bronze and tight belt, their trousers clearly too big for them, hanging by the belt and collecting at the collar of their boots. Steve letting his eyes fall to the logs surrounding their feet, finally reacting to the clonk and clobber initiating his surprise.

"Uh, let, let me get that". Steve had no idea how he could so casually create such a regular response to such a world-changing matter, but it was his reaction, to just respond in such a way that was almost more absurd than the life-changing event of meeting another person that he had just experienced. He scrambled over the bridge, leaving his helmet on the stone pillar of the bridge on his side. Boots thumping heavily against the plank to the other side, realising he had never even been to this side of the river, he couldn't even comprehend there had been another person here.

The individual stood back in confusion, almost aghast at the situation. As he lent down, he came closer to the person, they had a fray stubble on their chin, misshapenly shaved by the looks of it, and blemish and brown freckles peppered their skin all over, tracing their hands and nose, down their neck and onto their collar, of which he noticed now the sage shirt hung loosely off of their shoulders, they were very scrawny, and their hands were thin and bony, they had leathery gloves with the fingers cut off, and he could even see their fingers were freckly. The palms of the gloves worn and discoloured with time, muddy and frayed at the fingertips. Steve collected the logs around their muddy iron boots and slowly raised to meet with the figure, although he couldn't because here he found he was a good head and a half smaller than the person in front of him, he had estimated. 

"h-here" Steve awkwardly and abrasively held out the logs in his arms, towards the person in front of him.

"I, thanks, I guess" they took the logs from Steve and stood holding them for a moment, in distraction and a strange inability to continue this strange, strange, interaction. 

"Are you the only one?" they asked, with an almost laughable bluntness, their voice was low but gentle, a stark contrast to Steves deep and gruff tone.

"Well, I thought I was. But uh, you, you're here, unless your not human and-"

"I'm human, I think." They cut in, realising that they were both in the same predicament they looked into each other's eyes for a moment, trying to sort and find an answer to this scenario without a single word. Steves wide, clear aqua eyes swirled and looked into the cloudy, tired chartreuse eyes of the person in front of him craning his head slightly to lock gazes.

"My name is Alexander, Alex for short"

"My name is Steve"

The two finally let go of their curious stares, and under the approaching night sky, the stars peering down excitedly on the two Alex gave Steve an apprehensive smile. Steve warily responded with a beaming smirk. They each awkwardly smiled at each other again for another moment, Steves hands awkwardly pinned to his sides, neither had any idea what to do, something was telling Steve to hug him, tell him how happy and excited he was to meet him, how he had wished he crossed this river long ago. And something inside of Alex felt the same, Alex swallowed his hold on his discontent and excitement all at the same time and opened his mouth to speak again.

"Well I, its dark now, so I should be heading home." He blurted in a flustered manner. Tightening his hold on the logs, almost rushing to just run to his comfy, familiar home. Turning on one foot he spun towards the direction he had come.

"Do you want to meet here tomorrow? I just, I've never met a person before and I feel like we could really use each-"

"midday, 12, when the sun hits the 2nd quarter of the clock" Alex scurried off, in apprehension and a clear awkward fear of heaving to deal with this entirely new scenario. He strode as confidently as one could in this sort of ordeal, away from his newly-built bridge he had been so proud of only a few hours ago, remembering he had needed to add extra support to some of the posts, only to have this happen. "You didn't even finish it” he muttered in frustration to himself. Unlike Steve, Alex was a man who preferred his own company, something that seemed to sort itself out nicely in such a world as this, he had become accustomed to talking to his own self as a form of interaction, and had never even considered another person. The only people he knew were the South Village and they never really spoke on the same terms but understood each other well enough. He turned abruptly at this thought to gaze back at the person he now knew as Steve, Steve had excitedly run back from his side of the bridge into the shrub, torch in hand away to the side of the river Alex had never really been before. He turned back and headed into the plains beyond, there his small cabin stood. Away from the village but close enough to see the gentle lamps in the far distance as the darkness of the night entirely fell over the world. Alex dropped the logs and let them hit the small wood porch in absolute exhaustion. His body heavy and anxious he kicked off the large and stumpy boots to the side of his door, leaning over to one of the lamps hanging from his porch cover, opening the small glass panel to light it up as it spat and sprung inside of its cage, it burst bright and heavy as Alex scorched a piece of coal against the small flame. Reaching back to his door he stared at the flame for a moment, still not able to comprehend what had just happened. He quietly pushed the squeaky hinges open and closed the handle just as the sound of rattling bones and light steps emerged from the treeline. Locking the small bolt on his door he sighed with such release he hadn't felt in months, he leaned up against the wooden door and let himself slump against it and idly removed his tattered gloves.

"Your not the only one, Alex" he stared at his own hands for a moment. He clenched them softly in a strange confusion he did not even understand himself, and lifted his heavy body from the wooden floor and into the next room, almost throwing himself onto the bed, not even thinking about his muddy clothes staining the sheets he kicked off the dirty worn trousers over the side of the red sheets and pulled the thin and meagre covers over himself. Laying his head into the worn and handstitched pillow, holding it in fear he might lose it if he let go. The worn and tired bags around his eyes bettered him at that moment, and he fell asleep clutching bedsheets warming himself into the cool night. 

The sun poured into the dark and sombre room, Steve rolling over as the light fell onto his figure and lit his shadow up in the amber morning. The birds singing from the windowsill outside, their shadows dancing and halting in front of the window. The figure grumpily held his eyes shut in a desperate attempt to resist his awakening, he pulled the grey covers over his messy tangled hair, he had almost escaped the clutches of the morning when a heavy bark and howl rung from outside of his bedroom doors. A repeated howling and scratching fell on the oak doors. Steve growled with a low hunger and opened his eyes to the noise. "shut up Panda" he begged as he blinked the sleep out of his eyes. rolling onto his side towards the loud and bright window. Sunlight glaring and life peering from the rays that entered his gloomy tired room. He had pondered as to why he hadn't closed the curtains before he fell asleep last night, and then it hit him that it had been a deliberate action. He sat up with a purpose as the events that unfolded the previous night were found in his sleepy memory, he had left them open on purpose so he wouldn't sleep late! He swung his legs over the side of the bed and gasped as they hit the cold floorboards. 'Worst part of the morning' he thought as he stretched and strained his muscles to wake them up. The howling and scratching had yet to slow from behind the double doors, He rose and shuffled over to the doors, swinging them open from the force on the other side. 

"Good morning, Panda" He tried to resist and curb his beaming smile as his wolf and friend, sat excitedly at the door in the landing, and burst in the second it had the opportunity. "You're excited this morning arent you, do you know where I'm off to today?" he crossed his sturdy and wiry arms behind his head to stretch again, Panda leaping onto the covers, circling a good spot to sit while she listened to Steve contemplate about all the decisions he had to make before going out. Steve cracked his knuckles while trying to rearrange all the bundling thoughts in his head properly. "The clock!" he declared to himself, well himself and Panda. He knew he had one hanging around somewhere, he had used it countless times before but never found much need to carry it now, it wasn't like he ever had to remember a time to meet someone. Until now. He rushed down to the landing, pottering down the oak steps, holding the bannister as he sped into his living area and into the crafting room. Here he had piles of boxes, rows of chests and drawers filled with miscellaneous items he needed from time to time. Where would he even keep such a thing? he thought about it for a moment before realising he often didn't organise much in here anyway, so it's not like it fit into a category. He started opening every latch on the chests, barrels, boxes and draws and swinging open their lids and doors. Rummaging through every pointless possession he had from his countless journeys. Eventually, in the box filled with odd nicknacks, an eye of ender, an empty glass bottle, an old treasure map and under it all was the tattered and scratched clock, its glass cracked to the left of its circular clock face. He stared at it for a moment, almost needing how to remember how the thing worked. The small dials and arrows confused the still half asleep individual, he stared a moment longer before exclaiming in panic, it was not long until the hand struck the 2nd quarter. 

He paced himself upstairs back into his room, pulling the old and large nightshirt haphazardly off of his body, throwing it into the washbin next too the door. He swung open his large set of drawers, finding his clothes. he grabbed the blue shirt and pulled it over his scarred and unshaven torso, lunging arms as fast as he could into the sleeves of the thing, falling back onto the bed almost, he pulled up his casual and well-cut denim jeans, making sure the pockets weren't sticking out, he stumbled over to the small mirror on his desk. Looking into the musty glass (he remembered at this moment he had to clean it at some point) he saw the reflection of his swarthy skin and the thick beard on his face, he contemplated shaving but remembered he didn't have much time and didn't want to make Alex feel like this was anything more than a curious meeting. He caressed the hair on his face for a moment and grabbed his comb to tidy up his messy hair. It was coarse and dark and the light reflected on it with a sharp hazel glow. Harshly pulling the wooden tool into the front of his hair trying to calm it, he pulled his cheeks trying to check for any marks, it was then he realised how dirty his hands were. 

Steves's hands were shabby and timeworn, he often did hard manual labour and had to learn how to hold a sword of such size somehow. He turned and gazed at the dusted and wrinkly knuckles that belonged to him, and met his eyes with his right hand, which had an old bandage fitted around his palm and wrist so it bore less damage and he got less burn on that particular hand. It occurred to him he hadn't properly cleaned his hands or replaced the bandage in days. And head into the washroom to the right of his room to clean off before he left. Unravelling the bandage, it was dirty and mucky underneath. He dove his hands into the bucket of water and tried to scrub any dirt from under his nails as best he could. He found more bandage in the draw besides the bucket and wrapped his right hand up again before running out just in time he thought. Kissing Panda on the forehead goodbye and promising he would let her run outside later. As he approached the bottom of the stairs he locked eyes with the armour stand at the door, the hallway beaming with light reflecting off of its arctic blue shining form. He smirked before deciding he didn't need it and picking up his axe and leather strap, strapping the axe to his back and pulling the strap over one shoulder across his torso, he didn't wanna scare Alex right?

Swinging open the large oak doors by their iron handle, he breathed in the fresh and crisp air of the dreamy sunny morning, almost jogging with the clock in hand, trying to find a good pace to make it on time. After a few minutes, he could see the birch forest in the distance, beyond the plains and mounds. He smiled as he approached the thicket once again, now the environment radiated with serenity and bursting sunlight peered through the trees at him, he tried to remember exactly what spot the bridge had been at, aimlessly following the river and the sound of the water rushing until he spotted the structure through the bushes. 

Alex had sat expectantly for some time now, under the shade of the bridge on the luminous and clear day, the lamps had gone out on the bridge but they were not needed under this brilliant sun. He tampered with the unravelled wove of the basket he had brought, keeping it close to him while fidgeting with its worn and old handle. The stick basket held a bundle of goodies: sweet bread, cookies, a slice of pie for each of the boys, cut apples, and some various slices and cuts of pork. "That'll go off if he's not here soon" the individual revised to himself in a fussy tone. He pulled a small gold pocket watch from his pocket, swaying the small device to try and read the dial with the sun reflecting on the clean shimmering glass frame.  

"Alex!" Steve called from beyond some of the trees, Alex shut the golden watch surprised, and stood to greet the other man, brushing off the dust from his baggy trousers he greeted Steve with a  shy smile the stared at each other again for a moment, Steve saw that Alex did not look as nearly as dishevelled as the night before. His hair was tidy and in a soft plait on his right shoulder, fringe set to the side behind his ear in a tidy fashion, and the small fluff on his chin was now cleaned to an even stubble around his face. "Hi! sorry if I'm late, I don't usually use this clock, to be honest with you" Alex peered down to the messy, rough silver clock that steve held in his palm, scratched and cracked at the glass. 

"Maybe because it isn't saying the right time" he pointed timidly with a chuckle, "the hand isn't placed correctly, " he corrected the smaller but more robust man, Steves face flustered with a cherry-pink before huffing about some dodgy merchant, Alex smiled in comfort for the first time that morning, trying to contain a giggle under his grin, before sitting on the side of the bridge he came from, basket in front of him, Steve following the motion with an embarrassed shy smile.

Alex, not sure how to continue the interaction, simple opened the latch of the basket and began to take out the small cloth bundles filled with treats and food, Steve reminding himself at the sight of his low rumbling hunger earlier. 

"Wow shit, if I knew you were bringing stuff I would have brought you something nice" He peered as Alex silently handed him a cookie. 

"Don't worry about it, I had nothing to do all morning anyway" He peered up to meet eyes with Steve "do you want a sandwich? I've got pork".

"Yeah thanks, I, so you've never met another person right?"

"No, I haven't, well not like you, there are the villagers"

Steve piped up at this mention "Oh so you've been to a village? yeah, they're strange, no matter how hard I try I just can't understand completely? you know? It's like their language is off-limits to my brain"

"I lived in one all my life and still couldn't seem to understand entirely their language, but I guess it's impossible"

"You were raised in a village?" Alex perked his head up from cutting the bread, almost slicing such a horrendously uneven piece off right there with the dagger as Steve asked his question. "Well yeah?" he gave Steve an unsure look, "where else would I come from? A good 4 years at least. When I woke up, had no idea where I was, they had found me on the outskirts of the village and apparently, the golem carried me there. They looked after me as best as they could I suppose."

Steve bored his eyes into Alex a moment while trying to figure out what he had just said, "4 years..." he pondered "are you sure it was 4? I woke up in the woods I'd say closer to 5 years ago. I was like a newborn basically. I had no clue what I was, or who I was, I just remember waking up and wandering around. Eventually, I started to try and make tools to survive after nearly dying on the first night of my life." he chuckled at this as if it was some simple remark.

"You woke up in the forest? shit, I, I got it lucky then I guess. I guess it could have been 5 years, it was only till half a year later I started properly taking note of the days passing." he tried to remember as he passed the smaller man a pork sandwich. 

The two sat in silence for a moment as they took their first bite each, Steve ripped into the sandwich, clearly excited to shove the entire thing in his mouth, it seemed to Alex. Alex momentarily watched, before taking a small bite into his, uptight at the thought of eating in front of another person, but then again, judging by the way steve was eating he didn't seem to care who was looking, which definitely took some of the anxious weight off of Alex's shoulders. 

"So do you think," he swallowed "we might have woken up at the same time? and never have even known?"

"Well I think so" Steve expressed as best as he could with a full mouth, "we both said 4 or 5 years, and I've never met anyone else so I don't really have any experience about how people are made in this world"

"I can't believe I'm, not the only one" Alex raised his gaze longingly, suddenly the tension raised again as they were pulled back into the stark reality of this meeting, they were both meeting the only other person (as far as they knew) in the entire world that was like them. Steve finally gulped down his mouthful and gave Alex a pining look, that feeling of needing to hug Alex and tell him how glad he came to him, and the same feeling began to bubble inside of Alex too. Steve didn't hold down this feeling this time and smiled with such joy as he practically leapt over to Alex, holding him in an embrace. Alex squealed with such surprise it sent his face into a bundle of blushing nerves. And wearily returned the embrace and wrapped his spindly arms around the large and hardy man. 

The thinner man's mind raced with so many different bursts of thoughts. At every moment his brain was observing something else he loved about the man, something he had not entirely noticed before, the feeling of his skin, his weight, his presence, the way his hair was heavy and felt nice on his face, how his beard felt rough as it brushed against him. His face was soft, but his arms were heavy and blemished with age, it was textured, and he was quite fuzzy, arm hair bustling and his hands were worn and old, completely changed by labour, the way his large and burly figure wrapped around him like a ragdoll, he was large and muscular, but was tender in the way he moved. As Alec returned the embrace and wrapped his spindly arms around the sturdy torso of the shorter man. Steves hug grasped with such beaming joy as Alex wrapped into his cradle. He was soft and seemed to sink into Steves embrace, his face was blemished and his eyes held a wisened age Steve couldn't quite pinpoint. His expression was often cloudy and even if Steve couldn't see it, he could feel the lax and affectionate feelings radiate from Alex in his arms.  Alex was fragile, it felt weird to consider him in such a way, but he just felt fragile and tense for a moment too long before easing into the snuggling arms of Steve. Steves’s heart bustled as Alex tenderly nuzzled his head into the crook of Steves’s neck, almost in such a manner where he wanted it to go unnoticed. 

As the two parted, after a silent adoring moment in each other’s arms, Steve chuckled at the frays of Alex’s hair straying and floating in the dazed air surrounding them, he noticed his face was faint with pink but didn’t bring it up, he was more focused on chuckling at the sight of the messy nest of hair he had created. ‘it’s easy to ruin’ he thought, which led him onto considering how long Alex had spent neatly placing his hair just to see him. 

“What? What are you laughing at?” Alex exclaimed to the silent forest, he had turned his head with haste to compose himself for a moment. 

“Sorry,” Steve hollered, from what was previously light and a hearty chuckle. “Your hair is just so messy” He leaned over to flick the lock of auburn hair away from Alex’s eyes gingerly. 

Alex’s face hardened with a chill embarrassment. He was so jarred by the confidence of Steve, from the moment they met he had been the one to initiate any conversation or real interaction, if Steve had not been so casual about their first meet, he would have turned on his heel and ran with his tail between his legs, he was sure of it. But he hadn’t, he was sitting here now, blushing and trying to tame his hair while the burly figure chuckled and hollered at his expense in such a soft cheer it was rattling the mind of the introvert with such discord he could only sit there and stare for a moment. 

“Sorry for that” Steve realised the weight of the embarrassment, looking at his almost locked face for a moment longer, his giggle dying down into a concerned raise of eyebrows. “It’s just been a lot meeting you, It was instinct, if that, makes sense”. 

“No no no, I get it” Alex finally shook the introverted daze and responded, “It wasn’t bad just, unexpected.” 

“You don’t get a lot of company, do you?”

“Do either of us?”

Steve timidly smiled at the former again, “Well you don’t need me for the company do you? I visit villages a lot, merchants are commonly by my place; they’re always spotting the chimney smoke and the noise, and well, I have a dog too. I don’t like being alone too long, reminds me of when I first woke up.”

Alex’s mouth as he was listening turned up into a silent ‘o’ as Steve listed on. “ Ooooh, here’s the thing, I prefer to be alone, I don’t know, I guess it just worked out, like, I never thought anyone else but I existed anyway so, I feel pretty indifferent about it”.

“Well, have you ever thought if you’d like company? If you haven’t thought about it before.”

Alex pondered a moment genuinely before cheekily smiling at Steve “aw, you want my company that bad?” 

Now it was Steves turn to be stunned, Alex had just shot a sly remark his way, uncommon but hilarious. The two laughed together a moment. Softly smiling at each other and simply appreciating one another’s presence. The sky was bundling with clouds and the sun still shot through where it could with great luxury, but the heat started to dissipate into mild weather. The two sitting on the bridge, eating, talking about trivial things. Finally, after hours the cheery pair realised how dark it was getting, the clouds swelling and the sun finally retiring, dipping beneath the hills. Rain rapidly began to drip and pour. Steve and Alex scrambled to collect the picnic and put it in its basket as the water leaked and snuck through the gaps, slits and cracks of the thin wooden roof of the bridge. “God I’m a shit builder” Alex blurted, the static of the pouring rain interrupting him while trying to desperately cover his not-so-tidy hair. Steve finally finished lumping all of the remains of food into the woven basket, handing it to Alex as the snapping thunder began above them.

“This got messy quick” Steve shouted over the thunder

“You don’t say,” Alex took the basket in a firm grip, afraid it might slip out from under his grasp.

They looked into each other’s eyes for about the millionth time today, still in wonder, feeling like the void they had opened up wasn't nearly as satisfied as they had expected. Their fingers brustling against one another as Steve passed the basket to Alex's smooth and soft palms. The tight grip over it barely defines the cracks in his fingers and palms. 

“I’ll come to check in tomorrow?”

“Sure” they smiled.

Steve beamed as his beard began to deflate and his hair fell over his eyes. The rain showering over the man, with his top clinging to his skin, he turned with hesitance as they waved their goodbyes and he ran off with a fast pace, searching for refuge from the rain. Alex weakly grinned to himself as he ran through the trees, holding the basket over his head to keep it from wetting further. Finding himself on his damp and rainy porch, he didn’t bother to light the flame in the lantern and entered the squeaky spruce door.

[doktorpeace]

🖊 please introduce us to Erato, I know they're in a masks campaign but I have no idea what else

Oh, gosh, I feel like I talk about them too much as is but I can’t say I’m not glad to have the excuse. This is gonna be really long cause tbh I’m just gonna dump like, a bunch of their lore lmao.

Erato is my Masks: A New Generation character in a campaign being played alongside @twerkyvulture (As Amanda ‘Megafauna’ Ghorbani, The Transformed) @draayder (as Josephine ‘Rattlesnake’ Short, The Reformed) @spitblaze (as Les ‘Void’ Hawking, The Doomed) @heedra (as Enid ‘Frag Beetle’ Day, The Scion) and @skarchomp (as Parker ‘Cobalt’ Andrews, The Legacy) with @dykeceratops as our GM. The current arc features @mechanicalriddle as Zoe, The Nova as a guest member. Here’s a group shot done by @tredlocity. Clockwise from the top left: Cobalt in blue, Erato in the track suit, Les in the cloak, Zoe with the mismatched eyes, Enid’s the big robot, Amanda’s got the scales and claws, and Josephine’s got the mask and tonfa.

To get back to Erato specifically though they’re an Anti Metahuman/Metahuman Suppression Weapon created by the in universe tech group Wright Industries, founded by Ingrid Day, Enid’s mom. They’re generally stronger, faster, and more durable than humans and can copy the superpowers of others for 5-10 minutes by touching them thanks to what is basically a meta-stem cell transplant interacting with other parts of their systems. (Also, I 100% swear to god that I did not consider ‘Robot Hero Who Copies The Powers Of Others’ is literally fucking Mega Man despite loving Mega Man a ton until after I had hashed out the concept with my GM’s assistance. Only once Abby said ‘oh like mega man’ I was like ‘wait, shit’.) I’ll tell you some about them as a person before unloading their history onto you, lol. Being an android built for combat and kept in an underground research lab, kept on a rigid schedule, constantly taking tests, physical, mental, written, oral, ethical, etc. etc. etc. and under constant supervision Erato lacked for real interactive experience before the campaign started only really ever getting to takl with authority figures and their sisters. They were very passive and observational, owing in part to their power set requiring a lot of adaptation to make the most of. They’re naive and very bad at exercising discretion in decision making, sometimes they overstep boundaries when talking with people without meaning to, and they’re really emotional! They have trouble dealing with strong emotions cause they haven’t managed to discover coping mechanisms that work well for them, they tend to get angry kind of easily and need time to blow off steam. But they’re also very genuine, honest, and well meaning. They are almost never mean, rude, or snippy, they do their best to do well by others, and have a strong sense of justice paired with a deep distrust and dislike of the current legal system in universe. This is in part due to the conditions of their creation (and in part because the intent behind it was kind of right!) and in part due to Enid’s life being threatened by a representative of the state while they and their teammates were in jail after being arrested following a huge brawl with an anti-methuman terrorist group. They’re also very willing to put forth the effort to improve as a person and to mend relationship wounds, almost always apologizing first to Enid when they fight and genuinely trying to work in advice and feedback they get from others, which they often get from Les and Parker. They’re also relatively educated, from the tests of their creators, from home and public schooling, from personal research, but that doesn’t undo their naivety. They also just straight up lack some very basic and/or common sense knowledge. Like, they don’t know what a bear is. Why would you teach a battle android working in a densely populated, extremely built up city about wild animals? All in all they’re kind of inexperienced and immature and make mistakes a lot but they’re (usually) very willing to admit their mistakes and to try and improve and get better. They genuinely and truly want what’s best for others and are learning to value them self as much as their teammates. They’ve also taken it upon them self to start doing humanitarian work in their free time over the summer. In a fight Erato is adaptive and quick witted but tends to put themself in more danger than is necessary. They also sometimes use more extreme force than the others believe is called for, but after the first time they did they and Parker had a real heart to heart about it, Les helped Erato learn and practice some coping, centering, behaviors they could do even under pressure and Erato did their best to adapt. That said they Fucking Hate The Keeper So God Damned Much Because Of How Much Suffering He’s Caused Their Friends And How Much Danger He Presents And Would Kill Him With No Remorse. So they don’t intend to apologize for ripping his arms off whatsoever. They and their sisters, collectively known as The Muse Units, were made to work as a group and as a proof of concept that atomized units could replace traditional police for use against metahuman criminals and to slowly phase out The Registry, the legal department which handles general metahuman based laws. If successful the units could be mass produced and improved upon, rapidly replacing current, error prone, law enforcement. At the time of their development, between late 1999 for blueprint drafting and until mid 2002 when the project was shut down, they were the cutting edge for AI development aided in no small part by Ingrid’s technokinetic powers allowing her to make advancements few others could. (As a note Erato’s body was finished being built in early 2001 but their unique personhood didn’t really come to fruition until February 18th, 2002, so that’s what I consider their ‘birthday’.) Ultimately, however, while a few of the Muses excelled some did not perform to expectations, the project fell behind schedule, investors lost interest, and a minor scandal involving a casualty happened, resulting in the project being shut down. The Muses were placed in indefinite storage, the data gained from their short existence used on other projects such and some of the tech advancements used to inform future decisions by the company. And it would have stayed that way, if not for the fact that in 2018 Ingrid Day was revealed to be The Locust in a conflict where Enid tried to defend her against a militia group who had been hired to take her down, being shot and presumably killed in the process. As The Locust she had been terrorizing Boston for over a decade trying to take it over and being involved in the deaths of over 70 people. (Which irl btw would make her like, the 8th most prolific confirmed serial killer of all time, Yikes!) Wright Industries, desperately needing to prove their hard stance against metahuman criminals and needing a PR stunt to deflect from their connection to their former CEO re-awakened Erato. They weren’t the most powerful or best performing of the Muses, but they were above average, obedient, and had an easy enough to monitor and control power set with little risk for property damage to boot, the perfect choice. Erato then took to the streets of Boston acting basically as a vigilante, following orders, stopping minor crimes, and sometimes working alongside the police. They attracted the attention of The Viceroy, a semi-retired 56 year old hero who never registered in spite of it being compulsory legally. They both have the ability to copy the powers of others, though he can just by sight, and he has body elasticity too. These make him durable and extremely adaptable, add to that his detective skills and he’s something of a local Boston legend. He took them in as his Protégé. Though they remained distant for quite some time with Erato still coming and going between his place and Wright Industries, having promised not to reveal his assistance to the doctors who Erato reported their work to. It was this way for about a year and a half before the campaign started and Erato began living with Viceroy full time, no longer wanting to go back to Wright Industries as they began to think more independently and consider what they wanted for them self more. During this time Erato had chance encounters with each of the other characters a few times as they also did minor vigilante work, peaking with a villain who is a member of Superhuman, an extremist pro-metahuman group, attacked the school that Josephine, Les, and Amanda all attend. After that incident Erato was prompted by Viceroy to contact each of these other young potential heroes to form a team, The Upstarts. Additionally during this time Viceroy took in Enid who had been abandoned by her biological father and had been getting bounced around foster care. Over time the three of them have become kind of a weird family, living in a warehouse full of cats with a couple of bedrooms grafted on and an ultra secret basement lair underneath full of advanced stuff Viceroy makes. Though Erato and Enid have definitely had their ups and down, more recently in the story (and we’ve been doing this campaign for well over a year now) they’ve been putting in serious effort to better their relationship and be good adoptive siblings to one another. I love their relationship a lot, they’re good kids.

That gets us up to the start of the campaign but hoo boy, I’ve been writing for like, an hour now. Since then Erato’s helped take down a nazi-aligned terrorist organization, they’ve got a boyfriend in their teammate, Les, and they’ve made friends outside of their core group of teammates. They’ve also enrolled in school doing well on some classes and poorly in others, namely learning how to Code and Woodworking. Currently they’re at a sleep away summer camp for superpowered kids called Camp Justice, about 10 miles outside of Boston. They really, really hate it there. Constant supervision, being made to do tests, things scheduled out against their will, inability to leave the area? Yeah that certainly reminds them of something. The difference between it and school, which does share these features, is they wanted to go to school. They very much Did Not want to go to camp. As a result they’re finally going to have to start facing the trauma they’ve got from their origin and also actually tell the others other than Les and Amanda about their sisters. Whiiiiich...Enid saw one of them disassembled and showed off in parts at a school science fair display set up by Wright Industries to gauge interest in students. And she hasn’t mentioned this to Erato...for 4 months Uh Oh! Lastly, here’s my tag I use mostly for art I make of them, it includes some texts posts and picrew dumps too though, lol. Feel free to look!

[tony-starkrogers]

The Massive SteveTony Rec List

Welcome to my Fairly Comprehensive, Ridiculously Long SteveTony Fic Recs, aka my collection of pretty much nearly everything I’ve read and loved so far over the years. This fandom is lucky enough to have some truly brilliant and dedicated authors, and I’m always discovering new fics to love, so I thought I’d share some of them with you! Fics will be sorted alphabetically tbh just because I suck at sorting stuff? Some of my personal forever-faves will be marked with ♡. This is by no means all of the fics this fandom has to offer, but if you’re new to the fandom, this should give you a good place to start, and if you’ve been a SteveTony shipper for a while, hopefully you’ll find something new! And if you do have a favorite fic that’s not on the list, please add it to the comments or rec it to me (because who doesn’t need more fics)!

Here’s just a few GREAT resources to check out if you’re looking for Even More fic recs:

@sabrecmcstonyficrecs - I mean, sabre is basically THE fandom resource? Any and all fic you’re looking for you’ll likely find here. ||| @findingstony - if you’re looking for a particular fic and don’t remember where you found it, look here first! ||| @cap-ironman - the place to go, especially for brand new fics! the fandom lives here ||| @nasaficsrecs - many good fic recs ||| @ishipallthings many wonderful rec lists ||| @sineala - the place to go if you are at all interested in 616 SteveTony or really anything in the 616 comics universe

I have lots of fics bookmarked on ao3: my bookmarks! You can also check out my other fic rec lists, and my general fic rec tag. Also while you’re at it maybe check out some of my fics?

And here are the recs! (under the cut.) Have fun reading and be sure to show your authors some love with kudos and comments!!!

♡ 1796 Broadway by rainproof, teaberryblue - M | 460,220 words

Captain America respectfully requests that all complaints be addressed to him in writing. On paper, the nice old-fashioned way, because the computer screen hurts his eyes.

Put your phone down, Tony.

absence makes the heart by fantalaimon - G | 4,835 words

“One night,” Tony says, and just flies himself bodily into one of the canary yellow beekeepers like a red and gold battering ram. “I ask for one measly night. One single goddamn night with my boyfriend—”

“Oh, is the boyfriend label on now?” Clint asks over the comms.

A Higher Form of War by sabrecmc - M | 292,114 words

Tony is a King with a surprising number of people out to kill him. Steve and the rest of the Avengers are fighting for Pierce's rebellion and end up with Tony as their prisoner. Oops.

A New Way For Us by ann2who - M | 24,435 words

They fight Thanos—and they’re losing. And before Tony knows what’s happening, he’s standing with Doctor Strange in front of the Eye of Agamotto and gets send back in time. Can he find a way to fix things this time around, or are they doomed to fall apart all over again?

♡ A Partial Dictionary Of The 21st Century By Captain Steve Rogers, US Army by copperbadge - E | 13,888 words

Steve is adapting well to the new millennium, and he has the dictionary to prove it.

age is an irrational number by valtyr - E | 8,749 words

Steve and Tony grow old together.

♡ All Roads Lead To by theappleppielifestyle - G | 13,155 words

After Obadiah's betrayal, Tony hides in the depths of the Midwest to become a mechanic.

The Avengers come into his life anyway.

All These Things I've Said by Amuly - M | 5,840 words

When Tony starts talking in a language Steve can't understand--the language of science--Steve figures he'll retaliate with a little foreign language knowledge of his own. Only once he starts speaking French around Tony, Steve finds that sometimes it's easier to say what he really wants to say to Tony in a language he can't understand.

Good thing Tony doesn't know French.

And The Void Would Be Calling. by jadedoll - E | 17,721 words

Tony could be suffering from amnesia, a hitch-hiker from a parallel dimension, a ghost or maybe a time-traveller. He's sure he could work out the answer if Steve would just stop pretending he was Tony's boyfriend.

♡ As Sharp As Any Thorn by RurouniHime - E | 47,027 words

It’s four days to Christmas, there’s a city in shambles, and the nation is in mourning because of the actions of a single man.

♡ Be No Stranger (All Your Saints and Soldiers Remix) by jibrailis - T | 5,973 words

That's the twenty-first century love song, baby. Glitz and glamour and every one of us is a liar.

Bizarre Love Triangle by panickyintheuk - T | 1,929 words

Once the idea was in his head, he’d started picking up on all kinds of things, like the way Stark talked about Iron Man with such affection, and seemed to share so many of his mannerisms, and was constantly working on ways of improving the suit. It was obvious.

Blank Slate - A Tony Stark Mystery by navaan - T | 25,381 words

He doesn’t remember who he is or who his friends are, but he knows he’s in a Nazi prison and needs to get away. He doesn’t remember anything about Captain America either, but the man seems to be the kind of guy you trust.And apparently they share more history than meets the eye at first glance.

♡ But Loving Him Is Red by theappleppielifestyle - Not Rated | 25,524 words

"It is- it is not just destined, Steve Rogers. It will reach through the decades, through entire universes if it has to. It will scour the galaxies without rest until the two of you are standing next to each other. Migardians- Migardians call them soulmates, I believe."

♡ Captain America, Undone by laireshi - M | 2,818 words

Steve thinks he can seduce Tony before Tony seduces him. He's very, very wrong.

♡ Captain !@#$*%& America by Wordsplat - T | 8,093 words

The first time Tony hears Steve swear, he's pretty sure it's a dream. The second time is a lot harder to dismiss, considering it's the middle of the afternoon and they're both clearly awake. After that, what else can Tony do but use science to get to the bottom of it?

Catching Lightning in a Bottle by sabrecmc - M | 120,650 words

College student Tony meets janitor Steve at MIT and they fall blissfully in love, until Howard happens and things fall apart. One divorce paperwork snafu courtesy of the ever-helpful Jarvis, and ten years later, Tony has to get re-divorced from Steve.

This does not go as he imagines.

♡ Cherry Ride by copperbadge - E | 12,318 words

A SHIELD agent named Roger Stevens told Tony that his nickname was "Cap". Tony didn't connect the dots until it was much, much too late.

♡ Counterpart by sara_holmes - M | 217,400 words

coun•ter•part [koun-ter-pahrt] [noun] 1. a person or thing closely resembling another, especially in function. 2. a copy; duplicate. 3. one of two parts that fit, complete, or complement one another.

Just because Hydra used the DNA of a Captain America from another dimension to create a lab-grown, six-year-old super-soldier, it doesn't mean that said six-year old super-soldier is biologically Steve's, right?

(Where Steve wants to ban Clint from bringing things home from alternative dimensions, until he doesn't.)

Dangerous Kitchen Tools by ladyshadowdrake - E | 18,330 words

Engineering prodigy, billionaire, and heir to the Stark Industries empire, Tony Stark turned the business world on its head by opening a restuarant and burying himself in the kitchen. Years later, he covers an informal evening cooking class for his friend and fellow molecular gastronomist, Bruce Banner, where he meets famously camera-shy comic artist Steve Rogers.

♡ Dazed and Confused by tsukinofaerii - M | 4,160 words

Captain America has a great many duties that need careful attention. He has to... uh... That thing where... Wow, Tony's pants are awfully tight, aren't they?

Dear Tony, by sirona - T | 5,925 words

Once the dust after what no one is referring to as "The Break-up" has settled, Steve starts writing and doesn't seem to know how to stop.

"death by coffee" and other search queries by goodmorningbeloved - T | 2,841 words

In which Steve's feelings are hopelessly obvious through his Google searches. JARVIS decides to step in.

Deep in the Heart of Me by Finely Honed (jaqen_hgar) - E | 255,926 words

There were days when the realization that he was someone’s father made Steve's head hurt, but mostly he was grateful that he could trust his instincts, because apparently Peter was what had been missing from his life. Yes, he still had lingering, unresolved issues from his time in the Army, and sure, he had what Bucky annoyingly referred to as a criminally untapped ass, and no life outside of work and Peter, but Steve was okay with how his life had turned out because of trusting his instincts.

Unfortunately, those same instincts had straight up betrayed him by going absolutely haywire upon being exposed to Tony Stark.

Do It Over by Sineala - T | 1,999 words

The last words your soulmate says to you are written on your skin, and you won't know who they are until they die. The thing is, Steve and Tony die a lot.

♡ don't know why it took me so long to see by goodmorningbeloved - M | 11,209 words

“Oh, watch this,” Natasha says, propping her chin against her knuckles and turning a sweet gaze on him. “Tony, what’s it like dating a superhero?”Tony bristles in irritation. “We’re not dating,” he snaps. “Captain America probably thinks he can get into anyone’s pants just ‘cause he’s got a mask, costume, and reputation, but not me, buddy. That shield? Gotta be overcompensating for something.” He adds, a bit petulantly, “Oh, and all that blue? Definitely more Steve’s color than his.”-

In which Tony is a genius in all matters except recognizing his boyfriend past a mask.

♡ Emanata (The Comics Will Break Your Heart Remix) by teaberryblue - T | 29,720 words

Steve Rogers has the opportunity to fulfill his childhood dreams of becoming a comic artist when eccentric billionaire, superhero patron, and obsessive comic enthusiast Tony Stark offers him a job drawing Iron Man.

But Tony Stark has no idea that Steve Rogers is really Captain America, the newest member of the Avengers.

And Iron Man has no idea that Captain America is really Steve Rogers, up-and-coming comic book artist.

And Steve doesn't know what to do about the fact that he's falling head over heels for them both.

♡ Engaging the Enemy by tsukinofaerii - T | 22,823 words

Iron Man is one of the more persistent villains that the Ultimates face, with a special fondness for one Captain America. As Steve starts to findout more and more about him, the lines between hero and villain begin to blur. Sometimes, you don't have to be on the right side of the law to be in the right.

even if the brain has forgotten, perhaps the teeth remember (or the fingers) by theappleppielifestyle - G | 8,906 words

Tony gets temporary amnesia.

Some things are clearer without his preconceptions dragging him down.

♡ Even My Phone Misses Your Call by rainbowninja167 - E | 10,869 words

Steve makes it all the way to Ohio before conceding that the post-Chitauri road trip might’ve been a mistake.

Or, ten times Steve has to call Tony to come pick him up.

Even Tony Can't Resist Puppy Love by Wordsplat - T | 7,766 words

In which there is a dinner bet, a com line confession, and, as usual, Loki's magical hijinks make Tony's life unnecessarily difficult.

Fairy Godmother by Amuly - T | 5,186 words

Auntie Peggy has been telling Tony stories about Captain America his whole life. Only problem is, the real thing just about measures up to the stories. Which means, of course, that Aunt Peg has to go to work, because an Aunt's work is never done.

Favorable Winds by RurouniHime - T | 2,056 words

Steve’s voice comes from behind, a sigh and a thump as his own pack hits the floor. “Sam. Meet Tony Stark.”

Follow in Your Footsteps by Sineala - T | 6,788 words

When Tony is twelve, his soulmate's name appears on his wrist. Unfortunately, it's hard to find out anything at all about Steve Rogers.

It turns out there's a reason for that.

Formerly by laireshi - T | 13,620 words

A week ago, he touched Steve at night. A week ago, he kissed him. A week ago, Steve kissed him back.

(A week ago Steve was dead, and Tony deleted his brain.)

The Foodieverse (series) by copperbadge, scifigrl47 - works G-T | 130,326 words in series

It's an AU where everyone works in the food industry. That makes total sense and is definitely not wildly irrational on any axis.

♡ Get Some Now by Sineala - T | 10,376 words

Avengers Mansion has a mysterious feline infestation. Meanwhile, Steve just can't figure out how to ask Tony out on a date. And the thirteen teleporting cats sure aren't helping matters any.

♡ Going on a Ride (series) by theappleppielifestyle - Not Rated | 14,306 words in series

"You want to take me for a ride on your motorcycle," Tony repeats, slow so he can process it as he’s saying it, "because you think my glasses are cute."

Hashtag Finally by Wordsplat - T | 15,208 words

Tony doesn't ever actually ask the Avengers to move into his house, steal his wifi, eat all his food, and become the best family he's ever known. They do it anyway.

How To Be a Truly Terrible Wingman by Wordsplat - M | 11,721 words

Prompt: "We were both playing wingman for our friends who have now decided to go home together, and after five minutes of conversation we fucking hate each other. Let’s bang it out."

♡ How To Excel At Supervillainy (and lose your heart to America) by Zekkass - E | 13,531 words

And that's how Tony's supervillainy hobby got way way way complicated.

♡ How to Lose a Super Soldier in One Easy Step by and_backagain, jibrailis - E | 18,248 words

Rogers jerks backwards, shock registering on his face, and Tony thinks, welcome back to the land of the living, Cap, looks like you're sticking around.

Or, a Pushing Daisies AU.

♡ I (created from fantasies) exist solely for you by Mizzy - T | 62,917 words

Six years ago, without the Avengers Initiative there to save the day, scientist Dr. Eric Selvig sacrificed himself to save the world, the almighty demi-god Thor was lost to a terrible storm, and vigilante Iron Man – spotted with a nuclear weapon trying to take advantage of the situation – was forever labelled an enemy of SHIELD.

This is a comic book office AU, where Steve is defrosted a year too late, Thor has forgotten who he is, and no one knows Tony is Iron Man. Also includes: office pranks, inappropriate post-it notes, and superheroes who like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain

Indecent Proposal by gyzym, Siria - T | 2,592 words

On the plus side, marriage is bound to be easier than proposing.

i stole the keys to this guy by kellifer_fic - M | 6,007 words

Where it was Nick Fury's idea, but he didn't mean it like that

♡ In Which Tony Stark Builds Himself Some Friends (But His Family Was Assigned by Nick Fury) (series) by scifigrl47 - works rated T-M | 343,010 words

Steve takes things like personal responsibility and respect seriously. Tony's got people he pays to take care of that kind of thing, and anyway, he's pretty sure that he's going to die of some exotic disease in his workshop, because Dummy's still a little spotty about what is 'clean' enough to put on an open wound. The rest of the Avengers are in this for personal gain, except for Clint, he just enjoys being a dick.

And some things shouldn't be a chore.

♡ i will never stop losing my breath (every time i see you looking back at me) by theappleppielifestyle - G | 3,222 words

In all fairness, Tony is on autopilot when this happens. He’s had a long, hard day, and it’s possible he hasn’t slept in several long, hard days. He’s already half-asleep on the couch and he’s relaxed and happy, which is a rarity on its’ own, and he’s comfortable enough to let his guard down and get his body to do all the work without switching his brain on.

That should’ve been enough of a warning sign, but apparently not: Tony stretches, says goodnight to his teammates and gets varied responses back, and then he kisses Steve.

He only realizes what he’s done after he’s started to lean back, opening his eyes to see Steve’s blown wide, staring at Tony with his lips gone slack and a tiny furrow between his eyebrows.

if they be worthy by theappleppielifestyle - Not Rated | 824 words

Everyone's staring, and Tony isn't awake enough to do anything but gape dumbly at the hammer in his hand."Huh," he says."Seconded," Steve says through his toast. "Tasha, go tell Coulson another one of us can pick it up."

♡ Last Train Home by erde - T | 10,983 words

Steve writes letters to Tony that he never sends. By the time he hands them to their rightful owner, Tony has had a brush with death, has retired as a superhero, and now has a small town workshop of his very own. But it's okay, Steve has gone into retirement too.

Like Gene Kelly in the Movies by lyra_wing - M | 11,449 words

Everything Tony Stark does is a dance. And it's super confusing for Steve.

Like Sunlight by sara_holmes - M | 8,309 words

Steve is used to the way it feels by now; a strange but gentle tugging connection under his sternum, warm tingles in his skin whenever they touch. That is, until Tony gets himself kidnapped. Then it kinda feels more like someone is trying to wrench his heart out through his ribcage.

Looking for Heaven by foxxcub - E | 31,950 words

When young Lord Anthony Stark learns Steven Rogers has enlisted in the army, he thinks he's seen the last of his tiny, headstrong, haughty stable boy. But four years later, Lord Stark gets an unexpected visit from Steve, whose mother has fallen gravely ill and into financial ruin. Even more unexpected, Steve agrees to a shocking proposal: they will marry, giving Steve the necessary funds to save his mother, and Tony the much-needed reprieve from harassing would-be suitors. It is a business arrangement, nothing more. But as time goes on and circumstances arise, Tony begins to learn that keeping his heart away from his husband is easier said than done.

♡ Love in a Time of Amnesia by Amuly - T | 6,241 words

Carol might have lost all her memories of her friends, but there's at least one thing she can know with absolute certainty: Steve and Tony are a couple. And if the rest of the Avengers insist on saying they're not, well: Carol will just have to put her amnesia to use, for the greater good.

♡ L☆VE by copperbadge - M | 3,773 words

Steve's favorite shirt is at the center of a debate about masculinity, sexuality, and whether or not he did in fact steal it like a thief in the night from Tony.

♡ Meet Your Heroes by Wordsplat - M | 4,130 words

Tony gets rescued by a highly concerned, very handsy Captain America. This is confusing for a number of reasons.

Momentary Paws (or, DO NOT WANT) by velithya - T | 16,834 words

WTF KITTEN

♡ Mr. July by jibrailis - E | 10,065 words

Tony is the only one who can defend Steve's virtue. Tony hates his life.

♡ Neanderthals In Tights (Also Known As a Football Game) by Wordsplat - T | 3,228 words

In which Tony supports Steve at his first big football game, with guest appearances by an exasperated Pepper and an embarrassed Bruce, because yeah, okay, maybe Tony's not really one hundred percent clear on the rules of this game. Why, exactly, are a bunch of neanderthals tackling his boyfriend again?

one hundred percent skill, fifty percent luck by kellifer_fic - T | 7,418 words

Where there is a poker game, a v-card and general misunderstandings

Orbiter Dictum by schmevil - T | 7,357 words

Steve is at the sink, washing the few dishes that pizza for two generates, when he realizes that Tony is in love with him.

Our Weight In Gold by ann2who - E | 33,607 words

It was every cliché he’d ever heard about. Every sappy thing they wrote down in the magazines, every single thing he had always hated about the myth. It was as though he had experienced life without sight, and was suddenly bombarded by a storm of color. It was all-consuming, and rushing through his veins like molten lava, like his whole existence was suddenly filled with sunlight. A door opened, and a myriad of emotions stormed through his body: confusion, disbelief, loneliness, and so much fierce determination that it almost knocked Tony off his feet. And he understood then, understood that these emotions weren’t his. They were Rogers’.

This is a story about fate, self-doubt, choice and eventually—love.

Over Sea, Under Stars by vorkosigan - T | 36,651 words

Tony gets the phone, but he never uses it and he never intends to. Or, he doesn’t until Steve starts texting him, asking strange questions about medication and mental health, which is when Tony gets worried.

♡ Phil Coulson's Case Files of the Toasterverse - works rated mostly G-T, | 287,890 words in series

Short stories from the Toasterverse

Place Your Bets by RurouniHime - M | 35,999 words

Steve Rogers may or may not have just picked up a prostitute. This may or may not be Tony Stark’s fault.

♡ Pulse, Beat, and Measure (series) by Sineala - E | 134,095 words in series

Two men. Two worlds. Life during wartime.

Ready, Fire, Aim (series) by gyzym - M | 63,019 words in series

There's no "I" in "Avenger."

♡ Relativistic Heat Conduction (series) by BlossomsintheMist - E | 70,484 words in series

Age of Ultron-based, but not entirely canon compliant. Written for the 2013 Cap-Iron Man Reverse Big Bang. Ultron has attacked, obliterating most of the world's superheroes and resistance in a matter of hours. The remaining heroes band together and share what strength they have to get through it, to survive, and defeat Ultron once and for all. Steve Rogers grieves in the wake of the disaster and the heroes' defeat, and no one knows if he will be able to provide the leadership they need--but Tony Stark isn't about to let him slip away that easily.

♡ Rom-Commed By Fate (Or JARVIS) by leashy_bebes - E | 14,387 words

The best thing about being an Artificial Intelligence is the ability to parse, filter and modify the things people say until you've got the cause to do exactly what you wanted in the first place. Or, in which JARVIS cock blocks Tony into having an actual relationship.

♡ Run Program: {x} by Amuly - M | 19,728 words

Taking care of Tony is a lot of work. Especially when you’ve only got one arm. And your code dates back to the 1980s.

♡ Secrets of a Successful Marriage by valtyr - E | 24,118 words

Tony Stark lives a double life; he's secretly the supervillain known as Iron Man. But his loving husband Steve has a few secrets of his own, as Tony is about to discover.

♡ SexyMechanic70 by Potrix - T | 2,449 words

“SexyMechanic70,” Natasha reads aloud, nodding approvingly.“Sounds promising,” Clint offers.“And look,” Bucky adds, “he didn’t even send a dick pic! And he praised your sketch which, by the way, is a totally lame icon choice.”Steve snatches his phone back, batting Bucky’s hands away when he struggles to reach for it again. “Cut it out,” he grouses. “Also, excuse me for not posting a picture of my abs.”“A true tragedy,” Sam sighs, earning himself an indignant squawk from Bucky and a betrayed look from Steve. “What? I’m just saying. They’re great abs.”“True,” Nat hums and bumps the fist Clint is holding out to her.

♡ Sixpence In His Shoe by scifigrl47 - M | 103,682 words

Steve and Tony should really read the fine print on what they're signing. Then again, some mistakes are not really mistakes.

♡ Soul Bomb by copperbadge - T | 1,944 words

Suddenly everyone in Manhattan has someone else's voice in their head. Tony got Steve's, for his sins.

♡ Stand Back, I'm Going To Try Science by Good_News_Everyone - T | 2,123 words

Soulmates are a rare and cherished thing, a simple touch of hands bringing love that lasts forever. By all the rules of romance, they're meant to wait for each other and to trust in the vagaries of fate to bring them together. Tony's never been good at waiting, and when he has science on his side, who needs fate?

♡ Start as You Mean to Go On by BlackEyedGirl - E | 2,612 words

Tony gets that the others think this is an ego thing - the way he can’t resist pushing Steve’s buttons. Honest-to-God, the guy just bugs him. Mostly because Steve is distractingly perfect, but a little bit because of the family history.

♡ Steve Rogers Is (Not) A Morning Person by theappleppielifestyle - Not Rated | 1,161 words

Dream, Steve decides. With that comforting knowledge, Steve takes Tony's face in his hands and kisses him.

(Spoilers: it isn't a dream.)

Steve Rogers Takes Offense and the World Gets Schooled by RurouniHime - T | 2,463 words

In which Steve has no idea how that got up on BuzzFeed (aka, because some people don't respond to anything but the direct approach.)

♡ Syzygy (a Kludged Together remix) by Mizzy - T | 20,198 words

When Tony Stark cut Steve Rogers' morning jog short to join him on a reconnaissance mission off the East Coast, Tony sure wasn’t expecting to end up stuck on a life raft in the middle of the ocean, Steve's hand knuckle-deep in his chest.

♡ Tales of the Bots by scifigrl47 (series) - most works rated M | 523,654 words

When Tony Stark was seventeen years old, he built his first AI. On that day, he ceased to be his father's creation, and became a creating force in his own right.

That one act likely saved his life, and not always in the most obvious ways.

The Best Policy by cylobaby27 - M | 22,724 words

Tony Stark breezes through life on bluster and bullshit. When he gets hit by a truth spell, he locks himself away in his workshop so he can find a way to reverse it without anyone finding out. So why can't he say no when Steve keeps asking to spend time with him?

♡ the family you choose by theappleppielifestyle - Not Rated | 7,385 words

“Just who exactly was my son making out with in a closet?”

“Tony Stark.”Huh.“You might know him,” Fury continues, and Sarah nods, furiously biting at her cheek so she doesn’t do something awful, like giggle.

♡ The Forever-Nighter by Wordsplat - T | 10,172 words

When Rhodey decides that Tony's been slacking lately and drags him along to the gym, Tony's fully prepared to duck right back out the door the first time Rhodey turns around. Then he sees Hot Blond Guy.

♡ The Last Love Song of Anthony E. Stark by jibrailis - M | 42,327 words

After contracting an Asgardian virus, Tony starts forgetting things. And people. And Steve.

♡ The Opposite of a Problem by Sineala - T | 2,490 words

"I promise to love, honor, and probably not obey you, and, uh, take you as my totally-unlawfully-wedded husband, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others, until death do us part, or for at least the next seventy-two hours."

(Or: Tony and Steve get fake-married for the sake of the mission.)

♡ The Tchotchke Cha Cha by Arukou - T | 7,269 words

What started off as one impulse buy souvenir snowballs into a constant flow of knickknacks from all over the world, and Steve is starting to wonder if it's more than just Tony being nice.

♡ The Twice-Told Tale by arysteia - E | 15,789 words

For someone he'd hero-worshipped for so long, Steve Rogers in the flesh is a pretty big disappointment. For one thing, he keeps looking at Tony as though he reminds him of someone else, and even if he never says anything, Tony's pretty sure it's his father. A lifetime of not measuring up to Howard's expectations is more than enough, thank you very much, and he's certainly not going to make an effort to live up to any of Steve's. Steve's pretty clearly failed to live up to his expectations, in any case, and that's not hypocritical at all.

Think of This as Solving Problems (That Should Never Have Occurred) by Sineala - T | 35,216 words

No one knows Tony is Iron Man. Then Tony gets amnesia, and literally no one knows Tony is Iron Man.

♡ Toasted Buns by copperbadge, scifigrl47 - E | 47,044 words

After seeing Tony naked and tanned -- all over -- in a decontamination shower, Steve realizes he may be in trouble. Tony, meanwhile, is definitely in trouble over those tabloid pictures of him sunbathing nude. The solution is clearly a tropical island getaway.

♡ Tony Stark Falls In Love With A Cat by shellhead - M | 6,887 words

When Steve goes missing, Tony ends up finding him at an animal shelter. Volunteering.

♡ Tony Stark and the Super Sleeper, or actually, Soldier by RurouniHime - T | 8,571 words

The one where Steve keeps falling asleep on Tony.

♡ Tony Stark Takes a Liberty and the Universe Thanks Him by RurouniHime - T | 1,512 words

In which people think they are entitled to Steve Roger's face (aka, because tomorrow is coming, and I hold out hope, Supreme Court.)

♡ Toy Soldiers by copperbadge - E | 44,241

When Steve Rogers, five foot four and a hundred and ten pounds, met Tony Stark in a bar, he didn't expect it to lead to a relationship. Or that Tony would find out he's not an art student during a SHIELD rescue mission in Afghanistan.

♡ Truth by valtyr - E | 2,677 words

Captain America takes truth serum. Tony is all over that.

♡ Two Out of Three (Ain't Bad) by plingo_kat - T | 9,449 words

It blindsides him one morning in the middle of his customary third cup of coffee; Steve walks through the door in loose cotton pants, shirt pulled up to wipe the sweat off his face from his usual morning workout, and Tony thinks: adorable.

♡ Unveil My Unsightly Heart by Mizzy - M | 43,019 words

Looking over an old prototype helicarrier for its future viability as a base for the Avengers should have just been a routine day full of bickering and non-adventure for Steve Rogers and Tony Stark.

But when they're catapulted into an alternate universe – where their alternate selves are married and battling with a mysterious threat – the two are forced to get over their differences in order to figure out what's going on, before it's too late.

Because there's more going on than meets the eye, and Steve and Tony falling in love might just be the most dangerous thing that can happen. Not just for one universe, but for all of them…

Wait & Sea by Lenalena - E | 53,244 words

In which Tony and Steve get sent on an undercover mission aboard a cruise ship to make contact with Hydra. In this AU the military has kept the discovery and defrosting of Captain America a secret, so Steve and Tony have never met before. Yet they are to pose as newlyweds....

Wash It All Away by ann2who - E | 8,634 words

Steve hummed, looking up at him. “All right. Strip.” Tony blinked at him. “Excuse me?” “Can’t very well wash your clothes while you wear ‘em,” he said and held out a hand expectantly.

What You Don't Know by Sineala - E | 9,808 words

In 1941, two strangers meet in a bar. And then Captain America meets Iron Man. And then Steve Rogers meets Tony Stark. They get it right. Eventually. And also they fall out of an airplane.

♡ when i run out of road, you bring me home by quidhitch - M | 18,466 words

“Oh, I won’t bother you.” The tone of Steve’s voice implies that he definitely will be bothering Tony, aggressively and frequently. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll keep to my farm, you keep to yours. Solitude together.”

Tony opens his mouth to argue that that’s not how this works, but he snaps it shut at the realization that Steven Grant Rogers is fucking with him. That twinkle in his eye has accelerated into a full-on glimmer, and the ends of his lips are twitching. Jesus, he hates this man. Or maybe he wishes he did. Tony can’t really tell the difference anymore.

♡ When I think about you by sirona - E | 11,955

Five times someone saw Steve sass the hell out of Tony and one time Tony finally bought a clue. Also known as the story of Captain Sasspants more than handling his own with Tony Stark at his most devious.

♡ When I Think (Oh, it Terrifies Me) by celli - E | 8,641 words

Look, some mornings you wake up and little green men are invading New York City; some mornings you wake up and you can hear Captain America's voice in your head. Tony has been an Avenger long enough that he saves his freakout for important things.

♡ will we ever say the words we're feeling by theappleppielifestyle - Not Rated | 1,673 words

He breaks off then, the realization of what he’s just revealed finally hitting him, and he stops, and Tony’s still staring.

(Or, Steve and Tony argue and Steve lets something slip.)

♡ With Words Other Than These by RurouniHime - E | 14,690 words

The way Steve’s beating that bag, though—Tony traces the cadence as well as the lines of Steve’s body, and wonders if he might not need to know about the mission after all. There’s a lot of tension knotted in Steve’s shoulders, a frenzy to each punch. The precision lacks. Maybe Steve’s just getting started, and if that’s the case, Tony could be here a long, long while.

with you by laireshi - M | 3,108 words

Sometimes Steve gets overwhelmed by how much he loves Tony.

Your Name on Every Wall by Sineala - T | 17,863 words

The Time Gem throws Steve into the past rather than the future, and in doing so, it gives him the opportunity to undo his past mistakes. But when it turns out that all of his mistakes involve Tony Stark, Steve begins to wonder if he's ever going to be able to mend things between them.

---

Hey, the list did have to end at some point! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed these recs!

Tagging some people who might be interested:

@divine529, @sabrecmcstonyficrecs, @sineala, @ishipallthings, @itsallavengers, @nasafic, @estebanrxgers, @starksnstripes, @goodmorningbeloved, @goose-danvers

[kdtheghostwriter]

SNK 115  - “OMW”

I mean...

Let’s be real. As far as Deus Ex goes, I’ve seen more preposterous this week.

If any of you are wondering why this post took so long, it isn’t for lack of time I assure you. This chapter was…a lot. And god damn, Isayama, I wasn’t expecting to dig up my Junior Year debate notes for this one blog post but here we are lads. Quick recap before we get into writers’ mumbo-jumbo.

Flashback

Deus EX

#HeelFloch

Sad Hange

RESURRECTION

We all know Isa loves his religious imagery. He isn’t quite as egregious as Zack Snyder (who is, tbh?) but it’s definitely a thing. He also loves mythology of all types. And while Norse mythology seems to be his area of expertise, it isn’t mine - which is why seeing Stupid Sexy Zeke emerge from his Titan Incubator made me think of another Stupid Sexy God from the Ancient Greek Canon.

I speak of the Goddess Aphrodite, who has dominion over love, beauty and its various trappings. Admittedly, this comparison is drawn in relation to aesthetics only. Zeke’s aloof temperament doesn’t really mirror that of the Greek goddess. Even though Aphrodite did technically help start the Trojan War but that’s neither here nor there.

Zeke’s appearance from the steam of the felled Titan is nearly identical to the foam that appeared during Aphrodite’s spontaneous conception in the Ionian Sea. For the sake of transparency, I must point out that long ago, a fanfic author by the name of Homer relayed to us that Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and Dione. This is not technically wrong but it is quite boring. And it was also pre-dated (shout-out to Hesiod). Uranus, the primordial god of the sky, got into a spat with his children as deities are wont to do. This particular dust-up ended in Uranus being castrated by his son – the Titan, Cronus – who usurped the throne. The disembodied testicles fell into the sea like a pair of primordial bath bombs and out of the resulting effervescence appeared a full-grown Aphrodite in all of her Tumblr-banned glory.

Zeke, with nothing left of him after the explosion than a head and torso, was taken into the gut of a waiting Titan. Let me clarify, here. He was not eaten, no. The mindless titan scooted itself along the river banks and inserted the dying Zeke into its stomach cavity. Then OG Ymir with her trademark PATHS Magiks,  crafts the golden boy a brand new body and sends him on his merry way.

Like I said up top: of all the examples of Deus Ex, this isn’t even the third-most severe I’ve seen. The implications of it are…a lot. And it actually makes sense if you consider what we know about Titan Biology.

Back to the beginning. Once upon a time, the Founder Ymir Fritz made a deal with the Devil of All Earth that gave her untold power after coming into contact with the “source of all living matter.” With that power, Ymir became the Progenitor of Titan Power. Upon her death 13 years later, her soul was split into nine pieces and connected via a metaphysical system known only as PATHS. These PATHS transcend space and time and bind together every subject of Ymir, even those who have been long dead.

We also know that the Titans themselves are a conundrum of theoretical physics. Their mass and energy are created from nothing. They generate massive amounts of heat, but don’t appear to need fuel. They have no digestive system and regurgitate the contents of their stomach when it becomes full. Even though they are huge creatures, their actual limbs and body parts are incredibly light. Even though Zeke has little recollection of what happened to him post-explosion, he’s likely smart enough to infer, as we can, exactly how and why he emerged from the carcass of a Titan with a brand new body.

This is all before we mention that Zeke Jaeger is a part of the Fritz family tree. The Royal Family line that descends directly from Ymir herself.

I also thought about Lazarus of Bethany while reading this section. Lazarus was a good friend of Jesus, the lad from Bethlehem. Maybe you’ve heard of him. Jesus was told that Lazarus had fallen ill, but has business and doesn’t set out until a few days later. Jesus and his crew arrive in Bethany only to discover that Lazarus has already passed away. This leads to the Gospel’s shortest verse.

Jesus wept. [John 11:35, KJV]

Perhaps the better comparison for her is to Abraham (with the whole “making a great nation” stipulation). But! I’m trying to do something pithy here, so bear with me.

The story of Lazarus might be the Good Book’s most well-known resurrection (besides that other one). The idea here is that the world’s most Holy Figure decided that this man’s time on Earth wasn’t done. Jesus was too late to heal Lazarus and felt so guilty as to weep. Lazarus was then called forth from his tomb, still wrapped in his death robes.

For the Eldian Empire, no figure is more Holy than Ymir Fritz. She’s the Founding Titan and, if this chapter is to be inferred upon, her spirit still influences the will of her subjects to the day. An entire cult has formed with the sole purpose of returning her to her former glory. I should also point out that Zeke essentially committed suicide.

Like, yeah, maybe the injuries were a bit too extreme for an old shifter to be able to regenerate from, but even if that’s the case there would have been the telltale signs of an attempt to do so, like Pieck in Liberio. There wasn’t even that. He was so tired of the fight – so done with Levi torturing him – that he was willing to abandon his years-long plan entirely and sacrifice his powers to the shadows of death. He chose to die; the Founder chose differently.

The rainstorm clearing to make way for the sun. The beautification of Zeke Jaeger. The visage of his tall, strong frame standing firm as his hated rival lays broken and mutilated at his feet. It’s all very hard to miss. Who knows where his head is at following this? I do, however, finally know why I get so many Spidey Sense tingles whenever Zeke opens his mouth.

  The name is Immanuel Kant: German scholar and one of the godfathers of modern philosophy. I first learned of Kant and his teachings as a teenager on my high school debate team as I prepared my cases for the Lincoln-Douglas competition. It was my first tournament and I placed second out of dozens of students. After I was done for the day, a girl came up to me and gave me congratulations for understanding Kant. I thanked her, but the truth was that I didn’t fully grasp Kantian philosophy until I got home that night and studied a bit more. Kantian ethics can be hard to grasp because they are often in conflict with each other. (Gee, that sounds familiar.)

Kant’s ethics are deontological in principal. This is a fancy way of saying that the main concern is the Deed That Must Be Done. It is a separation of morals from emotion. Kant rejected the Utilitarians of the day and their schools of thought regarding the inherent “goodness” of an action. Specifically, he had a big problem with Determinism, saying that things like free will were inherently unknowable; also, basing the morality of a decision around perceived outcomes was impossible, because consequences existed outside of physical existence and therefore could not be quantified. Kant set out to quantify the question of moral relativism with his most famous work: The Categorical Imperative.

This is a terribly complex system that has been repurposed and reinterpreted countless times over the past two centuries so I’ll spare you any ballywho. Basically, CI is the inverse of Consequentialism where everything but the consequences matter. Saving a person from drowning isn’t inherently a good action unless there is a logical reason for doing so. This is admittedly a very simplified summation, but even the expanded version leads to some dissonance of reason.

If we look at the Abstract of Categorical Imperative, it tells us: “Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself.” This line is very similar to the Golden Rule, which Kant famously opposed. The American scholar Peter Corning pointed this out, saying, “Kant’s objection is especially suspect because the Categorical Imperative sounds a lot like a paraphrase…of the same fundamental idea. Calling it a universal law does not materially improve on the basic concept.” To borrow an idea myself, it’s like playing the Super Mario theme in a minor key. It’ll sound more dour than usual, but it’s still the Mario theme. Joking aside, what’s important here is that the whole point of CI is to quantify the question of morality and it appears to do that in part by using the qualitative philosophy of the Golden Rule.

Another big beef came from Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard. He felt that Kantian autonomy was insufficient in holding people to the standards of CI’s universal truths. In his words: “Kant was of the opinion that man is his own law – that is, he binds himself under the law which he himself gives himself. Actually, in a profounder sense, this is how lawlessness or experimentation are established.” In other words, if the only thing that matters is reasoning, you can justify almost anything to serve your immediate reasoning.

EXAMPLE

Here is where the dubious nature of the Categorical Imperative fully rears its head, as it displays BOTH the morality and immorality of Zeke’s plan.

On one hand, this plan is fucking awful. There are numerous and many arguments to be made against it; working solely in the context of Kantianism, it is irrational to presume that sterilizing the Eldian people will lead to a more peaceful world. It relies on a ludicrous number of assumptions – the least of which isn’t that Marley will one day stop being a total bell end. Besides that shit, it violates the nature of Kantian philosophy by attempting to foresee the outcome of the situation.

The other hand? It actually makes sense. CI says that only reason matters. It’s ethics through the lens of rational thought. No matter your thoughts about the Great Titan War, how it started and ended, whether or not the Eldians’ preceding subjugation was just or not, it’s a fact that the Titans have caused a great deal of suffering for many people. Only one race of people can transform into these beasts, so the idea of stripping their ability to reproduce isn’t a great leap to make. It is rational specifically in the context of this universe.

(Apologies for any details missed. I haven’t read any Kant in several years and this is a very condensed version of a concept I would encourage you to look into further. Thinking about this all now, the fact that I ever made it to out-rounds while arguing any of this is frankly absurd.)

It makes sense then, finally, why Yelena is so devoted to Zeke’s plan. Titans destroyed her home and slaughtered her people. The rational course of action is to remove this weapon from the hands of those (Marley) that would abuse them. And if those same perpetrators get screwed over during the course of this plan then…[Shrug Emoji]. She claims what she wants is justice. What she really wants, of course, is revenge. Just like her sensei, Jaeger-san, who wants revenge still. Which Jaeger, you ask? The answer is yes.

Situations have been reversed. The volunteers (and Onyankopon) are seated at the head of the table while the officers of the Garrison and Military Police that held them captive are under their thumb. Color-coded armbands are divvied out to the Eldian forces, juuuuust in case you forgot which period of history we’re sending up here. Armbands are assigned based upon when a person surrendered to the Jaegerists. Those higher ups (and Falco) that partook of the wine get their own special armband, because Everything Is Awesome!!

Then there’s this fucking guy. Before I revisited the world of epistemology, I had a much less astute take prepared about character psychology and the concept of the “Double Turn.” I may still write that as a separate post; it won’t do any good here. Reiner didn’t appear, firstly (even though it appears that he and the Warrior Unit are on Paradis), and the visage of a disembodied child using Titan Magiks to bring Zeke back from the precipice of death brings up some very real questions about how real the Curse really is. We don’t know how Ymir Fritz died originally. Given the way mythology tends to work, I’d say patricide is highly plausible.

As usual, all we can do is speculate. One thing that doesn’t need speculation is Pieck. As usual, she’s right on time. As expected, she’s exactly right.

 Stray Thoughts

- As I noted last time, Levi was sent flying into the river. Evidently, he had enough strength to make it back to shore, just not much more than that. I suspect he’s alive for now but, goddamn did he get messed up. Levi underestimated Zeke’s suicidal tendencies, just as Zeke underestimated Levi’s tenacity. For two fellas that spent months in direct contact with each other, they have almost no clue.

- Not to stir the pot here but, here’s an in-story example of Kantian Ethics in case you’re still not quite sure. On the roof in Shiganshina – if Kant had been there (lol) – he would have disputed Levi giving the serum to Armin. Not for the reason you think. Categorical Imperative is all about reason. The reason Levi chose to save Armin is because he refused to rob his loved one of their humanity and instead chose to let him rest as opposed to reviving him for the sake of continuing a senseless, endless war. As Momtaku has said before: Levi chose Erwin over Armin. This was a choice made on emotional, borderline selfish, grounds and thereby irrational, which in Kant’s eyes makes it immoral. Just a little extra nugget for you. Discuss, friends!

[saanphoenix]

This goes out to @edwobcharlisle, who just really wanted Connor in booty shorts.

Disclaimer: There’s a lot of swearing and Reader has about the same emotional awareness as Connor, tbh.

Word Count: ~2400

You gasp for air as you chase after Connor. He’s hot on the tail of a suspect--burglary, caught on camera a few blocks back--while you… You’re not-so-hot on the tail of Connor. You’ve been trying to keep up, legs and side screaming at you for the injustice you’re putting them through, but you’ve missed a few...weeks...at the gym, so caught up in work as you’ve been. It shows. You should be faster than this. You’ve been faster than this. But now? Now you’re yards away, hyper focused on the flapping Android jacket of your temporary partner’s while you pray he doesn’t take to jumping over any fences or taking any hairpin turns because you--

Connor hangs a right, down another alley. The action is precise. No doubt calculated to use his momentum to his advantage.

You have to grab hold of the brick wall to slingshot yourself around before you slam into a dumpster. The flesh it scrapes off your hand doesn’t feel too good but you make do. Everything else is burning, what’s one more thing?

The moment your eyes land on the chain link fence in the near distance you cringe. You can make it over. It’ll slow you down even more, and you won’t like it, but you can do it.

Thankfully, you don’t have to. The suspect slows in preparation of his climb and Connor, not needing to do such a human thing, keeps going. The man grunts as Connor collides with his back, tackling him to the ground.

“Man, get offa me!” The guy wheezes, Connor’s knee in his back. You fall beside them. Grabbing a hold of the suspect’s arms, with Connor’s assistance, you put him in cuffs. “I didn’t do anything!”

“Yeah, that’s why you ran,” you sass, breathless.

“Because you were chasing me!”

“We have you on camera,” Connor replies. He doesn’t flounder nearly as much as you do when the suspect tries to throw both of you off. “There’s no point in lying.”

Cuffs secure, you step back and let Connor haul the guy to his feet. There’s fight left in him, but the vice grip Connor has on his arm and the intense stare he gives keep the man in check. Connor may be a deviant--hell, all androids are now, technically--but that doesn’t detract from how robotic he can seem at times, like a machine hellbent on completing its task. A machine you don’t want to cross.

“Fuck you! That wasn’t me.”

Connor clearly isn’t convinced. After all, you know Connor can identify anyone with a quick face scan. There’s no way in hell this guy isn’t the burglar. Unless he has a twin who was wearing the same exact outfit and who just so happened to be in the same area at the same time.

You roll your eyes. “Save it for the station.”

“Don’t I get rights?”

“No--”

“You have the right to remain silent,” Connor interrupts. “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?”

The suspect glares at him.

“With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?”

“Fuck. You. I’m not talking to no fucking cop, and certainly not an android.”

Connor ignores the dig. You scoff and shake your head. “C’mon, let’s get this asshole back to the car.”

“I ain’t--”

“Either move your damn feet or we’ll drag you,” you snap. “You’ve done made me chase you across Hell an’ half o’ Georgia. I don’t have the patience for your stupid temper tantrum. Maybe next time you decide to steal something, make sure there’s no cameras, asshole!”

The man huffs at you, mouth set in a pissed-off frown, but as Connor tugs on his arm, he follows.

Back at the station, burglar in his cell and waiting for his public defender, you plop into your chair. It used to be Hank’s chair, but with the lieutenant on administrative leave it’s yours until he gets back. Whenever Fowler decides that’s going to be.

You scrub at your face with your hands.

“Something wrong?” Connor asks you. When you peek through your fingers at him, he explains, “You’re usually not this upset after catching one of the bad guys.”

You sigh and lean back, hands plopping into your lap. “It’s just… I’m tired. And I shouldn’t be. I ran for a few minutes and I feel like an old man. No offense to Hank.” Connor smiles, a quick twitch of his lips, and lets you continue. “I was way too far behind you. What if something had happened?”

“Nothing happened.”

“What if something had?” You stress. “I wouldn’t have been able to get to you in time. I’m too damn slow. And the kicker is, I used to not be!”

“I do recall you being able to keep up with me that morning we went jogging together.” He’s teasing you. You can tell by the inflection in his voice and the subtle expression on his face.

You snort. “You sure you didn’t just slow down so I could keep up with you?” When Connor cheekily doesn’t respond, you fake offense, gasping dramatically. “Connor, how could you! You know I can’t improve if you sabotage me like that!”

“I did no such thing,” Connor replies smoothly. He nods, face contemplative. “If anything, this just proves you let yourself go.”

“Ouch. Twist the knife a little more, why don’tcha?” You sigh. “But you’re right. I haven’t worked out in forever. I know I should’ve, but paperwork upon paperwork upon interviews… Time flies.” You nod to him. “You’re lucky you don’t have muscles to atrophy.”

“I am.” He sits down on the corner of your desk, head tilted to the side. He’s scheming. You can’t guess what until he opens his mouth again. “Why don’t we go to the gym?”

“What? Now?”

He shrugs. “Our shift’s almost over. They’ll have someone else interview the suspect we caught. I don’t see why we couldn’t.”

Until now, you’d been under the impression you were going to go home after work to ruminate on your physical shortcomings some more, but the longer you stare into Connor’s eyes the quicker that plan fades from your mind to be replaced by Connor’s suggestion.

To hell with it. You’re feeling spontaneous. “Yeah, alright.” You stand up from your chair, only too late realizing doing so has put you soundly in Connor’s space. He doesn’t seem to mind, but you find it a little unnerving to have him looking up at you with his head so close to your chest. You turn to reach for your keys, using the action as an excuse to give you both some room.

You step back to free him from the confines of your desk and he hops off to join you. You hold up your hand. He stops, curious.

“Before we go, I need to go home and change. This--” you motion down to your work clothes, “--is not good for sweating in.” You pause and consider his own attire. “And you should probably do the same.”

He frowns. “Why? I don’t sweat.”

You huff a laugh, “Yeah, but it was awkward enough jogging along with a guy wearing a suit jacket and a tie. And I’ve definitely never seen someone wear such an outfit to the gym. Shorts and a tank-top? Athletic wear? Yes.” You smile fondly at the pout Connor gives you. You can see he understands what you’re getting at, he just finds it foolish since it’s not practical to him. “You’ll stick out like a sore thumb, trust me. If you don’t have anything, I’m sure Hank could help.”

“He’s not home.”

“How do you--”

“I know his schedule.”

“Right.”

“I’ll think of something,” Connor dismisses. He smiles at you. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay.” You make it two steps away before you turn around and frown at him. “You know where my gym is?”

Connor’s smile morphs into a smirk. “I noticed the card in your wallet.”

“You went through my wallet?” You accuse.

“I saw it when you purchased donuts this morning.”

You nod slowly. “Is there anything you don’t notice?”

“There’s a few things.” He teases with a hint of truth.

It takes you about a half-an-hour to arrive at the gym, what with the drive home, change of outfit, and drive there. You expect Connor to already be there but he’s not. You don’t let the fact bother you too much, chalking it up to him having trouble choosing an outfit. Instead, you set your sights on a treadmill near the back. The TV above it plays the news. You wish you had access to the remote. Nothing is less motivating than the sorry state of the world.

When you finally see Connor enter the building in the mirrors you’re facing, you nearly fly off the treadmill. You turn the machine off hurriedly and spin around to gawk at the android as he spots you and begins to walk towards you.

You’re not the only one who’s noticed him. Damn near everyone in the gym has, some in confused disgust and others with hints of approval. You wonder if any of them know he’s an android, lack of LED making him appear completely human. A fact that might be awkward to some of the ones giving him more appreciative looks.

“What in God’s name are you wearing?” You breathe as he stops before you.

The smile he’s wearing slips as he blinks and tilts his head. The disbelief in your voice causes him to frown. “You said shorts and a tank-top or athletic wear.”

“Wah-- Uh-- Pff.” You reply eloquently.

Shorts. You’d said shorts, not booty shorts. Black booty shorts and a salmon-colored tank top. Connor is a disaster. A good-looking disaster but a disaster nonetheless.

At your silent gawking, he asks, “What’s wrong with my choice?”

You tear your eyes away from his legs and try to remember that his eyes are in his face and that that’s where most people talk to during a conversation. You immediately regret your decision because now you’re faced with a choice--risk hurting his feelings or let him feel good about himself.

“Nothing,” you squeak. You clear your throat. “Nothing. It’s just, uh, you have some really nice legs. Great form. Cute moles.” If you resemble a deer in the headlights it’s only because now you’re wondering if you’re flirting or not and if that’s a good idea.

Connor regards you and you get the feeling he’s just as unsure about your intentions as you are. He recovers quickly, however. “Thank you,” he replies. “They were designed in a lab.”

The joke effortless releases the tension and you can’t help but grin. “Yeah, well, mine were designed by my parents, so.”

“CONNOR!”

Both of you flinch at the very loud shout of Hank’s. You look in horror to the front door Hank’s just entered in.

The man’s wearing an old hoodie and some equally well-worn shorts, a small bag dangling in his loose grip. His slack-jawed look moves from Connor’s face to his legs to his face to you and back to Connor’s legs again. He gestures with his free hand towards the android.

“What the hell are you wearing?!”

Connor’s shoulders slump as he looks from the lieutenant back to you. He’s pouting again, no doubt frustrated and annoyed at the fact the two humans that he’s spent the most time around don’t seem to like his clothes for some unnamed reason.

You put your hand on Connor’s shoulder as Hank comes stomping over and wordlessly convey that you’ve got this. You’ll take one for the team.

“I’m sorry, Hank.” You apologize. “I wanted to work out, Connor volunteered to accompany me, but he didn’t have any clothes, so… I gave him some of my old ones.” You can feel Connor’s gaze on the side of your face but you maintain eye contact with Hank. You have to sell the lie.

“So you gave him booty shorts?” Hank demands.

“Well--”

Hank turns his attention to Connor. “Why didn’t you just ask me for some clothes?”

“You said you weren’t going to be home,” he defends.

“Because I was coming here!”

“...Oh.” Connor shakes his head. “I’ve never known you to go to a gym.”

Hank sighs. “That’s because I haven’t had the energy. Still don’t. But I’m never gonna get the energy if I don’t get off my ass and do somethin’. And being on leave’s just making me stir crazy.” He shrugs. “I figured, ‘What the hell?’” He scoffs. “But now I gotta see everyone in the joint making goo-goo eyes at my partner.”

You reach out, slap Hank on the shoulder, and ignore the affronted look he gives it. “Aw, don’t worry Hank. I’m sure with a little time and effort, you’ll be able to rock some booty shorts yourself, and then everyone’ll make goo-goo eyes at you.”

“Oh, fuck you,” is Hank’s immediate response. He throws his hands up. “You two can wear all the Daisy Dukes you want. Leave me out of it.”

You lean conspiratorially over to whisper loudly to Connor, “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Connor leans his head down closer to yours to do the same. “He does seem a bit jealous.”

“Is that so?” Hank questions. He then flips both of you off and turns on his heel to walk away. He walks clear across the room to a free weightlifting machine, plops his bag down, and sits. With a cheerful smile, he waves to the two of you and then proceeds to flip you off a second time.

“Ah. Good ol’ Hank.” You turn your smile up to Connor. Your breath catches as you realize how close his face is to yours. Just like earlier, he doesn’t seem to mind. Just like earlier, you smother the feeling that comes with that knowledge. “Seriously, though. The shorts are growing on me. You should wear them more often.”

Connor smirks. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

[juunshua]

No pls I love rants on music, especially vocal techniques (had a couple of classes, quit because of life in general, most of my expertise is on the piano side anyway), and would really, seriously love to hear your thoughts on the members vocals (although I do understand that this is time consuming to do) just wanted to say that there's no need to apologise for ranting, we all wanna hear you speak anyways :)

sorry this took forever to respond to! akdjf youve went to more vocal technique classes than i have so maybe you might know more than me ahaha! tbh i really want to formally learn vocal pedagogy so i know what im listening for and what im not. like having that professional opinion alongside telling me ‘ur wrong’ or ‘ur right’ i really want that so i can solidify my learning in a sense…ive been doing that kind of through youtube videos and stuff but still idk. omg ur a pianist? please i love you automatically now so idk why but i’ll probably just summarize in units? and like maybe short comments about each member or more than one member or something idk. under a readmore bc it got longwarning: i am no way, shape and or form a professional. 

hht: im going to start with hht…tbh i have another name for hht haha its called ‘baritone team’ alsdkjf isnt it a coincidence (not really) that all of svts baritones ended up in hht…thus is the fate of most baritones in kpop sadly :( they either get pushed to subvocal or to the rapper position even if its not what they want initially bc of their like natural (basically) biological disposition of not being able to hit, with the same kind of ease, high notes that tenors can…like tbh tenors cant hit those notes ½ the time either but its less obvious bc theyre tenors…that made no sense lasdj…in relating to current events though heres a classic example of baritone (vn) vs tenor (sk) singing in basically the same high note range but vn has to go into falsetto while sk is trying to mix up there…both of them arent really singing it well (laskdj fmaybe sk is a bad example bc he has a good approach to his voice…but like nonetheless that isnt a healthy sounding note from either of them) but its less obvious with sk bc hes a tenor and more obvious with vn (well maybe the falsetto vs mix also had to do with it but like idk a bari who would want to mix that high ljldkajf). anyways in terms of technique, no one in hht team particularly stands out. All of them tend to either sing with their throat or sing with lots of air in their voice, which isn’t particularly healthy but also to be expected from rappers. tbh rappers i find tend to be more throaty, i think why in this group they also are airy is because of wz lol and his vocal directing. within the entire group though (like not just hht), ww has my fav vocal color and i tend to think from within hht, he has the most potential to become a decent vocalist. its mostly (like 95%) because of his continual expressed desire in singing (it makes me think that when he does actually get proper vocal lessons he would take them very seriously and be very disciplined about it and tbh that just goes above everything else) but also because of that one performance of city escape (here) ? and it sounds really pretty and the range that he’s singing in that song is starting to be in the higher part of a baritones register too. and in some of his other vocal performances too, whenever he is in the range where he doesn’t have to mix, his approach to his voice really isnt bad at all. i say he has the most potential but that doesnt mean the other hht members cant become awesome vocalists they can if they put the right time and effort into it. pt:the rest of the units are composed of all tenors (at least from what i know) btw so yeah all of pt are tenors. again in terms of technique no one particularly stands out. they all seem to approach singing similarly but with putting emphasis on different things which makes them sound different….actually upon closer inspection most of the members of the entire group (not just pt) are like that laksjdl….well maybe with the exception of sk. anywho…jh pushes air a lot which is why you get those like ‘hiccups’?? idk how else to describe it but an example is here. like do u hear how his voice rises at the end of a lot of those notes? hs also gets those same hiccups. jh is also quite nasal, and probably the most nasally member within the 13 members when it comes to singing. nasally voices are my number one pet peeve rip thats why my fav jh singing moments is when hes singing in his comfortable range and esp when its words/syllables that force him to place his voice not so much in his nose (ie this part in my i). being nasal is not really as damaging for the vocal chords as much as it is the individual not really placing the voice in the correct, most optimal place. he also gets really tight on higher notes esp when hes trying to mix that high. same with hs (you can hear the both of them sounding tight in the habit perf i linked to earlier). also jh has tongue tension but im not sure if thats a reflection of him trying to sing in kr…him and hao are probably at a disadvantage when it comes to singing because of the fact that they aren’t singing in a language that theyre comfortable in/fluent in. when it comes to hao, when he said in the seasons greetings video that he was working on singing but no matter how much he practiced, he couldnt improve, that made me really sad :( because that basically means is that the vocal lessons he is getting arent actually good vocal lessons…unless he expects results to happen in a week (which sadly no it takes months upon months). ur vocal chords are a muscle so they take time to develop (like when u first go to the gym u arent going to try and lift the heaviest weight right? or run at the fastest speed or whatever u have to build urself up to that slowly). and then he also compared that to his dancing which he said he could get better at by doing over and over? but its the same when it comes to dancing like u cant be improving dancing if u learn the wrong choreo or the wrong ways to dance a specific type of dance right? like no matter how much u practice a wrong choreo its still going to be that wrong choreo…so if u sing with bad technique no matter how much u practice u arent going to get better u’ll just develop bad technique. but yeah singing with correct technique should yield some results eventually (i can attest to that). anyways im biased and i really want to hear hs get proper vocal lessons bc i find his vocal color sooo pretty i literally listen to campfire like 90%for his part in the chorus (and the other 10% is cheols rap aldjsf)….i also think he hovers around being able to support or maybe its my biased ears talking who knwos… i didnt really talk about dn but hes kind of along the same lines…maybe a bit more dependent on his throat than some of the other members in pt…which kind of makes sense bc thats what rappers tend to dovt: ok js and wz are both similar in how they approach singing i think its kind of obvious too with how much they sound alike at times. oh yeah wz probably has the highest vocal range within the group idt anyone in the group can go higher than him (not that it really matters when it comes to vocal technique but its a neat tidbit of info). jh for one has a lot of tongue tension (just like jn) when he sings and is kinda nasal (not as much as jn but still there). just like the rest of the other members in the other units, these three dont support either. we can finally talk about support when we talk about sm…although his supported range isnt too much he does have that basic down…he gets super throaty though when hes outside his supported range. he does that same hiccup thing that hs/jn do. he hasn’t shown the ability to resonate but at least he can support.  despite singing a lot of the groups high notes, he hasnt developed a connected head voice, as far as im aware of. technique wise hes really similar to a lot of the main vocalists in groups that debut these days. but ok NOW SK aka the member who has the best vocal technique. he supports consistently and he has resonance too its so beautiful and wonderful to listen to like esp since a lot of kpop group vocalists that debut these days for some reason dont really want to resonate. its so nice to listen to his voice. like hes fooling around here but still manages (what i think is) a resonant F#4? (not the high note he holds out, its like the note he sings before he slides up) and if that note isnt resonant then it is at the very least supported very very very nicely. heres a really pretty g4. tbh i really want to hear him start trying to conquer the fourth octave like what a good day itd be if i could say ‘yeah sk can sing up to b4s with good technique’ like thats kind of hard to do but definitely attainable! and he has the potential for sure! i think within the fandom hes really quite overlooked for some odd reason that i cant seem to figure out why. he definitely has the healthiest voice, at least his mixed register for sure. he seems to prefer mixing over head voice for whatever reason when it comes to high notes so honestly speaking i havent paid much attention to his head voice but i wouldnt be surprised if it wasnt connected considering how much he doesnt sing in it…but tbh the fact that he mixes pretty decently is amazing in it of itself. CONCLUSION: with proper vocal guidance and technique ANYONE can become a decent singer. 

[rem-is-best-almond]

[Review] Dance with Devils PS Vita

Ritsuka Tachibana is a second year at Shikou Academy who lives with her mother and older brother in Shikou Town. She seemingly lives an ordinary life until the day she was summoned by her school’s mysterious student council for going against school rules and comes back home to find her mother kidnapped by strange men who are searching for the forbidden grimoire. Help comes in the form of the school’s student council, who all turn out to be devils who are searching for the Grimoire themselves. Following her brother’s return from England, Ritsuka soon discovers that she’s the forbidden grimoire that could grant anyone the power to take over the world and now Devils, Vampires and Exorcists are after her.

Honestly, I bought this a year ago and was only able to Complete it now WTF me.

P/S: This Post only contains my final thoughts on the game. The summaries and reviews for the individual routes are in the links provided. It also contains some spoilers and Screenshots from the game. 

Left Door routes:     Rem   Lindo  Roen

Right Door Routes:  Mage  Urie   Shiki 

Final thoughts :

This game has a grudge against blondes with Green eyes (You know which two I’m talking about).

Heroine: I really loved Ritsuka. It’s true that she doesn’t entirely break away from the “Sweet Girl” stereotype we see in most reverse harem heroines but this girl legit has guts of steel which is why I have to admit I was pretty disappointed in some of the endings where they gave her an inactive role.  She also doesn’t let the boys push her around with their bullshit so it was really great to see that. She definitely had the best development in Roen’s route as her backstory was more fleshed out in there. Would really love to see a family reunion with Maksis, Maria, Roen and her if there’s going to be a fandisc ;w;

Plot: As much as I loved the series, I have to admit that the plot needed improvement as it wasn’t as consistent as I had hoped for. Granted that the story is rather character specific so that’s probably why some things don’t really add up well with the other. I was hoping to see more worldbuilding in the game since I felt like the anime needed more of that but sadly, it didn’t really do much on that aspect either. I wished they hadn’t split the common routes into two cause that was probably the cause of the inconsistencies I find in the plot :/ Overall, I think the plot was decent but had potential to be great if they had only put the effort into keeping the rules of their universe consistent and expanding upon it in more detail.

Characters: The villains weren’t the most unique in particular but still decent enough to be antagonists of the story. The development for all the bachelors was a 50/50 for me as I felt like half of the cast had a great development while the other half the writer sort of flunked it in their route *stares at Rem, Lindo and Urie’s route*. I don’t know if Shiki’s route was a flunk or a good one cause to me his human route made up for his shitty devil route (at least for those who hate gore) lolololol.  Also, Azuna deserves a route of her own and I kinda wished she was also an option for a heroine TBH.  

Art and Sprites: Since Brain’s Base was in charge of the CGs, the art is pretty much the same as the anime. Some characters had better CGs overall while some had more average ones. I’m still really salty about Rem’s wedding CG given how they didn’t even bother to let him wear a tux so I was pretty meh with the wedding end :/  The fact that background characters had sprites while two of our main sub characters, Maksis and Glax didn’t kinda bugged me a lot as it made some of the fight scenes, particularly in Mage and Rem’s devil route, rather anti-climatic. I wished the producers had thought of making the game a little more unique with a little bit of animation given how they hired an animation studio to draw the art for the game but they probably did that because they had a tight budget and couldn’t afford a proper illustrator. And from some of the CGs, you could probably figure out that they didn’t have enough time to finish them much less animate some of the action scenes. Though CGs and Sprites aside, the background art for the scenarios are aesthetically pleasing and that’s enough for me lolol.  

Just look at them askjbkauhkll:

System/ Game Play: I have mixed feelings with the Devil vs Human system tbh, though I’m well aware they exist as a treat for your ears as it’s dummy head mic ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Some of the scenarios translated well into a current situation while others came out of nowhere so lolol. The Jump option helped me a lot and I don’t know how I’m going get use to not having such an option in games like Amnesia on my PC ;w; ( Does TaiAli / C:R have one? I’m not sure) . The card system is a piece of shit but I’m not really eager for platinum so eh.

Music / OST : As expected of Element Garden,  the background music was something that I enjoyed in the game , especially that one track that was often played in the devil ends,if only I could record it :”) . The music was definitely one of the stronger points of the game.

Overall, I’m really glad I got to play DwD in it’s original language as doing so has helped me improved My Japanese immensely considering how I was so eager to translate some of my favourite scenes XDD  If any of you would like to play an Otoge but are worried that you won’t be able to understand it because it’s in Japanese, I say just do it. Read Reviews to get a gist of it if you have to . I bought DwD BEFORE I even knew how to read Katakana and Hiragana (The two basic scriptures of Japanese)  and because of that, it also became sort of like My Japanese Textbook XD  So if you hate boring textbooks, this is more of an entertaining way to get exposed to the language. Granted, I have a headstart when it comes to learning Japanese because of my proficiency in Chinese (it’s my second language) but I promise you that once you’ve mastered your Hiragana and Katakana , learning Kanji would be a lot easier . Also, DO NOT ever think that you could Learn every Kanji character to ever exist in the Japanese dictionary, Kanji is something you’ll pick up as you learn the language and there is NO limit to how many Kanji you’ll have to learn because it’s an endless list. Try learning the more basic ones first before moving on to something more advanced. Ok , this ended up being a Japanese 101 LOLOL

Back on track, in Rejet terms , DwD is more on the fluffy spectrum but also has its equal share of dark moments so if you’re sensitive to abuse, mild gore and violence then this game isn’t really for you. Or at least, it’s best to avoid Lindo’s bad ends/ Devil route and Shiki’s devil route completely unless you want blood to be splattered all over your screen along with some HD sound effects :))))))))) 

Picture for reference

I would’ve said Rem’s bad end too cause that shit’s fucked up but it doesn’t have a gory CG so . But if you don’t mind all that blood and insanity than proceed on full speed ahead cause there’s fluff in the midst of despair lmao. Keep Roen’s route for last (at least, in the left door common route) as it contains spoilers.  My play order : Rem > Lindo > Roen > Mage > Urie > Shiki . Recommended play order: Urie > Lindo > Shiki > Mage > Rem > Roen .

Left Door routes:     Rem  Lindo  Roen

Right Door Routes:  Mage  Urie   Shiki

[seokjins]

wings vcr theory ???? aka what is happening

wow ok so i thought that people connecting every era of bts M/V’s were maybe looking into it too much (and as a lit student like. i know what it means to close read) but via this vid (@jinjjarevil on twitter) apparently I WAS WRONG and here is the reason why

1) the return of jin & the flower petals

as we are all familiar: the general consensus is that the 6 flower petals represent the rest of bts’ members (re: everyone EXCEPT jin), and it’s often agreed upon that he’s “filming” the boys because 1) he’s dead and dreaming them up or 2) he’s recalling all his memories with them or 3) the boys are dead and he’s the only one alive or 4) tbh pick ur poison i’m not gonna make this post a breeding ground for HYYH theory discourse, but i’m down to talk elsewhere !!!!

this part isn’t particularly groundbreaking, but it’s the first direct link to the young forever M/Vs

HOWEVER !!!!the difference arrives when the shot cuts to what jin is filming; it seems that there are seven people in frame? (this is at 0:52 in the video)

which leads me to believe that, because WINGS is a continuation of young forever, it makes sense that jin manages to find his way back to the boys - something that connects itself to a bs&t theory i have. the general rundown of my interp is the (6) members are literally works of art in the museum, and when jin starts to “crack” at the end of the M/V, it’s because he joins them as an art piece; they’ve drawn him in (kissing tae’s statue, the hands over his eyes, tae covering up jin’s face with his hands, jin stopping to stare at the painting near the beginning) and this is how jin ends up joining the rest of the group

2) the focus shot of jungkook

again, parallels to run, where there’s a solo part that’s just him staring into the cam (once after his fight with yoongi, again at the end of the M/V). he’s staring into jin’s camera and, subsequently, at jin himself - likely wondering 1) why he isn’t with the rest of the group or 2) who he is/what he’s doing

from a cinematographic point of view, this is probably just a cool transition shot, since the members all need their solo screentime + the cuts won’t be too sudden, but i like the repeating themes they’ve been using :0

3) taehyung's wings

in the beginning of the video, taehyung is seen matching himself up to a pair of wings in a box behind him. the glass to his left side says “YOUTH”

the main thing to note here is that the feathers are white, compared to the thousands of other shots of tae with black wings (M/V, trailers, teasers, you name it). once he breaks the box to access them (AKA shattering youth or the illusion thereof), taehyung strips away his innocence - similar to when he killed his father “i need you”

white is a color that often symbolizes purity/chastity while black is. well. has evil and sinister connotations, as well as a demonic undertone, if you want to get biblical (hold onto this thought now; it’ll return with my jimin analysis), so it makes sense they’d use this color palette with taehyung’s storyline

4) hoseok’s wings

hoseok is seen eating his snicker bar (lov my man omfg), but after he takes a bite, the wall behinds him shatters into color. in the first round, the camera pulls tighter in on him and the word “placebo” can be seen clearly behind hobi

i think this directly references the placebo effect, in which one’s condition improves/degrades depending on your mindset of your illness. in both eras, HYYH and wings short films, hoseok is often depicted dealing with drugs, pills, and medication. he and jimin are even seen in a hospital together (again, spanning both timelines), which leads me to believe that he’s using prescriptions to deal with the fact he’s suffering from something meds can’t cure. what is it? that’s a great question i only have vague answers to. it could be the fact that he’s missing his friends/bts family? is (still) suicidal? trying to cope with their loss? his condition has worsened after losing jimin, which is why he is in a max safety cell with all those pills pouring in through the walls? listen, who knows? i sure don’t, but i can definitely talk about the next shot!!!!!!!!!!! right afterwards, hoseok also gains a pair of wings, but notice they’re different than taehyung’s

these are his BME wings (they show up in his intro, u can go check it out if you want). his corrupted wings. his Bad Wings. and they come from the crossover of boy and evil.

boy = youth = wings MEETS evil = dark/cool toned colors (evil) = bony (feather) structure

^ is why his wings look the way they do (thank u @ opening shot of taehyung’s YOUTH/wing box haha)

5) progression of their lives/jimin’s solo shot

there are five (?) consecutive scenes with all the boys goofing off together. the vid quality’s pretty low so i can’t tell who is who, but it seems like they’re all just chilling. hanging out. being bros. etc. so i’m lead to believe the first three “windows” of light (bc each scene is separated by a long black column) are before any bts M/V timeline. then you have jihope in a hospital/nondescript room together - directly related to run and jimin’s wings short - in opposite beds, being playful like their pillow fight in run.

last there is the truck with all 6 of the boys in the trunk from run

these shots lead up to jimin in his blindfold, holding an apple in his hand (seen clearer in the actual vid)

this is his costume from bs&t/his solo stuff/is part of “lie’s” concept. the blindfold could mean many things, so i’ll focus on the apple for now. in his promo shots, he’s surrounded by many apples, something i was always confused about, BUT I AM NO LONGER !!don’t worry!!!

as bts has said multiple times, bs&t is about boys who fall to temptation, and what better symbol of temptation than eve in the garden of eden - the first woman who is unable to resist the forbidden fruit? DAMN THAT’S RIGHT !!!!!!! you can have him holding an apple - the figurehead of eve failing to resist her temptations and, therefore, the way jimin/bts fails to resist their temptations. this is why jimin’s holding the fruit in all his shots lol. it’s because he’s already picked the apple off the tree & “fallen” prey to his desires

6) Bangtan and the Curious Case of Looking Up

at the end of the video, right after jimin takes off his blindfold, the VCR cuts to bts all looking up at the sky, faces illuminated. this is likely a symbol that they literally “see the light” - a popular term that means someone has died and is crossing over to the other side/heaven/the afterlife. this makes sense, because of the HYYH theories imply everyone is dead or ends up dying (since young forever implies bts meets up in heaven)

the thing that sets this apart for me is the fact that EVERYONE BUT JIN IS LOOKING UP @ THE SKY. jin is the first member to get focus during this scene; he’s just standing there staring straight at the camera, a motif that showcases their character is detached from the rest of the members in bts’ M/Vs. it’s like they’re not quite there, even though one member may appear alongside everyone else (jin & jungkook in HYYH).

here: jin’s seen looking side to side, even a little upwards, but never completely like the rest of the members

besides his dashing good looks and impeccable suit taste, jin seems worried. he seems to be obviously, obviously worried. however, the other members don’t have this expression on their faces; they’re at varying levels of peace or happiness or excitement when they each get their solo cut (i’m not gonna put 6 pics after jin’s bc that would just take too much room due to tumblr’s poor image spacing rules rip, but they’re all in a thread in that link credit up top)

jin looks like he’s confused and baffled and searching for something (or someones ;;)))) amiright or amiright) during this scene - a motif that corresponds with the HYYH/my bs&t theory of jin being alone in some way, shape, or form

“WAIT” you say “BUT JIN DOES LOOKS UP AT THE END !!1!11!1!!!” you say

“yes my friend !!” i say

you are absolutely right. he is eventually seen looking up into the light like the other boys. however there are two things of things to notice: first is that he’s never looking up completely (comparison below)

and right as he fades into the background - he starts lowering his head (it’s easier to see this when the actual video is playing) back down to the camera - his expression still troubled. again, this shows he’s still separated from the rest of bts, even though he seemed to be very close to joining them.

so maybe he’s still dead. maybe he’s still trapped and he’s looking for a way out and his distress comes from knowing his members are going Somewhere Without Him, but i guess what happens next is on bts.....

i hope they keep going with this storyline; i’d love to see where it goes :0

[kibahinatas]

DRV3 Liveblog [BLIND]: Prologue

THE STORY IS NOT OVER

Welp I just finished playing the prologue, and OH MAN. I have a LOT to say, so strap in guys, this is gonna be a long ride!

To start off, the settings I chose were Japanese Audio, Mean Logic, and Normal Action. And then the game began! I found it interesting how it started out with the montage of all the Dangan Ronpa games, including the anime! Will this really not be a part of the Hope’s Peak storyline at all? Hm...

Anyway, I think it will be best if I break things down into 4 main segments: STORY, GAMEPLAY, CHARACTERS, and PREDICTIONS. Let’s start with,

STORY

So our story begins with our sweet MC Kaede Akamatsu awakening in a locker, alongside fellow student Shuichi Saihara. They both have memories of being kidnapped but otherwise appear to be normal high schoolers in a strange classroom. They exit the classroom into the overgrown school and encounter these big robots (piloted by the Monokubs) and head to the gym where the other 14 normal high schoolers are.

The Monokubs seem to be a bit disorganized, and realize they didn’t give the students their memory of being ultimates. After returning their ultimate memories, and a quick magical girl transformation by Kaede into the SHSL Pianist, we suddenly start over in the locker again, but now as ultimates and without the kidnapping memory, it would seem.

We then travel around the school with Shuichi and properly meet the other students. Some rooms and areas appear to be locked, and we also discover that we will each have our own “ultimate lab” to help cultivate our talents. After meeting everyone we are gathered in the gym to meet Monokuma and learn our true purpose for being here: a killing game.

THOUGHTS: Hm, where to begin! There’s a lot going on already in just the prologue. But I think the thing that stands out to me the most right now has to be the nature of the student’s amnesia. When the game first started with no one knowing about their talents was that just a mistake by the Monokubs or is something more going on? And it seems like our characters were actually kidnapped for real this time around!

The fact that the students “started over” after receiving their ultimate memories is probably the most interesting to me, though. Why make them do that instead of just staying where they were in the gym? Why was it so important to go back in the locker, or wherever everyone else awoke?

Also WHAT is going on with that flash of Kaede with her head hooked up to that..whatever it is. Are we in another SDR2 situation where our bodies are one place and our mind is another? I mean, I doubt they would do something so similar, but we did go through a magical girl transformation, and have our memory returned to us via a light...so I’m not ruling it out just yet. But, it could just be the amnesia device or whatever. We have yet to see just how Junko stole the 78th class’ memories, so who knows. Needless to say, I have a LOT of questions!

As far as the setting goes, I’m digging it so far. The overgrown school has a rather cool feel to it, and I like that we have an outside area as well with places to visit, including the dormitory. It’s like a nice balance between the totally trapped setting of DR1 and the more open island setting of SDR2.

GAMEPLAY

Although I have never played any of the preceding DR games myself, I am pretty familiar with how the gameplay usually goes, having watched multiple LPs. So, overall it seems to play much like how the others did, with some minor updates. Oh, and that “chase” scene with the Exisals...that caught me so off guard for a Dangan Ronpa game, haha. Aaaanyway...

The controls are basically the same, one update being how it looks when you see what you can investigate in a room. Instead of circling the objects, it highlights them while darkening everything else. It actually makes it much easier to see what’s around, tbh. There’s also the option to smack things, but so far I haven’t found anything that it works on. Not sure what the purpose of this will be. And if the game did tell, me I was probably a little confused and/or forgot, haha.

The main map looks and works a little differently than the ones before, as to be expected, but we also now have a mini map in the bottom right corner on screen whenever we’re walking around in open areas which I like. The main map also features little almost 3d looking pixel sprites of the characters to show where there are, which I thought was cute.

The soundtrack seems pretty solid so far as well. I’m really enjoying the new ‘beautiful’ song, “Beautiful Lie.” It’s a nice addition to the series that is almost like a mix between “Beautiful Dead” and “Beautiful Ruin” in terms of style. We also get some remixes of classics like the main DR theme and Monokuma’s theme. All nicely done. Basically, Masafumi Takada kills it once again.

We also get to see and hear Kaede when she speaks! Which is really cool. I like being able to see multiple characters at once on this new and improved interface. We’ve also gotten a lot of cut scenes so far which I’ve been enjoying. It really adds a lot to the experience and helps you really immerse yourself and better visualize what’s going on.

CHARACTERS

And now to my favorite part to talk about! Characters! Let’s talk about each character individually, in the order in which they appear in my Dossier, beginning with our protagonist.

KAEDE AKAMATSU, SHSL PIANIST: Our first female MC (sorry Komaru) has not disappointed so far! I’m really enjoying playing as her. I love playing characters with a lot of personality which she definitely has. She seems very positive and friendly, and maybe a little silly at times too. It’s interesting to me how she’s just met all of her classmates and already views them as friends. She really seems like the type to hope for the best in all things! How will she react when the killing starts, however...

RANTARO AMAMI, SHSL ???: Oh boy, our token “I don’t remember what my talent is” character. (Let’s call him Amami, I like the sound of that better haha) Already, I can tell the game is setting him up to be an important character with him seeming to know a little of what is going on here at the Academy. I’m not sure what to make of him yet, but he looks and sounds like a super bae, haha. Although, something about him just gives me a real Nagito vibe. His behavior, sprite poses, and that wavy hair...hm. I don’t know. With all that, I can’t shake the feeling he may be one of the first to die...

MIU IRUMA, SHSL INVENTOR: An inventor! What a handful this girl is, haha. She has such a fun and over the top personality, I like it. Me and my boyfriend were cracking up at all her vulgar comments and sudden changes in mood. I don’t have much else to add about her right now, but I’m looking forward to getting to know her more. Let’s hope she sticks around for a while.

KOKICHI OMA, SHSL SUPREME LEADER: This kid!! I’m not sure which translation is more accurate, President or Supreme Leader, but I definitely prefer the latter. He’s such a cutie but also..kind of evil? I love it. He’s the leader of a massive “secret evil organization” that may or may not exist (depending on whether he’s telling the truth or not,) which is so vague! What kind of organization? Hm. Anyway, I’m curious to see how he will get along with the others. Already we’ve seen him tormenting Kibo and Himiko to an extent, while also seeming excited about the killing game. Is he really pure evil? I’m super curious to know more.

K1-B0, SHSL ROBOT: Aka Kibo (or ‘Keebo’ as it’s spelled in my game), aka Robohoge, the guy we all thought would be the protagonist once upon a time. And, one of the characters whose talents I somewhat predicted. I thought he would be a cyborg - part human, part robot - but it seems that he’s all robot! Just like Amami filling a token role, Kibo is our token AI. I haven’t seen enough of him yet to really form a solid opinion on him, but I’m curious as to whether or not his creator, a Professor Idabashi, has any relevance.

GONTA GOKUHARA, SHSL ENTOMOLOGIST: Entomologist...bug catcher, I mean that’s the same thing, right? Right? Haha..anyway what a big precious boy. Literally raised by wolves, Gonta is basically Tarzan..if Tarzan was really into bugs. Like, really, REALLY just loved bugs. He comes across as a bit simple, but I think it’s mostly due to his poor grasp of language. I honestly don’t see him having any big secrets or hidden sides to him, and he seems rather trusting. As long as you love bugs, of course. So it makes me concerned he may be an easy target later on, regardless of his size.

SHUICHI SAIHARA, SHSL DETECTIVE: Our main boy so far, he’s accompanied Kaede throughout her exploration of the school, after waking up in the adjacent locker. When he revealed his talent, I literally yelled “You can’t be the Ultimate Detective! Kyoko Kirigiri is the Ultimate Detective!” And tbh, I’m not completely convinced he is, but not for that reason. Not only does he not really seem like much of a detective at all (seriously, just compare his actions with those of Kyoko,) but the way he earned his title is suspect. Shuichi himself believes the case he solved was due to luck, and not his actual detective skills. This makes me think that perhaps he is not the SHSL Detective, but actually the SHSL Good Luck! Anyway, I like him so far. He seems a little shy, and seems to have some sort of complex with his hat. Overall a good kid. I’d be his friend.

TSUMIGI SHIROGANE, SHSL COSPLAYER: And suddenly Dangan Ronpa fans around the world screamed, as their OC’s talent was snatched up by a canon character, lol. Tsumigi, not to be confused with Mikan Tsumiki, is certainly an interesting girl. Kaede and Shuichi poking her cheeks with no response? Amazing, lol. She’s also a huge nerd, but not in the hilariously cringey way that Yamada was, so it should be fun to hear all the references and relateable things she’ll have to say. I hope we get to actually see some of her cosplays!

KOREKIYO SHINGUJI, SHSL ANTHROPOLOGIST: Or ‘Kiyo’ as he’s called in the localized version. Honestly, I can’t say I’m a big fan of this guy right now. He’s a little..off-putting. His talent also came as a surprise to me, with such a creepy appearance. Then again, I guess it matches his creepy personality, lol. But I don’t want to write him off just yet, I’m sure he has...some redeeming qualities...

TENKO CHABASHIRA, SHSL AIKIDO MASTER: Oh Tenko, winner of the Best Sprite award with that stunning face she made when Kaede called her cute, haha. Her dislike of men is reminiscent of Mahiru a bit, but much more extreme. She seems like a fun character and I like her so far. Also, super gay.

KIRUMI TOJO, SHSL MAID: What is this, like the 3rd time we’ve had an ultimate maid? Haha, seems like it anyway. Anyway, I don’t really have a lot to say about her right now. Out of all the characters, she’s probably made the smallest impression on me so far. It sounds like she does a bit more than traditional maid work though - which to me would be like cleaning duties. I feel like ‘Servant’ may fit her better, and maybe it’s just a translation thing, but oh well. Maid it is I suppose.

MAKI HARUKAWA, SHSL CHILD CAREGIVER: Discovering Maki’s talent was probably one of the more WTF moments I had in the prologue, haha. It really does not fit her at all. I almost wonder if she’s lying about what her talent is...hmm...Personality wise she seems a little cold, and maybe a bit mysterious. She was featured very prominently in the very early promos of the game, which makes her seem important, but it could have just been to mislead us I suppose. She also mentioned being raised in an orphanage, which I’m sure had a big impact on the kind of person she became.

RYOMA HOSHI, SHSL TENNIS PRO: Ryoma...I...well let’s just say I wasn’t too far off in my last post when I said he might use his tennis racket to threaten people, haha. But damn, THAT VOICE. He is just 3′4″ and 88 lbs of MAN. Well, minus that face, lol. Once you look past his appearance though, he seems intriguing. He’s basically our token “bad boy”/criminal, but his talent doesn’t match up at all. I wonder what kind of past he had, and what led him to take down that mafia or whatever it was.

KAITO MOMOTA, SHSL ASTRONAUT: Kaito, secretly the SHSL Vocaloid, haha. He gives off the vibe of being our token “scaredy cat.” Which I didn’t expect from him at all, given how cocky he always looked in the early promos. But maybe I’m wrong, I have only really witnessed his introduction scene thus far. Anyway, a good space boy. I hope he makes it there one day.

HIMIKO YUMENO, SHSL MAGICIAN: At last! I can rest assured that my Witch OC is safe...for now...although they do have weirdly similar personalities, lol. Anyway I really like Himiko so far. She’s so cute with her deadpan personality and basic-ass repertoire of magic tricks. I can just see her being the Magician’s Alliance alongside Gob in Arrested Development, haha. But she is an ultimate after all so maybe she has a little something more up her sleeve...

ANGIE YONAGA, SHSL ARTIST: A real cutie-patootie who’s also...super religious? I love her character design so much, and we are also the same height! Although she must be hella skinny to only weigh 90 lbs (I weigh about 110/115 and am pretty petite myself.) Anyway the religious thing is very unexpected but adds a lot of interest to her, other than just being the cutesy girl. And with the way she talks about Atua wanting blood sacrifices, and her being used as his instrument, this could certainly come into play later on...

MONOKUBS: Okay, since I don’t actually have their names in front of me (none of them are in the Dossier for whatever reason) I can’t remember what the red one is called, haha. But overall they seem like they will be quite entertaining to watch. My boyfriend seemed to really enjoy the parts where the game would just cut to Monodam saying absolutely nothing, lol. Monophannie reminds me of Monomi a lot, but I’m sure they are really quite different.

PREDICTIONS

Well I’ve already mentioned some of my ideas, so to try and wrap this up I’ll just talk about the ones I haven’t covered yet.

The biggest one right now has to do with what seemed like a throwaway line by Monokuma. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it was something along the lines of ‘stories about the second generation are never successful, but with the Monokubs it’s possible.’ I butchered it, but you get the idea. So this spawned an idea in my head.

We know that is not part of the Hope’s Peak storyline, meaning it either takes place in an AU, or in the future sometime after the events of DR3. If it is in the future, could these students be descendants of previous characters? Thus, “the second generation.” Remember, the game told is in the beginning “the story is not over.” Is that what it could mean?

It seems like such a cliche idea, but coming from the franchise that used twists like Twin Switch and it was all a Lotus-Eater Machine, I wouldn’t put it past the developers to this AND do it well. I’m not sure if they would have ALL the characters be 2nd gen, but either way I have a few likely candidates for this theory. I already mentioned about the similarities I feel between Amami and Nagito, so let’s talk about the others.

Kokichi is probably the biggest one for me. Not only could I see him being related to Gundam and Sonia, I could straight up see him being their son! What else would the child of a ruling princess and the “supreme overlord of ice” be but the SHSL Supreme Leader? Leading an evil organization would make sense too given Gundam’s outlandish fantasies of evil and Sonia’s interest in serial killers and the occult. He also wears a scarf, and according to the dossier, “revels in blurring the lines that separate fact from fiction.” Sound like anyone we know? ;)

Gonta is a possible candidate as well. Given his upbringing, this is really just based on his appearance. But he could be related to Akane and Nekomaru. A big buff dude with wild brown hair? I don’t know...

Kaito I’m torn on. His eccentric purple theme and desire to travel to space remind me of Kazuichi. But then his clothing and to a degree his facial hair make me think of Hagakure. But uh, I may be reaching just a bit here.

Anyway, while that theory is definitely reaching a little as a whole, I also noticed there seems to be a theme of Lies going on here. The song “Beautiful Lie,” the game case referring to Lie Bullets, characters that may or may not being lying about who they are (not like pretending to be someone else, but more like withholding information or providing false information about themselves.) I don’t know who or what to trust!

But this post is getting way too long, so I think I will wrap up and end by saying that I am very excited to play more of the game and uncover all the mysteries I’m sure it has to offer.

I wonder what chapter one will hold in store...