#I like how you did the big roots it's always hard to draw them

[bluepallilworld]

Awwww you chose the fluff moment

I request you to draw your favorite moment so far in Come Down That Tree! :3

Here you go! This was my favorite moment in the story, in chapter 6, part of it here:

It is just so cute and a calm place in the story.

[makoodles]

Soooo I dunno if ur up for it but can we get a continuation of the baby fever thing where tsu'tey and s/o adopt spider but now it's in the future kinda like pre avatar 2 where spider is a teenager. Nothing angsty I just wanna read how Tsu'tey teaches spider things and spider calls him dad and spider finally getting that family love (I would literally die for this little boy I- *explodes*)

this is called having no self control btw! this was meant to be a 500 word drabble lol, but since you all love dad!tsu'tey so much, here we go!

continuation of baby fever

part one

pairing: tsu'tey x human fem reader

word count: 1.8k

warnings: none!

tags: fluff, dad!tsu'tey, adopted spider, pregnancy mention

"Dad, you're drawing them on crooked!" Spider complains, leaning away from his hands.

Tsu'tey frowns, looking down at his work. "They are not crooked."

"They are! Look!"

The stripes that Tsu'tey has painted onto Spider's fragile human skin upon his insistence do not looked crooked to Tsu'tey's eye, but he squints closer at them anyway.

"They look fine to me, maitan." He says with a sigh, dipping his fingers back into the paint dye and finishing up on the last stripe he had been working on. "Look at my stripes - they are not perfectly even."

Spider grumbles, but goes quiet as he darts a look at Tsu'tey's stripes. Seeing proof that Tsu'tey's stripes are not perfectly symmetrical seems to be enough to soothe him, at least for the moment.

When the kelku entrance rustles, Tsu'tey does not need to turn around to know that it's you. He knows you by the sound of your footsteps and the way your hands coast so softly over the broad expanse of his shoulders.

"Hello, boys," You murmur, leaning in to press a kiss to Tsu'tey's cheek. His ears twitch happily, and you move back to avoid getting hit with one, "Oh, Spider. The stripes again? That stuff is so hard to wash off-"

"That's the point, ma." He says, craning his head around to look at you. "I want it to last. I'm faster when I've got the stripes."

"Finished." Tsu'tey murmurs, clasping his son's shoulder before pushing himself to his feet.

Spider stands too, and Tsu'tey looks down at him thoughtfully. The stripes are a little jagged, though there's no way that Tsu'tey will ever admit that. More than anything, his attention catches on how grown Spider has become. He is still small, only reaching Tsu'tey's navel, but he has grown taller than you. His shoulders have broadened, growing thick with muscle from his long days running and playing with Na'vi children. It has always been more difficult for him to keep up, but the result of his tenacity is the impressively defined musculature at such a young age.

"We are going fishing, yawntutsyìp." Tsu'tey says to you, leaning down to kiss your forehead. "We will be back soon."

"I'll catch you a big one, ma." Spider adds, pushing masked face into your neck in a hug before bouncing away.

"Did you see!" Spider is still enthusing about his catch the whole walk back to the village.

"I saw." Tsu'tey confirms. The woven basket with their catch is slung over his shoulder, and a content sort of smirk is playing around his mouth as he watches Spider bounce over the tree roots.

"It was huge, and I nearly missed it but then I managed to hit it right as it darted out from behind those big rocks-"

"It was very impressive." Tsu'tey intones, reaching out to ruffle at Spider's hair.

Spider is still grinning, flying high on the success of his mini hunt. "I told you that the stripes made me faster!"

Tsu'tey lets out a rumbly sort of laugh, letting his hand drop from the top of Spider's head to the back of his neck and letting it rest there. His son is growing older, becoming a man, and yet he is still so small under Tsu'tey's hands. He feels a flare of vicious protectiveness deep in his chest, but that's nothing new.

"It was a very good catch, maitan." He murmurs, squeezing lightly at Spider's shoulders.

Spider looks down at his feet as he skips over another exposed tree root. "Do you think I'll be a good hunter?"

Tsu'tey tilts his head, and catches at Spider's bicep as he slips on moss. Once he is sure that he's stable on his feet, he releases his arm and pats him on the back.

"Yes. You have a good teacher." He bares his teeth at Spider in a grin, and gets a little smile in return. "But even if your talents do not lie in hunting, that will be okay. No matter what your skills are, I will be proud of you, my boy."

Spider's cheeks redden, but he smiles back all the same. The corners of his eyes crinkle just like yours do, and Tsu'tey's heart swells at the similarity between the two of you. His precious little family.

When they enter the village, you're waiting by one of the cookfires. You're fiddling with a couple of beads, and Tsu'tey recognises that you're weaving together a hair decoration.

"Yawntu," Tsu'tey calls as he approaches with Spider at his hip. "Look at what our son caught."

Spider takes the basket from him and bounds forward, grinning wide behind his mask as he proffers it at you. You make a big show of oohing and ahhing as you look into the basket, looking very impressed indeed.

"What big fish," You say. "These could feed the whole village for days!"

It had taken Tsu'tey quite some time to learn how to read the body language of Sky People, but even he can see how pleased Spider is. If he had a tail, it would be swishing wildly.

"I'm gonna go show Lo'ak." Spider says with a grin. "He couldn't catch anything yesterday! Jake isn't as good a teacher, I guess."

"Spider." You scold, giving him a look.

"Go, show Lo'ak." Tsu'tey encourages. "Make sure that Jakesully sees too. Show him that my son is a fine hunter."

"Tsu'tey!" You chide, delivering a smack to his thigh.

Spider just laughs, before taking the woven basket and running with it deeper into the village towards the Sully's kelku. Tsu'tey watches him go, before turning to you with a smug little grin.

"Ma'yawntutsyìp," He murmurs, leaning forward and pressing his forehead into yours. "He did well. He is growing skilled."

You cup the back of his head with one hand, scratch at his head with your little fingers. He lets his eyes slide shut lazily as he enjoys the feeling of your warm body so close to his after a hunt. He drops his head further into the cradle between your shoulder and neck and nuzzles there.

"I do not like him hanging around with Jakesully's children," He murmurs, his voice muffled in your throat. "There are many other children in the village."

"Oh stop," You mumble, your fingers massaging at his scalp, "They’re good kids."

"Neteyam is like Neytiri. Sensible." He grunts into your skin. "But Lo’ak is like Jakesully. He will get Spider into trouble."

"Oh, Tsu'tey." You sigh in that way you usually do when you think he's being dense. "They're both good kids. Besides, he's not really going to show Lo'ak anyway. He's going to show Kiri."

His brow furrows. "Kiri? She has no interest in fishing."

You sigh again, although this time you seem a little more amused. "I seem to remember you showing off your fishing skills to me when we were younger, hm?"

"That was different," He says dismissively. "I was courting you. That was my way of expressing interest, of showing you that I am strong."

"Mhm." You say, as though you're waiting for something.

Slowly, Tsu'tey raises his head from where it's buried in your shoulder and squints at you. He's not sure if he's following what you're suggesting.

"You do not think this is the same?" He asks, frowning. "Spider is- he is too young. He cannot be thinking of mating yet-"

"Oh, he isn't." You interrupt with a quick shake of your head. "It's a little crush, love. It's sweet."

But Tsu'tey is frowning, his mind overactive. "Does she- how does Kiri feel? If she does not share his feelings, he will be so disappointed-"

"He isn't going to be proposing anytime soon, relax."

"He needs someone who will value him-"

"Tsu'tey."

He falls quiet, looking into your eyes with a thoughtful little frown. You're looking right back at him, mouth quirked.

"He's a teenager with a crush. Let him be." You murmur, stroking a thumb over one of his pointed ears and making him shiver.

Tsu'tey just grumbles. "He has not told me about a crush."

"Well, I'm sure he will," You say simply. "He's a teenage boy. He's going to be shy about it."

Tsu'tey huffs, and looks down at his hands with a scowl. The thought of his small human boy developing feelings for someone who may not return them makes him feel shifty and aggravated – how is he supposed to protect him from such a thing? It will hurt him so much, and there is nothing that Tsu'tey can do to stop it.

"Stop overthinking." You mutter, nudging against his bicep with your shoulder as you finish tying the hair decoration together. "For all you know, Kiri likes him too and is just shy about it."

Tsu'tey grunts. The thought of Spider, such a small and weak little thing, having his feelings at the mercy of Jakesully's daughter makes him feel a little as though he's losing his mind.

"Hey."

When you nudge him again, he turns to you fully. The beaded hair decoration in your hands is finished, all red beads and golden yellow feathers. You hold it up, eyes bright.

"I made this for you." You say, holding it out for him.

Tsu'tey's stern expression softens, and he ducks his head closer to you. "For me? Will you put it on, yawntu?"

Your sweet little face is so bright as you shuffle forward and reach up for his face. Tsu'tey watches you carefully, reaching out to lay his hands against your waist as you wind the beaded decoration around a small section of braids just behind his ear.

"So handsome." You coo at him when it's tucked neatly behind his ear.

Tsu'tey smiles, satisfied. "Thank you."

You sit back and then nestle into him. He opens his arms and accepts you into his side easily, resting his chin over the top of your head contently.

"Our son will be a good hunter." He says, pressing a kiss to the curve of your shoulder. "And a good brother."

His hand lands on the curve of your belly, his thumb smoothing over the swell of it beneath your woven top. You lean into his touch, sighing happily as his other hand massages at the base of your spine.

"I know," You say simply, making a soft noise when he leans down to cup below your belly with his hands, lifting some of the weight up. "You've taught him well."

Pride swells in his chest, and he purrs softly as he presses his face into your neck again. You smell so sweet and comforting, and he inhales contently against your skin.

His small son has grown so strong, and his little mate fits so perfectly into his arms, no matter how large your belly has swollen. His family is so small and weak; he holds you close as his chest rumbles, pleased that he's large and strong enough to protect you all.

[rahuratna]

Hi Rahu!!! My Nanami-loving, schmutt-reading, STEM-girlie, critical-thinker friend! Today I bring up a character who I have been actively avoiding thinking about: the one and only Satoru Gojo.

My overall reactions to Gojo are very mixed. Season one, I didn’t really pay him any mind. Season two, his his fighting scenes though 🫣🫣🫣 Let’s say I finally understood the appeal.

This morning (it is 3 AM), I’d like to discuss Gojo’s perceived loneliness. Maybe another time, when I take a deeper dive into how Gojo’s powers actually work, we could talk about calculus? But these are just fragmented thoughts floating around my head. I just have random questions on when Gojo had to learn calculus for his technique (he seems like the type to sleep through the lessons… did Yaga force him to study??) and what happens if you duplicate a Gojo and divide his infinity by another infinity. You get indeterminate and what happens then?

Uhh, anyways 🙂‍↕️

——————————//——————————

Context: For me, I found it really hard to see Gojo as an individual person. Until recently, I only really payed attention to Gojo and Geto as a pair. That’s why I want to take some time to look at things through Gojo’s perspective of the transition to independence… because I’ve been actively procrastinating thinking about it despite drawing thirst traps of him—

Question: Is Gojo lonely? At first I said yes, but my only reason was because I solely focused on what he doesn’t have: Geto. And that’s quite simplistic of me. I didn’t acknowledge the type of relationships he had with his colleagues and his students because I only viewed Gojo as half of a pair to Geto. That is why I would like to revisit the reasons why I (and perhaps other members of the JJK community) think that Gojo is lonely, specifically through a comparative, discourse, thematic analysis the lenses of his different relationships.

Discussion: I think about how in our previous discussion, we talked about how Gojo did not need Geto anymore as a moral compass after the Riko incident. In this way, Gojo outgrew his friendship with Geto not only because of their different values (remember how their ideologies were always opposite of each others), but rather because of the extent to which they commit themselves to their ideals. This means that Gojo would not change who he is and his beliefs for Geto. It shows the beginning of Gojo’s independence as he becomes more rooted in the cause he fights for.

Is this independence— through motives and strength— a big factor into this perceived loneliness? Yes, I think so. He lost Geto because of the magnitude of their commitment to different beliefs, and his strength mitigates any room for reliance/codependence of his colleagues. But it also brings up the following question: to what extent does Gojo create meaningful connections with others besides Geto, and how does this change the initial hypothesis of perceived loneliness?

It is 4:00 AM and I am a slow and exhausted… so I’ll leave the conversation pretty much open and on this note:

I think it’s easy for an outside observer to compare Gojo’s connection with Geto with the one he had to his peers and his students. It initially seems so small compared to the enormity of what Gojo and Geto were. But that isn’t necessarily true. Here, the value of the different types of relationships we have are subjective. If I were to make a guess, Gojo does not undervalue his other relationships even if he’s not as close to them. He does not consciously put the value of relationships on a scale trying to determine which is more meaningful and which is less. Especially with his students. This is why I think that perhaps I had previously overestimated perceived loneliness. It was because of a narrow-minded outlook focusing only on loss rather than what he gained.

That’s it for now, but perhaps when I wake up I’ll be adding a couple more ideas that I missed in the comments. In general, I don’t think I added much that was insightful… it was more sort of a detailed prompt. But I think that’s cool too since I love hearing about what you have to say! Happy Friday, Rahu, and enjoy the weekend ahead!

Courtney 🧡💜

Hi Courtttttt!! @courtneedsleep *rubs hands* It's time to chat about Gojo! But seriously, thank you for this. I've been actively looking for a proper outlet to explore my own thoughts on this man, and you have PROVIDED. And I would LOVE a deep dive into the calculus, but I'm going to leave that for another juicy analysis, since this is one is already pretty long. 

I definitely saw the appeal of his character from the beginning, but like you, didn't really feel particularly attached to him. He was charming. He was funny. Obviously very powerful and exceptionally confident in his own abilities.

In the beginning, I didn't perceive him as particularly lonely, considering the flippancy with which he seemed to process deeper emotions. It was during the exchange event arc that I began to see the layers to his character.

The concern he showed for his students seemed overshadowed by his own devil-may-care attitude, but later highlighted the faith he had in their abilities. Outwardly, he seemed flippant, as always. But when I re-watched, in the context of what I learned about his character later, his actions took on a new significance.

It starts with his training of Yuuji and Yuuta. Gojo specifically selects these boys who are marked as pariahs, even in the jujutsu world, for the power and potential for great destruction they represent. He devotes himself to their training and shows delight at their development. I realised, as I continued watching, that this delight wasn't so much directed at the evolution  of their power, but the evolution of their souls and characters, things he knew would be singularly defining in their development as the powerful sorcerers they became.

Yuuji and Yuuta were later able to overcome fear, uncertainty, their own weaknesses and more importantly, embrace their own weaknesses in order to become not just very strong, but utterly exceptional sorcerers in their own right. A lot of this was not just due to Gojo's mentorship, but his unwavering belief in them.

On my first watch of season 1, I thought that he showed disappointingly little reaction when Yuuji 'died' after having his heart ripped out. Now knowing just what kind of losses Gojo suffered over time, and the brutal nature of the world of sorcery, I understand better just how much gravity he expressed when he thought that Yuuji was dead.

This brings me to the subject of his loneliness. You're absolutely right about the tendency to view him and Geto as a 'pair', and thus weave their character development inextricably together in our minds. I also had this tendency, when I started watching season 2, but I suppose my awareness of the potential depth of Gojo's character left me looking for more. I wanted to see this formative stage in his evolution as a sorcerer, how what happened with Geto might have transformed his thought processes on many things in the jujutsu world.

The significance of Geto to Gojo, and vice versa, cannot be understated. It is obvious, from their interaction, how much they valued and respected each other, and were also kindred spirits looking to right wrongs in jujutsu society. As we touched on in a previous discussion,  the rift came after Riko's death, and the manner in which they both processed that.

Gojo's independence, as much as it is flaunted, also has its limits. Throughout the time I noted the rift with Geto forming, I also wondered how much of Gojo's change also occurred because of the subtle brainwashing that came with being openly acknowledged (and self aware) as the 'strongest sorcerer' of modern times. In the end, he truly did become a weapon, as tragic a fate as the one suffered by Geto. His fierce belief that he HAD to enact some form of change in the jujutsu world was also a form of conditioning, based on his abilities. It was much easier for everyone to identify the flaws in Geto's thinking because he was on the wrong side. The curse user side.

Gojo's loneliness is apparent, but not because he doesn't have real connections, or people who care for him (and people he cares for). His interaction with Nanami, for me, is one that highlights this. Gojo's power is terrifying to those not on the same side, as seen in the Shibuya arc, where an entire plan (and many sacrifices) were foreseen by the enemy, simply to seal him away. And yet, he places so much value on leaving Yuuji in the care of a sorcerer like Nanami, someone strong, intelligent and competent, but not in the same league as Gojo, power-wise.

Why? Because, as we learn, Gojo does value compassion, heart, dedication to a cause, and the lives of the younger generation, all qualities and beliefs enshrined in the core of what makes Nanami the type of sorcerer he is. Gojo cares for Nanami and values him as a friend, not just because he is one of the old guard, but because he genuinely cherishes everything that Nanami represents as a sorcerer and a human being. He may have irritated the living daylights out of Nanami, but at the end of it all, they had each other to fall back on, when all else in the world of sorcery failed the very tenets of what they believed was right.

So, in what way was Gojo truly lonely? In the way that reaching the rarefied heights of true power can make you. He was alone in ability, in the precocious genius of sorcery he was, in the role he was subconsciously forced to take on as a natural result of what he represented in jujutsu society. Returning to the idea of his conditioning, he could have taken no responsilbility at all, maybe even followed the same path as Geto. But he didn't. Not even the bone-deep kinship he felt for Geto could turn him away from his core beliefs and the role he knew he needed to play,  not just for others, but for his own peace of mind.

One could say that Gojo's loneliness was self-imposed, in a sense. One could also take some comfort in the fact that this self-imposed isolation was precisely because of how much he cared for and valued those around him.

Gojo knew how much his students, colleagues and friends valued him. He knew the sacrifices they'd have to make, in order to survive the brutal world they existed in. He knew that like him, they'd experience loss, death (in some cases, their own), fear, moments of hopelessness, defeat and overwhelming odds. He also knew, with some unerring certainty, that they would rise above those challenges and face their fates with courage, dignity and the fierce hope that is born from experiencing true despair.

How did he know this? One can only speculate. I do think, however, that it stemmed from a torch he had passed on, an unquenchable fire, a tenacity that showcases itself clearly in his students and successors. Gojo had such faith that his will would be passed on, that they would win. In this, he was never truly alone.

Thank you for yet another beautiful analysis and ask (I rambled so much with this one, because I have so many THOUGHTS) and I appreciate all the analytical meals you feed me!

[leviackermanscleaningbuddy]

I thought of this while falling asleep, so stick with me.

I have a very specific image in my head of jisung/chan/noona laying in bed all day and struggling with their mental health, like depresh sesh fr. And then seungmin sees it after he went to school and came back and they were in the same position. (Especially chan, bc we know he has experienced depression irl). So seungmin texts the pack and everyone goes into help the sad mode. Felix makes baked goods and lays with them, Minho makes dinner and makes sure they drink water (he knows when he doesn't need to be a snarky baby, so he lets them live), hyunjin helps with self care and gets them to shower, changbin talks to them and tries to get to the root of the issue, jeongin tries to get them to play games with him or just cuddles up to them and holds them tight like Felix. (Babies) at the end of the night, everyone is piled up in someone's bed watching a kdrama.

Also, ig i could ask the pack this too. If someone is being seriously depressed, how does everyone help? Who usually has the worst of it, if you wanna answer?

(This is so sweet. Thank you for sharing. Because as someone who struggles with mental health (as most of us do!) this was so comforting to read and imagine and take into consideration. <3)

Triggers (only discussed, nothing specific but please take care of yourself): Self Harm, Depression, Anxiety, Mental Illness, Suicide

********************************************************************************

"This is a serious ask." Changbin remarks somberly, lips drawing into a thin, pressed line.

"It is," Chan agrees, nodding. "But it's also incredibly important to talk about. But first-" He gives a soft little smile. "I wanna give all of you guys a big hug and tell you you're doing your absolute best-no matter where you are on your journey-that we're proud of you, and we love you."

He settles back into his seat, folding his hands into his lap, glancing around at the other members of the pack.

"Is there anyone who feels comfortable discussing this? Or would you like me to go first?"

You glance to him. "I think we've all talked about this amongst each other before, but I don't know if we've ever really talked about it outside of the pack. So maybe it's best you go first, Channie."

He nods once and lets out a long breath between his lips. "Okay. Well, I've had a long, hard road of mental health struggles, it's not a secret I don't believe." He pauses for a moment, gathering his words, and then continues. "I've always had bouts of depression, but it got a lot worse when I moved from Australia to Korea to study."

"I was alone, I didn't know anyone, I was just a kid. I felt like no one cared, like I was adrift without anyone or anything to support me. I turned to school and music and producing to try and fill the void, but the weight of the darkness was increasing, and none of those things felt like enough."

You reach out silently and cover his hand with your own. He gives you a slight smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes, and squeezes your fingers between his own gratefully.

"It got so bad, eventually I never left the studio-I didn't eat, I didn't sleep, I didn't take care of myself. At my lowest, I seriously considered just being done with it all. No one would miss me anyway. At least that's what I'd convinced myself-and the depression agreed."

He blows another long sigh out through his teeth, and the pain in his dark eyes is heartbreaking.

"But-" He shifts, sitting up straighter and shaking off some of the heaviness, glancing to Changbin now. "-Then some asshole convinced me to partner up with him for a semester project."

Changbin shrugs and gives a rueful half grin in response. "What can I say? I wanted the best."

Chan gives a little chuckle, shaking his head slightly at the other alpha's teasing. "The depression didn't go away. The weight didn't just disappear over night. But over time, I realized that maybe I did have something, was really someone, that people would miss. At least, certain people that mattered."

He glances around at all of you now, affection flashing across his features, and he gives your hand another squeeze.

"It's still hard some days. I still get too in my head, the darkness never really disappears, it just takes the back seat for awhile, but I've learned how to cope with it better, to turn to people I trust for help, instead of withdrawing and being alone and letting it consume me."

"We're proud of you, Christopher." Minho states plainly, and you can see how much the words mean to Chan as they settle like a blanket around his shoulders.

"Anyway-" Chan gives a little laugh, the tips of his ears going red, as he shifts and rakes a hand through his curls. "Enough about me, someone else go."

"No, but wait-" You stop him, and he glances at you curiously. "-I think it's important to talk about and realize the triggers, the tells, of someone you know and love when it comes to mental health. Because sometimes, when they feel the darkness creeping back in, they can't vocally express that need for help."

Chan nods thoughtfully. "Very true."

"Hyung has very specific tells." Changbin adds, studying Chan. "He starts to withdraw, he spends a hell of a lot more time alone-in the studio, his room, etc.-which leads to him not taking care of himself. He gets quiet, like he's in his head and not with us, and I think everyone's gotten to the point where they can tell 'regular Chan quiet' from 'overthinking, sinking Chan quiet.'"

Chan is nodding again, shooting the other alpha a wordless, grateful look.

"Jisung and I both struggle incredibly with anxiety and panic attacks." You bring up next, looking to the beta, who is nodding beside Changbin. "Although, just because we have the same diagnosis, it doesn't mean our triggers or even our symptoms are the same."

"Yeah-" Jisung agrees, jumping in. "It's important to note that you can struggle from the same mental issues as someone else, and still realize that that doesn't mean you know anything about what the other person is going through. A similar diagnosis can look completely different for someone else."

"In my case, my anxiety revolves around uncertainty and the 'what ifs', and certain scenarios are really triggering for me." You continue, giving Jisung a breather before you give him the option to express his feelings. "If someone is later than normal getting home from school or work, I panic, coming up with all the worst case scenarios in my head until I can't breathe."

"Communication is absolutely key for you and the type of anxiety you struggle with." Chan agrees, nodding.

"Yeah, we've implemented check ins or communication methods when someone is going to be late or somewhere unexpected." You nod, giving Chan a little half smile. "It's really helped, and I really appreciate you guys doing that for me, even if it feels silly."

"Hey, Hyunjin-hyung never has to check in." Jeongin suddenly complains, as if he's only now just realized.

You grin. "Hyunjin is always late, so I've just come to expect it."

Hyunjin smirks like a cat, all sharp teeth and feline eyes. "You know me so well, baby."

Jisung takes in a deep breath, and you take that as his silent signal that he's ready to discuss his own struggles now.

You glance to him, and give him a little encouraging nod.

"On the other hand, I have a hard time with anxiety and panic attacks in social situations, or when dealing with crowds. I don't like to be around a lot of people that I don't know."

Changbin reaches over and stops the beta's nervous twisting of his hands in his lap, giving him a little warm smile.

Jisung steels himself with the alpha's encouragement and goes on. "I don't like feeling like people are counting on me, or expecting something from me that I can't give. In social situations, there's too many variables and too many unknowns, and I feel like I'm guaranteed to fail no matter what I do."

"The buddy system is a great way to help Sungie when he's feeling anxious." Felix interjects, giving the beta a dazzling smile. "We always stick around him in social situations or gatherings, just so he has someone he knows well to joke with or talk to."

"Yeah." Jisung lets out the breath he'd been holding, seem to relax a little. "That helps a lot."

"And Minho-hyung and noona are great at talking him down when he's in the full throes of an actual panic attack." Seungmin adds, throwing an arm around the other beta's shoulders in a silent show of support. "They let him breathe and take his time, and then convince him his feelings are valid and okay, and that he's safe."

Jisung nods again wordlessly, and you see Changbin squeeze his hands.

"As far as everyone helping out-" Felix looks thoughtful now, his brow creased. "-I feel like we all suffer from certain levels of mental issues, and that's to be expected, and everyone kind of just knows how to help in the right way depending on what pack member is feeling down."

"You were absolutely spot on with your scenario of what Channie likes though." You laugh, referencing the previous thoughts. "He needs people to pull him out of his head, help him take care of himself, and mainly snuggle and be there for him. He likes the entire pack to pull around him when he's in a rut."

"Minho-hyung on the other hand-" Changbin speaks up, giving the elder a pointed look. "-he'll bite your head off the first day. He likes his space until he's come down a little, and even then, he wants one or two specific people to just exist with him for awhile."

"And who are those one or two people?" You ask, already knowing the answer, laughing a little.

Minho rolls his eyes as Changbin answers without hesitation, "Chan and Felix of course."

"Ah, Aussie line!" Chan crows triumphantly, and Felix grins at him from across the room as Minho looks annoyed at having been called out.

"Anyway, as we said-" You continue, threading your fingers through Chan's. "-this is a super important topic to talk and be open about, and please, if you ever feel like you need someone to talk to or confide in, find someone you trust-a therapist, a friend, a sibling, a parent-"

"A stranger on the internet." Jisung adds cheekily, grinning.

You laugh. "-a stranger on the internet. Just know you don't have to struggle alone, and that there are always people who will be there for you, even if the darkness makes you doubt that."

"We love you guys." Chan adds seriously, nodding. "And I think I've said it all at this point, so let's end with another big hug."

[steve0discusses]

Ep 45 Part 2: I, Again, Did Not Expect Ryou

The revolving door of characters wandering into this boss arena continues, and this time it’s Pharaoh who is trying to catch up to the plot with the dead woman on the ground, the giant tablet to the side, and Seto who is cackling to himself in a corner.

And Seto does a big ol laugh and it’s been a while since we got a villainous laugh out of Seto. Been a LONG TIME. Probably felt great for this voice actor to go back to his roots.

(read more under the cut)

Y’all.

It’s been a while I’ve been doing this blog, right? And I take it slow, especially right now with chronic fatigue stuff, but MAN I really thought we’d be dueling SETO. Not Aknadin in a Seto Bean! That’s a different guy!

Yugioh! That’s a completely different guy!

And there’s time for the big showdown between Pharaoh and Seto to actually happen. But trying to write it so we no longer develop this rivalry between Seto and Pharaoh feels like...they had to do that because Seto became a friend maybe kind of unintentionally.

It still works, they haven’t lied to us, I just...I have mixed feelings about it.

Mimicking Blue Eyes in Season 1 and Season Zero, this dragon will not work for you if you are not Seto Kaiba. Or Yugi. She’ll sometimes allow Yugi to play her in his deck. But definately not Seto Imposters. And like that, Aknadin is dead by his own hubris.

Hubris be killing a lot of billionaires lately, amiright? Yugioh just leaning into my love of killing billionaire gentry with hubris.

This romantic moment somewhat ruined by the animation team refusing to draw fingers and always keeping everyone’s hands clenched like they’re gonna furiously poop.

Yami watches as Seto recreates the vision that Kaiba had seen several years prior on the blimp. And Yami I’m sure felt entirely 3rd wheel. But he’s used that. He lives in Yugi’s bean. He probably thinks 3rd wheel is normal and how everyone feels all the time.

And then THIS HAPPENS.

Seto decides he’s had enough of watching behind a pillar, and now that everyone is dead and sobbing he should go out and harass Yugi. Youknow, at this funeral. The funeral of his beloved from like a previous life or whatever. Seto is kind over it and for once he is the one that needs a ride home.

And he’s like “hey so...I noticed that guy looks like me”

And then, when you think “well I guess Seto joins the party?” they just start screaming at eachother, within earshot of Seto, within earshot of the dead dragon card, within the earshot of like the entire world.

Remember that no one can actually see Seto but Pharaoh, which makes it even more funny.

Bakura segue’s us back to Yugi and his cursed friends, where he’s trying his best to explain the logic of cursing your classmates with dark magic so you can go on playdates.

The idea that you go through all the trouble to curse people into liking you, but the puzzle itself is made of dark magic, so it finds the most terrifying people to make your friend, is funny to me although it is completely my headcanon.

Anyway, get ready for the still my computer caught for this next one.

(it’s “surprise” but eh I don’t feel like fixing it at this point.)

It DOES look like Tristan is doing a weird cross punch, he’s actually tossing both of them and his hands over extended to the other side, which is a thing we do in animation, we go past the point you intend to go so it looks more fluid--but it does make the tweens funny.

The floor gives way and creates scales made out of the eyes.

Will Yugi leap from his scale and send his friends to purple doom, or will he find Pharaoh’s name and save the world?

which like, wouldn’t be a good episode of Yugioh unless multiple people were asking to die, and Joey nailed it in the most Brooklyn way this Japanese boy knows how.

And so Bakura was like “never mind.” which I guess was an option in the footnotes that only he could read.

Not shown is a hard to cap animation where Yugi leapt from his edge of the scales and just clung to Joey’s waist and Joey was like “gotta hang on to your friends, right Yuge?” And Yugi was like “Does that mean you forgive me already? Or are you being sarcastic right now?”

Inside of the room is this.

I LOVE the outline tool in photoshop. Good stuff. I LOVE it. and so does this animation team. Outlined the HELL out of those birds.

They leave the name zone room, with no idea at all how to say Pharaoh’s name. Where, they ran straight into Tristan and decided enough was enough, it’s time to have a chat. Because no, they haven’t figured it out.

You may be asking “so where did Tristan go?”

I DON’T KNOW.

He’s probably not fine. But um. No idea where Tristan went.

Also, guess who we haven’t seen in like 20 episodes since Seto stepped over his prone body on the steps?

Ryou! Little Ryou is back!

This guy who we...thought was a good guy? Anyway he’s off to literally kill Yugi, just like he’s want to do.

Straight up...I can’t fully predict Ryou, mostly because we rarely ever see the kid, but damn, he sure did wake up just ready to do a murder today, didn’t he?

And yes, this does mean that Ryou was pretending to be Bakura pretending to be Tristan, just so we the audience could get a fun triple reveal in this episode.

For some damn reason Ryou brought a duel disk to ancient Egypt. So we WILL get actual proper cards. And by proper cards, I mean Yugioh TV show cards, which line up not at all with the actual card game. Can’t wait to spell FINAL and then die.

Anyway, here’s the link to read these in chrono order.

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

We are quickly running out of people in this season to kill, but we still got a few of Pharoah’s ancient friends left, and as for who dies next episode? My bet is on...Isis. Sorry Isis, I know you got a cool hat and you’re the token girl but, she’s super dead next right?

[akfamilyhome]

YouTube 2023 Year in Review

Welp! Guess it's that time of year again. I'm sure 2023 has been a...pretty interesting year to say for quite a few people. And for me personally, it's also been a weird little year that's great in some parts and could be better in others.

What have I been up to?

My life right now is kinda divided into three parts:

A) the "IRL" stuff, as in working on my editing day job and spending time with family.

B) working on YouTube videos which I still have the passion for,

and C) playing video games, collecting cool things and socializing with my online friends.

I've always felt that it's difficult for me to put equal attention to all three, and lately, it definitely feels like I'm focusing on 'A' and 'C' more. Of course, my day job is kinda how I make a living at the moment so that obviously gets priority, but that doesn't mean I want to ignore my YouTube stuff! It's just hard to sneak in a few lines of script-writing while multitasking at a day job, and only being able to freely spend time on 'B' and 'C' during night isn't the most productive way to go about things, especially with other things that aren't YouTube production. I also have games I want to play, art I want to draw, folks I'd like to hang out with etc.

And that's a fine, healthy way of going about things online for regular folks! But I don't want my YouTube channel to stagnate as a result of this, because I still love making videos! I have support from folks on Patreon, and I still hope to continue growing the channel so that it becomes more sustainable to do frequent updates.

Part of me has always thought about just quitting my day job once I have a decent amount of money saved up and just try doing YouTube full-time and rely on Patreon, even if there's a very low chance it'd be sustainable. Of course, that's a big gamble, and I'm not truly sure if that's really the best way to go about things. But those are just my inner thoughts and I've rambled long enough...

So, I apologize for the above situation sort of being the root cause of the recent slower pace of my YouTube channel! The pace of the channel this year is about the same as in 2022, if not a little slower. I didn't really get a lot of dormant scripts from 2020-2021 off the ground, but being true to what I said in last year's Year in Review, I did end up working on a lot of spontaneous ideas even if there wasn't a "big" core video! In fact, I think almost every video released in 2023 that we'll discuss below were spontaneous ideas.

I'll talk more about what's to come for the channel in the end of the post, but for now, as usual, we'll take a look at each video I made during 2023 and I'll share my thoughts and some fun facts about each!

A Trip to the Hong Kong Kirby Pop-Up Store

Various things were put up on the channel from January to March, including a funny little short for Mario Day and a new trailer for a revamped Patreon, but the major thing I put out was a look at the Kirby Pop-Up Store in Hong Kong! This was my first time doing a scripted documentation of an in-person event, and Nintendo Hong Kong would eventually do more events like Nintendo Live 2023 Hong Kong, and I'll definitely be talking about them on my channel eventually!

As for fun facts...uhh...I suppose Patreon patrons get to see the full unedited raw footage I took from the event lol

Top 10 Nintendo Trivia You NEVER Knew

This year's April Fools video...was also a last-minute sort of idea, if I recall correctly! The concept is simple: it's a parody of generic Top 10 trivia videos in terms of presentation, but the curveball is instead of just doing other blatantly obvious fun facts, the facts would actually be super obscure, inconsequential Nintendo facts that barely anyone would've known about, so in the end it's kind of a legit trivia video in a twisted way. The facts in the video were sourced from new research, me asking friends for suggestions and some of my old posts on Twitter, so there were a few 'fun' facts that were left on the cutting room floor, and here's a good place to share them!

In an early version of the GameCube instruction manual, Mario 64 was used as a placeholder game

The infamous 'black box' in Super Mario 64 DS is not a visual glitch as commonly believed, and briefly appears in E3 2004 footage

Prototype screenshots of Mario 64 have appeared in an early print of the game's box art...and on a Nintendo Monopoly board in 2006 (next to the ? Block on the right side of the board if you're looking)

The Onion in Hey! Pikmin has white and purple in its colors, even though white and purple Pikmin never appear in the game

The original 3DS had two separate sets of black & white colors, for some reason

And to finally come clean...yes, around 30% of the video's script was generated using ChatGPT, as part of the joke. Mostly the introductory bits at the beginning of each segment, since it definitely did not give me the results I wanted when I asked it to describe the specific details of each fact, so y'know, hopefully that's a sign it's not coming for my job of talking about obscure Nintendo things! And don't worry, this will probably be the only time I ever use AI in my videos.

The Better N64 Wavebird Experience

This is a follow-up to a 2021 video where I also used the N64 Switch Online controller on an original N64, albeit with a different adapter! This actually isn't a case where I received a free product to do a review on, I just happened to read about a better alternative, pre-ordered it online, it arrived in April and I decided to knock out a quick review/comparison video in 2 days!

As such, this is more of standard informative review video, but in all honesty, I still really like this setup, and it's in my opinion still one of the best controller options for original N64 games. So much so, that I recently completed my NSO controller collection by picking up a Sega Mega Drive 6-button NSO controller to eventually use with my original Mega Drive! I'm still looking for the compatible 8bitDo adapter though, so maybe when I eventually do, that can be a quick little video on the Plus channel for patrons!

The Most Expensive amiibo

This is my favorite video I put out this year! The Qbby amiibo has always been in my sights for a while, and I've gone on record saying that I'd make a video on it if I got my hands on one.

Back in 2019, I once saw a Qbby amiibo being offered on Yahoo Auctions for a relatively cheap price, but to afford it I asked for extra donations via Ko-fi. Looking back on it now there were probably better options I could've taken, but either way the listing got cancelled and I refunded everyone who donated for that. Then sometime later I saw another relatively cheap BOXBOY package in a local listing, but then the seller never replied and deleted the listing, so the amiibo has eluded me until now, and there seems to be no signs of Qbby stock going down any time soon. My hope for a Qbby reprint continues, and hopefully this video still serve as a little awareness boost for folks who are wondering why he's one of the most expensive amiibo around!

Some of the gag editing on this one got spruced up a little bit which I enjoyed doing, but you also probably noticed that I got a turntable specifically for those glamour shots! ...yeah, I'll probably get more use of that thing later on as well.

The Kirby Battle Royale online joke wasn't exaggeration: I couldn't find anyone to play online with! I suppose that is to be expected for, y'know, playing a mid 3DS game in 2023, but it's a shame that Kirby Battle Royale doesn't at least offer a option to play with friends, and from some experimentation, it seems that two of my US-based friends were able to match with each other online while I couldn't, which also suggested some region-based matchmaking was at play. Oh well! There are some better 3DS games out there that I'd still like to play online one last time before their servers shut down this April.

Tetris...on a McDonald's Nugget

Continuing the trend of 'make video on a recent find' for the third video in a row, it's the China-exclusive McDonald's Tetris Chicken McNugget! For an unscripted Things of Interest video, it turned out pretty well, kinda like the Rhythm Tengoku arcade video in 2022! Compared to the first unscripted TOI back in like 2018, I've definitely gotten a bit better at rambling since.

I was kind of a few days late to the party, and some other videos about the Tetris Nugget from larger channels have racked up more views since, but that's not really the point! As a casual Tetris fan that happens to be in proximity to mainland China, something as bizarre as this is totally right up my alley. Covering China-exclusive gaming stuff just kinda reminds me that I have yet to do a video on the iQue Player though, which I really want to...

FlashBoy Plus: The $95 Virtual Boy Flashcart

I haven't really taken a YouTube sponsorship deal yet, but I do get emails about doing reviews or ad reads of items on occasion, like new Switch gaming accessories from different third parties and whatnot. Unfortunately, that's not really the type of stuff I do regularly on the channel unless I find a great angle to tackle it from, so the only review offer I've done on the channel until now is a limited Switch physical release in 2020.

When I was offered to review the FlashBoy Plus, I was definitely intrigued despite having already previously covered the HyperFlash 32, a technically better option! Virtual Boy flashcarts are already a very niche thing, so I gladly took the opportunity to take a look at any new option out there, and even if it's not a mainstream topic at all it does kinda appeal to me specifically.

In the video, I mentioned the (very cool looking) clear cartridge shell was not a publicly available option yet at the time of the review, but looking at the order site now, it has been added since! So hey, good for them! It is honestly pretty sick to have a transparent Virtual Boy cartridge.

Playing PC Games with the SNES Mouse & Famicom Keyboard

I started work on the next core video right after the FlashBoy Plus video (more on that in the last section), but getting sick during early December forced me to delay it, so for that month I decided to do one last spontaneous idea: a followup to the 2021 video where I used the Famicom keyboard and SNES Mouse on a computer...but this time on a proper PC!

A thing that was brought up in the comments was one setting in particular: when I was changing the mouse settings in the Control Panel, there was a 'Enhance pointer precision' option that I didn't uncheck, which presumably slows down the mouse for precise movements. There wasn't a super noticeable difference when I unchecked it during further testing, but when I coupled it with further increasing the mouse sensitivity in games that allow you to change it in-game, I was actually able to get the SNES Mouse to move at a decent pace in some games! Of course, that requires tweaking with additional settings that would normally be overkill for a regular mouse, so it's still not practical, but at least there was a setup that would alleviate some of my complaints in the video.

Akfamilyhome Plus videos

Over on my second channel Akfamilyhome Plus, once again there's a variety of stuff! There's Mario Wonder memes, a new high quality video game rip album, archival footage and more. If there's one thing you should check out though, it's the supercuts of me playing Everybody 1-2-Switch with my Discord server. It's the best kind of chaos. Long live Kitchen Timer 4.

This year, 8 new unscripted bonus videos were released publicly! You can enjoy watching me:

Visit the 3DS eShop on its final day of operation

Check out the Nintendo DSi XL Demo Video carts

Look through gaming goodies on a Chinese second-hand market

Unseal Captain Toad Treasure Tracker for the 3DS

Read through the 2010 Nintendo Anti-Piracy Manual

Unbox a complete copy of the original GBA Play-Yan

Compare the two popular 3DS capture card models

And check out the Nintendo Power...rewritable cartridge!

And over on Patreon, 8 more exclusive videos are also available, featuring things like a slew of Nintendo cleaning kits, iQue DS games, the Chinese Mario Movie DVD and more! As always if you don't want to wait till some of them rotate into public availability, they're all available on Patreon for just $1 USD a month!

The fuuuuture

Okay, so what's next for 2023?

I mean 2024. Oh god the typos are already starting.

Right before the FlashBoy Plus video came out, in late June 2023, I did a video topic poll on Patreon, asking what idea I should do next. Out of the four options given, one of them is a continuation of a limbo project from 2021, and the other three were spontaneous new core video ideas I came up with and wanted to do.

Well, one of the spontaneous new ideas won the poll, so the next core video is...

A look at the camera and sound apps on both the Nintendo DSi and 3DS! I originally wanted to get this out in December, and you all know what happened to that plan, BUT the script is done, the VO recording is done, footage recording is well underway and I am confident I'll be able to get it out this January. I really like how the script for this one shaped up and am commissioning some banger thumbnail art for it (🐦), so I REALLY hope you'll look forward to it!

Afterwards, there are a few in-progress ideas that I also want to work on for quick videos afterwards. As mentioned above, I visited Nintendo Live 2023 Hong Kong which was hosted on November, and ALSO the Nintendo Hong Kong Pop-Up Store which is running from December to January, so both of those would make for a perfect video in a similar vein as the Kirby Pop-Up Store video last year!

I also went on a trip to Japan last August, and took quite a bit of photos and footage. I still want to share my findings and experiences of being in Tokyo for the first time that I could remember, so there will be a fun little piece about that going on the Plus channel in the future!

And don't forget, I'm making a video about every game I beat during 2023, continuing the thing I started last year!

And after ALL of the above is done, I still have the remaining core video ideas from the June Patreon poll I did, since I did say I'd eventually love to do all of them, and that desire still hasn't gone away. I don't know how the rest of 2024 will go for this channel but I'd say this is a fantastic starting point, and I hope it'll all go up from there, since I'd really love to be more productive on here, while trying to keep that A-B-C balance in check!

So yeah! That's it for the 2023 Year in Review. If you've made it all the way to the bottom, thank you for reading! Here's a 25-use invite link to my Discord server as a little something! Thank you to all of you who've supported me this past year, whether you're a viewer or a patron, and I hope to keep up the work this year and try to strive for better!

[miracleandplagueau]

So, here's a thing about Marinette.

She is a kind, rather cultured person, agrees to a lot of things, but also knows when to stand her ground and say no. The averagest of average protagonist models you can write with the exception of her obsessive personality trait. About Derision later, but she might possibly be one of the blandest characters I've seen in popular media

While watching Demon Slayer's finale yesterday, I realized something. Marinette is very much like Tanjiro. She can be both kind and badass when needed, be humble and be confident whenever the writers need her to be. Marinette is like Tanjiro -- written to be liked. She wasn't written to be unique or stand out from the crowd nor was she ever supposed to make a breakthrough in how to write a compelling protagonist to root for. She is a vessel. An empty vessel to watch in the background, because once you start analyzing her, it's over for your sanity

But why is she so hated then... She's so kind, so extremely helpful. A person everyone can get along with (famous people count too I suppose), but she also has her own frustrations like deal with brats who apparently targetted her as their victim for no apparent reason!! She has struggl-- It's nothing new. Look at it a little closer, go in depth and tell me that she has a consistent personality. She's more of a big pile of clay that the writers will model and shape according to their mood and how they want a certain storyline to end. Even Chat Noir has more consistent personality than her despite being neglected by both his own father and the writers. I guess more isn't always the merrier.

Is it actually hard to give YOUR PROTAGONIST a DAMN CONFLICT?! HER ONLY CONFLICT IS WHETHER SAYING "HI" TO ADRIEN WILL RUIN THEIR FUTURE TOGETHER. GIVE HER FLAWS GIVE HER CONSEQUENCES MAKE HER LEARN THE LESSON THE HARD WAY

Actually, I take it back. There is one conflict. Well, "conflict" or rather a turning moment for her is when she loses all miraculouses, which is followed by a nasty panic attack. That's it. That's all I could think of from the top of my head.

The only thing that really makes her stand out is her obssessive nature towards Adrien and we got some insight on why in the season 5 episode Derision and you know what I have to say about that? Fucking BULLSHIT. In a very short summary, Marinette crushed on Kim, but he humiliated her whilst working with Chloe. After that event, she decided she will only confess to someone when she knows them through and through. Putting aside the fact that we only then found out that Marinette had a friend that wasn't Alya, It's actually a total asspull in terms of Kim's behavior. Why would Marinette be friendly to Kim in Dark Cupid when he did something like THAT to her? Why is he potrayed as a funny, a little misguided himbo in the friend group - did nobody actually know about what's happened? I mean obviously they had to so why is everyone pretending like everything is fine? Why is SHE pretending everything is fine? Did she forget?! The answer is no, because Derision was not planned from the beginning. Thomas heard that his beloved protagonist isn't liked and went back to the drawing board to cook up some fake depth to her. Despite what I said, I'd actually love to see an episode like that, maybe Chloe IS the bitch we're lead to believe she is and I could've accepted it as a valid explanation to both Marinette behavior and her cruel, unchanging nature....

IF IT WAS IN SEASON ONE OR TWO

Putting a lore piece like that in the final season of the story is actually fucking ridiculous. Do you really expect me to care NOW?! When we're like 15 episodes from the FINALE OF THE SHOW? Na-ah, absolutely fucking not

Everytime I see a post praising Derision for how well written it is my stomach does a fucking cartwheel this is not an exaggeration

Marinette is like Zoe except Marinette is actually an asshole sometimes. It would be good If she was! I want to see an asshole protagonist where I'll have to see them change before I start rooting for them, but Marinette is neither changing, evolving or facing consequences. Using a miraculous for her personal gain and lashing out as Ladybug on Lila? it was a good fucking moment. I found it uncomfortable and embarassing to watch AND THAT'S A GOOD THING. IT HAD LONG LASTING CONSEQUENCES in form of Lila being a menance in return. Then again, I can't exactly praise Lila because she's equally as stupid- sorry, everyone's brains and common sense seem to evaporate when they're in Lila's closest proximity, but that's where they're similar. Everyone seems to lose their awareness when Marinette does her puppy eyes to break into a house too.

She is genuinely getting harder to watch and don't even get me started on season 5 because I've seen the leaks alright

[poisonousquinzel]

Harley Quinn (2021 - ) #28: Dawn of DC arc | Writer: Tini Howard | Artist: Sweeney Boo

Covers ♡

What did you want to expand on with this well-established but ever-growing character?

Boo: I feel like Tini is showing new facets of Harley. We get more in-depth with who she is inside and what she wants to be. It's hard not to fall in love with her.

Preview Panels | By Sweeney Boo ♡

What were you most excited to pick up on from Harley's current continuity?

Howard: Harley has friends, a girlfriend, and a good head on her shoulders. All good stuff to pick up and shake around really hard. No, truly, it's a huge relief to have Ivy there. I'm a longtime lover of those two as a couple, and the fact that it's there and real for us to engage with as storytellers is fantastic. It's so freeing to be able to tell that story, and we're working closely with Willow and the Ivy team so that we always know we're on the same page with the girls. It's not unlike how I talk to Chip about Catwoman and Batman. It's all hilariously like my little fan-fiction writer days, kind of delightfully so.

Boo: Her friendships and relationships, especially that one famous girlfriend of hers! *wink wink*

Tini, what were you most excited to see Sweeney bring to life on the page?

Howard: That's a huge spoiler, but I'll say this. Working with an artist like Sweeney is what's given me the freedom to pursue where we're going with this story. We really needed a human rainbow, just an exciting kaleidoscope of an artist who can jump the hell right off the page while also nailing the mundane, little jokes of Harley's life. Sweeney Boo's that artist. Oh, there's a lot of Bud and Lou in this run, too -- I love the way Sweeney draws them.

Sweeney, what were you most excited to illustrate based on Tini's script?

Boo: Drawing Harley's apartment! There is no better way to get into someone's head and get a glimpse of who they are until you see where they live. I wanted to get crazy and really play with that! There are so many intimate scenes of Harley being at home and being cozy with Bud and Lou. It's just so adorable.

Can you share with us what you are most excited for fans to see and experience with this chapter of Harley's life?

Howard: I think Harley's a really unique character, especially for queer women right now, because she's not being forced to be aspirational. She can be foul-mouthed and disastrous and troubled and weird and also be a great character we're always rooting for. Our run is really about Harley coming to terms with her position in the DC Universe at large, about what your career path is if you're too big for primetime but not up for the Justice League or the Legion of Doom. It's also a love letter to the funniest parts of the DC Universe. To me. If there's one thing I think a Harley Quinn book needs to be, it's funny, and the DC Universe is so weird and can be so, so funny. Like, think of the five funniest things that are [actually] important DC plot points, and I guarantee one of them is in this run.

Boo: Harley's trying to do her best, even if sometimes she hasn't the most honest of ideas. I think seeing her trying to grow is very relatable, but for her, it might involve big hammers and dynamite.

[thebirdarts]

My 2023 Year in Art

Because of my sporadic drawing, I just picked 12 pieces of mine, spread out across this year, that i felt had an impact or shows an one on my overall artistic style, from the first time I've experimented with something, and when i solidified it.

i nerd out over my own drawing under the cut!

In chronological order, starting with my portrait of my first WOTR commander, Alaun.

Original Post!

Not only is this is representation of me getting into WOTR, its one of the first times i did smoother and softer shading, something i haven't really done since. Additional, i can easily see the line between the metals i rendered here and Cecio & Celia's more stylized metallic elements. I miss Alaun, he was ahead of his time as a good kc of mine. its a fairly big full piece, and one I'm still proud and fond of today!

Original Post!

Estinian! god i miss ffxiv... Here is the root of my bright idea to use pencil brushes for colored shading, to get a textured gradient, and i used it in the metallic golds. its also my biggest art post on this blog! it is a big & detailed piece, and seemed daunting at the time, but i just put in the time, and was rewarded for trying to make sense of the armor [i used my own dragoon as a model for how thing actually interacted & what was what] Im still stupidly proud of it. it was my second piece of FFXIV fanart, and the beginning of many more!

MURA! original post

Given this is about drawings that have impacted me, i think this one is an easy contender for the one that's done so the most. Drawing Mura reminded me how much i loved fashion & clothing, and drawing it! I've always has a tremendous amount of fun with her drawings, and it all started here!! Mura also was the first time i repeatedly used a colour pallet for a character, with her pinks and purples now ingrained into my mind!

Original Post

Out of all my drawings, Estinian and Mura are tied for how much ive drawn them, which Estinian has an advantage due to my large bank of FFXIV screenshots & my redraws thereof. This was great fun, not only for understanding the armor better, but having fun experimenting in colour pallets! something i can see has carried on into my non-literaly coloured Celia & Cecio drawings!

Mura<33 original post [has link to its original art]

My first head only drawing in a long time, and somewhere where i experimented with coloring, as well as the introduction of Muras netted and braided hairstyle! in fact, you can see the visible brush strokes as what would eventually be the stylized shading used in my more recent portraits! The shattered stained glass. looks cool as hell. and was my first time majorly experimenting with layer options, something that would become very common for me.

Mura again<3 original post

Look narrowing it down to three was hard, i drew her so much, she really re-inspired me to draw. Lighting<33 you can really see here the style i would use on Cecio, just using a pencil brush rather than a roller one. its a piece Im very proud of, and one day i will light everything as consistently as this

Miss Star-Sailer<33 original

Expanding the working with a limited color pallet from Mura, and once again rendering metals, this piece of my wol has a special place in my heart. just... her<33 She<33 her muted and dark colour pallet, her expression... i love this one<33

GEORGIE!!! original

my baby boy<33 Im finally drawing curls... and the brightly coloured iris & tiny white pupil may have become a thing of mine.

Celia<33 original

the limited colour pallet, the non literal colours, the sketch peeking through, the shading on both clothing and skin, the hair? this is like the payoff to all theses previous drawings. i used a different pencil brush, and goodbye 6b and hellooo procto pencil!!!!

Cecio<3 original

If the previous drawing was the payoff, this is one of the stages of refinement, taking the new stylized skin shading and applying it to a portrait where the face is the focus, and damn!! Cecio<3

original

A compositional outlier, this piece earned its place for me revising what has to be one of the most drawn compositions of mine - the eye. In many ways its the closing loop of a full circle, the brushstrokes exactly how i would shade with my pencil on paper, the lines and movements coming naturally to me, in an entirely different medium. the main difference is colour, while my pencil drawings were firmly grayscale and i resisted all attempts to get me to use colour, this is practically a sunset, using my knowledge of not just colour but layer filters to create bright and overly saturated variations. full circle, just add colour.

Original

And the final piece! a portrait of Cecio, showing off all i have developed, from the metallics, to the stylized shading, colour pallets, the use of filters for alternate versions, the hair, the face, the new brush!!! its not my last drawing of 2023, but its a fitting end.

- end note.

if you will permit me to get sappy, 2023 has been hell of a year, but damn if it hasn't been pointing upwards. in 2023 i came to understand i was disabled, and my whole life changed course. My art became not just a hobby or skill of mine, but will be my main source of income once i graduate. my existing friendships have strengthened, and so have my online ones, ive met so many new and awesome people. seeing everyone's tags, comments and reactions to my art has been amazing, and thank you all for that. i have seen so many amazing artists and writers who inspired me to better myself, and also to focus on what makes me unique.

2023 has been a hell of a year, but thanks in no small part to some of the most amazing people i've had the privilege of knowing, it been a damn good one.

its been tough, coming to realize your physically disabled and having to rewrite your life plan was hard. its been overall up, but there have been some spikes down. im aware, that every year i say i cant get happier, and then i do, i break though another barrier, reach another high.

im not saying that this year, because i know next year will be better, and the year after that, as i have the opportunity to steer my own life, it will improve in ways i cant even think of now.

Thank you, all.

[yeyinde]

lev… if you’ve seen it I have to know your thoughts on the penguin finale because… 😵‍💫 I’ve been thinking about it nearly nonstop for the past three days

heartbreaking, actually.

i kinda understand why it had to happen, but ultimately, i just wish they did something else. i rambled so much because i was so excited for what it could have been, so spoilers under the cut.

it's hard, too, when you put a villain in a leading role because at a certain point, the audience forgets they're suppose to be evil. that Oz is, essentially, a Big Bad for Batman when he comes back. but having him as the star, you root for him. especially when it's presented like this.

in the comics, he's ruthless. and there are a lot of parallels between him and Batman (which obviously is a bit underplayed in the television series), but Oz's greed and lack of a moral compass is what really sets them apart. there's a fundamental disconnect there that disallows them to be two sides of the same coin.

but this series was different. a different take on the Penguin. i kinda understand why they made the choices they made. people need to see Oz as a villain. i can understand that, but.

i kinda wish they didn't. i wish that instead of drawing such a brutal and blunt line of utter psychopath in Oz's character, they let it stay grey so we always have that note of sympathy for this man when he's facing off against Batman because it's so much more engaging when the villain is sympathetic and/or relatable. it makes a great dissonance between Tragic Rich Guy makes himself the moral authority and Tragic Poor/Bad Guy who circumvents this idea.

now, any argument Oz tries to make is going to be overshadowed by this choice. we, as the audience, cannot trust him. it almost negates the sympathy we felt.

it was also setting itself up as an interesting dynamic. Oz and Vic are, essentially, cut from the cloth but where Oz cheats, lies, steals, manipulates, and kills to his own way, Vic doesn't. it could have been a nice antithesis to Oz's character, and it could have also given us a different perspective;

how far would you go for loyalty or to survive?

ahhh. i just feel like. Vic would have been such an interesting character to play off of Batman and Oz. technically, he's condoning bad things but he's not inherently evil. he's a good guy in a bad situation. i think, with Batman being in his infancy, this could have set up so much of the groundwork for the strict rules he follows.

and even on his own, Vic, as a character, had so much potential.

the reason i understand why they did it is because there's no coming back from this. Oz made his choice. it's a heavy blow to the audience because it reminds them of why he's evil but i wish there was more buildup to it. i wish it wasn't over something so flimsy. like maybe he felt himself wavering or maybe Vic reminded him too much of what he could have been that he can't stomach what he does when he looks at Vic. the jealousy-sorrow angle would have been more understandable.

i want to get deeper into Oedipus Oz's head than what we got in the sparse moments following the end.

and Sophia. i loved her to pieces but what more can she do? team up with Selina? become more of the Hangman than what we sorta saw?

i just think, and it might be a little controversial, that it would have been way more interesting if Vic had to kill Sophia to protect Oz. or something like that.

loved the show, though!!! i will def be doing a rewatch for hidden things i missed in the first run-through.

[irondad-defensesquad]

The perks of being a wallflower - Chapter 1

Also posted on AO3!

I spent the entire day writing this. The second chapter will be posted shortly, I hope.

There might be some timeline inaccuracies but the MCU already sucks at that, so bear with me, lmao.

TRIGGER WARNINGS - mentions of bullying, death, suicidal thoughts and self-harm.

DO NOT SHIP PETER AND TONY. P/ROSHIP DNI.

--

To Iron Man,

My name is Peter Parker and you’re my favorite hero! Look, I drew you! Your armor is pretty hard to draw but I tried.

I like building stuff too! I wanna grow up to be just like you one day. I heard you built stuff when you were just five. That’s so cool!

Sincerely,

Peter, age 7

Parker

--

To Iron Man,

Hi! It’s Peter again. Parker. I dunno if you remember me. Did you get my first letter? You must be busy being the coolest hero in the world so I understand if you couldn’t answer.

Anyway I’m going to the Stark Expo! For a whole week! I’m gonna see you up close!! My Uncle Ben is the best. He’s a big fan too!

See you there!

Sincerely,

Peter Parker, age 9

--

To Iron Man,

I can’t believe I actually met you!! Twice!!! You said “nice work, kid”! Did you remember me??

Yeah too bad I’m grounded… I really scared Uncle Ben and Aunt May. But thanks to you I’m okay! This was the best week of my life! Do you think we’re gonna meet again? I dunno but it would be nice.

I hope you’re ok after all that. That Hammer guy is nobody! That’s what he gets for messing with you!

Anyway I have to go to bed, good night!

Sincerely,

Peter Parker

--

Dear Iron Man

Dear Mr. Stark,

Hi, Peter again! How are you? I got really worried… I never thought I’d see aliens like this. Then I saw on TV that you flew right into the wormhole and I got so scared that you would get stuck in it forever…

Do you ever get scared, Mr. Stark? Aunt May and Uncle Ben tell me they’re surprised that I don’t get scared often. But I was really scared something happened to you or to them. I don’t wanna lose anyone else…

We’re all okay though! But I still hope you’re safe now, Mr. Stark.

Sincerely,

Peter Parker

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

I saw what happened in Malibu and I got so scared! I’m really sorry you lost your home. I was so sad and afraid you were gone, but Uncle Ben told me you’re gonna find a way out of this. You always know what to do, Mr. Stark! You’re a genius! I know you’ll come back somehow and defeat the bad guys, like you always do! I’m rooting for you!

Sincerely,

Peter Parker

P.S.: I tried to draw you again but no armor this time! Because you’re a hero with or without the armor! I hope you know that. Even if I never send you this… or any other letters…

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

Happy birthday!

I actually had a science fair today… and I built my own miniature arc reactor! It’s not as good as yours of course. But I got a pretty good grade! Even if I didn’t win the fair, I was in third place!

There’s this kid Flash, though, I think he got jealous and he tried to break my arc reactor. I didn’t let him! He really doesn’t like me and I dunno why. I never did anything to him. But I guess nobody likes me at school except for Ned, who’s my best friend. We like building LEGOs together.

Okay, sorry for rambling, Mr. Stark. Hope you have a great birthday!

Sincerely,

Peter Parker

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

I had a bad day.

I mean I guess everyone has bad days. Maybe you have bad days too. But sometimes my bad days are really bad.

Flash is even worse, because he usually just insults me and I ignore him, but he has some friends that do the dirty work. Like today they shoved me in a locker and the hallway was completely empty. It was dark and very tight in there, it was kinda hard to breathe. I screamed for help but no one would hear. I didn’t have my phone so I couldn’t call anyone. Eventually the janitor found me and let me out.

I think I might be claustrophobic like the doctors say. I felt like I was gonna die in that locker…

I didn’t wanna tell Aunt May and Uncle Ben. They’re always busy and I know Uncle Ben is gonna get really angry. Like he doesn’t get angry at me but he doesn’t have to worry. I don’t want him to worry and get upset because of me.

… Sorry for being a downer, Mr. Stark. Sometimes I just really hate school.

Hope you’re ok.

Sincerely,

Peter Parker

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

Have you ever seen Star Wars? I watched it with Ned and I love it! We binged the movies on the weekend, then we spent all day talking about it and all the theories we came up with.

Ned really gets me, we’re into the same things and we really laugh a lot. I’m really glad to have him.

Sincerely,

Peter Parker

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

I can’t really sleep.

I’ll be honest, I write when I can’t sleep. And I have to be real quiet or else Aunt May or Uncle Ben will find out and they’re gonna get worried about me.

I dunno, nothing particularly bad happened today. I mean, Flash was a jerk like always, but it never went too far. I just feel something tight in my chest that won’t really go away. Sometimes I find it hard to breathe, like I’m still stuck in that locker.

Now that I think of it, not even Ned knows about the locker thing. I guess only the janitor knows. And you. Kinda.

But I think everyone knows Flash taunts me and they don’t really do anything. But I don’t want my aunt and my uncle getting worked up about it. I feel like my school wouldn’t really care anyway.

…

Would you care, Mr. Stark?

I dunno. Maybe not.

Writing to you helps anyway.

So… thanks.

Sincerely,

Peter Parker

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

Liz is so pretty.

She’s a girl in my school. She’s not in my grade but she’s in the Decathlon with me. She’s smart and funny and cute and gorgeous…

Flash can tell and yeah, he loves being a jerk about it.

Liz is nice to me. Well, she’s nice to everyone. But she compliments me and I feel all fuzzy inside. It’s so weird.

I kinda hate that I started writing stuff to her too. I’m DEFINITELY not sending that to her. It’s so cheesy!

I think she likes Star Wars. She was super into my conversation with Ned today. And then I couldn’t really concentrate with her eyes on me, totally interested in what I had to say…

Mr. Stark, what should I do? How do you talk to pretty people?? And why am I asking this to Iron Man???

Sincerely,

Peter Parker

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

I really hate Valentine’s day.

I mean, I like Liz but she already gets a bunch of stuff, obviously, because she’s the greatest girl ever and it’s not like anything I do would be good enough. But all the Valentine’s cards I get are pranks. Once Flash and his friends pranked me and the card told me to wait after school. And I stayed there and nobody showed up. I even bought flowers and chocolate but I threw them away.

I did make a little card though. But it wasn’t that red heart we’re all familiar with. I kinda modeled it after your new arc reactor, Mr. Stark. I’m not really good at art, but it looked kinda cool.

In the end I just gave it to Ned, because he’s probably the only person who makes me feel good. And he loved the card so much. He gave me chocolate in return!

I guess it wasn’t so bad.

Sincerely,

Peter Parker

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

It’s my birthday! And I got a camera!

I remember playing with my uncle’s old camera as a kid, and he thought I was a great photographer. So he and my aunt surprised me with a brand new camera! I’m also in a photography extra class so I can learn more!

It’s really fun. I actually love analog photography. I love the whole process, the chemicals, that red light in the dark… It's still a laboratory and I’m all for it.

And at least it’s the class where I can enjoy myself without Flash pestering me so much.

I’m having so much fun!

Sincerely,

Peter Parker

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

Sorry for not writing in a while.

First, would you get mad if I told you I went to Oscorp?

I mean, I went there with my school. It was okay, I guess. Though I would rather go to the Avengers Tower if I’m being honest. I dunno why Midtown never arranged it.

Anyway, I took some cool pictures with my camera. But I think I got bitten by something. Then I learned about the radioactive spiders they kept there. It was creepy. I don’t like spiders.

The bite in my hand looks pretty nasty. In fact my hand kinda hurts. And so does my head.

I should probably stop writing.

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

Okay. A lot of stuff happened.

1) I don’t have to wear glasses anymore. When I try, my vision looks pretty blurry.

2) I can glue myself to things and I think that’s worse when I’m too anxious. I literally couldn’t get out of bed one morning without my hands holding my blanket.

3) I can hear EVERYTHING. All the other floors in the building, even whispers or flies, stuff like that. I can overhear Aunt May and Uncle Ben talking or the calls they have to take.

4) My brain sorta screams when I sense any sort of threat. Like when Flash approached and I felt tense all over.

That definitely has something to do with that radioactive spider.

I had a pretty bad fever, my aunt and my uncle were pretty worried. No one really knew what was going on. I’m just glad it’s over. But now I have to deal with these… powers. And I wish I could turn them off. I thought of getting those soundproof headphones, y’know?

It’s so much. I know you don’t have powers, Mr. Stark, but what would you do if you were me? Would you be able to find something to quiet them down?

I can’t really talk to anyone else about this.

Sincerely,

Peter

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

My Uncle Ben is the greatest guy ever. Besides you, of course.

He loves doing everything with me, like watching movies or going to baseball games. I love doing those things too. However, in the middle of the game, I think I had a “sensory overload”, like Aunt May said. Because I was really overwhelmed by all the screaming, the spit, the smells, the lights… I tried to be strong for my uncle but I made the excuse I had to use the restroom. Uncle Ben was going to take me there but I didn’t want him to lose the game so I decided to go alone. I think he could tell I wasn’t okay because he followed me and took me somewhere quieter. Uncle Ben is probably the most patient man I know because he didn’t get angry at me. In fact he suggested we should go home. I couldn’t really protest because I knew I wouldn’t handle the rest of the game with all those loud people.

He didn’t really talk to me on the ride home, but I heard him talking to Aunt May. He was pretty concerned. He said there was something off about me lately. Aunt May just told him to give me some rest for now.

I started crying in my room.

Now I can’t even enjoy baseball games with my uncle. Nor movies. When I found him watching TV, the noise and the light was too much for me. I felt so bad. I didn’t even eat dinner. Aunt May had to leave me some so I wouldn’t go to bed without any food.

I hate this. I hate these new powers, these sensations.

Why can’t I be a normal kid again?

Sincerely,

Peter

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

I can’t sleep, again. Even less now with these powers.

I have so many more questions to ask you, but there’s one I really want you to answer.

I’m a good kid or at least that’s what everyone tells me. I like to play, I’m a good student and I don't bother anyone. I love Aunt May and Uncle Ben, and I know they love me too. But sometimes, I get sad. I don’t cry even if I want to. My eyes are heavy, I know I’m overwhelmed, but I can’t sleep at all.

Do you get sad, Mr. Stark? What do you do when you get sad? How do you not get sad?

I really want a hug right now but I don’t want to wake up my aunt and my uncle, because they have to go to work early. Is it weird to say I want a hug from you, Mr. Stark? Is it weird to admit I wish you showed up at school to save me from bullies and my own powers? That’s stupid, right?

At least you’re never going to read these letters…

Sincerely,

Peter

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

Uncle Ben died.

He’s gone.

He’s really gone…

Ever since that baseball game, I started feeling more irritated. I distanced myself more and more. The bullying at school got worse. I started doing stupid things to my body. I didn’t want to tell you, Mr. Stark, but I began cutting myself again. I kind of stopped for a while but the habit returned. And when Uncle Ben found out, he got really upset. Like, he was more upset that I didn’t tell him I was suffering than he was angry at me being a brat. Even then, Uncle Ben could never bring himself to hate me.

But I was stupid. I ran away from home. Of course, he went after me.

And all I could hear was the shot.

Uncle Ben was lying on the floor, bleeding so much red.

I tried to say I was sorry… but I was too late.

He was gone.

I didn’t even want to go after who shot him. If anything, I killed Uncle Ben. I hurt him and I killed him.

Aunt May cried the entire week. I even stayed with her at night. I knew she didn’t want to be alone.

So the apartment is empty. Lonely. There is no TV airing games or movies anymore.

At least Ned is coming over sometimes or letting me stay over at his house, because I can’t handle that emptiness. It’s worse than loud noises.

I kind of wish Uncle Ben hated me so maybe he wouldn’t have gone after me.

I kind of wish he and Aunt May never took me in.

I wish I was never born at all.

My life just gets worse and worse… What's the point?

What’s the point, Mr. Stark?

I should’ve been shot, not Uncle Ben. He didn’t deserve it. I did.

I’m sorry, Mr. Stark. I’m sorry I’m this mess.

I wish I could just die.

--

Dear Mr. Stark,

I think I’m managing my senses now.

I made my own suit. It’s not fancy like your suits of armor, but it helps me focus.

I guess I was inspired by you and Uncle Ben. I could use my powers for good.

So… I’m a vigilante, I guess.

You can call me Spider-Man.

I don’t really do anything interesting but I help the best I can.

School is not really going well, I had to give up a lot of things, mainly sports. That would just draw too much attention.

I have to be there for everyone, or else I know I’m going to face my really bad thoughts. I don’t want them to take over me.

I don’t think I’ll have a lot of time to write, so I want to thank you, Mr. Stark. I know you’re not going to read this, but you helped me in a really bad phase of my life. You still do. I hope you know you inspire a lot more people out there. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man

--

(Chapter 2)

[chirpsythismorning]

What 'early breakups' are you even talking about? Steve and Nancy's? Lucas and Max's? Nancy and Steve broke up in an 'ambigious' way and it happened what? After the Party mess and when Nancy was drunk... so that did not exactly even happen that early into the season. Lucas and Max were broken up off-screen so they could get together.

They want Milvn to break up permanently in an unambiguous way, without any possibility of them romantically getting together while at the same time asserting their importance to each other on a personal sense with the show's narrative.

How's an early and quick breakup where El just goes 'i am done bye' does that, with the knowledge we have that El drew strength from Mike based on love, not hatred. The words 'Mike's hands were pulling her from her drowning' and other variations are not about El drawing strength from anger...

Sorry if you felt like I was calling you delusional. Pointing out that the almost entire fandom is willing to ignore canon narrative is not calling someone delusional it is just a fact. It's not even an interpretation.

We cannot expect to really expect anything going into S5 when the fandom almost consistently ignores canon and prefers to go by fanon instead. All the analyses then become heaaaaavy handed but very misguided expectations from an analyzing standpoint.

Yes all of those couples followed a somewhat similar pattern of breaking up early on. But specifically the Steve/Nancy/Jonathan love triangle is what I’m referring to.

In s1 they separated early on and the rest of the season Jonathan and Nancy were a focus, which allowed us to root for them the whole season, besides the beginning and end. In s2, they had their fight at the beginning revolve around Nancy not being able to say I love you, which allowed us to root for them for the rest of the season and followed by them getting together.

Mike literally refers to him and El’s fight in s4 as 'a fight that you can’t come back from', a fight that paralleled his sister’s fight with her first boyfriend, who she also ended up being broken up with after that incident, not years later, because we all know that that wasn't a fight you could just push under the rug and save for another time, it had to be addressed.

The thing is, the time jump for s5 is likely to occur early in the season, because the cast's age difference is something they don’t want to be too distracting. The earlier the time jump, the more they film stuff post time jump, accommodating to that age gap between s4-5.

So having Mike and El’s break up be midseason, means that’s Mike and El would presumably be ignoring all of the deep and very hard to ignore problems in their relationship, for those initial epiosdes, and then for another 1-2 years depending on how long the time jump is, which I just don't see happening. I don't see them putting on a show of a romantic relationship for much longer, and that's based on how S4 ends. For them to go from not talking and staying within at least like 3 feet of each other in those last moments, tells me that they're not going to be gravitating towards each other the way romantic love interests do, the way Mike and Will are doing at the end of the season in direct contrast.

I think holding off on it until mid-s5, is arguably even more ambiguous than what I would imagine is going to happen if it’s addressed sooner rather than later. Because that would mean them just awkwardly dancing around it and acting like it's not going to happen, even though we know it's inevitable.

Because Mike and El’s problems were highlighted in s3-4 in a big way. We saw how especially in s4 neither of them were being honest in their relationship. The romantic love there was lacking because neither of them were in it for genuine reasons, in terms of genuinely being in love and wanting to be together in a romantic way.

El craved normalcy bc she has always had so many things in her life making her feel different. Mike and his relationship with El is all he knows. And s4 made a point to build up just how impossible it is for them to keep this going and act like everything is okay when it’s not. Like did you see early s4, the fake sort of show they put on to act like everything was fine? Why would s5 be repeat of that? Why wouldn't they evolve that to show that their conflict is no longer something they can ignore, and instead convey that it was indeed a fight they can't come back from.

And I personally do not think that the break up is just going to be an 'I’m done, so bye!' scenario 🤣. Even if it was midseason, it wouldn’t be like that either.

It's a lot more likely that how El felt about their fight in early s4, and how she felt about his monologue, is going to at least be addressed and acknowledged in early s5, because the audience deserves that closure of knowing how El truly feels, with her being able to say it. Meaning that if they stayed together in early s5, we’d also need El in early s5 saying she loves Mike too and to actually resolve that conflict with her actually being able to even respond to it.

And with them breaking up and byler being endgame inevitable, I just highly doubt they’re going to play this game all over again, only to rip it away haphazardly.

She started the show barely being able to say a couple of words. And now despite the fact that she can talk and speak for herself, she hasn't been granted that affordance in the narrative. Instead her brother confessed her love for her, using all things that applied to him. If they wanted to give us El's genuine feelings about Mike, they wouldn't be identical to her brothers and given from him. That's just soooo sad and not fair for anyone in this situation and that's why it needs to be addressed.

We know she was upset with Mike calling her a superhero in their fight, we know that she looked at him with this frustration that he was still not getting it. That was like the climax of their fight in her room, with her looking at him with fed up determination, because saying something like that was the last thing she wanted to hear. And if anything, her experience at Nina, where Brenner told her she needed to fly and revealed that he used her to find Henry from the very beginning, how would Mike saying she could fly and she's his superhero, be something that provides her comfort, when if anything it's just a similar thing being expected of her, without her having any say in it?

The whole You're regressing Eleven is literally hinting at this idea that El is holding onto something in her life that is keeping her in the past, in a situation that makes her development sort of go backwards, and that is in large part highlighting her holding onto this idea that her and Mike are peak romance, despite the fact the that he isn't loving her the way she deserves. By staying with Mike despite knowing both of them are unhappy and forcing it at this point, is a huge regression to all of this build up leading to an inevitable separation, then being followed by them finally accepting themselves in each others lives without the obligation to be together because they met in the woods a few years ago and have felt this pressure to stay together ever since.

In their fight, she didn't want Mike to point to her powers as a way to deflect her genuine feelings about their relationship and her insecurities with him not being able to love her the way she wants, as a person and not as someone who can keep saving the day for him. And so how would him again saying she is a superhero, HIS superhero, suddenly be what she wants to hear in the end after everything she went through?

The problem with that moment in the script is that it's the only thing that is supporting the assumption she was happy with Mike's monologue. Everything else in the story goes against that. All of s4 makes it very clear that that was not what El wanted from Mike.

This is a big part of the reason byler makes sense, because they follow an I didn't say it/You didn't have to approach to love (show don't tell). Mike never should have had to say I love you for El to believe it. If it was something genuine between them, completely natural like breathing, El wouldn't have asked of it from him. But he made a point to struggle with merely writing it, avoiding it at all costs, making El feel even more insecure that there was something wrong with her causing Mike not to love her anymore. And the monologue didn't fix that.

You don't have to apologize but you also don't have to get upset and say everyone in the fandom is wrong, but you're right. If you truly believe that, continue to and leave other people alone. If people are on their posts saying how they feel and it upsets you, block them.

My problem is that everything leading up to byler, that makes it make sense, is at it's core what lead to Mike and El having conflict in the first place. And not addressing that and leading on Mike and El fans, for shock value isn't exactly good for the narrative. And it's never been good for the narrative which is why they like to address it early on so that we can move on to focusing on the pairing that they want us to root for.

Arguably, a break up before the time jump allows for byler to get together well after Mike and El separated instead of mere days/weeks. I would think with how much people are going to have a hard time with considering byler as it is, the time jump happening after Mike and El's break up would allow them to accept that Mike and El are for sure done and have been done for a while, and Will isn't some rebound because Mike is feeling insecure and he'll just be with him the second him and El end things.

How I imagine a mid-season 5 break up is that it would be even more ambiguous than an early one, because it would require El and Mike to ignore their problems for five episodes when there really is no reason to do that with how obvious it was that their fight was a fight that you couldn't come back from. And addressing that is what will allow us to watch El actually experience closure on screen and then be able to focus on Max and working with everyone to beat Vecna. If the whole audience is watching at the edge of their seat being led on the whole season that Mike and El have a chance of getting back together, they're not going to be able to focus on El's arc as an individual character, bc they're going to be waiting for Mike and El to make up and be together.

But then when it doesn't happen, and they've been led astray unnecessarily even more than the previous 2 times, we'll only have a mere 4 episodes to build up them being a platonic pairing with it being blatantly obvious that the audience needs to accept it AND that we need to accept Mike and Will being romantic.

Whereas with an early s5 break up, by episode 3-4 we will know that they are not together and can focus on the new conflicts that have arose from the final season, because dragging on stuff that has already been heavily built up in s4 as being a problem, just to give us the most obvious anti-climactic outcome halfway through in the middle of all the new storylines they are focused on, would fall flat.

Mid-season is likely going to be made up of Mike and Will having a substantial amount of time alone. That's something that those early break-ups allows, so that we can have that development for them that is necessary in order for them to be endgame. Arguably as Mike and Will are going through that, El isn't going to be around to break up with him.

If anything I could see an early s5 breakup, with the audience being aware of it, but not Will. This would mean that Mike and Will's interactions could still be interpreted as romantic comfortably, but we would see for the first time Mike pining and Will still assuming that Mike could never feel the same, until maybe mid-season he finds out that they are indeed not together.

I can't subscribe to the monologue when all of the conflict leading up to it makes it abundantly clear that isn't what El wanted to hear. And we would see in mid-season 5 that El is just going to end up saying all of the stuff we already knew. She's not stupid. She knows that something is off with Mike, that was the whole point from the beginning. That inner struggle he is having is even more heightened and made obvious by the fact that Will was what encouraged Mike to say I love you in the first place. She heard all of that. And then she proceeded to ignore them at the cabin.

How s4 ended is not at all giving the impression El is going to start s5 by gravitating towards Mike and looking to him for comfort, it was actually the direct opposite.

If I were to subscribe to the monologue being a convincing love confession to El, at that point I'd rather Mike and El just stay together instead of holding off even more on facing the truth about the conflict of their relationship that didn't just get fixed by the words I love you. I'd rather byler didn't end up together if Mike is just stringing El along to inevitably choose Will over her anyways at the last minute.

I do think that I love you is what El thought she wanted to hear from Mike, but not like that. And it would be a disservice to her character to have the focus be on her hoping he might choose her for any longer, only for him not to.

If a bunch of people are interpreting the show this way, then there's a good chance that they could be right. We were right about byler being endgame and all of our reasoning is supported by the conflict that has been building up for seasons, and that love confession that paralleled to El beating Henry in 79', doesn't look like one rooted in love, whereas that first face off was. Mike's monologue was bathed in red, El's memory of her birth bathed her in light.

Will on the other hand is bathed in light from Mike's perspective, most prominently at the end of s4. That wasn't in the script, does that mean it's not important? Almost all of bylers moments aren't in the script, does that mean everything about them means nothing?

Feel free to subscribe to whatever you want to. If you end up being right you can say I told you so and live with that satisfaction! Personally, if I'm right, I won't feel the need to come and say I told you so, bc it's not about some sort of vindication for me. I don't even plan on doing that to redditors bc they're going to be dealing with that enough as it is. I'd rather them just insist we're crazy right now and let it all unfold and let the show speak for itself. If I have to subscribe with everything they think bc of the scripts, then I'd be pretty bored rn because all of the evidence for byler would essentially mean nothing and they're just being put together for no reason. All of that lead up meant something, otherwise their endgame wouldn't be satisfying, least of all if El is once again being framed as waiting for Mike to choose, only to not choose her this time. She deserves so much better than that. They all deserve better than that.

Will on one hand assuming for a little longer that Mike doesn't feel the same merely drags out the mutual pining leading to that endgame. El assuming for a little longer that Mike does feel the same is just making her plot regressive for no reason when she could be finally getting that independance arc, truly separated from being linked to Mike in a way that prevents her from truly progressing and knowing her worth and living up to that authentically.

We'll have to wait and see. But I don't see the use in coming in other peoples inboxes and directing your dissatisfaction with their interpretation of things as contradicting yours and so they need to just drop it and subscribe to what you think or else...

Everyone on here can interpret things how they want since there is still a season left and everything is still up in the air. If you want to blow off steam and say your piece on your profile, then do that and if other people resonate with it then that's great! You don't have to force other people to involve themselves with your narrative. If people are doing that to you, you have every right to block them because you also shouldn't have to have people in your inbox saying that your interpretation of things is wrong.

I'll continue to analyze and break things down as I choose. That's not stopping anytime soon. And IDK why you would want others to. It would be pretty dead on here if we all just stopped and believed everything we've been told superficially despite everything we've been shown contradicting that. If everything we're being told is all there is to it, you could argue byler isn't even happening. But most of us can agree that isn't the case.

I hope you can continue to analyze how you view things and embrace your interpretation instead of tearing others' down. We still have two years left, let's not make this more unnecessarily unbearable than it needs to be.

[kquil]

HEYY KQILLYY BBY♡♡♡

How are youu♡ i hope youre doing good and remembering to drink water. Im checking up on u i hope you dont mind, and i hope hope hope you have a lovely week♡♡

I am swarmed in university projects, all animation atm and really one of my saviours atm are ur fics 😭❤️. You know i have to animate 3 films in like 7 weeks, which is WILD cus in the real world the work im doing atm requires a whole team and like alot of time. But hey i mean the work is working cus i got invited as a student to a film festival in 2 days, im excited but scared cus im like...the youngest one, PLUS i know no one else there.

ANYWAYY, moving on from my life, how was ur day/week/work/etc?? I hope ure taking care of urself.

Question of the day... do you have pets? If you dont, would u want some? What kind of pets do u want?

Much love♡♡♡

my darling! omg! i knocked out doing my first round of check ups with my moots and i was going to do round two soon with you at the top of my list but you beat me to it, you sly little fox you~

thank you so much for checking up on me, my love! you're so thoughtful omg! I haven't been up to anything exciting, just trying to implement new, better habits and stay consistent with them as much as possible (⸝⸝⸝╸w╺⸝⸝⸝)♡ 

awww~ you're working so hard and you're doing amazing! all that hard work is going to pay off soon enough, i assure you! being such a busy bee, i hope you're taking care of yourself, darling! it'll feel much better going through all that work with optimal rest, good hydration and with a contented stomach hehe~ though i am very happy to help give you some peace with my fics -- i'll write all the fics i can to help you feel better!

a film festival?! oh my goodness, that sounds so exciting! and being the youngest one there, you should be so proud! see? your hard work is already paying off, you're amazing! i know you're feeling nervous about it but it's the perfect place to interact with people who have the same interests as you and considering how loveable and wonderful of a person you are, i think you're going to make a lot of good friends there, who knows? maybe you'll work with them on a big animation/film project one day? -- i'm rooting for you, darling ( ˶˘ ³˘(⋆❛ ہ ❛⋆)!♡

my day has been pretty good so far! i did weights after my morning routine and helped mum with something she was cooking up before leaving for my daily walk. when i got back, i did some chores and now i'm sitting down to begin writing some fics (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵) it's been a pretty good day so far and i intend on ending it well too! overall, life's been good, especially after recovering from my seasonal cold but i feel my period approaching -- i just can't catch a break! (ಥ‿ಥ) oh well, we move (ᵕ—ᴗ—) 

oooo~ good question! i don't have a pet right now but as soon as i move out and get my own place, i want to get a cat! i want a pure black cat because i always thought they were gorgeous and if it's a boy, i will name him Hades, if it's a girl, I will name her Nyx. Maybe one day I'll get a dog too but, for now, my eyes are set on getting a cat hehe~ do you have any pets, darling?

(omg! did you draw that?! you're so talented! (๑✪ᆺ✪๑) I LOVE YOU TOOOOOO!!!)

[alearicci]

second chapter. max verstappen x oc

"I'm tired. I'm fucking tired, Ashlyn," Max said, sitting down on the bed next to the his girlfriend. There was a note of impotence in his voice. Did he think a few years ago that it would be so difficult for him to win one race after another? That it would be so hard. And it's not even about the strength of rivals or a bad car. It's all about people. No matter how hard he tried to show that they had no effect on him, his heart ached unpleasantly from everything that awaited him every day. Fame sometimes has a bad effect on the humanity inside you. You try to be strong, show the best results, fight honestly for the title... and you find yourself face to face with people . There are those to whom Max is insanely grateful - his fans always support him, arrange various events, draw posters of support. Recently he heard a song on the street, a very funny song. There was something like that tu-tu-tu-tu Max Verstappen. He still sometimes hums this melody to himself, as if supporting himself. But there are others. Aren't they called haters? Such people whistle after you, write unpleasant comments. "What a blessing that Max didn't get on the podium. We need to celebrate this, dudes", "Poor Max. It serves you right", "I wish you were eliminated in the first round." At first it seriously upset him, but now he just laughs and thinks how pathetic they are. Stupid idiots who were offended that he overtook their favorite team by car, for which they had been rooting almost since childhood. Such people don't even stand next to him. Someone even called him a villain. Max once laughed and said, "Well, then I'm the most beautiful villain in the world." He didn't consider himself evil. Only sometimes he got angry if his rivals couldn't see beyond their own noses or when he made a stupid mistake. Monster Max, oh my God, save yourself. If you don't know personally, then don't judge publicly. Since childhood, he dreamed of becoming a Formula 1 racer. He wanted to win, to drive at great speed, to overtake rivals. He did everything possible and impossible to get behind the wheel of a racing car. And his dream came true. Thanks to perseverance and the desire to act. He was considered a young talent, a Red Bull star. Great hopes were pinned on him. And he justified them. Became the best. He showed everyone his trademark smile from time to time. He was turning into a robot. Only his family and girlfriend brought him back to life. Max met Ashlyn Skyler at a party he attended at a friend's request. He immediately singled her out from the rest. Her smile stunned him. A few days later, he decided to write to her on Instagram and arranged a meeting. And it so happened that she was with him almost from the very beginning of his career in Formula 1. She was with him for better and for worse. She was always there, gave love and tenderness, was present at every race and watched the car with the number 33, and later 1, with a rapid heartbeat. She watched her beloved. She rejoiced at every victory and podium, she cried because of every failure and every defeat. And now, having heard a rare confession from the mouth of a racer, she is trying to cope with herself and not cry. She loved this man and felt very sorry for him. And he doesn't like self-pity. The man looks at her for a few more seconds, and then quickly takes off his T-shirt and settles on his beloved's chest. He hugs her tightly with his big arms and nuzzles her neck, inhaling her native scent. When Max lies down on her, Skyler does a little head massage, trying to relieve tension. She kisses him on the forehead and continues stroking his hair.

"It's all right, baby. We'll manage. There are two free days ahead, and then you will have to return to training. I'm here, remember that.

- I love you very much.

- I love you even more.

- That's not true. I love you more. And don't argue with me.

- I'm terribly scared. What are you going to do to me, Your Majesty?

- Mmm.

Max smiles slyly and pulls away a little. He puts one hand on Ash's soft cheek and pulls her closer. He touches his lips to hers, kissing her gently. How many kisses there have been over the years of their relationship, but there has never been such a kiss yet. In that kiss there was all the pain, all the love and all the desire to be with each other. They loved each other and continued to be close, no matter what. They enjoyed every day spent with each other. They were happy to be together. And no one could make them think differently. Max loved Ashlyn, Ashlyn loved Max. They went through all the difficulties together. Finally breaking away from such sweet lips, Verstappen lies down again in the place where he was quite recently. He is silent and enjoys the warmth coming from the girl. The warmth of the house. Ashlyn was the whole world to him, and he wanted to keep that world. Therefore, at first Max did not want to advertise their relationship, he met Ashlyn secretly. He was afraid that the bad words would reach her. But about two years ago, they appeared together at a party on the occasion of Max's victory at the annual competition. Since then, they have not hidden that they are dating, and Ashlin is part of that limited circle of people who are allowed to see the rider himself before the race.

- Do you remember that we have to go for an interview tomorrow?

- Max... "We"?

- Damn, didn't I tell you? Sorry, baby. We were invited to some show where we will talk about you and me, within reasonable limits, of course. If you don't mind, I'll cancel it.

- Okay, Max, I agree. Only then you will need to choose some suitable outfit for you.

- The clothes that suit me are a red bull jumpsuit. Will you wear this?

- No, I'll go in my house clothes. I just have a T-shirt with your image on it.

- Oh, no, girl. Let's put on our robes. The presenters won't mind much, will they?

- I think, nevertheless, they will object.

- OK. Then you'll have to dress up in a suit.

- Classic suits suit you like hell.

- And the dresses suit you very well.

- Really?

- Yes. Especially the one I took off you last night.

- Shh, Max.

- Not shhh. You'll definitely be better off without him ;)

[kouros-herc]

In No Time Flat (Self Para)

[See the One Last Hope series for context] 

-

Herc rifled around the piles of papers on the chairs at his desk. Where had he put it, where had he put it, where had he put it. He mumbled this to himself as he turned things over in his hands. Straightening up, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the frame of his qualification certificates against the back wall. 

Nope, ok. Rounding his desk, Herc opened his top draw, still muttering to himsef. Where the hell had he put his wallet? “Xero Mama, Xero. I know, I know, I know.” He spoke to the picture of his parents frame on his desk. How many times had she told him that he had to leave things like that in a consistent place so he always knew where to look for them? 

Pulling out his holdall from underneath the desk he began to root through it. The office was full of his stuff - no matter how hard he tried to keep it tidy, there always seemed to be a spare pair of trainers lurking in the corner, or a fleece he’d forgotten to put on before he went home the previous day. Plus folders in piles instead of back in their place on the shelf - because he was seeing that client again tomorrow he still needed it! But eventually, heaping his towel out onto his desk chair - finally perfectly set up so it didn’t give him a crick in his neck, he found his wallet lying at the bottom of the bag. 

“Sorry everybody, sorry.” He waved it to the awaiting group as he made his way out into the reception area. 

“C’mon Herc, hurry up and let’s go!” Brad was stamping his feet in the cold as the rest of them waited outside the gym. Herc looked back over his shoulder and patted the air as if to tell them all to just be a little patient please!

The gym staff were all gathered outside, layered up in their hats and coats and thick scarves, eager to be off. Phase one of the Christmas do was over, and phase two involved the boss buying the first round. No wonder they were getting impatient. 

Reception computer off at the switch. Lights off in the main gym. Check the changing room lights and heaters were off. Check the thermostat hadn’t been messed with. Master switch for the power off.

Prime the alarm. Step outside. 

Main lock. Top lock. Bottom lock. 

Final wobble to be sure it was locked. Keys in his right hand pocket and zipped up. 

Done. 

No more did he triple check everything before he left, no more nervously patting his pocket for the keys every fifth second. Now he knew their familiar weight in his pocket. He knew the process so well he could do it in his sleep, and he’d never fucked it up yet - even the few times he’d accidentally left lights or heaters on, the world hadn’t ended, the pavement hadn’t opened up to swallow him whole, nobody had swooped in to tell him he couldn’t run the gym - this had all been some horrible mistake! - and kick him to the kerb. 

No... this was his gym. 

He turned to look at the rest of his staff. Q had grabbed Merida, they were charging up off the street as soon as he turned around - clearly waiting was a fools errand. Cora was tapping her foot impatiently. Ren seemed to have disappeared already, but no doubt would reappear when they actually got to the bar. Michael was talking Laurel’s ear off, but it was good to see him starting to make friends with other staff members.

“Right c’mon boss, don’t keep thirsty people waiting!” Brad beckoned with his head. “Don’t you know dehydration is bad for a person?”

Herc shook his head with a laugh, walking away from the gym. 

“You didn’t actually make it out last year, did you?” Brad asked, falling into step with Herc as they made their way down Main Street. 

“No, uh... I-”

“‘Course that was Dan’s leaving do... wasn’t it? Wait!” Brad suddenly stopped, grabbing Herc’s arm, his face splitting into a big smile. “I guess that makes this your anniversary as the boss!”

Hercules blinked. Had it really been that little time? He felt like it could still have been that fateful night. Like maybe Daniel was about to come and catch them up and grab the keys and tell Herc ‘thanks for locking up buddy.’ He felt like he could have blinked and been back there again. But then it felt like an eternity too, like the version of him that had wept in an empty office that night was a man he didn’t even know. 

The weight of it all had threatened to crush him that night, yet here he was, pushing through it... but not alone. Sure, he had got them through this year, his first year as the boss... but they had got him through it. The patience when he got things wrong, the shrugs when he had made it to meetings slightly late, the friendly hand on the shoulder when he felt like he was losing the way. 

“Cheer up mate, might never happen-” the bouncer snorted, shaking Herc out of his daydream as he inspected his ID. 

Maybe it wouldn’t... maybe he wouldn’t run this place into the ground. Maybe, just maybe, he’d make a go of it and not let everyone down. 

“Right-” He drummed his hands on the bar countertop, a press of his staff on all sides. 

“Who’s having what?”

[emmascupoftae]

About Me

❥ Hello! Here's a little bit about me. ❥ Name: Emma ❥ Age: 22 ❥ Birthday: November 6, 2001 ❥ Pet: I have a cat named Tanner, he's fluffy ❥ Personal: I identify as female (born female) and my sexuality is pansexual. ❥ I'm OT7 but I have biased Taehyung since listening to BTS. ❥ I'm a scorpio, my rising sign is gemini & my moon is cancer. I love astrology, but I'm new. ❥ I'm into witchcraft and love nature, swimming,& trees especially. ❥ I work in health care and I just finished the beginning of my studies to become a nurse. ❥ I have been forever single (unless you count kindergarten, maybe that was my peek haha). ❥ I struggle with mental health and health issues I have avoided (hard to get heard in health care though I work in it I recognize this).

❥ Why i write:

I have loved reading since the summer before sixth grade. I started loving writing in seventh grade when my class did a creative writing class, In grade eight poetry learning was the catalyst for fic writing. I started reading fanfics on wattpad way back in sixth grade and from there, it was history haha.

Then I realized how much I liked writing and reading because I would do it everywhere. In the car being driven to school, shopping, and at all waking hours and sometimes (most of the time) neglecting sleep. I always loved watching movies, both my parents were big movie watchers while I was growing up. This was the same case for music and I have an expansive music taste that spans so many differing genres.

I like to think this all came about because I consumed so much media, music, movies, books, and the early 2000's internet. That I birthed a love for drawing from the youngest age I can remember and from there, I have always wanted to express my emotions and experience of being human. I love nature the most, it keeps growing and evolving. The passion I have for wanting a fantasy world to manifest around me and take me in has been a long yearning I've chased my entire life so far and I can say that it is my biggest motivator and inspiration.

The only dream I have had since my teens that I could count on was my want to write a novel one day. Something about speaking that out loud on new years in 2016 is deeply rooted in the incessant need to one day bring to life a story that depicts the way that I view life.

I am passionate about helping others, but most importantly I strive to create a place to express the intricacies of human emotion in a way that I yearn will resonate with others and make them feel heard and understood. I want to allow people to have a safe space to feel included in relatable feelings that encompass human emotion.

I know I have a long way to go to polish my writing but I have set new goals to bring out my creativity as it is something I would be devastated to lose. If you resonate with this support me by giving my writing a shot and help me to reach my goals by letting me know if my writing sparks feelings in you. I'd really appreciate it!