#I mean I absolutely love them visually as evident

[topios]

A bit of Hades scenery done mostly from memory.

[andy-wm]

https://x.com/jmnberries/status/1817503692083396934

LOUD AND CLEAR

Said by Jimin himself. He's searching for the person he's meant to be with, the one his heart is waiting for. He passes one person after another thinking is it you or you. And guess what ? IT WAS ALWAYS A WOMAN.

You and your theory about WHO proven wrong for 975939488848th time 😛

My goodness Anon, are you telling me my theory has been discussed that many times? That's quite an achievement! I didn't know my theories - or I - had such a far reaching impact.

[basking in the glow of this proud moment]

Ok I'm done basking, now back to the ask:

For those of you playing along at home, here's the tweet Anon sent in, for context.

Anon, I'm going to quote you, since you said it so succinctly...

"He passes one person after another thinking 'is it you or you'. And guess what ? IT WAS ALWAYS A WOMAN."

Absolutely correct Anon!

It WAS always a woman

I'm glad we agree on this.

You also said "He's searching for the person he's meant to be with, the one his heart is waiting for."

Yes! We agree on this too!

He's definitely working hard to find the one his heart is waiting for - you said it yourself, he's searching. He's actively looking for them.

We're doing well so far...

Oh but context is important here, right??

We should probably clarify that he's actually describing the last scene of the MV - the one he's about to film. He's not describing himself or his own life.

Yes, to be totally transparent, Jimin is describing a scene he's shooting for the MV of a song - a song he asked Jon Bellion to write. A song he himself didn't contribute to beyond that. He didn't write the visual narrative for the MV either, that was the creatives at Lumpens. No doubt he gave a lot of input but he didn't provide the material.

Did you forget that part, Anon? Or did you think he was actually describing his own life? Or... were you sneakily pretending he was talking about his real life when he said those things, because that suited your argument?

If you were trying to make it sound like he was talking about his own personal lived experiences, that kinda sucks. Because we love Jimin for WHO HE IS. We don't need to make shit up about his life and pretend things are real when they aren't.

We don't need to pretend, Anon, we can just observe, write about what we see - honestly and objectively and without judgement - and then step back and look at the situation.

I guess you might be wondering how come I'm analysing everything if I think we should just be talking about what we see. Fair call. I don't mean that we can't read between the lines or make educated (substantiated) guesses that we can back up with facts (and cite our sources - I am a librarian after all). I also don't mean we can't look deeper than the surface. There are always layers of meaning and hidden messages in the art produced for BTS. I get right into it because I enjoy it - my background is in visual arts analysis so it's kinda my jam - but I'm not just making shit up. I have a wealth of learning and experience I'm basing my analysis on. I'm also not claiming that it's fact - it's an interpretation - It's my interpretation (and just quietly I am pretty good at this stuff so it's a justified and plausible interpretation).

What I'm saying is don't purposefully misinterpret what you see to mislead, or to fuel an opinion or argument that doesn't stand up otherwise. If you have to bend the truth to back up your argument, you might want to reconsider that argument. Theory is built on evidence, not the other way around.

But back to Jimin...

Of course it's perfectly possible that he did spend several years thinking he would one day find true love with a woman. Maybe he dated loads of women. Maybe he came close to finding a deep love with one or more of them. And if he did, I hope those were happy times for him (or at least meaningful times if happiness was elusive). I would never think of denying that if I saw evidence of it, or judging him for who he loves (or loved). I don't think there's any wrong or right here - whether it's heterosexual or bisexual or asexual or gay or queer or into kink or poly or whatever else he is or does. Who he fucks or who he loves or who he feels emotionally safe with - and for many of us humans those are not necessarily even the same people - that's his business.

His life, his body, his business.

I don't judge Jimin. I just admire and celebrate him for who he is.

And I wish him happiness.

I wish them both so, so much happiness.

That's the whole point of all of this, really.

That's why I watch Jimin and Jungkook together, Anon. Not because I want them to be together or because I think they should be, but because I see real happiness when they are together.

True happiness and true love are rare and beautiful things.

I think that's why most of us Jikookers are here, Anon. Because the joy we see and the delight we feel, just from witnessing these two beautiful people being happy, is real.

I'm not saying ALL of us are altruistic. Some Jikookers are full of shit. They covet one or both of them and they think supporting Jikook's relationship entitles them to make judgements or assumptions or claims about Jimin and JK. They get possessive, they objectify, they demand things. Some people who claim to support Jikook have spite and hatred in their hearts... yes, we have our share of nut jobs too.

But the majority of genuine Jikook supporters I encounter are simply here to celebrate the greatest love story we've ever seen. We're here to get behind two beautiful men who clearly love each other despite the odds against them. We're here to bask in the reflection of their glow and it's bloody wonderful.

But, I digress....

Let's go back to the making of the MV for WHO...

<and here I go again with the analysis>

Here Jimin describes the MV, just like when talking about the final scene. He says it's like a musical movie.

"Right now we're filming one of my favourite parts. It's like a musical movie." There's definitely a narrative here, it's the part where he joins 6 other male dancers, an obvious nod to BTS.

We already know there 's a narrative, but Jimin confirms it for us here.

So let's look again at the narrative:

Throughout this production we can see that the dance (not choreographed by Jimin) and the lyrics (not written by Jimin) have been created/chosen to show /tell us that Jimin (the performer) is searching among all these women for the love of his life.

THAT'S *PART* OF THE STORY THEY ARE TELLING.

But it leaves out a pretty big development ...

He was searching for love, looking at every woman just as he was supposed to, but someone (WHO?) crashed into his life and stopped him in his tracks. Yes, that someone fell directly into his path in a way that couldn't be ignored.

Jimin said

"I try to see WHO I'm meant to be with... is it you? Is it you?"

It doesn't sound like he was giving anyone much of a chance, does it? It sounds more like he was searching for someone in particular.

Maybe it was no accident. Maybe he was searching for WHO all along and he just didn't realise, until he found him.

Ok I am done talking (finally)

I'll finish responding to this ask so we can all go on with our lives.

To respond to your specific query, Anon:

Jimin doesn't say he's searching for a woman himself, does he? Not even in that quote you supplied.

He could have said "women walk past me" but he said "people walk past me".

He could have said he's trying to see which of these women he's meant to be with, but instead he said "who I'm meant to be with"

We can't ignore him saying WHO, Anon.

The song isn't called Which woman?

The song is called WHO

Anon, if you stuck with me all the way through this post, I commend you.

And yes, I was a bit facetious in the beginning, in my defence I had a shitty day at work. But I responded to you as the adult I imagine you to be, even though your language was a little on the childish side. I assume you were intending to piss me off but I enjoyed answering to your ask, so thank you regardless.

If you are still here I want to ask you a few genuine questions in return... I'd love to hear your honest answer.

Why, in the face of all the evidence, it's so difficult to accept that Jimin and Jungkook have a bond that goes beyond friendship or brotherhood?

They look like they're vey happy together, so why do you want them to not be together?

Why is it a problem for you if they love each other? Homophobia is learned behaviour. Who did you learn it from?

And probably my most burning question:

Have you ever experienced true, deep, lasting love?

[r0semultiverse]

How Homestuck Beyond Canon Candy Timeline has/will have parallels with Homestuck proper around and during the events of [S] Game Over

Jane Crocker heavily aligned/influenced by with Crocker Corp. Notice how her neck accessory looks very similar to the Crocker computer tiara. There's also the circuits surrounding the button, which are reminiscent of Crockertier Jane's visual mind control effect by The Condesce.

Jane also kind of looks like The Condesce with how she's silhouetted here.

The head of Crocker Corporation on a large Crocker space ship. A ship which I would like to point out looks eerily similar to the ship that The Condesce flies around in except the forks/sporks are facing the opposite direction and it's got black on it instead of mostly red.

Jake dying at the hands of Crocker influenced Jane and coming back to life parallels with this Jane coming close to killing Jake, but stopping right before death. Same green text too.

The cast of characters surrounding this time in the comic are also similar.

We also got the whole Crocker laser beam of death being hinted at which we've absolutely seen before.

I talked about this in one of my previous theories, Jake is getting a better grasp of his hope powers; so, I think we could see another hope explosion again in some capacity out of Jake's concern for Tavvy.

I could also totally see Jake being held hostage by one of the Crocker Clones A.K.A. the Brig Boys and Kanaya cutting them up with her chainsaw (hopefully avoiding Jake).

This is more of a little side detail, but Vriska is once again on the sidelines while this massive important fight takes place because she's trapped in her own personal Hell this time.

CHARACTER DEATH FLAGS - I don't know how to organize this post and there was a lot more potential evidence to this than I thought there was going into it.

Let me preface this with the fact that the existential split between Meat and Candy sometimes seems to try to course correct itself and much like certain peoples DNIs, it doesn't want any doubles. We see this with Dirk, Dave (he died even if he ascended to ultimate self afterwards), June/J/John, Terezi(seemingly), Meenah (her other self is in the black hole with Lord English so we can't necessarily confirm death but yknow), Aradia (is just Aradia), Gamzee, Calliope (that is a whole complex situation), and Rose (if her future sight is correct, but we'll get to that). Those are the only examples I can think of at this time, but it's absolutely a repeating pattern of the universe sort of course-correcting to have only one of each of our main characters exist at a time. This, at least in the cases of Dirk, Dave, & Rose seems to be related to the ascension to ultimate self, but we can't really say if that's why the other characters only get one existence at this time.

Karkat has has at least 2 deaths from around this time, one involving Crockertier Jane as well which could be a sign of things to come.

Rose's death flag is that she has literally foreseen her death in her future sight. She is thinking about Kanaya and Roxy in the same thought process while seeing her own death, feeling full of regret (even though she's trying to repress her own feelings) about her relationship to Roxy and Kanaya. Very similar to her being regretful as she was dying in Roxy's arms. I'm also guessing the bullet that hits her will be from Jake's gun, just throwing that out as a possibility.

ROSE: What... ROSE: Happened to me? ROXY: the witch got u ROXY: with her fork ROXY: but youre gonna be ok ROSE: Oh. ROSE: That's nice. ROSE: *Cough.* ROXY: maybe you uh ROXY: shouldnt try to talk now ROSE: You saved me, didn't you? ROXY: ... ROSE: Thanks. ROSE: But, ROSE: She's gone, isn't she. ROSE: For good, I mean. ROXY: ? ROSE: I saw her die. ROSE: And. ROSE: It's a shame how... ROSE: *Cough.* ROSE: A shame that I never even... ROSE: Got to tell her... ROSE: I loved her. ROXY: who?

ROSE: Kanaya. ROSE: But... ROSE: You too, mom.

Kanaya also has a death flag here in getting hit by The Condesce's laser beam of death, but it's more of a maybe given that we see Rose's future vision of Kanaya holding her body in her arms. Keep in mind though we also had this bit of dialogue about the reliability of future sight right before we saw that vision.

JADE: dont forget im more than a little versed in future sight myself ok JADE: i dont care how credible it seems, you cant depend on that information!

Jake and Jane are also on the chopping block potentially, but I can't think of a way at this time, unless Kanaya mistakes Jake for one of the clones amidst her rage and ends up cutting through him along with the Crocker clones. The one pictured below was done by Aranea who is out of the story. Maybe Meenah's trident hits Jake somehow or something, I don't know. We also have meat Jake and Jane who are doing more okay.

On top of the parallels to the doomed timeline that was [S] Game Over, we also had Vriska say that this reality was fake and didn't matter. I'm paraphrasing and I don't know if we'll get a doomed timeline situation yet with the 4 kids still in it, but I just thought the amount of parallels was interesting & worth pointing out.

I also wanted to get this out before the next update in case it's related to the flash animation and any of my predictions come true.

Alternatively I think the flash animation will be Ultimate Dirk kick starting his SBURB home brew session on Deltritus. He probably has all the tech and narrative powers to do it based on what we've seen, they just need a species they'll both be satisfied with as the players for the session.

[romchat]

The On1y One visual analysis (Ep. 5): Seeking an opening

Something I really enjoy about The On1y One's visual storytelling is how it uses framing to represent the tentative way Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang embed themselves into each other's lives. Through their interactions, we see Tian learning to let people in while Wang gives himself permission to trust those around him, and that fraught journey towards connection is beautifully captured by the show's cinematography choices.

From the first episode, we see the show using architectural framing to represent Tian’s aloofness, whether it’s the walls of his old neighborhood that tuck him away from his classmates or the closet that hides his always packed suitcase. So I find it really interesting how the architectural framing of his homeroom’s classroom window serves a completely different purpose: to showcase Tian’s ability to fight against his instincts for pushing people away and gradually open up to Wang.

As noted by @heretherebedork, that open window changes the (physical and emotional) wall between them. Ever since he acknowledged their relationship in Episode 3 through this window, it's here that Tian continues to signal the changing boundaries of their relationship.

Each episode he slowly transforms from a silent observer removed from the world around him to someone extending the care Wang so desperately craves, and the window, as a frame within a frame, directs our attention to the significance of these moments. Tian not only offers Wang physical relief but also emotional relief--he sees Wang despite the latter having experienced a lifetime of being ignored, and this all happens through the window.

Moreover, the camera language The On1y One uses to frame Wang's response reveals how heady that recognition feels.

One of my favorite examples of this is when Wang confronts Tian about helping capture the thugs who had attacked him. Tian denies having been involved but Wang refuses to believe him, playfully pushing him against the wall as he lists all the evidence to the contrary.

What makes this sequence of shots so compelling is how the framing changes as the two characters become more aware of the significance of Tian's actions.

The sequence is just a series of single shots (meaning each shot only features one person), but we can feel the tension between Wang and Tian because of the shift in balance and shot size. The shots start off-balanced and dirty, the characters' faces off to the edge of the frame and obscured by the other, but soon the framing closes in on their eyes gazing directly at each other. The extreme close-up is strangely honest and intimate, evoking a sense of wonder and nerves.

Being confined to such a tight frame proves to be too much for Tian, however, and the camera responds accordingly by shifting to a medium shot, as if to give him a breather. But from Wang's small smile, you can tell he feels pleasure at the idea of someone caring enough to protect him, and the camera language for the rest of the scene uses several techniques to visualize the emotional connection he allows himself to indulge in.

(See the lovely rack focus during Tian's "I was just thinking you must have been very scared" speech". Rather than editing together separate shots of Tian and Wang, the camera keeps both characters in frame and smoothly changes the focus between the two, visually linking them together. Their vulnerable conversation has fostered an irreversible shift in their relationship.)

So it's notable that when Tian tells Wang he is thinking of leaving Wang home to stay in the school dormitories, we get this absolutely devastating shot from outside their window, the closed frame now creating a stark line separating the two:

Tian: Why do you want to stay at the school? Wang: ...I wasn't familiar with you. Tian: How about now? Do you still want to stay at school? Wang: No, now that I'm more familiar with you, right? And you? Do you still want to stay at school? Tian: I think I will in the future.

Wang interprets Tian's decision as a rejection of him, and the shot is cold and isolating to reflect that. Their last few interactions were one step forward and two steps back.

What smart visual storytelling.

[yallthemwitches]

How about these two prompts in one:

“Spread your legs for me.” … “Spread them wider.” 

Hands firm on their thighs, keeping them from snapping them shut. 🫢🫣🥵

(Cannot contain excitement 🤭🤭🤭)

Hello again!

So I cheated (?) and mushed a lot of the prompts into one piece. This one goes with your prompt, plus “Look at you coming undone before I even touch you," and "Let me take care of you, yeah?"

Also, just generally I wanted to add another entry into the "James Potter is a munch who loves his girlfriend/wife's pleasure more than himself cinematic universe."

Thanks to everyone who submitted a prompt! I'll keep working on them!

Read under cut or on AO3 here

“The troll wars of the sixteenth century were disrupted by the —James.”

“Hm?” He doesn’t remove his lips from her neck, nipping down the side with his tongue trailing after to lick away any possible pain he’s caused.

“We need to study— we both have history of magic on friday and god knows you haven’t even looked at your notes.“

“I’m listening. Go on, keep reading.” But she has a hard time believing it, because her attention is not even on the words she is saying anymore, rather following the trail of his fingertips under the hem of her skirt.

She continues, but her voice falters on a word. She repeats the sentence once, twice… by the third try, she can feel James’ lips smiling into her collarbone, the hand under her skirt now massaging circles into her inner thigh. 

“You are stressing too much about these exams,” he murmurs, moving his lips up to hers, dragging his tongue against the seam of her mouth. 

“You’re clearly not,” she mumbles back, finishing the quip just before a small gasp bubbles out, his hand below hooking around the strap of her knickers. 

Her eyes flutter closed for a split second, enjoying the lull of his touch, but she wrenches them back open, alarms starting to sound in the back of her mind.

“James—“ she hisses, “Quit it—this is the library…people will see.” 

But he either isn’t listening or doesn’t care. His eyes drift open, just long enough to take a visual scan of the nearby bookshelves before diving back on her, lips moving at a deliberate slowness so she can feel every plea of his tongue as he coaxes her mouth open against his. 

“Just relax Evans—read the lesson and let me take care of you, yeah?”

Right as she is about to ask what exactly he means by that, the warmth of his body disappears and she opens her eyes to see him sliding under the table, a wild grin beaming from his face. 

“Christ, Potter. What are you—“

But the answer becomes evident. She feels two calloused hands start at her ankles and slowly glide up her legs, fingertips like feathers trickling their way to the soft flesh between her thighs and stopping just before the place where the thigh meets the torso. 

“I can’t hear you reading, Evans,” he teases from the darkness under the table, amusement crackling in his voice. She lets out a low noise of discontent: he’s absolutely mental if he thinks she can focus on Troll Wars while he’s down there. 

She wiggles her legs a bit, sliding them side to side as a ploy to get him to do something other than rest his fingers on her upper thigh, but he makes no further movements—his intention to stall clear until she follows direction.

She can feel heat pooling just inches away from where his hands lay with irritatingly zero pressure and moves to alleviate it herself. She begins to clamp her thighs shut but he moves instantly, hands pressing hard down into her thighs and prying them open wider so that her knees are almost in line with the corners of the chair. 

“No way. I need you to spread your legs for me—as wide as you can, then start reading because I’m trying to study here.”

She has half the mind to kick him, but just as she attempts to jut out her leg, two hot hands press against either side of where her thighs and center meet and something hot and damp takes one long swipe against the center of her knickers. 

She doubles over the table, bracing herself with her hands to not completely collapse her cheek against the surface. His mouth hovers against her middle, hands still holding her open, but he stalls again, making himself clear. 

“I can’t hear you reading…c’mon Evans—I’m a kinesthetic learner...”

Arsehole. Breathing shallow, she straightens herself, feeling his fingers contract slightly on her thigh. Her center is so hungry for his touch again that it’s buzzing, all her body heat leeching to the one singular place where his mouth lingers. 

“Godric—you are getting so wet…” She doesn’t hear him say it, but she can feel it, his lips so close to the fabric that the words tickle her core. “Look at you coming undone and I haven’t even touched you yet…”

In another moment she would have called him arrogant, but the overpowering need for him to touch her keeps her mouth tight. She takes a haggard breath and picks the textbook back up, willing to play along if it means feeling less like an insect squirming on a pin.

“T-The Troll War of—of Fuck Baby.”

Finally, the stalemate ends. His mouth descends on her, fingers tugging away the soaked fabric of her knickers to press kitten licks into bare skin. Sparks of light dance across her vision, and her reading falters, unable to get her eyes to focus on the words much less anything else besides his tongue. 

“Merlin Lils, you’re dripping.” A finger dips into her with zero resistance and the sound of his fingers pumping into her wafts its way up into the room. She claws at the surface of the table, not able to find purchase and wishing she could reach for his hair and push his tongue in alongside his fingers.

“James—“

All pretense of reading is abandoned, James now solely focused on one goal only: to taste her come. He nibbles at her clit, alternating repetitive strokes of the tongue with soft sucking. She squirms against him, unhappy with her lack of mobility in the scenario—usually she is able to at least touch him back, but his spot under the table makes it too difficult to slide her hands down to find him.

“Come fuck me,” she gasps, getting restless. “I don’t bloody care who sees, come take me up against the shelf and let me come on your cock.”

A low gutteral noise echoes from below. “Fuck—-Fuck Lily—you saying that...”

For a moment he stalls, deliberating the proposition with her clit between his lips, then he begins moving again—twisting fingers, repeated laps, a thumb circling the bundle of nerves at the center of it all.

“No—come first,” he says, pulling her thighs impossibly wider. “Then I’ll give you what you want.”

It’s unbearable, the pleasure building in her body. He adds more pressure, focusing on the exact spots he knows will make her unravel the fastest. It takes an act of god to keep her eyes open, always watching for some stray student to wander past and see her keeled over and panting against her homework.

Stripes of color litter her eyesight, the pleasure mounting right where his tongue lingers, coaxing her to finish in the same rhythm of his hand. She covers her mouth, unable to hold back moans as the sensation culminates, crashing down on her like warm rain. 

“Shh—just a little more…” 

Little is an understatement. Her body trembles, head falling down against the cool grain of the table.

“James, baby I—.” 

It is loud enough to echo against the high dome ceiling, but she doesn’t care anymore. He continues even after she has come down from her climax, stroking the now sensitive skin until a bubble of laughter pulls him away. 

Slunk against the table, she doesn’t register he’s moved until her chair skids backwards with her in it. Now out from his hiding spot, he stands in front of her, mouth glistening and a feral look gazing back from under his lenses. Her eyes have only seconds to zero in on the very obvious tent in his pants when she is shot backwards, now pressed against the nearest shelf with dust raining down on her. 

“I ready to fuck you now.”

His tongue slips into her mouth and she tastes herself heady on his tongue. He bunches up her skirt enough to rip down her knickers, pocketing them in the process and she fiddles with his waistband, taking care to grind her hips forward in the process. 

She has to admit, It’s her favorite part.

When he goes down on her he is all power, commanding her body much like he does a broomstick: with lithe, domineering movements encompassed in complete awe. But after, after when he has the trophy of his name pouring from her lips and her taste surging against his tongue– then he is finally able to give in. He melts completely for her.

“Lily–” he coos when she finds the smooth skin of his cock from inside his pants and shoves his trousers down just enough to release him. 

 “Merlin you’re amazing–a dream…I mean, fucking christ.”

She laughs at his adopted muggle swear while busying herself with hiking her leg around his waist. He takes her ass in both hands, holding her wedged against the bookshelf. 

“I’m going to dock points from you for making too much noise,” she says with laughter trickling out. He grins back, not even denying his penchant for being vocal. 

“Do it, take it. Best loss of Gryffindor pride I’ve ever wallowed away.” 

Turns out she is just as bad as he is. He pants between her breasts, dipping in and out of her with a swift ease, aided by the remains of his earlier work. She grips everywhere at once, the creaking wood of the shelves, the rattling tomes behind her, his shoulders, and especially his hair. She cries into his neck, biting down as a means to silence herself but getting a little more mileage when the action makes James’ hips snap forward, the new angle shooting her back off the ledge and landing her somewhere past human thought. He follows after, gasping her name against her as he shakes in release. 

In all, it's a miracle they aren’t caught. 

“So much for our history of magic NEWT,” she sighs, absently trailing a hand through his hair and down the nape of his neck while his heartbeat slows under her. He enjoys being inside of her for just a moment longer, fully aware the second they separate the real world will rush in.

“What are you talking about?” He looks up with his glasses askew on his face, eyes dreamy and serene. She has the urge to kiss him, so she does.

“I’ll never forget the Troll War for as long as I live now—who knew shagging was a very effective study strategy.”

She laughs and he pushes their foreheads together, wishing he could bottle the sound.

[minaaaawaaaa]

Reblog/comment with your favorite things in South Park *fanon media. Here's some of mine, pairing-related separated since some people don't really care for that, which is totally fine

Craig being partly Peruvian (derived from Pandemic I & II); either not Thomas's or Laura's biological son and half-siblings with Tricia. Also him just being tall asf; I think his dad is supposed to be taller than the average adult male character. Also Craig balding early in adulthood LOL

Plot twist villain Cartman in larger-scale-plot fics

Also, Cartman still earning God's wrath when he really, really deserves it

Kyle being the absolute fussiest little shit you've ever seen, at any age, for good reason usually. This is pretty canon, but still it's important to maintain

I think it's never directly put out there in canon besides Tweek's name being so terrible, but the Tweaks have definitely had Tweek and half the town on meth for years

Tweek being super artsy and those practices helping him relax; visual arts, music, sewing/crotchet, etc.

Clyde Donovan, the most sensitive crybaby football player of All Time

Quarterback Stan, regardless of high school/college/NFL level

It's so sad but longtime-alcoholic-since-10 Stan :( I still love him

Not sure when/where it became popular as it isn't too evident in canon, but the weird Craig and Kenny often being pothead frenemies thing? Idk when or why it started but it's pretty fun

Burnout yet extremely dependable Kenny working a ton in high school and often shooting for custody of his little sister Karen once of legal age. Also him being a scientific/mathematical genius but never applying it to prioritize Karen's comfort and safety instead. Also him being super clean given his family situation

Stan being the 5-in-1 body wash friend and Kyle being a major skin care girlie

When ppl draw them in the show's style and when they make them actually look like they're 9

Adaptation of the wackier canon events into a more realistic context like maintaining Butters's eye injury through other means, Kenny being gone for extended periods of time, Stan secretly taking in animals, still playing superheroes. I recently read an anger management counseling fic where Cartman bit off a guy's finger in an argument which I assumed was a Scott Tenorman Must Die reference

Pairing-related

Tweek being closer to the Tuckers than his own parents; his own house being tidier but the Tuckers' being much more of a home

Craig's been gay since 2007, Season 11 episode 8, "Le Petit Tourette." No straight reason for asking to do "the coolest kid in the world's" laundry. Has a type for twitchy dudes--Thomas from that same episode and then his relationship with Tweek

Cartman's demented-ass crush on Kyle; Kyman shipper or not, that kid's got bigass issues. I do not ship Kyman but Eric's got a fucked up little obsession with Kyle. Bro saved his family from deadly L.A. smug because he couldn't live happily without having Kyle there to constantly argue with

Stan being the one to be super down bad for Kyle yet also be the one with more issues in the relationship. I love Stan but dude has way too much of Randy in him, he's gotta be a pain in the ass

Only Kenny calling Butters "Leo," with most characters not recognizing his actual name being Leopold; being sort of popular as a secretive background relationship and Kenny being very protective

[mikami]

"Did Light love his family?" Anon - Catch-All Answer

Since these are six asks that are all about in the same vein, I am gonna just put the responses into one post for organization's sake.

Light begs his father to kill Mello because he wants his father's death to have been good for something. Nothing pains him more than the idea of having let this happen without it even accomplishing his goal.

Light is the physical manifestation of the lost cost fallacy: he needs to keep going because he sacrificed too much to stop and allow those sacrifices to be rendered meaningless.

And Light rationalizes. It's one of his most prominent character traits: instead of acknowledging his own emotions, he tries to filter his thoughts into nothing but emotionless pragmatism.

This is consistently portrayed through the 'hidden eyes' visual key - Light is excellent at lying to himself, in his own thoughts, which is why Obata gave us this clever way of seeing when this is happening even as Light's own internal monologue doesn't reflect it.

I have an incomplete list of these instances here, especially as pertaining to his family.

Ultimately, if we disagree that Light rationalizes his feelings rather than allowing himself to fully feel them, then none of my arguments are ever going to make sense to you and vice versa.

As a short addendum, here's Ohba's own words on this chapter (HTR13 p.80): "Even if there was acting involved in Light's tearful performance, I don't believe the tears are 100% an act." (も し月の涙に演技入っていたとしても、100%演技の涙では到底ないと思います。)

Soichiro already made the eye deal, which is an absolutely horrifying sacrifice to have made. Light wanted it to be as useful as it could possibly be, in order to justify the magnitude of the price.

I hate to say it, but you're really gonna have to take this one up with Ohba himself. On Page 65 of HTR13, he literally says that he picked Sayu as a kidnapping victim because Light loves his family and wouldn't kill her. (Unlike Misa, whom he would have just killed in this scenario rather than letting the plot progress.)

The panel you are thinking of is this one, where he is panicking, but you're not putting it into perspective.

In a previous chapter (62) Ide was about to inform the whole police force that Sayu Yagami was kidnapped. Soichiro was about to agree to this.

If Light had let this happen, he could have killed Sayu without narrowing down the suspect pool at all. They already know that Kira has ties to the police. He would have removed the leverage the mafia had held against them and gotten off entirely scott-free.

He does decidedly NOT do that. It's LIGHT personally who stops Ide from giving him the perfect alibi. EVEN RYUK CALLS OUT HOW ODD THAT WAS AS A MOVE.

And sure, Light says 'oh yeah, now nobody will suspect us!!' but nobody was really suspecting them to begin with.

This is what I mean - Light never allows himself to just feel things, he always rationalizes himself to justify his actions to himself.

His father dying. Dude.

.... literally why would he? Like, even if they don't accept Kira they also pose absolutely no threat to Kira.

I've covered all of this above, but I am including the ask to say that yes, I've seen it. The core issue here is that we disagree on Light's relationship to himself - you take his internal monologue at face value, while I think there is ample evidence that Light manipulates himself most of all. (As made completely manifest in the Yotsuba-Arc where he literally mindwipes himself into an incredibly emotionally and physically painful experience just to use himself as a pawn.)

[bthump]

heyy i hope your week has been going well, it is always a pleasure to read ur blog! i wanted to ask u something, why do u think guts is so obsessed with griffith specifically? wbk he's in love w him, but i mean mainly personality-wise! at first it made sense because he wanted to be seen and griffith was the first to want him as a person rather than a soldier or whatever arbitrary value was attached to him. since then, however, he has met so many people who care for him and could give him the same things griffith could've. i realize my question is kinda odd since it very much has to do with romantic feelings, i was just wondering if there were specific traits that made it so that any other person ever since was just a 'warm light', yk?

I've been good and hope you have too! Thanks for the kind words!

I think there are a few reasons Guts latches onto Griffith so hard, and they tie back to his formative childhood.

I agree with you that it started because Griffith wanted him - I think even just the realization that Griffith went out of his way to save his life after stabbing him probably had an impact. But yeah, Griffith actively fighting for him to join him, and then saving his life cinched it, even if Griffith downplayed his actual feelings afterwards.

On a personality level I think the waterfight is also very important. It's basically the first time in Guts' life that someone has treated him like a peer. This may be a translation thing, I'm always a little wary of basing analysis on word choices for that reason, but I think it's potentially telling that before the water fight Guts tells Griffith to cut it out because they aren't "kids," but then after the waterfight Guts contemplates Griffith and thinks of him as "probably just a kid..."

So yeah I think Griffith treating him like the child he is, as a child himself, probably had an effect on how quickly Guts warms up to him and how unique Griffith is in his life. There's no one else Guts can say he ever like, played with, yk? He's been forced into a mature role since he was like two years old learning how to use an adult-sized sword.

And then there's the daddy issues lol. I think he wants Griffith specifically to want him, more than anyone else he's ever met, because he is projecting his feelings about Gambino.

(Sidenote, I've seen some people claim that Griffith is like a father figure to Guts, which is laughably ridiculous lol, and that is absolutely not what I'm saying here. I'm just saying Guts' childhood informs his emotional needs and desires as an adult.)

Like Gambino, Griffith is a mercenary leader, and he saves Guts' life, and Guts respects him. Unlike Gambino, Griffith actually likes him and genuinely cares about him. With Griffith he can fulfill that emotional need for someone he admires and respects to actually like him back. After Griffith, he's either been alone or he's been the impressive leader people look up to. He has friends now, but his dynamics with them are different.

I have more about the parallels between Griffith and Gambino wrt their roles in Guts' life here, and also here if you're interested.

I also think the scene where they attack Zodd together is extremely significant for Guts. Not just because Griffith admits that he risked his life to save Guts without any logical justification (though obviously that's huge), but also because it essentially represents a reprise of his childhood rape trauma but with someone else there to save him, and face the monster at his side. It's a very significant moment of personal fulfillment for Guts imo, and the scene where he dedicates his sword to Griffith on the rooftop afterwards is essentially the high point of Guts' entire life. It's hard to compete with that.

(Post where I visually illustrate how the monsters in Berserk parallel Donovan, in case that take needs some evidence lol)

And finally, it's worth pointing out I think that while Guts does have friendships post-Eclipse, including people willing to risk danger for him (like Serpico stepping between him and Zodd on the docks), Guts keeps himself more emotionally distant from them. This is at least in part out of a fear of losing them the way he lost the Hawks, as the Beast points out in chapter 290:

And probably partially because again, his role with them is different. They follow and admire him. He's like the Griffith to their Hawks now, more closed off himself and projecting an image rather than opening up emotionally.

So yeah, basically I think Griffith had a pretty unique role in Guts' life, one that's hard to follow up, especially when Guts doesn't open up to others nearly as much post-Eclipse.

Thanks for the ask!

[manysketchbook]

Firffels: the Wuzzles Competitor That Disappeared

Recently, I found this toy at my local thrift store. I thought it was an oddly cute nativity toy, but upon closer inspection the tush tag read "FIRFFELS. I'm glad to be a SHAMEL." I did a quick search online and the first result was this page on Ghost of the Doll, a toy collector's site that archives information about 80s/90s toys and includes a forum where anyone can seek help with identifying toys. This lead me down a rabbit hole of figuring out just what Firffels were: a failed line of toys promised to be the next hot phenomenon, with minimal documentation online and a handful of toys floating around in thrift stores.

Other than Ghost of the Doll, I found info about Firffels in this 2010 blog post by Trish Babbles (written in an edgy, mean-to-be-funny style that I think is too uncharitable, but it was a different time to be online lol) and this blog post by AF Blog. My other info comes from Othello Bach's website dedicated to the book itself (her personal site is no longer functional) and from a handful of youtube videos I found of a Firffels commercial. Many thanks to these sources, without them there'd be like, nothing online about these creatures.

Firffels are based on the children's book Who ever Heard of a Fird? by Othello Bach, first edition published in 1984 by Caedmon Childrens Books (upon Googling, it appears that Caedmon is owned by HarperCollins now and focuses on audiobooks). The story follows Fird, a fish-bird hybrid, as he travels the world to find other firds. Along the way he encounters a goofy, lovable cast of other hybrid animals who have all never heard of a fird. The story ends with fird learning to love his uniqueness and find peace with being who he is. As is apparent in the Amazon link above (not sponsored, just showing my work), a used copy is $86 dollars right now. An audiobook narrated by Joel Grey (an actor that I'm unfamiliar with who is apparently known for his role in Cabaret) was also released on cassette, listed on Ebay for $75+. Luckily, there is a youtube video of someone doing a complete read through of the book, but the camera angle is poor. This is the only visual record I could find online of the interior illustrations by Michelle Dorman, other than a brief look at a few in a low quality VHS promo rip I'll get to in a minute, and the image below from an Ebay listing. There may be a few more photos in some Etsy listings that I missed.

In Trish's blog post they complain that Shamel is an ugly monstrosity and there were a few comments on Ghost of the Doll's forum of the same nature about Shamel, but I think Shamel is the cutest one! It just looks like a new breed of camel, meanwhile Fird in the background here is...he's so cartoonishly goofy. Idk how else to describe him. He's so fuckin' goofy. He'd make squeaky Spongebob-esque sound effects when he walks, I imagine.

The book was allegedly a hit and Remco bought the merchandising rights. They went all in, as is detailed in the 5 minute promotional video below. Based on a cast of 6 characters, plush toys and posable action figures hit the market with a promise that Hanna Barbera would develop an animated tv show starring Firffels, housewares would be made, there'd be a clothing line, and Design-a-Firffel contests would be held. A few housewares seem to have been made and plush toy sewing patterns were released, but I was unable to find evidence that anything else moved forward.

Absolutely fucking insane fact: according to this video, Caedmon Publishing was owned by Raytheon at the time. Thanks Raytheon for these cuddly children's toys and also, uh, horrific weapons of war?

After I bought Shamel, I went back to the store to see if there were more. There were! I found Bertle and Elephonkey, who still had the original tags. I swear the day earlier I had seen a frog toy with butterfly wings but it wasn't there anymore. I remember passing over it and thinking "eh, butterfly wings on a frog aren't cute," and did not bothering even looking at the tags. My mistake. Turns out that toy was worth a decent amount of money and was part of this whole story.

Bertle's pink belly super bright in real life, like neon. There is a sunbleached spot on it's front.

Elephonkey is the only one with original tags. I also included an image of the tush tag. For each toy the tush tag is the same but displays the character's name.

Hybrid animals are not a unique concept. Wuzzles, a line of plush toys that were animal hybrids with wings and likely made to compete with Care Bears, are brought up in most posts and forums where Firffels are mentioned--usually to disparage Firffels as being knock off, less successful Wuzzles. Wuzzles weren't exactly successful either, though they definitely lasted longer and had more reach, likely due to the backing of a Disney/Hasbro budget. AF Blog in 2015 makes a good point that I agree with: it's unlikely that Wuzzles and Firffels were ripping each other off due to production timelines. Toy lines can be in development for years before any information is made public. It takes a long time to design toys, then get them to a manufacturer, then go through the revisions process. Not to mention the time it takes to ship things out, negotiate contracts at every step of the way, etc. And, as AF Blog notes, Whoever Heard of a Fird? was released in 1984, a year before the first Wuzzles tv episode aired, and Firffels hit the market a year later.

People draw hybrid animals all the time. For example, furry adoptable artists draw hybrids all the time (take a shot every time you find a closed species that is a feline with a fish tail or deer feet or some other animal's defining trait), the Lego movie had Unikitty, and I literally went to Walmart today and in the toy section there was a miniature rabbit-like rainbow animal with wings and a unicorn horn there. The thing that makes these toys potentially appealing, in my opinion, is that they choose safe and popular traits: sparkly horns and feathery wings, for the most part. Things that are easily marketable.

The thing with Firffels is that they combined animals with traits that are less immediately appealing. Image below from Ghost of the Doll.

Some of them are cute but the others miss the mark. Personally I like Shamel and Bertle (the plush version only tbh).

Worth pointing out is that the character illustrations do not match the toy designs. If you go back and watch the commercials included in the 5 minute promo video, you can see that the Bertle plush and action figure are brown and green rather than pink and blue, and that Shamel's hair is brown instead of purple. I saw varied photos of the Butterfrog plush: some were lighter green while others were darker. Could be an issue with differing cameras, but I don't know for certain. And then there's Elephonkey, who is the most inconsistent of the bunch:

The first image is the prototype toy as it appears in the commercial. It is grey and flesh colored, with odd looking plastic hair. The second image is from Ghost of the Doll, of how the Elephonkey action figure actually appeared in stores. Third is a photo of my Elephonkey plush. Compare it with the official character art...well, he's not my favorite design in any incarnation.

I think the toys in the commercials were prototypes that were changed to brighter colors so as to appeal more towards girls. In the 30 second plush commercial there are 4 girl actors and 1 boy actor, with the camera shots getting closer to and focusing more on the girls' faces, so it would make sense. In contrast, the action figure commercial features 1 girl and 2 boys, and most of the camera shots are of the kids' hands playing with the toys, giving off a more boyish, gender-neutral vibe. Classics of gendered marketing, am I right? lol. But I think the change was a good one. I wouldn't have picked up Shamel if I hadn't seen the purple hair, and I definitely would not like Bertle if he wasn't pink. It gives the toys more of a cohesive style, a unique identity, and they fit in more alongside the Wuzzles/Care Bears visuals with the vibrant, happy colors. There's more of a toy-like quality to them, which increases the cuddle-ability and inspires more of an urge to play.

Discovering and logging all this inconsistency has been pretty fun. But it makes me think that these toys were probably doomed by a chaotic, unorganized development process behind the scenes. And given that the book was published in '84 and toys hit the market in '85...the signs seem to point to production being rushed.

To be fair to Firffels, it was probably a little harder in the 80s to hit it big with kids. You had to be lucky, you had to have connections with the right distributors, you had to anticipate what is universally appealing to children--one of the most unpredictable audiences out there--and you had to pay to air your commercials during prime child viewing hours. These are all things that are still true, but we have the internet now and the advertising power of the internet is scary. Going viral on TikTok has the potential to skibidi someone's toilet career. iPad babies are growing up into grade school kids who throw birthday parties every year and get toys as gifts. We are living in an era where mass-producing cheap little polyester plushies and plastic figures is easier than ever and corporations have massive budgets to pump into kids' eyeballs through every advertising avenue they possibly can. They don't even need to come up with the designs anymore, they can just partner with whatever Roblox game is popular right now and capitalize on that. Maybe Othello Bach should get on Roblox.

Actually, it appears that Bach was given the short end of the stick by the time Firffels were pulled. Though her personal website is no longer up, her other website dedicated entirely to Whoever Heard of a Fird? has some info:

At the height of Fird's success, with over 100 licensees cramming the store shelves with children’s merchandise and an animation contract with Hanna-Barbera, the book and all the merchandise suddenly vanished from the shelves.  Although she lost the rights to several other published children’s books at the same time, Othello has never received a reasonable explanation for what happened.

So this passage actually clears something up for me. This whole time something that hasn't really lined up is that I had assumed that Othello Bach published the book first and then was approached for merchandising rights after the book sold well. I actually think now it's possible that from the get-go the book was written with the intention for it to become a worldwide sensation. Not so much Bach's intent, though. I have some professional familiarity with licensing and other such creative publishing contracts, particularly with books. Based on what I know, I believe it's more likely that Bach pitched her manuscript to Caedmon Publishing and Caedmon, seeking to create popular IP, was like, "this has potential and we are going to sign you on not only for the book, but for more." That might be why the character designs are so strange: they were trying too hard to get famous quick and had instructed the illustrator (it is regular practice for publishers to pair authors with an illustrator and given how much was on the line for this IP, Bach might not've had much input here) to design characters that could also become toys. It's unlikely that Michelle Dorman, a kids book illustrator, had product design skills needed to make standout, awesome toy designs. Not a knock on her, illustrators just have niches within their field that they're best at it. It's why you see so many illustrators complain about how often they get approached to design logos--that's not what we do, thank you.

What's sad is that clearly Bach had signed a bad contract that gave away most of her rights as the writer to the publisher. She openly says so above. My guess is that Caedmon told her they needed more rights than usual to be able to conduct so much merchandising (like signing contracts with Remco, much easier to do when you don't have a third party also involved), and because they were pouring so much effort into it on their end. Bach is just the writer, so while the original idea is hers, Caedmon would have matched her with an illustrator and taken charge of all the licensing and merchandising. For a publisher this is a huge commitment financially and personnel-wise, so it makes sense why they would have put forth a contract that gave them so many rights. If Firffels had become as popular as they'd hoped, they don't want to not own the IP. They would have poured all those resources into it and not be able to reap all the rewards because that pesky author would own it. It's almost like contracts like these are predatory and only serve the interests of the publisher. Almost like publishers are companies existing in a capitalistic system and therefore only serve profit, not people. Almost like companies will never truly have artist's best interests at heart, and if you are ever to sign a contract with a big publisher you need to have a good lawyer by your side.

It makes me so sad to read that they didn't even give her a reasonable explanation as to why everything was cancelled. She does not even appear to have any of the merchandise on hand, as all the photos on her website are from Ghost of the Doll. In hindsight we can guess, obviously, why the cancellation happened but I'm in the moment it was probably upsetting. It's still upsetting, given that she has included this in her website for the...revamped book!

However, like Fird, Othello refused to give up. For the next 20 years, she tried to regain the rights to her work. Entertainment attorneys assured her it would never happen.  They said, "It can't be done!" But... it could be done and Othello did it, regaining the rights back to all her work.

Yeah, so, I actually think this is the saddest part about the whole thing. She managed to get some of the rights back and republished the book with...new art...that looks so fucking BAD. Image from her website:

Sorry to this illustrator, but got damn. There is no sauce to this art whatsoever. It is unseasoned, not even salt and pepper. This looks like ass and would never fucking fly with any editor worth their chops. It took me ages to figure out that the long yellow curved line is Fird's tail. Like, this is so unbelievably sad to me. I don't even really like the original art a whole lot, but compared to this...

My informed guess as to what happened is that Bach lawyered up and fought. As we know, Caedmon is now owned by HarperCollins. I can't say for certain but there was probably some case to be made that Caedmon being sold breached the contract, or nullified parts of it, or perhaps the contract expired. It could even just be that HarperCollins didn't care about an old, unprofitable IP and granted Bach her rights back. There is also Remco to consider: they also hold some of the rights, but probably just for the merchandise? Given how prominently their logo is displayed on the toy tags, they might actually own a significant share. Perhaps they were happy not to have anything to do with the book so long as the merch rights weren't touched. I don't know! There's no info about it on the site and this stuff is usually under NDA.

So Bach got her rights back, but she's just the writer. She doesn't own any of the art, so in order to republish the book she had to hire a new illustrator. She likely did not have a huge budget for it, maybe even paying for it out of her pocket because the Choice Books logo she has in several spots on the Fird website appears to be for a distribute on demand service, in place of a traditional publisher.

As the writer, she also would not have gotten the rights to use the original audiobook, so she had one re-recorded. It also appears like she does not have the rights to the name "Firffels" either, as the only places it appears on the site are in photographs of merchandise and in titles specifically referring to the work that is still owned by Caedmon. She carefully refers to her own work as "Fird" for short or the book's full title, probably because she cannot legally imply that she owns or made anything else.

I dug into this thinking it would be a quick look at some strange, forgotten toys from a bygone era. Instead I found a story about how an artist can so easily be shafted by publishers. Everything always loops back around to workers' rights, it seems. Stories like this about shitty publishing contracts (see: Webtoon if you want to get into something current) still appear so often, man. It's depressing, and indicative that the publishing industry needs some reforming ASAP. Like, Illustrators, when are we getting a proper union?

But I'm glad Bach got her rights back and got her book republished within her lifetime. I'm sad she didn't have the budgets for a better illustrator. Sorry to bring that up again, I work as an illustrator irl and I have opinions about craft, lol. Also I just think that given how hard Bach had to fight, she deserved to have better art made. That being said, here's another link to her current website. There's not much there but what is there is a monument to a battle she fought and won, and is proud of.

The lack of detailed, clear, centralized documentation of these toys frustrates me. One of the most frustrating things about the internet for me is that there are few easily accessible, publicly available archives of toys--even for modern toys. I've had to use Amazon reviews and Ebay listings and broken online stores to decipher publication years. With this in mind I decided to do a write up and provide clearer pictures of the toys that I have (I'll take hi res pics in natural lighting too someday). Archives are important to me and the internet kinda sucks for it, I say as someone who started this blog for that purpose. If Tumblr goes down, so does everything I've posted here. As an artist who works primarily digitally, one of the scariest things is knowing that I'm laboring over an ephemeral body of work. It's just not going to exist for very long unless I print it out on archival materials. Data is not the same as a physical object. My Firffels have survived for 39 years but the digital art I draw every day is unlikely to last past 10 years because websites die and files get deleted.

I bought the Firffels from my thrift store thinking I'd resell them. I'm low income so I sell many of the things I thrift. I prefer to buy the older toys or the ones that need cleaning because it makes me feel better about being a reseller (I don't want to take away options from low income kids in my area, ya know?). But I'm putting in the labor to freshen them up and I'm putting in the effort to make unavailable toys available again, at least for one person. And I don't have a whole lot of shelf space to display the toys in my collection...but for now I think I'll keep them.

[yujeong]

Hello everyone. I'm currently losing my mind.

BOC released a new teaser for the final episode of DFF, in order to promote their live event for it and it gave me so many thoughts. In case you haven't seen it, it's this one on Instagram (they've also posted it on Twitter).

It's so trippy and cool and it gave us a lot of good shots of all the characters and what haunts them in regards to Non, but I'll focus on Tee and White, because I have my biases and that's so valid of me.

(I'll assume everything in the trailer is symbolic, like in the first trailer they had released and do my analysis with that assumption in mind.)

Long post ahead:

After we get a brief montage of moments we've already seen in the show with some beautiful background music (it's this one, I love it), we see the brothers and then we start seeing everyone's fears. We see Fluke being scared of the police catching him, we see Top being scared of a haunting, bloody Non chasing him in the forest and then,

we see Tee.

Tee is holding Non's knife in his hands, looking arguably disgusted with it (with himself). The scene cuts to three consecutive visuals which you have to pause the teaser to see clearly. I tried my best here, apologies if the quality is bad.

Tee feels guilt for what happened to Non. I think everyone can understand this by now. He observes the knife in his hands drowning in this feeling, and it creates the image of himself pointing the knife directly onto Non's stomach, who's wearing the T-shirt he wore the day he got drugged and taken away to Tee's uncle. It's very intriguing to me how Non seems to either be trying to stop him or urging Tee to stab him. We'll find out soon enough what's the case.

But the real winner is the two images after that.

Because they involve White.

OK first things first, the shot is gorgeous. I love the colors and the framing and everything about it.

They're inside what seems to be a gaming room, which I'll assume is where they probably met, based on the Without Me MV BOC put out a few weeks ago.

(Notice how the color pallette is the same, too)

Tee is wearing his school uniform (stuck in the past, stuck to Non), while White is wearing the clothes from the cabin (in the present, away from Non but not really). They already are in two different timelines, which is also evident by their positions - Tee is a few steps behind White in the visual.

What caught my attention, besides everything else, was those shiny things on the floor. I can't see them very well, but in my opinion, they're condom wrappers. They go all the way back, symbolizing the duration of the relationship between Tee and White.

The interesting thing here, to me, is how they stop just before Tee's body, and then reappear after him, in front of White, with some of them dipped in blood.

A lot of people, me included, think NonWhite is a possibility, which makes this choice here very interesting. I'll grab onto it with two hands and wait to see what will be revealed tomorrow.

Speaking of Non, I think it's fair to assume the blood on the floor is Non's blood, which makes White staring directly into it become another version of Non, narrative wise. Both innocent boys entangled in Tee's life, both suffering because of Tee. My good friend @wretchedamaranth told me it reminded them of this painting of Narcissus by Caravaggio: White is looking at himself, as if the blood has become a mirror.

Which makes the next visual even more telling: blood separated by a thin line (it's almost blurred but it isn't, White becomes Non becomes White in Tee's eyes). On the right, the big amount is Non's, on the left, White's shadow is creeping into the shot.

It's White's blood. White is going to die.

We get zero things on White besides this. Absolutely none. Does this mean White is indeed a bystander in all of this? Should we take the words of Fuaiz here at face value?

(Source: DFF BTS Ep10)

Fuaiz could be talking about the scene we have seen, not what will come after. But he could just as well be talking in general about White as a character.

All I have to say is: Brace yourselves, fellow TeeWhite fans. We're in for a tragedy.

[mariposahxh]

KilluGon reference in the Succession War arc (Togashi himself made a submission to the killugon playlist) (NOT CLICKBAIT!)

guys holy shit okay so I was looking through the succession war arc because I wanted to find that panel of the CANON HXH LESBIAN KISS but I got sidetracked and started reading chapter 375 where I found something that ended up changing my entire life trajectory :

Here in chapter 375, Tyson is giving "the teachings of love" . Tyson goes on speech that could easily apply to both Gon and Killua post-separation. We're not too sure of what the two are currently up to, but it's reasonable to assume that this is how they feel, considering they had wished to always be by each other's sides.

And then in the next panel, it is said that the speech was just a rip off of Nishino Kana's lyrics. "Darling" and "No Matter How Much" (Tatoe Donna Ni) are the two mentioned Nishino Kana songs.

Out of curiosity, I looked up both songs and the english translated lyrics of them.

That's when it happened...

and

It's pretty damn obvious so I won't dissect it too much, but both lyrics could apply to Gon and Killua. "Darling" being from Killua's side and "No Matter How Much" from Gon's.

you must be pretty strange for someone who's said to be selfish.

i wish i hadn't said those selfish things, if i could erase what i said that day...

i have to pick up all of your scraps, always always i grumble.

i got too spoiled by your kindness.

for someone who wants to be by your side forever and ever.

if i'd stuck it out, would you still be by my side?

I mean, c'mon. The lyrics are soooo killugon coded, and the fact that Togashi paired these two particular songs together. There's no way someone could listen to them and not make the connection to Gon and Killua.

I even added some silly little visuals for your convenience :

Feel free to interpret this as platonic if you want. Idk how, but go ahead!

This was all just an observation of the two particular songs mentioned after a speech about missing someone and wishing you could go back to those days. It could totally just be a coincidence. Just Togashi being the silly man he is, picking two completely random songs that have absolutely no significance whatsoever to the previous events of the main storyline while being totally unaware of the similarities!

Well, that's all I have to say for today. These breadcrumbs will keep me fed for a good while. If you've made it this far, thank you for reading. I have lots of drafts for killugon evidence that I hope to post soon.

typical togoatshi W

#killugonsolos

[bitchapalooza]

Can I like. Gush about Rome and my Rome headcanons please? Okay thanks :)

I love him so much and I love that he’s a loving grandfather— but I also love to think of him being an entitled dick because honestly of course he’d be an entitled dick. He was is the Roman Empire. A dominating power of his time. He is going to have an ego bigger than England at his height of power and modern America combined. But god I’d be lying if I said I loved him any less— and no, it’s not because of my Roman History hyperfixation bias! Totally not! 👀

But fr, Rome is an interesting character if you really apply his real history and culture in tandem with his canon character and I love it so much(take a shot every time I say love)—

You’ve got this loving grandfather, who does show favoritism for the younger of his grandsons. He’s a strong guy. A feared man. An absolute brute on the battlefield— but that’s really all that was going for him, besides his genuine kindness that came in waves really, because in truth, like any other empire or even modern nations, he was motivated not by achievement for the greater good but by greed, by selfish conquests. A big dick competition with the rest of the world. He was, in his heart, just an old xenophobic fart looking to expand his empire until it all came apart and fell.

Ancient Romans valued clean shaven faces over bushy beards. Shaving was a sign of cleanliness, which further cemented their belief of the early Germanics and many other outsiders as barbarians. They had facial hair. They were messy. They didn’t take care of themselves like they, the Romans, did. Although this, at its very core, fashion trend did fluctuate throughout its time, it is fairly evident shaving is a core Roman trait. And so, Rome being depicted in canon to have a beard or simple stubble is really interesting to me.

Being the Roman Empire he’d need to look his best at all times. Not only to look better than his enemies so they or others don’t look down on him but because he was essentially a nobleman, too. So I think he took meticulous care in his physical appearance. But later on in his reign, when things were falling apart within the empire marching towards his eventual death, he began to let himself go. Although he didn’t really pay much attention to this, others did, his citizens I mean. And they interpreted it as him going through a crisis, a direct reflection of what was going on at the time. By the time he died, his hair was messier, obviously zero attempts made at grooming it. His beard short and shaggy. And he didn’t care. Or possibly notice. Whether this was intentional character design or not, it’s still really great visual storytelling no matter which conclusion you draw.

Now for his human alias…

Romulus is a very common name I see used for him, meaning Citizen Of Rome. But it feels too obvious of a choice? It is a nice choice, naming him after the first king of Rome, Romulus, but it doesn’t tell us much about the character himself. So I picked—

Gaius Marcellus Priscus

I chose his praenomen and nomen as if he had picked them out - Gaius, a fairly common praenomen, meaning To Rejoice. I think he'd choose this name because of its positive meaning. It’s just coincidence that it happened to become a commonly used name.

His nomen, Marcellus, means Young Warrior, which he picked out for obvious reasons— to brag to others that yes he is a warrior. And later on, he’d probably try to hold that Young part of the name up high; something just tells me he’s the type of guy to lie about his age as well as hide it.

As for his cognomen, Priscus, he of course did not choose this name. Cognomen are basically nicknames(sometimes passed down from father to son). Something used to describe the person, usually physical attributes or place of origin. Priscus means Very Ancient, so l imagine his soldiers had given him this name in a light hearted joke of some kind, but still very respectful too.

So together, Gaius Marcellus Priscus could tell a person what this man is like without much conversation— well his surface personality that is.

Okay I’m done, I have to go back to work 😔(and think about Rome some more haha 😈)

[narujenreacts]

Hi! I'm the guy who offered my insights on Murder Drones E5.

I know Cyn's visor has been analyzed before, what I did is figure out some of the words that fit in the obscured parts based on the shape, size, and partial letters. Here's what I have:

"Hello :

I see you are [discarded] (gap) [sorroful/sad]

I see you are inoperable - (gap) [[end]]

---- | [fD--t] [selfDestruct] [selfDestru [ ] - d [ ] end]]

I see we could [trl] [sct] (gap) [edit] for you

I will not discard you

[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][Absolute[SysAdmin]

Access? Y/N

[.0001%]

I see you will be here for a while"

The important bits to me are:

The Solver isn't just displaying a boot-up message, it's talking to Cyn, saying how sad and awful her situation is, and asking to be let in (kinda vampire-style, needs to be invited in). I think the repeated 'selfDestruct' string is the shutdown code trying to take her offline again, and I think the Solver interrupts it and stops that, though I could be mistaken.

Most notably though, the line where it says [trl] [sct] has meaning in programming circles. Those usually stand for 'tech readiness level', a term used to define how far along a prototype is in development, and 'software compatibility test'. This is what most convinced me that the Solver isn't a corrupted internal program, but something from outside: it had to check if Cyn's OS could host it before it could offer the deal.

The other notable bit I found is more of a conjecture, but I found some indication that the Solver is related to the Yellow Sign, from Lovecraftian mythos. It's more just visual similarities from a symbol seen on the wall in E5, and a much better match under Nori's feet in E6, but to me it looks too compelling to be pure coincidence.

Anyway, I'd love to hear what you think!

Hey, Cookie! c:

It's funny, because while I had been able to figure out the text on Cyn's visor I have very little knowledge on coding, so I was not aware what the "[trt] [sct]" meant! You said it USUALLY stands for it, and while there's a chance it doesn't in Murder Drones, I'd lean more toward that it does. Especially when one of my theories was the Absolute Solver isn't just some random AI virus mutation, but possibly an alien, demon or some type of creature. Doesn't help that we see all those symbols and pentagram-like drawings in Tessa's room. Why are they there? Who drew them? Cyn? Tessa? Someone else? Were they used to summon the AS? I was able to find what 3 of the symbols mean, but I'll save that for the TiN E5 video. We know that it wasn't just a one-off thing either. In the teaser for E7&8 we see more evidence of there being a cult.

As for the Absolute Solver symbol (both the digital and organic version) looking like The Yellow Sign, it's for sure not a coincidence. We know from Liam that while he was developing the story for Season 1 he steered away from the "vampire + high school" story and in the direction of "Eldritch Lovecraftian horror," which has been evident from the design of holo spooky snake crab J and Cyn and the aforementioned AS symbol resembling The Yellow Sign.

[fanficfanattic]

💙: How do they show love when they’re busy, drained, or otherwise unable to show it to the degree they usually do?

?? Regale us with your wisdom please!!

OMG. THIS WAS NOT MEANT TO GO TO THIS LMAO. IT’S FINE. I’M FINE. Lolol.

Roy Was Never Loaned Out (and what that means for season one)

Ask

So I have been kicking this around for ages in absolutely self-indulgent terrible Call Out Post style conversational vignettes. But the missing piece to that puzzle just occurred to me.

Ted knows so little about Football that I am fairly sure that he doesn’t actually know what On Loan means. Let alone what that means for Jamie. And we obviously have no idea the background history for most of the players. But we know that there is no way in hell that Roy was ever loaned out.

So feasibly there is no one there who really gets what it means. Probably Cartwright did for how little that’s worth. But the general idea is that Richmond is not Jamie’s club. He might actually still be getting paid through them rather than Richmond. Man City is his home club. If he’d still been at Richmond, he wouldn’t have been able to play the relegation match.

Ted doesn’t seem to fully grasp the specifics of Jamie’s loan contract. Rebecca certainly wouldn’t have gone out of her way to get Ted up to speed on HR shit. So he was pulling from his existing coaching experience which was at the collegiate level. With students.

He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know about the dynamics of it all. And he does not give much evidence to indicate he sought that out before barbecue-saucing his way in. Like jfc Ted. What the fuck?

Was Jamie a prick and a little shit? Yes, absolutely. (I love him, your honor).

But was he probably confused as fuck about why Ted kept trying to integrate him into a team he wouldn’t be with a few months later? YES! Absolutely!

And this fits into the greater Mind Games concept. Like obviously Jamie’s dad gave him the strongest foundation for that trauma issue. But I’d put money down that he didn’t think Pep was doing that with him. And Roy was straightforward so he didn’t have anything from that end.

Just mysterious Beard. And mental Lasso. And score the goals but pass so others score the goals. Like his contract wouldn’t say Score X Amount of Goals. But the Man City reason behind the loan would suggest scoring goals is the quickest way to moving up the ladder at his home club.

Anyway I have a lot of thoughts, thanks!

Some snippets of the self-indulgent nonsense under the cut.

Multiple Snippets from the cleverly titled Mind Games

“I know how to physically pass a ball. It’s how we get to the box. But I don’t just magically find meself standing there! I put meself in position to take the shot. You know, on purpose! If I’m where I’m supposed to be, with the ball, why am I passing? For fun? To manipulate someone else’s stats? To risk possession switching?”

“No! I’m not done yet, Roy, cause you don’t fucking see it yet, do you?

Not passing to me is more important to you than scoring goals. And you have the gall to act surprised that I don’t rely on you to get me the ball? That I take it from midfield to the box all on me own?

I’m doing everything I can to put points on the table so y’all don’t get regulated! A team I’m not even really on! Why do I care more about that than you? The captain!

Where you stand at the end of this season shouldn’t matter to me because at the end of it, I go back to me actual club. Man City. You might be familiar with them? You play against them in a couple of weeks. Which I am contractually not allowed to play during. Since Man City is me actual club! Remember that?

And I don’t tell anyone where they should be for me to pass to. That’s what you’re supposed to do instead of pretending there are only 10 people on the pitch.

You won’t visualize and tell us where to be. So we have to do that ourselves. And if I am the one telling me where to go, I’ll always choose to go do me fucking job. Which is score!”

It’s frustrating as fuck and Roy’s the only other person who can tell how messed up this is. And you aren’t listening to him any more than me, cause he keeps telling you to stop making me your playmaker! Do you know how fucked it is that the two players who hate each other most are the only two actually in sync?

[flyingcoffeemugs2]

"Flesh &/ +meat" Chapter 2 ROUGH Excerpt

For the first half of Jamie's life, his Dad had only existed in absence, a chalk drawing on the side walk for a body removed from a crime scene. Blank space. Only years later did he realize that the crime scene was actually his own body and the missing man wasn't the victim but the perp who had a permanent kind of absolution, despite how many finger prints he left for dusting evidence.

That's hindsight for you, always too clear and always too late.

Maybe there was some shame in admitting it, even if it was only to himself, but the idea of his Dad was far better than what reality could ever offer. Loving the absence was easy, a pedestal occupied by the best version of a man who nowadays barely scrapped  the surface of the bare minimum requirements. Maybe a whole other man altogether. 

When it comes to his dad’s temperament, he’s developed a bottle-type system to brace himself for the version of the man that’s on chronic rotation: a full bottle was a warning, an empty bottle was an allegory and a broken one was potentially incriminating evidence. Glass bottles spanning the color spectrum with different labels, cursive or bold lettering lining on top cabinets and store shelves, dictating the trajectory of his life with the kind of authority they had no right in having.

The last time they were inside the same walls, potentially incriminating evidence was mere seconds away from turning into five o’clock news. The only thing that separated them was three steps of cemented stairs, a suburban road with lamps going down in rows, moths dying by the second as they landed on heated glass. Breath rushing his lungs as the cut over his brow dripped blood into his eye, a new brand of terror crushing him with it’s inevitable gravity as he forced himself to run faster.

But there’s no bottle over cell lines, phone towers carrying their communication and leaving him blind as to who to brace for this time. No visual aid. A different kind of blank space. 

With each breath he takes, another layer of frost coats his insides and leaves on the next exhale. The cold air bites at his bare fingers in the Austin Martin and he has half a mind to untuck his fist from his jersey, turn on the car, and put on the heat.

“You there, lad?” Dad’s voice pulls him back into his body, a stretched-out rubber band snapping back into place. 

“What?” He’s sure they were having a conversation at some point but for the life of him he can’t latch onto the auditory information coming his way. 

“Asked if you’d seen Kent on Sky Sport yet?”

Hypothetically, if your Dad doesn’t hit you more than when he does hit you when you’re around each other, is the reality of the situation that your dad doesn’t hit you? Quantifiably, isn’t something that’s higher in frequency more cemented in reality? What’s the tipping scale in a scenario like that? Just thoughts, you know?

He’s spacing out, eyes focusing and blurring on his dashboard as he tries to figure out why he even picked up the phone in the first place, why he dialed Dad when he swore to himself he never would. Swore to his Dad he never would. 

Liar, he hisses to himself internally, bitter vitriol locking his joints, nausea rearing it’s head in his belly. 

“What do you want then?”, he blurts out the question gracelessly before he can help himself, words tumbling out, clumsy on his tongue, jumbled all together. Jamie can feel his muscles locking up.

“What?”

“You asked me to call, and you know. I said when we was talking last time I don’t want to speak to you no more”

“Aye lad, let dead dogs stay dead. And that dog’s been dead half a year now, innit? It’s bare bones now. Don’t matter no more.” Dad says. Bares bones like it means nothing, a carcass picked apart and abandoned, vultures pecking at their recent roadkill. Like anything that happens between them holds the same weight of significance and insignificance simultaneously.  

Jamie hates his dad sometimes.

He hates that he wishes he hated him more and loved him less.

During one of London’s balmier days and Jamie’s less than stellar nights, he had driven Keeley mad to the point where she was actually crossed with him. So he’d apologized, then pestered her to admit she loved him.

Tell me you love me, go on!

Keeley didn’t.

“Jamie, you wouldn’t know what to do with love if it smacked you across your face”

And that had shut him up, hadn’t it? She was right, was the thing. Love smacked Jamie across the face. Frequently. He never knew what to do about it but take it. Take his Dad’s love in all its shit and gold, that wonderful and hideous package deal.

Fucking monstrous amalgamation of a thing. 

Fuck love, anyway.

Loving his Dad had always been a daily exercise in grinding teeth, and here he is again, wearing down the enamel on his molars.

“So, what do you want then?”

“A crime for a father to call his son?”

“Anything can be a crime when you’re involved in it, Da”

“Ay, cheeky brat ain’t you? Told you I saw you play. That’s good. I’m happy, aint I? You’re back where you should be”

Thought where you thought I should be was in Manchester.

“Right. ‘Preciate it”

“Seen Kent’s delivery then?”

“The Sky Sports pundit circle wank?”

“Aye. Talking bollocks. He shouldn’t speak about you that way”

You speak about me that way, he thinks and then wisely holds his tongue.

“That why you called then?”

“No…listen. Got myself sorted out”

“Did you now?”

“Don’t be disrespectful like that, lad. It’s been doing me good. Been getting my nose clean before I phoned ya.”

“How long it’s been then?”

“Since you got all emotional and said we was done”

“Good. Yeah, that’s good then.”

“Your auntie Julie has been putting me up in a center in London. Good bird, your aunt”

“Not in Manchester then?”

“No. The thing about addiction they’re saying is you have to get a new group of friends when you’re trying to get clean”

“Yeah, good, good then. That’s good for you”

“Was calling to ask of you to come see me”

“Don’t think that’s the best idea, Da”

“You too good to see your old man now?”

“No,” he breathes out “That’s not what I’m saying”

“Then what’s the problem? Told you to let dead dogs stay dead. I’m clean ain’t I?”

You almost fucking killed me, he thinks. It’s a sobering thought. Grounding.

“Listen, I ain’t promising nothing”

“You being precious about your fickle feelings again? Said I was clean. What, you want me to say it a third time now?”

“It can’t be like last time”

“Sure”

“Dad, I’m dead serious. We’re done done if it’s like last time.”

“It won’t be lad. Swear down. Just think about it”

“I’m not promising nothing”

“Right, right. I’ll do the promising then”

“You have to mean it. I’m serious Da”

“I’ll mean it”

I promise, I swear I ain’t ever gonna be anything like him, lad

Liar

“Right”

“Jamie” and that catches him off guard “I promise you. It’s gonna be different this time”

“Ok, yeah” he breathes out. There’s nothing more he wants to say as the traitorous feeling of hope slowly warms his insides. “I need to go Dad.”

“Lad, I promise you”

“Yeah, listen, I have a post match debrief with the team” he lies. He doesn’t want to give his Dad anything more than he already has today. He’s given him enough as is. “I’ll call you later, yeah?”

“Yeah, love you lad”

“Cheers”

[lych33dragoncookie]

Lychee dragon cookie for the ask meme!!!

grins

Sexuality Headcanon: ABSOLUTE SEX GOD DO NOT APPROACH NO MATTER WHAT OR WHO, AVOID AT ALL COSTS YOU WILL GET YOUR SOUL SUCKED THROUGH YOUR DICK AND GET YOUR PEPSI STOLEN. also probably somewhere on the aro spectrum? maybe demi idk Gender Headcanon: Agender, probably. Fem leaning of course, but considering all the dragons are they/them they probably have no concern for the standard human concept of gender. In my mind they're probably she/they, though.

Ship: Incredibly tough pick, I'm honestly mostly between Shadow Milk and Cotton Candy, depending on if I want them to be enabled (made worse) or if I want them to have nice things. Basically toxic yuri vs healthy yuri, your pick BROTP: Uuuuuuuhhh I. Genuinely don't think I have any options here? Lychee kinda just... Hates everyone, for the most part. Rambutan maybe??? But that could just as easily go on Ship, so... Yeah, no idea. NOTP: Obviously all of the dragons would go here big duh they're related, but as far as plausible ones go, again, no idea. They're even totally indifferent towards Snake Fruit, for the most part, so I don't think I can pick anyone here.

Random Headcanon: OK THIS ONE ISN'T RANDOM BUT LET'S GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY; THIS IS NOT A CHILD. I've seen quite a few people interpret them as such and while I somewhat understand the sentiment THAT'S A SUCCUBUS, THIS CHARACTER IS DESIGNED AND THEMED AFTER SUCCUBI, sure they don't actually have sex with you and steal your energy and/or kill you, but the visual traits are absolutely there and they do still charm/hypnotize people and steal their energy that way with a bunch of heart imagery attached, alongside the little black bat-like wings that are so customary in pop culture succubus depictions. And that's not even considering all the ridiculously slutty lines that they have. Seriously, it's almost baffling this kind of character can make it into Cookie Run, let alone Ovenbreak, but I'm here for it <3. Anyways, they still are probably the youngest of the dragons even if they're an adult. That, or... Maybe they're a runt? No following, smaller size, powers that focus less on actual destruction or raw power and more on getting what they need through other more manipulative methods... Hell, they're probably the weakest of the dragons, as far as physical force alone goes. Unless later updates give us evidence of the contrary, maybe it's the lack of worship and power compared to the other dragons that made them such a powerhungry conniving little shithead.

General opinion: ... I mean. Look at my blog.

This one is perfect. A match made in heaven for me. I love jesters, my one set of neopronouns is jest/jestself, my sona is a jester, and they have shaped my identity on a near fundamental level. Add on top of that the succubus motifs, the :3 mouth and the little fangs, the personality, the axe (second favorite weapon right behind hammers), the color palette (dark purple, pink, black, white and greenish cyan?! fuck yes please), how much of a whore they are in general, their entire vibe, and... Yeah, they're perfect. Not only are they just like me fr, but I am wildly attracted to them and absolutely adore very single second they're onscreen. I love you Lychee Dragon Cookie you're the absolute best <3