#I mean it wasn't ship intended but you can interpret it that way

[enifo]

The only ending I want

[optimisticgardenhologram]

Not to be some sort giant simp, but because it's his birthday I wanted to write something nice and complimentary for him. But also genuinely and objectively as possible I think Mello is actually a fair bit more humane (or maybe the better term is "less cold-blooded") than he gets credit for?

The evidence:

1. He was very genuinely upset when they are informed of L's death, and doesn't even think about the matter of the successor-ship until Near speaks up alluding to it.

2. After Sayu was rescued/traded from the mafia she's asked to help in the investigation by providing any details of her experience. However she can't because she says she neither saw nor spoke much to her kidnappers. This indicates Mello (as the mastermind of all things related to this project) told the mafia members that they were to stay away from her and generally left her alone. She's a tool to him to achieve his ends but he takes no pleasure in using her this way nor has intention to cause her any additional harm, fear, suffering than is already an unavoidable part of being kidnapped and held hostage across the world.

3. When Soichiro confronts him with the Death Note by announcing Mello's real name and then actually starts writing, Mello could have killed him on the spot faster than Soichiro could write. He had access to the gun next to him in the open desk drawer. You can tell that even in this case he doesn't want to shoot Soichiro, and though Mello's hand hovers over the gun ready to grab it, he does his best to talk Soichiro down instead. Then he apologizes to Soichiro and thinks about how he never intended for Soichiro to die but at the same time he shouldn't have joined up with Kira. There is an important difference here between the anime and the manga; in the anime he tells this to Soichiro aloud which might be interpreted as a way to distract Soichiro while Jose prepares to fire, but in the manga because it's unspoken we know it wasn't meant as a distraction, but genuine regret and remorse.

4. When Mello crashed the SPK, Lidner wasn't really a hostage. She'd already been helping him secretly for a while and continues to do so afterwards; and she -wanted- Mello and Near to work together and was trying to help them do that - meaning she'd have gladly brought them together regardless. But they role-played her like one to cover for her in front of her colleagues, make it seem like she was being forced into it rather than reveal the truth that she was a double-agent.

5. While Mello frequently brandishes his gun as a threat and for coercion, he never actually fires it. Still no one ever doubts that he would use it if needed. Despite fanon often portraying him as a trigger happy nut-job, the canon demonstrates how controlled and coldly resolved he truly is.

6. A pretty commonly repeated sentiment on social media discussions is that unlike Near, Mello doesn't work well with others because he's too much of a lone-wolf and too insecure to work in a team because he would make everything about dominance and power struggle.

I really don't think this is right. Despite stubbornly refusing to work with Near, the evidence shows he's pretty good at getting along and working with other people. Like in the mafia he seems perfectly happy to let Rod Ross be top-dog; he doesn't appear to have any interest in being a big shot and throwing his weight outside of matters directly involving the notebook. Rod Ross is the one to give orders, dole out discipline, and is generally in charge, and he trusts Mello because Mello's proven his value as a loyal team member over time.

He also works well with Halle and Matt who both appear to be there by choice, neither are in the least afraid of or deferential to him and they seemingly work on equal terms together as opposed to a hierarchical boss/subordinate relationship, which for example so prominently characterizes Near's interactions with his group.

With Matt in particular he's way more patient than is even reasonable to expect, given how it seems like Matt spends a lot of time whining, slacking off, and messing up - no shade meant on Matt (love him dearly) but going by the manga that is what we see. But Mello never scolds him or gets angry or snappy. Mello's internal monologue does show that he's annoyed but he doesn't externalize it, doesn't lash out and is patiently long-suffering when it comes to Matt's shortcomings. He basically just accepts the situation being what it is and moves on. And of course is regretful and sad when Matt dies.

We don't see much of Halle and Mello's interactions as they mostly take place offscreen/off-page but from what there is they seem very casual and comfortable with each other and Halle was very clearly emotionally affected by his death and speaks up for him in 104, believing he sacrificed himself intentionally. Basically, Mello's issues and anti-social behavior stemming from his inferiority complex is SPECIFICALLY centered on and triggered by Near. With everyone else he was able to work very effectively, and they hold him in high regard and can maintain good relationships with him.

7. He seems to have sympathy for Misa and is judgmental about the way Light weaponizes her trauma and idolization.

8. Although she's on his enemy's team, he felt enough pity for Takada provide her a blanket when he orders her to undress, which directly contributes to his own demise. I believe he knew (intended as part of his plan) that X-Kira would kill her to stop her from talking, so it was a small gesture that is practical in that it could make her more willing to quickly cooperate, but also give some small comfort during the short remaining time of her life.

None of this makes him not-evil or villainous, but I do think he's genuinely a more compassionate person than he's typically cast as. Certainly the least villainous of Death Note's wide cast of villains. As it's noted in the Japanese wording of Volume 13 he's "not pure evil" and he "has a pure heart and acts mean to get the attention of the person he likes" (scream). I don't think Ohba intended any of the Wammy's characters to be either pure good or irredeemably evil.

[prince-liest]

Saw a post recently that rhetorically asked why authors and show writers leaving character sexuality up to interpretation is disappointing when fifteen years ago getting a statement that things were up to interpretation (as opposed to "Definitely NOT gay, you freaks!") was a blessing, and I make a point of never discoursing on the bird app, but wanted to share some thoughts on the subject here - particularly because Alastor is kind of a hot topic on this subject and I think he actually makes for a great example for my thoughts on this.

Honestly, as someone who did live through the "if you think my characters are gay then you're stupid and should die" era, I think it left me with the perspective that even if there is canon sexuality, then no matter what it is, you're free to then do whatever you want in fandom. People might call you a dick for it if you go about it in certain ways, but you're free to do it.

That said... that's not really what wanting canon confirmation is about. It's about having canon representation, especially for identities that we often don't see representation of. For example: Alastor being aromantic is "up for interpretation," and that specifically feels bad when it's explicitly been framed that way as a cop out to appease shippers (per Viv), especially when in canon you can see he's intended to be aroace based off of how Rosie talks about him.

Yes, things are better now than they were 15 years ago... but standards are higher now, too!

And in particular I think that while in 2008 or so, "It's up to interpretation!" basically meant "Yeah, they might be gay but I can't say it," nowadays the meaning has shifted. I see a lot of people chiming into any mention of aroace Alastor with this attitude of "Um, actually, he's NOT aromantic because it wasn't confirmed by Viv (even though he wasn't confirmed to NOT be aro either)," rather than the spirit of "Oh, yeah, he might be aro, that's a valid interpretation!" It actually feels very similar to seeing people go "Well, X is OBVIOUSLY straight (the default) because he wasn't confirmed to like men!"

...in 2008, haha.

Anyway, fandom always feels to me like a 'do whatever you want' zone, but I think just based off of the sheer volume and depth of genuine and heartfelt reactions people have had to Alastor as a character and his portrayal as aroace... having canon representation and seeing yourself in media you enjoy matters a great deal to many people.

I had a really emotional moment when I read my preorder of House of Hades from the Percy Jackson series back in middle school and realized that Nico di Angelo was an actual gay character in an actual real, physical book that I was holding in my hands, not "just" a headcanon from my nebulously safe online fandom spaces, for the first time ever. Similarly, people have been headcanoning various characters as ace for a long, long time, but to me it's never had the same punch to it as it being official when it comes to those kinds of feelings re: representation.

So leaving that kind of thing "up to interpretation" specifically as an alternative to providing representation to a group of people who rarely sees it is disappointing, but it's not for shipping reasons.

[ezra-editss]

Just watched X-men Apocalypse. What the hell.

Okay, so I kinda have a take on all this and idk if that's just how it feels to me, but that's what I wanna know. (I don't think this actually happened, but it's the vibes it is all giving)

So it started when I told my mom about First Class (keep reading I'm gonna get to apocalypse eventually) and we came to the conclusion that it feels like they wrote the script, looked at it again and thought:

"Hmm, this seems pretty gay.. Erik and Charles both have no female love interests and they have those lines that seem pretty romantic. Also, Erik seems almost obsessed with Charles at the end with how overprotective he is. Let's fix that!"

And then they gave both of them a kiss with a woman they weren't interested in and added the line "We're brothers, you and I" and then were proud of how well they "saved" it.

And then they made Days of Future Past and didn't even think of it, but when it came out they saw how people were shipping it and then they were like "oh shitt"

And in the first hour of the movie, I thought they were just doing all of this stuff to "erase" any potential gayness people thought there was and wanted to make sure nobody got the wrong idea about the recent movies. But it was more the reminder they like women, before the EXTREME GAYNESS in the second half.

(This is getting so much more unserious than initially intended💀)

Anyways, Apocalypse.

Either I missed something or Erik settling down and HIDING makes NO SENSE. In the last timeline it was 100% clear that he'd never stop believing in what he did, he would never stop fighting his war. So yes, this is a different timeline, but there is no reason given why he suddenly decides to try Charles way. He failed in Days of Future Past and Charles let him go, but there is no way that's enough. And they played this off like that isn't the thing they both wanted since forever and never seemed possible. Being on the same side. Erik switching to Charles side is insane, why wouldn't he talk to Charles in all those years then?

I can't believe they threw away everything that IS Erik, just so he had a reason to be angry enough to join the guy.

(They also died in such a weird/lame way)

And Charles and I still don't really know her name😭.. I have to admit the scenes where Charles was nervous were cute, but that's just because Charles is adorable. But in First Class she was obviously only there for the plot, in Days of Future Past, she wasn't even mentioned and in Apocalypse, she was, again, only there for the plot. She literally doesn't say anything the entire movie after the beginning. She has like two lines. And in the end fight, she's just standing there. And then Charles makes her remember and the flashbacks are soo bad, BC THEY HAD NO MOMENTS. (Especially bc you can compare it to Erik's flashbacks, we're gonna get to that)

(I don't think I have to say it, but to be sure. I have absolutely nothing against straight couples. I don't care if it's gay or not. But if one of them were a woman, I wouldn't be writing this. I just hate how often they prefer to write a heterosexual couple that has no chemistry at all instead of making the two guys/girls kiss.)

Let's talk about the ending. Sometimes when I talk about this stuff I'm a little worried that I interpret things wrong bc I want it to be like that and I'm not being objective anymore, but I was proven right so many times in this. When Mystique and Erik kissed in First Class, it felt really weird to me because Erik obviously had no interest in her. (I suppose it was to show her she's beautiful) And that was pretty much proven right when she talks to him and he barely reacts to what she's saying. I also thought that he probably didn't know Charles was dying, bc he wouldn't let that happen. Then Mystique says "Charles" and suddenly he does show a reaction and when she's gone, he has those god damn flashbacks. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS ISN'T A ROMANTIC PLOT?😭 and then the specific one of Charles turning away and leaving him. (Could be a metaphor for Charles giving up on him) THAT'S WHAT GOT HIM.

And they make it even more clear when Mystique is dying and Erik doesn't react, but when Charles is dying, is when he steps in.

Ending was cute, but damnn the "you can make me do anything" was crazy.

(This turned out soo long, I've never been so obsessed with something.)

[girl-named-matty]

To see you

This was meant to be a less than 100 word headcanon description that turned into an almost 1k word one-shot that I threw together in twenty minutes. Figured I should share lol. Please excuse any grammatical errors-this is barely proofread.

a/n: this wasn't written with the intentions of it being an Ominis x Sebastian one-shot since they're eleven in this and I don't ship kids together lol. It's more intended to be close friendship but it is up to the readers interpretation!

How many blind people "see" is by feeling things with their hands and that's exactly Ominis' case outside of using his wand--after all it can only do so much.

He had no friends prior to coming to Hogwarts, only his siblings who would rather avoid and a house elf who cared for him. Truly, he believed that the little house elf was the only thing in the world that actually cared about him.

So, when he first meets Sebastian and Anne, they become his best and only friends practically immediately. He'd make more friends eventually but Sebastian and Anne always had a special place in his heart.

His wand could only help him pick out their features so much. He heard them say Sebastian's face was covered in freckles; he didn't really know what those were but he imagined they'd be pretty. But after a while, he just really wanted to see what his best friends looked like.

One night, while he was sitting in his dorm with Sebastian, he couldn't sleep. He had a question on his mind and he was a little nervous to ask it. After all, he was an eleven-year-old boy who wasn't very socialized, and what if Sebastian thought the question was weird? But finally, he found the courage to ask.

"Sebastian, what do you look like?"

"Huh?" "What do you mean by that?"

"What do you look like?"

Sebastian eventually got the memo that Ominis was asking him to describe himself and it occurred to him that his best friend had never actually seen what he looked like. Ominis was actually blind and it dawned on Sebastian in that moment. He never saw Ominis as any different because of it, so perhaps that was why it seemed to be such a surprising thing to him at that moment.

Sebastian slid out of bed and hopped up on Ominis' bed, sitting cross-legged near the end of it. "Well, my hair is brown and so are my eyes, nothing special like yours or anything," Sebastian said as he began to describe himself. "Brown eyes are pretty I guess, but mine are just normal."

"Y-You think my eyes are special?" Ominis asked, having never heard anybody compliment his eyes like that. He had always been told that his eyes were a curse or some sort of bad thing because he couldn't see. To be told his eyes were special made some tears form behind his eyes.

"Well yeah! They look really cool. They're not like normal blue eyes--or even blue at all really." Sebastian said, trying to find a way to describe Ominis' eyes. "There's not really a way to describe them to you, they're just--special."

Ominis went a little quiet after that, processing the words Sebastian had spoken. His best friend really thought his eyes were special. "Thank you," he said quietly, again forming another wave of silence between them.

Sebastian let them sit in silence for a bit before Ominis himself broke it. "Can I see you, please?" he asked, not knowing any different way to ask.

"How would you do that?" Sebastian asked curiously.

"With my hands," Ominis replied, swallowing a bit. "It's like how I read with my hands sometimes. I feel things with my hands and I sort of try to get an idea of what they might look like."

Sebastian tried to imagine what it'd be like in his head before scooting closer to Ominis on the bed. "Sure, that's pretty cool!" He said, wondering how Ominis would think he looked.

Ominis seemed a little surprised that Sebastian had agreed to this so quickly but he was happy nonetheless. Slowly and gently, he placed his hands on Sebastian's face and started to drag his thumbs over his skin. As he felt Sebastian's face against his fingers, he tried his hardest to imagine what he would look like.

His fingers trailed over Sebastian's jaw, cheeks, lips, nose, eyebrows, forehead--every inch of his face. Slowly but surely Ominis got a better idea of what he looked like.

And Sebastian just sat there quietly, not wanting to say anything that could possibly make things harder for Ominis. This whole thing was foreign and interesting to him, but he liked it. He wanted Ominis to know what he looked like.

When Ominis was done and pulled his hands back, he tried to remember everything about Sebastian's face to get a good look. Every curve or bump, how it felt, all to try and see what it'd look like.

"You.. you have a very beautiful face," He said quietly. This wasn't a compliment he often gave, simply because he couldn't physically see people and people hardly ever let him touch their faces. He believed his mother was quite beautiful but she was the only person he had ever given the compliment to before.

Sebastian was a little shocked as the words left Ominis' mouth. He had never been called beautiful before--everyone always called Anne beautiful and he was supposed to be "handsome" or something like that. But it wasn't a bad kind of shock. To be honest, it felt nice. This was Ominis' way of appreciating his appearance and it made his heart feel warm.

"Thanks," He said, not really sure what else to say. "You really think so?"

Ominis nodded his head. "Yeah, I really think so."

Eventually, Sebastian slipped back into his own bed. He wasn't expecting anything like this to happen, but he was glad it did. Now they both knew what each other looked like and Ominis just simply thought Sebastian was beautiful.

should I do a pt.2 with Ominis seeing Anne? 👀

[oftenlyshitposting]

a wolf, a warrior, and a hotspring | wolfwren fic

"meet me here again tomorrow. at noon."

sabine finds that slumber has been kinder to her. she awoke to the hazy peridean early sun, to the smell of cookings just outside of the fulcrum. the noti people must have been up for sometime now. with the scent of food entering the ship, that means ahsoka is, too.

oh, right. she hasn't told ahsoka.

sabine rises from her bunk with a soft grunt, already fabricating a plan to sneak out of camp. she glances at the clock she and huyang constructed; the time is indicating closer towards midday. sabine leans out of her bunk to search for ahsoka and huyang, not finding either at the common table or the practice floor. the door to the cockpit was also open, showing vacant seats. they're outside then, sabine concluded.

without wasting anymore time, sabine tiptoes to the refresher for a quick wash and to get dressed. her fingers were crossed that ahsoka stays occupied until she could sneak out, but luck betrayed her. by the time sabine got out of the refresher, ahsoka was at the common table, plating some bowls that looked like breakfast and a jug of what sabine assumes as the tea she usually drinks.

"morning," ahsoka calls, her tone sounding suspiciously humoured, "had a good sleep?"

sabine scratches her hair, avoiding eyes with ahsoka. "uh, yeah. slept alright."

"that's good."

sabine nods, quickly making her way to her bunk to pack up her blasters and to put on her beskar. her periphery catches ahsoka's eyes on her, but she tries her best to ignore her master. plan A of quietly sneaking out failed, so sabine decides to just play it coolly and find the right time to sneak out again. she casually walks to grab a cup from the storage, pouring herself the tea.

"what's all this?" sabine nods at the bowls and plates at the table, sipping her tea to calm her nerves.

ahsoka pushes a bowl at sabine's direction, "late breakfast. the noti found native fruits and berries, you should try some," and made a gesture sabine interprets as an instruction for her to sit and eat.

sabine shrugs. "alright." she began scooping the bowl; it consists of some kind of mushy grain-like porridge with various haphazardly chopped fruits. the texture initially puts her off, but the taste wasn't so bad. it reminded her of some kind of pudding. "hey, where's huyang?"

"he's outside. last i saw, he was helping a noti folk fix up their little pod," ahsoka replies easily, munching on a crunchier chopped fruit. sabine hums in response, mouth a little full. ahsoka then looks at sabine inquisitively as she asks, "where'd you run off yesterday? you were gone for a really long time."

"uh, i went out to hunt?" sabine cringes internally, not intending her answer to sound unconvincing, which she follows up with, "no luck, though. no game, or stuff. but, i did find a hotspring."

"did you?"

"yep."

ahsoka's brow quirked, and sabine can't really tell what her master is thinking. "you found someone, though. didn't you?"

well, shoot. sabine doesn't really know how to deny that question, so she decides to dance around the whole truth, "yeah. baylan's blonde padawan. i ran into her at the spring. surprisingly, she didn't try to kill me."

"i can see that," ahsoka chuckled. "did something happen?" when sabine tilts her head questioningly, ahsoka adds, "i felt something shifted, in the force."

double shoot. guess plan B of sneaking out and postponing the conversation failed too. sabine sighs. "i guess so...? i... i don't know. i can feel her, and she can feel me. through the force."

"that's not uncommon. you've finally tapped into the force, making your presence known within it and to anyone who can access the force." ahsoka gestures between them, explaining further, "like how i can sense you, and you can sense me."

ahsoka's explanation makes sense. though, sabine can't help but think that there's more to the connection between her and shin. she knows that ahsoka and her have a bond, as master to padawan. it doesn't quite make sense to her as to why she would share a connection with shin; the kind of bond that they have.

thinking about their bond might have subconsciously triggers it in sabine's mind, as she finds herself reaching for shin within the force. she sees shin, on the other end of their connection, hunting with a group of the red-armoured bandits. sabine can feel shin sensing her presence in their connection.

shin pauses atop her howler, turning her head to the side where sabine is sitting inside the fulcrum. sabine's breath choked in her throat when she hears shin's voice... inside her mind?

'you missed me already?'

sabine wants to scream out loud; shin sounded unbearably cocky, like she was teasing her. and the fact that shin's voice filled her whole mind like an echo in a chamber doesn't help her clear her mind. even in an odd psychic link, shin can be infuriating.

'you wish,' sabine replied in her mind, trying to put up a convincing annoyed act. 'this happened out of my control, okay?'

shin lets out a noise that sounded like a chuckle. 'you are a lousy liar, if you did not know already.' when sabine was about to protest her, shin interrupts, 'as much as i enjoy to watch you try to lie your way out, i am in the middle of hunting. you, are a distraction.'

sabine rolled her eyes, disconnecting herself from the freaky little mind connection thing. she almost choked on her tea when she finds ahsoka looking at her with such a knowing look. sabine finds it oddly infuriating and similar to shin. she hid her face behind her cup, shooting an unamused glare back.

"what?"

ahsoka smiles, and sabine has a bad feeling about it. "you were with her just know, weren't you?"

sabine chokes, "i- what are you–?" she sputters with flushing cheeks. she then manages, "how did you...?"

"well, you went quiet for a while," ahsoka points out the obvious with a smile, sipping her tea, "and i felt the presence of someone else briefly. someone you ran into rather frequently, on top of that."

"that's great," sabine grumbles. "so, the cost of using the force is no privacy for my mind, got it." perhaps she should learn the whole force mind-shield trick, if it's possible to learn it this early.

ahsoka laughs. "relax. i wasn't in your mind, ever." she then makes a move to stand, placing a hand on sabine's shoulder as she says, "i only felt something in the force, and i put two and two together."

sabine pouts, but didn't say anything to that. she opts to finish her bowl of food quickly, knowing ahsoka is going to prepare her for more training. when she finished eating, she quickly cleans the table and brought the dishes to get it cleaned.

ahsoka was preparing the practice floor by the time sabine finishes cleaning up, presumably for meditation training. not exactly sabine's most favourite part of training, but she really doesn't have much to say as a padawan. perhaps ahsoka might teach her how to not let other people look into her brain, that would be neat.

it was a few hours later when ahsoka concurred sabine's training for the day. her master had thrown in a little zatochi session post meditation, testing if her senses are more honed in than the first time sabine did it. to ahsoka's pleasure, sabine did improve when it comes to sensing ahsoka's intents. didn't entirely surprise ahsoka that sabine still falls victim to getting frustrated easily, resulting in ahsoka tripping her again.

"going to meet her again?" ahsoka called out as sabine was packing up a bag, smiling teasingly as she leans against the backrest of the common table.

sabine rolled her eyes. "oh, ha-ha."

"sabine, relax, it doesn't bother me what you do in your spare time." her togrutan master laughs, amused at sabine's defensiveness. ahsoka reaches over to a storage compartment, taking out the large fur coat that she doesn't wear, handing it to sabine. "take this. give it to her."

"what? why?" sabine frowns, looking down at the coat. she recalls that shin has her own cape thing that she wore to the hotspring yesterday.

ahsoka steps closer, her expression a little serious. "it's better used with her than it stays here, gathering dust. and sabine?" when sabine raised her brows expectantly, ahsoka continues, "ask her if she'd like to stay with us."

sabine eyes widened, unexpecting ahsoka's request. "wh– what do you mean 'stay with us'? why?"

"her master's abandoned her. she's alone."

"not as alone as you might think," sabine scoffs, petulant. "she's running with the bandits."

ahsoka shoots her a look, unimpressed. "you know that is not what i meant." she sighs patiently. "you can feel her, more than i do. you know what she feels, her emotions and her thoughts."

"yeah, i guess so..."

"and you of all people, knows best what it's like when your master walks away from you."

and there it is, the final strike home. sabine groans, "y'know, i hate it when you're right about things."

ahsoka laughs, deep and low in her torso. she pats sabine's shoulder and gave it an assuring squeeze. "i'm not always, and you know this. just try, sabine. she just needs someone at the moment."

"you think that someone is me?" sabine raises her brow, uncertain and expectant. ahsoka doesn't answer immediately, and sabine nods somewhat understandingly.

"you saw how she reacted when i offered my help the first time," ahsoka recounts to their last battle, where shin had looked so defeated and fled her and sabine. "i didn't believe she was ready then. but, like most things in life, we sometimes just needs to give it a little bit of time. i think she is more ready now, and with the right person," she nods at sabine, who pursed her lips in a tight-lipped smile, "she may accept our help."

sabine sighed, long and drawn. "alright, fine." the mandalorian grabs the fur coat, stuffing it in her bag. she huffs as she saddles the bag, walking towards the landing ramp. "i'll try to talk to her, but i can't promise anything. and if she kills me, you're responsible for murley!"

ahsoka merely laughs amusedly. "go!"

sabine waves at her master, before disappearing towards her howler and hops onto it's saddled back. her companion animal instantly takes off on it's strong legs, racing towards where it took her yesterday. sabine was tempted to search for shin again in their bond, but restrains herself and hopes that the blonde padawan will be there anyway.

her howler's speed began to decrease as the path to the hotspring becomes familiar to sabine's eyes. she scouts the surrounding, naturally out of instinct, for any bandits or nuisance that she'd have to fight off. the mandalorian sighs in relief when she saw nothing, and more importantly, sensed nothing dangerous in the force.

sabine hops off from her howler, keeping a gentle guiding hand on it's neck as they walk closer towards the spring. she finds a patch of thicker grass and softly commands 'tota' at her howler, unloading her bag and the sack of food for her howler. she scratches it's snout with a smile as it munches on the food sabine brought, whinying joyfully.

"you actually made it here again."

shin's voice filled sabine's surrounding and mind, and sabine wasn't even remotely surprised. she had sensed her arrival a few moments ago. and before she can say anything smart, shin had stolen the moment from her. sabine huffs amusedly.

"aw, were you expecting me to bail?" sabine teases with a smirk, turning from her howler to find shin. the blonde padawan is atop her white howler, head held high as always, and a ghost of a smirk on her lips. something felt a little off, though.

shin barely huffs out a laugh, sounding more like a restricted exhale. sabine watches closely; shin's arm is circled around her waist. like she's holding something in. sabine frowns, strutting closer towards shin, her skin breaking in sweat and her lips looking a little paler.

sabine then feels it; a pounding pain across her abdomen, the same area shin is clutching onto.

shin's tunic is leaking in red, sabine only now realises.

"shin!" sabine frantically approaches shin, wincing as she feels shin's pain on her body. the blonde padawan tries to get down from her howler, but could barely hold herself together. sabine commands the white howler 'tota' so she can help shin come down easier. "y-you're bleeding. what happened?"

shin grunts, pushing herself off of her howler. "i... we ran into a different group of bandits." her face contorts in pain as sabine lays her down on the ground, arm still clutching her bleeding abdomen. "they were not friendly." shin attempted at a joke, sabine assumes, but it came out as a whisper.

"i need you to remove your clothes." sabine hadn't realised what she blurted out, only registering what she said half a moment later, when shin looked at her with an incredulous and amused look. she tries composing herself as she says, "i brought a medkit, i'll wrap you up."

shin doesn't say anything, only nodding. sabine takes the sign to scramble back to her howler, grabbing her bag and searches for the medkit. she hopes it's sufficient enough to dress shin's wound, because if it's more serious, she'd need to take her to the fulcrum's medbay. that's about two dozens klicks from here, and sabine isn't sure shin can hold off that long of a journey back.

sabine returns to shin, laid on her back with the top part of tunic undressed. with it, reveals shin's wounded stomach. the injury is caked with a layer of crusted blood, mostly browned from oxidation, but still slightly leaking. sabine winces as she gauges the depth of shin's injury, but it's hard to conclude with the amount of blood covering the wound.

"i'm gonna start cleaning it up, okay?" sabine warns shin as she prepared a disinfecting kit, in which shin merely nodded weakly in response to. "it's gonna be a bit painful, so tell me if it's too much."

"do it," shin grunts, preparing herself. when the disinfectant grazes her injured skin, shin barked out a long and painful groan. sabine winces when shin grabs her arm, seemingly out of painful instinct. shin's body writhes as sabine continues wiping the bloodied wound, head thrown back whilst her eyes shut tightly in an agonizing manner. her eyes bolted open in a frenzy as she growled out, "fuck!"

sabine whispers calming phrases that she can remember in mando'a, working quickly and precisely on shin's injury. once cleaned, sabine can finally measure the depth of the gash on shin's stomach, and deduces it isn't as deep as she thought. it definitely requires stitching, and with limited kit, sabine had to resort to the quick-stitcher.

shin had gone quieter, huffing barely audible grunts. watching shin this awfully pale and unusually languid terrified sabine; she's always used to viewing shin as this indestructible force, that she's forgotten shin too, can bleed. her chest rises and falls in an arrhythmic pattern, lips pale and eyes sunken in.

"hey. shin?" sabine gently touches her shoulder, and shin sluggishly moves her head to face her. she smiles, tight-lipped and half apologetic. "i'm gonna stitch you up quickly, yeah?"

"alright." shin nods weakly, dropping her head back to the side again, facing away from sabine.

sabine sanitizes the quick-stitcher, a stapler-like device, and applies a topical numbing gel around the gash. shin hisses at the contact, but exhales softly afterwards. sabine works her way quickly, stitching shin's wound closed. the numbing gel works, sabine can tell from the way shin merely jumps at the first few stitches but didn't groan in pain.

when the last stitch was applied, sabine applies healing ointments before she props shin up to a raised position as she quickly wraps shin's wound with a sterile gauze neatly. sabine reaches to a boulder nearby through the force, placing it behind shin so the blonde padawan can lean her back against it to support her body.

"okay," sabine said in a relieved half-whisper, haphazardly storing her equipments back to the medkit box, "there. you're all good."

shin was quiet for a bit, huffing a long drawn-out breath. her eyes slowly opens, and sabine can guess she's slightly disoriented and hazy. shin's hand raised to hold her neatly bandaged torso, still partially naked as her tunic hangs open on her shoulder.

"this was not how i expected the day to go." shin winces as she tries sitting more upright, making a move to redo her tunic. the tone of her voice is indecipherable, but if sabine dared to guess, she sounds somewhat embarrassed of herself.

sabine's lips quirk to a half smile, sitting properly. "yeah, well. i don't think anyone ever really plans to get ambushed by a group of rogue bandits, huh?"

shin rolls her eyes weakly. "you are really not as funny as you think, did you know that?"

"you have a really funny way of saying thanks, did y'know that?" sabine returns with a cock of her brow. that earned her a faint disgusted look from shin, making her snort. she nudges shin, teasing but careful not to hurt the wound. "i did, just save you from bleeding out."

"you are infuriatingly confusing," shin sighs, leaning her head back against the rock behind her, but smiling at sabine nonetheless, "but i appreciate your help. you worked quick enough that it was not torturous for me."

this time, sabine rolled her eyes at shin's dry joke. "ha-ha. maybe i should have, if you wanted me to hurt you that much."

shin doesn't say anything, her faint smile shifts a little more somberly as her lidded eyes stays fixated on sabine's. the mandalorian sinks into shin's darkened greenish-blue eyes, couldn't tear her eyes away even if she wants to. not like she wants to, anyway. shin's pupils are slightly blown, but her gaze is strong. it reminded sabine when she stared at her at the shuttle ship, descending from morgan's golden hyperspace donut.

"what is in your head?" shin mutters with her usual tilt of her head, voice slightly scratched and accent heavy on her tongue. her evergrowing pale fringes are sticking to her forehead, edges poking her lids. sabine couldn't stop herself from brushing them away gently with the pads of her fingers.

sabine smiles. "aren't you usually in it? 'soka told me everyone can hop into my brain now, because i can access the force."

shin had this ghost of an unimpressed look on her face that sabine finds mildly hilarious. "just because we are intertwined in the force, doesn't mean i know what you are always thinking. your mind is always... a forest. a colourful and loud forest."

sabine typically doesn't blush this easily, but the things shin says or do makes it really hard for her to contain her flustered reactions. she had to actively fight her blush down so she wouldn't turn half as red as her hair when she was twenty six.

"uh, thanks?" sabine manages lamely, losing any remaining ounces of eloquency. when shin had this barely readable expression on her face, something that sabine tries to decipher as amusement, she tries to shift topic, "anyways. i was about to hop in for a relaxing dip before i had to stop you from spilling your whole guts out, literally."

shin rolled her eyes at sabine's joke, earning a satisfied smirk from the mandalorian. she then tries to get up, which immediately sprung sabine to help. "a soak in the hotspring does sound nice."

sabine tries to sit shin back down. "whoa, hey. what do you think you're doing?"

"going for a dip."

"uh, not with a big ass gash on your stomach, you won't?"

"you dressed it already." shin stubbornly retorted.

sabine groans, exasperated. "yeah, and it'll undress if you go for a soak, di'kut."

shin's brows dipped, contorting in a mild confusion and surprise. "what?"

"your bandage. it's gonna get ruined–"

"no, i know that," shin quickly interrupted sabine, inching closer in an unlikely speed towards the mandalorian's space, ultimately sending sabine backward out of reflex. shin's eyes narrowed. "you said something earlier. in an alien language."

"ali– huh?" sabine face contorts in confusion, before things began to click in her mind. "what, di'kut?" she repeated the word at shin, who nods in confirmation. sabine snorts. "that's a mando'a word. it means 'idiot'. because you were."

shin's brow furrowed, and sabine swears her bottom lip quirked up to a pouty frown. "i am not an idiot."

sabine shoots shin an unimpressed look, which the blonde padawan returns with an empty glare. "you literally wanted to soak in a hotspring after someone tore your whole stomach open."

"didn't you dress my wound with a waterproof gauze? it should keep dry for a few hours."

"i-" sabine tries to argue, but shin did have a point. the mandalorian sighed. even if she had better argument points, shin most likely would have ignored sabine and do as she wishes anyway. "alright, fine. but, if your bandage undressed and your wound reopens, you best believe i'll make it hurt when i have to restitch it."

shin quirked her brows in a manner sabine interprets as impressed. the blonde padawan smirks wolfishly. "is that a threat?"

sabine wants to wipe that infuriatingly attractive smirk on shin's face so badly. the mandalorian leans closer towards shin, closing the already small space between them, her eyes darting towards shin's now vanishing smirk. sabine's eyes finds shin's stellar blue eyes as she tilts the blonde padawan by her chin.

"it can be a promise."

sabine swears, for a miniscule split of seconds, shin's pupils dilated and she can hear the soft hitch of her breath; like it was caught in her throat.

shin huffs, amused. "i'll be waiting for it then."

sabine scoffs, but shin had ignored her. shin unclasps her armour and stacking them neatly beside her rock, struggling to lean forward to strip away the lower part of her clothes and armour. shin had kicked off her boots, and is now left with her tight fitting black tank and her matching underwear.

"are you gonna keep staring at me?"

shin's voice snaps sabine out of her blatant staring, turning away with the speed of light to hide her blush. to stop herself from thinking about shin undressing in front of her, sabine immediately began taking off her beskar, one plate at a time.

sabine heard shin rustling behind her, attempting to stand and walk on her own. she had to turn, and saw shin wobbling unsteadily on her feet, but after a few steps, she regained a somewhat more stable stride. when shin finally got into the water, sabine had just finished stripping out of her jumpsuit. she left her beskar pieces neatly next to shin's own armour.

the hotspring feels a lot warmer than yesterday, but it isn't like the heat is intolerable. shin had sat herself down closer towards the deeper parts, the clear water stopping just at her collarbones. her eyes are closed as she dips her head back into the water, and comes back up swiftly. she wipes away water and stray hair clinging to her face, and sighed.

"the water just fine for you?" sabine asks as she dives headfirst, feeling the warmth prickling her cold cheeks. she resurface with a gasp, brushing purple locks away from her face and swims towards shin.

shin hums, eyes still closed. sabine couldn't help but watch shin's throat bobs up and down, and nearly drowned herself after catching herself doing it. shin's voice is soft when she spoke: "the springwater feels nice. i find this place to be a sanctuary in the midst of this wasteland of a planet."

sabine swims closer, stopping herself only a few inches away from shin. "yeah?"

shin nodded, finally peeling her eyes open. her gaze finds sabine's, and sabine began to wonder why are shin's eyes so captivating that she couldn't look away even if she tries. her aquamarine eyes began to roam sabine's face, dancing all over to find whatever it is shin is trying to find, before settling on her lower lip for a few seconds.

sabine feels shin reaching out to her, spread out in thr force. she reached towards shin, trying to meet her in the middle. her eyes almost rolled shut when she finds shin within the force, feeling an intense wave of warmth washing over her whole body.

shin is pulling her closer.

sabine hadn't even realised that she was physically padding towards shin's body until she opens her eyes and finds herself in between shin's legs. her face was much too close to shin's face, but shin isn't showing signs of protest. the blonde padawan's skin has regained some colour from sitting in the hotspring that she lost from the injury, and sabine finds herself staring unashamedly at shin's lips.

it's safe to say that shin barely noticed anything from sabine, because she's also much too occupied eyeing sabine's own lips hungrily. their bond in began to pulse and pull each other in as they feel each other and the ever growing tension that seems amplified. shin had already engulfed sabine in the force with her own tendril-like connection, wrapping her in an intense wave of pleasure and warmth.

"shin…" sabine couldn't stop a breathy whine laced underneath as she says the other padawan's name, the sound escaped her lips straight into shin's mind.

shin winces when sabine wraps herself around shin through their bond, and for a fraction of seconds, the mandalorian was worried she might have hurt shin. alas, with the way shin is grabbing onto sabine's hips, sabine can easily concur that it isn't out of pain. shin's skin burns under her touch, and not because of the warmth of the water surrounding them.

sabine hadn't even realised her body was being yanked forward and found herself seated atop of shin, suddenly looking down into a pair of darkened blue-greenish eyes and drowning into her.

shin's eyes flickered from sabine's down to her lips again before coming back up to meet her again. there's raw and hungry need behind those eyes; sabine doesn't even need to look at shin's eyes to know. sabine ran the pad of her thumb against shin's lower lip, almost sighing when her lips nibbled against her thumb.

she can feel shin; everything that shin is feeling.

shin's lips tremble against sabine's thumb, leaving her lips parted expectantly, and sabine is actively fighting the urge to slip her thumb inside. instead, she drags her thumb down to shin's chin, tilting her up even further. a surprised whine escaped shin.

"sabine…"

sabine shuts her eyes again. she reels in the way shin had said her name in the exact same way as she did yesterday; the way it sends chills up her spine and warmth down her abdomen. shin's grip on her hips tightened, threatening to dip lower. sabine couldn't help but smirk when she opens her eyes again, finding a new and much more satisfying look on shin's eyes.

shin is desperate; oozing with so much want.

"tell me," sabine whispered just above shin's lips, pulling back when the blonde padawan chases after her lips; smiling so teasingly as she hovers above, "what do you want, shin? use your words, cyar'ika."

a soft grunt escaped shin's lips, going straight into sabine's mouth, incoherent, but sabine heard it fine. "i need to kiss you."

sabine smiles, satisfied. her hand finds the side of shin's head, fingers gripping her mane of blonde as she dives her lips into shin's hungry ones. she can feel shin instantaneously grabbing her by her ass and pulls her closer into the open mouthed kiss, moaning from her touch straight into shin's throat.

shin is impatient; jagged and hurried, as she devours sabine whole. her teeth found flesh so easily and efortlessly as sabine allows her to nip and bite on her bottom lip. sabine tasted shin's pure, unadulterated raw need and want bleeding into her tongue, gripping into shin's neck and hair like a lifeline.

everything felt explosive; within her, within shin, and the area around them. their bond heightened every single senses in their body and tuning them to each other and everything surrounding them. it's sending sabine to a huge overdrive.

sabine began to wince in a mix of pleasure and pain; everything pricks at her skin but it feels so good at the same time. her fingers slipped further into the back of shin's head, yanking her hard enough to pull shin out of their hungry kiss. shin, much like a hungry animal, instantly chased for skin when they separated from the kiss, her lips and teeth latching onto sabine's pulse.

"shin... it's–" sabine chokes a moan when shin sucks just right on her pulse point, "fuck… shin... we need–" a louder moan escaped her, unsure why, "shin, it's t-too much now… we need to stop… shin!"

sabine's words fell on deaf ears as shin ignores her and kept her mouth busy on her collarbones, hands roaming on her ass like it's the only thing keeping shin alive. sabine wishes she could give in to the pleasure, but the pain is getting unbearable. the hand on shin's neck pushed her down hard enough, eliciting a surprised choked moan from shin.

sabine had to pretend that the noise didn't arouse her so much more than shin already did.

"shin, we need to p-pull away..." sabine hisses sternly through pain and pleasure. when she felt the bond between them pulsing again, she had to fight back another moan. "shin, pull away. right now."

shin regained a little more coherency and restraint at the urgency in sabine's tone, nodding as she began to slowly detach herself from sabine, physically and through the force.

somehow, pulling away from each other has become more painful than when they were engulfed in each other. shin growled carnally while sabine is on the other end, clutching her whole body in her arms because of the pain.

sabine immediately shuts off the bridge between them the same time as shin did, and much like yesterday, they both laid on opposite ends with bated and uneven breaths. shin laid flat on her back against the edges of the spring, whereas sabine was on her stomach and propped on her arms weakly.

"shin," sabine breathlessly called, trying to crawl closer towards shin. she gargled on the water, choking out, "are you okay?"

shin grunts as she rises from the water. "i'm alright." she turns to find sabine beside her. "you do not look or sound as alright."

sabine shush her as she tries dragging her body upwards, flipping over wetly so she's on her back. "shut up. not everyone who just had what felt like force-sex on spice gets to walk away as easily as you do, okay? i think i fried a bunch of my nerves."

"i see you've found your eloquency back."

"fuck you."

shin kinked a brow, amused. "didn't you already?"

sabine shot her a glare, but with the flushed cheeks, it's really not putting much effect. "shin hati, i swear i'll shoot you with my blaster if you keep talking."

sabine swears she saw shin's cheeks and neck flush a faint red, but doesn't think much about it, blaming it on the heat of the hotspring. speaking of necks, sabine starts to feel the dull throb of where shin had latched on her skin, groaning loudly.

"please tell me you didn't leave any marks," sabine moans as she touches the tender spots.

shin eyes sabine's neck, a ghost of her infuriating smirk began to haunt over her lips. guiltlessly, shin says, "there are some red marks all over."

"oh, come on! i bruise easily, shin!"

"you are a lot more adorable than i thought, then."

sabine grumbled loudly, but can't really bring herself to be actually mad at shin. "i really am going to shoot you with my blaster one day."

shin tilts her head back. "i will be waiting on that." she then slowly starts to rise from the water, walking slightly bent forward while clutching her bandaged wound. sabine watches with narrowed eyes as shin struts towards their pile of clothes and armour.

sabine had suspected something, immediately rising from the water to chase shin. shin quirked her brows, expression confused, but her body is shifted away from sabine's eyes as shin fumbles over with her tunic and pants.

sabine crossed arms. "your wound opened, didn't it." when shin ignored her, sabine grabbed her by her hips to look for the injury. and sure enough, the now soaking bandage is seeping with red right where shin's wound is at. "i told you it'll reopen."

shin merely shrugs, putting on her pants and tunic over her wet clothes. she began clasping up her armour pieces, while sabine huffs and puts on her own jumpsuit, skipping her beskar pieces. she takes out the large fur coat in her bag to make room for her beskar, tossing the coat at shin.

"what is this for?" shin asks, puzzled.

sabine zips up her jumpsuit. "put it on. it's almost nightfall and it'll get cold. you're coming back with me to my camp."

shin frowns. "no. i will go back to my own."

"shin, for fuck's sake," sabine groaned, unamused, "your wound is open. you come back to your camp with a gaping wound like that, and i'll have to look for your cold body tomorrow. i doubt the bandit's camp is crawling around with medkits or droids." when shin is unmoving, sabine sighs, speaking softer, "come with me. just for the night. deal?"

shin was quiet for a few beats, before sighing curtly. "fine. just for tonight."

sabine nodded, helping shin get up on her howler. "stay slumped over so your stitches won't get any more loose."

shin nodded quietly, and sabine hops onto her howler, guiding the white howler behind her as they make their way back to the fulcrum and the noti camp. sabine made a couple turns to look back at shin, making sure she didn't fall off her howler, and was relieved each time shin stays slumped over. her white howler is swift, but is gentle with shin.

they made it back to the fulcrum in only a couple of minutes, and sabine quickly got down from her howler to help shin come down from hers. sabine saddles her bag on one shoulder, and props shin on her other shoulder as they walk into the fulcrum's landing ramp.

"huyang!!" sabine yells into the fulcrum and drops her bag haphazardly. "is the med droid online?"

huyang appeared from the lightsaber parts storage room, halted in his track as he finds an awkwardly standing sabine with shin on her shoulder, looking at him expectantly and impatiently.

"i believe it's rebooting. i'll go and check it."

sabine mutters a small 'thanks' as she drags shin towards the medbay, the sliding door hissing open and the whiff of sanitary disinfectant hits both of their nostrils. shin wrinkles her nose, disagreeing with the scent, but made no comments.

"c'mon, let's get you up on the bed."

sabine hurriedly unclasped the fur coat and diligently undoes shin's damp tunic. she turns to the shelf to grab a pair of scissors to rip open shin's bandage, tossing the damp and bloodied gauze away. she snips away at the quick-stitches and threw them. she was preparing a disinfecting wipe when the door slides open and revealed an inquisitive ahsoka.

"sabine?"

"oh, hey, 'soka." sabine nods at her master. she then began to dab the disinfectant wipe on shin's without warning or preparation.

shin instantly growled, "fuck, sabine!!" while yanking on the sleeves of sabine's jumpsuit. the blonde padawan threw her head back in pain, before shooting a rabid glare at sabine as she spits, "a warning would be nice."

sabine rolled her eyes, ignoring shin. "i told you. if your wound reopens, i'll make the restitching hurt. you wanted my promise, didn't you?"

"fuck you." shin barely hissed it out because she had to throw her head back in pain when sabine pressed the wipe on her wound harder, groaning loudly.

"lady wren, the medic droid is online." huyang calls from the doorway, just behind ahsoka. "do you still need it's assistance?"

"no."

shin glares at sabine, borderline murderous. sabine thinks it's familiar to when they first met.

ahsoka steps in, lucky for shin. "let the droid work. sabine? a word."

sabine nods, tossing her wipes away. she sneers at shin. "you're lucky tonight, shin." she skids over to let the medic droid in to the medbay, grabbing huyang by his metallic arm, softly whispering, "keep an eye on her, will you?"

huyang nods, and sabine left shin with the droids in the medbay as she struts towards the common table with ahsoka sat on it. sabine pours two cups of tea, and slides the other cup at ahsoka while she sips on her own cup.

sabine was the first to ask. "what's up?"

"did you fight her?" ahsoka nods at the medbay.

"no, i found her like that. said she ran into a different kind of bandits and someone nearly gutted her." sabine sets down her cup, crossing her arm forward. "i patched her up, but the stitches were loose. had to bring her here, else she'd spill her whole intenstines out."

ahsoka nods, slow and processing. she sighs, and sabine isn't quite sure what that meant. "do you trust her, sabine?"

"shin?" sabine's brow quirked, chuckling. "she's harmless as a loth kitten. a bit feral, but a kitten, nonetheless."

"did she come with willingly?" ahsoka shifts to face sabine, curious.

sabine shrugs. "only for the night. i don't know about next, but that's a problem for tomorrow." the mandalorian stretches her arms up high, feeling her muscles tightening in coils. "she can have my bunk, i'll sleep at the cockpit."

ahsoka chuckles. "no, you won't. stay with her."

"what do you mean stay with her?" sabine had whipped her head at ahsoka in a speed of light.

"no need to pretend like you don't like staying by her side when you're with me, padawan," ahsoka teases sabine, nudging her shoulder as she heads towards the medbay. her togrutan master had an amused look in her eyes that sabine does not like, and it doesn't help stopping herself from getting flustered. "i'm gonna have a sit down talk with her for a bit."

the medbay door closes, and sabine groans. there's really no arguing with ahsoka at this point, so sabine heads to the bunks to clear out her bunk. she shuts the door to the bunks to change from her jumpsuit to a more casual, loose fitting sleepwear clothes. subconsciously, she draws another pair of light shaded sleepwear clothes for their guest.

sabine gets out of the bunks to grab her bag and unpack her beskar pieces and stores them properly. she scatters her armguards and blasters on the common table, inspecting and polishing her weapons.

she reloaded her blasters with new rounds, and was in the middle of inspecting her armguards when the medbay door hissed open, producing ahsoka and a topless shin, with neatly stitched stomach.

sabine had to forcibly peel her eyes off of shin, and catches ahsoka telling shin, "rest for the night. we can discuss more in the morning."

shin doesn't say much, only nodding at ahsoka. sabine watches as her master gently pats shin's shoulder in a similar gesture as ahsoka always does to sabine. ahsoka heads towards the cockpit and shutting the door, leaving the two padawans in an awkward silence in the common table. huyang had left elsewhere, probably going to low power mode after rebooting the medic droid.

sabine looks at shin, who was already staring at her. the mandalorian leaves her weapons on the common table, grabbing shin by her hands to drag them towards the bunks and shutting the door behind. shin stood like a lost puppy, half naked, so sabine hands her the pair of sleep clothes.

"put these on," sabine instructed, kinking her brows, "what happened to your tunic?"

shin puts on the loose sleeveless shirt, struggling slightly due to the fresh stitches. sabine tries not to think of how adorable shin is with dishevelled hair. "your droid took it to get it cleaned. he insisted."

sabine laughs. "ah, yeah. that's huyang for you."

shin looks around curiously, holding her pauldrons. "where should i put my armour?"

"just put it on the storage compartment over there." sabine yawned, stretching her back. "you go ahead and sleep on my bunk. i'm gonna take the spare."

"and your master?"

"ahsoka? she seems content with sleeping in the cockpit. i don't blame her. she purrs in her sleep."

shin had an incredulous look on her face, but didn't comment on it. she sighs as she strips off her pants to switch into the matching sleep pants sabine gave her, before tucking into sabine's bunk. sabine watches curiously as shin squeezes far into the wall, leaving space beside her, turning to look at sabine expectantly.

"there's more than enough space here."

"what, you want me to sleep with you?"

shin shot her a look. "do not pretend like you weren't considering it. i can still feel your thoughts."

sabine tries to argue, but purses her lips anyway. she huffs, taming down the blush rising on her chest. "fine, alright. stop peeping into my brain."

shin shuffles as sabine lays down beside her, a faint smirk curling up her lips. "i am not. besides, there isn't much to look into anyway."

sabine wanted to say something snarky back at shin, but watching shin with her dishevelled hair and face much too close than sabine expected, she couldn't stop herself from letting her gaze drop to shin's lips. without thinking, sabine caught shin's lips in hers, smirking in satisfaction when shin made a noise akin to a soft mewl. it was swiftly replaced with shin kissing her back hungrily in rushed little pecks.

"eager, aren't we?" sabine mutters in half-whispers against shin's lips, pulling back teasingly when she frustratedly tries to chase sabine's lips. she supressed a moan when one of shin's hands grips at her hip, rewarding the blonde padawan with another kiss and tugs at her now reddening lower lip.

shin doesn't reply verbally, opting to slot one of her thighs between sabine's, humming in satisfaction when the mandalorian instinctively bucked her hips against her. when she spoke again, her voice is husked and low, "you were saying?"

sabine sighed, finding shin's hungry gaze again.

oh, this is definitely going to be a long night.

[fandom-hoarder]

Out of respect for the discord, I'm gonna say this here, because I was watching the eclipse and killing my car during the discussion.

Fanon =/= Headcanon, and it's not the same as a singular fan's headcanon that isn't supported by canon

Fanon is essentially a reading, interpretation, or headcanon that spreads widely in a fandom and gets adopted as a popularly accepted "fandom canon." Such as Sheriff Stilinski's first name being John before the show named him something completely incorrect.

Headcanon is personal to each individual's preferred reading of the show, based on canon or not. A canon that exists in one person's head.

The reason fanon tends to have a pejorative tone in fandom is because some fans are prone to attacking others for not accepting a common fanon, or the readings of "subtext" that led to it, as canon. And they insist that the way THEY read canon is the ONLY possible reading of canon.

And, personally, I think it's important to distinguish my headcanon of bi!dean (and aro!dean) apart from the fanon (dare i say, qfanon) of the hellers' bi!dean. The particular distinguishment being that I understand that wasn't the intent of canon, and there was no hidden bi agenda that got snuffed.

Having some of the same bi!dean subtext notes isn't the problem. It's when someone insists that was the intent. It's the unironic "there is no heterosexual reason for this" of it all. I know we're all queer shipping around here and all, but that doesn't exclude a certain whiff of homophobia and gender binary shit to the insistence that straight guys can't do [thing].

Just because you read Dean's look at Dr Sexy as queer, doesn't mean that's what it was. TPTB have said this themselves. And just because [a character from the book the vibes of spn was based on] was intended as bi doesn't mean Dean was intended to be bi. You can read that subtext into your headcanon, but that doesn't make it canon overall. Not even if it becomes fanon.

So when someone insists that's what it WAS not what they HEADCANON it was, it starts to make those of us scarred by heller qfanon very wary.

That said. We need to stop conflating fanon and headcanon so we can each enjoy our individual readings and share in the love of the show.

[madara-fate]

Hello!

I recently came across a post that triggered me a bit, and I wanted to talk about it.

In essence, the points raised were that:

Women are more inclined to ship Sasuke and Naruto because they have chemistry and share a lot in common.

Shipping Sasuke with Sakura makes no sense because they are too different, and she doesn't understand him.

If BoruSara were to happen, it would imply that their fathers are a thing because of the parallels.

Sakura is a poorly written character, and people can't relate to her because she's too unrealistic.

Sakura is poorly written because, essentially, she's different from Sasuke and Naruto.

First of all... SNS exists not because of the supposed chemistry between them but because they are two attractive white guys sharing a lot of screen time together and so, the perfect combo for fujoshi shipping. Justifying this expedition is like justifying the fact that the frequent depiction of partially naked women on car racing posters has no relation to the intended audience.

If Sakura shouldn't be with Sasuke because she doesn't understand him, does Naruto understand him? Seriously?

Naruto understands Sasuke's loneliness, that's it.

Nothing more, nothing less.

I'm not bashing their connection, but let's be honest, nobody really understood Sasuke there -yet it didn't stop them from wanting to help him-

Furthermore, what does this imply? That you can only be in a relationship with someone who has a similar background?

Saying Sakura doesn't understand Sasuke at all is superficial on so many levels that I won't even bother dwelling on it.

Next, the idea that people think the parallels they cling to justify their ship is just... bizarre.

If BoruSara were to happen, it wouldn't prove anything about SNS because the biggest difference between these two ships would be the author's intention.

SNS would have happened if Kishimoto wanted their relationship that way, but that wasn't the case. It has been repeatedly emphasized in the manga that their relationship is not romantic.

If some interpret it that way, that's fine, but they shouldn't tell the author how he wrote HIS own manga. And no, it's not heteronormativity. I don't even understand why some fanon ships seek canon validation for their shipping.

Not to mention that every time they talk about these parallels, many seem to deliberately forget that these two children are not mirror images of their fathers but their own individuals.

Yes, they have the foundation of their personalities, but that's just it, the foundation. Apart from that, they differ on so many levels that it's not even funny.

Sarada also shares a lot of her mother's personality, and it's as clear as day. So, if I follow this logic, does BoruSara also imply that NaruSaku could have been a thing despite Sakura's total absence of romantic feelings?

Boruto can indeed be like his father, but he also tries to be like his mentor, so sometimes, he resembles him too. And he can be as calm and focused as his mother, not to mention he has personality traits unique to him. All this makes him someone too different from the "Naruto carbon copy" label stuck on him. Saying that is really downplaying his character.

Moreover, the relationship these two have is also different from that of their fathers: it's normal and not built on a heap of negative feelings and deadly fights that led to a vitriolic friendship.

As for the last two points, Sakura is less unrealistic than Sasuke and Naruto, yet not many bat an eye at that. Maybe because it's a shounen manga about ninjas, and unreality is actually expected...?

In fact, Sakura is the most realistic character in this series.

Regarding the identification question, just because you can't identify with her doesn't mean everyone can't. I do, and many others do too because, for once, in the whole history of shounen, we have a female character with authentic and not-so-likable flaws, approaching more the human being without the need for a traumatic event or a horrible childhood to justify her behavior.

Her character development is incredible, not just because "she was weak at the beginning and became strong," it's more than that.

Sakura has shown me that no matter how you start, you can reach the destination you want if you work for it. Her transformation is phenomenal: throughout the manga, she radicalizes in ALL aspects. She removes her blinders, starts seeing people for who they really are, becomes more understanding and attentive, learns —and sometimes in the most brutal ways— that everything is not black and white and that you sometimes have to make horrible choices to protect others.

She changes in so many ways, and the best part is that Kishimoto didn't make her some perfect Mary Sue. He made her evolve despite her flaws, for which I will always be grateful.

Sakura is not a poorly written character. Yes, she could have been more explored, and sometimes her author did her wrong, but that doesn't make her a bad character. She could have been better —all the characters in this series could have been— but that doesn't mean she's "worse."

She is fundamentally the reason why I'm in my last year of college today and intend to persevere in my studies (and it's not even a joke).

I never had a family model I could identify with, and all the characters (fictional or not) I love or admire have always seemed out of reach, just an ideal to idolize but unable to imitate.

With Sakura, however, it has always been different; every time I look at her, I think, "if she could do it, then why not me?"

Her importance in my life in terms of motivation and emotional development has been crucial, so it's really frustrating to see people deduce that just because they can't identify with her, no one can, and she's a bad character.

She's not poorly written; she's just different.

Kishimoto once said that his goal with Sakura was to create a realistic female character that little girls could identify with and despite all the controversy surrounding her character, he actually succeeded in this challenge.

Many of us, little girls that we were, saw ourselves in OG Sakura (whether we admit it or not) because the way she was written is how a lot of pre-adolescent girls behave (minus the rapid character development).

It was nice to grow up with her because it showed me that I didn't need to be perfect or have incredible motivations or be "cool" from the start to become someone exceptional. She taught me that my future is not set in stone. And most importantly, she taught me to be myself, to be authentic, to accept and love myself as the imperfect human that I am.

The weirdest thing about this is that these statements came from someone who claims not to care about SNS and doesn't hate Sakura. How can a person claiming to be neutral come to such a conclusion? Honestly, it baffles me; this kind of pseudo-analysis is on the same level of nonsense as what antis spew.

If some can't be bothered to understand a character, then they should simply say nothing about her.

I'm sorry for bothering you with this, but after reading this thing, I just couldn't let it pass.

I don't know how you guys manage to tolerate this fandom, let alone respond to all the strange and stupid takes you receive day after day. In any case, you have my utmost respect.

Thank you for listening, and I wish you a beautiful and happy new year.

First of all... SNS exists not because of the supposed chemistry between them but because they are two attractive white guys sharing a lot of screen time together and so, the perfect combo for fujoshi shipping. Justifying this expedition is like justifying the fact that the frequent depiction of partially naked women on car racing posters has no relation to the intended audience.

I agree apart from two things.

Naruto and Sasuke do have chemistry, but there's just nothing romantic about it.

I wouldn't bring the colour of their skin into it, that opens up a whole other can of worms.

If Sakura shouldn't be with Sasuke because she doesn't understand him, does Naruto understand him? Seriously? Naruto understands Sasuke's loneliness, that's it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Naruto understood Sasuke in some ways (loneliness, being high level shinobi who could read each other's thoughts through fighting etc), and Sakura understood him in other ways (his likes/dislikes, how his mind works and his decision making processes etc).

Furthermore, what does this imply? That you can only be in a relationship with someone who has a similar background?

Yep, that's one of the things that's always irked me the most from their points. It's like they think that just because Sakura couldn't empathise with Sasuke's tough upbringing, that makes her an unsuitable partner for him, which is just all kinds of stupid. It's also one of the reasons the SK fans prefer that ship, since Karin also had a relatively tough upbringing, she'd be able to "understand" Sasuke better than Sakura. As if being able to empathise with a tough childhood is all there is to understand about a person.

If BoruSara were to happen, it wouldn't prove anything about SNS because the biggest difference between these two ships would be the author's intention. SNS would have happened if Kishimoto wanted their relationship that way, but that wasn't the case. It has been repeatedly emphasized in the manga that their relationship is not romantic.

Agreed. This silly idea that BS's canonisation would somehow serve as proof that SNS should have happened, is one of the 4 main reasons why I do not want BS to happen. Although it is the least important to me out of the 4 of them.

If some interpret it that way, that's fine, but they shouldn't tell the author how he wrote HIS own manga. And no, it's not heteronormativity. I don't even understand why some fanon ships seek canon validation for their shipping.

Not all interpretations and opinions are valid. I'm sorry but I'm sick of people hiding behind this false idea that just because they say it's their opinion or interpretation, it's just as valid as everyone else's. No, opinions and interpretations can be wrong. Authorial intent dictates how the narrative is supposed to be perceived and understood. Therefore, if Kishi says that something is a certain way, then that's the way it is, end of story, no room for further interpretation. If Kishi says that Naruto and Sasuke are platonic, and that they were never meant to be anything more than that, then that's the way it is. Other interpretations are wrong, because Kishi's word is gospel.

Not to mention that every time they talk about these parallels, many seem to deliberately forget that these two children are not mirror images of their fathers but their own individuals.

That too.

Sarada also shares a lot of her mother's personality, and it's as clear as day. So, if I follow this logic, does BoruSara also imply that NaruSaku could have been a thing despite Sakura's total absence of romantic feelings?

Agreed, I'd say that in terms of personality, Sarada is a closer parallel to Sakura than Sasuke, and NS obviously didn't happen.

Boruto can indeed be like his father, but he also tries to be like his mentor, so sometimes, he resembles him too. And he can be as calm and focused as his mother, not to mention he has personality traits unique to him. All this makes him someone too different from the "Naruto carbon copy" label stuck on him. Saying that is really downplaying his character.

💯

As for the last two points, Sakura is less unrealistic than Sasuke and Naruto, yet not many bat an eye at that. Maybe because it's a shounen manga about ninjas, and unreality is actually expected...? In fact, Sakura is the most realistic character in this series.

To be honest, I have no idea what they could be referring to when those people label Sakura as apparently being unrealistic.

Regarding the identification question, just because you can't identify with her doesn't mean everyone can't. I do, and many others do too because, for once, in the whole history of shounen, we have a female character with authentic and not-so-likable flaws, approaching more the human being without the need for a traumatic event or a horrible childhood to justify her behavior. Her character development is incredible, not just because "she was weak at the beginning and became strong," it's more than that. Sakura has shown me that no matter how you start, you can reach the destination you want if you work for it. Her transformation is phenomenal: throughout the manga, she radicalizes in ALL aspects. She removes her blinders, starts seeing people for who they really are, becomes more understanding and attentive, learns —and sometimes in the most brutal ways— that everything is not black and white and that you sometimes have to make horrible choices to protect others.

Unfortunately, many people just don't see any of that. They see an annoying, selfish person who treated Naruto poorly (despite that only being applicable to before the Forest of Death), "obsessed" over Sasuke (when she really didn't, and that criticism is far more applicable to Naruto anyway), broke off her friendship with Ino over a boy (showing how they missed the entire point of that fight), and was essentially useless (despite among other things, saving many important people's lives, multiple times).

Sakura is not a poorly written character. Yes, she could have been more explored, and sometimes her author did her wrong, but that doesn't make her a bad character. She could have been better —all the characters in this series could have been— but that doesn't mean she's "worse."

"She could have been better —all the characters in this series could have been" - Yes, I'm glad you highlighted this. This is by no means a Sakura exclusive criticism. It's just more of a problem for her since she was a main character.

She is fundamentally the reason why I'm in my last year of college today and intend to persevere in my studies (and it's not even a joke). I never had a family model I could identify with, and all the characters (fictional or not) I love or admire have always seemed out of reach, just an ideal to idolize but unable to imitate. With Sakura, however, it has always been different; every time I look at her, I think, "if she could do it, then why not me?"

Yeah I get that, I said something very similar about her during this post towards the end, where I described the primary two ways in which I found Sakura to be an inspiring character.

Kishimoto once said that his goal with Sakura was to create a realistic female character that little girls could identify with and despite all the controversy surrounding her character, he actually succeeded in this challenge. Many of us, little girls that we were, saw ourselves in OG Sakura (whether we admit it or not) because the way she was written is how a lot of pre-adolescent girls behave (minus the rapid character development).

I'll take your word for it. Personally, towards the beginning I did indeed find Sakura very irritating, for several different reasons, but I grew to appreciate her for what she brings, rather than continuously judging her for how she was at the very beginning. But apparently, "character development" is either a foreign concept to these people, or can only be applied if the character in question moves on from her initial feelings. Because if not, then her entire character automatically "regresses", regardless of the reasons why she retained her feelings.

The weirdest thing about this is that these statements came from someone who claims not to care about SNS and doesn't hate Sakura. How can a person claiming to be neutral come to such a conclusion? Honestly, it baffles me; this kind of pseudo-analysis is on the same level of nonsense as what antis spew.

That reminds me of a video that Swagkage made on YouTube, which I talked about in great depth during this post, regarding how he tried to lie and say that he didn't hate Sakura and that he was impartial to her, yet the vast majority of the video was him hating on Sakura.

I don't know how you guys manage to tolerate this fandom, let alone respond to all the strange and stupid takes you receive day after day. In any case, you have my utmost respect. Thank you for listening, and I wish you a beautiful and happy new year

My general tolerance for people's bullshit is honestly inhuman, lol. But many thanks, and happy (belated) new year to you as well ^_^

[noahkirschtein]

In honor of jdash confirming newt is gay

it's been 3 years since the tweet(s) and i still have a lot to say. the discourse surrounding it has long since calmed down, but to this day some people's responses bother me immensely and i wanna get a few things off my chest.

"it undermines his friendships"

um.. no ? i can't believe people still have this weird mindset. straight people can have friends of the opposite gender, gay people can have friends of the same gender. bi people ?? pan people ?? they can have friends. (don't even get me started on the weird spot nb people land in with this weird friend mindset some homophobes have).

if you never saw newt's relationship with thomas/minho (or even alby) as anything other than platonic before, then newt being gay literally changes nothing.

"he did it as fanservice"

no. if it was fanserice he would've pandered more to the ships; newtmas being the most popular but thomas was not mentioned. if it was fanservice and for any personal gain he would've hinted at other characters also potentially being queer. if it was fanservice he probably would've at least confirmed newt was into thomas; but he didn't. cause it wasn't about any romance, it was about newt and a part of his character.

the crank palace would've been the perfect opportunity to pander more to shippers if that's what he was doing, but there were no explicitly hinted romantic feelings there either. (there were certainly ways to read certain parts of this book as queer, but i won't get into that in this post.)

"he was forced"

yes and no.. the final push to him confirming newt's sexuality was because someone criticized him for donating the proceeds from the crank palace to lgbtq+ (and BLM) charities. however, the way his tweets were phrased leads me to believe what he says. he voices his apprehension to confirm something so long after the work was released in fear of it coming across as insincere. (*cough* jkr *cough*). he also mentioned in this same 2-part tweet that his upcoming series (at the time) would feature lgbtq+ characters much more prominently and explicitly (no plausible deniability).

tldr for this point: it was someone criticizing him that finally made it happen, but i do believe he genuinely stands for what he said. he'd gone through a lot of personal development during the 11 years between the first book's release and the tweets, i don't doubt that for a second.

"there were no hints in the books"

this is a hard one to talk about without outing myself as a newtmas shipper, but i have a few things to say.

james did not intentionally write newt as a queer character. if you read through the books and didn't pick up any queer subtext/undertones, then that was how he, at the time of writing, intended it. however . does this mean there was nothing there ? how come a huge part of the fandom read him as queer then ? it's all up to reader interpretation whether certain subtext is or isn't present in the work they're consuming.

link to the part 1 that i never see people acknowledge when discussing the "announcement": https://x.com/jamesdashner/status/1336775453755895809?s=20

[coffeebanana]

How would you recommend interacting with a writer. If a story wasn't to your taste, or left you unsatisfied. But you still want to encourage, the writer. And show gratitude for the free entertainment?

Hi anon!

The short answer is, a simple "thanks for the fic!" or "thanks for sharing!" or even a few emojis will often suffice. You really don't have to let the writer know what you didn't like. At the end of the day, they're not writing the fic for you, and obiously not every story is going to satisfy everyone the same way--otherwise we'd all be the same and that would be a horrendously boring world to live in.

The long answer is probably unecessary, but I like to procrastinate on my WIPs talk 😂

There's a format of commenting that goes a little like this: "i don't normally like [X ship, X trope, the way X acts in canon, etc...], but i love the way you do it!!" And honestly I myself have used that before--mostly for tropes, though possibly for some ships as well. And on the surface, that's reads as a compliment. Personally, when ppl leave me that sort of comment, I'll usually interpret it as a compliment too--unless they're full on bashing the thing I love (which sometimes happens with people criticizing canon). And I do think it's INTENDED as a compliment. (That's how I've meant it, when I used it, so I do try my best to also interpret others in good faith.)

But it can also read as "I don't like this thing that you really like and I felt the need to tell you that." Honestly, I didn't even realize it would come across that way until I saw someone else point it out. And then...yeah, I started to notice the fics I get it on more (A lot lot lot of my ladrien fics, lmao.)

So I'm at a weird cross roads where I try not to use that anymore--unless it's with someone I'm fairly sure will understand how I mean it?because sometimes you do have more of a rapport with certain ppl and they'll understand what you mean--but I also don't want to say it's 100% a bad thing to say. I really do understand the intent.

Anyways, my point in bringing that up is that you never don't know what seemingly innocent "this wasn't quite to my taste" comment is going to read as an insult. And so if you really DO want to encourage said writer, I'd recommend sticking to the positives.

Another big thing that's important to me personally is: don't lie.

People have a tendancy to...I don't want to say be disingenuous, but certainly to exaggerate at times on the internet. You see that in the SCREAMING CRYING EATING GLASS types comments. And those are USUALLY sincere in the way that the emotions they convey are sincere. We as a society understand they're not literally eating glass but that they're in agony because the angst in the fic was so good and they want more. But then--something I've noticed--that sort of lingo has a way of slipping into a default response of sorts. And sometimes that makes me question if people really mean it?

This second thing is probably more of a personal thing than a response to your question, but since it's something I've been thinking about lately I hope you don't mind that I brought it up too. I really don't want people to lie to me about my writing.

Not even if it's "to be nice".

Maybe this is in part because I myself find it...difficult to be insincere with ppl, but I don't want false compliments--that's something I tell my friends too. If I write a trope or pairing you don't like? There's never any pressure to read it. I don't expect comments or kudos from anyone. And I'm not someone who in general believes people are insincere--that's not really fair to other people. But everyone has doubts at some point, and I feel like adding to that by straight up lying to make someone feel better just isn't the way to go? If you can't pick out a detail from the fic that you genuinely enjoyed, then maybe keep it to the simple "thanks for sharing!"

So, I guess the TLDR is: keep it short and sweet. keep it encouraging if that's really your goal. (and, if this ever happens to be in reference to something that I specifically have written? please don't feel like you HAVE to say anything at all)

Thanks for the ask!! Sorry I went on for so long LOL💜

[grievedifferent]

CHRIS 4 JOSH? let's talk about it ... and let's be honest.

read more for length only, it's all pretty sfw and non-triggering content.

speaking with otter first and foremost, here are her thoughts on the matter:

for context, she has a degree in video game art & design, so she knows the entire pipeline for how video games were and are made currently. she actually graduated like right around when UD came out, so this is perfect because she also helped me understand some of the modeling and why the original game is just honestly more fluid in mechanics versus the remake, so i've been giving the remake a pass in a lot of big ways and just sort of accepting everything else as is in conjunction with the original game (and in our case, the 2013 prototype).

basically, she said it originally looked like this is what likely happened: a texture artist was given permission to do a heart, someone else or that same artist put in CHRIS + JOSH and basically whoever was in charge of them (i have no names for this) likely said "you absolutely cannot confirm a fan ship, it's not happening" which is why it became CHRIS 4 JOSH. otter was explaining how the 4 looks a little off like it wasn't there originally but more of something to replace what was underneath. like a 4 covering a +.

still likely meant to be a joke, maybe it could go so far as to that texture artist shipping it, but either way, it was never going to make it into the official game as a way to be interpreted as josh and chris are canon. i know the app contradicts one major thing for chris and ash because the game itself literally confirms they both like each other in various scenes and context clues and all of that content we get in-game for them.

based on my own time being in school for video games, this makes a lot of sense. i might not have finished, but i did learn this lol. so, what she's saying is pretty on point. that's how companies are, even if it's "supermassive" ... they are working under sony.

so, does it mean anything? not really. i know this was probably huge for the other side of the UD fandom (i see it being two sides: rpc and non-rpc, which can be similar but are generally very different ... in-between those spaces are typically the fanfic writers and then the sub-genre of reader insert fanfic writers if that makes sense? anyways). but it really means nothing.

it's just a little easter egg. if we want to look into it at all? it was likely done by chris (otherwise it would say josh 4 chris if it was from josh), and also ... i know this sounds probably so lame, but that's just how guys are. they act like that, especially if you're super comfortable with a long-term friend. people have probably wondered about it based on how close and jokey they can act, they don't seem like the type to "shy away" from any sort of intimacy, especially for a joke, and idk, they're just like that? that's pretty normal.

HOWEVER ... where this gets even more interesting for me is this part: bringing in the 2011-2013 prototype, the game that was being pumped out for demos and such before supermassive did an entire rehaul of the original 2010 game (so, this is not london studio's project anymore, it hasn't been for a while, and their original iteration actually had hannah and josh as a couple named hannah and clayton).

why is this interesting? i've mentioned before several things about that prototype specifically: a) mike and chris never changed from design to actor, they were always solid (so it's weird to not even consider using their old voice banks for new content for the 2024 remake but okay??), b) this had originally intended (all the way back to london studio) to really be a "couples game" that "couples play together", giving the controller back and forth, and c) the fact that sam clearly liked josh in the original iteration, josh did not feel the same, but he had basically the same relationship with chris, who seemed to still like ash and vice versa, but josh also had a pretty high energy by comparison both in general to rami's josh and also to specifically chris in comparison to (that verison of) sam.

let's dig into 'c' a bit more. the sam and josh problem. it's not really a "problem" but i think there's somewhat of a general misunderstanding as to what their relationship is realistically like based on their connections and affiliations over what is sort of "expected of them".

here's what we know for facts:

sam and josh know each other, we can maybe assume from childhood or middle school era, but long enough for sam to be considered hannah's best friend.

which brings me to my next point: sam is hannah's best friend, not josh's. not even "hannah and beth's best friend". she is hannah's best friend. this is josh's little sister's best friend. i have to reiterate this because i see this huge sort of blackhole when it comes to this fact about sam and hannah. this is literally sam's entire tagline! even the game sort of forgets that sometimes? sam actually somewhat harshly criticizes hannah in her bedroom, something that is only open to sam and no one else. i'm not sure where this idea that sam is there for josh when she should be there for hannah. you can also tell sam and josh weren't that close over that year because she needs chris to confirm that a) this entire getting back together is a good idea and b) if josh is doing okay. if they were close, wouldn't she know? also, josh wasn't that close to anyone besides seemingly chris? which sort of makes sense but even he only lets chris see certain sides of himself. so, they aren't as close as people i think mistake them to be.

they were supposed to have something one-sided in the prototype before the finalized release. in the protoype, sam likes josh, but josh seems to not reciprocate. it's heavily hinted at when she flirts with him in the scene at the lodge door, which is very different but also somewhat the same as the version we get.

the finalized verison of sam (ie "hayden-sam") doesn't seem to have a crush on josh ("rami-josh") ... at least, from what i can tell. i think she actually feels somewhat uncomfortable around him, if we're being honest. maybe not before the prank, we can see they are comfortable together briefly in the new snapshots on the camera, but after? definitely so. this makes sense. they are somewhat avoiding each other. why would she go back there? both hannah and beth are dead, leaving josh.

finally: josh is hannah's older brother, thus acts as an older brother to the group ... sam included. this is literally in josh's characterization.

so, delving into probably headcanon territory here, and i'm not even going into my own sam headcanons ... basically, i think sam sees josh as an older brother and josh sees sam as a little sister figure. ik ik it's boring.

hear me out here: i think this was done simply because there are so many couples in the game already, which is so funny because it was supposed to be a couple's game but then got changed to a sort of "play alone or pass the controller".

now? UD is meant to be played either on your own or between multiple people, you can assign one person to each person you're playing with or just split the cast up the way otter and i do. it's more liberal and intentional to be that way versus its original intention. think about it: when you really start actually playing, there are two for sure couples, one maybe "will they won't they", and then two that aren't dating. that does feel more realistic just in general in a friend group, doesn't it? people date each other, break up, bring new members in, etc, but not everyone always dates everyone all the time.

also, i think just blanketed, supermassive wasn't even considering that likely at least one of those characters is probably gay or bisexual. until dawn is only so deep because it can only go so deep, and if they were going to go deep? it was going down the mental illness rabbit hole along with the background story they were trying to flesh together coupled with the mo-cap technology they were working with.

also, not to be that person, but life is strange came out in 2013 and kind of nailed it, right? they had their own set of issues they tackled incredibly well, whereas it doesn't really fit into UD. UD is about being a true "classic horror" story with the heavy use of intentional character tropes. so, give UD some grace here, i'd say.

cause let's get real for a second: there were so many last-minute changes while holding onto the threads of what they wanted. some stuff from the prototype for example is pretty shot-for-shot or word-for-word and some is super different. like ... im sorry, but the wolves aren't in the prototype (just as an example), so you can see how fast they decided to put those in because those wolves are literally broken animals.

back to sam and josh: taking my own headcanons aside, i don't think it's impossible to headcanon sam having a crush on josh at any point in her life that she knew him pre-UD. it's not uncommon, of course. he's classic older brother, he's fun, he's cute, he's friendly, and he's always around. again, while i think at least narratively they took that aspect of sam's character out when they cast hayden (she gives a much different, honestly better vibe for sam from the original actress, whereas ashley is like the same ngl), there is something to be said about not saying anything, i suppose. i just don't see it as something that was meant to be noticed, if that makes sense. not that it's not fitting? i guess?

but it's how josh feels, more the position he's in, that i sort of get caught up in why i'm sometimes hesitant with outright sam/josh with no plotting beforehand (as if it's canon). josh is the older brother. for him, there's sort of some lines he feels he isn't supposed to cross, trust he isn't supposed to break, and just sort of general boundaries? like, age isn't necessarily his factor here, it's literally how they met and how they know each other. it would be likely hurtful to hannah, probably awkward? i imagine?

so, is josh willing to cross his sister's comfort like that? yes, he lies to her ... about his mental health. it's never implied anywhere else that josh lies to hannah or beth about anything else. also, we can argue it's the parents hiding it from his sister's, wanting them to have a certain view of their brother.

then, post-death, we know there's a huge change in their relationship. josh and sam become distant, as i've discussed above.

with a lot of plotting and specifics, i could do it. just blanketed? or like ... how i see these characters without anyone else's interpretations in consideration? like just playing the game as is without even considering rpc? i don't see it.

so, what about josh and chris then? i'm not going to lie, i've only even recently come around to the idea, and even that comes off to me as still one-sided if it were ever even considered. likely? it would have been chris like ash, ash like chris, josh maybe likes chris? but that's so pushing it to assume supermassive would imply, though it's actually more sound for inferences in the prototype.

the chemistry josh and chris have is very natural. we can give that partially to the actors, of course, and partially to the writing. they have known each other a long time, and i've talked about it above how that's just how these types of guys are sometimes. they're just comfortable with each other.

so, even i'm just writing general headcanons without taking anyone else's specific interpretation in mind? i see it like this:

josh and chris? best friends from childhood.

chris and ash? the intended "will they / won't they" of the game.

josh and sam? older brother figure to younger sister figure (ie the friendship that can form with this type of bond, but likely nothing else).

but josh flirts with sam, remember? he infers he'd help her with the bath. he also calls mike and jess pornstars, says he wants to get friendly with ashley in the snow (and calls her a sleeper hit), etc. he's pretty mouthy about that sort of thing. it's just how he is. i guarantee if that were jessica in the bath, he'd say the same thing, and might even be more persistent about it (given that jessica is more playful than sam in that regard). however, were that emily in the bath? not a chance, he probably wouldn't have said anything tbh. i also write sam as a lesbian.

okay, so this is all "canon and great" and everything ... but what about me? what are my personal ships?

i can see so many with josh. i think that he's probably more gay than straight. he sees himself as open-minded.

does he lean more towards men or women? privately: sexually and romantically speaking, men. socially: women.

i have it that he chooses the "women make me uncomfortable" option when i play. i think this makes sense for josh.

why do women make him uncomfortable, but he socially pursues them? is he actually attracted to women? what is his sexuality for real? so, why women: it's socially understandable and acceptable. it's what he's relied on since puberty / actively encouraged to pursue since dating was on the table. he's with such a "bro" crowd — and so bro-coded both in being written that way narratively speaking while also just self-imposing that sort of role to himself ... while also naturally filling that role. his sexuality with labels: bisexual with a heavier male leaning preference, would be considered more demisexual when it comes to women. he is attracted to men romantically and sexually, and he is attracted to women, but there has to be a relationship fostered for it to be more romantic than sexual. i think he's fooled around with girls, but never had penetrative sex with them. he's likely never been with a guy, as he's very closeted, despite this being his active preference. women intimidate josh and make him uncomfortable.

further on him being more closeted despite being in the industry: josh has his family's reputation to consider. the world doesn't always agree that being bisexual is natural and non-offensive. he would be outright just called and labeled gay (which isn't entirely inaccurate but is not accurate). it could hurt his family. this isn't 2024, this is the 2010s, and yes it was getting "big" in the way we see acceptance now, but it wasn't so seen. people were (and still are) hiding. think of it like this: if josh has to hide his mental illness the way he does, he's likely having to hide his sexuality.

i think that's why the traits we do see in josh are so exacerbated because he has to stifle so much of himself down that the parts he's allowed to express become the loudest to hear.

all of that to get us here: my ships for josh.

personally? again, no other interpretations are considered necessarily, just ships i like based on various things from simply aesthetics to actual connections i can see them having.

what about chris/josh? honestly? i never even considered it until recently, and now that i have, it seems more obviously (if anything) one-sided by josh (the giver) to chris (the receiver). i don't think chris has ever consciously thought about it. josh (probably) has. as a default, however, i write them as bros. i do genuinely love their friendship. that being said, i do like it as a ship. i don't write my main plotlines with that in mind, though.

quickly: if anything, i think chris is the most compatible for josh (and vice versa). there is a lot of game evidence to support this, but that's for its own post.

josh/ashley -> this had always been my previous top ship for josh, but as more context becomes available via the remake and data mining the game, my opinions have swayed a bit, but i will always love joshley. it's a demi thing with them, i think. i also think josh is kind of jealous of ashley's relationship with chris (chapter 2 is called jealousy, and yes, that refers to the matt-mike-em-jess stuff but could be inferred to the trio), yet actively supports his bro, so doesn't really "get in the way". in fact, he encourages it.

josh/ashley/chris -> i see this as mostly ashley dating both chris and josh, maybe josh having some feelings for chris? from there, it's open-ended, but it's mostly "ashley has two boyfriends", and i am here for that. i love her.

additionally, i do ship chris/ashley. i like that josh is actively trying to get them together, and i think while it's for "nefarious reasons" or whatever you want to say when we see it in-game, josh is acting as a direct reflection to how he always has been ... so we can assume he's always been trying to get chris to make the move on ash.

josh/jess -> this is primarily aesthetically speaking, i think they just would look good together? opposites attract? pre-prank of hannah, it's definitely that ... opposites attract. he's not really her type, lbr, but she's probably his type in the way she's pretty ... but she is also intimidating to him. it's funny because, ultimately, that sort of confession to mike that jess gives about her insecurities would be very understood by josh (and actually matt, who i see as insecure), and i like all three of those boys with jess. yes, i hold jess accountable for the prank, but just character traits and such? i can see some vibes here. also! a lot of my fondness for this ship probably comes from post!verse stuff, like retribution, etc. honestly, i just like these two together not even romantically? i just want to see more of them interacting idk josh and jess are very contrasting characters that could go really well or horribly wrong together. also, i just have to say that i feel like there was some genuine interest when jess suggested that josh might be flirting with her and mike (jokingly) asked to basically have a threesome together, like she was kind of into it ngl.

why none of the other UD boys with josh? like mike and matt? we don't really see too much matt and josh unfortunately. i'm also a huge matt/jess shipper idk but i just don't see matt and josh being compatible, and i also write matt ... and i also write matt as straight, so. there's that aspect. but generally? i don't see it.

so, no em and josh? i literally do not have enough canonically to go by to even say what their default dynamic is like! they never talk!! like ever. so ... once i can establish with an emily writer what that is, i'd be more down to clown.

i can't with mike, either. i love mike btw, literally no shade to him, i don't think josh is the right fit for mike either by any means. mike is great at "handling" josh at his worst in a crisis (kind of? idk it depends sort of on the choices you make, but i get his vibe, i do get it) to get him from points a to b, but that's about it. mike also just comes off as very straight (to me).

all of that to say this: i generally write things as they are from the game unless there's a pretty good clue, inference, or some sort of thread i can unravel to make something make sense. it has to make sense for me, i'm just that type of person.

but ... with the right chemistry, plotting, and a bit of time? anything can happen. just because i default see something one way doesn't mean that i cannot be convinced otherwise ... or still hold that belief for the game itself but write enough development that i love something else in an rp sense. i'm a very "this is game, this is rp" and then from there, i take from the game to make the rp experience more game-like. does that make sense? did any of this make sense?

[lurksunderthebed]

Hi, I saw that you had a discussion about the queerness of our beloved characters. I really hope you’re not tired of that topic, because I wanted to add another point.

First of all I don’t really care. I really like the dynamic between most of the characters, especially Ghost and Soap, but I don’t care if it’s interpreted as besties or lovers. I think both is fun.

I just wanted to add that maybe all of the MW story feels so fucking gay, because we lack cool women? We have Farah and Laswell, but let’s be real Farah is basically married to Alex (I thought they were a couple at first) and Laswell is married to a woman. Now people go great lengths to ship the male characters with female villains, who only appear in a small fraction of the story and have no real chemistry. I mean they can do whatever floats their boat, but I don’t really see the point here.

Which leaves us with a bunch of man ‘flirting’ with each other vor comedic value. I think given this and the points you already said on your account, I think it’s even a bit intended that most of our characters might not be the straightest.

Sure, a bunch of straight men can exist without women and still be straight and the military still might not be the most women friendly institution, but I think having more girlpower would have been an easy way to make everyone appear more straight and the devs didn’t go that route sooooo… (I still would love to have more cool women, but that’s another topic)

Anyways, I hope you have a good day and I wanted to add that I really enjoyed your character analysis posts <3

Ahh thanks for enjoying my analysis posts. 💞🥹 Honestly, I'm still surprised people are reading them lol. (And asking me about it haha)

But yes, I don't think I'll ever be tired of the ol' queerness discussion. It's a fun topic to debate especially with these characters in this particular game.

Controversial take, but I actually don't think adding any extra female characters would've been helpful in making the 'gay' go away.

(gonna be a long discussion here, settle in if you want to read it haha 😅)

What we have to put in mind, is that this game wasn't made for the female audience. The vast majority of the people buying and playing it are going to be male. That's the facts. It's going to cater to men.

A game made for men is going to have a majority of those characters be male. Adding new female characters in a REBOOT series is a delicate task when a good chunk of the population playing have played the OG and want to see legacy characters back (which are all male—the OG was all men).

That means that when we look at why certain things are framed and why there aren't many female characters, and especially why there isn't much of any confirmed (het) canon romantic ships between any characters, it's because the game itself isn't focused on it.

That same vast majority of men don't actually care about ships in general and with people trying to be more progressive, any female characters introduced are painstakingly written to omit any overt possibility of romance. In one sense, it's a welcome change from the action movie style plot line where man + woman = relationship with the women being just side characters/window dressing to the MC.

Women here are shown to be tough, that they don't need a man at all. They have their own agency. It's pretty nice actually that they did that. None of the female characters are infantilised nor is there a sense of them being there to "check boxes" in the minority bag. They make sense in the framing the game has placed them in.

But we do have this interesting dynamic whereby removing the romance factor, but having female characters in a setting that most are conditioned to read as man + woman = relationship, it de-emphasizes heteronormality and actually emphasises the relationships between the core characters.

And with a game full of men, that means the relationships between men are going to be the focal point.

Adding extra female characters, wouldn't have changed any of this, because the writers have gone out of their way to not make romance a plot of any sort. (There's a whole other discussion on the flaws of trying to give women agency/proving strength of character, but by doing so, taking away their sexualities by removing any sort of romance, but that's beside the point)

I think there's also an argument to be had that meaningful relationships with others don't have to necessarily imply romance between characters. It's totally fair to be sick of always having romance injected in to these sorts of relationships. That's an extremely valid take.

But there most definitely is a double standard that everyone is operating on. And we see that when we compare Alex/Farah's relationship with Ghost/Soap's.

Alex's most meaningful relationship is with Farah. He sacrifices himself for her cause and loses a leg for it. He comes back and stays by her side. Most people assume to take it as Alex is in love with Farah. We never see any type of flirting between the two. In fact it's mostly Farah testing Alex and looking at their dialogue you can tell there's respect between the two, but anything more is undefined/up for interpretation.

Yet it's just assumed by virtue of Alex and Farah being man + woman, that they must be together because of how much Alex had sacrificed. Completely ignoring the possibility of Alex doing so because he believes in Farah's cause and was sick of being jerked around with no choice by higher ups who largely didn't care about the suffering of Farah's people. Suffering that the man had personally witnessed. But no, he must be in love with her. (If Farah was a man, their whole relationship would be read as platonic with Alex's beliefs as a focus, not him being potentially in love)

Ghost's most meaningful relationship is with Soap. Soap has changed Ghost's whole MO as a lone wolf, and has challenged his very notion of trust. Ghost tests Soap and is proven wrong when Soap survives despite the odds. We even see them have plausible deniability flirting/snark. They are framed as a unit and on the off times (off of missions in cutscenes), they are always physically together. There's definitely respect between the two, but anything more is undefined/up for interpretation.

By itself, their relationship seems innocuous, but looking at the context we see a very different picture. Context matters heavily in seeing how this relationship has changed Ghost/the importance of it to him. It's assumed that Soap is the first person in god knows how long, that Ghost is emotionally attached to. What constitutes a normal, albeit flirty and snarky, friendly relationship for most, is amplified for Ghost in the glaring fact that he really doesn't do this for anyone else ever. As far as we can tell for a man that appears to live his job, Soap is Ghost's most important person.

We can even arguably say that Ghost and Soap had a flirtier, friendlier, more emotional relationship than Alex and Farah ever had, yet it's assumed (by the male audience) to be completely platonic by virtue of them both being men.

For all those people who argue to stop shipping characters, those same people turn around and are completely implicit in the notion of Alex and Farah being a thing.

It's a really annoying take, because you and I know that it's not the romance they're bothered by. It's the idea of having a character that exemplifies the silent male loner badass archetype as anything but the pinnacle of masculinity. IE, totally and utterly straight.

I feel I could go on about all the ways Ghost surprisingly subverts his archetype, but I'll leave it there. This is prob already too long 😅

But yes, having new cool female characters is always good, but it still wouldn't settle any sexuality debate since they would most likely be written without any hint of romance between the core 141 group and that potential new character. Just like how Farah and Laswell, as you said, have been both removed completely from the romance/sexuality debate, any new female character would also be put under similar framework.

I suppose it would just make them appear more straight (and get rid of all the speculation) if they had a new female character added into 141, but I don't see the point of adding a new character for that sole purpose. And tbh, it would come across as insulting to women if they did for that one reason.

Given how little character development we had in the latest game, I heavily doubt they would introduce new characters at all when they barely showed anything of the current ones we have already. We need more development of the characters we have, adding someone new would arguably take away from building proper relationships/dynamics between the characters we do have currently.

But yeah, heh. I'll stop for real now. If you got this far in my latest Ted Talk™, kudos to you good sir 🫡, you have all my love ☺️

Hope you have a great day too nonny, and I hope this helps with the discussion. Feels like I went off on too many side tangents. 🤔🤔🤔

[ichinoue]

Honey I mean this with all due respect, but your argument with the Japanese fandom about the lust arc didn't hit the jackpot like you thought it would.

As a Japanese speaker who's been frequent with the Japanese fandom, I can assure u not all Japanese fans think he rose from the dead for her. I don't know why you think using the opinion of other ichihime fans proves anything, but it doesn't. They are just like you and are obviously biased towards their ship. Japanese ichihime fans are no different from western ichihime fans and share the opinions you guys do, it's the same with the lust arc. They think ichigo rose from the dead for orihime; they just don't omit a random her kanji to do so.

If u ask an ichiruki in the Japanese fandom about what they thought, you best believe they tell you the same thing that western IRs tell you. Again I mean this with all due respect, ship and think what you want, but the arguement that since Japanese ichihimes think that ichigo rose for orihime and that because they're Japanese, theyre correct and you cant argue with them- makes no sense.

Have a good day, morning, evening or night.

Anonymous asked: I'd also like to add on that most the submissions from Japanese fans that you showed were in third person, since ichigo did rise for her, he just didn't know they were her screams. Again I do speak Japanese myself, (I actually am japanese) and have interacted with the fandom many glorious times. I and many other Japanese fans saw it the same way western irs do, the opinions of other ichihimes from the Japanese fandom doesn't prove anything, they are also ichihime shippers, just Japanese.

That wasn't my argument. That was a post someone anonymously submitted to my blog, that I added no commentary to. So you sending me this message didn't "hit the jackpot" like you thought it would lmao.

It's an interesting post, sure, and a fun look back at the forums from the old fandom days. But it's not needed to prove that Ichigo rose up from the dead for Orihime. The manga already did that, as well as the databook.

You say you don't know why I think the opinion of other IchiHime fans proves anything...but yet you're using the opinions of IchiRuki fans, as if that proves anything? You say you don't know why I would listen to Japanese IchiHime fans, but yet you think I should listen to you and Japanese and/or western IchiRuki fans? You think IchiHime shippers being biased means their interpretations hold no weight, as if IchiRuki shippers aren't just as biased?

Both sides are biased. But being biased doesn't mean you can't also be right. And in this case, only one side was consistently proven right in their interpretations, and that's the IchiHime side.

So I wonder whose opinions and interpretations I should consider more highly: my own, as well as those of my fellow IchiHime shippers who were proven right in interpreting Ichigo and Orihime's relationship the way Kubo meant for it to be interpreted, as an intended romantic pairing. Or...the IchiRuki shippers who were proven wrong about...literally everything to do with the ships in Bleach lmao.

Tough call!

To be frank, the opinions/interpretations of IchiRuki shippers hold very little weight to me, especially after how badly they were proven wrong. Like, embarrassingly wrong. I never gave their opinion much credence before the manga’s end, and rightly so. So why would I listen to them now? That would be like me copying off of the paper of someone who has failed every test lmao.

You people keep coming into my inbox to try to tell me how wrong you think we IchiHime shippers are. What you don't seem to have grasped is that IchiHime shippers don't need ichirukis to "approve" of our interpretations. Your approval doesn't matter. We already have all the validation we need from the sources that actually matter: the manga and Kubo himself.

My day has been pretty great so far, but thanks for the well wishes.

[bucksdaffy]

this is the same anon who sent the flirting question, thank you for answering with kindness in respect! there's a lot less of that going on in this fandom than i'm used to. i will say, we have different interpretations of the scenes and also the characters, but similar opinions about some things which is nice. i definitely don't need buddie to be canon for me to enjoy the ship, but i do think it would be a it would be a great oppurtunity to see a queer slow burn on mainstream media that hadn't originally intended to start out that way. i've thought that since i started watching in s4, but i never thought we might actually get it.

i think for the flirting, and you can totally have platonic friendly banter! i just never interpreted their scenes that way, and the way buck and tommy were together kind of sealed that for me. if that makes sense? i get what you mean about it not being canon, but isn't the same true for it not being not canon? in the sense that buck didn't know he was bi until ep4 and so if he was flirting with eddie in some scenes, it could have been unintentional. in highschool i did that, and i didn't figure it out until months later that i'd been very clearly flirting with this girl (my best friend pointed it out to me, i was oblivious lol)

sorry this got so long, i spent some not great time looking through 911twt and awful stuff is being said on both sides (firmly in the multi shipping, i think a bucktommy endgame could be so cute if they did it right) so i hope this translates as kind as yours did!

yeah, it's nice to have a civil conversation with someone who doesn't necessarily think the way you do. it should honestly be the standard. and it's sad people on both sides can be so vile. sometimes it's just better to avoid such spaces altogether for the sake of our well-being.

i'm of the opinion that if the writers do decide to take buck and eddie down that road eventually, and they do it right, i definitely won't mind them dating each other (although i would, personally, see the story as much less valuable than what they are trying to showcase now). so it's not like i'm totally opposed to the idea, because i saw what many buddie shippers see when i was watching s2 (although, in hindsight, i do think that what i saw back then was only bi buck; eddie, unfortunately, never gave me any queer vibes, so i'd need A LOT of convincing from the show itself to believe that putting buck and eddie together wasn't forced). but i believe that later on they did a pretty good job establishing that their bond is, in fact, very much platonic, and that's why at the moment romantic buddie doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

i also think it could have been a good opportunity to see a queer romantic slow burn in mainstream media, actually. however, i don't think buddie necessarily falls into that category (anymore). i'd definitely be of different opinion if the show consistently gave us hints of any attraction or hidden feelings that you don't have to try to see, but i'm sad to say none of their scenes in the later seasons provided me with that. i saw someone say something along the lines of "for a slow burn to happen, there has to be something burning, and buddie might be on the stove, but the heat is just not turned on". and honestly, i couldn't agree more.

when it comes to the kitchen scene, i do think your interpretation makes sense. if you think there IS something between buck and eddie, that interaction would definitely be one of the reasons someone could argue they are right. and i think it's a valid argument, especially after we saw how buck behaved when tommy visited him in the loft, because at the end of the day, you're right – buck was being playful with both of them. so, it's not like i'm totally baffled by your interpretation of the scene and think it's completely out of the blue. it's not.

and you're right about it not being not canon. that is why i try to emphasize that this is where we are at the moment, because everything can change in a matter of seconds. but given the current status of buck and eddie's bond, which the show highlights as being very much platonic, i'd say it is far more likely that the interactions between them are and have always been canonically platonic rather than romantic. the fact that right now they are just friends in canon supports the view that their early interactions were always platonic far more than it supports the view that they were romantic in nature. buck being confirmed as bi makes this a more likely possibility, but since eddie is still canonically straight, it's hard to make a case on both fronts. but, again, it can all change with just one moment, the same way it happened with buck's sexuality. yes, he has always been bisexual, but canonically, there was no valid reason to assume that buck is anything other than straight before 7x04. does that make sense?

so yeah, ultimately we can't say something is 100% canon or 100% not canon if it was not addressed in the show. but we can assume the more likely possibility based on how the events play out, and that's why i insist canon supports only the platonic view of their interactions right now.

but as i said, i do respect your perspective, and i think it has a potential to be canon in the future, should the show take that route.

[witheredoffherwitch]

The Strongs are not the good guys in Alys' story! They made her their servant and wet nurse for their babies when she herself was unmarried. What does that mean anon? It means in the best interpretation they were cruel and in the worst they must have abused her themselves!

Read critically what u consume.

The only sin Aemond did against the Strongs as far as we know and can be sure was murdering the young boys. That was wrong.

But in Alys scenario, aemond has done less/no canonical abuse than her own family.

Hi nonnie, thanks for the ask.

Careful now, you are making too much sense! Your theory would be the most obvious take-away for anyone familiar with the world of asoiaf. Bastards are not treated well unless you were fortunate enough to be sired by Stark male member (because Starks usually do not subject kids through brutal ostracization because of some mediaeval honor-code: Jon and Theon are good examples of that!) -- BUT other than that, you were pretty much fucked! Rhaenyra's bastards fared well because 1) the mother held a more privileged position (due to which her kids were ensured certain protection), and 2) admitting their bastardry would have tried Rhaenyra, Harwin and Laenor for treason.

Secondly, I think it is fair to conclude that House Strong wasn't some tight-knit 'loving' family. Sure, we've seen brothers gossiping during Rhaenyra and Laenor's wedding but apart from that, the house functions like any other Westerosi house. Lyonel Strong doesn't confront the truth about his grandsons until Harwin makes a fool out of himself in the courtyard.. and by then, the severity of the said matter was long-overdue and extremely consequential to the point of non-avoidance. The younger brother didn't even flinch before killing off his dear father and brother for some political gain. If Larys 'the Clubfoot' Strong did not feel any kinship with his family, then one can assume that reception of a known bastard is going to be less than ideal.

Thirdly, we still don't know how are they going to portray Aemond during his Riverrun arc. I keep saying it because Aemond (along with Alicent and Rhaenyra) is altered from his canon version. In the show, Aemond never insults Rhaenyra and only ever maintains a cold indifference towards her. He isn't shown to be some raging misogynist. He only insults the Strong bastards after Luke displays an absurd lack of self-awareness during that dinner scene. And in the Storm's End segment, he doesn't chase after Luke due to some back-handed comment from Maris... but rather, that conflict is shown as an extension to the last dinner scene. BUT the most telling of all is how Luke was killed off in a supposed accident - meaning that Aemond never intended to kill him in the first place. Interestingly enough, there was a deleted scene where we see Aemond giving the camera an evil look, but that part got cut in post-production for some reason. Instead, they chose to end the scene with his distressed expression.

Now, do I believe Aemond will experience some radical arc change? NO! But the way the future events unfold will be certainly DIFFERENT! That's why I am both skeptical and mildly optimistic about how the show might portray their relationship. Aemond and Alys are both heavily misunderstood characters - and this alone opens a massive potential for this couple than some other speculated ships. That being said, this ongoing hate for Alysmond is very forced - and it says a lot when the majority fandom has just discarded her as someone put their beloved prince 'under a spell' or is a homewrecker for pulling Aemond from their own crackship.

[laithraihan]

I'm the anon who sent you the long message that apparently came off "pompous & infantilizing" and more to your followers.

I find it interesting that that message sparked such a flood of defenders, when I did not send it in bad faith at all. From your answer it seems I'm lacking context so sorry if I took some of your statements the wrong way, but nonetheless I just found the parental love addition strange and reacted to that, that was all there was to it. I clearly stated (three times) I'm not taking any issue with your headcanons.

By saying they are far removed from canon I did not mean to say they are "too unrealistic" or something is wrong with that, I literally said the opposite. I meant just that, that factually, this will not be a common interpretation for someone who is familiar with the source material but not your blog. This is not a statement that I made with any judgemental value and I thought I made that very clear but apparently not.

So I'm sorry for the additional ask.

Have a nice day.

Thank you for the response.

I was fully aware you said there was no issue with what I drew, but the way you wrote everything else sort of negated that statement. At least that's how me and many other people saw it.

If someone finds what I drew strange or confusing then they could always just... block me or ask me about it (and btw I expected people to be confused, otherwise I wouldnt have labeled it "non-coupling" as soon I posted it lol)

Someone did ask me about it, and you seem to have already seen that response, yet you still felt the need to send another message basically implying that an explanation wasn't enough (turns out it actually wasnt enough because people said I was lying and in denial) and that my explanation was weird too? Which is whatever I already ended up clarifying that, English is not my first language and I type things with the help of a translator (I wish people could actually keep this in mind. I only type in English because it'll reach a wider audience and it's the language most of my followers know. Often I have to google words people tell me online, or I ask my friends fluent in English to explain things for me)

You can say "that's not what I intended" but that's how it came across... you wrote a lot of nice words while also saying it was understandable that people were ganging up on me over a drawing, it seemed patronizing.

That's why me and others took offense to it, but I think it's difficult to tell tone through text so I don't want to keep nitpicking this any further. If you say you had no ill intent then I believe you.

The following will just be me adding more context and not necessarily aimed at you: Again I understand the lack of context of my account can make people confused about my art, Ive made that clear many times.

The art I made where I said "if your parents didnt love you then it's obvious" was a direct response to people who were mocking me specifically for tagging the art as "non-coupling" because they didnt believe me. They got the context and decided I was trying to hide a fetish because a kiss on the cheek was "obviously shippy". They proceeded to compare this to drawing NSFW of Mob and Reigen by labelling it "non-ship" as if it was comparable to tucking a child into bed, that's what upset me. I did absolutely nothing to these people, I dont know them, if they said this privately I wouldnt care but it was public, and they also targeted another friend of mine for no reason.

All Im gonna say is that my drawing shouldnt have caused this much controversy in the first place. I labeled it "non-coupling" as soon as I posted it, which should've been enough honestly. It's not like I posted porn or anything like that, I got the idea from something Ive experienced in my family as a teenager and I could easily google stock images of the exact same scenario to use as reference, like I really didnt think it was that bad.

Anyways I think I've explained myself many times already. Im not gonna be hostile and say to people "roh t9awed dont ever send me anything else related to this" but just.. check if Ive already answered your question so that it doesnt end up being repetitive. If you have a question about this that I havent answered yet, then feel free to ask.