#I think I may have gotten too used to the digressions

[dolphin1812]

Javert remains hilarious. I love that seeing Madeleine in a position of authority makes him so uncomfortable because of the cognitive dissonance that he just avoids him as much as possible, because he has to treat him with respect as the mayor (an Authority Figure), but it also convinced he’s a convict. And of course, since this is Javert, all of this is explained with references to dogs and wolves:

“The first time that Javert beheld M. Madeleine clothed in the scarf which gave him authority over the town, he felt the sort of shudder which a watch-dog might experience on smelling a wolf in his master’s clothes.”

The animal imagery around him really is consistent.

Hugo’s discussion of taxation is interesting as well. In citing the Minister of Finance, he returns to the idea of historical documentation, implying that there’s a record that confirms everything he’s saying. Oddly enough, though, I feel like Hugo doesn’t talk enough about money here. Debtor’s prisons weren’t as big in France as in Britain at this time (at least, I think - if I remember correctly, there were efforts made to limit or abolish debtor’s prisons during the Revolution, but they continued to be dealt with and reformed throughout the 19th century), but given this connection between not being able to pay and prison, I was kind of expecting more of a digression than a paragraph. The word “compel” also felt like it was alluding to a discussion of the state’s force, but Hugo doesn’t elaborate (shockingly). I guess he decided to get his point across concisely this time?

Similarly, I’m waiting for the breakdown of Fantine’s expenses. I’m glad that the factory was like “the face of a friend,” but knowing that her salary is low because she wasn’t trained in this work before is concerning, given that she has to support Cosette (by sending money) as well.

[eldrith]

omg heyyyyy guys!!! <3 tldr for those of you who aren't the stupid cunt still spewing shit in inboxes: thanks for being kind & supportive and fucking normal. appreciate you beyond words, genuinely. my inbox is always open to you.

but to whom it may concern,

i am so fucking serious when i say that you, anon, need to grow up and start talking to real life humans for once in your life.

this isn't a joke. i'm so so so fucking embarrassed for this imbecile who stalks mutuals and any writer or account with decency in this fandom. you're so embarrassing. you are so clearly out of touch, there is something so clearly wrong in your tiny little pebble brain. it's a miracle you can even type words onto a screen because you're so inconceivably obtuse. (btw, you may need to reel in the extent of your lexicon - if you know what that is - for some of the things im about to say)

not only are you so impossibly, functionally incapable when it comes to media literacy - sorry, literacy at all - but you actively seek out to make incorrect points and its so troublesome... you need to learn context, subtext, implicit bias, nuance - honestly, grab a dictionary and look up what the term 'critical thinking' means too. you are SEVERELY lacking. you are deficient in communication and even worse with inference. i could laugh, and i have before.

despite the fact that this is all fictional - the truth is that we are all just people on here who enjoy writing or maybe enjoy a character from a fictional show that isn't even about romance in the first place.

anyways, i digress: the truth is that every single one of my friends on here has gotten this person's weird fucking obsessive comments in their inbox and as pathetic as this person is, i will say this directly to them: you treat writers or other blogs like some sort of sad therapy and you're being embarrassing.

i'm embarrassed when i see the cringey, out of touch shit you say. you act like a minor. i genuinely think you are one. you act like someone who has never had a personal relationship, let alone conversation. i don't think you've had an emotional connection ever. you act like a fucking baby who just crawled out of a sewer to see light for the first time in your life. it's so fucking sad. i would never care enough to say i feel bad for you, but i feel bad for anyone who has ever interacted with you, myself included.

it's so astounding to have to say this, but: WRITERS AND BLOGGERS ARE NOT YOUR FUCKING THERAPISTS. WE ARE NOT A HOTLINE FOR YOU. here, you’re so stupid you probably didn’t catch that: WE ARE NOT YOUR FUCKING THERAPISTS. YOU ARE BEING A FUCKING CHILD.

i beg you - i implore you to fucking block me, to block all of my mutuals who you come to whining in their inboxes, because NONE OF US FUCKING CARE what you have to say. pick up a book. talk to a man irl. ask someone how their day is and try to use empathy for once.

anyways, i love every single person on here who takes the time to be kind, or funny, or care. i love all my writers, all of my friends on here, moots or not - sorry to say this but im tired of pretending that i'm nice to childish pathetic cunts. lol

[musicalmoritz]

Can you analyze Aoikane? Like does aoi really like Akane? Is Akane a good person to her? Doesn’t he just treat her like everyone else? Even after the severance arc?

I’m glad you asked this! I’ve written a lot about Aoi and Akane as separate characters but I haven’t really gotten to go in depth explaining their relationship. This won’t cover everything but I’ll try to address all your questions. Just a heads up, I incorporated a mix of canon evidence and personal interpretation here. I tried to address each time I was purely stating my perspective but be aware that this is very opinionated

So to answer your first question, “Does Aoi really like Akane?” the answer is no…Aoi LOVES Akane. Aoi is love with Akane to an embarrassing degree, dare I say more embarrassing than the time Mitsuba said “yes sir” to Kou

On a more serious note, Aoi loving Akane is a core part of their development. If Aoi didn’t love Akane, Akane never would have fallen in love with Aoi

This right here is the key moment, the moment when Akane realizes what he means to Aoi. He offhandedly tells her he hates her, and it makes her cry. At that age, nothing made Aoi cry, not even bullies. But she felt so strongly about Akane that the mere thought of him hating her was enough to bring her to tears

Akane’s character arc centers largely around coming to understand, empathize with, and help the people around him, so when he sees someone who needs him he goes all in offering his help. When he saw that Aoi loved him, that she would cry if he hated her, all he wanted to do was make her happy and make her feel loved. This is what he dedicated his life to, judging by everything we know about his relationship with Aoi after this event

Another way we know Aoi loves Akane is because she tells us this herself! She asks Hanako to talk about love and then explains her past with Akane. Before this, when Aoi got left behind leaving Hakubo’s boundary, she confessed to the audience that she loves Akane (“I never got to tell him I like him”). That line has clear romantic connotations, especially for a series that places so much emphasis on confession scenes. But on the train, we learn why Aoi loves Akane

To Aoi, Akane is everything she is not. He is naturally liked by people, hard-working, and kind. Aoi seems to view Akane as the epitome of a good person, and herself as the opposite. Think of it as a sun/moon dynamic, we see this with many ships in the series. Hanako seems to think similarly about Nene, considering himself a murderer and then viewing Nene as this ball of sweetness. When asked what he likes about her, he simply says “Everything.” Even Aoi was shocked lol (but this ain’t about them)

It confuses me that a lot of fans ask why Aoi likes Akane when she’s outright stated it herself. It could be that some of them haven’t finished the manga (not saying that’s you btw that wasn’t one of your questions), and hey there’s no shame in that. I just wish they would either admit they haven’t read it or look up the chapters they need to read because their arguments are lacking some pretty key information😭 Guys, step one of analyzing is to READ. But I digress

I think another explanation would be that fans don’t understand Aoi’s character, they still subconsciously view her as Nene’s popular best friend. They may not think they do, because they think the extent of her facade is pretending to be perfect. They don’t understand how she looks down on people, how she only thought about herself when Nene and Akane started acting different, and how she gets emotionally dependent on the people closest to her. There’s a reason for that too, many fans don’t like that side of Aoi. They see her express an unhealthy attachment style and decide the problem is AoiAoi rather than Aoi as a character, so they completely erase her flawed management of relationships when they write her

Aoi displays an avoidant attachment style, she pushes away the people she wants to be close with. She also arguably shows signs of BPD, and though I won’t get into that today, one of the defining symptoms is intense and unstable relationships. The sad truth is that people really hate people with avoidant attachment styles, and they really hate people with BPD (and any Cluster B personality disorder in general), so when they see Aoi expressing these traits they erase them rather than admitting they don’t like that side of her. Which is sad because you rarely see people doing that with male characters. Teru and Hanako are loved for the aspects of their personalities that are unlikable to the fanbase, whereas Aoi’s toxicity is ignored because it doesn’t fit the image fans have of her. Aoi is misunderstood by the fandom the same way she’s misunderstood by the characters in the manga

One last note on this, if you dislike Aoi just say that (again this is aimed at the general fandom, not you specifically). Don’t erase her obvious signs of mental illness, that representation is important to a lot of fans. When I wrote my TikTok essay on Aoi having BPD, I had people with BPD in the comments telling me how much they related to her. On other posts about Aoi, I’ve had people tell me how much it means to them to see a character realistically portray an avoidant attachment style. Mental illness is rarely portrayed correctly in media, and it is highly offensive to those who have it irl to erase those traits in a character just because they don’t fit your cookie-cutter image of them. And yes, I know Aoi doesn’t canonically have BPD but slandering her for traits that strongly relate to BPD is also weird (this is the opinionated part I warned you guys about lol, but yk a psych student is gonna have to lecture you on ableism)

Aoi’s feelings for Akane have also been teased since the beginning of the manga, through jealousy. She claims not to like him back, but she completely shuts down whenever he shows interest in someone else (or when someone else shows interest in him). Again, this is not a healthy response by any means but I personally think it’s an interesting character flaw, you are welcome to think otherwise🤷🏼‍♀️

She actively encourages his confessions with her point system, if she didn’t enjoy his confessions she would have turned him down from the get go. This connects back to the avoidant attachment style thing, Aoi wants Akane’s attention but she maintains distance for fear of letting him in. She keeps walls up to protect herself, because while Akane is the sun she basks in, she doesn’t really believe he likes her

This is because Akane puts her on a pedestal just like the rest of the school does. Some fans overlook this because they’re focused on post-development AoiAoi but at one point Akane made Aoi feel very isolated. It must have hurt extra since he’s her childhood friend. She thought Akane was only in love with the perfect version of her, which I don’t believe to be true. Akane loved Aoi, flaws and all, and that’s why he saw her as perfect. Most of the information we learn about Aoi is given to us through Akane, so it wouldn’t add up for him to not know her real personality. During their fight scene, he lists all her worst qualities and proceeds to kiss her hand and tell her he loves her

My conclusion is that Akane’s love for Aoi was so intense, he saw her through a rose colored glass. He knew the real her, but he loved her so much that her flaws didn’t bother him. He only focused on the good parts, and thus ended up putting her on a pedestal. He didn’t realize his behavior was hurting her up until the truth came out in chapter 69, and to answer that one part of your question, yes his behavior did change after that

He encourages Aoi to talk about herself, offering to do all of her favorite hobbies with her. He gives her free reign and support here, letting her talk and then offering solutions to her worries. He reassures her that she can fix things with Nene, which is like!! A major step in the right direction!! Akane is usually very possessive of Aoi, even when it comes to her friendships, but here he is encouraging healthy communication between her and Nene. He doesn’t deny her bad actions, but he gives her room to resolve them

After that, we see him start to treat her normally. He acts like himself around her, the same version of him we see around Teru and Nene. None of that lovestruck, over exaggerated worship we’re used to seeing him show towards Aoi. Even during the Severance, he took time to work with Nene and Teru rather than obsessively focusing on Aoi. He gave Teru motivation when he felt like quitting, even felt comfortable using their mutual love for a Aoi to fuel their rivalry. He formed an alliance with Nene even though he initially felt bitter towards her for Aoi’s disappearance. He learned to look past his own feelings enough to be there for his friends, likely because Aoi taught him to remove those rose-colored glasses. He saw that only focusing on what he wants (only focusing on Aoi) was hurting the people around him, including Aoi herself. Post chapter 69, Akane becomes much more down to earth. He still loves Aoi deeply and puts her first, but he treats her like a normal human being. This allows him to treat other people normally too

A lot of people use this chapter as evidence that Akane hasn’t changed but guys, he’s allowed to be jealous over the girl he loves. He panics here, but he doesn’t try to get violent with Teru the way we used to see him do when guys would express interest in Aoi. He doesn’t look possessive or angry here at all, just sad. He’s genuinely devastated that he’s in a world where he can’t be with the girl he loves. This is bad news for both him and Aoi, judging by the sad look she gives him as she leaves and the events of last chapter, it’s clear that this Aoi is still in love with Akane. Our Akane knows how dependent Aoi is on him, he knows that he’s the reason she’s started taking steps towards healing. Without him, all of her development gets erased, and there’s the simpler sad fact that she can’t be with the man she loves. Akane wants happiness for both of them, there’s nothing wrong with that

Even when he confesses to her, it looks so much more genuine than the old scenes of his confessions. It gets a full page, they’re both blushing and their eyes are full of light. His words are so genuine too, he doesn’t wax on about how perfect and delicate she is, all he does is promise to love her forever. For someone with such severe abandonment issues like Aoi has, those words are all she’s ever wanted to hear. Her father left when she was young, then the two people closest to her started to pull away from her (not in this universe but still). She’s terrified that people will hate her, that everyone will leave her if she reveals her true self. And here Akane is, promising to love her and only her for as long as they both shall live (and beyond that)

So, yes, I truly do believe Akane’s behavior towards Aoi has changed. And keep in mind, the manga isn’t over yet, they will have more development. We just learned Aoi’s backstory with her father leaving and her mommy issues, there’s still so much we don’t know about the characters. They still have a long way to go, so if they haven’t grown as much as you’d like then give them some time!! But they have made a lot of progress already, and I wish more fans recognized that

As for the question of whether or not he’s a good person to her, that’s very subjective!! Some fans don’t like any level of toxicity in their ships, so chapter 69 was enough for them to write off AoiAoi entirely. That’s perfectly fine, no one should feel forced to like a ship that makes them uncomfortable. Some love toxic ships, some only love toxic ships if they have development, and others love ships with extreme toxicity (I finished Interview with the Vampire season 1 today so that is where I’m at right now lol)

Let me ask you a few questions though. Is Kou a good person to Mitsuba, for mimicking the actions of his abuser and force-feeding him?? Is Hanako a good person to Nene for attempting to trap her in a fake world and kill her best friend? Is Hakubo a good person to Sumire for eating her alive? Is Natsuhiko a good person to Sakura for letting them destroy the world? Are any of these characters good people to each other???

All of those situations have nuance, and so does AoiAoi. Yes, Akane choked Aoi, but only because she was about to kill herself. She was in a shinigami’s boundary, talking about wanting to “go somewhere far away” and never return. If he hadn’t done something, she never would have returned from the far shore. That doesn’t excuse his actions, but it provides some perspective. Akane wouldn’t choke Aoi under normal circumstances, just like Kou wouldn’t force-feed Mitsuba under normal circumstances. However, both of them would go to those extremes if it meant protecting the ones they love. I personally believe it’s toxic, but some fans insist it’s completely justified because they were doing it for the greater good. Again, it all comes down to perspective

Their dynamic also largely relies on the yandere!Akane gag, which is very hit or miss for some people. Although it’s for comedic purposes, those scenes did happen in canon and they happen a lot. They can be very distracting and cause fans to feel confused once they’re introduced to the deeper side of AoiAoi, which is understandable. Part of peoples’ interpretation on AoiAoi’s level of toxicity comes down to how serious they take the yandere jokes, and how much they like yandere characters. If you hate yandere characters but don’t take the gag too seriously, you’ll be able to overlook it. However, if you hate yandere characters AND you take the gag seriously…AoiAoi might be a difficult ship to accept

Otherwise, Akane does look out for Aoi a lot. He beats up guys who harass her, he asks her how her talk with Nene went, he checks on her injured hand, he will stop at nothing to save her when she’s in danger and, well…the list goes on. There’s no denying Akane cares about Aoi, though some fans may argue he cares about her to a toxic extent. I find that attitude a little hypocritical when they like every other toxic canon ship, but every ship has different appeals so I get it. I’m very biased tho so every argument I see against AoiAoi is just words, words, words

Keep in mind that the TBHK characters and their relationships are all meant to be flawed. This is an imperfect cast of characters who all want to be loved, who have their own goals and try desperately to save each other even though they’re doomed to fail. I wouldn’t call every character morally gray, but they’re realistically flawed. Akane and Aoi want to be together, but they have a lot of individual issues to work through first. They’re undoubtedly better together though, seeing as the progress they make is because of each other (I gave Akane credit for Aoi’s development earlier but it goes both ways!!). If they were separated, we wouldn’t see them grow as much as they have. That doesn’t have to be romantic ofc but I do believe that Aoi and Akane make each other better, they just have to go through the process of making each other worse first in order to get there

I am a person who LOVES flawed characters and relationships. If the ship doesn’t have a splash of codependency, I don’t want it. I incorporate sadomasochism into almost every fic I write. My view of AoiAoi is going to be different from that of someone that isn’t interested in flawed characters/ships (yes, you’re allowed to prefer characters that are “morally pure”). If you’re looking for something that’s pure fluff then AoiAoi most likely isn’t for you, very few TBHK ships are unless you’re heavily fanonizing them. That’s simply the nature of this manga, there’s a reason we’ve seen every canon couple hit each other at some point. It’s not as bad as some fans suggest, but it’s still messy. I want to reiterate that this isn’t aimed at you specifically but I feel it’s something the fandom as a whole needs to hear. Of course, there are toxic ship enjoyers who may not find AoiAoi interesting, but every complaint I’ve heard about them so far has been about their toxicity so that’s what I’m addressing. I personally find it to be tame compared to the other ships but not everyone is going to interpret it the same way

Thank you very much for this ask, I got a little carried away with the yapping lol. I’m a bit worried I’m gonna get hate for this one since it’s kinda controversial and I got very opinionated at times…please know that I didn’t mean to offend anyone or invalidate any other opinions. If you feel that I did that then feel free to block me. I hope everyone reading this has a nice day <3

[i-who-has-never-had-a-name]

I always think about how everyone who knows Kaz brekker, including the crows, negatively think of him as a coldhearted murderer who would do anything for money. Whenever a chapter is written in the perspective from someone who is not Kaz and Kaz gets on their nerves or seems disturbing or so they seem quick to think of him as his reputation: a murdered, a killer. And now I may be stupid for thinking this, but how many people has he actually killed, self-defense excluded? The cell member in the ice court and big bolliger comes to mind, but really other than that...

If we do want to talk about murderers we can talk about Matthias who belonged to one of the worst type of people there is disguised as warriors for a noble cause. Or Nina who was trained to be a ruthless soldier and was excited to participate in war as soon as possible, which includes killing people, even if it's for a "noble" cause. Inej has killed people too, but that's apparently okay because she feels guilty. Jesper has obviously killed. Wylan produces extremely dangerous bombs. Yet no one seems to think of themselves as murderers, but bc they are scared of Kaz (yes all of them to some extent) they think about everything people have said about him or how he talks about himself (bastard of the barrel, cruel, killer etc.)

I love all the characters and am quite fond of them, but it's important to acknowledge that all of them are also flawed. One of their flaws being their moral superiority in relation to Kaz. Even Inej tells us at the start that a lot of his reputation stems from rumors, yet she is afraid of him sometimes bc she doesn't know what rumors are true and which not (which really makes me question why she fell in love with Kaz, if it was bc he freed her and he's hot, after all she is a teenage girl, or some others reasons but that's anothwr discussion). Maybe I'm biased bc my favorite character is Kaz, but this really irks me. Time and time again he has proven that he wouldn't kill innocent civilians or children and what not. That what he and others say about himself isn't 100% a real reflection of who he is. Other than his provocative words (that he uses as a self-defense and really bc he's afraid of showing emotion, but also he just has a dry humor and a snarky personality) he isn't morally a lot worse than the other crows. The things I do find morally about him conflicting though are of course the things he has to do as a gang boss, like profiting off of gambling casinos and what not, but really he isn't responsible for the brutal capitalist system in Ketterdam and one might say that the want to become rich isn't a sin ("what a luxury to not want a luxury").

I like him for his morally grey compass and because he is a complex character but I don't think he receives as much compassion and care from the others as I think he should, but I digress. A lot of people are surprised that technically they won't stay friends, but I'm not. I have so much to say because this is such a complicated debate but I don't want to dig myself a deeper grave than already and maybe I have gotten some facts wrong. I'd love to hear more opinions.

[yonderghostshistories]

HAPPY 13TH ANNIVERSARY TO “HOLY FLYING CIRCUS” (2011) 🥳🎉🎊🎂🎈

(Aka the best Monty Python biopic imho)

It’s been 13 BLOODY years since HFC aired on this day (19th October) at 9:00pm on BBC 4 in the year of our lord 2011, but it’s only been a few months since I (and many other of my mutuals) watched and rewatched it this year, and I will always treasure the times that I have seen this wonderful movie!

I remember when I was a newly fresh faced MP fan in 2023 and was slowly and gradually getting into them, and that I was wondering if there was ever a biopic made about Monty Python? I mean, it would be kinda weird that there wasn’t a biopic made about Monty Python, ya’know considering that they were very much influential in the world of comedy and beyond, that it would obviously be a missed opportunity to NOT make a biopic about them.

I then went and logged on into one of the school computers at my secondary school to look up if there was a Monty Python Biopic, in which I googled smth along the lines of “Monty Python Biopic”, and LO and behold, HFC was (iirc) the first result that came up!

I was IMMEDIATELY intrigued to see what HFC was all about, and so I looked at and read the plot synopsis for HFC on IMDb. At the time, it was honestly really cool and interesting fr! Then I looked at the cast and…well. I wasn’t immediately put off by the fact that the cast for the HFC Pythons weren’t exactly 100% identical to the irl Pythons, like they were similar to them but JUST different enough to have a sorta distinct, uncanny feeling to them. But ngl, at the time when I saw photos of the cast, I did have a feeling that was like “ughh….this is soooo obviously cheap, why couldn’t they have gotten a bigger budget for this?”, and now looking back, I do recognise that HFC was, well, made on a BBC 4 budget (aka a low budget, at least for BBC 4) and that the cast and crew had to work with what they had (both in terms costumes and hair) and tbh I was kinda a bit mean on them at that time and that do I regret it. I mean, I still don’t forgive some of the HFC Pythons’ hair cuz OMG Steve Punt/Eric and Phil Nichol/Terry G’s hair is still kinda not good lol 😂 but I do understand why it is what it is.

Anyway, I digress!

It was because of this (plus looking at some rather quite negative reviews of HFC) that I STILL wanted to check out HFC and see what it’s about, but I had INCREDIBLY low expectations for it. At best thinking that HFC would be at least kinda decent, but at worst thinking that it would be kinda mediocre and not the worst but definitely not the best. So, for Christmas 2023, I asked my Dad (iirc) to buy me the DVD for HFC (as well as some other DVDs, those being “A Liar’s Autobiography” the book, the animated film adaptation “A Liar’s Autobiography” (2012), “Remember Me” (2014) starring Michael Palin, “A Field in England” (2013) and “In the Earth” (2021), the latter 2 cuz I was really into the League of Gentlemen/Inside No. 9/Reece Shearsmith at the time and also cuz I love me a bit of horror!). Then came January/February 2024, and I got my DVDs by that time!

(Here’s a crappy looking (affectionate) picture I took of them back in February when I still used my Android phone to take pictures of stuff)

Then I…..didn’t watch them (and in this case HFC) for a couple months after I got them (mostly due to school and exams and shit which made me kinda exhausted and so I didn’t watch much stuff during that time cuz of it), BUT! BUT BUT BUT!!

It was on a somewhat regular day on the 20th of May 2024, when I finally, FINALLY AFTER ALL THIS TIME OF LAYING IT OFF AGAIN AND AGAIN (again due to the exams and studying for said exams and shit) that I decided to finally get the courage to watch HFC in its entirety!! Also cuz I needed to give myself a bit of stress relief and also a lil reward for studying too much lol.

I got the HFC DVD from my living room shelf, I took the HFC DVD out from the plastic cover, I then got my DVD player and carefully inserted the HFC DVD into the DVD player so as to NOT potentially break it, and then…..I finally watched it.

It was…..quite the experience (and I mean this in the most positive way ever!)

Watching the film for the first time genuinely, like GENUINELY, floored my previously low expectations of it. Like, fr IT WAS CRAZY. AND AMAZING. AND WONDERFUL. AND SURREAL. AND FUNNY. Like, it was honestly the best thing I ever watched at that time!!

The HFC Python cast, who I thought was not gonna be the best, was actually fr incredible! Not only did they all get their respective irl Pythons’ mannerisms and expressions on point, but their unique take on each Python was genuinely charming and interesting fr! Especially Charles Edwards/Michael and Darren Boyd/John and their relationship between each other in the film was indeed very captivating to watch (and a lil gay and fan service-y, to which I also love it for that <33).

Speaking of which, Charles Edwards as Michael Palin was unironically the best thing about this film, not only for his voice and mannerisms but his character as well!! Like fr CHARLIE EDWARDS FR LOOKS LIKE ACTUAL MICHAEL PALIN LIKE WHAT?!!?!!

Darren Boyd as John Cleese was also quite great too, like, even if he portrayed him as the “Basil Fawlty Persona” version of John, I felt like it was still pretty much like John’s character, and Darren Boyd/John does show little moments of genuine vulnerability, which make it really more profound imo!

Rufus Jones as Terry Jones, Phil Nichol as Terry Gilliam, Steve Punt as Eric Idle and Tom Fisher as Graham Chapman were also pretty great in this as well! But ESPECIALLY Tom Fisher/Gray as HE ABSOLUTELY STOLE THE SHOW IN THIS MOVIE FR, AND THAT HE ABSOLUTELY SLAYED AS GRAY AND I LOVE HIS JACKETS, HIS SEXINESS, HIS QUOTES, HIS GAYNESS, HIS WISENESS, HIS EVERYTHING AGHHHHH (also he’s really beautiful imo). Like with Charles Edwards/Michael and Darren Boyd/John, their performances as their each respective Python was really amazing, such as Phil Nichol exhibiting Terry G’s childlike craziness and goblin-like energy, to Rufus Jones/Jonesy also acting/double role-ing as Michael’s Wife (in a loving homage to Jonesy playing most of the female characters in MPFC and the films with absolute PERFECTION) to Steve Punt/Eric being very much onto the business side of Python (in which he’s referred to as a “money grabbing bastard”, which I almost quote all the time haha).

Also shoutout to the supporting cast of HFC, they also carried the movie too! My personal favourites being Jason Thorpe as the rude and annoying and obnoxious boss (and very funny) Alan Dick and the LoB obsessed but with good intentions Christian with a stutter Desmond Lovely, Simon Greenall as the Pythons’ Manager/Film Distributor Barry, Paul Chahidi as the meek and trying to make things go well Harry Balls, and Stephen Fry as God (cuz Stephen Fry is an absolute ⚡️✨ ICON ✨⚡️fr)!

Oh yeah, also, I LOVE THE ANIMATIONS AHHHH THEYRE SO AMAZEBALLS FRRR!!!! AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVE LOVE LOVE THE MUSIC TOOO!!!! SHOUTOUT TO THE ANIMATION TEAM AND MUSIC COMPOSER FOR HFC, THEY DESERVE IT FR AND DESERVE ALOT OF APPRECIATION!!!

Also, this movie is fr so funny frfr, have I mentioned that it’s really funny? Cuz it’s really funny! It’s also (like Holy Grail) very quotable indeed, and there’s a lot like ALOT of quotes from HFC that live in my head rent free! My personal favourites among them are:

-“It’s Half Logical, Half Silly!”

-“Eric is a Money Grabbing Bastard!”

-“Glass of Cordial? S P O T O F S O U P ?”

-“Are you Willy waving at Jesus?”

-“Well, I am Gay, I like Neeews, it’s very good for film reviieeewwws 😌😏”

The ways this movie have changed my life for the better (and for the sillier) is that I’ve gone through the rabbit hole and have discovered many, MANY amazing shows and films starring each of the HFC Python actors, for example; “Treacle Jr” (2010) and “The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz” (2000) (both films starring Tom Fisher) are genuinely pretty great and I do recommend you watch them if you can! Plus I bought them and other projects starring each HFC Python on DVD cuz it shows how much I’m THAT dedicated to this movie (HFC) fr, and that I’m fr grateful for discovering this little BBC 4 Pythonesque comedy drama from 2011, cuz if i hadn’t, I’d have missed out on some real great stuff!

I will always love “Holy Flying Circus” (2011) for the rest of my life, and I will always appreciate and treasure it with my entire heart 🫶❤���, and I will continue watching and rewatching it and continue fanning about it into the future! I’m very lucky that HFC came into my life and that I watched it, and that I don’t think I’d be quite the same if I hadn’t the courage to watch the film on the 20th May 2024.

It’ll soon be almost 1 hour to the time (that being 9:00pm) when HFC aired on the 19th of October in 2011 by the time I’m writing this, so I’d like to quickly wrap up by saying:

Thank you “Holy Flying Circus” (2011). Just, thank you ☺️🫶❤️…..

And remember:

“Eric is a Money Grabbing Bastard”.

[somebluemelodies]

really really really long ramble ahead about q!Foolish's federation situation bc i have thoughts. you've been warned :'D

(below the cut!)

i cannot get over how much shit could hit the fan with this whole q!Foolish situation. literally so many relationships could hinge on how things play out

firstly, we have no idea how q!Pac and q!Mike are going to react to q!Foolish when they see him next (likely tomorrow, as per what cc!Pac said at the end of the Tazercraft stream). they might get mad and take revenge, maybe try and use him to find and rescue Walter Bob... etc, etc. q!Foolish wants them to be released (little does he know...) and he hopes to still be friends with them even tho they may not want the same, but he really has no true idea what he's gotten himself into...

i don't think their relationship will ever be the same regardless of what info comes out, but that's essentially just the tip of the iceberg

what i'm most curious about personally is q!Cellbit (and q!Forever) finding out about how he lied about Richas's life being on the line. because i already know that ain't gonna end well. both q!Cellbit and q!Forever are fiercely protective of Richas. q!Cellbit absolutely despises liars and he already threatened q!Foolish while interrogating him

q!Cellbit places a lot of trust in q!Foolish. we saw that in how they bonded when q!Foolish was constructing the castle, and how q!Cellbit wanted to have him build something else for him just so they could spend time together. and it was really solidified in q!Cellbit telling q!Forever today how he has a hard time believing q!Foolish would lie and use Richas’s name to do so. he doesn’t find q!Foolish “capable” of betraying them somehow

q!Cellbit finding out the truth could seriously fuck with him and their relationship. so could him finding out about q!Foolish's actual federation job, but more on that later

q!Cellbit himself killing q!Foolish has potential problems of its own, namely with q!Roier and their relationship. i mean, that's his dad. but at least for me, it's hard to really gauge how q!Roier will react, especially now that him and q!Cellbit are married. i think its circumstantial, but i'm not too too worried about spiderbit

q!Foolish dying also has the potential for some major problems with q!Vegetta if/when he comes back. and i fear for Richas's life if q!Vegetta were to find out, but i digress, let's not go there-

i think a lot of people won't see q!Foolish the same way, at least for a while, if they find out he lied, but i think the bigger problem now lies in his job with the federation

if that gets out, that could burn a lot of bridges. i'll say when actually, because as much as i love q!Foolish, i don't think he can keep this a secret forever. i don't think q!Jaiden will say anything, but who knows, honestly?

unlike q!Cellbit's infiltration to rescue q!Felps and learn more about the federation, and q!Fit using his janitorial job to try and find the player data he wants, q!Foolish is doing this for himself and the federation. unlike both of them, and a majority of the Ordo Theoritas he's technically apart of, he's not anti-federation, he's not anti-Cucurucho, and at that, he's really not neutral, either

i find q!Foolish to be such an interesting character. he knows what he wants a majority of the time and he's willing to do pretty much anything to get what he wants. in this situation, he's aware of his actions having consequences but he does it anyway because it's what he believes benefits himself the most, regardless of what others may say or do. and that's such an interesting character trait, but it can be such a detrimental one, too

did q!Foolish get manipulated tho? to an extent, yes. Cucurucho called him "unique," and i refuse to believe that was out of genuine belief. he's never expressed major interest in q!Foolish until recently. i also don't think Mr. Mustard is alive anymore, quite frankly, if what was said about them eating said capybara is anything to go by. but q!Foolish is so desperate to become Cucurucho's friend and also save Mr. Mustard. he said it himself: he's willing to do just about anything. that leaves the door wide open, doesn't it? Cucurucho is playing a game, and q!Foolish is playing right into it

and if q!Foolish doesn't ultimately go on a traitor arc and he does in fact get used, it kinda sucks for him, really, bc we saw what happened to q!Felps thinking Cucurucho was nice and his friend, and q!Jaiden is probably getting used in a similar way, rather for the fact she's willing to do anything for the eggs

if q!Foolish does get used, and the others catch on to that (mainly q!Cellbit), i think that could be the saving grace for q!Foolish and his relationship with the other members of the island. because it wasn't all his fault, and i think people could see it through

but if not? that's a lot of irreparable damage, be it intentional or not. i'd love to see where that coud lead

that's really it tho. sorry for the word vomit :') if you made it this far, congrats!! what're your own thoughts about this situation? i'd love to see some other people's perspectives :D

[savindeku]

as a long time bnha fan, had to drop some thoughts i’ve been having about the manga ending! i’ve held this series near and dear to my heart, through the moments when i felt it was great story telling and when i felt so much was missing, or didn’t quite hit the mark. so i definitely don’t think bnha (or hori) is above critique, i love to yap about this series ((:

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES BUT OF COURSE PARTICULARLY FOR CHAP 430

to me, there’s three main parts to the ending that i felt make sense:

izuku giving up OFA

izuku becoming a teacher

izuku still having the chance to be a true quirkless hero

going into depth on each of these, while i love the inclusion of these three pieces, i can understand why the actual execution didn’t land with folks. even i have my qualms! okay let’s get into it! ps. this is really me just yapping away from the heart so bare with it 🫰🏽

1) izuku giving up OFA:

I think this one should not come as too much of a surprise, given that the reveal of OFA essentially being the cause of the early demises of the previous holders sort of insinuated an uncontrollable aspect to the power. even though izuku has an advantage as someone who was quirkless, it still creates a sense of foreshadowing that this is a gift that might have an expiration date. of course, a part of me would have loved for him not to have given it up but there’s enough build up there that it doesn’t feel out of left field. in addition to the running theme in the series being that anyone can be a hero/a quirk doesn’t make a hero, there’s certainly some symbolism in izuku now affectively being without, making him a quirkless hero - what he had dreamed of since the first chapter.

2) izuku becoming a teacher:

personally, i really love this for him! as a consumer of many a fanfic, i have grown obsessed with this job alternative for him, since it allows him to continue to work in the hero field, he can inspire the next generation to save to win (that as long as you willing to extend that helping hand, that’s what being a real hero is), his analytic mind is doing important work, and can use his own experience to help others learn! “deku sensei” makes my heart so happy and if anything, i would’ve loved an extra chapter just to see him as a teacher. one thing ill add here is, i can understand some disappointment with this or frustration at hori because to some, it may seem izuku ended up becoming complacent and didn’t at least try to continue to pursue his dream of being a hero after the war. not sure where i fall on this, but food for thought.

3) izuku still having the chance to be a true quirkless hero (sorry this is gonna be long lol):

now to really get into the big reveal for this final chapter - a tech suit designed just for izuku (at the main request of a one katsuki bakugou, which yeah i Will Be Totally Normal About) so he can still be on the field as a pro-hero!! okay i also loved this, i won’t deny it as much as im on the deku sensei train! bnha is a series that is never going to please everyone and its ripe with many issues throughout but i do think this was a beautiful way to wrap it up. once again, from chapter 1, we are met with izuku who wants nothing more to be a hero despite being quirkless. i never really liked the argument of “well why didn’t he try harder or train up” when the series explains to us over and over again that this is a society that values quirks above all else. its a literal systemic issue (hitting close to home but i digress), where izuku would NEVER have been accepted as a quirkless hero no matter how hard he worked because it simply isn’t designed to allow that (also where the fuck would he have gotten the resources for that is beyond me lmao).

to me, this part was actually very important for bringing the story to a full circle in which we actually (somewhat, but arguable not completely) address the core issue and theme “people are not born equal”. instead of perpetuating a “pull yourself up by your boot straps” mindset, hori tells a story where we acknowledge the system and how it is working as intended - and that’s the very reason it needed dismantling. of course, i think along the way, we maybe lost the plot at times (thinking about how we didn’t fully address izuku’s martyrdom mindset, children get sent off to war multiple times, most of the villains being k*lled off rather than being saved as izuku wanted) but there’s much evidence of this. knowing that there was still the spirit of a hero in izuku - which is MADE SO CLEAR HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HAVING A QUIRK - and he now has the chance to continue onward, quirkless. i mean c’mon, it’s really something (to me at least).

bonus note time

here’s a sprinkle of random lingering thoughts. one critique i saw was that it felt strange for izuku to accept he couldn’t be a pro-hero until his friends (ehm mainly Katsuki teehee) gifted him the suit. as if he really just gave up and this sort of hurts any character development for izuku. while i see the thought process here and would’ve also welcomed izuku getting the suit designed himself, it doesn’t upset me quite as much that this is how it actually played out. it’s definitely conflicting feelings for me because ultimately i would’ve loved for izuku to have had an arc where it was more explicitly stated that he overcame his overly sacrificial tendencies - or that the story spent time sitting with the trauma inflicted on the children fighting a war. but here is where bnha slacks off (imo) - we don’t get that breath to explore or analyze or genuinely know izuku’s thoughts or feelings on the matter (beyond that he’s sad that shigaraki died, enjoys being a teacher, and can admit that he misses his quirk). so in this way, it makes sense why hori chose this path. it’s more about his friends extending their hand to him, an offering of never leaving anyone behind who is a hero, quirk or not. i think of it as something more symbolic than it having to say anything about izuku’s character. i think for that to be addressed, there’s so many things further back we would need to unravel too lol

lastly - bnha is also a story about disabilities!! there’s been a decent amount of analysis on this so i won’t say much but i think this is also good to keep in mind. it helps for understanding the metaphor in place - quirks can be disabling and rather than creating a world that is accessible to all, the world requires that you figure it out instead. “people are not born equal” what if we dared to dream of a world that understood “we each take shape differently…” so that we might want to care for one another. so we can build something that makes the space for all of us to be able to live and thrive.

okay so that’s what i’m feeling now! like i said, i really love bnha and i simply can’t bring myself to say i hated the ending or anything. it’s a series that will always have a special place in my heart! there’s are just thoughts rattling in my brain and how ive interpreted things as someone whose read the manga the last 5 years! it’s crazy to look back and remember key moments that shook the fandom to its core. anyway, if you read all of this, thanks!! :D

[witchybitchybisexual]

The one and only Blanche Devereaux for that character ask game, of course! :)

Thank you. @the-eclectic-wonderer

1. Blanche is by far my favourite character! She is such a complex person and uses faux confidence to mask her insecurities. She also has an amazing fashion sense and embraces the change in society. She may not always be the clearest person to read, but she really does care deeply for people underneath it all and is always trying to help others though their problems; she just needs a little love. I think the girls definitely helped her to become a more supportive and accepting person - Blanche always had it in her, she just needed someone to help bring it out of her! I’m also head over heels for Rue McClanahan, so like the many, many, many men of Blanche’s boudoir, I can appreciate Blanche’s beauty too! I can relate a lot to both Rue and Blanche (not regarding relationships, but in everything else) so I have a bit of a soft spot for them.

2. I ship Blanche with Rose Nylund a little, George Devereaux for obvious reasons (excluding the cheating on George’s part, I despise that storyline because I thought the writing was rather cruel, considering Blanche seemed to worship the ground he walked on and vice versa) and our dear Dorothy Zbornak! You cannot convince me that they weren’t sleeping together at the very least, I mean… the glances, the hand holding! The “You’re beautiful.”, “dirty talk.”, “you have to help me, Dorothy.” (and correct me if I got the quote wrong but you get the gist) “Blanche, you’re the most beautiful woman who ever lived, and ever will live.” Scenes have me obsessed! Plus, Blanche always goes to Dorothy when she needs comfort and protection, and whenever Dorothy perceives any danger, she always shoves Blanche behind her. These two have my heart, in short, and Rue and Bea’s platonic and romantic chemistry was off the charts! (I had to rewrite this paragraph as it got deleted accidentally, so forgive me if it comes off as a little sloppy.)

3. Since Blanche has made up and/or reconnected with all of her siblings, I think definitely having her be in a little trio with Clayton and Charmaine would be a cute little idea! Virginia would be too straight-laced for them and Tag is obviously a separate case (though out of all the siblings, I could see Blanche being the most protective of him. Virginia would try to be too, but I can see Blanche being his favourite sibling and Tag trying to make a pet of her, but I digress) considering all of them are man-obsessed, artistic fashionistas! I can see the three of them going on dates together all the time when they’re in Miami.

4. Blanche is a bratty switch with sub tendencies. She can be a little dominant with men, but in terms of women (especially Dorothy) that all goes out the window. The general consensus is that she’d be dominant 100% of the time (and I agree she can be sometimes) but most of the time she’d be a sub in my opinion. That seems like an unpopular opinion I suppose. I still enjoy stories where she isn’t though!

5. That Blanche and Dorothy had canonically got together or that Blanche had gotten together with someone who loved her at the end of the show. Rose had Miles, Sophia was content with her arrangements of being single and more than ready to mingle, Dorothy ran off with Lucas into the sunset, and I just wish Blanche had gotten a steady romantic partnership too.

[valeriefauxnom]

Euden's Surprising Spread of Spidey Senses

So this is another of the 'things I noticed a while ago but am now properly committing to text so I don't forget everything'. Anyways, I found it funny the more I looked that Euden seemed to have a wing of general senses/ability to discern things/feelings or reactions that nobody else had, and sometimes he thought he was completely normal when they really weren't.

The earliest example I can think of offhand is chapter 13, wherein he feels drawn to the whatever ominous mana stuff that gives Ranzal the heeby jeebies.

Yes Euden I wonder why you're attracted to artificial mana that may be corrupted by black mana

As my friend joked in this scene, he's the one kid in a tv show that has to be stopped from licking whatever clearly bad object everyone else has the good sense to not touch (even if in this case, he'd be perfectly fine if the main reason it is 'dangerous' is because of black mana, being immune. Not that they knew that because since everyone hightails it as soon as it starts getting too thick so they have no idea he's not susceptible, but I digress).

Then, there's his ability as I jokingly refer to as the ability to sample and dissect dragon roars/behavior like fine wine:

Nothing like being able to tell if a dragon is hurting or sane as well as their mood based on their roars. And it's not exactly a set science or habit that can be learned with all the noises the very-varied-in-form Dragalia dragons make. I think he does this at least once or twice more, but I could be wrong.

Regardless, imagine Euden and Bahamut having a conversation where Bahamut does his standard Variations On A Roar performance and Euden's just like, 'hm, interesting. that does sound tasty'. And everyone is very confused how he got that from ROOOOAAAARR.

Then there's his sensitivities regarding other things, like his ability to tell when someone is about to shapeshift.

This is where he also tries to turn to his siblings to go, 'hey this is normal, right guys??' only to be flatly rejected.

Granted, they more suggest experience might be the cause of his talent here, but since it's ultimately speculation and up in the air and explicitly something everyone else finds weird I elected to include it. Regardless if it's natural or supernaturally developed, it's a sense nobody else has.

Even Nedrick realizes quickly that Euden's just Weird and hypersensitive to dragon-mana stuff and decided to formulate a plan around that and extend a bit of trust to his ability. Which, for Nedrick, Mr.Never Trust Anyone Ever To Do What I Need Done, is a testament to just how weird and valuable he finds the skill.

He later goes on to use his understanding of dragons and pacts to split up the power concentrated under Elysium back to their proper owners, the individual Greatwyrms.

Then, of course, is the built-in 'GPS return to sender' he has when it comes to Xenos' location and status. Quite handy he had that, or else we would immediately have gotten Dragalia 2: Electric Boogaloo wherein everyone collectively realizes Xenos isn't dead and has to assemble the gang again x years into the future. (Actually maybe it'd be better if he didn't so we could've gotten another Dragalia-)

Ahem. Anyways, this is getting long, so I'll cut it off there, but the fact that Euden was weird compared even to his family is just a thing that is passively baked into canon. And this isn't even counting his behavioral oddities that constantly leave others going ??? regarding him all the time, just his sensory ones!

And I like those little kinds of oddities very much.

Long story short regarding Euden:

Bonus round on editing:

Oh yeah, he also has a Find a Friend working ability that allowed him to track down and hear his friends across pocket dimensions. Even Mids, who has supernatural senses of his own in being able to derive 'true location', can't hear across worlds. Perhaps it's a good thing Euden didn't make too many otherwordly friends. Imagine constantly hearing friends speaking that aren't even in the same area or time of existence as you are (like Luca did that one time in the comics).

Also, it's a bit funny that even if it's a power innate to him he's still addressing it as if it's completely separate from him and asking 'it' nicely to open up portals. Nothing like Euden being unable to do something himself, but because he's asking 'himself' nicely suddenly finds the willpower to make manifest what he wants.

...Imagine if it applied to food. 'Please mysterious power my friends and I are starving, can we have some food?' and a luxury turkey dinner just pops in front of them, what he was secretly wanting and is like 'wow what a coincidence, exactly what sounded heavenly to me personally. Thanks mysterious power!'

[sirdust]

THOUGHTS ON THE FINALE?? bc it was a lot for suuree

| any thoughts on the last 2 episodes??? i sure do have mine i was like wth throughout the whole thing😭 |

apologies for the radio silence 🫡 i've been busy and also not very enthusiastic about discussing this show, lol. been in the process of packing up my autism and moving it over to transformers.

anyways sure i'll give my thoughts.

as my friend who i was watching the eps with said during ep7, "this version of hazbin hotel where women exist is a lot more interesting"

ep7 was probably the most tolerable character-wise even though it suffered from the same general pacing problems that we saw throughout the rest of the season. charlie felt like an actual character who experienced inner turmoil, and while i didn't like "out for love" very much as a song, the sequence itself was solid. carmilla badly needed more presence in the story for how much they treated her as an important character, though.

i'll also say that i think rosie is the most likable character in the show period. she has a cute design and a charismatic personality, and i wish she had shown up earlier. it was weird that she and alastor acted as if they had just reunited when they saw each other in ep3, though.

the final battle was disappointing all around for both obvious and non-obvious reasons. vaggie badly needed a big heroic moment, but she was fighting lute (who simply does not feel like a real threat) for so much of it that her actions during that part of the episode had very little impact. especially since she was the one to figure out how angels can be killed in ep7 (which was admittedly a plot point that did not need to exist, aside from it facilitating charlie and alastor's deal, but i digress).

i also am pretty miffed that charlie only got one or two good hits in on adam before needing to be saved by lucifer. it was like they couldn't decide whether they wanted to do a team-up or to give lucifer a moment showing off how powerful he is to be able to fight adam one-on-one.

i don't know if there's anything for me to say about what they did to pent that hasn't already been said. i doubt he's going to be relevant in s2, but even if he is, i really don't care. it's baffling incompetent to treat a character death as a comedy beat one moment and then dramatic the next. it winds up not making me feel anything at all. (and on a pettier note, i hate his redesign.)

i've never been huge on adam. his character had potential but was continually wasted in favor of being another shallow commentary on toxic masculinity (which is much too prevalent in spindlehorse shows, i'd argue. the issue isn't with the thematic choice but how vapid the execution is). i'm also hung up on the fact that he's clearly meant to look like alex brightman, but the writers have lucifer make a fat joke about his appearance. fatphobia in these shows has always been an elephant in the room but i feel that this crosses some sort of line.

i don't think i have much else to say? i could go more in-depth of course but i'd have to refresh my memory and i don't have the time or desire to rewatch any part of the season right now. i've gotten pretty much all of my gripes with the show as it stands out of my system.

this blog will likely continue to get some use in the future, but i'll probably be increasingly inactive on here. the silver lining of all this is that hazbin's success may, if nothing else, help pave the way for execs greenlighting more queer animation, but we'll have to wait and see. here's to better shows being made in the future though 🥂

ETA: oh and i've been calling twist villain lilith since 2019 but i have nothing else to say about that.

[snowdropluck204]

You're My Prize - Shoto Todoroki x Reader (Mafia AU!) - pt 2

I'm so sorry this took so long!! I've been trying to get into work, which with illnesses is a bit hard, now looking at working from home and starting my own business... Anyway! Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Xxx ______________________________

3rd Person pov

Shoto watched in shock as (y/n) left the room, the smell of violets following her as she went. He couldn't bring his gaze up from the floor, which was how he knew the unknown butler was now stood in front of him, his glossy, black dress shoes came into his view.

Lifting his head, he made eye contact with the strange man. He had deep onyx irises and platinum blonde hair, he had a few beauty marks on his cheek and was shockingly tall. "Good evening sir, I am Kenji, may I help you back to your room? Mistress (l/n) would like you to join her for dinner in an hour."

The man, now known as Kenji, bowed deeply as Shoto picked himself up off of the floor, refusing to stand too close to the strange man. Shoto merely nodded at the dinner request, though he wasn't sure it was a request as much as it was an order, and Kenji straightened his back and began to walk swiftly towards the stairs, Shoto struggling to keep up with him.

Kenji walked the confused man back to his designated room, before standing like a sentry at the end of the long hall. Shoto turned into his room, now slightly more off-put by the grandness of it all, as though he was waiting for the illusion to shatter, but he digressed. On the end of his bed, an outfit had been laid out for him, to wear to dinner he presumed. It was different from what he would have expected (y/n) to have given him. It was a yukata.

Shoto was surprised, he had figured someone high up in the Japanese Mafia would have chosen something more stuffy, more professional. But this looked relatively comfortable! And just his size... He would have to ask about that later. Regardless, he just counted himself lucky that his father had forced him to wear this sort of garb frequently and looked around the room some more.

Turning to the left of the bed, he saw a door he hadn't noticed before, opening it tentatively, he was sort of relieved to have found nothing more than a bathroom. He wasn't sure what else would be in there, but after the scene he was subjected to downstairs, he hadn't ruled out that there could have been dead bodies in a closet or something.

Stepping further into the bathroom, he was happy to find a Japanese inspired tub, unlike the modernity of his bedroom. Running himself a hot bath, he got in, after washing himself off. He closed his eyes, and used this time to really think about what had happened in the last twenty four hours. Actually... Even prior to then, how had he gotten here?

He doesn't remember much, he remembers coming home from hanging out in town with Midoriya, they hadn't seen much of each other since he had quit and Midoriya had become one of the top heroes in Japan. He had come home, already tired, had dinner, his father gave him some tea and then...

Wait. The tea. After that he had practically passed out! His own father had drugged him, he would have said it was surprising, but honestly, the only thing that surprised him was how little his father's behaviour had shocked him now.

As he soaked in the tub, he couldn't keep his thoughts from racing. Why had (y/n) brought him here in the first place? (y/n)... Shoto tried to stop the flush from overtaking his already pink cheeks. Honestly, (y/n)'s beauty wasn't even the first thing he noticed about her, it was her eyes.

They were sweet and gentle, borderline angelic. But the change that came with them, the change in her soft voice to something cold. Something hard enough to cut glass. What had she done to that poor man? She reached into his chest and pulled out his heart, crushing it into a thin powder. Was that her quirk? Was that what got her into the Yakuza in the first place?

All these thoughts racing through Shoto's head had begun to make him dizzy. He opened his eyes, flinching from the light that suddenly flooded his retina, maybe it wasn't his way of thinking that was making him dizzy, the steam and heat from the bath was making him terribly woozy...

Standing from the tub, he began to dry himself off, the soft towel against his skin giving him a new kind of comfort, one that did seem rather familiar. Like the feeling of a soft hand against his skin. (y/n)'s hand...

Shaking himself out of his reverie, he got dressed into the yukata, softly smiling at the quality of the fabric, and even the pattern. Half blue and half grey. The same colours as his eyes.

Glancing at himself in the mirror, he was slightly in awe, mainly at how dishevelled he looked. His hair was messy and slightly damp from the steam of the bath, his cheeks were very flushed and his skin was dewy. His father would never have allowed him to leave the house like this. But he wasn't here...

Purely out of adolescent rebellion, Shoto left his room, making his way to Kenji at the end of the hall, following as the man immediately began walking away, presumably, towards (y/n).

_____________________

Entering the dining room was like entering a film. The parquet wooden floors, the large windows and, most of all, the massive dining table that seemed to be able to seat fifty guests! Shoto was once again in awe, his family had money, but nothing like this, who was this woman and who did she work for? Shoto was slightly surprised he hadn't tried to escape, he knew this woman had been responsible for at least one death, he may not have been a licensed hero anymore, but he still obeyed the law.

He had been expecting to be seated at the opposite end of the table, in fact, he had been hoping he would be. He wanted to be as far away from this entrancing woman as possible. But no, the gods laughed at him, Kenji led him to be seated next to the only other place setting, at the very head of the table.

(y/n) hadn't arrived yet, so he assumed he was slightly early. Sure enough, as soon as the clock struck six o'clock, the doors swung open, and in strode the woman in question. She was intriguing, even if all she was doing was walking. She was so confident in herself, she knew where she was going, how to get there and would get rid of any problems in her way.

Kenji pulled out her seat and bowed politely as he went to stand a little ways away from her chair, clearly standing guard. (y/n) sat elegantly, her hands on her lap and one ankle tucked behind the other, she was a lady. Shoto could feel himself beginning to heat up slightly as he took in her appearance. She was also dressed in comfortable, Japanese garb, a simple kimono, plain and gorgeous, her hair was also slightly dishevelled and damp, so Shoto could assume she had also had a bath.

(y/n) smiled at her dinner guest, a small smile, extremely different from the smirk she had given him an hour ago, as she left her victim's body to be dragged away.

"Good evening, Shoto, I trust your room is all to your liking?" She questioned, much more formal than when they had first spoke. This threw Shoto for a loop, why was she speaking like a business woman, where was the kind woman he had originally met, who seemed like she wouldn't hurt a fly?

He couldn't say anything, merely nodding in response. The business facade dropped.

"Come on, Shoto, surely I am worthy of a word from you," (y/n) whispered, leaning in close to the man, who slightly sank into his chair, as though trying to escape the clutches of her honeyed voice. (y/n) gave him a small smirk. The killer had returned.

She sat back, relaxed against her chair, she was assertive, she knew who held the power in this room, and it wasn't him. Her face relaxed into an almost bored look, but she shone with power. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, feel free to ask them." She told him, letting him gather his thoughts with her pestering him.

Taking a small breath, Shoto sat forward in his chair, refusing to meet (y/n)'s eyes, "Who are you, really?" He asked softly. (y/n)'s face further dropped. She seemingly hadn't expected that question, but it was all he could currently think about asking.

The woman across from him sighed, sitting to attention ever so slightly. "My name is (y/n) (l/n), I am the first and only of my family name and I am the head of the Orchid Yakuza family."

Shoto was in disbelief. Surely that wasn't possible. For starters, she said she had no family, but she can't have been much older than him. On top of that she was the head of a crime family. This house did indeed belong to her, ever member of staff he had yet to meet was employed under her command.

Not only that, he had heard of the Orchid Yakuza family from Izuku, they were ruthless and yet strategic. The Heroes Commission had yet to put a name and face to their leader, and here Shoto was, sat in front of her at dinner. Izuku had his suspicions that their head was a woman, he said that no man could be as meticulous and yet cruel.

Some of the members of this family had been brought in for questioning, none of them could be linked to any crime, current or previous, and none of them would mention anything about who they were working for. They had seemingly been fed the words they should use. They knew every legal loophole and every bit of information that the Commission definitely did not want them knowing, before they were released into the custody of a tall blonde man...

Kenji.

(y/n) was a genius. She knew that people would believe Kenji to be the one in charge, he was tall, intimidating and, most of all, male. But she had been pulling the strings the entire time.

"How... When did this all start?" Shoto asked, leaning forward again, this time, out of morbid curiosity. (y/n) smiled, a pure, genuine smile.

"I was an orphan, I don't know my birth parents, nor do I want to. But life in an orphanage was rough, to say the least. My quirk was dangerous, so none of the other children went near me, except for one, Kenji."

I looked over to the butler, who stood there looking at (y/n) with a look that could only be described as camaraderie and affection.

"As soon as we were old enough to leave, we did. It was difficult, we were on the streets for most of our teenage years, but we learned what we could and eventually found a place we could call home.

You know, this building used to be completely decrepit, falling apart, but to us, it was a mansion, a castle. It was a place we could manipulate. We were both well-read and intelligent, so we started writing. We could do anything, we were scam artists, businessmen, retail owners.

But I wanted to do something bigger. I wanted to make a change that people would notice. So I started the Orchid family. Obviously it wasn't anywhere near as easy as I'm making it sound, but now we are one of the biggest crime families in the Northern Hemisphere."

(y/n) spoke about it like the accomplishment was mediocre at best, but Shoto lips were agape and his mind was reeling. She was incredible, both she and Kenji were incredible! He came from money, but that was his family's he'd wanted to be able to be himself. She had done that, flawlessly.

Now to ask the difficult question.

"Why me?" There was a silent implication behind his words. 'Why did you bring me here?'

(y/n) smiled once again, sweet, saccharine.

"Your father owed me a significant debt."

Shoto was certainly not expecting that answer. His father, the hellbent hero, had taken loans from a mafia boss...

"I helped him rise to the top of the hero ranks and when it came to paying me back, I realised there was something other than money that he had and I wanted it."

(y/n) stood up, slinking around his chair and leaning over him. Shoto could feel her breasts against his back and her soft hands came around to gently grasp his throat.

"I needed a pretty little dove who would sit by my side as I went ahead and ruled this country. I thought you would be perfect, Shoto."

_____________________________

Minor tease at the end of this chapter, I'm trying to move out of my comfort zone a little and I loved writing this chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it and (fingers crossed) there should be another chapter of this out by the end of next week!

[ceescedasticity]

'Unforsaken' cutting room floor

From where they're first talking about the possible warden. I guess I decided this got more detailed than it needed to be? I kind of like it…

------

Anyone know where Radagast is these days?

Celeborn says he was present when they were disassembling Dol Guldur and trying to restore things, but left even before the Ringbearers sailed.

Elrohir says Estel was mostly sure Radagast was helping with ecological restoration in Mordor for a while, but never actually caught sight of him and hasn't heard anything for a while. Maybe he went farther into Sauron's old territory?

So, no one knows where Radagast is in any useful way.

They might actually have some idea where one of the Blue Wizards is, or at least was: the Magus Caerulus who is or was very influential on the Men living in the lands just west of Pelndoru. Khitwê and Risyind don't know much more than that, but they assume the Men who live there would.

So they could, if they choose, go most of the way to Pelndoru and see if they can pick up the trail of a wizard.

A wizard who's apparently involved in human politics, Celeborn points out. That's not an obvious good sign.

(Okay look, it is not easy coordinating resistance to Sauron when you have no Eldar or Edain in your arsenal — Avari and other humans have the heart and the will to fight the Shadow, but they mostly don't have lingering bits of Valar-favor. If the Magi Caeruli didn't stay personally involved the people of the East and South just wouldn't have any tools to protect themselves. It's gotten a lot better! Almost no one thinks they're gods now and they're definitely not kings!)

(In a different incarnation of this fic, with additional digressions about the Blue Wizards and even more outrageous OCs— Well, never mind.)

Still: Going most of the way to Pelndoru and talking their way into meeting the Magus Caerulus is an option.

…Assuming they're still there.

Getting a wizard would be a long-term and chancy endeavor, and no one is very enthusiastic about it.

"Besides," Celegorm says, "it's not like you need to be a maia to fight a maia."

"Strictly speaking no, but…"

(Celegorm is thinking: Finrod actually didn't do too badly against Sauron until he lost his nerve, and Maglor is a much better bard than Finrod, and the Warden is — he assumes — weaker than Sauron, so this should be workable if Maglor gets in the right frame of mind.)

(Maglor and Turgon are thinking: True, but all balrog-killers died doing it and this thing may be stronger, so let's not get cocky.)

(Glorfindel, Celeborn, Elladan, and Elrohir are thinking: How much of Glorfindel's Second Age pre-return-to-Middle-earth power-up is still lingering? Is this hypothetical Warden bigger or smaller than a balrog, figuratively speaking? Also there's the Saruman comparison, Mithrandir did a lot to break his power but he was definitely vulnerable to other attacks, what kind of shape is this thing in—)

(Khitwê and Risyind are thinking: Wait, what's a maia again? Is it the same as a wizard or not?)

(Whiterot is thinking: About something else entirely because she doesn't want to think about maiar.)

(Sharlinnu is thinking: Is it too late to start taking notes?)

It's still not like anyone is planning to let this stop them either, so Elrohir asks if there's any procedure of arming for umaiar.

"Fire-resistant armor and the best weapons you have," says Turgon.

"That's balrogs specifically," Celeborn says. "More generally, you need to be aware of the mental and spiritual influence — like the Black Breath of the Ringwraiths, but possibly much worse — and be prepared to resist it."

"Just about anything dies if you cut its head off," Celegorm offers.

Maglor gives Celegorm a 'I know you are not actually this book-dumb, will you stop embarrassing me' look, which Celegorm ignores. "There are seventeen known repeating types of umaiar, and any individual might be unique. What Lord Celeborn said is the only consistent rule."

"Mithrandir left Glamdring here, though," Elladan says, half-joking. "He killed a balrog with Glamdring, so it could be considered a weapon for use on umaiar?"

"Hmmmm."

"I forgot to mention that," Glorfindel says to Turgon. "Glamdring is here — we don't know how it got to Eriador, but after it surfaced Mithrandir wielded it until he sailed — do you want it back?"

"…No thank you," says Turgon. "I don't think it would like being wielded by an orc."

Is there anything in the armory that would? They'll have to check.

Anyway, what about Maglor's anti-maia capacity? Clearly he's been keeping in practice driving orcs into the Sea…

Maglor wants to avoid admitting to weakness in front of Turgon, Celeborn, and the children more than he wants to yell at Celegorm for having unreasonable expectations. He says he can play a harp if necessary, but it's been a while since he did anything big.

Turgon says he thought they were already counting on Maglor to break the Crucible open. Asking him to fight the Warden at the same time seems a bit much.

Sharlinnu asks how the Dark Lord was defeated, anyway.

…They don't know?

Well, they know it happened fast and unexpectedly and Mount Doom erupted—

The One Ring was destroyed in Mount Doom, that's how.

…Wait, do they know what the One Ring is?

Yes, they know what the One Ring is.

…Actually Whiterot and Sharlinnu are a little vague on that.

Okay, if anyone wants details, there's a book. Suffice to say: No one actually fought Sauron.

All right, so there's no one — other than Glorfindel and Maglor, hopefully — particularly equipped to fight the hypothetical warden. Are there other people they could call on for more strength in general?

Well, there's Thranduil. He's pretty busy right now, though.

And while he's been easy-going about old Sindarin grudges in general asking him to work directly with Maglor Fëanorion might be a bit much to ask for.

Not to mention the orcs. Thranduil still struggles with dwarves.

Whiterot asks if knowing he has a… personal stake… would make it easier for him to handle it.

Nimloth? Maybe…

No, Oropher.

…

(Turgon, Celegorm, and Sharlinnu actually do all recognize the name — highest-priority Greenwood target in the Second Age. —Also Reckless and Sly really wanted to kill him. None of them had any idea he's an orc, though.)

(Celeborn is horrified, but not as shocked as he would be if Celebrían hadn't identified Ningloreth of Lórinand, who died in the same battle as Oropher and had less of a reputation for obstinacy.)

(Maglor never heard the King of Greenwood's name while he was king of the Greenwood, but recognizes the name from old intelligence on Iathrin nobility. He does not mention this.)

(Khitwê remembers the name from various history lessons in Imladris and has to remind Risyind.)

Personal stakes notwithstanding, Thranduil is still very busy and not guaranteed to keep his temper even when he's trying very hard. Celeborn would rather not involve him in this and would really rather not tell him about Oropher.

Círdan? Probably not.

…Although they should probably keep him in the loop.

Maglor sighs dramatically and asks if anyone knows where Daeron is.

Sailed under a false name, Celeborn says. So much for that idea.

What about dwarves? Or Men?

Dwarves might be able to help if not with a warden specifically, but… this isn't really their problem, is it? It's an elven problem. (It could be the dwarves' problem if it turns out there's a warden and it can trigger orcs multiplying, but that's never happened that they know of.)

It's an old, terrible, horrific, even shameful elven problem. Elves should take care of it.

[razorblade180]

I may get some hate for this, but… I’m not really a fan of how Yang has been handled in the past few volumes. Like, in my honest opinion, she feels less like Ruby’s older sister like what was shown in the first few volumes and more like just a love interest for Blake to have. It feels like she’s gotten to where she cares more about Blake than Ruby in my opinion.

[This is not a rant btw]

In my opinion it’s more of a “show, don’t tell” problem. There’s never been a moment I doubted that Yang loves Ruby to death, but also the show at times tries to have moments that by design, should be heavier, but don’t land as hard because we didn’t actually see the connection that got us to this point. It can be conflicting. I mean Ep 2 of Volume 1 literally has Yang just leave Ruby at the front of their new school to go catch up with friends.

Just today I saw a post about how it kinda hurt to hear Ruby say the things she did towards Yang considering how Yang gave up her childhood to help care for Ruby. I read that and I’m like….they aren’t wrong but we also really have to take the word of the show that Yang really sacrificed a lot, because we didn’t see anything. Not every viewer can or should be expected to latch on to unseen moments; and it kinda goes both ways. We never have Ruby expressing or preaching on about how meaningful Yang has been in her life because this show never wants to really talk about the Ruby and Yang that made it to volume 1. Their past is so vague and never really bleeds into the dynamic we see in meaningful ways.

Also, this is sorta a nitpick, but it doesn’t help that sometimes there’s dialogue about a character that isn’t really true or points something out that nobody ever thought was a problem for a character. The most recent instance of this for me is last weeks episode 6. Blake told Yang “You are always the first to lighten a situation” when Yang objectively been the most aggressively negative member of team RWBY from V4-V7 and tied with Ren in V8. Volume 9 is the first time Yang acts similarly to before the fall of Beacon. Yang also in the seen talks about how nice it was that Blake wasn’t scared of her when they met. As an audience, that’s never been a problem or insecurity expressed to us but I digress.

So while I do agree with you a little, I don’t see it as a Yang problem or shift in dynamic, and more of a writing problem that’s been there for awhile. Personally, I would’ve loved to get more of their sibling dynamic because I too have a big sister and am also someone’s older sibling. So for me, hearing what the show has told me about their situation, I do find it pretty weird that Ruby doesn’t see Yang somewhat as a second mom to a degree; or how Yang isn’t as attached in certain regards.

Has anyone seen Onward? You would think at some baseline level they would be a little more like those two brothers in a way.

[misslisamiray]

A little delayed, but finally, here's Chapter 6 of Down With the Rickness! Those of you who remember the excerpts I posted before I started posting actual chapters may notice this features two of them, but longer now! New chapter is below the cut.

Back on Earth, Morty was looking for a place to hide the portal gun. He thought about just putting it back in the garage, but no – that would be the first place Rick would look once he noticed it was missing. After a few minutes of thinking and realizing there really wasn’t a “good” place to hide it, he decided that under his bed was as good a place as any.

“Rick will probably be out for a while. But I think I’ll need help once he wakes up. Better find Dad.” the boy said to himself. He decided to get dressed for the day, since going back to bed was clearly not an option, then went to find Jerry.

“Dad? You here? You didn’t listen to Rick and go next door after all, did you? Dad?” he called, walking through the house and checking anywhere he thought Jerry might be. Kitchen, no. Living room, no. Mancave, no. Bedroom, no. Then Morty heard noise coming from the attic.

“A raccoon or possum or something must’ve gotten in again. Perfect day for it, too. Good thing Rick made Dad immune to rabies.” Morty sighed, heading up the stairs to the attic.

“Hey, Dad? I know you’re having fun up here with your little friends, but it has to wait. I need a hand taking care of Rick, and… what the hell are you doing up here, exactly?” he said, puzzled by the sight in front of him. Morty had expected to find his father either playing with or being attacked by a wild animal or two, depending on the temperament of whatever had gotten into the attic this time. Instead, Jerry was sitting on the floor, surrounded by boxes, some of them tipped over, and piles of disorganized anime VHS tapes.

“Oh, hi Morty. You know what Sailor Moon is, right?” was what he received as an answer.

“Ummm, yes? Classic 90’s manga and anime that’s known for popularizing the magical girl genre in the U.S. And for the old dub making the questionable-at-best choice of trying to pass off two clearly lesbian characters as cousins. Why are you asking me about Sailor Moon?” an even more confused Morty replied.

Ignoring his son’s question while he went through another pile of tapes, Jerry said, “That’s right, Morty! I loved watching it before school as a kid, but I’d forgotten all about it. Then there was this time last year when Rick disguised me as his assistant using something he called a ‘reusable Sailor Moon transformation sequence’, and you see, it brought back all the good memories I had of watching that show when I was young. Along with the bad ones of the boys who liked Dragon Ball Z instead bullying me, but I digress.”

“Uh-huh. That’s great, Dad. Well, mostly. That last part sounds like it sucked… Anyway, nevermind the walk down memory lane right now. I need you downstairs to help me with Rick.”

“Oh. Is whatever the Mimicking Disease mimicking now really bad, Morty? Am I going to come downstairs and see it’s turned all his organs visible, and we can like, see the damage being done to them in real time? If it’s that you’ll warn me, right, Morty?” Jerry worried, getting squeamish over his own made-up scenario.

“No, it’s nothing like that. Rick made up the whole Mimicking Disease thing. Well, I don’t know if he made up that it exists. It might? But he definitely made up the part about him having it.” Morty replied.

He was about to explain further, but was cut off by his father saying, “So it is something worse after all? I thought Rick sending your mom and sister away was a little odd. *GASP!* Morty, you’ve been awfully close to him this whole time, haven’t you?” He quickly backed away from Morty, scooting backwards until he crashed into another box of tapes.

Morty rolled his eyes and said, “Dad, calm down. Rick just has a cold. A pretty bad one from the looks of it, but still just a cold. The thing is, he’s not dealing with it well at all, and apparently store brand otc cold medicine is the only substance out there he has like, no tolerance for. Or hallucinating melting walls is what those internet weirdos meant by the expired medicine ‘working too well’? I don’t know. I do know he’s making this whole thing a lot more of a problem than it needs to be. And it’s probably going to get worse when he wakes up, so come help.”

“But why would Rick lie about having some weird alien disease to hide having a cold? It doesn’t make sense. Now, him lying about having one alien disease to hide having a worse one, that makes sense.” Jerry continued to worry, gulping nervously.

“I don’t know, and I don’t get it either. I’m sure there’s a reason. Probably a reason no one but Rick would understand, or maybe even he doesn’t. But it’s Rick - that’s true for almost everything he does. Please just come downstairs. I see you’ve already given up on your big plan to help to do this instead.” Morty replied wearily.

“Given up? Oh, you couldn’t be more wrong, Morty. This is all a part of my plan.” Jerry stated, starting to look through another pile of tapes. 

"Your plan to help Rick feel better is... old anime VHS tapes? I mean... okay? Maybe it would distract him or cheer him up a little. He'd probably enjoy some, maybe even most of this stuff. That's actually not a bad idea, Dad. But it's also not a priority." Morty said.

"You misunderstand. I'm not looking for something for Rick to watch. I'm looking for something I need to watch. And once I do, then I'll know exactly how to help your grandfather." Jerry replied matter of factly.

After standing there for a moment, dumbfounded and not knowing what to say to that, Morty finally asked, "So, your big, great plan is to spend the day going through these boxes, then watching Sailor Moon? And that's supposed to teach you... something relevant to our current situation?"

"It's not going to take me all day, Morty. If your mom and I had done a better job of putting these tapes away, I'd already have what I need. And it's not as if I could watch all 200 episodes and 3 movies in a single day even if I tried. No, there's just one specific episode I need to find. I know it's technically a 'filler' episode, but it's a classic. Episode 71 of the original English dub, “No Thanks, Nurse Venus!” The bad guys infect the city with a flu virus as part of their evil plan, and all of the Sailor Scouts are down with it - except one." Jerry explained, his voice taking on a singsongy tone at the last part.

"From the title, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's Sailor Venus?" Morty said, the urge to scream growing by the second.

"That's right, Morty! For some reason, she and Artemis - that's her mentor/talking cat - remain completely fine, so Mina sets out to nurse the rest of the team back to health. She's honestly terrible at it, but she means so, so well." Jerry replied fondly.

"Dad, I - where do I even start listing everything that's wrong with this 'plan' of yours?! 1, that sounds more like a magic spell than an actual virus. 2, you can't learn anything about treating an illness by watching an old anime episode, and, and..." Morty sputtered.

"Oh, Morty. It's because I told you it's a filler episode, isn't it? Or maybe because I specifically need to watch the old DiC dub? For someone with only the most basic understanding of Sailor Moon, you really don't have any business being a snobby purist. And for your information, Mister, this episode is so good that even people who normally are snobs about that sort of thing enjoy it." Jerry said, shaking his head and giving his son a disappointed look.

“Dad, of everything that’s wrong with your plan, which is EVERYTHING, that’s easily what’s the least wrong! Just because Rick told you to go be stupid upstairs, does not mean you had to take that as literally as possible! You’re not going to come downstairs and help me, are you?”

“Obviously not, Morty. Until I find that tape and watch that episode, what help could I possibly be?” Jerry replied with a shrug. He was clearly annoyed his son still didn’t seem to understand his plan, even after he’d explained it so well.

“I mean, you could go out to get more medicine. Or keep an eye on Rick while I go do that. Or maybe make food? There’s a lot of things you could do, actually. But it’s fine. Just stay up here and keep doing what you’re doing, Dad.” Morty sighed, deciding there was no point in further trying to talk any sense into his father. Jerry was already back to looking through tapes, humming the Sailor Moon opening theme.

As Morty walked back down the steps, he muttered to himself, “What else is going to help Rick get better? I know he needs to rest, and that we need to get more medicine. And obviously that I can’t let him near more than a single dose at a time. But is that like, it? Feels like there’s more I should do. Aww geez, we really don’t have to deal with normal problems like this often, do we? Kinda makes it harder when they do come up. I hope Mom and Summer get home soon.” 

A few minutes later, Morty had made his way back to Rick’s room. Expecting his grandfather to still be asleep, and not wanting to wake him, he slowly, carefully opened the door… only to discover the bed was empty.

“Rick? Are you in here?” Morty asked tentatively, stepping into the room and looking around. He checked under the bed and in the closet. No Rick.

“God dammit!!!” he yelled, kicking the nearest wall before going to search the rest of the house.

“Rick! Where are you?! You need to go back to bed! Rick!” he called, walking through the house. First he checked the bathroom. Empty.

“You in here? Rick? Come on, this isn’t funny! Are you like, hiding because you’re mad about the medicine?” He checked the living room next. Still no Rick.

“He couldn’t have gotten far. Kitchen, maybe?” As soon as Morty stepped into the kitchen, he realized that it was also empty, but there was noise coming from the garage.

“Dammit, I should have known!” 

Morty ran into the garage and was immediately taken aback by the sight in front of him. Rick was dressed in his normal clothes again, but his labcoat was crooked and sliding down his left shoulder. He had a sock and shoe on his left foot, but a slipper on his right. His belt was unbuckled, and Morty was fairly sure his shirt was on backwards. He was trying to keep his blankets - there were now three of them - wrapped around himself while he set up another experiment and had to keep pausing to adjust them.

The experiment in question? Well, it wasn't clear exactly what Rick was trying to accomplish, but he'd gathered the petri dish containing the blood sample he took earlier, a couple of empty ones, and some used tissues, and was arranging all of them on the garage floor... in front of a large ray gun on a pedestal.

"What the hell do you think you're doing now, Rick?! Whatever it is, stop!" Morty yelled, startling Rick and causing him to stumble forward and bump into the ray gun. This led to it flipping so it was facing the roof, which it immediately shot a hole through.

"Ow! Dammit, Morty! Look what you made me do!" Rick complained, rubbing his forehead where he'd hit the ray gun.

"Uh-huh. Weird way to thank me for that hole ending up in the roof and not your head." Morty said wearily.

"Okay, so this wasn't on the right setting for what I'm *Cough!* trying to do just now. But I would've figured that out on my own without your so-called help." Rick grumbled, turning a dial on the ray gun and repositioning it so it was once again aimed at the assortment of things on the floor.

"And what exactly are you trying to do?"

"Isn't it obvious? I hate to admit it, Morty, but you were right about the idea I had before being terrible. *Sniff!* Shrinking you down to microscopic size to talk to the virus? I don't, don't know what I was thinking with that." Rick admitted as he rearranged the petri dishes. The pile of blankets slid down a little, and he started shivering again.

Noticing that, Morty helped adjust them around Rick's shoulders, saying, "Glad you realized that, but you still didn't answer my question."

"Huh? Oh, *Cough!* right. As I was saying, making you or a clone or a robot germ-sized is not the right way to handle this situation at all. In fact, the way to deal with it is the exact opposite. What I need to do for this negotiation thing to work is make the germs human-sized." Rick explained matter-of-factly.

"Rick, no! Don't you see how that's even worse than your original plan?!" Morty asked, rightfully horrified. 

“Huh? How so? There was a lot that could have gone wrong with the original plan. Even though I’d send you in armed in case the little peace talk fell through, you *COUGH!* woulda been seriously outnumbered in here, Morty. And God forbid anything happened to prevent me from getting you back out. Let’s face it, I am not in peak form today. And it’s not like there’s anyone else here to help. Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have sent Summer away. Eh, I’ll make it up to her once I feel better. Anyhow, *Cough!* *Cough!* if we do it this way instead, all those risks go away. We’ll be face to face with the bastards and on an even playing field.” Rick replied, not understanding Morty’s concerns.

“No, we won’t be! Instead of just me, it’ll be the two of us vs… How many germs are in a person’s body when they have a cold? Millions? Billions? It’s at least thousands, and I’m pretty sure it’s a lot more than that! If you make them all human sized, they’ll overrun the house, then the neighborhood, and, and wouldn’t being exposed to germs that size make everyone around really sick? How are you not seeing everything that could go wrong with this idea, Rick?!” Morty yelled.Visibly annoyed, Rick answered, “Obviously I’m not going to make all the germs our size, Morty. I mean, to do that, I’d need to remove all of them from my body first. Which would require, among other things, a full blood replacement. Which I *Cough!* might not live through, and if I did, I’d already be cured once I was done. And then why would I waste my time talking to over – to a bunch of oversized *SNIFF!* germs, huh, Morty?” Morty was once again at a loss for words due to the crazy plan being explained to him – something that had already happened too many times for how early it still was.

[mrs-monaghan]

That was just 1 big ot7 account I sent..now more accounts are coming up in support of Tae. When JM was attacked for the hug there WAS NO ONE. One big ot7 acct just liked a tweet to show the support, that's it. They saw everything but didn't spoke up at all. Now all are acting like ot7 angels and vminkook protectors. You know what them and their favs are going to hell if they are making Jimin's life miserable.

i dont think they are anon. Jimin hate didn't start yesterday. From what i hear he's been getting shit from haters for YEARS. So this isn't new. He used to be called the King of Twitter coz of how active he was. Then suddenly it all stopped. Rumor has it he may have been told by the company to stop posting JK so much and so Jimin was like 'fuck it. if i can't post bae then i don' wanna post at all' which would go hand in hand with the company telling JK what to do with his GCFs so he stopped all together. Man just wanted to showcase his love for Jimin in peace 😂

Anyway, i'm digressing but it's my speciatly. 🙈🙈 What i'm saying is, we dont know why Jimin stopped being active on twitter, but it could definitely have been the hate.

However, i think it's been going on for so long, he's at a point where he just doesn't give a shit anymore. You heard him on SMF prt 2. He's good. I don't think we have to worry about that. But u know who i know lurks online and sees everything? His boyfriend. JK had an IG account since 2016 and no one had a clue. I believe that man has secret accounts and lurks online for sure. RM too and Jhope see everything. V too has admitted to seeing everything Armys are doing. Jimin, Suga, not so much.

This long winded answer is to make u feel better as a Jimin fan. No, his haters aren't making his life miserable. He knows Tkkrs exist and probably hates them as much as JK (nah I take that back. No one hates Tkkrs more than JK. Maybe Jennie but definitely JK) but i think they haven't gotten to him in a while.

Remember this is the same dude who saw a Tkkr holding up a Tkk sign at the airport when they came back from Vegas and he immediately shared this photo.

That was soooooo savage of him 🔥🔥🔥🔥

Jimin is doing just fine my dear. Thank God.

[ghostonly]

Hello everyone, today i bring you:

Things Americans don't realize they have the shittiest version of

or

Things the Swiss Do Better

At the top of the list, brought to you straight from the bath,

Bathtubs

Are you a full sized adult who longs for the days of childhood when they could lie down in a bathtub and get fully submerged? Do you wish you could stretch your legs out instead of bending them in half and neglecting your ever-coldening knees?

The solution is easy! Go literally anywhere else!

Okay I admit I have actually no idea how most other countries do this; I'm in Switzerland right now staying with my partner. The tubs here are huge. Upon describing the ones I'm used to, my partner was absolutely horrified, so I have to assume this is the norm, because it seems much more likely that most places in the world make adult sized tubs than sad little baby sized ones like the US.

This thing is like 20ish inches deep. When I put my elbow to the bottom, my fingertips are only about an inch higher than the edge. I'm 5'7 and can stretch my full height, the top of my head only sticking a few inches above the edge on the sloped end. This thing makes me feel so short. I'm 250lbs and can rotate fully. None of my torso touches the sides unless you count my upper arms, which don't if I pull them tighter against me. I haven't had a bath like this since I was 6.

Yogurt

I spent my entire life thinking I hated yogurt. It turns out yogurt is actually delicious! ... If it's not American. That sad, overly sweetened, gelatinous, low fat nonsense we've been eating is an affront to good yogurt everywhere (but especially in Switzerland.)

Decent yogurt... It tastes less sugary, yet sweeter - the difference between a gas station donut and a piece of fruit you just picked off a tree. Don't get me wrong, I love a good gas station donut... Just not as much as literally anything here.

I was excited to share American donuts with my partner since donuts here suck, but the problem is that, while US donuts are better than any donut here, they are significantly worse than literally any other dessert here. I got here/brought them two weeks before Christmas. Sadly, they ended up getting composted. There was simply too much better shit to eat.

I digress. The yogurt has a natural sweetness, it's not as thick, which you might think is a bad thing until you realize that the thickness of American yogurt is almost definitely achieved with some kind of thickening agent to make up for the complete lack of creaminess. The yogurt here is thinner but more creamy. It's so nice that I've gone from adamant yogurt hater to eating one all but two mornings since I've gotten here.

Toilet paper

Okay this is a weird one and, again, I admit it could just be a gap in my experience, bit I have lived on the west coast, in the midwest, and in the south of the US, with many different people with many different preferences and I have yet to find toilet paper like this.

The toilet paper here does not have squares. The squares are elongated (rectangles). It's like two ply and it's not soft, but it is thick and firm. The US toilet paper market is so good about pushing a narrative about toilet paper needing to be soft to spare your asshole that we have completely fallen for a scheme that ensures we must use more toilet paper and end up less clean in the end.

Soft, thick toilet paper may feel nicer but you end up having to wipe more because it's never as good at staying together as they claim it is. They can do as many 'drag tests' as they want to show how it stays together, but a flat surface and a hairy ass are not the same thing. Anyway tmi but I use like half as much toilet paper now and never have anything getting left behind.

Doorknobs (THEY DON'T HAVE THEM)

That is to say, doors have handles here. Those round fuckers you twist are nowhere in sight. You might think this is a minute difference that isn't important but you would be wrong. Hands full? Just lean your elbow on the handle. Bam, door is open. Knobs might have been a stylistic marvel in the design world at some point but, practically, they're a fucking nightmare.

Chocolate

Okay I know you've heard this one before but it's usually Europeans scoffing at American chocolate so I'm giving you the American take which is that they're completely right to be scoffing at American chocolate.

I brought a bunch of expensive-ish, Dove mint chocolates with me to share with my partner. The fact aside that he doesn't like mint chocolate apparently, I ate one a couple weeks after getting here(I didn't before then because I was too busy horfing down Swiss chocolates) and it was like their goodness had just fucking disintegrated. I was so disappointed. I had been shoveling these in just weeks before coming here because they were impossibly good and so smooth and luxurious and now I have this big fucking canister of disappointment chocolate. It's not bad... But considering this is some of the better mainstream chocolate in America, that's a devastating downgrade in status.

Ferrero Rocher is extremely common here (it's Italian in origin, just south of Switzerland). I keep feeling like I'm the only one eating it and I finally asked my partner if anyone else is going to eat it because I don't want to eat all the fancy chocolates and he said, "It's not really exciting to us."

Hello??? This is the fanciest of mainstream chocolate in the US!!

The same goes for Lindt Lindor truffles, which are Swiss. They're so accessible here they're not even fancy, they're just average chocolates.

Don't even get me fucking started on the chocolate from the confectionary that we bought when I first got here. We got about eight pieces of different flavors and have only just finished them because each time we had some, we each had one piece. They were so fucking divine that I couldn't eat the rest in one sitting because I was too busy ascending to another plane of existence. Don't get me wrong, we took our time because they're really expensive, but I'm telling you that was okay. One of them was so good that it completely satisfied my desire for chocolate. That's how insanely powerful these chocolates are.

Conclusion

All of the things I hated about America, while in America, have become just kind of baffling to think back on since coming here. Like, how is the US even like this? How is it that bad? It has its merits, but mainly in character and culture, not in quality of life. Anyway, of you ever have the sliver of a chance to go to Europe, absolutely do it, even if its just to visit. I haven't been this happy in my life. Yeah that's largely because I'm finally here with the love of my life after five years of online-only, but a not insignificant chunk is also the quality of life. I've been poor and/or just skirting homelessness for the last 7 years, so this is like whiplash. Anyway I just wanted to share these things. Mainly the tub and yogurt, those are just mind-blowing. I hope it was all a bit interesting to read.