#I think about this conversation daily

[dioles-writes]

"WHITE LIES"

Masterlist | Credits go to @jiphenn | Characters: Felix (he/him), January (he/him)

“Do you stare at pictures of your dad every night?”

Felix stared at the ceiling, the question coming out before he could think about if it was rude or not, before he could think to stop himself.

The trickling of January’s fish tank was the only sound to be heard, almost soothing, but with January’s presence at his side, Felix was unable to sleep. He’d been lying in the same spot, still, for almost an hour, unable to rid the topic from his mind.

The longer he tried to wrap his head around it, the more confused he became. It just made no sense. January couldn’t be more proud about his identity as a Diole. Everyone else in the club was more indifferent to it, and if he was being honest, so was Felix. He would have rathered be born human, would have rathered to be born normal. Maybe then his life might have turned out better. But January wasn’t like at that at all. He loved Dioles, loved discussing about powers, loved all of it. Hell, he had even brought Felix here to practice his powers.

Why he’d have a special chest full of pictures of his deadbeat father, the very man who had banned the existence of Dioles, who funded the murders of millions, left Felix confused. He knew, logically, that Howard Restall was still January’s father, as hard as it was to believe. January was cheerful, friendly, and happy-go-lucky, not exactly what you’d expect from the son of head of Diole Eradication. Still, maybe part of it was the fact that Howard Restall had always seemed like more of an idea than a real person. This looming figure in Felix’s life to be afraid of, the person who had made his existence a living hell. To try and picture him as anything close to fatherly was impossible. He was sure that after only three days of knowing him, he was closer to January than his own father.

So why January would care about him enough to have his pictures plastered all over his empty, lifeless mansion after everything he had done… couldn’t make any sense to Felix.

January was silent for a second, before his answer came, quieter than before. “Yeah.”

“Why?” Felix shifted, turning to look at him.

They were inches apart, mint-green and lilac eyes locking on brown ones. January’s expression was unreadable in the dark of his room, his face a vague shadowy outline. “He’s my dad.”

“You said he pretends you don’t exist.” Felix said, puzzled. “And that he would kill you.”

“Yeah but,” January sighed. “I don’t know, maybe he’s doing it for a good reason.”

“Do you know why he started it?” He whispered.

“He doesn’t tell me anything.”

“But… you still think he’s killing for good?” Felix furrowed his eyebrows.

January took a deep breath and rolled onto his back, turning his face away. “Well I don’t support the killing but a part of me kinda hopes he’s doing this for me? Ignoring me for my own sake cause he cares. Y��know?” Felix could hear the slight smile in his voice at the end.

“Maybe he’s just a rich asshole that doesn’t care about anyone.” Felix said, an edge of resentment he couldn’t hide cracking through in his voice.

January laughed. “Probably. But it doesn’t hurt to dream, right?” He turned back to Felix with a small grin.

“I don’t know, maybe it is. Maybe you’re just tricking yourself.”

“Tricks are fun when nobody’s aware of them.”

“You’re lying to yourself.”

“White lies never hurt anyone.” January said with a small smile, voice soft.

“Yeah, they do. You’re delusioning yourself to think your dad is a good person.” Felix met his gaze once again. January’s mismatched eyes were unreadable, blinking back at him in the dark. “He’s not.”

“I know he’s a bad person. But that doesn’t mean I can’t wish he wasn’t.”

“I guess.” Felix mumbled.

“You’re a funny guy Felix.” January turned to the ceiling, a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Felix raised a brow, propping himself up onto his elbows and glancing down at January. It didn’t seem to bother the boy; he closed his eyes, content. “Just what it sounds like.”

Felix went to open his mouth and press him further, but the latter had finally fell asleep. He sighed, flopping onto his pillow and stretching back out, left to wonder what January could have possibly meant.

January belongs to @jiphenn ^^

[feluka]

if you moralize to people in the global south about piracy youre going to hell btw. no atonement no take backsies. guaranteed hell forever permanently.

[kirby-the-gorb]

[kidovna]

more senior prom byler because I think about them at least once a fortnight

[elvisqueso]

"...Will you go home?" — "Well, it's not like I have much of a home to go back to. I've never really...belonged anywhere."

Pocahontas (1995)

[taamlok]

taash tag is like: 5 multi-paragraph hate posts in a row, 3 posts about another character that were tagged taash for no reason, another 5 hate posts, screenshot with 7 notes, lucanis x reader fanfic, more hate posts

[daily-lea-crosscode]

was genuinely in a haze drawing this

[followerofmercy]

I have developed a new litmus test for Media Literacy and People I Wanna Hang With

Do they hate Skylar White of Breaking Bad for being dramatic and unreasonable

Do they think Arlecchino from Genshin Impact is an abusive parent

Do they think Silco from Arcane made Zaun worse

Answering yes to any of these questions results in immediate disqualification for having respectable opinions. To me.

[longagoitwastuesday]

I am liking Jujutsu Kaisen, way more than I imagined I would, but I foresee it will let me down and it's keeping me from enjoying this as much as I could haha

I think the characters and dynamics are well set, and I think many of them have an incredibly good and deep potential, but I would be willing to bet they'll not get a proper development, enough for them to really hit. A well assembled set of gears is not enough to make the movement go, you have to wind the clockwork.

I think Gojo and Megumi have a fascinating and very complex dynamic, but I doubt it will be given the time and care that imo it needs to actually work. And it is going well enough for now! One could see the intimacy between them was deeper than the one Gojo had with, say, Yuji and Nobara ever since the very first few episodes despite the fact Fushiguro too was a first year. But the pieces forming what they have are extremely complex, and it just wouldn't be realistic if it doesn't show, even if in a not showing way, or if it doesn't have consequences or implications.

It's one of those dynamics that shape one's life, the way one regards the world, the way one establishes or not relationships with other people. It's one of those dynamics that could be full of fondness, gratitude, resentment, admiration, trust, and that imply intimacy, the good kind or the bad, even if in just the knowledge of someone who's been a constant through your life. It could, and would, imply a myriad of feelings, and probably in such a mix it could imply contradictory feelings too. Even the nothingness would weight, even the nothingness would be significant and meaningful.

Gojo took Megumi and his sister under his wing, the son of a man who murdered him, because of both selfish and selfless reasons. Megumi looks like Toji. What does Gojo feel about this? How does Gojo deal with this? How does Gojo go about taking care of Megumi? Would he walk him to school? Make him breakfast? Celebrate his birthdays making him blow candles? Did he take him to the zoo? Does the relationship between them feel professional or is it something more? Gojo appreciates his students, but is Megumi to him just another student? When Gojo faces Sukuna in Megumi's body, did he see the kid he raised, or does he just see Sukuna in one of his students' body? Did he have one faint wavering instant? And how does Megumi feel about this? Is he resentful of him? Resentful of the situation? Of the selfishness behind his actions? Does he feel like a pawn? Is he grateful? Does he resent feeling grateful? Would he rather not? Does he love Gojo? Does he feel nothing about him other than what he could feel about a teacher that sort of annoys him but knows he's reliable in his strength? Does he think it unfair, cruel or unfeeling that Gojo is close, closer perhaps, with Yuuji or Yuta, considering their story? When Sukuna slices Gojo in two, does the remnants of Megumi's soul tremble?

And not just Megumi and Gojo. Yuuji and Nanami, Gojo and Nanami, Yuuji and Fushiguro, Nobara and the boys, or Nobara and Maki, Todo and Yuuji or Yuta, Gojo and Yuta, Megumi and his sister. Gojo and Geto, even! If the pieces are well set, the dynamics are intriguing, interesting, and have potential to be deep, but then the characters have like two plot relevant scenes that punch you hard, but little more, it's not nearly enough. Especially not nearly enough for the enormity that is shonen dynamics and situations. And the potential existing at all, and then not delivering, makes it all the more frustrating when you're left with something mediocre that could have been so good.

The development of dynamics through not only a few plot relevant gut wrenching moving scenes, but also the smallness of life, is important. The friend who recommended this to me said that those things were just unnecessary filler, but I disagree. I think there's a big difference between a large amount of anime-only filler episodes whose existence is based on the fact they had run out of manga chapters to animate, and moments of quietness. The low stakes character-driven moments of quietness can be so telling and so insightful, and they are so satisfactory when brought back later in higher stakes situations. My friend teased me there was no scene of Gojo making breakfast to Megumi, that it would be an idiotic idea, but it would be so telling. How he makes breakfast, what they eat, if he tries hard or if it's all mechanised, if they have personal bowls or if they use whatever, if he just buys them some pastry on the way to school, if the way they have breakfast changes through the years, or if he doesn't make them breakfast at all! All that would be very insightful on their dynamic and its evolution. All that would give a glimpse on how they regard each other and why, even in the present. All that could become meaningful in tense situations and high stakes scenes.

These moments also let the plot breath; if a lot is happening all the time, if every character is always experiencing trauma after trauma, the entire story is so emotionally draining that at some point you don't even care all that much. Besides, these nothing moments or low stakes plot arcs, besides deepening and developing dynamics, also let some in-world time pass, which would make the intimacy and bond between characters more believable imo; between Yuuji eating Sukuna's finger and their last confrontation in December how much time has passed? A few months? Am I truly to believe these characters are so everything to each other in only a few months?

Without some smallness, some repetition, some daily life, some low stakes not plot-centric development, the dynamics don't hit, they don't truly feel fleshed out, and dynamics as complex as the ones Megumi and Gojo have, or as supposedly meaningful as the one Megumi has with Yuuji or his sister, should be fleshed out if they're going to exist at all. Otherwise they'd risk making the writing feel awkward and fake. Besides, if the dynamics felt well fleshed out and realistic, they would shape the way the characters interact and act, and how they deal with situations, thus being plot relevant.

The shonen genre has so much happening all the time, the stakes are so high, the dynamics are so rooted in big events and the relationships carry enormous weight and implications. Yet they barely get developed, and it feels so stupid, so plain, the absence of something so important noticeable like a constant void, a shapeless nothingness present in every scene. It makes the characters feel like cardboard figures. Jujutsu Kaisen is already getting a better job than many, but I doubt it will do enough for what I've heard, and I fear I am bound to feel let down, and bound to feel unmoved.

After all, if not enough time and care has been given to develop a dynamic, I am not going to feel pressured by the high stakes; if not enough time and care has been given to develop the dynamic between Megumi and Yuuji, as good potential as it has I am bound to feel little for this last confrontation between Sukuna and Itadori, and his effort in getting Megumi back.

[rabbithaver]

every so often i will see a post from a leftist on this website that is so egregiously ableist that i remember that like. oh yeah the userbase of leftists on this website is violently anti-disabled people and will jump at any chance to demonize any of us for any reason. i just forget that fact because i'm extremely dedicated to curating my space

i'm paraphrasing here but i saw a post that said, "every time i see an American [disabled person] mention being scared about the election because they're afraid of losing their benefits i have to laugh. anybody who wants blood-soaked money from the US government deserves to starve" which. like. goodness that's a lot to unpack. i think we should burn the whole suitcase instead !

[platypusisnotonfire]

I’m picking up way more Norwegian than i expected watching Skam. I fully expected that I’d watch the entire series once through understanding practically nothing of the audio and then in subsequent rewatches after having really picked up my studies (I’m at zero studies rn) start picking up words and phrases.

I’ve already got the days of the week, quite a few personal pronouns, several variations of hello and goodbye, some numbers, variations of yes and no, please and thank you, sorry, and a few short phrases (it’s all right, are you ok. Are you sure- that kind of thing) that I can understand while having looked away from the screen and missed the subtitle, and I’m only in episode 7.

[hildegardladyofbones]

Making a short movie with my class and i got cast as the lesbian wife of the girl i'm closest with in my class. oh and it is important to note that we both die early on in the story.

...i guess it is my destiny to be a dead widow??? fuck yeah

[brittlebutch]

actually first ep of Voyager where Janeway talks to Tuvok about how his family misses him is that when she says they Worry about him Tuvok contradicts her and claims that Vulcans don't do that but when she corrects and says they Miss him he accepts this and admits he misses them too; implying perhaps a pedantic difference between 'Vulcans do not Feel Emotions' (false) and 'Vulcans do not Act Out of Emotion' (accurate) -> 'Miss/Longing' is an emotion, but 'Worry' is an action one does out of emotion -> one Vulcans do; one Vulcans do not.

[unopenablebox]

look. most people on tumblr, like most people everywhere, are just kind of innumerate, at least in slightly unexpected cases theyre asked to discuss on polls. they can't demonstrate an understanding of probability and they also don't understand compound interest. this is bad, but we can't fix it by explaining on the polls at length why they are wrong, because people on tumblr, in a specific manner but also still pretty much like people everywhere, think you are a fun-ruining evil stemlord who automatically loses the argument and should be put to death as the oppressor if you try to explain math to them

[dontletmewaittoolong]

i just recently read through “came the lightening” by olivia harrison and 1. it is an incredibly emotionally revealing, beautiful collection of poems 2. i was basically crying throughout the whole thing 3. i have a lot to say about it that i do not have the ability to articulate as of now (and i’d feel bad spoiling the poems. tbh i encourage people to get it and read it if they’re a george fan it’s really good <3)

but what i can say right now is that i audibly laughed when i got to the last page of the book and saw it ended with george quoting bob dylan because of course it did

oh george

[deerest-deer]

thinking really hard about logging into my old tumblr acc after being gone for like a year and a half cause i stumbled upon a post that led me to my old mutuals and i teared up a lil </3 but also i feel so ashamed i left without saying a word to anyone aaaa