#I think both make sense but with different meanings

[chipped-chimera]

Okay psych nerd here who is not going to bloat this with a tag explanation and instead just write the thing:

The answer is two things -

Dehumanization / Distancing from Humanity

Moral Psychology

Here's an example in action. So I'm sure everyone knows about the Trolley Problem - you are standing near a train track at the track switch, an out of control train barrelling down the rails. On one of the tracks, are a group of men working on the rails (or tied to the rails if you prefer the image version). If you do nothing, it will collide with the group of people and kill them. On the other hand, if you use the switch and change the track, it'll instead kill just one person. This one people can reasonably complete, the usual choice being kill one to save five or whatever.

But here is another version. The Fat Man Trolley Problem (not my wording). In this version of the Trolley Problem, you are standing on a bridge overpass of a traintrack. Next to you is a very large man. Below you, are the five workmen. The train is out of control, but you realise if you push the fat man off the bridge and onto the track, his mass will be enough to stop the train and save the five people on the track. What do you do?

Naturally, this one prompted visceral reactions from people it was pitched to in studies - which begs the question, how is this version different from the switch problem? In both problems, you have the choice to sacrifice one to save many, but the mere thought of having to physically push another person onto the tracks crosses a line.

That's because a switch distances you from the situation, in a sense, you are removed from the humanity in the decision making and it's pure logic. Harm is a side-effect of flicking the switch, in a way you are less involved. Having to push the man, however, is forcing you to confront the human-ness of the situation, to look someone in the face and make that decision.

A lot of the problems in the world, and their respective government entities who are supposed to be fixing them, often have zero experience in the very thing they're supposed to be solving. They're sitting in an office, far, far away looking at a bunch of numbers spat out by a consulting agency while there are homeless in the streets. The switch they pull is so far away they can't even see the people their decisions affect. And if they think less of the people they are making decisions over, like the very, very, very obviously misplaced idea that homelessness is somehow caused by moral failing - that will distance them from the humanity of the situation even further.

I think back to an article I read about someone who had lost their husband to suicide after many, many, many years struggling, went to a conference regarding mental health. The participants of this conference would be the ones making major decisions that would affect the health and outcomes of other people. She confronts one of them, and asks them - have you ever been affected by depression? have you ever had someone in your family been affected?

He seemed shocked and startled. But he answered no.

That should say everything. Anyway this is why I think it should be mandatory for anyone forming country-wide, dramatically-impactful policies in government, especially regarding minorities and poverty - should have a MANDATORY amount of hours they have to spend per year with said people who will be affected by their decisions. And none of this distanced hand shaking for the cameras, I mean living that experience as closely as possible.

It's not that humanity is dead. It's not that we get up with the intention of causing harm every day. It's just a fact of psychological distancing that causes us to lose our connection with it. This can be unintentional, but sometimes it is intentional. It's often a tactic in war propaganda, to cast the enemy in such an evil light that the idea of killing many to protect or save your people - even if it's women and children, and disabled and elderly people, and civilians - is somehow justified.

So the next time you vote or support a cause or whatever in your life that may end up influencing the situation of people, outside of your known experience - stop for a moment, and have a think about what it is like for those individuals. If you had to physically go to them, and look them in the eyes - would you make the same decisions?

Also vote for people with lived experience into those positions to make the decisions when you can!

It confuses me how normalized it is to be so anti human. The fact that two countries voted no to food being a human right. The fact so many people are against universal healthcare. The fact that it’s normal to believe some people don’t deserve housing because they’re poor, addicts, mentally ill, or any combination of the above. I find it so hard to comprehend that humans who have experienced hunger, thirst, cold, and illness would wish these things upon others, or at the very least not care. It frustrates me beyond belief.

These are the exact values we’re taught as children, to believe all humans are equal in worth and needs, and yet at some point you’re expected to grow out of that illusion. You’re expected to accept that this is what life’s like, that the world is unfair, and attempting to fix it makes you weak and childish.

[enkays-den]

Enkay Watches the Imp and Skizz Podcast #127 (featuring @joehills)

First of all, if you are not watching Joe Hills on either youtube or twitch, DO IT!!!! He's streaming pretty much every day and the conversations are always so interesting and he has the best little windows into the workings of Hermitcraft. Folks will pop by and have super interesting conversations with him! He's one of my favorite hermits and I think his unique way of experiencing minecraft, life, and hermitcraft is something that deserves more eyes on it, because I know people are sleeping on him.

First off, THIS is how you show up to the Imp and Skizz Podcast! Classy, on brand, and unique!

I love Impulse's little nest of pillows, he's so cozy nestled in there, holding his mandated amount of water like a security blanket

I love that the reason they wanted Joe on was to talk about the coup SPOILERS: they never even touch on it

joe's dad being a logician makes so much sense tbh

"a creationist universe where god wants you dead and i play minecraft like a greek hero idiot" is such an amazing way to talk about super hostile maps

HOW IS IT THAT JOE AND SKIZZ BOTH HAVE EDGAR ALLEN POE ANECDOTES OFF THE DOME

Joe having his wedding taking place during the recess of a vehicular manslaughter trial feels so strange and yet so Joe

JOE HILLS FULL NAME DROP?????

"YOU'VE GOTTA BE JOE KING" okay he mentioned on stream that there was a joke that maybe two people would get and I will proudly claim to be one of the two.

"fighting to become an artist" is so validating to Skizz's journey so far. It's gonna be his year anniversary of being a hermit soon and im gonna get emotional about his path this last year

Joe WOULD put on the Scottish Parliament sessions as background noise, love that

"I don't trust any platform with my art. I'm the one that makes the art and the audience is the one that appreciates my art" "I need to be as platform/brand agnostic as possible" "next time Amazon does something terrible to the unions" 👏👏👏

CHEERS REFERENCE, SKIZZ'S SITCOM BRAIN IS ACTIVATED

talking about his streams like a bar and like,,,,, he's so smart about the role of creators and fandom and i just appreciate joe so much

it's funny that they're shocked about the relationships can be formed within fandoms when like,,,,, that's how they met tango

((also if we talk regularly and read this i love you guys <3))

skizz, the worst chat reader ever i love you

i need hermitcraft standup. please. custom texture snowballs as tomatoes or flowers to throw

thinking about a younger skizz using a tape recorder to record his 'genius ideas' and quotes he likes and annoying the crap out of his friends

YES JOE AND SKIZZ TALKING ABOUT THE SCIENCE OF COMEDY AND THE STRUCTURE, THEY'RE SUCH AN INTELLECTUAL DUO

I'm glad that we got to hear Joe's JFK impression

COURT CASE TALK!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Bdubs will only let Doc win if it's funnier for doc to win, because that's how guilty doc was"

Joe quoting Sun Tsu and then going on the stand and said "Your Honor, Your Highness, my client is a baby" in an asymetric star trek dress, that's the Joe Hills Difference

"DELICIOUS" skizz i love how schadenfreude you are

"FIVE DIAMONDS PER F TIER BOOK???" impulse my favorite wet cat

"I'll make one sale every two months" and also implying that the shopping district has property taxes

the delivery on "two. some people say four" was SLICK

TUMBLR MCYT SEXYMAN POLL MENTION

"tumblr defines sexyman to mean 'most bizarre, cryptid, creepy thing' " not wrong there.

"well scar is obviously going to win the sexyman competition"

"once i found out that it's for weird, cryptid energy, I knew "oh nevermind I'm gonna win this"

joe hills is my favorite weird guy and he deserved to win

cleo as our nonbinary icon placing third place in the tumblr sexyman poll

All in all, fantastic podcast, and not long enough imo. I hope Joe gets to be there in person one day like he originally envisioned, and there's just an untapped well of information that could go into future podcasts

Reminder that you should subscribe and follow Joe!

BONUS, edited by me, please credit if you use it, I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE you to use it (original screencap under cut):

[hyuniemyunie]

sleeping with hyun-ju ☆ミ

gn!reader x cho hyun-ju

sfw

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

(ФωФ): no tws! just pure fluff and cuddling<3 established relationships, after the game, FUCK THAT PLACE.

id love to hear your requests if you have any!

⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠄･ ⋆ ･

hyun-ju was just..staring at the elevator floor, her eyes zoned out and her mind elsewhere. she was nervous.

it was her first time going to a partners house after starting her transition, and she didnt know how to act. what was she supposed to do? how was she supposed to act..?

her thoughts were interrupted by you nudging your pinky finger against hers, looking up at her with an amused smile

"you okay?"

she shook her head a little, her eyes focusing on you. she nodded, a stiff smile on her face

"yeah, yeah..im okay."

you huffed out a laugh, taking her hand in yours. you lifted her hand up, pressing a soft, lingering kiss to the back of it.

"you got any bad sleeping habits i should know about?"

hyun-ju let out a soft chuckle as you kissed her hand, a pleasant shiver running down her spine at the gentle touch. she stepped outside the elevator, the doors sliding closed behind them with a soft whoosh. she considered your question, a thoughtful look on her face.

"i tend to sleep lightly, so sudden movements might startle me. and im used to having a strict schedule, so I might be a bit... particular about meal times and bedtimes at first."

she paused, thinking for a moment longer. "oh, and I have a habit of waking up early, like ridiculously early. like, before the sun early. I'll try to keep the noise down, but no promises."

hyun-ju glance down the hallway before turning back to you with a soft smile. you returned it, reaching into your pocket to take out your keys. you unlocked the door with a soft "click!", stepping inside. you leaned down, taking your shoes off and kicking them..somewhere, the shoes didnt really matter when you had a beautiful woman at your place.

hyun-ju followed you into the apartment, shrugging off her beige jacket and draping it over the back of the couch. she took a moment to look around, taking in the comfortable, lived-in feel of the space. it was so different from the places she was used to, but somehow, it felt welcoming and warm.

"its nice," she said softly, meaning it. she kicked off her own shoes and set them neatly by the door, unlike you. as she stepped further into the apartment, she noticed the soft lighting, the plush furniture, the personal touches scattered throughout.

hyun-ju felt a flicker of nerves again, suddenly self-conscious about her own appearance and background. she was a far cry from the typical girlfriend material you probably dated. but as she looked around the cozy space, she felt a sense of belonging begin to take root, maybe you'll both make it work out..

"so, wheres your room?" she asked, trying to keep her tone light and casual. "i should probably... unpack my bag." she gestured vaguely to the duffel bag slung over her shoulder, kinda the only possession she had left after everything else had been taken from her.

as you were in the middle of taking your jacket off, you pointed towards your room, tilting your head towards it.

hyun-ju nodded, making her way down the hallway. she paused outside the door you had indicated, taking a deep breath before pushing it open. the room was simply furnished, with a bed, a dresser, and a small desk, and your own little personal touches to it. it was clean and tidy, just how she liked it.

she set her bag down on the bed and unzipped it, pulling out the single change of clothes. It was a simple outfit, a soft pastel blue sweater and a pair of comfortable pants. nothing fancy, but warm and practical for a night in.

as she changed out of her jeans and black shirt, hyun-ju caught sight of herself in the mirror on the closet door. she paused, looking at her reflection critically. she could still see the remnants of her military bearing, the lean muscle and the hard edges. but there was a softness to her now too, a vulnerability that she had never allowed herself to show before. all the compliments youve showered her with before flooded her mind, making her feel..a little better about herself.

with a small sigh, she finished dressing and made her way back out to the living room. she found you sprawled out on the couch, looking incredibly comfortable and at home. for a moment, hyun-ju felt a pang of..envy. she had never had a space like this, a place where she could truly relax and be herself.

but as she approached the couch, she felt a sense of belonging begin to take hold. this was your space, but somehow, it felt like it could be hers too. at least for tonight.

"is this okay?" she asked softly, hovering uncertainly by the couch. "im not sure ive ever..done this before." she bit her lip, suddenly feeling shy and unsure.

"of course its okay!" you answered happily, scooting over to make room for hyun-ju, letting her sit down next to you. you took a moment to look at her face, the light of the tv illuminating her already beautiful face. was it possible for someone to look this gorgeous? if not, hyun-ju made it possible.

she hesitated for a moment before sinking down onto the couch beside you, the soft cushions molding to her body in a way that made her sigh with reluctant pleasure. as you pulled her closer, resting your head on her shoulder, she felt a wave of warmth wash over her, a sense of rightness that made her heart ache.

she wrapped an arm around your waist, holding you close as she settled back against the couch. It was a foreign sensation, being this close to someone, allowing herself to be vulnerable. but with you, it felt... natural. comfortable.

you let out a soft sigh, leaning into her touch. "this is nice.."

"Mm, it is," hyun-ju murmured softly, tilting her head to rest atop yours as you two watched the drama unfold on the tv screen. the dialogue washed over her, the korean words familiar but the context new. she found herself more focused on the feeling of your body pressed against her own, the gentle rise and fall of your breath, the softness of your hair beneath her cheek.

as the episode went on, hyun-ju felt her eyelids growing heavy. the events of the past few days caught up with her, the adrenaline that had been keeping her going fading away. she blinked slowly, fighting to stay awake, but it was a losing battle.

"love.." she murmured, her voice slurring slightly with exhaustion. "i think...i think I might fall asleep." she knew she should keep watching, should stay awake and keep you company. but her body had other plans.

she tightened her arm around your waist, holding you close as the TV flickered in front of them. "dont let me... snore too loud," she mumbled, already feeling herself drifting off, safe and warm in your embrace.

she let out a soft, sleepy murmur as you pressed a tender kiss to her cheek. she felt herself being maneuvered, her head coming to rest on the softness of your lower stomach as she was pulled to lay partially on top of you.

she nuzzled instinctively into the warmth of your stomach, her eyelids drooping as she felt your fingers threading gently through her short hair. the touch was soothing, comforting, and it made hyun-ju feel a rush of emotions she couldnt quite name. she had never been cared for like this before, never been held and comforted with such tenderness.

"Mm... thank you," she whispered, her voice muffled against your shirt. she knew her words were slurred, her mind hazy with exhaustion and a strange, warm feeling she couldn't quite comprehend

ss sleep claimed her, hyun-ju let herself sink into the comfort of your embrace, feeling safe and wanted in a way she never had before. she stirred softly as she felt herself being gently lifted and moved, her head coming to rest on a soft, warm pillow, aka your chest. she nuzzled instinctively into the comfortable surface, her sleep-addled brain registering the change in position but not quite waking her. as she drifted on the edge of sleep, she felt strong arms wrap around her, holding her close and pulling her snug against a warm, soft body.

in her half-asleep state, hyun-ju's instincts took over, and she melted into the embrace, her own arms coming up to wrap around the person holding her. she burrowed deeper into the comforting warmth, a soft sigh of contentment escaping her lips. it was a peaceful, safe feeling.

as the night deepened and the world outside fell silent, hyun-ju and her partner remained entwined on the couch, their breathing falling into a slow, synchronized rhythm. the soft glow of the TV cast a gentle, flickering light over their still forms, illuminating the intimate embrace they shared.

hyun-ju's head rested on the crook of your shoulder, her face nestled against your neck. her arm lay draped across your stomach, while your arm wrapped protectively around hyun-ju's waist, holding her close. you fit together like two puzzle pieces, bodies molding to each other as if they were made to be this way.

as the hours passed, the first light of dawn began to creep in through the windows, casting a soft, warm glow over the sleeping couple. it illuminated the gentle rise and fall of their chests, the soft, peaceful expressions on their faces. in sleep, they looked younger, softer, the weight of the traumatic experiences they had endured lifted from their shoulders.

hyun-ju stirred first, her brow furrowing slightly as she surfaced from the deep sleep that had claimed her. she blinked slowly, her eyes adjusting to the soft morning light. as she became more aware of her surroundings, she realized she was still cradled in her partners arms, her head resting on a soft chest, their legs tangled together beneath a soft blanket that had been draped over them sometime during the night.

a soft, sleepy smile tugged at the corners of hyun-ju's mouth as she took in the peaceful, content expression on your face. you looked so beautiful, so serene in sleep.

'"nnh.." you stirred slightly, groaning in your sleep as you let out some incoherent sleepy mumbles, pulling hyun-ju closer, needing to feel her close, needing to know that this was actually real.

her heart melted at the sleepy, incoherent mumblings. she felt your arms tighten around her, strong and secure, pulling her even closer until she was nestled completely against your body.

sensing your need for comfort and closeness even in sleep, hyun-ju tightened her own grip around your waist, pressing a soft, gentle kiss to the sensitive skin just below your ear. she nuzzled her nose against your neck, breathing in the comforting, familiar scent of your sleep-warmed skin.

"Shh, it's okay," she murmured softly, her voice low and soothing. "I've got you, sweetheart. you're safe with me." she started to gently rub your back in slow, soothing circles, trying to ease any lingering tension or unease.

hyun-ju knew she should likely wake you, but seeing you so peaceful and content, she couldn't bring herself to disturb her. Instead, she settled in more comfortably, letting her own eyes drift shut as she matched her breathing to yours once more.

"mmh..hyun-juuu.."

you mumbled in your sleep, reaching out for her.

she smiled softly at the sleepy mumble of her name. "Shh, I'm here," hyun-ju whispered, her lips brushing against the sensitive skin of your neck as she spoke. she tightened her embrace, holding you even closer, molding your bodies together until not an inch of space remained between you.

hyun-ju's hand continued its gentle, soothing path along your back, now tracing random patterns on the soft fabric of her shirt. she wanted to comfort, to reassure, to let you know that you were safe and protected in her arms.

"rest now, my love," she murmured, the endearment slipping from her lips like a soft sigh. "I'll be right here when you wake, I promise." she peppered gentle kisses along your jawline, your cheek, your forehead, the tip of your nose..

hyun-ju's fingers drifted up to comb gently through the sleep-tousled hair at your nape, savoring the silky texture. she marveled at the trust you placed in her, to sleep so deeply, so completely in her arms. It was a gift, a precious treasure that hyun-ju vowed to cherish and protect.

drawing the blanket more snugly around them, hyun-ju settled in, her own eyes growing heavy once more. she let herself drift, not quite sleeping but not quite awake, content to simply hold and be held, to bask in the warmth and closeness of the moment.

If this was a dream, she never wanted to wake up.

[frownyalfred]

The thing is... I understand Clark/Lois and Clark/Lana, and Superbat feels coherent to that.

I do not tend to understand Bruce's canon-y ships. I don't quite get WonderBat (which is sweet, but why do they fascinate each other?) or BatCat (Catwoman feels like a sexual icon. I don't get why Bruce Wayne, expert at making himself a sexual icon just as well, would be taken in by that) or Talia/Bruce (She seems a bit... square minded for Bruce?? She's a heir to a legacy, like he is, but she doesn't... need to search for what that means. Ras tells her what to do.) Superbat makes more sense to me than all of Bruce's actual ships.

Am I tripping? What are your thoughts on this?

you come to me, a superbat blog, to ask me if I think it's better than the other Bruce ships? 🤣

in all seriousness, superbat works because their canon friendship is so deep and varied. they are often written in contrast or comparison to each other. they work together nearly 24/7. they hang out together outside of work. even their private lives intersect, despite best efforts. if you write a romantic relationship for the two of them, you're really just building on an already-built foundation. and that foundation is so much more rich and complex than any other relationships the two will have, save maybe Clark and Lois.

the reason they work, in my mind, is that they think they're different, but when those differences are thrown in relief, they're really more similar than they think. they're both good men trying to be something beyond one person, one human or alien. and they both share the belief that the other is a better person, deep down, than they are.

[hisui555]

[Nods and shakes hands with Autism and ADHD as a zebra dyspraxic person who knew of those senses due to my own brand of disability and neurodivergence]

Yep, yep, wonky body-to-spatial awareness and hypo/hypersensitivity to stuff is a bitch.

Hiding it under the cut because I don't wanna derail from OP's main point, which is about Autism and Autistic people.

But for those interested or discovering, dyspraxia is a psychomotor disability - and neurodivergence - belonging to the DYS-group (like dyslexia, dyscalculia, etc) that can be summed as "imagine a house with some, most, or all light-ways crosswired : if you push the lightswitch in the kitchen to make yourself a sandwich, it's the bulb in the bathroom on the second floor that lights up. Oh, and you'll bonk and trip on a lot of furniture on the way, will fumble that knife twice, cut a dent in the counter on accident due to misaplied strength, smear the butter all over due to wonky fine motor control, and don't hope distinguishing left from right. Bon appétit."

For the zebra part - also a neurodivergence and it does count as a disorder too, see further down - along with the speedy, arborescent, step-skipping, multi-tracks-at-the-same-time instinctive thoughts process, devouring curiosity for knowledge in general be it from mushroom cultivation to the pyramids of Gizeh, very out-of-the-box thinking and good-ish memory, it comes with more acute senses 9 times outta 10 which on the positive side means a good musical ear without even having musical knowledge, good eyesight - I still have 12 out of 10 even after 3 decades on this planet, and more than 10 for my ears, still hearing sounds people aren't supposed to when over 20 - a keen nose, etc. Unsurprisingly, synaesthesia and hyperempathy very often come along for the ride.

On the bad side, this means that those senses (whether a few or all of them) are all dialed up to eleven since birth, often mix together, and since your brain never shuts up and takes a lot in at once quite fast just like it does information, it can make your day a noisy, straining, saturated, tiring mess quite quick.

Point of it : sympathizing with and for Autistic people going through this, from someone who has it too but with another neurodivergence/disorder.

(Just for info, zebra-ness can be and does go along with ADHD, Autism, or both of them - the three are sort of cousin neurodivergences in a sense. Like the latter two, it's from birth, and something is different in the brain : where an ADHD brain for example doesn't produce (or has low) dopamine, a zebra-brain has a fair bit more myelin than a neurotypical brain - myelin is a fatty-substanced membrane akin to "oil on a door" in the brain, that connects cells and axons between them, assuring nutrients, and more relevantly the transmission of neural information, connection, activity and input (though differents parts of the brain play a role too). For zebra-brains, that door is very well oiled - sometimes too much - and that input goes faster than in non-zebra brains, up to covering (if I'm not wrong) 3m50 or more in a second whereas the standard is 2 to 2m50, which means 1 to 1m50 more of billions of neurons lit and activated in the same timespan.

In short, it's like having better Wi-Fi and being able to download/process more. Well, if the information goes where it should =='

The downside ? You're "calibrated" to think of the complicated solution(s) first instead of the easy one(s) - thinking in arborescence also means seeing a lot of solutions at once, with huge hesitation of what's the right one - and it doesn't guarantee common sense either.

...Yup. (Taken from the webcomic xkcd.)

Also, collecting information fast and "getting it quick" doesn't mean fully, consciously understanding it right off the bat. An ability to instinctively understand things emotionally - emotional intelligence - doesn't mean being able to control and regulate one's own emotions in a healthy way - emotional maturity - as they are two different things. Yeah, a massive downside of zebra-ness is the constant splitting you'll do : you have one foot in one territory - most times the capacity to understand things beyond your age demography - and the other foot across the almost-no-inbetween gap of your actual emotional maturity level. And that's without speaking about the social gap, whether in school or not, and the downsides of instinctive step-skipping reasoning : the moment there's setback, that missing step on the stairs is a hole you fall through, and you often don't have the tools or methods to properly get out past the shock of falling (and failing). Impostor Syndrome and burnout can also be real plagues.

Also, once a zebra, always a zebra. Like any neurodivergence it doesn't "disappear" with time, age or treatment.)

(Why "zebra" ? Well, ADHD has the butterfly, Autism has the infinity loop, and Zebra people have the, drumroll please, zebra - term coming from francophone psychologist Jeanne Siaud-Facchin, even if not used in science - because I'm of the mind that the word """gifted""", or "advanced" or just "HIP/HPI" (High Intellectual Potential) is a misnomer (yeah, that's what it is, but I largely prefer "zebra", it's more neutral, less pompous and doesn't just focus on the intellect side with those damn IQ tests and their stupidly bad connotations) : it's a whole neurodivergence that affects more than just so-called "smarts", being actually about thought speed, processing, creativity, along with a different sensorial and emotional perception of one's environment, that has a lot in common with both ADHD and Autism in particular, and they CAN be commorbid.

They share : -An unusual way of thinking, which is often described as "outside the box", rather creative, and "not what was asked" for those who don't like it. Where a Neurotypical person goes through an assignment, an Autistic person might go sideways, an ADHD person over, and a Zebra person beyond the assignment, and all of them find the answer still without being "wrong". -Sensory disorders, (tying back to OP's post) as the brain is often cross-wired or boosted too much. A Zebra person has it dialed up to eleven by default, and as such takes everything in but it's too strong, too acute, too buzzing, basically too loud. An ADHD person might be unable to focus, every noise intermingles, they can't take them apart as they take everything in, so in short it's too many. An Autistic person might feel overwhelmed from the different stimuli overriding their senses, causing physical discomfort that's not just plain pain but other sensations like burning, feeling stabbed, etc, so, too much. All three can end up having a meltdown or being exhausted from dealing with that, while a Neurotypical person might feel simply tired and annoyed. -Unusual interests and hyperfixations, an Autistic person has deep, often obscure but comforting special interests that they often come back to and will research in detail. They might go at it like a cone or funnel, digging deeper and deeper each time. An ADHD person searches lots of things for stimuli, hopping from one to another following their interest and once hooked in, will stay on that hyperfixation until the well is "dry" and move onto another, might also feel a period of deep boredom until they find another - like a lock constantly locking and unlocking. A Zebra person goes at it out of sheer, overwhelming curiosity and thirst of knowledge, the more the better, both multitasking and digging the deepest they can (like Autistic people), with varied and very ecclectic fields of "research" (like ADHD people), soaking it up like a sponge. -Infodumping and long-winded explanations, tied to the above. Autistic people might share special interest out of comfort, finding a kindred spirit, and talk about something they're comfortable with. ADHD people may have a lot of interests at once and want to share out of excitement, venting out their discoveries and riding that feel-good wave. Zebra people might talk a ton because they keep thinking about new details and concepts tied to the interest that they wanna debate over while they're also talking about it, sending their brain ablaze and sharing their amazement. All three usually do it to share, express themselves, and bond ! -Social and empathy troubles (hyper/hypoempathy), as an Autistic person might have difficulties reading social cues, picking verbal from non-verbal, and reading implied or implicit intent, but react strongly (or on the contrary, not) to hidden emotions. An ADHD person might take a lot of those clues in all at once and have trouble picking the "correct" one to react to, or be considered "too hyper" by others by reacting to most if not all of them. A Zebra person might pick up the implied or implicit intent and treat it as the de facto explicit intent, which brings problems in a world where people lie often, as they might address what the person needs rather than what they want, or bust hidden wants into the open, and let the cat out of the bag too soon. They can also ask a lot of questions and point out things that may not be comfortable for everyone with disregard of what's "socially acceptable", not because they don't know what social cues are, but because they find it unfair and will bypass said cues, sometimes to their own detriment. All three can get baffled by and fall prey to (or be) liars and manipulators because (despite that) they don't understand why/how a person would/could behave like that, this doesn't exempt anyone from getting hurt or hurting others despite noticing (or not) patterns and behaviors !

Non exhaustive list. So, what's the main difference ? One actually has comfort as the axis, doing things that makes them feel good, safe, and needs a routine and patterns. One has stimuli as an axis to seek the dopamine the brain is lacking, needing interest for motivation and literally struggles to do a task their brain isn't interested in, with periods of shifting focus and forgetfulness. One has curiosity as an axis and a strong desire for information in all forms, needing to seek knowledge for expansion and creativity, can get interested in everything or almost in sometimes unrelated domains, then building upon it in their own way, wanting to bring it a step further. All three are curious, researching people that want to feel good doing what they like, taking things apart to see how it works, but why and how they do it might differ !

And as will all neurodivergences and disorders, things can overlap and be shared traits, especially in those having more than one or two neurodivergences or disorders that can counter or mess up each other (AuDHD : the simultaneous clashing needs of routine and novelty for example).

So yeah, conclusion, why zebras ? Well, Zebras look like horses, but are their own thing, and each zebra has different stripes, just like zebra-ness is a spectrum.)

(From the French site Suivezlezèbre.com, "follow the zebra")

If I'm wrong, please correct me, but this is based on my own experiences, observations, reads, talks with people (zebra, Autistic, ADHD, neurotypical or other neurodivergences, family, friends, strangers, acquaintances, therapist included - and yes I'm a confirmed zebra by a professional) and, well, life.

And uh, further proving my point, outside of the quick research I did and needed to write all this (I have no intent to spread misinformation), well... English is not my native language (3rd overall though) and my studies were in art : I've never opened a psychology or neurology book in my life.

So take this all with a grain of salt, but at the same time... QED.

The 8 Senses

The Autistic Teacher

[thewertsearch]

@necrowyrm asked: happy new year!!! enjoy the last little bit of homestuck before act 6! Anonymous asked: You have NO IDEA how much I was looking forward to your reaction to this flash :D @teddy-bearer-of-bad-news asked: a very late congratulations from me for making it this far! i gotta say, saving CASCADE for new year's is probably the smartest thing i've heard all week. may your experience be nothing short of righteous, comrade Anonymous asked: Cascade … Even years latter knowing it almost by heart, every once in a while I will take a little quarter of an hour to rewatch it, Say what you want about Hussie but there is a good reason Homestuck became so iconic. @adeptarcanist asked: The leadup to Cascade was honestly my favorite sequence in Homestuck, and maybe one of my favorites in any media ever? The way the narrative splits apart into all of the different scenes swirling in towards the critical moment, both advancing main plots and finding time to spend a moment of melancholy with characters who’d been left behind (The Jaspers and Nepeta scene :( )… it’s such a strong narrative device, and the tone it generates is impeccable. @calamitascalliope asked: I literally watched the flash again, and it still gives me chills every single time. Welcome to your post-Cascade life. You won't be able to think about anything the same ever again @iris-in-the-dark-world asked: "she looks so cool… but she’s so tragic… but she looks so cool…" has become a brainworm for me. i too love the handmaid's design btw, cascade time has been i think the most anticipated non-personal event of the entire year for me. i'm so excited @publicuniversalworstie asked: I want you to know that I also opened Cascade and started watching with you right after I saw your "oh my god it has chapters" ask, and I finished just as you posted "I will never be the same" !! And I bet lots of other people did too <3 so it's like we all watched it together!!!! Happy New Year and thank you for liveblogging!!!! It's been a pleasure！(and will continue to be) @krixwell asked: I would like you to know that your "Right, we're good to go!" and "oh my god it has chapters" posts were posted right as I was outside watching midnight fireworks ring in 2025 for the Central European timezone. Happy new year! @captorations asked:

hey remember when rose just up and fucking said that. anyway congrats on reaching cascade! it absolutely wrecked me back in the day, i think i stared at those flaming curtains for a solid ten minutes as my brain permanently reconfigured. the first few notes of the track alone still give shivers. getting your reaction to cascade was a wonderful birthday present. (speaking of getting older: aradia 🤝 dulcinea also got that "distressingly short lifespan only to die early anyway" story thread going on. the parallels are paralleling.) anyway happy new year and congrats you are… slightly less than halfway done with homestuck. have fun!

Hey, guys. Cascade was so fucking good.

Like, there's really no competition; this is the best Flash page in the comic thus far. Peak music, peak animation, and absolutely a peak narrative. It tied up mountains of plot threads, providing complete answer to questions we're been asking for literally thousands of pages. It completed over a dozen arcs, both big and small. It made me gasp three times in fourteen minutes. It let Jade become a furry.

11/10, and I'm glad people had as much fun here as I did on New Year's Eve. Happy 2025, and happy Act 6!

@morganwick asked: Sally, predicting Cascade: "I have approximate knowledge of many things." @morganwick asked: "You literally have the whole world in the palm of your hands." -Sally to Jadesprite, December 16, 2024 (You might also want to reread post/770701212350857216 in light of recent developments.)

Hah!

I mean, based on her powerset, it made sense that Jadesprite would do something like this eventually, but it's pretty funny that she did it more or less immediately.

And in the end, CD really was a tricky little bastard. We'll definitely need to keep a closer eye on him, next time around.

Anonymous asked: Take a moment to consider that if anyone were to use the Homestuck website as it stands now instead of the Collection program, Cascade would have been presented in the YouTube player in Standard Definition, artifacted to hell, with a clear boundary showing the dimensions of the video from the very start. Preservation is so important.

Jeez, you're not kidding. The 1080p is fine, I guess, but it certainly doesn't hit like the Flash version does, especially with its lack of moving panels.

I know something had to change when Flash kicked the bucket, but surely there was a better way to preserve the video's soul.

Anonymous asked: to give you some of an idea of what homestuck fandom looked like during this time period, im cribbing from a very popular homestuck post: “first, this upd8 was something that we had been waiting for for WEEKS. A literally unprecedented wait period at the time. We were used to suckling at the teat of daily updates, a constant stream of conversation and plot twists and buildup, and as EOA5, we were finally going to figure out what all these countdowns and plot threads and disconnected elements were building up for. And when the progress bar reached 100%, and when the page FINALLY loaded on 10/25/11, it was chaos. This was 2011, a primetime peak point and growth period of Homestuck fan density.” (…) “MSPA crashed, as it had started to during the last few big [S] updates. Hussie had already bought new servers in advance, but even when allegedly thousands of dollars were spent it couldn't handle the accidental DDOS attack of Homestuck fans. People were up all night waiting for this upd8, the curiosity was killing me. I know at some point he was receiving at least 1 million unique visitors per day to his site [correction: according to Hussie’s tumblr, upwards of 2 million during this time], and even though Hussie had foreseen such traffic and thusly hosted [S] Cascade on Newgrounds, a dedicated video streaming site, Newgrounds was similarly unprepared for the sheer amount of people frantically mashing the play and refresh buttons, and also crashed. Immediately. MSPA and Newgrounds crashed definitively for at least two nights in a row” (…) “Andrew Hussie has gone on record to say this was one of the few times he thought Homestuck wasn’t worth it, because the sheer unbelievable cost (was it $10,000?) [correction: according to Hussie’s tumblr, it looked like it was going to cost $100,000 to keep [S] Cascade up for several days] of servers and the chaos of no one able to see the upd8 and crashing nearly every site after. He was tweeting during the whole debacle, stating he was reluctant to put it up on Youtube because of all the moving elements of the flash, and style, and how youtube degraded the quality of the file size, and how he tried to scratch out buffer time and pauses by putting periods of silence between each section of the 14 minute upd8, the longest upd8 yet” “So after Newgrounds patooted, he didn’t put it on youtube and instead put up the entire flash file on Megaupload, where it could be downloaded in it’s entirety to be watched. UNFORTUNATELY, Megaupload also crashed very quickly, which Hussie felt much headache over. But before that happened I managed to get the file, since I happened to be up very early that night! Next it was on dropbox, which didn’t crash but had “link unavailable” on and off. ”Spoilers were flying everywhere, people didn’t understand everything that had happened, and by the time the timeline of events in and out of [S] Cascade was all straightened out, people became even MORE hype. Like this whole thing lasted at least four days, and on top of that, the upd8 was good. Fandom exploded.” it is impossible to quantify the experience. The fact hussie was going to have to fork over A HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS to host it is crazy. I am never going to be over it.

Cascade's complete obliteration of the Flash-hosting internet says a lot about huge Homestuck truly was - but I think an even bigger indicator of the comic's success is the fact that Hussie dropped literally thousands of dollars on server upgrades to host the thing. That's not an investment you make unless you're expecting some serious returns.

[thedissonantverses]

You are More than Your Scars:

Or Why Davrin and Bellara are our Elven Heroes in Veilguard

Davrin and Bellara represent the past, present, and future of the Dalish in Thedas. The way the writers used them as parallels of what being an elf means in this universe is endlessly fascinating to me as a long time Dragon Age fan.

Davrin we know has a complicated relationship with his clan and his past. As an adult who has been on his own, he recognizes what his clan was trying to teach him. As a kid he didn’t, and he went charging into the world with no regard for those lessons or his own safety. Clan life wasn’t for him, but he still carries the weight of all of that history with him. Uncle Eldrin did what he could. (Check out this write-up for a better look at Davrin's relationship with black fatherhood thanks to @master-of-the-elements) He could have gotten rich with his skillset and his need to challenge himself, but he chose the Wardens to find a sense of purpose in a world that doesn’t always give elves that choice.

He gets his hands bloody and makes the world a better place one monster at a time. Long before he meets Assan, he’s a protector first and a hunter second. He found his own way forward, one that combines the traditions of the Dalish with helping the people of Thedas now. All of the people of Thedas. As a Warden he also carries the weight of elven legends like Garahel. Elves have always lived and died to protect against the blight, and Davrin is no exception. Davrin is Thedas as it is now, where elf or warden or man can mean many different things, and it's how you define it the path going forward that matters.

Bellara also has a complicated relationship with her clan and with the past. We see this primarily through her brother Cyrian, but it's clear due to her neurodivergence she didn't necessarily fit in growing up and stands out even amongst Veil Jumpers. Losing her anchor in Cyrian, the person who knew her best, didn't help. People tend to dismiss Bellara because she talks too fast and thinks too fast and stumbles. But she's intensely passionate about her people's history and legacy and has devoted her life to the seeking of knowledge. She is exceptionally intelligent, she is kind, and she is ferocious in the defense of what she loves. She represents the side of the Dalish that have been seeking lost knowledge, but it's what she does with that that makes her so compelling. Learning not to shrink from that knowledge is crucial to her as a character.

Bellara, by careful design, has an existential crisis about the Evanuris and what they mean for the Dalish, who have already been through enough as a people. It's through Bellara we see what it means to learn about the horrors of your own history, and how to break away from it to make it better. That the many nuances and complications of the past don't need to define your relationship to your culture. You are more than the worst things that have been done to you and yours.

What both of these characters represent is not just an examination of generational trauma, but how to heal and move on from it. Davrin and Bellara, any way you slice it, are heroes. Everything from their arcs to their character design shows off what it means to be Dalish and I can't praise Veilguard enough for their inclusion.

[starbylers]

How much of “El” was actually in Will’s van speech, why this scene does NOT point to him letting Mike go, and what we actually know about Will's arc/Byler because of it

I know everyone jokes about the Will crying in the van shot so we sometimes forget how serious of a moment that was but like…..he was devastated. It’s always bothered me when people act as though this scene was about El in any genuine way, and that the message to take away is that Will is accepting Mike and El love each other and starting to move on. Both of these things couldn’t be further from the truth, they’re just convenient interpretations to fit a certain narrative.

In reality, Will assumed what El feels because he loves Mike, and that’s how he feels. There was no conversation between him & El, nothing Will ever witnessed, for him to determine that Mike "makes her feel like she’s better for being different”, that that helps her "fight". It’s what El wanted to feel from Mike, but she clearly didn’t (“You think I’m a monster too”). We never see Mike uplift her for her differences throughout the entire time they're dating, and then in s4 El gets a plot about feeling like she doesn't fit in (“I am different”) and actively lies to Mike about it ??? So...when exactly does Mike make her feel like she's "not a mistake at all"? El doesn't even feel safe giving him the opportunity, in fact she actively refuses to repeatedly: lying in her letters, asking Angela to lie to Mike at the rink, in their fight when he tries to understand & she tells him he doesn't. (And then when he tries in the monologue to use the sentiment “I love you for exactly who you are” etc.…she loses.)

And aside from that, explaining the painting and its meaning was the most blatant lie we see Will tell, and that’s all him. El didn't say all these wonderful things she loves about Mike, didn't create a gift inspired by something personal to Mike (DnD) to emphasise that message. Those were Will’s thoughts and feelings, unquestionably. There is nothing to suggest that El perceives Mike in that way ("the heart", "guiding the party, inspiring us", "without [you] we'd all fall apart"), that she understands Mike and knows exactly what to say to make him feel important, special and needed, that she loves him the way Will loves him (which just coincidentally happens to encompass exactly what Mike needs to hear to soothe his insecurities (“I’m just some random nerd” etc.)). And frankly even if we pretend El thinks the exact same things, Will was the one who did the work to make Mike happy. The idea that El should be able to coast on the efforts of someone else because "well she obviously feels the same way" (where ???) is kind of disturbing. Mike deserves better, and it makes no sense that the writers would narratively reward a love interest who put no effort into showing how much Mike is valued vs one who went above and beyond to make him feel loved.

That speech only applied to El insofar as Will sprinkles in "these past months she's been lost without you", "she's so different from other people", "we'd all fall apart, even El, especially El" and "if she was mean to you/seemed like she was pushing you away". Not because El said any of this, but because it's plausible for Will to come to these conclusions on his own and think he's correct (and even be partially correct). He knows El was doing awful in Lenora because she is different, he knows she's part of the group and has experienced Mike's leadership, he knows she fought with Mike and then left him. All of these things also affect him - he missed Mike's friendship while they were separated, he's different because of his sexuality, he's part of the group too, he "sabotaged" the day in Mike's eyes after not reaching out much and we know he's scared of losing Mike due to his feelings.

But the rest? "Of course she needs you Mike, she'll always need you", "You make her feel like she's not a mistake, like she's better for being different and that gives her the courage to fight", "if she [...] was pushing you away, it's just because she's scared of losing you" (I do think that one's partially true but Will wouldn't know beyond a guess), “if she was gonna lose you I think she’d want to get it over with quick", "El needs you and she always will” (and of course "El commissioned it" and the compliments he gives after)...who is Will to make those claims? He doesn't know how El feels, he didn't even know El was lying to Mike, she clearly doesn't confide in Will about her relationship. No, these things are all Will guessing/outright lying and letting his own feelings slip through. And just in general outside of Will, El hasn’t done/said anything elsewhere in the show to confirm that she feels any of this (in fact it was de-confirmed, in the case of the “better for being different” stuff).

Essentially, it’s all just Will's assumptions about El, some of which are based in reality and some of which are Will projecting. But most importantly, the reassurance and comfort he gives (the painting stuff) in response to Mike talking disparagingly about himself are Will and no-one else, and part of the most blatant lie he tells (“she told me what to draw [...] your coat of arms, it's a heart [...] without heart we'd fall apart”) is specifically what is called back to to push Mike into confessing!

Now, the idea of Will "accepting the reality" of Mike loving El is so ridiculously irrelevant. Will was heartbroken after he did what he did, this boy was literally sobbing out the window, but the whole reason he does is because he fully 100% believes Mike loves El. He knows, people! He spends the entire season giving Mike advice and pushing him towards her. Why would Will need to "accept" something he's been actively supporting before and during this scene? In his mind it's fully unrequited and he's operating within that reality in the most selfless, helpful, unobstructive way! He's not in denial, he has no hope.

What they really mean is he needs to move on and that this scene is somehow an indication that he is, but again, no: "[I] need you, and [I] always will" is Will's final projection before he cries his eyes out, and then later on we see him miserably staring at them again. The fact is, Will has accepted his "reality", that just didn't lead to him getting over Mike. No, it led to him sacrificing something he poured his heart into to save Mike’s relationship because he thinks that what will make Mike happy is to be with El, so he's making that happen. He is a bigger M!leven shipper than anyone. He still loves Mike, shows no signs of letting go, but he's just that selfless. And it's perfect, because no amount of knowing Mike loves El seems to change how much Will loves Mike. Incredibly inconvenient for a "plot" that relies on the gay character’s silly feelings magically disappearing out of reverence for a het couple and their deep soulmate love……

But this is why some people try to invent an imaginary arc where Will was somehow trying to get in the way of M!leven/had hope Mike could feel the same way, because otherwise you just get: Will likes Mike, knows it's hopeless, and then it randomly fizzles out lmao. Everyone knows that's not an arc; there's no change, no development, nothing learned. Plus, if Will is already in full acceptance of M!leven endgame…what’s next seaon's alleged rejection going to do/change? Nothing, Will’s feelings aren’t dependent on Mike reciprocating as has been shown, so the only purpose would be rubbing salt in the wound. And again, you end up with not an arc but a flat, depressing line. Will likes Mike, knows it's hopeless, has it painfully reaffirmed that yes it is hopeless, and then fizzle. If you know stories you know this makes zero sense, and therefore is not happening 👍

[blueberrymilkcookie]

kye's shmilk trailer Nooticing compilation

The Keys

if you've seen the leaks from a while back, we already know that one of the stage assets for shadow milk's update is a room with an extremely big key hole dead center of it. here in the trailer we can see more key imagery! in the first shot, we see the white pillars have a keyhole, and the gold ones have a key shape on the bottom of them. when we finally see the depiction of past-sm, his staff has a key shape on the bottom!!!!! also in the bottom right, you can also see a pillar that seems to be a key as well. (edit: ALSO THE KEYHOLE ON HIS CHEST idk why i forgot to mention that)

as for what this could mean, i mean my best guess is that they key symbolizes unlocking more knowledge, as we know from the 4th anni description that shadow milk was very curious and tried to learn everything there was to learn. the fact that it's a key also gives us a sense of mystery and secrecy although, and may tie into unlocking hidden/forbidden knowledge?

different soul jam design

so this is most definitely a different design from what we saw in both the beast-yeast trailer even past-sm's staff in the image above. i'm not entirely sure why this is, but i'm just gonna throw out another idea.

if the soul jam physically change upon the user's emotional state/will (dark cacao's soul jam turning white when he became apathetic in ep. 4) then it's possible that past-sm's soul jam changed into this very obviously darker and corrupted form once he began to embrace deceit. this could be wrong though and it's just a cool visual thing for the trailer *shrug*

Pondering His Orb

so this is very obviously pure vanilla (same skin tone and his chin is being covered with the same fabric) but why the hell is he pondering his orb rn. and why is he in a shady ass cloak and watching himself go to the spire of knowledge ?? is this like him in the future or... idk. WE'LL SEE I GUESS cuz idk what to make of this

interesting thing to add, past-sm is holding an orb. they're both orb ponderers

(this makes me think he might have had the ability to prophesize the future with a crystal ball or some shit. we already know he likes tarot cards so... Btw i already had this idea so devsis needs to pay me again.)

Let's play a homoerotic game of chess

board game time! not sure if it means anything, but shadow milk is initially holding a bishop, uses it to attack a pawn, and then picks up the king piece and uses it to attack pure vanilla cookie. the pawns on the white team are pv's friends... so he's calling them fodder basically

(also, side note: he changed the queen piece to what looks like a jester. is he calling himself a queen? LMAO)

WELCOME TO THE MINDFUCK!!!

multiple things to be talking about right here!! 1) when shadow milk seems to be gaining control over pure vanilla, pure vanilla's third eye/star marking melts

2) interestingly, as he does this, shadow milk doing his little cool animation also melts into pure vanilla. this could be a way to show him getting inside of pv's head i think. btw i drew this already like 11 months ago so. Devsis pay me.

"It's time to accept the truth you like so much! You, you are merely following in my footsteps. Oh, but it's inevitable. In the end, you will become me!"

3) extremely interesting of them to show past-sm, then show pv looking into the reflection of seemingly his own future corruption (btw it's the same silhouette as the pv costume from the livestream). we all already know what this means guys!! we're going to see the cycle that both shadow milk and dark enchantress went through happening to pure vanilla as well!!!! yippie!!!!!!!!

FUCKING BLUEBERRY YOGURT ACADEMY FINALLY MAKES AN APPEARANCE

EVERYONEEE WOULD YA LOOK AT THAT. WHO IS THAT? THE FIRST HEADMASTER. NOW. this doesnt confirm that shadow milk is the first headmaster BUT now we know that there is canonically a very real connection between him and the first headmaster!!!!

oh yea theres also this weird fucking sun/moon thing

ok what we can currently piece together about shadow milk's lore

"You know, I've always dreamt of a beautiful world of perfect chaos, where lies and truths can't be told apart!"

this isn't gonna be a deep analysis bc we don't know anything yet, BUT, from what i can gather, shadow milk cookie was a very curious god who was always in the pursuit of more knowledge. we know now that CANONICALLY he has ties to the blueberry yogurt academy, and at some point (if not from the very start) began to use the forbidden dark moon magic.

based on the 4th anni description alone, we can see that the or one catalyst for his corruption was the fact that... people were just stupid, and listened to him no matter if he was telling the truth or not (i assume it's deeper than that, but this is all we know rn). after learning this, he began to spread lies, using his knowledge to sow chaos and confusion.

also WHY ARE ALL THREE OF HIS DESIGNS FUCKING DIFFERENT

DEVSISTERRRSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[enwoso]

WHAT WAS & WHAT IS | alessia russo x child!reader x leah williamson

based on a request but i for some reason haven’t linked it on here, sorry..

anyways don’t try and flirt with leah’s girl x

grumpy universe masterlist

alessia was humming to herself as she tidied up the kitchen, the morning had been peaceful and her day was falling into an easy rhythm. alessia had dropped you off at school this morning and since had, had a real bounce in her step.

leah was around after stopping by when alessia had gotten home from the school run, the blonde had made herself comfy in the living room for now, after alessia had shooed her away for distracting alessia as she was working.

so far things felt steady — comfortable.

a sudden knock on the door broke her from her thoughts. frowning alessia glanced at the clock, she wasn't expecting anyone and she didn't think she was expecting a delivery.

wiping her hands on a towel quickly, so she could head towards the door. but leah called out she would get it.

hearing the door open and leah's voice, alessia went back to her original task — folding washing.

"hey, can i help you?" leah's voice was sharp and defensive in a way alessia had rarely heard.

"h-hi. uh..." a familiar voice faltered, hearing the confused tone of leah's voice alessia made her way towards the front door.

harrison was stood in front of leah, a bouquet of flowers in his hand all pretty colours and different types of flowers. but instead of the easy and confident grin he usually wore, his expression was tense and bordering on confused.

his gaze kept flickering from leah and the house number plated on the side of the wall near the door, wondering whether he'd accidentally knocked on the wrong door. even though he was definitely sure this was alessia's house as her car was on the drive.

"is.. is alessia here?" he finally stammered, his eyes narrowing slightly as he tried to make sense of the situation.

leah stood frozen in the doorway, her tall frame and sharp demeanor giving her an almost intimidating presence. the blonde glancing over her shoulder feeling the presence of alessia behind her.

leah's brow rising as if to say, 'what the hell is this?'

"harrison," alessia asked quirking, stepping beside leah who still had an unimpressed look on her face, "what are you doing here, i thought we agreed we were meeting at half two before lovie finishes school?"

his eyes lit up briefly at the sight of her, though they flickered back to leah with a mix of wariness and confusion, "yeah we're still- um good for that, i just, uh i brought you these," he said, holding out the flowers.

"for me?" alessia's voice was soft but edged with surprise.

"yeah, i seen them and i was passing and thought..." harrison trailed off, his face darting back to leah who hadn't moved, nor had her stone cold face.

leah finally broke her silence, tilting her head slightly, "you're harrison?" it wasn't a question. it was a statement delivered in a tone that made harrison shift slightly on his feet.

"i am." he said, his voice low. leah’s lips pressed into a thin line, her arms crossing of her chest as she held her stance solid and protective.

alessia sighed, sensing the tension in the air thickening, "le," alessia said softly, touching her arm, "it's okay."

leah's eyes never left harrison her jaw tightening with each letter that passed, "okay?" she echoed. "he shows up with flowers unannounced? for you?"

harrison took a small step back, clearing his throat, "i uh, didn't meant to interrupt anything, i just.."

"leah" alessia said again, more firmly this time, "it's fine, harrison's just being.. nice." she turns to harrison her tone shifting to something polite but still distant, knowing choosing the wrong type of word would have consequences on both parties.

"thank you for these, but you didn't need to"

harrison nodded, his expression faltering slightly as he glanced between the two women, "right, yeah sorry i didn't mean to.."

leah raised an eyebrow, "didn't mean what?"

"leah, stop that" alessia stepped in front of her slightly her voice filled with a mix of exasperation and affection. "it's fine, really. harrison is just trying to.. build trust." she shot him a pointed look, silently warning him to stay in his lane. "he's lovie's dad, that's all this is."

harrison quickly nodded, clutching the flowers awkwardly, "yeah, exactly."

leah's gaze lingered on him for another moment, scrutinising before she finally stepped aside, "right." she said her tone icy but controlled.

alessia reached out to take the flowers, giving harrison a small, polite smile. "thank you," she said before adding, "but next time, maybe text me first, okay?"

"sure," harrison mumbled, his shoulders slumping.

"i'll see you at the coffee place at half two yeah?" alessia asked more confirming the plans knowing that you were excited at the fact you dad was coming with your mummy for the first time to pick you up from school, the blonde hoping he wasn't going to let you down.

harrison nodded, before mumbling a 'i'll be there' with a small smile as he gave leah one last uneasy glance before turning and walking back to his car.

leah shut the door with a firm cluck, spinning around to face alessia, "what was that?"

alessia chuckled softly, setting the flowers down on the kitchen counter, "that was harrison, overstepping. as usual."

"overstepping?" leah echoed as she crossed her arms again leaned against the kitchen counter on the other side of alessia, "he showed up like he's auditioning for the notebook-"

"he's not auditioning for anything," alessia said gently facing and stepping closer to leah, "he's just.. trying. for lovie's sake, that's it" 

leah's eyes softened slightly at the mention of you but her lips still pursed, "and for your sake?"

alessia reached up as she leaned into the blonde in front of her as she rested a hand on leah's cheek, "i only want you, harrison can bring flowers, coffee or a while marching band if he wants. but it won't change a thing."

leah relaxed at her words, exhaling deeply as alessia planted a slow kiss to her lips, "okay" she murmured.

"okay?" alessia teased her tone lighter and teasing smile on her lips as her hands rested on the blondes face.

"okay, but don't expect those flowers to be still alive when you come back" leah smirked as alessia rolled her eyes playfully at the girls' antics, "and it still keeping an eye on him."

"you do that love" alessia said with a laugh, pulling her into a hug.

—

later on the same day, once leah had let go of the blonde after insisting she was never letting her go. but after a small reminder from alessia that she did in fact have a four year old daughter she did have to collect from school, leah let the blonde go not before peppering the girls' face with kisses.

alessia making it to the cafe, a little later which she would just blame on the traffic even though the roads for once were fairly quiet considering it was london.

the cafe was want and inviting, the smell of roasted coffee beans filling the air as alessia and harrison settled into their usual booth near the window.

alessia holding her latte between her hands, the ceramic mug radiating heat as she stared at the frothy surface.

harrison fidgeting without even realising he was doing it a habit he had, had since their college days as he rambled on about some marketing strategy he was working on at work — alessia admittedly not really listening.

"look, haz before we talk about anything else" alessia began, cutting harrison off as his head tilted at the sound of the nickname he hadn't heard in a while, the blonde not even realising she had let it slip as she carried on talking. but he noticed.

the blondes voice soft as harrison had completely forgotten what he had even been talking about, "i just wanna say i'm sorry for before. leah can be.. uh intense but she's really a big softie once you get to know her"

harrison let out a small, humourless laugh, finally looking at her, "yeah she is a little intimidating"

alessia winced, "she's just protective," she said quickly, "it's not that she doesn't trust me but she's had.. experiences. people haven't always treated her well and i think you showing up like that just put her on edge a bit"

he raised an eyebrow, confused. clearly not getting the hint, "because i brought flowers?"

she gave him a pointed look, "come on, harrison. you didn't just bring flowers — you showed up unannounced with a big bouquet of flowers and that look you get when you're trying to.." she trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence

"trying to what?" he pressed, though the tone of his voice made it clear he already knew.

alessia sighed, setting her mug down. "harrison, leah doesn't know you like i do. she doesn't know your history or your intentions. all she saw my ex standing on my doorstep with flowers and.. yeah, she got the wrong idea."

"but was it the wrong idea?" he asked softly, his gaze steady. alessia having already lifted her cup to her lips as her eyes widened at his words.

she blinked, as her head tilted to one side the blonde caught of guard. "harrison."

"i mean, maybe she has a point," he continued, leaning back in the booth, again clearly not getting the hint, "i brought the flowers because i wanted.. i don't know. start over? show you i'm serious about being in your life again, not just as y/n's dad."

alessia's chest tightened but she kept her tone calm. "i appreciate the effort, i do but harrison i need you to understand something."

he leaned forward slightly, his hands still on the table. "i'm listening."

taking a deep breath, choosing her words carefully, "those times we had in college — they were good even when the bad was bad and times were a little messy and they are part of our story and i wouldn't change that. but we can't go back to that harrison. we aren't those people anymore."

he stared at her, his expression unreadable, "so what your saying is you've moved on." he said finally.

"i have" alessia nodded, her eyes meeting his, "with leah."

harrison's gaze dropped to the table, his shoulders slumping. "i-i didn't mean to complicate things for you, i just.. i don't know. i though maybe we could try again. for y/n if nothing else."

"i get that," alessia said gently, "but that's not what lovie needs. she doesn't need us to pretend to be something we're not, plus she's a smart little girl she'd clock straight away. what she needs is two parents who love her and respect each other. that's how we're going to do right by her."

he nodded slowly, his hands curling into loose fists. "you're right, i don't know what i was thinking" he let out a quiet laugh a one filled with regret. "i'm happy for you, less. really and i'll forever owe you for letting me be in my daughters life."

"damn right you do" alessia joked, but deep down she was really joking as a small smile tugging at her lips.

harrison chuckled, shaking his head, "she's lucky to have you, both of you. really"

alessia softened, reaching across the table to touch his hand briefly, "thanks harrison and i mean it - your doing great. lovie loves spending time with you and i’m glad we can be in a good place and put aside the past for her.

harrison smiled faintly, nodding again, "me too."

as they finished their coffee and prepared to pick up lovie, alessia felt a sense of peace. she had said what needed to be said and though harrison's feelings lingered. there was an understanding between them now.

—

alessia padded down the stairs, running a hand though her hair as she entered the living room. "well that didn't take long," she said with a chuckle, glancing towards leah who was sprawled across the couch her eyes just open as she scrolled tiredly on her phone.

"i might have to ask the school what they do all day to tire her out like that" alessia joked, the excitement of the day had really gone and worn you out, from the excitement of your mum and dad picking you up to then getting home and leah being there.

it had to of been a record of how quickly it took for you to get to sleep, your head basically hit the pillow and you were asleep.

leah only hummed in response, her eyes focused on the small screen in front of her eyes, the tv playing as white noise for her. "probably running around like a little whirlwind" she murmured absently.

"more than likely" alessia said, plopping down next to her as she leaned back with a content sigh as leah rested her legs on top alessia's lap.

there was a bear of silence before leah finally glanced up, setting her phone down on her chest. "so.. how was coffee with harrison" her voice was casual but there was a hint of something underneath as she asked.

alessia stilled for a moment, caught off guard by the question, "it was.. nice" she said carefully, avoiding leah's gaze as she reached for the throw blanket draped over the couch.

she didn't have to look to feel leah's eyes in her. so when alessia finally glanced over, leah's expression had shifted. her jaw was tight and her brows slightly furrowed as her lips were pressed into a thin line.

alessia sighed, setting the blanket aside, "le.." she said her tone soft but firm, "seriously? your not still hung up on this whole harrison thing are you?"

leah shrugged, sinking a little deeper into the couch, "i'm just saying.. it's weird right? he's popping up with flowers one day, coffee the next. what's his deal?"

alessia leaned closer, resting a hand on leah's hip. "his deal is that he's lovie's dad and he's trying to be better about being present in her life. that's it."

leah's eyes flicked up to meet hers, "that's not all, though is it? you said yourself he's overstepping and i mean — come on less, he's obviously still has feelings for you."

alessia sighed, shifting so she was fully facing leah as she propped herself up on her elbows, "okay look, yes harrison has some.. unresolved feelings but i told him we aren't ever, ever getting back together"

leah's brow lifted slightly, "you did?"

"i did," alessia said firmly, "over coffee before we picked lovie up. i told him that those days are done and i made it very clear that i'm with you."

leah's shoulders slumped slightly, though her expression remained guarded, "and how’d he take that."

"honestly, better than i expected him to," alessia admitted, "he apologised and said he was happy for me" she paused studying leah's face." "but this isn't about him is it, it's about us."

leah let out a sigh, her eyes darting away from alessia's to look further than the pretty blonde laying basically on top of her, "i just don't want to lose you less," she admitted softly, "i've seen too many people get pulled back into their pasts and i.. i don't know it scares me."

"hey.. hey, look at me" alessia said gently moving to so that she was able to touch leah's face and move it so her eyes could look at her before cupping leah's face with both hands. "your not losing me. and i’m not going anywhere. harrison is part of my past but you're my present, and my future."

leah hesitated a moment, her blue eyes searching for alessia's face for a long minute, "you sure about that?"

"very sure," alessia said without missing a beat, leaning in to press a soft kiss to leah's lips as she moved to straddle the girls' hips, leah's hands immediately going to alessia's waist and a little further as the kiss deepened.

"it's you le, always you. no one else even come close" alessia whispered against leah's lips as she exhaled slowly. her body relaxing as she felt her lips meet alessia's again. this lip longer and a little more sloppier as small hushed whines stumbled from their lips.

as they pulled apart, leah's lips curled into a small and reluctant smile, "you really know how to make a girl feel better, huh?" leah teased lightly.

alessia grinned as the two cosied up together on the couch, alessia wrapping her arms arong leah and pulling her close, "i've been told it's one of my many talents !"

"is that so? what are these other talents you have?"

"wouldn't you like to know babe!"

[mythalism]

there is a bit of a discourse on twitter about whether Mythal was a slave owner. What is your take on this? I’ve seen arguments that her vallaslin was a mark of honour and she “protected her people”. But also if that was the case, why would Solas remove his marks and propose to do the same to Lavellan?

I wonder if that’s another evidence of her character being sanitised in DAV compared to lore, revealed in DAI

it has genuinely never occurred to me that mythal would not be a slave owner. we know the evanuris practiced slavery. we know the only one who did not was fen'harel, as a result there is no fen'harel vallaslin. there is however a mythal vallaslin both presently and anciently, worn by felassan, abelas, and all of the temple sentinels at the least, and by solas himself once if you assume that is the meaning of cole's comment about him burning her off his face, which i do make that assumption. solas says mythal "was the best" of the evanuris, but that is an extremely low bar. we also now know that she was a driving force behind the war with the titans and their tranquilization and the destruction of the dwarven empire, and she admits to using solas as a weapon of war. i am not sure why any of these things would lead anyone to believe that she is morally above enslaving people. we have literally met the people she enslaved. whether or not they were "devoted" or "willing" (ew) is irrelevant in the context of her power as an evanuris.

i think perhaps dragon age was gearing up pre-veilguard to explore the vallaslin much more in depth however it ended up erasing it completely so we will never know. its possible that vallaslin had multiple meanings, and did not always denote enslavement but could denote enslavement depending on the circumstances. my own understanding pre-vg was that the vallaslin probably interacted with other factors, such as class/wealth, power, and personal favoritism, to varying degrees of personal and political agency so that not every person with mythal's vallaslin would have the same exact experience. solas's experience clearly was unique and we see that in the way that their relationship is presented in his murals, and how they continue to have a relationship even after he has removed his own (assuming thats the timeline and not that they just completely retconned him having vallaslin in the first place lol). but just because solas sees mythal in a forgiving light (sometimes, he goes back and forth, which does make sense considering his complex feelings about her) does not mean mythal was, objectively, that way. its pretty heavily implied that he had major rose colored glasses on for her, and its likely he only saw a certain side of her. we can probably assume that elgar'nan saw a very different one. we have a lot of different perceptions of her from different sources, and different literal fragments of her personality. we also know she changed quite drastically overtime and was corrupted from benevolence into retribution. it is difficult to say with certainty what she was like because the game does not tell us.

however enslavement is enslavement and i think we should be frank about it even if veilguard isnt interested in touching on it. "but she was a good slave-owner!" is a dangerous sentiment reflective of real life, anti-abolition arguments during the american civil war that revisionist racists and white supremacists still use today and i think people should take great care not to espouse the same, even in the context of a fantasy world.

[losrin]

s7 etho is my favourite etho hermitcraft era so far because of all the antics he pulled and all the noteblock music. it was definitely his experimental era and it seemed he had quite a bit of fun with everything, but i imagine having to do all the music he used with noteblocks must get tiring the further into the season

(i do agree that s10 etho feels much more comfortable doing things as he wants, and i love that for him)

before i went into his content i knew him as primarily a redstone guy and when grian visited his base in s7 i was so puzzled by the style he built in. <how does one build only an interior?> imagine the surprise when i watched him pick the ugliest colour combos and actually make them look good?? and when he actually only built his interior, never even got to do an exterior for his base before the season ended

his build style is most different from bdubs in that it leans into the more unrealistic nature of minecraft. he incorporates the quirkiness of minecraft physics (how different it is from real life) and its aesthetic into his builds, whereas, bdubs in general goes for a more realistic approach and builds like he's painting a realism painting (shadows, colours, composition, etc)

i love both styles. the things about etho's builds that really impress me are

how he makes the colour palettes work

they're not over the top, feel like something the average player can do, yet the rooms flow so well into one another and look great

how much he leans into logic and theories that helps him deduce how someone would look at his base and thus how he can make it look better (it really shows how methodical he is with his designs; i mean don't get me wrong i do think he has an artistic eye, but he does rely more on logic to make sense of how different designs affect the perception of the perceivers, what with sightlines and colour theory)

the incorporation of redstone and other mechanical bits into his builds

his builds just feel uniquely his, which is something that i don't think the other hermits did as well as early as s7. but bless all of them they're always improving

we also see (variarions of) the same monstrosity build style in his LP series, modded mc s2 and in later seasons of hermitcraft. my favourite of his builds so far in his LP series is the dragon egg vault. even just the room with all the skulk, shriekers, warped logs and fire look awesome. his principles of building are also carried over into his s9 base. it feels like his s7 base but with a twist (a soul speed-depth strider-dolphin grace floor)

•

i love how he may give the illusion that he's lowkey and laidback, and he is, in some ways, and that helps him get away with being a menace. being etho helps too i suppose

•

i really do wish he would do more noteblock music in later seasons. his noteblock era peaked in s7 and it's a shame. he still does noteblock music that might arguably be even better (tschaikowsky's 1812 overture?!!?!?! for s9 zedvancement perilous percussion, music for ravager rush), but i do miss when he used noteblock music as background track

•

finally: i was disappointed that we didn't get to see hermits playing hurtin hermits, so i'm kinda hoping he revisits that someday

(sorry this is so all over the place)

I've finished Etho's s7 hermitcraft so guess who's back with a slightly updated/slightly consolidated list of things about ethoslab I have noticed! or just enjoy!

(the previous list)

I have no idea when he learned to noteblock. I don't know if he knows. he knows how to noteblock tho. he's really good at it.

on that note, did you know that there is not a single piece of non-noteblock music in etho's s7 after the first episode? there might not even be any in the first episode. every single timelapse or montage is set to noteblock music

(he sang along to parts of his paper planes noteblock cover too. he was going shopping. I was entirely too delighted)

(also, there is some like...sitcom music theme that I don't know what show it's from. it's bothering me that I don't know. what you need to know is that throughout his s7 etho uses said sitcom theme as the transition before Shenanigans With Fellow Hermits clips play. his life is a sitcom. yes it is the noteblock version.)

I think that etho desperately needs minigames for enrichment. if he's not playing one he's working on one. he needs them and he will let them completely consume his life

the etho decked out 1 runs are hilarious, partially because it's funny to see him play it and realize how absolutely insane decked out 2 is, and how much of a madlad tango is. etho is still the same menace with great luck and skills. I had forgotten about the hole to the void in the middle out decked out 1 tho, that was a fun reminder

etho could make a career out of translating classic type games into minecraft. he kind of has, but it's a pattern.

he also keeps coming up with new games that are minecraft only and is good at figuring out how to balance them well.

again, king of minigames. he will in fact analyze them as much as possible. he caught on to the pattern of impulse's whack a mole game in like...2 rounds? maybe 3? he's good at pattern recognition and will put it to good use no matter the minigame

etho, I cannot stress this enough, is a little shit and enjoys being such. free glass is obviously an iconic moment, but I had forgotten about him scamming scar out of diamonds for "information" about the resistance, or about sneak-e-e's business model (you can't tax what you can't find!), or about how he kept being extremely ridiculous with beef in regards to record shop payments...the list goes on

etho is also very competitive. I mentioned this in the last list, but man...he joins like every single competition he can. he wants to win. he's not like, a sore loser, but he likes to win, and he'll get a little upset if he doesn't.

etho and beef have clearly known each other a long time and ngl I miss their interactions a bit. let them bother each other a bit more please. I want to see them trying to kill each other in ridiculous ways again please. or doing minigames together. they're so silly.

kind of similar, but etho loves getting a rise out of people and it is the best thing ever actually. it's fun watching him use dirty tricks to beat bdubs to sleeping for a prize. it's perfect actually.

that being said, I still really like when etho is just on his own working on stuff too. s7 has a lot of moments where etho will go "I'm gonna use this block palette!" and I will think "bro that's ugly" and then he will make an extremely cohesive build that I want to live in out of it. I think a good way to describe it is that for example bdubs is really good at detailed builds with texture and not much color, and a very realistic twist to them. etho is not afraid to use color at all, and embraces how the colors can work together or contrast. it's fascinating to watch and I love it.

he is also a redstone genius. I feel I am starting to understand how some things with redstone work. could I design something myself? absolutely not but I could work from a tutorial and not feel completely lost on why I have to use a dispenser and not a dropper now.

I think s7 etho is really experimenting a lot with style and how he wants to do things. he does a few more elaborate intros, for example, that are very planned out, but he also does a lot of the classic "hello everybody this is etho and welcome back to hermitcraft!" it's fun and it works, but I honestly feel he might be more confident in some ways now in s10, which is nice to see.

(side note—I think etho has some trouble with tone sometimes, where he really wants to make sure everyone's having a good time, but also he really wants to tease people. this works well with like Beef, who he's known a while, but especially in people he's known less he's quick to catch on if they take what he's saying too seriously, and clarify that he is teasing. it's nice to see tbh, just the clarity even with his audience)

speaking of llamas, I had not realized how recent some really big updates were. bamboo and pandas were new at the start of s7. the nether update came like halfway through?? I was more in the casual build side of mcyt at the time but man...I didn't realize how crazy that is to think about.

just...the way that etho visualizes builds is great. not just like, leaving space for farms, but filling in the spaces with a lot of details that make sense but also work with the space to cover anything it needs to AND to connect with the rest of the base. the sightlines thing is something I see a lot of other builders using but etho really uses them a lot in the Monstrosity in order to keep it from being Too Much as you walk through.

really just...he wants to have fun, and he wants to learn, and he wants to experiment and figure things out. if he can mess with some friends when he does it, that's a great bonus, yknow?

man. what a guy.

[muzansfangs]

Can you make a Kokushibou x AFAB reader scenario where Reader and Koku are at a bar because she somehow convinced Koku into coming with her

He decides to have a few shots...and that ends up pretty bad with reader practically having to carry him back home..

When they both get home, Kokushibou tackles her onto the floor and smut from there pls😍😍🥰🥰🥰

You can make it Modern AU if that'd make more sense, just do anything you can pls🙇‍♀️

Alcoholic kisses.

Starring: Kokushibo x f!reader; mention to Muzan Kibutsuji, Douma, Akaza, Nakime, Daki, Tamayo;

Warnings: nsfw, modern au, everyone is a human, spoiler for Kokushibo’s name as a human, drinking, slightly reckless behavior, drunk sex (everything is consensual), vaginal sex, vaginal fingering, choking, unprotected sex, dom!kukushibo, sub!reader;

Plot: Working for the Kibutsuji Industry left you little time to enjoy your life. Social events? You hardly had the chance to slack off and attend them. Douma’s birthday party, however, was one of those days you looked up for in trepidation. Still, you needed someone to be your knight for the exclusive event. When your stolid colleague Michikatsu announced he was not going to take part to the grand soirée, you made it your goal to convince him it was worth a shot. He begrudgingly complied to your request, eventually, even going to the extent to become your drinking buddy for the night. It was supposed to be just a cordiality from his behalf and a friendly reminder he could let loose, sometimes, from yours. How did you end up being folded in half by him in your apartment, then?

﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏

“I can’t believe he had the guts to invite Mr. Kibutsuji too. He truly is as bold as brass” Akaza, the intern of the third floor, commenced the daily ‘gossip session’ at the work canteen, aggressively uncapping his bottle of water. You had long stopped defending Douma and his grotesque antics. How did he even consider the idea of inviting your perfidious boss to his birthday party? You had to agree with Akaza on that. This had been downright a terrific idea. Your devilish colleague had spoiled a night you had been looking up to for months.

Nakime shrugged “You are short-sighted. It was actually a winning strategy. — she pondered, tilting her head to the side pensively — No one ever invited Mr. Kibutsuji to a party. Guess who is going to win the promotion now”.

You nodded your head, disinterestedly nibbling at the salad in front of you, as you listened to your friends commenting the last stunt of your eccentric coworker. You barely had any chances to hang out and slack off. Mr. Kibutsuji behaved like a tyrant at work. His appalling talent to showcase cordiality, when navigating through crowds of important people to make deals, was something not reserved to any of you. Occasionally, he asked his female subordinates to be his sidekick during those special nights in luxurious hotels, or at the Opera. You had had the opportunity to accompany him to a gala, too. If you had not witnessed with your own eyes to the saccharine smiles and gentlemanly ways to win his clients’ hearts, you would have said he was not the same man who slammed doors and made you overexert yourselves at the Industry. You had to admit he possessed a special ability to conceal his brusque charcater for the sake of his Company. However, now you were worried that Douma’s birthday party was going to be a complete disaster. No one was going to relax, when Mr. Kibutsuji was around. Why? Because you were not potential clients. You were not politicians. You were his subordinates. He was not going to act differently just because you were at a bar.

“And what do you think about the ‘you can bring a date’ part? — you asked then, reaching your hand into your purse to grab the invitation — I mean, do you guys even have a date?” you inquired, clearing your throat nervously as you slided the lilac card, decorated with flashy baroque doodles, over the table and tapped on black key words in italics with your index.

Akaza snorted, shaking his head vigorously “No way I’m bringing my girl with me. That sleaze has already tried to flirt with her. I can’t risk making him choke on his teeth in front of Mr. Kibutsuji” he replied, grimacing to emphasize his categorical refusal to comply to the birthday boy’s request.

You smiled faintly at that, eyes darting on the woman at your right, prompting her to express her opinion on the matter. Nakime never mentioned having a partner. However, you were curious to find out more about her and if, given the fact you were single, you had to throw the card into the wastepaper basket and forgo the opportunity to slack off for a night once and for all.

“I do. — she admitted — I don’t think we’re a couple yet, but I’m seeing someone” she vaguely said, your jaw dropping in stupor and genuine curiosity that gnawed at your stomach in the unbridled desire to pry more informations about her relationship.

You bumped her arm, grinning “Huh? When were you going to tell me about it? And, well, are you inviting him?”.

“She has already been invited” she cooed, your eyes flitting to a perplexed Akaza who furrowed his brows in bewilderment to the unexpected disclosure of your friend’s love interest. You had not seen it coming.

“Nakime! Who’s she?” you quipped, shifting on your seat to totally occupy her view and sending her the clear message she had to provide you an answer, if she keened to go back to her duties. Her date was decidedly a colloegue and tons of familiar faces began to pop in your restless mind, accurately discerning which women could could keep up with your secretive friend. Not many, if you had to summarize your research for a possible candidate to fit the scenario.

“Tamayo” the brunette evenly cooed, tapping at her mouth with a tissue before unhurriedly grabbing her tray and standing from her seat, as if she had not just dropped a bomb at her shellshocked commensals.

You did not bother replying. You watched her leave silently, struggling to process the fact Nakime was dating one of Muzan’s closest assistants. Tamayo was a reserved woman, who had recently recovered form a difficult divorce. Due to your position, you rarely interacted with her but, when you did, you left her office in a joyful mood. She smiled a lot, she did not bark orders around like your hellish superior, she offered you candies, or tea, whilst you discussed the matter at hand. Nakime, on the other hand, was not a bad person. She was intuitive and taciturn. Yet, she was sneaky. You had lost the count of how many times she had her own subordinates fired over insignificant mishaps. Looking at them as a duo was going to be hard to process. Still, if they were happy, you were no one to oppose that.

“Oi, are you still with me? — Akaza snapped you out of your stream of consciousness — Did you hear what I’ve said?” he asked quizzically you, leaning back on the chair, arms folded against his chest as he squarely looked at you.

You gaped, mortified you had zoned out in the middle of the conversation “Actually, I didn’t…” you trailed off, refocusing on him, flashing an awkward smile at your patient. He was a gentleman with women, you had to admit it.

Akaza sighed, lolling his head back “I said you haven’t told us if you got yourself a date. Who is the lucky guy, then?” he interrogated you casually.

Well, you did not have a date yet. Now, knowing your closest friends had a date, you felt miserable. You were not desperate or anything, but you actually felt kind of discouraged to attend the party, if it meant being surrounded by a bunch of couples slow-dancing at the bar. You enjoyed playing the role of the cool aunt, the independent woman, a wild spirit drinking at the bar and flirting with bartender to kill the time, but it would have been nice to spend the night with someone you got along with for once.

“Ugh, well, there is no lucky guy…” you grumbled, frantically collecting your stuff, eyes rapidly flitting to your wristwatch to check the hour. Your lunch break was over. It was time to go back to your office and weep on piles of documents until your boss dismissed you for the day.

Your friend stood up as well, hands shoved in the pockets of his slacks, eyebrow arched inquisitively “The Hell are you waiting for then? Go ahead and ask someone out”.

“You make it sound so easy”.

“Because it’s easy! You don’t have to pick someone you are dying after and beg them to accompany you, you know? — Akaza instructed you, as you two stepped back into the busy hallway, feet leading you to the elevators automatically — Ask a friend who doesn’t have a date. Like, ‘hey, buddy, I heard you got no date for the party. Wanna go together?’. I mean, I’d find it hot if a girl took the initiative and asked me out” he winked at you, before patting on your shoulder encouragingly and jogging towards the staircase, as he always did. He really did not like elevators, did he?

You smiled softly, gaze following him until he disappeared from your sight and you could finally enter the cubicle leading you up to the pit of vipers residing at the fifth floor. You were glad Akaza had given you something to mull over for a while. The hours you were going to spend glued to your desk were going to be a tad more bearable. This and your handsome co-worker you undeniably had a crush on. Glancing at him, from time to time, fingers furiously tapping on the keys of the worn-out keyboard of your laptop, was calming. He was a placebo, a professional, handsome man who made life easier by helping you out when he realized you were on the verge of a breakdown. Michikatsu Tsugikuni, the same man who always made sure to come back with a spare coffee for you, when he took a small break for himself.

You were lost in your thoughts again, daydreaming about that tall adonis, hurriedly marching to your work position, and too distracted to realize you were on a collision course with someone. Inevitably, you bumped against a firm chest. Your bag and folders tumbling down and drawing judgemental gazes from your colleagues engrossed in their works signaled your downfall . You apologetically flicked your gaze up, ready to profusely excuse yourself, when your eyes met a pair of ruby red ones. Oh, the world stopped revolving for a second. How ironic was it? You spoke of the actual devil and he manifested himself before you in all his glory.

“Are you alright?” he asked you, chivalrously helping you to pick your stuff back up.

Your mouth felt like chalk, but you forced yourself to spit out a response “Yeah, I’m fine! Don’t worry about me… If anything, it’s my fault” you said defeatedly, fingers curling around the heavy folder he handed you so tightly your knuckles turned white. You were about to explode. Probably, he could tell you were not quite close to be fine. Your body language spoke volumes.

Michikatsu inspected your face, hooded eyes masterly catching the signs of your discomfort “I don’t think you are doing good. If you need to go home, I can tell Mr. Kibutsuji you were sick” he offered, as if the mere mention of that monster’s name did not cause people to turn pale. Michkatsu had no problem in speaking to your boss. He was his right hand man, after all. They were close, indeed. You knew that Mr. Kibutsuji would have believed anything he said without questioning the authenticity of the informations reported.

You faintly smiled and shook your head “I promise, I’m fine. I’m probably just a little stressed out. The last thing I needed to worry about was Douma’s party. I think I will have to turn down the invitation anyway, so… Yeah, I’m ready to immerge myself in emailing the interns the new projects” you rambled, shrugging as you tried to walk off and lock yourself in your small angle of paradise for the rest of the day.

You were surprised to hear Michikatsu calling your name, though, causing you to halt and reluctantly turn your head to the side to look back at him “Is there a specific reason why you are not going? I thought you were looking out for it”.

You stiffened, heart thrumming against your ribcage violently, his sudden interest in you both flattering and eating you alive. Why pretending, though? He was nothing but a polite man. He probably even had a date to escort to the fancy rooftop, a girl to spoil and undress later in the privacy of his bedroom, after lingering touch and scorching kisses stolen in the car.

“I was, right. Unfortunately, I don’t have a date” you confessed, ready to receive yet another suggestion to go ahead and ask someone to be your safe haven for the night. Too bad you were wrong, because the next words coming out of his mouth made you see the light at the end of the tunnel and you had to bite the insides of your cheeks not to squeal on the spot.

Michikatsu fixed his necktie heedlessly, probably just out of habit “By sheer coincidence, I don’t have a date as well. I was on my way to tell Douma I won’t join him tomorrow” he declared, your eyes gradually widening as Akaza’s words echoed in your mind like a mantra. You could ask him to come with you. You could. You had to have the guts to do that.

What was the worst thing that could have happened? That you were going to embarrass yourself in front of the entire team of coworkers? The Hell with that. It was time to spread your wings and show your teeth.

You cleared your throat, holding the folder to your chest protectively “Oh, well, in that case… How about we go together? We both don’t have a date and it’d be depressing working overtime to digest the fact we didn’t attend the party everyone went to” you blurted out way too quickly than you liked. The damage was done, though. You had thrown your decency out of the window, baring your tender neck to a potentially categorical refusal.

Michikatsu stared at you in silence for a few seconds, brows furrowing, as he contrived to make up his mind and provide you a response. Burgundy hues shimmering under the artificial, bleached lights of the spotlights lined up for the entire length of the corridor, he looked back at you in determination “Would you be satisfied with such an arrangement?”.

“Of course! I think it’d be beneficial for the both of us. I want to attend the party and you decidedly need a small break from all of this” you pointed out, your confidence exponentially boosted by the time he sighed and nodded his head in a silent agreement. He was an irreprensive hard-worker. Mr. Kibutsuji acknowledged his dedication to the Industry and, occasionally, he made sure to either surprising him with a wage rise, or let him escort him to a couple of the fancy dinners he was frequently invited at.

However, he never granted him a vacation and anybody could tell Michikatsu was beyond exhausted.

“Then, I guess you got yourself a deal. Would you like me to pick you up?” he asked, ignoring the way your stupid heart began to run a marathon in your chest. If only he knew how ecstatic you were to know him better. With a firm nod of your head, you accepted his offer and, on your way to your office, you mentally thanked Akaza for his brazen suggestion to break the mould and get what you wanted.

The following day you were way too excited to focus on the dreadful morning reunion with your boss. You did not listen to a single word coming out of his mouth and, to be honest, you were pretty sure he had noticed the way you were doodling on the papers instead of taking notes. To save the day, though, was Daki who walked in the room unannounced to show Mr. Kibutsuji some alarming news. You watched him flee in a hurry, hands gesturing for you all to leave and factually giving up on his chance to let his snippy comments ruin your mood. For once, you were glad his competitor was determined to bring him war.

Soon enough, you were back home, dolled up and waiting in the living room for your date to show up at your door. You were not surprised you had taken extra care of yourself, meticulously styling your hair with a silver hairpin, following a professional tutorial for the make up and even wearing that daring red dress you had never had the occasion to wear since you had bought it three months ago. You had a plunging neckline, the fabric hugging your curves and exalting the shape of your body in a extremely eye-catching way that could draw a lot of attention. Still, you could blame it on the dress code required by the host. Douma just had an inclination for contemplating beautiful women and having them fawning on him like lapdogs.

The unmistakable buzz of your phone indicated your date had arrived. Taking a deep breath, you left your flat in a frenzy. Waiting for you in a shiny black car, Michikatsu was impeccable. Upon spotting you approaching his car, he unlocked the car door and swiftly got out of the vehicle to open it for you.

“You look ravishing” he said, subtly and respectfully checking you out. You felt his gaze, intense, yet not too intrusive, on your body. Surely, he was not used to see you in anything else besides pastel shirts and tight trousers. He seemed genuinely amazed by the effort you had made to he his date.

You courteously bowed your head, a small smile curling your red-painted lips “Thanks! You will probably have to thank Douma for that, though. — you said, before entering the car — By the way, you are sticking up to the stereotypical gentleman date any girl dreams about” you joked, spotting the pale imitation of a smile creep on his lips.

“We better be on our way”.

The rooftop of The Blue Spider Lily Grand Hotel radiated opulence. You did not expect less from the scion of a millionaire family financing Mr. Kibutsuji’s Industry. You were also not disappointed by the extravagant suit Douma was ostentatiously showing off. The man at your right grimaced imperceptibly at the red texture embellished with golden arabesques. Proceeding, in an angle of the rooftop, wearing a lowcut crimson red dress, you recognized Nakime. Next to her, a timid Tamayo sipped on cocktail. She was wearing an elegant white tailleur, styled with some red details to blend in the theme chosen by the eclectic host. Now, you had to admit the pair looked good together. They were balanced, not the types to make people talk about them.

A warm hand resting delicately on the small of your back got your attention “Would you like something to drink?” Michikatsu asked you, glad to lead you off to the counter and order something for you.

“Yes, please. I don’t think I could stand the sight of that peacock any longer without some alcohol in my bloodstream” you jested, sitting on the leather stool as he slided on the one next to yours. A moment of needed intimacy to start the night was needed. The music was still low, allowing people to interact without having to scream at the top of their lungs. You could go with the flow until it started to look like a circus.

Two flûtes of champagne were the first drink you two shared. You gazed up at Michikatsu, squinting inquisitively over the rim of the glass to observe your date inspecting the yellowish alcoholic substance in the glass with repugnance. You almost found it amusing, albeit a little out of place.

“Is the champagne’s quality low?” you asked, quirking your eyebrow up.

“Not quite. — Michikatsu cleared your doubts — I don’t particularly like drinking” he admitted, eyes meeting your fleetingly. He seemed tensed, for the first time ever since you had arrived. He was hiding something.

You took a sip of your drink “Well, it’s a party. Maybe you should try to open your horizons a little more. It’s Friday, which means no work tomorrow…” you hazardously played the part of the she-devil alluring him in the depths of perdition. You were tired of pretending you did not wish for you two to grow closer. A new drinking buddy, a new close friend could not harm you in any way. Even if you were irrevocably falling for him a little more with every passing minute.

Michikatsu hummed, eyeing you torn between not letting this rare opportunity to cast his inhibitions away go wasted and remaining the composed version of himself everybody knew.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. — Michikatsu replied, leaving the real reasons behind his reluctance undiscovered — I need to drive you back home safely. What man would I be, if I called you a uber?” he pondered, settling the flûte back on the polished counter in front of him.

Your cheeks heated up at that declaration, eyes glittering in admitation and driven by the romantic scanarios you were illuding yourself to experience in a few hours. There you were, the old back delusional girl who loved so easily. However, you were not having it. Calling out the bartender, you whispered an order in his ear and looked back at your drinking buddy for the night.

“And what a man would you be, if you did not share some drinks with your date? A woman’s whim, you know? I’m pretty sure you don’t want to let me down like that” you confidently countered back, winking at him as the young man behind the counter slided six shots of whiskey in front of you two.

You saw the jaw of the man besides you clench, eyes darting away from the glasses to your grinning face. You were impressively stubborn. And he liked it. You were stunning that night like every other day at work. You were strong-willed, cunning, enthralling. Mentally cursing himself, he therefore grabbed a shot and, raising a toast, he downed it. Your proud smile burned his heart more than the alcohol did to his throat.

You were not expecting you two you stumble back into your home, Mr. Kibutsuji shooting vitriolic glares at you two on his way out of your flat. You two were in no conditions to drive back home. Swaying around, you had barely made it to your car until Mr. Kibutsuji spotted you two attempting to open Michikatsu’s car. There was no way he could lose his right hand man and even you over car accident. He kindly drove you two to your house with his own car, ordering his chauffeur to take the lead of Michikatsu’s Audi.

“Oh, he is never going to forgive us. Damn it, did you see his face?” Michikatsu’s drawled out, tossing his jacket over your sofa, barely standing on his feet. He was disheveled, his necktie loosened around his neck, gilet unbuttoned, the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows. He was hot. Way too hot to handle in your condition.

You chortled, unable to take the whole ordeal seriously “What’s the worst he can do? Fire us? We’ll good for him! I wanna see him go bald from promoting Douma and confiding on his lame skills!” you quipped, tossing your heels off and walking up to him.

Michikatsu snorted, before chuckling under his breath. He could not contain himself any longer. The room seemed to spin around him, the sensation reminding him of when he was a kid and he used to ride on a local carousel with his brother… Until his eyes landed on you. The center of his gravity, his hands gripping your forearms, firmly but not enough to harm you. He had to stabilize himself, but you were unsteady yourself. Before you knew it, you were flattened against the floor with your hot coworker hovering over you.

His hot breath fanned your lips, parted in the pleasant surprise to feel his muscular body crashing yours.

“I’m so fucking sorry” he murmured, large hands on each side of your head making it impossible for your eyes to stray away from him.

“For what?” you meekly asked, chest heaving, your breathing rhythm almost bordering the line of hyperventilation.

“For this… — he started, closing his eyes, before brushing his nose against yours — But not for this” he continued, lips molding against yours in a slow, mind-blowing kiss sending your mind blank. Was it real? Were you so drunk you were having episodes? No. It was real, it was happening and your arms looping around his board shoulders were the unconfutable proof you were welcoming this sudden kiss like a starving man accpeting a burger from a stranger.

His tongue swept over your bottom lip, delving into your mouth to coax you to whimper out against his lips. The temperature was raising exponentially, his hands were gliding down the curves of your body, shamelessly groping you through the fabric of your dress.

“Bloody Hell, what am I doing…” he muttered, still not stopping, when his nimble fingers began to fumble with the elastic band of your underwear beneath the skirt of your dress. You flinched when you heard some seams ripping, but your own heart was bursting in your chest that very moment.

The pads of his fingers, cool against your boiling skin, sent frissons over the skin of your thighs. You were both out of your minds, but still somehow able to get a grip of yourselves. The only issue was that nor you, neither him felt like stopping. The flame fueled by your hunger was growing strong, like a wild incendio. You exhaled through your nostrils, biting on your lower lip, intently watching Michikatsu discard your torn underwear away, eagerly parting your thighs and running his fingers over your already clammy slit in fascination. You wondered how he even managed to keep a mostly serious expression while clearly tipsy and involved in such unprofessional activities.

“You rambled about wanting to act like a man back at the party. I’ll be damned, if that’s not what you’re doing” you chimed, mouth parting and taking the shape of a ‘o’, when he plunged his fingers into your sappy cunt.

He flicked his gaze up to lock eyes with you, dipping his mouth down to plant another kiss to your lips, effectively smudging your lipstick “I don’t have condoms, though… If you wish to stop at this, it’s understandable” he warned you, curling his fingers into you to stimulate your spongy sweet spot.

You panted, spine arching, head shaking to express your wanton “I want it. Don’t deprive me of this” you pleaded him, before he deliberately splayed his hand over your cleavage and let it slide up to your neck. You gasped, breath hitching in your throat, when he wrapped his fingers over your windpipe. Your head felt light, the pleasure engulfing your lower abdomen building up, amplified by the breath-play, until you melted under his touch.

You were barely able to collect yourself, clumsily remove your dress, that you had not registered him undressing himself. The mouth watering sight of his sculpted abdomen, of his pectorals and the impressive length slapping against his navel caused you to feel so petite compared to him.

Michikatsu did not waste any more time. He grabbed your ankles, pushing your legs against your chest, before lining up to your entrance. You were trembling in anticipation, the bulbuous head of his cock teasing your weeping hole.

“Will you be a woman for me? Can you take me in? Can I fuck you raw on this carpet, Y/N?” he rasped out, making sure to push and pull back a few times before finally sheathing himself deep into you.

“Yes! Yes, fuck—” you choked out, the stretch painful at first. Your walls spasmed around his length, sucking him in as they adjusted to the intrusion. Folded in half, you submitted to your stolid coworker, to the kind man who checked on you during rough days, to the very man who was now grunting deeply above you as he thrusted into you aggressively.

Your toes curled, high-pitched moans falling from your lips, as you felt him fill you up repeatedly. The sound of his balls slapping against your ass was embarrassing. The way juices were oozing out of you made you feel so dirty. And the way he spurted his warm seed over your belly was the sign he still acted responsible even when he was out of his mind.

“I ought you another date” he groaned out, collapsing besides you. Yeah, he definitely had to treat you a dinner now.

AUTHOR NOTE.

Hi there! I am slowly trying to take care of all the requests I had got and that are patiently waiting in my inbox to be done! I think this one had been marinating in my drafts for over a year and it was a shame to leave it half-finished. I have missed writing for Demon Slayer, sigh. Also, the exam season has officially begun! Bear with me!

Likes, comments and re-posts are greatly appreciated.

Until next,

Luce

[pompadorbz]

Just a Little Longer

Not posting this to ao3 or anything since this fic is so itty bitty pocket sized and I don't have the energy rn. might do all that later but for now its NBD. This is just a short and kinda messy thing about TR!Phil post losing his wings after having them for 5 minutes. lol. Enjoy or dont

“...There has to be some reason.” Phil wonders aloud as he props a large log onto a stone wet from the fresh rain, readying Woodsbane on its surface in preparation to swing. With the amount of trees he chopped, it became inevitable that he’d eventually have to organize the mess. Treecapitator was nice, but it could only do so much in the way of organization.

Sneeg hums as he sits off to the side, handing off the occasional item for Crinkle to munch on– from his own inventory this time, Phil hoped. “Them having someone go rogue is pretty possible, I mean– I’ve seen it before, y’know?” Phil then adds. “There’s always some bigger force, and– and then there’s someone who wants to go against that force by getting help from outside, but…” Phil cuts himself off as he raises the axe high above his head and throws it down onto the log, splitting it cleanly in two. He immediately reaches for another log, swiping the other pieces away as if they weighed nothing and putting the new log in their place. If there was one thing he’d become from woodcutting, it was fast. Being maxed out and all– fast was the one thing he had left to be.

“...What if it wasn’t?? What if… They really only wanted you and Foolish to have them? And– And if not for an Elytra, then for what? Why wouldn’t they take it away the second you made it?” Sneeg simply shrugs. “I dunno. It doesn’t make a lotta sense to me either.” Phil sighs, zoning in on the log as he chops it cleanly once more, and then he chops another. And another. And another again. 

…What had the keepers of the realm meant when they said it “wasn’t time”?

He wondered if it was something to do with the factions like Sneeg had suggested earlier; Both him and Foolish were a part of the Kingdom, after all… Maybe that was it...? 

Or perhaps, it was due to Phil not being in a faction altogether..?

Placing another log on the stone, his eyes glance over to Sneeg. “...The fuck do you have that I don’t, mate?” He asks. He means it as a joke– he thinks that he means it as a joke. But Sneeg stands with a huff. “Look, Phil. I don’t know why this shit happened. We’re all kinda in the same boat right now.” He says defensively. “You’re gonna get your elytra eventually– this shit wasn’t fair. It’s just…”

He stares off into the distance. Something else was clearly on his mind, but Phil either didn’t particularly care right now. “...You’re just gonna have to wait a little longer, I guess.”

Phil’s grip on Woodsbane’s handle tightens despite the rain. He stares down to the last log he struck before silently flipping one of the halves on its flat end, kicking the other to the wayside. Sneeg sighs. “...I’ll leave you be for now. I gotta explain what happened to Foolish anyways, so… I dunno. Maybe he’ll have an idea of what happened.” Likely not; Phil wanted to say, but he kept silent.

Sneeg silently walks off– the only noise coming from his boots as they squelch in the wet mycelium, and his trident when he takes off into the now stormy sky. He didn’t have to look at Sneeg to know the look he was probably giving him as he left. Across what felt like a thousand different timelines, he’d seen it before about a million times over.

The apologies for his sake, the endless droves of sympathy. The sad look in people’s eyes when they said: “Oh well! There’s nothing to be done about that!”

Pity.

Every time without fail, it bore into Phil’s soul. It dug around deep in his chest until he was all but crying out in anguish, begging for it to cease, and he hated it. He hated it so, so very much.

Phil raised Woodsbane high above his head, straining as if the blade itself had hitched the loop of a halo that wasn’t there. “An angel lost his wings today.”

But they’d been lost for a long time now, hadn’t they?

“It is not yet time.”

And when would it be time?

“You’re just gonna have to wait a little longer.”

Phil’s breath hitches as he stares down at the halved log; not quite registering how his arms shook from both strain and rage as he held the axe in a crushing grip. He gritted his teeth together until his head began to pound–

–and to nobody in particular, he screamed as he swung the axe down onto the log with remarkable speed. “HOW MUCH LONGER?!” He asks, raising the axe again and barrelling down on the log once more. “HOW MUCH LONGER DO I HAVE TO WAIT?!”

And then repeatedly, Woodsbane fell upon the same log, each cut sloppier than the last as Phil hollered obscenities at the top of his lungs until his throat went hoarse. His blinding rage fizzled out into pathetic cries as he swung tiredly at nothing in particular; the log now too scattered and in pieces by then to even be truly called a log.

The cries turn hushed as he coughs and unceremoniously drops Woodsbane to the ground as he too, falls to his knees.

“...How much longer?” He rhetorically asks again, now tired and muffled as he stares to the ground, uncaring of the rain as it soaks into his clothing and frazzled hair. He thinks about what Pili had said earlier once more. Perhaps he was truly serious when he said it, but…

…An angel without wings.

It was a joke so ironic that Phil could almost laugh.  

[thisuserisgonesorry]

1,, im not a teenager . might be young but i have a pretty good grasp on adulthood atp , and i’m not the only person that thinks this specific take; ive asked a lot of mutuals/friends who are (young,,) adults and agree w/ me and many people in rbs agree so like .. bringing my age into this is so left field cos . idk . weird thing 2 say

2 in my experience from living in a very “redneck” (lack of a better term) area (though not america, so there could be a difference), ive met 20-25 year olds who look and act exactly like daryl in s1 because teenagers in redneck areas just look like that. thats where my estimate came from, due to my own experiences

3,, norman reedus literally just looks young in everything he plays . you cant deny that he has a bit of a baby face and doesnt ALWAYS look his age . (but also celebrity men do look like that cos they dont just start rotting away the second they hit 23 because blue collar / minimum wage jobs suck) and never did i say there was a problem w/ him being 40 , just that it didnt make sense in my mind,,, nd actors can play characters that are a different age than them. norman being 40 ≠ daryl having to be 40

4,, he wasnt embarrassed until around season 3-4 iirc , closer to when he was around more people and less isolated , closer to merles death , more so around when he found out carol would go to that community home to get away from ed and then more around beths whole arc (iirc? im a bit aways from s3 rn,,)

nd considering 25+ is around when the frontal lobe developed. yeah. he would act like an idiot in s1. like all young adults do. and he would helplessly follow his brother around for validation considering his childhood, and he’d do whatever he wanted. he would be a terrible drunk, with no job. young adults do that. especially ones w/ mental health / bad childhood

then he develops into a person who was willing to learn to deal with his trauma when around season 4 when (in hc) he’d be like 27 at the earliest (?) because we have to remember that we skip all of loris pregnancy and then the first year (?) of judiths life. making him on the closer side to 30 around the time the prison, when his character starts developing.

(and i never said 25 was the solid age, just that hes “like 25”, meaning im happy to account s1 daryl as 26,27,28, whatever, just that hes under 30 in s1 in my mind)

5 i agree that him being older plays a part in his story but i dont think being 25 suddenly makes him a little baby that makes his development void. his frontal lobe developed. that is a valid subtextual reason for him to mature. but that isnt the only thing that made him reflect and want to cope with his trauma. merles frontal lobe developed and he never tried to do what daryl did - therefor the age thing doesn’t exactly diminish his story or else merle wouldve changed before the outbreak, but he didnt, because some people dont. some people reach frontal lobe age and stay the same. its not “he just grew up” because then merle would have too, but he did grow up, and realised following merle was stupid. but he wouldnt have reached that outcome if there werent other factors so it can easily be both

6 i never said 40 looks old or that theres a problem w it, but how is he older than rick? than most of the other people there? being older than rick feels like it makes no sense (although rick didnt grow up like daryl did and they had carl young so blab yeah theres reasons) and merle being 35+ does make some sense though id somewhat agree 35 is young for merle. m not saying that ppl start decomposing when they hit 30 but god forbid i hc someone as not 40

+ trauma physically ages people so even if daryl did look the same age or older than rick, then it would still be plausible that hes younger. we see trauma age characters in this show. its not hard to assume it happened to him outside of the outbreak too

prob formatted this like a mess but ,, m tired

n e way other people in the rb say that they think daryl is different ages to all of them (varying from 20-40) and as i said in those rbs its interesting that no one can really “agree” on what age he should be cos hes an enigma like that and i think it suits him,, like we all can agree on certain things about certain character cos its a unanimous vibe but then his unanimous vibe is that no one truly knows him??? subtext of it all .

anyway /nm for all of this . im just a little guy . i respect ur opinion cos i love my pookie and i really do love that everyone interprets his story so differently ,,,, i just like talking about it

idgaf im sick of not saying it. s1 daryl dixon is not fucking 40 bro. hes like 25. there is no way in fucking hell.

[gayhorrorsans]

I've held this headcanon for a long time and I've seen someone post about it recently.

Classic IS Dust

Classic IS Killer

Classic IS Horror

Classic IS Geno

Classic IS Error

I believe if Classic makes a drastic enough decision that it changes the course of the entire 'run' instead of creating just an alternate timeline, it's an Alternate Universe. However it's still an alternate timeline.

So Underswap is an alternate universe (AU) - there is no way to achieve it by the normal rules of Undertale as it is drastically different.

Last Breath (although tricky to diagnose) can be seen as JUST an Alternate Timeline (AT) as theoretically it could be achieved (I know it can't but you get the idea)

Dusttale is both an AT and AU. It's drastically different from Undertale, but can also be theoretical achieved from a normal Undertale timeline.

AT as a title takes precedent over AU. So if Dusttale is ever mentioned, it is AT first, then AU.

Important note: Classic is classic and has always been classic. The instant 'Dust' becomes an AU, not just an AT, Classic experiences a 'RESET'. He retains all his memories of Dust, Killer, etc, but only until that point. The point of no return is where he kills 2 major boss monster encounter. Toriel and Papyrus. The same applies in all situations. In some situations like Horrortale where that line isn't clear, the irreparable damage of his eye would be that point of no return.

As a result Classic knows what each, Killer, Dust, Horror, Error, Geno have all gone through.

He would consider Errors to be the worst he's lived through. As the point of no return was when he began to glitch excessively. This may have taken years, hundreds of years, less, longer. But Classic still believes it's worse than living through a Dusttale timeline.

Undertale is unique, as only 1 timeline may exists at any point that is not an AU. If a last breath timeline exists, no Undertale timeline exists at that moment. Last Breath has occurred enough that every necessary detail is known of the AT, but will never occur again as Classic knows the criteria for which causes it, and knows what to not do.

Because of him having lived through them, Classic feels unnatural sympathy for the bad sanses (minus nightmare and cross, though he doesn't hate them by any means). He in fact blames himself and is scared/apprehensive of interacting with them as he thinks they might want to retaliate. He's not scared in the same way you'd be scared of a monster under the bed. He's surprisingly accepting. He'd just rather live.

He is the neutral state. Everyone must stem from him, therefore he chooses no side in any battle. He stays neutral and interacts with either side. He will never be a double agent or 'a spy on the inside'. Any information he gets, he will never share.

This rant has gone on for a while and probably makes no sense. If you want a more detailed and scripted headcanon I will do so.