#I’m honestly not harping on this (much)

[gothsuguru]

kairoooooo!!!

i’m here to ask you more about ‘out of my league’ (university au my belovedddd as you already know hehe :3 ) and ‘my love builds coffins’ because they both sound soooooo tasty!!!!

i’m so intrigued by your geto brainrot because you always come up with the most delicious and unique pairings and aus!! <33

much love,

Lily xo @storiesoflilies

THE FACT THAT I KNEW YOU WOULD ASK ABOUT UNI CRUSH!SUKUNA NDNFNFNDNDNF i know you and your love for your husband (sukie) so well 🤭 AND OMFG I’M SO HAPPY YOU ASKED ABOUT HARPIST!GETO THAT ONE JUST RECENTLY MADE ME VERY FERAL :3 putting in the wip ask game here so i don’t forget hehe

ALSO THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! you saying that i come up w unique pairings/au’s is literally the sweetest thing in the world i’m tucking that comment 2 my chest <3 hehe

my love builds coffins:

AHHHHHHH YOU DON’T KNOW HOW ECSTATIC I AM THAT YOU ASKED FOR THIS ONE HEHE IT’S A RECENT WIP AND IT’S MAKING ME INSANE!!!!! the title of the song is actually “my boy builds coffins” by florence + the machine but i wanted reader to be the coffin builder so i changed it up :3

okay so BASICALLY the gist that i have set up rn is that suguru is a harp player and ofc it’s such an angelic instrument that brings ethereal joy to others… but two of his friends (haibara & riko) passed away in a tragic car accident on their way to his show… i think suguru genuinely almost loses his way and can’t even look at his harp anymore but his best friend satoru wants him to find his way again — so suguru finds a cottage to stay at while also trying to process his grief.

there he meets a coffin maker who he gets to know a bit and they try and help him through his grief (this reader i think will be very beloved to me in the future… they’re not like my normal brash loud silly readers… they’re a bit more subdued & have an air of calm & mystique that intrigues and entrances suguru!) this fic i think will be about two people bonding over grief and trying to overcome it the best way they can together… i’m actually really excited to write this fic and get more ideas about it so thank you so much lily for asking about it :’) i think this fic will be very near and dear to me and a lot more softer/bittersweet/morose yet hopefully filled w fondness & longing! i’ll try and get ideas to write abt this soon :’)

out my of league:

ok this was actually originally a frat boy!geto fic but as i was writing it i found myself way more drawn to sukuna who is reader’s best friend! i started looking at their dialogue & the way they interact and i just fell in love with the idea of him as the campus crush but reader being the ONLY one he can tolerate! it’s a uni au and also best friend to lovers <333 sukie is so funny to me bc he doesn’t realize he’s in love until it hits him like a freight train & is like damn i like this bitch 😑😒

this snippet is what started it all for me 😭

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

.

[kavehayati]

Noor realisation hours omg

Stop I just saw a TikTok on ocd and I am in no way self diagnosing but when I was younger I had so many tendencies like religious ocd. I’d always be panicking and doing these excessive repeated behaviours like prayer because I would always feel like I would do it wrong and that it’s always wrong but the most horrible part is that it would look absolutely absurd to the outsider and my parents would laugh and make fun of me while I was in the middle of panicking about me messing up each prayer. I believe the tendency has died down but it’s morphed into other things. I can never describe how horrible and debilitating it was like if I missed group prayer in fajr I would sob and sob and sob so hard prayer was always such a difficult task because of this.

And the fact that now if I miss prayer cause for eg I had uni and my dad would say meh meh meh in the past you would sob if you missed prayer is the most meanest thing to say because how dare you say that past is good I was literally being tortured and YOU were laughing at me as I was sitting there in panic you’re so mean

I think it’s better to miss prayer than to experience that again. It’s like asking would you rather be sick or healthy but late DUH YOU PICK THE HEALTHY BUT LATE OBVIOUSLY

[httpsnali]

WEALTHY CHARADE - Masterlist

✬ Pairing: Park Sunghoon x Female Reader

✬ Genre: strangers to lovers!AU, angst!romance, marriage of convenience!AU

✬ Synopsis: Forced into a union that promises more complications than peace, you must confront the ghosts of the past and decide if you will bend under the weight of family duty or carve out your own path.

✬ Warnings: swearing, childhood trauma, toxic parenting, character death, broken family, toxic relationships, implied drug abuse, verbal abuse, depressive themes, alcohol abuse, emotional abuse, mature themes

✬ Characters: enhypen, aespa, twice's sana

✬ A/N: hi everyone! i’m so excited to finally share this story with you! the idea has been sitting in my head for over a year now, and even though i tried ignoring it, it just wouldn’t go away. so, i figured why not give writing it a shot, and here we are hahaha. i’m honestly having so much fun working on this, and i hope you enjoy it too. if you like it, feel free to leave a comment, reblog, or share. it really means a lot and keeps me motivated. thanks for reading, and i can’t wait to hear what you think! 💕

✬ P.S: characters have been aged up a year or two

✬ STATUS: ONGOING

✬ TAGLIST: OPEN

▪️PROFILES

▪️PROFILES PT.2

▪️CHAPTER ONE: Homecoming

▪️CHAPTER TWO: Strain

▪️CHAPTER THREE: Shifting Tides

▪️CHAPTER FOUR: Echo

▪️CHAPTER FIVE: Sacrifice (7.6k)

▪️CHAPTER SIX: Trail

▪️CHAPTER SEVEN: Restless

▪️CHAPTER EIGHT: So Husband

▪️CHAPTER NINE: Dissent

▪️CHAPTER TEN: Tensions Pt.1 (7.8k)

▪️CHAPTER ELEVEN: Tensions Pt.2 (10.8k)

▪️CHAPTER TWELVE: Notice

▪️CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Moves

▪️CHAPTER FOURTEEN

▪️CHAPTER FIFTEEN

▪️CHAPTER SIXTEEN

▪️CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

▪️CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

[bitethedevil]

I swear, I’m minutes away from pulling out a giant bulletin board and covering it in pieces of string that connect Rafael to every single event in the game. I feel like a crazy person, but I know that he basically spiderwebbed most of the plot together.



Goddamn it, anon (said lovingly). Now I feel like making my own too. Because I swear, he pops up all over the place, even just for stuff that’s not even plot relevant.

Spot the Devil: Raphael's Involvement in the plot

I’ll start out with letters and books I’ve found that made me go “hmmmm”.

Letter in the Harpy Nest (Maybe)

When you’ve saved Mirkon he mentions something about a nest nearby. If you get to it there is a ring, a journal, and a letter. The letter is what made me go “hmm”. You can read the full thing here. Basically, a guy named Edmund tells wife/girlfriend that she doesn’t have to worry about someone named Maggie Two-Fingers anymore, because he has settled a debt. To pay off said debt, he makes a deal with a cambion and becomes a warlock:

”[…] I took the deal the cambion offered. I'm not going to say I had no choice, because that would be a lie. But I don't regret it. I'm a new man. I feel strong for the first time in my life. Aside from being awoken in the middle of the night by the smell of sulphur (he likes to drop by to 'see how everything is going') I have no complaints […]”

Now, there was a journal too, but I don’t believe the two things were related, even though the journal talks about a devil too. From what I can see, the journal is an easter egg for a campaign called ‘Tomb of Annihilation’. Besides, Edmund is going to Icewind Dale and the campaign takes place in Chult.

It just makes sense to me if its Raphael. We know he hangs out near the grove because we get jumpscared by him before going to this area. It could be our boy and with how much he pops up constantly it wouldn’t surprise me.

A Pleasurable Deal (Maybe)

You can pry this theory from my cold dead hands: Raphael was involved in making this play. It stinks of him.

So, A Pleasurable Deal is an erotic play. The plot isn’t completely written out, but a cambion, who is named Carlisle in the play, is involved.

“Carlisle: Weep not, young man, though free your wife has fled,

And comfort found in comrade's arms and bed.

She licks her lips and cries his name, oh my!

And now you seek to be the apple of her eye?”

Carlisle basically helps a man named Robert get a bigger dick, or…something along those lines. The ”apple of her eye” line is just so Raphael. The whole thing is, to be honest. In the A Pleasurable Deal: The Shocking Truth, it’s revealed that the author sold her soul to make it:

“Interviewer: So .. what was your deal?

Harp: I beg your pardon?

Interviewer: In fact, this was your directorial debut, wasn't it? You couldn't even get published in the tabloid 'Baldur's Bash' before this play came out. Did you honestly trade your soul for an erotic play?

Harp: I- all right, we're done here.”

I mean, come on. This is so him. It’s right up his alley.

Devil Don’t Rhyme

This is a book you can find in the Devil’s Den. Devil Don’t Rhyme is definitely about him:

“[This is a heroic fantasy in verse form, told in the first person by a bold poet who challenges a devil (clearly modelled on Raphael) to an improvised poetry contest to win back the soul of his lover. The following couplet has been circled in red ink.]

'If the line doesn’t scan,' the devil sneers, 'you forfeit your soul and end in tears.' / 'Ha! I’ll keep my time and make my rhyme, with vim and snap and no "down came the claw" crap.'”

Which is just so fucking funny to me. He has been seething and underlining the parts that prove it’s about him.

Alright, onto actual events: Netheril

Raphael was there when Netheril fell. He told us in the Devil’s Den. He has been searching for the Crown of Karsus ever since. He saw the entirety of Karsus’s fuck-up, but didn’t manage to snatch up the Crown of Karsus itself. We do know, however, that he has other Netherese artifacts (the Archivist says so). The Regalia of Karsus were three objects and Raphael has at least one, meaning that if Raph gets the crown, he has a much bigger chance at actually controlling it and using it like it's supposed to be used. This might also be why Mephistopheles hasn't used it: he doesn't have the other artifacts to properly harness its powers.

There are also theories that he has been skulking about and trying to find it after. There’s a really well written theory by @firlionemoontav that connects him to Lenore from the Arcane Tower in the Underdark. He has left no stone unturned.

Orpheus and Vlaakith

I learned about this from an amazing theory post made by @certifieddilfenjoyer

When you go to the Astral Plane, near Orpheus, there is this Githyanki slate that you can find. It depicts Vlaakith making a deal with a Devil, “his face twisted with wry charm”, for the Astral prism. Yeah, Orpheus’ imprisonment? Raphael helped with that. He even taunts Orpheus while he waits for us to approach him and says something about him looking good in chains or something along those lines (kinky old man yaoi).

And honestly, it makes perfect sense as to why he has the hammer then. The hammer has multiple purposes, but in About Creation of the Orphic Hammer he mentions it as “insurance policy”:

“The Hammer is not a weapon, it is an insurance policy. Its function is specific, but its utility is boundless. No chains forged by infernal hand can withstand its power, for its core is a metalifferous compound combining the purest of essence of all Nine hells. If I should ever need to liberate the prisoners held in the Iron City of Dis, to shatter the vaults of Nargus, or even to free the child of Gith, my hammer will be equal to the task.”

Makes good sense because what he has done with the Astral Prism is a pretty big deal and hard to undo otherwise.

Moonrise Towers, the Gauntlet of Shar and Astarion

So, Raphael makes a deal with the architect of Moonrise Towers, who you also see wandering around the House of Hope. The architect gives up his soul in exchange for Raphael ending Ketheric’s army.

To do that, he sends Yurgir who is tasked with killing every last justiciar. Raphael then makes a deal with one of the justiciars who he then turns into a bunch of rats so that Yurgir can’t fulfill his contract.

We then help Yurgir or kill him, and Raphael helps us with Astarion’s scars. (This is just me theorizing from here) I find it kind of interesting that Raphael seems to know so much about Astarion. You get the feeling that he has obviously done his research on all of the companions, but with Astarion he makes that nasty “you’ve kept your clothes on this entire time? How unlike you” comment. Astarion would be such an easy target to go after, which makes me believe that Raph definitely knew beforehand about Astarion AND Mephistopheles’ deal with Cazador, but he hasn’t been able to pettily do something about it before the things that happen in BG3. But he has kept an eye on it. He can’t be seen defying his father like that directly, after all. I just find it hard to believe that Raph wouldn't jump at the business opportunity of 7000 desperate vampires hiding in Baldur's Gate. Like he definitely knows.

Gortash

Raphael bought Gortash from his parents when he was a kid, and Gortash eventually got out. It’s quite possible that Gortash only knew about the Crown of Karsus because of Raphael. He even went through Raphael’s house to steal the crown (and probably took a portal from there to Cania).

Might also be the only reason that he would ever make a deal with Zariel. He knows the Hells and how they work. In a way its even more of a “fuck you” that he goes to Zariel because she is far above Raphael as she is the Archdevil of Avernus (and thus she is sort of Raph’s boss). We also don't know what Gortash gets in return for handing Karlach to Zariel. It's speculated that it has something to do with the construction of the Steel Watch, but it wouldn't surprise me if peace from Raphael was a part of it too.

A world without Raphael

So, basically: had Raphael not been there, Orpheus would be free and a whole people would have had very different lives under someone else than the Vlaakiths, because Orpheus would have rebelled and told everyone what she did to Gith (his mother). We wouldn’t have had the Astral Prism to protect us, but on the other hand, we might not even have had the whole tadpole business to deal with anyway if Gortash didn’t know where the Crown of Karsus was. The whole thing could literally have been avoided.

(Thank you for the ask <3)

[stillness-in-green]

why do you think Deku never tried to talk to Shigaraki? doylist reason is obvious but what's the watsonian reason?

Honestly, this one’s pretty tricky to answer.  It’s very hard to get myself into the headspace of Deku (and the people in his own headspace!)—mainly because I get extremely uncharitable, extremely quickly.  Mainly about Horikoshi, yes, but that does extend to Deku, too, as well as the broader world he lives in.

The brain goes immediately to answers like, “His world is so incredibly slanted towards retributive models of justice that the fact that he even thinks about wanting to know Shigaraki’s motivations makes him a candidate for mad sainthood to the people around him.  The fact that he doesn’t follow that impulse through all the way to actually asking is immaterial; while Villains have to be punished for their actions, for Heroes, it’s the thought that counts.”

See how I’m already drifting back towards meta-narrative analysis at the end there?  Deku brings a lot of that out in me, especially from Villain Hunt onwards.  Like the wooden doll he’s named for, he comes off to me as a vessel for the plot to happen through more than he does a consistently written, well-thought-out character.  Trying to think of him through a purely Watsonian lens—no refences made at all, period, to what I think the story was trying to express or what Horikoshi’s intentions towards that story were—I almost immediately jump the tracks into territory that is all but certainly incompatible with what I was “supposed” to take away from MHA as a story.

But, you did ask, so I’ll follow the thought experiment through.  If I were to try and set down to paper an explanation for Deku’s actions from a purely in-universe stance—say, for writing canon compliant post-series fanfic—what would be my explanation?

(Hit the jump.)

Right off the bat, from a cultural perspective, I think Deku is afraid that if he tries to make excuses for Shigaraki, it would be disrespectful to Shigaraki’s victims.  That’s why you get the heroic characters constant harping on about how they can’t forgive the Villains, even though, as adjuncts to the police, “forgiveness” is utterly immaterial to them doing their jobs.  Too much sympathy for criminals, in some peoples’ eyes, becomes indicative of a lack of proper regard for the victims of crime; this is very much a dynamic in play in Japan’s legal system.[1]  Ochaco initially has the same impulse, where she’s terrified that even thinking about Toga Himiko’s human circumstances puts her in danger of forgetting the suffering Toga and the League brought about.

1: That’s a meta consideration, yes, but one that I think the target audience would understand to be implicit in the canon as written, so I’m treating it as a Watsonian detail.

Ochaco and Deku commiserate and ultimately encourage each other to embrace their desire to understand their respective Villains, which leads to Ochaco talking to Toga at some length!  Ochaco must do this because asking Toga these questions if the only way she has to reach that understanding.  Deku does not have to ask, however, because he has a cheatmode to fall back on: the mindscape shared between All For One and One For All.  If Deku thinks too much open communication with Villains risks dishonoring Shigaraki’s victims, well, he doesn’t have to openly communicate.  He doesn’t have to talk to Shigaraki the person at all.  He just has to find that crying little boy in the mindscape again.

I also think it’s notable that Deku very much does stop talking about wanting to save Shigaraki after he talks to Gran Torino.  From that point on, everything he says about Shigaraki becomes about wanting to understand him instead.  Coupled with the idea that he insists upon not forgiving Shigaraki, I get the sense that what Deku wants is not to help Shigaraki at all, but rather to simply bear witness to his truth.  And even that much feels self-serving to me—as if Deku doesn’t care so much that Shigaraki is in pain, but rather that Shigaraki might have a point, that Shigaraki’s pain might be valid.  Shigaraki having a valid point would destabilize everything Deku believes about Heroes and Hero Society, and Deku has, by that point, seen enough that he’s too upright to look away, to “sweep things back under the rug,” so he has to find out Shigaraki’s story to judge it for himself.

The fact that he feels he has the right to judge Shigaraki’s story speaks to the arrogance of Heroes—the same arrogance that leads them to declare their lack of forgiveness as if it’s in some way relevant to doing the job in front of them—as well as a deeply rooted defensiveness: that they must have, and be perceived as having, the moral high ground over those evil Villains.  I think, for example, of the Flamin’ Sidekickers and their cringingly awkward self-justifications to Dabi about their continued association with Todoroki Enji.  Their reasoning has zero bearing on either Dabi’s pain or their own heroic responsibilities to assist in the arrest of a known murderer/terrorist/arsonist, but they feel the need to spell that reasoning out to the child abuse victim/volatile Villain anyway, seemingly for no in-character reason save to rationalize the deep discomfort that Dabi’s video accusations provoked in them.

Heroes must be seen as morally just—this is the whole basis for the authority they’ve been granted to wield their powers against other people.  Best Jeanist talks about this idea explicitly, as does Police Chief Tsuragamae.  Far more damningly, it’s what led to the HPSC using agents like Lady Nagant and Hawks to quietly dispose of anyone that would present a threat to the public image of Heroes and, by extension, the fragile peace that rests on that public image.

Heroes must be pure and righteous, and Deku is just as apt to believe that as any other Hero—maybe even more apt, given that he’s also had All Might leaning on him about the bearer of One For All being the Pillar and the Symbol of Peace.  All this baggage winds up conflicting, however, with the horror and reflexive need to help Deku feels upon seeing the small, crying child within Shigaraki.

Saving small crying children is the absolute, innermost core of Deku’s personal framing of Heroism—seriously, he says this nearly word-for-word in Chapter 1!—and so, like Shouji says of the heteromorph riot, it isn’t something he can ignore and still call himself a Hero.  He’s unprepared for that personal brand of Heroism to conflict with the demands of professional Heroism, because he never expected to face someone who was both Evil Villain and Crying Child at the same time.  This is what he wrestles with over the course of his time away from UA and why, ultimately, he decides to use the mindscape as a way of resolving the conflict.

(Note again that I'm talking about my fanfic explanation here. Deku's reasoning is much murkier in the canon because of the canon's late turn towards locking us hard out of Deku's personal feelings and thoughts when they're about anything more complex than chain OFA combo moves.)

Remember that Deku begins the Villain Hunt Arc with a tentative desire to “understand Villains” so that he can perhaps use that understanding to avert or at least deescalate conflicts with them—and then the very first Villain he falteringly tries to understand is fucking Muscular, who shuts him down cold.  Deku never tries that hard[2] to understand a Villain again—Lady Nagant dumps her backstory on him with very little prompting from him, he has nothing but ultimatums for Overhaul, he doesn’t seem to ask any of AFO’s other minions any personal questions whatsoever, and with Shigaraki, he goes straight to the mindscape instead of even attempting a dialogue.

2: Insomuch as you could call asking three invasive, judgy questions in the middle of combat and then throwing in the towel “trying hard”.

My take is that Muscular scared him off of trying to verbally uncover the backstories of Villains—even though Shigaraki is ready to all but hand the first Hero to ask an illustrated history of his grievances with Hero Society, Deku can’t trust that anything Shigaraki tells him will be the unvarnished truth.  Unlike Shouto, he has no one to corroborate the truth with, but unlike Uraraka, he doesn’t just have to make the best of it, either.  He can instead utilize the mindscape, an approach that sidesteps all of the issues that a spoken dialogue would entail:

Getting Shigaraki’s truth via the mindscape means he can trust the answers he gets, rather than having to filter those answers through Shigaraki’s warped worldview.  This allows him to honestly evaluate Shigaraki’s perspective, gauging whether Shigaraki has a real point that Deku has any responsibility to address, some injustice that needs to be corrected independently of Shigaraki being held accountable for his crimes.    

Having decided that—for reasons of justice, All Might’s Pillar mentality, and his own peace of mind—he has to know Shigaraki’s truth, Deku comes to feel self-righteously entitled to that truth.  Thus, even though Shigaraki always seemed perfectly willing to share his thoughts in their previous encounters, Deku can’t take the chance that he’ll change his mind and rebuff Deku like Muscular did.  Using the mindscape takes that agency away from Shigaraki, rendering his willingness to share moot.    

No one other than people with access to the shared mindscape can perceive the interactions happening within it.  This means that, no matter what Deku learns or how he reacts to it in the moment, he doesn’t risk being seen as disrespecting Shigaraki’s victims by prioritizing the feelings and perspective of a vicious terrorist.    

Finally, on a tactical note, the encounter Deku has with Shigaraki in the mindscape during the Jakku battle seems to happen nigh instantaneously.  If he can get his answers at the speed of thought, that means he doesn’t have to specifically draw out his battle with Shigaraki until he’s resolved things to his personal satisfaction.  This is ideal, since Shigaraki presents an incredibly dangerous threat to everything and everyone around him, and Deku’s Hero education has repeatedly emphasized the importance of ending battles quickly.

There's just one problem with all this: Deku is assuming access to Shigaraki’s mind.  And why wouldn’t he?  He got in there without even trying last time, after all!  I assume that’s also why he rolls up to the battle with zero plans of any kind: he doesn’t understand how the mechanics of the shared mindscape work and none of the prior bearers can advise him because it’s a brand-new phenomenon for him as the ninth bearer, so they’re just as clueless about it as he is. 

Lacking that knowledge, he opts to simply take it on faith that he’ll be able to access that mental space again, find the crying child in it, and uncover enough about Shigaraki’s history to render his own judgement of it.  He's the Deku who does his best, after all; if it doesn't work, at least he'll know he tried. The good faith attempt, however it turns out, will allow him to satisfy his own sense of justice while not interfering with whatever temporal justice the adult Heroes are planning for Shigaraki—to which Deku fully believes he must be subjected as punishment for his crimes!—be it arrest or an execution broadcast to the entire world.

Unfortunately for Deku, thanks to his being waylaid by Toga, he turns up late to the battle only to find Shigaraki’s psyche sealed up tighter than an All Might-themed wall safe.  Then, since he never had any kind of plan for talking to Shigaraki, and his own ability to plan things is strictly limited to combining quirk abilities on the fly, he has to wing it until Kudou is able to come up with a plan for him.  Naturally, because Kudou is Kudou, and Heroes’ solutions are tailored to Heroes’ strengths, this involves violent psychic assault.  And why not?  It’s not like Deku believes Shigaraki deserves the mercy of a gentler approach.  Just think of all those people he hurt!

Now, is this all heckin’ uncharitable?  Does it paint Deku as well-intended but blindly self-righteous and ethically timid? Oh, for sure.  And I do think there was a point at which Deku wanted to save Shigaraki in a truer sense—indeed, he’s quite plain-spoken about it in the OFA Mental Conference in the aftermath of the first war!  However, it’s absolutely within his established characterization to run into things that make him uneasy and take the first out an authority figure offers him that spares him the work of demolishing and rebuilding his entire world view.  Look no further than the aftermath of the mall scene. You can draw a straight line from Deku taking Tsukauchi's out (that Shigaraki is just a sore loser) to him also taking Gran's (that killing Shigaraki could be a way of saving him).

That’s the mentality I would lean on to explain Deku’s anemic efforts to truly save Shigaraki in the end: an inherent desire to help people that has been hamstrung by a learned dehumanization of Villains, a repeated emphasis on swift, unthinking action as a Heroic virtue, a culture that regards sympathy for those involved in a crime as a zero sum game, and, last but not least, a psychological complex about the basic nature of Heroism rooted in his fraught childhood.

Deku says he’ll “never forget” Shigaraki. If it were me writing the sequel, “never forgetting” would look an awful lot like, “Following a particularly frustrating day of the Pro Hero grind, Midoriya Izuku opens his eyes at 4AM one cold winter night in his early-40s with the horrible, inescapable realization that what he did as a teenager to a deeply victimized young man barely older than he was himself back then was fucked up in ways he can never repair or take back.  And further that now, not only is he going to have to spend the rest of his life trying to make up for that act, it’s going to be much, much harder than it would have been back then, specifically because he did what he did back then and let the world get away with calling it heroism.”

Thanks for the ask, anon! I hope you find the answer interesting and at least somewhat believable, for all that it certainly isn't tonally in-line with the story's portrayal of its much-lauded protagonist.

   

(P.S. On top of convincing both All Might and Deku to not pursue saving Shigaraki in any concrete sense, Gran Torino also takes partial credit for Nana's decision to abandon Kotarou. Torino Sorahiko might actually be the all-time world champion of convincing OFA bearers that preserving One For All is worth abandoning children to their grim fates. Give him a hand, everyone. What a great and admirable Hero who absolutely deserved to survive all the way to the end of the story and who definitely is not a symbol of all the most jaded and cynical priorities of the old order.)

[brucebocchi]

Ranking 2024 anime, Pt. 2: #40-31

hey, this post is also available on my ko-fi, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i do this for free and am currently between jobs. you can find part 1 of the list here. thanks!

Alright, on we go to the list proper. The first post was probably whiplash-inducing, going from a bunch of shorter stuff I loved to whole seasons I hated, but we can only go up from here. I watched a lot of anime this year, as the numbers indicate, so there's a little positivity to be found even in the lower rankings.

As always, OPs are linked in the series titles. Watch them, they're almost all great.

40. Metallic Rouge

One of the biggest disappointments of the year, one which I didn’t think could be outdone (and I’ll get to that one shortly). Metallic Rouge had so much going for it as a Studio Bones original for its anniversary, and managed to fumble all of its promise and goodwill in slow, agonizing fashion. 

It’s a shame, too. Metallic Rouge still looks awesome; the character and mech designs are excellent, the space-cyberpunk aesthetic is undeniable, and the animation can be terrific when it counts. The story, on the other hand, is so completely asinine that I was sick of this show before it ended. I’ve mostly forgotten what even happens, partly because it was that infuriating to keep up with, and partly because I feel like the writers forgot too; the bulk of any actual story felt backloaded into the last two or three episodes because they focused too hard on vibes for a while. I think they were trying to go for some “G-Witch by way of Detroit: Become Human” something or other, but all of it rang hollow. I’m still not sure whether it needed more runtime or better writers. Probably both.

Not worth your time. Just watch the OP and imagine a better show than what we got.

39. Mysterious Disappearances

I’ve thought so little about this show since it went off the air that I don’t really have anything new to say. Looks pretty lousy most of the time, not that interesting, oddly horny, and the plot structure gets kind of cloying after a while.

I know I harped on that last point when I reviewed it at the end of the spring season, but something funny happened after I did. Back in July, I mentioned that I took issue with the formula of “we encounter a paranormal anomaly, it’s identified as a yokai or urban legend, we learn its tragic backstory, our protagonists give it closure, and we move on” because it felt manipulative after I realized that it happened with every arc, and then I went ahead and read DanDaDan, which basically does exactly the same thing but a hell of a lot better. Comparing a middling work like this to DanDaDan of all things feels unfair, but they cover pretty similar ground. Maybe it’s sharper writing, or maybe it’s just a more engaging work. Who’s to say?

I’d also said in my review that Mysterious Disappearances unintentionally gives off the vibe of a poorly-archived mid-2000s series, but I hadn’t realized just how right I was: It turns out that studio Zero-G just went ahead and made up its own ending even though the source material is still ongoing. Better shows did the same this year, but the studio and I seem to have the same level of faith that this anime’s ever coming back.

38. My Deer Friend Nokotan

Honestly? Fuck this show.

I’ve already gone into what I did and didn’t like about Nokotan after it went off air a few months ago and I don’t care to revisit that while it’s still relatively fresh. Not nearly as funny as it pretended to be, yet still not even confident in its own sense of humor. The OP's still a bop (calling it "Shikairo Days" was a genuinely great joke), and a small handful of gags do land, but not enough to prevent this from being a massive disappointment.  At the same time, Nokotan was still somehow not the biggest letdown of the year.

37. Uzumaki

This was the biggest letdown of the year.

When an anime adaptation of the legendary Junji Ito horror manga was first announced in 2019, it was hard not to get excited. Even when I’d mostly fallen out of anime fandom, I knew damn well who Junji Ito was and I knew Uzumaki. Adult Swim was funding the project, a prestige studio in Production I.G. was handling the animation, and they even nabbed Hereditary composer Colin Stetson for the score. Ito’s manga is famously very difficult to adapt well, and it looked like we finally had a project being taken seriously. Delays and radio silence in the ensuing years were disappointing, but I was willing to be patient if it meant everything was being handled right. When the trailer dropped this summer, it looked like it would be worth the wait.

And for one glorious episode, it seemed like everyone’s patience paid off. Uzumaki’s debut episode was one of the most visually arresting pieces of animation I’ve ever seen: The entire look and feel was faithful to Ito’s inimitable style, from the meticulously detailed linework to the stark black-and-white color grading of his manga’s pages. On top of that, the animation itself was absurdly good; the process of rotoscoping 3D motion capture seemed arduous, but the end result was beautifully lifelike for a story where that quality could only serve to instill further terror. Several of the most iconic images from the early chapters looked incredible in hi-def motion. Sure, the pacing was a little fast, but this was a four-episode miniseries. We could deal. This was just too good.

And then came the second episode.

I’m not going to over-elaborate or relitigate every single thing that went wrong here, because it’s a lot. Uzumaki was in development for a long time, and that five year gap between announcement and release included several detriments to the production process, not the least of which being COVID, animation production changing hands between several studios, and new leadership for Adult Swim’s parent company that now favors profit over product, especially when it comes to animation that doesn’t involve DC characters. Plenty of us figured that all of these delays and a run of only four episodes meant that they had the time to hammer out all the issues and give us the best possible product. That, unfortunately, was not the case.

Responding to complaints about the decline in animation in the second episode, executive producer Jason DeMarco (who, to be blunt, has overseen several mediocre-to-awful anime products released under the Adult Swim brand, including my bottom-ranked anime of 2023) claimed in a quickly-deleted Bluesky thread that there is indeed a higher-up to blame and that they were left with an ultimatum to either drop Uzumaki after just one episode, let it go the way of so many other Warner Bros non-releases under David Zaslav’s disastrous leadership, or release the whole miniseries in its half-baked state. They went with the third.

So, what we got was an uneven, often sloppy work; another mediocrity to throw on the pile of failed Junji Ito adaptations. All goodwill established in the first episode is soon undone by wonky character models, uncanny walk cycles, and movement that looks like PNGs being dragged across a background at the most inopportune times. Plenty of viewers, myself included, were willing to overlook the accelerated pacing after the first episode, but that issue was thrown into stark relief by the second when entire chapters of the manga began playing out simultaneously, and one was even reduced to an afterthought for a cheap “scare” at the end of episode three. 

Not that I thought Uzumaki necessarily needed a full 12-episode season for a proper adaptation or anything; Ito’s output can often be light on story, and dragging it out too far risks losing interest. What makes Ito’s stories actually work, though, is a proper sense of setting and space to let tensions rise. That didn’t entirely happen here; while the atmosphere of Kurozu-cho does plenty resemble what we’ve seen from Ito’s pages, and Stetson’s atonal saxophone does a lot of work to raise the level of unease, things just kind of happen. Few things really get the chance to land as intended, in part due to the production quality cheaping out at climactic moments.

This was the last anime I finished this year even though I’d watched the first two episodes after they aired and it went off the air in October. I was looking forward to the last two episodes that little. There are still bits and pieces of great animation and faithful adaptation here and there, but not enough to regain any goodwill from the second episode’s wheels visibly falling off. Maybe it’s finally time to declare Junji Ito’s works unadaptable once and for all. 

Definitely watch that first episode, though. At this point I kind of wish that’s all we’d gotten.

36. Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable!

Straitlaced Nice Guy moves to a new town, laid-back gyaru from his class immediately takes a liking to him, a couple other girls enter the picture, shenanigans ensue, and a slow-burn romance begins in parallel. Nothing special on paper and nothing much more special than that in execution. The setting is lovely, though, and it really made me want to visit Hokkaido one day. Nicely done, tourism board.

If you watched this and were put off by it, I don’t blame you; I probably would’ve been too if I hadn’t decided to read ahead in the manga. I will say this, though: If you liked Hokkaido Gals even a little, read the manga. It’s a minor investment, but if you can get over the halfway mark, it gets surprisingly good and has a really lovely ending. 

The anime, on the other hand? Meh. Doesn’t look super great and didn’t have enough time in 12 episodes to overcome most of the issues the source material had to move past to get to what made it worthwhile. It would take another season or two to get there, and that probably isn’t gonna happen. Great OP, though (I'm starting to repeat myself, I know). Just read the manga.

35. No Longer Allowed in Another World

Boasting one of the most audacious premises for an isekai I’ve ever seen, No Longer Allowed in Another World doesn’t shy away from the implications of an Osamu Dazai isekai, has the dark humor to match, and provides some fascinating commentary on the type of person who tends to consume wish-fulfillment isekai. Unfortunately, the presentation was a little lacking and threatened to lose my attention several times. I think the idea is much better on paper, to the point where I might test that theory and go read the manga.

34. The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic

The next dozen or so anime in the rankings fall into a category of either “well-made anime that I found kind of frustrating” or “middling anime that I kind of enjoyed.” The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic is very much the latter. It’s a standard isekai on paper; demon king, special powers, what have you, but it has a likable cast and laid-back vibe for much of its runtime that made it pleasant enough to watch.

As I said after the winter season, I really liked that Wrong Way spends a lot of its early story ensuring that the protagonist expends the time and effort necessary for him to become the hero he’s meant to be instead of the narrative just handing it to him from the start, which instantly sets it apart from most other wish-fulfillment isekai. It’s far from the best-looking anime I watched this year, but it has a mid-00s throwback look and feel to it that works more to its benefit than in Mysterious Disappearances. Nothing groundbreaking and a little too backloaded, but an enjoyable enough experience and one I’m looking forward to seeing come back. 

The only really upsetting thing about this show is that Atsuko Tanaka (Major Kusanagi, Bayonetta, Kainé), who was tremendous as the intimidating Captain Rose, is no longer with us. She was an exceptional talent with an iconic voice who will be sorely missed, and future seasons of this show won’t be the same without her.

33. Go! Go! Loser Ranger

Though not a bad anime by most metrics, I still consider Loser Ranger a minor disappointment. It mostly looks great, and “what if The Boys was a sentai series” is a killer premise, but the story so far is extremely frontloaded. Almost too much happens in the first four episodes, and then the bulk of the last arc of the season takes place in a goddamn parking garage. I’m still annoyed by that. Still looking forward to season 2, but I wish the debut season had been 24 episodes to avoid the sour taste in my mouth.

Did you hear that echo? Yep, that's me telling you to watch yet another OP. Easily the best part of the show and one of the best of the year. Tatsuya Kitani can't keep getting away with it.

32. Astro Note

2024 turned out to be a banner year for Rumiko Takahashi’s older works making their way back to modern screens, and one of those entries wasn’t even hers.

Astro Note is an overt homage to Takahashi’s less-famous romcom Maison Ikkoku, which ran parallel to Urusei Yatsura for most of the latter’s run. Like Ikkoku, Astro Note follows a down-on-his-luck young man living in a boarding house full of bizarre miscreants who only stays because the manager is super pretty. Unlike Ikkoku, and unbeknownst to our protagonist, said manager is actually an alien who is practically turning the house over to find a secret alien MacGuffin.

This show looks lovely and has a delightful cast and some surprisingly moving subplots, but it’s nothing too special otherwise. There are some fun creative flourishes here and there, like the alien stuff shown in flashback being made to look like an older space opera anime, but aside from a very fun turn near the end of the season, Astro Note rarely rises above the level of simply “pleasant.” And that’s fine, but it doesn’t quite live up to the material it’s aping, and what we’ve ended up with is just a nice distraction. 

I’m so glad I finally decided to read Maison Ikkoku though.

31. Shangri-La Frontier, second cour

It’s been a running joke for me that the more I watch Shangri-La Frontier, the less I’m sure whether I like it or not, and now with 25 episodes in the tank, I’m less sure than ever. The back half of the debut season improved on a few of the things that annoyed me about its first cour by focusing more on the high-quality action and introducing minor stakes to the proceedings, and then everything else surrounding it made it feel no less like I’m just watching a guy playing a goddamn video game, and the stakes still mostly seem to amount to "he wants to be good at it."

You may notice that I didn’t include the second season in this review, and that’s because I flat-out didn’t care to pick it back up. I’d been busy during the fall season and continuing a show I didn’t enjoy that much just wasn’t a high priority. It’s continuing into January, so there’s time to catch it while it airs, but I’m still not in any hurry.

[pedal-writes]

Homesick (2)

A/N: This one is a bit longer despite it honestly being filler but yk I gotta keep the grind up guys 🙏 oh yeah, don't mind the obligatory fanfic bestie, she isn't gonna have that big a role after this don't worry guys, big peepaw robot will only be on the mind soon lolz

Oh yeah and I added some dialogue from the book in here bc it's easier to translate that then movie dialogue so I'm gonna switch between the both of those, just an FYI!

It’s been about a week or so since you arrived in L.A.. Like Sam boasted about, he managed to get a car, a yellow camero to be exact. It was amusing how much he rubbed it in your face as if you didn’t get a car when you were literally his age. But you weren’t that bothered by his sudden load of cockiness and was just happy he managed to get some independence for himself. 

Today, Felicity wanted to meet up with you  and catch up over some dinner and maybe a shopping spree at the mall. She had been talking about it all week but couldn’t see you until now since she hasn’t found a good time to take off from work. You went through your suitcase and found a few cute clothing items that screamed casual but also girls night (more like day) out. As you picked up your purse and made sure all of your essentials were inside, you made your way out of your bedroom and down the stairs. A small chuckle left your lips when you heard your parents muffled voices bickering outside. They were working on the yard for the past few hours and your mom would constantly harp on what your dad did wrong. It was a little funny honestly. 

Suddenly, you felt someone walk past you and a muffled sorry escaped their lips. You glanced over in confusion and saw Sam go into the garage. You snorted and decided to follow him, out of pure curiosity. As you walk into the garage and lean on the door frame, Sam scrambled to find his keys. “Hey Sam, what’s goin’ on?”

Sam glances over, his demeanor dropping a bit in annoyance. “I’m uh, going to this lake party. Miles is gonna come with me so y’know…”

“Wait, you got invited to an actual party?” You responded with a twinge of surprise in your voice. “No offense.”

“I mean not… officially. It’s a public place, anyone can go to the lake.” Sam said, making his way past you and towards one of the back doors. “And why are you so done up? You don’t usually wear clothes that nice.”

“Wh— Okay I’m going to ignore that you just said that. Anyways, Felicity is gonna pick me up in a few because she wanted to catch up since we haven’t seen each other in like forever.” You say as you adjust the purse hanging on your shoulder. As the name ‘Felicity’ leaves your mouth, Sam groans over dramatically and turns towards you. “You’re seriously still friends with that girl?”

“Duh! She’s my best friend Sam.” 

“Yeah, more like she’s the best at being annoying. She would literally come here every single day after school and you two would talk about whatever girl problems you two had and by the way, I heard everything. The walls are very thin in this house.” Sam opened up the door and began to walk out. “I have no idea how mom and dad even tolerated it because I didn’t! You guys didn’t even listen to me when I complained.” He rants irritably, making his way towards the driveway.

“But she had a troubled home life! I was the only one there for her. And she hasn’t spent the night here since I was in high-school. That was, what, five years ago?” You explained as you followed close behind him. Both of you managed to step onto your father’s, Ron’s, lawn. “You two, I do not like footprints on my grass. Please step onto the very nice path I ever so carefully laid down.” 

“Oh, sorry dad.” You mumbled and retraced your steps. You could practically hear Sam’s eye role as he begrudgingly did the same. “Mom, seriously, could you stop putting jewelry on Mojo? He’s got enough self-esteem issues as a Chihuahua without you pimping him every day.”

Judy frowned at her son. “You know I don’t like for you to use that term,” She scolded. 

“Maybe you should put him back in the dryer, hon.” Ron said playfully. 

You glanced towards your mother with a confused expression. “Wait, that’s how Mojo broke his leg? Mom, you told me he jumped off the counter and fell weird.”

“I– I was ashamed, it’s embarrassing. And It was an accident, Ron! I didn’t know he fell asleep in the laundry basket. You know how hard he is to see sometimes.” Judy reached down and picked up the small dog, cuddling him close to her chest despite Mojo’s frantic means to escape her grasp.  “How’s your little leggy-weggy, huh, tough guy?” She cooed.

Hearing a small buzz come from your phone, you grab it from your pocket and see a message from Felicity. 

‘I’m here nerd :P GET UR ASS OUT HERE!!’ 

“Oh uh, Felicity’s here. I’ll see you guys later. And have fun at your lake party, SAM.” You walk back into the house and hear a cut off ‘shut up’ as you close the door behind you. From the windows at the front of the house, you see that familiar white convertible parked in front of the house and excitedly open the front door, locking it behind you. 

“Hey you! Long time no see.” Felicity said, resting her sunglasses on top of her head. You walk towards the car and open the door to sit inside. “Yeah, it’s certainly been awhile.” You lean over and give Felicity a hug, cringing slightly at the amount of perfume she’s wearing. 

“So how are you? How’s your job?” Pulling away, she starts the car and drives down the neighborhood’s street. “I’m doing alright. I uh… quit my job. Some stuff happened with another coworker and I just couldn’t work there anymore.” You hesitantly answered, fidgeting with the strap of your purse. 

“Oh snap. Was it like a creepy coworker thing or…” 

“No no, nothing like that. Well I guess… kinda. It’s complicated. I had no idea what this guy’s problem with me was but he wouldn’t leave me alone! Always harassed me before, during, and after work. I tried to report him to H.R. but since he was positions above me, they just gave him a slap on the wrist.” You paused for a few moments and felt your cheeks begin to burn with embarrassment. “So one morning, I was so pent up I… hit him. Like punched him, really hard. I’m pretty sure I broke his nose and screwed up my hand really badly. It was a stupid thing, really…” 

Felicity stayed quiet for a few seconds before a smile creeped onto her face. “That is so badass.”

You looked at her dumbfounded. “It was not badass!” 

“It so was! You were like ‘you want a piece of me?! Bam!’ and then the creep went down. I bet he never bothered you again after that, huh?” She quipped, that same dumb smile resting on her face. 

“No, he didn’t. But it cost me my job! It’s just really unprofessional.”

“But didn’t you quit it?”

You sighed. “I quit out of embarrassment, before they would inevitably fire me.”

“Oh. Well, since you’re so smart, I’m confident you’ll find another one. Maybe one without a weirdo guy.” 

“Yeah, I hope so.” You rested your elbow against the hard material on the door and laid your head against your cheek, staring at the passing buildings and people with a mopey expression. You really were disappointed you lost a job that both perfectly matched your interests and paid highly. Maybe after being in L.A. for a few weeks will raise your spirits enough to start job hunting again, and get out of this weird depressive funk that’s been preventing you from doing so. 

Felicity noticed your change in attitude and cleared her throat, changing the subject. “So I’ve been following this one news blog and apparently there are some high tensions between the U.S. and some other countries for some reason. I really hope a war doesn’t start because that would be, like, really bad.” She says, glancing between you and the road ahead of her. 

“Oh yeah,” You sit up again and look at her. “I’ve seen stuff like that on the news. If a war does start, they would start drafting people right?”

Slowly the restaurant came into view and Felicity pulled the car into the parking lot. “Pretty sure, but only boys though. Woohoo for us I guess… Speaking of boys, how’s Sam doing?” 

“He’s doing fine. He got a car recently, It’s kind of a piece of junk though. And he also still hates you.” 

Felicity laughed as she pulled into an empty parking space. “Yeah I figured. Should I apologize to him? Since I kind of invaded your personal life for a good while.” She turned off the car and stepped out, grabbing her purse. You think about it and eventually nod, also exiting the vehicle. ”He’s annoying for sure but I’m gonna say yes. I care about the both of you and I don’t want any bad tension between you two, as funny as it is.” 

“I’ll remember that. Oh, and when we get in here, only one alcoholic beverage. Cause I am not dragging your drunk ass out of here like last time.” She playfully bumped her shoulder into yours and opened the front door for you. 

“What that– It was my 21st birthday! That’s not fair. I even said I wouldn’t do something like that again.” You argued.

“Riiight, okay. Just get in here.” You rolled your eyes and mumbled a ‘whatever’, to which Felicity chuckled. 

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.

It was already night time when you and Felicity were done shopping at the mall. She was a bit of a bad influence considering how overboard you went with the shopping, with her excuse being ‘you’ll probably rarely get chances to visit Cali again so make it worth your while!’ But despite the amount of money you spent, you deemed it worth it considering you found the cutest pair of Uggs. As the two of you walked down the sidewalk, You let out a small sigh as you realized how far away Felicity had actually parked. It was a Saturday night so of course the mall was packed, so it made sense for her to park a block or two away. 

What you both didn’t know was that there was a looming police car in the distance behind you, slowly creeping. 

“Remember that one time in sophomore year when you liked that one jock-y kind of guy and during valentines day, you went up to give him a valentine and literally fell on your face?” You laughed, adjusting the bags in your hands so they wouldn’t be as uncomfortable in your hands.

“Oh my god, that was so embarrassing! It gives me second-hand embarrassment just thinking about it.” Felicity shivered.

“Hey, at least he asked if you were ok, even if he rejected you afterwards…”

“Ugh, can we talk about something else? Please?”

Soon, Felicity’s car came into view and you both crossed the street with urgency. As you put your bags in the backseat and got into the car, your brows furrowed at the police car parked beside the sidewalk you and Felicity were just walking. “Uh, Was that Cop car always there?” You pointed out to your friend. 

“Mm, yeah no. I’m pretty sure he just drove up. He’s probably keeping a look out for thieves or junkies or something.” She replied, starting the car and beginning to pull out of the parking space. “Unless, you’re the thief.” 

You playfully scoffed. “I wouldn’t steal anything!”

“I’m just joshing with you.” Felicity patted your back and drove down the dark street. A few minutes would pass before you would see that same cop car following behind you two from that same far distance as before. You brushed it off, he was probably just driving to get something to eat or go back to the station. But as Felicity turned the car a few more times and the car still didn’t change its direction, you started to get a little anxious. 

“Felicity, that cop car is legitimately following us now.” You mumble, staring into the rear view mirrors with a small pit in your stomach. 

“What? Should I pull over?” She replied in a worried manner. 

“I don’t think so… He would turn his lights on or–or yell at us to pull over by now.” 

Felicity decided to take a different way to your house and went down a darkened street with almost no streets nor people, to try and maybe lose him. The two of you still kept your eyes on the rear view lights before the car suddenly stopped. It sat there for a few seconds before making a U-turn and going back the way it entered, almost like it was being called by something. You both sighed in relief, “Thank god…” You muttered. 

“That was really weird… Do you think he was gonna kidnap us or something?” Felicity looked at you with wide eyes.

The thought irked you a bit and you shook your head. “I don’t want to think about it, I just want to go home.”

Felicity nodded understandably and went back onto the regular route to your house. The ride wasn’t that long and as the car drove down your neighborhood’s street, the familiar shape of your family's home came into view. “Thank you for coming to hang out with me, I really missed you. And I’m sorry it ended weird with the whole cop thing…” Felicity said with a small frown on her face. 

You huffed, leaning in and giving her a hug. “It’s okay. At least he left us alone and I got to spend some time with you.” You pulled away and smiled, to which she returned. You reached in the back and grabbed your bags, stepping out and closing the car door with your hip. 

“I’ll call you tomorrow, please get home safe Fel.” 

“Will do, tell your parents I said hi!” With that, Felicity started her car again and drove down the street. You watched her drive away for a few seconds before going into your house. When you opened your door, it was dark and you were pretty sure your parents were asleep. You walked up the stairs and you heard Sam’s muffled talking coming  from his room. Something about how leaving someone behind at the lake wasn’t that big a deal and to ‘get over it.’ 

You snorted and headed towards your room, setting your bags down and closing the door. It was a bit late but you could probably still squeeze a shower in, considering you felt a bit sweaty from walking outside all that time. You took off your shoes and grabbed your towel off of the door, walking back into the hallway and into the bathroom. You didn’t want the shower to be too long considering how late it is so you moved with a sense of urgency, getting out after about 20 minutes. 

After getting into some jammies and aggressively drying your hair with your towel, you flop into bed and sort of reminisce about the past day. While you were really happy you got to see your best friend again, you felt a bit irked out by that cop car following you and Felicity. There really was no rational explanation to justify why that car was following you so it was probably either a creepy guy who stole a police car, or worse, a creepy cop. The thought creeped you out and you sat up, yawning and rubbing your eyes tiredly. Your eyes dart over to under your door and you see a little bit of light that was coming from Sam’s room. That gave you an idea. You grabbed a blanket and a pillow and made your way out of your room. You stopped at Sam’s door and knocked. The sound of approaching footsteps were heard and the door opened, Sam standing there with a neutral expression. “What’s up?” 

“Can I sleep in your room tonight?” You hesitantly asked, honestly feeling a little childish. 

Sam rolled his eyes. “You’re a grown woman, with your own room, and I need my privacy. So if you don't mind—” As he closed the door, you gently stopped it with your hand and gave him a saddened look. “Please Sam, I don’t think I want to be alone right now.” 

His eyes widened slightly and he sighed, opening the door fully and letting you enter. You found an empty spot on the carpeted floor and threw your pillow down, sitting down beside it. “So… Did something bad happen today?” Sam asked, walking over and sitting on his bed. 

“No—well, yeah I guess. Felicity and I were on our way over here and this cop car was just slowly driving after us. I didn’t think much of it at first until Felicity turned a few times and that car was still behind us. We were panicking and I thought ‘oh my god i’m going to die’ before the creep stopped and turned around. It wasn’t fun, like at all.” As you talked, you laid your head down against your pillow and pulled your blanket over you, looking over at your brother. 

“Oh damn, I’m sorry. That sounds freaky.” Sam said with a frown. 

“Yeah it certainly was. I’m just glad we managed to get out of there without getting hurt or worse… Anyways, I’m gonna change the subject now. How was the lake party?” 

Sam grinned at the question. “You won’t believe it when I tell you, cause it’s that unbelievable.” 

“Spill.” 

“Mikaela Banes actually got into my car and I drove her home, in my car!” 

You sat up with a bewildered expression. “Bullshit!” 

“I’m serious!” 

The two of you talked and laughed for a little while after that and soon drifted off to sleep, you forgetting about the mildly upsetting events that transpired today. A few hours had passed of peaceful slumber until you heard a car revving and Sam running out his door in a hurry. You were still a bit dazed and your tired mind registered it as nothing, so you quickly fell back to sleep.

[verkomy]

okay so I’m rereading the hobbit and I want to make a list of my favorite quotes and parts so here we go:

“bilbo (…) got something a bit queer in his make-up from the took side” I chuckled

“mr. baggins was very fond of flowers” of course he was he’s a blorbo

“it was a beautiful golden harp, and when thorin struck it the music began all at once, so sudden and sweet that bilbo forgot everything else” bombastic side eye

“as he lay in bed he could hear thorin still humming to himself in the best bedroom next to him. bilbo went to sleep with that in his ears, and it gave him very uncomfortable dreams” criminal offensive side eye

“the explanation did not seem to explain” my brain 24/7 (but also when someone’s trying to explain the rules of any board game to me)

“bilbo was wearing a dark-green hood and a dark-green cloak borrowed from dwalin. they were too large for him, and he looked rather comic” bilbo in dwarven clothes, just throwing it out there

“bilbo baggins, a bur — a hobbit,” said poor bilbo, shaking all over, and wondering how to make owl-noises before their throttled him” this one made me laugh

“trolls simply detest the very sight of dwarves (uncooked)” this one too

“his house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all” I want to go to there

“dori, who was at the back next to bilbo, and a decent fellow. he made the hobbit scramble on his shoulders as best as he could with his tied hands, and then off they all went at a run. (…) that sent them on faster than ever, and as poor bilbo could not possibly go half as fast, they took it in turn to carry him on their backs” WE WERE ROBBED

“why, o why did I ever leave my hobbit-hole!” said poor mr. baggins bumping up and down on bombur’s back “why, o why did I ever bring a wretched little hobbit on a treasure hunt!” said poor bombur” comedic duo

gandalf answered angrily “I brought him, and I don’t bring things that are of no use” we love a supportive friend

“(gandalf) gave bilbo a queer look from under his bushy eyebrows” live gandalf reaction

“you ought not to be rude to an eagle, when you are only the size of a hobbit” good life advice

“here they sat on wooden benches while gandalf began his tale, and bilbo swung his dangling legs and looked at the flowers in the garden” a short king <3

“that only makes eleven and not fourteen, unless wizards count differently to other people” I LOVE BOOK BEORN SO MUCH and this whole chapter is probably my favorite by far

“the hobbit felt quite crushed, and as there seemed nothing else to do he did go to bed” what a mood

“long noses are sometimes useful you see” do with that information what you want

“they knew only too well that they would soon all have been dead, if it had not been for the hobbit; and they thanked him many times” AS THEY SHOULD, too bad thorin didn’t see any of what happened

“he did not like being dependent on by everyone, and he wished he had the wizard at hand” honestly, same

“never laugh at live dragon, bilbo you fool” another hopeful advice

“you are more worthy to wear the armour of elf-princes than many that have looked more comely in it. but wonder if thorin oakenshield will see it too” ouch

“then bilbo turned away, and he went by himself, and sat alone wrapped in a blanket, and, whether you believe it or not, he wept until his eyes were red and his voice was hoarse” this one hurts

“he was in fact held by all the hobbits of the neighbourhood to be queer” of course he was :D

[glossamerfaerie]

This is not really a theory, more of a musing… I was looking at the cover art and realized that Silver Flames has the Mask (one object in the Dread Trove), which is an interesting choice. Technically Silver Flames could’ve depicted any of the three objects (Harp, Mask, and Crown) because Nesta uses them all.

But Nesta finds the Mask before the other objects. Nesta wears the Mask three times so far (twice in SF and once in HOFAS), more than any other object. Nesta gives the Mask to Bryce in HOFAS. These points are not unrelated. So I understand why Silver Flames depicts the Mask as Nesta has a special affinity with it. Which brings me to my musing.

I think Gwynriel and Elucien books will depict the other two Dread Trove objects in the cover art. I’m not sure which comes first (leaning Gwynriel but I go back and forth). I also think the Harp will become extremely important. Koschei is trapped in his island and wants to get out. Nesta uses the Harp to winnow wherever she wants, including the Prison and warded River House. Koschei isn’t done chasing the Trove, and his top priority is the Harp. The Crown is also useful, but he needs the Harp first.

***

Gwynriel Cover: Harp

Nesta found the Harp in the Prison when she heard Gwyn singing in the choir. Can’t get more obvious foreshadowing than that. I also LOVE the secondary meaning to Gwynriel’s love of music and Shadowsinger powers. Plus the way that Az always hears music around Gwyn. 🥹

From a meta perspective, I think Koschei becomes free by the end of this book. If he’s going to become the main villain in the final Elucien book, then he needs to become an actual threat. Can’t be a threat if he’s still trapped in his island.

Color of Paperback Cover and Hardcover Font: Dark Blue. After the bright orange of Silver Flames, I think we’re going to a darker color to match Az’s broody nature. I can also envision a black color as an alternative to match the shadows.

***

Elucien Cover: Crown

Honestly, this is more vibes because we don’t know that much about the Crown. But thematically, I like that it connects to Lucien as the secret heir to Day. I think we’ll also get a resolution to the Spring Court situation. Elain is Cauldron-born and potentially has the ability to wield the Crown to help battle Koschei’s forces. It fits.

Color of Paperback Cover and Hardcover Font: Yellow. We’re going back to a bright color after the dark color of the previous book. What better than Yellow, symbol of sunshine and the Day Court? I can also picture a lighter green as an alternative. While I would love Pink to represent Elain, I don’t think it’ll happen because the new ACOWAR cover is a purplish-pink. But maybe if it’s a light pink?

***

Of course, I could be totally wrong and the cover art isn’t the Dread Trove. Maybe Az’s book is Truthteller. Who knows? But I like the meta-narrative and themes surrounding the Dread Trove.

[konigenblobbity]

One Floaty, Two lovers

König x GN!Reader

Warnings: Fluff, sitting on lap, neck kisses, kisses, cutesy corny König

A/n: inspired by a cute couple I saw do this on vacation in the pool. Loved the idea of our big bear doing it.

Both you and König have been on military leave for half a year, and this would be the first break you’ve had in what feels like ages. There weren’t words to describe how excited both of you were, being able to spend time together outside of the base just one on one.

Deciding to book a nice little rental somewhere in Europe for a week or so, with its own little pool and a nice view, get a little sunshine as well. Having only arrived a day or two ago, you could honestly say it was so much better than you expected; both the vacation, and getting to enjoy it with König.

Warmth of the sun hitting your face as you swam back and forth in the pool, mirroring the warm smile you just couldn’t shake. Eyes darting over to your boyfriend, relaxing in his large donut floaty. Head leaned back, feet in the water, eyes closed and his whole body practically limp.

It was so clear to you… he really needed this. Even if at first he wanted to go to Austria and enjoy the nice winter weather you knew that deep down he was glad you convinced him otherwise. The clear sky and matching sunshine making him glow, even the sniper hood over his eyes appearing lighter in colour

You giggle softly and slow your swimming as you pass him, gaze still admiring how peaceful he looked. A tinge of jealousy as you curse yourself for not bringing a donut floaty for yourself. As you reach the other end of the pool again, you pause... before deciding to swim over to him in the donut, moving to be behind his head.

“Are you sleeping sweetheart?” lifting your hands out of the water and moving them to his shoulders, sliding them up and down his shoulders. Head close to the dip of his neck, smiling when you hear him hum softly at the cool water on his skin paired with your soft touch.

“Nearly mein Schatz” his voice gruff and every semblance of his stiff and aggressive demeanor was gone. Lifting one of his hands up to place it on your own, tracing his thumb over your knuckles. As the pads of your fingers gently tickled at his skin you recognized the texture of his scars beneath them.

“I’m kinda jealous… it looks really comfortable” you tease and he chuckles lowly, so low it was more like a vibration in his throat. Using your hand he guides you to move to the side of the floaty, lifting his head to look at you with a gentle and fond gaze. “No need to be jealous. We can share” lifting your hand and leading it under his hood to kiss at the back of it.

You let out a huff and pout “Yeah… I’ll wait for my turn tomorrow” going to swim away but he pulls you back by your hand “Tomorrow? Schatz don’t be foolish! Come on and sit on my lap” using his free hand he reaches over to the edge of the pool with ease and pulls himself and the floaty towards it.

At first you didn’t understand, and wanted to brush off his words but the way he looked at you expectantly, shifting in the floaty to sit more upright, you couldn’t deny or protest. Something about his wide eyed unwavering gaze and inviting prescence was tugging on your heartstrings, this behemoth of a man playing them like a harp.

Pulling yourself up you get out of the pool, standing right where he held onto the edge, fully facing you. With a sheepish grin, teeth showing at how giddy you were feeling you move to turn around. Slowly lowering yourself down before dropping into his lap. Feeling his hands hold your waist to keep you from falling too quickly.

The momentum of the fall pushing the floaty back into the middle of the pool. Slightly squirming on his lap to nestle in comfortably, leaning your head back against his shoulder with a long sigh. Just as you’re about to close your eyes and relax König’s voice draws your attention.

“Nein liebling, other way” feeling his breath against your ear as he speaks, turning your head you look at him and furrow your brows in confusion. Without explaining further his hands grip your waist and lift you up slightly, rotating your body carefully.

You brace your hands on the sides of the donut floaty, your legs hanging over the side as you let him guide you to the position he had in mind. Once you were fully turned, face to face with him, he sat you back down in the dip of his lap.

Then his hands move to your thighs before sliding down to grab onto one of your calves, lifting your right one over his head so each of your legs were resting on the donut next to each side of his hips.

The whole time his eyes were creased, so obvious to you that he was smiling at you, he wouldn’t say it aloud but he was completely enamored. Unable to help the soft pink on your cheeks as your hands rest on his chest; his hands resting on your calves.

“Is that comfortable mein Schatz?” He asks, tilting his head in a way that made your heart tighten. You nod your head and move a hand to his neck, tracing up and down the side of it with your thumb.

“Yeah… It’s perfect König” you say and he hums softly, unable to look away from you. Never feeling more happy about a decision than to take this trip with you. Able to see you out of the stuffy military gear and instead happily sporting flowy clothing, adorable yet fitting shorts with simple tops, and currently an enticing bathing suit.

His hands move to caress your sides, grazing up and down your exposed skin with a gentle touch, the feeling of the pads of his fingers slightly tickling but you wouldn’t stop him. “Absolutely stunning…” he murmured to himself.

Not quiet enough for you not to hear but he didn’t mind that you did, loving the way your thumb stops it’s tracing and your eyes divert to the water. “Stop.” You words unconvincing, made worse by the cheek denting smile his words placed on your lips.

“Nein.” Shaking his head and cupping your cheek, guiding your head to face him once again. “Never. Because it will never stop being true” spoken like a soft prayer, seeing you as the deity worth devoting himself to. Slowly pulling your head towards him, lifting his own as his other hand comes off your thigh, hooking his thumb under the hem of his sniper hood.

Both your hands raise and you brush away the hand at his face, hooking your own thumbs under the fabric and lifting it just enough to expose his lips. Leaning the rest of the way and kissing him gently… ever so softly as your lips meld together effortlessly. Both your eyes closed as you savor this breathtaking moment.

Both physically and metaphorically breathtaking.

Now that both his hands were free, he kept one on your cheek, cupping its entirety in his palm, the other cradling the small of your back fondly. As the kiss continued neither of you wanted to break it, to break this moment of pure tranquil bliss. Yet with a soft chuckle König can't help but comment slyly "This trip is the best thing I’ve ever done” causing you to laugh softly with him.

Opening your eyes and looking down at his lips, able to finally see the smile he had been hiding beneath the fabric. "Oh yeah? I don't think you mean that" you tease, moving your hands to the back of his neck under the hood, seeing how it was hooked onto the bridge of his nose.

After he hums softly, he lets go of your cheek and moves that hand to rest on your back just as his other one did. As he pulls his lips away, his head dips down to your neck "You're right... I don't" kissing just below your jaw as he speaks. His honesty catching you off guard for a moment.

Waiting for him to speak further you could feel him bide his time with his kisses, long and slightly wet as they trail across your throat to the other side of your neck, ending up just below your ear.

"Asking you out was the best thing i've ever done..." his whisper filled with all the loved and adoration in the world. His endearing tone one you've become familiar with and never failing to send an electric shock through you.

"Can't help but mess with me can you?" he simply shakes his head at your words making you let out an amused hum. "You're lucky I love you König" you spoke with a teasing but sincere voice, watching as he moves his head back from your neck. Meeting your gaze once more.

"I know I am... luckiest guy in the world" with heavy eyes he leans his forehead against yours, simply wanting to breath in your presence and you wouldn't even dream of stopping him. "and I love you too."

Both of you sat there in the floaty, smiling like love-drunk idiots with your foreheads resting against each other. Completely infatuated with one another and still having a week all to yourselves in this quaint little rental. You couldn't ask for more.

[humbledragon669]

S1E4 – Saturday Morning Funtime Write Up P3 - Saturday (The last day of the World) from "You're better off without him." to "You bad angels!"

As upsetting as it is to not have a photo banner for this chunk of the episode write up, I’m going to launch straight in. The timeline for this episode gets important here, so let me just refresh your memory:

So at the point in the episode where we see Crowley preparing to ambush Hell’s minions, the streetside argument has already happened. Aziraphale has also been attacked by archangels and he has tried to talk to God about the whole situation, but we as the audience are not aware of these two events at this point in the episode. Got it? Because I still can’t get that all straight in my head, I really have no idea why I have such a mental block about it.

Harping back to something I mentioned in the previous part of this episode write up, Crowley looks pretty purposeful during this scene. He’s not gathering his things, he’s not desperately looking for a location to run to. He knows exactly what his plan of action entails. I honestly don’t think he has any intention of running anywhere if he has to do it without Aziraphale – now he’s all about surviving as long as he can, and causing as much damage as he can in the process.

Side note: credit to the set design guys, who gave Crowley a doorbell in the shape of a snake. Pretty sure I need to get one of those for my own front door now.

Also gotta love the costume department, having Hastur’s wig thrown on top of his frog/toad in the most careless way imaginable. Goes to show how much he cares about whether any humans notice anything weird about him by this point.

I don’t know why, but I find Hastur’s reaction to Ligur’s demise snort-laughingly funny. It gets me every. Single. Time. Maybe because it’s just so over the top. Maybe I’m just a bit twisted. Maybe a bit of both. Probably like almost everyone else in this fandom to be fair. I’m not going to feel too bad about it, he seems to gather himself pretty quickly afterwards. And hey, you remember all the stuff I highlighted about the noise that we hear when Crowley or Aziraphale do a miracle? Well we’re about to be introduced to the noise that happens when Hastur does one.

You can ignore the little “ow” at the end of the clip, that’s just Crowley. It’s the noise just before that – the weird “flexing” noise with a bell. It’s very different to the noise we hear for miracles from Aziraphale and Crowley. I don’t think it will come to be as important as the noise associated with our hero pair, but it’s worth noting that it is fundamentally different. It does make me wonder why the miracle noise for Crowley isn’t closer to the one for Hastur. Perhaps it’s to do with intent rather than the caster’s nature.

I think I’ve seen this discussed before, but did we all notice how Aziraphale assumed that when the call connected he was actually talking to Crowley? He doesn’t wait to see if the answerphone kicks in, or if Crowley offers a greeting. I suspect it’s because he has never actually had to talk and listen to the answerphone before because Crowley answers every single time he calls. Which at the very least implies that Aziraphale always knows exactly where Crowley is, but further suggests that as a general rule, Crowley is with the angel whenever he isn’t in his apartment. Food for thought.

This phone call and its placement in the episode contrasted with its placement in the chronology is one of the reasons why I get so confused about the timeline. Aziraphale’s tone when the call is answered is a far cry from the terrified bleating of his hurtful rejection on the street corner, which is the last time that he spoke to Crowley. It’s only when you take into consideration that he has actually been threatened by archangels and told that the war is going ahead regardless that the phone call starts to make sense. At this point he tells Crowley that he knows where the Antichrist is – something he swore that he wouldn’t do less than 24 hours prior. What’s interesting about this about-turn is that he doesn’t really have any new information at this point – it’s his take on the situation that’s changed. He’s (finally) realised that the only way they can fix the situation is together.

I *think* Crowley’s stroke of genius bullshitting speech is the first time we are given some insight into the hierarchy of Hell – he calls Hastur a “Duke of Hell”. Crowley has previously been referred as “the demon Crowley” when named specifically by other Hell residents, so despite his very casual greeting in the first episode (“Hi guys”), this would suggest that he is below Hastur in the organisational food chain of Downstairs.

Clearly the people conducting the theological debate into how many angels can dance on the head of a pin became very frustrated with this ridiculous question, because the research notes become more and more incredulous. The one on the far right is my personal favourite:

Side note: the line is “angels don’t dance”. Not can’t or won’t. Got that? Stash it away somewhere so we can pull it, and the information about Aziraphale being the exception to the rule, back out when we get to the ball in season 2.

I have to say, the amount of work that has gone into the sequence of footage coming up blows me away slightly. The photography effect applied to the footage of the dancing men, the honky-tonk orchestration of the music, the underlying ticking sound of an old movie projector, the costumes, the choreography – it’s incredible how much attention to detail has been exercised to produce less than a minute of film. Did I mention all the work Michael Sheen’s face is putting in? It’s quite ridiculous.

I’m not sure I had come across the gavotte as a dance previous to watching Omens – it’s not exactly up there with the popular ones like the waltz or the tango, is it? Wikipedia describes it as a “lively peasants kissing dance”. Probably not all that surprising that Aziraphale took to this particular dance style when you have that piece of information, which is completely the opposite to how I feel about seeing Crowley (and Hastur and Ligur) doing a bit of carefree disco boogie (which he does to the same piece of music as Aziraphale’s gavotte but with a different musical setting). I actually didn’t even realise it was him until my 3rd rewatch.

Quick question about the journey through the phone system – why does Crowley count down to the exit? Surely that just tells Hastur what the plan is? His plan works regardless, it just strikes me as odd that he does it.

Poor old Hastur, the idea of being stuck in an endless loop of Aziraphale’s voice seems to have him quite frightened. He’s even lost his wig on his entry into the phone system. His final choice of word to use as an insult against Crowley is interesting though; I would have thought that calling the demon a snake was something of a compliment. Importantly, Crowley leaves the apartment with nothing more than his phone – Alpha Centauri definitely looking off the cards at this point.

Aaaaaand there it is. The little piece of the puzzle that we didn’t even know we were missing – a placard that tells us we were missing a window of time. So if we just refer back to my timeline from earlier, we’ve moved from step 8 backwards to step 3:

It looks like Aziraphale is nervous again – he’s wringing his hands in that distracted way that he does. And if he didn’t look troubled enough before the little gang of archangels show up, he certainly looks that way now. There are two things about this scene I want to point out, and the first has to do with the sound. As soon as we’re aware of the presence of other Heavenly beings (Michael’s greeting), all of the speech has some reverb applied to it and the background noise fades out. The result is that we feel like these characters have been isolated from everything around them, and given that nobody pays them any attention at all, I think it’s pretty obvious that that’s the intention. It’s a really clever little device, and once the (slightly menacing) music kicks in, it’s virtually unnoticeable. The second of the things I wanted to point out is that we see Aziraphale panicking in this scene. Not trying to hide something or divert attention, but actually panicking. He stammers, there are unexplained pauses in his speech, his eyes are wide, and he gestures a lot with his head (and later, his hands too). He even backs up when the other three advance on him. I think it will become, in later episodes, very important for us to be able to recognise what a panicking Aziraphale looks like, and this is it.

He has every reason to panic – he’s just been told that Heaven knows that he’s been meeting with someone from the other side. More than that, they describe his companion pretty accurately, and for the second time in a matter of minutes somebody describes the true nature of the relationship (according to my head canon anyway) between Aziraphale and Crowley, which, rather importantly, he makes no attempt to rebut. There’s a tiny beat where the realisation that Crowley is in trouble with Hell hits home and he looks as if he wants to ask Uriel for more detail but Michael moves on too quickly for him.

The fact that this seems like news to him at this point goes to show how little Aziraphale and Crowley actually listen to one another. Crowley has already told him that he’s in trouble with Hell, so this shouldn’t be new information for the angel. Quick side note: it turns out that the word Heaven choose to use for his interactions with Crowley is “consorting”, rather than “fraternising”.

Aziraphale makes an interesting point as he tries to argue his point about the role that he believes angels should play in their administration of Earthly affairs – that being human is fundamentally about having the ability to make choices. Which adversely implies that actually working for Heaven or Hell has the consequence of not being able to make choices at all. He may even be implying that without the human race, angels themselves have no purpose:

Our job, as angels, should be to keep all this working, so they can make choices.

It’s a direct contradiction between the desire for a war that will only result in the rendering of angels as beings futile. I think he’s onto something, but the archangels do not look moved in the slightest.

You can see the moment in Aziraphale’s waffling when he starts to think he’s got a handle on the situation because he stops stammering so much. Once you see it, it’s pretty glaringly obvious. These three thugs archangels aren’t about to let him think he’s getting control though, and we see the second instance of Aziraphale being slammed against a wall in the season. There is a pretty huge difference between this one and the one at Tadfield Manor though. Let’s just remind ourselves of Aziraphale’s facial expression when Crowley “threateningly” pinned him against a wall in episode 2:

And now when Uriel does it in an actual threatening way:

The second of those faces, the one that’s positioned a full foot away from the aggressor instead of an inch, is actually scared. And it doesn’t change the whole time he’s pinned against the wall. He even tries to tell Uriel that they shouldn’t be doing whatever it is they’re about to do to him – he’s genuinely frightened. I’d like to think the whole point of Uriel’s wall slam is really only to provide the audience with a point of reference for the audience to see Aziraphale’s scared face. I wittered on about it in the episode 2 write up a lot so I’m not going to bang on about it too much here, but Aziraphale’s reaction to Uriel’s real threat in this scene proves that Crowley’s wall slam was never a genuine threat – it was just a bit of sexy role play.

Aziraphale also tries to remember the archangels of their true nature during his frightened spluttering– that they’re “the good guys”. What I find particularly telling about the response he gets is that there’s no disputing or correcting of his assumptions, merely an assertion that he has been out of Heaven for too long, suggesting that Heavenly beings maybe don’t consider “goodness” as one of their defining characteristics anymore. Being called “ridiculous” must have been pretty hurtful for Aziraphale here too, seeing as that’s the word he and Crowley threw around between each other just the night before at the bandstand, and when this interaction (as Aziraphale chose to call it) is over, there’s a split second where we can see the fear and dawning realisation that he has lost this particular battle and is well on the way to losing the war. No pun intended.

And just to prove how pure of heart Aziraphale truly is, he can’t even call the archangels a nasty word. He really is the dearest thing, isn’t he? He’s just been threatened and punched in the stomach, been called ridiculous and had his relationship sneered at, and he can’t even manage to throw an expletive at them as they vanish. It’s probably a good thing Crowley wasn’t around to see the whole thing, otherwise I think he would be torn between protective-boyfriend mode and just pointing and laughing at the angel.

Side note: remember all the background noise that faded away when Michael and their cronies showed up? It fades back in immediately as soon as they leave the scene, although it’s very difficult to hear as we have musical soundtrack that continues underneath Aziraphale’s parting blow.

Seeing as we’re about to leave London and return to Tadfield for a short while, I feel like that’s a good place to wrap this part of the write up for this episode. As always, questions, comments, discussion, all welcome! See you next time 😊

[m3nt4llyr4v3d]

One thing that kind of (absolutely) bothers me about this show is the weird… avoidance?? Or major mistakes or flaws the characters have??

(This is me going off of the top of my head, and sooooo much personal bias is in this, be warned)

I’ve seen this being talked around the critical tab a bit and I just wanted to ramble: for some odd reason, the show is very consistent with blaming/placing fault on a character’s minor flaws, but the major shortcomings are just brushed aside (this somewhat applies to some parts of the fandom as well)! A few examples I could think of off the top of my head:

Marinette- Marinette’s blamed by the narrative for things she can’t even control or have nothing to do with anything. Like, in Penalteam, where she has to work to be a team player?? Even though in the episodes beforehand Chat’s whole thing was that he felt like he was being replaced/ set aside by the whole team??? At the same time, Derision made every instance of Marinette’s more unsavory acts in regards to Adrien (which was originally absurd comedy) into something serious because it’s a trauma response now! Which means every instance of her doing those things is now under the context of “oh god this is a traumatized teenager potentially breaking the law due to a trauma response and absolutely needs therapy!!”, while also… just… quietly sweeping all that under the rug under the guise of “well she does those things BECAUSE of the trauma” while not acknowledging just how many bad implications are there now. (I could go a full hour talking about how much Derision fucked EVERY. SINGLE. CHARACTER. OVER.) Oh, and her being secretive with Chat for… no reason? This one is kind of acknowledged but also, the crux of the issue is brushed aside in the season 4 finale? Like, in Kuro Neko when Chat is trying to, like alleviate some of her duties by gathering some of the Miraculous cause he also knows some of their identities? And she says no and says he’s wasting her time? I get he was pestering her about it, I do, but the authors were saying that her reasoning with being secretive was that she was had so much responsibility… but when the opportunity arises for someone to alleviate that, she turns it down? (Honestly liked the fanon reason that she was scared of Chat Blanc timeline and him getting to close to her way more)

Adrien- His naivety in specific situations (the whole “taking the high road” advice) being criticized HEAVILY, when it’s kind of understandable he would give that? I get that it’s bad advice in this situation, I don’t think he’s part of the problem for giving it though. But his pushiness towards Ladybug? The godawful communication he had in Season 4 (this is a Ladybug issue too)? Nah, let’s just ignore that. His… really concerning mental health (Guilttrip anyone? I mean he literally tries to cataclysm himself why is no one talking about this?) What are you talkin’ aboutttt, it’s all good here! In fact, we’ll never bring that up again, how does that sound? (Please delve more into that in season 6 dear god)

Chloe- It’s… understandable??? When the show harps on her being a bully I guess?? But the issue I have with that is that the show acts like this is the WORST thing she’s done, being a petty vindictive teenager. The show rarely brings up her failures at being a superhero (for how much some fans bring up the train scene, I’m 1000% sure the show literally forgot) or the fact that she, y’know. Literally betrayed Ladybug and worked with Hawkmoth! For how much the show loves dogging on her and treating her like a secondary villain I’d expect like, a little bit more in showing that off? Also, the literal two grown adults setting her up as a scapegoat for the whole mayor thing, then the show acting like she’s the one at fault still?? And that sending her away with her mother was a good thing????

Gabriel- “Oh he’s too obsessed with his Ladybug to actually save his wife! He’s cold and distant but still loving actually!” What about his neglect? What about him literally ignoring his wife’s wishes (there was no way he didn’t know beforehand I’m sorry)? I genuinely don’t care that he “made the right choice” with his wish, he stabbed Marinette in the back to do so. Literally LOCKED ADRIEN IN A WHITE ROOM AND AT SOME POINT WAS ATTEMPTING TO AKUMATIZE HIM…! But nah, he’s just too ambitious, he’s a loving father, whatareyatalkinabout? He’s a hero! (😨)

Andre (Bourgeois)- “His flaws are that he gave up on his dream to live an unhappy life! Oh but we’re gonna ignore his role as a literal corrupt politician, look he’s redeemed now! He even sent that she-demon Chloe away! What do you mean he literally raised this child to act this way? Nah, everything is Chloe’s fault and we’re not even going to acknowledge his hand in literally raising her with these values since she was basically in elementary school! Look he’s adopting Zoe, isn’t that sweet? Nevermind how we just won’t acknowledge where Mr. Lee is, if he’s alive, or if Zoe is even okay with everything that just happened! (I mean, cmon, she literally lived with Audrey for years, she would reasonably be a little put off by this, even if she thinks Chloe is a lost cause)

These are just a few I could think of, though. Honestly my biggest wish is that the show would stop bringing the character’s least offensive trait/fault (compared to others) and truly acknowledge the worse aspects of them.

Bit that’s just me rambling like a madman, I’d love to know what you guys would think!

[kaycode1999]

hi! i was wondering if i could get male lmk matchup?

please don't ship me with mk, sandy, tang and pigsy because i see them only in platonic way<3

ᓚᘏᗢ general info:

/ 19 / she/her / enfp / 7w8 / leo /

𓆈appearance𓆈

𓆈 i'm tall, taller than most of my friends → i'm 6'2. my figure is hourglass shaped, something like models in 50s/60s fashion magezines, i think. i have shaggy golden blonde thick curls, my hair is long so i usually tie it up in two buns and two braids (like goldilocks from puss in boots: the last wish). my eyes are amber. i have skinny hands with long fingers

𓆈 my clothing style is mix of whimsigoth, cryptidcore and grandmacore. i really like unusual jewelry → weird shaped rings, earrings, brooches (i especially love the insect shaped and art nouveau ones)

𓆣personality𓆣

𓆣 i'm positive and upbeat person, i try to see the bright side in most situations. i'm friendly, cheerful and bubbly. i'm full of energy and i can be a bit chaotic, but i try to be as responsible as possible, i want people to feel that they can rely on me

𓆣 i'm really confident and i'm not afraid to express myself

𓆣 i care about my friends and family a lot, and go out of my way to show it. i love making people smile

𓆣 i'm super kind person, but won't take any nonsense

𓆣 i have morbid, dark sense of humor. sometimes i randomly say a weird obscure fact in the middle of conversation

𓆣 i'm kinda struggling with taking rest, doing nothing, because there is always something to do, something new to learn, etc. → i'm afraid of stagnation. i overwork myself a lot

𓆣 can't think of anything that i don't like, guess i'm so fixated on my hobbies and passions, i don't pay any attention to other things

𓃹 my hobbies 𓃹

𓃹 dancing and performing. i'm ballet dancer since i was a kid. i also try my skills as figure skater

𓃹 sewing and knitting. i sew most of my clothes and i made for myself tons of sweaters, with most silly patterns like characters from old cartoons, for example "wilk i zając" or "krecik"

𓃹 playing on instruments. i can play on violin, cello, piano, guitar, saxophone, harp and drums, i'm currently learning how to play on trumpet

𓃹 learning. about world and universe or learning new skills. i'm deeply fascinated by space and oceans, they're still unknown to humanity, learning about them makes me sigh in wonder and admiration. i also love nature, i could spend days wandering in forests, observing and learning about animals, insects, plants

𓃹 doll making. i love making dolls, puppets, marionettes. wooden, porcelain, rag, basically every type. i organize puppet theaters, sometimes i give my works as gifts to my loved ones

𓃹 art, any kind of art actually. i like to learn about artists and their work, and i like to try different types of art. sculpting, painting, ceramics, photography, filmmaking, i adore them all. i work as illustrator for fantasy books and books for kids (and honestly this job is dream come true for me!)

𓃹 gardening and herbalism. i work on in garden a lot, i grow flowers, vegetables and herbs. i know herbal medicine, i make my own infusions and tinctures

𓃹 cooking and baking. i learn new recipes whenever i have the opportunity. my favorite things to bake are bread and cookies. i also pick mushrooms, dry them or pickle them

sorry if it's too long or chaotic

thank you so much for even reading this!

I match you with

Monkey King- AKA Sun Wukong- AKA The great Sage equal to heaven

I’m pretty sure he's a little taller than you so your height works out well, and he just thinks you're the most gorgeous thing he's ever seen

He really likes your jewelry, like a lot. Almost like a bird with shiny objects, your jewelry just fascinates him

He loves and admires your confidence. He finds it inspiring

Your kindness is one of the reasons he adores you

He appreciates your expressiveness and he needs someone who isn't afraid to tell him when or if he does something that upsets you

Your sense of humor was a surprise, but honestly he finds it so funny. Also he enjoys any facts you have

He helps you take things more easy so you don't overwork yourself as much, and you get him more interested in learning and doing things

If you're dancing or just performing in general he's completely entranced with the most heart eyes look on his face

If you make anything for him, be it some kind of clothing or a doll he will treasure it forever

He's an immortal being so he will make special trips into outer space or into the ocean to bring you some special souvenirs like a piece of space debris or pictures of a deep sea creature

The monkies and the other animals that live on mountain all love you being around

He actually loves helping you with your gardening and herbalism. You have 2 beautiful gardens near his house and the monkies all make sure not to mess with them

While he loves anything peach-flavored, he's just generally a foodie so he loves anything you make him

P.S. I'm sorry this took a minute. I've had a rough couple of days but fingers crossed things are looking up👍🏻

[thepunchingbag]

Scorch

Fandom: Baldurs Gate III

Pairing: Astarion/Karlach

Description: Astarion and Karlach try to unwind after a difficult day on the road. Burnt flesh and charred clothes might just be a fair trade for a kiss.

Read on AO3

--

Since a peaceful rest evaded him this evening, Astarion chose to idle away the hours by spotting constellations. He stretched over his bedroll, staring up at the vast night sky. The campfire had burnt down to embers, allowing him to see the night's true vibrancy. The stars shined brilliantly here in the wilderness – back at the Gate, he hadn’t much time for stargazing. Not that his Master would have allowed him to do anything so pointless for mere enjoyment.

He spotted the Harp first, glittering against the sky like diamonds upon black velvet. The Centaur and the Woman Warrior had come into alignment, frozen in celestial battle. Squinting his eyes, Astarion thought he could make out the Eyes of the Watching Woman, or. . . perhaps it was Jassa’s Dagger? No, the Dagger normally appeared in autumn. . .  

He heard her approach well before she came into view — for all of Karlach’s many charms, subtlety was not among them— and he could tell she was trying her best to be quiet. Her footfalls were slow, deliberate … but still clumsy. Not to mention the heat radiating off her body and the sound of flames sputtering as her engine rumbled made her ill-suited for stealth.

The fact she was trying so desperately to stay quiet, and failing equally desperately, was actually rather endearing.

Even her whispers were loud, “Hey soldier – you aren’t asleep, are you?”

Astarion whispered back softly, “Just doing a spot of stargazing. Besides, my dear, I don’t sleep, I—”

“Trance. Right, right.” Karlach nodded, “Anything good up there?”

Astarion lifted his arm to point, “The Centaur and the Woman Warrior are in alignment, probably for the last time this year. Then the Centaur will roam across to the northwest. Other than that, it’s awfully boring, darling. But now you’ve come along to keep me company, things have become so much more interesting. . .”

He’d been greatly enjoying himself watching the sky alone— it was far from ‘boring’—  but lying about innocuous things was an old habit. A habit picked up over two centuries needing to be careful about who knew what he enjoyed— and who could take it away as punishment. Not that he needed to worry about that now. Still, some of his old tendencies lingered. No matter what, they lingered.

Even in the dim light, he can see her eyebrow arch. Karlach studied him carefully, then asked, “I can talk to you in the morning, if you’d rather?”

Astarion lowered his voice enticingly, “Heavens forbid. Whatever could my fiery friend want so late at night? I’d be fraught with tension all night without knowing.”

Karlach’s skin glowed in shades of gold and scarlet in the darkness, fire touching her fingertips, flames licking the sides of her face and fluttering in her dark hair. It was hard to look away from her— just as it was often easy to get hypnotized by the dancing flames of a campfire.

Her heartbeat quickened. It was obvious, the way the pulsating light in the center of her chest started rapidly throbbing bright. Her emotions seemed to be on full display, without the benefit of even bodily privacy. Astarion wasn’t sure if he pitied or admired her for it; she was hellishly beautiful.

Karlach’s smile broke out into a full-blown grin, “I’m buzzing, honestly. I couldn’t wait to talk to you.”

Astarion frowned, his smile wavering, “What brought this on?”

“I dunno,” Karlach propped herself up on her elbows, “I was just thinking. Isn’t it mad, how good life is?”

He wanted to laugh in her face. . . but that was unfair. In truth, she was right. Life was good. Or, at any rate, it was better. A damn sight better than a few months prior, when he was prowling the streets and getting on his back in fetid alleyways. Circumstances had drastically improved for her too; no longer suffering under the heavy heel of Zariel, no longer a soldier-slave.

Astarion just manages a half-smile, envying her ability to enjoy the freedom so genuinely— it seemed like every waking moment he was looking behind his shoulder, hearing a hunter’s footsteps close behind.

Before he even knows what he’s doing, he falls into an old rhythm, his smile widening despite himself, “I know what you mean. When I look at you, it’s all I can think about.”

He doesn’t mean it. He means it more than anything. His head swims, lips pressed tight against his fangs as he grins, and he wishes he could pick apart his true intentions from old falsehoods. Karlach deserved better, so much better. And her heart was too fragile to be toyed with, perhaps literally. She was—

Her voice was steady, warm, but her eyes were strangely sad, “Thank the Gods. I was afraid I was the only one. Ten years is a long time to be trapped in the Hells. Ten years without a kind word, a touch.” She shifted nervously, “When I look at you, I feel real again. Alive.”

Astarion wanted to tease her for taking one of his best lines, When I’m with you, I feel practically alive! Ah, yes, an old favorite. Except, she was so. . . so much more convincing than he ever was.

He swallows, sitting up and turning towards her. Opening his mouth to speak, the words die in his throat as he watches her.

“Gods, I want to ride you till you see stars!” She blurts out, throwing her head back in frustration.

A cold pit opens up in his stomach. He digs a fingernail into his palm, letting the painful sensation ground him. It’s funny, he actually lets out a stifled laugh — he’s flattered. Disgusted. Excited. Amused. Worried. Happy. He isn’t sure.

Astarion looks at her, really looks, trying to read her expression. She seems happy, perhaps guardedly so. Hopeful, although a bit of caution behind her eyes. Gods, it’s enough to break his dead heart. Doesn’t she deserve to have something good, for once? He chastises himself. Karlach isn’t a fool; she probably can sense his hesitation.

And he falls into an old dance, the steps almost comforting in their familiarity, “You don’t have to ask me twice, darling. Let’s go.”

She looks away, “Ugh, I’m sorry.” Karlach digs her heels into the dirt, “I shouldn’t tease you – or myself. I’d give anything to touch you, but I can’t. Not until I can be sure I won’t burn you.”

He pouts, “Not even just one kiss?”

“I’ll turn you to charcoal. Guaranteed.”

He draws closer; he can half-pretend that his dead body is alive and warm again being so near to her radiating heat, “We’ll make it quick. One tiny kiss, nothing more.”

Karlach hesitates, holds back. For a minute, he worries she’ll get up and leave. A part of him is surprised when he realizes he’d actually be disappointed if she left. If nothing else, his curiosity is getting the better of him. A chaste kiss is a novelty. Strangely… it’s quite appealing.

She shifts nervously. Finally, she concedes, “We can try.”

He grins and leans in closer, sweat already beading on his brow, a blast of intense heat hitting his face as she leans towards him.

Karlach murmurs, “But don’t hurt those pretty lips of yours, all right? Because they feature heavily in my future plans. . .”

Their lips touch for less than a second, but his skin feels like it’s going to slough off, boiling and red. Karlach’s kiss is a scalding hot brand on his mouth, scorching hot, hotter than the deepest pits of the Hells.

His hair and clothes start catching fire.

Astarion pulls away from her immediately in alarm, picking up dirt and tossing it into his hair, throwing himself onto the ground and patting down the flames. After a moment of sheer terror, he catches his breath while absentmindedly realizing he’s covered in soil and must look dreadful. He reaches to his mouth, feeling blistered flesh.

“Bloody fucking Hells!” He hisses.

Karlach is in a full-blown panic, her hands reaching out to comfort him before she quickly pulls away, remembering her touch would only make things worse, “Oh Gods, are you all right?”

Astarion has the audacity to look shocked and Karlach almost wants to slap him across his smarmy face, if that wouldn’t turn his head into a well-cooked roast.

“I— you nearly melted my face off!” He snaps.

“Make better decisions then!” She snaps back, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, fangs. I’m an ‘at your own risk’ attraction.”

Astarion breathes out a long and ragged breath before he gathers himself, “I’ve never been one for listening to good sense, unfortunately, darling. I’m. . .” He struggles, “I’m sorry.”

She shrugs, letting out a dejected sigh. 

Astarion glances up and notices the forlorn look on Karlach’s face. Something within him twists in sympathy, and the emotion catches him off-guard.

His lips have split open, bleeding— he licks the blood off his lips greedily, not wanting to lose a drop. Sitting there next to her, unsure of his next move, he watches Karlach’s expression gradually grow more miserable with every passing minute. He’s mystified at his own impulse to reach out to her, to lay a hand on her shoulder— if only it was possible without immolating himself. His chest aches in some strange, heavy emotion he can’t classify.

“So,” Karlach says after a long silence, “What do we do now?”

Pausing, he considers this question seriously.

Then he looks at her, a mischievous smile growing on his face. Karlach almost laughs at the sight; him, covered in soot and soil, singed white hair and all. She reminds him of a mangy alley cat about to do something naughty, like stealing a sardine off a fishmonger’s cart.

“Maybe I can’t touch you, my dear, but I can tell you what I’d like to do with you…”

He leans in close, but not too close to cause a repeat incineration, whispering behind his hand. Her tail flicked back and forth involuntarily as he described dragging his tongue along her neck, his hands unstrapping her leathers, his fingers trailing along her body and sliding into the warmth between her legs. How her nails would feel digging into his back. As Astarion pulled away, he was relieved to see her expression had lightened.

“Right, my turn.” She says excitedly.

Karlach carefully drew near. Whispering in between self-conscious bursts of laughter, she told him how she’d thread her fingers through his hair, kissing him (“No burning this time” she sighed)—kissing his face all over. First his brow, then the bridge of his nose, then his lips. She’d hold him close, pulling him to her as they settled comfortably into a soft bed (“The bed’s also not burning” Karlach added quickly; Astarion tried not to laugh) and she would straddle his hips, riding him until they both lost their senses. Then they’d fall asleep together with their hands intertwined, Karlach murmured, her voice trailing off. . . 

Astarion raised his eyebrows. “How sweet. I didn’t realize my she-devil was such a soft touch.”

“Don’t be so sour.” Karlach twisted one of the leather straps on her cuirass, “Besides, caught you blushing just then.”

“I don’t blush,” Astarion bristled, adjusting the ruffles on his collar, “I hardly have the blood to spare for that.” 

“Oh? Just my imagination then. . .” Karlach guffawed, “Guess we’ll have to find another poor innocent boar for you to snack on. Wait, no! Better idea: we bash Gortash’s brains in, you drink him up, then we have victory sex over his corpse.”

“Keep talking like that, and I won’t be able to keep my hands to myself. Burning be damned.”

“Not unless you want your soft hands getting cooked, you won’t.”

To his surprise, he genuinely felt dispirited. “Alas.”

She shook her head, sighing, “Well, you’ve given me a lot to. . . think about. Not sure I can sleep now, honestly. Not without doing something really indecent in my bunk, anyway.”

“Likewise. I’ll be tormenting myself all night with the thought of you.”

“Cheeky.” She snorts, “Seriously, though. I need to take my mind off this, or I’ll overheat. Don’t want to set anything else on fire. Got anything boring to talk about?”

Boring conversation wasn’t usually what he was aiming for with his victims – Astarion stopped himself. She wasn’t a victim.

Dusting the soil off his clothes, he settled down into his bedroll again. Smiling courteously, he patted the earth next to him, inviting her to lie down. . . at a safe distance. Given her affliction, Karlach wasn’t able to even have her own bedroll – not without it immediately combusting upon contact. She had to use a pair of blacksmith’s tongs to pick up anything flammable and even then, the metal became superheated if she held the tongs too long. Even her “bunk” was little more than a patch of dirt, covered with a canvas shade hung high enough to avoid her flames.

As Karlach made herself comfortable (as comfortable as possible, lying in the dirt), Astarion focused his attention again to the sky above.

He pointed to a cluster of stars, “Before you so graciously joined me, I was trying to decide what that constellation over there is. It can’t be Jassa’s Dagger. Too early in the season. But it doesn’t look like anything I recognize.”

“All I know is how to spot the Tears of Selûne but that’s the biggest, most bloody obvious thing in the sky. Bit out of practice— no stars in Hell, you see.” Karlach stretched out on the dirt, “Anyway, that one just looks like a hand flipping me off.”

He snorted— it did actually look like that. Appropriate. Given their current circumstances, was it any surprise that even the heavens were telling them to go fuck themselves?

Things weren’t all bad, though.

They argue over what they’d name the constellation, and somewhere about an hour in, Astarion turns over to point out that he’s spotted the Circle starting to crest over the east— only to see Karlach dozed off, drooling into the dirt. Before he stops himself, he almost reaches over to wipe the drool off her face.

A wave of guilt overtakes him when he breathes a sigh of relief that all they did, all they could do, was talk. Somehow, he’s grown fond of their odd little chats, their not-quite-courtship.

He enjoys being near her. Likes her.

More than likes her, he realizes as he falls into a trance, feeling her kiss still burning hot on his lips.

[pumpkinpuffgirls]

hi there! i hope this doesn’t touch on too sticky a subject, and you’re welcome to not answer, but I just wanted to say I like your take on Bunny a lot! It honestly never occurred to me that someone could include her in an AU without making her look exactly like her sisters. It sounds a bit silly, I know, but I was so used to a particular image of her in fanart that it just never crossed my mind. Bunny in Power of Five feels very fresh and affectionate toward her as her own unique character.

I’m hoping this isn’t an inappropriate place to ask, but I’ve been ruminating on this recently as someone who is not physically disabled and has featured a stabilized Bunny in an AU of mine before. She still had a different base from the rest of the PPG and was still disabled irt her powers. But she was also significantly sized down, lacked her wide shoulders, and her face more closely resembled the PPG’s as well. It occurred to me recently that I might have been introducing a lot of hurtful implications by doing this

I know the original depiction of her wasn’t perfect in and of itself, so I know I’d like to change her in some fashion, but I don’t want to just lift your version of her wholesale, either. It’s hard for me to understand what to change where. So sorry for so much context just to get here, but did you by chance have any resources on hand or maybe things to keep in mind when creating your own portrayal of Bunny? Or maybe some advice on where to start/where to look when researching the subject? Thanks for reading.

Okay so, first off no worries i greatly appreciate you reaching out and going to the effort to explain your reasoning as it shows you've thought about this in great detail!

With how I designed my Bunny, I did so because after I made my version of Bliss, some people asked what my interpretation of Bunny would be. Specifically, and I don't remember who, someone asked if I could keep Bunny at a larger size to keep her visually diverse from the other girls and as representation for young girls on the larger side, and I absolutely was more than willing to honor that request.

My version of Bunny is intentionally neurodivergent, canonically (I'd argue Bubbles is too), and due to her size is tanky (like you mentioned). Considering how Bunny was originally it wouldn't be too far fetched to make her disabled to some degree. My main suggestion is don't make a disability her entire personality (i.e. just harp on it all the time) because that's where people will become frustrated.

As for what it could be, you could choose a real world one (like a developmental delay, or a disorder, or the like), or go the Bliss angle of giving her a chemical x/superpowered-related disability. It really depends on how you want to structure her personality and character development. I think that as long as you are careful and considerate with your depiction as you are here, you'll be okay. Do research, be open to feedback, and remember that what's important is how you plan to portray the character and their development.

I'm glad you reached out and I hope the creation of your own Bunny goes well!