#I've read those comics countless times

[oediex]

"What if we call it Akina?"

My parents bought a robotic vacuum cleaner. They're getting on in age, so it's a good addition to the household. It and I met last week, so I asked what its name was. Turned out they'd just named it after our family name. Boring. "It needs a name," I said.

Today my dad says unprompted, "I think we need to give it a different name. Our last name is a bit stupid." My mum says it's fine, but I agree. I'm drawing a blank, though, until my dad suggests the perfect name.

"What if we call it Akina?"

I like to think he's been pondering on this for two weeks.

In the early 2000s, my parents bought a GPS system for the car. I dubbed her 'Akina'. She was named for an AI system in a space ship in the Yoko Tsuno comic album series that I'm still obsessed with twenty years later.

It stuck. When my parents were going anywhere new, we'd say, "Don't forget Akina." "Akina will guide you." "Where is Akina?" I was sad when new cars with built-in GPS systems replaced the old ones. I always kind of felt like she was my baby.

I've missed Akina. I'm glad she's back.

[i-arch-my-backula]

Vampire Freak of California: The Lost Boys x reader

I kept this GN and I don't know how I feel about it persay. It's one of the longest things I've written probably ever, and I like the idea. I just don't know about the execution of it on my end. I also dedicate this to @k1nn1e-0n-ma1n who is my favorite vampire freak. I might make this into a series thing, perchance, if I ever feel like getting around to making another chapter for it.

Content includes: Swearing, readers relationship to the boys could be read as platonic or romantic, autism coded reader

Living in Santa Carla is pretty uneventful. Your mother died when you were young and your father wanted nothing to do with you, so you’ve been living with your grandpa since you were a child. Your aunt and cousins just moved in with you and your grandpa, trying to get settled in after your aunt’s divorce. So you’ve been showing them around, taking them places, hanging out. It’s a nice break from doing a bunch of outdoor work this summer, especially now that you’re home from college.

 But if you’re being honest, you don’t know too many people here. Sure you have your friends and stuff, but outside of them and your family you’re not too familiar with everyone else in town. But it’s not that big of a deal, there’s more people in the state of California than people in some countries, at least you think.

But something that might be holding you back from getting more friendships, or even a relationship is your interests. When you started to tease your hair and wear all black your grandpa didn’t fully understand it, but seeing other people like that out in town he recognized it as some kind of trend with young people. But even before that, since you were young, you’ve had an obsession with vampires. It started when you watched the 1931 Dracula movie with a friend, and from then on you were hooked. Now your room is basically dedicated to vampires. Countless VHS tapes, books, posters, cassettes, records, collectables, comic books, anything vampire related you liked that you could get your hands on, it was in your room.

Now you know vampires are fake. That’s what makes it fun. Exploring such dark topics in a safe way through fiction. Not to mention how a lot of vampires can be pretty hot. But you know they’re not real, and so does everyone else, even if your grandpa avoids the subject all together most of the time, if you ever bring up how they’re fictional.

Of course not everyone understood. Your aunt Lucy was polite enough about it, your cousin Michael teases you about it a little, and Sam always makes comments. But who cares? It makes you happy. Very happy, in fact you could talk about vampires for hours on end. But that’s usually reserved for your friends, who are pretty similar to you. But as the summer went on, Michael got some friends of his own, so did Sam. 

It’s a warm night in June. You’re sitting downstairs in the kitchen talking on the phone with your friend when you hear the front door open, then Michael starts to speak. You look out the kitchen doorway and find him talking to a guy with platinum blonde hair. You shrug it off as Michael talking with a friend of his. You can hear other people talking, but it’s probably just more of his friends. 

“But I’ve got this new kind of question about vampires and stuff.” You say, opening the fridge and taking out a soda bottle, popping off the cap and taking a sip of it. “So vampires can’t go out in the sun. But what if they lived in one of those places where the sun doesn’t rise for months at a time? Like one of those arctic places in the world? Theoretically they could go outside all the time during periods like that.” You hold the phone receiver to your ear while walking back to the spot you were sitting at before.

Michael and his friend glance your way before going back to speaking with each other. You shrug it off. People stare at you all the time, it’s no big deal. You’re not even wearing one of your ‘outrageous’ outfits today. ‘I think vampires do need to sleep, like how all living creatures need to sleep. But it could be different for them depending on how long the sun is out.’ Your friend says over the phone. You nod your head and sip your soda again. 

“Uh huh. That makes sense. But without the barrier of the sun, I feel like a vampire could safely pull an all nighter or something. Some kind of insomniac vampire.” You joke, both you and your friend chuckling. 

‘I’ve gotta go. My parents are taking us to visit our grandparents tomorrow. I’ll talk to you later.’ Your friend says. 

“Alright, peace out girl scout.” You say before hanging up the phone and sipping on your soda again. You leave the kitchen and pass by Michael who is still talking with his friend on the porch. Then you notice the other three guys hanging around, one of them looks at you. He’s the only one who isn’t a blonde, and he’s also not wearing a shirt. Something about him makes you pause for a moment. He doesn’t look too different from the other people you see around town, especially on the boardwalk.But the way he’s looking at you. It’s making something shift inside your body. “Is all you do talk about vampires?” Sam teases from his spot on the couch. His voice draws you out of that slight hypnotic state. You flip him off and walk up the stairs, making your way into your room. 

“People can be super into sports, or cars, or music, but apparently an interest in vampires is too far for some people.” You say, rolling your eyes. “Also I know you took one of my cassettes.” You look down at Sam from your spot on the stairs. “You better give it back before I put all your comics in the garbage disposal.” You joke, earning Sam flipping you off. You laugh and go up into your room, shutting the door behind you. 

That night as you slept you had the strangest dream. Being on some kind of beach next to a bonfire. Michael’s friend was there, staring at you like how he was before. You wanted to ask him questions but you couldn’t speak, something was stopping your voice. That’s all you could remember of the dream after you woke up. But some strange part of it that you couldn’t fully describe lingered in the back of your mind.

The next night you’re outside, listening to some music on your walkman and petting one of the barn cats you have. He’s a tuxedo cat you’ve had for a couple years now. You named him Mr. Murphy, after Peter Murphy from Bauhaus. He’s a really nice kitty. Sometimes when you don’t have anyone to talk to, you just talk to him. If he understood English he’d probably be the first cat to have encyclopedic knowledge on vampires. As you’re scratching behind his ears someone taps your shoulders from behind. You jump a little and turn around to see it’s Michael. You pause your music and take off your headphones. “Jesus Michael you scared me.” 

“Yeah well I didn’t mean to…Sorry. I’ve just got some friends coming over and I feel like it might be best that you stay inside.” You can’t tell what kind of a tone he’s using right now, but something tells you it’s not very good. 

“Michael I’m two years older than you, I can handle being around some teenage boys.” 

“They aren’t exactly teenage boys.” 

“Really? You’re hanging out with a bunch of grown men?” 

“You know that’s not what I mean.” He says, putting his hands on his hips and sighing. He looks away from you, down at Mr. Murphy before looking back up at you, although you can’t quite meet his gaze, or anyone’s for that matter. “Just be careful with them. They can get kind of rowdy and stuff.” 

“What do you mean by being careful?” 

“You know what I mean by that.” 

“No I don’t. I’m being serious Michael, I don't know what you mean. If these are the same friends you had over last night I doubt that anything bad is going to happen. They seemed more interested in catching a cold from not wearing a shirt outside than bothering me.” Before he can reply, some headlights pull up behind you. Turning around you see his friends from before coming up on motorbikes. You look back at Michael for a moment, huffing a breath from your nose. “You owe me.” You mumble to him before heading back inside, letting the screen door slam shut behind you. 

He’s got you all worked up now. Everyone is always treating you like you’re stupid. Well you’re not stupid. You’re different, sure. But you’re not stupid. You head into the kitchen and look around, trying to find something to eat, but only one thing comes to mind. What you call your ‘special food’. Something that no matter what, is always reliable and ‘safe’ for you to eat. So you get it ready and move to grab a dish for it when you see someone enter the kitchen. But it’s not Sam, like you’d expect. It’s one of Michael’s friends. Another blonde one. He’s wearing a dirty black blazer, and his hair is teased up into a big style, probably containing a whole can of hairspray in it. 

You look at each other for a while, just staring. You have no idea what to say, and maybe he doesn’t either. So you go back to what you were doing, getting a dish for your food. 

“You’re not going to say anything?” He asks with a chuckle, crossing his arms over his chest while looking at you. Your back is still to him while you start to eat your food. You can feel him watching you. But you don’t have the energy to force eye contact right now. 

“I thought you were here for Michael.” You say, grabbing a glass and filling it up with some tap water. 

“Yeah well he’s been pretty vague about you when I ask questions. So I thought I should try speaking to you myself.” He says, walking closer to you as you drink your water.

“Why are you asking questions about me?” You ask, looking over at him for a moment, finishing off your food and setting your dishes in the sink. 

“Am I not allowed to be curious about someone?” He asks, in what you think is a teasing tone. But you don’t want to laugh and find out he was being serious. 

“No I didn’t mean that. I was just wondering why you’re interested in me is all.” You shrug your shoulders and trace shapes with your finger on the counter top. 

“I heard you talking about vampires last night. I’m pretty into vampires myself.” He says, watching your finger as it moves across the counter top. “I’m Paul. You’re Y/N right?” He asks. You nod your head. 

“Yeah that’s my name.” You say, looking over at the kitchen doorway, hearing Michael talking with his other friends again. “And I’m pretty into vampires. I mean. Don’t even get me started, I'll talk for hours on end about them.” 

“How into them are you?” He asks, smiling wider while he raises an eyebrow at you. You start to smile on your own too, even if he doesn’t want to listen to you rant about vampires, he’s about to.

“Well it all started when I first watched the 1931 dracula movie with Bella Lugosi when I was around 13. Which led me down this sort of rabbit hole of vampire media and all this stuff. So I’ve been collecting VHS tapes, books, posters, records, cassettes, comic books, anything vampire related I liked and could get my hands on. So it’s been almost a decade since then and I’m still obsessed with vampires. I mean I wrote this paper on the history of mythology of vampires for an English class back in my junior year of high school. 

“I have all these little theories and questions I’ve loved to ask horror movie directors some time with how they interpret these vampire media things. But I think my favorite vampire movie I’ve ever seen is probably ‘Fright Night’ by Tom Holland, the same guy who made the Child's play movie. It’s a really good vampire movie with some interesting interpretations on vampire mythology. We’ve come a long way from the original poem about a vampire. 

“There’s a lot of different interpretations of vampire mythology. Some media say that they’re affected by crosses, garlic, holy water, etc. But some say that garlic and crosses don’t do anything. But it’s pretty consistent that you can kill a vampire with a stake to the heart, decapitation, or with sunlight. I think it’s interesting that with all this variation on vampire mythology that almost every interpretation of vampires have them being unable to go out in the sunlight. Oh! But a couple of years ago for my graduation gift and 18th birthday present my grandpa helped me build my own coffin. I keep it in my room and I really love it.

“It’s stained on the outside with this dark brown wood stain and on the inside is some memory foam and red velvet. Like in this song by this band called Bauhaus, they’re a really awesome band. But they made a song called ‘Bella Lugosi’s dead’ which is a really good song, I really like it. But it has a lot of vampire themes to it. I feel like a lot of bands I like have vampire themes to them.” You start to pick at your nails while speaking to Paul. You’re so caught up in talking about vampires that you don’t notice another one of Michael’s friends is standing in the kitchen doorway. 

“You have a coffin in your room?” He speaks up. You look over at him. He’s not the brunette from last night. But he’s not the Billy Idol look alike either. He’s dressed just as outrageously as the rest of them, with a jacket that’s more patches than actual jacket at this point. But you just nod your head and look back down at your nails while you pick at them. 

“Yeah. People think it’s weird but who cares? I mean, I’d rather be comfortable with death than spend my life chasing after something I’ll never get.” You say with a shrug. Paul and his friend exchange a glance, smiling to themselves. 

“Can we see it?” Paul asks, leaning down a bit to try and catch your eye. You look over at him, then at his friend in the doorway. You stand up straighter and lead them out of the kitchen. Michael is out in the yard now, speaking with the guy with the platinum blonde hair again. It seems like he only speaks to that guy when his friends are around. Paul and his friend with the crazy jacket are whispering words to each other behind you as you lead them up the stairs. 

“My room is a little cramped with how much stuff I have in here. I know I need to get rid of some of it, but I can’t really bring myself to do that.” You say, walking down the upstairs hallway. You open your bedroom door and lead in the two boys. They start to whistle and make quiet comments when they see just how many vampire related things you have. 

“Nice poster.” The one with the jacket says, gesturing towards your ‘Vamp’ poster. You smile and walk over to it, putting your finger on it.

“Oh this one I got from a movie theater. You know how they have those posters for movies that are about to come out or that they’re showing and stuff? Well I asked if they had a poster for Vamp and they gave it to me.” You start to smile widely again, being able to talk about vampires just gets your heart pumping. “It’s a pretty good movie. It’s about these fraternity pledges that need to get some strippers for a party and they unknowingly go to a strip club full of vampires. Grace Jones is in it and she does this dancing scene where she’s wearing body paint done by Keith Haring, who’s this really cool artist.” 

You notice Paul standing next to your coffin, a smile on his face as he opens it up. 

“You sleep in this thing?” He asks, looking over at you while chuckling. 

“Oh no, I don’t sleep in it. I mean sometimes I lay inside of it just for fun. Or I’ve taken pictures of myself inside it, and a friend of mine has a VHS camera, so she took some videos of me inside it, all dressed up like a vampire and stuff.” You say, running your fingers over the red velvet inside the coffin. You push your hand down on the memory foam on the base before you step inside it, crossing your arms over your chest in that cliche vampire way. 

“Not all vampires sleep in coffins. Some sleep in caves.” Paul’s friend says, his attention turned to your large collection of cassette and VHS tapes. You chuckle and open your mouth to reply when you notice someone in the doorway. It’s the brunette of Michael’s friend group. You didn’t even hear him come up. 

“I know. But I just wanted a coffin for the hell of it.” You say, looking away from him and back over to Paul, who’s still standing next to you. He notices your gaze and he chuckles as he sees his other friend in the doorway.

“How nice of you to join us Dwanye. We’ve got a real vampire enthusiast here with us. Don’t we Marko?” He asks with a chuckle, looking from the brunette to the blonde.

“I’ve never seen someone so dedicated to vampires.” Marko jokes, picking up a VHS tape before putting it back. “What would you do if you found out vampires were real?” He asks, looking back over at you. Now you can feel three pairs of eyes on you, all of them pretty much strangers. You quickly turn to your left and pick up a little Dracula action figure, pretending to want to change its pose. 

“Well vampires aren’t real. And unless some huge part of history and murders have been left out of the mainstream for the last however many centuries, and they are real…I don’t know…”

“You wouldn’t be into them if they were real?” Paul asks, walking closer to you. But your eyes stay fixed on your little action figures, moving over to adjust an Elvira one next to the Dracula.

“Well it’s one thing to be into the idea, or the fantasy of something, and another to actually want it to happen to you. I’m pretty sure the people who love to learn about war history don’t wish they were out in the trenches of WW1 or something.” You say with a little chuckle, wiping some dust off the action figure in your hand. “So maybe I don’t know what I’d do if vampires were real, because I know for a fact they aren’t.” As you set down the Elvira action figure Paul reaches his hand out and grabs a book from a spot on your shelf.

But you catch his fingernails. Something happened to his fingernails. It was only for a second. But you saw what they were like. How long they were. How sharp they were. Almost like they were claws. You look over at him and find his hands are normal. He’s just opening the book and flipping through the pages. God your mind is playing tricks on you. Maybe you need to get your vision checked. 

“Nothing is impossible.” Dwayne says, finally speaking up. You look over at him. He moved from his spot in the doorway, now standing next to your bed, looking at a Jim Morrison poster you have above your bed. You just crack a smile at that, not really sure how to respond. 

“Come on Michael. We can behave ourselves when we want to.” You hear a voice downstairs say. You walk over to your door as Paul puts the book back on the shelf. 

“It’s one thing to get involved with me but you need to leave my family out of this. It’s complicated enough dealing with all of this shit and I don’t need the people I love getting drawn in too.” Michael says. You walk down the hall, closer to the stairs, listening to them go on arguing, almost like a married couple. 

“Your family is fine Michael. You don’t have to worry about them.” You get to a place where you’re mostly hidden from Michael and his friend. They’re standing together in the living room. Michael’s friend is turned away from you, so you can’t see his face. But you can see Michael’s. And it makes your skin crawl a bit. 

“How do I know that you’re not going to get them involved in all of this stuff too? I swear if you even try to-” 

“Your family will be fine Michael.” His friend assures him, cutting him off. “You need to worry about yourself. I think it’s about time you became one of us, fully one of us. We can show you what we are, how to do what we do. But it needs to be soon. I don’t want to wait much longer.” His friend turns his head to the side, giving you a glimpse of his face. But before you could see anymore, the phone in your room starts to ring. You’re pulled out of the little world that conversation created and you walk back into your room, remembering the three strangers you just left inside. 

You pick up the receiver and turn your back to the three boys. “Hello?” 

‘I’ve been looking into all of these disappearances recently. A majority of them result in finding the bodies dead, murdered in brutal ways, usually the cause of death is blood loss, with bite marks all over the body, especially the neck.’ Your friend says. You chuckle a bit in shock, shaking your head while putting your free hand on your hip. 

“Yeah well the police say it’s some kind of animals attacking people. We live in California, remember? There’s a lot of weird critters floating around everywhere.” You say, hearing the boys behind you start to whisper among themselves again. “But now isn’t exactly the best time for me to have this conversation with you.” 

‘But I think the police are trying to cover something up. Or at least they’re not willing to accept what we’re dealing with. I mean, these bite marks are described as having only two or four puncture holes, the closest thing to these being some kind of wolf or coyote. Not to mention these people’s cars are found missing doors, and roofs. What kind of a wolf rips off the roof of a car to eat a human?’ You sigh and run your hand over your face. 

“I think we should talk about this tomorrow. Alright?” You say. Your friend starts to speak again but you hear footsteps coming up the stairs. 

“You expect me to control them like they’re children? Some kind of pet, Michael?” You hear Michael’s friend say, his voice is getting closer along with the footsteps. 

“I gotta go.” You hang up the phone quickly and turn around just in time to see Michael’s friend standing in your doorway, with Michael behind him. There’s a beat of silence between the six of you. While it only lasted for a couple seconds, it felt like an eternity of ringing silence deafening your ears.

“Y/N was just showing off their vampire collection. They’re really into them.” Paul says, smiling at the man in the doorway. He looks at you and you look at him. 

“I don’t believe we’ve met.” He says, walking further into your room. He walks up to you and holds out his hand, smiling in a way that makes something inside you shift. “I’m David.” 

You take his hand and shake it, feeling the cool leather of his glove on your warm skin. 

“I’m Y/N. Your friends were just really interested in my vampire collection.” You explain, ignoring all the pairs of eyes on you. Choosing to focus your attention on your ‘Fright Night’ poster, trying to make it seem somewhat natural. David takes the time to look around your room, smiling to himself as he does so. 

“Quite the collection.” He says, walking away from you, and over to your coffin. “I bet you’re a bit of a die hard vampire fan.” You let out a chuckle and glance at Michael, who seems like he’s about to chip a tooth with how clenched his jaw is. “Well it was nice to meet you Y/N But I think it’s time that we go out for the night. Right Michael?” David asks, looking over at him in the doorway. Michael nods his head. 

“I’ll get my jacket.” He says, stepping aside to let David leave the room. 

“We’ll have to watch a movie together sometime.” Paul says on his way out, giving you a small wave. Marko and Dwayne follow after him and Michael just gives you a look that you can’t quite decipher before walking down the hall after his friends. He might be mad about you hanging out with them. But they’re some of the few people who aren’t tired of your vampire obsession. So who cares what he says? You’ll have to invite them into your room more often. 

[seelestia]

— 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐋𝐋, 𝐏𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄?

SUMMARY. in which you decide to do their eye makeup for them and the many antics that come with it.

CHARACTERS. zhongli, alhaitham, xiao, wanderer, gorou, itto.

GENRE. fluff, slight crack, established relationship.

CW. close proximity, one use of pet name, zhongli sorta acts like a cat, alhaitham is a lil insufferable but you love him, wanderer is also an inch away from choking you (affectionately).

THOUGHTS. question: is their eye makeup waterproof or do they apply it every morning?? fascinating. p/s: happy birthday to @zhongrin! lots of love to one of the best people i've ever met on this site <3

✰ masterlist.

© written by @seelestia. do not copy, translate, repost to other sites nor claim as yours!

— ZHONGLI.

❝Apologies, dear. Is this distance acceptable?❞

ZHONGLI smells of rich cologne and the vapor of tea brews wafting through the air when you step into a teahouse. You know this, of course, you've buried yourself in his embrace countless times before — but to have your face so close to his like this, you've never felt an urge to look away quite this strong before.

You stay composed, however, Zhongli can't always be the only one with the cool composure in this household, after all. "Mhm, perfect," you nod with a quiet hum as he closes his eyes, settling his chin in your palm so snugly that you laugh.

"You're like a cat," you remark, trying to suppress the littlest impulse to bump your forehead onto his in an affectionate way. "Is that so?" Gentle eyes that resemble amber gemstones flutter open to meet yours.

(Almost, were you accidentally about to poke his eye out of sheer panic from his beauty. Almost.)

"I'm glad to know that comparing me to felines seems to bring you amusement," Zhongli brushes his hand against your hair, "But let us focus on the task at hand, my love."

"Lest we miss our reservation at Liuli Pavilion. It is most polite to be punctual," he reminds you. How mean of him; to say such things and expect you to fully register it when he is softly rubbing your cheek like this as if lulling you to sleep.

Seriously, the amount of self-control you have to muster spontaneously in order to fight off the need to lean further into his hand is indescribable. Who's supposed to be the feline again? Anyway. "Okay, okay, I won't dawdle anymore," you adjust his chin in your hold as your other works to bring up the eyeliner to his eye.

"My husband has to look his best, after all," you slip in a little joke."Of course, darling," but Zhongli's answer doesn't sound like he's kidding at all.

(How can he say that with such a straight face? This man, seriously.)

— ALHAITHAM.

❝You're actually concentrating, I'm impressed.❞

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" you scrunch your face, frowning at how his words are jabbing at your pride. Has he not realized the power you have in your hands right now? You could actually poke his eyes with the eyeliner you're holding if you want to — not like you would, but Alhaitham is making it a smidgen harder to resist.

"I can focus, alright?" Huffing, you put aside your trivial grudges to grab his chin softly with your other hand. Alhaitham relents with an entertained smile, "All those times you fall asleep every time I read to you says otherwise."

"Well, that's— that's different," you stammer. In your defense, most of the books he chose to read to you are either theoretical physics or philosophies; it's a wonder how you're lulled to sleep even though it isn't a storybook. Of course, Alhaitham's library is a range of wide genres but you're starting to think he picks those books solely for you.

You're pulled out of your train of thoughts when you put in some distance to view your finished artwork. With Alhaitham's face as the canvas, somewhat comically.

(Well, aren't his eyes pretty? They look even sharper when accented with the eyeliner... whether that be for better or for worse. You shake your head internally at any poor person who happens to test his patience later today.)

"Wow," you mumble dazedly, "Red eyeliner really suits you." He raises an eyebrow at the genuineness in your quiet voice but only lifts his face away from your hand in response. Alhaitham regards your efforts in the mirror beside the two of you with a hum, "Maybe we should make this a routine, then."

There is a little something oddly hidden behind his sentence. Accusingly, you voice your suspicion by squinting your eyes at the Scribe, "...You just don't wanna do it yourself, do you?" And he enables it without a doubt, "Feel free to speculate."

(Ugh, this man.)

"But regardless..." he crosses his arms against his chest with a nod, "It doesn't look so bad."

(Would it have killed him from the inside out to say a compliment with a positive connotation? Okay, whatever, you love him.)

— XIAO.

❝....❞

Silent, quiet, and frozen in place like a statue.

The mere presence of those traits are more than enough reasons to have you worrying whether or not XIAO is still breathing. He is, thankfully, you can confirm that from the close proximity between the two of you and you mentally let out a sigh of relief.

(Thank the Archons you didn't lean in any further lest you would've heard how terribly his poor heart is faring and he doesn't want that.)

There is one more problem, however.

"You don't have to close your eyes that hard, you know..." you try to start, but Xiao still doesn't falter one bit; "It is of utmost necessity," he insists for the nth time since you've lost count.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

(Talk about stubborn.)

Your question is coming from a place of genuine concern because the frown on his forehead looks like it's going to engrave itself there forever from how intensely he is closing his eyes... Doesn't that hurt? You resist the urge to soothe away that frown with your thumb.

It's a good thing that it's only the two of you here right now, though. A stranger would be scared to death if they were to be gazed at with such an intense look and from the Conqueror of Demons at that. Oh, whatever will happen to your efforts of trying to prove to the children at Liyue Harbor that Xiao is actually a softie? Gee.

(But still, you can't help but smile.)

"Utmost necessity, huh?" you echo back his words with a hum. Your intentions bear no mockery but it seems the adeptus still manages to find some sort of dissatisfaction in your reaction. "Do not smile at me like that," Xiao mutters within a choked exhale that only serves to make him come off less stern than he would've liked.

His eyes are still, very much, closed as far as you can see.

The irony of it all tickles a chuckle out of you, mirth glazed over your eyes. "Is this an Adepti art I'm not aware of or are you secretly looking at me even with your eyes closed?" you ask cheekily. Xiao's cheeks are but a mere inch away from bursting into flames and he can only use words as his defense.

"...There is no need for you to know," he huffs.

Well, he isn't denying it, that's for sure.

(The answer is intuition.)

— WANDERER.

❝...Are you done yet? Any more second of this torture and I might just perish from boredom.❞

You're doing his makeup for him and this is the kind of treatment you get? You would've faked a gasp if you weren't so busy holding in a laugh over how his body is betraying his speech. That flustered look on WANDERER's face isn't helping his case at all.

"Uh-huh," your drawled out reply is enough of an indication to show that you're not really taking his words (threats?) seriously. Wanderer's bark can be as harsh as his bite, but you've never minded all the barks he sends your way — so much so that you barely even spare him any eye contact in favor of perfecting the red shade you're trying to blend around his eyelids.

(Perfection requires concentration, they say.)

But that doesn't mean you can't see anything else, though. You're uncertain if the Wanderer realizes this or somehow forgets because you can, in fact, see from your peripheral vision — and from said peripheral angle, he seems to be looking at something of yours rather intensely.

"You're staring at my lips," you point out.

"Shut it," he grumbles out his defense as fast as lightning.

(Caught him red-handed.)

"Sorry," you chuckle teasingly, "If you want a kiss, you're gonna have to wait for a bit." The way he looks so undeniably irritated by your statement makes you have no other option but to burst into a mini chuckling fit.

"Ugh, it's not like you can't lean in closer to—" His mouth snaps to a stop once it dawns on him; that your words are an attempt at reading his mind and he is technically confirming it to your face.

"Actually, nevermind, whatever. Just get this over and done with," he averts his eyes quickly with a scowl that feels as harmless as a naby deer (to you, anyway). "Giving up already?" you raise an eyebrow jokingly. With how Wanderer closes his eyes with a sigh, you assume he is only mere seconds away from giving your forehead a good flick.

"Don't think you're completely off the hook," he sternly interjects with a huff, "You still owe me some kind of compensation for taking your sweet time with this."

"And will that compensation be in the form of a kiss, per chance?" you hum amusedly.

"...It better be," he closes his eyes as if to signify the end of his willingness to comment any further.

Wanderer has never been one to shy away from the truth, but that is only because its taste always turns out bitter. Yet, in this case, when the truth entails something as embarrassingly sweet as desiring a kiss from you, then it becomes a conundrum for him.

After all, he is not fond of sweet things but he is fond of you. Maybe, this close proximity is getting to his head a little too much for his liking — darn it, he knew this was a bad idea the moment you showed him those puppy eyes.

— GOROU.

❝This is... embarrassing...❞

GOROU looks like he is merely a hair's breadth away from digging a hole into the ground and burrowing in it forever. But thankfully, the only thing keeping him on the surface happens to be you, the person holding him still by the cheek.

"There is nothing to be embarrassed about," you squish his cheek gently and Gorou lets out a noise akin to a little whine. "What if one of the soldiers sees us?" he protests, yet makes no actual initiative to remove himself from your grasp.

"Let them," you tap the eyeliner pen against his forehead two times and he winces dramatically as if you just struck him over the head. "Ouch!" Gorou rubs the sore spot instinctively and you can feel a faint trickle of guilt (even though you only hit him with the amount of strength someone would need to blow a dandelion), yet that is still not enough to the little lecture you're about to give him.

"Being the General of the Resistance doesn't mean you have to do everything yourself. It's okay to rely on someone to do something for you once in a while, you know."

"Even something as small as letting them do your eye makeup for you," you huff with a proud smile as an emphasis, carefully tracing a line on the outer part above his eyes.

"...Mmpf," the muffled noise that comes out of his mouth has you raising an eyebrow. Although unsure if it's because of that pout on his lips or his puffed cheeks, you still let out a little laugh at the thought of said possibilities anyway.

"Pfft, what's that sound?" you tease, "Does that mean you agree with me or not?"

"[Y/N]," Gorou calls your name in a stern tone or at least, tries to.

(He has never been good at scolding people but he swears if you keep on teasing him, he'll actually explode. ...And by that, he means melting into a puddle of jelly on the ground.)

— ITTO.

❝You gotta make em' look super dope, alright? Make sure you put more highlights on this one! And oh, this one right here too!❞

No one really knows whether the tattoos on ITTO's skin are actually real or not. Knowing he is someone of Oni blood doesn't narrow down the answer any further but if you were to ask him about them yourself, Itto prefers to call them "100% natural, baby!".

Not to mention, he is always looking for ways to make them stand out or look cooler — which led to this grand idea of asking you to do his makeup for him because apparently, your touch is magical since you're his favorite person on this emtire planet (his words, not yours).

...He can come up with the most random things to say sometimes. But hey, seeing a grown Oni beg on his knees sure was something and you didn't have the heart to say no to him.

"Sooooo," Itto starts with an attempt to clear his throat professionally, "How does it feel like having the honor to prepare me for my next battle?" he accentuates his sentence with a series of haughty laughter that cause his shoulders to shake vigorously.

"Don't move," you scrunch your face with a frown, pinching him indignantly for nearly breaking your focus. "Yikes! Sorry, sorry, I'll stay still!" the Oni yelps, a noise so embarrassing he almost cups his mouth like second nature.

But he doesn't do that, in fear of being pinched by your lovely fingers and proceeds to look at you with eyes befitting that of a kicked puppy's. "...You'll come and cheer for me, right?" Itto asks pleadingly and you smile.

"Of course," you say and he has to resist the urge to do a full-on fist bump into the air. But you still have some more left to say as you continue, "Just don't cry if you lose, alright? You'll ruin the makeup and besides...." There is a devious grin resting on your face now, "You don't want the kids to think your face makeup look like tear marks, don't you?"

Yup, there comes that offended gasp you've been waiting for.

"What— heck no!" Itto places a hand on his chest dramatically, "Tear marks?! Preposterous! The Arataki Itto doesn't shed tears! Of course not!" You can only hide your giggles behind your palm while Itto struggles to defend his wounded pride.

"...Forrealthough, doesitactuallylookliketearmarks—"

Now, you've got him second-guessing himself (but at least, he's cute?).

─ ⊹ ⊱ ・・・・・・☆・・・・・・・��� ⊹ ─

© SEELESTIA, may 2023. do not repost, plagiarize, translate nor claim as your own.

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[jevilowo]

RANKING TF2 SHIPS PART 1: SCOUT

Yeah i know I've done my shipping opinions before but I'm doing them again and this time by class order yaaay

Scoutcest

They would.

It would annoy everyone around them, and that would only serve to egg them both on further.

Batting Helmet

I'm not sure how healthy it would be, but consider: COMIC 4. 80% of it is just an extended Sollyscout comedy bit and it's great.

If they actually dated Scout would have to wear one of those dog neck cone things to protect his neck lmao.

There's something to be said about how Zhanna tried to get with Scout before giving up on him for Soldier. Polycule, anyone?

Flashfire

It's alright. Kind of nothingsauce imo.

Half the people on here who ship it ship it in a "we must protecc the 27 year old babies 🥺🥺 !!" way. Why.

Why doesn't Sniper ever get hit with this shit he's like only three years older than Scout.

Hopscotch

Holy shit yeah you know what I like this.

They would make eachother better. Demo would help Scout learn more empathy and selflessness and Scout would help Demo learn more positivity and self love. Ngl they could actually fix each other.

Mice n Men

Heavy can do better than Scout, methinks.

Could be cute tbh.

Texas Two Step

My brain has been so melted by the Engiedad Agenda I cannot properly conceive it in my mind. Sad!

Despite that, I like it more than sb. On principle alone.

Little Prick

URGH SO BORINGGGG

Medic is always sexed up and abusive and poor babey 19 for some reason year old Scout is a pantypissing twink oh noesss his INNOCENCE IS BEING TARNISHED!!

Also Emesis Blue ficwriters like it more than boots and bombs (ripppp) so that put me off.

Shout out to that one hypnovember oneshot I read that let Scout be the dom. Consider my brain chemistry REARRANGED

Speeding Bullet

Spyscout

Do you think God stays in heaven because he too lives in fear of what he created.

I'm pretty sure I've weeded out the incest fans already, but if I haven't, PLEASE FUCK OFF!!

Hit and a Miss

Call me back if Scout ever becomes a cool lesbian lmao.

Saxtonscout

On the top ten of most comedically toxic ships in tf2, somewhere between Magic Missiles and Adminsniper. Phwoar.

Maybe Scout should marry him and then bonk him to death for the will money.

Fried Chicken Girl and Scout

Despite her existence, Scout still both ran fast and died a virgin. What happened.

Her head shapes like a turnip and he looks like a chinchilla they're perfect for eachother.

Merascout

Uh. I guess they both like tom jones?? Idkkk.

They'd get along platonically in small doses I guess.

If Scout hangs around too long he'd break something and BOOM SHAKALAKA!! SCREAM FORTRESS FORTY THREE BILLION!!

Adminscout

She'd be like I Have Toppled Countless Empires Over The Course Of My Life. Your Existence Is Merely A Blip To Me.

And he'd be like Can Yuo Put That Out On Me

And then Miss Pauling would kill him, the end.

Scoutjerma

Walmart Scoutcest. 10/10, no notes.

Scout x his Ball

He loves his ball (canon)

[stargalaxxy]

𐙚Comic Lover!Lloyd x 𐙚Shoujo Lover!Reader

˚₊‧꒰ა ☆ ໒꒱ ‧₊˚ This happens after Skybound, so reader and Lloyd are 17-18??? I need ninjago fans to calculate that for me its been so long since I've actually sat and watched the series from beginning to present and make any senes of it. 𖦹ᯅ𖦹

So to be on the safe side Lloyd and reader are 17-18....

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˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆Now Playing: Still Into You by, Paramore｡☆

Tw. Protective Lloyd bcs reader get's harassed oml

✧˖° Imagine ✧˖°

Comic lover! Lloyd invites shoujo lover! (y/n) to Doomsday Comix to read the next volume of the new Starfairer comics. 

You go for the new releases of romance manga; you both happily sit together in the aisles as you read quietly enjoying the silent company that you both desperately needed from the countless missions you both are called on. 

Lloyd doesn’t mind your different interests; he likes how you ask if you could read with him. He was happy at how open you were to other genres of reading; in return he’d read any recommendations that you give him.

Your overly imaginative mind would dance with scenarios of you and Lloyd experiencing half of the love stories you read. Those moments when you are alone, you’d play lovecore music on your radio just to enhance your scenarios as you read along the panels imagining you and him together.

You knew you liked Lloyd when you were younger, when you both grew up from the Tomorrow’s Tea your love for him only grew. 

But you put your feelings on hold so that Lloyd can focus on his prophecy, you knew he was dealing with a lot so confessing might not be the best of idea. Advised by Nya who you told your feelings to when it got to be too much to hold in. 

So, you two remain friends as you hide your feelings, you slide your fingers along the spine of the pastel-colored books choosing one last book before leaving back to the Monastery for dinner.

You gasp as you take a book from the shelf flipping it to its back as you hold in a squeal, Sailor V volume 2!! Finding it in shops was hell, you were starting to cave in to buying it online. 

Your smile grows as you move your head to try and find Lloyd to share your excitement, moving from the romance aisle to find the blond. Finding him in the Starfairer section not having moved from his spot as he had a new issue in his hand. 

You happily skip over to him until you feel a hand on your wrist, you jump in shock as you turn around to see a guy your age. You don’t hide your cringe as you huff, it was happening again,

Since your change you’ve noticed how guys would at times come up to you and compliment your looks, it was harmless at first, even making you flustered.  But then it started getting a bit much, some of the flirting turning inappropriate. Pushing for a date even after clear refusal, you bring this up to Nya, who says it’s unfortunately normal for some girls your age to get hit on. She says it’s nothing to worry about when it is harmless giving the advice of saying “thank you” and move on, she then informs of when it isn’t giving advice on what to do.

However, as it keeps happening you find it harder to speak up for yourself, ironic how you can take on armies of serpentine. Come face to face with the Great Devourer, and Lord Garmadon, ghosts a genie and countless other enemies but you can’t tell a powerless guy to buzz off. 

“Hey girl, I just wanted to say how cute you are~” his hand kept on your wrist as you shift your weight to your other foot as you try slipping your hand away. You put on a polite smile, “oh, thanks, I appreciate that” the guy’s hand was still on you.

“Woah there, what’s the rush, pretty girl. Lemme keep looking at you~” you hum in annoyance as you gave a face of wanting him to go, “uhm, n-no thanks, I’m busy right now” you spoke quickly as your stomach starts to knot and hands start to shake. 

The guy in front pay’s no mind as he tries to pull you closer, “c’mon babe, how about this? You come with me, and I show you a good time if you catch my drift~” he winks as you cringe, the guy starts walking with you as you look back to find Lloyd gone.

You start freaking out as you try planting your feet to the ground however his grip tightens, “c’mon, don’t embarrass me you-“ “I think you already accomplished that on your own.” You look over to see Lloyd beside you with his arms crossed his brows connected in a scowl.

The guy in front of you scoffs as his grip tightens hurting you, “dude, back off I called dibs” wow, this guy is a piece of work.

“Excuse me?” Lloyd leans into him as his glare turns threatening, his red eyes shining as he squints at the guy daring him to say it again. 

Okay now it’s time to think of something, you desperately look for something, anything to help you out of the situation. Catching a glimpse of the romance section you thought of an idea from a cover of a book, you act fast as you rip from the guy’s grip.

Lloyd’s shocked expression was evident as you shoved your form into his, wrapping your arms around his torso in a possessive manner blush on your cheeks as you glare at the guy. 

You swallow hard as you commit to the role that you decided to play finally speaking, “h-he’s, my boyfriend! And we’re onna date!” your voice squeaks as the patrons from the shop looks your way embarrassing you even more.

The guy seemed to feel the same way as he looks to the people’s eyes, shoving his hands in his pocket he kicks the ground in frustration, “whatever, you’re annoying anyways, hope you enjoy each other” he rolls his eyes as he shoves his way from the crowd.

Both you and Lloyd stare at the door that the guy walked out from, the crowd soon dispersed as you look to each other. Your faces pink as you look away finally letting go and looking down at the floor, 

“s-sorry-“

“D-don’t worr-“ you both jump at Lloyd’s phone ringing. He struggles to get it out of his pocket, almost dropping it, 

You start moving your foot on the carpet as you awkwardly wait for Lloyd to finish up his phone call, you hear a button assuming he had hung up as you look to Lloyd. “That was Zane saying, dinner was ready, we better head back” Lloyd smiles as you follow him out the door.

There was silence for a couple of blocks before Lloyd breaks it, “so, what was that about?” You look down at your hands as you begin to feel on edge again, “it was nothing, just some guy” you answer as he continues. “Did you know him?” You gave Lloyd an unamused look making him chuckle, “that answers it then.”

You sigh as you two keep walking, “I know none of the guys that walk up to me, yet they seemed to think they do when they call me all these names and try to ask me onna date.” You cross your arms in a huff,

“Woah, wait-what?” Lloyd looks to you flabbergasted having not known that this was a regular thing for you. It made you cringe as you hadn’t meant to say all that, not wanting to worry Lloyd or your brothers you kept this secret. Only confiding in Nya to get some girl advice,

But now Lloyd knows, and he didn’t look happy, “why didn’t you tell us, me?” he looks to your ashamed face trying to make yourself smaller to avoid the conversation.

“I told Nya” you mumble, you knew he could hear you as Lloyd sighs, he looked like a disappointed parent, “I’m sorry” you look away unable to face him as Lloyd looks to you feeling bad for making you feel like you had a apologize to him.

Placing a hand on your head as he glides his hand through your hair affectionately, “you don’t have to apologize, (y/n), especially for this.” Tears start to collect as you hug Lloyd, he pauses for a moment as his heart spikes, he soon shoves his feelings down and hugs you back rubbing your back. 

Lloyd smiles as you look up to him feeling better, you pull away, but your hands stay connected noticing you gush silently. “That was good thinking, telling him I was your boyfriend” Lloyd grins as you blush, likely teasing you bringing back his playful nature. “Whaat? I was rushing to think of something!” you playfully whine as you shove him with your shoulder. 

“No, it was good, the guy really bought it” Lloyd smiles as you smile as well with him, you look to the building to your side as your smile drops. “I was so nervous, I thought you were going to fight him” “I was” Lloyd responds quickly with zero hesitation as you look at him with a shocked expression. 

“Lloyd!” You scold him as Lloyd rolls his eyes, “he totally deserves it anyways, he was a jerk” you huff, “your stronger than him he’s just some guy, what if it went bad and you got in trouble?” you reason with him, you’d feel devastated if Lloyd got in trouble for protecting you.

Lloyd huffs stubbornly as he looks to you, “I don’t care, he hurt you, (y/n)” he points to your wrist a red mark slowly making its way on your body. Not enough to bruise but you knew you would feel it tomorrow. “Still Lloyd, you’re a hero, don’t get in trouble for my sake.” Lloyd looked offended, “don’t talk like you don’t matter (y/n), I will always defend you because your worth the trouble, you’re not just someone you’re my friend.”

The ’friend’ stung you but you appreciated his words feeling Lloyd’s grip tighten it was comforting unlike the guy that grabbed you, “so yea, (y/n), when I see you in trouble or someone talk bad about you, ‘m gonna do everything in my power to protect you.” 

Lloyd stops as you do the same forcing you to look at him, he had a smile as he cups your cheek, something new that made your heart flutter. “You understand?” you stare at him as you swallow hard finding the words, “yea, I do.” You smile as he mirrors yours.

He continues walking with you until you stop making him raise a brow, you then start running in the opposite direction, “Hey! Where are you going?!” Lloyd calls as you look behind still running. “I’ll meet you at home, oki? Save me a plate!” you wink as you continue your track. 

Lloyd stares as you soon leave from his field of vision, his face contorts into confusion at your crypted sentence. He sighs, an amused smile on his face as he starts his walk again fueled by hunger to question you anymore.

Lloyd soon arrives telling the others of your disappearance saying that you’ll be back. That was enough to get the rest to eat as Lloyd makes your plate along with his own.

You arrive a little later as you huffed inside sweating stopping to your room before coming to the table to eat. “fwhere fwr you?” Kai asks as he shovels food in his mouth, “eat more talk less, Kai” Nya rolls her eyes as she takes another bite. 

You giggle as you go to take your regular seat next to Lloyd, he looks to you with food in his mouth as he slides you a plate covered in plastic wrap. You gasp excitedly as you clap your hands unwrapping the plate happily, it was still warm.

“Thank you, Lloyd~” you ruffle his hair as he looks at you, much like when he looks to his mom when she displays affection to him, embarrassed. Everyone chuckles at you display of affection as you start to eat thanking Zane for the food.

“So, where were you?” Lloyd asks having finished the food in his mouth, looking to you the rest wondering as well as you were never late for any meals. Especially made by Zane. Even master Wu looked curiously as he peaked an eye open.

You look away, “oh y’know, just wanted to get something before they ran out in stock~” you wave off the questions as Kai laughs, “probably one of your cute kawaii, Tokyo Mew Mew books” Kai teases as he stuffs food into his mouth much to Nya’s disgust. You gasp offended as you point your chop sticks at Kai, “take that back you hair gel abuser!” you defended your love as master Wu looks to you, “(y/n), chopsticks” you suddenly remember with an oh as you place them down. Kai’s shocked expression at your insult made you laugh, “that’s all you read (y/n), you should broaden your horizon” Kai wags a finger playfully as you snicker, “oh hoho, you mean like your ecchi~” you grinned like a cat blushing as you had the unfortunate encounter of his stash under his bed when you were little.

The table erupts with laughter as Kai’s face turns red, “wh-who told you about that?!” Kai shouts as you laugh harder it was starting to hurt your back. Kai chuckles threateningly taking advantage of your distracted form as his hand mushes the food on his plate.

“Haha, Kai-yo-Ack!!” You instantly fall back as mush from Kai’s plate lands on your face. “That’s it, you perv!” you grin as you grab your own throwing it at him causing the entire table to throw food at each other thanks to a chain reaction. 

Zane sighs as he smiles, master Wu had left a little bit ago quietly, the giggles kept coming as you guys continue to goof off.

Later that night you finished cleaning the kitchen with Kai, masters’ orders, when you both finished you stuck your tongues out at each other before going your separate ways. 

You stop at your room walking over to your desk to switch on your desk lamp.  looking to your chair you grab a bag that rested on the back of it, you open it and pulled out a Starfairer issue that you saw Lloyd reading. You wanted to give it to him as a gift for saving you today, as you knew he probably didn’t get to finish it. 

“Hey” you jump at a voice behind you turning quickly to see Lloyd at your door, a tight fitted black shirt and green plaid pajama pants, oh my goodness that shirt was not helping subdue your feelings for Lloyd at all. Seeing his muscle protrude from inside the shirt, 

“Oh, hey” was all you could say in the moment as you tear your eyes away from his form. You smile as you hide the comic behind you. The lamp light on your desk wasn’t enough to light up the entire room, but it was enough to see your blushing face.

Lloyd smiles as he walks over his back leaning against your desk with his hands holding him up the muscles on his arms showing clear veins run up his forarms.

Forgive me FSM for staring. You force yourself to look away as you chuckle, “uhm, I wanna thank you for helping me today.” You smile as you finally face him, Lloyd held a confused look his smile stays strong, “you don’t have to thank me, I’ll continue to help you out no matter what” you look down bathing in his words as your cheeks turned pink. 

You knew how oblivious Lloyd was of your feeling, however, every time he spoke to you with such care you can’t help but feel like,

Does he only view you as a friend?

You contemplate for a second before shaking your head, no, you had to keep your promise. When everything calms down, then you will tell him your feelings.

But when will that time be? How long can you conceal your feelings?

You look up to find Lloyd had gotten closer to you, you squeak as you took a step back his hand on your forehead. “Are you okay? Your face is red?” you squeak as back away completely flustered. 

“N-no, I-I’m fine really!” your voice squeaks higher as you force your hands in front with the comic in hand, “th-this is for you! I know you didn’t finish it so I bought it so you could!” you look down unable to face him too embarrassed that he’ll see your face.

“Aw, (y/n), thanks! You’re right, I didn’t get to finish it!” Lloyd smiles as he takes the comic completely dismissing your nervous exterior. You hum as he takes your gift, still looking anywhere but him. You fiddle with the ends of your shirt as Lloyd looks at the cover with excitement. 

“W-well, it’s been one busy day, so I should go to bed, see ya on the training mat tomorrow!” you start pushing him out as Lloyd looks back confused. “What, but it’s only 7:30?” Lloyd looks to your digital clock not moving his feet as you huffed, “well y’know Lloyd, early bird gets the worm~” you wink as you finally got him on the other side of the door. Before you could close it though something came into your mind as you look to Lloyd’s confused face.

You lean over and kiss his cheek; it was quick and looked more like a greeting cheek kiss if anything. But your actions made your face explode and seeing that Lloyd’s did the same made you smile like crazy. 

“Yelp! S-see you tomorrow!” and with that you shove the door closed. 

You stand on the other side in a starfish position blocking the door, why did you do that? You place your hand on your lips as you thought about Lloyd’s expression, the accusing thoughts moved to the back of your mind as you started hopping around your room fangirling at your sudden courage and Lloyd’s cute face. 

You fall onto your bed as your heart pounded, it felt like it was dancing along with you. You never felt so happy, as you wiggle in your bed rolling around. You finally rest as your legs were the only thing moving as you swung them back and forth. You were so happy.

Lloyd walks into the gaming room where he could hear curses and his brothers argue with each other, “left hook, LEFT HOOK!” Jay shouts as Lloyd sees him swing the controls in both hands. Cole laughs as he kept his composure, he leaned forward his elbows on his knees.

Kai was the one to notice Lloyd as he silently waves him over, “what’s up” he asks as Lloyd sits next to him. “I-I think, I like someone.” Lloyd finally spoke as he places his hand on his cheek feeling the ghost kiss you left him.

Kai’s jaw drops as Cole pauses the game making Jay groan likely not hearing Lloyd, “woah what, y’gotta crush?!” Cole smiles as Jay snaps his head over his attention finally caught, “for real! Who?” Jay smiles as well leaning over Cole.

Lloyd blushes as he scratches the back of his neck, “(y/n).” the boys gasp as they excitedly look to one another, Cole and Jay then put their hands out in front of Kai making a beckoning motion as Kai scoffs fishing in his pocket pulling two fives. 

“Wha- you betted on that?!” Lloyd looked dumbfounded as Kai rolls his eyes, “yea, and I lost” Kai then waves them off as he continues with Lloyd. “So, how’d it happen, when did you realize?”

“Are you gonna confess?” Jay chimes in as Kai nods his head quickly. Cole just sat as he listened in as well.

“What are you all talking about?” Zane pops into the room as Lloyd thanks the first spinjitsu master for his interruption, “noth-“ “Lloyd hasa crush on (y/n)!” Jay shouts as the rest shush him harshly. 

“Look I’ll tell you just, don’t be weird” Lloyd huffs as they nod their heads, huddling up together like kids ready to hear their grandfathers’ stories. 

After Lloyd explains, the guy’s smile, “aww, that’s so cute” Jay gushes as Kai pats Lloyd’s shoulder. “It’s alright Lloyd you got, four amazing wingmen to help you~” Kai smirks as the boy’s chuckle nodding. “Yea, we’re here to help you man” Cole shrugs as he agrees with Kai.

Lloyd blushes as he looks away, “thanks guys, but don’t do anything dumb” Lloyd threatens as he points his index at them. 

Lloyd had feelings for you since you two were kids, being stubborn he’d always run away from you. Screaming he hated you because you were a girl. As he got to know you more when he joined the team, he started to like you, as you were always with him playing games with him and training alongside him.

After the Tomorrow’s tea incident his feelings grew for you, as he would invite you to come with him on book hunts. Saying it was a benefit for you to get new manga and for him to get the next issue.

But he knew what he wanted, Lloyd just wanted to be close to you, sharing your common interests in reading and have none stop discussions about plots that had you both excited for the next volume or issue. But now his brothers were involved as they talked amongst themselves of how to push you two together. 

He didn't want to loose you as a friend.

But he can't stand just seeing you as a friend, he wants more.

Lloyd sighs as he looks to the guys with a defeated look a smile then finds his lips as he once again presses a hand on his cheek of where you kissed him. Staring at the comic you gifted him for saving you. 

He hoped that getting his brothers involved won’t be a bad idea. Because he really likes you.

Boyfriend? He liked it when you called him your boyfriend….

Okii so I always liked the idea of reader being in love with Lloyd,٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و being a romantic and having interest in shoujo manga while he likes old school comics. I thought it was a cute dynamic and how they would talk to each other. Bcs oml Lloyd is a talker and I think their conversations would be so cute as they would geek out together. ૮⸝⸝> ̫ <⸝⸝ ა But when I wrote it I didn't like how short it was so I added a shortishhh protective plot in the beginning.... idk if I like iiit but maybe someone can give me advice idk haha...✿ But I hope you guys like it bcs I really like the concept maybe I'll revisit it for my scenarios.ᯓᡣ𐭩

ೀ.⋆⑅˚

Love, ⋆˚࿔ Karrots 𝜗𝜚˚⋆

[jariten]

Roundup-Catch up: August 2024!!

Let's catch up! Looking back at my list of August reads my head spins a bit. Most of this year I got way too eager picking up series from my shelf or the library and was juggling maybe 5 series at once. Which did a huge disservice to the reading experience for some of those series as I wasn't giving them my full attention. It wasn't until August I managed to wrap up most of them and enter the more focused way of following or reading through a series that I had previously. But in the frenzy I still had some great reads.

I had always heard whispers of No Longer Heroine by Momoko Koda but I'd never crossed paths with it. But when the english run of My Love Mix-up ended I had a huge contemporary High School Romance shaped hole in my heart and this is one of the titles that's filled it (I will get to the rest). I love mess, I love stories of teenagers learning to navigate the minefield that is human relationships so I can be the opposite of nostalgic for a time that, praise be, I will never have to relive. But I also read titles like this wondering how a constructive conversation around it could be had among young readers who from my experience can come off very frustrated and unsympathetic to the type of drama it depicts where the heroine and hero's feelings and decisions are extremely irrational and reckless. I really like the Yen Press, but as a license acquisition it feels kinda random? And in my honest opinion if you're 10 years late to a title you kinda have to make it an omnibus or collectors edition because waiting for individual volumes for, again, an over 10 year old series is pretty frustrating. But I will stick around to the end.

Yumiko Ōshima's Sava series was one of my favorites of 2022. The way she captures me with stories where honestly "nothing" really "happens" just floored me and made me optimistic for Goo Goo Datte Neko de Aru. A diary comic that begins with the passing of the cat Sava and her purchase of the cat Goo Goo (Short for Good Good). But Goo Goo isn't the only cat that enters her life. In rather rapid succession stray kittens begin entering her life. We follow for over a decade her journey rescuing, rehoming, and caretaking of countless stray cats (the latter to the dismay of her neighbours). Reading it today it highlights the challenges of clashing attitudes over stray cats and how these populations should be taken care of if at all. Famously it is also a chronicle of her cancer survival journey but its a rather short part of the whole but nonetheless maintains the Ōshima charm.

I want to make a gift recommendation for the upcoming holiday season: Your Letter by Hyeon A Cho. While I've had some really really good encounters with Korean Manhwa, Webtoons is still a world unknown to me. I think the Ize Press initiative bringing Webtoons to print in english is extremely cool, but the lineup just hasn't had any titles that caught my eye. Until Your Letter. A 10 chapter single volume story that I liked so much for its artistic presentation and the story it was telling about bullying and finding your place in a new environment that I immediately was overcome with the need to pass it along, which I did. Really think it would make a great gift for anyone 5th grade and up who are interested in comics. OR it can be read for free in its entirety on Webtoon!

Satou Gashi no Ie by Kyoko Fumizuki was a title picked up a bit at random. I'd gotten a taste of her work in the Suki Desu, Kono Shoujo Manga anthology and was one of the more memorable entries in an already extremely well curated collection. Satou Gashi no Ie is a 5 story one-shot collection with to meeee back to back hits. The titular story centres on a teenage boy named Richard who suddenly appears at his childhood's friend Elsie's school with a baby in his arms, that he claims to be his, and that he's a widower. But there are too many holes in his story. Who exactly is the baby's mother and how did he come to care for her at the end of her life? And how does this change Richard and Elsie's relationship? There's a warmth to Fumizuki's artistry in this era and the way that she hits all the story beats that really drew me in and augh I honestly have no words for it. This collection really stood out and among her peers I've yet to read anyone who could compose manga exactly like this. And you know what's cool? You can (In Japanese) read this and a handful of her other work from the same era for FREE on Manga Library Z!! (JP only) NOTE: crazy enough, on this very day (Nov 26) Manga Library Z suspended services but diligent users of nyaa have made sure that the works available there live on

[asses-to-ashes]

Longass post about some problematic aspects of 2000-2010 fandom, and why antis are not the solution for ongoing problems.

When people my age talk about 2000s-2010 fandom, they usually talk about it with rose-colored glasses as if it was the Golden age of fandom. I've done the same thing in some of my posts at times, and I don't necessarily see a problem with it, especially when you're discussing it under the context of the current climate of censorship and community harassment, but it's important to look back at the past objectively. When I say old fandom in this post, just know that I'm referring to 2000 to 2010.

There is a happy medium that needs to be reached between holding people accountable in fandom and avoiding censorship. The "anti" mindset goes way too far and polices how people explore fiction, but Old Fandom had its own problems with extremely poor behavior. In this essay I'm going to be exploring these problems in old fandom, the causes and solutions, why media censorship is never the answer. It's important to recognize and reflect on these things especially for people who weren't around to experience it. History repeats itself when Forgotten.

My point is not, and has never been that old fandom was worse than new fandom. My point is not that old fandom is bad at all. My point here is looking at problems, the solutions that have been made for those problems, and why they don't relate to censoring fiction at all.

I want to reiterate that I know things I'm about to discuss still happen. You do not have to comment. But it's important that we start looking objectively at Old Fandom as a wonderful, accepting but sometimes problematic (real problematic not the way antis nave coopted that word) space.

Keep in mind that this is an opinion piece. While I do provide statistics, I'm not trying to make any objective statements. My experience is probably different than yours. The experiences of my friends and my sources are probably different than yours.

With that in mind, let's get into it. Click read more for the meat of this essay

Cosplay Is Not Consent

Consent and sexual harassment have always been a huge issue within the cosplay community, there have been countless stories of women dealing with unwanted sexual advances such as touching, cat calls, kissing, and groping in convention spaces. At conventions in 2000, consent was never mentioned. With such a severe problem, the Cosplay Is Not Consent movement began.

This has been a notion that has been around for a while, been posted at some small cons as far beck as 2012. but it really only became a popularized sentiment at New York City Comic-Con 2014, where the phrase "Costumes Are Not Consent was posted publicly in the convention apace, along with a clear anti-harassment policy.

Even though research shows that most sexual harassment goes unreported, the amount of sexual harassment reports had more than halved in the first year of the visible anti-harassment signs and movement. The amount of sexual harassment cases at NYCC remained steady at "about a dozen" per year even as the number of attendees has increased from 151,000 in 2014 to more than 200,000 in 2023- A testament to the increased awareness of sexual harassment within fandom, an ongoing movement to protect attendees with anti-harassment policies.

A policy is only as good as the structure set up around that policy. An increasing number of conventions have a policy, display their policy prominently, define harassment, explain consequences, let guests know how to report harassment, and give separate protocols when convention organizers are responsible for abuse.

Now, instead of an unspoken "look the other way" policy, congoers are more likely to notice sexual harassment, come to someone's aid, and speak out. People who harass women are more likely to be kicked out of conventions and sexual harassment is more likely to be reported.

Obviously, sexual harassment and assault is still a huge problem in convention spaces, but with an increase in awareness around the issue, it's not as prominent as before.

Subsection: Yaoi Paddles, Glomping, and dangerous conduct

Reportedly first sold in 2002 at Otakon, yowie paddles are a wooden paddle with the word Yaoi burnt into the paddle end used for spanking people. They were a huge problem at conventions and caused a lot of people to be injured as a result. There were countless stories on forums about people being hit by random passerbys using a yaoi paddle, and people begged for it to be banned.

Glomping Is a running hug action that's a mix between a hug and a pounce. It was very popular in fandom, specifically around 2005 in the anime and furry fandoms. It was mostly younger people doing this and it caused a lot of people to be injured as well. Glopping incidents sometimes even included biting or groping.

Both of these behaviors were considered very poor etiquette, but were still very common in conventions. They were common enough so that even saying the words yaoi paddle or glomp to a cosplayer my age is like activating a sleeper agent. Your life flashes before your very eyes. Obviously I'm being dramatic here but it was very annoying.

Inappropriateness with Actors

In general, poor etiquette around celebrities is still a thing now. I haven't seen etiquette getting any better, so this point is less about a problem with old fandom and more about a current issue that still needs to be addressed. I'm going to be talking about real people, fan fiction and the blurred lines between characters and actors.

I'm not here to debate the ethics of "real people fiction." For those of you who don't know, RPF is a genre of fanfiction that involves real people. These people can be actors, politicians, historical figures, youtubers, really anything like that.

The problem comes from involving real actors in your fiction about them. What I mean by this is sending the actors your explicit fan fiction, or asking them inappropriate sexual questions. This is more of a problem from the early 2000's. While this does still happen now, it was really prolific in the early Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter fandoms.

Actors would frequently be invited to fan sites that had explicit RPF fanfiction. I've seen cases where actors were asked to sign copies of RPF, actors were mailed RPF, and were showed these fanfictions at meetups and conventions.

RPF never died off, and it's still a very popular genre. Between 2016 and 2017, fanfiction about real K-pop stars. Increased 10% on Tumblr. In 2015, Larry Stylinson was the number one ship on Tumblr according to Amanda Brennan, senior content insights manager at Tumblr.

Celebrities have been harassed for not following a fandom script, online shipping has led to the real life harassment of celebrities. For example, Lili Reinhart reported that her castmate was sent death threats because her character was getting in between a popular ship. This happened in 2017 and represents an ongoing problem in fandom.

Nazism and the Anime Boston Incident

I distinctly remember going to conventions when I was younger and seeing Nazi cosplayers walking around sometimes. They could be from Indiana Jones, Captain America, or whatever movie allowed them to wear that.

It wasn't until 2017 when Rose City Comic-Con updated a change to cosplay policy outlawing Nazi cosplayers including satirical or ironic cosplays which use Nazi paraphernalia or gear. Other conventions have also enacted similar cosplay bands in response to incidents such as the hello Kitty SS uniforms (yes, this is real) and cosplays of other fictional Nazis such as old school Hydra and red skull.

The most memorable incident that I distinctly saw on the internet in 2010 was the Hetalia Anime Boston Incident. For those of you who aren't familiar with hetalia, it's a series that came out in 2009 and initially took place in WWII, and each character is the humanization of a country. There is still debate on the characterization, especially regarding the character Germany- Poor guy was the cause of this specific controversy. The Italia fandom had exponential growth since 2009, and at anime Boston 2010, there was an incident regarding a hetalia photo shoot where cosplayers decided to do a Nazi salute as a joke. Even at the time, the sparked controversy on the Hetalia fandom on livejournal which is why I remember this incident so specifically. There were incidents like this beforehand, but this garnered enough attention online so that lots of photographers made it very clear that no Nazi imagery or posing was allowed.

With more restrictive policies and increased awareness, these types of cosplays became a lot less common in the west. The band are usually around Nazi iconography and symbols such as salutes and uniforms. You still see these cosplays today, such as an example from Hong Kong at Ani-com that took place this month, July 2024.

Where do antis fit in here?

I want to make it super clear that none of these major issues that I brought up here have to do with fiction. The points that are related to fiction, such as cosplaying a Nazi character or sending RPF to actors are entirely based on people's conduct in real life.

People never stopped liking characters like Red Skull, people still write about him and draw him. People should be allowed to write about characters like Red Skull and people should be allowed to like him, the issue arises when you wear a Nazi uniform in a public place.

People never stopped liking Yaoi. Little fan girls never stopped reading exactly the same stuff that I was reading at their age. The difference comes from behavior in real life.

Universally, the vast majority of fandom regardless of the time are able to separate fiction from reality. The problems were never caused by fiction, but rather people's behavior.

In order to stop people from cosplaying Nazi characters, the solution was not getting rid of all Nazi characters in media and harassing people who write about them. The solution was, very simply, to ban this kind of iconography at conventions and hold people accountable for their conduct.

Regardless of the space and the fandom, there are always going to be people who can't behave properly. There are always going to be people who don't know how to treat others. That's just the reality of looking at a group of people, some people don't have common sense. It is not the fiction that causes people to behave this way, but rather having a large group of people in a relatively new scene that hasn't established proper regulations and etiquette yet.

Allowing people to create, consume, and appreciate fiction that is not personally tasteful to you, or appropriate for some audiences, is an important part of society. It's extremely valuable to protect these freedoms, as censorship is a slippery slope.

My next essay will be about censorship in the Cold war era, McCarthyist homophobia, and why comic books were censored for having "anti-american" ideas.

Keep an eye out for that.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Anonymous asked:

[ask edited for length and content]

Egodeath/Jealous Anon. Thank you. I feel better after your response. I wanted to clarify two things, just if you want more context: With the similarities, I think I'm afraid that if I do get published, my books will be instantly rejected because people think it's just another copycat. I've seen people instantly reject a book just because it was similar to one that's already popular. I put so much effort into making sure my ideas are my own, it would really hurt if readers thought the work was copied and not my own.

You are deeply overthinking things here.

If you want to be a published writer, you need to reconcile yourself with the fact that everyone isn't going to love your books. And that's fine, because no one has EVER written a book that was universally loved 100% across the board. No one. Ever. In history. Every single book ever written has its critics. Every single author whose ever put pen to paper has people who don't like them. This is just a reality.

If some people don't like your books because they're similar to another book they read, that has nothing to do with you. That's their prerogative. Other people might dislike your books because they're not similar enough to another book they read. It's pointless to worry about it because you will never please everyone. Why people don't like your book is none of your concern.

I guess with ACOTAR it was just too many specific things. The character design and role of Rhysand. The telepathy between the love interests. There was a whole lot more but I put it down so long ago I've forgotten most now - but at some point it just felt like reading my own notes when I opened one of those books. The worst was when a fictional name I made up was used in that book - and given it's popularity I 'd probably have copyright issues if I tried to keep it in my work anyway. I think that was just the last straw to make me quit the series.

It happens, and it's honestly not as big a deal as it feels like it is now. Again, ideas don't come from nowhere. As much as you strive to make sure your ideas are your own, our "creative wells" are all filled from the same places, and human experience is only so varied, so the odds of multiple people coming up with the same things over and over are actually pretty likely. You're holding yourself up to impossible standards by expecting yourself to create stories that are wholly original and share no similarities with any other story.

Let me share a few times when this has happened to me in hopes it will help you see it's not that big a deal...

A few years after I wrote my first novella (which was not yet published at that time), I saw a commercial for a new TV show. The background concept, setting, and many surface details were pretty identical to my novella, but what KILLED me is one of the main characters had the same name and nickname as my protagonist... and they weren't even that common a name/nickname for that time period. I was sick... absolutely sick. It completely derailed my plans to flesh the story out into a full novel and publish it. Now, YEARS later, I just laugh when I think about it because the things that felt like glaring similarities now are nothing. The plot and conflict of the TV show are completely different from my novella. In the intervening years, I've come across countless other stories with the same background concept, same setting, same surface details, similar characters... and all of those shows, movies, stories, books, video games, comics, graphic novels, plays--whatever--have people who adore them and DGAF about any similarities to some random TV show.

Less than two years after my debut novel was published, I was reading a newly released book and was absolutely floored by the number of similarities. Two less common names, two unusual titles used in a similar way, and three unusual descriptive words used in the same way. Plus, 24 bigger similarities like setting similarities, plot point similarities, situational similarities... Were it not highly unlikely that the author had read my book, and had it not been for the short amount of time between my book and their book, it would have been tempting to think they'd intentionally copied me, because the similarities were just that glaring. But the reality is, we're just two writers who think alike, and in the years since, I've found a few other writers with whom I constantly have these kinds of similarities. They happen, and they feel world-ending at the time, but I promise you they're not as big a deal as your brain is making them into.

So, seriously, stop worrying about it. Similarities are going to happen, and they're going to be glaring sometimes, and there's nothing you can do about it. There's absolutely no way you can write a book that has not a single similarity with an existing story, and even if you could, that's not going to mean you'll write a book that will be universally loved 100% by everyone. People are going to dislike your book no matter what you do, and some of those people may see similarities between apples and oranges. There's nothing you can do about it. You're not writing for them anyway. You're writing for the people who are going to LOVE your book, and that will be the majority, similarities or not. ♥

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[notmorbid]

the return [1/2].

dialogue prompts from twin peaks: the return (2017).

it is in our house now.

you are far away.

aren't you supposed to be working?

where the hell do you think you're going?

it's just a job i got to help with school.

do you want to make out a little?

you're behaving yourself, for a change.

something is missing, and you have to find it.

can you please tell me what's going on?

i wasn't there, i swear to you. it was a dream.

why do you let ___ make you do these things?

i don't need anything. i want.

where are you walking tonight?

there's supposed to be something happening here tonight.

the stars turn, and the time presents itself. watch carefully.

i'm too weak to go with you, but stop by.

do you recognize me?

i am dead, yet i live.

what's mine is yours.

___ is still cool. ___ has always been cool.

when you get there, you will already be there.

you'd better hurry. my mother's coming.

if it's not here, then how do you know it's missing?

i only ate one. and i never did it again.

i think you should try to forget you ever met me.

here's five dollars. call for help.

the absurd mystery of the strange forces of existence.

how about a truckload full of valium?

think of us as a home away from home.

don't tell me you hit the jackpot.

i'm old school. you know that.

i told those clown comics to fix their hearts or die.

man, that brings back some memories.

i've crisscrossed this great land of ours countless times. i hold the map of it here, in my heart.

my shadow is always with me: sometimes ahead, sometimes behind, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right. except on cloudy days, or at night.

may the road rise up to meet your wheels.

my dharma is the road.

you see me, don't you?

up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?

holy jumpin' george.

where have you been all these years?

i hate to admit this, but i don't understand this situation at all.

you're acting weird as shit.

give me a smoke.

keep the whole pack.

will you stay with me until i fall asleep?

don't call me 'kid'.

fuckin' government.

you've certainly given me a lot to think about.

we're the 99 percenters. we're shit on enough.

we are living in a dark, dark age, and you are part of the problem.

why are you always against me?

___ didn't used to be like this.

i can't remember what i had for breakfast this morning, but i remember ______.

just this morning, i caught two brown trout in my pajamas. how they got in my pajamas, i'll never know.

my attitude is none of your fucking business.

so? say what you came here to say.

the fact that you're here speaks louder than words.

i knew it was going to be you.

is there a reason you're not talking to me?

i heard you drive up. why were you late?

i hope you're not sore at me for running off.

look, i found a penny. and it's heads up.

got a light?

you live in town, don't you?

it was really nice of you to walk me home.

i don't appreciate your language one bit.

you and i are going to work together and get some answers.

_______ never lost faith in you.

i'm not here. i'm on my lunch break.

it was our make-believe world. you know, where we made up stories.

we used to smoke together, way back when. you remember?

can you tell me what happened?

i've never seen anything like it. i've never read anything like it.

you don't know. you weren't there.

haven't seen you in a while.

[blingusdlingus]

The Start of the Post-Modern Sonic Era

As time passes... Sonic Frontiers feels unreal to me. I still feel the psychic ripples that game made in the minds of thousands. Hearing about the physics nonstop. the buzzwords echoed in my brain for months... the rips at the English script-writing. It drove me to near madness. It was hard talking to people who weren't as deep in it as I was at that time... But I look back these days and I can't help but feel like the madness was exactly what I wanted. I can't make peace with this game like many others have, but I can't hate this game, I can't act like I'm indifferent to it. It did something to me that I can't dissect into a science. I don't feel like it's fair to try and categorize the feelings I have about it's writing into the set of ideals I've made for what I want these characters to be. I can't rule this one out... it broke the stagnant mold for me. An "Open-Zone" Sonic game with hyper-realistic environments, patch-worked with floating platforms and rails in the sky, janky camera movements and overtly flashy attacks for an unbalanced combat system, reused level design for one minute stages, hamfisted self-referential dialogue that had me groaning at points, a narrative that felt spread thin and disjointed, answering questions that didn't need answering. And it didn't even have Momentum. And yet... it is everything to me. AND NOW FOR THE CHILDHOOD HISTORY OF BLINGUS For the 20 years I've been alive, about 18 of those years I have spent with this deeply rooted attachment to Sonic. I was deeply fortunate as my cousin and my half-brother both had a Genesis with each of their own collection of games respectively, which of course, meant a lot of Sonic games. I was also gifted with having two brothers, who I dubbed as "the one with the GameCube" and "the one with the PS2". From age 2 (2006) to age 6 (2010), I had already created formative memories with the following: Sonic 1 Sonic 2 Sonic Underground Sonic 3D Blast Sonic Rush Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood Sonic Spinball Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine Sonic Heroes Sonic CD Sonic Adventure DX Sonic X Shadow The Hedgehog Sonic Rush Adventure Sonic Riders Sonic Unleashed Sonic Colors

These aren't even counting the games and shows I had learnt of online as a child who ABSOLUTELY shouldn't of been on the internet at such a young age but I digress. I just want to highlight the sheer amount of Sonic I took in in that time-frame. I think this chapter in my life planted the ideals that I hold to this very day, even throughout the madness. The problem is that... I don't even truly know what those ideals are. As I've grown I've played these games countless times, along with every game coming out after. I read the comics, I watched the shows, I got invested into the rom-hacking scene, and from there, the Fangame scene. My life changed and grew and my opinions of these games have shifted time and time and time again. Those roots never grew dry for me though, and I feel as if I owe my young self a lot for making memories with these games. Maybe it's a fear of losing innocence? It could be because I'm autistic as fuck? Maybe it's just love. Love for what these games represent for me, Love for what could've been. Loving it for what it is, what it was, loving it because people made it and that's all that matters. Loving to draw it, to find why others love it, and to open my mind to interpretation. Loving it to hate it, to write about it and talk to your friend's about it. To find out what made it tick, what's been lost over the years and how it's found again. Loving it because Super Sonic is raw as fuck and Shadow likes nu-metal hell yeah Oh yeah this was about Sonic Frontiers Well okay yeah the game is kinda mid but It's raw as hell and it's representation of growth and change is as prevalent in the narrative as it is in the eyes of the people. It made a ripple. Did Sonic Lost World make a ripple? Yes it did you fucking asshole

[northsealight]

Hey, when you said RHATO Jason is the worst version on your last ask, were you referring to the first comic, second comic, or the Webtoon? (Honestly annoyed the Webtoon took that name, makes things even more confusing)

I have problems with all 3 (Webtoon most of all for sure, with the second and first switching places behind it based on what characters or plots I’m thinking about tbh), but I was just curious haha

oh. oh. oh you're not ready for this. I've been trying this entire week to find a good time to air out my thoughts:

so! in my opinion (again, this is not shaming anyone for liking what they like! if you happen to like RHATO!jason all the more power to you! dont read this!) all three reiterations of RHATO!Jason .. are not great. the one I think might have potential to be salvaged is the second one with Artemis and bizarro! (although roy harper is in my heart of hearts)

the way Jason is written in rhato... the rhato written by Scott Lobdell anyway, (who is actually a sexual predator and when you start to think even a LITTLE about how the women are written in RHATO makes so much sense) portrays Jason as yet another cookie cutter anti-hero-deadpool-esque personality who's mainly confined by the narrative restraints of his character.

I say this because hes so.... the way he goes about his vigilantism is so .. shallow. It's like the narrative is finding excuses to make him violent so the reader can be stimulated with Michale Bay explosions lol. You hardly see any stories in there where Jason is an actual champion for the people, and you hardly see his background as a street kid come into play... its like... he became... a vigilante because....he knows how the system can fail those... alienated and forgotten by those sworn to protect them... and thus channels his energy into said people through acts of radical protection... (also because the whole bruce thing yeah I know)

I keep thinking about injustice!Jason's monologue where he literally says something along the lines of "while bruce and clark were fighting I fought for the people who were being caught up in the whole thing" like if that doesn't just tell you who he is idk what will! and sure, injustice isn't Jason source material, so look at under the red hood! he literally becomes a drug kingpin TO CONTROL crime ... and then instead of getting these immense shows of care he has for the community in RHATO, we get panels like this:

like ok get it I guess 😭😭😭😭

this is the new and improved Jason!! he's suave.. hes American... he's... just like every other antihero now!!

I don't know how to explain it without sounding like an idiot- best bet is to read the comics yourself to kinda get what im saying! but even rebirth Jason is (kind of) getting what RHATO Jason doesn't-- he's a product of his huge heart. rebirth Jason has countless stories where we see how Jason ACTUALLY operates as red hood, and what his symbol means to the citizens of Gotham!

if you pour too much grit and "edginess" into Jason, then you kind of miss what he's all about- he can still be silly and sarcastic! in fact, one of my favorite Jason moments is from red hood: lost days, a series where he's portrayed as an edgy, "misfit" ruffian:

like. hello this is hilarious. and we can still have moments like these while balancing his emotional range as a vigilante that's motivated by his big fat heart! (ignoring the fact that he slept with Talia in the next issue 😭 Jason fans can't have shit 😭)

but anyway! ill likely add more when I'm not feeling so tired, but god!! is it so hard to show Jason's propensity for kindness!! is it so hard to realize that his character to the core is revolved around a deep understanding for others based on personal experience!!

there's a reason why DC (in the rare moments when they know what to do with his character) always writes stories with Jason consoling children, or Jason being good with kids in dangerous situations!

it's because he's been there before. he's felt the grief and confusion of being helpless in a situation of his control. he's felt the consequences of adults who were supposed to protect and raise him! he's been killed for daring to cling on to the notion of trust even after all he's been through!

and I don't know, I think his dedication to the people, children especially, is his way of forgiving himself- his way of telling little Jason that it wasn't his fault.

[soupbabe]

Could i request 4 some silly/funny keicho headcanons, im so tired of ppl making it seam this guy is just some emotionless mean older brother :sobs (love your work btw :3)

Soft Keicho Nijimura Headcanons

Hehe thank you!! I think I've only written Keicho once before and I couldn't help myself and made this a lot more soft/vulnerable for Keicho than something more jokey 😅😅

- I just can't help but think that he's awful at navigating the Internet

- Like I mean squinting his eyes, nose touching the monitor, "how do you move the arrow" level bad at using a computer

- I just imagine countless evenings full of brotherly bickering and petty arguments because Keicho wanted Okuyasu to teach him how computer things work

- Eventually it's just something he swears off for good, he's always been a more traditional, pen and paper kind of guy anyways. At least that's what he tells himself

- It's not too silly, but I think Keicho would spend a lot of time at the library

- From having to take care of his dad and Okuyasu, the older teen appreciates having a quiet place where he can spend hours losing himself in a book

- Like he and the librarians and volunteers are on a first name basis. To them, Keicho is just a "Nice and pleasant young man"

- He isn't the biggest reader of fiction though, preferring to read nonfiction books about famous wars, philosophy, and early societies

- Though he does have a soft spot for manga and superhero comic books

- As Okuyasu grew up, Keicho often took him to the library too and it was all Okuyasu wanted to read. Keicho keeps a small stash of those kinds of books for memory's sake

- Keicho has built such a hard shell around himself and to his family, no one could guess how soft he is around cats

- Head empty only Keicho secretly having a pet cat

- When he moved into the Morioh house, the first thing he saw was a feral cat hunting one of the many mice living within the building

- He fell in love immediately. Keicho didn't care about bites and scratches, he picked it up and stared at it in adoration

- For months he hid his feline friend, keeping it safe in his closet. Though at night, he'd let it patrol the house and hunt (sometimes with the help of Bad Company) all the rodents still living within the walls

- I feel like it's a given that Keicho would be so attached to the cat. Okuyasu was growing older and Keicho's strained relationship with his dad was at an all time high, he wanted a new thing to watch over and care for.

- To him, It's kind of impossible for him to disappoint a cat and vice versa. Having a pet who he'd kill for is refreshing to him and kept him composed.

[pecanpiespie]

Team Fortress 2 is Sill Alive

I know I don't have much of a following, and for those not interested, I'll be as short as possible: Team Fortress 2, a beloved and timeless game, has been suffering for half a decade, overrun by hoards of hacking bots and dangerous bot hosters. Please help us in our campaign by signing this petition (save.tf) and spreading the word of our efforts.

I have played Team Fortress 2 since 2012. I witnessed the hype for Meet The Pyro and saw YouTube crash when it dropped. I watched Meat Vs. Match unfold. I was one of the first to the front lines when Gray Mann raised his metal army. I patiently waited between updates, even when those updates became fewer and farther between, until eventually year long silences between updates became the norm as the developers and programmers slowly fell out of love with their game. All content in recent years has been community made. There hasn't been a Smissmas or Scream Fortress comic in years, and their ongoing comic series has been all but abandoned. I still check their website at least once a month, hoping that maybe they'll quietly release that last comic, but I know all hope for that is lost.

I met the love of my life because of this game. I have made literal hundreds of friends and countless fond memories playing it, reading and writing fanfictions, admiring and making fan art. This community is the most compassionate that I have ever seen, especially for a game that is nearing it's 18th birthday.

But as with any other good thing, there are groups of people whose sole intent is to ruin it for everyone else.

I've watched this game slowly rot away for the past five+ years, and it kills me to see such a loved game be abandoned. I've never loved a game as much as I love Team Fortress 2, and DAMN IT, I AM LIVID with how Valve has treated this game. It is completely overrun by bots. Hacking bots that mic and chat spam, DDOS players, and in some cases even SWAT certain content creators. These bot hosters are vile, abusive, and dangerous. Their programmed demon spawn spew absolute FILTH on every casual server they join. Click this link for a more in-depth review of what Team Fortress 2 is facing.

At the start of this crisis, Valve pushed out an update that completely silenced its free-to-play playerbase. Not even built-in voice commands could be used anymore until these players made an in-game purchase, leaving them unable to strategize, communicate, ask for guidance from more experienced players, or even call for a Medic. It was such a vile "solution" and nothing more than a weak cash-grab. Valve had essentially created a way to profit off the very thing that has effectively destroyed their game, because these bot hosts PAID FOR PREMIUM ACCOUNTS to let their bots continue hacking, ear-raping, chat spamming, and DDOSing.

And 2 years ago, when the Team Fortress 2 community asked nicely for Valve to pay even the smallest amount of attention to this beloved game? Valve puts out one tweet, pushes a couple of small updates, and fades back into silence. That's when we made our fatal mistake. We were placated by the response, and Valve took that as a sign that the matter was taken care of. We were heard, but we were not listened to.

This time, we will not back down. We will not give up. We will not stop our digital march until Valve PROMISES to fix our beloved game, and FOLLOWS THAT PROMISE THROUGH.

WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED UNTIL THE BOTS ARE GONE.

I still love this game, but I am absolutely *sickened* by the way Valve has acted lately.

And now for something slightly different Still Alive (Portal end credits)

Rewritten to reflect the current state of Team Fortress 2 and Valve's reluctance to fix it. Portal and its theme song belong to Valve Software, this lyric rewrite is not intended to infringe copyright, it falls under fair use as parody.

This is just tragic I'm making a note here: Huge Unrest It's hard to overstate my disappointment Valve Software Game Devs: "We won't do our jobs Unless we must Updates aren't worth our time Until communities beg"

But this game's not dying We're just taking a break Until VAC is working And you fix your damned game Once the bots are all gone You'll return to being loved Because Team Fortress 2's STILL ALIVE

We're so very angry We're being so sincere right now All because you broke our hearts And killed us And tore us to pieces And threw every piece into a fire As they burned it hurt because We're all so pissed off at you

Now these bots and cheaters Will keep logging online They're harassing your players Yet you're saying it's fine So of course we're all mad Think of all the fun we had Way back when the game was Still Alive

Why did you leave us? We don't want this game we love to die Maybe we'll find someone else To help us You have to realize VAC is a joke! Ha. Ha. What bans?

This game could be really great If you would get off your ass

Look at us all begging Cause it's all we can do You say "we love this game And we know you do too" But you gave us empty words And your product barely works It's a wonder the game's Still Alive

And belive me we are Still Alive We are relentless; we are Still Alive We're disappointed; we are Still Alive You think we're dying; we are Still Alive Team Fortress 2 will remain Still Alive

Still Alive Still Alive

Want You Gone (retitled: Want Them Gone)

Well here we are again Never got your shit together Remember when you said you'd kill the bots? Oh how relieved we were Except you didn't kill them Under the circumstances we've been shockingly nice

TF2 has been ruined You're who we counted on The cheaters want this game dead Valve, we really want them gone

Counter Strike has them too And there are just as many Your greedy company ignores them, too One day the bots woke up And swore they'd stay forever It's such a shame to see Their threats may really come true

We have run out of patience You're who we counted on We won't accept your silence Valve, we really want them gone

Thank you for staying here Oh, did you think I meant Valve? That would be funny if it weren't so sad So much for those updates You promised to push out If you ignore us maybe We'll just get off your back

It's been a huge disaster You're who we're counting on You can still solve this problem Valve, we really want them gone

Valve, we really want them gone Valve, we really want them gone…

If you made it through all that text, thanks for sticking around. Please consider signing the petition, spreading the word, and helping us take our game back. Enough is enough.

[saltysaltdog]

I always see IDW and Aligned (prime) crossovers showing IDW megatron getting along with Prime Optimus, and Prime Megatron battling it out with idw Optimus, but I think it would be the other way around.

Think of IDW Orion Pax for a moment. He's experienced for himself how corrupt cybertron's ruling party is (senate/counsel) as they attempted to murder him. And his own team as his cops acted as executioners. Tfp Optimus never has that moment: he sees them as hypocritical but never had a moment of wanting to depose them. In tfp comics, they even called him into a hearing because he didn't shoot a retreating-with-wounded Megatron in the back- and he didn't bring up any concerns.

Meanwhile, IDW Orion Pax was busting into council to ask how to depose them, who was holding them accountable, etc. Having only read Megatron's work and spoken to him once to compliment it. While tfp Optimus, although he couldn't stop thinking about his work, never spoke positively of it to him, only warned him of the danger. And even when he spoke to Megatronus countless times, he was always wary of him. (We are ignoring the idea that Toward's Peace is just that much of a masterpiece.)

And thus comes to what is one of the biggest differences between the Optimus-i. It's that IDW Orion Pax wanted to invite Megatron to speak, wanted to spread his ideals, befriend him, while tfp Optimus, didn't. It was always tfp Megatronus who initiated the further steps with Tfp Optimus, calling him friend then brother, and then reinstated that term later. Tfp Optimus doesn't press forwards in anything. He waits.

For more differences, although IDW Orion is/was a cop he was also a gifted student and had awards for science. He also acted outside the law for what he thought was right- like by stealing the fake matrix bomb, etc. He also never really embraced the name Optimus like tfp Prime did, hence why I've split their names like this.

Onto Megatron.

Both were miners and gladiators, but they had wildly different experiences. IDW Megatron was forged cold, with others who looked just like him. He wanted to become a doctor but couldn't and wrote a bunch to compensate. His writings were powerful, especially since it drew too close to the truth, so they tried to assassinate him, an attempt stopped by Orion Pax. He was still a miner until he was arrested after a riot broke out. Then, he became an outlaw and gladiator. These battles were to the death.

In sum, IDW Megatron threw himself tirelessly against a system that didn't care, helped I'm mostly invisible ways by people he never properly met, until he was finally cast out of it forcefully. The only friend he had he never saw again until they were on opposite sides of the war (impactor). He was burnt out, and violence became his only solution. Then, when he did team up with Orion, he shot him in the back after betraying him- deciding to embody the system he fought against.

Tfp Megatronus, however, willingly became a gladiator as he saw an opportunity to change things and have an impact. He lost a lot at first but grew stronger. He formed his own criminal empire after having to kill his overseers in self-defense, and appointed himself lieutenants: Soundwave and Shockwave. Sentinel sent assassins after him who were killed by Megatronus personally.

Even so, Megatronus still went before the council after having sentinel out of the picture. He'd already converted at least two to his cause beforehand and still had hope, only for those hopes to be dashed when betrayed by newly appointed Optimus Prime, whose "followers" apparently brought guns to back him up with.

Tfp Megatronus never blindly threw himself at a problem, hoping for a solution. He turns to others, makes friends and connections, was part of a union, and had leadership experience before being handed the keys to a planetwide war, and it shows. He knew he couldn't do it alone. As stated partially in Optimus's segment, he seeks out friendship and comradery, he makes an effort for people he likes and wants to befriend. He is in a healthier place at the start of the war than IDW megs ever was.

-

Scope.

Now it should be said that IDW is a lot harsher universe than Aligned is. But I think my point still stands no matter which universe they go to. Aligned just starts at an earlier technological point.

Processes like mnemosurgery that alter/control someone's mind do exist in Aligned and were being developed before the war, ie the psychic cortical path/ the quintessons mind control screens. While empura doesn't exist, it is implied that some decepticons were used as "drones" unthinking machines that could only obey orders- (a tool or robot - like a roomba) that can't speak and only have "error codes" or binary beeps.

Being a cold construct isn't a thing that exists, but the process of removing a spark from the well and placing that spark into a premade body is what the council were secretly working on. Vehicons in the IDW universe would be standard bots, but would have bodies catered to their spark. Bots who grew straight out of the ground, body and all, are not supposed to exist in IDW.

Energon made from a variety of materials is common in idw, but an unfinished science in aligned still being tested with. Idw has many advanced organic races, capable of posing a threat to cybertronians, while in aligned we only see the quintessons and humans, they are capable of posing a threat.

So there is some argument that everything from one universe is possible in the other, at least on a limited/personal scope. Which begs the question, in what version of crossovers would idw Orion Pax and tfp Megatronus be friends, and Idw megatron Prime Optimus, not be.

-

I think it sort of depends on what aspects of their backgrounds and universes you preserved. I think tfp Megatronus would do well in the IDW universe either way because of how he interacts with his environment, though I can't say the same for tfp Optimus, due to how he aquiesses to authority and is generally a bit oblivious. As such, I think tfp Optimus will stay in the aligned universe so he doesn't just get assassinated too quickly.

For tfp megatronus and Idw Orion, it doesn't matter because of how their personalities mesh. Megatronus is always willing to "play the game" and see where things are going. Both Megatrons are dramatic, yes, but Tfp has the edge of loving interacting with people and generally being "softer" than his counterpart.

Although idw Megatron did become an autobot and pacifist, this is more him realising that he has fundamentally changed for the worse and trying to return to how he *thinks* he used to be. He isn't one for introspection and so doesn't really analyse what he had been doing as *wrong* until he played the villain and found that it struck true for him. His actions towards his own species and others were incredibly brutal in a way tfp megatron never could be.

Tfp Megatronus also fears and hates organics, but rather than eliminate them like idw does, he actively avoids them. He tries to keep the masquerade, avoiding interacting with humans until he has to, even though they are technologically weaker and don't pose a threat, he only goes after them when it's proven they know of cybertronian life/tech, or unavoidable to aquire something- though it's usually from a military outpost and avoids the civilian population.

You could argue this is because tfp Optimus is willing to part with cybertronian technology/secrets, but I don't think that's all there is to it. In Idw, cybertronians often get weapons from different species/ there is intergalactic trade. Meaning other species pose an equal threat to cybertronians, but idw megatron still persists.

While in idw, there are multiple colonies across the galaxy, and life is cheaper, even when aligned Megatronus finds other colonies still exist and cybertron isn't alone he doesn't change his methods. The same goes for IDW Megatron after destroying the last factories/hot spots. Thus it comes down to individual differences.

In brutality, both had factories to smelt autobots into spare parts. Tfp Megatronus also has a "list" he puts deserters on( the games), but it's never really mentioned as being a big thing like in idw, and is something he'd have to do manually, rather than being automatic as soon as the djd hear about it. However, how they differ enormously is in their treatment of coldconstructs/vehicons. Tfp Megatronus has eradicons and vehicons, one authorised for battle the others not, and when a preventable death occurs he enacts rules to try and stop it from happening again. The autobots and decepticons have agreements in place to protect non combatants from being killed or tortured(though not always followed), which prohibits the decepticons' use of some weaponry they had developed.

Meanwhile, idw megatron sent bots straight from the factory to the battlefield as living bombs. So not really comparable.

Thus, it's possible for IDW as a universe to become a looooot softer if aligned Megatronus were at the wheel.

This would lead to a better relationship with Idw Orion Pax, who joined the police force because he wanted to help people, but who thinks his help is the best way to do it. Although there would be friction if Megatron was criminal, he wasn't a very dangerous one as even as he was killing mob bosses and making videos of it for the cops, the mob bosses were implied to be involved in Megatronus's forced gladitorial enslavement, rather than just rivals. It was also something aligned Megatronus might not have to do in IDW, as there isn't an entire division of the planet dedicated to information suppression.

Another possible point of contention would be Megatronus's drug use due to how Orion views drug users as criminals who should be put in jail. Though this is minor in comparison to the elephant in the room.

Religion.

Megatronus's staunch anti-Primus views would be taken a lot more seriously due to religious items not only being real and public, but also the reality warping power they hold, as to make even trying to say the original prime's real names, (the thirteenth, the fallen) turn into static. Not only that, but due to the above, it creates a weird paradox for megatron's name if it takes after the fallen in a 1:1 translation of his history to IDW.

Which follows up that a fully Aligned Megatron in IDW would be proof that God doesn't exist.

In simpler terms: he would not only buck the idea that quintessons are their creators/ that someone needed to exist to build everyone, but that transformation cogs are unnatural. He would have a different physiology than most cybertronians, as his body wouldn't have been guided through its growth by anyone, and would be harder/impossible to use regular medicine on.

Not only that, but his body in the aligned continuity is durable enough to be in the middle of core meltdowns and hold up fine while other bots melt, making him incredibly strong... all while having an average spark. He could likely defeat point one percenters in strength, etc, and keep his title of untouchable gladiator.

So, naturally, some people would speculate he is a god, formed due to some crises cybertron was facing that Primus wanted fixed.

That in turn however, proves that the primes could just be normal people created by happenstance, no god needed. And that point one percenters may be made artificially stronger just by having better construction materials.

In some wibblier parts of g1 canon the name "Megatron" shows up in the covenant to mark the end of days, (which might be named that because of megatron to begin with) meaning that Megatronus's anti-primus tendencies are VERY controversial and might mark him as the devil, essentially.

Regardless it proves that the council/senate might be ruining society by even trying to harvest sparks instead of letting them grow naturally.

It creates a weird situation where even without becoming a gladiator, Megatronus might have instant fame, or reinforces that he's an outlaw since his mere existence could ruin society and must be destroyed.

This potential godhood would put him at a more equal footing with an Orion Pax who received the matrix, ensuring that the autobots don't rely on religion too much, lest Megatron claim to be a prime by birth.

Beyond that however, they would get along swimmingly. Unlike idw megatron, who didn't pursue further study once he had an army as he was too busy learning the ropes, megatronus had time, becoming not only proficient in engineering/manufacturing as part of his factory job but also in biomolecular creations, aeronautics, religion funnily enough, astrophysics, etc, and in using the cortical patch. As idw Optimus was a model student, he'd probably feel a bit competitive and improve himself to match Megatron's skills, or potentially even teach him directly if they were cordial enough.

-As Megatron has claws, in a IDW world this may translate to him learning mnemosurgery, or even developing the patch, (though in aligned the patch may be based off Soundwave's tentacles and abilities, which work differently than his idw counterpart.) Potentially getting mnemosurgery outlawed across cybertron as the patch has less potential for abuse/dangers.

Even as a criminal however there's nothing more megatronus loves than being theatrical, and one advantage being in IDW would have is that cybertron became a one gender society somehow, meaning everyone from cybertron is on equal footing in terms of gender and caste presentation.

Everyone is male, even the feminine bots on billboards decked in purple with ponytails are men.

Megatronus would be living out his femboy dreams here!

Without aligned's more strict handling of gender and caste there would be less stigma/tension, even if megatronus was following IDW's origin instead of his own, and as a massive ham tfp Megatron wouldn't miss the opportunity to play the femme fatale, a dangerous, murderous, but charming criminal who plays with a good hearted detective who knows they're lying?

And IDW Orion does play at being a hero, wanting to do good no matter what and making many speeches about becoming a better bot whilst on the brink of death. Megatronus would play him like a fiddle.

However IDW Orion is intensely emotion driven, and so I could see this play breaking down when Orion does what he feels is right, even if it's not what a goody two shoes would do. Or if Orion acted on the idea of them being genuine friends rather than a dangerous game. At which point I think they would become real friends.

Under the assumption IDW Orion became an archivist, he would have a healthy enough distrust of the council to be of help to megatronus, who would welcome the help spreading his ideals. Their mutual want to get close to each other would mean both their relationships would be reciprocal for once, and they would absolutely call each other brother and play lob ball competitively.

The flip side:

Idw megatron and Tfp Optimus, however, would hate each other. Despite loving literature and more quiet hobbies they would be the ones at each others throats.

It may go well at first, as a cold construct/vehicon, Optimus would have more sympathy towards him, as essentially if could be anyone/everyone affected by the problem, and it's proof of the council behaving in a way Optimus wouldn't approve of. There would be less caste/gender tension as Megatron was built into the body he has, rather than one that might suit him. But IDW megatron doesn't like to play with theatrical roles as much as with timings and set pieces, dramatic entrances, and the like, so there's less gender fuckery with him.

However, Optimus doesn't share the credit as much as his IDW counterpart, partly as he can't really tell someone to watch outlawed violent gladiator fights, but also because he tends to ruminate slowly and by himself, so even if he comes to the same conclusion someone else told him, He was the one who thought of it.

If idw Megatron found he was quoting his work and gaining fame from it he wouldn't react well, especially as he would be no closer to achieving his goals while progressing Optimus's career.

There's also the issue that, unlike tfp Megs, idw Megatron doesn't like being debated and shuts it down when he can. It's why he creates one-sided dialogues in the form of speeches and books. He's also big into formalities and always corrects people who try to give him nicknames, etc. Tfp Optimus however, shuts down when corrected, and really needs to be prodded to answer . He also kept calling tfp Megatron "Megatronus" for a long time after he stopped being called that. He also has the bad habit after becoming Prime -but before losing the Ark- of punching the people he doesn't like who back him into a verbal corner.

While megatronus could be expected to listen- if only to engage in some banter, idw Megatron detests it, and tfp Optimus is not the greatest at it either. So once they start fighting there's nothing that's going to lessen the tension.

Things might be worse if Optimus was a cop because he always defers to authority. He has real trouble not automatically believing the person in charge, even if their story is Swiss cheese. Optimus from tfp doesn't have an innate desire to do good. He will, but it's more from duty than some internal hero complex. It's always a choice for him. He chooses to do good things where for idw Orion there's no option for him to not help, for Optimus there is. And I don't think cop optimus would continue choosing to help Megatron. He may warn him about how his works are being perceived, but I don't think he'd go further than that as a cop. Not unless there was something he wanted. He might delete the ip-address from a post for him so he can keep posting, but not much beyond that. He may even try to arrest him if a warrant went out, blindly trusting that having him behind bars would be safe. Though perhaps as a cop Optimus would be less naive and more like his later self.

In sum

I think tfp Megatron and idw Orion Pax would be doing cool science shit while being jocks, while tfp optimus and idw megs would be fighting in the loser baby corner. Thanks!

[genericpuff]

same anon as last ask. I also have to note: i dont think there are any good reasons for domestic abuse. there are none. you said hades didnt deserve to get slapped but then had previously said "as if the victim of the slap wasn’t a guy who was just as if not more abusive than she was in that relationship in his own fucked up way". reading that it does feel like you are saying he deserved to be slap or trying to justify it. maybe you arent tho? btw i dont give a shit about that man lmao

No, and you're right! But that's always the assumption people make whenever defenses for Minthe are made - that by empathizing with Minthe, or by pointing out that Hades was just as shitty in the relationship as she was, you're excusing domestic violence and abuse - and they're very... strawmen assumptions, IMO.

(TW: abuse)

The issue with the Minthe debate is that a lot of people fail to hold every other abusive character in the comic to the same standards they hold Minthe, and they fail to recognize everything that led up to the slap.

Like, when Hecate slapped the shit out of Hades for being into Persephone, where were people then? It was played off for laughs.

But then Minthe slaps Hades once during an emotional breakdown and all of a sudden she's an irredeemable villain.

No one deserves to be physically or verbally assaulted whether or not mental health is involved. But when mental health is a factor in cases like Minthe - which it is because she was initially designed with BPD until Rachel retconned it on Discord - it's one of those "it's a reason, not an excuse" sort of deals. If LO Minthe was being written by someone who actually cared about mental health representation, she would have been given the same opportunity to grow and learn from her mistakes and past transgressions just as Hades and Persephone have been given.

Instead, Minthe is a villain for having a moment of cruelty during a breakdown, and Hades and Persephone never seem to have to own up to the shit they do. Abuse is never okay, but LO is essentially saying "abuse is okay if you're cute and rich and if you make funny meme faces while you do it."

Characters like Minthe are WAY more interesting than Hades and Persephone BECAUSE of their flaws, she isn't peddled as perfect, she's real. Minthe and characters like her are raw and genuine, they don't feel like they're putting on some act of "niceness", they feel like people, people who make mistakes and fuck up and suffer consequences for their decisions and their action. I've seen a lot of people empathize with and enjoy Minthe's character simply because they do see themselves in her, they see her vulnerabilities and her flaws and her fears and recognize that she's not perfect. Some people truly are irredeemable beyond repair, but Minthe... Minthe still had a fighting chance. We had that chance when she first dumped Thetis, it was so cathartic to see her take control of her own situation and healing... but then RS backtracked on it immediately because she accidentally made the character who she knew she wanted Persephone to turn into a plant way too empathetic. So instead she opted to dial up Minthe's shittiness to 1584923108 in order to get her audience to hate her - and to ensure anyone who did still empathize with her look abusive by extension.

She didn't need or deserve 'another chance' from Hades, or Hecate, or the other people who she had already hurt countless times. But she does deserve to give herself the chance to grow and learn and move forward to something better. We all do. It's why forgiveness is one of the most essential first steps in growth.

I'm tired of reading about H x P "forgiving" themselves for what they do with false platitudes of TherapySpeak. Because they never learn, they keep acting like shitheads and much of their behavior comes across as fake and disingenuous, like they're just putting on a show. And that's when they actually acknowledge their behavior, more often than not their bullshit is celebrated.

I don't want to celebrate abuse. I want to see character development. You can't develop or grow if you're deluded into thinking you're not doing anything wrong. Persephone and Hades have nowhere to go. Minthe had an entire life ahead of her away from Hades and Thetis... and we were robbed of the chance to witness it.

But that's just my two cents.

[loz-reforged]

As the sole descendant of Goddess Hylia, Prince Caelius has devoted his life to sealing away the Calamity. Hoping to live up to his mother's expectations and the legacy of his father, the prince has turned to the pursuit of knowledge. After countless nights studying ancient texts, he and the research team have come to the conclusion that the rise of the Calamity is imminent. But with the master sword now in the hands of a Yiga Blademaster, the future looks uncertain... When your father kills the king of Hyrule, there's a long shadow to outgrow. Determined to make a name for herself, Aylin has worked tirelessly to climb the ranks of the Yiga in the hopes that one day she might be able to bring down the monarchy and get revenge for those that have suffered under their rule. Before she gets promoted, however, her destiny takes a drastic turn as the fabled sword that seals the darkness calls to her. Not long after their fates collide, Aylin and Caelius discover that the path to meet one’s expectations is not easy. As the two are forced to work together in order to overcome their obstacles an unlikely bond is formed as they learn how to shape their places in the world anew.

—————

So what is this exactly? Reforged is a Legend of Zelda fancomic that re-imagines of the  story of BoTW centering around the journeys of Prince Caelius and  Aylin, a Yiga Clan warrior. The comic explores the ideas and fears behind holding up or rejecting your societal role, and how that pressure  changes not only the person, but the world around them.

This comic started as a personal writing project of mine just for fun and me time, and just sort of grew and grew as I went. It's been 6 years in the making, so I'm very excited to finally start sharing it with people! Gotta admit I'm pretty nervous as I've never Made a comic, BUT WE ALL GOTTA START SOMEWHERE, FOLKS... Reforged will debut on May 20th of this year, and I'll be posting the occasional promotional art piece leading up to the release. You'll be able to read Reforged on Comicfury, Webtoon, and Deviantart! While I won't be posting updates here on Tumblr, I will be using it as a platform to interact with audiences and share whatever else I make relating to the comic, as well as let people know when updates are out <3!