#Many ppl may have the same question

[albaricomics]

such a dumb and random question but how do we pronounce ur user? cuz I've been saying ah-l-bah-ree and im now curious if im right or not.

Hiii! It's a pretty good question actually 🍊

That's a close guess! It's al-bah-ree. There's a fruit which is called albaricoque in spanish (apricot in ENG), I always thought it sounded funny and wanted to include that in my artistic name, that's the whole reason behind it ✨

[broke-on-books]

Momm pick me up im scaredddddd

Just checked rate my professor and all my profs for next semester have FATALLY bad reviews. I'm talking like even the very rare ppl rating 5 stars still got a C bad.

Looking at my schedule like all of my other class options for those reqs are full... that or I'd likely be kicking these classes down the line until I'd have to deal with my honors thesis + grad school apps on top of it...

Like its soooo noxious I have to maintain a high semesterly (& overall!) grade too to stay in my programs and like GPA is huge in postgrad education and its so beautiful right now and just!!! I'm scareddddddd hlep

& you never know if the randos on rmp are your type of student so maybe I'll just blow past them easy but like. Esp for this one professor I'm terrifiedddd

[gasstationlady]

GUTS | a lando norris social media au | pt. 2

pairing: lando norris x singer!reader, ex!drew starkey x reader

drew is still hung up on y/n, but the grid’s new it couple couldn’t care less.

notes: final part of guts!! thank you so much for all the love you guys showed the first part <3 and dw i have so many more smaus in the drafts! tried to write and add a bit more but i ran out of space :/ i hope the plot makes sense! i feel like bc i know how i wanted the story to go i can't rlly spot the plot holes as easily.

disclaimer: NOT PROOFREAD. let's pretend that jennifer lawrence "kym illman" picture is olivia lmfaooo. btw the events in “GUTS” sometimes does not line up with the schedule followed in real life. again, no hate to drew and, now also, to ppl on the today show aha. (CONGRATS LANDO FOR P2 AHHH)

masterlist ⋆ previously

yourusername

liked by landonorris, drewstarkey and 4,810,592 others

yourusername thanks for having me vmas!!!! <3

View all 22,504 comments

yourbestie STUNNING

user pls not drew liking her post when he doesn’t even follow her 😭😭😭

↳ user no he’s actually so painfully desperate lmaoo

↳ user i’m glad lando and y/n are just ignoring him

↳ user girl i’m not, i want the drama AHA

user love u more than anything

user lando liking and the two of them now following each other 🤔 yup him and y/n are forrr sure together

↳ user yea after the deuxmoi post and lando’s soft launch it’s basically confirmed at this point

↳ user i wonder if she’ll be attending the next gp bc i’d actually die and then come back to life if it happens

user you look BEYONDDDDD 😍😍

user are we fr just gonna ignore drew like..

thetodayshow

liked by landonorris and 67,298 others

thetodayshow It’s GUTS day! We loved having @/yourusername on the TODAY plaza. 🍒🎤🧡

We sat with Y/N to talk about her new album and recent scandals surrounding the topics of her work. “I just write songs; it’s not my job to interpret them for people.”

Tune in on our Youtube channel for extra clips of our interview with Y/N and her performances!

View all 342 comments

user SHE ATE THOSE PERFORMANCES. DEVOURED.

user some of those questions were a bit invasive

↳ user i was thinking the same thing, but y/n handled that rlly professionally

user omg how have her vocals gotten better 😭

user lmaoooooo i see you hiding in the likes lando

↳ user it’s so cute that he’s following her activities 🥹🥹

↳ user he’s probably here bc of what she said in the interview

↳ user wait i didn’t watch everything, what did she say??

↳ user so they asked how she felt about her exes being a popular topic on the internet, and so she said “I just write songs; it’s not my job to interpret them for people.” they also asked about drew and whether they’re going to get back together (which, may i add, felt a little rude to me) and y/n replied with “Those who I’m close with can reach me anytime. I tend to not focus on anyone else.”

↳ user thank you for summarizing!! doing god’s work fr 🫡

user y/n handled the situation perfectly

↳ user no bc the way she said not too much but enough to stand up for herself and her privacy

user AHAHAHAHA SHE RLLY SAID AINT NO WAY SHES GOING BACK TO DREW

ynupdates

41,086 likes

ynupdates Y/n seen arriving in Singapore!

View all 462 comments

user wait you’re lying??? actually? waaait 😭

user IS SHE GOING TO THE GP OMG PLS

user i mean i knew they were together but imagine a paddock appearance 😩😩 i don’t think we can handle it guys

user if she makes an appearance at the paddock with lando, i don’t understand why he didn’t just go as her date for the vmas too 😭😭

↳ user i doubt they wanted to hard launch at the vmas lol y/n was barely even in the audience, tbh i think she left early

↳ user y/n has said before that award shows make her rlly anxious, so yea she probably didn’t want too much attention on herself esp with all the drew drama

user did i miss something, i thought lando was still in ny? why didn’t they just travel together?

↳ user lando probs had to leave earlier bc practice started on friday, and y/n still had a few tv show performances which i’m assuming is why she arrived today instead

kymillman

51,159 likes

kymillman F1’S NEW FAVORITE COUPLE

The first driver to arrive this morning was Mclaren driver Lando Norris. For the first time he is joined with his new girlfriend, Y/N L/N, a famous Filipino-American pop singer.

For A3 prints, hand-signed & numbered by a range of drivers/team principals head to kymillman.com

View all 343 comments

user omg it’s happening it’s happening

user HEY SIRI PLAY THAT SHOULD BE ME BY JUSTIN BIEBER

user this pic should be put in the louvre that is how monumental it is

user THIS IS HOW I FIND OUT?? FROM KYM??😭😭

user first💔hard💔launch💔is💔a💔paddock💔appearance💔

user the hand holding 🥹🥹

user don’t know if i’m more jealous of lando or y/n

user damn god really out here choosing favorites

user they’re already becoming my comfort couple omg i can’t i love them so much

landonorris

liked by yourusername, carlossainz55 and 1,135,226 others

landonorris Singapore 🥈

View all 3,229 comments

user so proud of you lando!!

user AHHHH y/n cameo

user god idk if i'm ever going to get used to seeing y/n with lando

user SHE LOOKS SO GOOD

user yay carlando podium !!! 🥹

— — —

8 months later

landonorris

liked by yourusername, yourbestie and 4,475,987 others

landonorris Happy one year, love ❤️

View all 24,395 comments

yourusername there's nothing i love more than those chips

↳ landonorris 😐

user they're the reason i believe in love

user damn i think this is about to be lando's most liked post lmaoo

user the fact that he calls her love 😭😭

user luckiest man alive i stg

user how does she always look so good

yourusername

liked by landonorris, carlossainz55 and 6,788,335 others

yourusername cause i love to love, to love, to love you

View all 35,719 comments

landonorris that guy's pretty handsome

↳ yourusername very :)

yourbestie LOVE seeing you happy

user omggg i'm crying i can't believe its already been a year

user might sleep on the freeway today

user let the light in is such a cute song to dedicate to someone

user LOL not the third pic

user i love them so much 🥹

user if you ever break up, love isn't real

[serxinns]

hii!!!!! can i request yandere class 1a hc/fic w reader that doesnt have quirk but fights ballerina/gymnastic move??? (like she does combat and fights back w elegant/flexible move in a way) ?? or maybe just a reader who doesnt have a quirk but still strong enough to fight ppl and gets accepted in ua?? i hope this isnt too much, love your works!!! ❤

The Elegant Hero

A/n: I can't beleive I worked on this and finished it all in one day! Yippee for me

Tw: slight bullying mentioned, cruel treatment against quirkless, ofc obsession behavior and unhealthy behavior and more if you're uncomfortable with. These topics that's gonna be included in the books don't read

☆prologue☆

your life was pretty interesting and would I say lucky? Yeah lucky your father was a professional fighter as your mother was a former ballerina star but retired due to personal reasons and now teaches young ballerinas, when they found out that you had a combat quirk (for example bubble quirk where you make bubbles to bounce across) they felt devastated and worried true to the harsh treatment on the quirkless and weak quirks, so at the ripe age of 5 you remembered you woke up with ballerina shoes and combat equipment on your bed with your parents smiling faces staring at you

day and night your parents will give you ballet and fighting classes it was fun at times but you hated the flexible training like when your mom kept putting you in uncomfortable and sometimes painful positions, Your father's combat lesson was always fun tho it was filled with life lessons and his stories of when he was just the same age as you he equally let you right with your hands feet (you mostly use your feet) and teach you how to pin someone down

but on the downside you couldn't exactly make friends or knew how to socialize many of your mother's students either envy you or just avoided you for being quirkless, some even made up rumors that your mother was just going easy on you just because you were her child,

even in middle school you were a but of a outcast but had a few friends a few girls would pick on you then and there trynand pick a fight at you but when you easily pinned down one at the snotty brats they left you alone here and there, one day at class your teacher announced that Ua was passing out applications for students with poteinal to join everyone eyes including yours brighten up you always wanted to be a hero to prove something or atleast make a change!

"Would anyone like a application!" The students hands all raised excitedly whispering to their friends with confident that they were gonna get in UA easy "may I have a flyer?" That one question made everyone silent and turned towards you some started snickering and whispering to their friend(s) even your teacher was flabbergasted "y/n are you sur-" "I am" you stood up and walked towards the front of the classroom to get a flyer ignoring all the snickering and mockery your clown of the students did you were gonna prove them wrong all wrong

The entrance exam was in 2 months and and that was good enough training time you spend your whole summer break training hard even your parents were a little worried occasionally checking up on you while you were either working on your flexibility or kicking and punching a punching bag in your parents training room

When it was time for the exam safe to say you were nervous and feeling a bit doubtful about yourself but you took a deep breath and head on to the start of the exam the students all lined at the starting line "Students ready.. in 3 2 1! Go" the flare gun shot and the students were flying, running and even teleporting

You use your ribbon wand to pull the medium villians towards you and kick them into a oblivion you smirked the suddenly you saw a robot foot about to stomp you untill a girl use wht seem to be a floating quirk but she was a struggling you then use your ribbon wand wrapping the 2P robots legs to restraint it and destroyed it "that's some amazing teamwork kids! Keep up the good work!" The loud intercom announced referencing to you two, the girl smiled at you mouthing a "thank you" as you did the same and went back to destroying more robots

Suddenly a huge crash came out the sky and there a injured boy was falling out the sky you and the short brown girl from earlier witness this and acted fast using your ribbon and aiming it towards the boy wrapping him up whike ochako slapped him which made him float gently down midway a small old lady came in cane in arm as everyone questioned why she was here she gave the boy a big fat kiss on the cheek which made his arm turned less purple in seconds! "You two make a pretty good team!" As she walked away

As you were leaving to turn back a the girl ran after you breathing in all "Hey I just wanted to say thank you.. back there" she smiled warmly "I should be thanking you! You saved my butt out there! With that quirk I'm sure you'll be getting in!" Then girl blushed at your comment as she bowed down to you " yea your quirk is too i really love how you use your ribbon wand and those moves!" You giggled at her statement which confused "Oh I wasn't using my quirk to quite don't have one! This ribbon weapon was something my mother and father put together!" Her eyes bleamed even more a at the mysterious and elegant kid as the two of you talked on the way out of ua unaware that a freckled kid was behind them listening to their conversation

"U-Um excuse me!" The two of you turned around to see a green hair kid with freckles looking all nervous and stuff "I'm so very sorry about having to save me you 2 really tried your hardest!" "Oh it's no problem we're just glad your ok!" Ochako agreed also showing kindness to the boy "if it's ok that I can walk with you as well?" He questioned and you happily agreed although ochako was a bit bummed out but brushed it off cause the more the merrier right?

As the 3 of you were talking and rambling on about hero stuff and teenager things a blonde hair boy glared at the trio as he began to walk towards his home

on the 1st day if school you were a but nervous you didn't expect to actually be accepted to Ua but Luck you guessed luck on your side your parents made sure you packed all your stuff and look atleast decent in the car your parents were busy chatting away about different topics that weren't really interested you instead you were mentally preparing for the students if they even decided to harass you since middle school and high school students weren't no different when it comes to others that seem "weak" in their eyes

As you arrived to your destination your parents waved you goodbye and drove away leaving you alone, you looked at the big school "this is it... this is where a building is gonna decide my fate" you then followed the other students walking into the school building...

☆ headcannons ☆

• as you search for your class in the endless halls of Ua you weren't paying attention to the school map you picked causing yourself to bump into someone "oh my apologies!" A person with no face nor mouth or.. anything! The only thing you can see was their uniform and by the looks of it it seems like a girl because they were wearing a skirt "Oh it's ok! I get that alot are you heading to Class 1a too?" You nodded, so now you and her are going onna mission to find the class!

•as you finally made it just in time you could see izuku and Ochako happily waving to you as you did the same Ochako patted a empty desk right besides her as you quickly made it there which to izukus defeated having to sit by the blonde hair kid instead of you

•as class ended while you were walking to your next period you sat next to a Red haired boy with sharp teeth, another blonde hair kid with a Black lighting strike, and a girl with seem to be earphones hanging off at the end of her ears, the red hair kid you later to find out his name was Kirishima, and his buddy Denki, and the girl who everytime tries to made slide and flirty comments at you and she would insult him which was jirou they were all nice individuals and such fun people to talk to

•Kirishima was talking snd whining how hard the classes were whike also trying to encourage himself as you did the same trying to make him comfortable while denki was either tryna get your number or just wanna be annoying but jirou your lifesaver kept zapping him with her earphones or walking him with the book as the 4 of you talked the most close they felt with you heck they felt they wanted to be even closer to you

• at the cafeteria you were pulled by Ochako and izuku to sit with them you were introduced to 2 new people one you recognize as shoto todoroki the father of the famous number 1 he endevour and Iida younger brother of the pro hero idk his name) shoto was mostly quiet just adding in a few words here and there when it was focused on him while Iida was chatting away about school safety and how he'll be a great hero just like his brother

•on the next day of training all might announced it was time to battle! Hero's vrs villians! But all might wasn't done just yet he brought put a huge clothes rack with Hero costumes in it as everyone cheered excited to show off their costume your costume was a ballerina outfit but with protective heavy gear especially on the legs with a mouthpiece to go with it ochako, izuku, Kirishima, and hakagure excitedly went up to you complimenting your outfit as you blushed cleary flattered

•A pink hair girl and another girl with a pony tail even compliments yours costume as well you avoided eye contact with the ponytail girl tho since her outfit was a bit..revealing! You felt a bit guiltily but the girl who is named momo was either not noticing it or wasn't paying attention rather she found it kinda cute while the pink hair girl was asking alot of questions and complimenting everything that you couldn't keep up with her

•at training you were paired up with Izuku and the blonde hair kid with iida you were nervous since this kid kept eyeing and staring at you intensity and it seems like izuku had the same reaction too "don't worry we got this izuku!" Your encouragement of words brighten up the boys spirit he wanted to win this not just to prove he's gotten stronger to his childhood rival but for you..

as the round start the two of you were running in the abandoned building untill a explosion came outta nowhere, standing infront of you was a boy with red glowing crimson eyes with a mask on with giant grenades hanging on both his arms "I'll stall him you go to the bomb!" You nodded as you ran the other way "You seem to be attracted to this quirkless deku" "they aren't just that they're more then that!" Bakugo smile turned sinister "really? well why don't I go over and see for my self!" As he was about to use his quirk izuku quickly grabbed him and slammed him on the ground

"I. Won't. Let. You" Izuku's expression darkened watching as the boy who bullied started to get pissed eyes staring intensity around at as they bpth started fighting ruthlessly, meanwhile you managed to get to the bomb here Iida was guarding at you "Hey you over there!" "Crap he spotted me" You then revealed yourself to the villian "stop right there! hero!" You quickly dodged iida's attack then aimed your ribbon wand wrapping the bo,b up and trying to pull it towards you, iida noticed and grabbed onto the rocket trying to pull it back "crap... this isn't working change of plans!"

You then grabbed a couple of rocks not so big to hurt him and threw it at the villian as iida was about to brace himself You and time to grab the rocket in time "Hero's win!" They announced you smiled in victory, "nice job out there hero!" You chuckled at iida's villian accent "thanks villian you tried to you were such a workout honestly!" As you and iida got out of the building you see izuku being carried off heading to the infirmary he spotted you and mouthed a "congrats" to you as you did the same in a worried manner

"Good job I guess.." you turned to see the same blonde hair kid from before "um thanks!" "Guess your not just a quirkless loser I guess" you narrowed his eyes at him "wow harsh" deciding to let it go and go meet up with your new friends today was very exhausting

•as the days go by you started hanging out more with your classmates more you started meeting new students with special abilities but you always have a werid feeling or have been seeing stuff

•like how you were busy talking with Ochako and you could've seen Denki giving her a glare but waving happily to you, or how Momo wouod occasionally invite you to hang out in her house or make study dates for just to two of you even if the classmates asked she'll make a Excuse

•Bakugo would degrade you at any opportunity he can get calling you a quirkless loser and stating that you need someone to protect which was werid so you tried your best to avoid him which he didn't like that at all so he started being LESS mean to you occasionally teasing you whenever you make a mistake or when you make a spelling error calling you dumb at every second Kirishima or his newly found gang would stop him but knowing him he still does it

•Sero would manipulate you into spending more time with you as like "I found this area here or there wanna come!" And would beg and guilt trip you into coming into you finally agreed He follows you around like some sort of lost puppy, his hands always on some part of your body

•mina was basically your fucking dance parther she begs you to teach her how to dance (even tho she's a fucking professional at it) and during you session would insisted you to play romantic songs ONLY romantic songs she wants to feel like you actually going along the lyrics living out her very own fantasy sometimes iida and izuku would join as well which ruins her fun

•Kouda is a absolute cinnamonroll he loves seeing you being drowned in his animal friends! The way your so gentle with the birds and how you nuzzle your cheeks against the rabbits and snakes his heart can't even take it anymore your just too precious!

•Sato bribes you like hypnotize you with your favorite treats to onky spend time with him and only him, get easily mad if anyone tries to take his pastries (denki, mina sero, or even bakugo) that are meant for you he insults them saying that they were for you and ONLY for you

•Tokoyami is mostly quiet around you as well like todoroki but he's more of the observation type he wants to know about everything about you whenni said everything I mean EVERYTHING to your likes and dislikes and your family and friends everything he and Todoroki would even team up to get as much info, don't get him wrong he thinks your very capable of yourself in the battle field but he can't help but worry as shit thinking about all the worse case senarios that could happen to you

•tsuyu is will prob act the most normal even tho she's just as obessive as then rest of them but she can managed it for now she convinces you to stay close by her whenever your friends started bickering over you getting any chance she can get to feel your body warmth when it's winter she's the most clingy when cold she clings on you like stitches to the point it can be suffocating at times

• Aoyama is your basically worshipping you to the GROUND like your elegantly and graciousness just gets him on his knees for you he starts going to dancing sessions to impress you on his move makimg you play all sorts of songs that includes slow dancing, ballet just anything he just wants to be as close as you as he can be as return he'll teach you French! And treat you cheese!

• at training they will cause up a storm about who will be your parther for sparing to the point aizawa just says "fuck it!" And be your parther to everyone dismay, your gonna get tugged in different directions by everyone to the point if you ever need a break you will need to be extra quiet to sneak away and hide for a while

•even at the bath scene where mineta was about to climb the wall majority of the boys lose it seeing that rodent bakugo even assist todoroki you know it's bad and izuku just let's him as the other boy find ways to get the pest down.. while the girls on the other hand try their best to cover you as best as they can while tsuyu and jirou gets read to beat the shit out the little grape

[mrsriddlenott]

It’s Okay To Love Them Both

Mattheo Riddle x Fem!Reader x Enzo Berkshire

Kinda from all their POVs at different times. I absolutely love this and I am putting so much work into it that it is honestly funny and I’m gonna cry when I’m done🥹😂(may have gotten carried away) not entirely proofread yet.

Warnings: Fluff,Angst,Insecurities, Manipulation(kinda ig? I don’t see it as manipulative but I wanted to include the warning for ppl who don’t share that opinion), Nicknames(Princess, Gorgeous, Petal, Little Badger, etc)

*No smut but I can make a pt2 for that if it’s wanted*

{masterlist}

This was requested a LONG time ago and I REALLY hope the person who requested it is still here or in the old Taglist, I am so sorry this took so long. My brain just was not working properly for a long time but I think I am back in my groove. I have been working on this on and off for a literal YEAR so if you are not here I am so disappointed in myself for not getting it out to you.

You couldn’t pinpoint exactly when you started to fall for both the boys, but it started so innocently, and now it felt like it was always bound to grow from the very beginning. You met Enzo first, he had been assigned your tutor at the start of term thanks to your poor Potions grade every year prior. He worked with you tirelessly as though it was more than something asked of him by the head of his house, and when you inevitably out grew the need for a tutor, he invited you to your first Slytherin party as a celebration. A party that was of course thrown by his best friend. Enzo talked about Mattheo non-stop and you just had to meet him, however when he spoke with you that fateful night, you realized the trouble you were in and you just couldn’t stay away from him, you tried at first, but it was pointless.

The more you talked with them the more you felt for them. They were so easy to be around, Mattheo made you feel safe and heard, he always stood up for you even though his reputation could have been hindered by befriending a Hufflepuff. While Enzo made you feel known, he looked at you in a way that no one had before and opened your own mind up to itself. Even though they were so clearly different, as you grew closer with them, you began to notice just how similar the two were. Mattheo tried his hardest to hide it but on the inside he was the sweet boy no one saw, and Enzo had a hidden darkness within him that no one would guess, one that helped you come to terms with your own.

“Hello Princess, I’ve got a question,” Enzo stated from your side as he caught you off guard in the corridors, ripping you out of your thoughts with his smile alone. He watched you intently with his soft, safe eyes as he waited for you to respond. He was used to your adorable shocked expression by now, he knew you somehow weren’t used to this kind of attention yet, and certainly not from Slytherins, but he just couldn’t stop coming back to you. Neither of them could, so they just didn’t.

It’s not like they sat down and planned it….well not exactly. The idea was there of course, from the second Mattheo saw you he knew he wanted you he just didn’t want to hurt Enzo and even when they soon both realized they felt the same way, it wasn’t really a conscious decision….not in the beginning anyway. They’d speak to you one after the other like a pattern of turns, and never without telling each other beforehand. Eventually they started whispering about your little chats in their dorm late at night, almost debriefing the other as they reminisced and waited for their next chance to see you. It took quite awhile for the boys to realize just how far their feelings had grown, and not only for you, their own bond had been strengthened by their shared affections and time spent solely focused on you.

“Oh….what is it?” You spoke, slightly dazed after staring into Enzo’s eyes for a few seconds too many, something he reveled in as your pupils dilated and your lips formed a smile against your will. He chuckled at your nervousness, poking his elbow out for you to take as you resumed your walk to the Library, you took it immediately, settling your palm into the crook of his arm as he took your books into his free hand.

“I was wondering if you wanted to accompany me to Hogsmeade tomorrow?” His voice was soft, calming, and comforting as he gently guided you through the tidal wave of students suddenly parting to let him through. It shocked you how not one, but two boys of such a high popularity status seemed to care so much about your presence. At first you genuinely assumed it was some joke, a prank some classmate had put them up to maybe, but after months of the two always coming back to you and getting absolutely nothing in return, you deemed yourself safe.

“Like a….?” You started, letting your sentence die out in embarrassment of being wrong, Enzo chuckled making your stomach jump as you entered the Library, “Yes Petal, I wanna take you out on a date.” He turned to face you as he set your books on the nearest study desk, taking your hand in his as he reiterated in a soft voice, “Would you like to go on a date with me? We can do whatever you like….or we can go with my plan?”

“You….have a plan?” It wasn’t like you were new to dating or having a partner, but you certainly weren’t used to said partner putting in such effort for you, making you feel as special as Enzo and Mattheo did so easily. You gulped slightly upon remembering Mattheo, would he be mad if you said yes? Or hurt? Would he care at all? Would he plan a date for you like this?

“Is that a yes?” Enzo chuckled as he watched your brows furrow upon you falling into your thoughts again, “It’s okay if you have plans or….or don’t want to join me,” He suddenly seemed very worried, his confidence faltering as you watched his face quietly.

“Of course I want to go with you Lorenzo,” He audibly sighed at your words, a warm feeling washing over him as soon as his arms wrapped around you, his head falling heavily against your shoulder as he laughed, “Had me thinking I ruined the best part of Hogwarts Lovely.” Your giggles pulled him from his hiding spot in your neck as your hands held onto his shoulders.

“No way I am for favorite thing about Hogwarts,” You laughed with a shake of your head, avoiding his eyes as you moved away to settle into your study spot. Enzo watched you from a few feet away now, observing your genuine misbelief and wondering how you could look in the mirror everyday and not see a portrait of royal standard. How you could possibly not see that he was falling madly in love with you, certainly he wasn’t that subtle was he? He’d just have to turn in up a notch then.

“I was thinking we could get a drink at the Three Broomsticks,” his voice was low and soft as he approached you again, slowly “After which I’ll spoil us with a trip to Honeydukes,” he paused, stepping closer still as you avoided direct eye contact, “Then we can eat sweets as we take a walk around the Black Lake and talk,” you gasped as his cold fingers brushed your warm skin, pulling a strand of hair behind your ear and tracing the shape of your jaw before pulling your chin up, forcing an intense eye contact, “How does that sound?” His voice was laced with his usual confidence once again as he placed his free hand on the desk, leaning into you further and towering over you with a smile. That crooked smile that was always so contagious made it impossible to stop yourself from smiling back and agreeing to the perfect date once more.

Enzo left the Library with a triumphant grin, giving you one last glance over his shoulder and throwing you a wink, reveling in your face glowing bright red. You found it difficult to suppress giggles as you tried to work on your studying, beginning to imagine your date with Enzo instead.

~~~~

It felt like you had spent days alone in the Library working on your homework, every little thought of Enzo distracting you from the work that had accumulated in your classes this week. You regretted not asking Enzo to keep you company, even though you were such a nervous wreck around him when you were alone together you just found everything to be so much easier with him there. It was like every bit of anxiety flitted away when either of your boys were there to comfort you.

“Hey Gorgeous,” Mattheo’s smooth voice derailed your train of thought as the chair behind you loudly scraped across the dusty stone floor, making you cringe as Mattheo plopped onto the creaking wood so he was sat only inches from you. “What are you stud-“ The loud shush from Madam Pince interrupted him as he laughed and held his finger to his lips jokingly, pulling his chair impossibly closer only to slowly whisper in your ear, “What are you studying?”

You tried to hide the shiver his voice sent down your spine, tingles covering your entire body before you could gain your control, “Just Transfiguration stuff, I’m almost done though,” Mattheo hums beside you, letting you silently work as he watched your very concentrated face while you wrote. He quickly became impatient however, tapping his fingers and feet to different beats you didn’t recognize as he slouched in his chair before dramatically sighing after only a few minutes and sitting up.

“Are you done yet?” He whispered, desperate for your undivided attention as he leant into you further, resting his chin on your shoulder to watch you like a lost puppy, “I’ve got something for you, ya know,” His excitement was evident in his hushed tone, making you finally turn to look at him again while he excitedly reached into his pocket with a proud smile upon getting you to look at him. He struggled momentarily, cursing under his breath as he pulled out a thin golden chain with a badger charm dangling from it.

You eyed the fine jewelry in his hand for only a split second, it was truly beautiful and your exact style, but it looked expensive and too elegant to be for you. Noticing the guilty glint in your eye, Mattheo didn’t give you the chance to deny the gift, believing it was yours already even if you wanted to throw it in the garbage as soon as he left. You would have to get used to being spoiled, he thought as he got up to delicately drape it across your neck and clip it in the back before you could ask the price or where he got it. He freed your hair from being trapped below the chain, bouncing it and fixing stray strands for you before leaving a kiss on the top of your head, “It’s almost as beautiful as you isn’t it my Little Badger?”

Your face was painted red in a matter of seconds as his hands felt up and down your arms mindlessly, his fingertips leaving tingles everywhere they touched giving you an entirely uncommon burst of confidence. You jumped from your seat with a loud thank you as your arms draped across his shoulders, letting your head rest on his toned body as his arms engulfed you in his warmth and his chest vibrated with a laugh, “You are very welcome Pretty Girl.”

Your eyes met as you pulled away from him, glossy eyes darting between his and his lips before you launched yourself forward to attack them with yours. Mattheo didn’t waste a second in returning your kiss, letting your lips meld together as he sighed against your mouth, the taste of your lips better than he could have ever imagined. Your fingers got lost in his hair, tugging at his curls and deepening the kiss, forcing him to restrain himself by gripping onto your hips tighter to keep from smashing you into the bookshelf behind him and starting a battle between your tongues. You hummed in satisfaction, your senses and thoughts lost in Mattheo as he nipped at your bottom lip making you whimper and fall farther into him. You wanted the kiss to last forever, the feeling of his hands grounding you, letting your brain focus for the first time since…..Enzo.

The image of the sweet boy who cared so much for you catching you making out with his best friend flashed in your mind, snapping you out of your pleasure as you abruptly pulled away from Mattheo with a shocked expression. Your eyes brimmed with tears at the thought of Enzo crying, hurting over you betraying him, hating you forever….you felt horrible. Your teary gaze locked with Mattheo’s before you were pushing away and grabbing your books, rushing from the Library without another word. After only a second of truly believing someone had Stupefied him, the curly headed boy tried to catch up to you, desperately calling your name before losing you in the packed corridors.

Mattheo cursed to himself as he reluctantly turned away from the direction you took and toward the Slytherin Common Room. He couldn’t stop thinking about every possible outcome this could cause, he should have said something, done something, but he was far too focused on your scent, your taste, the way you felt in his hands. He’s such an idiot, he needed to fix this, the thoughts bouncing back and forth in his mind as his legs numbly carried him through the castle.

“You need to make sure this date we planed goes well because I may have just royally screwed us” Mattheo was almost shouting as he slammed the door of his and Enzo’s shared dorm behind him, thanking the Gods that their dorm mates were off doing who knows what.

“What!? What are you talking about?” Enzo rushed forward on his bed, tossing his reading aside as he watched Mattheo’s face contort in worry. He could tell by his fidgeting hands and pacing of the room that he was truly worried there was no going back from whatever he did, and without a second thought, Enzo was standing to pull him into a hug, asking again, softer this time, “What went wrong?”

“She kissed me and I fucking kissed her back,” Mattheo snapped, slipping out of Enzo’s comfortable grasp as he pinched at the bridge of his nose, “and then she looked so sad and my mouth just would not form any words. I stood there like a fucking asshole while she was crying because I was too focused on her lips on mine.” He sighed, chewing at his thumb as he paced back and forth in the middle of the dorm.

“She kissed you though that’s a good thing, not exactly to plan, but that means she probably likes us bo-“ Mattheo was always so calm and collected, except for when it came to you, every worry that flashes through his brain about never seeing you again makes him less and less reasonable.

“I think her rushing out crying tells me otherwise Enzo,” Mattheo began to ramble, his brain was far too worried to be able to keep a single thought inside, “We need to give her space, let her have time to think before your date, she’s probably confused she….she probably doesn’t want to get hurt or or I don’t know hurt anyone else. She doesn’t know we want to be with her together….what if she thinks something bad li-like you’ll be mad.” Mattheo snapped his fingers and pointed to his best friend as though he had it all figured out, just to return to his ranting.

“Mattheo calm down, we don’t know anything yet okay,” Enzo knew that when Mattheo got like this, feeding his worries would not help, but as he continued to list off the many holes this plan had that they were just now realizing, the heavy feeling of anxiety settled into his chest.

~~~~

When the next afternoon finally came, you contemplated skipping the date entirely, telling Enzo you had plans after all, but some part of you just wouldn’t allow it. That same part controlled you as you desperately searched for an appropriate first date outfit, throwing dresses and various tops and bottoms on and off as your dorm room grew messy. “Damn Y/N/N, I knew you liked this boy but jeez….this much worry about an outfit?” Your dorm mate and best friend since First Year jokes as she strutted into the room.

“Hannah you’re a lifesaver, I need to borrow a dress, and it needs to be a good one because I already have something to apologize for.” You rambled, turning to her trunk that was always available for you to search through.

“What could you have possibly done to that boy that needs an apology? I think he very well could be obsessed with you.” She giggled, not realizing your worry as you halted your actions entirely, “Ikissedhisbestfriend” you jumbled, turning but avoiding the eyes of your best friend who only understood you thanks to her knowing you so well.

“You…wait did I hear that correctly? You- you and Riddle did what now?” Her shocked, almost excited expression had you feeling worse as you abandoned your search for a dress, flopping down onto your bed as tears welled in your eyes. “He’s gonna hate me when he finds out.” You sighed, hiding your face in your hands as the bed dipped beside you to make room for Hannah.

“Hey hey….Sweetie no rational person could ever hate you.” She sighed, rubbing the back of your hands as she pulled them from your face, “This is a grey area okay, you haven’t made a commitment to either of them and it’s clear they both want to be the one picked. You need to make a decision somehow and if they don’t want to make it easy on you this is going to get dramatic.” Your eyes met hers in confusion as tears ran down your face and onto your mattress, “I guess what I’m trying to say is….you need to make a decision either way and the only way to make the right choice is to know how they both would treat you, and the only way to find that out is to explore both options for a bit.”

“But….I don’t want to hurt them, and I want them both in my life still….I don’t know what I’d do if I made a decision and the other never spoke to me again.” Hannah gave you an apologetic smile before piping up again, “Well….it would be cruel to keep them both at your feet waiting just to never pick, you’ve got two options here, let them go and hope you meet someone else one day, or come to terms with what may happen after you do choose.”

“I’m gonna choose, I just can’t yet, I don’t wanna lose either of them.”

~~~~

Enzo’s breath catches in his throat as he sees you walking into the crowed dining room of the restaurant, the red fabric of your dress hugging you perfectly. The badger necklace he had helped Mattheo pick out rested on your chest so wonderfully he just had to comment on it. “Well isn’t this cute, where’d ya get it huh?” He asks in a teasing tone you know so well.

“Um well, I” As you start trying to speak all that can come out is sobs at the thought of hurting him, suddenly your dress is too tight and the room too stuffy, you can’t breath. “I um,” you try but once again fail. Before you can think you feel hands on your waste and your being tugged out of the busy restaurant by someone as Enzo follows. Once the door was open you rushed into the cold air and walked away from the two.

“Did i do something?” Enzo’s voice was desperate, strained to a point that you thought he was about to cry right now, “Please just tell me how I messed up so i can fix it, I promise I didn’t mean to hurt you,” His voice raised as you kept walking to catch your breath pacing back and forth before taking notice of Mattheo standing beside him.

“What are you doing here?” You spit out, not meaning for it so sound as mean as it did, you sigh as you correct your voice, tears beginning to fall again. “I’m so sorry, I thought I could pick but I can’t, I love you both and I am so so sorry.”

The boys eyes lock together immediately and as though on cue they start to laugh, they know it’s wrong, they know they shouldn’t but they can’t stop. And somehow you know it is okay and start to laugh too.

“What is wrong with you two?” You ask between tears and laughter, you must look a mess but your two best friends still stare at you as though you hung the moon.

“Petal, we want you too, you think we can chose. Us. Two of the dumbest people you have ever known.” Enzo says with a giggle as he steps up to you to kiss you tear streaked face. “I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner Petal, but I was planning on having Mattheo come to our little date anyway, we wanted to tell you tonight how much we want you. Together. All of us.”

Your eyes dart to Mattheo as he smiles wildly down at you, “so you’re not mad at me”

“Of course not Princess, you’re our perfect girl.” Mattheo says in a soft voice as he moves to wrap his arms around both Enzo and y/n, leaving a kiss on both their cheeks as comfort he has never felt begins to settle in his chest. He can be happy like this.

Your rapid heart beat begins to settle in the arms of your two favorite boys, your tears continue but only from happiness and the feeling of pure luck bringing you to the happiest moment of your life.

“Now, how about we finish the date we had planned for you Petal.” Enzo sates as he grabs your hand, your other quickly being grabbed by Mattheo as they begin to lead you to Honeydukes.

-HP Taglist-

Ask to be added/removed and I’m sorry if your tag doesn’t work

(Anyone still on here that does not wish to be lmk, i know I have not posted in SO long)

AND if you are the person who requested this plz slide in my inbox bc i am SO sorry it took so long AND i want to add to this too so give me ideas plz if you’re still following my blog

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[stars-and-the-min]

☆ the wrong way to hard launch (8) | OP81

summary : oscar's girlfriend is a walking pr problem for literally everyone (including herself) social media au

pairing : oscar piastri x zhou!fem!singer!oc

a/n all aboard the speculation train

masterlist | last part | part 8 | next part

INSTAGRAM

selinabui

liked by oscarpiastri and 312,294 others

selinabui somehow @.rollingstone thought it would be an amazing idea to slap me on their cover?? anyways may 2024 🔜 it has an exclusive interview with urs truly p.s. whoever came up with that nickname for me deserves a raise ♥️♥️♥️ tagged: rollingstone, shotsbynadia, michealpollard, lilybeehair and jesszhang_

oscarpiastri Forgot how to breathe for a sec ↳ tina_kim @ oscarpiastri ur so real for this

linasgirl4 'the speakeasy siren'??? 😮‍💨

eb_jonno i'm confused by your dress ↳ selinabui @eb_jonno i was confused as well, don't worry about it, just admire how good i look

TWITTER

↳ kayla @luna_apocolypse · 49m fork found in kitchen, we had to wait over three years for a sophomore album, we'll live ↳ kayla @luna_apocolypse · 47m but then again... no 'new' music makes me think that lina is being sneaky again

oscalina real ?! @ emptyginbottles · 28m too many people talking about the 'no new music' bit of the interview and not enough talking about how oscar's going to drive lina to florence after imola ↳ oscalina real ?! @ emptyginbottles · 27m i didn't think it would be possible, but i think i just heard this woman giggle over a man through my phone via a printed interview

amie <3 @mieflrs · 2h it's actually so insane how smoothly the empty bottles pr team buried all the tommy talk. i didn't even notice bc they moved so naturally to 'chris and eb reunion??' and then the rolling stones cover + interview like they just dropped us better things to talk about ↳ amie <3 @mieflrs · 2h slay empty bottles pr team, i really appreciate y'all 🫶

REDDIT

r/EmptyBottles · Posted by u/luckyluna9364 5 hours ago Lina x Oscar Timeline

Has anyone worked out the relationship timeline for Lina and Oscar? I've been talking to some of my F1 friends, and there's so much confusion about how and when they met because these two people have barely been in the same country at the same time. This is, of course, if we go off the common perception that Zhou Guanyu was definitely the person who introduced them.

buisms84 · 4 hr. ago op i was literally just thinking about this!! lina's been pretty much stuck in california since the pandemic and oscar flies around for races all the time, it's pretty possible that they didn't meet first but rather started texting? but then when did they start going out because they clearly look familiar with each other. fantstic013 · 4 hr. ago streets are saying as early as silverstone 2023 👀 but we all know lina is super secretive about her current relationships (bar whatever mess thomas howard was)

summersweettea1389 · 3 hr. ago i think the confirmed timeline is what we've all been experiencing these past few months. like there seems to be no other indicator they were linked, even platonically, before that insane hard launch. luckyluna9364 OP · 3 hr. ago I know that Lina can be really sneaky but she also loves messing with us, so I'm convinced she was subtly soft-launching him and we all didn't notice. But you know what I found most strange? Right before the hard launch, a bunch of different new sites were publishing rumours, I'm not super online, but were there rumours earlier? whatthekermitdid · 3 hr. ago ur talking about the rumors of them over the holiday season when they both happened to be at the same party but that was debunked ages ago - they went with different ppl but they may have met there?

TWITTER

piaa⁸¹ @ papayaeightyone · 5h no, i don't think u understand, i'm actually SCREECHING over oscar's answer to the 'texting the wrong person' question from the never have i ever video

↳ piaa⁸¹ @ papayaeightyone · 5h I'M SO NORMAL ABOUT THEM I SWEAR 🥹

↳ kayla @luna_apocolypse · 2h 'most awkward conversation of my life'??? 'not the best way to confess'??? SELINA WHAT DID U SAY TO THIS MAN 😭 ↳ pookie piastri @op81ln4 · 3h NO I NEEEED TO KNOW HOW SHE REACTED

lina !!! @EB_selina · 48m everyone keeps tagging/sending me the clip of oscar talking about accidentally texting me about me. guys, i was there, i know it happened, and i will be taking my reaction to the grave ↳ Oscar Piastri @ OscarPiastri · 12m She's embarrassed because she ghosted me for like a week ↳ lina !!! @EB_selina · 11m sir why are u lying???

june @linafesting · 2h finding out that oscalina's talking stage was oscar giggling and texting his friends how much he liked her and lina ghosting him after an accidental confession is pure comedy ↳ june @linafesting · 2h oscalina, the couple that keeps on giving us anything but photos together

↳ clovie @ luvyouvie · 57m wait where did lina mention oscar? ↳ li(n)a @meliabelrose · 44m rolling stone interview, she mentions him like 8 times

REDDIT

r/EmptyBottles · Posted by u/luckyluna9364 3 days ago Lina x Oscar Timeline [read new comments]

whatthekermitdid · 5 hr. ago ok so my f1 friend just told me that the never have i ever video was filmed like in february (or earlier) which means that oscalina were going out since at least then BUT (and maybe i'm delulu) i couldn't help but notice that he's v calm about it like it happened a long time ago which is really no help to this timeline

niaphilia283 · 3 hr. ago not to sound clinically insane but have we considered that they've been together for a lot longer than we imagined? thinking logically, selina isn't the type of person to so publically acknowledge a new boyfriend - she didn't even mention tommy until like seven months - and judging by her recent behaviour (the hard launch, the dedicated performance, the birthday instagram post) she's either down so astronomically bad she'll never recover from it OR they've been together for at least two years luckyluna9364 OP · 3 hr. ago if they've been tgt for even longer than ONE year i'd actually lose it bc there's noooo way lina would be that quiet about it niaphilia283 · 3 hr. ago wait i just remembered that two years ago would be around when tommy got engaged and lina def would've made a big deal about any relationship my bad

TWITTER

clara @ zgy24 · 2h these photoshoots have the same vibe and it was the first thing i thought of 😭

lina for elle china zhou for champion

↳ lina !!! @EB_selina · 1h what a copycat @ZhouGuanyu24 😒 ↳ 周冠宇 | Zhou Guanyu 🇨🇳 @ZhouGuanyu24 · 1h I did it better

MESSAGES

from the phone of oscar piastri

TWITTER

lina !!! @EB_selina · 2h been feeling mean lately, how much trouble should i cause? ↳ EB BAR @theemptybottlesbar · 2h selina pls have mercy MERCY I BEG

kayla @luna_apocolypse · 1h it's been an hour since that cryptic ass tweet, i'm shaking lina what do you have up your sleeve

piaa⁸¹ @ papayaeightyone · 32m OH MY GOD WHAT DID SHE JUST SAY????

EB BAR @theemptybottlesbar · 43m We'd like to extend our condolences to @ McLarenF1, we're working on getting her media training, but it doesn't seem to be working ↳ McLaren @ McLarenF1 · 39m We're all in this together 🥹 ↳ oscalina real ?! @ emptyginbottles · 42m WHAT DID SHE DO???? IS IT THE LIVE?? WHAT DID SHE SAY IM AT WORK SELINA HOW COULD U DO THIS TO ME

amie <3 @mieflrs · 29m i just know that pr team has being worked TO DEATH this past week like RIP

INSTAGRAM selinabui started a live video

MESSAGES

from the phone of selina bui

REDDIT

r/EmptyBottles · Posted by u/luckyluna9364 6 days ago Lina x Oscar Timeline [read new comments]

luckyluna9364 OP · 1 hr. ago this thread is getting super active after lina's livestream so i'm doing my best to summarise what ppl are saying: - a much longer relationship than anticipated is highly possible; lina was still pretty vague with the timing all she really said was 'long enough' what long enough is to her is up to debate (most are keeping the benchmark at 7mo) - lina mentioned her aunt (zhou guanyu's mother) has invited them to have dinner in shanghai which means that not only has lina's family known and met oscar but also that lina is stopping over in shanghai for a bit before performing in shenzhen (exciting news for the oscalina stans) - her freezing up suggests that she and oscar were keeping a lot of the relationship private or even secret for a while and it was genuinely a mistaken slip that wasn't at all supposed to happen (one can only wonder how oscar reacted) - a couple people think that EB planned the tour schedule around the F1 calendar (there are quite a few overlaps in races and shows) which would mean that they were together BEFORE tour announcement which was back in november - one user is betting their life savings that they met before oscar's f1 debut, for that user's sake i hope it's true.

✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:✧･ﾟ: ✧･ﾟ:

taglist @ririyulife @ashy-kit @fionaschicken @namgification @cherry-piee @urfavsgf

[carulenes]

I have so many scattered thoughts re: Blade, Jingliu, and Dan Heng and the entirety of the HCQ after Clouds Leave No Trace

This is gonna probably be long as hell since I haven’t stopped thinking abt it for two days straight and will contain spoilers for the new HCQ quest in 1.4 as well as references to other leaks, this is mostly just a jumble of a bunch of theories and ramblings to get my thoughts out, some of which I already had and others that started to jump out during the quest. obv other ppl may have come up with similar conclusions and i obv might not be right myself but based on the narrative presented to us up until now, these are what I feel make the most sense. TLDR at the end.

Dan Heng vs “running away”

I find it fascinating, and frankly disingenuous, that that both Jingliu and Blade consistently frame DH’s explanations of no longer being Dan Feng and only containing fragments of his memories as "trying to run from his past". I’ve also seen some in the fandom claim that DH’s position on the matter shouldn’t be trusted as he’s an “unreliable narrator”, which could be true, but it’s a stance I disagree with as it goes against the structure of DH’s narrative as it’s been set up since the beginning of the game.

From day one until the present, Dan Heng is shown to be fully willing to atone for the sins of his past:

The moment he was allowed to move freely aboard the Luofu after having quietly accepted exile for crimes he shouldn’t have had to pay for, he decided of his own volition to seek out the current high elder and make amends with both the Xianzhou and his past in general, even when doing so made him a target for even more suffering:

Narratively speaking, he never once backs away from the punishment considered owed to Dan Feng's actions.

Dan Heng, the result of a forced rebirth process that was then manipulated to leave him with combat prowess and broken memories he neither wanted or should have possessed to begin with, was escorted away from the only homeland he knew, after being held in prison for crimes he legally should not have been judged by from the moment of his birth, with only the few possessions his previous incarnation had possessed, forced to jump from spaceship to spaceship without even recognizing the destination. The only reason he ever ran at all is due to the ages spent fighting for his life against an enemy he didn't recognize and never truly recognized him, one that refused to die no matter how many times they fought. One who caused unmatched destruction in his hunt for Dan Heng, fully willing to destroy anyone and anything in the way of his goal— a shadow of his past:

This is why personally (emphasis on personally) I believe that the longing in question from the leak regarding Dan Heng polishing his spear is in reference to the Luofu, as to me, it makes sense that he would long for and think of the homeland he never got to witness thoroughly with his own eyes and could only experience in books while caring for the weapon he uses to keep himself and others safe from the force of destruction that trails him:

In fact, it isn't until after Dan Heng joins the Astral Express that he begins to fight back against the assertion that he must eternally suffer for the past; this is because this is when he finally has something other than himself to protect. We are directly shown this in his animated short, when the memory of the other members of the Express crew serve as the motivation to spur Dan Heng out of the internal conflict he was drowning in, and also as his prime reason for going to meet with the others in the HCQ aboard the Luofu:

This is likely possible largely due both to the fact that Vidyadhara cannot succumb to mara, as well as the fact that he doesn't have the same specific memories as the others, and so he is not shackled to the same chains that now bind Blade and Jingliu.

———

Blade and Jingliu

In Blade’s youth, Jingliu describes him as someone who was “defiant” in a way she claimed not to like. I find this fascinating given that the two are so incredibly similar at present, which I feel is due in part to Blade’s unwavering respect for her even after the pain she caused him, both because of who she is as the former Sword Champion and the amount of Abundance abominations she alone had been able to slay, as well as the pain she inflicted giving him new purpose, a choice to give him a “second chance” despite at one point having wished to leave him to his misery as a fate worse than death, as described in her character story.

Both Blade and Jingliu experienced great suffering in their childhoods

Blade's swordsmanship ability comes directly from Jingliu’s tutelage

His personal oath comes directly from Jingliu, as she forced it into his psyche over and over through death and rebirth in order to force him to remember:

They both took on deals through which they are able to have access to suppression for their mara:

And both are fighting towards goals that are implied to, at least currently, be impossible (following who I believe to be extremely suspicious individuals):

Also, both are equally stubborn, seen both through their refusal to take no as an answer to Dan Heng's wishes to no longer associate with them and through their refusal to listen to anything that may trigger or directly refute their perceptions of reality:

But most importantly:

Blade and Jingliu both became mara-struck very quickly after Baiheng’s death.

It's repeatedly mentioned that mara is linked to to the artificially stretched lifespans of Xianzhou natives, but also that a fundamental aspect of the affliction is tied to the accumulation of painful memories. Given that vast scope of the destruction that occurred during this bane, and the extreme closeness both Jingliu and Blade had to the deceased and beloved Baiheng (in addition to the trauma of being transmuted into another species entirely, in Blade's case), it's no surprise that both of them are affected so deeply. Additionally, a common treatment for mara is avoiding accessing painful memories or suppressing/removing them entirely.

As Blade himself states that the effects of mara affliction are unique to the individual, I can't make a sweeping judgement of the symptoms all the mara-struck; the specific manifestations of Jingliu and Blade's afflictions, however, can be related to the concept of complicated grief:

We see these symptoms heavily within Jingliu, who literally wears a blindfold to avoid seeing anything that can trigger painful memories, has a voiceline describing how she can't remember many details of the time she and Baiheng spent together, speaks how she's plagued with nightmares about Baiheng, and she refuses to not only prohibit herself from forgetting the pain of what happened to her that day, but also the remaining members of the HCQ.

Similar observations can be made for Blade; he notably speaks very little and withdraws from most social situations, not wanting to take part in “annoying conversations.” His particular form of mara affliction is, by his own admission, unusual and devoid of any real emotion. The few moments of reprieve are spent either thinking too much or not thinking of anything at all. When his mara strikes, though, he shuts down, going completely numb and lashing out at whatever's in his way- not unlike certain displays of trauma responses in real life. He asks directly, “Why does someone like her have to be buried, burned to ash, and eventually forgotten...? Why!?” And given Yingxing being quoted saying directly during this quest that he doesn't wish for an overly long life, and Blade's intense suicidal ideations in the present, it's not a far reach to suggest that he also wishes that he died with her or in her stead.

And both are unable to find purpose in a life without her:

Blade and Jingliu both accuse Dan Heng of being unwilling to accept the past, but both of them are quite literally and physically unable to do so themselves— Dan Heng was even the only one to have spent extended time in the Shackling Prison, even though he should not have had to due to his rebirth, while both Blade and Jingliu were both wanted criminals who managed to escape. They both walk carrying the pain of the past through the present because they feel empty without it. And, unlike Dan Heng, neither one of them have a future that they feel can look forward to.

On that note, Jing Yuan, the only member of the HCQ who is capable of succumbing to mara and yet hasn't, is also the only member to directly acknowledge Dan Heng's autonomy and existence. This extends to Dan Feng as well, as both Blade and Jingliu most often refer to both Dan Heng and Dan Feng interchangeably with the title of Imbibitor Lunae, rather than their names.

The only ones to continue to deny Dan Heng's existence and rebirth are those who are unable to leave the past behind, such as the mirage echoes forever tied to Scalegorge Waterscape, as well as Blade and Jingliu, forever tied to their own suffering.

[Side note: This is exactly why I believe HYV decided to have 1.3 end with an entire questline based around the showing the process of accepting death and healthy grieving: to act as a direct juxtaposition to Blade and Jingliu, who both are unable to engage in the process themselves.] ————

Yingxing and Dan Feng/Blade and Dan Heng

Yingxing the Furnace Master and High Elder Dan Feng were very close. They were good friends, yes, but they were also bad for each other, according to Kafka:

Which would be easy enough on its to write off as her own interpretation of a story she’s heard but doesn’t know enough to understand. But Jingliu, the living member of the HCQ most affected by their actions, shows agreement with her assessment, pointing out that she’d found it strange “to see someone so arrogant get along with someone so proud.”

These specific traits are mentioned and attributed to them multiple times— the arrogant craftsman and the proud high elder. The reason for this is also stated by Kafka: “Together, they did something bad— something terrible. It led to horrific consequences.”

The emphasis that they did it together, almost directly after stating that the pair were bad for one another (which was a conscious choice to have her say, as her statements of their shared mistake and Blade's memory loss would have sufficed on their own), is important not simply because they both made and adhered to the plan; it’s important because it implies that it was directly because it took the two of them specifically to create the chaos and unrest that took place and not anyone else. This isn’t a condemnation of either of them as individuals, but Jingliu herself points out that even the smartest people can make extremely ill-advised decisions in the heat of the moment.

If Yingxing hadn’t arrogantly believed himself alone capable of handling and utilizing the remains of the very Emanator it took a plethora of combatants including the entire HCQ to take down (likely leading to the loss in the usability of his hands as a result):

If Dan Feng hadn’t proudly believed his “salvation” more righteous than the autonomy of those mortals he sought to save, "letting" them continue living as though the right to withhold the honor of dying for a cause they believed in was his alone, while also seeming to blindly believe himself incapable of being deceived or misunderstanding something:

None of the resulting fallout would have happened.

Only one with powers like those of the High Elder of the Vidyadhara could have attempted what Dan Feng did, and only an outworlder who has experienced the allure of immortality and experienced the fear of not having enough time would be willing to assist, given the Xianzhou’s stance on acts regarding immortality.

Furnace Master and High Elder, filled with blind confidence in themselves, blind confidence in each other, enabling each other (Yingxing calling out to Dan Feng and implying that they had to be the ones to make a choice, Dan Feng being moved by his human heart’s words and his own exhaustion with watching the deaths of those around him) to make a dangerous choice at a critical moment when their close companion is in mortal peril (more accurately already dead but they couldn’t accept that), and make the decision to ignore the autonomy of everyone involved. They had no contingency plan because they were sure that, with each other, that it would work. Because of this, they both share the blame, their noble intentions not enough to outweigh their unforgivable sin.

Jing Yuan is noted to have “always understood the price better than any of [the HCQ], yet he never spoke up, never did anything”, but anyone who has had the experience of trying to tell an arrogant or prideful person that they’re wrong or making a mistake knows that that’s an uphill battle on its own. Add in that it would be two against one (one of whom he already canonically bickered with constantly throughout their companionship), asking two of the most stubborn people he knew to give up on their desire to save the beloved (for Yingxing, Baiheng; for Dan Feng, his people), the two that were closer to each other than he was with either of them (not to imply that the HCQ weren’t all very close to each other because they definitely were but in obv differing ways) right in the middle of a high stress situation where there’s no time for arguing, and what remains is Jing Yuan with no options but to watch as disaster unfolded before him and everyone else, knowing that their minds were already made up.

Yingxing never wanted to be immortal or to see Baiheng suffering, but his own hubris helped lead to both.

Dan Feng never wanted to endure the sight of meaningless death, and yet directly caused it due to his pride, believing he had the right to play god and interfere with the natural process of death, or to consider that he may be wrong.

They were good friends who were bad for each other, and good people who made an exceedingly bad decision.

In the present, it’s been over 700 years since the last meeting of the High-Cloud Quintet, meaning Yingxing and Dan Feng have been essentially dead for roughly 7x the length of the HCQ’s entire existence. Their new identities, Blade and Dan Heng are clearly meant to parallel each other, but as opposing forces going in different directions, given Blade’s unwavering desire to die, and Dan Heng’s unwavering desire to live and to protect those he cares for. Both were put through immense suffering that, in the same vein, provided the means of “freedom” for them— Blade, through the sword; Dan Heng, through banishment. And both have found new colleagues to consider allies, though even the two groups are opposed to one another.

At this point in time, they’re enemies in all respects, and the chances of any reconciliation between them in my opinion is VERY slim for multiple reasons not limited to how much time has already passed at this point:

1) Dan Heng does not trust Blade at all and actively considers him one of the biggest threats to both his own and his companions’ safety, with good reason. The only way this could feasibly change is if Blade were to stop hunting him, which likely would not happen because

2) Blade is wholly devoted to Elio’s predictions for him, which Dan Heng’s existence would be paradoxical to. One of Blade’s wishes is to kill Imbibitor Lunae specifically in revenge, and he doesn’t (or can't) accept Dan Heng’s existence; if what Dan Heng claims about his identity is true, then that could only mean the future Elio promised must be false, which would strip him of the only purpose he has left in this world, leaving him as an empty, undying husk. This matter is also complicated by the fact that

3) There is still no cure for the mara that afflicts Blade, which would be the only avenue through which Blade could even begin to consider accepting Dan Heng and potentially reconciling. Both he and Jingliu were able to discover methods of having it suppressed, but both were temporary fixes: Jingliu notes that her time is beginning to run out, and Kafka had to use alternate means to reduce the potency of the mara within Blade after it violently flared up after merely being on the Xianzhou, which is likely the only reason the meeting between the HCQ could even take place with his attendance. On top of this, there’s also the fact that

4) Blade’s feelings for Dan Feng are likely very complex as well. Deep down, there’s clearly still some fondness there in the way Blade looks back on the time spent with Dan Feng, but he’s also one of the people he deeply resents and wants to see dead, which I believe could be due to his belief that it’s Dan Feng’s fault that Baiheng died. There is a choice-dependent voiceline from Baiheng deep within Dan Heng's memories that calls out to him to save them from the starskiff, but we know that it crashed. He tried to invoke the Transmutation Arcaneum, but it failed, instead turning Baiheng into a half-dragon monstrosity whose wails of pain echoed all around them. And then, though he wasn’t the one to deal the final blow, he might as well have by giving the location of the dragon’s weak spot to Jingliu. To top everything off, everything ended with Blade within an immortal body, one that leaves him in constant pain, particularly during the healing process after “death”.

From his perspective, it’s easy to see just why Blade could place the blame of Baiheng’s burial and the near destruction of the Luofu solely on Dan Feng, accusing Dan Feng alone of being the one to stubbornly adhere to the plan; it’s also easy to point out Blade’s hypocrisy given his role as Dan Feng’s accomplice. There are multiple potential reasons for this in my opinion: his brain, afflicted by both mara and prior memory loss (though he never forgets Dan Feng’s eyes or “how cruelty burst out from beneath the mirror-like emerald calmness”); his arrogance, leading him to absolve himself of any guilt or wrongdoing because he believes himself incapable of failing; the current youth-like quality of his mind, reduced to immaturely (by which I purely mean the dictionary definition of having/showing emotional development of someone younger) craving nothing but revenge while simultaneously absolving responsibility by saying “He did it! Not me!”. Also, considering Jingliu’s dialogue to Dan Feng where she says to him “If your death can return everything to how it was, I would do it,” and the many ways Blade already emulates Jingliu, it isn’t too difficult to consider that he may have taken that duty on himself out of grief and longing.

Along with these reasons, the narrative emphasizes that even almost a millennium after Yingxing and Dan Feng’s deaths, destruction follows in their wake whenever their new lives cross paths. Dan Heng learned this quickly, hence his fervent desire to keep distance and his relative uncertainty of anywhere that could possibly be safe for him, though he also learned rather quickly that this was futile. Blade was always able to find him, entire spaceships destroyed in his unshakable desire to kill him. On the Xianzhou, not only was Dan Heng dragged into a fight with Blade, but so too was Yanqing. This cycle of destruction is implied to have been so constant for Dan Heng that it’s likely the entire reason he never feels safe or feels unable to confide in anyone so as to not risk putting them in danger.

----

The Destruction Trio

Imbibitor Lunae, Blade, and Jingliu all being on the path of destruction is no coincidence given their histories. The three “sinners” all shared a key trait: being able to cope with death and painful losses. Both Yingxing and Dan Feng viewed her as arrogant and proud, respectfully, which was another commonality between them. This leads all three of them to not only become the orchestrators of their own self-destruction, but the destruction of those around them as well: Dan Feng witnessing countless deaths and being forced to be reborn as another; Yingxing’s loss of his gift and creative abilities as well as the transformation into the immortal Blade who only sees himself as a weapon; Jingliu’s abandonment of her sacred oath and everyone she killed during her time under the influence of the mara poisoning her mind. Only Dan Heng walks a different path, as he is the only one to have directly stated that he accepts the past that happened but refuses to let it stain his bright future.

The three of them are also intrinsically linked in their pain. Dan Feng and Yingxing's mistake led directly to Jingliu's suffering; Jingliu's treatment of Blade led to his becoming a living weapon and catching the eye of the Stellaron Hunters, and also to him being able to inflict similar suffering to Dan Heng by hunting him constantly. Blade and Jingliu both are of the mind that this is inevitable and inescapable, but only Dan Heng is in a position to be able and willing to question whether he really does have to continue feeling that pain.

While it's still very early on in HSR's lifespan making it difficult to make any real concrete theories, for now I predict that Jingliu will die in her attempt to kill the Abundance, and I also believe her to be aware of this deep down, as she likely sees this as a way for her to atone and find her peace. It also makes most sense for Blade to die at some point as well, considering his parallels to Jingliu, his current character and the fact that while Yingxing used to fear not having enough time in life when he was young, he came to accept his mortality in his elder years after the full life he lived with the HCQ; it could even possibly be in defense of Dan Heng, which could provide a full-circle end to their cycle and their story, a form of closure that no other broken pair has seemed to get so far. Their respective character stories, while directly representing their current struggles, can also be viewed as allusions to their fates as well, with Blade's referring to his death and Dan Heng's highlighting him seeing the dawn of a new day. I also think it could be feasible for the discovery of a method to remove Blade's mara and for him to grow content with the Blade of today, even with powers he doesn't want, similar to Dan Heng accepting that Imbibitor Lunae's powers will always be a part of him; a "miraculous cure" sort of ending could be very clunky if not handled well in my opinion, though.

----

The Reunion

Though it's phrased in a metaphorical way, I feel pretty sure that not only did we just see the reunion alluded to by the PoWC bracer, but also that this is another remnant of Jingliu’s influence that some part of Blade’s subconscious must have clung to:

Note the usage of “should”, a term with many meanings but the most applicable being “expressing a conjecture or hope,” rather than something like “will”, which would indicate future tense or an inevitable event.

Jingliu’s splash art alone shows her pouring out a cup of alcohol

In Jingliu’s character story, Baiheng is said to have brought Jingliu “divine nectar from the other side of the universe”

At the beginning of the companion quest, in the Seat of Divine Foresight, she mentions wanting to have a glass of wine and reminisce with old friends

She is the one to bring the jade flask that Blade handcrafted himself for her when she releases the starskiff in her memory

When the remaining quartet reach Scalegorge Waterscape, she directly mentions that she never believed the 4 of them, with their many grudges and all friendship lost, would gather again and specifically quantifies the hundreds of years that have passed

She does this twice more, mentioning the seven centuries and how they all did this 700 hundred years ago

She is the one to point out that, in the past, they all promised to meet together again for a drink no matter what happened

She says that she believed “those joyful days would flow indefinitely before us” which also fits within the imagery of drinking

There are multiple visual nods to drinking in her flashbacks as well: there’s the quintet having a toast, as well as Jingliu pouring out the alcohol once again while Yingxing sips off to the side, which symbolically is a good representation of the way she poured so much of herself into Blade (whether intentionally or unintentionally) that so much of him resembles her now, down to the bow on the back of his clothes (and even their similar splash arts). There’s also a glimpse of Yingxing and Jing Yuan drinking together. Because both of them were children when they each met Jingliu for the first time, it makes sense that Jingliu and the others were likely the ones to teach the pair to drink once they each came of age.

Jingliu mentions that they will likely never all meet again, and bids farewell to the HCQ.

Finally, at the very end of the quest, she directly says:

Blade mentions alcohol only once, when he says, "The miraculous thing is that in my brief moment of death... all the pain went away... like when we drank to drown our sorrows." In Jingliu's case, we know that she was affected in much the same way as Blade, becoming more confident and boastful under the effects of drinking, mentioning that the nightmares and pain from her childhood memories were no longer so terrifying. For both of them, alcohol is another form of suppression of pain, not unlike substance abuse seen in real life, which grieving individuals are at higher risk of falling victim to.

While it’s possible this wasn’t the reunion that alluded to and they could technically all reunite once more in the future, the sheer number of references to the contents of the backstory mentioned in the bracer lead me to believe that this isn’t the case, as well as Jingliu stating herself that this would likely be their final meeting before she pays her own ultimate price. Not to mention the fact that very specific circumstances had to be in play for Jingliu/Luocha, the Stellaron Hunters, and the Astral Express to all end up on Jing Yuan’s doorstep at the same time. Specificity like that is rarely duplicated, particularly in HSR’s canon, which features many characters with formerly close bonds being separated for whatever reason with no closure to their relationship. The four of them even getting one reunion was a blessing in itself, even though none of them felt particularly happy about it afterwards.

TLDR: Dan Heng is accused of running from his past, but he is the only one of the three "sinners" capable and willing to do so; Jingliu and Blade are heavy parallels of each other and share the same pains of complicated grief; Yingxing and Dan Feng together (and Blade and Dan Heng by association) bring out the worst in each other and represent a cycle of destruction that neither of them are currently able to escape from; the reunion mentioned by the bracer was likely Jingliu's idea that Blade also began to internalize and we likely just watched it occur; Dan Feng, Blade, and Jingliu were all incapable of handling death and loss and this inability is what lead to the three of them causing so much pain and destruction for themselves, each other, and everyone around them.

[mithliya]

A French journalist claims to have the leaked reports of two endocrinologists confirming Imane has a male intersex disorder:

https://lecorrespondant.net/imane-khelif-ni-ovaires-ni-uterus-mais-des-testicules/

Few things to note, there is no confirmation as to whether the report is legitimate as we are only shown a tidbit stating Imane has Alpha 5 reductase type 2. Which would make Imane genetically male if this is the case. A lot of the symptoms they listed Imane to have is consistent with the disorder. However, I do not know the history of this journalist so I cannot determine if there is a history of bias or falsehoods to consider.

Another thing to note is that this is primarily being spread by Imane's detractors who previously and erroneously referred to Imane as transgender. Alongside them endorsing Donald Trump to "protect women" in the same posts, I wouldn't have taken them seriously to begin with.

While this report is exactly what we needed to make a decisive conclusion as to whether Imane should've participated in the olympics, it's being run a mock by conservatives and "gender critical" conmen to endorse politicians who have a history of harming women. No, I don't care if people bring up Reduxx as a credible source when Anna Slatz, a cofounder, published an article for a neonazi group and associated herself with Rebel News, who's a part of the alt right. Us as radfems seriously need to drop it and create an actual news platform FOR women and not have these thinly veiled fascists trying to promote their lapdogs to us.

i dont know how reliable le correspondant is and couldnt find much info on it as a source but imane khelif is already pursuing legal action over the claims that she has XY chromosomes (which is a strange course of action if she does have XY chromosomes)

i second you on reduxx though. that source is run by a racist & homophobic right-wing woman that caters to male conservatives all the time, i unfortunately cannot trust reduxx at all knowing this.

at the end of the day, as ive said in the beginning, idk her chromosomes or her intersex condition or any of that, but people were speculating based on a lack of evidence rather than based on evidence and pretending she was having a massive erection at the end of her fight and arguing no MENA woman would hug a man or be on a man's shoulders and making many racial stereotypes, calling her a man and erasing her experience. whether she has XY or XX chromosomes, she was assigned female at birth & raised female and that experience on its own is worth something especially in MENA where there is a big difference between how men & women are treated.

people have every right to critique the IOC and question the inclusion of intersex conditions which produce (proven) significant advantages but people were harassing her viciously and expecting a woman from an impoverished background to just... entirely drop her career in sports over speculations instead of criticising the olympics for not setting up clear regulations and ensuring fairness to begin with

anyways ill be waiting until something more reliable comes out, but i stand by the fact that the way she was harassed was completely disgusting and a lot of the shit ppl were saying was pure racism. its so easy to discuss that its unfair for people with certain conditions to compete against non-intersex women and to criticise the olympics for it without falling into that and yet people couldn't even do that.

[butterfly-ribbon]

been thinking of ppl saying that mizuena should've been in a yuri or josei manga that isn't popular which is a sentiment i understand bc yes a hypothetical mizuki akiyama that exists in a yuri or josei manga would probably have her transness made explicit i guess (absolutely not guaranteed tho imo considering the amount of transfem manga i've read that quickly veer into third sexing u_u) but even if i accept this premise at face value i'm not fully onboard with it bc i feel like her character exists best in something like prsk bc she exists as a response to trans girls being into things like love live, revue starlight, bandori, etc. it's in her metanarrative…

not saying gacha game writing is always good … a lot of ppl often say it's frustrating how much it expects you to fill in the gaps (bc that's part of audience engagement) and ena5 was arguably gachapilled abt it but i think it makes sense. gacha thrives on implied queerness bc even when the writers are passionate about what they're writing abt they can't risk alienating executives and wider audiences bc writing queerness in something 'mainstream' is often complicated? so it's not always the writers' choice? i think mizuki is pretty Explicitly transfem though. the only "issue" with her writing to me is that they don't let her say this, which i also only consider a problem /at all/ bc when she's outed it's pretty explicit? gacha often has very character driven writing … the queerness is often also an Audience Draw. i wish they would at minimum call mizuki a girl. textually. i want ena to call her a cute girl … though considering how many ppl go "ano ko", she's getting called a cute girl all the time lol.

with that being said, i think the picnic event is one of my main examples of things that make me go,,, mizuki's character works best in the context of something like prsk as a response to things like bandori bc it's about a tgirl vs cgirl idols. that mixed events inherently highlight mizuki's circumstances as "othered" by society around her and the inherent complications of her own life vs others. ppl compare mafuyu and toya sometimes also but it's so bare bones by comparison bc mafuyu is literally in a dissociative cPTSD fugue at all times. it's about so much more than being forced into a life goal she doesn't want. everything about how her mother has raised her has warped her as a person. made her unable to see healthy or more objective realities. mizuki and mafuyu both have wanted desperately to die and disappear. mizuki even now … struggles so much with that and being around "normal" ppl is hard for her bc of it bc no matter how she tries, she can't be a normal girl. an average girl. so she has to be abnormal or exceptional. no in between. how she exists in contrast to bandori is so genuine in that engagement with gender and i specify bandori bc it's colopales other game.

going back to the picnic event i love the moment when they're eating the food airi prepared and talking about how airi and shizuku are "idols who are capable of bringing others hope", but then mizuki quickly goes from admiration to somberness, wishing she could be the same as them ... and even when the others bring up the music she makes with her circle it doesn't do much to cheer her up? it reads so much to me as a trans girl struggling with an inherent sense of inferiority amidst cis girls who have never had their own girlhood questioned in the way she has and can thus take so much for granted! ena might be really ruthless and mean in a way that is atypical of femininity and airi may have struggled with not being traditionally feminine and was bullied for failing to act out "proper" girlhood, but she still has a very different experience from mizuki and neither can compare to the constant transmisogyny and degendering that mizuki constantly has to go through every day and having her identity denied so vehemently on a systemic level.

it's so pointed to me bc mizuki is an idol fan and has that genre awareness ... the way trans girls often connect with media like mahou shouio and idols but despite their love for it, still feel an inherent sense of alienation due to being an Other ... bc there's a separation between "liking these girls and these things" abstractly versus actually meeting them, and i think it's interesting that there's literally no way in the context of this game that any of these girls could be idols and trans, specifically bc mizuki is a trans girl who can't be one and this game predicates a major portion of its story around mizuki As A Trans Girl! if mizuki tried to be an idol, she'd be outed and harassed! that's a fear she already has to live with when she's making music with niigo even though it's safer due to its anonymity. transness and idols don't have to be disconnected of course, but her being a trans girl who's a fan of this stuff who's disallowed the opportunity to directly take part in them is So fucking important. her engagement with all of this.

this is an event about ena's relationships with other women but also how mizuki exists in the borderlines of girlhood ... how no one else is so prepared as she is for things going wrong and how much she has had to take on undue responsibility in the world at large just to "exist"... she's protected at home but everywhere otherwise, she always has to take responsibility for how others see her, how others project onto her, how others expect her to act, and the event ends with mizuki still declining ena's offer to join the group call with airi and shizuku bc it didn't resolve anything ... bc simply repressing her own insecurities and fears in the moment to rescue ena and airi bc it's more important to act didn't help in the grand scheme of things when this is something mizuki is always expected to do! ena did it out of kindness, but it's terrifying to be invited to a group trip with her childhood friend who is actually a cool and beautiful idol, and then for another beautiful idol to be there. and both of them are so pleasant and sweet and nice. how is mizuki supposed to interact around ppl like that, after all?

the mizuena in the picnic event is so fucking vital bc of ena trying to give mizuki comfort but making her more and more discomforted, which is good buildup to my footsteps, your destination. it's about how mizuki still exists on the fringes of girlhood even when someone is actively making effort to make her feel "included" and the invisible yet uncrossable barrier that exists between her as a trans girl who loves things like idols and idols themselves (who are predominantly cis girls). airi and shizuku are very sweet! but it's… kind of agonizing, bc airi was already ena's "friend" and mizuki feels like she has no place in the lives of others and wouldn't deserve to be ena's friend if ena found out about her transness, which is why she clings to the plausible deniability around her gender status. airi is someone who can bond with ena and be close to her much more easily bc of their shared experience with misogyny, but this is something mizuki has to struggle for much more even though the misogyny she struggles with is even more Amplified due to how the [trans]misogyny she experiences is often denied and erased even among other girls...

[alfredojesta]

i've never given LJ / Candy Pop a proper post on their own, so here's my scrambled thoughts about them ^o^

they aren't dating in my canon for. A Multitude of Reasons. but i do have a lot of things to say about their friendship as a whole.

LJ was initially uninterested in Candy Pop. he believed jesters were inferior to clowns. and, honestly, this flashy guy looked like he was trying too hard! his bright colours hurt LJ's eyes!

their first encounter with each other wasn't pleasant. LJ made him go into a magic box and spun him to a foreign land. hours later, Candy Pop came out and sputtered insults at them, out of confusion more than anything.

LJ laughed, amused, seeing Candy Pop as just another victim for them to torment at the mansion.

Candy Pop stormed off and immediately forgot about LJ's existence because his memory's gen so shit he can only retain one thing at a time.

the moment they actually became friends was when LJ saw Candy Pop's AMAZING MAGIC POWERS! what! he never knew a jester could perform like that!? Candy Pop could make objects, even people, explode into a gazillion candies!—oh, that must be where he gets the name from!

so while LJ didn't give Candy Pop a chance at first, he was practically all up in his face after seeing what he could do. questioning him, requesting they hang out, asking him for free candy, and the such. it was out of wonder. LJ had never met someone of his calibre before.

Candy Pop was more than willing to show off his tricks. LJ's curiosity and enthusiasm made Candy Pop feel at home. not many people in this age have an appreciation for Candy Pop's tricks. plus, he could learn a few from LJ. he was a bit rusty.

it was no shock they gained an affinity for one another. they shared a similar passion, and the same love of performance.

OKAY NOW THAT THE INTRODUCTORY SHIT IS OUT OF THE WAY

circus duo time :)

Candy Pop and Laughing Jack love each other in a way that isn't platonic, nor romantic, but a secret third, more sinister thing.

they comfort each other by just being around. no need to share personal details. that's not what they go to each other for.

LJ, especially, doesn't want to burden Candy Pop with their problems. they'd feel horrible! that's their bestie not their therapist! :(

on Candy Pop's side, he doesn't actually think LJ is... erm. intelligent or. sensitive enough to learn about his past. it's a definite lack of trust in LJ's emotional understanding—but, can he really be blamed? the way LJ behaves shows he may not be ready for deep conversations.

yet, Candy Pop knows LJ has a mature side, or at least, a troubling past of his own. he can tell when LJ isn't feeling his best—when his laugh sounds forced, when it fades too fast, and he's looking off in a daze. he'll be there to help LJ make it through the day, not be too annoying with questions, and cheer him up by getting him back into the hang of things.

the first time LJ saw Candy Pop sad, LJ was confused as fuck. LJ usually HATES when ppl cry. he thinks it's so annoying—but with Candy Pop, he just felt BAD!!! LITTLE JESTER WHY ARE YOU CRYING??? LJ would do everything in his power to see Candy Pop smile. he does not care who he has to kill actually.

n e way. Candy Pop and LJ looove doing circus acts in LJ's room. they're just two bouncy guys running around and being stupid! besides that, they do other things such as: go on walks, take baths together, have little dinner dates, indulge in other peoples' horror, and have sleepovers!!!

also they kiss sometimes ^_^ YAY!!! there's 0 romantic intent behind them. LJ thinks it feels nice and Candy Pop sees it as an affectionate exchange (aka he's a whore and he'll kiss any living adult with pretty lips). :3

in the least sexual context: LJ likes the way Candy Pop tastes. he's sweet, literally candy. that's why LJ will often chew on Candy Pop's hair, or his arm, or his hand, or anything really. Candy Pop is the one that initiates any kisses, though, because LJ gets flustered quickly. but. i must say. LJ does love those kisses very much. he's a bit too shy to ask for them, that's all.

on walks, LJ likes carrying Candy Pop!!! just holding him in their arms while they wander the forest. bridal style so Candy Pop can lean up and pepper their face with kisses. they'll maybe visit the forest's tavern, find a nice table to sit at and yap while their food gets cold.

they're both so physically affectionate. LJ will hold Candy Pop's hands whenever he has the chance. squeezing his fingers. idly tracing his wrists. being gentle with him so his claws don't pierce the skin. Candy Pop's hands are much smaller than LJ's, and he tends to just hold two or three of LJ's claws THEY'RE SO CUTE I HATE MY LIFE Candy Pop loves hugs!!! he is a huge fan of just sitting on LJ's lap and hugging him while they talk. this works for cuddling too. hehe. Candy Pop is most likely to tackle LJ to the ground when they hug, while LJ is most likely to squish him to death.

LJ doesn't need to sleep, but Candy Pop does. Candy Pop tries to keep up with their energy, but he can't all the time... so if he ever ends up passing out, LJ makes sure to find a nice place for Candy Pop to sleep! they'll even sit next to him. playing with his hair, watching him sleep (admiring), and maybe toying with his dreams for fun. Candy Pop wakes up, and gestures for LJ to lie with him. just a few minutes together, and then he'll leave bed...

sleepovers are fun for this reason—LJ's always wanting to do stupid shit, even when it's 5 AM and they've already annoyed everyone in the mansion with god knows what. Candy Pop is tired at this point. being more mellowed out, he suggests calmer things to do. like taking a bath together!

baths with them are. not chaotic at all actually. baths are one of the most peaceful things for both of them. Candy Pop got LJ into taking them, because LJ would normally just shower. they use fizzy bath–bombs. LOTS AND LOTS OF BUBBLES. THE ENTIRE BATHROOM WILL SMELL LIKE A BAKERY IT'S SO SWEET. they could be in there for hours, honestly. yapping like they always do. when LJ massages Candy Pop's hair with shampoo, he's VEEERY careful as to not hurt him with the claws. Candy Pop loves the scratchy feel though.

sometimes Candy Pop will leave lipstick marks over LJ's face, or his collar—depending on how comfy LJ is at the moment. and then they can just wash it off in the bath!!! it's the only time LJ has any colour on him. little purple marks :)

i'd say they even get dressed together. picking outfits for each other and whatnot. Candy Pop tries on LJ's wardrobe and LJ laughs at how tiny he looks. they do each other's makeup—or well, LJ does Candy Pop's makeup (LJ likes doing his own makeup for personal reasons, and Candy Pop respects that). Candy Pop has a go at attaching bells to LJ's hair, and now they're both running around, jingle jangling.

one day i have to make an AU where they are canon because i love them... unfortunately, my LJ and Candy Pop could never date because erm. LJ eats children and Candy Pop is still not that comfy with knowing that. bro stays blissfully oblivious. if he can't see LJ eating kids then it never happens. on the otherhand, LJ would lose his mind over being in love and it will not go well i fear.

IF ANYONE ASKS ME TO ELABORATE ON THIS ASPECT OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP, I WILL! there's DEFINITELY a lot more to go in-depth on. Just didn't yap abt it on this post bc Idk i want them to be cute not angsty

teehee ^o^

see i committed to my turn @seas1mping

[katerinaaqu]

Heyyy on the topic of calypso- I saw someone say that “she was a narrative method of showing the position Odysseus put his war concubines in amid a tragic narrative and the consequences of immorality too” and wanted to know what you thought of that? Especially in connection to the post you made where you explained the nuance you can see the situation with his “prizes” in? Oh and if you have time I also wanted to ask about Hecuba who he was given apparently? Since many ppl say he 🍇 her

To be fair, dear Anon I am not even sure what this means, if I am completely honest. To my understanding is that this person interprets Odysseus's experience as reflecting the slaves that he potentially had after the war or something? I mean if yes, that is to say the very least an interesting perspective not gonna lie and it is possible that such connotations might have been made. Now whether Odysseus had the slaves or not seems easy to answer. I think he did at least from what Agamemnon says and I have answered an ask before in the past here:

There is no guarantee that he used his war prize for sex or not so this is left up for interpretation according to everyone's ideas on the character and since the use of slaves is kinda a gray zone in mythology this also is left for interpretation.

So the idea that Odysseus was supposed to be a "point the finger" character to reverse the concept of war prizes that their feelings are oftentimes (if not most of the time) overlooked or their desires being ignored as their purpose is now being concubines (see Cassandra or Briseis) or servants (Melantho, Euryclea etc) for the lord that bought or won them it is not completely impossible given how the concept of slavery with sexual connotations was touched by ancient sources before by having Heracles being sold as a slave to Omphale. What is more Heracles was dressed in female clothing doing female-related chores while Omphale was dressed in his lion mane and ordered him around. Now that case of course is more like an interesting erotic game material as opposed to the punch in the stomach Odysseus's case was. Interestingly of course his relationship with Calypso was interpreted with positive connotations even by other ancient Greek writers such as Hesiod instead. It could be of course another twist of interpretations in his case but that is another story. Either way as interpretation it is definitely interesting to think of and of course it is a clear show of Homer's part on power imbalance. Maybe he wanted to make this clear by placing Odysseus at the literal mercy of two goddesses just like plenty of women in mythology were placed in situations like this in which the power imbalance between themselves and their persecutor brought them to inability to react.

As for the consequences of immortality I had written a small thing a while ago:

Personally I saw the refusal of immortality by Odysseus as yet another mean Homer used to show how loyal Odysseus remained to his wife, similar to Penelope's refusal to marry any of the young and vigorous suitors despite the pressure, thus placing the two characters at an analogy with each other. However there are other interpretations of immortality for humans in ancient Greece which seems to be the opposite of happy; a sad existence like second death, people forgetting you even existed and you are bound for all eternity to the same spot or the same existence where you remember nothing of your past as a human being and no one else remembers about you.

I am not sure I fully align with this per se at least not as much as Homer is concerned given again the parallels between the one and the other at this case Odysseus and Penelope refusing apparently positive situations out of love and loyalty for each other. But if a "consequence" is the word I would use would be the positive consequence because as I mention to my post, I find it interesting how Odysseus was associated with Achilles in the passage of Nekya and how Achilles tells him and the viewer how terrible death is and how sad and pointless existence is down there so to me it seems indeed as more like the positivity of the life Calypso seems to be leading despite her lonely existence vs the darkness of death that would befall him. It seems that Odysseus would have "his problems fixed" if he accepted Calypso's gifts and yet he didn't. He refused her immortality and her beautiful island or her company to return to his home even if he knew death would come to him eventually or that he would find misery at his home he would have to deal with (as per the Curse of Polyphemus).

Now for Hecuba yes by general confession Hecuba was given to Odysseus as a war prize. Hecuba even laments her fate saying that she has the worst fate of all and berates Odysseus and how terrible man he is (in Euripides's "Trojan Women"). Euripides is also known for depicting Odysseus as a rather devious man as compared to Homer. Other sources like Ovid even tear Odysseus to pieces! In his work "Metamorphosis" mentions how Hecuba was pitifully crying among her dead sons embracing the urns or kissing the bones and Odysseus found her and violently tore her apart from them to claim his prize and took the bones of Hector away from her. Now there is no doubt that Hecuba had a very sad life and a sad end but I cannot find some specific reference to rape by Odysseus. Most sources especially the post-homeric ones that do not exactly paint Odysseus in the most positive way, speak on how Odysseus shows no compassion for her pleading to spare her daughter and basically tells her "not to challenge him or try to fight against him" specifically in the play "Hecuba" if I recall correctly or how as I said in works like Ovid where he mercilessly drags her away from the bodies of her loved ones but I cannot seem to find a reference that he sexually abused her. If anything it feels more like people on Internet speak on that or even some people who comment on it speak about sex is because he takes her as his war prize

I am not aware if there is some ancient scholia referring to Odysseus having sex with Hecuba at all. Most speak on his violent behavior towards her (and again many of the sources that do so already do depict Odysseus in a negative light anyways). I think it is because usually people see "war prize" and immediately think on a sex slave. But even in plays by Euripides is hinted that Odysseus was aiming to use her as a servant for his wife Penelope when he came home rather than use her for his pleasure. Besides Hecuba was considered an old woman so it is not that Odysseus would have a lack of options if he wanted to have sex with a slave in order to sleep with Hecuba much less rape her for it. I mean by Pausanias if I recall correctly, we know that Odysseus was one of those who actively demanded the stoning of Ajax because he raped Cassandra in the temple. I am not sure it is consistent to assume he would commit rape himself.

I hope that answers the question partially

[generouskittentidalwave]

Talking about Odysseus after disappearing for months

Ah greek mythos tumblr, one of my first tumblr stomping grounds. Alright ima make this short and sweet on my current thoughts on Odysseus

Ancient greek Odysseus is such a fun character and one of my fav ancient greek heroes that I've studied so hard I know things about him by heart. However it's hard to outwardly enjoy his character with the public as ppl either take things heavily out of context because they don't know ancient Greek and translations suck, and they read stuff about him also heavily taken out of context by those same ppl that paint him as an asshole, abusive, aggressive, womanizer who cheated, which none of these are true, and the asshole part is only half true as it could be seen as an asshole by our standards but back then he was genuinely a good sane guy with the hubris the size of an ox and heavily undiagnosed adhd. Or they see Odysseus as one character which a lot of ppl, even ppl who love his character, do so they claim everything the character has ever done to being one person, both good and bad, when that is furtherest from the truth.

In reality Odysseus is not one single person and never has been. Homer did not create his character, he created an adapted and revised version of his character that many have created before he came along and many have created after him. Even non Greeks created stories about him. The story about Odysseus leaving that one guy on the island? Yeah never actually happened in greek terms, in reality Odysseus wasn't actually there in the story at all and didn't do or say much of anything other than "🕴" the whole time, yet because of that one story ppl blame him for being the main cause of it anyway. Odysseus has never been and never will be one person, you basically find a variation of him that you like and enjoy it and add bits from other stories to it and boom there ya go, enjoy it. That's how it works and always has worked for centuries.

And Odysseus is being brought back and rewritten all over again in our modern era via Epic the musical by taking a character that was created beforehand and adapting and revising said character, just like homer once did, and so did the others before them. And in the future ppl may question the morals of said musical and make another Odysseus to fit their modern time. It's an endless cycle that will repeat itself forever.

If you were to ask me who my favorite Odysseus is? The Odysseus in EPIC the musical while adding a few bits of the Iliad here and there (hoping he makes an Iliad musical one day), it's the one I grew most attached to and love as an adaption. Ancient Odysseus is an amazing one but Modern Odysseus is my personal favorite.

So enjoy your variation of Odysseus and have fun with it as long as you stay respectful to the greek culture and it's original source (aka don't make Odysseus a horrible man and his two rapists girlbosses and label him a cheater, that shit AIN'T flying around here. Period.)

And I hope you all have an amazing day and night! ^^

[bluestarjay]

After being on Tumblr for I think nearly a year, and making a fuck ton of posts and gaining mild popularity on certain posts and gaining a whopping 21 followers, I've never made a Hinata Harem post. So yall are finally lucky enough to hear my takes on it ❤️❤️❤️

So first of all, I kinda love the hinata harem thing bc it's actually so funny, but strangely, in a way, it's realistic. Not very well written most of the time, but realistic as a concept.

Bc like he gets along with basically the entire cast, and he sometimes compliments characters who are not used to being complimented, and that character may blush of embarrassment, and then the fandom takes that as shipping material, like with Goshihina. And it makes sense! Imagine you're rarely complimented, and you strive for validation from your peers, especially upperclassmen, and then suddenly, the cutest boy you've ever seen compliments you like you're the only person on the planet. And so then you purposely try as hard as you possibly can to make said boy continue to compliment you. Take this, then multiply it by 100, because I think that's how the harem trope, in Hinata's case, works.

This isn't meant to be in the way that he can be shipped with every single character because truly, he can't. Shipping Hinata with 3rd years, in a typical high school setting, is, at least imo (and not bc of the age gap itself), weird bc of the maturity difference. You shouldn't date a senior as a freshman bc you're on two separate maturity levels. And regarding all of the many 3rd years (tendou, daichi, suga, bokuto, etc), it's really the same exact thing just platonically. Bokuto is literally Hinata's older brother!! He adopted him as a student *and* sibling, bc he felt the same things everybody does, just in a *different* way.

The hinata harem, to me, is the display of hinata's character in reference to every other character, yk? To me, these select few people are actually in love with him, and these people have a "crush," which is more so a platonic feeling, and these people find a true, deep *friendship* with him, one that they've probably never experienced before, and therefore may look like a crush or love to an outside viewer. And, in these different relationships between hinata and other characters, they all love him. They all feel a loving connection with him, like how people would think in a harem, but it's not quite so because all of the people who love hinata love him in different ways.

Now, with how this harem is portrayed in fanfiction actually scares me bc half the people there are much older and mature than him (gen question why do ppl ship him with 3rd years /in high school/, like, I love Brazil Oihina sooooo much but hs Oihina is 😧😧😧) , and tbh it just gets out of control.

And alot of times I see Hinata reciprocate?? With multiple people?? Which is fine to an extent, imo like I love poly ships, I've seen a lot of really cute ones and some more interesting ones, and it's totally normal to have a crush on a few people at once but istg some people make him a goddamn player,,,

I recently read a harem-ish fic, which was much more similar to how I personally find it to be like, it was essentially people having a crush on hinata, or realizing it, and it was cute, but at the same time, Hinata asked one of them on a date, cuddled with like two other guys (which, normalize cuddling platonically but in the context of the fic it wasn't suuuuper platonic but wasn't suuuuuper romantic either iykwim), and the part of that that kinda icked me was just that he was getting on with so many people at once (the fic took place in the span of like a week, and there were like 5 people i think??). And a lot of other fics that are post time skip are just Hinata hooking up with the entire cast at some point???

Idk tbh but I do really like fics where everybody LOVES hinata, but only a few people are IN love with him. Just the balance of like ~5 people having a crush on him, half of the rest of them have adopted him in one way or another, and the other half have just found their new bff.

Btw I think that second to last paragraph is worded a bit poorly I just don't really know else to describe the fic so sorry if it offends anyone I'm free to edit it n if anyone wants more ship related stuff I got you (ALSO GIVE ME GOOD "HAREM" FIC RECS AS LONG AS THEYRE SFW AND COMPLETED!!) 💪💪💪

[godbirdart]

You don’t have to answer this question as it’s probably dumb to ask…but do you know what platform(s) would be a good starting point? Particularly for original content rather then fanart? I heard deviantart is a good place where alot of ppl got there start on but there’s lots of art thrives and such.

don't even worry, it's not dumb at all! it's hard to gauge where to Begin in the vast hellscape that is the online world. i do get this question [and some adjacent questions] often so please allow me to use your ask as an excuse to post a few of my site rankings for various art things!!

for reference, these are the sites I'll be addressing because i have used them at some point within the last year. please note: my information on Cohost and Itaku specifically may be out of date as I haven't used them in a long while. naturally, this is all solely my perspective. i run both a furry/original content account and an anime/fanart account on most of these sites and run them reasonably independently from one another. these rankings are based on how well each account fares on each site.

I will be talking about Patreon and Ko-Fi as if people will only be posting paywalled content there. you Can publicly post on both sites, but for the sake of this post i'm only going to treat them as paywalled sites since well, that's kind of their purpose.

POSTING ART IN GENERAL

the A-tier list sites here are the ones that are most practical, with a decent member presence and little to no algorithms impairing your reach. the only sites here with any sort of algorithm are tumblr and deviantart, but i feel they don't ruin your reach that much.

B-tier list is mostly centered around popularity. there are massive audiences on both masto and twitter. twitter can be really good if you're posting certain content. mastodon has countless instances [read: servers / subdomains, however you want to call them] that can help narrow down an audience and like-minded people. for example, i use mastodon.art whereas many furries may use meow.social. you Can be discovered by people on other servers than yours.

C-tier has been sorted in accordance to audience. this is solely in my experience, but not a lot of new people are flocking to cohost and itaku. we also just hate facebook in this house and i will never give a facebook products a high rating.

F-tier: if you are a new or growing artist, putting your art behind a paywall or making it a chat platform exclusive thing can really hinder your growth. you can still do this of course, but you won't get as many eyes on your work as you would on a public gallery. threads is there solely due to privacy issues that Cannot be overlooked. i will not recommend it.

POSTING ORIGINAL CONTENT / CHARACTERS / NON-FANWORKS

here's how i'd grade these sites for posting Original content, characters, stories, etc. your best sites will likely be furaffinity, deviantart, and tumblr. i've put these three here for their tag use, discoverability, and audience presence. tumblr can be a little glitchy with its tags, but they DO function.

A-tier is entirely centered around audience presence. these sites are great for showing off your work, but they don't have the same population as the S-tier. mastodon can be good as the quieter instances give you more discoverability. bluesky has been THRIVING when it comes to the furry community as of late [i'm personally on there daily] - the only reason i don't put it as S-tier is because it's invite-only AND you need to rely on your work being found through the Feeds feature if you aren't an already established artist.

B-tier: useful, but population may hinder your growth. toyhouse is GREAT for posting your original characters and stories, but it is invite-only and not necessarily gallery-focused [it can be USED for a gallery, but it's not the main purpose]. you can also post stories and lore to toyhouse. discord and telegram are Good, but again it can be hard to gain an audience through sites that require invites.

C-tier: it is DIFFICULT to grow on paywalled sites with original content. cohost [to my knowledge] has been stagnating with the release of bluesky.

F-tier: threads sucks, the end.

POSTING FANWORK, FANFIC, FANDOM CONTENT IN GENERAL

S-tier here is sorted because of audience presence. while twitter does suck, i'm finding a LOT of success there with fanart. tumblr is The fandom site of course. furaffinity is great for a surprising range of fanart that isn't exclusive to furry, and deviantart's Groups feature is still going strong which can give you that extra exposure.

A-tier is: fans Go here, but the population or algorithm can make things tricky. instagram is good for fanwork but the algorithm and the speed that things are posted there can make discoverability an uphill battle. patreon; if you make comics or art with fan characters [especially 18+ content lmao] you can grow pretty rapidly there. patreon, like any other paywalled site, should be a secondary site and not your Primary posting location. artfol and pillowfort are still growing. pillowfort has a Communities feature - sort of like deviantart groups - that you can submit your art to which gives you that extra exposure. artfol is just a nice gallery site and the tagging system is,, decent enough. a little confusing because the tag system looks up keywords in posts and titles First, you have to tab over to hashtag searching specifically.

B-tier: invite only and audience reach. again, bluesky relies on your art to be picked up in Feeds, as there's currently no tag search. inkblot is growing but has a decent audience. ko-fi isn't as known as patreon for exclusive content but it's still a good site. mastodon has tagging that makes discoverability easier, but mastodon and its many servers can make things confusing for some people. itaku's not as commonly used so it may be harder to gain new eyes there once you establish yourself.

C-tier: posting fanart to these sites Can Work. toyhouse focuses on posting and sorting original characters, so treating it as a gallery site won't get your far fast. it isn't impossible to grow as an artist there, but the site isn't intended for fanart posting. i cannot say much on cohost here. telegram and discord, again, it's harder for people to discover you out of the blue unless you mention your server / channel on another site.

F-tier: fuck threads.

lastly, to address thieves,

thieves are gonna be everywhere. i'm sorry to say, but there will always be shitty people. i recommend the following:

watermark your art. not in the corner, don't just sign in one spot, place a Huge translucent watermark over the WHOLE art. i recommend making it a colour gradient too instead of one solid colour or greyscale.

also: sign your goddamned art! put your username on there!

post a low resolution when sharing online. less than 1200px wide or tall. 72dpi. JPEG format. keep the high res privately for yourself.

add a subtle noise filter over your art. it doesn't have to be high opacity, and it'll make your art a little grainy, but it's good for fucking with AI bots and ruining any print quality potential.

i hope this offers some insight! if you have a different experience on these sites, please feel free to add your testimonial in the replies or reblogs! not every artist is going to have the same experience and growth rate.

[stardustpr1ncess]

This may be slightly insane to say, however, did anyone else think season 2 is kinda mid so far? Like slightly act 1 but predominantly act 2.

The most all encompassing issue being it's moving too damn fast. Shows having under 10 episodes is hella annoying generally but season 1 felt nowhere near rushed. So many elements feel thrown in that will either get no explanation, we didn't even ask about, or will have an incredibly quick conclusion in act 3.

The entirety of the Ambessa and Mel storyline feels like it both came to a crawl, while also going in the most crazy direction. With the introduction of REAL WITCHES, Mel being part witch (?), and Ambessa just generally being fucking annoying. Like her daughters been kidnapped (once again by fucking witches) and yet she's just bounced to manipulating Caitlyn instead, fighting her goofy ahh war with Zaun, and trying to develop a technology that is essentially impossible to do without the inventors, who are missing from her perspective. When she could be... Looking for her daughter that's like her #1 priority?

The new characters are dummy uncooked. There's the fish enforcer, WHO WAS NOT EVEN NAMED OR GIVEN LINES BUT WAS THROWN IN THE MAIN GROUP ANYWAY. That's like all the info on him. The shield enforcer, please refer to the fish enforcer.

Then Maddie who gets her own paragraph because I know ppl will have quite the reaction to her lol. For the very, very surface level info we have about her, she's cool. She's snatched Caitlyn when Vi wasn't looking, I would've done the same. But once again... Besides that... She doesn't serve the plot besides 1 conversation with Vi, and fucking Caitlyn (which once again, mad respectable, I feel her grind but not like how Caitlyn did-ANYWAY). They only gave her like 2 scenes in act 2 as well 😭. Maybe she'll get 3 in act 3 who knows.

You may have noticed I didn't mention Isha in with the new characters. That's because she's more related to jinx' story than her own character, which in this case is fine. She's essentially what Milo and Clagger were to Powder, but now Isha with jinx. Kinda just a catalyst for act 3 character development. Not much else to say, at least rn, and by me.

Vanders (no, I'm not calling him Warwick. The only time the show says that's his name is in the subtitles. His name is Vander.) arc is moving at the speed of sound, if he's even still alive. He's turned into The Hound of the Lanes (way cooler name fuck you) essentially to see if Singe can, destroys a prison, Jinx and Vi find him and reunite as a familyish. Makes sense so far. They take him to Viktor, who then has a montage of trying to help him, he seemingly has a break through, until the spooky military lady pulls up and Jayce "kills" Viktor and the spooky magic makes Vander a lava monster and the kid shoots him with the spooky magic gun-WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?! HALF OF THAT HAD NO DIALOGUE. No interaction with jinx, seeing the person she became. No reassurance for Vi, who feels like she's failed at everything. Just turn into a lava monster lol. The flashbacks were cool if not unnecessary since Vander and Silco's reasoning for revolution was never in question.

We're just gonna hope Jayce and Viktors story gets more development in act 3, which seems to be the main arc act 3 cared about.

So yeah, turns out I was much more passionate about the season than I thought, lol. Oh, and if there's something I didn't mention, it was either peak fiction or so miniscule it didn't feel worth mentioning.

Thank you for reading.

[layzeal]

Hi! I have a mdzs question and I figure you are most likely to know the answer. In the scene where wwx and lwj are interrogating nhs about the stone castles, wwx mentions that the Nie's method of cultivation seems to deviate from the standard cultivation path. In the 7seas English edition, he says that it's "hitting a bit close to the demonic cultivation path." My question is, does he actually refer to it as "demonic cultivation"? It does make more sense in this context, but I know 7seas has a habit of mistranslating ghostly cultivation to demonic cultivation. Thank you very much for your time reading this!

Hi!! Sorry for the delay in replying. So, short answer is YES, he does refer to "demonic cultivation" (魔歪道 as written in the text), but he is not comparing it to his own cultivation (ghost cultivation, 鬼道).

Now, every xianxia novel will have its own worldbuilding and set of rules, even if they're all taking inspiration from existing tropes. Guidao, for example, while in MDZS is considered immoral by some, it still does not harm or make use of living human souls and lives, and so in MDZS's setting it is not considered actual modao (though whether or not one thinks it's moral or ethical or whatever it doesn't matter here!! we're just talking semantics), meanwhile in Liu Yao by Priest, ghost cultivation (as written there) is not only considered a branch of modao, but is seen as THE most evil and immoral type you could possibly use, because not only you're using human souls, you're imprisoning and enslaving them even after death.

@qourmet actually mentioned on twt a while ago that one close example of real demonic cultivation you can think of in MDZS are the mind-controlling nails they put into Song Land and Wen Ning, though even that's questionable considering they weren't actual alive. Xue Yang and JGY's human experiments (ie. living corpses) also come close. So in A GENERAL SENSE demonic cultivation refers to anything that makes use of and harms living humans in order to empower the cultivator, either by stealing the victim's cultivation/spiritual power, controlling them, forcing them to do things against their will, etc etc etccccccc

This is all just context to understand why WWX makes the little accusation that he did

(ch 6, 7seas)

so you can see there's nothing actually wrong with the translation in this part itself, because in this instance, "demonic cultivation" (or demonic crooked path, as directly translated) is actually being said (as it was in many other instances, like the prologue chapter where ppl talk abt wwx's death, or when jc finds the leaf doll on jin ling's back)

the only problem is that in later parts of the story, 鬼道, which is an entirely different term, is given the same translation as the former, which may cause confusion, and was a mistake also present in the original ExR translation that we all hoped would be fixed in an official one (but didn't </3). whether or not guidao counts as demonic cultivation or is evil or whatever doesn't matter here, but i only wish that the different terms had been translated as different words, so the reader could come to their own conclusion on the matter by themselves

so yeah! hope that was helpful