#No I was kind of thinking to myself it was kind of funny how of the OG Shichibukai half of them are either dads or borderline dads

[maskedbyghost]

Possessive reader getting a body pillow cover of Simon made for when he’s on deployment for long periods of time and can’t communicate. Like a cat seeing a balloon of itself, man is pissy anytime he’s reminded it exists and gets reader’s undivided attention the moment he’s forced away from them.

You didn’t buy it as a joke. That’s the first thing people get wrong. You weren’t drunk or being ironic or trying to be funny about how much you missed him. You were just pissed off. He was gone again, longer this time, and he didn’t say how long exactly—just said he wouldn’t be able to call often, might not even text for a while.

And you just stood there, nodding like you were cool with it, like it didn’t already burn in your chest thinking about sleeping alone again.

So yeah. You searched “custom body pillow” that night with your jaw clenched and your arms crossed and your phone brightness on full blast, like that was gonna make it hurt less.

You found a site that let you upload any photo you wanted, and you picked that one—him shirtless, sweaty from a workout, giving you the kind of half-smile that made your stomach flip. He’d sent it to you months ago, and you’d never deleted it. Now it was going to be six feet of print pressed up against you under the blankets every night.

And you didn’t tell him. Of course not. You just tracked the shipping, yanked it out of the box the second it arrived, and dressed it in one of his old oversized tees—your favorite. The one he always pulled on when he got out of the shower, the one he always told you looked better on you than on him. It smelled like him. And now so did the pillow.

You laid it down on his side of the bed, adjusted the angle like a crazy person, and stared at it for way too long before you finally turned the light off. It wasn’t even that it made you feel better. You were just so mad you couldn’t have the real thing. If you had to sleep without him, then fine—you’d make damn sure there was no space in your bed left for anyone else. Not even empty air.

He got back weeks later. He didn’t even text that he was on his way—just showed up, opened the front door, and called your name like nothing had changed.

You were halfway through the hallway when you heard him go completely silent.

“Uh,” he finally said, and it was coming from the bedroom.

You turned the corner and saw him just standing there. Bag on the floor, keys still in one hand, mouth half open like someone had sucker punched him. The pillow was still there, obviously. Front and center. Still wearing his shirt. His face was printed life-sized on it.

“Oh,” you said, like you’d forgotten. Like it hadn’t been your emotional support sleep aid for two straight weeks. “That.”

“That?” he repeated, turning to look at you with full-blown betrayal in his eyes. “That’s what you’ve been sleepin’ with?”

“I didn’t exactly have options,” you said, walking past him to flop down on the bed. “You were gone. It was either this or cry myself to sleep.”

“You could’ve warned me,” he muttered, still staring at it.

You snorted. “Would you have stopped me?”

“…No.”

“Exactly.”

He finally tore his eyes off it and looked at you instead, arms crossed. “What, so I leave for five minutes and you replace me with a bloody pillow?”

“I wouldn’t need a replacement if you didn’t keep running off to fight bad guys every other month,” you said sweetly, patting the spot beside you. “Come on, it’s your turn. Might as well take your place back.”

He just stood there, unmoving. “You seriously slept next to that thing?”

“I did more than sleep,” you grinned.

He groaned. “Oh for fuck’s sake.”

“You jealous?”

“It’s a pillow,” he said, like the word offended him. “I’m not jealous of a fuckin’—”

“I rubbed my face on it every night. Talked to it too. Called it baby. You know, just regular relationship stuff.”

He stared at you, completely deadpan, then looked at the pillow again. “You’re sick in the head.”

You shrugged. “You love it.”

“I love you,” he snapped. “That’s the problem. You get away with this shit.”

You smiled like you’d won something. “You bet your ass I do. And if you ever get deployed without warning me again, I’m printing one of those full cardboard cutouts next. I’ll sit it at the kitchen table. Put it in the shower, even.”

He dragged a hand down his face, muttering something under his breath, and when he looked at you again his eyes were warmer. “You’re insane.”

“You love it,” you said, reaching for him.

He let you pull him toward the bed, finally dropping down beside you with a sigh. You tossed the pillow off to the side and straddled his lap like it was your rightful seat, hands on his chest, your grin smug.

He blinked, breath stuttering just slightly, and you watched the red creep up the tips of his ears as your fingers dragged down the front of his shirt. “You’re not allowed to be hotter than me and then disappear. That’s not fair.”

He laughed under his breath, shaking his head. “Jesus Christ, woman.”

“You missed it,” you said, kissing the corner of his mouth. “You missed me.”

“I really did.”

“Good,” you whispered, nose brushing his. “So don’t leave again.”

He kissed you hard, all tongue and teeth. “Make me.”

“Oh, I plan to.”

------------------------------------------

i just can't with these two

@daydreamerwoah @kylies-love-letter @ghostslollipop @kittygonap @alfiestreacle @identity2212 @farylfordaryl @rafaelacallinybbay @akkahelenaa @lovelovelovelovelove987654321 @wraith-bravo6 @tessakate @xocandyy @nightfwn @robinfeldt98 @bunnyxiis

[avatarthelastairgender]

IMO having a "vent channel" in a discord server is often awkward as hell but is also often the lesser of two evils because otherwise you get a main chat that's like

hi gamers

hey has anyone seen sinners yet

yeah it's good

i just think it's kind of funny how i'm supposed to wake up every day and pretend anything matters. like i'm supposed to smile at people on the street and go "haha yeah i'm doing okay" when actually i'm crumbling. my soul hurts. everyone around me seems to know how to live and i’m just here like a stray tab in someone’s browser from 3 months ago. i eat sad little meals and refresh the same three apps waiting for a notification that will never come. i will never be enough. not for my friends. not for my family. not for myself. i am unlovable in the most boring and exhausting way. like even my trauma has poor pacing. fuck.

[silence for 2 hours]

i thought hailee steinfeld was really good in sinners

[red-dye40]

LOOK EVERYONE BEE'S MAKING ANOTHER LONG TEXT POST!

LET'S ALL READ IT AND REALLY REALLY ABSORB EVERY LAST WORD!

Hello, it's me, Bee. I'm typing with proper capitalization to show you how serious this post is.

Recently, and especially yesterday, I've been getting increasingly upsetting and alarming engagement from fans (it feels stupid saying "fans" but also maybe my overfamiliarity is part of what's biting me in my huge ass.)

I am always of the mindset of letting people do their freak shit, never yucking anyone's yum, etc etc, but I think I have to start being a lot more explicit about where I stand on some things.

First of all, I want to specify upfront that Newfag Runs The Gauntlet is a work of fiction, and what's more, it's very explicit social commentary. You are Not supposed to root for Newf. He is purposefully Not A Good Person. That goes for pretty much everyone in NFRTG in fact; like, yes the CrowdSauce posts are funny and ridiculous, but if you find yourself reading some of the more violent and disturbing parts of those threads and being like "woah that's just like me!" then I urge you to understand that it's not a Good thing.

NFRTG isn't written to be representation for paraphiles or radqueers. I in fact do not use either of those terms to describe myself, because I personally am deeply uncomfortable with how broad and vague and muddy the definitions are, and how it invites and potentially encourages some really unsavory behavior. NFRTG is a cautionary tale first and foremost. It's a horror novel because it is SCARY how willingly all these characters agree to ruin people's lives for a laugh. It's also FUNNY because I am very funny :) and it's HOT and you can think it's HOT because I do! And definitely write parts of it to be hot and horny! That's part of the horror, too! Not knowing whether you're disturbed or disgusted or aroused! But please please please know that these characters are Not the good guys. There are really no good guys to be found. Intentionally. And that's not a Good Thing.

I'm going to take a big big BIG step back from fandom engagement for my own sake. There inevitably comes a point where creators kind of can't afford to keep up intense fan engagement and I think I'm there, so I'm gonna untrack my tags and let you all have your fun without mommy breathing down your neck. If you want me to see something, you can tag me or submit it to the site for sure! I WANT to see your art and writing and theories and all that! I LOVE it! I just don't think I need to be privy to ALL of it.

My closing remark is I am so grateful and so lucky to have gotten such a following so fast. Pretty much everyone I've interacted with has been very kind and sweet and curious, and I so admire that. What a lucky little bug I am! I want to keep feeling positively about my work and the impact it's having on others, so I urge everyone to approach NFRTG with a critical eye, understand that I am very much Pointing Out A Problem when I write characters doing or saying terrible things, understand that I very much Don't want people to kill themselves or each other, that I don't think these behaviors are just things we should turn our backs to. I was once a deeply suicidal, nihilistic, self-entitled channer who frequented gore sites and watched awful shit for fun. That was not good, and it took years of therapy for me to even START to unpack that and crawl out of that hole of self destruction. But I'm so much happier and healthier and better off now that I'm away from all that, and I will always encourage people to do the same. I really really would prefer it if people stayed alive and helped themselves and didn't harm others. That is my ask.

Thank you for your reading and I love you and I LIKE you. Please be safe and good :)

[like-all-fire]

i think the difference between sotr Haymitch and thg-trilogy Haymitch is so interesting not only because obviously there’s 24 yrs and a whole lot of trauma in between, but also because of the narrative POV:

in mockingjay, when Katniss goes to bombed D12 she says, she only notices that Haymitch’s not there with them when they land in the meadow. She asks Plutarch about it and he says that Haymitch ‘couldn’t face it’.

And Katniss goes:

“Haymitch? Not being able to face something? Wanted a day off, more likely,” Insay.

“I think his actual words were ‘I couldn’t face it without a bottle’,” says Plutarch.

I roll my eyes, long out of patience with my mentor, his weakness for drink, and what he can or can’t confront. But about five minutes after my return to 12, I’m wishing I had a bottle myself.

- p134/5

And I think this demonstrates so well, how our view on Haymitch is vastly different in the original trilogy than it is in sotr.

Because while Katniss has such a connection with Haymitch, that in most situations, especially life-or-death situations they literally know what the other is thinking, she also lacks the understanding of how deep and affecting his trauma is, too.

I thinks it’s funny because it quite literally is what an annoyed kid would think of their parents. ‘Haymitch? Not being able to face something?’ - she literally cannot imagine that there could be something he couldn’t do because it is too emotional for him, too painful, because of course that is a side of him she hasn’t experienced and doesn’t know about.

She only sees how his drinking is affecting his life, she only sees his behavior as her mentor and she’s - rightfully - annoyed about that. But she cannot consider - and this is no critique, think it is rather normal in her situation and the kind of their relationship - that it might be due to how affected he is by everything that is going on around them, too, so she usually pegs it down to him being a difficult person. Which is also true, for both of them though, but not the main reason.

As we now know from sotr. Because here we learn how Haymitch feels things. He feels and cares and loves deeply. Like all-fire. And of course trauma impacts this, but as we see in the epilogue it doesn’t change it completely. It alters his behavior more than the way he feels things. And the alcohol is obviously contributing, too. Which is what Katniss see then.

And it is amazing, because somehow Katniss must still understand this in a way, because she is so clear about the fact that Haymitch loves Peeta and her. She just cannot really process it consciously, which, again, is totally fair given her situation, but it does impact the way Haymitch is written from her POV as opposed to what we know from his POV now.

[yuukei-yikes]

idr if ive sent an ask like this before but. im sending it again if so.

forever thinking about how shintaro lost all three of his only friends on the same day. the anniversary of his dad dying, too.

so yeah. while he is extremely cringefail. i would shut myself in for four years too if that happened to me. like understandable have a nice day.

shintaro goes thru the horrors and we should talk about that more. like almost every route, on or near the anniversary of his dad and three of his only friends dying, he has to like. we all know it varies on who dies but in general he has to witness at least some of his new friends die.

paired with retaining. top ten characters that go thru it. shintaro wouldnt be number one bc hibiya and kano but hed be like. number three? i guess?

deciding on Who suffers more is a little pointless because it feels kind of bad to be like so what's worse? pretending to be your sister's corpse or a timeloop of 10 years? Like both are bad

however ur so right. shintaro is my little meow meow cringe fail idiot prince. something i love about kagepro and i think it's genuinely really well done is the representation of mental health. shintaro loses all 3 of his friends in one day, of course he's going to react like this. he's even under the impression one of them killed herself directly because of him. this guy's a messssss. iirc, in the novels at one point he even says why was i the only one left? so he definitely also had a bit of survivor's guilt there as well. tbh i think everyone in the dan had some survivor's guilt in regards to the person they died with. why was i chosen and not them? cause in kido's pov it also sounds like that when talking abt rin.

anywaysss. so shintaro is a funny guy. depressed king and with reasons to be sad and traumatized, he's got a strong sense of justice and always acts on what he thinks is right. it's funny that he's also so painfully awkward and anxious, but i think the whole beginning arc of kagepro really tells u who he is. shintaro is shown not being able to even TALK to customer service employees, cause he mumbles everything and stumbles over his words, yet like an hour later he's YELLING AT AN ARMED ROBBER THATS GRABBING HIM BY THE NECK. BOY WHAT😭 shintaro's principles always coming on top of anything else he might be feeling is awesome. it shows again in novel 7 when he's kinda awesome and smooth facing saeru and right after falls to his knees bc mary and kido said it wasn't That cool.

and this is all without mentioning retaining eyes. bro post str shintaro. what a delight. i love him. i wrote a stupid shintaro&takane fanfic once where i sorta go into it of how weird it is for him to live past That august, with everything he knows now. if u care here's a link *kicks rock*

shintaro is already pretty self centered as is. but i think very early on post str, now that retaining has been activated, all the routes bleed together and makes him very confused. and this time forever because retaining has been activated and he's. going to be alive from now on. no more resets. so he HAS to deal with it.

a genius or not, a human brain isn't Made to hold onto different memories of different lifetimes like this, so i think post str shintaro can't help being insensitive to others (in that fanfic i wrote, shintaro realizes him and takane in this final route never talked about her as ene, so while to him it was normal bc of retaining, she was still needing some closure on it)

and now ill mention my kagefuture bullshit SORRY!!! SORRY!!! idk if u even read my fancomic but basically shintaro is acting a little stupid in there. like acting without thinking stupid. i find it very fun to imagine an older shintaro doing that because he's spent so much time Stressing about what's happening and what's going to happen because it's finally different from other routes and that's scary, that to get to the point where he's a little more chill about it, it's inadvertently accomplished by Not Thinking. i like to imagine him living day to day without thinking of what will happen later because if he does that he'll spiral. so he sort of ends up in these weird situations like man. how did i not see this one coming

[bapouro]

im getting into a groove working at the toy factory today marks exactly 1 month there. its so sectioned off 2 x 4 hours each day.. i dont have to talk much and its about very routine stock responses. i know what im doing each day and daily surprises are what toy am i printing on today what logo... i always judge the logos some companies can afford £500 in getting some stress balls printed but cant afford a tasteful logo... so overdesigned, take your hand off the gradient tool. how do you expect thin light grey text to come out on white well on an area the size of my thumb? .... anyway my day is very structured .. i wish i wasnt so full-time i have become inspired again with art but now its more through music/video/3d modelling. i have become more invested in being aware of what 'scenes' i am in and consciously trying to place myself where i want to be. ive stopped believing much in some kind of creativity essentialism where there is a source of it inside you waiting to be freed i think its much down to other people more than most like to admit and i think thats partly why i want to take a break for now from the more solitary feeling of illustration and move towards more 'social'/performancey art again... ive been having fun planning mixes/dj sets for me and my furry friends on second life. i say this but its funny cos at the toycon i went with my friend whos an animator and she was like ive been hanging out with musicians more and so many of them are way too vibes based and i think i really just need to sit down alone at my desk and work to make what i want to make... so i guess we will see what the happy medium is haha. this is my first 9-5 feels mad i really do think about letting it all out at the weekend thank god im close to london ive just been scrolling instagram for a suggestion or my friends will find some usually rave event to invite me to and if its there and its on the weekend... well yes i will go why not.....

[alicelillianshaw]

'What did you write about?'

And that sort of shocks Alice out of her sorrow— for a beautiful minute, there's that feeling every writer has when someone shows interest in their work. Even more so because it's fucking Jack asking. She would have explained the paper word by word, if he asked.

And so Alice clears her throat. Scrubs at her cheeks, already straightening in preparation.

"It was— this paper, dissecting societal shifts during the 1800's and comparing them to sociopolitical events of today?" Alice sniffles. "That's such a vague explanation, sorry, but it was really long ... mostly, it was about dominant religions during the industrial revolution in Europe, and the clashes with Neo-Darwinism. And then comparatively, dominant religion during the Digital Revolution, specifically the early 2000s..." A beat, and Alice waves her hand, as if she knew she was explaining poorly. "...And then uh, how religious attitudes at that time influenced our policies and research about nuclear power."

She laughs, breathy and snuffly, grins at Jack as her head continues to shake.

"It sounds boring, and I explained it poorly, but I really loved it. Like —" her lips twitch. "I don't think you were able to see it in the pool, but when I got sober I got a whole tattoo kind of related to what I wrote."

Sort of related. Alice hadn't gotten a tattoo of a nuclear power symbol, at least.

It's funny. She feels ... more calm. Like when sediment settles down at the bottom of a lake and the water clears out. Jacks' doing, once again!

And so her throat feels a little less itchy. Her heart feels a little less wild. And the words he speaks after? It makes Alice look at Jack a bit differently— it makes her stare and scrutinize him, because what the hell!

Where had he been hiding all these words? This gift for writing?

'You made a mistake, but the things that you wrote were sincere when you wrote them. And even if you didn’t mean them when you wrote them — it’s like. Fuck. I don’t know how to explain it. Like, a surgeon does his job. Cuts into people and performs a flawless surgery, even when they’re having a bad day. Without intention. It's just ... what they're good at. What htey do. Even if they make a critical mistake the next day. It doesn’t take away from the work they did the day before, right?'

Her lips quirk. She stares at Jack a bit dreamily, wondering if he knew how he'd effected her. Made her heart ache, in a good way, and charmed her, all at the same time.

And then talking about her parents. Fuck. That makes Alice's lungs strain as she tries to hold herself together.

The emphasis Jack had put when he said they had Alice for a daughter. As if that were something special and good.

That despite all her mistakes, the clinking alcohol bottles on the floor of her room and the slurred assurances and the shaky hands and the thousand and thousands of wasted dollars— Alice was still good.

Still like the little girl who would run through the kitchen door, clutching dusty radishes to her stomach while ranting about her garden bed.

'If there's anyone that's undeserving...'

A line begins to form deep between her brows.

'How are you in my life right now?'

And then that really snaps Alice out of it.

"What does that mean!" she all but cries, clearing her throat with a rough sniffle.

"It's literally the other way around, like I said." Alice inhales, staring at Jack with narrowed eyes, disbelief etched into her features. Did he really believe that? "You invited me into your home when you're going through so much— you trusted me, even though you have absolutely no reason to. Put a lot of faith in me. And on top of that here I am ... just dumping all this on you, telling me all the selfish mistakes I made, and you're being so ... kind about it. Genuinely kind. You're the first person I've told whose been able to make me feel not so ... awful, towards myself, about it. You whip out that surgeon metaphor. You even made me feel better about my dumb crying face."

Alice pauses. She can't help the way she shifts forward on the couch; extends her arm, hand sinking into Jack's hair— a gesture that's half ruffle, half tender- touch.

Her face is back to feeling warm again, even when her hand retracts.

"You can't tell me you don't deserve all the right things."

The harder that Alice cried, the more that Jack wanted to pull her into his arms. How could he make this go away? It wasn’t about Alice crying; it was the fact that she was hurting by remembering all of this. How could he make it so that every drop of suffering from her body was meticulously plucked out? They had to invent something for that, Jack thought. He’d invest his entire portfolio if it existed.

Jack knew that taking away all of one person’s suffering wasn’t good either. Alice became the woman she is now by enduring all of that heartache. It was a strange feeling, and Jack figured that maybe, sometimes you cared about people enough to want them to have a good life even if it means they never would’ve found you.

Jack was at least grateful that he’d been able to make her laugh in the midst of all the tears. Her perfect smile and the sound of her giggle were rewarding. They boosted his dopamine levels through the roof, more than any other drug he’d ever taken.

“What did you write about?” Jack wondered. And how can I read it? He’d conveniently left the second part out. Whatever she’d written, it’d been beautiful enough to earn thousands and thousands of dollars worth of tuition. That was something to be incredibly proud of — even if she had lost it.

“I don’t think you disrespected anything.”

Jack didn’t know how to explain what he felt very well, but he was so sure of it.

“You made a mistake, but the things that you wrote were sincere when you wrote them. And even if you didn’t mean them when you wrote them — it’s like. Fuck. I don’t know how to explain it. Like, a surgeon does his job. Cuts into people and performs a flawless surgery, even when they’re having a bad day. Without intention. It's just ... what they're good at. What htey do. Even if they make a critical mistake the next day. It doesn’t take away from the work they did the day before, right?”

Jack sighed. Maybe that way of thinking took all of the romance out of writing.

“I don’t know if I’m explaining it right. And your parents … I don’t know them, but c’mon. They have you as their daughter. Maybe they were hurting for you at the time, but you weren’t intentionally disrespecting anyone or anything.”

It shocked Jack how easily the words were leaving his mouth. A lot of what he said could easily apply to him, too, but … well. It was much easier giving advice than taking it, right?

“Don’t say you wouldn’t have deserved it because that’s not true.”

"— I don't think those words would have felt the same, hearing it from somebody other than you."

Jack’s heart. It was going to burn up before his very eyes. Did he really matter that much to her already, on the third day? If they were going to talk about undeserving … it was Jack. Technically, he was still married. His wedding ring was upstairs. His wife still had his last name. Jack was also on the verge of having a criminal record and losing his job.

Basically, he was a fucking loser, but Alice was there anyway. Jack swiped at the tears on her face a little more freely now. A casual gesture that he'd done a million times (in his head).

"If there's anyone that's undeserving..." he trailed off, shaking his head, offering a crooked smile. "How are you in my life right now?"

[triglycercule]

explodes them ALL... what time is it??? DESIGN TIME

i got too lazy to color anybody else fully aside from the mtt you can explode me now too

[canisalbus]

So i remember an ask mentioning your mortal enemy, Felis Atra and their cats, and i thought it'd be fun to draw what Felis Atra's version of your italian dogs would be.

I think they would be called Butter Knife and Flamengo! Butter Knife is not his real name, it's an nickname given by his peers because of how harmless he is. I choose Flamengo because that's the name of Vasco's rival football team here in Brazil, so i thought that was the perfect name :)

Cat Machete was slightly inspired by the Oriental Shorthair cat because of their long noses and thin head shape.

Cat Vasco was inspired by the Scottish Fold cat, because FLOPPY EARS. I gave Flamengo longer ears and orange fur to make him more like his look-alike.

The last doodle is a reference to this ask (https://canisalbus.tumblr.com/post/728923918314946560/me-i-am-machete-ear-fan-number-1-those-ears) and contains the tumblr ask stand-in dog, whose cat version was inspired by the American Curl cat! They have round ears that are slightly floppy outwards.

Final notes: I know cardinal clothes don't come in vibrant blue, but i was ADAMANT on switching Machete's and Vasco's clothing color patterns. I would draw the rest of Butter Knife's and Flamengo's clothes, but i suck at designing cool outfits.

Speaking of outfits, for Machete's iconic void outfit, i figured it would be fun to make it more baggy for Butter Knife, in contrast to Machete's, that looks very tight-fitted. I think it's cute, it kinda looks like a sweater. Also i can't imagine a Machete doppelganger without high heels boots, so those HAD to stay.

Oh, and just to be clear, i'm not like, claiming ownership of these guys or anything. I just thought it would be a fun exercise. Hope you like them!! I love your art and your characters.

.

[the-bi-space-ace]

This is mean because I love both of them so much and anyone that knows me and has read my fics knows how much I adore Cody but I’m going to say my piece about Echo.

Echo is beautiful inside and out. He is a very attractive person. He’s loyal, he’s compassionate, he’s so competent it’s scary and very impressive. He is the most resilient character maybe ever. He’s suffered unimaginable pain and through all of that all he has ever been is kind. That big heart of his is always front and center and it’s, by far, my favorite thing about him. Always willing to help. Always ready to protect people who need it. He’s also just… funny. He likes a good pun, his one liners always hit.

His eyes are gorgeous. I swear they are like pools of honey. The kind of eyes that just sparkle when the sun hits them just right. Don’t even get me started on his smile. Absolutely blinding in the best way. Maybe it’s because we’ve seen him smile so few times but I always find myself smiling too when he does it.

So, yeah, I am biased because Echo is my favorite (and that is where my vote went) but I also think there’s just a lot to love about him.

Additional images in reblogs

[vaguely-concerned]

powerful mental image of lucanis expounding passionately about any given one of his limited but extremely deep areas of interest (the wyvern/knives/coffee/cooking/murder continuum of lucanis dellamorte special interests if you will) while rye lounges around and Beholds him with palpable twink boutta pounce energy

[dootznbootz]

Menelaus rambles a lot about not only Helen, but also Hermione. About how she used to say Olive like "Olifs". How she lost her first tooth running too fast and running into a low branch while out with Helen. How he'd sometimes wake up to Hermione leaning over him and poking his face to say, "Dad, can we go see the horses?" even though it was barely daylight. How she was much nicer waking Helen and how he thinks Hermione did that on purpose because she found "dad's face funny". How her favorite color was every color.

And Odysseus listens.

And he thinks about how his son only had a few teeth coming in when he left, teething on everything. How he could only say one syllable with his babbles. How his son needed balance to stand but Odysseus was so proud that Telemachus was very good at rolling over. How his son loved pulling at his and Penelope's hair.

How his son would be talking, walking, maybe even lost his first tooth by now. And he doesn't even know if he'll ever know his son's favorite color.

[hopeswriting]

daily life arc miura haru. does anyone know who i'm talking about. do you guys remember her. i still can't believe what happened to her 😔

[stardustdiiving]

Something that was immediately and glaringly noticeable to me about this quest was the genuine level of enthusiasm & interest the writing has in this quest. There are so many little indications of writing choices they made for this quest that really signals to me that this was a plot thread that Genshin itself is very invested in and fully intended to Lock The Fuck In on delivering.

I have thoughts on why this gives me a lot of faith in the critical plot parts of 6.0 & 7.0 having a decent chance of being good, even after Natlan’s momentum was such a sudden crash from Sumeru & Fontaine’s, I think I really need to explain some of my philosophy on how I view Genshin’s writing style:

Genshin, to me, is this silly little gacha game with frequently clunky/unserious story writing that will also sometimes just decide to lock the fuck in and deliver something that’s just genuinely compelling and fun to watch. It is something I feel is best best enjoyed when you treat some of the writing being a drag as more of a Feature Of The Genshin Experience than a flaw you constantly have to overlook/go around to get to “the good parts”, because being able to meet the pace of its slower parts makes it kind of hilariously entertaining whenever it does suddenly Lock The Fuck In—something made all the more fascinating when in all honesty I think wether or not genshin decides to lock in isn’t an entirely unpredictable phenomenon with no pattern or reasoning to it

If you’re a little insane and get familiar enough with the exact habits and quirks of Genshin’s writing style, I think you can sometimes really start to notice there’s a lot of specific indicators about how Genshin writes things when it’s actively interested in that specific thing. There obviously isn’t an exact science to this, but evaluating how genshin’s writing presents things with this “do they want to lock in here” philosophy is why, for example, I was absolutely confident that Furina was going to be one of genshin’s most popular and compelling characters and not just shallow and annoying like people were concerned she would be in the early days of 4.0… but, at the same time, had a hunch very early on into Natlan’s AQ that the writing was ultimately really going to let Mavuika down in comparison.

When Genshin seems genuinely interested in something about the story it’s doing, I feel this exponentially increases the potential of them Locking In when it comes time to get into it story wise. This is especially how I feel about how Genshin writes characters, in such a way where there was never a moment in the last multiple real life years I ever genuinely Genshin wasn’t going to do Albedo and Venti justice as characters. They are part of a specific selection of Genshin characters in my mind where…if genshin’s putting them front and center to carry the weight of an Archon Quest, especially an Interlude Chapter, I feel pretty confident they’re not going to majorly drop the ball on it.

The way Venti and Albedo in particular have been established + previous material with them in the past made it made it very clear to me that Genshin is interested in both of these characters and the overarching plot threads they tie into—they’re just kind of quirky so sometimes they keep you hanging on things for real life years before looping back around to them! Which isn’t a writing sensibility I’d aspire to do myself but it is just kind of funny and hilariously vindicating for me personally, because im on a level of genshin autism powerful enough to withstand waiting until 7.8 for them to finally brainblast me Masquerade of the Guilty style by scrambling someone like Childe like an egg live onscreen for my entertainment. You know?

I think people’s lack of faith in the intelligence or capabilities of genshin’s writing is super understandable and in a lot of regards often just entirely warranted, but when it comes to a very specific selection of things I do subscribe to the philosophy of Letting Them Cook. The only thing that had me a little bit nervous about them handling this event pretty well was solely that Genshin had clearly in some sort of weird slump writing wise with 5.x Natlan material.

I don’t even have any strong sense of frustration with Natlan’s story personally (the depressingly unsurprising continuation of Sumeru’s colorism & whitewshing, on the other hand, is another thing lol.), but I think just on a pretty general level there’s absolutely something lacking to it in such a specific and consistent way I honestly was starting to wonder if like…something changed internally with how Genshin was written and resulted in some weird random regression of some of the recent, stronger aspects of their writing tendencies

As a result the Paralogism quest really felt like a canary in the coal-mine type ultimatum to me. My vibe was if Genshin fumbled an Interlude AQ handling characters like Venti and Albedo that followed up on highly anticipated plot threads in the same way Natlan’s AQ fell kinda flat, this would strike me as sp bizarrely out-of-character for genshin in a way where I’d be seriously skeptical about them handling any of the Nod-Krai and Shneznaya living up to the very high expectations they’re inevitably going to have, since that’s endgame territory where alot of the biggest plot threads are going to be hashed out

Because like…I could tell even from the trailer that this was very likely going to really start getting into all the stuff Venti clearly has going on as a character and pulling his narrative importance to be more front and center as we start getting to a place those plot threads are explored. The idea of Genshin Impact failing Venti as a character here by fumbling a quest like this is. It’s like…imagine genshin woke up one day and decided to stop making Al Haitham and Kaveh gay. Okay. Like imagine you go to Sumeru and Al Haitham is kicking Kaveh out of his house because he thinks he’s annoying and Kaveh goes FINE. Whatever. I hope everyone DIES. then dropkicks an abandoned puppy he found on the side of the road in a cishetronormative rage. This is how it would feel to me if they just seemed to suddenly not be interested in or forget key parts of Venti & Albedo’s complexity as characters. Genshin may not be perfect with all its characters (i mourn the Itto we see in his SQ & Kokomi’s potential everyday) but I’m glad it feels like they Still Got It

Basically every notable relationship between members of the Mondstadt cast that the fanbase would be interested in gets acknowledged in Paralogism. I was actively giddy about Venti’s writing because it felt he was written with a lot of intention and thought his character really needs to shine in such a plot. Dahlia is seemlessly fitted into the cast and immediately given an interesting dynamic with Venti. Kaeya and Diluc have an amicable face to face conversation (revolutionary development) where Diluc’a ability to read Kaeya as a person is directly stated as what tipped Diluc off that something was wrong. Traveler and Paimon feel written very deliberately with a lot of the characterization quirks about them I enjoy for more high stakes situations. They tease you with Klee being the only person close to Albedo who’s suspiciously absent until after the plot behind the trial is revealed. Eula specifically asks Amber if she’s okay during the battle and it’s coupled with a cute interaction with Klee. They clearly knew damn well Durin plot stuff would make people wonder about Wanderer and take the time to have Mini Durin tell you what Wanderer thought of the plan 😭😭

So many little things just felt written with a genuine enthusiasm I feel I really didn’t see much in Natlan, but i think is essential for Genshin leaning into its best writing tendencies that result in alot of thr most well loved moments and characters. It was such a breathe of fresh air to get renewed affirmation genshin has plans and the investment in its story to actually land alot of its execution adequately. I don’t know exactly how Nod-Krai will go but this definitely gives me confidence anything genshin has been planning on and has seemed invested in executing for years now that happens during 6.x patches has a strong chance to be done justice even if Natlan has felt like a bit of a slump lately u__u

As someone who’s been actively playing & consistently having fun with genshin for 3.5 years straight & really intends to stick around until it’s end…I very honestly was going into the Paralogism AQ treating at as a very heavy indicator of wether or not versions 6.0 & 7.0 (Nod-Krai and Shneznaya) were going to be any good + worth me sticking around for.

And after playing the quest I feel I can say with a relative degree of confidence that tbh…we are SO fucking back. My faith in genshin meeting my expectations for how it follows through on its more anticipated plot threads that will inevitably be covered with 6.0–7.0 has been majorly been restored and I honestly think it’s going to be just fine in a lot of regards

[deoidesign]

Quick re-do of a 4 year old piece

[greatestjubilee]

bleh