#Not really intentionally and things still haven't cleared up really for either of us

[sakurarisen]

Okay, in just barely shy of a week, I think I’ve gotten to everything around here!

Shayan is now a secondary muse here! His carrd has had a rewrite to sound more fandomless at its core, so he can fit into the tri-main setup I have here a little easier, and the misc section has been split into three sections: General, FF specific, and GI specific. Spellbound Specific will come when plotting for how to work him into that setting is a little more ironed out, and everything regarding GI will be ironed out better as interactions in that verse happen.

Threading with an older Shayan (at age 16, mostly) is available, but incredibly selectively and rarely, and only after a LOT of plotting’s gone into things beforehand. The vast majority of his threads will still see him as a 4-5 year old, solely because anything too much further into the future is going to require some extensive plotting to figure out how things have changed in the varying settings and so forth. I won’t really be doing this often, but it is a thing for once in a blue moon.

The two other muses I had yet to name are Iris and Terra - Zack and Sera’s twins and Shayan’s younger siblings. However, due to the fact the twins are only about 2 years old (about 2 and a half years younger than Shayan) and are not available in any FF based setting, they’re currently filed under ‘Guest Muses’, and for the time being will stay as such. This actually worked out a bit easier on me due to, again, their ages, and should things change, the links I have to them on the blog for their abouts will actually go to an about page - For now, it goes nowhere, and the twins are available to interact with in any verse not FF, but only in threads Sera and/or Shayan are already in. General tags for them will be added later.

Rules have been updated to add the kids, as well as a reminder I’ll always accept a meme no matter how old it is on my blog - Just link to it when sending in a prompt~!

I’ve removed Shayan’s OG verse for now, considering I don’t do too much with OG for a variety of reasons. It is still an option for plotting and such, though, and if it starts gaining interest in it I’ll re-add it! <3

I am now totally exclusive with @honorisen, both overall and shipwise, and vice versa, and overall with her GI multi in @yoroiis. Though Kasa has been on an impromptu hiatus for a multitude of reasons and will stay on one (with Zack, at least), this is something we’ve been talking out and have decided Sera and Zack’s relationship to be blog canon for both of us going forward, for peace of mind and comfort’s sake. This also applies to Sera (And Shayan’s!) relationships with Thoma, Heizou, Kaveh, and the other muses on her GI blog.

The GI canon here is now linked to @thundertide​, my own GI multi I’ve recently moved to a main blog of its own. I have some horrible GI brainrot and have since October, when I finally got a chance to start playing, so do expect more of that both here and on my other blogs now that I’ve caught up with the current plot <3

Unrelated to this blog, exactly, but I’ve swapped the urls between Wingrisen and Shinrarisen - The FF multi is now Shinrarisen, and Wingrisen is now Kunsel’s former singlemuse blog, which is considered archived. There’s still a little work left to do on the FF multi to finish adding him and bring it in line with this one in regards to what I want to do with it, so that’ll be coming soon, as well! <3

I think... I think that’s everything? For now, at least! As always, my inbox is always open, and I’m always around to answer questions or just to explain, clarify, and be a total dork of a pomberry~!

~Pom

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

WIBTA if I asked my mom to stop keto-fying recipes?

this is either gonna be a complete non-issue or get people mad at me, i can tell lmao. unfortunately this has been bugging me for weeks. :D

To be clear, I'm almost 25, but I and my adult/teenage siblings still live with my parents bc the economy is ass. Also, Mom hasn't been doing it to every recipe…yet…but the ones she has changed have been recipes where a carbohydrate is an important part of the main meal.

For instance, replacing the potatos in a beef-carrot-potato stew with a rutabaga.

Mom's been on a modified keto diet for a while now, and while Dad is the only one intentionally doing it with her, the rest of us are aware of her diet and are generally chill about it. For a while, we would have nights where the parents would have Thing A, which was diet-compliant, and the rest of us would have Thing B, which was not. Those of us who are not dieting are all old enough to make things for ourselves, by the way, and that's usually what happens. For most of these "split meals," one parent usually doesn't wind up cooking two meals, one of which they can't even eat.

The stew is usually a "split" meal that gets made by one person who does most of the prep just by virtue of knowing the recipe, then one person who peels and chops the potatoes, and then one who wrangles the peeling and chopping of the rutabaga. The rutabaga then gets combined with a proportionate amount of The Rest, and those of us who aren't dieting are welcome to taste-test it. I've tried it, and the rutabaga's okay, I guess, but quite a bit too sweet and non-safe-food-y for me in the context of the stew, especially when I'm so used to potatoes. Wrangling the rutabaga is a bit more fun than eating it.

…except the most recent time we had the stew, Mom and Dad made an executive decision and just made a full-family pot of rutabaga stew without really seeing if everyone else was on board with it. Two of my siblings seemed fine with it, one is an enigma on a good day so I don't even know how they felt about it, and I hated it. I didn't get the chance to say so, however, between everyone else complimenting the altered stew and the conversation quickly switching to something else.

Unfortunately, our parents have decided that we will be making the stew with rutabagas only going forward.

Not "the family has decided."

The parents have decided. For adults and a teenager. Not for little kids.

Since then, in other conversations where recipes come up, such as conversations about the teenager's recent baking kick, Mom has been mentioning keto versions of whatever's being talked about in the nonspecific way that I'm pretty sure is her hinting/telling us that we should make it. In the context of teen baking, a keto chocolate cake, or keto cookies.

Look, I'm not here to debate the worth of a diet or lack thereof. I have plenty of those opinions and I'm not going to change them or let them distract from the core of the matter: when any of us are making food for the others, why are we letting two people's diets dictate what the rest of us should eat? If we're making something specifically to align with the keto diet, then that's a parent snack/meal. If we're not, it's a "kids" snack/meal. It should be as simple as that. Why make a full-family-sized meal if it's going to be pushing low/no carbs onto people who, historically, have not wanted to or needed to drop carbs? (It's me, I'm people. I know, I'm not really subtle, am I?)

I'm considering, the next time the stew comes up as a dinner plan, asking what a single-sized portion of the potatoes would be and just making it for myself. Given I have the spoons to do so that night, anyway. However, I really don't want to insult Mom's family recipe (which…she's already altered…and I would be reverting to its previous state…) or her cooking skills (which haven't lessened, even if I personally think her ingredient choices are a bit lacking lately).

What are these acronyms?

[ultratradmalewife]

Different anon here replying to one of your other anons. One thing I want to emphasize is that BuckTommy fans TRIED to be friendly with Buddies. We really did. In fact, all we did was post celebratory posts about Buck's bisexuality, talk about how much we loved him with Tommy, discussed what headcanons we had, in addition to the hopes we had for the future of their relationship. The large majority of BuckTommy fans were and still are fans of Eddie. The large majority of us LOVE Buck's relationship with Eddie, even if many of us only see it as platonic. We've never seen Eddie as a threat, nor have we set out to vilify and attack Buddie fans for not liking Tommy or wanting him to be with Buck. But the same CANNOT be said about Buddies. It became very clear, very fast, that Buddies were threatened by Buck's relationship with Tommy, and because of that, they quickly began antagonizing BuckTommy shippers. Calling us horrific racial slurs, being disgustingly homophobic and biphobic, accusing us of fetishizing Buck with Tommy because "we're slaves to white men" and "love calling white men massa" (real fucking quotes said many times by Buddies), intentionally posting what initially seem like positive posts in our tag, only to throw us a curveball at the end by basically saying "Psych!" with something extremely rude and anti-BuckTommy. They even post fanfiction that is presented as being all about BuckTommy, only to kill Tommy off at the end or have Buck break up with him and then have Buck get with Eddie. And they laugh about all of that, over and over, in the BuckTommy tag. All this to say, it can get deeply, deeply frustrating when people, especially so-called decent Buddie fans (because they can't tell me they don't witness the shit their fellow Buddie members pull on the daily), try to "both sides" this situation and accuse BuckTommy fans of being just as problematic and incapable of civility as Buddies. No, no, no. BuckTommy fans have been nothing like Buddies, and to try portraying us as an equal part of the problem feels like an extremely bad faith take meant to downplay the toxicity of Buddie shippers while vilifying BuckTommy fans for, God forbid, calling Buddies out on their abhorrent behavior. Because that's what the large majority of BuckTommy's anger consists of--defending our IDENTITIES against disgusting personal attacks, and, again, God forbid, daring to call Buddies out when they relentlessly, CONSTANTLY twist their head canons into "fact", misrepresent the truth over and over again, and then try to portray anyone who disagrees with them as stupid and beneath them. That's toxic ass behavior, and BuckTommy fans shouldn't have to sing "Kumbaya" for the sake of civility so some of you guys can feel comfortable, not when Buddies are committed to being cruel and disgusting at every turn. And I haven't even touched on the fact that BuckTommy fans are not the ones harassing the showrunner and actors, and trying to get an actor FIRED by misrepresenting what he said and trying to twist it into something actually really gross and fucked up, just so they can try to get what they want. So some of you guys can positively miss me with the "both sides" attempt. The only thing I WILL say about BuckTommy fans is that we do need to make a bigger attempt at ignoring Buddies. We can get a little TOO caught up in what the Buddies are saying and doing to us. But on the other hand, BuckTommy fans have a right to defend ourselves, especially when the attacks are constantly real fucking personal and don't even have anything to DO with shipping.

I agree with all of what you said. I know how things happened. I had even said there’s no reason for the Bucktommy side of the fandom to start a ship war, it all started with die hard Buddies, and I don’t usually see the ones who play both sides because I blocked them. There’s no reason in talking to them because they’re either just as scared of Buddies or don’t want confrontation. I also know people who want to play both sides are just people telling BuckTommy fans how to react, and they’re never telling Buddies how to act. I agree with you 100% on that and those are the people I block.

I’ve also been told I’m racist because I hate Eddie and Mexicans (I don’t), by people who either don’t know or don’t care that I’m Mexican (100% both parents born there and so was I).

I made a whole post explaining how Buddies have been homophobic when they tried to downplay their homophobia to simply cropping Lou from pictures. I know the slang and words that they tried to attach to him and the community. Those people are also blocked.

Now, like I told last anon I’m not trying to bridge that gap. You can see some of my own past posts how petty I can be to the die hard buddies. I am one person and I’m not going to change a whole fandom of toxicity. All I can do is block and search for those who can make my experience here a peaceful and fun one.

So far I haven’t made any friends here. There’s no DMs and it’s just been likes and comments on posts. I try reaching out to Buddie shippers who I think could be pals, and they never respond, or if I mention Tommy it’s dead silent afterwards (ironically the thing they claim to hate that Tommy did to Chimney is what they do to me), and I don’t try again. Most of the buddie shippers who I briefly talk to are ones who have seen how crazy their side of the fandom have started acting. Some of them have even “jumped ship” because of that.

I’m not here to make this whole group thing happen. I came from a fandom where these type of things don’t happen. This is new to me. I only left because the source material is too long and I know I don’t have the dedication or time to consume it fully, and people there respect the source material. I didn’t want to feel like I didn’t belong there, so I left.

I was able to consume the entire source material here. I even enjoyed myself doing it. 911 is one of my top 3 favorite shows ever. I entered this fandom having high hopes of fitting into a community, but as we can see that didn’t happen. I’m not trying to have all of us love each other or even talk to each other, all I’m trying to do is find that small few who can be part of a peaceful community for this one show.

I’m also not asking for any black person or person of color to forgive, only you have the power to do that for yourself.

I really want to find my peace in this fandom. I have blocked so many people, and don’t even try to reach out to others because I know it’s a lost cause, this is just my attempt to find my place here. I hope you can understand that.

[nyarlathotep-thecrawlingchaos]

Two chapters in less than twenty-four hours. I literally haven't done this in a decade. Send help. Wheezing. May have thrown my back out. In need of life support.

Anyways here we gooooooo

Hearing Problems

LA!Mihawk x AFAB!OC

Previous Chapter Link

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Chapter 2: A Battle of Wits

Tags: Slow-burn, Enemies to Lovers, eventually NSFW, uh, if I think of more I'll add them or something

Trigger Warnings: None for this chapter

Wordcount: 2.2k

Summary:

After having her sloop sunk by the Buggy Pirates and losing most of her worldly possessions in the process, the normally solitary mercenary Karimi Lionne finds herself teaming up with the rag-tag little crew that is the Strawhat Pirates to defeat them. She bonds with them far more quickly than she bargained for, and that quickly turns into a problem for the Kiku Kiku no Mi devil fruit user when she learns of Nami's plans to leave them high and dry, and Zoro issues a challenge at Baratie that he very likely won't live long enough to regret.

Karimi did her best to steel her resolve despite the blood rushing in her ears as she lay there.

Lay there on the docks outside the seafaring restaurant, her strength zapped by the salt water, completely defenseless as Dracule Mihawk towered over her, his arms crossed, observing her with an unreadable expression and indecipherable tone to his question that still echoed in her ears.

Devil fruit, then, is it?

It wasn't too big of a surpise that he had figured it out that quickly. No, the surprise was his very presence there on the docks. That he had bothered to seek her out and ask her.

She finally expelled the breath trapped within her lungs in a slow sigh, closing her eyes again, feigning an aloof facade as well as she could.

"No idea what you're referring to," she said, as levelly as she could. She could hear a slight edge in her tone, but that was fine. That was to be expected. At least she had found the will to speak.

"There's really no use playing coy, dear. Though I am curious..." he said slowly, "what might lead a devil fruit user to intentionally dampen their own power."

"I don't think that's really any of your business," she said, mimicking his drawling lilt. "I am trying to drink myself into a stupor before morning and your presence is not helping the endeavor. So, if you would..." She lifted a hand and made a shooing motion. "Kindly fuck off."

Mihawk quirked an eyebrow, wondering whether every member of the strawhat's crew were insolent fools. Roronoa Zoro's challenge had been one thing—now this girl, this child, was mocking him to his face, attempting to shoo him off like a stray dog begging for scraps.

For a moment, he was completely speechless, feeling oddly as if he had taken a brief step out of reality.

Then he stepped slowly forward, stopping a few inches behind the crown of her tattered brown hat, and crouched down, casting a shadow across her much smaller form.

"You know who I am." It wasn't a question—apart from her abilities, which she still had yet to confirm or deny, he had seen the flicker of recognition in her eyes back on the deck of the restaurant. "Do you have a death wish, little one?"

She cracked open her eyes, meeting his gaze.

"If I say yes will you make it quick and painless?" Then she rolled them and shut them again. "Forgive me if I don't have much respect for glorified political puppets."

She was either too brave for her own good, out of her mind, or legitimately suicidal—and yet there was something intriguing about her complete lack of concern for the fact that he could easily push her right off the edge of the dock with the heel of his boot and watch her devil fruit abilities sink her like a brick to the bottom of the East Blue. There was a clear edge to her voice that told him she was well aware of that fact, and yet she carried on with her contemptuous sarcasm as if she didn't have a care in the world.

It was almost entertaining—a game of wit and intimidation that no one had played so readily or boldly against the warlord in years. He lowered a hand a flicked a few strands of her dark green hair away from her forehead, noting how she briefly tensed at his touch, very briefly; how her breath caught in her throat for a fleeting moment before returning to normal.

"You are in a rather...precarious position," he said lightly, "to be behaving with such impudence, little bird." She shivered when his knuckles brushed lightly down her neck. "As I said, I'm merely curious about the ability you demonstrated earlier. I can't say I'm particularly accustomed to having my mind invaded."

He watched her grit her teeth and abruptly sit up straight on the dock, swiping up the unmarked wine bottle sitting next to her and taking a swig.

"Oh, avast, sir!" she said in a particularly dramatic tone, "—and allow me a moment to wave a sad goodbye to the last fuck I had left to give as it drifts away on yonder tides."

His eyebrows furrowed as she lifted a hand and waved out at the vast expanse of the darkened sea. "Also." She tilted her head back, her eyes locking onto his.

"Call me little bird again and I will find where you sleep, cut off your balls, and feed them to you."

And with her threat hanging in the air between them, her voice slightly slurred, she tilted the bottle back again and took a couple large gulps. His eyes shifted briefly to the pair of daggers hanging at either side of her belt, passing over their ornate, slightly yellowed ivory handles, either antiques or impressive replicas.

Oh, but this was growing more entertaining by the second. Half-drunk and spouting off honest to god threats now—he honestly wasn't sure what to do with her. Mihawk straightened back out, circling slowly around the green-haired enigma, like a predator sizing up his prey.

"If you answer my questions, I will leave you be to drink yourself into an early grave, little bird." He watched as she heaved a sigh, rolling her eyes and glaring out toward the horizon, lit dimly by the crescent moon hanging in the sky overhead.

"Counter-offer," she said flatly.

Everyone else aboard the Going Merry seemed have completely lost every iota of intelligence they might have once possessed—Karimi figured she might as well join the questionable decisions club.

"Let the idiot swordsman live, and I'll work for you. Free of charge. For a year."

For a moment he was silent. She could feel the weight of his gaze on her, his eyes scanning over her as she sat there at the docks with her feet in the water, her head swimming more and more with every gulp of wine she downed and her face flushed beneath her freckles from the alcohol. Weighing her offer.

"And what would I want with a little bird flitting around after me for an entire year?"

The smug amusement was perfectly clear in his tone, and Karimi had expected it. Standing at five foot two, weighing in at perhaps eight or nine stone soaking wet, the twenty-four year old knew she didn't come across as much of a threat—but she shared the same stature with her grandmother, who had racked up a bounty of over two billion Berries in her heyday.

"Six years experience in covert mercenary work," she said, holding up one finger. She held up another. "An underling to send off on World Government errands that aren't worth your time." She held up a third finger, picking her head up and rolling her eyes up to meet his. It was fairly clear that he wasn't going to kill her on the spot—between that knowledge, the buzz from the cheap wine and expensive rum she had consumed earlier, and her utter exhaustion and present physical weakness from prolonged contact with ocean water, she was quickly growing less concerned. "I can literally hear the thoughts of everyone within a fifty foot radius at all times. Well..." She gestured toward her feet in the water, lifting her wine. "Not now, but usually."

She took a swig, set the bottle down, and laid back on the cool, damp wood of the dock again, closing her eyes and tucking a hand behind her neck.

"Play with your swords all you want, there's no weapon more dangerous than information."

"You're rather quick to leave your crew behind," he said said slowly. "That speaks very little to any loyalty you could offer."

"We're not even really a crew," she sighed. Karimi raised a hand to her face, rubbing at her eyes and shaking her head. "Zoro would tell you that just as quickly as Luffy would tell you that he's his first mate. So would Nami, but she'll be gone just after sunrise if she has any say. That's going to be enough of a blow. But Zoro *dies*, that's going to shatter Luffy." Another swig of wine, another sigh. "Poor kid's got rocks for brains but he's got a good heart. Just wants the whole world to drop everything and follow their dreams."

"An idealistic idiot and a suicidal swordsman."

Karimi gave a snort of laughter—that hit the nail on the head. "And a pathological liar that can't even tell himself the truth, and a girl so desperate to save her home that she distances herself and steals from the only people who have shown her genuine compassion in over a decade."

"It sounds like they're already falling apart from within." Karimi shrugged a shoulder. "So why, then," he said, clear skepticism dawning in his tone, "would a Marine Vice Admiral call me out here to take care of it?"

A Marine Vice Admiral.

Karimi didn't even bother trying to contain her smirk—even with her devil fruit abilities supressed, she knew exactly what that meant. She knew it alone from the attack that Garp had led on the Going Merry, and didn't even bother opening her eyes as she responded in a mocking tone.

"Well, I except Garp the Fist didn't want to see his grandbaby grow up to be a filthy pirate." No—she did crack one eye, to watch the subtle shift in the pirate warlord's expression. The slow lowering of his brows. The miniscule twitch in a muscle between the corner of his lips and his nose.

Registering that he had been sent out of his way to deal with a petty family dispute.

"My offer stands." She lifted her bottle as if in toast. "You let Roronoa Zoro live, you'll have one year free from dealing with this sort of bullshit, courtesy of yours truly."

Agreeing to her offer felt like it would be an admission of defeat. Whether the battle was one of blades or wits, it was rare—if ever—that Mihawk conceded defeat. The entertainment, the fun of this exchange had drained the moment she laid her claim that Garp was using him as a mediator to capture and deliver his grandson to him.

Once more he crouched down, at the girl's side this time, his eyes glued to hers.

"And for what reason should I believe you?" he said quietly, searching her eyes for any sign of deceit, of treachery.

Yet all he found in their emerald green depths was amusement. That paired with the noncommittal shrug of her shoulders served only to infuriate him more.

"You have no reason to believe me," she said, her tone just as smug as her smirk. "But I wouldn't want to work for anyone that would trust the word of a Marine over a fellow pirate, anyway."

Her eyes slipped shut again, as if the deal was already done, in a manner that suggested it was already set in stone.

In a way that made his blood boil.

The girl drew in a sharp breath when his hand wrapped around her chin, her eyes snapping open to meet his gaze as the pads of his fingers pressed into her wine-flushed cheeks, her breath catching for more than just a brief moment this time. She didn't breathe at all as he leaned down, his face barely an inch from hers, her eyes wide as saucers.

So she did fear death. That was something.

"I will consider your offer, little bird," he said lightly.

Karimi swallowed, watching his eyes flicker away from hers for a moment, toward her slightly parted lips.

"And you will have your answer after my duel with your swordsman friend."

He loosened his grip the slightest bit.

Shifted his hand, his thumb brushing across her bottom lip.

"Whether it be in the form of his continued heartbeat or his bloodied corpse."

And with that he released her and straightened himself out to stand over her. With one last sharp glance down toward her, he strode away down the docks.

Karimi didn't turn her head to watch his departure, simply staring straight up at the stars dotting the inky black expanse over her head as she drew in a slow, shaky breath. Normally silence was a comfort to her, but right now, with nothing but her own troubled thoughts slowly cresting from a murmur to a chaotic jumble of inane chatter somewhere between her ears, it wasn't.

And when she closed her eyes to sigh, to try to calm herself, all she could see plastered to the back of ger eyelids were his own sharp, yellow irises.

Next Chapter Link again for your convenience

[dutchdread]

From one of your answer: "Personally I think that while Cloud is totally unsure of who or what he is, that he is 100% aware that he deeply loves Tifa, even at the start of Remake."

I'd love to see you talk more about this. Do you think that, while he's aware that he loves her, does he remember that he's has been loving her ever since they were young?

Now I haven't played Rebirth (but I spoiled myself a lot). But from Remake and what I gather, I personally think he doesn't remember, or be aware of his feelings. However, I think that he's unconsciously and instinctively attracted to her as well as be protective of her, at least from the beginning of Remake. He can't exactly define his feeling, but he knows what he wants to do with her (getting jealous, being touchy-touchy, being protective). Then he grows to realize his feeling all over again over the course of the game, without even remember he has always been in love with her this whole time.

Also, as far as I know, Cloud isn't the type who ponders "what is this ache in my heart?". He's the man of action. He cares for Tifa and wants to do things for Tifa, regardless of whatever he feels for her is called a crush, infatuation, or love.

But that's my take. And I'd like to hear yours :D

I have to preface this by saying that this is 100% conjecture. My hope is that this is essentially exactly the question that we get answered in part 3, because it is something I really wonder about myself. Hell it might be the thing I am MOST curious to know. So when I give my thought on this, know that it I think it really is up in the air and could go either way, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if this is left up to interpretation. There are things that I think Cloud legitimately doesn't know. His confusion about Nibelheim for instance is 100% unfaked. But when Tifa asks him where he was these past 5 years and he responds with "you know I can't tell you that", what was that? Was that a straight up lie? I think it's clear he doesn't know where he was these past years. But does he know that he doesn't know where he was? And did he lie to hide that fact? If he simply had no recollections of the past 5 years but is otherwise mostly lucid then he could have simply answered "that's odd, I don't remember".

But he doesn't, either the Jenova cells are directly influencing him to lie or causing him to make up an excuse to change the subject. Regardless he's actively avoiding recognizing an issue that should be interesting to him "why don't I know where I was". But then in Gongaga we have Cloud admitting that he doesn't know stuff that he's supposed to know. That implies that it's not just Jenova forcing him to be unaware of the inconsistencies in his memory. He himself has been CHOOSING to hide some of them. The reason I bring this up is because there is something we have to ask ourselves. Is Cloud 100% genuinely trying to play out a personality that was not inherently his? Or does he only have a bunch of messed up memories, but is intentionally trying to play up that persona? Or something in the middle? I'd guess it's something in the middle, which explains a lot of the changes we see in his behavior based on who he is talking to. That means that when he says stuff like "Don't remember" when Yuffie asks him whether or not he used to be in love with Tifa. That could very easily be a bold faced lie. He could have all his messed up memories and still remember vividly why he wanted to be a soldier in the first place. Which is essentially what happens in the lifestream, HE tells Tifa why he did those things, HE knows when she does not, thereby proving those memories and those feelings could not have come from her. So it could easily be that Cloud, during remake and remake, not only realizes that he loves Tifa, but be aware that he was once a shy dorky kid who just wanted Tifa to notice him, and is still "internally screaming" anytime Tifa is near, but is desperate not to show that side of him to the outside world. Or it could of course be possible that he's completely blocked those embarrassing memories and feelings off even from himself and that his Soldier persona is completely genuine and that his fondness for Tifa in remake and Rebirth is just the result of that Love still simply being a part of him, even if he himself doesn't totally understand why. And that his real self only comes out during glimpses. We have quotes to corroborate this, but it's not that clear whether that means his true personality coming out means he's showing his real thoughts for once rather than acting, or that it means that his real personality literally takes over for a bit from his fake one. Again, I think the truth is in the middle. I especially wonder about this when Cloud sits down on the water tower next to Aerith. He very poignantly leaves Tifas house for last, and sits down looking at it directly. To me it feels like in that moment he is completely aware of why he did that, and is putting on a cool act when saying "sounds like something I'd do". I think that was one of the most telling scenes in the game, which on second playthrough post LS, will feel extremely telling. You will see him sitting there, and you'll know. "you mother fucker, you know EXACTLY that you did that and why, we know what you're thinking! XD" At the very least I feel like the scene was intentionally directed to strongly give off the impression that Cloud there is actively aware of what Tifa means to him, and is in that moment the same boy that would gaze at Tifa all those years back, putting up a cool guy act, but still with all his unspoken thoughts being about how this is all for her. Good question, I wish I had a better answer for you, but I think this one one of those times where speculating about the answer might be half the fun.

[painted-bees]

I’d love to hear #7 (are there any habits, mannerisms, practices etc. A does because of B? anything they do because they saw B doing it, or got advice from them about it, or something rubbed off on them? alternately, are there any little things B does that annoy them?)

With Tess especially. Either with the rest of the trio or just one of the others?

Regardless, I love reading anything about the blorbos. I hope creating their world makes you as happy as it makes us to hear about them���🩷🩷

Aw, this is a fun one! They've all rubbed off on each other for sure but, as you'd expect, Tess has picked up the most haha!

Tess is always a "sit back and observe" sort, but has picked up Raf's chill, quiet manner of drifting into the background when it suits her. And, like him, her hands are always doing...something. Folding a piece of paper, untangling a random thread hanging from her sweater, tracing the rim of her glass or cup, tapping a finger to a beat in her head. She doesn't chew her nails or pick at the skin around her fingernails as Margie does, though. But she will bounce her leg or wiggle them side to side while she sits, like Margie does. She'll also occasionally make little popping noises with her mouth or click her tongue and random times, just because it feels or sounds fun--again, like Margie does. Related to keeping her hands busy, and also borrowed from Raf, she has picked up the habit of straightening things out, or ordering them neatly/properly if she notices something that has been placed askew. Like, she'll smooth the tassels of a rug, or line up a row of condiments neatly on a shelf if it's clear that was the intention of their initial placement.

She doesn't usually emote with facial expressions, but one that she's enjoyed too much to not try on for herself is the raised-brow, half-lidded assessing stare down her nose that Raf does; an expression of curiosity from a person usually taller than the points of interest they are assessing--not intentionally snooty or condescending (as you might assume from the phrase 'looking down their nose at you").

She's still learning the limits wrt which little curiosities or desires are acceptable to indulge on a whim and which are not. For example, licking the tops of ketchup bottles is unacceptable is any context, whereas emptying 5 packets of sugar into a hot beverage is perfectly acceptable. Touching a random person's hair is unacceptable, but touching a random animal's fur or a plant's flower's foliage is generally okay. And for guidance on this, she turns to Margie (because if she were to follow Raf's example, well...he seems to be much more narrow in his range of personal allowances). As Tess was more or less a blank slate wrt personality and mannerisms when they first met her, Raf and Margie haven't really picked up much from Tess. Except--they're maybe a little more careful and clear when expressing things like...turn of phrases or hyperbole lmao Between Raf and Margie, there's a lot of subtle ways they've kinda changed to coexist more comfortably together. Margie's a lot better than she use to be when it comes to closing doors, turning off lights, and picking up after herself--to the point that a lot of these things have become an automatic habit largely thanks to Raf's patient consistency with her. She's also become more mindful about how her jokes, gestures, jabs, etc are received--and had grown more conscientious against behaving in overfamiliar ways with people until she's gotten to know them well enough to know what they're comfortable with. She's not physical with people on first introductions anymore, and avoids like...sexual innuendo, etc, unless there's a super clear, obvious pretext that greenlights it. All this arose from a sense of not...wanting to embarrass Raf in public or at social gatherings. She's a lot more prone now to be quiet/reserved during introductions, and 'read the room' before she starts spewing memes and niche jokes that...maybe no one there would get. Just little...socializing things that should be obvious to most people her age, but that she was never properly taught while growing up in a small town with a relatively insular family.

Raf's gotten into the habit of singing little one-line serenades about Margie (often a shade of complete nonsense) or muttering sweet/silly little loving sentiments while he's doing mundane tasks. Ideally only when Margie is around...but just as often when he's by himself...or, on embarrassing occasion, when someone who isn't Margie is the only other person around to receive his habitually mumbled sweet nothings lmao. It all started because he'd do it in response to Margie's one-line serenades about him, and her random little "fwiff fwaff faff, I love my Raf" space-filling little stim mutterings. There's a lot of random, aimless call-and-response between them when they're home together whilst independently busy with their own little tasks.

He's also gotten into the habit of spending more time noticing/collecting things that just kinda--make him smile. Especially if it's something that he can take and show to Margie. Because if he thinks it's neat, then she'll think it's awesome. Her desire to share positive experiences and things with him has rubbed off on him in such a way that now, if there's ever a nice thing he sees or experiences, it seems almost a waste not to also share it with her. It's like...a positive joy modifier. Man, there are a billion other little things, and probably much bigger things that I am simply failing to recall right now haha! But I have already spent too much time writing this when I should be...finishing my work on Woven lmaaoo <3

[queeoretician]

Initial thoughts on The Unwanted Guest below the cut:

Well, damn. There sure is a lot going on here, and I'm all about it.

Front and centre is the concept of the permeability of the soul, and there's so damn much to chew on around that. Then we have Dulcie! Dulcie! She and Pal finally get to talk, both dead but still kicking! She would have liked Gideon! And we get more direct insight into Ianthe's psychology, which is a nasty little treat.

The first place my mind went was to Paul - if Pal and Cam were already experiencing memory transference, then maybe they saw some kind of soul merger as inevitable, and that was another push towards doing it intentionally, doing it right. But writing it down now I'm less sure of that inference. And the fact that Pal and Dulcie got to talk, really talk, was both wonderful and all the more bittersweet if (I'm assuming) Pal's and Cam's individual souls no longer exist to reunite with Dulcie in Alecto. I have to say, when I first read Nona I didn't really get why people found the birth of Paul to be so sad, but I've come around on it since then. (I should write more about that sometime...)

Regarding the permeability of Ianthe's soul, one thing that occurred to me is that her genderfuckery vibes over the past two books are probably not Ianthe Tridentarius's identity, but a new thing formed of the (imbalanced) gestalt that is Ianthe Naberius. I really hope Alecto gives us more on gender and lyctorhood and soul permeability! I imagine this is all the more jarring for Ianthe with how she's so deeply anchored to her relationship with Corona, to find her ego boundaries to be permeable in relation to Babs. I firmly believe her shell-shocked reaction to the birth of Paul was at least in part her thinking "oh shit, did I eat the wrong person?" If she had wanted this kind of erosion of self with anyone (and I'm not sure she did), it would have been Corona. Having it happen with Babs by accident is a real slap in the face.

Which brings me back to my wild theory for Alecto - Corona will (at least try to) pull a Paul with Judith, and Ianthe will utterly lose her shit. This story really underscored just how little Ianthe understands her sister, which we already saw some of in the embassy scene. Sure, Corona isn't the flawless sword hand that Babs was, but in BoE she's shown herself to be a canny operator and a decent fighter, which Ianthe is steadfastly in denial of. At the end of the day I believe the story of Ianthe will be of someone who loved without understanding, who put her love up on a pedestal and at the same time belittled her as someone both more and less than she actually was.

Another thing that I latched onto was the argument about whether lyctors' cavaliers' souls provide a truly perpetual source of energy or not. Ianthe was pretty adamant that they do, but that honestly came across as arrogance or bravado. There's a strong parallel between lyctoral power and nuclear power, and all kinds of nuclear activity eventually reach a point past which they no longer emit appreciable energy, so I feel confident in saying that lyctoral power also diminishes over a long enough timespan. I'm less sure of whether this will come up in Alecto, though - I would be quite surprised if we saw a 100,000-year timeskip (but if we did that could be super fucking interesting).

Back to more direct applications of soul permeability, I have to imagine there's been some exchange of something between Jod and Alecto, at least before he locked her in the Tomb. That could go in all kinds of interesting directions that I haven't yet had a chance to contemplate adequately.

Speaking of Alecto, the John chapters of Nona seem like a pretty clear case of transference between her and Harrow. I wonder - were those happening concurrently with the Nona chapters? If so, it would make for a nice symmetry between Harrow and Alecto/Nona.

Either way, we've got a gross messy soul transference hookup graph with Gideon<-->Harrow<-->Alecto<-->John (gross) - I'm dying to know more about what this means for each of them (especially with Tazmuir's "if Gideon's soul is a happy meal" line from this interview).

So as usual, Aaaaaaa there's so much to chew on and so much more I want to know and I can't wait for Alecto aaaaaa...

[djangari]

Ok... Seriously it's hard to start somewhere, so I'll start with the worldbuilding first.

If you just want to know something about Superheros Vale/Marc and a bit of what happened, scroll down, it's gonna be the next post.

Firstly. Before all of that, I want to make clear, this are only parts of what happened :)

Because I want to continue this story, maybe even write a prequel to it, so some things will be kept out / censored to not spoiler anything.

Forgot something, including it now: This whole AU plays in a theoretical future. So it should be further developed than we are.

WORLDBUILDING

-> Superheros

What is a superhero defined as in this story?

Easy. A for a crisis trained non-governmental individual with supernatural abilitys, who works for a sub group of the Federal Institution of Mutants (short FIM)

(Yeah, I'm german, I have to create something like this, sorry)

What do these Teams?

They coordinate their forces, consisting of a teams of heroes. So they basically give you missions and watch out you don't do any bullshit. And the FIM is the supervisor for the teams. If you do something stupid/ break laws they will give that info to the FIM and they will punish you. For that they have agents, also individuals with supernatural powers, but they work for the government. Usually they are just called "The task force" or "Silencer", because well... If they have to hunt you, you're gonna be silent... forever.

Are there any other humans with supernatural powers than those two groups?

Of course!

Firstly, normal humans who live a normal life can also have Powers. They need to be registered and have a licence to use their powers in public, but they live normally and peacefully without mich discrimination.

Secondly, Antiheros and Villains also exist. Hero's usually don't get missions that have to do with catching normal criminals, they are mostly responsible for people with Powers. The police still handles the normal cases. And yes, there are also powerless Villains and Antiheros.

A bit more about that....

There are groups that live half in the shadow and do work that ... Hero's aren't really associated with.

Some are government overseen, for most that's not the case.

Then there are the Villains, those who intentionally use their powers for "evil" (anything super unlawfully that mostly includes killing innocents). Bad guys Hero's need to fight in 90% of times.

On the other hand, Antiheros exist too. Those are people with powers and an own moral compass, so for any reason, they don't want to or can't work with the government. Therefore, they can't be in public teams. So they go out on their own. The options about those differ heavily, but mostly it's like an "You help me and do no bad and I haven't seen you/ couldn't catch you" kind of deal from the side of the hero's.

Because if this, an "underworld" exists too... It's basically a black market you need a lot of contacts for and most of them protect each other. Because yes, corruption exists, it's not ultra common, but it exists.

The is also a kind of King of the underworld [SPOILER] :D

Examples for public teams:

It just fits too good, so here they are. There are main teams and they also sometimes have secondary teams.

Ducati (Main)

\ Gresini

\ Prima Pramac

So this is the ducati to give an example. Same is with Yamaha (most likely with Suzuki as a sister/ underteam? Haven't decided yet) [SPOILER]

Also there are Aprilia (Trackhouse), Honda (LCR), KTM (GasGas)

NEED TO FIND BETTER NAMES THO

Drivers (Hero's) will be mixed up and sorted how I want it/ how it works fir the story.

But what do these Teams do now?

Normally they work either in Duos for small missions, but for crisis they collect under the Main teams and function as group.

In that case the team leader structure goes as shown from up to down.

But how are the leader determined?

Good Question. One would maybe assume the Main Rider would just be the team leader, but this differs actually from reality sometimes (also because I mix teams like I want) For this, usually the Hero with more Points is chosen for the leader role.

What are points?

Points, long PowerPoints (hehe), or also short as PP, are level the readers are sorted in.

The more powerful your power is, your use of it, the more experience you got, your ability to work in groups or lead, all this and more is counted in your points and then turned into a Level.

So your Level shows how strong you are?

Yup, exactly. Some underdogs obviously exist but the levels are mostly accurate.

Small note: I myself actually use math to determine levels, by using driver stats as basis. However, I'll make another post for this to further explain it and show the calculation and the ranking list.

What's about the powers?

I'll make also a post about this, because I actually based it on biology... to be exact on a mix of mutation and epigenetics.

To break it down, you got a small chance you could be born with powers, even when your parents are powerless.

Powers are also called Mutanics.

Mostly, they are given sort of random, you can really get everything.

Overall, Powers can be sorted into five categories.

Psychic, Force, Morphing, Elements/Atoms and Reality.

Mixes can exist, but that is mostly due to one category slightly overlapping with others, however the trigger of your power is still in the category.

Psychic: Mind abilities, telekinesis and so on

Force: Powers that affect your Body or your surroundings and are mostly based on your strength (which can also be pushed) Could also include creating something? That's not very common tho. More common are physical power enhancer or force fields or something like this.

Morphing: Quite literally changing something, maybe fastening a process. Shapeshifter? You are a morpher. Illusions? Morpher. (As long as you actually turn that object and just don't make everybody see is as this objects) You let flowers grow faster? Morpher.

Elements/ Atoms: Basically the same, but sometimes devided because they might show differently. The base is to feel/control any Atoms and therefore Elements. Like you can guide the electric in the air? Great, you got a lightning! However, it is devided to know what you're able to do. You can only control electric? Elementarist. You can control the electric between Atoms or even Atoms themselves? Atomist. (That's where false things might sneak in, cause I'm not good in chemistry at all :/)

Reality: Most powerful, but also hardest to control and super duper rare. It's something like time traveling. Knowing what reality is and being able to overstep the limits of reality for a bit, like stepping behind a line no-one really can see or overstep and then just stay there while everything else continues.

This was a bit much now...

Might sound confusing, so I explain it on Vale's powers.

Valentino Rossi

Hero Name: Doctor

Power Name: Examination

Category: Psychic

He is able to examine the behavior of others and the situation around him in such a way that he can guess what will happen next.

[CENSORED]

This is based on his mind and therefore psychic skills. With using his powers potential (a kind of all out mode), he is able to shift reality a bit. So could also fit there. Still, the ability is based on his psychic powers. He is just able to use it to overstep the line for a second, what he isn't able to do often. Actually its really unique that he is able to do this.

Another example, teleporting. You dismember all your atoms and send them to one place and rebuild them. But this would mean your brain wouldn't exist for a while. So this is actually a mix, because you need Reality powers to stay coherent during this and not just split yourself in star dust and stop existing :)

So we talked about Powers... (will make another post, just like I said, and also give an overview of the Powers from the characters. If you got any idea tho, feel free to comment, because I am still searching for Powers for some people.) And we also talked about the way the Hero branche works (it's a bit deeper, but then it would get tooo long, so we do that in between or on another day)

I'll continue this in a second post, coming in a few hours! Just wanted to finally upload this, even when I still need to write out the second half. Hope you enjoyed this and aren't annoyed by the many informations... It's just my baby and I have really thought about it for quite some time, so I got a lot of ideas.

In the next post: Timeline about Vale&Marc hehe, including a bit of what happened :)

[bbygirl-aemond]

I’m really curious where you come up with prophecies and Valyrian lore from? It’s canonically different as Vermithor and Vhagar aren’t siblings. Nor are there any confirmed prophecies about Aemond. There are no multiple dragon riders, even Danaeyrs only rode Drogon. Is the lore canon divergence, or your interpretation of what cannon could be?

Yeah sure I'm happy to compile all of my reasoning for the different magical decisions! I've grounded all of these decisions in different parts of canon, and took a ton of care to make sure I never once explicitly contradicted canon laws surrounding things like magic and dragon heritage. So even if you disagree about the source material I've based these decisions off of, you at least have to acknowledge I haven't violated anything by introducing this lore. I'll mention my sources more explicitly below, but I've drawn from A Song of Ice and Fire, House of the Dragon, Fire and Blood, The World of Ice and Fire, and remarks made by House of the Dragon's showrunners and actors. So let's go through it (for other Stormbreak readers, there might be some interesting hints in here...):

Vhagar and Vermithor

First, a tiny correction: Vhagar and Vermithor aren't siblings in Stormbreak. They're parent and child. This isn't confirmed in canon, but there's a ton of evidence to suggest it, drawing from Fire and Blood and House of the Dragon. According to canon, Vhagar and Vermithor are the only two dragons alive during the Dance with multiple, highly-specific features: Their size, their coloring, and even their bone structure. I've written about this biology aspect in more detail here and here.

It also fits very well into GRRM's narrative arc for Vermithor to have hatched from either Vhagar or Balerion's egg. Jaehaerys with Vermithor is set up as a direct parallel to Aegon on Quicksilver. Aegon dies fighting Maegor, who's riding Balerion, specifically because his dragon is too young and small. Vhagar was still bonded to Visenya at the time, so the next best option for a thematic match to Balerion would be either Vhagar or Balerion's offspring.

Additionally, it's significant that Rhaena, who's coded as a potential dragon dreamer, is the one who puts this egg in Jaehaerys's cradle. Perhaps she foresaw some part of the conflict that would happen, and knew Jaehaerys would need a formidable dragon that would allow him to go up against Balerion and Maegor. I've written about this in more detail here.

Even if you don't believe Rhaena's a dreamer, it's canon that the tension between Maegor and Aenys existed long before Aegon or Aenys ever died and Rhaena would have known her family's political position was very precarious. In this case, it makes even more sense for Rhaena to use Vhagar's egg specifically; at the time Jaehaerys was born, the only dragon on Maegor's side was Vhagar. It would make sense for Rhaena to want to arm her family against the dragon she knew would fight for Maegor's claim and would be trying to counter Vhagar in particular with her choice of egg. And what better counter to a gargantuan dragon than its own child, guaranteed to also be huge?

Aemond as a dragon dreamer

There are a few different parts to why I felt Aemond could have a connection to the future. My sources for this are the HotD showrunners, Aemond's actor, and the ASoIaF series.

I drew inspiration from the writers of House of the Dragon, who talked with Aemond's actor at length about intentionally basing his character off of the myth of the cyclops from Greek and Roman mythology. The cyclops has only one eye because he traded the other for knowledge of his future death. This idea of trading an eye for foresight is pretty common throughout mythology; another example is the god Odin from Norse mythology. From the interview, it's clear that Aemond has some knowledge of the future, because the actor was specifically asked to consider how that knowledge would impact Aemond's personality when deciding how to portray him. I've talked more about this here if you're curious!

The interview then made me wonder whether there might be reasons for two of Alicent's children having explicitly confirmed abilities to see the future (though to varying degrees). So in Stormbreak, the dreaming abilities of Aemond, Helaena, Jaehaera, and the fourth mystery dreamer are all related to their Hightower heritage. I've based this on canonical theories by the Maesters as to how House Hightower originated, plus canonical details about the structure/foundation of the Hightower itself.

As a hint: According to The World of Ice and Fire, the Hightower is built upon a second, much older fortress of unspecified origin. It's made of fused black stone and contains "gloomy halls, vaults, and chambers," so it's a veritable castle/fortress in and of itself. I wonder where else we might find fused black stone in the ASoIaF universe...?

Multiple dragon bonds

This is going to be the shortest part of this ask, because I've already explained everything in a separate post here, but maybe you had some trouble navigating my blog and couldn't find it. For your future reference, I have a document here with a directory of every post I've ever made. If you navigate using the outline on the left-hand side, you'll be able to get pretty easily to the portion that deals with my posts related to Stormbreak.

TLDR: The multiple dragon thing isn't an Aemond-specific ability. None of these things are. And if some of y'all would wait until the fic is finished to come after me for unfairly favoring him, you'd understand that! I mean, I have 2+ members of Team Black planned to end up with two dragons. It's a Targaryen thing, and they're all Targaryens, so statistically it's going to happen.

Part of reading a WIP is that you need to have faith in the author; if anyone struggles with that, they should stay away from WIPs in general, including this one. Remember, that's the joy of fandom- you get to choose to engage with the content that best fits your preferences!

[deep-space-lines]

Have you ever wanted to draw something but you fought due to your skill level at the time you decide not to do it

Honestly I don't think there's been a time in my life where I haven't experienced this. There's a file on my ipad I've had on the backburner for like probably over 4 years now; there's a really clear image in my head of a poster showing the detailed anatomy of an astronaut from the perspective of aliens who believe the spacesuit to be part of its body, and every time I come back to it, I keep saying I'll do it later because I just can't pull it off yet :') so yeah the struggle is real

That being said, I've personally found that apart from just 'don't draw it and let it haunt you for years until your confidence improves', there's two solutions that work for me

1: Just draw it the best you're able now, with the knowledge that it might suck (in your eyes) but there's no rule that says you can't come back and re-draw it a few months or years down the line once you've learned more, if you still want to. It can be super frustrating if you have a really concrete awesome image in your head that you know you can't execute the way you'd like, but treating it more like a rough draft than something that has to be perfect the first time around can help get around this. Genuinely I think about this post all the time now, I think it rewired my brain chemistry as an artist. Just accept it'll look bad, who give a shit!!!! If you draw the rough draft now, it'll either turn out better than you expected, or you'll figure out what you struggled with for next time. Either way you'll at least temporarily get The Image out of your head and satiate the Art Beast.

Which leads into...

2: Figure out if there's a specific aspect of the Thing that intimidates you the most and put some time into low-stakes practice with the skill that's blocking you. Usually it's gonna be something like perspective, anatomy, rendering/painting, struggling with dynamic poses, etc.

Starting a completely new skill from scratch sounds intimidating, but you're not starting from scratch, and if you sit yourself down and give it some dedicated practice, you WILL see improvement within the same day. Keep it up for a week or a month and you'll have learned a lot. If it's dynamic perspective, tell yourself "ok I am GOING to learn how to draw with perspective" and mess around with references, look up tutorials, draw other art pieces with perspective until you feel like you have a somewhat decent grasp of it. If it's anatomy or dynamic poses: (once again, cannot stress enough) use references. Trace and then copy references until you get a feel for the shapes (AdorkaStock is really good), practice figure drawing (Quickposes, Line of Action), watch Proko because they have really good videos on these things (1) (2) (3).

'Practice makes perfect' is simultaneously very correct and very unhelpful advice, but if you've got a good grasp of the fundamentals of art, picking up specific, individual skills to a 'good enough' level is not nearly as time-consuming and frustrating as trying to just get better at 'art' as a whole. It can be really good motivation tbh (at least for me), to have an image of something I want to create and telling myself "I am going to intentionally practice [indoor environments]/[perspective]/[faces]/[painting with unrealistic colors]/[insert specific skill] for a few weeks until I feel confident enough to draw this thing".

anyway sorry that was so long. idk if this is any help, just my personal experience

[danny-chase]

I've read the Jason figurately coded posts and they aren't really any different from other coded discussion. They also usually do talk about actual female characters like Steph. I mean you can like canon black or indian characters and still talk about Raven's literal black/indian coding.

To me - my understanding of coding is when something is intentional. My understanding of Jason having female mentors, or getting killed off for man pain, was that it wasn't intentional commentary. I think those things are coincidences. I think if the writers wanted to make Jason a female character, they would have made him a female character, but these were back in the good old boys club comics days (which exists until now) and I'm kinda sus about any conversation that claims male characters written by men in the comics industry are female coded because. Well. A lot of writers were super sexist/racist/homophobic, and unless there's interviews of the writers explicitly expressing their intent to code a character... it's more just people looking at coincidences or parallels between characters and making assumptions that it was intentional coding. Don't get me wrong, the coincidences/parallels are interesting, but to me they're more indicative of how the male power batman fantasy makes the story lame and annoying not proof of coding taking place

Raven is a completly different situation than Jason, her creative team explicitly based her design off of an Indian women (has been verified in interviews), gave her a bindi, had scenes where she wore traditional Indian dress, and if I'm not completely mistaken or talking out of my ass I believe Marv took inspiration from different Eastern religions while writing her story. Now whether this is coding or cultural appropriation is kind of a fine line. Judging it by standards now - I'd say it leans more towards cultural appropriation, even now Raven still has what looks to be a bindi for aesthetic purposes (depending on the story it's associated with her evil father which is... questionable at best) while still remaining a white character who's both percieved by the audience and by the creative staffs at white. Judging by standards at the time? It's a bit more complicated I guess, I wasn't alive in the 80s. Does this mean i think future iterations of Raven should stay white and stop appropriating Indian culture? Not exactly - i think they should take a restorative justice approach: acknowledge that hey, we fucked up, and then give Raven to an Indian writer/creative team who can showcase a more authentic experience and come up with ways to incorporate her ties to the culture respectfully - say by making Arella Indian, and showcasing parts of Hindi culture on Azarath

I've quite literally never been a part of online fandom before DC so i haven't seen too much coding discourse. Obviously, there is coding in comics. But so many times I've seen people claiming coding exists without looking at the very clear authorial intent behind why the characters say what they do. One example not related to either character: people claiming Chuck Dixon queer coded Tim. I'm sorry. He's literally a raging homophobe, and Tim not wanting to have sex in his run is Chuck using him as a mouthpiece for his abstinence campaign... not queer coding. The context matters, and I'd rather people be honest and just say "hey i thought this was interesting about the character, here's my interpretation of it even though it's not what the real author intended" than lie about the content that's there. Coding in comics does exist, it does happen intentionally by certain authors. But making it up when it doesn't exist doesn't exactly feel productive to me... it just feels misleading and like you're trying to justify why your fave is the best

[goldom]

AFoLiS author commentary Part 4-2

Alright let's plow through the rest of this. P.S. I am also doing one for Part 5 even though it shouldn't (hopefully) need any changes yet.

So what would a doctor be called who specializes in diseases related to quantum mechanics? Uhhh quantologist. Sure. I went with that. ELS is in a weird place in the game where half the time it acts like it's specifically an Iron Cavalry thing, but other times like it's also something people can just be born with. Firefly asks if you've heard of it before you're supposed to know who she is. For my story I decided other people do have it, but that the natural form doesn't have all the same symptoms (like not dreaming, as she says later, was added intentionally). And if other people have it, that means Sam isn't strictly necessary for treatment, just a way she can get treatment without living in the hospital 24/7. That's what I decided anyway. Post-cure, however, she's able to stay out way more, only needing to go in once a week.

And as for it not really being a cure... maybe that's again just because I felt like it'd be too easy, especially when Stelle wasn't even trying to cure it, just to wake her. It's cured 'enough for now,' but still leaves open the possibility of it getting worse (or better!)

In case it wasn't clear – because the cause and effect were an entire story apart – the reason Stelle is so confident that she's about to be engaged is because back in Part 3, Firefly revealed she'd already bought a ring but wouldn't give it until Stelle reconciled with her own past. Since she did that, she knows it's coming. It's clearer when you don't have to read the two weeks apart.

I felt a little bad being like "this is the real hard part, the recovery," and then just time skipping over most of it... but like... does anyone want to read five chapters of going to P.T.? I sure didn't want to write it. I had to go to my own P.T. lol

Canon-March's bow is not, in fact, made of modern materials, it's all just ice. But... then that whole scene wouldn't have worked, so that's how it's got to stay. This may be obvious, but I've never said it: my thinking is that Abundance Stelle's "skill" is her breath and her "ultimate" is whatever she's trying to learn to do with the bow in this scene. And her basic attack is like 5 damage shoot you with a wooden arrow and is useless. And... now that I write this, I realize I never gave her a talent. Hm. What if it's like, normally she can only heal (breathe) on the party member directly next to her, but after using an ultimate she gets charges of long-distance breathing (blowing a kiss?) lmao I don't know.

As you lie watching her sleep, you wonder. If I changed my wish, why did I get the old one too? Could it be… Elio is actually a nice guy? Or is this also part of some scheme? No point second-guessing it, I’ll go mad trying to understand how he thinks.

Now, I was only thinking about it recently, but this is actually still up in the air. We don't know the exact wording of Stelle's wishes, but Elio's never acted like a genie, he's not trying to use semantics to give out dud wishes. I think you could very reasonably argue that Stelle hasn't gotten either of her wishes granted yet. She's not truly immortal and Firefly isn't cured. They've both gotten more years, but that's it... I'm not foreshadowing anything right now, I honestly haven't written anything based on this thought yet.

Suddenly able to live in normalcy and peace for a little while, Stelle is instantly restless, having to sit with her thoughts. But as soon as she's back out there, she's wishing for a peaceful life again. Grass is always greener, I guess.

Every time I have Firefly say something about not following destiny/fate I feel like I owe an explanation, so here it finally is. Yes, canon-Firefly says repeatedly there is only one destiny, her end is already fated, on and on. But what does she really mean by that? Far as I can tell, just that she will someday die. She also says that until then, she has the right to choose how she lives. That sounds 99% of the way to saying, as I have her do, "Fuck fate." So it's breaking canon a bit, but really not that much. After all, her preordained fate was, unquestionably, to die in war, and she didn't. She already broke out of her destiny once.

OH FUCK ME she does say "You're still my Star" aloud right here. I SEARCHED! I made sure she hadn't ever said it to Stelle! How did I miss this one?! WELP GUESS WHAT, EDIT TIME, NO SHE DIDN'T.

Ok here's another thing I knew I'd need to change. Old line about inviting the SH:

“No,” she finally decides. “That’s my past now. I’m sure we’ll work with them again, but… no. You have anyone?”

Replacement:

“No,” she finally decides. “I want to focus on our future. I know I’ll see them again, and they’ll probably be mad I didn’t, but… no. Not now. You have anyone?”

I already had a huge AN at this point about continuing to keep 'Firefly as trans allegory' alive so I won't repeat it all here. I will say, embarrassingly, I never even thought of it until I heard other people talking about it. I also said I'm never gonna say outright whether my Firefly literally is one way or the other, but some upcoming content is going to, unavoidably, strongly suggest she's not. It's not something I wanted to state, but when we get there, you'll see why it can't be helped. But that's okay – it's still a meaningful allegory, and it's still totally fine for readers to see my version of her as literally trans if they want to.

“Oh God, you haven’t turned into a morning person, have you?”

yeah so this was before Firefly came out as a before dawn person. There's... really no way to keep this line. Replacement:

“Ugh, are you back to being a morning person already?”

Part 4 Chapter 21, Stelle says:

You… are why I’m here.

Part 5 Chapter 25, Firefly mirrors:

Then what am I waiting for? I know why I’m here.

I am so glad I managed to think of "Phoenix." It really is perfect. Like, so perfect for her that I am convinced they're going to use it officially at some point. You know, when she gets her new Abundance path, and they rename her to Phoenix. It's totally gonna happen, I swear... But if it really does... I am never going to stop screaming about how I called it. Like, c'mon, they went with BIREFLY for her bird instead of FIREBIRD. What possible reason would they be THAT blind except to not spoil what they know is coming? Let me have this one, Mihoyo.

...and then she somehow ruins her dress in Phoenix. That's going to need a new explanation.

Original line:

You pull your eyes away from Firefly’s radiant face and realize that her wedding gown is smudged with grease and oil, and the train has partially torn off. “Ah… Oops,” Firefly says. “I guess it was still a little dirty in there from the work you guys did. Well, not like I need it anymore, right?”

Replacement:

You pull your eyes away from Firefly’s radiant face and realize that her wedding gown is tattered and the train has partially torn off. “Ah… Oops,” Firefly says. “I guess all that material didn’t quite fit inside. Well, not like I need it anymore, right?”

Another one that won't work with knowing the SH love her:

On your way back to the passenger car, Firefly clings to your arm, “This is so incredible. I can’t believe… I never thought I would fit in with anyone again. Not since I lost my people.”

Replacement:

On your way back to the passenger car, Firefly clings to your arm, “This is so incredible. I never thought I’d feel this welcomed here. I can’t thank them all enough.”

Another symmetry, in Part 4 Chapter 2, for Stelle:

They gave you this power. They forced this power on you, each for their own ends. But now it is yours.

and in Part 4 Chapter 22, Firefly:

They gave me that power to use me. Now they’re gone and it’s mine.

“War… dance?” you say, face going numb. “It’s a ceremony,” Dan Heng explains. “And a tournament, meant to honor the soldiers of the Hunt and pray for victory over their… enemies…” All eyes turn to stare at you. “Ah… heh… yay,” you cheer limply.

I wrote this so long ago and I'm still suffering about it ;_; I hate being here.

But… there are moments when it almost seems like this feeling of love is enough to make a light in the darkness of space. Maybe that's just silly romanticism.

Oh, that's where the line is that I was thinking of. Still, exact same idea as the one in Part 2.

Okay, Part 4 done! I guess I'll throw in just a couple notes on 4.5 too, but I don't wanna talk about it too much 'cause that's embarrassing.

Really just a couple things. First is that this line

You were never meant to be loved. You’d been so scared the first time: What if they’d edited the ability to feel physical pleasure out of your genome entirely? What if you could never share that with her? What if you were, as usual, defective?

was an idea I considered actually going with (and I'd have Stelle figure out something that did work), but I thought, you know what, maybe I don't need to make Firefly suffer even more. So I didn't.

The other thing is that I really didn't mean to make Stelle so ace-coded, but like, I am, probably more so than her. I guess I couldn't help it, so here we are with lines like

Sex is overrated. This right here is as good as you can possibly feel.

And that's also why all of it is so heavily focused on feelings rather than specific actions. It's the only way I can write it.

Alright. Tomorrow onto reviewing the newest part.

[lastoneout]

Okay I try anyway

So FromSoft is NOT above giving you ways to completely fuck yourself and make the game way harder which I Appre-c-ate but the FF ending doesn't really fuck you over that much so here's what I propose

You progress as normal until Mlina leaves, BUT when she does she actually takes away you ability to level up. You can get it back with the shabrbrri girl in the pit, but you actually do have to Get It Back or you're boned. And maybe you can intentionally skip it if you want since I know channege runners LOVE locking themselves out of Important Game Mechanics. Like yeah fuck it you can't level up. Maybe you can respec with Reballa but you can't level anymore until you get shabririr girl.

Then!! Melina makes good on her threat from the final cutscene and starts invading you a bunch. Girl is hunting your ass for sport. Spend to long in an area and she is coming after you. Best part is she already HAS a moveset and fighting style and a weapon, and you could make it more powerful so it's actually hard(this is bcs I love how if you kill the Legion the first time you meet them in NVS they start sending death squads that are WAY higher level at you that nuke you ass constantly I love that shit) and when you kill her instead of like "Invader Vanquished" you get like "Invader Repelled" or smthn to make it clear she Is Not Stopping.

There should be some benefits to outweigh the downsides tho, nothing that completely locks out you of important things but like maybe since the merchants had a cut connection to the FF some of them start offering better stuff, like maybe limited consumables that you'd have to farm for otherwise like artiera leaves(price can be scaled to make it fair since this is mid to late game) and maybe since they do have different personalities some trade with you less or even leave entirely to avoid associating with y'all and bringing more ire down one themsleves. You could also have frenzied enemies no longer aggro. They just leave you alone. And you can summonnwhats his butt with the haye for more bosses.

You could also have some npc get cold with you. Not ignore you entirely but like they aren't as forthcoming with info and they express disappointment or disgust or maybe plead for you to stop. That'd be cool. Maybe dung eater quest activates without your input idk so you gotta deal with that too. Or you can't do Rannis endinynan7more.

Idk if the repebtancr with the turtle pope works on Melina either, but I figure you can still do the ladt minute bail on it in case you get cold feet.

Also since I HAYE that Elden Beat is the final boss, ikonit should be a secret unlockable one maybe this is the way you get it. Gotta really make sure every bit of the golden order is fucking GONE foreveber.

Idk Whst else I haven't finished the dlc yet but maybe the bpcs get mad when the spell breaks and some refuse to help you. Pls no spoilers sorry Ia m not done yet.

Anyway that's it I'M sure I have more coherent thoughts tomorrow but if ai knew how to mod I$$ make this sosooooo dast it would be really cool ikon womeon3nn whouornamken it okay believe me I want the game to be hard er let us torture out sleeves fromeoft!!! I know you like it!!@@@@@

Oo I got an idea for a way to make the frenzied flame path in 4lden Ring way more interesrjng but I took my ambien so I cant articulate it rn

[completeoveranalysis]

~

Warning! This post contains spoilers up to chapter 170 of Tsubasa (and Chapter 71 of xxxHolic). Please skip this if you have not read that far.

Please also make no comments about what happens after that point in either manga.

~

SO here is the other splash image that really stuck out to me:

This time not because of the Seresu arc but because of how the Infinity arc itself ends.

Here's the link to the original post the image is from if you'd like the full context, but the particular quote from that post I want to use as a reference is here:

"Syaoran also sits on the throne - which as far as I can tell, isn’t his. ... The only one ever wearing the crown they’re all wearing [on their clothes] is Sakura. Now, does it make sense that Syaoran has usurped her throne? Heck yeah! He’s stolen everything from her. He’s stolen her journey (they’re following him now, always a step behind), he’s stolen her feathers, and he’s stolen the person she’s in love with."

Where I was kind of on the right track but couldn't have possibly guessed what all the chess imagery was ultimately feeding into. Looking back now the initial liveblogs for all of these Chess-related splash images are such a big mix of different iconography, so it’s very fun reading through all my old guesses back then. I think I did a really good job of trying to decipher some of it, especially the Cinderella and Snow White imagery in Chapter 140, but the Chess was a bit trickier.

Which, like, understandable, because the chess game that was happening in the chapters was stressful as heck and did not end well, but there is a nice conclusion to it with this image which is easier to read now - especially in regards to Sakura. Because it's made very clear to the viewer that the symbol of the Queen piece is in reference to her; both in these splash images (where she wears the crown at one point, and every character wears the symbol in ways that reflect their allegiance to her) and in the plotline, where she functions as the Queen of the battles taking place. Here is another good example of the symbol being used for Sakura with it right there on her throne, and the two Syaoran's wearing the symbol in smaller ways to represent their relationship to her. But with that all in mind? I had no idea what it was really getting at with Syaoran on Sakura's throne here.

BUT NOW I DO.

If you go back to that example I just gave with Sakura sitting on her throne? It's a different throne! It still makes it very clear that she's undeniably the Queen piece, with the symbol in gold actually being a key part of the throne itself.

And the throne Syaoran sits on? It has the crown symbol as part of the decoration, but it's not representing him, it's just a small symbol to show that matches Sakura's throne. This throne is his own.

He's the King piece.

(And, important distinction; the throne is not Lava Lamp's, but our original plotline Syaoran who is now in Autopilot mode.)

This wouldn't have occurred to me the first time through because I was focused so much on what this might mean for Sakura, and how she related to everyone else, but the way the Infinity Arc ends really hammers this home. After all, Sakura is the mastermind in this arc - everything that happens is according to her plan. She's not playing chess just during the literal chess matches, but during the entire plotline, moving every character and circumstance into place to enact her final plan; to activate both Chi's at once, absorb both their feather's, and trigger Fai's curse - resulting in her pseudo (if purely physical) death. But like we see in the plotline, this isn't a loss - it's a win. It's exactly how she planned things to unfold, and it will lead her to winning the game.

Just in case anyone isn't familiar, in Chess the queen is the most powerful piece capable of the widest variety of moves - but the queen is not the endgame goal. You can lose the queen piece in any game and (besides losing a powerful piece) it's not the end of the world. You can still win the game without the queen piece. It's the King piece that's the Win/Loss condition. The King is the piece you have to keep safe at all costs, even if you lose other pieces in the process. The second the King dies, the match is over. You've lost.

And this matches exactly how Sakura played the series events. She was the Queen in control of every move, and Syaoran was the Win condition she was focused on. She foresaw Fai killing Syaoran in the future - which, for her, is the Losing Scenario. She planned everything to avoid this, and she succeeded! She lost the Queen piece (ie, her physical body) but won the ultimate goal of keeping the King safe. She won the 3D future chess game that she was playing by herself, and positioned herself in the place that would have the most benefit for the victory at the end. (Which I still haven't seen, but she was VERY confident about this having a better result than Fai killing Syaoran.)

I'm also super happy that this ties in really well with the fairy tale allusions I talked about back in Chapter 140, but in ways I wasn't aware of back then either.

I talked about Snow White and how the apple (that shows up in a lot of the splash images in Infinity) may have been referring to Sakura's tendency to sleep a lot. What I didn't realise was that Sakura was essentially about to pull the Big Brain Snow White maneuver on herself to ultimately win her chess game. While in Snow White the poison apple is a trap, here Sakura sprung the trap intentionally. Fai is the apple she bit into deliberately - she arranged it so that killed her body, breaking his own curse, and sent her to the World of Dreams (and thus, she is asleep) which also placed her in a Glass Coffin (aka The Jam Jar of Dreams - Im sorry I have no memory of what it's really called). So the Snow White metaphor is now complete.

But also Cinderella! In the image for 140 Sakura is trying on a glass slipper - so she's Cinderella figure as well. But at this point in the plot the clock hadn't struck midnight just yet - like Cinderella, Sakura knew the exact time limit she had to work with, and for her the timing had to be PRECISE. She spent all of Infinity stressed out of her mind about this plan she couldn't trust anyone else with, knowing full well that if she missed the window even slightly it would ruin absolutely everything and they would all lose. Which, funnily enough, makes Yuuko the fairy godmother, since she provided Sakura with the magic she needed to make her plan happen (via wishes). This also means that Fai stabbing her with the sword is the exact moment the clock struck twelve - and like the spell finishing, Sakura could finally drop the act and explain what she had done, even as all the magic disappeared (ie, her luck being traded away). There's even a detransformation sequence of a sort, with her body and soul going in two different directions. But either way, the Cinderella metaphor is also complete!

And with all that done the last part I want to talk about is back in the image of Syaoran on the throne. He's framed on either side with the curtains that portray the chess board, and they're tied back by chains with him in the very centre. He is visually chained to the board - which, like, of course he is. With his Autopilot programming in place he's essentially just a chess piece without any will of his own - a winning piece, for sure, but he's still being moved around without his choice. He's playing the game on auto, making the moves that will lead him to the winning gambit, but without his individual soul he has no choice but to keep playing until the game is over. The goal he's working towards isn't even his - it's Evil Wolverine's. So in the same way that everyone else was a chess piece in Sakura's strategy (if, sort of, willingly), including Sakura herself, Syaoran is a piece being moved around in Evil Wolverine's favour - though if he dies, it's game over for Sakura's side as well.

I'm unclear if Syaoran dying would be a game over scenario for Evil Wolverine, but at the very least it would end the game he is currently playing.

So, in the hyper future 3D chess game that Sakura was playing by herself she couldn't properly win the game for her side by taking out Syaoran because he's her king piece too. Syaoran is the piece at the centre of everything, and will be the key to winning the game for either side. We just have to wait and see if Sakura's gambit will pay off in the way she thinks it will.

[autisticcassandracain]

The thing is, fascism is a whole ideology. Basically, "fascist art" is things we know are fascist (Wagner, Riefenstahl) and in an Orwellian twist (as in George Orwell literally predicted this), the new "entartete Kunst". Much of the assertion aimed at anti-fascists like Jack Kirby. And Alan Moore? Anyone read his later work? I refuse to engage since Lost Girls.

I'm sorry for being rude in advance im in a shitty mood right now but dude I'm literally fucking begging you to please please please please please please please please please not come to me with petty fucking bullshit like the nitpicking of terms used when the tags I left on the post in question made it clear that I haven't actually read the article and have no opinion on it and was reblogging the post for the examples of fascist thinking in comics. The fact that accusations of fascism are levelled at antifascists does not mean we cannot critique the way comic books often lean into fascist ideas and ideology. Do you seriously want to argue that comics like GCPD: The Blue Wall do not play into fascist ideology, even though it's not technically fascist art/art made with an openly fascist ideology? Is that the hill you want to fucking die on? Fucking obviously Wagner is in a whole different category but you KNOW you don't need to be a fascist making fascist art for your art to be playing into the ideology, intentionally or unintentionally.

Like I'll read the article later and form a proper opinion on it, and I'm fully expecting to disagree with a good minimum of 50% of it bc from tags left on the post by other ppl it sounds like much of what Moore said was Full Of Shit, and yes, Moore's work is often sexist and otherwise problematic or whatever, but like. Exactly none of this means that I have to disagree with the general idea that comic book superheroes easily play into fascist ideas, especially when written by literal CIA agents or Blue Lives Matter enthusiasts. I can agree with Moore on certain points while also thinking he's wrong about the root cause, the way it manifests, and/or the severity. I don't actually know if I do disagree with him on any of those things, bc again, I haven't read the article, but sometimes you can agree with someone on some things and disagree on others. Moore's work being shit doesn't mean I can't agree with certain aspects of his opinions on fascism in the comic book industry either. But, crucially, I wasn't agreeing with Moore, I was agreeing with a post that stated a blanket refusal to engage with his viewpoints on fascism in the comic book industry is misguided and potentially dangerous as it can lead to a dismissal of real, dangerous trends, which are still real and dangerous even if they're not technically fascist art.

Once again sorry for being rude I know I should wait to answer this before I can be nice about it but I don't really care right now. I'm just really sick and tired of getting anons that wanna argue fucking technicalities and shit like. Take it up with the OP of that post if you want to argue specifics regarding moore's article all I said was that I'm sick of ppl pretending that superhero comics are inherently antifascist when fascist ideas and thinking are prevalent in the industry. And we're never gonna get fucking anywhere discussing that if ppl are gonna 'well actually fascist art is-' every goddamn time someone brings it up.

[transsexualhamlet]

Hey, Rowan. I apologize if this is a lot beforehand.

A while ago I made a post about how physical romantic gestures have to be unnecessary in order to be purposed for romance, so holding a character to stop them falling isn't romantic because it is necessary. I want to expand that to include the situation that caused the intimacy in the first place. So, if the situation that made them do something romantic is not necessary to the plot — but rather used for the sake of the romantic subplot — then it is physical intimacy that can be used as canon proof of romance.

For example, Heaven's Official Blessing, a (heavily censored due to China's laws) fantasy anime with a romantic subplot. The MC and his LI share a bed because "there was only one bed", which does not affect the plot at all. The MC also gets randomly bitten by a snake so that his LI can suck the poison out (kiss his hand) and that bite doesn't affect the plot or characters at all, he doesn't even get fatigued.

An example of physical contact that can be used for queerbait but isn't good evidence for romance is in Code Geass. Lelouch and Suzaku are mainly shown to be touching in violent situations or situations caused by violence, all of which affect the plot (one pinning the other down to arrest Lelouch, one touching the other's face when they're both injured and he thinks he's hallucinationing, one holding the other as he bleeds out, ect). Despite having plenty of counterevidence for romance, the studio still marketed them like they were interested in each other though. So that's typical queerbait.

I haven't finished YuuMori because I'm procrastinating on it but I know you have. Do you have any thoughts on the physical intimacy between Sherlock and William and which criteria they fit? We already know there's other types of canon evidence but I am curious about the portrayal of intimacy.

Yes, yes, I have thoughts, and the thoughts are titled

the inherent homoeroticism of two bros chilling in a hot tub five feet apart cause they're not gay

The thing about yuumori and sherliam is that it's kind of the opposite of that, where instead of their physical intimacy being an idicator of romantic/sexual feelings, what indicates it is oddly the absence of touch.

Sherlock and William Barely Touch At All and I don't think they're literally ever shown touching outside of when they were fighting, sherlock was like holding the dude's hand so he didn't Plummet To His Death and when yknow he caught the dude in midair (all during... the same scene.) There's no other time where they touch on screen at all, and there's no indication that they ever did off screen either. The closest they come is an omake where liam Very Sexually leans over sherlock and takes out his cigarette lol but they never actually touch, and like when they were sitting opposite each other in ch 31 sherlock just keeps doing that thing where he just slumps on the chair and slides his legs into liam's while liam is just Sitting There for no good reason

like sherlock definitely wants to touch him there's no doubt about that but the fact that liam is so overly worried about touching him and just continuing to get farther away

Of course, there's a thousand other reasons for this, mostly them like being in the same place a total of like five times, and or being in "we are enemies" situations where Liam specifically orchestrated it so that he was as far from sherlock (emotionally) as possible. Most of their careful staying away from each other was because of Liam aggressively trying to not fall in love with him lmao (in chapter 31 when they're practically on a date the dude's so weirdly formal im just like Bruh and yet they just. Hover. They hover so close to each other in that chapter that they had to have consiously made effort not to touch each other... and well, that's sus.

But because of chapter sixty, that does actually become more of a grey area specifically because it had sherlock saying that yeah, liam is pretty touch averse, just in general, which clears up a lot of that.

The thing about that though is that the absence of touch between them in most situations doesn't take away from their romantic subtext and instead kind of intentionally adds to it? It's about the Tension lmao it's about the fact that Sherlock is reaching for him metaphorically and literally throughout the show while Liam keeps inching further and further away even while he gets emotionally closer and closer. It's not just their physical touch, it's how sherlock immediately called him "Liam" but liam couldn't even refer to sherlock by his first name to to his face and even then had it COVERED UP BY A TRAIN HORN because it was so emotionally MUCH for him

So i think the fact that they treat the situation of both their physical and emotional closeness so tenderly and cautiously... makes it more romantic/sexual just because not only is he worried about getting too close emotionally to sherlock (as in like. being friends) he is ALSO worried about being too close physically, which indicates that this is not a bro moment and he is repressing more than just Wanting To Be Friends With Him Real Bad.

Sherlock clearly wants to touch him, and I'm glad that he can respect the boundaries Liam has, even if they come from a standpoint of "ooh we're enemies haha"

And then it's treated so fucking catastrophic when shit hits the fan and finally they are in physical contact with each other and Liam is just tearing up about it... I think that just makes the whole situation feel more romantic instead of less.

I can't really say anything about after the timeskip, since like. they've been together in like three panels. But in general, I'd say that it's really about how they are so close and don't touch on purpose it's A Lot