#Poor thing Yuno

[yousta]

Saint Jacob? Uhm Patron Saint Bocaj? No, live forever Youiusey! Even if it's just Delila and me. RIP chris

I wouldn't have spent years alone

with no one hitting my phone.

Felt they all left me on the shelf.

Found no peace within myself,

loathing wanting to kill my self.

Couldn't really love myself,

hadn't defined love for myself.

It's a word you throw around,

and I notice.

Inspires distance in the eyes never focus.

For some image you said was your purpose.

Wait, I'll set you straight.

It's not love,

that only exists under hate

I would relate

Built through fear

Instead of being open to shedding a tear

It'd come out when we'd talk,

It's funny how I was always wrong.

Doubt you'll hear this song, I'm long gone

hope y'all go a decent way.

If not today, Someday.

I'm not holding out for what you'll say.

You should've known by then they aren't all just bitches okay?

[genderqueer-miharu]

Related to that post but i also remember how before mu's trial started i saw some people saying how dissapointed they were in her writing because it turned out that she was actually a bully as well and acted like a brat and like. I don't know that feels very weird to me not only because it was something that was very...obvious from her first video but also it just felt like a natural proggression for her character? I don't know i just don't think it's fair to say that a character is "badly written" when the way they're reacting and the things they're doing make sense for the type of character they are. Like i was also surprised with mu's change of attitude in trial two but even then i knew that it made sense for her character, it just felt like people were dissapointed that she didn't align with what they wanted her to be and blamed the writing for it.

And it's just not fair, not just for mu but for everyone, to reduce these characters to their most positive or their most negative traits because they're all nuanced and complex characters with complex emotions and motivations, yamanaka even said that he wanted them all to feel like real people that you could find in your life, and it does a disservice to all of them to focus on specific aspects of them and claim they're actually a good/bad person. This is how you'll end up dissapointing yourself when the worst parts of their characters and their crimes are eventually revealed.

[winged-self-indulgence]

Why Do People Like Yanderes?

Hi everyone, my name is Diya, and this was going to be a YT video-essay-type-thing but I'm too poor to afford a mic and too busy with college to learn how to edit videos, so here's my vague exploration of the psychology behind why people like yanderes so much through the lens of my favourite Visual Novels.

TW for uh. yandere content. Mentions of sex, gore, and non-con, particularly in the last topic. This is more like the first draft of an academic paper so while it's not explicit, I do go into some detail.

Introduction

If you’re a fan of anime or visual novels, then you’re probably already aware of what a yandere is, or at the very least you’ve seen that one picture of Yuno Gasai. Still, for the sake of thoroughness, let’s take it from the tippy top. The term ‘yandere’ is a Japanese portmanteau of ‘yanderu’ – the progressive form of ‘yami’ – meaning ‘sick’, and ‘deredere’ which roughly translates to ‘loving’. Together, the word refers to someone who is – in short – extremely lovesick. Obsessive to the extreme, and with little morality to spare, the standard yandere is characterized by a dangerous fixation on a chosen target, often appearing shy and caring at first only to flip the script and become violently aggressive towards perceived threats (Kroon, 2010).

It should be noted that yanderes are not a strictly romantic or sexual trope. The Ancient Greeks classified at least six forms of love, from familial (storge) to guests (xenia). Modern psychologists may distinguish love as either Companionate or Passionate (Kim & Hatfield, 2004) or consisting of three dimensions of Intimacy, Passion, and Commitment (Sternberg & Sternberg, 2018). Realistically, possessiveness shows up in a variety of relationships. However, people are generally primed to view certain dynamics as inherently amorous. Societal norms tend to encourage the idea that romantic bonds ought to rank above all others, and therefore if Person A is bizarrely fixated on Person B, then clearly there must be an element of sexual interest involved regardless of the actual relationship between the individuals in question.

Regardless, yanderes remain quite popular in fiction. Many dismiss it as a fetish, which it can be, but that isn’t the case for everyone. While there is nothing wrong with indulging in kinky fiction, not all of us get horny at the thought of being chained up in someone’s basement, no matter how hot our captor may be. So why is it so pervasive? Why is this trope so appealing that most writers cannot help but include at least a single line of dialogue implying that – if circumstances had been ever so slightly different – my wholesome shoujo romcom might have turned into a psychological horror?

Hybristophilia

‘Hybristophilia’, also known as Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome after the titular criminal couple, is a word is derived from the Greek word ‘hybridzein’ meaning ‘to commit an outrage against someone’ and ‘philo’ which means ‘a strong preference for’. Sexologist John Money reportedly defined it as a paraphilia in which an individual is sexually aroused by a partner who has a predatory history of hurting other people (Money, 1986, as cited in Matuszak, 2017). In his book, Serial Killer Groupies, true crime and crime fiction author RJ Parker distinguished two forms of hybristophilia: passive and aggressive. The former is when an individual contacts a criminal with the intention of striking up a relationship with them, allowing themselves to be seduced and manipulated but having no interest in committing a crime themselves. The latter are far more dangerous, as the individual not only derives sexual pleasure from their partner’s atrocities but are active participants in carrying out or covering up the crime. To quote Griffiths (2013, as cited in Pettigrew, 2019):

“[They] help out their lovers with their criminal agenda by luring victims, hiding bodies, covering crimes, or even committing crimes. They are attracted to their lovers because of their violent actions and want to receive love yet are unable to understand that their lovers are psychopaths who are manipulating them.”

In some ways, hybristophilia is the nearest thing we have to a realistic understanding of why people love yanderes. I mean, much of the fantasy surrounding such characters and their media tend to be filled with posts begging to be spat on or calling the rightfully terrified main character ungrateful for being a teeny bit upset about finding surveillance cameras in their ceiling. However, enjoying fictitious immoral activity does not predict real perpetration, so what does? There exists little consensus amongst psychologists as to what sparks this particular predilection, and that was strange to me. You would think there would be more studies into this topic, in spite of or perhaps because of its controversial nature. Heck, that one dude wouldn’t shut up about white women’s obsession with Bundy and Dahmer, and I assumed he had gotten that information from somewhere, but it turns out that was just him using modifiers to justify sexism.

However, I believe that we can hedge a few guesses, and over the course of my research, I’ve organized the main rationalizations under four umbrellas which I will explore through the lens of my favourite yandere-themed Visual Novels. Please keep in mind that most of these games are rated as mature due to sexual scenes and/or gore. Additionally, in the spirit of transparency, this ramble will be focused exclusively on male or masculine yanderes. So, without further ado:

Call Me Bob the Builder Because I Can Fix Them

If you’re familiar with DC Comic’s Batman, or just happen to have attended any costume event held over the span of the last 20+ years, you may be familiar with the character of Dr. Harleen Quinzel, better known as Harley Quinn. Initially created as the Joker’s one-off sidekick in Batman The Animated Series, she was so well-received by audiences that she became a recurring character in the cartoon and was eventually given a proper origin story in the form of a one-shot titled Mad Love.

Harley’s origin story has seen some alterations over the past decades, but the core aspects remain largely untouched. In the beginning, Harleen Quinzel was a promising young woman who wanted was a degree from the university’s prestigious psychology department, which she gained through…less than scrupulous means.

(Listen, I’m not sure if the authors were leaning on the Dumb Blonde stereotype, or if they simply thought that casting her as a genuinely bad student would make her later actions more believable. Either way, the idea of Harley as someone with a legitimate PhD came later)

After landing an internship at Arkham Asylum – a half-hospital and half-prison straight out of the 1870s that might as well be built out of one-ply tissue-paper soaked with gasoline and left next to a crate of fireworks – Harleen set her sights on the then incarcerated Joker. At the start, her fixation on the criminal wasn’t remotely sympathetic. She didn’t want to help him, she wanted to use him. Harleen Quinzel wanted piggyback off his infamy and write a tell-all tale detailing what sort of messed up childhood resulted in Gotham’s Clown Prince of Crime. Yet the more she interacted with him, the more the Joker took advantage of her empathy. By the end of their sessions, Harley no longer saw him as a violent serial killer with a clown schtick, but as a “lost, injured child looking to make the world laugh at his antics.”

But Diya, you may be asking, what does this have to do with the video? The Joker never loved Harley, and it could even be argued – as Shehadeh did in a 2017 essay – that her obsession with the pasty-faced clown is more akin to Histrionic Personality Disorder. While that may be the case, I believe that Harley’s story provides one of the reasons yanderes are so popular: their backstory.

Whether they were abandoned by their family, bullied by their peers, experimented on by evil scientists, starved on the streets, died under mysterious circumstances and then trapped in a haunted VCR tape for decades, or are simply so impossibly inhuman that they frankly do not understand why it isn’t socially acceptable to imprison their crush in a pocket dimension made of meat and non-Euclidean geometry, yanderes often have fairly sympathetic or at least understandable explanations for why they are Like That. Your mileage may vary significantly depending on how much you sympathize with these motives, but the point is that yanderes always make sense to some degree. Their morality and priorities may be twisted or even completely incomprehensible, but the audience almost always knows the reason, and that can be comforting. In the real world, other people aren’t always straightforward, and we never really know what they’re thinking, but narrative coherence demands a semblance of internal consistency lest the audience end up frustrated and confused. So yanderes are not only easy to sympathize with, but also fairly predictable. In-universe they may be unhinged freaks with a blood fetish, but to you watching from behind the safety of the screen they’re just acting out the script written for them based on a prototype. And if you understand the why behind their loose gears, then you might just be able to put them back together again.

The concept of rescue romances or “I Can Fix Them” has been around in our stories for thousands of years. The Epic of Gilgamesh detailed how Shamhat essentially ‘civilized’ wild man Enkidu through ritual lovemaking, and a concerning number of religions push the idea that women are dutybound to save men from the follies of sin. Yet men are not exempt either, with one notable example being the German fairytale, King Thrushbeard. Call it what you will regardless: Knights in Shining Armour, the Florence Nightingale Effect, or a plain old case of Because You Were Nice to Me, studies have shown that human beings generally like helping [DA2] others, even when the reason doesn’t necessarily stem from pure altruism. I will delve deeper into this later, but care and compassion are deeply ingrained in human nature, and arising from those roots is the appeal of this mentality: You can save them. You can change them. You can make them better. You are special, and the way you treat this person carries a weight that has not and will never be matched by anyone else for the rest of their mortal or immortal existence.

The illusion is a delicious one, especially if the person you’ve helped turns out to be a billionaire CEO with cash to burn, a super powerful ghost king willing to raze continents to dust for you, a demon having fun on a Friday night, or just your average hot creep with a knife. Moreover, different people have different ideas of what ‘fixing’ even means. Maybe you want to single-handedly rehabilitate your yandere into a functional member of society. Maybe you’re cool with the incessant stalking but would like them to stop slaughtering your friends, family, and local service workers. Maybe you want to make them much, much worse.

Not only do yanderes provide immediate proof that your actions have a tangible impact on the lives of others, but the fantasy also includes the desire of being seen as special. Of being admired and adored by someone whose life you inexplicably made better by virtue of simply being yourself, or an idealized version of yourself. In this fictional world, in this imaginary setting, the person you are is so uniquely, impossibly irreplaceable to someone. And if that’s the case then they can’t risk losing you, can they?

The Allure of Obsession, or ‘Til Death Do Us Part (Literally)

It shouldn’t be necessary, but here is my obligatory disclaimer anyway. Ahem: obsession is not a good thing in real life. Fixating on another human to the detriment of your own wellbeing and that of those around you is dangerous, as is encouraging someone else to obsess over you. You might think you are being worshiped, but real life is not a visual novel. The outside world doesn’t come with an age rating, the author’s guiding pen, and a convenient fade to credits sequence once you’ve reached an ending. The consequences will still be there in the morning, so don’t do it. Just don’t.

PSA out of the way, it’s natural to want to be wanted. Maslow’s Hierarchy places it just above physical safety, but I’d argue that it could easily be compared to baser drives. According to many psychological and anthropological studies, much of humanity’s continued survival and environmental dominance is largely attributed to our ability to form groups, cooperate with one another, and maintain complex interpersonal networks. Social support, intimacy, and a sense of belonging are linked to emotional and physical benefits, such as more optimistic health perceptions, higher subjective well-being, increased creativity and innovation, and greater self-efficacy (DeWall & Bushman, 2011; Harandi et al., 2017; Wang & Sha, 2018). Therefore, it’s perfectly understandable that rejection of any sort would be construed as a threat.

But if someone is obsessed with you, then you have no reason to worry about that, right? No more nights spent agonizing over how they feel about you, asking yourself whether your last text made you sound too desperate, or if you’re boring them because you spent the past hour info-dumping about Stardew Valley farm layouts. With a yandere, there will never be any doubt that they care about you. Sure, they might go about it in weird, manipulative, and insidious ways that violate your physical and mental autonomy, but you can’t deny their loyalty. They do love you in their own bizarre way. You are the sun around which they orbit. When you’re in the room, no one else exists. Every single messy flaw is just another bullet point on the mile-long list of why they adore you.

In essence, yanderes are not only attentive, but their love can be virtually unconditional. A yandere might know everything about you, and still revere you. It’s unhealthy as hell and you might genuinely question their taste, but it can be tempting to pretend that all of you, right down to the ugliest parts of yourself – the traits and choices that you would never share with another living soul even at gunpoint – are worthy of understanding, if not open praise and affection.   

Attractiveness, or Okay but Have You Considered That They’re Hot Though?

.

.

.

I mean what am I supposed to say here? They’re hot, what do you want from me?

No, but in all seriousness, fictional media paints an idealized version of the world, and most yanderes are hot because they have the freedom of existing purely behind that screen; artfully arranged and edited to forever appear compelling to anyone who happens to enjoy their particular style. And there are a lot of styles to choose from. Whether you want them pretty faced and disarmingly cute, or scarred up and big enough to pin you like a butterfly, yanderes come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes that are meant to pique your interest and draw you in like a naïve little fish being lured towards the mouth of an angler fish, unwilling to believe that anything bad might happen to us when the bait is this pretty.

This is often referred to as the Halo Effect, a form of cognitive bias referring to the tendency for people to assume that a single obvious positive trait must be associated with other positive traits. The go-to characteristic is typically physical attractiveness, but a nice voice, good humour, and cooking skills are also factors which serve to influence our perceptions.

So, conventional physical attractiveness is one thing, but that’s only skin deep. What about beyond that? After all, the yandere still has to talk to you before they enact their master plan of tying you up in their basement until Stockholm Syndrome kicks in.

When I showed my friend a picture of John Doe from the game John Doe, she told me that he looked like a creepy slob, and she’s far from the only person who’s ever thought so. Look at them. I feel like if I tried to comb that hair it would simply eat me, and some of the CGs really put the scopophobia in Scopophobia Studios. I love Doe, but he is not hot, and he doesn’t behave in a normally appealing way either. If the player chooses not to take a bath, Doe will immediately comment that you “smell good” before following you home, breaking into your house, and leaving a bloody organ on the floor for the player to trip over. Many yanderes can at least fake a veneer of normalcy, but from the get-go Doe doesn’t even bother to pretend he’s anything less than an otherworldly creature stuffed into a vaguely person-shaped meatsuit. In an effort to find out why so many people had latched on to Doe – including me – I shopped around social media and YouTube for answers, and what I found was a widely unanimous sentiment.

While some were drawn to his fun design and goofy personality, most simply thought that he wasn’t inherently malevolent, just very confused. In addition to being a supernatural being with a completely alien axis of morality, Doe’s meta-awareness and unbridled attempts at winning the player’s affection lends him quite a bit of support from the audience, especially if you yourself also happen to struggle with social cues and relate to his pure earnestness. In Ending 7 of the extended version, the player character has the option to tell Doe – who has altered himself to pass as more ‘normal’ – that they prefer who he truly is, at which point he grows visibly flustered and sports an adorable pair of literal heart-shaped pupils.

Whether they’re charismatic, seductive, cute, sweet, funny, nurturing, or generous, the best yanderes have engaging personalities. Even while they’re committing truly heinous crimes against God, man, and your guts, you still kinda want to hang out with them, and you want them to acknowledge you as being just as interesting. And this is all fine in fiction because you’re the one in charge, and if you ever get bored or uncomfortable or busy with something else, then you can simply close the tab or window with zero consequences, which brings us to the final and most important reason.     

Power Dynamics and Consent in Fantasy (I Couldn’t Think of a Joke Here Guys, This Is Kinda Serious)

Once again, I feel that I must preface this section just for the sake of my own peace of mind: sexual coercion and assault are vile and disgusting crimes that should never be emulated or tolerated in the real world. We are speaking purely of fictional media, specifically adult-oriented media in this case, so please be mindful.

In 2009, Bivoni and Critelli conducted a study on 355 undergraduate women with the goal of assessing the reasons behind fantasies of non-consent. At the time, there were two leading explanations of this phenomenon. One stated that women with high libidos but repressed views of sex used these imaginary scenarios to alleviate the guilt they had grown to associate with sex. Because the simulation was a purely mental exercise and they themselves were cast as helpless victims in the scenario, they were able to remain blameless while still finding sexual gratification. The second stated that these fantasies were an expression of liberation by women who were adventurous and comfortable enough with their own sexuality to engage with taboo ideas that they weren’t at all interested in performing in real life. Which do you think was more common?

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If you guessed the second option, you’d be right. The study found that of the 220 women who had experienced such fantasies, 45% found theirs erotic, 46% were mixed, and only 9% reported pure aversion. One justification for this outcome relies on psycho-biological theories, for example masochistic preferences or the unintended activation of the sympathetic nervous system and subsequent mis-attribution of arousal. Other reasons have to do with higher order thinking and are tied to the power dynamics within such fantasies. On the surface is the appeal of being so desirable to someone that they simply cannot control themselves, but then there is a deeper impulse, which the researchers referred to as Adversary Transformation. To quote the article: “[fantasies] involve a struggle between an assailant and a potential victim in which it is relevant to consider who is the winner and who is the loser. At one level, it is a struggle over sex, but the woman's non-consent may be feigned or token. At another level, the woman may be seeking a victory that is not about whether sex occurs, but about what happens emotionally between the protagonists.”

Basically, the imaginary perpetrator may have ‘won’, but the self-character need not have ‘lost’.

Media provides an extra layer to the illusion, one that you as the viewer have absolute control over. If you are choosing to engage with a piece of media that explicitly labels itself as including R18+ yandere content, then you clearly have some expectations, and that background awareness goes a long way in reducing long-term discomfort and allowing audiences to make informed decisions. If you don’t like the plot, you can simply turn it off it with the click of a button, and when the screen goes dark it’s not like the yandere is going to punish you for saying no. Strade isn’t going to break into your house with a drill, there are no homicidal clown ghosts hiding in your TV, and no suspicious pink-haired hackers watching your webcam. They aren’t real, and the consequences aren’t real either. You have all the power here.

Conclusion

In summary, Yanderes are appealing for a variety of reasons. Whether you want to save them, think they’re attractive, wish to indulge in a dream of being utterly coveted, or simply enjoy a bit of spice in your me-time, it’s obvious why the trope has persisted for so long and will likely continue to do so. If you enjoy yanderes but are worried that having a taste for the less wholesome side of things might imply something about who you are as a person, don’t be. The notion that fantasies and media preferences directly reflect subconscious desires is not only painfully out of date debunked nonsense but also indicative of restrictive ideologies wherein bad thoughts = sin. This isn’t 1984. You haven’t committed a thought-crime by having a weird kink. You aren't going to superhell for fantasizing. The human mind is hardly ever so mathematically rational, and the point of fiction is to allow us to safely engage with and explore various ideas, provided the everyone involved is mentally, chronologically, and emotionally mature enough to do so.

Thank you all for listening to me. If you learned something or were just a little bit entertained. If you're curious about knowing more, I've listed my sources below

REFERENCES

Bivona, J. M., & Critelli, J. W. (2009). The Nature of Women’s Rape Fantasies: An analysis of prevalence, frequency, and contents. Journal of Sex Research, 46(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490802624406

Critelli, J. W., & Bivona, J. M. (2008). Women’s Erotic Rape Fantasies: An Evaluation of Theory and research. Journal of Sex Research, 45(1), 57–70. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490701808191

DeWall, C. N., & Bushman, B. J. (2011). Social acceptance and rejection. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20(4), 256–260. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721411417545

Flynn, F. J., Reagans, R., Amanatullah, E. T., & Ames, D. R. (2006). Helping one’s way to the top: Self-monitors achieve status by helping others and knowing who helps whom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(6), 1123–1137. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.91.6.1123

Harandi, T. F., Taghinasab, M. M., & Nayeri, T. D. (2017). The correlation of social support with mental health: A meta-analysis. Electronic Physician, 9(9), 5212–5222. https://doi.org/10.19082/5212

Hazen, H. (1983). Endless rapture: rape, romance, and the female imagination. https://openlibrary.org/books/OL3161300M/Endless_rapture

Kroon, R. W. (2010). A/V A to z: An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Media, Entertainment and Other Audiovisual Terms. McFarland.

Matuszak, M. (2017). Hybristophilia White Paper. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55dfd21ee4b0718764fb34cc/t/5cb7cabee5e5f00ab13be58b/1555548863275/Hybristophilia+White+Paper.pdf

Oarga, C., Stavrova, O., & Fetchenhauer, D. (2015). When and why is helping others good for well-being? The role of belief in reciprocity and conformity to society’s expectations. European Journal of Social Psychology, 45(2), 242–254. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2092

Parker, R. (2014). Serial killer groupies. RJ PARKER PUBLISHING, INC.

Wang, T., & Sha, H. (2018). The influence of social rejection on cognitive control. Psychology, 09(7), 1707–1719. https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2018.97101

[purgemarchlockdown]

I think Mahiru being a literature student is very important to consider when understanding her because Mahiru is a character built around Narrative, well everyone is to some extent (I need to finish that post) but Mahiru especially because she's someone who's main vision of love is influenced by Storytelling.

She sort of subtle but you can see it how she talks about romance, as she says:

Mahiru: [disappointed] I have a pretty poor vocabulary, so I can’t describe it beyond clichéd phrases.

Admitting to only being able to describe love based on commonly repeated ideas in stories and media, soap operas, shoujo manga, films, and so on. The first thing we see Mahiru doing is TIHTBILWY is read.

Mahiru: Yeah, yeah. You’ll deny it at first. I mean, I was like that as well. Before then, I always admired soap operas and shoujo manga because I thought that they depicted a world different from our own. 

She's admiring the idealized idea of love rather than the real thing, and you can see that in how she describes it.

Do you really think you know what love is? If you do, let's just overheat together

Let's have matching pain, this sickness is pretty bad

This idealized idea of a person who can always be there and share in her pain no matter what she does or the circumstances their in.

If they don't then:

Tell me, oh tell me why, won’t you just accept me?

But stories are forms of communication, and stories, especially the highly idealized romance stories Mahiru seems to gravitate towards. Can promote regressive and conservative gender roles and ideas. Ones that Mahiru seems to have accepted she needs to fufill to reach the societal line of acceptability.

Mahiru: Hm? I do~ Cooking, washing, cleaning, I love doing all those sorts of things~ Fufufu, I passed all my self-imposed training to become the perfect wife with flying colours! Yuno: Wow, incredible… I don’t know whether to call that old-fashioned or what. ……isn’t it a pain?

TIHTBILWY is presented as a Maganize, it's fundamentally something people buy and subscribe to. Mahiru is very much a character shaped by gendered narratives is society and I think that's interesting.

[good-beanswrites]

Happy 0203 day ❄️🔥🎉 I don't know if these are specifically meant for ships, but have a little platonic normal au thing I wrote of them hanging out and being silly :3

Yuno narrowed her eyes to study the shirt she was holding up to her unwilling model.

“No.”

She angled her head, undisturbed. “You don’t get any say in this.”

“I get all the say in this – they’re my clothes!”

“And it’s my birthday gift to you. So zzzzzzzzip!” she mimed zipping her lips, though she knew Fuuta was incapable of any such thing. She pulled the shirt away from him. “There’s nothing wrong with this one! It’s cute.”

“That’s exactly what’s wrong with it.”

She thought it would have been harder to convince Fuuta to come along on a mall trip this close to his birthday, but he’d answered her text almost instantly. He said he’d allow her to buy one pair of fancy sunglasses, and only so he’d have something cool to wear once he could take his eyepatch off. That one pair became two, then added clothes to match, then a handful, and now they stood beside a massive stack of items she was considering.

“Just try it~”

Yuno gave him a gentle push towards the dressing room. She could only laugh as he went spewing complaints the whole way in. 

A few minutes went by and she busied herself with sorting the clothes they’d looked at, pairing up tops and bottoms and jackets and scarves. Fuuta would probably tease her for shallowness if she admitted how much she enjoyed activities like this, but there was something about it that just lifted her mood. Shopping trips with her classmates left her feeling a bit hollow, but Fuuta’s wildly honest commentary always made it more fun. 

Right as she was starting to feel a twinge of impatience, he crept out. He was still clutching the shirt and hoodie he’d removed, covering up most of his chest. Yuno eased it out of his hands, leaving him with an expression of utter panic.

“It’s awful.”

“Are you kidding?” She pressed her hand to her cheek. “It’s super fun!”

He was looking less at the new shirt, and more at the people passing by, or checking over his shoulder, or down at the floor. Restless hands tugged at the collar, then the hem. It was certainly more form-fitting than his usual picks. 

As much as Yuno liked the look, she didn’t want the poor guy completely folding in on himself. 

She made a grand swing of her arms, ending in an X. “I like it, but I suppose we’ll add that to the ‘no’ pile.”

“What pile…?”

“I mean, you still have to try these on.” She scooped up the stack of clothes beside her and dropped the whole heavy mess into Fuuta’s arms.

“Eh? Which ones?”

“All of them.”

“All of them? Are you fucking –!”

He tried to protest, but his raising voice caught the attention of some other shoppers. His face burned red and he practically sprinted back inside before he could retrieve his original clothes from Yuno.

She folded them neatly over her arm, no longer excited that it forced him to try something else on.

Had she been too much? She thought this was something fun for him, but he was genuinely uncomfortable just then. What if, all this time, she’d only been projecting her own enjoyment onto their outing? Her stomach sank. She knew he took up her invitation so quickly because he didn’t have any other plans. She’d completely taken advantage of his loneliness – dragging him out here just for her to have a blast while he had no other option.

His phone buzzed from the hoodie pocket. 

He still hadn’t come out of the dressing room. So, he really was that uncomfortable. She bowed her head at her selfishness. They’d go right home, once he returned. 

His phone kept buzzing. Yuno glanced down in its direction.

She was never one to poke her nose where it didn’t belong. In her defense, this wasn’t a good sign given Fuuta’s history. She fished it out of the pocket, promising herself just one peek, for his own good.

A groupchat was firing off notifications.

@ fuuta where are you?

he said he was ditching, remember?

are you serious?

Broooo I thought he was kidding…

He’s out with a girl FR? No way, I still think he’s lying

you know you forfeit your spot if youre not here when we start the tournament

He was so hyped for this 💀 

must be quite the girl, huh

cmon man, we need you!

I can’t believe he’s finally touching grass 🙏

TRUE

happy for you man

“Is that my phone?”

Yuno nearly dropped it in surprise. “I – uh, it was going off, and –”

“Sorry.” He snatched it away without even glancing at the screen. “So?”

“So…?” Her heart raced with the panic of getting caught. He looked at her like she’d gone insane.

“What do you think of this thing?” He gestured to the new shirt he’d put on. “This was all your idea, but if you don’t want to be here as much as I don’t, we can –”

“No.” Her face broke into a smile. She exhaled. “No, I’m really glad we’re here.”

He blinked at the sudden warmth in her voice. “O-okay.”

“And I think it looks perfect. Really suits you~” It made sense he’d pick this one next; it sat right within his usual style. “Ooh, ooh! Why don’t we keep alternating things in your comfort zone! That would definitely help.” 

“Or we could just buy this one and be done with it.”

She kept her expression neutral. “Do you have somewhere else to be?”

His face was obscured as he headed back to the dressing room. “I wish,” he spat, “but I’m fucking stuck with you.”

Yuno couldn’t help it as her smile spread even wider. 

She called after him, “hey, try on that colorblock one next.” 

“Ugh. It’s ugly. And asymmetric.”

“So’s your face. Put it on.”

“Oi!”

[justalildumpling]

the fire alarm | ep 9: stupid

wc: 317

Yangyang was the culprit behind a lot of stupid things in their apartment. Most of which consisted of misplacing his poor roommates' and neighbours’ personal items in the most inconvenient places or his habit of doing things on a whim for the sake of the “plot”. 

He believed his last action of skinny dipping into the pitch-black ocean at 2 am last summer wouldn’t be topped anytime soon. However, never did he think that he would be running blindly into a burning building to retrieve you.

The back of his calves strained with each step leading to the 14th floor. The smoke only grew in mass, fogging his vision of the hallway. He lifted the collars of his t-shirt to cover his airways, squinting his eyes as he followed the trail of lights that lit up the floor to your front door.

He fumbled with the keys in his hands before slamming open the front door to run into your room. You were sound asleep on your bed, lips slightly upturned as the blanket enveloped the sides of your face. A rather amusing sight to see considering the situation at hand. 

With a sigh, Yangyang sat at the foot of your bed, shaking at your backside. You stirred in your sleep for a few seconds, mumbling incoherent sleep talk into your pillow. 

Yangyang chuckled, shaking you again, “We need to evacuate Y/N.” 

You opened one eye to observe the scruffy state of your roommate, still in his matching pyjama set that Renjun had gotten everyone for Christmas last year. You flashed him a drowsy smile, rubbing at your half-lidded eyes, “You actually came to get me.”

Yangyang could only grin, ruffling the top of your hair, “Of course I did dummy, how could I forget someone as annoying as you?”

“Fuck off,” You giggled, grasping his hands to pull you out of bed.

“Hurry up stupid.”

masterlist || previous | next

pairing: nct 00'liner x fem! reader

synopsis: knock knock! your favourite debatable group of friends are living on the same floor as you now! all u need to do is hope that they won’t burn the place down, should be easy enough… right?

genre: social media au, college au, roommates/neighbours au, fluff, crack

warnings: swearing

note: THE RETURN IS HEREEEEE🤧

taglist: open! feel free to send an ask or comment to be added :))) ~ @sungbeam @mosviqu @hyucksdarling @positionslab @luvenshiti @chelzinha26 @jenyoonoh @kyuzuberri @yixingtion @ahnneyong @shxnz @h06yck @heavenly-seraphic @pastelsicheng @sseastar-main @igotkpoops @culterycollector @ohmygs-blog @strangevante @sundamariis @bythe8 @tddyhyck @hiraarri @lovnlemun @spacecumslut @nshimura @blackswann-53098 @2baddies-1porsche @crushed-l1ttle-stars @deafeningtyrantmilkshake @ksywoo @90s-belladonna @moon-gyus @daegale @matchalyne @chuutaroo @nanaxwi @wonwootakemyheart

permanent taglist: ~ @xxxx-23nct @maeumiluv @produmads @shwizhies @polarisjisung @dearlyminhyung @wooyoung-a @w3bqrl @daincty @deehyuck @ficrecnctskz @rv7hsua @n0hyuck @neosdaisy @baekhyunstruly @barbkh8450t @cupid-yuno @rum-gone-why @mxnhoeuwu @dinonuguaegi @alethea-moon @klovmasworld @haechansbbg @moonchele @chernabogsbiggestfan @sehunniepot @ujisworld

[r4bbitmilk]

Dumping my random wb girls thoughts so i can squeeze them out of my head (and maybe draw them later. Hopefully)

More wb girls art is coming soon I'm still just recovering from being sick recently!!!

Nirei

Nirei is definitely a fujo (and a himejoshi bc they're all girls here LOL)

Has thick, fluffy golden hair that she "controls" by putting them into cute little hairstyles everyday (let ur hair down please princess)

Skincare expert !! Goes the whole 9 yards !!! 10-step korean skincare routine ! She has entire boxes of face masks and she WILL force you to do a face mask with her.

President of shipping her classmates (in secret !!! DO NOT ask for her ao3 account she will pretend she doesn't know what that website is)

Does not notice the very possessive scary dog privileges she has when Suo is next to her... Poor Suo...

Suo

Suo... Want to draw her... In a pretty deep-red Hanfu.... That's my Han dynasty princess...

Suo has very long hair. Always tied for cleanliness but it's very long and silky. Perfect for those really elaborate traditional Chinese updos waaaaa

Suo sits like a prim n proper lady, knees and ankles together and angled to the side.

Minimal make-up but has Goddess-level clear skin... What is ur skincare routine ma'am.... Probably bathing in the blood of the innocent?

Touch Nirei and you will have exactly 3 hrs left to live (and yet she can't really express too much affection out loud without making it sarcastic.... Loser....)

Sakura

Sakura definitely the type to wear under-shorts almost as long as her skirt. When she kicks you in the face the last thing you'll see r cute little black nike shorts (and dat ass)

Also, bc male Sakura has long pants you don't see the many bruises and cuts he gets on his legs from his (heavily kicking-focused) fighting style, but fem Sakura definitely has dozens of bandaids on those pretty legs.

Sakura the type to sit like a man even in a miniskirt and it drives people insane please close those legs up princess ur classmates are fainting from high blood pressure

Has decent skin despite her very simple hand soap + water skincare routine. Hair is also decent despite using 3-in-1 men's shampoo (it's cheap ok!!!). But to everyone's surprise, she never forgets to use a bit of cologne (and deodorant!! She'd accepted that she's an unnatural freak with weird hair and eyes but she'd rather DIE than stink.)

Togame

Speaking of stinky, tgm would never stink because she bathes well and her grandfather washes all her samues for her. But she does smell like a bed. Like y'know when someone smells warm with a hint of whatever laundry detergent they use on their sheets. She smells like sleep.

Skincare nonexistent. Shampoo is whatever the bathhouse got. But she walks around in those big geta making noise and getting attention so she's decided if people are gonna look at her feet, her pedicure has to be on point.

Thanks the lord for Furin uniform mini skirts bc that means she can have a serving of Sakura thighs any time anywhere

Ume+Kotoha (just a few)

Ume-neesan smells like the sun, her garden, and faint coffee smell (probably from hanging out in cafe Pothos all the time)

The only reason she hasn't shriveled up into a raisin yet despite spending long hours on the school rooftop is Hiragi and Tsubakino's incessant nagging that she use sunscreen. Like they text her every few hours while she's up there like "reapply now or die!!!!!!!!!"

Sings like an angel but uses that talent almost exclusively in singing nursery rhymes to her tomato plants (and to little children. Do u see the wbstage influence on me HAHA)

(I haven't thought of Kotoha yet for this.... Do i make her a boy? Does she stay a girl? All I know is Ume-neesan is twice as clingy with her as male Ume is.)

Others

I haven't drawn fem Choji yet but that I want her cute and tiny with pigtails like a magical girl and then when she snaps she looks like yuno gasai LOL

Tsubakino is still Tsubakino here. Simply because I don't know if i want to change a character that's already perfect lol.

Furin girls all still (mostly) wear their uniforms in their unique ways, and most of them go for pants instead of shorts because it's more functional. But Sakura wears the default uniform and also im gonna be real with u dawg i wanna see panty shots when she kicks people

Shishitoren girls being streetwear fashion queens.... (Except togame sorry ma'am you're sticking to ur samues) (The samues ensure easy access for Sakura's hand to slide in and touch a boobie-- GETS SHOT)

I have this hc that furin graduates turn into cops ok. Obviously not all of them but A LOT of them.... And i struggle with it bc ACAB!!!!! but you see ANIME COPS R SO SEXY TO ME 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 and all I can think about right now is Officer Ume and the background music is 🎶 Cop cuties, cute n' on duty, Navy blue booties, Go ahead and lock me up!! Arrest me, but make it sexy 🎶

[loosesodamarble]

Hello, I was the one who requested a few Nacht head canons that you wrote recently. I loved them so I'm here with one more request. It's a very long one so you can ignore it or take as much time as you want. So here it goes: How would the magic knight squads react if they find out one of their members has a crush on Nacht? How would things play out after that.

Oh my! Welcome back then, Anon! Glad you enjoyed them, despite their timing.

….......

Black Bulls

Everyone would have to pause and go "our Nacht Faust?"

And you'd have to confirm "yes, our Nacht Faust. As if there are any others."

Half the squad would bust out in hysterics.

The other half would be dead silent from shock.

Remember, Nacht's first impression with several members was... poor. To say the least. So hearing that you liked Nacht was an experience for everyone.

Asta and Yami are the first ones to cheer you and Nacht on though.

Followed by the likes of Noelle, Henry ("Henry, don't change the floor plans so their room are together. HENRY WAIT!"), Grey, and Gordon.

Vanessa and Finral would be down to set you and Nacht up on a date. And they'd throw in a makeover free of charge!

Gimodelo and the other devils are very excited to see Nacht get all romantic. They just want their master to be happy!

Don't be surprised if the Bulls start calling you to dinner later than the rest of them and doing the same to Nacht so you both are force to sit with each other at the only empty seats.

And there would be other schemes to keep you two in close proximity.

Really, the whole squad just wants to support their squadmates and friends in the very normal endeavor of starting a relationship.

Golden Dawn

William does his best to show a polite amount of interest in your crush. After Nacht's key role in the Spade Invasion, William feels he owes a debt to that man.

And William thinks that he can repay the debt by setting Nacht up with you since you've taken an interest in him.

At best, William offers you opportunities to visit in the Black Bulls' base (delivering paperwork or parcels) if you want to see Nacht in person.

David is the nosiest of the squad and will ask all the details. How you first met Nacht, when you started liking him, do you plan on confessing, etc.

You might start hanging around Yuno if you weren't already close with him. You know, to ask about Nacht's appearances at any vice captain meetings.

Blue Rose Knights

SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP SHIP!

The ladies of the Blue Rose Knights are going to have your back if they find out about your crush on Nacht.

First Charlotte is blushing over Yami and now you for Nacht? It's like the squads are destined for something greater together!

The other squad members will insist that you and Charlotte have a double date with Nacht and Yami. Let your loves bloom together~!

It actually works out relatively well.

You keep Charlotte from panicking around Yami and in turn, Charlotte gives you plenty of openings to initiate conversation with Nacht.

And don't worry. Charlotte will shut down any egregious meddling from the squad.

Like say, locking you and Nacht in a closet without your grimoires so Nacht can't just shadow out of there.

Puli, the brains behind Operation Get the Devil (Host)'s Heart, is going to contrive of a lot of ridiculous scenarios though... Good luck.

Crimson Lion Kings

Nacht puts Fuegoleon on edge. His practices and demeanor aren't ideal in Fuegoleon's eyes but as a loyal Knight of Clover, Nacht is at least decent.

Fuegoleon warmly encourages you in pursuing Nacht. But he also warns you not to get too distracted.

"I don't have any romantic experiences to speak of but adding to your personal life is sure to give you more to fight for as a Knight."

It's just a nice way of saying that getting a boyfriend might improve your morale for work.../lh

Leopold doesn't know Nacht at all but he'd very willing to be your wingman by dragging you along to the Bulls' base when he goes to visit Asta.

I'm sure if you asked, Randall might bring your name up at a vice captain meeting and gauge Nacht's response.

Don't let Mereoleona catch you waffling on your feeling for too long. If she thinks you're being coward about your crush, then her hand might be forced and you'll find yourself doing volcano training alongside Nacht.

I say not in the sense that Mereo has an interest in romance, let alone others' romances, but I honestly think she'd get pissed off to know that a member of the Crimson Lions is being a coward about anything.

Other members of the squad would generally support you and urge you to do your best with getting Nacht's attention.

Silver Eagles

To me, the Silver Eagles are a squad wherein the members largely keep to themselves. It's mostly polite conversation with a bit of gossip from the noble circles.

Most of the Silver Eagles wouldn't pay much attention to your love life, if I'm to be honest.

However, they are an elitist squad (or at least that's their vibe) and with devil possession being Forbidden Magic, some might raise a brow at your crush.

"Even if he's a vice captain, that Faust man can't be anything but trouble. Especially if he's a Bull."

If Nozel hears of your crush, he'll have mixed opinions.

His opinion of devils and devil hosts is abysmally low due to his own history but Nacht proved himself a worthy ally and so not a horrible pick.

Nozel's bad at showing it but he does wish the best for you in your romance with Nacht. You are a member of his squad after all.

Like Fuegoleon, Nozel warns you not to let your infatuation get in the way of work.

Aqua Deers

The Aqua Deer has the vibe of being some free-spirited folks. Not so much as the Green Mantises or Black Bulls, but with a captain as young as Rill, the squad has learned to be able to accept anything.

"Following the captain's example and falling hard for someone, are we?" some will joke with you.

If you can catch Rill during his free time, he two of you could have a heart-to-heart and help each other sort through your crushes.

"Love can happen so suddenly, can't it?" Rill remarks. "Like bolt of lightning or like throwing a palette at an easel! It's bold and messy and scary too! But that's what makes it so amazing, huh?"

I imagine Fragil being a bit of a romantic so she might have some advice based on a romance novel or dating advice column if you went to her. But that's just what I think of her.

Coral Peacocks

Dorothy will be poking her nose into the business of your crush. No ifs, ands, or buts about it!

She's a bit of a gossip. So uh... prepare for Yami finding out via her loose lips.

In her sparse free time, Dorothy will encourage you to practice confessing to Nacht in her Glamour World.

Only to turn on you and tease you with her imaginary versions of Nacht.

This gif of Shouto form BNHA:

Dorothy creates a Nacht version of that to tease you. Good luck.

Kirsch will give you advice on how to be "beautiful" for Nacht to fall in love with you.

Green Praying Mantis

The folks in the Green Mantis squad are largely commoners. They're casual and a little wild.

So I'd imagine some of the more interested parties placing bets on how long it'll take for you to confess or maybe even betting on how you confess.

Some of the members might mention that Jack might've known Nacht in the past but going to him earns you the threat of being sliced apart (Jack being twin blind will be a sore spot for him from now on. No, this isn't relevant but I'm saying my piece.)

I dunno why but the Green Mantis squad gives off the vibes of inviting you and Nacht to a bar to let the alcohol break down your walls.

(Although if you're not a drinker of alcohol, that plan is a bust.)

The squad members would probably go out of their way to mess with the Black Bulls to get Nacht's attention for you.

Which... you might be thankful for the support or you might be horrified by their "plan."

They mean well, really.

Purple Orcas

All I can really say for the Purple Orcas is that Kaiser and her wife would be more than happy to give their insight on starting and maintaining a loving partnership.

[ganondoodle]

not sure if i have talked about this before but i also really hate how gorons are treated in totk

they are one of my fav and i know they are unpopular and were always kinda slot into the "big fat stupid rock people" role, but i do think totk is one of or the worst case yet; all regions get some life threatening event (ignoring how stupid it is to put the issues you need to solve in the exact same spots as in botw with most changes being also reversible so the actual changes to the environment of the map are largely some small rocks sprinkled about) and they get .. drugs (haha)

like i dont wanna downplay anything but their problem being that they are obsessed with eating (>_>) some drugged rock that makes them mean and lazy (even if the reason is fine ... if i remember right and didnt make up that they had to dig elsewhere for food bc of death mountain losing its lava flow, the execution is my problem -like the vast majority of this game is a ok to great idea with passable to horrible execution of it) and arent even a danger to you (which i thought at first when you approach goronia the normal path and two gorons start to walk towards you if you come near saying creepy shit- i thought they are gonna attack me or lure me into a trap but again .. only to find them wanting me to pay to be let through (i think??) and all other drugged ones are largely just ... eating or lying around ........

like it would have been cool if that drugged rock stuff made them actually agressive, like the friendly easy going rock people being turned into something akin to a starved animal after eating poison bc they were at risk of starving sounds alot more .. impactful and scary (even if it would still be about food, which idk about you but the only kind of fatter npcs, even if non human, being made all about food is .. hm, aside from other possibly bad implications from this, but im trying to roll with the idea of it)

and then poor yuno being put in a stupid (stereotypical?) wrestler outfit and hes LITERALLY being mindcontrolled is so ...... ugh (again, idea is ok but- you get it) and then him being told by two CHILDREN that that obviously not zelda might not be zelda and it not only being the only time that idea is openly said until its "revealed" that hhhwhat?? it was a fake one?? in the mid battle of the "story" and he doesnt even believe it (both bc haha hes stupid and cant understand such a thing and also link not being able to tell anyone ... even his friends ....... ) is just so disrespectful, its ok not to be the smartest guy in the room (tho in totk pretty much anyone is made so much dumber for no reason...) but it being so clearly the gorons that get treated like this just annoys me so much, you know no one of the other races would be treated like that

(not to reach a little but it also plays into how koga is portrayed, like i love him to death and there are things that largely the gameplay only implies of him not being that incompetent, but hes clearly meant to be laughing material, the boss of the band of 'evil' assassins being lazy, incompetent and 'childish' is funny right?? and although i hc that the either super thin or super beefed up appearance of yiga members are just an appearance like their disguises of normal people to seem more unified and less indentifyable- that is still only a hc and then koga being the only character that is visibly fatter (aside from ... the gorons and .. king dorephan??) it puts a pebble more onto the pile of pebbles of little annoyances)

also yuno saying, post mid "story" battle, that no one actually knows anything about ganondorf aside from him being evil and it going complete ingored and never mentioned again feels like the type of thing a games does when they are critized for soemthing and instead of changing it they put a line in the game essentially saying "yeah we know but we are not gonna do aynthing about it lol" (like thinking of the line ashe from league of legends, whos design has been critized alot bc shes running around in a stupid tiny dress in the snow lands of their world, got when her dialog was updated that made her say sth like "yes im wearing a little dress in the forever winter land, deal with it lol" which perhaps was supposed to be a joke but it just feels like a "lol we know, fuck you")

[sunniedesi]

Rare Future Diary Merch Art (Part 2!)

In case you haven’t seen my last post on this topic, I’ve been working on recreating rare art only seen on obscure merch from Future Diary, namely T-shirts. The first post focused on a T-shirt that was part of a raffle, which featured a design I fondly call “meditating Yuno.” This time around, I’m working on the designs of four shirts that were sold in the Live World Concert. I recommend you read that post first if you want more context. To make things easier to explain here’s a list of the shirt designs I’m referring to:

Purple/Gray Yuno Shirt (Brand: MARS SIXTEEN)

Rock Minene Shirt (Brand: MARS SIXTEEN)

DEAD END Shirt (Brand: MARS SIXTEEN)

The Live World Deus Shirt

As you can see, three out of the four shirts were made by the brand MARS SIXTEEN. This brand no longer sells those shirts nor has any images of them available, so we can only rely on the very few, poor-quality photos found on some older Japanese blogs. The fourth shirt isn’t associated to any particular brand and was made/sold exclusively for the concert. The first two highlighted shirts are the ones we’ll be covering on this post, leaving the last two for a separate part.

Firstly, we have the Purple/Gray Yuno shirt, which features a stylized view of a cityscape on the front, and a unique graphic of Yuno on the back. We can see none other than Tomosa Murata (Yuno’s VA) wearing the gray iteration of this T-shirt in a recording of The Live World concert.

As I mentioned earlier, finding images of these designs was pretty difficult. In terms of this design, I only had a flat image of the Yuno graphic, which I upscaled and redrew for better quality. The cityscape design I only managed to find in listings of the shirt, which I took as reference and completely redrew. It was probably one of the more complex designs of the bunch, so hopefully the final result turned out decent. Here’s the front (I made two purple versions because I couldn’t decide which one I preferred).

And here’s the back design

Next, we have the Rock Minene shirt. This is a purple top inspired by Minene, which has a graphic of speakers blasting on the front along with the title of the series, and an exploded view of a grenade on the back. It also features a small graphic of Minene and the text “9th” on the sleeves. A large amount of the cast wore this top in the concert, as you can see by the following images.

I fortunately had flat images of every graphic, though I still had to redraw them because the image quality was very, very low. The design of the exploded grenade on the back had a little text attached to it, which due to the grainy pixels was difficult to read. Our little community over here came to the rescue and helped me figure out a text that’d match the original. Very special thanks to @syrpai for coming up with a paragraph that looks very similar to the original (I only had to tweak it a bit to fit the frame). With all this yapping out of the way, here are the results:

Lastly, we have the design of the sleeves. Minene’s silhouette goes on the left sleeve, while “9th” goes on the right.

[archivalofsins]

The thing I love about Milgram is you can easily start to see how responsibility is viewed across cultures through how the prisoners are discussed. This is something brought up through the text through the pairing of Kazui and Amane along with the gap between their ages.

Something the series itself goes out of its way to point out from the beginning.

Q.06 What would you say is the difference between adults and children?

Kazui: Responsibility. Adults can’t just do whatever they want.

Amane: I don’t think there’s a strict boundary. There are adults who act like children just as there are children who are mature like adults.

Through putting their answers to this question together, we can discern a focal point of the story overall. Before it's brought to the forefront by Jackalope.

Responsibility. What it is, what taking it looks like, and who should have to take it.

These answer together to me read as.

Adults have to take responsibility for themselves. Ergo adults do not have the same freedoms or room for error/growth as they did when they were children. However, there is really no difference between people within these age groups as a child can be treated as an adult (adultification) and an adult can be treated like a child (infantilization). Children can behave in ways typically considered adult, while adults can exhibit behavior viewed as childish.

We see Amane's answer reflected in the ways,

Mu: Uses childish language, shifts blame/refuses to take accountability for herself, throws tantrums or pouting fits, spends a good chunk of her first voice drama crying and states she wants her parents.

Futa: Lashes out first to try to dissuade others and give himself a feeling of control over the situation, complain in nauseum, picky eater but critiques others eating habits.

Shidou: Picky eater but discusses the eating habits of others, poor communicator, uncompromising likely to keep trying the same method without changing it- This ties into why he asked to be guilty and his desire to have someone else put an end to him. Unlikely to change his pattern of behavior even if it's shown to be unbeneficial to himself and those around him. As shown through his crime. Stubbornly asserts he knows best anyway even when faced with someone who has seniority.

Such as Kazui. Shown on Amane's birthday after the attacks where he doubles down stating he knows he has other priorities. Kazui even verbalizes that Shidou is pouting when he tells him not to look at him like that.

22/06/27 (Amane’s Birthday)

Kazui: What’s up, Shidou-kun? You’re looking pretty down. I guess you must be tired, I’ve been relying on you a lot lately.

Shidou: Yeah, I just remembered…… today is Amane’s birthday. I’m just getting a bit sentimental.

Kazui: Hmm, it’s unfortunate, but at the moment we can’t worry about that. ……you understand, right? There’s something that you need to do right now. And if you tried talking to her your words definitely won’t reach her. Don’t look at me like that. We’ll just wait until the situation changes. Let’s do our best.

Shidou: Yeah. I’ll do what I can. I can’t have a child making a face like that. Even though we’re “murderers”…… we’re also the adults here.

In stark contrast to Yuno's response to Mu's birthday where Yuno properly prioritizes the dire state the prison is in over celebrating and asks Mu to do the same.

22/07/05 (Mu’s Birthday)

Mu: Hey~~~ Isn’t everyone a bit gloomy lately? I get that this situation isn’t ideal, but you’re really bringing down the mood for my birthday.

Yuno: Haha, surely even you can tell now’s not really the time for something like that right. Nobody’s really in the mood, or rather nobody has time time to deal with something like that.

Mu: Boo, how boring. You seem to be free, you can celebrate for me. Go on, celebrate.

Yuno: Wow, what a pain. I’m reading the atmosphere properly and keeping quiet. Well, you just go and have fun with Haruka. In the corner somewhere so you’re out of everyone’s way.

Yet Shidou despite Kazui's explanation still emphasizes how they as adults shouldn't be letting this situation cause a child to make such an expression, or be unhappy.

Mikoto: Using childish language, whines/throws tantrums when met with opposition or when not given the treatment he believes he deserves, shifts blame/accountability onto other parties, inclined to woe is me behavior even when there are others going through the exact same situation as him.

I won’t forgive you if this is happening to me even though I’m right./ Come to know me as an honest man, eat your words, gulp them down.

Oh also is noted in the text to tantrum by lashing out violently and breaking things when situations don't go his way.

Mikoto : AAAHHHHHHHHHH!! DESTROY EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING! EVERYTHING!!

Mikoto: [scream] You’re all fucking annoying! I’ll beat you all to death, pieces of shit!!!

It's through all these ways that the Milgram cast supports Amane's initial answer of there being children who act like adults and adults who act like children.

Such is the case with Yuno in comparison to her senior Shidou when it came to prioritizing the severity of the situation they were in over a birthday.

This mindset of Shidou's ends up greatly impacting how he engages with Amane.

At a glance it can appear that he is only projecting how he treated his own family and the children within it onto Amane. Yet it may not only be that. Shidou may in fact be projecting how he wished to be treated as a child on Amane as he may have done with his own children. As this is something that people can end up doing to their kids once having them. Trying to vicariously live out the childhood they didn't have through their kids.

Simply put, he may just really like pancakes, and none of his kids ever really did. I mean, they aren't making pancakes when the wife's there. I'm just saying.

In a lot of ways Shidou could be considered an adult version of Amane.

As he projects on others how he would want to be treated in contrast to how he did get treated. Something that Amane does a great deal as well.

This is something we see her do in her first voice drama when it comes to her reaction to Es' tardiness. Along with the way she attempts dictate her religious beliefs now that she is free of her parents input.

"Okay! I'm kind, so I shall forgive you. That's nice, isn't it? If my parents were in my place, you would have been lectured for another hour."

Amane's stated desires during trial two contrast with the implication of how she was taught in Magic and Purge March. As she was shown very little lenience or acceptance yet says she wants to alleviate the pain and confusion the guilty prisoners were facing.

Her definition of love also conflicts with how her upbringing was portrayed in both of her music videos,

Q.09 What is love to you?

Kazui: Being able to be as you are, and having that accepted.

Amane: All-encompassing, eternal affection.

Though her answer still aligns with the sort of love she states she wanted in Magic. A forgiving love where her apologies were accepted and she was given space to grow/become better. A love where her capacity to develop was recognized along with the fact that growth came through trial and error.

"Will you laugh with me and forgive me? I promise! I can only become a better girl!" - "Even I can say "I'm sorry". Even I have hope I swear! I'm going to be a good girl now! That's it!"

This also plays into Es' assertion that Amane actually did want to be treated like a child in her second trial interrogation.

This web of responsibility all spirals back on the audience and Es. A lot of fans of Milgram have blamed a lot of their actions on the series, the way it progressed, how others talked about it. The blame shifting transcending the work to become and endless bout of finger pointing with no end. Despite from the beginning Milgram through Jackalope blatantly stating,

"Yeah. Milgram leaves how it’s administered up to you. Whether you wanna make it heaven or hell, that’s your call."

Milgram has and always will be what the fans make of it, whether the audience enjoys the series, learns anything from it, or continues engaging with it is fully up to that audience member alone. Just as the ways we engage with it are up to our personal discretion as well.

In this game the audience has the power to vote based on whatever biases they may hold. Yet, with choice comes culpability.

"You can even make a decision on whether you like them or not… just be careful of the consequences, that's not my responsibility."

It's okay to like or dislike but when it's time to reap the consequences who will really be ready to eat what they've grown?

Well, it's not like it's my responsibility to answer that. That's something only time can tell.

[black-bulls-mansion]

Black Clover/Dungeon Meshi Crossover — Part 3

[elves, half-foots]

Back with the gnomes — seven black bulls done, eight more to go!

Nero the Blackrook:

Nero is a gnome who was turned into a black bird and lived since the ancient wars.

She is recognized, mostly in the gnome records and folktales, as the servant of one of the two heroes who put an end to the wars, the same servant who also backstabbed the hero by turning him into a stone status. Part of these stories are true, other parts are mixed with lies, and she's either demonized as a traitor or feared as a bringer of bad luck.

As a result, Nero avoided appearing in areas populated by people and is only seen roaming when new dungeons emerge where she can look for certain magic relics.

Her search goes for decades, however, with few positive results. During her journey, Nero — still in bird form — accidently meets with a lonely gnome who seems eager to befriend her. Curiously, she lets him while keeping her distance, and is shocked when the gnome, Gordon, manages to break the curse put on her and gets her body back to its normal form.

This leads to a friendship between the two gnomes that lasted for fifty years and counting, though Nero is always on the move.

Eventually, Nero comes across two boys in a rural village who both have lost relics that were owned by the two heroes. Those boys are Asta and Yuno, and upon following them, Nero ends up joining the Black Bulls guild in hope to collect the remaining relics and find the hero's lost status in order to set him free.

Nero is a literal legendary locksmith/steelmaker; she'll always find new paths in dungeons, and if there's none, she'll make ones. Out of all the monsters, living patients are the ones who can make her truly uncomfortable due to their nature of recreating events from one's past.

Blackrook is the nickname given to her by the old elves. It's used in her wanted bounty poster nowadays. Why would she have one is one of those mysterious Nero never clarifies because she finds it too amusing when people go pale seeing her.

Gordon Agrippa:

Gordon's family is despised by other gnomes because they don't follow the gnome's main religion. Instead, the agrippas worships Megicula, a devil only exists in ancient fables, and is infamously known for their curse casting and black magic history.

Because of this, Gordon grows up lonely with poor social skills, only spending his time playing with his dolls or collecting herbs and insects in the deep woods.

Gordon's father, while making notes of his son's interest in helping small animals and healing their wounds, come up with the idea of slowly shifting the family's legacy into treatment rather than lethal curses and assassination methods. It'll take Gordon years before he'll be made aware of that, though.

By his 60s, Gordon met with Nero, his race's infamous Blackrook, in one of his family's forests. Being the overzealous friendly man he is, Gordon did his best to befriend her and, little by little, he came up with a method to reverse the curse put on her. It doesn't fix Nero's curse perfectly, but she can speak and transform freely now.

Nero is Gordon's first and only friend, so when she gave him a bit of vague ideas of what she's looking for, he cut ties with his family and joined an expedition of researches who specified in dungeon exploration. His social skills didn't make him last long and he kept going from one expedition to another.

At the end, Gordon goes for parties and adventurers and is lucky enough to get required by Yami into his guild. Years later, Nero is going to join too, much to Gordon's delight.

Healing magic is his primary task, but Gordon is always doing one or two other bizarre things such as making voodoo dolls, speaking monster language, or mumbling "protection" curse—uhh, prayers, behind everyone's back.

No, Gordon doesn't dislike monsters. He doesn't hurt them either. Those are his friends, you heartless fools!

[sakuharuka]

I feel bad for Yuno. Not like the “oh, you poor little girlboss who didn’t know any better😞” that she really hates to hear, but as, like. feeling numb constantly is horrible. I might be misinterpreting Yuno’s character sosososo bad and y’all can tell me if so, but. wasn’t enjo kousai like an addiction???? the only thing that could make her feel less numb was something completely transactional. all she wanted was freedom, and she was sent to MILGRAM for that, which is… the opposite of being free, to be honest. She finally found people she cared about (Shidou and Mahiru) outside of her forever source of temporary warmth… and then, they fucking died. I’m glad that she’s probably starting to care about things a bit more this trial. It’s exciting to see, but also really bittersweet;;;;

[polarmary]

Rating MILGRAM shoes because- what are those?!

Inspired by a post I stumbled upon talking about Kotoko's T1 shoes I decided to go to check all of them and rate one by one both the drip and how pratical they are for a prison. (This is satire please guys don't cancel me over shoe opinions)

1-Haruka Sakurai T1 Shoes

Ok....bro has that psych ward drip. Honestly they look comfortable for a prison, I'll give him that. 7/10

T2 Shoes

He's not even wearing one of them- how did I never notice that. He clearly doesn't know how to tie the laces either but anyways, still comfortable and to be honest, I like the shoes. He loses points for not wearing one of them so- 7/10 (Mu teach this poor kid how to wear shoes pls)

2-Yuno Kashiki T1 Shoes

Typical school shoes, not bad but still boring, they also start to hurt after a while. I've seen how you dress girl, come on you can do better than this..... I'd say 4/10

T2 Shoes

(Why did she have to split her legs so much....have one of them) There was an upgrade i guess, it's more stylish but still uncomfortable to stand on for days on end in a prison. 4/10

3-Fuuta Kajiyama T1/T2 Shoes (man didn't even bother changing shoes)

What are these bulky ah shoes.....I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say they must at least be comfortable since they look like sports shoes. (can we talk about those socks tho-) 6/10

4-Muu Kusunoki T1 Shoes

Ok first of all, who the fuck goes to a prison and wears high heels?! Like- out of everything you could wear, you use the LEAST comfortable or pratical choice possible?? She really said slaying first, comfort second alright..... 3/10 im not sorry

T2 Shoes

.......I'm not even going to say anything.......it got worse. 2/10

5-Shidou Kirisaki T1 Shoes

Uhm...ok grandpa shoes i guess.....still comfy tho. By themselves they don't look bad but with the actual fit- my guy what the fuck where you thinking.... 5/10

T2 Shoes

My guy really looked at Kotoko's T1 shoes and thought they looked cool. Still better than hers but thats for later. What on earth are even these tho, they are like crocs but with normal shoe soles??? He's clearly one of those guys that get dressed by their wives and can't do it by themselves because jesus.... 4/10?

6-Mahiru Shiina T1 Shoes

Ok, nails done, I see you. Grandma shoes mixed with platform shoes.....she's smol so I get it. They actually look comfy but what about winter girl- 7/10 No T2 because.....well....wheelchair (txs Kotoko)

7-Kazui Mukuhara T1 Shoes

What are these shoes, they have belts on the side?? thats a belt right- From the front they look like fisherman boots, what is this man wearing. At least they don't look uncomfortable. 6/10

T2 Shoes

Alright he got comfier, very solid. I'd wear those in prison, 9/10 great upgrade Dad!

8-Amane Momose T1/T2 Shoes (dam girl change a bit)

School shoes same as Yuno but this ones.....I've worn that and god do they fuck up your toes.....Is she ok? 3/10

9-Mikoto Kayano & John T1/ T2 Shoes

Ok my guy Vans i see you, he went for the comfy option but the color....could be better. 8/10 But can we take a moment to talk about how John can't tie shoe laces??

What is that- He's going to trip on that thing and fall face first on the floor. Those look one step away from unlacing.

And finally, the one that started it all,

10-Kotoko Yuzuriha T1 Shoes

(again, what are those socks) I don't even know what these are supposed to be?? Are these a normal version of those beach sandals or something?! They look ugly as hell (god that random ass circle on the side- it looks like a black and white pokeball tho) and uncomfortable too. 1/10 burn these things (you are lucky you are hot)

T2 Shoes

Now we are talking, the biggest glow up ever!! They are literally just military security boots, go off queen, slay (perferably not literally, we've seen that enough) Comfy, fashionable, she can step on me with those- wait what? 9/10

[www-findringo-com]

From Afar

Yuno Grinberryall x Fem!reader

Since i changed my theme i think my banners and things should also change color, let me know what you think!

Cw- unchecked

Plot: Y/N Hanabi is a commoner who has always hated her fireworks magic even though the townsfolk have always praised her. As she grew up, a woman in her life changed her view completely, making her appreciate and slowly understand her "silly" magic.

Even if she started using her magic more, she had no interest in joining the magic knights, and yet during the elves' reincarnation, she helped save the people of the Clover Kingdom. This resulted in the Sorcery King noticing her and convincing her to join the knights, which, after many rejections, she. In the end. Took on the request and participated in the entrance exam a year after getting her grimoire. Once she joined the Blue Rose Knights, something or more like someone was going to completely change ,what once was, her daily routine.

Previous

Next

 The warm sunlight creeps in through the curtains and hits my eyes, making me wake up.

I groggily sat up straight, and as I rubbed an eye, I looked outside the windows, and I gasped. Dandelions. Everywhere. My mom ran into my room shouting : "Y/N, it's late. Wake up! You're gonna miss the grimoire acceptance ceremony!"

I groaned. I was happy to finally receive a grimoire, but couldn't it be in the afternoon and not at 8 in the morning! Hastily, I got ready. It was the middle of march, but the wind was as strong as ever, so dressing lightly was out of the question. Once I got dressed, I ran down the stairs and precipitated out of the door. Being late today of all days was just a big no-no.

The acceptance ceremony was held in a huge library just outside of my town on a hill filled with flowers. It was a sight for sore eyes. I loved hanging out on that hill. You could read in peace or also just admire the sky and take in the smell of the flowers and nature itself. I really liked that place. Since I was running late, I used a spark under my feet to make me jump up in the air and land on top of the hill next to the library as fast as possible. The breeze hitting my face was a nice way to wake me up. As I thought of that, I got distracted and landed face first on the back of someone. I fell to the ground, and the person I hit quickly turned around.

"Oh god. Are you okay?" I looked up to see a pretty girl with shoulder-length wavy golden brown hair, gentle green eyes, freckles, and the sweetest smile on earth. As I stared at her every detail, she faked coughs as a way to wake me up from my trance. I grabbed her hand quickly and answered: "Uh, yeah! I'm fine, but are you okay? That was a pretty heavy hit, " she chuckled as she pulled me up from the ground. She winked at me and said: "Oh, that was nothing really, I'm blessed with mana, so it was easy to shield!" I giggled alongside her, but as she said that, I couldn't help but notice the overbearing amount of mana pressuring me down. Who was this girl?

"Uhm, I'm Y/N Hanabi. Nice to meet you. " With the hand that was interlocked with hers, I shook it, awaiting a response. "Oh! I'm Serene. It's a pleasure to meet you Y/N, so can I consider you my friend now?" I gave her a smile and a nod in response as she chuckled and started jumping around. Soon after, we noticed everyone had gone inside. I tensed up, grabbed Serene's hand, and ran inside the library not to miss the ceremony. Inside, it was full of people from all around the kingdom. Poor them. They probably had to journey for many days to get here. Luckily, I lived right next to it. Perks of the common realm!

"Welcome youngins! Today, for everyone here, starts a new, meaningful way. I wish for each of you Loyalty, Hope and Love."

An old guy with a pointy hat and a huge beard showed up and spoke to us, to announce the ceremony.

" I am the master of the Grimoire Tower." And that's who he was. Wow, thanks. "We've never had a wizard king from around these parts before or even anyone who stood out for their work in the magic knights. I hope with all my might, that one day one of you will become the wizard king." That was a nice thought of his wasn't it, except right after he lashed out like a crazed animal "REALLY THOUGH, I HOPE IT HAPPENS!" Everyone stood silent for a few seconds before the Tower Master announced the beginning of the actual grimoire acceptance ceremony.

As soon as he finished talking, some of the books from the shelves started glowing with different colors such as red, green, yellow, blue, purple, orange, gray, and different shades of the same colors. A red light landed near my face, and a grimoire with a dark red cover and golden details and three-leaf clover enlightened my face. The details were the same as the ones on the kimono the foreigner had left me. As I looked at it, I could feel my eyes swell in tears, but I quickly washed them away. It was stupid to cry for such a stupid thing anyway.

People started cheering when they noticed two grimoires emanating lots of mana and having printed on the front and back a four-leaf clover. One grimoire was green with golden details, while the other was black with lots of silver details and drawings on it, almost as if it was a royal's. The green one landed on this peasant kid, the guy was tall, skinny, with black messy hair and golden eyes. If I hadn't gotten distracted by the oo-ing of Serene, I would have kept staring at that handsome kid. As I was saying, I was distracted by the oo-ing of Serene. When I turned to face her, the black grimoire was in her hands. She started screeching and jumping around like a child. She turned to me all happy and shouted, " Y/N! Did you see this!" I giggled at her child-like behavior. It was refreshing to see someone like that even though we were the same age. But, unlike her, the other four-leaf clover grimoire holder wasn't as enthusiastic. As soon as she held the book in her hands, the other guy started aiming a wind shot at her. Once it fired, Serene's grimoire floated off her hands and lit up. Immediately it opened and a spell wrote itself under her eyes. The wind arrow was so close to her, and suddenly, she put her hand out and absorbed it, transforming it into a ball of magic. She did a twirl and launched what once was an arrow of wind, and now became a ball of fire in the air. The magic scattered, transforming from free fire into little fire butterflies and sparkles that floated around the tower, leaving the rest of the grimoire receivers in awe at the sight.

"What a magnificent display of magic from our four-leaf clovers!" The old geezer chuckled. Creepy. "It's people like them that will make it and become wizard king one day, i know it!" The guy kept speaking and suddenly Serene shouted .

"Even if I have no care about becoming wizard king, I will protect this kingdom with every single drop of my magic. Until my mana dissolves my entire being, I will not stop helping the people of this land. So you can count on me!"

Oh, she's so cool. People cheered at Serene's speech, and just like a spell, everyone's magic seemed to rise just thanks to it. The other four-leaf guy just shook his head and rolled his eyes. What a jerk, a handsome one, but still a jerk. This was a very inspiring and beautiful moment and after a bit everyone started leaving. But, suddenly, someone spoke up.

"U-Uhm! My grimoire hasn't come yet!"

We all turned to face the origin of that squeaky voice only to be met by this pretty short kid with dirty silver hair and green eyes, still in a weird pose with his hands up in the air. As if expecting something. I couldn't help but chuckle. I was cursed with this lowly magic, but from him, I sensed no magic at all. Was it really possible, in a world where magic meant everything, to be born without it? I pitied him. Soon after, the old guy spoke to answer him, "Uhm- You can try again next year!"

And the other kids around us started laughing at him. Absolute jerks, come on, poor guy! Well, I was about to chuckle before, but I would never laugh in his face. That's just mean. I was about to tear up for him. He looked distraught, almost as if getting his grimoire meant his whole life. As the guy had his reality check, I could hear that the voice of some of the kids who laughed got muffled. I turned around to check why, and I was met with an angry Serene using her magic to cover the mouths of the jerks who were laughing at him. That girl was so nice she should have become the icon of good people, she was just amazing!

After some time everyone started leaving, and so did Serene and I. "Poor guy, I hope he gets an easy life. " I spoke up, but Serene quickly countered: "You know, I have a feeling he's going to become a pain in the ass for the nobles of this kingdom. He'll become the greatest I’m sure of it!" In her eyes, there was a shine that could make the biggest star seem invisible. She stopped and faced the hill. After a while of standing in silence, she sat down and gestured for me to sit next to her. I got behind her, and my breath hitched. The view in front of us was majestic: the wind made dandelions fly across the sky, and the sound of the trees rustling was all I could hear. Everything was picturesque, adorned with a background of the prettiest pink sunset. I turned my head to look at Serene, and if the view wasn't already breathtaking, she would have been the cherry on top. The wind ruffled her hair, letting her pretty green eyes be the focus of the beautiful painting in front of me.

I was gawking until she spoke up: "You know why I think that manaless kid is going to surpass everyone?" She turned to face me, and I could see that her face had this small grin printed on it. The gentle light of the sunset hit her face, making her look very golden-ish. Her beauty was at the same level as the foreigner, and I could feel my heart flutter. Only then did I realize she was asking me a question, so I answered: "U-uhm... No?" She chuckled.``Well, it's because I can tell he strives for more. He'll work more than anyone and get so much more than he expected, I feel it in my soul!" She kept giggling, and I sighed. In the end, she is still a child at heart. We spent another hour on that hill, talking and laughing about stupid stuff. It almost seemed as if we had known each other since forever, yet i had met her that same day.

Once it started to be really dark, Serene walked me home, and from there, we parted with the hope of meeting up again soon. I opened the door to my house, only to be met by confetti and balloons. Congratulations, Y/N! Was written on the festive banner hanging on the wall right in front of the door. "Congrats!" My family chirped in, all smiley. I gave them a smile and walked in, letting myself be showered with praise and compliments by my family and our neighbors. It was hard to admit, but I really enjoyed all that attention. "Big sister Y/N, can we see your grimoire!" One of the kids from my town spoke up, and then everyone joined in asking for me to show my magic. And so I did. My grimoire lit up in a shade of red, and, just like Serene, a spell wrote under my eyes. I quickly read it, and without a second thought, I shot like a string of fire that caught the kid who had asked to see my grimoire. The spell had him sit on it as the string of fire took the shape of a cross. It flew out the door and up into the air before exploding into a big cross-like firework, and the kid slowly fell from the sky, admiring the sparkes it was releasing. Then I lifted my arm up, and coloured clouds formed right under the kid, making him stop from falling and slowly bringing him to the ground. The townsfolk sat in awe at my magic, and I could tell that they were impressed. "This has always been my magic, but with the grimoire I'm going to be able to do lots of things!" I gave them a grin from ear to ear that made everyone lit up. And with that the party started. As we were eating and playing, one of my neighbors walked up to me and asked me something: " Are you going to join the magic knights now?"

I sat there in silence for a few seconds until I uttered something that I may regret: " No actually, it would be a waste of time. But if the kingdom needs it, I'll gladly protect my people!" I smiled and went off to play with the younger kids.

The celebrations went on for the whole night and the next morning I was exhausted. But the rest of the town? Oh they were JUST FINE?? I mean good for them yeah, but that energy is draining to just look at.

And that was the first chapter!!! I hope you guys will like. If you do enjoy the series and wish to see more stuff written by me please follow me and feel free to send requests! Anyways on the other note i feel like there might be something hidden between y/n and serene like a zing.....

I decided to publish once a week on sunday but maybe next week i won't be able to post because i'm going on vacation, but I'll do my best!!! Don't forget to leave me your thoughts of the chapter. Bye-Bye

- Ringo

[good-beans]

Please tell me about Lukas.

Sincerely, a poor soul who is obsessed with Milgram but knows very little about Fire Emblem.

Lukas is my beloved character of all time :) Comfort character to rival all comfort characters :) He’s just like me fr :) He’s so healing to watch heal :)

He’s from Fire Emblem Echoes, and for a good portion of the game he’s that mentor/tutorial character who helps you/the protagonist through the new world you’re thrown into. The thing was, they put together an incredibly complex asexual, neurodivergent guy who’s not really in it for the fighting (but is damned good at it anyway). They gave him the sweetest and saddest smile possible. They gave him the most relaxing voice you could imagine. They gave him two of the wackiest and complimentary friends. How could I not fall in love?

Basically, he reveals that he’s not involved in this whole war because he wanted to be – his father and brother conspired to send him away to fight for their own gain, not really caring if he lived or died. He took on the new life with just as much motivation as if he chose it himself, though. He’s not here for any dreams of glory or violence, he just wants to help the new friends he’s made ;-; He has a really big heart, but he’s not afraid to make the tough call and commit war crimes. He’s gentle to the child soldier protagonists, but is the first person to trust them and allow them into the army. 

Fire Emblem is notorious for its fanservice, which is why I will forever be Insane over his support conversation with one of those friends I mentioned. He describes his struggles with romance and desire, perfectly describing an asexual experience. His friend, Python, responds with so much kindness. It’s done with a lot of tact and respect, and was one of the final pieces to my own acceptance of my asexuality. 

Less intended, but he talks about his struggles with emotions that comes off as low-empathy neurodivergence, or a form of Alexithymia. He doesn’t feel strong emotions most of the time, then occasionally gets swept up in them and lashes out. (Sorry for all the tmi but) this is also something I struggle with. Though I come off overly excited online, I’ve dealt with the same coldness/heartless accusations he has. His writing and voice acting really drive it home, and it’s wonderful to see. Once again, he’s treated with immense respect for this trait. He feels self-conscious about it, but the cast sees that as a strength of his.

His relationship with the other two knights is super fun! I could go on separate rants about Python and Forsyth, but just know they are equally perfect. They all compliment one another so well, and hype each other up in such lovely ways. They've even got a fun RGB color scheme going on :3

OKAY I AM CUTTING MYSELF OFF because I could go on forever about him 😂 He holds such a special place in my heart -- it's silly, but thank you sm for asking :’) And, since you mentioned Milgram, this reminded me of a super goofy comparison to Yuno I made as one of my first Milgram posts, as well as my wips of the Fuuta-Lukas outfit swap I need to finish...