#To which I'd say absolutely not

[keiachi-chan]

The one day of the year I don't talk about wanting to fist fight him

[evilkaeya]

THIS IS HOW I FIND OUT KAITO AND SHINICHI ARE COUSINS??

[necrotic-nephilim]

What's so fun about BruJay as a ship is Jason's sheer obsessive devotion to Bruce. Jason is possessive over Bruce, to the point he doesn't care about the deaths of others so long as he has Bruce's attention. A part of the UTRH arc this isn't talked about enough is that Bludhaven fucking explodes mid-way and Jason won't let Bruce see if Dick is alive.

batman (1940) #650

A lot of discussion about UTRH paints Jason as this anger-driven cold, calculating machine up against Bruce when it's so clear that his love for Bruce is what drives him at his root, even if he won't acknowledge it. He says it himself, he would've done anything if it was Bruce who'd died instead of him and his anger is rooted in that possessive devotion not being reciprocated.

batman (194) #650

BruJay as a ship always to be, to some level, unrequited. Even if Bruce loves Jason back in that way, he'll never be that obsessed with Jason. Jason will always view Bruce's love for Dick or Tim to be a distraction, proof that Bruce isn't dedicated enough to him. Jason has the need to always have Bruce's attention, even when it could come at the cost of Bruce's other loved ones. Something something cannibalism as a metaphor for love in how Jason wants to consume Bruce's whole existence. He can't let Bruce leave him again, can't let Bruce love or grieve anyone else. Forcing Bruce to choose between Jason and the Joker isn't just about confronting Jason's killer, it's about confronting the other person who exists as this duality with Bruce and consumes so much of Bruce's life. That's the role Jason wants to fill, calling himself Red Hood and forcing Bruce to look at what he's become. But still loving Bruce and wanting more than anything for Bruce to reciprocate that love in the way that Jason understands. I just think it's good soup and rife with Dynamics that are underexplored with them.

[pigeon-butch]

I certainly have my own concerns about the treatment of moo deng but um. well i think some of you may just be racist

[camellcat]

I need an answer why do y'all hate on s7 like it's in vogue here what is going on I fucking loved that season. like hello? I can't decide if s5 or now s7 is my favourite of the show it was that good of a watch to me

I missed the closeness of the scoobies so bad I didn't even realize until we hit episode three and I was aching for it. oh, god. and the spuffy of it all! I can't even get into it right here but ohhhh. oh. and DAWNIE my sweet girl oh sweet niblet I love her so much. anya's episode? probably one of my favourite episodes of the entire show tyvm. I really liked kennedy and honestly I think she made a great second in command for buffy when she actually listened, though I think she'd be a god-awful leader. almost all of the episodes held my attention that weren't, y'know, bewitched bothered bewildered part two electric boogaloo over there. and DRUSILLAAAAAA ik she wasn't real but IDC I was fawning every time she was on screen both as the first as actually her oh I just adore her I'll never understand her and I don't even care. taking it back actually getting into the spuffy of it all for a second because oh my GOD they had an actual conversation about themselves where she neither ran away nor punched him!! and the montage of everyone screwing, only to cut to spuffy simply cuddling? to show THAT'S their intimacy? 'bout fuckin killed me it did

them kicking buffy out of her house and then literally no one saying ANYTHING about how she was RIGHT except spike ofc really bothered me. and gosh the way they just kinda... did buffy's plan anyways. a little different, but not really? still invaded the vineyard when half the reason no one was listening to her was bc they didn't wanna go back that. but that was like the biggest issue I had the entire season honestly. there was no riley to make me furious, 15 minutes of angel that I hated every second of but is so small it's whatever, and robin wood kinda annoyed me once he turned on buffy and spike there but y'know he gets less relevant so pshh. I'll admit I also got a bit peeved at myself every time I smiled at something andrew said but he grew on me wayyy quicker than I was expecting or wanting I get why he shows up in fics so often now he's entertaining to watch

anyways. I'm sure there's like a billion million things I've missed in my endeavor to simply enjoy myself while watching but as it stands? I love this season. I love it to bits and pieces and I think it was incredibly fun. y'all might just be the biggest haters in the world cause I am SO glad I decided to actually give it a go

[naivety]

okay i need feedback from the autism mentall illness website um. this is going to read like an AITA post. brother vs half-sister (who are currently my dependents do to their own individual disabilities + ptsd/depression) spat i will skim the details on but i'm worried my sister will discount my take since i'm not autistic myself so. am i crazy to call it ableist to look at an autistic person (23) who is clearly going through it dealing w long term depression, a world that doesn't give a shit abt him, unemployment, very self-isolated and burnt out barely leaving his room because the world is an ableist dumpster fire with zero opportunities for him, and then bring up childhood abuse he's suffered and his diagnosis as reasonable factors on top of this to worry he'll [checks notes] abuse my cat just to hurt me or even worse have a breakdown and kill me and his other sibling in a violent episode, a train of thought i probably wouldn't even be having were he not [checks notes] mad at me for the first time in my life?

like i don't have any other read on this kind of fear-based characterization other than ableism. like those are very real things in his life but she never points out any current violent behavior, of which there are none, only the one (1) instance of him lashing out when he was like 14 and Officially Diagnosed Low Empathy she thinks is a concern and Hateful Looks toward her since he stopped getting along with her, that's it. i tried explaining to her why i, someone who's lived w him his entire life, can vouch for how unlikely he is to do anything like that, especially when it's again not based on anything he's actually currently doing except for isolating in a way that is much more indicative of him potentially being a danger to himself than anyone else, and being cold towards her specifically, and i thought she had let it go, but when i brought it up off-hand in a conversation tangentially related, she continued to defend and justify her Concern about the potential directions his behavior could lead to because [checks notes] other people in similar situations have lashed out and killed their entire families according to. true crime books or videos she's watched on youtube as far as i'm aware. ignoring the fact that her and i have had the same or Worse childhood abuse and have acted similarly isolated in the past, or for her literally just as currently as him, and she's not expressed any worry past or present about either of us doing anything like that, in my opinion obviously because i haven't cut her off due to our differences like he decided to. like am i big sibling biased because this is pissing me off so bad.

[aroaceleovaldez]

I think one of the problems with the HoO characterizations is Rick kind of forgot to give half the cast hobbies and general interests, and maybe like people they know outside of their families and outside of camp, or if he did remember to it rarely gets brought up for most of them, or in the special case of Annabeth - she randomly develops a hobby in weaving for exactly one scene and then never again. Apparently she just knew how to do that, even though it is a skill she has literally never used before nor uses again.

The best examples I can give of this are comparing/contrasting the examples of when we do actually get this with the lack-thereof: Hazel and Frank are good examples. Hazel has hobbies and interests generally unrelated to all her demigod stuff (horses and art) and we see this repeatedly discussed and brought up. She also knows and interacts with people outside of the necessities of her quest/Camp Jupiter or her family - Sammy was her best friend at school and they hung out and stuff! Meanwhile, Frank, as far as we know, doesn’t know anybody outside of his family even though he presumably went to school before Camp Jupiter? His hobby is... archery? That’s the only thing he ever really shows interest in but at the same time it only rarely gets brought up except for him using a bow as his main weapon and the like two instances of noting that Frank had hoped he was an Apollo kid for a little bit. The closest other detail we get to Frank having any other kind of hobby/interest is him mentioning off-hand that he used to play Mythomagic.

Piper and Leo - We can presume that Piper knew Shel before moving to Oklahoma, because Piper used to visit her grandpa often and as far as we know that’s also where Shel lives. But we never see Piper ever mention knowing anyone else in her grandfather’s community. Heck, when she’s introduced we’re basically outright told that she doesn’t interact much at all with any of her classmates outside of necessity, and we don’t even have any confirmation that before Hera’s mind-meddling that she even acknowledged Leo’s existence. Also, Piper has like, exactly zero hobbies. We do not know what Piper does in her free time or what she likes (except vaguely that she has surfed before), only really what she dislikes. Leo at least does have some kind of excuse for not really knowing anybody, and an explicit explanation about why that is the case and how he feels about it. Leo also has a repeatedly referenced interest/hobby in mechanics that’s very core to his character.

Percy and Annabeth? Pre-HoO, they both have plenty of interests and know people outside their general circles! Percy knows kids at school. Annabeth’s general outer social circle is Camp Half-Blood, because she grew up there, but she clearly knows people at camp. She’s also super into architecture! And Percy does a ton of stuff in his free time - he skateboards! He plays basketball! He has two pets he takes care of (Blackjack and Mrs. O’Leary)! Post-HoO he’s on a swim team! But during HoO? Percy’s hobbies just kind of disappear, besides “oh yeah he uh. Does water stuff.” There’s no acknowledgement of like, “Yeah Percy sets up a little basketball hoop on the back of his door on the Argo 2 and shoots trash at it.” Literally anything! And yeah, Annabeth’s architecture interest is somewhat acknowledged, but also like, not really? We at least get some kind of “Yeah, in her spare time she’s usually on her laptop working on stuff” but we also barely get any instances of Annabeth thinking about her friends at camp except for like, Tartarus.

For Jason it at least kind of works because a.) he has amnesia and it’s implied he doesn’t really have close friends at Camp Jupiter besides Reyna, so it figures he only ever really references random other legionaries like, twice. and b.) there is also the heavily implication that Jason doesn’t have hobbies, because his entire life was so focused around his training at Camp Jupiter. This works less with Reyna, but she also kind of has an excuse for not knowing people besides like, her sister and Jason, given she ran away when she was young, Circe’s island was destroyed, and she could have only been at Camp Jupiter for like 3 years maximum at that point. And she’s not exactly the most social character. We also don’t get much indication of her hobbies, besides she also likes horses and it’s heavily implied she likes nature/gardens? Presumably, given we get like, one note of that in HoO, maybe two if you count her living on Circe’s island, and then like one more nod to that in TOA. And we only get her POV chapters in BoO anyways so again, she has some excuses. Coach Hedge also is incredibly bland besides maybe him having a hobby in sports, and... violence? Which definitely does not count. And him lacking any POV chapters doesn’t really help.

I think this is why Nico continually feels like such a strong character, simply because we know what he does in his spare time. We know he knows people outside of the camps (most of those people are gods or ghosts, but he at least knows people) and technically you could argue him knowing about Camp Jupiter between BoTL and TLO counts too. He even references his old neighbor at one point. Obviously, he’s very into Mythomagic, and that comes up a lot because it’s his special interest and is usually also relevant to their quests. He travels a lot, and apparently used to when he was younger as well. We also learn he used to have a special interest about pirates and that apparently may have played into his crush on Percy. Like, all that is so simple and minor but it makes such a difference for how Nico feels as a character. Most of Nico’s stuff though is established in the first series, which definitely helps because the first series was pretty good about giving characters hobbies and maybe some people they know - Annabeth, Percy, and Nico we’ve already covered, but also like, Grover knows other satyrs and is usually practicing music and also we know what foods he likes. Thalia is very into punk culture and music. We know she particularly likes Green Day. We know she knew the Hunters of Artemis before the events of TTC. Rachel's whole thing is that she’s super into art and she has a bunch of connections through her rich family, and she’s basically Percy’s only mortal friend. They have lives!

If you put a protagonist in a room and told them to occupy themselves, you should have an answer for what they do. They should be able to name one person outside their immediate social circle who they are generally friendly with or vaguely know, unless they have a specific reason for that to not be the case. HoO crew needs to occupy their time by themselves, no weaponry, for twenty minutes? Hazel could be drawing, Nico could be organizing his cards, Leo could be tinkering, Annabeth could be working on her laptop, Percy could be trying out little skateboard tricks. Jason, Piper, Frank, and Reyna? What would they be doing?

TOA does actually answer that question for Jason, at least, because we learn that Jason makes tiny dioramas! That’s adorable! Why doesn’t he do that in HoO?! TOA also gives us more depth to Will Solace besides “He’s a medic and does medic things” with telling us that he’s into Star Wars. Like, that’s actually so much information to work with! Thank you! And then we also find out in TOA that Nico’s also kinda into art! We still don’t get anything new for Piper, Frank, or Reyna - besides again one more potential implication that Reyna thinks plants are Pretty Okay, and that nature is Mildly Alright. Like, not even “maybe she keeps a houseplant” territory, all we have is “if she had the option, she might be interested in visiting a flower garden.” But honestly TOA at least gives us something for most of the characters we see. Like at least one thing. Most of the rest of the writing is a mess but at least the characters are mildly interesting.

Anyways, give your characters hobbies, it’s good for them.

[thegreatyin]

Is there a good way/is it worth trying to decrease menaces? Or should I just ram my face against problems and accept that, every so often, I'm gonna have a problem™️?

There's several ways to decrease menaces, with some being substantially better than others! It all depends on where in the game you are, progression-wise.

For starters, social actions are always available and always excellent regardless of circumstance. There's tons of people in the FL community that are more than happy to send menace reductions in your time of need (including myself, if you fancy), so don't be afraid to reach out!

The second main way, assuming you're a newer player, are the bottles of menace reduction you can purchase at the Bazaar. These are very cheap and very useful in a pinch, and they'll likely end up being your go-to menace reducers for most of the earlygame.

Once you hit the midgame (aka achieve "Person of Some Importance" status) the menace reduction provided by these items falls off significantly, and you shouldn't be relying on them nearly as heavily as you were during the earlygame- because you have way more options available to you as a POSI! The Scoundrel's personal favorite is stopping by their Parabolan Base Camp whenever they get too many wounds and/or nightmares, but you can also construct a special menace-reducing building at Ealing Gardens if you've unlocked Railway content and really need the boost.

(Notably, you cannot die from menaces in your University Laboratory, so if you find yourself suffering from 15+ wounds for no reason in particular i'm sure you can dip into Parabola and take the advanced skill reduction that follows- but it will not kill you!!!)

Overall though? Menaces aren't too bad. Some storylines actually encourage or even require you to visit menace-exclusive locations, and there's a ton of stuff that can only be acquired from "menace jails" like the Tomb Colonies or the Royal Bethlehem. Reducing menaces is never strictly a bad thing- I do call the menace-exclusive zones "jail" for a reason- but raising your menaces too high is never the end of the world* and you should take it as an opportunity to see something new more than anything else.

*Except suspicion. Avoid maxing out your suspicion at all costs. Death is quite literally preferable to getting the cops called on you.

[moregraceful]

it was once observed by a dear friend that the hours in which i am most alert are like 7pm to 2am which probably explains a lot about how my posts get worse throughout the evening. but also sometimes i look at today where i was just sort of gnawing the couch all day until about 5pm when i wrote an entire fic in two hours and then another entire post about kaapo which to be clear took another two hours bc i had to chase links and explain my passions in a kind way and this was in addition to a church meeting. i would excel as the person who lights and then extinguishes lamps in the night

[muirmarie]

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[mccleans]

i've gone to sleep angry and woken up angry every day since last saturday

[frameconfessions]

I used to be obsessed with this game 4 years ago or so and wanna get back into it but can't find it in me to do it.. sigh it's still my favorite sci-fi world but now I don't know half the characters

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[caterjunes]

what is it about lesbian media that fills me with the heaviest & most profound sadness in the pit of my stomach, in my throat, under my heart.

[watery-melon-baller]

What's King up to in your myosotis AU?

king actually hasn't changed a whole bunch!!! originally i considered swapping him with the collector but... i didn't really like that idea so king is still being raised by Luz! his childhood was definitely different from canon kings tho: for one Luz realized oh this is a Child and treated him as such, unlike eda who thought of him as a pet and then a ""roommate"". this does mean their dynamic is a bit different to the show, although canon eda and myosotis Luz don't take king seriously it's for different reasons. Luz is more of like oh he's just a BABY he's so young i gotta take care of him and a bit more infantalizing i guess?? where king feels like he's not being treated like the mature person he is (which like. sorry man you are 8.) it's like the relationship gets less one sided yk. does what im saying make sense. i just don't really know what ie could/should change from canon so ive kept it pretty similar bc like with Luz and eda I can mirror them but king is just. the outlier. he's just a little guy

he's a bit less dictatory/power hungry (as power hungry as an 8yr can be lmao) and a bit more chill compared to his canon counterpart. he also shares Luz's love for storytelling/reading! i think Luz would still like stories and escapism but im unsure if she would want like. fantasy even tho she lives in a fantasy world or just let regular human stuff Gus style. but king and luz both Love 2 read! this comes into play in S3 w/ collector where instead of... whatever S3 did the BI gets turned into a DnD game! bc of king. it's fun. i love rewriting S3. he's also used to being kinda independent bc sometimes luz has bad days (re: depression + bile sack exhaustion) and she just. can't get out of bed sometimes and take care of him. which is fun

im still working out what i wanna do for his backstory bc like. I Could see Luz realizing oh he's not playing pretend he actually believes this and just... Not stopping it bc she doesn't know how to handle it and it makes him happy (tying into her love of using stories as escapism). Or she could tell him and he knows he isn't actually a king of demons but Luz just refuses to share more of his backstory with him (reasons why she would do this are unclear) which causes king to take Eda + Gus (Gus takes S2 Lilith's place) to his home and then yk how the rest of the ep plays ou. the first one seems to make more sense but I'm also worried with making shit Too identical to canon yk???anyways. have some King drawing attempts

i don't talk abt myosotis king very often mainly,,, because,,,, im so bad at drawing him it's AWFUL. I struggle a lot with like. Nonhuman characters/animals those are my weakness </3 i draw out alot of myosotis stuff so like.. If I can't draw it I usually just don't do much with it?. i do have like. I have this MASSIVE timeline detailing episodes for plots and character arcs and it's a whole thing. Very large project. yeah but king actually has clothes here bc Luz is like well this is a Child i can't let him be naked. Still trying to figure out the whole putting clothes over fur thing and if that's an issue but ya whatever. im terrible at designing outfits sighh. also instead of having the collar with his dad's symbol he and eda make matching friendship bracelets! and then those come into play in S3 bc i didn't forget about that unlike the show lmao. I have a Lot Of Content going on in this au and I looooove talking about it :]

[eugene-da-potato]

I speedrun watching Clash To Be Champion yesterday btw

Not gonna lie, I enjoyed it quite a lot :D

[swordofazrael1992]

i’m gonna be honest the notion that jean paul/azrael are bad at detective work/skills annoys me. they're not BAD at it. they're not PATIENT enough for it and find it boring. because of this they seem bad at it, but actually being bad at it and not having patience for it have COMPLETELY different characterization implications, imo.

from batman: sword of azrael (1992) #3

(see above) from one of their very first appearances jean paul is shown to be very adept at problem solving and logical reasoning, both skills important in detective work. and this is with practically no experience, beyond what was implanted in the system.

i do understand where people get the idea that they're "bad" at detective work from--it is stated constantly throughout the knightfall saga that jp/az, and i do see most of these as azrael character moments, are bored by/don't like detective work. but i think it's very important to remember the context of those issues. they're in the middle of severe emotional and psychological dysregulation, and have less capacity for things like slowing down and doing detective work. but that doesn't mean they aren't able to, especially when they're not in active crisis. and this is proven throughout azrael: agent of the bat. jp and azrael are not absolute expert detectives, obviously, and they're still impatient and immature in a lot of their casework, and rush into situations before knowing all the details. but they still display a natural aptitude and skill in detective work, something that bruce wayne comments on in his own narration about jean paul/azrael!

also! according to the azrael secret file below, they were barely twenty-one during the events of SoA 1992! of course jp/azzy are impatient and immature sometimes!

azrael secret file from batman: no man's land secret files #1

i just think it's too easy to say that jean paul and azrael are bad detectives when, in my opinion, the majority of that evidence is taken out of context (knightfall saga and the fact that they were in the middle of a mental health crisis) and also doesn't acknowledge the fact that they are early to mid twenties AT THE MOST, with VERY little actual training in detective work. or in anything outside of being a brute force assassin only used to kill and send threats.

am i saying they're good at utilizing these skills and actually doing the detective work? no. but i think that just saying "they're bad at it" is an oversimplification that can lead to the development of mischaracterization, or at least unfaithful characterization, of jean paul and azrael